Being A Highlander Fan Sucks

Man, it really blows being a Highlander fan, especially when all your friends are Star Wars nerds. I mean, the fact that our fan base is like a gazillion times lower than Star Wars isn’t so bad, really. But when the last good offering in the franchise is 1994’s, The Final Destination, I think that’s really saying a lot about clinging on to a dying series. I mean, that’s a whole FOURTEEN freaking years ago, people!

And that’s a shame, really, because I’ve always been a firm believer that Connor and Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod have always had the potential to trounce Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in coolness if they just got their act together once in awhile

My love for Highlander actually started back in 1995 when my dad took me to go see Mortal Kombat, the movie. Marveled by how awesome Raiden was in the film, my dad nudged me in the shoulder and said, “You should see the guy (Christopher Lambert) in Highlander, “to which I asked, what the hell’s a Highlander?

From that day forward, though, I became totally immersed in the story of Immortals chopping off each other’s heads—the only way to kill an Immortal, of course—so they could “win the game,” and finally become mortal for the very first time. I was equally impressed with Connor MacLeod swinging about his sword and flitting through history to fight off some giant brute named Kurgan while he waxed philosophical with Sean Connery about the feelings that come about from being around other Immortals. This urge to fight is called a “Quickening” in our universe, and Connor MacLeod had an itching for the Quickening quite a bit back in the day.
See? That sounds pretty cool, right? Too bad we followers don’t get NEARLY the fan treatment you Star Wars geeks get. Sure, we’ve had a television series or two (or three, if you count animated ones), a large collection of books, and even a pretty nice toy line to boot, but does any of that really equate for diddly squat when the movies we’re greeted with are utter and complete garbage? I mean, even the second movie, Highlander II: The Quickening, was a piece of rubbish that basically conflicted with everything you learned from the first movie—Aliens? Really?—making it hard to swallow nearly everything that would follow in the outrageously all over the place series.

But the final insult to injury is definitely the latest Sci-Fi channel movie, Highlander: The Source. Seriously, Phantom Menace holds nothing to this disaster of a film, and I can admit that even my enthusiasm for the franchise is waning.

So, while you Star Wars fans can rejoice at Lucas’ announcement that you’ll be enjoying a brand new TV series in 2009, I have to deal with the fact that my franchise might be on its last legs.
Sigh. It really DOES suck being a Highlander fan. One thing’s for certain, though: We’ll always have 007, Sean Connery, in our legacy.

But you’ll always have Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford.

Oh, won’t you shut up, Star Wars geeks?
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