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Redemption (Highlander story)
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Redemption |
| Author(s): | Beck McLaughlin |
| Date(s): | early 1999 |
| Length: | |
| Genre(s): | gen |
| Fandom(s): | Highlander |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | |
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Redemption is a gen Highlander story by Beck McLaughlin.
part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 part 9 part 10 part 11 part 12 part 13 part 14 part 15
Fan Comments
It has taken me some time to read all of Redemption. I always like to see Cassandra and Methos coming to some sort of accomodation, and Methos admits that he owes Cassandra. I imagine he's been a slave far longer and under much worse circumstances, so the punishment may not have been as severe as Cassandra or Duncan thought it was.
The character of Igraine, the child seer interests me. There was a child seer in the Celtic series, Roar. It's a cultural parallel with the Tibetan Buddhists who believe that their religious leaders are re-born
with personalities and memories intact. [1]
Now, unlike Shomeret, I normally *absolutely dislike* any stories about "Methos doing atonement and being punished for his evil past". Since the whole christian concept of sin ansd penance as well as the modern concept of redemption through punishment is a whole lot younger than either Methos, Cassandra, or any of Methos crimes as a Horseman, I think to apply these concepts in this context is pointless and doesn't make any sense. Also, the very thought about punishing somebody today for crimes he had done three thousand years in the past, in completely different circumstances, *just because, unlike mortals, the person who did these crimes happens to be still alive* doesn't make the sightest sense to me. And finally, I've read already enough of this kind of stories to get very tired of it by now. So, of course, I had some serious problems with this story from the start.
This said, there were a lot of parts of this story I atually liked. I liked the description of Cassandra and her changing feelings. I also liked the way Methos managed to get around to get closer to some of the people on the island. I liked the idea of Igraine and the dragon stonme and -priest. And I liked the way Methos feelings were described, save the parts of him keeping to have guilt-ridden flashbacks of his evil past. I don't see a reason to doubt Methos statement in the ep "Till death" that he haven't felt guilt since the eleventh century. It was an off-handed, flippant remark, but it did make sense; he had, at a point, acknowledged that guilt is pointless and get him nowhere, and had accepted what he'd done and been and moved on. Him starting indulging in this kind of guilt-ridden flashbacks now, especially in this situation of capture, doesn't seem very believable and soesn't make sense to me. And I very much doubt that in the end, when he was free to leave, he even would contemplate to stay or getting bever a foot back on this island, like he did in this story.
Then I liked the way Cassandra came out of the story. Her having to acknowledgeher own capacity of cruelty, of the corrupting effect of power and of her behaviour as a mistress was a good and interesting turn. I always like it when characzters in stories are confronted with the darkness within themselves, and grow wiser by it. Now, I doubt very much that cassandra, being 3000 years old, and at least a third of this time living in societies where slavery and unfree servitude was the very base of economy, never in her life had been a mistress and owned slaves before, but well. It made sense in the context of the story.
Finally, I found it interesting that Mac, for all his eagerness to race to the rescue, backed off the moment Cassandra threatened to challenge hm and brought out her little speech of pjust punishment, and was ready to leaving Methos on the island. As nearly always, Methos ended up saving MacLeods butt, not the other way round. And when Mac finally demanded that he could leave and was determined to fight for it, methos could have aleady left on his own, with Vortig or, after killing Vortig, with the coast force. For methos getting free or acting on somebodies behalf, macLeod as well may not have been there. Once again he had proved to the old man in this story that, from the very moment Methos past is involved, MacLeod can't be relied on, meaning, he can
- never* be relied on for Methos in times of real need. Now I wonder
which consequences this anew evelation would have for their "friendship"? I imagine that methos would not give up on Mac (as far as the series goes, he's always been a fool for love), but that he never again really would relie on mac in times of need, and would trust him even less with his past. MacLeod would just have showed hiom again that, when Methos really needs somewhone who is his friend, no matter what, MacLeod can not be trusted.
All in all I think it is a very interesting story, and one of the best pieces of genfic that I've read lately. [2]
Beck:
I read your story "Redemption" when it was posted on the ROG list some time back. I have a review of it written but have not posted it to my Donan Woods website due to the fact that, as far as I knew, the story had not been posted anywhere other than on that list. Is the story now archived somewhere? I would love to not only post the review, but would also like to add the story to my list of recommended authors/stories. I think it is one of the best Methos and Cassandra stories I've seen. If the story *isn't* archived anywhere, would you be interested in letting
us host it at our fanfic site and[ [Donan Woods]]? [3]
...the central themeof Redemption is Methos doing penance for what he did 3000 years ago. It seems to me that how long ago it happened isn't what's important. Cassandra suppressed the memories. They surfaced recently and she's been reliving them. For her it's yesterday, not 3000 years ago. She needs to see Methos as her slave for psychological reasons that have nothing
to do with Christian theology. [4]
To me, there is no point in "doing penance". Cassandra may want revenge, okay. But at the moment you have Methos actually buying into the concept of penance, it's out of character, IMHO. So, of course, I liked only parts of the story,
and had to ignore the redemption part to enjoy any of it. [5]
References
- ^ Shomeret, Redemption Comments (Jun 6, 1999)
- ^ Helga / Aislynn, Redemption Comments (Jun 6, 1999)
- ^ Annie CWPack, Redemption Comments (Jun 6, 1999)
- ^ Shomeret, More on Redemption and Cassandra Fic (Jun 9, 1999)
- ^ from Aislynn (Helga)] at More on Redemption and Cassandra Fic (Jun 9, 1999)