Hidden Flick: The Wilson Kingdom

Alas, the Key to the Kingdom is that Wilson only has certain pages of The Book, which would need to be obtained by any character, along with all of the other pages by a series of deciphered clues, accomplished goals, solved puzzles and triumphant battles. Translating the whole code is mandatory in order to return the entire book to the Lizards, and, eventually take the character on a journey back through the doorway, back through the Rhomboid vortex, and to the safe confines of modern times in Long Island.

And yet the Kingdom, the Wilson Kingdom found within, is really arriving, somewhere, and that place is five years ago on a DVD featuring Steven Wilson, de facto leader, guitarist, vocalist, composer, songwriter, philosopher king and producer of not only Porcupine Tree, but occasionally producer of mind soup du jour for Opeth, heady metal band, and art rock gods from Sweden, a country far away from Britain, where, in the land of many forests, and non-forests alike, King Wilson dwells. Deadwing? No, flight.

Did you ever imagine the last thing you’d hear as you’re fading out was a song?

All my designs, simplified

And all of my plans, compromised

All of my dreams, sacrificed

Ever had the feeling you’ve been here before?

– “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here,” Porcupine Tree

Fake-out tease penultimate-paragraph finale:

And the Famous Mockingbird is sent to retrieve the Helping Friendly Book from the tallest tower of Wilson’s castle, and return it to its rightful owners, the Lizards. Swooping down out of the sky, and landing on Icculus’s shoulder, the prophet whispers into the bird’s ear, and it flies off toward Wilson’s castle in the valley below. The Famous Mockingbird can be used for many challenges from retrieving the Book, to spying, to decoding passages of pages by piecing the proper sequences together.

In a sense, the Mockingbird is the secret guardian of some of the more obscure messages in the Helping Friendly Book, and must be treated with the utmost respect and intelligence, lest it leads one down the wrong path. Icculus, on the other hand, has an even darker side. Like many great mythological prophets, the complex being is a Trickster God, more akin to using its vast mind as a metaphysical plaything rather than serving as a kind, benevolent overlord. Woe to those who don’t understand, or appreciate the eccentric motives of Icculus.

Taut finish:

Woe to those who forget that Gamehendge is a State of Mind, and also ignore the Wonderful World of the Tree, Porcupine, for within this 2005 hidden, dark concert film are illuminating sights and sounds; indeed, another Wilson Kingdom, which displays the counterpoint of harmonies, heavy and soft, tight but loose, a veritable werckmeister, ahh…work maestro of sweet strands of imagery as the band hits a Chicago stage in 2005, with a clenched fist that always seems to play as if its palm is open, allowing melodies and ideas to drift outwards, away from the original point, and flying onwards…flight, no?

To be counterpointed…

Randy Ray

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