The Shane to her Joey

"It was a bright and sunny morning. My least favorite part of the day. After everything that's happened, it all laid to rest and we all started over. Once the bad blood has been settled, and I've forgiven Luan for pranking me the previous night, and promising not to hurt me, her little sister, again, we made amends and cleaned up her mess. But as I peeked back into the room where Logan, an alternate version of Lynn from another universe, is sleeping, I stumbled upon something, that piqued my curiosity.

She was watching something on TV. And it was a film. Except it was something that neither me nor Luan had ever heard before. I mean literally. It's not even in the online encyclopedia.

It was the 1953 Western called "Shane". Logan didn't mind that me and Luan get to try it for the first time ever. She said that apparently, some mystical cube sent items from her universe into this dump of all places. This movie was among them.

Seeing it with my own concealed eyes, it was unlike anything I've ever seen in my entire existence. The lush, beautiful landscape, the characters, and even the screenplay. It was directed by George Stevens and based on a novel.

Granted, I'm not a huge fan of Westerns in general, but seeing this made me appreciate that there was more to life than being interested in the macabre, not that I've never been there before. I did.

But there's that one part in particular that made me truly appreciate the film. The ending.

When Shane made it clear to Joey that right and wrong is merely a brand that sticks, and that killing is something that's going to be a part of you for life once done and gone, it made me realise that there's some sort of parallel that's happened with me and Logan.

I was Joey, the little kid. Logan... she was Shane. A rogue. A cowboy. A drifter just passing by like a tumbleweed, whose morals are as turbulent as that tumbleweed, with her own very set of codes that I shouldn't dare cross. To her, right and wrong are merely ideologies that one made up but can't fully grasp. She's willing to kill even if it saves me. And Luan... well she was Ryker: the bully who relishes in the suffering of others.

Shane had guts. Logan had guts. She did what my sisters and parents couldn't do. Face the monster in the eye and standing up for the weak. Like Joey and his family. Like me.

I was like Joey. She was Like Shane.

She's the Shane to my Joey."

Wolverine, created by Len Wein and John Romita, ©MARVEL

Shane and The Loud House, ©Paramount