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featherynscaleI like Torchwood a lot better, now that I have discovered that it's really a dramatization of a really long game of Don't Rest Your Head. We're almost through the first season (I think), and... it's still bad. But now it's bad and funny, which is okay. Doctor Who is bad and funny. But yeah, Don't Rest Your Head.
First off, the Cardiff on this show is the Mad City. It has to be - it's full of monsters, the local populace elected a monster to mayor, they think it's a good idea to build an unstable nuclear reactor right in the middle of town, and locations are connected in a way that makes no geographic sense.
And the characters just fall right in line. They don't seem to have insomnia, except for Jack, and occasionally Gwen, and ... okay, maybe they do. And it's easy to spot their Talents and Responses, once you know you're looking for them.
See, Jack's Exhaustion Talent is Persuasion - he can talk you into (or out of) a lot on any given day, but the more stressful the situation, the more convincing he seems to be. His Madness Talent is Living Forever. Unfortunately, it's a Talent he has to use all the time, so he doesn't get a lot of chances to reduce his Madness Pool. I think he's got all his response points in Fight, since he seems to be the only person in this show who has inclination towards violence. Must be because he's an American.
Gwen's Exhaustion Talent is Empathy (unless it's Empathy for the Dead... we just watched "They Keep Killing Suzie" and "Random Shoes", so that is contributing significantly to this opinion). Her Madness Talent is Right Place, Right Time - all she has to do is be in a place doing something crazy, and the world will bend itself around her so that the place she is in is exactly where she needs to be. She's split between Fight and Flight for responses, but seems to weigh towards Flight.
Owen's Exhaustion Talent is alleged to be Medical Practice, but so far, he hasn't done a whole lot of it. His Madness Talent seems to be Unlikely Success (the less rational and well-thought-out his attempt to do something is, the more likely it is to succeed). So far, we've mostly seen him use it to seduce women. But hey, who are we to tell you how to use your Madness? He also appears to be very lucky, which could be a low-level use of this Talent. Owen's a Flight type, but has at least a point in Fight.
Tosh's Exhaustion Talent is Data Analysis. We haven't seen her Madness Talent manifest yet, but I'm sure it's out there. She just hasn't properly tapped the crazy. She's all Flight, no Fight.
Ianto's a harder one to sort out. His Exhaustion Talent seems to be Common Ground, connecting people and smoothing disputes. He does this mostly through feeding people, although he can also do it with conversation, puns, and um... hitting on Jack, apparently. He's snapped on-screen, but didn't manifest his Madness Talent either, so I'm not sure what he *does* when he gets crazy. We'll keep on the lookout for that. Ianto is mostly Fight, with a little Flight.
Suzie had an Exhaustion Talent of Research. Other than Jack, she seemed to know the most about alien tech, which happened through research and experimentation. Her Madness Talent was Preparedness. The supernatural degree of plan-setting she apparently did before offing herself in the first episode is revealed in "They Keep Killing Suzie". That is some six-dice Madness in action. She seemed to be a runner, though we didn't see her doing a lot. Mostly Flight.
So anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Mad City Cardiff very soon. It's a lot more fun this way.
More importantly, because of Torchwood, I can now properly pronounce Aberystwyth! I hope they go to Machynlleth soon, or Merthyr Tydfil. :)
First off, the Cardiff on this show is the Mad City. It has to be - it's full of monsters, the local populace elected a monster to mayor, they think it's a good idea to build an unstable nuclear reactor right in the middle of town, and locations are connected in a way that makes no geographic sense.
And the characters just fall right in line. They don't seem to have insomnia, except for Jack, and occasionally Gwen, and ... okay, maybe they do. And it's easy to spot their Talents and Responses, once you know you're looking for them.
See, Jack's Exhaustion Talent is Persuasion - he can talk you into (or out of) a lot on any given day, but the more stressful the situation, the more convincing he seems to be. His Madness Talent is Living Forever. Unfortunately, it's a Talent he has to use all the time, so he doesn't get a lot of chances to reduce his Madness Pool. I think he's got all his response points in Fight, since he seems to be the only person in this show who has inclination towards violence. Must be because he's an American.
Gwen's Exhaustion Talent is Empathy (unless it's Empathy for the Dead... we just watched "They Keep Killing Suzie" and "Random Shoes", so that is contributing significantly to this opinion). Her Madness Talent is Right Place, Right Time - all she has to do is be in a place doing something crazy, and the world will bend itself around her so that the place she is in is exactly where she needs to be. She's split between Fight and Flight for responses, but seems to weigh towards Flight.
Owen's Exhaustion Talent is alleged to be Medical Practice, but so far, he hasn't done a whole lot of it. His Madness Talent seems to be Unlikely Success (the less rational and well-thought-out his attempt to do something is, the more likely it is to succeed). So far, we've mostly seen him use it to seduce women. But hey, who are we to tell you how to use your Madness? He also appears to be very lucky, which could be a low-level use of this Talent. Owen's a Flight type, but has at least a point in Fight.
Tosh's Exhaustion Talent is Data Analysis. We haven't seen her Madness Talent manifest yet, but I'm sure it's out there. She just hasn't properly tapped the crazy. She's all Flight, no Fight.
Ianto's a harder one to sort out. His Exhaustion Talent seems to be Common Ground, connecting people and smoothing disputes. He does this mostly through feeding people, although he can also do it with conversation, puns, and um... hitting on Jack, apparently. He's snapped on-screen, but didn't manifest his Madness Talent either, so I'm not sure what he *does* when he gets crazy. We'll keep on the lookout for that. Ianto is mostly Fight, with a little Flight.
Suzie had an Exhaustion Talent of Research. Other than Jack, she seemed to know the most about alien tech, which happened through research and experimentation. Her Madness Talent was Preparedness. The supernatural degree of plan-setting she apparently did before offing herself in the first episode is revealed in "They Keep Killing Suzie". That is some six-dice Madness in action. She seemed to be a runner, though we didn't see her doing a lot. Mostly Flight.
So anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Mad City Cardiff very soon. It's a lot more fun this way.
More importantly, because of Torchwood, I can now properly pronounce Aberystwyth! I hope they go to Machynlleth soon, or Merthyr Tydfil. :)
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Aberystwyth!
Date: 2009-09-18 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 05:42 pm (UTC)Re: Aberystwyth!
Date: 2009-09-18 05:45 pm (UTC)(Now you will never be able to claim that you do not love me for my wrong-ass mcwrongypantsness. Documentation!)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 05:49 pm (UTC)S1 they're all pretty much self-absorbed assholes. S2 they're a team.
Re: Aberystwyth!
Date: 2009-09-18 06:10 pm (UTC)I'm very fond of your pants, in fact.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 07:58 pm (UTC)