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grav_itySo forgiveness.
It's a theme, a lot. Do you forgive Angel? Spike? Do you forgive Stefan Salvatore? Damon? Do you forgive Logan Echolls? Do you forgive Gul Dukat? Damar? Garak? Locutus of Borg? Do you forgive Darth Vader? Do you forgive John Druitt? Do you forgive Methos? Which of those do you forgive? And why do you forgive some and not others? And after you learn to forgive someone like Methos, does it change your feelings about why you forgave Angel? Is it harder to forgive now then it was before? Did you forgive the Cylons? Did you forgive the humans first? Did you think you had to?
There are really two ways this works. Either they give you a bad guy and they make him good (which happens a lot more often) or they grey the heck out of a shady guy (which can be kind of worse, because if you're unprepared for it, it can really wallop you in the gut). The former is very nearly standard, while the latter is harder to pull off without too much retconning.
(And for simplicity's sake, I'm just dealing with killers. Well, killers and Logan. Because if I start splitting hairs over the likes of Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six, we'll be here forever.)
(I'm also leaving out the Heroic Characters We're Supposed To Forgive, like Duncan MacLeod himself, Jack Harkness, or, say...Angel. Lord, I should just quit while I'm ahead. I'm arbitrary, okay?) (Also, Buffy is still totally the hero, even when it's Angel's own series.)
ANYWAY!
So why do I forgive Angel and not Spike? And why do I forgive Methos almost immediately (though not without freaking out), but hedge on John Druitt?
There are several things that set Methos apart. As I said above, he's already part of the smaller group, the group we find out are evil after the fact, after we've got to know him and be comfortable around him. And yeah, there was always something weird about him, but he's been alive forever, so you shrug it off. And then the show gives you an episode like "Comes A Horseman", and all of his little quirks suddenly make this terrifically awful sense. Now we know why he picked Duncan, because even though Methos is a survivor and a brilliant person, he's still pragmatic enough to pick his own death. It would have been Kronos back in the day, and now it will be Duncan (or Duncan's proxy, but still something that Duncan allows).
The other thing that sets Methos apart is that he's mostly unrepentant. And even that's not in the traditional sense. Because it's not that he's still evil, he just...stopped. And he stopped so long ago that he's not really all that sorry about it any more. It's implied that whatever happened, he gave up guilt in the 11th century, which is still more than 2000 years of feeling bad (depending on how the dates work out), and you'd think that'd do it (though it certainly doesn't for Cassandra), and maybe it does. In any case, he's stopped feeling bad. He's done his time. He's been a doctor for half a millennium, slowly paying it back...and he's going to live forever, after all.
He has a really interesting line in 1806. I made it through the scene with only minimal squirming (the "southern" accent was REALLY BAD, and I think it might also qualify as race!fail, if the term had existed then). Anyway, when Charlotte asks him why he takes care of slaves, he says "Maybe I was on in another life", which she takes at face value. And then he does this thing with his face, and you realize that wasn't, was never a slave...but he did take them for himself, and this is how he manages to sleep at night.
Methos could, if he wanted to, be the most powerful person in the world. I'm reasonably sure he could take Duncan's head if he gave it a legitimate shot. But he chooses to be as normal as possible, chooses to run from the legend of himself, because he knows exactly what he's capable of, and he knows that he doesn't want to do it again. Which makes him a vaguely lazy altruist, I realize, but it's still a choice, and I think it's an important one. If nothing else, he is the greatest enabler who has ever lived (unless it's his own neck on the line). What's neat, I think, is that he's still Death. He never STOPPED being Death. He just...found a new Pestilence, and even though Duncan tends attract all kinds of collateral damage, he's still about a billion times better than Kronos.
So why do I forgive Methos? I have no idea. But I do. And believe me, I'm still a little appalled with myself for doing it.
+++
Fic Recs
Death and the Maiden, by Selene: Cassandra begins. (Methos/Cassandra, Non-con, character study)
I very nearly didn't start reading this fic. And then I very nearly didn't finish it. But I did, and I'm kind of glad I did, because it was truly, truly awesome. Writing Methos/Cassandra is hard (or at least it should be), and what this story absolutely nails is this: the story is about Cassandra, first and foremost.
It's also about Power, though, which is so, so important to immortals. It's about the Power Cassandra has, the Power she thinks she has, and then, gloriously, the Power she finds out she has. It's about the girl that got taken by Death in every imaginable way except for one, and when she volunteered that one thing, it changed him just a little bit. But it changed her even more, and when she wandered out of the wilderness, she finally realizes that yes, she was taken by gods and lesser demons, but also: she is one too. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Sixty-Eight Wives, by Hmpf_MacSlow: Exactly what it says on the tin.
One of the things that I love the most about the Ents (the real Ents. Not the ones in the movie), is Treebeard's admission that the Entwives have been gone for so long that he doesn't remember what they look like. It boggled my mind when I was nine, because I didn't really understand what forever was. I still don't, obviously, but I'm starting to. And this fic captures the long, long time that Methos has been alive really well. Also, it's archaeologically sound, fairly witty, and the TIME, you guys. THE TIME.
A Proper Education, by ishafel: Those who can, teach.
I'm not going to lie: I read this story because of the summary. What I found in the story itself was Methos (as Adam, for the most part), trying to make undergraduates appreciate anything, and his internal monologue as he does it is just awesome. This nicely fills my kink of "teachers I wish I'd had (but don't actually exist)".
A Postcard From Adam, by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lferion: A Challenge in Cairo.
I think I love this one the best. The backdrop of Egypt is stunning, the details in the story come together perfectly, Alexa is just wonderful, but the best part, my favourite part, is howlferion sets Adam against Methos, and how he struggles to be Adam when the world is making him be Methos. Also, there are swords. :)
I am not watching Queen of Swords. Well, not this week, anyway. (There's always Cold Squad. Which, I imagine, has more dignity. But fewer cravats. Decisions, decisions...)
It's a theme, a lot. Do you forgive Angel? Spike? Do you forgive Stefan Salvatore? Damon? Do you forgive Logan Echolls? Do you forgive Gul Dukat? Damar? Garak? Locutus of Borg? Do you forgive Darth Vader? Do you forgive John Druitt? Do you forgive Methos? Which of those do you forgive? And why do you forgive some and not others? And after you learn to forgive someone like Methos, does it change your feelings about why you forgave Angel? Is it harder to forgive now then it was before? Did you forgive the Cylons? Did you forgive the humans first? Did you think you had to?
There are really two ways this works. Either they give you a bad guy and they make him good (which happens a lot more often) or they grey the heck out of a shady guy (which can be kind of worse, because if you're unprepared for it, it can really wallop you in the gut). The former is very nearly standard, while the latter is harder to pull off without too much retconning.
(And for simplicity's sake, I'm just dealing with killers. Well, killers and Logan. Because if I start splitting hairs over the likes of Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six, we'll be here forever.)
(I'm also leaving out the Heroic Characters We're Supposed To Forgive, like Duncan MacLeod himself, Jack Harkness, or, say...Angel. Lord, I should just quit while I'm ahead. I'm arbitrary, okay?) (Also, Buffy is still totally the hero, even when it's Angel's own series.)
ANYWAY!
So why do I forgive Angel and not Spike? And why do I forgive Methos almost immediately (though not without freaking out), but hedge on John Druitt?
There are several things that set Methos apart. As I said above, he's already part of the smaller group, the group we find out are evil after the fact, after we've got to know him and be comfortable around him. And yeah, there was always something weird about him, but he's been alive forever, so you shrug it off. And then the show gives you an episode like "Comes A Horseman", and all of his little quirks suddenly make this terrifically awful sense. Now we know why he picked Duncan, because even though Methos is a survivor and a brilliant person, he's still pragmatic enough to pick his own death. It would have been Kronos back in the day, and now it will be Duncan (or Duncan's proxy, but still something that Duncan allows).
The other thing that sets Methos apart is that he's mostly unrepentant. And even that's not in the traditional sense. Because it's not that he's still evil, he just...stopped. And he stopped so long ago that he's not really all that sorry about it any more. It's implied that whatever happened, he gave up guilt in the 11th century, which is still more than 2000 years of feeling bad (depending on how the dates work out), and you'd think that'd do it (though it certainly doesn't for Cassandra), and maybe it does. In any case, he's stopped feeling bad. He's done his time. He's been a doctor for half a millennium, slowly paying it back...and he's going to live forever, after all.
He has a really interesting line in 1806. I made it through the scene with only minimal squirming (the "southern" accent was REALLY BAD, and I think it might also qualify as race!fail, if the term had existed then). Anyway, when Charlotte asks him why he takes care of slaves, he says "Maybe I was on in another life", which she takes at face value. And then he does this thing with his face, and you realize that wasn't, was never a slave...but he did take them for himself, and this is how he manages to sleep at night.
Methos could, if he wanted to, be the most powerful person in the world. I'm reasonably sure he could take Duncan's head if he gave it a legitimate shot. But he chooses to be as normal as possible, chooses to run from the legend of himself, because he knows exactly what he's capable of, and he knows that he doesn't want to do it again. Which makes him a vaguely lazy altruist, I realize, but it's still a choice, and I think it's an important one. If nothing else, he is the greatest enabler who has ever lived (unless it's his own neck on the line). What's neat, I think, is that he's still Death. He never STOPPED being Death. He just...found a new Pestilence, and even though Duncan tends attract all kinds of collateral damage, he's still about a billion times better than Kronos.
So why do I forgive Methos? I have no idea. But I do. And believe me, I'm still a little appalled with myself for doing it.
+++
Fic Recs
Death and the Maiden, by Selene: Cassandra begins. (Methos/Cassandra, Non-con, character study)
I very nearly didn't start reading this fic. And then I very nearly didn't finish it. But I did, and I'm kind of glad I did, because it was truly, truly awesome. Writing Methos/Cassandra is hard (or at least it should be), and what this story absolutely nails is this: the story is about Cassandra, first and foremost.
It's also about Power, though, which is so, so important to immortals. It's about the Power Cassandra has, the Power she thinks she has, and then, gloriously, the Power she finds out she has. It's about the girl that got taken by Death in every imaginable way except for one, and when she volunteered that one thing, it changed him just a little bit. But it changed her even more, and when she wandered out of the wilderness, she finally realizes that yes, she was taken by gods and lesser demons, but also: she is one too. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Sixty-Eight Wives, by Hmpf_MacSlow: Exactly what it says on the tin.
One of the things that I love the most about the Ents (the real Ents. Not the ones in the movie), is Treebeard's admission that the Entwives have been gone for so long that he doesn't remember what they look like. It boggled my mind when I was nine, because I didn't really understand what forever was. I still don't, obviously, but I'm starting to. And this fic captures the long, long time that Methos has been alive really well. Also, it's archaeologically sound, fairly witty, and the TIME, you guys. THE TIME.
A Proper Education, by ishafel: Those who can, teach.
I'm not going to lie: I read this story because of the summary. What I found in the story itself was Methos (as Adam, for the most part), trying to make undergraduates appreciate anything, and his internal monologue as he does it is just awesome. This nicely fills my kink of "teachers I wish I'd had (but don't actually exist)".
A Postcard From Adam, by
lferion: A Challenge in Cairo.I think I love this one the best. The backdrop of Egypt is stunning, the details in the story come together perfectly, Alexa is just wonderful, but the best part, my favourite part, is how
lferion sets Adam against Methos, and how he struggles to be Adam when the world is making him be Methos. Also, there are swords. :)I am not watching Queen of Swords. Well, not this week, anyway. (There's always Cold Squad. Which, I imagine, has more dignity. But fewer cravats. Decisions, decisions...)
