Full Circle
his combat skills
It's common for TV action heroes to "know kung fu", but Duncan MacLeod knows kung fu, among a host of other martial arts. Other Immortals in the series fear and respect him: the Highlander has a far-reaching reputation. Mac has not only centuries of centuries of physical training to draw on, but mental discipline and a fearless spirit.
As a Highlander born in the 17th century, Mac grows up learning to fight. He gains a basic knowledge of the sword, as well as crude methods of unarmed combat.
This enthusiastic but clumsy clansman has much to learn in Japan, where he lands shipwrecked in 1778. In The Samurai, Hideo Koto finds Mac and awes him with graceful and seemingly effortless sword work. Duncan eagerly accepts training in Japanese swordsmanship, and is taught technique, concentration, and the integration of movement and thought. The samurai also gives Mac his signature weapon: the katana.
With grounding in the fighting styles of the West and the East, Duncan is able to travel the world acquiring sword and combat training, including further martial arts in China and Mongolia, and Spanish-style fencing.
Though Duncan most frequently fights one-on-one, he does have military training, and served in such famous wars as the Jacobite Uprising of 1745 and the Napoleonic Wars. In 1815, Darius convinces Duncan not to take sides in the wars of mortals, but to fight with the oppressed. Duncan later takes roles in the Underground Railroad and the French Resistance, where he learns strategy and defence tactics. He even serves as a medic in World War I.
All these skills keep Mac alive for four centuries, but during the fifth season he faces a new kind of enemy in Archangel - Ahriman, an ancient Zoroastrian demon who can't be defeated on a physical level. Realizing Eastern meditation offer the only means with which to face the demon, he spends a year in a monastery honing his skills. He defeats Ahriman by accepting the evil within himself.
In the battles to follow, Duncan is more focused and less emotional. During the sixth season he grows alarmingly passive, disillusioned with his own nature as a warrior. In To Be he walks willingly into the trap set by Liam O'Rourke, agreeing to let O'Rourke take his head in exchange for the lives of Joe and Amanda.
When Methos intervenes, Duncan is shot in the crossfire, and stands at the crossroads of life and death with Fitzcairn as his "guardian angel" in Not to Be. Seeing what the lives of his friends would be like without him assures Duncan that there are things worth fighting for.
His spirit restored, his self-awareness increased, and his motivation intact, Duncan stands ready to kick ass and take names once again.
