#and the destruction of the very planet they have annihilated themselves merely parts around them

[akkivee]

hitoya’s the kind of drunk that does stupid shit when he hits his threshold, like feeling upstaged by jakurai playing piano so he plays drums with tableware lmao but he also has no recollection of getting that faded, like that one time he apparently woke up in a ditch and covered in mud after a night out but deadass didn’t remember how he got there so by all means, he and jakurai are the exact same drunk, it’s just that jakurai has a shit threshold so he gets drunk faster than hitoya but if hitoya were to ever get shitfaced first and jakurai somehow drank something shortly after hitoya hit that point i’m pretty sure whatever city they’re drinking will simply cease to exist due to their combined forces of—

[zombiescantfly]

Halo and the Burden of the Extended Universe

Halo, as in the initial trilogy of games one through three, has been about one man, known only by his rank, traveling to exotic alien superstructures hanging in deep space, traversing their surfaces on foot and in a variety of human and alien military vehicles, and mowing down literally hundreds of enemies per level. Throughout that trilogy, we’re supposed to believe that these aliens, the Covenant, pose a great risk to all of humanity. We’re told, by way of the instruction manuals and some NPC chatter, that these aliens have pushed our own species, at the time a massive space-faring empire, back to the singular planet of our birth. 

In all three games, we just barely make our way to the latest superstructure, clawing our way there against what's said to be insurmountable odds. We're constantly told that we're low on resources, low on time, we barely have a foot in the door while the Covenant have already made their bed. And yet, every single game, we win. Effortlessly. Constantly. 

And not only do we win, but we prevent the total annihilation of all life in the universe no less than once per game, sometimes more! Untold hordes of enemies fall at our controller-wielding fingertips, but somehow we're meant to accept that this one is our last chance, for real, we swear. Still, problems come and go at the whim of an inattentive scriptwriter, built up to be the most important thing we've ever seen, left perfectly resolved at the end of a 20-minute level.

In every game, the goalposts are constantly shifting, pushed further and further back by writers who realize, sweat on their brows, that they've started with the destruction of all life in the universe and have to somehow amp it up from there. For three games.

To put it mildly, they are not successful.

What do we have to be afraid of? Not the Covenant, because even the worst weapons we have available to us can tear them apart. All life on Earth, the last bastion of our species, is put at risk a full three times over the course of two games, and every single time we, as the protagonist, turn our back on the problem and are promised it will be solved when we aren't looking. If the Halo rings are fired, all life in the universe dies! Except when it was fired in Halo 2 and only sent a standby signal before being deactivated. Except when it was fired in Halo 3 using a never-before-heard-of "tactical pulse" that is at perfect odds with everything it was stated to do in all three games. 

There's no threat that sticks, no threat that matters. Everything the games have told us to be afraid of are continuously revealed to be utterly inconsequential. Even the moment-to-moment threats become routine, the moment-to-moment losses, unnoticeable. How many times have you gathered a squad of friendly Marines only to lose them all in the next gunfight? Well, don't worry, here comes a Pelican with four new ones, no questions asked. Yes, we're running low on fuel and men and supplies, but here you go Chief, you're special.

But why are we special? Who is The Master Chief? We know some things, but not a lot. We're a supersoldier, a Spartan. We have a ship's AI in our head who tells us what LZs to clear and does all the talking for us. Across three games, approximately thirty hours of gameplay, our main character has a mere sixty-eight lines of dialogue, and most of it doesn't pass the five word mark. Cortana, in comparison, has nearly six hundred spoken lines. Our hero is characterized only by lines like "boo," "green, sir," "I need a weapon," "understood," and "we'll make it."

Truly, a fascinating and deep character to go down in the annals of gaming history. A man brimming with all the personality of a cardboard box, all the empathy of a brick, and all the motives of a potted plant.

And yet, every Halo fan out there will tell you how cool he is, how haunted by his past he is, how deeply he feels the loss of his comrades, and how much he cares for his tiny blue Garmin. 

Why? We played the same games, right? With all the same plot holes and haphazardly shifting priorities, the miniscule cast of named characters that never do anything to extend past their paint-by-numbers archetype? What are they getting out this that I haven’t?

Well, they read the books.

To them, Halo has an excuse. There aren't any plot holes, none at all, because you can just read this piece of licensed fiction to plug it. Are you still uncertain, well over a decade after the fact, just how much time passed between Halo 2 and 3? There's a graphic novel to answer that for you. What about the Arbiter, why didn't he stick around to try to form a proper treaty with humanity after the end of Halo 3? Read the book to find out. Okay then, the Flood invasion of Earth, how'd that get cleaned up so fast? Don't worry, watch the animated short.

This isn't how storytelling works. 

You don't get to present a player of your game, a buyer of your product, with one third of a story and then tell them the rest exists as multiple books. You don't get to ignore key plot points that would bring your story together just so they can be sold off years later in a different medium.

External media, should your property have it, should be to expand on things the primary property has no room for. Hinted-at background events. Formative character experiences. Something tangentially related that still ties in to the main story. If it's really that important, tell your writers to make room for it in the main product. 

Halo has the room for it. Each game will probably take a first-time player around ten hours for a first playthrough, and far less time on subsequent runs. These games are short, but they attempt to tell a story many times larger than they make room for. So make more room. End the focus on getting players in and out in a single weekend sitting. Let your characters talk to each other beyond exchanging stiff one-liners in cutscenes. Stop making every level a bombastic, breakneck setpiece and give the story room to breathe, to actually be told. If it’s the end of the universe we’re dealing with, surely you can spare us more than nine measly levels? Let us actually see the larger situation rather than being told about it. Do you really think Halo fans would complain about a campaign taking fifteen to twenty hours to beat? They love Halo, they want to spend time with it. Capitalize on that, and take the opportunity to finally, actually tell a story with all the parts in it instead of just a third.

Which brings us, finally, to Halo: Reach.

Certain Halo fans, largely the same group of them that defend the poor storytelling because “it’s in the books,” have a reaction to Halo: Reach that can best be described as ‘vitriolic.’ They don’t like it. Why?

Because it’s not like the book. 

You see, while Halo: Reach came out in 2010, a book by the name of Halo: The Fall of Reach came out some months before the first Halo game in 2001. They are both about the same event, but with quite major differences. This caused quite a lot of contention at the time of Reach’s release, mainly from the part of the fanbase that believed they were going to get a one-to-one retelling of this book in videogame form. 

They didn’t get that. Halo: Reach is an original story that tells the tale of a world’s final hours and one team of elite supersoldiers as they attempt to do anything they can to help delay the inevitable end. It’s not the most compelling story ever written, or even the most compelling version of that story ever told, but it’s effective. Even though we’re dealing with the imminent destruction of an entire planet, the story manages to stay small. Reach’s ultimate destruction is a common piece of wall graffiti or NPC combat barks, so the ending is known, leaving room for smaller objectives to take the spotlight. Rescue civilians trapped behind enemy lines. Delay an invasion force to buy evacuation efforts another hour. Clear the skies so supplies and medivac can go out. 

Halo: Reach has almost no connection to the series at large, and it’s quite the breath of fresh air. As a prequel, its ending is a forgone conclusion, but it does what it can with the time it has. The messy, convoluted politics of Halo 2 and 3 are far in the series’ chronological future, letting you fight two enemy factions at once for the first time in the series, away from the plot point that sees them at war with each other. The end of the universe isn’t constantly being dangled over our heads for the third time in as many games, so the characters have a chance to sit down and swap banter, tell us who they are. They aren’t anyone too terribly compelling - Bungie still hadn’t quite figured out character writing - but they’re tested archetypes played well enough for the story’s demands. The threat is known and static, the stakes grow higher by way of the ticking clock drawing us ever closer to the planet’s inevitable end. There’s no faffing around with “trading one villain for another” because killing the first one would have ended the story too quickly, so a new one has to show up with no lead-in. 

Even at the very end of that original trilogy, Halo’s story was too big for the time Bungie gave it. Its own plot points were shoving at each other, jockeying for position, knocking parts off themselves in an effort to fit into nine half-hour levels until all that was left were fractions of what you’d need to find in the books afterward.

Reach suffers from its own short length, but not in the same way. It suffers in that you can point to the characters and they say needed more setup, more time with each other, maybe another level or two here or there to really draw the relationship out. It suffers by pushing a little too hard at the “imminent end” angle, hurrying you through and skipping over hours of in-world time that probably could have been their own level.

But surely even the superfans saw that this was preferable? That a standalone story was the best way to go about things? Surely they understood that attempting to simply recreate the book would have ended with them not seeing any of what Bungie came up with for this new game? There’s a lot to like about Halo: Reach, and a lot to do in it that you can’t do in any of the other games. Surely even the most fervent defenders of the extended canon ended up coming around and being able to separate the two for what they both were on their own.

Of course, that’s not what happened. See again, ‘vitriolic.’ And so here we are at the question this whole thing has been building up to. When a company leans as hard into external supplemental media as Bungie did for Halo, is it then obligated to play by the rules and plot points outlined in those external entities? It’s a tricky question, mostly because up until that point, Bungie had gone ahead as if every book and animated short and comic and webisode was one hundred percent canonical. The reason superfans tolerated those gaping plot holes in the games is, again, because they weren’t holes at all when paired with their companion media. So now, in the far-past year of 2010, Bungie has suddenly decided that one of those sacred tomes of external knowledge is incorrect. 

I think the easiest answer would have simply been to...tell the proper amount of story in the first place, but I guess it’s a little too late for that, especially now. 

So what, then, is the obligation put forward by such a slavish devotion to external storytelling? Were they wrong to do something different? Were they right to forge ahead with something new for the benefit of freeing players who had never read that book and any other related to it from the web of multi-author canon? 

I’d say they made the right move. Let’s talk about Star Wars.

Star Wars and Halo share many a talking point, the most obvious of which is just the sheer amount of additional stories they have stapled to them. Great news for fans who are into it, but terrible news for the actual IP holders. All they do is get in the way when the primary vehicle wants to expand. Disney felt it more than Bungie ever did, but Bungie felt it first: cut away the myriad stories clogging up the canon or you’ll never make anyone happy. Try to appease the superfans and get burned by not touching on every single node of criss-crossing plot webs that is the result of decades of overlapping stories by as many authors, while alienating newcomers by being forced to pay lip service to concepts and characters they’ve never heard of and have no attachment to. 

Disney made the right call, and so did Bungie with Reach. What came next in Disney’s case isn’t relevant, and Bungie washed their hands of Halo entirely afterwards. 

If your story cannot survive without the propping-up of half a dozen pieces of external media, you have failed to tell a good story. If your answer to questions about this story is to tell the asker to read a book, you have failed to tell a good story. I understand the appeal of that expansion, of being able to have a celebrated setting grow and reach new places, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the setup. The world has to exist before it can be expanded upon. The story needs to be in place for its offshoots to grow. And that’s what Halo fails at, so totally and repeatedly. Bungie was too excited by the prospect of having an extended universe that they forgot to make a universe to expand upon. As a result, the actual core universe exists smeared across half a dozen mediums and dozens of individual pieces, with no true convergence point someone can present a newcomer with and say, “Start here.”

The Halo games are a patchwork mess of uninspired characters, unexplored concepts, unknown stakes, and uninteresting locales. Because they rely so heavily on their companion media to fill in those blanks, there’s nothing there to entice a first-time player to do it themselves. If a character’s inspiration comes from one book, the exploration of a concept comes from another, the weight of the stakes is told through an animatic, and the otherworldly locales are shown in all their glory only in the pages of a comic book, what is the game even for? If everything you need to know about the Master Chief, the Covenant, the war, and the Halos isn’t in the games, what’s the point of them? What do Halo 1, 2, and 3 actually stand to add to a universe seemingly defined elsewhere?

They become wastes of time. Wastes of potential. Other people - artists and authors working under contract for Bungie, not Bungie themselves - did all the heavy lifting to create these worlds and these characters. Does Bungie even know who their own characters are? Could the original writer for Halo 1 tell me everything the Master Chief has become through the works of a dozen other authors over the course of twenty years? 

The books might be good. I wouldn’t know; the games didn’t inspire me to read them.

[m-602]

Within the Flames

((Look... I’mma apologize. I promised a story like... almost a month ago. A little less a little more. Then I got distracted... Then I got lazy... And it just kinda... went downhill from there.))

((This changed a lot between when I first started this to now. The nature of M’s “insane state” turned into its own effing character - I loved it. There’s also the fact the M’s default appearance changed (a lot happened in Discord >.>). @astel4 decided to make a drawing of it!))

((I’m not sure what I’m going to write after this, but... I’ll figure it out. I’ll probably wait until Thanksgiving Break in a few weeks before I do, though.))

((Warning. Death, Gore, Violence, and extremely verbose writing await you. I... kind of went overboard with all the descriptive words and such. ^-^;))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Death claims everything that lives, be it at the apex of one’s journey or before it even begins. Nothing truly lasts forever. At some point or another, everything must end…

…

So what about when it doesn’t end. When something finite becomes infinite at its most pivotal moment. Where even though it reached its finale, an ongoing encore drags the faded tale further beyond. 

At this point, the story simply… is. It no longer serves meaning beyond what the protagonist decides. They trudge on through the universe - what is normally a one-shot story becomes a novel where the second chapter never ends. The pain, the joy, the woes, the celebrations, the sorrows - they pile on and on, never weighing them down, and yet draining them all the same.

Some can handle this ever increasing strain on their being. They become protectors, mediators, and teammates. The best of your friends and family despite their status. They grow wiser and wiser with every new step they take, eventually coming to terms with their fate.

And yet, their lives are not lacking in pain and strife. The ever increasing pile that their afterlives grant them affects them still, even if they manage it well. It’s sometimes obvious in subtle behaviors or reactions. But sometimes… it becomes so much that they burst in unimaginable ways.

In the case of one, their rage leaves nothing but fire.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ???, M

Them.

He thought they were gone. That they had perished along with everything they destroyed. They hurt so many, and for what reason? Paranoia. Half the towns and cities that they had ruined didn’t even pose a threat to them… It’s almost like they wanted to wipe them all out for no reason.

They were still here in this dead world. In this world that they killed. That they destroyed with little concern or conscience. How they could possibly believe they deserve to have this world for themselves baffles and beguiles him. Was it truly possible that they wanted the whole world to themselves? Was living alongside others outside of their own nation really such an impossibility?!

He still remembers all the destruction they wrought. He occasionally hears the screams of his loved ones and family, both in the waking world and the realm of slumber. Even his own powers bring reminder of the loss he’s felt.

His barriers… a representation of his futile desire to protect everyone, and the only power he could call his. The magic that would’ve developed naturally, now warped and strengthened by Death itself. His flames… a representation of the ruin he’s bore witness to. A representation of the spark of life that should’ve been extinguished - persistently, it has only blazed forth an endless path with a renewed, infinite robust. His chains… a representation of the pain he keeps within. The binding emotions that he has weaponized… His very scythe… a memento of his own demise...

These thoughts are only fuel for the raging blaze. His temper only seems to grow more and more uncontrollable as he continues forward. Towards the very people he’d have no problem torturing. The only people he would liberally shatter and tear. The only people he would grant the ultimate end, leaving nothing but their ashes.

* They’ll pay… They’ll all pay! None of them will escape!

Everything that’s happened to him. Everything he’s lost. Every problem that he’s had to deal with. Every one of his greatest sorrows. His own death!

It was all their fault.

And from the seeds of sorrow they’ve woven blooms their fiery penance. The flames of judgement that will turn upon them the pain they’ve inflicted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AoC HQ, Commander Able

For the first time in all these years, they had detected something other than one of their own. Something that shouldn’t be here. This world was theirs alone, they made sure of that decades ago! If there was someone else here, they needed to be swiftly executed!

After weeks of careful study, deliberation, and reconnaissance, they’ve finally determined their unwanted loiterers… A literally dead town. No joke! It was crawling with remnants of lives they had thought extinguished. What a revelation… And a truly embittering one considering that this world was theirs.

Not even the dead from other towns can have it. They won’t have such impure presences walk around their world - their property. This wasn’t a planet for them to share! They worked diligently to ensure this world was theirs and theirs alone. They won’t let it be all for naught.

As the Agents of Creation, and the ones designated as the world’s only residents, they wouldn’t let such trespassing go unpunished.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outside the AoC HQ, M?

There they were. After all these years, the ones who were responsible for everything - the destruction of his home, the destruction of his world, the deaths of his friends, the deaths of his family, his own death - there they were, safe and sound in their little base.

“Agents of Creation”? HA! They think life itself granted them the “okay” to tear this world and its people apart. To keep it all to themselves?! It’s a notion so ridiculous and audacious that it makes him laugh.

And laugh.

And laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh...

…

The skies darken. Dark blue flames begin to encroach upon the base. The lights within even flicker under the overwhelming power. You could practically see the world distort and waver. The sound of chains could be heard somewhere off base.

A mighty cloak to symbolize the coming disaster… A nobler crown to symbolize HIS reign… 

[FOR ONCE… WE ARE IN AGREEMENT… LET US TEAR THEM APART… THIS WORLD IS OURS TO RULE…]

The laughter was absolutely deafening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Entrance, THEM

They thought the power was faltering. That some kind of fuse was busted, or a connection line needed repair. If it weren’t for the… creepy, sinister laughter, that thought would have prevailed.

There was something… powerful outside. Its laughter seemed to echo from everywhere and anywhere. No matter what they did, the laughter invaded their senses, their minds, driving them to fear.

A surveillance camera caught a glimpse of dark blue flames encroaching upon the building before it just… gave out. They attempted to make contact with perimeter lookouts, only to be met with radio silence. Everyone flooded the entrance to the base, shaking weapons at the ready. Officers, generals, leaders, and other VIPs congregated in the center of the base. Being in the most well protected and guarded area of the complex would absolutely mean they were safe… right? Right?!

Thunder boomed from outside the building, a lightning bolt striking nearby. The wind seemed to scream at every soldier near the entrance, snapping at them with a primordial anger. The laughter seemed to grow… louder?

“Open the doors! We’ll ambush that thing!”

At the order, the massive metallic doors started to open slowly. Everyone trained their weapons on the entrance, unsure of what they’ll see when they open.

The last thing they expected was darkness to overtake the room. The last thing they expected was the sound of chains joining the echoing laugh. The last thing they expected was a dark blue fire to flood the room.

The last thing they expected was a terrifying shadow to literally tear someone into multiple small pieces, commenting only with a maniacal cackle…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AoC HQ, Ikearu

* Don’t get used to this… [HENCE WHY I’M GOING TO SAVOR EVERY MOMENT…]

There were few things the two personalities could agree on. They toil endlessly within the psyche, one trying to suppress the other and exert control. One simply wished for a peaceful existence, the other wished to drag others with them and govern their afterlives under an iron fist. Such conflicted causes could surely find naught to compromise upon. And yet, one thing they could…

Was the total annihilation of those who wronged this world. For differing reasons, that is certain, and yet here they were in total agreement.

One wished vengeance on these cretins that took away the world and forced him to wander for eternity; the other simply feels insulted at the insolence they express in his world. And that personality was now tearing the abominations in human form to shreds…

The first victim - who foolishly decided to inch himself towards the metal doors - was just a mere demonstration. Shredding him from the fingers down, letting the body parts coat the floor. His bloodied claws twitched imperceptive. He still had quite a lot of fun to be had with the rest of these fodder.

Though their piteous weaponry fired, not a single bullet made contact with the maniacal shadow. If they weren’t torn to bits by his claws, they were burned, electrocuted, crushed by chains. A dark flame would erupt from their cadavers, extinguishing any remnants of a spirit they had. Not even the chance to so much as arise as Fiends shall be sanctioned to them. A pitiful, empty existence as that is one even they aren’t worthy of.

Alarms would’ve blared if the facility wasn’t drowned in shadow. Good. The quiet suits him. Makes it easier for him to mess with his prey. It allows him to prey on their fears, their anxieties, before ending it all in the most painful of ways. To let them watch as their fellows are dragged off, incinerated, mutilated in front of them by a seemingly invisible opponent.

The base fell into total lock-down in an attempt to keep him - THE KING - in one place… An amusing gesture to think he could be stopped. Any doors in his way: busted open in a fiery blaze. A wall of lasers: short-circuited by a jolt of dark blue electricity. No matter the obstruction, he blasted through, leaving behind a crimson trail. As annoying as they may have been, they only made this more enjoyable to him. Sometimes, he would use the obstructions to mess with his prey further, making them believe themselves safe before reality comes to crush their dreams in the event of their demise.

The sound of rustling chains, thundering explosions, and psychopathic cackling echoed throughout the building, accompanied only by the screams of indolent soldiers. If they weren’t responsible for the death of a world - if they didn’t suffer from a lack of altruism - perhaps one could feel sympathy for them… Unlikely.

[A SHAME THEY MUST FADE INTO NOTHING - I’D HAVE NO PROBLEM RULING OVER THEIR SPIRITS AND SUBJECTING THEM TO TORTURE UNYEILDING…]

* Yet we’ve both agreed that they don’t even deserve that. To exist for even another second.

[I’VE NOT FORGOTTEN. I’M NO FOOL. IT WOULD BE INACCURATE TO SAY THAT I WOULDN’T BE TEMPTED TO DESTROY THEM ANYWAY.]

After perhaps an hour of constant carnage and massacre, he finds himself before a set of ornate, sealed doors. This is very clearly the most secure part of the base, and not a guard in sight. That’s to be expected - every other soldier in this place was dead. The building already began to crumble in a mighty conflagration. Even now, the flames rise behind him, ready to eat away at the cowards within.

He flashes a widening, sinister smile, his face looking like the creepiest jack o’ lantern to ever exist beneath his hood.

[AND NOW… THE FINALE…]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Central Control, Able

He couldn’t see what was going on outside, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t put two and two together. He could hear the screams, the fire, from they’re safe zone - they were quite difficult to ignore. He knew the main defense was nothing but cinders, now.

He and the remaining guard now eyed the only entrance to the room they were in, shaking with absolute subtlety. Everything they worked for was crashing down around them. Their allies outside now lay dead, murdered by the psycho outside. If they were going down, they wanted to go down with a fight… They already had a plan to kill this thing.

The temperature in the room steadily began to rise. It rose and rose and rose until it was nearly smoldering in the room. Everyone in the room started breaking out into a sweat as they were essentially being cooked alive… Very, very slowly cooked alive.

A footstep. Another. Very slow, meticulous footsteps could be heard from beyond the doors. The maniacal laughter was heard everywhere, but felt the loudest here. The thing that was tearing their base apart was right outside, biding its time…

…

In an instant, the doors blew open. Something was in the room, dashing straight for Able.

Only to be caught in some kind of colorless sphere.

Able could now get a good look at the beast.

It was… terrifying, to say the least. It was… almost completely shadow, with some kind of blue outline or aura defining its shape. Floating directly above its head was a crown, shaped like fire, that could probably fit perfectly on its head. It wore a dark blue cloak, adorned with various black designs similar to chains, with the hood sitting upon its head perfectly shadowing its face - you could only see slitted blue eyes and a jagged, sinister grin, as if its very mouth was made of extremely sharp teeth! The ends of it cloak separated and curled similar to flames, creating a unique, jagged design. The collar around its neck opened in to the front half of its body, bearing a similar jagged design.

The… thing just smiled at him. A menacing grin that chilled him to the bone, despite the searing flames outside. It stopped laughing at least…

He decided to talk to it. It was going to be obliterated anyways. Why not gloat a little?

“Well… aren’t you a nasty abomination? You sure caused us quite a bit of strife today. However, as much as you’ve destroyed, we can rebuild. After all, we are the designated rulers of this world - it would be a shame if we fell so easily. Besides, we can’t have something as atrocious as you running around causing trouble.”

A humming sound filled the room. The device would take but a few moments to charge, but soon enough, this thing would be nothing but dust.

“Any last words before you meet oblivion?”

The thing just… chuckled at him. It was a deep, dark chuckle that seemed to reverberate around the room.

“THAT IS MY LINE, YOU WORM. THIS WORLD IS MINE, AND MINE ALONE. YOUR LIFE IS BUT AN EMPTY EXISTENCE THAT NEED BE EXTINGUISHED.”

The thing’s voice echoed throughout the room, its words evoking fear into Abel’s heart. It… wasn’t even scared. Why wasn’t it scared?! It continued.

“YOU BELIEVE THIS WORLD YOUR OWN? HA! TO THINK YOU’D BE WORTHY OF A WORLD YOU’VE ROTTED SO IS PITIABLE INDEED… I’M THE RIGHTFUL OWNER OF THIS WORLD. YOU’VE DONE NAUGHT BUT RUIN IT FOR THE SAKE OF RUIN. I SHALL RULE THOSE YOU’VE DESTROYED WITH AN IRON FIST, UNTIL ALL OF LIFE HAS KNOWN PENANCE UNDER MY REIGN.”

“YOU SHALL BE THE FIRST TO BE PUNISHED FOR SUCH INSOLENCE.”

In one moment it was there… and the next, nothing. The maniacal laughter returned, stronger than ever. A guard on the right burned to a crisp. A guard on the left was dragged away by a haunting chain. Another torn apart. Another completely gutted… until that sinister face now stood right in front of Abel in a suddenly darkened room. The weapon from before simply… stopped.

“FAREWELL, WORM. YOU’RE VERY EXISTENCE IRRITATES ME.”

It grabbed him by the neck, holding him up against the screen behind him. He felt his consciousness, his vision, his hearing, his memories, his personality, and everything he knew fade slowly into darkness. The temperature in the room rose drastically, until dark blue flame coated the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling. The last thing Abel would know…

…was searing, blue fire.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nowhere Important, The Lich King

Death claims everything that lives. Nothing lasts forever…

For one person, it was a new beginning. The extension to his story he never asked for. With literally all the time in the world, he bore a similarly heavy weight. And now at his peak, that weight has been made manifest, though an echo had always been present… That same echo now granted his killers a contrasting demise.

For them, their journeys have reached a permanent end. No memory, no body, no will, no spirit that would anchor them to the mortal coil or grant them peace in the beyond. A true death, where they only know oblivion - a nothingness that transcends abysmal. And even then… no longer do they have a consciousness for oblivion to be known to.

The lich rises from the burning wreckage, admiring his work. With the deed done, he makes himself scarce… before launching a powerful fireball at the wreckage. With a massive ‘boom’, the wreckage ignites in a colossal, dark blue flame, easily reaching the height and size of a skyscraper. It burned and burned, never waning in strength - such a flame would never fade so long as this world remained intact.

Before returning to the dark recesses of his counterpart’s psyche, he flashes a menacing smile on his face, leaving his other half with a message.

[ONE DAY… THIS WILL BE PERMANENT… ONE DAY… A DEAL LIKE THIS WILL BE YOUR DOWNFALL… AND ON THAT DAY, I SHALL RISE A TRUE KING, AND MAKE THIS WORLD AND ALL OTHERS MY OWN… THIS FIRE… LET IT BE A REMINDER OF THE PUNISHMENT THAT AWAITS THE FOOLS WHO DEFY ME.]

And with that, the dark ego retreated to the deepest corners of the mind, saying not another word. The cloak vanished, and the crown upon his head went back to its usual size and position above his head. He sighed.

“I’m well aware, Ikearu… I’ve been aware ever since I’ve fought to keep you from getting out… So long as I exist…”

…

“I won’t let the undeserving suffer within your flames.”

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((Feel free to send me ideas if you want me to write a story. I rather enjoy A Hat in Time stories, and I may dabble in a Hollow Knight story. Just maybe...))

((I do hope you enjoyed. Please, if you’re going to leave criticisms, make sure it’s constructive and not just bland hate. I want to be able to improve on my writing.))

((Have a great day! And thank you for reading!))

[wisdomrays]

RESURRECTION and THE HEREAFTER: Part 13

Introduction

SIXTH TRUTH

The Gate of Splendour and Eternity,the Manifestation of the Names of Glorious and Eternal.

Is it at all possible that the splendour of dominicality that subdues and commands all beings, from suns and trees down to particles, just like obedient soldiers, should concentrate its entire attention on the wretched and transient beings that pass a temporary life in the hospice of this world, and not create an eternal and everlasting sphere of splendour, an unending manifestation of dominicality? The display of Divine splendour in the changing of the seasons, the sublime motions of the planets in the heavens as if they were aeroplanes, the subjugation of all things and the creation of the earth as man’s cradle and the sun as his lamp, vast transformations such as the reviving and adornment of the dead and dry globe - all of this shows that behind the veil a sublime dominicality exists, that a splendid monarchy is at work.

Now such a dominical kingdom requires subjects worthy of itself, as well as an appropriate mode of manifestation. But look at this hospice of the world, and you will see that the most significant class of its subjects, endowed with the most comprehensive of functions, are gathered together only temporarily and that, in the most wretched of states. The hospice fills and empties each day. All of the subjects stay only temporarily in this abode of trial for the sake of being tested in service. The abode itself changes each hour.

Again, all of the monarch’s subjects stay only for a few brief minutes in order to behold the samples of the precious bounty of the Glorious Maker, to look on His miraculous works of art in the exhibition of the world with the eye of a buyer. Then they disappear. The exhibition itself changes every minute. Whoever leaves it, never returns, and whoever comes to it, will ultimately depart.

Now this state and circumstance definitively shows that behind and beyond this hospice, this testing-ground, this exhibition, there are permanent palaces and eternal abodes that fully manifest and support God’s everlasting sovereignty; there are gardens and treasurehouses full of the pure and exalted originals of the forms and copies we see in this world. If we strive here in this world, it is for the sake of what awaits us there. We work here, and are rewarded there. Bliss awaits everyone there, in accordance with his capacity, as long as he does not squander his share. Yes, it is impossible that such eternal kingship should concentrate exclusively on these wretched transient beings.

Consider this truth through the telescope of the following comparison. You are travelling along a road. You see a caravanserai ahead of you on the road, built by a great personage for people coming to visit him. Millions are spent on the decoration of the caravanserai so that guests should enjoy their one night’s stay there, and for their instruction.

But the guests see very little of those decorations, look at them for a very short time; briefly tasting the joys of what is offered them, they go on their way without being satiated. But each guest takes a photograph of the objects in the caravanserai by means of his special camera. Also, the servants of that great personage record with great care the conduct of all the guests and preserve the record. You see, too, that he destroys every day most of the valuable decorations, and replaces them with fresh decorations for the newly arriving guests. After seeing all this, will any doubt remain that the personage who has constructed this caravanserai on the road has permanent and exalted dwellings, inexhaustible and precious treasures, an uninterrupted flow of great generosity? By means of the generosity displayed in the caravanserai, he intends merely to whet the appetite of his guests for those things he keeps in his immediate presence; to awaken their desire for the gifts he has prepared for them. So too, if you look upon the state of the hospice of this world without falling into drunkenness, you will understand the following nine principles:

• First Principle: You will understand that this world does not exist for its own sake, any more than does the caravanserai. It is impossible that it should assume this shape by itself. Rather, it is a well-constructed hospice, wisely designed to receive the caravan of beings that constantly arrive to alight before departing again.

• Second Principle: You will understand, too, that those living within this hospice are guests. They are invited by their Generous Sustainer to the Abode of Peace.

• Third Principle: You will understand, further, that the adornments of this world are not simply for the sake of enjoyment or admiration. For if they yield pleasure for a time, they cause pain for a longer time with their cessation. They give you a taste and whet your appetite, but never satiate you. For either the life of the pleasure is short, or your life is short, too brief for you to become satiated. These adornments of high value and brief duration must, then, be for the sake of instruction in wisdom, for arousing gratitude, and for encouraging men to seek out the perpetual originals of which they are copies. They are, then, for other exalted goals beyond themselves.

• Fourth Principle: You will understand also that the adornments of this world(1) are like samples and forms of the blessings stored up in Paradise by the mercy of the Compassionate One for the people of faith.

• Fifth Principle: You will understand, too, that all of these transient objects have not been created for the sake of annihilation, in order to appear briefly and then vanish.

The purpose for their creation is rather briefly to be assembled in existence and acquire the desired form, so that these may be noted, their images preserved, their meanings known, and their results recorded. This is so that, for example, everlasting spectacles might be wrought for the people of eternity, and that they might serve other purposes in the realm of eternity. You will understand that things have been created for eternity, not for annihilation; and as for apparent annihilation, it has the sense of a completion of duty and a release from service, for every transient thing advances to annihilation with one aspect, but remains eternally with numerous other aspects.

Look, for example, at the flower, a word of God’s power; for a short time it smiles and looks at us, and then hides behind the veil of annihilation. It departs just like a word leaving your mouth. But it does so entrusting thousands of its fellows to men’s ears. It leaves behind meanings in men’s minds as numerous as those minds. The flower, too, expressing its meaning and thus fulfilling its function, goes and departs. But it goes leaving its apparent form in the memory of everything that sees it, its inner essence in every seed. It is as if each memory and seed were a camera to record the adornment of the flower, or a means for its perpetuation.

If such be the case with an object at the simplest level of life, it can be readily understood how closely tied to eternity is man, the highest form of life and the possessor of an eternal soul. Again, from the fact that the laws -each resembling a spirit- according to which large flowering and fruit bearing plants are formed and the representations of their forms are preserved and perpetuated in most regular fashion in tiny seeds throughout tempestuous changes - from this fact it can be easily understood how closely tied and related to eternity is the spirit of man, which possesses an extremely exalted and comprehensive nature, and which although clothed in a body, is a conscious and luminous law issuing from the divine command.

• Sixth Principle: You will also understand that man has not been left to graze at will, with a halter loosely tied around his neck; on the contrary, the forms of all his deeds are recorded and registered, and the results of all his acts are preserved for the day when he shall be called to account.

• Seventh Principle: You will understand, further, that the destruction visited upon the beautiful creatures of summer and spring in the autumn is not for the sake of annihilation. Instead, it is a form of dismissal after the completion of service.

It is also a form of emptying in order to clear a space for the new creation that is to come in the following spring, of preparing the ground and making ready for the beings that are to come and assume their functions. Finally, it is a form of Divine warning to conscious beings to awake from the neglect that causes them to forget their duties, from the drunken torpor that causes them to forget their obligation of offering thanks. • Eighth Principle: You will understand this, too, that the eternal Maker of this transient world has another, everlasting world; it is to this that He urges and impels His servants. • Ninth Principle: You will understand, also, that so Compassionate a Being will bestow upon His choice servants in that world such gifts as no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, nor has their image crossed the heart of any man. In this we believe.

[the-archetype-of-civilization]

THIS IS ALL OPINION, YOU DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT.

ALSO, SPOILERS FOR MANY THINGS AHEAD.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I think there are many reasons why people love villains so much.  Some because they identify their problems with themselves, or understand their motives to a reasonable extent.  Some because they just enjoy a good villain with evil intent to ruin the order set in a universe.  But one thing brings almost all of it together that solidifies both arguments for a villain that needs to be explored and understood more in order for villains to truly feel like villains and inspire the fear that they create: proof, a show of strength.

There are many different villains I could describe that fit the bill to each parts of what makes a good villain.  One that I believe many reasonably understand and agree with in terms of villainy is the MCU character Killmonger, a tragic character forced to live under the weight of being orphaned by the very people he was born into, and realizing the true extent of the racism bred all around the world.  Though, in my opinion, his actions were underwhelming in terms of the fear he wanted to create.  While he did display his strength in defeating T’Challa single-handedly and almost created a genocidal raid across the globe, there wasn’t enough screen time with him to truly show just how much of an imposing threat he was (killing civilians does not count, it’s an easy way out for them).  A menace requires fear instilled from consequence.  If you build up a villain to do something monumental and with tons of repercussions and stop it at the last minute where everything is peachy keen, his imposing-ness is null despite any of the speeches he (convincingly) makes.  Ultron is a villain I think that I think is in a similar vein, but very close to being a true villain in my eyes because the dude was literally about to destroy Earth with a hand-made meteor and that was a sight to behold.  But, despite having a charming(?) personality for a robot that’s supposed to display overblown (not subtle or underwhelming) cynical, nihilistic, and misanthropic tendencies (and yes, that is a very big gripe of mine as a fan of Ultron from the comics!), Ultron didn’t do much in his time to show how villainous he was aside from killing off Quicksilver (which wasn’t much of an impact considering that it was his first time appearing on the main screen and was killed off right then and there.  It’s more of a shock for the movie industry than it is in terms of story).  Also, that movie design was absolutely hideous!  His robot army design was perfect, but his main design completely goes against who he is!  He’s not supposed to look more human, he’s supposed to be a robot that hates humans!  He shouldn’t look like them with fucking teeth and pupils!

Those last two were hard to find at the top of my head, but for these villains it’s pretty easy to find.  There are plenty of villains that can create monumental and horrifying destruction, but still be underwhelming in terms of personality.  While they don’t have to necessarily be agreeable or even have understandable motives, personality is what drives the character across.  The standard “I’m evil because I’m evil” could work as long as they have the flair for it.  Darth Vader fits the mark as a terrifying villain with a “evil” personality but gets away with it by being a tragic character in his own right.  Exdeath from Final Fantasy V I believe fits this bill rather well considering the amount of destruction he causes in the world, but has an underwhelming personality of “I WANT TO DESTROY EVERYTHING BECAUSE I’M EVIL,” even thought he’s my personal favorite FF villain.  But sometimes it’s okay to have a standard villain of being evil for the sake of being evil if the actions that they do are monumental to the plot.  But, this is just a personal opinion of mine.  Kefka and Sephiroth can be argued to be great FF villains, creating mass chaos and killing important characters with evil intent and ruthless personalities.

And then, there are ones that do absolutely neither.  Snoke, having an underwhelming personality and no threats to show for it (the Starkiller base represents the First Order, not Snoke himself personally).  This, unfortunately, goes the same way for the Night King in Game of Thrones.  An interesting and fearsome character and exudes fear from his mere appearance, shows little to nothing about how fearsome he is.  Despite being the brains for the White Walkers, he himself doesn’t do anything monumental or show the personal fear that he himself could instill regardless of his army.  A villain is only imposing by himself when there’s no one to help him.  If he can get the job done himself, he’s sure to be feared.  The Night King hasn’t succeeded in that.  Despite him making an attack at Hardhome, killing one dragon and weaponizing it on the Wall and at Winterfell (briefly, I should say), he doesn’t show anything that he can personally do that would create fear when it’s just him and with no army.  Other than raising people from the dead, we haven’t even seen him fight anyone!  Nothing that shows how he can personally hold his own in a fight.  And I’m sure some can argue that maybe he doesn’t care or need it, but why focus on him at all then?  Why go through the effort to make us fear the White Walkers (a foe that EVERYONE fears) and find the leader that gets killed so quickly and so easily without even making people suffer the consequences of crossing him?  The Golden Company was something far worse, however!  A so-called “fearsome” sell-sword faction completely annihilated in one episode of their physical introduction?!  Bullshit!  There are plenty of villains here that I could mention that can’t achieve fear or motive here, but I’ll save it for these two examples considering that these two were the ones I was very frustrated with.

But, there are two villains that I can think of right now that fulfill motive and fear right off the bat.  The main one (that I’m sure many of you saw coming) is the MCU’s version of Thanos.  No doubt, someone that has an understandably flawed and warped sense of destiny and justice, believing genocide of an entire universe to be “merciful” and saving it from destruction.  It’s absolute brilliance, especially compared to Thanos in the comics, that really fulfills the role of “the Mad TItan” more than the MCU version.  And that’s not to count just how much chaos he has created over the course of 22 films.  Despite being seen in small cameos and brief snippets and mentions, Thanos was someone to be feared in the MCU that many people were eagerly awaiting to see finally revealed in Infinity War.  And he achieved it in spades.  A villain that is absolutely ruthless with his enemies, despite being understanding and honorable about their goals. Imagine beating up the Hulk in 1-on-1 combat so much that he’s not angry anymore and refuses to be.  That’s a feat in itself.  And even while utilizing the Infinity Gauntlet, he can hold his own in a battle against 7 of the greatest heroes in the universe that almost got it off of him!   He pulled a fucking moon down on a planet right after, too!  And the coup de grace of it all was of course the snap heard throughout the universe: the Decimation.  And he succeeded in his mission and rested, like he said he would.  He wasn’t evil because he wanted to be or was vengeful about what happened: he believed himself to be a savior, someone that was willing to do what others wouldn’t.  And even without the Infinity Gauntlet, the guy won’t quit and is still ridiculously strong in a fight with just a double bladed sword in Endgame!  A perfect movie villain rarely shows itself, and Thanos was definitely one of those and I hope we see more that follow in his footsteps.

The secondary villain that I think of (that not many would understand) is Ardyn Izunia, or Ardyn Lucis Caelum, from Final Fantasy XV.  Hajime Tabata aimed to make FFXV’s villain to be better than Kefka and Sephiroth combined.  Now, that’s a gamble.  Considering how memorable and iconic both villains are, it would be very hard to accomplish something like that.  But, in my eyes, I believe he did.  Ardyn is a very tragic character, a Christ-like figure that wanted to cure the people of the land from the Starscourge that plagued them.  He would absorb the disease and cure them, unlike his brother Somnus that would kill them mercilessly.  After his fiancee was killed by Somnus himself, branded as a traitor and demonized by the people that he cured, denied ascension to the throne by the Crystal, and abandoned by the Astrals that were by his side.  Fueled by hatred for his betrayal on almost all fronts (including his fiancee, he believes), he seeks to end the Lucis bloodline and destroy the world that the Astrals created out of vengeance.  Hey, if you found out that you were simply a tool used for the gods to fix the shit that THEY fucked up themselves, you’d be pissed too (*cough*Noctis*cough*).  And boy did he show them what for.  He becomes chief commander of Nifleheim’s military, including weaponizing people as daemons, using Magitek to ascend to military supremacy, and seizing all of the crystals in the world until all point to the last one located inside Insomnia.  Not only that, but he kills Noctis’ childhood sweetheart and he brings the entire world to ruin for years to come while Noctis was inside the Crystal.  Ardyn basically did what both Kefka and Sephiroth achieved individually: bring the world to ruin and kill a pivotal character/love interest, respectively.  And he can seriously hold his own in a fight, able to use the same powers that Noctis can easily.  He even used Ifrit (an infernal Astral!) as a puppet!  That level of hatred for a bloodline is something palpable.

That’s why it’s so important to show your intent just as much as it is to say it.  Both go hand in hand and it’s what creates arguments and discussions like these, so we are able to analyze and study villains as integral and important characters in entertainment.  And to discover the darker sides of humanity that lives and resides within all of us, so we can better learn ourselves and how to control the demons inside all of us.

Honorable mention: With the new Star Wars movie coming out soon, I’m super hyped to see the Knights of Ren making a return!  J.J. definitely did an awesome move by bringing them back, and there’s something so appealing about them.  Something about organized personal goons for the main baddie is a concept that I always love to compare and explore.  It’s why I loved the Praetorian Guard from The Last Jedi so much.  Same for the Nazgul from The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, the Black Guard from Tron: Legacy, the K-Tron units from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and the Heavensward from Final Fantasy XIV.  Despite them not having much screen time, or little to no dialogue whatsoever, the times they do appear, their main objective is to eliminate the threats before them with extreme prejudice.  Their main concept overall is action with little dialogue and achieving the simple goal that the viewer can already assume, and that’s something that I absolutely adore.  Costume designs are also a huge plus, because goddamn do they all look good!

[prakashswamy]

Stop before you Start! 

~ the amber light for all spiritual aspirants, to pause before they start the journey

So you’re bitten by the proverbial spiritual bug. As soon as you’ve listened to a mesmerising Master eloquently explaining what enlightenment is, on YouTube, and soothingly assuring it’s a possibility for everyone – that includes, ahem, you! Or when you’ve seen your BFF lose weight miraculously, a mere month after s/he started a new yOgA practice, which s/he learned in your workplace itself. Or when you simply couldn’t put down the book on the methods for self-realisation that you picked up at the airport (at double the cost of Amazon, no less) during one of those pointless business trips. Or when your fav celebrity – one of the many, obviously, since there are one too many now – gushed about how her recent initiation into mindfulness has transformed her as a person overnight (though there is no proof of any such transformation, other than her own assurance to famished fans like you)!

Anyway, one or all of the above happened to you within the last fortnight and you’re all fired up to start the journey to know. Umm, you don’t know yet what you really want to know, but who cares about such nuances anyway. If your fav celebrity got transformed, you, her die-hard fan, too will most certainly get the transformation. And how could the bestselling book be wrong, you ask yourself. And the weight-loss too is a dangling carrot that’s hard to ignore. And, if in doubt, you can always check with the YouTube Guru, who seems to know about everything under the sun! So you can hardly wait and are all set to press the ignition button.

Wait… wait… wait… Hold on for one moment please. Consider this the amber light that may actually prevent you from wrecking not only your #MakeInIndia superbike by jumping the Red, but also potentially wrecking those around you – on the road or at home or even at work, for that matter. Please Stop, just for a moment, before you Start that journey, which might be inevitable, who knows.

The long journey to self-realisation is a lonely pursuit. And a very selfish one!

“What the h#!!?,” you may baulk. “Aren’t there millions of seekers, like me, who are on the path, being part of so many spiritual organisations!,” you might marvel. Yes, but… There may be many fellow seekers along the path, or on a different path, to the same destination. They may even be part of the same spiritual organisation that you chose to be a part of and may do all the same programs that you do and do all the daily practices that you are supposed to do.

But, rest assured, each journey is different and every seeker has to pursue the journey alone, even if s/he is part of a group of seekers. And because you are aligned with a group of seekers who are all guided by the same Guru doesn’t mean you are all going to work together for everyone’s enlightenment. Tsk.. tsk.. Self-realisation is such a self-explanatory term that one should never get lost in any imagination about it’s self-centered nature. There is no getting around the hard-to-swallow fact that it’s about you and you alone.

“If I become a better person, as a result of my spiritual practices, won’t the people connected with me be thrilled?,” you may wonder. Indeed, they will be. And the weight loss would certainly earn a few more admirers as well. But…

There will be many spectators along the path – loving family, caring friends, acerbic critics, unqualified self-proclaimed masters, et al. All of them are but mere spectators, who haven’t started (or concluded – especially the half-baked masters) their own journey yet. In fact, many of them won’t even have a clue about the existence of such a journey. They are so entangled in survival that they may not even be interesting in knowing about it, let alone support you in pursuing it. So, don’t be surprised if the beloved ones end up being the befuddled ones, not being able to comprehend what’s going on with you, i.e. the person they thought they knew all along! “I’ve got a fantastic Guru guiding me man… someone so popular that everyone from politicians to celebrities to industrialists line up to be at his events that happen all over the nation!,” you may protest. Well…

If you’re blessed, you may actually have a Guru (Spiritual Master, not the head of some religious establishment), with boundless compassion to guide seekers like you, shining the light along the path. But even s/he isn’t going to literally hold hands, till you reach the destination.

Not only that, the Guru will strip you clean of all the pretensions of your very existence, including the facade of personality that you’re hiding behind, in order to eke out a living in this man-eat-dog mad mad world that’s hell-bent on self-destructing the only planet it has got to live, so far, in this vast, still expanding, universe. Be assured, it won’t be a pretty sight, when you’ve no other choice but to look at yourself, in all your true-self g(l)ory… eeew! And that’s exactly what a real Guru does to you, because Guru is the light that annihilates the darkness of your hilarious ignorance, which you presumed to be intelligence, until the tables are turned, upside down.

All right, now that your iMax sized imaginary world of spirituality is shaken a bit with shattering Dolby Atmos sound, you better pause for a moment at this Amber sign (umm, Amber is the warning sign, in case you routinely fail to notice or jump at the sight of it on the roads), before speeding away into the unknown, but not uncharted, long winding path of spirituality.

Oh hey, you’re totally free to proceed on the well-known path of religion, which is the always available alternative, which most humans find very comfortable to tread, during any part of their existence. But that’s not going to take you to where you may actually want to go, since, most unfortunately, all the savvy preachers, heavy tomes and slick videos and impressive social media posts won’t bother differentiating one from the other, i.e. religion from spirituality. They are distinct and almost diametrically opposite.

The journey to realise the Truth isn’t a fun tourist trip that anyone curious can undertake. It’s a challenging yAtrA (pilgrimage) that not many get to complete, within a lifetime.

Yet, it’s been diligently undertaken by many, willingly, from time immemorial. And most of them did (and still do) have a Guru to guide them along.

Of course, anyone can start it. Even you, who loves whistle-worthy silly dialogues like “ரிஸ்க்ன்னா எனக்கு ரஸ்க் சாப்பிடற மாதிரி!” (“Taking risk is just like eating rusk for me!”) can. No one’s going to stop you from starting. And no one’s going to be there to ensure you sustain it. Or even complete it. You’ll be on your own. All the way, from start to finish. Hard to swallow but hey, that’s how Truth is. Fun fact: The spiritual journey neither has a fixed schedule nor predetermined levels of difficulty.

Both the length and difficulty of the journey is determined by you, not anyone else. So, if at all you don’t make it all the way, or you take a very long time to make it – may be a few lifetimes, the only being you can blame is yourself. And the “I told you so!” spectators will still be around to rub some salt on your wounded ego. Along the path, there will be…

a number of tempting side attractions that will distract you from continuing the journey.

many a roadblock that will test your resolve to continue the journey.

a multitude of moments when you will be so exasperated that you just want to drop everything and run all the way back to where you started.

Naturally, there will be a number of fellow seekers too, who will pat you on the back, saying “Well, we’re on the same boat sis (or bro)!” hoping to cheer you up. With plethora of content and myriad media to consume it, there are any number of aids available to a seeker, who should know how to utilise them, to progress further, along the path. The YouTube video that ignited the fire in you is one of them. That overpriced book full of practical methods is another. And it’s quite possible to be so enamoured by such aides that you may be stuck right where you are, without even realising it. After all, more videos and books are getting published every day. From everyone who thinks s/he has figured it all out! And, if and when you make it to the destination, in this birth or another, you may be utterly baffled to realise that the journey is indeed the destination and you didn’t even have to undertake the gruelling journey in the first place, to realise what has always been there, right within you. Bummer! Yet, upon the conclusion of the journey, you will end up immersed in the state of eternal bliss, overflowing with compassion, just like those who have attained self-realisation, before you. From time immemorial. And here’s the best part. There’s absolutely no obligation whatsoever for you to even share the experience with anyone, let alone shine the light of your hard-earned gnAnA (wisdom).

For every Agasthya Muni or Adi ShankarA or RamaNa Maharishi or Sadhguru, there have been thousands of other realised beings who simply chose to remain in the state of bliss, finding no compelling need to share it with anyone else. It’s certainly possible for you to be like one of them. Seems like a very tempting bargain, eh!

All said and done, there is a reason why there have been and are only a handful of realised beings and Masters, even as the human population kept on growing relentlessly. They are the only ones who walked the path all alone, all the way, consciously avoiding the distractions, and reached the ultimate destination, with or without the guidance of a Guru. They are the ones who have seen the glorious light of Truth, shining forever, within themselves. They are the truly blessed ones who had the glorious darshan of the Ananda ThANdavA (dance of bliss or ecstacy), with their eyes closed. And only a few of them, in an outpouring of compassion, chose to guide others along the path, as Guru.

So, before you choose to get on the path of spirituality, which btw – just to reiterate, because it’s extremely important to know – has nothing to do with religion, simply because someone known to you has done so or some social media post has fired you up, do take a moment to assess yourself. And be honest with yourself in accepting the fact that you may not be ready yet.

The humility to accept your lack of readiness to even begin the spiritual journey in pursuit of Truth, is indeed the starting point of the enchanting journey to everlasting realisation of the Self! Your humble acknowledgement of “I don’t know,” will eventually become such an unbearable thirst that it can be quenched only by the one(s) who has been there and seen that. Who knows, s/he may happen to you in this lifetime itself (don’t ever try going around shopping for a Guru – it just doesn’t work that way), to nudge you along the path.

Well, the Green light is on. It’s up to you now to Pause your Start or Continue unwaveringly. Happy journey fellow seeker!

May Grace be with you for a purposeful Life overflowing with Joy.

~Swamy | @PrakashSwamy

Swamy aka @PrakashSwamy is a seeker (full-time may sound funny, but that’s a fact) whose seeking was on-and-off from his teens (when a maternal uncle took him to a Transcendental Meditation program) and switched gears upward in 2009, when his Master Sadhguru (Mystic, Yogi and visionary founder of Isha Foundation, awarded the Padma Vibhushan by Indian Government in 2017 for the remarkable social endevours of his spiritual organisation) initiated him into the ancient Kriya of Shambhavi Maha Mudra. A few more advanced Isha Yoga programs followed, culminating in Samyama, the 7-day Silence program, in 2013. With Shivanga, the yatra to Velliangiri Mountains, aka Kailash of the south and the yatra to Kailash itself (in Tibet) happening in the same year (2013), Life, as he knew it until then, took a decisive turn. Swamy eventually bid farewell to his lucrative, and reasonably successful, corporate career in 2015, which he assures is a planned retirement, to pursue the VAnaprastha phase and experience Life, the way it is, with a definitive purpose – of attaining self-realisation.

Swamy considers himself twice-blessed, since, apart from being guide by the boundless Grace of his Master, from within, his ongoing journey is also being actively guided now by his Upa Guru Shri Sohamanandaji (the other bearded one, in the above pics), who is kind enough to not only to dispel his ignorant assumptions about spirituality from time to time, but also to take him along on the life-altering yatras to spiritually charged spaces such as Pancha Bhuta Sthalas (sacred spaces of Lord Shiva, associated with the five elements) & Sabarimala (both in South India) and Char Dham, comprising of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedharnath and Bhadrinath (on the mighty Himalayas). These days, in his own words, Swamy’s existence – one day at a time -is focused only on “Read, Write, Meditate!,” not necessarily in that order.

Oh, in case you are curious, Swamy hasn’t attained self-realisation, yet.. ha.. ha.!

You may enjoy knowing more about Swamy‘s spiritual journey and experience of Life the way it is in his poetry (Dhinam Oru Padhigam hymns – 218 and counting…), blogs, quotes and social media posts (links to all given below).

Be Joyful & Spread the Cheer 🙂

Follow Swamy… Facebook | Twitter | Google+

Explore Swamy’s creation (blogs, quotes, poetry, reviews, photography…)

Been there, Seen that | Swamystery | Swamyverse | SwamyQuote

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  Stop before you Start! Stop before you Start! 

[badbackgroundscience]

I’m very disappointed with the lack of evil beards, here

So wait, if evil duplicate!Thor can’t lift Thor’s hammer because he’s not worthy of its power, why could evil brain-damaged!Thor do it in Journey Into Mystery #94?

I’m getting ahead of myself...

We’re in the very next issue (i.e. #95) and Thor finds himself battling an identical copy of himself...with two hammers, so he’s extra dangerous. How did this happen? Dr. Donald Blake asked an evil theoretical physicist named Zaxton* to present Blake’s new invention at “the scientists’ convention”. He can’t do it himself because Thor has to be part of the demo, for some reason...

But that’s not the weird part of this scenario. The weird part is that - having only been shown to be a GP and/or surgeon in previous issues - Dr. Blake suddenly somehow has the skill to create artificial life.

Artificial life capable of solving “the world’s most complicated mathematical problem” in mere moments.

Artificial life with both unbreakable skin and the ability to turn into a “super-grenade” when a short-circuit causes it to blow up. (Don’t worry, Thor saves the day and throws him out the side of the building to explode high above the city, but how is it unbreakable from the outside and not the inside? Is it a special coating?). But let’s back up...

IQ - short for Intelligence Quotient - attempts to describe a human’s ‘smartness’ by providing a quantitative value based on the results of some cognitive test (There are many, but the most well-known are the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, first published in 1955, and the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales, first published 1916). Pop culture, of course, treats your IQ score as immutable and 100% accurate; that is certainly not the case. 

We’re still debating if intelligence can be quantified in the first place, but assuming it can be, standard IQ tests can’t possibly test for all forms of intelligence (if they even choose to try) because we also haven’t settled on how many and what they are. Also, as with any test, psychological factors (e.g. some sort of ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’, or not getting enough sleep the night before) as well as the exact questions asked can skew results, so you’re unlikely to get the same IQ score every single time you take it. Your score will also vary depending on the test you take, yet characters in media boast of IQ scores as if there is one universal test.

The predecessor to the Stanford-Binet test - the Binet-Simon test (published in 1905) - was one of the very first ‘successful’ IQ tests, created even before the term “IQ” was coined (by William Stern in 1912). But it was meant only for children, and used specifically to identify those with developmental disorders. The score was determined by finding your “mental age”, dividing by your physical age, then multiplying by 100. A 6-year old with the mental abilities of your average 6-year old would have an IQ of 100; so would a 12-year old with the skill of a 12-year old. But a 6-year old with the skill of a 12-year old would have an IQ of 200. A 6-year old with the mental ability of a 22.5-year old would have the same IQ as Donald Blake’s android. This ratio method, however, hasn’t been in use for many decades.

Instead, the modern IQ scale sets the mean (as in “average”) intelligence level of the population as 100 and distributes the population along something called a Gaussian curve, a.k.a. a “bell curve”.** (Adults and children are grouped separately.) Most of humanity has an IQ clustered near the middle, and the number of people with higher/lower IQs gets smaller faster and faster as you move away from that mean. It looks like this:

Without going into the mathematics behind it, about 68% of the adult population will have an IQ between 85 and 115. About 99.7% of people have an IQ between 55 and 145. (Also, an IQ of 115 makes you ‘more intelligent’ than 84% of the population; 130 makes you ‘more intelligent’ than 97.7% of the population; 145 makes you ‘more intelligent’ than 99.9%, and so on.*** Note the scare quotes around the words “more intelligent”.) 

However, the IQ numbers themselves are ordinal - that is, there’s no numerical value to them; they merely imply an order. Someone with an IQ of 116 is ‘smarter’ than someone with an IQ of 115, but we have no way of knowing how much ‘smarter’. If I have an IQ of 150,**** I am not twice as smart as someone with an IQ of 75. If Dr. Blake’s android has an IQ of 375, it means the "brightest human being” on the planet has an IQ of 374 - not 187.5. [Minor aside: due to sample size, the smartest humans on Earth can’t know their exact IQs, only theoretical ranges. The Marvel Universe does seem to be more highly populated with geniuses than ours, though...]

The exponential drop in percent abundance (of people with that IQ score) as we get further and further away from 100 is equally important. Perhaps more so. Because having an IQ of 375 would imply that there are approximately 445831475702184574230940704413731609451627284886312973695942933571110120374 humans + sentient aliens out there dumber than you. That’s a 4 with 74 other numbers after it. There aren’t enough atoms in the universe for there to be that many people.***** 

Anyway, let’s get back to the comic. Dr. Blake returns to his office to find Zaxton, and not find Jane. Zaxton reveals that he kidnapped the nurse to get Blake to help him finish a duplicating machine. Apparently Zaxton can’t figure out how to get it to work on anything organic, which is where Blake comes in.

Blake agrees to help, planning to don his superhero persona as soon as he’s got Jane’s location. He slips away while Zaxton is distracted duplicating cats in an alley, but the evil physicist catches him mid-transformation and turns the duplicating ray on Thor.

It also turns out the duplicating ray makes everything opposite...and under mind control...

The Thors fight mid-flight, and Zaxton duplicates a bunch of airplanes to slow the original down; this begs the question of whether or not there are duplicated people in those planes, or if they will soon be crashing into the ground below because no one is flying them. This also begs the question of how Thor does not slam into them, because Thor does not fly. Remember, Thor throws his hammer and is carried along for the ride - he shouldn’t be able to change trajectory midair. And yet, here we are...

Evil!Thor throws his hammers at the halted Thor, and it turns out they’re as effective as marshmallows.

Here’s yet another question: how does the evil Thor fade into nothingness? Perhaps it is to solve the problem of conservation of mass - that he must cease to exist because the particles that comprised him appeared out of nowhere in the first place. I’m reminded of the quantum mechanical weirdness referred to as “virtual particles”. Basically, the vacuum of space is not a vacuum at the subatomic level. Not only do you have light (acting both as a particle and wave) streaming through it all the time, but you have particles that randomly pop in and out of existence all the time. They aren’t created from nothing, but from the present energy (Remember, energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). When it happens, it’s always a pair of particles - 1 matter + 1 anti-of-that-matter, like an electron and a positron, and they almost immediately annihilate one another to turn back into energy.`* Duplicate Thor can’t be anti-matter, because his particles would have annihilated any corresponding matter particles he ran (or flew) into, generating a lot of light in the process, but I’m satisfied with the net particle count being zero with his destruction.

With evil!Thor defeated, Zaxton duplicates himself to create a decoy, but the device falls from his hands and over the side of a bridge. He tries to catch it, falls over himself, and goes squash. Oops.

Don’t worry, though. His duplicate’s still up there, and since Zaxton was evil, this guy’s good. It’s not suggested that he’s an empty shell (i.e. needing the other Zaxton to mind control him), and Thor says this version can become “a boon to humanity.”

The comic ends, completely ignoring the fact that this Zaxton is probably going to vanish into thin air...as well as all of those cats and typewriters...Only a matter of time...

* He doesn’t know he’s evil, of course, but a name like Zaxton should be a big clue...

** In the real world, IQ scores aren’t distributed perfectly according to this bell curve; for one thing, it’s easier for IQ to be lowered - by trauma or some sort of disorder - than to be raised. Thus, it’s even more unrealistic to have an IQ over 200. It’s also really difficult to pin down super-high IQs because there are so few people to compare against, and if two people consistently score identically across multiple exams, it’s impossible to determine who’s ‘smarter’ by those metrics. Thus, you should take any IQ value over 160 with a grain of salt.

Also, there’s this phenomenon called the Flynn Effect, where there’s been an observed increase in average IQ score over the years (about 3 points per decade). It’s not so much that everyone in subsequent generations is getting smarter, but there are fewer people getting lower scores. There’s debate on how much is increase in general intelligence and how much is people getting better at taking IQ tests (it’s likely both). Either way, In order to keep the bell curve shape, test makers have to redefine what a score of 100 means with each new edition. 

*** Using basic probability, we can calculate the number of people on the planet that would have a specific IQ. 1 in 6 would be 115, 1 in 44 would be 130, 1 in 741 would have 145, and 1 in 31,574 would have an IQ of 160. Theoretically, there are 7 people walking around on the planet with an IQ of 190, and none with an IQ of 200 (i.e. because it’s 1 person out of every 76.5 billion people). 

**** Which I don’t. I was tested when I was 10 - you don’t need to know what it was - but that number is certainly out of date. Also, please see Stephen Hawking’s quote about IQ: “People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."

***** The estimated number of atoms in the universe is about 1x10^80, 91% of which are hydrogen atoms (8.9% are helium). 

`*  When they pop into existence with either on opposite sides of a black hole’s event horizon (one trapped inside, the other escaping), they cause the black hole to slowly dissolve. The particles that escape are known as “Hawking Radiation”, named after you-know-who.

Journey Into Mystery #95 - Writers: Stan Lee & Robert Bernstein, Art: Joe Sinnott

Photo Credit:

IQ bell curve By Alessio Damato, Mikhail Ryazanov - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0