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brightknightie) wrote2025-10-11 10:58 am
brightknightie) wrote2025-10-11 10:58 am
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HLH_Shortcuts 2025 "Dear Author" letter
Dear ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hlh_shortcuts author,
Thank you for sharing your Highlander love and creativity this year!
TLDR: My personal tip-top favorites are: gen; PG-13 and below; first through third seasons; Duncan, Tessa, Richie, Darius; Duncan/Tessa; choosing the hard right over the easy wrong; choosing to care and to hope; the power of friendship; history, whether as setting or reference; grief and bereavement; fighting the good fight; and the immortality fantasy as hyperbole/metaphor for real life. I also enjoy many other things, so it's fine if none of these click for you!
No need to read on unless you really want to. This post is long. :-D
Types: While gen is my favorite, next is canonical romances, where Duncan/Tessa is my OTP, and then non-canonical romances placed into the timeline in ways that respect canonical relationships.
Characters: Duncan is my favorite, especially as depicted in first and second season. I usually most enjoy Duncan, Tessa, Darius, Richie, Randi, Angie, and Michelle. Secondarily, Ceirdwyn, Rebecca, Grace, Anne, Joe, Charlie, Connor, Methos, Amanda, and both Rachels.
I'm very enthusiastic about the various one-shot or few-shot mortal characters whose relationships with our protagonists are (or should be) bigger than their screen time, usually never knowing about the immortality fantasy, yet observing and interacting more richly than some sword-of-the-week. (Please do create original such characters for your story as needed!)
To be clear, I have no objections to Methos, Joe, or Amanda! Please bring them in as supporting cast if that's the story you want to tell. I'm not requesting them because they tend to get many stories of their own in this event every year, while some of the other characters seem forgotten by comparison.
Some tropes & traits
I personally don't enjoy the Horsemen era, or the Horsemen characters other than Methos, or Ahriman, Cassandra, or Kenny. (Of course those stories all happened in canon, and sometimes it's important to reference the events and consequences! I'd just prefer not to re-experience them.) I despair of adult Duncan portrayed as childish. I'd rather not read pro-evil, non-con or dub-con, NC-17, most things commonly called kinks, mentor/student or other power discrepancies, tropes like mpreg or omegaverse, bigotry, or dismissing/attacking sincere faith.
There's a more detailed list in my sign-up. I'd like to believe that detailed DNW lists are totally unnecessary, because I'd like to believe that all authors and readers are spreading happiness, not seeking loopholes, but I'm afraid that experience has taught that there can indeed be one bad apple in an otherwise delightful barrel.
If writing crossovers or fusions -- within the fest's stipulation that all stories must be somehow in the larger HL universe -- brings you joy, how about:
Please don't feel constrained to these!
Duncan: Duncan on the periphery (not a primary mover) of some historical social transition, insight, or disaster is often my sweet spot! Take your pick from across history and around the globe? Or perhaps a story with a mortal villain to be overcome (like "Bad Day in Building A" or "Deadly Medicine") with Tessa bravely involved (like "See No Evil" and "Eyewitness")? Or! Or! Whatever happened with Duncan's promise to Greta, the psychic from “The Darkness?” Duncan promised to tell her what happened; did he ever, and what happened because of telling or not telling? Or what about Duncan's friendship with Michelle's parents and knowledge of Michelle's incipient immortality ("Rite of Passage"); would Duncan, Tessa, and Richie have spent time with the family, and what would that have been like?
Tessa: Maybe a story with a villain to be overcome with Tessa able to be instrumental in the defeat in the ordinary world, not needing swords or fantasy? Or how Tessa regarded Michelle when Tessa and Duncan were friends with Michelle's parents? Or where Tessa internally deals with her jealousy and Duncan internally deals with his “she was your woman”-style nonsense and they both laugh at themselves and grow closer? Or perhaps Tessa gets to rescue Duncan for a change? Or she counsels Richie through a disappointment or new experience and learns something herself? In one episode, we briefly meet Tessa's agent; what's her history with him? What about Tessa's few friends we meet and family we never meet?
Richie: Richie is so deeply earnest, which he tries to hide under nonchalance and worldliness that just don't stick; perhaps a story about where that comes from, and how it cemented his friendships with Angie and Gary? Or perhaps a story about him maturing to a point where he stops the acts and poses and fully embraces his natural earnestness? Or perhaps a story where Richie is living his immortal life the way Duncan taught him to, having let Angie and everyone believe he died in the motorcycle accident, but then something happens in Seacouver (or elsewhere!), some disaster or attack or something, that Richie believes has hurt Angie, and something snaps and he goes to her. Or -- ooooh -- more about Richie's embrace of the values of the false Methos ("The Messenger") and grappling with the beliefs' validity and reach, and how it's not as black-and-white as either the false Methos or Duncan seem to be telling him at that specific time; maybe he could meet Grace? Too bad he can't speak with Darius about it; maybe a student of Darius's, or something Darius wrote?
Randi: We've had some spectacular Randi stories in recent years! Oh, my, yes! More please? How about a memorably frosty or fiery encounter with Tessa? What about a surprise encounter with Duncan in later years, after many years not in contact at all, and she's still convinced he's CIA or whatever, and her mind is ticking over the evidence, but the immediate situation is too pressing and they just have to work together, and then he's gone again and she never knows?
Rebecca: Perhaps an abused or otherwise lost or traumatized woman immortal, a la Sharon from the "Rite of Passage" flashbacks (but not necessarily specifically another of Axel's victims), shows up on Rebecca's doorstep with a letter from Duncan to the best teacher he knows? Or maybe escorted by Richie, if the timing could be managed just right, or it's an AU? Or, hey, escorted by Tessa, if we're going AU?
Anne: When and what (if anything) does Anne learn about Richie's canonical death and Duncan's consequent breakdown? [No need for Clan Denial if you're tackling the bereavement/grief/loss directly!] Or a between-adventures interlude of Anne in Duncan's life while her daughter is growing up, with them both still caring very much, though their romantic love is long laid to rest? She made her choice about how to live her values; she didn’t stop caring, and neither did he.
Grace: I'm always fascinated by Grace going through her immortal life swordless, presumably mostly if not wholly for ethical reasons, as it conflicts with her calling as a doctor and healer. It's easy to look down on her as relying on "protectors" at times of her life we've seen, but I think of the courage it takes her to stand and confront a strange immortal, or even to flee, with nothing at all but her wits and her convictions. That was not a common way of looking at life when she must have made that decision, if it has ever or anywhere been common. Story, please? (I'd like to see her and Duncan cross paths with Kenshin of Rurouni Kenshin and grapple with the gradient of their choices.)
Again, thank you! Whatever you love best in HL, celebrate that, and I'm sure to enjoy it.
hlh_shortcuts author,Thank you for sharing your Highlander love and creativity this year!
TLDR: My personal tip-top favorites are: gen; PG-13 and below; first through third seasons; Duncan, Tessa, Richie, Darius; Duncan/Tessa; choosing the hard right over the easy wrong; choosing to care and to hope; the power of friendship; history, whether as setting or reference; grief and bereavement; fighting the good fight; and the immortality fantasy as hyperbole/metaphor for real life. I also enjoy many other things, so it's fine if none of these click for you!
No need to read on unless you really want to. This post is long. :-D
Likes
Types: While gen is my favorite, next is canonical romances, where Duncan/Tessa is my OTP, and then non-canonical romances placed into the timeline in ways that respect canonical relationships.
Characters: Duncan is my favorite, especially as depicted in first and second season. I usually most enjoy Duncan, Tessa, Darius, Richie, Randi, Angie, and Michelle. Secondarily, Ceirdwyn, Rebecca, Grace, Anne, Joe, Charlie, Connor, Methos, Amanda, and both Rachels.
I'm very enthusiastic about the various one-shot or few-shot mortal characters whose relationships with our protagonists are (or should be) bigger than their screen time, usually never knowing about the immortality fantasy, yet observing and interacting more richly than some sword-of-the-week. (Please do create original such characters for your story as needed!)
To be clear, I have no objections to Methos, Joe, or Amanda! Please bring them in as supporting cast if that's the story you want to tell. I'm not requesting them because they tend to get many stories of their own in this event every year, while some of the other characters seem forgotten by comparison.
Some tropes & traits
- A good guy doing good is always a win with me, especially choosing the hard right over the easy wrong, but also helping when it's easy, without thinking much about it, because the good guy is a good guy. Fighting the good fight for mercy, justice, truth, freedom, hope. One more try, one more day, every day. Blessed are the peacemakers. Humanity is worth saving.
- Knowledge is power; stories are grace. Books are our very best invention. Culture is worth preserving. Stories are humanity; humanity is stories.
- I love when a story feels like stepping into canon's reality or a fork from canon's road. I enjoy episode-like stories, missing scenes, interludes between adventures, and fix-its and other diverged-from-canon AUs. To be clear, this "feels like" can be achieved in complete AUs, distant settings, dream sequences, and unexpected crossovers, but the feeling is canon-home.
- I love character death for stories of the grief, bereavement, or coping of those left behind. Canon or non-canon, major or minor characters. Feel free to kill off a requested character to explore the loss. Or feel the ramifications of a canonical loss down through long years; grief softens and changes and heals, but loss doesn't cease to be loss.
- History! References, flashbacks, exploring/exhibiting a historical moment. I treasure when Duncan leans into the right side of history as it happens, not with anachronism, but with only his deep, abiding convictions of what is right in any era... and also when he tries to hold folks back because of what he's learned from times gone wrong, when he feels a tragedy coming to the individual lives in its way in the moment, no matter the greater arc of history.
- I like day-in-the-life with cherishing undertones. Give me "ordinary life that we ordinary folks take for granted is precious and amazing [and fleeting] and here's why!"
- Character-appropriate faith is a treat. This is most obvious with Darius, and his chosen faith happens to also be mine, but he's not the only candidate and this is not the only option.
- I also like adventures and mysteries. If you are a plotty writer by preference, please know that I will appreciate that!
- I most love the approach of the early seasons, primarily because of the way the story worked when the episode formula was not yet set and there were more mortal than immortal characters. The immortality fantasy is a metaphor for real life that seems to me to work most richly in those circumstances. Outliving our loved ones and/or being outlived by them; outliving our time and adjusting to new times, or not living to see new times; these are what happens to us out here in the real world; the fantasy mechanism supersizes it for emphasis and insight. Which is to say, I love the approach and vitality and themes, not that I want all fanfic to be set in those seasons!
Do not want
I personally don't enjoy the Horsemen era, or the Horsemen characters other than Methos, or Ahriman, Cassandra, or Kenny. (Of course those stories all happened in canon, and sometimes it's important to reference the events and consequences! I'd just prefer not to re-experience them.) I despair of adult Duncan portrayed as childish. I'd rather not read pro-evil, non-con or dub-con, NC-17, most things commonly called kinks, mentor/student or other power discrepancies, tropes like mpreg or omegaverse, bigotry, or dismissing/attacking sincere faith.
There's a more detailed list in my sign-up. I'd like to believe that detailed DNW lists are totally unnecessary, because I'd like to believe that all authors and readers are spreading happiness, not seeking loopholes, but I'm afraid that experience has taught that there can indeed be one bad apple in an otherwise delightful barrel.
Crossovers
If writing crossovers or fusions -- within the fest's stipulation that all stories must be somehow in the larger HL universe -- brings you joy, how about:
- The Journey to the West (the original hundred-chapter novel, or an abridgement thereof)
For a literal crossover or fusion, Wukong (Monkey) is, after all, very immortal, and can change his shape to look human (except his giveaway tail). So can Bajie (Pigsy), for that matter. And Wukong really struggled to learn the "kill only demons, not people" lesson that has resonance in HL. Or Tripitaka and Darius? For a more literal/essentialist use in a story, Duncan probably encountered the full book -- never mind just the folktales around fires and in performances! -- centuries before the rest of the English-speaking world, because it wasn't translated into English at all until the early twentieth-century, and not in its entirety until the 1980s! What if May-Ling Shen or Kiem Sun introduced Duncan to the book and/or the characters? - The Legend of Zelda (any main series game, any timeline branch)
To start out on the same page, in TLOZ canon, the various Zeldas and Links (and Impas, etc.) aren't necessarily reincarnations of their predecessors (though they may sometimes be), but rather are Hylia's chosen priestess and hero in each generation that needs them, regardless of timeline/reality. All Zeldas are necessarily descendants of Skyward Sword Zelda, but only Twilight Princess Link is known to be a descendent of a previous Link. That said... if divinity wants the Triforce borne in -- or from -- the Highlander universe for any reason, then a Link and a Zelda will appear. Alternatively, what if the legends of Hyrule that we know are just that, legends, stories, distorted through time, and the truth is that their fight has been in the HL world all along, and there's only one Link and one Zelda and they're HL immortals, or our immortals have known an endless succession of fully mortal Links and Zeldas (and here we go again in this story) at pivot points of history...? - Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon, 1983)
Matching up the timelines, Richie is just about Bobby's age. So the rest of our gang are ~4-8 years older than Richie. I imagine a world in which they got back from the Realm and grew up, and learned not to speak of the Realm, but never forgot anything, and some of their hard-earned skills and approaches lingered, though of course their totemic weapons did not. They would all understand and be unsurprised by the world of immortals in ways others could never be, if they bumped into it. I can see Hank or Sheila or Diana defending or assisting someone against an immortal... Or if you want to make one of the kids (grown up) immortal, consider that Hank and Presto would be the easiest to suppose were adopted, but Eric and Diana are not out of the question (Sheila and Bobby are; they're too clearly biological siblings). As you know, of course, our gang never used swords or offensive violent weapons in the show, per the Parents Television Council (who were horrified enough as it was), and that actually turned out to be awesome for the storytelling, getting us clever or diplomatic solutions, and shaking us to our cores in the one episode where Hank proposes actually killing Venger straight out. So -- swords are not a skill any of them had, and killing is not a thing any of them embraced as the kids we know... growing up may complicate...? - PBS historical fiction: Vienna Blood, Mercy Street, Call the Midwife, Grantchester, All Creatures Great and Small, Poldark...
I highly enjoy episodic historical fiction. Take your pick! - Rurouni Kenshin
I've long thought that Duncan and/or Grace should encounter Kenshin in a story that grapples with their moral approaches to fighting and living with and without killing. Skieswideopen introduced me to two crossovers on FF-net, and they're awesome, but there could be more! And the more could deal more with the moral approaches, risks, choices! - Thundarr the Barbarian (cartoon, 1980-81)
If you, too, loved this Saturday-morning cartoon as a child, you, too, will recognize this crossover possibility as not actually absurd at all. Unexpected, certainly! But... it would happen, wouldn't it? Post-apocalyptic HL futures aren't often my personal favorites, but if they are yours, here is a potentially amazing crossover possibility in which to plant one. - Most long-19th-century British (and some American and Canadian) literature, especially anything by George Eliot, Jane Austen, or Wilkie Collins; the Brontës and Dickens and the extended Wollstonecraft/Godwin/Shelley clan; if you're feeling the spooky season when assignments come out, Dracula with its good guy squad (not focused on the Count, please) could be delightful
Seriously, if you want to cross with something obscure, just cite it, and I'll fetch and read it (if I haven't) to properly appreciate your work.
Some optional possible character-specific scenarios/prompts
Please don't feel constrained to these!
Duncan: Duncan on the periphery (not a primary mover) of some historical social transition, insight, or disaster is often my sweet spot! Take your pick from across history and around the globe? Or perhaps a story with a mortal villain to be overcome (like "Bad Day in Building A" or "Deadly Medicine") with Tessa bravely involved (like "See No Evil" and "Eyewitness")? Or! Or! Whatever happened with Duncan's promise to Greta, the psychic from “The Darkness?” Duncan promised to tell her what happened; did he ever, and what happened because of telling or not telling? Or what about Duncan's friendship with Michelle's parents and knowledge of Michelle's incipient immortality ("Rite of Passage"); would Duncan, Tessa, and Richie have spent time with the family, and what would that have been like?
Tessa: Maybe a story with a villain to be overcome with Tessa able to be instrumental in the defeat in the ordinary world, not needing swords or fantasy? Or how Tessa regarded Michelle when Tessa and Duncan were friends with Michelle's parents? Or where Tessa internally deals with her jealousy and Duncan internally deals with his “she was your woman”-style nonsense and they both laugh at themselves and grow closer? Or perhaps Tessa gets to rescue Duncan for a change? Or she counsels Richie through a disappointment or new experience and learns something herself? In one episode, we briefly meet Tessa's agent; what's her history with him? What about Tessa's few friends we meet and family we never meet?
Richie: Richie is so deeply earnest, which he tries to hide under nonchalance and worldliness that just don't stick; perhaps a story about where that comes from, and how it cemented his friendships with Angie and Gary? Or perhaps a story about him maturing to a point where he stops the acts and poses and fully embraces his natural earnestness? Or perhaps a story where Richie is living his immortal life the way Duncan taught him to, having let Angie and everyone believe he died in the motorcycle accident, but then something happens in Seacouver (or elsewhere!), some disaster or attack or something, that Richie believes has hurt Angie, and something snaps and he goes to her. Or -- ooooh -- more about Richie's embrace of the values of the false Methos ("The Messenger") and grappling with the beliefs' validity and reach, and how it's not as black-and-white as either the false Methos or Duncan seem to be telling him at that specific time; maybe he could meet Grace? Too bad he can't speak with Darius about it; maybe a student of Darius's, or something Darius wrote?
Randi: We've had some spectacular Randi stories in recent years! Oh, my, yes! More please? How about a memorably frosty or fiery encounter with Tessa? What about a surprise encounter with Duncan in later years, after many years not in contact at all, and she's still convinced he's CIA or whatever, and her mind is ticking over the evidence, but the immediate situation is too pressing and they just have to work together, and then he's gone again and she never knows?
Rebecca: Perhaps an abused or otherwise lost or traumatized woman immortal, a la Sharon from the "Rite of Passage" flashbacks (but not necessarily specifically another of Axel's victims), shows up on Rebecca's doorstep with a letter from Duncan to the best teacher he knows? Or maybe escorted by Richie, if the timing could be managed just right, or it's an AU? Or, hey, escorted by Tessa, if we're going AU?
Anne: When and what (if anything) does Anne learn about Richie's canonical death and Duncan's consequent breakdown? [No need for Clan Denial if you're tackling the bereavement/grief/loss directly!] Or a between-adventures interlude of Anne in Duncan's life while her daughter is growing up, with them both still caring very much, though their romantic love is long laid to rest? She made her choice about how to live her values; she didn’t stop caring, and neither did he.
Grace: I'm always fascinated by Grace going through her immortal life swordless, presumably mostly if not wholly for ethical reasons, as it conflicts with her calling as a doctor and healer. It's easy to look down on her as relying on "protectors" at times of her life we've seen, but I think of the courage it takes her to stand and confront a strange immortal, or even to flee, with nothing at all but her wits and her convictions. That was not a common way of looking at life when she must have made that decision, if it has ever or anywhere been common. Story, please? (I'd like to see her and Duncan cross paths with Kenshin of Rurouni Kenshin and grapple with the gradient of their choices.)
Again, thank you! Whatever you love best in HL, celebrate that, and I'm sure to enjoy it.