Nalik

Today for the A to Z challenge it is time for the letter N. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to think up anything spectacular and now it’s time for my N post but I had nothing. So this topic is a spur of the moment idea.

I’m going to talk a little about a man named Nalic in my WIP. He is a villain the protagonist encounters probably only twice in the story but is killed before anything of him can really be known. Although his role in the terrorist group Geira is important, very little is seen of him or known which is a bit of a shame I feel.

He is an Abon and therefore is addressed as Abon Nalik. An Abon is an elite soldier for a people that collaborates with the terrorist group Geira to destroy humanity. Abon Nalik  is alien. In essence, he is a killing machine, the best of the best of the Abon Guard. However, his might is never seen in this particular story because he is betrayed and shot to death. It is unfortunately to have a  villain with such potential to be a great villain in a story to die so suddenly but I suppose it is realistic. Sometimes the best of the best don’t go down in glory. 

Mortraxhian

In my WIP Mortraxhian is a psychopathic killer who is mute because his tongue was cut out long ago as a punishment for his early crimes. This does not render him speechless however. Mortraxhian has the ability of mental telepathy and has acquired other magical abilities.

One of his deadliest skills is the ability to turn two dimensional. This grants him the ghostly ability to go through locked doors. As a two dimensional figure, he can slide through any available crack; like a door and its door jam.

To add more to his deadly countenance, he possesses an enchanted breast plate of armor that is made up of individual links in the shapes of feathers. He can multiply these links and have them take any form on his body. These links are sharp as a razor yet as sturdy as steel. With this ability to command each individual link, he can put it in the form of a sword, razor whip, or an array of throwing knifes.

Nothing pleases him more then to toy with his prey before cutting their throat. He always has had a fascination with using his sharp toys on living flesh. He is a dangerous menace that must be stopped. 

Leap Missiles

Years into the future when my WIP takes place, when man has left the bounds of earth living and make new homes on new worlds, there are Leap Missiles. This new invention makes it nearly impossible to hide.

Leap Missiles from their origin can teleport to any target in the galaxy. All they need are the coordinates and they can leap to any destination for a startling missile strike. In this age, missile ships fire upon each other galaxies apart. This is an age where one doesn’t necessarily ever see the enemy they fight because the battle grounds are light years apart.

The only form of protection from these are jamming frequencies that prevent these leap missiles from reaching their target. However, if these frequencies ever failed, then a missile strike anytime anywhere literally can appear on your  front doorstep.   

    

Knelts

Today my post for the letter K is for Knelts. He is an average character in my WIP with no real prestige. However, when he is sent on a military ops mission his average status seems not to be so average anymore. When the terrorist start going out of their way to protect him and even call him an ally, something fishy is definitely going on.  

Jonah Bryke

 Imagine a scenario concerning a cop who goes undercover in the cities’ worst mafia. His objective is to climb the ranks and tear them down from the top down. In this process he becomes well known among the citizens of the city as the meanest and badest crook in town.

Then let’s say the police department he works for burns down and every individual who knew of his undercover work dies or is discredited. All the paperwork and documents that proves his true identity is destroyed and the only one left is his cover.

He’s left as the crook, everyone believes it and other police departments put out a warrant for his arrest. With the mafia still at large and as dangerous as ever to society, this cop dedicates himself to continue his work with bringing them down while running from the authorities too.

This is a picture of the life of Jonah Bryke who is the protagonist in one of my WIPs. Except the mafia is led by an alien intelligence, who wishes for universal dominion, and this all takes place in another world and realm with strange mysteries and creatures.

while running from the very government he protects. His only wish is to return home as who he was after taking down this group but whether his innocents will ever be proven isn’t certain.    

IFO

IFO is the acronym for Insignificant Floating object. In one of my WIPs, the main character makes a living of treasure hunting in space. Ever since man began to explore deeper into space, abandoned alien ships and wreckage is found floating adrift. Some are the tombs of ancient civilizations.

My character looks for these ships and explore them for valuable treasure which could be about anything. Certain companies pay well for ancient technology and the never before seen. He has an eye for valuable technology, and anything other he calls IFOs, Insignificant Floating Objects.      

Hunger Games

On today’s post for the A to Z challenge, I wanted to express my own personal perspective over the controversy concerning the Hunger Games. My emphasis is not to make a case against all critics of the movie but just the Christian critics.

Some have decried the movie for glorifying the slaughter of children and for being a bad influence on our children’s minds. The author of one article I read claimed that she regrettably took her two daughters to see this movie in which they became terrified of everything that went on in the story and in turn put them in angst. She claims that the movie may have emotionally scarred them.

I respect her opinion, but I must say I was disappointed by her argument. I fear that she has missed an excellent teaching opportunity for her children and has fallen into a dangerous pit that many Christians have fallen into which threatens our society.

I see Christians decrying any movie with death, murder, or violence; making them out to be the greatest evil inventions of man. It’s true that there is a scenario of murder in the Hunger Games but claiming that it seeks to entertain us by such is extreme. I have seen movies that glorify death and this particular movie was far removed from those. I believe the opposite is true.

The movie depicts a society (the Capitol) that finds entertainment in watching children murder each other until there is one remaining survivor. Katniss, the protagonist of the movie defies the Capitol’s atrocities by showing respect for human life. In one of the scenes a young girl named Rue is speared to death by one of the other kids, but in response to this Katniss decorates the body in funerary flowers for everyone in the Captitol to see. Is this glorying murder? In the end too, the two characters Peeta and Katniss are left and one of them is expected to kill the other in order to win. Instead, she defies the Capitol again by attempting a double suicide which brings the Gamemakers to cave in and name both of them the victors. Nothing in the movie ever condoned what the Capitol did to children.

The fact is, these kinds of atrocities are very real and although we might not see a society that expresses this, a situation like the Capitol does, we can see it in other situations. Every day babies are aborted, kids are sold into the sex slave trade, and some are forced into militant groups. Look into the past, people have been thrown into arenas to be killed by lions or gladiators. We must realize that it is a very possible thing for something like the Hunger Games to really happen again as it did in the time of the Romans.

What this distraught mother could have taught her daughters was that mankind is evil. I believe it is wrong to keep your children ignorant of this and teach them that the world is rosy and beautiful. In the Hunger Games is a message warning against the evils man is capable of and here are Christians calling the messenger evil itself.

I wonder if a government like the Capitol depicted in the story would let a movie like the Hunger Games be made. I think not; because the message in this movie decries such evils. A government like that would only be undermining themselves.

I heard a professor once say that on about every corner in Cuba is an Opera house. I think we should all consider this for a moment and think what it means. An effective way a government keeps people from rising against them in rebellion is by providing entertainment in abundance. With entertainment people become distracted from government atrocities and grow not to care anymore.

Christians freak out when such movies with horrific dilemmas come out and they make it out as such evil. Kids need to be trained to discern this content, not sheltered from it. There will be a time when they go out on their own in the real world and they need to be ready.

We need to approach every movie with discernment and search out the message it tries to convey, even the ones with immoral messages. If the Hunger Games indeed had been glorifying the slaughter of children, the same valuable lesson could be learned and possibly even in a stronger sense. Yes, I think it would be dangerous for someone to watch such a movie with the sole intention of being entertained, but he or she must watch with discernment and evaluate the message and whether it’s true or not. Maybe your children won’t understand it, but then there is your opportunity to teach them.

These kinds of movies should be sought out to learn from. Granted, there are some movies out there one should just stay clear of. But seeking only movies that depict a world without death, murder, violence, and other awful dilemmas is only going to cause our society to crater. If we don’t understand man’s evilness then how can we struggle against it? Making our kids ignorant won’t make evil go away. Evil is out there, it is in man and it isn’t always so clear since we have grown desensitized. We need to know how to discern against it.