Any Highlander fans out there? I have some questions.

[thefourthvine]

Do you know HL? I need some help from people who have seen Highlander canon. Here's what I'd like to know:

1. What are all the ways to permanently kill an immortal? I know cutting off heads, but is there anything else? And is it different the first time they die? And does it matter if the whole head doesn't come off - like, can they come back if the neck is only mostly severed?
   
   
2. What happens the first time they (don't) die? I mean, they think they're mortal for a period of time, right? And then they die, except they don't, and they say, "Whoa, dude. I must be immortal, because that sure as shit should've killed me." (Although I think most people would assume the injury or whatever just hadn't been as bad as they thought, so - do some of them have to die a lot before they figure it out?) But I'm a little foggy on the whole deal, frankly. Do they have to be buried and then rise again, like vampires? Or is it more of an instantaneous thing?
   
   
3. What happens if you shoot an immortal (who has already done the first not-death, if that matters) in a way that would kill a human but won't kill him? (Like, gaping chest wound, something like that.) I'm pretty sure he has at least a period of, shall we say, limited activity, but how long is he down for? And exactly how limited is his activity? And what happens - like, do the wounds visibly close over and heal, or does he just suddenly sit up all better, or what?

As much detail as you've got, that's how much I'd like.

And if you know any sources for getting this kind of information without bugging my friends list - like, a Highlander encyclopedia or whatever - I would love to know about it.

Comments

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

I haven't read through every comment here, so I'm probably being redundant.

As has already been stated several times, beheading is the only way to permanently kill immortals as far as canon has stated. In the series, we've seen immortals "killed" by car bombs but revived afterward. (Which doesn't make a lot of sense, but the main rule in the HL franchise is that the "rules" of immortality change according to the needs of the plot. Thus, the same immortal at about the same chronological age can die and revive almost instantly in one episode and then stay dead long enough to have a funeral and be buried in another.)

Of course, in the original HL movie, immortals didn't actually die for any period. They just survived stuff that would kill normal people rather than appearing dead and then coming back to life. In the series universe, however - which seems to be the most common universe for fanfic - they do indeed die and revive.

And consistent with the motto "the needs of the plot outweigh the needs of logic," sometimes they revive completely healed and intact, and sometimes they are weakened for a period of time, during which we presume some of the more catastrophic injuries are still being repaired. My personal preference is to believe that the worse the injuries, the longer it takes you to revive, but that your age and number of heads taken also factor in. I also like to see the healing process like this: the revival takes place as soon as the injuries have healed to the point where the damage is no longer severe enough to be fatal. Then the remainder of the injuries go on healing after the immortal comes back to life.

But this, like any other such fan theory, can be found to be contradicted in at least one episode of canon. So, if you're writing a fic, you can find justification somewhere in canon for almost any interpretation of death and revival.