(no subject)
A million thank yous to everyone who offered Highlander fic suggestions (and to those who pimped my request in their own journals, thus leading to Highlander fans that I'd never met offering excellent suggestions). I just read one so far, by Sylvia Volk (whose Spike fic I adore) and I can't wait to start on the others.
Are there still active places in HL fandom, and if so, where might I find them? (Methos centric, preferably).
Also, a bunch of thank yous to the people who congratulated me on passing my colloquium. I haven't had time to reply individually but I really appreciate all the nice things everyone said.
I finally tried to catch up with my friends list this weekend. I got to skip=980, then it wouldn't let me go any further back. So I missed everything between Friday April 2 and Monday April 5. If you posted something especially interesting during that time (especially fic), please let me know.
I just skimmed my list (and even then it took hours) and didn't comment. No offense intended--I was up till 4am, and just needed to catch up quickly and go to sleep. I also took a couple of people off of my reading list--nothing personal, I just can't keep up, so I tried to remove people who post often and whose interests have totally diverged from mine.
It was astounding how much *free time* I had this week, since I wasn't reading LJ or fic. It's so nice to have relaxation time, or playing-with-cats time, or cooking time, or TV time. I expect to continue cutting back on internet use, though I do plan to keep reading fic. I have this file with links to all the fic I'm supposed to read, and I just keep adding to it--at some point, I will catch up, and start asking archiving questions, and all that stuff.
A couple of people asked if I'm going to close my site when the show ends. The answer is still no--I plan to keep the site up as long as possible. (As in, years and years; unless there's some really compelling reason to close it, I will keep paying the maintenance bills as long as I can.) I will stop updating as often (um, I have stopped updating as often) but the archive will remain. And I probably will start updating regularly again soon, at least for a little while.
I regard quite a bit of the fiction on my site as Art (capital A) and I want it to be easily accessible. I honestly don't understand why people close their sites so superfluously all the time--even if I'm no longer that interested in Spike fic, many other people are, and if I have the site I may as well make it available. Some of this fiction is so astoundingly good--I want it to be as widely available as possible for those who are interested.
My weekend was fun, btw. I hung out with a whole ton of people both Friday and Saturday nights (including 10zlaine, thefangirl, soulmate815, drujan). We ate Spanish food, got drunk at the Times Square Brewery, saw Common Rotation at the Bitter End, etc. Common Ro were very good, as usual, but the real fun was in the company. 10zlaine and soulmate815 came over to meet my cats (who got all nervous around the company, but it was still cool). And thefangirl and I decided that we absolutely must have a sleepover, because she has the European versions of all the Highlander episodes, and these I've just got to see. (Plus, there are actually Methos episodes that I haven't seen at all...) And she's got this movie with naked Roy Dupuis (Michael from La Femme Nikita) ... so yes, we have much to watch.
I watched more Highlander this weekend--the last three episodes of season five. (These are the last episodes I have on tape--I didn't watch S6.)
I forgot that "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" has half-naked Methos. Yummy. Why weren't there more episodes with naked Methos? The episode itself is okay--it continues the "morality isn't black and white" theme pretty well, but it's not as good as some other episodes. The Methos part is wonderful, though; it's like he takes the words right out of my mouth: "[Another character] wants to divide the world up into good and bad, but it's not that simple. We are all both. Good and evil." How often have I argued that? I love Methos' moral ambiguity speeches--he is so damn cool. I haven't agreed with anything Spike's said since, what, BtVS S5? But Methos always had something neat to say. And did I mention he was almost naked?
The next episode, "The Modern Prometheus," is one that I've always hated. I think that what offends me most is that it had the potential to be wonderful--Methos-centric, Gothic setting, questions about the nature of art, potentially interesting moral quandry--and instead it totally dropped the ball and delivered cheese.
First, I have this utter squick about fiction featuring real people. It's a personal squick, not "you are going to hell for writing RPF" or anything like that. It just makes me cringe in horror and embarrassment, especially when it's done so poorly. Immortals inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein? Byron is a rock star? Please. The episode also doesn't make much sense--no one has any qualms that Macleod kills a guy for partying too hard? (Methos has qualms, but they're all about preserving the guy's artistic ability). Byron didn't kill those idiots, he just helped bring out their own stupidity. And yeah, he was going through a pretty fucked-up period, but Macleod (and Methos) have also had their own dark fucked-up periods. If you look at "Through a Glass, Darkly" from a season ago, the double-standard is pretty blatant. In that episode, the nutty guy actually flat-out murdered someone, but oh, he was Mac's old friend so he got to live. In "The Modern Prometheus," the nutty guy doesn't even murder anyone--if someone is dumb enough to dive from the ceiling of a concert hall, that's his own damn fault, no matter how much his favorite rock star encouraged him. But Bryon is Methos' friend, not Macleod's, so he dies.
There are a couple of good things in the episode, though. Methos having flashbacks instead of Duncan? Awesome, and a trend which really should have continued. I love how it opens up all these possibilities--Methos has 5,000 years of history to explore, and here is just one little taste of all the potential stories. Having him called "Doc" is also a very nice little touch--how many names must he have had over all this time? (And I love how his names play on the theme of "Adam," the first man ... ) His desire to preserve art and knowledge also comes out in this episode (among many others) and is one of the things I love best about him. Intelligence = sexy.
And the episode also has this wonderful exchange, which Methos delivers so perfectly:
Byron: "Do you want a tombstone that says he lived for centuries? Or do you want one that says for centuries he was alive?"
Methos: "You're not listening to me. I don't want a tombstone."
The cold, calm, final way that he says "I don't want a tombstone" is just so brilliant.
Oh, and the homoerotic subtext between Methos and Bryon is another plus in this episode. The deep looks they exchange, the way Byron touches Methos .... excellent, but still, really should have been better than it was.
I don't get how the show started sucking so bad at the end of the fifth season, when it had climaxed so brilliantly with "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelation 6:8" in the middle of that season. But the sucking continues in that season's finale, "Archangel." What a pathetic excuse for an episode, especially such a pivotal one. Why the hell would Joe and Methos not believe Macleod? They totally bought that, without any kind of trigger, Mac just all of a sudden lost his mind? After they've known him how long, and they know that magic exists, they refuse to even consider his claims that something supernatural is happening to him? It was such blatant character manipulation in order to set up the story so that Richie was the only one supporting Macleod.
The insanty stuff was so poorly done--bring back Horton and Kronos, then have them bore us with endless kindergarten taunting? And the Richie thing--don't even get me started. Richie was an irritating idiot, and he'd never have survived long anyway, but his bond with Macleod was pivotal to the show. You don't do something like that so casually, or so poorly. There's no real point to it at all--it's totally a mistake. There's no deep character exploration, no choice or reason, just a lame accident. It's like how ME wussed out with dark Willow (it's an addiction, it's not really Willow, blah blah blah). If you're going to take a character to that kind of extreme, go all the way. A half-assed version isn't going to please anyone.
The only good thing in the episode is the very very end--Methos refusing to kill Macleod, and then holding Joe as he cries. Awww. (And speaking of Joe, Jim Byrnes is awesome, isn't he? He and Peter Wingfield together are amazing--best actors on the show by far, and work together so well.)
One of the things I really love about Highlander is the friendships--you really believe that these people care deeply about each other. The way they act is just in such striking contrast to Buffy, in a subtle yet very clear way. Post high school, did you feel the deep emotional connections between the characters? I sure didn't--it seemed like Willow and Xander hung out with Buffy because, well, the actors were contracted to do so. But was there a deep organic kind of friendship ingrained in the show? Hell no. On Highlander, though, you get these incredible friendships. Joe, Duncan, Methos--the way that they're there for each other, the way that they casually touch each other and support each other, the way that they laugh together, the way that they always defend each other. The deep personal hurt they feel when one betrays the other. These relationships feel real--these people love each other, through good times and bad. (And not just with big grand gestures and speeches, but in the little things: the casual day to day interactions of a friendship--the show takes the time to show us those, which I love it for.)
I do suspect that if I had been deeply involved in Highlander fandom and knew all the minutia, I'd have quite a bit to be pissed off about--lame story decisions, lost opportunities, and so on. But being a casual fan means I can just skip all over the bullshit and just enjoy the parts I like. It's nice. And quite different from Buffy, which I can't even watch anymore without wanting to break something. Actually, the #1 thing about watching Highlander? I don't have to endure that self-obsessed snooty little $%^&, Buffy. (And no Marti Noxon issues, and no "normal is the only way to be happy," and no "bad boyfriend" bullshit, no "domestic abuse is okay as long as it's a woman doing the abusing," no "all men are evil nasty rapists," no "sex always leads to death," no "Spike and Anya died but it's still a happy ending," blah blah blah Joss Whedon sucks.)
Are there still active places in HL fandom, and if so, where might I find them? (Methos centric, preferably).
Also, a bunch of thank yous to the people who congratulated me on passing my colloquium. I haven't had time to reply individually but I really appreciate all the nice things everyone said.
I finally tried to catch up with my friends list this weekend. I got to skip=980, then it wouldn't let me go any further back. So I missed everything between Friday April 2 and Monday April 5. If you posted something especially interesting during that time (especially fic), please let me know.
I just skimmed my list (and even then it took hours) and didn't comment. No offense intended--I was up till 4am, and just needed to catch up quickly and go to sleep. I also took a couple of people off of my reading list--nothing personal, I just can't keep up, so I tried to remove people who post often and whose interests have totally diverged from mine.
It was astounding how much *free time* I had this week, since I wasn't reading LJ or fic. It's so nice to have relaxation time, or playing-with-cats time, or cooking time, or TV time. I expect to continue cutting back on internet use, though I do plan to keep reading fic. I have this file with links to all the fic I'm supposed to read, and I just keep adding to it--at some point, I will catch up, and start asking archiving questions, and all that stuff.
A couple of people asked if I'm going to close my site when the show ends. The answer is still no--I plan to keep the site up as long as possible. (As in, years and years; unless there's some really compelling reason to close it, I will keep paying the maintenance bills as long as I can.) I will stop updating as often (um, I have stopped updating as often) but the archive will remain. And I probably will start updating regularly again soon, at least for a little while.
I regard quite a bit of the fiction on my site as Art (capital A) and I want it to be easily accessible. I honestly don't understand why people close their sites so superfluously all the time--even if I'm no longer that interested in Spike fic, many other people are, and if I have the site I may as well make it available. Some of this fiction is so astoundingly good--I want it to be as widely available as possible for those who are interested.
My weekend was fun, btw. I hung out with a whole ton of people both Friday and Saturday nights (including 10zlaine, thefangirl, soulmate815, drujan). We ate Spanish food, got drunk at the Times Square Brewery, saw Common Rotation at the Bitter End, etc. Common Ro were very good, as usual, but the real fun was in the company. 10zlaine and soulmate815 came over to meet my cats (who got all nervous around the company, but it was still cool). And thefangirl and I decided that we absolutely must have a sleepover, because she has the European versions of all the Highlander episodes, and these I've just got to see. (Plus, there are actually Methos episodes that I haven't seen at all...) And she's got this movie with naked Roy Dupuis (Michael from La Femme Nikita) ... so yes, we have much to watch.
I watched more Highlander this weekend--the last three episodes of season five. (These are the last episodes I have on tape--I didn't watch S6.)
I forgot that "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" has half-naked Methos. Yummy. Why weren't there more episodes with naked Methos? The episode itself is okay--it continues the "morality isn't black and white" theme pretty well, but it's not as good as some other episodes. The Methos part is wonderful, though; it's like he takes the words right out of my mouth: "[Another character] wants to divide the world up into good and bad, but it's not that simple. We are all both. Good and evil." How often have I argued that? I love Methos' moral ambiguity speeches--he is so damn cool. I haven't agreed with anything Spike's said since, what, BtVS S5? But Methos always had something neat to say. And did I mention he was almost naked?
The next episode, "The Modern Prometheus," is one that I've always hated. I think that what offends me most is that it had the potential to be wonderful--Methos-centric, Gothic setting, questions about the nature of art, potentially interesting moral quandry--and instead it totally dropped the ball and delivered cheese.
First, I have this utter squick about fiction featuring real people. It's a personal squick, not "you are going to hell for writing RPF" or anything like that. It just makes me cringe in horror and embarrassment, especially when it's done so poorly. Immortals inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein? Byron is a rock star? Please. The episode also doesn't make much sense--no one has any qualms that Macleod kills a guy for partying too hard? (Methos has qualms, but they're all about preserving the guy's artistic ability). Byron didn't kill those idiots, he just helped bring out their own stupidity. And yeah, he was going through a pretty fucked-up period, but Macleod (and Methos) have also had their own dark fucked-up periods. If you look at "Through a Glass, Darkly" from a season ago, the double-standard is pretty blatant. In that episode, the nutty guy actually flat-out murdered someone, but oh, he was Mac's old friend so he got to live. In "The Modern Prometheus," the nutty guy doesn't even murder anyone--if someone is dumb enough to dive from the ceiling of a concert hall, that's his own damn fault, no matter how much his favorite rock star encouraged him. But Bryon is Methos' friend, not Macleod's, so he dies.
There are a couple of good things in the episode, though. Methos having flashbacks instead of Duncan? Awesome, and a trend which really should have continued. I love how it opens up all these possibilities--Methos has 5,000 years of history to explore, and here is just one little taste of all the potential stories. Having him called "Doc" is also a very nice little touch--how many names must he have had over all this time? (And I love how his names play on the theme of "Adam," the first man ... ) His desire to preserve art and knowledge also comes out in this episode (among many others) and is one of the things I love best about him. Intelligence = sexy.
And the episode also has this wonderful exchange, which Methos delivers so perfectly:
Byron: "Do you want a tombstone that says he lived for centuries? Or do you want one that says for centuries he was alive?"
Methos: "You're not listening to me. I don't want a tombstone."
The cold, calm, final way that he says "I don't want a tombstone" is just so brilliant.
Oh, and the homoerotic subtext between Methos and Bryon is another plus in this episode. The deep looks they exchange, the way Byron touches Methos .... excellent, but still, really should have been better than it was.
I don't get how the show started sucking so bad at the end of the fifth season, when it had climaxed so brilliantly with "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelation 6:8" in the middle of that season. But the sucking continues in that season's finale, "Archangel." What a pathetic excuse for an episode, especially such a pivotal one. Why the hell would Joe and Methos not believe Macleod? They totally bought that, without any kind of trigger, Mac just all of a sudden lost his mind? After they've known him how long, and they know that magic exists, they refuse to even consider his claims that something supernatural is happening to him? It was such blatant character manipulation in order to set up the story so that Richie was the only one supporting Macleod.
The insanty stuff was so poorly done--bring back Horton and Kronos, then have them bore us with endless kindergarten taunting? And the Richie thing--don't even get me started. Richie was an irritating idiot, and he'd never have survived long anyway, but his bond with Macleod was pivotal to the show. You don't do something like that so casually, or so poorly. There's no real point to it at all--it's totally a mistake. There's no deep character exploration, no choice or reason, just a lame accident. It's like how ME wussed out with dark Willow (it's an addiction, it's not really Willow, blah blah blah). If you're going to take a character to that kind of extreme, go all the way. A half-assed version isn't going to please anyone.
The only good thing in the episode is the very very end--Methos refusing to kill Macleod, and then holding Joe as he cries. Awww. (And speaking of Joe, Jim Byrnes is awesome, isn't he? He and Peter Wingfield together are amazing--best actors on the show by far, and work together so well.)
One of the things I really love about Highlander is the friendships--you really believe that these people care deeply about each other. The way they act is just in such striking contrast to Buffy, in a subtle yet very clear way. Post high school, did you feel the deep emotional connections between the characters? I sure didn't--it seemed like Willow and Xander hung out with Buffy because, well, the actors were contracted to do so. But was there a deep organic kind of friendship ingrained in the show? Hell no. On Highlander, though, you get these incredible friendships. Joe, Duncan, Methos--the way that they're there for each other, the way that they casually touch each other and support each other, the way that they laugh together, the way that they always defend each other. The deep personal hurt they feel when one betrays the other. These relationships feel real--these people love each other, through good times and bad. (And not just with big grand gestures and speeches, but in the little things: the casual day to day interactions of a friendship--the show takes the time to show us those, which I love it for.)
I do suspect that if I had been deeply involved in Highlander fandom and knew all the minutia, I'd have quite a bit to be pissed off about--lame story decisions, lost opportunities, and so on. But being a casual fan means I can just skip all over the bullshit and just enjoy the parts I like. It's nice. And quite different from Buffy, which I can't even watch anymore without wanting to break something. Actually, the #1 thing about watching Highlander? I don't have to endure that self-obsessed snooty little $%^&, Buffy. (And no Marti Noxon issues, and no "normal is the only way to be happy," and no "bad boyfriend" bullshit, no "domestic abuse is okay as long as it's a woman doing the abusing," no "all men are evil nasty rapists," no "sex always leads to death," no "Spike and Anya died but it's still a happy ending," blah blah blah Joss Whedon sucks.)