Torchwood: Ghost Machine

[butterfly]

First off, I would just like to say one thing.

*clears throat*

Dude! I love Captain Jack Harkness so much! He is lovely and wonderful and really (really) pretty. Do you know what else I love?

I love Torchwood.

Mostly recently, I really, really love Owen. I was all kinds of iffy about him in the first episode, when he had his fucked-up date-rape perfume, but he totally pulled it out this most recent episode. He was an asshole to the people he fucked (over), but because he was an unreflective asshole and one that really didn't have any idea of the consequences of his actions, it meant that when he was directly confronted with those potential consequences, as he was in Ghost Machine, it completely shook his world. I doubt that he's ever going to not wonder what the person he's thinking of kissing might really be feeling -- because he knows absolute, helpless terror now. He gets it. I was slightly worried, that first episode, that maybe that the writing team wasn't thinking about what was really happening with that perfume, but now that I know they were, it'll be much easier for me to trust them in the future. Yay!

And now there isn't a single character that I don't like. That's always nice.

Comments

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

Yes! Exactly. I felt exactly the same way about Owen in the beginning, but now I want to see more of him. I love this show. I think it's becoming my new crack. I obsessively made a video in the span of 3 days. And I've already started another one. This is very odd for me.

Plus, ya know, there's Jack.

I'm happy to see other people liking this show because not many people (it seems) are talking about it. Where are the fans?!

[suaine.livejournal.com]

I really liked Owen. From the first moment on I sort of thought: "This is the guy." You know, the Sawyer guy, the Spike. The funny, smart asshole that isn't evil so much as not really thinking about it. The guy I get ridiculously attached to and with whose characterization the canon and fandom stand and fall for me ;D

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Hope you had a great Halloween!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Jack!

I know how you feel about wanting to see more people squeeing over the show. It's really good and I want to hear more people loving on it!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Ah, That Guy. He definitely comes across as being a jerk not because he's trying to be one, but because he just doesn't think first. And since he's (already) starting to think about it, I'm optimistic about his development.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I did! Hope you did too. :)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

I tend to like the jerks in fiction. I tend to be one in real life, so that probably explains it.

-_-

I really don't want to make that post about why I think fandom going "Owen The Rapist!" is a little nuts and a lot of other things because fandom might eat me.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen a whole lot of people using 'Owen the Rapist' as his full name. I do think that what he did in the first episode was rape, but I don't think that he was ever the kind of rapist who got off on his victim being unwilling and so, now that he's been introduced to what rape feels like from the other side, I think he has a fair chance of reassessing his dating policies (mind, it helps that he doesn't have his alien perfume anymore).

I'm unsure of general audience reaction to him kissing Gwen in the latest episode, but she was certainly not acting the least bit unwilling, so. Yeah.

To sum up -- I think it's fair to say that Owen's committed rape, but I don't think that he's doomed to forevermore be a rapist (to compare on a much smaller scale -- when I was a teenager, I did a lot of shoplifting out, but this does not doom me to being 'a thief'). I think he was being stupid, not malicious, and stupid is something that has a chance of getting better in the future.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly. It was rape, and yet, I think Owen is not a rapist. Not in the sense that rapists get off on control and pain, as opposed to sex. Owen is an idiot, but a smart one, so I have hope that once he's made aware of the issues he'll be able to understand and change his ways.

As for the kiss, I'm probably the only one in fandom who thought Owen kissed her to shut her up and since she went with it, he kept going. I suppose people see exactly what they want to see, and that includes me.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

As for the kiss, I'm probably the only one in fandom who thought Owen kissed her to shut her up and since she went with it, he kept going.

I think that's a fair argument. Here they are, hiding from a killer robot, and Gwen asks questions. Owen's trying to stay alive, man. I do think they both enjoyed the kiss and he was a little bit extra-protective of her afterwards, but if she hadn't said, "What should we do?" or whatever it was, it's likely that he wouldn't have kissed her.