7.5 KiB
[Q] Good Highlander-like stories?
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Author: u/lehyde Nudist Beach*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/4ansm8/q_good_highlanderlike_stories/
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Score: 19
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Created: 2016-03-16T13:31:08
Post:
I recently watched a couple of episodes of the new TV show "Forever" about a man who is immortal (so similar to Highlander but without swordfights). Besides the Deathist message, the story is also not that well written. The protagonist just doesn't give the impression of a 300 year-old.
As a more positive example there is "Interview with the Vampire" where the characters were more believable to me. They still behaved irrationally but at least it was explained by them being vampires.
Comments:
u/noggin-scratcher [+6] I am a happy tree (an hour later)
I know what you mean about Forever - remarkably well adapted to modern society, with only enough anachronism to be "quirky" rather than "weird" (or indeed "cantankerous old bigot in the body of a 30yr old", which would seem more likely given the change in all the norms since the 1700s). Plus the whole "trying to end his immortality" aspect rubbed me the wrong way for what I expect are much the same reasons.
Haven't seen the whole season yet. Maybe by the end he figured out it really was a gift rather than the "Seems like a gift, actually it's a curse" it was initially presented as.
u/lehyde [+1] Nudist Beach (2 hours later)
Yeah I also didn't finish it. If it would actually end like that, that would be pretty cool.
u/MugaSofer [+7] (2 hours later)
The trouble with this is that most immortality-positive shows aren't "about" immortality.
Doctor Who, X-Men (because Wolverine), even frigging Sabrina the Teenage Witch all feature immortal main characters who seem pretty darn pleased with their immortality. But they're generally not about immortality. (Doctor Who does have some episodes "about" immortality; mostly good, some awful.)
Comics in general are very good about this, actually. The Guardians, Vandal Savage, Ras Al Ghul and the Amazons all seem pretty happy in DC. Weirdly, for a series where Death is a major and positive character, Sandman is also pretty good at this. Marvel has various immortal mutants, the Eternals (an entire team of awesome immortal people), and Franklin Richards - actually, everyone sufficiently powerful in Marvel seems to become immortal; all the Infinity Gem guys are.
This carries over to the movies, too; Wolverine and film!Deadpool pretty much fit the bill, and I suspect Wonder Woman and Apocalypse won't be angsting about it when they show up either
u/Bowbreaker [+5] Solitary Locust (5 hours later)
Most of these characters are either young immortals, cut off from society or completely otherworldly though. Judging from how OP phrased it and the examples he gave it seems that he is looking specifically for stories where an immortal human born long in the past is shown dealing with the world that has moved on all around him.
Then again, I haven't actually read any stories that focus on Vandal Savage or Ra's al Ghul and the more mundane parts of their lives.
u/Wiron [+1] (10 hours later)
In Fables characters are immortal and they like it. Some are content, others steadily pursue their goals and Jack munchins hell out of it. Especially ending has "and than they have countless adventures and gigantic family reunion every hundred years" attitude.
Funny enough, The Last Witch Hunter was supposed to have deathist message, but than they wanted room for sequel. So at the, last moment, main character realises that immortality is actually pretty useful. It also has twist on "immortality as the curse". Unfortunately it's not very good movie.
u/PL_TOC [+3] (37 minutes later)
What would you do if you were an Ann Rice style vampire?
u/lehyde [+3] Nudist Beach (2 hours later)
If I kept my morals I would start by not eating people (at least in the movie that was definitely possible, I don't know about the book). The other problem of the protagonist was that he was lonely, so why not raise an orphan like Claudia only this time don't turn her. Of course that only works if you have the willpower not to hurt her.
I guess the crucial question is how well one can resist the smell of blood. If you can do it well then you could do all the things Bella did in Alicorn's Luminosity and Radiance (i.e. take over the world).
If it's hard to resist you could become a hermit and only communicate with other people through the internet. Maybe do some math research...
u/Bowbreaker [+5] Solitary Locust (5 hours later)
(i.e. take over the world).
Wasn't that pretty much only possible because vampires in Twilight are so damn powerful and hard to kill and, on top of that, sometimes come with unique magical superpowers? I don't think that vampires from the majority of other franchises could just take over the world like that.
u/Ozimandius [+5] (6 hours later)
Anne Rice's vampires get superpowers too (flight, telekinesis, ability to kill people by just thinking it, etc), as they age or if they drink the blood of older vampires closer to the source. And they all have at least some telepathy, are super fast, strong, have eidetic memory etc...
u/Ozimandius [+4] (6 hours later)
Anne Rice's vampires are also prone to emotional outbursts, they 'feel more deeply' than normal humans. Having a healthy relationship with an aging human child would be incredibly difficult for someone that also is tempted to eat them, as I have been tempted to chew the face off my own children and I'm not into that sort of thing. I can't read their minds to hear all the awful things they think about me. So not sure how well a relationship with a non-vampire would go.
So being in control in general would be difficult, for sure. Also, being burned by sunlight makes it a bit difficult, but that goes away mostly as you get older.
But anyway, yeah it would be interesting to hear about an Ann Rice style vampire with better emotional control and dedicated towards improving the world or dominating it. Probably hunting down some of the worst vampires that prey on humans would be worthwhile since it both prevents many deaths and makes you potentially stronger.
u/Tringard [+2] (an hour later)
New Amsterdam ran for a single season and was a very similar concept to Forever, not really a "rational" recommendation, but a good story nonetheless. I'm also a sucker for these sorts of stories, so I'm curious what other answers you get.
u/Ozimandius [+1] (6 hours later)
There's Tuck Everlasting and the Picture of Dorian Grey of course. I guess the Picture of Dorian Grey is maybe a hair more rational, at least in the sense that the near-immortal uses his immortality to advance his goals. On the otherhand, the Tucks just had simpler goals.
u/TennisMaster2 [+1] (16 hours later)
Lost Odyssey, a Final Fantasy-esque game with a fair number of 10-40 minute long short stories told via cross-media and written by an award-winning Japanese novelist, scratched that itch for me.
Major caveat: It will require at least 60 hours of your free time.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a day later)
There's the Line War series by Rhiannon. Highlander fanfic of publishable quality, IMO. There's some sex in later episodes but the first one, Absent Companions, is US-TV-compliant. In fact, I'm going to go link this.