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Has anyone else been to Cardiff bay recently and CRINGED? Spoilers for CoE.

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    Has anyone else been to Cardiff bay recently and CRINGED? Spoilers for CoE.

    So, a couple of months back... before Children of Earth, I revelled in having my picture taken in Cardiff bay infront of the 'Torchwood front door' i.e. the fake tourist information shack (which actually leads to a dark and grotty area underneath the upper pavement that cannot have been pleasent for the actors to have to wait in during shoots....). It was all good fun... 'hey look, it's Torchwood!' etc...

    Aaaaaand what's happened to it now?

    It's become a VERY strange 'tribute' to the memory of Ianto. Dear God. Anyone would think that a REAL LIFE HUMAN BEING had actually died. The damn thing resembles the mourning sites of poor innocent victims of natural disasters and road traffic collissions. It was unsettling. I assume (hopefully correctly) no one on here was involved... why? Because Gateworld fans tend to be.... what's the phraseology.... oh yes.... MENTALLY BALANCED.

    What drives a fan to cross that thin line, where natural emotion at the tragic events within fiction, caused by exceptional writing capabilities that are designed to pull at our heartstrings, manifest as disturbingly psychotic cries for attention by reaching out to a dead fictional 'friend' in the most bizarre of manners. Letter writing campaigns, or 'Save Daniel Jackson' sites are one thing. True, I disagree with the cause (I support killing off loved characters), but those are STILL SANE responses. What's happened down at Cardiff Bay is down right creepy...


    "Five Rounds Rapid"

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    #2
    Originally posted by Flying Officer Bennett View Post
    So, a couple of months back... before Children of Earth, I revelled in having my picture taken in Cardiff bay infront of the 'Torchwood front door' i.e. the fake tourist information shack (which actually leads to a dark and grotty area underneath the upper pavement that cannot have been pleasent for the actors to have to wait in during shoots....). It was all good fun... 'hey look, it's Torchwood!' etc...

    Aaaaaand what's happened to it now?

    It's become a VERY strange 'tribute' to the memory of Ianto. Dear God. Anyone would think that a REAL LIFE HUMAN BEING had actually died. The damn thing resembles the mourning sites of poor innocent victims of natural disasters and road traffic collissions. It was unsettling. I assume (hopefully correctly) no one on here was involved... why? Because Gateworld fans tend to be.... what's the phraseology.... oh yes.... MENTALLY BALANCED.

    What drives a fan to cross that thin line, where natural emotion at the tragic events within fiction, caused by exceptional writing capabilities that are designed to pull at our heartstrings, manifest as disturbingly psychotic cries for attention by reaching out to a dead fictional 'friend' in the most bizarre of manners. Letter writing campaigns, or 'Save Daniel Jackson' sites are one thing. True, I disagree with the cause (I support killing off loved characters), but those are STILL SANE responses. What's happened down at Cardiff Bay is down right creepy...
    While I haven't been down to Cardiff for many years, I get what you're saying. It slightly creeps me out too. You can almost expect one or two, done partially as a joke, but then it gets out of control. The way some people latch onto characters and act as if they're real is more than a little disturbing to me, but it is just an extension of the way we treat fiction, and its fair to say that some people really are deeply affected by certain fictional characters in their lives (in a positive way) and actually feel their on-screen deaths like they would a real person.

    And some people are just...well, a few fries short of a happy meal.

    I have to disagree about the bolded line though. I mean, c'mon! Are we even on the same forum?! I've met more than a few absolute nutters on GW.
    And now it's time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now... the clock is striking Twelve's.
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      #3
      I dunno, I recall some Beckett fans planning on wearing those black bands that are associated with mourning on their arms at conventions

      I don't know how the response was here, but I recall in the Farscape fandom there being a mini ****storm over the plan to wear the black bands to mourn a certain character who was lost in The Peacekeeper Wars mini-series, some people became very offended over them

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        #4
        It gives me the creeps as well. I've not been there but I've seen a few pics on line. If I ran the local council I'd get rid of it all. It looks ridiculous.

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          #5
          That is creepy and strange, but that's people!

          Anyone have a pic or a link to a pic? I'm oddly curious now!
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            #6
            I'm very curious now.....very....curious. But yes its oddly well, odd.

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              #7
              I'm curious about it too.
              I've heard of a number of online fan campaigns to bring back a favorite character but I had no idea people were creating actual memorials for them.
              It does sound a little creepy to me. (Feeling an affinity for a character is one thing. This seems a little out of balance though.)
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                #8
                Here it is:





                Now, bare in mind that when I saw it recently, it has escalated WELL beyond that. You couldn't actually see any of the shack.


                "Five Rounds Rapid"

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                  #9
                  I find it obscene that there is a memorial like that for a fictional character when our troops are being killed every week in Afghanistan. It's disgusting.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Blencathra View Post
                    I find it obscene that there is a memorial like that for a fictional character when our troops are being killed every week in Afghanistan. It's disgusting.
                    Yes, it is. Too many people have too much money and too little decency. Having actually seen it now, this isn't just one or two people with a deeper than normal connection to a character, this is, frankly, sad, pathetic and offensive. How many actual, real, living people get memorials like that?
                    And now it's time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now... the clock is striking Twelve's.
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                    Stargate Ragnarok | FF.net | AO3 | Lakeside | My Fallout 3 Mods | Poppy Appeal | Help For Heroes | Combat Stress

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                      #11
                      Looking at those pictures all I can say is wow.
                      It's kind of mind boggling that something on that scale is being done for a fictional character.

                      Originally posted by Blencathra View Post
                      I find it obscene that there is a memorial like that for a fictional character when our troops are being killed every week in Afghanistan. It's disgusting.
                      Amen.
                      I guess it could stand as a sad example of where some people's priorities are. (Not that there is anything wrong with loving a TV character. It's just going to this length that bothers me and seems out of balance.)
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                        #12
                        I think people are overlooking something important, where the hell is the Tosh and Owen memorials?

                        It's a bit sad that people have gone this far over a fictional character, but at the same time I can't say I am surprised. Some people do get that caught up in characters.

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                          #13
                          Now that you mention it, Tosh and Owen did kind of get the shaft.

                          You're right about people getting caught up in characters. I guess I'm so surprised because I've never seen anything like that for one.
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                            #14
                            Okay whatever about the troops and what not, but in general I thought people freaked out way too much about Ianto being killed off, Torchwood tries to have a somewhat realistic tone (relatively speaking) and ya Id prefer if he stayed on in the show, but Torchwood is a pretty dangerous organisation and it wouldn't be realistic if people didn't die occasionally.
                            I dunno what to put in here now..

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Puddle-Jumper View Post
                              Okay whatever about the troops and what not, but in general I thought people freaked out way too much about Ianto being killed off, Torchwood tries to have a somewhat realistic tone (relatively speaking) and ya Id prefer if he stayed on in the show, but Torchwood is a pretty dangerous organisation and it wouldn't be realistic if people didn't die occasionally.
                              I think that is what makes Torchwood most unique when compared to Dr. Who. In Who, everyone lives. Regardless of how bad things gets, regardless of how impossible a situation it may be, the Doctor saves everyone. Torchwood makes the characters more... connectable, for lack of a proper word, because their deaths bring out emotions. I can't speak for old Dr. Who (1 to 7) but I doubt anyone really cared about what happened to Rose or Martha after we saw what happened to Donna. It would have been even more powerful but they can't actually kill a companion off these days.

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