Torchwood: Ianto's Mother

[eldarwannabe]

So, we got no information about Ianto's mom in the show. I mean...none, not even in COE. Nada. We had tantalizing bits about his father, so we did make a lot of shared fanon stories about him

Comments

[coldwater1010]

Yeah it's a bit contradictory even without getting any information on her. Certainly the implication in COE was that as soon as his dad died Ianto left. Which begs the question if he hated his dad why would he bother to wait until he died to leave? Was he that afraid of him? Did he not want to leave Rhiannon alone with him? Judging by Ianto's age and the ages of her kids Rhiannon would probably have been with Johnny by then anyway, possibly living with him, so why the big deal about Ianto leaving in the first place? I get she'd probably miss him, but she seemed to take it as a personal slight. Also the whole thing with the swing and being pushed too hard? Is that supposed to suggest abuse? Symptomatic of his father always pushing him too hard? Was it just a case of his dad being a bit momentarily distracted by a bit of hot tottie? I accidentally knocked my friend's kid's head pretty hard against the wall when I was coming down the stairs once? Will that become a definitive moment in her life too? lol

[twclassic]

I tend to take the novels into play. According to the novel Trace Memories Iantos mother is still alive at his time at Canary Wharf 'At a little after seven, as was always the case on a Tuesday, his mother phoned. She asked him whether he'd eaten, and not wanting to tell her that his evening

[lawsontl]

I didn't take away that they were separated at all. The comment by Ianto's dad that he made sure Mum gave Ianto the special mobile number meant to me that Ianto was much more likely to talk to her than his Dad. Possibly even not interested in getting hold of his father at all, hence Mum may have had to press the issue on Dad's behalf, "No, Ianto, write down the number. Your father insisted I make sure you got it." What I didn't understand was why having a mobile was so important for Ianto to reach him. Couldn't Ianto call him on the land line at the hospital? Sounds to me like Mr. Jones was desperate to do anything or everything possible to hear from his son, including getting a direct line so Ianto couldn't make the excuse of getting blocked at the switchboard or it being after hours, etc... But maybe I'm missing a cue here, what makes you think they're separated? I'm really curious to hear

[coldwater1010]

I actually think the first few scenes of From Out of the Rain fit Ianto better than Gwen in that I can see him being intrigued by some crusty old cinema and its history and old footage far more than Gwen. That seems his kind of thing. I'm assuming that was just a happy accident though.

I think the problem seems to be that everyone seems to be working from their own personal script whether it's in the books, on the screen, in the radioplays and nobody seems all that bothered about conformity. What we learn about Ianto's father/ parents from the radioplays seems different from what was suggested on screen and different from what is given in the books (as far as I can tell). Didn't one of the books suggest ianto's father was a miner or something?