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100 days of enemy recs: 86. Highlander
He is Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander. Born in 1592 in the Highlands of Scotland and he is still alive. He is immortal. For 400 years he's been a warrior, a lover, a wanderer, constantly facing other immortals in a combat to the death. The winner takes his enemy's head and with it his power. I am a Watcher, part of a secret society of men and women who observe and record, but never interfere. We know the truth about immortals. In the end, there can be only one. May it be Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander.
That's it, that's all the show knowledge you need! That's all the average episode assumed you would know, anyway.
Except you need to know about Methos too. Methos is the World's Oldest Immortal (tm). He is mostly interested in being left alone and being a troll, in that order. People shipped him a lot with Duncan MacLeod, for fairly obvious onscreen reasons. The fic often had a massive dose of enemyslash to it, for slightly more complicated reasons. (Okay, the average Methos episode did have the format of 'Methos and MacLeod are the best of friends, they get into a spat about ethics, somebody else loses their head, Methos and MacLeod make up over murder', and there was the two-parter where MacLeod went evil and Methos had to save him, and the two-parter where Methos went evil and MacLeod had to save him, but other than that, honestly! they generally get on fairly well. As much as Immortals can, in a world where all Immortals more-or-less believe that they are trapped in a winner-take-all battle royale with each other.)
But a lot of the Methos/Mac fic went all in on the "Mac and Methos don't trust each other" in a way that felt really off-model when I actually watched the show? (And I have watched the whole show! It holds up better than, frankly, it has any right to.)
The real interesting enemies/lovers/friends dynamic here is with the Watchers. Joe is a Watcher. The Watchers are sworn never to interfere in Immortals' affairs, but they are also being slowly taken over, interally, by a faction that wants to murder Immortals for their own ends, and Joe has to constantly battle his love for his Immortal friends with his loyalty to the Watchers. Meanwhile. Methos has been living undercover as a mortal Watcher under the name Adam Pierson, and is happy to juggle his two opposing identities of Immortal and Watcher as long as he can get away with it. There is some really interesting complicated stuff there. (Also I ship it. A lot. And Joe is one of my favorite characters, ever.)
I feel like I'm not going to do justice to this recs set though because Highlander fandom isn't one that moved wholesale to AO3, and what is up there is mostly by still-very-active authors I've used in other fandoms, and huge swathes of the old fandom have just disappeared, and I never kept good enough records because Highlander fandom just seemed like it would always be there for me, waiting. But here are three good stories that deal with Watcher and Immortal conflicts of loyalty.
That's it, that's all the show knowledge you need! That's all the average episode assumed you would know, anyway.
Except you need to know about Methos too. Methos is the World's Oldest Immortal (tm). He is mostly interested in being left alone and being a troll, in that order. People shipped him a lot with Duncan MacLeod, for fairly obvious onscreen reasons. The fic often had a massive dose of enemyslash to it, for slightly more complicated reasons. (Okay, the average Methos episode did have the format of 'Methos and MacLeod are the best of friends, they get into a spat about ethics, somebody else loses their head, Methos and MacLeod make up over murder', and there was the two-parter where MacLeod went evil and Methos had to save him, and the two-parter where Methos went evil and MacLeod had to save him, but other than that, honestly! they generally get on fairly well. As much as Immortals can, in a world where all Immortals more-or-less believe that they are trapped in a winner-take-all battle royale with each other.)
But a lot of the Methos/Mac fic went all in on the "Mac and Methos don't trust each other" in a way that felt really off-model when I actually watched the show? (And I have watched the whole show! It holds up better than, frankly, it has any right to.)
The real interesting enemies/lovers/friends dynamic here is with the Watchers. Joe is a Watcher. The Watchers are sworn never to interfere in Immortals' affairs, but they are also being slowly taken over, interally, by a faction that wants to murder Immortals for their own ends, and Joe has to constantly battle his love for his Immortal friends with his loyalty to the Watchers. Meanwhile. Methos has been living undercover as a mortal Watcher under the name Adam Pierson, and is happy to juggle his two opposing identities of Immortal and Watcher as long as he can get away with it. There is some really interesting complicated stuff there. (Also I ship it. A lot. And Joe is one of my favorite characters, ever.)
I feel like I'm not going to do justice to this recs set though because Highlander fandom isn't one that moved wholesale to AO3, and what is up there is mostly by still-very-active authors I've used in other fandoms, and huge swathes of the old fandom have just disappeared, and I never kept good enough records because Highlander fandom just seemed like it would always be there for me, waiting. But here are three good stories that deal with Watcher and Immortal conflicts of loyalty.
- Shades and Echoes (28308 words) by auberus
Chapters: 19/?
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hints of slash - Relationship
Characters: Methos, Duncan MacLeod, Connor MacLeod, Joe Dawson, Amanda Darieux, Hugh Fitzcairn, Don Salzer, Darius
Additional Tags: AU
Summary:In which Duncan meets Adam Pierson a little earlier than he did in canon, and promptly takes the 'new' Immortal under his wing.
- Immortal Haven (29506 words) by jtt
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Highlander: The Series, Highlander - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Methos, Joe Dawson, Immortals and Watchers, Amy Brennan-Thomas
Additional Tags: Methos' past, advanced ancient cultures, Immortals as valuable members of society, Amy Zoll, Timothy Wyatt, Let's go spelunking people, Methos exposed as Methos to Watchers previous to this story, Methos' early years, Watchers, get their comeuppance, Identity Reveal
Summary:The Watchers know who Methos is now, but as Joe warned them - they can't Watch someone they can't find. Finally, Methos is spotted at an archeology site... a 5,000 year old cave settlement to be exact. Set in 2000, but before the Endgame movie.
- Worth Having (3171 words) by Maygra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Joe Dawson, Methos, Methos/Joe implied
Additional Tags: Gen or Pre-Slash, Community: Sweet Charity, 2008
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