Throughout Highlander's six seasons as a syndicated television show, viewers have seen many characters come and go, both mortal and Immortals. Some will be killed, others will be taught a moral lesson and will move on. In almost every episode, there is a conflict between two or more Immortals. Not every episode ends with an Immortal's head being taken and his soul being absorbed in a Quickening, but quite often we see Duncan MacLeod or one of his friends on their knees being struck by lightening while receiving the power of their enemy.
Like many cultures in our world, the Immortals believe they grow stronger when their enemy is dead. Oddly enough, many cannibalistic societies have the same idea as the Immortals. For instance, the Maori of New Zealand have a unique system of warfare that involves cannibalism as symbolic revenge (Bowden, 82). Similar to Highlander using the Eiffel Tower and other dramatic locations for Quickenings, Aztec victims were taken to tops of temples for sacrifice (Bowden, 81).
Various explanations of cannibalism have been suggested. A lack of animal protein in the population's diet and rapid growing population or man's innate aggressiveness have been brought up as anthropological explanations, but the main reason for Maori at least is the ingest the qualities admired in the enemy, such as fighting ability or strength (Bowden, 93). The Jale', still as of 1970, also practiced cannibalism with warfare for this same reason (Koch, 42). Yet another cannibalistic group, the Ibo in the Caribbean region, felt the head of the enemy was a great thing to take. Generally, they had hand-to-hand combat using axes, clubs, and daggers. In the later 1700's, they used the Highlander weapon of choice, the sword. Anthropologist Nancie Gonzalez says, "The Ibo engaged in small-scale fights, each man for himself, the main objective being to return home with a head as a trophy" (Gonzalez, 27).
Battles of the Immortals are almost exclusively one-on-one, hand-to-hand conflict. This scene from the episode "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" is a favorite among Highlander fans:
Some Immortals, however, choose to fight only when absolutely necessary. They will hide out on Holy Ground for hundreds of years, or will travel frequently so that they are hard to find. Combat is not the norm for all Immortals. Peter Wingfield, who plays the show's oldest living Immortal (of 5,000 or so years), Methos, says, "...the key to the character's survival is his ability to blend-in, rather than him being the best fighter in 5,000 years. The notion that someone could keep fighting for all those years and always win seems kind of implausible to me. Having someone who, through wit and blending-in and avoiding combat, has managed to stay alive seems much more plausible" (Bassom, 36). Wingfield's character is explored in more detail in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
So when is it absolutely necessary for an Immortal to fight? What are justifiable reasons for challenging another Immortal? Is 'There Can Be Only One' a good enough reason to kill? Most people say no. Immortals who kill for that reason, although adhering to tradition, are generally considered evil. If one Immortal is challenged by another, then they will generally fight. It is not the fight itself that is being questioned, but the reasoning behind it. Fan Tiye Candace Scott says "I think that if I personally were an Immortal, it would take some other conflict for me to duel. I probably would be more like Methos in the sense that I would not interfere with another [Immortal] simply because s/he was doing something that I found morally reprehensible. My dueling would most likely be restricted to people that bothered me, or a mortal under my 'protection.'" Other fans note that the reason MacLeod kills other Immortals is to put a stop to their killing of mortals or other 'good' Immortals.
Although Highlander revolves around conflicts between Immortals and the Game, producer Bill Panzer notes that it is the fantasy of immortality that draws the audience. He states that the battle of good vs. evil and the strong character conflicts exist, but that they are all made more complex because immortality is involved (Shapiro, 33). Conflicts between Immortals are not very different than our own, they just happen to use swords to solve theirs more often than not.
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Page created 27 April 1998 by Ali Zimmerman.