The Walking Dead Season 3 E1: Seed (Part 2)

If you have not read the first part of this review, you may do so here: The Walking Dead Season 3 E1: Seed (Part 1)

Rick wants to clear the prison in the morning.  Since the prison looks like it fell early, it could be a gold mine.  Weapons, food, medicine, anything could be in there.  Due to limited ammo (and noise) they will have to do it hand to hand.  The risk is worth it, especially since the prison is divided up into sections.  They already have a safe area so they can just continue to spread out from there.

Lori attempts to talk Rick out of trying to take the prison so soon.  Everyone is tired and finally feels relatively safe, she wants to put this off for a few days but Rick shuts her down quickly.  They are obviously having some problems in their relationship but Rick doesn’t want to deal with them right now.  He says he is doing things right now (to protect her and everyone else), that should be enough.

We meet Andrea and Michonne again.  Nothing much happens except Michonne kills some walkers.  Back at the prison the survivors move in to take the prison using close combat weapons and tactics.  This is smart, everyone is fighting as a group, not just running around randomly.  They run into some interesting zombies here, wearing body armor, which makes them very hard to kill…it also makes me wonder how they got bit in the first place.

Rick wants to make sure there are no blind spots, they can’t risk a zombie attack.  Rick says they need to go into the prison and clear it.  During this process they find some keys to one of the prison blocks on a dead guard.  After clearing the block, they now have a very safe place.  It’s sectioned off, so not only do they have cells but there is a large cell door blocking off that entire section.  This is about as safe from walkers as you can get.

We cut back to Andrea and Michonne again.  They are hiding in some building and all we find out about them is that Andrea is apparently very sick.  Lori wants to talk to Hershel alone.  She is worried about the baby dying and becoming a walker inside of her, or her dying during child birth and attacking everyone.  Hershel tells her not to think like that, then she mentions what is really stressing her out.  Carl won’t talk to her and Rick hates her.  Hershel just says they will get over it in time.

Several of the group members move to clear more of the prison, while the rest are safe in C block (the area they cleared out).  After running into some walkers they get separated from each other.  While Hershel is looking for the others he steps over a zombie he thinks is dead and it bites his leg.  The others find him and act quickly to move him to a relatively safe place and chop his leg off (to keep the virus from spreading).  This is a brutal scene and actually happened in the comic books as well, except to Dale, not Hershel.  After cutting off Hershel’s leg, everyone looks up to see some prisoners in the room with them.

This certainly makes things interesting.  Will Hershel live or die?  Who are these prisoners?  Are they friends or new enemies?

Full Metal Alchemist E2: Body of the Sanctioned (Part 1)

If you have not read my review for episode 1, you may do so here: Full Metal Alchemist E1: Those Who Challenge the Sun (Part 2)

Cornello mocks Ed and Al for their failure to bring back their Mother.  This is a pretty heartless guy!  Ed and Al only want the philosopher’s stone to fix their bodies, not to perform another human transmutation.  Using alchemy, Cornello creates a gun and fires on Ed, who is able to defend himself by creating a wall just in the nick of time.  Ed may be stronger than Cornello thought, so he orders the town’s people to attack our heroes.

While this is going on, Cornello takes Rose to see her boyfriend (Cornello has been raising him from the dead).  Her boyfriend is behind a curtain but it sounds like him.  The strange thing is, there are feathers everywhere surrounding the bed.  Cornello promises that his body will be ready soon.

Ed and Al get beat up by some living statues, another miracle from Cornello.  They wake up back at Cornello’s, in prison.  Rose brings Ed some food.  Later that night, Cornello is having a nightmare.  He dreams about a giant snake and wakes up to find the mysterious woman from earlier in his room.  Whoever this woman is, she obviously knows more about all of this than anyone else.

Rose sneaks back into her boyfriend’s room, just wanting to see him again.  The curtain blows back to reveal a giant parrot, made from many other birds.  It was only mimicking her boyfriend’s voice.  Cornello is one sick man!  It makes one wonder what his plan was, because obviously he would have to show her eventually.  Was he going to try and make it’s body look human too?  Who knows?

Cornello catches Rose and says she has betrayed him.  He traps her in the room for the giant parrot to kill.  Luckily for Rose, Al shows up and saves her from Cornello’s twisted creations.  This one was of the most crazy scenes I have ever seen in anything.  Cornello has some power, no doubt, but he is twisted and obviously not concerned with hurting others.  How is he able to combine these animals?  Perhaps we will find out in the next review!

The Walking Dead Season 3 E1: Seed (Part 1)

If you have not read my review of the season 2 finale, you may do so here: The Walking Dead Season 2 E13: Beside The Dying Fire

Here we go, season 3!  This season starts with a bang.  We find our survivors, looking older and more hardened.  They break into a house and take out several walkers.  Lori comes through the door looking very pregnant, so some major time has passed since season 2 ended.  They are raiding the house for supplies when Carl comes across some dog food.  Rick sees it and throws it.  He is upset at how they are living and what they have become.

T-Dog is keeping watch and spots several zombies outside heading towards the house.  The group heads out to their vehicles and make a clean getaway.  They are apparently trying to avoid situations like at the farm.  We find out they have been living like this for all of winter and have been mapping the movements of the herds to avoid them.  There is a chance some of the herds will run into each other making it difficult to travel to certain areas.

I like how this season is going so far.  Skipping some time is a cool idea, as is making them more battle hardened and using strategy to get things done.  Carl is even useful now, taking out several walkers all by himself without thinking twice about it.  This group has pulled together under Rick’s leadership and are better for it.  Their goal is to find a permanent place to stay and build a real life, not always running and being afraid.

As luck would have it, when Daryl and Rick go hunting, they discover a prison (seen at the end of season 2).  It has multiple layers of fencing, gates, walls, watchtowers, it’s perfect.  The only problem is it’s filled with walkers at every level.  They figure the prison must have fallen early, as the walkers all seem to be prisoners and police.  They have been trapped in there the whole time.

Rick decides to cut through the first fence (wiring it back shut).  He has to travel to the second area and lock the gate, giving them at least one safe section to stay in.  He runs his way through the walkers in the courtyard and closes the gate while the rest of the survivors shoot the walkers and help keep Rick safe.  They manage to clear the zombies out.  For the first time since the farm they now have a safe place to stay, they can even plant crops in this area so they have food.

Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 2)

If you have not read Part 1 of my book review, you may do so here: Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 1)

Picking up where we left off from the clinch, we now move to takedowns and throws.  These are different than wrestling based takedowns most wrestlers are used too.  Fedor is a master of Judo and Sambo.  He shows lots of throws in his book but he also mentions how to set them up with other throws or strikes.  When you combo some of these together it makes them that much harder to stop.  Another good thing about most of these takedowns is that you are left in an advantageous position.  You don’t have to follow someone down to the ground where you can be submitted.  These takedowns usually leave you standing over you opponent, free to reign down strikes.

Next we come to the ground game.  Fedor covers most of the main positions and how to escape them.  Like with the throws, he strings moves together, so if one fails you can immediately move to the next.  This method greatly increases your chance of success.  This is not a grappling only section, he will show you how to pass a guard using strikes to set up a guard pass.

I’ve read a lot of material on MMA, Jiu-jitsu and so on, and these moves are pretty simple yet very effective.  If someone would take the time to drill and perfect all of these techniques and never learned anything else, they would still be a very dangerous and well rounded fighter.  Something else interesting about many of these techniques are that they come from Sambo/Judo instead of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or wrestling, so many people may not be used to these particular variations.  You might be able to take people at your martial art gym by surprise with some of these.

I highly recommend this book.  You will learn all sorts of interesting variations of moves you have probably never seen, get some philosophy behind why he does things a certain way, and will learn how to string techniques together.  The only real thing missing from this book is some coverage of how Fedor actually trains.  There is no mention of how much he runs, lifts weights, spars, etc.  A conditioning section would have been nice but perhaps we will see some of that in the future.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Fabricio Werdum II Announced

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (34-7-1) and Fabricio Werdum (16-5-1) will square off for a second time after coaching the next season of the Ultimate Fighter Brazil.  They last met in Pride in 2006, where Big Nog won a decision over Werdum.  Back then Werdum didn’t have very good stand up and Big Nog tore him up on the feet during the first round, knocking him down multiple times.

This time around I think things will look very different.  Both fighters are close in age, but Big Nog has a lot of mileage on him.  He has been finished several times, had multiple serious illnesses/injuries and just looks slower and older.  Werdum on the other hand looks better now than he ever has.  His stand up has improved dramatically over the years and his ground game has always been amazing.  I think Werdum can put Nog away this time, at worst he wins a decision and avenges his loss.  Nog’s only real chance is if he just lands some great punch and puts Werdum away.

Star Wars Episode 7 Coming in 2015

Disney has bought Lucasfilm for slightly over $4 billion and has announced plans for Star Wars Episode VII (and more films after that).  No word has yet been given on how long after Episode VI this movie will take place or if any of the previous characters will be returning.

I didn’t see this coming.  I didn’t think Lucas would part with his film studio or hand over Star Wars to anyone else since he is known for being such a control freak.  It will be interesting to see when this takes place, who is in it, who is writing it and who is directing it.  If they take it in the right direction, we could end up with some great movies, if not, at least they probably won’t be worse than the prequels.

The Walking Dead Season 2 E13: Beside The Dying Fire

If you have not read my review for episode 12, you may do so here: The Walking Dead Season 2 E12: Better Angels (Part 2)

We open on a group of zombies who start following a helicopter flying overhead.  The group grows larger and larger as time passes.  We come to find out that this group of zombies is the same group we saw at the end of the last episode, the ones on their way to attack the farm.  Daryl is talking to the group and tells them that Shane was with Randall, not tracking him as he had claimed.

Carl asks Rick what happened (with Shane), when Rick is about to answer they see the zombies heading their way!  Not having time to make it back to the house for shelter, they decide to lure the walkers into the barn…and set it on fire to take some of them out.  Everyone in the house arms up and gets into the vehicles.  With their firepower and speed they drive around taking out as many walkers as possible.  It’s good to see them taking the action to the walkers for once and not just being defensive.

We finally get to see Jimmy, the guy who is always just in the background and never really says or does anything.  We soon find out why.  He brings the RV by to pick up Rick and Carl, only to have the door pushed in and get eaten by walkers.  It’s a good thing they never brought this guy along on the missions, he can’t even stay alive for two minutes when he has to do something!  Hershel on the other hand manages to kill about a million zombies all by himself, this is a man you do want with you!

Most of the important characters escape the farm but in the process are separated from each other.  Each group makes the decision to try and meet up with everyone else.  They all decide the highway is the place to go to find everyone else.  Rick and Hershel are there first and make the decision that the highway just isn’t safe anymore.  Just as they are about to leave, everyone else shows up.  After figuring out who is missing or dead, they leave to find a safe place to stay.

Andrea is running in the woods, still trying to escape from the walkers.  She manages to kill a few of them before being about ready to give up.  Just then, a mysterious figure with a sword saves her.  Looks like we have a new character for season 3 (that comic book fans will recognize).  Back on the road, Rick’s vehicle runs out of gas, they are going to have to find a permanent safe place.  They are tired of running and always being afraid.

After they have stopped a found a place for the night, Daryl mentions Randall to the group.  He says that Shane killed him and he has no idea how he could have turned into a walker.  Rick tells them that they are all infected!  Jenner had told him at the season 1 finale.  The group is angry and feeling hopeless, because Rick didn’t tell them, and what it means.  Jenner was crazy, there was no way Rick could have known if what he was saying was true or not, so Rick probably did the right thing.

Rick and Lori have a private talk, he tells her that he killed Shane.  She backs off away from him and is angry.  Lori makes no sense at all.  One minute she is trying to talk Rick into killing Shane, then when he does in self-defense, she is angry.  I wish she would hurry up and become walker food.  Rick gets tired of everyone’s crap and takes charge.  He declares it is his group and if they stay, they will do things his way.  He says he killed his best friend for these people.  Looks like Rick won’t be taking anymore crap in season 3!