Also, I felt like Jack and Ianto’s relationship kinda stepped on Ianto’s character development. He’s at Jack’s beck and call, obviously the weaker person. He doesn’t grieve for his gf for very long, either.
I thought that the episode was well done in tone and mood. The problem I had was with the fact that it was in 1940. It seemed phony and forced to have them dance and kiss at a military gathering in front of his men. And everyone stood there like they were part of the scenery. It was 1940. It was the military. There would be outrage. They probably would have refused to fly with him. There would have been something. Stylistically I thought it was done well. The reality of the situation jarred me right out of the show.
I never thought of it that way but you are right. If they want to make the character anything more than background then they need to move that relationship along or move past it. Otherwise he’ll just be the guy who gets the coffee.
Little did Jack know that his dancing/kissing is what caused one of the original Capt Jack’s men to shoot him down when the opportunity came during their mission the next day (“Take that you fucking queer!”).
Oh temporal paradoxes, why do you mock us so?!?!?
That’s the thing. It was 1940. There was no such thing as gay rights. It was Europe. Two guys get up and dance together. How cute. Prolly had a little too much to drink. Unless you were a flaming queer in a seedy part of town two straight-acting guys hugging or putting their arms around each other or even racking out in the same bed would be assumed to just be a couple buddies. Two guys getting up and dancing would probably result in a whole bunch of cognitive disconnect all over. Most people probably would be thinking, “silly boys.” Well, until the obviously passionate kiss. In that day and age if you were straight acting you were straight. No such thing as gay.
Heck, think about that old show The Odd Couple. It was hilarious, two guys living like man and wife. People didn’t think “FAGS!!!” That came later. These days you can’t mention Batman & Robin without getting snickers, but times were different then.
Really? Okay, I’ll give it a shot. “Batman and Robin”.
Hey, where are my Snickers? :mad:
Leaves the room to sate his chocolate fixation some other way
Laugh it up furball. You’re gonna get it. :mad:
If you saw the second-to-last episode of the second season, you’d know that Ianto is basically everyone’s bitch (butler-wise) because that was how he got his job.
-Joe
I saw the second season, but can’t remember Ianto’s story. Can you remind me (perhaps in a spoiler box)?
Ianto is to Jack what Alfred is to Batman. He’s not just a butler. If you need someone who knows how to make it happen, Ianto is your man.
We see it in the second-to-last episode, where we see the stories of how everyone (except Gwen, obviously) made it into Torchwood.
Ianto had been working for Torchwood London when they got wrecked by the Cybermen. Then Cardiff severed all ties with them, and Ianto came to beg Jack for a position in Cardiff. He kept turning him away, but when Jack finally accepted him it was after Ianto gave a “I’ll make the coffee and clean the bathrooms and blah blah be everyone’s butler if that’s what it takes”.
I’m not too clear if he was so desperate for that so that he could get Cybergirl fixed, or if he just didn’t like not being part of a Torchwood place that gets to see all the cool stuff that goes on.
-Joe