The First Evil in the Highlander 'verse?
Feb. 8th, 2006 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethHighlander season 5 as an arc - there's faith, belief, delusion, illusion, hallucination, trading on Names, and in a bit there's the 'would you jump off a cliff because your friend did' thing. And just now, Richie nearly getting killed because he believes the wrong guy. There's also the usual why kill, why not kill bit. The give peace a chance chant.
So, does it specifically lead up to Archangel?
Thing is, I've never seen the ep. But I've read about it, a lot. Read a summary thing. So, it seems to me that a lot of those things play in Archangel. I mean, Richie believed in Mac, so he hung around and got killed. Mac was hallucinating. The First Evil called itself all sorts of big names, like Ahriman and that lot.
Having seen the First Evil in the Buffyverse, I'm actually tempted to watch episodes I know I'm going to hate, just to figure out how plausible it is that Highlander-Ahriman is Buffyverse-First. I mean iirc it has the incorporeal appearing as dead people thing, yes? Or, specifically, people who have died, which naturally includes every Immortal who walks. And there were things that appeared to happen but then hadn't, like when the First was messing with Dawn.
In the Buffyverse the First tried to get Angel to kill Buffy, and when that didn't work was happy when Angel tried to take himself out of the game - tried to kill himself.
Archangel - got Mac to kill Richie, with the probable outcome of driving him mad, taking him out of the Game. Mac went pacifist for a while, yesno? When I say 'never saw it never happened' about season 6 I'm being literal.
Highlander preferred reading has it that Mac was some kind of Champion and defeated Ahriman.
But if you read the thing as the Buffyverse First, you get a whole different reading, where Mac actually lost very badly.
Which is still preferable to the only version that makes sense within the Highlander 'verse as it stood before that episode, which is that Mac finally lost his last marble and killed his friend. After a bunch of episodes that equate newbie with child and student with offspring, so it was his student/child/son killed. Which is Very Veeeeery Bad in previous eps, and drove that other guy to amnesiac insanity.
See, this is why I hate the eps - not just that Richie died, but that it wrecked either the basic premis of the 'verse, the protagonist, or both, depending how you read it.
Too much magic just distorted everything. Great big mess.
But I haven't seen them, so I'm not entirely sure of how any of it works. And I feel vaguely guilty criticising what I won't watch.
But the reason I've not seen them is the same reason I'm never watching Endgame - stupidity like that doesn't get to get in my head, or make nightmares there, thankyou. No need to watch people die badly. Everyone who I tend to agree with says its all badness, all the summaries I've read... when I first got to fandom and found them, I honestly thought they were bad parody fanfic. It just sounds all kinds of bad. And some parts are so bad I just don't remember them unless I look stuff up. They won't stick to the other Highlander knowledge in my head.
But then I get thoughts, and they wander off being all complicated on next to no data. :-/
So, does it specifically lead up to Archangel?
Thing is, I've never seen the ep. But I've read about it, a lot. Read a summary thing. So, it seems to me that a lot of those things play in Archangel. I mean, Richie believed in Mac, so he hung around and got killed. Mac was hallucinating. The First Evil called itself all sorts of big names, like Ahriman and that lot.
Having seen the First Evil in the Buffyverse, I'm actually tempted to watch episodes I know I'm going to hate, just to figure out how plausible it is that Highlander-Ahriman is Buffyverse-First. I mean iirc it has the incorporeal appearing as dead people thing, yes? Or, specifically, people who have died, which naturally includes every Immortal who walks. And there were things that appeared to happen but then hadn't, like when the First was messing with Dawn.
In the Buffyverse the First tried to get Angel to kill Buffy, and when that didn't work was happy when Angel tried to take himself out of the game - tried to kill himself.
Archangel - got Mac to kill Richie, with the probable outcome of driving him mad, taking him out of the Game. Mac went pacifist for a while, yesno? When I say 'never saw it never happened' about season 6 I'm being literal.
Highlander preferred reading has it that Mac was some kind of Champion and defeated Ahriman.
But if you read the thing as the Buffyverse First, you get a whole different reading, where Mac actually lost very badly.
Which is still preferable to the only version that makes sense within the Highlander 'verse as it stood before that episode, which is that Mac finally lost his last marble and killed his friend. After a bunch of episodes that equate newbie with child and student with offspring, so it was his student/child/son killed. Which is Very Veeeeery Bad in previous eps, and drove that other guy to amnesiac insanity.
See, this is why I hate the eps - not just that Richie died, but that it wrecked either the basic premis of the 'verse, the protagonist, or both, depending how you read it.
Too much magic just distorted everything. Great big mess.
But I haven't seen them, so I'm not entirely sure of how any of it works. And I feel vaguely guilty criticising what I won't watch.
But the reason I've not seen them is the same reason I'm never watching Endgame - stupidity like that doesn't get to get in my head, or make nightmares there, thankyou. No need to watch people die badly. Everyone who I tend to agree with says its all badness, all the summaries I've read... when I first got to fandom and found them, I honestly thought they were bad parody fanfic. It just sounds all kinds of bad. And some parts are so bad I just don't remember them unless I look stuff up. They won't stick to the other Highlander knowledge in my head.
But then I get thoughts, and they wander off being all complicated on next to no data. :-/
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 08:42 pm (UTC)This is true. And in Highlander, the rules of Ahriman are basically the same. Except for when Richie "sees" Horton grab Joe and kidnap him, when Joe was back at the barge. Based on that, Ahriman can appear as people who are still alive.
Personally, I also thought there was an Ahriman/First Evil connection.
The way they resolve the whole Ahriman thing is a big let down, too.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 09:04 pm (UTC)Plus he got blowed up that time when he was young, and you never know how close to dead he got.
... okay, stretching the canon a teensy...
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 09:11 pm (UTC)Yes, from what I remember he was basically at death's door, but forgot to ring the doorbell back in Vietnam. An Immortal gave him a piggy back ride to safety.
Oh, and when you watch season 6, there is a temptation scene for Joe coming up. All I'll say is it's heartbreaking.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 09:23 pm (UTC)On the one hand, Alexis Denisof, Claudia Christian and the Adam&Joe episode.
on the other, I have Adam&Joe on tape around here somewhere, and haven't heard anything good about the plot of any other episode in the season.
So I'm more likely to dust off the VCR and dig through the tape pile for that last ep.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 09:34 pm (UTC)Alexis Denisof plays a young drug addicted son of a very rich man. He runs over an Immortal's wife in a hit and run. That's a good episode.
The final two episodes are pretty good too, in a sort of a twist on It's A Wonderful Life. (The eps are "To Be", and "Or Not To Be".)
And I'm willing to give you spoilers of just how bad the whole Ahriman saga got, if you like.