Monster Monday #3 - K'Immies (Highlander)

Good morning, I hope everyone is well this grey Monday. Welcome to week 3 of Monster Mondays.

Monster Mondays posts may be fiction, film reviews, book reviews or me waxing lyrical about a particular monster. Monsters can be paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy or even simply human. So basically, anything monster goes. I also invite anyone who would like to, to join in with their own post. (See end for details).

K'Immies

So for today I was hit by nostalgia while watching an episode of Highlander: The Raven so I have gone with monsters who are men and women, but with a little something extra to help on their psychoses. KImmies are evil Immortals, so called because so many of their names have a 'K' or a hard 'C' sound. In the Highlander universe there are beings called Immortals who live, hidden among humans, and play The Game. Their ultimate rule is 'There can be only one' and they kill each other by taking their opponents head, thus gaining their power in the Quickening. The last one left will eventually gain The Prize, but none of them really know what that is. Some Immortals take to The Game much better than others, enjoying the killing, these are the K'Immies.

I assume the tradition started on day one with the original evil Immortal himself, the great Krugan, as portrayed by Clancy Brown.

In the images we have him in his historical getup and then his delightful modern twist. In the film of Highlander he is the big bad, Connor MacLeod's arch Nemesis, an Immortal brought up by the infamous tribe, the Kurgans, to be brutal and to believe only the strong survive and win. He is a man out of time, only adapting to the most brutish of modern ways, killing by whim, taking anything he wants and being generally monstrous.

You could simply argue he is nothing more than a result of his upbringing, but plenty of other immortals overcame their prejudices and beliefs to become perfectly rounded individual. Hence I firmly believe Kurgan counts as a monster.

My second monstrous K'Immie is Kalas (played by David Robb), who, as his name suggests it a heartless individual, wrapped up in seeking his own power.

Now, Kalas really has no excuse at all, brought up in Rome and becoming a respected citizen he had a good life, stable upbringing and a good mentor. He even pretended to help disillusioned Immortals fed up of the Game, setting up a sanctuary on holy ground for them (Immortals cannot kill on Holy ground). However, he then started killing them the moment they stepped off holy ground to gain their power. He's also a slippery bastard, getting away from Duncan MacLeod several times during Highlander: The Series.

Kalas is a monster because he hid behind the hand of friendship for a very long time, killing those who trusted him.

Now to my third and final K'Immie, one of the best: Kronos as played by Valentine Pelka.

With Kronos we have another psycho. He was the leader of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse during the bronze age, riding with three other Immortals, Methos, Silas and Caspian, pillaging and murdering their way across two continents.

Now, unlike the Kurgan, Kronos adapts well to new centuries and new technologies, taking advantage of them and hiding very well in plain sight. He hasn't grown much as a person, still feeling it is his right to take what he wants and taking it when the whim takes him, but he adapts to his times, making him very, very dangerous. He's very clever and can keep the Horsemen in line with his powerful personality.

He's such a bad guy that even after he's dead he gets to be the avatar of a demon, but the less said about that the better, because that's where Highlander: The Series lost the plot.

Valentine was so good as Kronos he also got to play another K'Immie in Highlander: The Raven - Andre Korda, but while he was good, Kronos was definitely better :).

Highlander fandom is where I cut my teeth on internet interaction (we had mailing lists) and it was where I met many, many of my current friends. The trip to Paris with all of us crammed into one car was most memorable :) as were the conventions.

Have you seen any of the incarnations of Highlander (I do feel sorry for you if it was any of the films apart from the first one ;))? Were you ever part of the fandom? Who is your favourite Immortal?

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Monster Mondays #3 Links 

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