My own view - although YMMV - is that I don't think he was Kronos's victim at all back in the "bad old days", but the more he changed and the more Kronos didn't change, the more the power dynamics changed, and now ... yes, absolutely. Remember what he says to Cassandra when she's in the cage? "If we want to survive, we will keep him happy." We.
I agree mostly, although I think the main difference is that things worked fine in the old days because what he wanted and what Kronos wanted were mostly the same. I get the impression that Kronos was still the boss, though; when they ran into situations like the Cassandra thing, Methos yielded to him. (Though, like I said before, it was also tied up with issues of pride and manhood and friendship and so forth -- it's not just rolling over and showing belly for someone higher up the power structure.)
One of the things that made me tumble for him all over again is seeing absolutely wrecked he is in the modern-day scenes with Kronos. He knows that he can't beat Kronos; he knows that if Kronos tells him to do something (no matter what) that he's going to have to do it and there's absolutely nothing he can do about it except get tortured a lot and then die. I think that was equally true in the old days; it's just that he rarely had to be ordered around because he and Kronos mostly wanted the same things out of life anyway. And possibly young!Methos was a lot more confident in his own physical prowess, too -- he might have convinced himself that if he had to fight Kronos, he could win; he just didn't want to. But the power dynamic was still definitely Kronos --> Methos.
The other thing that really struck me on the rewatch, though ... I think I talked about this at the time, but one of the problems I had with Methos in season five is that I had no idea where his lines were. He struck me as a much darker, more morally ambiguous character than in past seasons, and I wasn't sure what he was capable of and whether there were things he just wouldn't do. "Comes a Horseman" answered that question, though: what he won't do is kill Duncan, not even to save himself from what would probably be a really unpleasant death. He doesn't appear to have even considered it. Granted, he knows Duncan's a better fighter than he is. *g* But he also knows that Duncan (probably) wouldn't take his head, and, if he was going to, knows a dozen ways of playing on Duncan's innate trustingness to get under Duncan's guard and strike (like at the dojo in season four).
I have no idea what his plan actually was -- clear out as fast as possible, tell Kronos that Duncan's dead and get out of town before Duncan catches wind of what's going on? Could he possibly believe that would work? Maybe distracting Kronos with the information about the other Horsemen along the way ... But, anyway, he's definitely in "run away" mode, even after Duncan shows up, which would be the time to draw a sword if he was planning on it. He's not planning on it.
He also had a perfect opportunity to kill Cassandra at the warehouse, and didn't.
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I agree mostly, although I think the main difference is that things worked fine in the old days because what he wanted and what Kronos wanted were mostly the same. I get the impression that Kronos was still the boss, though; when they ran into situations like the Cassandra thing, Methos yielded to him. (Though, like I said before, it was also tied up with issues of pride and manhood and friendship and so forth -- it's not just rolling over and showing belly for someone higher up the power structure.)
One of the things that made me tumble for him all over again is seeing absolutely wrecked he is in the modern-day scenes with Kronos. He knows that he can't beat Kronos; he knows that if Kronos tells him to do something (no matter what) that he's going to have to do it and there's absolutely nothing he can do about it except get tortured a lot and then die. I think that was equally true in the old days; it's just that he rarely had to be ordered around because he and Kronos mostly wanted the same things out of life anyway. And possibly young!Methos was a lot more confident in his own physical prowess, too -- he might have convinced himself that if he had to fight Kronos, he could win; he just didn't want to. But the power dynamic was still definitely Kronos --> Methos.
The other thing that really struck me on the rewatch, though ... I think I talked about this at the time, but one of the problems I had with Methos in season five is that I had no idea where his lines were. He struck me as a much darker, more morally ambiguous character than in past seasons, and I wasn't sure what he was capable of and whether there were things he just wouldn't do. "Comes a Horseman" answered that question, though: what he won't do is kill Duncan, not even to save himself from what would probably be a really unpleasant death. He doesn't appear to have even considered it. Granted, he knows Duncan's a better fighter than he is. *g* But he also knows that Duncan (probably) wouldn't take his head, and, if he was going to, knows a dozen ways of playing on Duncan's innate trustingness to get under Duncan's guard and strike (like at the dojo in season four).
I have no idea what his plan actually was -- clear out as fast as possible, tell Kronos that Duncan's dead and get out of town before Duncan catches wind of what's going on? Could he possibly believe that would work? Maybe distracting Kronos with the information about the other Horsemen along the way ... But, anyway, he's definitely in "run away" mode, even after Duncan shows up, which would be the time to draw a sword if he was planning on it. He's not planning on it.
He also had a perfect opportunity to kill Cassandra at the warehouse, and didn't.