Comments | eldarwannabe: Writing Ianto Jones

eldarwannabe

Writing Ianto Jones

Nov 10, 2010 13:22

I've been trying to figure out my version of Ianto. For most canons, I tend to establish a complex fanon to work in, and I figure out character motivations and histories to a certain extent. Harry Potter being my prime example - I have my versions of the characters down. Not that I won't read other versions, of course, but I see them in a certain ( Read more... )

ramble, fanfiction thoughts, ianto, torchwood, meta

Comments 11

xtricks November 10 2010, 18:38:44 UTC

I think basically, you hit it on the head iwth the last part. Ianto is such a blank slate he can be anything/everything to anyone.

I think his appeal comes from that and from the fact that his affect in canon - the background/shy/overlooked person who has snappy lines (whenever he gets a chance to speak at all) and 'knows everything' appeals to all of our 'outsider' feelings (because everyone has those feelings sometimes, even when we're never truly outsiders in our culture).

eldarwannabe November 11 2010, 00:15:41 UTC

Oh, that's a fantastic point. Everyone has been in that social situation where they feel a little out of place (and might have snappy comeback lines they don't say...) and Ianto just represents that so well.

And then, you just fill in the rest of the blanks however you want. And he is such a blank slate in the show, isn't he?

iceshade November 10 2010, 19:40:11 UTC

...where the hell did you find the time to write all of this?

Also, I think a lot of fanon about Ianto tends to be based of GDL himself. Like, the beer-drinking, rugby-loving, Welsh pride FUCK YEAH parts.

Another reason there's so much dissent (I'm not disagreeing with you) is because within Torchwood canon itself, there's rarely any continuity aside from we all have lots of sex, and Ianto's the character we know least about, so something that might be canon in one episode is contradicted in another.

eldarwannabe November 11 2010, 00:25:58 UTC

I DON'T EVEN KNOW. I'M REALLY JUST TRYING TO FIGURE IANTO OUT AND THIS HAPPENED. (And I honestly could have kept going. I had to stop myself. THERE'S SO MUCH MORE.)

The thing about basing Ianto on GDL (and I do it too!) is that they have basically had nothing in common until season 3, when GDL commented how similar their backgrounds were. But from the bits we know about Ianto, he's a suit-wearing, clean-shaven, neurotically organized office manager and researcher. Gareth David Lloyd is a loud, long-haired, scruffy, an actor and a singer.

Dear RTD. NOT ENOUGH IANTO CANON. WHY DID I NOT GET TO SEE HIS FLAT IN COE, HUH‽‽‽

iceshade November 11 2010, 00:42:01 UTC

DO JACK NEXT.

Actually, while GDL was still playing the part of Ianto (I mean, between s2 and CoE) he was less scruffy. At least when he made public appearances. MAYBE IT'S JUST HIS INHERENT WELSHNESS IDK.

eldarwannabe November 11 2010, 01:21:07 UTC

OMG HOW DID YOU KNOW I WAS PLANNING ON GOING THROUGH ALL THE CHARACTERS?

It probably has something to do with the fact that so many fangirls latched onto GDL as well as Ianto. AND MAYBE WELSHNESS.

(Did you see his wedding pictures, BTW? SO CUTE.)

nancybrown November 10 2010, 23:33:32 UTC

:) I love that you did this. I mean, the fandom woobie character traditionally has a lot of these same characteristics. With Ianto, he got so little screen time and dialogue as compared to the others, it's very easy to layer whatever you want overtop what we did see. That's part of the fun for me in writing him, because I can explore completely different facets in different stories, and there's little or nothing directly to contradict.

eldarwannabe November 11 2010, 00:50:24 UTC

Aw, thanks. I have seen all of these in fic, so when I started to think about it they just all spilled out.

I almost cited you in the post actually, because you have three universes going with slightly different Ianto's in each one (of course, they are all very different stories, but still) whereas some writers seem to stick to the same general Ianto-idea no matter what they write.

tigercheetah November 11 2010, 07:59:30 UTC

Ianto and Gareth are quite different apart from their shared backgrounds and that's what I love about them. And there's a few things about Ianto than you can take as definately being canon ( ... )

eldarwannabe June 24 2011, 00:52:32 UTC

I don't know why I didn't get back to you six months ago when actually posted this, but I was linking to this post and saw it again, so.

I like your version of Ianto, and I write him like that the most, I think. I'm working on a fic right now with a lot of those qualities in it. But I have to disagree with you that these things are all definitely canon. At best, a lot of them are hinted at, sometimes strongly. But that where a lot of ambiguity comes in. Like, for example, the smoker aspect. I've read fics where he never smoked, only smoked as a teen, stopped smoking before Torchwood 1, stopped smoking for Lisa, never stopped smoking, picked it up again while Lisa was a cyberwoman, picked it up again after the Cyberwoman episode, smokes occasionally when stressed, smokes once for a good reason, etc.

And all of them were perfectly in line with anything I've seen on screen of the character. We see so little of him, he could two packs a day and we'd have no idea. It's what makes him so multi-portrayed in fandom. (Personally, I think ( ... )

tigercheetah June 24 2011, 07:39:10 UTC

I could definately see Ianto smoking as a teenager because it would fit in with his background, as well as indicate a young man who doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life at that stage. I think its fair to say that Ianto was a bit 'lost' before meeting Jack, in fact I believe Gareth said just as much a few years ago ( ... )