My halfway decent impersonation of The Walking Dead’s Negan. Below are a few concept photos and videos from earlier in the costuming process.
Final costume video and commentary.
Initial costume unvelining video:
Let me know if you love it or hate it, I’m welcoming constructive criticism on this cosplay. Here’s to hoping Halloween 2017 is a legendary one.
-KCard
*Hello friends, be sure to watch out for SPIDERS and SPOILERS along the way to the Sanctuary.*
Hello readers new and old, I’m back to write my only review of this second half of the season released in a timely manner. I apologize for being such a ghost to my readers lately, but I’m happy to be back to writing again. It’s been a long angst filled winter chocked full of writers block for me, but it’s over now. As it stands for the show, this was an amazing episode and a great way to close out this dynamite season as I loved how they made everything tie together so nicely.
What I Liked:
First off, it was great to see Abraham again in the form of a continuing flashback with how he interacted with Sasha, from the scene where Sasha begged Abraham not to leave, to where Abraham said that if you’re going to die it had best be with some form of meaning to it. I loved how they built up the fight and what happened with Sasha sacrificing herself for Rick’s group. It was an emotional goodbye to a great character, and her death had a lot of meaning to it since it helped Rick’s group break free from the struggle briefly. I enjoyed seeing how Negan turned the tables on Rick briefly, and how Negan planned to kill Carl, but Rick wasn’t going to bend the knee to Negan again. It was great to see Ezekiel and Maggie come to rescue Alexandria at the last minute to help turn the tables on Negan and Jadis. Lastly, that joke where Jadis talked to Michonne saying “I lay with him later, you mind?” had me in tears and was well played. With that said, there were still somethings that I didn’t enjoy.
What I didn’t Like:
It was a shocking moment to see Jadis’s group betray Rick’s group, and while it was a great plot twist, it’s made me dislike Jadis as a character. I didn’t enjoy how Eugene has basically gone over to the “dark side” of serving Negan, and I dislike that Rick and his group were dumb enough to fall for Dwight’s deception. Not that the scene where Daryl confronted Dwight wasn’t worth seeing, I just think that Daryl should have known better. Lastly, I feel as if the scene where that woman beat Michonne was a bit gratuitous and unnecessary, but I understand what dramatic tension the writers were aiming for with it. There are some things shaping up for next season that I’m looking forward to seeing play out.
What I Expect To Happen Next Season:
For starters, it’s obvious there are going to be some strong forms of tension between Negan, Dwight, and Eugene because Negan is on to Eugene about Sasha, and Negan could easily find out about Dwight’s deception about Sherry escaping. I’m curious if Jadis will keep working with Negan, or if she will work to betray Negan like she did to Rick. I’m thinking Morgan might start down a dark path again, and I think that Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie will need to figure out the best ways to defend their respective communities from Negan’s army.
I felt overall season seven was pretty killer, and despite being slow at certain points, it’s like if season two happened without being horrible. I look forward to this coming October to see where things go, and I lament that October is far away at the same time.
-KCard
*Spoilers: you have been warned about them*.
Hello again WordPress and friends, I wanted to say that I’m likely to release my reviews on The Walking Dead on the following Monday or Tuesday after the episode airs. I’m watching the episodes on my Xbox rather than using cable (welcome to the modern era). I’m not writing a full review for this week as it’s just too far past the deadline.
With that said, I’m still sharing my thoughts on the episode. I thought this episode was an awesome way to bring us back into the fold as Rick and Alexandria are prepping to fight The Saviors. Highlights included how Rick met with King Ezekiel, the badass scene with Rick and Michonne mowing down a walker heard with the two cars, and how conflicted Ezekiel is to do the right thing to help Rick.
Lastly, I’m looking forward to seeing who the new group of survivors are next week.
-KCard
Warning: spoilers and the rantings of a mad man named Kevin.
Hello everyone, as it stands I won’t be able to release a detailed review on this week’s episode of The Walking Dead until Tuesday, because of being busy with stuff and thangs. I will briefly state that I spent half of the time playing with my phone instead of watching the episode as it was just so boring. I only enjoyed the last 15 minutes or so. I don’t mind filler episodes from time to time, but filler placed before something huge will always annoy me to no end. More details to come on Tuesday.
-KCard
Spoiler warning: warnings spoiled.
Hello WordPress, Kevin here bringing you my review on The Walking Dead 7.5 episode, “Go Getters”. I rather like this season of TWD so far as it’s being mostly driven by plot. I know past seasons dwelled on character development and moral humanity, but this season just blends those aspects without as much “filler” content. And by “filler”, I’m referring to a lack of bland subplots as deviations from the source material have always been a part of TWD. Anyways, onto my thoughts on the show.
What I Liked:
It was great to see the cooperation between Maggie and Sasha with how Maggie is becoming a stronger character, as opposed to Maggie being distraught by Glenn’s death earlier in the season. I enjoyed the subplot of Enid and Carl’s little romance growing, with a good laugh I got from them using the roller blades. I liked seeing how Greg cowered before Simon and the Saviors. I felt the whole scene was well played out and acted between Simon and Greg. IE, I liked how Simon channeled his inner General Zod and made Greg neal. Lastly, I loved the scene where Jesus knew Kung Fu, and Maggie reminded us all that she grew up on a farm and knows how to use a tractor as a deadly weapon to kill the walkers and crush that car with the loud music.
What I didn’t Like:
I spent all of this episode being reminded how much of a selfish and cowardly prick Greg is, since we haven’t seen him since last season where he was a sexist jerk towards Maggie. I can’t believe Greg was going to sell out Maggie and Sasha to the Saviors, that’s just solidifying my hatred for this character. Other than Gregory being a prick, I had no qualms about this episode. Even if it lacked a lot of action, I still found this episode to be top notch.
I’m looking forward to seeing how things pan out next week with Jesus and Carl infiltrating the Saviors compound. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t get them both killed by Negan and Lucille.
-KCard
Warning:
Life’s a treat,
and it feels so sweet,
when you’re living on spoiler street.
Hello again world of WordPress, Kevin here bringing you my brief thoughts on Walking Dead episode 7.4, “Service”. I missed reviewing the last two episodes just because I’ve been busy with work and accepting the outcome of the Presidential Election last week. Here’s to hoping we can get “Negan Lucille” into office someday, candidates who will take care of the deficit by “shutting that shit down, no exceptions!” As for the two previous episodes, I know some people might have found them boring, but I’m rather enjoying how much dialogue and plot driven things are becoming in The Walking Dead again. These eipsodes were a breath of fresh air from the season premiere. It’s like the creators are trying to Make the Plot Great Again. Terrible political jokes aside, I rather enjoyed this episode as a whole.
What I enjoyed:
I rather like the direction they are taking with Rick’s character development since Negan is working to break Rick like a whipped dog. I don’t mean to say that Rick deserves to be treated this way, but I’m curious to see where things will go with how Negan is treating Rick. Such as if Rick ends up breaking completely, or just becomes a worse person than he was in the middle of season five. I enjoyed seeing the tense air between the members of Alexandria and the Saviors with how the actors played everything out. The scene where Carl confronts the Saviors and stands up to Negan was well made. Same goes for the scene where Dwight was creepily taunting Rosita.
Speaking of Dwight, if Negan is the big dog around the yard, Dwight is the simpering little hound dancing in his shadow for Negan’s approval. It seems that the writers are actually trying to make us hate Dwight more than Negan, and it’s working for me. I think Dwight is losing his humanity becuase of Negan’s actions, and Dwight sees parts of his old-self in Daryl that he now hates. IE, the scene where Dwight takes Daryl’s bike and then purposely taunts him over it saying, “You can have it back Daryl, just say the word!” Which I think was a reference to last week where Daryl refused to call himself “Negan”.
As for Negan himself, I am falling in love with how Jeffery Dean Morgan plays this psychopath. I find myself quoting Negan in my head all of the time with how he goes from being funny to dead serious in a heartbeat, he’s the kind of villain that’s “so bad he’s good.” I’m finally starting to catch up on the source material, so I will incorporate how the show version of Negan compares to the comic version of Negan in future reviews. Here’s to hoping the writers don’t screwover Negan like they screwed up the Governor’s story arc. With all of that said, I still had a few bones to pick with this episode.
What I didn’t enjoy:
Am I wrong for thinking that this episode didn’t have to be be 90 minutes long? I feel the episode itself became a lot worse once Negan left Alexandria. Negan was really the person who made this episode pop for me. With that said, I didn’t feel like Negan needed to take every single gun from Alexandria, as it decreases their chances of survival in the now zombie infested world they live. Negan said he didn’t want Rick’s group starving to death, but God forbid another Walker heard needs to stroll through Alexandria again. I know what these plot points stood for though, it was to demonstrate how much control Negan has over Rick now vs who Rick used to be, as Negan even mockingly pointed out to Rick with that scene where Negan was holding Deanna’s camcorder. Lastly, while I thank Father Gabriel for buying Maggie more time, I don’t like the idea of her being found out at the Hilltop colony later this season by Negan. This season will prove to be a bitter sweet symphony of writing if so.
I look forward to see where things will be going this season, while last season gave us a lot of action, I’m thinking this is going the season where Walking Dead comes back to plot over action, like a better and darker version of season two. I pretty much gave away my song for this review, so here’s your moment of zen:
-KCard
Warning: be prepared for lots and lots of spoilers.
Hello again WordPress readers, Kevin here coming to bring you my thoughts on this highly emotional episode titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”. First, I just want to point out I may not do live broadcasts on Facebook anymore for live reactions as even that seems to cause drama involving spoilers.It’s hard to tell eggshells apart from mindfields these days. Anyways, I will stop derailing and digress onto the show.
What I liked:
This episode was well made in how it made me want to punch the writers in the face like Daryl did to Negan in the first half, and then had me on my knees emotionally in the second half when we found out who Negan’s victims were. The writers wanted us to feel exactly how much pain Rick’s group was in the second half of the episode after they lost Glenn and Abraham to “Lucille”. I think this episode will really set the tone for how insanely goddam brutal this season is going to be.
I enjoyed Jeffery Dean Morgan’s acting as Negan, and while I’m still behind on the comics for Negan, Morgan’s acting is top notch as my new favorite TV psychopath. Your move, Game of Thrones.
Speaking of Game of Thrones, could Negan be shaped up to be like Ramsay Snow? For instance, the secene where Negan almost forces Rick to cut off Carl’s arm shows us just how twisted Negan really is. The same goes with how Negan took Daryl to be his captive and threatened to send “bits of Daryl” to Rick’s door, much like Ramsay would do to his enemies.Eitherway, I’m not expecting any happy resolutions in this season with an opening episode like that one.
What I didn’t like:
What I hated about this episode is what I loved about this episode: It made me wait a little longer for the death reveal, then smashed my heart to pieces like Glenn and Abraham’s skulls. Walking Dead pulled a fast one on all of us thinking only one person was going to die, but they killed off a second character in a huge emotional tirade that caught all of us by surprise (even if comic readers did know about Glenn and Abraham dying). Add the trauma of that scene where Rick almost cut off Carl’s hand, and you have one fine recipe for fan heartbreak, and my massive headache. Seriously, I need some tylenol after watching this episode because of how much it played mind games with me.
R.I.P. Glenn and Abraham, I would have liked to have seen you both develope as characters in the upcoming story arc. Instead, the writers decided to not deviate from the comics too heavily this time.
We will see where things go moving forward, which I doubt will involve anything aside from brutal and dark writing.
-KCard
We finally meet Negan, but the episode delivers a mixed performance. #twdfinale
*In the words of Chester A Bum from That Guy With The Glasses: “SPOILERS!!”*
Hello, I’m Kevin Card, you might remember from such show reviews as “The Walking Dead, why did the Governor come back for spaghetti Tuesday?” And, “Game of Thrones, does George RR Martin have a thing against family bonding moments?” And so we’re here again readers, another episode gone and the WTF moments are in full swing to help us prepare for the hammer to fall next week. There were some great things in this episode, and some not so great things. So let’s dive in and see the hand we’ve been dealt.
This episode started off light hearted with the most amount of sexual fan service we’ve seen since season three, including a shower scene with Glenn and Maggie and a post coitus apple between Rick and Michonne. Things quickly turned dark and tense though as characters went out trying to find Carol after she sneaked out of Alexandria. We see that even with Carol suffering from an internal crisis over never killing again, she’s still willing to kill if she has too (unlike Morgan) after she puts down that truck full of Saviors. We get some quality dialog and action scenes with Rick and Morgan, and finally we see that Daryl is trying to avenge Denise by trying to take out Dwight (only to be out smarted by Dwight and then get shot in the shoulder). There are things I really enjoyed, and things I could have done without.
Things I enjoyed:
I enjoyed a lot of the dialog in this episode, especially between Rick and Morgan about that Wolf prisoner and how things went down at the prison with Carol being exiled. The fact that they opened the episode with music from Johnny Cash was fantastic. I also enjoyed how Carol got the drop on those saviors by keeping an automatic weapon up her sleeve and just outsmarted them every step of the way. I loved the scene on the rail road tracks where Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita try and talk Daryl out of confronting Dwight. Lastly, I enjoyed knowing that Carol managed to get away from the surviving Savior (so far), but that stray surviving savior may have a chance to capture Rick or Morgan… which would definitely not be something I’d enjoy.
What I didn’t Enjoy:
That Dwight managed to outsmart Daryl is complete BS to me, Daryl should have known to check his surroundings. I think Michael Rooker was right when he said that being in Alexandria has made Daryl soft, and now Daryl has a gun shot wound to prove it. I also didn’t like how it looks like Maggie is going to have a miscarage of her child, which I don’t want to see a zombie baby (thank you, Dawn of The Dead remake). There’s been a lot of speculation if Glenn will die by Negan’s hand, but I can’t say anything for sure beyond that if Glenn dies it would make all that stuff we suffered for in season 6A meaningless. And if Glenn does die, at least let him die heroically and go out with meaning like Merle did in season three. Beyond that, I thought this was a great episode despite the “think fast” moment of the episode ending with Daryl getting shot.
It’s now confirmed that Negan will appear in next week’s 90 minute series finale which means two things to me: the hammer is about to fall for Rick’s group, and we may very well be entering Game of Thrones “Red Wedding” territory of character deaths. Let’s just hope that those characters dying serve actual meaning instead of just plain shock value. I’m praying that we all won’t lose our lunch when the barbed wire baseball bat comes into play next week.
I’ve referenced this song by Queen at least three times in this blog tonight, so it would be criminal to not post:
-KCard
*SPOILER WARNING: Never leave mayonnaise out in the sun as it will spoil quickly. And in the words of Grandpa from Hey Arnold, never eat raspberries.*
Hello again Word Press, Kevin here bringing you the review of the latest episode of The Walking Dead. Before I start up on the review, I can’t make any more comparisons to the source material until I get a chance to catch up on the comics (or until they finally release the third compendium) . I’m a very busy individual these days between working full time and working with my band to record our demo (it’s why at best I only release one blog a week). I’ll look into the comics on my own time, just not while the show is going on.
Speaking of being busy, I didn’t get to release my review on last week’s episode because I only saw the full episode of 6.11 this past Sunday. Overall, 6.11 was a pretty darn good episode, especially with how Maggie handled the negotiating with Gregory and stood up for herself. I also liked how last week’s episode was like the calm before the storm. This week’s episode had much more action than last week, and more human on human fighting than we’ve seen since seasons three and four. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife in this episode, and the second half of the episode played out like an awesome action movie. There are some things I enjoyed about the episode overall, and some things that really grinded my gears.
What I enjoyed: It was great how well thought out and coordinated all of the fight scenes were in this episode as I loved seeing how many of the saviors were massacred later in the episode. It was great seeing Rick’s plan in action of faking Greg’s death, and then moving in to kill the saviors in their sleep. That was, until that one savior pulled the fire alarm right before Abraham and Sasha killed him (the shit officially hit the fan in the episode from that point onwards). I loved how Jesus managed to save Glenn and Heath after they were trapped in the armory and shot straight through the door to kill that group of Saviors. My favorite action scene was where Father Gabriel shot that Savior after saying a prayer for him out loud, and saying “Amen” after the deed was done (maybe Gabriel will finally start kicking ass for the lord?) Lastly, I enjoyed seeing Glenn and Heath struggle with the fact that they are now killers. This struggle showed how solid the acting chemistry was between Steven Yuen and Corey Hawkins (heath) can be even when the screen time runs quickly.
What I Didn’t Like: Abraham, why’d you have to go and be an asshole to Rosita? I don’t care if that’s “the way shit is” with you, you don’t just break up with a woman who’s been that good to you in a heartbeat. You don’t just tell her that you only dated her because she had tits. I mean, maybe it’s a better change of pace where in the comics Abraham cheated on Rosita, but it still leaves me feeling pissed off. I’m happy for Carole finding love again, but I’m sad it wasn’t with Daryl (like many had hoped it would be). Lastly, I shudder to think what may happen to Carole and Maggie being held hostage by who I presume to be one of Negan’s wives. Things could get ugly next week.
Overall, I felt like this was an awesome episode that was well written, acted, and paced. I look forward to seeing next week’s episode.
-KCard
Kevin Card 