Since today seems to be the day for talking about Torchwood fandom participation and CoE...

[lefaym]

...I thought I might as well add my own thoughts here

Comments

[lefaym]

*hugs*

[pocky_slash]

I have thoughts and stuff on all of this, but today is really not a good day for... gathering them, I guess. But I thought I'd leave a comment saying that I hurt, too, and I get it. ♥

[lefaym]

*hugs*

Thanks. :)

[alba17]

CoE is like the taint that sits on top of everything that I loved (and in many ways still love) about the show. There's no way for me to access any of the bits that I love without touching the taint; it's always there, always seeping into me, much as I would like for it NOT TO DO SO.THIS. Totally agree. I just read the comments over at that torch_wood discussion. Knowing Ianto dies, knowing what Jack has to go through...it's all just too sad. But I totally know what you mean about not really feeling the same way about any other fandom either. Once in awhile this is brought home to me. I love reading Merlin, but I just don't feel the same way about the actual show. I look at the Merlin S3 shooting pics - it's fun - but I don't feel the excitement I felt when I saw TW S3 shooting pics. And wasn't COE such a disappointment after waiting so goddamn long after S2? We waited and waited, then we got Ianto dying for no reason and Jack completely gutted, a shell who has to run away. Plus those Jack/Ianto relationship issues you've mentioned.

[lefaym]

For me, it's not just that it's too sad -- it's too pointless. I mean, sometimes pointlessness can be the point, but I don't think it was here -- basically in S1 and S2 we're asked to invest in a bunch of character arcs that never get resolved, never go anywhere, and are (figuratively) retconed out of existence in CoE (in the case of J/I development).

[alba17]

Yes, agreed. Good point. Makes it much harder to invest yourself in it. More. I just wonder if TW fandom is going to survive, honestly. I just see less and less activity and I can't help comparing it to Merlin and Sherlock Holmes fandoms, which seem so much more vital and lively.

[lefaym]

I think it depends on whether or not there's a S4 really -- if there is a S4, new people will come in, people who loved CoE will have something to continue with, and maybe even those of us who hated CoE will have something to enjoy again. If there's not a S4... who knows?

I agree though, both Merlin and Sherlock Holmes have a vitality that has been missing from Torchwood since CoE.

[amand_r]

You know me, and how I feel, but I gotta say, I know what it's like to be disappointed and sad and not looking forward to the future at the same time that you are.

I'm sorry that COE was a...bleaugh for you and a lot of others.

(ps. I wrote that ep for you, the one where Jack comes back and Gwen decks him. And they get Myfanwy back. I think that was you.)

[lefaym]

You wrote it? Is it up? (I'm really sorry, I've been TERRIBLE with keeping up with fic lately -- I've got HEAPS on my "to read" list, including most of the VS -- but I'll read this one of yours straightaway if you link me to it. Thank you so much; that was really lovely.)

And with CoE more broadly... I want to feel the "right" way about it (and I know that there really is no right way)-- I want to be one of the people who gets something out of it, who understands Rusty's genius or whatever, but I just can't. And then I feel anxious that I can't, becuase I'm a fucking literature student, so surely I should be able to.

[amand_r]

It's the first in a series of 13 "episode fics" that I'm doing, so no it's not up yet, but I thought of you when I did it

[lefaym]

Well, in that case, I can't wait to read it. :)

I find that I sucked as a lit student because I liked things that I wasn't supposed to

Oh, that's me totally. Harry Potter and Torchwood are both high on the list of things that I'm not "supposed" to like (especially Harry Potter, since I'm in children's lit). I do find though, that I'm good at separating my enjoyment of a text from my knowledge of its faults, and I think that sense of disconnect is something that I haven't achieved with CoE, because I feel like I'm supposed to be doing the opposite thing -- detaching myself from my dislike of the text in order to appreciate the good things about it on an intellectual level (but then I'm not sure if there was much in it that was good besides the Frobisher arc and most of the Gwen/Rhys stuff -- sometimes I think it's just that my intellectual side IS in tune with my emotional response to the text, which is usually not the case -- but then so many intelligent people say how wonderful CoE is and I think I must be missing SOMETHING

[topgeargirl2]

I like and dislike COE for totally different reasons. looking back I feel like they only killed off Ianto so Jack could kill Steven.

Then he left and everything went to shit.

It's going to take a long time for the fandom to really recover.

[lefaym]

Yeah... I mean, I DO actually like some aspects of CoE; it's just that the bits that I don't like ruin the bits that I do.

I think fandom needs a new series. I doubt that we'll ever get one though.

[topgeargirl2]

We won't

Even Torchwood USA won't exist. If Fox won't show then no one will.