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A robust red-haired man walks the streets of London late at night. The systematic blinking lights mirror each step he takes. Behind him, a trail of fire and smoke. He carries a broken guitar and book. Perhaps his talents lie elsewhere. No one knows where this man is headed. They say destruction follows his presence. He is a family of one and he, much like destruction itself, is impartial.

They are wrong.

Our guest is headed to the British Museum and he has a family. His name is Destruction but he deserted that name long ago. He now goes by the title of “Prodigal”. He earned this title after he fought against his brother Dream where he received much ire from the rest of his family. He was cast out of the realm of the Endless. Much like Destruction itself, he, or it has no purpose. Yet today, the Prodigal marches with fervor in his step and desperation in his breath.

He’s running away. But from what? No. Running to somewhere.

In what seems like an instant, he traverses across Bloomsbury and appears at the metal gates of the British Museum. Inside the museum, a rainbow aura emanates from the building’s hull. Someone is there and the Prodigal knows who.

Delirium, youngest of the Endless, is here to play.

“Hello Brother. It’s been far too long!” she says as she runs toward Prodigal. Being greeted with such an unfamiliar sight, Destruction is at first caught off guard and he stops before regaining his composure. “I see you’ve had quite the makeover since the last time I saw you!” he exclaims. “Well. well. well. You would know all about makeovers, wouldn’t you? After all, you were the one responsible for this hairdo” she says as she tugs her hair, a maniacal grin slowly creeping across her face.

Destruction can’t help but wince as he remembers the damage he has caused to the family. Seeing this, Delirium murmurs “You know, you could always come back. We need you. Things have changed. Endless things like us are coming to an end.”. A tear falls from Delirium’s opal-colored eye as her lips close to form a pout.

“I can’t do that. Our brother won’t let me. I have done something terrible and my exile will last until everything perishes. So is the fate of destruction in a world with nothing to destroy.” Prodigal responds. But as he does, Delirium shrinks to the ground and unleashes a bloodcurdling scream. Her eyes rage in different colors as she is lifted into the air. From her screams, a pink portal materializes and then silence. Delirium lays unconscious on the floor and the portal transforms into a beautiful woman.

Love in its most potent is Delirious. Love has a mistress.

Prodigal only caught a faint glimpse of her fleeting figure before she evaporated into thin air. He quickly turned his attention back toward Delirium only to be greeted by the space she once occupied. Delirium was gone and only anger met the Prodigal. Gritting his teeth and digging his nails into his palms, Destruction reminded the world of why he earned his name. In a fiery explosion that razed the entire museum, Destruction screamed. In a rainfall of ash and cinder, Destruction uttered one word before getting up to move.

“Dream.”

Nothing in life is easy.  Every being no matter how big or small must struggle for their whims. Oftentimes these struggles culminate in success. But what of the times in which defeat is the only solace to struggle? Well, we turn toward Desire and Despair. They are the Twin sisters of the eternal family in the DC universe. It is said that these two siblings are polar opposites of one another yet one cannot exist without the other. Desire is a fluid being: one whose form changes based on the perception of those who gaze upon it. Despair’s form is that of loss, hopelessness, and sadness. She wields a hook that snags on the lips of unsuspecting beings. When you are at your lowest point, Despair has caught you on her hook.

Recently, these two have been lounging about in the mortal world. 

“Ah, blessed are these souls who give so much in return for so little,” remarks Desire. She envies them. “They’re doomed you know? Never before has my hook snagged so many souls in such little time. I fear this is abnormal, even in times such as these.” says Despair as she reels in her blood-red hook. Suddenly, her hook becomes snagged. She pulls and pulls some more. “It’s stuck?” said Despair. “I didn’t even know that was possible.” shot Desire. Despair pulled harder and when the line finally gave in, she was greeted with a smoking trail.

“No. Not Stuck. Completely destroyed. The hook was destroyed. But by whom?” she questioned. Despair turned her eyes toward Desire and the image before her was seared into her mind. Desire was completely pale-afraid. “We have to go now. Now!” cried Desire before a blast of white energy struck them both. “It’s not possible. Whatever summoned that blast is impossible. We are Eternals, we can not be hurt because we’re ideas. We are Constancy.” thought Despair.

“That’s the last time you meddle in our affairs.” screamed two voices in unison. It was two faces: one purple and twisted and the other, serene and strangely human. The opposites of the Marvel Universe have arrived: Master Order and Lord Chaos.

As the bodies of Despair and Desire fade away and their identities fall back into the home of the endless, one thing was clear. Ideas and Concepts could be destroyed.

War is coming.

Part 6 coming out soon

When the first living organism lived, its destiny had already been decided. It would die. But what then? What happens after we die? Are we ready to find out? Well, to answer these questions, we turn toward Death, the eldest sister of the eternal family in the DC universe. She comes to all things when they die and it is said that when all things die, “she will turn off the lights, push in the chairs, and lock the doors behind her as the universe ceases to be.”.

As Death stands over a tombstone, she extends her hand and escorts the soul of a father into the Realm of Dream, the positive side of the metaphysical. “Rest well, old man. You were loved, though the same couldn’t be said for the others I have escorted.” says Death as she drifts away. The old man looks back at her as the color returns to his pale skin. “Whats gonna happen to me? Oh God. No.” he says. His eyes are met with a different face… two faces actually.

The Woman in Black whispers in the Red man’s ear and before the father could say anything his body slumps to the floor and a piercing laughter rips through the air.

“Guess you shoulda stayed dead amirite?HAHAHAHA!”

Normally, a theme with this blog is that I usually write about fan-fictions and pre-existing characters to create new stories. However, recent events in the United States have highlighted an issue that afflicts every citizen (some more so than others). The murder of George Floyd has sparked outrage and rightfully so. The American nation is being torn apart by a just destruction. We are fighting against an ancient enemy and I hope that in my lifetime, we can see its defeat. To whoever may read this, I hope this post inspires you to rebel in your own way because rebellion and advocation are the cure to oppression. I’ve written a short story about a different America; one that I hope I can see in my time alive. Hopefully, my readers can be inspired to do something similar whether it be through donations or creating your own pieces of literature. Wars are won through individual battles.

In a run-down apartment in suburban California, a young black boy runs along with his white friend. In the summer breeze, they do not have a care in the world. While the grown-ups do not get along, that never bothered this young boy and his friend. No, they were inseparable. Through the trials and tribulations of their youth, the bonds between the young black boy and his young white friend would become stronger. Soon they found themselves transforming the environment that they lived in and eventually, the grown-ups would begin to understand that they were being shaped by the bonds of camaraderie between the two kids. As the years progressed, America began to make peace with its heritage of oppression while also work for its dream of equality. As the years progressed, America became a nation that would not dwell on the mistakes of a bygone era but bask in the successes of an approaching one. As the years progressed, America would live up to the expectation held by millions of families across the world: an expectation of hope and lack of compromise.

In the end, all of this was just a story. But it doesn’t have to be.

SPOILERS

*I know this diverges a bit from the regular type of content I post on this website but I truly love the Star Wars franchise which is why I am speaking on the new film. Please note that this is just my opinion. As a fan of the trilogy, I feel that I should write something about this film simply because the STAR WARS films mean a lot to me. Please take everything I say with a grain of salt*

After watching the Rise of Skywalker, I could not help but feel underwhelmed at the lost potential. Let me be clear, this was not a bad movie. In fact, the film manages to adhere to the original episodes while also incorporating new ideas and storylines. However, as the final episode of the saga that spans decades, it felt incoherent and lazily crafted. So, let this post serve as an attempt to determine why these mistakes occurred in the big-budget film STAR WARS EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

1. Doing too many things at once

After watching The Rise of Skywalker, one thing that this movie tries to do is make up for the mistakes made in previous films. For example, one key narrative of The Rise of Skywalker is that they are rediscovering the true origins of Rey. Apart from the fact that this mystery was closed in Episode VIII where Rey’s parents were nothing special, the whole experience feels out of place. Instead of moving the story forward and exploring Palpatine’s involvement in the events of the new episode or any other interesting aspect of the movie, the producers decided to juggle many story arcs all at the same time. For example, a reoccurring narrative in the movie was this focus on Rey’s link to the dark side. On paper, this seems like a brilliant storyline to pursue yet the movie hardly explains how or why she is connected to the dark side. The movie only goes so far as to say that Rey is a Palpatine. That’s it. In one instance, Rey shoots down a carrier ship with her force lighting. Apart from the amazing cinematography, the movie does not show Rey’s progressive fall into the dark side. Rather, amazing feats such as shooting force lighting just happen to Rey without consequence or explanation. If I seem nit-picky, we can look toward another instance of a Jedi’s fall to the dark side being executed far better than Rey’s: Anakin Skywalker. In the Prequels, one motivation for Anakin to turn to the dark side is his desire to protect those he loves from death. Across the 3 films, Anakin goes through many trials and tribulations such as the death of his mother and his nightmares about a dying Padme. The point is the audience watched Anakin’s character develop into Darth Vader. They were invested in his journey and the feats that Anakin performed were warranted and understandable. In the Rise of Skywalker, while Rey does go through many trials to become a stronger Jedi, the same could not be said for the explanation of her sith powers.

2. Interesting plot choices

Although the plot of the movie was relatively coherent, there were some interesting plot choices that were made through the film. I say interesting because of the lack of explanation or development of the events which led my personal view of the plot to be “interesting”. Toward the end of the film, Rey and Ben/Kylo join together to fight Emperor Palpatine. Once the battle ends, Rey is severely injured until Ben heals her with the force. All of a sudden, Ben and Rey kiss and then he dies. What the heck? Why have you done this? These were all the questions that ran through my mind once I saw this scene. The problem is that the rivalry between Rey and Ben has been an integral part of the new STAR WAR episodes. Just like how Darth Vader became the face of the STAR WAR franchise through fan appeal, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren became the face of the new STAR WAR episodes. To top that all off, right after Rey and Ben kiss, Ben literally disappears and dies. BRUH. I understand that this is the last episode, but don’t kill off household characters for the sake off killing household characters. The death of Ben Solo was not warranted at all. When you look back at who we still have in the STAR WARS saga, the only two characters who have lasted from the originals are Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian. I get the whole idea of starting a new journey with Rey but Episode IX is the last episode. There was no point in killing off everyone and ending the movie in a place where the saga began. This brings me back to another interesting plot choice. At the very end of the film, Rey finally calls herself a Skywalker and the camera pans to the two suns on Tatooine, mirroring the scene with Luke Skywalker in Episode IV: A New Hope. This is a great way to end the saga but the ending would have had so much more weight if the producers had not played into the narrative of Episode IX being the last episode. Personally, I interpreted this ending as a beginning for Rey where she can explore the galaxy as a Skywalker with limitless possibilities. Hence, the term “last episode” did not fit in this context.

In the end, STAR WARS Episode IX is not a bad film. In fact, I was genuinely moved by some scenes such as the ending and Ben’s death. With that being said, it’s the most frustrating kind of movie in that the creative team had so much available to them and yet they never truly tapped into the number of resources to give fans what they want. The Rise of skywalker is not a bad film for average movie-goers but it suffers from a lack of identity. Where we had Episode VIII as a new take on the STAR WAR episodes, Episode IX tries too hard to rewrite the mistakes made in the previous film while also being full of twists.

On this blog, I often write about comics but more specifically, the force that binds them together. In the previous post, I wrote about this guy…

For those just reading this post, the Monitor is a sentient pool of energy that is supposedly representative of the ideas of the comic writers and the canvas that the characters are drawn in. So, over this past week, I was thinking about if there were other concepts similar to the Monitor. Luckily, as the STAR WARS Episode IX teaser aired, I thought about the nature of the force. For the record, I will be using the expanded star wars universe instead of the canon star wars universe because there more stuff to talk about. The Wookiepedia describes the force as

However if you scroll down a little further, it reads that

I would argue that both the monitor and the force are one in the same. Both encompass all things in their universe, and both are seen as forms of energies, both are also viewed to some regard as living beings. Just imagine, a world where Darth Vader and Superman engage in a duel of the fates…Oh, wait…

The Omniverse of entertainment. A nigh infinite plane of ideas manifested on the page. In this post, it is the page, the canvas that I will try and connect into the cinematic universes. DC has written about this idea of the canvas being an Over monitor.

What this means is that all pieces of writing, any idea ever conjured up within the back of your mind has manifested itself onto the canvas. Writers and bloggers such as myself try and act upon the canvas by making new creations which brings me to my next point. Within the Marvel universe, we come across the infinity stones. It is an opinion, that the infinity stones represent pens and pencils that the creators have put in the Marvel universe. However, there is more to this argument. If the infinity stones represent pens and pencils to modify the Marvel universe, then that proves the existence of someone or something actively putting these instruments into the cinematic universes for characters to use. Viewers, please share this post to as many people as possible so we can see if this idea is actually true. Imagine if there were other pens and pencils in other universes. Perhaps, these types of equipment already exist in the form of lantern rings from DC, or the force from STAR WARS, or the Allspark from Transformers…

Very recently, the new Spiderman trailer came out and I am sure you all have seen it. In the trailer were many notable faces such as Mysterio and the elemental’s(or at least that’s what they appear to be). Being part of the Marvel multiverse and in hand, the EC-omniverse, I drew a couple of connections from the trailer. First off, the technology that is used by Mysterio. In the trailer, he is given the title of being like Thor and Iron man rolled into one. I believe that the events of the movie take place after endgame because of spiderman’s presence in the movie and the restoration of peace of stability in the world. With this in mind, Mysterio’s armor is most likely alien in nature and as a result, the question became how did he get his technology. I will definitely analyze more trailers and clips before the movie is released. Who knows what universes are hinted when you’re Far from home?