some thoughts on eucatastrophe.

[kaydeefalls]

I posted some of this as a comment in blackbird_song's LJ, but I want to solicit input.

HP folks, remember Bring Back Black?

The Remus/Sirius fandom in Potterverse didn't stop when Sirius died, it flourished. I've been thinking about that since I woke up this morning, and it makes me a little more cheerful -- or, well, a little less soul-crushingly depressed, anyway. And apart from the necessary period of mourning, which, oh man, I've been at the edge of tears all day -- man, I just want to do something proactive here. I HATE this choice canon made, but though it kills me to admit it, I adore the way the writers and actors handled it, and still think Day Four was a wonderful and exquisitely painful piece of storytelling, possibly the best of the entire series. Poor choice, I think, for practical as well as emotional reasons, and don't even get me started on the dead queer trope -- but still very well executed.

I don't expect canon to provide us with a miracle, unfortunately -- I really do think Ianto is gone for good -- but jeez, this is what fanfic is for. And this is the Whoniverse -- which reset Rhys's death, which brought back Owen and Suzie, however briefly. Which gave us Turn Left and for chrissakes the Year-That-Never-Was. Canon gives us time travel and paradoxes and parallel universes and the bloody Rift. We can work our way out of this.

I'm considering trying to start up a Torchwood Eucatastrophe fic challenge, though I'm not sure how to go about it. But I am certain that other fic authors are already thinking about it, if not already posting fic. Let's take Children of Earth as our foundation and bring about our own fannish eucatastrophe -- snatching a happy ending out of the jaws of defeat. It won't change the fact that Ianto has reached his end in canon, but if the Ianto fanfic ends now -- no, no way. We all love this character too much to just leave it there.

And, hell, while we're at it, I wouldn't mind seeing Tosh or Owen again, either.

Think there'd be interested in this sort of fic challenge? I've never organized one before, so possibly it's doomed to failure. Or quite possibly someone else is already getting it started, I'm sure I'm not the only one to think of it. But...yeah. Not Ianto. Not yet. Not for me.

Comments

[such_heights]

THIS. I keep thinking about whether I'm really going to want to stick around after this, but then it seems I already have a fix-it fic plotted and a bit written out, so. Apparently I am.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I personally don't need a challenge to do this, and I'm bad with deadlines -- but I think some action is absolutely what the fandom needs right now, and I'll be happy to be a loud soapbox for it.

[newredshoes]

I don't know TW, but I think it would make an awesome panfandom challenge! I can understand wanting to keep it localized, though.

[insixeighttime.livejournal.com]

I'd even be swayed to participate, depending on wc minimums, etc. Sam might pimp?

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

From the perspective of a Torchwood reader but not (yet) writer - please oh please. I got online after watching yesterday's episode and told a friend that the only thing making this bearable was anticipating the miles of fix-it fic I have to believe will come. (Well, and also GDL's comment about Ianto's arc being "open-ended" but that's just because I enjoy torturing myself through excessive optimism.)

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

I would certainly be interested. I think that Ianto fic will flourish, because he and his relationship with Jack are no longer bound by canon, are no longer canon. Also, Jack's been travelling. It's entirely possible that he will find Ianto somewhere out there.

[fizzyblogic.livejournal.com]

WHERE DO I SIGN?

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

You kind of make me want to contradict the comment I just left in your other post.

Maybe, maybe...

[missiedith.livejournal.com]

Hihi. I don't even watch Torchwood, just madly in love with the fanfic. I cried just reading about what had happened on CoE - right when I find a new fandom, that ooh of discovery, finding fic by writers I knew and loved from other fandoms, and mainly the study of a new character that works so well from different angles and on different levels. And now he's gone? Just, no. Please please please keep writing Ianto fic. Tosh and Owen can come too.