#I'll check the wiki for all the specials I've missed and go from there

[diabeticgirl4]

Ghhgh my podcast app doesn't have most of the specials (battle royales, one-shots, etc?) But it has the talks machina eps for them lol, so I'll have to wait for the weekend to binge all of those. Trying to figure out what's most relevant/definitely Do Not Miss irt the specials? I def want to watch the battle royales, I know there are some VM Canon specials (grog's one shot and Dalen's Closet? I think?) But iirc they come a bit later airdate wise so I'll get to those when they come up. I'm kinda eh on some of the other past one-shots, are they tied into CR canon and/or are any of them skippable? Or should I watch them anyways?

Otherwise I might start second campaign tomorrow or thursday and I'm v @-@ about it lol. Wondering if I should keep my same liveblog tag (#maddie liveblogs critical role) or should I make a new one? (hmm. Tentatively #maddie liveblogs cr2?) Can't decide if I want to/should keep all my messy thoughts together or keep them separate.

Anyways I have a lot of thoughts right now lmao.

[littlemissclandestine]

Why I think Russell Adler is going to make a comeback in COD 2024

WARNING⚠️: Contains spoilers for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Disclaimer: This is all just speculation on my behalf of course. I've just tried piecing stuff together for fun because Russ is one of my fave BO characters even though he's a bitch but i need more Adler content stat. <33

Let's get into it peeps. HEAR ME OUT.

Buckle up. Gonna be one hell of a ride folks 🤪

We'll start off with some random/background info.

Russ was born on February 12th 1937 so that would make him 53/54 in the Gulf War era. This actually isn't that old because if you think about it, Woods was about to turn 51 in 1981 during the Cold War campaign. What's a few more years?

We last saw Adler in action post-campaign in Warzone 1.0 cinematics but we've been kept in the dark about Adler's whereabouts post-1984 (after being brainwashed and killing Stitch LOL).

This meanie in a beanie wasn't forgotten about, oh no. He appears in the new cinematic intros on startup for both MWII (2022) and MWIII (2023). See below:

He was also featured twice in the 20 year anniversary video for Call of Duty whereas COD Ghosts didn't even get an appearance (ouch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL_w5HmxsPI

I personally believe Adler was a great addition to the Black Ops roster and is essentially the new Black Ops 'cover boy' now. Would be such a shame and a missed opportunity not to include a character like him in the upcoming COD. One who is morally grey, does whatever he deems necessary to get the job done - a bit like Cpt. Price in MW. Got the COD fans riled up about him brainwashing and pulling the trigger on Bell too - he's already got the spotlight in both a good and bad way.

Now, let's explore my main reasoning as to why I think Mr Shades 2.0 is most likely coming back in late 2024...

🎖️First up: Gulf War mission list 🔫

Here are some of the campaign missions that will be featured in Black Ops Gulf War. Obviously, this is subject to change, however, going off what we have, look closely...

Credit: @MWIIINTEL on Twitter/X

Safehouse guys...SAFEHOUSE. Takes you right back to Cold War, doesn't it? Ugh the potential.

🕵️ Next up: The campaign for COD 2024 will dive into the CIA's role/the Black Ops timeline 🕘

I took the following snippet from this official article.

From this, we know there will be a huge focus on the CIA and who's a CIA clandestine special officer? Mhm, you guessed it - Russell Adler.

Now, according to the events of BO2, it's evident which characters have the possibility of returning out of our original BO trio - Jason Hudson, Frank Woods and Alex Mason.

💫 Alex is presumed dead after Frank shot him so he's out the picture in '90/91 until 2025 when they canonically meet again.

🪵 Woods would be in his 60s during this time too so I'll let you decide whether that's too old for him to be in GW.

Edit: Woods got SPAS-12'd in the kneecaps on Dec 20th 1989 by Raul Menendez so uh...yeah

🧊 Hudson died on Dec 20th 1989 at the hands of Raul Menendez.

Feel free to check out this website (Call of Duty Wiki) for an outline of the events after CW to remind yourself. Here's a link to the Black Ops timeline from there.

➡️ Gulf War being a direct sequel to Cold War and what that could mean 💉

That brings me onto the rest of the safehouse crew. Since GW is a direct sequel to CW, it would make sense for some characters to carry over if possible:

We, as the player/Bell, get to choose whether Park or Lazar die (or both lovebirds) in 'End of the Line'. It's highly unlikely they'll return unless the devs make one decision canon maybe.

There could be a chance we see Sims again given his bond with Adler (Da Nang etc.), his age (late 40s in GW) and his status (alive).

That leaves the man himself, Russ. Everything from his age to the fact he's CIA and was the deuteragonist in COD 2020's campaign just makes sense for him to have at least a lil cameo or even a larger role, don't you think?

📱Finally: Hints from official posts 🔎

This post from Call of duty's official Instagram account kind of sealed the deal for me.

Oh lookie - they dropped syringe-lover's famous line in a zombies post. Why would COD just drop it so casually like that without a reason and years after CW came out? They could've said absolutely anything else but no, this was purposeful.

And that's all for this episode guys and gals!

Thank you for reading!! 🫂

Do what you will with all this information but I have concluded in my silly little brain that scarface is coming back.

How he's only in one game is beyond me. Won't get a character like him ever again. Seems like a cliché war dude at first glance but dig a little deeper into the details of the CW campaign, peel back the layers and get into his psychology and WOWZERS.

Am I delusional? Most definitely.

But the possibility he might be returning...that little bit of hope is enough for me and i won't shut up about it.

This will age horribly if he isn't in GW. Forgive me for feeding your delusions too in that case. Please?

What are your thoughts? Feel free to share them! ���

------

EDIT: Y'ALL IT'S HAPPENING 😭😭

[magebunkshelf]

Let's go! We're back with a new audio and a massive channel branding overhaul! Big update post!

It's been a long time coming but we're back with part 5 of the Vampire Hunter series! This is beginning a sort of new stage or arc for the channel and the stories within Mitch's World, but I won't say much if you haven't listened yet. I hope you caught up on part 4 first! And... well, another important audio.

There's also an exclusive bonus audio that follows on immediately after that's up for supporters! It's a romance scene between David and Bats - however I'm calling it non-canon, or at least semi-canon. Not everyone ships these characters, and I tend to leave that up to interpretation. If you ship them, you can consider the bonus audio canon if you like, but if you don't, you can skip it completely. That being said, there's an extended 6 minute preview for the bonus audio that's freely available on YouTube. The extended preview is a sort of epilogue to Part 5 and is entirely canon, cutting off just before anything semi-canon happens. The full 28 minute bonus is available on Ko-fi, Patreon, and for YouTube Members.

Also what do you think of the new thumbnails? We've been cooking these for a long time, and I'm so so excited to get to show them to you! The channel design has barely changed since the very first audio and it's been in severe need of a shake-up for a long time, so huge thanks to Daysprite for the push I needed to dig into it! All major audios will be getting new thumbnails in the new style with much better series-based colour coordination, a tweaked font and MUCH more interesting designs, and some of the major series also now have Smash-style series emblems! These are so cool! The actual YouTube titles haven't changed at all so you should still be able to find your favourite audios, I tried to keep things familiar enough for long-time listeners. A MASSIVE thanks to Capital M for making the new emblems, and Obsidian Lantern who made the new Raccoon series emblem! And of course to all three other members of Reedmace for giving so so much feedback over the last few months This rebrand would not have been possible without M, Day and Obi, thank you all!! ^ ^

You'll notice not all of the audios have their rebrand emblems yet. A few series aren't quite ready yet but will be updated in the future, while a small handful of videos such as the compilations won't be receiving rebrands. And of course when you click through it'll still show all the old branding in the video itself, hopefully that's not too jarring - in future videos we'll be seeing a more cohesive brand throughout just like in Vampire Hunter 5! Please give us a little more time to get the last of the series done. I'll also be overhauling the lore wiki soon to match!

Speaking of emblems, what do the letters in the top left mean? These are special continuity-identifying logos - MW for Mitch's World, and S-C for Self-Contained, or audios which are completely separate from other series. These logos will help you identify which universe an audio takes place in just at a glance! This info has been available on the lore wiki but I wanted to have it available in the thumbnails as well. BTW Rancher & Knight and Wounded Elf have specially-coloured S-C logos since those two share a universe.

Also, Respawn. Just... Respawn. As sort of my main original story, I wanted to give that one something special. <3

Oh, one final update, I've opened a Patreon page, patreon.com/MageBunkshelf - This is pretty much just an alternative to Ko-fi for anyone who prefers one platform over another, so if you're already a supporter there won't be anything you're missing out on. We now have three supporter-exclusive audios available (check the channel front page for the exclusives playlist!), all of which are available to members via Patreon, Ko-fi and YouTube Memberships, whichever works best for you! If you'd like to support the channel, help fund future artwork for audios, and get access to the three exclusive audios + name in the credits:

* Ko-fi has both monthly or one-time donations - either will give you access! * Patreon has a flat monthly subscription, or buy a single audio outright. Just don't use the mobile app or the app store will charge you extra, ALWAYS use Patreon in a web browser. * YouTube Membership is a flat monthly subscription and also gives you the raccoon heart badge next to your username & the Mitch emotes!

And to the supporters, I definitely haven't forgotten the audios you voted on - both are in the works!

It's been far too long since the last audio and I'm very sorry for the delay, the entire project of making two large audios and building the channel-wide rebrand took way longer than I'd initially planned. Thank you so much for your patience. We're back, the next audio has already been recorded, and we're jumping right back into it! Next time - something new, and something sci-fi! Catch you next time everyone!

-Mage