Megadeth Jamie

1. James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser
Ah, I know you have all been waiting with baited breath for this follow-up to Friday's top five post. . . without further ado, my number one:

I mentioned my love for the Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series in a post about recent enjoyable reads. The series combines so many elements that draw me to a book - history, dose of sci-fi, living close to nature, time-travel, sorrow and loss, joy and love, adventure, violence, pirates, witches and the paranormal, the triumph of good over evil, the most creepy, topsy-turvy villain I've seen in ages, a truly smart/funny/intelligent/self-deprecating heroine, and a fallible, but unbelievable hero, all drawn in so much detail that I feel like I know them all. Gabaldon turns a number of genres and archetypal characters on their ears, surprising me again and again.

I wait impatiently for the next installment in the series, and then when it is released, I devour it in a 24-48 hour reading fest, resulting in a weeks-long withdrawal and depression. I sit around and wonder why I was born in the wrong century, and wishing that I was more in touch with the natural world. What would happen if I could time-travel? I wonder how modern life can be so vastly different from the lives of thousands of years of people before us. Is the world ending? Are we doomed? Did every generation have this feeling, or is this the dawn of an entirely new age for humanity?

I once had a conversation with Todd's friend Adria, wherein we discovered and discussed our mutual admiration for the books and for Jamie Fraser, and she posed the question: Would you leave Todd for Jamie? Luckily, i don't have to answer that, but dear God, what if? It would be tempting. Jamie has all of the qualities that I love in Todd, plus a whole lot more that no modern man could possibly have: Todd probably doesn't even know what a dirk is, much less how to use one to silently kill someone. Yep, there does seem to be a little "knight in shining armor" to my infatuation with Jamie. There's the whole man-in-skirt thing. Intelligence. Height. Loyalty. Red hair? Well, actually, this is about my only red-haired crush ever. Just adds to the uniqueness of the character. I think that there is something to the ruthlessness of him that I like. His loyalty, justice, and strength and his vengefulness and martyrdom. I love his wit, learnedness, and devotion to his wife. Okay, this is totally embarrassing. Must stop now.

Jamie does have an unfair advantage in this whole "Top Five Fictional Crushes" battle. My crush on him is inextricably entwined in my love and adoration of the Outlander series, and the world it creates. I don't just crush on Jamie; I also have a girlcrush on his wife, Claire. I want to BE Claire. I think I am a little Claire, actually. It is hard to explain this one, and there is a pretty interesting article on Salon.com about one man's love affair with the novels and he does a much better job of describing what makes Gabaldon's novels so unique.

To sum it up, people, I have a problem. Evidently, I am not the only one; there are a kajillion fan fiction sites for Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. There is also much discussion of who would be cast in an Outlander movie, which I personally don't ever want to see come to pass; The whole thing would be turned into some crap t.v. miniseries, with bad acting, and butchering of the complex and convoluted storylines that make the novels so wonderful. There is no way film could do this world justice, so i would rather let it live in my imagination.

That being said, I have thought about who should be cast as Claire, who would be Jamie. In my mind, the forerunner for Claire would be a Julia Ormond type, but preferably an unknown. She would have to be a Brit. The only actor i have ever thought would come close to being a good Jamie would be Damian Lewis, of Band of Brothers fame. He's a Brit, but he convincingly pulled off the American accent for the BOB Winters character. If he can pull that off, I'm sure he could do the Scots accent for Fraser. There is something earnest about his Winters that would translate well to the Jamie character.

Wondering about the possibility of an Outlander t.v. or film project, I turned to the Gabaldon page and came across this gem. This will no doubt be humorous only to Outlander fans, but it is a gallery of photos of actors that readers have suggested to play the Outlander characters. The funny part is that, while some of the suggestions are really good (someone else had suggested Damian Lewis! Other good suggestions: Steven Waddington [had to look this guy up, but he was a British soldier in The Last of the Mohicans,] some of the suggestions are downright ludicrous, including various soap stars, Paul Walker, and Joe Lando. Did these people READ the books? My favorite suggestion by far: Dave "Megadeth" Mustaine. I am not kidding. Someone actually suggested that. If you haven't read the books, i doubt you have made it this far in my post. If you have read the books, you should go change your underwear, because you no doubt just pissed your pants laughing.