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Highlander - up to 2x15 (Unholy Alliance)
I suppose eventually I'll get tired of nattering about the episodes as I watch them. But ... not yet!
Man. Duncan. Your LIFE. ;_; He's so isolated now, in almost every way. Tessa's dead, Darius is dead, Richie's gone (under not-very-pleasant circumstances), Charlie's out of his life for awhile if Duncan stays in Paris, Dawson betrayed his trust ... (Okay, I'm really grooving on MacLeod and Dawson's awkward back-and-forth dance towards friendship, but it does involve a step back for every step forward.)
All in all, I'm not enjoying this part of the series as much as what came before. But I'm not hating it; there have been some episodes I've really enjoyed (particularly the 2-parter I just watched), and most of them have at least a few neat moments. And I do like that they aren't keeping things the same -- Duncan's long, long life has been full of ups and downs, things won and lost, and inevitably most of his friendships and romances end ... badly. So this is one of the down parts, and now we're getting to see the resilience that it takes to pull himself through. But oh, Duncan. I miss the lightness and fun of his earlier interactions with Tessa and Richie and Darius.
hahahaha, such a very YOUNG Michael Shanks in "The Zone". :D I almost didn't recognize him -- it was the blue, blue eyes that did it. Well, and his voice. And then the bounty hunter episode with Jonathan Banks, a Wiseguy alumnus, playing a baddie. Too bad he didn't have a chance to interact with Dawson. Hee!
Heh, and the Xavier St. Cloud episodes did answer my question about whether Immortals can grow missing parts (they can't). I'm kinda sorry to lose St. Cloud; he was a fun opponent. But I'm glad (in a perverse kind of way) that Horton's still lurking out there, waiting to cause trouble.
And, man -- for a show that's pretty much built around swordfighting, it doesn't disappoint. :D And Duncan has some of the neatest moves. (The thing where he flips the sword up with his foot ... *flails*) I know zip-all about fencing, so for all I know nothing that he does is even remotely realistic, but I do enjoy watching him. I mean, watching the fencing. Yeah.
ETA: So I'm starting to feel like a stuck record, but no spoilers in comments, please? Not even hints? I'm really enjoying my almost-completely-unspoiled state and would like to keep it that way! I know I'm completely neurotic about it, but thank you very much for being understanding. :)
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/319474.html with
comments.
Man. Duncan. Your LIFE. ;_; He's so isolated now, in almost every way. Tessa's dead, Darius is dead, Richie's gone (under not-very-pleasant circumstances), Charlie's out of his life for awhile if Duncan stays in Paris, Dawson betrayed his trust ... (Okay, I'm really grooving on MacLeod and Dawson's awkward back-and-forth dance towards friendship, but it does involve a step back for every step forward.)
All in all, I'm not enjoying this part of the series as much as what came before. But I'm not hating it; there have been some episodes I've really enjoyed (particularly the 2-parter I just watched), and most of them have at least a few neat moments. And I do like that they aren't keeping things the same -- Duncan's long, long life has been full of ups and downs, things won and lost, and inevitably most of his friendships and romances end ... badly. So this is one of the down parts, and now we're getting to see the resilience that it takes to pull himself through. But oh, Duncan. I miss the lightness and fun of his earlier interactions with Tessa and Richie and Darius.
hahahaha, such a very YOUNG Michael Shanks in "The Zone". :D I almost didn't recognize him -- it was the blue, blue eyes that did it. Well, and his voice. And then the bounty hunter episode with Jonathan Banks, a Wiseguy alumnus, playing a baddie. Too bad he didn't have a chance to interact with Dawson. Hee!
Heh, and the Xavier St. Cloud episodes did answer my question about whether Immortals can grow missing parts (they can't). I'm kinda sorry to lose St. Cloud; he was a fun opponent. But I'm glad (in a perverse kind of way) that Horton's still lurking out there, waiting to cause trouble.
And, man -- for a show that's pretty much built around swordfighting, it doesn't disappoint. :D And Duncan has some of the neatest moves. (The thing where he flips the sword up with his foot ... *flails*) I know zip-all about fencing, so for all I know nothing that he does is even remotely realistic, but I do enjoy watching him. I mean, watching the fencing. Yeah.
ETA: So I'm starting to feel like a stuck record, but no spoilers in comments, please? Not even hints? I'm really enjoying my almost-completely-unspoiled state and would like to keep it that way! I know I'm completely neurotic about it, but thank you very much for being understanding. :)
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/319474.html with
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The relationship between Duncan and Dawson was one of those things that made the show worth watching. And of course, Adrian Paul's skill at the swordplay was yummy!
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Oh yes, that is cracking me up SO MUCH. I have concluded that part of their Immortal powers must include the ability to hide swords in a pocket universe somewhere around one's person.
The relationship between Duncan and Dawson was one of those things that made the show worth watching.
One of my bulletproof kinks is for characters who have different (and often conflicting) allegiances, and maintain a wary respect/friendship while still keeping to their respective sides. With this last couple of episodes, Duncan and Dawson have been hitting that kink hard.
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One of my bulletproof kinks is for characters who have different (and often conflicting) allegiances, and maintain a wary respect/friendship while still keeping to their respective sides. With this last couple of episodes, Duncan and Dawson have been hitting that kink hard.
In that case, I can't wait until you get to the Peter Wingfield episodes... :D
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The technical term is "katana space (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Highlander-1104/Katana-space.htm)" XD
(okay, it's a completely non-technical ridiculous term, but the point is I love fans ^^)
Yeah, HL is a lot of up-and-down, cute and then tragedy and then funny in turns. (It strikes me now that it's actually quite a bit like Angel:tS in that, though I always took it better in HL - possibly because I saw most of the show out of order, so I tended to know who it was safe or not-safe to get attached to, and what relationships I could afford to get invested in?)
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And, heh. I've seen the first two movies, actually -- many years ago, whenever it was that they came out. One of my friends in college used to call it "Highlander II: The Sucking" because of the total WTF spin on the first movie's canon. *g*
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In general, I think it's much easier for me to handle depressing stuff if I'm watching the whole thing in a big marathon than if I'm anticipating it week by week (or book by book in the case of a book series). It seems to be easier for me to see it as a whole and put the depressing stuff in context that way. It may just depend on the show, though.
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(I suspect this is why I rarely bond with single books or movies the same way I do with TV shows - there are exceptions; certain bulletproof kinks can win me over really fast. But serial stuff is better for fanning, for me - it's why I tend to like to slow down watching when I start getting into a series; even though I'll be tempted to marathon because I want more, I also like drawing it out. But I tend to only do that with shows I'm fairly confident are "safe", because, er, yeah, broken otherwise? ^^;)
As far as HL goes...well, you already know they kill chars, so, yeah. Along with katana space, HL fandom also has "Clan Denial"... ^^;
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(...Completely unrelated to this, but if you're ever in the mood for anime, Durarara is seriously made of awesome. And it's only 24 eps so it's not a major commitment? ^^)
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Ahahaha, you just independently discovered katana space. :D
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Serial stuff makes better fanning for me too, although with me, I think it's mostly quantity, not speed. One book is just not really enough to fan on, except, like you said, in cases where my specific fan-buttons were mashed. (Although, on the other hand, I often appreciate individual books and movies more in an aesthetic/analytical way, if that makes any sense? A lot of short, one-shot books and movies are much better STORIES than the sprawling world of a TV show or a long-running series. But it doesn't get me in the heart, in that fannish way.)
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Oh yes, definitely! I have my Type A/Type B fandoms anyway, but there's quite a few movies and books which I think are fantastic but wouldn't say I fan on. And it's true, too, that shorter fiction can manage tighter plots - I really appreciate a well-told plot, even if it's chars that get my fannish heart pumping.
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Edit: And I do hope I didn't come across snappish or anything! I know I'm totally neurotic about it. :D It's me, not you!
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By the way I see you always excusing your enjoyment of the show (i.e. cheese but i like it, not remotely realistic but i like it) and I don't know why you feel you need to do that. Embrace the HL love!!!!! XD
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HL is not at all like that for me, Duncan practically personifies hopes and dreams :)
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As for Methos, although he is one of my favourite characters of all time, I sometimes get wary of how many people are predicting that you'll love that part of the series. It's not actually necessarily going to happen, and even if he does grow on you, it might not happen immediately. I wouldn't put too much expectations on fanish exhaltations XD
I'm up to season 4 myself now -- you think you're going through eps at an alarming rate? I was up till 3am yesterday rewatching some stuff haha. I'm also re-reading some of the fic I used to love, and yum, it's so nice to read stuff you know is good but don't remember _anything_ about. :)
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I think I would've been more worried about fannish hype negatively affecting my enjoyment of those episodes a few years ago. I used to have a really strong knee-jerk reaction to fangirl-bait characters -- if the entire fandom was squeeing about someone, it was a pretty good bet that I was going to go for the girlfriend or the goofy sidekick or the random character who showed up in two episodes instead, and dislike the fangirl-bait character on general principles. *g* But I don't know what happened -- I don't know if my tastes have been changing, or if I've just decided that I was being silly and depriving myself of a lot of enjoyment. Or maybe I just buy into the hype less, and don't expect a character to be the second coming of fangirldom. *g* In any case, I'm not too worried about it.
One thing that does still affect my enjoyment is specific plot information, which is why I'm being so rabidly anti-spoiler for this show, especially spoilers related to Methos and his role in the show. Just knowing that a lot of fangirls like him isn't as much of a problem for me as knowing for sure, say, that he's a bad guy who does a heel face turn, because THAT is the sort of thing that could easily translate to me disliking the character if I know too much about where he's going and whether I'm "supposed" to like him or not. (That was pretty much what happened to me with Spike, on Buffy -- I knew too much about where the character was going to end up, so I just felt like the writers were trying to emotionally manipulate me, and hated him on general principles. *g*)
I'm looking forward to being able to ask for fic recs, in a couple of seasons; from the sound of things, there's lots of good fic out there ...!
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By the way I see you always excusing your enjoyment of the show (i.e. cheese but i like it, not remotely realistic but i like it) and I don't know why you feel you need to do that. Embrace the HL love!!!!! XD
*laughs* It's not just HL ... I do that a lot, and I was thinking about it after you posted this comment, trying to figure out why. I think it's a combination of factors, because I'm pretty sure I've been a lot more prone to it lately than I used to be -- explaining and apologizing for liking these things I fan on.
To some extent, I think it's a habit I picked up in SGA fandom, because so many people that were in the fandom actually hated the show, or aspects of the show ... I got in the habit of apologizing for it or at least pointing out that I was aware of the flaws before moving on to the squee. I don't know, I guess I felt people would judge me otherwise? Or maybe it's just what I saw everyone else doing, so I ended up doing it myself. And most of the other things I've fanned on have a strong critical element in their fandoms, or a significant component of my flist who dislike them. I'm not sure if I know how to talk about TV without having the apologize-and-explain reaction anymore.
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I don't know if you've heard of, or read anything by, Lois McMaster Bujold, but she wrote this in regards what a viewer (or reader) does when she or he watches a program:
"They [not fans of the show] thought that what they were seeing on the screen, the plot and effects and dialog, was all there was. They had no conception of how much work our willing brains were doing on the initial stimulus after our senses took it all in. We took the show in and fixed it, and it was to this fixed-up version that we gave our passionate response....[the viewer/reader] fills in the blanks. From hope and charity, they explain away the plot holes to their own satisfaction. They add background from the slimmest of clues."
Ever since I read that essay, I realized how much I do that for most of the media that I enjoy.
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Anyway - yes! And I think that "filling in the blanks" process is one of the things that originally made me want to write. The process that my brain uses to "fix" stories on TV is the exact same process that it uses to come up with original stories of its own (more-or-less original, anyway; there is nothing new under the sun, etc). At least, it feels the same to me.
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