If you could bring Ianto back, how would you go about doing it in a way that would work, and not seem completely stupid? (Realising, of course, that "completely stupid" is highly subjective.)

A few people seemed to like the idea of evil!Ianto, when I suggested it in a different thread -- though that would still raise the question of HOW he comes back: bringing his original body back to life, or an AU!Ianto? I have mixed feelings about evil!Ianto -- it would be completely heartbreaking, but OMG, GDL would play it SO WELL.

Then there's AU!Ianto in general. Of course, that wouldn't be our Ianto -- we'd still know that our Ianto died fairly meaninglessly, and nothing would change that. But it could be a very interesting move, nonetheless -- while it would be a new character with the same face and name, he could be used to explore things about the old character.

Another idea (which I plan to use in fic, if nothing else) is head!Ianto, kind of like head!Six and head!Baltar from BSG. That is, a Ianto who manifests in Jack's head as a type of conscience/a facet of his grief/some sort of psychic resonance. I think I like this one best, because it would be a great setup for an "Is it real/Is it just Jack going crazy?" storyline. (Hey, it totally worked when they did it with Snuffalupagas on Sesame Street -- I still remember watching the episode where Maria found out that Snuffy was real, and I was only THREE YEARS OLD. Also Bert/Ernie is SO CANON.) Ahem. Seriously though, I could see some great drama coming out of something like that, whichever way they took it.

So, any more ideas out there?

(Also, I know a lot of people would simply prefer that he wasn't brought back at all, and I totally respect that and see why you feel that way. But please let's not debate that in this discussion -- let's just discuss HOW it could be done, for those of us who would like to see him return in some capacity.)

o yeah, baby ;)

:lol: ^ this

AU ianto is always interesting, but it would not be my ideal way to bring him back
my ideal way is that he never died in the first place :P

but, yeah, i haven't come up with anything that would happen after the end of Day 5 (after the six months later)

the only idea i had was after Day 4:
all the ppl who "died" in thames house woke up, but were zombie-like puppets doing the 456's work and... er, somehow jack saves them all (by NOT killing ANY kids... or adults, i guess, except dekker cuz he had it coming)

And then Jack and Ianto could have EVIL!SEX. Which would be hot.

Yeah, I know what you mean there. I've also seen suggestions that Ianto's death might not be a fixed point, and it could be undone somehow in that way... but I'm not sure how well that could work, story-wise. Still, there is a part of me that is screaming out, FUCK THE STORY, JUST BRING HIM BACK! (Ideally though I'd like a good story AND bringing Ianto back.)

The six months is a real stumbling point, since by now he's uh ... messy. Unless he didn't decay/die during that time in the first place.

A way to make it work, to me, is that he was never human - he was .... something else that took over Ianto/Ianto's body/memories waaaay back when Canary Wharf fell. Maybe an alien, maybe an alien machine or device and it grew itself from the matrix of Ianto's dead or dying body back then. When it dies this time (because it always thought of itself as Ianto) it sort of ... lies there like any good dead human should, until it figures out that hey - not dead!

He'd come back, Jack would be long gone and the first new 'Torchwood' case would be figuring out what, if anything, to do with him.

Hm. I may just have come up iwth a fix it I can stand.

Well, that's the thing. They never actually specified what happened to his body, and while one is inclined to believe that Gwen handed it over to his family for burial or cremation, it's not necessary that this happened, and it's always possible that she arranged to have him put in cryo somewhere (though obviously not the Hub).

Oooh! Now that's interesting. Particularly if it took over Ianto's memories -- that's very much in keeping with the whole way that the theme of memory has always been prominent in Torchwood -- to what extent do our memories make us the people we are, etc?

Long, long time ago, a group of researchers from another planet came to Earth to observe the early humans, all of human civilization actually. They were careful to not be seen - cloaking devices, etc - and to not make any accidental changes. They were archaeologists and biologists and the like. They had a ship in orbit, also cloaked.

Now, since their jobs were very, very dangerous - eaten by the occasional smilodon, falling off of cliffs - the ship kept a continuous log of their brains, mapping and storing their "selves" in case of death. When death occurred, they were instantly remade via the cloning device aboard the ship, given some time to recover, and sent back down to continue their research.

Eventually, the scientists went home, but the ship was no longer able to make the long trip (or something happened to keep them from being brought back one time and they all died without being recoverd. Perhaps one of their ranks turned out to be a mass murderer.) In any case, the ship is still orbiting Earth and Ianto catalogued one of the ancient researchers tracking devices, activating it to track him. When he died, the ship cloned him - would have tracked all his biology as well. Either that or Ianto comes back as an alien, which could be fun.

He's been trapped on the ship for awhile trying to find a way to get home...

The simplest way -

If Jack can use his vortex manipulator to go to some futuretiems ship, why can't he use it to go back in time to give Ianto A HAZMAT SUIT?

Actually, I've read fic already in which Jack goes back to the 1960s with John Hart and screamtones the 456 to death THEN. Done!




Heyyyy!

http://marita-c.livejournal.com/22337.html

Awesome.

Someone just wrote a story 'getting your bearings' that had an interesting premise -

who's to say that CoE was the *correct* timeline? Who's to say that it wasn't an anomoly that needed correction?

You know, this idea was doing nothing for me, until walking to work today I realized that using that idea would effectively make Ianto, who was a lying liar who lies, Jack's conscience. And in life, he sort of was anyway. Except when he wasn't.

And wow, that is so fucked up and elegant.

My 'ideal' solution would have a future!Jack go back in time to warn himself of the 456's impending arrival. By the time the kids start 'stopping' Jack has given himself enough time to figure out how to kill the 456. He does so before the 456 have a chance to make proper contact with the Government. Government have no reason to kill Jack. Hub stays intact, Ianto stays alive, and as a bonus, Rupesh succeeds with his plan to get hired by Torchwood.

My other fave solution would be that at some point in his Torchwood career, Ianto accidentally cloned himself (maybe while trying to find tech to help Lisa). Rather than tell Jack and open himself up to too many questions, he instead stuns his clone and shoves him in a freezer, intending to defrost himself when Lisa is better. The concussion he gets in Countrycide makes him forget all about it, and it's not until Gwen is taking inventory of the stuff that survived the blast, that anybody finds him.
So we get Ianto back, but it's a pre-Cyberwoman Ianto, who if he was sleeping with Jack, was probably doing it to protect Lisa.

Ooh, Thad! I like this idea, I like it very much!

In some ways, I think you can say that about the entirety of the Tenth Doctor's era, which began with him altering the timeline from what it should have been. Oh, Harriet. :(

o my goodness, that is delicious!
SOMEONE WRITE IT!

Well, there's always the supposed antivirus. I thought it was weird that they had Jack give up the twelve children in exchange for the antivirus when there was no mention of said antivirus once an actual virus was released. Especially since they could have just as easily had Jack give up the kids in exchange for no virus being released--no mention of an antivirus at all. Why introduce something like an antivirus when you don't plan on using it? If I hadn't been thoroughly spoiled, I really would have expected that (I'm glad I was spoiled, though, because I would have been mad otherwise).

So, an idea: All the victims appeared dead. Only, once the medical examiner came in, they realized a few aren't. Not yet, anyway. Quickly, they get out that antivirus they've been holding "just in case" since 1965, and start treating the few living victims with it. The problem is, the victims are suffering from a bad combination of going too long without treatment, and being exposed too long to the virus. All the victims are expected to die, or at least never wake up from their comas. So, they hold the victims in a secure hospital, and keep it a secret. They decide that revealing the truth would be too complicated--for one thing, they figure it's a matter of global security, just in case there are any remaining 456 that might come back some day. For another, well, the victims will probably die eventually, anyway.

But a very few of the victims do survive, and after several months, Ianto wakes up. The doctors are amazed at his improvement, but largely because it's a great opportunity to further study the effects of the virus.

Ianto is effectively a prisoner in the hospital. For one thing, he's still weak. For another thing, the government's declared him dead, so him turning up alive would raise a lot of questions. Also, they're worried about Ianto blowing the cover on their little operation. They know a lot of people will be pissed off about that, and the government is still doing damage control from the "inoculation" fiasco.

But he escapes eventually, of course.

I was thinking about writing this as a fic where Johnson ends up rescuing him, but who knows when/if I'll ever actually get to it.

Well, both Ianto and Jack tried to make the 4-5-6 release the anti-virus, but it refused. I assume though, that the virus it released in Thames House was different to the virus from 1965, so the original anti-virus wouldn't have worked.

Having said that, I do like your idea. It's something that could be seeded throughout a 13-part series, only to be revealed in the final three episodes. (Of course, with that setup, they'd definitely want to bring Ianto back for at least one full season, and it would depend on GDL not getting other work in the meantime.)

I'm kind of in love with the Ianto!clone idea. I now really want that to be canon because it would A. Bring back the crack. I like my show cracky. And B. It would bring Ianto back without "bringing him back to life" and therefore wouldn't be going back on anything RTD has said on the subject.

Plus, it'd be interesting to see how Ianto would redevelop. He'd be put into different situations, Gwen and, presumably, Jack would be looking at him differently than they did at that point in Ianto I's life, so he wouldn't turn out exactly the same. Some things might be different in him, and that would be fun to explore.

me too!
although, a pre-cyberwoman clone means he'd have to grieve all over and that could get... angsty
but it would def be interesting

OMG SOMEONE WRITE THIS

Oh yes, someone PLEASE write the Ianto!clone fic. It sounds SO AWESOME omg.

Anybody who wants, please run with the clone idea (and that includes if there's anybody from the BBC reading this ;-)

My big problem with working any of these story lines is that it went WAY beyond Ianto's death in ep five. There's just so much to deal with. It's like my favorite toy has been broken, and even if it's fixed, I'm always going to see these cracks and feel the sticky bits where the glue squished out between the joins.

Even though I've come up with a couple of concepts to "bring Ianto back", I haven't been able to figure out where to go from there. There's just so much hurt.

Until I figure out what to do with it, I'm choosing to ignore it in my fic writing. I'm not saying I won't work with some of my ideas, but that I can't work with them until I know how to sort through everything.

To bring Ianto back and have Jack just bounce right back feels wrong, as if the sacrifices were all useless and random. AND, despite what I think of that, if I'm working with post CoE, then I have to deal with the sacrifices as serious and painful.

I agree with this, but I don't think any of the ideas suggested here have Jack bouncing right back. In fact, I think a lot of them would spell doom for the J/I relationship.

The idea I'm chewing on right now involves the Valiant.

Think about it: when time turned back, everything on Earth reset to the way it was before, whereas everything on the Valiant remained the same. So, if you were on Earth when the Toclafane descended and went on board the Valiant at any time during that year, and stayed, there would be two of you, one who would go back to Cardiff and chase down Blowfish, and the other...

Yeah, well, that's one idea anyway. I've actually got this whole complicated storyline involving Harriet Jones, the Time Agency, and Torchwood Four that I'm working on, but I don't expect it'll be done anytime soon.

So... has anyone claimed the clonefic yet?

I'm itching. But the pressure, it's scary. :P

HanuuEshe, your sig makes me laugh every time I read it, which is every time I see it.

Yeah, and while Jack might be happy to see Ianto alive, I could also imagine him being torn with guilt and having difficulty facing Ianto. Not only would he still blame himself for any harm that came to Ianto, but he would probably be ashamed to admit his decision to kill Steven.

i started an owen fic like this way back after 'exit wounds'
but i could never quite get the right balance between owen and ianto, so it never went anywhere

although, i suppose if i tried it with jack...

Pretty please all of you do these?

I had six plans for this, but a couple have been lost along the way:

1) Involves my Mary-Sue, who was created for this very purpose (well, not this one, but a similar fixit). She's young and messed up and has the TARDIS in her brain and is slightly psychic. She's also immortal. She arrives from Cardiff, where she has been retrieving the bit of TARDIS from the Hub, wires that into the machine and is able to use her own mind rather than Stevens. And guess what? She's so worried about Jack, that when the TARDIS takes over her mind in a Bad Wolf-y way, it picks up on how much she wants Jack not to lose Ianto.
Involved Alice telling Jack that she was going to find Ianto and tell him to get out of there whilst he still could (Jack told her about him on Monday) and he told her that it was too late.
Ianto proposes to Jack (they were having 'WTF, I'm alive?' sex... I can't help it), Jack doesn't entirely believe that Ianto will still be alive in the morning, he thinks it's a dream. When he is, he tells Alice, who is still not speaking to him because she realised that he was going to sacrifice Steven. She does find Ianto and tells him to leave, but Ianto ignores her (doesn't know he's immortal, just ignores her).
Alice doesn't come to their Civil Partnership ceremony. Jack is hurt.
I think Steven dies of something that Jack could have cured, when he's about 16, and Jack blames himself for driving Alice away. But that's getting complicated.

2) Similar, but slightly different, Jack uses his own TARDIS powerz, he has just enough psychic ability to poke the 456. They detect the poking and rip his mind apart, releasing the TARDIS, which pushes time very slightly back in 1963 so that the 456 never found Earth.
As a result of one of those children surviving, Ianto died at Canary Wharf. The TARDIS figures this as wrong and brings him back then, so that he survives. The world shifts into the parallel'correct' version where Jack collapses across the table in the boardroom with his mind ripped apart and two realities existing in it. The Doctor detects the temporal screwing (minds out of the gutter please) and turns up, and has to rebuild Jack's mind. And tell ianto that he's a temporal anomaly and wasn't last time they met.
Cue lots of Ianto looking after a very confused and broken Jack in a time suspended room in the TARDIS.

3) Remember Tommy? Yeah, well, there was another of him in cryogenic suspension at Torchwood, just waiting for 2024 (pick a date, any date) when he was needed to save the world. (Not Tommy himself, you understand, just a similar situation).
Anyway. Time is falling apart because he's not there to fix it. Jack has been picked up by the Doctor, and they are both taken there by the TARDIS. The Doctor tells Jack that time has been out of joint since 2010, Jack is still refusing to tell him what made him run away and be all dark and anguished. Doctor tells Jack that they have to put right whatever happened, Jack tells him to take him to 2010 and he'll deal with it.
Future!Jack intercepts Rupesh and gets himself blown up instead of the Hub. but, of course, he can't stop there. He goes to Frobisher and tells him that he knows what's going to happen, and he knows how to put it right. Tells him he has to get Torchwood to help.
Future!Jack sacrifices Steven (unless I can get away with using Jack's mind again... or the actual TARDIS). If he does, then Past!Jack gets to hold Alice and tell her that he never would. If I can get away with it, Steven finds out that Jack is immortal and with Ianto, asks if that makes Ianto his Uncle Ianto.
Future!Jack leaves, saying that he has to go back to Future!Ianto.

4) Playing with the 'Ianto is a lying liar who lies' but he's sort of telling the truth. Ianto's father was a master tailor, or one of them was, but that was back in the 19th Century. One of his clients paid in sexual favours and they never saw each other again, well, not until Ianto turned up to a Weevil hunt. Another father also took him to the Electro. Current father worked at Debenhams.
He didn't tell Jack that he could reincarnate, because he didn't know for certain that he would, and didn't know if Jack would want him back with a different face. However, in his next reincarnation, he's in the Bay when the Doctor turns up to refuel and persuades him to take him along as a companion. They find Jack somewhere and Ianto has to rescue him. Ianto's first time in this body then probably happens (he's about 17, and Jack's not 100% comfortable with that.)
This one is my favourite, I think.

5) Parallel universe Ianto. Will depend on if RTD brings Rose back or not. If he does, then I'll bring Ianto and Ricky's boyfriend through too.

6) Jack has a dream of CoE... But it then really happens, and he has to tell Ianto what he dreamt about so that they can stop it.

7) Completely unexplained, just a phone call between Jack and Rhiannon and then Ianto and Rhiannon. He's just alive.

Did I say I'd lost a couple? I meant gained lol