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beccaelizabethSpoilers, so
The plot pisses me off because it duplicates the fundamental arrogance of Team Torchwood, the flaw that puts them on the Bad Guy side, the thing they do where they figure they're so superior to the rest of the world. It isn't just that Owen sends away the expert or Gwen assumes the emergency plans won't work, it's that the story agrees with them. There's only one person left at the nuclear plant and only Team Torchwood can save the day, despite the fact that's outside their responsibility and training and really should have sufficient people on it already. It takes away all possibility of the world looking after itself, makes Torchwood out to be some kind of special, when the only special they are is they have more knowledge, and that only because they've been wiping it from the minds of others.
I don't mind so much when Torchwood are the only ones that can deal with aliens, because they show us why, and it's Torchwood's misdeeds, so they're digging their own graves there.
I do very much mind when in all of Cardiff the only people that can deal with running police, hospital, and nuclear emergency plans, are the same five people who are meant to be dealing with aliens. It's like they're the only competence in their world. And that's bollocks.
And because I fundamentally don't buy that, the emotions of 2-13 don't work for me.
Gwen's assuming command and buggering up pre-existing strategies, ensuring a lack of coordination between emergency services, and being a glory hogging pain in the arse. The fact she then angsts about not being up to it... okay, dear, your husband loves you and thinks you're special, but back in the real world... You know? It has passed into implausibility, so the emotion doesn't work.
And as I keep on saying, I see Owen dying and I can only think he died of stupid. Plausible, in character stupid, so fair enough, but I don't think we're meant to think that. If he'd kept the expert there, if there'd been more experts in the first place doing their own jobs, then no shiny death. Also, if he'd run when Tosh told him to instead of when the door had started closing. But Owen isn't a run away person, and he is an arrogant ass, so I can totally believe him getting locked in there. I just can't really sympathise.
The plot tried to isolate elements to make it all plausible. Cardiff is cut off, roads are jammed, comms are down for everyone except Torchwood. Okay, I'll try and suspend disbelief and buy that. But after that point? Everyone falls apart or even runs away? Writer was writing it like Torchwood are the only ones who can make a difference to the outcome of the plot. Has they not seen disaster movies? They're all about weaving people together so small lives make a difference to the plot. If Team Torchwood are stuck in a building with a problem and they're the only ones there because they kicked everyone else out, then okay, Torchwood have to deal with it. Say that's the case at the server building. It makes Torchwood bloody stupid, not running downstairs and grabbing some people who have the actual job of getting those servers running and would therefore know what they were doing, but so it goes. But in a building where they've got a whole team who have chosen as a career to deal with precisely this kind of problem? Even isolated, they should have been able to handle it. If they needed power from outside, then... the plot assumes they'd mostly run away and leave it to Torchwood. And I can only say urgh. Or, possibly, it's a one person job and she stayed. Un urgh, back to Owen arrogance. But.
Torchwood do brave clever things. So do all the other people in their world. Stories that require that being ignored are annoying.
The plot pisses me off because it duplicates the fundamental arrogance of Team Torchwood, the flaw that puts them on the Bad Guy side, the thing they do where they figure they're so superior to the rest of the world. It isn't just that Owen sends away the expert or Gwen assumes the emergency plans won't work, it's that the story agrees with them. There's only one person left at the nuclear plant and only Team Torchwood can save the day, despite the fact that's outside their responsibility and training and really should have sufficient people on it already. It takes away all possibility of the world looking after itself, makes Torchwood out to be some kind of special, when the only special they are is they have more knowledge, and that only because they've been wiping it from the minds of others.
I don't mind so much when Torchwood are the only ones that can deal with aliens, because they show us why, and it's Torchwood's misdeeds, so they're digging their own graves there.
I do very much mind when in all of Cardiff the only people that can deal with running police, hospital, and nuclear emergency plans, are the same five people who are meant to be dealing with aliens. It's like they're the only competence in their world. And that's bollocks.
And because I fundamentally don't buy that, the emotions of 2-13 don't work for me.
Gwen's assuming command and buggering up pre-existing strategies, ensuring a lack of coordination between emergency services, and being a glory hogging pain in the arse. The fact she then angsts about not being up to it... okay, dear, your husband loves you and thinks you're special, but back in the real world... You know? It has passed into implausibility, so the emotion doesn't work.
And as I keep on saying, I see Owen dying and I can only think he died of stupid. Plausible, in character stupid, so fair enough, but I don't think we're meant to think that. If he'd kept the expert there, if there'd been more experts in the first place doing their own jobs, then no shiny death. Also, if he'd run when Tosh told him to instead of when the door had started closing. But Owen isn't a run away person, and he is an arrogant ass, so I can totally believe him getting locked in there. I just can't really sympathise.
The plot tried to isolate elements to make it all plausible. Cardiff is cut off, roads are jammed, comms are down for everyone except Torchwood. Okay, I'll try and suspend disbelief and buy that. But after that point? Everyone falls apart or even runs away? Writer was writing it like Torchwood are the only ones who can make a difference to the outcome of the plot. Has they not seen disaster movies? They're all about weaving people together so small lives make a difference to the plot. If Team Torchwood are stuck in a building with a problem and they're the only ones there because they kicked everyone else out, then okay, Torchwood have to deal with it. Say that's the case at the server building. It makes Torchwood bloody stupid, not running downstairs and grabbing some people who have the actual job of getting those servers running and would therefore know what they were doing, but so it goes. But in a building where they've got a whole team who have chosen as a career to deal with precisely this kind of problem? Even isolated, they should have been able to handle it. If they needed power from outside, then... the plot assumes they'd mostly run away and leave it to Torchwood. And I can only say urgh. Or, possibly, it's a one person job and she stayed. Un urgh, back to Owen arrogance. But.
Torchwood do brave clever things. So do all the other people in their world. Stories that require that being ignored are annoying.