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steve0discusses · 5 years

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Yugioh S3 Ep5: Happy Valentines Season the Writing Team Remembered YugixTea Exists

Alrighty, I’m mostly back together from nearly a week of the plague and now my buffer is basically demolished. Man. Youknow, every time I make a buffer this happens. Maybe I was just asking to get sick? That every time I finish a healthyish buffer my immune system just tanks in response?

Anyway, that’s fine because it’s been like a week now that I’ve been sort of wanting to talk about the massive amount of birds in this episode. Yeah, birds. I mean there’s no reason for me to try and hide the spoilers, I’m assuming 99% of y’all have seen this show. There were a LOT of birds.

Last we left off, Yugi decided to run headfirst into a trap door.

And then on the other side he was somehow amazed this was a trap?

Because there wasn’t either a mace or an ax handy to go through the wall like Tristan And Duke, instead Yugi has to end up in a Photoshop Filter.

Shoutouts to the overlay aurora borealis on top of this whole mess. This whole aesthetic here is just so nostalgic and I didn't even watch this show as a kid.

Man the 00′s were a great time. Speaking of great time.

We’ve had like 0 Joey for like 4 episodes and it’s been kind of incredible since this show leans pretty heavily on Joey. Like I have barely touched that mustard color in Photoshop, instead it’s been a lot of Tea, and I’ll be honest, about time. I have been saying for like 3 seasons now that this girl never has anything to do but be a ghost bus and a sort-of-not-really-gf to I guess Mokuba and sometimes Yugi but now she’s...still not doing a whole lot. I’ll be honest her new big thing is mostly running away from things, but at least now she now does Olympian feats while still doing nothing.

But all that’s gotta change because, much like Joey in S1, Tea’s gonna throw some cards with only like 2 games under her belt.

So like, I was experiencing Witcher 1 the other day, and I don’t recommend it since Witcher 1 is not nearly as good as it’s sequels, but there’s this hilarious line where Witcher is gonna learn a dice minigame, and he asks his friend “how can I become a dice expert?” and his friend goes “Well that takes experience! Play 4 games.” and it’s like lol what? 4? That was all it need for ANYONE to be an expert, huh?

This is like that. Yugioh is a weird universe where Yugi is King of Games but he’s only been in one tourney and he’s only played this game professionally in a professional no-one-is-setting-anyone-on-fire setting like maybe 4 times.

Like everyone plays this game but the bar for entry is surprisingly low? All Yugi had to do was beat one guy by playing him once, really--just beat Pegasus and boom, King of Games. No wonder Seto was so freakin pissed.

Anyways, so the fact that Tea hasn’t really played is just like everyone else on this show.

(read more)

Anyways, after she ran 4 miles and climbed a bridge and all that, she decides, youknow what? Right here in this barren orc-filled desert is probably a safe place for a dream sequence.

And she dreams of the very last person I expected her to dream about.

So...I have questions about this dream sequence, ones that I will touch on later, but clearly Tea is getting some inception quality prophetic card knowledge from Yugi through a dream...however...Yugi isn’t actually doing anything right now. Right now Yugi is running through Tron so like...how is this happening?

Like is this just Tea actually knowing how cards work under layers and layer of subconscious? Because under layers and layers of Tea’s subconscious is actually SlightlyMoreOrLessEvil!Marik, who, as we discovered through last season’s plot twist is actually very, very bad at cards. Bakura might be still under there too, but he’s sort of everywhere just minding his own business so I doubt he’d bother coming out for Tea. Bakura’s still canonically dead/hanging out in Yugi’s Brain Labyrinth Game Room playing Gameboy Advance until Season 5.

I mean, it would be neat if Yugi actually could do this but like...he’s not actually here or at all aware that this is happening. Yes he has Ishizu’s necklace right now but will not use it this episode. This is just happening for no reason.

Which leads right into the second thing which is our most vague couple is finally going to get it’s own episode since like the beginning of season 2 and it’s literally all a dream.

Flashbacks to Yugi and Tea actually hanging out and talking one on one were all we really needed to stop calling this ship vague but eh this BARELY counts as it’s all one sided. This is just Tea doing all of this relationship herself. Which is pretty true to form as Yugi is a mess and can barely do relationships with himself at this point, let alone add a girl into the mix.

I feel like at this point a Broadway play about one single Yugioh card is waaaaaaay more likely than YugixTea ever like ever getting together (cuz like FOR REALS most Broadway is bad. Like legit not great). In fact, this make believe date they went on together is so far from reality--as it is not only a dream, but a dream in VR, and that even in the dream itself Yugi reminds her “PS, WE NEVER WENT ON THIS DATE, PS” and Tea’s like “that seemed open ended” and Yugi was like “NOPE.”

So this play is so terrible that it asks for audience participation and it turned her into a cosplayer.

So little aside, when I got my Netflix account the first thing I rented was Ironman, and then the second thing I rented, mostly out of morbid curiosity, was Cats.

Regrets. I like watching some pretty bad movies and plays but Cats is sort of like...if everyone dressed like personified leg warmers and made us pretend the leg warmers turned them into cats for some reason, and that the legwarmers were all in a polyamorous relationship with everyone else and got way too horny when they danced. And then they all died at the end/went to space/got reincarnated. But, I guess we have to give Cats some credit for basically launching furry technology forward like 50 years.

I am SUPER looking forward to the Cats movie. Probably will skip it in theaters but Netflix? Yes, please!

Anyway, Pharaoh was also here chaperoning these two like he always does although Tea has no idea what he looks like.

I just realized that, so far, every date we’ve seen with YugixTea, Yugi wasn’t even there. Like how does he keep managing to do this? The kid is managing this relationship like a champ being the supportive boyfriend or whatever and he’s not even there. Like damn.

A penguin.

so many penguins

Anyways, the animation team drew I want to say like 600 penguins for this episode. I just want to acknowledge their sacrifice for our behalf, so we could have this filler episode and watch an actual relationship blossom between Yugi and Tea but only in a dream sequence.

Because I notice art stuff like this, they did copy paste these penguins in a clever way so it wasn’t drawing 60000 penguins, but damn that’s still a lot of penguins.

My bro, the namesake of this blog, freakin loves penguins. So this entire episode he kept looking over at me and being like “right?! RIGHT!?” and it was like “wow, Bro they really made this show just for you huh?” and he was like “RIGHT?!?!”

So the thing about Crump is that he likes collecting numbers about people, which the show makes out to be strange but I have a bunch of accountant friends, and I once had one tell me that God was an accountant, and then he gave me some complicated explanation that I absolutely muted out of my memory. I once had a friend who had a fascinating spreadsheet on everywhere she lived and the friends she had, just to see if she could accurately display the percentage chance of who was dating, who was getting married, and the exact percentage of which of those broke up and the length of all of their relationships. And she was an art major.

I never saw those spreadsheets of love numbers, I only know they exist, and I have no idea where I stood on them. Sometimes I think about it. Is she still tracking me? I sure hope so.

Dude that one penguin on the right just

This show throws out the number 219 pieces of pizza like that was a bad thing?

I guarantee you, that eating 14 slices of pizza a year is a depressingly low statistic (assuming you don’t eat pizza when you’re 1 yo) That is only about 1.5 large pizzas a YEAR. That is nothing.

Course bear in mind I’m a Californian and I eat like...about 2-3 slices every time fast food pizza is offered me. And if I’m alone, well dammit I’ll eat.......more than that, we’ll just say. In fact, I just Marie Kondo’d my closet and found my college cookbook which was mostly me trying to replicate the CPK Thai chicken pizza as well as the CPK Pear Gorgonzola pizza (and may the CPK Pear Gorgonzola Pizza Rest in Peace, you perfect pizza. I have not returned to CPK once it left the menu. Bro hates this pizza but he is wrong.)

Like it sounds way nasty but I’m Californian so we don’t believe in food purity here. Put whatever the hell you freakin want on your dumb ass pizza. No food is sacred, no food will be left untouched, we’re all human beings, and everything you like is all going to be turned into pizza and tacos anyway. That is the way.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve only had 219 pieces of just Pear Gorgonzola Pizza (since it was a pricier pizza). Maybe Crump was just referring to the one type of zah?

Anyway, I got very distracted by pizza just now.

Tea heard Crumps offer to duel her in exchange for her body and she was like “I don’t really actually want to do that.” and just bounced.

I mean at least she tried to bounce. As it is, I’m glad Tea is like the only one here who at least has figured out that Cards are Dangerous.

And then an iceberg formed under her feet.

Meanwhile, Yugi has been sent to this room with four doors. Each door has a number of stars between one and four. Please remember he has Ishizu’s future necklace somewhere on his person and it could probably help him out but nah.

and then out of no where Yugi pulls this out of his pocket.

Another place where, because they localized the show to a ton of different countries, they decided to make a fake currency so people wouldn’t be thrown off by a Japanese coin and it only made the lore more confusing. He could have just used a Yen and I’m pretty sure us American kids would have been fine but localization problems amiright?

But yeah, there’s just this super random Millennium Penny that Yugi just has. To have. The redheaded stepchild 8th Millennium item no one remembers. Just like how no one remembers Bakura.

Now that I think of it, he did pull some pennies out of his pocket back in S1 with the labyrinth riddle. So maybe that’s just a skill the millennium puzzle can do--making weird ass pennies?

This is my brother’s aesthetic, this right here. This Big Penguin in a 3 piece suit and it’s got some anime for some reason strapped in the most goofy way on it stubby little wing.

This is Steve-o’s Mood down to a T.

Anyways, funnily enough, Tea and Yugi do actually get to communicate with each other this episode, but she isn’t aware that she’s doing it, much like how he wasn’t aware that he was in a dream she just had.

And so, Yugi feels newly inspired and very desperate and just throws himself directly at the door.

Yugi never did this back when Tea was abducted last season. Which...was yesterday. All that happened literally yesterday in the timeline of this show. Literally yesterday in the timeline of the show Seto Kaiba had to save Tea because Yugi got himself tied to an anchor and was too busy trying to kill himself to save Joey Wheeler (which didn’t even work and Serenity had to save Joey Wheeler instead it was a whole very confusing thing.) Like Yugi has got to stop needlessly sacrificing himself it only works a fraction of the time.

Anyway, Crump (Crumb? I don’t remember his name anymore) gives us a little backstory on why he chose to be a bird. We never got a backstory with like...Gansley. I think Yugi didn’t really waaaant to know why he was a sexy fish. And Gansley honestly didn’t want to tell him. And personally, I’m OK with not knowing.

What is it with TV shows and saying that every freakin weird tick their characters have is down to childhood trauma? Usually from parents? Like it’s such a tired trope nowadays. And honestly, from a psychological standpoint, TV shows constantly blaming parents for any character being an asshole is sort of unfair because sometimes you just have a kid who’s an asshole and it’s no one’s fault (except for the kid himself). But mostly, Yugioh tends to get creative with their backstories and this one is just “I dunno, I was lonely” which is a whole lot like the Mai backstory, but she didn’t turn into an evil bastard who wants to be a penguin, did she?

Hell, she got engaged.

Anyways, Seto’s S1 outfit makes a rare appearance. I miss that green jumpsuit with the pop collar. We got it twice this season. Heh, and bro told me this arc was bad.

And so because Crump was just straight up real bad at business and didn’t know how to find more angel investors, he’s just gonna do a murder.

Can we talk a little bit about this? So Gozoboro Kaiba was an asshole who made a ton of weapons--and that whole time, Crump was working with him so that one day he could go up to Kaiba Sr and be like “lets put that nuclear deal on hold--what if instead we just sold...penguins?”

Like that was Crump’s whole life plan. He blames Seto for it not working out but this guy worked for a supervillain for I’m assuming was like 30 years to build this theme park that I’m pretty sure would have never been made anyway?

And then Seto turned right around and made a theme park with a bunch of dragons in it?

Like why didn’t Crump just go to a freakin Zoo and be like “Lets make a penguin only zoo?” Like why didn’t he start with people who actually worked with animals?

Why did Crump go straight to working with the evil guns n stuff company to build a children’s theme park?

Anyway, he’s a penguin now, so it’s not like Crump is really all there and altogether. Like I’m assuming that maybe Kaiba Sr got a penguin theme park commission in his inbox once a month and just threw it in the trash being all “there goes that Crump again” and just ignored it or something. Like every Halloween work party Crump would have been a penguin, right? Like EVERY Halloween for 30 years? And like when Kaiba Sr got his boys did Crump come up to him and give him a Penguin lecture about how to be a perfect parent? Like how much of a nightmare was Crump to work with and how many times did the Kaibas try to kill him before Seto finally did is what I’m asking.

Also, still taking Dayquil, thanks for asking, I apparently still have some rants.

But that’s all for now.

PS I’ll have you know I almost made the title of this episode “fowl play” and decided that was too much of a low hanging pun. But I’m still like...I’m still feeling like putting it up there. That be the mix of meds and congestion.

#yugioh #recap #photo recap #yugioh recap #S3 ep5 #tea gardner #yugi muto #SO MANY PENGUINS #penguins #seto kaiba #kaiba #noah #Yo Tea Gardner just got abducted by birds #flightless birds

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neingel · 7 years

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Amonkhet Commander Review: Part 2

And a warm welcome back to the 2nd part of this Commander review. Amonkhet thus far has been quite an impressive set to me, and in this 2nd part of the article, we’ll be going through the remaining colors: Green,Multicolor, Artifacts and the lands of the set as well.

Green

Vizier of the Menagerie

First card off today’s write-up is the new Vizier. Just looking at that relatively derpy Naga is funny, but many have compared him to cards like Garruk’s Horde or Courser of Kruphix as a strong Green utility card in Commander. Vizier however is a 3/4 for 4, making him easy to cast and with a well-abled body. I would like to see him more in multi-color decks tho, where players with creature heavy decks such as Maelstrom Wanderer would be able to properly utilize him. Strong card overall with powerful potential in the format.

Harvest Season

Harvest Season is potentially powerful in Commander, where ramp effects are plentiful that work with some decks that want to put many lands into play at once or just simply have a ton of mana to cast huge cards from their deck. Harvest Season is very very powerful at 3 mana, providing a tapped basic for each tapped creature you control? Sure thing for almost any Mono-Green deck and bi-colored deck. It does forces you to play aggressively or find some way to tap a good amount of your creatures, something Green excels in Commander. Powerful card overall and definitely will see good amounts of play.

Champion of Rhonas

Champion of Rhonas is another toy Green has to play with, but I foresee it’ll definitely be better when splashed. Due to the fact that having an uncounterable, free creature into play is definitely powerful when it’s a 3/3 for 4, it can carry the game on it’s own if left unanswered. It also acts well with tutors, allowing you to “cheat” 2 times at once, searching for the creature and playing it for free.

Mouth//Feed

Mouth//Feed is definitely a very common effect in Commander, Mouth gives a 3/3 Hippo token early game, while Feed is more likely to be used later in the mid-late game. Feed however, is very low costed for what it does, drawing cards equal to the number of creatures you control. Green has plenty of creature-draw effects but are usually costing in ranges of cmc 5-7. Feed is the same cost as Harmonize, but does much much more to it’s counterpart. This is a fine example of a card I really can’t wait to play soon.

Manglehorn

And the last Green card on the list is actually really good at Uncommon. Manglehorn has been seen by many to be the answer to one of Standard’s biggest problems at the moment, Mardu Vehicles. It is however full of value at a 3 costed creature in Commander, being able to come down early/cheap to destroy any artifact is definitely useful, but the fact that it has a “Blind Obedience” effect specifically for artifacts is something not very common in Green, but many players would see this replacing the more commonly seen artiifact removal. Bye Reclamation Sage and say Hello to Manglehorn :>

Multicolor

Before we go into showing my Top 5 picks for Multicolor, I have to say that there are many powerful Multicolor cards in the set, I would like to mention them all but there simply isn’t a way to go through each and everyone of them. I’ll probably try to squeeze similar ones into a group and try to talk about them as a whole. However, I would include some Legendary creatures in this section.

Nissa, Steward of Elements

The new Nissa does have a slight twist. First off, it’s the first time seeing her in multicolors compared to the regular Nissa we all know staying Mono-Green with the passing of every new set, secondly, this new version of Nissa is also particularly unique as she’s the first Planeswalker with an optional casting cost of X. meaning she’ll be able to come into play with any desired amount of loyalty counters depending on how much the player is willing to cast her for. Abilities aside, it’s typical Nissa with a small hint of Blue(Scry 2) as well as the usual land/creature dig and animation of lands into 5/5s. Many have already noticed how strong she’ll be in the Atraxa Superfriends build, where you can cast her with X on 0 but she’ll come in with an extra loyalty counter instead, keeping her alive and using her abilities straightaway. Definitely a very strong utility Planeswalker guaranteed to see play.

The new Split cards

I’ve only put a few of the new multicolor Split cards here, but the others not mentioned here are still viable in one way or another. Failure//Comply reminds me a lot of Unsubstantiate, except slightly worse with the fact that it can’t return creatures. Comply does feel kinda like Orim’s Chant but not as good as you would think. Not bad overall though. Rags//Riches is probably my favorite among the 3 shown here, Rags is slightly worse when compared to Yahenni’s Expertise but it does get the job done sometimes, while Riches is value late game when creatures are scarce on the board and everyone is out of resources. Lastly, Heaven//Earth is very reminiscent of Firespout, although somewhat similar in dealing with both flying and non-flying creatures, Heaven//Earth is better in Commander due to the fact that any amount of mana can be used on it either mode. Making it a very flexible card.

Bounty of Luxa

Bounty of Luxa might seem like a huge mouthful of words at first, but it does so much at the cost of 4 mana! When first played, it’ll give you an extra card every alternate turn or give you 3 mana(in Simic colors) every other turn. Meaning if you played it on say..Turn 4, you’ll get the extra draw on Turn 5 and the mana on Turn 6. The cycle would then repeat itself providing both much needed card/mana advantage. I love this card and would like to get it in my Maelstorm Wanderer deck soon.

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

Hapatra is the first Legendary of this whole 2 part article. Hapatra actually caught my attention at first as a general, where she’s low costed and that she required to work with -1/-1 counters. While that seems like a downside, there have been quite a few creatures/card support for -1/-1 counters, combine that with what Amonkhet and possibly Hour of Devastation might offer. Hapatra will probably be on many brewer’s radar for the upcoming months.

Samut, Voice of Dissent

And lastly, we have Samut. Who seems extremely decent on paper with her stars, I mean 5cmc Flasher, with a host of abilities such as Double Strike,Vigilance and Haste! She also is able to untap another creature for a measly cost of 1 White mana. Though being Naya colored normally means big creatures, Samut is able to fit in a Voltron shell perfectly due to the amount of abilities she already has even without equipment/auras on her. A bomb in Limited and sure to see some Commander play as a general or in the 99.

Artifacts

Pyramid of the Pantheon

Pyramid was probably one of the first cards that caught my attention during the spoiler season. Easily played on Turn 1, it fixes mana for you while adding brick counters onto itself. The second ability is very reminiscent of Mana Vault or Gilded Lotus, being able to tap for 3 mana of any color at the cost of 1 is extremely powerful ability in Commander. For such a low cost, despite it not being as powerful as Mana Vault/Crypt, it will definitely see play in most decks in time to come.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh

Throne is a good example of the strong, low-costed artifacts in this set. For only 2 mana, Throne could represent a rather speedy clock for your opponents the moment it’s played on Turn 1/2. It leans towards aggressive decks with creatures that want to turn sideways at your opponents or in any creature heavy deck that involves creatures tapping for other purposes such as mana or milling. I can’t wait to try this out when the new tribal commanders release around August :)

Embalmer’s Tools

Embalmer’s Tools might seem underwhelming at first, due to the fact where it would fit in a Zombie deck only. However, it’s first ability is actually very useful especially for graveyard decks, making activated abilities cost 1 less could mean Unearth and other abilities costing slightly lesser-which is pretty nice. Other than that, Zombie decks would love this card, having a somewhat Altar of Dementia effect is nice when you don’t need to sacrifice your own creatures.

The God’s Monuments

This new cycle of artifacts is really really cool, aimed towards mono-colored decks and encouraging the casting of creatures. Each Monument “de-taxes” creature cost, while providing a special effect for casting a creature spell, with each monument having it’s own unique ability. An interesting take by the design team that I’m sure will follow up in Commander as a staple for mono-colored creature decks soon.

Oracle’s Vault

Oracle’s Vault as from what I can recall, gave a bad impression to many players when Wizards announced it was the promo card for Prerelease and Launch Day. While I could understand why it was chosen as the promo card, it doesn’t seem that bad in Commander at all. Especially when it hits 3 brick counters, things could go out of control pretty fast with the help of Paradox Engine. There isn’t a whole lot going for this card but it does show a lot of potential seeing how players could find ways to break this card.

Lands

Aside from the full-art lands in the set, there are a few lands worth noting potential play in Commander.

“Bicycle” Lands

Despite their odd name, the Bicycle lands were a good decision by Wizards to help manabases in Standard. They are pretty useful in Commander too as they are fetchable and have the ability to cycle themselves. Wished the cycle was complete but this is pretty good for what we could’ve asked for.

Cascading Cataracts

#betterthancrystalquarry

Nothing much to say here...I’ll just leave this picture here:

Conclusion

Amonkhet does seem like a very promising set thus far, though many are slightly disappointed due to it’s lower EV(Expected Value). It’s too early to say much about it, what I do know however is that the cards in here are going to see some good play in Commander and guaranteed much more fun now that Leovold is banned. I hope you’ve enjoyed this 2 part article series so far! As I’m guaranteed to do this for upcoming sets/releases of new products. Stay tuned for the next article, until next time!

#mtg commander #mtgamonkhet #mtgspoiler #mtg edh

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newstwitter-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on News Twitter

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CNN: AFCON 2017: Egypt through to final after El-Hadary heroics

While the Pharaohs have lifted the Africa Cup of Nations trophy a record seven times, Burkina Faso had only advanced beyond the group stage twice coming into this year’s tournament.

How things can change. Even after 120 minutes of football at Libreville’s Stade d’Angondje, the two sides could not be separated.

Over two decades on from his international debut, the 44-year-old has a record four AFCON titles to his name, and had not conceded at the Cup of Nations for over seven years.

Few days will be more memorable than this.

The shootout had looked to be heading Burkina Faso’s way when El-Hadary’s opposite number Herve Koffi, 24 years his junior, made a sprawling save from Hamed El Said’s opening penalty.

But El-Hadary has never rushed things. And, when Koffi himself stepped up to take the Stallions’ fourth spotkick with the final just two strikes away, his effort was dramatically beaten away by the veteran keeper.

Parity in the shootout was restored, but El-Hadary was not yet done. When Amr Warda converted Egypt’s fifth penalty, the Pharaohs edged 4-3 ahead.

El-Hadary had beaten Burkina Faso in the semifinal way back in 1998 en-route to lifting the trophy, and had a chance to send Egypt to African football’s showpiece once more.

As ever, he didn’t disappoint, saving the decisive effort from Chelsea loanee Bertrand Traoré, a man less than half his age.

The ‘seven-year clean sheet’

The Pharaohs progress to a final against Ghana or Cameroon, but it was Burkina Faso that started the game more brightly.

You certainly might have noticed Egypt’s opponents had enjoyed a day more rest, as the Stallions arrived first to every second ball, winning much of the midfield battle.

The imposing figure of Aristide Bancé — their matchwinner in the quarterfinals and a veteran of 19 different clubs — was providing a consistent focal point in attack.

Without star player Jonathan Pitroipa for the duration of this tournament, and Jonathan Zongo since the opening game, Burkina Faso instead relied on the clear sense of togetherness instilled by coach Paulo Duarte.

But, despite four shots on target in the opening period, Burkina Faso failed to truly test El-Hadary.

And, as is so often the case, the dominant side’s profligacy was eventually punished.

It had been a quiet first half for Egypt’s star man, but Mohammad Salah came to the fore when it counted, guiding a measured strike beyond Koffi into the top corner just after the hour.

It was the first real glimpse of the Pharaohs’ pedigree, but a single goal wasn’t to be enough after three consecutive 1-0 wins this tournament.

Just eight minutes later, Bancé further justified his inclusion in the Burkina Faso attack, controlling the ball on his chest and pivoting in one motion, before arrowing a right-footed volley beyond El-Hadary.

It was the first time the veteran goalkeeper had picked the ball out of the net at the Cup of Nations since the 2010 quarterfinal against Cameroon– a run spanning over 10 hours of football.

Thanks to his penalty shootout heroics, he may well be facing the Indomitable Lions again come Sunday.

Sport meets politics

The win will be particularly significant for Egypt given the Pharaohs are playing their first AFCON since 2011’s Arab Spring swept across the Middle East and North Africa.

On-pitch travails have coincided with political turmoil off it.

Having won the tournament for a third time in succession in 2010, Egypt finished bottom of its qualifying group just a year later — below the likes of Niger and Sierra Leone.

The 2012 Port Said stadium riots and 2013’s military coup then led to the 2011-12 and 2012-13 domestic seasons both being canceled.

And, while some members of the Egypt squad played abroad, most of the squad faced a dearth of competitive fixtures.

Such a shortage of match practice saw Egypt crash out in qualifying to the Central African Republic in 2013 and lose four out of six qualification matches in 2015.

But it seems this year things are different.

“The biggest challenge is to show Africa that Egypt is back again,” Egypt fullback Ahmed Elmohamady told CNN while training in Gabon.

“We are there to win the cup, not to just to play and go back to Egypt.”

Thanks to El-Hadary, they look set to do just that.

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wbwest · 7 years

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New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/01/18/west-year-ever-pop-culture-review-2016/

West YEAR Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 2016

Thank 8 pound, 6 ounce newborn Baby Jesus that 2016 is over! I mean, I guess there was some good stuff peppered in there, but it was an overall rough year for a lot of people. I tried to keep my sanity here on the blog, but even I checked out for the month of November. Like Kenny Rogers told us, sometimes you’ve gotta know when to walk away. But I did make a return in December just to kick the year in the ass on its way out. So, besides celebrity deaths, what did 2016 bring us? Well, there was that week we were all mesmerized by Pokemon Go! Those were fun times. We got new X-Files episodes. Peyton Manning retired after winning the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos. Atlanta and Luke Cage came along and entertained us on television. And things weren’t too shabby here on the blog either.

During Spring Break Week, I discussed several of the most underrated TV theme songs, including Webster, California Dreams, and Enterprise.

I also covered the worst Batman comic ever written, in the form of Just Imagine Stan Lee’s Batman

I did my annual Fall TV Upfronts post, where I discussed the upcoming fall lineups of the major broadcast networks.

A post that was several years in the making, I ranked the Hot Moms of Teen Shows over on The Robot’s Pajamas

I also did a guest post ranking the hottest Power Rangers Villains

It wasn’t all fun and games, though. The country was going through some dark stuff, and I’m particularly proud of this West Week Ever where I discussed the racial problems in the country.

I also experience my first live wrestling event as I attended a taping of WWE Monday Night Raw.

I brought back my graphic novel review column, Adventures West Coast, where I covered Wonder Woman: Earth One.

I also brushed off my Comical Thoughts column, where I discussed IDW’s disappointing Hasbro-centric Revolution event.

Finally, I closed out the year with a post that I’m particularly proud of, discussing the greatest problems facing comic retailers.

I saw about 13 fewer movies in 2016 than in 2015. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but there are only so many hours in the day. As you know, I’m not necessarily Mr. Movie, so I’m not even going to try to rank them. Here they are, simply in the order that I saw them. Wanna know my thoughts? Plug the title into the search box up on the top righthand corner!

Movies I Watched This Year

Lucy

Beauty Shop

Bikini Spring Break

Fifty Shades of Grey

X-Men: Days of Future Past (The Rogue Cut)

We Don’t Live Here Anymore

Gone Girl

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2

The Martian

Inside Out

Sisters

Batman: Bad Blood

Son of Batman

Batman vs. Robin

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Tomorrowland

Deadpool

San Andreas

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Autism In Love

Cop Car

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Dead 7

Justice League vs. Teen Titans

Pacific Rim

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

CHAPPiE

Unhung Hero

Trainwreck

Confirmation

The Boss

Captain America: Civil War

They Live

Ted 2

Creed

Zoolander 2

The Ladykillers

10 Cloverfield Lane

X-Men: Apocalypse

The Intern

You’re F@#k’n Dead!

LEGO DC Comics: Batman Be-Leaguered

LEGO DC Comics Superheroes: Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom

Focus

The Good Dinosaur

Sleeping with Other People

Big Hero 6

Keanu

Southpaw

The Night Before

The Equalizer

The Bronze

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Batman: The Killing Joke

Sharknado: The 4th Awakens

Suicide Squad

The Day

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Independence Day: Resurgence

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Meet The Hitlers

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

Doctor Strange

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

West Week Ever Recipients of 2016 (with commentary)

1/8/16 – Fall Out Boy’s “Irresistible” video

I’m a huge boyband fan, so the news that one of my favorite bands (Fall Out Boy) had reimagined the It’s Gonna Be Me video by one of my favorite boybands (*NSYNC) definitely made my week. The sheer fact that it didn’t really move the world of pop culture, however, shows you how slow of a news week it was. There would be many weeks like this in 2016.

1/15/16 – Power Rangers

This was quite the week for the Power Rangers franchise. First off, it was revealed that Saban would be skipping the train-centric sentai series Ressha Sentai ToQger, and instead adapt Shuriken Sentai Ninninger as Power Rangers Ninja Steel. This announcement was almost a year to the date of the premiere of the show (scheduled to debut next Saturday), and we spent the next few months getting casting and toy news about the show. Meanwhile, the #0 issue of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic was released by Boom! that week, setting up a series that is so much better than it has any right to be. I’ve written about it several times over the year, as I’m a big fan. And finally, former Wild Force Red Ranger actor Ricardo Medina was formally charged that week for killing his roommate with a sword. All in all, I think Power Rangers truly earned the West Week Ever that week.

1/22/16 – DC Entertainment

The Suicide Squad trailer was released this week, as well as the series premiere of Legends of Tomorrow. The Suicide Squad promotion machine would see its ups and downs over the year, the Legends premiere was fairly strong, even with a bunch of useless characters (I’m looking at you, Hawks). The show would get stronger in its second season, but this is where it all started. We also got a DC movie special hosted by Kevin Smith, giving us some Wonder Woman and Justice League footage. Marvel usually dominates the news cycle, but DC showed that they can also step up to the plate.

1/29/16 – The X-Files

When news of an X-Files revival hit, it was pretty big news. Then it launched, and it wasn’t exactly what folks were expecting. Clocking in at 6 episodes, only half of them focused on the conspiracy aspect of the show, plus they were aired out of order. I went from really liking the premiere to completely forgetting it existed, in a very short amount of time. If it was going to get the WWE, it would had to have been this week of the premiere, as it ended with more of a whimper than a bang.

2/5/16 – UnderScoopFire Podcast

I appeared on the UnderScoopFire Podcast 8 times over the years, and had a great time on every one of them. Those guys are some of my good friends that I’ve met online, so of course I was sad to see it go. After 150 shows (give or take a few. Yeah, I’m not letting that go!), I think their swan song deserved the West Week Ever.

2/12/16 – Denver Broncos

I couldn’t give two shits about sports, but Lindsay’s from Denver, so we’re a Broncos household. So, everything was coming up Milhouse this week, as the Broncos won Super Bowl 50. Not only was it a nice, round, milestone number, but it also served as future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning’s final game. It was the perfect storybook ending that sports fans seem to love so much. So, yeah, they totally deserved the West Week Ever.

2/19/16 – Deadpool

Deadpool came out and blew away everyone’s expectations. I mean, this thing is getting nominated for awards. And not Razzies, too! Personally, I thought it was too gratuitous. I’ve gone over my reasoning before, so I won’t rehash that here. Still, it went on to become the second highest grossing superhero film of the year, just behind Captain America: Civil War. Totally deserved.

3/4/16 – Fuller House

After Girl Meets World came along, the runway was cleared for any and every nostalgic reboot to come along. And along came Fuller House. Every fan of TGIF awaited it with bated breath, hoping for the same mindless entertainment they got from the original show. And it did not disappoint! The second season just debuted a few weeks ago, and it’s already been picked up for a 3rd on Netflix. This show not only showed the power of Netflix as a home for original comedies, but also showed that old dogs still have some fight left in them. I think this was definitely the high point of that week.

3/11/16 – Jay Pharaoh

This was a slow week. Sure, Pharaoh did an amazing impersonation spree during that week’s Saturday Night Live Weekend Update. Like, it was AMAZING. And to pay him back, the show fired him at the end of the season. He’s OK, as he immediately booked a Showtime pilot, but the fact that this was the most noteworthy thing of the week shows how slow things were.

3/18/16 – Nothing

Some weeks you’ve just gotta call a spade a spade. Instead of insulting anyone’s intelligence, nothing had the West Week Ever.

3/25/16 – Wonder Woman

Like a lot of people, I did not like Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Like a lot of people, I also felt that Wonder Woman was the brightest spot in that dark film. Totally deserved

4/1/16 – Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

I may not have liked it. A lot of folks may not have liked it. But it made some money. A lot of money. And it was the true springboard to DC’s cinematic universe. So, for its money-making and its importance, I think it earned the West Week Ever. Just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean that it’s bad. It just wasn’t for me.

4/8/16 – American Idol

Idol‘s series finale aired that week, marking the end of a pop culture juggernaut. Unlike The Voice, Idol actually created household names. It gave us Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, and Fantasia. On the flip side, it also gave us William Hung, Taylor Hicks, and Daughtry. It spawned so many copycats, but it was the original recipe. Its influence may have waned in later years, but no one can deny what it was in its heyday. I think it’ll eventually come back, but this was when we said “Ta ta, for now.”

4/15/16 – Marvel

That week, we found out Natalie Portman wasn’t coming back for Thor: Ragnarok, we got a teaser trailer for Doctor Strange, an we learned that the new Spider-Man movie would be called Spider-Man: Homecoming. Marvel definitely dominated the news cycle that week.

4/22/16 – Harriet Tubman

While it was pretty monumental that a woman (a Black woman, mind you) would be adorning American currency, it doesn’t really move the pop culture needle that much. So, I ended up giving the West Week Ever to a dead woman – in a column that has a pretty strict No Death policy. This was kind of a slow week…

4/29/16 – Beyoncé

The singer dropped the surprise album Lemonade following their airing of her HBO special. One of the songs alluded to the possibility that her husband, Jay-Z, might have cheated on her. For the next week, everyone was pondering the identity of “Becky, with the good hair”. This is the kind of thing the drives pop culture. Totally deserved.

5/6/16 – Captain America: Civil War

I had seen the movie, and thought it was excellent.

5/13/16 – Captain America: Civil War

Then the movie made a lot of money. I mean, a fuckton of money.

5/20/16 – Nothing

It was just one of those weeks

5/27/16 – DC Universe: Rebirth #1

DC Comics lost a lot of fans after the New 52 event, in which they rebooted their universe. So, the Rebirth event was something of a mea culpa to those fans. More like a “Please come back! We promise to make stuff you’ll like again!” And for the most part it has worked. This special not only brought fan favorite Wally West back into the fold, but it also sort of introduced the Watchmen comic into the mainstream DC universe. We don’t yet know how that’s all going to play out, but this move helped DC to dominate more market share than Marvel for most of the year.

6/3/16 – Ecto-Cooler

I never really liked Ecto-Cooler. I mean, it tasted kinda like tropical piss, but I loved the fact that Slimer was on the box. That’s about where my nostalgia ended. But a lot of y’all out there LOVED that shit! So, when it was announced that Coca Cola was bringing it back in conjunction with the Ghostbusters movie, y’all started assembling street teams to track it down. I swear, if the 2016 election had been run in a manner similar to the vim and vigor displayed trying to track down green sugar water, I might actually have some hope for tomorrow!

6/10/16 – Awesome Con 2016

Slow week. Cool show, great company, but slow week.

6/17/16 – Hamilton

I discovered the Hamilton soundtrack the same week that it won 11 of the 16 Tony Awards for which it was nominated. We’ll talk more about the show later, but the West Week Ever was deserved, even if the wins did fall short of the Tony Award record.

6/24/16 – Black actors in Hollywood

This was more of a joke, as every Black actor in Hollywood was being cast in the upcoming Black Panther film. That trend has continued since this post. Still, slow news week.

7/1/16 – The 683 New Members of the Oscar Academy

Another joke. Due to the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, signifying that the Academy was lacking in diversity, 683 people were invited to be members, bolstering the number of women and minorities. Still, slow news week.

7/8/16 – TNA’s The Final Deletion

Oh, man! This thing was incredible. They went on to milk it for the rest of the year, andI missed all subsequent installments. Still, this got me to pay attention to a wrestling promotion not owned by Vince McMahon, and for a brief moment, all wrestling eyes were on TNA to see what Matt Hardy would do next. Completely deserved.

7/15/16 – Pokemon GO!

This game came along and took the world by STORM. To say it was a success would be an understatement. It was envisioned to promote fitness, as kids would have to walk around to find perks and to get their eggs to hatch, but there were workarounds. Hell, I drove around looking for Pokestops. For about 4 weeks, this was all anyone could talk about. It was the Tamagotchi of a new generation, and I think, outside of all the political stuff, it’s one of the things we’ll remember most about 2016.

7/22/16 – Ghostbusters

It was a slow week, but Ghostbusters and the Republican National Convention were the only newsworthy events of the week. As much as we want to pile on that movie, it did take in a respectable $46 million, and it set a record for Paul Feig/Melissa McCarthy movies. I know a lot of folks don’t feel the movie’s deserving of any kind of accolades. As you saw above, I didn’t watch it, but I still think it’s not as bad as people would like me to believe. I swear, though, had they named it anything other than Ghostbusters, we’d still be talking about it.

7/29/16 – DC Entertainment

DC, back with their SECOND West Week Ever of the year? The word on the street was that they “won” San Diego Comic Con, with their new footage of Justice League, as well as the debut of the Wonder Woman trailer. Considering Marvel usually dominates SDCC, this was a feat worth acknowledging.

8/12/16 – Suicide Squad

The movie made $160 million in 5 days, which is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, I actually enjoyed it. I didn’t like it as a component of DC’s cinematic world building, but I liked it as a standalone thing on its own.

8/19/16 – Ryan Lochte

He was an Olympian at the center of a fake robbery attempt in a foreign country, who then fled to let his teammates take the fall. It’s the stuff of a great Aaron Spelling show. He had the West Week Ever simply because he got away with it.

8/26/16 – Guardians trailer

Slow news week, even if the trailer is pretty awesome. Billed as “Russia’s Avengers”, the English version of Guardians trailer started making the rounds because of its crazy action and gun-wielding bear man. Yeah, you’ve gotta see it to believe it. The movie might not even be released over here, and if it is, it’ll never get higher than cult status. Still, if you want to know what everyone was talking about that week, it was Guardians.

9/2/16 – Are You Being Served? one-off special

Some might say this was a slow news week, but I think this applied the West Week Ever to an international stage when I typically just focus on the US. After all, this special didn’t even air in America (nor has it since, nor do there seem to be plans to do so in the future), and I had to resort watching it on YouTube. Still, I grew up with Are You Being Served? and I was more than curious to see how an update of it might hold up. With a few small exceptions, it was pitch perfect, and definitely in the spirit of the original series. This one might’ve been a bit personal for me, but I think it was the best part of this particular week.

9/9/16 – Atlanta

The show just won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series. I think I called this one correctly.

9/16/16 – Better Late Than Never

Another personal one for me, but it’s my site, so whatever. I’m more than certain none of my friends were watching this show, but I watched it weekly with my mom and we enjoyed it. I wrote about it to get folks to seek it out, but I doubt that happened. Still, in a week when nothing happens, things like this are allowed to shine.

9/23/16 – Lindsay West

Mah wife. Running your first half marathon is pretty impressive. And nothing happened in the overall pop culture world. If you’ve followed West Week Ever since the beginning, you know that every so often some random person gets the honor. Hell, last year, my kid had the West Year Ever, so you never know where I might play that card.

10/7/16 – Luke Cage

It broke Netflix! So many people tuned in that Netflix couldn’t handle it. I still haven’t seen it, but I haven’t heard a bad thing about it other than the fact that it kinda drags in the middle – like most Marvel Netflix shows.

10/14/16 – Will & Grace

Considering I think I was the only one impressed by this Will & Grace special that was designed to get folks to get out and vote, I’m sure a lot of folks disagreed with this choice. Still, if you were a Will & Grace fan, then you can’t deny how great it was to see those characters in a way that felt like they’d never left us.

10/21/16 – Logan trailer

Can’t say much more because the movie’s not out yet, but we were ALL talking about this after it dropped, and it’s on most folks’ most anticipated movies of 2017 lists. I don’t think it’s going to disappoint.

10/28/16 – The Walking Dead

I don’t watch it, but I did tune into this episode just to watch a man die. Or two men. Whatever. All folks could talk about this week was whether or not the show had gone too far. The Walking Dead dominated the discussion, so this West Week Ever was well-deserved.

11/4/16 – The Chicago Cubs

Um, the “cursed” team won their first championship after 108 years. Yeah, this was deserved.

12/2/16 – Search Party

I don’t feel like a lot of my readers had seen the show when I wrote this, but I know a few who checked it out because I’d written about it. That’s why I do this, kids! It was one of my favorite shows of 2017, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I’m not quite sure what you’re waiting for.

12/9/16 – Hamilton

Hamilton for the second time this year. The last time was for its Tony wins, but this one was two-fold: The Hamilton Mixtape was released and a beautifully pirated copy of the play was uploaded to YouTube. I watched it during the 5 days that it was allowed to stay on the site, and I can now die saying that I saw Hamilton. This was on the heels of a controversy where the cast members took a moment to address Vice President-Elect Mike Pence while he was taking in the show. For the next week, the conversation was whether or not they should’ve done that. So, it’s safe to say that Hamilton was on everyone’s lips around that time.

12/16/16 – WWE’s New Day

Yeah, then the lost two days after I posted this. I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles. Still, they deserved the West Week Ever for all they had put in leading up to this point.

12/23/16 – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

It was the last thing to make a dent in pop culture before the clock ran out on 2016. A lot of folks are saying it’s one of their favorite Star Wars movies. I don’t really get that, but I’m happy for them if that’s the case. I thought it was entertaining, but I didn’t really like it. It’s hard to explain, and I’ve tried. Still, there’s no way anything else is going to take center stage when there’s new Star Wars to be consumed.

So, who had the West Year Ever? In the past, I’ve added up who had the most West Week Ever wins and then it’s a runoff. If we’re being honest, Death had the West Year Ever. There were SO many celebrity deaths this year, that it would take another post just to do a proper In Memoriam for everyone we lost. And of course, you have those guys who wanna “Neil deGrasse Tyson” everything by pointing out that people die all the time, or that the year is an arbitrary number. Whatever, asshole. That doesn’t help anybody, and it’s why you don’t get invited to many parties. Anyway, I don’t like to focus on death in West Week Ever -not because it’s morbid, but more because I feel like I’d have to acknowledge every celebrity death, even when I didn’t personally give a shit about that person. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Doing the math, it’s a three-way tie between DC Entertainment, Captain America: Civil War, and Hamilton. DC Entertainment really stepped up this year, taking a good chunk of the comics market share away from Marvel, as well as by launching their cinematic universe. After years of being the joke of the industry, DC finally started pushing back. And the Rebirth initiative didn’t hurt things, either. Meanwhile, not everyone loved Civil War. I did, but even I’ll admit that it’s basically “Dawn of Justice Done Right”. They’re both superhero slugfests that surround the concept of dead moms. Some called it “Civil Bore”, but I don’t agree with that. Still, I have to kind of acknowledge that there is a divide out there. Finally, there’s Hamilton. It had a big year, but I don’t know if we’ll look back and say “Hamilton really came into its own in 2016.” If anything, that’s more likely to happen at a time when the show can more easily be consumed by the masses. So, Hamilton’s year may actually be ahead of it, but it’s not 2016. So, I think it’s pretty clear. 2016 was the year where retailers stopped buying everything Marvel was selling, and so did the fans. The quality of Marvel’s output was in question more this year than it was in recent years, yet people still seemed to be able to find positive things about the DC Universe. Meanwhile, their movies might not be your cup of tea, but they made money, and the critics haven’t deterred them from forging ahead. So, with that, I believe I simply have to admit that DC Entertainment had the West Year Ever.

#80s #Adventures West Coast #Batman #Boybands #Comics #DC #Marvel #Movies #Music #Pop #Power Rangers #Race #Star Wars #Television #West Week Ever #West Year Ever #Wrestling #X-Men

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