#bring on easter break i have so much video game time to catch up on

[buglaur]

trying to create an accurate simself hair out of sheer procrastination

[aion-rsa]

Venom: Let There Be Carnage – The Comics History of the Symbiote Rivalry

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Something that impresses me with a superhero movie like Venom is when it doesn’t rush directly into the expected villain. When there are four different Fantastic Four movies, and they’re all about emphasizing Dr. Doom, it’s a breath of fresh air when, say, Man of Steel only makes an Easter egg reference to Lex Luthor instead of going directly for that confrontation. The MCU Spider-Man has yet to meet an Osborn, guys like Thanos and Darkseid started out as ominous benefactors, and the existence of Heath Ledger Joker was merely a cliffhanger tease in Batman Begins.

Much like how the Justice League movie decided to take its time by giving us Steppenwolf of all people, the first Venom movie had Carlton Drake (who hasn’t appeared in the comics since the early 9’0s) and Riot (the most forgettable of all of Venom’s comic children). By letting Venom build himself up on his own, flanked by some rather mundane villains, it gave more meaning to Cletus Kasady showing up in the post-credits. Carnage, Venom’s main villain, gets more fanfare by appearing in the sequel where our hero is fully formed.

Since Carnage’s first appearance in 1992, the idea has always been to make a darker, scarier Venom. Venom was a villain at the time, sure, but he was also on the border of becoming more. Outside of his personal delusions and anger issues, he still claimed that he wanted to help the innocent and punish the guilty. Even when he was able to accept that Spider-Man was good, they couldn’t co-exist due to their different natures as vigilantes. Carnage was simpler because he was full-on evil and had no potential for redemption. He was something so sinister and malevolent that both Spider-Man and Venom knew it was worth it to put aside their differences and take this creep down.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage has hyped Carnage up as being out of Venom’s league and that was the initial push of the character. Over time, the two became roughly equals as Carnage became the go-to bad guy for Venom to punch.

So let’s take a look at the history of Venom vs. Carnage. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to define “Venom” and “Carnage” as characters wearing their respective symbiotes (excluding Peter Parker), or the symbiotes themselves. I’m not going to count Eddie Brock as Toxin, or Flash Thompson as Agent Anti-Venom or whatever.

Carnage’s Debut

Not counting cameos and build-up, Carnage’s first major appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #361, starting off a three-parter. Spider-Man came to realize that he wasn’t enough to stop Carnage and he was going to need help. Specifically, he was going to need Venom. This was an awkward decision as Venom was at the time living his best life on an empty island, thinking that he had succeeded in killing Spider-Man.

Once Venom fully understood the situation, he accepted the temporary alliance. In the very first Venom vs. Carnage confrontation, Venom and Spider-Man tackled Carnage, got slammed into each other, then thrown into opposite walls. Carnage then caused a distraction by putting a baby in danger so he could escape. While he was dominant in that very brief scuffle, he still needed to run off, so I’m calling this a draw.

The handicap match continued into the last issue of the arc at a rock concert. In one-on-one exchanges, Carnage had Venom’s number, but Spider-Man was always there for the save. Spider-Man was able to use the sonics from the amplifiers to take out both of them. Technically a draw again, but it’s also a situation where Carnage regularly kicked the shit out of Venom and Venom only survived because he had help.

Maxium Carnage

Insert your Green Jelly cassettes and press play because it’s time for Carnage’s big ’90s crossover story. After the previous story’s popularity, Marvel decided to add more heroes, more villains, and make the whole thing a whopping 14 issues!

As Venom was a San Francisco vigilante at the time, he flew to New York to stop Carnage’s reign of terror. The first fight wasn’t even shown, as after the reveal that Carnage had Shriek and Doppelganger on his side, it cut away. A brutalized Venom was later found passing out while knocking on Peter and MJ’s door.

As Maximum Carnage was filled with so much filler and extra characters, there were various fight scenes of a group of heroes brawling with a group of villains. Venom and Carnage talked smack a lot, but nothing much ever really happened in terms of fighting. The story finally kicked into gear when Venom used a stolen sonic gun and blasted Carnage while Firestar assisted with her microwave blasts. This would have done the job, but Spider-Man got in the way and Shriek simply cut Cletus’ face open, causing his symbiote to respawn and bring him back to 100 percent health. Carnage and Shriek overwhelmed Venom and carried him off, along with the sonic gun.

Venom spent several issues being tortured until coming up with the plan to sneak some of the symbiote into the sonic gun so that Carnage would splatter Venom with more Venom. He punched Carnage down and escaped with gusto, hiding the fact that he was in no condition to fight.

It isn’t until the last issue that we FINALLY got a real Venom vs. Carnage fight. Venom was physically busted a bit, but Carnage was mentally busted. The heroes hit him with some MaGuffin device that caused him to be haunted by those who screwed him up in life. Venom pretty much just kicked Carnage’s ass around the city while Carnage tried in vain to escape. Every now and then, Spider-Man would appear and go, “B-b-but Eddie! Killing is wrong!” for the sake of giving Carnage a second wind.

Eventually, Venom punched Carnage so hard that Carnage’s brain ghosts went away. Knowing Carnage was more of a threat this way, Venom tackled him into a transformer. After the explosion, Cletus was knocked out and Venom got to weakly sneak away. Hey, good for him!

Venom: Carnage Unleashed

Venom was so popular that we got Carnage. Carnage’s initial storyline was so popular that we got Maximum Carnage. Maximum Carnage was so popular that we got a Maximum Carnage video game. Then we got Venom: Carnage Unleashed, a comic based on the popularity of the Maximum Carnage video game. It…wasn’t all too popular.

Still, it did give us the rarely used plot device that symbiotes can travel through phone lines and the internet! Symbiotes really are like pre-Crisis Superman where you can give them whatever power and people will just go with it no matter how ridiculous. As Carnage escaped from Ravencroft and commandeered a security tank, Venom eventually caught up with him and they had a fight on a runaway vehicle through traffic. Carnage eventually won when Venom got slammed by an oncoming train.

Their final battle here is a big pile of “That’s not how any of this works!” The two characters send symbiote tendrils into the internet, which were rendered on the Times Square big screen as the two brawled in cyberspace. Venom destroyed a nearby heatsink, which blasted both and knocked them out of the internet.

Carnage was ready for another go, but his kidnapped psychiatrist set him on fire and caused him to fall out a window. Venom reached through the phone lines and out the window to catch the falling Cletus because dying is WHAT HE WANTS. Which… no, that’s not true at all. Hell, even in Maximum Carnage, Cletus was freaked out about the possibility of dying.

Venom: On Trial

So there was a big Spider-Man/Scarlet Spider/Venom team-up called Planet of the Symbiotes that culminated in a 40-foot-tall Carnage, but there was never a specific Venom vs. Carnage moment, so I won’t go into it. Venom’s ’90s antihero run did have a storyline where Eddie was arrested and put on trial for all of his many crimes. Cletus Kasady was brought in as a star witness, which was an invitation for him to freak out and go on a killing rampage. I mean, seriously, guys. Come on. You should know better.

This story went all-in on Venom wrecking Carnage. Again, Spider-Man would interrupt and give Carnage a chance to turn things around. This time though, Venom decided to ride the wave by sneaking away while Spider-Man and Daredevil took on Carnage. Realizing that the two didn’t have a chance, Venom picked up a couple syringes filled with dopamine blocker and sprung into action. He smacked Carnage around, injected the blocker into his neck, and watched as the symbiote retracted into Cletus’ body.

Venom Triumphant

Howard Mackie wrote Spider-Man comics for a long while and he had an annoying tendency when it came to storytelling. He would come up with an interesting, if nonsensical, idea that would shake up the status quo, but instead of following up on that and using it to tell an actual story, he would just forget about it and move to the next idea that popped into his head. He was one of the main reasons why the Spider-Man Clone Saga was such a mess.

In the 10th issue of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, Venom broke into the prison where Carnage was being held. Despite the legion of heavily armed guards with flamethrowers and sonic guns, Venom killed them all so quickly that the artist didn’t even show it. Cletus, for some reason, figured Venom was trying to break him out of prison, but instead Venom was there to absorb the Carnage symbiote. Carnage barely put up a fight. Pieces of the symbiote were on him, but he didn’t fully transform or try to defend himself. Venom simply pulled the symbiote off of him and ate it, becoming stronger.

After this issue, there was barely any follow-up to this.

Venom vs. Carnage

This miniseries came out at a really weird time for those involved. Carnage was just a couple months away from being torn in half by the Sentry and being written out of comics for years. Venom was appearing in Marvel Knights Spider-Man where Eddie Brock got rid of the symbiote and it bounced around to different hosts until landing on Mac Gargan. Meanwhile there was a Venom ongoing that was more about a symbiote clone where Eddie Brock only appeared for a couple late issues.

In other words, in the Venom vs. Carnage miniseries by Peter Milligan and Clayton Crain, even the creative team had no idea who Venom’s host was supposed to be. Luckily, the story wasn’t about Venom or Carnage, but a new character who would quickly fall into obscurity anyway.

Venom and Carnage swung around New York City, giving the exposition. The Carnage symbiote was pregnant and Venom was explaining that there was nothing to do to stop the creature from going into labor. Venom was all about protecting the new spawn while Carnage wanted to destroy it, immediately. Carnage got the better of Venom by flinging him into the distance. Regardless, the explosive birth wore out Carnage so much that he could only plant the baby onto a nearby cop and escape to rest up.

When the two had a rematch, Venom was there to save the baby symbiote (Toxin) and its host (Pat Mulligan). As if getting revenge for that Carnage Unleashed story, Venom brought the fight to the subway and pushed Carnage into an oncoming train.

And… that’s really all the Venom vs. Carnage we get in Venom vs. Carnage! Once Venom sees that Toxin is a good guy and capable of kicking Carnage’s ass, he gets afraid of Toxin befriending Spider-Man and decides to team up with Carnage for once.

Carnage, USA

Carnage returned from his maiming at the hands of the Sentry, albeit without a bottom half. By then, a lot had happened with Venom. The symbiote was removed from Mac Gargan and joined with war hero Flash Thompson. Agent Venom went on to join the Secret Avengers.

Carnage, USA told the story of Cletus expanding his symbiote to overtake an entire town in the middle of nowhere. When various heroes went to oppose him, the Carnage symbiote ended up taking over Captain America, Wolverine, Hawkeye, and the Thing. When gaining a moment of clarity, Cap called in Agent Venom for help.

Read more

Movies

Venom 2 Trailer Breakdown – All the Marvel and Carnage References

By Gavin Jasper

Comics

Venom: Who is Carnage?

By Gavin Jasper

In their first meeting, Agent Venom easily took down Carnage with some explosive projectiles that came with sonic shrapnel. Then when getting ready for the kill – say it with me everyone – Spider-Man got in his face and went, “No! Don’t kill!” Carnage recovered, and overwhelmed Venom with his army of Carnage’d heroes. Then another obscure symbiote hero, Scorn, popped in to run Venom and Carnage over with a bulldozer and bring them into a facility that would blast their symbiotes off the hosts.

While Cletus and Flash had a fight based around the novelty that both were legless, the Venom symbiote latched onto a gorilla and ran for its life against an entire zoo full of animals with the Carnage symbiote. After almost being taken down by a Carnage lion (Spider-Man with the save), the gorilla returned to Flash and gave him the power to bring Cletus into custody.

As for the town-wide Carnage symbiote, most of it was taken out by an airstrike.

Minimum Carnage

Following up on Agent Venom, he had his own team-up arc with Scarlet Spider (Kaine) with the fun dynamic of a Venom who doesn’t want to kill and a Spider-Man who does. The two chased Carnage into the Microverse, where Carnage was able to create an army of symbiote clones. While Agent Venom was able to decapitate Carnage, the villain had attained some level of power where his body is more overall fluid and animated. In this case, Carnage could just reattach his head with no problem.

Although Flash had sedated his own symbiote and lacked the monstrous advantage, he was able to wipe out a bunch of the clones by amplifying his own inner sorrow outward through the Venom symbiote. Strangely, that’s not the first time Venom was able to do that. What’s left of Carnage slinked away, cackling.

Carnage and the clones returned to Earth and Voltron’d themselves into a giant Carnage. As Carnage tried to devour Agent Venom, Venom shoved a sonic grenade down Carnage’s throat and let the blast do the rest, taking out the enlarged Carnage symbiote almost completely. In the aftermath, Scarlet Spider jabbed one of his claws through Cletus’ eye and lobotomized him.

Venomverse

Venomverse is about a series of Venom hosts from different realities coming together to fight beings called Poisons. Under normal circumstances, Poisons are harmless. If one of them makes physical contact with a symbiote and its host, it transforms them into a nigh-unbeatable crystal-like creature with the Poison in control. By this point, Eddie Brock was Venom again and joined with all sorts of random symbiote heroes to the point that he came off as just a regular dude.

With their back against the wall, Eddie came up with an idea. They brought in Carnage from an alternate universe as a ringer. At first, Carnage fought against the Venoms, but they were reluctant to fight back. Once he saw the Poisons and understood that the Venoms wanted him to kill an army of twisted superheroes, he gladly joined their ranks. He just let them know that once he was done with the Poisons, he’d kill them next.

He ended up being a huge help, especially since the Poisons had a hard time bonding to the Carnage symbiote. Carnage died in an explosion fighting Poisons alongside Poison Deadpool (who was able to bypass his Poison’s mental control).

There was a sequel to this called Venomized where the Poisons returned and tried to invade Earth. They kidnapped Cletus, forced him to bond to an alternate universe Venom, and then bonded that to a Poison. While he was referred to as “Carnage” at times, the Carnage symbiote was never involved, so I’m going to skip this one.

But where was the Carnage symbiote during all of this?

The Red Goblin

At one point, Norman Osborn became the host for Carnage to give us a climactic villain to finish off Dan Slott’s lengthy run on Amazing Spider-Man. Knowing that Spider-Man was out of his league, J. Jonah Jameson decided to fight fire with fire by calling up Eddie Brock and blackmailing him into aiding Spider-Man. This led to a brief fight of Spider-Man, Venom, and repulsor-wielding Mary Jane against the Red Goblin.

Venom and Red Goblin brawled for a bit, but Red Goblin appeared to be immune to the usual symbiote weaknesses, so only Venom took damage. While he got some hits in, Eddie was too exhausted to continue. Instead he offered the symbiote to Spider-Man to give him the extra boost. This brief team-up allowed the two vigilante enemies to finally bury their lengthy rivalry.

Absolute Carnage

Now we get to Donny Cates’ bonkers run on Venom. Cletus had been resurrected and turned back into Carnage via a bunch of cultists who worshipped Knull, God of Symbiotes. Carnage then started going around eating the spines of those who were once host to a symbiote, getting stronger by the meal. Dark Carnage first fought Venom in a subway and easily overpowered him. Still, Venom got the win by grabbing onto the third rail while holding onto Dark Carnage. It was enough to knock Carnage loopy while Venom could get away and seek out help.

Venom and Spider-Man sought out Norman Osborn (who believed himself to be Cletus Kasady after the Red Goblin episode) and were ambushed by an army of inmates possessed by Carnage symbiotes. Overwhelmed, the two heroes broke through a wall and swung off into the night.

Venom got involved in another big fight against an army of Carnages and could have killed Osborn, but instead chose to save a wounded Mac Gargan nearby and brought him to safety. The Venom symbiote wasn’t happy with this and later left Eddie for Bruce Banner, giving us a fight between Venom Hulk and Dark Carnage. This turned out to be a dire choice, as Dark Carnage tore into Hulk’s brain, caused him to shrink back to Banner, then ate his spine. Carnage was stronger than ever.

Meanwhile, mad scientist the Maker had a machine that took the “symbiote codex” stuff Carnage was looking for out of former hosts without the nasty “tearing out their spinal column” part. Eddie unleashed the codex collection onto himself, turning him into a more powerful version of Venom. As he took on Cletus one last time, Carnage made note that Venom was screwed no matter what. Either Carnage killed and ate Eddie’s son Dylan or Eddie killed Carnage, which would wake up Knull and drive him to Earth.

Venom summoned the Necrosword to cut through Carnage, destroying him once and for all. For a time, at least.

Prelude to Knull

Wouldn’t you know it, killing Dark Carnage caused Eddie to absorb the Carnage symbiote into himself. Soon he was separated from Venom and stuck on an island while being bonded against his will to the Carnage symbiote. Dylan was able to remotely control the Venom symbiote and transformed it into a giant Venom T-rex. Like it wasn’t even bonding onto a dinosaur or anything. It was just the size and shape of a tyrannosaurus just because.

Eddie and Dylan had a dreamlike meeting in their minds while Carnage Eddie chopped down at the Venom dino. Eventually, the power of familial love was enough to overpower the Carnage symbiote and blow it up. Eddie rejoined with the Venom symbiote, and a little piece of Carnage latched onto a nearby shark to swim off and fight another day.

Okay, then! Phew! Going by every Venom vs. Carnage fight, I’ve judged them so that there have been six draws, eight victories for Carnage, and nine victories for Venom.

Congratulations, black ooze. Here’s hoping your red offspring doesn’t turn the tide at the box office.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will be released in theaters on Oct. 1.

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[lavendergrace13]

riptide - a TS8 album concept

So... I saw a lot of album concepts going around online and I got inspired to create my own. Here’s ‘’riptide’’, an album that is like Lover and reputation’s love child with RED lyrics and Speak Now vibes. It’s pop country with a lot of other influences.

The idea behind this album would obviously be the riptide and how it can confront you with good and bad stuff as well as wash away both the good and the bad. It’s a representation of how Taylor has grown and how much she has learned over the course of her life and her career, and there’s a lot of different styles on it. It’s very reflective, maybe a little darker, but with a lot of love and light as well. Promo for it would start in early summer, with a September release. - because in September everything is brand new and as a nod to ‘’you’ll have new Septembers.’’ She’d announce it with a special video of her standing at the beach, what we will later learn is the location for the album photoshoot, telling us that this is a continuation of Lover’s vulnerability and reputation’s power. The era will have a lot of photoshoots, interviews for magazines and a lot of performances and singles, and she will bring back the polaroids. However, tis will also be a closer look into what her life is like now and it will help us understand more of why she has gotten so private. It really is all about where Taylor has come from and where she is now.

1. golden linings

the lead single and basically a continuation of Daylight with the use of the word ‘’golden.’’ It’s about how she’s happy now, how she has found a way to grow and evolve from everything that happens and how she has found that this is the best way to defeat the negative. Key lyric is something along the lines of ‘’baby, why settle for a silver lining when you can make it golden’’ and there’s a spoken word piece in it about turning her lessons into legacy (because this album is the very definition of that). It’s uptempo and the music video offers Easter eggs that are clear references to her earlier eras, with a lot of colors, pretty dresses and her doing a really pretty dance in the daylight.

2. welcome to court

a killer track in the same style as Cruel Summer, I Did Something Bad etc. It’s a call-out to the music industry and how that is like a corut full of intrigues and dirty games. It’s the fourth single - the first post-release - and Taylor goes all out with it by shooting the music video at a lavish castle and wearing the most awesome dresses, and it has scenes of her swordfighting, horseriding, dancing at a masquerade and being a queen. There’s also a small storyline in the lyrics about how she found ‘’a prince nor a king’’ who helped her flee. There’s Love Story references and this is heavily promoted as a diss to Scooter/Scott. It also resembles Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince. 

3. riptide

the title track that is like a mix of This Love and Clean and uses metaphors of the riptide. The song wins two Grammys because of the gorgeous poetic lyrics and is completely self-written and played by her on acoustic guitar (first part) and piano (second part). It’s very personal as Taylor describes the things that have been her ebb and flow. It doesn’t have a music video, but Taylor promotes it in the same kind of way as she did with her journals, but this time by releasing a poetry collection to go along with the album called riptide, which also features drawings and bonus polaroids. 

4. heavenly

a mix between Holy Ground and Long Live and dedicated to her fans and how she feels when she’s performing, also dedicated to the newfound happiness she experienced during the reputation tour. 

5. caged butterfly

the ‘’track 5 syndrome’’ and the track we’ve all secretly been waiting for: it’s about how she sometimes felt held captive by her record label and about what Big Machine did to her, about how she was never artistically free, but also about the things about her career that damaged her, such as body image, the fact that she couldn’t go to college or have a normal life, the mockign and all that. It’s very emotional, like a continuation of The Archer as one of her most personal songs. It’s also the longest. 

6. heartstrings & headlines

a very sweet acoustic song and the second single. it’s intimate along the lines of Call It What You Want and Cornelia Street. It’s about her private relationship with Joe, and in the lyrics - it’s self-written - she uses a lot of picture details about what their life is like. It’s also about their decision to keep things private and have their own little bubble hidden away from the public eye. Key lyric: ‘’our heartstrings don’t make headlines, because they’re only yours and mine.’’ a fan favorite. the music video shows Taylor and an actor in a very cozy home, with cameos for the cats. 

7. catching fireflies (ft. Kelsea Ballerini)

a classic country song and the third and final single before the release. It’s super catchy and the music video has butterfly wings, glitter, birds, sidewalk chalk, pink champagne and all those things. It’s basically It’s Nice To Have A Friend meets 22 and is about how even when things are rough and dark, there’s always fireflies, AKA bright spots AKA good things. 

8. crumbled fairytale

a song that turns out to be entirely different than people initially think based on the track list: they suspect it’s sad and vulnerable, but it’s actually a feminist anthem about how girls aren’t princesses and they should shatter their glass ceilings and glass slippers and toss away their fairytales. It references the Women’s March and The Man and in the bridge she also talks about Time’s Up and #MeToo and her sexual assault trial and women in the music industry. It’s the fifth single and the music video has a variety of female-identifying fans in stunning power outfits breaking stereotypes: they each start in a princess dress and then tear it off with a sword to reveal butterfly wings. 

9. one million midnights

a self-written, vulnerable song about the darker times of her life. It references a lot of ‘’2am’’-parts from previous songs when she lay awake with a broken heart or a mind wandering about insecurities or scars from what people did to her, and it’s a lot like The Archer. a song she never performs live because it’s too painful for her to think back of those times. 

10. reins of fate

another song that is a deep cut and hits hard, about ow her image controlled what she did for a long time, like invisible reins in her spine from the life she chose, but not the choices se chose. It’s about how for a long time she wasn’t free to curse or drink or dress in a certain way and it’s also about her system of doing what people wanted from her or said she couldn’t do. the bridge is about cutting those reins and is very powerful. 

11. rewrite the stars

a continuation of track 10, but in a more empowering way with a very alluring beat and an encouragement to take control over your story, to adjust and rewrite the stars and determine your own direction. Kind of like New Romantics.

12. picture book (ft. Selena Gomez)

 the sixth single and the long awaited collab! It’s about nostalgia and growing up, referencing The Best Day and Never Grow Up, with a lot of memories and a really cute music video that resembles the Everything Has Changed one, but this time with two girls becoming best friends. There’s also some emotional parts about monsters under your bed that turn out to be nothing like the real life monsters, a nod to Out of the Woods and Soon You’ll Get Better. 

13. thirteen years

a hugely emotional, acoustic, very long, self-written song about the thirteen years of her career, the significance of the number 13 and the reflection on who she was and has become. the most anticipated track. she performs it with a 13 on her hand.

14. when push comes to shore

an acoustic ballad about letting go parts of yourself, parts of your life and realizing that you also sometimes need to let people go. it’s the continuation of riptide and it’s about how when push comes to shore, you will know who you really are and what you hold close to your heart and what you can let go of. the most underrated song off of the album. it’s the seventh and final single and the music video is very serene, switching between Taylor sitting at a campfire on the beach with her guitar singing the song and her standing in the riptide. 

15. slumber

a very sexy song much like Dress and False God, but on the next level, about temptation and experimenting and discovering your sex life and those slumbering moments right before or right after sex, moments when you can really feel close to someone and the whole world and everything fades.

16. olive branch (ft. Katy Perry)

the biggest surprise of the album: a song that is both upbeat and slow. it’s about forgiving people when the time is right and when you’re both better people, but also about how you sometimes don’t have to forgive, and also about how you should sometimes forgive yourself. Taylor’s quote ‘’you don’t have to forgive and you don’t have to forget, you can just move on’’ is a big part of the song’s philosophy. 

17. tightrope dancer

a slow, subtle, but powerful song about a relationship when you’re so trusting of each other that you know you’ll fall together, but that you’ll also be able to do the most complicated dances and catch each other. it’s about how you can sometimes tumble off the tightrope, but how that will be okay because the other person will catch you and you’ll climb back up together, through it all, and that the tightrope will never brack. it’s a lot like Delicate and people make expressive dance videos for it.

18. love letters only

a self-written, acoustic song that is basically a letter from Taylor to herself, about everything she has learned and how she has grown. it’s about the things she’d like to say to her past self and her future self and to her current self, and there’s a lot of gorgeous self-empowerment lyrics. it becomes an instagram trend to post love letters only to yourself.

In December, Taylor surprises us with a deluxe version of the album that features five bonus tracks, all acoustic collaborations. There’s no singles or music videos, but she does release an intimate video for each song of her and the other artist in the studio performing it, much like Ed Sheeran’s Abbey Road videos. She brings those other artists out on tour frequently.

1. night dreamer (ft. Ellie Goulding)

a song about sometimes wanting to escape, run away, and laying awake at night imagining that you’d leave and build another life for yourself somewhere else, to just drop off the face of the earth to start over.

2. kaleidoscope (ft. Ed Sheeran)

much like Everything Has Changed and a fan-favorite, it’s about how each person is a kaleidoscope of so many colors and shades and that it’s always hard to figure out what someone’s true colors are, referencing the backlash Ed got for not publicly supporting Taylor while they never got any less close.

3. you never had the right (ft. Halsey)

a smash song that is very powerful, addressing everything people think they’re entitled to when you’re famous. it strongly references Taylor’s sexual assault case and her stalkers and the ‘’I want the old Taylor back’’ people.

4. heartstrong (ft. Ariana Grande)

a power ballad about being confident and strong when people give you a hard time, about standing your ground and fighting back instead of shaking it off. very strong lyrics and a lot of power notes from Ariana.

5. karma (ft. Lorde)

a ‘’welcome to court/Cruel Summer’’-esque song about fighting fire with fire and being a snake or a dragon when you are wronged, but also abotu throwing off your armor because you know fate will pull at the strings to get them what they deserve. a song, in short, about knowing when to enter and exit the battlefield. 

So... what do you guys think? 

[medea10]

Medea Plays Animal Crossing New Horizons: Part III

Man dude, how you gonna wreck my perfect record with the ATM?!

Hey look, Mabel’s in town.

After you spend a certain amount of money or times you see her, she’s going to set up shop in your town.

In the meantime...

I’m getting along with my cheerful neighbors. This is my first time with many of them and they’re the most thoughtful...

Goddammit Maddie, why’d you have to get me a freaky-ass garden gnome?

Yeah, I’m not a fan of gnomes.

Get on with it Nook-boi. You know what I want.

That’s right, you do. BRING HER OUT!

THERE WE GO! Now island life is complete.

The gift that keeps on giving.

Seeing Isabelle first thing in the morning is just so...blissful.

With the addition of Isabelle and the new building, Tom Nook is making it his mission to make this island absolute perfection.

As soon as you get this feature, you’re able to build bridges, make inclines/stairs, and make your own town theme and town flag.

You know, I think it’s best I dig deep and do something different.

OR I can just do what I did in New Leaf and have The Simpson’s theme.

Yeah, this is The Simpsons theme. Have fun with it.

Although, I almost leaned into using Old Town Road, Careless Whisper, or Funkytown. You can find a bunch of youtube videos with samples.

Anyways, Tom’s biggest goal is to...

Yeah, that would be nice.

Speaking of K.K., my first night on the island, WHAT DID YOU PUT IN MY ORANGE JUICE, YOU RACOON BAST...

I want to stay mad at you for possibly drugging my drink on the first night, but now I’m just imagining Tom Nook in a karaoke bar with a drink in hand and a necktie around his head.

So let’s christen this new building and...

*sighs*

No originality to be found with me.

Oh well, I still love my Homer flag.

Damn Isabelle, sleeping on the job already.

And now Part IV of Medea vs. Evil Fucking Tarantulas.

Hey, I’m getting better at this!

Ah, feels like old times.

Wow, that was fast! Like...2 days?

Thankfully, you don’t have to fetch materials again since there’s enough material left from building Timmy and Tommy’s store. It’s just gonna take another two days.

OH, IT’S SUNDAY!

Oh, she’s so adorable. Especially when she was trying to remember everything her gram-gram told her to say.

And yes, I was right. Daisy Mae was trending on Twitter.

Rightfully so.

Just look at her! She’s the perfect hybrid of a Swinub and a Cubchoo.

Hey, I found Mr. Resetti.

Forgot to mention, with the new building comes a bunch of new crap you can buy using Nook Miles.

The next morning came with a few surprise visitors.

First, we’ve got C.J.

With my first interaction with this social media’d fella, if you give him three of the same fish, the next morning you’ll get a stand of that fish (in my case I gave him 3 sea bass). Second, he’ll ask you to do a challenge. Today’s case was catch three fish in a row that are smaller than a Surgeonfish.

After that, he’ll just buy any fish you give him at premium prices.

Oh, Imma get some moolah to pay for them inclines.

And my next visitor was a camper.

In order to get K.K. to come to town, we have to have more villagers. And in order to get more villagers, we need to have a campground so random passerbyers can come and maybe consider moving to your Podunk island.

My first camper is...

OH. MY...

HOLY...

Okay, calm down. I know you’ve been waiting for Olivia and/or Papi, but this is kind of a golden ticket.

Plus it’s a kitty. And I love kitties.

In case you haven’t seen Twitter recently, Raymond has kinda been...

That. He’s been that.

I don’t know if I’ll jump on the maid uniform bandwagon or not.

For now, I’ll let him be.

But he’s staying in Pallet.

YAY!

Sable and Mable are in my town. No word on Labelle...I think she might be much later in the game’s progression.

Don’t let that familiar line fool you.

Sable actually speaks more than Red from Pokemon.

I am loving their dressing room.

Yeah, this is exactly how I look in real life now. Except work doesn’t allow face masks yet.

I wonder if I keep talking to Sable day after day, she’ll acknowledge me like in the other games.

Back in the center of town, a new system is set in place for reviews of the town.

Yelpers.

Because of course fucking Yelpers.

On a positive note, I am now allowed to invite campers through the amiibo cards. I’m glad I held onto the amiibo cards I gained when I purchased Happy Home Academy five years ago.

Let’s have some fun with this system.

I know she’s literally right in front of me, but I have to see what happens.

That’s fine. You’ve got enough on your plate working under Tom.

Let’s see if I can add Isabelle’s brother Digby.

Worth a shot.

Okay, let’s be serious. Who can I invite? OH! I’ve got a kitty. It’s not Olivia, but he’ll do just fine.

So in order for an amiibo to stay as a resident, you have to invite him to the campground for three days in a row. AND you have to speak to him and build a DIY whatever he wants for all three days.

I’m sure Bob and Raymond will get along just fine...

Okay, got an idea. Give Bob a tuxedo and Raymond a wedding dress and have ourselves a good old-fashioned gay cat wedding.

Who’s with me? Yay or FUCK YAY?

As I head towards the final day of the month, I reflect on all the fish I’ve caught and those I haven’t caught. All the balloons that popped and flopped in the water. What to dress Raymond in. Lament on not catching a stringfish before the end of the 31st and now having to wait until December...because me fucking dumbass.

Time to say goodbye to March and say hello to April.

Yeah, it’s that special time where my island is going to have a visit from...

GOOD FUCK, NO!

I meant Zipper.

Zipper made sure to work out extra hard to dance a jig and make sure no one’s taking a peak at his backside.

There’s a fucking zipper there. What are you hiding, rabbit?

So we have to find eggs. Eggs are everywhere. They’re in the ground. They’re in the trees. They’re ON the trees.

They’re in the sky!

And even in the sea!

Collect eggs. LOTS OF EGGS. And recipes. LOTS OF RECIPES. So we can have an egg-tastic Easter...Bunny Day.

And when you’re out of sight, Zipper stops dancing and takes a smoke break.

I tried sneaking up on him, but he’s a fast fucker.

Back in the neighborhood...

I want Maddie’s donut.

Diva is still stylish, even on her evening walk.

I built a Sakura watching lunchbox.

I take pictures of cat butt.

Hey, that’s tame compared to the rest of the internet. So many bad and lewd things happened to Raymond’s asshole in the last week.

Look at him studying his flowers.

He’s a keeper.

Okay, I’m done for now.

To be continued.

[amandajoyce118]

Agents Of SHIELD Season 6 Finale “The Sign” And “New Life” Easter Eggs And References

Season six comes to a close with Izell trying to bring her people to Earth and Sarge determined to stop her. Or does it? There are complications that arise from the Chronicoms still trying to start the third version of their planet that make Izell not the biggest problem by the end of the two hours.

As always, there are spoilers. You’ve been warned.

Spoilers.

You good? Because spoilers.

The Episode Titles

Both titles get said aloud in their respective hours. That’s not usually the case with the show, but the writers did it a lot more this season. 

Robbie Reyes Had Something Inside HIm

Oh, look, another Ghost Rider reference this season. Could all these references, and the talk of a demon inside Sarge be leading to something? Like, I don’t know, that Ghost Rider spin off that Hulu picked up? I know a lot of people were hoping for him to jump in and save the day, but I think it’s more of a case of MCU synergy, like - don’t forget we have this in the pipeline for when this show is gone. There’s still Robbie to look forward to.

The Temple

In case anyone thought the overhead shot of the temple looked familiar, it’s the same one used by the VFX team in season one for the episode “0-8-4.” Mark Kolpack confirmed it after last week’s episode.

Deke’s Stolen Tech

Like the audience has been saying all along, all of Deke’s tech is stolen from either SHIELD (and therefore, his grandparents), or the future. We get back to the Fitz that’s exasperated with him as a result, but really, Deke has a pretty good memory for tech considering all of the pieces he’s had his team bring to life. You know there weren’t files on every single thing he recreated.

I also appreciate that he brought all his lemon artwork in with him and had it out with his grandparents about not being appreciated. They needed to air that out. It also reminds us that he and Fitz probably don’t get along so well most of the time because they are actually a lot alike, they just use their abilities in different ways. They both feel unappreciated, despite all of the effort they make. Deke deciding to step up reminds me a lot of season one Fitz. Or, you know, Fitz taking the long way to the future and everyone not giving him credit for that, just being annoyed that he didn’t have weapons stored on the right floor of the Lighthouse.

“I’ve never been to a planet that’s so into guns.”

Sarge has always used his special knives before, but melting them down to create bullets never occurred to him. He thinks Earth is super into guns, but… we all know this line is really aimed at the US with its lack of gun control, right?

“Zombies, why not?”

Deke’s quip about designing a zombie video game felt like a nod to our cultural obsession with the undead (and Marvel’s own zombie universe in the comics), but the repeated mention of zombies - especially Piper’s line - makes me think The Walking Dead. In case you didn’t know, Brianna Venskus also guest stars as a member of the Oceanside community on The Walking Dead where she kills zombies.

Also, I love the touch of Deke biting the show’s version of a zombie to get out of a tight spot. Way to subvert the trope. (Side note: Did Piper get Flint medical attention? Did Jemma swing by and pick them up? Are they okay? Is Flint 2 still alive? Inquiring minds want to know.)

Taking Someone’s Skin

Enoch mentioned several times about wearing skin in this and last season. We even saw him shower without his “skin” when he debuted. I like that we get a better idea of what he means by wearing skin now. We see that the Chronicoms can literally take another Chronicom’s skin. It’s a nice link back to those mentions.

The Tunnels

I don’t know if they reused the same sets, but did anyone else get season two vibes from the tunnel where they stationed Deke to hold off the shrike-zombies? It very much looked like the tunnels of the underground Kree city where Skye became Quake - just with a different color pallet.

Sarge’s True Form

Kind of looks like a Chitauri. But also kind of looks like something from the comics I can’t put my finger on. Maybe I’ll find it, but I don’t even know where to look because I honestly can’t remember what he reminds me of.

May In Cryo

That looks an awful lot like the same chamber that kept Fitz snug into a new future. How long is May going to be on ice?

The Empire State Building

When Daisy points out that she can see the building, and Mack says it’s the only one above the clouds, Jemma makes the remark that it’s probably the tallest building in the world. That gives you a very specific window for where and when the team jumped to. Now, you could choose dystopian future. But that seems unlikely. Instead, it’s more likely the team is somewhere between 1931 (when construction finished) and 1970 (when it was dethroned as tallest building). Personally, I’d lean closer to the 30s than 70s given that would mean the series could play into the criminally cancelled Agent Carter as well. And there are spoilers out there on the internet that makes that seem much, much, much more likely. But if the jump drive has been upgraded to allow them to time travel, really, season seven could go anywhen it wants to, which will be very fun.

LMD Coulson

How much did you love Daisy slamming that button down when she realized Jemma meant Coulson? Daisy just wants her family back, guys. Too bad he came out of a brightly lit machine and not a dark corner for the real nod.

You’ve got to love that they need an expert in SHIELD history (again leaning to the past) and that Coulson, whose brain is already on file with the tech Jemma and Fitz had planned on destroying. I’d like to point out here that, while the show has demonstrated how much Coulson loves his history, it also made him a history teacher in the Framework. Likewise, in the comics, Coulson actually kept his own personal database of files on the heroes he worked with. He knew everything. That’s either going to be a huge asset for them next season… or it’s going to bite them in the ass like it did in the comics. Because when his files were stolen, it meant the enemy had very specific ways to kill the heroes he loved on hand.

The Fitz-Simmons Separation

*Sighs* Less of an Easter egg, but... Okay, so I think everyone was prepared for this to happen in some form. At least there’s a logical explanation for it this time. The Chronicoms have scans of Fitz and Simmons’ brains that are interacting in a computer program. They know how the two think, plan, and make moves. The two of them allying with Enoch, then splitting up, means the Chronicoms no longer have the advantage because the two aren’t thinking the same way the program expects them to. It also means if the Chronicoms capture one of them, they don’t have access to every bit of new knowledge. These two can’t catch a break. (One question though: how much time did they have? Jemma’s not significantly older, so unless she’s an LMD/Chronicom upgrade herself, it can’t have been too long.)

That’s it for this week…. Until next season! Let me know what I missed. I’ll reblog this a few more times if I catch anything else or edit it.

[sunshowers-and-sunflowers]

I tried to write about love

I posted this piece on fet and some man told me to “Go fishing and talk to someone” but the joke is on him bc I HATE fishing.

Admittedly I did come in hot...I tried to clean it up for tumblr so it doesn’t get taken down. TW: mentions of abuse and toxic relationships, blood and consensual acts of harm. Oh and suic*de

One of the only reasons I haven’t killed myself is because I know love is real.

 If I had never experienced it, I might have ended my own suffering. But every day I wake up and I remember what it felt like to be in love. And I can’t die when there is a possibility, I could feel that way again.

 I love a lot of people. Actively and passively every single day.

My platonic love is overwhelming. It’s a bright orange, like creamsicles with the soft pale-yellow swirl. It is messages asking about your day. It is always paying for lunch. It is a text exactly one hour after you left asking if you made it home safely. It is a warm blanket draped over you while you fall asleep watching a movie with me. It is a warm hand placed on your arm accompanied by the warmest most sincere smile I can muster. It is holding you while sobs rack your body and you shiver in my arms. It is absorbing your punches as you scream their name, pound my chest and curse. It is slowly rubbing circles with my thumb while we hold hands. It is carrying napkins, tissues, chapstick, change, extra sunglasses and a snack at all times. Just in case you need it. It is sending you positive encouraging messages reassuring you of your brilliance. It is four-hour long phone calls while you talk, and I nod along even though you can’t see my face. It is a handmade card for your birthday even though we’re nearly 23. It is remembering your parents, grandparents and siblings’ names. It is a soft kiss planted on your forehead. Rustling your hair. Laughing until I cry even though your joke definitely was not that funny. It is playing the same three songs when you get in my car because I know you like them. It is being the voice of reason. Reminding you to study instead of go out. There is no scolding, but a silent disappointment when you make the “wrong” decision. It is a heavy sigh when you tell me about repeated behavior that is causing you pain. It is a firm but gentle nudge forward towards your dreams. It is holding you accountable for your actions. It is forgiving you. Your favorite words fall into my vocabulary and when I catch them coming out of my mouth I can’t help but smile and think of you. It is seeing your favorite things and texting you a picture. It is searching for the perfect meme that I know you’ll love. It’s spending too much money on gifts and wanting to spoil you with material items because I am not good at expressing my love with words. It is a privilege to be by your side and watch you grow. It can be intense, but it is always soft.

 My familial love is a dark purple, the deepest color in a bruise. It is beauty even when there is pain. It is picking up after you. It is cooking your favorite meal and dropping it off at your house. It is calling you and hearing the same things I have heard since childhood. It is listening to the same story I have heard one hundred times but smiling and nodding along anyways. It is staring at old photos of us for too long. It is sneaking my cousins their favorite snacks. And not scolding them when they curse. And laughing at their stories. And never letting them win card games. It is ice cream during the hot summer. It is kissing their heads and whispering I love you and I can’t believe how big you’re getting. It is saying “I remember the day you were born” and choking up with tears. It is knowing I’d give the world to them if I could. It is holding my grandmother’s hand. Running my fingers through her hair. Listening to my grandfather talk about the Army, and every job he’s ever had. It’s remembering how he let me play games at the carnival even though I never won anything. It’s forgiveness. Forgiveness for all the things I needed that you could not provide. Forgiveness for the raising of voices, the breaking of dishes and the hurling of insults. It is never sharing how I felt as a child, because I know it would break you. It’s sitting in silence and watching HGTV with my father for five hours. It is sweeping his floors, and helping him fold laundry because I worry, he won’t do it without my help. It is watching TV with my mother even though she pauses the show and stretches a 30-minute show into almost 2 hours. It’s sitting down on the couch, and then being immediately asked to grab something and doing it anyways. It is birthday cards, and Christmas cards, and even Easter cards every single year. It is the soft rays of an early morning drive. It is the swelling in my chest when I remember you are all human. It is feeling satisfied, but still sad, that you tried your best and it was not enough.

Then there is the love that drives me. But I guess there isn’t just one.

The soft yellow, a warm ray of light slipping through the blinds. Looking straight at the sun and smiling.

The waking up at 11 am on a Sunday, limbs tangled, light spilling into the room, a barely audible hum and a feeling of peace. It is making chocolate chip pancakes with smiley faces that exist for ten minutes at most before you devour them. It is reaching across the table with a napkin to wipe your face. It is grabbing onto your forearm in public when I am scared. It is the intertwining of feet at the dinner table. It is grocery shopping together and running with the cart. It is laughing so hard that people start to stare. It is watching your favorite movie 100 times and not complaining once. It is waiting to watch the next episode of tv with you even though I’m dying to find out what happens. It is leaving love notes in your lunch. Or on the bathroom mirror. Or the refrigerator. It is sending you snapchats of ugly faces because I know it makes you laugh. It is standing on my tip toes begging for a kiss. It is holding hands while we eat dinner. It is waking up at 3 am and looking at your face, so moved by your existence that I start to cry.

 Then there’s an apple green.

Riding carnival rides and screaming together. Carving pumpkins and one of us definitely cuts our finger. It is singing karaoke and neither of us knows the chorus. It is pulling your pants down as you cut an apple in the kitchen but as I run away, I run into the wall. It is buying dinosaur band aids because I know you will love them. It is rolling the windows down and driving far over the speed limit while we both scream into the inky night. It is driving at the dead of night; darkness surrounds me and your snoring is so loud I cannot hear the radio. It is being horribly drunk in public, and I warn you about getting sick, but you keep drinking and we end up in the bathroom, me holding your hair back while you spill your guts. It is loud electronic music in a club as we flail our bodies around. Your face looks so good in neon flashing lights. It is doing dishes together and accidently flicking soap on you. It is the time I dumped noodles in a soap covered drainer and you never let me live it down. It is being sprawled out on the couch while you play video games, I scream at the TV pointing out all of your enemies as they shoot you dead. It is being selfish and not pausing the show even though you fell asleep 20 minutes ago. It is your morning breath that I can taste but don’t care because I have to kiss you as soon as I wake up. It is when you force me to cut your hair and my hands shake terribly but I am so moved by your trust in me. It is when you make me try new food and I hate it so you eat it all. It is anger when you say you don’t want any fries and then proceed to eat all of mine, but I don’t say anything. It is playing hide and seek in the aisles like we are children, not held down my societal expectations. It is holding back all the “I told ya sos”. It’s the absolute chaos sharing your life with another person brings. But god I’d take all the chaos in the world as long as you’re by my side.

There’s a lilac color. Like lavender.

It is so similar to platonic love. Picking up after you, seeing things and thinking of you, trying my best to make you happy. But it is different. It is running my fingers through your hair absentmindedly. It is leaving lipstick kisses all over your face. It is doing your laundry because it saves time. It is telling you my fears and hopes for the future. It is kissing all the spots on your body that you aren’t ready to love. It’s holding your hand when you try new things. It is listening to your hopes and dreams. It is encouraging you to be who you are inside. It is picking up your habits and being amazed when I catch myself doing them. It’s slipping your name into conversation with other people. It is laying on freshly cleaned sheets and listening to your heartbeat. It is our fingers intertwined during a nap. It’s getting used to your little quirks. It is finishing each other’s sentences. It is knowing your standard Chinese food order. It is going to corporate Christmas parties and watching you interact with all your co-workers as I stand in the corner. It is running a thumb across your lips. It is familiarity and comfort.

Then there’s a deep red. Like dried blood flecks on my face.

It’s the screaming and crying and shaking because I need you to understand me, but you just can’t seem to. It’s the splitting my knuckles on the wall that I punch out of frustration, and you gently wash my hands and bandage them in silence. It is the awkward silence when I meet your family and they just don’t seem to like me. It’s the pain that shoots across your face when they ask me “So what are you?”. It’s being curled in a ball on our bed, desperately sniffing your shirts because I haven’t seen you in days. It’s the white-hot pain that shoots through my body when your fist connects with my jaw. It’s the absence of air in my lungs, and the audible struggling as your fingers squeeze the life from me. It’s wearing pants in the summer because I can’t let anyone see all the bruises you’ve left on my thighs. It’s the strands of your hair, ripped from your head and grasped tightly in my fingers as you leave bite marks all over my body. It’s the slightest hint of blood on your back as my nails dig into your skin. It’s the sound of flesh hitting flesh in my car parked in an abandoned lot. It’s my backseat being covered in white and red fluid, clashing against my tan carpet. It is the smell of sweat. It is stained sheets. It is screaming into the void with you by my side, but not being sure what we’re screaming about.

It can be confusing. When it’s crying your name out. When it’s begging you to hurt me. When it’s feeling empty when I’m not with you. When it’s chains and shackles. When it’s warm breath pleading “Take the pain for me”. When it’s being covered in bruises. When it’s shaking uncontrollably when I’m with you. When it’s flinching when you go to touch me. When it’s crying in my room because you aren’t there. When you are all I can think about. It is a slightly metallic smell. Slightly off-putting but also intoxicating too.

But I know for sure what it isn’t.

It’s not emptying my first aid kit every month because we just seem to run through bandages like it’s nothing. It’s not sweeping up broken glass from our living floor. It’s not sweeping up pieces of ceramic in the kitchen. It’s not the smell of bleach as I scrub the spots of blood from the bathroom floor. It’s not the heat radiating from my cheeks as you humiliate me in public, in front of your friends because I dared to suggest you needed assistance in any form. It’s not crying. So many tears. It’s not waking up at 2 am to an empty bed. It’s not doing our laundry alone because you have worked 10 days straight. It’s not looking in the mirror and not recognizing who is looking back. It’s not cursing and screaming and crying and pulling away. It’s not knocking glasses off of tables as I run from you. It’s not waking up at 12 am to greet you as you come home from your closing shift, but finding you on the couch, talking to someone else through your headset. It’s not unanswered text messages. It’s not boiling water washing over me as I sit curled into a ball in our shower. It’s not wearing headphones and blasting music for a single second of peace. It is not our apartment filled with the sounds of chewing because we have nothing to say over dinner. It is not constant pain. It is not constant fear. It is not fearing for my safety.

I live every day because I think I might get to see the soft hazy yellows, or the bright candy apple greens. But the fear of rusty reds keeps me alone. It drives me to pull back from every encounter. It plants seeds of doubt in me.

And so, I settle.

I dream of those colors, while isolating myself. I consume literature and media that paints with such pretty colors. But me? I can’t imagine ever picking up a paint brush again.

And so I long for something I will never pursue.

I live knowing love is possible but not willing to risk it all again. Only to be left bloody, bruised and alone.

I’ve got no problem with blood, or bruises. But being alone while someone out there knows every inch of me?

I’d rather not.

[magnetic-force-of-a-may]

Now I See Daylight: Lover is Taylor Swift’s Brightest Glow-Up

I wrote a ~2,000 word review of Lover. I’m so proud of you @taylorswift buddy, and as someone who majored in literature, I always like to close-read and write about the art I appreciate. and I love love lover, and I hope you’ll like my review (skip to the last paragraph if it’s too long hehe). <3 @taylornation   The musical event of my year transpired last night when Taylor Swift released her hotly anticipated 7th studio album, Lover. It’s Taylor’s 13th year in the game, my 11th year as a Swiftie, and we’ve both never been better. After dancing/crying/listening to Lover since last night, I’m finally ready to write my review of this triumphant, exuberant pop masterpiece.

It’s been a whirlwind past few months, from five holes in the fence to the star-studded, not-without-controversy YNTCD to the gorgeous title track that is “Lover.” As always, Taylor and her team have orchestrated a business-savvy album roll-out, complete with an elaborate, year-long, Easter Egg hunt. There is always much speculation about a Taylor Swift album, and a marketing campaign structured around clues is a smart way of creating the speculation, shifting listeners’ attention somewhere productive; in this case, re-watching the “ME!” music video over and over to catch all the eggs and amp up the video’s views. But to hear Lover in its entirety at the end of an Easter Egg journey is ultimately rewarding and intimate. “I am an architect, I’m drawing up the plans,” sings Taylor in “I Think He Knows.” The Lover era confirms her skills as a powerful architect; she builds speculation, constructs masterful bridges (she really went to “bridge city” with many songs on this album), and shows no signs of stopping.

The opening track, “I Forgot You Existed,” is an understated earworm that essentially bids the reputation era (and the Kimye drama of 2016) adieu. “It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference,” Taylor shrugs. Vocally, the song has a colloquial quality; throughout, Taylor speaks, laughs, even trails off. It’s the equivalent of the throat-clearing that launched Track 1 of reputation, “Ready For It.” The first and essentially last song about “drama” on Lover, “I Forgot You Existed” clears the path for the 17 raw, emotional tracks to come.

The immediate next track, “Cruel Summer,” is an absolute pop-bop that immediately takes us to the higher register (Taylor in soprano-mode is sublime). It’s likely the next single (Tay teased the title in the YNTCD video and in a recent Amazon ad). This is the first song on the album that takes us to BRIDGE CITY—Tay practically screams “he looks up, grinning like a devil” in the bridge, and it’s amazing. We get to hear several New Taylor Sounds in this album, and it’s a lovely surprise each time. The trumpet(?) tease that opens “False God” and the way Tay sings “lo-o-o-o-ve” in the chorus prove that it’s all in the details. Structurally, the song staggers the lyrics in the chorus, such that each bleeds into the next (“Religion’s in your lips / Even if it’s a false god.” The religious imagery in Taylor’s past two albums is fascinating). Something similar happens, with even more syncopation (and brass!), in “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” which is the grown-up, dreamier version of “Mary’s Song.” Speaking of the debut album, the way Taylor sings the bridge of “Cornelia Street” (“Barefoot in the kitchen…”) sounds just like the chorus of “Invisible.” Are these callbacks to her debut album coincidental? Knowing Taylor, likely not.

Indeed, many moments in Lover remind us that the old Taylor is far from dead, as she previously proclaimed in LWYMMD. "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” makes a direct reference to Tay’s song from the Hannah Montana movie (I looove “Crazier”), and in “Daylight” she sings that she used to think of love as being “burning red,” a lyric from “Red.” And Track 12 of Lover, “Soon You’ll Get Better,” is like Track 12 of Fearless, “The Best Day” (one of my all-time favs)—both are songs about Taylor’s mom, Andrea Swift, who is currently battling cancer. “Soon You’ll Get Better” is the album’s #1 tear-jerker, and features Andrea’s favorite band, The Dixie Chicks. It’s the closest thing to country on the album.  

But on Lover, we are undeniably listening to a new Taylor who brings the storytelling traditions of country into the energetic world of pop. This Taylor writes about love from a stronger place of growth and self-confidence. You know that meme that goes, “I’m you but stronger”? That’s Lover to Taylor’s early discography. Tay’s confidence jumps out clearly in ME!, which was the first single Taylor released on 4.26 and honestly still one of my favorite tracks from the album (catch me yelling “HEY, KIDS! SPELLING IS FUN! on tour). I truly love Brendon Urie’s part in that song. Although “ME!”might have a reputation for being a “kids’ bop,” it channels a form of self-awareness that we also get on “Afterglow,” which is about a lover who understands her own flaws: “It’s all me, in my head.” Both “Afterglow” and “ME!” speak to the beauty and possibility of experiencing a storm with someone and recovering together afterwards, be it in the rain or in the light. It’s not just self-awareness that Taylor demonstrates on Lover, but also social awareness—this is the year she finally became vocally political, after all. “YNTCD” was her first LGBTQ anthem. Although some have accused Tay of “queerbaiting” (there’s always some flaw to pick out, isn’t there), the song is truly Taylor’s love letter as an ally to the LGBTQ community. Then there’s “The Man,” which slams the patriarchy by imagining a world in which Taylor is not a woman, but a man. “If I was out flashing my dollars I’d be a bitch, not a baller,” she sings. She also gives Leo Dicaprio a well-deserved roast; while Taylor’s dating life has received extensive scrutiny, tabloids don’t hate on “Leo in Saint-Tropez” the way they lambast Taylor for ‘serial-dating.’ “The Man” also sounds very much like HAIM’s “Forever” (“Dress” on reputation gave me HAIM vibes too). And I’ll forever stan Taylor x HAIM.

In Red, Taylor sings “Stay Stay Stay” to someone who later likely breaks her heart. Interestingly, the song on Lover that sounds like a musical echo to that track is “Paper Rings,” an adrenaline rush of a song about getting married. The song is another perfect 60s bop, and I love all the counting that happens in the song; it lyrically and spiritually channels the “you’re the only one I want” energy from Grease. “I like shiny things,” sings Taylor (we know) “but I’d marry you with paper rings.” And theother elephant-in-the-room song about marriage is of course “Lover,” which has literal wedding vows in its beautiful bridge. Of the three marriage-related songs on this album, “Lover” wins my heart (and it’s Taylor’s favorite song that she’s ever written, I hear). It’s a beautiful ballad that comes straight from the heart. Like the best Taylor Swift songs, it’s personal. We get straight to the time and place, like in “Cornelia Street,” the street on which Taylor used to live. In fact, the song’s melody seems to share the same musical pattern as “Delicate,” and some fans even speculate that the “third floor on the West side” from “Delicate” is on Cornelia Street. Another song is that is very location-specific is “London Boy,” which is a personal favorite for its allusion-heavy lyrics and catchy beat. I know that some Londoners are shaking their heads at the lyrics, but oh well—it’s a cute nod to Taylor’s current boyfriend of three years, Joe Alwyn, who (if you haven’t figured it out by now) is the inspiration behind many of the songs on this album.  Another standout, should-be-a-single track is the aforementioned “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” which demonstrates Tay’s exquisite, imaginative storytelling style and mastery of metaphor (“Getaway Car” was the masterful-metaphor song on reputation). I could really write a paper on these lyrics. The Guardian seems to think it’s about living in Trump’s America? It’s a song that, along with “The Archer,” is reminiscent of Lana Del Rey’s dreamy pop (although the latter, while lyrically lovely, has yet to totally grow on me). Taylor has long been outspoken about her love for Lana’s music (they also share a producer: the amazing Jack Antonoff). If this means that Taylor’s music is beginning to take on a slightly indie-rock quality, I’m not complaining. For instance, “Death by a Thousand Cuts” has a slightly Vampire Weekend-quality to it, especially with the freestyle piano tinkling that emerges towards the chorus. But it would be remiss for me to compare Taylor to other artists (although maybe this at least proves that I listen to other music hahahahahah). As she sings in “ME!”, she’s the only one of her(!), and Lover proves this to a T (see what I did there?). From the records it broke even before release day to the pop perfection we’re getting on every track, Lover is bold and brassy, and Taylor knows it.

A few months ago, Taylor wrote in an Elle listicle that she has learned to “step into the daylight and let it go.” That line has indeed revealed itself to be a lyric from the final track of Lover, “Daylight,” a 5-minute long song that beautifully closes the album. “I don’t wanna look at anything else now that I saw you,” sings Taylor to her lover. But she also ends with a monologue: “You are what you love.” For Taylor, to love someone is to also love yourself. And that message of self-love radiates throughout Lover.

Earlier this year, I read an article with the headline, “Sad Taylor Swift is the Best Taylor Swift.” While it’s true that artistic production does often come from places of suffering and heartbreak, Lover steps into the daylight and delivers songs on an album that is wonderfully bright. The album cover, shot by the talented Valheria Rocha, captures the softness and loveliness of this glow. In Lover, Taylor is not our heartbreak princess. And we don’t want her to be, either. She’s braver than “Fearless,” and she’s more than simply “Clean.” I’d like to argue that Taylor is at her best at her brightest, which is to say at her clearest and cleverest. She’s someone who shines, inside and out, in her music and in her life. The illuminating, skin-clearing grace that she delivers on Lover lights up my room. This review is glowing, and so is Lover.

[componentplanet]

The Top 5 Games We Played in 2019

What is life without fun? Few things are as fun as getting truly lost in a game you love. As we close out 2019, it’s time to look back on the games that dominated our free time. This year, we have top five (or almost five) lists from Joel Hruska, David Cardinal, Michael Justin Allen Sexton, and Ryan Whitwam. Our picks skew newer, but not everything we’ve been obsessed with is from the last year. These are just the games we’ve enjoyed the most in 2019.

Ryan

Red Dead Redemption 2

As a primarily PC gamer, I was never able to play the original Red Dead Redemption, but Rockstar saw fit to make port the sequel to PC. The game suffered from a rocky launch on PC, and not all the bugs have been ironed out, but it’s still one of the most engaging gaming experiences I’ve had in recent memory. The world is detailed and rich with content, and not just repetitive fetch quests like some games that tout the size of their maps. The storytelling and voice acting are also absolutely top notch. Traveling to distant waypoints in many games is tedious, but the journey is part of the fun in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

Pokemon occupies a unique place gaming culture as a franchise that became a worldwide phenomenon without any full console releases. Pokemon Sword and Shield broke with tradition when they launched on the Nintendo Switch. They still have many of the same problems as older Pokemon games like clunky menus, confusing online features, and bad writing. That’s not why people play Pokemon games, though. It’s about catching ’em all, and Pokemon Sword and Shield do that better than any previous games in the series. In addition to the game’s linear routes between cities, there’s a vast Wild Area to explore. The raid battle mechanics are also a nice addition. You can waste truly obscene amounts of time searching for your favorite mons in these games.

Untitled Goose Game

Who would have thought a goose could be the bane of an entire town? But that’s what you become in Untitled Goose Game. The game presents you with a to-do list and turns you loose on the unsuspecting people of this unnamed hamlet. Some items on the list are simple — steal the gardener’s rake and put it in the lake. Others will take more planning and thought, like the quest to make someone put on the wrong glasses. This game speaks to some sort of casual maliciousness we all have when playing games, and it’s incredibly engaging. You will become the goose, and as you walk away from your vanquished foes, honking and flapping your wings, you feel almost unreasonably powerful.

The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds is basically a smaller, quirkier Fallout in space. As a refugee from a stranded transport ship, you have to make your way in the libertarian fantasy that is the Halcyon solar system. You can either support the mega-corporations that dominate the colony or fight to change things. Along the way, you’ll assemble a crew of misfits with their own backstories to explore across the Halcyon system. The settings are fun to explore, and the voice acting is surprisingly good. I will be the first to admit The Outer Worlds isn’t a perfect game; it’s too short, and there’s not enough variation in gear. Still, it’s still one of the best things I played this year.

MechWarrior 5

I love giant fighting robots, and MechWarrior is the premiere giant fighting robot franchise. However, we went almost 20 years without a proper single player MechWarrior game. That finally changed a few weeks ago with the release of MechWarrior 5. You play as the leader of a mercenary group, traveling the stars in search of money and revenge at the controls of heavily armed mechs. The combat in this game is superb — the dozens of included mechs have unique characteristics, weapon loadouts, and roles. These war machines feel heavy and powerful, and it’s an absolute delight to blast other mechs as you fulfill a contract. The game does have some problems with a meandering storyline, and the voice acting is barely passable. I’m willing to forgive that in light of the incredible combat, though.

Joel

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Mutant Year Zero is one of my favorite games that I’ve played this year. It’s not really a full AAA title in scope — think of it as more of a “AA” game, bigger than an indie, but smaller than what a large studio would build. The game is built on the same engine used for the newer version of XCOM, but it allows free-moving exploration in ways XCOM isn’t known for. It’s not perfect — there are definitely a few rough spots — but it feels like a Fallout title (and includes a few easter eggs referencing that game).

World of Warcraft Classic

I haven’t had nearly as much time to play WoW Classic as I’d like, but I’ve definitely had tons of fun with it. Bringing back Blizzard’s iconic World of Warcraft proved to be a popular choice for the company. The mode has been more popular than Blizzard anticipated, though it’s not clear how many players are brand-new to the title versus those coming back to relieve the glory days.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Don’t look at me that way. I never had access to a console growing up, which means I’ve had a lot of first-time fun with some of the old console games. Yoshi’s Island is a truly amazing game for it’s era, with gorgeous artwork and great level design.

  It was designed to be a more ‘accessible’ platform, and I’m willing to admit I need that kind of feature, having basically never played platformers as a kid. I die. A lot. The restore button is going to break off the NES Classic long before any other component. I may not be very good at the game, but I’ve certainly had a lot of fun with it.

Sadly, I’m only in for three titles  — I’ve scarcely done enough gaming to talk about it, outside of the above. One of the ironies of writing about the topic is that it’s hard to find the time to actually do it, and life had other plans for Christmas this year. I had planned to write an article about No Mans Sky, which I recently bought, but I’ve only been able to spend an hour with the title thus far.

Michael

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Taishi

I got my first taste of the Koei Tecmo’s Nobunaga’s Ambition game franchise roughly twenty years ago on the SNES. Afterwards I fell out of touch with the series but recently have got back into these wonderful strategy games with Nobunaga’s Ambition: Spheres of Influence and Nobunaga’s Ambition Taishi. Though both games provide an enjoyable experience as you fight to conquer the Japanese isles, Taishi has options to automate some of the more tedious aspects of the game and makes the later stages of the game significantly more enjoyable than in Sphere’s of Influence. Though it’s not what I’d call perfect, it’s currently my favorite strategy game that I feel any fan of the genre will enjoy.

Jade Empire

Jade Empire is sent in a fictional world roughly based Chinese history and culture with Buddhist elements influencing the game’s story.  The game also features its own artificial language that was created by a linguist explicitly for use in the game. Released in 2005, I first played this game when I was 14, and it helped to grow my interest in Asia. It’s by far my favorite game of all time, and I make it a point to replay this game at least once every year. Though my hopes for a sequel have yet to be answered, if you’ve never tried the game before its well worth giving it a try.

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy

This is another game that I first played years ago on the original Xbox. Set in ancient Egypt, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is predominantly a puzzle game with some fighting and RPG elements mixed in. I got back into this game this year after discovering that THQ Nordic had released a remastered version of the game with improved graphics. Though the gameplay remains unchanged from the original, it holds up well it’s still fun to play. There is also a fan based mod in the works which includes content cut from the original game.

Fable III

When Lionhead studios launched the original Fable, it instantly became one of the best RPG games in the world. Later games in the series changed drastically and mixed reviews. Though the games were fun, they were also disappointing because of the extent to which they changed. Fable III has never been able to stand up to the original Fable, but trying the game again after a few years I found this game to still be fun to play and an enjoyable experience.

StarCraft 2

StarCraft 2 needs little introduction. Since its release StarCraft 2 has been a crowd favorite with the online multiplayer gaming community. The game also has a long and highly enjoyable campaign that also has plenty of replay value. Though I don’t play online much, I often return to run through the campaign, which is why I opted to include it in my list of top five games for the year.

David

Untitled Goose Game

This game comes pretty close to qualifying as the ultimate un-video-game — at least compared to most current hits. You can’t get killed. At most you suffer from a couple momentary ruffled feathers. There is no time pressure, unless you complete the entire game and decide to try and set speed records. Graphics are trivial and cartoon-like — but artfully thought out. It is fun, addictive, and can be played by anyone. You only need a couple buttons and a joystick, along with a sense of humor.

The plot is simple. You’re an annoying goose who spends your day harassing the unlucky denizens of a nearby village. When in doubt honking is sure to get a start out of them, and help you distract them. There are dozens of tasks you get to try to accomplish, ranging from breaking things to befuddling shopkeepers. Watching and kibitzing can be almost as fun as playing, so don’t hesitate to fire it up when the whole family is around.

F1 2019

For some reason lost in history, our family follows F1 racing. Despite the relative lack of passing or on-track action, we’re addicted. So it is great to be able to “follow along” with the season by playing the F1 games for each season. This year in particular, the game came out part way through the season, so it was possible to drive the same tracks that the racers would that weekend. There are extensive team and career modes, but they’re wasted on me, as I don’t have the attention span for them. But experimenting by driving different cars and different setups adds to the enjoyment of the race season.

Forza Motorsport 7

If it wasn’t for the F1 connection, I’d rate Motorsports 7 as a no-brainer winner over F1, and it definitely has the best AIs of any version of Motorsports. I really enjoy the versatility of the game, with a huge selection of cars, tracks, and race series. It is certainly not anything like iRacing when it comes to racing fidelity and true competitive racing, but the graphics are much more detailed, and I don’t participate in multi-player racing (other than with Avatars) anyway. I also play Assetto Corsa and Project CARS, but Motorsports is my go to if I just want to spend some time on track.

Dirt Rally

The most stressful video game experience ever for me was driving a mountain course in Dirt Rally in VR using my Oculus. I can imagine driving a NASCAR around an oval at full speed (as lethal as that might prove to be), but I can’t imagine driving at high speed on a dirt track hugging a cliff. So for the most part I stick with the forest tracks in Dirt Rally, but I love the combination of needing to drive the car and interpret the messages about the upcoming hills and turns from my rally co-driver.

Ultimate General: Civil War

This is another game where the campaign modes are wasted on me. But the detailed, and carefully-modeled, tactical engagements and multi-day battle strategies are great fun for a reformed hex board gamer like me. And unlike with tabletop versions of military campaigns, I can play this one against the computer any time I want. Like many games of its genre, it doesn’t get updated much, and some elements of it are behind the times, but it looks great on my 4K 32-inch photo monitor.

That’s the titles we’ve been playing — what’s held your interest through 2019?

Now Read: 

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, Xbox’s Phil Spencer Are Fighting Over Moore’s Law

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How Much Does It Matter That PCs Are Faster Than Consoles?

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/303784-the-top-5-games-we-played-in-2019 from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-top-5-games-we-played-in-2019.html

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Revisit Steven Spielberg’s Lifelong Love of Video Games Leading Up to ‘Ready Player One’ (Flashback)

If you heard arcade sound effects while taking the Universal Studios backlot tour in the early ’80s, that might have been Steven Spielberg unknowingly preparing himself to direct the ultimate love letter to video games more than 35 years later.

“This is a serious filmmaker here working in the office,” Spielberg joked in 1982, quickly turning back to the Donkey Kong arcade game in front of him and narrating the rest of his level. “Well, the gorilla took the lady, broke my heart, and went up into the sky.” ET was paying a visit to the 35-year-old director’s office just as he was coming off the success of the previous year’s Raiders of the Lost Ark and working in post-production on two other now-classic films -- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Poltergeist -- butSpielberg’s attention was fully focused on the game at hand.

So, what was so captivating that it distracted him from the cameras in his office? Instant satisfaction that delivers in a way filmmaking can’t, Spielberg explained. “It’s a quick thrill. It takes me a year to have a quick thrill with a movie.”

Typically, making movies can be a long, exhaustive process, something Spielberg discovered doesn’t pay off until the project is completely finished. “I peak a lot during the year and I have a couple highs, but essentially it's only when the movie is done that you're able to look at it and say, ‘Finally. It's over. I'm satisfied,’” he said.

“With a video game, I can play Tempest, and in 10 minutes I can probably feel totally like I've accomplished something today when in fact I haven't,” Spielberg continued. “All the machine does is essentially massage my ego and say, 'Gee, you've got a good reaction time. You can beat me. Now try again on the next level.’”

An ardent gamer, Spielberg’s passion for the genre was made widely known over a decade ago, when he partnered with Electronic Arts to develop a series of original video games. Yet, one only had to look around the young filmmaker’s office, which featured a full-sized arcade cabinet for Donkey Kong -- a gaming franchise that was only introduced in 1981 -- some 20 years earlier to know just how much they meant to him. Speaking to theL.A. Times last year, Ready Player One author Ernest Cline encapsulated Spielberg’s proclivity for video games during this era in a single anecdote.

“[Spielberg] used to have a little arcade at Amblin back in the ‘80s, and he was obsessed with breaking a million points on Missile Command,” said Cline. Did he ever succeed? Yes, but only after his preoccupation led him to hook the arcade cabinet up to generators while filming on location for E.T.

In late 1982, an Atari video game based on E.T. was green-lit, designed and released all within the span of a five weeks. Before it hit shelves, an Atari executive told Entertainment Tonight there was a chance its popularity might even surpass their bestselling game at that time, Pac-Man. That is not what transpired. Instead, it vastly underperformed in sales, and the release coincided with Atari’s eventual collapse as a company, along with a sharp decline in the video game industry overall. Years later, boxes of unsold cartridges would be discovered in a New Mexico landfill. The documentary Atari: Game Over -- directed by Ready Player One co-screenwriter Zak Penn -- goes on to tell the full story behind the popular video game and argues that the E.T. game was unjustly blamed at the time for Atari’s downfall.

By the ‘90s, Spielberg’s love of gaming turned into a business opportunity when one of his ideas served as the inspiration for The Dig, a 1995 point-and-click adventure developed by LucasArts. Around the turn of the millennium, he initiated development of Medal of Honor, a WWII-era first person shooter. That game spawned a popular franchise and helped establish a genre that gave way to the juggernaut that is Call of Duty (fun fact: Medal of Honor was scored by Michael Giacchino, future go-to composer for Spielberg protege J.J Abrams.) His collaboration with EA included the production of Boom Blox for Nintendo Wii, which became a modest hit with critics upon its release in 2008. Not too long ago, it seemed like a match made in heaven when Microsoft announced that Spielberg was helping develop a TV adaptation of Halo for Showtime. While updates on the production have been few and far between since that announcement in 2013, the network confirmed in January that it’s “still in very active development.”

Now, perhaps bringing both filmmaking and video games together for the first time for Spielberg is Ready Player One. In the year 2045, teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) spends most of his time within the OASIS, a massive VR universe. Its designer, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), unleashes a Willy Wonka-like treasure hunt within the 3-D world upon his death, with the winner gaining complete control over the OASIS. Watts teams up with fellow gamers and ’80s pop culture devotees (played by Olivia Cooke and Lena Waithe) to snare this grand prize. The stakes are high as they’re also up against a corporation and its CEO (Ben Mendelsohn), who wishes to exploit the virtual landscape.

Not only is Cline’s book a tribute to gamers and video game history, it’s also a hodgepodge of nods and references to Spielberg’s work. Not wanting to get the high score in cinematic self-reflexivity, the director only ended up putting a handful of these artifacts into the film; Watts drives the time machine DeLorean from Back to the Future, while in the movie’s trailer we also catch a familiar glimpse of the flare-obsessed T. rex from Jurassic Park.

Within the big screen pop culture mosaic, Spielberg has also created a Halliday-esque challenge of his own. The director told ET ahead of the Ready Player One release that he’s inserted about a half-dozen “personal favorite” Easter eggs into the film. But don’t bother asking him where to look. As both an O.G. gamer and world-class filmmaker, Spielberg wanted Ready Player One to be about more than the quick thrills he knows all too well. He explained, “You have to find them, because if I give them to you, you will go right there immediately, and you’ll forget to watch the movie.”

RELATED CONTENT:

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[aion-rsa]

Venom: Who is Carnage?

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OK, Venom fans, break out your Green Jelly tapes, because it's time to learn all about Carnage, Spider-Man's evil double's evil double.

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Feature

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Gavin Jasper

Marvel

Oct 16, 2018

venom

Spider-Man

Carnage

All right, so, a few months ago, when Deadpool 2 came out, we did an article called Deadpool 2: Who is Juggernaut? People were pretty annoyed because Juggernaut’s role in that movie as a major antagonist wasn’t advertised and they cried spoiler. And that’s a fair call. Apologies.

That said, if you think it’s a spoiler that Carnage is in any way alluded to in Venom, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s Carnage. Of COURSE he’s going to be at least referenced in a Venom movie. The movie just used Carlton Drake and Riot. Venom doesn’t exactly have a Batman-level rogues gallery to play with and only one of his bad guys is important enough to get a red SNES cartridge.

So yeah, Carnage. He’s teased at the end of Venom. Read more on that in this look at the Venom post-credit sequences.

The only real surprise is that it’s taken this long for Carnage to be in a movie. With so many comic book movies out there, we’re running out of iconic villains who haven’t been featured. We’re down to Darkseid, Kang, and...I don’t know, Arcade?

Much like in the movies, Carnage’s first appearance in the comics was a quick teaser. While Spider-Man was busy dealing with Cardiac in Amazing Spider-Man #360 (by Davie Michelinie and Chris Marrinan), we got to see a one-page scene of a man named Gunny Stein returning home, only to be smothered by an attacker who admitted to killing him merely because he was looking through the phone book and found a suitably stupid name.

While he would appear in full in the following issue (Mark Bagley on art), the wheels towards Carnage’s creation came far earlier. When trying to kill Spider-Man, Venom ran afoul of Styx and Stone, a villain duo only really remembered for this very story. Styx, who has a death touch, touched the Venom symbiote and seemingly killed it. Eddie Brock was thrown in a regular prison and I would make a Bronson joke if I had actually gotten around to seeing that movie.

Venom returned to mess with Spider-Man again, only this time on an abandoned island. Spider-Man pretended to die in an explosion and Venom was all, “Sweet! Our to-do list is done! Let’s just squat on this island, where there are no TVs or newspapers to let us know that Spider-Man’s alive!”

That worked out great for everyone, but then the Carnage storyline kicked in and after a single fight against the new villain, Spider-Man decided that he needed Venom to fight with him. I enjoy a good hero/villain vs. bigger villain story as much as the next guy, but the intent to make it a Venom team-up was laughably blatant. How blatant?

Knowing that Venom was going to go into a violent frenzy, Spider-Man confronted him with Human Torch as backup. After all, fire is one of Venom’s weaknesses. Makes sense. Only, like, WHY DO YOU NOT JUST CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN AND JUST BRING HUMAN TORCH WITH YOU TO FIGHT CARNAGE? Hell, the dude has three friends who would be extremely helpful in catching the loud and obnoxious serial killer. He can’t be THAT hard to find.

further reading: Venom Comics Reading Order

There’s a quick line in the end about how bringing them in would make things more dangerous, but I have trouble accepting that truth when their replacement is an irrational mass murderer who will kill Spider-Man the first chance he gets.

But anyway, Spider-Man and Venom teamed up against Carnage a few times, got beat up despite the odds, then beat him by exploiting his sonics weakness. Then Spider-Man and Venom went back to fighting. A solid enough story, but not really all that memorable.

No, Carnage’s more memorable story would come a year later with Maximum Carnage. Actually, even that story wasn't all that memorable. I read it several times and I can barely give you the gist of what happened. Just that Carnage got himself his own personal Harley Quinn in Shriek, then created a short-lived supervillain team alongside Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Spider-Man and Venom teamed up again, only this time with a bunch of Marvel randos on their side like Morbius, Iron Fist, and Night Watch.

Stuff happened, Captain America being there was treated like a huge deal, and...man, whatever. All I know is that there was a seriously sweet panel where Venom was tearing off Carnage’s eyes.

The real reason anyone remembered the storyline was because of LJN’s video game Maximum Carnage for SNES and Genesis. Considered “good for an LJN game,” it allowed you to play as Spider-Man or Venom as you beat up extremely 90s street thugs and Carnage’s crew over and over again. Even being the final boss, you end up fighting Carnage a handful of times throughout.

further reading: Complete Guide to Marvel Easter Eggs in the Venom Movie

The game had a red cartridge and featured a soundtrack by Green Jelly (including their song “Carnage Rules”), so it had that going for it.

There was a sequel (technically a prequel) called Separation Anxiety, which was based on Venom: Lethal Protector. Since the arc didn’t have any major end boss threats, they just threw in Carnage as the final challenge because what the hell. They had the assets. Even the ending was just a picture of Carnage with zero epilogue. Again, Carnage had absolutely nothing to do with the story.

And so, Carnage continued to make comic appearances throughout the 90s. Inspired by the Maximum Carnage game, there was a silly Venom comic called Carnage Unleashed where Venom and Carnage fought inside the internet and it was somehow broadcast on the big screen in Times Square. Planet of the Symbiotes had Carnage become a giant after devouring and absorbing an untold amount of invading symbiotes. There was even a Spider-Man/Batman crossover where Carnage teamed up with Joker and then got punked out and made fun of for being a one-dimensional Joker knockoff.

Oh, and Batman beat him down with just his fists.

Speaking of DC crossovers, when they did the Amalgam Comics gimmick, Carnage was merged with Bizarro to become Bizarnage. The albino symbiote wanted to kill and replace Spider-Boy. Hey, at least he got representation. Nobody merged with Venom during that entire event.

further reading: The 15 Craziest Venom Moments in Marvel History

Carnage even got a couple animated appearances during this time. He showed up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series as a henchman of Dormammu where he wasn’t allowed to do anything remotely serial killer-y. He was fine, all things considered, but then things got real stupid once the show spun off into Spider-Man Unlimited.

Instead of that, I’ll talk about his appearance in the Spider-Man video game for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Dreamcast. In the plot, Carnage and Doctor Octopus teamed up in hopes of taking over the world with a symbiote army. This led to the pants-shittingly terrifying final level where Spider-Man is chased out of a huge tower by Monster Ock – the Carnage symbiote on Ock’s body. He wasn’t really even a boss because even if you were wearing the Captain Universe costume that made you invincible, you couldn’t damage Monster Ock and if he caught up to you, you’d instantly die. You just had to swing away until you were saved by a cutscene.

further reading: The Many Characters Who Wore the Venom Symbiote

The 90s ended and so began the era of being embarrassed by things that happened in the 90s. While we did get a Venom vs. Carnage miniseries that mainly acted as a launch pad for the Carnage symbiote’s spawn Toxin (it didn’t take), Carnage was soon taken off the board. In the pages of New Avengers, Brian Michael Bendis had the Sentry show off how OP he was by grabbing Carnage, slamming him through several prison ceilings, flying him into space, and tearing him in half.

Mac Gargan Venom was a thing around that time anyway, so we already had a 100% evil symbiote guy creeping around.

After 5-6 years, Carnage finally came back in a miniseries simply called Carnage by Zeb Wells and Clayton Crane. It was originally going to be called Astonishing Spider-Man and Iron Man, but marketing realized that putting Carnage front and center would probably sell better. It revealed that Carnage survived the Sentry’s stunt and Cletus was kept alive by a corrupt prosthetics developer who gave him metal legs in exchange for using his symbiote to enhance his prosthetics technology.

It all went horribly wrong and created another Carnage offspring in Scorn. She also did not take.

There was a sequel called Carnage USA by the same creative team and I absolutely recommend it. Seemingly building up to some symbiote-related event comic that never came to be (Rick Remender’s Venom was also guilty of this), the comic had to do with Carnage expanding to the point that he was able to take over an entire town in Colorado, along with Captain America, Wolverine, Thing, and Hawkeye.

further reading: Venom Deleted Scenes Revealed

This led to a lot of cool shit, including a Venom gorilla being chased by a Carnage-controlled stampede of escaped zoo animals, Venom’s Life Foundation children being used as military weapons, and a legless fight between Flash Thompson and Cletus Kasady. Oh, and the hilarious revelation that Hawkeye fucking HATES Ben Grimm and thinks all of his shtick is old and tired.

Starting with the ho-hum yet cleverly named Minimum Carnage, Carnage started showing up in more stories with different creative teams forgetting that he was supposed to be missing his bottom half. He ended up in a really fun miniseries called Deadpool vs. Carnage where Deadpool was able to defeat Carnage in a way Spider-Man and Venom could not by shattering his confidence and breaking his spirit.

This led to Carnage’s extremely fun turn in Axis, otherwise known as that event Marvel did where the good guys became bad guys and vice versa. Through magic mixed with psychic suggestion, Carnage was briefly driven to become a hero, but he didn’t exactly have a full grasp on what that meant. Him trying to punch a woman in the face just hard enough to knock her out but not crack her head, followed by boasting about a job well done was entertaining as hell.

further reading: The 20 Year Quest to Make a Venom Movie

Carnage then had a short-lived ongoing written by Gerry Conway with a story about a cult worshipping Carnage because he’d unleash some kind of Lovecraftian god or whatnot. All the while, a task force was put together to stop him. This was partially an exercise in removing the Toxin and Scorn symbiotes while setting up Eddie Brock���s return to being Venom.

Over the years, the Carnage symbiote has possessed many hosts other than Cletus. There was Ben Reilly, Silver Surfer, an alternate universe Spider-Man, the Wizard, and so on. Its most high-profile instance was Norman Osborn, making him the final end boss of Dan Slott’s very lengthy run on Amazing Spider-Man. As the Red Goblin, Osborn was powerful enough that Spider-Man reluctantly took up Eddie Brock’s offer to borrow the Venom symbiote.

As for Cletus, he’s back floating in space in pieces thanks to the events of Venomized. Long story.

Even though Carnage only made a quick film appearance just recently, he’s reached one height that not even the likes of Thanos have ever hit: Carnage was on Broadway. Back in 2011, the butt of jokes everywhere was Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, known for its immense budget, laundry list of performer injuries, and iffy take on the source material. So iffy that there are two versions of the show that existed. There’s Julie Taymor’s fever dream original and the more coherent second attempt.

further reading: Venom Director Wanted to Honor the Comics

I was lucky enough to see the former in all of its ridiculous glory.

Carnage appeared as a member of the Green Goblin’s Sinister Six alongside Kraven the Hunter, the Lizard, Electro, Swarm, and original character Swiss Miss. Yes, that’s seven characters. Just let it go. Carnage ended up being the best looking of the villains, since most others came off as looking like goofy sports mascots. He didn’t really do anything, but he was immortalized in this cringeworthy David Letterman performance.

...did Osborn suggest Kraven is into bestiality?

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and still can’t believe Carnage never showed up in a single Capcom Marvel game. Read more of Gavin’s stuff here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

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