#kings disease 3

[errrrkkk]

"Thun" Nas

[muzicamuze]

First time i listened to this song, i was high out of my mind and Lauryn was spittttting I instantly fell in love!

Nobody- Nas ft Lauryn Hill

[kingzombear]

CAINE

There's a weird FUCKIN JESTER outside

[infamouzdoctor]

[isthespiceoflife]

Don't forget this Friday, Feb. 24th for the 1st time (yo, can you believe, his mofo debut aka first-time-ever?!?), NAS hits MSG to throw down his latest album, King's Disease Trilogy! Let's hope he sneaks in some Illmatic too while he's at it! He just has to, ikr?🤴🏾🤴🏾🤴🏾

[cerealsensei]

Listening to King’s Disease 3 again and man.This is easily one of Nas’s best albums. The production, his flow, tracks like Beef really take me back to vintage Nas. He sounds like he’s 25 again rapping like this.

[quotes-by-dilanka]

No beef or rivals, they playin' "Ether" on Tidal

Brothas can do anything when they decide to

In a Range Rover dissecting bars from "Takeover"

Sometimes I text Hova, like nigga, this ain't over, laughin'

I had to hold it down for Queens 'cause I overvalue fiends

Shout to Brooklyn, all between hoods be overlappin'

Subways be stacked, and I ain't been on a train in decades

And I can still hear the wheels on the tracks

—Nas, Thun

[aspiringsophrosyne]

What’s this season’s theme? They weren’t subtle about it. When the group asks her about Dohla, Allura almost literally turns to the camera and says: “Let’s just say being in dangerous situations with someone you’re close to can lead to friction.”

The show’s CRew drew considerable attention to this idea through Kima and Allura’s old friend, flashbacks to their adventuring days, Zerxus’ telling of the fall of Avalir, Scanlan’s failure to be fully present for either his daughter or Vox Machina, and the group splintering. On paper, this idea is fine, but in practice, its implementation is flawed.

Because what comes of all this setup? Scanlan steps away for Kaylie; what are the repercussions of that? While Keyleth and the twins break off from the rest, are they gone long? Does this season have a capstone with a potency similar to Bard’s Lament?

(For the record, I am neutral on having Bard’s Lament in Season 3, but excluding that eliminates one hefty bit of dramatic payoff. )

What’s interesting in hindsight is the unintentional, surprisingly substantial, and consistent theme that emerges. One that isn’t the Breaking of the Fellowship.

The twins exact their revenge on Thordak. Keyleth gets revenge on Raishan after Raishan gets hers on first the Ashari, then Thordak when he doesn’t provide her with her cure. Last season, Kaylie sought revenge but rejected it in the end, and now the Shorthalts are uncertain of where they stand. Percy wants to abandon vengeance, but Ripley forces his hand. After her fatal confrontation with Percy, the twins avenge him.

Noticing a pattern?

The script tells us this season’s heart is internal strife, but the action repeatedly shows us a revenge tale. With a strong through-line, marked thematic consistency, and multiple clear payoffs. Ironically, these elements develop organically, akin to mushrooms in the dark, shielded from the narrative heavy-handedness the spotlight would impose upon them.

With only a few tweaks, they could’ve had this plot laced up tighter than a 19th-century corset. Let the twins learn the identity of their mother’s murderer earlier, and let them get the last strikes on him. Give us the group HDYWTDT on Ripley. Let the anger Keyleth feels at Raishan initially block her from passing her earth trial—setting her up as a parallel to Percy; they both let go and walk out of this season alive—and you’ve cooked a full-course meal.

Instead of a retread, frame this story as an extension and escalation of the Briarwood arc—which established how self-destructive the old eye-for-an-eye can be—but this time for the villains: Thordak must be thwarted, and Ripley’s and Raishan’s respective revenge quests draw Vox Machina’s ire and ensure their downfall.

Because sometimes, one person’s vengeance is another person’s karma.

And if desired, you could build upon this idea even further in future seasons when the enemies waiting in the wings move to center stage. Some of them might be interested in payback.

The fact this secondary focus emerges so well and so naturally proves that this show's material is good enough that it doesn’t need bells and whistles or excessive exposition to establish and justify itself. Less-to-no spoon-feeding, keeping and bolstering what was great about the source material, and leaning into this revenge theme would’ve given us not just a much sounder narrative thread this season but a subtler and uncontrived one. And it wouldn’t have needed any extra time. It might’ve needed less if Ripley wasn't around as long.

This season didn't need an underdeveloped central theme that couldn't hold together for lack of payoff shoe-horned into it. It's a worse version of a problem season 2 had, where the idea of VM learning to not run from their problems made little sense in context and didn't really go anywhere for anyone except Scanlan.

All in all, it might be better to prioritize capturing what was great about the source material before adding to the story. Otherwise, you run the risk of throwing something in the stew that clashes with its other ingredients, and there'll be significant potential and several opportunities that could end up going to waste.

[parseolegacy]

The idea of my inquisitor growing his hair long while my main is napping in carbonite popped into my head and completely derailed me from Huevember... Ekkon looks so distinguished now compared to the cranky gremlin he used to be 🥺 They grow up so fast...

[aring-king-king]

Michael & Quincy

[todayisafridaynight]

THIS IS GONNA SOUND SO MEAN BUT WHY DO U LIKE RYO AOKI/MASATO

masato hot

[skelesno]

i’m not very good with copics or coloring but i tried anyways 💔

[thepermanentrainpress]

Gallery: Nas @ Rogers Arena - Vancouver, BC Date: October 16, 2023 Photographed by: Timothy Nguyen

[themyscirah]

Every time I start to seriously consider reading Tom King WW (aka whenever new issues release and I'm bored + not pulling anything that week) the new issue comes out and any panels I see immediately kill all interest with a vengeance