Monthly Archives: March 2022

Every great hero, even the greatest wizard of all time, has a weakness. For Albus Dumbledore, that weakness was also his greatest strength. His capacity for love and boundless compassion for others were two traits that simply couldnt live while the other survived, as was the case for Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.

The Headmaster of Hogwarts bumped up against this dilemma at the end of Order of the Pheonix whilst searching for Voldemorts Horcruxes. Aware of Voldemorts attraction to powerful people and objects, Dumbledore suspected that the Dark Lord might have turned his famous family heirloom the ring of Salazar Slytherin into a Horcrux. His suspicion was correct, but to his surprise, upon visiting Voldemorts mothers house, he discovered that the ring of Salazar Slytherin, which had been passed down from generation to generation, was also one of the Deathly Hallows, and that Voldemort, in his haste for immortality, had violated it with dark magic.

Both. The Ressurection Stone referenced in the famous childrens fairy tale The Tale of Three Brothers was created by Death itself and passed down through the Peverell family all the way to Salazar Slytherin. At that point, the ring ceased to be known for what it was and became known simply as Salazar Slytherins famous heirloom.

Having grown up with Muggles, Voldemort was not privy to wizards childrens stories and likely never heard of The Tale of Three Brothers or the Deathly Hallows. In his haste for immortality, he ended up making a Hallow a Horcrux.

Dumbledore was a secretive man. He kept his cards close to his chest. Perhaps his biggest secret of all was the one he kept hidden in plain sight. Unbeknownst to Voldemort or any other members of the magical community, the Headmasters wand was actually the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in history and one of the Deathly Hallows, which meant that Dumbledore surely recognized the Deathly Hallows symbol on Salazar Slytherins ring when he saw it.

No doubt the symbol brought back memories of his youth, specifically his friendship with Gellert Grindlewald and their mischievous quest to acquire the Deathly Hallows and overpower the Muggle race. No doubt a flush of power came over him at that moment, blinding his better judgment and tempting him with the possibility of reuniting the Deathly Hallows once and for all. After all the years of taming his lust for power, here was an opportunity to lean into the urge. That being said, it was neither his lust for power nor his nostalgia for the days of his youth that made him put the ring on.

No, the Headmaster was a wise man with a vat of incomparable knowledge, so he surely had an idea what would happen if he slid the ring onto his finger. Here was a Horcrux violated by dark magic, passed down through generations of dark wizards, but at that moment all Dumbledore saw was an opportunity to be reunited with his mother and sister.

Like all the other Horcruxes Voldemort created, a protective curse was placed over the Ressurection-Stone-turned-Horcrux. Anyone who tried to take the ring would be cursed the moment it touched their finger, which is exactly what happened to Dumbledore.

Given that Harry used the Ressurection Stone at the end of Deathly Hallows to speak with his mom, dad, Lupin, and Sirius, the magical properties in the stone obviously still worked even after being turned into a Horcrux. It makes you wonder whether or not Dumbledore got to speak with his sister and mother. What we do know is that he used the sword of Gryffindor to destroy the Horcrux and then sought Professor Snapes help to temporarily contain the curse from spreading beyond his hand. He removed the Ressurection Stone from the inlet of the ring, placed it inside the first Golden Snitch Harry ever won in Quidditch, and passed it down to Harry, who, he believed was the most selfless person hed ever known and would protect the ring from getting into the wrong hands.

In the end, we learned that Dumbledore was more than just the most powerful wizard of all time. He wasnt just wise, intelligent, and compassionate he was also remorseful, self-conscious, and deeply flawed. In other words, Albus Dumbledore was just like everyone else.

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Here's Why Dumbledore's Hand Turned Black in 'Half-Blood Prince' - We Got This Covered

Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Vizs various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.

This week, Robbie checks in with Dr. Stone. If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!

Dr. Stone Chapter 231Written by Riichiro InagakiIllustrated by BoichiReviewed by Robbie Pleasant

As Dr. Stone heads towards its final chapter, it all comes down to this. The Medusa devices that turned the world to stone have been revealed to be a mechanical alien intelligence that offers the gift of petrified immortality in exchange for maintenance, and Senku, the protagonist, is ready to negotiate on behalf of all humanity.

So before we discuss the contents of this chapter, lets talk about the Medusas, the true identity of the Why-Man and the ones responsible for humanitys petrification. I have mixed feelings about them.

On one hand, its unlikely that any explanation Riichiro Inagaki had in mind would satisfy everyone, and it was indeed a twist with enough setup to make the explanation make sense in context.

On the other hand, for a series all about humanitys intelligence and inventiveness, for the driving force behind the entire plot to be some kind of alien AI made by who knows what (not even the Medusas themselves know) feels unsatisfying. Their overall goal also doesnt really work; they seek out sufficiently advanced civilizations, then petrify them under the assumption that everyone would be so grateful for the gift of stone-based immortality that theyd create new batteries for the Medusas? It feels like theres a lot of leaps in logic there, even if the story hinges on the fact that, yes, the Medusas/Why-Man cant comprehend why people would not be cool with spending the rest of eternity as a statue.

So yeah, its not my favorite explanation. It still leaves a lot unexplained and would have worked much better if it were an actual human deciding that petrification would be good for the world. But thats not the main point were here to look at how the chapter itself worked.

And in that regard, well, Doctor Stone continues to impress. That is, of course, due in large part to the amazing artwork from Boichi. This chapter gives us a massive skeletal figure made out of swarming devices in zero gravity, and it looks absolutely stunning in detail and immensity.

At the same time, Boichis bold, clean, and highly-detailed art is filled with a sense of depth made through judicious use of shading, alongside distinctive character designs and expressive moments. The amount of attention and care that goes into images like Senku holding up an axe to the sky, illuminated by the Earth in the background, absolutely hits just the right notes.

Similarly, Riichiro Inagakis script continues to bring us well-defined characters with their own voices and personalities, while building on the mangas overarching theme of the power of human ingenuity and science. The conversation between Senku and Why-Man is filled with optimism and hope (or at least Senkus half of it is) in the face of the unknown and uncertainty. Its a good note to end the chapter on, and a fitting way to conclude the overarching story of the series.

So even if the reveal behind humanitys petrification might have fallen a little short, Doctor Stone continues to hit the right notes for the art, characters, and overarching theme. Chapter 231 is no different, bringing the series closer to what will undoubtedly be a satisfying conclusion.

Final Verdict: 9.0 While the reveal of the Why-Man in previous chapters may be mixed, this chapter stays strong with incredible artwork and a good conclusion based on the mangas core themes of science and discovery.

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This Week in Shonen Jump: Week of 2/27/22 Multiversity Comics - Multiversity Comics

What a night it was! The No. 10 Wisconsin Badgers mens basketball team took down the No. 8 Purdue Boilermakers, for the second time this season, on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center. This time, the win gave the Badgers at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title, their second in three years.

There was obviously a lot that stood out from this game, but lets try and narrow it down to just three and try and focus on the actual game and not all of the broader implications of winning it.

Three things that stood out...

The Wisconsin bench isnt called on all that much for contributions over the course of any given game. Four of the five starters for UW average over 70% of a games minutes and Wisconsins bench minutes percentage of 23.3 is ranked No. 320 in the country according to enemy of the state, Ken Pomeroy.

Sure Jordan Davis had a great showing against Minnesota last week, but that has been the exception, not the rule, for UWs bench. At times this year the bench has been shorthanded as well. Reserve guards Jahcobi Neath and Lorne Bowman have both missed considerable time this season.

All that being said, Neath, Ben Carlson and Chris Vogt provided exactly what Wisconsin needed against Purdue. Neath drained a three and had four boards while guarding Jaden Ivey. Carlson had two points and three rebounds in only seven minutes of action. Vogt was the difference maker though. He ended the game with two points, four rebounds (three offensive), two assists, one black and was second on the team with a plus-nine rating.

There are few good clips of his impact here.

It has become quite clear that the Badgers dont NEED big scoring outputs from the bench unit to win games, but all of the other things they do are extremely important, especially in a three point game.

Weve been fans of Hepburn since before he was even on campus. He just did, and continues to do, things that winning point guards do. His tenacious defense, his intelligent passing and, if youll excuse the graphic imagery, his enormous damn balls make him the ideal floor general.

Hepburn was already having a great game before Wisconsins final possession. He had made three out of five three pointers, had two assists and zero turnovers while also picking up one of UWs six steals. However, what everyone will remember from this game IS Wisconsins final possession and his game-winning (and conference title-winning) shot.

Not only does Hepburn have the balls to take that final shot, he knew it was going in too! On a team with Johnny Davis and Brad Davison, two late-game shot-making experts, the true freshman point guard showed that the team will be in good hands next year after those two depart.

Close games come down to a lot of little things that add up over the course of 40 minutes so its nearly impossible to pinpoint ONE thing that caused a team to lose or win. One of the rare exceptions is a teams free throw percentage. If you have a high one...you probably won, but if you have a low one, you almost definitely lost.

Purdue has the most efficient offense in the country, has the third highest eFG% in the land and is the second-best three point shooting team in the nation. One area of a shooting at which they are not elite? The charity stripe.

They shoot 70.6% from the line as a team, which is good for No. 209 in the nation. The Badgers, a mostly poor shooting team from everywhere on the floor, shoot 74.6% from the line and on Tuesday night they made the same amount of freebies as Purdue did in eight fewer attempts.

The Boilermakers went 11-of-20 on free throws, leaving nine points off the board in a game they ultimately lost by three. Wisconsin went 11-for-12, with their only miss being the front end of Davisons one-and-one which led to Ivey making a game-tying three and then Hepburns trip to immortality in Madison.

Wisconsin didnt get to the line nearly as often as Purdue, but they sure as hell made their trips count and now...they are Big Ten champs.

Up next: The Badgers host the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT to try and clinch an outright conference title. The game will be aired on Big Ten Network.

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Wisconsin Badgers mens basketball: three things that stood out from a sweeping of Purdue - Bucky's 5th Quarter

Kobe Bryant had an influence and impact like no one else. He spent all 20 years of his playing career at the Lakers. In the process, Kobe absolutely revolutionized the way the world looked at basketball. Only a few people have been able to do something like that. And one of those few names is Michael Jordan.

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During his stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant won 5 championships with 2 NBA Finals MVPs. Along with multiple broken records and countless achievements, he showed the world a playing career most players can only dream of having. His fearless shooting and unpredictable style of play made him a legend. He held the capabilities to produce what many can only wish to have.

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There is no doubt in the fact that Kobe absolutely loved the Lakers. Mamba played there for 20 long years and never had a lapse of dedication or passion. He proved time and again how much he loved playing for LA.

Although Kobe was born in Philadelphia, he did not want to play for the 76ers anytime in his career. Mike Sielski, author of The Rise: Kobe Bryant & the Pursuit of Immortality recently featured on the YouTube talk show The Philly Factor and talked with the host Paul Perrello.

The two talked about the book and the early life of the NBA legend.

He didnt really want to play for the Sixers, he didnt grow up dreaming playing for the Sixers. He grew up dreaming of playing for the Lakers being the next Michael Jordan and I think that that goes to the heart of why his relationship with the Philadelphia area was so fraught for so long, said Mike.

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According to Mike, Mamba, despite being from Philly, famously warned the 76ers team before they met in the 2001 NBA finals.

Mike continued, It wasnt just that when the Lakers play the Sixers in the NBA 2001 finals, Kobe says Im gonna cut the hearts of the Sixers and their fans and people around the Philadelphia area went apoplectic over that.

The book by Mike talks about Kobes early life, his family, and who he was before being an NBA Superstar. Mike Sielski paints an inspiring tale of the origin of the superhero before his time in Los Angeles Lakers. The Rise: Kobe Bryant & the Pursuit of Immortality is an amazingly written story of the NBA legend before Mamba inspired the world.

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Watch This Story: 5 Times Kobe Bryant Copied Michael Jordan and His Style

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Kobe Bryant, Who Was Born in Philly, Vowed to Cut the Hearts Out of 76ers Fans - EssentiallySports

Dr. Stone's main villain has revealed why the Earth was petrified and turned to stone in the first place in the latest chapters of the manga! Ever since the final arc of Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi's original manga series first began last Fall, the "Stone to Space" phase of the series had seen Senku Ishigami working together with people all around the world to eventually craft a ship that could make it to the moon. This trip ended up being successful, and it was on the moon's surface that Senku finally came face to face with the Why-Man, the one who started all of this.

The series is inching closer and closer to its immediate end (which is looking all the more palpable with some of the reveals we have gotten lately), and after it was revealed that the true "villain" of the series was a mass of Medusas that serve as a parasitic technological life force that seeks to advance their own means through the exploitation of intelligent life, it's explained that the Earth was turned to stone in the first place as their intelligent life could understand the allure of eternal life. Thus keeping the cycle going.

Chapters 229-230 of the series sees the Medusas explain that they first test intelligent life with their petrification, and that humanity was one of the species that recognized that this power could keep them alive forever. This granted immortality was meant to be a lure to eventually experiment enough to keep the Medusas going. Monitoring the radio waves given by humanity over the millennia, the Medusas sought to teach humans about this immortality by forcing activation throughout the years.

It's why the Meduas seemed to activate on their own, and it's why the "Do you want to die?" question comes into play as the Medusas are literally asking humanity if they'd prefer death over that eternal life. The petrification is made to break easier with high mental activity (it's why Senku is one of the first to break out), and when the humans chose to avoid the Medusa use at first, then they started to act even more. Now it's just a matter if Senku can work with such a mentality.

The Medusas can't understand why humanity would devlop technology that isn't specifically meant for saving the Medusas, and Senku needs to understand more about this advanced technological life. As the series comes to an end, there's one last agreement that Senku wants to reach. We'll see if that works out, but what do you think? How do you feel about the Why-Man's reveal overall? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!

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Dr. Stone Reveals Why its Villain Turned the Earth to Stone - ComicBook.com

Saul Canelo Alvarez does not have any problem serving as the sports cash cow.

The time has come, however, for others to start doing their part.

News of Guadalajaras Alvarez (57-1-2, 39KOs) deciding to next challenge WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol figures to have a ripple effect across the middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. The matchup kicks off a lucrative deal of at least two fights with Matchroom Boxing and DAZN, having fielded a similar offer from Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) which would have kept him on Showtime Pay-Per-View where he stopped Caleb Plant in the 11th round to become undisputed super middleweight champion last November.

The renewed deal with Matchroom and DAZN will begin May 7 on the sports streaming platforms PPV arm, when Alvarez faces Bivol (19-0, 11KOs) at a location to be determined. From there, the plan is to return on September 17in celebration of Mexican Independence Dayand possibly a third fight on the year in December.

Whatever comes of his 2022 campaign, there simply isnt room for everyone waiting in line for a shot at the pound-for-pound and box office king.

Everybody want to fight me, Alvarez told ESNews Elie Sekbach. They have many options too. Why dont they fight each other? They need to. This year, Im busy.

The considered deal with PBC began as a one-off fight in May, where Alvarez would have faced WBC middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22KOs) who would move up to super middleweight for the fight. A counteroffer from PBConce Matchroom and DAZN upped the antewould have seen Alvarez face Charlo as well as unbeaten former two-time WBC super middleweight titlist David Benavidez (25-0, 22KOs).

Both fights would have seen Alvarez defend his super middleweight crown. The fight with Bivol will mark the second trip to light heavyweight for the Mexican superstar, who views the move as the first step toward aspirations of becoming undisputed light heavyweight king.

Whatever option for me, the money is there. Its a lot of money, admits Alvarez, already a multimillionaire many times over. I just want to make history. This time, Bivol offered me [to fight for the] world championship at 175. Its a good fight. I just want to make history. The money is there already. I care about my legacy.

Sometime after Alvarez-Bivol is supposed to come the unification bout between lineal/WBC/IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (17-0, 17KOs) and WBO titlist Joe Smith (28-3, 22KOs). Such a fight would save Alvarez a few steps in having to chase all of the light heavyweight belts, whereas he fought every available super middleweight titlistCallum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plantto become the divisions king over a four-fight, eleven-month stretch.

This time around, Alvarez seems to prefer a quickerthough still challengingpath on the road to boxing immortality.

Im okay with fighting anybody, insists Alvarez. But they need to fight each other. They want to fight me because they want good payday. I know that. They need to fight each other and I fight the winner of all of them.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox

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Canelo: Everybody Want To Fight Me, They Need To Fight Each Other; This Year, I'm Busy - BoxingScene.com

This piece was adapted from Russell Moores newsletter. Subscribe here.

Early in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some longtime observers of Vladimir Putin speculated that he might soon use what he did before: mobile crematoriums.

These incinerators arent for the combatants killed on the other side but for the bodies of Putins own troops. Such ghoulish machines would be employed to hide the number of fatalities to avoid humiliation abroad and loss of support at home.

Regardless of whether these experts predictions are right, Putins impulse is to hide what his invasion will bring for Russian armies: death.

As Christians around the world mark Ash Wednesday, perhaps we can remember that the Christian way of death is opposite of this invading tyrants. For both Christians who observe the church calendar and those who dont, this Ash Wednesday may be especially poignant this year.

Many of us are only just now catching our breath after two years of a pandemic that has killed countless people and upended the lives of everyone who survived it. And on all our television screens and social media feeds are images of brave Ukrainians holding their own against those invading their homes and communities.

In the backdrop of all this are possibilities we almost dare not even mention: a war spreading all across Europe or even, given the evident instability of the Russian dictator, the prospect of nuclear war.

Putin operates out of what intelligence services and diplomats tell us is a nostalgia for the old superpower days of the Soviet Union. To do this, he projects an imagethe shirtless warrior riding a horse, for example. The last thing he wants the world to see is the corpses of Russian soldiers. Such would suggest weakness.

The Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, seem to want the world and their own countrymen to see the opposite: a vulnerable people who are willing to die with honorand who are in desperate need of help.

Putins denial of death is not uncommon in the history of the world, especially in tyrants with delusions of empire. The pyramids of the pharaohs tried to present rulers who could, in some ways, transcend death. So did the images that other emperors employed of their own immortality or even godhood.

To the prince of Tyre, God delivered an oracle through the prophet Ezekiel: Will you then say, I am a god, in the presence of those who kill you? You will be but a mortal, not a god, in the hands of those who slay you (Ezek. 28:9).

The fallen human view of ultimate power wants to project two things: I can hurt you, and I cannot be hurt. One would be hard pressed to find a better symbol of both projections than the cross of the Roman Empire. Every crucifixion represented a threatthis can happen to our enemiesall from an Eternal City aspiring to godhood.

Jesus upended all of that.

Ash Wednesday is appropriate for wartime because it points to a deeper, and even more dangerous, war. The Bible says the human condition wants to conquer death, but not in the way God intends, through the dependence that comes from eating from the Tree of Life.

Instead, we have listened to a different voice telling us, You will not certainly die if only we eat at his direction, in order to become invulnerable, to become like God ourselves (Gen. 3:16). At the end of that is ashes.

We became subject, the Bible says, to lifelong slavery to him who holds the power of deaththat is, the devil (Heb. 2:14). The power the evil one has held over us is fear of death v. 15). The more we fear death, the more we clamor for the kind of power and glory we can display to forget that we are but dust and to dust we will return.

The gospel answers that slavery to fear not by a display of carnal strength but by the One who was crowned with glory and honor through experiencing the very thing we dread most: the suffering of death (Heb. 2:9). The answer to our slavery to fear is what seems to be shameful to a world that loves power: the cry of a desperate infant, Abba, Father! (Rom. 8:15).

This Ash Wednesday, Christians all over the world are standing with the people of Ukraine. Various church communions have planned vigils and calls to prayer. And we do so not because Ukraine is the more powerful nation or because we admire their strength in some social Darwinist way.

The church prays with Ukraine because their cause is just and because they, like we, are vulnerable and imperiled, and they know it.

Ash Wednesday is about remembering that we will die, and thats important. We are told to number our days (Ps. 90:12) and to remember that life is a vapor soon to vanish (James 4:14).

But it is also about how we died. Joined to Christ, we have died with himin the most humiliating and shameful way possible. The way to glory is not the way of Rome, of Russia, or of our own desire to exalt or protect ourselves. The way to glory is the way of the cross.

In wartime, dictators should remember that, win or lose, they will die and that there will be no invading or conquering the kingdom of God. At Ash Wednesdayand all year roundwe should remember this too.

Russell Moore leads the Public Theology Project at Christianity Today.

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Ash Wednesday in a Time of War - ChristianityToday.com