Hall of Mercs

Blog 40: Is Disney Becoming the Empire?

*WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS FROM EPISODE 1&2 OF KENOBI*

It’s been three days since the Kenobi premiere on Disney+, and the whole Star Wars fandom is in disarray calling this show a bust already. I know everyone in the Star Wars fandom isn’t a total nutcase when it comes to new SW content, but the ones who are, you’re giving the rest of us a bad rep. Can we all just chill the fuck out and give this show a chance to become interesting, that’s what we did with Moon Knight and it turned out great. I feel like I’m one of the few people who honestly enjoyed the first two episodes, and while some of the complaints are valid, this is NOT the worst Star Wars show to exist. Let’s just talk about the show for a bit, yeah?

My Thoughts

I will admit that the first episode was a little boring with showing a depressed Obi-Wan working a crappy job and living in a cave to watch over Luke, but I did enjoy seeing Alderaan before it was blown up by the Death Star in the original Star Wars, and seeing Bail and Breha Organa raising a young Leia was wholesome. This episode also first introduces live-action Inquisitors; Grand Inquisitor (their Leader), Fifth Brother (played by Han from those angry car movies), and the Third Sister (Reva, she’s the second Inquisitor to have her original name be revealed). They arrived at Mos Eisley because there were rumors of a jedi hiding there, which were true since they found a jedi hiding in a bar, but he was able to escape due to the Grand Inquisitor arguing with Reva about her being too reckless with her intimidation tactics.

The jedi who escaped found Obi-Wan outside the city, and he wanted to know where their next move was to stop the Empire, but this Obi-Wan has lost all hope. He told him to just hide and abandon his lightsaber, the Jedi are dead. A lot of fans rolled their eyes because they’re getting sick of jedi legends like Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker in Last Jedi saying the jedi are dead, and they act as if Disney has a bone to pick with the Jedi Order. I don’t share these views, all I saw in Obi-Wan was a broken veteran who has lost everything to a war he should never have been a part of.

LET HIM BE SAD FOR A MINUTE!!!!

The man lost his master, his friends, the love of his life, and a padawan who he saw as a brother to the Clone Wars, I think he deserves to wallow in his grief for a little longer!

Later in the episode, Owen Lars (Luke’s uncle) confronts Obi-Wan saying that he should stop watching over Luke, where Obi-Wan says that when Luke starts showing that he’s force sensitive he must be trained, where Owen counters with “Like you trained his father?” A few moments later, Owen comes face-to-face with Reva where she and the Fifth Brother try to weasel out any information on the jedi who escaped from them. Reva goes a little too far when she cuts off a civilian’s hand and threatens Owen and his family, and this just pisses off the Fifth Brother. He pulls her away from the scene to tell her to stay in line. He states that her irrational obsession with her thinking that a jedi can lead her to Obi-Wan just to gain favor with Darth Vader is ill-advised, and I can understand where he’s coming from. Even though the Empire is monstrous military force, they still have to uphold a sense of professionalism when it comes to dealing with “diplomatic disputes”.

The jedi is eventually found and killed, and his body is placed on display in the center of Mos Eisley to serve as a warning to anyone who is collaborating with any jedi. Hit with another wave of guilt, Obi-Wan returns home to find Bail Organa in his cave asking for his help. A few scenes before this on Alderaan, Leia was kidnapped by some bounty hunters in what was the lamest chase scene in history, and Bail pleads with Obi-Wan to go to the planet Daiyu to save her. Obi-Wan refuses at first because he has to protect Luke, but Bail says Leia is just as important as Luke. Obi-Wan agrees, digs up his lightsaber, and boards a ship to Daiyu.

The second episode was more action packed with Obi-Wan getting into fights with bounty hunters and drug dealers while trying to naviagate the corrupt city of Daiyu. They city itself was pretty cool, it gave me a lot of Coruscant slums vibes, and we got the coolest surprise cameo ever:

Temuera Morrison as a homeless clone trooper! This is a big deal for me because this is the first time we’re seeing Temuera in real trooper armor as opposed to all the troopers from the Prequel Trilogy being CGI. Hopefully we’ll get to see more clone troopers in this show, maybe even Obi-Wan’s old pal Commander Cody.

Aside from that, we find out that Reva hired the bounty hunters to kidnap Leia to lure Kenobi into a trap, and she knew to kidnap Leia because she read in the old Republic records that Obi-Wan and Bail were close allies (a little bit of lazy writing). Obi-Wan manages to find Leia, tries to lead her to safety while dealing with her curiosity of the city, but she then runs away in fear after seeing that the Empire put a bounty on Obi-Wan. Some fans said that young Leia was annoying in this episode, but I think she was purposely written that way because; 1) She’s 10 and has never left Alderaan, so yeah she’s going to be a little curious about Daiyu. 2) She has every right to be not trust Obi-Wan, THEY JUST MET! I don’t think Bail has even told Leia about his good pal Obi-Wan/Ben Kenobi.

A few more fight scenes and running scenes later, and with the help of a smuggler, Obi-Wan and Leia make their way to a cargo ship that is set to launch. When they arrive at the docking bay, Obi-Wan senses that Reva is near and tell Leia to hide on the ship. Obi-Wan sticks to the shadows as he listens to Reva taunt him. She reveals that she wants to bring him in to gain favor with Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan almost has a nervous breakdown after finding out his former padawan is alive, then she says that Anakin Skywalker lives. When she is about to find Obi-Wan, the Grand Inquisitor shows to repremend her for going awol and he taunts that she is benethe him and the rest of the Empire. She ends up “killing” the Grand Inquisitor, Obi-Wan escapes to the crago ship with Leia, and Reva proceeds to do her best Kylo Ren impression and has a tantrum because Obi-Wan escaped.

These two episodes left me wanting more, so I guess we’ll see what happens this week on episode 3, but let’s talk about some messy shit that these two episodes left for the fandom.

Disney bullying fans

So the other day I found a post talking about how Moses Ingram (aka Reva) was warned by the executives about some “racist fans” who will find every chance to insult her performance. I still have yet to find any racist or even sexist tweets, and the only insults I’m finding are towards Reva, not Moses Ingram. People find her to be an annoying and arrogant character, myself included, and I don’t think it’s a big issue since most of the Inquisitors are annoying as hell. The only Inquisitor I found interesting was the Second Sister from the game Jedi: Fallen Order, but maybe my opinion will change when more episodes are released. Hopefully the show will explain how the hell Reva knows that Anakin is Vader since it’s meant to be a secret, with Emperor Palpatine being the only person who knows. There was even an issue from the Vader comics where he killed two clone troopers when they found out his identity, which means that Vader might kill Reva if she admits to knowing his secret. Hell, Darth Vader might just kill her for being an insubordinate soldier. She did impale her boss, but I don’t think the Grand Inquisitor is dead since he dies in the future during the show Star Wars: Rebels.

There were a few comments about Moses Ingram, but they were just saying she’s a bad actress. One person even said her acting was so bad that it makes Amber Heard look like a good actress, that was a funny one. If Reva was written to be an annoying character, then Moses is doing a great job. Also to backtrack to the “racism” warning that Disney made, I found out they made that statement the day after the Kenobi scripts were leaked. My best guess is that Disney knew they were writing a character that most of fanbase wouldn’t like, so they got ahead by making it look like all the fan criticism is just taunts from racists. It’s a clever PR move, but Disney forgot that their fans aren’t total morons. They tweeted this earlier today regarding how Moses Ingram is welcomed into the Star Wars family, and that they’ll ignore these “racist” insults:

Ok ok, so they tell us to not be racist. Well if they are so anti-racist, then what’s this?!

The left is a chinese promo poster for Force Awakens and the right is the american version. Notice how you can barely see Finn in the chinese poster and how that poster erased Poe Dameron entirely! Finn was a main character in Force Awakens, and he gets bumped down to blend in with the background?! I don’t think so Disney, you corpo hypocrites! You’re out there preaching about love/acceptance for everyone just to hide the fact you allowed this racist photoshop to happen so you can make a quick buck on the chinese box office! It makes me wonder if any of the Reva posters are going to be used in China, and I would be impressed if they do use her posters.

I could say that Disney should step off its moral high ground just to expose them for being the corpo scum they are, but I know they’re not going to do that. They can keep up this facade, us common sense folk will keep calling them out on their bullshit ploy to bully their fans by calling them racist for not liking a new character. Also the Star Wars Fandom needs to calm the hell down about Kenobi being a terrible show! Let’s just wait until the season is done before making that decision. Can’t we just be happy to see Ewan as Obi-Wan again, and that this show will create new prequel memes that will just make the meme community flourish for years to come? Let’s focus on the nice little things this show has to offer.

That’s all I have for you today, be sure to leave a like and comment, also consider subscribing to HallofMercs to stay up to date on the latest blog postings. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying goodbye, and see you next time.

Blog 39: Time to Get Groovy!

From The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, to Ash Vs. The Evil Dead, the Evil Dead Saga has special place in my heart ever since I first read Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness in the 8th grade. Seeing Ash Williams hack away at zombies with his chainsaw hand and gunning down demons with his boomstick had me hooked! Sam Raimi created the perfect formula for combining horror with slapstick comedy when he created the Evil Dead movies, so when I heard that Evil Dead: The Game was being released, I immediately ordered myself a copy. I can’t get enough of this game!

The Gameplay

Evil Dead: The Game captured from my PS5

Evil Dead: The Game is a multiplayer horror game that pits four survivors against the undead horde of deadites led by a Kandarian Demon. The survivors main goal is to find map fragments to learn the locations of the lost pages of the Necromonicon and the Kandarian Dagger, whereas the Kandarian demon’s goal is to kill all the survivors. Once the survivors find the pages and dagger, they must kill the demonic priests guarding the Necromonicon and then hold off the deadites until the book is repaired, only then will the demons be banished.

The gameplay is easy to master, but just because it’s simple doesn’t make each match easy. The best way to win a match is for survivors to stick together and make sure to loot any supplies you find. The maps are large and full of houses and buildings with supplies to loot such as weapons, ammo, health kits, amulets (shields), pink vials to help survivors level-up their skills for that match, and matches to help light fires to reduce your fear meter (lower the fear=less likely to be possessed by a demon player). There are 13 survivors and three Kandarian demons to play as, each with their own skill trees to unlock abilities with your XP, and some characters have alternate costumes if you want to switch things up a bit. All in all, this game is easy to pick up.

My Thoughts

This game is a must get if you’re a fan of The Evil Dead, and I have no complaints about any glitches. There are some single-player game modes for players who like to play solo, but you can’t experience this game to the fullest unless you use multiplayer. Some of my best moments in this game are with myself and other players running like crazy trying to escape a deadite hoard, and I had more fun in the few matches where we spoke to each other over the voice chat. Evil Dead: The Game is the horror game that Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th: The Game should have been. Dead by Daylight has some amazing monsters to fear, but the survivors wouldn’t put up much of a fight and the maps were kind of small. Friday the 13th: The Game gave survivors the means to fight against Jason, but the map was too big for a slow moving Jason. Evil Dead: The Game on the other hand is the perfect balance of both, having survivors fight back in large maps that contain many enemies to fill up the area. There was never a dull moment anytime I was playing the game, and for that I give the game a 10/10.

Anyway, that’s all I have for you today. Be sure to like and comment your thoughts on the blog. Feel free to tell me your thoughts if you already own the game or if you’re debating on whether to get the game or not, I would love to actually read your thoughts on my posts. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying goodbye, and see you next time.

Blog 38: The Multiverse of Crazy Moms and Arrogant Heroes

*WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS*

I was really looking forward to watching this movie, but I’m left with these conflicting feelings about what I just watched. Don’t get me wrong, this movie was far from being terrible, but that doesn’t mean I thought it was great. The movie had a stellar cast of actors, Cumberbatch and Olsen rocked their roles as Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch, the special effects team pulled off amazing work, and Sam Raimi’s horror magic fit surprisingly well with the MCU format, but unfortunately there were more negatives displayed than positives. Let’s talk about it, shall we?

The Plot

The movie opens with a Doctor Strange (we’ll call him Defender Strange) form another universe running away from some demon with new character, America Chaves. They’re both trying acquire this glowing book in some a space between universes, but Defender Strange is killed by the demon who almost captures Chaves before she opens up a portal to the main MCU universe. That’s when our Doctor Strange wakes up from a nightmare about himself dying, but he quickly shrugs it off and gets ready to attend Christine’s, his ex, wedding. After an awkward conversation with Christine during the reception, and dealing with an old colleague who questioned Strange about his decision to give Thanos the time stone, Strange sees octopus-like monster rampaging through Manhattan . He quickly dons his robes and flies into action, and he notices that the monster is chasing America Chaves. Wong shows up to help Strange kill the monster, and they both question America about who she is and why the monster was chasing her.

America tells them that she comes from another universe and has the power to travel to different universes, and these monsters are trying to steal her powers. She proves this by showing Strange and Wong the corpse of Defender Strange that came through the portal with her. Wong takes America to Kamar-Taj to protect her, and Strange leaves to find Wanda Maximoff since he suspects that the monsters were summoned via witchcraft. He finds Wanda, he asks for her help, she reveals to Strange that she’s been reading from the Darkhold (as seen in the last episode of WandaVision), and that she’s been sending demons after Chaves. Her aim is to use Chaves’ power to find a universe where her kids, and Strange reminds her that her kids were never real. Wanda warns Strange that she was trying to be reasonable, but she’ll be coming for Chaves herself, and unfortunatley Strange told her where America is.

Scarlet Witch arrives at Kamar-Taj, killing almost all the sorcerers there, and just when she has America in her grasp, she opens a portal to pull herself and Strange into another universe.

They land on Earth-838, and then they decide to look for that Earth’s Doctor Strange to ask for help in finding the Book of Vishanti, the book Chaves and Defender Strange were trying to get in the beginning of the book. The Book of Vishanti is the opposite of the Darkhold, and the book grants the user any power to save them from certain doom. They quicly find out that the Doctor Strange of Earth-838 died defeating Thanos, and the new Sorcerer Supreme is Baron Mordo. He welcomes them at first, but he roofies them and brings them to the Illuminati, their Earth’s equivalent to the Avengers.

Back on the MCU Earth, Scarlet Witch holds Wong prisoner as she tries a new spell from the Darkhold called “dreamwalking”, which allows the caster to possess their doppelgänger from any universe. She briefly possesses a Wanda until a surviving sorcerer destroys the Darkhold, which also kills her. Wanda forces Wong to tell her any other way of obtaining the Darkhold’s power, and he unwillingly takes her to where the Darkhold was written.

Back on Earth-838, Doctor Strange and America are in holding cells where they meet that Earth’s Christine, who happens to be working for the Illuminati. Mordo soon brings Strange to meet the Illuminati, whose members are Mr. Fantastic, Black Bolt, Captain Carter, Captain Marvel (Maria Rambeau), Mordo himself, and Professor X. Doctor Strange pleads his case saying he needs their help to find the book of Vishanti to stop Wanda, but the Illuminati says Wanda isn’t much of a threat, but Strange is. They explain that their Doctor Strange, we’ll call him Supreme Strange, used the Book of Vishanti to dreamwalk into other universes to figure out how to beat Thanos, but in doing so he caused an incursion, which is when two Earths collide and either one or both Earths are destroyed. He killed trillions of people to kill Thanos, and the Illuminati killed Supreme Strange shortly after.

Scarlet Witch, possessing Earth-838 Wanda, breaks into the Illuminati’s HQ to find Chaves. Black Bolt, Mr. Fantastic, Captain Carter, and Captain Marvel try to stop her, but she kills them all with little ease. Professor X attempts to break into Scarlet Witch’s mind to free Earth-838 Wanda, but she kills Professor X before he could save her. America was able to break free with the help of Christine, and after Strange has a little brawl with Mordo, he meets up with the two of them to find the book. Christine leads them to a doorway to a pocket dimension where Supreme Strange stored the book, but the book is quickly destroyed by Wanda when they find it. Wanda grabs America, forces her to open a portal to get rid of Strange and Christine, then she forces America to open a portal back to the main MCU Earth to steal her powers.

Strange and Christine arrive on an Earth post-incursion, and the only move Strange has is to find the Doctor Strange of this Earth for help. He finds him in his Sanctum with this Earth’s Darkhold, we’ll call him Sinister Strange, and he learns that this Strange used the Darkhold to find a universe where he was still with Christine (similar to how Wanda wants to fine a universe where her kids exist), but he was unsuccessful. He also admits to killing other Strange variants to “relieve their pain”. They both fight, Doctor Strange kills Sinister Strange, and he is forced to use the Darkhold to save Chaves. Since he’s stuck on that Earth, he realizes he has to dreamwalk into another Strange on the main Earth, but luckily the Strange doesn’t have to be alive to be possessed.

He possesses the corpse of Defender Strange, arms himself with the souls of the damned, and fights Wanda in a Evil Dead inspired fight. Wong tries to help, but Wanda is still too powerful. Strange is able to save America and inspires to not be afraid of her powers anymore. She then harnesses her portal energy to fight Wanda, but instead of trying to beat her, she gives Wanda what she wants. She opens a portal inside the home of Earth-838 Wanda, where her sons still exist, and they’re terrified of Scarlet Witch. Earth-838 Wanda tries to stop her, but she’s beaten very quickly (she’s still recovering from her forced-fight with the Illuminati), and Scarlet Witch tries to reassure her sons that she’s not a monster, but they couldn’t even look at her. It was then when she realized that she became a monster, a villain. Her kids are gone, and she can’t steal another version of them from their mom.

She returned back to the main Earth, and she destroyed the Darkhold’s chambers to banish its power. It’s believed that Wanda died destroying the chambers, but I highly doubt that. Chaves was able to get herself and Wong back to Kamar-Taj, and she brought Doctor Strange and Earth-838 Chrsitine back home. The movie ends with Chaves becoming a student at Kamar-Taj, Doctor Strange realizes he has a few personal issues to work through, but it seems that everything is going to be okay. Until Strange manifests a third eye on his forehead, a side effect of using the Darkhold, which is what Sinister Strange had.

There are two end credit scenes, the first features a new character Clea, a mage from the Dark Dimension. She tells Strange that his actions have caused an incursion and they have to save the two universes involved. Strange agrees to go with her to the Dark Dimension, while showing off his third eye, and the movie ends. The second end credit scene is an inside joke from an earlier scene, nothing important there.

My Take

The plot on its own was very intriguing and the fast-paced story did keep me on my toes. My main issue with this movie is that I felt that some of the characters were a little dumb/arrogant, and this is mostly with Doctor Strange and the Illuminati. Strange straight-up tells Wanda where Chaves was hiding in the first Act, even though he knew about her enslaving the citizens of Westview to cope with Vision’s death (BIG RED FLAG). Strange isn’t usually this gullible or reckless with sharing this kind of information in his previous movie appearances, except for No Way Home when he helped Spider-Man cast the spell to make people forget his identity (which I still can’t remember).

The next problem is how arrogant the Illuminati were about dealing with Wanda. You have Captain Marvel acting all “macho” saying something on the lines “We can handle your little witch problem”, and they were already labeling Strange a villain since they believe all Strange variants are threats because of Supreme Strange. Also Mr. Fantastic made a little oopsie when he revealed the group’s trump card (Black Bolt’s powers) to Wanda during their confrontation. I can understand that Reed was trying to intimidate Wanda, but if I was there after watching her demolish a bunch of Ultron bots, I would’ve told Bolt to let it rip, Wanda could survive an attack from Black Bolt. Also I loved seeing Sir Patrick Stewert play Professor X in an MCU film, but did they have to kill him?! For fucksake, this is the third time I’ve seen this guy die in a Marvel movie!

Finally there’s Wanda, who stole the show with her performance. I suspected for a while that she was going to be the villain for Multiverse of Madness, but I did not expect her to be such a terrifying villain. I can tell that Sam Raimi had a major influence on her villain archetype, and Elizabeth seemed to have a lot of fun with being an insta-killing beast. Though I would say she had a whole “angry mom” vibe kind of downplayed her intensity, and her whole plan about conquering the multiverse just to be with her sons sounds a little weird when you remember that Vision is the father. It was almost like she completely forgot about Vision, and I kind of expected her to look for a world where all four of them could be together.

Also where the hell was White Vision?! We all know he got his memories back, so why hasn’t he looked for Wanda yet?! I’m sure he would have talked her out of her multiverse conquest, but I can understand why he wasn’t included. There’s only so much one can cram into one movie.

This movie had its issues, but I still left satisfied. I watched The Evil Dead from 1981 the day before watching Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and it’s safe to say that Sam Raimi went back to that horror mindset when directing this movie. Even with the rumors about the script disagreements, cuts, and reshoots that have been floating around this movie, I enjoyed what Raimi delivered. I give this adventure a solid 7/10.

That’s all I have for you today, tell me down in the comments your thoughts on the movie. Be sure to like and subscribe to the blog to be emailed updates on my latest posts. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying goodbye, and see you next time.

Blog 36: A Tale of Unbridled Viking Rage!

*WARNING: This blog contains spoilers from The Northman*

In a world where aliens and superheroes control cinema, this tale rises above mainstream movie-standards to give the audiences an experience unlike any other. The Northman tells the story of Amleth, a young viking warrior who witnessed his uncle muder his father to assume control of their clan, as he makes it his life’s mission to seek vengeance and restore honor to his fallen family. This film does follow some of the same motifs as other revenge stories, but the cinematography and it’s obscureness helped The Northman stand on its own as a welldone period piece. To make things even more interesting, this movie was inspired by Shakespere’s Hamlet.

Plot Summary

The movie opens with meeting Amleth as a child, and we are introduced to the kingdom that his father rules. After watching a weird “royal initiation” for Amleth, he watches his dad get murdered by his uncle to claim the title of king, which forced him to leave his home and vows to get revenge for his family. Years pass, a much older Amleth has grown into a powerful warrior, which was gloriously displayed with a gortastic fight scene!

After the grueling battle, Amleth encounters a witch who tells him he’s part of some kind of prophecy about venturing back to his home to restore his family’s honor. He then learns of a slave boat heading back to his home in Iceland, and the slave mongols aim to strike a deal with Fjolnir, Amleth’s uncle/father’s killer. He takes this as his last chance at revenge, so he disguises himself as a slave and sneaks onto the boat. On the boat he mets Olga, a slave who immediatley sees through Amelth’s disguise and takes interest in him. He tells her that he plans to kill the viking king of the settlement they are being dragged to, and she decides to help him.

Once arriving at the settlement, neither his uncle Fjolnir nor Amelth’s mother, who is now Fjolnir’s wife, recognized him. This allowed him to plan in the shadows, and this involved searching for a mythical sword that only unsheathed at night, Amelth gaining favor/trust from Fjolnir, mutilating the bodies of Fjolnir’s warriors to instill fear, and then spiking their food supply with a manic drug with help of Olga to cause a distraction so he can save his mom. During the manic food night, Amelth revealed himself to his mom in hopes of helping her escape, but his mom reveals that she’s inlove with Fjolnir and shee orchaestrated his father’s murder! It turns out Amelth’s mom was originally his father’s slave who only married her because she gave birth to a son. She torments Amelth with the truth that his dad wasn’t the hero he saw him to be, and she admits to being happy that Amelth was believed to have been dead.

Amelth ran from his mom, and he searched for Fjolnir’s eldest son to kill him. Amelth’s kills him in his sleep, and leaves the settlement just to return in the morning when he saw Fjolnir killing slaves since he suspected that one of them was helping Amelth. Fjolnir was about to kill Olga, but Amelth makes his presence known and tells him he cut out his son’s heart, and he’ll only return upon Olga’s release. Fjolnir obliges, Olga is released, and he takes Amelth prisoner since he admitted that the heart he had was from an animal, and Fjolnir is forced to let him live in hopes of beating the heart’s location out of Amelth. Fjolnir leaves Amelth hanging by his hands inside a barn, then a rave of ravens fly in, which symbolizes Odin’s presence, and they peck away at Amelth’s binds. He escapes in a dazed state and has a vision of a Valkyrie flying him to Valhalla.

He wakes up in a hot spring with Olga, she was the one who brought him to safety. He tells her that he returned to Iceland fueled by hatred, and he didn’t think he was capable of feeling any other emotions aside from anger, let alone being able to fall in love with her. Olga tells him a supply ship is departing from Iceland, and this can be their chance to leave and start a new life together. Amelth agrees since there’s no use in exacting vengeance anymore, but when they arrive on to the ship he somehow figures out that Olga is pregnant with his kids (twins). This revelation makes him realize that he has to go back to finish what he started, or his family will never be safe. Olga begs him not to go, but he assures her that it’ll all be okay. He has to go, but he’s happy to know that his legacy will continue on through his kids. He jumps off the boat and swims back to Iceland.

Amelth slaughters all of Fjolnir’s warriors at the settlement, he tells the remaining slaves to leave, and he then he kills his mother and his half-brother, Fjolnir’s younger son that he had with Amelth’s mom. Fjolnir does nothing but watch his “kingdom” burn, and he challenges Amelth to a duel at the gates of Hel, which is the Mt. Hekla volcano. Amelth meets Fjolnir at Mt. Hekla, and they have a duel which echoes Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s duel on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith. Amelth sliced off Fjolnir’s head and then he died from blood loss. In Amelth’s final moments, he had a vision of Olga cradling their kids while telling Amelth he can finally rest. He dies with a smile on his face, and the movie ends with the Valkyrie from his last vision bringing him through the gates of Vahalla.

Public Reception

The Northman was praised for it’s stunning cinematography, it’s graphic fight scenes, and excellent performances from a star studded cast. Then I came across this headline:

I found articles and people on Twitter hailing The Northman as a racist film with its all-white cast, and other people claiming it’s promoting toxic masculinity because you have strong men fighting intense battles! Then you have a few white supremacists calling this movie a “masterpiece” because it “restores honor” to their race, and I’m like “What the hell are you smoking?!”

This movie is far from being a masterpiece, okay! It was a good movie, that’s all. Also cut that bullshit about the movie being racist! It’s an Icelandic period piece, and the majority of Iceland’s population back then was white! That’s like calling a history movie about Feudal Japan racist because of an all asian class! There are a bunch of other monstrous actions that occur in the movie, but racism is not one of them! Now to the white supremacists claiming this movie for their “white pride”, just fuck off! This movie wasn’t made for you and your moronic ideals, this is for people who like viking movies! Take your neo-nazi shit out of here! If there’s one thing this movie did successfully was expose the idiots on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.

My Thoughts

This movie was fucking good and I was never bored during the whole experience. The basic plot was easy to comprehend, and the dream sequences that Amleth experiences had me thinking about the kind of person Amleth was. There was also no real villain in this film since the grueling world the film created made the people willing to do anything to survive, making most of the characters morally grey. The movie was a little confusing at times, but I say the confusion is what helped this movie standout in a crowd of superhero movies. Filmmakers should start taking risks again to create some of the most obscure and thought-provoking movies to get people’s imagination flowing again. Isn’t that what movies are all about at the end of the day? Anyway I give this movie a 7.5/10 just because there were some scenes that could have benefited with more “telling” than “showing”.

That’s all I have for you today, hope you all enjoyed my review of The Northman. Be sure to click that like button and comment your thoughts down below. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying goodbye, and see you next time.

Blog 35: Welcome to T(esla)witter

Elon Musk is officially buying Twitter for $44 billion, and everyone on Twitter is losing their minds! I’m still in-shock that the Twitter CEO and Board accepted his offer to begin with, but everybody has a price at the end of the day. Elon Musk announced that Twitter will become a private company once the transaction is finalized, and this may be the start of many drastic changes for the social media app.

Elon Musk’s biggest goal is to fix the current state of “free speech” on Twitter. Elon Musk previously stated in his release to buy the company that he believes:

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Mr. Musk. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
( PR Newswire)

Elon Musk has huge aspirations for changing Twitter for the better, and I’m in full support for what he has in store. Hell, anything would be better than the clusterfuck Twitter currently is. Even now, the Twitter Puritans are tweeting that Twitter is going to become a racist, right-wing, homophobic platform with Musk incharge, but these people wouldn’t even know what free speech is if it punched them in the face! Canceling people who don’t agree with your opinion isn’t free speech!!

Musk’s plans include creating a new algorithm so users can see why certain topics are trending, and he plans to thin out the spam bots to give more room for actual people to tweet. These changes will also allow more freedom for users to debate/argue with each other without the fear of being suspended or banned for bullshit reasons.

This has most of the Twitter Puritans stating that they will be deactivating their accounts and moving to Facebook and Instagram, which in all honesty is the equivalent to when democrats were saying they’re moving to Canada if Trump became president. Speaking of Trump, a lot of users are speculating if Elon will be lifting Trump’s Twitter ban after the transaction is complete. I still find it a little weird that Trump is banned from Twitter while Vladimir Putin and the Taliban still have their accounts, but it will definitely be interesting to see people’s reactions if Trump is allowed back on Twitter.

And to the people who claim to be deactivating their accounts when Musk takes control of Twitter, I call bullshit. You people want to stick around to see what happens next just as much as I do, and it’s not like Elon Musk is telling you all to piss off. He even tweeted saying:

Do I hate the ideals that the Puritans are forcing upon people, yes! Do I wish they would fuck off and leave us alone, yes, but I won’t try to cancel them(that’s their thing). True free speech is meant for everyone, even the people who are total morons who hijacked “Woke Culture” to satisfy their god complex. People are quoting this moment as the “end times” for social media, but they’re being a little too dramatic. Social media has been in the crapper long before this happened, but now everyone is on a level playing field. No poltical, racial, or gender/sex privilage is going to protect people on Twitter anymore, and I’ll be chilling with the other common sense folk to watch everyone tear each other part.

What do you all think will happen when Elon takes charge and turns Twitter into a private company? We will be seeing drastic changes to the app, or will Twitter be more or less the same? Also if you’re interested to learn more about this whole ordeal, check out the article links below.

That’s all I have for you today, so be sure to click that like button and give a follow to recieve updates when new blogs are posted. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying goodbye, and see you next time.

Elon Musk and Twitter Reach Deal for Sale (NY Times): https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/25/business/elon-musk-twitter

Twitter accepts Musk’s offer to buy the company for $44 billion (MSNBC): https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/elon-musk-twitter-deal-rcna25869

Twitter accepts Elon Musk’s $44B acquisition offer (Tech Crunch): https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/25/twitter-accepts-elon-musks-43b-acquisition-offer/

Blog 34: Elon Musk Not On the Twitter Board?!

New developments in Elon Musk taking action to change Twitter, the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, has stated that Elon Musk has decided to not join the Twitter Board of Directors. Parag Agrawal posted this message two days ago:

This came as a shock to a lot of people because most of us were looking forward to having Elon Musk make some serious changes to the social media platform, while others were having mental breakdowns on Twitter because of his induction to the Board. Parag Agrawal did assure people that Elon Musk will still have a valuable input for the future of Twitter, like the rest of their shareholders, but he claims that it was for the best that Elon did not join the Board.

The news may be upsetting to some people, but Elon’s decision was a genius move. It is common knowledge that Elon has a 9% stake in the app, but Board members are limited to owning 14.9% shares, so now the limitation holds no effect on him. There is a possibility that Elon Musk may start purchasing more shares of the social media giant, gaining more power to weigh-in on the company’s major decisions. Journalist for Ars Technica, Jon Brodkin, explains what could happen next for Twitter and Elon Musk in this article:https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/04/elon-musk-wont-join-twitter-board-can-thus-exceed-14-9-ownership-cap/

Without the limitations of Twitter’s Board of Directors, the future for Elon Musk’s involvement with Twitter is uncertain and highly anticipated by yours truly. What do you think about Elon Musk’s decision to not join the board? What do you think the future holds for Twitter?

That’s all I have for you today, so be sure to click that like button and comment your thoughts below. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying good-bye, and see you next time.

Blog #33: Elon Musk Set to Change Twitter

So big news a few days ago about Elon Musk making a 3 billion dollar investment into Twitter, which made him a member of their board of directors. The Tesla CEO stated that he will be making “significant improvements” to the social media platform in the near future (hopefully it involves adding a Twitter dislike button), and this has some employees a little concerned since Elon actually has the power to make some changes because he was declared Twitter’s biggest shareholder.

Elon Musk is an advocate for freedom of speech and he states that he’ll be making changes to the community guidelines to solve Twitter’s many censorship issues that have been apparent for the last few years, and this has some of the Twitter employees and Puritans worried. I’ve said before that the Twitter Puritans have hijacked “Woke Culture” and cancel culture to control the narrative of the media by forcing their ideals on the rest of society and bullying people who share a different opinion. I can only predict that these changes might come in the form of altering the report tweet function to make it so the tweets reported actually deserve to be put on the spot, for example:

It’s people like Adam Sessler who are nervous that their liberal/leftist privilege won’t be able to protect them on Twitter anymore because of Elon. It’s about time that these Puritan bullies get some justice served to them on a silver platter, and I’ll be sitting on the sidelines with a bucket of popcorn to enjoy the show. We also have the possibility of an edit button being implemented to the app, which would be incredibly useful if I accidentally make a spelling error in my tweets, and the way it was announced was hilarious.

Purposely misspelling “yes” and “no” in a poll asking if we want an edit button is a genius marketing. Of course there are concerns that some users may misuse this possible new feature, such as changing the entire message of their original tweet and the likes and retweets still being connected to said tweet after the change. What could be done is to maybe have a timer for how long you have to edit your tweet, and it could be set to one minute after posting the original tweet.

At the end of the day, Elon seems like a man true to his word about his changes for Twitter’s future. People will still argue on the social media app regardless of what he does, but hopefully people will have more freedom and security arguing with the Twitter Puritans without the fear of getting reported and banned over bullshit community guideline breaches. If you are still curious about Elon Musk becoming a shareholder for Twitter, click on this link to a NY Times article that further explains it: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/business/twitter-elon-musk-directors.html

Anyway, that’s all I have for you today. I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog, and be sure to click like and comment your thoughts below. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying goodbye and see you next time.

Blog 32: And the Oscar for Best Dumpsterfire Show Goes To….

The Oscars reminded us once again that Hollywood is one giant joke. The ceremony dedicated to celebrities patting each other on their backs for their achievements has never been quite entertaining in the last few years, but this year’s ceremony changed that, just for the wrong reasons. We all had a week to soak the news in, so let’s get this show on the road.

First of all, this is the first time in five years that the Oscars has any hosts and they get Amy Schumer to be one of those hosts. A bag of rocks would have been a funnier choice instead of her, the woman couldn’t tell a good joke to save her life. Regina Hall has had some good roles in movies and is somewhat entertaining, and Wanda Sykes is actually hilarious. Hell, Wanda should have hosted the whole ceremony on her own so we didn’t have sit through Amy doing incest jokes about Jake Gyllenhaal and his sister, make a joke about Kirsten Dunst being a “seat warmer”, and we would have never been forced to see this:

Out of all the comedians in Hollywood that the Oscars could have had as a host, they go with this dollar store jester?! Then there was that cringe segment with Regina Hall doing “Covid pat downs” on Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa.

This isn’t a jab at Regina Hall, but this skit alone is just weird no matter who does it. I have no idea what any of them were thinking here. Wanda Sykes is actually funny, so no problems with her performance as host. Now let’s get to the real reason why we’re here. This:

THE SLAP HEARD AROUND THE WORLD!

Will Smith smacked the shit out of Chris Rock after he made a G.I. Jane bald joke involving Jada Smith, and this smack aired on live tv! I was in utter shock at what Will was doing because I thought Rock’s joke was kind of lame. Then I learned that Jada Smith has alopecia, which is a medical condition causes her hair to fall out in chunks due to stress. I originally thought she shaved her head to make a fashion statement, not because of alopecia. Chirs Rock didn’t know about Jada’s medical condition at the time, but that guy tanked Will’s smack like a champ. Will yelled at Chris after the slap saying “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth”(this was censored in America, but thankfully Austraila doesn’t censor cursing because their cool), and the rest of the show was awkward, especially when Will was awarded best actor shortly after the slap.

He then went on to give the longest award speech for that show, in which he spoke about how violence is a nasty entity that we should try to resist, and he also apologized to the academy and the audience while he was crying. He doesn’t give an actual apology to Chris Rock until the very next day on Instagram:

This apology does look thoughtful and truthful, but this whole thing has already blown-up all over the internet. Excellent memes are being made from the slap, celebrities are taking sides, the whole thing is a mess. In a recent interview on CBS Mornings, Jim Carrey gave his thoughts on the whole fiasco saying that he was “…sickened. I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like Hollywood is just spineless….”. The link to the whole interview is right here: https://youtu.be/Cd9qrDtXq0E

Jim Carrey stated that he holds no ill-will against Will Smith, and he believes that he might be going through some personal issues that might have manifested into the slap. I agree with this since I believe that the slap wasn’t meant for Chris Rock, but it was meant for Jada Smith because he is growing sick of this open-marriage thing they have. His relationship with Jada has grown so toxic that is making Will lose his mind, and the best thing for the both of them is to get a divorce.

It also be noted that the Academy asked Will to leave because of the slap, but he refused. Now Will is claiming that he was never asked to leave in the first place, and I believe him since they wouldn’t have asked him to leave if he was scheduled to win an award later that night. Even if the Academy won’t penalize Will for his actions, it seems like the rest of Hollywood might be doing that already. Netflix and Sony are canceling their projects relating to Will Smith and the potential “Bad Boys 4” movie has been put on hold until further notice.

Does it suck that Will Smith is losing his projects? Yes. Did he bring this upon himself? Yes. Did he ruin the reputation of himself and his family for defending his toxic wife? It’s starting to look like that. What I find idiotic is that there are people online who stand with Will Smith for “defending” his wife, and the people who stand with Chris Rock are getting riduculed! It pains me to see that some people are ok with assaulting a person just because they said something they thought was mean.

I don’t hate Will, I’m just a little disappointed in him. The man really needs to get out of his marriage for the sake of his mental health, that’s all I can say for him.

Hope you all enjoyed reading about this hot mess. Leave a like and comment if you want, I really enjoy reading your feedback. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying good-bye, and see you next time.

Blog 31: Website Upgrade!

So today I took a huge step to upgrade this website even further. Not only will I be dedicating more time to writing more blogs each week, but I have decided to get a new website domain! Formerly called ‘hallofmercs.wordpress.com’, this website will now be officially known as ‘hallofmercs.com’! All of my social media accounts have been updated with the new link, with the addition of a Twitter account. Yes, I have made an account in that wretched cesspool (which is similar to a food court at a mall), and I will be diving headfirst into the craziness of today’s world!

Along with this upgrade, I have added a drop-down menu for the Archive page, making it easier for everyone to navigate the different categories I have to offer. The description for each category/sub-category is simple:

Blog Series: This will house all the blogs available on the website.
- The Darkest Timeline: These blogs will primarily focus on certain issues I encounter on the news and social media, and I give my thoughts on it. These blogs can range from talking about the odd changes to comic book culture, people/companies weaponizing woke culture and identity politics just to get attention, and general politics in America and other parts of the globe.
- Video Game Reviews: These blogs will focus on game reviews and game news.
- TV Reviews: These blogs will focus on episode reviews and overall season reviews of tv shows.
- Movie Reviews: These blogs will focus on movie reviews and trailer discussions.
- Website Updates(Newest Category): These will serve as updates for the website.

More updates are set to come in the coming months, so stay tuned for those. Thank you to everyone who enjoys reading my blogs, I put a lot of effort into writing the best content for my viewers. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying good-bye, and see you next time.

Blog 30: Pandemic -> WW3?

*WARNING: THIS BLOG WILL BE DISCUSSING THE NEWS SURROUNDING RUSSIA AND UKRAINE*

Well isn’t 2022 off to a great start?! The world is slowly healing from the Pandemic, inflation in America is getting worse, the job market is going down the toilet, and now we have a potential World War brewing in the midst! What a time to be alive…..

WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE?!?!?!?

This is supposed to be a time for people to start healing through unity, not go to war. Putin intiated his invasion of Ukraine last week, and yesterday we’ve recived news that his forces have recently taken over Kherson, a vital southern Ukranian city. Click the link to open a New York Times article reporting on this development: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/02/world/ukraine-russia-war

We also have Putin’s threat stating:

Whoever tries to interfere with us, and even more so, to create threats for our country, for our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history.
Jill Dougherty, CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/europe/putin-ukraine-address-threat-intl/index.html

Just settle down, Doctor Doom. No need to get ahead of yourself by making a global threat like that. This whole war that he’s starting is fucking stupid, despite the fact that I kind of know his justifications for this invasion, I still find it ill-advised. Historically the Ukraine was part of Russia since they share the same culture, and I know Putin’s main goal to take over the Ukraine is to act as a “buffer” to the neighboring democratic countries, but even with these facts it’s still a bad idea..

This idea can go from bad to worse when you account for the possibility of other countries getting involved, specifically America. President Biden, along with other country leaders, have started blocking air traffic from Russia and it hasn’t escalated any further than that. Unfortunately, there are some discrimantion situations against Russians occurring here in the States. ESPN reported that Russian-born hockey players are receiving threats, and some players are calling for Russian-born players to be suspended, whether those players support Putin or not. Click this link to read more about it: https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/33400401/agent-russian-born-nhl-players-says-clients-dealing-threats-discrimination-invasion-ukraine

It’s baffling to see people actually tweet this crap! I don’t think those players should be punished because of what’s going with Russia, especially if they don’t support it. This is history repeating itself when Japanese-Americans were being discriminated against during WW2, and I fear it’ll get worse. As if things we’re already bad enough here in the States, we have a potential WW3 to worry about now. At least people online have been trying to make the best out of a bad situation using memes:

If there’s one thing I know about the internet is that whenever things go to shit, a new meme trend begins. I understand that WW3 is not something to joke about, but you have to admit that joking about something much bigger than ourselves does help put our minds at ease. Hell, some of the best memes I’ve seen in recent years were about the Pandemic, and that was an incredibly unnerving time.

The only thing I can tell you to do is find out how to support Ukraine (for the love of God don’t do it just for clout, don’t be an asshole), spend more time with your loved ones, and just enjoy your life. The Batman is premiering tomorrow, and I’ve been hearing great things about it, so treat yourself by going to see it. I understand that everyone has been stressed out since 2020, but we should try our hardest to find peace within ourselves because after that you can focus on helping others heal.

Anyway, that’s all I have for you today. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying good-bye, and see you next time.