History WMG / Highlander

Think about it. How careful would immortals have to be to not lose any appendages during centuries or millenia of existence? These beings regularly engage in sword fights, fall off buildings, in addition to all the other mundane accidents that happen to normal people. Methos should have looked like a quadruple amputee by now. Yet Xavier Saintcloud is the only immortal we saw with a severed limb from his previous battle with Duncan, and every single immortal we've seen has all their limbs and body parts intact. In one episode Amanda was joking with Duncan that they could jump off the Eiffel Tower and they would be fine. A fall like that would splatter their bodies at worst or in the very least sever some limbs, and yet Duncan said only that it would hurt. My theory is that immortals can regenerate limbs and heal any injury; it just takes a lot longer for their bodies to make the new marrow, nerves and bone, in the same way they regenerate the new skin and muscle tissue to heal their wounds. It might also depend on the age and power of the Immortal, and how large the limb is. A severed finger could be grown back in a few months or years, but a whole hand could takes decades. Saintcloud's hand hadn't grown back because either too little time had passed, Xavier wasn't old or powerful enough to speed up the process, or the prosthetic limb he had in place was perhaps interfering with the regrowing, or a combination of all three.

Think about it. How careful would immortals have to be to not lose any appendages during centuries or millenia of existence? These beings regularly engage in sword fights, fall off buildings, in addition to all the other mundane accidents that happen to normal people. Methos should have looked like a double amputee by now. Yet Xavier Saintcloud is the only immortal we saw with a severed limb from his previous battle with Duncan, and every single immortal we've seen has all their limbs and body parts intact. In one episode Amanda was joking with Duncan that they could jump off the Eiffel Tower and they would be fine. A fall like that would splatter their bodies at worst or in the very least sever some limbs, and yet Duncan said only that it would hurt. My theory is that immortals can regenerate limbs and heal any injury; it just takes a lot longer for their bodies to make the new marrow, nerves and bone, in the same way they regenerate the new skin and muscle tissue to heal their wounds. It might also depend on the age and power of the Immortal, and how large the limb is. A severed finger could be grown back in a few months or years, but a whole hand could takes decades. Saintcloud's hand hadn't grown back because either too little time had passed, Xavier wasn't old or powerful enough to speed up the process, or the prosthetic limb he had in place was perhaps interfering with the regrowing, or a combination of all three.

Think about it. How careful would immortals have to be to not lose any appendages during centuries or millenia of existence? These beings regularly engage in sword fights, fall off buildings, in addition to all the other mundane accidents that happen to normal people. Methos should have looked like a double amputee by now. Yet Xavier Saintcloud is the only immortal we saw with a severed limb from his previous battle with Duncan, and every single immortal we've seen has all their limbs and body parts intact. My theory is that immortals can regenerate limbs; it just takes a lot longer for their bodies to make the new bone marrow and bone in the same way they regenerate skin and muscle tissue to heal their wounds, and might depend on the age and power of the Immortal, and how large the limb is. A severed finger could be grown back in a few months or years, but a whole hand could takes decades. Saintcloud's hand hadn't grown back because either too little time had passed, Xavier wasn't old or powerful enough to speed up the process, or the prosthetic limb he had in place was perhaps interfering with the regrowing, or a combination of all three.

[[WMG Immortals CAN regenerate severed body parts.]]

Think about it. How careful would immortals have to be to not lose any appendages during centuries or millenia of existence? These beings regularly engage in sword fights, fall off buildings, in addition to all the other mundane accidents that happen to normal people. Methos should have looked like a double amputee by now. Yet Xavier Saintcloud is the only immortal we saw with a severed limb from his previous battle with Duncan. My theory is that immortals can regenerate limbs. It just takes a lot longer for their bodies to make the new bone marrow and bone in the same way they regenerate skin and muscle tissue to heal their wounds, and might depend on the age and power of the Immortal, and how large the limb is. A severed finger could be grown back in a few months or years, but a whole hand could takes decades. Saintcloud's hand hadn't grown back because either too little time had passed, Xavier wasn't old or powerful enough to speed up the process, or the prosthetic limb he had in place was perhaps interfering with the process, or a combination of all three.

** Alternatively, a Quickening still occurs, it's just an extremely weak one since the dormant immortal has only lived a few decades at most (and not killed anyone else to collect their power), making dormant immortals terrible targets barely worth the effort except by the most evil and desperate of immortals (like the Kurgan).

[[WMG: The Highlander universe takes place in a world with only Queen music.]]

Also, in the sequel, Connor turns on a jukebox at a bar to listen to "A Kind Of Magic".

An odd case where whenever a character in the film can hear the background music in a scene, it's always Queen. At the wrestling match, it's "Princes of The Universe". In the Kurgan's tape deck, "Gimme The Prize". In the bar where Connor meets Brenda, "One Year Of Love". On Kirk Matunas's car radio, "Hammer To Fall". Even in the sequel, Connor turns on a jukebox at a bar to listen to "A Kind Of Magic".

On a mostly unrelated note, in order for an immortal to get a "free" Quickening, they need to be close enough to experience "The Buzz" off of that immortal.

Think about it, how would the immortals even know about it? Because they're "born" with that in mind or sense it ala "The Buzz"? If that were the case, wouldn't they also immediately know what's going on upon awaking from their first death? Plus, with new immortals apparently being born all the time, could it ever truly end? Would the game being won keep the future immortals from being able to become immortal? What about the mortals who will become immortal upon their first death, will they now just die instead? Chances are, "The Prize" was just something made up by the first generation of immortals who wanted to believe that they could eventually live without worrying about being beheaded every day.

Also, in order for an immortal to get a "free" Quickening, they need to be close enough to experience "The Buzz".

Think about, how would the immortals know about it? Because they're "born" with that in mind or sense it ala "The Buzz"? If that were the case, wouldn't they also immediately know that they've become immortal upon awaking from their first death? Chances are, "The Prize" was just something made up by the first generation of immortals who wanted there to be some reason for the killings, perhaps as justification. Plus, with new immortals apparently being born all the time, could it ever truly end? Would the game being won keep the future immortals from being able to become immortal? What about the mortals who will become immortal upon their first death, will they now just die instead? The Prize being made up just makes more sense, because an eventual end to all of the fighting and the possibility of not having to worry about losing their head appealed to the immortals.

Alternatively, as someone said above, The Prize is just a temporary thing. You can only be the winner until a dormant immortal finally has their first death, or if an immortal in some kind of stasis state comes out of it, like Kane in the third film.

We just don't know it because when they got their first Quickening from a more evolved species, they had an "Evolution Quickening," kinda like the Dark Quickening in season five. That, and they've probably all lost their heads by the 1900s, at the latest.

If a dormant immortal who has yet to experience their first death takes the head of an immortal, then instead of having the Quickening fade out like when a normal mortal takes their head, it will strike the mortal and end up killing them, thus making them immortal.

* If memory serves, the creators of The Source said it was all a really weird dream Duncan was having.

It'd honestly make more sense that way.

[[WMG: Regarding ''Highlander - The Source'': The Guardian is actually a time-travelling Edward Cullen.]]

[[WMG: If The Kurgan would have won, he would have become [[GodEmperor The God Emperor of mankind]]]]

Besides the fact that they are both depicted as very large men with flowing black hair, a variety of similarities are present

1. Ramirez says, about the Kurgan "If he wins the Prize, mortal man would suffer an eternity of darkness.", and humanity in 40k is in a fairly dark age.

2. when Connor wins the prize, he says "I feel everything! I know... I know everything! I am everything!" emplying that winning the prize is to make the winner a very powerful phychic, perhaps even the most powerful pychic of mankind.

3. The God Emperor of Mankind was said to be born in the second millenium B.C., which, given the {{Future imperfect}} history in 40k, is a fairly accurate estimate.

That being said i could easily imagine one such as the Kurgan having many more than 20 sons in his life (though i would estimate that as the amount he would keep alive), though he would see him frightened by the realization that he is no longer immortal, but it turned out alright, because The Emperor is, for all intents and purposes,unable to die.

[[WMG:Winning the Game equates to becoming the Emperor of Warhammer 40k]]

[[WMG: At least one wandering immortal in Judeo-Christian folklore was really Methos]]

[[WMG: The Watchers are a division of the Watcher's Council from Buffy]]

** And The Immortal in "The Girl In Question" was one of the HL guys.

...but he failed, because Humans at that time had no philosophy that resembled the ones that got Macleod through his fight. The Earth entered a deep barbaric age, but the demon twisted the knife twice. He asked his own Champion what he should do with his fallen foe. Kronos responded, 'Make Him My Brother', and while this was done, Ahriman also erased both their memories and set them out to be mundane if legendary killers and reavers, rather than anything transcendent. Demons can be like that.

He essentially became a reality-warping deity who then changed the current world into a construct where anything he desired would come true. He wanted a world where he saves everyone by building a sun shield and so it occurred. Then after living in that fantasy for 25 years he got old and senile and then remade reality so that immortals are now from the planet Zeist.

And really, does the Kurgan seem like the sanest of people?

[[WMG: The Prize is based around what the winner wants. It's not an immutable prize. (So Connor gets what he wants, while The Kurgan would be able to live forever and rule ze world.)]]

** And The Immortal in "The Girl In Question" was one of the HL guys.

As [[TheSpoonyExperiment the Spoony One]] explained at length in his review of Highlander 2, the whole "alien from the planet Zeist" thing opens up a metric fuckton of plotholes...unless you assume that when Connor, Ramirez, and all the other Immortals were banished from Zeist they were transported into Earth's distant past and had their memories wiped. Why? Well, obviously so they won't be able to pool their efforts and find a way to travel back to Zeist on their own. They won't have the knowledge to build a ship or a teleporter or whatever, and the technology available is too primitive anyway.

That being said i could easily imagine one such as the Kurgan having many more than 20 sons in his life(though i would estimate that as the amount he would keep alive), though he would see him frightened by the realization that he is no longer immortal, but it turned out alright, because The Emporer is, for all intents and purposes,unable to die.

He seems to be as old as Western civilization, and according to TheOtherWiki he has spent time in the Middle East, so he'd have had plenty of opportunity to inspire the legends of Cain or the Wandering Jew.

* The inuisition would rather not mention that the God-Emperor was a rapist, so of course they cooked up a story to
replace it, i mean,has the empire of man ever made test-tube babies before or after that?

3. The God Emperor of Mankind was said to be born in the second millenium B.C., which, given the {{Future imperfect}} history in 40k, is a fairly acurate estimate.

* The Primarchs are clones, remember?