Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, Pt 4 (Kruthik to Skull Lord)

Well, I tried not to add more posts for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, but I guess I ended up speaking quite a bit on some of the entries here. I do think that my original coverage of the monsters in these segments of the books were absolutely unfair, with a lot of comparisons to the Monster Manual without really appreciating what the monsters are doing that are unique. Not every new addition needs to add something revolutionary like the Marut or Oblex!

Again, taking more time and words to talk about each and every entry did give me a fair amount of chance to appreciate these monsters a bit more than I had back in 2020 when I initially reviewed these monsters. I think I have made some initial judgements on my favourites and just tried to blaze through the rest of the entries. And it's not that I like each and every single monster from Dungeons & Dragons, but I feel like I really should try and give the flavour and concepts a chance, and make a good argument as to why I don't like the monster, or at least 5E's interpretation of the monster. 

Anyway, this should be the second-to-last entry for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, so enjoy this eclectic batch of monsters!

• Click here for the first part
• Click here for the next part
• Click here for the index.

[Originally published in May - June 2020; revised in May 2026]

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Kruthik 

• 5.5E/5E: Small Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 1/8 (Young Kruthik)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 2 (Kruthik)
• 5.5E/5E: Large Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 5 (Kruthik Hive Lord)

The Kruthik debuted at the tail-end of 3.5E, but was featured in the first Monster Manual for 4th Edition. The Kruthik are the ravenous lizard-insect trope that is popularized by beings such as Alien's Xenomorph, Starcraft's Zerg and Warhammer 40K's Tyranids. 3E previously had the Kythons, a similar type of monster, which was phased out of 3E due to perhaps being too derivative of the Aliens? Having the same name as the Kyton Chain Devils probably didn't help the Kythons either. 

Anyway, the Kruthik! Their 5E incarnation is a pretty cool design, feeling actually a lot more reptilian than their previous counterparts. Their main body visibly has a serpentine or lizard-like texture, but is armoured and appear to have segments almost similar to an insect. Its head has massive fangs, a tongue and reptilian eyes, but mandible-like parts to its lower jaw. And finally, the Kruthik has six very insectoid legs, exaggerated to look like blades. The front pair are particularly pronounced, and the rear two are smaller. 3E and 4E's incarnation had the middle pair of limbs be manipulator arms, and I wished that the 5E version had kept that.  

Kruthiks in 5E are noted to be 'chitin-covered reptiles', which makes them a bit less buggy and separates them a bit from other insect monsters like Ankhegs, I suppose. They create massive sprawling subterranean warrens, lairing around sources of heat such as pools of lava... or dwarven forges. Of course, Kruthik prefer live prey, impaling and grinding their foes into food. Their lairs are massive, winding, and sound perfect to be a dungeon crawl. 

Kruthiks are essentially beasts, but they are smart enough to coordinate and communicate with each other through a series of chittering noises and hisses, which is a nice environmental build-up to a Kruhtik encounter as the adventurers travel through the Kruthik hive. This also means that attempts to breach the hive will usually attract attention from the entire hive. Even if you kill the scouts and sentries, their tapping noises would be detected by the rest of the colony through the tremorsense that every single individual in the hive shares.

Interestingly, Tome of Foes's lore also notes that Kruthiks have an almost ant-like quality where they can smell an area where many Kruthiks have died, and Kruthiks will avoid and even migrate out of a location where enough of their kin has died. This might be a way to solve your Kruthik-slaying quest... but the hive might just be a problem for whoever is next down the road. It is also noted that even if you kill the Hive Lord of a hive, the surviving Kruthiks will migrate, and whichever is the largest among the Kruthiks will simply metamorphose into a larger body and become the new Hive Lord.

Tome of Foes gives us three stat blocks for the Kruthik. The 'Young', the 'Adult' (which can lob detachable spikes at enemies), and the 'Hive Lord' (which is larger and can spray acid). Tome of Foes also notes that Kruthik abide the presence of non-living creatures in their hive, like oozes, undead, constructs and elementals. I also really like the descriptions of Kruthiks barricading up tunnels, digging up new ones, and making fake tunnels for ambushes or to mislead invaders from their eggs. A pretty simple concept for a giant bug monster species, if we're being truthful, but I do like the simplicity a fair bit. I would still at one point like a more elaborate set of insectoid monsters, but the Kruthik are pretty cool on their own merits! 

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Marut

• 5.5E/5E: Large Construct (Inevitable); Lawful Neutral; CR 25

My boy, the Marut! This thing is one of the favourite things that is original from D&D. The Marut debuted with little fanfare as a golem servitor of gods in 1E. But 3E reinvented the Marut a type of 'Inevitables', which are a group of lawful interdimensional constructs whose purpose is to enforce inevitable laws of cosmic order. This included the Maruts (enforcers of mortality who really don't like the undead), the Kolyarut (enforcers of contracts) and the Zelekhut (enforcers of law). 4th Edition rolled everything together into a single 'Marut' faction, a group of cosmic enforcers created by gods who realized their gods were breaking the same contracts they expect them to enforce, and fought against the gods. 

5th Edition combined the 3E and 4E roles into one, making the Maruts a lot more grandiose and cosmic like the 4E, but keeping their allegiance to a higher power (and as a part of the Inevitables) from 3E. It's easily one of my favourite combinations of lore, and the end result makes the Marut easily one of the most interesting things in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. 

In 5th Edition, the Inevitables are now folded as creations of the lawful, mechanical Modron Primus. Due to their reputation and certainty as beings of law and order, they perform the robotic, mechanical arbitration of law -- heedless of morality, bias or compassion. The Marut combine all three functions of its 3E brethren into a single, impressive CR 25 unit. A cosmic police force that will abduct dealbreakers and take them to be judged by a divine court -- the Hall of Concordance in the multiversal hub of Sigil. They are cosmic lawyers and law enforcement rolled into a singular robotic being. Even if you didn't want to use the whole Primus or Kolyarut plotline, having the Maruts be logical, silent enforces of a god of law, or even the universe itself, is really cool. 

Any deal made in the presence of the Inevitables is carved by The Kolyarut (who would receive a 5E statblock in Planescape) into a golden disc that is placed within the Marut's chest. Until the contract is fulfilled, the Marut will enforce the terms of the law. It won't result to lethal force unless it is required or a contract is broken... but they will enforce the letter of the contract. Law is absolute for them, and I love this great, more sinister take on the 'True Lawful, or I suppose 'Lawful Neutral' alignment. The Marut doesn't care for nuances, or changing situations, or compassion, or free will -- all of that should have been discussed within the eyes of the Kolyarut. Justice is blind, and the Maruts will not compromise, will not stop, until the contract is done. 

I haven't talked about the Maruts' design either. In 3E and 4E, they had a relatively consistent design as a golem-like suit of armour with a vaguely Greco-Roman aesthetic... in stark contrast to the other Inevitables that debuted with it, which were very much in the 'clockpunk humanoid' aesthetic. 5th Edition reinvents everything, though, giving us a more unique and distinct look. Normally I would decry this, but I found the original Marut designs to be so underwhelming that I find the 5E version so much more impressive. A humanoid, metal robot with wide shoulders, a golden disc in its chest, and a single ominous eyeball at the center of the torso? Tiny little Modron wings complete the look, which look more sinister than comical. 

And in combat, the Marut is a simple, difficult-to-stop juggernaut. It cannot be transformed, it unleashes mighty 'blazing edicts' to stun those around it,  and it can at any time grapple its prey to plane-shift away to the cosmic court of Sigil, which would probably be game over if they did break the law... there's probably a lot of these Maruts in Sigil. Or it could use its 'Justify' attack to point and just choose to teleport a target, with them only dodging this if they can succeed a save throw. 

I find the idea of these cosmic enforcers so satisfying. Whether the Maruts are a greater threat due to a misunderstanding, or just a plot device to keep the plot going, there are so many stories to work around these unstoppable, unfeeling enforcers of a contract that cannot be negotiated with... reading between the lines, the only time that a Marut would even stop to negotiate is if someone can point out how they are not breaking the law, or if the other party is breaking it. I also like that the little plot suggestion of Yugoloths being more ready to enter contracts when Inevitables are present, which could be a double-edged sword for those fiends! It really is a nicely interesting antagonist that represents cold, unfeeling law. 

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Meazel 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E)/Monstrosity (5.5E); Lawful Evil (5E)/Neutral Evil (5.5E); CR 1

I'm not going to lie, going and re-reading my articles for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, there are some monsters that made me go 'oh right, this guy, I forgot about him'. But I completely and utterly forgot about the Meazels entirely. Debuting in the original 1st-Edition Fiend Folio, the Meazels are yet another 'sub-humanoid underground race that attack regular people'. They are also distinguished by their very comic-book spiky hair, which they have rather impressively consistently kept across most editions of D&D. 

5th Edition gave them the backstory of being malicious hermits to fled to Shadowfell to escape their mortal existence. That part sounds okay, seemingly either a veiled reference to suicide or to achieve a form of immortality like undeath. The latter part of their motivation to move to the Shadowfell, however, is to 'contemplate their misery'. Okay, so they are just emo. They are of course transformed by the Shadowfell's energies into twisted, cruel Meazels driven by hatred, and they want to kill any intruders. 

Monsters of the Multiverse changes the Meazel's properties from a lawful evil humanoid into a neutral evil monstrosity -- with 5.5E removing the humanoid tag from a lot of anything with innate abilities. Not sure if I agree with that, personally. 

Meazels are empowered with the ability to move through shadows, both teleporting through shadows and being far stealthier as they melt into them. As the artwork shows, their preferred method of killing is by garroting them with rope, even getting a special action to do so in the statblock. Meazels can also teleport other people through the shadows... and this causes undead, Sorrowsworn, and other beings of the Shadowfell to instantly be aware of the poor 'marked' soul. 

It's neat, I suppose, as a mechanic -- a lesser gremlin that lives in the Shadowfell that isn't really powerful enough to be anything more than a nuisance to most healthy parties, but one that can attract bigger, stronger things. It's a cool mechanic, I just wished the Meazels either looked a bit more unique than just Gollum with anime hair; or even had more to do with the emotions they are feeling or something about their motivations and culture. 

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Nagpa 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E)/Monstrosity (5.5E); Neutral Evil; CR 17

Apparently a shout-out to villains from the Dark Crystal franchise, the Nagpa has appeared sporadically throughout the different editions, with very differing origins depending on the edition. I've not really managed to read through all the different Nagpa incarnations over the years, but 5th Edition has its own spin on the creature. 

In 5E lore, the goddess of death, the Raven Queen, cursed a cabal of powerful wizards for meddling in a ritual that ended up causing a war between the gods. These wizards are transformed into the Nagpa -- vulture-headed monstrosities. The curse extends to a rather specific race-wide inability to do something, though -- they are unable to retain or acquire new lore and magical power, unless they scavenge it from the ruins of fallen civilizations. 

Being a group of wizards who dared to challenge the gods, the original cabal of thirteen Nagpa -- and any subsequent Nagpa created -- find this punishment intolerable. After all, they want their knowledge! They want their power and magical lore. But what can they do, if they can only steal them from fallen civilizations? Well, they make plots to bring destruction and calamity to these civilizations. That's such a twisted way to get around their curse, I love it. 

The Nagpas themselves are quite formidable CR 17 spellcasters, with a mixture of destructive and utility spells, some of which include methods do dominate minions or enemies mentally, but they wouldn't want to show their face in the battlefield, not unless it's absolutely necessary. The original cabal of 13 Nagpas are alive, but it's also implied that other Nagpa are out there. Whether descendants of the original 13, or if you adopt other backstories from earlier editions of the Nagpas being loner wizards cursed by gods, the backstory doesn't specify that only the original Cabal exists. 

Nagpas are manipulators, schemers that use their spellcasting or minions to influence political events and start war, or to prevent a city from evacuating in the face of an imminent natural disaster (which the Nagpas may cause). They are patient, cunning, and execute multiple schemes together. And once they deliver their final blow to a civilization, they emerge to claim their prize, plundering vaults, libraries and spellbooks. The only thing that can cause a Nagpa to panic and lose their Machiavellian composure is the Raven Queen's agents, which will reduce a Nagpa into a panicked, cringing wretch.  

That's quite a specific backstory, but one I really have grown to appreciate over the years. Admittedly, I was a bit turned off by the visual design, going 'oh, another bird-man, but a vulture this time', and even the bit about creative sterility felt similar to the Kenku. But the Nagpa's twist on causing calamity to get around their curse is a neat one. 

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Nightwalker 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 20

Debuting in 2E, the Nightwalker is actually a type of a creature called a 'Nightshade', which are undead creatures made up of solidified shadow. The Nightwalker is the humanoid version, with other variations (like the Nightcrawler, Nighthaunt, Nightwing) being based on beasts. Depending on the edition, they either come from the Negative Plane, the Plane of Shadow or the Shadowfell. They are somehow all different! 5th Edition mixes several of the origin stories together, noting that the Nightwalkers arrive when one 'reaches the Negative Plane from the Shadowfell'. That's a bit needlessly complicated, but okay.

Spellcasters that attempt to tap into the power of the Negative Plane and fail to control the power usually just die; their souls sucked into the plane of death. Those that are not destroyed are instead pulled within the Negative Plane itself and are replaced by Nightwalkers -- towering, giant humanoids made up of shadow. 5th Edition Nightwalkers have demonic horns, and a particularly cool mouth that bisects the face more than a regular mouth should. 

I don't really like super-specific origin stories, although I suppose 5E does present their Nightcrawlers as rather powerful, CR 20 bosses. This does have an interesting 'replaced by your reflection' fairy tale vibe, except instead of your reflection, your replacement from the magical plane is a giant shadow monster with an aura of death. The trapped creature can't leave unless the Nightwalker is lured back to the Negative Plane, and they would be trapped forever unless the Nightwalker is devoured. The Nightwalker itself is attracted to elements of the Material Plane that is associated with the creature responsible for its creation... to destroy. 

It's... it's a bit odd on how exactly you're meant to do this, since the Nightwalker is also noted by the Tome of Foes to be attracted to the elements of the world associated with the creature that released it, and they 'exist to make life extinct'... so I don't really think luring it to the Negative Plane would be that easy. That sounds like the setup for a proper boss fight that needs a fair amount of planning, which I suppose is all right? 

In addition to being massive shadow giant, Nightwalkers are able to unleash the 'Finger of Doom' attack that paralyzes and frightens their prey; has a passive annihilation aura that constantly damages those around it, and those killed by the Nightwalker cannot be resurrected without a Wish spell. 

My original reaction to the Nightwalker was a bit more negative because i was more familiar with the 3.5E lore and was confused that a 'weaker' creature was given such a grandiose setup. But just like how the Marut debuted ahead of its Inevitable brethren, the idea to debut the Nightwalker alone and as a 'boss' monster for the Negative Plane/Shadowfell is a fun one! It's at least memorable due to the 'trapping someone in the Negative Plane' deal, and helps to give the Shadowfell a 'boss' monster of sorts. 

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Oblex

• 5.5E/5E: Tiny Ooze; Lawful Evil; CR 1/4 (Spawn)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Ooze; Lawful Evil; CR 5 (Adult)
• 5.5E/5E: Huge Ooze; Lawful Evil; CR 10 (Elder)

The Oblex gained a fair bit of prominence for being marketed during Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes' release for being one of the most terrifying monsters in the game, and is original to 5th Edition. I must say that they did do quite a good job at crafting this creature! The Oblex is a slime, but not just any other slime. Tome of Foes identifies them as being the results of Mind Flayer experimentation on the slimes of the Underdark, creating a sentient, cunning psychic slime. The prose (and name) also implies some interference from the slime demon god Juiblex. 

Oblexes feed on thoughts and memories -- having the same predilection towards intelligence and sharper minds that their Illithid creators have. Oblexes wrap around their prey and consume their mind instead of the flesh, leaving their victim befuddled... or dead. Most importantly, however, when an Oblex feeds on thoughts, they gain the ability to form weird copies of their prey to use as lures, allowing them to harvest even more victims. That's the lynchpin of this creature. We've got so many Mind Flayer creations that are of some variety of stealing minds, but the Oblex steals minds and identities.

The youngest Oblexes, the Oblex Spawn, is more or less just a regular ooze with a predilection for brains, but the Adult Oblex is where things get interesting. They devour memories and thoughts, twisting whatever they gain with its own 'foul nature'. These memories act as food that expands the Oblex's size, and once they become large enough, they 'shed' some of the personalities they have absorbed, or else they will become erratic. That's an interesting take on the twisted hivemind trope!

Adult Oblexes can do a 'sulfurous impersonation', extending a pseudopod that morphs into one of the creatures it has stolen. The only things that this copy is strange about is that it smells faintly of sulfur, and also connected to the original slime body with a slime tether... which would require the Oblex to hide it! Perhaps the copy is standing behind a counter, while the main slime body hides inside the counter. Perhaps the Oblex is puppeteering these humanoid copies as couriers, hiding within the package they are carrying. The Oblex is as intelligent as whatever humanoid it has consumed, so it's able to impersonate appearances perfectly. 

The Elder Oblex, shown as a glorious amorphous blob of goo with screaming faces of every mind and face it's stolen, while picking one of them to manifest, is able to impersonate more than a dozen individuals, meaning that an entire tavern or farmhouse might all just be extensions of the Elder Oblex. That is so cool, isn't it? Several Elder and Adult Oblexes might even be able to impersonate a whole creepy town! Really love that the 'true' form of the Elder and Adult Oblexes are not just slimes, but slimes formed of roiling, creepy faces. 

These slimes, by the way, are also spellcasters. Common to both Adult and Elder Oblex are the spells Detect Thoughts, Hold Person and Charm Person, a combination of spells to disable enemies or to understand their vulnerabilities. The Elder version has a bunch more powerful debilitating spells (Hypnotic Pattern, Confusion, Fear, Dominate Person), offensive ones (Telekinesis), and even Dimension Door to escape. I really find these to be a bit odd when I first read it, but then I realize that the creepy buildup to discovering an Oblex needs to lead to an interesting combat encounter, and giving the monster puppeteer slime creepy spells is a great way to do it. Some interpretations (which is not canon to 5E) is that the Oblex learns and steals the spells of whatever intelligent wizard that they have consumed, so feel free to give your Oblex a different set of spells!

I wouldn't say that this is 'the scariest thing in D&D', as even the idea of a hivemind masquerading as regular people most certainly has appeared in previous editions before... but the presentation of the creature both visually and narratively, and the theme of what's essentially an anglerfish for humanoids, is done well!

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Retriever 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Construct; Lawful Evil; CR 14

Retrievers are spider robots, but one with a bit of an odd backstory. They are designed to retrieve specific prey, but in older editions, Retrievers were created by demon lords to capture runaway targets. In 5th Edition lore, Retrievers are created by Drow worshippers of Lolth to capture demons themselves. It's an interesting change, and I suppose you could have a combination of the two lores where the original Retrievers were a demon creation that was reverse-engineered by the Drow. 

Lolth and her minions in the Abyss being demons themselves really don't want the knowledge to create the Retrievers to get out of her clutches, although I suspect it wouldn't be easy for most other civilizations to replicate the creation of the Retriever. The section for the Drow in of Tome of Foes also goes into a bit of detail on what the Retrievers are. They are powered by captured and bound spider-demons called Bebiliths... a type of demon that so far has not actually appeared in 5th Edition. 

Retrievers are spider-robots that possess a 'force beam' and a 'paralyzing beam' in addition to regular melee attacks. But the most important part of the Retriever is its 'Faultless Tracker' ability, and can immediately sense the location of both its quarry and its master. Retrievers are also able to planeshift itself and its quarry away, if needed be. I almost wished that there was something in the Retriever's statblock that actually aligned with its new 5E lore about catching demons or being powered by one, though, which I felt was a missed opportunity. 

Overall, construct enemies don't tend to always be the most interesting to me, since theoretically any 'Golem' or 'Clockwork' can be in any shape or form; so specific construct enemies need to have a twist. And I don't feel like the 'demon hunter' gimmick for the Retriever is interesting enough nor is it reflected well enough in the statblock. Cool art, though. 

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Shadar-Kai 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Neutral; CR 9 (Gloom Weaver), 7 (Shadow Dancer), 11 (Soul Monger)

Oh, the Shadar-Kai. We get to talk about the Shadar-Kai, now. Introduced in 3E with the general concept of being the 'emo' race to match the Drow's gothic energy, the Shadar-Kai are always shown with chains, spikes, pale skin and leather outfits. However, what their deal is has never been solidified across the different editions. To wit: 

• 3E: The Shadar-Kai are fey, trying to curse the Material Plane into eternal twilight, but failed and cursed themselves into being bound to the Plane of Shadow and turned them xenophobic denizens of that plane. 
• 4E: The Shadar-Kai are humans, who made a pact to the Raven Queen and achieved immortality, but are transformed into her minions and bound to the Shadowfell. 
• 5E: The Shadar-Kai are elves, who were bound to the Raven Queen. During a three-way struggle between the Raven Queen and the elf gods Corellon and Lolth, the wizards who would become the Nagpa interfered, causing a chain reaction that banished the now-divine Raven Queen and her followers into the Shadowfell.

Since we are talking about 5E lore here, we'll be focusing on just that. But I would like to note that most of the times, at least there is some consistency between two or three versions of the lore. 5E kinda-sorta combined the lore of 3E and 4E while also making the Shadar-Kai a subrace of elves. But as the near-immortal beings have stayed in the Shadowfell for eons, they have been physically and mentally transformed. They exist in a limbo state between life and death now. When a Shadar-Kai dies, the Raven Queen, driven mad by her transformation, will pluck their souls back and resurrect them eventually. 

Shadar-Kai are have pale hair, wrinkled gray skin and 'swollen, corpselike joints'. That last bit tends to be ignored in all artwork I've seen of the Shadar-Kai. They interestingly look younger in planes outside the Shadowfell, although still ashen and emo. It's a reprieve for them, and they loathe going back to their dark realms in the Shadowfell where reflections and mementos remind them of their long age. The Shadar-Kai do not like their long lives, as life is suffering, and being elves, their functionally immortal lives just means immortal suffering. They are joyless, they are dour, and they seek out items tinged with sorrow. It's so emo, I like it. 

There is some discussion about the Raven Queen as well, who is both a goddess of death and memory. That 'memory' bit probably isn't something that the Shadar-Kai minions take particularly well. The Shadar-Kai technically serve the Raven Queen, although unlike 4E, not every Shadar-Kai is bound to the cryptic, mad goddess's will. Those that do serve the Raven Queen go out to gather those that the goddess asks them to, or to take trinkets and baubles, anything colourful to temporarily remind them of what they have had and lost.

Tome of Foes makes the Shadar-Kai a playable elven sub-race, explicitly noted to be the opposite side of the Eladrin. Where the Eladrin are all about acceptance of strong emotions, the Shadar-Kai hate emotion and is all about the pain and the lack of it. After all, for a Shadar-Kai, emotions are useless and even their body is just a temporary shell they'll discard. Death is temporary for a Shadar-Kai due to their bond to the Raven Queen. As a special move, playable Shadar-Kai are able to meld into the shadows to teleport, and when they do that, they gain temporary resistance to all damage. 

As enemies, all the Shadar-Kai statblocks are a combination of spellcasting and stealthy, teleporting fighters. They do have some thematic emo abilities, though. The Gloom Weaver has the 'Burden of Time' aura, described by the flavour text as 'the dark energy weighing down the heart, causing those around it to feel the approach of death'. How emo! The Shadow Dancer leap and teleport between shadows like a dance, using their spiked Hellraiser chains to bind and deal necrotic damage to their quarry. The Soul Monger is wracked by despair over the loss of her memories, and crave the vitality of others. They can unleash a 'Wave of Weariness' and the 'Weight of Ages', described as 'the aching void within the soul' that radiates outward, and the sound of this void of emotion is 'the moan of a tortured soul lost in a bottomless well of tragedy', which sticks with the victim.

It's emo, it's over-the-top, and... I actually do kind of like them. I would like to think that I've outgrown what the anime fandom would call the chuunibyou phase that all nerds go through, but whether you play the Shadar-Kai straight for horror and tragedy, or if you play up some of the descriptions, I feel that they are a really neat addition to a D&D setting. Notably, I feel like the Shadar-Kai are important for actually bringing a civilization into the Shadowfell plane, which otherwise is just filled with the undead or other shadowy abominations. The Shadar-Kai give the Shadowfell a nice 'face', and their combination of suffering, pain and twisted (or devoid) emotions are a nice distillation of 5E's version of the Shadowfell. 

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Skulk 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E) / Monstrosity (5.5E); Chaotic Neutral; CR 1/2

“Some children have imaginary friends that their parents can't see. Sometimes those invisible friends aren't imaginary.” Thus is the very cool, atmospheric line that is snuck as an in-universe description of the Skulk. I love it! That's very cool! The Skulk debuted all the way back in 1E's Fiend Folio, and has been depicted very differently over the years. They are always almost-humanoids with some kind of permanent invisibility about them. In 3E, they were even a race of human offshoots!

5E gives us a brand new spin on the Skulks, tying them again to the Shadowfell. I find these to be far more thematic than the Meazels for sure! The Skulks are the soulless shells of travelers who wander the Shadowfell too long until they 'lost all sense of self'. Due to the dark, negative-emotions energy that suffuses the Shadowfell, the travelers are now 'so devoid of identity' that they have become permanently invisible. Always love a bit of a dramatic, thematic origin story to these monsters! Originally classified as humanoids in Tome of Foes, they are reclassified as monstrosities in Multiverse. 

A Skulk always leaves behind no tracks, and they have a permanent --  but fallible -- invisibility. I love this bit, by the way, because the fallibility sets up a nice mood, and differentiates the Skulk so much from a random wizard that has cast the invisibility spell. Children can always see Skulks. A Skulk's reflection appears in the mirror. A special candle made up of corpse fat (which is in the DM's Handbook) can outline the Skulk. These specificity makes the Skulk feel a lot weirder than just 'invisible man'!

Skulks are so devoid of identity that they are all hairless, featureless humanoids with long claws even if you get to see their outline. Their personality is just vaguely chaotic, 'creating bloodshed and mayhem with no regard for their own lives'. Again, being creatures that were transformed due to being devoid of emotions, it kind of makes sense!

We get several exceptions where a Skulk's lack of features or identity is subverted, though. A summoner that does a ritual to call a Skulk from the Shadowfell will have the Skulk mimic a vague likeness of its master while it's trapped in the Material Plane for the duration of the ritual. That's a cute little puzzle feature! Skulks that are stuck in the Material Plane sometimes take up silent mimicries of their victims, and Tome of Foes details ghost towns where all the inhabitants are killed by Skulks, and the strange, invisible beings take up a mimicry and 'automate' all of the things that people normally do daily -- flavourless food is prepared, livestock is shifted from pen to pen until they starve, and colourless clothes are hung. That sounds creepy!

Whenever I complain about a creature being unmemorable, the Skulk is one of the examples that I think could be so interesting just by taking the 'invisible man' concept and crafting so much around it. Visually, there's not much about the Skulk that sets it apart, and even the gimmick of being invisible is done by a lot of other monsters. But I find the Skulk a lot more memorable than something like the Invisible Stalker because of the vibe, and the integration of themes together to inform the Skulk's properties and behaviour. 

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Skull Lord 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Undead; Lawful Evil; CR 15

I like these guys! A lot of the 'skeletal enemies' like the Skeletons, Wights, Liches, Death Knighs, Zombies, Deathlocks, Dread Warriors, Heucuvas, Eyes of Fear and Flame, Crypt Things and many other 'reanimated corpse' undead just look like skeletons dressed in different armour or clothes. They're really missing that je ne sais quoi that differentiates them; like the worm gimmick for the Spawn of Kyuss or the fashion sense of the Mummy. 

The Skull Lord is simple... he's got three heads. That's a simple differentiator, but it makes the Skull Lord instantly recognizable from artwork as a Skull Lord instead of looking at a skeleton in a robe or armour and trying to figure out which of the dozens of skeletal undead it is. The Skull Lords are particularly associated with the Shadowfell, commanding hordes of undead and trying to establish dominance of it.

The Skull Lords are their own worst enemies, however -- as they each come with two personal Wormtongues and Starscreams, little scheming treacherous bastards lashed to their own skull. The Skull Lords arose from the treacherous minions of longtime D&D villain, the arch-lich Vecna. Vecna bound these traitors in groups of three and fused them together into the first Skull Lords, and cursed them to be lashed with their own worst enemies for eternity. Since then, other traitors would sometimes rise as Skull Lords. 

The Skull Lord itself is essentially a 'mini Lich', or a 'mini Death Knight'. It has auras that buff its undead minions, is able of creating more undead minions, and has a long list of spells that are more socerer/wizard-oriented than the Death Knight's evil paladin spell list or the Deathlock's warlock-themed one. 

I do really wish that the 'three heads' thing was highlighted a bit more in the design other than the rather situational 'evasion' trait. As it is, the Skull Lords' three squabbling heads appear to be much more of a roleplay or cosmetic choice. Nothing wrong with that, I would absolutely love to roleplay a Skull Lord with three completely differing personalities... but 3E had the mechanic of the Skull Lord starting off very strong, but slowly losing some of its resistances and abilities as each head gets progressively destroyed. That would have been so much more memorable. 

CW's Supergirl - Season 6, Part 2

Supergirl, Season 6

So yeah, continuing on with our coverage of the final season of Supergirl. I'm not sure how regular these reviews will be, I'm just doing them as the drafts are ready to be edited. We've finished the first batch of Supergirl season 6 episodes a bit earlier and that batch was a bit messy due to main actress Melissa Benoist's scheduling conflicts for the first seven episodes. Now that the cast are reunited, let's see how they handle the final season!

Episode 9: Dream Weaver

"Dream Weaver" is a standalone episode that's more or less self-contained. The titular 'Dream Weaving' plot barely takes up much screentime as Nia tries to figure out the prophetic dreams she's been having, which gets continually interrupted by Nyxly -- who wants Nia's help in bringing her to the 'real world' in exchange for 24 hours with her mother. It's really the bare minimum you'd expect from a temptation-themed storyline like this, and I don't have much to say here. 

The main storyline, such as it is, tries to tell a story that once more relates to the CatCo storyline. I'm still not very excited about it, although it is quite clear where it's going to conclude. Andrea and William are just kind of flat characters who I find hard to really get invested in. The main storyline has Kara and Kelly separately investigate different corrupt parts of the system, which ties in with some of the allegories of aliens being minorities that are often treated poorly due to biases. The action scenes and powers are on the very back seat, where our heroes discover that the prison staff has been forcing the superpowered prisoners to do robberies for them, while the social services system taking care of the children related to them is abusing them. It ties in to an Intergang plot, so we still have some traditional Superman/Supergirl plot going on, but it's otherwise about Kara and friends exposing the hypocrisy within this organization that's supposed to represent and help these oppressed people. It's an all right standalone story, if a bit strawman-ned.

Episode 10: Still, I Rise

Kind of forming a follow-up to the previous episode is "Still I Rise", which isn't quite a two-parter in the traditional sense... but we follow the storyline of Orlando, who is freed from the evil prison warden that makes him rob stuff, but ends up now having to contend with another social system that shuts down an affordable housing system. It's something that more or less resolved by the end of the episode (at least until named villains show up) and while the nasty councilwoman is still very classist/racist at the end of it, "Still I Rise" is, again, a pretty nice, standalone episode as Supergirl tries to figure out how the best way to interact with her public is and how to utilize her voice. It's a bit of an odd topic to tackle six seasons into this show, and the broccoli PSA's that Supergirl and Brainy recorded in this episode kind of is comparable to how these episodes have been sounding. 

There is somewhat more action in this episode, with the return of Mitch, one of the aliens from the time travel two-parter who ends up kidnapping a depowered Nyxly. Nyxly tricks Mitch and then does something with a freeze bomb to threaten Supergirl and end up absorbing the energies to restore her magic... somehow. It gives the Super Friends some tension and some superheroing moments, including a rather interesting kick-the-dog moment as Nyxly blows up the building that Kara has been fighting for all throughout the episode. 

Oh, and Nyxly is out and about to cause some havoc, because Nia let her out. I really did think that the previous episode could've used a bit more of this, because as the dream-spirit of Nia's mother pointed out, she was kind of stupid in the previous episode. Her mother gives Nia a whole pep-talk about not running away from her problems. While the setup was unconvincing, the moments she has this episode is pretty well-done.  

Episode 11: Mxy In The Middle

The Nyxly storyline finally goes on in full swing as after two relatively social commentary heavy episodes, we go into something more superhero-y. Mr. Mxyzptlk gets summoned to the third dimension by Supergirl, and after escaping Nyxly, ends up delivering a literal exposition dump via a random musical cover of "I Will Survive". Compared to CW's previous attempts at musicals, this one... isn't the best, which I think was on purpose. But Mxy tells us that Nyxly has apparently been betrayed by the patriarchy, particularly her brother and father... and she also needs both Mxy (who's descended from some important Imp) and seven magical Infinity Stones Totems to take over the Fifth Dimension. Which... okay. That honestly feels quite random, and I really did wish that Nyxly's story was better communicated in her many previous scenes, particularly the Phantom Zone episodes. The Totem stuff is obviously just there to fill up more episodes, and the Forces from The Flash still give me pretty bad PTSD on how badly they can be handled. 

This episode is fun, though. Nyxly rampages around with a giant magic cat (Kara uses her heat vision as a laser pointer!) and later on a hostage situation (she can't track Mxy unless he uses his magic), promising to make good on her desire to get vengeance on everyone who wronged her. This leads into a confrontation with Mxy, who betrayed Nyxly when giving testimony in the past. However, with the power of friendship, Mxy ends up teleporting and surrendering himself to Nyxly in exchange for his friends' lives. Nyxly seems a bit conflicted by this, particularly since Kara is at least trying to empathize with the wrongful imprisonment that Nyxly was faced with. 

This episode is extremely busy and I wonder if some of it could've been transplanted to one of the two previous episodes. Lena goes to her mother's village, and, in another random revelation, finds out that her mother is a witch? With a bad reputation, but turns out she's actually nice and the murder she did was an accident? The acting is nice but it also feels super-random. Nia gets a bit of a character arc trying to keep the secret and guilt of releasing Nyxly; while Mxy also has a mini-arc of realizing how useless he is without his magic. There is also a C-plot about a kidnapped alien scientist which just adds to the clutter of this episode, which I didn't even remember. Another C-plot is Mitch the alien kind of trying to get into Nyxly's good graces. Bit of a packed episode, and I do wish that some of the content bled into the previous, slower episodes.

Episode 12: Blind Spots

And just like that, we decompress almost immediately. 'Big Bad' Nyxly spends this episode off-grid while she waits for her powers to recover, while the main bulk of this story has Kelly Olsen finally do something a bit more superhero-related. It is honestly quite heavy-handed in its treatment of systemic racism and how certain races are seen as a bit invisible in times of crisis. Kelly, J'onn and surprise guest star John Diggle (from Arrow) all give very impassioned speeches to explore the topic. And I really do like J'onn's speech in particular, especially since he comes from a shapeshifting race. I'm also a bit happy that minor recurring character Orlando has a bit of a character arc that ends here, and that Nyxly's petty destruction of the building is addressed. The episodes work the best whenever it portrays Kelly's frustration about her problems constantly being brushed aside by her allies. And that's a very strong, emotional part of this episode. 

It's just that the execution and the framing of the episode isn't the best. Trying to insist that the Fifth-Dimensional Imp that could just as easily snap her fingers and do the same thing a millionfold is less of a priority feels insanely short-sighted, regardless of what Kelly insists. The Super-Friends ignoring her a bit is a valid argument, but I do find it hard to see what the Super Friends could've done really differently... especially since the episode also frames Brainiac and Kelly taking time to doll up her Guardian costume in gold to be a good thing. But hey, nice outfit, right? 

We also have a super straw-woman villain in the evil councilwoman from the past couple of episodes being somehow magically empowered with fifth-dimensional debris that drains the strength of the sick people of colour in the hospital, which also just feels a bit too heavy-handed even by the standards of this show. Ultimately, Kara and Alex realize a bit about how they've been ignoring Kelly throughout the episode and apologize, while the Super Friends very quickly and easily defeat the evil councilwoman. John Diggle's cameo in this episode... is a bit weird, and I guess was just a way to have a cameo while David Ramsey directs the episode. I felt like the episode was setting up more for a James Olsen cameo that didn't materialize, but I'm a huge Diggle fan so I'm never going to be unhappy to see him. 

Episode 13: The Gauntlet

So yeah, this episode kick-starts what seems to be the theme for the final stretch of this season... the hunt for the plot coupons. In this case, our theme of the week is the Totem of Courage. What initially seemed like a groan-worthy exposition about fifth-dimensional magic and totem doodads end up becoming a surprisingly good episode for both Supergirl and Nyxly, which more than makes up for the weaker aspects of this episode. After a string of heavy, borderline-PSA plots, the Totem of Courage gives us a neatly simple superhero plot -- the Totem of Courage causes a lot of people to become abnormally courageous... and also risk-taking, leading to a scientist guest star, Dr. Lahr, unleashing a lightning storm machine upon National City. Seeing characters like Alex and J'onn in particular showcase just how dangerous suicidal courage could be are also fun. I'm not too big on the very dragged-out "Lena is a skeptic and refuses to acknowledge her random magic heritage" subplot, or the cameo of one of the Kryptonian witches who I don't even remember (the actress is fun, though). I also really don't care about William as a character. 

The Totem of Courage, in addition to giving us its excuse plot, also forces Supergirl and Nyxly to confront moments in their life where they should've showed courage, but didn't. In Supergirl's case, she goes back to the very first episode of the show where she rescued that plane, and the 'trial' given by the Totem asks her to do something courageous that she didn't do back then. Which she fails... while Nyxly passes her trial, eventually, after some pep-talk from her bounty hunter minion. Nyxly has been such a cipher throughout the previous batch of episodes, and seeing the rebellion play out from her side does help to ground the otherwise nonsensical 5th-Dimensional royalty plot in actual characters. Turns out, though, the courage that the Totem is looking out of Nyxly isn't the courage to murder or confront her treacherous relatives, but to admit her vulnerability. After her terrible first episode in the Phantom Zone and her streak in the past couple of episodes being not the most complex, I like seeing her confronted with how she views her brother's betrayal as being more damaging than anything that her father could do. Also like the conclusion, which is very Superman/Supergirl-y by having Kara prioritize stopping the storm instead of getting the Totem, which IMO is a much better "focus on who you can save" story than what we got in the previous episode. 

Episode 14: Magical Thinking

"Magical Thinking" goes into a focus on William Dey, which... again, isn't a character or a plotline I'm particularly enthused about. Neither am I about Andrea Rojas, who has none of the personality that she had before. Admittedly she was never the most exciting character in the older seasons, but being reduced to the most basic 'reporter boss that's only as obstructive as the plot needs' isn't a particularly flattering look. But William finally gets his wish of a closer look into the inner workings of the Super Friends, and rather predictably, we get a story that's been told a million times in Supergirl -- the superheroes bring hope, free press is good, but not so free that secret identities are revealed. Supergirl has done it several times in its run, and I just came out of this episode shrugging -- I think I would've had a bigger response if it was Kara or Nia, someone I actually care about in the show, being in the spotlight... but William's a rather flatly written character and I find it hard to really care about this plot. The explanation of why the news are good for the public in this specific case and why Lena agrees also doesn't make sense to me either. 

The Totem plot this episode is also a rehash of the previous one, swapping in 'Humanity' (or, rather, empathy) in the place of Courage. The population, once more, now goes through a lack of empathy and starts to fight each other. Nyxly and Kara are still emotionally linked, and this allows for some fun overacting on both actresses. Nyxly ends up feeling so much empathy for the rest of the world that her alien goon had to step in. Lena struggles a bit with her newfound magical abilities (still IMO a really weird and random direction to take the character) and is frustrated when her spellcasting seems to only able to help by hurting people even more. And, as I mentioned before, I am very unconvinced that throwing in 'but we let the press cover it' is an actual justification for Lena to use her magic to amplify the Totem of Humanity. 

That said, after several episodes of not having it (and a notable weak part from my end for later Supergirl seasons) is that Supergirl actually does some Supergirl-ing and the team zips around the city stopping all the crimes, with a pretty great sequence of Supergirl stopping bullets. There's also a rather nice, if short, C-plot of Alex and Kelly adopting a young alien girl from a foster home. It's a variation of the Orlando storyline, but seeing the little girl's original foster parents basically pushing her our of their house and treating her as a human (or, well, alien) flamethrower was actually quite horrifying. 

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That's all the time we have in this article! I know -- and can guess -- that these CW reviews are not going to get the most views. It wouldn't be, even if I had done them when it was timely. But I really did respect these shows enough to want to talk about them, and I'm happy for any of you who stuck around and read it to the end. 

Digimon Reviews, Episode 51: Algomon and Friends [Adventure: 2020]

And separating this from the original 'episode 49' as well are the rest of the Digimon debuting in Pendulum Z, many of which also made appearances in the then-current Digimon Adventure 2020 reboot. From what little I've seen of the reboot, it's a nice 'back to basics' vibe with the franchise, if, admittedly, somewhat heavy on trying to get the nostalgia. I don't mind, though! After the highly controversial and more melancholic Tri movies and its even-more-controversial Kizuna follow-up... I thought Tri was all right if not quite the story I liked, but I have very strong opinions about Kizuna that could take up an entire article of its own.

But we're not here to review the anime or the movies, but the monsters! And in this segment, we're going to talk about the Algomon and Morphomon families that I excluded from my Pendulum Z reviews because they had bigger lore stuff tied to them. Also, I've included some of the (as I understand it) Digimon Adventure 2020 villains, and a couple of extras that I've moved out of the original overcrowded 'episode 49' of my Digimon reviews.

That way, that episode would be mostly filled with the Pulsemon line, and I'll probably expand a bit on the intro for that article. It does swap the chronological order of my review episodes, but... with a five-year hiatus on this Digimon review series, at this point I'm more in the mindset of trying to get this little 'block' done.

Some of them are old, and if I had time I'd like nothing better but sit down and just review all the Pokemon and Digimon again, but alas, I need that thing called time. But here, and scroll a bit down, is a link to all the Digimon Reviews I've done. I'm working slowly on an index so you can CTRL+F a Digimon you're looking for on a list, but that's slow in the making. There's a lot of these guys!

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Algomon (Baby I)

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby I
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute / Field: None / Nightmare Soldiers

Featured in both the Pendulum Z virtual pets as well as Adventure 2020 (or 'Adventure:', technically, with the colon... but I'll stick with calling it with the year) is, surprisingly, the return of Algomon. Algomon was a one-off movie villain from Digimon Frontier, appearing in a Perfect and Ultimate form... and almost fifteen years later, they decided to go back to the weirdo and give him a full evolutionary line to fill in the gaps from Baby I to Adult. Normally I'm not a big fan of these highly-specified evolutionary lines, but the Algomons actually do a great job at making each design feel unique enough! It is also one of those Digimon that is born from a strange mutation in digital data, so I don't mind them going a bit more to expand upon it. 

Baby I Algomon is noted by the profile as being 'born from a bug in an algorithm', which is basically what the original Algomon's concept was. They gather where high-capacity data leaks in hordes, and then blanket it. 

The original Perfect/Ultimate Algomon is themed around parasitic vines and tendrils, so Baby Algomon is a little seed-pod with a singular (seemingly decorative) eyeball, a little organic pink-blob on top and a little tentacle at the end. The end result makes it look like some kind of microorganism, like one of those weird protozoans or planktons. The colours are really nice, too. 

 8/10.

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Algomon (Baby II)

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute / Field: None / Nightmare Soldiers

Baby II Algomon has the basic body layout that recalls one of my favourite babies, Kuramon -- the Baby II form of Diablomon. A tiny little squishy jellyfish with a single eye! Except Baby II Algomon has a couple of fun little details. Its central decorative eye is still colourful and neat, and the purple borders extend to the side as little arms that can extend to have little spikes. Under those pokey tentacles is a fanged feeder mouth that is helpfully shown by the specimen in the background. Love it! 

Best of all are Baby II Algomon's horns, which have very specific colouration -- that of the iconic parasite of snails, Leucochloridium -- a creature that shows up a fair bit in Japanese media like Chainsaw Man, One-Punch Man and a couple of others. Now I don't think Algomon itself is parasitized, since it itself is the parasite, but it's a nice little detail. 

Again, the bright colours of this form is wonderful, too, and I really do love this thing! In the Adventure 2020 anime (technically 'Adventure:', with the colon as part of the title, but that's weird to type) the Baby II Algomons were the foes in the first episode, swarming and feeding on data in the Network, leading to chaos as they break the internet, causing disasters like runaway trains in the real world. They're a literal 'computer bug', behaving like a swarm of bugs!

 9/10.

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Algomon (Child)

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute / Field: Virus / Nightmare Soldiers

It is quite a shame that we know the end point of what 'Perfect' and 'Ultimate' Algomon will look like, so there's not exactly a surprise, but it's still nice to see just how non-humanoid its less-evolved forms are. Child Algomon has a central eyeball body with a very nice purple upper dome with even more of the Leucochloridium eyestalks bunched up as horns, and it's finally gotten the green vine tendrils of its original iconic final stages. A bunch of them trail down to give Child Algomon the visual imagery of a jellyfish alien, and two masses of thinner tendrils bunch up, hilariously, into boxing-glove arms. 

I find this quite funny! Child-level Digimon tend to be a bit more whimsical, and I like that Child Algomon doesn't go immediately into the parasitic draining of its prey but rather bunches up those vines and throws hands. The parasitic-draining thing would still be cool, too, but I love that this parasite-vine monster just decides to box.

It's a pretty neat-looking little monster! I really love its proportions in the anime, too, which makes this eyeball vine monster really cute! I think I like it slightly less than its pre-evolved form, but only marginally so. I do really like that the Algomons are 'default' Digimon in the 'Nightmare Soldiers' Pendulum Z. That's neat! 

 8/10.

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Algomon (Adult)

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute / Field: Virus / Nightmare Soldiers

Adult-level Algomon, interestingly, still keeps the quasi-jellyfish vibe of its predecessors. It's purple orb-head has ballooned quite a bit, and the peacock-tail-eyes and zippers of the Perfect-level Algomon is there, forming a strange 'face' that gives the impression of a closed bud. From within it, a mass of tongues lash out. Adult Algomon also has a much larger mop of vine-tentacles, and two arms that end in... metal graspers? That's not a thing in Perfect Algomon, is it? Nope, it isn't. I'm not sure if I like Adult Algomon with or without those graspers. 

Adult Algomon's profile seems to give it a bunch of strange 'construction' themes, with its arms being described as mechanical manipulators, and its tongue being a live electrical cable line. It is a bit odd that these themes are dropped when Adult Algomon becomes Perfect Algomon... who is a vine-manipulating kimono-humanoid. But I suppose most other 'main' Digimon lines also become more humanoid when they hit the Perfect stage, so it's nothing new for the franchise.

I like Adult Algomon a bit less than its two predecessors, but it's still a pretty cool design. A giant spherical mouth-monster slithering along on a carpet of vines is cool, and I can kind of imagine in my head the purple sphere opening apart like a flower to reveal the humanoid form within. It's just... Perfect Algomon and Ultimate Algomon aren't the most interesting designs compared to these cooler forms! ...which the Adventures 2020 anime team actually seem to agree with, by showing off Perfect Algomon almost exclusively in its 'Worm Form' (which is just a mass of vines with the 'peacock false eyes' as the 'face') and never showing the more humanoid form; and Ultimate Algomon's weirdness with its gaping chest-mouth and creepy pupils are highlighted... making Ultimate Algomon really feel like a primal creature that is just taking a humanoid form. The end result does actually really highlight how cool these otherwise-forgotten one-off movie villains are! I approve of this a lot. 

Anyway, Adult Algomon's cool. This is another one that I like a lot more after seeing it in motion in the anime, with its mass of wire-vines letting it move along like a giant slug in the vein of Raremon, and having the spherical purple head look a lot more in proportion to the green vines. Seeing that petal-like head open and close for its attacks is quite cool, too. 

 8/10, could be 7.

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Ghostmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Ghost
• Attribute / Field: Data / Nightmare Soldiers

A cutie! Debuting in the 'Nightmare Soldiers' V-pet, we get Ghostmon, who has a smiling scarecrow face, and a flaming wraith-like body and a witch/wizard's hat. We aren't really hurting for 'evil' Child-level Digimon, since that's one of the tropes that do pop up quite a bit, but Ghostmon feels a lot more unique by virtue of not being a little demon imp like Impmon or DemiDevimon. I feel he would hang out well with fellow fiery spectral spookster Candlemon! I still like Candlemon way, way more than Ghostmon as an individual design, but Ghostmon does end up feeling like it's a sensible pre-evolution for spectral Digimon like Bakemon; or Wizardmon with its fancy hat. 

Ghostmon is characterized as being timid and shy, and actually likes to help those in need... but it will do so invisibly, because it doesn't want to be noticed. 

Ghostmon is a bit of a simpler one here, but I appreciate him quite a bit! Since his debut he's been used in some anime and manga material, so clearly the writers appreciate this design! It's a cute one. Once I'm more caught up with the newer anime seasons and manga (which may be a while) I might go back and add some stuff here. 

 8/10.

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DoneDevimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Fallen Angel
• Attribute / Field: Virus / Nightmare Soldiers

So most 'Devimons' don't really go beyond Perfect-level, which is something I never noticed before. LadyDevimon, MarinDevimon and NeoDevimon are all Perfect-level, and the associated Ultimate tends to be a Myotismon variant, or one of the Seven Deadly Sins, or something like Piedmon or Apocalymon. Which Pendulum Z corrected by giving us DoneDevimon. He's done with being upstaged despite being the original villain of Digimon!

DoneDevimon is noted to be a Devimon that has 'taken in negative data to its limit', and it has became super crazy as it shifts between normal and abnormal, going into berserking rages where its intelligence vanishes.

And... it's an interesting design? DoneDevimon keeps Devimon's signature bat-wings and the blood-stained massive claws, but he's standing on all fours now, with the wings being a bit less prominent. His head is a lot more... beastly, and I've seen a lot of comparisons with Venom of Marvel Comics fame. And its primary attacking moves is to create two gigantic shadowy punching arms out of his back. 

DoneDevimon also shows up in the Digimon Adventure 2020 anime, where its status as a 'super' Devimon is a bit more clear with its upright design resembling the classic Devimon silhouette. I still think that changing the face so drastically and giving those shadow arms are a bit too much to make him feel a bit too much not like a Devimon. But I would like to stress that it's a neat enough take on the design that I'd rather them experiment on making a Devimon variant that I didn't like as much, compared to the continual vomiting of basically the same WarGreymon and Omegamon redesigns every other year. 

 7/10.

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Morphomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Insect
• Attribute / Field: Vaccine / Nature Spirits

Morphomon made its debut in the final Digimon Adventure movie, meant to cap off the original Adventure canon consisting of the Adventure and 02 anime seasons, and the Tri movie series. And it was... I agree with a lot of the general concepts of the themes of growing up, of moving on and letting go. Removed from everything else in that movie, those would be the perfect way to cap off the Adventure show. Animation and music were gorgeous, too. The story itself, the plotline, and how they went about showing that? I have very strong opinions about how Kizuna handled all of those and the result ends up feeling less of a conclusion of the story, characters and themes, and more of just the writers waxing lyrical without delivering a satisfying payoff. But we're not reviewing the movie so much as we're reviewing Morphomon! Morphomon is the partner Digimon of the movie's adult 'tragic villain who lost her partner', not to be confused with the identical adult 'tragic villain who lost her partner' from Tri.

Butterflies are significant to the Adventure anime because that was the title of its bombastic, iconic opening song, and it's also a great symbolic thing that represents change and metamorphosis. So having Morphomon be a butterfly is all right. I do really like that they put the butterfly wings in place of its ears, which is a nice touch. I also like the bug antennae, and the butterfly sleeves.

Morphomon's personality is basically what you'd expect, it enjoys nature, it's carefree, and its special ability can soothe the mind or body (or paralyze them, if they're hostile). Pretty simple and expected stuff. It's an inoffensive Child-level Digimon, one that I don't feel any particular way towards. 

Also, another homage to the Butterfly song, the blue-winged butterfly angel Hudiemon (who debuted in the Cyber Sleuth games) feels like the 'intended' Adult-stage evolution for Morphomon. But Morphomon doesn't get to evolve into Hudiemon, or any other fairy or bug Adult-stage, for that matter... 

 4/10. (I don't dislike it, I'm just not impressed)

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Eosmon (Adult)

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute / Field: Unknown / Metal Empire

...because Morphomon was recreated into Eosmon. Similar to Algomon, Arkadimon and a bunch of others that I'm not thinking of at the moment, Eosmon has the same name across all of its stages from Adult, Perfect and Ultimate, something that I think is just the defining feature of most man-made creatures. 

Eosmon Adult's design is clearly reflective of Morphomon, with hexagons making up the long, tapering sleeve-arms and the butterfly wing-ears... but replaces everything else with a futuristic sci-fi getup. Eosmon Adult also has a full pair of light-blue butterfly wings on its back (which brings to mind, again, Hudiemon). Eosmon in the movie typically creates extra constructs with those hexagon panels, either as barriers or as projectiles.

The official profile gives a setting-agnostic background for Eosmon, which I always appreciate for these things. Eosmon Adult is still created by a researcher, and it lacks emotion and moves according to the researcher's instructions -- be it good or bad. With the context of what the design is meant to be, I don't mind it as much although I do stress that this kind of robot just isn't my kind of aesthetic. But that's okay, because I actually do have a favourite Eosmon...

 2/10.

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Eosmon (Perfect)

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute / Field: Unknown / Metal Empire

Perfect-level Eosmon, though, is a lot cooler! Expanding on everything that Adult Eosmon is, Perfect Eosmon has a much more defined body with a larger set of hexagon-panel butterfly wings (that still sprout from the back of its head!), a more defined body, and two sets of those tentacle arms that it uses to scuttle around. One set is proportional to its humanoid body, and another one is much longer. Its humanoid part is a bit odd, too, with a massive collar around its neck, and some poofy jester pants that also bring to mind a swollen insect abdomen. It brings to mind the strange anatomy of other creepy weirdo designs like Cherubimon and Diablomon, and a horde of Eosmon Perfects probably makes up the majority of Eosmon's screentime in the movie. 

Eosmon Perfect, in addition to being faster and stronger than the Adult, can move around its transparent panels to create illusions. Illusions and the Peter Pan Syndrome was most definitely a theme of the Kizuna movie, although the Eosmon there seemed to just duplicate themselves ad nauseum instead of creating illusions. 

This is my favourite of the three Eosmons, although that's not really saying much since I don't really like the other two. 

 6/10.

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Eosmon (Ultimate)

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute / Field: Unknown / Metal Empire

Eosmon Ultimate is the fusion of an entire swarm of Eosmon Perfects, also fused with their human partner/master. Which means that this is technically one of those human/Digimon fusions that were all the rage in Tamers and Frontier, transplanted into a different continuity. Sure. The design is... it's a golden shiny humanoid bug-woman, with an even more elaborate, rippling set of those hexagonal butterfly wings. Perhaps because of the human's influence, Eosmon Ultimate actually has a skirt of seemingly organic butterfly wings. And also, out of her butt is a massive purple bottle designed to evoke a hornet's abdomen and stinger? This swollen tail is a nest that the Ultimate-level Eosmon can create Perfect-level Eosmon out of as minions. 

It's... it's not really my thing, although I suppose it makes sense in context of what Eosmon is in the movie. The setting-agnostic profile gives a similar backstory, noting that several Eosmon created a single collective entity when the researcher controlling the lesser Eosmon 'lost control' and 'things didn't go as planned'. It's neat, all things considered, but I just don't feel like it's 'my thing'. 

 3/10.

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Agumon: Yuki no Kizuna

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate+
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute: Unknown

I don't like him. 

Kizuna gives Agumon and Gabumon two brand-new Ultimate forms, foregoing the usual WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon and Omegamon. It's not a new Omegamon form for once, which is surprising, but... I'm very much not a big fan of the two resulting humanoid designs? The two Kizuna forms are born out of the strong bonds as Taichi and Yamato resonate really strongly with their partners for one last epic hurrah, and... I'm just not really impressed. 

The official Digimon website's art is a bit too cluttered with the effects, but the anime character model makes it a bit more clear -- it's a muscle-man humanoid with Greymon's markings and a very human face under a Greymon helmet. He also kind of looks naked, thanks to everything being coloured orange. I had thought that this, again, is a Frontier/Tamers style human-Digimon merger, maybe as a statement to tie in with the whole 'bonds' aspect of the movie... but no, it's just another Ultimate form, essentially a fleshier, less armoured, and less cool WarGreymon.

 0/10.

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Gabumon: Yujo no Kizuna

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate+
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute: Unknown 

Gabumon's Kizuna form is a bit better on account of it being a humanoid covered with robotic metal plating, similar to Lobomon's evolutions like Beowulfmon or MagnaGarurumon. It's got a cool jetpack and tiny little drone minions. That's a bit better, although being another cyborg man isn't anything new in Digimon. The official profile notes that Gabumon Yujo no Kizuna can transform into a motorbike form, which would be cool... but we don't see that in the movie.  

I get that the franchise has given us like around a half-dozen WarGreymons and MetalGarurumons, and maybe a dozen Omegamons, so they are trying to do something new for the fancy final forms... but these two designs really fall flat, and that's before adding my own admitted bias against how the debut movie of these two forms. But rest assured, I don't think they would get too many extra points in design even if I liked the movie. 

 1/10.

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Soundbirdmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Bird
• Attribute: Virus

We are moving now to the Adventure 2020 reboot! 

I've transplanted Soundbirdmon here from episode 45. Soundbirdmon is a little critter that debuted in 2017, as part of the same fanmade Digimon contest to tie in with Xros Wars: Hunters. Surprisingly, every single one of the fan-made Digimon actually got into an anime role, even as a minor character... but not Soundbirdmon, who only shows up in the Digimon Reference Book website. That's hardly a proper 'appearance'!

Soundbirdmon itself is a pretty cool and inventive little design. The main 'body' of the bird is a musical note with a singular eye embedded within, and the 'flag' of the note being drawn like a reaper's scythe. From the 'head' of the note sprouts out tattered wings with little speakers attached to it. It's normally quiet, but defends itself with loud piercing noises. A bird with speaker-wings alone isn't particularly creative, but making the design both minimalist and themed after a musical note is amazing! Kudos to the kid who made this!

While Jokermon, Yakiimon, Ekakimon and the rest of its contest buddies would show up in Hunters, Soundbirdmon languished in obscurity... until Adventure 2020, which used Soundbirdmon as some of the earliest minions and end up being a recurring enemy. And with a heavy 'shadow and eyeballs' aesthetic as you can see with some of the new Digimon introduced below, Soundbirdmon is actually quite perfect as that role! It shows up as tiny little bats that unleach a sonic scream to mind-control some of the villains of the week, giving the traditional 'Black Gears' of the original Adventure a more sinister vibe. 

 8/10.

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Eyesmon

• Alternate Names: Eyesmon: Scatter Mode
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Demon Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

I have not spoiled myself on any of the story or the main movers and shakers, but I do know that this guy is one of the main villains, or a minion of one of the main villains. And when I first saw it, I thought it was Shademon! Obscure old Shademon from the quite neat Xros Wars manga! Except while Shademon was 'just' a mass of creepy eyes in a ghostly shadow, Eyesmon here takes the form of a massive, grinning wolf-ghost. This isn't the first time that an anime takes a design from a manga and reimagines it -- they did that with Veedramon and Veemon as early as the 02 anime. 

Eyesmon's design being so filled with eyes is pretty cool, and I love just how wide that grin is in the official artwork. I like that the design makes it look like Eyesmon has two 'primary' set of eyestalks... that can also be seen as a pair of ears/horns while the six more elevated eyes around its snout could also form as its 'face'. 

There is, of course, the elephant (the Mammon?) in the room that Eyesmon and Shademon both draw very heavily from the true form of Pride of Full Metal Alchemist fame, and the addition of a massive fanged grin to Eyesmon does make the inspiration a lot more obvious. I do really like Pride, so it's an aesthetic I enjoy... but I also can't help but think that maybe they could've done a bit more to make it not so obvious that they're copying Pride....

And they kind of do. Sort of. 

This is 'Eyesmon: Scatter Mode', where it's only got two eyes and a single tiny mouth in a cute, fiery-wraith figure. Scatter Mode here is still classified as an Adult level instead of being Eyesmon's Child form, and it is the result of the main Eyesmon splitting itself apart into smaller, tiny creatures that go around and accumulating data. Which, in Digimon-speak, probably means devouring other Digimon.

This quasi-hivemind vibe allows Eyesmon to gain more power than what its form should usually have, and it's noted to have power that can surpass even of Perfect-level Digimon. We've seen some 'fused of other data mushed together' Digimon, most iconic being final boss Apocalymon from the original Digimon Adventure... but I do like that Eyesmon shows off the method of how it does it. 

Eyesmon actually has an official evolution in the anime, transforming into... Orochimon? I suppose Orochimon is a giant multi-headed snake, so there's your 'multiple personality' thing. But Orochimon in Adventure 2020 then evolves into...

 9/10.

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Nidhoggmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Demon Dragon
• Attribute / Field: Virus / Nature Spirits

...Nidhoggmon! Nidhoggmon has the 'snake' part from Orochimon down pat, and its colours and aesthetics goes back to Eyesmon's shadow-monster design. Nidhoggmon, of course, is named after Nidhoggr of Norse mythology fame, the giant worm-serpent that gnaws on the root tree Yggdrasil. (Yggdrasil being used many times in Digimon's history as the computer system of the Digital World is likely a reason why Nidhogg was chosen as an inspiration for a Digimon as well). Nidhoggmon appears to combine both dragon and tree, having its main serpentine body looking like it's also made up of barks or vines! Or maybe just more serpents? 

The upper half of Nidhoggmon's design is not bad, either. It has got four wings, that is constantly emitting heat and in a state of thermal runaway. It's got two claws, and a head shaped like a stealth bomber jet with a nice row of beady evil red eyes. Like the Pokemon Dragapult, that head also evokes the the strange extinct real-life amphibian Diplocaulus. Pretty cool design, and I appreciate this a lot more! If you're going to draw from mythology, do something like this instead of just having Jupiter and Venus stroll over from a Greek mythos manga. 

...does his tongue actually have eyes on them too? Ew!

Nidhoggmon just consumes and absorbs everything in its path, burning it up into energy that it unleashes in explosive blasts of heat. Notes by its designer is that it's essentially a huge love letter to Godzilla, and I can dig that! It's not even just a transplant of Godzilla, but with its own fun twist. 

 8/10.

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Negamon

• Alternate Names: Negamon (Evolved Form)
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute: None

I had originally thought that Eyesmon, Nidhoggmon, Negamon and Abbadomon below are all part of the same evolutionary line, but no! We get two different sets of blobby shadow evil Digimon! Debuting quite early in Adventure 2020, Negamon is an adorable little octopus thing seemingly made up of overlapping layers of metal tentacles that whorl around into a sphere. Instead of octopus suckers, Negamon's got strange red lights. The artwork shows the tentacles unfurled, but Negamon can wrap itself fully into a perfect sphere. 

The design, by the way, reminds me fully of Kuramon and Tsumemon, the baby forms of Diablomon. It's that eye design, but also the fact that all three of them are just eyes on an orb with multiple limbs sticking out of it. Spider-fingers for Tsumemon, and robot tentacles for Negamon. And just like the Diablomon line, Negamon is way more powerful than what a Baby stage should be. 

Not sure how much this is accurate to the anime, but the official profile describes Negamon as a 'Baby Digimon that grew up immersed in the negative data that the Network is overflowing with' and in this darkness of the internet, it 'constantly awaits its death'. What the fuck! Negamon, drawing on the negativity that it's named after, appears before other Digimon and 'makes them prey on themselves', causing them to 'lose their emotions and corrode from the inside-out'. It's depression, suicide and data corruption all wrapped up into a little demon baby ball. 

Also seen in the anime and some video games is this 'Negamon (Evolved Form)' and it's not clear if this is just a battle form, or if it's some kind of stage, or if it even has a proper stage. Evolved form Negamon goes from a robot squid into a giant shadowy mouth-monster that reminds me of 'The Imprisoned' from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. From the anime screenshots I can find, it's just a mass of nondescript shadowy tentacles, parts of them breaking off to reveal the rows and rows of red light beneath. 

It's pretty cool that this thing has a badass, creepy battle mode... but it's not really Negamon's final form, no...

 8/10.

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Abbadomon

• Alternate Names: Abbadomon Core
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Species Unknown
• Attribute: Unknown

Negamon's final form is Abbadomon, a name that I'm actually surprised Digimon hasn't used before considering it really likes referencing Judeo-Christianity lore. When I first saw it, I really did think it was going to be tied to Eyesmon considering that most of its body is a mass of sharp, ribbon-like tenteacles with eyeballs and grinning mouths. Very Pride from Full Metal Alchemist, again. 

Abbadomon's central body is a giant black sphere with a fanged mouth that seems quite happy. The lore is that Abbadomon has absorbed all the negative data in the Digital Network to its limit, because it wants to transcend good and evil as this force of pure nothingness. And hunger. Apparently, it has even consumed other Digital Worlds in its wake, and its whole point is to just erase all data. Abaddomon "seeks nothingness, prefers nothingness, and rejects everything except nothingness". It wants to consume everything before disappearing itself. Okay!

Again, a bit surprised that visually it's not connected all that much to Eyesmon/Nidhoggmon... but I also admit that I haven't watched the 2020 anime, and these reviews will likely have some edits once I do. 

The final battle, of course, sees a humanoid form inside Abbadomon, called Abbadomon Core. It's a demon knight, of course... which... all things considered, I actually like it quite a bit. It's got everything filled up with the same fangs and eyes of its original form, and I like that the mouth-fang serves as an 'unzipped' thing that both the giant cannon and the head are nestled in. Zippers aren't quite as ubiquitous as belts in old-school Digimon, but I do like the aesthetic. 

Abaddomon Core also seems to be obviously homaging good ol' Omegamon, with the cape, one giant cannon arm and one giant melee weapon arm. He's got a lance instead of a sword, though. The way that the lance and part of the gun is drawn makes it look a lot like those are the tendrils of the original Abbadomon being 'folded' and curled up into an Omegamon-mimicking shape, and I wonder if my interpretation of that is what is true in the anime. 

It's all right, for what it is! I might like him a lot more once I see him in the anime, but it sure is a big bad final boss demon monster!

 6/10.

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RareRaremon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Undead
• Attribute: Virus

Of course I love this thing. RareRaremon was one of the reasons I went and expanded on my original 'final review' for Digimon back in 2021, as requested by a wonderful commenter Chalicothere. And I felt like I owe it to properly talk about this glorious design in a bit more detail. RareRaremon is the brand-new Perfect-level evolution of classic sludge-muck zombie Raremon. Remember Raremon? As a quick reminder Raremon isn't 'just' a sludge Digimon, it's the sludged-up corpse of a Digimon that failed to evolve, and is keeping itself alive with mechanized parts. It takes various options of being a physical undead being and smooshes them together. 

And what happens if that abomination evolves even more? In the very first Virtual Pets, just like the other 'failure' evolutions, Raremon got assigned a 'piloting a puppet' Perfect-level evolution, the obscure ExTyrannomon.

But what if a Raremon just becomes... more Raremon? RareRaremon is a Raremon that has survived the progressive decay of its body through even more mechanization. Its body keeps breaking down and reconstituting, eyes and mouth emerging, decaying, and emerging again. It's just like a D&D Gibbering Mouther, only this time we know the origin that this used to be someone's partner Gazimon or Gabumon or something.

Just look at that artwork. The bottom half is just a mass of sludge with eyes and mouths of different forms emerging from the sludge, with random limbs and cables and stuff coiling out of it. The larger chompy green-glob-mouths serve as RareRaremon's "hands", a bit more obvious in TCG art or the anime. The upper half of Raremon's body is dominated by a (yes, phallic) giant metallic dome, covered with a lot of eyes and mouths -- including a big set of chompers that bisect the head sagittally. RareRaremon's main 'eye' is right at the center, menacingly looking down.

So foul is RareRaremon's stench that even Ultimates can't easily approach it freely. We've had a bunch of Digimon (like Eyesmon or Negamon above) that punch above the weight class of their stage, but RareRaremon does so by grossing out the likes of Omegamon and MaloMyotismon. 

It's also worth noting that the black metal 'dome' head of RareRaremon also feature the same sort of chomping tooth that Negamon's attack form has, and some of the eyes set against the black metal look like the same eyes as Eyesmon and Abbadomon -- but it's actually not obtrusive or particularly obvious until I actually placed them side-by-side, and I missed them the first time I reviewed RareRaremon!

Anyway, a very cool giant gross glob monster! It is quite surprising to see Raremon graced with an evolution, and for it to actually expand on the theme so much! I would have maybe liked to have some of Raremon's original pitiful blank eyes in there somewhere, but overall I feel like RareRaremon is such an excellently nasty goop-pile that I really can't complain. 

 9/10.

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Potamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Food
• Attribute: Vaccine

It sure is a potato Digimon. I'm surprised that it's an Adult-level Digimon? It sure is a potato-headed humanoid with the hairdo of peeled backed potato, and it's... eating potatoes? That's kind of cannibalism, surely? I'm not the biggest fan of its surprisingly mundane farmer outfit, I felt like they could've exaggerated it a bit more. This guy feels like he would be an NPC in a Digimon World game or something. 

Potamon is a gourmet, and has consumed data on all kinds of fries, and shares all the fries that it recommends. Potamon basically has the personality of an obnoxious food critic, you know the kind, and if you disagree with him? Oh, it's going to launch razor-sharp fries and summon a gigantic hot 'Bashed Potato' from the sky! It is a competitor with Burgamon, the other Adult-level humanoid food-themed Digimon all the way back from Frontier. 

I was a bit confused as I would think that Potamon would be designed as a Child level of Burgamon (I know, you don't usually use potatoes to make a burger, but Burgamon's already established as an Adult-level) but I guess the idea is to make Potamon a pre-evolution of obscure classic 'rock potato' Digimon Jyagamon, which was the evolution assigned to it in the Adventure 2020 anime! I actually like that a lot.  

 4/10, bonus point for Jyagamon!

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DarkMaildramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

In a rather odd choice, instead of the dozens and dozens of protagonist Digimon, Maildramon of all things gets a black repaint. And it's a black repaint that shows up in the 2020 anime, as a commentor pointed it out, leading to my hasty relocation of this guy from the Pulsemon article. Maildramon hasn't really been the most memorable armour Digimon, showing up as minor cameo appearances in Tamers and in crowd shots in Xros Wars and the manga, but I've had a bit of a soft spot for it. 

I do like that the darker version gives it tattered, Devidramon-esque red wings. It's a reasonably all right look, and the bio notes that it 'found righteousness in evil after abandoning justice'. It will only allow evil Knightmon to ride it. Which, in the anime, turns out to be Adventure's incarnation of DarkKnightmon! It's like a reverse unicorn, where it lets the bad guys ride it instead of the good guys. I normally don't give black recolours particularly high scores, but this one bothered to give some extra lore, so they get a slightly higher rating. 

 4/10.
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MetalGreymon: Alterous Mode

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Vaccine

So I was also made aware that these forms also debuted in Adventure 2020. I forgot these forms existed. And... uh... Alterous Mode just swaps MetalGreymon's 'normal' hand with a giant fuck-off railgun, making it kinda like a fusion of MetalGreymon and RizeGreymon. I do like MetalGreymon, but this feels like an accessory more than an alternate form. While I enjoy the design, I would note that for X-Antibodies and alternate forms I usually go for a bit of a 'how much is this form necessary / how much does this form change' bit. 

 3/10.

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WereGarurumon: Sagittarius Mode

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Beast Man
• Attribute: Vaccine

If MetalGreymon gets something, you can bet that WereGarurumon's getting something as well. It's a bit more of a significant update for WereGarurumon, I feel... mostly because he gets a jetpack with glowing blue wings, and it shoots lasers. It's not always as chaotic as the Reference Book art makes it out, and the official Toei model does make it clear that it's just ol' WereGarurumon with some bonus wings. In addition, WereGarurumon can pull off these crystal wings and use them as lightsabers, and I've seen screenshots of the Gundam-funnel shards extending out with cables and acting as laser cannons. 

I do like that it kind of bridges the frankly quite random change from WereGarurumon's 'punk werewolf' to MetalGarurumon's 'robot wolf'. And as an 'alternate form'... or rather, an accessory, Sagittarius Mode here does serve a bit more of a function to bridge that gap. I feel like these two modes were really just obligatory, but at least we're not getting any GeoGreymon nonsense and pretending that it's a completely brand-new species. I do actually like the idea of somewhat 'bridging' the gap between two very classic evolutions that no one really questions, so I actually don't mind this form as much.

 4/10.

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...how much did I stuff in the original episode 49? Wow! I think the only brand-new Digimon review entries are KoDokugumon, Negamon and Abbadomon, and every single entry in 50 and 51 were rushed in 49 alongside the entire Pulsemon gang. That's a lot in a single article! No wonder I was burnt out when I did it in 2020.