GoGo Yubari

I don't like being emotionally invested in the USMNT again, I thought I was free

I am all for the universe spiting me in this specific case. Got to use my powers for good.

Really hope that the US Soccer media machine takes the foot off of the "Christian Pulisic is the face of the team" pedal. There are at least four or five players for US I've enjoyed watching in these matches more than him. EDIT: hahahaha okay fine, fair enough

Spain vs. Germany

Boy, that was a scary one.

Oh, Canada

I would like the US to do well though I can't shake the feeling that the sooner they're out of the picture the more tolerable Fox's coverage will become.

Love that Turkules.

It's very funny hearing the American commentary continually selling what a long wait it was for US fans to watch their team in the World Cup again because they missed one against a team where the players and fans have been waiting a lifetime for this.

oh, wow, our kits suck.

Only one man could bring the presence and dignity needed for the role of "POTUS we mostly just see in news clips sometimes," and that man's name is D~~~~~ M~~~~~.

They should keep alternating which one is playing the president every other appearance and see how long it takes for people to notice.

Yeah, I wish "alternative" would be completely removed from music discussion. Alternative/indie rock can and does obviously still inspire contemporary bands but I just don't think it makes any sense in a world where stadium rock is now purely a nostalgia thing.

They didn't to my recollection. Very much a "race of underwater people = siren powers" stock thing, which I don't really have any qualms with.

Political intrigue and vaguely untrustworthy alliances is so intrinsic to the Black Panther comics that I'm very glad that they've set that up with Namor. Would love it if Coogler oversaw a Midnight Angels show and started fleshing out some of those minor characters and parts of the country. Lot of cool stuff being done with that in the comics lately.

You can also find it in full on Twitter if you look for it. It's heartbreaking and extremely good and I'm glad he was able to get it out there in his lifetime.

I have a lot of more general thoughts to come when I'm not in the office but I think the point of Val being in the movie first and foremost was to make it clear that there are very good reasons for both Wakanda and Talokan (gonna take a bit for me to not knee-jerk say "Atlantis," a little surprised and kind of happy that they didn't even lampshade it) to be wary of their place in the world, and that even though Namor failed in his main goal he has good reason to think that he can get what he wants down the road. I like that they didn't really do any huge sequel teases with this movie but I was very much expecting a post-credits scene introducing the Thunderbolts and setting up further conflict there (probably over Zemo, another thing I was a little surprised wasn't mentioned much beyond the confirmation that presumably he is alive and imprisoned at the mercy of T'Challa).

Yeah, I don't feel comfortable talking about the plot details of a movie this big in a generalized, big-tent thread like the MCU movie thread as long as we don't have spoiler tags and also I don't want people to feel stifled talking about one of the biggest movies of the year so here it is, a dedicated thread for Wakanda Forever. Warning! Spoilers! I'm even gonna add a bunch of space as one last warning! Be forewarned! yeah so anyway, they really better have made the stakes of this stuff clear to Letitia Wright and what she's jeopardizing if she fucks things up with whatever takes she may have because Shuri's the right character to take on the mantle of Black Panther but mm, yeah...

I knew about this but I really gotta track it down and read it, would be cool if DC put it online as a memorial:

It's been announced that Kevin Conroy has passed away at 66 after a battle with cancer. Rest in peace to IMO the definitive Batman, the voice that every other Batman has to be measured against.

Wakanda Forever was very good. Dragged a little at a couple points and I wish Namor had a little more gravitas to him but it's nice to have a non-Spider-Man MCU film that I can unambiguously be like "I really liked it" about without any asterisks for the first time since Endgame. I would say more but we still don't have spoiler tags and I've got work in like six hours so probably should get some sleep. EDIT: Though if you want the answer to the "how many post-credits scenes" question, I'll put it in tiny text. It's just one, and it's a mid-credits scene. No need to stick around for the whole credits if you don't want to.

Extremely happy for Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris, and also how unbelievably mad that's probably going to make the worst parts of USMNT fandom.

AEW have denied the Game Pass rumor.

My plan was always to read the books after the show had basically gotten through/corresponded with each of them, a plan that worked very well for allowing me to appreciate the show for what it was and then once I was finally like "you know what? Fuck the show" I just read the rest. Definitely made me appreciate just how awful the show's take on Dorne and its set of characters was.