To do Highlander, one must begin with Princes of the universe by Queen, it is law, just like "There can be only one." So by now you may have noticed I'm a little random, but such is a writer's mind, it's all relevant in it's own way. This time we talk about Highlander, and most importantly Highlander the animated series, an under-appreciated show which for me set the stage for post apocalyptic dystopia. First, let's back up and explain what Highlander is, in case you don't know, it's about immortals. They aren't gods or anything they're just people who will not die for any reason except decapitation, which conveniently means everyone needs to keep a sword in case you run into another immortal and need to chop his head off or at least to defend yours. Decapitation is important because when it does happen, then there's the Quickening, a transfer of all power from the dead immortal to the one who killed him, or to the nearest immortal, on the rare occasion an immortal gets beheaded by some other means than another immortal's blade, accompanied by an electrical storm that blows up pretty much anything nearby that looks cool while blowing up. There are two stories behind how this became Highlander, the true story according to the creator is that he was on a trip to Scotland and seeing a suit of armor thought "What if that guy was still alive today?" The second story is mine, that someone thought it would be cool if they could create a set of otherwise random circumstances that allowed for medieval swordsmen to fight old school in the modern day. If you watch Highlander you will realize that beyond the title, my version explains it better and probably did happen during production. So, it all starts with Connor MacLeod who was born in the Highlands of Scotland(hence the name) in 1518. He is apparently killed in 1536 during a battle with a band of invading barbarians led by the Kurgan, who is sort of like a Spartan, only more brutal(yeah, he's really that badass). However, Connor comes back to life and is cast out of his clan as a witch. Connor then meets Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, another immortal who explains the situation, they are both immortal as is the Kurgan, and while none of them know why, they know there are rules: they can only die if they are beheaded, the Quickening will transfer power from victim to victor when it does, they can not have children, they can not fight on holy ground, and in the end there can be only one. What is most confusing about Ramirez is that despite his Spanish name, he is actually Egyptian, and he is played by Sean Connery who bless his heart can not be not Scottish to save his life, and ironically the actual Highlander is played by Frenchman Christopher Lambert, with the super Frenchy silent "T" in his name. This absurdity in casting is highlighted in a scene when MacLeod explains the Scottish delicacy of haggis to Ramirez and the Scotsman says the Frenchman in full brogue "What's haggis? That's disgusting!" Fortunately the ridiculousness is cut short when the Kurgan shows up and kills Ramirez leaving us to finish the movie without him. This whole story is told in flashback intercut with 1985 New York City where Connor is now living in the time of the Gathering, when the last few immortals who still have their heads will fight it out. Coincidentally, the last two are Connor and the Kurgan. I don't really consider that a spoiler because, come on, you had to see that coming. Highlander did so well they made a sequel called Highlander 2:the Quickening, which was so bad even the people who made it just ignore it for the rest of the franchise. So skipping on, they went to make Highlander 3:the Final Dimension, which basically just said some immortals were trapped in a cave and missed the Gathering the first time so Connor gets to fight again. Then there's the series which shifts the focus to Duncan MacLeod, because the coolest immortals are all MacLeods. Duncan was born in 1594, after Connor, but came from the same clan and Connor mentored him, which we see in the first episode when they meet in New York City and then we don't see Connor again until Highlander:Endgame, a movie in which Duncan is forced to take Connor's head so he can have the power to defeat their mutual enemy. Then came Highlander:The Source, which I can only assume was as bad as H2:tQ, though I only say the Source, mistakenly believing it would finally answer the question of the source of the immortals. I should have done more research, it was instead contradictory to everything Highlander had been and I can't believe they actually managed to get the actors from the series to agree to reprise their roles for a movie that undid so much of their good work. The series itself was pretty good, although it seems like there's a ton of immortals out there who managed to live to the modern day without losing their heads because there's one in every friggin' episode, and they all die by the end of their episode, with the exceptions of Mythos, the oldest immortal("Five thousand years ago I took my first head and everything before that is a blur.") Richie the youngest immortal, and Amanda a thief and ex-lover of Duncan who gets her own spin-off, for one season.
This brings us to the least celebrated entry in the franchise, though possibly most deserving, Highlander:the Animated Series. Yes, they actually tried to make a kid's cartoon out of a story of people decapitating each other, which they try to mitigate by creating the new mechanic of a passive Quickening due to the Oath of the Jettator, something which actually drives the series rather than getting in it's way. The immortals have taken the oath of the Jettator to give up fighting and their place in the game and instead share the knowledge they have accumulated over the years with humanity. One immortal, named Kortan(yes, there is a running theme of major Highlander villains being named with the letter K, fans call them "Kimmies") refuses to take the oath and because he is technically the last one left he claims victory by default. Connor MacLeod steps forward almost immediately to stop him, but the oath has significance and for breaking it, Connor dies at the hands of Kortan. The rest of the Jettators retreat and Kortan rules until another immortal is born free from the oath, and that immortal happens to be Quentin MacLeod, who is then mentored by Don Vincente Marino Ramirez, who teaches the young Highlander how to fight and leads him to the other Jettators who can now pass on their knowledge, power, and immortality by simply holding the sword with Quentin and allowing the Quickening to complete the transfer leaving the Jettator now an ordinary mortal to live out their days in peace. They shift the focus significantly to knowledge, a factor never mentioned before in Highlander, in this series each Jettator has a significant area of expertise and that knowledge is why the Highlander seeks them out. Sounds a little lame huh? That's because I didn't yet say that this all takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and that Kortan rules the Earth unopposed for seven hundred years before Quentin comes along. The entire reason for the Oath of the Jettator in the first place was the Great Catastrophe, which is mentioned several times in the series but only a few times do they ever get close to explaining that it was a meteor/comet colliding with the Earth. Wildlife has mutated, Ramirez and Quentin ride bipedal camel looking creatures called gavors and Quentin has a pet named Gaul, which is a gran, a six-limbed monkey-dog hybrid that makes sounds like a howler monkey. The sky ranges from yellow to red to brown with dark clouds, and everyone lives in fear of Kortan. This was the darkest cartoon I watched as a kid and made me grow up a little, particularly one episode featuring a Jettator named Prometheus who had knowledge of the atomic bomb. Prometheus has been living in an abandoned missile silo where enough radioactive material was left behind to give him radiation poisoning and he suffers all of the symptoms except the sweet release of death, and now wears a mask to cover his deformed face. That episode did not sugar coat it at all, except sparing us actually having to see his face, although Quentin's reaction when Prometheus shows his face briefly is quite telling. Also, take into consideration that earlier in the episode his guardians are a race of blue skinned web fingered people who have mutated due to the the radiation, and let's not forget what happened to the world that allowed gavors and grans to even evolve in the past seven hundred years. Straying a bit, this series came out around the same time as Final Fantasy VI and I couldn't help but find parallels, grans to moogles(little white creatures), gavors to chocobos(bipedal mounts), espers to Jettators(both pass power and knowledge onto another), and most eerie of all, Cyan and Kefka bear a strong resemblance to Ramirez and Malone respectively. Malone is a clown that serves Kortan as the human key, the only person who can open the vault where Kortan keeps his sword using a lock that is molded to the mortal's body. Malone may not look much like Kefka, but his personality is spot on, and Cyan and Ramirez are just pallette swaps of each other. Also, the World of Ruin from the second half of the game bears a strong resemblance to the world of Highlander the Animated Series...hmm, maybe I'm just making connections that aren't really there. Anyway, this was my first foray into the post-apocalyptic dystopian genre and has set my expectations on everything I have read or watched since.
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