Miya's Trash bin

[miya-on-the-roof]

Just saying... someone should draw Mizu from Blue Eye Samurai side by side with Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium. They would look good together. Cool glasses duo.

[miya-on-the-roof]

An underrated moment in the finale though - Auntie saying she's proud of Zheng and Zheng's voice going soft and wibbly saying "thank you."

That kind of affirmation from a mother/father figure? It's nearly always impossible to get from a parent and it's definitely gonna shoot you through the heart.

East Asian kids, you guys know what I mean :)

[miya-on-the-roof]

Rant about the finale (or the million reasons why I'm disappointed)

Spoilers alert so don't keep reading if you don't wanna see them.

Didn't see a lot of people disappointed with the finale for the same reasons as me so just gonna throw it out there: I am disappointed mainly because of how they portrayed Stede and his relationship with Ed.

First thing, I am NOT an Izzy fan. If anything I'm probably an Ed fan and I came to the show for the brilliant writing, the masterly use of comedy as a genre, and the unprecedented celebration of queerness in season 1. This means that I am not devastated by his death. BUT I am disappointed in their decision to kill him off. I saw David Jenkins' interview and discussion about how narratively it makes sense for him to die as a closure of the redemption arch and final consummation of Ed letting go of the old life. YET this show was never about structurally sound narrative, was it? The charm was always the characters' growth and how they embraced queerness - embraced themselves. And that theme was embodied by Izzy this season. I can see potential in him as a perfectly comic and beautifully queer character after his transformation but that potential died with him. It is abrupt, it is rushed, and it does not make any sense for the spirit of the show even when it makes sense for a symbolic narrative.

Second, the main thing - even though Stede is the lead character of the show, the finale does not treat him as one. From previous episodes we see a new side of him emerging. He was caught up in the rush, the same way Ed probably did so many years ago, and was unawarely soaking up some toxic masculinity even though it was because he pursued piracy as the ultimate means to release his queerness and find community. And there lies his new conflict with Ed: two people who love each other deeply but find themselves on different life paths. There was not really any conflict of interest that couldn't be solved but they needed time to figure things out. Stede needed a reality check, and he needed to understand Ed's "it's everything about fishing" - it's everything about how Ed was setting out to find a new identity, and how he fears that Stede is taking up his old path in misguided glory and will not come with him. And Stede needed to learn to respect Ed's choices even if it means they take different paths for a while, which also means that he needed to confront his own fear of incompetence, abandonment, loneliness, and rejection first (which hasn't really been addressed in this season yet). He needed to find confidence and faith - in his own identity and competence, and in Ed's love for him.

All this to say - he has a long way to go in his character development to justify resolving the conflicts in their relationship. Yet in the finale, he was not given any space or time to achieve the growth. We see him rushing through a plan of rescue with Zheng doing most of the work. We see him coming up with a plan to camouflage and escape the English, the portrayal of which did not show his wit or courage or anything profound about his character. Then we see him getting that happy ending with Ed, and somehow just... accepting giving up piracy, accepting Ed's change, accepting everything happily when he was clearly lost and confused before. And we were not given any explanation or portrayal of his inner conflicts. He, of all people, gets the least emphasis and character growth in the finale.

Again, I just see so much potential to really discuss the character's deeply-rooted psychological issues going to waste for the sake of a narrative structure. A happy ending is great but it's covering up so many unsolved tensions and conflicts - opportunities for character building - which would have been handled much more carefully (albeit in comedic style) in season one. Given that we might not get a season 3, this is worse than leaving me with a cliffhanger or temporary tragedy that makes sense for the character's path to growth.

[miya-on-the-roof]

Ok didn’t see anyone talking about Taika’s little Kraken ring why so cute

[miya-on-the-roof]

Ed and Stede should recite love poems to each other from The Captain’s Verses by Pablo Neruda. The whole thing is practically a poetic gentlebeard smutfic.

[miya-on-the-roof]

Doing my work for the day and randomly thinking that Ianto only lived to his early twenties and how actually young he was when he died. Now I’m crying.

[miya-on-the-roof]

Things mentioned in Torchwood: Coffee that killed me:

Making coffee and fixing things (aka anything that has to to with routine and order) are Ianto’s coping mechanism in the face of paralyzing grief.

Ianto frequently woke up screaming after Tosh and Owen’s death.

Even a long time after Owen’s death Ianto still thinks of him immediately and habitually when he needs to deal with wounded people.

[jantohaven]

Just randomly thought about Jack calling Ianto “the man who can love monsters” in Outbreak. He must be still hung up on Ianto calling him a monster in Cyberwoman. More than two years have passed for Jack, but he can’t let it go. Probably because deep down he thinks Ianto was right and he is one. Jack wonders throughout all of their relationship why Ianto loves him after learning so many dark things about him. No wonder he hasn’t told Ianto about his dealing with 456 in the past. With every new dark secret revealed, he’s afraid that this will be it for Ianto. No man can possibly look past that and still love him. And Jack just can’t risk losing Ianto’s love.

[miya-on-the-roof]

I have said it 1000 times and I say it again and again: what’s unique about Jack and Ianto’s relationship is that they meet each other in the lowest point of both their lives and they see the worst, darkest, most broken and most hidden part of each other that no one else has seen. And they love each other for it. And they help each other through it all with that love.  

[abyssling]

Ianto moved a bit closer to hold Jack tight in arms. It just… so beautiful😭

[miya-on-the-roof]

THIS POST WILL HURT. A LOT.

[iantojpg]

Ianto Jones | 1×13 End of Days

Bonus blurry background Janto Moment ft. Tosh:

[miya-on-the-roof]

On my gravestone: Death by Torchwood: Coffee

[miya-on-the-roof]

Ok now that I’m reminded of the alternative reality in Twilight Street... I present to you a heartbreaking parallel:

When Ianto and Jack first had their romantic connection, it was in the warehouse when they rolled on the ground together, laughing, and Ianto ended up on top of Jack. Imagine the image Jack would see when he looked up: Ianto’s beautifully young face above him, smiling, breathless, eyes shining in the dim light of the warehouse, layers of shadows hidden behind a veil of fleeting excitement in those blue eyes.

Now imagine what Jack might see (there is no description of him actually seeing this in the novel but I think it’s a very possible situation given the other descriptions) when he wake up in that stasis prison in Twilight Street: Ianto’s blood-stained face above him, stubbled, thinned by a long period of fugitive life, blue eyes now pale, large and inanimate, with only a last remaining trace of the passion and anger and love and hope he had when he took his last breath -- everything soon blocked out by a thick veil of crimson blood.

How could you not go BERSERK if you are Jack Harkness.

[wedlockkiller-moved-lol]

coe wishes it had the same energy as the twilight streets tbh like. "Summoning every primal ounce of strength in him, Jack Harkness screamed in rage and pushed himself up, ignoring the searing pain as the compound shattered and sliced into him, ignoring the awful sensation of pure light hitting his eyes, blinking away the brightness and the blood. [...] As if in slow motion, the guards raised their automatic weapons, but Jack was driven by something more powerful than good sense or logic. He was driven by the death of Ianto Jones."

[miya-on-the-roof]

Thank you for reminding me how twilight street broke me when I first read it :’)

[toshsato]

*wlw brain activated*

[miya-on-the-roof]

If we say the Face of Boe really is Jack, what would make a person like Jack give up his good look and body?

I would like to propose the hypothesis that as he lives for thousands of years and finds that his mortal brain cannot store his memory forever, Jack, in order to remember all the people he loved and all the joy and pain that made him Jack Harkness, decides to give up his body and transform (with the help of some future alien tech) into a giant head that can support an enormous mind palace to store every detail of his life, where he can relive moments from the past when he closes his eyes.

Sure enough, the doctor is there - every one of them. Jack puts them in separate buildings that all look like different versions of the Tardis. Sometimes Jack even has a dinner with all of them. it always ends in disaster but Jack supposes it’s worth it just to see all the versions of the doctor quarreling together. Sometimes he hangs out with his doctor and rose, just like the old days.

Of course Torchwood is there, in the hub with its sewer-chic decor and humming machines. Toshiko is typing away at the computer, Owen is complaining about the pizza, and Gwen is chatting on the phone with Rhys about their shopping plan.

And then there is Ianto Jones, smiling at him and handing him a cup of steaming coffee. With a mind palace that powerful, Jack can even recall the exact taste of Ianto’s coffee so that it feels 100% real. The sound of the fabric of the nice suit when he moves. The familiar smell of aftershave when moves past him. The blue eyes that holds his image (or rather, the image of his old self before he turns into a giant head). And the warmth of a hand touching his arm comfortingly before Ianto turns away to mind his business down in the archive. Just an ordinary morning in the hub, filed away in Jack’s memory, to be revisited and cherished for the rest of his immortal life.

[miya-on-the-roof]

When Captain Jack Harkness is trapped on a train that is about to blow up by monsters at the end of the universe with Rhys Williams and he decides to push Rhys out of the train in order to send him back in time and save the future, he only whispers two last words into Rhys’s ear. Guess what those are?

“Tell Ianto.“

[stuffandtorchwood]

this, at least, is up to me