Battlestar Galactica: To Hell and...

It's been an eventful few weeks. Now that the 40,000 remaining humans and the rebel cylons have left the nuclear wasteland that is Earth, the question is, "What next"? For 3 or 4 years, the humans kept themselves going with the promise of Earth driving them forward. Now, they are a group without a mission (a reviewer at the AV Club pointed out that Pegasus suffered a similar affliction, and look how well that turned out), and tensions are running high. Most humans aren't happy about trusting the rebel cylons, because getting over a near genocide and an oppressive regime are not things easily forgiven. But cylon technology is better than human tech, and Adama concedes that, with limited fuel, they will need to exploit every advantage they have if they hope to find a habitable planet soon.

If you thought this series was dark before, you haven't seen anything yet. After 4 seasons of planning, Tom Zarek finally got what he wanted, a revolution that put him in charge. And right alongside him was Felix Gaeta, one of the most idealistic characters on the series, whose faith in everything was lost earlier this season, along with his leg. **HUGE FRAKKING SPOILER ALERT** I actually was hoping that the execution of Adama had actually happened. Don't get me wrong, I love Admiral Adama, and the fleet would be in trouble without him, but that is exactly why I wanted him to die. First of all, it would prove once and for all that Galactica has some of the biggest metaphoric balls out there, and it would cause a ton of problems for the crew. And it's not like Edward James Olmos wouldn't be out of work anyway; the show is at its end.

I'm excited to see how the other 3 cylons will factor into the ending, and I can't wait to see how everything ends.

Up next: Getting back to the island...

Scrubs: My Supermen Return

After a subpar (by Scrubs standards) seventh season, it looks like Scrubs is getting back into form. I don't know if the writers felt rushed last year because of the impending strike or network mandates made writing difficult (the show was required to do a "green" episode, requiring it to have an environmental-friendly message, which was probably the worst of the season, and I got the feeling that NBC no longer had any love for the show), but things just didn't work. J.D.'s abrupt break-up with Kim didn't feel right, Turk learning Spanish didn't have the emotional impact it should have, and Dr. Kelso's forced retirement happened before the characters could truly appreciate what had actually happened (also, the so-called "series finale" was blatantly aired out of order, because Kelso was still Chief in it). The one part of the season I really enjoyed was Josephine, the fun-sized intern because of the way Cox hated her but couldn't help but love her (and her voice was hilarious).

But this year, everything is clicking again. Kelso's new role as the annoying guy that everyone wishes would go away, even though he gives out sage advice is hilarious, and Cox's role as the new Chief of Medicince is a great way to explore new relationships. The episode "My New Role" really caught me by surprise; the title led us to believe that it was referring to Cox's role as Chief, but the title actually refers to J.D. (I won't explain why, though). I will admit that I really didn't want J.D. and Elliot to get back together because of what happened at the end of Season 3, but the writers are handling it well (and they acknowledged those events, which placated me a little).

It looks like the writers are moving towards a planned ending that should tie everything up nicely. The characters have certainly grown over these past eight years while remaining true to who they are at their core, and it is going to be interesting to see how everything ends.

Up next: Looking for a home...

24: Real Time, Real World

I try very hard to avoid political discussions in The Other Worlds; the point of this website is to discuss entertaining films, television shows, and books, not to put forth my own insignificant political leanings. However, 24 has become a lightning rod for political debate due to the real world debates regarding its subject matter. The show is extremely conservative; the heroes have been known to utilize torture and circumvent the law to get information that allows them to stop the terrorists at the last minute (usually).

There is a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg phenomenon going on with the show; many of the events in the show simultaneously occurred in real life, and it was hard to keep track which happened first. Or, I guess I should say that many things that did happen in the show were debated in real life. In Season 6, in response to a series of terrorist attacks, the government set up interment camps for people suspected of terrorism. This was similar to Guantanamo, except in the show, the people rounded up were actually American citizens. I remember when it was airing, I spoke to a professor of mine who was actually concerned that American citizens would soon be shipped to Gitmo. Throughout the show, characters have used torture to get information and justified it by preventing catastrophes. Torture was a big deal during the Bush Administration, and there were numerous debates about whether torture was justified. A few politicians actually cited 24 as a reason why we should torture terrorist suspects (I used to have a link to back up this allegation, but it is gone, so you will have to take my word for it). Apparently, these politicians are unaware that the show is fucking fiction. At the same time, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA have criticized the show for its depiction of torture and the use of the ticking time-bomb scenario.

One thing I think the show takes too much crap for is its depiction of Muslims. In Seasons 4 and 6, Muslim Awareness groups balked at the fact that the terrorists that year were Muslims. Sadly, the way Muslims have been treated in real life in America in the wake of the September, 11 attacks has been horrible. But to say that 24 has singled them out and continually used them as villains is (pretty much) bullshit. Yes, some of the terrorists in Seasons 2, 4, and 6 were Muslim. But the worst terrorists have always been white. In the first season, the terrorists were American mercenaries and Serbian warlords. In Season 2, there were American terrorists working below the Muslims and American and German terrorists working above them. In Season 3, a rogue British spy was pulling the strings of Mexican drug lords. In Seasons 5 and 6, the Russians were behind things. And in Seasons 4-6, the Chinese have made their presence known as villains. The bottom line: no one group of people has been singled out as "THE VILLAINS". In fact, in Season 2, there was a multi-episode story involving a Muslim special agent who was attacked by a bunch of rednecks (sorry), who had to be taught some manners by Jack Bauer.

I'm surprised that women aren't more up in arms about the show than Muslims. The show has consistently been straddling the line of mysogony. With few exceptions, every woman on the show is either crazy, clueless, or evil. Kim Bauer was kidnapped so often that fans would refer to the incidents as "Kimnappings", and most women who were in similar situations became basket cases. Then there were the evil ones. In Season 1, two very important female characters turned out to be evil (ok, one was more of a Lady MacBeth, but she was still pretty bad). I think that the only woman who was ever completely competent was Michelle Dessler. The other two "strong women" of the show are Chloe O'Brien and Martha Logan, but both of them were still pretty crazy.

I like this show because it is entertaining, but I sometimes have a hard time swallowing its politics. However, I think it would be much easier if so many of the deplorable things that happened in it weren't the subject of actual debates. But that would mean that our world was not complex, which it certainly is.

Up next: A few updates...

24: Days Go By

Around the time of its third season, 24 became a huge hit. It had amassed a good-sized following in its first two years, but it exploded on Day Three and became a cultural phenomenon. Suddenly, people were making the CTU phone chime their cell phone ringtones, politicians were referencing the show, and parodies were made. Many many parodies. As much as I love this show, there is a lot to parody, and this post is about both the triumphs and tragedies of the series (though all political discussions will be reserved for the next post).

As I've said, the real-time aspect allows the writers to tell very tight and very intense stories, and although it is in many ways a gimmick, it is a gimmick that works very well and achieved its goal. 24 effectively mixed action with political intrigue over the course of (most of) the days and the real-time element gave both sets of stories immediacy. The time constraints often required Bauer, his coworkers, and government officials to choose between two (or more) very undesirable situations in order to stop teh various terrorist threats. Jack once held up a convenience store in order to stall a person who likely had information on that day's terrorist plot. There was also a time when President Palmer, against his better judgment, allowed his (crazy) wife to try and "handle" a situation that could threaten his reelection campaign when it appeared as if there were no other options. Some spoilers below.

Unfortunately, because each season involves a terrorist plot and a political plot, there are only so many things that can happen before the show has to go back to the well for ideas. I can't even remember how many times there has been a mole in CTU or in the government. Granted, there was a mole plotline in Season 5 that was effective both because of who the mole was and that the identity revelation was also the revelation of the existence of the mole. But aside from that one, no other mole story has lived up to the Season 1 mole story. Also, being President in the 24 universe should come with the world's greatest life insurance policy, because there is a near-100% mortality rate. Finally, nuclear weapons are the most recurring threat used on the show. The best nuclear plotline was Season 2, but that was mainly because it was novel. The Season 4 nuclear storyline was very good, but it did not strike me the same way as the Season 2 story did because there were multiple small (relatively) threats in 4 as opposed to the single enormous threat in 2. And, um, let's not talk about the Season 6 nuclear storyline (or Season 6 at all, for that matter).

I'll admit that 24 tends to sacrifice character for story. I'm not saying that people act out of character in order to further the story (although I do believe that has happened once or twice); rather, the show is plot-driven, and often glosses over characterization because there either isn't time or it isn't warranted. Normally, I would not let a show off so easily for sacrificing character development, but on a show like 24 I'm willing to let it slide to a degree. We don't see much of the characters in a home setting (though there are some exceptions, and one of the earliest scenes in the series is one of them), so we don't always see how their home lives shape their work lives. The characters are so busy stopping terrorist threats that there is little time left over to delve deep into their personalities. Personalities show themselves in the characters' chocies, but we usually aren't privy to the events that made the various characters believe the things they believe.

Every now and then, we see a bit of the various characters' personal lives. The best examples are Jack's relationship with his wife Teri in Season 1 (which was integral to the plot) and Tony and Michelle's relationship. Tony and Michelle's courting and marriage was not integral to the plot, but it was an effective background story that helped give them a human side and affected some of the choices they made (especially in Season 3). Sadly, adding personal lives to the mix didn't always work. The best (or should I say worst?) example was Chloe's pregnancy in Season 6. I don't know if I just didn't find it compelling or if it was written like a soap opera storyline, but that story absolutely infuriated me (and I like Chloe). Also, because Kim was usually not associated with CTU, most of her storylines were rather silly.

Finally, I will end with something that will carry over into the next post. Jack seems to have only two tones of voice: gruff and loud. And torture is his answer for nearly any situation, even if the person he is about to torture is a civilian. This is probably the aspect of the series that is the most heavily parodied. This is partly because the torture aspect is at the center of the political debates about this show. But with the frequency and intensity of some of the scenes, they tend to be the ones that get ingrained in the fans' minds. Jack's humorless demeanor is heavily referenced when fans talk about the series. Often, they try and pull off their best Bauer impression as these videos will demonstrate (I'm the guy in the squirrel costume):





Up next: A rare political post...

LOST: When Are We?

LOST started its fifth season on Wednesday, and although the second hour was only good (rather than great), this year is shaping up to be very good and very satisfying. When Ben moved the wheel, not only did the island move in space, but it also had temporal effects on the characters. Every now and then, Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, Rose, Bernard, and the expendables are thrown into a different point in time. The opening scene took place in the 70s or 80s and actually showed the DHARMA Orientation video scientist doing things that were not on a screen. And the scene ended with Daniel being on the construction crew of the Orchid Station.

This time-shifting will allow the writers to tell stories without relying on flashbacks/flashforwards, and scenes can focus on dead characters and people who are not our main characters. We will be able to see Rousseau arrive on the island, the storm that brought the Black Rock to the center of the jungle, and possibly the origins of the Others and Charles Widmore.

The off-island story with Ben, Desmond, and the Oceanic 6 was good for the most part, but I just want to see them get back to the island. Not enough time was spent on Kate and Sun, who are each involved with something most likely involving Widmore. Hurly got a lot of screentime, and even though I know that the men hunting him and Sayid are very likely associated with Widmore, the whole "on the lam" story just wasn't that exciting. However, Ben's part of the story is great, partly because Ben is always awesome and also because of the return of Ms. Hawking. Based on her role in Desmond's consciousness-leaping episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes", she seems like she will be a character with a lot of answers.

This wasn't the strongest season opener (the pilot will probably never be surpassed as the best opener), but it still had me very excited to see what happens next.

Up next: The days...

24: Events Occur In Real Time

24 was set to premiere right around the 9/11 attacks, and while that horrible event likely had a short-term detrimental effect on the show (it pushed back its premiere and required some editing for sensitivity), I can't help but think how much the resulting cultural change in our country has fostered a show like 24. The series follows Jack Bauer, an agent of the CIA's (fictional) Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). If you couldn't tell from the name, CTU's purpose is to monitor, intercept, and prevent terrorist activity and keep America safe. But this wasn't what the press reported on in the early days. The format got the attention.

Each season is comprised of 24 one-hour episodes, each representing one hour of one day in the life of Jack Bauer. Over the course of a single day, we Bauer and CTU as they learn of a terrorist plot, follow various leads, and attempt to stop said plot. The time constraint is both a strength and a weakness for the show; on one hand, it gives an immediacy to the threat at hand, and requires that Bauer and his team act as fast as possible to figure out and neutralize the threat. On the other hand (and let's not get into the logistical nightmare of having Bauer navigate Los Angeles as fast as he does in a car), the writers have to fill 24 hours, and sometimes we have to endure lulls in the main story or B stories we wish we could forget about (case in point: Teri's amnesia and almost anything having to do with Kim, with special mention going to the cougar). Still, in the first five seasons at least, the good far outweighs the bad, and 24 delivered some of the most action-packed and intense television in recent memory.

I still find it amazing how different the terrorists were in the first season, because it was written before the advent of Homeland Security and the color-coded terror alert system. But in Season 1, pretty much every villain was white (this did change, but even in the most recent seasons, the show isn't nearly as racist as some people make it out to be, but more on that in a subsequent post). The Season 1 villains included American mercenaries and Serbian nationalists who were intent on assassinating Senator David Palmer, who was likely going to become the first black Presidential candidate (sorry Barack). Season 1 followed Bauer trying to track down the assassins, who he and CTU initially thought were planning to kill Palmer for racial reasons, but as the season unfolded, a greater mystery was revealed regarding the motives. The first season also established the eventual friendship between Bauer and Palmer that would be mutually beneficial for the two characters, and set up the pivotal characters of Tony Almeida (a fan favorite) and Nina Myers.

Although I believe that the fifth season is the best because of the political story, Season 1 does have many of the best elements, everything was new (once again, more on this subject in a subsequent post), and the story was extremely personal to its two main characters. The next seasons involved various other terrorist plots, ranging from a nuclear bomb being brought to Los Angeles, biological warfare, and chemical warfare. The political storylines have also run the gamut from showing Palmer's first term as president, a rocky reelection campaign, and government corruption.

24 is nowhere near perfect, but for its first five seasons, it knew how to deliver thrills and twists extremely effectively.

Up next: Rise and fall...

The Time Has Come

I was thinking about what my next post series should be about (one of my friends suggested doing one on superhero movies, which, if I do, will come after seeing Watchmen), and I have decided to do one on 24. I find this particularly appropriate because in less than 2 days, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and this actually has two connections to 24. First, 24 was known in its early seasons for featuring a black president (Palmer For President!!), and second, the show was very much a product of the Bush administration. The show dealt with terrorism, torture, and shady politics.

I have not yet started watching the new season, so this series will be more about the rise and fall of the show (oh Season 6, how the mighty have fallen). I will examine how it started out as a novel way to tell a story, how it became a cultural phenomenon, and then, in the eyes of many, a cultural punchline.

Up next: The longest day of his life...

Fables: The Tales

About 80 issues of Fables have been released, and so much has changed from its humble beginnings. The series began by telling short stories about how the Fables were coping with living in the mundane world. The first few arcs each took on different genres and gave them a unique spin; the very first was a murder mystery, which perplexed a few of the characters because Fables are almost immortal. In addition to being a good story, it effectively set up characters like Bigby Wolf (the Fabletown sheriff), Snow White (the deputy mayor), and Jack of the Tales (a con man). We learned that Bigby is a gruff guy with demons in his past (he is trying to atone for all the harm he did as the Big Bad Wolf) and uncanny detective skills. Snow White is a bit of an ice queen who is willing to set aside her own desires for the greater good of protecting Fabletown. But the story also effectively sets up some of the "rules" of the Fables universe by incorporating them into the mystery.

As I said, Fables are very hard to kill because their strength and fortitude are based on their popularity with the mundies. Someone like Snow White or Cinderella would be nearly impossible to kill because of everything Disney has done for them. Kai, of Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, on the other hand, may not have it so easy because his story isn't as well known (I am not saying it is obscure, but I'm willing to bet that more people know of Snow White than Kai). Throughout the investigation, Bigby takes the reader to various places in Fabletown, where we see how different characters live. Most are rather poor and have to hold jobs in the mundy world. Some, like Bluebeard (not the pirate), escaped with their fortunes and are able to live fairly comfortably by buying magic glamours to disguise the more fantastic elements of their lifestyles.

The second story goes to the Farm to show the attitude of the Fables who live there. The Farm is almost a prison because none of the residents can ever leave, and it serves as a penal colony for human Fables who break rules; Jack has had to spend many years on the Farm doing hard labor to pay for his crimes against Fabletown. The next story showed how far the Fables are willing to go to protect their identities when a nosy reporter thought he discovered their secret (he was wrong, but the Fables didn't want any more attention on them than necessary).

These early stories were certainly good reads; they took interesting characters and allowed them to bend the normal rules of the genres they emulated. Having access to magic made various aspects of their lives and jobs easier, but it also comes with responsibilities that we don't have. Magic is not the quick fix that many children's stories portray it as, and high prices often come with using it.

But after these early stories, a much grander story started to emerge. The Eisner Award-winning "March of the Wooden Soldiers" (which remains my favorite arc of the entire series, even though many things that have come after it have been of equal quality) warned the Fables that the Adversary was beginning to set his sights on Fabletown and the mundane world. A group of the Adversary's psychopathic wooden soldiers showed up in New York to wage war on Fabletown. Fortunately for our characters, the Adversary made the classic mistake of underestimating his small band of opponents and did not anticipate a strong resistance. After the failed initial takeover, each side began preparing for war, with the Adversary amassing his grand armies and the Fables using what little fable power and any mundane abilities they could muster.

It was at this point that the juxtaposition of the fantastic and mundane really began to matter, because the Adversary wrote off the usefulness of mundy technology. He saw it as primitive compared to magic spells, enchanted war tools, and fantastic creatures. However, in the Fables' centuries in New York, they learned that not everything in the mundane world was so mundane.

Up next: Figuring it out...

Battlestar Galactica: Great Notions

And that's why I need to remember to trust the writers. Usually, I am pretty good at telling myself they have a plan and that even if things don't make sense right away, the writers deserve the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes this lets me down (Heroes), but most of the time, my faith is rewarded. I know that I aired a lot of grievances about the concept of the Final Five cylons last year, and while not every issue has yet been resolved, Galactica's midseason premiere, "Sometimes A Great Notion", did a lot to put my fears to rest. I still don't believe that the writers planned the idea of the Final Five from the beginning, but the direction they've taken the story in is very surprising and fulfilling. There is still some explaining to do, but it looks like the ultimate answers will be good ones.

But not only did we get insane revelations in this episode, we also got some incredible dramatic tension. Battlestar Galactica is known for being dark and depressing, but this episode really took things to a new level. The discovery of Earth was the biggest morale boost the fleet had ever experienced, but like most of the other good moments on the show, it quickly soured (I think the only good thing that didn't somehow turn out bad was the taking of the tylium asteroid in Season 1; the rendezvous with Pegasus, discovery of New Caprica, and Baltar's trial all led to more problems being created than solved). Earth is a nuclear wasteland, and according to Baltar, it has been for 2,000 years, so the radiation will make the planet uninhabitable for many years to come. Most of the episode follows the various characters as they cope with this heartbreaking discovery. The fleet has spent almost three years looking for a home, living in cramped spaceships with little to eat and the constant threat of final annhilation from the cylons. One character loses his/her faith in his/her beliefs, another loses his/her faith in his/her ability to lead, and another loses his/her will to live. Yeah...

It looks like the final nine episodes will follow the fleet and the rebel cylons as the follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. With no set goal in mind, they are venturing out into open space to find any new home they can. The 13 tribes of Kobol did the same when they left Kobol, and somehow were able to settle on 13 different planets and make their civilizations. All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. Again...

Up next: Life in the mundy world...

Fables: A New Look At Old Tales

Bill Willingham's Fables is the story of the fairy tale characters we read about growing up (or I guess it would be more accurate to say we watched their Disneyfied stories growing up) populating a small village in New York City. For centuries, characters like Snow White, her sister Rose Red, Prince Charming, Beauty, the Beast, and Pinnochio have lived in our "mundane" world after they were forced to flee from their Homelands by a despotic dictator. Known only as The Adversary, he raised an army of vicious mythical creatures like goblins, trolls, and dragons, as well as a group of highly trained animate wooden soldiers and began taking over the various lands of the different stories. Many parallels are made to Hitler and World War II, such as when, on the annual remembrance day, King Cole, the mayor of Fabletown (one of the two homes for the refugee Fables) reminds them all that the takeover is partly their own fault. When the first few lands started to fall to The Adversary (including Narnia), most people in other lands paid no attention because their own lands were safe for the time being.

The Fables have been forced to live out their immortal lives either in Fabletown or the Farm in upstate New York. The Fables believe that discovery by normal humans (referred to as mundies, short for mundane) would be catastrophic, and any Fable that cannot pass for human (including giants, tiny people, and sentient animals) is required to live at the Farm. The earliest exiled Fables arrived in Fabletown around the time the American colonies were being settled, so by the time the series begins, they are all well-acquainted with the mundy world. The first few stories are about various goings-on in Fabletown and at the Farm. So why is this series worth reading if it is just about Sleeping Beauty and Little Boy Blue in the real world? Well, partly because these characters are more "real" than they'd like to admit.

Most of us are only acquainted with the Disney versions of these characters, so it is quite a shock to see Prince Charming as a womanizer or Jack Horner (who is the embodiment of nearly every Jack from fairy tales) as a con man. Pinnochio, who has been alive for centuries, has mentally aged into a grown man, but retains the body of a child. And the Frog Prince... um, better leave that one unspoiled. These characters are much closer to who they were when they were originally conceived; the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson had much darker characters in their stories than Disney wants us to remember, and the characters of Fables are a breath of fresh air for those of us who know that fairy tales are not only for kids (see: the works of Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro).

The stories in Fables are based on real life problems, such as Bigby Wolf (the Big Bad Wolf) trying to solve a murder, or Prince Charming running for Mayor, but there are two things that complicate matters. First, magic and immortality play a role (characters that are popular are harder to kill than more obscure characters, so a murdered Fable can be resurrected if there is a resurgence in their popluartiy in the mundane world), and second, the Fables must do everything in such a way so as not to be discovered by the rest of the world.

There is also the conflict in the Homelands that becomes an issue in later issues, which certainly makes the second problem listed above hard to achieve.

Up next: the tale...

The Sandman: What Dreams May Come

One reason that I find describing the actual plot of Sandman difficult is that it is very much a character study. There are many great character-based stories that I enjoy that can be easily summarized; Buffy is about a girl who has been chosen to combat vampires and demons, American Beauty is about a man's midlife crisis/reawakening, and LOST is about a group of people marooned on a tropical island. Granted, I am eliminating all of the nuance and why the plots are what they are, but it is possible to encapsulate those stories into a brief sentence. Gaiman describes the plot this way: The lord of dreams learns he must change or die, and makes his choice. Unlike the plot descriptions I listed, which can be divined from a brief trailer, one would not realize that Sandman's plot had anything to do with change until it was over.

Though each story arc has its own self-contained storyline, the whole doesn't come together until near the end. Y: The Last Man, another Vertigo series with a planned ending, had self-contained story arcs, but from the beginning, there was a clear goal for Yorick Brown to achieve. With The Sandman, Dream is not striving towards anything in general. He is going about his duties, and confronts various obstacles along the way. Dream has enemies, but he doesn't have an arch-villain like Lex Luthor. In fact, the beings that cause him the most trouble do not attack him for personal reasons. And, as I said in the last post, humans tend to drive the story more than Dream or any of the Endless.

The Sandman does have an overall plot, but, like a good dream, it is fragmented by various stories that only fully make sense once they are looked at as a whole. Most of the long story arcs take place in the present, while most of the one-shot stories take place in the past. Dream says things and meets with people in the present, and these things seem strange until we see a scene from the past that explains it. In the first storyline, there is a segment where Dream is in Hell to reclaim his sigil, and while there, he runs into a soul who begs for forgiveness. This is meaningless until we learn of his history with Dream. Speaking of Dream's time in Hell, the theme of that issue is Hope, and though the idea of hope is reiterated again in the series (Despair reminds us that dreams are hopes, and that she is jealous of her brother because she is a creature of nothing but despair), the illustration of the power of hopes and dreams in that issue is incredible. Going back to the past/present stories, there are also times when recurring characters in stories taking place in the past come back in the present to set off major events.

Like most of Gaiman's work, fantasy and reality are expertly integrated. In the waking world, there are immortals and gods who walk the Earth, but they are not nearly as powerful as we imagine them to be. Only in dreams do they have that kind of power. There are a few times when things get slightly more fantastic in reality than they otherwise would be, but that is partially because the series initially took place in the DC universe, then slowly shifted into its own once Vertigo stopped being a part of mainstream DC continuity. Plenty of "weird shit" (as one character refers to it) happens in the waking world, but not everyone who experiences the weird shit ends up believing that the weird shit actually happened. Sometimes, they convince themselves that it was just a dream. But, as Dream says early on, it is NEVER just a dream.

Up next: Legends...

The Sandman: The Heart of the Dreaming

Without mortal living beings, there would be no Endless. If there were no beings who could dream, or desire, or die, Dream, Desire, and Death would have no purpose. And so, many of the story arcs feature Dream as a co-protagonist, while humans in the waking world take on equally important roles.

One of the best examples is A Game of You, a story which takes place about halfway through the series. A young woman in New York realizes that the fairy tale land she dreamed of as a child is coming back to reclaim her. The world exists in the Dreaming (Dream's realm) because she imagined it, and it is being taken over by a malevolent nightmare creature. The beings that inhabit it, who were her imaginary friends when she was a little girl, send an envoy to the waking world in order to bring her back in an attempt to save it. Had she not imagined the Land (that is the name of her imaginary world), there would be no story.

That brings me to one aspect of the Dreaming that I enjoyed very much. In Dream's castle is a library that contains every book ever imagined. And by that, I mean every book EVER conceived, whether it got published, written, or never left the mind of the author (in the Dreaming, I am a published author). Dream has the power to create nightmares that never existed in the waking world, but the Dreaming is filled with things that reflect our imaginations. For example, the gates of the castle are guarded by mythological creatures that never really existed, but they are creatures we are familiar with because we imagined them.

Some humans are powerful enough to have drastic effects on the Dreaming itself. Two characters are introduced in the second story arc, The Doll's House, that each can have profound effects on Dream and the Dreaming (I don't want to go too far into who they are or what they can do in an effort to not spoil anything). We are the dreamers and we are the creators of myth and story.

Up next: A midsummer night's Dream...

The Sandman: Endless Entertainment

How do I begin? As I said, The Sandman represents not only the work that made Neil Gaiman into Neil Gaiman, but it is also regarded as one of the best and most important comic book series of all time. For about seven years (is that somehow symbolic?), Gaiman told the story of Dream, the third sibling of the Endless, seven beings who had dominion over various states of being. Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium made up a wonderfully dysfunctional family that has been around since the universe was here. The are older than the oldest god and will be here until the last sentient being in the universe is gone. (**NOTE: Although I will not be discussing plot in this post, I will be talking about things that can be construed as spoilers, so be careful**) They rule over their dominions believing that they are in control of their aspects, when the very opposite may be true. They are extremely powerful, but like other higher powers in Gaiman's worlds, they exist to serve those they control.

This first post will focus on the Endless because I think that they are a wonderful concept. For one thing, I tend to agree with Gaiman on the nature of higher beings; gods are created by men, not the other way around. We needed ways to explain the unexplainable, so we created deities more powerful than ourselves and worshipped our ideas. Gods are at the height of their power when they are actively and widely worshipped, and they do not die until they are finally forgotten. But the time between being worshipped and being forgotten can last many years. However, things like desire, destruction, and (especially) death will never be forgotten. We may not worship the Endless, but we are obsessed with them because we cannot escape them. Death is an inevitability that nearly everyone fears and some wish to overcome. In fact, the series begins when a magician in the early 20th century tries to do just that (his mistaken result sets off the events of the series, but more on that in a later post). Dreams and delirium are the obsessions of psychiatrists who seek to understand the human mind. We all dream, and often wonder what the images and experiences mean. As for delirium, I believe that no one is ever completely sane, and while some people may be crazier than others, sanity is relative. As for desire and despair, I have to admit that Gaiman is a genius making them twins. These are both very powerful emotions that can often go together. Unfulfilled desires often lead to despair, and because desire is often not based on reality (intense crushes tend to cause the person who has them to view the object of their desire as more ideal than the person truly is). Destiny is a little trickier, but there are certainly people who believe that everything is fated. I think one of the reasons Destiny had to be included was because he is in many ways the anti-Dream; one is the lord of everything that was, is, and ever will be, while the other's dominion is what never was, isn't, and never will be. And destruction is inevitable; whether it is intended or not, nothing new can be created without the old being destroyed.

And that is as good a segway as any into the idea of the Endless as "lords of opposites", as Destruction says. The Endless states are so powerful that they literally define their opposites. As I said above, destruction often leads to creation. We define life by looking at death; we do what we can while we are here because we know it will end one day. Desire often leads to hatred and repulsion, especially when despair gets involved. And dreams can define reality. In the series, an early issue suggests that this is literally true; Dream tells a cat that if enough beings dream the same dream, reality will reflect those dreams. But in our reality, the truth isn't far off. Before anything can happen in the waking world, someone must have thought about it. Someone must have dreamed it. Martin Luther King had a dream. It may not have been fully realized yet, but we are certainly getting closer to seeing it become reality (just look at our next president!) because enough people believe in it.

But aside from how well-conceived the Endless are, I think I enjoy them so much because they are also well-written. Especially Death. Unlike most representations of Death, Gaiman's Death is perky, cheery, optimistic, and cute. No one in the entire series values life more than Death. She is arguably the most popular character from the series, and is certainly one of my favorites. For a while, she was definitely my favorite character from the series, but I have to admit that Delirium really grew on my in the final issues. Part of it has to do with the fact that I met someone who has become a very close friend, and Delirium reminds me of her a bit. This is nothing but a compliment; the best qualities of Delirium are at times reflected in this person (and there are other things as well), and it made me smile reading these final issues, seeing as how Delirium grows from a relatively weak and timid character into a competent one.

Still, I think that Death will forever be my favorite Endless, if for no other reason than she exemplifies the opposing nature of them so well. In what other story involving a personification of Death are you going to hear it discussing Disney's film version of Mary Poppins and trying to explain the meaning of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?! This panel made me laugh out loud when I saw it:

I know that this post made it sound like this book is about nothing more than the adventures of the Endless, but that is not true. In fact, the opposite is true. The Endless exist to serve humans, despite what a few of them wish to think. The Sandman is about life and storytelling, and the stories belong to humanity. Therefore, while the Endless generally and Dream in particular are the protagonists, the events would not happen nor would they have any importance if it weren't for the humans involved.

Up next: Dream a little dream of me...

Watchmen: Legal Troubles

I try to keep my posts fairly neutral when it comes to politics and stuff like that. The Other Worlds exists to showcase films, television shows, and books to people who may be unfamiliar with them. Furthermore, there are plenty of other people on the internets who have been putting their two cents in on this subject, and normally, I wouldn't feel like it was my business throwing mine in as well. However, I have a perspective on the whole issue that I have not yet seen in any other entries, so I thought that I would share.

For those of you who don't know, there has been a legal battle regarding the movie rights to Watchmen. 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights the comic book many years ago, but never made the movie. I do not pretend to know why. Maybe they tried and never got a script they liked (unlikely though, because they could have an awful script, and people would still turn up to see it). I'm not sure exactly when Fox got the rights, but it has been at least 15 years. Anyway, Warner Brothers finally made the movie themselves (they likely have some kind of rights to the property, because Warners owns DC Comics, which published Watchmen). And then, with about half a year until the film was to be released, Fox sued Warner Brothers for their copyright interest in the film. A few days ago, this happened: a federal judge ruled for Fox. Fox now has some distribution rights, and will likely use them to earn a shit-ton of money from the movie's box office receipts. Even though they did absolutely no work.

As many of you know, I am currently in law school, and I recently completed my first semester. One concept we learned about was laches. Basically, laches prevents someone with a legitimate interest in something from making a legal claim for that interest if they allow too much time to pass. The example given in my handy dandy legal dictionary goes something like this (certain details have been changed for comic effect):

Let's say someone owns a piece of property. We'll call him Rupert. Along comes a builder. We'll call him Zach. Zach believes that he has the right to construct a building on Rupert's property. Rupert says nothing. Zach completes the building and wants to rent out the space to a group of watch makers. Rupert sues for ownership of the land and demands all revenue from the watch makers. According to my dictionary, there are not one, but TWO reasons why Rupert should shove his claim up his ass. First, he knew of the construction, and waited until it would benefit him, and second, he will benefit at Zach's expense. Keep in mind that I am just a lowly first year law student, and there is likely much more at play, but this laches arguments seems pretty solid to me.



Up next: Enter Sandman...

The Fantastic, The Mundane, and The Real

At long last, I have finished Neil Gaiman's magnum opus, The Sandman. The comic is considered one of the greatest in history, usually ranked behind only Alan Moore's Watchmen on the lists of best and most important comic series. I promised that I would do a series on it once I finished, and I am very excited to begin. The Sandman is about life and the importance of stories, and while I don't think it has "changed my life", it has certainly made me think about storytelling and certain aspects of humanity differently.

While thinking of Gaiman's style of mixing the fantastic with the mundane, my thoughts wandered to Fables, a current comic book by Bill Willingham, which is published under DC's vertigo imprint, which was partially created by Gaiman with Sandman. The very nature of Fables combines magic and mundane, as it follows exiled fairy tale characters who must live out their lives in our world after a cruel dictator came to power in their Homelands. Most critics claim that Fables is the best comic in production right now, and it is very hard to argue that. Some have even claimed that it could be as good as Sandman (to that I say that is like comparing apples and oranges because the two books are very different once you get past the whole "fantasy and reality" similarity).

Finally, I want to begin with a brief post on Watchmen. I will probably wait until the movie is released to do a series on Watchmen itself (you know, for one post on comparisons and such), but a certain thing happened the other day that I believe merits discussion.

Up next: Taking the law into your own hands...