Art by u/United_Patriots, Go check his work out, he himself has a pretty good AU series called Nature Of Orion.
A Music track I wrote, Inspired by the contents of this chapter.
Back to the present, (future?) Ahh whatever, that special october 2154! Do you ever wonder why I chose that date? Well, October 13th is my birthday, and it’s the start date of dark cuts! Also yes, in fifteen whole chapters, we’ve only reached midnight on the second day.
As always, thanks to u/Ben_Elohim_2020, u/VeryUnluckyDice, and u/JulianSkies for proofreading. Those three have been a wonderful help as always.
Last but not least, thanks to u/EdibleGojid, my wonderful co-writer, without him, none of this would’ve been possible.
—
[First]-[Previous]-[Next]
—
Memory transcription subject: Taran, Investigator
Date [standardised human time]: October 14, 2154
—
At that moment, more than anything, I wanted to peel my eyes away from the display. The vile scene… I knew how it would play out, how it would end. I did everything I could to rip myself away from the screen, but I just… couldn’t.
The footage coming in from the classroom had me enraptured in the worst way possible; equal parts fascinating and horrible. Morbid curiosity kept me watching as the drunken arxur hunted the clone, which Selik’s mind presently occupied.
“Youhhh… hehhh… put up a better fight than that kolshhhh did… I’ll give you that much!” Vriss gloated, already assured of his victory as the skalgan tried futilely to claw herself free from his vice-like grip.
So long as Vriss was boasting, he was spilling the information we needed. We couldn't afford for Selik to tap out just yet, we needed more time, more answers.
Glancing at the machine monitor, toward the vital diagram, it reminded me just what kind of pressure Selik was under. Red flashed out along the tail and chest regions and the heart rate monitor threw up several warning lights. It was strange to realise that it represented real pain she was experiencing right now.
Hastily, I tapped out a message on the software pager, ‘Keep him talking.’
The pager was our only line of communication with Selik even though, in reality, she was no more than a meter away, hooked up to this amalgam of wires that posed itself as medical engineering. She couldn't hear us or respond to any form of contact; Prauva had explained that the device blocked all incoming and outgoing information.
I gave a short glance to Selik. Her body looked still and restful; all except for her chest, which rose and fell rapidly, mirroring the clone’s laboured breathing.
“Whhh… What did you do to him?” Selik wheezed, the arxur’s grip on her was so tight that it took great effort to squeeze out the words. I feared her ribcage might just collapse under the arxur’s raw strength.
It had been a while since I had been reminded of the terrifying strength the aruxr were holding back. Muscles designed for the hunt evolved to overpower weaker prey… a description that applied to almost everyone.
“Ehhh… nufin… sadly… he’s not mine to kill… but youuu are.” Vriss’ tongue slipped over the words. We were lucky that he stopped drinking when he did, much more in his system and he might have ended up impossible to interrogate at all.
The arxur opened their maw, dragging their long tongue over the back of the skalgan’s head, they took their time, savouring the moment, not the flavour. They wanted to draw even more fear from their prey. A terrified whine emitted from the clone, to the arxur's apparent delight.
In the back of my mind, I had expected him to… go feral or something. That without his inhibitions he might start randomly killing anything in his path. I knew that wasn’t how predator instincts worked, but prejudice was hard to shake.
It was worse somehow, knowing that as he did it he actually had the control to stop himself, but didn’t want to.
I had seen similar things before.
I’ve watched security footage of the worst of the worst; rape, brutal murders and even sadistic torture. I’ve had them rewatched over and over for me to analyse each and every detail. The times when such scenes would replay themselves in my nightmares had long since passed. There were few things I wasn't utterly desensitised to.
I was plenty familiar with the aftermath of arxur raids too.
My mother's hand in mine, cold, waiting for rescue- I killed the thought before it could overtake me.
But this…
The room was a near-perfect recreation of an old skalgan classroom, with a holo-projector at the front showing the benign math equations a child of the federation might be taught. It was uncannily familiar to me, though the details were muddled; chairs built to the gojid format, not venlil, propaganda posters out of place, not quite belonging to the setting. ‘The Krakotl Exterminator Forces Need YOU!’
Not that Vriss cared about such historical inaccuracies as he tossed the venlil across the classroom, effortlessly breaking her over the teacher's desk. Blood quickly spread out from where a rib had punctured her skin, the orange seeping through her wool.
…This was something else.
The skalgan’s legs fell limp, no longer flailing. She was utterly helpless now. Without any chase left to be had, the arxur would soon claim his kill.
Glancing over to the clone monitor, the lower half of the diagram had turned from red to grey, indicating that the system could no longer connect to that area.
“Shame her spinal cord got severed, broken legs hurt like hell.” Prauva mused from over my shoulder. She looked somewhat entertained by the sight. I frowned, she had a callous attitude towards Selik all night and it rubbed me the wrong way. I wasn’t going to get on anyone's case for harbouring distrust for the killers, but something about her seemed off.
Somehow, Selik maintained her questioning, some hidden source of determination keeping her going. One by one she spat out the pained words, “Where is he going?”
Watching it all in real-time, knowing it was real, happening only a few meters away with nothing you could do to stop it. It was deeply, viscerally, terrifying. My scales were displaying their sickly green, broadcasting my current state of mind to Prauva, and at this point, I couldn't care to suppress it.
“Sssame place I am, the Kaal estate, for his hatchlings uuh…. coming of age.” Vriss finally answered.
The Kaal estate
Three words told us so much more than just where Klien was going, it told us who the boss was, Kaal. The CEO and founder of a small arms company based here in the city of District Three. Ironically my revolver was one of their products. With that information, all I had to do was look up Kaal’s information in a database, use that to find his daughter’s info, and I’d know exactly when this ‘coming of age’ would be. With a little help from Selik's knowledge about arxur culture, we would be set to, not only save Klien but to decapitate the entirety of Shattered Claw.
Mentally, I had written Klein off as dead without even realising it, but now there was a chance. There was hope.
Selik pushed herself off the desk, flopping on the ground behind it with a heavy thud. Her eyes darted around before widening in realisation at what she had done. She was cornered, nowhere left to run.
The arxur crouched over her, smug satisfaction evident in the very way he moved, “It'sss time you stopped asking questions you aren't supposed to knowhh… you’re gonna be a gooood girl and die quietly.”
I winced as he wrapped his claws around her neck. Her eyes looked like they were trying to escape her skull as he squeezed. A sickening, popping, crunch reverberated through the room as her vocal chords crumpled, fragile tissue and cartilage breaking under the pressure. She gurgled in pain, no longer able to scream as blood bubbled out of her mouth.
“Brutal, Isn’t it?” Prauva asked casually, unbothered by the sight.
I turned an eye to the skalgan, the way she… didn't care, It was one thing to be desensitised, which was common in former cattle or those who were unlucky enough to survive multiple arxur raids… this was different. Her eyes met mine, I could swear I spotted a glimmer of some sort of sick satisfaction in them before she looked away.
“This is my life. Every single day, I get to die. Over, and over and over.” She spoke with flat intonation, her sassy facade falling away.
Vriss released Selik from his grasp, looking proud of his work before reaching for her arm, pulling it towards him and clamping his jaw around it. With a twist, he wrenched it free from her body. He waved the severed limb in front of her, giggling with depraved joy.
“Just… food; a plaything to these monsters.”
She continued to talk, taking my lack of a response as permission to carry on.
“Some like to fuck after feasting you know? Have you ever seen that? Someone taking your dismembered corpse and shoving their rancid cock into it?”
I didn't even want to think about it. There wasn't any way I would be able to live with myself if I let this place continue to exist and exploit these people.
“No one should go through that. I promise, we’ll shut this place down and get you out of here.”
Prauva laughed, devoid of actual humour, “It’s… not so simple. I can't just leave. Even if somehow you get rid of Shattered Claw? It wouldn't change a thing as long as they’re still around.”
As Prauva spat those words out, she pointed at Selik. Her idle body remained on the bench, vulnerable and still, like a patient under anaesthesia during an operation, waiting for someone to pull her out.
Vriss tossed aside the severed limb and began to lap up the blood as it gushed out of her wound. “Hmmm, tastessss just like Iron Fffive… fuuuuck… how much did you drinmk-?”
Selik gurgled.
“Mhm don't answer that.”
My mind was finally made up. This was fucked up. I had fucked up, no matter what the arxur had done, nothing could justify putting her through this. “She shouldn’t be going through that. How do we disconnect her?”
“You can’t, no way out while the clone’s alive…” She explained, though I knew it was a lie. She had woken herself up just earlier.
“...Besides, isn't this nice, to turn the tables for once?”
Something churned in me, her rhetoric felt familiar. Things I've felt. Hatred I had kept deep inside. I never trusted the arxur, never liked them, but somehow… Those thoughts and feelings, when repeated to me from her mouth… They felt radical, deranged even.
I glanced toward arxur on the screen, now covered in orange, and saying his last farewell to the venlil below him. “It's beeen fffuhn… I’ll definitely recommend you to the othhherrsss.”
After everything I lost to the arxur, everything they did, and everything they continued to do I had every reason to hate them; To utterly despise them for what they had done, and I did.
I looked back at the arxur in the seat. She had barged in on my case, somehow managing to convince Ketsim to allow her to take it despite my objections. Her very presence infuriated me. What right did a killer like her have to be a cop anyway? What bumbling idiot thought arxur could be capable of anything other than violence and murder?
I could read people well. I knew she had to be concealing some sort of darker motive. There had to be something. Feasting on the crime scenes? Some grand deception; a trap she was luring people into?
Or at least so I thought; no matter what happened, that facade simply refused to crack.
She seemed to hate eating flesh going so far as to shovel plant matter down her throat when she thought I wasn't looking. She was ashamed of her scars, hiding them under human garments, using the weather as an excuse for wearing them. This whole place disgusted her just as much as it disgusted me.
Here Selik was taking the punishment for her species’ crimes just to save one kolshian she called a friend. She didn't have to do that. There was no benefit, nothing to gain. Not unless she genuinely cared.
I couldn’t find a crack in the facade, because there was none.
The arxur on the screen began to tear into the clone with his claws, ripping flesh, bones and organs. Splattering himself with orange, bellowing with glee as he murdered her.
That monster and Selik couldn't be the same. It was irreconcilable, that a creature capable of such cruelty could also be capable of such selflessness.
Whatever terrible rule the arxur followed, she was an exception. She had to be. Maybe she was just one of those so-called ‘defectives’, a concept I would have otherwise laughed at, but it was the only explanation.
I faced Prauva and my scales flickered red in anger for a brief moment before I took back control.
“Turn the tables? Is this what it's about?” I demanded answers, what justification she possibly had for what she’d convinced Selik to do.
Prauva wasn't intimidated. “They raided my world, killed my family, but I hid, I survived, and it didn't make any difference. I still ended up as their cattle. Only now, every time I get to relive that moment, wishing I could die. But every time, I wake back up on that chair. Every time, regretting the one time I survived. This time, I finally got the chance to do something back. It’s one, tiny, fraction of what they did to me. One death for hundreds of mine. So yeah, it's nice to see one of them suffer for once.”
The arxur, alcohol finally catching up to him, slumped over what little remained of the clone.
“How do I wake her up?” I repeated the question.
“Why should I tell you?” She replied, without a hint of empathy for Selik.
“I need her help, We’re trying to save an innocent father's life you know?”
“Really? One good deed is all it takes for you to side with them? She gets what she deserves”
I couldn't take it, I didn't care what they had done to her, she was just blindly exacting punishment on whoever she could. It didn't matter what justification she had, it was cruelty all the same; sick and twisted.
I reached for the cable that connected Selik and the computer, my fingers wrapping around it tightly. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I pulled her out suddenly, but it was getting clear that I needed to make a choice. I just hoped it wouldn’t cause any irreversible damage to her mind.
“Wait! If you do that… it’ll kill her!” She yelled, a feeble lie made up on the spot to try and stop me. With her attitude, I doubted she would have cared for Selik’s life. The vindictive skalgan would’ve probably done it herself.
“I don't believe you.”
I yanked on the cable, disconnecting all the wires from the computer in one go. I was rewarded by a sudden gasp as Selik shot up out of her seat. Her eyes darted around the environment, taking in the dimly illuminated facility, glazing over when she looked at me or Prauva. She didn’t seem to register our presence at all.
Shakily, she wrapped her claws around her neck, laughing weakly as she verified it was still there. As her surprise at being alive faded, she went limp, rolling sideways off the seat and curling herself into a ball on the floor, shivering.
She had cheated death, Unscarred, but not unscathed.
Looking at her lying there like that. It sparked some genuine empathy for the arxur, that memory again. I wanted to rid myself of it, bury it, kill it.
I had stashed myself in a cupboard, hiding myself away from… them. Clutching to all I had left of her… all that was left of her.
I turned my back on her. Wiping it from my mind, Selik was an arxur, she didn’t need my empathy.
My eyes returned to the footage from the classroom. Vriss looked like he wasn’t in particularly good shape, he was still slumped over the clone, but his eyes were open darting all over the place and he was shivering, twitching. He hadn’t just passed out, he was overdosing.
“Shit…” I muttered, and Prauva noticed too. We couldn't call help, that would give us away. I couldn’t exactly sneak a body out of here without being caught and I needed Vriss alive if I was gonna ask more questions. I had to go in there and figure out how to keep him alive without revealing myself to him either.
“Fuck, fuck, FUCK! If he dies before he gets out of here, my employer is gonna dock my pay.” the skalgan exclaimed under her breath so as to not be overheard by anyone nearby as we rushed down the hallway.
“Is that seriously what you’re worried about?” I hissed.
“If I don't pay off their so-called ‘debt’ they'll have me here forever.”
It didn’t surprise me, working for a business like this must be worse than death, so it would have been an empty threat. Instead, dangling the hope of freedom at just a paw's length away. That’s how they kept people trapped. People would do so much more for the promise of life, than under the threat of death.
I burst into the classroom, nearly slipping on the bloodied floors but I managed to adjust my stance and keep myself from falling
Vriss twitched and seized, rolling off the clone onto his back. I stood over him as his eyes briefly flicked to me, unable to comprehend what was happening to him. He reached a hand towards me in a bid for assistance.
“Shit, what do I do!” Prauva mumbled under her breath before looking at me accusatorialy “You did this! You have to help me!”
Selik stumbled in, her eyes set on the remains of the clone. She fell to her knees, staring at her clawed hands as if she'd killed it herself. Pain evident in her eyes as she mourned the non-person.
Something snapped inside of me.
My scales darkened all the way to black, matching those of the arxur.
We didn't need Vriss anymore; in fact, if he disappeared now, there wouldn't be any more risk of our involvement getting out. Alcohol poisoning in a club? Just a simple accident. That's if there even would be anybody to find it. Clones were too expensive to waste, no doubt they simply dumped the leftovers into a meat grinder, made burgers out of them and fed them back to their clients or something else equally fucked up.
Monsters like Vriss deserved no empathy.
What a miserable creature one must be, to derive pleasure from another's suffering…
“Why should I help you?” I echoed her words back to her.
“What!?” She stared at me, wide-eyed in shock.
“He deserves this, doesn't he?” I quoted her again.
The arxur’s belly twitched, orange puke leaking from the corners of his mouth before falling back into his airways, blocking them. I watched as he began to drown in the blood he’d spilled, choking down his last meal.
“But what about me? You have to help me!” She begged, her words falling on deaf ears.
“Word of advice, clean up his body before anyone notices.”
“You think you can just get away with this? I’ll tell the-”
“Who would you tell? Your boss? The gang? I’d keep your mouth shut and your head down if you want to live long enough to watch me burn this place to the ground.”
As Selik sobbed, and Vriss suffocated, I remained silent, watching.
A thought bubbled up, strange next to all the angry, hateful, confused and conflicted emotions I felt. A question, sober, but no less cold in its delivery.
“You ever wonder what it would be like if you were born an arxur? Who you'd be? Would you still be the same person, or… would you be like every other arxur?”
Prauva had the audacity to scoff, my meaning failing to penetrate her thick skull. “Are you gonna tell me that I’d be just like her?”
“No,” I said flatly.
I stepped toward Selik, who had gotten a fair bit of blood on her. I’d have to take her through the showers before we left, I put a hand on her good shoulder. Selik, claws shaking, let go of the body, wordlessly understanding my order. It was time for us to leave.
The monster at my feet finally became still. I felt nothing as it died, eyes silently begging me for mercy as the life faded from them.
I turned away from Prauva.
“You'd be just like him.”
—
[First]-[Previous]-[Next]

(continuation of part 1)

III. Searching for Aerith Beyond FFVII

There were absolutely no answers in Remake or OG (at this point in my research, Rebirth wasn’t released yet), no matter how much I looked; nothing at all hinted at how Cloud could’ve obtained the memories of OG that emerge in Remake as MOTFs. I knew I had to look elsewhere to search for more clues, so I decided to check every piece of media ever released by SE with a mention of Cloud or Aerith in it, digging for hints in the compilation and beyond.
And boy, did I find them.
III. a) Core Worlds and Suspension Worlds
There are a couple of general FF rules that we need to establish before going forward.
It’s important to note that there are multiple realms in which the FF stories take place, each with a different name, history and society. This ensures that all FF stories occur separately, never intercepting or interacting— though they do have creatures like moogles and chocobos in common, as well as concepts like airships, gil, magic and some form of crystal. For simplicity, I will refer to these separate worlds in which the numbered FF games (FFI, FFII, FFIII, etc) occur as “core worlds”.
Characters from different core worlds may appear together in non-numbered FF games, the events of which have no impact on the core world at all: it seems that sometime after a FF character has reached the end of their core world’s plot-line, they may somehow be summoned to far-removed realms where they will face new adventures. I call these far-removed realms “suspension worlds”. One example of a FF game that takes place in a suspension world is Dissidia Final Fantasy, wherein characters from multiple core worlds unite to accomplish a mission as a team.
III. b) Final Fantasy Tactics
First on our list of non-compilation SE games to explore is 1997’s Final Fantasy Tactics (FFT), a game whose plot takes place in the suspension world of Ivalice. Let’s plot out the relevant events, and then analyze!
III. b) i. Fact-Finding
The main character of FFT, Ramza, encounters a brunette flower peddler with Aerith’s iconic, gravity-defying bangs:
\"Aeris\" in FFT's Ivalice
If you choose to buy a flower from her, she express her relief: apparently, business isn’t going well because no one is interested in flowers. The girl wistfully dreams aloud:

“When is my knight in shining armor going to take me away from here...?”

Later, Ramza and his companions encounter a mysterious machine that can summon people from across universes. The machine is activated, and a rather rude young man with spiky blonde hair appears. Cloud claims he used to be in SOLDIER, and says the last thing he remembers is “getting stuck in the current”. He looks to be disoriented and lost, and suffers from piercing headaches. Mere moments after being summoned to Ivalice, Cloud rambles:

“What’s this? My fingers are tingling… My eyes… they’re burning… Stop… stop it [Se]phiroth…”

He dashes out of the room, but not without announcing:

“I must go… must go to that place…”

Outside, Cloud encounters the brunette flower girl Ramza met earlier. She offers Cloud a flower, but he only stares at her wordlessly:

“Flower girl: Buy a flower? Only 1 gil.
Cloud: …
Flower girl: Something wrong? Do I resemble someone?”
Cloud: No… it’s nothing.”

As soon as Cloud leaves, a gang of ruffians surround the flower girl and start harassing her, demanding payment that’s apparently overdue. One of them finally calls her by her name: “Aeris”. He grabs her, insinuating that he might sexually assault her in lieu of payment. Aeris is not strong enough to push him away. That’s when Cloud returns:

“Cloud: Get your hand off her!
Thug: What did you say!?
Cloud: Didn't you hear me? Get your dirty hand off her!
[…]
Cloud, to Aeris: Go… now.”

Aeris heeds Cloud’s advice, fleeing the scene before a fight between Cloud and the thug can break out. After Cloud scares the ruffians off with the help of Ramza and his companions, he speaks once more:

“I lost… something very important… Ever since, I’ve been lost […]. What should I do? What about this pain [?] Must go… to the Promised Land.”

III. b) ii. Fact Analysis
There’s a lot to unpack here, all of which you probably clocked in your head upon reading, but let’s put it down in writing.
While FFT Cloud’s memory is far from perfect, the Aeris he encounters in Ivalice doesn’t recognize him at all. FFVII Ultimania Omega addresses this question without answering it:

“[The flower seller’s] name is Aeris, and she has the same appearance and tone of voice as the Aeris of FFVII. However, when she comes across Cloud, she does not recognize him. Could she really be the same Aerith who appears in FFVII but with memory loss, or is she a completely different character?” (“#4 Proof of Omega”, “FFVII in Other Games”, “Final Fantasy Tactics”, page 560).

Regardless of her unknown identity and inability to recognize Cloud, FFT Aeris’ fantasy of a “knight in shining armor” is quite reminiscent of the flower girl/bodyguard dynamic we’ve come to know and love. Cloud’s armor doesn’t shine, but in my opinion, if you’re looking for the dystopian, corporatocratic equivalent of a knight, you can’t get much closer than a supposed-former-SOLDIER-turned-bodyguard. Additionally, despite his rude and cold attitude toward Ramza’s gang, the urgency with which Cloud swoops in to save the flower girl from the ruffians betrays a softer, warmer side to him: the flower girl/bodyguard dynamic strikes again!
FFT Cloud’s dialogue borrows two lines from the speech OG Cloud makes as Aerith lies dead in his arms (disk 1, chapter 28): “My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!” and “What are we supposed to do? What about my pain?” You might’ve noticed that this glimpse of grief Cloud experiences in FFT bears a resemblance to the fourth MOTF 4 experienced by Remake Cloud (see section “II. a)”). Could it be that FFT Cloud and Remake Cloud have something in common?
Shortly after being summoned to Ivalice, FFT Cloud declares that he must go to “that place”, a mysterious line that is later elucidated when he tells Ramza that he must go to the Promised Land and find the “very important” thing he’s lost. The Promised Land is the Cetra culture’s afterlife, meaning FFT Cloud is looking for someone who’s died, someone “very important” to him. OG suggests this is none other than Aerith:

“Cait Sith, reading Cloud’s fortune: You will find [what] you pursue. However, you will lose the most precious thing” (disk 1, chapter 16, English translation by Kotaku’s “Let’s Mosey: A Slow Translation of Final Fantasy Seven: Part Eight” by Tim Rogers, 9:42-9:52).

&

“Cloud, after seeing Aerith’s hand reach for him through the Lifestream: … I think I'm beginning to understand.
Tifa: What?
Cloud: An answer from the Planet… the Promised Land... I think I can meet her... there” (disk 3, chapter 3).

Finally, let’s try to understand where on the OG timeline Cloud was summoned to this suspension world from and what he remembers. His comment about getting stuck in a current has to be about the Lifestream; apparently, on top of its atemporal nature, it can act as a conduit to other worlds. One only enters the Lifestream if they’ve somehow fallen into the core of the planet or once they’ve passed away and returned to the planet. Both scenarios merit consideration.
On the one hand, it’s possible that Cloud was summoned to Ivalice after he and Tifa fall into the core of the planet: this point in the FFVII OG timeline occurs after Aerith’s death and shortly before Cloud finds out he was never SOLDIER, which matches the gaps in FFT Cloud’s memory quite well. However, this scenario does not account for the vagueness with which FFT Cloud remembers Aerith and her death. Most importantly, Cloud’s realization that he can find Aerith in the Promised Land occurs much later in the game (FFVII OG, disk 3, chapter 3) than when he falls into the Lifestream with Tifa (FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 8).
On the other hand, FFT Cloud’s vague yet persistent memories of Aerith suggest that he’s been summoned to Ivalice after his eventual death post-OG, but also that he’s lost quite a large portion of his memories. His incomplete memory loss is likely the result of Cloud’s individuality’s erosion by the Lifestream after death, which we discussed in section “II. a) ii.”. We can therefore surmise that by the time he is summoned to Ivalice from the Lifestream, Cloud has been dead for long enough that the Lifestream eroded a large portion of the memories of his lifetime. This post-death scenario is likelier than the first. The memory of Cloud’s realization that he was never SOLDIER must be gone, which explains why he claims otherwise upon being summoned to Ivalice. Contrastingly, vestiges of Cloud’s OG memories of Aerith cling to his soul, even after others have been wiped clean. Could this be a consequence of their soulmate bond? Could the strength of Cloud’s love and grief for Aerith have made his memories of her stronger and more difficult for the Lifestream to erode? Could it be both?
One thing is clear: Aerith is of fundamental importance to Cloud, even when he can’t quite remember her. In fact, the only other character he remembers and/or mentions in FFT is Sephiroth. It does make sense that the memories of those who have marked one’s soul forevermore would be the most difficult for the Lifestream to erode.
III. c) Dissidia Final Fantasy
The next stop on our travels through suspension worlds is 2008’s Dissidia Final Fantasy! Now strap in, because here’s where things get really serious.
III. c) i. Fact Finding
In the suspension world of Dissidia Final Fantasy (DFF), the goddess of harmony Cosmos and the god of discord Chaos are engaged in a never-ending cycle of conflict. Both deities need warriors to fight on their behalf, so they recruit core world characters into their respective teams by summoning them to DFF. Some of these summoned characters are FFIV’s Cecil, FFVI’s Terra, FFVII’s Sephiroth, FFX’s Tidus, and of course, FFVII’s Cloud. The warriors find themselves in the suspension world of DFF with no memories of their core worlds’ plotlines. However, as the DFF adventure progresses, they are able to recover pieces of their memories here and there. It isn’t clear how much they come to remember. Ultimately, the warriors hope to return home to their core worlds by fighting in this war and seeing to its end.
Cloud is summoned to DFF as a warrior on the side of Chaos, who seeks to destroy all existence. Sephiroth is also on Chaos’ side, meaning the two are teammates despite being enemies in their core world of FFVII. It just so happens that Tifa is a summoned warrior in DFF too, though she’s fighting on Cosmos’ side. Intrigued by her vague familiarity, Sephiroth hypothesizes that killing Tifa will bring back his memories of OG’s plot line: before long, the masamune wielder finds Tifa alone and corners her into a one-on-one fight. Thankfully, Cloud swoops in and saves her before Sephiroth can do any harm. Tifa is thankful for Cloud’s help, though confused that Cloud would elect to assist her and turn against a fellow warrior of Chaos; she doesn’t remember what Sephiroth and Cloud mean to each other in OG. In fact, Tifa doesn’t even remember Cloud’s name or that they share a core world, though Cloud feels somewhat familiar to her. For his part, Cloud at least remembers that Tifa is someone he cares about from his core world. As Tifa thanks Cloud for saving her from Sephiroth, something she says elicits an odd reaction from the warrior of Chaos:

“Tifa: The way you showed up and fought that guy off. It was a pretty cool thing to watch. You were like a hero, charging in to save the girl.
Cloud gasps at her words. She doesn’t notice” (Dissidia 012: Treachery of the Gods, report 5: “Unexpected Fulfillment 2”).

On another note, Cloud knows he will have to fight Tifa once the Cosmos-Chaos conflict comes to a head, as they are on opposing teams. He thinks to himself:

“Once [her] memories return, [she]’ll lose the will to fight just like I have. So... Before that can happen, I have to act...” (Dissidia 012: Treachery of the Gods, report 5: “Unexpected Fulfillment 2”).

In order to end the cycle of the conflict and to avoid fighting Tifa, Cloud decides to try and defeat Chaos himself. Predictably, Cloud is no match for the deity. As he dies, Cloud pleads the following to the goddess Cosmos:

“Cosmos, goddess of harmony. If you can hear me, listen to my plea. I beg you. Save her. Save my friend… Tifa.”

Cosmos hears him and responds immediately:

“Cosmos: An end to this conflict, and a life spared? This is your heart's desire? If your will remains unchanged, I shall bring you here when the battle draws to a close. Cloud. My chosen" (Dissidia 0.13: Treachery of the Gods, report 7: “Unexpected Fulfillment 3”).

Cloud’s wish is granted by Cosmos: the first phase of the conflict ends without Tifa getting hurt, and she is sent away from the suspension world of DFF before the second phase begins. Cloud is saved from death, and Cosmos enlists him into her team of warriors for phase two: this time, Cloud is fighting on the good side.
Now we enter phase two of the war. Cosmos tells her team of ten core world warriors that in order to save the world from Chaos’ destruction, they must collect what she describes as crystals containing the power to persist through darkness. I call these the “DFF crystals”. There are ten DFF crystals in total: one for every warrior in Cosmos’ group to find. To obtain their crystal, each hero must overcome a trial that will confront them with whatever personal struggle they faced in their core world; if they prove themselves worthy, their DFF crystal will appear to them. On one hand, some warriors’ DFF crystals simply take the form of the crystals found in their core world. For example, Onion Knight’s DFF crystal looks to be nothing more than one of FFIII’s elemental crystals, which hold little to no personal significance to him. On the other hand, some warriors’ DFF crystals symbolize something more personal to their respective warriors. For instance, Cecil’s DFF crystal looks to be one of FFIV’s dark crystals, which specifically represent the dichotomy of light and darkness he struggles with in his core world’s plot line. Cosmos describes the quest for the DFF crystals as follows:

“Cosmos: The crystals embody the strength to face despair. With ten gathered, there is hope yet to save the world. The path to your crystal will be perilous... and different for each and every one of you. But you must believe in and follow your own path. Even if you know not where that path leads" (Dissidia 013: Light to All, prologue: “A Final Hope”).

From this exposition, simply keep in mind that: Cloud must find his crystal by overcoming a personal trial, and his crystal may have the appearance of an object in OG that’s important to him.
Once the team is debriefed on their mission, Cloud remains reticent to fight; he doesn’t much like the mysterious nature of this conflict. Not knowing exactly what they’re all fighting for is clearly bothersome to the swordsman, and the idea of thoughtlessly engaging in battles leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Fellow warrior Firion understands that without a reason to fight, Cloud’s heart just isn’t in it. He imparts upon Cloud that he must have a dream he’s fighting to protect, something he wants to see come true, to motivate him to stop Chaos from destroying all existence. Unfortunately, Cloud doesn’t have a dream to preserve, or can’t find one for himself:

“Cloud: I've looked, but I'm still empty-handed. And without a dream, what do you suppose I should do? […] Maybe what I'm looking for... isn't here” (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 1: “Beyond Doubt”, “Gateway of Good and Evil”).

Another fellow warrior, Cecil, expresses worry for Cloud, whose response evokes the main theme of FFVII OG:

“Cecil: Everyone's worried, Cloud. But... Do you shoulder a larger concern?
Cloud: Concern... Maybe a sense of loss" (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 1: “Beyond Doubt”, “Beyond the Continent”).

Whatever Cloud is looking for “isn’t [there]”, and he feels “a sense of loss”: Cloud’s motivating dream has been lost to him. This is later reasserted in a conversation with Terra, another warrior of Cosmos:

“Terra: And you, Cloud... What's your dream?
Cloud: I've lost mine" (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 3: “The Chosen Battle”, “Gateway of True Intent”).

Later, Cloud encounters and fights Sephiroth, who is still a part of Chaos’ team. Sephiroth is defeated, but not before he’s taunted Cloud with his habitual puppet talk. However, Cloud remains strong and refutes Sephiroth’s manipulation, asserting that only he can determine his own path. This must’ve been Cloud’s personal trial, because his crystal appears at that very moment: it is a small, light green orb that looks like materia from his core world. Having pocketed his crystal, Cloud decides he must find his own reason to fight. Interestingly, his search is depicted as intertwined with Fate:

“Cloud: Even if I have my doubts... I have to find my own answer […] Until then, I'll keep fighting.
Narration: The warrior has vowed to keep fighting— and keep fighting he will […]. Etched in destiny, his quest for answers continues on” (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 1: “Beyond Doubt”, “Gulg Gateway”).

Later, the nemeses meet again in a segment called “Recurring Tragedy”. Their interactions here are particularly interesting. Sephiroth speaks of making Cloud suffer through despair and pain as though referencing their history together:

"Sephiroth: This disease called hope is eating you alive. The world of suffering was born out of such half-baked ideals.
Cloud: If that's the case, I have to endure the suffering. There's no moving on if I run from it.
Sephiroth: If that is what you wish for, you shall drown in the pain. I'll lead you to true despair. [My] shadow is burned into your heart. We'll meet again, Cloud. I'll keep coming back— as long as you are who you are."
Sephiroth disappears. Cloud looks out into the distance before the scene ends.
“Cloud: No thanks. The one I really want to meet is…” (Dissidia 013: Light to All, epilogue: “Conclusion of a Cycle”, “Recurring Tragedy”).

This final line suggests Cloud has finally found a reason to fight: he wants to meet someone unspecified.
Finally, after the war has ended, we arrive at the final cutscene of DFF. I will let you read the full script, with notes added by me in bold behind the spoiler censors. Please do not read my notes if you do not wish to encounter spoilers for FFI, FFII, FFIII, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVIII, FFIX or FFX:

“[The] heroes are all standing together in a grassy field with a forest behind them. Birds are chirping, the sun is shining brightly, and the wind is blowing gently. The heroes look around them in awe. They're all holding their crystals.
WoL: The battle has come to an end...
Tidus notices that his crystal has begun to emanate a blue glow.>! His crystal is a movie sphere from his core world of FFX: a capsule containing sounds and images that people record for later viewing. Tidus’ crystal likely represents the specific movie sphere recorded by his love interest Yuna, which revealed that she’d loved him from the beginning.!<
Tidus: Gotta go, huh...
The blue glow transfers to him as well. He turns to look at the others
[…] Tidus grins at the others, then turns and runs toward a nearby lake. He leaps into it in a manner reminiscent of [the events] of FFX. He vanishes as he descends toward the lake.
Zidane: We're not vanishing. We're returning—
Zidane is sitting on a tree limb as he says this. His crystal begins to glow gold, as does he. His crystal is shaped like a highly important ‘progenitor of all life’ crystal from his core world of FFIX.
Zidane: — to where we're supposed to be.
Zidane spins around the tree limb with the use of his tail and launches toward the sun. He's lost to view.
A white feather then drifts down from that direction and Squall catches it. The feather is reminiscent of his love Rinoa Heartilly, whose character symbol is a white feather. In fact, Squall’s crystal looks like a mix of his revolver gunblade from FFVIII and Rinoa’s feather motif. [Squall glows blue.]
Squall: Perhaps we can go on a mission together again.
Squall vanishes.
Cloud is then visible, standing in [a] flower field. The flowers are white and yellow. Cloud has his crystal, a light green materia from his core world of FFVII, in hand.
Cloud: [(Chuckles shortly, like a scoff)] Not interested.
Cloud walks off into the flower field, gaining a green glow. He vanishes.
A snowflake then falls into Terra's right hand as her crystal begins to glow pink. The flames drawn on her crystal represent her power, which is connected to the element of fire: her character arc in FFVI.
Terra: I think I've learned how to keep going. Thank you— and take care.
Terra glows pink and then vanishes. Bartz throws a stick. He's glowing pink as well.
Bartz: When you're having the most fun, that's when time always flies. His crystal is the Adamantite from his core world of FFV.
Bartz vanishes.
Cecil: It's mine to pass on—
A moon appears behind Cecil and goes through its phases as he begins to glow blue. His crystal has shadowed and illuminated parts, representing the duality of his character, which is central to his personal arc in his core world of FFIV. It also represents his brother Golbez, who has chosen the darkness. Cecil considers his familial bond with Golbez his guiding light and hopes to be with him someday.
Cecil: — this strength I've gained from everyone.
Cecil vanishes.
Onion Knight hugs his crystal and looks up toward the sky. His crystal is shaped like those found in his core world of FFIII**.**
Onion Knight: Everyone... thank you!
Onion Knight briefly glows blue and then vanishes.
There are wild roses at Firion's feet. He and WoL are looking toward the sky. WoL suddenly begins walking away while Firion looks down and sees the roses.
Firion: This isn't the end. Another dream is waiting to begin.
His crystal is the color of the wild roses that were at the center of his dream and of his motivation to fight Chaos. The roses are also the emblem of the Rebel Army he was a part of in his core world of FFII. His crystal is shaped like Pandaemonium, the final dungeon of his core world story. Firion gains a violet glow and then vanishes.
WoL is walking through the field and then comes to a stop. He's looking at something.
WoL: May the light forever shine upon us.”

As you can see, everyone’s crystal is very important to the story of their core world, and in the cases of at least Tidus, Squall, Terra and Cecil, the crystals represent something very personal. What about Cloud and his crystal, then? What about the dream he lost and the person he wants to meet? Let’s begin analyzing to answer these questions.
III. c) ii. Fact Analysis
Firstly, it’s clear to me that the Cloud that appears in DFF is a post-OG Cloud, given how many plot points from OG he interacts with. I’m reticent to say whether or not this post-OG Cloud is dead like in FFT, as he recovers many of his memories of OG during DFF and there is no evidence of him having passed away and joined the Lifestream.
The second thing I’d like to point out is Cloud’s strange reaction when Tifa compares him to a hero who swoops in and saves the girl from the bad guy. Cloud gasps, indicating that her words mean something to him; the trope Tifa references must therefore be included somewhere in the FFVII OG plot-line. Some of you are surely ahead of me by now, having realized that only the tragic antithesis of this trope appears in OG: Cloud is unable to save Aerith from Sephiroth (disk 1, chapter 28). Whether or not DFF Cloud remembers Aerith herself at this point, it’s clear he recalls the pain and guilt of losing Aerith to Sephiroth.
Next, let’s address Cloud’s lost dream: to meet an unspecified person. It seems Cloud is aware at this point that in OG, he was eternally separated from the person he dreams of meeting. So, who was he separated from in his core world? Who can he never meet again, even if his team of warriors defeats Chaos and Cloud returns to the realm of FFVII? There are a few options —his mother, his father, Zack, Jessie, Biggs, Wedge, and any other person he knew who died—, but the sheer narrative weight that Aerith’s untimely death carries makes it clear who he truly wants to meet. This is corroborated by Cloud’s “I think I can meet her… there” line in OG (disk 3 chapter 3), by FFT Cloud’s search for Aerith during his appearance in Ivalice, and by Cloud’s strange reaction to Tifa’s comparing him to a hero who swoops in and saves the girl from the bad guy. All the available evidence suggests that Cloud’s dream is indeed to reunite with Aerith, and that this dream is “lost” to him because she was killed by Sephiroth (disk 1, chapter 28). This would also explain the title of the DFF segment “Recurring Tragedy”, since as we all know, the ultimate tragedy of FFVII OG is Aerith’s death. Considering Sephiroth was the one to take Aerith away from Cloud, Sephiroth’s threats of drowning him in despair in “Recurring Tragedy” only solidify this interpretation of Cloud’s lost dream.
Finally, we arrive at the ending cutscene. Cosmos’ warriors return to where they belong to try and accomplish whatever dream they held as motivation during the Cosmos-Chaos conflict, each carrying their DFF crystal. Cloud is shown standing in a field of white and yellow flowers and walking deeper into it with a light green materia in hand. Why was a white and yellow flower field chosen to represent DFF Cloud’s dream? The answer is obvious. White and yellow flowers symbolize Aerith: she sold Cloud a yellow blossom upon first meeting him in OG (disk 1, chapter 1), and her yellow and white flowerbed cushioned Cloud’s fall when the two reunited in the Sector 5 church (disk 1, chapter 4). What’s more, we have the iconic credits video of the original cut of Advent Children to refer to, wherein Cloud is seen driving near flower fields. Aerith stands there (3:20), seemingly waiting for him. Here’s what Nomura had to say about this credits scene:

"[...] we filmed the video for the ending credits in Hawaii. There are fields of flowers on both sides of the road, and the colors —yellow and white— are the same as the flowers in Aerith's church […]. With Aerith, 'flowers' have been her image throughout the series” (FFVII Reunion Files, “Countdown to Reunion”, “Stories from CG Production”, page 87).

Even in the Advent Children Complete cut of the film, where Aerith is not shown standing in the field, the flowers and their symbolism of Aerith remain. That being so, it’s more than fair to say that the white and yellow flowers in DFF’s ending cutscene serve as yet another confirmation that Cloud’s dream is to be with Aerith.
With all of this established, we can address the nature of Cloud’s DFF crystal. As we established, every core world has its own version of a crystal, each possessing a distinct appearance, function and meaning. Materia are the crystals of FFVII, so one could be satisfied by the proposition that Cloud’s DFF crystal is simply meant to represent a random materia. However, I think Cloud’s crystal is specifically the White Materia, as it represents Aerith’s sacrifice, her importance to the plot and what she died fighting for. If any one object symbolizes her death, it’s the White Materia; it’s even given closeups during the event (2:33-3:02). Besides, unlike any other materia in FFVII, the White Materia is known to glow a light green when Holy has been activated:

“Bugenhagen: If [the prayer] reaches the planet, the White Materia will begin to glow a pale green” (FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 15).

Here are pictures of the White Materia in OG and Advent Children, and two pictures of Cloud's DFF crystal (in order) so you can compare for yourself:
https://preview.redd.it/0qtumfeyfq0d1.jpg?width=386&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3995f010738c83fca0c5842a0564d0a9ad206dfd
https://preview.redd.it/0kj525tzfq0d1.jpg?width=1144&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=575573ef1d2c937635cf569d4a376886a24b384c
Cloud's DFF Crystal
Cloud’s DFF crystal
So far, in both suspension world games we’ve examined (FFT and DFF), Cloud is searching for Aerith. As a final note on DFF, it may interest you to know that codirector of the Remake trilogy Toriyama was actually a writer for DFF: he may have carried some themes from DFF to Remake…
III. d) Detour: The Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Farewell Exposition
Before we hop onto the next suspension world, let’s return to ours for a quick detour: the 2018 Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Expo. Themed with farewells and tragedy, this expo showcased the heartbreaking goodbyes featured in different FF games. Artwork, clips, quotes and images aplenty here! As the highly anticipated Remake was going to be coming out approximately a year and a half later, the FFVII section of the expo featured a few sneak peek Remake designs. This means the expo was at least partly curated with the Remake trilogy in mind; there could be interesting material in the FFVII section of the expo related to Remake. Let’s dive in!
Unsurprisingly, the focus of the FFVII section is Cloud and Aerith, since she is the loved one he lost in OG. Zack is also given a mention, however Aerith was the glaringly central star of the show. To showcase how important Aerith’s farewell in particular was to the expo, the FFVII portion was introduced by a photo of Cloud lowering Aerith into her watery grave and a video of her tragic death:
Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Farewell Exposition, FFVII Introduction
The description under the video screen reads:

“She was gone in the blink of an eye. But the pain never went away.
Aerith awoke the ultimate magic to protect the planet and the people she loved. Yet her life came to a sudden end at the hands of Sephiroth, a man bent on seeing the world destroyed. Even the usually stoic Cloud couldn’t hide his grief at the unexpected death of an irreplaceable companion. ‘My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning.’ True words, revealing Cloud’s deep sorrow” (Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Exposition).

Conveniently enough for us, the expo’s tagline is “Who is the person you want to meet again?” Given that Aerith holds the spotlight in the FFVII section of the expo, it’s clear who SE is telling us Cloud wants to reunite with. Recall Cloud’s unfinished line in DFF: “The one I really want to meet is..." (Dissidia 013: Light to All, epilogue: “Conclusion of a Cycle”, “Recurring Tragedy”). We theorized that he must be referring to Aerith, and now, we are certain.
The expo also had pamphlet descriptions of the farewells depicted. Here is the general summary of FFVII‘s farewell story according to that pamphlet:

“The story follows the lead character Cloud, but it is the heroine, Aerith, who opens Cloud’s eyes and helps bring him closer to understanding the mystery that is his past. Through her, we draw closer to the truth of the story.
This scene, in which the heroine Aerith is lost, is easily the most shocking and tragic in the story. No one expected to say goodbye to such a major character in the middle of the story. Rumors of a secret way to revive Aerith spread, and it was clear players were having a hard time saying goodbye to her too. Even now, twenty years later, it still feels like a shocking turn of events” (Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Exposition Pamphlet, page 36).

It’s interesting that SE would mention the rumors of Aerith’s revival circulated by players back in 1997, especially as fans were awaiting Remake’s release…
In light of everything we’ve analyzed so far, it can be said that between FFT (1997) and this farewell expo (2018), SE has consistently demonstrated that reuniting with Aerith is post-OG Cloud’s goal. That’s a period of over two decades— two decades of wishing, seeking, longing in real-world time for this character. This is a huge long-term commitment for SE to make, and you can bet the devs don’t take it lightly. Again and again, once the events of the OG game have ended, Cloud is shown to desire a reunion with Aerith. This ever-present and ever-insistent theme will become very important to us later in this analysis.
(continued in part 3)

Simon Stone
Erik ten Hag, asked if tomorrow will be his farewell appearance as Man Utd manager at Old Trafford: “Goodbye? For me? It's not how I feel it and how I see it.”
https://x.com/sistoney67/status/1790496531528777884
​

Detailed Quotes

https://www.manutd.com/en/videos/detail/part-two-of-erik-ten-hag-press-conference-for-man-utd-v-newcastle-united
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Ten Hag, asked if there will be a lap of appreciation tomorrow, after the last home game of the season:
​
Through good times and bad times, we are together, and the fans show it, that we are together. So we will do a lap of honour."
​
Ten Hag asked if the Newcastle match would be a "goodbye to Old Trafford" for him:
"Goodbye for me? It’s not how I feel it and how I see it. It is not the way I go to start that lap of honour for the fans, no. The answer to the questions you made so often: same answer."
"In the stadium, away and home, they [the fans] are always backing the team and backing me.
"Also, when I’m in the streets, many, many come to me - maybe it is just polite, but I don’t feel it like this..."
​
Ten Hag on reactions of the season:
"I almost never get a negative reaction [in public] because the fans understand where we are.
"The fans understand this club is in a transition, and the fans understand the huge problems we’ve had to face, especially positions in key areas."
​
Ten Hag on Wayne Rooney's claim that some players are not returning from injuries:
“You have to see here at Carrington. The players are desperate to play,”
“I have seen that Licha Martinez [wants to play]. Bruno did a fitness test on Sunday to play. Rashford did everything he could do. He trained, tried to train last week but he didn't make it.
“Players are desperate to play and they want to be in the right shape.
“You see also Victor Lindelof, Rapha Varane, they are training to make themselves available for the final. They do what they can do.”
​
Ten Hag on Lisandro Martinez
"I think especially on the pitch, we need him. There, he shows his spirit, and it is there he is a warrior if he is fit. "When he is fit, his standards are high, and he is an absolute leader for us, a warrior who has the right spirit. "He is a very important player in our defensive line and we missed him across almost the whole season."
​
Ten Hag asked if he ever feels sad on the touchline:
"I can't feel like this, I can't express this, because that will lower the vibe in my team. we have faced high problems, but I am always positive. I do it with the players who are available, we make the best team of it, we motivate them."
"I have to inspire the team, and I will keep fighting..."

Disclaimer:
This post has heavy spoilers to the story of the version 2.2 and maybe to something else. Good luck to read all of this. I yap for Ena and maybe repeat myself little too much. Mentioned characters:
Sunday
Robin
Aventurine
Dreammaster
Bronya
Seele
Cocolia
Mentioned Aeons:
Ena
Xipe
Hooh
Long
Oroboros
Qlipoth
Mentioned organisations:
Beyond the Sky Choir
Astral Express
Family
In loving memory: Ena the Order “The one who transcends the many”
In loving memory of Tazzyrronth the Propagation “The Sand king”
In loving memory of the Great Tatalov “The Garbage King”
So, the original intent behind this post was to create a lot of puns about Order and Sunday (for example something like Golden Order Radagon Sunday, “I will have order” with Sunday and a falling train instead, Sunday working in a delivery and saying that someone’s order was cancelled).
But then I started remembering all parts of Penacony storyline that have fascinated me. And one particular part master stroked me. When Sunday used his “tell the truth or die in 24 hours voice magic” he used not the power of Order, but Harmony – the Path he supposedly deliberately left behind and betrayed.
How can I be so sure, that he didn’t use the power of Order, making it look like the power of Harmony? Well, nor Dr. Ratio, nor Aventurine, nor Welt, nor (most importantly) Robin didn’t notice any sign that the Order was used and that the power on display did in fact belong to Harmony. And mind you, all of them are quite clever, experienced and hard to deceive. And in Aventurine’s conversation with Acheron in the Horizon of existence, Acheron (who as Self-Annihilator isn’t affected by the illusions of Order and can see through them) referred to the brand, used on Aventurine as the “brand of Harmony”. And the last proof is that when Sunday uses this power, he makes a call (or if you are a pun enjoyer like me, “an order”) to Xipe, referring to THEM as “Triple-faced soul”.
So, this was a really long and a roundabout way to prove that even with his supposed devotion to Order, Sunday still remains the Pathstrider of Harmony (and the laws of the HSR universe dictate, that you become a Pathstrider by following a philosophy of a particular Path). While being a Pathstrider of two Paths is not called impossible in the game, and Harmony and Order mostly overlap, there are some key differences between them. It means, that Sunday to some extant still believes in a philosophy of Harmony and is not a complete devotee of Order, how some people could have believed.
So, the goal of this post is to delve on the philosophy of Ena and Harmony through Sunday’s story, words, thoughts and actions. And to make some obnoxious theories, but that’s later.
So, let’s begin!
Ⅰ
In his childhood, Sunday alongside Robin, was called by the Dreammaster “two best interpreters of the Great One”. That means, that as a child, Sunday was extremely close to the philosophy of Harmony.
Let’s remember what Harmony embodies as a philosophy:
“Then, they say, O you who have reached the end, enter into the paradise that envelops all! Join this great choir and feast, listen to the beating of billions upon billions of hearts, holding you in THEIR embrace...”
“To battle the brutality of the laws of the universe, intelligent lifeforms must discard their cowardly selfishness and the differences between individuals, fusing into one singular melody — to have the strong help the weak, and to protect life with death.”
That is what Harmony preaches and Sunday was a follower of this ideology. Harmony preaches selfless people not only helping and uplifting each other to build “the paradise” (a prominent theme in Sunday’s thoughts) bit also welcoming every other willing person. Harmony philosophy is about acceptance, forgiveness, cooperation, that no person is beyond redemption, that in every person has inside of them the force that genuinely cares for others and strives for good. Harmony preaches something like this: “Because if it is possible for every person to become a member of Family’s shared paradise, then we should at lest try to welcome them in it.” That’s why Harmonic Strings (Emanators of Xipe) are not people and are actually manifestations materialized as the responses to the Hive Mind’s demands. It is a seemingly naïve and romantic ideal for the sometimes and indifferent brutal universe of HSR that requires great kindness, compassion, understanding, belief in other people, ability to see the better in other people and uplift them. And Sunday-follower of Order reflects on that:
"When I appeared as a child, my speech, mindset, and soul reflected immaturity and innocence."
"As I grew into adulthood, I left behind my childlike side."
Sunday (as shown in the quest) was a person of great understanding, compassion, and love for other living beings, full of desire to protect them (bird, Robin, other people). He was able to embrace even the worst people if they would show even the slightest glimpse of desire to redeem themselves and change for the better, like people who allegedly sold their own children. It is notable that he both acts as a follower of Harmony and an enforcer of Order conspiracy because of these very character traits. The motivation is the same, just the choice how to act based on this motivation is different between him and Robin because of different experiences.
As the ardent believer of Harmony, the seed of doubt in his mind was planted ironically by the very followers of the Harmony -the Family. And the disillusionment about Harmony also began, when his belief in other people was tested. When asking Xipe to clear his doubts, Sunday asks three questions:
“Who can judge the strong when their power hides their crimes?”
“Who can vouch for the weak when they will pay any price to survive?”
“If "the strong defending the weak" is truly the foundation of paradise, then who is responsible for the suffering and anguish in this wretched world?”
The questions display that the preached Harmony doesn’t work as intended. The extremely hard ideal to follow was exactly too demanding for numerous people who couldn’t stand up to the responsibility that came with upholding it. Also, as displayed both in the main quest of Penacony and in numerous events and side quests, flaws and imperfections of Family(note: of the Family on Penacony) are numerous. We have an entire “Ode to Fool” in the Grand Theatre about internal bloodthirsty war between the Family, where two of the seven families of Penacony ceased to exist. When even Family: those who preach the Odes of Harmony don’t act as they preach, are not harmonious, don’t show compassion and forgiveness, it is extremely hard to still believe in its teachings. And from that, the belief in people starts to slowly crumble as the very belief in a possibility of a paradise preached by the Xipe, is tested.
That is what turns him to Order. The feeling that while the paradise of Harmony is theoretically possible, how much suffering must people experience before it actually arrives. And when will it arrive? And IF it will arrive? These doubts in human inherent desire to change for the better leads to the idea: “And what if they don’t change? Then why take the risks? Why not to create something that guarantees their safety, happiness and protection?” His desire for Order is still born from his love for humanity.
Ⅱ
And while the shift in beliefs did in fact happen, it wasn’t completed and some beliefs in Harmony remain, alongside doubts about the philosophy of Order.
To prove that, let’s remember the Grand Theatre part of the quest (“Everything that Rises Must Converge”).
Before that Dreammaster has a particularly interesting conversation with Sunday. Sunday not only changes their plan, taking Robin’s place in the plan and then he asks Dreammaster why Penacony was the chosen planet to bring “paradise” of the Order. If he was completely convinced, why would he pose these questions?
Sunday several times brings the part of 107,336 souls of the Oak Family in his monologues. Why? Because he uses them to give self-validation to his beliefs. It comes not only from his desire to grant “paradise” to everyone (and this guys as stated dreamed about the paradise of Order), but also from his self-perceived responsibility as the Head of the Oak Family to stand up to wishes and desires of his subordinates, to protect them, and as the man with greatest position among them, to fulfil the hardest task. Because if people he is in charge of follow and support his views, not only it gives him more belief in his set of beliefs(ha), but also gives him even greater responsibility to prove that their faith in him, in Order is not misplaced.
In first two acts he displays before us shortcomings of the Harmony, trying to display himself as the ardent believer of the Order:
In the first act “Ode to Prisoner” he says that the freedom was not really achieved in Penacony’s great Independence War, posing a doubt that the ideal of Harmony even existed in Penacony since the very beginning.
In the second act “Ode to Fool” the theme of not so harmonic Harmony remains. Sunday talks about internal civil war between the Family, that eradicated two of the seven families on Penacony. How “harmonic” it is!
But in the last and most important act “Ode to Order” has a surprisingly different theme, hidden in it.
It is supposedly talking about the future of Penacony, but there is something more if you listen to its content once again:
General: “Without a ruler who would protect the weak and fight back against the tyrants?”
Chansellor: “We must assist each other in protecting the weak, just as we must assist each other in opposing the tyrannical.”
This dialogue argues that the very measures Sunday preaches, are not required for the coexistence and unification are also an option. Case of how differently Order and Harmony solve one problem.
Jester: “Without a ruler, who will make the stars follow their paths, the tides rise and fall, and allow life to grow?”
C: “These things did as they will long before the ruler appeared, just as they will continue to do with rulers gone.”
Where the Order requires an all-mighty divine king, controlling the world (like God-Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer), Harmony simply says that actually such beings are not needed.
Minister: “However, now that we have bid farewell to our ruler. Who shall take their place?”
C: “We no longer require a ruler, for we were originally all rulers who stand above all things.”
Once again, order preaches about the ruler on the top of everything, the one who has all of the rights and makes all of decisions. But harmony doesn’t work that way. Harmony preaches that if every person has equal rights to enter its paradise, then they are essentially equal. Where Order differentiates people and treats them differently according to THEIR criteria, harmony does not as THEY are all-embracing.
The choice of the position of Chansellor as the one giving answers is deliberate. It is another innuendo on differences between Harmony and Order. In Order king takes the power and pushes everyone under his control. Chancellor, as the representation of Harmony in this argument, is a position not a person. He is subject to change, unlike king. Unlike king, Chancellor is chosen among the people, by the people. He serves as one man being the voice of many people, for they have chosen him as a Chancellor because their ideals are the same and thus, they have entrusted him to fulfil their ideals in reality in their stead.
Some people were not satisfied that the arguments were not posed against Sunday by the Astral Express. Well, this entire act serves as a counter to his arguments, showing the point of view of Harmony arguing against the necessity of ideals of Order. Most importantly, they don’t disprove hid arguments completely, but rather pose a possible alternative take on things.
The Clockwork doesn’t work on puppets because they are “satisfied”. But what gives satisfaction: Order or Harmony? In my opinion, Harmony. Remember: in THEIR paradise there is “peace bestowed, sorrows and strife released.”
The “king” in the text obviously refers to Ena the Order, and the last talk from the “Future” in the act is about “final rites” to the king, that there is no need to seek THEIR existence, nor remember THEM. It illustrates the final confusion of Sunday: if Ena didn’t fight back while being consumed, if the philosophy of Harmony prevailed in the confrontation among the Paths, why try to restore the Order?
And after that particular act he chose to reveal to us the finale of Ena’s story. That THEY were banished to oblivion by the united will of the people who defied Order. And THEIR death was praised alongside praises for the appearance of Harmony – the ideal that prevailed on Penacony in the end.
And that is what actually 3 is actually about. Puppets(Members of the Beyond the Sky Choir) ask what they and everyone else should do after the “king(Ena)” disappeared.
They feel no safety and out of their comfort zone when the one that controlled everything about their lives suddenly disappeared. And Chancellor’s answers are the representation of the ideology of Harmony, that you don’t need to be controlled to strive in life, for that there is more to universe and that the “king” is not actually required for betterment of society, that society can harmonize and evolve on their own, that the unity of people can replace the “king”. Ironically, “the Ode to Order” doesn’t glorify Order but rather disproves it from being the one and only universal truth.
In this act Sunday actually reveals, intended or not, that he doesn’t disprove Harmony’s ideal, that he subconsciously feels that it can stand on par with the ideal of Order.
Then, Sunday poses between us three questions, each one has different answers depending on your set of believes: order or Harmony. Notice, that Sunday doesn’t give his own answers to the questions.
“Is darkness equal to daylight?”
This question is very metaphorical. Radiance and light, eradicating darkness and giving protection to those under the light are a repeated theme in the ideology of the Order (“I shall ascend to the heavens, becoming the scorching sun. Bathed in my light, my people shall flourish, while all evil shall be eradicated” / “Those who live in the shadows do not bear the right to tread the illuminated stage.” / “I now permit you to gaze into the sun [hardest line in the game btw]”) But radiance is also a term sometimes used to describe Xipe. The greatest difference lies in the fact that what Order will not tolerate (“darkness”), harmony will be able to co-exist with and eventually embrace. So for Order they are different, but for Harmony not at all.
“Are sinners equal to the righteous?”
Order punishes the unjust and uplifts the righteous. For it, they are not equal. But for Harmony they are, mostly because before Xipe the very concept of sinners doesn’t exist. Harmony is all-embracing, for everyone can change for the better and be redeemed.
It is a discourse in philosophy: first question was about whether are you able to tolerate something that goes against you. While Harmony can, Order cannot (Sunday can as literally shown in the quest so he leans more to Harmony in that part). Second question was about whether people can change for the better and be redeemed. Order doesn’t believe in it, Harmony does.
“If you are born weak, which god should you turn for solace?”
It is another question to choose between philosophies because Sunday struggles to choose himself. If you are weak and you bow before someone(“king”) for the protection then this is a choice befitting Order, but if you choose to cooperate with others, uplift one another and “listen beating of billions of hearts holding you on their embrace” then this is the choice of Harmony.
Notice, that Sunday doesn’t consider us as enemies at all. As he says: “I genuinely wish to avoid a violent clash with my esteemed guests from afar.” When Astral Express team asks Sunday why did he invite us to the duel, he responds: “Because our shared goals give equal weight to the beliefs we strive for.” He regards everything happening more like a debate of two equally valid philosophies. Even in the fight with him (second one) he still invites us to join his chorus of Order. And he says “our final talk is concluded” only when he turns into his Embryo of Philosophy form, when literally everyone who could has risen against him. And then he reveals his true emotions:
“If your ‘paradise’ can save more people, sever my path with your hands”
He knows he is not infallible, that his plan can be wrong, that there is a possibility of making better choices, better decisions. And he asks us to prove, that Harmony after all is a stronger concept then that of Order. And his quote before that really makes everything extremely ironic:
“If we had never experienced solitude, how could we embark on different paths?”
Once again, this solitude refers to the times when he still completely followed Harmony. Yet he was the only person on the entire Penacony because of his great compassion, who actually followed what Xipe preached. Yet, in this he was alone. How can you be in Harmony with anyone, if you are alone. The irony is in the fact, that if Robin didn’t leave Penacony, of if he met another genuine believer, he wouldn’t have turn to Order and he would remain under Xipe. With many similarities of Order and Harmony: the epitome of Order is loneliness, being a sole ruler of everything, the epitome of Harmony is a unity of numerous people.
“And thus, my talk about Sunday has concluded. Next part is about Ena.”
Ⅲ
While his monologue about history of Ena can also be interpreted as parts above, it is much more interesting to discuss it when talking about Ena THEMSELVES.
“Let us commence with the dawning of the world… After the Dusk Wars, darkness veiled the sky, and chaos consumed the earth. Ena the Order emerged, destined to restore all existence. That marked the first day.”
The Dusk Wars are one of the most ancient (if not the most) periods of history we know about. Ena emerging at that time, makes THEM one of the oldest Aeons alongside Long, Hooh, Qlipoth and Oroboros.
” THEY gathered nebulae and forged them into picks, thus creating a grand lyre with black and white keys. Strike the white keys, and the sun rose. Strike the black keys moon and the rose. And so the cycle of day and night arose. That marked the second day. “
“THEY transmuted streams of stars into inked nibs, creating symbols to be pronounced and counted. THEY molded stardust into flowing rivers, assigning the righteous upstream and the unjust downstream. Thus, all things were marked and the world learned to discern between good and evil. That marked the third and fourth days. “
“THEY used the planetary rings to establish the law, forging a code of conduct among the masses. A grand lyre with black and white symbols of articulation and numerical notation took the form of musical notes. The downward-flowing river became a melody, and the cannon of law dictated the form. Thus, all mortals found their unique place within this symphony. That marked the fifth and sixth days. “
Ena, as we know was a control freak, at much bigger scale and extent, then Sunday could have ever hoped to become. We know that «Ena's harmonic songs seems to align within a three-dimensional framework, akin to an emperor maintaining hierarchical order among all creatures» Not only people, but the movement of celestial bodies were under THEIR control. THEY wanted to and almost controlled everything in the known cosmos. So, THEY were the only person responsible for everything. And when THEY were consumed, the manager of everything disappeared and the scales of order and discord lost their balance. That is why Hooh intervened and took THEIR responsibilities.
“THEY imbued world with meaning, perfecting all things in the heavens and earth. Then, THEY rested from the labors of creation. Yet, all beings cried to Ena – ‘Under the banner of the Order, you have defined all things in the Cosmos… but this made us realize that we are but puppets in your hands!’ – Thus, on that day, all beings united and cast the Aeon into the abyss of oblivion. That marked the seventh day. “
And this is the most interesting part. We know that Ena was consumed by Xipe, so why does Sunday refer to THEIR death as an action, made by humans?
As we know, Xipe “hails from multiple harmonious celestial words”, “a plural Aeon” and “THEY are the amalgamation of thousands of entities”. Thus, I pose that Xipe ascension was not a process of accension of a one person who somehow become an Aeon, but rather that several beings in a moment of unity (of “harmony”) were ascending as one. Next bit is purely theoretical:
But who could provide such unity before the existence of Harmony? Only the Beyond the Sky Choir – followers of Ena could understand the true extent of Ena’s control over everything and unify to create a change. Thus, mortals ascended into Aeon, befitting their shared beliefs, and from the Beyond the Sky Choir, Xipe arose with a new symphony of Harmony.
ⅠⅤ
Also, some other interesting bits from 2.2. storyline:
The most overlooked part of 2.2 quest for me is that part before boss battle when Sunday says that he doesn’t intend to either resurrect Ena or become a new Aeon of Order. While the actual possibility of such actions remains “enigmatic, we can now speculate that it could be possible to take control of a masterless Path or revive its master. I speculate that when we finally reach strongest Emanators level of poweallies/etc. the enemies we will be facing before actual Aeons will be unique beings like that: fallen Aeons in the process of resurrection or people in the process of becoming a new Aeon of a Path without one.
Another interesting bit of lore about Ena is that while she was “consumed” by Xipe, her Path still lingers in the cosmos masterless. While it was known about Paths of other fallen Aeons it is interesting that even assimilation by a broader concept Aeon isn’t enough to completely eradicate the Path from the face of the cosmos.
Some other connections that I noticed about Sunday while rewatching 2.2 quest were surprising even for me. Name a planet where the ruler intentionally left their subordinates in ignorance about the truth about the events for the sole reason of protecting them? It’s Belobog with Bronya and Seele (I could talk about similarities and differences of Bronya and Sunday but that would make already long post even longer). And this is why Ena was able to persuade Qlipoth. Because Qlipoth shares with THEM that general theme of protection. Because their Paths partly overlap. Because Preservation is about keeping everything dangerous behind the walls (in this case dangerous information about Cocolia), and everything inside the walls is safe, protected, or you could say “in Order”.
Ⅴ
P.S. I feel like in this quest there is still so much more to discuss(and I could write EVEN MORE), but this long wall of text is already too out of character from me as a humble follower of Enigmata.

"The decision to cut Shatner's scene improved the 2009 Star Trek ending by allowing the new cast to shine without overshadowing them. Shatner's cameo would have taken away from Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, robbing them of their own agency and deepening their characters."
Mark Donaldson (ScreenRant)
Link:
https://screenrant.com/star-trek-william-shatner-not-in-2009-movie-good/
Quotes:
"It also improved the ending of Star Trek (2009) as a result.
A few months after the release of Star Trek in 2009, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci revealed that they had written a scene for William Shatner (via TrekMovie). In the scene, Prime Spock presents his Kelvin Timeline counterpart with a pendant that turns out to be a holo-emitter, containing a message from William Shatner's Kirk. It's revealed that the pendant was a birthday message from Kirk to Spock in which he reflects on their friendship, and reveals his desire to live out his retirement with his best friend.

I suppose I’d always imagined us…outgrowing Starfleet together. Watching life swing us into our Emeritus years…

William Shatner's voice-over would then continue over the scenes of Chris Pine's Kirk being honored by Starfleet Command for defeating Nero (Eric Bana). As Prime Kirk reflects on when he and Spock "stepped onto the Enterprise as boys", Kelvin Kirk accepts command of the Kelvin Timeline's version of the starship Enterprise. Touchingly, Prime Kirk acknowledges the Kelvin Timeline crew, by saying that "it's their time now". However, it's also clear that the spirit of adventure is still alive in this older Captain Kirk, who closes the scene by saying:

You once said being a starship captain was my first, best destiny… if that’s true, then yours is to be by my side. If there’s any true logic to the universe… we’ll end up on that bridge again someday.

While the scene as written is a touching little coda, acting as a melancholy farewell between the prime timeline's Kirk and Spock, it does undermine Star Trek's new leads. When handing his Kelvin timeline counterpart the pendant, Prime Spock says that it's a "dream" that the young Kirk and Spock can now fulfill. The implication being that the Kelvin timeline's Kirk and Spock are only friends because of an obligation to mirror their prime timeline counterparts. This robs Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto's Star Trek characters of their agency, reducing them to performing hollow William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy tribute acts.
[...]
Reminding theater audiences of the original, iconic, Captain James T. Kirk at the exact moment that Chris Pine's version takes command of the USS Enterprise would have been a serious misstep. It's good, therefore, that the scene was cut from the finished Star Trek script, though it's also worth noting that notoriously cameo-averse actor William Shatner may have declined to return anyway."
Mark Donaldson (ScreenRant)
Link:
https://screenrant.com/star-trek-william-shatner-not-in-2009-movie-good/

Me and Lila always carved dozens of jack o’ lanterns every October, so they’d absolutely saturate our lawn on Halloween night. It was our thing. But looking back on it, now that I’ve lost her, I just feel bad for the pumpkins. I almost relate to them, somehow. The way they were carved up, had everything of substance inside of them torn out, and left as hollow, rotting shells with forced smiles.
Needless to say, I didn’t cope with her death well. I didn’t want to cope with it. I wanted the world to drown in the black sludge of my grief. I loathed the people I saw going about their lives, unaware that the world had already ended the moment Lila died. The Earth shouldn’t keep spinning. Life shouldn’t go on. Not without her.
Even my relatives bringing me along on a trip to Kauai only made it worse. The most gorgeous place on Earth, and it made me sick with hatred. Nothing that beautiful deserved to exist if Lila wasn’t ever going to get to see it. It wasn’t fair.
I thought I’d never enjoy or care about anything again. Then I discovered media preservation.
It started with taking some of Lila’s old VHS tapes to a video repair place to fix some issues with the footage before it’s digitized. The job fascinated me. In a universe based on entropy, where everything inevitably fades away and is forgotten… restoring something lost is like snatching it from the jaws of death, right? Like flipping the bird to the universe and its so-called ‘natural order’. People die, but information doesn’t have to.
Now, it doesn’t matter how small — be it some god-awful plug-and-play licensed game, or a cereal commercial from 80’s — it’s my mission to recover it in as high a quality as I’m able, and make sure it’s freely available online for as long as possible.
A couple weeks ago, I came across a big haul. Four boxes of old VHS tapes offered up on E-Bay for dirt cheap. Most of the tapes were just recordings of Cheers episodes already preserved in higher qualities, but one Maxell E-240 caught my interest.
First of all, I’d never seen one so melted. Sure, sometimes they were left in an attic too long, and the colors and audio start to degrade. But this one looked like it had survived a house fire. It was covered in soot and the smell of smoke, and had the overall shape of a chocolate bar left out in the sun a little too long.
Second was the label, which read in neat sharpie: ᴇᴘɪꜱᴏᴅᴇ 4,679,329 ᴍᴀʀ 8 2035.
The casing was so disfigured, I had to bust it apart just pull out the tapes and respool them in a fresh cassette. I tried to iron out the creases in the tape as best I could, but I had no illusions about it accomplishing much — the mylar surface had been irreparably warped in places by whatever fire had half-melted the thing.
Imagine my despair at the sight of that dreaded ‘ɴᴏ ꜱɪɢɴᴀʟ’. I could clearly see the tape wasn’t blank, yet no amount of adjusting the tracking or trying different TVs or VCRs accomplished anything. Just as I was about to give up, though, the thing just suddenly started playing properly at the exact instant the clock struck 3 AM, as if it had only now decided to work. My all-nighter had paid off.
I didn’t dwell on the fact that this ‘miracle fix’ had been impossible. If I’d had any sense, I’d have torn the horrid thing out of my VCR and buried it beneath holy ground. Instead, fool I was, I sat down and watched.
At first, the thing seemed unwatchable. The audio was so distorted that the show’s theme song emerged as a low, crackling, staticky wail that made my head throb, and the logo was completely indistinguishable through the flickering and interference. I thought it was a lost cause for a moment. But then a figure appeared and cleared away the static, like Moses parting the Red Sea.
It was the sight of the show’s host that hooked me. He was just… perfect. Perfect in every way. I knew it just looking at him. Infinitely handsome and likable and charismatic, and he always said the exact perfect thing. The only issue is, I don’t remember a single thing about him now, in the same way you can’t remember a dream that seemed so clear to you while you were experiencing it. He just appears in my memory as this abstract blur in a sharp suit. Yet at the time, I was awestruck, even before he said a single word.
I can’t even remember a word he said. It was like he was speaking another language, one I felt as opposed to heard. I’ll try and transcribe it as best I can into words, but know that it’s only a pathetic imitation.
“... for another night of laughs, prizes, and fun for the whole family, with your host, #####!” I noticed that the audio and visual distortion seemed to suddenly intensify the instant he said his name, rendering it completely illegible. Idiot I was, I figured that was a coincidence. “Tonight is a night of celebration, folks, because thanks to the support of loyal viewers like you, we have just been approved for, get this: two hundred thousand more seasons!”
The “live studio audience” went wild with applause. I put that in scare quotes because, as far as I could tell, besides the host, the studio seemed completely empty. As if he was standing on a plain white stage that extended outwards into infinite darkness on all sides.
“For those just joining us, the game here is simple…” He explained that this was some sort of a trivia show. Every time a guest got an answer wrong, it brought them a little closer to some sort of unspecified ‘punishment’. And if they got it right? He smirked. “Well, they get to delay the inevitable.”
I wondered what he meant by ‘inevitable’. I didn’t have to wonder long.
The host gestured to a curtain that hadn’t been there moments ago, which raised to reveal a middle-aged man. You know the type — bushy mustache, gray hair, round-rimmed glasses. Kind of guy you’d have doing your plumbing. He couldn’t look any more out of place stood up and restrained in that — what the hell is that?
I recognized that metal coffin-looking thing from a medieval torture museum I went to once. The iron maiden. The lid hung open, countless long, needle-like blades poking inwards, threaten to poke a million new holes in him if it was shut.
His situation was not lost on him. “Where… where am I? What the hell is this!?”
“Oh, lucky guess!” The host ‘joked’. More canned laughter. “I know you always loved watching those trivia shows, Malcolm? Weren’t you always sitting there, grinding your teeth, seething that it wasn’t fair? That you should be the one up on stage, winning big?”
The man paused. Even he seemed mesmerized by the unreal perfection of the host before him. “I… this is a… game show?”
“All you have to do is answer a few questions! Think you can handle that, Malcolm?” He pulled out a cue card without waiting for an answer. “And our first question! What were you doing the night of February 18th, 1998?”
The man seemed baffled. “Just… sat on my couch watching the NFL, I think? I’m not sure how I’m supposed to remember —“
He let out a startled squeal as a horrid buzzer sounded. On cue, the lid slid a third of the way closed, making him flinch. “Oooh, I’m afraid that’s the wrong answer, Frank! But you know what? I’ll give you one more chance. What were you —“
“Following a girl home!” The man cried out. “F-from the bar. There, are you happy?”
“Cor-rect!” The canned audience began cheering! “Such honesty! Now, our second question: just what were you carrying while you followed her?”
He hesitated for a little too long. And then the buzzer sounded again, and the lid slid so near to closing that its blades began poking uncomfortably against his skin. He tried to press himself against the back of the maiden as well as his restraints would allow. “Jesus! Okay! A knife, a knife!”
“Awww, if only you’d said that just a second earlier!” Another big question. “Our third question: why, Malcolm? Why did you do it?”
That set Malcolm off. He started thrashing, clawing, screaming. “Let me out of this thing, you maniac! You can’t do this to me! Do you know who I am? Is this some sort of sick joke? My lawyers will have your head for this, you—“
And then the buzzer. All of a sudden, the lid slammed shut full-force, and the man was utterly silenced save for an unnatural, drawn-out wheeze. “Another wrong answer, Malcolm! I’m afraid I was looking for: ‘because if I can’t have her, no one can’!”
I admit it. I laughed. Out of shock more than anything. How was this allowed on TV? I took it as some sort of dark comedy show, and it was kind of satisfying to see that freaky character get his comeuppance. Still, there was something unnerving to me, seeing the man’s eyes through the openings in the maiden. Wide and red and terrified. They just looked a little… too real.
But the maiden disappeared as quickly as it came, before I could dwell on it too much. “Oh, envy! Definitely one of my favorite sins.” More laughter. “Stay tuned, folks! We’ve still got a night of fun and games in store for you! But first… how’s about a word from our sponsors?”
Cut to a corporate logo which I again couldn't recognize.
“This segment was made possible by Buer Health, which has recently announced a brilliant new initiative to protect our citizens from skin cancer by removing their skin completely.”
The camera cut to a massive industrial building, resembling a solid concrete cube around 50 meters in width and height. Its surface bore arcane symbols etched using carvings of wailing, tormented faces. The host would occasionally be rendered inaudible by a deafening metallic scraping from within, though he didn’t seem to notice. The only protrusion from the building’s cubic shape was a single smokestack, belching a scarlet red smoke into the atmosphere. A queue of gaunt figures waited at the entrance, herded and coerced by their grim overseers, and there were no words to describe the procession of scarlet ghouls limping out the building’s other end.
“Owing to the nonlinearity of time, the brand new Grand Skinpeeling Machine has spontaneously appeared several years before construction deadlines, and indeed, before it was even conceived of by anyone in our timeline. People have rushed all the way from Malebolge just to try this miracle of technology out on opening day, and so far, the reviews have been stellar!”
He shoved his microphone in the face of a shambling thing that could only scarcely be called a human. Tatters of flesh clung to its exposed musculature, blowing in the wind. Its eyes were the only hint of color in that sea of bloody red, and they were wide, white and terrified. The thing screamed and wailed for as long as it could before the last tendons connecting its jaw to its face snapped, and it was left to choke and gurgle.
“An amazing wail! The results speak for themselves, folks. The Grand Skinpeeling Machine is a hit!”
So far, I was still laughing along and having a good time. The sight of the next ‘guest’, however, started making me nervous.
It was an old lady.
She couldn’t be a day younger than sixty, the sort of sweet elderly woman who in a just world would be cooking chocolate chip cookies for her grandchildren in a comfy cottage somewhere. But here she was, tied to a metal chair, eyes wide, shaking like a leaf. Unlike the last contestant, she seemed to know exactly what was happening.
“In exchange for our loving endorsement, they’ve agreed to loan us one of their star employees. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for: the Liqisma!”
Something slunk from the darkness far behind her — or perhaps it’d be more apt to say that the darkness birthed it whole-cloth. It was like a living shadow, and it took my eyes a moment to register what I was even seeing.
How do I even begin describing this creature? I could say it looked almost human, or at least like something that may have been human long ago. Or I could start with its skin, which was all black and shiny as latex and seemingly smooth on first glance, but if you looked closer you’d realize it was covered in a million tiny reptilian scales, almost like a shark. Its head was a bald man’s, utterly devoid of any distinguishing features, like the basic stock template for a human being. It was notable only for a complete lack of pupils and irises, its eyes a pure white.
Its body defied basic biology in so many key ways, I had to stare it at for what felt like an eternity just to wrap my mind around its physiology. It was at least five or six meters long, by my estimate, composed of multiple human torsos stacked one on top of the other like segments of a centipede, each melding with the ones around it at the waist and shoulders. Each torso sported a pair of short, stubby arms that propelled it with terrifying grace. It ended with a pair of human legs, perpetually bent on their knees, beneath a ‘tail’ that looked more like its coccyx was poking free from its body.
The old last could clearly hear it, and kept futilely trying to turn her head around enough to get a peek at what stood behind her. I mouthed uselessly, don’t. You don’t want to know.
“Glad you could join us again, Miss Wethersby! Judging by our ratings last week, you seemed to have been a fan favorite!”
Her voice was so soft, I could barely hear it below the static. “Oh, God. Please, why won’t you people let me go? I’ve told you, I’ve never done anything, never hurt anybody. There must be some sort of—”
He waved a hand over her, and it seemed to forcefully snap her mouth shut. “Please, Miss Wethersby, save your breath for our questions!” Another cue card. “Your first question, my friend: where did you and your husband buy your first home?”
She had to think about it for a long time. Eventually, she cried out, “Alabama! Tuscaloosa, Alabama!”
“Ding ding ding! Why, you’re already doing better than our first contestant! Next question: what breed of dog was your childhood pet?”
She had a pained look on her face as she thought. Eventually, a timer started ticking down. It wasn’t visible, so it wasn’t clear how much time she had left exactly, but the sound it made got more shrill and high-pitched with every second. “Miss Wethersby, need I remind you that we have a time limit on this show?”
A tear ran down her cheek. “I… I keep telling you people, I don’t know. I have dementia, I can’t remember, please—”
That buzzer again. “I’m afraid that was the wrong answer! Liqisma?” The old lady shuddered at the sounds of hundreds of feet drawing a little closer to her. “Now, your first grandchild. What did he look like? What color were his eyes? His hair?”
She was crying harder now, like it hurt her that she couldn’t remember something so dear to her. “I told you I can’t remember! Why are you doing this to me!?”
“If you don’t remember them, why would they remember you?” The host mocked as the buzzer sounded, and the beast drew a little closer. “Really, do you believe they still even think about you? Or do you think they’re glad that the old bag of bones isn’t there sucking up their inheritance?”
This went on for… God, it could have been an hour. I was glued to the screen all the while, frozen with terror, praying for this nightmare to just end, for her to make it out okay somehow. He poured over every little detail of the life she lived and the people she loved, delighting in how little of it she could still recall.
And the thing grew closer, and closer… until she finally felt multiple pairs of hands resting upon her shoulders. The thing was looming over her now, and a long, black tongue a few feet in length emerged from its mouth and ran trails of dark saliva over the back of her head. She looked broken down, eyes raw from crying, and I could tell by the dampness of her dress that she’d wet herself.
“Now, Miss Wethersby, our time here has been fun, but I do believe it is time for our final question. Tell me, what is the name… of your only son?”
She couldn’t even answer anymore. She just stared ahead, like her mind was a million miles away. He cackled as the buzzer sounded one final time, and threw his cue cards aside. “Thank you for playing, Miss Wethersby. Better luck next time.”
I would say the thing unhinged its jaw like a snake, but that’d be an understatement. The way the thing’s face malformed and wrinkled and stretched as it opened its maw, it no longer looked even remotely human. Its jaws must have parted at least thirty centimeters apart, revealing a second, pharyngeal pair of jaws that lashed out and gripped the woman’s skull, pulling her headlong into that darkness.
I could hear bones crunching and snapping as its throat constricted down around her body, peristaltic muscles compacting her into a meat slurry, bit by bit. Yet she just wouldn’t die. Even as her skull and upper body were already crushed and compacted, organs and muscles pressed into mulch, she still kicked her legs, twitched her fingers, let out a gurgling that must have been some attempt at screaming. She was squirming even as the beast snapped its jaw shut around the last of her, condemning her to whatever torments awaited her inside the creature.
And all the while, that horrible laughter. “Don’t worry, folks! She’ll be back next week! And the next. And the next…”
Needless to say, I wasn’t having fun anymore. In fact, I had to turn away and fight the urge to throw up. I stood, about to turn the TV off and —
“Ah, ah, ah! Don’t touch that dial, now!” I froze. There was something chilling about the way he said that, staring right into the screen as if reacting to what I was doing. I hated that grin on his face. “The real show is just beginning.”
And with the barely restrained excitement of a child on Christmas morning, he yanked back another curtain, and I recognized everything.
I recognized that crappy bootleg knockoff Always Sunny in Philadelphia jacket that was so gaudy and terrible it instantly became her favorite thing in her wardrobe. I recognized those subtle hints of slight acne she disguised as fake freckles. I recognized the way her gray eyes would remind me of those overcast mornings at the beach at Hilton Head and pointing out all the cannonball jellyfish washed up on the sands. I recognized that tattoo of the name ʀᴏᴄᴋʏ, how I’d held her all night long as she cried into my shirt after her childhood cat had died.
It was Lila.
I shuddered, gasped, fell from my seat as if I’d been punched in the stomach and the air had been knocked out of me. I couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be real. I was dreaming right now. I must be. I just had to wake up.
But I couldn’t wake up. Nothing I could do dispelled the sight of her curled up in that… that thing. That bronze statue of a bull, horns jutting on either side of a head that roaring silently up at the heavens, all while the love of my life was locked in its hollowed out belly, visible only through a pane of glass. I could hear her cry out in shock at where she’d found herself, and every whimper felt like it drove a knife through my chest.
The host soaked in the moment. It was ecstasy for him, the suffering of it all. He stared dead into the camera like he was looking right at me as she called, “What is this? Where am I?”
“Why, I have good news, my dear Lila! You’re exactly where every American dreams of being: you’re on TV.” He pointed to the camera. “And we have a very special guest in the audience tonight. Your very own beloved Jackson!”
I shuddered, hearing my own name ooze from his fetid lips. His façade of perfection was slipping, and there was something so profoundly ugly beneath it. Her eyes snapped to the camera, confused, despairing. “Jackson? Baby? What — what’s happening? What is this?”
I don’t know, I thought, gripping the sides of the TV so hard my knuckles turned white, but I’m going to get you out of there, baby. I’m going to find whoever did this and I’m going to bury them all so far beneath that studio that they’ll never-
“I’m afraid Jackson hasn’t joined us quite yet, my dear. But if you truly love him, surely you’ll give him a show to remember, won’t you?” He taunted her. “All I want, after all, is to ask you a few questions! In fact, I’ll offer you a special deal: get even a single answer right, and I’ll let you go free! But get one wrong and, well…”
On cue, a fire was lit beneath her. Small, smoldering for now, but she whimpered as she noticed the heat. We both realized in that instant what this was. By now, I was screaming things I can’t repeat here, and slamming my hands against the TV screen as if I could reach through and save her.
She bit her lip and acquiesced. Not like she had any room to argue. The host grinned and readied a cue card. “Your first question: where are you, Lila?”
“I… I don’t know. How am I supposed to know?”
“You do know, Lila. You know exactly where you are.” He smirked at her. “Here’s a free hint: what’s the last thing you remember, before you woke up here?
She thought about it… and choked back a sob, visibly shaking as the realization slowly settled in. “But… but why? I… I…”
The horrible wail of the buzzer cut her off. “Oooh, too bad! I’m afraid you’ve run out of time!”
Seemingly as if on its own, the fire doubled in size. Sparks licked the belly of the bronze bull, and began to ever-so-slowly heat the surface. She pawed around in the tight confines, searching for any reprieve from the scalding heat all around her as the metal grew hot like it’d been left out in the sun on a summer’s day. “Please! Oh, God, let me out of this thing! It hurts! It hurts!”
The host seemed to breathe in her pain as if stealing a moment’s indulgence. “Now that there is no doubt about where you are, my dear, let us proceed to the second question.” He switched to his next card. “Did you believe in God, in the end?”
“O-of course!” She pled her case as if she was being tried in court. “My entire life… every day I gave to the poor, helped the sick, did whatever I could to honor Hi-“
“I’m afraid you misunderstood my question. I asked, did you believe in him at the end? The very moment your pitiful little life was snuffed out?”
“I always believed! I’d never forsake Him!”
“Yes, yes, I know. You lived a good and holy life, didn’t you?” He cackled. “But what of the very end? You and your little husband were so excited to deliver your first little baby boy. But o, tragedy! It all went wrong, didn’t it? Your precious little boy didn’t make it through childbirth… and you followed closely behind.”
“That whole business with the botched pregnancy, it was… what do you call it? Ah, yes. A ‘test of faith’. And I’m afraid you failed. In your final moments, you watched the light fade from your child’s eyes, and you assumed — wisely, in my humble opinion — that no ‘kind’ and ‘loving’ God would allow something like that to happen.” He laughed. “Funny how after a lifetime of dutiful service, all it takes is one little mistake at the end… to bring you here. To us.”
I’d never seen such depths of despair in a person’s eyes. Such emptiness. Like with every word, he’d been scooping out another piece of her until she was hollow. And then that buzzer roared again, more shrill than ever, and I could barely see her little window through the smoke and flames. The belly of the bull was turning orange in places, and I could hear her flesh start to sizzle like meat on a grill. There are no words for the noises she made. No words at all.
“And our last, final question,” he continued. “What were your last words to your poor, beloved Jackson?”
“I love you!” I called out the answer. Bloody fingerprints stained the TV screen from my slamming my hands against it, as I screamed the answer over and over. “I love you, I love you, I love you!” At some point, I forgot that there was ever a question. I was just screaming it at her as if hoping that she could hear it, that it could bring her a modicum of comfort in that place.
The buzzer sounded again. I couldn't bring myself to look. All I could hear was the roaring of the bull, and the steam rising from its bronze nostrils.
The curtain fell. Silence drowned the sound. The host dropped all pretense that he hadn’t been speaking directly to me. “Now, Jackson. You just might be one of my new favorite audience members this show had ever had. I know this must have been hard for you. But if you’ll just stay tuned, I have one more show I know you’re certain to love!”
I didn’t bother to touch the remote. After all, nothing could be worse than what I’d just seen, right?
Wrong. Horror wracked me as the curtain rose, and I saw the man chained to a chair. I pulled away like a caveman witnessing fire, cringing and stuttering, face wet with sweat. It was the sort of fear that worked its way into your bones like a bad chill, that left you shaking, teeth chattering.
It was me.
An older me, sure. But not by much. Ten years, maybe. A gaunt and hollow version of me, one twisted by ten years of depression and hard drugs. But it was unmistakable.
His eyes widened as he recognized the host. “Oh — oh God, God please no! It can’t be — oh Christ, let me out of this chair, you —“
“Come, now! We wouldn’t want to use the lord’s name in vain, would we? I mean, that would be a sin!” The host laid a hand on the other me’s shoulder. “It may have been a few years since you watched our program, but I’m sure you remember the rules, don’t you, old friend?”
The other me was wordless, on the verge of hyperventilating, just as I was. The host was giddy with delight. “Now! Our first and only question is one I’m sure our viewer will be very interested in: what sins, exactly, do you think landed you here?”
The other me tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat. I could see it in his eyes. The years of self-destruction, the bitter hopelessness, the whirlpool of nihilism and vice and decay. The suffocating depths of a man. The darkness. How could he put it into words?
The sound of the buzzer was like a pig’s squeal. “Mmm, I’m afraid that our viewer is going to have to figure that out for himself! In the meantime, your punishment? Well, we wouldn’t want to spoil anything…”
The curtains slowly began to fall just as a couple other of those black, grotesque monstrosities emerged from the darkness. The curtain covered them all before I could get a good look at their obscene, twisted, asymmetrical figures. All I could hear was the crunching, the sound of skin tearing like paper, the screaming that went on for longer and louder than a human throat or vocal chords could endure.
The image and audio were beginning to distort, glitch, burn away. The tapes were physically melting as they played. My VCR was starting to overheat, sparks pouring from its front panel. The host voice jumped around in tone, his voice fading into the static blur as the tapes bubbled and boiled and distorted. “But, my friends, I’m afraid that concludes tonight’s episode of our show! So, with a final farewell to our dear, beloved viewer, Jackson…”
Just before the image melted away, the camera seemed to jump forward until his face filled the screen, his eyes piercing into mine as he cackled in that singsong voice.
“See you sooooon~”

Jim Simons, a Pioneer of Quantitative Trading, Dies at 86
A mathematician, he helped usher in a revolution in trading, embracing a computer-oriented, quantitative style in the 1980s
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/jim-simons-a-pioneer-of-quantitative-trading-dies-6621d66e?mod=djemalertNEWS
Jim Simons, a mathematician who became one of the most successful investors in modern financial history, has died at age 86.
A cutting-edge code breaker and geometer, Simons helped pioneer a revolution in trading, embracing a computer-oriented, quantitative style in the 1980s well ahead of the Wall Street crowd. He and his team employed trading algorithms and artificial intelligence to outperform the market—and the likes of Warren Buffett and George Soros. Later, Simons became a political donor and an influential philanthropist in the worlds of science, health and education.
Simons, the son of a Boston shoe-factory executive, developed an early passion for mathematics and ignored the advice of the family physician who urged him to steer clear of the field because he wouldn’t make a living. The warning proved misplaced.
Simons began his career as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. He proved popular with students. One year, Simons amused a graduate class by confessing that he didn’t know much about the topic—partial differential equations—but that he viewed teaching the course as a good way to learn.
Simons became restless, though. He started businesses with friends and dabbled in trading. Friends and family detected a desire for wealth.
“Jim understood at an early age that money is power,” said Barbara Simons, his first wife, in an interview.
During the Cold War, in 1964, Simons joined a U.S. intelligence organization fighting the Soviet Union. He successfully broke Russian code but was fired when he took a public stance against the Vietnam War, upsetting his boss, who had spoken in favor of the war.
Simons joined Stony Brook University in Long Island, N.Y., where he ran the math department, developing an ability to recruit talented professors. At 37, he won geometry’s highest honor, cementing his reputation in the world of mathematics. His Chern-Simons theory remains one of the most widely cited math papers of the past century.

Farewell to academia

In 1978, at the age of 40, Simons astonished his colleagues by quitting academia to try his hand at trading. He started an investment firm in a dreary Long Island strip mall, next to a women’s clothing boutique and two doors from a pizza joint. At the time, many rivals were “fundamental” investors, chatting with corporate managers, scrutinizing balance sheets and relying on judgment and intuition to predict the ups and downs of investments.
Where others saw the zigs and zags as chaos, Simons, who had been trained to scrutinize large data sets, sensed that financial markets had more structure than most presumed.
“I developed a view that markets are not random, and [were] to some extent predictable,” he later said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “There were statistical anomalies that could be exploited.”
Early on, Simons traded like most others, reading the news and betting on gold prices and other investments. He scored gains but found it hard to endure the market’s volatility. He developed stomach pains and berated himself for miscues.
“One day you’re a genius, the next you feel like a dope,” Simons said. “Fundamental trading gave me ulcers.”
Simons set out to build an automated trading system that could discover fleeting and overlooked patterns in prices.
“I want models that will make money while I sleep,” Simons told a friend at the time. “A pure system without humans interfering.”
Simons hired scientists and mathematicians who used data going back centuries, predictive algorithms and machine learning. They often met with frustration.
“There’s a pattern here; there has to be a pattern,” Simons insisted one day.
At one point, their trading system inadvertently came close to cornering the market for Maine potatoes, to the dismay of regulators.
“We were viewed as flakes with ridiculous ideas,” said Elwyn Berlekamp, who helped lead the firm in the 1980s, in a 2017 interview.

A payoff, finally

By 1990, Simons and his team, in their East Setauket, N.Y., headquarters, had identified ways to profit from currency, commodity and other markets using short-term patterns they had found. It took years longer, but the firm, by then called Renaissance Technologies, eventually discovered a way to make billions of dollars on stocks.
Their winning strategy: holding investments for short periods, even minutes, turning almost all of the trading decisions to computers—and maintaining a veil of secrecy unlike almost any in Wall Street’s history. Colleagues said one reason for the firm’s success was Simons’s ability to coax accomplished mathematicians and scientists to join his firm, and get them to work together—his genius was managing genius.
“There is one GOAT [greatest of all time]. His name was Jim Simons,” said Clifford Asness, managing and founding principal of AQR Capital Management. “That he was also a nice, kind, generous and caring man just makes it that much more amazing.”
Between 1988 and 2018, Renaissance’s flagship Medallion Fund produced gains of more than $100 billion and average annual returns of 66% before the firm’s unusually hefty investor fees. The annual gains were 39% after those fees, a performance that topped those of Buffett, Soros, Peter Lynch and other investors during that period. Medallion years ago became a fund only open to Simons and his colleagues.
Simons defied the odds in other ways. He was a regular cigarette smoker, lighting up in office buildings, restaurants and most everywhere else. Once, during a presentation to potential clients, Simons couldn’t find an ashtray so he buried his cigarette butt deep in a sheet cake, amazing his guests.

Many converts

Today, more investors have embraced Simons’s mathematical, computer-oriented approach. About one-third of all money is managed by so-called quant firms, and businesses in various industries rely on algorithms.
Away from trading, Simons suffered tragedy. One son, Paul, died in a bicycle accident. Another, Nicholas, died while scuba diving.
“My life is either aces or deuces,” Simons once told a colleague.
Over the years, Simons reduced his role at the firm while focusing on science, education and other philanthropies. In 2010 he resigned as Renaissance’s chief executive, yielding the job to longtime employee and former International Business Machines computer scientist Peter Brown. Simons retired as chairman in 2021.
Simons’s health had deteriorated recently.
Simons gave away more than $6 billion during his lifetime. The Simons Foundation became a leading private funder of research in basic science. Simons also provided annual stipends of $15,000 to more than 1,000 top math and science teachers in New York City. He funded efforts to discover treatments for autism and spent $75 million to build an observatory in Chile to gain an understanding of creation’s earliest moments.
In 2021, Simons and senior Renaissance executives agreed to pay up to $7 billion to settle a long-running tax probe related to how the firm converted short-term gains into long-term profits, which are typically taxed at a lower rate. It was one of the biggest settlements in Internal Revenue Service history.
Simons was one of the biggest backers of Democratic candidates, supporting the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, Robert Mercer, then the co-CEO of Renaissance, in 2016 became one of then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump’s most important backers.
In a 2019 speech, Simons offered a life lesson to MIT students.
“Be guided by beauty,” he said. “It can be a way a company runs, or the way an experiment comes out, or the way a theorem comes out, but there’s a sense of beauty when something is working well, almost an aesthetic to it.”
Simons is survived by his wife, Marilyn Simons, and three children. His earlier marriage to Barbara Simons ended in divorce.

The Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Readings:
Psalm 47 or 93Reading Ephesians 1:15–23
Gospel: Luke 24:44–53
44 And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48And ye are witnesses of these things.
49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Commentary:
Just over a month ago on Thursday 4 April, we examined verses 36b to 48 of this last chapter of Luke. While some may think that going over these verses again, this soon, might be redundant or an unnecessary repetition, I have found personally, that each time I study a passage I always come away from the experience with a deeper knowledge, perhaps even picking up on a point I had missed in the past.
This study picks up, in the days after Jesus’ triumph over death, he has appeared numerous times to various people revealing himself, and now makes his final appearance in this Gospel, as he appears in their midst. They had assembled, the surviving disciples and other followers, discussing the miraculous reports that some had given of having seen the risen Christ.
Naturally they were frightened, they at first thought it was a ghost standing in their midst, but the Son of God said “Peace be unto you.” (v. 36) And proceeded to prove he was not a ghost or spirit by telling them to observe the wounds on his hands and feet, he told them to touch these wounds inflicted during the crucifixion, and he reasoned with them, saying, “...a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” The next bit of evidence he offered to them to prove he was not some sort of spirit, which to me also demonstrates his sense of humor, he asked them, “Have ye here any meat?” (v. 41) Luke writes that they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb.
As we study these verses, we have to keep in mind that the disciples—although Jesus had told them repeatedly of what was to take place—still were almost clueless as to what was happening around them. We have the luxury of knowing the outcome, a privilege that they simply did not have.
There was simply no precedence, no prior events in history for them to reflect upon and have some idea of the significance of this event. Their beloved teacher and religious leader, had told them he would be taken up and persecuted, but he would arise again on the third day. Sure enough, he was taken, persecuted without mercy, publicly executed and put to death. Now he was standing in their midst. I aks you to take a moment and reflect on this situation, and ask yourself if you had been in their position, what would you be thinking at that moment when he asked them to touch his wounded hands and feet?
“And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (v. 44) Jesus almost said, “I told you so” by reminding them that all had happened just as He said it would.
“ Jesus first demonstrated the physical reality of his resurrected by body by inviting the disciples to look at him and to touch him and also by eating food in their presence. We have the sense that they watch in stunned silence. Now Jesus takes the next step in the revelatory process, first reminding the disciples of what he said to them earlier—and then helping them to understand the scriptures—scriptures that speak of the Messiah suffering and rising from the dead on the third day (v. 46)—scriptures that speak of “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (v. 47).” (Donovan)
“All things must be fulfilled which were written. Christ had given them this general hint for the regulating of their expectations—that whatever they found written concerning the Messiah, in the Old Testament, must be fulfilled in him, what was written concerning his sufferings as well as what was written concerning his kingdom; these God had joined together in the prediction, and it could not be thought that they should be put asunder in the event. All things must be fulfilled, even the hardest, even the heaviest, even the vinegar; he could not die till he had that, because he could not till then say, It is finished.” (Henry)
“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:” (vs. 45-46)
Jesus wanted them to understand that the cross was not some unfortunate obstacle that had to be hurdled. It was a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan for man, and that it would be in the name of a crucified and risen Savior that repentance and remission of sins will be brought to the world.“” (Guzik)
“Christ's way of working faith in the soul, and gaining the throne there, is by opening the understanding to discern the evidence of those things that are to be believed. Thus he comes into the soul by the door, while Satan, as a thief and a robber, climbs up some other way. ” (Henry)
“Neither does Luke specify which scriptures Jesus opens their minds to understand. There is no single Old Testament scripture that incorporates all the three major themes of vv. 46-47—three themes that will form the core of the church’s kerygma: (1) the suffering and death of the Messiah, (2) his resurrection on the third day, and (3) the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness to all nations. There are, however, a number of Old Testament scriptures that address particular elements. Luke alludes to or quotes a number of these in Acts ” (Donovan)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (v. 47)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name” While this is not in the imperative mood (Jesus does not say, “You shall proclaim”) it nevertheless constitutes Jesus’ mission statement for the disciples. They are to proclaim two things—repentance and forgiveness of sins. They are to do so in the name of the Messiah, who is the one who makes forgiveness possible.
“What they must preach. They must preach the gospel, must preach the New Testament as the full accomplishment of the Old, as the continuation and conclusion of divine revelation.” (Henry)
“The great gospel privilege of the remission of sins must be proposed to all, and assured to all that repent, and believe the gospel. "Go, tell a guilty world, that stands convicted and condemned at God's bar, that an act of indemnity has passed the royal assent, which all that repent and believe shall have the benefit of, and not only be pardoned, but preferred by. Tell them that there is hope concerning them."” (ibid)
“among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” “They were told by their great Master what to preach, and where to preach it, and how to preach it, and even where to begin to preach it.” (Spurgeon)
“This proclamation is to begin from Jerusalem, but it will not be limited to Jerusalem. The disciples are to be Jesus’ witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8—also written by Luke). Prior to Jesus, the Jews had assumed a centripetal model, with the world being drawn toward a central point, Jerusalem. After Jesus, the model reverses, spinning outward from Jerusalem. In Mark and Matthew Jesus issues even more explicit commissioning statements. Whereas Luke emphasizes repentance and forgiveness of sins (v. 47), Mark emphasizes preaching the Gospel (Mark 16:15) and Matthew emphasizes making disciples and teaching (Matthew 28:19-20a).” (Donovan)
“And ye are witnesses of these things.” (v. 48) A witness was a person who had seen something and could testify to the facts of the case. That was the case with these disciples, who had seen Jesus with their own eyes. They could testify to having seen Jesus after his resurrection (vv. 36-49). They could also testify to seeing him ascend into heaven (vv. 50-53).
“Now these disciples will testify to what they have seen, and some will be killed as a consequence. They were to tell the story. To tell it not as hearsay, but as of their own knowledge (I John 1:1). And to tell it at cost. There was no other plan” (Scherer, 433).
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (v.49)
“ Jesus does not reveal here what the Father has promised. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s sequel to this Gospel, Jesus repeats this promise (Acts 1:5) and reveals that the gift is the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). Luke further records Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon, in which Peter quotes the prophet Joel, “It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17; see Joel 2:28). Peter assures his listeners that they have seen this prophecy fulfilled in the sound of a violent wind, the tongues of fire, and the glossolalia that they observed that day (Acts 2:1-13, 16)—manifestations of the Spirit.” (Donovan)
“They could not do the work Jesus had called them to do unless they were endued with power from on high, and that power would come as the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.” (Guzik)
“And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.” (vs. 50-53)
“How solemnly Christ took leave of his disciples. Christ's design being to reconcile heaven and earth, and to continue a days-man between them, it was necessary that he should lay his hands on them both, and, in order thereunto, that he should pass and repass. He had business to do in both worlds, and accordingly came from heaven to earth in his incarnation, to despatch his business here, and, having finished this, he returned to heaven, to reside there, and negotiate our affairs with the Father. Observe, 1. Whence he ascended: from Bethany, near Jerusalem, adjoining to the mount of Olives. There he had done eminent services for his Father's glory, and there he entered upon his glory. There was the garden in which his sufferings began, there he was in his agony; and Bethany signifies the house of sorrow. Those that would go to heaven must ascend thither from the house of sufferings and sorrow, must go by agonies to their joys. The mount of Olives was pitched upon long since to be the place of Christ's ascension: His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, Zec. 14:4. And here it was that awhile ago he began his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, ch. 19:29. 2. Who were the witnesses of his ascension: He led out his disciples to see him. Probably, it was very early in the morning that he ascended, before people were stirring; for he never showed himself openly to all the people after his resurrection, but only to chosen witnesses. The disciples did not see him rise out of the grace, because his resurrection was capable of being proved by their seeing him alive afterwards; but they saw him ascend into heaven, because they could not otherwise have an ocular demonstration of his ascension. They were led out on purpose to see him ascend, had their eye upon him when he ascended, and were not looking another way. 3. What was the farewell he gave them: He lifted up his hands, and blessed them. He did not go away in displeasure, but in love; he left a blessing behind him; he lifted up his hands, as the high priest did when he blessed the people; see Lev. 9:22. He blessed as one having authority, commanded the blessing which he had purchased” (Henry)
“There still is no other plan. We have not seen the risen Christ with our own eyes, but we have experienced him in our lives. Our responsibility is to tell the story as we have experienced it, and to do so at cost if need be. Over time, fewer and fewer Christians would have seen the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes. However, they would tell the story—and tell it at cost, often at the cost of their own lives. As a result, this word martys would come to mean martyr—those who were killed because of their Christian witness.” (Donovan)
Benediction
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members and all denominations of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Thought for the Day:
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. --C. S. Lewis

The Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Readings:
Psalm 47 or 93Reading Ephesians 1:15–23
Gospel: Luke 24:44–53
44 And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48And ye are witnesses of these things.
49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Commentary:
Just over a month ago on Thursday 4 April, we examined verses 36b to 48 of this last chapter of Luke. While some may think that going over these verses again, this soon, might be redundant or an unnecessary repetition, I have found personally, that each time I study a passage I always come away from the experience with a deeper knowledge, perhaps even picking up on a point I had missed in the past.
This study picks up, in the days after Jesus’ triumph over death, he has appeared numerous times to various people revealing himself, and now makes his final appearance in this Gospel, as he appears in their midst. They had assembled, the surviving disciples and other followers, discussing the miraculous reports that some had given of having seen the risen Christ.
Naturally they were frightened, they at first thought it was a ghost standing in their midst, but the Son of God said “Peace be unto you.” (v. 36) And proceeded to prove he was not a ghost or spirit by telling them to observe the wounds on his hands and feet, he told them to touch these wounds inflicted during the crucifixion, and he reasoned with them, saying, “...a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” The next bit of evidence he offered to them to prove he was not some sort of spirit, which to me also demonstrates his sense of humor, he asked them, “Have ye here any meat?” (v. 41) Luke writes that they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb.
As we study these verses, we have to keep in mind that the disciples—although Jesus had told them repeatedly of what was to take place—still were almost clueless as to what was happening around them. We have the luxury of knowing the outcome, a privilege that they simply did not have.
There was simply no precedence, no prior events in history for them to reflect upon and have some idea of the significance of this event. Their beloved teacher and religious leader, had told them he would be taken up and persecuted, but he would arise again on the third day. Sure enough, he was taken, persecuted without mercy, publicly executed and put to death. Now he was standing in their midst. I aks you to take a moment and reflect on this situation, and ask yourself if you had been in their position, what would you be thinking at that moment when he asked them to touch his wounded hands and feet?
“And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (v. 44) Jesus almost said, “I told you so” by reminding them that all had happened just as He said it would.
“ Jesus first demonstrated the physical reality of his resurrected by body by inviting the disciples to look at him and to touch him and also by eating food in their presence. We have the sense that they watch in stunned silence. Now Jesus takes the next step in the revelatory process, first reminding the disciples of what he said to them earlier—and then helping them to understand the scriptures—scriptures that speak of the Messiah suffering and rising from the dead on the third day (v. 46)—scriptures that speak of “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (v. 47).” (Donovan)
“All things must be fulfilled which were written. Christ had given them this general hint for the regulating of their expectations—that whatever they found written concerning the Messiah, in the Old Testament, must be fulfilled in him, what was written concerning his sufferings as well as what was written concerning his kingdom; these God had joined together in the prediction, and it could not be thought that they should be put asunder in the event. All things must be fulfilled, even the hardest, even the heaviest, even the vinegar; he could not die till he had that, because he could not till then say, It is finished.” (Henry)
“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:” (vs. 45-46)
Jesus wanted them to understand that the cross was not some unfortunate obstacle that had to be hurdled. It was a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan for man, and that it would be in the name of a crucified and risen Savior that repentance and remission of sins will be brought to the world.“” (Guzik)
“Christ's way of working faith in the soul, and gaining the throne there, is by opening the understanding to discern the evidence of those things that are to be believed. Thus he comes into the soul by the door, while Satan, as a thief and a robber, climbs up some other way. ” (Henry)
“Neither does Luke specify which scriptures Jesus opens their minds to understand. There is no single Old Testament scripture that incorporates all the three major themes of vv. 46-47—three themes that will form the core of the church’s kerygma: (1) the suffering and death of the Messiah, (2) his resurrection on the third day, and (3) the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness to all nations. There are, however, a number of Old Testament scriptures that address particular elements. Luke alludes to or quotes a number of these in Acts ” (Donovan)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (v. 47)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name” While this is not in the imperative mood (Jesus does not say, “You shall proclaim”) it nevertheless constitutes Jesus’ mission statement for the disciples. They are to proclaim two things—repentance and forgiveness of sins. They are to do so in the name of the Messiah, who is the one who makes forgiveness possible.
“What they must preach. They must preach the gospel, must preach the New Testament as the full accomplishment of the Old, as the continuation and conclusion of divine revelation.” (Henry)
“The great gospel privilege of the remission of sins must be proposed to all, and assured to all that repent, and believe the gospel. "Go, tell a guilty world, that stands convicted and condemned at God's bar, that an act of indemnity has passed the royal assent, which all that repent and believe shall have the benefit of, and not only be pardoned, but preferred by. Tell them that there is hope concerning them."” (ibid)
“among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” “They were told by their great Master what to preach, and where to preach it, and how to preach it, and even where to begin to preach it.” (Spurgeon)
“This proclamation is to begin from Jerusalem, but it will not be limited to Jerusalem. The disciples are to be Jesus’ witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8—also written by Luke). Prior to Jesus, the Jews had assumed a centripetal model, with the world being drawn toward a central point, Jerusalem. After Jesus, the model reverses, spinning outward from Jerusalem. In Mark and Matthew Jesus issues even more explicit commissioning statements. Whereas Luke emphasizes repentance and forgiveness of sins (v. 47), Mark emphasizes preaching the Gospel (Mark 16:15) and Matthew emphasizes making disciples and teaching (Matthew 28:19-20a).” (Donovan)
“And ye are witnesses of these things.” (v. 48) A witness was a person who had seen something and could testify to the facts of the case. That was the case with these disciples, who had seen Jesus with their own eyes. They could testify to having seen Jesus after his resurrection (vv. 36-49). They could also testify to seeing him ascend into heaven (vv. 50-53).
“Now these disciples will testify to what they have seen, and some will be killed as a consequence. They were to tell the story. To tell it not as hearsay, but as of their own knowledge (I John 1:1). And to tell it at cost. There was no other plan” (Scherer, 433).
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (v.49)
“ Jesus does not reveal here what the Father has promised. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s sequel to this Gospel, Jesus repeats this promise (Acts 1:5) and reveals that the gift is the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). Luke further records Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon, in which Peter quotes the prophet Joel, “It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17; see Joel 2:28). Peter assures his listeners that they have seen this prophecy fulfilled in the sound of a violent wind, the tongues of fire, and the glossolalia that they observed that day (Acts 2:1-13, 16)—manifestations of the Spirit.” (Donovan)
“They could not do the work Jesus had called them to do unless they were endued with power from on high, and that power would come as the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.” (Guzik)
“And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.” (vs. 50-53)
“How solemnly Christ took leave of his disciples. Christ's design being to reconcile heaven and earth, and to continue a days-man between them, it was necessary that he should lay his hands on them both, and, in order thereunto, that he should pass and repass. He had business to do in both worlds, and accordingly came from heaven to earth in his incarnation, to despatch his business here, and, having finished this, he returned to heaven, to reside there, and negotiate our affairs with the Father. Observe, 1. Whence he ascended: from Bethany, near Jerusalem, adjoining to the mount of Olives. There he had done eminent services for his Father's glory, and there he entered upon his glory. There was the garden in which his sufferings began, there he was in his agony; and Bethany signifies the house of sorrow. Those that would go to heaven must ascend thither from the house of sufferings and sorrow, must go by agonies to their joys. The mount of Olives was pitched upon long since to be the place of Christ's ascension: His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, Zec. 14:4. And here it was that awhile ago he began his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, ch. 19:29. 2. Who were the witnesses of his ascension: He led out his disciples to see him. Probably, it was very early in the morning that he ascended, before people were stirring; for he never showed himself openly to all the people after his resurrection, but only to chosen witnesses. The disciples did not see him rise out of the grace, because his resurrection was capable of being proved by their seeing him alive afterwards; but they saw him ascend into heaven, because they could not otherwise have an ocular demonstration of his ascension. They were led out on purpose to see him ascend, had their eye upon him when he ascended, and were not looking another way. 3. What was the farewell he gave them: He lifted up his hands, and blessed them. He did not go away in displeasure, but in love; he left a blessing behind him; he lifted up his hands, as the high priest did when he blessed the people; see Lev. 9:22. He blessed as one having authority, commanded the blessing which he had purchased” (Henry)
“There still is no other plan. We have not seen the risen Christ with our own eyes, but we have experienced him in our lives. Our responsibility is to tell the story as we have experienced it, and to do so at cost if need be. Over time, fewer and fewer Christians would have seen the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes. However, they would tell the story—and tell it at cost, often at the cost of their own lives. As a result, this word martys would come to mean martyr—those who were killed because of their Christian witness.” (Donovan)
Benediction
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members and all denominations of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Thought for the Day:
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. --C. S. Lewis

The Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Readings:
Psalm 47 or 93Reading Ephesians 1:15–23
Gospel: Luke 24:44–53
44 And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48And ye are witnesses of these things.
49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Commentary:
Just over a month ago on Thursday 4 April, we examined verses 36b to 48 of this last chapter of Luke. While some may think that going over these verses again, this soon, might be redundant or an unnecessary repetition, I have found personally, that each time I study a passage I always come away from the experience with a deeper knowledge, perhaps even picking up on a point I had missed in the past.
This study picks up, in the days after Jesus’ triumph over death, he has appeared numerous times to various people revealing himself, and now makes his final appearance in this Gospel, as he appears in their midst. They had assembled, the surviving disciples and other followers, discussing the miraculous reports that some had given of having seen the risen Christ.
Naturally they were frightened, they at first thought it was a ghost standing in their midst, but the Son of God said “Peace be unto you.” (v. 36) And proceeded to prove he was not a ghost or spirit by telling them to observe the wounds on his hands and feet, he told them to touch these wounds inflicted during the crucifixion, and he reasoned with them, saying, “...a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” The next bit of evidence he offered to them to prove he was not some sort of spirit, which to me also demonstrates his sense of humor, he asked them, “Have ye here any meat?” (v. 41) Luke writes that they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb.
As we study these verses, we have to keep in mind that the disciples—although Jesus had told them repeatedly of what was to take place—still were almost clueless as to what was happening around them. We have the luxury of knowing the outcome, a privilege that they simply did not have.
There was simply no precedence, no prior events in history for them to reflect upon and have some idea of the significance of this event. Their beloved teacher and religious leader, had told them he would be taken up and persecuted, but he would arise again on the third day. Sure enough, he was taken, persecuted without mercy, publicly executed and put to death. Now he was standing in their midst. I aks you to take a moment and reflect on this situation, and ask yourself if you had been in their position, what would you be thinking at that moment when he asked them to touch his wounded hands and feet?
“And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (v. 44) Jesus almost said, “I told you so” by reminding them that all had happened just as He said it would.
“ Jesus first demonstrated the physical reality of his resurrected by body by inviting the disciples to look at him and to touch him and also by eating food in their presence. We have the sense that they watch in stunned silence. Now Jesus takes the next step in the revelatory process, first reminding the disciples of what he said to them earlier—and then helping them to understand the scriptures—scriptures that speak of the Messiah suffering and rising from the dead on the third day (v. 46)—scriptures that speak of “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (v. 47).” (Donovan)
“All things must be fulfilled which were written. Christ had given them this general hint for the regulating of their expectations—that whatever they found written concerning the Messiah, in the Old Testament, must be fulfilled in him, what was written concerning his sufferings as well as what was written concerning his kingdom; these God had joined together in the prediction, and it could not be thought that they should be put asunder in the event. All things must be fulfilled, even the hardest, even the heaviest, even the vinegar; he could not die till he had that, because he could not till then say, It is finished.” (Henry)
“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:” (vs. 45-46)
Jesus wanted them to understand that the cross was not some unfortunate obstacle that had to be hurdled. It was a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan for man, and that it would be in the name of a crucified and risen Savior that repentance and remission of sins will be brought to the world.“” (Guzik)
“Christ's way of working faith in the soul, and gaining the throne there, is by opening the understanding to discern the evidence of those things that are to be believed. Thus he comes into the soul by the door, while Satan, as a thief and a robber, climbs up some other way. ” (Henry)
“Neither does Luke specify which scriptures Jesus opens their minds to understand. There is no single Old Testament scripture that incorporates all the three major themes of vv. 46-47—three themes that will form the core of the church’s kerygma: (1) the suffering and death of the Messiah, (2) his resurrection on the third day, and (3) the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness to all nations. There are, however, a number of Old Testament scriptures that address particular elements. Luke alludes to or quotes a number of these in Acts ” (Donovan)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (v. 47)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name” While this is not in the imperative mood (Jesus does not say, “You shall proclaim”) it nevertheless constitutes Jesus’ mission statement for the disciples. They are to proclaim two things—repentance and forgiveness of sins. They are to do so in the name of the Messiah, who is the one who makes forgiveness possible.
“What they must preach. They must preach the gospel, must preach the New Testament as the full accomplishment of the Old, as the continuation and conclusion of divine revelation.” (Henry)
“The great gospel privilege of the remission of sins must be proposed to all, and assured to all that repent, and believe the gospel. "Go, tell a guilty world, that stands convicted and condemned at God's bar, that an act of indemnity has passed the royal assent, which all that repent and believe shall have the benefit of, and not only be pardoned, but preferred by. Tell them that there is hope concerning them."” (ibid)
“among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” “They were told by their great Master what to preach, and where to preach it, and how to preach it, and even where to begin to preach it.” (Spurgeon)
“This proclamation is to begin from Jerusalem, but it will not be limited to Jerusalem. The disciples are to be Jesus’ witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8—also written by Luke). Prior to Jesus, the Jews had assumed a centripetal model, with the world being drawn toward a central point, Jerusalem. After Jesus, the model reverses, spinning outward from Jerusalem. In Mark and Matthew Jesus issues even more explicit commissioning statements. Whereas Luke emphasizes repentance and forgiveness of sins (v. 47), Mark emphasizes preaching the Gospel (Mark 16:15) and Matthew emphasizes making disciples and teaching (Matthew 28:19-20a).” (Donovan)
“And ye are witnesses of these things.” (v. 48) A witness was a person who had seen something and could testify to the facts of the case. That was the case with these disciples, who had seen Jesus with their own eyes. They could testify to having seen Jesus after his resurrection (vv. 36-49). They could also testify to seeing him ascend into heaven (vv. 50-53).
“Now these disciples will testify to what they have seen, and some will be killed as a consequence. They were to tell the story. To tell it not as hearsay, but as of their own knowledge (I John 1:1). And to tell it at cost. There was no other plan” (Scherer, 433).
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (v.49)
“ Jesus does not reveal here what the Father has promised. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s sequel to this Gospel, Jesus repeats this promise (Acts 1:5) and reveals that the gift is the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). Luke further records Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon, in which Peter quotes the prophet Joel, “It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17; see Joel 2:28). Peter assures his listeners that they have seen this prophecy fulfilled in the sound of a violent wind, the tongues of fire, and the glossolalia that they observed that day (Acts 2:1-13, 16)—manifestations of the Spirit.” (Donovan)
“They could not do the work Jesus had called them to do unless they were endued with power from on high, and that power would come as the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.” (Guzik)
“And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.” (vs. 50-53)
“How solemnly Christ took leave of his disciples. Christ's design being to reconcile heaven and earth, and to continue a days-man between them, it was necessary that he should lay his hands on them both, and, in order thereunto, that he should pass and repass. He had business to do in both worlds, and accordingly came from heaven to earth in his incarnation, to despatch his business here, and, having finished this, he returned to heaven, to reside there, and negotiate our affairs with the Father. Observe, 1. Whence he ascended: from Bethany, near Jerusalem, adjoining to the mount of Olives. There he had done eminent services for his Father's glory, and there he entered upon his glory. There was the garden in which his sufferings began, there he was in his agony; and Bethany signifies the house of sorrow. Those that would go to heaven must ascend thither from the house of sufferings and sorrow, must go by agonies to their joys. The mount of Olives was pitched upon long since to be the place of Christ's ascension: His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, Zec. 14:4. And here it was that awhile ago he began his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, ch. 19:29. 2. Who were the witnesses of his ascension: He led out his disciples to see him. Probably, it was very early in the morning that he ascended, before people were stirring; for he never showed himself openly to all the people after his resurrection, but only to chosen witnesses. The disciples did not see him rise out of the grace, because his resurrection was capable of being proved by their seeing him alive afterwards; but they saw him ascend into heaven, because they could not otherwise have an ocular demonstration of his ascension. They were led out on purpose to see him ascend, had their eye upon him when he ascended, and were not looking another way. 3. What was the farewell he gave them: He lifted up his hands, and blessed them. He did not go away in displeasure, but in love; he left a blessing behind him; he lifted up his hands, as the high priest did when he blessed the people; see Lev. 9:22. He blessed as one having authority, commanded the blessing which he had purchased” (Henry)
“There still is no other plan. We have not seen the risen Christ with our own eyes, but we have experienced him in our lives. Our responsibility is to tell the story as we have experienced it, and to do so at cost if need be. Over time, fewer and fewer Christians would have seen the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes. However, they would tell the story—and tell it at cost, often at the cost of their own lives. As a result, this word martys would come to mean martyr—those who were killed because of their Christian witness.” (Donovan)
Benediction
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members and all denominations of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Thought for the Day:
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. --C. S. Lewis

The Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Readings:
Psalm 47 or 93Reading Ephesians 1:15–23
Gospel: Luke 24:44–53
44 And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48And ye are witnesses of these things.
49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Commentary:
Just over a month ago on Thursday 4 April, we examined verses 36b to 48 of this last chapter of Luke. While some may think that going over these verses again, this soon, might be redundant or an unnecessary repetition, I have found personally, that each time I study a passage I always come away from the experience with a deeper knowledge, perhaps even picking up on a point I had missed in the past.
This study picks up, in the days after Jesus’ triumph over death, he has appeared numerous times to various people revealing himself, and now makes his final appearance in this Gospel, as he appears in their midst. They had assembled, the surviving disciples and other followers, discussing the miraculous reports that some had given of having seen the risen Christ.
Naturally they were frightened, they at first thought it was a ghost standing in their midst, but the Son of God said “Peace be unto you.” (v. 36) And proceeded to prove he was not a ghost or spirit by telling them to observe the wounds on his hands and feet, he told them to touch these wounds inflicted during the crucifixion, and he reasoned with them, saying, “...a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” The next bit of evidence he offered to them to prove he was not some sort of spirit, which to me also demonstrates his sense of humor, he asked them, “Have ye here any meat?” (v. 41) Luke writes that they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb.
As we study these verses, we have to keep in mind that the disciples—although Jesus had told them repeatedly of what was to take place—still were almost clueless as to what was happening around them. We have the luxury of knowing the outcome, a privilege that they simply did not have.
There was simply no precedence, no prior events in history for them to reflect upon and have some idea of the significance of this event. Their beloved teacher and religious leader, had told them he would be taken up and persecuted, but he would arise again on the third day. Sure enough, he was taken, persecuted without mercy, publicly executed and put to death. Now he was standing in their midst. I aks you to take a moment and reflect on this situation, and ask yourself if you had been in their position, what would you be thinking at that moment when he asked them to touch his wounded hands and feet?
“And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (v. 44) Jesus almost said, “I told you so” by reminding them that all had happened just as He said it would.
“ Jesus first demonstrated the physical reality of his resurrected by body by inviting the disciples to look at him and to touch him and also by eating food in their presence. We have the sense that they watch in stunned silence. Now Jesus takes the next step in the revelatory process, first reminding the disciples of what he said to them earlier—and then helping them to understand the scriptures—scriptures that speak of the Messiah suffering and rising from the dead on the third day (v. 46)—scriptures that speak of “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (v. 47).” (Donovan)
“All things must be fulfilled which were written. Christ had given them this general hint for the regulating of their expectations—that whatever they found written concerning the Messiah, in the Old Testament, must be fulfilled in him, what was written concerning his sufferings as well as what was written concerning his kingdom; these God had joined together in the prediction, and it could not be thought that they should be put asunder in the event. All things must be fulfilled, even the hardest, even the heaviest, even the vinegar; he could not die till he had that, because he could not till then say, It is finished.” (Henry)
“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:” (vs. 45-46)
Jesus wanted them to understand that the cross was not some unfortunate obstacle that had to be hurdled. It was a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan for man, and that it would be in the name of a crucified and risen Savior that repentance and remission of sins will be brought to the world.“” (Guzik)
“Christ's way of working faith in the soul, and gaining the throne there, is by opening the understanding to discern the evidence of those things that are to be believed. Thus he comes into the soul by the door, while Satan, as a thief and a robber, climbs up some other way. ” (Henry)
“Neither does Luke specify which scriptures Jesus opens their minds to understand. There is no single Old Testament scripture that incorporates all the three major themes of vv. 46-47—three themes that will form the core of the church’s kerygma: (1) the suffering and death of the Messiah, (2) his resurrection on the third day, and (3) the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness to all nations. There are, however, a number of Old Testament scriptures that address particular elements. Luke alludes to or quotes a number of these in Acts ” (Donovan)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (v. 47)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name” While this is not in the imperative mood (Jesus does not say, “You shall proclaim”) it nevertheless constitutes Jesus’ mission statement for the disciples. They are to proclaim two things—repentance and forgiveness of sins. They are to do so in the name of the Messiah, who is the one who makes forgiveness possible.
“What they must preach. They must preach the gospel, must preach the New Testament as the full accomplishment of the Old, as the continuation and conclusion of divine revelation.” (Henry)
“The great gospel privilege of the remission of sins must be proposed to all, and assured to all that repent, and believe the gospel. "Go, tell a guilty world, that stands convicted and condemned at God's bar, that an act of indemnity has passed the royal assent, which all that repent and believe shall have the benefit of, and not only be pardoned, but preferred by. Tell them that there is hope concerning them."” (ibid)
“among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” “They were told by their great Master what to preach, and where to preach it, and how to preach it, and even where to begin to preach it.” (Spurgeon)
“This proclamation is to begin from Jerusalem, but it will not be limited to Jerusalem. The disciples are to be Jesus’ witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8—also written by Luke). Prior to Jesus, the Jews had assumed a centripetal model, with the world being drawn toward a central point, Jerusalem. After Jesus, the model reverses, spinning outward from Jerusalem. In Mark and Matthew Jesus issues even more explicit commissioning statements. Whereas Luke emphasizes repentance and forgiveness of sins (v. 47), Mark emphasizes preaching the Gospel (Mark 16:15) and Matthew emphasizes making disciples and teaching (Matthew 28:19-20a).” (Donovan)
“And ye are witnesses of these things.” (v. 48) A witness was a person who had seen something and could testify to the facts of the case. That was the case with these disciples, who had seen Jesus with their own eyes. They could testify to having seen Jesus after his resurrection (vv. 36-49). They could also testify to seeing him ascend into heaven (vv. 50-53).
“Now these disciples will testify to what they have seen, and some will be killed as a consequence. They were to tell the story. To tell it not as hearsay, but as of their own knowledge (I John 1:1). And to tell it at cost. There was no other plan” (Scherer, 433).
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (v.49)
“ Jesus does not reveal here what the Father has promised. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s sequel to this Gospel, Jesus repeats this promise (Acts 1:5) and reveals that the gift is the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). Luke further records Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon, in which Peter quotes the prophet Joel, “It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17; see Joel 2:28). Peter assures his listeners that they have seen this prophecy fulfilled in the sound of a violent wind, the tongues of fire, and the glossolalia that they observed that day (Acts 2:1-13, 16)—manifestations of the Spirit.” (Donovan)
“They could not do the work Jesus had called them to do unless they were endued with power from on high, and that power would come as the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.” (Guzik)
“And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.” (vs. 50-53)
“How solemnly Christ took leave of his disciples. Christ's design being to reconcile heaven and earth, and to continue a days-man between them, it was necessary that he should lay his hands on them both, and, in order thereunto, that he should pass and repass. He had business to do in both worlds, and accordingly came from heaven to earth in his incarnation, to despatch his business here, and, having finished this, he returned to heaven, to reside there, and negotiate our affairs with the Father. Observe, 1. Whence he ascended: from Bethany, near Jerusalem, adjoining to the mount of Olives. There he had done eminent services for his Father's glory, and there he entered upon his glory. There was the garden in which his sufferings began, there he was in his agony; and Bethany signifies the house of sorrow. Those that would go to heaven must ascend thither from the house of sufferings and sorrow, must go by agonies to their joys. The mount of Olives was pitched upon long since to be the place of Christ's ascension: His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, Zec. 14:4. And here it was that awhile ago he began his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, ch. 19:29. 2. Who were the witnesses of his ascension: He led out his disciples to see him. Probably, it was very early in the morning that he ascended, before people were stirring; for he never showed himself openly to all the people after his resurrection, but only to chosen witnesses. The disciples did not see him rise out of the grace, because his resurrection was capable of being proved by their seeing him alive afterwards; but they saw him ascend into heaven, because they could not otherwise have an ocular demonstration of his ascension. They were led out on purpose to see him ascend, had their eye upon him when he ascended, and were not looking another way. 3. What was the farewell he gave them: He lifted up his hands, and blessed them. He did not go away in displeasure, but in love; he left a blessing behind him; he lifted up his hands, as the high priest did when he blessed the people; see Lev. 9:22. He blessed as one having authority, commanded the blessing which he had purchased” (Henry)
“There still is no other plan. We have not seen the risen Christ with our own eyes, but we have experienced him in our lives. Our responsibility is to tell the story as we have experienced it, and to do so at cost if need be. Over time, fewer and fewer Christians would have seen the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes. However, they would tell the story—and tell it at cost, often at the cost of their own lives. As a result, this word martys would come to mean martyr—those who were killed because of their Christian witness.” (Donovan)
Benediction
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members and all denominations of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Thought for the Day:
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. --C. S. Lewis

The Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Readings:
Psalm 47 or 93Reading Ephesians 1:15–23
Gospel: Luke 24:44–53
44 And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48And ye are witnesses of these things.
49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Commentary:
Just over a month ago on Thursday 4 April, we examined verses 36b to 48 of this last chapter of Luke. While some may think that going over these verses again, this soon, might be redundant or an unnecessary repetition, I have found personally, that each time I study a passage I always come away from the experience with a deeper knowledge, perhaps even picking up on a point I had missed in the past.
This study picks up, in the days after Jesus’ triumph over death, he has appeared numerous times to various people revealing himself, and now makes his final appearance in this Gospel, as he appears in their midst. They had assembled, the surviving disciples and other followers, discussing the miraculous reports that some had given of having seen the risen Christ.
Naturally they were frightened, they at first thought it was a ghost standing in their midst, but the Son of God said “Peace be unto you.” (v. 36) And proceeded to prove he was not a ghost or spirit by telling them to observe the wounds on his hands and feet, he told them to touch these wounds inflicted during the crucifixion, and he reasoned with them, saying, “...a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” The next bit of evidence he offered to them to prove he was not some sort of spirit, which to me also demonstrates his sense of humor, he asked them, “Have ye here any meat?” (v. 41) Luke writes that they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb.
As we study these verses, we have to keep in mind that the disciples—although Jesus had told them repeatedly of what was to take place—still were almost clueless as to what was happening around them. We have the luxury of knowing the outcome, a privilege that they simply did not have.
There was simply no precedence, no prior events in history for them to reflect upon and have some idea of the significance of this event. Their beloved teacher and religious leader, had told them he would be taken up and persecuted, but he would arise again on the third day. Sure enough, he was taken, persecuted without mercy, publicly executed and put to death. Now he was standing in their midst. I aks you to take a moment and reflect on this situation, and ask yourself if you had been in their position, what would you be thinking at that moment when he asked them to touch his wounded hands and feet?
“And he said unto them,These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (v. 44) Jesus almost said, “I told you so” by reminding them that all had happened just as He said it would.
“ Jesus first demonstrated the physical reality of his resurrected by body by inviting the disciples to look at him and to touch him and also by eating food in their presence. We have the sense that they watch in stunned silence. Now Jesus takes the next step in the revelatory process, first reminding the disciples of what he said to them earlier—and then helping them to understand the scriptures—scriptures that speak of the Messiah suffering and rising from the dead on the third day (v. 46)—scriptures that speak of “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (v. 47).” (Donovan)
“All things must be fulfilled which were written. Christ had given them this general hint for the regulating of their expectations—that whatever they found written concerning the Messiah, in the Old Testament, must be fulfilled in him, what was written concerning his sufferings as well as what was written concerning his kingdom; these God had joined together in the prediction, and it could not be thought that they should be put asunder in the event. All things must be fulfilled, even the hardest, even the heaviest, even the vinegar; he could not die till he had that, because he could not till then say, It is finished.” (Henry)
“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them,Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:” (vs. 45-46)
Jesus wanted them to understand that the cross was not some unfortunate obstacle that had to be hurdled. It was a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan for man, and that it would be in the name of a crucified and risen Savior that repentance and remission of sins will be brought to the world.“” (Guzik)
“Christ's way of working faith in the soul, and gaining the throne there, is by opening the understanding to discern the evidence of those things that are to be believed. Thus he comes into the soul by the door, while Satan, as a thief and a robber, climbs up some other way. ” (Henry)
“Neither does Luke specify which scriptures Jesus opens their minds to understand. There is no single Old Testament scripture that incorporates all the three major themes of vv. 46-47—three themes that will form the core of the church’s kerygma: (1) the suffering and death of the Messiah, (2) his resurrection on the third day, and (3) the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness to all nations. There are, however, a number of Old Testament scriptures that address particular elements. Luke alludes to or quotes a number of these in Acts ” (Donovan)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (v. 47)
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name” While this is not in the imperative mood (Jesus does not say, “You shall proclaim”) it nevertheless constitutes Jesus’ mission statement for the disciples. They are to proclaim two things—repentance and forgiveness of sins. They are to do so in the name of the Messiah, who is the one who makes forgiveness possible.
“What they must preach. They must preach the gospel, must preach the New Testament as the full accomplishment of the Old, as the continuation and conclusion of divine revelation.” (Henry)
“The great gospel privilege of the remission of sins must be proposed to all, and assured to all that repent, and believe the gospel. "Go, tell a guilty world, that stands convicted and condemned at God's bar, that an act of indemnity has passed the royal assent, which all that repent and believe shall have the benefit of, and not only be pardoned, but preferred by. Tell them that there is hope concerning them."” (ibid)
“among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” “They were told by their great Master what to preach, and where to preach it, and how to preach it, and even where to begin to preach it.” (Spurgeon)
“This proclamation is to begin from Jerusalem, but it will not be limited to Jerusalem. The disciples are to be Jesus’ witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8—also written by Luke). Prior to Jesus, the Jews had assumed a centripetal model, with the world being drawn toward a central point, Jerusalem. After Jesus, the model reverses, spinning outward from Jerusalem. In Mark and Matthew Jesus issues even more explicit commissioning statements. Whereas Luke emphasizes repentance and forgiveness of sins (v. 47), Mark emphasizes preaching the Gospel (Mark 16:15) and Matthew emphasizes making disciples and teaching (Matthew 28:19-20a).” (Donovan)
“And ye are witnesses of these things.” (v. 48) A witness was a person who had seen something and could testify to the facts of the case. That was the case with these disciples, who had seen Jesus with their own eyes. They could testify to having seen Jesus after his resurrection (vv. 36-49). They could also testify to seeing him ascend into heaven (vv. 50-53).
“Now these disciples will testify to what they have seen, and some will be killed as a consequence. They were to tell the story. To tell it not as hearsay, but as of their own knowledge (I John 1:1). And to tell it at cost. There was no other plan” (Scherer, 433).
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (v.49)
“ Jesus does not reveal here what the Father has promised. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s sequel to this Gospel, Jesus repeats this promise (Acts 1:5) and reveals that the gift is the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). Luke further records Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon, in which Peter quotes the prophet Joel, “It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17; see Joel 2:28). Peter assures his listeners that they have seen this prophecy fulfilled in the sound of a violent wind, the tongues of fire, and the glossolalia that they observed that day (Acts 2:1-13, 16)—manifestations of the Spirit.” (Donovan)
“They could not do the work Jesus had called them to do unless they were endued with power from on high, and that power would come as the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.” (Guzik)
“And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.” (vs. 50-53)
“How solemnly Christ took leave of his disciples. Christ's design being to reconcile heaven and earth, and to continue a days-man between them, it was necessary that he should lay his hands on them both, and, in order thereunto, that he should pass and repass. He had business to do in both worlds, and accordingly came from heaven to earth in his incarnation, to despatch his business here, and, having finished this, he returned to heaven, to reside there, and negotiate our affairs with the Father. Observe, 1. Whence he ascended: from Bethany, near Jerusalem, adjoining to the mount of Olives. There he had done eminent services for his Father's glory, and there he entered upon his glory. There was the garden in which his sufferings began, there he was in his agony; and Bethany signifies the house of sorrow. Those that would go to heaven must ascend thither from the house of sufferings and sorrow, must go by agonies to their joys. The mount of Olives was pitched upon long since to be the place of Christ's ascension: His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, Zec. 14:4. And here it was that awhile ago he began his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, ch. 19:29. 2. Who were the witnesses of his ascension: He led out his disciples to see him. Probably, it was very early in the morning that he ascended, before people were stirring; for he never showed himself openly to all the people after his resurrection, but only to chosen witnesses. The disciples did not see him rise out of the grace, because his resurrection was capable of being proved by their seeing him alive afterwards; but they saw him ascend into heaven, because they could not otherwise have an ocular demonstration of his ascension. They were led out on purpose to see him ascend, had their eye upon him when he ascended, and were not looking another way. 3. What was the farewell he gave them: He lifted up his hands, and blessed them. He did not go away in displeasure, but in love; he left a blessing behind him; he lifted up his hands, as the high priest did when he blessed the people; see Lev. 9:22. He blessed as one having authority, commanded the blessing which he had purchased” (Henry)
“There still is no other plan. We have not seen the risen Christ with our own eyes, but we have experienced him in our lives. Our responsibility is to tell the story as we have experienced it, and to do so at cost if need be. Over time, fewer and fewer Christians would have seen the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes. However, they would tell the story—and tell it at cost, often at the cost of their own lives. As a result, this word martys would come to mean martyr—those who were killed because of their Christian witness.” (Donovan)
Benediction
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members and all denominations of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Thought for the Day:
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. --C. S. Lewis

My VERY FIRST Stephen King read!
Originally posted as a guest post at Eliza Stopps' Blog.

… Where the world ends is where you must begin…’

I mean, where do I even start with this? Well, firstly, ‘The Dark Tower’ by Stephen King is one of those series that I wanted to get into since quite some time, but just hadn’t managed to do so for some or the other reason. It’s one of the most popular epic fantasy series out there, and having watched the movie – ‘The Dark Tower’ (2017) starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey (it was decent and quite enjoyable to be honest), I was eager to read the source material (which is apparently WAY different than the movie!). I was definitely skeptical though given the nature of the first book – ‘The Gunslinger’, which has been dubbed as strange, confusing, and as being “not the best start to a series”. But the opportunity finally beckoned when Eliza very kindly accepted my request to do a guest post for her blog. And for that, I would really like to thank her from the bottom of my heart.

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.“

This is one of the most famous/iconic opening lines of a book… like, ever! Don’t tell me you haven’t heard it before!
The foreword by Stephen King himself is actually very nicely written as well, I must say. Without going into too much detail, he definitely made me curious about starting the journey for the Dark Tower. Here’s a brief excerpt from the same –
“More than anything else, I wanted to tell a tale of wonder. If you find yourself falling under the spell of the Dark Tower, even a little bit, I reckon I will have done my job, which was begun in 1970 and largely finished in 2003. Yet Roland would be the first to point out that such a span of time means very little. In fact, when one quests for the Dark Tower, time is a matter of no concern at all.“
Aren’t you intrigued? I most certainly was!

Alright then, let’s dive into it!

The gunslinger, Roland Deschain of Gilead, is the last of his kind. He is desperately chasing a person referred to only as “the man in black” across a harsh desert which seems to go on for eternity. The latter is seemingly a sorcerer, and a quite dangerous and tricky one at that. The hardpan is no easy place to navigate, or to pursue your nemesis who is still seemingly quite the distance away. The “devil-grass” is the only companion with the gunslinger, but Roland is content and determined to hunt down his quarry at all costs. How long can he keep up in such challenging conditions? Just when things start getting much more difficult, Roland comes across a dweller named Brown, and his scrawny raven (who can talk, of course) named Zoltan. The gunslinger decides to seek some respite, and Brown offers him a place to rest for a while, along with providing for food and water. In exchange, the gunslinger narrates the recent, horrifying past events of not too long ago…
“The gunslinger was not a man to dwell on the past; only a shadowy conception of the future and of his own emotional make-up saved him from being a man without imagination, a dangerous dullard.“
Through his pursuit across the desert hunting the man in black, Roland had passed through a town named Tull hoping to get some information on the sorcerer, and also try and gather the details of the desert land and whatever that stretched beyond. Being an outsider, he was not well received by the townsfolk. After befriending Alice, Roland eventually starts to learn about the man in black’s “actions” in Tull, and how the whole town seems affected by it all. But answers won’t come easy for the gunslinger. What’s the deal with the number “Nineteen”? What really transpired when the man in black visited the town? Was all of this none other than one big “trap” laid by the trickster? Tull and its small number of residents have their secrets, and the gunslinger is about to find out in the most shocking and deadliest of ways possible…
The events that unfolded in Tull, and their subsequent consequences on everyone involved, including on the gunslinger himself, are… let’s just say “unfortunate”. Roland is desperate to move on though, and he bids his thanks and farewell to Brown (and Zoltan). The dusty land is endless and unforgiving, and Roland is not only running out of resources, but also out of time… quite literally. His sheer grit and determination are the only things keeping him on track as the supplies exhaust themselves. Is this really how it ends for Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger? Seems like fate has other plans though, as he surprisingly stumbles across an abandoned way station, and a kid named John Chambers aka Jake from New York City. Fearing that this might be another one of the men in black’s “traps”, Roland is hesitant at first. But slowly and steadily, the duo begins to get along and trust each other. Jake can’t remember much from his past or how he got here in the first place. Looking to find a way out of all this, they both decide to embark on a quest across the lands in search of some answers… What is the black-gray bulk that is “The Dark Tower”? Why is it so integral and important when it comes to… everything? What are the secrets of Roland’s past, and why is he looking to seek the Tower? What part does the man in black have to play in all of this?
“The Tower. Somewhere ahead, it waited for him – the nexus of Time, the nexus of Size.“
What follows is a long and equally dangerous journey for the duo across the desert land, the mountains, and underground caves in pursuit of the man in black. There are obstacles and threats that await, and the bond between the two will only grow stronger throughout. The path is not easy, and they will encounter “the Oracle”, and the bloodthirsty “Slow Mutants” along the way. Can they brave all the odds and finally catch up to the man in black? Will Roland find the answers he has been long searching for?
Get ready to Join the quest for the Dark Tower…

What did I really like about it?

• First and foremost, the writing. It is SO good! I mean, when the author is none other than Stephen King himself, you don’t expect anything less.
• The characters, albeit not being too many, are pretty well written. Roland’s past is present in quite some detail throughout, and it certainly adds a layer not only to his character, but also to the plot in general.
• The settings, be it the desert, the town, the mountains, or the caves – everything is vivid, and really put forth is a great way.
• The plot/story is quite confusing to say the least, but what it does manage to do is drag you in, and leave you wanting for more. By the end, I was most certainly both intrigued and curious to know more about this world!
• The ending gets a “little bit” philosophical in some ways. It was something that I was totally not expecting whatsoever, but I liked it nonetheless.

What was not quite up to the mark?

• The plot. The less I say, the better! You need to read it for yourselves to find out! After the first 100 pages, this was my honest reaction – “What the heck is going on?!” Like honestly, it was not at all how I was expecting it to pan out. Definitely caught me by surprise, must be said. And even by the end, you are none the wiser as to what is actually happening?! As I’ve said just above, I’m not the biggest fan of how it all panned out, but it certainly left me wanting for more.
• The pacing can get a bit slow at times, and the sub plots/plot elements can get more than a little weirder at places. And although that didn’t drag me away from the story itself, it just felt a bit “eh?” on occasions.

Some quotes that hit

• ‘Go then. There are other worlds than these.’ [I’ll be honest – when you have the context of this, it most certainly hits hard…]
• ‘The greatest mystery universe offers is not life but size. Size encompasses life, and the Tower encompasses size.’ [This snippet is just a teaser of what’s to come!]

Note: There are mature themes present throughout; NOT suitable for younger audiences.

Final thoughts

Overall, ‘The Gunslinger’ was a wild ride by all means. Dark, adventurous, and a bit strange and weird at times, yet unique and captivating nonetheless. By the end of it, I was most certainly looking forward to delve deeper into the world, and join the quest for the Dark Tower! The writing is top notch, the characters are pretty well-written, and the plot is intriguing and equally engaging to say the least, albeit being not that easy to follow. The settings are vividly displayed, and the descriptions are nicely put forth too.
As someone who has watched the 2017 motion picture, and now having read the first installment, trust me when I say this – the book is totally and utterly different than the movie! Now I get all the backlash and criticism the film received upon release (and quite rightly so!).
Nonetheless, the book was definitely not an easy read, especially when you as a reader have loads of questions that need answering. As mentioned, the writing carries the book, and the plot is confusing in more ways than one. People say that ‘Gardens of the Moon’ [#1 of the ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’] by Steven Erikson is a difficult, confusing, and a crazy read especially as a starting point of an epic fantasy series. I’ve read it last year itself, and I thoroughly enjoyed it to the fullest! ‘The Gunslinger’, on the other hand, was a much more “challenging” read than that for me in all honesty.
But ultimately, it did manage to achieve the goal Stephen King had mentioned in the foreword – hook the reader in the world, and make sure they join the journey… the quest for the Dark Tower. I’m more than looking forward to diving into the sequels, and as I’ve heard many people say, it just gets better from here on!

Last weekend, i spent some time at a festival in a park with a (newish) friend, let's call her shelby, her 2 kids and my daughter.
Her daughter wanted to say 'bye to mine and we went around to her side of the car, which was open since her mom had helped her get into the carseat; Shelby got into the driver's seat, so after our daughters bid each other farewell, I tried to shut the door. Turns out it was stuck because it had opened into a slopey piece of someone's front yard. I told her she might need to pull up a bit for the door to close, and she said (in a not nice tone of voice) ‘just lift it.’ I tried to, but when I shut it, I noticed a piece of the bottom of the door (imagine a raised piece if trim that runs along the bottom of the door) had started to detach. I told her, and she immediately jumped on me: "You broke my door?" She got out and said (again, extremely pissed and a bit unhinged) she didn't think it was safe to drive with the piece hanging off the car.
I started to panic, offered to call AAA, she dismissed it, and got out of the car and was fuming. I texted my friend (whose street we parked on) to see if she could send her husband out; he works on a van as a hobby, so I figured he would probably have some sound advice.
He came out and suggested she remove the piece that was hanging entirely; he proceeded to reach out and grab it to pull it off, and one of the tabs connecting it to the door indeed broke.
This is a newer car (2022, Hyundai SUV).
I got sucked into feeling like it was my fault that the door had broken; when I got home, I wrote her a text and apologized, saying I'd help her research where to fix it and help pay for the repair. I did some research Monday morning (looked to see if the part was at a local junkyard; of course not, given how new the car is).
(FYI, I ran the story by a few friends after it happened, and they were horrified she was blaming me and insisted I owed her nothing.)
When I texted her Monday to report I hadn't found the part at the local junkyard, she responded saying, "Oh babe you don't have to worry about my car. Leave it with me. No worries at all. It was an accident and I was just panicking but listen this is on me. Just buy me a drink tomorrow" (She was going out with a mutual friend of ours).
I let her know that I couldn't make it that evening y but would buy her a drink next time I saw her.
Then she appears again this weekend via text saying she'd gotten quotes, and it was going to cost $600 to fix and she couldn't afford it.
She even went as far as saying she would be open to me sending her money on a payment plan in monthly installments. what... the... actual... f. She also said she would be happy to go through insurance (which doesn't seem to make any sense since we all know the deductible will be at least $500). I’m also also wondering if she might’ve meant I should call my insurance company and see if they’ll cover it, but I have a suspicion that my insurance company would say I am not at fault.
Several ppl suggested blocking her but that's not really my style... she also has my address since I had invited her and her daughters over for a playdate (lesson learned).
Wise people of legaladvice subreddit, what’s your take? am I at fault legally and do I need to give her anything?
TLDR: I was trying to close a friend's car door, a part of it came loose, she's blaming me and wants money from me. My options are bascially to give her some money, and cut her out of my life entirely, or give her no money, and do the same. (I observed some questionable behavior in the days leading up to the event and this sealed the deal for me, I don't need this unstable person in my life AT ALL.)

Last weekend, i spent some time at a festival in a park with a (newish) friend, let's call her shelby, her 2 kids and my daughter.
Her daughter wanted to say 'bye to mine and we went around to her side of the car, which was open since her mom had helped her get into the carseat; Shelby got into the driver's seat, so after our daughters bid each other farewell, I tried to shut the door. Turns out it was stuck because it had opened into a slopey piece of someone's front yard. I told her she might need to pull up a bit for the door to close, and she said (in a not nice tone of voice, just lift it. I tried to, but when I shut it, I noticed a piece of the bottom of the door (imagine a bumper that runs along the bottom of the door) had started to detach. I told her, and she immediately jumped on me: "You broke my door?" She got out and said (again, extremely pissed and a bit unhinged) she didn't think it was safe to drive with the piece hanging off the car.
I started to panic, offered to call AAA, she dismissed it, and got out of the car and was quite pissed off. I texted my friend (whose street we parked on) to see if she could send her husband out; he works on a van as a hobby, so I figured he would probably have some sound advice.
He came out and suggested she remove the piece that was hanging entirely; he proceeded to reach out and grab it to pull it off, and one of the tabs connecting it to the door indeed broke.
This is a newer car (2022, Hyundai SUV).
I got sucked into feeling like it was my fault that the door had broken; when I got home, I wrote her a text and apologized, saying I'd help her research where to fix it and help pay for the repair. I did some research Monday morning (looked to see if the part was at a local junkyard; of course not, given how new the car is).
(FYI, I ran the story by a few friends after it happened, and they were horrified she was blaming me and insisted I owed her nothing.)
When I texted her Monday to report I hadn't found the part at the local junkyard, she responded saying, "Oh babe you don't have to worry about my car. Leave it with me. No worries at all. It was an accident and I was just panicking but listen this is on me. Just buy me a drink tomorrow" (She was going out with a mutual friend of ours).
I let her know that I couldn't make it that day but would buy her a drink next time I saw her.
Then she appears again this weekend via text saying she'd gotten quotes, and it was going to cost $600 to fix and she couldn't afford it.
She even went as far as saying she would be open to me sending her money on a payment plan in monthly installments. what... the... actual... f. She also said she would be happy to go through insurance (which doesn't seem to make any sense since we all know the deductible will be at least $500). I’m thinking she probably meant that. I’m thinking she probably meant that I should go to my insurance and try and get them to pay for it, implying that I am the one guilty of causing the door to break. I think the whole thing is ludicrous.
Several ppl suggested blocking her but that's not really my style. I may consider that if we didn't have a mutual close friend .. she also has my address since I had invited her and her daughters over for a playdate (lesson learned).
Wise people of legal advice Reddit, what would you do?
TLDR: I was trying to close a friend's car door, a part of it came loose, she's blaming me and wants money from me. My options are bascially to give her some money, and cut her out of my life entirely, or give her no money, and do the same. (I observed some questionable behavior in the days leading up to the event and this sealed the deal for me, I don't need this unstable person in my life AT ALL.)

Last weekend, i spent some time at a festival in a park with a (newish) friend, let's call her shelby, her 2 kids and my daughter.
Her daughter wanted to say 'bye to mine and we went around to her side of the car, which was open since her mom had helped her get into the carseat; Shelby got into the driver's seat, so after our daughters bid each other farewell, I tried to shut the door. Turns out it was stuck because it had opened into a slopey piece of someone's front yard. I told her she might need to pull up a bit for the door to close, and she said (in a not nice tone of voice, just lift it. I tried to, but when I shut it, I noticed a piece of the bottom of the door (imagine a bumper that runs along the bottom of the door) had started to detach. I told her, and she immediately jumped on me: "You broke my door?" She got out and said (again, extremely pissed and a bit unhinged) she didn't think it was safe to drive with the piece hanging off the car.
I started to panic, offered to call AAA, she dismissed it, and got out of the car and was quite pissed off. I texted my friend (whose street we parked on) to see if she could send her husband out; he works on a van as a hobby, so I figured he would probably have some sound advice.
He came out and suggested she remove the piece that was hanging entirely; he proceeded to reach out and grab it to pull it off, and one of the tabs connecting it to the door indeed broke.
This is a newer car (2022, Hyundai SUV).
I got sucked into feeling like it was my fault that the door had broken; when I got home, I wrote her a text and apologized, saying I'd help her research where to fix it and help pay for the repair. I did some research Monday morning (looked to see if the part was at a local junkyard; of course not, given how new the car is).
(FYI, I ran the story by a few friends after it happened, and they were horrified she was blaming me and insisted I owed her nothing.)
When I texted her Monday to report I hadn't found the part at the local junkyard, she responded saying, "Oh babe you don't have to worry about my car. Leave it with me. No worries at all. It was an accident and I was just panicking but listen this is on me. Just buy me a drink tomorrow" (She was going out with a mutual friend of ours).
I let her know that I couldn't make it that day but would buy her a drink next time I saw her.
Then she appears again this weekend via text saying she'd gotten quotes, and it was going to cost $600 to fix and she couldn't afford it.
She even went as far as saying she would be open to me sending her money on a payment plan in monthly installments. what... the... actual... f. She also said she would be happy to go through insurance (which doesn't seem to make any sense since we all know the deductible will be at least $500).
Several ppl suggested blocking her but that's not really my style. I may consider that if we didn't have a mutual close friend .. she also has my address since I had invited her and her daughters over for a playdate (lesson learned).
Wise people of Reddit, what would you do?
TLDR: I was trying to close a friend's car door, a part of it came loose, she's blaming me and wants money from me. My options are bascially to give her some money, and cut her out of my life entirely, or give her no money, and do the same. (I observed some questionable behavior in the days leading up to the event and this sealed the deal for me, I don't need this unstable person in my life AT ALL.)

The Daniel Craig Bond continuity is a hot mess. There have been worse Bond movies before, but the attempt at serializing and self-mythologizing what was largely an episodic series made it into the most inconsistent era out of the entire Bond canon.
And I'd say it began with Skyfall. Yes, Quantum of Solace sucks, but the idea of continuing where Casino Royale left off and having Bond on a vengeful path isn't a bad idea in itself. Book You Only Lives Twice and the movie Diamonds Are Forever briefly tapped into that, and License to Kill exists, and that is considered one of the best Bond films. Resolving who Bond is and putting an end to his memories and regret for Vesper is an interesting premise. It's just that the execution was terrible.
Skyfall is when the Craig films got screwy. Bond in Skyfall is boring and resembles nothing of his Casino Royale counterpart in his personality, completely lacking in humor and wits. Action set-pieces except for the opening and the sniper fight are unexciting. While they are gorgeous to look at, they all lack the bombastic energy shown by Campbell's films. And yes, that's the point. It's because he's out of his form. The intention is that this isn't a fun Bond movie, but a subversion of it. He is depressed, frailing, and alcoholic... but that's the problem. Why do that here? The two movies before were all about the prequels "Becoming Bond" and right in the next film he is too old and needs to be retired. Roger Moore was older than Craig in Skyfall when he was cast as James Bond.
It's about Bond's failures. He keeps failing every single goal for over two hours. He failed the opening mission and got shot. He failed the test. He failed to protect Sevrevine. Silva escapes. MI6 gets bombed. Bond's childhood house gets bombed. He failed to save M. Yet the movie ends with "James Bond is Back!" and returns to the 00 status... What? He is immediately ready to get back to work. If anything, it would make more sense if Bond retires from the 00 status. He lost people he cares about and acknowledged he is aging, failed everything. The story feels like it was written as a goodbye to the character--as a meta finale to the series as a whole--yet it ends as a glorious return to the series.
Then Bond spends the next two films turning rogue and retiring again before they conclude his run. Even though Spectre was meant to be a "farewell" movie, it honestly felt like a new beginning. The new villain organization is introduced, Blofeld is introduced, Bond succeeds at capturing him, and his adventure depicts James Bond as "his peak". He's humorous, charming, strong, and... Bondian. Yet the film suddenly ends on a different note than all the other Bonds by sending him off to live happily with Madeline. What is the reason for him to retire now? Why introduce the "ultimate villain" and then just retire him?
Spectre in particular is a dead horse, but it deserves another round of beating. I do not understand Sam Mandes's obsession with Bond's past and legacy, and it has gotten far worse with Spectre. Spectre fundamentally rubbed me in a way any other bad Bond flick has not. Die Another Day and Moonraker had 'so bad it's good' quality, but watching Spectre just depressed me. I was in utter disbelief as to how any producer in their right mind thought the "Brofeld" was a good idea.
They just retconned everything when they made Spectre and linked all of the films together. All of a sudden, Le Chiffre, Dominique Green, and Silva are all Spectre agents, did what they did because Blofled was Bond's jealous stepbrother with a daddy issue... If this was actually the plan all along, then there would have been subtle hints dropped in CR and QOS that foreshadowed the events of Skyfall and Spectre. There are none. They are just going along with the Hollywood flavor of the month. With QOS, it was Bourne. With Skyfall, it was The Dark Knight. With Spectre, it was Marvel: turning itself into a huge interconnected cinematic universe.
It's a twist that retcons the long-running series into a familial soap drama. It's doubly worse if it is done for "fan service". This quote "I am the author of all your pain" from Spectre is the perfect illustration of modern franchise filmmaking. Examples like the iconic hero and the villain suddenly having a familial connection with each other, or suddenly all the past installments written to be episodic, unrelated the hero went through are "connected" as one big scheme by this secret hidden family mastermind. Not that this can't be done well, but it is often a lame attempt at copying The Empire Strikes Back. It is almost a surefire way to alienate the fans and make your story fanficy. Hell, even fanfictions today don't pull shit like this. The moment Spectre copied the twin twist, it killed Austin Powers by becoming a parody of itself.
Craig wanted to retire with Spectre, but Broccoli persuaded him to do another movie, and they had to find a way to top the "Bond retires" ending. So we got No Time to Die, a movie that kills off James Bond. Although it is my second favorite Craig Bond movie, it is not good. Aside from how the second half stalls the exciting pacing and momentum, the attempts at flexing "we are trying meta and doing something new!" didn't hit. The impact of Bond just retiring and living a normal life didn't land because we already saw it... twice. MI6 doing shady shit didn't hit hard because we already saw worse with Silva.
The ending comes across as a cringy soap drama attempt. If Spectre was their attempt at what Marvel was doing, No Time to Die was EON's Logan because EON didn't want to do a normal Bond adventure without copying another Hollywood trend. "Oh, you killed Wolverine? Well, we are killing Bond! How about that?!" If anything, the movie is at best when it is just doing normal fun Bondian tropes (which is why the first half shines), but Bond can't just have a normal adventure without an attempt to be "meta" about it. He is 1) not 007, 2) a rookiee, 2) goes rogue, 3) frailing, 4) retired, and 5) dead.
So... here is how I would restructure the Bond films. The limitation is that I am not able to change the story too much. I will have to keep the serialized nature to the Craig era. I believe a lot of problems could be solved by the different ordering.
The order should have been:
Casino Royale - Quantum of Solace - (Standalone Bond film) - Spectre - Skyfall - No Time to Die
Casino Royale is perfect as it is. I'm confident that I will never see a better Bond movie. For Quantum of Solace, I'd link these two YouTube videos as to show how the movie could be improved.
Standalone Bond Movie:
One of the biggest wastes of the Craig era is that he didn't have his standalone in-his-prime Bond movie. He didn't get to have his own "Goldfinger" or "The Spy Who Loved Me" where Bond gets to do a normal job because his films came out at the time when "connect, personalize, and serialize every series!" was the mantra of the industry due to The Dark Knight and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Craig Bond went from a reckless newbie to an old dog who needs to retire immediately without a normal middle Bond adventure to bridge. So much so that video games like Blood Stone and 007 Legends tried to fill that gap.
This is where Craig is at his peak. Bond just doing his normal episodic mission as 007, without tying himself to a larger big bad organization. There are many non-Flemming books to adapt. Apparently, Raymond Benson's books are very much like the Bond films. I remember Devil May Care being hotly debated as the next Craig Bond entry. John Gardner's Scorpius could easily be changed into the modern "War on Terror" setting.
This is also a place where you introduce Moneypenny and Q, and a bunch of cool gadgets and supercars for Bond to play with. Have Moneypenny as a Bond girl throughout the adventure and then she gets hurt, and that injury leads to her retiring a field agent to a desk job.
Spectre:
I inherently dislike the filmmakers attempting to serialize the Bond films, and we had a disastrous result, but if you want to do it, I believe Spectre and Skyfall should have switched their places. Just by this switch, the consequences that affect the overall story work way better. Because Spectre would have worked better as Bond in his prime, facing his ultimate arch-nemesis.
Skyfall being nominated for five Academy Awards made EON delusional about making an Oscar Bond movie. They thought what made it successful was the legacy elements. Spectre's horrid twist and No Time to Die's ending exist because the filmmakers wanted to capitalize on Skyfall's success of self-reflection and mythologization. This is why Blofeld turns out to be Bond's stepbrother and Bond dies. Without Skyfall, both Spectre and No Time to Die would have been fun, dumb superspy movies.
This post by u/jolipsist is a near-perfect rewrite of Spectre. No Brofeld, better romance, better third act, and better internal struggle within MI6. Bond is just a nuisance to Spectre. Blofled's plan is to reprogram Bond's head with the drill and rewrite his brain into killing M when he returns to England, which will prove how unreliable field agents are and allow C to take over British Intelligence.
When Q tells Bond that Spectre is Quantum in the middle of Spectre, it comes across as a shoehorned attempt to tie these two films despite the fact that it wasn't clearly planned. Instead, we get this weird retcon on how Quantum works. Quantum was one organization and Spectre was another. They had nothing to do with each other until the filmmakers decided to make them the same organization.
Shit on Quantum of Solace all you want, but Spectre as a criminal organization is just such an outdated concept in today's world (it was already dated in the 60s), while Quantum as a cabal of multinational business interests working for mutual gain is more believable. The former would screw up enough somewhere that major powers would take them down while the latter would easily thrive within global capitalism. I do like how Quantum adapts SPECTRE in a more modern, grittier sense in the form of Quantum. This is what I wanted from the Craig-era Bond films. Take the old elements and modernize them in a proper way.
So start the story with Bond trailing and investigating Quantum--a loose thread from QOS. This way, we have this constant progression from the previous films, rather than a "surprise". And instead of Quantum secretly being Spectre all along, it should have been Blofeld swallowing Quantum after it was crippled by Bond in QOS. In the meeting where Bond sneaks into where he first sees Blofeld, that's when Blofeld gains power within Quantum and renames it into Spectre. When Blofeld meets Bond, he mocks him with the fact that Bond indirectly helped him rise to power.
Skyfall:
If Skyfall was a response to the events in Spectre, then it would make more sense. The incident at MI6 in Spectre led to a public outcry and inquiry. C's actions have leaked the files about MI6's undercover agents, leading to the Istanbul chase.
Remember a scene in Skyfall where Bond uses his presumed death to retire and lives with some other girl on the bed? It would have made way more sense if that girl was Madeline. Maybe the movie can have her in a minor role by having her tell Bond not to go back to London. Build upon the chemistry established previously.
Already having Madeline established as his faithful lover means you can cut the creepy shower scene with Severine, which as time goes on will age as well as the barn rape scene from Goldfinger and the blackmail sex scene from Thunderball. Imagine a police officer tasked with helping sex slavery victims escape their captors, and while the victim is reliant on his help, he takes advantage of it by suddenly barging into her shower unprompted...
The classic Aston Martin DB5 reveal also makes more sense by placing Skyfall later in the chronology. In Casino Royale, Bond wins a DB5. It's a beautiful car and a nice homage to Goldfinger, and that's pretty much it. In the movie Skyfall, it is revealed he kept it somewhere secret, and the service didn't know about it. But then it is revealed it is a completely modified Bond car with all the identical gadgets and weapons from Goldfinger... And Bond is very well familiar with the DB5, knowing the weapons and functions inside out. But then M also knows about... the ejector seat in the car? So it is not even that Bond modified the car in secret. When Skyfall was released, there were speculations that Bond was a timelord because of it. Then Spectre tried to retcon this by having Q tell Bond to bring the DB5 back in one piece, implying he made it for Bond, even though Bond didn't meet Q until this film. What's going on here? If Q was introduced earlier into the chronology, it could have been implied that he modified the DB5 Bond won from Casino Royale.
I always found Skyfall's climax to be boring, so with Madeline and Moneypenny established in the previous film, maybe the third act can incorporate them. In the Scotland part, it is revealed Silva has captured Madeline and is holding her as a hostage, threatening Bond to bring M out. Bond uses his wits and distracts Silva, while Moneypenny goes in to save Madeline. This adds more stakes and tension to the climax. Maybe Bond chooses to save Madeline over M--choosing a retirement.
M's death in Skyfall would have been a better way to motivate Bond to retire with Madeline. He was already rugged and disillusioned with his worth as 007 by the start of the story, and his beliefs are confirmed with M dying. Then Bond's secret agent job inevitably put Madeline in danger, and she could die like M did. Also, by this point, Craig Bond has five films. We saw his peak. That's enough crazy adventures for his health. He is aged. He failed the test. Blofeld is in the cages. Spectre is no more. He got his new girlfriend Madeline. What else he can do for the country? This is the point where it does make sense to do a retirement movie.
Skyfall has an aura of finality that even No Time to Die didn't have. It serves as a perfect end to Craig’s era. It has all the meta elements and Bond's character arc, but it feels out of place in anything other than a final film. If you don't like No Time to Die, you can retire Craig completely here because it is the perfect final movie to end, alongside the tenure of Judi Dench's M.

Threads users can now exert more control over who can quote their posts.

This builds on a feature that already allows Threads users to limit who can reply to their posts (competing services like X and Bluesky offer similar reply controls). Threads outlined its plans for quote controls last month, and last night Adam Mosseri — who leads both Threads and Instagram for parent company Meta — announced that the feature is available to all users.
“I hope this will help keep Threads a more positive place and give people more control over their experience,” Mosseri wrote.
As of Saturday morning, the ability to limit quotes isn’t showing up when I log into Threads on my desktop web browser, but it is available in the Threads mobile app.
Quote and reply controls appear to be bundled together in a single dropdown menu, where users can open the conversation to “Anyone,” or limit it to “Profiles you follow” or “Mentioned only.” These controls should make it harder to “dunk” on others, where users quote someone else’s post in order to make them look dumb.

The full article is on Techcrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/04/farewell-dunks-threads-launches-quote-controls-for-all-users/