Meta: Jack/Ianto and Lurve, that old chestnut.

[fide_et_spe]

Notes: There may be bits of this that aren't 100% serious, I hope they are obvious. As to canon, I am counting all the television episodes, and the radio plays, not the books and other media. (I think the books get a little confusing and I know some people don't count them, so I won't) I also am well aware that the plays were written after CoE, but

Comments

[madder_rose]

Without going back to CoE again (I watched it twice...) I think they were both beginning to realize just how much they cared for each other. Not in the "Oh I love you so much" way but rather the "You know, I could see myself spending a lifetime with you". Maybe that's what held them back and maybe that's what made Ianto nervous about telling his sister. Not that he was just shagging a man but that he was willing to spend the rest of his life with that man as well.

I'm not sure I agree with GDL that Ianto taught Jack about love, but like you said he taught him about unconditional love where he knows exactly who and what Jack is but doesn't care as long as he gets to take care of Jack. I somehow doubt Jack has ever had that, someone who is willing to only give (And I do suspect Ianto often gave more than he got) and ask nothing in return. Ianto does one thing, and one thing only in CoE and that is focus on Jack. He is always by Jack's side. He refuses to leave when they find out about the bomb and when Jack is captured everything Ianto does is motivated by his desire to free Jack. He endangers his sister to free Jack, he leaves Gwen to her own devices, he even risks his own life as long as he gets Jack out and away from Johnson.

I both hate and love the fact that we see so little of Jack and Ianto's relationship on screen. In one way it shows that hey, it is what it is, they're guys, they love each other, they have sex just like you and your partner. In another it could be seen as well, they're just having sex.
I guess it depends on how rose-coloured your glasses are when you view the episodes...

[caledonius72]

I think that we saw in Cyberwoman, that when Ianto loves you, he loves you completely, without fear or favour.

I have read, in one of the novels or in a fic, that there's nothing casual about Ianto. I think that's very much the case, no half measures - all or nothing. And not showing off, just being who he is, as hard as he can.

[madder_rose]

^I agree. I think both of them do things all or nothing, but while Jack's focused on saving the world Ianto is focused on Jack - while also saving the world. I think Ianto might also be the sort of person to always need something definitive to devote himself to.

[caledonius72]

I'm a Buddhist, and there's a term we use "honzon" - an object worthy of devotion.

I think that Jack is Ianto's honzon. He needs to have something or someone to commit to totally - that's just the way he is. I don't think he over-analyses his motivations. "I am Ianto Jones, and this is how I roll."

[madder_rose]

That makes sense. Ianto doesn't lose himself, I think he finds himself in the person he devotes himself to.

[caledonius72]

His devotion gives him structure and purpose.

Someone really needs to do a philosophical/psychological treatise on the enigma that is Ianto Jones ;-)

[fide_et_spe]

Aaw I'm loving the Dalai Lama interjections here.

[caledonius72]

Hey who said fandom couldn't be metaphysical?

[phaetonschariot]

Yeah that's my view of Ianto as well. He's incredibly passionate - and in some senses, to get from where he grew up to where he is now, he has to have been wholehearted about it, because not only did he get there but he manages to make people think that he belongs there utterly so that it was an epic surprise to find out where he actually did come from.

[fide_et_spe]

I really like what you say about CoE here. I remember GDL saying that Ianto is Jack's most loyal soldier. It's true. I think that is what GDL meant. He is like it in S2, and yes again in CoE. It's like he always puts Jack first and has his welfare at heart.

I think taking care of people is what motivates Ianto. He lavishes this care onto Jack. GDL is a pretty clever and thoughtful guy, I think he wouldn't be daft enough to think Jack hadn't loved an ex partner, he knows better than that.

[madder_rose]

Exactly. I watched Cyberwoman this weekend and saw the touches down by Lisa. Yeah ok, maybe it's the props team, but they'd added the vase and the flowers, pictures and table, things that showed that Ianto was there and obviously lavishing care on Lisa. He was gentle with her, definitely desperate and instantly angry when Tanazaki referred to her as an it.

[fide_et_spe]

Yep that's him all over. I loved that video on the website that time, some game that he used to host, which I never quite understood, but anyhow in one of them he was arranging flowers, it was such a nice little character touch.