To me, this is one of the overriding themes of Torchwood – the fact that good people (Gwen) get drawn into this fight, and we think oh, yes, they’ll teach the jaded alien hunters some humanity, how predictable, and instead…the humanity is what gets shattered. Degraded. It’s the opposite to Doctor Who’s message, it’s not Jack-the-cowardly-conman-gets-taught-courage, it’s Jack the bitter time-traveller gets to infuse a whole lot of other people with that same bitterness. CHARMING. I mean, fuck, I love it, I think it’s fantastically cynical telly and that’s why I watch it, but I really think fandom should acknowledge this a little more without diving straight into the over-done emotion.
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Torchwood, when you get right down to it, is about death. Look past the huge amounts of snogging and humour and fast violence and gore and actually think about the enormity of what happened to Jack without playing it for angst…yup, morbid as fuck.
These comments of yours make it very clear to me why this fic resonates so with me. (Be it concretely or abstractly. *g*)
To me, the attraction of Torchwood is that it's an extremely, surprisingly dark show. Beneath the surface gloss of the silly humour and Jack's dazzling smile, it's all about death and loss and human failure. There are occasional sparks of light and beauty, but, for the most part, the characters are all fumbling through a vast darkness, and to survive in that darkness - or survive the sense of meaninglessness it imposes on them - they all, one by one, succumb to the various temptations around them; little by little losing themselves, sinking deeper into the abyss they are struggling to escape. It is, as you say, cynical in the extreme, and not quite like anything I've seen on tv before.
This is how I see the show, and I've never been quite satisfied with any story I read in this fandom - even though some of them were excellent and highly enjoyable - because they failed, or more likely didn't try, to convey these things. You have it nailed, though. The sense of a surrounding emptiness, the inevitability of personal degradation (such a perfect word to use), the brightness and melancholy of the beautiful moments that, despite everything they are, can't save anyone... You've captured the show as I see it, which is a large part of why this story gives the thrills.
I write a lot of moments.
Another reason why I love this. You don't need to write long tales about how the years go by if you can pin the important things down by revealing clear, distinct, tangible moments in time. My favourite form of story-telling.
no subject
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Torchwood, when you get right down to it, is about death. Look past the huge amounts of snogging and humour and fast violence and gore and actually think about the enormity of what happened to Jack without playing it for angst…yup, morbid as fuck.
These comments of yours make it very clear to me why this fic resonates so with me. (Be it concretely or abstractly. *g*)
To me, the attraction of Torchwood is that it's an extremely, surprisingly dark show. Beneath the surface gloss of the silly humour and Jack's dazzling smile, it's all about death and loss and human failure. There are occasional sparks of light and beauty, but, for the most part, the characters are all fumbling through a vast darkness, and to survive in that darkness - or survive the sense of meaninglessness it imposes on them - they all, one by one, succumb to the various temptations around them; little by little losing themselves, sinking deeper into the abyss they are struggling to escape. It is, as you say, cynical in the extreme, and not quite like anything I've seen on tv before.
This is how I see the show, and I've never been quite satisfied with any story I read in this fandom - even though some of them were excellent and highly enjoyable - because they failed, or more likely didn't try, to convey these things. You have it nailed, though. The sense of a surrounding emptiness, the inevitability of personal degradation (such a perfect word to use), the brightness and melancholy of the beautiful moments that, despite everything they are, can't save anyone... You've captured the show as I see it, which is a large part of why this story gives the thrills.
I write a lot of moments.
Another reason why I love this. You don't need to write long tales about how the years go by if you can pin the important things down by revealing clear, distinct, tangible moments in time. My favourite form of story-telling.