Posting challenge started...more Torchwood!

[westernredcedar]

Hi again! I know! Three times in one summer! What is this world coming to...

My dear magnetic_pole has suggested joining in a challenge to try posting regularly again here, fannish or non-fannish. I'm going to give it a go. I don't know that I can do every day, but I have a little plan in hand for the sake of trying, and it is this:

Maybe I can post even if it is boring, just like a real journal, and then maybe by practicing writing again, I will be less boring soon!

So that is the plan and let's see how it goes.

Today, to start, I will continue on the theme that I am plowing through Torchwood fic like a bulldozer, totally ignoring other important aspects of life like sleep and prepping for the on-coming school year (which is bearing down on me, freight-train metaphor and all). So, since it is what I'm doing anyway, here are a couple of fics I've adored (again, years late) all found in various ways due to rose71, my Torchwood fandom hero! So here's some fic. All Jack/Ianto.

Amazing Jack/Ianto CoE Fix-It Fics
The Rose of Jericho by kaydeefalls
Intersecting Geodesics by nancybrown
From Here to There and Back Again With You by blue_fjords

A Fic to be Read because Ianto is Affected by Some Alien Truth Serum and Writes Everyone Letters
Signed+Sealed+Delivered=Toujours by amand_r

A Rollicking Good Time was Had By All Fic, Including Ianto and More Than One Jack in the Distant Future
A Matter of Time by demotu

I've also made major progress in finally watching Doctor Who- getting acquainted a bit, and then watching all the Harkness episodes and then going back and catching up with the rest. Finished all of ninth doctor, and am in mid-first season of the tenth. Reading up on background and all like a proper obsessive.

Now, to post! *hugs flist* I'll try to be less boring again tomorrow. No promises, though!

Comments

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

I am plowing through Torchwood fic like a bulldozer, totally ignoring other important aspects of life like sleep and prepping for the on-coming school year (which is bearing down on me, freight-train metaphor and all).

I think sometimes my enjoyment of fic is dependent on an approaching deadline, rather than just happening to coincide with it. *g*

What does your enjoyment of Jack/Ianto say about you a fan, do you think? I've been trying to figure out why I ship the pairings and characters I ship (can you ship a character? you know what I mean), and it's not as easy as I thought. M.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

Good point about fic enjoyment coinciding with not having time for fic enjoyment! :)

Hmm, Jack/Ianto. *thinks* Well, I love that they are an actual canon pairing, and I want to celebrate that all I can! But in addition, the show gives you only tiny teasers of what their relationship is like, and lots of the elements are contradictory and worrisome (power balance in the relationship? Jack flirts with everyone all the time? based entirely on sex games? Love for one, a distraction for the other, and which is which?) so I like explorations of what is really going on with them. Is it love? Is it a giant angst-fest? Is it one-sided and messed up? What is it like to be immortal and try to have a relationship? Does anyone mean anything to Jack, really? Etc.

I guess that means about me that I (continue) to like the angsty possibilities, not just the straight-forward romance. I read another great story last night after I went to bed (Dead Letters by rexluscus that really encapsulated a lot of what I like, because it is a view of their relationship from outside (Gwen's POV) and they are MESSED UP and impossible for her to comprehend. And I like that, always have (see: Remus/Severus *g*)

This is such an interesting question to navel-gaze about! Which pairings have you been pondering?

Also, I am so jealous that a RL friend wanted to talk about this with you seriously. I have fantasies of that!
*smooch*

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

Everything Rex does is fabulous, isn't it? Sometimes I read her work (and look at her art) even when I'm not familiar with the fandom.

I'd wondered if the power imbalance was part of the attraction! (Not that I know too much about the show, but you know how powerful fandom osmosis can be.) Do they have a history together? That's part of the attraction of Remus and Severus to me.

I think my single die-hard shipping criterion is having shipped them while reading or watching canon. If I did, I can often hardly ship them with anyone else. M.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

The power imbalance is TOTALLY part of it, but...in a weird way.

On the surface, Jack has all the power- he's Ianto's boss, a time traveler, older, experienced, immortal...he's got it all! However, especially on rewatch, you see in the show that Ianto (seemingly the "normal young man" in the group) is more than willing to tell Jack "No," stand up to him, and take charge in their relationship. He often appears less than impressed with Jack when everyone else is swooning over him. So maybe that is the fascination...they should have a total power imbalance, but due to something in Ianto, they don't. Jack actually has to do some serious work in the relationship. And that leaves so many great questions to answer in fic, and makes both characters so much more interesting.
Hmm...I'm thinking aloud with my keyboard here, but now I need to search out some meta on this...

Jack and Ianto have a very short history together, so they do not have the rich history of HP characters. I do miss that. Jack has massive backstory in Doctor Who, which I am getting familiar with now, and Ianto has many tantalizing facts in his past as well, just not together.

Sorry to bend your ear about a show you don't even know well! :)

Your point about your need to ship the pairing in canon is interesting. Makes me think of your comments about Top Gun Maverick/Iceman earlier in the summer! :) In that fandom osmosis way, I don't need that myself- I am often susceptible to someone pointing out a pairing and me getting into it after the fact. Who are some of your favorite pairings that you first saw in canon?

Also, I need a Torchwood icon! Got one! :)

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

On the surface, Jack has all the power- he's Ianto's boss, a time traveler, older, experienced, immortal

:) It's hard to argue with immortal.

That's a fascinating dynamic, because, really, when it comes down to it, there's a lot going on beneath the surface of a relationship. I can imagine good fic coming out of the tension between power-in-the-world and power-in-the-relationship.

I don't know much about Torchwood, but I'm curious about it in a did-they-really-do-that-on-tv kind of way. :)

Apart from Remus/Sirius? Not that many, now that I think about it. Holmes/Watson. Betsy/Tacy from the Betsy Tacy books--did you ever read those? Silly, I know, but I loved those two. Hmm...I'm just not that active a shipper of anyone, am I? I also like reading fic about folks I thought might be queer in canon: Tonks and Minerva and Snape in HP, for example, or James Hathaway from the mystery show Lewis. But I'm less picky with them, since I didn't have them paired off initially. M.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

Betsy/Tacy!! Oh my, that is beautiful. I adore that series, I even have collected first editions of the four high school books. And I went to Mankato, MN and visited the museum in real Tacy's house! I have never really thought about them as a couple before, but I can see a lovely, angsty Tacy with no interest in anyone but Betsy, settling for the first man who crossed her path because Betsy won't stop going on and on about boys. :) Or lifelong love through many marriages?? Aww.

I guess you are not a big shipper, are you? That seems healthy to me. I get annoyed with myself sometimes that I get so involved in romances and miss out on the more subtle, important relationships I could be thinking about. That's one of the reasons why I always like your writing and your recs!

On a final (heh, yeah, right) Jack/Ianto note: I've been rewatching the series and getting more and more convinced that the reason Jack becomes fascinated with Ianto enough to make any effort (and Jack's character is established as being able to have anyone he wants, any time) is because Ianto isn't in thrall to him, and regularly defies and ignores him when no one else does. And THAT dynamic I definitely love. Why?...sounds like psychotherapy time there! If you ever want to watch Torchwood, know that it is basically a version of Buffy or X-Files, only British with more sex and swearing and bisexuality, and many less episodes. But I love the characters in the first two seasons in particular-- all of them, not just the boys.

Canon Remus/Sirius is what got me here, too, you know. *g* So canon.