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Afronerd Radio can now be heard LIVE courtesy of Apple Music/Itunes

Greeting, loyal AFROnerdists! Check out the latest installment of Afronerd Radio's Mid Week in Review broadcast airing this Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern on the BTalk 100 internet radio platform.  Listen to the meanderings of your friendly neighborhood AFROnerdist hosts as they wax about the following subjects:  much like clockwork, another one of our Black icons has left the mortal plane, 4-star general and former Secretary of State, Colin Powell passes from COVID-19 at the age of 84; picking up where we left off from our Sunday Grindhouse show including revelations from  this past weekend's DC FanDome Warner Media pop culture event; the long-awaited DC animated VG translation movie, Injustice, hit the cyberwebs yesterday and we have our impressions:

Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman's Black sister, Nubia finally gets her closeup in a new comic entitled, Nubia and the Amazons:

One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF

Call us LIVE at 508-645-0100. AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!! 

or This link below.....

Also, Afronerd Radio's podcast format can be heard via BTalk 100 Pandora, Spotify and,  IHeartRadio....more formats to follow!

Frank Herbert’s Dune presents a dense world full of political plotting and backstabbing. The Bene Gesserit puppeteer much of that from the shadows, laying out plans that stretch across centuries. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One brought that to the screen by showing the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam discussing it in plain text with Lady Jessica. The Reverend Mother scolded Jessica for straying from the Bene Gesserit’s plan to bear Duke Leto Atreides a daughter. Jessica chose to have a son, prompting the Reverend Mother to say, “You were told to bear only daughters, but you and your pride thought you could produce the Kwisatz Haderach.”

The term “Kwisatz Haderach” comes up throughout the film in regards to Paul Atreides. Here’s everything you need to know about the Kwisatz Haderach. And yes, it’s spoiler-free.

What Is a Kwisatz Haderach?

Warner Bros./Legendary

Essentially, the Kwisatz Haderach is a messiah and superbeing. In the Dune universe, Kwisatz Haderach is an old Chakobsa term that translates to “shortening of the way.” The Kwisatz Haderach must be male. The Bene Gesserit have been carving the way for the mythical figure for centuries through selective breeding—10,000 years of breeding to be precise. Their plan was to breed the daughter of Duke Leto Atreides to a Harkonnen male (specifically Feyd-Rautha, Baron Harkonnen’s nephew) to create the Kwisatz Haderach and unite the houses. Hence why the Reverend Mother didn’t seem thrilled about Lady Jessica birthing a son instead and potentially bringing the messiah to the universe a generation too early.

What Is the Kwisatz Haderach’s Purpose?

Warner Bros./Legendary

The Kwisatz Haderach will help the Bene Gesserit access more knowledge and power. That’s it in a sentence anyway. The Bene Gesserit can use spice melange to access genetic memory—but only maternally. Since Bene Gesserit, who are always female, only have X chromosomes, they can access strictly X chromosome memories. These memories of their ancestors help guide their machinations across the Dune universe.

But a male Kwisatz Haderach could tap into maternal and paternal genetic memories. He could access unprecedented amounts of information and possess wildly powerful mental powers. And then the Bene Gesserit would, of course, have control over this male and could use him to look into the future, among other things. Given that they spent so many thousands of years seeking to create the Kwisatz Haderach, the figure clearly has a lot of importance.

Is Paul Atreides the Kwisatz Haderach?

Warner Bros./Legendary

Paul Atreides sure seems to be the Kwisatz Haderach. He shows enough promise that the Reverend Mother visits Caladan to administer the test of the gom jabbar. In the books, that happens when Paul is 15. Dune: Part One doesn’t call out Paul’s age, but he appears a bit older. The point is: Paul showed signs of being the Bene Gesserit’s messiah at a young age. He’s having visions, though some of the visions only show possible futures rather than what will absolutely come to pass. Paul certainly seems to know things he shouldn’t know, too—like how to perfectly put on a Fremen stillsuit.

However, the Reverend Mother tells Jessica they have “other prospects” besides Paul. Whether this is true or is further Bene Gesserit manipulation remains to be seen.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.

Amy Ratcliffe is the Managing Editor for Nerdist and the author of A Kid’s Guide to Fandom, available now. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The post What Is DUNE’s Kwisatz Haderach? appeared first on Nerdist.

Afronerd Radio can now be heard LIVE courtesy of Apple Music/Itunes

Salutations, cornbread, and crumpets, to our longtime Afronerd Radio supporters!  It's that time AGAIN! Check out the latest waxings from a new installment of Afronerd Radio's Grindhouse broadcast-airing every Sunday at 6 p.m. eastern, courtesy of the BTalk 100 cyber-radio platform.  Join your AFROnerdist hosts as they traverse this week's issue laden terrain with the following topics: unbeknownst to many readers of DC's premiere issue of the Nubia and The Amazons comic, there's a new Amazon on the block and she is being touted as the first "Trans-Amazon" being introduced into Wonder Woman canon.  We have our thoughts; it appears every one to two decades there is a fatal and oftentimes, accidental shooting on a movie set.  This time such a tragedy occurred during the filming of actor, Alec Baldwin's latest Netflix film, Rust, resulting in the death of budding filmmaker, Halyna Hutchins; hat tip to frequent guest and Afronerd Radio supporter, Sergio Mims for hipping us to a racially groundbreaking one season TV Western called The Outcasts. Dburt checked out two episodes and he gives his impressions:

We must get to a story that we have kept on the back burner for a few shows.  The crew delves into a fascinating story concerning a Yale University portrait that may seem innocuous but it clearly is not.  Researchers are trying to determine the identity of an enslaved African child depicted in the aforementioned picture that also contains many of Yale's founders. 

One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF

Call us LIVE at 508-645-0100. AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!! 

or This link below.....

Also, Afronerd Radio's podcast format can be heard via BTalk 100 Pandora, Spotify and,  IHeartRadio....more formats to follow!

Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder is the latest early access from developer Konfa Games and published by tinyBuild. The game’s been in early access for just under two weeks at time of writing: and is a pleasant curiosity. An auto-battler roguelike, the name of the game indicates exactly what you’re doing: building a dystopian army.

Light on Story, Heavy on Unit Building

Like other roguelike-likes, there’s not an involved, grand narrative in play. You’re given a fledgling team of puny humans equipped with a variety of armaments and are forced to navigate a weird sewer. You fight everything from zombies to robots to monsters, your opponents growing exceedingly extravagant as time goes on. Your “army” starts small, but as you slowly put them through various challenges, you’ll grow your ranks. Although, you’re probably going to die several times before you learn how to effectively manage your team of ninjas, yogis, football players, eggheads, shield bearers, cultist, gunslingers, and magician.

Unequipped human units are referred to as newbies and for the most part will be early cannon fodder. Unless, that is, you give them a piece of equipment that gives them a class. While you have your standard sword and shield, the various titles I listed should give you a good indication of the absurdity of the different units. Apparently when you’re fighting for your life, you’ll use whatever’s on hand as a tool for survival.

All Weapons are the Right Weapons

Despot’s Game incentivizes you having multiple units of the same classification, but specifically with different weapons. While you may be tempted to equip four units with a chainsaw, you’d get more benefit from having one chainsaw, one sword, one sword in a stone, and one laser sword instead. This array of weapons allows you to leverage the innate class bonuses. The nature of the game gives you ample opportunity to spec into different formations and employ slightly different tactics, although the actual combat is completely out of your hands. You just send your army marching into the monsters.

The mechanics are very intuitive and reasonably well balanced. You can enlist a massive army, but you also have to make sure you enough food to motivate them. Clearing rooms gives you a rudimentary tokens currency that can be used to buy mutations/modifiers or more units. Random events in different biomes force you to deal with a handful of situations that you may or may not benefit from. And then you get to the boss fight and if you win, you repeat the process over again.

Despot’s Game Takeaways

With leader boards and different challenges available, and plenty of mutations to unlock as you get deeper into the game, Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder has a lot to tinker with. Different events offer tokens or unique abilities, making the roguelike nature more enthralling; and there is a lot of replayability. That said, the game’s unit management doesn’t particularly appeal to me in terms of long sessions. The game feels like it has random difficulty spikes where you go from clearing hallway fight after hallway fight, decimate the boss without taking damage, only to die to the next biome’s hellish new units.

Between the comically edgy aesthetic and the pop culture laden dialog, Despot’s Game does have a nice casual appeal to it that could easily transmute to a more min-max-y type of experience. I’m not sure it’s the game for me, if you like the autobattler genre, you should definitely check it out.

Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder is currently available for Early Access on Steam.

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The post First Impressions of “Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder” appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.