Showing posts with label Loki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Loki. Show all posts

Friday 21 October 2022

Threat






Yeah, "Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!".....
Fuck 'em.
If They had not DONE 
What I Told Them NOT to Do --

They'd still be alive.

Mr. Blonde, 
The Psychopath.

Tony Stark threatens Loki "We have a Hulk"

It's not The Gunbut 
The Hard Heart that Kills.

-- Kubrick.

One cannot Change 
what one Does Not Accept.

-- Jung.








Loki
Please Tell Me 
You're going to appeal 
to My Humanity

Tony Stark : 
Uh, actually I'm planning 
to threaten you.

Loki : 
You should have left 
Your Armor on for that.

Tony Stark : 
Yeah. It's seen a bit of mileage and You got 
The Glow-Stick of Destiny, over there -- 
Would you like a drink?

Loki : Stalling me won't change anything

Tony Stark : 
No, no no, threatening
No drink? You sure? I'm having one.



Dr. Stephen Strange
Thank you for the books 
and for the horrifying story and... 
for the threat upon my life.


Steve Rogers : 
Big man in a suit of armour. 
Take that off, what are you?

Tony Stark : 
Genius, billionaire, 
playboy, philanthropist.

Steve Rogers : 
I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage -- The only thing you really fight for is yourself. 
You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, 
to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.

Tony Stark : 
I think I would just cut the wire.

Steve Rogers : 
Always a way out... 
You know, you may not be a threat, 
but you better stop pretending to be a hero.

Tony Stark
A Hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. 
Everything Special about you 
came out of a bottle!

Steve Rogers
Put on The Suit. 
Let's go a few rounds.



Natasha Romanoff
[all arguing in the lab]  
Are you really that dense? 
S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats.

Bruce Banner
Captain America is on threat watch?

Natasha Romanoff
We ALL are!

Tony Stark : [to Rogers]  You're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?

Steve Rogers : I swear, Stark, one more wisecrack out of you...

Tony Stark : Verbal threat! Threatening! I'm being threatened!

Thursday 6 January 2022

"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)

Wednesday 1 December 2021

Feed The Wolf Inside












Holo Security Officer : 
Our scans picked you out right away. 
A rigorous debrief is protocol for Terrans. 

Holo Security Officer 2 : 
We also know You're a Murderer in at least TWO Universes. 
Don't look at Him. Look at Us. 

Holo Security Officer :
So, this will be your second universe, your third timeline. 
Depends on how you look at it. 


Evil Georgiou :
I like to look at it like this -- 

Holo Security Officer 2 :
Why are you blinking? 

Evil Georgiou :
Why aren't you

Holo Security Officer :
What was Your Connection to Control? 

Evil Georgiou :
We Dated. 

Holo Security Officer 2 :
All Terrans are Duplicitous by Their Biology. 

Evil Georgiou :
Or Biplicitous by Our Duology. 

Holo Security Officer :
Neither "ology" has anything to do with it. 
You may not be aware, but in the past hundred years, 
We've discovered a chimeric strain on the subatomic level in The Terran stem cell. 

Evil Georgiou :
Silly Holo. You cannot rattle me 
by introducing a completely fabricated biological component 
to My Nastiness and Inherently Bad Behavior. 
I'm Extremely WICKED, even for a Terran. 

Holo Security Officer :
Who are you? 

Evil Georgiou :
What if You're NOT A Holo? 

Make her stop. 

Evil Georgiou :
What if You're A Human programmed 
to THINK He's A Holo? 


( Chuckles

Big Glasses :
You broke My Holos. 

Evil Georgiou :
Blinking at their harmonic rate disrupts the holo protocols, 
creating a reference loop that shuts them down. 
Upgrade Your Programs and Stop Wasting My Time.
 
Why are You Wearing Glasses? 

Big Glasses :
Um, they make me look smarter
I Like 'em

Evil Georgiou :
....I MIGHT Decide to Like You -- 
Debrief as You Will. 



Big Glasses :
You're Curious about My Badge. 

Evil Georgiou :
I'm Bored. 
I Thought I could break it down for parts. 


Big Glasses :
Play with it. 

He removes his badge and rank insignia 
from his uniform, tossing it over and across the desk -- 
She CRUSHES it in her fist, 
letting it drop onto the desk and roll onto the floor, 
as a tight ball of twisted metal.

Big Glasses :
It's clear, Emperor, what you're capable of. 
What's NOT Clear to Me is 
Why You chose to come here. 

Evil Georgiou :
I Have a Curious Nature. 

Big Glasses :
Really? April 5 is My Birthday. 
A Terran Holy Day. April 5, 2063... 
first-ever contact between Terrans and a Vulcan survey ship. 
But then, Your People slaughtered everybody on board. 

Evil Georgiou :
Vulcans need to learn to stay in Their Lane sometimes. 
And it's not like it's a HIGH Holy Day. 

Big Glasses :
I've been fascinated by 
Terran History and Methodology
since I was a boy.
 
There are VERY FEW species 
that DO Things simply to DO them. 

Evil Georgiou :
We're mostly untroubled by pesky motivations. 
Except for Revenge. We Do Like That One. 

Big Glasses :
It seems you've created An Empire 
based on The Maxim, 
"Because We FEEL Like It." 

So WHY would you EVER join a Starfleet Crew? 
If you simply wanted 
to butcher them, You would have. 

Evil Georgiou :
Much as I enjoy being fetishized... and I Do... 
I'll Answer Your Questions if You Answer Mine first. 

Big Glasses :
No, You won't really do that. 

Evil Georgiou :
Correct. 

Big Glasses :
And even if You Did, You'd Lie
So the only way I'll glean ANY Information 
is via The Questions You Ask ME. 
So, please : -- 

Evil Georgiou :
Who's REALLY in Charge now? 
The Burn appeared to have been 
quite the humbling experience for The Federation. 
Who was responsible? 

Big Glasses :
That's Two Questions. 
Pick one. 

.....There are conflicting theories, 
but no hard proof pointing at any one particular Bad Guy. 

Evil Georgiou :
Sounds like The Federation lost a step. Or five. 


Big Glasses :
And yet it endures. Unlike The Terran Empire, which fell centuries ago. 

Were you aware that the distance between our two universes 
started expanding sometime after your departure? 
There hasn't been a single crossing in over 500 years. 
You didn't know that, did you? You're all alone now

Evil Georgiou :
I think... You and The Federation are afraid. 
Because whoever DID this must be Merciless
A Threat to Whatever or Whomever you hold Dear. 
The Weakness of People is generally Other People... isn't it

Big Glasses :
You're Not Wrong. 
But that could also explain 
Why You'd fall in line with Discovery. 
There's A Person on The Crew... 
You Care About, isn't there? 



Wednesday 17 November 2021

237


“Oh no, now I really 
am in Trouble..!”


The Dark Multiverse is A Shadow 
under the primary Multiverse, one formed of every fear and bad decision ever made or dreamt. 
Worlds in the Dark Multiverse are fragile and constantly deteriorating, 
inevitably doomed to destruction 
by their own malformed construction.






“….While news reached The Courtroom of The High Council's mass resignation, The Master warned The Inquisitor that 
The Valeyard had materialised his TARDIS 
aroundTime Vent in The Matrix. 

If The Vent were to be opened for too long
there would be catastrophic ramifications 
for the Space-Time continuum. 

The Valeyard - now shown to be 
a pitiable old man afraid of dying 
planned to use this threat to force 
The Time Lords to give him 
The Doctor's remaining regenerations.
 
The Master revealed that he had 
been hired by the High Council 
to murder The Doctor in 
exchange for A Pardon
but he had now decided not 
to follow through 
on His Mission. 

The Doctor bluffed his way 
into The Valeyard's TARDIS 
just as The Valeyard opened 
The Time Vent Door -- 

Struggling, The Doctor and The Valeyard 
plunged into the Time Vent 
while The Master had Glitz seal The Door
Saving The Universe but trapping 
The Doctor for all eternity.

Kubrick's TIMEDOORS

“Well, it’s not easy, you know…!”

“It's not as if we know 
what That Thing IS....”

“Well, I'll Tell You -- 
it's a TIME VENT.”





“I see…!”

“Now,
What’s A Vent for, eh?”

“Well, err…”

“…Flushing?”

“Right! So stop dilly-dallying —
and FLUSH it!”

“Then we return to the motif of the shower head,
the impassive eye which has just watched this horrible thing happen.

This shot of the shower head at the beginning of the scene was
one of joy, she was going to get a new start and now that same
water is washing away the evidence of her existence and the murder.

The Water keeps running 
and The Blood flows,
but The Heart is stopping.

It's just such an amazing image 
to see Her Life flowing 
down The Drain.

What a metaphor that is!”

Elijah Wood :
And it switches to The Eye, right?
Oh, come on.
That's so good.

Eli Roth :
“I wonder how long this shot is, how long she had to hold —
To get her eye to stay open?
Just to make sure her eye didn't twitch even a tiny bit.

Oh, my God, that's incredible.

Eli Roth :
The Pointless Spiralling 
of  The Universe 
and the way that 
Everything is ultimately 
drawn down The Plughole 
towards Oblivion,  
towards Meaningless Death.

I think to some extent 
we are looking at 
Hitchcock's fears 
as well as his obsessions.”


“You see it in Barton Fink, you see it 
in so many movies and you're like, 
"Why is he going inside the drain?
Are we going to go inside?"

That is the moment of Psycho where 
Everything Changes.

This was made by an auteur film-maker and that is a very personal stamp.

It's a rupture in the movie
but the movie never achieves this 
kind of poetry again and you begin
to realise that, 
"Oh, this was what really mattered 
most to Hitchcock."

Tomasini has done a clockwise turn optically which then, right about here, hooks back up to the freeze-frame footage.

I'm just amazed they were able to get that clean.

Usually when you do an optical it's pretty grainy but it looks
so smooth and so beautiful.

It's surprising and seamless where they go from live action,
it's like one of the greatest opticals in the history of movies.

It's also kind of like what the title sequence is doing
in Vertigo, it's a theme that runs through this film
and then later on, of course. 

It's not style just for style's sake,
it's got content.


The cameras were huge and very difficult to manipulate.

You can actually see pictures of Hitchcock behind a Mitchell
and you get a sense of what it was like riding on that
carriage behind that huge locomotive of a camera.

Whereas today it's a snap, you just do it like Gus Van Sant.
In the remake he did it all live action.

The pull-back from her eye was 
a whole robotic camera move.

Gus Van Sant's Editor :
I seriously followed the original 
film shot by shot.

I was able to cut it exactly like The Original, 
and we watched it,
and it was weird and 
it didn't work.

I said, "Well, Gus, come over, watch the scene. I have a few reservations of how it's playing right now
and it doesn't feel like The Shower Scene yet."

We went in and tried to make it 
a little more Gus Van Sant-y.

To duplicate something as iconic 
as The Shower Scene,
:: ::
I really think it wasn't going to work.
:: ::
And it just didn't.
:: ::
I always loved the placement of those drops of water cos
:: ::
they're like tears.
:: ::
Right at the end it was a little flicker in her eye,
:: ::
a little highlight in her eye.
:: ::
And you can see her eye move.
:: ::
There's a tight, slight flick of the eye, there.
:: ::
Hitchcock almost fetishistically lingers in this postmortem moment.
:: ::
This is what happens after you die and no-one turns off the water.
:: ::
Hitch had a little snap of the finger to let Janet know
when the camera had past and was going to pan into the room.

It took a lot of takes.

I can feel the moleskin pulling away from my top part and so I could feel this, it was just of going...
SHE SQUEAKS
..and I thought, "You know what?
I don't want to do this damn thing again. 
I really don't want to."

And there are all the guys on the scaffolding and I said,
"I'm not going to be modest. 
Let 'em look."

Q: Why would you cut to the shower there?

A. : I don't think The Reason has anything 
to do with artistic decision. 
It's The Solution to some 
technical problem that he had.


Hitchcock's Granddaughter :
After my grandfather filmed Psycho
and it had been shown to all the executives,
the last person he showed it 
to was my grandmother
and they were sitting in the screening screen,
and he's panning out and she looks 
at my grandfather and says,
"Hitch, you can't release this."

And he said, "Why not?" 

She goes, "Janet Leigh took a breath."

They couldn't reshoot it.
Janet was gone, they didn't have the budget,
so they simply cut back to 
the shower head spewing water."

And then that cynical camera move —
She made her moral decision 
and this is what it got her.

There's an image of 
The Uncaring Universe
if you want one.

You see the headline there - "OKAY
it is not OK. Nothing is OK.

He always comes back to his MacGuffin which is the —
He throws the newspaper into the quagmire, 
it goes down with the car.

And The Audience says, 
"That's The Money that we thought 
was important in This Story,
it's totally unimportant."

“This is the thing in the movie that always tortured me —

The greatest scene in movie history ends 
on a sour note with a bad ADR line — 
That has been the doom of so many movies.

Here comes Norman.
Just wondering What Happened 
and oh, my, he can't believe it —
‘Another murder at the motel. 
How did that happen?’

It's an extraordinary aftermath, 
it's a crucial piece of the film-making to sort of let the consequence of it actually land —

It's not about getting the blood stains out of the tub,
it's about this incredibly laborious process
that this unbearably damaged soul needs to work through.

It demands not just that we watch 
as we've watched The Murder of Marion Crane, 
we're also voyeurs to 
The Horror of Norman's World.



For me, the clean up represents 
Alfred Hitchcock's Sense of Orderliness
sense of 
"I wasn't sexually aroused by this woman, and I'm just going to pretend that this unhappy episode just didn't even occur."

I think that cleaning always represents sexual guilt.

You care about this guy. 
And I know it sounds crazy 
but you do.

You want to know 
what's going to happen to him, 
you want to know
is he going to be free of this 
or is it going to consume him?

The fact that he is able 
to get you to care is one of 
the miracles of the movie.






















(The Doctor runs back for The Screwdriver.)

Perfect-10
Why? Why would I give her 
My Screwdriver? Why would I do that? 
Thing is, Future-Me had years 
to think about it, all those years 
to think of A Way to Save Her
and What He Did was 
Give Her a Screwdriver. 

WHY Would I DO That?

(Because it also contains a neural relay
which has Two Green Lights on it.)

Perfect-10 : 
Oh! OH! Oh, look at that
I'm VERY Good!

DONNA : 
What have you done?

Perfect-10 : 
Saved Her.

[Stacks]

(The Doctor is running as one green light goes out.)

Perfect-10 
Stay with me! 
You can do it, stay with me!
Come on, You and Me
one last run!

[Reading room]

Perfect-10 : 
Sorry, River, shortcut!

COMPUTER
Platform Disabled. 

(The Doctor dives into the gravity well. The last light is blinking.)

[Data core]

RIVER [OC]: 
Everybody knows that Everybody Dies. 
But not every day.

(The Doctor plugs the screwdriver into the core, and her neural energy is transferred.)

RIVER [OC]
Not Today.

(Charlotte Node smiles.)

[Hospital grounds]

(River is wearing a loose white robe. Charlotte and Doctor Moon walk up to her.)

GIRL
It's okay, you're safe. 
You'll always be safe here. 
The Doctor fixed the data core. 

This is a good place now. 
But I was worried you might be lonely, 
so I brought you some friends. 

Aren't I a clever girl?

Miss EVANGELISTA
Aren't we all?

(Anita, the two Daves and Miss Evangelista with her normal face are walking towards her.)

RIVER
Oh, for Heaven's Sake. 
He just can't do it, can he? That Man. 
That Impossible Man. 

He just can't give in.

RIVER [OC]: 
Some Days are Special. 
Some Days are so, so Blessed. 
Some Days, nobody dies at all.

(The Doctor returns to the Reception and stares at the Tardis. He snaps his fingers, and the door opens. Donna is waiting inside.)

RIVER [OC]: 
Now and Then, every once 
in a very long while, 
every day in a million days, 
when The Wind stands Fair, 
and The Doctor comes to call --

(He snaps his fingers again and the door closes.)

[Children's bedroom]

(River closes her diary.)

RIVER
Everybody Lives.

(She kisses Charlotte goodnight and looks at Ella and Joshua.)

RIVER
Sweet Dreams, everyone.



In the Steve Gerber miniseries The Phantom Zone #1-4 (January–April 1982), it is revealed that the Zone not only has a breach through which other inmates had escaped, but that they were never heard from again. The imprisoned Superman and Quex-Ul use this method and travel through several dimensional “layers” seeking the exit into the physical universe. They finally encounter a Kryptonian wizard named Thul-Kar, who tells them that he believed Jor-El’s prophecy of Krypton’s doom and entered the Phantom Zone through magic. Using the same breach, he discovered the truth about the Phantom Zone: all its levels are manifestations of the consciousness of a sentient, malevolent entity called Aethyr, The Oversoul.

As explained by Thul-Kar, Aethyr itself came into being uncounted millennia ago when two spiral galaxies collided at an almost primordial stage after the physical universe’s creation. Countless worlds were simultaneously destroyed and the deaths of so many beings merged somehow to form a single, evil consciousness that called itself Aethyr The Oversoul. This supremely powerful entity enclosed itself into a dimension outside the physical universe within itself, forming the Phantom Zone.

The Zone itself is an interface between the Earth-One dimension (the physical universe) and Aethyr’s mind, the outer layer (where zone criminals are housed) representing its ability for abstract thought; the Zone is basically Aethyr’s capacity to imagine other possibilities of existence, and is the outermost template of its consciousness. Only by entering Aethyr’s core realm can a zone prisoner escape back to the physical universe, but this process is dangerous since any being who tries risks being destroyed in numerous ways as well as by forever having their souls merged with Aethyr’s essence while within Aethyr’s core realm. This is because as you enter deeper into Aethyr’s consciousness, you no longer exist as an abstract entity and your existence becomes subject to Aethyr’s whims. When attacking Superman and Quex-Ul, Aethyr personified itself as an aggressive, purple-skinned dog’s head that breathed flames capable of destroying and absorbing the souls of those that it wishes to conquer. While Quex-Ul is killed by Aethyr in this fashion, Superman manages to make his way out of the Phantom Zone by avoiding those flames and flying directly through Aethyr’s skull and its mind, returning to Earth through a tear in the fabric of Aethyr’s mind and the physical universe, but not without encountering the horrific remains of all of the souls entrapped within Aethyr over the millennia.

Mister Mxyzptlk is later possessed by Aethyr. During the process while Myyzptlk is imprisoned on his own home dimension, Thul-Kar communicates with Mxyzptlk and offers him an escape in exchange for the merger. This merger, however, empties the Phantom Zone of its criminal inhabitants. As the Phantom Zone villains head to Earth to conquer it, Thul-Kar and Nam-Ek are re-absorbed into Aethyr. Superman awakes and sees that the Phantom Zone villains are wreaking havoc on Earth, causing destruction to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and demanding Superman come out and fight them. Superman battles the Phantom Zone villains in Washington D.C. While fighting Faora Hu-Ul, he witnesses her disappearing as she is absorbed into Aethyr. Mister Mxyzpltk reveals that his strong personality has taken over Aethyr and he absorbs all the rest of the Phantom Zone inhabitants back into himself, determined to torture them endlessly and wreak havoc as he sees fit. Mxyzpltk-Aethyr leaves, intending to next take over the Fifth Dimension, and Superman is left to put out the fires in Washington and then rid Metropolis of the Kryptonite remains of Argo City.

Main LOKI : 
[SHOUTING] 
No! This way! 
Come and get me! 
 
[DRAGON ROARING]
 

CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
No! No!

[UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING] 
RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES
[GRUNTING] 

He resurrects [An Image of] 
Lost and Fabled Asgard, 
in The Heart of The Phantom Zone 
using only His Magicks 

LADY LOKI :
How is he doing that?

Main LOKI : 
I think we're Stronger than we realise.

CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
[GRUNTING] 
Go! 
[ECHOING] 


What are you doing? 

SYLVIE
We're gonna enchant it. 

Main LOKI
I don't know how

SYLVIE
You do. Because We're The Same! 

[ROARS] 
[BOTH GRUNT] 
[GRUNTING] 
[DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES] 

CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
[GRUNTS WEAKLY] 
Glorious Purpose
[LAUGHING] 

[EXHALES] 
Open your eyes.




"Once Denny enters Room 237, like, that's... that kind of is, like, the activation of the rest of the movie. 

Like, that's what causes Jack to go insane finally. 
That's what brings Hallorann to The Hotel. 
Like, The Room 237 is, like, is sort of this... 

I mean, I compare it to the mysterious hotel room at the end of 2001
where there's... 
It's this strange, strange place that somehow, like, transforms the rest of the narrative. 

The Shining takes place on the top of a mountain in kind of like a, you know, magical shape-shifting environment. 

And, like, travel is... traveling out of it is... 
You know, instead of 2001, where you're Traveling to Something
The Point of The Shining is to Escape
is to travel out

And Room 237 is, like... it's kind of like 
The Escape Pod of The Hotel.

You're, like, in this LOOP. 
But, you know, there ARE escape routes, 
like the... like, 
I think he puts escape routes into it
into This Maze, into This Trap

I mean, there are ways out of it. 

And Danny finds a way out of it, you know, 
by retracing his steps, by going backwards and forwards. 

And once you start, you know, studying, you know, synchronicity and symbolism, then, like, suddenly, like, you're noticing in Your Own Life, like, things start popping out. 
Things that you hadn't noticed before

Your Point of View is being altered 
by Your Study. 

It's Quantum Physics, you know, like, 
The Act of Observing, 
affects The Thing Observed.

And, of course, Vice-Versa.