So I’ve been watching through the entire Torchwood series while i Tivo Miracle Day, i had never watched the show before. It seemed to me that the Ianto/Jack relationship was a little ridiculous at first, the first time they implied that something was going on was a mere 3-4 episodes after the episode were Ianto blames Jack for not saving his girlfriend, that they would be casually fooling around a few weeks later was highly unbelievable. Much later Jack says something to Martha Jones like “i have 51st century pheromones, I’m irresistible” and during the first episode of Children of the Earth when Ianto is coming out to his family he says “it’s not men, it’s just him”. Am I the only one who feels this relationship is all wrong? It seems like Jack turned a highly devoted hetero sexual man into his sexual plaything using future science. We already saw Owen do the same to another man and a cursory search reveals there was some outrage over that.
I don’t think “I have 51st century pheromones, I’m irresistible” was meant to be taken seriously. Granted, it wasn’t the best joke in the world, but it was meant as a silly comment, not a statement of fact.
In my personal opinion, anyway.
It wasn’t just that though, it was Ianto, who has admitted to not being attracted to other men, going from complete devotion to his girlfriend and almost outright hatred of Jack to messing around at the office after hours in a few weeks. Also we know something like that IS real and in possession of Torchwood.
I think that was just sloppy writting.
This, plus the same statement replacing “sloppy” with “bad”, explains 99% of the problems with Torchwood.
Yeppers. The writing was horribly inconsistent in terms of characterization and character development. The worst part about the show really.
In the second season, one episode showed how different members of the team came to join up–pre-Gwen. Ianto was hiding his murderous half-Cyberwoman girlfriend in Torchwood & seduced Jack to distract him from the monster in the basement.
Will I be forced to watch my way through each cracktastic episode to find the one? When (original) Torchwood was good it was very good. But it wasn’t good that often. Not that it kept me from watching every episode.
“Bloody Torchwood!”
Ianto faking interest in order to get into Torchwood further proves that he wasn’t actually interested, and that he was so devoted to his GF that he certainly wouldn’t jump into bed with the guy he blames for her death weeks later. And i understand it is most likely just bad writing, i watched the show after all, but it could also be a very ambiguously moral character doing something immoral.
I’ve never seen an invocation of ‘If It’s You, It’s OK’ called ‘rape’ before.
Ianto’s sexuality skews straight. That doesn’t make his attraction to a guy impossible without it being forced.
Or maybe he doesn’t skew as straight as he claims, and is just in denial.
Or, of course, Jack is JUST THAT HOT. (Not that it actually comes out that way in Doctor Who, just Torchwood, which is far more sexual.)
Apropos of nothing, I was Netflixing some *Torchwood *the other day and I began to wonder: If John Barrowman and Tom Cruise had sex, would it be a homosexual experience, or more like masturbation?
Ianto is in grief.
Jack is present, willing, and sympathetic.
Seems like a natural “rebound” effect to me.
-
Jack is super hot and charismatic. I’m gay, but I have met one or two women who were just amazing people, and I could see myself falling for them - and some with whom the non sexual chemistry was so damn strong that it bled over into the sexual.
-
Jack is from a future time and culture where people just don’t have strong sexual barriers. I’ve meant foreigners and had some of their behaviors, customs, or values wash off on me. Hell, even local people I hang around I will pick up on speech patterns or mannerisms. I could see Ianto’s cultural habits being worn down by someone from an advanced civilization with a strong personality.