#LUKE CAGE : “ you live and die by your choices ! ”

[somacruising]

A White Future, Volume 2 Episode: Ion, Sync, & Florian Translation Part 10

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We’re ALMOST done! This is the second to last part. This covers Ion’s death and Sync’s reaction to hearing about Ion’s death. I’m considering making a PDF copy of this when I’ve finished it. What do you all think?

* * *

“The future has many paths—”

Ion spoke those words for himself only.

He was now being ordered by Grand Maestro Mohs to recite the Planet Score.

If he recited the Planet Score, his strength would give out and he would surely die. That didn’t matter to him. Rather, his only regret was that he would not be able to save Tear, who had been affected by miasma.

‘I should have decided what I wanted to do with my life sooner. I had the means to save Tear, but I spent too long waiting…’

As a replica, I should live indifferently and then die indifferently. That was what he thought his true purpose was until he talked with Sync.

Ion had started to cry involuntarily after Sync had fallen from the deck of the Tartarus, with Van holding the strings of Sync’s life and death.

“…Ion, please don’t cry.”

Ion had been surprised to hear the concern in Anise’s voice.

“I’m not crying,” he’d replied.

“But, those tears…”

Ion touched his cheek and noticed for the first time that it was warm and wet.

“I guess I was sad... This is… the first time I've ever cried.”

Ion’s breath caught as he stared at the tears glistening on his fingertips. “I understand now... All this time, I had it wrong.”

He thought that he wouldn’t care when he died. He was wrong.

‘I’m crying the same tears that Luke did…why didn’t I notice them? As long as I live in this world, I want to continue to live as proof that I am who I am. I'm sure Sync must have also shed countless tears…’

Ion bit his lip, recalling that from that moment on he had begun looking for a way to die. He wished he had realized earlier that only those who live to the fullest can meet their chosen deaths.

Deep inside the Zaleho volcano, which had fallen into the Qliphoth, Mohs was waiting for him.

‘I already knew that Anise was being used by this man, but I could do nothing to help her. If I’d been more decisive, I could have saved her.’

In a cage in the corner of the Sephiroth, he could see her parents being held captive. But it was all too late.

“There is no time. Read it, quickly,” Mohs ordered, exasperated.

Ion placed his hands on the huge fonstone.

‘I didn't want to use my Seventh Fonons for this. Please forgive me, Tear, everyone—’

He quietly recited the Score. It seemed like a long, long time passed. Eventually, as his consciousness began to fade away, he heard phantom-like footsteps.

“Stop it, Ion! You have to stop!”

Luke grabbed Ion by the shoulders and shook him.

‘Luke, everyone…you’re here… I’m glad…’

Ion collapsed into Luke's arms. But he opened his eyes weakly and kept speaking.

“The light of the sacred flame shall approach a Kimlascan city of fon machines, seeking a way to purify the taint. There, salvation shall be found through the use of a forbidden power…”

“Ion! Stay with me! Don’t die!”

“Luke," Ion called out to his fellow replica. “That was my reading of the Score for you… A single path...among your many possible futures…”

Ion's voice was hoarse, but even still, he tried to appeal to him.

“I know you don't depend on others...but this was the only way I could help you.”

“Shut up!” Luke’s voice shook. “You've helped us out a million times! And you'll keep helping...”

Ion smiled thinly at Luke's tearful face. “Don't look at me like that. There are plenty of replacements for me...”

“How can you say that?! Those other replicas don't know me at all! You're the only Ion that went to the Cheagle Woods with me!”

‘Thank you,’ Ion’s smile grew. ‘Yes… I am the one and only me, and nobody else. So, I have a choice—’

“Tear, come closer…”

Ion turned his head, and when he saw Tear, he held out his hand. Tear knelt down and took it.

“I will...take the miasma from your body into my own.”

Ion gently squeezed Tear’s hand.

“But Fon Master, you'll…!”

Tear shook her head in surprise, but Ion continued to speak.

“The Seventh Fonons are drawn to one another. As my own Seventh Fonons dissipate, so will your contaminated ones.”

It was the only way. If he saved Tear, he would also be repaying Luke, his fellow replica who cared about Tear so much. Ion’s fingers clasped Tear’s hand, and their bodies began to glow. The purple-stained Seventh Fonon left Tear’s body. It converged straight into Ion.

“Don't you see…? This way…Tear is safe.”

His heart was filled with joy. Now he could see it clearly: the purpose for which he was born into this world—

It was not only to be used as a replica of Fon Master Ion.

‘I am here now for this instant. This is the future I have chosen for myself, a pure white future untainted by others' ambition. I am... happy...’

At that moment, Anise approached with her arms hanging loosely. Ion noticed her and crinkled his eyes.

“You don't have to watch over me…any more…Anise…”

‘Anise, you and I both had…circumstances beyond our control…I didn't intend to deceive you. In fact, it was more…’

A tight sob escaped from Anise’s throat. “I'm so sorry, Ion! I… I…”

But Ion smiled gently, as if nothing had happened, and kindled the embers of his dying life for the only words he would ever utter truly as himself.

“Thank you…for everything… My most…cherished…”

Time stopped.

He could no longer recognize Anise’s wild sobs, the faces of his friends, or the feel of Luke's arms around him.

Ion was gone, as if scratched out of existence.

* * *

Fon Master Ion’s death quickly reached Sync’s ears.

When it did, Sync immediately remembered his own fall into the Planet Storm. He thought about how good it would have been if he had been allowed to die in peace. However, Van would not allow it.

Lorelei, aggregate sentience of the Seventh Fonon, was inside Van’s body. Van had calmly taken the falling Sync into his arms and shared Lorelei’s power with him. The replica still had value as a pawn.

Sync was forced to live once again.

‘Ion…I’m jealous of you. Even if you did die like a dog.’

As a traveling Scorer, Sync gave forbidden readings to people while extracting replica data from them. Eventually, the replica land Van was building was going to be filled with replicas.

Would this mission last forever? It had better not.

If Van's ideal world came true, that would be fine, too. But Luke and Asch had the Key of Lorelei. The Kimlasca-Malkuth allied forces were also supporting them in their quest to defeat Van. They would settle the score in the Glorious Land of Eldrant.

While working for Van, who had put Lorelei to sleep in his body, Sync was observing the situation with wary eyes.

After Ion’s death, Sync felt his hatred becoming more and more focused on Luke.

‘It seems that even Asch has recognized that degraded replica...but the world still doesn’t recognize me.’

As if that wasn’t enough, Mohs was forcing another Ion replica to read the Seventh Fonstone. He’d kept a leftover scrap from the volcano in secret.

Van’s expression remained composed.

“I’m a better Scorer than him,” Sync muttered.

Van bristled at Sync's words, as the replica complained outside of the Absorption Gate.

“You, who agreed to erase the Score, do not have to take Ion's place. You can return to Eldrant with me and stop the Replica Luke’s incursion.”

Sync didn’t reply.

Van stopped looking at Sync, presumably preoccupied with keeping Lorelei under control before it could resume it’s rampaging.

‘Enough... enough already! Van, I’ve had...’

Sync bit his lip as hard as he could. The oozing blood spread bitterly through his mouth.

[krispybasementgoatee]

Luke Cage

Luke Cage is a television show about a man named Luke Cage who is caught in a botched experiment that leaves him with super powers. More specifically, superhuman durability and enhanced strength. Over the course of the show, the viewer follows Luke Cage as he attempts to rebuild his life within modern day Harlem. The show has a wide array of black actors and actresses that portray the city of Harlem in a grim yet hopeful light. The cinematography of the show is wonderful, and the acting is fantastic. Overall it feels like the show is a very genuine piece of art, and a nod to the city of Harlem. Both within a nostalgic sense, and in the means of looking towards the future. It reminded me heavily of the Harlem Renaissance, and the art used to express the black residents of the city. The show seems very introspective, focusing on little moments between Luke Cage and the citizens of Harlem. For example, the following scene of Luke Cage talking to a collection of citizens on the street:

“You live and die by your choices” -Luke Cage. A large theme of the show as Luke works hard to show himself as the good man he wants to be. To help others, and to push forward within society and juggle his abilities at the same time. The abilities Luke Cage holds are important to the show, but overall the core of the story is a black man attempting to find his place in the world. And with these abilities he believes he can better serve his community which is important to him after he’s gotten his life back together. And I believe this sense of responsibility can spark a lot of conversation. Especially when relating back to the ideas we discussed in class like “Define America”. And how these new abilities math play into Luke views the world, America, and his own ethnicity. 

The story of Luke Cage not only tells the tale of a black man in America. But it also tells the story of Jessica Jones, a super powered woman who forms an intimate relationship with Cage over their bond of being different. The idea that neither of them truly fit the mold society has cast for them, yet they do everything in their power to make the world a better place. Jessica Jones is a very strong female lead, and a lot of her character relates to Mcintosh's studies of feminism and challenges the patriarchy and male privilege. 

Jessica Jones Power in Action:

[painlived]

tag drop.

VISUALS : “ hard–drinking short–fused hell of a woman ! ” MEMES : “ i'm planning to sit here and drinking... ” PROMOS : “ it's people like you that give people like you a bad name ! ” OOC POSTS : “ talking and jogging.   two things that make me feel like crap ! ” MUSINGS : “ with great power comes great mental illness ! ” DESIRES : “ i usually like a little more romancing ! ” HEADCANONS : “ main street. birch street. higgins drive. cobalt lane ! ” PSA'S : “ maybe it's enough the world thinks i'm a hero ! ” IC ANSWERS : “ i don't get asked on a lot of second dates ! ” PLAYLIST : “ this bitch is in control of you now asshole ! ”

VERSE 001 : “ please don't say the h– word ! ” VERSE 002 : “ life will push you over the line ! ” VERSE 003 : “ not sure there's anything i won't do any more ! ”

TRISH WALKER : “ it doesn’t matter how powerful i am ! ” MALCOLM DUCASSE : “ a beautiful funeral doesn’t guarantee heaven ! ” LUKE CAGE : “ you live and die by your choices ! ” CLAIRE TEMPLE : “ you know the problem with martyrs ? ” MATT MURDOCK : “ i’m not seeking penance for what i’ve done ! ” DANNY RAND : “ always work from a position of strength ! ”

[heliads]

Dating Luke Patterson and Working at Caleb’s Club Would Include...

masterlist

You’d been a part of Caleb Covington’s retinue long before you even heard the name Luke Patterson and knew the darling boy who owned it

You died in the eighties, something you don’t much like to talk about

Partially because it was painful to die and leave everyone you knew behind, and also because it landed you firmly in Caleb’s clutches

You joined the club before you knew any better, because it meant freedom from the fears of being alone in a world that couldn’t see you as anything more than a name on a headstone

You sang and played the piano, taking part in the musical numbers alongside Caleb and the other performers

It was fun for the first few years, and then Caleb’s hold tightened on you

Suddenly, you weren’t just performing for fun, you were singing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, no choice in the matter

It was only then that you realized you’d become a songbird in gilded cage, never to fly away

So you stayed, and sang, and fell deeper and deeper into a chasm you were sure you’d never escape

You made a friend in Willie, trusting him as much as you did anybody

When you heard he was bringing three friends to a performance, you didn’t think much of it

Caleb had mentioned something to you a couple of days ago about the old band Sunset Curve, asking you to bring them in if Willie didn’t find them already

You’d seen many bands come and go, falling victims to Caleb’s sleight of hand just like you

So you didn’t look at them, didn’t sneak glances and glimpses like some of the newer members of the band

The show went just like any other: Caleb performs his number, you wait in the wings, he points to you and you emerge in a cloud of glitter to sing your song before disappearing again

You always direct your song towards whatever treasured guest Caleb’s brought along, playing your part as the gracious host who would love another performer to befriend

When you met Luke’s eyes, though, your smile was suddenly a thousand times brighter, and for once it wasn’t because you were faking it

He met you backstage after the show, even when you warned him with wide eyes that he shouldn’t be there and you couldn't afford to cross Caleb

Luke had just brushed your fears away, saying something about how your singing was the prettiest he’d heard in a long time and he’d risk a lot more to meet you

You’ve heard many compliments over the decades, but you’re pretty sure that his were the truest words in as many years

He made you promise to meet him outside of the club, and you took him up on the offer without a second’s hesitation

It was hard to sneak away from Caleb’s prying eyes, but you did it with a smile

Luke introduced you to Julie, Alex, and Reggie, but you didn’t look at them the way you look at him, like he’s a sunbeam and you’re a soul in need of saving

He asked about you- your favorite things, least favorite song to perform, what it was like in the club

Even then you felt regret about involving him in Caleb’s club, but he figured out what was going on pretty early on after the stamp started giving out the jolts to him and his bandmates

You told him everything you could about how to avoid the stamp, but it wasn’t enough

When you saw how much pain Luke was going through, you couldn’t help but feel like it was your fault

So you stopped dropping by the studio as often, assuming that he wouldn’t want to see you as you were just a reminder of how he got landed in such a horrible situation

Luke, however, wasn’t having this

He tracked you down, made you promise to never leave him again

“I don’t care that you’re with Caleb, I care about getting you out of there too. Both of us, we need a future outside of him. I don’t want it if it’s not with you.”

For once, you started picturing a life (or death?) without Caleb, a chance to finally explore the world without his hold on you

These hopes started unraveling when you saw the toll the jolts were taking on Luke- it wouldn’t be long until he was gone and you would be alone again

You heard about his plan to play at the Orpheum and complete his unfinished business and wanted to be there, but Caleb conveniently planned a performance that night so you couldn’t see them

When the boys showed up at Caleb’s control in their new suits, you knew the worst would happen

Alex and Reggie were able to get away, but not Luke

You saw him trying, but he couldn’t

In a moment of desperation, you ran onto the stage, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of Caleb’s reach

Going against Caleb’s hold on you took a lot out of you- Luke went to the Orpheum, you went back to the studio where you could barely stand without almost flickering out of existence

The second the performance was over, he came looking for you

You don’t think you’ll ever forget the terror in his eyes when he saw you, realized what was happening

Luke raced over to you, holding you in his arms and promising that you’d be alright, that you’d get better and the two of you could be together again

Maybe it was his own golden glow from staying alive and breaking Caleb’s spell, but you did get better

The two of you were finally free to live how you liked, no holds and constraints, just you and Luke, happier than ever

[atamascolily]

lily liveblogs  watching “The Terminator” for the first time

I cannot believe no one ever told me the first ten minutes of The Terminator are filled with naked men roaming 1980s Los Angeles. In addition to full-front Arnold Schwarzenegger nudity, there's a chase scene in which Kyle Reese's actor (no slouch himself in the muscles department) runs through a clothing store, dressing himself as he goes. The narrative economy of this movie, I tell you.

Whoever decided that time travel does not involve clothing was clearly having a lot of fun. 

Also, I have no idea why the punks decided to make fun of a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger except they were probably drunk/stoned/high and fond of making poor life choices. Either that or they really were Too Stupid To Live.

Is the close up on Kyle Reese's stolen Nikes supposed to be product placement? I think it's product placement. This is the '80s after all.

OMG, a phone booth. This film was not supposed to be a period piece (or was it??), but it's unintentionally hilarious as such. Kyle Reese doesn't seem to know how to reach Sarah Connor otherwise... so the phone book gets to stand in for the Internet.

(god, if you're from his version of 2029, the fact that machines DON'T control everything seems both a) quaint and b) infinitely desirable by comparison.)

What's interesting is both the film's present and the film's future are dystopic hellholes. Yes, it's the middle of the night in Los Angeles, but the way it's filmed, with all the urban debris and trash and homeless wandering the streets very much parallels the future. The garbage truck in the present and the human-killing laser machine in the future are foils to each other.

EVERYONE'S HAIR, OH MY GOD.

It's kinda sad that food service is still visual shorthand for "sucky job" even in the present day, but you can tell Sarah Connor has spunk because she rides a moped and sasses her chain's mascot. Their outfits are terrible. And that kid putting ice cream on her--to the amusement of the assholes she's serving--what a nightmare.

Also, Sarah's friend is awesome and won my heart with one line: "In a hundred years, who's gonna care?" This takes on vast levels of irony given that Sarah Connor is the Chosen One--er, sorry, Chosen One's Mom. I really hope this friend doesn't die.

Child's toy truck getting run over by the Terminator's stolen car. NOT SUBTLE, Y'ALL.

Sarah's friend's first reaction to the news of another Sarah Connor being murdered is to track Sarah into the break room to watch. Efficient way of letting Sarah know something's up and another good character moment.

The contrast between the Terminator effortlessly starting the car and Kyle Reese's labored hotwiring is nicely done. The PTSD flashback as he watches the bulldozer thing is also very efficient way of conveying information without the need for infodumping dialogue. Of course he has a female friend who dies for added trauma. Sigh.

Oh, so she and the friend--whose name is Ginger--are roommates? Well, that explains a lot. Oh, nope, I’m wrong, different person.

SARAH CONNOR HAS A PET IGUANA, I'M CHARMED. She looks so sad holding her pet iguana while her date's voice mail message plays - no going out after she got all dressed up. But at least she has the Iguana of Consolation!

(his name is Pugsley omg omg omg asghkkfl)

Why the hell does Ginger's bf kiss Sarah on the cheek as she leaves? Are they that close to each other or is this a weird quasi-sexual harassment thing (like how he was only kinda embarrassed when she picked up the phone by mistake while he was doing his phone sex thing thinking she was Ginger?)

CREEPY PARKING GARAGE IS CREEPY.

The police are all, "shit, this is awful," and trying to do something, but it isn't going to go well. Also, you can tell it's the '80s because the police lieutenant just casually lights up indoors like it's no big deal.

Like, literally the plot of this movie depends upon a) Sarah Connor's name and address in the phonebook, and b) no cell phones. The fact that these two are intimately connected IRL amuses me greatly.

God, as soon as Ginger and her bf revealed they were staying home, I knew they were toast. The fact that they're shown having sex just makes it all the more inevitable.

I like that the police decide to get a jump on the press AND maybe alert the other Sarah Connors they haven't been able to reach by announcing it over the TV. Sarah's at a restaurant eating pizza so she actually sees it!

The only reason Sarah Connor survives is because the Terminator went very literally through the list and Kyle Reese went straight to the right person. The difference between human intelligence and AI?

I cannot BELIEVE the club doesn't check ID, but maybe it's an illegal club anyway? Nice relevant background techno.

Of course the police's gambit backfires because Sarah can't reach them when she tries to call...

OH MY GOD PUGSLEY THE IGUANA IS SO PRECIOUS (but seriously does not stay in his cage, lol). Please don't let the iguana die...

The dangers of earphones and not being able to hear your surroundings being illustrated literally as soon as the devices were invented.

OF COURSE SARAH IS GOING TO LEAVE HER VOICE MAIL MESSAGE WARNING GINGER OF DANGER AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT. And she's going to tell him her location, too. This is... god, I don't have words for this.

Sarah left her driver's license in her apartment, what? Or is that an old ID? I can't tell. Welp, now he knows what she looks like, which he clearly didn't before.

This scene where the Terminator shoots up the club with an automatic REALLY hasn't aged well. I feel sick to my stomach just watching it. Of course Sarah is the second-to-last one out and has a human shield, because of course she dies. Sigh.

"Come with me if you want to live." I think that's the first words Kyle Reese has spoken in this movie! Not that the Terminator has said much, either...

Of course the police show up at exactly the wrong moment and draw exactly the wrong conclusions. Of course they end up dead, too. Sigh.

I would say Kyle's driving is atrocious, but there's no actual roads in 2029 LA, so this is much better conditions than he's used to.

Gosh, what would this movie do without alleyways?

Sarah's like "Can you stop it?" and Kyle looks away sheepishly, all WELL I WOULD IF I HAD MY LASER WEAPONS FROM THE FUTURE INSTEAD OF YOUR PUNY '80S GUNS.

Oh, he says he's going to ditch the car, but instead Kyle finally explains things to Sarah, and we're in yet another parking garage. Parking garages and alleys, that's this movie. Oh, and hotwiring cars.

Kyle's monologue about the defense network computers setting off nuclear war is a very '80s manifestation of a very '80s fear. Several '80s fears, now that I think about it. (Wasn't this also the plot of War Games?) Not that it's not topical today, but I think it's expressed in different formats now.

I hate that Sarah is only special because she's the Source of the Savior instead of the actual savior herself. I hate this so much.

Kyle and the Terminator playing "who can shoot better while also driving" in a parking garage that seems to go on literally FOREVER, how is this possible. This is WHY shotgun is a thing.

Oh, good, he's finally letting Sarah drive while he shoots.

Ohhhh, now she's in police custody, and the Lieutenant is comforting her. I hope he doesn't die, but I know better than to hope that anyone other than the Final Girl survives this movie.

The "flex your artificial hand with a hole in it" scene is a bloody counterpart to Luke testing out his new prosthesis in ESB.

It says something about humans that the only way the machines could hunt them was to make them human-coated (human on the outside).

You can tell by the look on Kyle Reese's face when he says "Nobody goes home," that he knows he's on a suicide mission.

Why the hell doesn't John Connor go himself? Why was Kyle chosen? Because he had to lead humanity in the aftermath of Skynet's defeat or because it would make the upcoming plot twist that much more awkward? Probably both, but I wonder if they ever discussed this. "Uh... hi, dad? Dad-to-be?" (Reminder that Douglas Adams is right when he says the worst part of time travel is the grammar.)

Oh, god, the "eye repair" scene is nightmarish. Excellent job foreshadowing it, filmmakers. But still gross. So this is why he gets sunglasses.

(Does he have heat vision? Why do none of the future machines seem to have infrared sight? Wouldn't that be super-useful if you're human-hunting?)

Kyle Reese's "I DIDN'T BUILD THE FUCKING THING!" line is such a relatable mood. We the audience already knew that Time Travel = Mandatory Nudity, but I think it's a nice touch that Skynet assumed the Terminator could just work with whatever was available instead of needing to bring weapons. He’s weapon enough. 

Also, this implies the Terminator is just human ENOUGH to pass through the field, which might have been a reason they started working with human-augmented machines in the first place. The reasoning seems to be--no, really--if you put enough living human tissue over a machine, it's "alive" enough for time travel. I don't understand how this works, exactly, but fine.

Oh, good, the cops are giving her body armor now. That can only help. Oh, no, it's a fake-out to explain how the Terminator survived being shot.

I don't understand how this movie is not a walking billboard for gun control, I really don't.

Kyle Reese being all "things are going to shit and I'm going to seize the moment". I think the policeman he slugged might actually survive if he was knocked unconscious and otherwise stayed out of trouble? Don't think the Terminator's going to bother when he's got his real prey to deal with...

And the lietunant who was nice to Sarah is dead. I knew that was going to happen. Great, now the other detective is, too. Sigh. NO ONE IN THIS MOVIE GETS TO LIVE EXCEPT SARAH... and maybe Pugsley the iguana? I don't think he's dead...

Oooh, oooh, another visual theme of this movie is broken glass and smashing windows to unlock things. DON'T FORGET THE BODY ARMOR ON YOUR WAY OUT. (If that's not Chekhov's body armor, I'm going to be very surprised.)  

God, it's so weird to contrast the different fates of the Terminator franchise and the Star Wars films, especially given their similarities.

Oooh, oooh! Huddle together for warmth under a bridge! Fall in love!

Skynet has no freakin' subtlety. You can tell they're not human because they automatically decide the best way to keep Sarah Connor from having kids is to kill her, not to have her doctor give her a fake diagnosis so they can perform a hysterectomy or some other scheme. Or even just giving her birth control.

OR HOW ABOUT EVEN CREATING A SPECIAL MODEL TERMINATOR SHE COULD DATE WHO WAS STERILE AND THEREFORE SHE'D NEVER GET PREGNANT. And then Kyle Reese would be the obnoxious dude trying to break them up for the good of humanity and constantly trying to prove to Sarah her hot boyfriend is actually a robot, and Sarah just thinks he's delusional/trying to get in her pants.

(Oh, my god, I want this fic now.)

Oh, she just discovered Kyle's hurt now, ordering him to take off his clothes, there's only one way this can possibly end.

Nice contrast between the Terminator calmly repairing his bloodied self and Sarah feeling nauseous and having Kyle talk to her while she fixes him.

Oh, god, the way Kyle Reese describes John Connor makes me wonder if Kyle had a crush on HIM or if he knew he was John's father from the get-go. FICS FICS FICS, WHERE ARE THE FICS.

Oh, okay, so Reese volunteered because he wanted to meet "the legend--Sarah Connor". Please tell me she's a legend because she's a badass, not JUST because her son is important. Please. Or at least allow me to keep my illusions, okay?

The way Reese looks at her is distinctly hero-worshipping, which is kinda funny given their roles to date. Also, Sarah is pre-badass at this point -- she will become one as a result of the events of this film.

Sarah also has a problem with time travel tenses, I sympathize.

"Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face except to say the future is not set.... You must survive or else the future will never exist."

LOL, John telling his mom she better level up or everyone is doomed... so why isn't SHE the savior again??

And--open question--what happened to HER by 2029? Why is it John and not Sarah who's in charge?

Ok, so the HKs DO have infrared, but what keeps them and the Terminator from finding people on various occasions? (Yes, plot, I know.)

"Tell me a bedtime story about your dystopic past-that-is-my-future and give me all kinds of Nightmare Fuel..." (That could have gone better.)

Where do Future Humans get their Future Guns and Gear?? Do they steal them from machines? How does that even WORK? Wouldn't it be easier for the machines to just, I don't know, get creative and kill them some other way?

Keeping with the machine-man parallels, Reese has his own "code numbers" rather like a serial number that he uses to ID himself.

DOGGIES! THERE ARE STILL DOGS IN THE FUTURE, yay!

Yup, the humans in 2029 live in squalor just like the homeless people in the film's present - which might explain why Kyle Reese is remarkably at home, with way less culture shock than you'd expect.

Too bad he and Sarah are on the run and can't go to a fast food restaurant or something fun he's never had before.

The future kids are watching a fire burn in the shell of a TV, OH MY GOD.

Like, it's kinda good the future isn't set because if this what humanity's come to, it might be better to send someone back in time and hope it goes differently? Of course, things can always get worse. Not that they had a choice - I think discovering the machines' plan forced their hand.

Kyle Reese has a photo - is that Sarah Connor? Or is that the woman who got killed earlier in the film? I can't tell.

Dogs barking at the fake people just like the dog barked at the Terminator in the '80s. Nice. Interesting they don't try to shoot the dogs.

Ahh,the photo is burning, the symbolism.... especially when Terminator's flesh melting is going to be a Thing coming up. Cut to: Sarah's sleeping face. Foreshadowing much? (Also: WORST BEDTIME STORY EVER.)

Okay, the way he brushes her face is kinda creepy and hasn't aged well. I hope Sarah has dogs in subsequent movies? I would if I were her.

OH MY GOD, the Terminator has suggested prompts for conversations and chooses "Fuck you, asshole". DYING.

Oh, he's got her address book... and her mom's address. That's how he finds her. Otherwise, there's no way this movie will end in thirty minutes.

Kyle stopping to pet the dog while Sarah gets them a hotel room is such a beautiful background moment.

Sad that even the shittiest '80s motel room is nicer than anything Kyle has ever seen.

AHHH, SHE CALLS HER MOM, this is the smart and appropriate thing to do, but there's no way this can end well for her mom.

I thought the scene was going to cut to her mom on the phone with a gun at her back (before the Terminator kills her), but she's talking to the Terminator mimicking her mother's voice and I... don't know what just happened, but pretty sure it isn't good for Sarah Connor's mom's survival. (Why they didn't go back in time and try to kill HER before she had Sarah... seems like there are so many ways to do this.)

LOL, you think Reese is going to be into food and instead he's into manufacturing explosives in the kitchen. Nice. What follows is Baby's First Improvised Weaponry Lesson.

"He'll find us, won't he?" "Probably." WELL MAYBE IF YOU HADN'T GIVEN SOMEONE YOUR ADDRESS AFTER HE TOLD YOU NOT TO, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN "LATER" RATHER THAN "SOONER", ughhhhhh.

Kyle's reaction when Sarah asks him about his previous lovers is HILARIOUS if you assume he's actually in love with John Connor. But this does answer the question of who the woman in the photo was: it was Sarah, he's been in love with Sarah the whole time (and now kinda embarassed/thrilled at the prospect of sleeping with his hero?)

I can't tell if Sarah genuinely thinks he's hot or if she just feels sorry that he's a virgin. I guess it doesn't really matter since they've been through hell together and sex is a valid way of coping. Also, while Kyle isn't  as muscular as the Terminator, he's no slouch in the shirtless department--and he's not wearing a shirt in this scene.

Kyle's admission that he "disconnects" to avoid feeling pain just heightens the machine-man continuum even further...

Oh, my god, John totally knows that Kyle's going to be his dad, and that's why he gives them the picture of Sarah. SO AWKWARD TO BE SET UP BY YOUR SON.

This is the '80s so they can't just have casual sex, he has to be in love with her, and have ALWAYS been in love with her, because this is ROMANCE, and she's the heroine (otherwise it would be morally wrong??). I get it, although this trope hasn't aged well and seems vaguely stalker-ish, even though relatively little stalking was involved.

So he loves her, but Sarah never says she loves him... but she's stressed out and exhausted and she feels sorry for him and he's hot, wtf not?

Hey, he lets her top! That was unexpected and also kinda sweet.

What was the point of Sarah telling her mother if her mother never called back and if they were only going to be there for a day? Shouldn't she be suspicious that her mom never called back? IDIOT BALL.

Kyle hears the dog barking and knows what's up right away. You can see the "oh shit" look on his face.

YET ANOTHER CAR CHASE... except now they're in a truck and the Terminator's on a motorcycle. Oh, goody. And he makes her drive once she pulls out the explosives. Oh, good, an underground tunnel!

I don't understand why the Terminator doesn't shoot out the wheels on the truck. He keeps aiming for Sarah, and I know that's his mission, but... seems like it might be easier to disable the truck first? IDK.

Of course leaning out the window makes it easier for the Terminator to shoot Kyle... now that he's delivered his Sperm Packet from the Future, his role is done and he's toast.

That's also the first moment that Sarah really takes agency by swerving and crashing the car. I think up until this point, she's just kinda gone along with everything...? NOT A COINCIDENCE.

Oh, great, now he has a tractor-trailer. Full of gas. And you have explosions. This will end well.

Wow, the Terminator didn't kill the passenger in the truck after all. Why waste energy, I guess?

I don't understand why he goes for the tractor-trailer instead of.. I don't know, just walking over and strangling Sarah? He's a lot stronger than she is and she's trapped in a wreck. I don't understand it. That seems WAY like overkill. And also gives her time to get her bearings and escape with Kyle.

Kyle jumping into the dumpster is oddly appropriate, given how often dumpsters and trash appear in this movie.

Sarah breathes a sigh of relief WAYYY too soon after the truck goes up in flames.

WHYYYY is she going so close to the flames, that's so dumb, it must be so hot and toxic fumes, whyyyyy? (So they can be RIGHT THERE when the Terminator wakes up, that's why!)

This time Sarah's the one to break a window and unlock a door. Agency! Character development! Whatever you want to call it.

Can you really turn an automated factory on that easily? Shouldn't there be... passwords, or something? But I like that Kyle does it "so he can't track us" - so the EMFs interfere with the Terminator's abilities??

And of course, there's the irony that the smart machine from the future is destroyed by by the dumb machines of the past.  Humanity's enemy is also its savior. (Can you imagine what would havehappened if the Terminator had been able to talk to them and convince them to kill the humans / figure out where they were?)

Hey, the Terminator busts down the door in its Final Form and does the EXACT SAME DOOR OPENING TRICK IT'S ALWAYS DONE.

Sarah pulls a chunk of shrapnel OUT OF HER OWN LEG. She gets to scream while she does it because she's female, but it's the foil to the other "repair/healing" we've seen - and a sign of her own transition/evolution.

Kyle's face wound mirrors that of the Terminator, AHHH I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.

And of course the Terminator still isn't dead even after it's lost half its body and is just this metallic torso dragging itself across the ground with its arms. Because we're still not done yet. Both Sarah and the Terminator have leg wounds, so they're both crawling, I like it. EVEN MORE PARALLELS.

Oh, god, it's on a conveyor belt now. NIGHTMARE FUEL. And then some sort of ventilation shaft? Oh, god.

And she's able to press the button as it's strangling her and issue a snappy one-liner LIKE THE ACTION HERO SHE IS! And watch its red eye stare balefully at her the entire time.

Oh, and THEN the police show up and she's put on a stretcher and bundled away. Could be worse, Kyle's on a stretcher zipped up into a body bag.

CUT TO: Sarah driving a truck in the desert. A pregnant Sarah is narrating into a microphone a message/memoir for her unborn son. There's a German shepherd in the backseat. Sarah's wearing the same headband we've seen before in Kyle's photo of her. She's got a pistol in her lap that she handles coolly and calmly.

She's in Mexico, at a gas station full of chickens. She tells John she's worried about paradox, but he has to send Kyle. So John DOES know, and gave Kyle the photograph so he'd be primed to fall in love with Sarah, thus guaranteeing his existence. The German shepherd is a Very Good Dog.

Sarah's very blunt about the fact that she and Kyle only had a few hours together, but says "we loved a lifetime's worth" and I'm not sure that checks out, but okay. Maybe on Kyle's end? I feel like Sarah barely had time for any of this, and maybe some of it is retroactive, but... anyway, maybe it's a story she tells herself so she can live with it, especially since she may not be interested, open to, or willing to risk any more relationships in the future, given that she's a perpetual target.

While she's talking about Kyle, her face twists up and a kid snaps a photo with his Kodak camera, and claims if she doesn't pay for it, his father will beat him. She knows it's a scam but takes it anyway, talking him down to four dollars instead of five.

The kid takes the money and runs away, crying about a storm coming. Sarah sighs. "I know," she says, and puts on dark sunglasses as tumbleweeds roll and she drives away, waiting for the apocalypse, towards some mountains that look awfully early-CGIish.

Credits roll. Acknowledgment to the works of Harlan Ellison - that's cool.

Wow, okay. Well that was a ride.

Reading the Wiki: I like how James Cameron decided to cast Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese because he was famous at the time, even though he's nowhere near a household name compared to the film's other stars. O.J. Simpson was floated as a possible Terminator, irony. Harlan Ellison credit was added after he threatened to sue for infringment--oh.

Also, (male) critics talk about how the Terminator represents masculinity, and the ideal man is both machine and human? I guess I don't really see the Terminator as ideal masculinity, but that's a rant for another day...

Also: wtf happened to the iguana??

[returnsandreturns]

have some foggy/luke i shall never finish

Foggy’s met Luke a few times, incidentally, usually because he’s carrying an injured Matt back to his apartment like a limp ragdoll—they’ll have a quick conversation and Luke will go back out to make sure that Jessica “Never Met a Fight She Wouldn’t Begrudgingly Fight” Jones and Danny “I Can Kick Anything” Rand didn’t get in trouble while he was gone.

This time, Foggy went out on a date with a girl Marci set him up with and fell asleep before he got an I made good choices tonight and did not die text from Matt, which was an obligatory part of them being friends again; when he wakes up, brain fuzzy and only vaguely aware that it’s the middle of the night, he looks at this phone and realizes that he’s gotten no texts at all.

It’s probably nothing. Matt’s forgotten a few times, then called Foggy in the morning to apologize and declare that he was living and still had at least most of his limbs. Foggy’s got an uneasy feeling in his stomach, though, partially from drinking too much wine and a single terrible kiss but he’s pretty sure it’s also because of Matt’s radio silence.

He doesn’t answer the phone when Foggy calls—once, then twice—which leads Foggy to haul himself out of bed and into jeans and a hoodie before he walks over to Matt’s place—namely, Matt’s empty place, no sign of him, his bed still made.

“If you’re dead, I’m gonna kill you,” he murmurs, to Matt’s empty bedroom, before he climbs the stairs to the roof and finds Luke Cage sitting on the edge of the building. He looks up when Foggy walks towards him, giving him a wane smile.

“Looking for Murdock?” he asks.

“Did you push him off the roof?” Foggy asks. “I wouldn’t blame you—I want to do it, too, sometimes.”

Luke’s smile lights up a little when he laughs.

“I was on watch duty,” he says. “Claire stitched him up earlier and I was supposed to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid.”

“Let me guess,” Foggy says, cautiously sitting next to him, making sure he’s got a firm grip on the ledge before he lets his feet dangle. “He did something stupid.”

“I don’t even know how he got past me,” Luke says, half annoyed and half amused. “He went back out to finish what he started. Jess was already in the thick of it, so she’s gonna make sure he doesn’t get himself killed.”

“Why didn’t you just bring him to me?” Foggy asks. “I know all his tricks.”

He doesn’t even let Matt go to the bathroom by himself if he looks like he might ditch common sense in favor of jumping off a roof with a head wound. Privacy isn’t a thing when you’re clearly pretending that you don’t have a concussion.

“He told us that you were on a date,” Luke says, “and not to bother you.”

“That’s sweet,” Foggy says, dryly. “FYI, in the future, call me anyway.”

“That was my first instinct,” Luke says, shaking his head and smiling, looking straight ahead over the city before he turns that smile on Foggy, who smiles back and grips the ledge a little tighter, because wow. “I’ve gotta start trusting that.”

“You probably have the best instincts in your little, uhm, threesome,” Foggy says, unable to come up with a less indecent word.

“That’s not saying much,” Luke says.

Foggy laughs, says, “Right.”

They settle into the uncomfortable silence of two people that know barely anything about each other until Foggy finally says, “You can head out, if you want. I’ll wait for Matt.”

“Told Jess I’d meet them here and we could debrief and steal Matt’s beer,” Luke says. “You’re welcome to join us.”

“. . .yeah, sounds good,” Foggy says.

Luke smiles again and Foggy’s momentarily glad that Matt’s not here to hear his heart.

[quality-on-a-patch-of-awesome]

Who’s ready for some more headcanoning?

Now that I’m back home, here are some of the scenes I imagined up watching season 2 of Iron Fist. They’re behind a cut because of spoilers and because they got way more epic than I thought they would.

At some point, while they’re off on their adventures, Danny gets himself a bit beat up and Ward is cleaning him up (because the scene of that actually happening in the show was one of my absolute favourites), but Danny won’t shut up and sit still so Ward just kisses him. He doesn’t even realise that he’s done it at first because it just came so naturally to him. Then he notices that Danny has just frozen and it all hits him and he’s going to panic, but he doesn’t get the chance before Danny is kissing him. He worries that this is going to mess up the best thing in his entire life, though. He still worries, even when he and Danny are in bed together and only stops (a little, anyway) when Danny wakes up the next morning from where he fell asleep with his head on Ward’s chest (while Ward spent a few more hour panicking before eventually passing out from the stress) and then Danny looks at him like everything is right with the world.

They may or may not make it out of bed that day.

Alternatively, while Ward is patching up Danny, instead of kissing him, he’s just hit by the revelation that he’s stupid in love with Danny and probably has been for a while. He doesn’t take it too well (because this is Ward and feelings are notoriously hard for him) and shuts down.

Danny doesn’t take this well because he thought they were finally getting somewhere and how can that just go away? So he doesn’t stop bothering Ward about what’s going on until Ward has enough of the badgering and everything just spills out.

When Ward eventually stops talking (he has a lot to say and when he starts, he can’t stop), he stares at Danny, waiting for some kind of response, probably planning how quickly he can get out of there (he’s definitely expecting it to go badly).

“Thank god it’s not just me.” Danny steps in and presses his and Ward’s mouths together.

Ward will give Danny shit about that later, when he’s done finding out what every part of Danny tastes like.

Eventually, they have to go home.

The plane lands, but Ward doesn’t want to get off because how can everything be the same now? Things were good, while they were away, but things were so much less complicated when it was just them.

Danny calls Ward an idiot and proceeds to love him just as fiercely at home, in front of the whole world, as he did while they were away, when half the time it was just them.

Or, season 1 ended with Danny and Coleen going off on an adventure together and season 2 started with them living together. Maybe season 3 starts with Danny and Ward living together

No one knows what’s really going on. Maybe people think they’re already together. Maybe people think Ward invited Danny to stay with him, while he readjusted and found his own place, after his break up with Coleen. Maybe people think Danny is staying to keep an eye on Ward, in case he falls off the wagon again. They can’t be sure because Danny and Ward are the same around each other as they have been for months.

They don’t figure it out until Danny and Ward talk about going home and they leave holding hands or they talk about going to bed and disappear behind the same door.

Even then, people still aren’t convinced about what’s really going on.

Option 1 for Danny and Ward coming home.

They come back of their own accord and find everything has gone to shit while they were away.

They think about leaving again to escape it all, but Danny has a pathological need to fix things and they throw themselves into making everything better (Ward still can’t believe he’s doing that kind of good).

Option 2

Danny gets a call from Luke and/or Jess to get his dumbass back home as soon as possible because the world is about to end. Also, Matt’s not dead, but he won’t explain how or why until you get here, too, and we really want to find out what the fuck is happening.

They’re on the plane and in the air within an hour.

Danny isn’t mad that Matt is alive and has conveniently forgotten to mention it until now- he just pulls him into the biggest hug he can manage and asks so many questions that Matt barely has time to get a word in to explain.

Ward gets angry enough for both of them (and then some) because not only is he not a fan of people coming back from the dead (finding out that Matt was never technically dead is of little comfort), but he’s still pissed at Matt for how many times Danny went out into Hell’s Kitchen and nearly got himself killed trying to honour the promise he made to Matt.

They save the world and when they’re all exhausted and almost passed out afterwards is when all their feelings about what happened really come out (maybe before it was just Matt explaining what happened).

Option 3

Matt is the one who calls Danny to come home. (You have to imagine that this is a video call).

“But aren’t...” Danny frowns at the screen, like he’s not believing what he’s seeing. “How?”

“It’s a long story, Danny, and one I will gladly tell you as soon as you get home. We need you.”

“I...” Danny looks down. “I don’t know if I can. I have a lot of...”

“Were you not listening, asshole?” Frank’s face appears on the screen. He looks as if he’s ready for the fight (if he hasn’t already been in one). He does not have time for this shit. “Home. Now.”

Ward, who had been hanging around in the background, appears at Danny’s shoulder and glares at the screen.

“You’re supposed to be dead, too. I am done with people crawling out of the goddamn ground we put them in.” Ward had gone with Danny to Matt’s funeral and who hadn’t heard about Punisher? He didn’t think he would ever be ready to trust another person who came back from the dead, no matter the circumstances.

“Hey, asshole,” Frank scowled at Ward, “you don’t get a vote.”

“What the fuck...”

“Ward.” Danny puts a hand on Ward’s arm, which is enough to calm him down.

Ward glares at the screen one last time before wandering off into the corner of the room and pulling his phone out to start making arrangements for flying home (if there was a problem, Danny wouldn’t take much convincing before he was jumping at the chance to make it right).

“Danny, I know this is a lot to ask- I know you have your answers to get out there, but I need you to come home, Danny. It’s.... It’s Luke.”

“Is he okay?”

“No! He’s batshit insane.” The rest of Frank’s rant is cut off when Matt mutters something to him before he wanders out of frame.

“Danny, Luke is lost and I can’t bring him home by myself.”

“You’re not by yourself.”

“Frank is... Yeah, he’s a help and he might make choices that none of us could, but he doesn’t know Luke like we do.”

“Then call Jess.”

“She won’t get involved and she won’t tell me why. Danny, please. I need you.”

-

It all goes to shit, of course, and whatever Luke has been doing ends with them kidnapped or trapped or something. Ward might not be there with them, but it’s important that Frank is because Matt is bleeding, pretty heavily, and Frank has got to be there to cradle Matt and beg him not to die for real this time.

Danny thinks that this is it. There’s no way out. Matt is barely hanging on to consciousness and Frank is busy trying to keep him alive (he’s also probably injured). He’s the only fighter they have left and he’s only just hanging on. He squares his shoulder when the door crashes open again and almost throws a punch before he realises that it’s Jess standing in the doorway.

“Don’t just stand there.” Jess steps back and waves through the open door. “Get Murdock to the hospital before he bleeds out- Danny and I have got business to take care of.”

-

Whatever Danny and Jess do, stops whatever Luke is up to (I don’t know any of the details, it’s just important that it works) and they all wind up at the hospital, waiting for news on Matt (Frank won’t leave his side, even when Foggy and Karen show up).

Luke turns up, looking and sounding more like himself than he has in months, but no one is happy to see him.

Danny almost throws a punch.

Jess actually does.

Luke is sorry for it ending up like this because it was never what he wanted, but he can’t take it back now. He’s especially sorry that he made Jess choose Danny and Matt over him.

“It wasn’t a choice, Luke- you lost your damn mind. I don’t care who or what you are to me, if you do that again, I will not hesitate to put you down.”

-

The world nearly ends again.

Luke thinks sacrificing himself is the way to make it up to his friends.

Danny calls him an idiot, when he shows up, Matt and Jess trailing just behind him.

Luke doesn’t have words.

“You’re sorry.” Matt shrugs. “That’s enough for me. Not so much for Frank, though, so you should probably stay out of his way- I think he might actually kill you.”

“Not if Ward gets there first.” Danny grins and claps a hand on Luke’s shoulder before running ahead of the group. “Come on, guys- we’ve got a world to save.”

Luke looks at Jess, who stares back for a second before looking away.

“Can’t let you die- I’m not raising this kid alone.”

Danny is the only one surprised by that (Matt has been hearing the baby’s heartbeat for weeks).

-

They save the world. Everything is not fine, but they work on it. Danielle Cage’s middle name is now Matilda for her Uncle Matty. I just really wanted to have baby Dani in there, for some reason.

Frank hears Matt in the confessional and, as soon as Matt steps out the door, he has a whole lot of reasons of why Matt Murdock needs to be alive way more than Daredevil. He yells them all at Matt.

Matt doesn’t imagine that this will end with them falling into bed together, but he’s not exactly disappointed when it goes that way (he’d be lying if he said he’s never thought about that before).

Or Frank mutters his reasons for wanting Matt alive between kisses.

Or, my personal favourite reunion scenario, is that Frank and Matt have known that the other wasn’t dead the whole time. They’ve been keeping in touch- letters, e-mails, texts, notes around the city or whatever else- but when Matt steps back out of that confessional door and Frank is sat in the first pew, it’s the first time they’ve seen each other in whatever exact number of days they’ve both got memorised. There’s probably yelling (I always imagine there’s yelling at a reunion between Punisher and Daredevil) and clinging and the realisation that, somewhere along the way, they accidentally fell in love.

Maybe that’s how Matt finds out what’s going on with Luke- Frank has seen Luke go downhill and if this isn’t going to destroy the city, he should probably reach out to the people who might be able to talk some damn sense into Luke Cage. Also, he finally got too desperate to see Matt again.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

TV Review: Cloak & Dagger (Spoilers)

Episodes 1-2: First Light/Suicide Sprints

Marvel Formula:

You know you have to hand it to Marvel Studios, and Disney by extension, they are pretty good at giving us shows that nobody asked for yet once aired they develop a following. Yes when it comes to comic-book properties in television, DC has always had the upper hand both in animation and live-action but true Marvel fans have stuck by the studio and the shows they have released. Now like DC TV they are spread across the platforms covering Netflix, Fox and ABC, even Hulu.

But this isn’t a surprise turn for Marvel because the entire MCU begun with characters only die-hard Marvel fans cared about due to the fact that Fox had the franchise’s best characters. So Marvel Studios turned around and said “We know you love the X-Men and Spider-Man, but we have Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk and are planning a universe beginning with them”.

I wasn’t really aware of Iron Man prior to RDJ donning the armour in 2008, I was aware of Thor and Cap through their appearances in the 90s X-Men animated series and Hulk because of that god awful 2003 movie. But also I was unaware of the characters introduced in these Marvel Television shows; obviously Phil Coulson and Peggy Carter I knew from the movies but the Inhumans, Runaways and now Cloak and Dagger I had not heard of before. Yet both the Runaways and now Cloak and Dagger intrigue me, I am trying to catch-up on Runaways but have started Cloak & Dagger and I love it.

Initial Thoughts:

I understand why these characters earned their own series, I really like the twist on the everyday term “cloak and dagger” which is a term used to describe espionarge and secrecy, and turned it into two distinct characters who give new meaning to the term “cloak and dagger” as rather “shield and sword”. Reading the comics, I enjoyed the first episode so much I bought the Cloak & Dagger issue of the Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes graphic novel collection, I understand the relationship between the two characters with Cloak being the shield and Dagger being the sword.

The show gripped me with the opening scenes which acted as the characters’ origin within the MCU. A deviation from the comics where they were experimented on whereas here it was a freak accident that also involved the deaths of Tandy’s father and Tyrone’s brother...I guess some Disney tropes never die.

I do feel this show and the style of it slots in very well to other Marvel Television shows, maybe not so much Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but Runaways definitely and maybe even the Marvel Netflix shows, especially considering the characters are based out of Hell’s Kitchen in the comics whereas here they’re from New Orleans...a very muted New Orleans at that.

Also when I discovered that the showrunner for this series was Joe Pokaski who worked as a writer for a number of episodes of Heroes i was optimistic, although not too overly as the episodes he wrote weren’t my favourite, not horrendous either but not the best.

Characters:

I do think that Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph are the right choices for these characters. Aubrey definitely has that righteous brooding nature that Cloak has and Olivia has a very teen angsty attitude that works with Dagger.

I found Tandy’s character very believable from witnessing her dad die and having a mother as an addict to living rough and doing what she needs to do to get by. I also really liked the twist on roofying someone not to take advantage of them sexually but instead to steal from them.

However I applaud the show for showing that Tandy’s actions had consequences and that guy Rick did corner her at the ballet recital that she stole his ticket for, also the scene before did show that Tandy is smart because she saw who I’m presuming was Rick’s parents sitting in the seats next to his vacant one and so knew if she sat there then there would be problems so she sat in the scaffolding looking down just to see a glimpse of her old life. I am however very happy she unwillingly stabbed him with a Lightforce Dagger.

I also love how there is somewhat of a role reversal with the two characters, as is the norm it would be Tandy who is the white privileged one and Tyrone who is sleeping rough, but I love how they’ve flipped that and made Tandy somewhat of an addict like her mother and Ty being the privileged one. It showcases the other half of what Luke Cage represents in the sense of growing up on the streets of Harlem.

With regards to Tyrone, I love exploring his darkforce powers, and darkforce has been used multiple times in Marvel Television as has Roxxon where they got their powers, but I love how pretty much any shroud he uses teleports him to places. My only negative is keeping up with what is really happening and what is a vision.

In terms of supporting characters, I haven’t really focused on them because first time watching I was fixated on the titular characters, but the two standouts for me was in Episode 2 when the show introduced Father Delgado and Officer Brigid O’Reilly. I read half of my graphic novel before watching Episode 2 because I’m watching it with my partner so was introduced to the two characters in the comics first and I have to say I really don’t like the redesign they have given Brigid. In the comics she has a short red haired messy bob akin to how The Wasp had hers famously in the comics before they besmirched it in the MCU. Here they have essentially styled her as every single supporting female character in Marvel Television shows; Jemma Simmons, Bobbi Morse, Karen Page, all of them have this slender Plain Jane appearance about them and that is what Emma Lahana looks like here.

I haven’t heard much from her yet which is why I didn’t automatically click with this like I did for Eka Darville on Jessica Jones but Emma like Eka is a Power Rangers alum appearing as the Yellow Ranger in Dino Thunder. I know both Dino Thunder and RPM fall under the Disney-owned Power Rangers serials but does that mean they’re easier to cast in shows like these under the same umbrella just in different universes? I mean it is good to see Emma acting again and hopefully she’ll do the character justice.

Hopes Going Forward:

In terms of where this season goes and if it continues beyond, I would really like to see a crossover either with the Netflix shows or Runaways. Once Ty masters his abilities as Cloak he should be able to control his teleportation powers so going from Louisiana to New York or California should be easy. Also both Cloak and Dagger were once members of the Runaways and their comic story talks a lot about runaway kids as it is but also Dagger has been a member of the Secret Defenders which could be a potential future incarnation of the Defenders on Netflix.

But the one thing I want to see happen is Cloak & Dagger meet Spider-Man. That is by far and away the best intro to the two I could have got in the comics and I think it could work rather well, also all we know about the timeline is that their present day is 8 years after they got powers so that may not be current present day.

Overall I am excited for what this series has to show me and I am really hoping for some amazing and surprising crossovers down the line. I haven’t been this excited about a non-X-Men Marvel TV series since Jessica Jones.

So those are my thoughts on the first two episodes of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more TV Reviews as well as other posts.

[daresplaining]

Luke Cage Countdown: 4 Days

Deadly Nightshade

Tilda: “The first act of [my] amazing book will be the story of Tilda only caring about Tilda. It will be about a life of unlimited potential, pointed in the wrong direction, fighting for the wrong reasons-- for the wrong gains. But then will come the second act-- and oh, %$#@, that’s going to blow people away.”

    The other big new addition to this season is Tilda Johnson-- Deadly Nightshade, Queen of Werewolves, engineering genius, and all-around badass. We’re really excited about her, and are curious to see how many aspects of her wild comics career (if any) make it into the show. 

    Deadly Nightshade is a strange, awesome character who is finally getting her due in the comics. She was first introduced in Captain America volume 1-- and in fact, so many of her early appearances were in Cap comics that she would probably be classified as part of his rogues gallery. In her introductory issue, she is an up-and-coming young supervillain working for the Golden Age-y baddie Yellow Claw. With his funding and support, she produces a serum that transforms people into werewolf-type creatures, and attempts to use it to take down Captain America and Falcon.

Tilda: “Very nice, Captain America... but you better not have hurt my babies permanently.”

Steve: “Who--?”

Tilda: “My name’s Nightshade, Cap-- Deadly Nightshade. Also called the Queen of Werewolves.”

Captain America vol. 1 #164 by Steve Englehart, Alan Lee Weiss, and Jim Starlin

    Though a brilliant scientist, she is young and inexperienced, and her plan fails. She flees the scene, faking her death in the process. The next time she appears, she is a bit more seasoned, a bit more self-confident-- and has a completely new modus operandi.

Tilda: “You see, Cap, I’m going to take over all of SHIELD. The Yellow Claw’s serum might have been able to turn men into werewolves, but I always had the power to control most male-type human beings.”

Captain America vol. 1 #190 by Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins, and Michele W. 

    These pheromone powers are new-- and again, they don’t stick. Nightshade returns yet again, this time in Power Man and Iron Fist, and this time she is a robotics genius aiming to build a criminal empire. This version of Nightshade is the one that sticks, and it also finally provides a backstory: 

Tilda: "Everyone who ever laughed at me-- who ever underestimated me-- they’ll all be sorry they ever heard of Nightshade! I learned early what the world was like-- in Harlem that was easy. I could see that the ghetto was a dead end-- I had to get out. The only two ways out were learning and crime-- I decided to master both! I studied avidly... and secretly. I was a genius-- but no one suspected-- and I made sure no one would, by playing dumb. By the time I was sixteen, I had amassed the knowledge of a trio of PhDs. The time came to put it to use-- as the Deadly Nightshade! My first tries were foiled by super-heroes, but they were bold attempts. And the authorities soon found that no jail could hold me for long.”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #53 by Ed Hannigan, Sal Buscema, and Nel Yomtov

    Tilda’s manipulation of people’s perceptions is, for us, one of her most compelling features. Even in her early Cap appearances, she displayed a childlike demeanor that masked her intellect. Her scheme in PMIF involves creating a lifelike mob boss robot, and staying under the radar by pretending to be his ditzy girlfriend. Tilda is resigned to the fact that, as a young black woman, she will always be underestimated, and so has decided to weaponize these expectations and use them to her advantage. 

Tilda: “Ch-Chunky. You’ve killed him! *Sob* He was more than a cybernaut to me... *Sob* ...He was the only friend I ever had... a-and now he’s g-gone.”

Luke: “Aw, hey-- c’mon, don’t cry.”

Tilda: “Ha ha ha. Insipid fools. They fall for that bit every time! [...] Always underestimating me-- always thinking of Nightshade as a child. Always giving me a chance to escape!”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #53 by Ed Hannigan, Sal Buscema, and Nel Yomtov

    But her plans never quite work, and for a while, Tilda remains a second-rate villain, never quite achieving the respect that (we think) she deserves. But recently, to our excitement, writer David F. Walker has taken an interest in her and given her a second life in his comics. 

    This has come with a complete lifestyle change. Having fallen on hard times, Tilda is mugged in a back alley. She is rescued by the superhero Nighthawk, who offers her a choice. 

Tilda: “Who... who are you?”

Nighthawk: “You’re Tilda Johnson-- Deadly Nightshade-- robotic engineering expert. I need someone like you working for me. I can leave you here to die-- I could kill you myself, and no one would care... or you can turn it around and put your skills to work doing something important.”

Occupy Avengers #4 by David F. Walker, Carlos Pacheco, and Will Quintana

    Thus, Tilda becomes a hero, working alongside Nighthawk and using her brilliant intellect, engineering skills, and all-around badassery to fight street-level crime and corruption. 

Tilda: “I managed to download all the data stored on the computers here. Then I sent the emergency distress signal you asked for, Barton. And then... I got bored. Figured I’d work up a sweat by saving you guys before help arrived. [...] I just wish I’d gotten here sooner. Maybe I could’ve helped save them.”

Nighthawk: “Tilda, they were robots.”

Tilda: “Some of my best friends have been robots, ‘Hawk. They’re the least judgmental people I know.”

Occupy Avengers #4 by David F. Walker, Carlos Pacheco, and Will Quintana

    When Hawkeye and Red Wolf come to town, she joins their impromptu road trip Avengers team, further expanding her superhero resume. And when Nighthawk is killed, she honors him by taking on his identity. She has entered a new (and thankfully, bikini-less) stage of her career, and we really hope she sticks around.  

Tilda: “If I’d known being one of the good guys was this much fun... I’d have switched sides a long time ago!”

Occupy Avengers #9 by David F. Walker, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Jordie Bellaire

    MCU Tilda has only recently started popping up in promos, and we still know next to nothing about her in this universe. This is an instance in which we’re worried a character might not live up to their comics coolness factor. Any version of Nightshade that doesn’t involve robots and/or werewolves in an inherently inferior Nightshade. The character description leaked way back when called her “a brilliant holistic doctor with a complicated history in Harlem where, as much as she tries to stay far from trouble, it seems to always find her”. This presents her as a bystander who is pulled into the plot-- a more passive role than that of her comics counterpart. The career shift is also interesting, and we’re curious about the reasoning behind it. 

    That’s not to say that we don’t think MCU Tilda will be great. There’s a lot more to her than just her inventions, and these shows have a good track record of adding compelling new layers to their characters. The most significant revelation we’ve so far received about Tilda is that she is Mariah Dillard’s daughter. The development of this relationship, in regards to Mariah (and thus Tilda’s) messy family situation, the increasingly shaky morality of Mariah’s life, and Tilda’s own comics-based potential as an antagonist, should be really complicated and compelling. Either way, we can’t wait to see this new version of one of our favorite underused comics characters.  

[justauthoring]

Trust Me

Prompt: After your brother, Han Solo, is frozen and taken to Jabba, you’ll stop at nothing to save him. But the rescue mission doesn’t exactly go as planned.

Pairing: Luke x Solo!Reader

Warnings: listen, i literally just finished watch Return of the Jedi, it’s one in the morning and I needed to write this. i’ve liked Luke Skywalker for a long time now, but Last Jedi just resurfaced it. Mark Hamill is amazing so i wrote this. Does it make sense? I sure hope so lol. oh and I apologize, but for some reason Leia doesn’t exist in this story. It just works better, so it’s kind of like the reader took her spot. also, Jabba’s a warning so... there’s a hint to what this is lol.

please don’t plagiarize my work - I spend a lot of my time writing, copying and pasting destroys that. If you’d like to repost my work, please ask first - but even then I might say no.

“I must be allowed to speak.”

You kept your head down, your hood hiding the true features of your face. You’re not sure why you let Luke talk you into this - well you did, for Han... still, your heart beat rapidly against your chest. Luke seemed to think he had a pretty good control over the situation, and even though you had faith in him, you questioned just how much Luke knew about Jabba’s power.

One of Jabba’s servants, the one you quite frankly thought was disturbing looking, leaned over to Jabba in order to translate just what Luke had said. You couldn’t understand what Jabba said in response, but imagined it not to be good considering that he grabbed ahold of the servant roughly and in moments, threw him back.

The moment the servant fell, Luke took a step forward and you felt your heart spike in response. “You will bring Captain Solo and the Wookie to me.” He said slowly, revealing his eyes to control Jabba.  

“Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!” Jabba laughed obnoxiously. Taking a deep breath, you dared to step forward yourself, still with your hood up. You felt your eyes widen in response the moment you noticed a girl laid by his side, in a rather provocative outfit which made your fire burn. How dare that disgusting piece of slime treat a girl like that. And considering the collar that was wrapped around her neck, connected to a chain, you guessed that it wasn’t by her free will.

It wasn’t until you noticed Luke hold out his hand did you realize how you let your feelings get the best of you. Taking a deep breath, you took your eyes off of the girl and instead focused on Jabba.

“Your mind powers will never work on me boy.”

“Nevertheless...” Luke added, as calm as ever. “I’m taking Captain Solo and his friends. You can either profit by this or be destroyed. It’s your choice-” You furrowed your brows as you noticed Luke step over a gated floor. Cautiously, you took a step forward, eyeing what was below in suspicion. “But I warn you not to underestimate my powers.”

“Oahhhh.” Jabba roared.

“Master Luke, you’re standing on-”

Hearing CSPO’s desperate attempt at a warning, you felt your eyes widen.

“There will be no bargain, young Jedi. I shall enjoy watching you die.” 

Within a second, Luke shot out his hand towards a guard, bringing his blaster to himself. You gasped at the quick movement, cursing yourself for not saying something further. “Luke! Wait-” You lunged forward, desperate to stop Luke but before you knew it, you felt yourself falling fast down the hole you’d been suspicious of.

Rolling down the shoot, you fell with a thump, your head hitting Luke’s chest. Gasping, you accepted his hand, crawling up to your feet in a flurry. Ripping off your cloak, you felt your hair flow freely behind you, staring at the guard that had fallen down with you in a cautious nature. 

A load creak echoed, your gaze snapping before you at a large door, watching as it slowly opened. What you saw was definitely not what you wanted to see, and you felt your eyes widen considerably as a huge monster- “Oh no! The Rancor.” Or Rancor was revealed to your eyes. There was a moment of stunned silence, both you and Luke’s feet shuffling backwards as the Rancor roared in response and captured the guard from before in his mouth.

You felt Luke press a hand against your stomach and meeting his eyes, you nodded, taking a step back so you were slightly behind him. The Rancor turned towards the both of you, roaring in delight at new food. Turning around, you grabbed a bone, handing it off to Luke in a hurry. He accepted it, the both of you standing there as the Rancor slowly descended upon the both of you.

You felt your throat tighten up as the monster grabbed ahold of Luke, squishing him in his grip.

“In his mouth!” You called, pointing at the Rancor’s mouth. “Put the bone in his mouth!”

Seizing his struggle, Luke listened, his eyes falling on the giants mouth and focusing. You felt your lips upturn into a smile of victory as the Rancor let go of Luke, screaming in panic at the bone now stuck between his teeth. 

You ran to Luke’s side, helping him up. Grabbing a hold of your hand, he pushed you forward as you ran around the struggling Rancor. Reaching the door that the monster had entered from, you opened it in a rush, running through the next section only to come by a caged door. You flinched as the guards behind it begun swinging their weapons at you. Turning back around, you gave Luke a defeated look, staring at the Rancor who neared the both of you.

You felt Luke spin around as well, pressing his back against your chest in an attempt to shield you. “I told you this was a bad idea,” you groaned.

“Just wait.” Luke called, hesitating a moment before he ran forward. You watched him, curious as to what he was doing before you saw him slam his palm against the control panel. Within seconds, the huge door that the Rancor had come from, closed on him, crushing him to death.

In a moment of victory, you grinned, nodding at Luke.

The moment was short lived though as you felt guards aggressively grab ahold of your arms, pulling you back. “Hey!” You heard Luke call, and turning your head, you found him in the same predicament as you. “Let her go!”

“Han!”

“Luke!”

Looking up, you peered around the guard holding Luke, only to find your brother. Despite the restraints holding your arms behind your back, you smiled slightly at the sight of Han okay. Last time you’d seen him, he’d been enclosed in Carbon. “Han?” You called out questioningly, bringing the older man’s eyes on you. “Han!”

“Y/N....” He called out in shock.

“Are you alright?” Luke questioned as the two were brought next to each other. You were brought up at the back of them, desperately fighting the grasp the two men held on you. But no matter how hard you fought it didn’t matter.

“Fine.” Han snapped, struggling against the guards grip himself. You watched him glance behind at you; “you?” You nodded slowly, sending a pitiful smile. “Together again, huh?” You joked, watching as both Luke and Han shook their head.

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

“How are we doing?” Han asked, and you flinched as he was roughly pushed forward. 

“Same as always.” Luke mumbled.

“That bad, huh?”

Soon enough, you found yourself in between both Han and Luke, directly in front of Jabba once again. Next to Luke stood Chewie and with relief you felt the guard’s let go of your hands, their tight grips definitely leaving bruises on you. You closed your eyes, hopeful to calm your racing heartbeat. You knew all about Jabba the Hutt’s sick mind and twisted games. You were Han’s sister after all, and had been with him before everything.

Jabba begun speaking and you turned to C-3PO for clarification.

“Oh, dear.” He fretted. “His High Exaltedness, the great Jabb the Hutt has decreed that you are to be terminated immediately.”

“Good. I hate long waits.”

You sighed at Han’s comment, shaking your head. Meeting Luke’s eye, you gave him a worried expression but he only sent a reassuring nod.

“You will therefor be taken to the Dune Sea and cast into the Pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc.”

“Doesn’t sound so bad.”

“In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.”

“Still think it isn’t that bad?” You snapped, turning to look at you brother. Giving you a embarrassed glance, he muttered; “I take it back.”

“You should have bargained.” Luke finally spoke up, and you sighed again - were you surrounded by idiots? 

Jabba again spoke, holding up his hand in a waving motion. “Oh no...” C-3PO mumbled, and your eyes widened. 

“What?” You called, “what is it?”

“Mistress Y/N...” C-3PO said, his voice conveying the sadness he felt.

Your eyes widened as you heard his name fall from his lips. Within seconds you felt to hands grab ahold of your arms again, shoving you forward. You looked back at Luke and Han in panic, fighting the grip as best you could. “Hey!” Han called, his eyes narrowing in anger. “What are you doing? Hey!”

You snarled your lip in disgust as you were brought up to Jabba, pressed up against his belly so your face was only mere inches away from him. You still continued to struggle, pushing yourself as far away from the disgusting thing as you could. “Get your - disgusting hands off of me!” You yelled, trying to kick the hand that was dangerously low and keeping you in place.

“Y/N!”

Your attention was brought elsewhere as you felt Jabba’s tongue reach out, hitting you just across the neck. You moaned dejectedly, giving a last attempt of struggle.

“Y/N Solo... your brothers debt will be paid through you.”

You don’t know what Jabba said, but as you gazed around, you noticed the girl from before gone.

“What is he saying?” You heard Han asked allowed, moaning and grunting as he fought the hands that held him still.

C-3PO looked to Jabba for permission before he spoke; “he means to use Mistress Y/N as a means for your debt. Either that or she will die!”

“Well then, i’ll die!” You screamed allowed, kicking your foot out. “I’d rather die then be some slave-girl.”

“She’ll accept.” You felt your body freeze as Luke’s words echoed around you. Your shoulder’s slumped and turning around, you met Luke’s blue eyes in shock. “Luke...?”

“Trust me.” Was all he said and then suddenly you were looking back at Jabba, nodding. “I accept.”

You fought the chain Jabba ruthlessly pulled back, holding yourself and the very thin clad clothing Jabba had given you. Gripping your collar, you watched through the small sliver you could see as Luke turned on his lightsaber, fighting the man that surrounded him.

Looking around you, you found the best use of a weapon you could, smashing it against the control panel so all the window’s shut. Using the dark as your chance, you climbed around Jabba, grabbing the length of your chain and throwing it around his neck. 

You couldn’t help but feel anger surge through you as you pulled ruthlessly on the chains. You didn’t let go of the tight grip, watching as Jabba tiredlessly fought against the chain that was choking him. All you imagined was the amount times he’d pulled on the chain he’d put around your neck and hurt your friends.

When his tall fell against the ground, that’s when you finally let go, grabbing the rest of the chain and making your way over to R2-D2. A lighter appeared out of the droid and quickly you let it burn through the metal. Once it had, you grinned, letting your hand fall a top of the droid in thanks. “Now let’s get out of here.”

You stood up, quickly making your way to the outside part of the transport ship. The moment you noticed Luke, you felt your lips turn into a smile. “Get the gun.” He called and gazing behind you, you quickly ran to it. “Point it at the deck! Point it at the deck!” You jumped a top of the gun, pointing it where Luke had told you all while watching with worried eyes as he fought off the last of Jabba’s men. 

When you heard him groan in pain, your eyes fell to him again; “Luke!”

Getting up, he met you by the gun the moment it was in place. You ran to him, grabbing ahold of his hand as you stared up at Luke in worry. “Did he hurt you?” Luke asked, breathing heavily as you both paused a moment. You shook your head and Luke’s hands came up to grasp the collar Jabba had placed around you, frowning at the bruises that marked your neck.

You shook your head, cupping his face and redirecting his gaze towards you. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Come on.” Luke nodded, and you stepped closer to him, allowing hm to wrap an arm around your waist as you grabbed ahold of his shoulders. Kicking the gun so it fired, you felt Luke jump up off the ship, swinging you guys over to where Han, Lando and Chewie stood. “Let’s go.” Luke called to Lando. “And don’t forget the droids.”

“We’re on our way.”

Stepping away from Luke, you smiled at him, pressing a gentle kiss against his lips. He accepted it, hugging you quickly before you pulled away. The moment you found your brother, you ran to him; “I was so worried.”

“Well,” Han grinned. “Of course you would. What would you do without me?”

requests are closed.

[two-halves-of-reylo]

First Blood - The Jedi Temple

Luke Skywalker attempts to kill Ben Solo in his sleep. Unable to stand the rejection anymore Ben decides to embrace the monster everyone claims him to be and destroy the Jedi temple.

This is the companion piece to “First Blood - Mind Probe”

written by: Shenanigenfilms

“I know everything I need to know about you” Rey spat with a vile tone in her voice. Her eyes flared at him just like they did when the fought in the forest.

“You do? Ah you do…You have that look in your eyes from the forest, the time you called me a Monster” 

“You are a Monster!” She countered standing her ground as he walked closer. “Yes I am” Kylo kept his walls to her, even as he became curious about their connection. His last words struck something inside Rey and for the first time she saw someone tormented.

Without warning the sound returned to the room and Kylo felt something wet running down his face. He gently rubbed the mysterious liquid from his face, was it blood? No water…but how?

He stared at his gloved hand as memories started to flood his mind. Blood. First Blood…His first kills. The night he destroyed it all. 

______________________

He wasn’t a boy, but not quite a man. He felt a strange presence above him as he slept, startled with a jolt as Ben heard the all to familiar sound of a lightsaber engaging. But who? Only a few of them had reached that point of their training. Luckily for him he had just constructed his blue lightsaber a few weeks ago. It was crude and needed tweaking but the crystal was strong and pure. 

As if everything was in slow motion Ben summoned his lightsaber spilling his beloved calligraphy set on the floor. Ben was fascinated with tales of the ancient time, it was one of the reason he requested an ancient calligraphy set. To be able to write in an age when it was no longer required. That all now seemed meaningless as he was being threatened by his Uncle who gave it to him as a present. 

Their lightsabers clashed with a terrible crackle and it was as if a seismic charge fell over the training grounds. Ben instinctively force pulled his hut around him not even considering he could die with his uncle. Ben was acting on pure instinct to get away. 

As if some unseeable dark force guided Ben to safety he rolled under his bed giving him just enough protection from the falling roof around him and his traitor of an uncle. Everything went dark.

Ben’s eyes shot open as he felt something cold run down his face. He struggled to pull the ruble of his hut off his, but he saw breaks in the piles and pulled them off with all his might.

He stood shaking the dust off his clothes and wiping the blood from his forehead. he stared at the liquid on his fingers and felt the rage burn with in him. He reached out to the force to find any solace in what just happened. To find any words or feeling of wisdom to guide him on how to proceed as he just possibly killed the only person who could explain anything about what was in his conflicted soul. A voice of a guardian rang through his his mind. “The strongest stars have hearts of Kyber.” 

Ben touched his hand to his chest almost to see if he even had a heart left inside. He was going to harden his heart so he would never be hurt again. Ben was fed up with the shame of feeling like a freak, a creature, a monster. Even his own parents were scared of him, it was the sole reason he was dumped with his Uncle. It was the hope Luke could help him, and now he betrayed him.

Ben’s thoughts came to his only “friend” that he had among Luke’s pupils, The Zabrak Lamu. They first bonded over the crystal ceremony Luke had created. 

In his quest for Jedi Artifacts Luke came across the Crystal Caves of Ilum . Luke had built his own lightsaber years ago with parts he found in Obi-Wan’s hut back on tattooine. But he found the where crystals were and that the crystals shared a special relationship with the Jedi for tens of thousands of years . Jedi younglings traveled to the ice caves to harvest their own crystals, which they then used to build their lightsabers. The Force would find a crystal that matched their destiny as Jedi. Some would never be allowed to feel its power, and the crystal would be cold to the touch. But if you were chose the crystals would call with a celestial hum to the future jedi’s. Crystals lacked color before they were chosen by a Jedi.

Luke had brought several Kyber Crystal Clusters back with him as he felt it was to dangerous to risk the lives of his future students. As the new academy was in strict secrecy for everyones protection until the time was right. 

During his ceremony most lightsabers became blue or green. Ben was actually relived his was blue. He didn’t want a colour that would make him stand out from the rest of the pupils, already feeling like the outsider. But Lamu’s crystal was yellow, something only reserved for the Jedi Temple Guard of the ancient times of the old republic. No one knew this but Ben. In one of his meditation sessions ancient guardians showed their ways of servitude to the order. 

One night a couple of pupils surrounded Lamu and were starting to harass him. They called him terrible names, taunted him, laughed at his crimson tattoo like features on his face from his kind and the black horns that adorned his scull like crown. They poked at him like some animal in a cage and Ben could sense the inevitable fight.

Ben came around the corner to find five students attacking Lamu. He did his best to fight them off but he was no match for the older students. Ben took pity on him, for he knew what it felt like to be cruley taunted for physical features. His were the prominate ears which stuck out. His way of hiding them was to let his hair grown over them. A luxury the poor Zabrak couldn’t have. Ben easily bested the older students with his raw use of the force. Lamu was grateful but now they both had enemies, dangerous enemies.

That night Ben shared with Lamu the meaning of his crystal colour and the ways of the Jedi Temple Guards. How they were anonymous sentinels that disappear inside robes and hide their features under masks. This was a way to show emotional detachment, something both of them desired to hide their deformities. 

This is how the Knights of Ren were born. They would become the guardians of the new temple and they alone would chose whom they viewed as worthy. Ben knew he could use his raw power, and Lamu must have had the same power otherwise his crystal would have been blue or green. 

Ben felt a pull in his chest as he remembered his friend. He tried to keep the rage at bay but he needed Lamu’s help and if they were ever to be what they vowed to become this was the time.

Ben sprinted as fast as he could, tears forming in his eyes, trying to harden his heart but he kept feeling the pull to the light. Lamu nearly jumped ten feet off his cot as Ben stormed into his hut.

“Are we brothers?” Ben shouted. Lamu stared at his friend, he didn’t understand the question, or why he would be asking. He could feel the rage building in Ben as he stood before him. But he didn’t know how to answer.

“I said are we brothers?” Ben was afraid, he didn’t and couldn’t take any more betrayals. He engaged his lightsaber and pointed it at Lamu. 

“Of course we are! Until the end!” He answered. He wasn’t afraid, for his heart was true. 

“Tonight we end this! Tonight we become the Knights of Ren!” 

Lamu had a slight smile on his face, he didn’t care what the reason was or why. He was ready to be what he felt he was always meant to be. 

“Ok but what do we do now?”

“We go one by one and decide who is worthy. I’ll start with the older pupils you start with the youngling” Lamu nodded in agreement, grabbed his lightsaber and made his way to the west side of the camp. Ben kept his lightsaber engaged and made his way to the east side of the camp. 

He was stopped in his tracks as the five students he fought off some time before approached him.

“Whats the matter creature, have another one of you night terrors?” They mocked. “mommy isn’t there to sooth you back to sleep like the coward you are” they continued.

Ben tried not to let their taunts hurt him, but he failed. All he could think to do was extend his lightsaber out in their direction, slowly moving it from side to side begging them to try and advance. “come and say that to me again?”

The boys were not intimidated in the slightest. “what are you going to do with that? What would master Luke say?” Ben didn’t flinch “he betrayed me and I killed him!”

The boys studied Ben and looked at one another. “Liar! Prove it!” They started to surround Ben. “Take a look for yourself, my collapsed hut is over there!”

They studied the horizon and saw what he said to be true. “You killed him? Why? Traitor!” One of the boys had his constructed lightsaber on his belt and advanced towards Ben. Without hesitation Ben easily countered and cut the boy’s head clear off and watched it fall from his shoulders.

A painful surge of energy rose in his body, and he felt the hilt of his lightsaber grow warm. Ben tried to keep himself from being sick. He wasn’t sure if Luke was truly dead, and he acted in self defence. But this time was a cold calculated murder and there was no escape from this. Some of the boys fled in fear others went to their respected huts to grab their weapons. 

Ben didn’t allow them much of a choice. He force pulled them one by one towards him, striking them down systematically. Each time the feeling of painful nausea was replaced by a feeling of calm, and power. Ben’s lightsaber grew hotter and the blade was starting to falter. A loud crackle was starting to form and he felt his crystal crack as it started to “bleed” and change colours. He was no longer going to be the victim, he was in control of his own life and destiny. 

More students came out of the huts to see what the commotion was about. Ben was in a blind frenzy as he struck them down. Some begged for their lives others tried to fight in the best way the could. Ben would only spare the ones who ever showed him kindness which he confused for loyalty. He asked them if they would join his knights and most agreed. They knew if they didn’t it would certainly mean death. Ben demanded as a sign of their loyalty to attack the main temple and burn it to the ground while he searched for an escape for them.

In his search Lamu had returned but to Ben’s surprise he only had two youngling who were just about old enough to join the older pupils. 

“Where are the others?”

“They were a liability, we cant let them escape and expose our order” Lamu said coldly. He never lifted his voice. The boy and girl next to him clearly shaken in fear kept their eyes to the ground.

Ben didn’t dare ask any further questions, but he knew. Lamu slaughtered them all. His crimson tattoo markings were growing more vibrant. He remembered about the Sith and how in their domination a true Sith’s eyes would change in times of great destruction. Ben found himself longing for the same. If he was truly a monster than what better way to look the part. But he couldn’t believe Lamu, Ben was a lot of things but he wouldn’t have killed younglings. He would have wiped their memories or something. But he dare not question for he didn’t want to lose the fragile loyalty of Lamu. 

Finally they found a cargo freighter that Luke had used in his excavations and loaded their perspective students, but there wasn’t enough room. They would need to choose who was worthy. Ben raised his lightsaber and struck down nearly twenty more pupils. When he struck the last pupil Ben felt his hilt give way as his lightsaber crystal shattered causing the beam to ooze out on the sides.

He threw it as the heat was too much to bare. Some of the students sighed a quite breath as they knew they were spared. Lamu announced that he set a course and they fled once and for all into uncharted space, to the unknown regions. Ben rushed to the fresher unit on board. He stood before the mirror but had kept his eyes shut. He held his breath as he was desparatly hoping to see the eyes of the monster he yearned for. Ben gripped the sides of the sink as he willed his body to open his eyes.

Finally he looked but his heart sank. All he saw was his eyes, dark and intense, but nothing else. He gripped his fingers tighter as his screamed in anguish. All that for nothing! He ripped the sink from its bolts and threw it agains the wall watching it smash into pieces. He fell to the floor hiding his face in his hands. He felt the drop of water hitting his face from the broken pipe. He almost wished it would wash away the blood on his hands, but it was too late.

Lamu came to see what the commotion was about. He found Ben in a way he had never seen his brother before. He didn’t know what to do, but he knew Ben needed a fresh start.

“When do we build our masks master?” The word hit Ben like a slap to the face. Master? No one ever considered him a master. Trying to find the words and how to even find the designs.

“We also need names…” it was the only thing Ben could blurt out. He no longer wanted the cursed name of Solo. 

“I want to keep mine…if thats ok master. But we can think of yours?” Ben understood it was a fair request. But he wanted something that was remnant of the stone he hardened his heart to. The Kyber Crystal. 

“What about Kyber Ren, all of the knights tiles will end in Ren” Lamu’s face betrayed him as he felt the name was a bit silly, but he didn’t want to outright say it. He thought of a different suggestion.

“I like Ren but what about Kylo. A combination of Skywalker, and Solo.” Ben hated the idea and started to interject but Lamu cut him off. “I know you hate the name, but think of it as a badge of honour, killing the master who betrayed you, and the name that fuels your power and rage”

Ben couldn’t argue with that logic. “Ok Lamu Ren, Kylo Ren it shall be” Lamu put his fisted hand to his heart and bowed his head in respect “Master”

He rose to his feet and left Kylo Ren in peace.

______________________

Ben Looked at his gloved hand with the drops remaining from his force connection with Rey. He longed to see his brother again, but the knights were in hiding, secret assassins in the far reaches of the Galaxy, doing the bidding of Snoke and the first order. Lamu was no longer loyal to Ben, he was loyal to Snoke. 

He took his lightsaber off his belt and stoked the crossgaurd vents which he later added after the attack on the temple. He chose its design from the ancient battle of the Sith and Jedi on the planet Malachor that happened thousands of years ago. He did love the ancient ways. But he was now wanting to kill it all, to let the past die.

I have tried my best to research as much cannon material and evidence for this origin story. 

Opening line of the flashback matches the line from the Last Jedi Novelisation on purpose

[huldrax]

Civil War: The Right Way to Use Politics In Comics.

                          To begin with, there is no factually correct choice. At the end of the day whether you lined up on Iron-Man’s side or Captain America’s side it had to do with your perception of right and wrong. Your choice was decided by what you felt was acceptable and unacceptable. It is fundamentally the age old question of Individual rights and liberties VS Society’s. It doesn’t matter who came out the victor. You can win and be wrong; you can lose and be right when it comes to morality. Each of us has to answer if only to ourselves how much of our civil liberties do we trade away for safety? How dirty do we think we would be willing to get our hands to do what we think is right and where do we ultimately draw the line? Civil War begins after a major catastrophe in a town called Stamford. In an attempt to apprehend a group of villains a unit of inexperienced reality star heroes inadvertently cause a hefty amount of casualties, many of which were children. Unsurprisingly it sparks national outrage, everyone is questioning what can be done, why are superhumans allowed to run amok without training, without credentials, without accountability? These questions have always been brewing under the surface but now they’ve exploded to the forefront of American discussion. In the aftermath of Stamford the superhuman community is already debating amongst themselves about what they think will be the next step of public outrage. Many of them can already see the writing in the air, there will be a push to make Super Heroes into Super Cops. Many of them are at first not too bothered by the idea, others are deeply disturbed. Most character’s whose identities have never been secret or out for some time are unbothered by the idea of a great unmasking and why should they be? Hiding themselves has never been a concern for them; therefore no one else should be worried. Or so they think for its often very difficult to understand what you’ve never experienced. Let me fully admit my bias; I backed Captain America. The reasons to me were simple on the surface. People have a right to anonymity; the government cannot be trusted to adequately keep that anonymity—especially when so many lives are on the line and we’re not just talking about the lives of the super humans here; we’re talking about them and the lives of every person who has ever been remotely connected to them or ever will be connected to them. Let’s say that there is a hack by some villain, it’d be like a great big doxxing of epic proportions. All that personal info spilled into nefarious hands. Or imagine the government goes full on dictatorial and begins to do wide spread targeting of individuals within the registry for whatever reasons—they’re no longer satisfied with a registry, now they want to contain everyone, or even kill them. We’ve seen things like this happen in the real world and we’ve seen it in the source material; the Mutant community knows this all too well. These are all possibilities that the characters have to weigh, not knowing if their fears will come true or not but anticipating that they will. When you expect the worst you can only be pleasantly surprised. Their wildest fears are not unfounded as we later see, it’s no longer JUST about registering names and faces; the superhumans will be FORCED to work for the government, live under the radar if they have the capability, or be imprisoned, and last but not least they can resist and perhaps die. When people with powers who don’t even use them are suddenly demanded to sign their name on the dotted line or ELSE, resistance in the end becomes self-defense. They have no choice but to fight or in their minds lose their way of life. At the end of the day the SRA (Super-Human Registration Act) is not only about knowing the identities and whereabouts of its applicants, it’s a draft. The government will be deciding what action the hero takes, where they go, when they go. There will be times when they MUST act but are told to with-hold, there will be times when they don’t want to act, but are demanded to do so. Their personal judgments will no longer matter, they become unwilling soldiers. Luke Cage referred to it as “A form of slavery.” And he isn’t wrong. You either capitulate or you are crippled. You either join or you are labeled a criminal and will be brought to heel. In this light they’ve no other choice but to resist. The SRA is a threat to their world, their freedom. It is an existential crisis to their autonomy, their anonymity. They might be super, but at the end of the day they’re also just people who want to do the right thing on their own terms. They want the freedom to make their choices without the threat of a figurative and literal gun to the head. With that said, just because I believe in the cause of the resistance does not mean I don’t understand where Tony and co. are coming from. That is in itself is an example of how Marvel did things right. I can disagree with him but understand his view. I can be against him and not hate him. I can dislike the things that he does disagree with the decisions he’s made but still want the best possible outcome for him. I have many, many gripes with the Pro-SRA movement. I will save such long, detailed complaints for another time and simply focus on the major premise. The one thing that I DO agree with is that there must be accountability when things go wrong.   I understand that if it’s not the SRA, it will be some other program—a worse program as theorized by Tony and Reed. The government will skip the step of registration and go directly for attempts at utter elimination. Perhaps, as in Reed’s opinion the world will be consumed into chaos in such an event. But that is only if I allow myself to believe that Reed and Tony are beyond reproach, that they are infallible, and I don’t believe they are. We know they aren’t. I can even sympathize with the Pro-SRA side, I can look to Tony and see he’s not a monster, and he’s NOT wrong about everything, nor is he right about it all. He wants to regain the trust of the public; he wants to put their fears at ease. He wants to promise there will never be another Stamford again; he thinks that the registration is a step towards that. Tony wants to make a better, safer world; working within the system he’s been provided. I don’t believe that such a thing is possible—I don’t believe the SRA could have prevented Stamford—or that if the SRA is followed to the letter that there will never be another Stamford.  But I understand where he is coming from and cannot fault him for his conclusion, for his belief that his way is the right way.   To Tony the SRA represents redemption for his own failings and the failures of others. It is a gesture of good will to the public, and while he does believe in the movement it hurts him to have to turn on his compatriots . To have to turn on what he considers his own community, to be viewed as Judas is no doubt a heavy burden. He doesn’t want it to come to violence but if it does, he’d rather it be at the command of someone who cares. Not some faceless bureaucrat who will shrug off the guilt of having harmed someone they don’t even know. Not some person who will look at the law as it is and not what it could be.  Nothing he does if from a place of cruelty but perceived necessity. I’m not excusing the atrocities committed in the process, I mean, using known criminals to bolster their ranks? Cloning a monster Thor-bot? Knowing that the implementation of the SRA is utterly disgraceful but committing to the task none the less? I may abhor that that they do it, I might be screaming at them inside my head, but I never reach the moment where I think to myself “They are forever beyond redemption.”   We, the readers just the same as the two factions are meant to feel torn, anguished that things have come to this. We see the bad choices each side has made, we see the damage they’ve wrought on one another emotionally and physically. We know that it’s unfair to ask people to put themselves into the hands of the government and that it’s also unfair to society not to have a system in which these people can be held accountable. What Marvel did right is that neither group was “The Good Guy” or “The Bad Guy.” They were two opposing factions who believed what they were doing was the best thing to do. The Marvel writers of this period played it straight; they gave both sides their due and left it to the reader to make their choice. They didn’t demonize Steve or Tony, you knew their head and you knew their hearts. They were not cardboard people. They were REAL, conflicted, messy and pained by the choices before them. Both sides made mistakes, both sides were consumed with high emotion, inflaming tension between them. Both groups have done questionable things in the name of their cause. Tony is compromising his own principals for a better tomorrow; Steve is sticking to his principals for a better tomorrow. Neither stance is a bad one, they are simply ideologically opposed and the further the tension mounts the less each side thinks logically. As the war progresses neither are truly fighting for their ideals anymore, they’re just FIGHTING for ego. The ends don’t justify their means anymore. To himself and no one else, Tony admits “It wasn’t worth it.” And yet they’ve gone too far to turn back. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone without some glimmer of regret by the end of things. Everyone is mangled by the end. No one is untainted. Civil War is artfully brutal in how raw it leaves you by the end. We can all look at parts of the arc and think of all the ways the horror could have been avoided, we can see the things the characters themselves cannot see preparing to bite them later down the road and we’re helpless. We don't need the writers to hammer us over the head with what THEY believe is right, we don't need to have our differing world views not only perverted but out right demonized. We don't need nor want the same jab taken over and over again to the point that we can accurately predict it will be coming.

If you want to talk about politics—If you want to involve them in comics, at the very least do the audience and the character's justice. Present both sides without turning one into a caricature. You aren’t convincing us when you are presenting a false view to topple, you’re preaching to us.

In short, it is humanity that current marvel lacks. Everything is one sided, everything is a hammer without subtlety. There are no layers. There is but one side, the “Right” side. The opposing force cannot be viewed as having any legitimacy whatsoever. RiRi Williams takes over a sovereign nation? Everyone around her congratulates her. Every comment is on how smart, how perfect she is. Despite the fact that we ourselves do not see those qualities in her, we’re simply told that she has them. To compound the issue there is not a soul within her inner circle to add a counterpoint.  She’s better then all who have come before her, she is without compelling conflict. This one toned outlook doesn’t just apply in the comics; it applies in the actual thinking of the creators. You voted for Trump? You are a bigot. You don’t like the direction they’re taking a character in? You have no clue what you are talking about. You want the old characters back? You’re old and stuck in your ways. You’re a rube, you’re the minority of readers, they DON”T want you to buy their books and you will be blocked. There is no respect, there is no dissension. Can you think of ONE or even more than one Marvel comic in the last two years where two ideological opposites were presented with the opportunity to explain their side without one of them being portrayed as villain? Where you were actually left to draw your own conclusion?

[danielphowley]

Samsung Galaxy S8 review: So impressive that people will forget about the 7

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 is a return to form, and the best handset you can buy.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note7, an excellent smartphone in some ways, turned into a public relations nightmare. Its explosive batteries got the handset recalled twice and banned on U.S. flights.

To recover from the disaster, Samsung needed to create a smartphone that buried the still smoldering remains of the Note7’s memories. And that’s exactly what the South Korean tech giant has done with its new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

Available Friday, April 21 for $720 and $840, respectively, the 5.8-inch S8 and 6.2-inch S8 Plus are triumphs of design that make Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 7 and Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Pixel look like dinosaurs.

From its gorgeous all-screen design to its streamlined interface and high-speed performance, the S8 and S8 Plus are the smartphones to beat.

Beautiful from front to back

Samsung has been experimenting with curved-edge smartphones since it debuted the Galaxy Note Edge in 2015. The S8 and S8 Plus are the culmination of those efforts and prove the concept was well worth perfecting.

The company’s Infinity Display wraps around the S8’s left and right sides and nearly touches its top and bottom edges. The result is a phone that looks like it’s one giant screen.

Samsung has moved the S8’s fingerprint reader to its rear panel. Right next to the phone’s camera, which was not a perfect choice.

A consequence of this design is that Samsung had to move the S8’s fingerprint reader to the phone’s rear panel. Google and LG took similar approaches with the Pixel and LG G6, but Samsung’s reader is just a hair too small, which can make it hard to find at first.

Samsung also added facial scanning and iris recognition technology to the S8 and S8 Plus. Under the right lighting the features work well. But if you’re in a darker space or have a bright light shining in the camera’s direction those features will have a difficult time reading your face or eyes.

To infinity … display

Samsung is known for producing brilliant displays. But the company has outdone itself with the S8 and S8 Plus’ Super AMOLED screens. Colors are bright and vibrant, and blacks look endlessly deep.

Next to the S8, the iPhone 7’s LED Retina HD display looks downright dull. The Pixel XL’s display, meanwhile, is colorful, but not nearly as bright as the S8.

The Galaxy S8’s display is the best of any smartphone screen.

The S8 and S8 Plus are also HDR (high dynamic range) capable, which means they can display a wider array of colors when viewing HDR compatible content. There still aren’t many shows or movies available that are HDR capable, though several Netflix (NFLX) originals, including “Daredevil” and “Luke Cage,” support the format.

A camera repeat

A fancy new camera is a huge selling point for a smartphone. But Samsung surprisingly decided to use the same camera from last year’s Galaxy S7 in the S8 and S8 Plus. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the S7’s camera was an absolutely knockout. In fact, Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus was the only smartphone with a better camera thanks to its dual-lens optical zoom.

The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus capture impressive photos, like this flower, but can’t match the iPhone 7 Plus’ duel-lens optical zoom.

And that’s the same case with the S8’s shooter. Images look sharp and colors are crisp and blend nicely; low-light shots are clear when taken without the flash. Samsung says it worked on its camera software to improve night shooting, while the iPhone 7 Plus and Pixel struggle with artifacts.

But when it comes to zooming in on subjects, which is notoriously difficult for smartphones, the iPhone 7 Plus is still king.

Bixby says, “Hello” … sort of

Samsung’s new Bixby intelligent voice assistant is supposed to be the S8’s ace in the hole. Unfortunately, the voice part won’t work for U.S. consumers at launch.

Bixby is Samsung’s big play at taking on Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Assistant. Like Siri and Google Assistant, you can communicate with Bixby via voice commands — eventually — to ask questions like “Will it rain today?” or “Who played Frodo in ‘The Lord of the Rings’?”

The app, which is accessible via a dedicated button on the S8’s left side, also lets you manage virtually every part of the S8 via your voice. According to Samsung, everything you can manipulate with your fingers can also be accessed using your voice; that should prove incredibly helpful for visually impaired users.

Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant.

The app’s Bixby Vision feature uses the S8’s camera to scan objects and provide you with Amazon (AMZN) links to purchase them, or give you information about them. Scan a can of soda or a book, for example, and Bixby Vision will provide you with links to buy them via Amazon. It’s basically the same feature found in Amazon’s Android app.

You can also use Bixby Vision to scan a business card and instantly import its owner’s contact information to the S8’s Contact’s app. And if you’re looking for the perfect meal for your bottle of wine, you can scan the bottle with Bixby and the app will tell you whether to go with beef or fish.

Bixby Home serves as the app’s main hub, and lets you browse items ranging from the news and weather to your daily activity progress in Samsung’s S Health app and upcoming reminders. You can also see what’s trending on Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) and control your Spotify player.

It doesn’t feel exactly new, though, as Google’s Google Now and Apple’s iOS Today View offer similar functionality.

Power and performance

The S8 includes a powerful 8-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Unlike the iPhone and Google’s Pixel, the S8’s storage can be increased via its microSD card slot.

The S8 has to be so powerful because it’s designed to be used with Samsung’s new Dex desktop computer dock.

A hockey puck-shaped device, the Dex lets you attach your S8 or S8 Plus to a computer monitor, mouse and keyboard and use it like a regular computer. Samsung has also designed its apps so that you can resize and move them to your liking when in desktop mode just like Windows and macOS apps. You’ll also be able to run Windows 10 on the S8 via a virtual machine app.

The S8 and S8 Plus will eventually work as desktop-style computers.

Unfortunately, there’s no word on when Dex will be available for purchase.

The S8 and S8 Plus come equipped with 3,000-mAh and 3,500-mAh batteries, respectively. That’s good enough to get you through your workday and more. Of course, when your handset does die, you can always plug it into its fast charger to get it up and running quickly.

Should you get them?

The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are the most beautiful smartphones I’ve ever used. Their gorgeous displays make them look downright futuristic, and their cameras are top-notch even if they are from last year. The handsets’ powerful processors and batteries are icing on the cake.

And while I’m not quite sold on whether Bixby is necessary, I might have a change of heart when Bixby Voice comes online in the U.S.

For now, Samsung’s S8 and S8 Plus are my picks for the best smartphones around. Apple and Google are officially on notice.

More from Dan:

The best ways to stream live TV without cable

I drove the electric Chevy Bolt all weekend and only freaked out once

Windows 10 Creators Update: Microsoft’s best just got better

T-Mobile is making it harder for scammers to call you

The 8 features we want in the iPhone 8

How to avoid falling for email scams

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.

[rjplattwritings]

A Fresh Work

In Luke 8:26-36 is the account of Jesus casting demons out of a man that had been tormented by demons for some time. This man would be placed in shackles and cages but he kept escaping and the demons would cause him to run to the desert where surely he would die. When Jesus passed through, He saw the man and cast the demons into a flock of pigs nearby. The man who was delivered from posession, sat at Jesus' feet and when the town heard of the commotion, they came to see for themselves. Seeing the man healed, they became afraid and asked Jesus to leave Garasenes.

Jesus left Garasenes immediately. Not because He was intimidated or lets himself be pushed around by people, but because Jesus will not impose himself where he is not welcome.

When Jesus returned to Galilee in verse 40 it says there were people to greet him and they were excited to have him back. In fact, there were needs waiting on him when he returned; in the very next verse (41) a man approached Jesus about his daughter's death and a few verses later a woman with chronic bleeding touches his garment for healing.

My heart was broken when Auburndale campus closed. For the weeks and months following, I felt so lost. I kept asking God "what now? What am I supposed to do? If I get involved at Lakeland campus, and then Auburndale opens again, I'll have to face the pain of leaving...again! Should I serve? Should I get plugged in only to be "unplugged" and lost again?" I wept, I floundered, I prayed.

I kept hearing about needs in the student ministry. How they needed table leaders and for loving adults to pour into middle school students. As I was putting on my make up the morning of Summit, I prayed "Lord, what should I do?" Very clearly the Lord said to me "You need to pretend like Auburndale will never open again and move on." Wow. You're right. Yes, Lord. I went to Summit (training for new leaders) and even as I ate a carton of nachos and washed it down with coffee, I had NO idea what training room I wuold go to. We had worship time and then break out sessions began. I felt God leading me to the middle school room. I told God "I'll go check it out. I'm not committing anything tonight."

A half hour later I turned in a contract for one academic year to serve middle school girls. There was freedom to incorporate the arts and all my ideas were met with great ethusiasm and encouragement.

I walked out asking myself "what just happened?" But there was such a peace and I was SO excited about making God's Word more engaging for middle school students. All this training I had recieved in school felt like such a waste when opportunities at work fell through. But now there was fresh wind... a fresh work.

I hope you see the correlation between the story of Jesus and perhaps your own experience. No doubt Jesus felt rejected, hurt and unappreciated. I have friends who have experienced this pain and the wounds are still deep. There are people who have been rejected from their own churches and ministry roles because of hostility, pride, fear, and money. It's a devastating hit and after experiencing a much lesser blow than these- I understand the emotions and pain.

The Lord allowed me to walk this road to deepen my empathy, but also to make a plea. Please don't remain in the sarcophagus of past offenses. Grieve it, process it, pray through it, but don't stay there. For Jesus, the doors had closed on Garasenses, but hearts were open in Galilee. The same is true for your next assignment. The doors may be closed on something you were absolutely called to do and God was in it all the way. But friend, there is a fresh work to be done. Don't miss out on the adventure of new wind in your sails and a new purpose on your life. Each new chapter and each next step of your life is going to require a different you. This is growth. If a child doesn't grow past 3 feet tall or learn new words we would be concerned for that child and wonder what is wrong. There is something wrong in the life of a Christian if they do not grow and learn from their experiences. Make the choice to lay down your pain and RUN out of that grave...

[amazingviralinfo]

Despite having read the entirety of WebMD, we are not "pretty much a doctor now." Listening to six hours of celebrity YouTube rants does not make us an expert on vaccines. We watched Short Circuit 20 times, back-to-back, and yet our robot still can't do anything but beg for death. We like to believe we're experts in everything, but the Universe has a way of correcting us -- often in the grimmest manner possible.

5

A Man Claims Running Is Heart Attack Kryptonite, Dies Of A Heart Attack While Running

The next time you're trapped listening to your neighbor prattle on and on about how he's never been healthier and it's all thanks to his early morning jogs, be sure say a silent "Fuck you" to running guru Jim Fixx and his books The Complete Book Of Running and Jim Fixx's Second Book Of Running. Titles are hard. God help us, we know that all too well.

AP At this point, it's a running joke.

In the late '70s, Fixx was a severely overweight, middle-aged chain smoker whose only experience with running was when 7-Eleven announced a sale on Marlboros. Then Fixx became enamored with pathologist Tom Bassler's theory that "any nonsmoker who could run a marathon in under four hours would never die from a heart attack." Fixx dropped the Marlboros, ditto the weight, and picked up several pairs of disturbingly short shorts. The idea that running was the surest path to nigh-immortality may have originated with Tom Bassler, but Jim Fixx spread that shit to the world.

David Madison/Getty Images "I took the idea and ran with it."

And then Fixx literally ran himself to death.

As it turns out, the human body simply isn't built to handle a sudden switch from existing solely on smokes and hoagies to running daily marathons. And it sure didn't help that Fixx actively avoided going to the doctor for checkups, especially with a family history of heart problems. At the age of 52, Fixx keeled over on a Vermont back road while running. It's tragic, but at least it gives you a nice little anecdote to tell that neighbor.

4

A Quack "Doctor" Convinces Countless Victims That Fasting Cures All Ills, Dies While Fasting To Cure Herself

In the late 19th century, Linda Hazzard inhabited a comfy nook within the Washington state legal system. Thanks to a loophole grandfathering in those claiming to practice alternative medicine, she was both A) free to practice medicine despite her utter lack of a medical degree, and B) free from being prosecuted for malpractice while doing so. It's a circumstance any self-respecting sociopath would kill for, so Linda Hazzard did exactly that.

Pictured: Doctor Hazzard, inspiration for the DC villain of the same name.

Hazzard asserted that all illness -- and we do mean all, ranging from tuberculosis to a dropped uterus -- spawned from "impurities" built up in the digestive system. Thus, her prescribed treatment for every single patient was to check them in for a weeks-long fast. Once the patient had become sufficiently fashionable, she'd then proceed to the next stage of her treatment, which involved having them sign over their bank accounts for some reason, then enduring "massages" in which Hazzard would pummel them about the head and back with her fists while screaming "Eliminate! Eliminate!" Ah yes, Dalek therapy. Very soothing.

Thank God no one believes this stupid idea anymore.

Unsurprisingly, several patients died while in Hazzard's "care," and in 1912 she was convicted of manslaughter, for which she served two years in Washington State Penitentiary. After a brief stint in New Zealand following her release, Hazzard returned to her old stomping grounds, where she used her considerable proceeds to open up a "dream sanitarium" -- a place that locals nicknamed Starvation Heights. She continued prescribing enemas and face-punching right up until 1935, when tragedy(?) struck and Starvation Heights burned down.

Was she starving the fire extinguishers too?

Hazzard -- by then a fragile old lady -- finally and unfortunately believed her own bullshit. In 1938, she commenced a fast of her own. And get this: It totally worked! After all, "dead" is technically no longer "sick."

3

A Promising College Senior Rebels Against Seat Belt Laws, Dies Tragically Because He Refused To Wear His Fucking Seat Belt

21-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln senior Derek Kieper, like all 21-year-olds, thought he was all but invincible and knew everything there was to know. This is not a happy story. In particular, Derek was all riled up about the tyranny imposed upon everyday Americans in the form of seat belt laws. In a September 2004 Daily Nebraskan editorial, Derek railed against this injustice, declaring that "It is my choice what type of safety precautions I take" and that "There seems to be a die-hard group of non-wearers out there who simply do not wish to buckle up no matter what the government does. I belong to this group."

And like every college newspaper opinion piece, it of course changed the world.

In January of 2005, Derek was a passenger in his friend's Ford Explorer when it skidded off of icy Interstate 80. Driver Luke Havermann and front-seat passenger Nick Uphoff emerged from the battered SUV relatively unscathed. Derek -- the only passenger in the vehicle who chose to eschew his seat belt in favor of sticking it to The Man -- was tossed clean out of the unjust steel cage that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration built for him.

Live free then die.

In memorializing the five-major UNL senior (history, psychology, economics, sociology, and political science, in case you were wondering), Daily Nebraskan opinion page editor Erica Rogers said that Derek's "brains and intensity would be missed" -- a statement that, in light of the circumstances, probably could have been worded better.

2

Wesley Snipes Doesn't Believe In Paying Taxes, Goes Straight To Jail (Because You Have To Pay Taxes)

When Founding Father Benjamin Franklin said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes," he probably didn't mean it as a challenge. Yet between 1999 and 2004, everyone's favorite Daywalker took it as precisely that. Wesley Snipes -- who, during that period, appeared in more than six movies and took in $38 million as a result -- failed to pay so much as a single penny in taxes.

He evaded the authorities by keeping a low profile.

Snipes cited the well-known (well-known to be complete horseshit, anyway) 861 argument. It's a movement in which tax protesters point to the wording of Internal Revenue Code Section 861, which states that "compensation for services" is taxable, and interpret it to mean that wages ... aren't ... compensation for services? Look, we don't get it either, but it probably makes a hell of a lot more sense if you also believe in chemtrails.

Gotta read the stuff that comes after that "if" part, man.

It's likely that Snipes's anti-tax stance came about as a result of his association with the Nuwaubians, a quasi-religious sect of black Americans who promote anti-government theories. Considering the timing, his refusal to pay may have even been in retaliation for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms rejecting his application to set up a military training compound on the Nuwaubians' land and- holy shit, Wesley Snipes. Holy shit.

A government that doesn't support black power UFO militias is not a government worth funding.

Of course, taxes don't cease to exist because one stops believing in them (that's fairies -- you were thinking of fairies, Passenger 57), and Snipes was convicted of three counts of willful failure to file income taxes. After two years of thoroughly failed appeals, he eventually reported for his three-year stay in a four-star federal prison. We hate to say "We told you so," so we'll just say "Exactamundo."

1

People Exploit Deadly Diseases For Profit, Succumb To Said Deadly Diseases

After being diagnosed with HIV in 1992, Christine Maggiore became a highly vocal skeptic of AIDS research. Which is understandable when y-

Wait, what? Against?

Fact: A large percentage of subjects involved in AIDS research end up infected and dead.

It started with UC Berkeley biology professor Peter Duesberg, who shared with her his theory that AIDS symptoms were caused by "recreational drug use and malnutrition." After doing some "research" of her own, Maggiore decided that HIV did not in fact cause AIDS. She sold books, presented lectures, denounced safe sex, counseled pregnant women against using drugs to prevent the transmission of the virus to their babies, and apparently developed a religious aversion to common motherfucking sense. Worst of all, she had two babies and breastfed them, claiming that when her three-year-old daughter died of AIDS complications, it was really nothing but allergies. Needless to say, Maggiore would later go on to die from those same allergies.

"DAMN YOU, GLUTEN!"

But where Maggiore leveraged complete medical ignorance into a book tour, Hulda Clark turned that shit into big business. She claimed that every disease, from AIDS to advanced cancer, was caused by parasites within the body, and that these parasites could be vanquished through the use of a "zapper" -- a device less like the Ghostbusters proton pack and more like a cash vacuum. When Clark herself came down with multiple myeloma, it became clear that her trilogy of medical books -- The Cure For All Cancers, The Cure For All Diseases, and The Cure For All Advanced Cancers -- belonged in the fiction section after all.

The zapper still sells for $800.

Then there's infamous 1950s Texas evangelist Jack Coe, who renounced medical science altogether in favor of a good old-fashioned dose of God's love. Two days after being declared cured at one of Coe's faith-healing rallies (which basically consisted of Coe yelling the sick out of people), three-year-old polio sufferer George Clark was rushed to the hospital when his (obviously still polio-stricken) legs swelled dangerously. No sooner was Coe jailed and brought up on felony charges of practicing medicine without a license than said charges were dropped because, let's face it, Coe never technically practiced medicine a day in his life.

Probably feeling like the good Lord was on his side, the renowned healer waltzed out of the courtroom and was damn near immediately stricken with polio -- thereby proving that while he may have been a flailing asshole, he wasn't entirely wrong about the power of God.

For more proof that humanity is standing on the edge of both being great and being extinct, check out 6 People Who Died In Order To Prove A (Stupid) Point and 5 Ridiculous Ancient Beliefs (That Thrive on the Internet).

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