#implied lee!karl

[sleepy--anon]

Day 17: Interrogation

Reserved by @aninklingof

Reblog first, like later please, reblogs do more

You can still reserve unmarked days, only one left!

Please check my writing list before you request

Karl and Dream were spending the day together, wanting to make up for lost time. Karl felt bad that he'd met up with Sapnap and George so many times and knew so much about them but couldn't say the same for Dream. After showing Dream the sights of North Carolina, they ended up in Karl's room, on his bed, just talking about random things. Karl asking little questions that he knew the answer to for the others and vice-versa.

"Oh! Here's one, I won't even ask are you because I know you are. Where are you ticklish and how much?" Dream flushed bright pink, Karl's referral to already knowing coming from their hug when Karl squeezed his sides. Dream’s mouth opened and closed like a fish as he shook his head at the question.

"No~? No you don't wanna answer my question~?" Karl purred, already happy with how easily flustered he made him. Karl was as nimble as a cat, he sprung up onto Dream, sitting atop his hips, pressing his shoulders into the mattress.

"You are at most going to tell me your worst spot Dreamie boy~" Dream was borderline short circuiting, he didn't know what to do with himself. Karl pressed a soft kiss right between his eyebrows, softly cupping his face.

"You are so damn cute! I can't" Dream flushed darker at the compliment, squeezing his eyes shut. Which proved to be a big mistake when he didn't see Karl reach for his sides and squeeze. Dream’s eyes shot open, immediately bursting into hysterical giggles. His hands came up and shook before dropping to Karl's small wrists when he slipped under his crewneck, feeling his cool rings against his bare sides.

"Come on Dream just tell me~" Karl switched to his nails, crawling them up his ribs. Dream’s back arched before slamming back down, for some reason more sensitive today. His giggles turned into soft high pitched cackles.

"KAHAHARL! PLEHEHEASE!" Dream rolled left and right to try to dispel the feeling of Karl massaging his ribs. Karl flooding his ears with whispered compliments, teases, and repeating the dreaded question. His nails migrated down, in a claw shape, until they hit his tummy, earning a shriek and full body convulsion.

"FUHUHUHUCK! THEHEHEHERE!" Dream's hands switch between covering his face and pushing Karl's hands.

"Awwwww~! It's your tummy~? Dreamie has a tickly tummy~?" Karl had a small pang of sympathy, having been the victim of death spot attacks by both Sapnap and George, separate and together. He pulled his hands out of his shirt and lightly skittered around his belly with one hand, relishing in how he giggled into his hands.

"You are so cute I think I might pop!" Karl cooed, cupping Dream’s face, covering him in kisses, still pulling frantic giggles from the blonde.

"Thank you for telling me cutie~" Dream took a big breath before grabbing Karl's waist and flipping them over so now their positions were alternated.

"You can repay me by answering the same question Karl~ Where are YOU most ticklish~?"

#aninklingof #sean tag #augtickletober2023 #ler!karl #ler!karl jacobs #lee!dream #dsmp tickle #mcyt tickle #mcyt tickle fic #sleepy's fics #implied lee!karl

[what-the-stories-have-foretold]

Nevermore

Poe x fem!reader

Requested by: @stygianoir

Navi

Warnings: heavily implied fem!reader

Wordcount: ~300

"So...I have a surprise for you, Edgar."

For a moment, he didn't react; hunched over piles and piles of paper, a quill in his hand, and mumbling nonsense under his breath. Then, a vague kind of clarity flitted through his eyes.

"Huh? Oh really? What is it, my muse?"

You grinned, before placing the little black kitten on his desk. He wrote on for a minute before he froze. The kitten had moved to gently bump his hand with its head, letting out a tiny meow as its big eyes stared at your husband.

"What - what is that?"

"A kitten."

"Yeah, I can-"

"Black. Like the one in your story."

"Oh."

He paused, nearly absentmindedly hovering the feathery tip of his quill over the kitten for it to play with.

"Was craving it while making the illustrations for it."

"Understandably." For some reason, his countenance seemed to falter. He looked near troubled. "Does that happen often?"

"I'm not gonna turn Annabel Lee on you and die."

"Are you sure? The lyrical I might be talking about Annabel, but I was thinking about you."

You rolled your eyes.

"I thought that Karl would like to have a little friend. Nevermore is still so small and will probably need someone to help her out."

"Never-...mind. She is quite adorable. She reminds me of you. Quite impatient and needy, as it seems." He watched as the kitten´s bumps against his hand grew stronger, desperate for some attention and affection. You pouted.

"How dare you? I think I should get a kiss as an apology."

He hummed as he stood up.

"Exactly my point."

#e. a. poe bsd #poe bsd #poe x reader #what-the-stories-have-foretold #x female reader #x fem!reader #cafe employee #bsd x reader #bsd #bungou stray dogs x reader #bungo stray dogs #bungo stray dogs x reader #bungou stray dogs

[osborn97lloyd]

How I Found My Vintage Chanel Belt

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#chanel look alike belt #chanel belt women #cc belt #chanel cc belt #faux chanel chain belt #cheap chanel belt replica #chanel replica belt #knockoff cc belt #fake chanel belt

[hmslusitania]

Ok now you have to share the ship where one is a ghost and your current fav one that ends well! We need the infoooo

Okay so if you’ve been around on my blog a while, you may know I have a cat named Starbuck

She

Starbuck is named after one of my favourite characters from my childhood/early teen years, Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace from Battlestar Galactica

Katee Sackhoff as Kara Thrace. Is this character the reason I am bisexual? Sources say “its a strong possibility but tbh the entire cast of BSG may be responsible”

Now [SPOILERS, for a show that ended in 2009] Starbuck was a fighter pilot in humanity’s search for earth and a new homeworld after the cylon attack wiped out the twelve colonies of Kobol and she had an on again, off again, never quite, almost once upon a time romance with Captain (later Major) Lee “Apollo” Adama, who was their CAG and also their commanding officer’s once-estranged son, an absolute dick like 70% of the time, and also Starbuck’s late fiancé’s older brother (and, unfortunately, I love him).

Their already unstable relationship was challenged when Starbuck followed a ghost ship into a space-maelstrom set to the best cover of All Along the Watchtower that’s been done (shout out to my man Bear McCreary who also did the scores for Black Sails and other things including I think Outlander but I haven’t watched that). She was then assumed (rightly) to be dead until some time later when she turns back up claiming to know the way to earth (the goal of the entire series).

At the 4A finale, they find a planet that may be earth (It isn’t really but I’m not gonna get super into the mythology of Battlestar Galactica, you don’t care that much) and on that planet they find…Starbuck’s plane and her body. Even though she’s been there with them and led them to this place??

Anyway, they then go on to find actual!earth and its looking like Starbuck and Apollo are finally gonna get to be together, and they’re going to be okay, there are no more barriers left in their way after four seasons of this, and then he turns to look at her and she’s fucking gone. And it broke me at the tender age of 15 or however old I was in 2009.

However, I have now rewatched the show quite a few times because I like to Suffer™️ and am better now at recognising their relationship for the destructive mess it is and them as the broken people they are and i do still love them both and I do still ship it but it doesn’t quite hit Right anymore, you know?

The OTHER ship that is now my favourite from this otherwise deeply upsetting show that basically invented desaturated sci-fi for the modern era (Also you want to talk gritty reboots? Holy shit) is Them:

Grace Park as Lieutenant Sharon “Athena” Agathon and Tahmoh Penikett as Lieutenant Karl “Helo” Agathon

They are quite literally The Future in the show, because she is one of the cylon robots and he is human. He was in love with a sleeper agent copy of her who had no idea she wasn’t human and he sacrificed himself to save her (and a bunch of civilians) and ended up stranded on an irradiated wasteland that used to be their home planet and the only reason he was able to survive is because this copy of her, Athena, was given all of Boomer’s memories but without the questionable boyfriend and Athena absolutely fell in love with Helo, knowing full well what she was and like. Kind of technically baby trapped him? But they didn’t know that was possible (since she is a robot) and their daughter is like the key to the future of the human race and sapient life in general and when he finds out what Athena is he takes a minute to readjust (and frankly wouldn’t you?) and then decides “yeah no still in love with her.” Also in retrospect he is a bit of a himbo/malewife energy despite being very competent and badass when called upon to be and is also one of my favourite male characters in anything so I am slightly biased (fun fact when he guest starred in supernatural and died that’s about when I stopped following the show).

Anyway, they go through a LOT of shit because of their kid, various speciesism from both the human fleet and the cylon fleet, all while being entirely devoted to each other even when they’re led to believe their daughter is dead (she’s fine) and at the series finale, the three of them get to be happy together (even though there’s a heart stopping moment when you think he’s dead for a bit during the finale and I hate that moment).

Also my enduring crush on Grace Kim is probably the only thing that would ever convince me to watch Hawaii 5-0 in case I needed another troubling procedural to fall into but that’s neither here nor there.

Aren’t you glad you asked, Anon?

ETA: Starbuck and Helo are also implied to have been friends for a very long time and their moments of friendship spark so much joy for me

#the ghost ship answers questions #battlestar galactica #spoilers #but it ended in 2009 so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dreamhot]

lee I think its going to happen in december, yea. I strongly feel like gnf's visa got approved. source? dude: trust me. but also the room with the bags he talked about on stream? karl being in florida? (I believe one of the reasons he's there is dtqk meet up). I suppose gnf and big q are going to the usa together, so as soon as they finish everything they have to do in the uk like meet ups and streams they are good to go. im probably clowning but I really feel its going to happen really soon

it's annoying cos all of those things are true and together they would seem to imply that something is happening soon but also there isn't really enough tangible evidence to really make it concrete so ?? if q still has people to visit in the uk then we don't know how much longer that trip is gonna last and if karl goes home before q leaves then i'll gonna call dec a bust lmao

#smile.ask #anon

[ballofray]

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ADMIN INTRO

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Call me Ray! He/Him pronouns.

I’m a minor!

I’m a lee-leaning switch, but when interacting with me I’d appreciate it if you don’t tease me or anything like that until I consider us close, or I specifically ask for it! Because a lot of the time, yes I do feel lee, no I do not want teased. I’ve had some experiences in the past of people right off the bat teasing me despite not knowing me well, and it just makes me uncomfy.

My first language is not English! So my apologies if I misunderstand some things or get some words wrong at times. My grammar also isnt perfect so keep that in mind :)

18+ blogs DNI! If I see there is an NSFW blog interacting with me they will be blocked immediately.

Don’t be afraid to message me if you wanna be friends! :D

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REQUEST RULES

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You can send in requests for MCYT tickle fics. There may be some people I don’t know too much about (Karl & Fundy mostly) but I can still try to write for them!

Not every request will be accepted! Think of it like a wishing well, some requests you give me will be written and others maybe will not. So please don’t get angry if your request doesn’t get written! I will try to do as many as possible.

Do not request anything NSFW, or anything that has implied NSFW. I’m a minor and it makes me uncomfortable.

Please don’t request things that require 2 or more parts to them! For some requests if I like the idea enough I will write another part, but I don’t like when 2 parts are required to fill out a request in the first place.

It doesn’t matter how specific the request is, but make sure you get the basic idea of what you want in it! It could be a method of tickling, a small scenario, maybe even a quote, anything basic like that to give me something to work with.

#intro #rules #pinned post

[arcticdementor]

The hilarious headline in the Daily Beast yesterday read like a cross of Clickhole and Izvestia circa 1937: “Is Glenn Greenwald the New Master of Right-Wing Media? FROM HIS MOUTH TO FOX’S EARS?”

The story, fed to poor Beast media writer Lloyd Grove by certain unnamed embittered personages at the Intercept, is that their former star writer Greenwald appears on, and helps provide content for — gasp! — right-wing media! It’s nearly the exclusive point of the article. Greenwald goes on TV with… those people! The Beast’s furious journalisming includes a “spot check” of the number of Fox items inspired by Greenwald articles (“dozens”!) and multiple passages comparing Greenwald to Donald Trump, the ultimate insult in #Resistance world. This one made me laugh out loud:

In a self-perpetuating feedback loop that runs from Twitter to Fox News and back again, Greenwald has managed, like Trump before him, to orchestrate his very own news cycles.

This, folks, is from the Daily Beast, a publication that has spent much of the last five years huffing horseshit into headlines, from Bountygate to Bernie’s Mittens to classics like SNL: Alec Baldwin's Trump Admits 'I Don't Care About America'. The best example was its “investigation” revealing that three of Tulsi Gabbard’s 75,000 individual donors — the late Princeton professor Stephen Cohen, peace activist Sharon Tennison, and a person called “Goofy Grapes” who may or may not have worked for Russia Today host Lee Camp — were, in their estimation, Putin “apologists.”

…

For years now, this has been the go-to conversation-ender for prestige media pundits and Twitter trolls alike, directed at any progressive critic of the political mainstream: you’re a Republican! A MAGA-sympathizer! Or (lately), an “insurrectionist”! The Beast in its Greenwald piece used the most common of the Twitter epithets: “Trump-defender.” Treachery and secret devotion to right-wing politics are also the default explanation for the growing list of progressives making their way onto Fox of late, from Greenwald to Kyle Kulinski to Aaron Mate to Jimmy Dore to Cornel West.

The truth is, Trump conservatives and ACLU-raised liberals like myself, Greenwald, and millions of others do have real common cause, against an epistemic revolution taking hold in America’s political and media elite. The traditional liberal approach to the search for truth, which stresses skepticism and free-flowing debate, is giving way to a reactionary movement that Plato himself would have loved, one that believes knowledge is too dangerous for the rabble and must be tightly regulated by a priesthood of “experts.” It’s anti-democratic, un-American, and naturally unites the residents of even the most extreme opposite ends of our national political spectrum.

…

Follow the logic. Isikoff, who himself denounced the Steele dossier, and said in the exchange he essentially agreed with Meier’s conclusions, went on to wonder aloud how right a thing could be, if it’s being embraced by The Federalist and Tucker Carlson. Never mind the more salient point, which is that Meier was “ignored by other media” because that’s how #Resistance media deals with unpleasant truths: it blacks them out, forcing reporters to spread the news on channels like Fox, which in turn triggers instant accusations of unreliability and collaborationism.

It’s a Catch-22. Isikoff’s implication is a journalist can’t make an impact if the only outlet picking up his or her work is The Federalist, but “reputable” outlets won’t touch news (and sometimes will even call for its suppression) if it questions prevailing notions of Conventional Wisdom.

These tactics have worked traditionally because for people like Meier, or myself, or even Greenwald, who grew up in the blue-leaning media ecosystem, there’s nothing more ominous professionally than being accused of aiding the cause of Trump or the right-wing. It not only implies intellectual unseriousness, but racism, sexism, reactionary meanness, greed, simple wrongness, and a long list of other hideous/evil characteristics that could render a person unemployable in the regular press. The label of “Trump-defender” isn’t easily removed, so most media people will go far out of their way to avoid even accidentally incurring it.

…

The consistent pattern with the Trump-era press, which also happens to be the subject of so many of those Greenwald stories the Beast and the Intercept employees are complaining about, is that information that is true but doesn’t cut the right way politically is now routinely either non-reported or actively misreported.

Whether it’s Hunter Biden’s laptop or the Brian Sicknick affair or infamous fictions like the “find the fraud” story, the public increasingly now isn’t getting the right information from the bulk of the commercial press corps. That doesn’t just hurt Trump and conservatives, it misinforms the whole public. As Thomas Frank just pointed out in The Guardian, the brand of politicized reporting that informed the lab-leak fiasco risks obliterating the public’s faith in a whole range of institutions, a disaster that would not be borne by conservatives alone.

But this is only a minor point, compared to the more immediate reason the constant accusations of treachery and Trumpism aimed at dissenters should be ignored.

From the embrace of oligarchical censorship to the aggressive hawking of “noble lies” like Russiagate to the constant humbugging of Enlightenment values like due process to the nonstop scolding of peasants unschooled in the latest academic jargon, the political style of the modern Democratic mainstream isn’t just elitist and authoritarian, it’s almost laughably off-putting. In one moment it’s cheering for a Domestic War on Terror and in the next, declaring war on a Jeopardy contestant flashing the “A-OK” sign. It’s Dick Cheney meets Robin DiAngelo, maybe the most loathsome conceivable admixture. Who could be surprised a politically diverse group finds it obnoxious?

During the Trump years conventional wisdom didn’t just take aim at Trumpism. The Beltway smart set used the election of Trump to make profound arguments against traditional tenets of democracy, as well as “populism,” (which increasingly became synonymous with “the unsanctioned exercise of political power by the unqualified”), and various liberal traditions undergirding the American experiment. Endless permutations of the same argument were made over and over. Any country in which a Trump could be elected had a “too much democracy” problem, the “marketplace of ideas” must be a flawed model if it leads to people choosing Trump, the “presumption of innocence” was never meant to apply to the likes of Trump, and so on.

…

By last summer, after the patriotic mania of Russiagate receded, the newest moral panic that the kente-cloth-clad Schumers and Pelosis were suddenly selling, in solidarity with famed progressive change agents like Bank of America, PayPal, Apple, ComCast, and Alphabet, was that any nation capable of electing Trump must always have been a historically unredeemable white supremacist construct, the America of the 1619 Project. The original propaganda line was that “half” of Trump supporters were deplorable racists, then it was all of them, and then, four years in, the whole country and all its traditions were deemed deplorable.

Now, when the statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt came down, there was a new target, separate and apart from Trump. The whole history of American liberalism was indicted as well, denounced as an ineffectual trick of the oppressor, accomplishing nothing but giving legitimacy to racial despotism.

The American liberalism I knew growing up was inclusive, humble, and democratic. It valued the free exchange of ideas among other things because a central part of the liberal’s identity was skepticism and doubt, most of all about your own correctitude. Truth was not a fixed thing that someone owned, it was at best a fleeting consensus, and in our country everyone, down to the last kook, at least theoretically got a say. We celebrated the fact that in criminal courts, we literally voted to decide the truth of things.

This new elitist politics of the #Resistance era (I won’t ennoble it by calling it liberalism) has an opposite view. Truth, they believe, is properly guarded by “experts” and “authorities” or (as Jon Karl put it) “serious people,” who alone can be trusted to decide such matters as whether or not the Hunter Biden laptop story can be shown to the public. A huge part of the frustration that the general public feels is this sense of being dictated to by an inaccessible priesthood, whether on censorship matters or on the seemingly daily instructions in the ear-smashing new vernacular of the revealed religion, from “Latinx” to “birthing persons.”

In the tone of these discussions is a constant subtext that it’s not necessary to ask the opinions of ordinary people on certain matters. As Plato put it, philosophy is “not for the multitude.” The plebes don’t get a say on speech, their views don’t need to be represented in news coverage, and as for their political choices, they’re still free to vote — provided their favorite politicians are removed from the Internet, their conspiratorial discussions are banned (ours are okay), and they’re preferably all placed under the benevolent mass surveillance of “experts” and “professionals.”

Add the total absence of a sense of humor and the inability of “moral clarity” politics to co-exist with any form of disagreement, and there’s a reason why traditional liberals are suddenly finding it easier to talk with old conservative rivals on Fox than the new authoritarian Snob-Lords at CNN, MSNBC, the Daily Beast or The Intercept. For all their other flaws, Fox types don’t fall to pieces and write group letters about their intolerable suffering and “trauma” if forced to share a room with someone with different political views. They’re also not terrified to speak their minds, which used to be a virtue of the American left (no more).

From the moment Donald Trump was elected, popular media began denouncing a broad cast of characters deemed responsible. Nativists, misogynists and racists were first in line, but from there they started adding new classes of offender: Greens, Bernie Bros, “both-sidesers,” Russia-denialists, Intellectual dark-webbers, class-not-racers, anti-New-Normalers, the “Substackerati,” and countless others, casting every new group out with the moronic admonition that they’re all really servants of the “far right” and “grifters” (all income earned in service of non-#Resistance politics is “grifting”). By now conventional wisdom has denounced everyone but its own little slice of aristocratic purity as the “far right.”

#matt taibbi #substack #glenn greenwald #journalism in action

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Black Widow: MCU Easter Eggs and References Guide

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Black Widow spoilers. We have a spoiler-free review here.

The MCU is finally back on the big screen! Marvel’s Black Widow was supposed to be the official kickoff of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but then the pandemic happened, it got bounced around the release calendar, and Disney managed to release three MCU TV shows before Natasha got to take her curtain call on the big screen.

But that’s thankfully behind us, and Black Widow delivers terrific blockbuster action in the mighty Marvel manner. And you know what that means! Let’s try and spot all the cool MCU references and Marvel Comics Easter eggs in Black Widow.

The Prologue

Setting this prologue in 1995 gives us the approximate age of Natasha. If she’s supposed to be about 11 or 12 here, that conveniently makes the character the same age as Scarlett Johannsson, who was born in 1984.

The general premise of Natasha’s childhood, in which she was the daughter of two Russian spies is highly similar to that of the FX series The Americans. 

This seems to be the late summer of 1995, which puts it roughly around when Captain Marvel was taking place (the official word on that is 1995, but little details in it, like Stan Lee reading a Mallrats screenplay could place it in 1994). 

Young Natasha is played by Ever Anderson – the daughter of actress Milla Jovovich and Event Horizon director Paul W. S. Anderson. You will not be able to unsee her resemblance to Milla. 

The first song choice in the movie is young Yelena’s fixation on Don McLean’s fixation on “American Pie,” a song about (among other things) the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” J.P. Richardson. That being said, “American Pie” is about a larger loss of innocence, a theme that weighs heavily throughout this film.

Before Alexei turns the radio off to play “American Pie”, the station is set to 105.1 FM. This is WQXK, a country station based in Salem, Ohio that serves the Youngstown market. Natasha and Yelena’s American home is likely based in Eastern Ohio.

There’s an episode of DuckTales playing on TV in the background while they have dinner. We can’t tell what episode it is, but DuckTales ruled, and the new series was even better. And hey, we get some payoff later in the movie when they play an aircraft crash for laughs while having everyone just casually walk it off.

Alexei was working undercover in the US at the North Institute, which he burned to the ground before making his escape. In Black Widow Vol 3 #1, Natasha decided to retire to Arizona but she and other Red Room victims were hounded by the North Institute. Spurred to investigate the situation, Natasha returned to Russia where she discovered much of the terrible truth behind her past Red Room manipulation. This was a story that also featured Yelena (and Daredevil, believe it or not).

There’s definitely an early SHIELD logo on the trucks chasing the family to the very end there.

The plane number is 258. In Incredible Hulk #258, we get the first appearance of the Soviet Super-Soldiers (later named the Winter Guard), a communist superhero team created for the sake of rivaling the Avengers. The original lineup was Ursa Major (more on him in a minute), Darkstar, Vanguard, and the fifth Crimson Dynamo (more on this, too). Over time, Red Guardian joined their ranks, though it was Josef Petkus and not Alexei Shostakov.

This is a perfect cold open, the kind that James Bond movies excelled at, and it’s far from the only Bond parallel we’ll get in the film. 

The Opening Credits

There’s all kinds of stuff happening in the opening credits, including the film’s villain Dreykov being inserted into photos with various world leaders, including President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush’s Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and others. The Red Room’s influence knows no national boundaries, it seems.

The overall effect is to imply that Dreykov and the Widows have been putting their fingers on the scale for quite some time.

It’s also a nice touch that many of the “news broadcasts” we see here are from MCU staple WHIH.

There’s a shot of some vials with blue liquid, which allude to the Red Room’s attempt to create Captain America-esque super soldiers, which they succeeded with to some degree with the Red Guardian, but also makes us wonder if they tried enhancing any earlier Widows.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

The opening credits are set to a version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Malia J. You may have heard her covers of Seal’s “Crazy” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” in trailers for shows like Bloodlines and The Handmaid’s Tale.

We wrote more about the Black Widow version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” here.

When Does Black Widow Take Place?

This movie takes place in 2016, shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War. General “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) is here to remind us all that Natasha is still in trouble with the government.

What’s kind of neat about this is that it’s the first Marvel “prequel” that feels like it is designed to be watched in its chronological sequence (minus that post-credits scene, of course). Captain America: The First Avenger makes more sense as a flashback interlude between Thor and The Avengers, while Captain Marvel makes more sense as a breather between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But Black Widow feels like it should be watched right after Civil War.

Thunderbolt Ross

Natasha brings up Ross having his second triple bypass. In Captain America: Civil War, Ross talks about how he had his first heart attack while playing golf and it gave him perspective and convinced him to retire from the US Army. It seems chasing down Cap’s allies hasn’t been so good for his health.

Red Guardian

We know that Alexei has been active as Red Guardian since at least 1983 or 1984 based on the tales of fighting Captain America he tells while in jail. He was apparently sent to the USA for undercover work in 1992, and then imprisoned a few years after their 1995 escape back to Russia.

Red Guardian’s knuckle tattoos say “Karl Marx” which is kind of adorable but…shouldn’t they be in Cyrillic/Russian characters and not Latin/English? Is this to troll his capitalist opponents so they can read them as he beats their asses?

Red says he fought Captain America in 1983 or 1984. The simplest explanation is that he’s lying but…what if he isn’t?

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he’s telling the truth and there really was yet another secret Captain America active in the ‘80s. Now that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is done, we know that there was at least one “replacement Cap” and the comics indicate there were others. Or maybe it’s just Steve in the timestream…maybe we’ll find out one day, but we wrote much more about some possibilities for this here.

Ursa

Red Guardian breaks the arm of a man named Ursa… Ursa Major (Mikhail Ursus) is the name of another Russian superhero in Marvel Comics, whose mutant power caused him to turn into a literal talking bear. He became a staple member of the Soviet Super Soldiers/Winter Guard along with a Red Guardian. While the movie doesn’t depict him like the comics, Red Guardian does joke about him being a bear.

Taskmaster

This is a very different version of Taskmaster than the one we got in the comics. Marvel Comics Taskmaster has “photographic reflexes” and is a man named Anthony Masters. Here, in addition to the new gender (Dreykov’s daughter is named “Antonia” as a nod to the comics character), Taskmaster is cybernetically enhanced to make those “photographic reflexes a little easier.

There is precedent for a female Taskmaster. The series Deadpool MAX reimagined Deadpool in a cynical, dark, and very adult (albeit absurd and humorous) way. This lent itself to Deadpool-adjacent characters. Taskmaster was depicted as a woman roughly in her ‘50s who trained Deadpool and warped his mind.

There’s also Finesse, a member of Avengers Academy, whose powers are so similar to Taskmaster that she believes him to be her biological father. Unfortunately, due to memory problems, Taskmaster doesn’t know for sure and refuses to offer any DNA to find out the answer.

In the course of Taskmaster’s action scenes, we see her mimic a number of Marvel heroes, with a particular focus on those who played a part in the recent (by this movie’s timeline) Captain America: Civil War including Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Panther, and even Natasha.

We have more on Taskmaster here.

Who is Mason?

Rick Mason first appeared in his own 1989 graphic novel called Rick Mason: The Agent. Mason was a SHIELD agent mostly remembered for being the son of Phineas Mason, the Tinkerer. Granted, the Tinkerer we saw in Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t nearly old enough to be Rick’s father in the movies and he looks nothing like him, so I wouldn’t expect any secret connection.

In the comics, Rick was practically forgotten about and killed off-panel. His son was one of the victims of Nitro’s explosion in Stamford, Connecticut from the beginning of the Marvel Comics version of Civil War.

Melina Vostokoff

The Melina Vostokoff of the MCU is pretty different from the one in Marvel Comics (who created by Ralph Macchio and George Perez in 1983). There, she was known as (we shit you not) Iron Maiden, and she was at least a former Widow-esque agent as she is here in the film.

Yelena Belova

Yelena and Natasha’s first meeting being over a bio-weapon/agent is very faintly similar to Yelena’s proper introduction in the comics, a 1999 Black Widow comics story where they were explicitly fighting over a bioweapon, not a “mind control antidote” as we see in this film.

The “face swap” trick that Natasha and Melina pull in the film’s final act also has the faintest of echoes of another early Yelena story, where Natasha “swapped faces” with Yelena to try and break her mind and get her on the side of the angels.

What Happened in Budapest?

“You and I remember Budapest very differently,” Clint Barton famously told Natasha in The Avengers during the Battle of New York. But now we know what went down…

Basically, Taskmaster’s origin story is tied to Natasha’s superhero origin. To fully defect from the Red Room and go to work for SHIELD, Natasha had to assassinate Dreykov…which meant the collateral damage of Antonia.

Of course, that led to Clint and Nat getting hounded by Red Room agents, which led to them hiding out for days together. 

And before that, they were in that safe house apartment that was currently occupied by Yelena, hence the arrow damage to the walls.

Crimson Dynamo

Yelena (probably on purpose) refers to Alexei’s superheroic days as when he was “the Crimson Dynamo.” Sure, this is cute, but there really was a Crimson Dynamo in Marvel Comics! Crimson Dynamo is primarily an Iron Man villain, lots of different Russian agents have worn the Crimson Dynamo armor. It…didn’t end well for any of them. 

The original Crimson Dynamo was Anton Vanko, otherwise known as the old man dying in the beginning of Iron Man 2. Although his son was known as Whiplash, Ivan Vanko was more of a cross between Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo. In the comics, “Ivan” was an alias Anton used.

We’re gonna choose to believe that Yelena isn’t just making this name up and that the Russians really did have an armored hero called the Crimson Dynamo, and if we’re lucky we’ll get to see him in a flashback of some future MCU project. After all, there’s that Armor Wars series on the way…

Also, there’s one thing that Crimson Dynamo has over the Red Guardian: he was immortalized in the lyrics of a song by a member of The Beatles. Paul McCartney and Wings have a tune called “Magneto and Titanium Man” which involves “a robbery” where “the Crimson Dynamo came along for the ride.” It’s great, and it’s on Wings Venus & Mars album.

Thor

Yelena’s line about how a “god from space” doesn’t “need to take an ibuprofen” after a fight is kinda priceless.

Mutants in the MCU

Dreykov tells Natasha that they were searching for the “genetic potential in infants.” Sure, this could mean anything like how athletic someone might grow up to be, but is there a chance they could also have been searching for a mysterious x-factor in a baby’s DNA?

James Bond

Natasha is watching one of the lesser-regarded Bond flicks, Moonraker. Of course, she still knows every word.

Dreykov gets a classic “Bond villain monologue” wherein a baddie spells out his plans for world domination before a hero who he surely thinks is either neutralized or could be swayed to their cause.

Antonia/Taskmaster is a Bond Girl! Olga Kurylenko played Camille Montes, a Bolivian agent with a vendetta in Quantum of Solace.

Remnants of the Red Room

Black Widow was written by Eric Pearson, who also wrote Thor: Ragnarok.

So… Natasha probably couldn’t taste that peanut butter and jelly sandwich from Endgame, right? That’s too bad.

It doesn’t seem that “Fanny Longbottom” is a thing from Marvel Comics, but as Mason points out it is most certainly a real name. Also, Yelena’s dog in the post-credits scene is named “Fanny.”

We get an explanation for Natasha’s blonde look in Infinity War here, as Mason gave her the hair dye. But the way it’s presented here feels slightly like a sisterly tribute to Yelena, which is really sweet.

Natasha makes a crack about “the cavalry” as Ross’ troops close in, but folks hoping that’s an Agents of SHIELD reference are probably going to be sorely disappointed.

Dreykov’s pheromone trick that he has implanted in the Widows (and Natasha in particular) leads to this scene playing out like when RoboCop tries to arrest Dick Jones in the classic 1987 film.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Natasha tells Dreykov with a smirk after getting him to monologue his evil plans. This is as close as we get to a Black Widow catchphrase – she also ended a veiled interrogation with Loki using the exact same words in The Avengers.

The Post-Credits Scene

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) is back after her appearances in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. If we had to hazard a guess, she’s putting together a team of “Dark Avengers” or “Thunderbolts” for the MCU.

Florence Pugh is indeed confirmed to appear in the upcoming Disney+ Hawkeye series, as well.

We went into much more detail about what the post-credits scene means for the future of the MCU right here.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s Black Widow: MCU Easter Eggs and References Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[bookclub4m]

Episode 117 - Sociology Non-Fiction

This episode we’re reading Sociology Non-Fiction! We discuss the differences between sociology and psychology, what Karl Marx and Aziz Ansari have in common, the over-educated but kind-of-broke worker, and the difficulties of reading books that make us both sad and angry. Plus: Pandemic Monkey Brains!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Amanda Wanner

Things We Read (or tried to read)

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks (this is better than Matthew implied in the episode, it is worth reading)

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr

Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell

All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Other Media We Mentioned

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshona Zuboff

Disasters: A Sociological Approach by Kathleen Tierney

The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification by Randall Collins

Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability by Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder

Beyond the Body: Death and Social Identity by Elizabeth Hallam, Glennys Howarth, Jenny Hockey

The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman

Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlamn

Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal by Abigail Carroll 

Death of Sandra Bland (Wikipedia)

Food Mirages in Guelph, Ontario: The Impacts of Limited Food Accessibility and Affordability on Low-income Residents by Benjamin Reeve (not mentioned during the episode, but this is someone’s actual sociology thesis that Matthew thinks is neat)

Body Politics: Power, Sex, and Nonverbal Communication by Nancy M. Henley (Amanda meant to mention this book but forgot!)

Links, Articles, and Things

Where Do Librarians Come From? Examining Educational Diversity in Librarianship by Rachel Ivy Clarke (I think this is way less humanities-focussed than our program was…)

Michel Foucault (Wikipedia)

Dr. Thomas Kemple

Readers' Advisory for Library Staff (Facebook Group)

JUMPSUIT - “Jumpsuit: how to make a personal uniform for the end of capitalism”

Code Switch (NPR Podcast)

Louder Than A Riot (NPR Podcast)

According to Need (99% Invisible Podcast)

Sabrina and Friends: Answers in Progress

How Conspiracy Theories Work (a good example of a video showing the research process)

Trader Joe's (Wikipedia)

What does it mean to be working class in Canada? (Macleans article)

15 Sociology Books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Beauty Diplomacy: Embodying an Emerging Nation by Oluwakemi M. Balogun

W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America edited by by Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert

The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs &  Scott Kurashige

Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas

Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani

I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism by Lee Maracle

Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and The Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson

Finding Latinx: In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity by Paola Ramos

Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles by Rocío Rosales

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Venkatesh

Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada by Chelsea Vowel

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Watch us Stream!

Our Twitch channel - Fridays in January, 9pm Eastern

Our YouTube channel - Recordings of streams

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, January 19th when we’ll be talking about our Reading Resolutions for 2021!

Then on Tuesday, February 2nd, just in time for Valentine’s Day, we’ll be doing our annual romance fiction episode and talking about the genre of Regency Romance!

#sociology #non-fiction #episodes

[sleepy--anon]

Sleepy's Fic Masterpost

Vanoss Crew

Say It collab fic with @someone1348 (Ler!Moo Snuckel Lee!Terroriser)

Dsmp

Karma (Ler!Antfrost Lee!Velvet)

Bad's Lee Mood (Ler!Dream Lee!Badboyhalo)

Don't Mess With Sleepy (Ler!Dove Lee!Purpled)

Break Free (Lee!Punz Ler!Dove)

Tickle Skeltons (Lee!Sapnap Lee!Dream Ler!Wither Skelton)

Make It Even (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream Implied Lee!George)

Your Share (Ler!Dream Ler!Sapnap Lee!George)

Attention (Ler!Punz Ler!Karl Lee!Dream)

Quackity's Day Off (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Quackity)

Marry Me (Non tickles, just Quacknap)

Trivia (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream Lee!George)

Sapnap’s Revenge Tickle Game (Ler!Sapnap Lee!George)

Sapnap’s Revenge Tickle Games Dream’s Turn (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream)

Sleepy's Ler!Sapnap "Week"

Antsy (Ler!Sapnap Lee!George Implied Lee!Dream)

Gym (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Punz)

Bet (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream)

Game (Ler!Sapnap Lee!George)

Teases/Ghost Tickles (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream)

Soft/Cuddles (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream)

Birthday (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream Lee!George)

Heartstopper

Relax With Me (Ler!Charlie Lee!Nick)

Tickletober

Anticipation (Lee!George Ler!Sapnap)

Accidental (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream)

Cuddles (Lee!Punz Ler!Sapnap)

Weak Spot (Ler!Sapnap Lee!Dream)

"I'm Not Ticklish" (Ler!George Lee!Punz)

Chase (Ler!Sapnap Lee!George)

Flustered (Lee!George Ler!Dream Implied Ler!Sapnap)

Truth (Lee!Carlos Ler!Tk)

Lie (Lee!Hen Ler!Chimney)

Ghost (Lee!Sapnap Ler!Bad)

Squeal (Lee!Sylvee Ler!HannahxxRose)

Sweet or Sour/Bites/Nibbles (Lee!George Ler!Sapnap Ler!Dream)

Sneak Attack (Lee!TK Ler!Carlos)

Soft (Lee!Nick Ler!Charlie)

Tickle Fight (Switch!Dream Switch!Punz)

Unusual Spot (Lee!Chimney Ler!Hen)

Interrogation (Lee!Dream Ler!Karl)

Magic (Lee!George Ler!Larray)

Arms Up (Lee!George Ler!Sapnap Ler!Dream)

Relentless (Lee!Eddie Ler!Buck)

New Discoveries (Lee!Buck Ler!Eddie)

Ticklish Kiss (Lee!Dream Ler!Sapnap)

Pinned (Switch!George Switch!Dream)

Gang Tickles (Lee!Dream Ler!Sapnap Ler!George Ler!Badboyhalo Ler!Awesamdude Ler!Antfrost)

Counting (Lee!George Ler!XD)

Hysterical (Lee!Nick Ler!Charlie)

Massage (Lee!Sam Ler!Foolish)

Wake up! (Lee!Buck Ler!Eddie)

Caught (Lee!Sapnap Ler!Dream)

Aftercare (Lee!Sapnap Ler!Karl)

#masterlist #sleepy's fics

[wrestlingisfake]

Slammiversary preview

Ace Austin vs. Trey Miguel vs. Eddie Edwards vs. ??? - This is a four-way match for the vacant Impact Wrestling world championship.  The first participant to score a pinfall or submission only other participant will be the winner and new champion.

The most recent champion was Tessa Blanchard, who became the first woman to win the title on January 12.  Blanchard was scheduled to defend the title on April 19 against Michael Elgin and Eddie Edwards, but those plans were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.  A tournament to name a new #1 contender resulted in Trey and Austin reaching the finals, but Trey was taken out of the match by an attack.  Austin went on to defeat Trey’s partner Zachary Wentz instead to win the tournament.  This match was originally booked as Blanchard vs. Edwards vs. Elgin vs. Austin vs. Trey.  But then Elgin was fired over sexual assault allegations, and Blanchard was released when she and Impact couldn’t agree to terms for her to return and drop the title.

The fourth entrant in this match is being kept secret.  Impact has been teasing that a “former world champion” is returning on this show, and he’s not coming alone.  The hype video for this tease implies that this involves one or more wrestlers released from WWE in April.  It stands to reason that one of these returning wrestlers will be the mystery man in this match, but technically Impact hasn’t promised that. 

Teasing the imminent arrival of WWE midcarders as an earth-shattering event has been a fixture in this company since 2002, and frankly it hasn’t done them a lot of good so far.  Signing guys like EC3, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson in 2020 isn’t going to mean much more for Impact than signing Christian and the Dudley Boyz did in 2005.  However, expectations for Impact are much, much lower now, so literally any halfway-famous name should generate some buzz.

The sad reality for Impact is that “literally any halfway-famous name” would automatically be the heavy favorite to win this match, or any match in the promotion.  Edwards is the top babyface mostly for lack of a stronger star--he’s basically their AJ Styles since the real one moved on to better things.  Ace Austin is being pushed as the top heel, but he has no national exposure outside of Impact, which means most people haven’t heard of him.  Trey is clearly the big “make new stars” project, but he’s spent the past two years in an undercard team of stoners played off as a joke. In the main event of their 18th anniversary show, it’s oddly fitting for Impact that my pick to carry the company is “to be determined.”

Jordynne Grace vs. Deonna Purrazzo - Grace’s women’s championship is on the line.   Purrazzo was one of the WWE/NXT wrestlers released in April, and I suppose the non-compete clause in her contract was short enough that she was able to beat the rush and get here before anyone else.

Fun fact: Purrazzo actually worked a match for TNA in 2014, and had a brief run as a jobber in 2016-2017 before moving on to ROH and WWE.  That wasn’t all that long ago, but considering how little is left of Impact from before 2014, she’s practically a “TNA original.”

I haven’t seen much of either woman’s work, so it’s tough to evaluate this match beyond the basic story of Grace is a dominant powerhouse and Purrazzo as a hungry challenger blindsiding the champion.  I don’t think Deonna needs to win this match to sustain her push, though.  A competitive loss would work for someone at her level.  It feels like they’ve got something with Grace (especially since they no longer have something with Tessa Blanchard) so I’d build her up more before pushing someone to topple her over.

Ethan Page & Josh Alexander vs. Ken Shamrock & Sami Callihan - The North (Page and Alexander) are defending the tag team championship.  The backstory is that they started shit with Shamrock and double-teamed him, but then his former rival Callihan showed up to even the odds.  Shamrock and Callihan were bitter enemies a few months ago, but they did a weird reconciliation after the blowoff match where they agreed that they respected one another.  They don’t seem to like each other, but they both would rather not let that get in the way of winning a championship.

At 56, Shamrock looks like hell after dominating MMA from 1993 to 1996 and getting clobbered in MMA from 2000 to 2016.  I hope he’s getting good money from Impact, because it’s kinda sad seeing him here.  Callihan, meanwhile, is in the prime of his career but he’s just a dumbass that I keep expecting to get fired over some backstage freakout.  Together they live up to the tagline “world’s most dangerous tag team,” but that’s mainly in the sense that they look like they’d stab you in prison.  On the bright side, that sure makes it easy to pick a winner, because nothing about the North suggests to me that they’d last a minute in prison.  I’m predicting a title change.

Moose vs. Tommy Dreamer - Moose is the self-proclaimed “TNA champion,” and is “defending” the “title.”  Dreamer mostly works backstage at Impact these days, but occasionally he does matches.  In this case, he was one of the officials running in to save Crazzy Steve after a loss to Moose, causing Moose to attack Dreamer and Dreamer to cut a fiery promo on Moose.

Technically, the TNA world title is the old name of the Impact world title being contested in the main event.  Moose just found the old title belt and started treating it as a separate championship lineage.  See, Impact was hyping a TNA nostalgia show (???) and Moose decided he didn’t like TNA-era wrestlers so he beat a bunch of them and eventually decided that made him the TNA champion.

Considering that Impact is heavily teasing the return of various guys from their past, and many of the available names were around when Impact was TNA, I tend to think at least one guy is coming in to start shit with Moose.  EC3 or Bully Ray would make sense if you just want to beat him and blow off this gimmick.  Then again, I could see Eric Young revisiting some of his comedy personas to match Moose delusion for delusion.  One thing’s for sure, though--whatever the plan is for Moose and his belt, it’s not going to involve a loss to Tommy Dreamer.

Willie Mack vs. Chris Bey - Mack is defending the X division championship.  The “X division” was originally sort of a “don’t call it a cruiserweight division” thing.  Nowadays the roster isn’t deep enough to distinguish between a heavyweight division and an X division, so the title is more like a US championship with a goofy name.

Bey is one of the rising young prospects in the promotion.  The big story here has been Bey’s alliance with Johnny Swinger, who keeps wheeling and dealing to advance Bey’s career.  Due to his shenanigans Swinger was banned from ringside during this match.  Just as Swinger was starting to convince officials to reverse that ban, though, he overheard Bey badmouthing him, and he told Bey “you’re on your own.”  Knowing the Swingman, it’s possible this is all a swizzerve to confuse the mizzarks, daddy.  Either way, I think he has to be involved in the finish somehow.  Even if the Swinger-Bey alliance really is over, Bey should probably win the title here.

Gauntlet for the Gold match - This is a gauntlet battle royale to determine the #1 contender for the women’s championship.  Two participants will start the match and each additional competitor will enter at regularly scheduled intervals.  A participant is eliminated by exiting the ring over the top rope and placing both feet on the floor.  The last participant left after the others are eliminated is the winner.

Eleven participants have been announced so far: Alisha Edwards, Havok, Kiera Hogan, Kimber Lee, Kylie Rae, Madison Rayne, Neveah, Rosemary, Susie (aka Su Yung), Tasha Steelz, and Taya Valkyrie.  It’s possible we’ll end up with some surprise entrants on top of that, but don’t count on it.  Impact has been hyping all sorts of surprise returns, but throughout all their teasing they haven’t hinted at any women coming in.

To me it feels like the favorites are Kylie Rae and Taya Valkyrie, but the match format is practically designed to allow an upset.  I’m just gonna pick Kylie, though, because her entrance makes me happy and is probably the main reason I’ve gotten back into Impact.

Dez Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. ??? & ??? - Trey is in the main event, so the other two members of the Rascalz have issued an open challenge.  This feels designed to make you think “Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson are going to show up and win this match.”  Whether that actually happens or not remains to be seen.  There are a lot of reports about those two signing a deal, and Impact has teased them.  But Impact has also teased a reunion for the team of Rhino and Heath Slater.  A lot of things are possible, and many of them would be disappointing.  In its 18-year history, Impact has a bad track record of delivering on this sort of thing, so I’m managing my expectations. 

If it’s a new team, the Rascalz should lose.  If it’s anyone that’s already on the roster but not booked for this show, then they probably have no business beating the Rascalz at this point.

#impact wrestling #slammiversary #ace austin #eddie edwards #trey miguel #mystery man

[kevrocksicehouse]

Alumni report: On the Waterfront.

  On the Waterfront was released 66 years ago today, won every critics award got eight of the twelve Oscars it was nominated for and is still talked about today. Elia Kazan meant it as a defense for his testimony to The McCarthy-run communist hunting House Unamerican Activities Committee (he named eight names), by  changing communist-sympathizing screenwriters to vicious Mob-controlled thugs. He also assembled one of the best casts in motion picture history, all of which had long careers in the decades that followed.

Marlon Brando in The Godfather. D: Francis Ford Coppola (1972). Brando stuffed cotton in his cheeks, Coppola shaded his eyes and suddenly the man who played reluctant informant Terry Malloy became the courtly but utterly ruthless mob boss who the film implies makes most of his money from the union racketeering that Malloy informed against.

Karl Malden in Baby Doll. D: Elia Kazan (1956). Malden projected unwavering moral authority as a Father Barry a priest ministering to the dockworkers, but in his next Kazan film he played a moral idiot, a man driven crazy with lust for the teenage bride who won’t sleep with him. Tennesee Williams wrote the script and jettisoned any overarching themes that would make the movie more than a comedy about a grotesque situation. It’s just a nutzoid romp through the deep south but it’s probably Malden’s best performance.

Lee J. Cobb in 12 Angry Men. D: Sidney Lumet (1957). Cobb is a little thuggish here as Juror #3 the one most in favor of a “guilty” verdict. You could call it overacting or you could just look at it as Johnny Friendly doing his civic duty.

Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night. D: Norman Jewison (1967). Steiger was the second half of what is sometimes called the greatest scene in the history of movies, the long cab-ride where he hears Brando say “I could have been a contender” (ranked #2 on the AFI’s list of top movie quotes). Thirteen years later he gave an Oscar-winning performance as the Police Chief of a small Mississippi town whose grudging respect and even more grudging friendship with a black homicide detective starts when Sidney Poitier tells him “They call me MISTER TIBBS!” (ranked #16 on the same list). So at the very least the guy knows how to listen.

Eva Marie Saint in “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” D: Norman Jewison (1966). Marie Saint was the conscience of On the Waterfront who tried to spur Terry Malloy to do the right thing and testify against the commmun, um, I mean, the racketeers. In this Cold War farce she’s the wife of playwright Carl Reiner, trying to convince the townspeople of a New England island town that the submarine that has run aground isn’t trying to invade, that they’re just in trouble and if we can get past our kneejerk anticommunist hysteria we can get past this crisis we’ve ginned up and—hey isn’t this how this whole thing got started?

#on the waterfront #marlon brando #coulda been a contender #kevrock

[mushiewrites]

MUSHIE'S MASTERPOST

(updated 01/30/2023)

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Fics - #mushie fics

Ficlets - #mushie ficlets

Concepts / hc's - #mushie concepts / hc's

Drabbles - #mushie drabbles

All of my works in one place - #my stuff

My ramblings and random personal posts - #mushie speaks / #mushie lore

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OTHER TAGS

Fav fics of others - #mushie favs

Asks I've received - #asks

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WHO I WRITE FOR

DTQK (Dream / George / Sapnap / Quackity / Karl)

Foolish / Punz / Wilbur

DreamXD / GeorgeHD / Sapnap4K

(cc! & c! - DISCLAIMER: I don't really know dsmp lore so please keep that in mind!)

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Feel free to send an ask (anon or not) or a DM if you have any questions, want to brainrot or just want someone to chat with!

FIC DESCRIPTIONS + LINKS UNDER "READ MORE"

IRL

Taunt (lee!George / ler!Dream : 1.1K words) Dream and George are making breakfast, listening to music when “Taunt” by Lovejoy comes on. Dream mentions how George broke his straight-face in the music video - George doesn’t believe him, so Dream decides to prove it. While doing so, Dream discovers something about George

YLYL: The Aftermath (lee!Punz / ler!Foolish : 1.2K words) After Foolish saw how Punz reacted to Karl tickling Sapnap during the YLYL stream, he has something on his mind that he wants to confirm is true. Punz pretends he doesn’t know what Foolish is talking about, so Foolish decides to show him.

The Escape Artist (lee!George / ler!Sapnap / ler!Dream : 2.1K words) George takes the last drink - Sapnap wants it. After attacking each other, George throws the bottle at Sapnap and flees the scene. Sapnap wants revenge. Dream assists.

Cereal Killer (lee!Sapnap / ler!Dream : 1.4K words) Sapnap knows how Dream is when he first wakes up. Apparently Sapnap lets it slip his mind this morning, however, as he sees no issue in finishing the last of Dream’s cereal. Dream lets him know not to do it again.

One Little Poke (lee!George / ler!Dream : 1.4K words) prompt from this post: 20 - “Can you…do the thing?” / 36 - “I didn’t tell you to stop”

Mr. Kitzel (lee!Dream / ler!George / ler!Sapnap : 2.6K words) Dream, George and Sapnap come across a rather interesting find at the store, intrigued by the name of it. Dream puts it back, flustered and not wanting to look at it any longer, but George and Sapnap throw it back into their basket, forming a plan on what to use it for (or who to use it on) in their heads.

Sore Loser (lee!Punz / ler!Foolish : 2.3K words) Tickletober prompt: Day 1 - Anticipation

Whiskers and Eyeliner (lee!Dream / ler!Karl : 1.8K words) Tickletober prompt Day 2 - Drawn On

New Discoveries (lee!Punz / ler!George : 1.2K words) Tickletober prompt Day 18 - New Discoveries

Soft Surprises (lee!Dream / ler!Sapnap : 1K words) George comes home to laughter bouncing off the walls of the entry way when he walks through the front door. He recognized someone was clearly losing a certain type of playful fight, only this time it wasn't the laugh he was used to

Sweet & Sleepy (lee!George / ler!Dream : 1.4K words) Dream challenges George to keep his arms out to the side and gives him light tickles, seeing how long he can last before gently targeting a very specific sensitive spot

Late Night Texts (lee!Dream / ler!Sapnap : 1.1K words) dream is overly exhausted and can’t sleep, so he texts someone who can help him

Day 1: Hide & Seek (lee!Sapnap / ler!George / ler!Dream : 2.7K words) Sapnap has been lee all morning, but is feeling way too shy to ask for tickles - Dream notices and points it out. This leads to Sap getting embarrassed, darting away from Dream and George, and throwing them all into the most interesting game of Hide & Seek they’ve ever played

Ghost of You (lee/ler!Dream - self tickles / implied ler!Sapnap : 1.5K words) dream daydreaming about a specific tickle scenario where he’s the lee, imagining himself getting taken apart into pieces by tickling and teasing. it’s enough to make him blush, slamming his face into his pillow with a whine and making him do little kickies against the bed

Red (lee!George / ler!Dream / ler!Sapnap : 1.6K words) dream decides to show sapnap some very VERY sensitive spots on george. with the help of sapnap, they hold him in place and make him scream

Flipping the Switch (switch!George / switch!Dream : 2.4K words) Giggles & Ghasts prompt: bratty lee who tries/tried to tk their ler and instead it just turns into the ler tkling them…basically tk fight

DSMP

The Troubles with Teleporting (lee!George / ler!DreamXD : 1.8K words) XD has been teleporting with George all over the server for a little while now, never experiencing any issues that they were aware of. However, when XD goes to teleport them both back home, they’re confused as George refuses and makes a run for it.

Helping Hands (lee!GeorgeHD / ler!Dream XD : 3k words) From this prompt list: 9 - "tickle me?"

Forest Monster (lee!Sapnap / lee!George / lee!Dream / ler!Sapnap4K : 2.2k words) From this prompt list: Day 22 - Monster

Sore Winner (lee!Dream / ler!Sapnap : 1.5K words) Giggles & Ghast prompt: Dream and Sapnap are speedrunning a parkour course they made together. Dream gets cocky, having won the majority. Sapnap takes him down a notch by targeting his worst spot(s). [That worst spot depends on the writer/artist's headcanons!]

LLAMA'S LEE!DREAM EVENT

Tummy Troubles (lee!Dream / ler!George : 771 words) Day 1: Tummy tickles - Dream doesn’t feel well - he knows what will help him feel better, though. However, he doesn’t know how to ask. George gets the idea and helps Dream anyway.

Sleepy Secrets (lee!Dream / ler!Sapnap : 832 words ) Day 2: First meeting / stream - Sapnap finally makes it to Dream’s their house after driving hours to permanently move in with his best friend. When hugging Dream, he discovered a ticklish secret of his. After they get settled in and decide to relax on the couch, Dream falls asleep. Sapnap is unsure if he’s actually asleep.

That's What the Point of the Mask Is (lee!Dream / ler!George : 1.6K words) Day 3: Mask - Dream somehow ends up being hunted down by George, who was obviously bored and in a mood to wreck someone. The blonde gets flustered when George somehow catches him and decides that he wants to see how red Dream can get from blushing.

Morning Idiots (lee!Dream / ler!George : 698 words) Day 4: Tickle Hugs - A very sleepy George finds Dream in the kitchen, reaching in the cupboard for his favorite mug. When he suddenly sasses the older boy, he decides to teach Dream a lesson.

Sensitive (lee!Dream / ler!George : 1.7K words) Day 5: Scars - While practicing for a manhunt, Dream missteps and ends up taking a nasty fall. Sapnap and George attempt to see if he’s okay, but Dream refuses help. A few days later, George confronts Dream was the intent on finding out the extent of his injuries.

Flower Power (lee!Dream / ler!George : 862 words) Day 6: bee!Dream - George and Dream prepare to do a challenge with Dream in bee form. Dream is being reckless, and George discovers something about the little bee when he crashes into flowers.

Burrito Night (lee!Dream / ler!Sapnap / ler!George : 1K words) Day 7: Couch / Beanbag / Blanket - George finds himself walking into the living room where Dream and Sapnap are messing around with a huge tortilla shaped blanket. As he leaves the room, he hears Dream scream and decides to turn back to check out the situation.

The Better Idea (switch!Dream / switch!George / ler!Sapnap : 1.7K words) Day 10: Anticipation - The Dream Team have been living together for a few weeks now, and Dream has found a way to get what he wants fairly easily. When Sapnap walks in on George getting wrecked by Dream for absolutely no reason, the two boys decide to teach Dream a lesson the best way they know how.

CONCEPTS / HC'S

Sleepy Tickles HC 1 (lee!Dream Team) HC 2 (lee!Dream Team) HC 3 (lee!George / ler!Dream) HC 4 (lee!George / ler!Dream + Sapnap) HC5 (lee!George / ler!Dream)

Birthday Tickles Raspberries + Timers (lee!Dream / ler!George + Sapnap) Set time to name spots (lee!Dream / ler!George + Sapnap)

lee!Dream hc's Dream's death spots Dream's "two fingered" typing Kettle laugh "Guess the spot" game Squeaks and panting

lee!George hc's XD cheering George up Clingy Dream, sensitive George George annoying Sapnap Dream finding George's melty spots

lee!Sapnap hc’s ankles being a death spot / melty spot always wearing a hat (scalp tks)

AU STUFF XD’s cape Foolish controls water currents (lee!Punz / ler!Foolish)

#mushie masterpost #mushie blog maintenance #mushie pinned

[mobius-prime]

184. Sonic the Hedgehog #116

This is a very exciting issue, everybody! First of all, it sees the return of Rouge, who so far has only had one cameo within the comics since the majority of the Sonic Adventure 2 storyline was skipped. And second of all (and perhaps more importantly), this issue marks the exact halfway point in the Archie Sonic preboot! Yes, that's right, up to this point we have read exactly half of all available preboot issues (excluding a couple here and there that either contained noncanon stories or were just made up of reprinted older stories). It's kind of exciting! You could joke that it's all downhill from here, but I would disagree, as some of the comic's best years are still ahead of us, something which most preboot fans would likely agree on. So hold on tight - it's gonna be an interesting 183 more issues to come!

Operation: Off Switch!

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

So remember how I mentioned that Eggman has been mysteriously missing as of late? Yeah, well, turns out he's kind of been hiding this whole time. Sonic and Bunnie find themselves called to Station Square by the city's president, who informs them that he's found some information they will find significant.

Their mission takes them to the ruined city of Old Megaopolis in Mobius' northern hemisphere. Interestingly enough, there's actually a ruined Statue of Liberty there! I know that Mobius has analogues to almost everything on Earth, but this is a bit much, don't you think?

Apparently, even this city is very small compared to New Megaopolis north of here. Bunnie and Sonic decide to split up - Sonic heads off to look for Eggman, while Bunnie goes in search of Rouge. Sonic quickly finds himself dodging various attacks such as missiles, clearly put there by Eggman to stop anyone from disrupting his plans. Of course, he makes it through, and emerges into a room where Eggman has set up a really stupid-looking robotic body for himself, which basically amounts to a small metal dome-like thing with a lot of arms and a primitive Eggman head in the center. He tries to hit Sonic with the arms, but he dodges most of them, and easily slips a lit stick of dynamite into Eggman's metal mouth before making his getaway.

Well, I'm sure that takes care of that problem, right? There's no way he's coming back now! None at all!

Bat Fight!

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer Colors: J an A Ray

Yes, "an," not "and." I don't know what Josh and Aimee are up to, but they have a different way of listing their own names in the credits pretty much every time they show up.

While Sonic is busy blowing things up in another part of the city, Rouge has been irritably pacing in the confines of her cell, mad at herself for getting caught earlier when she first entered the city. Suddenly, her cell opens, and she suspiciously steps out to see the silhouette of Bunnie standing nearby, greeting her. Mistaking her for a cyborg created by Eggman and sent to kill her, Rouge doesn't hesitate to start beating Bunnie up. Bunnie, naturally, is not pleased with this, and fights back.

They basically just spend several pages duking it out, with no real dialogue between either of them. It's been quite a while since we saw a story that was nothing but fighting like this - that typically happened in the earlier issues, when a "____ vs. ____" special was a much bigger draw than it is now. The fight finally ends when Sonic shows up, baffled at why they're fighting at all.

I mean, yeah it was Rouge's fault, but it's not really surprising given that she had every reason to mistrust a half-roboticized figure coming at her while she was still a prisoner of Eggman. Honestly, what I'm more interested in about her is how the hell she even came to be an agent of Station Square's military in the first place. The only piece of Sonic media I'm aware of that actually explains her initial recruitment is Sonic X, but in this universe, Station Square was presumably not even aware of the existence of Mobians until Sonic and co. visited the city for the first time a mere few months ago. How did a Mobian even get a position as one of the city's agents in the first place? As far as I remember it's not ever explained either, so I suppose we could just assume that she was made an agent under similar circumstances shortly after the events of the Sonic Adventure arc and leave it at that.

Ultimate Power (Mid-logue: The Lesson)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Aimee & Josh Ray

This story is exactly what the title implies - we're taking a hard break from what was happening before with Knuckles, Dimitri and Mogul, to look at a memory from Knuckles' childhood. Presumably because of his Chaos-ness, he experiences this memory in third person as though he's standing there watching everything play out before his eyes. He sees himself as an eight-year-old with his father, as they watch a group of mysterious strangers enter the Chaos Chamber. Knuckles is eager to learn more about the Chaos Emerald that keeps the island aloft, but Locke merely brushes him off and tells him to stay put while he takes care of the problem.

We've already been over Locke's terrible parenting before, so I won't rehash it here. Green Knuckles finds himself baffled as to why he's been thrust into this sudden flashback, but follows his past self as he in turn follows his father into the Chaos Chamber. The intruders turn out to be some of Robotnik's own roboticized scouts, who have landed on the island in search of a new power source for their broken-down ship. Locke tries to warn them away peacefully, but when they try to take the Chaos Emerald for themselves, little Knuckles jumps in, trying to tackle one of them. He's batted aside like a mere nuisance, which pisses Locke off. Locke zaps them all with energy drawn from the emerald so they fall to the ground smoking and disabled, and goes to check on his son, who is coming to, dazed from the blow.

With the flashback completed, Knuckles comes back to himself in the Brotherhood's base, listening to Remington on the screen asking him to come to the hospital to deal with their current hostage situation. Honestly, I'm not even entirely sure what this story is for, because while Knuckles acts like he's learned some important lesson from reviewing this memory, I really can't see anything in it that's relevant to his current situation. But there is an important milestone issue coming up soon, and I think that this story may have been used as filler to take up some space so that the end of this arc could coincide with it, since both Knuckles' and Sonic's stories converge in that milestone issue. You'll see what I mean in a few…

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 116 #writer: benny lee #writer: karl bollers #writer: ken penders #pencils: ron lim #pencils: jeff axer #pencils: dawn best #colors: joshua d ray #colors: aimee r ray

[ao3feed-lams]

Deadly Secrets

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/3aHs8RX

by Lilyintin89

Abraham Woodhull is a cabbage farmer with a huge secret, Not everyone in Setauket knows about his secret except for a little group of spies, the truth is that Abraham Woodhull is pregnant with Benjamin Tallmadge's child, Benjamin is a military officer who fights along side caleb brewster, aka Abe's over protective friend, it's the revolutionary war, feelings are at stake, and with Abraham pregnant with Benjamin's child Benedict doesn't know if the child is even Benjamin's child or his child, Abraham doesn't know who the real father is, he's for certain it's benedict's child, but on the inside he's also certain that it could be Benjamin's child as well, or maybe they're both the fathers, who knows.

Abe is a male carrier, Robert Townsend is his bounder, a bounder is someone who swears to protect a carrier at all coast no matter what happens to the fathers or father. Can robert keep abe's secret?, or will they have to escape from setauket and run off to some other place?. How will Benjamin and Benedict take the news of the unborn child?, will they keep it?, read to find out what happens!.

Words: 1111, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of Pregnant Revolutionaries

Fandoms: Hamilton - Miranda, Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow, Turn (TV 2014), founding fathers - Fandom, Culper Spy Ring - Fandom, 17th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE RPF, John Adams (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette, Hercules Mulligan, Aaron Burr, Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, Margaret "Peggy" Schuyler, Angelica Schuyler, Maria Reynolds, Henry Laurens (1723-1792), Dolley Madison, George Eacker, John Adams, Frances Laurens, Theodosia Burr Alston, George III of the United Kingdom, Martha Washington, Theodosia Prevost Burr, Charles Lee, Philip Hamilton, Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough, Woodes Rogers, Robert Troup, John Hancock (1737-1793), Abigail (Turn), David Hosack (1769-1835), Mary Floyd Tallmadge, George Washington, Thomas Lynch Jr, Becky Redman, Edward Sexby, Mary Graves (1772-1860), Karl Eugen von Württemberg, Captain Joyce, Thomas "Sprout" Woodhull, Benedict Arnold, Martha Laurens Ramsay, Alexander Hamilton Jr., Tench Tilghman, Jules Mazarin, Thomas Conway (1735-c.1800), Anna Ivanovna | Anna of Russia, Dr. Mabbs, Galileo Galilei, Hamilton Ensemble, Johann Sebastian Bach, Samuel Seabury (1729-1796), Tailor, Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, Anne Hyde Duchess of York, William "Billy" Lee (Turn), Robert Townsend (1753-1838)

Relationships: Alexander Hamilton/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton/John Laurens, Aaron Burr/Theodosia Prevost Burr, Thomas Jefferson/James Madison, Maria Reynolds/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton, Charles Lee/Samuel Seabury, Martha Manning/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, Henry Clay/John C. Calhoun, Benjamin Franklin/Henry Knox, Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette/Hercules Mulligan, Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette/George Washington, John Barker Church/Angelica Schuyler, Abraham Woodhull/Mary Woodhull, Benedict Arnold/Benjamin Tallmadge/Abraham Woodhull, Robert Townsend/Abraham Woodhull, John André/Abraham Woodhull, Caleb Brewster/Anna Strong/Benjamin Tallmadge/Abraham Woodhull, Thomas Jefferson/Angelica Schuyler, Margaret "Peggy" Schuyler & Stephen Van Rensselaer (1764-1839), George III of the United Kingdom/John Laurens, Maria Cosway/Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Hewlett/John Graves Simcoe, Anna Strong/Mary Woodhull, Anna Strong/Selah Strong, Benedict Arnold/Charles Lee, George III of the United Kingdom/Charles Lee/Samuel Seabury, George III of the United Kingdom/George Washington, George Washington/Martha Washington

Additional Tags: Pregnancy, Revolutionary War, LGBTQ Themes, Strong Female Characters, Gay Founding Fathers (Hamilton), Hurt/Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, Naked Cuddling, Canon-Typical Violence, War, Eventual Smut, Rape/Non-con Elements, Slow Build, Bisexual Alexander Hamilton, Minor Alexander Hamilton/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, Mom Friend Angelica Schuyler, Gay John Laurens, Minor Anna Strong/Abraham Woodhull, John Simcoe Being an Asshole, The Battle of Setauket, Light-Hearted, Light BDSM, Religious Conflict, Character Death, Major Character Injury, Slash, Protectiveness, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Male Pregnancy, 17th Century, Torture, Spoilers, Prompt Fill, Royalty, Rough Sex, Neck Kissing, Praise Kink, Love, Drunken Confessions, Falling In Love, Long-Distance Relationship, Attempted Murder, Painful Sex, Romantic Soulmates, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Self-Harm, Abraham Woodhull Needs A Hug, Porn, Alternate Universe, Everyone Needs A Hug, Henry Laurens' A+ Parenting, Internalized Homophobia, Homophobic Language

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/3aHs8RX

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #Hamilton #lams

[ghostflowerdreams]

Review: Netflix’s Black Summer

Black Summer is an American web television zombie apocalypse drama series, created by Karl Schaefer and John Hyams. The first season, consisting of 8 episodes, was released on Netflix on April 11, 2019.

Set in the dark, early days of a zombie apocalypse, Rose is separated from her daughter and embarks upon a harrowing journey to find her. Thrust alongside a small group of American refugees, these complete strangers must find the strength they need to fight their way back to loved ones. But in order for Rose and the others to brave this hostile new world, they will need to make brutal decisions to contend with zombies – and each other. 

Oh, boy! Anything with zombies automatically peaks my interest so of course when Netflix announced Black Summer I kept an eye out for it. First things first, this post will have some SPOILERS. I want to explain what I didn’t like, what they could’ve done better and I can’t do that without revealing a little bit of it.

What I did like...

The cast was diverse, which was fantastic to see. We get a black man, three Mexicans, a deaf Syrian refugee, a Korean woman and two white characters. They weren’t just throw in to fill a quota, but they actually felt believable in their roles. 

Kyungson (goes with the name “Sun” instead because everyone was struggling to say her name) is desperate to find her mother. She only speaks Korean, but she does an excellent job in emoting emphatically to get her points across. However, that’s not to say she doesn’t know any English at all. She actually understands it well enough and knows a few words, even knows how to sing in it. 

I didn’t have any English subtitles on, which made it feel immersive and realistic for me. I felt like I was a part of the group, not knowing what she was talking about but having a good idea of what she might be saying. We also experience this in a similar-but-different manner with Ryan, a deaf character.

Now, the type of zombies we get in this isn’t the slow and stupid variety. They’re actually fast-running and tenacious in their pursuit. They’re also smart enough to climb and duck under opened garage doors in search of survivors. However, they don’t seem to be smart enough to know how to opened doors (but I suppose they can figured it out if given the time to do so). As always, the virus is spread by being in contact with an infected fluids via bite or blood. And if a person dies (for whatever reason), they come back as a zombie instantaneously.

Headshots are instant kills, but for some reason it’s not done that often. I don’t understand why the characters are all so surprised and panic when they realize that body shots do nothing to stop them. It just seems like a lot of waste of bullets. This makes me wonder if the universe this take place in not have zombie fiction? 

I get that not all survivors will be skilled with guns. As it’s very difficult to get headshots on moving targets, but how can you miss when they’re a few feet away and heading straight for you? Or why hasn’t anyone attempted to slow them down by shooting out the legs and than the head? I know I can be nitpicky, but I excused this aspect because it was only the beginning of the apocalypse. The characters haven’t had enough time or experience to become harden survivors yet. 

And then there’s Lance. He’s stupidly lucky. Everything about him makes me go nuts and want to scream at the screen like...WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! OMG, HOW? WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE? He’s basically the kind of guy who somehow manages to survive despite the dumb decisions he makes. Which, now that I think about it, is kinda funny because he’s what most people typically think of to be the first ones to go in the apocalypse. 

Maybe I’m nickpicking again, but what I didn’t like was in episode 5, titled “Diner” because I found all the characters to be acting very stupid. William and Sun were trapped in an abandoned diner with three other survivors from the truck (the same one that was tailing them in order to steal their gas, and eventually ran them off the road). Their first plan was to get someone to stay inside to keep the TWO zombies distracted while the others go out to kill them. However, that plan failed as they underestimated how difficult it would be to take them down. Did they not aim for the head? Or was it because their weapons were useless in causing any damage? I’m not sure...

Then Phil (one of the survivors from the truck) came up with the idea to sacrificed someone in the group to feed the zombies. While the zombies would be busy eating them, the rest would run away. He picked Sun purely because she couldn’t speak English, showing his racism. William is against the idea and Sun notices that the leader of the pack has a cut on his arm. She lets William know and he wonders out loud if Phil is infected. The group starts acting hysterically. The other two truck survivors make their decision by rounding on their leader and they all throw him outside.

The entire time I was watching that episode I was like WTF! Can’t you guys use your brain??? Why even resort to throwing another person out there? They would’ve been another potential zombie to deal with. Plus, who in their right mind even trust a dude who’s quick to make a plan that involves sacrificing another person? I was surprise to see that his companions didn’t even pause to think about it. If Sun wasn’t there, it could’ve easily been one of them instead.

What especially annoyed me about the episode was that they didn’t even try to use their brains. To me it was obvious of what they could’ve done next, but they just gave up after their first plan failed. They were dealing with TWO zombies and they could’ve easily out smart the damn zombies by baiting them inside the restaurant and trapping them in it. They just need to make sure to get all the food and water first. Once they did, lure the zombies to the front entrance and trap them in the little entrance way. Then go out the back way and you’re free. 

Or they can try to kill them again, but this time do it in a different way. Sure, it’ll be a bit more work and tricky to do, but it wouldn’t be impossible. They would need someone to distract the other zombie and lure the other one to the front. Then unitize the entrance way of the diner to get one inside and carefully secure and hold the door open. Just enough for the zombie to stick their head in and stab them with the big kitchen knife or another sharp object. Then repeat the process or keep the other trapped instead. 

This episode could’ve been done better by being less annoying stupid. The other episodes didn’t bothered me as much as this one did (especially if you ignored Lance, because his character is suppose to represent that kind of people). Sometimes the other characters are a bit dumb too (like why didn’t you check if you’re really alone in the house or why didn’t you freaking close and lock the damn doors behind you), but that’s normal as not everyone is such a zombie or survivalist nerd as I am.

Black Summer isn’t THAT great compare to other zombie shows, but there were some moments that stood out. Such as showing how dangerous and messed up humans can be. I remember a particular scene in which the characters were traveling by foot. They saw a car parked with a mother and her young daughter inside it. Rose was going to approach them to see if they needed help, but the mother lifted up her gun in a silent warning to leave them alone. The group understood and moved on.

Later on, in another episode they were in a different location but noticed the same car from earlier. They couldn’t see inside of it, but they needed to pass it in order to leave the area. So they cautiously walked closer, but the car starts up and as it slowly drives off they were able to see inside of it. 

It’s occupants were three burly man and a young girl. Rose turns paled, wondering out loud where is the mother, as the young girl was the same one from before. That scene was executed very well. It was terribly sad and horrible. It basically implied that the mother was killed either for her car (because finding one with gas was extremely valuable) or that they knew she wouldn’t let them abuse her daughter as long as she was alive.

In the end, would I recommend this? Hmmm, I guess? It’s not exactly that good, but it’s not that terrible either. It’s definitely something you can watch to kill boredom for a short while. Or just watch it for the characters like Christine Lee’s Kyungsun. I wouldn’t be surprise if she becomes a fan favorite. She’s certainly my favorite out of the entire bunch. 

Honestly, other shows do a much better job at this. Go watch Netflix’s KINGDOM. It’s a South Korean historical period drama with zombies. It’s very GOOD.

#Black Summer #TV Show Review #thoughts #opinion #review #Netflix #Netflix Black Summer #my thoughts #tv show #black summer netflix