"Sulfur. That was the beginning of it. The Chinese used it to amuse. It took someone of vision to see its true use. To create from it... gunpowder. And the world was never the same again. What about you, MacLeod? Ever done anything that really changed the world? [...] Too bad. Now you never will."
— Grayson, "Band of Brothers"
With the litany of foes faced by the heroes of the MacLoed clan, these adversaries truly establish themselves as Worthy Opponents through their brilliance, audacity and magnetic charm.
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Examples
- James Horton, introduced in Season 1 and becoming the Big Bad of Season 2, was a devout Catholic and Watcher assigned to some of the most vile of all Immortals, steadily growing to believe they were a cancer upon the world after witnessing the atrocities wrought by the Kurgan. Forming a squadron of likeminded Watchers and dubbing them the "Hunters", Horton set out to entrap and wipe out Immortals, killing the saintly Darius while luring hero Duncan MacLeod into a trap. Later returning after faking his death, Horton makes an unholy alliance with the wicked Xavier St. Cloud, to have Immortals gunned down by Horton's own so Xavier can take their heads. Surviving a final time, Horton has a murderer given plastic surgery to resemble Duncan's dead lover Tessa Noel to lure him into a final trap and take his head once and for all.
- "Band of Brothers": Grayson was born in Dacia as Claudianus. Becoming Immortal, he soon entered into the tutelage of the infamous Immortal warlord Darius. When Darius left war behind Grayson was outraged and felt deeply betrayed by it, dedicating himself to warfare and became such an exemplary player of the Game that some believed he may be "The One" one day. In modern day, Grayson begins murdering Darius's students in the ways of peace to draw Darius off holy ground and destroy him in retribution for his betrayal, until Duncan interferes. Grayson constantly conducts himself with the utmost politeness with Duncan, at one point informing him he didn't believe men like Duncan still existed as "I've killed so many".
- "For Evil's Sake": Christoph Kuyler is an Immortal master assassin who specializes in lowering his victim's guard before killing them. Wracking up a bodycount in the thousands over the centuries, Kuyler proves himself a cut above Duncan's more sadistic foes in his refined nature and lack of ill will towards his targets, all the while making contingencies to evade Duncan and the police at every turn. Killing his henchman when the man's blunt stupidity proves him untrainable, Kuyler eventually engages Duncan in his base, giving the Immortal hero a challenging fight before dying with his characteristic zany humor.
- "Eye of the Beholder": Gabriel Piton is a charming thief and former friend of Duncan's who came to blows with him when Gabriel tried to steal the necklace of a duchess Duncan was involved with. Spending centuries thieving precious works of art to sate his obsession with beauty, Gabriel reluctantly murders his lover in the present day when she discovers his secret. Expertly covering up his crime, Gabriel strings along the police and even Duncan, even playing off Exact Words to keep Duncan's protege out of his way and even in loss, having such a touching friendship with Duncan that killing him makes the latter breakdown.
- "Nowhere to Run": Colonel Everett Bellian is an Immortal widower and ex-soldier who flies into rage when he learns of the rape of his beloved stepdaughter Lori. Swaying his soldiers to assist him in launching a siege on the home of Mark Rothman's—Lori's rapist—diplomat father's manor, Bellian is only deterred by the intervention of the Immortal Duncan yet the heroes find his ordeal so understanding they quickly admit their own disgust towards Mark. Getting the drop on Duncan, Bellian refuses to kill him dishonorably and shows such dignity and love even as Duncan gets his own chance to kill Bellian, he finds himself unable to kill the man, allowing him to console Lori after she is forced to kill Mark.
- "Legacy": Luther is a former slave who became a power-hungry student of the Immortal Rebecca Horne. Seeking the pieces of a mystic crystal she had divided amongst her students to use their power to win the Game, Luther methodically eliminates them one-by-one, including Rebecca herself, to claim their power, even having his human henchmen pose as detectives to hunt down one piece. Leaving only fellow student Amanda alive, Luther forces her to confront him, only stopped by Duncan fooling Amanda herself into facing him with a replica of her crystal fragment.
- "Blackmail": Lyman Kurlow is a cheerfully murderous thief from Ireland who has been partners in crime with his protege Peter Matlin for centuries. Running con after con, Kurlow had Matlin trick a second son into absconding with his family's treasure so they might murder him to claim it, framing a passing soldier for the deed. Later facing Duncan in battle, Kurlow makes a show of it to trick and elude Duncan before departing. In modern day, Kurlow murders the blackmailing lawyer Robert Waverly, taking his wealthy wife hostage to face Duncan while planning on claiming the money and escaping.
- "Homeland": Kanwulf the Destroyer was once a feared Viking warrior who led countless raids. Facing Duncan and losing, Kanwulf awoke to find his beloved axe stolen from him. In modern day, Kanwulf murders and takes the identity of the priest Father Laird of Glenfinnan, passing himself off as a beloved member of the community, to hunt for his axe while offering blood sacrifices to his gods to regain it. Threatening Duncan to return the axe to him, Kanwulf even displays a willingness to let Duncan go after before returning to the Game.
- "The Wrath of Kali": Brahman Priest Kamir has served his land of India and his goddess Kali for nearly two thousand years. During the British occupation, Kamir leads a secret resistance, having soldiers and eventually the presiding Colonel murdered by the Thuggee cults, all while presenting a friendly front to the world. Seeking to preserve his culture in modern day, Kamir attempts to locate a stolen statue of Kali, murdering those who had profited from it before attempting to kill a professor friend of Duncan's who seeks to have it displayed in a museum before facing Duncan in a use of tactics that incorporates his silk scarf to trip Duncan up.
- "Promises": Mohammad ibn Kassim swore an oath loath ago to serve the House of al Deneb until it may be restored to power. Serving the dictator Hamad, Kassim is secretly leading a conspiracy to depose the mass-murderer and return his master Nasir al Deneb to power. Invoking an old promise of Duncan's to get him to kill Hamad, Kassim is incensed when Duncan balks at the last moment, resulting in the eventual murder of Nasir. Kidnapping Duncan's distant cousin Rachel to force Duncan to face him, Kassim finally learns Nasir's lover is pregnant and takes her and the child into his protection for the day when he may once again see his oath fulfilled.
- "Money No Object": Cory Raines is a charming Immortal thief who fakes being killed by the police to be dug up by his partner, fellow Immortal Amanda and gives vast sums of his ill-gotten goods to the poor and orphanages. Comically blowing up Duncan and running his friend Richie Ryan off the road as he makes his most recent getaway, Cory ropes Amanda into doing a job on a Federal Reserve truck until she is captured by the crooked bank manager they robbed of money Cory donated to an orphanage. Hatching a plan with Duncan to scare the two off with explosives and even when blown up himself by Duncan, he recovers to continue on his roguishly charismatic ways.
- "The Valkyrie": Ingrid Hemming is an Immortal forever burdened by being unable to successfully assassinate Adolf Hitler during her time as an Allied operative. To make amends, Ingrid spends her days murdering upstart dictators before their evil words and tyranny can sew the seeds of destruction. Setting her sights on an American white supremacist politician, Ingrid runs circles around the police and Duncan, even killing an officer to get a crack at her target, before planting a bomb at the politician's rally, unrelenting in her extreme measures for peace, so touching that Duncan is devastated by having to kill her.
Other Media
Examples
- Highlander: The Series books:
- Zealot, by Donna Lettow: Avram ben Mordecai is a nearly two-thousand-year-old Hebrew who revived to immortality after Masada. Fighting for the Jewish people for all his life, Avram was a brilliant member of the Warsaw resistance against the Nazis, later helping to establish Israel. Unable to accept the possibility of peace, Avram engineers a series of attacks to sabotage peace talks, planting a bomb to ensure nobody can tell who would be responsible for the peace talks being destroyed. Avram, when defeated by his former mentor Marcus Constantine, lies about abandoning his war to find an opening to stab Marcus and take his head before later facing Duncan. Even when defeated, Avram merely takes his final moments to offer a prayer before offering Duncan his head.
- Shadow of Obsession, by Rebecca Neason: Callestina was once the lover of the great general Darius. Awakening to immortality and feeling betrayed by Darius's conversion to peace, Callestina married Darius's right-hand Grayson and has spent millennia trying to ruin Darius. Upon his death and Grayson's, Callestina becomes the subordinate and lover of Darius's greatest student, a mortal peacemaker named Victor Paulus. Slowly sabotaging his organization from within, Callestina eventually kills him as punishment for Grayson after manipulating Duncan himself before facing Duncan with her only reaction upon defeat being a request to send her to Darius and Grayson, calmly stating that they "have been apart too long."
- Art Marcum and Matt Holloway's unproduced script
remaking the first film: Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez is an elderly Immortal who serves as Conner MacLeod's cunning, charming mentor. Previously the slave-owning Pharaoh Khufu, Ramirez changed his identity and attitude after being reborn as an Immortal. Charming Conner's wife Heather to get his attention, Ramirez trains him in the way of sword fighting, at one point sending a powerful Immortal who was tailing him after Conner just to test his pupil's fighting capabilities. Getting into an encounter with the Kurgan that ends with the two unable to finish it on holy ground, Ramirez fakes his own death to give Conner motivation to kill the Kurgan. Reuniting with Conner 500 years later, after he's slain the Kurgan, Ramirez congratulates a ticked off Conner for winning the Prize, feeling that he's earned it after all these centuries.
