Mm, now that was a fascinating episode. You're right about it being a continuation of the morally gray funtimes, and... yeah. Fascinating. Well, Byron himself was a fascinating person.
I am fascinated by the group dynamics of the people in the flashback: Byron and Methos and Mary and Percy and the other random ladies. Methos seems to stick fairly thoroughly to more conventional morals, and Byron seems to have no patience for such conventions, so it is impressive to me that they are as close as they are. Also: Byron suggested to Methos a threesome with the two of them and Mary. And it appears to me that if Mary hadn't been half-unconscious, but had instead been willing, Methos might even have taken Byron up on it! This is another of those times when I'm like, wow, show, you went there? Applause!
I'm also intrigued by how highly Methos apparently values art: the poems that Byron has written, and the music that he has made and will make (...would have made). But on the other hand, Byron is Methos' friend, and we have seen many times the things Methos is willing to do for people he cares about! So that makes me wonder whether the valuing of art is just something he's saying to try to convince Duncan, as opposed to actually believing it. (I watched a commentary on Youtube that Peter Wingfield had done, for the episode Methos, and he talked about how he's not exactly sure you can ever believe Methos is in earnest about the things he says and does.) But I do like the idea of a Methos who's passionate about art!
Although .. it is clear that no matter how much he cares about Byron (whether as a friend or as an artist), Duncan is infinitely more important. Because when his argument fails, he just lets Duncan go fight Byron, instead of doing something tricksy to make things work out so that everyone lives.
The Mary Shelley of this episode also fascinates me! Although I can't help but feel like this version of events is somehow...insulting Mary's powers of imagination. The implication is quite strong that Mary could not have written Frankenstein without being handed her topic on a platter, as it were.
Also, now I kind of want to see this comic (http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=56) with added Methos. :D
I believe I've mentioned before my awful facial recognition skills. Well, having a character besides Duncan in this episode who had long curly brown hair was a problem. I kept on mistaking Mike for Duncan, in the scenes where Mike had his hair out of his hat. *facepalm*
Methos is basically a lost cause. <333
Yeah, he so is! It is a constant cause of amusement and adoration in me towards him.
I think I actually also ship Duncan/Methos/Amanda in the same way that I ship Fraser/Vecchio/Kowalski. Except it's a very different way from how you ship them... It's basically a situation where I OTP two out of the three people, but then that's being mean to the third person, so I include said third person to make them happy as well. But if the third person can be made happy in some other way instead, then that's good too.
And the canonical Duncan/Amanda relationship is rather interesting anyways. I mean, Amanda feels free to go off with a guy from a club to go have sex with him (even if it ends up actually ending in swords). And Amanda refers to Duncan as her best friend, not her boyfriend. It seems to me that it's actually more of a friends-with-benefits situation than a relationship. Which makes me feel one of two things: one, she'd be totally open to including Methos in the relationship, because it means awesome sex and making Duncan happy and having a sensible person to back her up against Duncan's sometimes ridiculous sense of honour; or two, she wouldn't be left bereft if Duncan and Methos got together, because she'd continue to be close friends with Duncan anyways, and be perfectly happy getting her sex elsewhere.
ANYWAYS. I've possibly been thinking too much about relationship permutations. *cough*
Your description of the roles of the Horsemen is very much YES. So I am VERY HAPPY to hear that there will be flashbacks to them in your fic! \o/
Two: I'd like there to be some reason for that besides plot.
Me too. Very much so. I am working on trying to come up with a theory that actually makes sense of the canon, but...thus far I am not succeeding in coming up with anything reasonable. *sigh*
Three: I know! Methos is FIVE THOUSAND YEARS OLD. That is a LONG time in which to acquire scars! It always makes me sad when creators of a TV show don't think about creating sensible rules for things. And I think this one will be even harder to handwave a reason for than the stuff from point two. *another sigh*
Four: Well, technically speaking, he had me from before I even started watching the first episode, because of your squee and picspam. :D So it doesn't sound at all absurd to me for you to have been caught from that awesome little smile!
Three: And now after this episode I'm wondering, what sort of long-term effects you'd get from drug-use as an immortal. Is the harm it causes you considered minor enough that it heals up? Or are you left with a messed-up brain, for the rest of your extremely long life?
Re: FLAILY TIME!
I am fascinated by the group dynamics of the people in the flashback: Byron and Methos and Mary and Percy and the other random ladies. Methos seems to stick fairly thoroughly to more conventional morals, and Byron seems to have no patience for such conventions, so it is impressive to me that they are as close as they are. Also: Byron suggested to Methos a threesome with the two of them and Mary. And it appears to me that if Mary hadn't been half-unconscious, but had instead been willing, Methos might even have taken Byron up on it! This is another of those times when I'm like, wow, show, you went there? Applause!
I'm also intrigued by how highly Methos apparently values art: the poems that Byron has written, and the music that he has made and will make (...would have made). But on the other hand, Byron is Methos' friend, and we have seen many times the things Methos is willing to do for people he cares about! So that makes me wonder whether the valuing of art is just something he's saying to try to convince Duncan, as opposed to actually believing it. (I watched a commentary on Youtube that Peter Wingfield had done, for the episode Methos, and he talked about how he's not exactly sure you can ever believe Methos is in earnest about the things he says and does.) But I do like the idea of a Methos who's passionate about art!
Although .. it is clear that no matter how much he cares about Byron (whether as a friend or as an artist), Duncan is infinitely more important. Because when his argument fails, he just lets Duncan go fight Byron, instead of doing something tricksy to make things work out so that everyone lives.
The Mary Shelley of this episode also fascinates me! Although I can't help but feel like this version of events is somehow...insulting Mary's powers of imagination. The implication is quite strong that Mary could not have written Frankenstein without being handed her topic on a platter, as it were.
Also, now I kind of want to see this comic (http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=56) with added Methos. :D
I believe I've mentioned before my awful facial recognition skills. Well, having a character besides Duncan in this episode who had long curly brown hair was a problem. I kept on mistaking Mike for Duncan, in the scenes where Mike had his hair out of his hat. *facepalm*
Methos is basically a lost cause. <333
Yeah, he so is! It is a constant cause of amusement and adoration in me towards him.
I think I actually also ship Duncan/Methos/Amanda in the same way that I ship Fraser/Vecchio/Kowalski. Except it's a very different way from how you ship them... It's basically a situation where I OTP two out of the three people, but then that's being mean to the third person, so I include said third person to make them happy as well. But if the third person can be made happy in some other way instead, then that's good too.
And the canonical Duncan/Amanda relationship is rather interesting anyways. I mean, Amanda feels free to go off with a guy from a club to go have sex with him (even if it ends up actually ending in swords). And Amanda refers to Duncan as her best friend, not her boyfriend. It seems to me that it's actually more of a friends-with-benefits situation than a relationship. Which makes me feel one of two things: one, she'd be totally open to including Methos in the relationship, because it means awesome sex and making Duncan happy and having a sensible person to back her up against Duncan's sometimes ridiculous sense of honour; or two, she wouldn't be left bereft if Duncan and Methos got together, because she'd continue to be close friends with Duncan anyways, and be perfectly happy getting her sex elsewhere.
ANYWAYS. I've possibly been thinking too much about relationship permutations. *cough*
Your description of the roles of the Horsemen is very much YES. So I am VERY HAPPY to hear that there will be flashbacks to them in your fic! \o/
Two: I'd like there to be some reason for that besides plot.
Me too. Very much so. I am working on trying to come up with a theory that actually makes sense of the canon, but...thus far I am not succeeding in coming up with anything reasonable. *sigh*
Three: I know! Methos is FIVE THOUSAND YEARS OLD. That is a LONG time in which to acquire scars! It always makes me sad when creators of a TV show don't think about creating sensible rules for things. And I think this one will be even harder to handwave a reason for than the stuff from point two. *another sigh*
Four: Well, technically speaking, he had me from before I even started watching the first episode, because of your squee and picspam. :D So it doesn't sound at all absurd to me for you to have been caught from that awesome little smile!
Three: And now after this episode I'm wondering, what sort of long-term effects you'd get from drug-use as an immortal. Is the harm it causes you considered minor enough that it heals up? Or are you left with a messed-up brain, for the rest of your extremely long life?