canon is a strange concept

Comics canon is a strange sort of thing.
someone can say "She's usually depicted as a short-tempered, blood-thirsty bitch, and she's not."
and theres a bunch of different ways that comment can actually be sensible.

like for characters that have their own title but get mangled out of it. or have a bad writer on theirs but make sense in teams. or pre/post reboot of some sort. or...

see? defining canon in comics is strange.

I'm back in Highlander right now and remembering how discussions only make sense if you make clear how much or what is available you're using as canon right then. I mean, just trying to explain which Highlander was married...!

My Highlander canon must leave out everything including and after The Bad Thing happened to Richie, except for the episode Indiscretions. Otherwise I have to really hate Mac and think he should be locked up in a mental hospital. Which is no fun at all.
And obviously the films before the series aren't canon. Except for the bits that got referenced in canon, like Kurgan getting killed. So, less obvious. Er...

Comics canon? Wouldn't know how to describe it. DCU, I've read all the JL after Crisis, and nothing before it, so, post-Crisis is canon. Except for Blue Beetle, where some bits from the previous company are interesting and useful.

See, those two words are key.
Interesting and useful.
If you can pull together a story from all the interesting and useful parts, yaaays.
If it contradicts the boring bits... current DC editorial staff decided that didn't matter. Many readers went grrrr. So boring and useless must be taken account of. Except that means reading it first. Or possibly reading the website of people who didn't find it boring or useless.

I'm just going to go away again without conclusions. Is too messy.

Highlander season 3: the last 3

Reasonable Doubt
nature/nurture debate
no fate but what you make. but who makes you?
there's thinky stuff in there but I'm not into it today.

so

Finale I & II

also has thinky bits
how far to go to keep a secret? martyr / only ones happy were the lions. *says the man who allegedly offered his head to Mac last time he was there*!

And then I start thinking about Methos and the whole thing turns into

HAPPY BOUNCY SQEE!!!!!!

so, erm, not so thinky.

Methos cute. And smart. And just a guy. And so many contradictions but they all fit together. And... I could go on like this all day.

Also, Amanda. *Legs*. Pretty Amanda. And flexible.
:)

Methos and Amanda in the same episode :)

"If you die, Amanda will be free to date."
so Methos is interested

and I get a whole set of *pretty* images

Just... there were so many good moments in these two. Lovely character bits and good fights and *REALLY* big kabooms for the Quickening. Gorgeous!

I love these episodes.



there's also a trivial observation I've been meaning to make for most of the season. About the clothes.

In Dogma all the angels wore hooded tops underneath their coats. The wardrobe designer did that because (a) really old and (b) monks, both ways hooded robes.
So what are Mac and Methos wearing this ep?
Hoods under coats.
So now I'm wondering, was that on purpose for the same reasons?


Mostly I'm thinking

Methos!

Amanda!

*dead from pretty*



Actually, I'm also noticing that I actually prefer older Methos. Or Tanith. Or PW the way he looked at the last convention. This early Methos looks all... young. And, okay, still pretty, but he gets prettier.
*shrugs*
I change?


Anyways, good eps, lovely end to the season.

Highlander season 4: Homeland

pretty
this time, the scenery

this one is full of background for Duncan
lots of little details
more stuff about where he came from

and finally they have a mother!
(I commented a few episodes back about how HL really a lot lacks mothers)
so, his mother didn't kick him out. she just couldn't do much when he father did.
and its because of his mother he introduces himself as he does despite the banishment.

lots of fiddly bits like that.

I guess it would be cooler if I was more of a Mac fan.

There's some thinky/complex in this. The different gods. Old style Odin worship being rather incompatible with modern mores.

I was very grrrr he pretend to be a priest. That is out of order. I mean it makes me a little edgy when people pretend for drama, because some things are important (I feel the same about fake uniforms, wearing badges they haven't earned, that stuff.) Partly its because I like things clearly labelled, and deliberately false labels are just Wrong. But mostly its because this stuff is central to some people, this is their faith and heart and forever. Pretending for TV can respect that. Pretending in order to use people? Grrrrrr. Very grrrrr.

Also, I'm not so sure Odin would be best pleased at saying prayers to other gods, even if they were fake. Not sure though. I don't know Odin very well. I think I recall him being tricksy as well as wise.
Also, violent. Big on battle. Picked out dead guys for his army.
Which rather puts me off praying to him, because surely logically its all good for him, if his followers lose as sure as if they win?
*looks stuff up*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin
God of victory. and fury. and bunches of other stuff. got complicated.
Was the dude with Valhalla.
wiki says "Odin was the only god in Scandinavian mythology to demand human sacrifice"
aha, also says
"More significantly, however, it has been argued that the killing of a combatant in battle was to give a sacrificial offering to Odin. The fickleness of Odin in battle was well-documented, and in Lokasenna, Loki taunts Odin for his inconsistency."
I probably read that before somewhere.
Odin is a worrying sort of god. The wisdom bit sounds good, but the eye and the hanging and the rest, not so much sounding good.



The Quickening was pretty. They put some work into that one. Big fight, fire, moon, all very mythic.


Nice episode.

Highlander season 4: Brothers in Arms

There's thinky stuff in this one
but mostly I'm left thinking
Joe Dawson is one hell of an interesting character

owe you my life, not his

that whole dilemma he was stuck with

is great.

Bringing back Charlie solely to kill him, not so great.
And what happened to the peace they were supposed to be building anyway?
Yeah, I know, but it would have been a nicer ending.

The Quickening was good again. They really work at keeping them individual.

Mac's little 'we're different' speech at the end is such bollocks, though. That same situation could have come up with another Immortal. Joe being mortal had bugger all to do with it. Mac was just hurting and decided to put the knife in where Joe couldn't deny it.

Sometimes it gets hard to like Mac.



Actually, I kind of want to write Joe Dawson as the other kind of Watcher now. ( Read more... )

Highlander season 4: The Innocent

I really shouldn't have rewatched this one
I really hate it
what they did this episode was just wrong

so now I'm crying and really annoyed

So, the situation is, special needs Immortal. Train obsessed, sits and rocks, stronger than he knows how to deal with. Richie finds him, tries to look after him. Tyler King (played by Callum Keith Rennie) finds him and decides since he is damaged goods anyway he might as well be the one to kill him. Richie takes him to Mac for help and advice. And what does Mac do?
Talk Richie into killing him.
( Read more... )

This one was just wrong. The guy could have lived on Holy Ground. But instead they let him kill himself.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.


I know its 'only' a story but its a stupid upsetting one.

Highlander season 4: Leader of the Pack

"Where's the justice in all this?"
"There is no justice. There's just mercy."

{er, actually I might have flubbed the quote}

that made me want to punch Mac. After last week he can say that?

but ignoring that


The dog-guy plot was twisted but interesting. Was he cheating? Well, using mortals is cheating, using a sword isn't. Are dogs more like mortals or swords?
Personally I think he was cheating. But creatively. So fair enough. On to other ethical issues.
Like, poor doggies! He put them in danger! Made them get shot, made them get run over. They could have been stuck with swords and all sorts! If he really liked dogs like he said he did, he shouldn't ought to do that.

Personally I think dogs are large carnivores with minds of their own, so, scary.


The script stuck together well. Mares and stallions, dogs and bitch. Life insurance, earthquake insurance.

did the Mac plot and the Richie plot stick together?
not so very.
I mean Richie called that guy a son of a bitch a lot, but other than that *shrugs*


New rule of Quickenings - nothing should float. Emphatically including houses. That was just silly.

er, the dogs were still in the house at the time.
I'm trying desperately not to make an 'earth moved' joke...


Richie is a 'touch the electric fence' kind of guy. Mac is the kind of guy who tries to give orders. They're never quite going to mesh.
So, Richie got the 'two wrongs don't make a right' lesson.


So was letting that guy go the right thing to do?
I'm pretty sure the police wouldn't think so.
He did crime, he should do time.

Why does Mac think so? The baby? But he doesn't know anything about this guy. Except that he has killed once. And Richie finds out he did drugs back then. So from these facts they get to 'but he'll be a great father'??? I think they're privileging biology just a teensy bit too much there.
The girl thinks he is a good guy. She thinks he could never kill.
He did kill. She don't know him.
Do they tell her? Or did they let her live with a killer without knowing? Because that would be flat wrong.


lots of thinky stuff in that half.

Richie's bit was an Immortal story solely because he survived, and kept things secret. I don't understand *why* secret. Holes in clothes? Worried he'd tell? But apparently, secret. (Ignorance is poison).

Mac's story was an Immortal story because the dog guy played the game. But it weren't very personal to Mac. It was just another guy he once pissed off.

Dog guy thinks of his dogs as family. Mac killed a dog. Mac killed part of his family. Its just a teensy bit too much for sanity though, to compare that to the Tessa story, so I wouldn't call that a connection.


And the Joe and Duncan fighting bit keeps going. Angst and woe. Eeesh.


all in all, good episode. Solid Richie character moments.