Highlander Fandom Rant
Ye’ve been warned. Non-specific discussion of a fandom’s reaction to a character doing Bad Things below (tw: rape)
So I’ve been re-reading and trolling through my ill-maintained bookmarks from the last 10 years of my fic reading life, trying to figure out what I want to rec, and what I wish I could pretend I never liked in the first place.
And I just need to … say somethings, Highlander fandom. I really do. I know I’m like 15 years to late, but I can’t help it.
Remember that plot line where Methos is revealed to have done Very Bad Things several thousand years ago, but because of immortality! one of his victims is still alive and kicking? Yeah that happened on the show. Also on the show, Cassandra, his victim, tries to get what we’re told is “revenge,” (because that’s not at all like what any of the male characters do but call keeping the world safe, nope /sarcasm) but is effectively sent home because a certain someone (Duncan. It was Duncan. It’s always Duncan) “wanted him to live” and told her not to kill him when she, understandably, wanted to cut his head off. He tells her not to kill her abuser, and she disappears off the set and off the show. (AHAHAHAH) The end.
Yeah that was bad, show. Like, really, really, really fucking bad. But I watched it in High School. I didn’t know any better. I, like folks with Severus Snape, saw him as a misunderstood guy. I was convinced, like the audience and other characters were meant to be convinced, that because it happened a Very Long Time Ago, it was okay. He was a different person now.
A) that’s bullshit, but that’s the show. That’s canon. I’m not here to bitch about that.
B) I’m here to bitch about the fandom reaction.
(Small caveat: I am not part of the HL fandom. I only binge read every few years.)
Fandom, what the actual fuck????????
I’ve read several, that is, MANY, fic (often epic length) where Cassandra is basically the boogyman, this character who appears some time later to kidnap Methos and torture him for his offenses against her. Which I am super down with, btw. Get it, girl.
But that’s not the end. I’d be more than fine if that were the end. But no. The end is that she’s depicted as having gone insane, torturing him for no reason whatsoever, unlike Methos, who tortured her to stay alive (and he’s 99% always painted in a sympathetic light, with a story of how he himself was abused first, and abusing her was some kind of self defense for his own horrible situation). And like, 90% of those stories end with Duncan MacLeod of the fucking Clan MacLeod killing her to rescue Methos from her wichly grasp. (Sidenote…. her being a witch is actually canon… that is no coincidence I think >___> That’s right 1990s TV show. I’m side eyeing you.)
I get it. Methos is a popular character and people were probably a bit struck on the head with NOPES when this plot was unveiled. But guess what? Killing the woman he abused in fic and writing her as mentally ill to make it justifiable?
REALLY FUCKING NOT COOL. AHHHHHHHHH!
(Crossposted to Tumblr)