Not really a direct response, but I love the idea that the immortal is wandering around fighting people for money simply because they have few other options to financially support themselves.
In many stories involving immortals in modern times, the immortals will use a variety of techniques to survive in modern civilization. The problem with modern society for an immortal is that everyone has a deep paper trail. If the government discovers there’s a 200 year old living in their borders, they’re going to have some questions. In stories like the Highlander, often the immortals are incredibly wealthy, possessing vast fortunes, living in penthouses and castles, etc. But you need to have a legal identity to have all those things. In most movies, this is explained away by the immortal doing things like filing for a birth certificate for a child that doesn’t exist, curating that fake identity over time, and then stepping into that identity when appropriate.
But what worked 50 years ago doesn’t work so well today, and less so every day. With modern facial recognition tech, better anti-fraud technology, social media, etc., it’s a lot harder to continually create new fake identities to step into when your present identity gets too old to be plausible.
So maybe the immortal in the story isn’t fighting for honor or glory. They’re not fighting for the love of the game. Maybe they once had a vast fortune in the millions, but they completely lost access to it after they had to flee their life after their use of a fake identity was discovered. So you have someone that’s centuries old, who actually has an inaccessible fortune in the millions, living in homeless camps and fighting people for food and minor cash prizes.
Add to this, they’re not physically imposing or good at fighting. The only reason they win is because the immortality just keeps them going. Picture a Michael Cera type just getting his ass kicked again and again but just wearing them down to win. Add in some comedy about having to check ancestry.com before every new date to see if this girl he just met isn’t a great-great-granddaughter, and I think we’ve got a script.
This is such a genuinely cool concept that I hadn’t even considered.
León de Saragoza lived a lot.
And that is not only talking about his “long” life, but all the experiences he lived through most of human history. True, he might not have been the oldest of the Eternals, but he was the third oldest, at least of their small group.
As a Spanish man, he saw the ships sail in search for the new world. Enjoyed the news, and felt tempted traveling to the new land. He saw the rise and fall of the Monarchies in other countries, the French conquest and the deposition of that sorry drunk that was the brother of the so-called Emperor.
That godless rat.
He lived through the Civil war, and the Scourge of the Flu.
He saw how the fools destroyed his country, taking the fifth false identity in his whole life.
But his presence had been detected. The blasted digital technology made it easier to track his presence, and make the correct questions.
He had to hide…
And this is why, right now, he is trapped in a blasted Andean town. Sick to the bone with corruption and insecurity… With him fighting for some ammo, or just a loaf of bread.
He prays to His God, begging for forgiveness, while his gun pierces the measly flesh of his attacker.