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

[jedirita]

I just don't get how people didn't feel the love in CoE. I thought it was infinitely better without mushy declarations, and if anything, I could have done without Ianto saying, "I love you," because, well, duh.

These are NOT talk-about-feelings guys. They show it through their actions. Jack did open up to Ianto, in his armor-plated, never-tell-my-secrets kind of way when he turned back and told Ianto about Alice and Stephen. As for Ianto, after they have their spat, as soon as Jack is going to storm Thames House, there is not even the slightest hesitation that Ianto will go with him.

As for the couple conversation - how do people miss the fact that when Ianto says, "He was acting like we're a couple," Jack says, "Well, we are. Is that a problem?" So to me, I interepret that whole thing not as Jack having a problem with being in a couple, but rather with the word. That is, in fact, literally what he says, "I hate that word, 'couple'."

Then there's the fact that Jack went absolutely apeshit as soon as he realized Ianto was going to die. Whether or not he would have actually done it, his emotional impulse was to let everybody else in the world die as long as he got to keep Ianto. Then when Ianto did die, Jack went into a near coma. He didn't get mad. He shut down. He had frikkin PTSD.

Word are cheap. Actions speak a lot louder. The actions of both Jack and Ianto screamed LOVE all over the place in CoE. And if sometimes it was complicated and messy and even painful, well, that's their relationship in a nutshell.

[fide_et_spe]

Yes you see, this is what I meant above in my reply to Lefaym, when I said that I genuinely think that the writers and actors think the love story is there. I do think it's fine to say the three words if you are about to kick the bucket. The reason I changed it is because I think it could be done in a way that is slightly less cliched. Of course declarations of love always end up with some cliche there.

I absolutely agree that Jack's actions spoke of love. I do think the dialogue between them all through is a bit off, and a bit AU. I like that Jack says, yes they are a couple, but I find Ianto going on about it just strange and out of character.

Oh and I don't think Jack saying he hates the word means for a minute that he doesn't think they are, but it's a strange little piece of dialogue.

[lefaym]

I just don't get how people didn't feel the love in CoE. I thought it was infinitely better without mushy declarations, and if anything, I could have done without Ianto saying, "I love you," because, well, duh.

Speaking as someone who doesn't feel the love in CoE, I nonetheless absolutely agree with this -- I was never invested in the idea that Jack and Ianto would declare their love for each other like that, and I never really felt that either of them saying it out loud changed the game that much.

[animalboything]

Agreeing a lot with this comment but I'll go so far as to add my two-cents of Ianto being the first to mention the 'was acting like we're a couple' and then again the reiteration on that with Jack's response. I was under the impression that Jack was pissy about it because he didn't like Ianto being wishywashy and got a bit indignant about it and well, held a mini-grudge. At least that's the way one of my ex-partners was when I was doing the whole, "They called us this" thing in my life, hence the small comparison. I saw that a touch more than Jack not wanting to admit just how much he fell for Ianto, although obviously it's there unconditionally.

[phaetonschariot]

Exactly!! omg I was so frustrated during that week when everyone was whining in Day Three about how Jack was brushing Ianto off and I was like "DO YOU WATCH THE SAME SHOW AS ME? DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND SUBTEXT AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS?"

[cweb]

jedirita, you've expressed it perfectly.
(I thought the love was definitely there, and I wouldn't have wanted them talking like characters in a slash story written by a teenage girl.)
As for the couple conversation - how do people miss the fact that when Ianto says, "He was acting like we're a couple," Jack says, "Well, we are. Is that a problem?" (I can't help wondering about that either...it struck me that perhaps Jack thought Ianto had a problem with being considered a couple)

[fide_et_spe]

I didn't miss any of that, but in my previous meta I rewrote that bit in a way that was more in character. People liked it so much that this one came out of it. I just feel it isn't Ianto, it's like an AU version of him. The whole thing is strange, and as said in some comments above, felt like S2 character and relationship development hadn't happened.