I've never read QL fanfic, but I can see Sam as being quite slashable -- not only is he a total SNAG, but he Leaped into a lot of women. I guess the way I would work w/Al's homophobia would be to make it a defense mechanism -- all that time in orphanages and foster homes and then the service, he has to have had some boy/boy experience.

SNAG? I'm guessing abbreviation, but I've not seen it before.

SNAG = Sensitive New-Age Guy

Sensitive New Age Guy.

You know what also bothers me? And it makes me kind of a prude, amusingly enough, but Sam's married. To a woman he canonically adores.

QL's great gift to fanfiction, like Highlander's, is that it can be successfully crossed-over with just about anything.

Thanks.

And, while I've never watched QL, nor read any fic, I think that the 'Sam is married' argument might sway me away from slashing him, unless in a pre-marriage time gap. After all, I don't, for example, slash Oz while he's with Willow. Before, yes; after, yes; but when there's a canon 'significant other' and he's known to be loyal, it doesn't work.

I don't think it's prudish to expect somebody who takes his marriage vows seriously, and who is happy with the relationship he is in, to be a faithful husband and eschew nonmarital intercourse. That's called being true to character. By the same token, I wouldn't be surprised if Al ended up having happy casual sex on a mission just because he couldn't resist.

it makes me kind of a prude, amusingly enough, but Sam's married. To a woman he canonically adores.

To a woman who, canonically, is missing from his swiss-cheesed memory. If the story was set pre-leap, I can see her existence as a problem, but if it's set during the leaps, no big -- after all, her existence didn't stop the show from doing that series of eps where Sam fell in love and fathered a child by another woman (I feel like he Lept into her defense attorney or something, but I haven't seen the show in several years, so MY memory may be the swiss-cheesed one here.).

(I can't remember -- is Al married to wife #5 during the series, or is he divorced from her and dating? Or does it change?)

To a woman who, canonically, is missing from his swiss-cheesed memory. If the story was set pre-leap, I can see her existence as a problem, but if it's set during the leaps, no big.

Yeah, I was about to post that, but a) during the series, Al is a hologram, so that pretty much eliminates that possibility, and b) Al knows how much Sam loves Donna, and I can't see Al doing something like that to either Sam or Donna.

Now Sam/m, yeah, during the series. But the majority of the fandom, as far as I'm aware, is about Sam/Al. Plus, if you're talking about post-series, Al's supposedly happily married to Beth.

I can't remember if Al was married to Tina or just dating her.

Plus, if you're talking about post-series, Al's supposedly happily married to Beth.

Which makes my head hurt, cos if Beth hadn't divorced him, he might well not have gotten involved with project QL to start with. I remember thinking that ep was a big fat contradiction of the law the series had set up that Sam and Al could not change their own lives.

But I do see your point about the relationship problems of slashing Sam/Al.