Highlander season 3 The Lamb
Jan. 16th, 2006 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethReview under cut, because I realised how much I've been posting per day lately
This one is kind of boring if you know the twist already.
I have to say
"Is Duncan showing you a good time?"
struck me as a very dodgy thing to say to the apparently 10 year old
but I have a very dirty mind
*watches more*
...
"How about I show you how to handle yourself"
...
*not giggling... no, nope, not...*
this... this they did by accident?
okay, okay, still just me, right?
*giggles*
More seriously
this one follows on in interesting ways from 'Rites of Passage', with the guy treating her like a newbie
and UCoA, and any ep where Immortals treat Richie as young
How did they know?
Well, they didn't. They made logical guesses from cues. Which can be faked.
Previously old Immortals have mostly looked older than Mac
but this plays with perception in much more interesting ways.
When the 'kid' takes the Quickening he looks kinda old for a while. That was freaky and interesting.
Being snuck up on by an Immortal is hard.
And a really embarrassing way to end 20 years of hunting him.
You can see the frustration though. Like in Roger Rabbit, old lust, young dinky. Got to wind you up. Still, mini serial killer is not the only way to go.
He could get some ID and claim to be a midget. Harder, but sell it right and it could work. And he's got pretty good at selling a particular image.
Probably wouldn't solve the dating problem though. I was saying today to someone, 17 is scary young for getting married even from my grand age of 28. Someone who looks 10 is not going to look dateable to me, whatever their papers say.
Duncan's speech about Kenny just trying to survive is wrong. Kenny has the option of Holy Ground, just like every Immortal. Instead he decides to hunt, because he likes the lifestyle better.
But just to make it really clear, as in totally black and white clear, they put the mortal angle in. Killing mortals is Wrong.
But killing Immortals is Survival?
Bollocks.
There are reasons to kill. The Game is not on the list. Every time an Immortal comes out with 'There Can Be Only One' as their only reason they're just losing all moral high ground. Even if its Duncan. They don't have to play the Game to survive.
While I'm here, my mini speech about resources and the rule of law - the only thing stopping the mortal world from dealing with Immortals under the same rules as mortals is knowledge.
Immortals can escape from the morgue easier than prison, so they die their way out.
Except for that guy in Lady & The Tiger. Who had to escape the complicated way, via pretend insanity. So even without the key knowledge, mortals were handling that one guy pretty well for years.
If they knew? Prison for Immortals too.
And the whole decapitation bit loses its chance to be the right solution. Because if an individual can't lock up a criminal, it may be the only way to stop them. But if society can restrain them perfectly well, it is simply vengeance.
Of course the Quickening complicates matters. If an Immortal dies alone all that they are is lost for all time, and all that they carry with them. Very bad for the race. Especially since some Immortals think Quickening=soul, which would logically mean that their afterlife is inside the guy that killed them. Creepy, but makes it rather important.
Put them in prison under someone else control, away from their own kind, and the Quickening might be lost, in an accident even. Put them in prison *with* their own kind... well, it seems unlikely the place would ever suffer from overcrowding, if only the right bastards were in there. Unless of course it was built on holy ground. That should work. But leaves what they carry out of circulation, which might be significant - it isn't doing anything.
And the mortal reaction to Immortality complicates matters too. Beyond tolerance, beyond chance of survival. A certain proportion of them will react like Hunters, and try to kill the different. A certain proportion will react like the crazy doctor in the first season, and lock the Immortals up to experiment on them. If that proportion is a majority, or in power, they can get the law on their side, and after that its numbers and stars and probable death for an entire race.
And once a secret is out it doesn't tend to go back. In the Buffyverse demons got forgotten somehow, but in the Buffyverse there is magic that can make that happen. Highlander? No such magic, far as we know. One at a time hypnosis at best. So they can't afford to be found out, because it could be the end of all of them.
Which leaves them trying to clear up their own messes. And killing those that need stopping.
However, if Immortals cooperated, pooled their resources, they could act like a small nation, and build their own prisons. Or, if they're complete bastards, they can dump people down wells, which has the same effect for much less effort. Decapitating their enemies isn't the only possible solution. It isn't even the only one a man alone can manage (see: well, dumping down). But it is the one they go with.
Why?
Because the Quickening feels good?
Because locking people up, potentially for eternity, is worse than killing them?
Because they can't be saved?
Or because they 'deserve' death?
None of that seems like good reasons to me.
In the moment, one on one with a guy trying to kill you, self defence can mean killing a guy. But as deliberate policy, as a means of control? Barbaric.
So, you know, I'm probably watching the wrong show for me...
This one is kind of boring if you know the twist already.
I have to say
"Is Duncan showing you a good time?"
struck me as a very dodgy thing to say to the apparently 10 year old
but I have a very dirty mind
*watches more*
...
"How about I show you how to handle yourself"
...
*not giggling... no, nope, not...*
this... this they did by accident?
okay, okay, still just me, right?
More seriously
this one follows on in interesting ways from 'Rites of Passage', with the guy treating her like a newbie
and UCoA, and any ep where Immortals treat Richie as young
How did they know?
Well, they didn't. They made logical guesses from cues. Which can be faked.
Previously old Immortals have mostly looked older than Mac
but this plays with perception in much more interesting ways.
When the 'kid' takes the Quickening he looks kinda old for a while. That was freaky and interesting.
Being snuck up on by an Immortal is hard.
And a really embarrassing way to end 20 years of hunting him.
You can see the frustration though. Like in Roger Rabbit, old lust, young dinky. Got to wind you up. Still, mini serial killer is not the only way to go.
He could get some ID and claim to be a midget. Harder, but sell it right and it could work. And he's got pretty good at selling a particular image.
Probably wouldn't solve the dating problem though. I was saying today to someone, 17 is scary young for getting married even from my grand age of 28. Someone who looks 10 is not going to look dateable to me, whatever their papers say.
Duncan's speech about Kenny just trying to survive is wrong. Kenny has the option of Holy Ground, just like every Immortal. Instead he decides to hunt, because he likes the lifestyle better.
But just to make it really clear, as in totally black and white clear, they put the mortal angle in. Killing mortals is Wrong.
But killing Immortals is Survival?
Bollocks.
There are reasons to kill. The Game is not on the list. Every time an Immortal comes out with 'There Can Be Only One' as their only reason they're just losing all moral high ground. Even if its Duncan. They don't have to play the Game to survive.
While I'm here, my mini speech about resources and the rule of law - the only thing stopping the mortal world from dealing with Immortals under the same rules as mortals is knowledge.
Immortals can escape from the morgue easier than prison, so they die their way out.
Except for that guy in Lady & The Tiger. Who had to escape the complicated way, via pretend insanity. So even without the key knowledge, mortals were handling that one guy pretty well for years.
If they knew? Prison for Immortals too.
And the whole decapitation bit loses its chance to be the right solution. Because if an individual can't lock up a criminal, it may be the only way to stop them. But if society can restrain them perfectly well, it is simply vengeance.
Of course the Quickening complicates matters. If an Immortal dies alone all that they are is lost for all time, and all that they carry with them. Very bad for the race. Especially since some Immortals think Quickening=soul, which would logically mean that their afterlife is inside the guy that killed them. Creepy, but makes it rather important.
Put them in prison under someone else control, away from their own kind, and the Quickening might be lost, in an accident even. Put them in prison *with* their own kind... well, it seems unlikely the place would ever suffer from overcrowding, if only the right bastards were in there. Unless of course it was built on holy ground. That should work. But leaves what they carry out of circulation, which might be significant - it isn't doing anything.
And the mortal reaction to Immortality complicates matters too. Beyond tolerance, beyond chance of survival. A certain proportion of them will react like Hunters, and try to kill the different. A certain proportion will react like the crazy doctor in the first season, and lock the Immortals up to experiment on them. If that proportion is a majority, or in power, they can get the law on their side, and after that its numbers and stars and probable death for an entire race.
And once a secret is out it doesn't tend to go back. In the Buffyverse demons got forgotten somehow, but in the Buffyverse there is magic that can make that happen. Highlander? No such magic, far as we know. One at a time hypnosis at best. So they can't afford to be found out, because it could be the end of all of them.
Which leaves them trying to clear up their own messes. And killing those that need stopping.
However, if Immortals cooperated, pooled their resources, they could act like a small nation, and build their own prisons. Or, if they're complete bastards, they can dump people down wells, which has the same effect for much less effort. Decapitating their enemies isn't the only possible solution. It isn't even the only one a man alone can manage (see: well, dumping down). But it is the one they go with.
Why?
Because the Quickening feels good?
Because locking people up, potentially for eternity, is worse than killing them?
Because they can't be saved?
Or because they 'deserve' death?
None of that seems like good reasons to me.
In the moment, one on one with a guy trying to kill you, self defence can mean killing a guy. But as deliberate policy, as a means of control? Barbaric.
So, you know, I'm probably watching the wrong show for me...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
I think...
Date: 2006-01-17 11:50 am (UTC)And I'm totally with you, that part of HL mythology has never sat right with me, either. To me, immortality makes much more sense as a fluke of nature than as something instituted - presumably - by Higher Forces to find a Champion For Mankind or whatever. And the further they go down that road (and any kind of mythological road, really - hated the whole demon arc, too), the less I can accept it as canon. One of my problems with HL. (There are more.)
Re: I think...
Date: 2006-01-18 05:28 pm (UTC)the thing of it is if they had the Game as a thing that was, rather than a thing that should be, I'd have no trouble with it. Once people start to play that way it makes sense it would continue, and once people find out how a Quickening feels it makes sense they'd play that way. Imposing this thing from above as The Way Things Must Be is actually unnecessary. Is also annoying. It limits the kinds of stories that can be told.
TCBOO and the demon thing are starting from plot setup, but the stories I like just started from character. Squishing characters to fit plots doesn't feel right to me.