I'm not sure if this is brilliant or not.
Alright, so, Highlander. Everyone knows Immortals are undead, yeah? They're normal people, aging normally, capable of getting sick or grievously wounded, and can die of illness or old age and stay dead. BUT. If they get "violently" killed, they come back and never thereafter age and eat each other's souls and can only be killed through decapitation. (And, I've always assumed, atomizing explosions. Because technically the head is separated from the neck there, as well.) So they're undead. NOT ALIENS. But they still don't entirely make sense. Why the Game? Where do they come from? If they're undead, why only eat each other's souls, and not those of non-Immortals? (Although I like the Highlander: the Animated Series logic of absorbing each other's knowledge and skills towards creating the ultimate, omniscient being as a possible answer to that last question.)
Today, I found this (posted anonymously):
When I first saw the flashback in the episode of HIGHLANDER in which Duncan is banished from his family and village for being a "changeling," I didn't think much about it. Okay, the concept of a fairy changeling fits in with the Celtic culture of the Highlands. Later I realized that - Highlander Immortals ARE changelings, specifically human-fae hybrids! It explains so much. Most cultures in the world have myths and legends about immortal, supernatural beings analogous to elves and fairies, so this theory works everywhere, not just in Britain and Europe. All Highlander Immortals whom we're aware of are orphans whose parents are unknown. Because the fae don't want halfbreeds among them, they foist these babies onto human families as changelings. Because they don't want too many of the halfbreeds around to cause trouble, they invented and promulgated the Game with that ridiculous "There Can Be Only One" premise, to get the halfbreeds to kill each other off. And of course the fairy genes account for their longevity and the difficulty of killing them. Can't have children? Most interspecies hybrids are sterile.
God damn it, why didn't I think of that?! It's not perfect, but it can be worked with. In the series, at least, we know there's magic and demons and miracles -- we see them. Sure, classical changelings aren't crossbreeds, they're flat-out fairies swapped for real human children, but we'll allow the term. We've got evidence that stories of fae -- especially the elves that live underhill -- began as myths involving spirits of the dead, which would be why the "Immortal-ness" doesn't come into play unless they are killed, I suppose.
It's possible this just seems to work because I'm sleep deprived, so I'm going to go to bed now, but meanwhile, what do you think?
Today, I found this (posted anonymously):
When I first saw the flashback in the episode of HIGHLANDER in which Duncan is banished from his family and village for being a "changeling," I didn't think much about it. Okay, the concept of a fairy changeling fits in with the Celtic culture of the Highlands. Later I realized that - Highlander Immortals ARE changelings, specifically human-fae hybrids! It explains so much. Most cultures in the world have myths and legends about immortal, supernatural beings analogous to elves and fairies, so this theory works everywhere, not just in Britain and Europe. All Highlander Immortals whom we're aware of are orphans whose parents are unknown. Because the fae don't want halfbreeds among them, they foist these babies onto human families as changelings. Because they don't want too many of the halfbreeds around to cause trouble, they invented and promulgated the Game with that ridiculous "There Can Be Only One" premise, to get the halfbreeds to kill each other off. And of course the fairy genes account for their longevity and the difficulty of killing them. Can't have children? Most interspecies hybrids are sterile.
God damn it, why didn't I think of that?! It's not perfect, but it can be worked with. In the series, at least, we know there's magic and demons and miracles -- we see them. Sure, classical changelings aren't crossbreeds, they're flat-out fairies swapped for real human children, but we'll allow the term. We've got evidence that stories of fae -- especially the elves that live underhill -- began as myths involving spirits of the dead, which would be why the "Immortal-ness" doesn't come into play unless they are killed, I suppose.
It's possible this just seems to work because I'm sleep deprived, so I'm going to go to bed now, but meanwhile, what do you think?