Torchwood Fandom, The Early Days
To keep myself distracted from the gloomy world outside, I've been combing through old torchwood-three posts for stories I haven't read. Which are many. (Seriously, I thought I was keeping up with Torchwood fandom back then.) Even though I was involved in the fandom at the time, and remember a lot of this stuff while it was being discussed, in retrospect it's a bit surprising to see where fans thought things were going, and where they ended up.
First of all, Jack/Ianto was most definitely a second-fiddle pairing for most of the first season. I knew this, but had forgotten how *much* of a second-fiddle pairing it was until I started reading back over stories and posts. I'd also forgotten how much of a big deal Gwen/Owen was during the first season, fanfic- and fandom-wise. I remember Jack/Gwen being a fairly robust presence in the fandom, but it wasn't as prominent as I remembered, at least not as prominent as Gwen/Owen. There was a poll about who would be the romantic focus of the show, conducted just before the airing of episode 1x08, "They Keep Killing Suzie" (and that piece of timing is important). The results showed that a clear majority of the fans believed that Gwen/Owen would be romantic focus of the show, with Jack/Ianto and Jack/Gwen being second and third, respectively.
The paradigm shift towards Jack/Ianto began right around the time that "They Keep Killing Suzie" aired, for two reasons. First, the infamous stopwatch scene at the end of that episode put an end to the ambiguity about the nature of Jack and Ianto's relationship. However one chose to interpret that scene in terms of their past relationship, it was pretty clear that, going forward, it was no longer possible to deny that there was a relationship, even if it was only a sexual one.
Another important issue about that scene was that, up until that point, a lot of fans were put off by the abusive potential of any relationship that Jack could have had with Ianto. They felt--not unreasonably, in my opinion--that not only was Jack Ianto's boss, with all the power imbalance that implies, but Ianto was also in a supremely vulnerable emotional state. In the three episodes between "Cyberwoman" and "They Keep Killing Suzie," viewers had been given clear signs that Ianto was still suffering from Lisa's loss, that he was still nowhere near being over her. Fans felt that any relationship Jack had with Ianto would be taking advantage of Ianto. Many of those protests died down after "They Keep Killing Suzie," simply because it was fairly clear in the last scene that Ianto was in control, that he was the one doing the seducing and making the advances. Whatever dynamics might have been going on behind the scenes--or beneath the surface--there was no hint of coercion from Jack, or reluctance from Ianto.
The second reason for the shift towards Jack/Ianto at that time involved a series of advance publicity stills that were leaked from the BBC that same week. There were a number of these pictures, but the one that caused a Jack/Ianto firestorm was this still from the final episode of Series 1, showing Jack and Ianto in a full-body embrace and kiss. Although there was considerable worry that this was a good-bye scene, that Jack was kissing Ianto only to turn away and leave with the Doctor (not, actually, terribly far off from the reality), for the most part the result was to solidify the pairing in fanon as well as canon. A month later, when the final episode of the first series aired, Jack/Ianto stories were a bit less than half the total volume of stories collected by torchwood-three, whereas before they'd been maybe a quarter of the total volume.
Another forgotten issue was the "one day I'll watch you suffer and die" line from "Cyberwoman." A lot of fans, myself among them, wondered if or when that would come up again, and whether Ianto was playing some kind of long game in which he planned to seduce and then betray Jack. I know I felt this was completely possible, and I kept waiting for Ianto to turn on Jack. But it never happened, and I rarely see this referenced anymore.
Aside from pairings, I noticed that there was a much larger proportion of finished stories at the beginning. On a typical day, less than a third of the stories posted would be pieces of unfinished stories, and many of those were actually finished stories that were posted in two or three posts on consecutive days. Also, there were tons more drabbles, which is saying something because it's not like the fandom doesn't get its fair share now.
At the time of this writing, I've only just gotten to the days right after the airing of the season finale, so I don't have any post-Series 1 hiatus data yet. But it was fascinating to look back at something that I was actually in the middle of, and look at the patterns that only clearly emerged months later.
ETA: Less than a week into the hiatus. Apparently "hiatus" is code for "Begin posting all your WIPs, starting...now!"
You can also read this entry at my Dreamwidth journal. There are
comments there.
First of all, Jack/Ianto was most definitely a second-fiddle pairing for most of the first season. I knew this, but had forgotten how *much* of a second-fiddle pairing it was until I started reading back over stories and posts. I'd also forgotten how much of a big deal Gwen/Owen was during the first season, fanfic- and fandom-wise. I remember Jack/Gwen being a fairly robust presence in the fandom, but it wasn't as prominent as I remembered, at least not as prominent as Gwen/Owen. There was a poll about who would be the romantic focus of the show, conducted just before the airing of episode 1x08, "They Keep Killing Suzie" (and that piece of timing is important). The results showed that a clear majority of the fans believed that Gwen/Owen would be romantic focus of the show, with Jack/Ianto and Jack/Gwen being second and third, respectively.
The paradigm shift towards Jack/Ianto began right around the time that "They Keep Killing Suzie" aired, for two reasons. First, the infamous stopwatch scene at the end of that episode put an end to the ambiguity about the nature of Jack and Ianto's relationship. However one chose to interpret that scene in terms of their past relationship, it was pretty clear that, going forward, it was no longer possible to deny that there was a relationship, even if it was only a sexual one.
Another important issue about that scene was that, up until that point, a lot of fans were put off by the abusive potential of any relationship that Jack could have had with Ianto. They felt--not unreasonably, in my opinion--that not only was Jack Ianto's boss, with all the power imbalance that implies, but Ianto was also in a supremely vulnerable emotional state. In the three episodes between "Cyberwoman" and "They Keep Killing Suzie," viewers had been given clear signs that Ianto was still suffering from Lisa's loss, that he was still nowhere near being over her. Fans felt that any relationship Jack had with Ianto would be taking advantage of Ianto. Many of those protests died down after "They Keep Killing Suzie," simply because it was fairly clear in the last scene that Ianto was in control, that he was the one doing the seducing and making the advances. Whatever dynamics might have been going on behind the scenes--or beneath the surface--there was no hint of coercion from Jack, or reluctance from Ianto.
The second reason for the shift towards Jack/Ianto at that time involved a series of advance publicity stills that were leaked from the BBC that same week. There were a number of these pictures, but the one that caused a Jack/Ianto firestorm was this still from the final episode of Series 1, showing Jack and Ianto in a full-body embrace and kiss. Although there was considerable worry that this was a good-bye scene, that Jack was kissing Ianto only to turn away and leave with the Doctor (not, actually, terribly far off from the reality), for the most part the result was to solidify the pairing in fanon as well as canon. A month later, when the final episode of the first series aired, Jack/Ianto stories were a bit less than half the total volume of stories collected by torchwood-three, whereas before they'd been maybe a quarter of the total volume.
Another forgotten issue was the "one day I'll watch you suffer and die" line from "Cyberwoman." A lot of fans, myself among them, wondered if or when that would come up again, and whether Ianto was playing some kind of long game in which he planned to seduce and then betray Jack. I know I felt this was completely possible, and I kept waiting for Ianto to turn on Jack. But it never happened, and I rarely see this referenced anymore.
Aside from pairings, I noticed that there was a much larger proportion of finished stories at the beginning. On a typical day, less than a third of the stories posted would be pieces of unfinished stories, and many of those were actually finished stories that were posted in two or three posts on consecutive days. Also, there were tons more drabbles, which is saying something because it's not like the fandom doesn't get its fair share now.
At the time of this writing, I've only just gotten to the days right after the airing of the season finale, so I don't have any post-Series 1 hiatus data yet. But it was fascinating to look back at something that I was actually in the middle of, and look at the patterns that only clearly emerged months later.
ETA: Less than a week into the hiatus. Apparently "hiatus" is code for "Begin posting all your WIPs, starting...now!"
You can also read this entry at my Dreamwidth journal. There are
comments there.