Helen Magnus
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Helen Magnus |
| Occupation: | Head of the Sanctuary Network |
| Relationships: | Ashley Magnus (daughter), Gregory Magnus (father), John Druitt (former fiance/father of her child) |
| Fandom: | Sanctuary |
| Other: | played by Amanda Tapping |
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Helen Magnus is a lead character in the SyFy TV show Sanctuary. She's a founder and the current leader of the Sanctuary Network, which sole purpose is to find, protect and help Abnormals. Due to being injected with vampire blood, Helen also appears not to age (or age very slowly). At the beginning of the show, she's over 150 years old.
Canon Biography
Helen was born in Victorian England. Her father was a scientist. She was amongst first women to be trained as a medical doctor. While studying in Oxford, she met James Watson, John Druitt, Nikola Tesla and Nigel Griffin. Together they formed The Five and studied and experimented with untainted vampire blood (also called the Source Blood).
In the course of the experiments each member of The Five injected themselves with the Source Blood, each having a different reaction to the blood. Helen aquired longevity, and her blood is known to possess healing qualities.
Fan Reaction
Fan reaction to the character was almost completely positive. It was closely connected with the fact that at the moment of the show's premiere, Helen Magnus was one of the very few fully realized strong female characters in sci-fi. While on other shows women were treated as either weak or evil, here she was, actually carrying a show on her shoulder (and succeeding).
Obviously, strong and enthusiastic fanbase that followed Amanda Tapping from the Stargate fandom didn't hurt.
Helen in Fanfiction
In general, Helen is portrayed as strong and confident. She's usually the mentor figure.
There isn't a lot of gen fanfiction in the Sanctuary fandom, and so gen fics that concentrate on Magnus are rare.
In het fanfiction, the are three highly popular pairings: Helen/John, Helen/Will and Helen/Nikola. Additionally, due to recent canon facts being revealed, Helen/James gained a lot of supporters. When it comes to threesomes and foursomes, the most popular trope is mentioning the past romantic and sexual relationship between all members of the Five.
Due to the small cast femslash isn't very strong in the Sanctuary fandom, the most popular Magnus ship being Helen Magnus/Kate Freelander, though Helen is sometimes slashed with Ranna as well. The most popular practice for femslashers is pairing Magnus with female characters from other fandoms.
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |