#all the luke fans are coming out of the woodworks

[ratatatastic]

welcome to i get to talk about baseball and hockey together this time apparently everyone has fucking grown up with matthew how do people still keep coming out of the woodwork feat my cringefail baseball team the fish (said with love and disdain)

theres a lot of parallels of man gets drafted to a franchise that is the equivalent of a burning dumpster fire, finds haven in south florida once traded, helps leads them to a playoff appearance first year there and becomes a fan favourite.

what kills me the most is that the first thing jakey did after being traded at the '23 deadline from the soxs and finally landing in miami for his first presser is go hi matthew! (x)

and then because it was the hockey offseason we got our beatwriters to go oh my god they knew each other? and we get this fucking article (x)

I mean, I used to play baseball but I have no First Pitch or pitching background at all. I was never the guy that—I don't think—was good enough to pitch. I was more on the hitting side. I'm sure if we were doing batting practise, I'll be better than this pitch. (x)

I knew he [Matthew Tkachuk] played [baseball] growing up, we played against each other when we were little but you know, I think he ultimately chose the right direction. (x)

i just greatly enjoy hockey man talk about baseball and i also terribly enjoy jakey corroborating matthews "bad at pitching very good at hitting" (x) stance considering his first pitch endeavour in 22 wasnt even anywhere near the plate he went "oh boy!" (x)

"his childhood friend is such a good athelete he would have been a star in any sport" on another episode of matthew touches every mans heart that he meets...

"How old were you when you started playing [hockey] with him [Matthew Tkachuk]?"

I would say probably around, like, 8 or 9 years old. You know, the community in St. Louis—hockey there is so big. You start running into guys. A lot of the '97s would kinda play with us ['96s] I mean, Luke Kunin, who plays for San Jose, lived five houses away from me growing up. Anytime the '97s and '96s wanted to get out on the pond, it was always a fun time.

And finally the most important thing of all

"What position did you play?"

guess whos the winger and whos the 3rd baseman

the narrative is compelling and the parallels are paralleling thank you for coming to my powerpoint presentation

[darcytaylor]

There is a pattern to these fandom freakouts that's quite frankly become exhausting. Every time L hasn't posted in a while, trolls come out of the woodwork, posting shit affecting his loved ones, hoping to spur him into action. This is what happened last time with the HBS likes. Every time there's info or even so much as a hint that he's still with A, a smear campaign against him is launched, without fail. But if he posts something about Bton, all is forgotten in seconds, he's suddenly uwu babygurl Lukey Newts, perfect boy. Every. Fucking. Time. This is what happens whenever a celebrity isn't doing a little monkey dance for the fandom. And it's such a weird thing - if they're obsessed with someone, it doesn't necessarily mean that they love or even like them. In which case, I would like to kindly ask - why are they even here? Like, what are they hoping to get out of this experience?

Personally, I'm tired of going into any Bton fandom space at this point, hoping to see what's new and hopefully have a good time, and getting bombarded with literal nonsense that will be disproven within hours yet will somehow linger in the collective fandom memory and become a building block of increasingly unfounded theories that have diverged completely from reality, yet get regurgitated as fact every time new info emerges. They always find a way to contort even the most benign piece of info into intractable timelines of things that have been given meaning that they simply don't bear. Literally if you were to pull a thread, the whole thing would fall apart. Yet, these same things get resuscitated every time the fandom is mad at L or N or whoever for not doing whatever it is they think they should be doing.

The entitlement is mind-blowing and the rinse-repeat cycle of chicken-littling over the minutest thing is sucking every bit of joy out of being in this fandom anymore. It has become more time-consuming just trying to curate my experience than actually consuming content I'd like to see. What is even the point anymore, folks, huh? Would your own lives withstand the same kind of scrutiny you're putting these people under? They're just trying to make entertainment and a living out of it, what's the point of ruining everything? Whence even the urge? None of this is that deep. Is everyone just a miserable fuck anymore? I'm sorry for ranting, but it's become not worth it for me anymore when May was such a blessed time. Why can't we all stay in that energy? What good could possibly come of this? Thank you for listening and take care of yourselves, everyone.

I totally get where you're coming from. Fandoms can become overwhelming, and it sounds like you're feeling really drained by all the drama and negativity. It’s hard when a space you used to enjoy turns into a battleground of speculation, entitlement, and frustration. Your feelings about how fans treat celebrities and the constant cycle of drama are completely valid. I've noticed this pattern as well. It’s disheartening when every action or inaction of a public figure is scrutinized and twisted into something negative. Luke might not have handled everything perfectly, but the extreme reactions often reflect a lack of empathy and misplaced expectations.

It’s also frustrating when fandom spaces are overwhelmed with misinformation and sensationalism. This is why I found myself rolling my eyes at the information coming out yesterday. People should be more mindful about the sources of their information and why it’s being spread. The effort to sift through and debunk myths can be more exhausting than just enjoying the content. Constantly having to defend yourself or distance from the negativity to keep your enjoyment intact is disheartening.

It’s tough when people criticize you for trying to view the situation from a different perspective and not just join in the attack without knowing all the facts (or at least a good portion of them). It’s definitely tiring. I was feeling this yesterday because of the asks I was getting.

Remember, it's perfectly okay to step back if the environment is no longer enjoyable or is affecting your well-being. Fandoms should be a place for sharing enthusiasm and connecting with others who feel the same way, not a source of constant stress and conflict. I hope you find a way to rekindle your enjoyment of the fandom or at least find some peace with it. Take care of yourself and focus on what makes you happy. ❤️

[player-1]

Welp, besides going absolutely bananas on the Chaos Quartet getting the glowup they deserve, looks like I misjudged who created them in the first place. Whoops 😅

Nevertheless, the little context clues just scream the idea of Metta pulling the strings as inconspicuously as possible to bring Vaithe/Vados out of the woodwork of the Pixekai program...Indirectly, of course, that's just his motif at this point. If you don't want to watch the video to catch up, here's a little rundown of the Chaos timeline (using Luke as the MC name because it's canon in my heart and in the official Nexomon channel):

TL;DR: While the Abyssals DLC explains how Amelie created Vados by finding an ancient Micromon dex in the Frozen Tundra, it inadvertently reveals Metta's future plan of reviving the relics of N1 and Micromon past for Nexomon 3; and the Micromon fans should rise from the dead since Leah might come back to control the Chaos Quartet as she did once before and become Malk 2.0.

-About a decade before Luke's birth (25-ish years ago), the Guild (ie. Amelie and Logan) find a trove of tech from the Frozen Tundra containing the Micromon database ("The MALK blueprints" aka. 154 horribly displaced 'mons at their disposal). Micromon/MCR 150-154 contain the Chaos siblings [Gurgita, Fulmina, Anima, Agita, and Vaithe]. -10 years later, Luke/Solus is born and the Greater Dragons go crazy, destroying their initial lab at Drake Isles and destroying the data of 149 MCRs; Amelie and Logan only managed to recover the last five, although most of the original data was heavily damaged from the rampage. The two then travel to Precursor Mountain (previous, and future, stomping ground of the Abyssal Tyrants) and split the data between two labs; Amelie working on Fulmina, Agita and Vaithe while Logan takes Gurgita and Anima. Logan hides in a lab deep in the mountain where a strange spatial anomaly already present in the area creates an endless maze and disorients anyone that tries to traverse it (Amelie is rightfully pissed off about it). -About a year later, the Renegades start hatching their Tyrants and wreck havoc on the world to try and become King of Monsters, causing Amelie to panic and prioritize completing Vaithe/Vados over the Chaos Quartet. They split the data and Logan just plops the disc for Anima on his desk back at Cadium as a "souvenir". They finish Vados just around the time of the main story (now I believe that this scene might be the exact moment when Vados was completed/activated; honing onto Luke way too fast for comfort and rightfully freaking him out, though it would've been interesting to see some kind of reaction from Coco or the others as well). -In the present time of the Abyssal DLC (post-game mind you), Luke stumbles upon Amelie's old lab and recover the first Chaos disc (Fulmina); plunging headfirst into a rabbit hole that inevitably releases four digi-gods of the Micromon past into the far flung future of 1,015 years later. Of course, for science!

Now with that added context, it makes a bit more sense on the revival side since it's easy to assume (in N:E time) that all of them were bipedal with the data they salvaged...Still, what an upgrade it was! :D

Move over Dracozolt/vish and Arctozolt/vish, this is how you butcher ancient mons right! But it says as much that while Chaos Quartet were the only ones that were damaged, Vados was restored and looked relatively the same...Well, Amelie was so adamant on bringing the Colossus of Light into the real world with all his bells and whistles attached (with the terrifying bonus of giving him an evolution on top of it all).

All in all, the main question here is how Amelie and Logan were able to recover such a priceless time capsule of Micromon data in the first place? While Logan mentioned finding them in the Frozen Tundra, I have a feeling that there are only two places they could've found it: Omnicron's Tomb or Nexolord/Metta's old house in N1. And getting the Micromon database in its entirety, I'm pretty sure that Metta either had an M-Linker from Malk or took possession of it after N1; but I love the idea that they only called it the "MALK database" since he literally wrote his name on the dex for keepsake (and the same applies for the Chaos/CHAOS Quartet). Case in point, the amount of people that know the existence of the Pixekai program in Extinction's time are slim to none; Metta, the N1 protagonist, Atlas, and Vados himself (depends if he remembers his MCR times or not). And obviously with Metta having direct access to Micromon from Malk (and/or the M-Linker), who's to say that he kept the data safe until they brought back another set of monstrosities that shouldn't exist in the first place. If he's smart enough to fix a resurrection machine on the edge of destruction and drop off the grid after near-death two times in the N1 timeline, he's definitely smart enough to possibly make a copy of Micromon or Pixekai to use for his future plot... And while I'm on a roll with the Metta revival theory, on top of holding onto priceless Pixekai data, he would definitely still have a Nexopad to boot, leading to the revival of a bunch of wonderful iterations of N1 (and or MCR) mons before Amelie and Logan even set foot on the mountain: • Abbadog (N 183) -> Abbadog (NX 382) • Arctivore (N 183) -> Arctivore (NX 383) • Bogarp (N 180) -> Bogarp (NX 384) •Dustuf (MCR) -> Broshield (N 153) -> Broshield (NX 385) •Hoosdom (MCR 105) -> Wiselie (N 156) -> Wiselie (NX 401) •Fropip (N 11) -> Frominence (NX 409) • Hobyn (N 3) -> Mauradin (NX 407) • Molotail (MCR 66) -> Trondle (N 162) -> Trondle (NX 397) • Mollucess (MCR 140) -> Gemeen (N 95) -> Gemeen (NX 406) • Ashgon (MCR 62) -> Tephragon (N 101) -> Tephragon (NX 408) And many many many more...

While listing the examples above, the reoccurring theme is that each revived Nexomon keeps their original name from the N1 era, even if they clearly have a major upgrade or appearance change (in contrast to the first iteration of revived Nexomon in the main story). The few Nexomon that received a different name are Frominence and Mauradin since they are an additional evo from their previous incarnation. And even if it rightfully pissed Ziegler off when over a thousand clearly extinct Nexomon were somehow resurrected from the Netherworld, he (predictably) blames Luke for it since the magic signature is practically identical to his power of Life (Even Deena confirms that her siblings (and herself) aren't capable of this scheme to this extent). But, you know, they lived on the mountain before he showed up; and with the added hassle of Venefelis somehow "holding onto" the access energy to consistently revive his Abyssal siblings out of spite and vengeance alone... Everything about Precursor Mountain just leaves a Metta-sized footprint on his upcoming plots and everyone in the Guild is too stressed out about the Abyssals coming back until the Primordial Tyrants (and/or Vados) get a whole lot of whiplash when they finally figure out the true culprit of this whole fiasco. But to make this absolutely long story short, Metta was reviving an entire Nexomon army from the past (and Digi-World) on a uncharted mountain right under everyone's noses and plans to psychologically torment his nephew for centuries to come until he gets the throne since being Nexolord just didn't scratch that itch anymore.

Oh right, I also needed to explain why Leah might come back... -She's the only one who can control the Chaos Quartet (as explained in my previous post). -While Malk might've destroyed Pixekai to escape into the real world (albeit in temporal limbo), the key point is him updating Pixekai from 1.0 to 2.0; presumably reformatting Micromon's story to exclude him. So who's to say that Leah is still alive in the program since all that she wants is to live a better life in the real world... -Oh yeah, and have you seen her mask? She would become Metta's replacement Overseer after Glacia in a heartbeat.

While I don't exactly know how many hurdles Metta will jump through for Nexomon 3 and whether or not Leah will come back for real, the continuity is way too easy to see if anyone had the chance to look back to Micromon (and here's the full playlist in case anyone wants to catch up on potential foreshadowing).

Nevertheless, Moga/Vewo Interactive has been going strong on tying loose ends in all three games so far; so who's to say that Metta's going to throw down hard with ancient Nexomon and Micromon at his disposal in Nexomon 3, and he might as well have another helping hand that is both a genius of their time, digital just like Malk, and has a heart as cold as ice like Glacia...And if we somehow get to see Zeth and Cyborg come back from the woodwork too, I'll be happy. :)

[reedroad]

im gonna guess that you're swamped with asks about that quiz but i gotta say. as a typhoon fan i feel so seen (and out of curiosity, which characters did you put for each lyric? im a sucker for character playlist type stuff)

not as much today, so you’re fine!! ive been loving the amount of typhoon fans coming out of the woodwork. umm let me check

The moths are all gonna die now/Impale themselves on the things that the like, now/I couldn't watch so I burned my own eyes out - luke skywalker, kaytoo, obi-wan kenobi, yoda, kanan jarrus, poe dameron, bodhi rook, baby yoda, ezra bridger (associated this song with sacrifice, remorse, desperation, recognizing your own mistakes, wanting desperately to help people)

I haven't slept in several nights and I'm not tired/Who protects the ones I love when I'm asleep?/Though there's little I can do, I say a prayer/That when the wolves come for their share/They'll come for me - leia organa, kaytoo, the mandalorian, r2d2, rey skywalker, kanan jarrus, hera syndulla, finn, baze malbus (protecting someone they care for without thought or question, intense loyalty, stubbornness, the vibe of declaring you’d rather die before the people you love)

All that being and nothingness, on the same möbius strip/Sleep and waking up - mace windu, the mandalorian, maul, c3po, yoda, cassian andor, kylo ren, boba fett (feeling trapped in a cycle that they created, going through the motions, ruled by the past)

I told you, I told you/I have nothing left with which to hold you/I lean up against you/We need heat where we’re gonna go/(I have been there I should know) - jyn erso, anakin skywalker/vader, obi-wan kenobi, chewbacca, bodhi rook (loss leading to a feeling of inexplicable emptiness, trauma they can’t escape from, acceptance of own mortality, desperation to hold the people they love one more time)

So long, my sweet/Maybe next time that we meet/We'll be whole, we'll be weightless, we'll be free - padme, anakin skywalker/vader, kanan jarrus, hera syndulla, ahsoka tano, baze malbus, shmi skywalker (loving someone so completely with the knowledge you can’t keep them forever, losing that person but still loving them after they’re gone, cherishing their memory, waiting for them regardless)

Each time I wake I’m still alive/Outlived my expiration date imagine my surprise/A backwards take on the book of Job/His life was wager and mine’s a joke/Give him what he wants he will never know/He’s tied up trying to let himself go - luke skywalker, chirrut imwe, lando calrissian, obi-wan kenobi, rey skywalker (the idea of suffering based on a bet from some higher power, living through hardships against all odds, faith, lando is here just because of the word wager don’t @ me)

Unhand me, I am not a criminal/And if I am, I paid the man just let me go/Soon enough you will be dancing at my funeral - kaytoo, r2d2, han solo, maul, c3po, cassian andor, chopper, boba fett (okay this one is just funny bc i picked characters who are straight up actual canonical criminals or murderers except c3po who i could just hear say “unhand me, i am not a criminal” so if you got c3po because you chose this and it doesnt fit you, it’s because i was having fun)

I learned to talk/Said I'd be Caesar/Or nothing at all - padme, leia organa, count dooku, sheev palpatine, qui-gon jinn, hux, galen erso, grand admiral thrawn, sabine wren, cassian andor (ambition, the pursuit of power to achieve your goals, the knowledge that words are powerful, belief that they can get shit done, etc)

im sure i missed a character here or there, there was a lot of them........ i know i put some characters multiple times, and others only once, dont @ me, some of them fit more than one

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

From Michael Hutchence to a Pirate: Why Luke Arnold's Career Is Sailing Smoothly

Luke Arnold has been working steadily as an actor in Australia for years, with roles on Winners & Losers and Rush, but the gig that really put him in the spotlight this year was his turn as Michael Hutchence in the two-part telemovie INXS: Never Tear Us Apart. Luke was praised for his performance as the iconic rock star, and now he's returning to the small screen as another familiar character: Long John Silver in the Starz action drama Black Sails. 

The show takes place before the events in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, in the 1700s during the Golden Age of Piracy. There's a lot that happens in the pilot, including how Silver gets roped into the pirate industry, the set-up of a plan to find the ultimate treasure, and the battle for captaincy of the ships. There's also a lot of action and a little bit of pirate lovin'.

We caught up with Luke in Sydney yesterday ahead of the show's premiere on Showcase tonight at 9:40 p.m. to discuss the most fun thing about playing a pirate, what he took away from the experience of playing Michael Hutchence, and the craziest Hollywood party he's been to. 

Hint: it was at a famous socialite's house.

POPSUGAR Australia: Where are you based these days?

Luke Arnold: Cape Town, while we shoot Black Sails, and that's about seven months of the year. I have a couple of boxes of things in Cape Town, a couple of boxes of things in Melbourne, LA, same thing. Everywhere there's a guitar and a box of basics.

PS: How did you get the role?

LA: So for years I was going to LA once or twice a year, and it just kind of happened that I got cast in Black Sails. I did one audition with the casting director, then met the showrunner, the creator, did one more audition, and then got signed to the show! But when I was signed to it they still didn't know what character I was going to play. They said, "You're a pirate, you're on the show, but we'll work out who you are later on."

PS: So did you test for a few different pirates?

LA: Yeah. Well I auditioned for just Vane, one of the other roles, and never actually auditioned for Silver. They went, 'It depends who else we cast,' and they found Zach McGowan for Vane and so I became Silver.

PS: What's the most fun thing about playing a pirate?

LA: I think it's that you're allowed to be a pirate in real-life, a little bit. You kind of get an excuse, and almost an expectation, to be a little rowdier, maybe a little drunker, in day-to-day life. So yeah, I think that's that.

PS: Which scenes do you enjoy filming the most?

LA: The writers on the show are really fantastic, and also really going for poetry a lot. They're really writing some amazing stuff, and I think that's what you wait for; occasionally you just get these speeches that are beautiful to say, and you can really sink your teeth into. And at the same time I love a big action scene where I've got nothing to say, and just stuff to do. I don't know which I like more, but it's nice to be on a show where you get both. One day I'll just be running up and down a ship that's blowing up, and the next day you get a five-page monologue.

PS: What are those big actions scenes like? Is this the largest scale thing you've done in terms of production?

LA: Absolutely it is. This is one of the biggest television shows ever made, and while there's a lot of visual effects, we have the real ships and the real towns, and we blow up a lot of stuff. So it's amazing. And what's fun — we've done two seasons of Black Sails — is you still never get used to walking onto a new set. Or when you bring in someone else to check out the set for the first time, it's a nice reminder where you're like, 'Oh that's right, this is amazing.' It's just a huge playground we get to play with on the show.

PS: I noticed the director of the pilot is Neil Marshall, who's known for directing the big battle episodes for Game of Thrones. What was it like working with him?

LA: It was fantastic. And that's his trademark, really, he does big action stuff for TV. So having him for Black Sails was fantastic.

PS: I feel like there's a lot that happens in the first episode. What can you tell me about John Silver's story?

LA: There's a lot going on, and I do think the first half of season one is really setting the stage in a lot of ways. Even though the pirate story has been around for ages, because we're doing a grittier, more real, historically-accurate version, there is a lot of setting the scene, and establishing what this world really is. But for John Silver, well I'm the one who's not a pirate. I'm the one guy, when we begin the show, that isn't invested in this pirate world. Everyone else, it's high stakes, they're really serious and they've got big plans, and for Silver, he just wants to get his handful of gold, and then head off to the next place. I think he realises that it's a pretty dumb career choice, if you can avoid becoming a pirate. It's dangerous; it kind of sucks, really! It's not a fun life. So I think the kind of lightness that John has at the beginning comes from that, that he's not invested in this world and he's breezing through.

But the story for him, really, is knowing that it is about him being sucked into this world, becoming one of the crew, and eventually becoming Long John Silver in Treasure Island.

PS: What kind of prep did you have to do for the role? Were you familiar with the character from Treasure Island?

LA: Yeah. I think he's the kind of character that's permanently in pop culture, in a lot of ways since Treasure Island happened. So I'd read the book before, but I'd also seen Muppet Treasure Island, and some of the other versions. And you feel like that character has been referenced in so many other cartoons and things, so it was very familiar. I then did a lot of character research. Also, we all had to go back and look at all the historical stuff, to try and get out of our heads the stereotypes, the clichés, what pirates have become over years of storytelling, and instead try and go back to who these men and women really were.

PS: I also read that physically it was quite a lot of prep?

LA: Yeah, it was. I had a few weeks of training on my own, then we did like a three-week pirate boot camp in Cape Town. It was really full on. It was a mixture of training in the gym, fight training, sailing ships, taking all the modern rigging off and just doing it by hand. It was just exhausting. In a way it's different on a film because you've got longer to shoot any particular scene, you can put the stunt doubles in, you can work it out. We're shooting a big budget movie every couple of weeks, so we have to just do it, and do it over and over. If we hadn't done all this training, I wouldn't be able to do the job. You wouldn't be able to use any angles on me — like after two times of climbing rope up the side of the ship, I don't even know if I could've done it once before the training. But now, we'll do it 30, 50 times in a day.

PS: Do you still like working out in your spare time?

LA: At the end of season one I was really addicted to it. I actually think the rock star stuff got me out of the habit, because I almost had to stop training, and stop eating to play Michael Hutchence.

PS: So you did Black Sails first?

LA: Yep. I did season one of Black Sails, then did Never Tear Us Apart, then season two of Black Sails. That got me out of the habit, then I had to get back in the habit for season two. I do still enjoy it, but I'm not like a big gym junkie. I would more enjoy kicking up with beers in the mid-afternoon in the sun. But even though the first part of training was tough, I never felt as good as I did when I was at the peak of physical health, and feeling good and eating right. It's just the pain to get to that point — you have to go through that pain to get to the point where you feel really good.

PS: As you do get to shoot in such amazing locations, do you get much time off to relax?

LA: A lot, actually. We only ever shoot a five-day week — sometimes we do six days — but mostly it's a five-day week, and it's an ensemble show, so any day we're not shooting, which is often, we'll generally be rehearsing the next episode, or going off to do costume stuff. It means we do get a lot of half-days, and days off. And Cape Town is a beautiful place for be for time off. The only problem is it's a long way away, so even if you do get a few days off, it's not like you'll go, 'Oh, I'll go visit the family.' We're stuck there. But we definitely get enough downtime, and it's recovery time as well. When we do the big fight scenes, it's like being beaten up for 16 hours, so often we do just need that day. They work us hard when we're working, but the time off in between gives us a chance to recover.

PS: I was going through your Twitter recently and saw Never Tear Us Apart aired in the US recently. What was the reception like to that? Do you even know how people reacted?

LA: It was the same as the Australian one: mostly just on Twitter. I've had a lot of really positive response. You get all the INXS fans coming out of the woodwork, taking the effort to say how much they enjoyed it, my performance and the show. So that's been really great. It's kind of airing over a few weeks there, so it's rolling out and people are still discovering it; obviously it didn't have the same publicity push that we had here. It's nice for the show to get a really good response in the American market.

PS: What's the biggest thing you took away from your experience of playing that role?

LA: It was about how important the people you work with are. They talk about film as a collaborative medium, and it absolutely is. I know that Never Tear Us Apart, there are so many ways it could have not worked. It worked because every single person, from the unit guys who arrived first to set up with the crew area, to everyone involved with props and costume — everyone cared so much. No one was just treating it like a job. And that is why it turned out being as good as it is, because everyone went above and beyond the call of duty to make it great. And I think that was the biggest thing, to see that. And I didn't think I was going to enjoy it; like I really wanted the role, but I thought the pressure of the whole thing was going to make it stressful the whole time. But I had so much fun, and that was just by being around so many passionate people.

PS: Who's on your wish list to work with as a co-star, or director, or producer?

LA: Ooh. There are lots. The actors I'm really loving at the moment: Jeff Bridges and Sam Rockwell are guys I'm looking at as other actors, where you feel you learn so much just from watching them. I'm sure working with them would be really amazing. It's tough to say with directors, because there's so many. The wish list is so big these days. [Martin] Scorsese is always my absolute idol of directors. It's constantly changing, especially in the TV world.

PS: Which TV shows are you obsessed with at the moment?

LA: I'm watching quite a few: Hannibal, House of Cards. Louie is, I think, my all-time favourite show at the moment. And I am a Game of Thrones fan as well. And Breaking Bad, I still think it's the best show that's been on television.

PS: And the Emmys are tomorrow! Are you still into watching things like that?

LA: Yeah! But actually it's funny, less now that we're in TV. It's like, really, you go for the parties, and after-parties, really. Black Sails won two Emmys this year, because we had the Creative Arts Emmys already, so we got the special in visual effects and the sound editing. So we're now an Emmy Award-winning show.

PS: Have you been to any crazy or memorable Hollywood parties?

LA: The first week I was ever in LA, which was about five years ago, like the first weekend I was there, I ended up at Paris Hilton's house at a party. It was like the cliché, LA . . . Like it was my first week and I was meeting people, and they were like, "So, how are you doing in LA, are you settling in?" I was like, "Yeah, I was at Paris Hilton's house on the weekend!" They were like, "Oh, OK, you've settled in fine, then."

PS: Have you seen The Bling Ring?

LA: It's exactly like that. Yeah. When they're walking through, and they've got the club with the poles, it was the same thing. There's like a tequila dispenser in the walls, where you just hold your glass and get shots of tequila. And her face is on everything.

Source: PopSugar Au

[lokis-lady-death]

Return to Crimson Peak

Disclaimer: This story is written as a sequal to Crimson Peak. If you couldn’t handle the original story, please don’t read, because that would be dumb. 

Sir Thomas Sharpe x Reader

Mini Series Halloween (Special thanks to @bambamwolf87 for going back and forth on this idea!) 

My name is (y/n), and I would like to tell you a story.

A love story. Filled with hate. Filled with sin. Something real and imaginary, exciting and terrifying.

I want to tell you a ghost story.

There were all kinds of ghost stories that have floated through the world, like a dense fog, capturing the imaginations of those who hear them. Some based as far back as when nobility and class were all anyone cared about, some as notorious as Jack the Ripper, some as tragic as children getting taken by monsters. Each story holds some truths, based on some sort of factual event that forever concretes the illusion of a ghost to the world of the living. Alas, they all inevitably fade away. They become fables we tell children, destined to be nothing more than boy scout campfire tales.

Utter nonsense really.

But then, every once in a while, against all reasonable belief, there is a ghost story so rifeting, so heart wrenching -so full of lust, ambition, and murder- that at the end it leaves one questioning their sanity.

Crimson peak is one of those ghost stories.

The first time my brother Luke and I heard the story of Crimson Peak was from our grandmother. I remember visiting the family home in Buffalo, New York, listening to her spin fantisful tales of this or that while pouring me tea. Grandmother was a wonderful storyteller, a trait I was told she inherited from her own mother, Edith McMichael. Better known by her maiden name, Edith Cushings.

She told us that Edith had grown up a beautiful, well educated woman of the upper society of New York. An unwed heiress that only cared about one thing: writing stories. That is, until her own story had an unexpected character added to the plot. Thomas Sharpe.

From there, everyone knows the story, most likely even read the book.

But this story became something more to my brother. He wanted more than the book. He wanted the experience.

He wanted to see and live it for himself.

As he grew older, he researched more into the story and found the home in which everything took place: Allerdale Hall. As it turned out, the gothic mansion had been made over to be a secluded, lavish hotel for rich bureaucrats traveling the English countryside in the 50’s, however in the 80’s the attention died down. It went a long time without use until 2010 when a new owner took over and turned it into a Victorian Bed and Breakfast with a twist: while it’s 50’s counterpart tried to pretend nothing awful happened in that house, the new owner exploited it. There was even an episode of Ghost Hunter filmed where someone stayed the night in the bed and breakfast. They stayed in Lucille’s room but never saw her ghost. He did say the new owner and her husband were rather odd, though he thought they were just trying to give into the haunted theme they tried to portray.

It was disheartening to say the least that other than the story of Crimson Peak itself, it seemed like there was no actual haunting. I eventually lost interest and moved on with my life, diving into school and social life. But not Luke. He still felt drawn to the story and after working doubles for two months and convincing me to split the fees, we were set to travel to England and actually stay the night in Allerdale Hall.

Which is where my story begins.

*****

“This is it!” Luke exclaimed, heaving one bag onto his shoulder and another under his arm. “Crimson Peak!”

I cut my eyes at my brother, almost annoyed at the whole situation. His Ghosts are Real shirt, his bag of ghost summonings, our grandmother’s copy of Crimson Peak all in hand so as to crescent it with what he deems the unholy land. “I can’t believe you talked me into this…”

His blonde curls bounced as he turned to face our home for the next few days. “But… Just look at it, y/n....”

Turning up from the cab, I took in the entirety of Allerdale Hall. Grand, magnificent, dark, and foreboding, it stood against a gray canvas of fog. In front of it, the key part of the entire story, Sir Thomas Sharpe’s mining invention.

My eyes followed upward the structure, absorbing every last archway and stone of the complex before resting on a single window where I caught sight of a pale faced man.

I was snapped back to my brother when he called my name for what I had to assume by his aggravated tone was not the first time. “What?”

“I said grab your shit, I ain’t no packmule.”

I grabbed my bags and followed him through the double doors.

Inside, it was evident all the work the new owners had put into the mansion. It was extravagant but dark, framed perfectly with a massive wooden staircase that opened all the way to the other floors, victorian era artwork lining every inch of wall space, and a single grand crystal chandelier shining over the foyer.

“Welcome!” called out a british accent. A pink haired woman popped up from behind the registry desk with a gleaming, misplaced smile. “I’m the owner, I go by Rain. You must be the Cushings!”

As if the overtly brightness of her hair was too much for the gothic mansion, she countered with a steampunk style victorian dress of silk, leather metal loops and chains that dangled from her sleeves and a leather corset hugging at her waist.

“Actually, that’s not our name…” I corrected while Luke simply began signing the guest book.

“But you ARE descendants of Edith Cushing, right?” she pushed.

“I… Yes, we are. How did you...?”

“I found you on Ancestry.com! I have been a huge fan of your great, great grandmother for a long time! I saved up for years to buy this place,” the owner said as she looked around the empty lobby with a since of overbuilt romanticism. “Crimson Peak has always been a passion of mine.”

“You two should get along swell then,” I mumbled as Luke laid down the pen. “Now, about our rooms….”

“OH yes!” she exclaimed while pulling out two skeleton keys, handing you each one. “You will be in the west wing, Lucille’s old room,” the owner told Luke. “And you,” she said with a sideways grin, “You’ll be down the hall in Sir Thomas’s room.”

I took the key and stared at it, feeling my heart start to race. “I....”

“Excellent!” my brother cut me off, taking the sets of keys. “Are we allowed to explore some?”

There was some mischief behind the owner’s eyes when she answered, “Its actually encouraged.”

While Luke looked more than please, I had to stop and ask, “Won’t that be disruptive to your other customers?”

“Judging by the guest book, we’re the only ones staying here.”

“Correct! We normally slow down on visitors during the colder months. Which is a shame, because that’s when things always get fun around here.” Rain cut me a wink before finishing, “Now, enjoy!”

Luke’s hand grabbed hold of my shoulder to steer me away from the desk. “Yes, we will, thank you, Ms. Rain!” Just passed her I could make out another grand room with a marble fireplace and piano.

“That’s where Lucille used to play music for her brother,” Luke told like an extremely zealous curator at a museum. I wrinkled my nose, remembering that detail from the book. “Come on, let’s go find our rooms!”

At the base of the stairs was a framed layout of the house to help guests find their way around. A large YOU ARE HERE arrow laid out where you began. Luke’s finger followed the line up to the right and down a hall to West Wing where the two of you would be staying.

Luke held out my key before flashing me one of his overly excited grins, he spat out, “Race ya!”

Before I could argue how rude, childish, and annoying he was being, Luke was off. Never one to be outdone, I bolted up behind him, hoping I remembered the layout. By the time I got to the top of the stairwell, I saw my brother’s sneakers right before they disappeared down a hall. When I got to the opening of the hall, I turned and saw no one. Taking a few steps forward, I listened intently to try and pinpoint where my brother had gone.

But nothing.

“Fuck,” I mumbled under my breath. Giving up on the race, I let out an exasperated sigh and wandered deeper in to the house.

‘Do I turn here?’ I asked myself when I found another hall off the main one. I still didn’t see Luke, so I called out for him but I got no answer.

A round window at the other end of the stretch was all that illuminated my path, casting shadows from the intricate woodwork of the moldings and ceiling.

I was distracted when I heard a soft disruption in all the stillness of the house. I stopped and listened. Someone was moving around in one of the rooms, but which one, I wondered. Following the sound, I came to the end of the hall. A light on the other side was so bright that it boiled through the small gap where the door met the floor. Some more ruffling from the other side confirmed I was at the right room, I could even see shadows move through the light.

“Luke, is this your room?” I asked, going to turn the knob. But it was locked.

“No?” I jumped when I unexpectedly heard his voice from the other end of the hall, where I had just come from. “What are you doing down here?” he asked, “We’re this way.”

“I heard someone, I thought it was you...” I turned back, eying the floor where the light shone through. But there was none now. No light. No movement. Just stillness.

“Oh…” I swallowed but shook my head, knowing it had to be my own imagination getting the better of me.

“You’re already getting haunted?” Luke asked with a hint of jealousy.

“No, you idiot, this stupid house just has me on edge is all.” I grabbed up my bags and eyed him. “Now show me where our rooms are so I can sleep off this jet lag!”

Back down the main hall, he showed me where a set of double doors led down a private wing. The West Wing.

“Here’s your room,” Luke said, taking my key to open it. “My room is the last one on the left.”

The door creaked so horribly it felt like it echoed through the whole mansion.

It did not disappoint. The room, like everything else in the house, was massive, the walls solid wood carved and etched with such fine, minute detail it felt like a painting. The ceiling had golden loops around where two chandeliers hung on either side of the massive four poster bed that sat opposite of a fireplace.

“Holy shit…. Maybe this won’t be so bad, “ I reasoned as I pulled out my phone to text my friends back in the US.

Luke’s voice cracked as he watched, knowing what you must be doing. “Actually, I had one thing I had to tell you, and don’t freak....”

“I HAVE NO SIGNAL?” I raged as my eyes narrowed at him. His hands were up in defense, waiting for the slew of slaps he deserved, but I just let it go. “Fine. Ok. Whatever. Have you found the WiFi password?”

“Actually, about that…”

“Luke…”

“It’s good to take a break from modern advances now and then, y/n, you know it’s healthy…”

“Luke.” I stopped him, staring deep into his soul. “Are you telling me you brought me to the middle of nowhere England, to a haunted house, with no working means to contact the outside world?”

“It’s only for a few days…”

“LUKE, I WILL MuRdEr YOU! You will no longer be looking for a ghost because YOU WILL BE A GHOST!” My hands went flying and all he could do was protect his face.

“Come on, y/n. Don’t be so melodramatic,” he said before stepping out of your doorway. “Take it as an opportunity to get to know yourself. That’s why I told you to bring books.”

The realization that he had known the whole time we would be without technology was even more infuriating, so I started chunking pillows from the bed at him until he closed the door

I threw myself onto the bed and screamed into the comforter.

How was I going to stay sane without the internet for three days?

Sitting back up, I couldn't help but reassess my situation.

I'm stuck.

In a haunted house.

For three days.

A strange sensation washed over me, like the sudden chill of someone walking over your grave.

The house, I realized, was quiet. So quiet. Not another soul to be heard.

That was the first time I noticed that I had been hearing a steady movement the entire time I was alone and hadn't paid it any attention until now. When it stopped.

What had stopped moving?

I stayed still and listened for it to start again.

But it didn't.

Wondering why I had unnecessarily scared myself, I shook my head clear of the thought while opening up one of my bags.

My first bag was my safety net.

Junk food (because I’m shameless), sodas (because I’m shameless), and romance novels (because, you guessed it).

I opened the music on my phone and pulled out my thirstiest book.

Chapter One: How They Met

About twenty minutes into my story, the music was interrupted by a tap on the door. One solid knock. Of course I jumped, anyone would have. Then I heard some shuffling as an envelope flew under my door.  

I instantly sprang from my seat- curiosity always being both my best and worst quality- and tore the letter open.

~~We would like to cordially invite you to dinner in the Main Dining Hall this evening at 6pm. PS On the back of the door, you will find attire for the event.~~

Of course my first thought was what a gimmick to pull, but then I had to appreciate their creativity. The place wanted to bring out the Gothic Romance of  Allerdale Hall, and it certainly didn’t hold back. Opening the door to find a white silk dress, I saw the depth of that devotion.

I pulled the dress down when I heard Luke’s door open. “Holy shit!” he cussed. I went down the hall to find him awing at a suit hanging from his door. “Y/n!” he squealed through his teeth, “Holy shit!”

I laughed but really, I was excited.

A dressed up dinner in a haunted mansion. Through all the cliche, through all the irritants, I thought maybe this could turn out to be a fun get away.

After all...

What was the harm in playing along?

Part 2 is up!

The role of Luke will be played by Evan Peters:

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[tigerlover16-uk]

One thing I like to think about is how kids that are growing up watching Dragon Ball Super are going to look back on the rest of the franchise and Dragon Ball stories made going forward, and how their experience watching Super is going to inform a lot of their views and opinions on the series.

Really think about it though, there’s going to be an entire generation of Dragon Ball fans for whom Beerus and Whis have seemingly always been mainstays for the series, and it’ll probably feel like Dragon Ball just wouldn’t be the same without them.

There are kids that are going to grow up with Caulifla or Hit or Toppo as some of their favourite characters. Kids for whom Goku Black and Zamasu feel like just as iconic villains for the franchise as the likes of Cell and Majin Buu. Future Mai being Future Trunks’ love interest is just going to feel like the way things are meant to be, same for the Pilaf Gang being kids in fact.

I’m eager to see what this generation of fans are going to have to say about Super when they’re older, and the previous series when they inevitably get around to them (Not that all of them will. There are still plenty of casuals out there that have only watched DBZ and not Dragon Ball), and whether they’ll like them as much as Super or they won’t appeal to them as much simply because Super is what they grew up on and it’s what Dragon Ball really is to them.

I’m a person that grew up on the Star Wars Prequels, and it’s Star Wars content from that era that I’m most interested in. Episode III is my favourite movie, I love the Clone Wars tv series (Mostly the CGI one though), and Star Wars just doesn’t feel like Star Wars to me without lots of Jedi running around, probably one of the biggest gripes I had with the Force Awakens when that came out being that after the end of the original trilogy where it looked like Luke was going to rebuild the Jedi Order, we suddenly went right back to the premise of “One force wielding hero and old guy on the heroes side, two dark sith users running the big evil empire” Because that just felt stale and limiting to me.

I prefer Anakin to Luke, Ewan Mcgregor IS Obi-Wan Kenobi to me. I prefer the Battle Droids to the Stormtroopers as the standard fodder enemies. 

Heck, if I’m being honest I also don’t care much for the Original Trilogy. I watched it several years after Revenge of the Sith came out when I got the movies on DVD and, yeah, they were fine, but they’d aged poorly in places and the stories and characters just didn’t interest me as much. I’d still prefer to re-watch The Phantom Menace over any of them, though I do enjoy all the original trilogy movies and appreciate them for what they are and their place in cinematic history.

But they’re still not really Star Wars to me.

For all the flak the Prequels got, and still get from some people, they were an important part of many people’s childhood’s in the same way the original trilogy was to older Star Wars fans, and as time has gone on more and more of us have come out of the woodworks to declare our support for the Prequels and make arguments in their favour, and even many people who hated the movies at first have either grown to appreciate them over time, or at least admit that they weren’t all that bad like they once made them out to be. At the very least, most of the “THESE MOVIES MURDERED MY CHILDHOOD!!! WAAAAAHHH!!” Nonsense has died down.

We’ll undoubtedly see a whole generation of Star Wars fans for whom Rey and Finn and Poe are more iconic heroes to them than Luke, Han and Leia are.

I think a similar thing is likely to happen with Dragon Ball Super going forward. It’s a very divisive series now, and it’ll continue to be so for years to come, but I think down the line we’ll see a lot more fans coming out saying how they grew up with the series and how much it means to them, and fans that are critical now being at least a bit more forgiving in retrospect.

Super is inevitably going to have a dramatic effect on Dragon Ball media going forward. FighterZ has already been made to take place at some point during Super, and we’ve seen it’s characters appear in various side media, like Fusions, Heroes and the big twist of the Reborn as Yamcha manga being that Beerus and Champa were behind everything as some sort of game. The upcoming movie will be a follow up to the current saga of Super, and it’s pretty much inevitable that there’s going to be a sequel series to Super down the line.

Like it or not, and it’s fine if you don’t I understand where you’re coming from and I can relate to some of the complaints, Super is going to be an influential part of the franchise that informs a lot of things going forward much like the Prequels did for Star Wars. There’s going to be more Dragon Ball series and other media made long after it, and it’s going to be a big part of many fans formative experience with Dragon ball as a whole.

I’m sure there are going to be some high and mighty fans resenting and lamenting that, going all “Oh those poor children, having to settle for trash instead of getting the quality experiences that we were blessed with. Oh, what a shame!” but as someone who had to see a lot of people put down or outright bullied and ostracized for liking the Prequels growing up (Not to mention harassing the actors, you ever heard what happened to the poor kid who played Anakin in Phantom Menace?), I just want to say... respect them. Disagree with them if you feel differently, that’s fine, but don’t try to dismiss or diminish their experiences and what it means to them.

Call Super bad all you want, but you can’t say it doesn’t matter.

In a way, all of this is one reason why I’m glad Super exists, even with all the ups and downs. Between it and Kai, a lot of people who otherwise might not have gotten into Dragon Ball have gotten to become fans of the franchise, they’ve been a gateway for many people, especially kids. Not to mention a way for older fans with children of their own now to connect with each other.

Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, and the manga they were adapted from, are classic works of fiction, and the single most important landmark for Shonen anime and manga. They defined anime for many people, and they earned their place in history. And we should always appreciate them and try to share the experience of those stories with more people, I know I do.

But lets be honest, if the franchise had ended with them, how many then modern anime fans would pay them any mind come 2050 and beyond? I mean... the original Star Trek series is a classic and important work of science fiction that’s beloved by millions throughout the world... ... but would HALF as many people today be Star Trek fans if it wasn’t for Star Trek The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space 9 or the Abrams films? Heck, I’m pretty sure even Enterprise has it’s fans.

The original King Kong is a beloved classic, but a large amount of people today haven’t actually watched it, and mainly know it through Pop Culture osmosis. But many of those same people HAVE watched the 2005 remake and Kong: Skull Island, and have those as some of their favourite movies. Same goes for Godzilla, would the character be nearly as beloved or as ingrained in pop culture if not for the many sequels and remakes made for his franchise.

How many people today have seen the 60′s Spider-man cartoon or read the early comics, but did watch Spider-Man The Animated series from the 90′s or any of the various Spider-man movie series or Spectacular and even Ultimate Spider-man and became fans through those? Not a lot of kids today have watched the original Transformers or Ninja Turtles or My Little Pony cartoons or movies, but a lot of them (Many of which might even be in their teens now) sure have watched Transformers Prime, the Nickelodeon TMNT and Friendship is Magic.

For all the problems and missteps it has, one thing I do appreciate about DBS is that’s it and various media surrounding it like the Xenoverse Games and FighterZ, are helping to keep Dragon Ball alive for many people, not just old fans who grew up with the franchise but new people as well.

I’ll always love Dragon Ball Z and the original Dragon Ball to death, and I’ll be sharing them with my kids if I ever have any. But while I do see the missteps that have been made and hope things can be improved in various areas for Dragon Ball series going forward, and while it’s tempting to say we should just leave a masterpiece alone, I’m grateful Super exists and I hope many more new Dragon Ball series will be made down the line for generations of children to enjoy for many, many years to come.

Wow, this got longwinded and preachy. Didn’t mean for it to be this long, this whole post just sort of... happened. I dunno, I just wanted to get these thoughts out of my head and stuff just kept coming. Ignore me if I sound like a babbling idiot XD

[wenamedthedogkylo]

So I started writing my own review of The Last Jedi on Rotten Tomatoes because I have a lot of thoughts on it, and I’m feeling pumped so why the hell not post it here, too.

It continues to shock me that so many movie-goers don't see the incredible story-telling that went into The Last Jedi, but after some thinking I think I understand the root of the vitriol. Star Wars is a big series—it goes without saying but deserves reiterating—and over its long life has acquired a very specific image which many fans cling to. It's a large-scale space opera, full of the struggle between good and evil, light and dark, and a plethora of other elevated themes which give it a heightened air. It sits atop a special pedestal for many fans, who don't particularly like when anything comes along which rocks that pedestal.

But TLJ has rocked it with some incredibly simple concepts which drive home powerful messages, and fans aren't having it. Which is a shame, because they're messages which are sorely needed today, and especially in this franchise. Spoilers ahead.

The first is the basic idea that Star Wars, its story, and its characters are for everyone. We've seen backlash to the changes following this concept already in the racists crawling out of the woodworks to slam John Boyega and his dark-skinned Stormtrooper Finn, and now spewing hate at actress Kelly Marie Tran and her character Rose Tico, the first visibly Asian character in SW. We saw it in the gatekeepers decrying the choice of Rey as the series' new Jedi character, throwing out terms like "Mary Sue" for her highly developed piloting abilities and her immense strength with the Force, yet missing the irony of not applying such labels to their heroes Anakin and Luke.

The idea that SW is for everyone feels threatening to the gatekeepers in the fandom, and so they lash out at TLJ for how much further it takes this notion than The Force Awakens did before it. Not just in introducing Rose, but in giving us a number of startling (and occasionally long overdue) firsts, like palpable visual evidence of General Leia Organa using the Force. Although it has been canon since the original trilogy that Leia is as Force-sensitive as her twin brother Luke, and the Expanded Universe has given us multiple stories in which Leia goes full Jedi, many fans balked at actually seeing the princess-turned-general use the Force to save her life. By the looks of it, the reasoning against this seems to be "it was out of character" or "unrealistic", an odd line of thinking given the amazing feats other Force-users have been able to accomplish. Why should Leia be any different, particularly when she's had 30 years in which to experiment with her abilities? We don't see those 30 years, so we don't really know how far she might have pushed learning to use the Force tangibly. There's nothing particularly unrealistic about it.

The other thing people don't seem to be agreeing with is TLJ's bold statement that the Force does not belong to the Jedi. Even after six movies, many fans still don't seem to be able to reckon with the notion that the Jedi and their counterpart, the Sith, were in many ways equally detrimental to the balance of the Force. The Sith took their passion and lust for power to extremes, while the Jedi's emotional detachment and adherence to faith in the Force proved too passive and constricting, resulting in their downfall. The new generation of characters and movies opens the path for the Force to truly be put into balance—no more Jedi, no more Sith, just people learning to use their abilities in harmony. But with our heroine Rey revealed to be refreshingly unrelated to anyone else in the series, many fans feel cheated by how open this leave the narrative. Unfortunate, considering that fresh characters and new stories are what keeps Star Wars afloat.

It bears mentioning, too, that opening SW up to all audiences in TLJ meant some particular story-telling devices and humor which fans felt landed flat. I, for one, enjoyed the humor which was injected into TLJ particularly because it chipped away at the lofty pedestal on which fans have ensconced the series. Star Wars is first and foremost about people in all their awkwardness and hilarity, and for those fans who say that humor has no place in SW, I would simply point back to this moment between Luke and Han on Tatooine in Return of the Jedi:

Han: "I think my eyes are getting better. Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big light blur." Luke: "There's nothing to see. I used to live here, you know." Han: "You're going to die here, you know. Convenient."

Finally, one of the most important messages of TLJ which fans are rejecting is one which was summarized best by the surprise appearance of Yoda in Force-ghost form. As Luke struggles to come to terms with his past mistakes and how they're shaping the future, Yoda gives him some sound advice: "The greatest teacher, failure is."

Failure is a thread which runs heavy throughout TLJ, and it's not something audiences are used to having to worry about so deeply. As a collective, and particularly where Star Wars is concerned, we expect that things are going to work out. More than that, we expect to be in the know on every little piece of narrative so that we can brace ourselves for potential failures and be ready to cheer when the heroes triumph.

But TLJ does not give us that omniscience, and for many, that's enough to be a movie ruiner instead of a game changer. From the start, we watch our new favorite flying ace Poe Dameron brush failure as his rash actions lead to the deaths of countless rebels. When he's held accountable, we feel for him, because his idea of success includes the option of going down in a blaze of glory. That's an ideal for him, and as audiences it's an idea we've been conditioned to applaud, even when reality shows that that is not always the best route. So we feel for Poe because we agree with him, but TLJ smacks us as sharply as Leia smacks Poe and reminds us that living to keep those you're fighting for safe is far more effective than dying a hero and being unable to protect them.

We see failure taken further still. We're fully on board with Poe and his mutiny as the story progresses, because Admiral Holdo and the narrative are holding their plans captive from Poe and us. We don't like being kept in the dark as an audience; we're conditioned to feel as though this means the one withholding plans is naturally in the wrong. So watching Poe's mutiny tank, learning that his plans and those of Finn and Rose have all been for naught, is a crushing blow. But most audiences appear to be taking this as a personal slight rather than as a learning moment. We should always be skeptical of authority figures, and blindly following orders is more often harmful than helpful, but as TLJ shows us here, there are also times when acting without all the facts or thought for the consequences can be just as deadly. It feels like a waste of time to some, watching Finn and Rose have an adventure in a space casino only to have it all be for nothing, but Yoda's words ring out true here too: failure is the most powerful teacher, and our heroes prove their mettle by bouncing back from said failures and giving their all to winning the day.

Finally, for those who took the greatest issue with Luke's character arc in TLJ, there is some comfort to be had in again looking back to the original trilogy. Luke Skywalker has always been a relatable hero because he's the boy from nowhere. He lead an unimportant life on Tatooine and dreamed of greater things. Suddenly, fortune (or the Force) brought him into the greater story of the galaxy, and it turned out that he was actually someone of great importance. As a good hero does, he rose to the occasion, but as any human person does, he met setbacks and struggled with doubt. Throughout the first trilogy, doubt was Luke's greatest enemy, particularly self-doubt. He seemed to have conquered it by the climax of RotJ, but remember that there are 30 years between then and TFA which we only have had glimpses of. Old insecurities don't die easily, and it's easy to see how they could have come crawling back to haunt Luke as hard as they did. A lone man trying to rebuild the entire Jedi Order on his own when he had only a partial training himself? That's a lot of pressure, even for someone who almost single-handedly took down the Galactic Empire, destroyed the Emperor, and redeemed his father. Under such pressure, it's hard to expect anyone, even a hero, to remain perfectly confident. So when confronted with the raw power of his nephew, how can we blame him for being terrified and reacting badly?

What is most important about Luke which is made clear in TLJ is that he is our hero not because of his weaknesses, but because he always overcomes them. He stops himself from killing his nephew in instinct, and although timing and fate still deliver a sad outcome, there's a lot to be said for his restraint and repulsion at his own doubts in Ben. After being in hiding for years, he steps in and saves the day on Crait to allow the Rebellion another chance at life, at carrying on the fight. And most of all, as sad as it is to watch him go, he becomes one with the Force at peace, having finally learned to reconcile his doubt with his faith, his insecurities with his sense of right and wrong. And it's all the more touching a moment for it.

All in all, The Last Jedi is a challenge which most viewers seem only to take at face value, rejecting the offered opportunity for expanding our idea of what heroes look like, how they behave, what they overcome, and what their stories look like. All these ideas are wrapped in an exciting Star Wars adventure which is full of the incredible visuals and battles we've come to expect, but without that expected feel-good pat on the head and assurance that everything will be alright just as it always has been. Because that's not the point of The Last Jedi. Everything will indeed be alright, but nothing is ever the same as it was before, and that's all for the better. Change is hard, but eventually, we learn to see how much better off we are for it. I am thrilled to see Star Wars take leaps and bounds into new directions and explore every corner of humanity and our potential. One can only hope that others will learn to see this progress for the good in it, as well.

[theliterateape]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Ripped From the Gen X Nostalgia Train

By Don Hall

“This is not going to go the way you think.” — Luke Skywalker

WARNING: Major Spoilers Ahead

I am of the Generation who made Star Wars the franchise it has become. I saw the first film (now called Episode IV: A New Hope and sitting in the actually fourth spot chronologically) when I was 12 years old in Phoenix, Arizona, and saw it subsequently 25 times that summer. The saga of Luke and Leia and Han and Darth Vader was and is a part of the fabric of my own narrative. I once posited that the cut-off for age on whom I could date was anyone too young to have seen the first Star Wars in the theater, which was a great idea. Until I met my wife who wasn't born until three years later (but is still a huge Star Wars fan).

Luke Skywalker and his George Bailey beginnings of thwarted dreams and whiney frustrations being thrust into an epic mentorship with the misanthropic Obi-Wan Kenobi—a Jedi Master so broken by the failures of his religion and failure as a mentor to a previous student that he chose to exile himself on a desert planet—spoke to me as a kid. The rogue Han Solo. The heroic and snarky Process Leia. The idea that there is a Force that surrounds us, containing both Light and Dark within each of us, was compelling and affirming to a boy who understood the paradox of wanting to be Good but also wanting to be Bad.

Twelve years old. Twenty-five times in the theater as this was long before even Betamax and certainly before cable TV. Star Wars is as a much a part of me as my puberty, a cloak in my coming of age story, a pop culture anchor that has helped me to see where I'd like my place in all of this to be. It's mine so don't fuck with it.

Lucas almost lost me, however, with the midichlorians.

The idea that only the elite could harness control of the Force, that one needed to be born into that power smacked of Monarchy, of Catholicism, of the stripe of Patriarchy so embedded into our culture and trumpeted most vocally by the Republican Party, seemed wrong. The story of Luke was one of an ordinary kid (like me!) who, with the right training, could become greater than his desert-bound destiny. Now, with Anakin's virgin birth (WTF?) and the legacy of genetic inheritance, only those of a specific lineage could do it.

Yes, The Phantom Menace tries to explain that midichlorians are symbiont beings within all of us but the message is clear: only those born with more of them can truly do all the cool Jedi shit.

With Johnson's The Last Jedi, this myth is upturned. Not just upturned but gleefully burned down like a tree protecting my precious cultural touchstones being torched by an old friend. Johnson revisits the concepts behind the Force and Luke—now a Jedi Master so broken by the failures of his religion and failure as a mentor to a previous student that he chose to exile himself on a water planet—gives Rey the 1970s New Age version of it sans the genetic hogwash. 

We find out later in the film the answer of who Rey's parents are—to the Big Question of Abrams' The Force Awakens. Fans during the two years in between have gone rabid speculating and, I'll confess, I really wanted her to be Leia's daughter. The fact that her parents were drunks, simple traders who didn’t care about her, even as she trains under the legendary Luke Skywalker is jarring and wonderful. This flips the narrative from a saga of a Royal Family to a larger, more egalitarian story. 

Yes, the fanboys will rail against the truth of this as it is Kylo who tells her but the look on her face says that she knew it all along and why would he lie about that and, like all fanboys, as I have embraced the smashing of my action figures from Nostalgia Lane, I want it to be true.

It suddenly opens everything back up and rightly concludes with a single shot of a poor, slave boy with a broom subtly using the Force to simply pull the broom to his hand. It is the single most hopeful image of the entire series of movies—this enslaved boy on a casino planet created to cater to the 1 percent (arms dealers, no less) who has the same control of the Force as a Skywalker.

We of Gen X don't all like this change. I was thrown off by so many of the tropes of the existing canon being subverted: Poe Dameron (our new Han Solo replacement) is a bit of an asshole and wrong over and over again, the slicer portrayed by Benicio Del Toro seems to be a Lando stand-in but he does not have a heart of gold and betrays Finn and Rose without a last minute conversion to nobility, Snoke is not the Big Bad and is snuffed out so quickly as to indicate that all of the fan-based speculation was as unimportant as Snoke now appears to be.

This is a Star Wars rooted in the idea that we of Gen X failed to beat the Empire. That our delusion of ourselves is not reflected in our feelings of exceptionalism. Rey and Kylo Ren and Poe and Finn are the Millennials we failed and it is now their story, their fight, their destiny.

With Trump in the Big Seat and the GOP sitting in the majority of Congress, with open racists and misogynists coming out of the woodwork like stormtroopers and First Order acolytes, it is obvious we might have destroyed the Death Star but these fuckers keep coming back because the Force has an equal balance of Dark and Light.

We elected our own Luke Skywalker in Barack Obama and, despite his belief in the Light, he failed.

We now have Rey who wields the Force with a rage-filled scream and a ferocity that flies in the face of all the teachings of Yoda and Kenobi. We now have Finn, so confused and earnest in his hatred of the First Order that he goes on a suicide run to destroy a big gun. We have Poe who, in his distrust of those in command and arrogant belief in his own flawed judgment, foments a mutiny within the Rebel Alliance. We also have Rose with her simple belief that we win by saving those we love instead of destroying those we hate. It's a messy sort of hope but one that recognizes that this fight between Dark and Light is never truly over.

I have been accused of "hand-wringing about PC culture" of late and it's interesting that it took a sci-fi horse opera to punch a hole through my frustrations. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a Star Wars for #Black Lives Matters and #MeToo and all the stridency with which I have come to be annoyed. The characters are more complicated, with recognizable failings and flaws, and not all of our heroes remain heroic.

And I love it. I can't wait to see what comes next.

[sbboh]

Ten decade-defining Norwich City matches

Norwich City had a more interesting decade than most teams, experiencing four promotions and two relegations. The decade began with a 1-0 win away to Gary Waddock’s Wycombe Wanderers and ended with a 2-2 draw at home to Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur. Here I’ve looked at the games which defined the decade. In some way they all changed the course of Norwich City’s recent history and provided some unforgettable memories.

Colchester 0-5 Norwich – 16 January 2010 – Arguably the most wounding result of the previous decade was losing at home to Paul Lambert’s Colchester United 1-7 on the day of the League One season in August of 2009. So having been handed the chance of vengeance, Norwich took it with both hands. Shortly after the 1-7 defeat, Paul Lambert took overs the reins at Carrow Road, so Colchester had eagerly awaited his return to the Weston Homes Community Stadium. On one of the worst pitches you’ll ever see, the Canaries decimated their opponents, with Grant Holt getting the fifth in stoppage time, and revenge was served on a cold January afternoon. Norwich went on to secure the League One title, overhauling long time league leaders Leeds and returning to the Championship at the first time of asking.

Norwich 4-1 Ipswich – 28 November 2010 – Having recently been promoted, there weren’t great expectations on the shoulders of City players in the 2010/11 season. But in this game the Canaries soared, with Grant Holt grabbing a hat-trick. The third, led to scenes of absolute pandemonium, with seats being ripped out and fans going into a state of delirium. As a pitch side steward I was hit by a flying seat but the euphoria was worth the pain. Wes Hoolahan chipped in with a fourth and a joyous Sunday was complete. Holt was sporting a very unflattering moustache for Movember, but this was the day he became a Carrow Road cult hero. And more importantly the result acted as a springboard for yet another promotion charge.

Norwich 3-2 Derby – 25 April 2011 – Paul Lambert’s side sat in second place going into an Easter Monday tie against mid-table Derby. Having beaten Ipswich 5-1 on their own turf four days earlier, confidence was high. But it was a slog for Norwich, finding themselves drawing 2-2 as second half stoppage time approached. Stoppage time was aplenty, largely thanks to a slow walk off from constant irritant Robbie Savage when was being substituted. In the 96th minute a corner was whipped in by Henri Lansbury, arriving at the feet of Russell Martin, who smacked the ball towards the six yard box, where Canadian striker Simeon Jackson kneed it in to complete a memorable hat-trick. It was one of Carrow’s Road scruffiest goals but also one of it’s most celebrated. Perhaps the moment is best remembered for one overenthusiastic fan’s celebration leading him to fall well onto the pitch, as can be seen 19 seconds into this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDM88n9ZHk0. The late win kept City above Cardiff and in the automatic promotion places. The following Monday, Norwich sealed promotion to the Premier League by beating Portsmouth, thanks to another goal from Jackson in a 1-0 win.

Spurs 1-2 Norwich – 9 April 2012 – During Norwich’s only previous top-flight stay, back in 2004/05, they failed to pick up an away win, which significantly contributed to their immediate return to the second tier. This win at White Hart Lane was huge step towards survival in the 2011/2012. Goals from unheralded wingers Elliot Bennett and Anthony Pilkington were enough to sink a decent Spurs side, which included the likes of Luka Modric and Gareth Bale. City striker Grant Holt gave Spurs captain Ledley King a torrid time, proving a real handful. It was the Canaries first win at Spurs since 1993 and proved how far they had come in a relatively short space of time. Not only were they able to compete with Premier League sides away from home, the result had shown they could topple one of the best. A month Lambert’s side travelled to Arsenal and put in another superb performance to secure a 3-3 draw against the red side of North London.

Fulham 1-0 Norwich – 12 April 2014 – Fulham’s West London home, Craven Cottage, had been somewhat of an unhappy hunting ground for the Canaries in recent times. City’s previous relegation had come on the last day of the 2004/05 season, thanks to a crushing 6-0 defeat at the hands of the Cottagers. This time around, again Norwich’s position was precarious. After three seasons mixing it with the best, a return to the Championship was looking ever more likely. Manager Chris Hughton had been relieved of his duties following a disappointing run of the results. The inexperienced Neil Adams was given the job for the final five games of the season, largely based on his success in taking City’s academy prospects to FA Youth Cup glory in 2013. If the momentum was going to change, Norwich were going to need a good start to his tenure. This was particularly crucial as after their relegation dogfight with Fulham, given their remaining games were against Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Although the Canaries battled hard, they didn’t make their dominance in possession count. They lost 1-0, with Colombian Hugo Rodallega sealing a vital three points for Fulham. Adams’ side only picked up one point from their remaining four games, making relegation inevitable, although he did keep his job ahead of the 2014/15 season.

Norwich 2-0 Middlesbrough – 25 May 2015 - Bizarrely Adams’ last league game in charge was a 6-1 win over Millwall, but it was the right call for Alex Neil to take over in January 2015. He guided City to the play-offs where they conquered their greatest rivals Ipswich to set up a showpiece Wembley final against Aitor Karanka’s Boro side. The Spaniard had twice led his side to comfortable victory over Norwich during the season and most expected a similar result this time around. But the Canaries came flying out of the traps. Both teams hit the woodwork early on during a mad minute, before Cameron Jerome robbed Daniel Ayala in possession before slotting a cool finish past the Boro keeper. Minutes later, Steven Whittaker fed the ball to Nathan Redmond, who lashed the ball in the net to make it 2-0. Despite the nail biting in the stands, Norwich held on fairly comfortably to record a famous win. City were back in the Premier League after only one season away. The yellow and green faithful hadn’t visited Wembley for 30 years, so this victory was undoubtedly the highlight of the decade.

Norwich 0-3 Sunderland – 16 April 2016 – The 2015/16 season had started with much optimism, notably as Canaries won 3-1 away at Sunderland in just their second game, but things looked very different by the time of April’s return fixture. City’s recruitment had been poor, notably their strikers weren’t firing, whereas Sunderland had an in-form Jermain Defoe up top. Facing a side with the nous of Sam Allardyce in charge was always going to be a challenge, but no-one quite expected the Norfolk side to be cut apart in the way that they were. Defoe was of course on the scoresheet along with Fabio Borini and Duncan Watmore. After the thrashing, Sunderland were only one point behind City and had two games in hand. Again a daunting end of the season run of fixtures faced Alex Neil’s side, and they weren’t able to stay in the big time, eventually being relegated by a margin of five points.

Norwich 1-1 Ipswich – 18 February 2018 – The only draw to make the list. By this point, German Daniel Farke had become head coach at Carrow Road. His first season was unspectacular, with only James Maddison lighting up proceedings. When Norwich have a mediocre Championsip season, it is usually defined by how they performed against their greatest rivals. Back in October 2017, Maddison had given the Canaries a 1-0 win at Portman Road, but the home fixture came with a lot more jeopardy. Not a great amount happened until the 89th minute, when Ipswich captain Luke Chambers headed in to give Ipswich a 1-0 lead and a what seemed like a precious first win against Norwich in almost nine years. But never ones to give up, City produced a magical stoppage goal, with Timm Klose leaping to meet a cross from his centre back partner Grant Hanley to maintain pride in Norfolk. This game also contributed to the departure of under fire Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy, who had told his own fans to ‘F off’ after he thought Chambers had scored the winning goal. The contrast in fortunes of the two teams since this match could not be more stark.

Leeds 1-3 Norwich – 2 February 2019 – By this point of the season Norwich were flying in The Championship, but many saw Marcelo Biesla’s Leeds as the team to beat. Especially given the fact that the Argentinian’s ruthless start to the season had included his side winning 3-0 Carrow Road back in August 2018. City got off to the perfect start with Mario Vrancic curling a free kick in the back of the net. Teemu Pukki added a second before the break thanks to some calamitous defending from their Yorkshire foes. Vrancic then added his second and City’s third, to round off a superb team performance, as good as any from a Norwich side in this decade. Ex-Canary Patrick Bamford’s consolation goal in no way dampened the mood, players and fans alike were jubilant. They knew the message this sent not only to their opponents on the day but to all of their promotion rivals. The Canaries stormed to the title, only losing one match between this game and the end of the season they were crowned champions.

Norwich 3-2 Man City – 14 September 2019 – Exactly 23 years to the day I attended my first Norwich City game, a 0-0 draw against Southend, City found themselves at home to the Champions of England. Sadly I didn’t have a ticket but the drama that unfolded was box office from wherever you were sitting. The Canaries were ravaged by injuries, with up to 10 first team players unavailable. A makeshift side raced into a two goal lead by the half hour point thanks to Kenny McLean heading in an Emi Buendia corner and a great breakaway move finished off by local academy graduate Todd Cantwell. Sergio Aguero pulled one make before the break, before Pukki restored the two goal advantage just after the restart. Norwich held on for a famous victory, despite a late Rodri goal to reduce Pep Guardiola’s margin of defeat to one. This was a stand out achievement in the Norwich City story, with all the hard work of Daniel Farke, sporting director Stuart Webber and the players over the previous two years ago paying off. Pundits were marveling at the way they were playing out the back, remarking that it was a style Arsenal should aspire to. It was an excellent victory over a side managed by arguably the most influential coach of the decade. Although Norwich’s fortunes haven’t been fantastic since, football is all about moments, and those 90 minutes were something no Norwich fan will ever forget.

[gadgetsrevv]

Neymar returning to Spain would be an ego trip by Barca or Real. PLUS: Chelsea exposed at Man United

It’s back! After a summer of international soccer, Gab Marcotti returns with his weekly column reflecting on the big talking points. It’s the first edition of Monday Musings for the 2019-20 season.

Jump to: Is Neymar really on the move? | Man United vs. Chelsea | Juve’s squad issues | Stop complaining about VAR | Are Man City deep enough? | Bayern get their winger

The latest on Neymar’s transfer saga

So now it’s apparently just a question of making the numbers work. PSG sporting director Leonardo confirmed that the club are in talks to sell Neymar, with Real Madrid and (possibly) Barcelona the likeliest destinations. But when you put a $210m Euro price tag on a guy, it’s far from straightforward. Particularly since whoever signs Neymar will also be on the hook for some $300m+ in wages over the next five years.

The depressing thing here is that this seems to be driven more by ego than footballing logic on all sides. Sure, Neymar is a hugely talented player and, possibly, still one of the heirs apparent to the Cristiano Ronaldo/Messi duopoly. But Barcelona have just added Antoine Griezmann to a front line that includes Messi and Luis Suarez (not to mention Ousmane Dembele). Real Madrid have just spent $110m on Eden Hazard and have big plans for Vinicius and Rodrygo, plus Marco Asensio won’t be injured in perpetuity. (And that’s before we get into Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez).

Where does he fit at either club, except as a an ego-trip and commercial roll of the dice?

The answer is he doesn’t. Signing Neymar would require a dismantling of the team that has been built (and, presumably, planned, though with Real Madrid you’re never quite sure how much planning is involved). And is his contribution, especially at that price, big enough to justify tearing up the blueprint?

I’d suggest the answer is a resounding “no,” not to mention the numbers. I know some treat Financial Fair Play as a joke but hey, it’s real and it’s still around. Barcelona can’t find a few extra million to land Matthijs De Ligt but they can commit half a billion to bring back Neymar, the guy who left so he could write his own story away from Messi’s shadow? Really?

Real Madrid, already stuck with two guys (Bale and James) whom they’re struggling to sell because of the absurdly onerous contracts they gave them, happily go and lavish another mega-deal on a guy who started less than half of his league games at PSG in the past two years? You sure?

Neymar’s time at PSG has failed to live up to expectations but it’s not stopped Spain’s two biggest clubs from trying to get him back in La Liga. Why?

It’s a sign of the modern game, and the way big clubs are straitjacketed by massive contracts, that if this deal happens, it won’t be a cash deal. The only way it works is by throwing in makeweights, which is why you’re likely to hear plenty of talk of Philippe Coutinho or Nelson Semedo, or James or Isco going the other way. Sticking a player in as part exchange not only saves you cash, but it allows for some neat accounting slight of hand because you can put almost whatever valuation you like on him and then let the magic of amortisation do the rest.

Stay tuned.

There’s also the distinct possibility that he doesn’t move at all, which would mean that sanity prevailed. Thomas Tuchel hinted at it after Sunday’s Ligue 1 opener for PSG. Of course, if he stays it will be curious to see what the reaction of the PSG fans will be. On Sunday night, during the 3-0 win over Nimes (Neymar was nowhere to be seen), he was invited — via banners and chanting — to get the hell out of the club.

Will it be the sort of thing that gets forgotten after a few good performances and some winning runs? You hope not, but you fear yes, just as you hope that if Florentino Perez or Josep Bartomeu break the bank one more time for this guy, they will be held to account.

There’s nothing wrong with spending big if you think you have the right guy: Kylian Mbappe is Exhibit A, B and C here. But to do it out of ego, in the waning weeks of the transfer window, while ripping up the script, smacks of irresponsibility. This is a good time as any to remind Florentino and Bartomeu that they don’t own their clubs. They are presidents with a responsibility for stewardship.

Breaking down Man United vs. Chelsea

Frank Lampard is playing with house money this season. As one of the more analytical and reflective football men out there, you could picture him in the summer playing the scenario game.

Best (realistic) case?

The combination of youngsters, loan diaspora and holdovers coalesce around his brand of football (which, lest we forget, is far closer to his predecessor’s than any Chelsea manager since Andre Villas Boas), Chelsea break into the top three, go deep in the Champions League and he gets a big, fat transfer budget next summer.

– Ogden: Pulisic must hit ground running at Chelsea

Worst (realistic) case? The kids’ inexperience costs Chelsea dear, the likes of Mason Mount, Reece James and Tammy Abraham offer further evidence of the gulf between the Premier League and the Football League, there’s a massive Eden Hazard-shaped hole that Christian Pulisic can’t come close to filling and they slip down the table, missing out on the Europa League.

But guess what? Between the transfer ban, the Hazard departure and the fact that he finally tapped into Chelsea’s vaunted Academy, there are enough mitigating circumstances there that he gets a pass. And he has another go in 2020-21, except with a full year of Premier League experience under his belt and a chance to actually acquire players next summer.

Frank Lampard, left, and Chelsea have a lot of work to do following Sunday’s heavy defeat at Man United. That said, it’s not all smooth sailing for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, right, either.

It’s worth bearing all of this in mind when evaluating Chelsea this season, in particular the opening 4-0 smackdown at Old Trafford. Despite leaving N’Golo Kante (who was unfit) on the bench and being without Antonio Rudiger, not to mention the long-term injuries to Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi, they hit the woodwork twice and looked bright and sharp on the ball for most of the first half. But Kurt Zouma‘s sloppy tackle gave United a penalty, which Marcus Rashford converted, and as the saying goes, goals change games.

United were able to play on the counter and they did it very well, though, again the second and third goals were the result of individual errors by Cesar Azpilicueta (not something you can chalk up to youthful inexperience) and the fourth was a deflected effort to crown a fast break that began with Zouma on his back and Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire asking the referee to stop the game for what they thought was a head injury.

In other words, a healthy dose of misfortune, individual errors and happenstance, though that doesn’t gloss over the fact that there is plenty of work for Lampard and Chelsea to do. The individual blunders loomed large but there was also a serious lack of balance in the side, which isn’t surprising when it’s the first game of the season and more than half your starting XI were either elsewhere or on the bench last season.

As for United, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire hit the ground running and gave Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the perfect platform upon which to counter-attack. For all the venom he gets from some quarters, Paul Pogba popped up with two assists (one of them, as delightful as you’re likely to see this weekend). And yes: when it comes to flat-out pace, United have plenty.

The test, of course, will come later, as Jose Mourinho (not that he has an axe to grind or anything) pointed out on TV: what happens when they face teams who park the bus? Speedy strikers are great if they have space in which to run but when the opposition sit deep, you need either creativity (that’s on you, Paul) or the physicality to punch it in (and both big Belgians are gone).

That’s where Solskjaer will earn his bacon and in that sense, he faces a far more daunting task — at least as far as 2019-20 is concerned — than Lampard.

Can Juve resolve squad issues before it’s too late?

It’s rare that you get a manager speaking with the sort of honesty we heard from Maurizio Sarri over the weekend, when he admitted Juventus need to shift six players between now and the end of the transfer window or risk having to cut them from their Champions League squad. A lot of the focus has been driven by the transfer window, with speculation about the likes of Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain and/or Mario Mandzukic moving or, in midfield, Sami Khedira or Blaise Matuidi. But there ought to be a bigger concern: how did we get here?

Juventus can count and they knew that because they have just one homegrown player in the squad, perpetual third keeper Marco Pinsoglio, they can only register 22 players. So what kind of planning is it to find yourself in mid-August being forced to give guys away?

This situation is aggravated by the fact that most of the players they want to shift are older and with hefty contracts. What’s more, with the Premier League window closed, there are only so many potential destinations and there won’t be any late-August panic buys from mid-table English sides.

It’s pretty basic stuff. You hope that sporting director Fabio Paratici has some sort of plan up his sleeve, one that won’t cost the club too much money. Otherwise, for all his success in landing the likes of Matthijs de Ligt, Adrien Rabbit and Aaron Ramsey, he will have dropped the ball big time.

Enough complaining about VAR already!

There were no VAR screw-ups in its first weekend of Premier League life. Of course, this doesn’t mean there was no controversy, mainly because — despite the fact that it has been around for nearly three seasons and fans, players and media would have seen it in the World Cup, Champions League knockouts and FA Cup — some observers seemed to act as if they were seeing it for the first time (witness the Raheem Sterling offside) and others seemed unaware of the changes to the Laws of the Game that came into effect on June 1 (Philippe Dendoncker’s disallowed goal in Wolves’ win over Leicester).

– VAR in the Premier League: Big decisions explained

My colleague Dale Johnson has written about this at length if you want to go granular but put in its simplest form: offside is offside and it doesn’t matter how close it is. It’s frustrating to have to repeat this. And while, I’ll grant you, offside VAR is more of a by-product of why video replay was brought in to begin with (which was to correct major, aka clear and obvious, errors), the fact that we have the technology to apply it to offside calls more accurately than human assistants means there’s no reason not to use it.

Whatever you think of the margin of error that exists at the junction of frame velocity, human velocity and the brains of VAR operators, it surely is more accurate than a sprinting linesman asked to look in two directions at once while determining the exact moment boot strikes ball.

I’ve heard some suggestions that it would be better to only use VAR on blatant offside errors. OK, fine. So how do you judge what is blatant? And, while we’re at it, when it’s that close, even the very best human assistant referees are left to guess. With no VAR, Sterling might have been flagged offside or he might not. It would have been a coin flip.

Does that really sound more reasonable?

The Wolves incident actually has nothing to do with VAR but simply with a rule change that came into effect on June 1. If you handle the ball, even accidentally, and then gain an advantage from it that allows you to score a goal, that goal gets disallowed. Why? Because IFAB figured it’s against the spirit of the game to score with the help of an arm or hand and they want to standardize officiating, with more consistency. Making refs decide on the spot what is accidental and what is not when a goal is scored is, according to them, unnecessary. Which sounds reasonable enough, though it was somewhat jarring for Wolves fans on Sunday.

In the Dendoncker goal, the Belgian midfielder struck a ball that hit his teammate, Willie Boly on the arm. It was clearly accidental and had it just rolled away, everything would have been fine. But the ball sat up for Dendoncker to hit cleanly into the back of the net, and that’s why it was disallowed.

Would the goal have stood if there had been no VAR? Not unless the referee didn’t see the ball hit Boly’s arm. In which case, it’s a good thing there is VAR.

There will undoubtedly be mistakes and blunders, either with the VAR protocol or technology or implementation this season. But Week One went smoothly and whatever “controversy” arose feels mostly down to folks needing something to talk about.

Once the VAR novelty wears off, hopefully by the start of September, we can all move on.

Is Man City’s squad deep enough?

Manchester City raced out to a resounding 5-0 victory at West Ham in week one of the Premier League season and most have them as favourites to three-peat as champions. Rightly so, perhaps, but you wonder if they aren’t a little bit thinner than you’d like them to be in central defence.

In central defence, Vincent Kompany is gone and, effectively, City’s fourth central defender is Eliaquim Mangala, who hasn’t actually played at all in 18 months (and was nothing to write home about before that) and won’t be stopped from leaving should the right offer appear. Nicolas Otamendi is a year older and coming off a Copa America. John Stones had a poor season last year. He may bounce back, he may not.

The next option, presumably, is dropping Fernandinho into defense, but he’s 34 and has had injuries. Plus, if he’s at the back, he’s not in defensive midfield, which leaves only Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan (whose injury record isn’t great) in the middle of the park.

You can only assume Guardiola has a ton of faith in some of the teenagers populating the development squad, like Eric Garcia and Joel Latibeaudiere. Otherwise, a rough patch of injuries and suspensions could cost them dear.

Bayern get their man (and it’s not Sane)

Having missed out on Leroy Sane, Bayern seem set for a band-aid solution to the wing by bringing in Ivan Perisic from Inter on loan. If the reported numbers are correct — $5m loan fee, plus a $25m option to buy — it’s a cheap-and-cheerful way of adding some experience and quality in a guy who already knows the Bundesliga well.

It may be one of those rare moves that helps all those concerned.

Perisic wasn’t part of Antonio Conte’s plans at Inter and from their perspective, getting his wages off the bill and a little bit of money back makes sense. He’s been frighteningly inconsistent but has his moments and perhaps Bayern, a far more stable club than Inter, can ensure he gets some continuity to his performances. He ought to his seize this opportunity with both hands, because this is what you call landing on your feet after falling off a skyscraper.

As for Bayern, if he performs the way he did most of last season, no biggie: they can just send him back in the summer.

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[sightsoundmusic]

EXCLUSIVE: Joshua Powell Talks Indianapolis, Stoner Jams & David Lynch

Written by Luke Jaggers

Over the past month we here at Sight & Sound have been obsessed with a singer/songwriter by the name of Joshua Powell. He sent us over his 2019 release entitled Psycho/Tropic and we’ve been enamored with it. We wanted to reach out and get an exclusive look into his life with the band and what he’s looking to accomplish in 2019. We hope you enjoy this interview and his album as much as we did.

In Jaye’s video about your album, you were compared to artists such as Bon Iver, Ben Howard and Sufjan Stevens. I personally hear some From Indian Lakes as well, but my questions are what do you think of those comparisons and also what influences you?

Joshua: I'm cool with those comparisons, especially with Vernon and Stevens because those two have indelibly influenced me. The fact that both of their careers are rooted in lyric-heavy folk tropes that were compounded upon and extrapolated across their discographies. I've followed a similar trajectory and am no stranger to their work. I've only heard a half dozen tunes from the other two artists you mentioned. I don't love 'em, but I like 'em as a friend. My art intake is real heavy and broad, so each record sort sort of has its own council of influences. The ones that have made the longest and deepest marks are Bon Iver, Kanye West, Neil Young, and David Lynch.

That’s interesting that you note David Lynch as an influence. Specifically because a lot of bands don’t look towards other mediums of art to influence their music. Especially after listening to your album I can definitely hear those influences to other pop culture. Is that something you think about deliberately when making your music?

J: Absolutely. I was drifting toward disenfranchisement with music as a medium because of its inherently bifurcated medium of consumption. With music, you make recordings, or you perform live. I was spending a lot of time with other non-musical artists who, it seemed to me, had a much more inspiring, cosmic, holistic view of art. My friend Emily talked to me over a diner breakfast about the body of a dead bat she found for like half an hour. I was enraptured. Turns out it was too small to taxidermy, but the ARTIST (vs the musician I s'pose) sees art everywhere. That's much more sustainable an MO if you ask me. So yes, I'm looking at a lot of cinematic surrealism and horror, reading a lot of classics and philosophy, going to galleries--the creative principles are super transitive if you have an open spiritual ear I think.

With a project that’s so expansive as Psycho/Tropic the production really shines all over the album. Who recorded your album and what was the recording process like for you?

J: Thanks! I think so too! Jonathan Class produced, as he always has for me with only a few exceptions. We worked at Varsity Recording Co. in Anderson, IN, where both of our music careers germinated. I worked with my brothers Jacob (drums) and Adam (guitar), my bandmates with the longest tenure. Their fingerprints are all over the arrangements. Working with Jon is always a total dream because he interprets my visions really accurately. And he becomes the extra band member in the studio. We're also all total goobers and hanging out was effortless. We took our time with it more than we ever have, and that extra care I think really translated into the end product.

Speaking of Indiana, seems like right now we’re seeing a lot of talent get picked up from here and getting noticed. Do you think Indiana is a good place for musicians to create?

J: *laughs* I know, right?! We're coming out of the woodwork! Someone from Wisconsin said the same thing to me the other day! The short answer is hell yes. I believe the Midwest is having it's meta-modern renaissance, and Indy's jockeying to be its palpitating heart, man. If you have an idea, you can make it here. Every month the culture gets weirder, richer, more diverse, more hospitable. The other day I was talking to my poet friend about the Midwest - He was so excited about what was happening in the DIY music scene here, and in the indie booksellers, the small print press and he talked about the vibration that these full rooms have been emanating--this idea that "Something good is about to happen here." And I think that's the spirit of the Midwest. We work hard and we keep hope. We know what we look like sometimes, when our potholes and grey days are held up against the shining LA lights and the happenin' ATX thrall, but we believe in our own capacity, and we trust that what's happening here is real, and big, and good. Every time I think I have a handle on the local scene here, another door opens and I realize just how much is being MADE here, by all sorts of folks. It's the most inspiring place in the world to someone with the right mix of creative pension, inner light, and grit. Shit, I'm getting evangelical over here.

What would you say to someone that's never heard your music before and they're about to listen to it for the first time?

J: If it's an older person, I say, "imagine Neil Young songs played by Pink Floyd." If it's a younger person I say, "It's stoner jams for English majors." I think one of the selling points of our band is that you can listen to it with whatever level of intentionality you bring to the table. I'm told it works as background study music. Some of our heaviest songs lyrically are built to be summery sounding anthems or uptempo rock toe-tappers. But it's also built for repeated listens, in headphones or studio monitors, lying in bed with your eyes closed, or with the lyrics in your hand and a highlighter for annotating. There are layers built into everything, from the connotative references in the lyrics to the way the production elements are panned. It's super deep if you want it to be. But it's also just rock 'n roll.

What do you hope to accomplish in the near future with your album already releasing earlier in the year? Tours planned?

J: Recently, thanks to the help of people like yourself, we're doing the most extensive press campaign we've ever done. Trying to cull fans from the internet because I'm told that's the happenin' place to be these days. But we also, just this week, acquired a new tour van by the fiscal grace of our darling fans who raised over 6k for us on GoFundMe. So starting in April, we're back to hitting the non-digital streets. We have tours planned so far this year with The Outside Voices, Sylmar, and Mister Moon, as well as a busy summer festival schedule, and more plans looming in the lessening shadows of the autumn. We want to bring the new record to as many physical people as we can afford this year, before we start the whole cycle over again. Shaping up to be a busy and beautiful year, and we're excited to keep building on this framework. We also just booked our first national television appearance on PBS that we're shooting in March that will be syndicated everywhere, along with some other great bands like Mike Mains and The Way Down Wanderers, so keep an eye out for that!

I just wanna say personally that your music was such a surprise and we’re so excited to share it with the Sight & Sound audience. Thank you for reaching out to us and sharing this absolutely incredible album with us!

J: Dude! Thank you so much! So pleased y'all connected with it, truly. Thanks for being down to help us spread the word, it makes all the difference.

Psycho/Tropic by Joshua Powell is available on all streaming platforms now.

https://www.facebook.com/joshuapowellmusic/ https://twitter.com/JoshuaPowellGTR

[battingonjakku]

A guide to the 18 counties and why you should/shouldn’t support each one

Hello! The county season is about to start which means a lot of chatter about it here for the next 6 months, so if you’re looking for a team to support, here’s a quick guide to choosing one – with help from several of our lovely cricket fam.  

There are 18 to get through, so let’s get a crackin’

Derbyshire

Overseas players: Jeevan Mendis, Imran Tahir, Matt Henry     

Recent internationals: Gary Wilson (Ire), Hardus Viljoen (SA, Kolpak)

England prospects: Harvey Hosein is a very promising wicketkeeper, though at a time when England are blessed with so many

Why you should support them: The one and only Michael Holding is the club president, and if you’re a Matt Henry fan this is the team for you, having recently signed for the T20 Blast. And Harvey Hosein is a qt.

Why you shouldn’t support them: I’m not sure I know anyone who supports them, so it could be lonely (I DON’T MEAN THIS AS A WAY OF DISRESPECT IF THERE ARE DERBY FANS HERE PLEASE COME OUT THE WOODWORK)

Durham

Overseas players: Stephen Cook, Tom Latham

Recent internationals: Ben Stokes, Mark Wood, Keaton Jennings

England prospects: Jack Burnham, Paul Coughlin

Why you should support them: BECAUSE OF THE UNJUST TREATMENT OF THE ECB, also they have the best academy in the country and are generally good eggs – it is, after all, the home of Paul Collingwood. And if you’re in the area, you’re close to @bibliolicious​ and @omgbroady​ too.

Why you shouldn’t support them: honestly I can’t think of one, support Durham.

Essex

Overseas players: Mohammad Amir, Neil Wagner   

Recent internationals: Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara

England prospects: Jamie Porter, Tom Westley

Why you should support them: if you’re a fan of Alastair Cook there will be a good three months of him (hopefully) churning out the runs for them in the CC, plus they have excellent comedy cricket through one of its kings: Ravi Bopara.

Why you shouldn’t support them: because it hurts too much, believe me. 2016 saw promotion in the CC but 2017 could be a battle after the big retirements of Graham Napier and David Masters.

Glamorgan

Overseas players: Jacques Rudolph 

Recent internationals: Ruaidhri Smith (Scotland), Timm van der Gugten (Netherlands), Colin Ingram (Kolpak)

England prospects: Aneurin Donald

Why you should support them: CYMRU AM BYTH, The Only Welsh Team, putting the Wales into the ECB (wait a sec...)

Why you shouldn’t support them: No trophy since (I believe) 2004, and whilst they’re improving in LO formats particularly, they’re not obvious contenders in any competitions.

Gloucestershire

Overseas players: Michael Klinger, Cameron Bancroft, Andrew Tye 

Recent internationals: :((

England prospects: Craig Miles, Matt Taylor

Why you should support them: Particularly strong one day team with a great history, and winning the 50 over cup against the odds in 2015. With Michael Klinger leading the way, definitely a team to watch in LO competitions.

Why you shouldn’t support them: If first class success is what matters to you, they’re not a great pick in the present or even history - never having been official county champions.

Hampshire

Overseas players: George Bailey 

Recent internationals: James Vince, Liam Dawson, Reece Topley, Kyle Abbott (Kolpak), Rilee Rossouw (Kolpak)

England prospects: Mason Crane, Tom Alsop

Why you should support them: Michael Carberry is a reason in himeslf. Not only has he made his way back to training after treatment for cancer, he’s also a great influence and support for younger batsmen around the country. In Mason Crane they have one of the most hotly-tipped players in the country.

Why you shouldn’t support them: Not at all popular after Abbott and Rossouw ended their international careers to sign on Kolpak deals, and the beneficiaries of Durham’s relegation by the ECB last year - topped with their chairman saying it was the right thing to do

Kent 

Overseas players: None so far, though Adam Milne may be on his way.

Recent internationals: Sam Billings, James Tredwell

England prospects: Daniel Bell-Drummond, Sam Northeast, Matt Coles

Why you should support them: Generally cricket’s good guys, plus the county ground has a tree! (and they literally had a new tree prepared for when the old one fell down, it’s one of my favourite quirks in county cricket). Also a team that really has an emphasis on home-grown talent.

Why you shouldn’t support them: Can perhaps a bit too unlucky - finishing second in Div 2 last year, the year when there was no promotion for coming second. And their kit is among the worst on the scene.

Lancashire (with help from @latenightwatchman​)

Overseas players:  Ryan McLaren, James Faulkner 

Recent internationals: James Anderson, Jos Buttler, Young Haseeb Hameed, Stephen Parry, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (Kolpak), Dane Vilas (Kolpak)

England prospects: Saqib Masood, Liam Livingstone

Why you should support them: They have a group of really exciting young batsmen coming to the fore: Hameed, Livingstone, Jones, and Davies. Giles did really well in pushing them (perhaps sometimes out of necessity) and hopefully we'll see more of the same this year. And Hameed, Jones and Davies are adorable, in their own little ways.

Why you shouldn’t support them: it’s Lancashire. They have taken a couple of Kolpak signings this year, so we might see less of an emphasis on youth. Also the OT pitches last year were often really dull to try and prevent relegation, which didn't always make for exciting cricket.

Leicestershire (with help from @knockmeforsix​)

Overseas players: Clint McKay, Sharjeel Khan, Cameron Delport, Luke Ronchi

Recent internationals: Kevin O’Brien (Ireland)

England prospects: Zak Chappell

Why you should support them: the perennial underdog who went two seasons without winning a first class game, but had a better year of 2016. Also a great producer of England talent over the years, including Stuart Broad and James Taylor. And Grace Road is adorable, with cheap hot dogs and the comm box being a glorified shed on the pavilion.

Why you shouldn’t support them: Here I quote: ‘we are not very good at cricket so if you like winning we are not the team for you’ (courtesy of Charlie)

Middlesex (with help from @twistsofsilver​)

Overseas players: Brendon McCullum, Adam Voges

Recent internationals: Steven Finn, Eoin Morgan, Paul Stirling (Ireland)

England prospects: Toby Roland-Jones, Nick Gubbins, Olly Rayner, Dawid Malan, Tom Helm

Why you should support them: the reigning champions! of the CC and can be expected to challenge strongly again this year. And if you sit in the pavilion you have entertainment like Tim Murtagh breaking the MCC gate and looking sheepish. Also, Steven Finn. And Lord’s.

Why you shouldn’t support them: I saw Nick Compton get a century once. I can’t remember it. Also, for all its glory, Lord’s can produce some really lifeless pitches.

Northamptonshire

Overseas players: None from what I can tell

Recent internationals: Ben Duckett

England prospects: Graeme White, Richard Gleeson

Why you should support them: despite being underdogs with the smallest of budgets, have formed one of the best T20 teams - winning in 2016 & 2013 and coming second in 2015. James Taylor has just joined as a coach, too.

Why you shouldn’t support them: Not always popular for taking a number of players on Kolpaks - not the only culprits, but called out on it a lot

Nottinghamshire 

Overseas players: Daniel Christian 

Recent internationals: Stuart Broad, Alex Hales, Jake Ball

England prospects: I’m not sure if Harry Gurney counts, already having had a stint in the side, but his name often comes up among more left field options.

Why you should support them: A good bunch of players who have underperformed recently. Led by one of the most respected wicketkeepers on the circuit in Chris Read, in what will be his swansong season.

Why you shouldn’t support them: A richer team who have been accused of poaching players from ‘smaller’ counties (often Leicestershire tbh). 

Somerset

Overseas players: Dean Elgar 

Recent internationals: Josh Davey (Scotland), Michael Leask (Scotland), Roelof van der Merwe (Netherlands), Paul van Meekeren (Netherlands)

England prospects: Jack Leach, James Hildreth (still clinging here), Tom Abell, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton

Why you should support them: A really talented bunch too often overlooked by England selectors, also Marcus Trescothick is still going strong aged 41 and is a hero. Came close to winning the Championship in 2016. 

Why you shouldn’t support them: They have a brilliant track record...at finishing second. Prepare your hopes to rise and be crushed at the final moment. 

Surrey

Overseas players: Kumar Sangakkara, Aaron Finch  

Recent internationals: Jason Roy, Zafar Ansari, Gareth Batty

England prospects: Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Scott Borthwick, Ben Foakes

Why you should support them: a really good group of players, blending experience with a lot of hot prospects for England. Tom and Sam Curran in particular are two of the most exciting players on the circuit. 

Why you shouldn’t support them: they’re the team that people often love to hate, and one of the richer teams in the country who are often accused of buying too much of their talent (or at least the ones called out on it the most)

Sussex

Overseas players: Vernon Philander, Ross Taylor  

Recent internationals: Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Matt Machan (Scotland), Ed Joyce (Ireland), Stiaan van Zyl (Kolpak), David Wiese (Kolpak)

England prospects: Delray Rawlins, Ollie Robinson

Why you should support them: A team with a good mix of experienced county pros and younger players, with the always-underappreciated (in this country certainly) Luke Wright leading the way. Also they’re by the sea which means nice instagrams.

Why you shouldn’t support them: Have had a couple of quiet seasons – including winning just one 50 over match in the last two years. Have taken a few high profile Kolpaks, too.

Warwickshire

Overseas players: Jeetan Patel

Recent internationals: Chris Woakes, Ian Bell, William Porterfield (Ireland)

England prospects: Sam Hain, Olly Stone, Josh Poysden

Why you should support them: Home of Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, what other reasons do you want. Current 50 overs champions, too, plus a good crop of quicks - including The Nicest Man In Cricket, Chris Woakes

Why you shouldn’t support them: If you’re not a fan of the idea of franchises, their T20 team Birmingham Bears is the most obvious one to have gone in this direction, much to the ire of many of their own fans.

Worcestershire 

Overseas players: John Hastings, Mitchell Santner 

Recent internationals: Moeen Ali

England prospects: Brett D’Oliveira, Joe Clarke, Ross Whiteley 

Why you should support them: the perennial yo-yo team, so must be due a promotion. A rising limited-overs team with lots of promising young talent, also they have one of the most picturesque grounds in the country. Jack Shantry is also something of a cult hero, and Tom Fell’s successful return in 2016 after overcoming cancer one of last year’s most heartwarming moments.

Why you shouldn’t support them: the perennial yo-yo team, so if you don’t want to deal with the emotions this brings with it, they might not be for you. Prone to moments of glory and moments of despair.

Yorkshire

Overseas players: Peter Handscomb, Travis Head

Recent internationals: Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Plunkett, David Willey, Gary Ballance, Adil Rashid

England prospects: Jack Leaning, Matt Fisher

Why you should support them: I mean they’re my favourite team...also featuring lots of familiar faces of England’s present and past (Bresnan, Sidebottom, Lyth). Will expect to be challenging for the title come September after winning the Championship in 2014 and 2015. 

Why you shouldn’t support them: they’re a team people love to hate, and the team everyone wants to beat, partly just to shut them up - which, um, is probably fair

[zabieru614]

Trying to Recall why I said Black Panther wasn't a Black Movie

Trying to Recall why I said Black Panther wasn't a Black Movie

Now, what *is* a black movie?

Black film is a classification of film that has a broad definition relating to the film involving participation and/or representation of black people. The definition may involve the film having a black cast, a black crew, a black director, a black story, or a focus on black audiences.

Examples would be The Help, Friday, Roots, and possibly Get Out.

With those movies in mind, why did I consider Black Panther to not be in this category? I don't really know if I'm honest, maybe it's because of all the fake Marvel fans coming out the woodworks. Maybe it's because someone I know was praising the movie even though he wasn't planning the movie because "I don't like giving money to the white man" even though the director is black. Maybe it's because when I went to see the movie I saw these dashiki wearing niglets in the theater that made me enjoy the movie a lot less.

Back on topic... I went in there with low expectations, hoping the movie would far exceed my expectations. I remember the opening too. It made me think I was watching a different movie or something. The first action scene was okay, couldn't really see anything happen but seeing him take out thugs in the dark was kinda cool.

The thing about the movie I didn't like was T'Challa. The nigga didn't have a motive to do anything! His had dies, he comes back to rule, but this random ass nigga comes outta nowhere wanting to throw hands with him. Sure. Why not. They take away his powers and this nigga LOSES. He going TOE TO FUCKING WITH CAPTAIN AMERICA THE LAST TIME WE SAW HIM IN ACTION.

AND THIS NICK CANON LOOKIN ASS FUCK BEATS HIM? So he loses and gets thrown into the water. I can't even remember what he was fighting for if I'm honest. Nick Canon #2 wants to get share all this Wakanda shit with other black people and T'Challa's like "No my brudda, we cannot share wit the outside wort."

So what, TC's mad cuz he got beat, they fish him out and he wants a rematch and wins. MIND YOU, his motive STILL isn't clear. I guess it's to stop Nick Canon #2? I dunno man. After watching them make a shit "What are thoooooooose?" joke, Kill off the only other interesting character being Ulysses, what's the big payoff? A garbage CGI fight with seemingly no stakes! Hahaaa! Gotta love that!

I walked out disappointed and mad. Mad that the movie was shit. Mad that people were giving it so much praise for nothing. Mad that these TONGU CLICKING ROBE WEARING BASTARDS were even WEARING THAT SHIT IN THE THEATRE. Mad that people were calling it a black movie!

And there it is! I remember! I FINALLY REMEMBER. I remember why I said this and it's because one end the person I know (Shidori) was saying "Oh it's the first black movie to do this, this, and this..." and the other retards going "Yeah, Black Power!"

N I G G A THE MOVIE. IS NOT. ABOUT THAT.

It's about two apes fighting over rulership of a FICTIONAL AREA IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE.

HOOOOOOOO MY FUCKING GOD SHIDORI SENT A STUPID FUCKING VIDEO WITH THE CAPTION SAYING "HAITI IS WAKANDA". SHIDORI. WE GET IT. YOU'RE HAITIAN. AT LEAST YOU PROBABLY THINK YOU ARE.

I WANNA KNOW THE ABSOLUTE LAME-BRAINED, DIM-WITTED, WINDOW LICKING, DUNCE-CAPPED TROGLODYTE WHO GOT UP AND SAID "dUuUuH, bLaCk pAnTh3r iz aboot pL@c3 in affreecah, sO dere4 place liek hAitI iz wAkAndA".

The video is from this woman talking about how Haiti has a resource that no one else has, cue the overlayed opening of black panther where the Vibranium rock fell onto Haiti from space.

Look. Black Panther isn't THAT type of black movie. Yes the black cast is large. Yes they show traditional African garbs n' shit. Yes the director is black. But that doesn't mean it's a black movie about the empowerment of the black race cuz that is absolutely N O W H E R E in the movie!

Fuck I'd rather watch Luke Ca---nevermind. I'd rather watch something with ACTUAL DEPTH like Static Shock. An animated show that deals with actual problems.

For example.

Vergil Hawkins is a 15-year-old teenager that lives with his dad and sister. His mom died from gang violence. Throughout the show, you can tell that he's really not over it that much since she passed when he was still a kid.

Another episode was with Permafrost, a Meta-Human with ice powers that's really upset about losing her mom about Christmas. She roamed the streets homeless since she was little not wanting CPS to take her away.

Other examples would be Richie's dad being racist, A bullied kid bringing a gun to school, and family issues like having your siblings use you for their own benefit.

Why does an animated show that was aired in the EARLY 2000s have more depth than a 2019 film with an enormous budget made by a HUGE team?

Hang on...lemme see how much it even cost...

200 MILLION DOLLARS??? BLACK PANTHER COST 200 MILLION DOLLARS?!? AND IT GROSSED 1.23 BILLION DOLLARS. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?

[gokinjeespot]

Monday, August 28, 2017

 Sorry about not posting last week. I went for my annual mini stay at Round Lake with Penny and did not read any of the comic books that I brought with me. This week's off the rack is kind of sparse because we hosted our friend Ken Steacy from Victoria for a few days. Ken drew a lovely picture of Mary Jane Watson for me which thrilled me to no end. All my geek friends are envious.

 Batwoman #6 - Marguerite Bennett & James Tynion IV (writers) Renato Arlem (art) Adriano Lucas (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). This series goes in a whole new direction and will be a complete surprise to fans following Kate's adventures. It's the future and Gotham City has changed a lot. I can't say that I like this new story but die hard Kate fans will be happy to see some familiar older faces show up.

 American Way #2 - John Ridley (writer) Georges Jeanty (pencils) John Livesay, Danny Miki & Paul Neary (inks) Nick Filardi (colours) Travis Lanham (letters). This story has more impact now because of what happened in Charlottesville, USA recently. It isn't pretty, that's for sure.

 Invincible Iron Man #10 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Stefano Caselli (art) Marte Gracia & Israel Silva (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). That was fun. Riri's Latverian adventure comes to an end and everybody lives happily ever after, but just in case you think that will last the last panel will send chills up and down your spine. I love this book.

 Totally Awesome Hulk #22 - Greg Pak (writer) Robert Gill (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). The conclusion of W.M.D. introduces Weapon H. He's one hybrid that I think will be a big hit with fans. And if the near instant sell out is any indication, copies of this issue will be a collector's item.

 Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine #1 - Tom Taylor (writer) Ramon Rosanas (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This was a good one. Logan and Laura fight a bunch of ninjas but it's the emotional good-bye that got to me. It reminded me that Wolverine died. Well done Tom. It would be great if Ramon was the regular artist on Laura's book.

 Dark Nights Metal #1 - Scott Snyder (writer) Greg Capullo (pencils) Jonathan Glapion (inks) FCO Plascencia (colours) Steve Wands (letters). Ready or not here comes another major threat to all 52 universes of the DCUs. Remember Blackest Night? Bigger than that. You can't get any bigger until the next big event. So Scott is going to weave this tale with every bit of DC material available including some surprising characters that I never would have associated with the good old Justice League. If you're a big DC or Justice League fan you might get into this. Me, I'm going to pass just like it did with Marvel's Secret Empire.

 Genius: Cartel #1 - Marc Bernardi & Adam Freeman (writers) Rosi Kampe (art) Brad Simpson (colours) Troy Peteri (letters). I remember reading the first Genius mini introducing Destiny Ajaye in 2014 and liking it but this new mini starts off too much like Nick Spencer's Morning Glories to interest me enough to want to keep reading. If you want to see how a secret government military agency manipulates Destiny then have at it.

 Star Wars #34 - Jason Aaron (writer) Salvador Larroca (art) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). My favourite thing about these new Star Wars stories is how they are introducing cool new characters to the franchise. I love Doctor Aphra and her homicidal droids and now we have a solo adventure with Han's "wife" Captain Sana Starros, the smuggler. The art technique that Salvador uses to make Lando and Han look like Billy Dee Williams and Harrison Ford is pretty neat.

 Aquaman #27 - Dan Abnett (writer) Stjepan Sejic (art & colours) Steve Wands (letters). The secret of the mysterious guy who looks like Arthur is revealed. Meanwhile Mera is trying to find a way to get into Atlantis and enlists the help of Aqualad. Garth's looking hip with the tattoos and goatee.

 Luke Cage #4 - David F. Walker (writer) Nelson Blake II (art) Marcio Menyz (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This is turning out to be a journey of self discovery for Luke. There are a lot of bad guys to keep track of but that only makes the hero stand out more.

 Super Sons #7 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Jorge Jimenez (art) Alejandro Sanchez (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Superboy helps the Teen Titans restore Robin to his old self again. You'll get the joke if you read the 2-part "Planet of the Capes" story. It was nice seeing Starfire again.

 The Mighty Thor #22 - Jason Aaron (writer) Russell Dauterman & Valerio Schiti (art) Matthew Wilson, Veronica Gandini & Rain Beredo (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Sindr, the Queen of Muspelheim reminds us that the War of the Realms is still ongoing as Malekith and Loki pay a visit. The meeting is interrupted by War Thor and a fearsome battle ensues. I must say that I prefer the hotness of Sindr to her dad Surtur.

 Wonder Woman #28 - Shea Fontana (writer) David Messina (art) Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). David Messina is a new name that I've just added to the artists list and he did a good job on part 3 of "Heart of the Amazon". A bounty has been put on Diana and bad guys are coming out of the woodwork to collect it.

 Spider-Men II #2 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Sara Pichelli (art) Elisabetta D'Amico (inking assistant) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). We find out who hired Taskmaster and the answer will surprise fans all the way from here to Manhattan. I love when Peter and Miles team up.

 Superman #29 - Keith Champagne (writer) Doug Mahnke (pencils) Jaime Mendoza with Scott Hanna & Rob Hunter (inks) Wil Quintana & Tony Avina (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Part 1 of "A Minute Longer" brings back a couple of super villains who we haven't seen in a long time. Don't think too hard about how they've returned, just enjoy the art and super conflict that Clark has to face. Could see Hal Jordan popping in this story.

 Astonishing X-Men #2 - Charles Soule (writer) Mike Deodato Jr. (art) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). The five team members sent to the astral plane to defeat the Shadow King are in grave peril. One of them is not who we think he is. I'm thinking that person will make a big difference when the battle is joined.

 Batman #29 - Tom King (writer) Mikel Janin (pencils) Hugo Petrus & Mikel Janin (inks) June Chung (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). This is the most intense dinner party ever depicted in a comic book. Tom is killing it with this story. Mikel's Joker is grim and his Riddler is a far cry from the cackling Frank Gorshin on TV. "The War of Jokes & Riddles" is still keeping me guessing and coming back for more.

 Archie #23 - Mark Waid (writer) Audrey Mok (art) Kelly Fitzpatrick (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). Riverdale responds to the accident that has devastating consequences for one of the major characters. I'm not fond of Archie as a bumbler but Mark shows us that his heart is in the right place.

 Plastic #5 - Doug Wagner (writer) Daniel Hillyard (art) Laura Martin (colours) Ed Dukeshire (letters). This will probably be the weirdest comic book story that I will read this year. The "hero" is a mentally unstable guy who is in love with an inflatable sex doll. I liked the art and the ending was satisfying. It's a straight up revenge story that will make you cringe.

 Generations: The Unworthy Thor & The Mighty Thor #1 - Jason Aaron (writer) Mahmud Asrar (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). These Generations one shots are definitely worth reading if you're a fan of the characters featured. This may just be a simple case of the two Thors fighting Apocalypse but Mighty learns a lesson from a young Unworthy here.

 Batman/Shadow #5 - Scott Snyder & Steve Orlando (writers) Riley Rossmo (art) Ivan Plascencia (colours) Clem Robins (letters). Uh oh. Batman's dying and the villain is destroying any chance of saving him. The Shadow doesn't know what to do now. Insert maniacal laughter here.

 Sabrina #8 - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer) Robert Hack (art & colours) Jack Morelli (letters). Sabrina has a steep price to pay for bringing her boyfriend back from the dead and we find out what it is on the last page. Waiting two months for the next issue is going to kill me.