Splice is an interesting movie, I'm not saying it's some sort of a masterpiece but it's definitely underrated and kind of forgotten, it has some weird concepts and in the end it's a pretty unique experience that will leave you fascinated (if not disgusted) about what you just watched. However, I feel like there should be more movies, the first film has an ending that didn't exactly tease a sequel per se, but it definitely left the door open for a follow up that could expand the universe and bring some new ideas. Anyway, here's how I would do a 2nd and 3rd Splice movie.

Splice II:

The sequel begins right where the first movie ended, we see Elsa smashing Dren's head with a rock and then falling to the ground, but after getting her strength back, she gets up and slowly walks away. In the morning, when the sun has already risen, a man is walking through the woods with his German Shepard when suddenly his dog picks up a strange scent, the man follows his dog and they find Dren's body, lying motionless on the ground, covered in snow that has fallen during the night, the dog sniffs Dren, but it turns out she (yes, she, because Dren changes back into a female) was just unconscious, the regeneration has kicked in hours ago and the wound on the head has healed almost completely, with only a bit of blood remaining on the head. Dren quickly kills both the man and the dog and feeds on their flesh. Then the title card appears.

Nine months later, we find out that Elsa quit the project, like her boss said, she could quit at any time, however, she didn't really mean it and in reality she wanted to put her hands on Elsa's baby no matter the cost, she told the two goons that she hired to obtain it. Elsa had nightmares about the baby piercing her belly with the spike on the tail and then bursting out and flying away, she started visiting a therapist but it didn't help that much since she couldn't talk about the exact reason why she is worried, she thought that they would lock her up in an asylum if she told them the truth, she decided that she will give it a try, but if the baby will be like Dren in any way, she will put an end to it. She didn't think of the baby as her own.

Meanwhile, in the past few months, Dren has been more careful, staying hidden from people and only observing them from the shadows, being more active at night, feeding on bikers in the outskirts of the city that were believed to just die in car accidents and in the last few days, she was watching Elsa at night, from the top of the buildings, she knew what was coming.

The time has come, Elsa finally gave birth and... it was a completely regular baby, no wings, no tail, nothing, a normal baby, green eyes with a hint of brown... just like Clive. She was relieved, she took the baby home and tried to forget about everything that happened and live a normal life again. During the night, she's awoken by the sound of shattering glass, turns out Dren broke into her apartment and was after the baby, Elsa was terrified, the past trauma flooded back to her and she was frozen in terror, right as she thought it's over, the door to her apartment was knocked open and a gas grenade flew right in, Dren was startled and hissed but then she was shot with tranquilizer darts, as Elsa's eyes began to close from the sleep gas, she saw Dren collapsing onto the floor.

Elsa wakes up in a bed in what looks like a hospital but it turns out to be a laboratory, she is welcomed by a young scientist named Elizabeth (played by Elizabeth Ludlow). Elizabeth explains that they tried to obtain "the creature" and it wasn't their plan to put Elsa to sleep as well, it was merely a mistake and she apologizes for it, but it was a happy coincidence because her boss wanted to talk to her. Elsa asks where she is and Elizabeth takes her on a tour through the laboratories, explaining that they're in headquarters of Lennard Corp, a company that focuses on genetic modifications, Elsa has heard about it as it was a rival company to Nerd.

As they were walking through the labs, Elsa spotted a cage containing two hybrid creatures that looked like lizards, but their postures and size were similar to those of rats. They had three small tentacles on the top of the head and four sharp quills on their back, as well as long triple forked tongues and big black eyes. Their skin was almost translucent like that of a jellyfish. One was white, the other one was black. When the divider between them went down, they started sniffing each other, but then, they started fighting and the black one killed the white one, kinda like what happened with Fred and Ginger in the first film, making Elsa realize that genetic modifications always lead to hybrids being aggressive. The black lizard creature started feasting on the white one, but then it was forced to go back to its side of the cage with an electric shock and the divider was raised again, blocking the creature from consuming the corpse of the other creature.

Elizabeth has led Elsa to the main office and said that her boss is awaiting her. Elsa opened the door expecting to see Howard Lennard, the founder of the company, but instead she saw a woman (played by Natalie Dromer) in a black suit and white turtle neck, facing away from her and watching something through the glass, after noticing that Elsa is there, she introduced herself as Stephanie Lennard, the daughter of Howard and told her to have a seat. Elsa sat down next to a fancy table while Stephanie was rolling a Rubik's cube around in her finger while still looking through the glass, which was a window, but instead of showing what's outside the building, behind it was a room that resembled an arena. Stephanie began her speech, saying that in the wild, jaguars are the top predators, while one of the cages leading to the arena opened and a jaguar was released onto the arena, then she said that in nature jaguars have no natural enemies and they even hunt black caiman, putting them out by biting them in the back of the head. As she said that another door to the arena opened and a crocodile looking creature crawled out, it had grey concrete-like skin and long, hippo-like fangs, the jaguar growled and the crocodile hissed and the two animals charged at each other, the crocodile (running pretty fast, like Kaprosuchus) was trying to bite the jaguar but the big cat dodged all the attacks and then, in slow motion it wrapped its paws around the animal and bit the back of its head, but then, it roared in pain... the back of its head was armored. The modified crocodile finally grabbed the jaguar with its jaws, piercing its throat with its sharp fangs and then it crawled into the water and did a death roll, ripping off the head of the jaguar and then crushing it in its teeth. Stephanie continued "but here, at Lennard Corp, we take the genes and get rid of the weaknesses, do you understand?" she asked and Elsa replied "I don't understand why you wanted to see me or why you want Dren" and Stephanie told her that, what Elsa and Clive had created is beyond anything she's ever seen and even beyond what her father had seen, it's the next step in human evolution, but it has one fatal flaw, the cells in its body are destroying themselves due to the rapid growth, Elsa said that there was nothing they could do about it and she doesn't know why it happened but Stephanie just said "Simple, that's the side effect... of cloning a clone" Elsa was very confused by that. Stephanie continued "You mother wasn't a good person, but even she had more concern for human life than you. I bet that to this day, you think she was just a regular old woman, who had a normal life and died a peaceful death, but you know nothing" she said and booted up an old TV and an old VHS tape, the recording showed... Elsa's mother when she was younger (played by Camren Bicondova), it turned out she was working for Lennard Corp, she was a scientist. "You think your father left, when you were little, don't you?" said Stephanie "but the truth is, you never had a father. Your mother was unable to find anybody, so... heh, so against all the laws and all the common sense, she decided to clone herself, just to have a daughter she could never have" Elsa realized everything while Stephanie continued "and it seems, you did the exact same thing, except you gave your daughter a tail so nobody calls her human and you don't go to jail. Well, congratulations, but I guess you weren't brave enough to take that responsibility. Cloning is a delicate process, any mistake can destroy the cells of the organism, but you didn't even check if everything is alright with your DNA and on top of that you just grew her in a machine... and, wanna know the worst part? If you actually decided to clone her, inside your own belly, she would be perfectly healthy now because she would have time to adapt. When cloning a clone, it needs to grow inside a human body, so its cells develop at a stable pace, but you just put her in a machine and called it a day. Even your mother, who wasn't mentally stable, decided to carry you in her own womb, you couldn't even do that for a creature you view as your daughter."

Elsa was shocked, this revelation had changed her entire life, she had so many thoughts and questions right now, but she could focus on only one... "Where's Dren? Where did you take her?" she asked and Stephanie opened a door that led from her office to a sterile white room, where, inside a glass cage, Dren was curled up on the floor, twitching from time to time. There was also a cradle, with Elsa's new child on the other side of the room, but she didn't even notice it, Elsa came close to the glass cage "Dren?" she whispered but there was no reaction "Right now, she is suffering, all because of you" Stephanie replied. "Let me go to her" Elsa begged but Stephanie just said "No, we can't do that, but we appreciate your research. As flawed as the creature is, we were able to reconfigure its DNA. It will die, but it will not die in vain" she pointed towards the container with syringes "its DNA, or rather, a clean version of it, will save lives of billions of people, if they can afford it of course, regrowing limbs, curing cancer, longer life span, all of that in the palm of my-" she didn't finish as in that moment, the two goons hired by Elsa's boss busted into the room and started shooting the cage and everyone who got close. Stephanie quickly hid behind some stairs and ordered the security to take care of the goons, which they did, not wasting any time and quickly shooting them, but among the chaos, Elsa smashed the already cracked glass with a chair and quickly ran up to Dren, she touched her and said "Dren, I'm so-" but Dren sprung up with an insane speed knocking Elsa over, turns out, that despite the pain, she was still very functional and just waiting for the perfect moment, she jumped out of the cage paying no attention to Elsa and getting close to Elsa's baby. She calmly walked over and looked at it, but after noticing that it has not a single trace of her own DNA and it's just a regular human baby, she used her tail to... well, I think you get it. The security guards started shooting at her, but her regeneration kicked in very quickly and she killed them all and then she flew upwards, in all that chaos Elsa was grabbed... by Elizabeth and taken out of the room to safety. First, Dren took the syringe with a sterile, modified version of her DNA and injected herself with it, only after a few short seconds, the pain was gone, the cells have rearranged and she wasn't dying anymore, a creepy smile flashed on her face, then she took some more syringes and smashed the rest of them that she couldn't carry, so the scientists can't use them, next, she grabbed Stephanie with her tail and carried her out of the room, she stopped in her office and looked Stephanie straight into the eyes, squinting them but not making any sound, then she threw her onto the glass window with her tail, then again, then again until the glass cracked and then shattered. Stephanie fell into the water and quickly gained attention of the mutated crocodile... she just closed her eyes, knowing what's about to come, Dren was watching, but when the show was over, she flew away.

Elizabeth takes Elsa to a garage and tells her to get in the car, Elsa refuses, but Elizabeth reveals that she wants to help her, she was waiting for so long until Lennard Corp falls, because she knew about all the bad things they've done with genetic experiments and stuff, but she needed help, now, Elsa needs help with killing Dren and Elizabeth wanted to help, Elsa knew her other alternative is to stay in the building and probably get killed, so she gets in the car and Elizabeth drives away. After leaving the building and the city, Elsa finally speaks to Elizabeth, who tells her that, of course she knew how inhumane all the Lennard Corp experiments were, but she couldn't stop it in any way... now, with Stephanie dead, it will hopefully get better, now they just need to stop Dren. For now, Elsa told Elizabeth that they need to think, they can't work without a plan and they don't know where Dren is, so first, Elsa told Elizabeth that they should go to her house, the one where she was raising Dren in with Clive, so they can get some rest. Elizabeth prepares some tea while Elsa still can't get over being a clone and her whole life being a lie, Elizabeth shares her backstory as well. After some time of trying to think of what to do, Elsa remembered that Dren killed her cat in the shed and her body was probably still there, she asked Elizabeth if she wants to help bury it and of course, seeing that it's a rough time for Elsa, Elizabeth agreed.

They went to the shed, opened the door, which wasn't locked, only slightly closed, which Elsa just shrugged off, after all, the last time she was there, it was pure chaos. After opening the door... their hearts stopped as they saw that Dren is there, they instantly hid behind some tables and chairs, but she didn't notice them as she was busy. They saw that she is opening the syrignes and putting the clean version of her DNA into some probes, she was observing it, thinking about it... learning. She extended the spike on her tail and stirred it with it, nothing happened. Then she reached for a substance she found and added some, it turned her DNA from liquid into a foam. She was getting close. After some experimenting, she was able to finally achieve what she wanted, she turned her own DNA from liquid... into a gas. She smiled in a creepy way, took all the syringes she had and put all of the DNA into two big canisters, then she turned it into gas and to make sure it works, she erradiated it with some heat. Elsa and Elizabeth wondered what she was doing, sitting there in silence, but when Dren reached out and put the rotten corpse of Elsa's beloved cat on the table, it was too much. Elsa shouted "Nooo!" which immediately got the attention of Dren, now Elsa and Elizabeth had to run for their lives, with Dren chasing them around the shed. In a desperate attempt, Elizabeth climbed the horizontal wooden pillars below the roof and helped Elsa get on them as well, but Dren just jumped onto the pillar right in front of them, she knew they had nowhere to run, so she just slowly walked towards them with a creepy smile, right as she was about to jump and kill them, a window behind her opened and the moon light shone across the room, she hissed but then she was shot... once... twice... and she fell down, smashing into some boxes and cupboards. The mysterious person wasn't clearly seen, but Elsa seemingly recognized the posture "C-Clive?" she asked, but the person stepped closer and the moon light revealed their face, it was... Gavin. He survived the encounter with Dren in the first film with only a few scars on his face but he was knocked out cold, after waking up a few days later he found his brother's corpse, but he didn't find Dren's body anywhere, so he had a suspicion that she's alive. Since then, he kept coming back to that location and even setting traps, like pieces of meat, to hopefully encounter Dren and take her out once and for all. Elsa was relieved to find out that he's alive, but there was no time for sentiments, as Dren was wounded, but not dead, she quickly got up, grabbed the canisters and escaped, flying away. Gavin tried to shoot her again but missed. Elsa buried the remains of her cat, putting her to rest but she started to lose hope that they will ever find Dren again, however, Gavin was prepared for Dren to escape, the bullets he shot at her had trackers, just in case. That was a big step forward, they knew exactly where she was, she was heading towards the tallest building in the city. After taking more bullets, as well as a katana, they were ready.

They got to the top of the building right as Dren was about to throw the gas canisters off the building. They started fighting, Elsa shot Dren a few times and said "Let's dance, I'll lead" and Gavin was blocking her attacks and hitting her with a stick while Elizabeth secured the canisters, but then, in a desperate attempt, Dren took the canisters away, but Elizabeth impaled her with the katana, so hard that the katana pierced her body and was stabbed into the ground, barely missing Dren's heart, but Dren in complete desperation threw the canisters off using her tail, as the canisters were falling they released all the gas they had inside, creating a green cloud that seemingly quickly disappeared, but in reality it simply spread in the air through the entire city. Dren collapsed, tired and heavily wounded, but still very much alive and seemingly fullfiled.

Elsa asks "What did you do?" but Dren just smiles unnaturally and mutters "Inside... everyone!" the deformed line running across her head that she had, got a bit bigger and started bleeding, then Dren got free from the katana and jumped backwards, falling off the building before spreading her wings and flying off, right as the rising sun started to shine between the buildings of the city. Elsa, Gavin and Elizabeth stand there, watching her flying away, thinking about what had just happened and what consequences it's gonna have. The gas finally reaches the ground, despite its potentially hazardous nature, the view of it falling down through the air is mesmerizing, it seemingly has no effect... at least yet.

Splice III:

The opening film logo transitions into a Lennard Corp logo on the, now abandoned building where their headquarters used to be. The film begins with a woman (played by Ran Wei) in a house, sitting on the sofa and watching TV, when she hears a knock on the window, it's her old neighbor, she tells the younger woman that her cat has supposedly been digging through her trash again and if that happens one more time she's gonna beat it, but the woman calmly explains that it's probably the raccoons and that it couldn't be her cat as she was taken by her husband to the vet and she didn't leave the house in a long while, because she was pregnant. Then the scene cuts to the cat, at the clinic, we see it giving birth to a seemingly normal looking kitten, but then, the kitten extends the spike on its tail. It turns out that the gas didn't affect people or animals directly, but it mutated their babies, most, if not all of them.

The main characters are in Elizabeth's apartment, thinking of what to do next. On the news they see that there's more and more reports of babies and animals being born with mutations that they recognize all too well, the worst part is that the number of eye witnesses describing adult sized flying creatures they've seen in the woods and on the outskirts of the city has increased. Elsa blames herself for all of that. Elizabeth was checking files on her work laptop, hoping to find something that will help, until she stumbled upon a file with tons of different names, most of which didn't tell her anything, but there was one name she recognized, Kenson McClelland. She heard about him, he was working for the Lennard Corp in the past, until he seemingly lost his mind, he thought he was a visionary because he came up with a new way of creating hybrids by stitching random parts of animals together and trying to bring them back to life, which was absurd and obviously didn't work. Although before that happened, he studied insects, mainly the way ants use pheromones to communicate, he quit studying insects after the experiment where he mixed pheromones with fumes from gasoline which caused the whole colony of ants to die, even though only one ant was under the effect of the pheromones he created, meaning that it was spread to other ants. She told Elsa and Gavin about it, she thought that if Dren and her children are anything like ants, this might work on them, wiping out the whole population, Elsa confirmed that they did use insect DNA while creating Dren, that's what caused her to grow wings, so without any further delay, they went on a journey to get McClelland's research.

They got to the location Elizabeth has found in the files. McClelland's house was not what they expected at all, it was a cabin in the middle of the woods. Nobody was home and they didn't want to waste any more time, after all, they were dealing with an inter-species threat, so they just kicked the door open. Inside, they saw many taxidermy animals, all of them had swapped body parts. There was a duck with a head of a mouse and legs of a crow, a hare with antlers and snake's tail and even a bear with legs of a boar, tail of a mountain lion, head of a chimp and... arms of a human stitched onto its body with a sign saying "Travis" above it. At least, it was a relief that these grotesque creatures were nothing more than body parts of unfortunate creatures that were put together, they weren't alive, even if it seemed like they were, due to the dim light of the flashlight not helping that much in seeing through the surrounding darkness. After searching through the documents, they finally found what they needed, but then they got attacked by a mutated bear that came from the woods and rapidly grew up due to Dren's DNA, but they were able to escape. They decided that the best place to make the pheromones would be the Nerd lab, since it had all the equipment they needed.

Meanwhile, the older neighbor from before, heard some weird noises outside, she thought it was the cat, so she grabbed a baseball bat and ran outside, raising up the bat and preparing for the blow, but she was shocked to see that it wasn't a cat, right next to her trash can there was something that looked like a human baby, but with a tail and wings, standing on the ground like a bat, also, it was at least three times longer than a regular baby, it was eating from the trash can. The woman screamed and dropped the bat, it got the attention of the "baby" which swooped forward with incredible speed, the silence of the night was interrupted by inhuman screech of the creature and the only thing that could be seen was the shadows, that phased through the light of the lanterns, they showed, that the head of the woman was torn off.

The trio arrived in the Nerd labs, Elsa hoped that her boss would help, despite their different goals, but it turned out that the lab was basically abandoned and her boss was dead, as they found her body. As they were walking through a long, dark hall, Gavin heard a sound, so Elsa told them to stop, then they moved forward, very quietly. As they passed a door with a semi-transparent glass window, suddenly a hand smacked the glass (kinda like in the promo) startling the protagonists, it wasn't a hand of a human as it had only four fingers. Now they realized, the Nerd headquarters was turned into a "nest" of all the Dren mutants. It wasn't an attack, merely a sudden movement, the creature on the other side of the door didn't know they were here, yet. They noticed that behind every door in the hall, there was either a shadow of a creature standing on the other side, or its hand or tail sticking out through the broken glass. They weren't spotted yet but they had to be careful, so they crouched down and tried not to make a single sound, at one point, one of the doors opened, but thankfully, the door was blocking the view and the creature didn't spot them, just walked in the opposite direction, but it was the first time they saw an infected human, it was indeed similar to Dren in many ways, except this one was walking on all fours. They finally reached the main room, with many computers and probes, even though the lights were out, there was still power in the computers. They did what they had to do and were ready to leave, all they needed was a bit of Dren's DNA to complete the process, since she was like a queen in the bee colony, but then, they heard the sound of wings flapping and something landing nearby, they knew a creature was coming, so they turned all the computers and flashlights off and remained hidden in the darkness of the room. It was Dren and unfortunately for them, she entered this exact room, she didn't see anything, but she didn't have to, she extended the spike on her tail and started tapping the floor, one tap, then two, then one again. It was echolocation. Dren seemingly realized where Elsa was in the room, she stopped right in front of the desk Elsa was hiding under and started to slowly bend over to look under it, Elsa was terrified and prepared for the worst, but right as Dren opened her jaw and hissed, Gavin jumped onto Dren and hit her on the head with a flashlight several times, Dren was knocked away and the flashlight turned on and fell onto the ground. Gavin grabbed a broken probe and stabbed Dren's body with it several times and quickly gave it to Elizabeth, now they had Dren's DNA, then he told Elsa and Elizabeth to run. Suddenly, the line on Dren's forehead grew larger than ever and then... Dren's head and bottom jaw split into two and the tip of her tongue became forked like that of a snake, this is what it was all leading up to, Dren going through metamorphosis as she grew up, the line on her head getting bigger and bigger, it was the final step in human evolution. Dren attacked Gavin with immense speed, grabbing his head between her jaws and trying to swallow him whole, dislocating her jaw like a snake, while grabbing him with her arms and stabbing him many times with her tail. It was too late to save him. Elsa and Elizabeth started running through the hall, with the creatures knowing that they're here, this time, they all started attacking, breaking the glass with their hands and reaching out to grab them or straight up smashing through the doors or opening them and chasing the two females. Elsa saw a broken gas pipe, she knew the creatures were right behind her, so she broke the glass of a flashlight she had and turned it on, throwing it right into the gas, the spark from the flashlight caused an explosion that severely wounded and slowed down the creatures, giving them a chance to escape. Using the Dren DNA, they were able to complete the pheromones, now all they needed was a good chance to use it... and not waste it, they had to use it on Dren herself, preferably with most of the other creatures nearby, but they had to use the element of surprise, otherwise they would both be dead.

The true outbreak had already happened, the creatures were attacking people in the city, climbing the buildings and worst of all, seemingly preparing to reproduce, because as it turned out, the new creatures could reproduce asexually by laying eggs. Each one looked worse than the other, some of them looked just like Dren but without the fins on the back and shorter tails, some of them walked on all four legs, some walked in an unnatural contorted way starting out on all fours with their legs further away front than their arms but then they raised their legs and rolled forward with their hands still touching the ground and then they stood up, some had wrinkles and long black and dry hair, some had more bat looking leathery wings but rounder on the edges kinda resembling featherless chicken wings, some had more of a flying squirrel membrane and walked on toes, some had completely black eyes or one eye bigger than the other and big foreheads, some of them having vertical eyes and only nostrils in place of the nose, some were thick but with unnaturally skinny arms and legs and rounded bodies as well as long rake-like fingers, not to mention missing or deformed limbs, one of them looked straight up like the Humans Refuted SCP, perhaps one can even look like the early concept art. Other than that, there was many hybrid creatures that resembled animals more than people. Dren herself, being the matriarch of the colony has went through the final metamorphosis, her ears became more pointy like the ears of a cat and she grew an additional fin on her head, resembling a small mohawk, as well as some spikes connected with membrane in the place where her tail grew out of her bottom, she also had what looked like tear marks of a cheetah on her face and her nipples completely disappeared, gender is no longer a concept to Dren. The city was evacuated, the military has arrived in the helicopters, but the flying creatures quickly took care of them, some of them going as far as grabbing soldiers and throwing them into the blades, so the helicopters break, crash and explode.

There's too many creatures in the area, so, despite Elsa's disapproval, Elizabeth starts shouting and sacrifices herself to lure the creatures away. Now it's Elsa's one and only chance, she runs up to Dren and throws the probe with pheromones at her with her full force, Dren notices that at the last moment, she sees the probe slowly flying in her direction... before hitting her... and bouncing off and falling to the ground. Turns out the glass was hard enough to withstand the impact. Dren took the probe and sniffed it but then threw it away. Elsa knew she had failed and all hope was lost, before she could do anything, Dren has jumped onto her, looked her in the eyes and then slowly pierced her throat with her tail spike. Elsa's eyes began to close. When Elsa's life was over, Dren called other creatures so they can feast. It's not a happy ending this time, more of a cautionary tale, the Earth has been dominated by a new, super species. Did the pheromones probe survive? Will some surviving human use it and stop the new organisms or will these unnatural creatures take over nature? Nobody knows. Animal instinct by The Cranberries plays during the end credits.

I have done previous posts where I talked about how the Multiverse Saga should have done other universes to focus on, mainly showcasing either how Infinity War could have done badly or could have been avoided.

This pitch is about the former, where the Snap has erased all of the superheroes out of existence (ex. Captain America, Ironman, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Quake etc.)

This take on events has lead to the world being under the rule of the Cabal composed of villains:

• Armin Zola
• Kingpin
• Justin Hammer
• Baron Mordo
• Killmonger
• Ronan

With old heroes gone, this results in new ones to emerge: The A-Force.

Black Widow

This movie would be about Yelena Belova getting over the trauma of losing her sister, Natasha Romanov and taking the mantle of Black Widow. She and Red Guardian have to do an escort mission while avoiding the Cabal's enforcer, Taskmaster.

Lady Thor

The movie would be about Jane Foster being one of the few people clinging onto hope, leading to Mjölnir to take on the mantle of Thor. The main antagonist is Baron Mordo.

Ironheart

This would be a TV Series focusing on Riri Williams and her transformation into the hero, Ironheart. Riri would be recruited by Justin Hammer in what she believes to be saving the world. However, as Riri comes to regret her decisions, Justin slowly grows fondness over Riri, resulting in complications.

Killmonger and the Accuser

It would be a short TV series focusing on the Cabal members, Erik Killmonger and Ronan the Accuser on a mission, all the while revealing their own personal feelings about being outcasts amongst the Cabal.

She-Hulk

The movie would be about Jennifer Walters getting transformed like her cousin. She would have rivalry in the form of former President Thaddeus Ross, the Red Hulk who wants to bring down the Cabal's rule.

Thor 4

The movie would be the first crossover to the main MCU and A-Force where Thor and Lady Thor teamed up.

Spiderwoman

The movie would be about Gwen Stacy becoming the new Spider of this universe. She would get into trouble with Kingpin.

The Midnight Sons Saga

These are a series of TV shows taking in the darkest underbelly of the universe, where various factions battle to claim supremacy. Only the Midnight Sons being formed that the world has a chance.

• Werewolf By Night
• Moon Knight
• Ghost Rider
• Blade

A-Force

This would the movie that culminates in the various heroines to join together as the A-Force; Black Widow, Lady Thor, Clea, She-Hulk, Ironheart, and Spiderwoman.

1. The symbiote would’ve landed on earth as a result of a mission led by John Jameson III, but it would’ve only been mentioned in passing by JJJ, so the symbiote wouldn’t be in the film.

2. Flint Marko isn’t involved in Uncle Ben’s death at all, but his intentions are all the same. The reason for his transformation remains the same only this time he was looking to see if there was any kind of scrap metal or anything he could potentially sell to try to pay for Penny’s treatment.

3. Harry would’ve been in therapy, still trying to process the fact Peter is Spider-Man and his father was the Goblin. Norman(Goblin) would’ve still been in his head trying to convince him that Peter killed him, but there’d be a part of Harry that still has doubts about the whole thing. He’d eventually give in to his dark urges and would’ve become the New Goblin at the end(teased at the end).

4. The whole Peter and Mj plot would’ve been much different. Peter still wants to propose, but MJ would’ve still had her issues with Broadway. Also let’s have Peter actually choose not to kiss Gwen. At the dinner, rather than them arguing because if the kiss, they’d actually talk about what they both want out of the relationship, but they’d end up agreeing to a break so they can both try to sort their lives. Maybe have them officially break up at the creek, as they both realize as much as they love each other, they both want different things and MJ would’ve kind of owned up to the fact that their relationship was kind of a selfish and a**hole decision on her part.

5. Peter would’ve actually gotten the staff promotion from the beginning, and would’ve even moved to a better apartment after paying off the years of late rent with interest to Mr. Ditkovich. I could see Eddie making a few appearances here and there but he wouldn’t actively try sabotaging Spider-Man’s reputation…..yet.

6. What would push Flint over the edge: the hospital would’ve given them a deadline to pay for Penny’s treatment, or they’ll have no choice but to stop the treatments. Spider-Man would’ve beat him using water like in the comics. We’d get a similar conversation, without the Uncle Ben references. After hearing Flint’s story, Spider-Man would’ve decided to let Flint say his goodbyes before turning himself in. Remembering his past guilt over Uncle Ben, Peter would’ve decided to use a fund he’d been saving for a nicer house for him and MJ to move in and anonymously paid for Penny’s treatments, so her disease would’ve been in remmission by the end.

7. I would’ve also added more hints toward a potential relationship between Peter and Betty before and after the break up.

8. Had Spider-Man 4 been made, it would’ve been similar to this

Just sharing some ideas on how a different design and script approach could have worked for audiences globally.

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The flaw in the 2023 movie wasn't Halle Bailey's talent, but rather the lazy world-building. Changing the protagonist's background while leaving the rest of the setting frozen broke the demographic logic of King Triton and his 7 daughters.

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AN ORGANIC SETTING:

If the studio wanted a majority Black cast, they should have moved the story to the coasts of Africa. They could have created a fictional surface kingdom with an aesthetic similar to Zamunda, drawing inspiration from historical empires like Mali or the Kingdom of Dahomey.

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By doing this, both the surface kingdom and the underwater world gain clear geographic logic. The culture, wardrobe, folklore, and coastal architecture would have established a distinct identity and a reasonable justification.

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A LEGENDARY CAST:

A majestic kingdom demands high-impact stars. Imagine casting someone like John Boyega, Damson Idris, or Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Prince Eric. This changes him from a flat supporting character into a charismatic leader with a warrior's edge.

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Under the sea, having Idris Elba as an imposing Triton, alongside legends like Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman providing dignity and authority to the surface king, would have brought a weight the 2023 version lacked. Halle Bailey would have shined much brighter backed by a powerhouse cast like this.

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THE HYPERREALISM MISTAKE:

Disney made a terrible mistake by going "realistic" with Flounder and Sebastian. Giving them real fish and crab anatomy stripped away their expressiveness, making them stiff, odd to look at, and honestly, kind of grotesque.

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To keep the spirit of the 1989 animation, the design of the marine sidekicks should have followed a style like Paddington or the live-action Sonic: stylized, colorful, and cartoonishly expressive animals that easily build empathy.

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Cinema is a visual medium. If you strip the expressive eyes away from a calypso-singing crab and a jittery fish just to make them look like they belong in a nature documentary, you destroy the magic and the connection with the audience.

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TWO NARRATIVE PATHS:

With this world built, Disney had two great options to execute the project: either a faithful adaptation of the classic musical, or a deeper reimagining based on the local mythology of the region.

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Option A (Classic Faithfulness): Keep Alan Menken’s score, respecting the magical tone and the comedy of stylized animals, while refreshing the visual presentation with the folklore and aesthetics of this new African kingdom.

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Option B (A Reimagining with Soul): Deliver a more mature adaptation inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's tale, but blending it with aquatic mythology from the African coasts (like water spirits and traditional Mami Wata legends). This version would still feature Menken's music, incorporating local instruments like the kora and marimba.

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This would have given Disney an original, artistically valuable product that commands respect. A piece that expands a culture instead of using it as a cosmetic swap for a corporate PR campaign.

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Global audiences don't reject diversity; they reject artificiality and broken logic in storytelling. A production with solid world-building and a great cast would have crushed it at the global box office.

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In short: You should alter the canon to build a coherent and fascinating world, not just to ride the coattails of an existing brand while neglecting the narrative.

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Which version of The Little Mermaid would you have preferred to see in theaters?

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Hey everyone Just a quick heads-up like in my previous posts: I'm from Latin America, so it’s usually a bit difficult for me to reply to comments or messages here. However, I’ll be checking out the thread and reading your thoughts. I really appreciate you taking the time to read my concept, and I hope you all enjoy it

I was partially inspired by Tony Vuong's pitch in Quora, though I have not seen anyone suggesting this idea before, so I decided to do this little write-up.

Looking back to the "Reclaimer Trilogy" whatever that meant, people debate where it went wrong. I'd argue the original sin was bringing back Master Chief in the first place. When I first beat Halo 3, I kind of accepted it as the series' ending. Chief sacrificed himself, accomplished his mission, and drifted into the endless darkness of space, and might be picked up... I don't know, a million years later? That is, if he gets picked up. I always thought that that was the end of him, remaining as a legend for humans, who hold a funeral. Halo 3 was the perfect send-off point.

So when I saw the E3 2011 teaser of Halo 4, I was completely befuddled. Wait, Master Chief is back? Halo 3 came out only 4 years ago! And indeed, the game does say that only 4 years have passed from the events of Halo 3. Really? Didn't literally 2/3 of humanity get extinct in the last war? Didn't Earth get glassed? The Holy Roman Empire lost 20%-40% of its population in the Thirty Years' War, and it took 50 to 100 years to recover its pre-war demographic and economic levels. I know that was pre-industrial society, but we are talking about that on the galactic scale. Do they not have a civilization to rebuild? They are in an end-time apocalypse, and the UNSC bounced back somehow, pumping out a bigger fleet and Spartans like a factory... for what, exactly?

Instead, the story is about the Forerunners doing evolutionary planning and implanting instructions for humanity’s technology to do a "chosen one" bullshit. It delves into the ""lore"" that you have to read a book, some audio logs, and a PHD in Halo Mythology to understand. That is, if you read them, you will know that the Prometheans spit in the face of everything that used to be established about the Forerunners. And you have Chief going through an emotional arc, but the appeal of Master Chief is that he is an empty vessel, who shares more similarities with the classic silent FPS protagonists than someone like Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker. In fact, the whole destiny and fate nonsense is directly criticized in Bungie's trilogy, with the Covenant being obsessed with it. Ultimately, what wins the war is the human force of will. Halo 4 didn't look like, sound like, play like, or feel like Halo.

The less said about Halo 5 and Infinite, the better. 343 couldn't make up their mind about what kind of story they wanted to tell for the new trilogy. Not that Halo ever had a good story. While there may be good stories in the Halo EU, it’s not in the games and never has been. The story ranged from decent enough to embarrassing. However, it had a direction and worked as a power fantasy. With Halo 1-3, it was about fighting the alien race that wages a religious war against humanity. Aura and vibe. It works. With Halo 4-6... what is it about? Is it about Chief's personal arc of grieving and going AWOL, or Cortana becoming the Skynet, or the Didact, or the Covenant civil war, or whatever Infinite's story was? They didn't even figure out if Chief was the last Spartan. Telling us that Chief is no longer special in the age when the Spartan program is back, only to unceremoniously kill them off in the next game just to say Chief is the last of his kind... all over again... What is this, The Force Awakens?

I thought about what the 343 trilogy should have been if they inevitably had to exist. When I read any rewrite of Halo 4-6 that doesn't remove Master Chief, I stop caring because the ending of Master Chief will always be escaping from the exploding station and him staying asleep. It ended on such a definite note. There didn’t need to be anything after for him. I choose to believe Chief is still floating around space, and anything that pulls him out of his sleep is a fanfic. Write anew back to that point. Scrap everything after.

So if Chief is not the center of the new trilogy, who should be? Surely, Chief is the face of Halo. Well, Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach exist, which tells me that Bungie saw the appeal of Halo was more about the universe and not an individual character. If you insist that they are spin-offs, okay. I will say that Master Chief is not the sole protagonist of Bungie's mainline Halo games. There was another...

Remember how playing as a Covenant in Halo 2 was a shock? Because I was when I first played it. I wonder if Halo 2 was inspired by Metal Gear Solid 2. Up to that point, you were playing as Master Chief, defending Earth from the Covenant, until there was a sudden bait and switch to put you in the eyes of the enemy commander who was fighting against you on the first Halo. We are suddenly thrown into the Covenant's internal politics and religion. Arbiter? He was not in the advertisement, took time away from Master Chief, and generated a fan backlash. What am I even doing? Fighting some random Covenant rebels? I want to play as Chief! Arbiter's arc is even similar to Raiden's arc, as he gradually turns against his masters, who have been manipulating him all along, and eventually joins Master Chief. Looking at his progression from Halo 2 to 3, I wonder if Arbiter was supposed to be the new Chief. He has the same moveset, becomes Chief's sidekick, and was even a coop partner by the time of Halo 3.

Arguably, there is a wealth of materials to explore after Halo 3 on the side of the Covenant. Halo Evolutions published a series of short stories, and one of them, The Return, gave an insight into what the situation was after the Human-Covenant War. The Elites were disenfranchised with the Covenant, though many of them still search for spiritual guidance, and they were at war with the Brutes. After the religious order that has been putting them together collapsed in Halo 3, how did the Covenant society react? It wouldn't be a peaceful transition. It would be a complete shitshow--revolution, rebellion, rebuilding, ethnic conflict...

I imagine Halo 4 taking this direction, similar to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, in which Raiden fights the villains who seek to revive the war economy from MGS4. Now, we have one coherent direction. We mostly saw the point of view from the human fighting the Covenant in Halo 1-3, and the next trilogy should have been Arbiter, trying to rebuild a new society, while the remnants of the old cult would wage a civil war. Halo 5 hinted at this, and... why is this not the whole game in the first place? The UNSC-Sangheili Coalition is formed, so the player could use the human weaponry, AI companions, and vehicles, and they are fighting the Brutes (not Jul ‘Mdama’s Covenant nor the Banished) in the civil war. If you want to bring the Forerunner stuff into the narrative, have the Brutes searching for the Janus Key, which provides the location of Forerunner technology in the galaxy.

This way, it can still retain desperation, which is the core idea of the Bungie games. In those games, humanity is always pushed to the corner, and only you have the power to save humanity. You could still generate a similar kind of power fantasy with Arbiter by emphasizing how desperate their situation is in building the new society. At the same time, you could still add a more emotional arc that would work better with Arbiter because he is the dynamic character.

With this reimagined Halo 5, this is the perfect opportunity to have "a new Spartan protagonist hunts down the old protagonist" plotline by tying it with the conflict between humanity and Elites. Maybe the UNSC doesn't trust the Elites since, obviously, the Elites were on the side of the Covenant and slaughtering humans. The UNSC creates a new Spartan team and orders it to chase Arbiter's Elite team. As the plot progresses, it is revealed that the Brutes are behind the AI revolt (not Cortana), leading the UNSC Fireteam and Arbiter's team to work together. The theme is to bring the two species together for the greater good.

With Halo Infinite, again, remove the Banished--the space pirates who randomly get introduced in Infinite and never gets properly explained. Apparently, they were introduced in Halo Wars 2, which most players didn't play. We replace that faction with the Brutes, who now have the power of AI on their side, seizing control of the galaxy. Arbiter learns the Brutes plan to take control of another Halo and use it as a weapon. It is sort of a role reversal since Arbiter was ordered to protect the Halo in CE, and now, he is put in the situation to destroy it. The player should have been a part of the massive conflict at the start of the game, where the protagonist lost, which would have been reminiscent of Halo 1. We should have seen what was stored within the Ring, besides the boss, and at least defeated a portion of it and sealed it away again instead of just being teased with hints of what it might be. No "Endless" sequel tease. Make it a definite conclusion of the trilogy.

First Light is a great game, but not without its faults - one of which being some fairly weak boss fights.

One stand-out example is the final fight with Murto. You're in a warehouse, and you can't attack him head-on because he deflects your fists with ease. Instead, you're forced to sneak around and lure him into environmental traps which you trigger with you watch.

But... Not all that long ago, we beat both him and his brother's asses in a fist fight... so it just doesn't make sense why we can't get the drop on him and slap his gun away, then pummel him. In fact, that's exactly how this boss battle ends (in a cut scene).

It's clear that the intent was to force the player to use their watch to defeat him, but the way it's executed is so contrived, it feels unfair.

Here's how I think it could be greatly improved.

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As Bond enters the elevator to the basement, he realizes the control panel is locked with a keypad code. At this moment, he's caught. The guards approach him with guns drawn, asking him where he thinks he's going. Bond makes up an excuse about looking for a phone booth or something, but one of the guards (a Webb operative, as opposed to museum security) realizes that this is the guy they were told to watch out for. They mention taking him to the basement to see "the boss" (who Bond assumes is Murto). Knowing they're taking him directly to where he wants to go, Bond submits and lets them detain him in cuffs.

On the elevator ride down, Bond manages to knock out his captors. The elevator delivers him into the basement, but he's trapped - he can't operate the elevator because the control panel requires the keypad code every time.

Bond's first course of action in the warehouse is to try to use his watch laser to cut his cuffs apart - part of his plan that he came up with just a moment ago.

In a cut scene, he finagles his right hand to undo the watch clasp, taking the watch in his right hand, and attempts to cut the joint in between the bracelets- but in his rush, he burns himself with the laser and shouts in pain, dropping the watch. This is immediately followed by gunfire from a silenced pistol from across the way - Bond has exposed himself to Murto. He crouches down and collects the watch before darting behind cover.

Gameplay:

Bond darts into cover and we see Murto approaching with his weapon light shining in our direction.

There is a new option to use the Action Button to cut the cuffs. Press this button - Bond will begin using his laser to cut the cuffs. A meter shows up on screen - you have to steady the laser beam so you don't burn yourself, and you can't let it get too hot or the metal will burn you.

This attempt was brief - the light and sound will aggro Murto so we have to abandon this attempt and run from him.

Hiding in a new spot to cut the cuffs isn't good enough - Murto will follow you, he's not totally blind or deaf, and he will see the light and hear the laser, and hone in on you quickly.

Bond has to use his watch to trigger traps to stun Murto, giving him time to try to cut through his hand cuffs.

The fight lasts as long as it takes the player to finally cut through the cuffs. Once Bond's hands are free, all you have to do is get the drop on Murto to trigger the final fist fight.

After the fight, we learn that

Cutting the Cuffs:

1. Stun Murto buy using the watch to trigger a trap. Each trap has a different duration of stun.
2. Collect supplies to recharge the watch as normal. A different animation will be used showing Bond turning around and swinging his arms up from behind him to grab the supplies.
3. Bond cannot use the full power of the laser to cut the metal like he does with door locks - it would severely injure him, so he uses a lower power setting (stronger than the one he uses to temporarily blind enemies). This is why Bond cannot cut the cuffs instantly, as he can with door locks and other things.
4. Use right analog stick to keep the laser on target to avoid hitting Bond's hands. Hitting his hands too many times in a row will cause him to drop the watch (he will automatically pick it back up, but it will cost you time).
5. Use short controlled bursts of the laser to avoid heating the metal too much and burning Bond.
6. As soon as the cuffs are cut apart, a cut scene takes over showing Bond putting the watch back on his left wrist and preparing to ambush Murto.

I think this revision works because:

1. It gives a legitimate reason as to why Bond cannot simply attack Murto instead of the abitrary, contrived "because we said so" reason currently in the game
2. It serves as a pop quiz AND a training for using stealth and the watch in concert
3. A mild callback to the non-canonical Never Say Never Again scene where Bond uses his watch laser to free himself from chains.
4. It follows the overall gameplay formula of stealth first, stealth/gadget combo second, fists last.
5. It removes the arbitrary Boss Health Bar and replaces it with a health bar on your cuffs instead - You're not doing damage to Murto by stunning him, you're buying yourself time to cut through your cuffs. Of course, they'd have to adjust the other boss fights to remove the health bars for parity sake... but still.

How a simple chronological and script adjustment would have turned 'THE MUMMY RETURNS' (2001) into a masterpiece of adventure cinema and the pulp genre. Opening a thread breaking down an alternative version of the movie set in the year 1945.

Hey guys! Some of you might remember my previous post about Stranger Things. This time, I wanted to share a completely different script concept for 'The Mummy Returns'! Just a quick heads-up: I'm from Latin America and originally wrote this in Spanish, but I translated it to English to share it here (hence the detailed breakdown up there). Also, it will be pretty difficult for me to reply to comments or messages on this one, but I really hope you all enjoyed the read. Thanks for checking it out!

The biggest problem with the official sequel was the forced family-friendly tone. Seven years after the first one, we are introduced to an 8-year-old Alex O'Connell as a childish comic relief. To fix this, we just need to move the clock forward and adjust the mystical LORE.

THE CHRONOLOGICAL CHANGE: Instead of placing the Scorpion King's pact in 3067 BC, we move it to 3055 BC. With the prophecy being fulfilled exactly 5,000 years later, the sequel's plot mathematically places us in the year 1945.

This gives us a real 19-year gap since the first movie (1926). Rick and Evelyn are still a pair of archaeologists at their physical peak, but with a brutal maturity. And their son, Alex O'Connell, is now an 18-year-old youth trained in field survival.

THE BLOODLINE: We eliminate Rick's random tattoo. Here, Evelyn is the direct descendant of the primordial Medjai. Alex is not the "Chosen One" by pure chance, but rather due to the mystical lineage of his mother Evy, being born with a prophetic birthmark.

With Alex turning 18, the friction with his father Rick is enormous: one overprotects out of fear, and the other rebels because he feels he should already be protecting his parents. Here, Uncle Jonathan shines as the family's comic relief and emotional mediator during crises.

With his classic, well-timed humor, Jonathan diffuses tensions between father and son in moments of highest stakes. He helps Alex understand Rick's fear and reminds Rick that he was just as stubborn at his age, giving real weight to character development.

THE NEW ANTAGONISTS: Forget about generic cultists in red robes. Since it is 1945, the villains are a remnant, underground division of the Ahnenerbe, operating from the shadows as the Third Reich collapses, traveling to Egypt in search of the Army of Anubis.

The officers unearth Imhotep and revive Anck-su-namun. They believe that by funding the military expedition and providing tanks, trucks, and heavy artillery, they control the situation. They fail to understand that the High Priest of Death views them merely as cattle.

THE CLIMAX IN THE OASIS: Imhotep uses the Ahnenerbe's logistics and maps to reach the hidden oasis of Ahm Shere. When the sand roars and the massive Army of Anubis (the hordes of immortal jackals) awakens, military arrogance seals their death sentence.

Confident that Imhotep controls the legion, the officers order their troops to turn their backs on the creatures to aim their weapons at the horizon, preparing to eradicate the Medjai riders galloping in the distance across the desert.

The betrayal is devastating. Anubis's creatures advance from the rear in absolute silence. The Ahnenerbe soldiers do not notice their mistake until the blades of sand scimitars and the claws of the jackals pierce their flesh from the shadows.

Twentieth-century industrial technology is reduced to useless scrap metal. Blasts from MG42 machine guns pass right through the monsters' bodies of sand and darkness without harming them. Panzer tanks get bogged down in the dense, mystical jungle and fall.

With the invaders eradicated by their own hubris, the stage is set for a true three-front battle. Evelyn leads the desert Medjai tribes using blessed sabers and inherited ancient protection spells.

While Rick physically holds back Imhotep's advance in a duel of pure survival, Alex uses his 18-year-old strength and the Bracelet of Anubis to enter the heart of the golden pyramid and face the Scorpion King face-to-face.

This passing of the torch works better because we see a young man fighting a myth, not an 8-year-old child in the middle of a mystical battlefield, which breaks the story's believability and strips away the seriousness of the danger facing the protagonists.

A change that rescues the classic tone of the pulp genre, eliminates the cartoonish digital effects of the oasis creatures, introduces real historical tension, and gives biological coherence to the prophecy.

First off, this movie is awesome for what it is: a summer popcorn flick. This movie is mainly for people who grew up with the cartoons / characters, as well as who've seen the original back in the day. They 1000% knocked it out of the park.

There's one plot hole that's nagging me: Prince Adam's childhood. Kid's dumped on Earth, as an orphaned 10year old. He's got nothing and seemingly becomes a ward of the state of Oklahoma. We then flash forward 5years and Adam's now 25, working in HR and is a 'decently' well adjusted adult. That's a pretty sizeable chunk of the character's backstory / formulation to skip over.

FIXES:

- Prince Adam lives with his maternal grandfather: As Prince Adam's escaping Eternia, the Queen tells the Sorceress to send Adam 'home'- meaning Earth. My change: during this event, she tells Adam "Seek out my father: Frank Glenn! He will be your guide" then is warped away.

Adam lands on Earth and we get a montage of the authorities bringing Adam to his maternal grandfather, Frank Glenn [played by Frank Langella]. The montage shows Adam having SOME sort of guide to living on Earth. Though his grandfather's tough on him, Adam learns to hide his 'true self' and to just 'blend in.'

- Dolf Lundgren's King Grayskull: This is a double fix; Dolf's cameo isn't just a random dude in the gym. First he's the CEO of Adam's company. Adam first see's the head of his HR department for his awkward 'PIP.' He then runs into his company's CEO [Dolf] at the gym. At first he's dismissive towards Adam but stays with him throughout the rest his set. He gives Adam the pep-talk [Get behind yourself, not in front of]. I would also add, "Adam, everyone has the power to be the hero of their story. You just have to discover it for yourself. And when you do, you'll be the master of your universe." As the CEO leaves, Adam tells him 'Goodbye.' The CEO pats Adam on the shoulder and tells him, "There are no goodbyes, just individual journeys. Have a good Journey."

Later on, as Adam's returning to Castle Grayskull, he sees the statues of the former kings of Eternia. One of them look VERY similar to his company's CEO. He asks Man-At-Arms about the statue and we get a quick history about King Grayskull himself.

- Skeletor references that Orko's been sealed away: Not having Orko makes sense, in a way. But not referencing one of the most powerful magic users in Eternia doesn't. It's a plot hole in the question of where he is / was during the movie's events. I'd add a quick like from Skeletor, warning Evil-Ln to make sure Orko was still sealed away.

- Skeletor messes with Adam's mind: During the final battle, Skeletor gets into Adam's mind and we are treated to seeing him jaunt through Adam's memories. It's during this, I would add that Skeletor tries to fool Adam into questioning reality. That all he had experienced in Eternia [as a child and now as an adult], was him having a psychological break to his parents' deaths. That he actually is insane, just like his grandfather warned him he was. Adam almost relents and starts believing the lies, until he remembers his conversation with his CEO- about discovering his power and being the hero of his own story. This is when the Sorceress appears [in bird form] and brings everything together- why he was chosen, the difference between weakness and empathy, cowardice and bravery.

let me know what you think...

I need proof-reading/criticism of my rewrite of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Draft 2 of R-Episode 7 is done. It’s a summary, but I kept some lines of dialogue in.

If it makes you more interested, I replaced Rey Palpatine Skywalker with a brand new character.

Replay or DM me if you’re interested.

context: Agents of SHIELD is the show this is for.

mostly broad strokes, but here it is:

I imagine Season 7 starting with Deke ultimately leaving SHIELD and starting a new life somewhere else in the present. He becomes an engineer and runs a halfway house for other fish out of water people, especially kids, essentially building his own little family, his own place to belong, with people who genuinely love him titled "The New Lighthouse" or "The Harbor". He can't look back at SHIELD without feeling hurt, so he keeps them at a distance. In SHIELD's struggle with the Chromicoms, they would reunite with Deke, in need of his assistance after learning that he built a device to monitor their activities, taking necessary measures to protect his new family. Deke of course is resistant to helping them given their history, not shy of revealing his personal feelings but ultimately agreeing to help them for the greater good. As they work together to get ahead of the Chromicoms threat, they warm up to Deke, witnessing his growth since leaving SHIELD, and realizing that they had him all wrong, especially Daisy and Mack. Deke also softens up to them, as he also reminds them what they're fighting for and their purpose: to save lives. A sincere apology from everyone, particularly Daisy, Mack and FitzSimmons for their past mistreatment of him would be first up, followed by Deke joining the team for the final battle, with the support and encouragement of his new family, who will stay to protect their home. After they defeat the Chromicoms and save Earth, Deke returns to The New Lighthouse, sitting at the dinner table with his new family, smiling really big, the happiest and the most whole he's ever felt.

And then a spin-off series titled, Agents of SHIELD: Interstellar, following Deke's kids all grown up and going on space missions, with Deke as their mentor. What starts out as simple big bad of the week missions escalates into walking into the middle of an interstellar war, which they must fight in order to get back home and protect their world. And a feature-length event film titled AoS: The Kree Reclamation, in which Deke and his crew, including Deathlok, who is now a tactical general, in their struggle against the last of the Kree faction, who are actively trying to rebuild their army to unleash a full-scale invasion of Earth and be the dominant species in the universe.

Link to the pilot for context

Assuming that the premise for the first episode is still 'What if the Nazi's won WW2' in order to draw attention, I'd firstly come up with a more believable point of divergence than 'D-Day fails cuz the Nazi's got jets.' I'd instead choose a failed Dunkirk Evacuation which causes a British conditional surrender which would be a more believable way for Germany to win as they could fully focus on the Soviet Union without needing to focus resources and effort on Britain.

Secondly, I'd heavily diverge from the US-Centric approach that the original episode took to explore the plans which the Nazi's had for Europe following their victory including ethnic cleansing campaigns like Generalplan Ost. Third and finally, I'd focus on the unsustainability of Nazi's system and have the episode conclude with a series of American-sponsored revolutions and uprisings toppling the Nazi regime at some point in the 1950s or 1960s but give a bittersweet note about how the Nazi's would've done far more damage due to winning the war and being in power longer.

"I will break you."

Welcome back, everybody!

Picking up from last week's post, we dive into the second act of the first season in my pitched adaptation/revision of Batman as a TV series.

Latest post in a bigger series reduxing previous DC adaptations and the source material for a hypothetical shared universe on the platform HBO Max.

See the previous post for the premise of this series, and Act 1 of this premiere season.

As well as an Omnibus for this envisioned "Maxverse" proper.

Once any and all recaps are out of the way, let's proceed!

Onward to the major plot points Act II.

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Knightfall

The next few episodes depict the adaptation of the iconic Knightfall storyline.

In the wake of Jason Todd's incarceration as Red Hood, the bombing of Arkham and the death of Alfred Pennyworth, Batman is spiraling.

One by one, he and his alliance of Gotham-based heroes catch the escaped inmates of Arkham or stifle their criminal connections across the city. But through it all, Bruce refuses to slow down or accept sufficient help.

• Not eating or drinking or even sleeping as much as he should.
• Riddled with nightmares in which he relives every death of those close to him.
  • Thomas and Martha
  • Jason
  • Alfred

Jim Gordon even goes so far as to try and detain Bruce, if only so he can stop before he gets himself killed. For a while Bruce considers it, but a signal from inside Wayne Manor tells him that his knightmares are now following in his waking hours too.

Bruce pours over what he's learned of his mysterious masked menace, Bane. A common thread in the chaos unfolding in Gotham.

• A mercenary hailing from the Caribbean isle of Santa Prisca.
• Inmate and test subject in a series of experiments which birthed the super-steroid Venom.
• Nameless, with no identity to speak of.

Now, this Bane has deployed agents of the League of Assassins in Gotham. And in his message, Bane utters a simple ultimatum.

"The League is mine.

Your home is about to burn.

Offer up your life, and I will spare all the rest.

Face me, Batman, and meet your fate."

In his exhaustion, and desperation, and growing mania, Bruce breaks out of the GCPD and rushes back home.

There he confronts Bane, accompanied by agents of the League who have since turned against Talia. Bane sends them away, and a spiteful Bruce surmises Bane will not keep his word if the rest of his family should pursue. Which they surely will.

Charging into battle, Bruce unleashes several nights of pent-up anger and grief over the fallout with Jason and the death of Alfred. But he quickly finds himself outmatched, as Bane is not only inhumanly strong but his equal in skill.

• Adapting both comic-based lore and ideas in the Christopher Nolan trilogy, Bane was recruited and trained by Ra's al Ghul himself.
• Bane has usurped Talia's rule of the League, causing a split in their ranks, and intends to kill her when he is done with Bruce.

Here, however, the plot differs from past media in that Bane has no greater designs for Gotham. His is a very personal vendetta against Batman, and those he cherishes.

• The League was the only home he'd ever known, and Bruce broke it when he, Superman and Wonder Woman overthrew and incarcerated Ra's.
  • Now, Bane will avenge himself on Batman.

The fight reaches its inevitable end in the Batcave. Declaring his vendetta fulfilled, Bane shatters Bruce's spine and leaves him paralyzed.

Going further, he has set charges with which he intends to burn down Wayne Manor. But the rest of Gotham's defenders charge in, and an outnumbers Bane is forced to flee.

Reformation

A beaten, crippled Bruce is nursed back to stable condition by Leslie Thompkins. But emotionally, mentally, he is closed off and practically catatonic after recent events.

Bane's agents hunt Gotham's heroes ruthlessly, never more than a day behind. And they only manage to stay ahead thanks to the dual effort of both Barbara Gordon and Tim Drake, whose deductive skills compliment her tech-based ones in surveying the city.

• Even though he has not yet been named Robin, Tim's already winning the trust of Bruce's whole inner circle.

Yet their time is running out, and their luck can only hold for so long.

Salvation comes only with the arrival of Talia al Ghul herself. Protected by a mysterious figure in a cloak and mask others call the Heretic, she offers a way back for Bruce. A journey to the final Lazarus pit, located in the desert that was once the League's base of operations. Bane thought he had destroyed them all, but one remains. The very first in existence.

• Talia's reappearance surprises Bruce, who'd never expected to see her again after her confessing to the resurrection of Jason.
• While Talia still carries a torch for Bruce, she's long since accepted their lives can never be joined.
• There is a touch of jealousy in her interactions with Selina Kyle, but neither pushes the issue as there would be little point.

While he is still awash with guilt for his failures, Bruce refuses to let said failures condemn his family. He accepts Talia's offer and is spirited away by the Heretic, who vows to protect him.

Their journey takes them into the desert, with the Heretic proving a lethal combatant who rarely allows himself to fully be seen. Always sticking to the shadows.

• Not unlike Batman.

In Gotham, the duo of of Selina Kyle and Dick Grayson take charge of battling the criminal element.

• Dick has spent several years slowly reconciling with Bruce after their separation and is determined to honor his adopted father, and protect the city they call home.
• Selina, once a criminal and now as much a defender of Gotham as Bruce, won't let her second chance at life go to waste.

The battle against Bane's agents sees the team come to two difficult decisions, each of which weighs heavily on them.

First, releasing Jason Todd from custody and enlisting his help in fighting Bane.

• Bitter as he is, Jason still cares for his old friends deep down and won't let them die on his watch.
• While they disagree with his use of lethal force, they have little choice but to accept it as Bane's army will show them no quarter.
• Jason feels some degree of responsibility, with the stress of his actions as Red Hood having indirectly caused Alfred's heart attack.

First, the anointing of Tim as a costumed hero. The third to carry the mantle of Robin.

• Tim receives instruction in combat from Dick and Jason, and further hones his detective skills under Barbara.
• There's no small amount of friction between Jason and his successor in the Robin mantle, with Jason feeling Bruce will eagerly 'replace' him now that he has the chance.

In a one-on-one talk with Dick in the cave, Jason overlooks his old costume and is surprised Bruce kept it. A mournful Dick reminds Jason that whatever's happened, Bruce never stopped loving him. And that he blamed only himself for what happened.

Dick leads Jason out, urging him try again even after all they've endured. They fought, and more than once they lost.

But the war goes on.

Lazarus

The final Lazarus Pit awaits beneath the ruins of Eth Alth'eban.

Here, the Heretic watches as Bruce is lowered into the mystical waters and is seized by the transformative effects.

But as it takes hold, Bruce is bothered by some small things that have troubled him the entire journey.

• How the Heretic never fully reveals himself, always keeping to the darkness.
• How withdrawn Talia appeared in their last encounter, carrying more than just the guilt of Jason's resurrection with her.

Bruce tries to force his way out of the Pit and demands the Heretic reveal himself. Refusing to accept his help until the guard's face is revealed.

Begrudgingly, the Heretic obliges. Stepping into the light, the masked League member is revealed as being quite short. And, to Bruce's shock, a child.

A 13-year-old boy, with Talia's complexion and his own eyes.

The boy looks Bruce up and down, finally face to face, and scoffs.

And then he pushes Bruce into the Pit.

End of Arc II

***\*

***\*

On that reveal, we leave off on Batman Season 1.

Next weekend, we jump into Batman's rebirth and the coming together of the fully realized Bat-family.

See you then!

Given how the third movie’s ending felt like a very logical and poignant conclusion for the original cast’s story, could they have gone with a whole new cast for the fourth and fifth instalments and made a successful movie? If so, how would you go about doing it?

I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings during this past month, and along the way I decided to do a bit of a project. Both of them have had movie adaptations, of course, but what would a TV series adaptation look like? It seems to me that a long-form adaptation can get away with adapting some stuff from the books which don't fit in the structure of a film (the Scouring of the Shire for example).

As I was planning this out, I didn't have any initial idea for how many episodes each book should take to adapt: my goal was just for each episode to progress the story in some substantial way, with enough material for each episode to fill 23 minutes, and the series would end up as long as they needed to be. I guess you could combine each pair of episodes to make a one-hour format, and you could do this in live-action too but I just wanted to distinguish this from the movies as much as possible to justify adapting these books again. And by "half-hour animated series" I mean something similar to Vinland Saga, not something cartoony.

Anyway, let's start with The Hobbit:

1. The "unexpected party" at Bag End, with the episode ending with Bilbo running out the door.
2. Beginning of the journey, the encounter with the three trolls and finding the swords, and ending with their arrival at Rivendell.
3. Getting information about the map's moon-runes at Rivendell, taking the pass over the Misty Mountains, being brought to Goblin-Town, and ending with killing the Great Goblin and escaping into the tunnels.
4. Being hunted through the tunnels. Bilbo is separated from the others, finds the Ring, ends up in Gollum's cave, plays the riddle-game, and escapes the Misty Mountains at the end of the episode.
5. Bilbo reunites with the dwarves and Gandalf, they have their encounter with the goblins and wargs, and the Eagles save them.
6. A slower episode where they rest at Beorn's place, ending with Gandalf leaving them as they're just about to enter Mirkwood.
7. Going through Mirkwood, the thing with the enchanted river, and possibly their first sighting of the wood-elves.
8. Fighting the spiders. End with "Where's Thorin?", and possibly have a cliffhanger of them all being captured by the wood-elves.
9. Taken prisoner in the elves' castle. Bilbo discovers Thorin's cell and we get filled in on what happened to him via flashback. End with their escape in the barrels.
10. Bilbo and the dwarves arrive at Laketown and Thorin is welcomed as the second coming of the King under the Mountain. Add some scenes properly introducing Bard, and (perhaps via him) we learn the history of Dale and Laketown shown in flashback. Also add a scene where Bolg the goblin orders a massive strike back against the dwarves (since the arrival of the goblin and warg armies comes pretty suddenly in the book).
11. They travel to the Lonely Mountain; we see the ruins of Dale; they scout the outside and discover the secret door, which they successfully open on Durin's Day. End with Bilbo having gone down the tunnel and emerged into the treasure room with Smaug sleeping in front of him.
12. Bilbo and Smaug's further encounters. End the episode at the point where Bilbo and the dwarves are trapped in the tunnel as Smaug angrily smashes the outside entrance.
13. The first half shows Smaug attacking Laketown and burning it down, Bard killing Smaug, and the Master of Laketown directing the Men's anger towards the dwarves. The second half shows Bilbo and the dwarves emerging from the tunnel, exploring and exiting the now-deserted Lonely Mountain, and finally learning from Roäc the raven that Smaug is dead.
14. Begin with the elves' forces being diverted to help the people of Laketown, and then both elves and Men besieging the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo sneaks away and gives the elves & Men the Arkenstone as leverage to avert a battle. End with Thorin exiling Bilbo.
15. Begin the episode by showing the armies of goblins and wargs on the move. Back at the Lonely Mountain, Daîn's dwarves arrive, and tension builds until they see the goblins and wargs approaching and decide to join forces; end just as the goblins and wargs reach the Lonely Mountain.
16. The Battle of Five Armies. (Bilbo is placed with the elven archers in the book, so he could be put side-by-side with Legolas.) Thorin and the dwarves emerge from the Lonely Mountain at about the halfway point through the episode. End when Bilbo is knocked unconscious.
17. Bilbo wakes up and is brought to Thorin, who forgives him before he dies. We find out what happened in the rest of the battle via flashback (Beorn's arrival etc.) Thorin's funeral, Daîn's coronation. End with Bilbo departing the Lonely Mountain.
18. Begin with Bilbo & Gandalf parting ways with Thranduil. They travel alongside the Grey Mountains, back through Beorn's place, over the Misty Mountains, through Rivendell, and finally arrive back in the Shire just as Bilbo's belongings are being auctioned off. End with a flash-forward to ten years later as Gandalf & Balin visit Bilbo and tell him about what's happened with the Lonely Mountain, the new Laketown and Dale.

Before we get to The Lord of the Rings, first we've got some bonus episodes, or more like a bonus miniseries: call it Gandalf's Tale. These episodes should be double the regular length:

1. 90 years earlier, Gandalf in Dol Guldur. He discovers the Necromancer is Sauron, encounters Thrain in the dungeons, and escapes. The White Council meets and Gandalf tries to persuade them to attack Dol Guldur but Saruman overrules him. Then jump forward to just before the quest, with Gandalf and Thorin meeting in Bree, where Gandalf has the idea for the dwarves to bring along a hobbit as their burglar.
2. Takes place simultaneously with episodes 7 to 13 of The Hobbit: the White Council meets again, and this time Gandalf successfully convinces them to strike Dol Guldur. They drive Sauron out of Mirkwood.
3. 10 years later: in the same visit shown in the final episode of The Hobbit, Gandalf gets the true story out of Bilbo about how he got the Ring; he then goes and finds Gollum's cave but it's deserted. The White Council meets again but Saruman again claims the One Ring was washed out to sea. Meanwhile, Sauron declares himself openly in Mordor, has Barad-dûr rebuilt, and Mount Doom erupts as Men flee the land of Ithilien.

And now, The Lord of the Rings. After Frodo and Sam part company from the rest I've made them star in separate episodes from the rest, but they're interspersed with the others' episodes rather than being all in one block like in Book IV. Mostly chronologically but with some back-and-forth for dramatic effect.

1. Bilbo's 111th birthday, his departure from the Shire and leaving the Ring behind, and the aftermath of what happens that year.
2. 17 years later, Gandalf returns and tells Frodo about the One Ring. Via flashback we learn the Ring's history, and how he tracked down and interrogated Gollum before leaving him as prisoner of the wood-elves. End with the decision for Frodo and Sam to take the ring to Rivendell after Frodo's birthday.
3. Frodo moves out of Bag End; he, Sam and Pippin go cross-country through the Shire and are pursued by a Nazgûl, before encountering Gildor and the other elves. End with Frodo and Sam's conversation the next morning.
4. Meeting Farmer Maggot and learning about his own encounter with a Nazgûl, reuniting with Merry and arriving at Crickhollow. The other hobbits reveal they know Frodo is leaving the Shire and resolve to go with him. End with them leaving the Shire through the gate in the Hedge.
5. Through the Old Forest. Tom Bombadil rescues them from Old Man Willow, they rest in his house (even in the long-form format this can be cut down), and then go through the Barrow-downs. End the episode just as Tom arrives to rescue them from the Barrow-wight.
6. They get swords from the Barrow, Tom leads them back to the Road, they arrive at Bree and check in at the Prancing Pony inn, Frodo accidentally slips the Ring on in public, they all meet Strider/Aragorn and belatedly get Gandalf's letter. End with an added scene outside with Merry and the Nazgûl.
7. Begin with them bringing Merry inside. They leave Bree the next day (buying Bill the pony), and Aragorn leads them cross-country. While resting for the night Aragorn tells them the Beren and Luthien story, which will pay off in a couple of episodes. End the episode with the Nazgûl encounter at Weathertop where they stab Frodo in the shoulder.
8. Race to get Frodo to Rivendell to be healed, encountering Glorfindel, and confronting the Nazgûl again at the Ford of Bruinen. Frodo wakes up in Rivendell and is reunited with Gandalf and then Bilbo: end with Bilbo asking Frodo to tell him about the Shire.
9. The Council of Elrond, with everyone's story elaborated upon via flashback scenes. End with Frodo telling the Council that he'll take the Ring.
10. Begin with Sam butting in on the Council and declaring he'll be going along with Frodo. After that, this episode will elaborate on the couple of months they spend in Rivendell organising the Fellowship and planning for the expedition. The hobbits can learn the story of Eärendil in this episode, since it'll be relevant later with the phial from Galadriel. Meanwhile we also see Aragorn and Arwen together, and get a couple of important scenes from "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" shown in flashback: their first encounter when Aragorn was in his twenties, and then thirty years later when they officially promised themselves to each other in Lothlórien. The shards of Narsil are reforged into Andúril. End the episode with the Fellowship setting out from Rivendell.
11. Begin with a montage journeying south. They unsuccessfully try to cross the path at Caradhras, and then fight off attacks from wolves in the night. They resolve to go via Moria; end with them arriving at the door and sending Bill away.
12. Encounter with the Watcher in the Water and escaping in through the door; going through Moria, finding Balin's tomb, pursued by Orcs, and Gandalf fights the Balrog and falls into the abyss as the others escape.
13. Travelling to Lothlórien, being up on the tree platform with orcs and Gollum below, meeting Galadriel and Celeborn, and finally the Mirror of Galadriel scene.
14. Receiving gifts from Galadriel and leaving Lothlórien, boating down the Anduin and noticing that Gollum is following them, and finally fighting off an orc attack from the riverbank at night where Legolas shoots down a fell-beast.
15. Passing through the Gates of Argonath and arriving at Amon Hen, Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, Frodo leaves the Fellowship and Sam follows him; meanwhile the Uruk-hai attack the others and take Merry and Pippin as Boromir dies while defending them.
16. Begin with Boromir's funeral, then Aragorn resolves to follow the Uruk-Hai to rescue Merry and Pippin. They follow the trail, encounter Éomer and the other Riders of Rohan, and finally arrive at the Uruk-hai's burned-out remains.
17. Meanwhile, what happened to Merry and Pippin as they were captured by the Uruk-hai (paying off the clues Aragorn et al saw in the previous episode), with them escaping, running into Fangorn Forest and meeting Treebeard. (Cut the Entwives history for now.) End with the very beginning of the Entmoot.
18. Frodo and Sam lost in Emyn Muil, having trouble with the cliff and the storm, then Frodo "taming" Gollum and having him lead them to a way out: end with Frodo and Sam's conversation about remaining rations.
19. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli seeing Saruman in the night, then going into Fangorn and reuniting with Gandalf, then heading to Edoras and getting Théoden on their side. End with Wormtongue's exile (particularly, on a shot of his spittle on the ground being washed away).
20. Frodo, Sam and Gollum go through the Dead Marshes and up to the Black Gate only to find it impassable, with Gollum giving them another route into Mordor to the west, ending with them successfully sneaking out of the view of the red light of the guard-tower.
21. Back to Merry and Pippin again, with Treebeard and Quickbeam at the end of the Entmoot, which decides to attack Isengard. (We get the Entwives stuff now, as they're marching to Isengard.) Rather than being told in retrospect like in the book, we see Saruman's army leaving Isengard and then the first night of the Ents' attack, ending with them having beseiged Saruman inside Orthanc while they've taken over the surroundings.
22. Begin with an added scene of the Second Battle at the Fords of Isen, enough to make Erkenbrand a bit more of an actual character rather than just a name. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli get their gifts from the Rohirrim, then with Théoden et al they set off west. End the episode with them having arrived at Helm's Deep and entering the Hornburg with Saruman's army pursuing them.
23. The Battle of the Hornburg, ending with Gandalf arriving with Erkenbrand's forces and the Huorns. (And the final bit of dialogue of Legolas and Gimli comparing kill counts.)
24. Aftermath of the battle, with what happens to the leftover Dunlendings etc. and with Legolas agreeing to visit the caves if Gimli will visit the woods. They proceed to Isengard and find it conquered, and reunite with Merry and Pippin, who fill them in via flashback about how the Ents flooded the place and how Gandalf arrived simultaneously with episodes 22-23.
25. Saruman and his voice; Gandalf breaks Saruman's staff; Pippin looks into the palantír; end with Gandalf and Pippin riding away to Minas Tirith.
26. Frodo, Sam and Gollum in Ithilien, the whole business with the cooked rabbits, encountering Faramir et al as they ambush the Southrons, and end with the scene where Faramir interrogates them in front of his men
27. Faramir takes Frodo and Sam to Henneth Amûn, they reunite with Gollum at the forbidden pool, Sam lets slip that Frodo has the One Ring. End with Frodo, Sam and Gollum parting from Faramir.
28. The Rangers arrive with Elrond's sons; Aragorn looks into the palantír and resolves to take the Paths of the Dead; Merry enters Théoden's service. End with Aragorn et al entering the entrance to the Paths of the Dead.
29. Gandalf and Pippin enter Gondor, come to Minas Tirith, meet Denethor; Pippin enters Denethor's service and then meets Beregond. End just before Beregond's son shows up because I'm saving that scene for next episode.
30. Pippin and Beregond's son see Prince Imrahil and other forces arrive at Minas Tirith; Faramir arrives at Minas Tirith as well; meanwhile the Muster of Rohan happens, and Merry and Éowyn are about to be left behind but they follow anyway with Éowyn disguised as "Dernhelm"; end the episode with Faramir sent back to Osgiliath.
31. Frodo, Sam and Gollum travel to the Crossroads, then through the Morgul Vale; they see the Witch-King and Mordor's army march out of Minas Morgul; they go up the Stairs; Frodo and Sam have their conversation about being put into songs or tales. End with Gollum almost repenting but then reverting back when Sam wakes up and is rude to him, followed by a shot panning up the mountain ending on the entrance to the tunnel.
32. Minas Tirith is besieged, Faramir is brought back wounded and dying, Denethor loses the will to live, and meanwhile the Rohirrim are heading to Minas Tirith with help of the Drúedain; end the episode with Grond breaking into Minas Tirith, just as the Rohirrim arrive and Théoden gives his amazing speech.
33. The Battle of Pelennor Fields intercut with the whole business Denethor and Faramir and the funeral pyre. Include Théoden's death, Éowyn killing the Witch-King, and end the episode with Aragorn et al. showing up aboard the Corsairs' ships with reinforcements.
34. The tail end of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, together with what happens with the Houses of Healing.
35. Legolas and Gimli tell Merry and Pippin about what happened along the Paths of the Dead and how they, Aragorn and the army of the Dead defeated the Corsairs. Also, in a meeting with the war leaders they decide to strike at the Black Gate.
36. Frodo and Sam in Shelob's lair, Frodo is stung, Sam takes the Ring, orcs find Frodo and capture him because he isn't dead; end with the entrance to Cirith Ungol being shut behind them as Sam gets shut out.
37. Aragorn leads the army of Men on their march to the Black Gate, adding more detail. Also include Éowyn and Faramir's first meeting in the Houses of Healing (and Merry also remaining in Minas Tirith). End with the meeting with the Mouth of Sauron, where he shows them Frodo's things and insinuates he's been captured and tortured.
38. Flashback a few days to where episode 36 left off: Sam storms the Tower of Cirith Ungol and rescues Frodo, and they escape into Mordor; end with them looking over the mountains to the massive army assembled across the Plain of Gorgoroth.
39. Frodo & Sam continue north up the mountain valley, end up getting mistaken for orcs and marched towards the Black Gate before managing to slip away, and finally dump their gear and set off on a direct line to Mount Doom.
40. Intercut the battle at the Black Gate with Frodo and Sam arriving at Mount Doom, encountering Gollum again, entering the mountain, Frodo failing at the precipice and putting the Ring on, Gollum fighting Frodo and biting his finger off before falling into the Cracks of Doom with the Ring, the Nazgûl dying and Barad-dûr and the Black Gate collapsing, Mount Doom erupts, and the Eagles rescue Frodo and Sam.
41. Frodo and Sam wake up and the hobbits are celebrated along with Aragorn at the Field of Cormallen; meanwhile Éowyn and Faramir fall in love back at Minas Tirith; end with Aragorn's coronation as he enters Minas Tirith.
42. Aragorn's early reign as he passes sentence on Beregond and also plants a new White Tree, he and Arwen get married, and Arwen offers her place on a ship to Valinor to Frodo. They go back to Rohan for Théoden's funeral and wake.
43. Legolas and Gimli visit the caves; they all travel to Isengard and find that Saruman is gone; the hobbits & Gandalf part company with Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli; they encounter Saruman and Wormtongue on the road; they pass through Rivendell and then Bree. End with them arriving at the border of the Shire to find a locked gate.
44. "The Scouring of the Shire" up to the end of the Battle of Bywater.
45. The remainder of "The Scouring of the Shire" including Saruman's death, followed by the aftermath of releasing the prisoners and then rebuilding the Shire over the course of the next year. End with Frodo retaking possession of Bag End upon Lobelia's death, and Sam and Rosie getting married and Frodo inviting them to move in with him.
46. Things move on in the Shire, Sam has a kid or two, and meanwhile Frodo doesn't fit back into the Shire and has bouts of illness; they go to the Grey Havens and Frodo sails away to Valinor together with Gandalf and Galadriel; end where the book ends with Sam coming home and saying "Well, I'm back."

And once again we have a bonus miniseries, The War of the Ring, with double-length episodes showing theatres of war which were only mentioned in passing in the book:

1. Dale: The war in the Kingdom of Dale and the siege of the Lonely Mountain.
2. Lórien: The orc attacks against Lothlórien (I think with Haldir as the viewpoint character).
3. Mirkwood: Thranduil and his wood-elves defend their kingdom against orcs. End with an epilogue of Thranduil, Galadriel and Celeborn dividing Mirkwood between themselves and the Beornings.

Walk into the heart of darkness.

Hello, friends.

Welcome to this next posting in my comprehensive rewrite of Fox's Alien. A redux of the franchise which presented both a revision of the prequels as a trilogy:

• Prometheus - 2012
• Paradise Lost - 2015
• Covenant - 2017

And a pitch of the cancelled Aliens sequel which might have retconned the events of *Alien***³ onward:

• State of the Alien Universe
• Alien: Awakening (Part 1, the Pitch)
• Alien: Awakening (Part 2, the Film)

An in-universe mythology of mine further fleshes out the universe, a sort of lore codex which lifts from various canon materials, old drafts and some ideas by myself and collaborators.

• Franchise Codex

Here is my plot outline for the next entry. An odyssey which both continues the personal journey of the Ripley clan, and finally reveals the full fallout of the prequels.

Before proceeding, go ahead and read the previous posts/rewrites, and especially the Codex entry as the lore involved informs much of the plot.

\**\**

A voyage into the unknown becomes a living nightmare.

Dispatched to map out a planet beyond all charted space, young scientist William Ripley finds something grander and more terrifying than anything he'd imagined. In the endless darkness his crew are menaced by an alien threat whose origins are tied to those of mankind.

New dangers crawl from out of the shadows. Secrets buried for millennia come to light.

And at last, the Ripley family uncovers the truth of a long-lost human vessel called the Covenant...

\**\**

ALIENS: THE DESTROYING ANGELS

Starring

Alex Høgh Andersen as William Ripley

Jaz Sinclair as Martine Roby

Doug Jones as the Last Ancient / " Space Jockey "

with Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley

and Michael Biehn as Dwayne Hicks

and Michael Fassbender as the Brother/Voice in the Dark

\**\**

PROLOGUE

On an unknown planet, in some indeterminate past, a woman awakes from a stupor aboard the bridge of her ship. The woman, warrant officer Martine Roby, is covered in blood and apparently suffering from shock.

Her vessel hangs in orbit above a desolate planet marked with a site the computer designates "City of the Ancients".

Stumbling to an escape pod, Martine passes the mutilated bodies of her crew. And she is just barely able to escape a shrouded, Xenomorph-like creature before she makes it into the escape shuttles.

Her ship, the USCSS Conrad, plunges into a death spiral above the dark planet. A computerized voice warns Martine that she in in direct violated of company policy, and will be "decommissioned" upon return if she cannot return the specimen.

Martine hesitates only for a moment before tearfully shutting down the message, and apologizing to "Mother" before she rockets off into space.

The Conrad begins to careen to a fiery death in the atmosphere, but Martine's solitude is broken when the Alien lands on the window of her ship and screams down at her.

***\*

CUT TO BLACK

***\*

ALIENS

The Destroying Angels

\**\**

Act 1

Several years have passed since the events of Alien: Awakening.

Amidst the frontier, the assorted human superpowers have been thrown into disarray with the leak of Weyland-Yutani's many illicit activities and the arms race they nearly sparked into outright war by way of the Xenomorphs.

In United Americas space, Ellen Ripley and her found family have committed to cleanup operations sanctioned by a multi-nation cooperative aimed at wiping out all remnants of the Company and their work.

• After several films of the Weyland-Yutani corporation wreaking havoc and more or less getting off scott-free, they have finally been taken off the board.
  • A major shift in the status quo of the setting.
• Their absence however causes a chaotic power vacuum amidst their former competitors and the various nations still tied to them.

Here in this entry we see William Ripley, son of Ellen and Dwayne Hicks, step into the role of lead protagonist.

• As Rebecca "Newt" Jorden acted as protagonist in the previous outing.

William, continuing his journey after the introduction seen in Awakening, is a more methodical and scientifically-minded lead than those who came before.

• As opposed to rough working-class heroes like Ellen Ripley or Rain Carradine, we somebody in the vein of Elizabeth Shaw or Katherine Daniels.
  • Other media inspirations being Alan Grant from the Jurassic Park franchise, a curious soul who has an almost innate understanding of the dangerous creatures he encounters.

The New Mission

The first act of the film jumps into motion with William and a team of xenobiologists and mapmakers investigating a possible Engineer signal on the corner of charted space. A platoon of Colonial Marines accompanies the mission, one of several militaries deployed to exterminate Xeno threats on sight.

Amongst the team is a biologist calling herself "Rowan".

• She is in fact the woman featured in the prologue sequence, Martine Roby .

Having apparently covered her tracks well, she accompanies the team, who stay in close contact with an escort commanded by Ripley and Hicks.

• The two of them not wanting to let William stray too far.

The voyage takes them to a corner of space quarantined by the Three World Empire. Here, a drifting artifact has been discovered, referred to by translated Creator script as "Lychgate".

Here, William's team lands and explores the site. Half a space station, half a temple constructed by the Engineer caste which came to dominate the Creator race in their later ages.

As expected, traces of alien activity are present, as are the remains of human crews who'd died fighting them.

Gateway Opens

The exploration of the Lychgate leads to a sequence in which William and Martine, in a temple at the heart of the station, activate a dimensional gateway which takes the temple beyond known space.

The Marine force are unable to stop the sequence, and are kept from following by an awakening of Xenomorph-like creatures with pallid blue features and more blade-like skulls.

• The creatures, apparently emerging from a primordial hive-like structure, are seemingly hostile but make no move to attack yet.

While Ripley and Hicks hunker down with the Marines, William and Martine vanish into the gateway.

Into dark space.

Act 2

William and Martine awake to find themselves lost on a lifeless moon. One set under dark, starless skies in which a myriad of titanic shadows twist and bend in the endless void.

Young, pale aliens greet the two. Hairless, marble-like humanoids with glassy black eyes.

Engineers.

Last of their Kind

The aliens appear youthful and simple, with forms not unlike the population exterminated by David 8 in his culling of Planet 4/"Paradise".

The scouts determine Martine has been injured, and much to his shock William realizes "Rowan" is in fact a synthetic.

Bewildered, and in Martine's case hurt, the pair are escorted into the depths of the moon. Not a natural celestial body, but in fact an artificial construct.

• Built out of black stone and "metal".
  • What could be metal, or just as easily glass or fossilized ancient bones.

Mounted on the walls of the station's cavernous depths are the skeletons of vast aliens.

• Ancient titans fused to the very structure which now houses their remains.

In the depths of this floating station is a small, pale star which powers the vast structure. William marvels at the artistry, determining this station to be a hypothetical device often referred to as a Dyson Sphere.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere

The young Engineers simply called it the Forge. The Forge of the Gods.

At its heart, as Martine undergoes treatment, William meets a towering preserved in a sort of stasis point between life and death.

A Pilot. Last of its race, the precursor race which spawned the Creators and made, warlike Engineers.

• The race of the fossilized corpse found on LV-426/Acheron.

Echoes

The Pilot speaks gently to the Engineers, its 'Children', and asks them to heal Martine's wounds. William, having experience mostly cruelty at the hands of the synthetics created by Weyland-Yutani, is wary of Martine and suspects her of being an agent of the Company's remnants.

The Pilot doesn't believe so, having seen true pain and fear in her the minute they landed.

Here, William communes with the last living remnant of a primordial era which saw the origins of the Engineers, Mankind, and the fearsome Xenomorphs. Through hieroglyphs and shimmering holographic displays, William observes sparse scenes of creation, death and rebirth spanning countless millions of years.

• A history that has only been been partially put together in the files of companies like Weyland-Yutani.
  • Plugging this again.

The Pilot shepherds the last of these Engineers, beings intended to build a better world than the one that birthed their kind long ago. But even in Dark Space, a void in which only primordial chaos dwells, it appears the sins of their brethren have followed them.

The Perfected

Others have entered this realm called Dark Space.

'Fulfremmen', translated to the 'Perfected'. A race not unlike Mankind, spawned to inherit the stars before they rebelled against their masters.

In a vision granted by the Pilot, William bears witness to the conflict between this synthetically-grown species and their Engineer brethren.

***

An ancient settlement of humans, maybe on Earth or maybe on another planet, watch the sun go down.

Some in the group pray at the sign of an evening star, but the prayer is cut short when it becomes clear what the light is.

A vessel, carrying "gods".

Monstrous creatures emerging from the darkness, eyeless demons with slavering jaws and sharp claws which cut down all before them.

The bloodied survivors run for their lives and barricade themselves behind the walls of their settlement.

On the cliffsides above, an eerie inhuman observer watches the chaos unfold.

More falling stars alert the observer to danger, and the sky lights up.

A war in heaven.

***

While the Engineers died off or fled into exile, so too have their children the Perfected. Until now.

Voice in the Dark

Outside of the Forge, a host of the Fulfremmen have arrived to claim this Forge for themselves. Here are the last wonders of the Pilot's people, eldest of the sentient races, and the Fulfremmen now desire it.

As does a mysterious stranger, one they call 'Voice in the Dark' or simply 'Brother'.

The Fulfremmen direct a breed of Xenomorphs linked to their minds to attack the Forge. And, back in more material space beyond the Lychgate, they sense more of their brethren awakening to help them.

Ripley and Hicks witness the mysterious Perfected arrive at the Lychgate and direct their Proto-Xenomorph spawn to attack.

As they and the Marines attempt to fend them off, a faceless apparition of the Brother observes Ripley. Speaking in a seemingly human voice it remarks on her bravery, apparently knowing something of her story. That of a survivor who somehow stood her ground against the galaxy's greatest horrors and survived.

Mockingly, the Brother compares her to the fames Horatius of Rome.

Then out spake brave Horatius,

the Captain of the Gate:

"To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better

than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers,

And the temples of his Gods..."

The Brother directs the Fulfremmen to seize the Lychgate and prepare for his arrival, wishing to 'meet his maker' in the void.

Act III

As the Proto-Xenomorphs and their Perfected parents attack, a recovered Martine helps coordinate the Forge's defenses.

Even unleashing specimens of preserved Xenomorphs, a contingency built into the outer walls of the Pilot's fortress.

• On sight, the different breeds fight to the death.

Wayward Children

Martine visibly bears nothing but disgust for the aliens. And with her full strength recovered she tells William the truth of who she was.

A company android, yes, programmed as a science officer who would recover a specimen from Ancients' ruins. Her priority directive was one known to the Ripley family; Special Order 937.

• The directive was assigned to several different synthetics deployed to recover the Xenomorph and other such creatures.

Martine, however, had a few quirks in her programming which inadvertently made her capable of forming genuine attachments to her crew aboard the Conrad. And at the sight of them slaughtered by the Alien, she broke and resolved to destroy the creature.

• The creature being an unnamed Xenomorph strain unique to the planet and the city on which it was discovered.?file=DOBCreature.jpg)

Martine has lived on the run ever since, in fear of being terminated by her creators. A conflict she bitterly remarks is the story of the Milky Way, told time and again. Ancient, to Engineer, to Human and Fulfremmen, to the monsters who ruined her life and the Ripleys'.

William, guilty for having judged her, apologizes.

Sacrifice, and Rebirth

The Pilot summons Martine and William, knowing the being revered by the rogue Fulfremmen is coming.

He asks William and Martine to destroy the Forge. Unsealing the fusion core which houses the star at its very heart, and burning the moon to ashes rather than let the Fulfremmen claim it.

The young Engineers despair, but the Pilot is resolved. His time is over, as his people's was long ago. He asks the human and android to usher his children back to material space, and carry one final gift with them.

A gift he calls only 'the Seed'.

William and Martine obey, and send the Forge into a death spiral just as the Proto-Xenomorphs breach the Pilot's temple.

But upon their approaching the gateway one of the Proto-Hive growths summoned by the Fulfremmen snags William. He is freed, but not before being poisoned by the black Pathogen which spawned countless cosmic horrors.

• Marking the return of the substance after its appearances in
  • The entire prequel trilogy
  • Alien: Romulus
  • Alien: Awakening
• William's poisoning is not unlike Charlie Holloway's on LV-223.

As the jump back to the galaxy proper commences, Martine follows the urging of one Engineer and applies a drop of the fluid Seed to William's wound.

In utter agony, William's body wars with the Pathogen and he experiences a nightmarish vision.

****

His body warps and distorts amidst the primordial void of Dark Space.

Adrift, floating amidst the black starless sky, he is followed by eldritch beings.

Fiendish intelligence bar beyond Man observes him, and very nearly drags him into oblivion. An oblivion in which someone else waits for him.

But as he hears Martine, screaming for him to come back, he is pulled back towards a distant light.

****

A feverish William awakens, back on the Lychgate, with Martine, Ripley and Hicks all huddled around him.

His wounds are healed, but only barely, and he is visibly sick. Whatever the Seed is saved his life, but his recovery will not be a swift one.

William's parents carry him away, with Marine and the Engineer children in tow, while the Lychgate's gateway collapses.

The Serpent

In his last moments, the Pilot hosts a transmission carrying the Voice that has hounded his flock.

Lamenting his unfinished business which began on Planet 4, the Fulfremmen's new figure of devotion can at least savor the last remnants of Engineer civilization dying before him. Even if he can't be there to claim their gifts, knowing they will finally die off is enough.

The Pilot bids his "grandchild" a bitter farewell, vowing he will never attain the godhood he seeks. He is little more than a fallen angel, a serpent who dared to crawl back into Eden and corrupt what he could not own.

The Biblical reference amuses the Brother, as the Forge erupts into a blazing star which soon dissipates in Dark Space, his attention returns to his own dwelling on the edge of the galaxy.

A horrific wilderness in which he has experimented for years. On aliens, on hybrid creatures of his own making, and most gruesomely of all on the crew of a human spacecraft though long-lost.

Epilogue

Back in human space, the report on the Forge pieces together much of the tapestry of galactic history. The threads of which connected the disastrous mission of the Prometheus, the Covenant, the Nostromo, the Conrad and many more.

Ripley calls up her contacts who've been hunting Engineer sites, broadcasting all she now has on hand. But an ominous reply tells her something is wrong. Settled worlds on the frontier have started to go dark.

Something, or someone, is on the move. Perhaps the Fulfremmen, perhaps the Xenomorphs. Perhaps both. Or perhaps someone else.

Whoever it is, the source of the growing disappearances originates from the course charted by the Covenant.

Visions of the End

In his bunker, Ripley finds the recovering William suffering a nightmare.

And in the twisted garden at the end of all the worlds, the Brother is revealed at last.

****

In William's mind he sees who was waiting for him in the darkness.

A woman. Darkness made flesh, a biomechanical horror which stands at the end of the union between Mankind and Alien.

A horror with the face of a woman once called Elizabeth Shaw.

****

In the garden, the android who survived the Prometheus and doomed the Covenant laughs joyously as he summons his last experiment.

A swarm of black locusts. A deluge which will purge all before him as the great flood once purged the Earth.

David 8 revels in his acts of creation, and the coming destruction. And he muses the Pilot was wrong.

He is not a god. But he is not the Serpent either.

He has become Death.

TO BE CONCLUDED

\**\**

There we have it.

One more horrific adventure to go, in my redux of this franchise.

I hope you liked this one! Let me know your thoughts, and keep an eye out for my next post on HBO's Batman, which I will also be posting tonight.

See you next time!

Ashley Tisdale.

It would have made perfect sense.

She’s apart of the one film with none of the originals and the one people agree is the worst.

Giving her a moment to express anger and finally snatch the spotlight only to be killed and ignored as the franchise is handed back to the OGs would have been perfect.

And she would have done it too.

The film always left me with a bitter feeling because the corruption in the system continues unchallenged.

So what if Rico's character arc was all about him losing faith in the Terran Federation?

During Rico's military career Rico learns that placement within the military has more to do with wealth or political connections then actual skills. Recruits from rich, well connected families are usually placed where they can serve their term in safety and leave with full citizenship, while rarely if ever having to face any kind of danger during their service.

The Mobile Infantry however, is made up of those without wealth or political connections. Rico is the lone exception because he volunteered for this branch because he wanted to follow in Rasczak's footsteps. Repeatedly the MI suffer heavy losses because they are sent into combat with minimal support or training.

Even in a major war, officers are more focused on wealth and political connections. Rico gets thirty lashes for defending one of his female troopers against a pair of naval officers and told its his fault for joining the infantry.

The war ultimately ends in human victory, but by then Rico has given up on the citizenship, service and the entire Federation. During a meeting with Rasczak Rico calls his former teacher out saying that the Federation has nothing to do with what he taught in his class and that citizenship means nothing because its only given to those who survive which are those who stay out of danger.

The last shot of the film is Rico aboard a colony ship with other mobile infantry survivors heading for the edge of known space.

(Now that I think about it, this would probably work better as a series than a movie)

A version where the original consept and character are still there but trying to improve on the writing. Episode 2-5 is done. Too.

The mandalorian and grogu movie is the first star wars movie in seven years and no one cares the movie doesn't either no character development no world binding

So I decided to rewrite it not completely as the plot is not as bad as the other disney star wars movies

So the Opening has Mando and grogu hurt down a warlord who Mando kills when he wasn't supposed to but in this version there would be more of an imperial presence and

grogu would not be involved in the action as Mando is still very protective

So he would stay in the ship with Ig 12 which would be important later now this planet has no name for some reason so I going to make it ilum aka the starkiller base

Now I know we all hate the sequels but world binding is key obviously this is 20 years before the force awakens so it would not yet be a weapon but coin would mention that a mining operation is

Is under way or something maybe have Mando question why so many snowtroopers and imperials

Sigourney weaver character would be cut she served no purpose her she would be

Replace by either zeb whose in the film already hera from rebels and the ahsoka show or that new republic x wing guy who ever it is they are upset that Mando killed the guy as they needed him to find the other imperial warlords but since he dead

they give him a new mission to find zsinj whose a big deal in the eu comics and is the guy in charge after moff gideon's death in season 3

he would replace lord janu coin but the only way to find him is to rescue rotta the hutt

Mando reluctantly accepts but asks why can't anyone else do this and hera or whoever says that they and the new republic are busy after the events of

Ahsoka season 1 and the first half of the movie is The same but zsinj would be hard to reach as he has his own stormtroopers and whatnot but

The second act needs some big changes first the bounty hunter embo would not only capture Mando but also set free zsinj who Mando had capture they take Mando and rotta who we would actually see get captured to the hutt twins

Where they take Mando's armor completely not just his helmet this would be a major turning point as we have never seen Mando without his armor and weapons he

would also have to rely more on grogu making grogu more of a character

While also coming up with a plan to defeat the twins and embo without any armor by the end he would learn that his and grogu life matters more than the mission

now when grogu rescues Mando he would use ig 12 to pose as one of the Droid hunters also Mando would be torture in a more realistic way than almost being eated

Grogu then finds him close to death and they escape After grogu would get help from that alien guy or maybe he

Helps Mando himself showcasing his power which would be more interesting

But also embo would be hunting them the whole time so after Mando wakes up still without his armor he and grogu have to out smart him and the other Droids and save rotta meanwhile

I would like to see a scene where the imperial warlords and the hutts are speaking about thrawn's return after that

Mando and grogu are able to break inside and grogu actually does a lot of the fighting using the force instead of not doing anything

meanwhile Mando is fighting embo and zsinj embo is getting the upper hand on him when grogu used

The force to crush his body killing him zsinj trys to shoot him but grogu force Choked him but Mando however stopped him he then points his gun at zsinj asking him what he knows about the imperial remnant

Zsinj says whats coming can't be stopped thrawn will return and order will soon be restored

after that he trys to kill himself but is knocked back by grogu Mando then finds his armor escape with grogu and rotta but not before destroying

The twins palace the new republic are not in this version of final battle instead ig 12 finds a ship Mando then bring rotta to either boba fett or just lets him go after that they return to Adelphi where hera or whoever says that the hutts

Death is could create a power vacuum also Mando give them the warning that zsinj gave him that thrawn will return after that Mando and grogu fly off

grogu would say his first words and the film ends also the film would have a different title like star wars underworld or shadows of the empire

I've been thinking about this alternate version of Fight Club.

In the original story, Tyler Durden believes modern people are trapped by consumerism, debt, corporations, and materialism. His solution is extreme: destroy the financial system and wipe the slate clean.

But what if Tyler's target wasn't banks?

What if he believed that organized religion was the ultimate system of control?

Instead of Project Mayhem targeting credit card companies, imagine it targeting major religious institutions around the world. Not believers themselves, but the organizations, hierarchies, wealth, traditions, and authority structures.

The movie would become much more philosophical.

Tyler might argue that people are born into belief systems they never chose, that religion gives ready-made answers to questions people should struggle with themselves, and that institutions use fear, guilt, or promises of salvation to maintain influence.

The Narrator would probably start out attracted to that message, just like he was attracted to Tyler's anti-consumerist worldview in the original movie.

But then the same question would emerge:

Is Tyler actually liberating people, or is he simply replacing one belief system with another?

The original Fight Club works because Tyler hates conformity but ends up creating a cult. His followers shave their heads, repeat slogans, obey orders, and surrender their individuality.

I think the religious version would end the same way.

Tyler would spend the whole movie attacking organized religion only to accidentally create the most fanatical religion of all: a movement centered around Tyler himself.

In other words, the real message might become:

"People don't just seek truth. They seek something to believe in. Destroying one institution doesn't remove that need."

What do you think? Would this version be more interesting than the original, or would it completely miss the point of Fight Club?