Jack's heroism has always been been problematic on TW. I don't know if you've watched the extras on the S1 DVDs, but there's a cut scene between Jack and the original Captain Jack, and there's this bit of dialogue *quick copypaste*:
J: Do you have any regrets? CJ: Hell, no. Okay, I could croak up there, but without death in the balance, there'd be no valour, no honour. All I can pray is I make it through this and die an old war hero. J: You are a hero. To me.
That path, straight-forward heroism, is forever barred to Jack; for him it's always only someone else's life in the balance, except 'only' is the worst choice of words, because that part is the most painful and hardest to bear. But can you be heroic with/about someone else's life? A different kind of heroism maybe, living with that.
Ianto talked him into it, Jack is not willing to give him up for it, and Ianto would never have allowed his life to be bought at such a price, especially since I don't think he's forgotten that he's more or less responsible for two deaths already. That's part of what I love about TW, that it raises those really interesting questions...
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Jack's heroism has always been been problematic on TW. I don't know if you've watched the extras on the S1 DVDs, but there's a cut scene between Jack and the original Captain Jack, and there's this bit of dialogue *quick copypaste*:
J: Do you have any regrets?
CJ: Hell, no. Okay, I could croak up there, but without death in the balance, there'd be no valour, no honour. All I can pray is I make it through this and die an old war hero.
J: You are a hero. To me.
That path, straight-forward heroism, is forever barred to Jack; for him it's always only someone else's life in the balance, except 'only' is the worst choice of words, because that part is the most painful and hardest to bear. But can you be heroic with/about someone else's life? A different kind of heroism maybe, living with that.
Ianto talked him into it, Jack is not willing to give him up for it, and Ianto would never have allowed his life to be bought at such a price, especially since I don't think he's forgotten that he's more or less responsible for two deaths already. That's part of what I love about TW, that it raises those really interesting questions...