Today I am scheduled to have a trial version of a spinal cord stimulator implant. This is to see if such therapy will be useful. As such, I will still be reposting old content. This, however, is the end of the Equilibrium series. Please enjoy (even if you’ve read this before).
When I was looking for media for my posts regarding Equilibrium, searching for just the right things to illustrate the steps of the Monomyth, I came across this fanart at DeviantArt. I love it, as it sums up the transformation of John Preston so well.
“John Preston” by Elizabeth “Elly” Sevcik. Used by permission; all rights reserved to the artist.
Please do me a favor and visit Elly (vvveverka) at DeviantArt. She’s got some great work there, and DeviantArt is just a really cool online artist community anyways. I’ve provided links on the image and the username. Thanks!
The unplugged week is over, but I still need time to get things done and prepare for spinal cord stimulator therapy. Please continue to enjoy these posts (even if you’ve read them before).
After his revelation that he is Father now, Dupont taunts Preston, claiming that his quest has failed, and that Preston will surrender to him “entirely without incident”.
Although the polygraph meter is flailing now, indicating strong emotion (possibly rage), Preston protests, “No. Not without incident,” and the meter flatlines, suggesting he is able to return to an emotionless state as he was as Libria’s top-ranking Cleric, or the “Angel of Death” as Kurt Wimmer explains himself in the audio commentary.
After blowing the projection screen (with the image of Dupont) to bits, Preston proceeds to the Hall of Mirrors, the final challenge and gateway before the Tetragrammaton Council Chamber.
“I’m coming.”
NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: Preston dispatches Brandt: Road of Trials is complete
Cimmy, myself, and the kids are observing an unplugged week, so it’s time for a week+ of reruns. Also, I’ve been in horrid pain, so creating new posts is tough. Please enjoy (even if you’ve read this before).
On another raid with Brandt, Preston falls further into knowing the realm of emotion, lingering on a stash of EC-10 contraband.
Although Preston is emotionally overwhelmed by playing a vinyl recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, he resumes his emotionless mask when the contraband is burned.
But the descent goes deeper. The very next raid is on a dog pound in the Nether, and Preston chooses to save one of the puppies that runs into his arms.
Preston first decides to release the puppy back into the Nether, but is moved to keep it. He is confronted by a team of sweepers and their Captain (Danny Lee Clark, “Nitro” of American Gladiators) and slays them all when they discover the dog and attempt to arrest him as a sense offender.
NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: Brandt begins to challenge Preston: Man as Temptor
Cimmy, myself, and the kids are observing an unplugged week, so it’s time for a week+ of reruns. Also, I’ve been in horrid pain, so creating new posts is tough. Please enjoy (even if you’ve read this before).
In the preceding posts of this series, I established that Preston’s son Robbie is the Guardian of the Threshold, and Mary O’ Brien is its guide. He came to them by way of a dream of his wife, who had been executed for sense offense.
John Preston goes through a second dream and awakening, after looking over his sleeping children and examining a vial of Prozium from his injection gun, musing on the significance. The dream sequence now is Preston witnessing his dead partner, Partridge, being incinerated, while remembering Mary O’Brien saying: “Without love, breath is just a clock ticking.”
Preston awakes to find there is beauty hidden behind his wrapped window: a rainbow of colors from a sunrise, refracted through the rain. I think the scene has deeper implications; although the Tetragrammaton Council suppresses content made by humans, it is unable to suppress the beauty of nature, and Preston realizes he can tear away the facade.
Crossing of the Threshold
NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: Preston further embraces emotion: Belly of the Whale
Cimmy, myself, and the kids are observing an unplugged week, so it’s time for a week+ of reruns. Also, I’ve been in horrid pain, so creating new posts is tough. Please enjoy (even if you’ve read this before).
Many thanks to my wife, Cimmorene, for pointing this detail out to me.
“What are you doing?”
In Dreams and a Lack of Prozium: Supernatural Aid, a dream jars John Preston from his usual routine. This is the question his son, Robbie (Matthew Harbour), asks him after the vial of Prozium smashes on the floor. Preston is silent, almost in a daze.
It should be noted that Robbie was markedly shown in Preston’s dream, looking on as Viviana was handcuffed and taken away.
“I said, what are you doing?”
Robbie confronts his father. Still as seen on the Equilibrium fansite.
When Preston explains that the incident was an accident, Robbie instructs him to go by Equilibrium (one of the Prozium centers) and log the loss. It is hinted by now that Robbie is training to be a Tetragrammaton Cleric (especially as he is shown in a much earlier scene amongst the masses). It is not clear, however, how he is a guardian to the Threshold, but this will be explained later.
NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: John Preston Meets Mary O’Brien: Guide and Goddess
Cimmy, myself, and the kids are observing an unplugged week, so it’s time for a week+ of reruns. Also, I’ve been in horrid pain, so creating new posts is tough. Please enjoy (even if you’ve read this before).
I was going to gloss over the step of Supernatural Aid. This film is part science fiction, action, and thriller, in a dystopian world, which is not typical for other modern examples of the Monomyth so frequently cited by others.
Besides quoting the poem “He Wishes for The Cloths of Heaven”, Partridge says, “You always knew,” and asks “I assume you dream, Preston?”
These words set up the next scene, which IS a dream, is a memory of John’s wife, Viviana (Maria Pia Calzone). It is a rude awakening, as his home is raided and she is arrested, on the charge of sense offense. This dream, after a fashion, is the Supernatural Aid.
Immediately after the dream, Preston awakes (highlighted by a memory of one of Father’s broadcasted speeches: “Libria, awake”) and visibly realizes that the separate bed his wife had slept in is empty (we learn later that she was executed by incineration).
Preston goes to splash cold water on his face and take his morning interval of Prozium. Without thinking, he takes out the vial for that interval from the injection gun (Prozium is administered at the neck) and places it on the counter, which he accidentally knocks over and smashes on the floor, as he sets down the towel he dried his face with.
These events trigger the Threshold, and introduce its guardians and guides, which will be explored in the next post.
NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: John Preston’s son Robbie: Guardian at the Threshold
When I was looking for media for my posts regarding Equilibrium, searching for just the right things to illustrate the steps of the Monomyth, I came across this fanart at DeviantArt. I love it, as it sums up the transformation of John Preston so well.
“John Preston” by Elizabeth “Elly” Sevcik. Used by permission; all rights reserved to the artist.
Please do me a favor and visit Elly (vvveverka) at DeviantArt. She’s got some great work there, and DeviantArt is just a really cool online artist community anyways. I’ve provided links on the image and the username. Thanks!
After his revelation that he is Father now, Dupont taunts Preston, claiming that his quest has failed, and that Preston will surrender to him “entirely without incident”.
Although the polygraph meter is flailing now, indicating strong emotion (possibly rage), Preston protests, “No. Not without incident,” and the meter flatlines, suggesting he is able to return to an emotionless state as he was as Libria’s top-ranking Cleric, or the “Angel of Death” as Kurt Wimmer explains himself in the audio commentary.
After blowing the projection screen (with the image of Dupont) to bits, Preston proceeds to the Hall of Mirrors, the final challenge and gateway before the Tetragrammaton Council Chamber.
On another raid with Brandt, Preston falls further into knowing the realm of emotion, lingering on a stash of EC-10 contraband.
Although Preston is emotionally overwhelmed by playing a vinyl recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, he resumes his emotionless mask when the contraband is burned.
But the descent goes deeper. The very next raid is on a dog pound in the Nether, and Preston chooses to save one of the puppies that runs into his arms.
Preston first decides to release the puppy back into the Nether, but is moved to keep it. He is confronted by a team of sweepers and their Captain (Danny Lee Clark, “Nitro” of American Gladiators) and slays them all when they discover the dog and attempt to arrest him as a sense offender.
In the preceding posts of this series, I established that Preston’s son Robbie is the Guardian of the Threshold, and Mary O’ Brien is its guide. He came to them by way of a dream of his wife, who had been executed for sense offense.
John Preston goes through a second dream and awakening, after looking over his sleeping children and examining a vial of Prozium from his injection gun, musing on the significance. The dream sequence now is Preston witnessing his dead partner, Partridge, being incinerated, while remembering Mary O’Brien saying: “Without love, breath is just a clock ticking.”
Preston awakes to find there is beauty hidden behind his wrapped window: a rainbow of colors from a sunrise, refracted through the rain. I think the scene has deeper implications; although the Tetragrammaton Council suppresses content made by humans, it is unable to suppress the beauty of nature, and Preston realizes he can tear away the facade.
the tao of jaklumen 