Negan Identity Revealed for Walking Dead Season Finale

Well, I will admit I don't read comic books, lol.  I followed the Walking Dead TV show, and I believed the storyline was exactly as it should be.  I found out I was wrong. It a similar scenario from Game of Thrones, meaning the TV series took creative license with the franchise to stretch the longevity of favorite characters and not show graphic violence that made the comic book famous enough to get a TV. Looks like there was a lot of stuff the show chose to edit to pass censorship and get on air.  I spent all weekend researching the differences that happened in the comic book and didn't happened on TV.

Well here is a big reveal.  On today's season finale we will see that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was cast as Negan.  Two weeks ago when one of Negan's crew said we all are Negan, they lied. Turns out that Negan is the leader of the Saviors. The Saviors are a group of violent survivors based at a place called The Sanctuary, which is in the same general area as the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Hilltop Colony and The Kingdom, which are survivor communities in the Washington, D.C. region.

The Sanctuary is a factory and it was first teased in AMC's poster for the second half of Season 5. Negan and The Saviors rule by fear, they demand supplies and rations in exchange for killing walkers outside of Hilltop. Rick and members of all three communities eventually team up to fight The Saviors in what's called "All Out War."

From what I read, Negan has a potty mouth and he is on a level of salvage evil unseen before in the Walking Dead comic series.  When asked how he compared to the Governor, who was the previous main villain of Rick's group here is what was said by fans:

“Where the Governor was a great [villain] he had some weakness that Rick could've exploited. The Governor was often irrational and made mistakes that ultimately let Rick's crew have breathing room and escape. He was much more amateur

Negan has a weird obsession with Rick's son, Carl Grimes. Negan expresses that Carl is a younger dark version of himself.  As comic fans stated, Carl in the comics is way different from Carl on the TV show. Research it to learn more.

Negan is much more professional and ruthless. Ruling by fear with his camp/gang following him for the most part with out question. Negan is also cold calculating behind his crude ruthless exterior and doesn't make dumb mistakes. In fact he is more likely to take advantage of others mistakes than to make his own.

His group of people is a mixture of biker gang and psycho cult. Negan is so powerful because of ruling with fear that Rick can never overcome him with direct force but he eventually finds a way and the story arc follows this with the glimmers of rebuilding society because of it.

In the end Rick realizes to counter the fear that Negan is using. He needs trust and cooperation, something that Negan is impossible to make use of. You see by ruling with fear means you can never trust the people you've subjected. The whole arc is kinda a demonstration of the values of leading by fear or love i.e. trust.

I think the only mistake Negan made was that he pushed people too far. He does things that people can never forgive or forget.”

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

"In his mind, he think he is a

Shining white knight that stood up against the dark army. 

One day he will realize phantoms will catch up to him.

Blabbing on about Injustice and hiding behind a fool's idea of morality and all the other fools will knod with him.

One day he will see through the lies he built up and realize the kind of man he is.

What goes around comes around 

You can't run from yourself."

I must say Metal Gear Solid V lived up to my expectations but like all good games, it left me wanting more.

This time around metal gear solid took an interesting twist with gameplay and story development. As usual gameplay encourages players to sneak around applying stealth and using tranquilizers to immobilize enemies.  The buddy support system and new weapons are a real treat for fans of action games.  The addition of vehicles and animals help snake transverse across the open map and cover large chunks of land to complete the missions and push the story.

The story is driven by an all star cast of voice actors such as Keifer Sutherland and Tara Strong. This time around story is more about phantoms of the true heir to the metal gear franchise. I will let you play the game to understand what I mean about that😉.  This story covers big boss raise and the events from 1974 to 1984 in the MGS franchise.  46 missions cover a lot of back story that we read about in previous games, but we didn't see until now.

Now down to the review.  It's a beautiful and ambitious game.  I must admit one set back is that the story is pushed by repeatitive missions and stealth driven combat.  Most items on the battle field can be collected and sent back to your mother base as resources.  Other than support you never get full use of the mother base system.  There's a pvp feature for the mother base which allows you to steal resources and combat other players via the online multi player, but I didn't spend too much time on it. 

Overall, Metal Gear Solid: the Phantom Pain is solid. Graphics and gameplay are on point.  You can use the environment to your advantage to help you in stealth driven missions. Sound and acting are perfect. You can even use the rain to mask the sound of your footsteps. The ending was reminiscent of bio shock infinite. That's all I will say. I give Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain a 9.5 out of 10.