I guess the most important thing to start off with is that the next movie, Endgame is essentially a finale to the TV series. Lambert is in it (and he's in the pilot of the TV series also), but it's as much Duncan's movie and has some of the supporting cast of the show. I would really, really recommend watching the show before seeing Endgame, but I also understand that's 119 episodes and you guys have set your sights on doing Endgame probably next week so it is what it is.
The other thing is that there really is no continuity to the franchise in my opinion. They're all sort of different continuities. We see Connor win The Prize in the first movie so the second what is "Well what if we explain their origins?". The 3rd movie is "What if there were actually a few immortals still around so Connor didn't actually have the Prize before, but now he does at the end of this one?". Then the series is more "What if Highlander 1 kinda happened except we just ignore the stuff about Connor and Kurgan being the last 2, the Kurgan was just a really powerful immortal, there's still a ton of immortals left, there's another, younger Immortal that also comes from Clan MacLeod that's on good terms with Connor, and we have a bunch of fun guest stars?". Endgame is a continuation of the show. The Source is just badly made and was another follow-up to the show attempting to once again explain the origins of the Immortals and I think even the people responsible for it said to disregard it.
There's TV spin-offs and animated stuff, but nothing of major consequence, and the animated series and the anime movie are again, alternate continuities.
In regards to the Immortals getting unique powers from the others, I think that's mostly just a Highlander 3 thing. The idea there is probably just that they get some of the memories of the person they killed so if that Immortal knew how to do a thing, the person who killed them now maybe knows how to do it. There's at least a couple episodes of the series that kinda deal with the ramifications of the Quickenings in interesting ways.
Maybe at least the Pilot so you can get some more Lambert. It's not a great episode since it took a while for the show to really come together, but at least establishes the relationship between Connor and Duncan and it's the only episode Connor appears in.
Plot-wise, Endgame will largely make sense without the context of the series. Well, it will make Highlander sense anyway. I think mainly the issue is that you'll be going in without any sort of affection for Duncan as a character so it may fall a bit more emotionally flat.
So Highlander lore/continuity...
ReplyDeleteI guess the most important thing to start off with is that the next movie, Endgame is essentially a finale to the TV series. Lambert is in it (and he's in the pilot of the TV series also), but it's as much Duncan's movie and has some of the supporting cast of the show. I would really, really recommend watching the show before seeing Endgame, but I also understand that's 119 episodes and you guys have set your sights on doing Endgame probably next week so it is what it is.
The other thing is that there really is no continuity to the franchise in my opinion. They're all sort of different continuities. We see Connor win The Prize in the first movie so the second what is "Well what if we explain their origins?". The 3rd movie is "What if there were actually a few immortals still around so Connor didn't actually have the Prize before, but now he does at the end of this one?". Then the series is more "What if Highlander 1 kinda happened except we just ignore the stuff about Connor and Kurgan being the last 2, the Kurgan was just a really powerful immortal, there's still a ton of immortals left, there's another, younger Immortal that also comes from Clan MacLeod that's on good terms with Connor, and we have a bunch of fun guest stars?". Endgame is a continuation of the show. The Source is just badly made and was another follow-up to the show attempting to once again explain the origins of the Immortals and I think even the people responsible for it said to disregard it.
There's TV spin-offs and animated stuff, but nothing of major consequence, and the animated series and the anime movie are again, alternate continuities.
In regards to the Immortals getting unique powers from the others, I think that's mostly just a Highlander 3 thing. The idea there is probably just that they get some of the memories of the person they killed so if that Immortal knew how to do a thing, the person who killed them now maybe knows how to do it. There's at least a couple episodes of the series that kinda deal with the ramifications of the Quickenings in interesting ways.
Thanks for this! I can’t decide if I should try to watch a few episodes of the show before Endgame or if it’ll be more fun having no context.
DeleteMaybe at least the Pilot so you can get some more Lambert. It's not a great episode since it took a while for the show to really come together, but at least establishes the relationship between Connor and Duncan and it's the only episode Connor appears in.
DeletePlot-wise, Endgame will largely make sense without the context of the series. Well, it will make Highlander sense anyway. I think mainly the issue is that you'll be going in without any sort of affection for Duncan as a character so it may fall a bit more emotionally flat.
I am really enjoying this series. Now I have homework to see Highlander 4 before next week..
ReplyDeleteI think you guys were right about the junky feel of Part 3, but the sword forging/training montage in Highlander 3 is Pure Cinema.