Thursday, July 17, 2008

Where Can I Get a Sword?


Did you know that you can watch every episode of Highlander anytime at Hulu.com? I just found out this week. Guess what I've been doing ten hours a day. Nerd Alert!


Yep, I've been having the ultimate Highlander marathon with my good friends Duncan MacLeod and gimpy, old Joe Dawson (my fav). Highlander was another one of those uber-hero shows that were so popular in the nineties. There was also The Legendary Journeys of Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess, both of which were subjects of my girlhood "homework parties" on weeknights. Don't tell Mom, but no homework ever got done during an episode of Hercules, Xena or Highlander.

These were perfect heroes. In the nineties, Mary Sue and Gary Stu reigned triumphantly. The creators of Highlander and the like, managed to build an atmosphere in which the perfect man/woman could exist. These heroes kept going until all others had given up or fallen. They never turned down the wrong path, but for the rare occasions when it was the right thing to do. And most spectacularly, all of their opponents either came over to their side after a heart-felt chat, or died for their misguided ideals. (Which usually turns into a light show on Highlander. Oooo, pretty!)

In the case of Hercules and Xena, we have a viable background in the Mary's and Gary's of Greek Mythology. Have you ever read the Iliad or the Odyssey? There's Odysseus and Achilles just to start! And of course in Highlander you're dealing with immortals that may have lived during those glory days, and therefore pulled that mentality of honor, nobility, and dogged perfection of character into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Totally realistic? No. Without cheese? Definitely not. I'm saying they have a basis in the literature and culture of old.

So, for the rest of the summer, I plan to watch dazzling sword fights and enjoy the never ending parade of unlikely scenarios and impossible heroes. In my noggin, they are all real. That's the way the world should work.

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