Fiona, you might mention that there are some serious spoilers in that link. It doesn't bother me, but others will not be happy.

Hee!

Any word on fan reaction in person to Children of Earth?

I swear, what I've read just on LJ is like Tara's death and Wash's death magnified to the power of a million. The outrage! The entitlement! THE ASSCAPS!

Especially when the said poster somehow makes Ianto's death a Statement On How Gays Are Treated In The Media.

And brings up Tara's death on Buffy and states it was handled better....

what I've read just on LJ is like Tara's death and Wash's death magnified to the power of a million

Oyveh, yes. Never to watch any more Sarah Jane Adventures because of the bloodthirsty homophobic cheap trickness of it all, it seems.

Oh, a friend sent me this from Ausiello's interview with Davies:

Question: But it's a risky thing to kill off such a popular character.
DAVIES: Absolutely. There’s a risk that some people won’t come back to watch now that Ianto’s gone. I thank them for watching the show and I recommend they go watch Supernatural, because those boys are beautiful. And don’t tell me they’re brothers. [Laughs] Not in my mind

I would post in the SPN thread - but spoilery for Torchwood, you know?

Torchwood:

That was bleak. Bleak covered with bleak sauce, with a side order of bleak.

I don't see killing Ianto as homophobic. But I don't compare it to Tara as much as I do to (whitefont because spoilery for a non-Boxed Set show) Danny on Harper's Island. Yeah, the gay man/black man dies. But so does everybody else, and he's one of the last to fall.

Ianto was less a shock to me than Clem. Whether that was because I was spoiled for Ianto, or because Ianto chose the Torchwood life with all its risks (in both cases, unlike Clem), I don't know.

I could see Ianto as Jack's first male lover in the sense of long-term relationship. The Captain Jack of Doctor Who didn't seem like someone who had lasting attachments of any kind. On the other hand -- his relationship with the 1940 Jack Harkness didn't exactly seem like an overnight fling.

I liked the use of Rhys. He was the group's Xander, only more so. The ordinary guy, no special knowledge or ability of any kind, who somehow stumbled into the situation. And yet occasionally proved useful.

I liked the use of Andy, too. Especially in ep 5, where he figures out what's really going on, and takes action.

So where does the show go from here? It isn't just killing Ianto, it's that You have Gwen, maybe Jack. Maybe Lois. Possibly Andy and Rhys, though they work better as recurring outside characters. Bridget Spears as a recurring government liaison-type character. But you don't really have a team in place.

I don't see killing Ianto as homophobic. But I don't compare it to Tara

I only compared it to Tara in terms of the utter wanktastic batshittery that's come from the outraged (OUTRAGED, I SAY!) fans.

Oh. OK. I guess it's that I thought that a non-batshit (wrong, but non-batshit) argument could be made re Tara.

What bothers me most about Ianto was (1) the sense that they were killing off everyone, and (b) Jack lost Ianto, and then the very next day had to sacrifice his own grandson -- it all just seemed a little too much.