observation on Torchwood fic

[beccaelizabeth]

Sometimes I read fic and it says 'Jack' but would make more sense to me in characterisation terms if it just said 'Owen'.

So I wonder, how much overlap do people see?

Because Jack at his worst has some rather nasty traits, but I didn't think he had the same nasty as Owen. Not quite. Owen's more about what Jack isn't.

But of course there's vast argument about if Owen is what I saw from 1-01 or... whatever the heck alternatives people see that I can't.



And a lot of how I see Jack boils down to me believing he's poly enough he just isn't wired the way all these monogamous fics seem to see. Which I have to admit is only likely, rather than proven.

Comments

[louiex.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna whisper this cause the fics are good and enjoyable, I'm hung on every word but.. there's like a rash of bastard!Jack fics recently that are just ruining him for me! Bad enough the way thte had him run off, now there's fic where he's being an ass just cuz?

I'm not asking him to settle down with Ianto but wow, borderline emotional abuse on that woobie? Hello glycerin, have you met my friend nitrogen?

[louiex.livejournal.com]

*the way they... gawd, broken wrist and i type poorly with just one hand :P

[beccaelizabeth]

ouch wrist

and this is the internet, it's not like poor typing needs an excuse
... right...?

[beccaelizabeth]

yeah... part of why I like them is I think Jack-hugs would be of the good and Ianto needs hugs, so being mean? not of the good.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

Exactly, give Jack this chance to still be mr omnisexual but can give Ianto the needed cuddle or two or five dozen.... Not everything has to be a happy ending but what fun is it to kick Ianto when he's already down?

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

And it's not like Jack left ESPECIALLY TO SPITE IANTO! And I honestly don't see Ianto thinking so and angsting away into a pool of tears.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

First, I heart your icon :D

Second, I agree with that totally. I can see him being angry or upset (because how big was it to have Jack kiss him in front of everyone? Owen's teaboy comment was so the reason why they cut away from the kiss and showed Owen before flashing back imho) but not catatonic or unable to go on with life. Ianto is King of Coffee and repression of the stuff that actually gets to him, only stacking onto his lingering post traumatic stress from several events now which will be an interesting cocktail for Jack to return to....

[beccaelizabeth]

Reckon by the time Jack gets back Ianto is going to be all suit and reception smile. Will take quite a bit of digging to find out if he actually has feelings about the whole matter, imho, because he'd straighten his tie and get on with cleaning up.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

And how wonderfully tragic that would be, I do think that would carry more weight than a throw down screaming/crying bout. Taking all those steps backwards would be a good twist of the dramatic knife, no?

[beccaelizabeth]

*nods*

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Owen's expression in that little cut away from the kiss is MADE. OF. WIN.

And, yeah, I think Jack will have lots of strangeness to enjoy when he gets back.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

Yeah as much as I would have loved an uninterrupted kiss, the Owen sort of jaw clenching "Jack's alive/... oh." was indeed worth the cut away XD And I'll take strangeness over dropping it entirely any day~ That thought scares me...

[beccaelizabeth]

I can see Ianto getting slightly fixated on the idea the Team don't deserve Jack on account of the whole thing with the getting him killed a lot BUT I can't see Ianto thinking Jack left him, in particular, in a relevant to romance way.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Well, but with Ianto he's met his True Love. He'll never touch anyone else again.






OK, I knew I couldn't keep a straight face for long...

[beccaelizabeth]

:-p



how depressing would that be, though?
:eyeroll:

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I think that, based on comparative years of practice, it would be easier for Ianto to get used to how Jack is than for Jack to get used to monogamy.

That could be a really charming story, actually.

[coneyislandbaby]

Oooh I have to agree here, yes. *nods*

And dammit, I have pledged not to write Jack/Ianto until I've done Jack/Doctor much, much more than I have.

But I think I may be bunnied.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

If only the bunnies I have would write themselves - like if I had a USB port in my head, and could just plug into the laptop and download!

[beccaelizabeth]

and suddenly we find the next human weakness cybermen will exploit ;-)

[sciencegeek.livejournal.com]

And a lot of how I see Jack boils down to me believing he's poly enough he just isn't wired the way all these monogamous fics seem to see.

THANK YOU. Don't get me wrong, I love Ianto/Jack fics, but they all seem to have this "One Twue Wuv" thing that permeates them, and I really don't see Jack as a One True Love sort of guy. Uh. Especially since in the last episode when Gwen said that they all saw someone they loved and that's why they opened the Rift and Jack, well, saw no one (not Ianto, not the Doctor, even though he said that would have tempted him). As Tosh said in the second episode "I've seen him in action, he'll shag anything that's gorgeous enough" (which begs the question, what has she been watching on the CCTV and can I have a copy). I also have issues to why Ianto and Tosh seem to of the Gay now that they've slept with a member of the same sex, but perhaps that is for another time?

Anyway, Jack and Owen. Owen has his moments of being likable, but I think he's more...self-centred than Jack - more out for himself and only himself, who cares what happens to anyone else.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I think when Real!Jack asked if he was attached, and he said "there's no one," that sort of busted the whole OTP thing.

And I *do* love the fics, sometimes I just have to suspend disbelief a little. XD

[beccaelizabeth]

In the sense of 'one' true pairing I don't think OTP applies to Jack at all.

That "there's no one" line was so clearly conversation tennis I tend to read it more as "there's no one that would stop Jack/Jack right here and now"

it could also be "there's no one I'm particularly likely to meet again for sixty five years or, to look at it another way, in the next couple of hours, so hey, all good!"

... time traveller ideas of 'now' could be complicated.