- There’s now a cure for Dragon’s Dogma 2’s dreaded pawn pox Dragonsplague: mods Rock Paper Shotgun
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 players are warning each other about potentially killer pawns with rotten food and flesh PC Gamer
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 Players Are Fighting Dragonsplague In New Ways Kotaku
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 players have quietly devised a way to warn others of the dreaded Dragonsplague – but it might not be enough Gamesradar
- Good news, Dragonsplague-fearing idiots, there’s now a Dragon’s Dogma 2 mod that slaps your pawn’s infection level right on their forehead VG247
Tag Archives: Pawn
SmackDown recap & reactions (Jan. 13, 2023): The Bloodline’s pawn
Sami Zayn was tasked with taking out Kevin Owens on this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown, an order given straight from Roman Reigns himself. He found out shortly into the show, from none other than Paul Heyman, that he would be going it alone, as the rest of The Bloodline wasn’t even in the building.
And so he went it alone, and he certainly appeared to be giving it his all, and his all was sure looking like it was going to deliver a victory. But right when he was setting up for the Helluva Kick, the dogs were unleashed, with Jimmy, Jey, and Solo Sikoa hitting the ring to force a disqualification going after Owens.
Zayn seemed confused and a bit displeased. Again, it felt very much like he was eager to prove himself.
My read on this is that this was just another example of The Bloodline not actually accepting Zayn in the way he wants. They could have trusted him to get things done himself, and they didn’t. Instead, he feels more like a pawn here, the guy they sent in to get beat up to weaken Owens so they could run in and pick at the scraps right at the end.
There’s no triumph for Sami here.
They lift him up, and then they tear him down just so they can lift him back up again. He is in the cycle of manipulation and perhaps this was the night he finally started to see it for himself, after hearing Owens try to explain it to him multiple times now.
There’s still room to wiggle, though, and it seems clear they aren’t quite ready for the breakup just yet. But this was another good story beat.
I’m for damn sure staying tuned.
I’m giving this its own space because sometimes I really do enjoy when Bray Wyatt is given the chance to just get in the ring and speak like only Bray Wyatt can.
The throwbacks to the Wyatt we used to know really hit home for me, for reasons I’m not even entirely sure of or could explain. I miss when Wyatt was twisting tales with his tongue and telling us to “RUN” before blowing out electric lanterns. That guy felt so special, like a transcendent talent whose potential just needed to be unlocked.
Maybe part of our fascination with Wyatt is that it’s long felt that potential has gone unrealized. There’s just something to this guy, and I want to experience it fully. This felt like getting back to that in some way.
Here’s to hoping the future holds more like this.
All the rest
- This show kicked off with Braun Strowman challenging GUNTHER for the Intercontinental championship. They had a decent match but it was fairly standard considering the participants and it certainly didn’t feel like they gave everything they had to it. GUNTHER beat Strowman clean — there was some Imperium interference during the match, but it didn’t seem to affect the outcome — and left little room for a rematch. Perhaps this is over already? It definitely doesn’t feel like they need to go back to it.
- Rey Mysterio is good and fed up with Dominik’s shit but instead of letting his own son instigate him, he’s moving forward by entering the Royal Rumble and trying to go big and win the damn thing. Naturally, Karrion Kross interrupted to call him a bad father and then choke him out when Rey responded with violence. This is doing a fantastic job of making me feel really bad for poor Rey. The guy is a legend, he deserves better than this, right?!?
- Liv Morgan slapped the taste out of Raquel Rodriguez’s mouth. Like, holy shit, dude! That was brutal! But it was also great because it showed us a new side to Rodriguez, who ditched the smiling happy go lucky attitude in favor of getting good and pissed off and eager to remind everyone she’s the biggest and baddest woman on the roster. She showed that by beating Morgan in a singles match later in the evening, though she was right back to cheesing after doing it. Still, they showed it’s there and that’s some progress.
- Tegan Nox defeated Xia Li in a standard singles match. Li has been getting on TV a bit more lately but they’re doing absolutely nothing with her.
- They announced a tag team tournament will start next week to determine the next top contenders to The Usos’ SmackDown tag team titles (yes, they specified). Sheamus & Drew McIntyre will get The Viking Raiders in the first round, based on the latter attacking the former after last week’s show. They’re doing a lot of cinematic work to make Erik & Ivar cool but even with Valhalla, I’m just not feeling it. Your mileage may vary.
- Sonya Deville wants her rematch with Charlotte Flair, so she campaigned for it to Adam Pearce — who indicated she’ll need to win the Royal Rumble for all that — and when that didn’t work she just straight up brawled with her backstage. It was a pretty damn good pull apart. We’ll see if it ends up with Deville getting another shot or if she does indeed have tow in the Rumble.
This was a solid show.
Grade: C+
Your turn.
The rejection of China’s deal shows the Pacific will not be used as a geopolitical pawn | Henry Ivarature
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi is nearing the end of a marathon tour of eight Pacific states. By Saturday, he will have visited Solomon Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste.
While Wang will come away with multiple bilateral economic and development agreements, he will not return to China with the big prize – a comprehensive security treaty, which would have seen a reconfiguration of the political landscape in the Pacific, which 10 Pacific states declined to sign at a virtual meeting on Monday.
Pacific leaders deliberated the Chinese proposal in the Pacific consensus decision-making way; carefully and sensitively weighing their decision, and – much to the relief of traditional partners – declined the proposal.
Clearly, China underestimated the collective response of the Pacific to an agreement that sought to secure their signatures lock, stock and barrel.
Some observers have attributed this to Australia’s new foreign minister Penny Wong’s intervention in Fiji on the tail of Wang’s stop-over.
The Chinese have said the blame lies with “a few people in these countries, under the pressure and coercion of the US and former colonizer”, which many have interpreted as aimed at the president of the Federated States of Micronesia who warned other Pacific leaders of the potential erosion of sovereignty and regional instability if they signed the deal.
But what the rejection of the deal by Pacific leaders really showed was an unequivocal display of not wanting to be used as pawns in a geopolitical contest, and a strong message to other actors to treat them with respect and work on the region’s key security threat: climate change.
Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama has been very blunt about this point, tweeting his thanks to both Wang and Penny Wong after her visit last week, while in the same breath pointedly urging China and Australia to act more decisively on the climate crisis.
“Geopolitical point-scoring means less than little to anyone whose community is slipping beneath the rising seas,” he said.
China, obviously, has not given up. And the region should expect a second diplomatic wave from Beijing.
China’s unprecedented economic growth has enabled a dictatorial state to extend its global influence across the world, and the Pacific is an integral part of its expansionist agenda. Pacific island countries’ economic exclusion zones (EEZ) account for roughly 28% of the world’s EEZs, meaning they have rights over a huge amount of the world’s marine resources, which we know clearly from the proposed regional deal China is very interested in.
Attempting to force a regional consensus the China-way, also ignored the role of the Pacific’s regional political body, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
Things are currently tense within the forum. Last year, Micronesian members threatened to leave the region’s key diplomatic body, and China’s attempt to get 10 of the Pacific countries onboard with this deal – leaving out the Pacific countries that recognise Taiwan, mostly Micronesian countries – could have further widened the regional rift.
Samoa’s prime minister has said that China’s regional agreement ought to have been tabled at PIF and not at a sub-meeting, but one understands why China sought to circumvent this process: unlike Australia and New Zealand, China is not a PIF member, and if the deal was brought before all PIF countries, including those that diplomatically recognise Taiwan, the deal was even less likely to pass.
But it should not come as a surprise if we see China attempt to bring up this deal, or one like it, at the upcoming PIF meeting next month.
Australia should prepare for the next Chinese diplomatic wave in the Pacific, and work on building stronger, meaningful, and respectful relations with the Pacific.
Australia needs a more considered approach to the Pacific. It should let the dust created by Wang’s visit settle, and then build on Penny Wong’s visit by identifying opportunities for relationship-building in consultations with the Pacific. Pacific Islanders can tell their Australian and New Zealand friends what they need.
Australia must really learn to listen and listen well. Australia does not need to throw baskets of money into the Blue Pacific. I think for Pacific Islanders, it is relationships that matter and Australia needs to look to areas where its relations with the Pacific can grow and flourish. Australia should recognise China’s intensified engagement as an opportunity to rebuild its relations with Pacific, and a lesson not take the Pacific for granted.
‘Pawn Stars’ star Rick Harrison divorced third wife over a year ago
“Pawn Stars” star Rick Harrison is single after divorcing his third wife, Deanna Burditt, back in 2020.
A rep for the reality TV star confirmed to Fox News on Monday that the couple has been long separated.
“I can confirm Rick is divorced and has been so since last summer,” the rep said.
According to legal docs obtained by TMZ, Harrison filed for divorce in Clark County, Nevada on July 1, 2020, and cited irreconcilable differences as the cause. They wed in 2013.
In the docs, the media personality said their “tastes, mental dispositions, views, likes, and dislikes have become so divergent that they have become incompatible in marriage.”
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The divorce was finalized in September 2020 and they reached a settlement agreement.
Rick Harrison and Deanna Burditt divorced in 2020.
(Steve Granitz/WireImage)
Harrison, 56, told TMZ that while the marriage “didn’t work out and [the divorce] was a mutual decision,” he still “got 3 great daughters out of it.”
Burditt has three kids from a previous relationship. The former couple didn’t have any kids together.
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Harrison has a son and daughter from his first marriage and another son from his second marriage.
Fox News’ Tyler McCarthy contributed to this report.