Had To Add Another One To Jack's Category That I Forgot

Had to add another one to Jack's category that I forgot

- "Don't"

Reasons why I hate each of the main 5 Torchwood members (these are the entire list of reasons unless I specifically say otherwise):

Gwen

- cheating on Rhys then retconning him to forgive her for it

- the speech at the end of the episode Meat

Jack

- making Ianto feel insecure about where he stands in their relationship (yeah ik why but he should have told Ianto that)

- trying to force Ianto at gunpoint to execute what was left of Lisa

- not bothering to check on Ianto after the cannibals

- the way he dealt with Mary then didn't comfort Tosh

Tosh:

- the comment in the episode Meat about feeding the world, disregarding the amount of pain that the creature was in

Owen:

- his sadistic enjoyment of trying to make Gwen and Rhys' relationship fall apart

- the stuff he said to Ianto in the episode Captain Jack Harkness

- the way he completely disregards Tosh and her feelings for him, they were obvious and Owen is smart enough to not be blind

- kicking Ianto when he'd already won the fight in the episode Captain Jack Harkness

- his general treatment of Ianto and Tosh

Ianto:

- literally nothing, everything he did that was morally grey/wrong was at least mostly justified

Can you tell my ranking of characters? I'm not sure if my no.1 is obvious at all, most definitely not clear, such a mystery.

So like I'm crying over Ianto. Does anyone want to join me?

Ok ok ok...

It's been almost 18 years since it aired, but who cares I'm talking about it anyway.

I've seen a lot of people hating on Cyberwoman. And yeah, I understand why. That costume choice was, er, quite something. But it's still my favourite episode and yk why? The build up. The plotline. And most of all the acting. Oh my god the acting. My favourite scene has got to be the tourist office, because oh my days have you seen the way Gareth David Lloyd plays Ianto? It gives me chills. After watching it, I rewatched Everything Changes and Ghost Machine because I never actually noticed Ianto in them, unless he's speaking. The only time you ever see him is when he intentionally draws attention to himself, which he rarely does. I watched them again, specifically focusing on Ianto. He's barely in them. He's one of the main 5 characters, but in the first three episodes he has one of the most minor roles. Like, you see him let Gwen into the Hub, delete the stuff she typed to make herself remember and see him introduced. That's it for episode one. And yes, everyone has a minor role in that, but you never actually see him as part of the team. He works alone, always.

Episode three really highlights that for me. He appears every so often with a funny comment. He has less screen time than Rhys. If it wasn't for the fact that I was actively thinking about him, I would have completely forgotten that he was there. One of his rare appearances really got to me - the ending. Jack gives him the ghost machine to put in the secure archives. That's normal, the archives are his area.

Except Jack doesn't even look at him. He just holds it out, like Ianto is a servant, not someone with years of experience dealing with aliens. Ianto worked at Torchwood One. He was the most qualified of anyone on that team when each of them joined. Owen was medically trained, but no experience with aliens. Tosh was a genius, but she had only experienced aliens through wrong blueprints of their technology, plus a charge of treason. Gwen had police training, nothing more. She got a job by being stubborn, and in the right place at the right time. Jack was reckless, dangerous, and did not want to join Torchwood. He only did it because he needed to do something in the 100+ years that he would be waiting for the Doctor.

Ianto had everything taken from him all at once, and nobody bothered to check on him. He looked fine, so they didn't give it any more thought. They of all people should know that that's not how it works. Ianto was repressing his grief, exhausting himself with the amount he worked both at his job and caring for Lisa. He never had any desire to cause anyone any harm. He was blinded by overwhelming grief. When humans experience loss, the automatic reaction is to cling to what you have. For most people, that means reaching out to friends and family, creating a support system. Ianto lost all his friends, all at once. We don't hear about his family until S3 (goddamn S3), but it's implied that they aren't close. I haven't listened to any of the audios, so if there's more to it than that then I don't know it.

Ianto had nothing, except an echo pretending to be Lisa. He did the most natural thing in the world, clung to what he had. Or at least, what he thought he had. Don't blame Ianto for the events of Cyberwoman. His actions correlate with normal reactions to grief. Yes, his actions were extreme. But so was his grief.

So I sort of wrote an entire essay about Ianto Jones from Torchwood. It's really really long, formally written and structured somewhat like a school essay. It's probably really boring, but I wondered if anyone would be interested in reading it because idk it took a long time. I could ramble about this little guy for hours.

This!!! I write fanfiction on ao3 as a hobby, and no amount of kudos or hits make me smile the way one nice comment does. There's one particular person who keeps coming back whenever I post an update, and they comment every time. The little comments they post never fail to brighten my mood. We need more people like this!

People used to comment on web comics.

People used to comment on fanfiction.

People used to comment on fanart.

People used to comment on OCs.

I hate "content" culture.

I hate "consuming content" and scrolling immediately to the next thing.

People used to be excited about the art that other people created.

People used to want to share that excitement with creators.

I hate this future.

*me, on holiday*

My brain: look, it's them!

Me: oh my gosh it's them!

My parents: huh?

Me: Aziraphale and Crowley! They're everywhere!

My parents: ...

The beach: ...

The white seafoam crashing onto the black rocks: ...

Me: I love them <3