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

[laligin.livejournal.com]

3. No, she's not perfect. She lies so casually to Rhys that we get the impression she's been doing this some time. She then complains about having no-one to talk to, despite the fact that she clearly doesn't trust Rhys enough to tell him anything, so what does she expect? I found her stated reasons for sleeping with Owen shallow and irritating. She claims to have no-one to talk to, no-one who understands work etc, and yet (to use other sources) in an interview, JB said that "Jack's the only one Gwen talks to". So she's sleeping with Owen for what now?
The thing with Suzie is that she's painted as a megolamaniacal villain, really. Therefore, her flaws are expected, because they contribute to her descent into madness and murder. Gwen is meant to be our beloved heroine, yet she displays every sign of going exactly the same way as Suzie, only quicker. Why are we meant to feel sympathy (and empathy, scarily) for one and yet be happy when the other is killed? It doesn't quite make sense to me.

4. In the beginning of the series, yes, Gwen brings a much needed humanity to Torchwood. Jack, Owen and Tosh had perhaps become too mired in the work to remember the importance of individuals as well as the idea of "saving the world". Ianto was quite the opposite - so caught up with saving one individual that he didn't have any time left to care about anyone else. But they're not all that bad. Tosh's enthusiasm when she talks to Mary about various aspects of working for Torchwood also encompasses things like letters from an alien to his family - and if we add in the official site, she explores various ways of saying "I love you" with symbols as she tries to understand an alien language. She's far from removed and reserved in those instances - most of the time she just seems to be too shy to show this side of her.
Gwen's perspective and "ability to connect with the people involved" did come in useful, and was something they needed reminding of. But in an organisation that deals with all sorts of horrific cases, that could also be a weakness. They have to maintain some sort of professional distance to avoid getting too caught up in things (see Owen in Ghost Machine) and to be able to make rational decisions - not everything can be solved by being emotive and following your heart. Everything in moderation, and Gwen may well take things just that little bit too far...

You have some points I agree with, and I can kind of see why some people like her for all that, but I'm still not converted. Like quite a few of the arguments I've seen so far, this seems to rely on early-series events, and I'm not too sure that everything still applies to Gwen by the end of it all...

Thank you for your lovely long comment, anyway. And you have helped make it a little clearer why some people like her so much - even if I haven't bought into it just yet. :)

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

And yet I continue. Feel free to tell me to knock it off.

Re #3: A couple of things.

I think that watching Gwen head down the same path Suzie took is not supposed to be hypocritical, in the yay, Suzie's dead/oh poor Gwen sense. I think it's actually supposed to make us feel *more* empathy for Suzie and understand her motivation more, given that Gwen appears warped by the same responsibilities *so quickly*. Like saying, look, if this ordinary woman who's only been on the team X short amount of time is having trouble flying right, can you *imagine* what someone who'd been second-in-command (and using the glove) for *years* would have gone through? The real question is whether Gwen can pull herself back from the brink like Suzie couldn't. And I find that really fascinating to watch.

As far as Owen vs. Jack and "talking" to them. I think it's true that the only one Gwen *talks* to is Jack. I think Owen and Gwen when they're together, pre or post sex, probably vent, bitch, gripe, whatever. But I don't get the sense that they really sit down and have meaningful discussion like Gwen does with Jack. They're different sorts of relationships and she seems, to me, to value them very differently. I'm not sure, for instance, that if it were Owen who could come back from the dead, that Gwen would have spent three days waiting for him, because they don't have that sort of connection. If that makes sense.

Re #4: I think you're right. I think she *is* (or was) too involved and too emotional. I think that's a lot of the reason why she changes throughout the course of the series (and, frankly, why people find themselves disliking her in later episodes). Because she does get worked up and involved and compassionate about these cases and that sort of committment, constantly, will run you ragged and wear you down, unless you learn how now to care so deeply. But teaching yourself to detach and not care when that's not your natural state, so to speak, means that you're going to make huge, messy mistakes, screw up with people you really *do* care about (i.e. Rhys) because you haven't figured out where the line between engaged/detached is, and you're going to fall and have to pick yourself up a lot.