Immortal (Highlander) - Way of Life

Way of Life

Panzer thinks that "for the most part, Immortals are very much like ordinary people," and most of them do the same things as mortals. "Some make a lot of money. Some become Terrorists like Annie Devlin who is an IRA terrorist leader. Some become policemen because they like to fight. Some become great lovers. Some like Duncan MacLeod become righters of wrongs. And some like Kuyler, (...) become the highest paid, most successful assassin there's ever been." Panzer and Abramowitz also reckon, "Most of the time, when we think about immortality, we think about the problems of immortality. The loneliness, the idea of losing loved ones over the centuries. The danger of being in conflict with other Immortals, (...) the solitude, the living a dark shadowy life. This show showcases how great it can be to be an immortal, how a man can, in three lifetimes, go from being a slave to being someone with hopes and dreams of becoming a professional baseball player, to finally someone who had hopes and dreams of actually changing the world."

Immortals have much more time than mortals to mature their skills. Kuyler, mentioned above, lived for 354 years and killed 2760 people. Immortals usually try to blend in. Panzer says, "it's pretty much life in a shadowy world, making sure that after twenty years or twenty-five years you leave the place you are, change your identity, because you're not getting older and people are gonna start to notice." Connor MacLeod muses, "Do you think we ever lived like this, like a tribe, together with a common language, a reason and a name for each living thing? Did we once belong somewhere, a time, a place, however briefly?"

In the same way, relationships between Immortals are like those of mortals. Panzer explains, "they have Immortal friends that they like, they have Immortals that they don't like, except from time to time they fight. (...) And from time to time Immortals run into each other, after twenty years, fifty years or hundred years." Immortals can be friends, enemies, lovers, teachers, students or they can avoid their kind. The only difference is that they are supposed to play the Game, and trusting another Immortal can result in a severed head. "If it came down to us two, would you take my head?" asks Connor MacLeod to Ramirez, his mentor.

Immortals rarely tell mortals about their immortality and even more rarely about the Game. Relationships between Immortals and mortals are difficult because while mortals grow old and die, Immortals remain the same and cannot have children. Mortals still chose sometimes to live with Immortals. Panzer recalls about the Highlander: The Series episode "The Sea Witch, "one of the issues of immortality that is intriguing is why does somebody chose to spend their mortal life with someone who won't grow old, and with whom they can't have children." In this episode Tessa Noël, Duncan MacLeod's lover, gets to know a little girl and becomes very fond of her. She says, "For a while there, just for a few hours... I felt like she was mine. I liked how it felt. But she's not... I have my own life and it's more than enough." Panzer comments, "It brings home in a very powerful way what exactly she's giving up to be with MacLeod." Immortals often come to despise mortals for their fragility. Abramovitz comments, "It's very easy for an Immortal to become cynical."