#jurassic world aftermath lore

[jurassicparkpodcast]

Velociraptors, Dilophosaurs and a Fallen Kingdom: A follow-up On The Canon Of Jurassic World Aftermath

Recently, we published an article exploring how we thought Jurassic World Aftermath may fit into the wider canon – with lots of speculation as to the role that characters like Dr Wu would play within the story. Now, we can follow-up on that article with some facts pulled straight from a session spent with the new VR Game. The footage to accompany this video can be found on our YouTube channel, and is courtesy of fellow Jurassic fan Brent Kappel, who actually appeared in Jurassic World as an extra!

Without any further ado, let’s break down some of the most interesting pieces of lore introduced within Jurassic World Aftermath. Spoilers ahead for anyone planning to play the game themselves.

The key thing on everyone’s mind is obvious – how are there more Velociraptors on the island? We learn, in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, that Blue is supposedly the last of her kind – which makes her an invaluable asset for Doctor Wu and Eli Mills to obtain. Naturally, you may think that the inclusion of Velociraptors here in Aftermath takes away from this – but careful consideration has been made to think about where they slot into the story. The N.M.S Centre was an off-the-grid facility so to speak, in terms of the fact that the work they did at the facility was not well known by the other operatives working on Isla Nublar. In fact, mention of Owen Grady and Vic Hoskins is made at one point – acknowledging that neither of them knew about the existence of the programme. This suggests that the work being conducted at the N.M.S Centre was different to the work being conducted by Project IBRIS – and therefore was kept relatively quiet in comparison to InGen’s other project. 

But, you may be asking, why was there a need for a second Velociraptor project?

The answer boils down to the science and genetics of Jurassic World. We know that genetic modification has been a key story point for the latter films, and this is no different in Aftermath, with the work at the N.M.S Centre proving vital in allowing the geneticists at Jurassic World to continue to enhance how much they can augment the code of their dinosaurs. The NMS Centre, in particular, was working on the Velociraptor Genome, and was experimenting with areas like elevated social hormones, suggesting that they were taking the work which IBRIS had done, and seeing if they could tailor-make a Raptor which is more able to respond to commands – aka the latter Indoraptor. We also learn that work had been done to get the raptors to respond to audio prompts so they could come for feeding – again, building upon the idea of these being Raptors who can be more effectively trained and controlled. The way Wu is communicated throughout here as a narcissistic and egotistical character is very interesting, too, as it helps to sell his character as someone who is purely invested in his work without any of the ethical confines which may have otherwise held him back. The mission to recover the Velociraptor Genome ultimately takes a change of pace when, at the end of the game, it is revealed that we need to recover Blue’s DNA. Indeed, in this moment we learn that Blue’s creation seemed to be an accident. Wu was experimenting with monitor lizard polymer raised to promote parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction) when Blue was born – implying that she may be able to reproduce naturally in the current Jurassic World Dominion timeline.

So, how does all of this tie directly into Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, and the birth of the Indoraptor? Well, as we already know from the film, the mission to recover Blue is an important stepping stone in creating the Indoraptor. Therefore it is natural for us to assume that the events of this game are taking place parallel to the development of the first Indoraptor prototype we later see in the film – implying that the work and research recovered here factors in to the eventual creation of that animal. We get more concrete comparison of this being tied together through the fact that Mia and Sam actually have a direct link with Lockwood Manor in the latter part of the game – showing that Wu is indeed working with Mills at this point. It sounds as if Mills is in charge of the operation at this point in time, as Wu mentions him as overseeing the operations at several points. This suggests that the mission to Isla Nublar we see in FK’s opening is perhaps the climax of a long string of missions to recover different pieces of technology which were ultimately needed to continue Wu’s hybridisation work. The most interesting piece of lore here is that we learn that InGen had emergency backup systems connected on the mainland to Nublar – with Lockwood Manor being the emergency backup for the facility. This implies that rather than being a rogue faction, Mills and Wu may have still had some affiliation with InGen during the events of JWFK, although it could equally be implied that the connection existed from the Jurassic Park days when Lockwood was still involved in the parks.

There are a couple of other interesting bits of information strewn throughout the game. The first is that Wu begins to freak out when the character of Emelia (the geneticist helping with the in-game mission)  has a meeting with Simon Masrani in May of 2015. This allegation is taking to the InGen Board, with Wu pulling her up for insubordination towards a superior. This is interesting as Wu becomes very defensive and suggests that she may damage the work of both him and the board – implying that rogue elements inside of InGen may be working against the wishes of Masrani this whole time. Whilst this isn’t anything new per-say, it does provide interesting insight as to where people like Hoskins may have fit into a much larger game being played in the shadows by other entities in InGen. Of note, also, is the way Wu presents his work throughout these audio logs – implying that he is working on multiple projects which will change man’s understanding of the natural world. Much like we saw hinted within Camp Cretaceous, the implication here seems to be that Wu may have worked on many more projects than those we simply see on screen.

A couple of final bits of interesting information we wanted to highlight is to do with specific details inside the story. Firstly, we learn that Isla Nublar’s Jurassic World did, indeed, use a Geothermal Plant – and that the Dilophosaurus can be found nested in there. Whilst this game does take place two years after the titular film, it is entirely possible that they have been nested in them for some time – which may explain the lack of encounters with this particular dinosaur so far in Camp Cretaceous. In addition to this, we also learn that Nublar is under a UN Quarantine following the events of the Jurassic World incident – meaning that we are in a similar situation to that which we find in JPIII. The fact the characters only have one hour on the island suggests this may be more stringent, however. Another fun detail comes in a mention of the Monorail – with it being revealed that the Indominus tore through the monorail track at some point before the main street battle, explaining some of the damage and devastation inflicted upon Nublar between the incident and JWFK. There are also a few other moments scattered throughout – including a fun visual nod to the Jurassic Park Visitors Centre.

All of this comes together to make a piece of Jurassic media which is much broader and deeper in terms of canonical scope than I think any of us expected going into it. Whilst we remain hesitant about whether this will be a ‘canonical’ story or not, I think that there has been some great work here to build on core Jurassic concepts. The character of Wu is developed incredibly well, and the ties to Lockwood Manor and Mills are executed well, too – making enough sense when considered alongside the events of Fallen Kingdom. Overall, Jurassic World Aftermath appears to have a lot of value in building up some pre-established areas of the canon, whilst also building to the future. As mentioned in the article, the idea of asexual reproduction in Blue poses an interesting question for Jurassic World Dominion. A recorded speech from Ian Malcolm present in the game also talks about a course correction after we have meddled with science to this point – setting the perfect precedent for what we are expecting to see in the upcoming sequel.

What do you think? Are you surprised about how much lore is packed into Jurassic World Aftermath? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned for plenty more on all things Jurassic Park and Jurassic World here on The Jurassic Park Podcast. 

Written by: Tom Fishenden

[sepublic]

2018 in review...

What a year. I’m honestly baffled at how... LONG and eventful 2018 was. People really aren’t joking when they say it felt like forever.

And I can see why, with all of the many, many things that happened. Many, major things. So to celebrate the end of 2018, which I consider to be one of the better years of my life... I really just want to review, in as close to chronological order, all of the major things I remembered and enjoyed;

There was me wrapping up Pokemon Ultra Moon.

I also began to finish Super Mario Odyssey, as well as Mario Kart for the Switch.

I watched the Greatest Showman, which was amazing.

There were the memes, of course. Ugandan Knuckles, Tide Pod challenge, Spaghet...

I began writing a personal, original story of mine and felt for the first time in a long while the simple joy of writing and the imagination that comes with it...

I tried Super Chix for the first time.

Shortly after I got my braces, which was genuinely painful.

Black Panther came out and was a MASSIVE success as the ninth highest grossing film of all time.

I watched my first new season of Voltron, Season 5. I’d also like to point out that the latter half of the entire show aired this year. All of it, from Lotor to Sendak to Adam’s rushed death to the disappointing finale. Yet I still enjoyed the show, by the end of the day.

The first Aru Shah book came out and I enjoyed that immensely.

Kirby Star Allies has its initial release, as well as the release of its DLC, this year. A VERY satisfying game with plenty of new lore for the series, as well as certain characters returning and being playable.

I got introduced due to Heathers the Musical, and later got interested in Hamilton and Wicked.

Infinity War, my most anticipated film of ALL time. I legit bought reserved seating for it ASAP upon the release of the second trailer. The film was amazing and somehow exceeded my wildest expectations... and then there’s the cultural impact, from the memes, the quotes, the mutual tragedy, all of it. Cinema history.

Trials of Apollo: The Burning Maze was released. RIP

I achieved a personal fitness record by jogging for about an hour and a half, my longest time yet- and I continued to do that every once in a while.

There was the many, many Steven bombs... we got Emerald, a Lapis Lazuli song, and of course the Pink Diamond reveal... THAT messed me up. Then the aftermath, including the return of Bismuth, the Diamond attack, Nephrite, as well as White Diamond and her pearl.

I rekindled my interest in Bionicle, and went back to doing drawings and creating lore for a hypothetical rewrite of G2.

There was the beauty that was Ninjago: Sons of Garmadon, as well as Harumi. Up there with Tournament of Elements as the best seasons of all. Harumi is one of my favorite characters now, as is Faith.

I saw the trailer for Hazbin Hotel and got hooked onto the series, and have since followed its numerous updates, including clips of the show.

I got reinterested in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and completed it after years in my ownership. Then I got Explorers of Time, but I’ve dropped that. I’ll finish it next year.

Solo: A Stars Wars story was surprisingly enjoyable and inspired me creatively.

I went to Florida again and had a great time at Crab Island. I revisited New York a second time, and I’m still surprised by how much I enjoy just the atmosphere of being there.

There was E3, with all of the game announcements. Me following up excitedly on Smash Bros Ultimate, the directs, the character reveals, the memes... and of course me playing the game on release day.

I’m still hyped for the Resident Evil 2 remake.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom came out with the Indoraptor, one of my favorite monsters of all time now. There was also Incredibles 2, something we’ve waited for for over a decade. And after that, Ant Man and the Wasp.

I got interested in the Metroid Series, and have played Fusion, Zero Mission, and Samus Returns. I have yet to give Super Metroid or the Prime series a try.

Speaking of games, I enjoyed Warioware Gold. I also got my aunt’s old NES and some classic cakes like Mario and Zelda.

I read Poisonwood Bible. I dressed up as something different for Halloween for the first time in years- A Plague Doctor.

There was also a lot of depressing deaths... Stefan Karl Steffanson. Stephen Hawking, Stan Lee, Stephen Hillenburg. All of their names started with ST and I will continue to cherish all of them.

I also discovered Tumblr for the first time and have since been riding the highs and lows of this hellhole. I’ve made posts and a few have gone past 100 notes, which is neat.

I worked on my drawing skills and did a personal major accomplishment on a piece.

I watched Venom and enjoyed it WAY more than I ever expected myself to. Like, WAY more.

The Castlevania Netflix series had its second season, and I began and finished both seasons in a day.

Speaking of Netflix, Hilda was amazing, as well as She-Ra, and Dragon Prince.

Thanksgiving Break, I watched both Fantastic Beasts movies back-to-back, first at home and then in the cinema.

I went Black Friday shopping for the first time ever.

All of the splendid movies that came out in December, including Into the Spiderverse, Bumblebee, and Aqua Man- another film I enjoyed a lot more than I did. Not as much as Venom, but still.

For Christmas, I had SEVERAL back-to-back feasts, lunches and dinners, eating out and/or eating big at someone else’s home, or my home. I really need to burn off the fat.

I got a Zoku Slush maker and experimented with that with varying degrees of success.

AAAAND that’s about it. I watched the New Year’s countdown for New York, like every year, with my family.

It’s been quite a wild ride, and one of the craziest years I’ve ever experienced. And yet, looking back...

I wouldn’t change a thing.

Happy New Years, everyone. Goodbye to a beloved 2018, and hello to new hopes for 2019!

[solnahas]

Computer mmo games

COMPUTER MMO GAMES MOVIE

COMPUTER MMO GAMES SERIES

Roblox is one of the most popular platform among the gamers, it was introduced in 1st September 2006 by Roblox Corporation and its supports multiple platforms which includes Windows, Xbox, iOS, Android, macOS. In terms of the communication it has in-chat voice chat feature along with private messaging and different socialization features that helps in non-stop interplayer computing as players explorer the world within the game. In terms of the gameplay the Orbus VR has right different unique player classes which includes Ranger, Scoundrel, Runemage, Warrior, Shaman, Paladin, Musketeer and Bard along with four main 5 person dungeons with certain opponents along with bosses with dynamic in fighting responses which makes the game more challenging thru improved monster AI. It has weekly missions were added on the top of the Main Story quests. The platform has 100 of hours of quest which includes dragon pets, world bosses, player trading and crafting and much more. Orbus VR is introduced in the December 2017 well its an VR MMORPG base online gaming platform that allows gamers from all across the world to access the massive open world which follows mysterious and thought-provoking storyline, interesting lore, and characters.

COMPUTER MMO GAMES SERIES

For those accustomed to the more realistic appearance of the main series of films, it’ll be a new experience, but sneaking around facilities and attractions to dodge dangerous dinosaurs is a thrilling notion that will excite any VR player. While being chased by previous deadly lizards is terrifying, the game’s cell-shaded aesthetics make it appear pretty enjoyable. Stuck there while on a quest to recover vital research data from the laboratories, you must solve puzzles and avoid some familiar flesh-eating enemies in any way you can.

COMPUTER MMO GAMES MOVIE

The finest virtual reality games available right now The Aftermath of Jurassic World VR MMORPGīetween the first and second movie in the rebooted trilogy, the freshly updated Aftermath lets you explore the rubble of the titalur dinosaur amusement park. It shows off an experience that makes the most of its structure without being too opaque for newbies, as well as continuing a well-loved franchise’s tale after years and years of quiet. Although having a less well-known brand and being a lot smaller project, Falcon Age provides a comparable experience for MMOPRG VR players looking for a narrative. Half-Life: Alyx is the newest hot property in MMORPG VR gaming, and it’s one of the most excellent VR games for immersing yourself in a narrative. Eve: Valkyrie lets you pilot a starfighter in an online match, while Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes pairs a player in VR with another player who can’t see the bomb they’re defusing but has all the instructions. Keep Talking, and Nobody Explodes pairs a player in VR with another player who can’t see the bomb they’re defusing but has all the instructions. There are also multiplayer virtual reality games to try. These are based on games developed for traditional controllers, but they’ve been altered so much in mechanics and settings that they’ve effectively become whole new experiences. Batman: Arkham VR and Superhot VR are two games that are a notch below. Beat Saber, Iron Man VR, and Star Trek: Bridge Crew are examples of this. Then there are the top virtual reality games that wouldn’t fit anyplace else. These are suitable for novices who are making their first explorations into VR gaming and franchise enthusiasts who want to experience their favorite game in a new light. These include games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR and Doom VFR, both based on older titles. Some of the finest virtual reality games are just old games reimagined for the new medium. While categorizing games by genre might be helpful, it’s preferable to rank the top VR games on our list according to how they employ virtual reality. What Are The Finest Virtual Reality Games in MMORPG?

Room for recreation (Oculus Rift PS VR HTC Vive).

Saber must be defeated (Oculus Rift PS VR HTC Vive).

What Are The Finest Virtual Reality Games in MMORPG?.

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Loki Episode 1: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains nothing but spoilers for Loki episode 1. We have a spoiler-free review here.

Marvel’s Loki episode 1 has finally arrived on Disney+! And in the grand scheme of things, this one is much closer to WandaVision than The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in terms of its tone, weirdness, and overall sense of mystery. The halls of the TVA are packed with obscure Marvel Comics lore and hints of what’s to come for the MCU, and we’re here to try and help you make sense of all of it.

The MCU and Loki Timeline

It’s appropriate that the first thing we see in Loki is a scene from Avengers: Endgame, the time-iest, wime-iest Marvel movie of them all (so far) and whose timeline branching/headache inducing time travel rules are crucial to the central concepts of Loki.

Basically, the most important thing to remember here is that this ISN’T the Loki who died at the start of Avengers: Infinity War, but rather the Loki who had only JUST been a supreme dick in the first Avengers movies. And as we see in this episode, TV Loki has not lived through the events of Thor: The Dark World or Thor: Ragnarok (both of which we see shown to him by Agent Mobius) nor has he um…died through the opening of Infinity War. Yet. Which helps explain why he’s more incorrigible than usual. 

We wrote about this in more detail here.

The Time Variance Authority (TVA)

The Time Variance Authority was created by Walt Simonson in the pages of his legendary run on Marvel’s Thor comics (seriously, it’s one of the best of all time) back in 1986. They’ve made sporadic appearances in Marvel Comics continuity since then, always in their inimitable and quirky style. They’re a much bigger deal now, though.

If you’d have told us back in 2008 when Iron Man came out that the TVA would be the central piece of a Loki TV series, well…

Owen Wilson as Mobius

You mean Owen Wilson’s Mobius M. Mobius, TVA bureaucrat extraordinaire, and he of the tremendous onscreen chemistry with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki? THAT Mobius M. Mobius? Well, yes, he is indeed from the comics.

In fact, in the comics, all middle-management TVA “employees” look exactly like Mobius. This was a loving nod towards the brilliant Marvel writer/editor Mark Gruenwald, keeper of Marvel continuity in the ‘80s and ‘90s (and also author of one of the longest and best runs of Captain America comics, but that’s a story for another time). It appears that in the MCU, there’s only one Mobius, but who can tell with the TVA, right?

Anyway, it’s pretty cool that Owen Wilson is basically playing a legendary Marvel Comics writer, through a fun little meta lens.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who you may still best know from Black Mirror’s standout San Junipero episode) plays Ravonna Renslayer, a former TVA Hunter-turned-judge. In the comics, Ravonna was a time-traveling princess linked to Kang the Conqueror, but Loki’s version of the character is quite different – at least so far. We do know that there’s some Kang-flavored stuff coming up in Ant-Man 3 though, so watch this space.

Mbatha-Raw has noted that the character has lots of future MCU potential, so we assume we’ll learn a lot more about her in upcoming episodes.

Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15

As far as we can tell, Wunmi Mosaku’s Hunter B-15 isn’t directly based on any one Marvel Comics character. But her general badassery and take-no-shit-from-anyone attitude feels faintly reminiscent of Justice Peace, the very first TVA agent who was ever introduced, back in the first TVA story from the aforementioned Walt Simonson Thor run.

The Time-Keepers

In Marvel, the main universe was created after the heat death of the previous one. The last living employee of that reality’s TVA, known as He Who Remains, created the Time-Keepers in order to protect the new timeline. His first attempt led to the Time-Twisters, who were flawed and used their logic and authority to destroy certain realities. They were introduced in Thor #282, where Thor split their reality in two. In the reality where the Time-Twisters were destroyed, He Who Remains replaced them with the more improved Time-Keepers.

While relatively more benevolent than their multiversal rivals, the Timekeepers did oppose the Avengers in the miniseries Avengers Forever, which was mainly a storyline put together to explain away certain issues of Avengers continuity.

Miss Minutes

The “orientation” video that Miss Minutes shows to new Variants includes a couple of fun nods to Marvel stuff of the past…

A robot that looks suspiciously like HERBIE from the Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four cartoon is here. This is now the 2nd Marvel Disney+ show to tease Fantastic Four stuff, but it’s a VERY safe bet that the generally-despised HERBIE will always/only be part of some alternate FF universe…or will he?

The two warring armies we witness appear to be the Kree and the Wakandans. While that standoff hasn’t happened in the comics to the best of our knowledge, Ta-Nehisi Coates just wrapped up a long and excellent run of Black Panther comics where Wakanda became the inspiration for a colonial intergalactic empire, so maybe this is a tease for Black Panther 2.

Also, it’s pretty cool how it switches to a retro 4:3 aspect ratio for this segment, perfectly in keeping with the overall aesthetic of the TVA. 

Oh yeah, and just as everyone suspected but Marvel refused to confirm when Miss Minutes’ voice was first heard in the trailer, that’s Tara Strong doing the honors.

The Marvel Multiverse

So, the TVA is in charge of making sure “the sacred timeline” remains intact. That “sacred timeline” is the main continuity of the MCU. They’re doing this because nexus events create new timelines, and they’ve had problems with that before.

To give you a small sample, the “main” Marvel Comics continuity timeline is referred to as “Earth-616,” while the MCU is “Earth-199999” So this means the “sacred timeline” referred to here is designation 199999.

This all happened due to a multiversal war. This seems to be a shout out to Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers/New Avengers run, which culminated in 2015’s Secret Wars. In this storyline, entropy was spreading through the multiverse and was causing alternate Earths to collide. Either both realities would be destroyed or one reality would live on by annihilating the other. This led to the mainstream Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe going to war with each other as the last realities standing. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Molecule Man, and later Reed Richards, a new main timeline was created in the aftermath.

It also might be something of a reference to “Timequake,” a five-issue story arc that took place in the issues of What If #35-39 back in the 1990s. It involved a plot by the Time-Twisters and Immortus using various players from alternate timelines as pawns. They were eventually thwarted by Uatu the Watcher, the TVA, and a last-minute intervention from the Timekeepers themselves.

Nexus

According to the TVA orientation video and its big Jurassic Park vibes, Variants cause Nexus events – unauthorized branches in the timeline – sometimes just by being late for work! If the word “Nexus” is ringing a bell, it’s because we previously saw it manifest in WandaVision during the antidepressant commercial in the seventh episode. 

In Marvel Comics, the Nexus of All Realities first appeared in 1972’s Fear #11. It’s a cross-dimensional gateway that provides access to all possible realities and is a place where all the realities of the multiverse intersect (amusingly, Howard the Duck was brought to Earth in the comics via the Nexus of All Realities) Wanda Maximoff is often referred to as a “Nexus Being”, a multiversal anchor who protects us from threats outside our reality.

At another point during the TVA orientation video, Miss Minutes says that a Nexus event that is left unchecked could branch off into “madness” leading to another multiversal war. It’s probably not an accident that the word “madness” is used here, as next March we’re getting a movie called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

Is it a pretty safe bet that at some point during this series the TVA is going to fail in their mission to keep the timeline sacred? Will a Loki Variant be responsible?

Oh, and speaking of Doctor Strange…

The Nightmare Department

Mobius makes reference to something called “The Nightmare Department,” which is presumably part of whatever bureaucratic cosmology exists behind the scenes of the MCU. The inter-dimensional being known as Nightmare is a key foe of Doctor Strange. Hmmmm…

Mephisto? Nope!

Now, we know that we all had fun speculating about Mephisto’s inclusion in WandaVision, and a big ol’ red-horned devil in a stained-glass window in this episode sure is gonna have everyone doing the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme. But sadly, folks, this ain’t a Mephisto reference.

“The devil in the church actually genuinely is coincidental,” Loki director Kate Herron tells us. “That’s meant to be a reference to our show. It’s a metaphor for Loki with the horns and, you know, he was cast out of heaven so that is coincidental.” 

Next time, baby…

And to think that back when Avengers: Infinity War was on the way, people were speculating that Loki would be taking the Mephisto role from Infinity Gauntlet. I guess we were just a few years off.

Kablooie

Believe it or not, the blue mouth gum that the variant Loki gifts kind of has a comics connection. Not as in it’s a Marvel easter egg or anything, but in that it feels like a nod to something that was omnipresent in old comic books.

Y’see, back in the day, every comic had an ad page that was nothing but novelty gifts: joy buzzers, whoopie cushions, X-ray glasses (which you may recognize as the Den of Geek logo), and gum that would turn the unsuspecting recipient’s mouth blue or black. Loki, in true trickster fashion, gave this poor little French kid some of that novelty gum, leaving him with a blue mouth.

It’s a clever nod to a piece of comic book history, and one that’s extremely appropriate for the God of Mischief.

DB Cooper

The show depicts a real event in this episode, as it reveals that Loki was in fact famed skyjacker DB Cooper. For those who might not know, a well dressed and polite man known as “Dan Cooper” hijacked a plane flying between Portland and Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971. His master plan was to escape with $20,000 in cash and parachuted out of the plane somewhere over the Pacific Northwest…and was never heard from again.

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Eventually, a portion of the cash that was identified as being part of Cooper’s haul was found in the woods (hence the historically accurate depiction of the cash scattering as Loki is yanked away by the Rainbow Bridge), but Cooper himself was never truly positively identified. So really, the idea that it might have just been Loki having some fun is as plausible an explanation as any.

Chalk this up as one of the great DB Cooper pop culture moments!

The Posters

The vaguely dystopian propaganda vibe given off by the posters that line the walls of the TVA is no accident. We sense elements of The Prisoner here, with some of the messages feeling like they could have come from “the village” of that series.

But Loki director Kate Herron has cited other sci-fi influences that would all line up with this including Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, and more! 

We’ll have more from Ms. Herron about the influences of the show soon!

Aw, What’s in the Drawer?

Aside from the MANY Infinity Stones in Casey’s drawer, there’s also a medallion, a cross, and what appears to be a dagger of some kind. This is a stretch but…is this a hint that Dracula is coming to the MCU in the Blade movie and (ok, fine, fine we’ll stop).

All jokes aside, this tracks fairly well to how we know the Infinity Stones work in the comics. In Secret Wars, Battleworld was comprised of the bits and pieces of the multiverse that Doom and Dr. Strange could save before it was annihilated by the Beyonders. Strange suspected that Doom (all powerful at the time) might need to be taken down at some point in the future, so he made sure to grab a set of Infinity Gems to use on him. However, they only worked in their home reality, so on Battleworld, that meant that if you traveled to a different land with the Stones from the first, they’d stop working at the border. 

Casey’s drawer looks like it’s full of inert stones from variant timelines that don’t work because they’re no longer connected to their home realm.

Who is Casey?

Casey is played by Eugene Cordero. He’s been in so many things including The Mandalorian Season 1 but you may know him best as Pillboi in The Good Place. He is amazing and a big fave at Den of Geek.

And was that a nod to Scream when Loki tells him “I’ll gut you like a fish?” 

Josta

A favorite drink at the TVA is Josta, which was one of the first “energy drinks” before those were really a thing. It was manufactured by Pepsi and only briefly available in the mid-to-late ‘90s, back when everything had to be “extreme.” It’s pretty funny that in addition to using outmoded analog technology, the TVA also consumes outmoded soft drinks. We guess it’s pretty easy to get whatever you need when you can go anywhere on the timeline.

Miscellaneous Time Fragments

There appears to be a variant Skrull in the waiting room of the TVA when Loki is first brought in. He’s the guy in the tracksuit.

When we go to Salina, OK (1858) at the end of the episode, there’s a very cool piece of Jack Kirby-lookin’ technology laying around. What the hell is that, a shovel?

Salina is a couple hundred miles east of Broxton, the spot in Oklahoma where Asgard reemerged after its Disassembled-related final Ragnarok in the comics. Coincidence? Probably.

The consequences for not having a ticket during your TVA orientation are only SLIGHTLY more severe than the ones Indy dished out to a deserving Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. “No ticket!”

It also sets up a fun parallel to Thor on Sakaar from Thor: Ragnarok. Like Thor, Loki is a confused prisoner in a bizarre new land, given an introduction via family entertainment (theme park dark ride/1950s-style cartoon), only to realize how serious shit is by seeing a fellow prisoner get horribly vaporized nearby.

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The entitled jerk who gets vaporized by the TVA is named Martin. He doesn’t appear to have any significance to the larger Marvel Universe, but his dad is on the board of Goldman Sachs…don’t know if you’ve heard. Martin is played by Josh Fadem, who you may recognize as one of Jimmy McGill’s college student cameramen on Better Call Saul. He has also voiced characters on American Dad and The Powerpuff Girls.

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s Loki Episode 1: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Jurassic World Aftermath Part 2 | Dinosaurs, DNA and Destruction

The following article contains spoilers for Part Two of Jurassic World Aftermath. Please click off of this article if you want to avoid spoilers for the second part of the game.

The second part of Jurassic World Aftermath has arrived on the Oculus – providing an opportunity for Jurassic fans to revisit the ill-fated Isla Nublar for one final time as they uncover the fate of the secretive NMS programme. Courtesy of Brent Kappel, we have another collection of the narrative moments in the game on our YouTube – so we wanted to write an accompanying article breaking down some of the most interesting moments.

The biggest thing we felt was worth touching on is how heavily the second part of Aftermath seems to tie into other events which we know are taking place on or around Isla Nublar during the events of the second game. We get lots of discussion around how importing recovering Wu’s DNA is throughout the narrative of the second part – and we even get some small nuggets of information confirming that Wu was unable to recover this DNA during the initial extraction from Isla Nublar. The sequel feels as though it takes a lot of steps to really tie the experiments at the NMS centre into the wider lore unfolding on Nublar – with references to Bioluminescence experimentation, which was also present in Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, and even reference to Velociraptors being trained to respond to audio prompts – something which we see to some extent in Jurassic World with the IBRIS Raptors responding to the clicker Owen uses. A great deal of effort is made to connect the IBRIS and NMS programmes here – helping us to understand more about how the two may have informed each other, and really building out the idea that work around the Raptors and their behaviours was a vital part of InGen’s revival.

We also get some fun references – including the fact that the main character of Mia actually met Doctor John Hammond when she was aged nine. She says that she met Hammond at a dig site near Snakewater – something which instantly caught my attention given the fact that the dig site which Ellie and Alan are working on in 1993’s Jurassic Park is present in this area. Is it possible that Mia was actually one of the children at the original dig site, and she met Hammond before he departed from the location? This certainly seems to be the implication here and is a fun piece of knowledge for long-term fans of the franchise. On the subject of the 1993 film, we also get a fun flashback from Malcolm in the audio at the very beginning – calling back the trauma which the Chaotician endured on Nublar and helping to re-emphasise how that lasting impact on him may motivate him to get involved in the events of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, and also the upcoming Jurassic World Dominion. There are a couple of other interesting details – including potential nods to the breakout of the Scorpios Rex, and also a reference to the Monorail distracting the Pteranodons – all helping to ground Aftermath alongside some of the other extended media which has been released in recent years.

One thing we did want to touch on before we close this article and leave you to enjoy Brent’s gameplay is the way Malcolm’s dialogue is handled in this game – and, particularly, how it can be applied to some of the real world debates we see around climate change right now. This is such an important topic for so many of us to consider, and Jurassic provides a welcome medium to explore it as we really can learn from the past to consider the long-term impact that our actions have on our planet. With this taken into consideration, we wanted to acknowledge how applicable Malcolm’s dialogue in this game is – not just to the upcoming narrative questions which we are sure Jurassic World Dominion will pose, but to some of the greatest challenges which we face currently. Jurassic often gets a lot of flak for being set-piece centric, but Aftermath really excels at being a thought-provoking look at the science of this franchise and the wider impacts from that which are applicable within the real world, so we wanted to take the time to congratulate it for handling an often-difficult topic with sensitivity.

That’s it for our breakdown – we could talk more about this game, but Brent has put together a fantastic video, so we want to encourage you to go and enjoy it. Check out the full video below – and let us know your thoughts on Aftermath Part 2 in the comments below. As always – stay tuned to The Jurassic Park Podcast for all of the latest news!

Written by: Tom Jurassic