COE ouch

[amatara]

Just finished Torchwood: Children of Earth. For the first time. Not 100% unspoiled, but mostly.

How in hell am I going to get to sleep?

*shivers*

*sobs*

*gnashes teeth*




Bloody brilliant, though.



Anyone around here got some therapy?

(Fic, vids, anything, everything. I'll take chocolate, even. Just no fixit AUs - and I'm sure they're there - because I just... *squeezes canon tight* Or maybe an icon of, um, well, the survivors? Jack, Gwen and Rhys together in that scene at the end?)

Comments

[maspalio.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this (http://www.youtube.com/user/allchanges#p/u/0/We4k_VCXdAY/)? It was done before Children of Earth came out but it's good for a smile.
If you like it, be sure to check her other Doctor Who and Torchwood vid. Some of them are pretty damn funny.

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! Not bad, not bad at all! Thank you - I feel better already!
Incidentally - have you seen all of Torchwood? After Children of Earth, I'm kind of wanting to buy seasons 1 and 2 as well, but then a lot of people seem to be saying especially S1 isn't very good. I'm not sure if it'd be worth the money if it's just for, erm, gazing at Cap'n Jack while plot=baaaaaaad. Not that I'm against gazing at Jack, but, you know, I try not to be that shallow. ;)

Found some other stuff too that helped - have you seen the Dr Who edition of The Weakest Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3u3seMW-jk)? Had me in stitches. And this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=314hQnRQ0hU), even though it's pretty sad, was also quite cathartic. Now I'm trying to find TW fics that aren't labeled either "hawt Jack/Ianto sex!" or "ignoring everything that happened in COE", which is, um, even harder than I expected. :)

Oh, and I just remembered - didn't you mention a holiday in Asia coming up sometime around this period? Are you back already? How was it?

[maspalio.livejournal.com]

Before Children of Earth, Torchwood was a guilty pleasure for me. Some episodes were quite bad, some were OK, a few were good. Season 1 is definitely the weaker. Still, the character are likeable and the premise is fun, so... Maybe try to watch one or two episodes before buying? Not very helpful, I know.

Videos bookmarked for when I have some time to watch them, thanks. Have you tried torchwood_house? I haven't been there for some time but you should be able to find some good fics.

Holiday was wonderful and is now over. Work is back with a vengeance -I think it's trying to kill me. I regret nothing.

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, I've been watching some Torchwood fanvids on youtube, and I think I'll enjoy it anyhow - even if it does look kind of silly at times. I mean, the Cyberwoman in a suit that includes a metal thong? Makes me think of the ST: TOS costume department, lol. :) But anyway, even if the plot turns out to be bad, Jack is pretty enough to make it bearable for a while. *wink*

Didn't know torchwood_house, no! Looks great, though, and with the amount of TW fic that's out there, it definitely helps having recs to go by. Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed your holiday - and yeah, same here when it comes to work being a killer when coming back. Still, I agree - it's worth it.

[sunwee.livejournal.com]

The only therapy is reading more fan fictions. Or even writing them. That got me through it. If we get the four season, I'm sure it will be justified. At least I hope it will.

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Fic helps, I agree wholeheartedly! And I'm genuinely curious how a fourth season would look like, because, *sigh*, not many people left now, aren't there? Still, I'm hoping the writers will suprise us!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I just saw you've seen CoE, and you know I love it dearly, so I shall just point out my tag which contains meta, fanfic recs and more meta:

http://selenak.livejournal.com/tag/coe

Plus, you know, I wrote some fanfic myself:

Consanguinitas (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12606)

Clean-up Operations (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12599)

Christmas Tales (http://archiveofourown.org/works/28807)

[amatara.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I already browsed through your meta the same night I finished the series (as I mentioned, I was badly in need of something, anything, cathartic at that point, and good meta always helps) but, afraid to say, didn't leave a comment back then. Same for Consanguinitas, though I didn't read the other two fics yet. Will remedy shortly, both on the reading and the commenting front!

Also, I should mention that, unlike you, I watched COE before the other two seasons of TW, which probably makes for a whole different viewing experience. For one, there was really no time to get very attached to Jack/Ianto (though as I gathered from your posts, having watched the previous two seasons is still no guarantee for that :) ), plus, my affection for Jack stemmed purely from Dr Who. Also, not knowing Gwen and Rhys from before, I probably missed a lot on that account. I'm kind of wondering now whether it'd be a good idea to buy the rest of Torchwood, now that I've apparently already seen what's considered the best of the series. Would you recommend it?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I never bought the first season myself, because while there are some good episodes, there aren't enough to justify the expense, plus the characterisation is terribly uneven. Otoh, the second season sits snugly on my shelf, and I definitely would recommend it. (And yes, you can start with 2.01.) There is just one boring episode in it (err, the Ianto-centric one in later s2), the characterisation is solid throughout, and while there are individual scenes or some such I didn't like, I thought it was a good season, and it contains some of my favourite episodes. It still didn't prepare me for the quality level in Children of Earth, but it's good.

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Despite your excellent and very sensible advice, I, um, caved and bought both TW seasons anyway. *facepalm* Well, I blame Amazon completely - they shouldn't be offering boxsets at one-third of the price the average Belgian DVD store does, now, should they? *shakes fist at Amazon*
Guess I'll see how it goes - while I'm usually capable of tolerating bad plot (up to a certain point) if the characterization appeals to me enough, the opposite isn't often the case, so what you said does worry me a little. Is s1 the reason why Gwen seems to be so despised by a not-so-small share of the TW fans? (Or is it just that she interferes with the Jack/Ianto and naturally this is eeeeeeevil of her ;) )

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Both, actually. S1 Gwen's characterisation is no more shaky than everyone else's (except for Owen, who is the only consistently written character in s1), but she's the pov character at the start through which we get to know Torchwood, which makes it more noticable. (I myself was indifferent to Gwen in s1, but then I was indifferent to everyone, including Jack, in terms of liking, but thought Owen was interesting. (Not the same thing as liking.) I'm not sure I would have continued with the watching if it hadn't been a DW spin-off.) It was in s2 that I got to love them all.

HOWEVER, I think most of the hostility towards Gwen is due to the Jack/Ianto, and the irony here is that she doesn't interfere with it. Gwen and Ianto are friends. Ianto and Jack are having sex throughout the show. (This is actually a Ianto characterisation problem in s1 where you're supposed to believe he goes from "I hate you and want to kill you, Jack Harkness!" in one episode to "sex, Sir, pretty please?" in the next but one without blinking. There is some clarification as to why that happened in later s2, but at the s1 time it made it impossible for me to take Ianto serious as a character) There is some UST between Gwen and Jack, but not only is that the case between Jack and everyone, but when push comes to shove in the first third in s2 and she has to choose between Rhys and Jack (and in a very important matter - this is when Rhys finally finds out about her secret job for good, and Jack orders her to retcon him, i.e. wipe his memories), she chooses Rhys. However, I'd say through the show it's clear Jack doesn't see himself in a monagamous, OTP-like relationship with Ianto (there is a time-travel episode in s1 where Jack falls for another man, and when asked whether he's in a relationship back home, he clearly says "no, there is no one"), and fandom being fandom, this is clearly Gwen's fault. Despite her not having an affair with Jack, or doing anything to interfere with Jack/Ianto.