Arthur Dent wrote:ghostrunner wrote:I did feel a couple times like I was losing my understanding of what was a dream and what was real, and in a way that didn't feel intentional. A little confused too about how Jemaine Clement is suddenly out of his diver suit in the real world - I suppose you're meant to think David zapped him out?
I'm not totally clear on the mechanics, but I understood that Jemaine Clement had the ability to access the "astral plane" on his own and had just sort of gotten lost there ultimately losing interest in the real world. He's back in the real world because he has a reason to be.
I'm also unclear at what the astral plane is. I had assumed it was some kind of kind of mental space constructed and shared by David, but I guess it's actually some kind of unique parallel dimension given that David and Jemaine meet there.
That's an interesting idea.
Yeah, the Astral Plane is basically a shared parallel dimension. Mutants with some form of mental powers can access it (among others: Jean Grey, Professor X, Shadow King, Legion, Psylocke, etc) but it can be entered by non-psychic mutants as well - although it usually requires one of them to have been possessed first. The Shadow King has basically existed there since the dawn of time, but he doesn't really have an actual human form - he's more of just like the immortal spirit of evil - that's why he possesses the minds of humans/mutants and essentially lives vicariously through them in the real world.
There are places on Earth where it is easier to access the Astral Plane than others. One spot is Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, which is was usually the Shadow King's preferred spot to access the real world. At one point in the comics he was in Cairo as Amahl Farouk, and had possessed Ororo Munroe (aka Storm) to be a thief and try to pickpocket Professor X. Xavier and Farouk fought on the Astral Plane, Xavier won and locked him up in the Astral Plane hoping he wouldn't escape. He then formed the X-Men as this was like his first ever contact with an evil mutant.
If you watched X-Men: Apocalypse last year, the Astral Plane is where Apocalypse was fighting Professor X (and ultimately Jean Grey). Regular laws of physics don't apply - it's a battle of whoever has the more powerful mind/mental ability. The Shadow King appears a bunch in the old early-90s X-Men animated series (sidenote: I recently downloaded the entire series and re-watched it... God I loved that show as a 10 year old) - he usually possesses Storm's son, who still lives with his African tribe near Mt. Kilimanjaro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_King
