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

[shala.livejournal.com]

And teaches them, like, sword fighting and stuff? But isn't that sort of counter-productive, since eventually they'll have to kill each other?

You would think so, right? But then also there's the thing where some Immortals also hook up and, oh, get married for a couple of centuries, or just have a lot of sex with one another. Plus, there have been several instances in canon where an Immortal has actually kept an eye on a pre-Immortal for the sake of being there to teach them after the first death. (Like Richie, who was actually alive for a bit and living with Mac and Tessa before he was killed.)

I think maybe it's kind of like that whole thing about an untrained swordsman being potentially more dangerous than a trained one, because the untrained one doesn't know the "rules" and would therefore be more unpredictable. It behooves most Immortals to make sure that the newbies don't rain all over everyone else's parade. And, well, honestly? I think a lot of the Immortals probably don't really want to deal with the Game anyway. Or with the Gathering. It pretty much means the Apocalypse for the Immortals, and most people don't even like to think about that sort of thing.

Additionally, one way of making sure that someone is less likely to kill you is to be their friend/teacher, ensuring that they will like you and not want to cut your head off, and of course some people would rather have a friend take their Quickening than some asshole stranger. Plus there's the loneliness factor, since it must be nice to have someone else around who isn't as likely to die. Even Methos has taught people, and he's generally a pretty wary old bastard.

Er, sorry for cutting in, I couldn't resist. *is weak*

[azarias.livejournal.com]

I've always been fond of (for a certain value of "fond") the fannish notion that there are probably fewer long-lived female Immies than male, because historically men have had better odds of having at least some training in self-defense that would let them survive until they got good enough to hold a fair fight.

Er, sorry for cutting in, I couldn't resist. *is weak*

Buttinskis unite! I'm up with a flu and these comments are making my night shorter, albeit not less mucusy.

[shala.livejournal.com]

I think we SEE more long-lived male Immies, in general. Mostly because if they're women there's about a 90% chance they've slept with MacLeod and quite frankly there are only so many bedroom flashbacks they can do . . . Um. *cough* I base this only on approximately 20 episodes from random seasons, but past!Mac seemed kind of slutty. (I think you can tell which 20 episodes or so from my icon. XD)

Anyhow, I think women also historically maybe had more of a tendency to die from slightly less violent things than men. And given that Immortals are all foundlings, there's a possibility that just more male babies would have been taken in! Because girls aren't worth as much, of course. Especially women who couldn't bear children, because if it happened with a man of course it would have been the woman's fault ANYWAY and I am maybe taking late-medieval history this semester and being made grouchy by parts of it.

I was going somewhere with that, I think. Er.

Buttinskis unite! I'm up with a flu and these comments are making my night shorter, albeit not less mucusy.

*is running out of tissues and totally understands* If I don't go to bed soon, though, I won't wake up in time to take my next dose of meds for the bronchitis, so it's sleepytime! Have yourself a mug of tea or something. TEA CURES ALL.

[lunardreamed.livejournal.com]

Some Immortals care more about the "There can be only one" rule than others. There are several schools of thought:

1. Evil, I want to rule the world guys. I believe there was one of these who trained someone so that he would take a bunch of heads and then he took his hapless student unawares and killed him off. They actively hunt down others to behead. These are the guys looking to kill off Methos in hopes of becoming too powerful to defeat.

2. The heroes who think it is their duty to stop the evil guys. I suspect these are the majority of the ones that train newbies. They figure this way there are more good guys in the fight. Also, leaving them defenseless against the bad guys wouldn't be fair play. These guys are big on the rules of fair play. They don't care who survives in the end, just so long as he isn't evil. They are less likely to actively hunt someone down, unless that someone has committed an Immortal crime: broke the rules of fair fighting, involved a mortal in their dastardly schemes (maybe as bait) or interfered with mortal affairs (famous MacLeod quote: They make history. We stay in the shadows and kill each other), or just killed a good friend that must be avenged.

3. The ones that don't care, they just want to live their lives. Claudia Jardine, the French aristocrat couple, the Gypsy couple, and possibly Methos, come to mind. They are most likely to get involved in a fight out of revenge for a friend or loved one, not because they care about the One. Purely speculatively, these might be the sort to adopt and raise a pre-Immortal, kind of the Immortal version of a family. That might be why they would train someone.

4. The ones who don't believe the whole One thing is true. The fake Methos, possibly Darius - his beliefs on this were unclear - and, I personally believe Methos thinks the whole One thing is the biggest load of crap he's heard in 5000 years.

Whether or not Methos believes it, he has made it clear he doesn't want to be the One - too lonely. He just wants to survive as long as he can before he dies.

The Four Horsemen group that Methos and Kronos had lasted a thousand years together without killing each other, under the rule that they never raise a hand to each other. They seemed more interested in terror and bloodshed than some mysterious prize for the One.

There are several examples of Immortal couples that stayed together for several lifetimes and never turned on each other.

I think it gets so lonely that teaching someone is almost an excuse to form a lasting relationship with someone. There are, of course, instances of students turning on their teachers, but this seems to be the exception. The teacher-student bond seems to be very strong - avenging the death of the other is the big revenge plot-line. It's pretty much guaranteed that the student or teacher of the Immortal you killed will come after you.

Canon actually introduced the controversy on whether the Game was real on several occasions.