End Of Days 5: The Commentary

Hi there, here I will try my best to explain the End Of Days quadrilogy to you all...

The Gunslinger is a man who has supposedly travelled from the homeland (reality) through nothingness, beyond and now reached the Valley (hyper-reality).
Before descending into nothingness, The Gunslinger was a normal man — 'The Messenger' he is refereed to in End Of Days. He is the only thing stopping Lucifer's kingdom from going as he is holding on to fight his way out of the mad world The Messenger has created in his own mind. Basically, The Gunslinger best represents The Messenger from before he got trapped in his own mind, although because he is just one of The Messenger's egos he does not represent him fully.
Lucifer and The Princess are also essentially 'alter-egos' of The Messenger, but to a lesser extent.
They are all fighting for their place to occupy The Messenger's body in reality.
Lucifer represents all of the evil built up inside The Messenger, who has obviously experienced hardship as this is why he is in this unusual state. If Lucifer had of beaten The Gunslinger he would have taken the place in reality and who knows what kind of evil deeds he might have committed.
The Princess is the TG slant in this story as it is suggested that The Messenger is a crossdresser and has a slight wish to become a woman permanently; The Princess represents an entirely female side of him.

The demons that occupy 'Lucifer's Kingdom' are representative of the metaphorical demons that have held The Messenger back throughout his life, they also represent the real-life population, who showed fear and hatred towards The Messenger and thus in his mind he has become a gunslinger.

In Lucifer's kingdom; The Messenger is held prisoner — as he literally is trapped in his own mind.

Confused yet? Yeah me too, it's hard to remember what everything meant and represented at the time of writing.

In Penultimate, The Gunslinger and The Princess 'become one'. This is the discovery that The Messenger doesn't need to become a woman, nor does he need to ditch that side of him entirely. Together they are stronger and ultimately were strong enough to destroy all of the evil stored inside The Messenger (Lucifer).

Finally, here is the penultimate paragraph of the quadrilogy:
'A light. The light. What he had been chasing for so long.
A voice. The voice. From father down to son.
“I have been prisoner for many years,” it said. “But you have freed me, and my world. You have truly earned your wings. And I am glad to see peace has been made between you and your alter. Together you shall help guide me through 'till the end.”
The son reached towards the light, smiling, as it started to come towards him too.
“But first, you must make the ultimate sacrifice...”
A clattering sound grew louder, his senses started to grow, and then the light him...
The 21:12.'

This is basically The Messenger in reality thanking The Gunslinger for freeing him.
After getting hit by the light The Gunslinger earns his wings and has now become The Messenger's guardian angel. BUT HAS NOT TAKEN HIS PLACE IN REALITY AS WAS ORIGINALLY EXPECTED.
The 21:12 was a train. (The time reflects the date the world was supposed to end last year). It killed The Gunslinger as he attempted to enter reality and so now, with The Princess still inside of him, can only guide The Messenger in reality.
So this raises the question, what is The Messenger now? As none of the 3 alter-egos actually took their place as ruler of him in reality.
And so this brings us to the final scene, The Messenger is talking to a psychiatrist about The Gunslinger attempting to enter reality and how he now realizes there is an ability to let the madness inside of him out into the real world.

Right. So, I hope that covered most of the story. A lot of it was difficult to comment on looking back as I honestly have no idea what I was talking about at times! (I think I got a little carried away in the drama etc.)
After I finish gabbing about this story I am also going to post a teaser for a new one I am going to write that sort of follows on from this. (Don't worry though, it is going to be written more sensibly, and have more of TG element to it.)

I'd just like to finish my commentary by saying that this story was a complete work on fiction, not based on anyone or anything at all. It originally started as a solo story called 'Penultimate' about a boy torn between genders — it just got a whole lot darker and weirder as I went along!
Thank you for reading and I hope this commentary helped at least a little bit.

I understand this story was not really to many people's tastes but I hope to see you next time! Here's the teaser...

“There is a reason you cannot escape this place...”

Ali wiped his head of sweat, “What? What is it?”

“I'm The Reason. The Reason that you can't sleep at night, The Reason that when you close your eyes I'm standing there — cursing you.”

“You...you...”

“So you flipped out, had a little psychotic episode and ended up at the nut house. It's happened to everyone in here. But if you start thinking just for one moment that you can do to this world what you did to the one in your mind, you are sadly mistaken my friend.”

“I just want to go home... I'm sane now! I'm sane!”

The Reason smirked, “Stupid kid... Let me tell you, when I told you everyone was psychotic in this place I really meant EVERYONE.”

“But...but you're a doctor?”

“Oh it's so surprising what a white coat and glasses can do. No Ali, I am The Reason you got trapped in your mind.” The Reason bent down and looked Ali directly in the eye, “You're only nuts because I was nuts first.”