"Vengeance is Mine," Sayeth The Lady-Version

"Vengeance is Mine," 

Sayeth The Lord;

And if that ain't reason enough 

to convince you that 

God is a Woman, 

then I can't see any way 

in which anything else

ever COULD --

HE WHO REMAINS: 

No. 

(CHUCKLES) 

No. Nope, this is where we diverge from The Dogma. 

That first variant encountered a creature 

created from all the tears in Reality, 

capable of consuming Time and Space Itself.

A Creature… You both know.

LOKI: 

Alioth.

HE WHO REMAINS: 

Bingo! I harnessed The Beast’s Power 

and began experimenting on it.

 

I weaponized Alioth and I ended… 

I ended The Multiversal War. 

Once I isolated Our timeline, all I had to do was manage the flow of time and prevent any further branches. 

Hence, The TVA. 

Hence, the Time-Keepers and a highly efficient bureaucracy. Hence, ages… 

(GRUNTS) 

…and ages of cosmic harmony. 

Hence… You’re Welcome. 

… You came to Kill The Devil, right? 

(CHUCKLES) 

Well, guess what? 

I keep you safe. 

And if you think I’m evil, well, 

just wait till you meet my variants. … And that’s the gambit! Stifling order or cataclysmic chaos. (CHUCKLES) You may hate the dictator, but something… (EXHALES DEEPLY) …far worse is gonna fill that void if you depose of him. I’ve lived a million lifetimes. I’ve gone through every scenario. This is the only way. The TVA, it works.

SYLVIE: Or you’re a liar.

HE WHO REMAINS: Or I’m a liar.

LOKI: So you just… continue to prune innocent timelines?

HE WHO REMAINS: Mmm-mmm. You two would. There’s two options! One… you kill me and destroy all this, so you don’t just have one devil, you have an infinite amount. Or… you two. You two run the thing.

LOKI: You’re lying. Why would you give up being in control?

HE WHO REMAINS: (SIGHS) Buddy… I’m tired. And I’m older. I’m older than I look. This game is for the young, the hungry. I’ve gone through a lot of scenarios… trying to find the right person to take this spot. It turns out that person came in two. (EXHALES) But it’s definitely you two. So, no more lies. You kill me and the Sacred Timeline is completely exposed. Multiversal War. Or you take over and return to the TVA as its benevolent rulers. Tell the workforce who they are and why they do what they do.

SYLVIE: You treated real people’s lives like some kind of game.

HE WHO REMAINS: It’s not personal, it’s practical.

SYLVIE: It was personal to me.

HE WHO REMAINS: (GROANS) Grow up! Grow up, Sylvie! Murderer! Hypocrite! We’re all villains here. (CHUCKLES) We’ve all done horrible, terrible, horrific things. But now, we, you… have a chance to do them for a good reason.

(DISTANT RUMBLING)

HE WHO REMAINS: We just crossed… the threshold. (CHUCKLES)

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

HE WHO REMAINS: Oh. So, I fibbed. I fibbed earlier when I said I know how everything’s going to go. I… I know… I knew… (CHUCKLES) …everything up to a certain point, and that point was about… seven, eight, nine, ten seconds ago. But now I have no idea. No idea how the rest of this is going to go. I’m being candid.

(HE WHO REMAINS EXHALES DEEPLY)

LOKI: So, that’s it? That’s it? This is what happens at the end of time? And now you’re just gonna sit there with all that freedom and… let us decide your fate?

HE WHO REMAINS: Yes! Yes! Yes! What’s the worst that can happen? You either… take over and my life’s work continues or you plunge a blade in my chest and an infinite amount of me… start another Multiversal War. And I just… end up right back here anyways. (CHUCKLES) Reincarnation, baby.

SYLVIE: No, it’s just another lie. Another manipulation.

HE WHO REMAINS: Oh. No lie. No manipulation.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(HE WHO REMAINS SIGHS)

HE WHO REMAINS: Wow. (CHUCKLES) I love this. I love… all this honesty. … Feels like a fresh start. … Oh, holy…

(LOKI GRUNTS)

SYLVIE: What’re you doing?

LOKI: Hang on a moment. Let’s just talk about it.

SYLVIE: Well, how about we finish what we started and kill him?

(GRUNTS)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

LOKI: What if he’s telling the truth?

SYLVIE: So what?

LOKI: I believe him.

SYLVIE: Believe what? That a bazillion boogeymen will turn up just because we give people free will? He’s a liar, Loki.

LOKI: So am I. (PANTING) And I don’t think he was lying. Not about that. Insane? Yes. But maybe he was telling the truth.

HE WHO REMAINS: Better hurry. Timeline’s already branching.

SYLVIE: So, what are you suggesting?

LOKI: That we think about it.

SYLVIE: And what precisely is there to think about?

LOKI: Weren’t you listening to what he was saying? That’s the gambit. Remove the dictator and what fills the void?

SYLVIE: Ah. You want the throne?

LOKI: No, that’s not it. No.

SYLVIE: I don’t believe you.

LOKI: Sylvie, the universe is in the balance, everything we know to be true. Everything. I know the TVA has hurt us both. But what if by taking him out, we risk unleashing something even worse? All I’m suggesting is we just take a minute to think about it. I promise you from my heart this isn’t about a throne.

SYLVIE: What was I thinking trusting you? Has this whole thing been a con?

LOKI: Really? That’s what you think of me… after all this time? Sure. Why not? Evil Loki’s master plan comes together. Well, you never trusted me, did you? What was the point? Can’t you see? This is bigger than our experience. 

 SYLVIE: Why aren’t we seeing this the same way?

LOKI: Because you can’t trust… and I can’t be trusted.

SYLVIE: Then I guess we’re in a pickle.

LOKI: Sylvie, wait. (PANTING) Wait.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(GRUNTS AND GROANS)

LOKI: Sylvie. Sylvie.

(SYLVIE GRUNTS)

LOKI: Maybe he’s lying! Maybe he’s not. The cost of getting this wrong is too great.

SYLVIE: 

Fine. Do it. Kill Me. 

Take your throne.

LOKI: No.

(SYLVIE GRUNTING)

(GRUNTS)

LOKI: Sylvie, stop. Stop.

(SWORD CLANKS)

(BOTH PANTING)

LOKI: Stop.

(SYLVIE BREATHING HEAVILY)

LOKI: 

Stop.

(SYLVIE SNIFFLES)

LOKI: 

I’ve been where you are. 

I’ve felt what you feel. 

Don’t ask me how I know. 

All I know… is 

I don’t wanna hurt you. 

I don’t want a throne. 

I just… (SIGHS) 

I just want you to be okay.

(SYLVIE SNIFFLING)

(SIGHS)

(SWORD CLANKS)

SYLVIE: But I’m not you.

(GRUNTS)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)

HE WHO REMAINS: Incredible. (LAUGHING)

SYLVIE: Aren’t you gonna beg for your life?

HE WHO REMAINS: Um, could, could. (CHUCKLES) … (GRUNTS) I’ll see you soon. (CHUCKLES)

(SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES)

(SYLVIE CRYING)

(CRACKLING)

(RAPID BEEPING)

MOBIUS: No turning back now.

Who said anything about turning back?

“For all time.”

“Always.”

(LOKI SIGHS)

MAN: Copy. Reporting to the armory, sir.

That’s, what, 63 new branches in this unit alone?

Does he want us to just let them all branch?

At this point, how are we gonna stop it?

LOKI: We can’t!

What? What’d you say?

LOKI: It’s done, Mobius. We made a terrible mistake.

What’s done?

(MOUTHING) What?

LOKI: We freed the Timeline. We found him beyond the storm. A Citadel at the End of Time. He’s terrifying. He planned everything. He’s seen everything. He knows everything. It’s complicated. Okay?

Right.

LOKI: But someone is coming. Countless different versions of a very dangerous person. And they’re all set on war. We need to prepare.

Take it easy. You’re an analyst, right? What division are you from?

LOKI: What? What are you talking about?

Who are you? What’s your name?

Boots on the ground now. Archives.

Who are you?

(LOKI BREATHING HEAVILY)

(SHUDDERS)

Harry Dean Stanton

Marvel Avengers Assemble - 

Bruce Banner extended scene - 

Official Clip | HD

BANNER 

(COMING TO): 

Did I Hurt anybody?

HDS : 

There's nobody around here 

TO get Hurt. 

You did scare The Hell out 

of some pigeons though.

BANNER: 

Lucky.

HDS : 

Or just Good AIM. 

You were awake 

when You Fell.

BANNER: 

You Saw?

HDS : 

The whole thing, 

right through the ceiling. 

Big and Green and

 buck-ass Nude. Here…

He throws Banner a pair of big pants. 

Banner pulls on his pants.

HDS : 

I didn't think those would fit you 

until you shrunk down to 

a regular-size fella.

BANNER : 

Thank You.

HDS : 

Are You Cain?

BANNER: 

What?

HDS : 

Cain — From Outer Space, 

An Alien?

BANNER: 

No.

HDS : 

Well Then, Son —

You’ve got 

A Condition.

J.W.

Joss Whedon interviewed by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo

"We were talking about Work Ethic --

Because Everyone in comparison 

to your output, Joss, and your Work Ethic, 

would appear to be slack and lazy --

Because, y'know, people work very hard, in Life, and they get their pay --

But you seem to be working, like, 

a hundred times harder than anybody else --

J.W. :

"Well, part of that is Smoke and Mirrors, I think, 

but part of it is that I do Love The Work,

and also, I DO Have A Problem,

A Serious Mental Problem :

It's Workaholism, and it's not fun, 

I Don't Do Anything Else --

Other People Have Lives,

and, They're Nice to Their Friends,

and They do all sorts of things that I forget to do in The Morning

(and that also includes Basic Hygiene, but let's not talk about that....) "

I mean, none of my schoolteachers could've told you, that this was going to happen 

(except perhaps my Film Professor) --

It wasn't until I began studying and making Film, and Television, that I discovered that 

That was Why I am Here,

and that was really 

The Only Reason --

So, The Story is -- correct me if I am wrong --

That you had finished the filming for Avengers, 

and you were supposed to have some time off --

like, Time-Off, go away with Your Wife, that kind of thing --

Time Off --

But instead of doing that, in the 2 weeks you actually had, between film and editing, Post-Production and whatever, you actually

made another movie --

Which is 'Much Ado About Nothing'.

Is that actually True...?

Yes -- 

It was, in fact, 

My Wife's idea....

 

TRUST

I said,  
"We'll lose". 

You said,  
"We'll do that together too." 

And guess what, Cap? 

We Lost. 

You Weren't There. 

No Trust. 

Liar.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRUST AND CONFIDENCE

YOUTH: There is something about this 'affirmative resignation' that sounds pessimistic. 

It's just too bleak if the upshot of all this lengthy discussion is resignation. 

PHILOSOPHER: Is that so? 

Resignation has the connotation of seeing clearly with fortitude and acceptance. 

Having a firm grasp on the truth of things – that is resignation. 

There is nothing pessimistic about it.

YOUTH: A firm grasp on The Truth....

PHILOSOPHER: Of course, just because one has arrived at affirmative resignation as one's self-acceptance, it does not automatically follow that one finds community feeling. 

That is the reality. 

When one is switching from attachment to self to concern for others, the second key concept – confidence in others – becomes absolutely essential. 

YOUTH: Confidence in others. In other words, believing in others? 

PHILOSOPHER; Here, I will consider the words 'believing in others' in the context of distinguishing trust from confidence. 

First, when we speak of Trust, we are referring to something that comes with set conditions. 

In English, it is referred to as credit. 

For example, when one wants to borrow money from a bank, one has to have some kind of security. 

The Bank calculates the amount of the loan based on the value of that security, and says, 'We will lend you this much.' 

The attitude of 'we will lend it to you on the condition that you will pay it back,' or 'we will lend you as much as you are able to pay back' is not one of having confidence in someone. It is Trust.

YOUTH : Well, that's how bank financing works, I guess.

PHILOSOPHER: By contrast, from the standpoint of Adlerian psychology, the basis of interpersonal relations is not founded on Trust but on Confidence. 

YOUTH : And 'confidence' in this case is ...?

PHILOSOPHER : It is doing without any set conditions whatsoever when believing in others. 

Even if one does not have sufficient objective grounds for trusting someone, one believes. 

One believes unconditionally without concerning oneself with such things as security. That is Confidence.

YOUTH : Believing unconditionally? 

So, it's back to your pet notion of neighbourly love? 

PHILOSOPHER : Of course, if one believes in others without setting any conditions whatsoever, there will be times when one gets taken advantage of. 

Just like the guarantor of a debt, there are times when one may suffer damages. 

The attitude of continuing to believe in someone even in such instances is what we call Confidence. 

YOUTH: Only a naive dimwit would do such a thing! 

I guess you hold with the doctrine of innate human goodness, while I hold with the doctrine of innate human evilness. 

Believe unconditionally in complete strangers, and you'll just get used and abused. 

PHILOSOPHER: And there are also times when someone deceives you, and you get used that way. 

But look at it from the standpoint of someone who has been taken advantage of. 

There are people who will continue to believe in you unconditionally even if you are the one who has taken advantage of them. 

People who will have confidence in you no matter how they are treated. 

Would you be able to betray such a person again and again?

PHILOSOPHER: I am sure it would be quite difficult for you to do such a thing.

YOUTH: After all that, are you saying one has to appeal to the emotions? 

To keep on holding the faith, like a saint, and act on the conscience of the other person? 

You're telling me that morals don't matter to Adler, but isn't that exactly what we're talking about here?

PHILOSOPHER: No, it is not. 

What would you say is the opposite of confidence? 

YOUTH: An antonym of confidence? Uh.....

PHILOSOPHER: It is Doubt. 

Suppose you have placed 'doubt' at the foundation of your interpersonal relations. 

That you live your life doubting other people – doubting your friends, and even your family and those you love. 

What sort of relationship could possibly arise from that? 

The Other Person will detect the doubt in your eyes in an instant.

He or she will have an instinctive understanding that 'this person does not have confidence in me'.  

Do you think one would be able to build some kind of positive relationship from that point? 

It is precisely because we lay a foundation of unconditional confidence
 that it is possible for us to build a deep relationship.

YOUTH: Okay, I guess.

PHILOSOPHER: The way to understand Adlerian psychology is simple. 

Right now, you are thinking, 'If were to have confidence in someone unconditionally, I would just get taken advantage of.'  

However, you are not the one who decides whether or not to take advantage. That is the other person's task. 

All you need to do is think, 'What should I do?'  

If you are telling yourself, 'I'll give it to him if he isn't going take advantage of me', it is just a relationship of trust that is based on security or conditions.

PHILOSOPHER: Yes. As I have stated repeatedly, carrying out the separation of tasks returns life to an astonishingly simple form. 

But while the principle of the separation of tasks is easy to grasp, putting it into practice is difficult. I recognise that.

YOUTH: Then, you are telling me to keep on having confidence in everyone, to keep on believing in all other people even when they deceive me, and just go on being a naive fool? 

That's not philosophy or psychology or anything of the sort – it's just the preaching of a zealot!

PHILOSOPHER; I reject that definitively.  

Adlerian psychology is not saying 'have confidence in others unconditionally' on the basis of a moralistic system of values.  

Unconditional confidence is a means for making your interpersonal relationship with a person better, and for building a horizontal relationship. 

If you do not have the desire to make your relationship with that person better, then go ahead and sever it – because carrying out the severing is your task.

YOUTH: Then, what if I've placed unconditional confidence in a friend in order to make our relationship better? 

I've jumped through all sorts of hoops for this friend, gladly satisfied any requests for money, and been unstinting with my time and efforts in his regard. 

But even in such cases, there are times when one is taken advantage of. 

For example, if one were horribly taken advantage of by a person one has believed in completely, wouldn't that experience lead one to a lifestyle with an 'other people are my enemies' outlook?

PHILOSOPHER: It seems that you have not yet gained an understanding of the goal of confidence. 

Suppose, for example, that you are in a love relationship, but you are having doubts about your partner and you think to yourself, 'I'll bet she's cheating on me.' 

And you start making desperate efforts in search of evidence to prove that.  

What do you think would happen as a result? 

YOUTH: Well, I guess that would depend on the situation.

PHILOSOPHER: No, in every instance, you would find an abundance of evidence that she has been cheating on you.

YOUTH: Wait? Why is that?

PHILOSOPHER: Your partner's casual remarks, her tone when talking to someone on the phone, the times when you can't reach her... 

As long as you are looking with doubt in your eyes, everything around you will appear to be evidence that she is cheating on you. 

Even if she is not.

YOUTH: Hmm.

PHILOSOPHER: Right now, you are only concerned about the times you were taken advantage of, and nothing else. 

You focus only on the pain from the wounds you sustained on such occasions. 

But if you are afraid to have confidence in others, in the long run,

you will not be able to build deep relationships with anyone.

YOUTH: Well, I see what you're getting at – the main objective, which is to build deep relationships. 

But still, being taken advantage of is scary, and that's the reality, isn't it? 

PHILOSOPHER; If it is a shallow relationship, when it falls apart the pain will
be slight. 

And the joy that relationship brings each day will also be slight. 

It is precisely because one can gain the courage to enter into deeper relationships by having confidence in others that the joy of one's interpersonal relations can grow, and one's joy in life can grow, too.

YOUTH: No! That's not what I was talking about, you're changing the subject again. 

The courage to overcome the fear of being taken advantage of – where does it come from?

PHILOSOPHER: It comes from Self-Acceptance. 

If one can simply accept oneself as one is, and ascertain what one can do and what one cannot, one becomes able to understand that 'taking advantage' is the other person's task, and getting to the core of 'confidence in others' becomes less difficult. 

YOUTH: You're saying that taking advantage of someone is the other person's task, and one can't do anything about it? 

That I should be resigned, in an affirmative way? 

Your arguments always ignore our emotions. 

What does one do about all the anger and sadness one feels when one is taken advantage of?

PHILOSOPHER: When one is sad, one should be sad to one's heart's content. 


It is precisely when one tries to escape the pain and sadness that one gets stuck and ceases to be able to build deep relationships with anyone. 

Think about 
it this way. We can Believe. And we can Doubt. 

But we are aspiring to see others as our comrades. 

To believe or to doubt – The Choice should be clear.

NATASHA: 

It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth. 

World Governments are in pieces. 

The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. 
And it looks like he did... exactly what he said he was going to do. 

Thanos wiped out 50%, of all living creatures.

TONY: 

Where is he now? Where?

STEVE: 
We don't know.

ROCKET: 
He just opened a portal and walked through. 

[Cut to a shot of a sullen-looking Thor, sitting on a bench, seemingly deep in thought.]

TONY: 
What's wrong with him?

ROCKET: 
He's pissed. He thinks he failed. 
Which of course he did, 
but there's a lot of that's goin' around, ain't there?

TONY: 
Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear.

ROCKET: 
Maybe I am.

NATASHA: 
We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. 
Deep Space scans and satellites, and we got nothing.

STEVE: 
Tony, you fought him.

TONY: 
Who told you that? I didn't fight him. 
No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone. 
That's what happened. There was no fight.

STEVE: 
Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?

TONY: 
Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. 
I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. 
Thought I was dreaming.

STEVE: 
Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus.

TONY: 
And I needed you. As in, past tense. 
That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. 
Sorry. You know what I need.

[Tony stands, pushing things off the table with a clatter. Everyone winces at the noise.]

TONY: 

I need a shave. 

And I believe I remember telling you, Cap.

[Tony goes for Steve. Rhodey quickly comes in front of him, trying to stop him.]

RHODEY: 

Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!

TONY: 

Otherwise what we needed was 

A Suit of Armor Around The World!

 Remember that? 

Whether it impacted our precious Freedom or not - 

That's what we needed!

STEVE: 

Well, that didn't work out, did it?

TONY: 

I said, 
"We'll Lose". 

You said, 
"We'll do that together too." 

And guess what, Cap? 

We Lost. 

You weren't there. 

But that's what we do, right? 

Our best work after the fact? 

We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. 

Not the Prevengers, right?

RHODEY: 

Okay, you made your point. 

Just sit down, ok?

TONY: 
Nah, nah, nah. 
[He pushes Rhodey away] 

Here's my point.

RHODEY: 
Sit down!

TONY: 
[Referring to Carol] 
She's great, by the way. 
We need you. You're new blood.

RHODEY: 
Tony!

TONY: 

Bunch of tired old mills! 

I got nothing for you, Cap! 
I got no coordinates, no clues, 
no plan, no options. 

Zero. Zip. Nada. 

No Trust. Liar.

[Steve looks affected by Tony's words. The old friends just gaze at each other. After a moment, Tony rips his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoves it into Steve's hand.]

TONY: 
Here, take this. 
You find him, and you put that on. 
You hide.

[Tony falls to the ground. Steve is by his side and everyone is starting to gather.]

STEVE: 
Tony!

TONY: 
I'm fine. I...

[Tony falls into a heap, unconscious.]

[Cut to a shot of Tony on a bed, with Pepper at his side.]

RHODEY: 
Bruce gave him a sedative. 
He's gonna be out for the rest of the day.

CAROL: 
You guys take care of him. 
And I'll bring Xorrian Elixir when I come back.

RHODEY: 
Where are you going?

CAROL: 
To Kill Thanos.

NATASHA: 
You know, we usually work as a team around here, and between you and I, we're also a little fragile. 
We realize this is more your territory, but this is our fight too.

ROCKET: 
Do you even know where he is?

CAROL: 
I know people who might.

NEBULA: 
Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is. 
Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. 
Then when he worked, he talked about his Great Plan. 

Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. 

I'd ask "Where Would We Go?",  
once His Plan was complete. 

His answer was always the same: 

To The Garden.

RHODEY: 
That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan.

STEVE: 
So where is he then?

ROCKET: 
When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. 

No one's ever seen anything like it... 
Until two days ago. 

[A hologram of a planet pops up, with a shockwave visibly traversing the surface.]

NEBULA: 
On this planet. 
Thanos is there.

NATASHA: 
He used the stones again.

BRUCE: 
Hey, Hey, we'd be going in short-handed, you know.

RHODEY: 
Look, he's still got the stones, so...

CAROL: 
So let's get him. 
We'll use them to bring everyone back.

RHODEY: 
Just like that?

STEVE: 
Yeah, just like that.

[Steve and Carol share a knowing look.]

NATASHA: 
Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... 
I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try.

BRUCE: 
If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?

CAROL: 
Because before, you didn't have me.

RHODEY: 
Hey, New Girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. 
And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time.

CAROL: 
There are a lot of other planets in the universe. 
And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys.

[Thor, who has been eating a snack behind all this time, stands up and walks over to Carol. He holds his hand up, and catches Stormbreaker as it flies over to him, missing Carol by inches. But Carol doesn't even flinch, instead smiling at the God of Thunder.]

THOR: 
I like this one.

STEVE: 
Let's go get this son of a bitch. 

[Cut to a shot of everyone except for Carol and Tony aboard the Benatar.]

The End-Game

Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready 
for 

The Big Moments. 

No one asks for their Life to change, not really. 

But it 
does. 

So what are we, helpless? 

Puppets? No. 

The big moments are 
gonna come. 

You can't help that. 

It's what you do afterwards that 
counts. 

That's when you find out 

Who You Are. 

 You'll see what I mean.

That Monologue saved My Life.

A Lot.

Thanatocracy

"Personally, I think The Survivors would envy The Dead."

Krusty The Clown 

(Quoting The Rand Corporation's Study on Limited Global Thermonuclear War)

The [Dr. Strangelove] War Room,

Sideshow Bob's Last Gleening

[The One w. The Fourth Doctor in it]

Thanatocracy

Noun

(plural thanatocracies)

1. Nominal governance by a dead person, through posthumous holding of an official position of authority, or by popular veneration and lasting influence of a personal ideology.

2. The enactment of mass and organized killing as an official policy of a state.

3. The enactment of policies held to lead, directly or indirectly, to death or an increased risk of death.

4. A culture in which rituals relating to the dead play a unique or important role.

5. (figuratively) Endemic stagnation or decay.

Origin

From Greek thanato-, "death", and -cracy, "rule".

" Mrs.John Brown "- The Queen-Consort is Dead;  and The Queen may as well be...

" King Edward [VII]’s apprenticeship for the monarchy was a long one. In 1861 his father, Prince Albert of Saxe- Coburg- Gotha, died. Edward’s mother, Queen Victoria, went into deep mourning and did not emerge from it during the 40 remaining years of her life. The queen was an occultist, as befits a royal house which has always been dominated by Venetians.

Queen Victoria retreated to her castle at Balmoral in the Scottish highlands, 500 miles north of London. The court was organized as a death cult, with every pretense that Albert was still alive. His laundry had to be done, and his nightgown laid out every night. Hot water was brought to his room every morning, and the chamber pot cleaned. There were two guest books, one for the queen, one for Albert, and so on. Victoria made repeated attempts to contact the shade of Prince Albert in the underworld – or the beyond – and these became the origins of the modern British occult bureau. As a result of these seances, the queen became convinced that John Brown, her Scottish gillie (attendant), was a powerful medium through whom the spirit of Albert addressed her. Gossip seeped out from Balmoral to London that John Brown was “the queen’s stallion,” granted every conjugal privilege, including adjoining bedrooms far from the ladies-in-waiting. A pamphlet about the queen appeared entitled “Mrs. John Brown.” 

Victoria was very like Miss Habisham of Satis House in the Dickens novel “Great Expectations.” This was the woman for whom time had stopped when she had lost her husband. When we factor in the frequent orders made for opium and heroin at the local Balmoral pharmacy, we get a picture of Victoria’s life in the Highlands. 

Prim and straight laced it was not.

"Windsor" - The House That Jack Built

"Edward VII’s first son was Prince Albert Victor Edward, known in the family as Prince Eddy and formally as the Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Prince Eddy, like his father, had been considered mentally impaired in his youth.

Prince Eddy was arrested at least once in a homosexual brothel. His main claim to fame today is that he is the prime suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders. This grisly series of crimes involved the murder of five prostitutes in the Whitechapel- Spitalfields slum of London in 1888-89. At the time of the murders, rumors abounded of the involvement of a member of the royal family, and of an obscure background of Freemasonic intrigue. The papers of the attending physician of the royal family indicate that he had indeed treated Jack the Ripper. A number of exhaustive studies have concluded that this was Prince Eddy. According to some versions, Prince Eddy had contracted syphilis during a trip to the West Indies during his youth, and this had affected his brain. According to others, Prince Eddy was part of a homosexual clique that killed because they hated women. There is no doubt that Prince Eddy answered to the best available description of the Ripper. Young Prince Eddy conveniently died a few years after the Ripper murders ceased.

A quarter of a century ago, a British physician came forward with evidence supporting the thesis that Jack the Ripper was Prince Eddy. A wire service dispatch from the period sums up the allegations made at that time:

“LONDON, Nov. 1, 1970 (AP) – The Sunday Times expressed belief today that Jack the Ripper, infamous London murderer of nearly 100 years ago, was Edward, Duke of Clarence, grandson of Queen Victoria and older brother of George V. The Times was commenting on the statement of an eminent British surgeon who said that the Ripper ‘was the heir to power and wealth.’ The surgeon, Thomas E.A. Stowell, while claiming to know who the criminal was, refused to identify him in an article to be published tomorrow in The Criminologist…. The Sunday Times, in commenting on Dr. Stowell’s article, said there was one name that fitted his evidence. It said: ‘It is a sensational name: Edward, Duke of Clarence, grandson of Queen Victoria, brother of George V, and heir to the throne of England. All the points of Dr. Stowell’s story fit this man.'” (Spierig, p. 11)

Shortly after having published his article in The Criminologist and thus made his allegations public, Dr. Stowell wrote a letter to the London Times in which he disavowed any intention of identifying Prince Eddy or any other member of the royal family as Jack the Ripper. In this letter Stowell signed himself as “a loyalist and a Royalist.” 

Stowell died mysteriously one day after this letter appeared, and his family promptly burned all his papers.

An American study of the Jack the Ripper mystery was authored by the forensic psychiatrist David Abrahamsen, who sums up his own conclusions as follows: “It is an analysis of the psychological parameters that enabled me to discover that the Ripper murders were perpetrated by Prince Eddy and J.K. Stephen.” (Abrahamsen, pp. 103-104) J.K. Stephen had been chosen as a tutor for Prince Eddy, who was mentally impaired. Stephen was a homosexual. He was the son of the pathological woman-hater Fitzjames Stephen. J.K. Stephen’s uncle was Sir Leslie Stephen, the writer. There is evidence that J.K. Stephen sexually molested his cousin, best known today by her married name, Virginia Woolf, the novelist. This experience may be related to Virginia Woolf’s numerous suicide attempts.

While he was at Cambridge, Prince Eddy was a member of the Apostles secret society. Abrahamsen quotes a maxim of the Apostles: “The love of man for man is greater than that of man for woman, a philosophy known to the Apostles as the higher sodomy.” [p. 123] Prince Eddy died on Jan. 14, 1892. J.K. Stephen died in a sanitarium on Feb. 3, 1892.

Prince Eddy’s younger brother, the later George V, assumed his place in the succession, married Eddy’s former fiancée, Princess May of Teck, and became the father of the Nazi King Edward VIII. If the persistent reports are true, the great-uncle of the current queen was the homicidal maniac Jack the Ripper. Perhaps the recurring dispute about what to call the British royal house – Hanover, Windsor, Guelph, Saxe- Coburg- Gotha, etc. – could be simplified by calling it the House of Jack the Ripper.

Of the existence of a coverup there can be no doubt. One of the main saboteurs of the investigation was a certain Gen. Sir Charles Warren, the chief of the London Metropolitan Police. Warren suppressed evidence, had witnesses intimidated, and was forced to resign amidst a public outcry about Masonic conspiracy. Warren was the master of a new Freemasonic lodge that had recently been created in London. This was the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, number 2076 of the Scottish rite. The Quatuor Coronati [ " Four Crowns* " ] Lodge had been founded in 1884 with a warrant from the Grand Master of British freemasonry, who happened to be Edward VII. "

- Tarpley

* The " Four Crowns " in-question, being - presumably - in 1884 :

•  The King-Emperor of The British Empire

• The Kaiser of Germany

• The Tsar of All the Russias

and, (this last one is slightly more of a guess than the others, but not by much)

• The Hapsberg Emperor of Austro-Hungary