This Is Probably Going To Blow Up In My Face.

[rionaleonhart]

Behind the cut, I talk about Why I Don't Particularly Like Jack/Ianto (why am I so ranty at the moment?). Spoilers for the first series of Torchwood (especially 'They Keep Killing Suzie' and 'Captain Jack Harkness') and 'Last of the Time Lords'. With thanks to geekgirlofdoom for helping me actually realise why I didn't like it.


The basic gist of this rant is 'I don't mind the idea of the pairing in itself; it's the way it's presented in the canon that bothers me and makes it difficult for me to be enthusiastic about it.'

Torchwood is so clearly created to pander to the fangirls, and what it seems to believe is that we'll be blissfully happy if the two most attractive male members of the cast are suddenly revealed to be in a sexual relationship. I dare say some of us are happy with it, and there's nothing particularly wrong with that, but it doesn't work for me personally. When I pair up characters, it's not just because I find the pairing aesthetically pleasing (although I'll admit that that can help; I am not going to claim that I'm completely devoid of shallow inclinations, and I do find the idea of Doctor/Master more appealing when the Doctor hasn't been artificially aged); it is because I think that the characters interact in interesting ways. Before I went insane and started fancying Jeremy Clarkson, I thought that James May was much more attractive than him, but I was still more fond of Jeremy/Richard than of James/Richard because I was fascinated by the bickering we're-friends-but-we'll-never-admit-it dynamic.

It's not that I don't like the characters: I adore Jack (even though I far prefer his happier, more flirtatious character in Doctor Who; I rather hope that his having left the Doctor of his own accord this time means that he'll be more cheerful in the next series of Torchwood) and I like Ianto's quiet, dry humour very much when he's not bawling his eyes out; it's just that they barely seemed to say two words to each other before the sudden 'OH, YEAH, DID WE MENTION THAT WE ARE HAVING SEX? WE ARE. AREN'T YOU HAPPY NOW, SLASH FANS?'

The relationship between the two Jacks in the episode 'Captain Jack Harkness' (which was contained entirely within the space of fifty minutes, whereas the relationship between Jack and Ianto basically stagnated until the sudden 'oh, yes, and we are shagging' in 'They Keep Killing Suzie' - the eighth episode, so the writers were hardly lacking in time to build up the relationship) had everything the Jack/Ianto relationship didn't: it had gradual development, it had tension, it worked up the audience to the point of screaming 'FOR GOD'S SAKE, YOU'RE BOTH ATTRACTED TO EACH OTHER, REALISE IT' at the screen before making it solid text. That's what we ('we' meaning, er, 'slashers who are like me'; no offence is intended if your view is different) want. Before the characters kiss, we have to desperately want them to kiss. That's why we write slash: to make the subtext text. We need the subtext first; without it, the text has nothing to rest on. We would expect some sort of foreshadowing or chemistry before the confirmation of a heterosexual relationship; why should a homosexual relationship be any different? The writer shouldn't become complacent because he thinks 'well, the fangirls will be gagging for canon homosexuality, they won't care whether it's believable or not'. (Perhaps the writer was actually thinking 'won't it be great if Jack/Ianto is suddenly, unexpectedly revealed to be canon? A LOVELY SURPRISE FOR THE FANGIRLS.' While I'd be happier with the motives there, I'd still have been even happier if it hadn't been a SURPRISE PAIRING.)

I realise that this is taking too broad a view of why people pair characters up; after all, we may pair up characters who have never actually met in canon because we believe that they would relate to each other in an interesting way if they did, or we may write a pairing that makes no logical sense at all because we think it would be fun or, more likely, because dracothelizard made us do it. These fanfics often explore the way the relationship develops, however. Even if they don't, it's 'just fanfiction' (I hate the term, but it does seem appropriate); it is not as expected to develop relationships believably over time as the canon is. In the canon, is it too much to ask for the revelation that Jack and Ianto are in a relationship to be an emotionally satisfying conclusion to a build-up of subtext?

Maybe the second series could have some sort of flashback to how the Jack/Ianto relationship came to be a sexual one? That would be nice.

Comments

[bbakerb.livejournal.com]

See, I agree with you, but not quite for the same reasons. I think there was intended to be subtext there- the comment about harassment in the first episode, Ianto saying he didn't care what Jack's sexuality was (which to me was a silent "I'd fancy him anyway")- but like you say, it wasn't enough, and also it wasn't consistently done. The subtext level was the same as on any show where people end up slashing the nearest two attractive male characters, which in my opinion is not high enough to justify an actual relationship, i.e. the writers are telling us that we have to cope with the same level of subtext as with any other show (at least, one that acknowledges the gay), and also telling us that it means more. Which is something I've only just decided is happening, and which now irritates me.

Also, I am much more interested in the first time two characters kiss than, say, the fourteenth. I like the feeling of potential, and we really got that in 'Captain Jack Harkness'- everything worked, the build-up, the slow realisation, the way the real Jack and the audience could see the other meanings in what our Jack was saying. Sudden revelations of sex-having only really work for me when it genuinely seems impossible that the characters in question aren't doing it- which was not the case with Jack and Ianto. Plus it was strangely difficult to work out the Jack/Ianto dynamic- why they were in the relationship, how serious it was, what each of them thought they were getting out of it. I second the flashback idea.

Or you could just argue that the only relationships RTD is really good at writing are the ones that are completely doomed.