AMANDA (HIGHLANDER)

'Amanda' is a fictional character from the universe of the and , portrayed by actress Elizabeth Gracen. She is an Immortal.
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The character of Amanda was created to be one of Duncan MacLeod's blasts from the past (and maybe to add some tension between her and Tessa Noël) just like the villain of the week moments in . She firstly appeared in the episode of ''"The Lady and the Tiger".'' She had a lot of chemistry with Duncan and both the writers and fans liked her cunning, lying, immoral, selfish, manipulative ways, and she was certainly not boring. She was likeable and annoying at the same time. Her appearances increased from then on.

Contents

History

Life

Alternative Amanda

Spin-Offs

Personality and relationships

Duncan MacLeod

Methos

Kenny

Derrick Markham

Amanda in The Game

Watchers

Appearances

External links

History

Amanda was born in the Abbey of St. Anne in Normandy, France approximately in the year 820. She was a poor and uneducated thief during the plague era in Europe until her first death in 850, when she was beat in the head after stealing food from a plague-ridden house. She was almost cast into the fire (supposedly to keep her from spreading the plague, having eaten contaminated food), but Immortal Rebecca Horne saved her from that fate just as Amanda breathed her last, and became her teacher and mentor. Rebecca taught Amanda the way of living, The Game, how to fight, and they became best friends. Amanda, however, could not let go of her stealing ways and, one day, tried to steal The Methuselah's Stone that belonged to Rebecca. She was caught but Rebecca forgave her. Amanda was very moved by this and started to learn how to become a proper lady and to have a proper life. Amanda then left Rebecca's abbey, a Holy Ground for Immortals, in 853. Rebecca gave one part of her crystal as a departure gift, like she had done with other pupils.
That same year, while traveling, she met Immortal Hengist the Saxon who challenged her to fight. Fearing for her life, she ran back to Rebecca's abbey because she knew that the Immortal could not fight her on ''Holy Ground''. Rebecca said that she couldn't run forever and must face her demons. Amanda gathered her courage and faced the Immortal. She won and got her first Quickening. After the experience, she left the abbey again and faced an uncertain future. Amanda became one of the best thieves in the world, being able to surpass any obstacle and get anything she wanted.

Life

She was known as one of the worlds most adventurous, and uncatchable thieves. She had stolen items thought unstealable. Jewels, paintings, money, just about anything she so wished, and she almost never got caught. She would later meet then young Immortal Duncan MacLeod, alongside Rebecca. Her relationship with Duncan became intimate and was on/off throughout the centuries. They would have many adventures together such as the robbery of the Stone of Scone with Hugh Fitzcairn and the bank robbery days ala Bonnie and Clyde with Cory Raines. Besides being an accomplished thief, she held many jobs such as an harem dancer, acrobat, tightwire artist, bank robber, teacher, antique dealer, nightclub singer and casino owner.
In 1993, in Paris, she was working as a circus acrobatic and trapeze performer "''The Amazing Amanda''", and sent tickets to Duncan MacLeod, Tessa Noël and Richie Ryan. Tessa realized that Amanda and Duncan had a long romantic history, but merely accepted it. Amanda knew that Tessa did not trust her, but dismissed her. She regretted her attitude later after she found out about her death. She was asked for Duncan's help to protect her from another Immortal, her former partner in crime Zachary Blaine, who supposedly was trying to kill her. She and Blaine were actually plotting a high-stakes burglary, to steal an ancient book in a museum. She played both Duncan and Blaine against each other, a common ploy of hers, but she only did with Duncan because she was confident he would win. Duncan and Blaine eventually battled, but when Duncan had Blaine in position for a kill, Amanda stepped in and beheaded Blaine. The next day, Amanda was gone - at least for a while.
After Tessa's death, Amanda would return several times to Duncan's life and have many adventures with him, such as avenging Rebecca's death by her pupil Luther, meet The Watchers, fight against Kalas or find the secrets of the Methuselah's Stone. It was her relationship with Duncan that led her to stop stealing and how to be compassionate in her life. Her old habits, however, would come back from time to time.

Alternative Amanda

Once when Duncan MacLeod was killed temporarily, he was thrown into another reality where he had never been born.
Without Duncan in her life, Amanda never left her thieving ways and was, in fact, a lot more evil than the real life Amanda. She would be beheaded by The Hunters led by James Horton who were still in activity because Duncan had never existed and nobody had been able to stop them.

Spin-Offs

Elizabeth Gracen returned as Amanda as the leading lady in the series spin-off . The show lasted one season in 1998-1999.
While being investigated for a crime she didn't commit, a police officer named Claudia Hoffman jumped in front of a bullet to save her life, not knowing she was Immortal. Saddened by Claudia's sacrifice for her life, Amanda began to realize the consequences of her criminal lifestyle and realised that she had to change her ways. In this time, she met a pre-Immortal cop, Claudia's partner, named Nick Wolfe. He was the new man in her life. He was there to help her with her struggle, and sometimes added to it. They argued constantly at regular intervals. But when she truly needed him, he always seemed to be there. One day, Nick was poisoned and to save his life she shot him to trigger his immortality. When Nick woke up he became angry with Amanda's decision because it wasn't her choice to make. Then he left her for good (though this was meant to be a season finale cliffhanger, so the resolution has never been made clear).

Personality and relationships

In some ways, she is pretty manipulative towards her friends and foes. She would do whatever necessary to achieve her goals. She lived for centuries without looking back, and hardly taking responsibility for her actions. But she was a good person; hardly stealing from good people, she only stole from banks, museums, rich people and anything that amused her. She was also a very confident woman and had so many tricks up her sleeve that Duncan once compared her to a shark, a term he also used to described the equally manipulative Methos. She could be bitchy towards those who scorned her as proved by her famous line after being provoked by novelist Carolyn Marsh, ''"She called me a cheap whore and a thief - I was never cheap!"''
'''Several relationships important in her life:'''

Duncan MacLeod

Amanda's relationship with Duncan who was an interesting one since she would just appear out of the blue, with some new favor to ask of Duncan. Her relationship with Duncan began centuries before, and continued in the present, although they have often gone decades without seeing one another. Amanda often manipulated him, and although he seemed to be aware of this, instead of stopping it, he just played into it, often seeming to feel amused. She was loyal to Duncan no matter what. Sometimes she wanted to help him in her own way, and ended up hurting him, but in the end, Amanda was always forgiven by Duncan since he knew that Amanda meant well. The two never expressed love for each other in the plain and simple sense, but rather showed it in their loyalty and devotion to each other's causes. However, in the series finale, Duncan admitted his love to Amanda and told her that she had always "made his heart glad."

Methos

She also developed an ally and complex relationship with Methos, the only person that could match her manipulative ways. Methos and Amanda sometimes could be very cunning, especially toward Duncan MacLeod. Their relationship was like siblings or good friends. Their relationship was once strained because of The Methuselah's Stone. Amanda owned a part of a stone, which was Rebecca's crystal. A bunch of mortals and a renegade watcher tried to kill her to steal the crystal and she suspected Methos was behind it. Methos needed the crystal to cure Alexa, his terminally-ill lover. After knowing his intention and that it wasn't him who was trying to kill her, she helped Methos steal the crystal. But Methos got caught by the renegade watcher, and Amanda decided to exchange the stone for his life. The stone was broken and fell into the river, and Methos didn't have chance to save Alexa. Amanda could only give him words of encouragement. Methos was also the only person she could turn to when Duncan's became more brooding after Immortal Steven Keane who shared the same points of view in life as Duncan, challenged him. Fearing for his life, Amanda begged Methos to help Duncan. Both Amanda and Methos understood each other and the dilemma of being an Immortal. Both of them knew that life was about changes, and about accepting who you were, good or bad.

Kenny

800 years ago she found a 10-year-old Immortal boy named Kenny and taught him about The Game and how to survive it. Being killed so young, he would forever live as a child, thus learned fast that his main weapon was his innocence. After Amanda was captured by the soldiers that had killed him and his family, he ran away. Amanda survived, but wasn't able to find him. In 1995, she once again met him. Kenny, however, was no longer the boy she had met. He betrayed her and Duncan to Terence Kincaid who had a grudge against Duncan. Amanda was heartbroken with the idea that Kenny was not a boy, but more a man in a child's body. She always considered him as a son that she could not have, forgetting that he was an Immortal who had grown up and only wanted to win The Game.

Derrick Markham

Just like Duncan MacLeod, who had been married only once (as far as we know) in the past, Amanda apparently also married an evil Immortal named Derrick Markham. They were separated and estranged for 132 years. Amanda betrayed him to the authorities because he was a brutal criminal. In 1999, Amanda defeated him in a battle, because he wanted to kill Amanda and her friends.

Amanda in The Game

Given the choice of fight or flight, Amanda usually chose to run away. With no real interest in winning The Game, she instead focused on staying alive, and so minimized the number of duels she participated in. Because of this, despite her long life, it can be assumed she absorbed a relatively low number of Quickenings. When faced with another Immortal, she typically ran or conned her way out of battle, or had to be rescued by a friend like Duncan MacLeod. Her tendency to use others to fight for her is evident in the number of Immortal friends and partners-in-crime that she accumulated. On occasions where she sought out a battle, she almost always met with disaster. During the original series her swordsmanship appeared to be less-than exceptional, and in fact she was never actually shown fighting a winning battle, even against an unarmed Kalas.
Her skills received a considerable upgrade after she met Nick Wolfe and decided to redeem her life. Perhaps as a side-effect of her improved outlook or possibly due to one or two powerful Quickenings she might have somehow received, she suddenly became a highly-skilled fighter, engaging in and winning numerous battles in a relatively short time. Below are the Quickenings seen in the original series and The Raven series:
''1'' - Hengist the Saxon¹, 853 (''Methuselah's Gift'')
''2'' - Zachary Blaine², 1993 (''The Lady and the Tiger'')
''3'' - Mario Cardoza, 1998 ('')
''4'' - Stefan Collier, 1998 ('')
''5'' - Wilson Geary, 1998 ('')
''6'' - Crysta, 1998 ('')
''7'' - Andre Korda, 1998 ('')
''8'' - Frank Brennen, 1999 ('')
''9'' - Talia Bauer, 1999 ('')
''10'' - Derrick Markham, 1999 ('')
''11'' - Vladimir Rankov, 1999 ('')
''12'' - Dr. Julian Heller³, 1999 ('')
''13'' - Evan Peyton, 1999 ('')
¹First beheading.
²Duncan MacLeod defeated Blaine, but it was Amanda who beheaded him.
³Beheaded by Nick Wolfe.

Watchers

Here's a list of all of Amanda's known Watchers:

Years	Watcher
850-853	Melucine
853-??	Whitread the Tinker
??-1182-1183-??	Elsbeth of Maldon
??-Sep 1635-??	Gabriel Sabatini
??-Sep 1753-??	Nabil al Alem
??-1804-??	Claus Sieger
??-Oct 1888-??	Wallace Hammond
??-Mar 1936	Otto Goff
Mar 1936-??	Gerta Schoernin
??-Dec 1950	Richard Bryce
Apr 1951-??	Richard Bryce
1969-1970	Renee Ginsburg
1995-Mar 1996	Daniel Geiger

Appearances

'Episodes' - ''The Lady and the Tiger, The Return of Amanda, Legacy, The Cross of St. Antoine, Rite of Passage, Finale, Finale Part 2, Double Eagle, Reunion, The Colonel, Methuselah's Gift, The Immortal Cimoli, Dramatic License, Money No Object, The Stone of Scone, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, To Be, Not To Be''
'Raven Episodes' - '', , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ''
'Books' - '', ''

External links

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