The Legion Repair

This will be a broad look into how Marvel could go about reconciling their
time-lines, assuming the Fox absorption is allowed to occur, based on the
success of the FX show “Legion” and the titular character’s powers and history.
Spoilers for the television show will follow.

First, a basic overview of Legion a.k.a. ‘David’ which will incorporate
both the television show and the comics simultaneously:

David is the secret child of Prof. X. Having inherited the X-gene from
his father, whom himself was a particularly strong mutant with psychic abilities,
David ends up becoming a strong psychic. His ability, simply stated, is the
absorption/creation of other [people’s] psyche’s, (usually at their death but not
specifically) into his own. Upon absorption David(Legion) gains their abilities, even if they are not Psychic/mental in nature, e.g. electricity, super strength,
shape-shifting (centaur), etc.

It is then stated that after an unspecified amount of time with his powers/getting used to them, his real power manifests which is one reason for his “Omega
Classification.” Legion has the ability to warp reality to his wishes. If Legion
wants the oceans to be pink he could make it happen. Often times this reality
bending takes the form of pocket worlds and side universes but usually end up
breaching mainline reality. Some ways he has been dealt with in the past are: he
was essentially erased from existence… twice. Once when he accidentally killed
Prof. X after time traveling (grandfather paradox) and the second he erased himself from existence because he hated the horrors he’d wrought on the world.

Secondly it would be remiss of me not to mention the parasitic entity which latched onto David from a very young age; we’re talking basically baby status. Shadow King is an ancient entity who has been fighting against David’s father since long before David’s birth. Shadow King feeds off of all the bad stuff you’d expect an evil entity to feed off of: sadness, fear, anxiety, depression etc. as well as psychics. Like its name, Shadow King is basically mysterious and no one really knows much about it beyond the theory that it’s been around possibly longer than humanity. When the first strong psychic caught it’s attention, named Amahl Farouk, Shadow King often would assume that visage after taking control of him and most people came to know of it by that name.

Preamble out of the way I think you have a basic idea of how Legion can help stitch together the disparate parts of the Marvel Live Action Universe. I say MLAU instead of MCU because we have not seen the Fantastic 4, Deadpol or any other X-Men mentioned in the MCU movies. Not to mention any connection with the upcoming Venom movie which seems to hinge on box office success and Sony’s willingness to play ball with Marvel proper and the Spider-Man characters. Sony is technically another article but I digress.

The Meat

Shadow King often antagonizes Legion and in the television show is still existent inside of Legion. As far as the viewer knows, Legion has locked it away deep inside of their psyche and now that he believes he has control over his powers he’s not taking anymore shit. People have been messing with him and lying to him in the entire first season so he’s not necessarily a good guy or a bad guy. I’d say he’s more in the “chaotic” classification, based on the D&D alignment scale. His prior experiences make him distrustful of others and he seems to be relying on his ultra powerful status to basically big-dick his way around; no one can stop him.

When Shadow King breaks free (because we know he will), David will have garnered even more control over his abilities and we will likely have met a few other personalities whom reside therein. Seeing as the next upcoming season is airing in April this year and is assumedly finished or close to being so, I would wager the arc is about David coming into his own and possibly finding a way to expel Shadow King from his mind and body or Shadow King gains total control, which would leave us on a great cliff hanger for the next season. I could be wrong either way but just use those ideas as a generality more than a fact. The third season could revolve around reality bending more than the second seems it might. It is this third season which could lay the ground work for cohesion in the Marvel Live Action Universe if they don’t hint at it in season 2, which they most likely will not do because healthy logic applies.

Mainline Characters and Movies from Marvel-Disney

The events that are culminating for Infinity War and Avengers 4 are in and of themselves world breaking already. The MacGuffin that is the Infinity Gauntlet is being wielded by a character whom most of the viewing public is unaware of his actual power level and abilities. We just know he’s stupid strong. How do you top a being of that magnitude? You tie-in someone who could will Thanos out of existence just by farting. Be it Shadow King in control of Legion or an angry and mentally distraught Legion himself, you start peppering into the Marvel movies, seeds of the chaos that is ensuing on the Legion show.

One example of this would be you have Vision (Whom houses the mind gem) ask one of the human characters ( Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Falcon, Ant Man etc) something that the audience knows about but the character looks at Vision like he’s crazy. Another possibly much cooler thing to do would be have Wanda a.k.a. Scarlet Witch, whom also has reality warping powers, start to have episodes similar to something in the comics like House of M. You set up the movies, and thereby the audience, to believe that Wanda is turning evil and either doesn’t know it or is lying to us. Which fits thematically seeing that her twin brother Pietro(Quicksilver) was killed because they decided to fight against Ultron whom Iron Man created. In this regard you would have Legion/David played by Dan Stevens appear in small cameos in the movies, as he looks in the show, visit Wanda in dreams/visions and intentionally mess with her.

Now for this to work Dan would have to be not just a great television actor but also a great movie actor as well and I believe he can do it. However, given the nature of Legion and Shadow King you could just as easily have another actor play the movie version. The movies could play off the idea of Legion’s multiple personalities, specifically “Gestalt” so Wanda has no solid idea of who it is she’s really dealing with. Either way, the character himself is highly flexible in how he can be portrayed, yet if written correctly any portrayal would hearken strongly to the television version and not be cheap.

Now how would one write David/Legion into  messing with reality in this manner? It could be easy to set it up so that Shadow King wants to get the good guys off its back in the show by trying to change reality so he can achieve a higher goal. But you could also use a prior story arc to set David off which would help to retcon even the X-Men movies of years past.

You have David dream/see the Prof. being killed by Phoenix. Upon witnessing his father’s death he’s set on a path of trying to change things so that never happens, much like many people wish that movie never happened. This seems far-fetched as it is but with Deadpool humping the fourth-wall with jokes like “McAvoy or Stuart”  you can start to see how it’s possible. In the comics, Deadpool’s fourth-wall humping is attributed to him talking to himself because his character has had mental health problems even before he got his abilities. Someone with a mental space that is already as twisted as Deadpools, who seems to be aware of other time-lines can link very cleanly to a story where David/Legion is messing with reality in order to prevent his father’s death so he can finally meet him and squash all his daddy issues. Add in the fact that Cable is a time traveler and Josh Brolin is both Thanos and Cable and it allows for wonderful hilarity for Deadpool movies. “Hey Cable, I keep having a dream about this television show where the Professor’s kid has daddy issues. It answers, SO many questions and you’re there… TWICE!”

Long story short, Legion along with the Fox acquisition can open up possibilities that have before now been impossible for Marvel-Disney. We can have X-men, the F4, and others make appearances in the movies which will allow for more involved (not convoluted, there’s a difference) stories that have to rely less on basically 10 characters but a pantheon of interesting characters and personalities whom can prevent the Marvel movies from becoming stale affairs that meet all our pre-expectations at the end of our movie visit. It also allows for characters to actually die and have the stakes be raised before 17 movies go by (at the time of writing 01/21/2018).

What is this article beyond a bunch of over-thinking and fanboyism? Not much but I had fun thinking about it.

 

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Blacker than Energy

 

A story of caution by Javier R. Romero

 

It wasn’t long ago that physicists ramped up efficiency numbers for solar panels. It seemed to be a material engineer’s dream. Exotic materials were being created based on nano-technology that had just been prototyped. Bleeding edge technology for a bleeding edge world. Like software, video games, and cellphones, now the energy sector was releasing “Developer level” technology to the public. What’s cooler than being in on beta testing? Well… alpha testing obviously. The newer the better! Who cares if you get cancer? There’s a new experimental drug for that out now anyway.

 

But I digress… solar power!

 

Triple-junction cells were just the beginning! While studying what the energy transfer looked like in those cells they found something strange happening. In areas of the cell that were darker than others things seemed to be bi-locating. That is to say in layman terms one particle was in two places at the same time. Even more fascinating the waveforms were harmonizing in these areas but as soon as they left the darker regions the waveform collapsed. What did it mean? It didn’t take too long for the fringes of society to start worrying that scientists shouldn’t study the phenomena. If we listened to them we’d still be sitting in caves because fire is dangerous.

 

Needless to say, everyone got to work on making a perfectly even distribution of those darker areas until they managed to produce a perfect 350mm x 350mm panel. The scientific world rejoiced just because they were able to create the panel, it would be 7 months until they were able to test it but that was the hard part. In order to pull energy from the panel we had to rethink the way we interface with solar panels. Unfortunately the only person who had come close to explaining the process was a disgraced electrical engineer. He was the guy who blew up a power-plant because the “gnomes” said it was bored. Don’t ask me how a power-plant can be bored. Normally no one would’ve paid attention to him but he locked himself in on one of the meetings and forced everyone to listen to him… at gun point.

 

After a 2 day hostage scenario the scientists came to see that Englebart knew exactly what he was talking about… this time.

 

After coaxing 5 million dollars out of the federal government for “Renewable Energy Technology Development” Englebart got to work. He locked himself away in the warehouse and any attempt to get inside by the scientists was met with frantic yelling about disturbing the “Quantilis”. Even when the power went out he calmly walked outside, started up the generator trucks and went back to work. The phrase, “A man possessed” was too perfect. At the end of it all he wheeled out a 10 foot tall behemoth of wires, glass tubes and a board with at least 14 different knobs on the front.

“Don’t touch the knobs they’re for the song. You have to sing in tune or else it will get dark. Not colour, dark in, in, in, feel. Everything will change… feel different. Change isn’t good, not this kind. Don’t touch the knobs. Gotta sing in tune. A…A sharp should be good. Sing once, first song, final song. No change.”

 

He only agreed to and was able to get one interview despite the constant push for him to become the face of this new technology. The other scientists said he would be a sympathetic personality for people to connect to. Englebart knew they were making fun of him.

 

“So, finally Mr. Englebart…”

“Please, Timothy. Call me Timothy, I like Timothy.”

“Well then, Timothy. Why is it that you’re so intent on having your… tuner set to A sharp?

“Energy is important. Runs through the wires like a, like a hum. 60or 50hz. Boring sound but ok for cavemen. A sharp is alive and happy.”

“I see. Well Timothy, is there…”

“Music makes people happy. When you hear a good song you smile. When you hear a bad one you feel bad. Electricity is waves. Waves have sound. Make good sound, make good energy. Make bad sound… Bad sound bad. A Sharp happy.”

“Tell me this Timothy, what would happen if your tuner fell out of tune?”

 

It was at that point that Englebart started crying uncontrollably. Newspapers would go on to call him a freak and a weirdo. The other scientists were quickly branded as “The minds behind the future.” No one ever understood what he meant. All they needed to know was that he made the tuners and once the first one was set the others were automatic because of his “Quantilis”, whatever that was. No one knows because they’re locked inside the tuners.

 

Needless to say, with the oil reserves nearly dry, the world was holding its breath when the first test occurred. In actuality the theoretical numbers were so good they were already in talks for retrofitting existing solar farms and manufacturing single home units. It was impossible to stop the machine of commerce now.

 

On the big day Englebart was nervous. He kept saying the weather was bad, but that’s because he was struck by lightning in the past, hence his mannerisms. Clouds always made him uneasy. He made sure everyone was standing far enough back as not to disrupt his tuning. After 4 minutes of him humming to himself on national television he yelled in triumph, startling some of the people around him. He said before they started that “When I say you can make toast it’s a success.”

 

Everyone held their breath as the numbers on the power meter rose, 30 volts, 60, 120, 240. The camera pans over to the other side of the tuner and the screen said 30 amps. When the numbers stopped rising a reporter walked up to Englebart curious about what the readouts on the myriad screens meant.

 

“So Englebart, what do these readings mean? Is it a success?”

“Well these numbers are for each line and when the lines are used there are 14 in total. Cut one of them in half and you have the others singing fine through the wires to, to, to, to your toaster. We just have to let the tu, tu, tu, tuner… You can make toast.”

 

It was at that point the reporter slapped Englebart on the shoulder in congratulations. The reporter walked in front of him and motioned the camera to zoom in on the screens.

“Please be careful. It has a few more seconds to set.”

The reporter waved at Englebart and walked back down the stairs talking into the camera as everyone else was rejoicing. Finally, we have an alternative to oil that was cheap and easy to access. The wire on the reporter’s backup mic was now coiled around Englebart’s feet. With each step the wire was pulled taught, eventually making Englebart lose his balance. His hand landed on one of the knobs and a look of horror fell over his face. However the cameras were now focused on the more photogenic faces of the scientists Englebart had held hostage. His tuner made the sound to let him know the frequency had been set and Englebart fell to his knees.

 

It wasn’t until 4 years later that Englebart had his last interview.

“… Don’t you love how everyone is smiling now because of the green, cheap and affordable energy you helped provide them?!”

“Smiles hide mean thoughts. I don’t like the smiles. Everyone mean outside now not just inside… I said A sharp… this isn’t A sharp.”

 

It was slight, only visible for a flash of an instant but it was noticeable. The interviewer glared at Englebart with a murderous intent.

Slavigrant?

To Dr. Ben Carson,

To my understanding, you said slaves were immigrants who had a dream for their descendants to have a life that was better than theirs. I think you are mistaken. An immigrant leaves their country because they chose to. Whether or not that choice was made because of fear or a specific want, it was still a choice they made. My family is Puerto Rican. We come from an island that was pillaged by the immigrant-explorer known as Columbus. My people were murdered to make way for “immigrants”. The island of Puerto Rico was given it’s name by immigrant/explorers which is different from the name it’s people gave it. That original name was Borinquen. I doubt you know that name as I doubt most American people would know that name.

Some of the Borinquen who survived the initial cleansing were turned into slaves. Their land was taken from them and they were taken from their land to other continents they probably only knew about through stories heard from sailors who happened to find their little island. I’d be hard pressed to believe that they were thinking about the children they’d have and their bright futures while chained in the bottom of those boats, like so many sacks of fruit, vegetables, and seeds. I’d wager they thought about how much longer they had to live.

I can’t believe I have to tell you this, as it’s common knowledge but a slave is an unwilling traveler. In fact, a slave is a possession brought from one place to another as you would a vacuum or a hand towel. A slave is not treated as a person, so by definition a slave is not an immigrant. An Immigrant moves of their own accord. Outside forces are a factor yes, but an immigrant makes the choice to leave their home in search of something different, something better than they had, in a land far removed from their own. An immigrant chooses to experience other cultures while a slave is either made to accept a new culture or at the very least violently admonished for hanging on to their own.

Dr. Ben Carson, it confuses me how a neurosurgeon could be so blind as to equate a slave and an immigrant as you have done. Far be it from me to say the only people who experienced slavery were the Borinquen. However, I do not wish to speak for people whom I known nothing about.

Sincerely,

A Puerto Rican

Authors: How to Sign a Top Literary Agent

The Book Publicist

By Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications

 

Landing an agent for many authors is the most sought after goal. Why? It’s been long considered the fastest and most profitable path to publishing success. If that is your goal then you’ll want to check out these tips, techniques and resources to help you land the quality literary agent you are seeking.

Where to begin?

Get up to speed with the latest information with books and resources on the topic. According to Jeff Herman, book agent and author of Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents, authors should assess potential agents on the following points before sealing a deal:

1. The list of books the agent has sold to publishers, including the publishers’ and authors’ names.
2. The agent’s reputation online.
3. Why s/he likes your book and how s/he plans to market your book, with reference to a timeline and…

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Breakdown of Religion

Let’s get one thing straight, the US is a Secular nation arguably founded with the best ideals from Catholicism/Christianity, Love thy neighbour, don’t kill other people, etc. that is not to be construed as “America is a Christian Nation”. America does not have an official religion. Speak about the founding father’s personal religious beliefs all you wish, but Freedom of Religion is associated with the US for a reason. The United States essentially became a country of other’s Refuge for a reason. However, you should never forget America was also founded on the blood of the Native people whom were here FIRST. The myriad of Tribes which lived on this part of the continent and the neighbouring islands were slaughtered so others could live FREE of religious persecution, funny how that worked out. What also should not be forgotten are the colonies whom lived in peace with the native population, the ones who truly shared and learned from and with the Native people.

Where am I going with this? Well the separation of church and state for one thing. It seems the wall between these has eroded to nothingness over the centuries. For others, the wall never existed. Religious peoples have allowed themselves to become pawns in the political game which is currently causing a massive rift in American society. Even worse, religious peoples have allowed their beliefs to be turned into marketing and nothing less than a club with a membership who doesn’t seem to realize the reason why the youth “strayed from God”. The irony here is that many people do not realize it is they who have done it to themselves. Speaking from experience, I’ve always noticed the faces people make when they think others aren’t looking. I didn’t have to be an adult to realize that the stares and glares I received as a child in church were of the “You don’t belong here” variety. These stares weren’t plentiful but there were enough to make me curious. Imagine how it feels to have a priest make a sermon about love, respect, and the like, only to receive a stare of hatred from someone just for breathing the same air in the building as they. Then to have those same people speak with your parents and others in the congregation with forced smiles and faux laughter. I couldn’t have been the only one to notice these people but everyone else seemed too polite to talk to them about it. Stir not the demon you care not with to contend, I guess.

Fakeness is what drove many in my generation from religion, or in the least from the physical buildings of a religion. Religion to many has become a whithered badge to wear, to prove to others how you’re better than they are. Many people speak the words but how many strive to become better? To learn from those teachings? The response from many has been to “Religion Harder” which is akin to singing louder in church so God can hear you over the others, or prostrating yourself more gracefully during which ever religious movement/action applies.

Now I spoke of separation of Church and state before, but why? Well here’s the connection. I believe (heh) that it’s the people who “Sing louder” or “prostrate more grandly” than others, whom are responsible for the reason why Evangelicals are so highly regarded by the political system. Faith is a strong thing, so in the halls of religious institutions people are unaware that their beliefs are being used against them and turned into a political tool. Some are even tricked into believing that one party is more religious than the other and thus better. See where I’m going?

People want to believe that they are better than the person next to them because we’ve been hardwired or programmed to believe that it has to be that way and for some, the easiest way is to take up religion. Narcissists and other Sociopaths are spoken about in the political sense but I’m not aware of religions response to them in the current day and age. The Holy books and writings can say what they will but thinking on the leaders of “Mega Churches” alone it’s curious that they are not called out for being what they really are. When a religious officiator can speak to their congregation and point them at a political enemy that is a major breakdown of religion. That is actually no longer religion but politicking by another name.

Freedom of religion was written into the constitution in an attempt to prevent this kind of thing from happening. For the most part, day to day, it does. But the current times are causing me to think about “action-over-time”. The talking heads in the political realm try to sell one religion over another. They are attempting with varying degrees of success to paint an entire religion as filled with degenerates and murderers as if we were back in the times of the Crusades. What’s even worse is that people are buying into this madness, what’s more is that it’s even working in the religion vs secularism arena. One example of the latter being Planned Parenthood. Calls for the complete de-funding of a program which does far more than people are willing to realize. In a Secular Nation your religious book is not and should not be admissible in court. “Holier than thou” is not a reason to attack something you do not agree with. In America there are laws which should be followed and there are procedures for the way things are done or changed.

I believe that religion should stick to matters of the soul and the congregations thereunder should take care that their beliefs are not turned into a weapon to be pointed by a sociopath who managed to gain their trust.

This is not an attack on religion. It is an attack on those who pervert religion and those whom are willfully ignorant to their influence.

Oglala Sioux Tribe Suit against Army Corps

Turtle Talk

Here is the complaint in Oglala Sioux Tribe v. United States Army Corps of Engineers (D.D.C.):

Complaint

An excerpt:

This is a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the construction and operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) until the Defendant United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) completes an environmental impact statement (EIS) that fully analyzes the impacts of the DAPL to the Tribe’s Treaty rights and rights in the Mni Wiconi Project as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA).

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You Are Your Actions

Action for actions sake is just as naive and ignorant as inaction. An act should have an end goal in mind. To act merely for the sake of a visual show is wasted energy. This is applicable to all facets of life; participating in and professing a faith just to look religious, arguing, contrarian ideologies, etc.

There must be a solid ground for an action to have any significance. It’s spoken about in movies as “Dying for nothing.” when the naive yet selfless hero attempts to throw themselves into harms way, knowing they will die and change nothing. While self-righteous indignation may seem great, it does nothing.

Why do you REALLY go to church? Why do you REALLY protest? Why are you REALLY willing to risk your life? Do you truly believe the things you tell people just so they stop talking to you about it or perhaps do you say and do these things just to keep up appearances? For all the things I’ve been told to cherish and keep on a pedestal, as I’ve grown up and become an “adult” I find it wondrous that we constantly make excuses for why things are the way they are and why those things we were told to cherish are impossible now. “Do away with childish things” and what-not, this is the REAL world.

We shift blame for the reason why things became the way they are instead of actively trying to change course. “We’re heading off the cliff but we’re already heading this way, and I don’t want to be in the driver seat when we go over. I didn’t put us on this path.” Apathy and a reluctance to do wrong in order to keep up appearances lays the blame at everyone’s feet when we should be looking at ourselves. We are all in the wrong but no 1 can truly point to another to cast blame.

We left kindergarten years ago yet ALL people across this planet resort to name calling, and cast their vast nets of blame all while ignoring our own faults because clearly, our faults aren’t as bad as that persons, so we can obviously work on ours after they get their shit together.

We have our strengths but we allow them to go to waste because of whatever nonsense way of life we and generations before us have come to believe to be beneficial for us.

What is an action without the proper foundation? A death sentence to our quality of life.