A Special Easter Celebration: The Most Memorable Returns in Pop Culture

Alex Matthews: 00:01:10

Foreign.

Will Rose: 00:01:15

You hear that music and you know it's time for another episode of Systematic Geekology. He's back. And no, I'm not talking about direwolves. I'm talking about jc djc. Jesus the Christ, Back from the dead. Happy Easter, everybody.

Here we are, bonus episode. If I can get James just smiling a little bit, then I'm doing my job. Welcome. Happy Easter, Friends, friends. Happy Easter Sunday.

This is one of our bonus episodes throughout the seasons, whether it's Christmas or Arbor Day or Earth Day or Easter Sunday, we like putting out these episodes to reflect on the season and geek out with you guys. So we're glad that you're able to be with us today. And as we celebrate Easter, we are. We have some of our priests to the geeks.

Here we have James, we have Alex. Here we are. Easter Sunday. How are we doing? Happy Easter, friends.

James Demmel: 00:02:09

Happy Easter.

Alex Matthews: 00:02:10

Happy Easter.

Will Rose: 00:02:11

Yeah, here we are.

So, again, like I said, it's one of our bonus episodes, and we're going to share some of our favorite Easter traditions and then geek out on some of our biggest surprise returns in fandom. We know that that character, your beloved character that you. You just love so much, and they die, and you're like, oh, my gosh.

And then the cliche is they come back. At some point, they're going to come back. There's a few that don't. There's a few that don't.

Sometimes dead means dead in fandom, but most of the time, your favorite hero is. Is going to come back in a dramatic return in the comics or movies or whatever fandom you're a part of.

And, yeah, we're going to talk about the resurrection today celebration. Celebration. Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. Let's hop right in to it.

So just to kind of get warmed up a little bit this Easter Sunday, we're going to start with what is your favorite jelly bean flavor or color? Now, you may not like jelly beans, but if you're a forest, eat jelly beans.

Maybe your favorite candy of all time, but I'm not talking about the Harry Potter weird ones, or unless you want to. Unless you want to lift up one of those. But favorite jelly bean flavor or color? Alex, we'll start with you. Do you like jelly beans?

Is that something you go to?

Alex Matthews: 00:03:31

Yeah.

I remember when I was little, I would eat jelly beans all the time, and my favorite color is purple, and my favorite jelly bean color was purple, but for some reason, I couldn't get myself to swallow purple jelly beans.

Will Rose: 00:03:46

Oh, so you're chewing Purple jelly beans, like gum and spitting them out.

Alex Matthews: 00:03:52

It was weird because I would try, but I physically couldn't. And then I'm crying every time I try to eat purple jelly beans. So I don't know if I, like, loved it too much as a kid. I just couldn't bring my.

To eat it.

Will Rose: 00:04:06

That's. That's fair. That's fair. You might have too much. You had some food poison with the purple jelly bean. Just like, I'm not going back there.

Alex Matthews: 00:04:14

Maybe. Maybe some trauma. I don't know. I haven't touched a couple jelly beans since. So we'll see.

Will Rose: 00:04:21

Gotcha. I. I don't. I can't remember last time I've had a purple jelly bean. I might have to try that and try it out. We'll see. James, how about you?

Favorite jelly bean?

James Demmel: 00:04:28

I can't remember the last time I had a jelly bean. I literally had to look up jelly belly, like, flavors to, like, remind myself. I think my favorites were, like, I don't know, green apple.

I like that one a lot.

Will Rose: 00:04:41

Okay.

James Demmel: 00:04:41

I have, like, very fond memories of the weirdness of the buttered popcorn flavored jelly bean.

Will Rose: 00:04:49

Yeah, yeah.

James Demmel: 00:04:50

Like, I also like lemon lime, so I remember, like, trying to get the yellow or the lemon. So trying to get the yellow one and then ended up with popcorn. And it's like, what's going on here?

Will Rose: 00:04:58

Yeah.

James Demmel: 00:04:59

Kind of mental breakdown, but that may.

Will Rose: 00:05:01

Be why you haven't had jelly beans in a while. James, I'm just gonna go on a limb.

James Demmel: 00:05:05

They're deceptive. What can I say?

Will Rose: 00:05:08

I am. I think I'm gonna go with red jelly beans. I. I'm. I'm not a jelly bean person. Like, go out of my way. But if there's like a few sitting in a little.

Little dish on. On the counter, I'll grab a couple just to see what it tastes like. And I'm gonna go with red. I'm go with red. I like that. That flavor. Like that color.

Friends, let us know in the comments or on a dm. What's your favorite jelly bean? If you're mad at us for liking a particular jelly bean color and we don't think we should.

Well, we have our taste and you don't. So anyway, there you go. All right, moving on. Next. Here we go. Favorite Easter Sunday tradition. James and I are both Lutheran pastors. We have a lot.

We had a lot to do this week. In a week that we call holy. We had a lot of services. We have a lot going on Easter Sunday.

Alex, remind us what your faith tradition is and what you do on, on Easter Sunday. What's your favorite Easter Sunday tradition? Could be anything. There's a judgment free zone. We don't geek shame anybody. It could be a favorite food.

It could be waking up at the crack of dawn. It could be sleeping in that day. We don't care. But what's your favorite Easter Sunday tradition?

Alex Matthews: 00:06:18

Cool, cool, cool. Well, I'm Pentecostal, so I don't know it's really a tradition. I just know, like, basically every. Well, I guess maybe it is.

But every Easter Sunday we would go to church and we would do communion and then after church we go home and then all of us together as a family would cook dinner.

And then sometimes we would go to like an Easter Sunday night service where they'll probably do like a stick or like worship night or something like that and just pray, whatever.

Will Rose: 00:06:48

But nice.

Alex Matthews: 00:06:49

Cook together after church.

Will Rose: 00:06:52

Cook together after church. Like a big kind of Easter brunch, lunch, dinner kind of stuff.

Alex Matthews: 00:06:56

Yeah, more like a big dinner. Yeah.

Will Rose: 00:06:58

Nice. What, what time do your services start? Um, is it one of those that start a certain time, then you kind of go. Lutherans have like an.

An hour and four minutes or maybe an hour for a service or our members get mad at us. Except for Easter, we can sometimes go to like an hour and 15 because people like choirs and horns and Easter lilies.

So what I know Pentecostals do it a little differently and we can learn a lot from Pentecostals. What, what, how long is your Easter service?

Alex Matthews: 00:07:24

Honestly, it depends on, like, where you're at.

ike late in the morning, like: 10:30

And it finishes like before 12. And we were like, what?

Will Rose: 00:08:07

Okay. Yeah. So short.

Alex Matthews: 00:08:10

But it just depends on where you're at, right?

Will Rose: 00:08:14

Yeah, that's true. That's true. Even Lutherans too. Who knows? There might be a charismatic Lutheran church up north that have a five hour worship service.

Well, we kind of do for the Easter vigil. We'll talk a little about that. Yeah, we, we do our long services too. James, how are you? What's Your favorite Easter Sunday tradition or.

Or Easter Saturday. You know, it's. It's a week. It's a Holy week.

James Demmel: 00:08:37

Yeah. My. This is going to be a very distinctively Lutheran answer. Apart from all of the goodness that happens in worship.

My favorite Easter tradition is after the Easter vigil on Saturday night, which I think Will's going to talk a little bit more about. Probably that goes from down to, you know, could be two, three hours, depending on how long you want to do it.

Will Rose: 00:08:58

Yeah.

James Demmel: 00:08:58

But my favorite tradition is I've usually fasted during the season of Lent from alcohol. I'm doing that this year.

So the first beer or I was at one church that, you know, we worship, and then we went to the fellowship hall at, like, midnight because that's when theirs ended. And we had a champagne toast. And it wasn't a lot, but it was just one sort of, like, flute of champagne. And then you went home. And that was.

That's my favorite. Breaking the Lenten fast after Easter is my. My favorite Easter tradition.

Will Rose: 00:09:28

Nice. Nice.

James Demmel: 00:09:30

Whatever that is. Whatever that is.

Will Rose: 00:09:31

Yeah, Yeah. I. I think I'm just going to be honest here.

Sunday tradition is, like, at: 12:45

I do like the pomp and circumstance of Easter Sunday and the trumpets smell of Easter, of Easter lilies and all the kids that come up for the children's message and engaging with them. I do like a good children's message. On. On Easter Sunday is some of my. My favorite moments. I remember a few Easters back, we had a little girl.

She was, like, 2 or 3 years old, and she got her fingernails painted for that morning, and they're all, like, different colors, rainbow colors. And she came up to me. I literally had, like, 25 kids in front of me. And she comes up and whispers in my ear, do you want to see my fingernails?

And I went, can we wait t. After. After church? And she goes, no. And, like, put them in my face. She goes, rainbows.

And I was, like, laughing so hard, I could barely keep it together to do the children's message. That was so fun. But, yeah, when. When. I hate to say when it's all done, but I. I will say there's a.

There's a quiet after the storm on Easter Sunday where I can say, well done, church worship team. Well done, Holy Week. And I feel good about things. It's good seeing people that haven't seen in a while in and, and going from there.

So that's, that's my favorite favorite Sunday. So I do like, I do like the vigil. Lutheran, some Lutherans, some liturgical churches do a vigil.

, but, yeah, easter Sunday at: 12:30

Well, yeah, well, we know Jesus is back. He is raised from the dead and the first fruits to do that.

But we know that there are lots and lots of geeky stories in media where the dramatic return is a big part of the story. In fact, I alluded to earlier in this episode, there was big headlines this week that direwolves are back. If Game of Thrones fans.

Even though, listen to some scientists, they didn't d instinct anything. They just gene engineered a wolf to make it look bigger, to make it look like a direwolf.

So it's not really a direwolf, but the media launches on to like, oh, mythical creatures back from the dead. Resurrect anything. CNN said scientists say they have resurrected the direwolf.

That's not necessarily what Colossal Colossal Bio in Genetics did with the thing. But anyway, we're, we're. I'm a science geek, so that's, that's a part of it.

But, you know, they're, they knew that marketing campaign that they're gonna lock on, launch on, or latch on with some Game of Thrones fans and fantasy fans. And, and I'm, I'm there for it. So Magic George R.R.

James Demmel: 00:12:45

Martin could take a break from feverishly writing the Winds of Winter to hold that dial up.

Will Rose: 00:12:51

Yeah, and, and, and they were smart. This colossal organization was smart because they want to, they want to resurrect the woolly mammoth. And so they need some funding.

So why not start some wolves, Something geeky. Latch on the fantasy fans, Game of Thrones fans, and we'll get enough money. If we can raise enough money.

People are stoked that we can get the woolly mammoth back, even though they're probably going to make a. It's hard to be a skeptic here. Just a, Just a hairy elephant and then call it a woolly mammoth. That's.

James Demmel: 00:13:17

That's what they're gonna do.

Will Rose: 00:13:19

But I digress a little bit. Favorite surprise return in geekdom. There's been plenty of things. Somehow, Palpatine has returned.

They've killed Off Batman and Superman lots of times. And of course, we know they're gonna come back. You can't keep them dead forever. There's only a few people in comics that they were like, we got.

They're not gonna come back. That's Uncle Ben from Spider Man. And for a while there, it was Buggy Barnes. We'll talk more about that later. Alex, let's start with you. What you.

You share with us that you. You were really thinking hard on this, and you came to a conclusion. What is your favorite surprise return in geekdom?

Alex Matthews: 00:13:54

Well, I thought about this for a while, and the one thing I could come up with, my favorite surprise return was, man, was it either Infinity War or Endgame when everybody came back in the end? Because I for sure thought that everybody, like, half the world was just gone. Like, put dusted, snapped.

And then I remember watching this for the first time in the theater, and I heard, and it looked basically like the end of the fight. Captain America was like, he was trying to make his last stand, but he wasn't, like, he was already, like, out of it. And you hear the call.

Someone says, on your left. And I was like. I literally grabbed, like, the random person next to me. I was like, wait, I'm getting goosebumps.

Will Rose: 00:14:40

You're just saying that right now. On your left. Like, I remember. That's in game. That's in game. And, yeah, it looked like they were to. They are going to all lose. And then you hear.

And I just watched Winter Soldier, the movie, last night, just to kind of freshen up a little bit. And the opening scene. The opening scene is on your left. So you bring up on your left. I saw it last night. That is on point. Yeah.

So were you in a full theater? What. What did the theater do when. When. When all those portals started opening up and everybody was returning, bro.

Alex Matthews: 00:15:10

Everybody was gasping. Like, I was like, no way, no way, no way. And then when Black Panther and his people came out, I was like, wait, wait, wait. Like, what?

His name was flying through. Everybody lost their minds when Spider man hopped in. Like, when Spider man jumped in, everyone was like, oh, my God. And I was like, what?

Like, just to be in the theater, to see all that for the first time, it was like. It was an experience. Like, I love going to the movie theater just for moments like that because we were all like, oh, my. Like, geeking out together.

Yeah, that was probably like. I was like, what's happening? What's going on?

Will Rose: 00:15:49

That communal experience. And I do remember at the end of the Infinity War and people got snapped and dusting the end of their.

I thought I had told my wife that that's kind of what was going to happen. It's a two parter and they go back to back year to year. But she was like, they're ending it here. What just happened? And they were so grieved.

And I had read the comics, I kind of knew what was going to happen. I'm like, in comics, in movies, dead doesn't mean dead, but.

But still, people walked out of that in silence like they had just experienced a funeral and, and they weren't. And knowing what was going to come. But I didn't know. I knew they're going to come back. I just didn't know how they were going to do it.

And so yeah, you start off on a high bar there. That is, that is a fantastic pool in geekdom, if not one of the best of, of all time. So nice one, nice one there. James. Thoughts on In Game Would you.

Were you in a, were you in a theater? Were you.

James Demmel: 00:16:38

I was in a theater. I was in a theater the weekend it opened. I think I actually saw it.

Like I can't remember what was going on, but it was my internship year, I know that.

And I was in West Virginia and I went up to Hagerstown, Maryland to see it because it was the closest movie theater to us and it was Sunday evening and I thought how poetic on, you know, it was during the season of Easter, I think when it came out. So I was like thinking all these thoughts too, even back then. And yeah, movie theater clapped and cheered.

I cried twice, once at a moment in that fight and then once at the end, the way that movie ended. And yeah, I just, man, what a powerful, a powerful cinematic setup and experience.

And I, I, there's not a whole lot that I love about like post Marvel since then. Like that's the peak and like it's hard, it's hard to beat that. They've had a like weird coming down experience from that.

But what I do love is that the whole experience of the snap and of all half the universe fading to dust is still felt throughout.

They're still grappling with that experience and all of these projects that have happened after that and I'm glad that they didn't cheapen it because it makes it feel real. It makes it feel real.

I mean at some point you could look back, I feel like if we get some more space and Marvel kind of has a return to glory, maybe these next Avenger movies you could like look at this whole phase and say of course these movies and projects weren't as good as before. They're grappling with this really complex like question like how do you deal with the trap, the tragedy, the trauma of that happening?

Will Rose: 00:18:27

Yeah, they were dealt a few low curveballs when it comes to like Covid and writer strikes and what's next. And we just stuck the lane with end game.

And I think they're going to try to do that with Doomsday, Avengers Doomsday because they're bringing back another surprise return. Robert Downey Jr. Is, is, is going to be Dr. Doom. How they do that.

And they, they gave that whole list of characters that's going to be in even like the Fox X Men that are part of things are going to be a part of that story. So we'll, we'll see. You know, I, sometimes the, the hype will outrun the actual storytelling, but I.

James Demmel: 00:19:02

Do you think they're going to bring Steve Rogers back as Captain Hydra?

Will Rose: 00:19:06

Oh man, I'll be there for it. I mean that's part of the alternate universe as part of comics. He's done that post things.

He's definitely been cosmic cubed into thinking he's somebody's. He's not. And alternate timelines and ultimate multiverses, who knows? Steve Rogers could have been co opted by the enemy and those kinds of things.

Nothing's not out of the wrong possibility. But this day and age with our fandom and message boards and politics, it might be kind of hard. Hard?

James Demmel: 00:19:40

Oh, I didn't think it would, it.

Will Rose: 00:19:42

Would be hard to lean into that talk about Steve jumping on a landmine to protect somebody. We'll see, we'll see what happens with that.

But yeah, I, you know, if they can do multiverse, I'm a sucker for all those alternate timelines and what they can do and you know, in. And then again we're talking about comebacks in fandom.

You know, a good way to fix it is to say, oh, it was just an alternate character for alternate universe. Oh, it was just this. Oh, they were stuck in a time loop. And there's ways to fix those things. And I've seen all the tropes but. But yeah.

So Alex, you're, you're within that those movies in terms of mcu. Do you have a character you resonate with? Is there a hero that's like your, your favorite. Talk about favorite jelly beans.

Now we're talking about favorite mcu.

Alex Matthews: 00:20:28

That's a good one. Wait, hold on. I have to think. I You know, I don't know if I.

Well, I don't know if I resonate with this one, but it's kind of tied between Scarlet Witch and. Oh, wait, I see her Jean Grey tie between those two. Just because, like, they're such.

Like, their characters just go through a lot and they're just comp. Like, the stories are complex and they just make me sad.

Will Rose: 00:20:58

Yeah.

Alex Matthews: 00:21:01

They both have it rough, so I don't know.

James Demmel: 00:21:04

Like.

Alex Matthews: 00:21:04

Yeah, just came to mind. Like, they're not my favorite. Like, especially G. Gray.

Like, her story, I think, like, sucks the most because she mainly gets painted out to be the bad guy.

Will Rose: 00:21:14

Yeah.

Alex Matthews: 00:21:15

But it's like, it's not completely her fault. Like, she just. I don't know. But I don't know.

James Demmel: 00:21:20

Like, can you escape your fate or not?

Alex Matthews: 00:21:22

Yeah. Yeah.

Will Rose: 00:21:24

And. And she's kind of paved the way in the comics back in the 70s and 80s. I mean, they.

They killed her off with the Dark Phoenix saga and then they brought her back again. They killed her and they probably. I mean, her. She's connected, intimately connected with the Phoenix. What do Phoenix do? They. They rise again.

And so she'll be back at some point. But yeah, it'd be interesting if. And how they bring Scarlet Witch back. They took her off the shelf. They kill her off or put her.

She went mad, she went dark, she went all those things. But, you know, she is a pivotal character in the MC universe.

So that'd be a great, great return too, if she could come back and surprise us and save the day and somehow. And have her character arc go a different direction.

James Demmel: 00:22:04

Yeah, I feel like I saw something recently. Like there's some piece of obscure, like, Marvel MCU content. Like, might have been a comic, might have been something.

But, like, you know how you get like those pop news articles on your phone. I feel like I saw something recently, within the last two or three weeks that she got confirmed to be still alive somewhere.

And it was like an offhand comment. A character made in a very obscure piece of. Yeah, but I can't remember.

Will Rose: 00:22:27

Yeah, she. They made a little bit of a return in. In TVA time variant authority in the comics. And.

And they were like, oh, this is the one from the mcu that's in the comics. But then they.

James Demmel: 00:22:38

Yeah, that's what it was. Yeah.

Will Rose: 00:22:39

But then they kind of. The editors in chief said, no, that's not her. And then the artist had to go back on and say, but.

But you never, you know, again, time being authority alternate, you could have a version come back at some point. James. Okay, favorite return in geekdom. You're wearing a. Are you. People can see that. You're wearing a One Piece shirt and your avatar is. Is.

Is One Piece. And so I have a. Have a kind of an idea where you may go teach us.

James Demmel: 00:23:05

Yeah, so I'm gonna talk about Luffy on Wano coming back. My strong second before I get there was the Naruto versus Pain fight, and Naruto showing back up to Hidden Leaf Village to fight Pain.

I watched that scene last night too. And then I was thinking about it a little bit more and I felt like, Easter, I've gotta really talk about Luffy coming back.

So if you don't know, like, One Piece is massively stupid long. We all know that.

Will Rose: 00:23:36

Alex, have you done any One Piece? Are you a One Piece fan? Are you a Watcher reader of One Piece?

Alex Matthews: 00:23:41

I want to be. I see a couple episodes. It's kind of weird because I remember watching a couple episodes when I was like, 4, 5, but I fell off of it.

And so since then, like a thousand episodes, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I gotta start over.

I did see the Live Action on Netflix and people said that it's kind of close to the comic, the manga and all that, so I did see that. But I want to go back to the anime and watch it.

Will Rose: 00:24:10

But yeah, it seems like One Piece fans do like the live action, so I'm trying to learn the feet of these One Piece geeks out there. I'm not totally into it, but I had the first volume I got for Christmas and then reading that and having fun and some of the Netflix stuff.

But I learned from James and Christian and Joshua, yeah, I think he would.

James Demmel: 00:24:28

Like the manga more than the live action. The Live action was fun and it was mostly faithful. They did make some changes, but I just think it's a best in the manga slash anime medium. But.

So this is. Spoilers, everyone. Spoiler alert. Spoilers are about to happen. Turn your spoiler alert.

Will Rose: 00:24:46

Jesus comes back from the dead on Easter Sunday, right?

James Demmel: 00:24:50

Yes. So, I mean, it's pretty much everywhere now. You can't, like, look up Luffy without seeing what happens in this fight, but.

So Luffy has been fighting this guy named Kaido who has a devil fruit, which is kind of one of the power systems in the world that transforms him into this, like, legendary mythical dragon. And so they've been fighting for a long time. They're about to sort of land the final blow.

And then Luffy is sort of ambushed by another character who just like sprints in out of nowhere, holds Luffy back. Luffy gets hit by Kaido. That's the end of the fight. Luffy is dead on the floor.

Kaido is proclaiming his victory and how he's about to like nuclear bomb everyone. And so you've got this fight and it's been a long fight as. As anime and manga fights are.

And then you've got this character who is also kind of in the background, but who is 800 years old. At least 800 years old. And Luffy's heart starts to beat again only after he has died.

And this character sort of proclaims, oh I hear the drums of liberation. This mythical character has returned. And it turns out that this mythical character who people have been wondering where they've been for 800 years.

What's going on is actually Luffy has inherited that power. And so Luffy's power of the gum gum fruit gets a new name by the world government. The sort of evil bad guys.

You sort of see a flashback scene of them talking about Luffy and how this route. Everyone thinks it's one thing, but it's actually this other thing.

And how this could be like the biggest threat to them that they've ever had in the last 800 years. They've been trying to get this power into their hands. It slipped out of their hands the whole time.

So Luffy comes back to life, is resurrected only after dying. They're fighting on a. On a place called the Skull Dome. So.

Will Rose: 00:26:52

Oh, like okay.

James Demmel: 00:26:55

Exactly.

Will Rose: 00:26:56

Let's see what they do.

James Demmel: 00:26:57

Exactly like. Exactly like Golgotha. So huge skull shaped dome is where they've been having this fight.

And Luffy gets tricked by the guy who ambushes Luffy as a government official comes in last moment, disrupts the fight. So the government kills him. Oh, you're following.

Will Rose: 00:27:14

I'm following. I get it. You're not.

James Demmel: 00:27:16

You're now following Will.

Will Rose: 00:27:18

Yeah.

James Demmel: 00:27:18

And so Luffy comes back. It's revealed that he's this mythical figure called Joy Boy. And his fruit is not the gum gum fruit, but it's called, well, purple jelly beans.

The name is really long. But essentially he is. He has the powers of the sun God Nika. And that name, if you're familiar with Greek language, Nika. Nike Nike. Victory.

There's also a name for Jesus engraved on our altar and many Christian altars, which is also Nika, which is the Greek word. Which is the Greek word for victory. So Luffy is definitely this Christ like figure. His rubber powers allow him to fight Freely.

You got to think about Jesus like. Like always dodging. Always. Y. Yeah, exactly. So that's my favorite comeback. There is, you know, a thousand episodes that build to this.

A lot of these reveals that happen in the context of this fight. I love that it happens on a skull. I love that as essentially he has to die to come back to life.

The way they do it is really impactful because characters actually think he's dead. Like they give a good like, episode and a half of like people processing this happening.

Will Rose: 00:28:37

And well, you see. Yeah, that's good. That's good.

James Demmel: 00:28:43

Spoilers over.

Will Rose: 00:28:45

Is he resuscitated or resurrected? Because we do talk about that in terms of the. The scriptures. Lazarus was raised or brought back from the dead and resuscitated only to die again.

There's no like, legend that he stayed. It would be cool. Like stayed alive forever. But. But Jesus was resurrected not to die again as. As Luffy.

Resuscitated with the danger of one day dying again. Or is he like now a sun God? S u n Not S o n Sun God.

James Demmel: 00:29:14

I will say he's probably resuscitated with the chance of dying again because other. There has been confirmed two other people that have had this power before.

Will Rose: 00:29:23

Gotcha.

James Demmel: 00:29:23

That have died. But the way it's set up is that like the power itself gets passed from generation to generation through like worthy successor.

So the power itself has a will of its own. So resuscitated and kind of resurrected too.

Will Rose: 00:29:38

Yeah.

James Demmel: 00:29:39

Reincarnated.

Will Rose: 00:29:40

Yeah. And we get to some of that on. On Easter Sunday too. You know, in terms of. It's not just Jesus is back from the dead to die again.

There's others who've been resuscitated. You know, a miracle that happens in the book of Acts is. Is Are.

Are the apostles and the disciples doing the same kind of miracles that Jesus had done and resuscitating people. Bringing people back from the dead. Kind of similar to what Jesus did when he was healing people. But. But Jesus is a different. A different entity.

Third person of the Trinity or second person of Trinity and someone who is resurrected and that where death doesn't have the final word, where there's no end game. There's no end game with. With Jesus. Alex. There's not going to end. It's going to. He's there with a new story. And so that's super cool.

Well, I do plan to keep reading one piece. And I will forget what happens to Luffy as I'm reading. And at some point I'm going to. We Talked about this years ago on a seismic ecology podcast.

Same way with you, Alex. You can hop right in. I'm sure there's lots of volumes and episodes that you will get caught up in the story and forget.

James Demmel: 00:30:42

It's all fun and it's all worth it, even apart from this. Yeah. Moment. So.

Will Rose: 00:30:48

Love it. Love it. Cool. Well, I'll listen. It's hard to beat those two. Those are good stories. I feel like mine's kind of like, you know, not.

It's not a competition, but it's hard to beat. Beat those. But I. Mine. My favorite surprise return is Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier in Marvel Comics.

You know, a lot of people die in back all the time. The good thing about the comic book medium is that there's that final page reveal. You're like, oh, my gosh, that villain's back. That hero's back.

Oh, my gosh, I can't. I thought they were dead. I thought they were sucked out an airlock. I thought they were caught up in a black hole. But here they are. They're back.

And there were two Marvel characters that were kind of untouchable, that you were like an unwritten rule that you just don't bring them back. They stay dead forever. And that was Uncle Ben from Spider man and to Bucky Barnes from Captain America.

was debuted in the comics in: 1941

or a good long time. And then: 1964

And Stan Lee brought Steve Rogers out of Susten, suspended animation out of an ice block, and brought him back to join with the Avengers. And as captain of. Of the Avengers, it was kind of established there in the 60s that, yeah, his sidekick Bucky Barnes was killed in an explosion.

And there you have it. That's why he didn't survive, but Steve did. So they had a good run for a good long time. Decades went by where Cap grieved the loss of his friend.

But then in: 2005

From Russia and the Cold War who are, you know, kind of post Cold War assassin who's taking people out called the Winter Soldier. And we just don't know who it is. Well, later it's revealed in issue five and then six that this is Bucky Barnes.

And so he's just been brainwashed by the Soviet Union and kind of snagged up. He didn't die in that explosion. He lost a limb, he lost an arm. And then they put him in sustenance, suspended animation.

Then brainwashed to be like this spy forgetting who he was. And then. But Captain America got through to him caugh cosmic cubedom to bring his memories back.

He was able to get that cybernetic arm back and became. Became a hero again.

So that for me was while reading that comic in that comic book run was just kind of peak comics and surprised that you bring Bucky Barnes back. But then it was so good that Marvel made a whole movie out of it in their MCU lineup. And I would say one of my favorite MCU movies of.

Of all of them is right up there. Captain America, Black Widow kind of team up and solve the mystery of Bucky and the Winter Soldier and bring him into the fold.

So were you too familiar of that comic book run or is it just the movie that kind of brought him in for you guys?

Alex Matthews: 00:33:53

It was the movie.

Will Rose: 00:33:54

Yeah.

James Demmel: 00:33:55

Yeah, it was for me too. Go ahead. Sorry.

Alex Matthews: 00:33:59

Oh, I was just gonna say I remember like watching that movie in theater and like leaving like walking out of it sad. I don't think I like that movie as much.

Will Rose: 00:34:06

Yeah, yeah.

Alex Matthews: 00:34:07

It made me sad at the end for some reason. I don't know, but it was like. It was so good. It's just. It wasn't my fav. It's not up there, but I gotcha.

Will Rose: 00:34:17

I got you. It. It does have darker. Darker tones to it and. And mood and. And then. Yeah, I need. I watched the beginning of it last night.

Just kind of refresh my memory. I have that open and again you bring it up on your left is a good callback because, man, that's exactly what stood out to me. But I.

To finish how it ends, I. I do need to rewatch it. I do. There is somebody, a James and I friend, Jennifer.

Jennifer Shimoda went through all the MCU after encouragement of watching all the movies. And I think she was taken back by kind of the gun violence of. Of that movie.

And it was, I guess, you know, that of course, that is important issue in our day and age. And so all the other ones felt like superhero movies and had a happy ending. That one was a little bit more shoot them up and violent. She wasn't as.

As on board with that one. And I totally get that. James, what are you going to say about something about that, that movie?

James Demmel: 00:35:04

Movie? I was gonna say, I think it's one of my favorite ones. I really like the sort of thriller, spy, espionage kind of vibes behind the movie. But I think.

nk that came out, like, what,: 2014

Will Rose: 00:35:20

Yeah.

James Demmel: 00:35:21

And I love that movie because of what it did to Captain America. Questions. It made Captain America ask the questions that made us ask that.

And then the Civil War movie that followed it, the questions of what does it mean to be good? What does it mean to represent what American values are?

What does it mean to grapple with narratives that you may have been taught and lived into or according to that were really good feeling and sounding, but not true. And those narratives were used to cover up. Up some, you know, pretty nefarious things. I mean, the. The shocking part of that.

One of the most shocking parts of that movie is that Hydra is just all up in everywhere and has been manipulating things for a long time. And I think for me, I was coming out of a. Out of college.

I graduated that year in: 2014

Is it this. Is it this patriotic myth that I've been given? Or is it the story of Jesus and what happens when. What happens when those two things conflict?

And what does it mean to live out of joint, I think, with the dominant national myths that. That are told, the civil religion that we have in our country.

Will Rose: 00:37:00

Boy. And that resonates now as well, a decade later, right? Yeah. There's a disillusionment that happens there with. With Cap, you know, and.

en where he is in the. In the: 2000

And even, like, if we want to, you know, get a little.

A little sermonesque with the Easter stories, there's disillusionment with Jesus, you know, writing in on Palm Sunday thinking he's the Messiah, he's the King. Their view and understanding of what Messiah means of power is. Is literally killed before their eyes. And. But Jesus shows them a different way.

And out of that disillusionment and deconstruction, Jesus reconstructs what it means to be Messiah, what it means to be living, what it means to love, what it means to serve all those things. And that, hopefully that's what HOL Week and Easter does for us is that it kind of deconstructs our.

Our stereotypes and notions of what we think Messiah or Christ looks like. And Jesus shows a different way when it. When it comes to that. And it's what we do here at Seismic Ecology.

We let our fandom, Fandom and our favorite geeky things and our favorite stories illumine or point to the greater truths or capital T when it comes to what Christ is doing in the world, which is why we do these episodes like. Like this interesting, y'all. I had our oldest member in our church passed away. She was 106. 106. Opal.

James Demmel: 00:38:33

What a sweet lady. I remember her. Yeah.

Will Rose: 00:38:35

Opal was born in: 1918

So RIP Opal, one day we will see each other again when we are all resurrected and the Easter story rings true. So super fun, y'all. This, this. This is fun. Happy Easter. Any. Any final Easter thoughts that you want to give to our listeners today?

If not, I'm spring this on you. That's okay. But anything. Anything you want to say. You know, you got off this episode and you're like, man, I wish I'd said that.

Well, now's your chance. Now's your chance. You still may say it, like, an hour from now, but what's what? Any. Any closing remarks on Easter resurrection? Life is good.

James Demmel: 00:39:21

God wants you to be free.

Will Rose: 00:39:23

There you go, all that stuff.

James Demmel: 00:39:24

Free to be you. Which means free to be. To live into your fandoms and your geekness and all of that stuff.

Will Rose: 00:39:32

Like it. Cool. Well, friends, if. If you think it's an end game, it's not. There's.

There's lots of friends who come through portals to be on your left and your right, to be with you and walk through this day, regardless of what you achieve or not, regardless whether your Easter traditions went perfect or not. The stone is still rolled away. Christ has risen. You are loved. If you guys need anything, reach out to us.

We're here for you, and we're glad to geek out with you. Happy Easter, friends.

James Demmel: 00:40:03

Happy Easter, everyone.

Alex Matthews: 00:40:04

Happy Easter.

James Demmel: 00:40:05

Take a nap.