Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War E06 Review: All Things In The Universe Turn To Ash

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 6: The Fire

Slightly late talking about these Bleach episodes, mostly because I was a bit preoccupied playing Pokemon! I did have a lot of these reviews drafted up beforehand, just... didn't quite have time to edit them, and I wanted to finish off Stranger Things before. 

Anyway, "The Fire" basically is just the couple of chapters of Yamamoto facing off against 'Juhabach' and showing off his Bankai and the four facets of it. And... that should really be the review. I really shouldn't really need to talk too much about it, since I'm really talking about a decade-old manga volume at this point. Sure, there are a couple of extra anime-only scenes, but... but holy balls, they really did go all-in with crafting and animating this episode. One of the unfortunate side-effects of the Bleach manga's pacing is that due to the author's habit of making huge full-page or double-page spreads, it does leave a lot less space and these fights end up sometimes feeling less light fights and more of a superpower showcase. Which is definitely something I did feel when reading Yamamoto and Juhabach's fight for the first time in the manga. 

So the anime basically... took all the huge, impactful scenes from the manga, but expanded upon them with some real smooth animation, and the sheer intensity of flame animation and the darker shading on the characters and surroundings when Yamamoto's flames are active ends up painting so much of the episode... that when the flames are removed thanks to the first Bankai effect, you really do get punched in the visuals and realize how much the flames have been dominating the screen before you. 

There are also a lot of additional action scenes tossed in-between the flashy usage of powers, of Yamamoto and Juhabach jumping around and unleashing blows and slashes at each other, that is snappy and fluid and amazingly choreographed which doesn't feel repetitive or out of place in the fight. I did pull up and look through the chapters this episode is based on, and it actually surprised me how much the episode adds without actually feeling like it's heaping a huge amount of padding.

Like, just using examples from the earlier parts of the fight, the anime adds a lot of extra scenes that feels badass and fits the manga -- from Yamamoto using flash step to rescue Kenpachi from being throttled, and the little details of his Shunpo leaving trails of flame; or later on in the fight when Juhabach tosses a bunch of roof-tiles at Yamamoto and he yells so loudly that the tiles return back to Juhabach as fiery projectiles, or just several extra usages of Kyokujitsujin blowing shit up... really great stuff. 

There's also a lot of brief flashes to when Juhabach sees Yamamoto a thousand years ago when he was younger, recalling the old Quincy extermination... which ties in nicely to the first of our anime-original scenes... which is Uryu content! Uryu is hanging out under a bridge next to a river, finding a hidden page about a Quincy extermination done 1000 years ago (as opposed to 200 years ago), with a picture of young Yamamoto wreathed in flames. He later recounts his own friendship with Ichigo and wonders how he can justify working with Ichigo after the two series of genocide the Shinigami did to his people. Nice tie-in!

I also really like a scene translated very faithfully from the manga -- Kyoraku and Robert arguing about the presence of their respective leaders invigorating their troops... and then three Sternritters that have been shown to be pretty invincible -- NaNaNa, Bazz-B and especially As Nodt -- just try and dogpile Yamamoto and getting absolutely incinerated in a gigantic pillar of flame visible by all combatants. 

We get a brief, fluid clash (which is mostly original to the anime), Yamamoto then unleashes his Bankai -- Zanka no Tachi. Specifically, the East part of his ability, Kyokujitsujin (Rising Sun Edge). This is the aforementioned moment when a screen filled with fiery reds and yellows and heavy shadowing suddenly implodes into white and regular colouration, with a heat haze all around them. Amazing animation here and one that I really can't explain in screen caps. 

The cutaways to other people in the Soul Society experiencing the surprise drought is well-done; the showcases of Unohana, Ukitake and Kyoraku recognizing the ability, are all neat. Absolutely wonderful is that animation as the desiccated-looking longsword strikes down, not making contact with Juhabach's body from head to toe... and just the briefest contact with the ground makes sparks... and then SUDDENLY GIGANTIC FUCKING EXPLOSION AND ANNIHILATION OF THE TERRAIN. Glorious. 

There is a lot of talk between Yamamoto and Juhabach about their battle a thousand years ago, which of course is a great excuse to keep flashing back to young Yamamoto. We then get to see Yamamoto absolutely creating gigantic explosions of destructive power with this ability before moving to West: Zanjitsu Gokui (Remnant Sun Prison Garb)... which leads me to such a bizarrely surreal scene where Haschwalth mutters about how Yamamoto's explanation of a 15-million-degree-Celsius flame wreath doesn't make sense since the flames wouldn't be visible, and his conclusion that the 'flames' we see is Yamamoto's pure Reishi leaking out and taking the form of flames. 

Yes, in this manga with... with everything ridiculous in Bleach, the visibility of a superhot flame is what we'd be concerned about. It's not even real fire, it's spirit fire!

Yamamoto mocks Juhabach a bit, telling him that it's okay to run... but he'll still fucking murder him. Juhabach launches a huge Quincy arrow, before a bunch of prayer ribbons unfurl out and Juhabach uses Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger, which... it's apparently a defensive spell that will annihilate any who enters the domain. We don't actually see what this spell can do, though, because Yamamoto basically destroys the ground that the Sankt Zwinger pillars are on with his third ability. 

Then Yamamoto goes to South: Kaka Jumanokushi Daisojin. Great Buried Ranks of the Ten Trillion Fire-Dead. And... this causes zombies to happen! Skeletons that are burnt to death by Yamamoto's flames return to torment Juhabach. And... the skeletons are CGI, which are very conspicuous... but they're also shaded rather creepily, and they are meant to be unsettling. Not the biggest fan, but I wouldn't say that it ruins the episode for me. Like the manga, there is a great usage of cutaways to show the zombies from Juhabach's viewpoint where he sees the skeletons reform into his former minions Zeidritz, Hubert and Argola... while from Yamamoto's point of view they are just skeletons. 

Yamamoto apparently arrives at the (later proven to be untrue) conclusion that the Sternritter need to fully understand the Bankai before stealing them. He notes that Juhabach might have a sense of humanity left in him... before unleashing the final North ability: Tenchi Kaijin. Heaven and Earth End in Ashes. 

We get the kanji, before a glorious flame-wreathed Yamamoto slashes through the black screen and the Kanji and half of Juhabach's body. Immediately after Juhabach falls, rain begins to fall... and then Juhabach, or rather "Juhabach", apologizes, leading Yamamoto to suddenly realize that something is wrong. 

And the real Juhabach shows up, as the Juhabach that Yamamoto has been fight reveals himself to be Royd Lloyd. 

Now the anime skips behind the rather bullshit and honestly convoluted explanation that there are two Sternritter Y, Loyd Lloyd and Royd Lloyd. I never really cared too much for the 'one copies abilities, one copies memories' part of it, but a quick 'they are twins with the same ability' line would've probably worked a fair bit to explain the situation to people who didn't read the manga. 

And as Yamamoto himself noted to be one of Juhabach's defining characteristic, Juhabach basically just blows up Royd Lloyd after praising his performance -- this isn't a man who would be normally be shaken by something like Kaka Jumanokushi Daisojin, but I guess Yamamoto himself has softened over the years, and the sheer rage and desire to wipe out Juhabach with his own bare hands blinded Yamamoto to this fact. And... it's something that they didn't even really change too much from the manga, but the voice acting, the music, the sheer emphasis on Yamamoto's rage... yeah, you really do believe that he's completely lost his cool and his ability to strategize properly. 

Oh, by the way, this is where we get the second extended scene original to the anime, which... I 100% believe was probably in Tite Kubo's drafts which he didn't manage to put into the manga when it was rushed to conclusion. In the manga equivalent of this scene, we did get Juhabach say that he went to the underground prison to meet Aizen, but we never really get to see the conversation. 

Here, we do! It's short, it's something that we can infer from later scenes with Aizen in the manga, but it's so great to see it. To see Juhabach talking to Aizen, trying to recruit him, and Aizen mocking Juhabach for being a Quincy Emperor following the footsteps of a mere Shinigami... and then Juha leaving Aizen behind because his Hogyoku biology makes him too hard to properly kill or restrain in time. 

Yamamoto goes Bankai, which gets stolen by Juhabach... and then we get a fun scene where Juhabach summons a gigantic Reishi bow, shoots an arrow down... which he uses as a big sword. I guess this falls under "Quincy only uses bows and arrows"?

Then Juhabach slashes Yamamoto, and we get basically a perfect recreation of the manga panel, albeit with coloured blood, as Yamamoto accepts his death calmly and is bisected by Juhabach.

A great, wonderful and high-octane episode. Again, a lot of the emotions that don't necessarily hit as hard in the manga are translated amazingly into the episode, and even then the additional scenes that fill in plot holes; as well as just the expansion of action scenes in general, do make this episode such a visual treat to watch. 

Random Notes:

• Yeah, I'm going back to 'Juhabach' spelling. I'm sorry, it was way too much effort for me to try and catch every time I didn't write it as 'Yhwach'. 
• We saw As Nodt and Bazz-B win their fights... so I guess NaNaNa beat up Rose off-screen, then.
• There is a moment when Yamamoto releases the East version of Zanka no Tachi and we see Cang Du using Daiguren Hyorinmaru and it's melting... and I find it hilarious that Hitsugaya is going 'hah-ha, you can't use your ice powers'. Poor kid would've been in trouble if he still had his Bankai at this point... 
• Yamamoto moves Kenpachi away from Juhabach... all five feet away. It's rather unbelievable that he didn't get caught in Zanka no Tachi East or West...
• Was there a reason why Unohana, the former Kenpachi and one of the strongest captains, is hanging out in the barracks? I guess as medical support. I vaguely remember this being addressed. 
• Always love the fun little detail of Yamamoto's Zanjitsu Gokui melting the very concrete that he's walking on. 
• Fake Juha does have a good point -- Yamamoto is a Shinigami... raising the dead for a spell. 
• Okikiba Genshiro bite the dust as the real Juhabach blows up the 1st division barracks. Yeah, we even get a flashback because it's doubtful anyone even remembers him. 

Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 7: Kamen Riders & Twitch Streamers

So I've just been spending a lot of time just wandering through the East Province meadows, which... I think the four provinces are really what splits up a majority of the older Pokemon population? There's just a whole ton of new ones I find like one after the other and I just keep burning through the Pokeballs I have. Phanpy, Swablu, Toxel, Goomy, Mudbray, Magnemite, Dreepy, Bagon... a great mix of generations for sure!

Also some newer faces include the fact that there is a gender difference for Oinkolonge, which I didn't realize before. Females have a brown face, and males have a black face. It's okay, I guess. I can't really say I have too much of any strong opinions about Oinkolonge at all. 

There are also a total of four Squawkabilly colours, which is neat, and I do find it interesting that they do have little gang fights. I really honestly do wish that some of the overworld Pokemon can actually battle each other instead of just surrounding each other menacingly. 

...speaking of newer species, my Nymble finally evolves and... it's a Bug/Dark evolution? And it's humanoid... and it's KAMEN RIDER? Rider, rider... RIDER! Damn, if there was any doubt, that Rider Kick pose in the Pokedex, complete with the moon in the background, really does sell this thing to me. Ideally he'd be Bug/Fighting, I suppose, but is this seriously our first Bug/Dark Pokemon? Unless I'm forgetting something. You'd think an 'evil' bug would've been obvious to Pokemon, but it took multiple decades to get there. 

And... well, I guess this guy's more Shadow Moon than Kamen Rider Black, I suppose. That's okay. I love how the dex entry describes about how he can only stay in his 'showdown' mode, which is when those back-mounted wings unfurl downwards to become GIANT FUCKING GRASSHOPPER LEG CHAINSAWS for a time. In addition to, well, obviously being a giant Rider Kick, it's also a neat nod to how some Riders do have limited-time super forms. 

...I might even like him more than Spidops? I don't know. Spidops is cool and all, but... well, he is just pure-Bug. Oh well! That's why we rotate the party members! 

Another new Pokemon I find is Wattrel, the Electric/Flying petrel. A bit surprising to find them to be given the Electric-typing, and the design is honestly what I'd expect from an Electric bird, but it's pretty cool. Yeah, this guy is basically being swapped in just to give my team a bit more type diversity, and both Electric and Flying does cover some of my weaknesses. 

Wattrel also gains experience points very quickly, which makes it evolve rather rapidly into Kilowattrel. That's some Digimon-style naming scheme, and I heartily approve. It's also surprisingly big! I'm not sure if it's the very cool sleek shape and texture of the wings, but I feel like it seems bigger than Staraptor or something.

Anyway, I end up finally meandering all the way to Levincia, which is a huge harbour town dominated by a huge Pokeball-shaped bridge-cum-battle-stage in the center. There are a bit more shops here! The fashion stores carry different items, including a super-expensive boutique with all the 'endgame' fashion items. Which... I would probably appreciate more if the game wouldn't take like almost ten seconds to load each option. I do really notice that loading times for the outfit previews and the Pokemon box sprites took the longest. Damn, Scarlet/Violet, I love you, but optimize your load times, sheesh.

Levincia looks good, but... once more, there really isn't anything about it. It really is going to be a bit of a running commentary that I have. All of these random background NPC's that seem to 'say nothing' in previous games really do a pretty good job at building up the vibe of the towns. Here there's maybe one or two people who speak about Iono and her streaming whatever, and the rest just feels like... boring dialogue, y'know? And it really shouldn't be. They had all the assets to spice the town up in ways that matter. One of the restaurants is one that I can enter, but there's hardly anything different there -- is it really that difficult to program in like a Battle Restaurant there? Is it really that different to type in like an extra half-dozen people being huge fans of Iono and gathering in front of the many identikit boring restaurants, and another batch of people discussing the expensive fashion or something?

Anyway,  mini-rant over. It's gym time! Nemona rushes in after a call, telling me that she's starting to use more of her party. Which just means a Rockruff, really, added to her team of Pawmi and her evolved starter, Floragato, which... okay, yeah. I know people get defensive when I talk about starters, but... I... I don't like it? Especially if I had picked Sprigatito? I definitely prefer Crocalor, I can tell you that much. It sure is a cat on two feet with like, a leaf-bib or something. 

Iono is a streamer, and I have to basically rack up those viewer count- er, create good content with her before she would allow myself to 'collab' with her. The part of me that's a cranky old man wants to roll my eyes at this clear attempt to get on with the kids, but... you know what? I'm not a huge high-energy sugar-clickbait streamer guy, but they definitely nail the charm down. Hell, we even get a streamer layout as my character gets all flustered and confused at what the shit is going on with her. She's got catchphrases, cutified 'anywho' pronunciations, and constant nods to subscriptions, viewer counts and collaborations and all the funky jargon of streamers. We even have a fun logo for a fake YouTube showing up here and there! And... her design is actually kinda neat! The bubblegum hair, the oversized poofy sleeves, the sharp teeth (more of a V-Tuber thing, cause I don't think anyone really sharpens their teeth like that), the two bizarre bubblegum... mutant Magnemites? They actually hover around and spin around, but I've already seen regular Kantonian Magnemite. Did Iono paint over hers and gave them tinier magnets, or are these regional variants?

Anyway, I actually quickly found myself completely enjoying this gym challenge. The high energy, the change in format, Iono constantly (purposefully?) flubbing how she wants those viewer counts and people to 'smash' the like button, before correcting herself is fun. And the little pre-gym minigame is actually pretty pleasant! I suppose the Sunflora one was fun too. Sorry, Katy. Your pre-gym minigame sucks ass.

Iono brings in a random passerby and tells me to find him in a mini Where's Waldo sequence as she shows me a security camera of the town. And, of course, it's Clavell! Not in his Clive persona, I mean, who is Clive, totally not our most venerable and elegant director of the prestigious Uva Academy, no, it cannot be. As 'Mr. Walksabout'. Which Iono actually has to double-check with her production team if the title is 'safe', which I feel is something that I've seen a lot of streamers get into trouble with. 

The hide and seek portion is fun and simple, but then Iono actually sics some gym grunts on me. Or, rather, Poke Maniacs. Her simps, basically, which I thought is hilarious! I get to fight two trainers, all of which are all mega-fans (though not that creepy, this is Pokemon after all) before Iono herself faces me off in the gym battle in the big-ass bridge in the center of the town.

And after her catchphrase and going a bit nyahaha, and thanking one of her donators (ha!), Iono fights me, and her team is... pretty neat! Four Pokemon this time around, starting off with a Wattrel -- which gets taken out by my Dolliv, who happens to be leading the party. She almost died thanks to all the Plucks, but hey, I had Flail on Dolliv which works as intended! Then my Clodsire shows up and takes out the Luxio quickly, and... a new... thing? What is that? Is that a frog? That is a chonky boy, that's what it is, I can tell you that much. 

It's a thing called a Bellibolt, and... uh... I think it's Electric/Water? It tries to take Clodsire down with a Water Gun, but... well, Clodsire has Water Absorb. And obviously, being a Ground-type, little Pooper the Clodsire is immune to Bellibolt's Electric-type attacks. So all it can do is just stare dumbly with panicked eyes and a ._. face as Clodsire just very slowly and methodically Mud Shots it down. Two ._. monsters staring at each other, one with dot eyes and one with bulging eyes. It was a match made in heaven. 

Bellibolt also has an ability called Electromorphosis, which apparently gets charged any time Clodsire's attack hits it? But considering that Clodsire literally counters Bellibolt's entire movepool, I am not sure what stat this actually increases, or how scary it is.

Oh, and Iono's final Pokemon that she Terastralizes or whatever is a Mismagius. That makes even less sense than the bug lady using a Teddiursa, I'm sorry. What happened to the Magnezones she was using to record her streams? What the hell does a Mismagius have anything to do with the Electric-type, her gimmick as a streamer, or anything at all? I don't mind the gym leaders having a more diverse Pokemon pool -- I thought it was cute when Diamond/Pearl had some later-game gym leaders have a couple of weirder Pokemon who has attacks of the type they specialize in... but they aren't the ace Pokemon, y'know? Brassius is literally the only one that gets a pass because Sudowoodo looks like a Grass-type but isn't. I'm not sure what it'd be for Iono -- maybe a cheerleading Pokemon like Oricorio or something, but this is just very silly, I feel.

Anyway, if you haven't guessed, I make it a point to ignore the Teracrystallization or whatever literally since basically the first gym. Which means I didn't use it against Mela, Brassius, Titan Klawf and certainly not now against Iono. The Mismagius has Levitate, so I guess that's a long-winded way to toss in an Eelektross gimmick there, so I just Poison Jab the Mismagius to death. It actually died of poisoning, I think. 

Iono gives me the badge, a photo where I do a weird long-sleeve pose with her, and the Volt Switch TM. I think she's the first gym leader to not give me a TM for a new Gen-IX move! 

La Primera shows up to talk to me after the gym battle and... she tells me her name, and it's Geeta. I think 'La Primera' is much more badass. Since there are so many champions around, she's actually the chairwoman of the Pokemon League. Neat!

Then I walk to the area north of Levincia and it's a bunch of cliffs... and I walk into a tumbleweed. Been doing that a lot in Genshin Impact's desert areas, except that this isn't just an aspect of the background, no. It's a Pokemon! Called Bramblin, which is... a cage made up of tumbleweed vines, and it's got two beady eyes inside. I accidentally kill it a couple of times before finally catching one. It's a Grass/Ghost! Okay, I really should've expected that. I guess tumbleweeds are kinda creepy, and it is a dead plant, after all, but it's still moving with the power of the wind!

Also in this area is Varoom, which is just zipping around. I thought it was like a lawnmower, but nah. That's Rotom, not Varoom. From its name, it's the pre-evolved form of Mela's gigantic car Vavaroom or whatever it's called, so it's like... a hot rod engine with wheels just zipping around merrily. Not the biggest fan of it if we're being honest, but it'll probably grow on me! This thing is Steel/Poison, to my surprise. I guess it expels smoke! Apparently the steel part is the Pokemon's real body, and the, uh... wheels are coal chunks that it latches and 'eats' from? Okay, now I like it a bit more with the little effort of telling me how it 'biologically' survives in the wild!

Anyway, Bramblin is much more neat, so it's replacing Dolliv for now as the Grass-type in the party. This part of Paldea has a lot more older Pokemon too. Rolycoly, Carkoal, Silicobra, Rufflet, Cufant, Voltorb, Dugtrio... the Voltorbs will self-destruct! I don't think my character can take damage the way I could in Legends: Arceus (I have to keep reminding myself that I don't take fall damage), but it's always fun to see Voltorb go kaboom. 

Arven also calls me at this point telling me that I'm getting close to the Lurking Steel Titan, which is like a super-fast worm-thing, I think? So perhaps a Steelix of some sort.

One of the trainers has a new Pokemon called... Finizen! It's a dolphin buds! People have been begging for a dolphin since the franchise's inception, and it's about overdue, I would say. It's a cute little dolphin!

In the West Area, I also find a weird Fairy/Steel... caveman... thing? It's called Tinkatink! It's, uh... it's weird, but it sure is a fairy caveman with a giant metal club. It apparently constantly works on its metalworking skills and is a bit of a perfectionist. Okay?

I just realized that there are Pokedex rewards I get for catching loads of different species of Pokemon. I got a bunch of stardust and evolutionary stones! I also tried to slowly evolve some of the early-route Pokemon like Fidough or Wiglett, too.

Random Notes:

• Iono is actually voiced, and she's in the official Pokemon YouTube channel! That's adorable. 
• The lighthouse near the city led me to a bunch of Shuppets and Grimers, and a Rotom. Man, Grimer's muck looks gloriously goopy in this generation. The lighthouse doesn't really have anything on top but a bunch of tourists.
  
• There's also a beach with Sandygast, Crabrawler and Mareanie! All my Alola buddies!
• Another thing to note about Levincia is that they've got a Chinese food restaurant, which sells mapo tofu and stuff! That's interesting, but... I'd really liked to have someone to tell me about the restaurants instead of just a load screen to show me a bunch of foods that lead to bonuses or whatever.
• Among the older Pokemon, it is a treat to see Silicobra just wiggle its way onwards. 
• Did I ever mention Naclstack's new move? It's Salt Cure, it deals damage, leaves damage over time, and damages Water and Steel types more. Neat!
• The music in the Bramblin area is very cowboy-esque. Not sure how well it fits Spanish music, but it sure is a pleasant tune to bop to.
• I've just realized that the item drop from Makuhita is called Makuhita sweat. I get it, Makuhita can't really drop anything, but shit, that's nasty.
• Current Party: Crocalor, Clodsire, Lokix, Naclstack, Kilowattrel, Bramblin

Stranger Things S04E09 Review: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Stranger Things, Season 4, Episode 9: The Piggyback

And so, yeah, after some... questionable pacing at the beginning of the season, the fourth season of Stranger Things actually does wrap its storyline up in a relatively satisfying conclusion. I still don't think it washes away the slow-paced taste of the earlier parts of the season, but the last three have been complete bangers. It's great to really sit down and watch a season in one go! Been a while since I did something like this. 

The three climaxes that happen in this episode basically all happen at the same time in what's essentially a season finale movie. And... and I guess I'll get rid of the plotline that I felt was the most detached both emotionally and physically. No disrespect to any of the actors, but man, the Hopper/Joyce stuff just really ends up feeling so boring. Like they cut up a regular episode's worth of story and then stretched it out across the season. We did get action scenes out of it, but I really felt like characters like Yuri and Enzo don't bring anything too interesting to the table that justifies the sheer amount of screentime they got. Especially since Yuri literally stalls for time with taking part of the helicopter parts and whatnot... it really does rub me the wrong way, and at the end of it I really don't care about the tacked-on backstory about Yuri. 

And there are some nice moments about Joyce and Hopper discussing Hopper's scars, but ultimately they decide to run back to the prison and murder the weird floating Mind-Flayer smoke-thing and hurt the hive-mind in order to assist Eleven. It's kind of... I really do feel it's somewhat forced to make these guys relevant to the big climax. It makes sense, yes, but... again, does it really justify the amount of stalling we had? We could just cut them and jump straight to the good part, after all, and the good part in this case being the horror show of Joyce, Hopper and their motley crew going back to the prison and discovering the dead scientists, a callback to the Demodog death from season 2, Murray with a fucking flamethrower, and ultimately Hopper 1v1-ing the Demogorgon. It's cool! But compared to everything else that's going on in the episode, it definitely feels like the weak link. 

Team Hawkins, meanwhile, is a bit more interesting because what they're doing is a bit less obvious. There are, of course, still a bit too many characters running around and I really feel like the show bit off more than it could chew (especially since Erica decides to tag along later on in the back-end of this episode). The team hang out in the Creel house and try to lure Vecna's 'astral body' out, noting how his real body would be vulnerable just like Eleven's is when she does her telepathy. Unfortunately, they also lure out Jason and the jocks in the real world. I guess we need multiple antagonists!

Team Eleven also has some setup, with Eleven knowing what the Hawkins gang are trying to do but is helpless to help from afar... until she decides to do the episode title and piggiback off of Vecna's mind into Max's mind and pull off a long-range telekinetic battle. Argyle, after being the source of unfunny jokes, finally gets his one moment of relevance by bringing everyone to the pizza place that he works in and using the freezer and the salt to do a version of the sensory-deprivation tank that Eleven had used in the past. In the midst of all this, we get a nice talk between Jonathan and Will, with Jonathan telling Will how whatever the hell happens, he's always going to be a nice big brother to Will. Considering how little Jonathan is relevant to this season, it's nice to have at least a nice little moment since we're seemingly going to save the Jonathan/Nancy/Steve love triangle for next season. 

Anyway, in Hawkins, Max sets herself up as bait, switches off her Walkman, and after a nice talk with Lucas, ends up confronting Vecna. There's a very well-delivered bit of characterization as she admits that she's not as perfect as she should be -- that she acknowledges her anger and how that, yes, like anyone with healthy emotions, there were times that she wished Billy would be gone from her life. There is a very cool sequence where the scene is shot as if it's just Max talking to Lucas... and then Lucas starts judging Max, and turns out that it's Vecna. Very cool sequence as Max gets chased into different memories, and this simultaneously gives Eleven the telepathic gateway to enter. 

Nancy, Robin and Steve, in the Upside-Down, break into Vecna's house to enact their plan to kill Vecna's core body when his mind is busy hunting down Max... but end up getting attacked by creepy shadow-tentacles. 

Meanwhile, in easily the most badass scene in the show, Dustin and Eddie decide to set up the mother of all distractions for Vecna's Demobat swarm, by playing Metallica's Master of Puppets. You know what? I really didn't give two shits about Eddie, but him playing this, and his emphasis that he's not going to run this time, unlike the previous couple of times? Yeah, you're the S4 addition that I like. It also helps that Eddie doesn't really overstay his welcome or escape unrealistically. Jumping ahead by quite a fair bit, Eddie and Dustin ends up being trapped in the Upside-Down version of the trailer chased by the bats, and it's all harrowing and shit until Eddie decides to cut off the way back through the portal to save Dustin, and sacrifices himself. Badass!

Of course, all this plan kind of goes sideways when the basketball dicks show up and attack the kids in the real world. Erica gets waylaid by one of the secondary bullies, while Jason gets into the central room to find Lucas watching Max all possessed and floating in the air. Waving around that shotgun, the poor deluded kid is convinced that Lucas is doing some kind of satanic ritual and demands that Lucas wake her up or he'll shoot. There's a neat little nod to Lucas's earlier arc in the show and he growls about how he doesn't want to be like Jason, before they fight. Also in this confrontation, the dude crushes the walkman with the Kate Bush cassette.

All the ways out seem to be blocked, but that's okay because Eleven shows up in Max's memories, helping to defend her against Vecna in a mental recreation of the school dance from one of the earlier seasons. It's at this point that the episode begins to cut back and forth between the different action scenes, including the ones in Russia and the Eddie/bat ones. Pretty neat!

Ultimately, on the Vecna side, we get a bit more explanation of what the audience could probably already guess from episode seven. He monologues about how 'Papa' didn't make him into this monster, but rather it was Eleven -- who shoved Vecna into the Upside-Down, finding the realm un-spoiled by humans that he desired. And, of course, the very cool revelation that he isn't a minion of the Mind Flayer or that he is the Mind Flayer, no. He found the Mind Flayer, and corrupted the poor thing, shaping it in the image of the spiders he loved so much. 

In this darkest moment (and we get to see characters like Lucas, Eddie/Dustin, Hopper, Team Nancy etc struggling) Mike finally gets his one single cool moment in the season, by talking to Eleven and giving great encouragement about how she's a goddamn superhero. Much more earned than the stupid Suzie song from last season, wouldn't you agree?

And in a rather surprisingly ballsy twist for a season that has been so keen on pussyfooting out of killing any of its characters, Eleven actually arrives just a moment too late to rescue Max, whose body starts contorting as Vecna's murder-ritual happens. It honestly is genuinely surprising that they went ahead and (almost) went through with it, especially after the Running Up That Hill moment earlier in the season. But with her seemingly resolving a lot of her character moments with facing her demons and admitting to it, and then facing down Vecna like a boss, I felt like the show would've probably had a much stronger reaction from me if they actually let her die. 

Eleven attacking Vecna coincides with Hopper and Joyce burning through the hive-mind monsters in Alaska (including Hopper's aforementioned 1v1 against the Demogorgon). This ends up causing the bat-swarm and the tentacles to drop off, allowing Team Nancy to reach Vecna's physical body, and several well-placed Molotov cocktails from Steve and Nancy burn the fucker alive.  

But Max is blinded and crippled by the assault even though she wakes up momentarily in Lucas's arms... and as she straight-up dies, the four chimes of the clock happens, the four portals create a huge X that carve up Hawkins with otherworldly chasms. Oh, and Jason, that dipshit, gets sliced in two by the portals appearing. Haha! Just as all this is going on, Eleven uses her telepathic powers to try and bring Max back to life, but as we see in the subsequent timeskip, the best she can do is unconsciousness. Which... that has been one of my bigger problems with this season of Stranger Things, where the kids have such strong plot armour that it does take me out of the stakes of the season's events a bit. But to see them finally killing off minor characters and even putting one of the 'legacy' characters in a coma? That's something, at least. 

The final scene is a two-day-later timeskip that finally reunites the characters from the other parts of the world and re-establishes Max's coma. People are leaving Hawkins after the devastation, and I'm genuinely confused why fucking Argyle decides to tag along to Hawkins. There are a couple of great scenes, like the very quiet Hopper and Eleven reunion, as well as Dustin meeting Eddie's uncle and telling him that his nephew died a hero despite the news vilifying the Hellfire Club as the cause of the high school murders. Also, another plot thread that's kinda built up for next season is Jonathan and Nancy hugging each other... but Steve just looks from the side, with the season being pretty heavy on the Steve-x-Nancy shipping. I mean, okay? I don't care about this all that much but it's something for the older kids to do next season. I care even less about Robin's new girlfriend, though I guess that's the neat resolution of her season-long running gag. Of course, though, this isn't over. Will, who had been possessed by the Mind Flayer before, tells Mike that it's not over... just as the fucking sky splits apart with red lightning and black smoke starts coming out of the Upside-Down giant X chasm. 

So yeah. I still really do think that as an action sequence, this episode is pretty fun! It's kind of a shame that the show is basically overloaded and oversaturated with characters both older and ones introduced this season. And to have Max being in a coma and Eddie's death being the only casualties, it does feel a bit... tame? At the very least, I am genuinely surprised not to see Enzo or Yuri bite the dust. I get that the main 'party' are safe in the earlier seasons, but surely we could have had higher stakes now? 

All things considered and with two less-interesting sub-plots that we cut to (the Alaskan cast and the lunatic basketball jocks), the movie finale still gives us a pretty great season finale, which is going to lead up very nicely to the final season. Not my favourite season, but an enjoyable watch all around!

Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 6: Truleewoodo & Giant Fire Cars

So yeah, last episode, we arrived in Artazon City's gym, which is the right side of Mesagoza. It's a pretty town, a fair bit larger and has more landmarks than Cortondo for sure. There is a huge circular hedge maze, a giant playground for children, and a whole ton of random sculptures and art pieces made by the gym leader Brassius, with the typical combination of artists who wax lyrical about Brassius's avant-garde artistic sensibilities, as well as a group of people who are just 'hmmm, weird sculptures, neat I guess?' It's neat and all, but I kind of miss it when a town or a city has something more than just the gym leader, y'know? Like... oh, Pewter City has the museum; Ecruteak Town had the two towers; Mauville City has the whole New Mauville subplot and the casino; Driftveil City had the Cold Storage sub-area... Artazon City's pretty cool and distinctive, but everything just ties to Brassius and even then it's so far kind of a one-note personality?

I don't know. Maybe I'm a little bit too harsh, but there literally is nothing to do in this city other than just go to the gym and move on. There used to be at least some interesting sights to look at. The hedge maze is nice, at least.

Nemona is there waiting for me in the gym receptionist building, and she has a rather funny line where she very furiously and specifically denies that she was there waiting for me and that it's just a huge coincidence that we picked the same first two gyms. 

The game this time around is relatively fun and a lot less irritating than the squishy-olive game. I have to look for ten Sunflora hidden throughout the city, a venture that's a bit more fun thanks to the city itself having visually interesting landmarks, and a whole lot of Sunflora sculptures that aren't Sunflora. It's also nice to see Sunflora get a bit more love, though I do hope that this generation might give her an evolution? Half the Sunfloras are hidden in the hedge maze, which I trivialize by having Miraidon jump over the hedge and run on the hedge walls. 

The ten Sunflora I'm supposed to find also troop behind me, which, of course, with this game's questionable graphics, causes them to lose frames a fair bit. It is still fun for the visual sight of a bunch of happy smiling sunflowers just tottering along as my lizard bike jumps on top of a hedge maze and these flowers just keep following. 

After I return the Sunfloras to the ranch, I get to fight the gym leader, the Verdant Virtuoso Brassius on a battlefield under a giant windmill. Brassius has been standing there like the goddamn Batman, and he leaps down and lands in a superhero landing. He's got a whip of thorns, and he basically looks like Burgh's emo cousin. He talks about art and my performance being avant-garde, so clearly he approves of the run-on-the-hedge-walls tactic. 

Brassius's team is... kind of underwhelming, though. His Petilil and Smoliv fall very quickly under my Clodsire and Spidops, and his ace, disappointingly, is also not a Grass-type. Unlike Katy's Teddiursa, though, at least Sudowoodo pretends to be a tree, and there's a sense of funky artistry as Brassius uses the power of Terastralization to turn a Sudowoodo into a Truedowoodo or whatever, making him a Grass-type... that immediately gets one-shotted by my Crocalor's Incinerate.

I'm sorry, it's really not that interesting of a gym battle to commentate on, since my team is so overwhelmingly able to take down Grass-types. 

Anyway, Brassius gives me a new TM for Trailblaze, which is a brand-new Grass-move also increases the user's Speed stat. Okay, sure. After the battle, one of the Elite Four, Hassel, a blonde man with a dapper half-cape, shows up and talks about the championship and Grand Crater... and also he's apparently my art teacher. Okay! At this point, a bunch of new clsases unlock in my school. That's an interesting way to get people a bit more interested in the classes offered in the academia, I suppose!

I head off and explore some of the area on the other side of Artazon and there are a lot of Pokemon here that I haven't encountered in the previous routes. Teddiursa, Murkrow, Dunsparce ,Skiploom, Litleo, Steenee... shit, Komala of all things, all the way from Alola... I also find the evolution of Lechonk, which is... Oinkolonge? It sure is, uh... a bit more elegant-looking than I expected for a chonky boy like Lechonk, but it doesn't go all the way on the other side of the spectrum the way Buneary and Diggersby were. It's... it exists, I guess? I honestly find Lechonk looking so pleasant that I really didn't think too much about its potential evolution. 

I also almost got wiped out by a Paldean Tauros, who is a pure Fighting type. The only real difference is the colouring, though, which is entirely black. It's a bit... weird? The Pokedex numbering also makes it clear that Tauros isn't getting an evolution in this generation, so, uh... okay? I mean, sure, Tauros already has high stats already, but I really did feel like they could've done more in either making him different or something...

I also captured myself a Cyclizar. It sure is a naked, tiny version of Miraidon/Koraidon! I don't really care much for it. It's Dragon/Normal. My Nacli also evolves at this point into Naclstack. A NaCl stack, because it's a bunch of... uh... salt Minecraft cubes piled together into a tortoise thing? God, it's such a weird... thing. It's a boxy rocky thing, and... I don't know. By all rights I should dislike it, but I can't. I'm not sure if it's the movements, or that it's got another theme of being a rock sa monster beyonbeing a Minecraft gag. He's a cute salt boy. 

My Smoliv evolved into a Dolliv, and... it's... it's okay? It's still Grass/Normal and I'm mostly bringing her along for the type coverage. It's a lot more pleasant looking, I think, compared to Liligant or Tsareena, though I still prefer the scared Smoliv face by miles. 

I also finally tried to do a picnic, and it's kinda cute. All seven of my Pokemon came out at once, and it's kinda reminiscent of the similar camp feature from Sword/Shield, though without throwing balls around. I can redecorate my magic hammerspace table and whatnot, and the sandwich making game is, uh... piling ingredients according to a recipe? Okay, sure. It's a bit more variable per sandwich compared to the very samey curry minigame, so I don't mind? It's just basically giving me a similar set of buffs that I would get from buying the food in the cities, which means, uh... I don't remember the exact numbers, but I'm pretty certain that the ingredients for sandwiches are much, much cheaper. 

Wandering on my way to get to the Team Star fire base and constantly falling down the ledges, I finally decide to go from Artazon instead. I run across the regional bird, Squawkabilly, which the game tells me is the eternal rival of Fletchling? Okay. It's sure a parrot! There's a rivalry between the blue and green feathered ones, similar to Basculin. I know it's asking a bit too much, but I do kinda wish that we still had the Generation VI/VII thing where horde battles will have rival Pokemon like Seviper and Zangoose or Corsola and Mareanie fight each other. 

I also catch a Tadbulb. It sure is a tadpole lightbulb thing that apparently can float high off the ground if there are thunderclouds. I'm probably going to like whatever frog this thing evolves into, but Tadbulb herself just feels kinda eh. 

I approach the Team Star Base and Cassiopeia gives me a rundown of how I'm supposed to enter and dismantle the operation and the many, many trainers inside... and an unexpected ally appears. Clive, who comes with his shorts and glasses and immaculate spiky pompadour that he poses with. Who is totally not Clavell, no sir, he is Clive, a student that is concerned about Team Star! Why, next you'll be telling me the Masked Royal is one and the same with Professor Kukui! The sheer audacity, the sheer unmitigated audacity of some people, assuming people look alike just because they share some minimal features!

(Clive, by the way, is a glorious plot twist that I didn't see coming mostly because I immediately suspected Clavell of being shady. I guess he's shady in a different sort!)

Anyway, Clive and Cassiopeia explain that taking down a Team Star boss will cause the whole squadron to disband, which sounds like something disingenuous... but the boss, Mela, will not come out unless you beat up all of her goons. Cassiopeia have also sent out declarations of war to all the Team Star bases, meaning that, well, I really have no choice but to fight these guys! One of the grunts fights me in 'self-defense', and then runs back to warn all his buddies when he realizes who I am. 

Then 'Clive' shows up with a... a weird Pawniard-looking Pokemon called Charlos the Charcadet. Okay? It's apparently one of the school's Pokemon, and it's arrived in the base looking for something or someone. 

Anyway, ain't nobody got time for the little buddy, because I'm up for a Star Barrage. I'm only allowed to bring three Pokemon, and... I have to fight the entire base of 30 Pokemon all at once. This is such a great way to make the fight actually feel like you're one man taking on an entire army of goons and grunts, compared to just like, maybe eight or ten battles of grunts with like the equivalent of Zubats and Rattatas. And it makes use of the auto-battle, and the restriction of only three Pokemon? I bring the half of my team that's not weak to fire -- Crocalor, Clodsire and Naclstack. Poor Naclstack got a bit bullied by the Numels, but otherwise it's three against thirty and there's just a great sense of hectic accomplishments taking down these goons with my Pokemon!

...in other words, this minigame is everything I wanted the gym battles to be, and what the gym battles have been really floundering to deliver at this moment. 

And then Mela bursts out with her glorious gigantic pimped-out ride, which is a big-ass monster car with disco balls and speakers and she's standing on top of the stage with her insane big-ass boots and the engine of the car has a disturbing tongue to it. Taking down the Torkoal is easy. Just a Salt Lick from Naclstack and it's done. 

But the Schedar Starmobile? The fact that I have to fight a level 26 pimped-out gangster car, boosted by the Torkoal's Drought? And it has Speed Boost? It's a Pokemon called a Revavroom, apparently, though the icon that shows up when the Pokemon's ability is activated is a bit different from the pimped-out monster we're fighting. The Schedar Starmobile uses a combination of its already inherently high HP, combined with Screech and then spamming its high-speed move to just rampage through my team. 

It basically took me until Naclstack, Clodsire and Spidops are taken out until I realize her strategy, and considering what loser pushovers the Titans and Gym Leaders have been, the sheer absurdity of fighting a big-ass car and the banger Team STar music really did distract me. Eventually I wised up, revived Naclstack, and just did a bit of a switcheroo between Crocalor and Naclstack, both of whom can easily tank the Starmobile's attack especially after a couple of Overheats have disabled its Sp. Attack stats. 

Mela kind of deflates after that, and we kind of have a brief flashback to one and a half years ago, where Mela meets up with the other four Team Star bosses. She has a bit of a petty rivalry with Ortega, and Eri kind of helps her out? We really don't get too much of what they're planning, beyond a cryptic 'Operation Star', and apparently the rumours being spread of them trying to fight the campus -- at least by Mela's potentially biased claims -- are unsubstantiated. The giant Starmobile isn't even a menace, they built it for a mysterious 'big fight' in the past and never busted it out since then.

Mela does give me her badge and disband her team, but not before crushing my grip with a solid handshake. Damn racer goth punk! Mela apparently uses to be good friends with Charlos the Charcadet, and she seems to be convinced to go back to the university? I really hope she keeps those big-ass boots and her unique walking animation, though. It'd be such a shame to ditch that killer metal rockstar look.

At the end of this quest, Clive buggers off and Cassiopeia sends one of her allies to bring in some TM's and materials, and it's... Penny! The Eevee backpack hoodie girl. She's being all meek and shy, but, uh, the game basically all but hints that she's most likely Cassiopeia herself. The plot thickens, then, because it seems like our character isn't getting the whole picture about Team Star.

But... yeah. After the very disappointing two gyms and the so-so Titan Klawf, I absolutely love that Team Star -- and the evil teams tend to be the most disappointing part of any given Pokemon game -- ended up somehow being the most thrilling and exciting part of this so far! A boss fight in a Pokemon game that I actually have to focus tends to not really come until the end-game. Good job, Mela!

Random Notes:

• The music for the gym is the one thing that I will never complain about. It's a banger!
• Brassius's Truleewoodo pun is also very funny. 
• I've found out that if you chuck a non-swimming Pokemon into the water, they summon a giant... white Pokeball floating platform to stand on. A bit less primitive than Legends Arceus and its wooden plants, but cute!
  
• I guess the different seasonal versions of Deerling depends on which side of the Paldea region that you encounter them in? Hmm, that's kind of interesting. I saw Oricorio in this game too, and I'm going to assume the four quarters of Paldea also determine the Oricorio forms. 
• I guess a chest Gimmighoul is on top of every single tower? All the ones I go to have had one. I sure am gathering a huge chunk of Gimmighoul Coins from them!
• The reaction to eating a sandwich is, uh.... very... uh... interesting, shall we say. 
• Mela has a pretty sick design. Without contest, she's the first character in this game that feels the most distinctive. 
• Also very awesome about Mela is her fucking theme. The Team Star theme is a banger, and Mela's is even better than that. Most of the music in this game is already pretty neat, as per Nintendo standards, but these two and the gym battle theme are standouts for sure. 
• Current Party: Crocalor, Spidops, Clodsire, Nymble, Dolliv, Naclstack.

Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 5: Classes and Titan Crabs

So because I am a gigantic dork, I went back to Uva Academy and began to basically devour the entire library. Each bookshelf usually has a single book poking out, and I can read those. A lot of them are... real basic stuff usually hidden away in each region's obligatory Pokemon School, like status conditions, types, Tera types and the like... and some fun stuff like the school anthem, the history of Galar (to recap the other main-series Pokemon game in the market right now!) and academy rules about uniforms (the terrible handwave to why customization is limited to four outfits).

And then there are a bunch of books that are a bit more... interesting. There are books about the gym leaders. I've met Katy the patisserie, but apparently there's also some person called Brassius who's well known for his Sunflora-themed artwork, a musician who was so sorrowful that she played a song for her dead dog who rose from the dead... and Professor Turo is a member of the Hall of Fame.

There is also a series of 'Occultist' books about... the Iron Jugulis and Iron Treads and whatnot, which are sightings of beings that are suspected to be related to the UFO -- which are creatures similar to Hydreigon, Delibird, Donphan, Volcarona and Tyranitar. Okay? Arven did talk about a mysterious Donphan within a certain log of exploration to Area Zero or whatever, which at the moment was something that I thought was going to be the five Titans... except I met one of the Titans and it certainly wasn't a robot or any of these five Pokemon listed here. Huh!

And also, I found the Violet Book, which is the very book that Arven was referring to. It's a recording of the expedition of a guy called Heath to the Great Crater of Paldea, with some interesting artwork that really reminds me of the 1st-edition Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks. Or artwork of that period of time, anyway. There are some talks about the journey to the Great Crater and Area Zero, and the Pokemon and geological strata and the map there... and then at one point one of them found strange circular symbols that straight-up look like they're satanic rituals. There are also mysterious plates with inscriptions that no one can leave a scratch on... the aforementioned assault by a gigantic mutant Donphan and some talks about a Cobalion-looking monster...

Sounding very much like something out of a Cthulhu story! Especially when the author Heath apparently strayed away from the team, fell unconscious and scribbled a bunch of designs but having no memory of doing so.

After some photographs of Heath and the original founder of Uva Academy, we go to... an absolutely gloriously creepy sequence of a ■isk P■e■n and the whole page is just pockmarked with ■ as it describes some entity within the crater's depths. There's a very creepy drawing of some... strange... sphere made up of hexagons, glowing like a gemstone, and some sort of chameleon-phoenix-dragon thing perched on it. There's also a crown. 

Okay, Pokemon! You had my curiousity, but now you have my attention. This is a lot of hidden build-up for what I assume is the main story of the game, with whatever the shit's happening with Miraidon and Koraidon. This is way more foreshadowing than the nearly jack-shit that they did with Eternatus in the previous game; and I really do appreciate these images which elevate the creepiness factor like a thousandfold. 

...so of course, after all that creepiness, the next thing I do is... go for all my classes! And each class is like a bite-sized episode kinda dealing with a bit of school life. I think the proper schoolteacher content is going to revolve around me going to the areas and actually talking to the teachers? They do have some introductions with a neat bit of personality, which is definitely something I appreciate -- the non-unique-model NPC's in this game might as well as not exist considering how utterly flat their dialogue have been... even for generic NPC's in a Pokemon game. 

Anyway, first up is Battle Studies with Ms. Dendra, who is a lady in a tracksuit with a Medicham. She sure is hot-blooded, rattles on a bit too much about her age and hobby, and defaults back to HOT BLOODED WORKING OUT. She teaches me about the physical/special split, and... well, I guess I could get the answer wrong?

Math class with Ms. Tyme! She actually notes how math itself isn't a particularly interesting subject, appreciates the students' 'umm' honesty, and then... cuts straight to Pokemon battle mechanics, asking about type effectiveness and multipliers! Okay, I was wondering if I was going to have to do some real math. 

Then Biology, with Mr. Jacq, who we saw before. He just gives me a tutorial on the walking-Pokemon feature. 

Home Economics with Mr. Saguaro, who... has a pretty distinctive design! Huge muscles, pink shirt, funky mustache and hair! Home Economics is one of those subjects that I only ever see in anime or cartoons. He sure does teaches me about cooking and picnics and ingredients and meal power, something that I have completely forgotten all throughout this playthrough, despite actually buying and acquiring some ingredients. Oops!

Then Ms. Rainfort teaches me History, which is basically a recap of the Great Paldea and Area Zero stuff I read from the book. Sorry, Rainfort, I take self-studying very seriously. 

Anyway, with a lot of the area around Cortondo and Los Platos kind of combed clean of most of its Pokemon, I continue going on ahead to explore the huge, maze-like canyon on the East side of Mesagoza. And I absolutely love that the population of Pokemon just basically changed so much, and it's such a refreshing combination of Pokemon from multiple generations. Shinx! Rookidee! Makuhita! Skiddo! None of these guys even debuted in the same generation!

And as I continue just wandering around this canyon area and fighting trainers, Arven calls me and informs me that I've reached the area where the Stony Cliff Titan is lurking about. And, hey, just about time for me to encounter a whole ton of wild Rock-type Klawfs... which are... uh... certainly crabs with spiky joints. Apparently these guys can scuttle forwards instead of moving sideways. Mutant crabs! Mutant crabs!

And as I reach the huge cliff face, I get to see a particularly large Klawf just... pretending to be camouflaged against the rocks. And it's so flat that it's actually well-hidden from other angles, actually. I love that the Klawf's eyes allows it to rotate around and spot me, and the Titan Klawf just... scuttles slowly like a goddamn creepy spider up towards a higher elevation, forcing me to chase it. Very cute behaviour!

The fight against Klawf himself is kind of... well, I guess I kind of expected more after the Noble Pokemon recently in Legends: Arceus, as well as the Totem Pokemon in Sun/Moon, but Klawf is basically just a regular fight with a bit more HP than usual. Which is kind of sad, honestly, since my Smoliv just solos the Klawf without even breaking a sweat with Mega Drain. 

Klawf then jumps off the cliff, smashes the cliff, pulls out a giant glowing pink herb which I assume is the Herba Mystica that Arven is searching for. So this is how the weird ingredient hunt ties into the Titans! The herbs are the ones that persumably makes the titan a mutated! Arven shows up himself at this point and we double-team the Klawf -- me with my Smoliv and him with his Shellder. It really isn't that difficult, again, as I just spam Mega Drain. Klawf does have the Anger Shell ability, which decreases both its defenses and increases its attacks and speed stats, but man is he a pushover. 

Arven finds the Herba Mystica and starts making a sandwich out of the herbs... at which point Miraidon shows up, all but demands the sandwich with the power of puppy-dog-eyes (or the equivalent that an LED-eyed bike-lizard-dragon can have, anyway) and somehow the sandwich unlocks the power of... dashing! Okay, so the Miraidon upgrade storyline is tied to Arven's Titan Hunt!

Interestingly, Arven basically tells me to go off and enjoy my journey while he tidies up... and then the camera lingers on Arven as he apologizes to me, mutters about how 'the coast is clear' and seems to release someone from a Pokeball. He has been edgy and mysterious about why he needs the Herba Mystica, so I do like that there's something more to the otherwise quite boring questline. 

Professor Turo also calls me and tells me to enjoy my journey while confirming that Miraidon's regained his power. Suspicious!

But my big takeaway from this playthrough session is that my Paldean Wooper... evolves! Not into Paldean Quagsire, no, but it's a completely new species called Clodsire. Look at him. Look at this cute buds. This is what I actually wanted Quagsire to turn into -- even derpier and even more huggable and look at this ._________. energy that Clodsire has. I love him. His stubby little feet makes him even more like a dumb-looking salamander... 

And then he uses an attack and those six dots on his back sprout out into horns like Pyukumuku. I'm pretty sure this is most likely a reference to a specific amphibian of some sort. Probably those frogs that can shoot out its young from its back, or that one newt that can push out its ribs? I'm not sure if Pokemon would go that dark? Regardless, I love my Clodsire and he's going to go all the way to my final team. 

I also catch a Nymble! I already have a Bug-type in my party in Spidops, but... we'll see what Nymble evolves into, or if it'll evolve. Really do like Nymble's design, from its eyes to its very spindle-like feet to the very toyetic... reverse-wings thing it's got going on. 

It's a bit of a shorter talk this time around mostly because I rambled on about the books and stuff. I've reached Artazon at the moment of writing, though I haven't really gone through the gym challenge... and... well, as I kind of alluded to above, the town really feels hollow, doesn't it? Artazon is a lot fancier-looking visually than Cortondo, but there's barely any NPC that says anything in the game that's not either generic dialogue or about the gym leader Brassius. Kind of a real shame, honestly, because I really do feel that as hollow as the towns in regions like Kalos or Galar might be, at least each town has an identity that doesn't wholly revolve around the gym leader. 

Random Notes:

• I've been using the Pika-Vee phone case and I just realized that the sprites for Pikachu and Eevee are lifted directly from Pokemon Yellow and they are arranged in a fight! That's adorable. 
• One thing that I haven't really had a good place to mention in my let's play is that when a Pokemon learns a new move, you can actually ask the Pokemon (or, well, the game) about which move it wants to forget in exchange for it. That's cute!
  
• Just like Quagsire, Clodsire has an adorable BWAAAAA mouth-opening animation. 
• I was about to put a Klawf in my party, but... but that dying-rock-grinding noise that Klawf keeps making every time I auto-battle with it just makes me chunk it back into the box and bring out NaCl. Sorry, Klawf. I actually do like your crabby design, but you're a bit annoying. 
• The Pokedex basically tells me that Spidops doesn't evolve any further. Bit of a shame, I was almost hoping that it gains a secondary typing after a second evolution, but I guess I already like Spidops as he is. 

Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 4: Bug Gyms and Evolutions

We're back with more Pokemon Violet! Since the last time I posted, I did mostly just run around the land of Paldea looking for Pokemon and just... exploring. Again, not the biggest fan of Miraidon's design, but he does make exploring a lot speedier and fun. Also, I do really like the auto-battle and the experience scaling, where it makes the battling into something that doesn't instantly gives you multiple raises in levels but still helps you to grind regardless while also interacting with the environment. 

I also take the opportunity to gallivant around Mesagoza a bit. One of the random ladies in the stairways talks about being able to see to my 'past lives', which is a clever way of saying that she gives me the save-file-in-my-Switch bonus. I have all the other Switch games other than the D/P remakes, so from Let's Go Pikachu I get a Pika-Vee case. From Legends: Arceus I get an Arc Phone case, a great call-back to the Arc Phone in that game -- though the Rotom Phone case doesn't have the giant Arceus waist-ring thing. And from Sword I get... the... Ball Guy case. You know what? I'm not even mad, that's kind of hilarious that one of them ends up being a gag.

I also explored the Delibird Presents shop, which has a whole lot of items. Phone cases for people with no previous save files, rather basic held items, and Heal Balls. I am going to assume that these shops will update their inventory as I progress through the game -- which, if you're keeping track, is going to involve beating eight gyms, five Team Star bases, five Titan Pokemon, upgrading Miraidon up to its proper health, and there's the completion of the Pokedex and completing all my classes with a good GPA somewhere tossed in there. 

But I'm really taking things slow. The game none-too-subtly nudges me to go either West or East depending on whether gyms or titans are more appealing, and... well, I guess I'm kind of a traditional player since I kind of go for the gym challenge with Nemona, so I head off West to... I guess the routes are just 'Area One' or whatever? It eventually leads to a series of fields with brown-coloured grass which opens up to a bunch of farmlands, which are inhabited by little swarms of Combees... and the odd level 25 Vespiquen that completely kicks my ass. I avoid them like the plague, just like avoiding those Alpha Rapidashes in Legends: Arceus. 

Lots of older Pokemon here, like Starly, Yungoos, Mareep and the like... I do adore that many of them gather in little flocks and swarms that kinda interact with each other. I guess I tested out some of the Terastralize stuff, and... I still don't like it, though I do like that Pooper the Wooper, whose Terastralize Type is Poison, ends up getting a gigantic, cartoonish and utterly gloriously goofy-looking poisonous purple skull-and-crossbones on its head. 

I start encountering a bunch of newer Pokemon, too, like Smoliv! The smol oliv! It's got the most adorable panicked face ever, and... it's not the first 'plant blob with a face' that we've had. But I don't know. Compared to Bounsweet and Oddish, it is one of the more adorable ones! I actually put it in my party for the type coverage, and mostly because I do find it kinda cute.  

Another new Pokemon is the mangy dog Maschiff! It's a Dark-type, and I'm actually surprised we got a second dog Pokemon in this game considering we already got Fidough! It sure is an angry mastiff dog! Not my favourite dog out there, and until we get a sheepdog or a pomeranian I don't think I'll be ever truly be satisfied with a dog Pokemon, but Maschiff and Fidough are both good boys. 

Also, in all this excitement, Fuecoco evolves into... CROCALOR! Which is, uh... he has a sombrero made out of flames? And when he attacks, the central orb kinda bounces up? I do like that his white face (is it supposed to be a clown?) kind of pops up. Apparently this is a 'valve' connected to his vocal sacs? He's a chonky dinosaur guy, and while Fuecoco is much more adorable, I actually am optimistic of Fuecoco's final evolution if we're remaining dinosaurian.

I also participated, finally, in one of the 'Tera Raid' battles, which are these huge chunky crystals. As with Sword/Shield, I don't have access to the online services, and... I can say that things at least move a lot faster this time around, with all four players' attacks happening at once. I assume that the game also removes that one dipshit who keeps spamming Cosmic Power Sorlock? Also, the lack of repetitive 'toss my stupid giant pokeball' Dynamax animation and the fact that the Terastralized Pokemon all still keep their unique movesets instead of just defaulting into the generic Dyanamaxed moves and its repetitive animations ends up making the battles seemingly a bit more interesting. I did go through a Flabebe and a Meowth raid, and it's all right because it's a lot more snappy. I don't like the Terastralize gimmick, though, so I'm not sure if I care too much to have a Meowth that can temporarily turn into Flying-type or whatever. 

Anyway, I eventually arrive on Cortondo Town, and it's... a small town? I think most of the buildings here are villas, and there's a lot of swimming pools behind the houses. Again, a bit of a shame that we can't go into the houses, but the NPC's do talk about how this place is apparently an olive-harvesting town. There is a big bug-themed bakery with web decorations and whatnot and an upper-floor battle arena. Vivillon of different forms kind of hover all around the area, and I love the smol Smolivs hanging out on top of cars and umbrellas and whatnot. 

Also, I get a cute sneak peek at the Nymbles that hang out with the townsfolk and I got a bit too excited at seeing the cute little bugs that I'm not familiar with!

There's a huge square-shaped gym building and... it's going to get some getting used to seeing the gym not actually be a huge arena filled with puzzles but a glorified receptionist desk. Nemona is there and babbles on about how gyms work, and the receptionist desk sends me off to do my pre-gym puzzle thing... which, in this case, involves me going out of town, and... rolling a giant olive across an obstacle course? 

I didn't have a good time with this obstacle course. The controls were a bit wonky, but that's expected for a gym puzzle... but the nasty, squelching noises from the giant olive just sounds disgusting. And I'm not sure how this has anything to do with the gym leader being a Bug-type leader and also the owner of a bakery? I mean, yeah, sure, there's a talk about olive being an export of the town, but I really do feel like sometimes you probably could've just left the gym as a bunch of trainers and left it at that. 

Anyway, Katy the gym leader is... a bit of an airhead? She's like, all nice and sweet and stuff, constantly forgetting that she's here in her capacity as a gym leader and not as a bakery shop owner. She shows up with a Vivillon and talks about bugs being badass and all... but get this. She doesn't use the fully-evolved Vivillon at all in her fight. I don't know if her gym scales depending on which order I visit the gyms in and I just didn't get to see it, but... she's kind of... disappointing? Admittedly she is the first gym and I brought along the Fire starter, but... it's not the difficulty that's disappointing but her roster. I really honestly didn't think that a Vivillon would be too much here. 

But the battle starts off simple enough. Nymble! That's the cricket we see in the city, and it's pretty adorable, even if Crocalor one-shots it with Ember. A Tarountula is kind of expected. And then... her ace Pokemon is... Teddiursa? Who has a Bug-type Terastralize? 

What? 

So, uh, I really do hope this is a one-time thing, and that the gym leaders won't, y'know, not showcase one of the new Pokemon of the region that's representative of the type they're using and instead use the Terastralize bullshit to not do so. -sigh- They're totally doing it, yeah? Man, that's just disappointing. 

Oh well. I got cupcakes from Katy and also the TM for Pounce, a new Bug-type move that decreases speed. 

Going to something a bit less depressing than Katy's choice of Pokemon are the new Pokemon out there. I just randomly stumble upon Nacli! Which is... what is it? I was a bit bamboozled by it. It looks like something out of Minecraft, and it's like... a mushroom-cupcake thing with square eyes. The Pokedex identifies it as a 'rock salt' Pokemon, and... oh, that's a huge chunk of salt as the 'hat' and the 'mushroom cap' are strata of earth! That's actually pretty cool.

OH! NaCl! Salt! I just got that joke right now hahahahaha what the shit, good job, Nintendo/Game Freak.

I also took this time to walk around and go through the Southern area with Miraidon. There's a trainer that uses a creature called a Tadbulb, which is an Electric-type tadpole that's like... a less horizontal Tympole? That's kind of weird, but okay. I wonder if it's a 'convergent evolution' thing like Wiglett is? 

Speaking of which, I found a bunch of Wiglett in the southern-most shore, hanging out and popping out of the ground and hiding if I come close. Wiglett is Water-type, and is a convergent evolution of Diglett because they're two separate species. I was a bit confused what this means initially, though I obviously know about what convergent evolution means in a biological sense. In a Pokemon sense... both Diglett and Wiglett exist simultaneously in Paldea, and they can't interbreed! Plus, Diglett is a mole, and Wiglett is a pipe eel!

...a disturbingly phallic, pulsating pipe eel, but still a fish regardless!

Going around the Southern area, I also find Flamigo. A glorious punny name. A flamingo amigo! It sure is... kind of basic of a Pokemon? It's Fighting/Flying, which works well for a flamingo, and it has some interesting animations, I suppose, with how its legs bend and how it mouth opens widely, but it's kind of... well, not too different from an average cartoon flamingo? 

I also find a very weird Pokemon near the currently-closed-to-me Pokemon League near Mesagoza. It's called Tandemaus, and... I guess someone wanted to be funny? We've had multiple Pokemon be considered a single species before. Kangaskhan, for sure. Magneton, Klang, Klinklang, Binacle, Barbaracle and Zygarde. Slowbro is also two Pokemon fused together. The fused Kyurem and Necrozma forms. 

But this? Tandemaus is just... two mouse with beady eyes and mouths that open far wider than you'd expect. Two mice that are paired together, get captured together and apparently eat together. But... I don't know. What? What the fuck? Are these twins? A mated pair? A soul split in two bodies? An incestuous mated pair? Go into my box, you creepy mice. 

Also, I've been wondering what that creepy noise I hear in several parts of the overworld are, and... it's apparently a Pokemon called Gimmighoul! Which are these tiny, flat imps that hang around certain places, panics when I approach them, and ninja away leaving a coin for me. Are these like Spiritomb wisps in Legends: Arceus?

I'm not sure what's going on, though, because I climbed up a tower and found a chest, which opens up, Mimic-style, to reveal... a bunch of coins and one of those gremlins in it. This is the full Gimmighoul, a Ghost-type that I capture, and... what's the point of the other solo lonely chest-less Gimmighouls? It's bizarre, and I've elected to carry Gimmighoul in my party even though right now it has only Astonish and Tackle. Such a wacky take on the 'Mimic' trope!

And, of course, my good boy Tarountula evolves into Spidops! It is... not what I expected, but I'm very pleased with this thing! Eyeballs that are on the side of its heads, eight legs, and while it stands upright in the sprite, when I send Spidops out into the overworld it scuttles around like a spider! Creepy! Spidops has a presumably-signature-move called Silk Trap, which is like Protect with some extra debuffs. It's also got a veyr cool Pokedex artwork where it's like showing off its webbing with its arms. 

I've also realized that I can relearn moves on the field, which means Crocalor finally learns a Fire-type move better than Ember, which is Incinerate!

And... that's where I'll stop today. A gym beaten, a bunch of new Pokemon captured, and a whole lot of exploration! Next up I'll probably try and do a Team Star or a Titan takedown, and maybe explore a whole bit in the school!

Random Notes:

• What isn't disappointing about the gym is the gym theme -- and the Galar-inspired crowd chanting. It makes a bit less sense since we aren't in a stadium filled with fans this time around, but it's still definitely hype-inducing and very well done!
  
• There's a guy near every Pokemon Center in the open-world areas that gives me a free TM after I defeat a bunch of trainers in the area he's overseeing. A neat little way to motivate me to hunt down and beat up all the trainers!
• Other Pokemon I've also captured in my wanderings: Bonsly, Surskit, Magikarp, Wingull, Happiny...
• There are giant glowing Pokemon in the field, which in my case is the aforementioned Flying-type Tera Meowth. I thought it was the new indicator for Shiny Pokemon and got excited over nothing.
• The load time being slow is particularly noticeable for loading in my model when I want to buy clothes. 
• Rather disappointed I can't rotate my Pokemon in the 'Pokemon' status screen. 
• Current Party: Crocalor, Spidops, Smoliv, Nacli, Paldean Wooper, Gimmighoul