Wednesday's Child

Okay, so I fully believe that the creators of fanfiction archives should be able to say what types of fics are allowed in them. If they only want slash fanfiction, okay that's fine, and if they only want het that's fine too. I actually prefer my fic archives to be segregated in this way.

But don't disrespect by being all "No slash here because I don't enjoy reading stories that aren't canon/where the characters aren't in character."

Bitch, what?

Okay, for one: Shawn Spencer is like the most metrosexual television character in the history of ever. So metrosexual, as a matter of fact, that my grandmother asked if he was supposed to be gay (Er, "queer" was her exact wording if you wanna get technical).

For two: fuck canon. Every single fucking time you start typing out a fanfiction you're taking the characters out of themselves. Fanfiction is not canon, hence the name. Every single little thing you make up in your fic is diverging from canon so don't go acting all superior just because your fucking up of canon doesn't involve homosexuality. Putting a girl with a guy in a fic when they aren't together in canon is slashing too, you know.

I don't object to what this fanfiction archivist is doing, but I do disagree with her reason for doing it, and that's just as bad--maybe worse. I don't read fic on that site because everytime I get directed there I become a little nauseous. It feels like I'm betraying myself if I even entertain the thought of reading one of the fics archived there, which is a real shame because apparently there's some stellar genfic there that isn't archived anywhere else. I don't have very many principles, but I stick to the ones I do have.

I'm just saying.

/mini-rant

Wow, I need to get some HP icons.

Anyway.

( Harry Potter Rant )

Okay, so in my unholy obsession with one Ianto Jones, I've been going around snapping up all the meta, all the discussions, all the fan-alyses I can get my greasy paws on. Because I'm a loser that way, and I go on frenetic, whirlwind research binges when I find a character that really just hits every single one of my character kinks. Some things I agree with, some things I don't. As this wouldn't be a rant otherwise, this post is about the one thing I really don't agree with.

And that is that Ianto Jones is lowest in the Torchwood heirarchy. (That he can't effect change, I think were the words, but it amounts to the same thing.)

I vehemently disagree with this. He is not. He is, in fact, outside of the fucking heirarchy. Which isn't to say he doesn't follow orders, because he obviously does but his function in Torchwood is distinctly unique, distinctly other than that of his comrades.

I don't buy any of the shit going around that Gwen is Jack's confidante, or that he sees her as more of a "peer" or that Gwen is the only one that Jack will listen to.

I. Don't. Buy. It.

This is not the fangirl in me talking. It isn't. I do, occasionally, have opinions that are not based on that squeeing, heart-eyed, selectively-blind part of me.

I think that Jack admires Gwen. And I think that many of these so-called "confidences" were really just a matter of Gwen being in the right place at the right time. Also that Gwen is/was supposed to represent the audience point of view, so naturally if she doesn't know, we theoretically wouldn't know.  How many times does he actually tell her things of his own volition, without her having accidentally witnessed some example of it? I like Gwen (mostly). And I do think that Jack has a unique relationship with her; he has a unique relationship with all of his subordinates. I do think that she is most likely to affect change, but only because she is the one most likely to take issue with things as they are. That is her function. He hired her to "keep them human." He has to at least listen to her when she questions their practices. Just like he has to listen to Tosh when she has technical problems, or Owen when he has medical issues, and Ianto when he struggles with one of his many functions.

However! Jack obviously thinks he has to "protect" Gwen from certain aspects concerning Torchwood/himself--Flat Holm, for example. And I really, really can't buy all this stuff going around about him considering Gwen his equal when he doesn't think she's capable of handling something like this. It reeks of parent-child dynamic to me. A parent always wants to protect the child from the bad stuff, even when the child is old enough to take care of itself.

"Adrift" was my favorite episode of Series 2. Yeah, because of the hothouse scene, but for other reasons too!

1. Ianto knew about Flat Holm. I don't know if he's the only one in Torchwood (and I tend to think so), but in any case, he obviously knows what's out there and is familiar with it. Which means that Jack trusted him with the knowledge. (I'm gonna guess probably since S1 at least, because who else would have taken care of it while Jack was away with the Doctor?)

2. This is the episode where we really get to see Ianto's passive aggressive streak in all its glory. There has been conjecture that he did what he did "anonymously" so as not to incur the wrath of Jack. I call bullshit. There is absolutely no way he thought Jack wouldn't know. So why would he do it "anonymously"? Passive aggressive. Jack told him not to enlighten Gwen, however Ianto felt she needed to be enlightened, so he does it "anonymously" knowing both Jack and Gwen will know it was him, but by the time it gets linked back the issue will have already been resolved, one way or another. The key here, for everyone who thinks Ianto has this unhealthy subservience to Jack, is that he let Gwen know anyway. And he let Gwen know in such a way that neither she nor Jack could doubt he was the tattler. That is not subservience. That is getting the job done by means necessary.  He couldn't do it straightforwardly, because nothing would get accomplished that way.You call it sneaky; I call it passive aggressiveness at its finest. (I have this feeling I'm not explaining myself well, but meh.)

3. This is really just reiterating the other two, but I firmly believe that Ianto is awesome. That Ianto knows he's awesome. And that he's perfectly content in his own awesomeness. He knows best because, duh, he knows everything.

/rant

Okay, so I'm aware that Wikipedia is unreliable for formal research, but when I'm looking for information on some new thing, a show that caught my interest for instance, I'm not looking for total disclosure. I just want a basic summary, maybe a dossier on some of the characters. Wikipedia--I thought--served my needs beautifully. Just enough to let me know whether I'd like it. While I knew that the articles weren't regulated, I never actually stopped to think about what that meant. It never occurred to me that they might be seriously biased.

I've been sniffing around Torchwood for a few days now. I've watched the nine episodes of Series 1, I've read the manifestos and what meta I've been able to find. I'm still new and green to the fandom, but I like to think I'm getting the hang of things. Wikipedia was my first foray, as it so often is.

And what I've found, is that the Torchwood Wikipedia articles I read in the beginning are not-so-subtly biased against Janto and not-so-subtly biased in favor of (*snicker*) Gwack. They're actually a-bit-more-subtly biased against Ianto in general. After I read the articles I wasn't prepared to be a great fan of his. I didn't actually like him much, and he came off as kind of a...well, a jerk. I was fully expecting him to be a needy, whiny prat--rather like Bosie, actually.

Since then, I have become quite a hard-core Janto fan. And an Iantophile most of all. God, I love him so much. There's just so much more to him than whoever wrote those articles wanted me to think. I am steeped in horror whenever I think about how I might have continued not to like him, even now, if I'd not been so hungry for more Torchwood (and especially Jack Harkness, which is who my interest began with). I might not have bothered with any meta or anything and continued seeing things through Wikiglasses. Thank god for all the pro-Ianto out there.

Completely separate from Torchwood, however, this discovery disturbs me greatly. How many other fandoms have I passed over because Wikipedia led me to believe things that aren't strictly true? Or at least not the entire truth, but only one aspect of it?

So, this is a warning, both to others and to myself. Don't let Wikipedia turn you off a fandom. Research it other places, because those articles are written by individuals and may reflect individual bias. Especially, don't let Wikipedia turn you off of Ianto. He's actually a delightful, heartbreaking, very brave and strong character. I adore him to the tips of his pretty eye-lashes and pretty Welsh vowels.

/rant.

Alright, so here's the Luke blog thing I promised yesterday. Only now I don't quite know what to say. Yesterday I seriously had an entire essay of things to write about but now I'm just sad. Could have something to do with the dreams I had.

Luke is probably my favorite daytime character, and like every single daytime character out there he is Really Fucked Up. But he always displays his fucked up-ness in such a way that it just...it doesn't aggravate me or anger me, it usually just makes me unimaginably sad and want to hug him and this time is no different. He's insecure, he's impetuous, he has an addictive personality, and he can be Very Very Bratty. He's also loving, brave, funny, sweet, and he seriously cares about people--to the point that he would, and has, sacrificed his own happiness for them. He's a good guy who's humanly flawed and who's made some big mistakes--that's all.

It just doesn't seem fair that the whole fandom has come down on him like a ton of bricks because he's made some stupid choices. That's the nature of soap-watchers though, I guess. Always angry at the newest screw-up. Thank god I've been looking at it more like I looked at QAF than I would a soap. It's like...when Justin left Brian at the end of S2 I wasn't actually angry with Justin--though I was angry at the situation--I was mostly just sad that things had come to such a place. That's how I am right now. I don't blame Noah, but I'm not blaming Luke either. Luke's been dealing with some horrible shit lately. Granted, some of it, like the election business, he brought on himself, but not all of it is his fault and Luke...Luke has always self-destructed when bad things happen. I think he puts so much effort into trying to keep things together that when they fall apart anyway he takes it as a personal failure.

It absolutely doesn't help that when he began voicing doubt about Bryan no one would listen to him. No one. He's been dealing with that douche-bag's shit by himself for way too long. Do you think that if Noah was in a similar situation Luke would have blown him off the way Noah did Luke? Fuck no. At least, I don't think so. Noah, Lily, Holden, and Lucinda have consistently marginalized Luke's concerns from the moment he began to have them and that has to have fucked with Luke's head. Remember when the whole Cleo/Will/Gwen/Jade thing happened? Luke was the only one willing to listen to her, to believe in her. No one is willing to listen to Luke and that just chokes me up fiercely. Fuck me, the only one giving his concerns any bit of attention at all is Bryan and that's just so fucked that I can't stand it. How does this happen? How does the newcomer outrank Luke (honest, fair Luke) to his own family.

Yes, Luke's been drinking, but fuck that! You don't blame a rape victim if he or she's been drinking! Luke shouldn't be blamed either, and that's what it seems like everyone's doing. He didn't imagine it, he didn't bring it on himself--Bryan Took Advantage Of Him, plain and simple. And this, this MADDENS me that people, on the show and off the show are ignoring that. Yet another fucking thing that's fucking with Luke's head. I'd maybe expect Lucinda, even his parents to be skeptical, (which is probably why he didn't tell them) but not Noah. Jesus, that was bad writing right there.

Luke is self-destructing, one drink at a time. Drunks are not reasonable, they are not prepared to deal with their issues--that's why they're drunks, yo. It is up to the people who love him to save him, because at this point I don't think he can save himself. I think that is beyond his capabilities. And while I don't blame Noah, I do think he needs to pull his head out of his ass and see Luke. Not the drunk, not the self-destructive streak but Luke. The man he fell in love with, and figure out what the fuck is going on in his head so he can help him fix it.

It's ten till two now, and I gotta go prepare myself for the hurt this episode is gonna cause. Peace out.