Bleach TYBW E38 Review: toxic friENDship

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 38: Friend

Back in the day, I didn't really care for the 'Friend' saga as it was being released. Which is a huge mistake on my part -- I didn't know how few Bleach chapters we were going to have left, so having focus on Bazz-B (who, as a hot-blooded fighty-fight punk, wasn't a character I found particularly interesting -- which ironically led me to glaze through this arc, which did make him interesting) and Haschwalth (who had nothing interesting to him beyond being ominous) instead of all the other cool characters felt a bit weird. Now? Now I realize just how underdeveloped and how hungry for screentime the Sternritter are as a villainous organization, and how much "Friend" really helped to flesh out a lot of the internal drama within the Sternritter faction. 

But more importantly? More importantly, now it's a bit more clear to me that Bazz-B and Haschwalth's relationship, where they are fighting to the death despite being friends before, with a betrayal thrown in the midst of their relationship for good measure... it's meant to be a parallel to Ichigo and Uryu's far healthier relationship. Sure, Ichigo and Uryu are both fighting each other, and there is also a fair chunk of betrayals and hidden loyalties hidden between them... but it's nowhere as dysfunctional as Bazz-B and Haschwalth's, which ended up in tragedy. Admittedly, why I didn't realize this until my reread of Bleach years after its end was because 'Friend' was separated from the Ichigo/Uryu conflict by multiple chapters; and unlike the anime, Manga!Uryu was so passive in the background and didn't get the chance to shine, making the comparisons a bit harder to draw. 

Anyway, let's go through the episode! "Friend" starts with an ambiguous part of the world several decades before the start of the first battle against the Soul Society, in an area in the middle ages populated by Quincy tribes. It's... it's just the setting, go along with it. A young Jugram Haschwalth is just a kid in the forest, who tries and fails to kill a rabbit with a wooden bow and arrow. However, the rabbit is killed by a Quincy's holy arrow, a Heilig Pfeil, shot by a young Bazz-B with his Quincy crossbow as he hops down from the trees. Bazz-B criticizes Haschwalth's poor shooting, and the two kind of get into hijinks as Bazz-B goes "the Great Bazz does not need to identify himself!"

We then cut to the present, following after the post-credits scene of episode 36. Haschwalth asks Bazz-B what he is doing in Wahrwelt, while Bazz-B is pissed because the question Haschwalth is asking should be "how is he alive"? The two begin a confrontation, which starts off with a very smooth sequence of Bazz-B about to burn Haschwalth's collar, but he spins around his cloak to trap and block Bazz-B, before ramming the handle of his sword towards the trapped Bazz-B... but Bazz-B grabs the handle to unleash a Burner Finger One through the cloak. We get a really cool effect of the finger burning away the cloth, firing and tearing a path through the dark sky.

Haschwalth expresses some surprise that Bazz-B's injuries came from Auswahlen, and Bazz-B rants that all the Sternritters left behind were wiped out by Auswahlen. Haschwalth attempts to apologize, before pointing out that this is a conversation that goes nowhere because Bazz-B is never going to believe him if he said that he didn't know about it in advance. Which... I don't think the manga ever confirms either way, but Haschwalth does have limited access to the Almighty powers, which I suppose means that he probably knew and did nothing about it.

Bazz-B then addresses Haschwalth as "Jugo", and yells at Haschwalth to call him as "Bazz" -- just like when they were kids. As Bazz-B unleashes Burner Finger Two, Haschwalth unsheathes his blade and prepares for battle. After a brief flashback of Bazz-B witnessing his childhood home burn down under Juhabach's blue flames (is that where 'the Heat' came from? Interesting!), Bazz-B attacks. We get a really cool sequence as Bazz-B slashes around with Burner Finger Two, and Haschwalth avoids Bazz-B's attacks by running up a wall, across the ceiling and then down another wall to launch a counterattack slash at Bazz-B. 

However, Bazz-B points out that it's almost nighttime, and this is Bazz-B's chance to kill Haschwalth and Juhabach's The Almighty powers once it gets transferred to his former friend. (Which... I've always found the fact that Juhabach has powers that flip-flop between him and his second-in-command to be a bit of a random revelation, but I don't think it's as huge of an asspull as the Shinken Hakkyoken or Still Silver; since at least we've had foreshadowing that Haschwalth is really weird. We'll discuss this a bit more in cour four when we have more Haschwalth content).  

We cut back to the past with young Bazz and young Haschwalth. The two kind of bond because Bazz just kind of... decided to follow Haschwalth around under the guise of 'you're too weak to catch anything yourself'. We learn later on that Bazz is the heir of House Black, a local royal family, and he just plain don't know how to properly interact with kids his age. Haschwalth admits that, yeah, he is kind of pathetic because he can't make a Heilig Bogen. Young Bazz tries his best to explain that he is actually quite gifted, since kids his age can't make Heilig Bogens, let alone a unique construct like his crossbow. 

After telling Bazz that he doesn't have friends to compare to, young Haschwalth then asks Bazz not to call him "Jugo" because that's what his uncle calls him and he doesn't like that. Haschwalth then grabs his arms, which are covered in bruises, before being evasive and saying that he really needs to bring a rabbit home. I don't think Bazz actually knows the degree of what young Haschwalth must be suffering through, but he realizes enough to chuck the rabbit at Haschwalth and gives some excuse about how he's "hunting to prove how good he is" instead of for actual food. Haschwalth then rips off a button with a B from his cape, and flicks it over to Haschwalth, 'adopting' him as his underling. 

(The anime actually adds a couple of scenes showing this button on present-day Haschwalth, which is very nice). 

As little Bazz scampers off with all the energy that only hotheads can muster, Haschwalth's very creepy uncle show up and start muttering about how much trouble Jugo is going to be for going so deep into the forest. In typical abusive dialogue, the uncle gaslights him and talks about how Jugo can't do anything without him, and while the pedophilic undertones were always there in the manga, the anime makes it much worse by having the scene cut to Haschwalth's very dead eyes while the uncle's voice trails off into a singsong "my sweet Jugo". Yyyyeah. 

We cut back to the present day where Bazz-B is pissed that the name of the Quincies' castle got changed from 'Silbern' to 'Wahrwelt' with no real reason, before being frustrated because he just knows that Haschwalth will refuse to answer his questions as always. Predictably, Haschwalth does exactly that, changing the topic of the discussion and asking Bazz-B to take the battle outside to avoid damage to His Majesty's castle. Bazz-B gets pissed and unleashes Burner Finger Three, creating tongues of flame that surge towards Haschwalth and swirling around him like a vise. Haschwalth blocks them with his sword and some kind of shield, but the flames seemingly consume him as Bazz-B draws his Quincy crossbow seemingly for the kill.

We cut back to the past, and it's six months after the kids' meeting. This is a scene added entirely for the anime, which really does highlight Juhabach's hypocrisy and depravity. We see Bazz-B and a woman we can assume to be his mother looking from the room of their castle as Juhabach's soldiers sack it. We get to see the older members of Juhabach's Lichtreich murder all of the people in Castle Black, with all their unique weaponry... and Nikita Deslock just turns around and snipes the shit out of Bazz-B's mother, blowing her head up.

As Bazz-B screams in horror, we get the ominous scene of Juhabach manifesting a gigantic Sankt Bogen in the air above the castle -- which is a move he used against Ichigo -- and unleashes it downwards towards the castle. It's such an imposing thing to see from the far shot that the anime gives to us, showing the sheer power of Juhabach as he essentially executes an entire castle. Poor little Bazz-B, surrounded by nothing but dust and blood, watches with hatred as Juhabach and his four generals ride out from the wreckage of his family. 

On the next day, Haschwalth finds Bazz-B in the ruins of his castle, and we get to see them sort through the wreckage. In a nice anime-original detail, it's revealed that Haschwalth picks up his sword from Castle Black. Bazz-B gives some exposition, noting that Juhabach is a powerful monster that wields strange powers and controls the 'northern territories' by wiping out other rival factions, and that there are strange rumours that he is 200 years old and the Father of Quincies. Haschwalth claims that his uncle died in the fire when the forest he lived in burned down, which... not a painful enough death for creepy uncle, but there you go. 

Bazz-B tells Haschwalth that they are going to go train up and kill Juhabach, and the two young boys go off to do just that. At some point, the plan became to get close to Juhabach so that they can kill him. As they grow older, Haschwalth expresses doubt that he can be of help since he's a dud of a Quincy, but Bazz-B decides to train him. Five years pass, and we get a montage of the two trying to hone their skills... but Haschwalth still can't do any basic Quincy stuff. We get a scene of Bazz-B lurking as he sees Haschwalth trying to train with his sword the best that he could. There is a very well-animated shot of Bazz-B coming out of a tent during the winter to see Haschwalth practicing with his sword at the dead hours of the morning.

And it's an interesting thing because it's mostly Bazz-B's monologue here. Bazz-B is proud of his growth, but he also has to admit that Haschwalth is kind of hopeless in terms of learning Quincy skills. While he's more liability than asset, whether it's pity or loyalty, Bazz-B couldn't bear to cut Haschwalth off. It's... it's a bit of a somber and pragmatic-laced observation. 

While this is also going on, we get to see a discussion of Juhabach with one of his lieutenants at the time, Seydlitz. Seydlitz is confused because there's nowhere else to conquer within the Lichtreich, but Juhabach makes it clear that his target is... the Soul Society, and that the new combat unit is going to be called the Sternritter. 

This is where the paths of the two young men cross, as the four Lichtreich commanders arrive on a nearby village. Huburt gives a proclamation that a new combat unit called the Sternritter will be formed to invade the Soul Society, for the glory of the Quincies. So... again, the implication is that these are Quincy villages where most people are familiar with a lot of the spiritual world. Of course, we don't dwell on this too much because the focus is still on Bazz-B and Haschwalth. 

Being the hotheaded type, Bazz-B charges in and interrupts the Lichtreich commanders, and asks to be enlisted into the Sternritter. Huburt scoffs dismissively and plans to depart, but Bazz-B spooks his horse with his reishi crossbow, goading Huburt into confronting him. Throughout all of this, it's notable that Haschwalth keeps trying to stop Bazz-B and keeps trying to tell him that the wisest course of action is to infiltrate the Sternritter during the actual recruitment session... but Bazz-B just ignores him. 

Huburt draws his blade and denounces Bazz-B as a monkey, but Bazz-B counters that his friends will have to go back to Juhabach and report that he was killed by a monkey. However, before a fight can properly break out, Bazz-B and all of the villagers are slammed down by immense, overwhelming spiritual pressure. Great visual effects here for sure. Huburt kneels and apologizes to Juhabach for being driven to anger by a mere child... but Juhabach makes the proclamation that he is here to collect the person that will be his 'second in command'. 

And Bazz-B mentally declares that he is this super-talented second-in-command, that he's the one that Juhabach is looking for, that Juhabach will pick him for his talents, that he will get close to Juhabach and get his sweet sweet revenge. We get a scene where Bazz-B is able to stand up from the sheer immense pressure that Juhabach is unleashing upon him... but as Bazz-B stands up, Juhabach ignores him completely and focuses on Jugram Haschwalth, calling him by name and identifying him as his 'other half'. To the confusion of every single person present, Juhabach says that Haschwalth will come with him as his advisor. 

And internally? Internally, Haschwalth is elated. Because after all, wasn't this what he and Bazz have been working so hard for? Haschwalth looks to see Bazz-B on how to proceed, or for affirmation, or for something. But this is a really great scene because what Haschwalth saw on Bazz-B's face is not any kind of support that their plan is progressing, or even pride for his friend for being acknowledged. No. There is nothing but pure hatred in Bazz-B's glare. Envy, jealousy, disbelief. An amazingly drawn panel drawn by Kubo in the manga, and translated very well here. 

Because for Bazz-B, as we learn in his monologue... even if one of them would be chosen for talent, it should be him. Haschwalth silently pleads with Bazz-B not to look at him like this, not understanding why his friend is angry with him. 

Haschwalth even speaks up, and you can tell this isn't an easy thing for the meek young man to do. He asks if there has been a mistake -- much to the anger of Huburt because how dare anyone suggest His Majesty made a mistake -- and Haschwalth points out that he is talentless, while Bazz-B is a genius that would be a better fit of being Juhabach's advisor. Bazz-B, instead of being glad or grateful in any way, gets even more pissed that Haschwalth is essentially taking pity on him. 

However, Juhabach gets off his horse and explains that Haschwalth is not aware of his own awesome power... because a Quincy without the ability to create Heilig Bogens is born every 200 years, but that's not because they are powerless, but rather because their power is different -- it's the ability to share powers. The last Quincy to be born like this? Juhabach himself. Juhabach then turns around and reveals that Haschwalth is unconsciously giving power to other Quincies, and actually turns to face Bazz-B, revealing that Bazz-B's extremely rapid and 'genius' growth was because he was training in close proximity to Haschwalth. 

(Which, by the way, is partially bullshit because we saw Bazz-B already being super-talented as a kid when he's running around with a Quincy bow shooting rabbits. But we know Juhabach is a bit of a gaslighter himself.)

But it also puts things into perspective, because one of the pillars of Bazz-B's existence, the sheer pride he puts into his amazing talent and rapid growth in comparison to the talentless Haschwalth, is not because he's special but because Haschwalth is. 

While all of this is going on, while Haschwalth is being told how special he is by Juhabach and while Bazz-B is doing nothing but glare at him in hatred, Juhabach tells Haschwalth how he "needs" him at his side. This, by the way, has been identified by many people as tying into Haschwalth's history of being an abuse victim, and how he latched on to Juhabach as essentially a 'provider' of sorts. 

We get a lot of great visuals of Bazz-B trying to process all of this with his eyes wide open, and a shot of a dark void with Juhabach and Haschwalth standing on one side, and Bazz-B on the other end... with Haschwalth having this very cold expression on his face. It's not clear to me -- and kept ambiguous on purpose, I think -- how much Haschwalth has decided to essentially abandon Bazz at this point. But in Bazz's head, the 'treachery' is done. He screams in anger, summons his Quincy bow and fires an arrow at Juhabach... only for Haschwalth to stoically, with a dead expression on his face, jump in the way and catch the arrow before it hits Juhabach. 

This cuts beautifully to the present day as Haschwalth also catches an arrow that Bazz-B fires in an identical pose. Haschwalth slashes at Bazz-B, knocking him backwards and causing him to crash through a wall. Haschwalth tries to say that Sternritter infighting does not benefit Juhabach, but Bazz-B yells that he doesn't give a shit because he's here to kill Juhabach, summoning Burner Finger Four and creating a gigantic blade of flame around his arm. Haschwalth finally shows emotion for the first time in the present day, yelling at  'Bazzard Black' to stop.

Bazz-B doesn't, of course, and even in his wounded state, his giant fire blade is able to cleave a gigantic pillar. Haschwalth can run around Bazz-B and he has spent almost the entire fight dodging and blocking other than that one slash. Bazz-B asks Haschwalth why he keeps running away from the fight, and if he's scared of losing to him. 

And we cut away to a different time in the past, a bit later after their confrontation with Juhabach. Apparently, Juhabach and his lieutenants didn't kill young Bazz, and he grew up to an adult. At some point, Bazz-B worked his way into the Sternritter, and one of his first acts is to fire arrows to provoke Haschwalth to a fight. Haschwalth, however, doesn't rise to the bait, only giving some vague warning that infighting among the Sternritter is punishable and he has no intention of fighting. We get a montage of various seasons and years as Bazz-B keeps trying to goad Haschwalth into a fight and he keeps ignoring him. 

At one point, Huburt -- who addresses Haschwalth as Sternritter Grandmaster -- observes that he remembers Bazz-B as the 'monkey from that time', and muses if he needs to beat some manners to him. Haschwalth tells Huburt the same line -- infighting among the Sternritters will be punishable by death. Huburt dismisses this, saying that no one will be watching... but in a way of protecting Bazz-B despite his estrangement, Haschwalth coldly tells Huburt that he will be watching. 

This moment really does add a nice layer of complexity to Haschwalth. That moment during their first meeting with Juhabach was quite transformative already, but if all we had was "Haschwalth became loyal to Juhabach because Bazz-B betrayed him emotionally" it wouldn't be interesting. The revelation that Haschwalth still had loyalty to Bazz-B enough to look out for him? That brings up a bit more complexity around Haschwalth. 

We then cut to the final stages of their present-day confrontation. Bazz-B yells about how he's "not lost yet" to Haschwalth, but Haschwalth finally decides to go on the offensive. With a single strike, he cuts off Bazz-B's arm on the shoulder as he's leaping down with Burner Finger Four active. It's very fluidly animated, particularly the flame effects as the arm rockets off like an out-of-control engine and slices through a pillar in the background. The blood effects are really cool too. Bazz-B stumbles for a bit, but gets back up and uses his other hand to unleash Burning Full Fingers. Bazz's ultimate technique takes the form of a whirling five-pronged energy beam that erupts in one hell of a massive explosion. Again, extremely well animated. 

But this full-power attack fails to harm Haschwalth. For all the huge bluster of the attack, it also ends extremely abruptly as Haschwalth just rushes forwards and slashes Bazz-B down his chest, instantly cutting him down in a shower of blood. And unlike Bazz-B's taunting, Haschwalth hasn't been refusing to fight Bazz-B because he's afraid of losing. Rather, Haschwalth is likely afraid because he knows that he's the powerful one now and can kill Bazz-B very easily. Honestly, though, the episode is a bit less about their actual physical battle (it's just Bazz working up his fingers one by one until he gets two-shot by Haschwalth) but more in their emotional confrontation. 

Bazz-B stumbles up towards Haschwalth as he succumbs to his wounds, admitting that his former friend has won. He observes that things never worked out the way he wanted them to, but also admits that he didn't feel as bad as he thought he would if he ever lost to Jugo. As Bazz-B lies bleeding on the ground, Haschwalth walks up the stairs while their conversation as children plays over the background. 

And... yeah. The anime did a masterful adaptation here, and I really do think that the very flawed relationship between Haschwalth and Bazz is told extremely well both in this episode and in the original source material. Haschwalth and Bazz clearly care for each other as friends, as brothers. Even late in their life with all the animosity, there's still some bond between them. But unlike how Ichigo and Uryu would treat each other even post-betrayal, there's no real amount of communication between them. Bazz's story is tragic, yes, but he's not a particularly good and supportive friend to Haschwalth... and vice versa.

While he dupes himself into thinking that they're friends, Bazz-B views the relationship as being very unequal when the chips are on the table, and he couldn't bring himself to be happy or to cheer for Jugo's victory. Lots of little moments here and there over their backstory -- and while Ichigo and his friends may be a bit rough around the edges, their relationship is a lot healthier. And, indeed, that puts a lot of "Ishida, what the hell are you doing!" attempts at communicating into perspective. So yeah. I really do have a lot more appreciation for this fight now for sure! Great episode, well-animated, well-structured.

Random Notes:

• Not that the previous episode was bad or anything, but this episode has a very pronounced increase in quality in the present-day sequences! Particularly the first and last confrontations of the episode. I guess someone on the production staff really liked these guys!
  
• In the manga, we never see Haschwalth hold Bazz-B's button until all the way at his death scene. Here, the button is shown prominently several times throughout the episode any time the episode zooms into Haschwalth's sword. Most prominently is this shot right before Bazz-B charges in with Burner Finger Two. 
• Some bonus content in the final episode of this cour has given us the proper spellings for the four 'Schutzstaffel' of the past, including the name of the blue-haired sniper girl -- since this episode is where they're getting a bit more screentime, I'll cover them here. We've got the douchebag subcommander of the original Licht Reich, Huburt Alexander Kleich (previously 'Hubert'), the eyepatched Johann Seydlitz (previously 'Zeidritz'), the burly Algora Lallau (previously 'Argola' or 'Algora') and the sniper lady Nikita Deslock. 
  
• We've seen Huburt draw a saber in the manga, and Nikita has used her rifle in the anime before, but the sacking scene reveals that Seydlitz uses reishi pistols and Algora uses reishi hand-axes. Nikita, of course, uses her sniper rifle. That headshot of Bazz's mom is brutal. 
• The manga's version of the events of 'Friends' only has Huburt and sometimes Seydlitz show up, but the anime seem quite intent on having the four older Schutzstaffel show up as a unit.  
• I did mention it in previous episode reviews and in this one, but in the manga, 'Friend' takes place before the 'Baby Hold Your Hand' and 'The Theater Suicide' storylines, whereas the anime swaps things around. It doesn't really matter which one happens first, but this way it does really help to bring the parallel between Bazz and Haschwalth's friendship and betrayal in very stark contrast with Ichigo's confrontation with Uryu next episode. 
  
• Really love the highlighting of 'end' in the anime's title episode for 'friend'. That isn't actually from the manga, but it also feels like something that Tite Kubo would absolutely do. 
• I get why Kubo wanted to be ambiguous on where the Quincies come from geographically, and if timeline-wise it's just "several decades/years before the original invasion of the Soul Society", but it really is kind of vague where all of these Quincy kingdoms and tribes have been. I guess they're all wiped out by either the Soul Society or Juhabach's Auswahlens? 
• In the manga, there is an aborted confrontation between Bazz-B and Shinji's group that wasn't adapted into the anime. This was the first showcase of Burner Finger 3. That technique makes its debut in this episode.
• 
  It is a bit of a missed opportunity for the scene where Bazz-B joins the Sternritter to not have some cameos from some of the older Sternritter. Wouldn't it be nice to have, like, Lille Barro or Quilge Opie or some others show up in the background?
• Also, assuming that this incarnation of the Sternritters invaded the Soul Society (and since we know Huburt, Algora and Seydlitz are killed by Yamamoto's Bankai), were Haschwalth and Bazz-B also killed in that conflict? Or did they survive and just somehow 'migrate' to the Wandenreich separately? 
• So... no new Vollstandig for Bazz-B, although I suppose it's appropriate because out of all the Sternritters, he's probably the one that's going to reject Juhabach's powers the most. 

Reviewing Monsters: Elden Ring, Part 4

So I took a bit of a break from exploring the rest of Stormveil Castle, for no real reason other than the fact that I was kind of bored of the same old enemies and basically more or less the same type of environment over and over again. The Grafted Scion room was cool, but it's otherwise just kind of... just not the most interesting location. I need more runes to buy my sorceries and level up anyway, so I wandered around the Lands Between more. I tried to explore a bit out of Limgrave this time around, clearing out a bunch of shorter dungeons and also venturing south to the Weeping Peninsula (which I guess is kinda still part of Limgrave). 

I also dipped my toes into Caelid, the scary red lands to the eastern side of Limgrave, which is notorious for being a kinda-late game area located in a very accessible location to you. I didn't really do much there, just fought against a bunch of the area-starter enemies which yielded a bit more runes for my time.

I also stumbled into the long, long magical elevator that led me down into the underground depths area called the Siofra River, which I guess is meant to be a reference to the four underworld rivers of Greek mythology? That one also had enemies that are perhaps a bit too tough for me.

Anyway, it's going to be a bit before I actually challenge Godrick the Grafted, or actually move on to the next big area. Hope this haphazard monster review is at least somewhat entertaining!

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Skeletons

It is quite interesting that I played so long and never actually encountered the Skeletons even though they're quite a few areas infested with them in Limgrave. there are, as this small selection can show you, quite a fair bit of variety. Some are naked, some wear haggard armour or pieces of clothing corresponding to living enemy types, and they've got a bunch of different weapons. Also called as "Those Who Live In Death" by the game descriptions as well as one of our allies D, I guess I was a bit mistaken on how death works in the Lands Between? Other than how it works for our Tarnished, I guess people simply can't die of old age or whatever, and only by being physically killed? It's not quite terribly clear, and it's also not terribly clear how these guys fit into all of it. Are these like 'traditional' undead that are the results of some dark magic, or are these undead the 'final form' of people who can't die?

In any case, while skeletons tend to usually be the weakest enemies ever in a video game, these guys are a fair bit more difficult to fight than a regular human in that they don't stay down. And it's not a "they get one extra life" deal either. These skeletons will actually infinitely resurrect, reconstructing themselves after you shatter them into a pile of bones, and the only way to stop it is to attack and destroy them while in the process of reforming. In the chaos of a dozen of them fighting you, expect at least one or two that get missed in your skeleton-shattering. 

I thought this was pretty great. One of the now kinda-forgotten bits of how the undead are supposed to be terrifying is that you can't keep them down. That whatever dark force animates them can animate them over and over and over again. But thanks to game mechanics, so much of that has been kind of put aside in favour of the skeletons and zombies being the weakest undead enemies. These guys at the end of the day aren't the biggest threat in the Lands Between, but I still find this pretty cool. 

They also actually pretend to be corpses in the scenery, with some hiding underground or hanging off of the side of bridges until you pass them and they drop on you and attack you. Bastards!

Bloody Finger Nejirus

This guy's a glowing-red assassin fellow with two very cool daggers. The 'Bloody Fingers' are an organization briefly mentioned in the prologue that managed to kill the Demigod Godfrey, who's one of the few unambiguously good demigods out there. 

Nejirus here is treated as an 'invader', which is meant to represent (and probably introduce) the players to the PVP side of this game, where you and your friends can enter each other's worlds to either cooperate against a boss, or to 'invade' and fight each other. It's neat that the game itself tries to sort of mimic this experience with NPC foes? 

Highwayman

Apparently, we've got highwaymen in this game too, though I'm not sure who they're robbing. The Godrick Soldiers? The Wandering Nobles? I guess there are still some lucid people, like the friendly NPCs we meet in our journeys, so these Highwaymen probably prey on them. They're found in the Murkwater Cave, and their leader (who becomes a friendly NPC) gives some backstory about them -- they used to be footsoldiers that are tossed aside by Godrick and eventually turned to banditry. They also are noted to not be able to speak much, but are able to understand enough orders to pillage stuff.

Patches the Untethered

I'm much more interested to talk about their leader, Patches, who is introduced in a rather unique way -- the traditional boss room is empty sans a bunch of camping equipment and a chest. And as you open the chest (which contains some ragged clothes), Patches comes in sauntering with his spear and shield and gets royally pissed off that you're stealing through his belongings. "The gods demand vengeance. Vengeance!" And he fights you with poison gas as well. And... halfway through his health bar, Patches actually surrenders. 

And you'd think that this is just a cowardly tactic for him to backstab you later on, but he actually just surrenders and becomes a relatively friendly NPC. He's got a great, obvious greasy swindler vibe to him, and it's clear that he's just saying whatever is convenient for him to survive, but he's also doing so in such a likable fashion that you can't help but like him, you know? 

Of course, he gets his revenge later on, because he leaves behind a chest with totally valuable stuff that you should totally not look into. And I guess it actually is honestly well-deserved karma. I mean, Patches is still a dick about it, but I did root through his stuff after he specifically warned me not to. Said booby-trapped chest sends me all the way into the Runebear forest, which I honestly find hilarious more than anything. 

Patches himself is a recurring character through most of FromSoftware's works, usually acting as this kind of 'lovable asshole' archetype. I didn't know this before playing the game, but the amount of interactions they gave to Patches here really does set him apart from the other gloomy, dreary, world-weary NPC's in the land! 

Misbegotten

I found these guys having taken over a castle in the Weeping Peninsula, having apparently been enslaved by the humans there and ultimately doing a rebellion and taking over the fortress. Again, we don't really get any real context of where these Misbegotten came from, other than that they were once enslaved, and have broken free of their chains and slaughtered their captors. In all honesty, I actually felt a bit bad slaughtering them just to loot some reward. 

Are they mutated humans? Just another species like the Demi-Humans? The result of some magical experiment? Actually, they might be Godrick's creation, and that was what I thought initially. Hell, these are the types of enemies I would've expected to see in Godrick's actual base, instead of just knights and birds. But the Wikis tell me that the Misbegotten are 'cursed humans', and actually as I explore Castle Morne (which is itself quite sizable) you see the remnants of Godrick's soldiers fighting the Misbegotten. So the Godrick soldiers have been enslaving these guys, and they've finally thrown off their shackles. 

...or have they? It does seem that, just like the Demi-Humans, the Misbegotten are actually quite intelligent, they're just not interested in talking to us. There are huge swathes where the Misbegotten seem to be clutching their heads in... regret? The implication is that not all the Misbegotten hated their human masters, and are horrified at the brutal carnage that went on in Morne. Some Misbegotten are also clearly vengeful enough to know to travel halfway across the Weeping Peninsula to hunt down and murder one of the survivors. 

Visually, the Misbegotten are an interesting bunch? They look like kind of chimeras of sorts, but humanoid instead of the traditional quadrupedal lion-goat-snake form. They've got deformed-ape faces, raggedy hair, reverse-jointed reptile legs, snake tails, long monster arms and wings. They're honestly pretty wretched-looking, and I like their model a fair bit more than the Demi-Humans and that one lone Beastman.

Over the course of Castle Morne, we've got two variants of the Misbegotten that're a bit more powerful -- the Winged Misbegotten have far more prominent wings and can actually fly, flapping around like they're Hawkman or something. They shoot arrows that take the form of comically large feathers. Comically large feathers that pierce you, though, and are no less dangerous than the crossbow bolts fired elsewhere. 

The axe-wielding guys are called the Scaly Misbegotten, with much longer reptilian tails and I think no wings at all? In lieu of wings, they've got spiky bone protrusions from their back. The Scalies are a bit more tougher than their regular Misbegotten kin, taking around double the amount of punishment before going down. 

Interestingly, our buddy Hewg the Blacksmith, turns out to also be using the Misbegotten model, at least from the neck down. I've always assumed he's just a regular person who's a bit deformed, but he also has all the same bent legs and tail as a Misbegotten. He's also very chatty and clearly sentient, confirming that, yes, these enslaved Misbegotten are a sentient race that has either been driven to mindless bestial behaviour by their mistreatment or their rage. 

Leonine Misbegotten

The boss of Castle Morne is a single, powerful Misbegotten identified as the "Leonine" Misbegotten, intelligent enough to steal the treasured sword of Castle Morne... which is not the claymore it's holding. It's one of the more ridiculous-looking (in a good way!) weapons in the game, and most likely a nod to George R. R. Martin's more famous work... but we're not here to talk about weapons. We're here to talk about the Leonine Misbegotten. He's... he's sure a bit more 'leonine' all right, with that wild mane of red hair. He's larger and faster than all the other Misbegotten, and dodges pretty quickly! 

There's not much else to really say about him that I haven't said with the other Misbegotten, but he's pretty cool and powerful as far as these bosses go. 

Spirit Jellyfish

Finally I get to talk about these guys! Jellyfishes are cool, right? I got a 'Spirit Jellyfish Ashes', which allows me to summon one to fight alongside me, pretty early in the game, but I wasn't going to put them into this review list until I fought them as enemies! And apparently these ghostly, ethereal giant jellyfishes just hang around on the coastal areas of Castle Morne, just bobbing around. Behaviourally, they're rather simple. They're very peaceful and docile, until you attack them. At which point they glow red and shoot poison globs at you. Simple enough, about what you'd expect from a giant floating jellyfish enemy. The ones in Castle Morne have longer outer tentacles. 

What's interesting, however, is the description of our Spirit Jellyfish Ashes. "A floating spirit that illuminates its surroundings. Prone to tears, the jellyfish girl searches for her distant home... It seems her name is Aurelia."

So yeah, the Spirit Jellyfish is actually a spirit girl that's searching for her home. She's even got a name and everything! There are a lot of regular ghosts that retain their humanoid appearances that we meet all over the Lands Between, but apparently some of them actually turn into ghost jellyfishes upon their death? How does that work? There are some theories out there that think Spirit Jellyfishes are meant to represent the spirits of children specifically, which... maybe? It's creepy, and raises the question why some people turn into ghostly avatars of their living selves, while some turn into jellyfishes. Okay?

Aurelia (named after a genus of moon jellyfishes in real life), by the way, is easily the best summon for fighting early-game bosses. She tanks reasonably well, and her poison status is pretty useful against a single powerful enemy. She helped me kill Margit, she helped me kill that demon cat statue, she helped me kill the Leonine Misbegotten, she helped me kill the boss I'm going to talk about at the end of this review. She's pretty cool!

Rotten Stray

So I went to Caelid a bit to sneak around and steal some of the higher-end items while avoiding all of the big, scary demon crows that patrol the area. But the weaker enemies? The weaker enemies I can handle. These Rotten Strays are the 'upgraded' versions of the Strays we find in Limgrave. I'm probably not going to talk about all of the upgraded variants unless there's something particularly interesting about them...

And the Rotten Stray here is almost the same thing as the Stray. Same mangy model, but with extra health and damage, and the addition of some bonus debilitating effect onto its bites (the 'Scarlet Rot' effect, which I'll probably get deeper into when I explore Caelid proper) but what's particularly cool about them is that we can see the real reason why they're so wretched -- those red pocks on their body? Those aren't like, rotting flesh or whatever. Those are mushrooms. The same mushrooms that cover a lot of Caelid's terrain, and the cause (or maybe the symptom) of the Scarlet Rot. Very cool. I like this additional bit of design a lot!

Putrid Corpse / Toxic Putrid Corpse / Rotten Putrid Corpse

Speaking of enemy variants, let's go into three at once. These guys are basically more or less the same thing, and they're adapting zombies. And unlike the Skeletons, there's... there's really nothing particularly noteworthy about them other than how, as always, cool the viscera and the creepiness of the rotting, shambling corpse with exposed bones and flesh are. 

The regular Putrid Corpse is just a zombie, and the Toxic Putrid Corpse is found around a poisonous lake in the Weeping Peninsula, that can eject poison attacks from its open ribcage. And the one on the left is the Rotten Putrid Corpse -- hordes of them wander Caelid aimlessly, and their body seem to still retain some kind of musculature that's tinged red with... blood? Or rot? 

They sure are zombies!

Tree Guardian

This is an interesting one. These guys are humans, at least on the surface. They wield these cool giant golden spears, and... they've got a whole-ass tree trunk sprouting out of their back. They sometimes breathe poisonous spores. As I mentioned in previous articles, the game has a huge botanical leaning to it, and these Guardians appear to have been taken over by the trees. A tree god? Parasitic seedlings? Trees animating corpses in the ground?

It turns out that it's none of these things, and that the Guardians are actually willingly being transformed into these warriors, entering into a pact with the Erdtree -- the giant golden tree that I now realize is basically taking over the role of a sun in this world. There are a bunch of 'Minor' Erdtrees all over the Lands Between, and these Guardians, well, guard it. Apparently, whatever pact they made transformed them and causes them to grow into these beings after death. I mean, well, if they consented to it, sure!

Erdtree Avatar

Ooooh, this big tree thing! This big angry tree thing! This is a boss that hangs out in one of those aforementioned Minor Erdtrees, just a clump of gnarly wood that... that moves and starts jumping around and swinging that giant piece of... what is that thing, even? A hammer? Just a chunk of ruins that the Erdtree Avatar picked up? It's just this massive tree-thing, but it also looks so alien. Tolkien's Ents have inspired a great number of different tree-humanoids across different media, perhaps most famously the 'Treants' from Dungeons & Dragons and other material that copied them, but look at this Erdtree Avatar! The first time I saw it, I can only call it as being 'vaguely humanoid'. The only real 'human' part are the spindly arms holding the weapon, whereas the rest doesn't really give an impression of a human at all. It almost looks like it's got a giant skirt, but it's just a mass of brambles. And it defintiely has no face, just an exploding yawning hollow... trunk? The lack of a traditional 'face' does really make this thing look a fair bit less 'human'. 

The concept art shows a bit more clearly what they're going for, which isn't really clear when I'm trying to void its jumping around and crazy swings. It's meant to be an upside-down tree, as seen by the 'skirt' and 'arms' ending in leaves. You can kind of see it, right? That blown-up non-head is like, some kind of a ripped-up root system? 

Interestingly, in addition to the quintessential giant Dark Souls boss fight ability of being deathly fast and jumping around, the Erdtree Avatar is able to cast a whole magic rune spell that launches a literal machinegun of holy light. As mentioned with the Miranda Flowers, the Erdtree is the source of this setting's holy magic, and it makes perfect sense that a sprout of the pretty gigantic Minor Erdtree would have access to it as well. 

Very impressive-looking boss, honestly. I like this one. These Erdtree Avatars drop rather specific items that enhance a specific mechanic called the Flask of Wondrous Physick, which allows you to create a potion with differing effects based on what you mix into it. 

Anyway, next time, we return to our regularly scheduled Stormveil Castle assault!

Movie Review - Deadpool & Wolverine

Deadpool & Wolverine [2024]

So yeah, what is there to say about this movie? Hailed as the movie that 'saved the MCU' during its less-than-stellar Phase Five, Deadpool & Wolverine does admittedly put a to of focus back on the characters and the superheroes, and did so in a drought of good superhero content. Admittedly a good chunk of it is due to star power -- Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, and their respective characters, are extremely popular. But among the comic-book fandom, having the major properties like the X-Men be properly integrated into the 'main' MCU has always been a massive pipe dream.

But, of course, the Multiverse ended up being a whole load of teases that never paid off (with the sole exception of Spider-Man: No Way Home), and that's even if they do anything with it in the first place.

And this movie... isn't exactly the 'canon-welding' event that people wanted, but it's close enough and, more importantly, fun enough that the movie was a really great experience. There is, admittedly, a rather impressive amount of comic-book-movie you need to understand before watching this movie... but it also kind of works in-universe, which is impressive. They do give an info-dump on a lot of what you need to know just to follow this movie, but basically, the TVA from Loki decide to bring Deadpool over to the 'sacred timeline' of the primary MCU universe. Turns out the TVA agent Mr. Paradox is actually there to prune the rest of Deadpool's universe. And Deadpool ends up escaping, recruiting 'the worst' Wolverine. Hijinks ensue as they lampoon every aspect of the MCU and Fox's movie franchises, and they eventually encounter and fight against Cassandra Nova and even recruited a bunch of superheroes whose movie-series were long-cancelled.

And... written on paper, I really didn't think the movie would work well... but it somehow did. Just like the animated Spider-Verse movies, this movie is chock-full with cameos and references that should, by rights, overload the movie... but we move from one to the next with such ease and so much focus on our main characters -- Deadpool, Wolverine and Cassandra Nova -- that the rest of the cameos just become entertaining background noise, but a huge 'fuck, I remember that guy, that's Azazel!' or 'holy shit, Age of Apocalypse got referenced'! A lot of the jokes are, I think, fun enough that alternative joke interpretation kicks in even if you don't 'get' it. Most of the jokes also don't stick and overstay their welcome, and the actual self-deprecation that Deadpool does towards Disney-Marvel is actually quite refreshing.

After a similar "mid-action you must be wandering how we got here" to his first movie, Deadpool brings the movie to a quick recap of Deadpool 2's ending. We establish that Deadpool has done a lot of time-traveling with Cable's time machine... and a huge chunk of this movie has Deadpool basically feeling like a loser. He actually shows up in the 'Sacred Timeline' and tries to interview into the Avengers and gets rejected by Happy Hogan. And over the next six years, Wade's obsession over this has costed him his relationship with his girlfriend Vanessa. This leads to a rather happy birthday party, still, where all of Deadpool's colourful friends show up... 

...only for agent of the TVA to appear. With a glorious joke where Deadpool mistakes them for strippers, they eventually bring Deadpool to the TVA headquarters, where both Deadpool and the audience get a huge exposition about what the TVA does, the existence of the sacred timeline and the multiverse. It's a bit of a clever bit of exposition, and thematically it even works with where Wade is as a character at the moment. He's offered a place on the 'sacred' MCU timeline, or Earth-616... but the rest of his universe is going to be pruned.

(Which, of course, is a cheeky allegory of how some people expected the Disney/Fox merger was going to go, with a pick-and-choose methodology to the character-actor combos that make it to the MCU). 

Mr. Paradox, who is technically the main antagonist of this movie but quickly gets subsumed by a different, more immediate threat, also explains that the 'Anchor Being' of Deadpool's corner of the universe, Wolverine, has died.. and that his universe is doomed either way. Again, another allegory to the 'death' of the whole Fox-X-Men movie series, but presented in a way that makes sense in-universe. 

Unwilling to accept that his universe is doomed, and in a way that he is, once more, not as important as he thinks he is, Deadpool steals a Tem-Pad from the TVA and goes off to... the grave where Wolverine is buried at the end of Logan. Now Logan is probably one of the best superhero movies ever made, and always noted to be a perfect cap-off to the Wolverine's cinematic history as actor Hugh Jackman retires. And... I both love and hate that this movie actually desecrates that ending by having Deadpool literally dig up Wolverine's corpse and ne utilize said corpse in the subsequent action scene... but I also appreciate that they didn't resurrect this Wolverine specifically and that they acknowledge how well this movie ended. 

Because, yes, this is where the movie opening happens, with the TVA agents charging in at Deadpool, and Deadpool weaponizing Wolverine's adamantium skeleton to deliver a brutal, R-rated beating to the TVA agents to the tune of 'NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye". 

This then continues to a heavy-on-the-fanservice sequence as Deadpool jumps from one universe to the next trying to recruit a Wolverine to bring home as the Anchor Being of his universe. Going from Age of Apocalypse to Patch to Old Man Logan to a gloriously comic-accurate brown outfit Wolverine, all of these sequences end up with Wolverine beating the shit out of Deadpool. 

Ultimately, Deadpool recruits a Wolverine -- one that's going to be our Wolverine for the rest of the movie. And for the first time in cinema, this Wolverine wears a proper superhero outfit! Admittedly it's a 'MCU-ified' version of the classic yellow and blue, but the colours and the mask are right. Can't complain too much. 

The two return to the TVA, but apparently anchor beings can't be so easily replaced. Additionally, Paradox identifies this Wolverine as "the Worst Wolverine", one that failed to save the rest of the X-Men, pouring more salt to the wound. However, Deadpool realizes the inconsistencies in Paradox's claims, and deduces that he's acting without the knowledge of his supervisors. 

Paradox zaps Deadpool and Wolverine, sending the two tumbling into the desert realm where everything 'pruned' by the TVA go to -- the Void. Here, Deadpool and Wolverine get into a pretty fun fight, which Deadpool defuses by telling Wolverine that the TVA would have the technology to undo the deaths in Wolverine's timeline. They get interrupted by villains, however... and very fun villains, too -- using a mixture of returning actors or lookalikes, the entire villainous faction is made up of former X-Men villains like Pyro, Toad, Juggernaut, Azazel, Lady Deathstrike and Sabretooth. 

A group of such villains arrive in what Deadpool describes rather accurately as a 'Mad Max' parody, leading to a fight between Wolverine and Sabretooth. For as much as Deadpool hypes it up as a fight between rivals, this particular fight ends very quickly and abruptly, although to be perfectly fair it did get an actual spotlight on it. (I really did miss Liev Schreiber version, though).

We also have one of the most glorious cameos ever, as one of the denizens of the Void is a guy in a hood that sounds like Captain America, acts like Captain America... and Deadpool is excited to hear his catchphrase of "Avengers Assemble"... but it's actually Chris Evans' other superhero character! The Human Torch yells "flame on!" and flies into battle but gets trounced by Pyro.

Again, this is the kind of ridiculous but loving references to he superhero genre as a whole that should not have worked... but it does. 

Deadpool, Wolverine and Human Torch get captured and taken to the overlord of the Void, Cassandra Nova. Human Torch gives us some backstory on her, revealing how she's been ruling the denizens of the Void with an iron fist (or, well, creepy psychic fingers) and how there are a lot of universes with their own heroes and villains that were pruned and sent to the Void. Oh, and she is the evil twin sister to Professor X, and the movie showcases her mindfuckery very well with the visual effect of fingers literally wiggling through your face. 

Thanks to some seemingly ill-advised comments on Deadpool's part (which as the post-credits show, turn out to not be actual lies) Cassandra kills Human Torch very graphically, stripping the skin and flesh off his bones and turning him into a pile of graphic goop. Cassandra's psychic powers prove to be extremely powerful even without the aid of her army of superpowered mutants, but the fight is interrupted when the giant cosmic smoke monster that lives in the Void, Alioth, show up. It's a pretty fun nod to the MCU without overloading the show with even more cameos. 

Escaping Alioth with a Sentinel boot, we get a sequence where they meet more Deadpool variants, like "Nicepool" (who is just Ryan Reynolds without the cancerous makeup he wears as Wade) and Dogpool (played by "the world's ugliest dog", and is a good dog), which is mostly just there for gags and to set up the appearance of the Deadpool corps later on. 

At this point, Deadpool accidentally lets it slip that he isn't certain that the TVA is actually able to fix timelines, leading to a very furious Wolverine attacking Deadpool, in a nice subversion of their little bonding moment. It's around this time that we also learn of this "Worst Wolverine's" backstory, where he also views himself as a bit of a loser thanks to being unable to save the X-Men of his timeline. The two of them fight, giving us the biggest Deadpool/Wolverine fight in this movie which, again, is pretty fun choreography that makes full use of the two characters' healing factors. 

They wake up and find themselves in a resistance base, which, in another glorious cameo, is made up of other actors whose superhero movies and franchises are cancelled and have reverted back to Marvel. We've got Blade from the Blade trilogy, Elektra from the Daredevil movies, and Gambit from a movie that didn't even get made. It's just so nice to see Wesley Snipes back as Blade, y'know? Blade and Elektra are played straight, while the movie has a lot of fun with the funky accent that Gambit has. The last member of their group is Laura "X-23" Kinney, all grown up. 

Deadpool glosses over the death of Human Torch, and manages to convince these other heroes to team up with him to fight against Cassandra Nova. We get a nice dramatic scene where Laura walks up to Logan, and while Logan isn't convinced that he can be the hero that Laura wants to see in him, Laura tells Logan that he is the Wolverine whatever things may be. It's a pretty nice, dramatic character-driven moment.

The assembled heroes charge into Cassandra's base, and this is the big badass fight scene which I really don't want to describe beat by beat. But having all of these heroes fight against the X-Men villains, with powers being accurately represented? It really is extremely fun to see. X-23, Blade, Gambit and Elektra fight against the rest of the evil villains, which gives us a lot of fun action sequences. Most notable is Elektra killing Bullseye, which is a small moment but a very nice one for her. Blade also takes down motherfuckers like a mofo. I am a huge Hugh Jackman/Wolverine fanboy, but seeing Blade of all people get so much screentime is a blessing.

While this is going on, Wolverine and Deadpool go against Cassandra... at which point we're treated to some creepy mind-fuckery. Wolverine is forced to contend with the dead X-Men he failed to protect in a creepy misty tombstone-hallucination, while Deadpool gets shoved into a hallucination where his closest friends talk him down... but the imagined Vanessa telling Deadpool that he'll never fucking matter ends up jolting him out of his reverie. With their allies killing Juggernaut and getting his helmet, Deadpool and Wolverine manage to disable Cassandra and they have her dead-to-rights.

However, Pyro, having been in contact with Paradox, betrays and leaves a mortal wound on Cassandra. And in a rather stupid -- but in-character -- move, Wolverine has a "what would Professor X do" moment and resolves to save Cassandra, convincing Deadpool to remove the helmet. While Cassandra does hold her word long enough to send Deadpool and Wolverine back to Deadpool's home universe, she quickly kills Pyro, finds out about the Time Ripper, and goes off to enact her multiverse-destroying plan. Which... I think it is important that we do show that for all the gore and cynicism that our heroes in this movie show, they are still heroes at the end of the day. 

The final act takes place in Earth-10005, Deadpool's dimension, as Cassandra Nova kills Pyro and steals the Dr. Strange portal ring to travel there. Having learned of the "Time Ripper" device that the TVA owns, Cassandra reveals her master plan of utilizing the Time Ripper to destroy all timelines and return it to the Void... which... okay, sure. She's not the most right in the head, as established by Wolverine's attempt to spare her and talk things out. 

Cassandra also summons her final army -- the Deadpool Corps, made up of various Deadpool variants. We've got a bunch of comic-book cameos, and again, it's a fun sequence that highlights the absurdity and creativity of comic-book artists. We get some black comedy as Nicepool gets killed by Deadpool's actions, before our two heroes bond over their shared cause and friendship, and charge into battle. We get a cool sequence of Deadpool variants being mangled and mauled as the fight goes through a bus, and the seemingly killed Deadpool variants all getting back up because of the healing factor. The arrival of Deadpool's buddy Peter ends up causing the Deadpool Corps to disperse, however. 

Deadpool and Wolverine charge in to try and stop the Time Ripper, but Paradox tells them that even with their healing powers, trying to stop the device would kill them. We get a pretty fun "who gets to sacrifice himself" as the theme of being the biggest loser plays out, and it almost seems to lead to Wolverine (who's played by an actor who retired once, and comes from a universe without X-Men anyway) going to do it... but of course, friendship prevails and Deadpool charges in, and the two of them together manage to stop the device, overload Cassandra Nova and survive in the process.

And shirts explode. Of course shirts explode. 

The movie ends with Hunter B-15 from the TVA arriving to arrest Paradox, and thank Deadpool because his actions have saved the deterioration of his universe. Wolverine ends up staying in Deadpool's universe and bond with him and his friends... and even Laura gets to stay with them. A nice ending!

And... is the movie messy? It sure is. Cassandra isn't the most well-realized villain. The TVA stuff, ultimately, felt pretty superfluous. I personally think that the last chunk of the movie feels a fair bit like padding, although I also realize the need to have Logan and Wade have a proper moment of them confronting their 'loser'-ness and bonding together, just the two of them. I love most of the cameos, and while I don't think all of the jokes landed, it was still a great experience that does, first and foremost, focus on the struggles of the heroes and who they are as characters before anything else. This movie has way more cameos and easter eggs (this list below isn't anywhere near the full depth of what the movie did) that your average Marvel movie, but unlike something like What If season 3, it doesn't really detract from the actual story they're trying to tell with Wade and Logan as characters. I'm not sure if this is the movie that'll get general audiences to give the new MCU a chance, but it sure is a nice way to get many fans back.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Post-Credits Scene: A long, protracted scene of Human Torch actually cussing and talking shit about Cassandra Nova while being captured, showing that Deadpool didn't actually lie about him. 
• Continuity Placement:

• The events of this movie take place specifically some time after the post-credits scene of Deadpool 2, in which Deadpool uses Cable's time-slider to revert the death of Vanessa. 
• The timeline of Logan gets revisited briefly way after the end of that movie, where Deadpool visits Logan's grave. 
• The events on the TVA's side of things happen after Loki season 2, where the TVA is purged of Kang's influence and B-16 is in charge. The Void and Alioth are both established in that series -- with Deadpool even correctly noting that Alioth was last seen in "Loki, Season 1, Episode 5". 
  
• The scene with Happy Hogan, lining up the timelines, would've taken place slightly after Spider-Man: Homecoming, explaining his kinder attitude to Wade as well as his appearance.
• Live-Action Cameos:
• Blade, played by Wesley Snipes, was the star of his movie trilogy from 1998-2004. Ryan Reynolds himself starred as a supporting character in Blade: Trinity.
• Elektra, played by Jennifer Garner, was a supporting character in 2003's Daredevil and had a movie in 2005's Elektra.
• Human Torch, played by Chris Evans, is the incarnation from the 2005-2007 Fantastic Four movies. The joke here is, of course, that Chris Evans would go on to play the MCU's incarnation of Captain America. 
• X-23/Laura, of course, makes her debut in Logan.
• Deadpool's supporting cast, namely Vanessa, Blind Al, Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Yukio, Shatterstar, Peter, Dopinder and Buck the Mercenary make brief appearances in the beginning and end of the movie. Shatterstar is notable because he was apparently killed in Deadpool 2.
• The various X-Men villains who form Cassandra Nova's minions, played by reprised actors include: Pyro (from the first 3 X-Men movies) and Sabretooth (specifically the incarnation from X-Men).
• Various returning villains based on older X-Men/Fox movies characters not played by reprising actors include: , Juggernaut (X-Men III), Blob (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Lady Deathstrike (X-Men 2), Azazel (X-Men First Class), Toad (the appearance from X-Men), Psylocke (the incarnation from X-Men III), a gender-flipped Quill (X-Men III), Callisto (X-Men III), Bullseye (Daredevil) and surprisingly, The Russian (Punisher 2004).
• 'Meta' Live-Action Cameos:
• Gambit, played by Channing Tatum, is a reference to the fact that Channing Tatum was tapped to play Gambit for a movie that infamously had a long history of troubled production -- a fact that Gambit lampshades several times in the movie, noting that he "wasn't sure if he was pruned or not", and mentioning "stories that hasn't been told yet". 
  
• One of the Wolverine variants (the one working on a motorbike) is played by Henry "Superman" Cavill, who himself was a very popular casting choice for Wolverine before the announcement of Hugh Jackman's return. Deadpool disses DC comics a bit, noting that they'll treat him much better than "those assholes down the street".
• In addition to the other characters that actually make a physical appearance, Blade and Elektra mention Magneto, Quicksilver (these two are presumably variants from the Fox X-Men movies), Daredevil (from Daredevil 2003) and the Punisher (from any of the 3 movies that Fox produced from him).
• Wade makes a joke about 'which one' when Blade and Elektra mention the Punisher, noting that he's always been played by four different actors across three movies and a Netflix series. 
• While the visuals are consistent with the sling-rings from the MCU, the existence of Dr. Strange sling-rings is likely a reference to the 1978 TV movie made for the character. Yes.
• At one point, Blade notes that "there's only ever gonna be one Blade", while Deadpool looks at the audience, either noting that the MCU has a Blade movie already in the pipeline... or lampshading that that Blade movie is also in production trouble. 
• Comic-Book Cameos:
• Wolverine variants:

• The Wolverine in this movie has a yellow-and-blue suit that's based on his first major appearance in Uncanny X-Men and would become extremely popularized by X-Men: The Animated Series. It was almost a running gag in the original X-Men movies that it was near-impossible to get a superhero suit on Wolverine. As the movie progresses, the suit's sleeves get torn off and Wolverine dons the mask, making it even more comic-accurate. 
  
• "Patch", the Wolverine that wears a white suit and an eyepatch, is the alias that Wolverine uses while in Mardipoor in his first solo comic-book run.
• The blue-and-red one-armed Wolverine is an extremely faithful nod to Age of Apocalypse Wolverine, a comic-book variant who hails from a bad future ruled by Apocalypse. 
• "John Byrne brown" Wolverine is a combination of his second-most iconic superhero outfit from the '90s (yellow and brown), and Wolverine's first appearance as someone sent to fight the Hulk. The Hulk's face reflected on the Wolverine's claws is a homage to The Incredible Hulk #340.
• The crucified Wolverine in a field of skulls is taken from a scene where he was tortured by the Reavers in Uncanny X-Men #251.
• The old Wolverine is a truer-to-text adaptation of Old Man Logan. 
• "Cavillrine", in addition to being an actor gag, also uses one of Logan's more iconic civilian outfit (a 'wifebeater' shirt and jeans), which Hugh Jackman himself wore in some of the earlier movies.
• While obviously exaggerated for comedic purposes, 'comics-accurate Wolverine' is a reference to how Wolverine is meant to be one of the shorter members of the X-Men as opposed to Hugh Jackman's physique.
• Deadpool variants:
• 
  Dogpool, Lady Deadpool, Kidpool and Headpool were the original members of the Deadpool Corps -- which, yes, is a thing. It's an amalgamation of multiple different Deadpools from the multiverse. Lady Deadpool is voiced by Ryan Reynolds' wife Blake Lively, while Kidpool and Babypool are played by their 2 children. 
• The robotic Deadpool is Deadpool 2099, hailing from that series of future comics.
• The ronin Deadpool is The Fool, from the '5 Ronin' alternate universe set in ancient Japan.
• The Deadpool with a gas mask is Golden Age Deadpool, featured in the 2010 story of the same name. 
• The cowboy Deadpool is based on The Deadpool Kid, a variant from a wild west universe and a minor member of the comics' incarnation of the Corps.
• Pyro wears an outfit based on his Ultimate comics incarnation. In the movies that he shows up in, Pyro only wore civilian clothes.
• Among the 'Mad Max' vehicles used by Cassandra's minions is the Fantasticar, albeit one that's based more on the comics than its portrayal in the Fox movies. 
• The backstory of "the Worst" Wolverine is somewhat similar to the one in Old Man Logan, although the source of his angst is a bit lessened -- instead of being brainwashed into killing the other X-Men, Wolverine was instead absent when the other X-Men were killed, and in his rampage of killing their enemies, he kills a bunch of civilians instead.
  
• Past-Movie Continuity Nods [MCU]:
  
• Happy's office contains the 'Proof that Tony Stark Has A Heart' plaque from Iron Man; the martial arts stick that he and Tony played around with in Iron Man 2, the partially-unfinished Captain America shield from Iron Man 2, the Mark V suitcase suit from Iron Man 2, and a photograph of Tony Stark and Peter Parker that Tony looks at in Avengers: Endgame.
• Peter's face is, however, obscured by a toy Iron Man mask due to licensing reasons for Spider-Man. That toy Iron Man mask was worn by a kid in Iron Man 2 -- who was later retconned by some directors to be a young Peter Parker. 
• Cassandra Nova's forces are based on the skull of Ant-Man in his Giant-Man form.
• Among the random stuff seen in the Void, many of them have appeared previously in Loki. New additions include a more truer-to-the-comics winged Thor helmet, the ice-cream truck from Moon Knight, Red Skull's pimped-out car from Captain America: The First Avenger, the mural of Scarlet Witch from Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Thanos's throne from the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
• In addition to various archival footage from the movies, the scene of Deadpool and Thor uses edited footage from Thor: The Dark World, in the scene where Thor mourns over the apparent death of Loki.
• When Deadpool is confronted by the Hulk, he (mis)-quotes Loki's line "I'm a god/Marvel Jesus, you dull creature" from The Avengers, and gets punched right after saying the line just like Loki. 
• As Deadpool and Wolverine jump into the TVA portal, he says "on your left", a nod to Captain America's line from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and paraphrased by Falcon in Avengers: Endgame. 
• The end of the movie where Deadpool discuss Shwarma is a nod to the famous post-credits scene to The Avengers, and the surge of popularity that the movie caused to Shwarma... with Deadpool mockingly noting that 'The Avengers discovered Shwarma!'
• Past-Movie Continuity Nods [X-Men and Other Movies]:

• While they do not appear, various characters name-drop other X-Men: Professor X, Magneto, Quicksilver, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm and Beast all get mentioned at some point in the movie.
• Deadpool recruits Wolverine in a bar fight, a reference to how Wolverine's very first scene is in a bar in the first X-Men movie.
  
• Deadpool's intense performance of 'NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" actually is a very obscure reference to a line from Wolverine where he was irritated by the song in X-Men 2.
• The song that plays in Deadpool's birthday, "Angel of the Morning", was the song in the opening credits of his first movie. 
• Deadpool mockingly tells the TVA agents that 'pegging isn't new' for him. It happened to him during the sex montage in Deadpool. 
• Deadpool notes that Human Torch does a "superhero landing", having lampshaded the three-point landing in Deadpool with his antagonist Angel Dust. 
• Laura and Logan's quiet conversation has a callback to some of the more dramatic lines from Logan, with Laura noting that Logan is "always the wrong guy... until [he] wasn't."
• Right before the final battle, Laura pulls out the convenience store sunglasses that she famously wore in Logan as a younger child. 
• The samurai Deadpool's arms grows into a 'baby arm' similar to what happened to our Deadpool in Deadpool. 
• In addition to all the X-Men, parts from the Sentinel robots as they appear in X-Men: Days of Future's Past can be seen strewn around the Void, and one is used to escape Alioth. 
• Blade and Deadpool briefly note that they don't like each other much -- a cheeky nod to how Wesley Snipes and Ryan Reynolds had an infamously hostile relationship during the filming of Blade: Trinity. 
• Blade gives an epic rephrasing of one of his most iconic lines from the 1998 Blade movie: "some motherfuckers are trying to ice-skate uphill."
• Cassandra Nova in the comics is the evil twin sister of Professor X, who, depending on the writer, was the 'evil from birth' twin of Charles Xavier or a psychic entity called a mummudrai that infiltrated the womb of Charles' mother. Regardless of the origin, a young Charles Xavier was able to sense the evil in her since she was a baby, and used his psychic powers to force a miscarriage. Cassandra survived, however, and menaced the X-Men afterwards.
• Mr. Paradox in the comics is a minor, evil future version of TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius. 
• The Ant-Man skull's mouth-roof has '24601' engraved on it, a nod to Hugh Jackman's leading role in the Les Misérables movie adaptation.
• As usual, the 'sacred timeline' is identified as Earth-616, the traditional moniker for the primary Marvel comics universe. 
• Comic-book artist Rob Liefeld is referenced in the foot massage parlor that is very prominently shown in the final battle. Hilariously, Rob Liefeld is apparently known for not being the best at drawing feet.
• A picture of Stan Lee is used in an advertisement poster for 'You Friendly Neighborhood Cleaner: Stanlee Steamer', a double-reference to Spider-Man's moniker.
• The pizza place that Logan and Wade eat at is called "Feige's Famous Pizza", a reference to Kevin Feige.
• Deadpool notes that the "power in the Marvel universe is about to change forever", which is an echo to Dwayne Johnson's much-mocked attempt to hype up the Black Adam movie for the DC cinematic universe. 
• Deadpool also mocks the 'whole multiverse thing' multiple times -- when the Deadpool Corps show up, and immediately after when Deadpool reacts negatively to Nicepool noting that he loves the 'post-Endgame' content. Marvel's performance and meandering during the Multiverse saga has been a huge source of frustration by the fans because the MCU has mishandled the multiverse in their many different projects.
• Nicepool also seems to be a bit of a lampoon on some of the MCU's "forced comedy" moments that it has (not unfairly) been accused of in its later years, like name-dropping random pop culture references without actually tying it into a joke.