sanerontheinside
commented on sanerontheinside’s post “morgynleri replied to your post “1, 2, 10!” Ooh, Highlander! What…”

I’m just poking at an episode at slightly-less-than random and keeping to it if it sticks. tho, both Mac and Methos are currently inspiring a lot of _how the heck are you still alive_ questions

sanerontheinside
commented on sanerontheinside’s post “morgynleri replied to your post “1, 2, 10!” Ooh, Highlander! What…”

@morgynleri re: your tags—yyyyyeah I can see that my ‘attention span of a flea’ problem while watching shows is probably a good thing for my reception of Mac’s character

[most of my characters are based more on fanon than canon, probably, for the same reason o.o never considered that before]

Methos is alive because he has no fucks to give about most of the rules of the Game, avoids fighting other Immortals if at all possible, and prefers to shoot them, bury them, drop them down dry wells, or other means of incapacitating them until he can get far enough away that catching up is going to take months/years/centuries/millennia.

MacLeod is alive because he’s the main character of the show, and is lucky he hasn’t lost his head to someone who has fewer fucks to give about rules or to a woman because he’s a twit who thinks that fighting women is Wrong.

MacLeod also is one of those people who buys into the lie of purity culture that people who have done a Bad Thing in their past are always Bad People, and… well, Methos doesn’t try very hard to make him think otherwise*, but Methos is a Tired Old Man who has no fucks to give about this kid who thinks that their morals are absolute and anyone who has a different set is Wrong and Bad. And also does not have the spoons to keep hiding when creepy stalker exboyfriend comes around trying to gaslight him into becoming a bringer of the apocalypse again.

(There is something sad about him having to kill cuddly murder bear younger brother/student person in that fiasco, but in order to be rid of creepy stalker exboyfriend and serial killer cannibal that is probably crazypants because of him and said creepy stalker exboyfriend, so too must cuddly murder bear die.)

*”I didn’t just kill a hundred. I didn’t just kill a thousand. I killed ten thousand. I was Death on a horse. And I liked it. Is that what you want to hear?” – Methos, because fuck this “well, are you an evil person because you did these things that Cassandra mentioned?” bullshit.

(And as for Cassandra, I have mixed opinions about her, because yes, she is perfectly justified in being angry at Methos, even all these millennia later, and yes, it is well within her rights to never forgive him what he did to her, but also, getting someone else involved in her intent to murder Methos 3000 years later when there is evidence he’s changed since is not a good thing. I will not, however, argue that she was wrong in any way to do whatever it took to get rid of Kronos, because creepy stalker exboyfriend really really needed to die in order to stop him from continuing to attempt to destroy the world.)

Highlander liveblogging

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

Continuing from yesterday, starting with the scene where Methos returns to where Kronos is staying. Also known as Methos is a little shit, and Kronos demonstrates he is sometimes really blind to some nuances of human nature. Like, don’t ask Methos to kill his friends. It’s dangerous.

Below a cut because this is getting long. It has a lot of dialogue I like.

Keep reading

… And here is where I want to drop a nice anvil on MacLeod. Although this is another bit with some favored lines. Under cut for length.

Keep reading

Nope, more anvils. Joe does make things better.

(And I know there’s a lot missing, because all this is transcribing is the dialogue, and the actions and everything do add nuance.)

“Joe, you can’t defend it.”

“I’m not defending it. I’m trying to understand it.”

“What’s there to understand? When he rode into a village, there was life. When he rode out, there wasn’t.”

“No. You weren’t there. Different times, MacLeod. Different rules, different morals. You can’t compare it.”

“I won’t compare it, and I can’t excuse it.”

“Yeah. How many men have you killed? How much blood have you shed in anger?”

“No. No. I know what I’ve done, and I live with it. But I’m telling you, this is different.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about a bunch of murdering bastards that burned and raped across two continents! They butchered innocent women and children, Joe! You live with that; you see that.”

(Oh, MacLeod, you idiot.)

“I have. Vietnam. When we took out a village, we couldn’t tell the farmers from the soldiers. You think somehow the bullets managed to miss all the children?”

“This is different.”

“How?”

“Because he loved it. Because he had pleasure in killing.”

(*sighs* At the time, yes, he probably did, at least for a while. But just because he enjoyed it then, MacLeod, you fucking twit, doesn’t mean he still does. Or that he doesn’t regret that part of his life now. People. Change. And Methos is the ultimate survivor. He changes as he needs to in order to fit into the morals of the culture in which he lives. Even if other people who are rigid in their moral beliefs don’t like that he does so.)

Methos does love his fire. And it’s an effective tool in this case. And you can see the change in him, the calculated loosening of stance, the way he used the fire to manipulate the outcome, the annoyance in the gesture of throwing the belt of Cassandra’s coat after her into the water (his annoyance over all the shit he’s trying to cope with).

Also, Cassandra just. Can’t let the idea of “must kill them both/all” go. Which by itself, not necessarily a bad thing. But when expressed in front of Duncan “judge, jury, and executioner” MacLeod? Then it becomes a bad thing.

Cassandra needs therapy and a safe place. Kronos needs to be kept away from the rest of the world, and MacLeod needs to get the stick out of his ass.

*sighs*

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

Less than two minutes into Comes a Horseman, and I’m already giggling (because Methos is adorkable). And also grinning evilly, because while I’ve forgotten some of the dialogue, I once had this episode and the one following it practically memorized.

The usual fun with music to show that they’re sensing another Immortal, and the look on Methos’s face is “oh shit”, and then there’s the dialogue, and he knows that Quickening, even if he doesn’t say so aloud.

“You expecting anyone?”

“Maybe it’s one of your fanclub.”

“Ok, there’s another way back. It’s a bit longer, but I prefer the view.”

“Yeah, send me a postcard.”

“You’re not coming?”

“No. I like to know who’s around.”

“Listen. I may not know who Chubby Checker is, but I know when it’s time to disappear.”

“Yeah.”

“Good luck.”

*facepalms* Don’t let him close like that, you twit, he deliberately designed his damned sword to catch others, and to be a nasty piece of business with close work even if it doesn’t function so well that close.

Also, Kronos, there are mortals around, don’t expect a clean fight. *sighs, and facepalms some more*

Someone dug him up, he did not dig his way out of that grave. And I’m pretty sure the Texas Rangers took care of all the mortals Kronos had in his little band, so they’re not in the equation. Which means someone else did the digging, who wasn’t present at the shootout/sword fight.

*cackles merrily, and rubs hands together*

(This makes it so much easier to insert any number of people into the role of “dig up Kronos because he ain’t dead yet”.)

No, no, MacLeod, you idiot, do not go chasing after the ancient ~~evil~~… er, raider. Nomad. Something.

Cut for length, and because there will be plenty more reblogs to come.

Keep reading

“I don’t want a drink!”

“Then you won’t mind if I have one. Look, it’s not every day I almost take my friend’s head by mistake.” *pause* “Or she takes mine.”

Ok, not so long later. Stuff under the cut because length. Also, warnings for mention of rape, torture, and abuse.

Cassandra is a character about which I feel very conflicted. On one hand, she endured some horrific torture and abuse at the hands of Methos and Kronos (implied, but very little actually shown on screen). On the other, she used MacLeod as a tool in her attempt to get revenge on them both, and there are implications in an earlier episode that not everything was entirely platonic and appropriate in her encounter with MacLeod when he was fourteen, and she was already two and a half thousand years old.

With Kronos – there is no remorse in him, and despite the headcanons I have about neurodivergence with him, he’s not a good person. He raped Cassandra, repeatedly, and she is not his only victim. This is not a behavior he is likely to have left entirely in his past, but something that no doubt has continued into the present.

Methos has changed, has become a different person than he was. He has remorse for his actions, even if he doesn’t feel safe admitting to that through most of these episodes. It doesn’t change the fact that when Cassandra was newly Immortal, Methos was her abuser. That he tortured and raped and repeatedly killed her. That there has been no apology made by him to her (though he could well have lost track of her for a while, he’s still part of the Watchers, and could have located her again).

Cassandra has every right to hate them both, and to have no desire or willingness to forgive them. She has every right to want them dead for what they did.

I can understand, even, why she went about getting her revenge in the manner she did. She doesn’t have the ability to take on either Methos and Kronos on her own. They’re older, taller, outweigh her, and their fighting skills are better honed than hers. MacLeod has everything she lacks to fight one or the other.

And yet. She manipulated him. She bullied and pushed him until he did what she wanted him to do, even when he was reluctant to take action. And the actions she was pushing aren’t attempts to reform a system, to seek justice, to address the wrongs done to her. She wants vengeance. And she doesn’t care what she has to do to achieve that end.

*sighs, and buries face in hands a moment*

Cassandra is a victim and also potentially an abuser herself. I want to get her the therapy she needs, and at the same time, I want to please make her go away, she makes my skin crawl. And I bet a lot of the latter is the way she’s written, both the dialogue and the directing.

Bleargh. Anyway. Imma go watch some more of the episode.

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

morgynleri:

Less than two minutes into Comes a Horseman, and I’m already giggling (because Methos is adorkable). And also grinning evilly, because while I’ve forgotten some of the dialogue, I once had this episode and the one following it practically memorized.

The usual fun with music to show that they’re sensing another Immortal, and the look on Methos’s face is “oh shit”, and then there’s the dialogue, and he knows that Quickening, even if he doesn’t say so aloud.

“You expecting anyone?”

“Maybe it’s one of your fanclub.”

“Ok, there’s another way back. It’s a bit longer, but I prefer the view.”

“Yeah, send me a postcard.”

“You’re not coming?”

“No. I like to know who’s around.”

“Listen. I may not know who Chubby Checker is, but I know when it’s time to disappear.”

“Yeah.”

“Good luck.”

*facepalms* Don’t let him close like that, you twit, he deliberately designed his damned sword to catch others, and to be a nasty piece of business with close work even if it doesn’t function so well that close.

Also, Kronos, there are mortals around, don’t expect a clean fight. *sighs, and facepalms some more*

Someone dug him up, he did not dig his way out of that grave. And I’m pretty sure the Texas Rangers took care of all the mortals Kronos had in his little band, so they’re not in the equation. Which means someone else did the digging, who wasn’t present at the shootout/sword fight.

*cackles merrily, and rubs hands together*

(This makes it so much easier to insert any number of people into the role of “dig up Kronos because he ain’t dead yet”.)

No, no, MacLeod, you idiot, do not go chasing after the ancient ~~evil~~… er, raider. Nomad. Something.

Cut for length, and because there will be plenty more reblogs to come.

Keep reading

“I don’t want a drink!”

“Then you won’t mind if I have one. Look, it’s not every day I almost take my friend’s head by mistake.” *pause* “Or she takes mine.”