So explain to me... (Part one)

[laligin]

In a desperate attempt to improve my Torchwood-writing, and because I have a fanfic100 claim on the entire Torchwood team, not just those members I like/understand/have a million plot ideas for, I'm asking you for help.

Explain to me, please, as politely as you can manage (I'm not here for a fight), exactly why Gwen is a good/useful/likeable character.

Because I don't quite get it. Up to... oh... about Small Worlds (episode 5) I quite liked her. Beyond that...

So, anyway. Gwen fans. I need you to tell me why she's a vital part of the team, and why I'd actually enjoy writing her if I got it right, so I can stop coming up with excuses for her absence in my fic. (Seriously. I don't really give her a starring role (or even a mildly vital role) at any point. I feel guilty.)

Help?

(Also, convince me Jack/Gwen can work.)

Comments

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. I myself am a bit ambivalent about Gwen. She bothers me a little but I see exactly why she is needed in the series, as amethyst_bjd said she is the one who the audience discovers Torchwood through.

I also think she had potential to become more interesting next season because she started off as the perfect good character, the one who cares the most about the people involved and wanted to try very hard. However, further into the season we saw her doing things for her own selfish needs (the thing with Rhys, sleeping with Owen even after the Tosh event, helping to open the rift). I think this turn toward the dark which brings out the selfishness in her is an interesting thing. It shows she is changing and that she is not perfect. It gives her some flaws that can be explored further. Perhaps this selfish side that comes out in her now in then will backfire on her somehow or that gray area in her morals will become a bigger problem for her.

Any way the series goes with her I think there is interest in her flaws and her becoming aware that she has these flaws. I also would be interested to see her role in Torchwood further defined since it's sort of up in the air right now as to what her area of expertise is. The police thing is mostly gone as you said and not it's sort of like she is Jack lite. But anyhow, that's just a personal thing.

In sum I think Gwen in important because she started as the innocent heroine whom the audience connects to and now her personality and morals are taking a dig into the gray sphere which could make for some interesting plots and further growth next season.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this selfish side that comes out in her now in then will backfire on her somehow

If that had happened in series one I probably wouldn't have turned against her so much. As it stands, she gets away with just about everything. Compare Ianto, Tosh and Owen, who all had their lives ruined by their mistakes, and who all came very close to dying. Gwen, on the contrary, although in peril every other episode, winds up with very little in the way of consequences for her actions. Rhys remains oblivious, everyone else forgives/forgets/moves on, and she carries on just has she has from the start.

She does have potential - not as much as Ianto and Tosh, I think, because they were woefully underused, but still some.

Still, that does mean I could try playing around with her "becoming aware that she has these flaws", as you put it. (And shadowbyrd tells me I should write something like that. :) ) Food for thought, at least. Thanks.

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

Oh heck yeah I agree. I think Ianto and Tosh are ten times more interesting than Gwen but ah well we don't write hte show. I really hope Ianto and Tosh get more screen time next season. And by screen time I don't mean just their one episode of the season dedicated them and then lets go back to Gwen, oh no. How about they all share!

[laligin.livejournal.com]

How about they all share!

A novel idea that doesn't seem to have occurred to the writers. *pout*

;)