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penknife, while I'm busy savouring all the great fanfiction produced by the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
1602ficathon
Five Favourite Action/Fight Sequences:
1) The Anakin/Obi-Wan duel from Revenge of the Sith. This was probably one of the most anticipated scenes of all time, and even if you don't like the prequels, you have to admit Lucas did deliver. If you do like the prequels, as in my case, it just kills you. Starting with Obi-Wan being the one to ignite his saber first; the in between moments like Anakin bending Obi-Wan backwards; the fact it's Anakin's hubris with that final jump which cripples him; Obi-Wan's anguished "I loved you!" and then what is arguably the darkest thing we ever see a non-fallen Jedi (or good guy in general) do in the saga, the fact he watches Anakin burn and leaves. It's not something I can watch often, for obvious reasons, but still, the entire sequence with its ending haunts me and stays with me, always. (Someone stop me before I add something about breathing problems; infectious, Uncle George's' bad monologues for my favourite characters are.)
2) Spike's fight with Nikki Wood in 70s' New York intercut with Spike's talk/fight with Buffy in present day Sunnydale, Fool for Love, season 5 of BTVS. It's really hard to pick just one sequence from BTVS, and I'll get to my runner-up in a moment, but this particular sequence is, to me, arguably the best Eros/Thanatos and Slayer/Vampire combination they did on the show. It's multi-levelled, and not just because of the mixing of past and present (which becomes literal when Punk!Spike starts to talk to Buffy in the present), and both the attraction and repulsion Buffy feels is palpable. In what is probably not the typical reaction to the sequence when first broadcast (let alone now), I still was and am 100% behind her rejection of Spike in the end. Because what his speech comes down to is this: You have a death wish, I'm death, let's have sex. Yes, later what he offers and feels becomes more (not to mention that she does go through death), but at that point? No.
(Runner-up from BTVS: Buffy versus Sweet's Minions in Once More, With Feeling, season 6 of BTVS. This again is so many things at the same time; a number in a musical - Buffy sings "Life's a Show" - a minor outward fight sequence (there is no question she'll get rid of the minions), a major inward one (because what she's really fighting, summed up here and a theme in the entire season, is herself and what life has done to her), and one great example of why SMG is awesome. Buffy's song starts with her rattling off clichés about why life is so great and you know that she can't believe in them anymore even before the text changes more and more to the bitterness she really feels, until the climactic and despairing "give me something to sing about". Expressing all that with your face and voice while dancing and fighting must be fiendishly difficult, especially considering she's no trained singer, but she does it, and does it superbly.)
3) Duncan MacLeod and Methos versus Kronos and Silas, at the climax of the Comes a Horseman/Revelations two-parter, Highlander, season 5. I might have written more than one rant about the whole Victim!Methos syndrome in fanfic which followed, but that doesn't change the greatness of the episodes themselves, and said two duels are fantastic and full of emotional power no matter how often you watch them. Oh, and the homoerotic subtext in the Double Quickening is as explicit as it ever gets on this show. Leaving the slash aspect aside, Methos on the floor at the end, crying (one of only two times he does that on the show - the other time is about Alexa when arguing with Amanda), and Cassandra finally in a position to take her revenge and then sparing him at Duncan's request makes for an equally raw emotional aftermath.
4) Roy Batty versus Rick Deckard in Blade Runner. This one violates practically every law of the action film and turns it upside down. You have the villain chasing the hero. And defeating him. And then sparing the hero's life. But then, nothing in Blade Runner is simple, and "villain" and "hero" are tricky designations in that film anyway. Blade Runner might be a cult movie now, but it's worth recalling it wasn't a success back in the early 80s when it was first released, and one reason why might be that instead of seeing Harrison Ford making quips and defeat the bad guys, as the audience had just seen him do in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, people saw him being a grim-faced anti-hero who despises his job but does it anyway and then gets completely trounced. (It might also be one reason why Ford still hates the film.) To me, though, the manic energy of Rutger Hauer's Roy (who is dying throughout the sequence and knows he is) versus Deckard's increasingly hopeless desperation make this the most human of Ford's characters (ironically so, since at least the Director's Cut makes a case for Deckard being an android himself without knowing it); we know he would have died, he's not protected by the magic invulnerability of action heroes, and that is, I think, as much as anything what makes Roy change his mind. He realizes they're both dying; it's just that Deckard could have some more life, and life, any life, is precious. The end of that fight/chase, with Roy Batty pulling Deckard up on the roof, Deckard looking at him, stunned, in the rain and Roy making his final (improvised by Hauer) cryptic statement while dying himself - it never fails to move and awe me.
5) Charles Xavier versus Danger in Astonishing X-Men (In "Dangerous", the second of Joss Whedon's arcs.) There is an annoying tendency, in both comicverse and movieverse, to take Xavier out of comission at a rate that makes Giles' ongoing knocks on the head like easy treatment. I mean, I sympathize with the difficulty of having a character who is supposed to be an incredibly powerful telepath, which means he could render your avarage bad guy unconscious easily, thus removing the need for all your other action heroes. What's more, an essential trait of the character is that he's handicapped (even though certain people who shall remain Morrison tried to "cure" him of that now and then.) But that's just a challenge to get creative. Now, Xavier isn't one of the X-Men Joss uses as regulars in his his run. But he makes a guest appearance in the second arc, and in that short appearance, Joss manages to demonstrate just how to show Charles Xavier as a fearsome fighter without taking the fact he's unable to move his legs away. And, it goes without saying, without rendering him unconscious. Over the course of the "Dangerous" arc, we've seen Danger (let's just describe her as an AI to keep explanations short) take out every single member of the X-Men. But her true aim is Xavier. (And she has reason to hate him, too.) So she comes after him. And he awaits her, alone, among the ruins of Genosha. Which is when he proceeds to defeat her by his lonesome, in a great combination of inventiveness, endurance, mind games and sheer stubborness. My favourite bit is probably when a defeated Danger asks Xavier "the X-Men have no idea who you really are, don't they?" and Charles says "I like to think that Jean knew. Knew, and understood".
penknife, while I'm busy savouring all the great fanfiction produced by the 1602ficathon Five Favourite Action/Fight Sequences:
1) The Anakin/Obi-Wan duel from Revenge of the Sith. This was probably one of the most anticipated scenes of all time, and even if you don't like the prequels, you have to admit Lucas did deliver. If you do like the prequels, as in my case, it just kills you. Starting with Obi-Wan being the one to ignite his saber first; the in between moments like Anakin bending Obi-Wan backwards; the fact it's Anakin's hubris with that final jump which cripples him; Obi-Wan's anguished "I loved you!" and then what is arguably the darkest thing we ever see a non-fallen Jedi (or good guy in general) do in the saga, the fact he watches Anakin burn and leaves. It's not something I can watch often, for obvious reasons, but still, the entire sequence with its ending haunts me and stays with me, always. (Someone stop me before I add something about breathing problems; infectious, Uncle George's' bad monologues for my favourite characters are.)
2) Spike's fight with Nikki Wood in 70s' New York intercut with Spike's talk/fight with Buffy in present day Sunnydale, Fool for Love, season 5 of BTVS. It's really hard to pick just one sequence from BTVS, and I'll get to my runner-up in a moment, but this particular sequence is, to me, arguably the best Eros/Thanatos and Slayer/Vampire combination they did on the show. It's multi-levelled, and not just because of the mixing of past and present (which becomes literal when Punk!Spike starts to talk to Buffy in the present), and both the attraction and repulsion Buffy feels is palpable. In what is probably not the typical reaction to the sequence when first broadcast (let alone now), I still was and am 100% behind her rejection of Spike in the end. Because what his speech comes down to is this: You have a death wish, I'm death, let's have sex. Yes, later what he offers and feels becomes more (not to mention that she does go through death), but at that point? No.
(Runner-up from BTVS: Buffy versus Sweet's Minions in Once More, With Feeling, season 6 of BTVS. This again is so many things at the same time; a number in a musical - Buffy sings "Life's a Show" - a minor outward fight sequence (there is no question she'll get rid of the minions), a major inward one (because what she's really fighting, summed up here and a theme in the entire season, is herself and what life has done to her), and one great example of why SMG is awesome. Buffy's song starts with her rattling off clichés about why life is so great and you know that she can't believe in them anymore even before the text changes more and more to the bitterness she really feels, until the climactic and despairing "give me something to sing about". Expressing all that with your face and voice while dancing and fighting must be fiendishly difficult, especially considering she's no trained singer, but she does it, and does it superbly.)
3) Duncan MacLeod and Methos versus Kronos and Silas, at the climax of the Comes a Horseman/Revelations two-parter, Highlander, season 5. I might have written more than one rant about the whole Victim!Methos syndrome in fanfic which followed, but that doesn't change the greatness of the episodes themselves, and said two duels are fantastic and full of emotional power no matter how often you watch them. Oh, and the homoerotic subtext in the Double Quickening is as explicit as it ever gets on this show. Leaving the slash aspect aside, Methos on the floor at the end, crying (one of only two times he does that on the show - the other time is about Alexa when arguing with Amanda), and Cassandra finally in a position to take her revenge and then sparing him at Duncan's request makes for an equally raw emotional aftermath.
4) Roy Batty versus Rick Deckard in Blade Runner. This one violates practically every law of the action film and turns it upside down. You have the villain chasing the hero. And defeating him. And then sparing the hero's life. But then, nothing in Blade Runner is simple, and "villain" and "hero" are tricky designations in that film anyway. Blade Runner might be a cult movie now, but it's worth recalling it wasn't a success back in the early 80s when it was first released, and one reason why might be that instead of seeing Harrison Ford making quips and defeat the bad guys, as the audience had just seen him do in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, people saw him being a grim-faced anti-hero who despises his job but does it anyway and then gets completely trounced. (It might also be one reason why Ford still hates the film.) To me, though, the manic energy of Rutger Hauer's Roy (who is dying throughout the sequence and knows he is) versus Deckard's increasingly hopeless desperation make this the most human of Ford's characters (ironically so, since at least the Director's Cut makes a case for Deckard being an android himself without knowing it); we know he would have died, he's not protected by the magic invulnerability of action heroes, and that is, I think, as much as anything what makes Roy change his mind. He realizes they're both dying; it's just that Deckard could have some more life, and life, any life, is precious. The end of that fight/chase, with Roy Batty pulling Deckard up on the roof, Deckard looking at him, stunned, in the rain and Roy making his final (improvised by Hauer) cryptic statement while dying himself - it never fails to move and awe me.
5) Charles Xavier versus Danger in Astonishing X-Men (In "Dangerous", the second of Joss Whedon's arcs.) There is an annoying tendency, in both comicverse and movieverse, to take Xavier out of comission at a rate that makes Giles' ongoing knocks on the head like easy treatment. I mean, I sympathize with the difficulty of having a character who is supposed to be an incredibly powerful telepath, which means he could render your avarage bad guy unconscious easily, thus removing the need for all your other action heroes. What's more, an essential trait of the character is that he's handicapped (even though certain people who shall remain Morrison tried to "cure" him of that now and then.) But that's just a challenge to get creative. Now, Xavier isn't one of the X-Men Joss uses as regulars in his his run. But he makes a guest appearance in the second arc, and in that short appearance, Joss manages to demonstrate just how to show Charles Xavier as a fearsome fighter without taking the fact he's unable to move his legs away. And, it goes without saying, without rendering him unconscious. Over the course of the "Dangerous" arc, we've seen Danger (let's just describe her as an AI to keep explanations short) take out every single member of the X-Men. But her true aim is Xavier. (And she has reason to hate him, too.) So she comes after him. And he awaits her, alone, among the ruins of Genosha. Which is when he proceeds to defeat her by his lonesome, in a great combination of inventiveness, endurance, mind games and sheer stubborness. My favourite bit is probably when a defeated Danger asks Xavier "the X-Men have no idea who you really are, don't they?" and Charles says "I like to think that Jean knew. Knew, and understood".
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 07:01 pm (UTC)Ladyhawke: love that one, too, agreed.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 06:14 pm (UTC)I really liked the Spike vs Nikki fight, the Highlander fight and Xavier's fight with Danger too. I really quite like the slightly shadier version of Xavier that the X-writers are writing nowadays, it definitely gives him more depth.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 06:59 pm (UTC)Re: Xavier - though
no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 03:51 pm (UTC)I too am not that well versed in X-Men canon, most of my knowledge comes from the '90's X-Men cartoon and as such I tend to see Xavier as this person with immense power who is depicted as being beyond reproach. And while I like Xavier as a visionary who doesn't abuse his power I do like to see him making ethically questionable decisions occasionally and then for those decisions to come back to haunt him.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-23 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 05:50 am (UTC)The problem with Xavier
Date: 2006-09-25 06:42 pm (UTC)You can explain why no one can fix Rogue's powers or Cyclops' eyes because those are mutant things, and mutant stuff can't always fix mutant stuff. But mutant stuff has a good track record for fixing *mundane* problems. So in-story, it gets harder and harder to believe that no one can heal Xavier.
What Claremont did with healing Xavier was brilliant at first. Xavier was cured with a new cloned body (it was necessary, his old one had been taken over by the Brood). But first he had to overcome psychosomatic pain when he tried to walk. Then he totally screwed up Scott and Ororo's authority by trying to go out in the field with them, taking over as leader, and being *bad* at it. Then, however, Claremont couldn't figure out where to take Xavier's plot arc, so he first injured him very badly to explain why Xavier didn't keep going out and screwing things up, and then shipped him off to outer space.
In the movies it's different -- the technology level is not nearly so advanced, so it's easy to believe Xavier's back simply cannot be fixed. But in a world where people can be turned into demon bears and then back again, it isn't easy to keep a character crippled in a mundane way.