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Random Highlander thoughts
First off, I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! to everyone who's given me recommendations for Highlander things. I do plan to go back to the last post and reply to all of you, but the reason why I haven't is because, well, I'm totally immersed in "Read ALL the things! Watch ALL the things!" mode. XD (Plus, there's this novel I'm supposed to be writing ...) So, thank you, and I'll catch up with you shortly. :)
In the meantime, a couple other Highlander things that have been bouncing around in my brain ...
Thing One: The long version of the final scene from the HL DVDs. OMG. :D So, I absolutely loved the final montage, loved it to bits -- the song and the clips and the way that the little clips of Duncan and his present-day friends were worked in there at the end. It was lovely and I wouldn't want it any other way.
But. Discovering that they actually filmed a much longer final scene on the barge (from which the little clips in the final montage are outtakes) was like a GIFT. It was two or three minutes of pure squee (well, actually, with all the alternate takes, more like eight or nine minutes all told). There are much longer versions of the scene with Methos and the one with Joe (and presumably the one with Amanda too, but they don't seem to have the footage of that). And, best of all, more of everyone interacting with each other and just being their awesome, adorable selves. Joe teasing Methos for killing him in Duncan's AU world (!!!), Amanda telling Methos that he's not half as much of a selfish jerk as he used to be ... oh everyone. EVERYONE. The montage is wonderful, a heartbreakingly beautiful send-off to the series, but I also love having this to hold to my heart -- everyone hanging out on the barge, laughing and happy and together. No matter what happens to them tomorrow, the last we see of them in the series is ... this. ♥
Thing Two is that I was pondering HL's two big love stories for Duncan: Duncan/Tessa and Duncan/Amanda. There is no doubt that Duncan/Tessa is set up with all the hallmarks of an Epic Love Story. From their meet-cute in Paris to their tragic separation to the way that his love for her and memories of her are woven through the rest of the series, even up to the meta-level comment in the finale itself about lovers destined to be together but separated by the gods ... it's plain that Tessa is the love of Duncan's life, and if he could find her again (as he does, briefly) he'd fall back with her in a heartbeat.
But what fascinates me is that Duncan/Amanda is also an Epic Love Story, and is set up as one, just as explicitly as Duncan/Tessa. In this case, it's Lovers Through the Ages, fighting and separating and coming back together again. They are best friends and partners and lovers, every bit as much as Duncan and Tessa were best friends and partners and lovers. She's the one he's making love to at the beginning of the finale and the last words in the series are Duncan saying "I love you" to her. In some ways, the entire series is a build-up to Duncan being able to say that, and Amanda waiting to hear it.
And here's what amazes me -- neither one of them trumps the other. Neither one of them is given narrative weight above the other. In fact, they can co-exist in the same episode, as they do in the finale. Finding Tessa, Duncan goes for her with all his heart and makes love to her, but it doesn't mean he loves Amanda any less, doesn't take anything away from his love for Amanda or his happiness with her. Actually, if some miracle happened and Tessa came back tomorrow, I can totally see Amanda stepping away and giving him that, and coming back in fifty or sixty years. It would hurt her, but I think she'd do it, and the amazing, beautiful thing is that it wouldn't mean that she and Duncan are fundamentally broken or destined to fail or anything of that sort. In fifty years or two hundred, they'll come back together again as they've done in the past, a love story through the ages.
And the narrative has set it up this way, which is what impresses me. It's so very common for fiction (echoing a lot of people's RL beliefs, I think) to set up scenarios that are fundamentally exclusive in nature. And if the show itself doesn't do it, then the fandom does. You can only ever have one of anything important. One love of your life. One best friend. One family. Or even more exclusive than that: You've found the love of your life, which trumps friends and family. Or, you've got your friends (co-workers/team/partner), and no wife or husband could ever compete with that.
And Highlander, to my everlasting joy, doesn't do that. Your heart can always be big enough for more than one. More than one epic romance, more than one best friend, more than one family, more than one person to love. Falling in love doesn't mean that your friends suddenly stop being just as important, but your friends aren't more important than your lover, and your lover is not more important than being yourself and doing the things that make you you. (Actually, one of the earliest things in the show that made me fall for Duncan, and just kept falling harder as the series went on, is how he goes for strong, smart career women, and giving them their space, watching them do their thing, is part of what makes him happy. Even in the finale, he recognizes immediately the reason why Tessa is unhappy, the sacrifice she's made. Duncan would never want to see anyone he loved do something like that.)
In the first part of the series I fell hard for the little family unit of Duncan and Richie and Tessa. Then that's all blown apart, and slowly coalesces into a new Duncan/Joe/Methos/Amanda (+Richie) family unit, which is just as good ... but doesn't make the earlier one any less important. Duncan's lifelong friendship/rivalry with Fitz (even beyond life itself, actually) doesn't take anything away from his friendships with Joe or with Methos -- none of which, for that matter, make a difference to his driving urge to save everyone in the world, and love as many of them as he can along the way.
It's just incredibly neat to see that. Especially with the entwined love stories, because I can't think off the top of my head of anytime I've seen something like that on TV, except maybe in soap operas every once in a while -- two overlapping romances, both different, both equally epic, occasionally vying for dominance but neither ever really given pride of place over the other.
It also makes shipping this show remarkably easy. *g* Being a gen + canon-pairing girl at heart, I don't think I've ever been as multishippish about a show as I am about this one, because really, the way the characters wander in and out of each others' lives, I think I can probably accept just about anything as an easy fit with canon -- and without blowing up any of the other pairings I love along the way.
In the meantime, a couple other Highlander things that have been bouncing around in my brain ...
Thing One: The long version of the final scene from the HL DVDs. OMG. :D So, I absolutely loved the final montage, loved it to bits -- the song and the clips and the way that the little clips of Duncan and his present-day friends were worked in there at the end. It was lovely and I wouldn't want it any other way.
But. Discovering that they actually filmed a much longer final scene on the barge (from which the little clips in the final montage are outtakes) was like a GIFT. It was two or three minutes of pure squee (well, actually, with all the alternate takes, more like eight or nine minutes all told). There are much longer versions of the scene with Methos and the one with Joe (and presumably the one with Amanda too, but they don't seem to have the footage of that). And, best of all, more of everyone interacting with each other and just being their awesome, adorable selves. Joe teasing Methos for killing him in Duncan's AU world (!!!), Amanda telling Methos that he's not half as much of a selfish jerk as he used to be ... oh everyone. EVERYONE. The montage is wonderful, a heartbreakingly beautiful send-off to the series, but I also love having this to hold to my heart -- everyone hanging out on the barge, laughing and happy and together. No matter what happens to them tomorrow, the last we see of them in the series is ... this. ♥
Thing Two is that I was pondering HL's two big love stories for Duncan: Duncan/Tessa and Duncan/Amanda. There is no doubt that Duncan/Tessa is set up with all the hallmarks of an Epic Love Story. From their meet-cute in Paris to their tragic separation to the way that his love for her and memories of her are woven through the rest of the series, even up to the meta-level comment in the finale itself about lovers destined to be together but separated by the gods ... it's plain that Tessa is the love of Duncan's life, and if he could find her again (as he does, briefly) he'd fall back with her in a heartbeat.
But what fascinates me is that Duncan/Amanda is also an Epic Love Story, and is set up as one, just as explicitly as Duncan/Tessa. In this case, it's Lovers Through the Ages, fighting and separating and coming back together again. They are best friends and partners and lovers, every bit as much as Duncan and Tessa were best friends and partners and lovers. She's the one he's making love to at the beginning of the finale and the last words in the series are Duncan saying "I love you" to her. In some ways, the entire series is a build-up to Duncan being able to say that, and Amanda waiting to hear it.
And here's what amazes me -- neither one of them trumps the other. Neither one of them is given narrative weight above the other. In fact, they can co-exist in the same episode, as they do in the finale. Finding Tessa, Duncan goes for her with all his heart and makes love to her, but it doesn't mean he loves Amanda any less, doesn't take anything away from his love for Amanda or his happiness with her. Actually, if some miracle happened and Tessa came back tomorrow, I can totally see Amanda stepping away and giving him that, and coming back in fifty or sixty years. It would hurt her, but I think she'd do it, and the amazing, beautiful thing is that it wouldn't mean that she and Duncan are fundamentally broken or destined to fail or anything of that sort. In fifty years or two hundred, they'll come back together again as they've done in the past, a love story through the ages.
And the narrative has set it up this way, which is what impresses me. It's so very common for fiction (echoing a lot of people's RL beliefs, I think) to set up scenarios that are fundamentally exclusive in nature. And if the show itself doesn't do it, then the fandom does. You can only ever have one of anything important. One love of your life. One best friend. One family. Or even more exclusive than that: You've found the love of your life, which trumps friends and family. Or, you've got your friends (co-workers/team/partner), and no wife or husband could ever compete with that.
And Highlander, to my everlasting joy, doesn't do that. Your heart can always be big enough for more than one. More than one epic romance, more than one best friend, more than one family, more than one person to love. Falling in love doesn't mean that your friends suddenly stop being just as important, but your friends aren't more important than your lover, and your lover is not more important than being yourself and doing the things that make you you. (Actually, one of the earliest things in the show that made me fall for Duncan, and just kept falling harder as the series went on, is how he goes for strong, smart career women, and giving them their space, watching them do their thing, is part of what makes him happy. Even in the finale, he recognizes immediately the reason why Tessa is unhappy, the sacrifice she's made. Duncan would never want to see anyone he loved do something like that.)
In the first part of the series I fell hard for the little family unit of Duncan and Richie and Tessa. Then that's all blown apart, and slowly coalesces into a new Duncan/Joe/Methos/Amanda (+Richie) family unit, which is just as good ... but doesn't make the earlier one any less important. Duncan's lifelong friendship/rivalry with Fitz (even beyond life itself, actually) doesn't take anything away from his friendships with Joe or with Methos -- none of which, for that matter, make a difference to his driving urge to save everyone in the world, and love as many of them as he can along the way.
It's just incredibly neat to see that. Especially with the entwined love stories, because I can't think off the top of my head of anytime I've seen something like that on TV, except maybe in soap operas every once in a while -- two overlapping romances, both different, both equally epic, occasionally vying for dominance but neither ever really given pride of place over the other.
It also makes shipping this show remarkably easy. *g* Being a gen + canon-pairing girl at heart, I don't think I've ever been as multishippish about a show as I am about this one, because really, the way the characters wander in and out of each others' lives, I think I can probably accept just about anything as an easy fit with canon -- and without blowing up any of the other pairings I love along the way.
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So in other words, it's the opposite of "There Can Be Only One?" :D
*runs away*
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There's never just one important relationship. They're all important, in different ways. It's kind of awesome. :D
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