Gotta Review 'Em All, Part #33: Sandygast to Kommo-o

The next part of my coverage of Generation VII Pokemon! This was originally split into two parts, parts #35 and #36, but I ended up compressing two articles into one because neither are particularly that long.  

Click here for the previous part. 

Click here for the next part.

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#769-770: Sandygast & Palossand

• Types: Ghost/Ground [both]
• Japanese names: Sunaba, Shirodesuna
• Categories: Sand Heap [Sandygast], Sand Castle [Palossand]

We jump from an evolutionary line that I instantly love on sight to one that I went from "eh, that's neat" to "huh, this is actually fucking awesome". See, during the initial reveal season, for whatever reason I kind of totally missed the fact that Sandygast and Palossand are Ground/Ghost types. I took a look at Sandygast, went, 'huh, a sand pile. Cool.' I'm not as opposed to inanimate object Pokemon as most people, but I felt that while a living mass of sand is cool enough, they really could've done so much more. And, well, they did! See, Sandygast isn't just a pile of sand with a hollow mouth that goes through the crude sandcastle and a little shovel on its head. It's a haunted mass of sand. And suddenly the beady eyes and the hollow mouth (how cool is it that the mouth goes through Sandygast's entire body?) looks so much more sinister.

Sandygast is explicitly stated to be born from a sand mound playfully built by a child, but somehow is possessed by the grudges of the dead. And apparently anyone who puts a hand into Sandygast's mouth gets possessed by this sandy ghost, "and so it adds to the accumulation of its sand-mound body". So does it reduce its thralls into sand? That's horrifying! Although the actual games merely show that whoever is enthralled by Sandygast (a little boy in the Ultra games!) is just compiled to pile sand with shovel to make Sandygast bigger. So it's a ghost that possesses others, but it's not that evil. Ultra Moon makes Sandygast an outright Tsukumogami by giving the warning of "if you build sand mounds when you're playing, destroy them before you go home or they will get possessed and become Sandygast". It's horrifying, but Sandygast's look is just so adorable. I mean, look at that shovel on its head! I'm sure that's the tipping point that makes Sandygast go from just a boring pile of sand with a face into an adorable little bugger.


Sandygast eventually grows massive, into a proper sandcastle (thanks to its thralls building it, according to the Sun Pokedex), Palossand (hee hee, pile of sand) with actual towers and windows and shit. its shovel is now a rotating antennae on its top, and I really love the cute little beady eyes on its windows. Palossand in the games is gloriously dynamic, undulating its tower-arms and flattening upon defeat. Some of the official artwork does show Palossand swirling around as a mass, living quicksand (apparently each grain of sand is infused with Palossand's 'soul') to trap its prey. The Moon dex notes that "buried beneath the castle are masses of dried-up bones" from its prey, where multiple dex entries make excruciating detail about how Palossand sucks their vitality away while they're still alive. Pikachu, nooo!

It's such a gloriously weird and wacky and fresh take on a ghost pokemon. Sandstorm monsters and possessed objects are common tropes in fiction, but a sandcastle ghost is the sort of weird wackiness that feels genuinely unique. Instead of a boring Sand X ability like the rest of the Ground-types out there, Sandygast and Palossand even have their own personal unique ability, owing to their state as the only sand-based Pokemon -- Water Compaction, which compacts its sand and makes its Defense stats higher when hit with a Water-type move.

Also, Shiny Palossand and Sandygast are black, which, in addition to being pretty fucking awesome looking for a ghost castle, is also a reference to black sand, a phenomenon found in multiple beaches in Hawaii owing to the volcanic activity in the islands -- hell, even an area in Alola is explicitly a black sand beach! Good luck finding a black Sandygast there, though -- Shiny's still Shiny and that's still insanely rare. Overall, definitely one of the more creative and fun designs in the seventh generation.

 6/6.

#771: Pyukumuku

• Type: Water
• Japanese name: Namakobushi
• Category: Sea Cucumber

Dotting the beaches of Alola isn't just cowardly isopods and haunted sandcastles, but also Pyukumuku, a Pokemon based upon sea cucumbers (class Holothuroidea), one of those weird aquatic creatures that is overdue to become a Pokemon. While commonly found in oceans all over the world, they're a delicacy in Chinese culture, who view them as a sort of ailment. Pyukumuku is a pure Water-type, and he's a pretty cure-looking sea cucumber. A black body with beady pink eyes, cute little pink spines, and a weird star-shaped mouth? Look at that expression! That's exactly the expression of what something called "Pyukumuku" would have. It's a cute little non-evolving bugger, and one whose entire deal is being ultra-defensive and super obnoxious in the way that the likes of Shuckle are. See, Pyukumuku's entire moveset is filled with countering and status effect moves, and it has immensely high defensive stats. This is all based on the Cuvierian tubules that some sea cucumbers have -- these sea cucumbers, as a self-defense mechanism, unleash part of their respiratory system out of their anus, which harden upon contact with seawater, to entangle their predators while the sea cucumber crawls away. These adorable string-like organs might suffocate the unfortunate predator. It's represented by its signature ability, Innards Out, where it's essentially like Drifloon's Aftermath ability, but one that makes it clear that, yes, Pyukumuku's spitting out his organs at you as one last defiant "fuck you" as he falls.


Pyukumuku's weird 'mouth' (or rather, probably its anus) is a star-shaped flat thing, but when it attacks, it shoots out a gigantic white-shaped arm to punch enemies in the face. Or give you a peace sign if you play with it in Pokemon Refresh, or to drag itself along. While it's shaped like an arm, apparently the dex makes sure that, yes, just like real-life sea cucumbers, Pyukumuku does eject its real internal organs out as a defense mechanism. Pyukumuku dot the beaches all over Alola, and apparently they will keep returning to the same spot over and over again (and sometimes starve, because, y'know, a beach is not the ocean), causing hotel beach staff to pay gullible little trainers to toss them back into the ocean. See, while the Alolan people love Pyukumuku because they are adorable and their slime makes for great sunscreen, silly tourists end up stepping on them and get attacked, which is why people keep throwing them back to the sea. Overall, while there's not that much about Pyukumuku, I do find it insanely charming especially after a couple of tours through Alola and meeting this adorable little squishies on the beaches. Not one that I particularly cared about when I started the seventh generation, but definitely one that I ended up liking.

 4/6.

#772-773: Type: Null & Silvally

• Types: Normal [both; Silvally can change types similar to Arceus]
• Japanese names: Taipu: Nuru, Shiruvadi
• Categories: Synthetic [both, Man-Made in Japanese]

Oh, hey, this dude! Apparently it's classified as a Legendary Pokemon now? Personally, I don't really consider it one. It is certainly unique, and there's only a finite amount of Type: Nulls as far as the lore goes, so I guess it's sort of kind of like Mewtwo... but I dunno. Type: Null and Silvally don't really feel like proper legendaries to me per se. They do have a relatively decent role in the seventh generation story, as the signature Pokemon of our rival, edgy anime boy (and I do mean that in a good way) Gladion, who stole one of the Type: Nulls created by Aether Foundation to do battle by himself.

Type: Null is clearly based upon the mythological chimaera, clearly being a weird Frankenstein of various Pokemon types. From the weird mohawk to the fin-like tail to the green cllaws and the mammalian body, Type: Null's most striking feature is its strange, rust-coloured mask, something that's created to suppress its rage. See, Type: Null was originally called "Type: Full", created for the sole purpose of murdering Ultra Beasts (more on those later on) but it was uncontrollable and thus the masks were created to suppress them, and they were put on ice permanently until Gladion (and later you, the player) frees the remaining Type: Nulls. It's kind of a fanmade Pokemon's glorious creation of an edgy fan character, and Type: Null does have that cheesy charm for playing it straight enough without going overblown. It even plays on a different sci-fi trope, the trope of Frankensteined abominations, as opposed to Mewtwo's genetic body horror. Unfortunately, despite its name, Type: Null is actually Normal-type and not entirely type-less. Boo. That's some really missed opportunity for a proper, neat gimmick.

Type: Null evolves by breaking apart its face mask into Silvally, and the evolution feels kind of underwhelming. I mean, yeah, its permanent and Silvally's gotten this cat-god face, and his stats gets a little better... but I felt that the change feels rather underwhelming, like it's a mere alternate form or something. Does this need to be an evolution? I suppose it kinda does, from a story point of view, since the transformation is permanent, but still. Silvally and Type: Null are both implied to be created in the image of Arceus, with notes all over the games noting that they went to Sinnoh to research Arceus, and Silvally's ability is even called "RKS System", and depending on the memory item it's holding, Silvally will change its type -- similar to Arceus and his plates. Silvally does a far better job looking like something that can conceivably be any type due to its weird, hodgepodge design. Silvally assumes its final form via a friendship evolution, and it's even noted in the Moon Pokedex that Silvally's name was given by Gladion. It's a pretty cute face, for a monster chimeram I guess. 

Overall, I do find Type: Null and Silvally pretty neat, actually, and where I'd go on a normal "it's so cluttered" rant here, I do feel that it's intended and it's part of this evolutionary line's charm. Type: Null and Silvally are certainly not my favourite Pokemon in the seventh generation, not by a long shot, and their Legendary tag sort of rubs me the wrong way... but at the same time, I dunno. It's a Pokemon created mostly for a specific role in the story, and one that in my opinion had his story sort of overshadowed by everything else that's going on in the seventh-generation games. Still, that's not Silvally's fault, and it's honestly a neat design for a weird Frankenstein gryphon. Just not my thing is all -- a lot of people seem to like these two more than I do, but while they're certainly not forgettable, I can't muster much emotion about them. 

 3/6, could be 4/6.

#774: Minior

• Types: Rock/Flying
• Japanese name: Meteno
• Category: Meteor

Minior is... neat? I can't really think of that much to say about Minior, though. It's a Rock/Flying Pokemon, and it does add in a pretty neat interpretation of the Flying type. Sure, Minior isn't a bird or a flying bug, but he's based on a meteorite, and that's why it's flying. It's interesting since these sort of floating Pokemon tend to just have the Levitate ability slapped on to them instead of the Flying-type... but they don't really do all that much with Minior. It's just a flying rock with eyes, with the gimmick of its "Shields Down" ability. See, on their default state, all Miniors look the same. Reduce their health below a certain percentage (lots of abilities this generation work like that, huh?) and the outer layer cracks open to reveal Minior's "core" form, and there are seven possible candy flavours that you can find, corresponding to the colours of the rainbow -- the only problem is, you won't know what Minior flavour you're getting until you crack him open. It's one of those alternate-forms completionist deal and while a lot of thought is put into many of the seventh-generation designs, I feel that Minior is one of those that's just got a bunch of cosmetic variants for no real reason. It's at least cute, and apparently it'll flat-out die if its core stays exposed and the dude's not placed into a Pokeball? Minior's cute enough, especially the core form's swirly eyes, but it's ultimately just kind of... there. It's just a floating rock meteor, and there's not much to it. It hangs out with fellow space-themed pokemon like Beldum and Clefairy atop Mt. Lanakila, but while there's nothing really wrong with Minior, it's a Pokemon I constantly have to remind myself it exists, because, shit, they really could've done something far more interesting with this dude.

 2/6.

#775: Komala

• Type: Normal
• Japanese name: Nekkoara
• Category: Drowsing

A koala is probably one of the most-requested animals to be turned into a Pokemon, and as far as cartoon koalas go, Komala's a pretty cute koala, always sleeping and clutching the log like a little pillow. It's cute, but it's definitely pretty boring. This pure Normal-type is one of the biggest offenders of "just an animal", although thankfully the pokedex actually goes into a whole lot other detail about Komala's behaviour. You see, the "coma" in Komala's name isn't an exaggeration, because, as the Sun dex entry notes, Komalas are "born asleep and die asleep", and all its movements are the result of its tossing and turning around in its dreams. Hell, its ability, Comatose, means that Komala is afflicted with a permanent Sleep status (although it can still attack), rendering it immune to all other status effects. And apparently Komalas move around by gripping onto the log and using it as some sort of weird roly-poly walking stick? The log's so important that Shiny Komalas are exactly the same, and the log changes colour to pink. Overall, while the concept behind an always-asleep Pokemon that fights with its while asleep is undoubtedly interesting, they don't really do much more with Komala beyond that. Komala's still a fair bit more memorable than the likes of Minior, Passimian and Comfey, who are straight-up forgettable... Komala's got enough for me to remember him, but at the same time, they really could've done better.

 3/6.

#776: Turtonator

• Types: Fire/Dragon
• Japanese name: Bakugamesu
• Category: Blast Turtle

Oh, hey, it's this ugly dude! I admit I took one look at Turtonator, nodded that they finally made a Mata Mata turtle (Chelus fimbriata) into a Pokemon, noted to myself how it's as ugly as its real-life counterpart, and then moved on. You see, somehow I missed the fact that it's a Fire/Dragon Pokemon. Yep, a Pokemon based on a snapping turtle with a vaguely Kappa-esque face ends up being given a "volcanic landmine" theme, and instead of being pure-Fire or Fire/Rock or something along those lines, they decided that Turtonator is a dragon. And honestly? I ended up liking Turtonator a fair bit more due to this ridiculousness. You'd think that the Fire/Dragon type combination would be more obvious, but so far the only ones to have it are Reshiram and Mega Charizard X. The former being a legendary pokemon that honestly doesn't quite look as fiery as she could be, and the latter being more of a fan wink-wink-nod. And then there's this silly turtle.

The thing is, once I got over how ugly its face looks, Turtonator's actually a pretty awesome tortoise man. See, its shell is filled with gigantic, mean-looking lava spikes, and it fights with its shell facing towards the enemy, one of the few Pokemon alongside Mawile and Mega Sceptile to do so, because Turtonator wants its enemies to run headlong onto its spiky shell. Its spiky, explosive shell. See, the -onator part of his name is short for detonator, and Turtonator's shell is filled with explosive chemicals that will erupt -- exemplified in its signature move, Shell Trap, which deals a fuckton of Fire-type damage to anyone who strikes it while the move is active. However, its stomach, the 'exhaust' of its explosion system, is apparently its weak point, a reference to the myth that turtles and tortoises are helpless if you put them on their back. Ultra Moon notes that Turtonator is especially afraid of the rain, which sets off its volatile chemicals, and Moon notes that its dung, in particular, is an explosive substance "put to various uses." Turtle Shit Grenades, anyone?

The thing, though, is that Nintendo didn't just slap together an obscure reptile with the land-mine theme, because the Mata-Mata Turtle does actually lie in the water, pretending to be a chunk of bark, unmoving until a fish swims close to its mouth, upon which it will use its open mouth to create a pressure difference to essentially suck the prey in. Turtonator is explosive, sure, but the ambush predator aspect is still around... as is his ugly mug, the distinctive nose and the jagged, flattened shell edges. Overall, I've grown to really like Turtonator over the couple of years since his release, and he's definitely one of the cooler ones among these frankly mostly-underwhelming stretch we're in.

 4/6.

#777: Togedemaru

• Types: Electric/Steel
• Japanese name: Togedemaru
• Category: Roly-Poly

This generation's resident Pika-clone is based on a hedgehog, with the twist that its spines aren't shaped like a proper hedgehog, but look more like flap-out panels in a children's book. Togedemaru is easily the least impressive of the Pikachu clones, being pretty silly and round, being Electric/Steel without looking particularly steely, and with a very bland design overall. He's somewhat better in the 3D games and in the anime, thanks to more dynamic spine-plate things, but at the same time, it's insanely underwhelming. I like Togedemaru a little bit more than Dedenne and maybe Plusle and Minun, but that's because it's at least somewhat different enough due to its spiky gimmick and weird-ass shape, but that doesn't mean that I like it either. Its dex entries are pretty generic, and I can't really say much about him. I won't judge you if you think Togedemaru is cute, but I certainly think that if they're going to put so little effort into Pikachu clones, just stick with Alolan Raichu and Hat Pikachu and Pikachu Libre instead. They at least manage to look charming. Togedemaru's just a big blob of awkward.

 2/6.

#778: Mimikyu

• Types: Ghost/Fairy
• Japanese name: Mimikkyu
• Category: Disguise

And I spoke too soon, because, see, Togedemaru's not the only Pikachu clone in this region. Mimikyu is exactly a Pikachu clone, but done right. See, unlike Togedemaru, Dedenne and the rest of the bland, uninteresting electric rodents, Mimikyu's a screechy, dark, unholy mass of a ghostly fairy -- easily two of the creepier types out there -- who has gathered and crafted a hilariously shitty costume of Pikachu because it envies the electric rodent's popularity (in a meta moment, the dex notes that there's a lot of Pikachu merchandise due a popularity boom 10 years ago) and yearns for friends. Unfortunately, its disguise is charmingly bad, with the creepy Pikachu face drawn in with crayons, and combined with the pale yellow cloth used, the silly wooden zig-zag "tail" and the bent ears, Mimikyu ends up looking charmingly creepy instead of being cute. 

See, Mimikyu is a Ghost/Fairy, and it's a Pokemon designed with such an interesting and hilarious backstory. Sure, it's meant to appeal to the widest crowd ever, similar to the likes of Absol, but shit, look at that design! Can't you look at those two real beady eyes on the 'body' of the Pikachu and not love this thing? And all the horror stories about Mimikyu's real form is amazingly told, too. See, in the attack animations all we see are shadowy claws and the odd set of glowing eyes (particularly creepy in the anime, where they gave Mimikyu a screeching, unholy voice), but the Sun dex notes that a scholar that attempts to peek under the rag was "overwhelmed by terror and died from the shock". Ultra Moon tells us that an accidental gust of wind revealed Mimikyu's true form to a trainer, who "died painfully" after he went home that night. Yep, we're getting some eldritch, man-are-not-meant-to-comprehend horror going on with this adorable little buddy. Naturally, I caught one at the earliest possible opportunity, knowing that I needed to have one of these fuckers in my party. Mine's called Boo. 

Of course, with the sole exception of the hilariously psychotic Mimikyu from the anime (and psychotic, twitching Sadako Mimikyu is the primary reason I watch the Sun/Moon anime), Mimikyu just wants to make buddies, as shown here in an official music video made by Nintendo, released a couple of days just after Mimikyu's release to the world. See, Mimikyu's bad costume was made so that it can find friends. And also hide its true, horrifying form. How adorable and simultaneously horrifying is that? Mimikyu's ability is called "Disguise", where the first chunk of damage Mimikyu takes is nullified. The enemy presumably hits Mimikyu's fake Pikachu head, causing the head to flop down like a broken neck, a form that the Pokedex hilariously identifies as the "busted form". Adorably, the Sun Pokedex notes how Mimikyu's unharmed, but very sad that its disguise is ruined, with the Ultra Sun Pokedex noting that "it has a hard time getting it right, so it's crying inside", and that Mimikyu will stay up all night trying to fix his damaged costume. Awww!

And I do love that while the Pokedex insists up and down that Mimikyu's just misunderstood, the two actual biggest media portrayals of Mimikyu portray it in an antagonistic light. The games has a Mimikyu set up one of the hands-down best parts of the Sun/Moon story in the abandoned mart trial, where you end up entering a weird stalker shrine to Pikachu on a mysterious back room (which disappears in subsequent visits), and a Pikachu shows up and transforms into an angry Mimikyu. And there's the aforementioned anime, which pulls off all the horror tropes they can conceivably sneak into a Saturday morning cartoon meant for pre-teens, turning Mimikyu into a hideous angry rival who's pissed off at Pikachu's popularity.... although that's just apparently the quirk of Jessie's Mimikyu, with other wild Mimikyus being mostly just in the "lonely misunderstood loner fairy-ghosts" corner. 

I also absolutely love Mimikyu's gamut of moves. In addition to the expected Ghost, Fairy and Dark attacks, Mimikyu is able to naturally learn Wood Hammer. Which means it whacks you with that fake Pikachu tail branch. Among its TM learn lists, Mimikyu's able to learn Electric-type moves, showing off that, yes, it can totally try to pass off as Pikachu. Mimikyu's also one of the few non-legendary Pokemon who speaks in the main series games. Of course, the dialogue is insanely disturbing, with the Totem Mimikyu going "see mee!", and another one, a random one in a Pokemon Center, saying "me curse you." It's such a creepy yet lovable backstory, a simple design that re-uses some parts of the Shuppet/Banette backstory while giving a whole new spin on the concept, and is done with so much effort and care in both its game, anime, promotional and manga appearances that Mimikyu ends up easily becoming one of the seventh generation's most beloved Pokemon and... and yes, Mimikyu, it's a happy ending for you because you've found so much buddies worldwide. Overall, easily one of my favourites from this generation. 

 6/6.

#779: Bruxish

• Types: Water/Psychic
• Japanese name: Hagigishiri
• Category: Gnash Teeth

I do love myself marine Pokemon, but poor Bruxish just has to come after the huge high that was Mimikyu. Poor Bruxish. See, Bruxish is based on a triggerfish, one of the many families of reef-dwelling tropical fishes. Specifically, considering the setting of Alola being based on Hawaii, Bruxish is likely based upon the Reef Triggerfish (Rhinecanthus rectangulus), the state fish of Hawaii. Or, as it's called in Hawaii, "Humuhumukunukuapua'a", an objectively superior name. And Bruxish's colour scheme is gloriously neon, a mixture of pinks, purples, yellows and bright blues. But then they staple the weird-looking lipsticked and fanged mouth on it, and they turned the trigger into this weird "psychic organ" flower. And yeah, I get it, Bruxish is a Water/Psychic type that needs some justification of it being psychic beyond "it's purple", but at the same time... there's so little effort that feels like it went into this thing.

Where does bruxism play into this thing? Apparently its psychic power is to echo the sound of its grating teeth throughout the sea, which just honestly feels bland. Bruxish's role as a Psychic-type and having sharp teeth apparently makes it the natural predator of the Poison-type Mareanie, though. Bruxish's powerful jaws and teeth are a stylistic adaptation of the real-life triggerfish's powerful jaw muscles, able to crack through the shells of bivalves (the Moon pokedex notes that Bruxish also prey on Shellder). But honestly? As much as I appreciate the level of attention given to marine zoology here, Bruxish has always been utterly underwhelming. It's not forgettable, at least, but dang is it annoying to look at. They really could've made Bruxish a lot less uglier, honestly. It's not the worst Pokemon in the seventh generation, I don't think, but it's pretty bleh. 

 2/6.

#780: Drampa

• Types: Normal/Dragon
• Japanese name: Jijiron
• Category: Placid

Drampa has to be right up there in the "oh yeah, this thing exists" category. It's just so forgettable to me. It's the version-exclusive counterpart to the far cooler Turtonator up above, but honestly? This Normal/Dragon is genuinely so bland that I can't really think of anything to say. It's a weird old swan-dragon based on oriental dragons. It's also old. But very powerful, and gets pissed if you bully kids. And... and that's about it, really. Like everyone else in the seventh generation, Drampa has his own signature ability, Berserk, that ups his attack if his HP is reduced... honestly pretty generic stuff. I do love the Ultra Sun's dex noting that Drampa will "find the bully's house and burn it to the ground", making Drampa some sort of weird playground geriatric dragon version of the Punisher. But the concept of training a weird dragon-swan with old man features just doesn't appeal to me in a generation with a wrestler tiger, a ghost archer owl, a samurai isopod, a ghost-fairy cosplayer, algae ghosts possessing an anchor and a bodybuilding mosquito alien. I think it's its weird, blank-faced face is what puts me off? I dunno. On a bad day I'd give Drampa a 1/5 rating, but I don't think I dislike it that much. 

 2/6.

#781: Dhelmise

• Types: Ghost/Grass
• Japanese name: Dadarin
• Categories: Sea Creeper [Seaweed in Japanese]

Oh, this one's very cool. Dhelmise's honestly the only Pokemon I'd consider triple-typed. See, Dhelmise is nominally a Ghost/Grass Pokemon, but its ability, "Steelworker", essentially gives it STAB damage for all its Steel-type attacks, without the defensive stats of the Steel-type. Why? Well, because, despite the main bulk of Dhelmise's body being an anchor and a ship's steering wheel lumped together to form some sort of wacky grinning face, Dhelmise isn't the anchor or the wheel. Dhelmise is the ghost of the seaweed that's around it, so while it gets the attack bonus for using the metal anchor, it isn't actually the anchor itself. Pretty sweet!

While at first glance I thought that Dhelmise was just going to be Aegislash Mk. II, the concept of Dhelmise being this green seaweed, that, thanks to it being a ghost (born of "the soul of adrift seaweed", according to the pokedex), possesses a rusty anchor that it swings around as its new body, apparently being able to knock out giant Wailords in a single blow, and then wrap itself around the Wailord to drain their vitality. It's such a glorious attempt at integrating both ghost ship tropes and pirate tropes (if you don't notice, the single compass-eye on the wheel gives the impression of Dhelmise only having one eye). Honestly, Dhelmise's just right up there in terms of wacky creativity, and I'm genuinely sad that Dhelmise is sorely under-represented in the Sun/Moon games, being an insanely rare encounter at a very specific spot, and only really mostly showing up as part of Elite Four Acerola's party. 

Dhelmise has a signature move, Anchor Shot, which shoots out an anchor on a chain to damage the enemy and prevent their escape. That's so cool. And can I just really note that as much as they tried giving Dhelmise a 'face' with those compass eyes and the anchor 'mouth', Dhelmise's real body is emphasized to be the algae scum, making this perhaps one of the few pokemon without a true 'face', so to speak? Honestly, Dhelmise's such a cool concept, and while I might not have a personal emotional connection to it the way I do to Mimikyu or Decidueye, Dhelmise is easily still one of my favourites from this generation. Shame it's featured so little. But shit, possessed algae that drags around a gigantic anchor to bludgeon its enemies to death? Dhelmise's just pretty cool. 

 5/6.

#782-784: Jangmo-o, Hakamo-o & Kommo-o

• Types: Dragon [Jangmo-o], Dragon/Fighting [Hakamo-o/Kommo-o]
• Japanese names: Jarako, Jarango, Jararanga
• Categories: Scaly [all three]

Which brings us to the final entry for today, the pseudo-legendary dragons of Alola, and also one of the few Pokemon to have punctuation marks in their names. Mo-o is a Hawaiian word that means lizard or dragon, hence the naming scheme. The pure-Dragon Jangmo-o is this weird lizard-dinosaur dragon, and the whole concept of the evolutionary line is that they have distinct scales that clang together and make huge noises, and is associated heavily with ancient Alolan warriors. It's... it's a neat backstory, sure, but it's something that we sort of already had with the likes of Aron and Whismur, and honestly, while Jangmo-o does look pretty neat and scrappy, I didn't take to it as much as I do a lot of other designs.

Jangmo-o evolves into Hakamo-o, a bipedal Fighting/Dragon dual-type whose scales have transformed into these scalloped golden armour plates that's probably meant to resemble some sort of ceremonial armour. It's... neat? I'm not the biggest fan of the rather cluttered design, although at least it's somewhat pleasant clutter. Hakamo-o and Jangmo-o's huge crest is probably why their faces  look so odd -- those parts really could've used some extra details, in my opinion. I do like that Hakamo-o still has the tendency to leap into battle in loud cries, considering that it's named after the Haka war dance.

Hakamo-o then evolves into the final stage of this pseudo-evolutionary line, Kommo-o... and a lot of people hate this thing. I don't! It's far from being my favourite design, but I thought that it's actually a lot more interesting than I feared it would be when I saw Hakamo-o for the first time. I do like how the armour plates scallops down like a 'skirt' of sorts on its waist, and as a headress on its head. It's definitely not my thing, since I've never been the biggest fan of weird, cluttered dragon monsters, but Kommo-o at least looks relatively unique from the deluge of boring, over-detailed tacky dragons found in so many other Japanese video games. I genuinely don't have much to say about Kommo-o... it's neat that the jingling-warrior deal is brought into its final form, but at the same time there's really not that much to talk about here. It's got the signature move Clanging Scales, where Kommo-o will use its scales to create soundwaves to damage the opponent, but then lose Defense because presumably the scales are ruined because of this? It's kinda crap, which is why the Ultra games have Kommo-o a proper Z-move to make Clanging Scales worth something.

Honestly, I don't mind these three. They're okay designs, I think, and I don't think they're bad at all. And as our first Fighting/Dragon Pokemon, we definitely could've gone a lot, lot worse. I just feel that they're not "my thing" and the amount of clutter (pleasant clutter, but still clutter nonetheless) on Hakamo-o and Kommo-o really turns me off. Again, these are designs that look a fair bit better when animated in 3D, but at the same time, I just don't really care that much about these three and can't muster that much enthusiasm. They're cool dragons? You have to fight a Totem Kommo-o (that I one-shotted with a Ribombee)? That's about it. Again, I do respect the design, and I respect Kommo-o's fans, but I personally don't like it all that much. 

 2/5.

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I'm going to cut it a bit short here, but that's only because Type: Null and Wimpod got me to become a bit wordier than I intended to. Still, considering we only have a string of non-evolving dudes left before the legendaries, the finish line is in sight! Thank you for all of you who've supported this year-long juggernaut.

Lore of Hearthstone, Episode #24 - The Boomsday Project

The Boomsday Project is an expansion all about Dr. Boom! It's an expansion that's wholly original to Hearthstone. While Dr. Boom himself is actually a minor antagonistic NPC in World of Warcraft, he's definitely nowhere as prominent as he is in Hearthstone. The Boomsday Project basically explores Dr. Boom's mad scientist lab in Netherstorm, and it's mostly Hearthstone-original content, which is why this probably won't take anywhere as long as the others.

The Boomsday's Project's 'story', which is basically just things blowing up in wacky science hijinks, is chronicled and told in various outlets:

• Lowering the Boom, a digital comic book.
• A series of Youtube shorts animated by Wronchi detailing a Blizzard intern who is transported to Boomsday Labs while also serving as an outlet for card reveals. (Parts one, two and three)
• A series of blog posts (one, two, three) detailing Boom's robotic minions looking into the other labs in the Boomsday Labs.

Boomsday Labs itself is noted to take place in Netherstorm, a region of Outland (the shattered remains of the orcish homeworld Draenor), which is probably the most unstable part of Outland, consisting of multiple large fragments and rock shards floating in the Twisting Nether. It is the radiation of the Netherstorm that drove the humble gnome Sparky Uberthruster into madness, turning him into a mighty supervillain that the world would know as Dr. Boom. While the Netherstorm isn't a new area for World of Warcraft veterans, note that this is actually the first Hearthstone expansion to take place outside of Azeroth. The Boom Labs is noted to be located near Area 52, itself where Dr. Boom can be found in the World of Warcraft game. 

For the sake of completion, even though a lot  of the cards just don't plain have much lore (even the non-legendaries in a set like GvG and Gadgetzan had lore about their races that I can talk about), this time around I'll group together huge bunches of original designs to Hearthstone together. But first... the legendaries!

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THE SCIENTISTS!

Dr Boom, Mad Genius / The Boomship:

We'll be grouping the class legendaries and their associated legendary spells together because, let's face it -- there's not going to be enough lore otherwise. Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is, of course, the infamous Dr. Boom himself. While otherwise a minior NPC in World of Warcraft with a hilarious name, the Hearthstone game, especially the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion, has made Dr. Boom a larger-than-life character, which is why he's chosen as the headliner of this expansion. In the Boomsday Project, Dr. Boom has created and built a gigantic laboratorium with multiple sub-labs, managing a very tenuously-sane control over the other eight scientists under his employ in his laboratorium. Dr. Boom is responsible for the creation of many of the mechs running around the Boom Labs, as well as a brand-new mech suit that he built and walks around in... although the suit has so many buttons that Dr. Boom sometimes doesn't really know what he's doing -- represented by his hero power changing every turn. Whether it be the comic, the website blog or the animated shorts, Dr. Boom is shown to be erratic, loves explosives, and loves even more explosives.

In the comic, he basically wanders around to see the laboratoriums of Floop, Electra, Flark, Myra and Zerek, being hit with some unfortunate scientific mishaps along the way. In the blogs, Dr. Boom sent out a Faithful Lumi, a Microbot and a Galvanizer to get 'reports' from the other scientists.

Flobbidinous Floop / Floop's Glorious Gloop:

The strange Flobbidinous Floop is a humanoid ooze, and the only recorded instance of one of such. He's got a dapper set of glasses and a neat little lab coat! Flobbidinous Floop runs a laboratory filled with trees and greenery, upon which he creates super-sized vegetation and new plant species (like the Juicy Psychmelon),  as well as treants, all of them with the aid of Floop's Glorious Gloop, which is apparently a sort of ultra-powerful fertilizer that apparently dissolves anything but ooze-based organisms like Floop himself. Floop also notes that his glorious gloop stores the potential energy of the matter it dissolves. The true nature of the gloop, or where he gets it from, or if we really want to know where he gets it from, is never elaborated on.

He also has the most gloriously flobbidinously gloopy name ever.

Boommater Flark / Flark's Boom-Zooka:

The Boommaster Flark is an insane goblin who specializes in the creation of explosives, more explosives, and even more explosives. Sometimes he makes fireworks. In other words, basically just like any other goblin. Flark identifies himself as an engineer first and foremost, doing 'practical' things, and his lab is apparently called the Boomatorium. Among Flark's many inventions is the Boomzooka, a device created to utilize rockets in public transit... but most of the time, the passengers explode. In other words, basically just like any other goblin.

Stargazer Luna / Luna's Pocket Galaxy:

Stargazer Luna is a draenei working in an observatory to observe, well, the stars. She notes that the draenei have always had a special kinship with the stars, being one of the few races to have traveled among them, but Luna shares none of her people's view about respecting the Light or the survival of the draenei race, noting it to be too narrow. Luna prefers to open her eyes to the wonders of the cosmos, and notes that every puzzle can be solved with answers from beyond the stars... even if in space lay hints of cosmic horrors patiently hastening the inevitable heat death of the universe. Among the results of Luna's research is an entire simulated galaxy, small enough to slip into a pocket,  although it's noted to be 'not quite finished' with some quirks to work out. Presumably those are the one-cost minions that the spell's effect cause. Luna and her laboratory notably appears in the Boom Labs animated shorts, experimenting with 'casting only spells with [her] right hand'.

Crystalsmith Kangor / Kangor's Endless Army:

Crystalsmith Kangor is neither a mech nor an elemental, but some sort of... crystal golem? But not quite the same species as the other crystal/earth elementals. He's a creature-type original to Hearthstone, in any case. Kangor is the reason behind the creation of Dr. Boom's army of mechs, and also moonlights in researching crystals and crystology, with Kangor being able to channel the Light -- the enigmatic, quasi-mystical holy energy that paladins and priests use to heal. Kangor wishes to understand and break down holy power into numbers, and subsequently amplify and enhance it... to make lasers. In addition to that, Kangor uses the crystal harmonics to create artificial life, and years to create a vast society of mechs that are smarter and stronger than any organic, and as eternal as the Light that powers them. Interestingly, Kangor's interview in the blog post notes that Kangor might not be actually evil and/or insane like most of Boom's scientists, he's just baffled that anyone would ever use his research for destructive purposes. Kangor is noted to have built Zilliax, and is shocked that anyone would inhibit the higher processes of mechs and make them non-sentient.

Zerek, Master Cloner / Zerek's Cloning Gallery:

Zerek is an Ethereal, and is one obsessed with immortality. Having lost their physical, corporeal forms long ago, Zerek is obsessed with the survival of his own persona, and has noted that the answer to immortality, at least in his view, is cloning. He runs the mighty Cloning Galleryo of the Boom Labs, allowing him to create a huge number of clones of not only himself, but also his minions at command. Zerek notes that his created clones are at full maturity, but not of full size, presumably the reason why Zerek's Cloning Gallery summons 1/1 copies. Zerek notes that while he can relatively easily clone organics, cloning energy beings like himself is a bit harder than he would've liked. (Apparently, all it needs is a spell cast on him) Zerek was briefly featured in the Boomsday tie-in comic.

Myra Rotspring / Myra's Unstable Element:

Myra Rotspring is an undead working on poisons, with a huge amount of her laboratory (and the Rogue card pool) devoted to poisons. Myra and her laboratory was also featured in both the tie-in comic and the animated short. Recently, however, Myra has apparently moved past mere poisons, and is now researching the mysterious new element Necrium, noted by Myra to be an elementary particle of death.

Dr. Morrigan / The Soularium:

Dr. Morrigan is a Banshee, a form of undead normally associated with the Scourge. She runs the "Soulology" laboratorium of the Boom Labs, where she researches the "emancipation, analysis and practical application of souls". Presumably, the creation of the Soularium was done by Dr. Morrigan as well, and she describes her research as allowing her to develop a way to harvest souls and focus them into their purest essence and thusly harness them, such as the creation of technology like the Spirit Bomb. Dr. Morrigan is also able to transpose her soul, swapping essences with someone where she wishes to be, presumably the basis of her legendary card's ability. She's noted to have a rivalry with Electra Stormsurge, and apparently, really, really, dislikes gnomes. Morrigan's lines in Hearthstone are references to the lines spoken by the Banshee unit in Warcraft III.

Electra Stormsurge / The Storm Bringer:

Electra Stormsurge is some form of a unique air elemental, as we can see from her lower body being a swirl of tornadoes. Her chest and shoulder armour also resemble those used by Al'Akir the Windlord, although an elemental with Stormsurge's specific appearance does not exist in World of Warcraft. She's noted to power the entire Boom Labs with the gigantic 'nether coil collector', the Storm Bringer. As seen in her interview by a Microbot, Electra Stormsurge really, really likes making puns about the weather and of electricity in general. She serves as Boom Labs' head meteorologist, channeling the errant weather of the Netherstorm with the aid of her elemental minions into the Storm Bringer. Stormsurge has also noted that the Nether radiation allows her to change normal creatures permanently, the basis of the legendary's spell's effect.

Zilliax & SN1P-SN4P

The mighty robot Zilliax is designed by Dr. Boom as his bodyguard, and while he does bear a superficial resemblance to the pounder robots or arcane titans from World of Warcraft, Zilliax's head and crystal-shoulders, as well as the 'magnetic' electrical bolts that connect his arms to him, mark him as a unique and Hearthstone-original creation. Interestingly, despite being Dr. Boom's bodyguard, Zilliax is noted to be treacherous, often developing self-sentience and attempting to take down Dr. Boom "every other week", as noted in the Hearthstone site blogs, where during a Galvanizer interview with Dr. Boom, Zilliax barged in and attempted to attack Boom, only to be dispatched by an EMP Operative.

SN1P-SN4P is introduced retroactively into the Boomsday Project during the Rise of Shadows expansion, but like many of the other mechs in the set, it's original to Hearthstone. 

Whizbang the Wonderful:

Whizbang the Wonderful is a gnome that's just wonderful! He's original to Hearthstone, and doesn't really have any lore beyond being, well, a wonderful gnome. There are some WoW NPCs sharing similar names to Whizbang (all of them gnomes, naturally), namely the Darkshore questgiver Wizbang Cranktoggle and the Explorer's Guild member Clopper Wizbang, but they clearly aren't meant to be Whizbang the Wonderful, lacking an 'h' and the Wonderful sobriquet.

Harbinger Celestia:

Harbinger Celestia is original to Hearthstone, although she may very well be the mysterious being that Stargazer Luna keeps gazing towards the skies for.

However, while Celestia herself is original to Hearthstone, her species isn't. She's a being created out of constellations and the stars itself, which is seen exactly once in the history of World of Warcraft, the Constellar known as Algalon the Observer. Algalon is the true final boss of the Ulduar raid. The Constellar are a race of god-like celestial beings that are charged by the Titans to observe the worlds they created, and, whenever necessary, the Constellar were also charged with destruction of an entire planet's life should the Titans see fit. The Constellar assigned to Azeroth was Algalon the Observer, and the communication device to summon Algalon was located in Ulduar, guarded by the Titanforged Keeper, Loken. However, Loken was driven insane by the whispers of the sealed old god, Yogg-Saron, and betrayed his fellow Keepers, deactivating the device to summon Algalon or the other Titans. Adventurers who raided Ulduar would defeat both Loken and Yogg-Saron. Algalon arrived on Azeroth, and seeing the taint of the Old Gods, was about to unleash the signal to wipe out all life on the planet. However, the adventurers and Brann Bronzebeard faced Algalon in battle, and his defeated caused Algalon to reconsider his calculations, giving Azeroth a second chance to prove that it deserves to live. Other lesser Constellar were seen in Legion guarding the corrupted world-soul of Argus, and while all Constellars have used Algalon's male model, presumably Celestia is a female version of the race.

Subject 9:

Other than Dr. Boom himself, Subject Nine is actually the only other character to be a pre-existing World of Warcraft NPC, although Nine is likewise a pretty minor NPC. Subject Nine first appears as a raptor hatchling in the K.T.C. headquarters in Kezan during the goblin starting experience, where Subject Nine was one of the experiments being worked on one of K.T.C.'s head scientists, Hobart Grapplehammer (which Hearthstone players might find familiar -- Hobart is a legendary in Gadgetzan).

The fully-grown Subject Nine appears later on in Azshara, in the sub-area known as the Secret Lab. Nine's model was merely a normal raptor with a metallic hat as opposed to the more intricate cyborg, due to the limitations of the WoW engine. The Secret Labs is, well, a goblin laboratory located in Azshara, and when adventurers arrive there, the laboratory is ruined, its goblin overseers mutated or dead, and its raptor experiments running amok, among them the mighty Subject Four. Adventurers would meet Subject Nine, one of these modified raptors, who is able to communicate with them. Nine reveals herself to be intelligent, and asks tells the adventurers that she was bred with Subject Four to create a race of intellectual raptors. Now seeking a place for herself, she asks the adventurers to free her children, and then leads them to the Secret Lab's rocket, upon which Subject Nine and her intelligent raptor children shoots off into space. Whatever happens to Subject Nine in WoW afterwards is unknown, but it seems that in Hearthstone's continuity, she ends up in the Boom Labs. Subject Nine's summon and attack lines are lines of dialogue that she can say in World of Warcraft when spoken to, although WoW's Subject Nine didn't actually have voice acting.

Mecha'thun:

The being known as Mecha'thun was apparently a mechanical version of the Old God, C'Thun. Mecha'thun is obviously original to Hearthstone, and it's honestly even unclear if Dr. Boom rebuilt the dead C'Thun into a robot, or if Mecha'thun is a robot built in the likeness of C'Thun.

Mecha-Jaraxxus:

This dude is technically just a skin, but since we did all the skin heroes in the past, and Mecha-Jaraxxus is definitely meant to tie into the Boomsday Project, we'll include him here. There's really not much to talk about Mecha-Jaraxxus, really -- apparently sometime between his appearance in the Argent Tournament and the events of the Boomsday Project, Jaraxxus somehow arrived at the Netherstorm and was rebuilt as a cyborg by Dr. Boom. Obviously, like Mecha'thun, Mecha-Jaraxxus is original to Hearthstone.

The Lab Assistants:
In the Puzzle Labs single-player content, some of the collectible cards are used as 'assistant' to the eight main scientists. The Lab Recruiter is named Poisonmaster Pollark and serves under Myra Rotspring, and is portrayed as a beleaguered assistant that's way over his head. Lil' Stormy is a Storm Chaser and a huge fangirl of Electra Stormsurge. Astromancer Arwyn is an Astromancer and the absent-minded assistant to Luna. A lone Test Subject is the surprisingly chipper assistant to Zerek. Glow-Tron 2000 is the faithful servitor of Kangor. A Fireworks Tech called Boomnician Breena works under Flark. Dexter is a Dendrologist working for Floop. And finally, a Void Analyst called Demonologist Draan helps Morrigan to siphon souls into the Soularium.

For non-legendary cards, click after the break.

Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes S01E26 Review: Asgardian Armour

Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 1, Episode 26: A Day Unlike Any Other

The final episode of the first season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and it's a pretty damn cool finale. It doesn't do anything particularly novel -- it's your basic case of having all the Avengers split across the Nine Eight Realms gather together with their newfound allies, and then laying the smackdown on Loki's armies. On one part, it does feel kind of repetitive just waiting for all of the players to assemble. At the same time, though, it's executed in a pretty damn badass way. The Hulk swings around the Executioner's axe, flanked by the Warriors Three! Wasp and Ant-Man swoop in on goddamn pegasi, with Sif apparently giving Wasp a custom-made Valkyrie armour! Hawkeye, Black Panther and their buddies...  get obligatory action scenes. Yeah, these two just don't get to do much here.

But, of course, the two bigger moments in this episode (and the previous one) are Iron Man and Captain America. Tony doesn't get a huge character revelation, but god damn the slow buildup towards Tony's creation of his Uru-metal armour (apparently called by the extremely badass name of the Thorbuster or the Godbuster in the comics, although it's never referred to as such) and his eventual dramatic entry? Pretty damn awesome. 

But the big focus in this episode, from a character standpoint, is Captain America and Hela. Realizing that this isn't the real hell, not exactly (apparently because Bucky isn't around!) the good Captain actually ends up being extremely cordial and polite towards Hela as he tries to convince her to let him out. It's a bit annoying that the show establishes Hela as Loki's daughter and ally, but doesn't actually tell us just what role she plays in Loki's huge scheme. But Hela knows Loki enough to realize that he's going to betray even her, so Hela does the whole "sell your soul to me" devil-deal, allowing Captain America to rejoin the Avengers in exchange for his soul.

And Captain America arrives just in time for a dramatic entry to aid the other Avengers against one of Loki's many minions, Hoarfen the Ice Wolf, and as the Avengers bring down the huge beast (and straight-up uses him to break into the castle!), the still-shackled Thor mocks Loki, telling him that even with his much-vaunted stolen Odin powers he still hasn't won yet. This finally gets Loki to actually fight back, and while the Odinforce basically just amplifies his inherent magic-blast powers, it's strong enough to shatter even Captain America's shield, a moment that is treated with a huge *gasp* from everyone. And then Iron Man comes in with the Thorbuster (Lokibuster?) armour and together with Thor, the two of them lay down the smackdown to Loki.

It sadly comes to a simple case of "do something with the plot device!" as Ant-Man, Hawkeye and Black Panther sabotage Loki's connection to Yggdrasil and straight-up ends up having to destroy the World Tree in order to stop Loki, and that's a somewhat weak part of this climax, I think. Odin himself gets awoken from his sleep, and just snaps Loki into a prison -- the same prison that Loki's real-life-mythological counterpart is sentenced to, to have venom dripped into his eyes from the fangs of a serpent until Ragnarok comes. Brutal.

There's a huge celebration as the Avengers are recognized by Odin himself, and the crisis is over. Asgard and the Nine Realms are saved, Loki and his minions are defeated. Sure, there are a fair bit of loose ends -- whatever happened to Zemo and Enchantress and the rest of the Masters of Evil, for example -- but not quite enough to leave this season hanging open-ended. Instead, the real cliffhanger happens with Captain America musing over the shards of his shattered shield. He looks at one and sees Hela's visage in it, leading the audience to think that maybe Hela is going to be the big conflict (or a big conflict) in the next season... only for a second Captain America to show up, knock out the real Captain America, and then shape-shift into a Skrull, declaring that "the infiltration has begun". What a damn awesome way to end the season!

It's not a perfect finale by any means, relying a bit too much on plot devices and stuff, but Loki's a well-acted and well-voiced antagonist, we get pretty great moments for Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, and a lot of damn awesome action scenes. It's been a fun ride, and I'll return to review the series's second season pretty soon, hopefully!

Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes S01E25 Review: Nine Realms of Yggdrassil

Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 1, Episode 25: The Fall of Asgard

The second part of the three-episode climax has the Avengers scattered across the Nine Realms, and it's pretty damn fun! Sure, Muspelheim sits this one out, being conspicuously omitted from Loki's monologue or the Nine Realms Tour Extravaganza that the Avengers find themselves in, but I suppose what we get is pretty fun enough. Of course, some of the Avengers that we follow don't really get much to do. Black Panther, for instance, just jumps around and dodges weird dark elf wraiths in Svartalfheim before finding a random, convenient magic well that has him meet up with Hawkeye. That's easily the weirdest bit of the episode -- especially since the show has already introduced Malekith as a pre-existing villain that could've easily had a brief cameo there. Mind you, Hawkeye's adventures in Alfheim with the elven archer Legolas Faradei isn't much to write home about either, beyond it fitting with the whole "obtain allies, march unto Asgard" theme that ran throughout this entire episode. 

But, of course, we start this episode off with a huge villain motive rant on the part of Loki, who binds Thor in chains and rants about his diabolical master plan. He has been manipulating all the events -- the Masters of Evil, the Breakout, even his own imprisonment to the Island of Silence -- so that he could assault Asgard when Odin was sleeping and undefended by Thor, and gain control of the "Odinforce". I've always find it somewhat odd and way-too-convenient that Odin's powers can apparently just be transferred to anyone, but eh. It makes for an easy plot device for Loki to gain enough power to rival anyone, and also allow for an obvious "off" switch at the end of this three-parter. Although Loki's content to sit a good chunk of this episode out sitting on his throne and gloating over Thor, while his huge, huge army from Niflheim and Jotunheim go around invading all the other realms. 

We've mentioned Hawkeye and Black Panther -- two genuinely unimpressive sequences that end with the same "we got an ally out of the mix" sideplot that the other Avengers go through. Ant-Man and Wasp, meanwhile, find themselves battling frost giants in Jotunheim, with Giant-Man being, of course, well-suited to fighting these giants. We also get to see the Casket of Ancient Winters make a brief reappearance, held by the lead frost giant (Ymir?) and while the two of them have a neat little fight, they end up being rescued by Sif and a group of Valkyries. Hulk, meanwhile, finds himself in Vanaheim and charges straight into battle with a bunch of trolls enslaving the Vanir, and after a brief action scene, meets up with Thor's allies, the Warriors Three. Both of these are fairly more decently paced, and also a fair bit more badass because both Sif and the Warriors Three are characters that at least have made appearances in the show, unlike Legolas. 

Not that the show couldn't do tremendous work with new characters, mind you. Iron Man, sans armour, finds himself in the dwarven realm of Nidavellir (a name that would definitely be familiar for anyone who watched Infinity War earlier this year), where Tony Stark has to use nothing but his wits and a single repulsor beam to rescue the dwarves and their king, Eitri, from the ravages of one of Loki's minions -- the giant troll named Ulik (I know a bit of Marvel comics). It's always a pretty badass moment to see Iron Man fight without the armour, and that moment of bravery allows Tony Stark to have the respect of the dwarf king Eitri. We also get teased something awesome as Tony asks Eitri to help him craft a suit of armour.

Meanwhile, we get an equally compelling new character as Captain America finds himself in hell. Or, well, with Hela, anyway, as he is in Niflheim, the realm of the dead, where he is confronted with the (seeming) ghosts of his dead World War II comrades who try to get the Captain to give up the fight and join them. It doesn't quite get very deep, but it's definitely a creepy and well-executed scene as Hela is a constant, cool-but-creepy presence in the area, and seeing Steve have to quite literally face the ghosts of his past in a way that he's never quite done in this cartoon series is definitely pretty well done. And unlike the other Avengers, who basically go through their "beat up an enemy, gain allies" quota, Cap doesn't actually finish his side-quest just yet.

Overall, while it does feel a bit like a distraction and somewhat mis-matched, I think the episode does a pretty decent job at introducing new characters like Hela and Eitri, giving most of the Avengers some neat screentime, and making Loki really feel like he has everything in control and that the Avengers are insignificant single enemies compared to his overwhelming might. Definitely a fun and thrilling, if slightly distracted, second act. 

Marvel's Cloak and Dagger S01E09 Review: Climax

Marvel's Cloak and Dagger, Season 1, Episode 9: Back Breaker

Yeah, these last couple of episodes are moving at pretty much a breakneck speed, huh? Insert an obligatory speech about how the first half of the season dragged on insanely slowly. 

This episode isn't exactly perfect. I felt some moments felt genuinely rushed, and some -- like the bit with Evita's aunt's scenes and the whole bit with the speech about the hero's journey -- to be awkwardly paced. I do appreciate the hero's speech thing trying to show just what Tandy, Tyrone and O'Reilly find themselves in -- the part of a hero's journey where they are tried and they can either choose to be a hero or regress and give in to all their demons. In Tyrone and O'Reilly's case, this means throwing away all their principles and unleashing their frustrations in physical violence. In Tandy's case, it means stealing people's hopes in a literal fashion. I really like that fact, but the actual speech about the hero's quest is dragged on for so long that I genuinely rolled  my eyes when it took forever to get to the point that the episode wanted to tell.

Tandy is just kind of all over the place, first delving back to her life of seducing rich people and then using her powers to steal their dreams (and get off on them, apparently) as well as their money. She then goes to Mina Hess and gets into a bit of a piss-off contest with her and her dad, and then springs Liam out of jail because she wants to go back to her life before all of this. Her dreams, it seems, is to get married with Liam and have a happy life... something that is shattered because, guess what? When you leave your boyfriend in jail without any sort of explanation for however long it took between episode 2 and 9, he's not going to be very pleased. 

Meanwhile, Tyrone's big victory from the previous episode is negated with bureaucracy and "we'll look into it", as well as apathetic parents (while we learn the reason why, there really is no excuse for them to not at least go "yeah, sorry, we were wrong in not trusting you" in the car), causing Tyrone to go into this spiral of anger and frustration about how his whole crusade, his whole fight, all his struggles, amounted to jack shit, and he ends up beating up some random kid in school and getting into a lot of trouble. 

The scene with Tyrone's priest-mentor really made me wish that the priest had actually more scenes in the slower-paced parts of the season, because apparently he showed up before, but I genuinely don't remember him at all. Tyrone's speech to the priest is decently written as he lets out all of his anger and frustrations, but ends up seeing the priest's fear of... crashing onto some kid while drunk-driving or something? Oh, and Tyrone also ends up popping into Tandy's hope-stealing bit with Liam.  

And just like the whole talk about the low point of the hero's journey where they are faced with the fact that they can't ever go back, we get an actually powerful moment as Tandy chases down Tyrone in his school, and bombards him with statements that put down both herself as well as Tyrone, chiding him for being a naive little shit, and claiming that she's nothing but a sadistic bitch. Not... not exactly wrong, honestly. Tyrone, for his part, still refuses to give up on Tandy, while Tandy is trying to bring him down? Yeah, Tyrone, you're a good man. 

Both Tyrone and Tandy return to their respective families, and after an honest heart-to-heart (Tyrone and his mom talk about the responsibilities of staying safe and standing up for society. Tandy... just sort of speaks to a wall) are both thrown into chaos. A hit-woman from Roxxon has thrashed Tandy's house and is holding her mom at gunpoint, while Tyrone is being framed for the death of officer Fuchs, with the police coming into his house. Both of them are faced with a huge, climactic cliffhanger at the end of this episode, and that's pretty cool. 

The side characters are a bit more... iffy, I think. Evita's a cool character and I do like how she's able to snap out of Tandy's hope-stealing bit, but she's trapped by being the only one who kinda-sorta gets this whole "Divine Pairing" thing (Ty and Tandy certainly don't) but it's all so vague and mysterious that I genuinely don't think I would even care if they end up explaining it in the final episode. O'Reilly's story is pretty basic, too. All her optimism is dashed, she attacks an instantly-free Connors at the police bar and gets a bloody nose out of it. 

Meanwhile, Mina and Ivan are being a happy family, but then because Tandy zapped her with her hope-stealing powers out of nothing but spite (it's really hard to root for Tandy right now) it apparently burnt out Mina's idealism and she goes and kills a bee. And then at the end of the episode, Mina finds out that, hey, Roxxon really should've listened to her as the vague mumbo-jumbo hate plague gets unleashed again. 

Overall, there's way too much going on, the pacing is inconsistent, and I'm genuinely not quite sure why I'm rooting for Tandy with how the episode portrays her as a pretty self-centered, hateful bitch. I mean, I get that she's not in the best shape due to the revelations that her father is an abuser in the previous episode, but I kinda felt that the transition really could've been handled a lot better. I dunno. It's still a solid episode, I think, my own hang-ups with the pacing aside. 

Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes S01E24 Review: Magic Rocks

Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 1, Episode 24: This Hostage Earth

Ah, finally, we're in the end-games of the first season! One of the recurring plotlines has been Enchantress gathering supervillains for her "Masters of Evil" bad guy team, although this particular plotline has sort of been pushed to the background because of all the Kang, Hydra and Ultron storylines. And while the Masters of Evil are mostly rooted in Earth-bound villainy, neither are the Enchantress or the Executioner, who, as we know, are working as the lieutenants of Loki, who, in turn, is working along in concert with the Nordic mythology that surrounds Thor.

And the cold open of this episode shows that the Masters of Evil haven't been idle while the Avengers are busy dealing with other threats. We get to see that the Enchantress and the Executioner is doing battle with someone called Queen Karnilla, the Norn Queen. We don't get to see Karnilla a lot, though, because she's straight-up turned into stone by the Grey Gargoyle, a villain who briefly appeared in the pilot episode "Breakout" and apparently one of the Masters of Evil's newest recruits. The Enchantress claims the legendary Norn Stones, a group of powerful Nine-Realms-warping artifacts... but then the Enchantress turns on the Grey Gargoyle and apparently kills him offscreen! It's a sudden and brutal bit that was definitely unexpected. Sure, the Enchantress acts coy about it, talking about how Grey Gargoyle didn't survive the battle, but the implication that Enchantress and Executioner straight-up murdered one of their allies (albeit one we didn't know well) for no real reason really shows just how little the Enchantress thinks of her mortal allies at this point. Also, considering how death have been mostly implied and never stated outright (or done to non-human characters like Malekith and Ultron) it's definitely a shocking moment.

Of course, Baron Zemo is more than happy to utilize the Enchantress for his ultimate goal -- to conquer Earth. And all previously-seen members of the Masters of Evil return, with two new additions, the Living Laser and Chemistro, both very colourful and fun-looking guys whose appearance here is definitely welcome and much-needed to face off against the likewise numerically-bolstered amount of Avengers.

Meanwhile, working with the whole "magic and science working in unison" bit that T'Challa have preached since episode 20, Black Panther and Iron Man have figured out how to basically track where the leylines/dimensional energy converge on Earth, and, of course, there are eight points, which corresponds to the other Eight Realms of Norse mythology (with Earth itself being Midgard, of course). We actually have Captain America coming in and telling us that someone's done this before -- the Red Skull, all the way back in Captain America's flashback episode, something that I genuinely and completely forgot. Definitely a very neat bit of foreshadowing and intertwining of older episodes, here. Of course, they detect some energy surge on seven of the eight points -- with the eighth point being placed within the heart of an active volcano and thus apparently inaccessible to both hero and villain alike. 

And while at a glance it seems like it's just an excuse because both the Avengers and the Masters of Evil only have seven members each (Hank's off moping, though not without good reason), as someone who really loves Norse mythology, I do note that throughout these three episodes, the realm of fire Muspelheim is conspicuously absent. And I at least know that the fire giant Surtur is indeed a huge Thor enemy, so they might very well be saving him for season two? Anyway, seven points. Thor gives a bit of a rundown of the whole Nine Realms and Yggdrasil mythology. 

And then we get the one-on-one fights on the seven locations, with Wasp and her fancy parka facing off against the Abomination in some icy mountains, Iron Man facing off against the Living Laser in an underground cavern, Captain America facing off against the ever-silent Crimson Dynamo in a fog-filled ruins, Hawkeye traipsing around a jungle while chased by Chemistro, Black Panther having a very civil conversation with Wonder Man at a cemetery (again, hinting at an eventual heel-face-turn for Wonder Man), Thor arriving at Red Skull's old castle and facing Zemo and Enchantress. And, probably my favourite battling pair, the Executioner calmly waiting as the Hulk crashes down in the middle of an island in a lake. 

The actual battles outside of the Thor/Enchantress/Zemo bit really feel like fluff, but they're definitely decently animated. Living Laser is true to his name and the animators have some fun showing just how he's zipping around the battlefield. Abomination and Wasp gets perhaps the most screentime, and while both characters involved think that the Abomination outclasses the Wasp a lot... she's actually delivering some serious resistance. Hulk and Executioner, as mentioned, get a pretty badass and wordless beatdown amidst the splashing water. Baron Zemo apparently has a lightsaber and faces off with Thor with it. And then, of course, the Norn Stones get activated anyway, connecting the Nine Realms together. Thor gets blindsided by Zemo and bound by Enchantress's magics. Wasp takes the time to gloat and is grabbed by the Abomination, only for Giant-Man to show up in a pretty dang sweet moment as he beats down the Abomination to the ground. 

Meanwhile, as the Enchantress continues her ritual, creatures from the other realms begin popping up on Earth, matching the location of the fights (Wasp sees the frost giants of Jotunheim in the icy lands; Hawkeye sees the elves and fairies from Alfheim in the jungle, et cetera) and Thor tries to talk Zemo down... and Zemo, very interestingly, actually is prepared for the Enchantress's eventual betrayal. He puts some mind-control collar on Enchantress's neck, and seems poised to hijack Enchantress's plans and take over the nine realm creatures. Meanwhile, the rest of the Masters of Evil are swiftly taken down. Hulk sends the Executioner into the orbit Team Rocket style, Crimson Dynamo is scared shitless by ghosts and gets bopped in the face, Chemistro gets splashed with his own acid and glued to a tree, and in probably a pretty painful move, Iron Man shoots Living Laser straight into space. Thor manages to beat down Zemo long enough to tell the other Avengers to destroy the Norn Stones. Which they do, simultaneously.... 

And that leads to the second part of the three-parter finale, where the connection between Earth/Midgard and the rest of the World Tree is cut off, but the Avengers are themselves sucked into these other planes. Thor, for his part, finds himself in Asgard, and to his horror Loki sits on the throne.

Yeah, a pretty badass first act, isn't it? The villains may feel like a speed bump more than a real obstacle, but it definitely sells the tenseness of the scenes and Zemo, Enchantress and Thor have some really great interactions with each other. There's a definite sense of world-building, a lot of fun character moments (mostly those three, although Ant-Man, Black Panther and Wonder Man do have their moments) and a lot of badass action scenes. Definitely a great, explosive start to a climactic season finale. 

Kaiji S02E17-18 Review: Candyman

Kaiji, Season 2, Episode 17: Pointless Pounding; Episode 18: 

The 17th episode feels particularly simpler, although, again, it still does have Kaiji's characteristic storytelling style of hyping and describing everything in a boisterous manner. We've got Kaiji, in his last four hours as a free man, still dealing with the second hurdle, and this episode sort of acts as a bit of a tension-riser where nothing much happens, and we just focus on Kaiji's panic, Ichijou's panic, and Hyodou being a gigantic dick and ranting about how he loves to see hope fade away from the peasants' eyes, all the while allowing the people trapped by Teiai undergound to watch Kaiji's struggle on television.

It's not a bad episode or anything, I just don't really feel that there's a lot to talk about here -- it's a bit of a scene-setting one, and it's one that just basically re-establishes Hyodou as a sadistic bastard, while heightening the tension of Kaiji playing against the Bog.

Episode 18 starts off with Kaiji continuing to play against the Bog and trying to get past the second hurdle, the rigged flippers, and episode 17's length does really help out to make sure that Kaiji's struggles to "break down the door" end up feeling like it does take some time. And apparently Kaiji's pounding on the door, this time around, isn't just fancy-sounding hyperbole, but just straight-up literal, as Kaiji's constant pounding on the doors ends up causing the bars to actually break down.

We get to see Ichijou's confusion, and we also get to see the flashback. Endou's men, masquerading as the workers that replace the Bog parts, clearly are up to something nasty, but the actual sabotage ends up being pretty subtle, as Endou's people replace the rods's interior with little candy bars with spikes that move back and forth and basically break down after some time of playing and constant pressure -- things that Kaiji ensures will not come up on a more casual inspection by the casino staff. Having Sakazaki distract everyone by smashing the bog and shouting about how it's cursed and rigged also ensures that no one other than the staff would really try and play the Bog too much. Kaiji's whole "trying to steal money from the safe", of course, turns out to be a distraction, a false goal to let Ichijou to drop his guard and make him think that he's figured Kaiji's plans out.

And then, of course, Ichijou figures out that the bars are tampered, and demands that Kaiji stop... and then Kaiji points at the "patrons can play as long as they don't cheat", and Kaiji also notes that Ichijou's baseless accusations are about as valid as Kaiji himself noting that the flippers are rigged with the little laser sight thing, because, well, it's obvious to all that Kaiji's balls aren't falling in as much as the normal rate, which is as much "evidence" as the notion that Kaiji is cheating by sabotaging the flippers beforehand.

And as Kaiji is allowed to continue to play, Hyodou actually calls Ichijou and basically tells him that "your methods are dumb", noting that Ichijou's neck is on the line, and if Ichijou is ever-so-confident about the design of his three plates, then he should man up and let those plates decide his fate. Two hurdles down, the final one to go! It's very interesting, honestly, because I've assumed that the Bog would take up the second arc, with the final arc being a confrontation against Hyodou, but the way this sub-arc seems to be paced, that might not be the case at all!