Epilogue, what Epilogue?
My good friend Bry, an HP fanfic writer who recently dipped her fannish feet into Torchwood has written a lovely post/essay about how the chaotic ship wars and other general craziness/creativity of the HP fandom has helped her deal with the fallout of the recent Torchwood mini-series far more sensibly than other corners of fandom: Episode Four, what Episode Four?
The whole thing, obviously, is spoilerific and I would assume if anyone comments here, that might be too.
I've been watching the explosion of fannish entitlement with great interest simply because - well, as a writer, it's kind of fascinating in a train wrecky kind of way. Brings to mind the semi-recent Neil Gaiman "George RR Martin is not your bitch" post (sorry I don't have the link) and other examples of fans and creators and the internet mixing in bad bad ways.
The internet has so many wonderful ways for creators and fans to mingle and share dialogue, but there is a point where it stops, and that point is long before things like death threats and abuse comes to the party. Writers have to tell the stories they want/need to tell. Writing is not and never has been a democracy. Sometimes fans are going to hate what writers do. Sometimes the end of the book makes you angry as hell. And that's okay.
Because that's what reviews are for. And what fanfic is for. And 'what if' games. And RP.
I personally thought the last two episodes were both horrible and awesome. I think the Jack/Ianto relationship will be far more memorable and long-lasting because of its finite span than it would be if the show did a Star Trek and dragged on with the same cast for seven years. Like Bry, I was just as affected by the loss of Owen and Tosh as I was by Ianto.
What has always interested me about the Torchwood fandom was how hugely weighted towards Jack/Ianto it was. Far more than any other fandom, and long before the canon supported it. I don't think I've ever seen a fandom before where a CANON couple were so hugely embraced by the fandom. (and of course it's a gay couple, still a rare thing in TV generally, let alone spec fic) Of course people are upset to lose it, and not just a few of them. But...
Torchwood was never the place for fluffy bunny romance (and anyone who thinks Gwen and Rhys got a free ride at the end hasn't been paying attention for the last three years - they got there by a long hard road and I doubt it's over yet). And personally I think that having a high profile gay love story on BBC One in a hard-edged science fiction political thriller is a pretty mega fucking achievement. Sure, it ended tragically. A lot of romances do. But um, I have to say. If Ianto hadn't died young, what were the chances that Jack was actually going to be monogamous and domestic for his entire lifespan? MINIMAL, people. Canon Jack, obviously. Fanon Jack is another matter...
When people write something you love, the proper response is to be grateful you have it, not to demand that said people keep writing it exactly the same way forever, without development or conclusion. After all, Sirius/Remus fans would kill for one canon scene along the lines of the 'stopwatch' moment in season one, let alone a couple of seasons of actual ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the relationship. (what do you mean, what relationship? weirdoes)
The fact that Torchwood is changeable and that the main characters are all so very expendable (they could so do a series without Jack - I'm thinking Gwen, Johnson, Abeeba and maybe even Jackdaughter) is what makes the show awesome and so very British.
The dark morbid part of me kind of likes the ending we got. And I remember how Joss always ended a Buffy season with an ep that could have been the last one ever... would people be as cynical about the show if it had ended with the destruction of Sunnydale High, or with Buffy's season 5 death? Would we still remember Blake's 7 half as fondly if they hadn't ripped our guts out with "Blake"?
Dude, does anyone REMEMBER how Xena ended???
I like the try hard campy season one of Torchwood (despite and in some cases because of some of the massive suck - I was raised on Carry On movies, it makes me giggle) and I like the smoother, cooler, funnier and more together season two, which got more awesome with every dark choice they made. But season three blew me away.
And I can't help thinking - earlier this decade and indeed for most of the nineties, there was one plaintive refrain throughout (Aussie at least) fandom. Where is the British SF? What happened to it? Why can't the Brits make science fiction TV any more? And the answer was always - well, they can't compete with the special effects of Star Trek or Babylon 5, they don't have executives who could support something like Buffy, blah blah...
Look what we got. And considering the high profile of Doctor Who and Torchwood right now, think about what we're GOING to get, what exciting new projects are going to get greenlit on the back of this success.
Chuck the reset button away and full steam ahead!
The whole thing, obviously, is spoilerific and I would assume if anyone comments here, that might be too.
I've been watching the explosion of fannish entitlement with great interest simply because - well, as a writer, it's kind of fascinating in a train wrecky kind of way. Brings to mind the semi-recent Neil Gaiman "George RR Martin is not your bitch" post (sorry I don't have the link) and other examples of fans and creators and the internet mixing in bad bad ways.
The internet has so many wonderful ways for creators and fans to mingle and share dialogue, but there is a point where it stops, and that point is long before things like death threats and abuse comes to the party. Writers have to tell the stories they want/need to tell. Writing is not and never has been a democracy. Sometimes fans are going to hate what writers do. Sometimes the end of the book makes you angry as hell. And that's okay.
Because that's what reviews are for. And what fanfic is for. And 'what if' games. And RP.
I personally thought the last two episodes were both horrible and awesome. I think the Jack/Ianto relationship will be far more memorable and long-lasting because of its finite span than it would be if the show did a Star Trek and dragged on with the same cast for seven years. Like Bry, I was just as affected by the loss of Owen and Tosh as I was by Ianto.
What has always interested me about the Torchwood fandom was how hugely weighted towards Jack/Ianto it was. Far more than any other fandom, and long before the canon supported it. I don't think I've ever seen a fandom before where a CANON couple were so hugely embraced by the fandom. (and of course it's a gay couple, still a rare thing in TV generally, let alone spec fic) Of course people are upset to lose it, and not just a few of them. But...
Torchwood was never the place for fluffy bunny romance (and anyone who thinks Gwen and Rhys got a free ride at the end hasn't been paying attention for the last three years - they got there by a long hard road and I doubt it's over yet). And personally I think that having a high profile gay love story on BBC One in a hard-edged science fiction political thriller is a pretty mega fucking achievement. Sure, it ended tragically. A lot of romances do. But um, I have to say. If Ianto hadn't died young, what were the chances that Jack was actually going to be monogamous and domestic for his entire lifespan? MINIMAL, people. Canon Jack, obviously. Fanon Jack is another matter...
When people write something you love, the proper response is to be grateful you have it, not to demand that said people keep writing it exactly the same way forever, without development or conclusion. After all, Sirius/Remus fans would kill for one canon scene along the lines of the 'stopwatch' moment in season one, let alone a couple of seasons of actual ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the relationship. (what do you mean, what relationship? weirdoes)
The fact that Torchwood is changeable and that the main characters are all so very expendable (they could so do a series without Jack - I'm thinking Gwen, Johnson, Abeeba and maybe even Jackdaughter) is what makes the show awesome and so very British.
The dark morbid part of me kind of likes the ending we got. And I remember how Joss always ended a Buffy season with an ep that could have been the last one ever... would people be as cynical about the show if it had ended with the destruction of Sunnydale High, or with Buffy's season 5 death? Would we still remember Blake's 7 half as fondly if they hadn't ripped our guts out with "Blake"?
Dude, does anyone REMEMBER how Xena ended???
I like the try hard campy season one of Torchwood (despite and in some cases because of some of the massive suck - I was raised on Carry On movies, it makes me giggle) and I like the smoother, cooler, funnier and more together season two, which got more awesome with every dark choice they made. But season three blew me away.
And I can't help thinking - earlier this decade and indeed for most of the nineties, there was one plaintive refrain throughout (Aussie at least) fandom. Where is the British SF? What happened to it? Why can't the Brits make science fiction TV any more? And the answer was always - well, they can't compete with the special effects of Star Trek or Babylon 5, they don't have executives who could support something like Buffy, blah blah...
Look what we got. And considering the high profile of Doctor Who and Torchwood right now, think about what we're GOING to get, what exciting new projects are going to get greenlit on the back of this success.
Chuck the reset button away and full steam ahead!