Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Children of Earth, and BONUS NAVEL GAZING

[lefaym]

The other day, pica_scribit mentioned that she'd been reading along with Mark Reads Harry Potter -- basically, a 26 year old guy who had never read Harry Potter before (and surprisingly, was unspoiled for almost all of the major plot developments), and is now blogging it as he reads through one chapter at a time. Pica's post reminded me that I'd been planning

Comments

[cb_eaglemaniac]

Hi...I'm late to this "party" but since CoE aired I've been very interested in reading your meta and reactions to it, because on many levels you sum up my feelings about series three and you express them so well that I find myself nodding along with your entries - and this is no exception.

Like you, Ianto is the character in Torchwood to whom I relate. At times that extended to Tosh as well (we're madly introverted!) but for some reason I have always found myself responding to Ianto. As you pointed out here, I think part of that is his "learned bravery" - I really became cognizant of Ianto's growth in Countrycide, when he confronts Tosh in the cellar. It rang so true, that here's this guy in this insane situation - and who in their right mind would react, however briefly, with anything other than terror?

After CoE (and that's still true now, more than a year later) Ianto's death bothers me. When Sirius died in OOTP I was gutted, but like other fictional characters who have died, I got over it. I haven't been able to put my finger on why Ianto's death bothers me so much, but what you've written here is it. And it seems so obvious.

This was more than a favourite character dying - this was the character who, for all intents and purposes was the character I related to, the character in whom I saw myself the most...and stupidly walked into his own death and caused the death, as you point out, of hundreds of others. This is the (for lack of a better word) reputation of that character tarnished. That hurts like hell. Whether it was for realism or not, it sucks and it's just another way in which CoE turned the Torchwood I knew on its head - and not in a good way.

Anyway, I'll shut up now because honestly I didn't mean to ramble that much! haha! I just wanted to say thanks for your posts regarding the series; they've been incredibly helpful for me sorting out my own jumbled thoughts and my frighteningly intense loathing for CoE.

[lefaym]

Thank you. I'm really glad I've been able to help by talking about my own reactions to CoE. Sometimes I worry that I'm just annoying people or making fandom more divided than it already is, so it's great to know that you found it helpful. :)