OOC - Milliways Application

[thecopper]

Gwen Cooper, Torchwood

alien_catcher

The strongest aspect of Gwen's personality is her empathy: her desire to care for others and to help people. She has an incredibly strong personality type, and is quite overbearing in her search for justice, even to the point where she can easily cross the lines between what is best and what is right. On the other hand, she can be very much a follower, and is drawn to people who are have strong leadership personalities mixed with her similar desire to do what is right.

This is why she became a police constable, and quite enjoyed her time there until she was introduced to Torchwood and realized she could be doing so much more. She now works with Torchwood Three in Cardiff, often begrudgingly, but with the strong belief she is making a difference and reminding the team what there is about humanity that is worth saving.

I try to play Gwen with a certain amount of complexity. One of the things that really draws me to her, because she is an extremely 3-dimensional character, is her inherent contradictions due to many events in the show. She's extremely loyal, to a fault, but also deeply selfish and often misuses her loyalties for her own gain. She is a good follower, but when she gets it in her head to do something, she'll go all the way without much thought to the ramifications. She is also very reactionary to situations. She doesn't often think things through, and reacts to situation based on her gut instinct of what is right and wrong. I kind of liken her to a spoilt child, caught up in a world of grown-ups and she doesn't always know what is right and wrong in their world. She's also extremely emotionally scarred from working with Torchwood because of the things she has seen, which makes it difficult for her to always make rational decisions. On the other hand, her forced situations into leadership has helped her get a better command on her emotions, but often at the cost of her empathy. She continually struggles between the cold world of Torchwood and more mellow “Real Life,” and has challenged herself recently to balance the two without losing too much of herself. But it is a constant struggle, and one that makes her increasingly bitter while she still clings to what little remains of her life before Torchwood.

I have been playing Gwen in a couple prompt communities and RP games for about 6 months now, and the reason I started playing her was because she was the character I found most interesting in the Doctor Who fandom. I am constantly drawn to her complexities and contradictions, and as her canon progresses there is always something new and interesting affecting her outlook on life and changing her perceptions. However, she is a constantly growing character, learning from her mistakes but often making the same mistakes again, as if she still believes things will turn out the way she wants them to. It makes her a fun and dynamic character to play, and gives me room as a mun to experiment with her character and rediscover how she will behave in situations that are not like the ones she would experience in the show’s canon world.