quinn222

Yep. If anything, the death would hit harder because of all the growth they put on Gwen during the series. And Jack did love her, just not the way he did Ianto.

Honestly? I wouldn't watch it.

Torchwood has always been about the character interactions to me, not plot or even the characters per se. Jack, Ianto, and Gwen trying to integrate new team members? Dramatic (and comedic) potential all around, as they try (and probably fail) to react to the new people as individuals instead of ersatz Toshes and Owens.

Ianto left, again, as the sole survivor? No. First of all, I don't even know how you could write the character. He would have to be either a basket case or Mr. Super-Repression-Man to rebuild Torchwood alone after seeing it destroyed for a second time, after being (almost) the only survivor for a second time.

Second, the character interactions would be greatly reduced. Each of the original five character had a unique relationship with each of the other five, and another different relationship when you have three or more interacting at the same time. (For example, Owen and Tosh act react differently when it's the two of them than if you add in Gwen, Ianto, or Jack, and each of those three changes the dynamic in a slightly different way.) With the "Ianto Show," most of the interaction would change to variants of "Ianto plus Newbie" unless the newbies were well-known secondary characters, which isn't terribly realistic. It could be done, with really good writers, but it wouldn't be easy.

i don't think killing gwen in ianto's place would have worked
if ianto had lived, i don't see jack doing what he did afterward, not with ianto there with him
he could send gwen away so he could do the difficult part, but ianto never would have let him

HOWEVER, if ianto had lived the ending could have been SO much different

Yep.