Amanda (Highlander) - Biography

Biography

Amanda is born in the Abbey of St. Anne in Normandy, France in 820 (though the exact date is unclear). She is poor, starving, and uneducated, and her skills as a thief are rudimentary at best. She is caught stealing food from a plague-ridden house and savagely beaten about the head, resulting in her first death. Since she allegedly consumed contaminated food, her body is to be cast into a cleansing fire in an attempt to keep from spreading the plague further. However, the Immortal Rebecca Horne saves her from that fate just as Amanda breathes her last.

Rebecca becomes Amanda's mentor, but they eventually become good friends. She teaches Amanda about The Game, but also about life and personal growth. It is Rebecca's fondness, empathy, and friendship that motivates Amanda to try to live, if just for a little while, as a "proper lady" should. Amanda leaves Rebecca and the Abbey of St. Anne in 853; as a departure gift, Rebecca gives Amanda a piece of her crystal The Methuselah Stone, something she had done before with some of her other pupils. It is rumored that whoever possesses all the pieces of the stone would become invincible. Breaking up the stone proves to be an effective means of keeping this from occurring, though it would put Amanda's life at risk in "Methuselah's Gift".

During her travels later that same year, Amanda meets the Immortal Hengist the Saxon, who challenges her to The Game. Fearing for her life, she runs back to Rebecca's abbey instead, knowing the Immortal will not fight her on Holy Ground. Rather than coddling her, however, Rebecca advises her ward to consider facing her demons, pointing out that she will not be able to run forever. Gathering her courage, Amanda not only faces the Immortal Saxon, she wins and receives her first Quickening. She leaves the abbey a final time to face an uncertain future.

She eventually gains a reputation for being one of the world's most audacious, enterprising, and elusive of thieves, managing to appropriate items thought to be unstealable – the rarest of jewels, paintings, money, just about anything she desires, and she rarely gets caught.

In 1635, she and Rebecca meet newly Immortal Duncan MacLeod. Her relationship with Duncan becomes intimate and is renewed sporadically through the centuries. They share many misadventures, such as the robbery of the Stone of Scone (1950) with Hugh Fitzcairn and the bank robbery days a la Bonnie and Clyde with Cory Raines (1926). Besides being an accomplished thief, she holds many jobs such as an harem dancer (1753), acrobat, tightwire artist, bank robber, teacher, antique dealer, nightclub singer (1936) and casino owner (1888).

After Tessa's death, Amanda becomes a periodic constant in Duncan's life, and they share many adventures, avenging Rebecca's death by her pupil Luther (1994), meeting Watcher Joe Dawson (1994), fighting against Kalas (1995) and discovering the secrets of the Methuselah's Stone (1996). It is her relationship with Duncan that ultimately motivates her to leave her life of crime and grudgingly embrace being a law abiding citizen. Even so, Amanda is always willing and perhaps even eager to utilize her skills to benefit friends and loved ones in times of peril, such as in "The Cross of St. Antoine".