Yes Russell, Gwen IS the most popular TW character!

[mscatmoon.livejournal.com]

Just for your amusement and gratification, I present the following tally I researched today...

* Listed in numerical order.



Torchwood Genre Finders community tags:

The place fans go when looking for a certain type of story.

Ianto 200

Jack 124

Owen 28

Tosh 21

Gwen  17   (out of those, several have nothing to do with Gwen & I have no idea why she's in the tags, a couple are general team requests, several are anti-Gwen... and I count about 3 actual pro-Gwen requests.)



Torchwood Story Finders tags:

For when you're looking for a specific story.

Ianto 278

Jack 203

Gwen 33

Owen 30

Tosh 14

Keeping in mind that all characters are often tagged for team oriented stories/genres, I find that very impressive indeed for Super!Gwen.  Yes I definitely see that she's the star of the show.  I don't know why I ever thought otherwise.
 /sarcasm.

Comments

[dr-doomsduck.livejournal.com]

Oh, but you misunderstand, the REAL torchwood fans don't use livejournal, don't read or write fanfics, never comment on interviews or on news, never fill out polls and don't show up at the conventions. No, they only spend money on it, they buy the dvd's, the radioplays, the magazines, the books, the new paid channel costs...just like RTD likes it.

But in all honesty, every damn shred of information on the non-official channels show that Ianto is the most loved character or Jack, never Gwen. Only the official channels make her the goddess of the show. So funny that every fansite, every unpaid article, everything that's even slightly off the radar, like the amazon tags and user reviews, are in favor of Ianto and Jack while those paid-reviewers, press releases, official twitter accounts wikipedia articles; every shallow bit of information favours Gwen. You'd almost start to wonder how much of the budget ends up in the make-Gwen-popular-fund.

[littleatem.livejournal.com]

It would have to be all of the funding going to make-Gwen popular.
If it weren't for the "Official Channels" (The RTD Family) then Gwen would have been killed by the first Weevil. If RTD actually paid attention to the fans and not the people 'paying' for the show, he would realize that Gwen is the Weakest Link and that she should have to say "Goodbye"

[bk_forever]

Oh if only she'd been on the Game Station facing the Anne Droid! A minor robot malfunction and we could have been rid of Gwen forever! Then Torchwood could have focused on the team and the things they had to deal with because of the rift instead of 80% of it being about Gwen.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Don't send new plotbunnies my way! I've got twice as many as I can feed dwelling under my desk already!

[bk_forever]

Oh dear, now I have an image of you sitting at you desk with bunnies of all colours clustered around your feet, all shouting "Me first, me first!" and shoving each other out of the way! 0_0

Sorry, wasn't my intention to inflict more bunnies on you!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That's a fairly accurate description of my life indeed. Cheeky little buggers don't even care that I have to work for a living, too. Well, not right now, but most of the time. :)

[bk_forever]

Well, the magazine ended, presumably because it wasn't selling enough copies anymore (I'll bet if you asked people who used to buy it, they'd say they bought it for Ianto and Jack, NOT Gwen), and numbers of DVD and book sales have probably dropped badly since CoE, so the make-Gwen-popular campaign isn't working. Makes me wonder how many pre-orders they're getting for MD DVDs...

[dr-doomsduck.livejournal.com]

and numbers of DVD and book sales have probably dropped badly since CoE

I've been looking to prove that somehow, so I'm curious where this information comes from. If that's true then it would be unrefutable evidence that the shit turned bad!

[bk_forever]

Well, I don't have any information, it's just speculation, but I'd love to know if I'm right - I have no proof, but the way people were cancelling their pre-orders of CoE, I can't help wondering. I very much doubt CoE or Miracle Day would sell better than the first two series. Plus a lot of people, myself included, have said they won't be buying any more books, and I can't see casual viewers buying books, really only fans do that.

[littleatem.livejournal.com]

I was at a FYE store the other day. Torchwood Season 1 was selling for $59.99, Season 2 was selling for $79.99, and COE was on sale for $19.99

[bk_forever]

That says it all really, doesn't it? People are willing to pay top dollar for the first 2 series, but they're having to practically give CoE away, and I'll bet it's still not selling many copies!

[dr-doomsduck.livejournal.com]

For real? you are my new favourite person for discovering this!

[jsks.livejournal.com]

in my group of friends i had pre-ordered 5 sets as presents after coe it went down to one i had ordered for a friend who doesn't get bbc america. she gave it back because she hated it and loathes gwen.

[bk_forever]

Well, I expect that sort of thing happened a lot. I know of many people on LJ who cancelled their pre-orders. There was so much enthusiasm before CoE aired, but by the time it was over hardly anyone seemed interested in the DVDs. Not that I blame them, I saw CoE once and that was one time too many. I'll never watch it again.

[mscatmoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know this is something we've known all the long, but with all the Awesome!Gwen crap from MD promotion, it's good to sometimes remind ourselves that no, it's not us who are crazy or delusional.

Too bad they spent all that money on the 'meke-Gwen-popular fund instead of on making a show that would actually be good.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but doing so would have involved actual thinking and some writing talent, so that was clearly out of question.

[aeshna-cyanea.livejournal.com]

Not to mention either getting rid of Gwen, or at least substantially cutting back on her screen time. No way RTD would ever have done that.

[zitatx.livejournal.com]

Cool research. Yeah ... it's a bit hard to like Gwen after some of the comments she made about Ianto on the show.

[bk_forever]

Which is why I don't get it when people write that Gwen and Ianto are bestest friends. 0_o

She's so dismissive of him unless she wants him to do something.

[jsks.livejournal.com]

tosh&ianto friendship fics i understand because they spent time together in canon but except for a few scenes in tkks and adam they didn't spend a lot of time together during the first 2 seasons. i don't understand writers who write gwen & ianto friendship fics or worse as lovers(gag, spit that hurt to write) when gwen makes no secret that doesn't respect ianto's relationship with jack or ianto as a member of the team.

[bk_forever]

Exactly, and the scenes in Adam can be discounted because he was making everyone act as they wouldn't normally. Gwen shows no respect for Ianto, or for his relationship with Jack, it's true. Everytime she sneers 'Oh, is that what you're calling it now' I just want to hit her! It's obvious she thinks there's nothing between them but casual sex. Ianto is polite to Gwen because he has good manners, but he would never confide in her - she can't keep a secret for five minutes unless it's for her own benefit. Grrr!!!

And the less said about G & I as a couple, the better - that's even more disgusting than Gwack - Ianto has better taste!

I love Tosh/Ianto friendship fics, they work so well!

[dr-doomsduck.livejournal.com]

I don't even see how this would work...We've never seen ANY evidence that either was even slighty interested in the other. If anything, Gwen did a bang up job of ignoring Ianto, the entire first season...Even AFTER cyberwoman, we saw nothing that indicates that Gwen did anything to change her attitude. We've seen Ianto take the brunt for Tosh against the cannibals as well as during the stupid kiss game (courtesy of Gwen, to make her colleagues jealous)

which scenes in tkks are we talking about? the ones where he tells her she's not going to live until she's thirty? yeah, sounds like something friends would say to each other...her irritated reaction of "lighten up" instead of a "don't worry, not us" tells me that she really just didn't want to hear what he had to say.

[bk_forever]

I know, it's so ridiculous, there's just no evidence of friendship anywhere. Not even in CoE (which I prefer to ignore entirely). After all, if they were such close friends, why doesn't Gwen know about his sister, niece and nephew? Gwen knows NOTHING about Ianto, and never shows any sign of wanting to find out about him, she's so condescending and patronising towards him. As for her crying over his body in CoE... Why? Up to then, she'd never shown the slightest concern for him. She was probably crying because she knew she'd have to make and drink her own coffee now, clear up after herself and do her own paperwork instead of spending her days at work internet shopping! Little miss self-pity as always, putting herself first so that Jack felt he had to comfort her when he was the one who was actually grieving.

[ruby-took.livejournal.com]

As for her crying over his body in CoE... Why? Up to then, she'd never shown the slightest concern for him.

I felt the same about her crying over Tosh as well, because Gwen hardly ever acknowledged Tosh either, and let's not even talk about Gwen's thoughts about Tosh in "Greeks Bearing Gifts".

[bk_forever]

Yep, the so-called 'Heart of Torchwood' who never seemed to care about her colleagues, just cried crocodile tears over their bodies once they died.

The only thing Gwen and Tosh had in common was gender. That's not enough to build a friendship on, even if Gwen hadn't always seemed indifferent to Tosh, when she wasn't being mean to her. Personally, I can't imagine any of the team being Gwen's friend, though I have no doubt she believed they all adored her because... well, she's the wonderful and gorgeous Gwen Cooper, so caring and giving, who wouldn't be falling over themselves just to be near her and bask in her reflected glory? (Sorry for the sarcasm overload there!)

[ruby-took.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine any of them being friends with Gwen either, not least of all because the only people Gwen seemed to ever pay any attention to were men she slept with (Owen - and even that didn't extend beyond the bedroom; witness her insensitivity about the situation with Diane) and men she wanted to sleep with (Jack), and the only one whose wants and needs ever mattered to her was herself. That's not something you can build a friendship on.

No need to apologise for the sarcasm - it's a reaction I frequently have about Gwen as well. It's the way not a single one of the positive traits she supposedly has is ever actually shown on screen that does it.

[bk_forever]

And no one mentions her negative traits at all - like being whiny, self-involved, condescending, patronising, infantile and incompetent, to name a few. If Gwen is the kind of person RTD thinks all women aspire to be, then he has a very seriously skewed image of women!

[ruby-took.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I wouldn't mind Gwen nearly as much if her negative traits were acknowledged, her actions had consequences, and she'd be allowed to learn from them and grow as a character. But as it is...

[bk_forever]

As it is, her creator thinks she's perfect just the way she is, can't be improved on, therefore we're stuck with little miss whiny know-it-all who not only never learns from her mistakes but most of the time doesn't even seem to realise she's screwed up, even when people are dying around her. She's Gwen, she's perfect, therefore the dying people must be someone else's fault... Grrrrr. I'm sure she's make a great chew toy for Janet. The leather outer layer she's so fond of would make her last quite a while.

[mscatmoon.livejournal.com]

The only thing Gwen and Tosh had in common was gender.

Yep, they were pretty much opposites. Tosh was beautiful and brillant; Gwen ugly and stupid. Tosh cared about her co-workers, Gwen was condescending to them. Tosh helped save the world, Gwen almost got it destroyed... you get the picture.

[bk_forever]

RTD got it all wrong, Gwen should have been the series' supervillain! She's incompetent, but then so are most supervillains or they'd never get beaten by the heroes!

[zitatx.livejournal.com]

Mary-Sue that kind turned into Villain-Sue

[bk_forever]

Would've worked a lot better than trying to force people to fall in love with Saint Gwen!

[jsks.livejournal.com]

the scene were ianto and gwen are walking out of the morgue ianto every the gentleman offers her his arm.

[dr-doomsduck.livejournal.com]

Isn't that in sleeper? I might be confusing things though, but I saw that more as a Ianto-even-smiles-politely-to-the-cannibal-he's-about-to-headbutt than a sign of true friendship

[jsks.livejournal.com]

ooops! you are right it was beth my bad. ianto is a gentleman and the son of a master tailor because coe is not my canon.

[ruby-took.livejournal.com]

I always read that as the kind of professional politeness you'd treat a colleague with, regardless of whether you like them or not, simply because anything else would make working life awkward.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

While I relish in the unpopularity of Gwenzilla, I really feel bad for Tosh. Why is she so unpopular? She's lovely, she's brilliant, she has class, she and Ianto as friends are wonderful - so why are people ignoring her?

[dr-doomsduck.livejournal.com]

I don't get that either, out of all the folks at Torchwood, she's the one to have shown her moral compass the most, during Cyberwoman, during Combat, during To The Last Man. She wasn't ruined like Ianto or Jack were during CoE. In the past, I was looking for a Tosh/Owen comm (heaven knows she deserves better, but hell, Tosh fics are rare as they are) and managed to read through most of it in a day. But maybe it's because she was even more underused than Ianto was, and went out saving the world instead of being useless?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That must be it. We live in a world in which every good deed receives its proper punishment.

Well, the only way to help that is to write more Tosh fics, for which I hereby declare myself willing. ;)

[bk_forever]

Even so, there are some very good fics out there with Tosh (yours included) It's just a case of finding them. If you're not reading milady_dragon's Dragon-Verse, then you should be! It's Torchwood re-told from before the start of series one, with Ianto as a dragon in human form most of the time, lots of Gwen bashing and really strong Tosh, plus Tosh/Ianto/Jack friendship. I can't recommend it highly enough! Master list for the series is here:

http://milady-dragon.dreamwidth.org/46491.html

It's gone as far as Random Shoes so far and I can't wait for the next part!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, I am reading it all right. :)

[bk_forever]

Brilliant, isn't it? I love how much more Tosh gets to do and how strong she is shown to be. She got sidelined on the show so much, especially in the first series, that her character never really had much chance to develop, she was probably even more underused than Ianto.

[jsks.livejournal.com]

i love tosh. as hard as owen's death was not once but twice the death of tosh broke my heart. ianto's death angered me because of rtd'childish urge to trash and gaybash his character before he died. tosh had a meaningful death but she was a victim of no one is allowed to draw attention from saint gwen. i believe given another season tosh would of have been in the top 3 fan favorites.

popularity characters torchwood

[sagrario martínez castro (from livejournal.com)]

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/best-sci-fi-characters-all-time-verdict

Captain Jack Harkness: 13
Ianto Jones: 19
Gwen: 78