When Jesus walked into the Temple complex and saw a teeming market, filled with sheep and doves and graft and corruption, Jesus knew He couldn’t walk past. “Should I stand by while they turn my Father’s house into a place of thievery?” he says. The answer, of course, is no.

And so the tables are literally turned. Money tumbles onto the cobblestones. Sheep make a quick getaway while they can. And members of the Sanhedrin look on, glowering.

“This is a place of worship!” Jesus shouts.

Peter loves his Master. But this bold move, in full view of Jerusalem’s religious authorities? It makes Peter nervous.

John stands beside Peter, beaming. “This is a good thing,” he reassures Peter. High time someone cleansed the Temple. High time someone took on the corrupt and craven elements in the Almighty’s house.

 Judas watches as a stray coin rolls by his feet. He steps on a piece of silver—as if to hide it—then quickly bends down and picks it off the stone, happy to add it to the disciples’ small coffers.

Or, perhaps, his own.

Jesus’ act is audacious. Impulsive. One more affront to the religious establishment. One more blemish on Jesus’ record. But it’s far from the worst offense: Already, word has reached Caiaphas, leader of the Jewish Sanhedrin, that Jesus has been making outrageous, blasphemous claims about being the Son of God. Unsubstantiated hearsay, Caiaphas realizes—for now. But such abhorrent allegations cannot go unchallenged.

If Jesus insists on turning over tables, then Jesus Himself must be turned over to the authorities. His claims must be investigated. And if deemed fact, this Jesus must die.

But while Caiaphas and his cadre of priests hope to bring a quick end to Jesus’ affrontery, only Jesus understands that His work, in many ways, is just beginning.

Forget flipping over a few tables: Christ means to turn the world itself on its ear.

The post The Last Supper appeared first on Plugged In.

Growing up in Afghanistan, the educational opportunities afforded to her were very different than those of her male peers. For example, when her school acquired two hand-me-down computers, Roya and the other girls in her class were dismissed—forced to wait outside their classroom while the teacher instructed the boys in this new technology.

Situations like that were the norm, not the exception, for Roya. Girls were barred from learning subjects such as math, science and technology. In her culture, women’s education was an afterthought, at best. Many considered it shameful and actively sought to suppress teaching girls such skills.

But that opposition did nothing to quash Roya’s desire to learn. And learn, she did.

From humble origins fumbling through Windows XP in a local café to founding the first female-owned software company in Afghanistan years later, Roya faced and overcame adversity at every turn.

Years later, the Afghan culture remains closed to the idea of women being well-educated and working outside the home. Roya is understandably frustrated. What good is it to blaze a trail that no one can follow?

So, she starts offering computer classes for girls. The classes are successful, and the girls who attend learn valuable skills. Still, Roya sees their impact as merely a drop in a bucket. She’s been trying to demonstrate to Afghanistan the value women can offer as engineers and innovators, but her country has been slow to see.

She’ll have to show the world instead. But how? Roya has a plan: Form an Afghan all-girls robotics team to compete in events around the globe. “It will show our girls in a new light,” she tells her brother, Ali.

He expresses his doubts—no one from Afghanistan has ever done something like this, after all. Roya is undeterred, reminding her brother that “nothing ever happened unless someone dreamed it first.”

And so, Roya and Ali set out to find the most mechanically gifted girls they can recruit to the robotics team. Turns out, finding the girls is the easy part. It’s everything else that’s hard.

Good thing Roya has experience overcoming adversity. She—and her team—are going to need it.

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That’s pretty much his entire job: dying. As part of an intrepid expedition to colonize the icy planet Niflheim, Mickey is the colony’s sole expendable. His mind has been downloaded into a hefty techno-brick. And once his current body expires, the scientific team on Niflheim will just chug out a new one, using its handy-dandy organic 3D printer.

Mickey dies so that others might live. Or, occasionally, just for kicks.

Is this ethical? Heavens, no. Everyone admits that much. But Kenneth Marshall, a two-time failed senator on Earth and the colony leader on Niflheim, figures they might as well use the technology anyway. I mean, just the trip out to Niflheim was pretty dangerous, and who knows what terrors the planet itself might hold. A good, solid expendable will keep the rest of the colonists intact. As for Mickey, well, it’s just like the job title says: He’s expendable.

And so Mickey dies. Again and again and again. He’s died by radiation poisoning. By mysterious planetary disease. One time, he was shoved into the ship’s molten incinerator while he was still alive. Even if he survived the pathogen floating around in his bod, it was just easier for everyone involved—well, everyone but Mickey, I guess—to print out another one.

And honestly, the 17^th iteration was pretty much guaranteed to expire just like all the rest. He’d taken a tumble down a huge ice hole and found himself in the presence of Niflheim’s native residents: something that looks like a cross between a musk ox and a pillbug (and stands slightly bigger than a Range Rover) and all her many, many, many children.

Mickey assumes he’s a dead man—again. He’ll be quickly devoured by the mamma creeper (as they come to be known as) or slowly consumed by her offspring.

But instead, the creature drags Mickey out of the burrow and sends him on his way. And Mickey is a little offended.

“I’m perfectly good meat!” He shouts after the mamma creeper. “I taste fine!”

Meanwhile, back aboard the ship, Mickey 17 is presumed to be dead and eaten. And so they welcome Mickey 18 to the ship.

Won’t Mickey 17 be surprised when he gets back!

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A rabbit was the first to go. Enraptured by the sight of the tiny purple meteorite, which had just crashed into its enclosure, the bunny took a bite. It wasn’t long before the once adorable critter transformed into a fanged, gummy-like zombie. And with one bite with those sharp teeth, other animals at Colepepper Zoo transformed, too.

The chicks and sheep went next.

Down went the goats.

Then, they came for the monkeys.

Pretty soon, the whole zoo was gone—save for a wolf, mountain lion, capybara, ostrich, lemur and proboscis monkey.

But the gummy zombies are coming for them, too.

The post Night of the Zoopocalypse appeared first on Plugged In.

Why?

Who knows? It’s the future. And in this future, there lives a powerful witch that seemingly everyone wants dead. But this witch, Gray Alys, lives on.

Part of her longevity is because of her magical ability to make eye contact and force anything—man, zombie or feral beast—to see what she wishes them to see. Her other saving grace is the requirement that she must grant any and every wish that someone asks of her.

“I refuse no one,” she will murmur when asked. And people always ask, even though her expression immediately conveys a bitter truth: wishes always lead to one cataclysmic disaster or another.

So, when the city’s Queen approaches with a request to gain the shapeshifting ability of a werewolf, Alys dutifully replies, “I refuse no one.”

But why would the Queen want such an ability? Who knows? And when the Queen’s captain and secret lover later asks that Alys fail in that request, Alys once again declares that she cannot refuse him.

Somehow Gray Alys is required to fulfill requests that even might oppose one another. While in a magic trance, she sees a man who will guide her to that resolution. He’s a large and gnarly gunslinger named Boyce.

This massive mercenary will lead her into the Lost Lands. They will find a werewolf there. And they must also keep one step ahead of the foul crusader-like churchmen that want Gray Alys’ skin.

Oh, and Alys isn’t aware (or is she?) that Boyce also happens to be one of the Queen’s many lovers. He might even be the sire of the child that’s newly growing in her womb.

Oh, what a twisted web this witch now clings to.

But it leads to a conclusion that Gray Alys cannot refuse. Why? Only she knows for sure.

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That “saturation” part means Chris works with a maintenance crew that goes so far down in the ocean’s dangerous depths—sometimes as deep as 1000 feet down to maintain miles of fuel pipes that run along the ocean floor—that he must be treated with pressurized gas before each lengthy dive.

Of course, it’s the dangerous side of things that make Morag consistently worry. Does he really have to risk his life repeatedly in the crushing depths just to make a living? Couldn’t he find something on the dry, sunny surface that he could do?

Chris kisses his bride-to-be and laughs off her fears. “It’s just like going into outer space, except in the opposite direction,” he chuckles.

After a beat, she replies “Is that supposed to reassure me?”

Let’s face it, Morag has a point.

Even though it’s all becoming second nature to young Chris—after all, he works with an experienced, dedicated crew—accidents do happen. And sometimes storms at sea create unpredictable problems for the ship far above on the water’s surface.

Sometimes the thick umbilical cables that connect the divers to oxygen and diving bell communications can tangle or even snap. Sometimes the power goes out, and the ocean floor becomes a pit of ink-black nothingness.

And sometimes all of those things happen at once, leaving a stranded diver with nothing but minutes of oxygen in his diving suit’s emergency back-up.

That’s when an entire crew must do all they can to fight the ocean, fight the storms, fight the failures, and desperately try to save an endangered crewmate.

In this case, that endangered soul is a guy named Chris.

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Perhaps it was inevitable. Because after generations of people are born and grow up in space colonies, it doesn’t seem fair that the blue planet with which they have no immediate connection gets to be in charge of how they live. That’s why some of the stronger colonies rebelled against the Earth Federation, calling themselves the Principality of Zeon and sparking a devastating year-long war. And as both sides gear up in giant robotic mobile suits armed with both guns and blades, billions of people perish.

If you’ve seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam movie, you know what happens next: a Zeon reconnaissance team begins attacking a Federation colony, while a teenage mechanic Amuro Ray climbs into the Federation’s newly prototyped RX-78 Gundam and saves the colony. His decision, ultimately, would help Earth win the war against Zeon, too.

Except, what if someone else got to it first?

That someone is Char Aznable, a soldier in that Zeon recon team and (in the original timeline) a major antagonist for Amuro. And after using the mobile suit to achieve victory, Char recognizes that these Gundam models are powerful. And, after reverse engineering the stolen tech, Zeon wins the war.

But independence doesn’t always look pretty, as high schooler Amate Yuzuriha may tell you. She’s living in a space colony independent from both the Federation and Zeon five years after the war’s end. It’s a world where police care little for civilians and few feel like their freedom means much of anything…especially when a Zeon ship appears in overhead.

It turns out, the ship was on a secret mission, hoping to find the location of Char and his Gundam. Both vanished at the close of the war following a strange explosion—before the Gundam suddenly reappeared near the colony and began attacking the Zeon ship. Moments later, colony police, who have donned mobile suits, engaged, too.

Zeon quickly deployed its newest Gundam model, codenamed GQuuuuuuX, in defense … but it wasn’t long before its inexperienced pilot came crashing down into the colony, bringing the battle directly onto Amate’s head. She had been busy learning how to pilot a mobile suit to engage in illegal-but-lucrative underground mech combat fights.

And, like Amuro Ray, Amate acted in desperation, jumping into the GQuuuuuuX pilot seat to escape from the battle. And though she’s likewise inexperienced, she suddenly feels a connection to the robot, one that allows her to control the mech with her willpower alone.

And it’s a connection that just may change her life for good.

The post Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: Beginning appeared first on Plugged In.

Hey, lots of kids are like that, right? But in Ne Zha’s case, the results can be … bad.

See, Ne Zha is a demon, and not just any run-of-the-mill, dime-a-dozen Chinese demon, either. He’s part and product of the Demon Orb, and as such he’s incredibly powerful and destructive. Why, if left to his own demonic nature, he just might be so destructive as to threaten heaven and earth themselves. So the orb was slated for destruction by the Supreme Lord, Yuanshi Tianzun. And what the Supreme Lord says, the Supreme Lord does.

But through a series of adventures and surprising relationships (as chronicled in 2019’s Ne Zha), Ne Zha saved his parents and his hometown of Chentang Pass. And thanks to help from his enemy-turned-friend, Ao Bing (a reincarnation of something called the Spirit Pearl and the son of a very important dragon), Ne Zha even staved off the Supreme Lord’s destructive curse. The only downside? He and Ao Bing lost their corporeal bodies. Bummer.

But as Ne Zha 2 opens, good news! Master Taiyi Zhenren uses (and exhausts) his sacred lotus to regenerate both Ne Zha and Ao Bing.

Bad news. Chentang Pass is soon under threat again: Ao Guang, Ao Bing’s very important dragon father, believes his son died in the last movie, so he unleashes a few other dragon rulers from their lava-y locale, which are ushered into the fray by the demonic Shen Gongbao. Before Ne Zha and Ao Bing can truly get their bodies back, they must defend the town—and Ao Bing’s corporeal form is quickly destroyed. (Naturally, Ao Guang feels just terrible about this strange turn of events.)

But more good news! Ao Bing’s spirit doesn’t need to dissipate forever! Taiyi says that Ne Zha can host the spirit of Ao Bing for seven days. During that time, if Ne Zha can pass three trials and become one of the immortals, he can claim a potion that will restore the sacred lotus and, thus, give Ao Bing another shot at having a real-life body again.

But more bad news. Demons aren’t allowed to perform these trials. In fact, the trials are all about fighting demons—something that gods and immortals love to do. And if anyone detects Ne Zha’s true nature during these trials—inescapable if he fights as Ne Zha—he’ll certainly get booted out of heaven.

The only solution: Ao Bing’s spirit must take over Ne Zha’s body during these critical trials. And he can only do that if Ne Zha knocks himself out somehow.

Follow all that?

Well, in truth, we learn all of that within, like, the first 15 minutes of the movie, and then things get much more confusing. But in short, Ne Zha—the spirit of Ao Bing in tow—and Taiyi mount a flying pig and fly to heaven to embark on a series of spectacular adventures. And perhaps they’ll right a few long-festering wrongs along the way, too.

The post Ne Zha 2 appeared first on Plugged In.

Many soldiers have found healing from those unseen wounds in therapy. But that was never Zoe’s style. In fact, she told her best friend and fellow soldier, Merit, that if she ever caught Zoe in therapy once they got home, Merit had permission to kill her.

Unfortunately, it’s not really up to Zoe anymore, because well … she’s dead.

Merit knows this to be true, but it hasn’t stopped Zoe from living rent-free in her head. Sometimes Merit likes having this version of Zoe around—like when they’re singing along to their favorite songs in the car. But other times, it’s not such a jam fest.

Zoe likes to be the center of Merit’s attention, discouraging her from making new friends or even answering her mom’s phone calls. In fact, Zoe is so distracting that Merit accidentally dropped a forklift full of television sets onto a coworker, nearly killing the guy. The courts charged her with criminal negligence, but they also recognized that Merit was suffering from a form of PTSD. So, rather than being fined and imprisoned, Merit’s been court-ordered to attend group therapy for veterans.

But Merit can’t quite bring herself to talk about Zoe in therapy. Part of that is Zoe’s fault: After all, if Zoe didn’t like the idea of therapy when she was alive, she certainly doesn’t support it now that’s she dead.

However, the larger part of Merit’s reluctance comes from the simple fact that she doesn’t want to move on. And she knows that once she opens up about how she’s seeing her dead friend Zoe, she might lose Zoe forever.

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He’s got money. Connections. A secluded winter home in the forests of Maine. How exactly he came into possession of those things is a bit of a mystery. The type of mystery that you probably wouldn’t want to know the answers to.

Yes, Vincent has a questionable past. But, in his mind, he’s also got a certain future. He adores his wife, Sandy, 20 years his junior. His stepson, DJ, is an intelligent and considerate young man who will soon head off to college. They are a happy, healthy and wholesome family.

That is, until Vincent’s first family shows up. His biological son Rocco arrives with his very pregnant girlfriend, Marina; and his chaotic mother, Ruth, Vincent’s ex-wife. Rocco claims he only stopped by to celebrate the New Year as a family, and to tell Vincent that the older man was going to be a grandfather. But, as Vincent suspects, there’s more to it than that.

Vincent’s right. And that’s when his carefully manicured life starts to get messy.

See, Rocco killed a man. And not just any man. He killed the only son of mobster “Lefty” Hannigan. Sure, Lefty’s son attacked Marina, and Rocco only killed him to save her. But Lefty doesn’t care. He wants revenge. And he and his righthand hitman are hot on Rocco’s trail.

Rocco and Marina need to disappear. Sandy and DJ need to be protected. And Ruth—well, Ruth—she’s enough trouble on her own. So, what will Vincent do for family?

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