#think russian steel panther

[arnold-layne]

Oh no, I would never do that. I ask because I’m a fan of a russian band called NeverLove and was thinking about learning some russian so I can understand them as they almost never speak English. I was just wondering if you as a native speaker have heard if there’s a good way to learn Russian. I know this is a shot in the dark, sorry

WAIT neverlove is the one that sing about a gay sex instructor from nato? That song is HILARIOUS i need to listen to it again. regarding your question, uhh, i never had to learn it so i dont know much but you could start with duolingo i think, maybe watch educational videos on youtube to get down basic grammar and vocabulary. understanding russian is much easier than speaking it and much much easier than writing it. You don’t need to learn to speak it perfectly, just to understand lyrics, right?

[thefandomjournalist]

How To Diagnose Marvel Movie Brain Rot

In an opinion piece by Martin Scorsese at The New York Times on Marvel movies, he said “In the end, I don’t think they’re cinema”. In our modern world, superhero films are more popular than ever. And no company is better known for their superhero films than Marvel Comics. Almost everyone you know has seen a Marvel film. When Infinity War came out, the world rejoiced. Batman who? Superman who? Ironman is the new Man of Steel. But have you caught the bug? Have you started to hold these films as a baseline for what a good superhero, nay, good movie should look like? If so, you may be beginning to have your mind clouded by the Avengers Infection.

So here are 5 ways for me to help you find out if you have been infected with Marvel Movie Brain Rot.

You believe Black Widow was a well written character

Despite what the films and fan made material made you think, Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, was not a well written female character. The first Avengers film doesn’t even pass the Bechdel test. For the uninitiated, that is whether a film has two female characters who have a single conversation not about men. So, not a good look there Avengers films.

You think the Avengers were all friends

It’s not your fault, it’s a misunderstanding of source material. It’s fine to like superheroes and not care about their source material, but you must do so with the understanding that your perception of the characters are not accurate.

You didn’t like Batman v Superman because no one told jokes

There is not liking certain kinds of movies, and there’s thinking one franchise should define the genre. Scorsese says “What’s not there is revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk”. Marvel movies, at this point, have a formula. Some guy, usually a white guy, gets bestowed with power and a mission. They tell jokes. End. The rest of cinema, even in superhero films, can be very different.

Black Panther and Shang-Chi are the only major nonwhite films you know

Black Panther and Shang-Chi are good movies. They are enjoyable, respectful, and arguably make more of an attempt at art than the rest of Marvel’s catalog. But there are worlds of Black, Asian, Latin, Russian, and any other country you can think of with rich film history. If you’ve only seen these two films from this culture, then your filmography worldview is very small.

You think Endgame was the height of cinema

Scorsese says, “All the same, they(marvel movies) lack something essential to cinema: the unifying vision of an individual artist.” Endgame was a monolith film built from a decade of stories, CGI techniques, famous actors, and too many cooks. It is impossible to identify an artist's single unique vision in Endgame, and that's not good.

It’s not bad to love things. Whether Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, or any other problematic fav, you deserve to enjoy bad media. What isn’t okay is letting your favorite things cloud your judgement of actual quality. I’m all for living bad shit, but you gotta remember that bad movies are still bad. And I’m begging use some reading comprehension.

[vivxwrites]

Lovers Quarrel

*not my gif*

Word Count: 1625

Warning(s): None? Some injuries. Ca:cw spoilers (lol)

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Reader

A/N: hi! i sincerely apologize for the wait so here’s this! It was requested by an anon here and i hope whoever that whoever it was gets to read it! 

The scene painted out before you reminded your idle mind of those that occurred during the times of ancient history, tales recorded on wooden tablets and later translated into a world of empires and invasions. Tales of kings and commanders and armies, tales of power struggles and barbaric actions. Where city-states were just barely discovering copper and iron and steel and metal and where one-hundred-year-old super soldiers didn’t magically freeze and thaw out, only to wake up seventy something years later. Where there was no Iron Man, or Hawkeye, and where there were certainly no Black Widows. No Black Widows that slowly extended their long legs over your heart and nestled down deep, deep enough to just nearly become one with the genetic coding of the cells that made up one of the most vital organs in your body. You furtively wished that you weren’t part of the timeline filled with superhumans and ex-Russian assassins and men that flew around in suits engineered by a certain genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

Despite your desperate wishes here you were, lined up in an airport hanger with half of the avengers that you had chosen to align yourself with. Across from you stood your friends, your family, and your- well, you weren’t quite sure what exactly Natasha was to you.

You could feel her eyes fixated on you, and whether fury or concern were being directed at you, you weren’t too sure, especially seeing as you refused to even flick your own eyes in her general direction. 

Her tiny huff of annoyance didn’t go unnoticed by you and you cursed whatever government officials deemed the Accords an appropriate measure of action. If splitting the Avengers into two was the reaction they were oh so kindly hoping to achieve, then their overpriced bottles of champagne were most certainly cork-less by now.

Your whole body ached with the primal need to see the love and adoration that you had grown used to in the now familiar jade-green eyes of one Natasha Romanoff. Your bones had long since endured the weight of sorrow and regret and by this point, the precipice of this protracted conflict, you were feeling the full weight and brunt of a word solely known as exhaustion. 

You were pulled from your period of self-awareness by the start of the fight, the war, between two forces that had been nearly unstoppable when combined. What the outcome would be, you hadn’t the slightest clue and you were whole-heartedly not looking forward to finding out.

And so you did your best to avoid the stunning red-head who made your head swim with thoughts that you were definitely not supposed to be thinking while tossing punches at some guy in a panther suit. As the battle dragged on, however, you were unpleasantly forced to find out that your attempts to avoid that certain someone were meaningless.

She looked as good as ever in her sleek combat gear and good god what you wouldn’t give to smash your body against hers in a hug tight enough to crack the pistachio nuts you had deemed ‘breakfast’ just this morning.

“(Y/N).” She spoke with a tone of indifference and you flinched at the fact that it was being directed at you. Of course you felt immense guilt for not sticking by Natasha’s side but how could you when your beliefs lay with the opposite team? How could you sit back and sign a contract that basically handed over your freedom and everything that you had worked so very hard to achieve when you were something of a Hydra experiment yourself? How could you possibly be able to sign your life away to the sleazy, wrinkly men that called themselves the American Government when you had been in Bucky’s shoes not too long ago? And if you had deserved a chance to change then god fucking dammit so did he.

Needless to say, this was the biggest lovers quarrel in history.

“Nat,” you bit down hard on your lip in an attempt to stop its trembling, “I-“

Thought you loved me, you wanted to say, thought you would understand how much this meant to me, thought you would stand up for me. Your throat bobbed up and down as you swallowed the vowels and consonants of the phrases thickly, their bitter aftertaste more unpleasant than that of the tangy salt water that she made you gargle when you got sick.

You could only stare wordlessly at Nat and she, you. The entire fucked up situation made you feel sick, a constant state of unsettlement rushing through your veins alongside the anger and hatred that you felt for the so-called ‘higher ups.’ And then finally, Clint, bless that man, intervened and off he and Nat went, twisting and turning as if they were the cats and dogs you used to mindlessly watch on television when a nightmare of yours was particularly bad.

The telltale shink of Steve’s shield meeting its target had you cringing inwardly. You heard him holler your name and off into the fray you went, ducking under a stray metal suit and jumping over the cracks in the concrete that made up the hanger. 

“Cap. You called?” You dragged your gaze from him to the hulk of a man next to him and as hard as the soldier tried to remain stoic, you saw the guilty look that hid away in the top corner of his eyes. 

“Buck and I need to get to that hanger over there, can you cover us?” When Steve spoke, your gaze remained on Bucky. You gave him a small, reassuring smile before turning back to Steve.

“It’s what I do best, Captain.” He nodded stiffly and you could tell that something was bothering him. “What? You worried about lil ‘ol me or something?”

He sighed deeply, “You know Natasha would kill me if you get hurt.” 

You felt your nostrils flare in annoyance, “Natasha’s not exactly here right now, is she?” Of course that wasn’t one hundred percent true but from what you could see of her, flashes of red and black every so often, it seemed she was quite busy with problems of her own.

“(Y/N)-“ 

“Steve please. Do you want my help getting across this airport or not?” He finally nodded again and you nodded back.

The three of you took off towards the destination and were about halfway there when the sound of thrusters drew nearer. You cursed to yourself and kept running until Tony dropped down in front of you, the face-plate on his mask retracted as if he wanted the three of you to see just how angry he really was.

“Stark,” You drawled, “how nice to see you.”

“You too sweetheart.” He growled and you sneered at him.

You waved Steve and Bucky forward, signaling that you could handle Tony. They threw you reluctant looks before finally taking off. “You don’t want to tango with me hun.”

A self-satisfied smirk crawled onto your face, “Oh but I do.”

He fired a blast at you and you dodged with a perfectly placed combat roll, positioning yourself behind some loading crates. When Tony flew closer to you, you reached up and clamped your arm onto the arm of his suit and held tight as he swore and flew about, trying to knock you off. When bucking you about like a bronco didn’t work he retracted the faceplate again and smirked at you, “Hope you’re not afraid of heights.”

Tony flew skyward and you held on with all the upper body strength you had as he reached a dangerous height, wherein if you fell you wouldn’t necessarily die, but the impact wouldn’t be the nicest experience.

Your arms burned with the exertion of holding your body weight up and you could feel your fingers beginning to slip on the cool metal of the suit.

“Rhodes, get ready to catch this lovely package.” After Tony’s statement your grip finally gave out and you went tumbling to the ground, a view of smoke and the blue cloud-ridden sky accompanying you.

Rhodey was nowhere to be seen as you fell, ten feet left, then five, until you landed on the ground with a sickening crunch and pain shot up your spine. You tried to scream in agony but the sound wouldn’t come out, as if your vocal chords themselves were feeling the vibrations of the tight, coiling pain. 

Distantly you could hear screams and yelling but you couldn’t make out whom the sounds belonged to. Your eyelids felt heavy and your body twisted and writhed every which way on the ground in an attempt to fight the pain in your system. The ground shook with the approaching footsteps of someone but then again you were too out of it to comprehend if it was instead the violent shaking of your spine beneath you that you were feeling.

“Moya lyubov,” Nat panted desperately and reached over to cup your cheeks in her warm hands, “are you okay?”

“Nat,” you cried, “M’ sorry baby.”

She shushed you and leaned down to press her forehead against yours, the first few tears rushing down her face, “Shh. No, (Y/N), honey it’s not your fault.”

“I’m sorry,” you whimpered desperately. “I’m so sorry.”

“Baby please, stay with me. Keep your eyes open for me.” Her voice sounded distant even with her close proximity and your eyelids were just so heavy and you could feel yourself giving in, succumbing to the black just visible at the edge of your vision. You took one last peak at Natasha until you finally closed your eyes.

When you woke up you were all alone, cuffed to a hospital bed in an unfamiliar room.

A/N: Listen, I don’t know what this is or why I have inserted some weird world history shit into the fic but please just accept it for what it is. I’m satisfied as hell that I managed to throw this together and have it out to y’all by today so I beg of you to be proud of me for finally putting out some content, regardless of its questionable grammar and spelling and odd facts. Have I done good or have I done goofed, please let me know. Love always, Viv <3

Permanent Tag List: @autumnjackson4 @captainwonderwidow @5aftermidnight @blushycarol @pruemania @lesbian-x-blackwidow @taramitch96 @fansanctuary @envy-adamss

[fuzethehostagehater]

some fuze ships summarized

Fuze/Tachanka

T: points at picture of Fuze’s elite skin , you look just like your grandfather

F: you are my grand father

Fuze plugs his ears when he sleep because tachanka sings USSR anthem so loud while he sleep

Fuze in the morning will throw box of 7.62x54R and say, это день победы

Tachanka drives KV-2

что такое смартфон фьюз ?

wears nothing but Dp-28 mags to cover his important areas on wedding day .

they live in a nuclear bomb shelter or soviet era war bunker.

they go to a ISU-152 artillery restoration project in Volgograd together. Where tachanka was doing push ups at – 40 degrees topless so he can nail parts in  without using hammer. while fuze blows up unexploded 152 mm shells.

 is their song is белая армия, чёрный барон

Fuze/Kapkan

Fuze was driving to home from work when police officer maxim basuda stops him.

F:officer I am not drunk , I am doing 50 in 50 zone what’s the point ?

K:points speed gun at his heart , no sir you are going over 200 km/h

They go to the shooting range together :

Fuze:нож на потасовку с пушками ?

Kapkan: смотри и учись , нооб

Kapkan  drives RC/XD from black ops games

Kapkan carries a nokia 3310

Wears a Traps are not gay t shirt on wedding.

They don’t live in forest inside a army tent

F: hey kapkan why do you carry a shovel on your back?

K: so I can dig a trap when I run out of ammo

F: you mean our grave?

Прорвемся – Любэ is their song

Fuze/Glaz

G: would you like a photo realistic portrait my good sir ?, that would be 1000 rubles

F: ok…

2 hours later.

F:You Photoshop this right?

Fuze draws a plan of his APM-7 cluster charge mk2  then he left the plan on desk and went to sleep

Next day he finds out that it is coloured in rainbow because the touch of colour was out of place.

they live next to Hazine art gallery in kazan

they go to shooting range where glaz draws smiles on steel targets with his Ots-03

детали, меня друг ,детали,

Glaz drives a ОБЪЕКТ 120 ТАРАН coloured in rainbow

Glaz has a iphone X in red colour.

Shinwha – sniper is their song

Wears a Ghillie suit at wedding

Fuze/Dokkaebi

F: so what’s this again ?

D: 보신탕 (bo- shin tang)

F: Delicious

They live in yeong san district south korea.

Dokkaebi has a CIA level untrackerable phone no one knows the brand of.

F: ОППА , dokkaebi what the blin I am at funeral.

D: what? Call me noona …. You 멍청이.

F:Where were you yesterday I was worried about you !

D:니가 나를 걱정해? Wow 처음듣는 얘기

Dokkaebi drives a smart fortwo , actually it drives for her.

Fuze tries to work on crafting better cluster bombs before being bombarded by

Kaokao talk ! kkao talk! Kkao talk! And decides to throw a phone out the window which ends up hitting hostage on the head.

Wears a snap back ,hanbok and Gucci glasses on wedding day but guests don’t really give a damn as they are too busy turning their phones off.

Their song is Beep Beep by SNSD

Fuze/AK-12 (T-doll)

True gopnitsa, doesn’t give a single fuck about life much. she sleeps 80% of the time and keeps her eyes closed.

They have no chairs in their house because they squat all day

Wears Adidas on wedding day.

Calls her sister AN-94 to pick them up and drive them home after their date but she is busy working so she can’t come.  instead fuze decides to carry her on his arms bridal style back home while she raises middle fingers at other couples and gopniks that looks at them.

They go to shooting range together and this happens every time.

F: wtf 12… no aimbot!

12: гит гуд , дедушка

Drives a T-90A Vladimir

Reads girl x girl rainbow six siege smut in her free time. this is only time she opens her eyes.

uamee – AKM is their song 

Fuze/Finka

FI:Takes the 6P41 lmg from fuze, ЭТО МОЯ ПУЛЕМЕТ !

Fu: Я первый его получил.

Tachanka jumps into room while soviet union anthem playing loud and yells

HAVE YOU TWO LEARN NOTHING ABOUT SHARING ?!!!

Fu:You see lena if you hold peestol like me you never be of shoot inaccurate for afraid of shooting fingers.

Fi:you can live without few fingers debil.

Finka wanted to boost her whole spetsnaz team with adrenaline when fuze starts singing

Пацаны - наркотик КАЛ,

В школе в коробке сдавал.

Наркота - отстойней кваса

Finka wears a hazmat suit to wedding before someone tells her to get out of here STALKER.

They live near the ZONE because such is life.

She Drives a Rkhm-6.

Their song if it wasn’t obvious is bandit radio from stalker.

Fuze/Vigil

F: I don’t see anyone around …. it should be safe for me to play north Korean pop

V: ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT ?

They go to shooting range together but fuze always picks up and hides few spent casings inside his pocket and watch as vigil panic try desperately to  look for casings afterwards. then He acts like he found them and assures that everything is ok.

They live in meyoung dong district in south korea

V: I want to be a Korean batman

F:I ain’t gonna be your Alfred hwa chul.

Vigil fills fridge with san- nak ji where as fuze fills the fridge with холодец

Vigils wears a john cena shirt to a wedding before going you can’t see me cause my time is now!

V:되고파 너의 오빠가 될꺼야 두고봐 나의 마음이

F:what are you saying?

V:Do you know k-pop ?

Their song is Danger by taemin

Fuze/Jager

Fuze felt bad that the jager lost the acog sight which made him depressed for weeks. so he did the only right thing and gifted jager acog without magnification for him.

J: puts ADS on the ground / you can stop worrying about grenades now

F:you can start worrying about grenades now.

jager drives a T-V Panther 

they live in a aircraft hangar near Berlin

they play war thunder together but results are that fuze wins and jager complains there is so much Russian Bias is in the game where as fuze thinks it’s only historical

their song is  Rote Flieger 

Fuze/Twitch

if you have few spare hours i love to tell you how this drone is master piece of design….. and fuze lets her go on for hours and explain what she did and what kind of problems she had to out come. before fuze asks why does it always get one shotted in the droning phase i must ask ?

they live in paris their house is full of weaponized baguettes and hostage torturing devices.

T:stay two steps a head of enemy

F:but your drone can’t jump.

when they go shooting ranges fuze wears two hearing protections because her call outs when she reloads is louder than artillery going off.

i don’t know what did i just write…

pictures belong to the actual quality content creaters o7 so get lost EU.

also if you ship fuze x ying pls fite me irl

[navpike]

Wake Up Calls

Bucky Barnes wakes up in Wakanda, the first time, and the second, and the third and fourth and twenty-eighth and sixty-first... Shuri starts out as an ally, and becomes a friend, and then might as well be his kid sister.

Bucky and Shuri's relationship told through a few wake-up calls.

for @wintvrbarnes. hope you enjoy, chels!

[on ao3]   [buy me a coffee?]

The very first time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, there are several of the Dora Milaje lining the back walls of the lab, a video screen with Steve’s face on it, and a literal child standing in front of him, holding a notebook with exactly ten words written on the page it’s opened to.

Bucky’s heart seizes in his chest, but he does not dare react. His eyes flicker from the warriors to Steve’s face, to the girl, back to Steve and back to the girl and her notebook.

“What’s going on?” he asks cautiously, and the girl steps forward.

“Sergeant Barnes, I am Princess Shuri of Wakanda, King T’Challa’s sister. We didn’t get a chance to meet before you decided to go under. I lead the Wakandan Design Group, and I am in charge of the team working on your rehabilitation. You’ve been asleep for about three weeks. While you were in stasis, I attempted a procedure that I believe severed the connection in your mind that allowed the trigger words to have such a control over you, but there is no way to know until we test it. It is your choice whether we test it or not,” she says, very seriously, “but know that it is highly inadvisable to leave this unknown.”

Bucky nods silently, and looks at the screen Steve’s face is on. “Why is he here?” Because he’s certain three weeks is not a long enough time to mend the rift between Steve and Tony Stark, and it is not enough time to fix the disaster that was the Sokovia Accords, so Steve most certainly has more important things to do. Rewriting the Accords, now without Ross’ interference, should be Steve’s top priority. It is more important than this.

“I didn’t know if you’d trust Shuri, cause you’ve never met her before, so I made the time. I also wanted to check in. See how you’re doing.”

Bucky nods once, and does not tell Steve how he’s doing, because how he is doing is bad. He is going very, very bad.

He’s terrified, because he knows he has to let this girl test out what she’s done to him, and the thought of giving up so much control to this child, this stranger, this unknown variable, is petrifying.

At least with HYDRA, he was a blank slate or he knew what was expected of him. He knew what to expect from them.

But he does not say this.

To show fear is to show weakness, and to show weakness is to be torn apart.

Bucky looks to the young princess, and takes a deep breath and steels himself and grits his teeth and nods once, jerkily.

“Test what you did to me,” he says, and braces himself for the twisting, turning, screaming feeling in his mind.

He clenches his hand into a fist, and stands in front of the princess and her guard and he does not show his fear.

“Longing,” she says in perfect Russian, and he inhales sharply. “Rusted, furnace, daybreak,” she says, and he thinks maybe she’s actually done it, maybe he’s really free. “Seventeen, benign, nine,” she says and Bucky’s whole body jerks once, and he trembles and shakes and thinks god, no, not again. “Homecoming,” she says, and Bucky collapses to his knees and clutches at his hair. “One,” she says, and her voice wavers, and Bucky screams. “Freight car,” she says, and Bucky Barnes is no more.

He watches from somewhere in the recesses of his own mind as the Soldier drags himself to his feet, levering himself up awkwardly with just the one arm.

“Sergeant Barnes?” she asks, but he can hear it in her voice that she doesn’t believe that Bucky is really the one she’s speaking to.

“Ready to comply,” the Soldier says, and the Princess makes a very distressed sound, and the Soldier looks around for the threat. The Princess activated the Soldier, so she must be its new handler, so it must protect her.

The Captain on the screen says something that gets muffled through a poor connection, and the Soldier slams its fist through the screen. It does not need the distraction while trying to protect its handler.

The Princess shrieks, and the Soldier whips around to look at her, checking for any injury before scanning for any threat. The women on the walls point spears towards the Soldier and the Princess, and the Soldier does not see anything but red and weapons and threat, threat, threat.

It grabs the Princess by the arm and backs her into a corner, placing itself between the Princess and the Threats.

The Threats shout at it, and point their spears at its chest and move closer, closer, closer, and the Soldier snarls, feral, animallike.

The Princess shouts at it, and it shoves her further behind it.

The Threats step forward again, and the Soldier settles into a defensive stance.

The Princess shouts at it again, and smacks her hand against the back of its neck, hard, and the Soldier drops to its knees, on instinct, because it has displeased its handler.

In the back of the Soldier’s mind, Bucky begins to panic. Logically, he knows that Shuri is not going to hurt him. Steve trusts her, and while Bucky might not trust her quite yet, but Steve’s trust tells him that she’s likely a good person, who really is trying to help. Steve tends to surround himself with people like that, the Howlies, his Avengers, Wilson. Based on all information he has, based on Steve, Bucky knows that Shuri is not going to hurt him. She is not really his handler. She’s what he’d tentatively call a friend. An ally, at least.

The Soldier though, sees handler, and a displeased handler at that, and Bucky cannot help the panic that claws up into his throat and lodges in his airway and makes it so that the Soldier will not breathe for them, and Bucky wants to scream, but the Soldier would not dare make a noise, so silent they stay as ShuriThePrincessTheHandler steps around him and kneels there.

The Soldier does not flinch. That response was trained out of it long ago. It would not deter a handler anyway.

The Princess reaches out too slowly, and puts her hands on the Soldier’s shoulders. Well, on its shoulder and the mangled remains of a metal limb that he was careless enough to lose.

“Sergeant Barnes,” the Princess says, and the Soldier startles, even though it has not done that in decades. “Sergeant Barnes, I am so sorry. I thought what I did would work, I really did. I am so sorry I’ve done this to you. And I’m sorry that I have to do this, as well, but you need to go back into stasis, until I can figure out what I did wrong.”

The Soldier does not react, though in the back of its mind, Bucky all but wails in despair. The Soldier is not happy either, but it does not have the luxury of emotion.

It stands, slowly, because it’s still not sure this is what the Princess really wants, and crosses the room to the cryo chamber.

The Soldier stands still while Bucky shivers in the back of his own mind.

The chamber shuts and the Soldier and Bucky Barnes are no more.

~*~

The second time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, he is once again Bucky Barnes, and he is once again terrified. He stumbles out of the cryo chamber as soon as he’s fully defrosted, and looks around wildly. He’s met with the Dora Milaje’s spears, and Shuri bearing panther gauntlets, and Steve’s face on the repaired screen.

“Who am I speaking with?” Shuri asks, her gauntlets levelled with his chest.

Bucky stumbles back a few steps. He doesn’t really remember what happened last he was up, but he remembers that he…

“Oh god, what’d I do? Did I hurt anyone?” he asks, desperately, and Shuri lowers her arms.

“At ease,” she says, and the Dora Milaje lower their spears, hesitantly. “Good morning Sergeant Barnes. You’ve been asleep for a week and a half since you were last up. It’s nice to see you back to yourself. You didn’t hurt anyone, just gave us all a little surprise. I believe I’ve discovered what went wrong with the procedure last time, and I’ve corrected it. Are you willing to allow me to test this out again?”

Bucky really, really wants to say no.

He looks at Steve’s face, haggard, with bloodshot eyes and bags underneath them the size of suitcases, and what he says instead is, “If I try to hurt anyone, put me down.”

What Steve says is, “It won’t come to that.”

What the woman who looks to be in charge of the Dora Milaje says is, “I will.”

Shuri swaps her gauntlets for her notebook, and once again, she reads off the command words, slowly, watching his every reaction.

He trembles, and he tremors, and he shakes, and Shuri says, “Freight car,” and nothing happens.

Bucky waits.

And nothing happens.

And nothing happens.

And nothing happens.

He opens his eyes from how he’d screwed them shut, and he experimentally opens and closes his fist, and he rolls his shoulder, and he looks up at the women surrounding him, and he looks at Steve on the screen, and he looks to Shuri’s notebook and reads the words from it himself.

And nothing happens.

The breath he lets out sounds a lot like a strangled laugh, and his entire body sags in relief.

He holds up his hand in a gesture of surrender, so that the Dora Milaje don’t try to skewer him, and he steps very slowly forward, and he places his hand very gently on Shuri’s shoulder, and he pulls her into a hug that he really, really hopes conveys all of the thanks he cannot make himself say aloud.

She’s just given him him back.

There’s no way he could ever say how much that means to him.

After a moment’s hesitation, she hugs him back, and very quietly says, “You’re welcome,” so that only he can hear.

~*~

The third time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, he is in the room that Queen Mother Ramonda has very graciously allowed him to stay in in the wing that she and her children live in.

He wouldn’t trust him around his kids, if he had any, but Ramonda is the kind of woman you don’t say no to, so when she offers, and T’Challa backs his mother, Bucky does not say no.

He wakes up in the room disoriented and not quite aware of where he is and in a cold sweat from the nightmare he’s just jolted out of.

He wakes up and he can’t breathe and his heart is pounding in his chest, and very suddenly, there is Shuri, right in front of him.

He has a brief moment of thinking he’s hallucinating, because what?, and then he takes a painfully deep breath and tries to calm himself, and thinks that there’s no reason he should be hallucinating, and then he wonders what the hell the Princess of Wakanda is doing in his room at two in the goddamn morning.

“Sergeant Barnes,” she says, a little breathless, like she’s run here.

Bucky, without thinking, corrects her, “Bucky. Just call me Bucky,” even though he can barely get enough air into his lungs to make the words come out.

She nods once. “Bucky. What happened? Are you alright? I got an alert that your heart rate spiked and I was worried there were unforeseen consequences of the procedure or of testing the trigger words yesterday…” she trails off, and takes a look at the state of him and the state of his bed, and she presses her lips into a thin line for a moment. “Was it a nightmare?” she asks.

Bucky likes that she’s not beating around the bush. Straight to the point.

He has a fleeting thought that she reminds him of someone he once knew, but it’s gone before he can really grasp onto it.

He hesitates, but in the end he nods.

Shuri, without asking, climbs up onto the end of his bed, and sits cross-legged across from him, and start rambling about the specs of her newest invention. She tells him all about how it’ll be so helpful for so many people, and how she can’t wait to share it with Wakanda and the rest of the world, through T’Challa’s new Wakandan Outreach Centers, and then she starts talking about how excited she is that T’Challa’s allowed her to head up the Science and Technological exchange, and she bounces from topic to topic with barely a pause in her speech, and Bucky, before he even realizes, has completely forgotten what his nightmare was about in the first place.

~*~

The fourth time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, he is struck with the realization that Shuri reminds him of his sister.

And then, he is struck with the realization that he had a sister and that he forgot her.

And that is so painful that he sits there, and he tries to breathe evenly, and he cannot stop himself from crying.

~*~

The twenty-eighth time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, he is jerking out of a really rather pleasant dreammemory to the bracelet Shuri had given him buzzing and buzzing and buzzing.

The bracelet, she had called them Kimoyo Beads, buzzes incessantly until he wakes up, and continues to do so until he pinches the bead that’s glowing faintly between his wrist and his knee. The beads stop buzzing, and a little image of Shuri pops up in the open palm of his hand.

The future is so goddamn weird. He loves it.

“Bucky! Can you come down to the lab?”

He nods and tells her he’ll be down soon, and struggles into the first clothes he pulls out of the wardrobe and shoves his feet into a pair of sandals, which are not ideal for combat, a voice in the back of his head supplies, and he heads for the lab.

He is more than a little surprised, when he gets to the lab, to see that Shuri is not alone with her inventions or her design team, as he’s become used to her being.

Steve is leaning against one of her lab benches, smiling, and deep in conversation with her, while she shows off the upgrade she’d just given her gauntlets.

Bucky, without thinking, crosses the room and seizes Steve by the front of the shirt and drags him into a kiss.

He’s not quite sure why he does it, he thinks it has something to do with what he remembered last night, the memory of a much smaller Steve and the two of them in one bed and never never never being able to breathe a word of it.

Steve pushes him away faster than Bucky can really process.

“Buck, what are you… what?” he asks, a little breathless and a lot flustered.

Bucky shakes his head, because he really doesn’t know. “I remember, before. We used to do that before. I think I want to do it again.”

Steve smiles and it’s so soft and sweet, Bucky thinks it’ll rot his teeth. “We did. But why don’t we hold off on that, okay? I mean, we’re both very different people, now, than we used to be, and if you’re still figuring things out about yourself, that should come first. And we’ll figure out how I fit into that picture as you go, yeah?”

Bucky nods, because he likes that idea.

Shuri, who had turned her attention to something on her lab bench, makes a fake-disgusted noise in the back of her throat.

“Get a room, you two. I swear, you white boys have no sense of decency,” she gripes, and Bucky reaches over and tries to ruffle her hair. She ducks out of his way, grinning triumphantly. “Getting slow there, old man,” she teases.

“Oh, that’s how it is?” Bucky says, mock-offended.

“That’s how it is. Keep up, geezer,” she says, and then she dances just out of his reach, and sticks out her tongue and then turns and runs away.

Bucky thumps his forehead against Steve’s chest and groans dramatically.

~*~

The fifty-sixth time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, it is to Shuri smacking him in the face with a pillow.

“Bucky! Get up! Get up, get up, get up!” she says, hitting him again, and again until he swats the pillow out of her hand and then slowly levers himself up so he’s sitting.

“I’m up, I’m up. The fuck do you want?” he grumbles, still half asleep.

Shuri gasps, and puts a hand to her chest. “How dare you use that kind of language with the princess of the country that has so graciously given you refuge?” she says, putting on a stuffy accent, and acting far more offended than he knows she really is. He raises an eyebrow in response, and pulls a face, and she frowns. “Fine, you’re no fun.” She moves quickly, and picks up another pillow and smacks him in the face again. “Get up, old man. I have something to show you in the lab.”

Bucky gets up, steals the pillow from her, and pitches it at the back of her head when she turns to step out into the hallway.

She pretends to be annoyed with him.

He dresses as efficiently as he can, and follows Shuri to the lab, and has to pick his jaw up off the floor when they get there.

“Do you like it?” Shuri asks, holding open the case.

Bucky trails his fingers over the prosthetic in front of him almost reverently. It’s molded to match his flesh and blood arm, much like the old one was, but this one is sleek matte black and gold, it isn’t too shiny silver, isn’t branded with HYDRA’s mark, isn’t being attached to him without his consent.

“You made this for me?” he asks in disbelief.

Shuri nods and beams. “It’s vibranium, so it’ll be far lighter than the old one. It’s evenly balanced with your biological arm, so it won’t put as much strain on your body, and if you want me to attach it for you, it won’t be fused to your body like the other one.” That part throws him for a loop, and it must show on his face, because she immediately begins to explain. “If you want this, I’d attach a port to your shoulder. That part would have to be fused to you, because of the way those animals mangled your shoulder, but that’s all. The arm itself is detachable, so you can remove it to sleep, or if you just need a break from it.”

Bucky grabs Shuri by the shoulder and yanks her into a hug.

~*~

The sixty-first time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, it is post-surgery, and he is finally, finally, finally free of every last bit of HYDRA.

He wakes up and Steve and Shuri are both there, and Steve kisses him, and Shuri makes a face, and then she places a hand on the side of his face and smiles at him and nods once, and excuses herself.

She returns later to show Bucky how to attach his arm, and show him the release catch, encoded to only work for her, him, and Steve.

~*~

The ninety-ninth time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, it is three in the morning, and it is to his Kimoyo Beads buzzing. He has a moment of panic, and reaches wildly for his prosthetic. He has it attached and is halfway out of bed before it occurs to him to just answer the call and see what’s going on.

“Bucky!” Shuri cries as soon as the little hologram pops up. She is smiling. She is not in distress. Bucky’s gonna kill her.

“Kid, it’s three in the fucking morning,” he groans.

“Language, mister. I’m an impressionable child,” she snaps back. Bucky groans again. “Okay, I’m sorry, I forgot you’re in a different timezone, but I have urgent news.”

“Urgent news?” Bucky asks.

“Yes. Very urgent news from the Wakandan Outreach Center,” Shuri says, seriously. There is not a hint of a smile in her voice as she continues, “I needed to tell you right away. I’m sorry Bucky. You’re no longer my favorite white person.”

“You woke me up at three in the morning to tell me that?” Bucky asks incredulously.

Shuri cackles. “It is important news! I met Bruce Banner, and he’s very fun to work in a lab with, even if I am smarter than him.”

“When you get back here, you’re dead, you know that right?” Bucky says, running his metal hand over his face, and then pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I tremble with terror,” Shuri deadpans. “I’m sorry for waking you up, and I’m sorry you’ve been demoted. Go back to sleep. See you soon!”

~*~

The one-hundred and forty-second time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, it is to a call on the cell phone that he hardly ever uses.

It is Sam, telling him that Steve is in the hospital, in the wake of a battle with some stupid robots intent on wrecking Midtown. Doctors are removing rebar from between Steve’s ribs, because the idiot had gone and gotten himself fucking impaled, and Sam says the doctors are confident he’ll pull through, but Bucky’s heart still skips a beat nonetheless.

He thanks Sam for letting him know, and he hangs up and he screams into a pillow.

“What’d that pillow ever do to you?” he hears from the doorway, and he startles at the sudden noise. “I got an alert that your heart rate spiked. I wanted to be sure you were okay,” Shuri explains as she steps into the room. She perches on the end of the bed near his feet.

“You spying on me, ya little creep?” Bucky says, but the teasing falls flat.

“What happened, Bucky?” she asks, and Bucky’s breath hitches.

“Steve’s in the hospital. The stupid, self-sacrificing sack of shit had to go and play the hero and look what it got him!” Bucky exclaims, and he hurls the pillow at the wall like that’ll do something to relieve the anger and fear he has storming inside of him. It doesn’t, but that’s no surprise.

Shuri reaches out and places a hand over one of his and he almost flinches at how gentle the touch is. “Steve will pull through this. I’m sure of it. He’s strong. But more importantly, he’s stubborn as all hell. And why would he go anywhere? Look what he has waiting for him. He’s going to be okay.”

Bucky chokes on his next breath, and lets it out as a sob, even though he really doesn’t want to. Shuri holds his hand and sits with him while he almost-cries and while he collects himself after and right up until he drifts off again.

~*~

The one-hundred and forty-third time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, there is a message for him, and it contains designs for a vibranium reinforced Captain America suit.

The next time he sees Shuri, he hugs her, and presses a kiss to the top of her head, and accidentally calls her Becca, and neither of them mention it ever again.

~*~

The one-hundred and ninety-seventh time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, it is to Shuri flopping dramatically over his legs, stealing one of his pillows and screeching into it.

Bucky startles awake and nearly sends Shuri toppling off the bed.

“Kid, what the fuck.”

Shuri sits up and throws her hands into the air. “Your idiot boyfriend and my idiot brother are off trying to save the world again and they won’t let me help!”

Bucky’s breath hitches for a moment, but he calms himself. Steve is sporting Shuri’s new everything-proof vibranium suit. He’s got a team at his back. He’s going to be fine.

He’s still worried, but he knows that spiralling will help exactly no one. He should do something productive, instead of losing himself on a downward slope of negative thought. So he prods at Shuri’s side until she rolls off of his legs, and he attaches his prosthetic, and ducks into his closet to change.

Shuri’s right where he left her when he comes back out, so he pokes at her again until she looks up at him, and he says, “I’ve never seen Star Wars before. You should show it to me.”

Shuri shrieks in indignation on his behalf and demands that they fix that, and she sets up a program to sift through all news coverage for reports of Avenger injury, and they set themselves up with snacks and blankets and they watch Star Wars until they get a message saying that Steve and T’Challa are both unharmed and almost home.

Bucky wonders for a second when he started thinking of this as Steve’s home too, and then he thinks that maybe he’s just thinking of himself as Steve’s home, and then Shuri’s tugging him out of the room so they can be there when Steve and T’Challa land, and the thought falls to the back of Bucky’s mind.

~*~

The two-hundred and fifty-eighth time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, it is with the unfamiliar weight of a ring on a chain around his neck.

~*~

The four-hundred and seventy-fifth time Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, it is his wedding day, and Shuri is smacking him awake with a pillow.

He gets ready in a daze, and goes where Shuri points him, without much thought at all.

When he gets to the altar, he waits for the man he loves with people who are like his family watching him, and with the girl who may as well be his sister at his back.

~*~

The four-hundred and seventy-sixth day Bucky wakes up in Wakanda, he is James Buchanan Rogers, and there is a ring hanging from his neck, and a ring on his husband’s finger, and a tiny star in a circle etched on his metal ring finger that his sister put there for him, and he is happy.

[m4a1-shermayne]

The T-34 is the most reliable and numerous medium tank of the war, dumbass

When in June 1941, the 8th Mechanised Corps of D.I. Ryabyshev marched towards Dubno, the corps lost half of its vehicles. A.V. Bodnar, who was in combat in 1941-42, recalled:

From the point of view of operating them, the German armoured machines were almost perfect, they broke down less often. For the Germans, covering 200 km was nothing, but with T-34s something would have been lost, something would have broken down. The technological equipment of their machines was better, the combat gear was worse.

The USSR donated two combat-used Model 1941 T-34s to the United States for testing purposes in late 1942. The examinations, performed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, highlighted these early faults, which were in turn acknowledged in a 1942 Soviet report on the results of the testing:

The Christie's suspension was tested long time ago by the Americans, and unconditionally rejected. On our tanks, as a result of the poor steel on the springs, it very quickly [unclear word] and as a result clearance is noticeably reduced. The deficiencies in our tracks from their viewpoint results from the lightness of their construction. They can easily be damaged by small-calibre and mortar rounds. The pins are extremely poorly tempered and made of poor steel. As a result, they quickly wear and the track often breaks.

Panzer IVs and Panthers ruined T-34s throughout the war and in Korea the M4 showed it’s self to be the superior tank.

In Terms of Production, Non T-34-85s amounted to 35,119 built while all other T-34s counted up to 23,430, giving a rough total of 58,000 vehicles. 

The Sherman on the other hand (including all variants and 76 armed Shermans) totaled to roughly 49,000 vehicles. Now normally you would think “OH WELL THIS MEANS MORE T-34s WERE MADE AND THE RUSSIANS OUT PRODUCED THE AMERICANS” while it is true that there were more total T-34s produced (post war production raised numbers to 80,000+) you have to keep in mind that Shermans did not enter production until 1942, while T-34s had began rolling off production lines in 1940, two whole years before the Sherman. 

“w-well there was still more T-34s produced” Unfortunately for you, the tank is only a part of the War Machine, and unlike the USSR, the USA had to build a Navy aswell. By war's end in 1945, the United States Navy had added nearly 1,200 major combatant ships, including twenty-seven aircraft carriers and eight "fast" battleships, and ten prewar "old" battleships totaling over 70% of the world's total numbers and total tonnage of naval vessels of 1,000 tons or greater.

[blankasolun]

source: Rolling Stone September 9, 2016

Pantera: A Wild Photo History With Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown

By Kory Grow

Pictures to feature in ‘A Vulgar Display of Pantera’ book by photographer Joe Giron

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See photos from throughout the history of Pantera with commentary by Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown.

Joe Giron

“These photos have brought back so many memories,” former Pantera bassist Rex Brown says, looking at pictures taken from the upcoming coffee-table book A Vulgar Display of Pantera. “It’s like half your life right there.”

The book, which comes out September 13th and features a foreword by Brown, contains 400 pages of photos by a person Brown calls the “fifth member of the band,” Joe Giron. It chronicles each step of the group’s history, from its origins as a Texas club band in the mid-Eighties – when singer Terry Glaze was their frontman and guitarist Dimebag Darrell went by Diamond Darrell – to their final tour in 2001 when they were supporting Reinventing the Steel. It presents arresting photos from several turning points in the band’s career – including their tours with Skid Row and White Zombie and their performance in Russia just after the fall of communism – and shows their playful side both on and offstage.

The photo above was taken in 1990 on the Santa Monica Pier around the time the group put out its major-label debut, Cowboys From Hell. “We were serious about the music and at other times we were a bunch of cutups,” Brown says in reaction to the shot.

“There is myself and one Dimebag Darrell with the tip of my mohawk and his hair entwined as one,” says Phil Anselmo looking at the same photo. “At that age we were probably thinking, ‘I hope this is the last picture, because it is absolutely Beer:30.’”

Pantera broke up a couple of years after their final tour and brothers Darrell and Vinnie Paul went on to form Damageplan. Darrell was killed onstage during a concert with the latter group in 2004. Now, Anselmo is fronting a number of bands including Down and Scour. Brown is working on a solo album – which he likens musically to Foghat, Tom Waits and Tom Petty – that will feature a number of guests including members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. And Paul is playing drums with Hellyeah.

Here, Anselmo and Brown look back on Pantera’s history.

Pantera With Original Singer Terry Glaze (1985)

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Joe Giron

Rex Brown: Look how skinny Dime is. We weren’t a glam band. We had to put on that kind of stuff to play the clubs.

Philip Anselmo: My first reaction is, “My God, look at these beautiful women.” It’s a picture of Pantera with their old lead singer Terrence Glaze, who himself was a very talented man in his own way and his own style. He has an excellent voice.

Brown: Back in those days in Texas, you really couldn’t play anywhere unless you had some following and you had to fit in with the trends that were going on. In the Eighties Texas club days, it was all about cover songs. I was probably 19 or 20 when this photo was taken. I think Dime was 17.

Anselmo: This is what I was walking into when I joined. This was the band I was stepping into, and yep, I had to play by the rules, too, because I needed to belong early.

Brown: The look is just a sign of the times. When I got in the band, I was like, man, I’m not wearing things like that. Then finally jumped into a pair of camouflage pants and a bullet belt and it was, “No you got to wear this.” No, I don’t, but I did anyway.

Pantera Welcome Phil Anselmo to the Band (1987)

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Joe Giron

Anselmo: Sweet Jesus. Let me say once again, my first gut reaction is, “Who are these beautiful women?” My second gut reaction would be, “Yup.”

Brown: That’s probably one of the first pictures we have with Philip in the band. We still had the fucking stupid looking hair. I mean, look at Vinnie on the right. What the hell? All of us had those stupid shades on. It’s almost Steel Panther–ish.

Anselmo: Dimebag is pouring a beer in his mouth, wearing a jean jacket that has stuff I wrote on his jacket. I was so desperate to get these fellows on the right path that I bespoiled his denim jacket, for which I was berated at first but then lauded later, by scribbling in black ink, “Kreator, Slayer, and Celtic Frost.” He did get mad at me, I will say that, but he forgave me. But he’s pouring beer into my hands as I am posing like Bon Jovi in a black leather jacket, with bullet belts wrapped around my hips and no tattoo across my stomach. What a debacle that is. And then there’s Rex looking like Rex, and then there’s Vince looking like Roseanne Barr with a beard with black gloves on.

Brown: That was taken in Dime’s mother’s living room. He put some black tarp behind it and put some lights up and we took some pictures. That’s just the way we were. We didn’t like fancy joints or anything like that. We just tried to get the raw emotion.

Fishing, Pantera-Style (1988)

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Joe Giron

Brown: This is a boat Vinnie had in Arlington, Texas, where we lived and we’d go fishing with a case of beer and have some fun. Good ole boys. We used to catch 10-pound large-mouth bass. It was insane. I don’t know how he got this boat, but I remember that it sunk. He didn’t put the plug in. Anyways, Joe [Giron] is even scared to get on the boat. Anyway, it was just some old dive boat with a terrible motor on the back. We watched it sink. As it sank, I said, “Vinnie, did you put the plug in?” He goes, “No,” as the plug starts bobbing to the top. Apparently not.

Cowboys From Hell Unwind (1989)

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Joe Giron

Anselmo: I’m sure we’re absolutely joking around completely. I am very tanned. Dimebag has rolled his eyes back in his head showing the whites of his eyes. Vince is wearing a Prong shirt; he always loved Prong. And Rex is in a King’s X hat; we’ve known the King’s X guys for a very long time. This picture was taken probably in the midst of or towards the end of the touring cycle for Cowboys From Hell.

Brown: That was Cowboys at our home base club, the Basement in Dallas. We shot three videos in one day that day: “Psycho Holiday,” “Cemetery Gates” and “Cowboys From Hell.” The videos that were coming out in those days were real glitzy, glamorous shit, so we wanted to show what the band was all about: the fans and jumping offstage and shit like that. We all just kind of changed pants or whatever the fuck between songs. The pants in that picture … I think my friend turned me onto those pieces of shit and they were fucking comfortable as hell. This is the wrap picture for the day, and I was trying to get comfortable after shooting for, shit, 12, 13 hours of the day.

The Iron Curtain Falls (1991)

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Joe Giron

Brown: This is literally two weeks after the coup happened. I don’t know why Vinnie is wearing shorts, because I remember it was cold as fuck that day. The rest of us have leather jackets and he’s sitting there with a Cowboys shirt and shorts.

Anselmo: We were in the middle recording Vulgar Display of Power, and we were asked to play in Russia when the U.S.S.R. dissolved. They decided to show how the government had changed by having this big rock event, which AC/DC headlined, Metallica played as co-headliner and the Black Crowes played. We opened the show, and this is a picture of us in our younger days standing with the Russian police force. Believe it or not, it was them who prompted the picture-taking. At first we were very intimidated by this group of people, because they were very violent towards their citizens whilst the show was going on. But I guess one of the head guys made eye contact with me and made this hand gesture like, “Take a picture.” And I was like, “Absolutely, sure.” So we drug everybody over there, and we took a picture with these nice fellows.

Brown: They wanted to get in a photo. It was new to them. These guys didn’t know what was ahead of them the day after, I guarantee it.

Pantera in Japan (1992)

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Joe Giron

Anselmo: This would be our first trip to Japan ever.

Brown: That’s at our favorite noodle shop in Roppongi. It was around the corner from the hotel. They were open 24 hours. All you could hear were slurps.

Anselmo: I recognize our main interpreter, the guy who took us around. His name might have been be Spike or something. Totally awesome guy. And then I see our bloated, disgusting … Oh, we’re still recording? Good. Our bloated, disgusting and reprehensible manager from back in the day, stuffing his face full of whatnot. There’s Rex with his mouth full of noodles, with a Coca-Cola nearby. Vince Paul is looking directly into the camera, whilst I’m obviously turned toward him, engaged in some type of back-and-forth banter, whilst wearing a shirt I have never seen me wear ever, to my knowledge. It’s a purple striped shirt, purple and black shirt. I don’t know where the hell I got that shirt. And I’m sitting next to some strange gentleman. All I can remember whilst looking at this picture is this being our first trip to Japan, which was incredible and awesome. I just didn’t realize, nor did I remember that our absolutely grotesque manager was present at the time.

Pantera and Skid Row Get Kissed (1992)

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Anselmo: This is a picture of everybody but me on tour with Skid Row, doing a Kiss cover song. This was a very memorable night because Rex dressed up as Ace Frehley, I did the old Paul Stanley star-on-the-eye thing, and Vince did the Peter Criss.

Brown: Dime always had makeup with him on the road. We played “Cold Gin” with Skid Row every night of that tour. I think I played lead on that. That was one of the funnest tours we ever did. Plus, in this photo, you get to see Sebastian Bach’s ass, which is always a pleasure.

Anselmo: Dimebag, obviously, dressed up like Gene Simmons, spitting blood, all that stuff. He wanted to actually make his own body armor [like Gene Simmons], and as you can tell in this photograph he made it out of duct tape and Coors Light boxes. He could turn a boring time into a fantastically memorable, bizarre, insane event at the drop of a hat. My God, look at the Coors Light boxes extending from his shins, wrapped around his arms like gauntlets. You’ve gotta fucking love it.

Dimebag Darrell and Friend (1992)

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Joe Giron

Anselmo: This looks like the early days of Pantera, when the audiences were very loud and close. This is a pretty awesome picture of a be-mohawked young fellow headbanging right in front of Dimebag, standing on the stage merely a foot away from him. As it should be, and as I miss terribly.

Brown: The whole thing with Pantera is phenomenal. It was all about the fans. Every night after shows, we’d sign things until we literally had to leave town.  Sometimes kids would get onstage, do their little bit and jump off or whatever the fuck. It was all about interacting with the fans. So it’s not uncommon to see pictures of something like this; it’s just an intense moment.

Vinnie Paul, Rex Brown and Friend (1994)

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Joe Giron

Anselmo: Sweet God almighty. The PC culture is going to go up in arms at the cultural appropriation of this picture. How dare they! But Vince and Rex are sitting with what looks like a native-type fellow, perhaps this is New Zealand or something like that, but it’s an indigenous man with a didgeridoo. I think the guy was selling them, and Rex and Vince bought one and probably made that guy’s entire afternoon. So all joking aside, it looks like our first trip to New Zealand, which was awesome.

Brown: I want to say we were in Australia. I think we had either gone to the kangaroo sanctuary or something like that. I saw that guy and said, “Man, we got to get one of those sticks and fucking have a photo with this guy.” It was pretty insane if you look at his makeup and everything else. He was making these sounds out of these rain sticks or whatever they’re fucking called. We were just checking them out and I told Joe, “Dude, bust your camera out – let’s take a photo.” That’s just all there is to it.

Pantera With White Zombie (1996)

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Joe Giron

Brown: White Zombie were managed by one of the partners at our management firm, and we did this tour in ’96. I could go on for days about that fucking tour. But I won’t. We’d known these guys since back when we were playing L’Amour in ’88. We’d come and showcase in `89, when we first put the record out. We used to showcase there, booking agents and stuff like that. We knew White Zombie when they had Marshall amps with Christmas lights on them.

Anselmo: I would say that Robert Cummings-Zombie looked bored, but honestly he doesn’t. He actually looks like he’s kinda into it, as Dimebag’s screaming at the top of lungs right next to him. God knows what he’s yelling right there. I’ve got my Jeff Bridges haircut going on there, and I’m standing next to Sean-o, who looks exactly the same still today. Rex has got short hair in this picture; we were freaking out. And the toughest-looking guy in this whole picture is Jay [Yuenger], the guitar player for White Zombie. He looks like he’s ready to mix it up a little bit, man, get down to business. Rock some knuckles. Excellent, fun times.

Brown: They used to have this big, huge backdrop of this green-meanie-looking thing. Every night, we’d get some spraypaint and paint one of its teeth black, because Dime had this drink called a Black Tooth Grin that he’d make. So they would have to go in and repaint over the black every night. The teeth were about six or eight feet tall.

Dimebag Darrell and Kerry King Drink Shot as Phil Anselmo Gives a Thumbs-Up (2001)

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Joe Giron

Anselmo: Obviously, this picture is from the Pantera/Slayer/Morbid Angel run. Here we have a hippie-haired version of myself in the background, giving the thumbs-up to what looks like some other shot-holders, Dimebag and Kerry King. It looks like a lot of fun.

Brown: Every night, we’d have one of the roadies come out and hand us a drink. That was a ritual at that point. We’ve known Kerry since probably ’87 or ’88. He found out about us through a fanzine. He was in Houston for a couple of weeks and him and Philip became really good friends, and he stayed with us. That was when we were still playing the clubs and we were doing our first record with Philip, Power Metal. He loved what we were doing and became a solid friend. In this photo, Kerry must have been playing with us that night. He came up with us all the time so I have no idea what he would have been playing. We’d always said that the one band we don’t want to follow is Slayer; they’re just insane live. And it worked out that we had to follow them on that tour. It was two of the finest bands in the genre of music that we do in one package. You don’t see that much anymore. That ended up being the final tour.

Pantera With Dave Grohl (2001)

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Brown: Back in those days, Dave would come to every damn show if he could. I don’t know how we met him but he would ride on the bus with us and shit. Dave is the king of cut-up. Here you can see he’s taking a Coors Light can in his piehole, or mouth.

Anselmo: He’s got his entire mouth wrapped around the top of the beer can. That is a talent, I guess.

Brown: We had after-parties that would last fucking six hours. We would play dice or cards or whatever, and we had a lot of fun with Dave, man. To this day, he’s one of the most genuine people you can possibly ever want to know.

Reinventing the Steel (2001)

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Anselmo: This is the Reinventing the Steel tour, where I was warned beforehand, “Man, heavy metal’s kinda going down the drain. There’s this nu-metal kinda moving in, which has different elements and heavy metal’s on its way out.” Yeah. And I’m looking at a sold-out stadium right here. This just goes to show once again that Pantera has the greatest fans in the world.

Brown: You see what it’s all about. I think we were definitely at the top of our game, because we were following Slayer. If there’s a way to go out, there it was. The whole Pantera logo lit up in flames. It was the biggest production we ever took out. Usually, if it was up to us, we would have hung 60-watt light bulbs and just flung them over the stage, which we did in the “I’m Broken” video. But we went over the top in the production. I hate to call it the very end, but it was.

Anselmo: If we’re really going to get into commentary here, yes, I see the projected Confederate flags. Well, for one, I’ve always said, “Flags don’t mean a damn thing to me.” Two, by using the Confederate flag, despite what anyone says – and I don’t give a shit, because no matter what I say, I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t – but the truth of it all is, it was about as innocent as innocent could be. We weren’t confessing to any clandestine power of structure or however you assholes wanna put it these days. I think we used the Confederate flag merely because of Lynyrd Skynyrd. We had learned from people before us. And it was never about anything other than that.

Brown: The Confederate flag is on the back cover of [1996’s] The Great Southern Trendkill. That was the “Southern” part of it. There were still states that had that on their state flags. Nowadays it’s forbidden to use it. It’s not so politically correct. But it had nothing to do with racism. None of us were like that. It was just a tie-in to the artwork on the back cover. Even back then, I said, “This is not the way to go.” Lynyrd Skynyrd used one for years and still do. Now people confuse it with racism and hatred. That’s not what this band is about at all; quite the opposite. But it’s the only thing I would say in the P.C. days that I have any regrets about.

Anselmo: Of course they wanted that little buzz shot at the very end, and I hope you’re still recording me. I know what you’re doing, media. I do. I know what you’re doing. And I hope you get a whole lot of clicks out of it. I really do. There’s your headline. Thank you.

Dimebag’s Week on Metal Graveyard: A Wild Photo History With Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown source: Rolling Stone September 9, 2016 Pantera: A Wild Photo History With Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown…

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ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN 66 #4  AVENGERS HALLOWEEN SPECIAL #1 BARBARELLA #11 BATMAN SECRET FILES #1  BATMAN THE MAXX ARKHAM DREAMS #2 (OF 5)  BLACK PANTHER #5 BONE PARISH #4 BRITANNIA LOST EAGLES OF ROME #4 (OF 4) CHARLIES ANGELS #5  CLANKILLERS #4 CROSSED PLUS 100 MIMIC #6  DAREDEVIL #610 DEATHSTROKE YOGI BEAR SPECIAL #1 DOOM PATROL #12 EXTERMINATION #4 (OF 5) FAITH DREAMSIDE #2 (OF 4) GREEN LANTERN HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SPECIAL #1 HEROES IN CRISIS #2 (OF 9) HEX WIVES #1 ICE CREAM MAN #8  INFINITY WARS IRON HAMMER #2 (OF 2) INJUSTICE VS THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE #4 (OF 6) INVADER ZIM #36  JL DARK & WONDER WOMAN THE WITCHING HOUR #1 JUSTICE LEAGUE AQUAMAN DROWNED EARTH #1 LADY MECHANIKA DAME SANS MERCI #3 (OF 3) LOST CITY EXPLORERS #5 MAD MAGAZINE #4 MAN-EATERS #2 MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #11 MULTIPLE MAN #5 (OF 5) NANCY DREW #5  NIGHTWING MAGILLA GORILLA SPECIAL #1 OLD MAN HAWKEYE #10 (OF 12) OLD MAN LOGAN #50 REALM #10 RICK & MORTY #43 SEX DEATH REVOLUTION #1  SHANGHAI RED #5 (OF 5)  SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #10 SPIDER-FORCE #1 (OF 3)  STAR WARS TALES FROM VADERS CASTLE #5 (OF 5)  STRANGER THINGS #2 SUPERMAN TOP CAT SPECIAL #1 TERRIFICS ANNUAL #1 TONY STARK IRON MAN #5 VAULT OF SPIDERS #1 (OF 2)  WAYWARD #30 WEST COAST AVENGERS #3 WHAT IF? MAGIK #1 WILD STORM #18 WYTCHES BAD EGG HALLOWEEN SPEC (ONE-SHOT)  X-MEN BLACK EMMA FROST #1

Trades:

ARCHIES TP VOL 02 AVENGERS UNDERCOVER TP COMPLETE COLLECTION BATMAN THE DARK PRINCE CHARMING HC BLACK SCIENCE TP VOL 08 LATER THAN YOU THINK DEATHBED TP  DEMON HELL IS EARTH TP HIT-GIRL TP VOL 02 JESSICA JONES MPGN TP BLIND SPOT MAESTROS TP VOL 01  MAN OF STEEL BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS HC MOONSHINE TP VOL 02 MUTANT X TP VOL 01 COMPLETE COLLECTION RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS TP VOL 04 GOOD NIGHT GOTHAM SHADOWMAN (2018) TP VOL 02 DEAD & GONE STEPHEN MCCRANIES SPACE BOY TP VOL 02 SUPERGIRL TP VOL 04 PLAIN SIGHT REBIRTH WEAPON H TP VOL 01 AWOL WEAPON X TP VOL 04 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION X-MEN BLUE TP VOL 05 SURVIVING EXPERIENCE X-MEN GRAND DESIGN SECOND GENESIS TP

Manga:

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION GN VOL 03  FAIRY TAIL SIDE STORIES GN VOL 03 LIGHTNING GODS  I AM A HERO OMNIBUS TP VOL 08  TOKYO GHOUL GN COMPLETE BOX SET TOKYO GHOUL RE GN VOL 07 

Toys:

CLASSIC TERMINATOR ENDOSKELETON 7IN SCALE AF CODE GEASS LELOUCH O/T REBELLION EXQ KAREN KOZUKI FULL METAL PANIC INVISIBLE VIC SAVAGE CROSSBOW PLS FUNKO SAVAGE WORLD FRIDAY THE 13TH JASON VOORHEES FUNKO SAVAGE WORLD TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE LEATHER GINTAMA KATSUGEKI KABUKICHO GINTOKI SAKATA FIG  IRON GIANT DIECAST 1/12 SCALE ACTION FIGURE KAKYU HOSHIN ENGI GLITTER & GLAMOUR DAKKI FIG MARVEL PREMIERE ELEKTRA STATUE ONE PIECE GLITTER & GLAMOUR SHINY VENUS NAMI FIG ONE PIECE LADY EDGE WEDDING NEFELTARI BLUE DRESS FIG ONE PIECE MAGAZINE LUFFY FIG  POP DISNEY NBX VAMPIRE TEDDY W/ DUCK POP MARVEL RUNAWAYS GERT YORKES VINYL FIG POP MARVEL RUNAWAYS KAROLINA DEAN VINYL FIG POP MARVEL RUNAWAYS MOLLY HERNANDEZ VINYL FIG POP MARVEL RUNAWAYS NICO MINORU VINYL FIG