I do think he does have a bit more agency than that (embarrassingly long post about their relationship
While that's a very interesting post, I'm not sure it persuades me that Ianto has much in the way of agency, particularly in COE, where he was almost literally reduced to (part of) his sexuality with Clem's comment.
Maybe it's an effect of the, as you put it, yanking him from the bier in Series 2, but the more Jack and Ianto were seen to be together in a sexual sense, the less and less Ianto was his own person. The last flash of it we see, really, is in Adrift, and even then, there are no consequences for that which we see, which gives the impression that it caused no problems between them.
One of the tropes of bisexuality is the invisible bisexual - the person who, no matter who they are in a relationship with, is defined as either straight or gay, not as bisexual. That certainly happens to Ianto. It happens to me in real life too - people assume that because I'm in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex that I'm straight.
Jack fulfills another trope of bisexuality, of course, the one who sleeps with literally anything, sleeps around a lot, and can't commit. The fact that he's from the future where they do that has not exactly helped with the assumptions people make about my bisexuality, however. People have drawn exact parallels - 'so you're like Captain Jack off Doctor Who, you'll sleep with anyone, anytime, anywhere??' Err, no.
So we're now two for two on the negative tropes of bisexuality before COE even started, but it could still have been redeemed if Ianto had come out as bisexual not 'it's just Jack'. If Jack had decided to make a commitment to Ianto (it would have countered the 'sleeps around, sleeps with anything, can't commit' trope). If they had an ending that if not happy, was at least neutral in terms of sexuality and wasn't mired down in issues of commitment and unrequited/unconfessed love. I would have been perfectly satisfied if Ianto had lived and Jack had still left because Ianto wasn't enough to keep him on Earth after killing his grandson. I would have even been happy had they, following this, not been in a relationship again - if Ianto and Jack had both moved on in Series 4.
But I cannot be happy with that death. It was unheroic, cheap, exploitative, and just felt like a decision RTD made far too easily - he's confessed to not killing off the kid in the first draft, but Ianto's death was apparently always on the cards.
And of course RTD's comments were a viciously painful slap in the face, after that.
no subject
While that's a very interesting post, I'm not sure it persuades me that Ianto has much in the way of agency, particularly in COE, where he was almost literally reduced to (part of) his sexuality with Clem's comment.
Maybe it's an effect of the, as you put it, yanking him from the bier in Series 2, but the more Jack and Ianto were seen to be together in a sexual sense, the less and less Ianto was his own person. The last flash of it we see, really, is in Adrift, and even then, there are no consequences for that which we see, which gives the impression that it caused no problems between them.
One of the tropes of bisexuality is the invisible bisexual - the person who, no matter who they are in a relationship with, is defined as either straight or gay, not as bisexual. That certainly happens to Ianto. It happens to me in real life too - people assume that because I'm in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex that I'm straight.
Jack fulfills another trope of bisexuality, of course, the one who sleeps with literally anything, sleeps around a lot, and can't commit. The fact that he's from the future where they do that has not exactly helped with the assumptions people make about my bisexuality, however. People have drawn exact parallels - 'so you're like Captain Jack off Doctor Who, you'll sleep with anyone, anytime, anywhere??' Err, no.
So we're now two for two on the negative tropes of bisexuality before COE even started, but it could still have been redeemed if Ianto had come out as bisexual not 'it's just Jack'. If Jack had decided to make a commitment to Ianto (it would have countered the 'sleeps around, sleeps with anything, can't commit' trope). If they had an ending that if not happy, was at least neutral in terms of sexuality and wasn't mired down in issues of commitment and unrequited/unconfessed love. I would have been perfectly satisfied if Ianto had lived and Jack had still left because Ianto wasn't enough to keep him on Earth after killing his grandson. I would have even been happy had they, following this, not been in a relationship again - if Ianto and Jack had both moved on in Series 4.
But I cannot be happy with that death. It was unheroic, cheap, exploitative, and just felt like a decision RTD made far too easily - he's confessed to not killing off the kid in the first draft, but Ianto's death was apparently always on the cards.
And of course RTD's comments were a viciously painful slap in the face, after that.