Highlander Fanfiction: Those were the days
Mar. 8th, 2007 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBack in Munich, and trying to catch up with my muses who couldn't, after all, go vacationing as well. Also, I did see the latest BSG and will review, but since ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kathyh found my old Highlander stories for me, I thought I might as well make a post linking them all. They're nearly ten years old, which makes me realize how long I've been online. bimo, kathyh, honorh? We have heard the chimes of midnight. *nods wisely in Orson-Welles-as-Falstaff-imitation*
Postscript was the first fanfiction I ever wrote in English, back in 1998. It's a Joe pov, dealing with his reaction to learning fellow Watcher Adam Pierson is Methos, and his decision to keep that secret.
Waiting Featuring Alexa Bond (aka Methos' dying girlfriend) during the Dark Quickening episodes, it turned out to be the first and last straightforward romantic thing I wrote in HL.
Losses is another Joe pov, this one set during the Comes a Horseman/Revelations two-parter, and actually resulted from beta-reading a story ofbimo's doing just this, as well as from reading a couple of debates of what was arguably the most controversial and exciting storyline of the show.
Which brings me to my next story, though it was written in between individual parts of the trilogy I'm going to list last. See, Highlander was my first encounter with what I later figured out was a common phenomenon in many fandoms and a lot of fanfiction. Ambiguous character X shows up, gets a lot of fannish love for being ambiguous... and then, in fanfic, gets whitewashed and woobiefied to an extent that beggars imagination. Nothing is ever his fault; if his victims suffered, they certainly didn't suffer as much as he did. If they're after retaliation, they're vengeful and crazy bastards/bitches who need to be killed off painfully. If his present-day company dares not to support him 100%, they're self-righteous scum not worthy to live in the shadow of our woobie, especially if they happen to be the main character of the show. And so forth, and so on. Back then, the character in question was Methos. The character who had the gall to want to see him dead for killing her foster father, her tribe, for raping and brainwashing her was Cassandra. (And good old Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod was the guy who had the nerve not to immediately declare a female friend crazy if she accuses his male friend of being a rapist and murderer but to actually ask him whether he did it. The judgemental bastard, how could he?) I had started out as much fascinated and in love with Methos as the next fan, but this tendency started to irritate and disturb me. And thus I wrote both a long trilogy set in the present day and a short Cassandra pov set in ye olde Bronze Age days. Which was:
Death and the Maiden. As I said in the other entry, I still love this best of all my HL stories, and I think it changed my writing ever after.
And now for the Covenants trilogy:
Incubus: Methos and Cassandra forced to work together in order to help Duncan after the season 5 finale wasn't a new idea, and there are some great takes on it, including the fanzine I mention in the credits, but I couldn't resist writing my own version. Which was meant to be self-contained. However, then I wrote:
Transferences, which wasn't as much a sequel as it was a companion piece. It centers on Joe's daughter Amy, whom we meet in the season 6 episode Indiscretions, and uses the events of Incubus as background. It was also a way to focus on the Watchers (that aren't Joe), and how their job affects them.
Once Out of Nature uses the events of both stories as background and focuses on Cassandra and Methos again, with Amy, Duncan and Joe as supporting cast. It's set after the HL finale, and brings an ongoing red thread through the stories - how "human" can people like Methos and Cassandra, who have made it through the millennia, not just centuries, really be? - to the conclusion.
Afterwards, I didn't write in HL again, safe as a co-author; I never lost my affection for the universe, but I felt I had said all I could say, and bade it a fond fictional farewell.
kathyh found my old Highlander stories for me, I thought I might as well make a post linking them all. They're nearly ten years old, which makes me realize how long I've been online. bimo, kathyh, honorh? We have heard the chimes of midnight. *nods wisely in Orson-Welles-as-Falstaff-imitation*Postscript was the first fanfiction I ever wrote in English, back in 1998. It's a Joe pov, dealing with his reaction to learning fellow Watcher Adam Pierson is Methos, and his decision to keep that secret.
Waiting Featuring Alexa Bond (aka Methos' dying girlfriend) during the Dark Quickening episodes, it turned out to be the first and last straightforward romantic thing I wrote in HL.
Losses is another Joe pov, this one set during the Comes a Horseman/Revelations two-parter, and actually resulted from beta-reading a story of
bimo's doing just this, as well as from reading a couple of debates of what was arguably the most controversial and exciting storyline of the show. Which brings me to my next story, though it was written in between individual parts of the trilogy I'm going to list last. See, Highlander was my first encounter with what I later figured out was a common phenomenon in many fandoms and a lot of fanfiction. Ambiguous character X shows up, gets a lot of fannish love for being ambiguous... and then, in fanfic, gets whitewashed and woobiefied to an extent that beggars imagination. Nothing is ever his fault; if his victims suffered, they certainly didn't suffer as much as he did. If they're after retaliation, they're vengeful and crazy bastards/bitches who need to be killed off painfully. If his present-day company dares not to support him 100%, they're self-righteous scum not worthy to live in the shadow of our woobie, especially if they happen to be the main character of the show. And so forth, and so on. Back then, the character in question was Methos. The character who had the gall to want to see him dead for killing her foster father, her tribe, for raping and brainwashing her was Cassandra. (And good old Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod was the guy who had the nerve not to immediately declare a female friend crazy if she accuses his male friend of being a rapist and murderer but to actually ask him whether he did it. The judgemental bastard, how could he?) I had started out as much fascinated and in love with Methos as the next fan, but this tendency started to irritate and disturb me. And thus I wrote both a long trilogy set in the present day and a short Cassandra pov set in ye olde Bronze Age days. Which was:
Death and the Maiden. As I said in the other entry, I still love this best of all my HL stories, and I think it changed my writing ever after.
And now for the Covenants trilogy:
Incubus: Methos and Cassandra forced to work together in order to help Duncan after the season 5 finale wasn't a new idea, and there are some great takes on it, including the fanzine I mention in the credits, but I couldn't resist writing my own version. Which was meant to be self-contained. However, then I wrote:
Transferences, which wasn't as much a sequel as it was a companion piece. It centers on Joe's daughter Amy, whom we meet in the season 6 episode Indiscretions, and uses the events of Incubus as background. It was also a way to focus on the Watchers (that aren't Joe), and how their job affects them.
Once Out of Nature uses the events of both stories as background and focuses on Cassandra and Methos again, with Amy, Duncan and Joe as supporting cast. It's set after the HL finale, and brings an ongoing red thread through the stories - how "human" can people like Methos and Cassandra, who have made it through the millennia, not just centuries, really be? - to the conclusion.
Afterwards, I didn't write in HL again, safe as a co-author; I never lost my affection for the universe, but I felt I had said all I could say, and bade it a fond fictional farewell.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 06:48 pm (UTC)Yep, it's been a long time. Ten years and multiple fandoms. But hey, that makes a decade of friendship for the two of us. *lifts virtual glass* Cheers!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 07:42 pm (UTC)I still remember how I stumbled across that story, and how excited I got the second I realized the included e-mail address could only belong to a fellow German. Looking back on that very first mail that I wrote you, in all innocence and with all the enthusiasm of the aspiring pioneer archivist, makes me feel rather nostalgic. *g*
The glory days of Highlander might be long gone, and we both have traveled through many a fandom in the meantime, sometimes together, sometimes on different paths, but I'm happy for each new piece of fiction you publish, each new piece of meta you post.
People like you make fandom worthwhile. You've "feedbacked" me on stories, that no one else has ever left any feedback on. Your creativity and intelligence has always inspired me, and has made me think about characters and issues I otherwise would have surely ignored.
And this I find a truly wonderful thing! To another decade of fannish exchange, shared joy and challenging ideas!
Sybille
no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 10:45 pm (UTC)But...but...but...you haven't mentioned her fingernails... *eg*
Seriously, I think Death and the Maiden was the story of yours that I read through a migraine when I could barely see the screen and still couldn't stop reading.
I never lost my affection for the universe
No, I've had many fannish loves but HL will always be something special, not least because it led me to meet you :)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 09:29 am (UTC)Cheers to the old HL universe and friendship!
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Date: 2007-03-09 12:52 am (UTC)This post is def going to my memories and I will check the stories out. Looking forward to reading them all. Especially interested in the Methos stuff.
Say, apart from your stories, could you maybe point me in the direction of a favourite Highlander story of yours? There's a lot out there and when I looked for stuff I got a little lost the other day.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 08:13 am (UTC)From Parda:
Down the the Bone (http://www.seventh-dimension.com/stories/Parda/DowntotheBone.txt) - Short, terse and to the point. Not all Immortals are rich and beautiful.
Changed Utterly (http://www.seventh-dimension.com/stories/Parda/ChangedUtterly.txt) - Duncan post-show. Terrific Duncan portrait and great take on his relationships with Cassandra and Methos respectively.
Just a Game (http://www.seventh-dimension.com/stories/Parda/JustaGame.txt) - Methos remembers the origin of The Game. Great twist on the concept.
From Mary Galasso, two Joe stories:
Truce (http://www.seventh-dimension.com/stories/Galasso/Truce.txt) (Joe as seen through the eyes of an OC Immortal)
Dead Man (http://www.seventh-dimension.com/stories/Galasso/DeadMan.txt) (Joe gives Richie a burial after the season 5 finale)
Moving on to another author:
Lytell Geste (http://www.seventh-dimension.com/stories/Boone/Lytell_Geste.txt) Amanda, Duncan and Methos play Truth or Dare. Priceless, v. funny
and from Kat Allison:
Last Set Before Closing (http://www.katallison.com/lastset.htm) - one of the best stories I ever read, fanfic or pro. Deals with Joe, Duncan and Methos.
And since no HL favourites list would be complete without slash:
Strata (http://www.katallison.com/strata.htm). Duncan/Methos, post show. Terrific use of scenery (the Grand Canyon), and great characterisation.
Cheers!
Date: 2007-03-12 02:38 pm (UTC)