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crabby_lionessTorchwood Sins and Virtues Prologue: Justice in Torchwood
I'm going to post about the various sins and virtues of the Torchwood characters, starting with Owen. It didn't take me long to realize I first needed to post about justice in Torchwood.
There's more than one system of justice in the world. Anthropologists sometimes distinguish between "village justice" and "imperial justice". Village justice is used in relatively small, isolated villages. Imperial justice is used when the area is part of a larger empire. In village justice the emphasis is on restoring harmony within the group as quickly as possible. In Imperial justice the emphasis is on demonstrating the Law of the Empire (and by extension the Power of the Emperor.)
In village justice a criminal is punished by paying their debt to the group in front of the group. In Imperial justice a criminal is punished by the Empire demonstrating it's power to take them far away and punish them somewhere out of sight. In village justice the worst punishment possible is exile, banishment from the village. In Imperial justice the worst punishment possible is death. The villagers fear exile as a fate worse than death.
Torchwood 3 works on village justice, not on Imperial justice. It is "outside the government" so relying on the government for justice would be allowing another party a toehold into their affairs. The emphasis is on getting back to normal as quickly as possible. The criminal is not sent away to be punished, but must work out their punishment by serving the group in front of the group. And the most feared punishment, the one that terrifies Suzie, Ianto, Gwen, and Owen, is not death but exile.
No one who works for Torchwood fears death that much. They face death every day. But the thought of being banished from the Team almost drives Suzie into hysterics in Everything Changes. Ianto shows no fear of dying in Cyberwoman, but voluntarily shows up to work out his punishment afterwards, an act which Jack accepts. In the End of Days Owen fears exile far worse than death or Weevils.
In Combat, when Gwen is told to spend more time with Rhys, she reacts as if she is being punished by the group. Jack obviously doesn't intend it to be a punishment. He's trying to help her. But Gwen has already assimilated the values of the group and takes is as if it were a punishment, for banishment is the worst punishment of all in the village.
Of course part of this is retcon. With banishment comes losing their memories, and that's something to fear. But Suzie wasn't afraid of retcon in Everything Changes. She was reacting to leaving the group, not losing her memories. And Gwen didn't even know that exile = retcon when she clearly suffered from her time spent away from the Team in Combat.
The reason I spell this out is because some people have said that there is no justice in Torchwood, that no one is ever punished for their crimes. That is incorrect. They are punished according to a village justice system. But people who have only seen Imperial justice, and who only recognize Imperial justice, sometimes miss what's going down.
I'm going to post about the various sins and virtues of the Torchwood characters, starting with Owen. It didn't take me long to realize I first needed to post about justice in Torchwood.
There's more than one system of justice in the world. Anthropologists sometimes distinguish between "village justice" and "imperial justice". Village justice is used in relatively small, isolated villages. Imperial justice is used when the area is part of a larger empire. In village justice the emphasis is on restoring harmony within the group as quickly as possible. In Imperial justice the emphasis is on demonstrating the Law of the Empire (and by extension the Power of the Emperor.)
In village justice a criminal is punished by paying their debt to the group in front of the group. In Imperial justice a criminal is punished by the Empire demonstrating it's power to take them far away and punish them somewhere out of sight. In village justice the worst punishment possible is exile, banishment from the village. In Imperial justice the worst punishment possible is death. The villagers fear exile as a fate worse than death.
Torchwood 3 works on village justice, not on Imperial justice. It is "outside the government" so relying on the government for justice would be allowing another party a toehold into their affairs. The emphasis is on getting back to normal as quickly as possible. The criminal is not sent away to be punished, but must work out their punishment by serving the group in front of the group. And the most feared punishment, the one that terrifies Suzie, Ianto, Gwen, and Owen, is not death but exile.
No one who works for Torchwood fears death that much. They face death every day. But the thought of being banished from the Team almost drives Suzie into hysterics in Everything Changes. Ianto shows no fear of dying in Cyberwoman, but voluntarily shows up to work out his punishment afterwards, an act which Jack accepts. In the End of Days Owen fears exile far worse than death or Weevils.
In Combat, when Gwen is told to spend more time with Rhys, she reacts as if she is being punished by the group. Jack obviously doesn't intend it to be a punishment. He's trying to help her. But Gwen has already assimilated the values of the group and takes is as if it were a punishment, for banishment is the worst punishment of all in the village.
Of course part of this is retcon. With banishment comes losing their memories, and that's something to fear. But Suzie wasn't afraid of retcon in Everything Changes. She was reacting to leaving the group, not losing her memories. And Gwen didn't even know that exile = retcon when she clearly suffered from her time spent away from the Team in Combat.
The reason I spell this out is because some people have said that there is no justice in Torchwood, that no one is ever punished for their crimes. That is incorrect. They are punished according to a village justice system. But people who have only seen Imperial justice, and who only recognize Imperial justice, sometimes miss what's going down.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 12:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 01:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 01:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 01:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 02:18 am (UTC)I have to agree with Jack, I'm not sure Ianto deserved the ultimate penalty of banishment. While his actions did result in the deaths of two people, he did not kill them directly and he was acting in the honest belief that Lisa could be saved. Torchwood hadn't dealt with enough Cybermen for there to be a large body of evidence stating otherwise.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 06:15 am (UTC)However--it has just occurred to me that the form of justice could be entirely at Jack's discretion as commander of Torchwood 3. We don't know if there is a "Torchwood Central" laying down rules for all the Torchwoods to follow, or if each commander is free to choose their own methods. Jack did tell Ianto when he ordered him to execute CyberLisa that if he didn't, he'd execute him. I don't see Jack making threats he's not prepared to carry out, which suggests to me that he could have chosen to play Emperor Jack instead of Elder Jack.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 06:31 am (UTC)There aren't many Torchwood branch commanders and above left to tell Jack what to do, and I got the impression that TW always valued results over methods.
Jack did tell Ianto when he ordered him to execute CyberLisa that if he didn't, he'd execute him. I don't see Jack making threats he's not prepared to carry out, which suggests to me that he could have chosen to play Emperor Jack instead of Elder Jack.
That was Soldier Jack, not Emperor Jack. At that point it wasn't clear if Ianto was or was not an enemy combatant. Jack wanted to salvage him, but that might not have been possible. It was a combat situation, you do what you have to do.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 05:03 pm (UTC)No, & with there apparently having only been four branches to begin with, there never were. We only have what we've seen of the Cardiff & London branches to infer how TW is organized--& what we've seen is certainly intriguing: TW commanders are apparently sufficiently powerful to take the Prime Minister of Britain to task. As to TW valuing results over methods, I have to wonder who's doing the evaluating & what criteria are used to judge success or failure.
"That was Soldier Jack, not Emperor Jack..."
You're right; thanks for clarifying the context. Though I don't doubt that if Jack thought that the Imperial form was necessary, he'd put on the crown.
What a very intriguing subject you've introduced; I hope you've cross-posted in a lot of places.
No, & with there apparently having only been four branches to begin with, there never were. We only have what we've seen of the Cardiff & London branches to infer how TW is organized--& what we've seen is certainly intriguing: TW commanders are apparently sufficiently powerful to take the Prime Minister of Britain to task. As to TW valuing results over methods, I have to wonder who's doing the evaluating & what criteria are used to judge success or failure.
That was Soldier Jack, not Emperor Jack.