Totally deep and insightful Highlander question. Yes. Totally.

[sholio]

How in the world can Peter Wingfield be so absolutely gorgeous in that ridiculous wig? *g*


ETA: Screencaps added ... purely for research purposes, of course.













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Comments

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

When you watch the extras tell us what you think of the scene that didn't make it into the final cut with Kronos and Methos.

It's funny with Peter. He really is handsome, but, as someone said (was it on DW?) he's also sort of odd looking. Yet, his features tend to work together to form a strangely handsome man. He's much more handsome in person than on tv and photos, btw. His features are not as sharp and pronounced as they appear on tv.

That said, I think it has something to do with the strength he had as a horseman. Up til then we were used to widdle Adam Pierson or cynical (and often annoying Methos). But this Methos was strong. He was a leader. He was sexual.

Yes, he was cruel and a murderer and not anyone you would ever want to run into. And, while they also made it clear how cruel and heartless he had initially been to Cassandra, and never really spelled out how long she had been there, when he let her escape, it was clear he did care about her in whatever way he was able to care about another human being. She was dressed well, had jewelry and clearly had freedom around the camp. He spoke to her gently in the tent and she had come to expect him to take care of her. You could see she was genuinely shocked when he let Kronos take her.

[sholio]

It took me awhile to really tumble for Peter Wingfield's looks, but when I did ... damn, I fell hard. Generally I like a slightly eclectic sort of handsomeness better than classic pretty-boy good looks anyway. (Though I also find Adrian Paul so drop-dead sexy that I can't take my eyes off him. And I've always thought Jim Byrnes was hot. This show is just an embarrassment of riches in the manflesh department. *g* Not to mention that I find Amanda scorching hot as well; I've always gone for short-haired women ...)

There was a discussion going on in the comments to one of the other posts about Methos and Cassandra. One thing that I really don't want to do is downplay what happened to Cassandra, and Methos's role in that -- he killed her people, raped her, abused her, treated her as his slave. But, yes, something definitely grew between them; rooted, I think, in Cassandra simply trying to make the best of the awful situation in which she found herself, but both of them clearly felt it. And she had obviously come to think of him as her protector against the others. And even after all these years, he remembered her, which probably says something about the situation as well.

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

*nods* I agree about Cassandra. I was talking to someone else in one of your posts about Methos as the submarine base with Cassandra. I do think he cared as much as he was capable of. He knew he deserved her hatred and he could never bring himself to take her head.

From Cassandra's perspective, however, I could sense her feeling he was just being obnoxious and self-serving when he was going on about the Stockholm syndrome. And, yes, maybe he knew what he was talking about. Maybe he had been a victim at some point. We don't know. But I cant' see Cassandra caring if that was the case or not.

Which is why, although I was glad Duncan asked her to spare Methos' life, I would have cheered if she had picked up something and beat the snot out of him instead. I know he was down on his knees and he was sobbing because he killed Silas. But I can't really expect Cassandra to feel any sympathy for his pain at that point.

[sholio]

Well, I got the impression that he was giving her the Stockholm Syndrome speech to give her an "out" -- it may have misfired but I'd gathered that it was a well-intentioned attempt to do something for her: "You never cared for me; it was a chemical trick of your brain, that's all." Though, as scrollgirl pointed out, her expression was all, "You think I've never heard of Stockholm Syndrome? What's the matter with you?"

Cassandra and Methos are complicated. I do think their dynamic, unhealthy as it is, is a fairly accurate representation of what happened to a lot of women throughout history -- given no choice whatsoever in whom to have sex with, or marry, and often forced into marriages with guys who'd just killed off most of the menfolk of their village or whatever, they nevertheless found ways to be happy. And that's what seems to be going on with Methos and Cassandra in the flashbacks ... on both sides, actually. Which doesn't make the feelings unreal -- we'd just consider it somewhat pathological today (with reason). On Methos's end, as well as actually being attracted to her, I'm sure he must have appreciated receiving genuine affection from a woman rather than simply terrorizing her.

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

I agree with all the above. They really did a good job with them on the show. Fanfiction has not been so kind. But their relationship was complicated, as you said.

[trobadora]

Well, I got the impression that he was giving her the Stockholm Syndrome speech to give her an "out" -- it may have misfired but I'd gathered that it was a well-intentioned attempt to do something for her: "You never cared for me; it was a chemical trick of your brain, that's all."

That's how I read it too.

[sheron]

I really did think he was trying to connect with her, and make it easier for her to parse what happened between them. Whether he had a right to do that, or if he was on the right track with the way he was going about it aside, I felt like his intentions were to help her.