In a world where sadness and negativity are the norm, a world where suicide is an epidemic and a joke all at the same time, I chose to delve deep into my imagination and create a world for myself where no one suffers, or rather no one chooses to give into and adapt with the suffering. In fact, I do think that doing so with the current norm of negativity is even worse than being negative at all. But during one of my travels in La La Land, I thought of the multiverses those famous comic book brands keep talking about, and I thought to myself, “what if one superhero’s superpower was positive energy? What if positive energy came in visible, glowing orbs, and a superhero was capable of using that as a shield or as a weapon to fight the hatred and the sadness? What if that hero was an entity that consists of hundreds, maybe thousands, of loving, happy, peaceful souls that were all fused into one being for the purpose of bringing back hope and peace to the world?”
I personally don’t have a radical system of thought. I do understand that we all don’t have to be hopeful and optimistic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; we also need to know when to fight back against those who impose themselves on our personal freedom and stand in our way of finding happiness. But to balance things, I believe we need a hero. This hero I dub Captain Hope.
Captain Hope doesn’t need the ability to fly or climb buildings. He is in no need of X-ray vision or supersonic speed. His power, as mentioned, is positive energy. You’d find him in the street walking when suddenly a sad bunch of bullies harass a poor kid and try to steal his lunch money. He’d run to help the kid and banish those bullies from whence they came with his orbs of positivity, and when the coast becomes clear he’d help the kid back on his feet and assure him with an honest, comforting smile, that everything will be okay. He’d encounter a depressed teenager, moments away from falling off a bridge and into certain death, who swore to back away from committing suicide if only one person in this miserable world smiles at her. He’d run to her and prevent what could be the loss of another pure, kind soul on this green earth, and ask what happened that led to this horrible decision, so that with his shield of hope he can protect her from the unforgiving and deceitful nature of those around her. He’d walk in a battlefield just to repel the attacks of both armies with his sonic waves of peace, just to let the armies, the generals, and even the governments, know that war never solves anything.
Some of you might say that Captain Hope isn’t immortal or immune to the loss of mana. He may not be invincible, but in my head, when Captain Hope is wounded from an assault of hatred, that’s never the ending. Captain Hope knows that no one else is going to do his job for him, and that he has no one else to pass the torch to, so he takes his time to recover and replenish his energy, then strikes back and defeats all the villains in one fell swoop, and wins. Not because the plot demands it, but because that would be a somehow realistic and fair ending to all we’ve been through as humans. It would be unfair that evil prevails in the end, but some of you may have gone through too much to concede with my idea of a happy ending for everyone.
Captain Hope understands.
But who is Captain Hope’s arch enemy? To me it’s an entity that represents everything wrong with the world: hatred, envy, corrupt authority, misused liberty, greed, ignorance, mindless murder, discrimination of all sorts, and many others. I dub this entity Demonius.
But why isn’t Captain Hope’s enemy those who represent, speak and do all of these things? I believe it’s because Demonius has them possessed, and that might sound like something Satan would do, but how I see it, Demonius has done much more atrocities to the world we live in than Satan, Lucifer, and their minions combined. Demonius uses his power to encourage people to unleash their rage at each other, and wear hatred like a crown, resulting in what could be the imminent death of love and compassion, and that’s when Captain Hope runs to the rescue.
The fight between Captain Hope and Demonius never ends. It is a constant fight to maintain the balance of the universe between love and hate, good and evil, compassion and hatred, understanding and prejudice, in a world that is dominated by darkness and despair. But has anyone ever thought of this as another way to perceive reality? Has anyone thought that Captain Hope and Demonius are real?
Here’s the answer you need to know: they are real. And here’s a better answer: at this point you are either one of the hopeful, peaceful, good souls that comprise the being of Captain Hope, one of those possessed by Demonius’ pure evil and mischief, or a soul that both Captain Hope and Demonius are struggling to bring either to Captain Hope’s light or to Demonius’ hell.
Let me word it better: There can be a Captain Hope in all of us.
Captain Hope is your friend who sees that you’re visibly upset and does everything to cheer you up and help you solve your problems without violence. A soul possessed by Demonius is the friend that sees you pouting and encourages you to solve your problems with rage. Captain Hope is the person who smiles at the world, is always a giver, and doesn’t expect anything in return, because that’s what heroes do. A soul possessed by Demonius is the person who sees an opportunity to smile or say something nice, but chooses to do the opposite thinking it vents out the rage when it only harms people who did not deserve to be met with such edge. Captain Hope is the person who has love and peace that can suffice all of the Milky Way, and not a single person can shame them into believing that doing this doesn’t make a difference no matter how little. A person possessed by Demonius has already dug their own and everyone else’s graves, because, to them, greeting death with open arms is their last and only solution they have to end the suffering, even when it’s never too late to come back into the light.
If a superhero comic book brand thought of a hero like Captain Hope, they’d probably think it’s extremely unrealistic and static. They’d immediately say, “who the hell would want to see a superhero that shoots orbs of positive energy and uses hope and love as a holographic shield? There wouldn’t be an arc in the story! We’re talking about the immediate bankruptcy of our brand here!” But to them I say, if there’s a hero that the world really needs right now, a hero that we all deserve, they won't be built with your unrealistic standards for a hero. In a world like this where wrong is right and right is wrong and people are in constant confusion and despair… we do not only need Captain Hope – we all need to fuse into the one being that calls itself Captain Hope, and together, we can and will prevail. Captain Hope is, indeed, in all of us.