| Oh, Tosh. You did good. | ||||
| Apr. 5th, 2008 | 11:26 pm | ||||
    TOSH. TOSH. TOSH. Jesus. Okay, maybe I'm not as over it as I thought, haha. There were rumours - not based on anything except speculative deduction, to my knowledge - that at least one character would die in the finale. It made sense, really, because they've had Jack doing his Jesus impression for the last one, so they've got to top that somehow; best way would be killing someone off for real. So everyone thought it would be Owen. Well, pretty much everyone - I'm sure there were a few dissenters but it was the logical conclusion. Gwen's the lead female so she can't die - unfortunately - Jack can't die anyway and Gareth David-Lloyd had confirmed that Ianto would be appearing in Season 3. That left Tosh and Owen. Owen, of course, was already technically dead, and was really living on borrowed time - there are limits to what you can do with a character who cannot heal after being injured. Narrow escapes like the one in Fragments don't happen often, especially not in Torchwood life, so we knew he'd die eventually, if only from the cumulative damage he receives over time. We were right, of course, but I'm not so bothered about Owen, because I don't really like him - mostly for being an absolute dick to Tosh for a very long time - and his demise was pretty inevitable. I was desperately hoping Tosh would survive. Desperately, desperately hoping because whilst Suzie and Ianto will always be my favourites I have a special place in my heart - my pathetic, fannish heart - for a character as sweet, smart and beautiful as Tosh. I love Naoko Mori as an actress, and I think she's done a fantastic job of playing the character for the past two seasons and I will be very, very sad to lose her, especially since good acting on Torchwood can be a little...sparse, at times. (Why yes, John Barrowman, I am looking at you.) Tosh was a wonderful character; intelligent, kind, warm-hearted, reliable, and very capable of taking care of herself (the scene with Ianto, Tosh and the...whatever they were in Exit Wounds demonstrated this rather wonderfully). She was a strong character, but one with a real humanity to her despite her affinity for technology. Her long-standing love for Owen annoyed me a little because I very much dislike the predilection amongst writers to write female characters as having unrequited love for a male character - I think it weakens the character, making them impotent in the face of their own emotions. But Tosh didn't just sit around and mope, she tried to form a relationship with a man who many people would have just given up on. And for that, I applaud her. She was willing to pick him up after he, as he said himself, was "broken" - the woman was willing to have a relationship with a corpse. That's dedication. Her loyalty to Jack was something that was only really touched on in the latter part of the second season, which I feel is a shame. In the light of what was revealed in Fragments it's interesting to look at their interaction over the whole series so far, especially during Captain Jack Harkness. That's really the only episode in which they are alone together for any length of time and I think the almost avuncular compassion he has for her is very touching, as is her dedication to him as a leader and friend. Another thing emphasised by Fragments is just how sodding brilliant this woman is. Jack was right, although his choice of phrase was...slightly suspect. She is very good. I think it's something of a shame that her intelligence and technological prowess meant that she was often stuck in the Hub watching monitors whilst everyone else got to play with guns in the SUV, but without her they would have been utterly lost many, many times - I'm thinking situations like the beginning of Ghost Machine, and most of Reset. (Oh, a thought - am I the only person who noticed that the contact lens camera idea was blatantly plagiarised from Artemis Fowl?) Tosh suffered from the same situation as Ianto - being a brilliant, fan-loved, deeply likeable character who was rarely used by the writers and usually consigned to background-and-quips duty. I feel this is a great shame, because she had such great potential as a character. The growth of her technological skills could easily have been expounded upon in a similar way, perhaps, as Willow's growing magical ability in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (although I don't think a 'Tosh is addicted to technology!' plot would have worked, somehow...). The writers often ignored her in favour of Owen being - ugh - dead and pissed about it or Jack being - ugh! - tortured or Gwen being - ugh! - caring. I still don't quite understand why; as far as I'm concerned, Naoko Mori is more attractive than Eve Myles (sorry, Eve. Not to say that she's not extremely attractive in her own right - because she is, even as much as I loathe Gwen - but Naoko is just beautiful.), and to be frank a good deal of the fanbase really does dislike Gwen. Partly, probably, because she gets in the way of the Jack/Ianto but also because she is just very irritating. The dedicated fanbase, after all, seems to be made up mostly of teenage girls, which does mean that female protagonist hate is definitely in the cards. But Tosh was just ignored a good deal of the time, except for two stories focusing on her terrible, terrible luck with relationships. Poor girl. However, she gets the honour of being a member of the only proper lesbian relationship in two series of the most queer-inclusive show on mainstream television. I am very bitter about this. It's a subject for another post, perhaps, but I might as well summarise my ire here. I am, of course, a great Jack/Ianto shipper and I think it's beyond fantastic that a mainstream television show that is not entirely based around the queer TV concept (as opposed to, say, Sugar Rush or Queer as Folk) has as the main couple a gay relationship, involving the protagonist of the series. I think that is incredible and shows what great progress we're making in terms of representation in the media. However, whilst there is a great deal of boy-on-boy eyecandy (and I'm really not complaining about that, even though naked men is the last thing I want on my television thank you very much), there has been exactly one clearly defined lesbian relationship in two seasons of this show. I say "clearly defined" because Emily and Alice from the Victorian Torchwood leave an awful lot to the imagination, by which I mean they leave everything to the imagination. "You're pretty" does not a relationship make. Leaving aside that, and the Carys/Gwen kiss in Day One - "It has to be a man," honestly, how heteronormative can you get? - Tosh and Mary's has been the only female/female relationship shown, and it ended in absolute disaster that leaves one wondering whether Mary was even interested in Tosh at any level beyond her usefulness as a key to Torchwood. Why on earth is this the case? I applaud their queer-inclusiveness but this feels uncomfortably like sexism to me, and I'm not happy with it at all. I hope there will be at least one female in the new recruits for Season 3 - there has to be, really, because Gwen being the only female along with four guys is just too awful to think about - and that we will see a fulfilling - or as fulfilling as any relationship on Torchwood can ever be - lesbian relationship at some point. Please. There's been a petition started somewhere on LiveJournal to bring back Tosh and/or Owen. Whilst I wish, of course, that Tosh had never died in the first place, I feel that any plot designed to bring either of them back would cheapen their sacrifice immensely. I felt the same way with Buffy's death at the end of the battle with Glory in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and she was the show's title character so it was sort of inevitable that she'd be resurrected. (Unfortunately - I really dislike her, and the actress who plays her.) Owen's been brought back from the dead once already and Tosh died to save countless lives, including those of her beloved teammates. She did a great, great thing and bringing her back as fanbase-fodder would be tacky and, frankly, leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. So, farewell Tosh (and Owen). We love you very, very much, and we miss you terribly. If you see Suzie, tell her we miss her too Now, who's for some WE HATE DONNA (and especially, especially Rose) action? Tune in next time! |
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Choke | |||
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Purges Contaminated File Chart Outpatient |
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