Highlander - the Fandom that Dragged Me Online #FanFridays 19

Greetings and welcome to my blog for another Fan Friday. Today I have chosen a fandom which started  my whole online life and which still holds a special place in my heart.

Highlander - the Fandom that Dragged Me Online

Now Highlander actually started way back in 1986 with the original film and the original Highlander:

Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod

(Christopher Lambert)

I saw this movie on VHS and let's just say it made an impression. I love the movie, I love the music and I really, really hoped there would be a sequel.

The main premise is that there are Immortals among us. People who can only be killed by removing their head from their shoulders. If done by another Immortal, the winner takes the losers Quickening, their life force, and gains in power. All Immortals fight with swords and their only refuge is holy ground, where none of them will fight. They are all waiting for the Gathering, where they will be drawn together and one of them will win the prize. They all know that:

There Can Be Only One

Let's just say, when I got my wish about a sequel I was not impressed. Sorry, but I think all the movies that aren't the original one should disappear and never be seen again :).

However, then in 1992 came Highlander: the Series. I first saw this during one of my summers as a student apprentice in Stevenage and, I have to admit, I was also unimpressed. Trust me when I say, do not judge this series on the first few eps of season 1 - they are not the greatest. It improves enormously once the action moves to Paris and the writers seem to get a clue (half of each season was filmed in Vancouver and half in Paris).

Luckily for me I gave it another try a little later and, this time, I was not disappointed.

Highlander: the Series gave us

Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod

(Adrian Paul)

Now Duncan is Connor's cousin, although actually they aren't blood because all Immortals are foundlings, but they come from the same Scottish Clan. Duncan is just a little younger than Connor.

Duncan's (or Mac to many of his friends) sword of choice is a katana, just like Connor's and he gets through Kimmies (bad immortals - so called because so many of them had names beginning with K or a hard C sound :)) like there's no tomorrow. At the beginning of the series they keep going on about the Gathering, but, since there are six seasons, it seems to be taking an awfully long time.

In season 1 and 2 he is involved with the lovely Tessa Noel (Alexandra Vandernoot). She is an artist and together they run an antique shop in the city of Seacouver (the setting for all the Canadian made episodes).

They also take in waif and stray Richie Ryan (Stan Kirsch) after he breaks into their shop and sees Duncan and then Connor go at a bad Immortal.

During season 2 Richie turns out to always have been a pre-Immortal, another reason Duncan took him in, and when he is killed becomes Immortal like Duncan. Duncan then becomes his mentor.

Through the series we also meet Joe Dawson (Jim Byrnes), a mortal who is part of an organisation called the Watchers. They make it their business to record the goings on of Immortals, but never interfere. That goes out the window with Joe and Duncan, however.

And then there is Methos (Peter Wingfield) a legend even among Immortals. Supposedly the oldest living of them all he had been around at least 5000 years and even he doesn't remember his origins. The character was originally only supposed to be around for a couple of episodes, but he was so popular they kept bringing him back.

Of course no list of Immortals would ever be complete without Amanda (Elizabeth Gracen). Another fan favourite, Amanda is a thief and opportunist who knows how to survive.

When Highlander finished the producers wanted a spin off and after spending the entirety of season six (also know to many as season sux - some of us hated it so much we wrote our own version - Highlander the Fanfic Season - be warned the site is very old - all hand-coded by me) parading a bunch of female Immortal candidates across the screen. they actually listened to the fans and gave Amanda her own show.

Highlander: The Raven was awesome, but, unfortunately only had one season. In it Amanda gets a new blond hairdo and finds that even she can be convinced to use her skills to help people rather than just herself. Especially when she is falling in love with a cop.

Amanda had two sidekicks for the series:

Nick Wolfe (Paul Johansson), a cop who becomes a PI, after stumbling into the world of Immortals.

Lucy Becker (Patricia Gage) a mortal Amanda has known a long time and who is her closest friend.

Together they get involved with everything from simple theft to international terrorism and put the worlds to rights.

Highlander is the show that dragged me online. I may have been doing a Computer Systems Engineering degree, but I didn't really go online, not until I joined Highlander fandom. Back then most of the fandom consisted of three mailing list:

• The main list HIGHLA-L
• The fiction list HLFIC-L
• The slash fiction list (it was back when male/male stories were too shocking to possibly have on the main fiction list)

We then added to this with the Richie list as well because there were those of us who thought he was the best character and some of the writers and some of the fans really hated him, so we needed our own space.

I have life long friends thanks to Highlander fandom. We did a quick calculation on how long we'd all known each other the other week and all blanched at how long it had been :). I was a Trekkie before I was a Highlander fan, but this is the fandom that launched my online presence and my fanfic writing. 

It's also where my fanfic pseudonym comes from (Beren) - I had a character called Berengaria in a Highlander fic and when I couldn't get my real name on a Harry Potter website, that's the pseud I picked :).

What was your first online fandom? Do you still remember it with joy or shudder at the thought? :) Do you still have friends from that fandom? Have you ever seen Highlander?

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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