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reccing my old fandoms
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buzzylittleb, I have embarked on the fun and amusing task of compiling recs of the fandoms I have visited since discovering the phenomenon of fanfiction about 5 years ago. (Wow, was it that recently? It feels a lot longer!)
So it makes sense to start with the first fandom I ever stumbled across, Highlander. The post was getting pretty long, so I'm going to split it into two or three, starting with my attempt to explain the complicated background of the HL fandom.
Right then. Highlander began life as a 1986 movie starring Christopher Lambert, a French actor, as the eponymous Scottish hero and the very Scottish Sean Connery as an Egyptian by way of Spain. Confused yet? This initial film was followed by 3 sequels of varying quality and a 6 season TV series with one short-lived spin-off, much to the surprise of the fans. Not because the film wasn’t good, but for canonical reasons that I’ll try to make clear below.
The basic premise is this: there is a race of beings called Immortals. Nothing is known of their origins as they are always foundlings and they live and grow as normal until they undergo a violent death. Only they don’t stay dead, and never will from that point unless they are decapitated. Luckily they also don’t age or people would start wondering who all the really wrinkly folks were... When they get decapitated, it releases an energy (called the Quickening) that is never really explained but seems to be their life force and to be responsible for their ability to heal extremely fast from all non-decapitating wounds or diseases. If they were beheaded by another Immortal, or possibly if there is one close enough (once again, the rules aren’t particularly clear), that energy is absorbed by the non-beheaded Immortal in a display of special effects lightening type things. The strength of the Quickening is generally taken to increase with age, the number of Quickenings the Immortal has taken and how strong those Quickenings were. Immortals can also sense each other from a distance that seems to vary with the Quickening strength of the parties involved in a nice little early warning system. With me so far?
Naturally, some Immortals get rather into the habit of beheading others for the power, or possibly the sheer thrill (most of the Quickening sequences tend to look, um, orgasmic) and there is a strong suggestion, in fanfic at least, that it also may make them pretty darn horny. There is also some suggestion that the personality or some memories of the Quickening’s previous owner may carry over for a while and the beheader may have to fight to subdue them. Add into that something called the Game, which states that in the end there can be only one Immortal who will gain some sort of Prize (generally thought to be all the power of all the Immortals who have ever lived) and you get a bunch of people who tend to carry very large swords around and are just a bit paranoid because they might get challenged to a fight to the death at any moment. There are some rules for the Game that basically boil down to "don’t lose your head" and "don’t fight on Holy Ground" (apparently Vesuvius erupting was caused by an Immortal squabble in a temple). The nicer Immies, i.e. the ones that don’t run around lopping off heads willy-nilly, tend to add in things like only fighting one on one, not cheating by shooting someone instead of fighting and teaching new Immortals how to fight and survive. Some of them also try to clean house and get rid of the nastier types to make sure the Prize isn’t won by a total murdering bastard. There is also apparently going to be something called the Gathering when Immortals will feel a pull together to fight for the Prize.
To get back to the original sources, the first film was a decent action/adventure with a cool idea behind it and a rocking Queen soundtrack. It ended with Connor MacLeod (Mr Lambert) beheading a really nasty piece of work called the Kurgan, leaving Connor as the last Immortal and in possession of the Prize. Which you wouldn’t think would leave much room for sequels, really. Unfortunately, the Powers That Be didn’t agree and came up with a mess of a film (Highlander II: The Quickening in 1991) that went all bad science-fictiony and starred Lambert and Connery again, despite the fact that Sean Connery’s character had been dead for several centuries at the end of the first film. And that is only a taste of the plot’s giant holes in logic. Once again, at the end of the film Connor was left as the last Immortal. Cue Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994) where it turns out that, oops, sorry, he wasn’t actually because there were some more that had been trapped in a magical cave (seriously) and they obviously couldn’t be included in the count until they escaped, see? It was a better film than II though, and at the end Connor had definitely won the Prize (honest).
Or not. Because in 1992 the TV series began, starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, born in 1592 and taught the ways of Immortal life by his elder clansman Connor. Which only makes any sense if you think of it as being in an alternate universe to the films, since there are quite a lot of Immortals running about in the series (at least one other per episode) and that completely contradicts the plots of all three of the movies. Poor Duncan had rather a nasty time of it for 6 years, having to fight for his life at least every few weeks, often being forced to kill people he used to consider friends and generally suffering enough tragedy to cause a couple of nervous breakdowns. Though he did get to have sex with many beautiful women, do some really cool things with swords, have a fair number of light-hearted flashbacks and wear lots of comedy hats and hairstyles, so it wasn’t all bad.
Then came Highlander IV: Endgame (2000), the latest (and hopefully last) film, which featured both Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul. Fan hopes were high but the PTB managed to completely miss the opportunity and the finished product was... well, dire. The only bright spots were the fights, particularly the one between Paul and the martial arts star Donnie Yen, and the chemistry between Paul and Lambert. Unfortunately, both these resources were wasted by the plot, which frankly stunk.
And I'll go on to why I like it and the actual recs in a different post.
buzzylittleb, I have embarked on the fun and amusing task of compiling recs of the fandoms I have visited since discovering the phenomenon of fanfiction about 5 years ago. (Wow, was it that recently? It feels a lot longer!) So it makes sense to start with the first fandom I ever stumbled across, Highlander. The post was getting pretty long, so I'm going to split it into two or three, starting with my attempt to explain the complicated background of the HL fandom.
Right then. Highlander began life as a 1986 movie starring Christopher Lambert, a French actor, as the eponymous Scottish hero and the very Scottish Sean Connery as an Egyptian by way of Spain. Confused yet? This initial film was followed by 3 sequels of varying quality and a 6 season TV series with one short-lived spin-off, much to the surprise of the fans. Not because the film wasn’t good, but for canonical reasons that I’ll try to make clear below.
The basic premise is this: there is a race of beings called Immortals. Nothing is known of their origins as they are always foundlings and they live and grow as normal until they undergo a violent death. Only they don’t stay dead, and never will from that point unless they are decapitated. Luckily they also don’t age or people would start wondering who all the really wrinkly folks were... When they get decapitated, it releases an energy (called the Quickening) that is never really explained but seems to be their life force and to be responsible for their ability to heal extremely fast from all non-decapitating wounds or diseases. If they were beheaded by another Immortal, or possibly if there is one close enough (once again, the rules aren’t particularly clear), that energy is absorbed by the non-beheaded Immortal in a display of special effects lightening type things. The strength of the Quickening is generally taken to increase with age, the number of Quickenings the Immortal has taken and how strong those Quickenings were. Immortals can also sense each other from a distance that seems to vary with the Quickening strength of the parties involved in a nice little early warning system. With me so far?
Naturally, some Immortals get rather into the habit of beheading others for the power, or possibly the sheer thrill (most of the Quickening sequences tend to look, um, orgasmic) and there is a strong suggestion, in fanfic at least, that it also may make them pretty darn horny. There is also some suggestion that the personality or some memories of the Quickening’s previous owner may carry over for a while and the beheader may have to fight to subdue them. Add into that something called the Game, which states that in the end there can be only one Immortal who will gain some sort of Prize (generally thought to be all the power of all the Immortals who have ever lived) and you get a bunch of people who tend to carry very large swords around and are just a bit paranoid because they might get challenged to a fight to the death at any moment. There are some rules for the Game that basically boil down to "don’t lose your head" and "don’t fight on Holy Ground" (apparently Vesuvius erupting was caused by an Immortal squabble in a temple). The nicer Immies, i.e. the ones that don’t run around lopping off heads willy-nilly, tend to add in things like only fighting one on one, not cheating by shooting someone instead of fighting and teaching new Immortals how to fight and survive. Some of them also try to clean house and get rid of the nastier types to make sure the Prize isn’t won by a total murdering bastard. There is also apparently going to be something called the Gathering when Immortals will feel a pull together to fight for the Prize.
To get back to the original sources, the first film was a decent action/adventure with a cool idea behind it and a rocking Queen soundtrack. It ended with Connor MacLeod (Mr Lambert) beheading a really nasty piece of work called the Kurgan, leaving Connor as the last Immortal and in possession of the Prize. Which you wouldn’t think would leave much room for sequels, really. Unfortunately, the Powers That Be didn’t agree and came up with a mess of a film (Highlander II: The Quickening in 1991) that went all bad science-fictiony and starred Lambert and Connery again, despite the fact that Sean Connery’s character had been dead for several centuries at the end of the first film. And that is only a taste of the plot’s giant holes in logic. Once again, at the end of the film Connor was left as the last Immortal. Cue Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994) where it turns out that, oops, sorry, he wasn’t actually because there were some more that had been trapped in a magical cave (seriously) and they obviously couldn’t be included in the count until they escaped, see? It was a better film than II though, and at the end Connor had definitely won the Prize (honest).
Or not. Because in 1992 the TV series began, starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, born in 1592 and taught the ways of Immortal life by his elder clansman Connor. Which only makes any sense if you think of it as being in an alternate universe to the films, since there are quite a lot of Immortals running about in the series (at least one other per episode) and that completely contradicts the plots of all three of the movies. Poor Duncan had rather a nasty time of it for 6 years, having to fight for his life at least every few weeks, often being forced to kill people he used to consider friends and generally suffering enough tragedy to cause a couple of nervous breakdowns. Though he did get to have sex with many beautiful women, do some really cool things with swords, have a fair number of light-hearted flashbacks and wear lots of comedy hats and hairstyles, so it wasn’t all bad.
Then came Highlander IV: Endgame (2000), the latest (and hopefully last) film, which featured both Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul. Fan hopes were high but the PTB managed to completely miss the opportunity and the finished product was... well, dire. The only bright spots were the fights, particularly the one between Paul and the martial arts star Donnie Yen, and the chemistry between Paul and Lambert. Unfortunately, both these resources were wasted by the plot, which frankly stunk.
And I'll go on to why I like it and the actual recs in a different post.