would go for it because the purpose is not themselves, it's the other people... You can't win if you don't try, so you've gotta try." Gregory Widen had originally envisioned Connor as a very serious, grim character following centuries of violence and loss. The film however portrayed MacLeod as a person who has suffered loss and fears new attachments but who still pursues the possibility of love, maintains a sense of humor about life, and adopts a daughter whom he tells to keep hope and remain optimistic. In a 2016 interview with HeyUGuys, Lambert said he found Connor MacLeod appealing for still having humor and hope despite his long life and many losses: "It’s the only role that I have played that is touching on the subject of immortality, through a character carrying five hundred years of violence, pain, love, and suffering on his shoulders, who is still walking around and being positive. That is what amazed me about him the most... It’s difficult living through one life but to see all the people around you dying over and over. How do you cope with that pain? How do you have the strength to keep on walking, to keep being positive and optimistic? To be capable of falling in love again when you know the pain it creates when you lose them." In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Lambert said he reflected on Connor MacLeod following the loss of his own brother: "When my brother died of cancer, I had the same feeling I had during Highlander, with its idea that you cannot get the past back – life has to go on. If Connor MacLeod can get through five or six lifetimes, we should be able to manage one." Film continuity Highlander (1986) In the first Highlander movie, it is established that immortals are rare human beings born with "the Quickening." Once they have experienced their First Death, they will stop aging and heal from any wound except the loss of their head. The Quickening connects them to nature and allows them to sense each other, and one immortal can absorb the Quickening power of another if they behead them. For this reason, some immortals hunt each other, a "Game" with only one rule: never fight on holy ground. It is said that when only a few immortals are left, they will be drawn to "a faraway land"