SPOILERS for Torchwood: Children of Earth
Jul. 11th, 2009 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
SPOILERS: Torchwood: Children of Earth
I just wanted to make a couple of notes here. One is the comment I made over at
tencrush's lj: "Destroyed. Part of my problem, of course, is that I love Jack and I love Gwen and I don't resent RTD one little bit. I don't even have the fannish comfort of having someone to hate. Now it's over, I'm not just in mourning for Ianto, but for the cracky, silly, gratuitously dirty little caterpillar of a show which just turned into a butterfly."
The other is a quote from Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology, outlining the events of Euripedes' The Madness of Heracles: "Here the evil Lycus has in Heracles' absence usurped the throne of Thebes by killing Creon. He is on the very point of killing [Heracles' wife] Megara, the three children, and Heracles' father Amphitryon when Heracles returns. He easily dispatches Lycus, but Iris and Lyssa (Madness) arrive, sent by Hera, to drive him mad, and he slays wife and children as well. It was usually said to be because of this terrible act that Heracles was condemned to perform his twelve Labours, although according to Euripedes the madness and tragic murders occurred after his Labours were complete." (p 485)
ETA: The detail which caught my eye was Heracles hiding himself once he realises what he's done - so as not to contaminate anyone else with the stain of his shame and wrongdoing. Theseus has to come and convince him to return to civilisation.
ETA: Some links which helped me:
Meta: Jack as a Fandom Identification Figure in Children of Earth: Day Five
Torchwood: Children Of Earth - hopes for the final episode
Guardian blog review
Caitlin Moran's review
I just wanted to make a couple of notes here. One is the comment I made over at
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The other is a quote from Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology, outlining the events of Euripedes' The Madness of Heracles: "Here the evil Lycus has in Heracles' absence usurped the throne of Thebes by killing Creon. He is on the very point of killing [Heracles' wife] Megara, the three children, and Heracles' father Amphitryon when Heracles returns. He easily dispatches Lycus, but Iris and Lyssa (Madness) arrive, sent by Hera, to drive him mad, and he slays wife and children as well. It was usually said to be because of this terrible act that Heracles was condemned to perform his twelve Labours, although according to Euripedes the madness and tragic murders occurred after his Labours were complete." (p 485)
ETA: The detail which caught my eye was Heracles hiding himself once he realises what he's done - so as not to contaminate anyone else with the stain of his shame and wrongdoing. Theseus has to come and convince him to return to civilisation.
ETA: Some links which helped me:
Meta: Jack as a Fandom Identification Figure in Children of Earth: Day Five
Torchwood: Children Of Earth - hopes for the final episode
Guardian blog review
Caitlin Moran's review
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Date: 2009-07-11 08:23 am (UTC)Really? That?
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Date: 2009-07-11 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-11 11:36 am (UTC)Not one I'll be looking out for, though.
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Date: 2009-07-11 09:34 pm (UTC)i feared this too, big time, but damned if he didn't pull it off for once...to say i was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.
Stephen provides adequate tragedy for Jack's storyline, while, if they wanted to give us an extra punch, they could have had Ianto so horrified by Jack's actions that he felt that he couldn't be with him anymore. That would have been deliciously painful -- so horrible to see our favourite ship split up, but opening up so much potential for growth in Ianto's character.
THIS. SO very this. i mentioned in one of your earlier posts that there are MUCH better, more effective ways to connect with your audience's emotions than just cheaply killing off a character for no good reason, and THIS would have been one of the very best.