Gwen does sneak Suzie out of the Hub despite having first hand experience of her psychopathic abilities which allows her to murder her father. I do think that's a pretty deliberate and culpable act.
I can't say I'm one of Gwen's champions. Her moral superiority while doing things like retconning Rhys grates and kind of makes me wish someone would tell her to get over herself and I think her abilities and qualities are inflated far above their value on the show. (Of course I also think the hatred of her is inflated far above her crimes off it, but that's another story ),but I honestly can't see where she uses sex to advance her career. Her relationship with Jack seems more about lust and hero worship and the fact that apparently no-one, man, woman or alien, can be in Jack's orbit without finding him irresistable. The same is apparently true for Gwen and while,yes, they are both physically attractive people, really show? Her relationship with Owen again seems more about her dissatisfaction with Rhys and her,inexplicable to me at least, attraction to Owen.
Come to that I'm not sold on the idea that Ianto uses sex to advance his career either and I say this despite the fact that I think Jack mainly hires Ianto because he's attracted to him. Personally I see that as more of a Jack issue than a Ianto issue. In fact if I was going to argue about anyone using sex and their sexuality to manipulate people I think Jack's more guilty of that than anyone else. But I digress. He shows zero desire to hire Ianto until they're rolling around on the warehouse floor, but I don't really see where it's really shown that Ianto is prepared to sleep with Jack to get into Torchwood.I mean he presumably has the opportunity to do just that when they're in the warehouse knowing that every thing else he's tried has failed and yet he baulks.If anything I think Ianto's great manipulating trick is in making himself seem non-threatening. A man who gets his strapped to a ventilator cyberised girlfriend from London to Cardiff and into the Hub with nary a whiff of suspicion obviously has mad useful skillz to sell and yet he tries to win Jack's attention by wrestling weevils, making coffee and offering to clean. One thing he does seem to understand or intuit is that no-one, not even the boss, pays attention to the bloke who 'cleans up' and apparently he's right.
I'm also less bothered by Ianto's behaviour towards Jack in s1 on a personal level than I am about Gwen's treatment of Rhys largely because there's no indication of a relationship between him and Ianto beyond being colleagues and even then Ianto apparently falls low on the totem pole and while I can see why Jack might take Ianto's actions as a personal betrayal his actions aren't about hurting Jack. Rhys is supposedly someone Gwen loves,wants to build a life with?, so yeah I do kind of expect better in those circumstances. Certainly I'd like to think my partner would treat me better than that.
But I agree with you about Tosh. I wish the show had risen above the cliche of the sad lonely geek genuis and her pathetic social skills and lovelife. I thought Tosh deserved so much better and the only thing she got in the end was a "good" death scene.
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Date: 2010-11-07 03:49 pm (UTC)I can't say I'm one of Gwen's champions. Her moral superiority while doing things like retconning Rhys grates and kind of makes me wish someone would tell her to get over herself and I think her abilities and qualities are inflated far above their value on the show. (Of course I also think the hatred of her is inflated far above her crimes off it, but that's another story ),but I honestly can't see where she uses sex to advance her career. Her relationship with Jack seems more about lust and hero worship and the fact that apparently no-one, man, woman or alien, can be in Jack's orbit without finding him irresistable. The same is apparently true for Gwen and while,yes, they are both physically attractive people, really show? Her relationship with Owen again seems more about her dissatisfaction with Rhys and her,inexplicable to me at least, attraction to Owen.
Come to that I'm not sold on the idea that Ianto uses sex to advance his career either and I say this despite the fact that I think Jack mainly hires Ianto because he's attracted to him. Personally I see that as more of a Jack issue than a Ianto issue. In fact if I was going to argue about anyone using sex and their sexuality to manipulate people I think Jack's more guilty of that than anyone else. But I digress. He shows zero desire to hire Ianto until they're rolling around on the warehouse floor, but I don't really see where it's really shown that Ianto is prepared to sleep with Jack to get into Torchwood.I mean he presumably has the opportunity to do just that when they're in the warehouse knowing that every thing else he's tried has failed and yet he baulks.If anything I think Ianto's great manipulating trick is in making himself seem non-threatening. A man who gets his strapped to a ventilator cyberised girlfriend from London to Cardiff and into the Hub with nary a whiff of suspicion obviously has mad useful skillz to sell and yet he tries to win Jack's attention by wrestling weevils, making coffee and offering to clean. One thing he does seem to understand or intuit is that no-one, not even the boss, pays attention to the bloke who 'cleans up' and apparently he's right.
I'm also less bothered by Ianto's behaviour towards Jack in s1 on a personal level than I am about Gwen's treatment of Rhys largely because there's no indication of a relationship between him and Ianto beyond being colleagues and even then Ianto apparently falls low on the totem pole and while I can see why Jack might take Ianto's actions as a personal betrayal his actions aren't about hurting Jack. Rhys is supposedly someone Gwen loves,wants to build a life with?, so yeah I do kind of expect better in those circumstances. Certainly I'd like to think my partner would treat me better than that.
But I agree with you about Tosh. I wish the show had risen above the cliche of the sad lonely geek genuis and her pathetic social skills and lovelife. I thought Tosh deserved so much better and the only thing she got in the end was a "good" death scene.