In philosophy , religion , and psychology , " good and evil " is a common dichotomy . In religions with Manichaean and Abrahamic influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic antagonistic opposite of good , in which good should prevail and evil should be defeated.
169-452: Valérian and Laureline ( French : Valérian et Laureline ), originally titled Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent ( French : Valérian, agent spatio-temporel ) and also commonly known as Valérian , is a French science fiction comics series, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières . It was first published in Pilote magazine in 1967; the final installment
338-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process
507-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,
676-406: A distinction "right and wrong, good and bad" are cultural universals . The philosopher Zoroaster simplified the pantheon of early Iranian gods into two opposing forces: Ahura Mazda ( Illuminating Wisdom ) and Angra Mainyu ( Destructive Spirit ) which were in conflict. This idea developed into a religion which spawned many sects , some of which embraced an extreme dualistic belief that
845-415: A doubt occurs to the mind—that is, scorpions and serpents are poisonous. Are they good or evil, for they are existing beings? Yes, a scorpion is evil in relation to man; a serpent is evil in relation to man; but in relation to themselves they are not evil, for their poison is their weapon, and by their sting they defend themselves." Thus, evil is more of an intellectual concept than a true reality. Since God
1014-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
1183-565: A major influence on the series. Christin has also cited the whodunit genre—notably novels by Georges Simenon and Ed McBain —as an influence on Valérian since they taught him, as a writer, that all characters in a narrative must be seen to have motivations. Mézières's drawings in the early albums were influenced by such " comic-dynamic " artists as Morris ( Lucky Luke ), André Franquin ( Spirou et Fantasio ) and Jack Davis ( Mad magazine ), leading Jean-Pierre Andrevon to refer to Valérian as "a kind of Lucky Luke of space-time". As
1352-488: A man of action than sitting around pondering what course to take next. The early stories present Valérian as a typical square-jawed hero figure, who is strong and dependable (although an early running joke was that despite being a time-traveller he is always running late, especially when summoned by his boss). However, as the series progresses, he is increasingly portrayed as somewhat knuckle-headed. In World Without Stars ( Le Pays sans étoile ), he gets recklessly drunk on
1521-446: A metre tall, resembling flightless birds with a snout instead of a beak . Shingouz have a high alcohol tolerance and preference for strong alcoholic beverages , which they consume in large quantities. The Shingouz society is capitalist to the extreme. Shingouz want a profit from everything they do. They are especially adept in trading important and sensitive information to interested parties. Valérian and Laureline have struck up
1690-492: A moral absolute). The idea was further developed in Late Antiquity by Neoplatonists , Gnostics , and Church Fathers . This development from the relative or habitual to the absolute is also evident in the terms ethics and morality both being derived from terms for "regional custom", Greek ήθος and Latin mores , respectively (see also siðr ). According to the classical definition of Augustine of Hippo , sin
1859-583: A number of prestigious awards, including the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême . An animated television series , Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline , was released in 2007, and a feature film directed by Luc Besson , Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , was released in 2017. The original setting for the series was the 28th century. Humanity has discovered the means of travelling instantaneously through time and space. The capital of Earth, Galaxity,
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#17327873596172028-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
2197-611: A positive existence in itself and is merely the lack of good, just as darkness is the result of lack of light. In Judaism, yetzer hara is the congenital inclination to do evil, by violating the will of God. The term is drawn from the phrase "the imagination of the heart of man [is] evil" ( יֵצֶר לֵב הָאָדָם רַע , yetzer lev-ha-adam ra ), which occurs twice at the beginning of the Torah. Genesis 6:5 and 8:21. The Hebrew word "yetzer" having appeared twice in Genesis occurs again at
2366-490: A proposed adaptation of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky 's novel Hard to Be a God for director Peter Fleischmann . This film was eventually finished in 1989 though Mézières's concepts for the film were barely used. The art Mézières produced for both projects was later published in Mézières Extras . In 1991 Mézières began work producing concept art for the director Luc Besson for his film The Fifth Element . When
2535-543: A relationship with a group of three Shingouz who have a particularly useful network of contacts in all the major space communities. They are especially fond of Laureline, which she often uses to her advantage in striking favourable deals with them. In the feature film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , the Shingouz are replaced with the similar negotiating species Dogan Daguis. Childhood friends Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin had previously collaborated on
2704-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
2873-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and
3042-526: A second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only
3211-941: A second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as
3380-503: A spatio-temporal jump, a sort of hyperspace drive enabling near-instant transportation anywhere in space and time. The initial albums were generally straightforward good versus evil adventure stories. However, thanks to Pierre Christin's interest in politics , sociology , and ethnology , as the series progressed the situations typically arose from misunderstandings or ideological differences between various groups that could be resolved through reason and perseverance. The core theme of
3549-488: A special mention by the jury at the 1992 Angoulême International Comics Festival in the Prix Jeunesse 9–12 ans (Youth Prize 9–12 years) category. Valérian has also been nominated for a Haxtur Award in 1995 for The Circles of Power and for a Harvey Award in 2005 for The New Future Trilogy , an English-language compilation of three of the albums. Valérian first appeared on 9 November 1967 in issue #420 of
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#17327873596173718-470: A theological concept, as an "unjustifiable reality. In common parlance, evil is 'something' that occurs in experience that ought not to be ." According to 1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all of evil" In Mormonism , mortal life is viewed as a test of faith, where one's choices are central to the Plan of Salvation. See Agency (LDS Church) . Evil is that which keeps one from discovering
3887-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in
4056-539: A worker in a rocketship factory to that of a taxi driver who flies his cab around a Rubanis-inspired futuristic New York City . Mézières produced further concept drawings for Besson, including flying taxi cabs. He also re-used certain aspects of the design of the space liner seen in the 1988 Valérian album On the Frontiers for the Fhloston Paradise liner seen in second half of the film. The Fifth Element
4225-524: A yet unspecified form. The first Valérian album to be translated into English was Ambassador of the Shadows which was serialised across four issues of the magazine Heavy Metal in 1981 (Volume 4, Number 10 (January 1981) to Volume 5, Number 1 (April 1981)). Ambassador of the Shadows was later republished in English in album format as were World Without Stars , Welcome to Alflolol and Heroes of
4394-402: Is ethics , of which there are three major branches: normative ethics concerning how we ought to behave, applied ethics concerning particular moral issues, and metaethics concerning the nature of morality itself. Every language has a word expressing good in the sense of "having the right or desirable quality" ( ἀρετή ) and bad in the sense "undesirable". A sense of moral judgment and
4563-399: Is "a word, deed, or desire in opposition to the eternal law of God." Many medieval Christian theologians both broadened and narrowed the basic concept of Good and evil until it came to have several, sometimes complex definitions such as: Today the basic dichotomy often breaks down along these lines: The modern English word evil ( Old English yfel ) and its cognates such as
4732-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French
4901-478: Is Galaxity's contact on 20th-century Earth. He makes his first appearance in Métro Châtelet, Direction Cassiopeia . He is a retired gentleman who drives an obsolete Renault 4CV and lives in the suburbs of Paris , France. He maintains a wide range of contacts in government and scientific circles as well as with many experts in fields outside the mainstream such as ufology , telepathy , and sorcery . He
5070-786: Is Laureline who questions the ethics of some of the jobs they are forced to take to make ends meet, notably in The Living Weapons ( Les Armes Vivantes ). Despite being independent and efficacious, Laureline is not afraid to exploit her considerable sex appeal if it is to her advantage. For example, she attracts the attention of the Emperor of Valsennar in World Without Stars and, dressed in leather gear and boots, she manipulates Crocbattler and Rackalust in Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos and regularly charms
5239-779: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French
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5408-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English
5577-431: Is also a pigeon fancier and uses his carrier pigeons to relay messages between some of his contacts. Unlike Valérian he tries to avoid getting involved in the thick of the action and never acts impulsively, always preferring to take his time about things. He enjoys the finer things in life: gourmet cuisine, fine wines and likes to take things easy. The character of Albert is partially influenced by that of August Faust,
5746-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given
5915-667: Is also the second pāramitā . Sīla is also wholehearted commitment to what is wholesome. Two aspects of sīla are essential to the training: right "performance" ( caritta ), and right "avoidance" ( varitta ). Honoring the precepts of sīla is considered a "great gift" (mahadana) to others, because it creates an atmosphere of trust, respect, and security. It means the practitioner poses no threat to another person's life, property, family, rights, or well-being. Moral instructions are included in Buddhist scriptures or handed down through tradition. Most scholars of Buddhist ethics thus rely on
6084-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including
6253-462: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share
6422-467: Is an ethical compass within self and relationships, rather than what is associated with the English word "morality" (i.e., obedience, a sense of obligation, and external constraint). Sīla is one of the three practices foundational to Buddhism and the non-sectarian Vipassana movement ; sīla, samādhi , and paññā as well as the Theravadin foundations of sīla , dāna , and bhavana . It
6591-465: Is attributed to the existence of free will and human agency . Some argue that evil itself is ultimately based in an ignorance of truth (i.e., human value, sanctity , divinity ). A variety of thinkers have alleged the opposite, by suggesting that evil is learned as a consequence of tyrannical social structures . In Confucianism and Taoism , there is no direct analogue to the way good and evil are opposed, although references to demonic influence
6760-554: Is characterized by its vivid depictions of the alien worlds and species Valérian and Laureline encounter on their adventures. The series is considered a landmark in European comics and pop culture, and influenced other media as well; traces of its concepts, storylines and designs can be found in science fiction films such as Star Wars and The Fifth Element . Many of the stories have been translated into several languages, including English. The series has received recognition through
6929-468: Is common in Chinese folk religion . Confucianism's primary concern is with correct social relationships and the behavior appropriate to the learned or superior man. Evil would thus correspond to wrong behavior. Still less does it map into Taoism, in spite of the centrality of dualism in that system , but the opposite of the basic virtues of Taoism (compassion, moderation, and humility) can be inferred to be
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7098-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in
7267-485: Is forced to bring her back with him to Galaxity where she is trained as a Spatio-Temporal Agent and assigned as his partner. In the early stories, Laureline generally sits in the background while Valérian saves the day in whatever situation the pair have found themselves, but her position changes as the series develops. World Without Stars , the fourth serial published in Pilote , the two characters are separated for most of
7436-603: Is good, and upon creating creation he confirmed it by saying it is Good (Genesis 1:31) evil cannot have a true reality. Christian theology draws its concept of evil from the Old and New Testaments . The Christian Bible exercises "the dominant influence upon ideas about God and evil in the Western world." In the Old Testament, evil is understood to be an opposition to God as well as something unsuitable or inferior such as
7605-519: Is good. Spinoza assumes a quasi-mathematical style and states these further propositions which he purports to prove or demonstrate from the above definitions in part IV of his Ethics : Friedrich Nietzsche , in a rejection of Judeo-Christian morality, addresses this in two books, Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morals . In these works, he states that the natural, functional, "non-good" has been socially transformed into
7774-503: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
7943-544: Is independent from and equal with good in a dualistic sense. Within Islam, it is considered essential to believe that all comes from God , whether it is perceived as good or bad by individuals; and things that are perceived as evil or bad are either natural events (natural disasters or illnesses) or caused by humanity's free will to disobey God's orders. According to the Ahmadiyya understanding of Islam, evil does not have
8112-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from
8281-462: Is known in Denmark) who believes the character of Liva is in fact Linda (i.e. Laureline). Jean-Claude Mézières himself has worked as a concept artist on a number of science fiction film projects. The first of these was in 1984 for director Jeremy Kagan who was attempting to adapt René Barjavel 's novel La Nuit des temps ( The Ice People ). The film was never made. This was followed, in 1985, by
8450-509: Is non-existent and that it is a concept for the lacking of good, just as cold is the state of no heat, darkness is the state of no light, forgetfulness the lacking of memory, ignorance the lacking of knowledge. All of these are states of lacking and have no real existence. Thus, evil does not exist, and is relative to man. `Abdu'l-Bahá , son of the founder of the religion, in Some Answered Questions states: "Nevertheless,
8619-585: Is of major importance in both the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata . However, the main emphasis in Hinduism is on bad action, rather than bad people. The Hindu holy text, the Bhagavad Gita , speaks of the balance of good and evil. When this balance goes off, divine incarnations come to help to restore this balance, as a balance must be maintained for peace and harmony in the world. In adherence to
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#17327873596178788-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in
8957-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for
9126-494: Is one of three sections of the Noble Eightfold Path , and is a code of conduct that embraces a commitment to harmony and self-restraint with the principal motivation being nonviolence , or freedom from causing harm. It has been variously described as virtue , moral discipline and precept . Sīla is an internal, aware, and intentional ethical behavior, according to one's commitment to the path of liberation. It
9295-545: Is something external to them, because they project their shadow onto others. Jung interpreted the story of Jesus as an account of God facing his own shadow. In 2007, Philip Zimbardo suggested that people may act in evil ways as a result of a collective identity . This hypothesis, based on his previous experience from the Stanford prison experiment , was published in the book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil . The Baháʼí Faith asserts that evil
9464-576: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
9633-456: Is that necessarily makes a thing valuable, or in what the source of value consists. One attempt to define goodness describes it as a property of the world with Platonic idealism . According to this claim, to talk about the good is to talk about something real that exists in the object itself, independent of the perception of it. Plato advocated this view, in his expression that there is such a thing as an eternal realm of forms or ideas, and that
9802-422: Is that the good is based on the natural love, bonding, and affection that begins at the earliest stages of personal development; another is that goodness is a product of knowing truth . Differing views also exist as to why evil might arise. Many religious and philosophical traditions claim that evil behavior is an aberration that results from the imperfect human condition (e.g. " The Fall of Man "). Sometimes, evil
9971-579: Is the centre of the vast Terran Galactic Empire. Earth itself has become a virtual utopia with most of the population living a life of leisure in a virtual reality dream-state ruled by the benign Technocrats of the First Circle. The Spatio-Temporal Service protects the planets of the Terran Empire and guards against temporal paradoxes caused by rogue time-travellers. Valérian and Laureline are two such spatio-temporal agents. However, since
10140-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure
10309-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in
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#173278735961710478-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially
10647-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism
10816-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of
10985-462: The Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as
11154-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
11323-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
11492-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
11661-509: The Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote , and every Valérian story from Bad Dreams to The Wrath of Hypsis was initially serialised in Pilote . The second Valérian story, The City of Shifting Waters ( La Cité des Eaux Mouvantes ), was the first to be collected in graphic novel album format by Dargaud . Since On the Frontiers , every Valérian story has debuted in album format. Seven short stories were also published in
11830-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
11999-420: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
12168-519: The Scandinavian languages ( Danish , Icelandic , Norwegian and Swedish ) (as Linda og/och Valentin ), Finnish (as Valerian ja Laureline and previously as Avaruusagentti Valerianin seikkailuja ), Spanish , Portuguese (as Valérian, agente espácio-temporal ), Serbian (as Valerijan ), Italian , Turkish , Polish , Indonesian and Standard Chinese . "Intégrale' editions have been published in several of these languages as well, of which
12337-901: The Shingouz when negotiating with them for information. She has appeared nude in some adventures. Mézières drew a picture of her for the French edition of Playboy in 1987. She also has a certain affinity for animals such as the Alflololian Goumon in Welcome to Alflolol , the Grumpy Converter from Bluxte, first seen in Ambassador of the Shadows , and the Tüm Tüm (de Lüm) and the Tchoung-Tracer , both introduced in On
12506-549: The Star Wars characters Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa meeting Valérian and Laureline in a bar surrounded by a bestiary of alien creatures typical of that seen in both series. "Fancy meeting you here!" says Leia. "Oh, we've been hanging around here for a long time!" retorts Laureline. Mézières has since been informed that Doug Chiang , design director on The Phantom Menace , kept a set of Valérian albums in his library. Mézières has also noticed similarities between some of
12675-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
12844-547: The XB27 , which transports him to the various relay stations that Galaxity has hidden throughout time (e.g. in Les Mauvais Rêves ( Bad Dreams ) the relay is hidden below a tavern). In subsequent stories Valérian and Laureline use the saucer-shaped Astroship XB982 , which made its debut appearance in 1969 in the short story The Great Collector ( Le Grand Collectionneur ). The astroship is able to travel anywhere using
13013-609: The digest-sized Super Pocket Pilote in 1969 and 1970 and later collected in Across the Pathways of Space ( Par Les Chemins De l’Espace ) in 1997. The series was originally published under the title Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent . However, with the publication of The Order of the Stones in 2007, the series now goes under the title Valérian and Laureline . On 22 January 2010, the last album, L'OuvreTemps ( The Time Opener ),
13182-515: The material world should be shunned and the spiritual world should be embraced. Gnostic ideas influenced many ancient religions which teach that gnosis (variously interpreted as enlightenment, salvation , emancipation or 'oneness with God' ) may be reached by practising philanthropy to the point of personal poverty, sexual abstinence (as far as possible for hearers , total for initiates ) and diligently searching for wisdom by helping others. Similarly, in ancient Egypt , there were
13351-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
13520-781: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
13689-703: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
13858-917: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
14027-538: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of
14196-515: The Equinox and Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos . When Galaxity disappears in The Wrath of Hypsis he contemplates following his fellows into oblivion, much to Laureline's horror. Even afterwards, he feels the loss of Galaxity much more than Laureline, as it is his birthplace. The name Valérian comes from Eastern Europe, although its origin is Latin, from valere ("to be strong"). Valérian
14365-405: The Equinox by the short-lived Dargaud-USA and Dargaud-Canada between 1981 and 1984 and in the United Kingdom by Hodder-Dargaud in 1984 and 1985. In 1989 it was announced that NBM Publishing were going to reissue the four English language albums published by Dargaud-USA and also release a translation of Empire of a Thousand Planets but nothing seems to have come of this. Heroes of the Equinox
14534-417: The Frontiers ( Sur les Frontières ). The name "Laureline" was invented by Mézières and Christin who were seeking a name that would sound "medieval" and "soft". The name has proven popular and there are now several thousand women in France named Laureline, the first one born in 1968, just a year after the publication of Bad Dreams . There have also been variations such as "Loreline" and "Laurelyne". Laureline
14703-667: The German Übel and Dutch euvel are widely considered to come from a Proto-Germanic reconstructed form of *ubilaz , comparable to the Hittite huwapp- ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European form *wap- and suffixed zero-grade form *up-elo- . Other later Germanic forms include Middle English evel , ifel , ufel , Old Frisian evel (adjective and noun), Old Saxon ubil , Old High German ubil , and Gothic ubils . The nature of being good has been given many treatments; one
14872-484: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained
15041-505: The Martian (a childhood favourite of Mézières), Roger Lecureux and Raymond Poivet 's Les Pionniers de l'Espérance (The Pioneers of Hope) (which Christin found tired and repetitive) and Jean-Claude Forest 's Barbarella . Barbarella is famous for its strong female titular character, but Christin has denied any influence on the character of Laureline, stating that she was inspired by Simone de Beauvoir 's The Second Sex as well as
15210-655: The Ultralum ( Otages de l'Ultralum ) won a Tournesal award, given to the comic that best reflects the ideals of the Green Party , at the 1997 Angoulême International Comics Festival . The encyclopedia of the alien creatures found in the Valérian universe Les Habitants du Ciel: Atlas Cosmique de Valérian et Laureline ( The Inhabitants of the Sky: The Cosmic Atlas of Valerian and Laureline ) received
15379-557: The adventure, with Laureline stepping out from under Valérian's shadow for the first time, and she proves to be more than an equal to Valérian in ensuring that their mission succeeds. Welcome to Alflolol ( Bienvenue sur Alflolol ) brings Laureline's rebellious nature to the fore; unlike Valérian, she has not been born and raised by Galaxity and is prepared not only to question Galaxity's authorities but to rebel openly against them when their orders run contrary to her sense of morality. It also demonstrates her impulsive streak; she sides with
15548-414: The albums On the Frontiers , The Living Weapons and The Circles of Power in one volume reduced to standard American graphic novel size. These were the only Valérian stories iBooks published and the company has since declared bankruptcy. Since July 2010, UK publisher Cinebook has been publishing English language editions of Valérian. These began at a rate of one volume every six months. However, as
15717-456: The analogue of evil in it. Pyrrhonism holds that good and evil do not exist by nature, meaning that good and evil do not exist within the things themselves. All judgments of good and evil are relative to the one doing the judging. Benedict de Spinoza states: 1. By good, I understand that which we certainly know is useful to us. 2. By evil, on the contrary I understand that which we certainly know hinders us from possessing anything that
15886-620: The artist Pepo Pérez likens to " National Geographic , but on a cosmic scale". Valérian was born on Earth, in Galaxity, capital of the Terran Galactic Empire in the 28th century. He joined the Spatio-Temporal Service in the year 2713. He has been trained to think that Galaxity is always right – even when he receives orders that go against his morals he will, reluctantly, follow them. He much prefers to be
16055-459: The basic meanings of κακός and ἀγαθός are "bad, cowardly" and "good, brave, capable", and their absolute sense emerges only around 400 BC, with pre-Socratic philosophy , in particular Democritus . Morality in this absolute sense solidifies in the dialogues of Plato , together with the emergence of monotheistic thought (notably in Euthyphro , which ponders the concept of piety ( τὸ ὅσιον ) as
16224-572: The burgeoning feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, contemporary reviews of the early stories by Jean-Pierre Andrevon describe the books as "Forestian". Mézières and Christin were also heavily influenced by literary science fiction such as that by Isaac Asimov (especially The End of Eternity ), Jack Vance (especially The Blue World ), and John Brunner . Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier have also suggested that Poul Anderson 's Time Patrol books, about an official organization dedicated to protecting time from interference, are
16393-526: The cinematic release of Luc Besson 's film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets approached, the rate increased to one every three months. Twenty-two volumes had been published by the end of 2017. Pursuant the individual softcover title releases, the publisher announced in December 2016 a complete hardcover book series, aka " Intégrales ", of Valérian, slated to launch in 2017 as Valerian - The Complete Collection . Completed in 2018, each outing in
16562-580: The colonists' home-made booze, in On the False Earths ( Sur les terres truquées ), the historian, Jadna, views him as useful only as cannon fodder and nothing else while in Heroes of the Equinox ( Les Héros de l'Equinoxe ), he comes across as woefully inadequate compared with the champions he is competing against. Although devoted to Laureline, he has been led astray by other women, such as in Heroes of
16731-406: The comic strip Le Rhum du Punch ( Rum Punch ) in 1966 while both were living and working in the United States. Upon their return to France they initially intended to create a Western strip but, with the genre already well represented in French comics thanks to Lucky Luke , Blueberry and Jerry Spring , Christin instead proposed that they turn their hand to science fiction, a genre he felt
16900-427: The concepts of Ma'at , the principle of justice, order, and cohesion, and Isfet , the principle of chaos, disorder, and decay, with the former being the power and principles which society sought to embody where the latter was such that undermined society. This correspondence can also be seen reflected in ancient Mesopotamian religion as well in the conflict between Marduk and Tiamat . In Western civilisation ,
17069-452: The core principle of spiritual evolution, the Sikh idea of evil changes depending on one's position on the path to liberation. At the beginning stages of spiritual growth, good and evil may seem neatly separated. However, once one's spirit evolves to the point where it sees most clearly, the idea of evil vanishes and the truth is revealed. In his writings Guru Arjan explains that, because God is
17238-618: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Conflict between good and evil Evil is often used to denote profound immorality . Evil has also been described as a supernatural force. Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives. However, elements that are commonly associated with evil involve unbalanced behavior involving expediency , selfishness , ignorance , or negligence . The principal study of good and evil (or morality)
17407-443: The creation of Métal Hurlant , the highly influential French comics magazine dedicated to science fiction. The influence of Valérian has been noticed in such strips as Dani Futuro [ es ; de ; it ] (by Víctor Mora and Carlos Giménez ) and Gigantik (by Mora and José Maria Cardona). The visual style of Valérian has also influenced some American comics artists, notably Walt Simonson and Gil Kane . Sometimes
17576-454: The decline of the popularity of slavery across cultures is the work of descriptive ethics , while advising that slavery be avoided is normative. Meta-ethics is the study of the fundamental questions concerning the nature and origins of the good and the evil, including inquiry into the nature of good and evil, as well as the meaning of evaluative language. In this respect, meta-ethics is not necessarily tied to investigations into how others see
17745-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
17914-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French
18083-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
18252-482: The end of the Torah: "I knew their devisings that they do". Thus from beginning to end the heart's "yetzer" is continually bent on evil, a profoundly pessimistic view of the human being. However, the Torah which began with blessing anticipates future blessing which will come as a result of God circumcising the heart in the latter days. The yetzer hara is man's misuse of things the physical body needs to survive. Thus,
18421-409: The end of the story The Wrath of Hypsis ( Les Foudres d'Hypsis ), in which Galaxity disappears from space-time as a result of a temporal paradox, the pair have become freelance trouble-shooters travelling through space and time offering their services to anyone willing to hire them while also searching for their lost home. In the first two albums Valérian travels through time in a two-seater device,
18590-432: The examination of Buddhist scriptures , and the use of anthropological evidence from traditional Buddhist societies, to justify claims about the nature of Buddhist ethics. In Hinduism the concept of dharma or righteousness clearly divides the world into good and evil, and clearly explains that wars have to be waged sometimes to establish and protect dharma; this war is called Dharmayuddha . This division of good and evil
18759-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
18928-565: The first question by researching the world by use of social science, and examining the preferences that people assert. However, one may answer the second question by use of reasoning, introspection, prescription, and generalization. The former kind of method of analysis is called " descriptive ", because it attempts to describe what people actually view as good or evil; while the latter is called " normative ", because it tries to actively prohibit evils and cherish goods. These descriptive and normative approaches can be complementary. For example, tracking
19097-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,
19266-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being
19435-595: The good inclination is "born" and able to control his behavior. Moreover, the rabbis have stated: "The greater the man, the greater his [evil] inclination." Buddhist ethics are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha , or other enlightened beings such as Bodhisattvas . The Indian term for ethics or morality used in Buddhism is Śīla or sīla ( Pāli ). Śīla in Buddhism
19604-419: The good, or of asserting what is good. A satisfying formulation of goodness is valuable because it might allow one to construct a good life or society by reliable processes of deduction, elaboration, or prioritization. One could answer the ancient question, "How should we then live?" among many other important related questions. It has long been thought that this question can best be answered by examining what it
19773-489: The greatest of the ideas and the essence of being was goodness, or The good. The good was defined by many ancient Greeks and other ancient philosophers as a perfect and eternal idea, or blueprint. The good is the right relation between all that exists, and this exists in the mind of the Divine, or some heavenly realm. The good is the harmony of a just political community, love, friendship, the ordered human soul of virtues , and
19942-462: The impact of Valérian has gone beyond mere influence; following a complaint by Mézières, the artist Angus McKie admitted that several panels of his strip So Beautiful and So Dangerous were copied from Ambassador of the Shadows . Outside of comics, the Valérian series has been particularly influential on science fiction and fantasy film. Several commentators, such as Kim Thompson of The Comics Journal , film critic Jean-Philippe Guerand and
20111-454: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
20280-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon
20449-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,
20618-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what
20787-424: The later, aforementioned Cinebook version and those of its international companions incidentally, were merely slightly updated editions, only enhanced with a long interview with the two creators and film director Luc Besson, spread over the individual volumes of the collection. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )
20956-799: The leader of the fallen angels Satan . In the New Testament the Greek word poneros is used to indicate unsuitability, while kakos is used to refer to opposition to God in the human realm. Officially, the Catholic Church extracts its understanding of evil from its canonical antiquity and the Dominican theologian, Thomas Aquinas , who in Summa Theologica defines evil as the absence or privation of good. French-American theologian Henri Blocher describes evil, when viewed as
21125-413: The main character in the strip The Extraordinary and Troubling Adventure of Mr August Faust ( L'extraordinaire et Troublante Aventure de M. August Faust ), written by Fred and drawn by Mézières in 1967. The Shingouz are aliens who make their first appearance in Ambassador of the Shadows and re-appear regularly throughout the subsequent albums. They are brown, short-furred creatures, slightly less than
21294-498: The mind and lead one astray from the prosecution of righteous action. These are: One who gives in to the temptations of the Five Thieves is known as " Manmukh ", or someone who lives selfishly and without virtue. Inversely, the " Gurmukh , who thrive in their reverence toward divine knowledge, rise above vice via the practice of the high virtues of Sikhism. These are: In the originally Persian religion of Zoroastrianism ,
21463-418: The name Valerian early in his career. Valérian and its creators have also received recognition through a number of prestigious awards. Most notably, in 1984, Jean-Claude Mézières was honoured with the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême for his comics work, including Valérian . Mézières and Christin also received a European Science Fiction Society award for Valérian in 1987 and the album Hostages of
21632-567: The native Alflololians against Galaxity and Valérian with no thought for the personal consequences she may have to face herself. Her position as the true star of the series is cemented in Ambassador of the Shadows ( L'Ambassadeur des Ombres ), which is virtually a solo adventure for her as she searches the vast space station Point Central for the kidnapped Valérian and the Earth Ambassador. Later, when acting as independent agents, it
21801-426: The nature of God. It is believed that one must choose not to be evil to return to God. Christian Science believes that evil arises from a misunderstanding of the goodness of nature, which is understood as being inherently perfect if viewed from the correct (spiritual) perspective. Misunderstanding God's reality leads to incorrect choices, which are termed evil. This has led to the rejection of any separate power being
21970-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by
22139-460: The need for food becomes gluttony due to the yetzer hara . The need for procreation becomes promiscuity, and so on. The yetzer hara could thus be best described as one's baser instincts. It is not understood as a demonic force. According to the Talmudic tractate Avot de-Rabbi Natan , a boy's evil inclination is greater than his good inclination until he turns 13 ( bar mitzvah ), at which point
22308-499: The newspaper Libération , have noted certain similarities between the Valérian albums and the Star Wars film series. Both series are noted for the "lived-in" look given to their various settings and for the diverse alien creatures they feature. Mézières's response upon seeing Star Wars was that he was "dazzled, jealous ... and furious!". As a riposte, Mézières produced an illustration for Pilote magazine in 1983 depicting
22477-589: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;
22646-461: The orders of his superiors even if he feels, deep down, that it is the wrong thing to do. On the other hand, his partner Laureline combines her superior intelligence, determination and independence with sex appeal. Influenced by classic literary science fiction, the series mixes space opera with time travel plots. Christin's scripts are noted for their humour, complexity and strongly humanist and left-wing liberal political ideas while Mézières's art
22815-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
22984-463: The path towards goodness. It is possible to treat the essential theories of value by the use of a philosophical and academic approach. In properly analyzing theories of value, everyday beliefs are not only carefully catalogued and described , but also rigorously analyzed and judged . There are at least two basic ways of presenting a theory of value, based on two different kinds of questions: The two questions are subtly different. One may answer
23153-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
23322-437: The project stalled and Besson moved on to work on the film Léon in 1994, Mézières returned to Valérian for the album The Circles of Power ( Les Cercles du Pouvoir ). This featured a character, S'Traks, who drove a flying taxi around a great metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Mézières sent a copy of the album to Besson who was inspired to change the background of Korben Dallas, the lead character of The Fifth Element , from
23491-470: The religious concept of evil by the " slave mentality " of the masses, who resent their "masters", the strong. He also critiques morality by saying that many who consider themselves to be moral are simply acting out of cowardice – wanting to do evil but afraid of the repercussions. Carl Jung , in his book Answer to Job and elsewhere, depicted evil as the dark side of the Devil . People tend to believe evil
23660-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
23829-622: The right relation to the Divine and to Nature. The characters in Plato's dialogues mention the many virtues of a philosopher, or a lover of wisdom. A theist is a person who believes that the Supreme Being exists or gods exist ( monotheism or polytheism ). A theist may, therefore, claim that the universe has a purpose and value according to the will of such creator (s) that lies partially beyond human understanding. For instance, Thomas Aquinas —a proponent of this view—believed he had proven
23998-470: The series progressed, Mézières developed a more realistic style, akin to that of Jijé , though in more recent albums he has returned to the more cartoonish style of the earlier stories. Valérian's arrival on the French comics scene was contemporaneous with the debuts of other notable French science fiction strips including Luc Orient by Greg and Eddy Paape and Lone Sloane by Philippe Druillet . The success of these strips would eventually lead to
24167-430: The sets in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian and the planet seen in Birds of the Master ( Les Oiseaux du Maître ) and between some of the production sketches for the alien fighters in the 1996 film Independence Day and Valérian and Laureline's astroship. The 1999 Danish film Mifune's Last Song , directed by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen , features a character, Rud, who is a fan of Linda and Valentin (as Valérian
24336-526: The seven-volume series collects 3-4 titles of the original individual book releases. An international effort, Cinebook's release was, save for the language, identical to the ones concurrently released in French, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil only), and Standard Chinese. Many of the Valérian stories have, be it in part or in whole as a series, been translated from their original French into several other languages besides English, including German (as Valerian und Veronique ), Dutch (as Ravian: Tijd/ruimte-agent ),
24505-411: The source of all things, what we believe to be evil must too come from God. And because God is ultimately a source of absolute good, nothing truly evil can originate from God. Nevertheless, Sikhism, like many other religions, does incorporate a list of "vices" from which suffering, corruption, and abject negativity arise. These are known as the Five Thieves , called such due to their propensity to cloud
24674-414: The source of evil, or of God as being the source of evil; instead, the appearance of evil is the result of a mistaken concept of good. Christian Scientists argue that even the most evil person does not pursue evil for its own sake, but from the mistaken viewpoint that he or she will achieve some kind of good thereby. There is no concept of absolute evil in Islam , as a fundamental universal principle that
24843-420: The stories is an optimistic liberal humanism : the adventures are not about defeating enemies but about exploring, facing challenges, and celebrating diversity . Thus, according to the academic John Dean, Christin "as a rule works into his narratives political, environmental and feminist concerns – thereby showing social ills are universal, no matter on what planet you land". Another concept that developed
25012-414: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
25181-619: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
25350-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by
25519-425: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
25688-481: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
25857-459: The world is a battle ground between the God Ahura Mazda (also called Ormazd ) and the malignant spirit Angra Mainyu (also called Ahriman ). The final resolution of the struggle between good and evil was supposed to occur on a D ay of Judgement , in which all beings that have lived will be led across a bridge of fire, and those who are evil will be cast down forever. In Afghan belief, angels ( yazata ) and saints are beings sent to help us achieve
26026-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as
26195-488: Was Galaxity as a proxy for Western democracy ; contrary to its benign self-image it is actually imperialist and prone to a corrupt real-politik . Other themes include: These themes are underpinned by the vivid drawings of Jean-Claude Mézières, whose "visually stunning backgrounds: complex architecture, futuristic machines, otherworldly landscapes and odd-looking aliens", are what John Dean calls "staples of Mézières' seeming boundless visual inventiveness", resulting in what
26364-417: Was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French
26533-515: Was created by Mézières and Christin as a reaction to the fearless boy-scout (e.g. The Adventures of Tintin ) and American superhero characters that were prevalent in comics available in France at the time. Instead they sought to devise a "banal character" with "no extraordinary means of action". Eventually, with Christin feeling that they had gone too far with this angle and that the Valérian character had become too stupid, from The Ghosts of Inverloch ( Les Spectres d'Inverloch ) onwards, Valérian
26702-531: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
26871-437: Was finally completed and released in 1997. The importance of the four classical elements to the film is similar to the significance the elements have in the two-part Valérian story Métro Châtelet, Direction Cassiopeia and Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos . However, Besson has claimed that he first came up with the idea for the film at the age of 16 which would pre-date the publication of these two albums. Gary Numan used
27040-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul
27209-439: Was initially created just for the first story, Bad Dreams , but recognising that they had a female character who was different from the bimbo types common to comics of the time, Mézières and Christin fell for her and, in response to positive reader feedback, retained her for the subsequent stories. In Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , a 2017 movie by Luc Besson , Laureline is played by Cara Delevingne . Mr Albert
27378-469: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
27547-406: Was made more sympathetic and given a greater piece of the action. In Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , a 2017 movie by Luc Besson , Valérian is played by Dane DeHaan . Laureline is a peasant girl from 11th-century France. In the debut adventure, Bad Dreams , she rescues Valérian from the enchanted Forest of Arelaune. When she accidentally discovers Valérian is a time-traveller, he
27716-449: Was published in 2010. All of the Valérian stories have been collected in comic album format, comprising some twenty-one volumes plus a short story collection and an encyclopædia . The series focuses on the adventures of the dark-haired Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent, and his redheaded female colleague, Laureline, as they travel the universe through space and time. Valérian is a classical hero , kind, strong and brave, who follows
27885-409: Was published. With this album the authors concluded the entire comic series with the intention to prevent the series from becoming weak, or staggering behind newer comics. However, Christin has written a 270-page Valérian and Laureline novel, Valérian et Laureline: Lininil a disparu ( Valérian and Laureline: Lininil Has Disappeared ), and indicated that Valérian and Laureline will continue to live on in
28054-405: Was republished in July 1996 in black and white by Fantasy Flight Publishing (an offshoot of Fantasy Flight Games ) in two issues as standard American sized comic-books as part of an unsuccessful attempt to translate and print several European comic book series including Spirou et Fantasio and Lucky Luke . In November 2004, iBooks published Valérian: The New Future Trilogy , collecting
28223-411: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
28392-437: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
28561-547: Was unrepresented in French comics at the time. The decision to work in the science fiction genre was also influenced by the political climate in France at the time; Mézières and Christin saw Valérian as a "backdoor" means to react against the prevailing doctrine of Gaullism . Although science fiction was not a favourite of Pilote editor René Goscinny , Goscinny wanted his magazine to be diverse and innovative and so agreed to commission Valérian . There had been French science fiction comics before Valérian such as Kline's Kaza
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