Warning: This post contains uncut CoE spoilers for Day 4 and bad language. It's uncut because it's not actually *about* CoE, but about fandom.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
When Catherine died, a Beauty and the Beast fan who'd been chairing a feed-the-hungry charity in the show's name shut it down because there was no point anymore if there was no Catherine/Vincent romance. (No point except HUNGRY PEOPLE NEEDING FEEDING. But that's just reality, which is so much less important than a TV show.)
This is why I'm so incredibly delighted that Ianto's death has started a Torchwood charity smackdown. There are now three - three! - charity drives started because of Children of Earth:
-
Children of Earth Viewers for Children in Need (aka "Thank you, James Moran"): current total: 286.25 pounds
-
Save Ianto Jones: current total: 2,674.83 pounds, also for Children in Need
(A smackdown so uneven that even the BBC
doesn't bother mentioning that it is a smackdown.)
And now,
Ianto Jones Wants a Pony. A serious charity with a silly name, (and already at 260 pounds and rising) this isn't for saying Ianto has to live or die. It's for adopting a pony from the
Lluest Horse and Pony trust, a charity that Gareth David-Lloyd has been championing.
I eyeroll about the bags of coffee and the Internet petitions to bring Ianto back (as if RTD, or anyone, ever listens to the Internet fandom that much). [ETA: That said, I find it really amusing that both pro-Ianto charities are whipping CoE for CiN's financial ass. The fandom is speaking with its collective wallet, and loudly.] But what's wonderful is that even though the kids in Children in Need may not even know who Ianto is, and the horse surely doesn't give a damn about TV, all that angst and anger is doing good in the world for real living things.
And that beats the everlivin' fuck out of punishing hungry families because a fictional character snuffed it.