Some troubling qualities of Gwen and Rhys in CoE

[satanassa.livejournal.com]

WARNING: Spoilers for Torchwood Children of Earth.


Mostly I think Gwen was alright in Series 3, though I found all the cutie-cutie-ness between her and Rhys a little tedious. There were, however, a few things about her and Rhys's behaviour that grated on me.

1) Making a pretty offensive and unfunny remark about getting a third-world child to be their domestic servant (Day One). Gwen and Rhys seem to treat it as some kind of cute joke. Gwen fans will probably fall over themselves to try and justify it, but if you have to work so hard to explain it away, then you know that there was something wrong with it in the first place.

2) In Day Three Clement MacDonald makes a comment about Ianto being a 'queer', and then follows up by saying that Ianto smells like a queer. Ianto has to defend himself against these insulting remarks, neither Gwen nor Rhys take his side. In fact, Gwen and Rhys both look as if they are trying hard to control their laughter (I only watched once and this is how it looked to me, please correct me if I'm wrong).

3) In Day Five Gwen, Rhys and PC Andy are going to tell Ianto's sister about his death. On the way PC Andy says: "This Ianto Jones, was he gay?". Any decent person would have asked PC Andy WTF was his problem, the man was dead so what did it matter if he was gay or not? Instead neither Gwen nor Rhys truly protest, Gwen only shushes PC Andy with a half-smile, like you would to an adorable naughty child.

It looks like Rhys is getting to be as 'compassionate' and 'caring' as Gwen. If this is what it is like, I very much prefer to be 'callous' and 'unfeeling'!

Comments

[gracie-musica.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the whole 'gay running joke' thing shocked the hell out of me, especially with RTD himself being openly gay.

[jsks.livejournal.com]

when james moran complained on his blog about he and rtd being painted with the homophobic brush i was wondering if maybe we had seen two different tv show, wtf. let us review the past 3 three seasons of torchwood and see just who might have been drinking the kool-aid.
season 1- owen says that jack is gay, tosh says that jack will shag anything, ianto says he doesn't care, about the only reference to the "gay".(please feel to bring up any that i have forgotten) that i recall.
season 2- the jack/rhys clash- jack say this is homoerotic, ianto shopping for a wedding dress for gwen.
season 3- references in episodes 1, 3, 5 all aimed at ianto, not one aimed at jack. great job gwen (the heart of torchwood sa) did of defending the memory of a dead friend, contrast this with her rant at jack defending owen season 1.
the first 2 seasons the only person not to kiss a person of the same sex is rhys.
ianto was the only team member whose home(what gay man don't have homes) we never saw, esp. how many times did we see the gwen/rhys apt.
rtd use to brag about jack's sexual preferences were no big deal yet he went out his way to degrade ianto in season 3. rtd and torchwood received a lot postitive press from both the fandom and lgbt press for the jack/ianto relationship, went out of their why to promote how happy j/i fans would be with this season and now are hurt and shocked that they are being called out on it. read one comment where someone pointed out that j/i should be happy because well yes ianto but jack had not left him for someone else.
i have to stop here just had my house broken into.

[jennelldhalrbj.livejournal.com]

My Husband has sent the DVD of COE to his best friend {they met aged 6}, who is Gay. We are waiting to discover what he thinks of it.

I thought it was Homophobic. However, I also think RTD hates being Gay. I think he may not even realize this.

[satanassa.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I hope you and your family are okay.

What do they mean J/I fans should be happy because Jack didn't dump Ianto! This must the stupidest thing I ever heard. I'd much rather have Ianto alive with or without Jack, rather than Jack declaring everlasting love for a dead Ianto.

And you are right, we still did not see where Ianto lives.

[jsks.livejournal.com]

i woke up and found someone had walked into my house and made themselves something to eat and i caught them at my front door and they laughed in my face and then ran of. family good my peace of my mind not so good.
thank you for asking.

[suzywok.livejournal.com]

I zapped all the Gwen scenes I could so I miss this shame but i think we should add it i our list of complains.

[likemycoffee.livejournal.com]

I've written a lot about my own feelings on this on my LJ. basically, i found the whole thing very troubling indeed for a whole host of reasons. I feel angry and let down by the writers.

[suellen128.livejournal.com]

it shocked the hell out of me about the gay things said to Ianto , I help run the LGBT society at my uni and we were all really happy with the promotion of a gay relationship in UK based TV and then CoE happened and we were all quite dumb-struck over it! It just didn't seem the right thing to say, maybe RTD + writers meant it to be funny but it didn't come across that way.

[eatbreathelive.livejournal.com]

I know you made the suggestion that they would think it might be funny but...

I really can't see how that making gay jokes is funny...I mean if that was me i would be screaming harassment and discrimination...it looked to me like down right bullying

And was it me but all...or most...of the jokes were made when Jack wasn't there?

But really...RTD is gay...hasn't he ever been insulted like that...surly he would know the feeling of how horrible it is and stop it

[wingslapped.livejournal.com]

1. Gwen's comment struck me as being in very poor taste. As much as I dislike her at times, I thought it was OOC, unless I'm forgetting any similar remarks in the past.

2 & 3. Gwen and Rhys should have stood up for their friend. I think all of these scenes shouldn't have had jabs at Ianto in them. More poor taste to add to the bad taste COE left in my mouth.