The Walking Dead Season 4

  I started watching TWD a few years ago but have only just recently finished it's fourth season as I take extended breaks from things regardless of my enjoyment, SNL is a notable exception as I will gladly go down a SNL YouTube rabbit hole anytime, and I did enjoy the first three seasons very much and a recent Season 4 card purchase drew me back in as I wanted to open them after viewing due to spiolers. 

 This is not a episode-by-episode review as I can't remember what happened in a specific episode but rather an overview of sorts.  

 I just want to get two things out of the way, normally 'plotholes' or out of character moments don't bother me, usually as I miss them anyway, but The Governor beheading Hershel and not Michonne annoyed me due to a) Penny and b) my Michonne dislike, I think he said he forgave her but come on The Governor's  not like that! The other involved Glenn and Tara being stuck in a tunnel seemingly doomed, Glenn knows Walker guts can disugise you so he and Tara had a way out as there was dead Walkers around.

 We had a new cast of characters join us most notably Abrahams crew and Tara. I like the four of them with Rosita bringing up the rear due to not having anything noteworthy yet in the show. It seems fair to say Eugene isn't going to be all he's said he is, there's a likeability about Tara and Abraham looks like a ginger Ron Swanson (at least in real life) so i'm sold. 

 I still can not stand Michonne, Carl and to a lesser extent Daryl. The sour faced tough nut cliche has never appealed to me, I can't stand kids who think they're grown up and Daryl leans slightly to the former also for me. I have no time for Carol but at least she's shown to be changing and adapting to what it takes to survive, some noticible character development there. On a Carol note; the episode focusing on her, Tyresse and the kids was arguably the high point of the season, the deaths, at least cicumstance-wise caught me by surprise and the burned Walkers in this episode were for me the best looking of the saeson (if not of the show so far).

 My favourite moment was the tunnel rescue/reunion, I was almost shouting like Debra Wingers friend at the end of Officer and A Gentlkeman when Glenn and Maggie reunited, there's also a puzzle set in the second set of cards of this scene. I'll miss The Governor (i'm a Morrissey fan) and Hershel too. 

 I didn't expect Terminus to be an outright trap, I figured the place wouldn't end well I just didnt think it wouldn't start well.

 

 

 

Apex Legends

 First post here in 3 and a bit years. With Season 4 a day or so away I thought i'd rank the Apex Legends characters, mainly based on their Ultimates really for me as the weapons are available to all so make no difference to my thoughts individually in terms of fighting.

 I will post a rankings list below but first i'll do a bit here about them rather than do a ranking plus reason. On these battle royale type games i'm a very defensive player, unless there's respawns in which case I may run n gun, so Wattson and Crypto should be up my street, her fences telling me when someone is near and his drone acting as a security camera of sorts, but I don't fare too well as them but given a choice i'd pick Wattson for her ultimate, the shield regeneration is good and I find the blocking of grenades etc. really useful in a firefight.

 Wraith is my least favourite of the originals, if not overall to be honest, I'd be much more of a fan if the portals were locked to teammates only. When I first had the chance to unlock either of the original locked duo I chose Mirage and am a fan, especially of the character himself (in terms of their personas Mirage and Pathfinder are my Top 2), but have found Caustic a pleasant surprise , I thought of him as pretty meh originally but he's now high up for me. His gas traps fit my style as I use them as markers, especially when hunkered down as I trap the entrances to both alert me and damage the enemy.

 The nature of their Ultimates and my use of their tacticals, cover to revive teammates, pretty much has Gibraltar and Bangalore at a dead heat for me; I like them both. Octane I don't use too much, though I like him, Pathfinder I like more than Wraith but have the same wish with his zipline as her portal ability. Lifeline I use quite often to have a healer on board, her Ultimate though is a double edged sword for me due to the enemies seeing your location.

 Bloodhound is my most successful kills-wise and he is my favourite due to his heatvision Ultimate. Revenant dropped today, I've purchased him but not used him in a match yet, I did practice as him but you don't see his abilities in action really in that setting, so can't place him.

(Season 4 is a couple of weeks old now, Bloodhound is no longer my best stastically as Gibraltar and possibly Caustic have topped him, I have 9 wins I think as Gibraltar this season too making him my best killer and winner. I've had a few games as Revenant now and after a rough start i've got better the last couple of days, I had to use him for a challenge and had an okay kill run as him. I don't care for him as a character, I dislke generic ones like him and for example Overwatch's Reaper. He doesn't sink to Wraith levels for me though and I've never had a good feel for Wattson and Crypto so he gets 9th spot)

 1. Bloodhound 
 2. Caustic
 3. Gibraltar 

 4. Bangalore 
 5. Mirage
 6. Lifeline 
 7. Pathfinder 
 8. Octane 
 9. Revenant 
10. Wattson
11. Crypto
12. Wraith

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November 2020

 ¡Dios Mio! things have changed, not just in Apex. As I write this season 7 is two weeks or so old and there's been changes. New map/level/world and three new legends. 

 As noted above Gibraltar is my most successful character; only now it's by some distance. Today I got my 2,000th kill as Gibby and I've yet to top 500 as any other. For some Legends my thoughts and opinions have stayed the same but others have gone up in my estimation. 

 I do think since Wattson the new characters have been lacking, Loba is okay largely due to her Ultimate and Horizons tactical is good for your quick rooftop appearances but that's about all the positives on that front. Wattson, Octane and to an extent Pathfinder have had my views changed for the better, Crypto and Wraith not so much. 

1.  Gibraltar 

2.  Wattson

3.  Caustic 

4.  Octane

5.  Mirage  

6.  Pathfinder  

7.  Bloodhound  

8.  Loba

9.  Bangalore 

10. Lifeline 

11. Wraith 

12. Rampart 

13. Revenant  

14. Crypto 

No rating for Horizon yet as I've not used her enough.  

Premier League review 10/11 December

 This weekend saw for me the goal and save of the season, goal being Jeff Hendrick's goal Vs. Bournemouth, I love a good volley like that when it flies into the top corner, reminded me of Rooney's Vs. Newcastle a number of years ago and bar a goal akin to Maradona's in 86 I can't see anyone topping that this year, unless Le God comes out of retirement.
 Save of the season for me was Randolph of West Ham and not just because it was a great save, the one at the end from Henderson, but also because it earned his team a point, had that gone on Liverpool would've probably held on at 3-2.

Oh Liverpool you do like making it hard for yourselves don't you, no disrespect to Bournemouth or West Ham but these are games Liverpool need to win to be with a chance of winning the Premier League, I can't see Chelsea or even *growls* Arsenal dropping points in games like this, the result and the way it came about highlighted for me the very reason why i'd say Man Utd have a better shot than Liverpool of winning the title and that's you can't win with a dodgy keeper like Karius or Mignolet, don't get me wrong the defence or doing him no favours but Utd's at times don't help De Gea but he can always be relied on to at least have a very good chance of stopping a goal I don't get that feeling with Liverpool's keeper(s).

 Arsenal have momentum on their side but for me they're not going to win the league I think they'll come second behind .... Chelsea. I do have a soft spot for City due to the man I class as my dad but without Aguero it's amazing how they have no bite, all that money on the field and they almost fall apart it seems without him and back to my previous point re Liverpool I don't think City have a keeper good enough to win the league with, I don't think Bravo's bad, for some of his decision making is questionable at times, but I do think that Hart was no worse.

 Relegation for me is up in the air but I hope Palace don't go down as I like them and Pardew, I can't say Sunderland as they're dead in the water every year then kick out of it, if only the season started in March for them. Swansea look to me like their Premier League status is highly questionable and I don't like Hull's chances largely due to the squad size.

 When a player is seen post match to of dived or at least slipped and got a penlaty that's then been converted and earned a win or draw why not take it back when the FA or whoever realize the refs mistake, so rather than 3-3 why not make Hull-Palace 3-2 in Crystal's favour now and give them the 3 points, sure it seems ridiculous but it may finally cut out diving as in the end you don't get the goal.

Top 40

Top Songs

Woman (John Lennon)

Suspicious Minds (Elvis)

Always On My Mind (Elvis)

In The Ghetto (Elvis)

Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis)

My Girl (The Temptations)

Man In The Mirror (Michael Jackson) 

Bright Eyes (Art Garfunkel)

When A Man Loves A Woman (Art Garfunkel)

Going Underground ( The Jam)

Sailing (Rod Stewart)

The Killing Of Georgie (Rod Stewart)

Would I Lie To You (Charles And Eddie)

Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)

Father And Son (Cat Stevens)

Free (Prince)

I'm Stone In Love With You (The Stylistics)

Tutti Frutti (Little Richard)

We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off (Jermaine Stewart)

Life On Mars (David Bowie)

Dance With My Father (Luther Vandross)

She's Out Of My Life (Michael Jackson) 

You Are Not Alone (Michael Jackson) 

Sexual Healing (Marvin Gaye)

Havana Affair (The Ramones)

Carbona Not Glue (The Ramones)

Danny Says (The Ramones)

Whole New World (Peabo Bryson And Regina Belle)

I Wanna Be Your Lover (Prince)

Only You (Flying Pickets)

High (Lighthouse Family)

Do You Really Want To Hurt Me (Culture Club)

Green Green Grass Of Home (Tom Jones)

What A Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong)

We're All Alone (Rita Coolidge)

Wonderwall (Oasis)

Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad (Prince)

Have You Seen Her (The Chi-lights)

Mrs. Jackson (Outkast)

Purple Rain (Prince)

The Force Awakens

 Went to a midnight showing, this is not a typical review of chonological events but snippets of the main talking points.

- Kylo Ren is not Luke Skywalker as some guessed at but he is his nephew.

- Han Solo, the greatest movie character of all time, is a reverse Marvin Gaye, a scene I shall never get over, like killing the Fonz off.

- The Force is with Rey not Finn.

- Reminded me a bit of IV, BB-8 carries part of a map revealing Lukes whereabouts in the way that R2-D2 had Leia's message. the assault at the end is reminiscent of the assault on the Death Star and Han's death could be likened to Obi-Wan's.

- Of the original triumvirate Han powers the film forward, Leia isn't in it as much, she's a General not a Princess now and Luke has two scenes - the one from the trailer with his hand on R2-D2 and the very last scene where Rey has found him, where Yoda took solace in a swamp Luke is atop a hill, seems to be going in the direction of Luke/Rey being Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan.

- Luke it's revealed was training Kylo but he went to the Dark Side, Vader is his uncle after all, this bothered Luke that he'd failed his nephew so fled, that was what I gleamed from it.

- Captain Phasma is woefully under developed, so much so it makes me question how she came to ghet a Funko Pop!

- Finn's change of heart is right at the start as he saves Poe from The First Order but they crash on Jakku and I genuinely thought Poe died alas I was wrong.

- BB-8 rules.

The Flash

- Don't have Sky so haven't seen Flash but I do like Comics so have broken into my Comic Con savings and got the DVD.

 - Watched the pilot this morning, fittingly called Pilot, and it was good but nothing extraordinary, the lead doesn't feel like a leading guy which hampers it a bit. The origin of his powers is shown but not used as the story which powers the pilot as it had been shown in Arrow. We got the Smallville style Freak Of The Week, and may got more as the whole city seems to opf been affected by the storm. It was okay as stated but I'm not too excited going into episode 2.

Episode II: Attack Of The Clones

 Not watched this in a while but I have long disliked, probably why i've not watched it again but I'm on a Star Wars thang at the mo and after Episode I (http://nonwrestling.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/episode-i-phantom-menace.html) a few days ago I watched the follow-up this morning.

The buffer of the original trilogy was the best there but the same can't be said for this one though I did enjoy it more than I remembered doing so as I have always placed this at the bottom of the Star Wars totem pole by some distance but upon today's viewing that's not totally fair as I did enjoy parts of it whereas I remembered disliking all of it.

 Although Jedi are essentially peacekeepers it's hard to disagree with Anakin's decision to wipeout the tusken raiders who had tortured his mother, another sign of what he'd become. A classic character is introduced, albeit as a child, as we meet Boba Fett, his father/cloner(?) Jango Fett appears and is revealed as the original that the Clones are based on, but he is killed before the end credits and his helmet is shown in the hands of Boba.

 The films for me are dined by there fights, especially the prequels, but I always thought II's were poor and it's not that the Obi-Wan/Anakin/Yoda Vs. Dooku fight is poor it's more that it's not really a true fight, though  Anakin does lose his arm as Luke does in the middle film. I do love big brawls and here is no different as I liked the part where the Jedis fight Droids as Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme are to be executed on Geonosis, this is where Jango is killed as Mace Windu decapitates him, special mention for Windus awesome Purple Lightsaber.

 The acting and writing at times left a lot to be desired and one bit I didn't care for was when Anakin and Padme are bonding on Naboo, it was as if someone had put Pride & Prejudice or some other mundane love story, into my Xbox and a scene set in the droid factory with Anakin, Padme, C3PO and R2-D2 knocked the films momentum off a bit.

 Jar-Jar is placed in Padme's place at the senate and gives powers to Chancellor Palpatine to create an army to fight the separatists, I think of it as like the US Civil War where South Carolina and the rest succeeded, the powers that Palpatine is given leads to Order 66 in Episode III which leads to Jedis
being almost wiped out so Jar-Jar is responsible in a way for the Jedi wipeout, was that done due to the sizable hate for Jar-Jar?

 Watched out of context it's not as good but watching it as a piece of the Star Wars puzzle I feel it is perfectly acceptable for what it is which is the buffer between the start and end, due to this I think it's fair that nothing becomes settled and rather the pieces are put in place for Episode III, like a good mid-season finale.