Reviewing Monsters - Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 1

Pathfinder is a system born during the end of Dungeons & Dragons' 3E/3.5E lifespan, when the ever-popular gaming system ended up doing the controversial jump to 4E in 2002. And so a lot of the older fanbase and creators ended up creating Pathfinder, a very successful role-playing game that ends up both simplifying some aspects of 3.5E D&D and expanding upon other aspects of it. 

Anyway, again, as usual, I'm here to talk about the only Pathfinder books I have, which are the bestiary books from the 1st Edition. A bit of a challenge here is that unliek D&D 5E, Pathfinder doesn't actually keep a repository of their artwork on a convenient webpage, and neither does the fan-wikis have artwork for all of the monsters. So I had to get a bit more creative and do some editing from screenshots and scans of the bestiary online. Again, support all your favourite RPG publishers -- buy the actual real books!

The thing is, the first Bestiary for Pathfinder is actually pretty obviously just an 'import' of a lot of the D&D mainstays. Basically everyone that's not strictly copyrighted under D&D gets a bit of a show here, and depending on how much they change from how they were portrayed in 3.5E and 4E D&D, I'm going to not talk about some of them. So yes, this is going to make one of the few 'reviewing monsters' where I don't exhaustively talk about every single entry. (I'll still quickly recognize the creatures featured in this book near the end, though)

This isn't going to be particularly long, I'm just going to recognize and quickly breeze through this book before we move on to the far more original content in the next couple of books!

Basidirond

We'll start off with one of the creatures in the book I've never talked about before first, and it's the Basidirond! It's from D&D, showing up as a Zuggtmoy tie-in in 3E and included in the 1st edition's Monster Manual II. Again, this book features a lot of D&D monsters. The Basidirond is a wacky fungus creature with multiple vine-feet and it spreads out noxious spores. Its artwork in Pathfinder makes it look more like a walking pitcher plant, though, albeit with a lot more spikes and vines and legs. Its primary ability, as detailed by the book, is a hallucination cloud, which is kinda fun. Real-life carnivorous plants confuse insects with colours and smells, since those are the ways that insects view the world the most, but the Basidirond uses hallucinations since it traps larger prey. I do like this one a lot, though I do approve of any giant plant monster!

Giant Flytrap

I'm just a big fan of giant ambulatory plants, it seems, but D&D has a surprising lack of giant venus flytrap monsters. It's like if the plants aren't humanoid like treants or shambling mounds, do they think that people won't be afraid of it? Pathfinder's Giant Flytrap looks pretty damn boss, though. Not content on just doing the boring Audrey II or Piranha Plant route, we get that glorious lower body, which looks like a mass of discs with smaller venus flytrap leaves, and then a bunch of shambling feet that terminate in icky, squelchy-looking root legs. The bestiary even notes that these Giant Flytraps live in areas with poor soil, which is how real-life venus flytraps evolve in the first place! I do like that apparently the Giant Flytrap's smaller traps still catch small insects, but the large leaves chow down on humans and animals as the primary feeding apparatus or something. I do like the description that the Giant Flytrap basically evolved to be smarter because its prey is smarter. 

Genies: Shaitan

I'm still not entirely sure about just poaching names from other cultures, but I've always found it odd that all the Genies in D&D borrow names from Arabic legends (Djinn, Marid, Ifrit) except for the Earth-elemental one, which is "Dao". So Pathfinder changes the Earth-elemental genie into a Shaitan, which isn't a jinn per se, but evil spirits in Middle-Eastern legends (similar to 'demon' or 'devil'). Some of the monsters in this bestiary really don't have a whole lot of lore, though, and the Shaitans are just noted to be gem-loving elemental spirits of earth. That's some impractical 90's fantasy fanservice armour, but I guess when you're an elemental spirit made out of stone, you can dress however you want. 

Goblin Dog

We'll talk about actual goblins down below, but Goblin Dogs are apparently weird, mangy dogs with the creepy beady eyes and flat nose of a rat. I'm sure if we look hard enough there's probably a dog breed that's as nasty-looking as this? The bestiary notes that these are actually hyper-developed rodent, which... okay, sure. It's basically honestly just to give goblins guard dogs that look as nasty and are as ill-tempered as they are. The goblins actually love these guys to death, and use them as noble mounts, and I'm happy that the goblins and the goblin-dogs have found each other.

Linnorm

Linnorms are one of those 'dragon sub-types' that the early editions of D&D fill up their bestiaries with, but a lot of more modern D&D basically just force dragons into the same old boring European-Dragon "dinosaurs with bat wings" template. That's boring, it's not like those are the only dragons in myth! I'm incensed that modern D&D have basically exorcised the fact that the original Gold Dragon in D&D was originally drawn as a Chinese Dragon. 

Based on the Lindworm, the first Pathfinder bestiary gives us three variants of these flightless, serpentine dragons with only two legs. The Crag and Ice Linnorm are pretty basic looking, but their silhouette look pretty awesome and unique! Love those colours on the Ice Linnorm, the branching tail of the Crag Linnorm, and I love their heads. The winner has to be the Tarn Linnorm with its two diseased-looking heads for sure, though. The lore here notes the Linnorm as a primeval dragon that lives in wild regions untouched by civilization, and are so primal that their bodies have became part of the landscape. Crag Linnorms are apparently so favoured by gods that if they get killed, they will bestow a massive curse upon those that slay them. 

Sea Serpent

I'm surprised regular D&D never considers a sea serpent or a leviathan as part of their basic batch of "Monster Manual I" mainstays. I mean with all the love for classical Greco-Roman and European mythology, you'd think that a sea serpent ranks right up there with things like the gryphon or kraken, but nope! I love Pathfinder's Sea Serpent and its surprisingly large head in proportion to its neck. I love everything about that head, too, from the wide fin-ears to the mass of crustacean-like chitin in the middle of its eyes to its expression. The book emphasizes that despite a lot of sailors dramatizing the sea serpents and noting its connection to prophecy, it's actually just a big hungry animal. But look at that face, it looks like it's kind of intelligent, doesn't it? It's going to sink your ship and it knows what it's doing. Anyway, huge fan of nautical themes in any fantasy, and this is a huge welcome to the bestiary. 

Shoggoth

Our last 'original' monster (at least compared to 3.5E D&D) is the Shoggoth, from Lovecraftian fare! I'm not sure why Pathfinder is allowed to use Lovecraft's monsters -- I know Cthulhu himself shows up in Bestiary IV or V, and there's a couple of Lovecraft tie-in modules, but I'm not sure. Are the Lovecraftian monsters free-use? Anyway, Shoggoth! Not to be confused with the Gibbering Mouther (which also show up here). A mass of black flesh, tendrils, mouths and beady eyes, that picture basically describes what I think of when I think of Shoggoth. The green bit of miasma that the mouths vomit out add a lot to how nasty this giant demon-amoeba looks, too! Pathfinder describes Shoggoth as a 'huge ooze (aquatic)', and I absolutely love the fact that the Shoggoths in the Pathfinder setting is the big scary version of something as humble as a Black Pudding. Shoggoths are rare, living mostly in deep caverns and ocean trenches, but when they emerge they spread madness and destruction. In a nod to the stories that first introduced the Shoggoths, the backstory given in the bestiary notes that the Shoggoths were created aeons past... maybe by Aboleths (if you want a lore-friendly answer) or maybe by something even older. And that these Shoggoths actually broke free from their creators, just like At the Mountains of Madness! 

Now the rest of the 300-page tome are mostly just repeated enemies from D&D, mostly taking from the basic, recurring enemies found in most editions. It's important for a new gaming system that's meant to be "New 3.5E" to have stats about all of our old friends, after all! I'm not going to go too in-depth, just point out a bunch of the interesting ones after the break:

Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword, Part 4

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Part four of the Skyward Sword coverage! This one took a while; I took my sweet, sweet time going through the revisit to Lanayru Desert. So much to explore there, so much neat backtracking once I get the double Clawshots, I had so much fun navigating the mini-dungeons in the Sand Sea... and, well, there aren't too many new enemies, honestly. The areas and environments and dungeons are really cool, but the new enemies really slowed down in the Sand Sea; and by the time we reach the Eldin Volcano and the barrage of bosses that led to the end, nearly all the new enemies have been repaint enemies. It is kind of disappointing, but at least there's still a whole bunch of bosses before the game ends... which is why this particular article took so long to make.

Skyward Sword's still fun! It's just that near the end I feel like the enemy variance petered out. There are enough variants running around and the game isn't afraid to toss some older bosses like the Moldarach randomly in the middle of overworld exploring. It didn't get as bad as Breath of the Wild did as far as enemy variance went, but... still kinda feel like we could've gotten a mite more. 

Dragon: The dragons in Skyward Sword are actually helpful guardians, but what an interesting design! They were clearly going for a 'humanoid dragon' take on the traditional Chinese/Japanese oriental dragon design, but it definitely ends up as something that feels genuinely unique. The very humanoid face on top of a long neck that peters out into a wide body in a kimono? Giant eyebrows that look similar to the giant pair of trailing koi mustaches that the dragons are traditionally drawn with? The one I show here is Faron the water dragon, and we later briefly meet her fire and thunder counterparts, Eldin and Lanayru. A very, very interesting and unique take on dragons, I feel!

____________________________________________________

Peahat: The first real 'enemy' we meet is more like a creature that gets an 'enemy info' blurb from Fi, but other than sharing the name of a classic Zelda enemy, the Peahat really doesn't have anything to do with the murderous copter-plants from Ocarina of Time or the 2D games. The Peahat is more of a non-aggressive, passive desert plant that just hangs out in the Lanayru Sand Sea, more of a bizarre part of the environment than an actual foe, to hover into the air and be a convenient anchor for our Clawshots. From what we little we see of it, I do like the fact that we see Peahats hovering with their helicopter flower petals and their massive cactus-like bulb... but also their dormant form, when they're just a flower that is buried in the rocks. Again, it's all just part of the puzzles we need to do to navigate the overworld zone, but it's nice that the Peahat does end up feeling like an actual organism that Link is manipulating instead of a convenient puzzle part. 

Metal Shield Moblin: Unfortunately, with the exception of one enemy, all the common enemies are just 'remixes' of old enemies. We've got the Metal Shield Moblin here, who's tougher than the Wooden Shield Moblin. His shield doesn't break, and Link can parkour-vault over it to hit the Moblin in his bum. Neat escalation, at least he looks pretty different. Really surprised we didn't get another tier of Moblins, though. 

Red Bokoblin Archer: Archers actually get a significant revamp instead of just putting a different weapon in the Bokoblin's hands! I mean, it's still not that extreme, but I'll take what I can get. Look at those felt hats, the sand-scarf and those fancy archery gloves! The archers become especially prominent in the Sandship, a pirate ship dungeon that gives Link the bow. They're pretty basic enemies, but I did like shooting the fools. (Green Bokoblin Archers show up in some caves later on, but I can't find a good render of it. They don't get the fancy clothes that the Red Archer does.)

Water Spume & Cursed Spume: Two more Spume variants show up. The Water Spumes don't even warrant an enemy explanation, because it's met in a bit of an overworld exploration/minigame segment in the Sand Sea (which I won't spoil; it's probably my favourite enivornment in the game) but it sure is a Spume that hangs out in the water. The Cursed Spume lives in the lava of Eldin Volcano and spits 'curses', an infuriating mechanic they brought back from the Bubbles of the 2D games where you can't use any items while under the effects of the curse. Fi identifies this as some generic 'the evil lingering hatred' or some such. 

Dark Keese: At least they did something to make the Dark Keese look visually different! The skeletal wing-bones, tattered ears and wings, and demon-glowing red eyes does make the Dark Keese look so, so much more 'cursed' than the minimal-effort-repaint that's the Cursed Spume. The Dark Keese does exactly the same thing as the Curesd Spume, inflicting the 'curse' status, but look at this badass bat! You actually do feel the curse radiating off of it, don't you? It's an undead skeleton and shit. It's nothing we haven't seen in fantasy before, but it communicates its in-game gimmick so much better than the slightly off-colour Spume. 

Dark Lizalfos: I actually feel like the change of colour and the addition of the head crest does make the Dark Lizalfos actually feel so much more threatening than its green-skinned brethren. Did they redraw the eyes to make them look more threatening, too? Anyway, the Dark Lizalfos is a typical 'different colour, slightly stronger' repaint of the regular green Lizalfos, but it also has a key difference -- it breathes curse energy. And unlike the Spumes and Keese, the Lizalfos is a lot more threatening since it can kung-fu lizard-kick you to death!

Moldorm: Oh, hey! These guys! A little gimmick item we get in the Fire Sanctuary are the Mogma Mitts, which allows Link to burrow down the ground and enter little Bomberman-esque mini-areas. The enemies here are the Moldorms, reimagined from their goofy-looking 2D counterparts into these badass hellgrammite-centipede monsters! The fight is pretty straightforward thanks to the simplicity of the burrowing minigame map. The rear of the Moldorms swell up as the obvious weak point (they remind me kind of like honeypot ants) and Link needs to navigate his way through the unconventional map to sneak behind the Moldorm and beat its weak point. A very faithful update to the classic monster!

_____________________________

LD-002G Scervo: We're going to minibosses and bosses now. The Sandship is a pirate ship stranded in the past ran by robots, and it's a series of concepts that feels bizarre but gels together surprisingly well. Scervo is a robot pirate, but since he's an immortal, tattered being, he also doubles as the trope of a cursed pirate skeleton. He essentially fights like a Stalfos (except he's a robot) but, again, presentation is everything! Look at his tattered pirate regalia, and his gigantic hook arm. Most importantly, we fight Scervo on a long plank that gets shorter and shorter as the battle progresses. We have to fight and fence and push Scervo all the way to the edge of the plank, making the mutinous pirate 'walk the plank', and, again, that presentation and the general visuals of this robot really does make him my favourite miniboss in the game. They could've just tossed two Shield Moblins in a miniboss room and called it a day, but they didn't, and they made this thematic enemy, and that's pretty amazing. 

Abyssal Leviathan: Tentalus: If the evil pirate captain is the miniboss, then what's the boss of a pirate ship? I just assumed it was going to be a bigger, badder robot. But turns out that since it's a pirate ship, we get attacked by a Kraken! That's unexpected, since almost the entire dungeon takes place within the ship itself. But as we reach the boss room, suddenly giant Kraken tentacles bore into the ship and start wrecking the entire dungeon! And as you run out to the deck, you find that it's not a giant octopus that is fighting you... it's Chibi Cthulhu!

Yeah, I probably would've taken Tentalus a bit more seriously if he didn't look so gosh-darned adorable. Look at those stubby giant tentacles, and that face! That face looks like a friendly buddy from Spore or something. Fi identifies this as an 'abyssal leviathan', a 'tyrant of the ancient seas', but look at this guy. Do you think Tentalus is really capable of being a tyrant? The boss fight itself is pretty fun because Tentalus alternates between hiding underwater and piercing the ship with his giant tentacles, or emerging out in his humanoid form and expose his eyeball to some typical Zelda arrows. Later on, those medusa-hair actually reveal to not be just tentacles, but tentacles with fangs! Not the most impressive boss fight, but arena and the fact that the game plays Tentalus absolutely straight as this ancient aquatic eldritch beast while he looks like a derp makes me really adore him. 

Magmanos: This one is technically the miniboss of the Fire Sanctuary, but we fight several Magmanosi in the dungeon? They alll feel like minibosses in a way. I guess I just got spoiled by how well-integrated Scervo is, I suppose. The Magmanos are giant elemental lava hands that burst out of lava pools in the ground, while Link stands on a grated floor -- it's a fun visual that they use a bunch of times in A Link Between Worlds as well. A neat inversion of the Floormaster/Wallmaster enemies common in the franchise, the Magmanos is less sinister than those two, merely being an invulnerable fiery being of death that you need to drop water on so it solidifies. Not my favourite enemy concept, but it is admittedly a breath of fresh air from the Spumes and Bokoblins. 

Ghirahim, Part II: We've talked about Ghirahim before, and, truthfully, I did think he would've had more of a presence. He did show up as the final boss in the Fire Sanctuary, one of the last 'mundane' dungeons. His fight is basically a souped-up version of his first fight, except he loses his cape and his arms are now black. Okay, One Piece armament Haki. He does have a bunch of fun spinning floating daggers and the fight is probably the most challenging boss fight in the game, but otherwise I don't really have much to say about him as a monster. He's an entertaining antagonist, for sure!

The Imprisoned, Parts II-III: We get a rematch with the Imprisoned again at this point. He grows hands! I... I don't have anything to say about this one. Ghirahim at least is entertaining and genuinely threatening when he shows up. Imprisoned is just there, for a sealed ancient demon of infinite evil, he's actually pretty bland. The best part about the fight is that our bully-turned-ally Groose actually helps out with lobbing bombs at him. 

I'll sneak in the Imprisoned's third fight here too, because, well, it happens basically a short while after we beat the next boss below. It's a bit much, pacing-wise, isn't it? Especially if you've already done most of the side-questing at this point -- but we're not here to talk about game pacing, but about the monsters. Imprisoned's third fight seems to start off similarly to his second fight, but then his final evolution is a giant Evangelion halo that allows the Imprisoned to float straight up and bypassing the whole Link 'fight', which means that you have to do something rather... creative to stop the devastation of all of Hyrule. It's simultaneously pretty cool and awesome, and I'm not going to spoil it here. 

Great Spirit of the Sky: Levias: After dealing with the Imprisoned for the second time, Link goes up to the Thunderhead, a giant swirling vortex of storm clouds... and turns out that the storm clouds aren't natural, and it's caused by this guy, Levias! Levias is a gigantic island-sized whale that swims in the skies, and it's a neat little callback to the classic Wind Fish from Link's Awakening. Levias is actually the guardian spirit of the sky, but as you can see in this image, he's actually infected! The actual image of a giant rocky island whale with a beard that resembles a whale's chin markings is very cool as far as a giant fantasy being goes, but I absolutely love the creativity that went into using the barnacles you often see on giant aquatic creatures as whales as... well, as the places where the giant tendrils ending in eyeballs poke up of. 

The fight is also relatively unique, with Link having to ride on his faithful Loftwing and ram onto the giant eyeballs. It's a bit hard to show scale here with still images, but Link's merely the size of one of those eyeballs! That's not quite all, though, because as you can see, Levias has a giant flattened surface on its head. Pretty weird feature, until you realize it's a battle arena for the actual boss...

Ocular Parasite: Bilocyte! How cool is this? How cool is the fact that Levias is being puppeteered by a giant mind-control tapeworm, which erupts out of his blowhole? Bilocyte is 'merely' a parasite to the titanic Levias, but it towers over Link. Pretty cool design, I love the giant finger-frill things with eyeballs on the edge. The fight with Bilocyte is simple as long as you use the motion controls well to do the classic ol 'ping pong projectile' boss fight mechanic, but I'm just going to reiterate how cool I found Bilocyte. He's a gigant-ass parasitic worm thing that mind-controls a whale!

...at this point, the game doesn't really have any new monsters, but I have to basically do a grand round of all the other areas to do a fetch quest involving the three reginoal dragons, and then enter the final dungeon, the Sky Keep, and then fight the final boss. All of those actually take up about one-fourth of my total gameplay time, but, well, the monster variety basically peters out into these four: 

LD-003D Dreadfuse: A 'remix' of ol' captain Scervo, it's actually a pretty neat-looking variation with a crown and stuff, but it's basically the same thing, if we're being honest. At least they gave him a revamped model instead of using Scervo almost entirely. Dreadfuse is also a pretty cool name. 

Ghirahim, Part III: On one hand, I do enjoy Ghirahim immensely as a recurring villain. He's been a nuisance throughout our journey through the game, and we finally fight him in his final form where he's covered his entire body in Armament Haki with a steel-like substance that makes him super-duper tough. This fight is basically a more badass version of his previous two fights, and I do enjoy that he's the final dungeon boss of the game. I just have kind of ran out of things to say about this guy. 

Demise: ...and turns out, thanks to some time-travel magic shenanigans, this guy, Demise, is the true final boss! Spoilers for a decade-old game, but turns out like this is the original form of the Imprisoned before he was sealed by the goddess, and also the source of the Zelda franchise's recurring villain, Ganon. You can see that he's holding a big fuck-off sword, and that's actually Ghirahim -- just like how Link's companion throughout the game is also a sword spirit. And... he sure is a big demon-lord guy, and his skin is mottled with the same texture that the Imprisoned has, so there's that continuity, but... but I just really can't get myself super-excited for this guy. It's neat that we get to fight the Ultimate Demon Lord or whatever, but I really feel that there's a bit of a disconnect between the two recurring villains we've been fighting and ol' Demise here? He's an all right final demon-god boss design, I suppose -- a bit different from what we're used to in this franchise, but ultimately still not particularly too memorable in the many, many different Zelda bosses. 

______________________________________________

...and that's it for Skyward Sword! This took a bit longer than I thought it would, mostly because it took me longer to play the game than I thought I would. We'll probably be taking a brief break from video game monsters for a while; at least games that I'm playing. I'm currently still going through a bunch of games that don't really have monsters per se -- I still have the first Deus Ex to finish, and I think I need to play through Portal 2 as well. I might do some one-off game monster reviews in the meantime, but over the next year I guess you guys can look forward to 'monster commentary as I play the game' for either Final Fantasy XII or Persona 4, whichever one manages to rope me in more. 

Batman Beyond, Season 3, Episodes 12-13: Beyond

Batman Beyond, Season 3, Episodes 12-13:

Episode 12: Countdown

Okay, I didn't know we had a crossover episode. Especially one that came relatively late into the season. So that shape-shifting robot Zeta from earlier in the show wandered off and got his own spin-off cartoon, which... okay? 'Countdown' basically brings Zeta and his supporting cast in for a little romp in Batman Beyond. Zeta has a brand-new more humanoid robot head, and a new best friend called Ro, as well as a bunch of men-in-black agents hunting him down. It's a pretty standard showcase of a character's side-cast, I guess. 

The plot itself is... it's all right? If we're being honest, it's more of Batman and Ro teaming up instead of Zeta, because Zeta spends almost the entirety of this episode disoriented and walking around all confused with a bomb strapped onto his back. The main villain of this one is Mad Stan, who, despite all odds, graduates from being a recurring gag into an actual main villain in his own episode. In-between ranting about the 'dirty feds' and 'basic human rights' and all that, Mad Stan thinks that him running across the shape-shifting Zeta is the government trying to spy on him, and he straps a bomb onto Zeta and sends the oblivious robot to the department of health.  

Meanwhile, Batman and Ro kind of just... track him down? Agent Bannett and his little squadron of men-in-black government people are also hunting Zeta down, and Batman ends up thinking that they would help. Turns out Mad Stan is right about these 'dirty feds'. Ultimately we get a pretty neat identity-switch with Zeta pretending to be Batman and jumping in the Batmobile, while Terry dresses up as a janitor. Not the biggest fan of this episode, if I'm being honest -- I feel like they really could've made for a bigger event out of this, but it's otherwise all right. 

Episode 13: Unmasked

And here we go with the final episode of Batman Beyond, although it really doesn't feel like a season or series finale -- especially jarring with a title like 'Unmasked', yeah? Thankfully, the show would have a much, much more fitting finale in the episode 'Epilogue' in Justice League Unlimited. Or depending on your watching order, that one Joker movie (which we'll cover on this blog eventually) would also make for a far better season finale. 

'Unmasked' is a flashback episode, with the entirety of the present-day scenes just showing Terry and Max discussing the importance of secret identities. Due to Terry's Batman activities, he blows off poor Dana Tan again. Kinda sucks that this plotline has kinda been built up in season three, how Terry's struggling to juggle his Batman life and it's putting a wrench into his relationship with Dana, but there's no real payoff to that. 

The actual storyline in Batman's flashback is actually surprisingly darker than I expected. When Batman is rescuing a boy trapped in a burning building from a fire, he had to take off his mask to calm the terrified boy down. The villainous Kobra, led by the orange-suited Korba One from season two, just happen to have a memory-reading machine (which they really could've used for a world-domination plan; it couldn't have been worse than Zander's) and they plan to kidnap this boy in order to get Batman's secret identity. 

The actual way that Kobra kidnaps the boy -- by sending a second team disguised as policemen -- is definitely something that actually caught even me off-guard. And just like "Curse of the Kobra", we get a recurring elite Kobra goon with exotic weapons that makes the fight scenes a bit more exciting. Kobra One actually even straight-up almost kills the little boy by snake pit if Batman hadn't shown up, and actually even kills one of his minions whose crime was warning his brother of a Kobra bomb. And then Kobra One, seeing his defeat, proceeds to kill himself by jumping into the snake pit. Considering how sterile cartoons became in the past couple of decades in terms of death, it's actually surprising (and somewhat refreshing) to see scenes like this. Perhaps the darkest part, for me, is that Kobra One's death is all for nothing because little Miguel didn't even really catch Terry's face, and puts in the face of the toy he's obsessed with, Sergeant Sam, in place of it. 

Anyway, it's an all right episode. Again, a bit of an odd way to end the season, but still a pretty solid episode in its own right. Some neat interactions between Terry and Max, and a pretty neat exploration of the superhero secret identity conundrum. The third season does have a bunch of rather solid episodes under its belt, for sure, although I don't think either the second or third season really reached the same high as the first season of Batman Beyond. It's been fun, though! We'll cover the movie a bit later. 

Batman Beyond, Season 3, Episodes 9-11: Kobra Kai

Batman Beyond, Season 3, Episodes 9-11:

Episode 9: Betrayal

Okay, when I reviewed "Big Time" earlier this season, I definitely didn't know that we were going to get a follow-up to Charlie Bigelow's storyline. Which is... an interesting one, I guess. Bigelow as Terry McGinnis's childhood friend is definitely an interesting prompt for an antagonist, and the episode itself is actually set up pretty well. Bigelow has found himself in cahoots with another criminal lord, called the Major, and he feels disrespected and mistrusted. To that end, he ends up kidnapping Terry in order to find a friend that he can trust, setting up the Major and his goons to be arrested by the police. Of course, ultimately, Bigelow ends up betraying Terry since it's all a play for him to allay suspicion off of himself. In the final fight, Bigelow falls off a bridge into the river below, which is superhero-cartoon shorthand for 'he's maybe dead but we can't show him, but don't be surprised if he shows up next season'. 

The problem here, I think, is that never at any point in the show do I really believe that Bigelow is anything but a piece of shit. His debut episode has made it pretty clear that Bigelow, at best, is an unrepentant terrible influence on Terry. And none of the characters in this episode are willing to give Bigelow much of a chance, either -- Bruce and Max are pretty quick to dismiss him, and while Terry does extend a brief second chance, it feels a lot more... guarded and hollow compared to how Terry had been with, say, Ten. It's admittedly the right move, since Bigelow does end up betraying everyone. And Terry's deal is more of an alternate solution to make sure Bigelow doesn't get killed by his gangster friends for turning himself in. So... I really don't know. It doesn't help that Bigelow himself isn't even that interesting of a character, so while it's neat to see a conclusion to this story arc, it doesn't feel particularly compelling since Terry's already pretty wise to his tricks. 

Episodes 10-11: Curse of the Kobra

Hmmm, okay, this one is a bit of an interesting two-parter? It feels like they tried to do a bit too much with this pair of episodes, though, and none of the storylines really end up reaching its potential. The episode's 'superhero' part starts off with something typical of these shows -- the terrorist organization Kobra show up and steal a super-powerful thermal bomb. Batman loses in a martial arts battle against one of the Kobra goons, prompting Bruce to send Terry to study under one of his old allies, Kairi Tanaga. This ends up forming kind of the bulk of this episode, with Bruce learning under Kairi's tutelage in the dojo. We get some pretty basic 'learn martial arts' stuff, and for the bulk of the first episode, it involves Terry slowly befriending the enigmatic Zander. Zander is a fellow student, and seems to always be in the presence of two mean-looking bodyguards anytime he comes and goes out of the dojo. 

In-between fighting Kobra goons who steal dinosaur DNA research, Terry tries to get Zander to lighten up. The initially standoffish Zander turns out to be up for a day out with Terry, sneaking out of the dojo to eat pizza and play some virtual games with Max -- turns out Zander is very competitive and insists he never loses. Eventually they get into a scuffle with a bunch of the Jokerz, which leads to Zander's bodyguards showing up and taking him home. Kairi gives some cryptic explanations about Zander to Terry, noting that 'his future has been chosen for him'.

And said 'future' turns out to Zander being the leader of Kobra, because the audience sees Zander supervising the transformation of some of the Kobra minions into dinosaur-people with splicing technology. Because of that meeting with Max and his defeat in a video game, however, Zander decides to kidnap Max. Batman arrives a bit too late to save Max, and ends up having his wings ripped off by one of the Kobra goons. 

Part 2 starts off with Terry waking up in the Batcave, and makes it abundantly clear that he's not operating at maximum efficiency, with his ribs. Some absolutely great scripting between Terry and Bruce here, actually, especially that exchange about fault. Meanwhile, Max wakes up in the Kobra base, with Zander essentially wanting the defiant Max as his wife in the new world order. We get a relatively extended sequence of Max escaping and fighting against the two handmaidens that Kobra has assigned to her. At this point, Zander monologues about his backstory -- he was genetically manufactured by Kobra and grown and taught to be the perfect leader for Kobra. 

Which, uh... makes the fact that Zander's huge perfect-leader plan for Kobra being 'we need to turn all of Kobra into half-dinosaur people because dinosaurs are once the dominant species of our planet, but to do that we need to also plunge the Earth into a global cooling because dinosaurs love the cold!' It's such a hilarious combination of Golden Age comic-book plots that I can't even be angry at it. It's so silly, chief of all the fact that cold-blooded animals would actually die faster in the cold. 

It's a bit of a shame, then, ridiculous doomsday plan aside, that none of the real set-ups we had in part 1 really end up paying off. It's probably one of the more exciting action scenes in this show, admittedly, because that one nun-chuck Kobra goon and dinosaur-men is really neat. We even have Kairi suiting up in a ninja outfit to help Batman out, to atone for her failures as Zander's sensei. But all of this ultimately leads to a rather simple action scene, and ultimately Kairi goes down with Zander on the ship.

And... and while the set-up is neat, Zander himself becomes a pretty bland cookie-cutter villain in the end. And it's a shame because the two-parter sets up multiple avenues that the story could have been explored. Terry and Max actually befriended Zander in part 1, and Kairi has the whole 'master who failed to help her student' story going on. But neither of those are really explored at all in the end because Zander is just monologuing about his manifest destiny. The character himself doesn't even come off as particularly conflicted about how different the world Terry and Max shows him is compared to what Kobra told him. For the matter, I probably would've liked it a bit better if Kairi and Zander's relationship was actually shown a bit more, instead of just being kind of tangential. It's kind of a pity, because otherwise this episode could've been so much better. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Kairi is a one-off supporting character in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Day of the Samurai". 
• Dr. Cuvier, the villain from the second season episode "Splicers", show up in the background of Zander's conditioning. So I guess he's a member of Kobra? 
• The game Sentries of the Last Cosmos, featured in season two, shows up here as the game that Max and Zander play. 

One Piece 1036-1037 Review: Drunken Boxing

One Piece, Chapters 1036-1037

Been actually kind of busy in this month or so, which is why I haven't really been posting anywhere as much. I didn't realize One Piece 1036 was out! So you guys get a double chapter post from me, then. Thankfully, they are both action chapters, so it's good that I don't actually have too much to talk about here. 

Chapter 1036, "Bushido is the Way of Death", is mostly just establishing the parallels between King and Zoro. I wouldn't say that I'm disappointed per se with how that fight turned out, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't expect more from the two. So it's nice to see a parallel between the two -- with a flashback to King saying how he'll make Kaido the King of Pirates, showing the kind of loyal second-in-command that he is. It is interesting that at this point in the flashback, Kaido's dialogue does seem to imply that he already doesn't believe that he is actually Joy Boy. We get this juxtaposed with Zoro's own declaration of never losing again after the first Mihawk battle, and we get a badass panel of Zoro declaring that he's going to be the 'King of Hell'. 

There's a brief check-in of the CP0 guy looking at the chessboard and we jump into a couple of other battlefields like Big Mom vs. Law/Kid; Fukurokuju vs. Raizo; Orochi and Komurasaki... but the scene that we get a bit more of a focus on is Yamato and Fuga charging down towards the armory. And Fuga just centaur-charges and beats up another Number, Rokki. I think that's the last Number? 

The more interesting scene in this chapter would be Usopp and company arriving to rescue Kin'emon and Kiku, and we get an interesting discussion of the 'bushido code'. Both Kin'emon and Kiku are all 'it's too late for me, save the other', and Usopp gives this huge speech about how surviving, even if you have to cry and be drenched in snot and tears, is far more preferable than dying in a blaze of glory. It's definitely an idea that someone like Usopp, who's been struggling with cowardice all his life, would understand intimately. And he gets supported by Izo of all people, who show up to shoot up some Beast Pirates, and we get a hilarious bit where Izo actually recognizes 'God' Usopp. 

In a rather odd scene, we get to see Apoo and Inbi run away from the CP0 agents, who had, off-screen, beaten up Drake and Zanki. It's genuinely a bit bizarre that Drake -- after all his prominence in the early parts of the arc -- would be beaten off-screen. So I wonder if this would lead to something more for Drake down the line. As CP0 gives commentary on the battle as a whole, the final pages cut away to Luffy fighting Kaido on the rooftop, leading to a Gomu Gomu Roc pistol attack...

...which leads us to chapter 1037, 'Drunken Dragon Bagua'. It does end up reconciling some of the more inconsistent depictions of Kaido throughout the course of the series, and I guess this is the source of his 'waaah I wanna die' original first appearance? Almost the entire chapter is just a fight scene and... and I do find it a pretty choreographed One Piece fight scene. Kaido zips through his different modes of being a tipsy drunk, a happy drunk, an angry drunk and a sad drunk while he launches a lot of his previous attacks against Luffy -- Ragnaraku, Raimei Hakkei, Dragon Twister, Bolo Breath, all that. It culminates in what I can only describe as a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure barrage exchange with Luffy doing a 'Roc Gatling' against Kaido's Kundali Meteor Shower. 

Without going in-depth into every single attack, I don't really think I actually have much to say about 1037 other than I really did enjoy it. We're slowing down a lot for these action chapters, and I do feel that it's most certainly needed. 

1037 closes off, unexpectedly, with the Gorosei of all people discussing about how the Reverie and Wano are all being super-duper intense. I don't think they have any live updates from CP0, because they expected Nico Robin to be captured or killed, while they discuss a certain Devil Fruit whose existence has been hidden by the World Government -- or, well, rather, renamed. It's extremely cryptic and doesn't really give us any clues other than it hasn't 'awakened for centuries', which... could be anything, really. 

The chapter wants us to believe it's Zunisha, though, because it's walking towards Wano and about to knock aside all the World Government ships that are sailing towards Wano. It could be Zunisha, but it could also as easily be something like the awakened form of the Kibi Kibi no Mi or Momonosuke's fruit? I don't know. It could just be a classic case of misdirection and Zunisha is completely unrelated to the Devil Fruit discussion. Still, Zunisha is here and it's something that a lot of people have speculated would happen at some point during the Wano arc (or near its conclusion).

Overall, a cool fighting chapter! I really don't have too many thoughts about what the mysterious Devil Fruit could be. We'll see, I guess. 

Random Notes:

• Poor Rokki, though -- the other Numbers get beaten by members of the Straw Hats or Drake or CP0 or something, and this guy's just minding his own business, sleeping, and gets beaten up by Fuga. 
• I gloss over it, but Raizo giving no shits about getting set on fire and declaring that he's a retainer of Oden is pretty badass. 
• 1037 continues the Germa 66 cover story, but it's just Judge and his children hanging out brooding. 
• The implication that the World Government hid the existence of the mysterious Devil Fruit does kind of confirm, in a roundabout way, that these five Gorosei aern't immortals. There's kind of been a running theory that the Gorosei have undergone the Immortality Surgery. 
• Of course, there's still the idea that it's the Gomu Gomu no Mi that's super-special. It would tie into the Who's Who plot about how this fruit was stolen from the government. In which case... any thoughts on what the true name of the Gomu Gomu no Mi is?
• Zunisha couldn't be a Devil Fruit user, right? She is walking across the ocean. Even with her super-long legs, that would still sap her energy... 

Batman Beyond S03E06-08 Review: Unlimited

Batman Beyond, Season 3, Episodes 6-8:

Season 3, Episode 6: Speak No Evil

Oh, right. This episode. After how impactful the previous episode was, and how great the next two are, "Speak No Evil" ends up feeling like such a drag. And it's not like the episode itself is done terribly -- the writing is all right, and the animation is neat. And the concept is definitely... original? It feels like something that wouldn't be out of place in those wacky Golden Age era stories (go read Golden Age superhero stories if you don't believe me) and honestly... a talking gorilla isn't even novel anymore.

Anyway, Fingers the gorilla accidentally gets super-smartness thanks to scientists experimenting with Splicer DNA serum stuff, and then Fingers rampages around Gotham City. Terry has a talk with him and discovers that Fingers hates the nature preserver Van Dyle, who's actually secretly a poacher that kidnapped Fingers's mother and other gorilla friends. There's a confrontation, Batman teams up with the gorilla and fights some lions and goons. Van Dyle has a fancy heat-detecting cyborg monocle. But ultimately it's just so... it's just so dry, you know? And I don't mind the morals, because, shit, poaching is evil,  but this episode does hammer home the moralizing lessons a bit too hard.

Season 3, Episode 7-8: The Call

I was waiting for this one. I know a future version of the Justice League appeared in Batman Beyond, because as a kid twenty-odd years ago, I bought these 'guide/companion to the show' books. And despite only ever watching parts of the first season of Batman Beyond, I know these guys existed! And I thought it was so cool! The Justice League operates in 2049, and we've got a lot of familiar-sounding titles, but all the characters are brand-new? That's cool! A Superman cameo? A new Green Lantern? Big Barda? Successors to Aquaman and Hawkman? (Micron wasn't featured in that book, so his entire existence was a surprise to me) And then, of course, the JLU of 2049 made a brief cameo in the actual Unlimited show, which was also pretty cool. And now I finally get to watch these episodes. 

And... and they're pretty interesting, because the concept isn't even what I expected. Which was "Batman hangs out with the Justice League for a day, but refuses to join because of status quo". Which was what happened in the Static Shock crossover, if I'm not mistaken. But no. The two-parter starts off with the Atom stand-in, Micron, rescuing a runaway train, but then getting mortally wounded when a rogue forcefield pops up and traps him while rescuing the passengers. And then cut to Batman chasing down Inque (for her final appearance, and also I guess since she's alive, her daughter's totally dead), only for Superman to hop in and help Batman defeat her. 

Superman pops into the Batcave and has a fun little talk with Bruce, and then invites Terry to join the Justice League... but it's not entirely just because he's doing a good job, but because he suspects that Micron's injury was sabotage, and he tasks Terry into looking at the candidates. Warhawk and Big Barda are almost-immediately hostile towards Terry, seeing him as a pretender to the cowl, while Kai-Ro and Aquagirl are just... calm and kind of there. 

The first episode mostly deals with a couple of individual attacks. Aquagirl gets stuck in her training pool which is set to overheat, and Terry ends up causing a whole lot of damage when he rescues her, when Terry really should've asked one of the superpowered people to help out. Later on, as a massive series of explosions rock the city, the Justice League show off their powers in rescuing everyone. As he continues to bicker with Warhawk, Warhawk alone receives a distress call, and flies up to intercept a missile... which explodes and seems to kill him. That shot of Warhawk's empty helm slamming into the Batmobile's windscreen is pretty cool! 

Later on, Bruce and Terry do some old-fashioned 'zoom and enhance' on the Batcomputer... and realize that it's Superman's heat vision that set off the missile. In a pretty chilling scene, Bruce hands Terry his secret Kryptonite, stored behind the rows of costumes, and tells Terry to use it... by all means necessary. 

And then the second part starts, with everyone reeling from Warhawk's seeming death. I do like how immediately hostile Barda gets, because to all of them, Terry is just some new kid who's implying that one of their closest allies has killed another member of their team, but while Kai-Ro and Aquagirl try to calm everyone down... turns out Warhawk survived. He piloted his armour remotely when he got suspicious. Which... not going to lie, feels like an absolute cop-out for multiple reasons. Batman (and the audience) follow Warhawk throughout almost the entirety of the scene as he flies up to get to the missile, and to top it off, Superman also has X-Ray vision. Admittedly, this isn't really Superman, not exactly, but still... I really did feel like it was completely unnecessary and could've been explained better. Even a brief flashback showing how Warhawk does this (how does that cool armour work?) would've done wonders. 

But with his allies ready to now back him up (and Warhawk has a lot of scrappy respect for Terry now), they go off to confront Superman, catching him just as he's about to cut Micron's life-support. The fight is entertaining because, well, Superman is freaking unstoppable! He's Superman! They also see something wiggle under Superman's suit. During the process, Terry understandably hesitates in using the kryptonite to hurt Superman, and would've been screwed up if Micron and Barda hadn't shown up to help. 

So yeah, we're going the alien possession route. With Barda's Boom Tube and Bruce's knowledge of where the Fortress of Solitude is, they confront Superman in his little intergalactic zoo, and the pieces are laid out to us -- Superman's possessed by a mind-controlling alien starfish called Starro! We get a surprising continuity nod to Starro's cameo from the Superman: TAS episode "The Main Man", and Aquagirl's telepathic communication with Starro gives the cast (and the audience) an opportunity to learn how Starro got to Earth. And now that it's spawned enough young in a chamber in order to take over the Earth, it decides to take out the Justice League. 

Admittedly, though, why Starro-Superman would then choose to bring Terry into the JLU in order to investigate is a bit questionable. Unless Starro isn't as much in control as he'd like to, and bits of Superman is peeking out? The episodes make no real effort to explain it, though, other than real-world misdirection. But man, Starro could've much more effectively killed the JLU members if he hadn't brought Batman on board, just saying. 

Anyway, the final action scene is pretty neat. Most of the JLU members get something to do before they're ultimately glomped and mind-controlled by the Starros, and we get a pretty cool chase scene as Starro-Superman stand-flies to chase the flying Batmobile through the Antarctic skies. I say 'stand-fly', yes, because that's the best I could describe the way that Starro makes Superman's body fly. With aid of the Batmobile's grapple gun and an electrical shock, Batman frees Superman from Starro's control, and the two of them head back to free all the other JLU members. There's a bit of surprising coldness when Superman tells Barda to just go ahead with burying the Starros in the pool because Batman 'knew what he signed up for'... that's surprisingly harsh, and a 'I trusted him' would've probably worked better here? I don't know. Anyway, our heroes ultimately use Aquagirl's telepathy and Barda's Boom Tube to return the Starros to their homeworld, and Batman rejects the invitation to the JLU because of status quo. 

The worldbuilding angle is definitely nice, and it's great to see Batman meet and team up with Old Man Superman and his fancy black-and-silver costume. Starro as an antagonist makes my geeky heart happy, the Batman-vs-Superman angle and the Kryptonite discussion were great, and I do like the varied characters of the JLU and their reactions to Terry. That said, between the odd decisions that Starro-Superman makes (we never learn why Starro thinks it's a good idea to invite a detective since no one even suspects a traitor other than "Superman") and the rather terrible way that the two-parter handled Warhawk's death and fakeout really does make the episode feel like it's perhaps just one or two revisions short of becoming truly stellar. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Starro the Conqueror is the first enemy that the Justice League has ever had to face in the comics, debuting in The Brave and the Bold #28, which caused the formation of the Justice League of America. 
• Starro's backstory was featured in the Superman: The Animated Series first season episode "The Main Man". Starro actually does have a brief cameo in the background of that episode! Scenes from that episode, namely Superman fighting the Preserver, are shown in this episode. 
• "Justice League Unlimited" make their first fictional appearance here. While here it's just made to be a nod to Justice League (this episode was aired before the Justice League show was made), the term "Justice League Unlimited" would later be used for the final seasons of Justice League.
• While most of the members of the Justice League Unlimited are original characters made for the show (other than Superman and Big Barda, who stands in for Wonder Woman), they are all visually meant to be 'legacy' characters to other major DC superheroes:
• Aquagirl is obviously meant to be a parallel to Aquaman, and is identified as his daughter in this continuity. 
• Green Lantern is always a title and there has been multiple Green Lanterns even in the DCAU continuity. Kai-Ro (named after a minor Green Lantern character from 60's cartoons) is just the latest of Earth's Green Lanterns. 
• Warhawk stands in for Hawkman, although he has slightly different powers. Justice League Unlimited would reveal that Warhawk is, in fact, the son of Hawkgirl and John Stewart/Green Lantern. 
• Micron is a stand-in for the Atom, although he can also grow large, a power that Atom doesn't always possess. 
• Aquaman (using his Superman: The Animated Series appearance) makes a brief cameo on Batman's computer, being identified as Aquagirl's father. His whereabouts are apparently unknown. 

Batman Beyond S03E04-05 Review: Past Sins

Batman Beyond, Season 3, Episodes 4-5:

Season 3, Episode 4: Big Time

This is one of the big episodes of the season, in a way? At least it's framed like one. Throughout the past two seasons we've had a lot of hints about Terry McGinnis having spent time in juvie, and the show has been surprisingly cryptic with the details. "Big Time" finally sheds some light and explains it. Unfortunately, it's... not a very interesting episode, or that well of an explanation. As a much younger teenager, Terry hung out with Charlie "Big-Time" Bigelow, a terrible friend who goes off stealing stuff and brings Terry along with him. Terry managed to escape the worst because he was underage, but Bigelow spent three years in prison. There's a bit of an attempt at some depth to this with Terry and Maxine's conversation, but ultimately, that's all there is to Terry's backstory. It's just there to give a bond between Terry and Bigelow. Which would be nice, if this episode was really all that interesting. 

But... it's not. Perhaps the episode could've benefited more by playing Bigelow's intentions up as a mystery, but it's pretty quickly revealed to both the audience and Terry that Bigelow is a terrible influence. He first shows up quite literally creeping on Dana, then tries to get Terry to help him on a criminal job. Because he's a good guy, Terry actually manages to convince Bruce to give Bigelow a chance. And, of course, Bigelow immediately proves to be untrustworthy, because the audience knows that he's actually working alongside Richard Armacost, an evil business mogul that's trying to steal Wayne-Powers industrial secrets, who's also working with the Wolverine-clawed mercenary Karros. 

Everything honestly plays out more or less as you think it would. Batman keeps showing up to spoil their heists, there's a fight between the bad guys, and at some point in this conflict, Bigelow gets doused with Cerestone, ultimately mutating into a hideous flesh-beast that fights Karros and Armacost, before Batman shows up and beats up everyone. End episode. And... I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of stuff that they could've explored here. Perhaps a version of this episode where the audience doesn't know if Bigelow is actually evil or is trying to reform, making Terry and Bruce's argument and the subsequent proof that Bigelow betrayed Terry more painful. Maybe a version of this where the episode explores whether Terry is more involved with Bigelow's possible redemption -- because all they had are two angry confrontations in this one, meaning that it's a lot less impactful. Or maybe Bigelow being such a huge douche makes it just a bit too hard for me to be invested in whether he becomes good or not? I don't know. It just feels like a bit of a disappointment. 

_____________________________________________________

Season 3, Episode 5: Out of the Past

What's not a disappointment, however, is this one, "Out of the Past". I know the contents of some of the episodes that are about to come in this season, but this one absolutely blindsided me. It's a huge, loving tribute to the history of these characters in the universe itself, and a wonderful focus on a retired superhero like Bruce Wayne. Hell, even the opening scene, with the hilarious Bat-musical (actually performed by Conroy himself!) is really quite impactful for the episode itself. It's funny, of course, but it also ties into Bruce having to see his legacy be interpreted in different ways, in addition to being a painful reminder of what youth was. There's also a running theme of Terry and 'Talia' noting that Bruce misses being under the cowl, and while Bruce never confronts Terry about it, seeing the musical actor as that 'someone else under that cowl' probably is something that stings even further.

It's also Bruce's birthday, and it has put him in a reminiscing mood, and the show does a great job of showing respect to continuity by having Bruce morosely remember a lot of the women he's been close with in his life (though no Diana yet; this show was produced before Justice League)... and then one of them shows up! Talia al Ghul has always been an interesting character and one that I thought was going to show up sooner or later in Batman Beyond, since thanks to the Lazarus Pits, Talia and her father are essentially immortal. I had always expected them to turn up when I watched season one -- certainly they would be far more likely to survive into far future of 2039 compared to someone like Bane. 

As Bruce's body can't even stomach the meal that he once shared with Talia, she offers an enticing offer -- for Bruce to use the Lazarus Pit. And it's such, such an interesting dilemma that Old Bruce has to wrestle with, and I appreciate that while the episode does moralize a little in the end (which then gets swept aside by the whole Ra's al Ghul stuff) I do like that Bruce does actually consider taking the cure. Admittedly, to his credit he does refuse at first, and only in a moment of literal vulnerability when he was mugged and nearly killed by a car that he decides to take up Talia's offer. 

And, honestly, I wouldn't really see too much of a problem if Talia was actually being genuine. Bruce does, though, noting that he probably doesn't have the right to artificially prolong his life compared to others, and later gets pissed because this is 'cheating' when he exercises after his youth is partially restored. Kevin Conroy does amazing work in this episode. Of course, I would say that having someone as brilliant as Bruce live a bit longer on Earth would be a good thing, but then turns out that Talia is actually evil all along. Or, rather, Talia is actually dead all along, and what has been flirting with Bruce all along had been Ra's al Ghul, piloting Talia's body after demanding the 'ultimate sacrifice' from her, and now he wants to steal Bruce's body. 

...actually a twist I didn't see. I expected Ra's to be involved somehow, or for Talia to be secretly evil. But for Ra's to have actually killed and hiijacked Talia's body? It actually blindsided me. And Ra's al Ghul's voice speaking out of Talia's body is creepy as all heck! The rest of the episode more or less plays out as it would, with action scenes and stuff as Terry fights Ra's goons and rescues Bruce. The machinery explodes, though, and as he runs in and tries to salvage the computer, Ra's/Talia is consumed by the explosion and presumably dies. A pretty fitting end for someone as scummy as Ra's, honestly. 

And... and there's a lot to really like about this episode. Bringing back one of Bruce's greatest enemies to torment him one last time? The general sombre tone of the whole episode as Bruce mourns times long gone by? The absolute banger of the triumphant Batman: The Animated Series music when youthful-Bruce and Terry fight together in that hallway against the goons? Shit, that music literally gave me chills down my spine. Sorry, Batman Beyond, your music is good, but this is just so much better. Part of me is a bit annoyed that they killed off Talia in a pretty offhanded manner, but the rest of this episode is so good! Possibly one of the best episodes out there. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Cerestone was previously mentioned in "Ace in the Hole", because this episode was produced before it but was aired much later.
• Ra's al Ghul and Talia al Ghul were last seen in the DCAU continuity in a Superman: The Animated Series crossover, "The Demon Reborn". 
• Pictures of Zatanna, Lois Lane, Catwoman and Barbara Gordon appear on Batman's computer. DCAU Batman's other major love interest, Wonder Woman, hasn't actually appeared on-screen yet since this show was made first. 
• The members of the Bat-musical include actors playing Batman, Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Robin. 
• Notably, Robin is in his Golden Age "underwear" costume that bares his legs, which never actually made an appearance in DCAU. 
• "I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman" is, of course, the iconic lines spoken by Batman in the first episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
• The musical includes Batman describing (or, well, singing) about criminals as a 'superstitious, cowardly lot!', something he does a lot in the comics, popularized by the very first Batman comic in Detective Comics. 

Batman Beyond S03E01-03 Review: Poker Face

Batman Beyond, Season 3, Episodes 1-3:

I had intended to publish this like, way back in late 2020, but I just hit a huge roadblock in both watching and writing. I'm going to proofread these and slowly release them over this month -- been really busy so I had no time to do new posts.

________________________________________________

Episode 1: King's Ransom

Anyway, as we enter the final season of Batman Beyond I feel that it's kind of important to note that back in the day, we really didn't have some sort of huge, overarching plot. I think it was Superman: The Animated Series that actually ended things with a huge bang at its season finales with Darkseid-related episodes, and both Justice League and especially Justice League: Unlimited had multiple storylines that felt like serialization. But that's not to say that the designers behind Batman Beyond wasn't at least thinking about wrapping loose plot threads up. Which means more recurring enemies!

"King's Ransom" features the final episode of the Royal Flush Gang, which have fallen on a bit of hard times. Without Ten, the gang isn't doing particularly well, and the prologue fight against Batman leaves the android Ace damaged and Jack captured. To make matters worse, their client, Paxton Powers (making his return from season one!) refuses to pay full price for the damaged artifact that King gives him. The whole theme of this episode is basically what terrible people King and Queen are, and how dysfunctional the two's partnership and marriage are. There's an interesting bit of world-building here with the revelation that the Royal Flush Gang is apparently a hereditary thing (we see them chronologically earlier in JLA!) from Queen's side of the family, and the most interesting part is that we see a fight between antagonists, with King and Queen holding Paxton Powers ransom.

I do like the increasing amounts of treachery and gambit tossed on top of each other. King demands Wayne-Powers to pay the ransom. Bruce Wayne refuses to pay said ransom. The Royal Flush Gang refuses to have any of Paxton's people involved. Paxton is forced to call Bruce Wayne, but then realizes he'll be ruined if Bruce Wayne makes the existence of his illegal art collection public, then hires the Royal Flush Gang to kill Bruce. We get a huge fight (involving Ace the Bat-Hound!) before we get the ultimate revelation: King betrays Queen, and the whole deal has been King making a huge plan with his mistress, Ms. Thorpe, Paxton's assassin-secretary. Ultimately, Batman arrives and stops Queen from killing King; while Commissioner Gordon arrests Paxton. 

There's also the Ten/Melanie B-plot storyline, of course, with the frosty way that she ended things with Terry in their last episode. Melanie is basically making an honest living working at a restaurant. It's... it's all right, and the ending basically has Jack seek out his sister and the two siblings make an honest living while the parents rot in jail. I can't honestly say that I care too much about them, but that's a neat little bow to tie for these characters. 

It's... it's an all right episode. It was paced a bit unevenly, but I did like the increasing pile of gambits that the members of the Royal Flush Gang just increasingly pile on each other, and the full revelation of King's plans. It's not a particularly creative solution, admittedly, and it's something I've seen before even in this show, but it's a solid episode regardless that gives both the Royal Flush Gang and Paxton Powers a fitting conclusion. 

____________________________________

Episode 2: Untouchable

I don't like calling an episode in a non-serialized show as a 'filler' episode, but this is basically one, yeah? It's a completely standalone episode with a one-off villain that the episode does away with at the end of the half-hour. The concept is pretty standard sci-fi stuff, with a mystery revolving a supervillain called the Repeller, who has an electromagnetic forcefield which allows him to block everything that Batman has to throw at him, and even survive having molten slag metal poured on top of him. Through an investigation, Bruce and Terry realized that Wayne-Powers has set up a clinic with people with deficient immune systems, who can't live outside of sterile environments, and one of the technological advances they had made is something called an 'Iso Field', which creates a bubble of sterile atmosphere around them. 

Terry befriends Irene, one of the girls who quite literally has never touched anything in the outside world, and a rather good chunk of the episode is devoted to Terry befriending Irene... or the reaction of Terry's jealous girlfriend Dana when Terry keeps bringing Irene up. I'm not sure if this season will have a lot more in the Terry/Dana relationship storyline, though it's... it's honestly just kind of there. I wouldn't say that the relationship and dialogue are poorly written, because I've seen poorly written. But I won't lie and say that I'm anything but entirely indifferent to this storyline. Hell, Terry maybe even having feelings for someone that's not Dana is explored so much better in the Ten episode. Anyway, because status quo is god, ultimately at the end of the episode turns out that Irene has a boyfriend all along, which means that this storyline really brought absolutely nothing to the table. 

The actual mystery as to who the Repeller is ends up being relatively simple. There's an angry doctor that's confrontational to both Bruce and Terry and is strict towards Irene, and, surprise surprise, turns out that he's just a strict doctor who's the red herring. The much more background-looking doctor turns out to be the real Repeller, intending to use the technology and sell it to supervillains. Classic Scooby-Doo misdirection, but neither Dr. Suzuki nor Dr. Blades are really characters that are interesting enough for me to really care either way, and I feel like earlier season two episodes like "Armory" or "Payback" deal with the mystery game of who's the supervillain much, much better. 

____________________________________

Episode 3: Inqueling

Another interesting one? This one is the last episode for Inque, another one of Batman Beyond's recurring villains, and when looking at the title I thought it's just a remake of "Growing Pains" from Batman: The Animated Series, but with Inque in the place of Clayface. Well, that's not the case! After a disastrous encounter with a client equipped with a special sci-fi gun, Inque founds himself wounded and desperate. She ends up looking for the aid of her biological daughter Deanna. It's an interesting situation they have here, where Inque has been sending money to Deanna, who grew up essentially alone, but hasn't even shown up once in her life prior to this episode.

There's a lot to be said here about their relationship, I feel, especially at the end of the episode where Deanna betrays Inque for essentially leaving her to fend for herself, while throughout the episode Inque has been basically extremely motherly and genuinely looks happy to see that her daughter has grown to be at least a little bit of a criminal like her. And honestly, even Inque's reasons for leaving Deanna behind -- she was on the run -- isn't even all that bad! And she's sending money to her daughter... but there's also the fact that she really could've made contact at any point before this. But then a good part of Deanna's anger towards her mother is basically the feeling of abandonment. I do feel like the fact that Deanna betrays Inque for what's essentially partially revenge and partially greed makes her so much more interesting than if she was just "I'm a good child and my parent is a villain, and it's the right thing to do". We don't really get much more out of the pair since the episode has ended, but I feel like the relationship between the two is told solidly enough in this episode that it's pretty satisfactory. 

On the good guys' side, this is a rare Batman Beyond episode without Bruce Wayne, who's off on a trip, so the entire episode hinges on Terry and Max trying to stop Inque on their own. I do really like the brief moment of vulnerability where Terry tells max that he felt like he let down Bruce that one time he screwed up and brought Inque into the Batcave, and now he basically has something to prove to his mentor. I do like that there's a slight parallel between Terry and his surrogate parent, and Deanna and her biological parent.

There's also a B-plot here where Terry blows off Dana for a date several times and I wonder if this season will have a Terry/Dana subplot running through its episodes? Unlike the previous one, though, Dana is very understanding in this one, because she thinks Terry basically sees Old Man Bruce as the father he never had. It's neat. 

The episode, as mentioned above, ultimately ends with Deanna cooperating with Inque and getting more and more funds from her to fund their little criminal enterprise, before Batman ultimately hunts them down and faces off against Inque and her daughter in a mutagenic laboratory. Interestingly, following the running pattern of Inque consistently beating Batman in fights, she still has the upper hand against Batman and very nearly kills him until the tainted mutagenic serum that her daughter gave her causes her to dissolve. 

The ending is most certainly something that the TAS team kind of likes -- they did this with Riddler in a very memorable episode in Batman: TAS, and a variation with this with Paxton Powers and Blight. But Deanna is relaxing on her new penthouse pool, seemingly having scammed her mother for all of her supervillain money. Batman arrives, giving Deanna a warning that "Inque has been dead before", leaving Deanna in a state of paranoia, and we're not sure if the shadow morphing into Inque's eye is part of her imagination or if Inque has, indeed, reformed and out for revenge. Ultimately, a very solid episode. 

____________________________________

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The events of "Ascension" is briefly brought up several times in the conversations between Bruce and Paxton. 
• The city of Bludhaven is noted in "Untouchable" as the location of a nuclear testing facility. In the comics, Bludhaven is the 'sister city' to Gotham and the location of many of Nightwing's exploits.
• Both Batman and Inque bring up the events of the episodes of her previous encounters with Batman in "Disappearing Inque" and "Black Out". In particular, Terry still feels guilty for letting Inque into the Batcave in latter. 
• The ending of "Inqueling", featuring a secondary villain seemingly getting away scot-free after the primary villain is seemingly killed, but then living a life of paranoia when Batman informs him/her that the death isn't confirmed, is similar to the fate of Daniel Mockridge in the Batman: TAS episode "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?", where Mockridge spends the rest of his days afraid of when Riddler is going to take his revenge. 

Hawkeye S01E06 Review: The Kingpin of Crime

Hawkeye, Season 1, Episode 6: So This Is Christmas

And so Hawkeye ends its six-episode run, and... it's a fun enough finale! Not everything is wrapped up, and the show does struggle a bit in juggling its many, many characters. It also suffers a bit from not knowing what it wants to do with some of them (Maya, for example, is obviously being saved for her own TV series) but all and all, it's a pretty fun end that fits the show. I do agree that Hawkeye could have very much used an extra episode or made this one slightly longer. It wasn't quite as bad as Kang's introduction at the end of Loki, but Kingpin and his dynamics with Maya and Eleanor does feel kind of rushed. Especially if the audience members in question haven't actually seen Daredevil -- a distinct possibility considering how oddly the MCU has been handling their Netflix IP's. 

There's a conclusion and all the characters involved do get a bit of a shine, but ripping off the band-aid first... a lot of the emotional thoroughlines don't really work quite as well. Clint and Yelena's scene are... it isn't weak by any means. Renner and Pugh deliver pretty great performances and it's not like the scripting is weak, but I really did feel like they simultaneously drag that scene a bit too long and also resolve it without too much satisfaction. Likewise, while we're lost in all the action scenes, I guess last episode of 'deal with it' is the show's answer to Clint and his Ronin persona. Sure, he burns the suit at the end, but we never really got any kind of discussion on Clint's stint as a mass-murdering vigilante. 

Another one that didn't really work as well is Kingpin and Maya. We are told that Kingpin's relationship with Maya is like an adoptive father, and as always, Vincent D'Onofrio brings his A-game when he interacts with Maya and shows the tenderness of a father early in the episode, but it really does feel too little, too late. Again, it's not as bad as Loki or Falcon and the Winter Soldier's respective messy final episodes, but I really did feel like introducing Kingpin to us an episode earlier to establish the Kingpin/Maya/Kazi dynamic would've worked so much better. 

Eleanor Bishop is also... she's kind of stifled, easily the least interesting character next to the antagonists that are Kingpin, Yelena and Maya. The only reason we really care about her is just her relationship to Kate, and while we do get a confrontation, I felt like it wasn't quite as dramatic as it could've been. Again, none of these complains are enough to ruin what's otherwise a pretty solid action-packed finale, but all together it's kind of noticeable that this probably could've done with either an extra episode or a bit more polish.

Oh, and Jack Duquesne really is just a dork with sword skills, and there's absolutely nothing to do with his comic-book Swordsman alter-ego. Kind of annoying considering how long they dragged Jack as a red herring, but okay. 

But! But but but! With those out of the way, the rest of the episode is genuinely fun. Kingpin's entrance to the story is absolutely threatening and amazing. We do admittedly just throw the entire thing about the mystery story out the window in favour of an action-packed episode -- Kingpin's behind everything; Eleanor's been working as Kingpin's minion because her husband owed Kingpin money*, Jack was framed, and Eleanor now wants out, causing Kingpin to, predictably, get super-duper angry. At least he didn't bash her skull in with a car door. 

(*Her dad being a criminal is an angst-source for Kate that really didn't get touched upon)

And that ends up being the setup for the final fight in a party. Yelena wants to come in to murder Clint. Kingpin's men wants to murder Eleanor. Clint and Kate have to stop them both, and tossed into all of this is Maya and her realization that Kingpin was the one who set her dad up to die. Actually, let's talk about Maya first -- introduced as a sympathetic antagonist who seems to be there to hold Clint accountable for his actions as Ronin, all of that just sort of petered out and that's kind of felt like we got a rushed version of what would be the first arc in her TV show here. It doesn't help that her screentime with Kingpin, while powerful, was also very short -- while her relationship with Kazi is so on the sidelines that it barely registered. 

And as much as I adored the return of one of my favourite live-action supervillains ever, Kingpin is... well, his performances are as amazing as ever, but he really doesn't quite have the same amount of personal enmity towards the Hawkeyes as Maya, Yelena or Kazi had. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed him taking his way through Kate's trick arrows, and we're definitely working by comic-book rules and there's no way Kingpin is dead, but the audience members who haven't watched Daredevil are probably confused at who this random big guy is that's stealing the show in the final episode; while those that watched Daredevil probably wouldn't have any sort of satisfaction seeing the character apparently-killed by Maya. 

Still... the action scenes are amazing and fun in this episode. Let's be honest and I'll just state flat-out that I really didn't give two shits about the LARPers and the episode would've worked so much better without them, but there's so many good stuff here. My fanboy soul definitely got excited about Kingpin and Yelena being involved so heavily! Hell, Kate-vs-Yelena's friendly superhero fighting more than fills in the quota for comedy for me -- and they are actually fun! From Kate pressing all the buttons on the elevator, to their oner fight through the office rooms, to Kate trying to follow Yelena's rappel down... it's pretty great! Other standouts also include Kate's fight against Kingpin in the toy store; Clint actually making good on his boast of splitting an arrow with a second arrow; and the two Hawkeyes standing back to back and unleashing holy hell with their trick arrows. 

The episode ends with a couple of questions -- Maya/Kingpin will undoubtedly be the focus of the 'Echo' TV show coming soon. Kazi's dead, Yelena's forgiven Clint and Eleanor's arrested. Oh, and that weird watch that was the focus of the earlier episodes belonged to Laura Barton, apparently... because the episode closes off with, well, the happy ending that Clint manages to get home in time for Christmas -- bringing along two 'strays' as Kate Bishop and Lucky the Pizza Dog to their family. And... and the review might show that I'm complaining a lot, but I really am not -- this has been a really, really fun finale. The show as a whole isn't perfect, but with the more flippant and fun-loving tone that it has, I feel like it does strike a great enough balance. It most certainly delivered at introducing Kate Bishop and making her likable, but most of all, I can't get enough of tired-old-dad Clint Barton. 

Good stuff! Hopefully sometime in the upcoming year I'll have the energy to slowly review the Phase 3 MCU movies (I've watched all the Phase 4 movies to date, but I kind of want to release them in chronological order), but you guys can expect me back with episodic Disney+ reviews. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• In addition to receiving his comic-book counterpart's iconic diamond-capped cane, Kingpin later dons the red-and-white hawaiian shirt taken from Spider-Man: Family Business.
  
• Kingpin and Maya having a conversation about seeing 'eye to eye' before she shoots him is also taken from the comics, although there (and I suspect here), Kingpin is merely shot in the eyes and blinded. 
• Hawkeye's new costume is based on how his modern counterpart is often portrayed, most notably in the Ultimate comics. 
• The cufflinks that Kate steals to use to activate her trick arrows are specifically the ones from Daredevil's first season, which are the ones that Fisk took from his abusive father. 
• Another Pym arrow shows up, this one the shrinking one instead of the enlarging one. Clint name-drops Scott (Ant-Man) when wondering what to do with the shrunken van.
• It slipped my mind a couple episodes ago, but Hawkeye using Pym tech is probably a reference to how Clint used to be Giant-Man/Goliath for a while in the comics...
• Laura's SHIELD watch has the number '19' inscribed on it, referring to Agent 19, the codename of Hawkeye's comic-book wife Mockingbird/Bobbi Morse. While Mockingbird's already adapted into the MCU in Agents of SHIELD, I guess the 'wife of Hawkeye' part goes to the MCU-original Laura Barton.
• Clint knows the secret bird-whistle between Natasha and Yelena from Black Widow, and briefly recaps their childhood escape from Ohio in the beginning of the movie.