Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E01 Review: School's In

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 1: Amazing Fantasy

Released earlier this year, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an... interesting show. Part of the push towards having more animated material in the vein of What If, this show was originally promised to the fandom as a 'high school' semi-prequel of MCU's Tom Holland Spider-Man. Which would be a nice, if throwaway, little show that fills in a gap about an MCU character most people care about. 

At some point, it got changed and revised to still be an MCU show, but one that's... in another part of the multiverse, and depicts an 'almost-MCU' Spider-Man. But with almost none of the cast members that makes MCU Spider-Man who he is. A lot of the cast is shuffled around (with only young Aunt May remaining), with a version of Harry Osborn and Norman Osborn being brought in from the parts of the Spider-Man mythos the MCU is unable to tackle; and a grab-bag of more obscure characters like Nico Minoru and Pearl Pangan to fill out Peter's side cast... which, I actually am big enough of a geek to know who these characters are, also feels like there a forced diversity checklist being done by replacing Peter's regular cast with characters that he's never interacted with. 

And, to add into the pile, it really is quite strange just what they could do here, other than the novelty of having another Spider-Man cartoon on the air right now. And... we get to see the origin story of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, in this new continuity, because as he's about to go to orientation on Midtown High, a portal opens and Dr. Strange (MCU cameos, wow!) and a monstrous Symbiote (Venom, wow!) show up and fight and tear the school apart. While all of this is going on, Peter shows off his innate sense of responsibility pre-powers and saves Nico.

Oh, and the entire backstory is revised as well, with the spider that bites Peter Parker coming from the portal (hi, Into The Spider-Verse) and biting Peter during the big fight. Oh, and Uncle Ben has already died off-screen, robbing this Peter of what should've been a major moment of learning the price of not using great power for great responsibility. 

And then we cut to a few months later, where Peter Parker is Spider-Man, swinging around with a rather unflattering homemade suit. This episode sets up Peter's brand-new side-cast. He saves Harry Osborn from a bunch of muggers, and we get to see the rest of the cast in a very infodump-y segment of the school. Fellow geek Nico Minoru is now his best friend; ex-babysitter Pearl Pangan is the girl Peter likes; and Lonnie Lincoln is the jock that gets the girl. Except Lonnie turns out to be a swell guy -- breaking the 'jock bully' stereotype in a slightly better way than MCU's geeky-Flash-Thompson. 

There is... a lot to be said about them changing the traditionally albino African-American Lonnie Lincoln into not being an albino. There are many race and gender swapping done in this cartoon that I'm ambivalent towards, but in this case in particular, I felt like it robs Lonnie of one of his defining character traits. People more qualified than me have commented about this, so I'll move on. 

The episode ends with Peter being scouted for greatness in an almost shot-to-shot copy of the scene where Peter meets Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War, only the rich tech guy mentor in this continuity is, instead... Norman Osborn. 

And that's the end of the first episode. To be honest, part of the bigger criticism about Spider-Man is that his origin story has been told over and over again, and seeing it swapped around so much is definitely an odd choice to make. The giant dump of more obscure characters who are promoted to main characters isn't done in the best manner (and this will continue across at least the show's first two or three episodes) and I'm not the biggest fan of the quasi-3D art style. Some of them work well, and a nice nod to older comics. And some of the action scenes are certainly smooth. But just like What If before it, I'm not the biggest fan of this art style. 

But this episode was... all right. Again, the concept of the show is a bit strange to most of the fandom, and it does admittedly feel like a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' dilemma. Having an overly faithful adaptation of Peter Parker's origin story is something that most superhero fans have seen a dozen times, but changing too much would also lead to a lot of complaints. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's attempts are... respectable. I'm not the biggest fan of this episode, though, mostly because of its structure. It meanders around a fair bit, introduces a lot of characters at once, and takes quite a while to find its footing. Nice cliffhanger as we're introduced to Norman Osborn, though. 

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Notes: I know Ironheart is out right now, but I really don't have the time to watch it right now! YFNSM reviews, meanwhile, have been sitting on my drafts list for quite a while since it initially was released. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• 'New' characters that aren't part of the traditional Spider-Man supporting cast. 
• Nico Minoru is better known as Sister Grimm, a member of the Runaways, a group of teenaged superheroes with powers from different corners of the Marvel universe, battling against their parents after discovering their evil plans. Nico's powers stem from the Staff of One, allowing her to utilize magical powers. The Runaways TV show and its incarnation of Nico is technically part of the MCU, but hasn't been really referenced elsewhere.
• Pearl Pangan, better known as the Filipino superheroine Wave, is a swimmer who was exposed to chemical substances during a supervillain attack, granting her the power to control water, and she is primarily associated with the Agents of Atlas team.
• Lonnie Lincoln, better known as the Spider-Man villain Tombstone, is typically an old-school mob boss in New York City well-known for his albino complexion and the teeth he filed down to look like a vampire. He has menaced both Spider-Man and Daredevil over the years.
• The monster that Doctor Strange and Peter Parker are fighting is a Symbiote monster with Venom's colours, though the physical silhouette does not match Venom's. Notably, after the messy dividing of the sub-aspects of Spider-Man's villains among Marvel and Sony; this is the first time that a Symbiote character has a major role in an MCU project. (Tom Hardy's Venom had a cameo in No Way Home's post-credits scene). 
• The title of the episode, 'Amazing Fantasy', is the the title of the comic run where Spider-Man debuted all the way back in 1962, Amazing Fantasy #15. The comic itself makes a visual cameo in Peter's room. 
• The Daily Bugle's photograph of Spider-Man is a homage to the cover of that comic as well.
• As I mentioned in the body of the review itself, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is set in a universe in the MCU Multiverse. At the very least, MCU staples like a younger Aunt May, Midtown High and Iron Man's presence is present here; and Doctor Strange from another universe (who wields the Time Stone, an MCU signifier; though his outfit is coloured like his comic-book counterpart) appears through a portal.
• No one recognizes Dr. Strange, which is keeping in line with the MCU where Dr. Strange's activities have been secret from the public prior to Infinity War. 
• While not named in the movie it debuted in, 'Shield of the Seraphim' takes its visual animation cues from the shield spell that Dr. Strange and Wong both use in Infinity War.
• This isn't the first Spider-Man who's been bitten by a spider that appeared from another universe -- it was a major plot point for Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. 
• Spider-Man being associated with pizza (and the 'Pizza Time' sign in general) is a running gag in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and became a bit of a meme due to the tie-in PlayStation 2 games. 
• The opening shot of Queens homages the establishing shot from Captain America: Civil War. One of the earliest Spider-Man exploits in that universe (which is shown via a video Tony Stark is watching) is stopping a van that's about to run into a bus. Peter's later return to his and May's apartment is also recreated almost shot-for-shot from Civil War, albeit with Norman in place of Tony. 
• Klev, the 'do a flip' guy from Spider-Man: Homecoming (and the 'bus guy' in Shang-Chi), makes a cameo when Spider-Man goes to try and catch the van. 
• One of the muggers is called 'Stevie Sherman', named after Jack Kirby's assistant. 
• One of the guys on the stream mocks the muggers for being beaten up by 'a guy in hockey pads', a surprising reference to the DC Batman movie The Dark Knight, where Batman makes fun of a fake Batman for doing the same thing. 

Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 3 - Shining Changes!

 So yeah, after clearing out most of the post-Eterna City stuff, I go around trying to build up my team. I ended up training up a pink Shellos and... you know what? I'm getting attached to the little guy. I don't mind if he's a bit lumpier and pinkier than my normally preferred blue variant. But most importantly, I had to wait for a Friday for a Drifloon to spawn on Valley Windworks! Look at him. He's here to kidnap little children but he's too weak to carry them away! I've always had a bit of an affinity to Drifloon. I've never disliked the balloon ghosts, but I've never really loved them. Not before I did this blog, and one of my very first Pokemon articles was a 'Pokemon of the Week' where I rolled on a random number generator and talked about Drifblim. Since then, I've grown to see Drifblim as a bit of a mascot for this little slice of my life that I spend talking about video game monsters -- one of my first shinies in Sword and Shield was also a beautiful neon-yellow Drifblim. Having a Drifloon in a full playthrough is awesome, though!

Anyway, I enter Hearthome City, which... is a bit different than what I remember! Back in Platinum, Fantina is just able to be challenged as the third gym leader. Here, she shows up in front of the contest hall, acts a bit extra, and for no real reason other than Fantina being eccentric she just buggers off and refuses to do her job as a gym leader. Now, I don't mind having gyms that we meet and can't engage with immediately -- the very first gym you encounter in the very first Pokemon game did that! But this just feels rather bizarrely done and narratively not the most satisfying... maybe a couple of extra dialogue lines here would've given us a better reason, y'know? That was why I really liked HeartGold/SoulSilver and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire. They added some extra lines of dialogue to a lot of the NPCs that don't exactly change the story or how you progress, but really does help to tighten up the script a lot. 

(That also applies to the artificial roadblocks. One of the roadblocks in Hearthome City is just a pair of reporters that happen to stand in front of a door. Couldn't it have hurt them to give us something less lazy? Like the sick Psyducks, or have the reporters talking about how they're going to cover a concert, thereby making it a sensible plot progression for them to move after I did the plot-mandated concert? Boo.)

Anyway, Hearthome is big. I get a Shell Bell, which is very cool. There is also a church in Hearthome City, which I completely forgot about. It's a really nice church! It's a bit random since it has no significant NPCs there or any kind of item given, but it also feels like a nice, authentic bit of world-building. I like it! My character's mom, Johanna, turns out to be a contest extraordinaire and gives my character some additional show clothes to wear on stage. Regrettably, it's not something I can use in the overworld. Boo, I say. Boo! 

The concert is a bit different, and unlike the annoyingly and terribly slavish replication of the Poketch, the concert is probably the first non-graphical change they did to the game. Which is just as well, I don't think they could really replicate the whole 'put 2D image decorations around the 2D sprite of your Pokemon' with the 3D models. It's way too much effort for a part of the game that... really isn't all that fun.

I don't remember the Generation IV concerts all that much (Gen III is where I engaged with this minigame a lot) but they've basically simplified almost everything to just two 'instant' judging moments with the poffin appearance, then the Pokeball stickers... and then you get a rhythm game. Which could have been fun, but it's so bland and the animations are so genuinely uninteresting that I don't think it's quite a substitute to the 'each attack has a weird effect on the crowd and the judges' old-school Gen III concerts. 

Poffin-making is also still utterly miserable. That's the most that I have to say about that. 

Anyway, I'm not going to knock on this game for trying its best to adapt a minigame that was originally designed for a completely different interface. 

Much more interesting is how they did Amity Square! It's still the same old 'you can walk with your Pokemon out in this area... but there's not much you can do but have the Pokemon do a variation of Pickup'. It tickles me that in addition to my starter, Grotle, good ol' Drifloon is counted among the handful of non-starters to be able to walk around! It's just the Pikachu-esque mascot Pokemon... and the balloon! God, I love it. Instead of the contest accessories, your Pokemon now picks up pokeball stickers. Either way I don't really care...

Until I walk out of Amity Square, and the staff member tells me that I can have my Pokemon out of the ball anytime. And with any Pokemon, too, not just the dozen or so that is legal in Amity Square. Woo! BD/SP finally did a cool change for once! So yeah, I walk around a bit, and I think that is it for Hearthome. I go down, and I meet Barry for another speedy rival battle, and... it honestly barely registered in my head. Barry's just a ball of hyperactive energy, sugar and caffeine, isn't he? 

With that long detour in the huge city, it's time to set off to... Veilstone. And... and I wish I had something more interesting to say, but it's just basically a long gauntlet of trainers, roads and grassy terrain from Hearthome to the little sleepy town of Solcaeon and then to Veilstone. I did remember this as being one of the weaker parts of Sinnoh, with a lot of trainers and wild Pokemon with very samey rosters and honestly, right after a long stretch of more interesting 'grassy corridor' terrain on pre-Hearthome. 

The little gaggle of Psyducks are still there, being the most adorable, headache-having roadblock in Pokemon history. There is also the rather bland Lost Tower, which I remembered used to be a little bit more interesting in Platinum with a foggy upper level.

At this point, some evolutions did happen. My Grotle evolved into Torterra, my Drifloon into Drifblim, and my Golbat evolved into Crobat. I decided to bring a Crobat along for old times' sake, though I'll try to keep the rest of my party different from my original Sinnoh playthrough. Right now, in addition to those three, I've also got a little pink Shellos, Jirachi and a sixth slot I'm rotating. The rapid rate of evolutions does make me realize just how much the Experience Share is making this game way too easy, although I suppose it will help me play through this game a bit quicker. 

Veilstone City is mostly the same with the old games... with one critical change! As with many other remakes, the gambling den has been gutted. Let me gamble, Nintendo! Let me play slots! But instead of a bad handwave like what they did with some of the other remakes, they just changed it to... a Uniqlo? Well, the 'Metronome Style Shop', allowing me to change into predetermined clothes. Which is nice! I like my character customization, and giving it in a somewhat limited manner is a nice, cheeky way to keep Dawn/Lucas's appearance 'default' for a chunk of the game before opening the selection. I'll be changing the looks as I run around the game -- the designs aren't super spectacular but it's always nice to see it back, especially after Scarlet/Violet did such a non-optimal job with character customization.

And afterwards, I just... fought Maylene. There really wasn't much to her to be honest. I found the design of the gym and pushing the wooden frames to be quite banal -- and I could see why they revamped it to a more interesting (and martial arts inspired) puzzle in Platinum with the punching bags. With a Crobat and a Drifblim leading the charge, I demolished the small horde of Meditites, Machops and Machokes to reach Maylene, whose only real threat was her ace, the Lucario. Which might be a bit of a problem if I don't have a fully-evolved starter Pokemon on the third gym that can Earthquake the heck out of the hadoken doggy.

Maylene really also doesn't care that her city's been apparently taken over by the gangster-like Team Galactic, who has the 'Galactic Building' masquerading as a cosmic energy company. Which honestly is something that I thought that the fourth-generation games did rather poorly -- Team Galactic's goons are so incompetent at even trying to sell the illusion that I didn't even realize that the big spiky HQ was supposed to be a cover story until I talked specifically to the NPC receptionist. I don't think it's until Aether Foundation or even arguably Team Flare that an evil Pokemon team gave a somewhat convincing cover story. 

Anyway, Lucas has his Pokedex stolen by two Galactic grunts guarding a warehouse. We whup the grunts into shape, which is such a short little detour that I don't remember this at all from the original game. This is just a short, random roadblock to getting the HM for Fly (or rather, it's a TM now), which I really felt could've been a lot more interesting on either the enemy or on Lucas's side. 

Oh well. With that done, I'm free to explore what's south of Veilstone, which I believe is going to be Pastoria! I think I've yapped on enough for this to be a full article. I have been having a fair bit of fun playing through Shining Pearl than I thought I would, which is nice. 

Random Notes:

• Jirachi doesn't really learn a lot of moves at this point in time, meaning he has to rely on Confusion and Swift which aren't the best moves out there. I thought that was a nice little balance for using a mythical in my party, though it's also likely that Jirachi will keep getting swapped out as well. 
• One of my favourite fun facts is that Fantina adds random French words in the English localization... but she actually peppers her original Japanese dialogue with random English terms instead. 
• I particularly like how the Hearthome church just has... almost no music. It's a stark contrast to the bright, bubbly music of essentially the rest of the game, making it surprisingly memorable for such a one-note, otherwise throwaway area. 
  
• No, seriously, looking at the original Amity Square list of Pokemon, it's just a bunch of starters, and a bunch of cute Pikachu-esque Pokemon. Jigglypuff, Buneary, Pachirisu, Clefairy... Torchic because of the anime makes sense... and then we've got Shroomish and Drifloon. I absolutely love it. I absolutely love that someone in the Gamefreak team has a wider definition of 'cute Pokemon'. 
• Other nice loot in Hearthome City: I got an Amulet Coin, and some hiker gave me an egg. Oh, and the Pokemon Fan Club is in this city, too. 
• The roughneck with a Cleffa mourning a dead Pokemon killed by Team Galactic -- the one bit of random violence in Diamond/Pearl where Team Galactic is portrayed to be menacing -- is retained here. 
• I am quite disappointed that the 'Winter Style' isn't a continuity nod to the Platinum designs.

One Piece 1152 Review: Tattoo? Tattoo!

One Piece, Chapter 1152: An Awful Day

What a chapter! On the surface, there really isn't a whole ton that happens here other than the beginnings of the flashback. But just like Wano and Egghead's flashbacks, I do really think this one is going to be a big one. The strange mystery behind Harald, Loki and Jarul -- what happened that fateful night when Harald died -- has been a mystery that Oda has successfully built up over the past couple dozen chapters. And I can totally say that unlike Kuma's backstory, I started out with absolutely zero investment in this, and now I'm quite excited to see it unfold!

But before that, we need to go through some present-day scenes. We start off with some characters moving around -- Hajrudin's crew are getting the ship ready to fly; while Chopper notes that he'll have to stay behind to take care for Scopper Gaban. That's all right, I suppose. At this point, however, Loki demands to be freed so he can help our heroes fight the God's Knights, since he's the only one there that has fought them before... which leads to an argument with Hajrudin. 

At this point, too, Gaban very casually drops the fact that there's 'another' that could use Conqueror's Haki among their group. This leads to a rather fun comedic moment where Sanji gets all excited, thinking that he is the one who has unlocked Conqueror's Haki just as Zoro and Jinbe are about to usurp him. Of course, it's actually Zoro that Gaban is referring to. Not a particularly big reveal, although as dialogue implies in the final Wano battles, Zoro doesn't know that he actually has Conqueror's. Or if he does, he's deep in denial. Luffy, actually, knows, since Zoro has been 'oozing off' Conqueror's, but he just assumed Zoro knows. 

Gaban isn't actually pleased at Zoro's Conqueror's Haki, in that Zoro has such a lack of understanding of his power and it's something inexcusable as one of the commanders of a Yonko. It's actually something that's delightfully similar to some of Zoro's own criticisms to other members of the crew (like Luffy in Punk Hazard) about taking things seriously. Between this ignorance of his own status as a conqueror, and the recent -- and concurrently running in the anime, I believe -- stalling-fight against Rob Lucci, is this the start of an actual character arc for Zoro? Finally?

Sanji yells at Gaban, about 'what about me', but while we see a secondary panel of Sanji yelling from behind, whatever is said between Sanji and Gaban is covered up by Hajurdin and Loki yelling at each other. Obviously Oda's playing up the rivalry between Zoro and Sanji, but I do wonder if this is leading to something for everyone's favourite cook.

But the focus of this chapter are the giants. As Hajrudin and Loki argue, Luffy decides to shut things up and yell at Loki to 'join my crew!' Which shocks everyone. Luffy thinks this is a way to get around Hajrudin's complaints, but Hajrudin can't accept this. Zoro and Sanji bring up a lot of logistical questions -- Loki can't fit on the Sunny, and he would consume so much food that even the food he eats can't fit on the ship. And Loki refuses to be the underling of anyone. Luffy himself seems quite happy-go-lucky and convinced that he can beat the shit out of Loki if he misbehaves.

Now I won't say that this is confirmation that Hajrudin will join the Straw Hats, because Luffy has asked everyone from Gaimon to Crocus to Kin'emon's ass to a couple of random Thriller Bark zombies to join his crew before. Loki does really seem to fit the bill better than most, but that's what everyone said about Yamato. And Carrot. And Kin'emon. 

Anyway, back to the story. Gaban agrees with Luffy, telling Hajrudin to release Loki... which Hajrudin protests, because Loki killed Harald, maimed Jarul, and killed 113 castle guard members. Gaban replies that that's what they knew, but he's also reminded of strange Haki emanating off of the castle, and concedes that they might not have the whole story. The idea that Shanks is involved causes Luffy to stay back, and Hajrudin finally relents and decides to hear Loki's backstory. I like the brief moment where Zoro actually gets a bit snarky about Luffy being obsessed with 'this dumb Shanks thing'. Yeah, Luffy has been a bit overly excited about Shanks in this arc, hasn't he? 

As the second-stringers leave, Loki mutters about how cruel it is for him to 'relive that day'...

And we cut to fourteen years ago, when young prince Loki was just a troublemaker, jumping around and terrifying palace guards as he finally returns to the castle. Loki and a knife-less Jarul arrive on the Elbaph Castle. The two argue around a bit, with Loki not being pleased at his father dealing with the World Government, and Loki in particular hates the World Government because they executed Rocks. Meanwhile, Jarul is quite content on Elbaph's future generations not knowing violence and knowing only peace. Loki kicks a guard through a door when he gets all wishy-washy... and is greeted to the horrifying sight of Harald being surrounded and pierced by a dozen spears. The artwork blacks Harald out in silhouette, so we don't know if Harald or the guards have been Domi Reversi'd, or if there is something more going on. 

That's all we see, though, of this myterious day. We cut away to Gaban's house, where Shanks has came visiting... and Shanks has two arms! MOST IMPORTANTLY, more important, I feel, than anything else in this chapter, is that we get to see Shanks's left arm. A rather ominous tattoo is there, and if this is actually a mark of Imu, it actually explains One Piece's biggest plot hole... why Shanks would let a Sea King rip off his arm, since he's established later to be leagues and leagues stronger than said Sea King. It would give so much meaning to his 'bet on the new age'. 

No confirmation either way, but that is so cool. Shanks notes that all he wanted was to sail the seas with Buggy, which is cute. Gaban also calls Shanks the 'child of destiny'. Ripley shows up, her head being as large as the hot bath the two men are in, and gives them some pie. We get a hilarious moment where Shanks almost lets slip the amount of women Gaban's been with during their voyages, which I thought was hilarious. But then he also lets slip that he met Harald in Mary Geoise, confirming that, yes, for some time, Shanks actually did spend time in the Holy Land... and says something ominous about wanting to discuss something with Harald before it's too late. 

We then get a couple of cutscenes of things we already know as the narrator speaks. An explosion of haki from the castle. Panicking guards. People trapped in the castle. Jarul being stabbed through the head... and someone we can assume to be Loki finding the strange, royal Devil Fruit hidden deep within the castle. 

And then we get another flashback!

To 109 years before the present day, where the Giant Warrior Pirates -- with a very young Dorry and Brogy as the leaders -- rampage through the oceans and were the top dogs of their day. Giants were the most terrifying things back then, and we get to see King Harald -- who is an even bigger menace than Loki! A random giant peeks through a castle to look for a princess, but Harald just casually kicks the giant through the castle, and he looks positively demonic with his two devil horns. The narration notes that Harald is 45 years old, but is equivalent to a 15-year-old human in maturity... and he is 'total scum'. This reminds me of the Oden backstory, and I am curious to see where it goes.

And again, a Loki flashback showing what happened 14 years ago is given. Some backstory about Harald is also expected, although I admit I didn't expect a full Harald flashback like this. But I think the Shanks/Gaban stuff really ended up dropping a lot of subtle information between the more obvious reveals. Pretty great chapter all around! 

Random Notes:

• Yamato's Inari Cover Story: Yamato delivers a kasa hat to Kawamatsu, who has became the Daimyo of Hakumai. S'cool! No one seems to react too much to Ulti and Page One hanging around Yamato as her minions. 
• Honestly, there is a bit of a question as to how the other members of the crew don't know that Zoro has Conqueror's Haki, but the ones that are confirmed to be users of Observation Haki are Usopp (who is untrained) and Sanji (who might be in denial). Jinbe, meanwhile, might just be working off the same assumption that Luffy has -- no one made a big deal about it, so he might've just assumed that it's the norm. 
• With Sanji's character, though, I actually wouldn't be surprised if he just doesn't have the disposition to be a Conqueror, since the crux of the Whole Cake Island arc is Sanji finding himself still emotionally yoked to his family and trauma. Sure, he broke free from that, but him needing to properly sort through his emotions before properly unlocking Conqueror's isn't too far off. That is, of course, if he even can. I doubt that Oda's going to leave Sanji behind Zoro all the way until the end of the story; the interesting thing is how he's going to catch up.
• ...and Sanji's been pretty demon-coded, with Ifrit Jambe and Diable Jambe...
• If Loki is our next nakama, I'm sure there are ways to get around the size problem. I bet that Devil Fruit he ate is the solution; he could have a shrunken or flying form that allows him to travel alongside the Straw Hats. 
• This chapter's timelines doesn't really add up, apparently, most notably Gaban and Shanks being a bit confused about how many years it has been since Roger's death. A popular theory is that Elbaph has some kind of time-dilation aura around it, which stems from the ominous warning at the beginning of the arc. I highly doubt that time dilation's going to be a thing here, but there have admittedly been some signs. 
• In the flashback, Loki still wields a giant hammer... but it's not Ragnir.
• Harald totally killed all the inhabitants of that poor castle, didn't he? 

Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 2 - Eterna Wish

Last we left off, we beat up Roark and I begin the slow walk up towards Eterna City, backtracking and going up now that I have Rock Smash. It still is kind of cute that the way HMs are done in this game is by calling random local Bidoofs to come and smash the rocks?

As we exit Jubilife City, Team Galactic Grunts accost Professor Rowan and he gives a rather hilarious line telling me to teach these weirdoes a lesson... something that feels like it should come from a yakuza boss than a well-mannered professor. Rowan ain't taking no bullshit lying down, it seems! A lot of the stuff on the way to Eterna City deals with Team Galactic causing all sorts of chaos as they gather resources, and I think part of why Team Galactic doesn't get a lot of respect among the fandom is that... even the locals keep emphasizing what weirdos these guys are, and how no one understands what they're saying. I mean, Team Galactic does have one of the most generic "we shall create a new world, rah rah" anime villain plot ever, so.

As I slowly make my way to Floaroma Town and enjoy the calming music, I talk to all the NPCs... and I dropped my Switch controller when one of them just very randomly gives me a Jirachi. "Hey, you like stars and wishes, right? Have this Jirachi!" I was so confused, I thought it was going to be a gag (that he gave me a mimic Pokemon or something) because Jirachi doesn't even have anything to do with Generation IV! That NPC's wife explains things out a bit better, because she notes that I've had an adventure in Kanto, so I get a Mew. This is one of those 'past save file' things, and... I was completely and utterly not expecting this. 

I'm not sure if I'll really go around carrying two mythical Pokemon with me throughout the entire playthrough, but I did want to do this game using Pokemon I've not used before. And I most certainly have never used Jirachi or Mew in a playthrough! I think I'll pick one, but at the end of the day it's a really surprising thing that made my day.

The game goes off on a bit of a railroad, forcing me to go to the Valley Windworks, then to the Floaroma Field, then back to the Valley Windworks to beat up all the Team Galactic Grunts that are terrorizing the populace. Again, pretty simple stuff, and one that I feel does a nice job at showcasing how the game works for newer audiences. We slowly unlock a bunch of things throughout this, like being introduced to berry trees and the honey-slathering gimmick (which I'm a fan of).

As I fight through the short Valley Windworks encounter, I'm confronted with Commander Mars and her tanky-for-this-point-in-the-game Purugly. I mean, I wasn't in actual danger since I have a full party of six, but that Purugly did take down some of my Pokemon before my Turtwig takes it out. Around this point, Turtwig does finally evolve into Grotle. Yay! Off-screen, my Starly and Shinx have also evolved into Staravia and Luxio, who probably won't make it all the way to the final team but it's neat as well. 

At this point I get to thinking a bit as to what Pokemon I want on my final team. I'm not attached to anything I've caught on the early routes like Shinx, Bidoof, Starly or Budew. Having passed Valley Windworks, I think it would do Drifloon a bit of a disservice for me not to try and catch one on a Friday and add it to my party. But I'm really drawing a blank on who else I could add.

Anyway, I make my way up north from Floaroma Town through a little gauntlet of trainers before entering Eterna Forest. Always love the little foggy filter it's got even in the older games, and I'm immediately stopped by Cheryl, who battles alongside me throughout Eterna Forest. I've always thought that these 'friend trainers' was a cute concept, but Cheryl and the other ally trainers really don't have enough of a personality in the base game to really matter, and it's not like they recur later on. It is, I think, meant to be more of a way to prevent backtracking in long caves and forests... which kind of isn't a particularly huge problem in the original Diamond & Pearl, and even less so in this game when I'm trying to keep my Pokemon not over-leveled. 

Also, having the double-battle animation with all of the extra animation points of a newer game? It does really make the pacing of any given battle feel much, much longer compared to the original DS game. I got a bit tired of the dragged-out pacing of the double battles and animation, sprayed some repel and just tore through the forest.

Anyway, Eterna Forest is always quite simple -- a bunch of double battles, some bug Pokemon, a couple of uncommon encounters like Buneary... I don't think I have much to say about this one. I did catch a Misdreavus. Maybe I'll use a Mismagius in this playthrough? I'm kind of married to the idea of using a Drifblim, though. I also caught a Shellos, and while I think I'll get the blue variant, I don't mind using Gastrodon as my Water-type for this run. 

Eterna City is up next, and we're immediately exposed to the fact that Team Galactic is going around and making the citizens feel unsafe. They erected a huge, evil-capitalist new office building in the corner of the city; and some of the NPCs have had their Pokemon stolen from them. Actual villainy! I go to the gym first, though, and I am actually surprised -- and kind of pleased -- that I'm allowed to fight the gym without dealing with the city's "villain of the week" problem. 

This is actually the first time I've been through this puzzle, too, since I've only played Platinum for Generation IV, and they changed a bunch of the puzzles. For Eterna City, the Platinum puzzle was a giant flower-clock thing that I have to rotate. Diamond and Pearl's Eterna gym... is a bit more weird, with me having to find a bunch of trainers hiding behind trees and stuff. I imagine it would be a lot easier and more laughable in the original Nintendo DS, but with the angle of the more 3D-ified remake, I guess it's marginally more difficult? 

It's always cute to me that the Eterna City gym trainers actually have Turtwigs... reminds me of random trainers with Bulbasaurs or Squirtles in Gold & Silver. I've always thought that later games made the starter Pokemon feel so special that only you and your rivals ever get to use them, and I sometimes wish that there's a bigger presence for the Grookeys and Rowlets and Froakies in the game they debuted in... but that's what the anime and other secondary games are for, I suppose. 

Anyway, Gardenia herself isn't particularly difficult. Using a Grass Pokemon myself does put me at a neutral ground with her, but Staravia and Jirachi sweep through her team with ease, including her underleveled Roserade. She laughs and sends me off on my way... yeah, Crasher Wake you aren't, Gardenia. You're not trying to investigate all the criminal activity in your town at all!

As I explore Eterna City, I accidentally talk to the 'Underground Man', which gives me the Underground Kit... but unlike 90% of this game, they actually upgraded the Underground with some additional stuff! The mining game (and theoretically, if I ever care to do it, multiplayer) is still there, but there are now nice little caverns in the Grand Underground with overworld Pokemon encounters, a la Let's Go or Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet. The couple of chambers I've entered are somewhat appropriate for an underground area, too, with a watery cavern filled with Psyducks and Gastrodons; and a large generic cave with Geodudes, Zubats and some Budews on the grassy areas. I don't foresee myself really doing a lot of this, but it's a nice bit of exploration I could do while I watch a movie or something, just to unlock every room. 

After all that, I bump into Cynthia for the plot-mandated early meeting. Cynthia gives me the HM for Cut. Which is hilariously enough, still represented by a Bidoof. Is the Poketch HM-rental service going to all feature Bidoof? Is that going to be the big joke? I approve. I attempted to go off to the Old Chateau to get a Rotom, but turns out in BDSP it's post-game exclusive. Boo, I say. Boo! 

Cynthia also points out the weird statue mixing Palkia and Dialga's features, which features a 3D glow-up. I genuinely don't remember if this is something in Legends: Arcus, but probably not, right?

Anyway, I then assault the Eterna Building. Not really much to say about it, most of the Team Galactic dialogue alternate between generic 'NEW WORLD!!!' monologues, or gags in the expense of the grunts that are blindly following and not realizing what's going on. I do find it weird that at one floor, the grunts are all facing laptops on office desks. What are they doing? Scam-calling or something?

Ultimately, I face off against Jupiter, who is holding Rad Rickshaw's Buneary and Clefairy hostage. Jupiter actually managed to KO two of my Pokemon with her Skuntank... I completely forgot that Skuntanks naturally Flamethrower, and my poor Grotle got absolutely annihilated. That is more of a fight than Team Galactic puts out normally! Anyway, Jupiter gets driven off after some talk about 'actually, we won because we got some data'. Apparently, they want to steal Clefairy because Clefairy came from space, which I don't think has anything to do with Team Galactic's actual plans, but okay, sure. 

With that, Rad gives me a free bicycle, and lets me pick a colour based on the Generation I games (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green). By a mis-click I picked green, which is the worst colour visually compared to my character's biking outfit, but I guess that's the subconscious Bulbasaur loyalty for you. Oh, my character also changes clothes when I hop on a bike, and I do think the bike outfit is... not bad. I still would like to customize it at some point, though. 

After clearing out the Cycling Road, I've just been going around catching Pokemon and filling up my Pokedex a bit. Currently my team's made up of Grotle, Jirachi, Shellos, Golbat, Luxio and Bronzor, but I don't foresee holding on to the latter three particularly long.

Random Notes:

• 
  One thing that this remake does great? In-battle backgrounds. They made a background for almost everything, with custom backgrounds for the Eterna gym. I especially like the underground watery-cave!
• After rescuing Rowan, Bebe (the region's Bill) shows up and tells me that she's impressed by my help. In this version of the encounter, Bebe allows me to access the PC remotely, which is an actual upgrade to my capabilities! I'm never a big fan of 'access the PC anywhere in the world' gimmick, but it's inoffensive enough. 
  
• Another item I got -- and I'm not sure from who -- is the Pokeball decorations. It's always been something that existed in Generation IV, but it's also always been kind of a cute but ultimately a huge nothingburger. I think the only times I've ever seen it used are super-basic stuff or to make haha bad words show up. While I tend to have some kind of attachment to most of Pokemon's non-battle, non-exploration gimmicks, this is one I genuinely forgot about. 
• I really do like the Team Galactic OST that plays in both the Valley Windworks and the Eterna Building, with the snappy music and stuff. One of the nicer things about replaying a game or playing a remake is getting to appreciate some of the less-prominent OST pieces.
• I really do like the flowers in Floaroma Town. Ultimately in the original game there wasn't anything super-important here, but it's literally just there to give us a nice little location where they can show off what they can do with the terrain on the NDS at the time. But it's just a nicely pretty place, isn't it?
• The professor's aide that gives me items at different checkpoints in the map is actually Lucas's dad. I completely forgot about this! Although to be fair, Lucas (or Dawn) have always been one of the most bland alternate-protagonists, with most of the characterization going to Barry.
• I've always thought that the Underground stuff should've been introduced in Oreburgh City, which would've made a lot more sense, instead of just a random house in Eterna City that's completely easy to miss if you don't have a habit of checking out every single building. 
• The Psychic trainer model has some genuinely cool texturing representing the orange energy as they hold their Pokeball aloft. I do think it is kind of a huge waste for them to rig all of these 'full-body' trainer designs and only have them show up in brief bursts before and after the battle. 
• Not sure if the ghosts are still there, but I couldn't get the creepy butler or the girl to spawn in the Old Chateau. One of the Beethoven paintings on the wall have glowing eyes that disappear if I get close, though. 

One Piece 1150-1151 Review: Hell-baph

One Piece, Chapter 1150: Domi Reversi; Chapter 1151: I Get the Idea

So yeah, this review came a bit late as well, but thankfully we've got a break week. By the next chapter, I should be able to do One Piece in a reasonably timely manner. 

But chapter 1150,  'Domi Reverse', is... one hell of a chapter, huh? Pun fully intended. 

But after Imu possessed Gunko at the end of 1149, we get to see a group of giants finally arrive on the scene, trying to save the kids -- who are panicking and yelling about how Ya-san fell and the scary lady got even scarier... and Imu-Gunko (who I'll be calling Imu until further notice) just gets pissed and unleashes one hell of a blast of Conqueror's Haki. It doesn't just knock out a bunch of the giant pirates and the nearby kids, but the blast was wide enough to even get civilians all the way in the village where Jarul is. Which is an impressive showcase of long-range Haki for sure! Not to mention the badass artwork of her menacingly flying with massive devil wings, a devil tail and a devil trident. Really playing on the classical cartoon imagery! Except, y'know, a hot anime girl. 

Imu then creates a magical circle with two cannon tips poking out of it, and starts shooting some of the fodder giant. Which... yeah, I know a lot of genres where devilkind and guns exist in the same setting, but with Imu having been shown as a much more 'traditional' or magical being, it's so weird that all throughout this chapter she keeps summoning firearms. 

Imu then criticizes Killingham's Mumas (which Viz has translated cutely into 'Sleeptids'), and we get to learn a bit more on how Killingham's powers work. The Mumas/Sleeptids keep coming out of 'Nightmare Holes' -- resembling spawning points in a video game, and even the existing ones that have been taken out technically can just keep getting back up due to them 'coming from a realm where death is not a concept' -- which is such a metal thing to say. 

Team Robin, still bound, watch as Sommers starts getting up. Robin in particular is trying to tear the thorns apart irrespective of the damage being done to her person, because at this point she's not going to sit around doing nothing. We get to see Sommers' arm, slowly regenerating with holes all over, as he's kowtowing to Imu. 

And interestingly -- and this, I think, plays into Imu's role as 'King of the Empty Throne' -- because whatever her devil powers are, it seems that it ties into the concept of kingdoms and kings in general, something that is a bit rarer to see in One Piece. Imu and Sommers briefly discuss that Elbaph is a nation without kings and they needed someone to parlay... and Imu floats in front of Dorry and Brogy and 'appoint them as kings'. 

Which... you can do that? You can... just do that? Okay, sure. 

The giants really don't give two shits about the weird, cryptic stuff that Imu is saying. We get a badass shot of Brogy just lashing out and grabbing Imu and preparing to crush her like a doll. As Brogy rages, Imu is completely unbothered. She summons a book, a magical grimoire, out of her hand, before conjuring a knife and a gigantic fuck-off pirate double-barreled flintlock pistol. Imu continues to talk something that sounds like hypnosis or whatever, telling Brogy that he'll go and behead Jarul and declare that he and Dorry are the Kings of Elbaph. 

Ignoring Brogy's protests, Imu just stabs his arm, then uses the giant pistol to literally blast a giant hole in Brogy's arm. Like, the entirety of his wrist is gone! I was actually surprised to see this, which is a bit weird because we saw Sommers getting quite brutalized last chapter. But I guess Oda has been playing it so safe with even maiming his good guys that it's an actual surprise that Brogy is in actual pain. Imu continues to monologue, telling Brogy that she's going to give him the power of evil, and in exchange for 'some measure of thy lifespan', she's giving Brogy undying body, uncanny strength, but also unbound by logic and bound to her. 

Which sounds like the terms of a regular demonic contract, except Brogy agreed to nothing and Imu is quite literally forcing this on him. The process is quite nasty, too. It's nothing graphic, but a giant magical circle appears below Brogy and this... flips him around. This is the titular "Domi Reversi", with Brogy sinking into the magical circle, it being flipped around to show his shadowy legs, and then Brogy rises up as a super-giant with demonic horns, fangs, wings, and even a new badass axe. Most cool is the fact that his left hand is just hovering there in place, with the wounds of Imu's gunshot still being there... but the arm's just hovering as if it's connected by invisible flesh. That's really nice. 

And let's not get into the fact that horns have been highlighted earlier in this arc by the connections to Ancient Giants! And Brogy grew into a size that dwarfs the other giants; coincidentally the same size gap that someone like Loki or Oars would be in. 

But Brogy just rampages, knocking aside three of his giant minions with ease. Imu also 'gets' Dorry mostly off-screen. Rather terrifyingly, neither Brogy nor Dorry are entirely mindless beasts or clearly noncompliant like the Dressrosa King Riku had been. No, Dorry and Brogy are completely under Imu's thrall, repeating her orders to kill Jarul. They also transform anyone caught between them into demonic giants as well -- which is a nod to the board game reversi (othello is the name I know this game by) that the next chapter explains a lot better. 

1150 ends with a massive nightmare scape with Demon Dorry, Demon Brogy, a bunch of demonized giants, the revived Mumas, and Imu declaring that this is the power of Elbaph as regular giants run away from the utter titans stomping around trees like they are shrubbery. Imu notes that she will rule over Elbaph and utilize it well. In the village, Jarul refuses to run, noting that true warriors never run away from war. 

It's such a huge twist, isn't it? Every single page there's something new and unexpected as Imu really plays into what the fandom has more or less guessed about her powers from context clues and familiarity with fantasy tropes. She's demon-themed! But the possession, the casual forced 'devil deals', summoning giant pistols out of a magical book, and the whole reversal giants thing? It's a very fun twist to the situation that feels a lot  more impactful than 'oh, Gunko took out Gaban'. Which is already cool, but this is cooler -- you get the feeling that this is just a fraction of what Imu can do, and this also really shows off just how much she's turned the side of the board, what with there being so many named good guys fighting against like three God's Knights in previous chapters. 

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We continue with 1151, which is a bit less interesting to me... but hardly anything can top 1150, yeah? We start off with Oimo and Kashii, the other named members of the Giant Warrior Pirates, trying to stop Brogy and Dorry. And we see that whatever Imu did to them has really twisted their minds to give their own justifications to whatever they're saying. Kashii tries to appeal to logic, but Brogy and Dorry roar about how they're going to force the now-feeble Jarul into retirement; and how the two of them will be Kings of Elbaph and bring on the age of war. 

We then get to see the 'reversi' gimmick in place, complete with an illustration of a reversi board. Thormann, one of the other pirates, push Kashii out of the way. But as this places him in a diagonal line in-between Brogy and Dorry, this turns Thormann into a demon as well. Again, absolutely unhinged and creative way to incorporate demons rising from hell, with the flipping to get evil counterparts being evocative of a game piece being flipped. And we have seen Cipher Pol agents playing with board games before to represent a battlefield, haven't they? 

There is a short scene of Ripley, Bent's mom (Bent's the kid afraid of his own mom) and a bunch of other mothers coming in to do something. Meanwhile, cartoon devils start pouring out of Killingham's Nightmare Rifts as the children start dreaming of 'oh no, scary devil' after all the exposure to Imu. Some more of the defeated nightmares start waking back up as Killingham continues to rant and rave. We've apparently been previously seeing his full beast mode, which is the serpentine, draconic one. But this chapter gives us Killingham's hybrid design, which gives him a centaur lower body and a very badass 'bad boy' face. He went from looking like the friendliest of the God's Knights, like a little goober, into the most psychotic looking one of them! Killingham is all excited now that his boss is here, and he's definitely rounding up these Nightmares to fight. 

There is a nice short scene later when Killingham notes that the board is all on their favour, but Imu just wants to break Elbaph's heart, noting that they would've been able to control Elbaph if not for Harald's failure. Again, more hints that Harald has been working with the World Government... but with the realization that Imu is able to non-consensually turn people evil, I do wonder just how much of that is involved here. 

We also get a nice, short scene of Usopp yelling at Brogy and Dorry, asking them where their warrior's pride went. Usopp! I hope you get something cool to do in this arc. 

The second half of the chapter flashes back to events that happen concurrently with the start of 1150. Chopper leaps down to rescue Gaban, panics a bit, before Looney-Tunes runs down the air and turning into Guard Point to catch the falling Gaban. As they fall down safely, Loki and Luffy realize the new arrival. Rather interestingly, Luffy is able to instantly recognize that it's Chopper, pointing to some form of development in his Observation Haki or the still-ever-nebulous Voice of All Things. 

We also get a short scene of 'Mosa/Shaggy' calling Loki, and I really don't know what to make of this scene other than it just being more setup. Mosa treats this call as a goodbye to Loki, saying that this is going to be probably his last call and thanks Loki for everything. Mosa seems to be in danger, and Loki actually panics at this. Both of them are really opaque, though, yelling about 'that place' and 'this' and 'that' and not giving any specifics, so all we have really are theories. It is cute to see Gerd finding it somewhat heartwarming to know that Loki has a friend even in this icy hell. 

Off-screen, Luffy gets the explanation that Gaban is a member of the Roger Pirates, which shocks the hell out of Luffy... and we get an absolute comedic peak as they discuss about the position of Gaban as the third-strongest of the crew,  only for Gaban to lift two fingers even though he's half-unconscious. It's at this point that Luffy and gang notice the explosion of Haki at the beginning of 1150 when Imu was knocking out the giants... and we get a badass shot of Hajrudin, Luffy and Loki as they prepare to battle. 

Now it's more like it! More threats, more situations that are a bit more tense, and something for the monster trio and the giant royal brothers to do something. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of the Mosa story (it's either Jarul or a new character, neither of which are super appealing to me) but the potential of the Loki/Harald backstory does seem like it's really going to be fun. 

Anyway, I'm caught up in reviews now. It's not my best work, I know, but we're here and we can continue once 1152 comes out!

Random Notes:

• Yamato Pilgrimage Cover Story: Yamato places Yasuie's sword on the shrine in 1150, and then continues on her journey and beats up some sumo champion in 1151. Apparently people thought the cover story was going to be over in 1150 with the wording and the image shown, and I can't really blame them. I'm not sure if the other regions are going to give us substantial interesting content, but here we are. 
• I think there has been some theory when the Gorosei were mucking around that the potential difference between the strange 'devil powers' is that they might not be able to use Haki. I think Imu's little display put the final nail on the coffin on that; and the God's Knights have definitely been shown using Armament here and there.
  
• People are calling out Black Clover comparisons, but honestly sorcerers and wizards have been shown using books to summon items since forever. I see more Chrollo Lulcifer from Hunter x Hunter myself, honestly. 
• The spell of Imu's Diabolical  Covenant is originally 'akuwaru' in Japanese, which is a combination of 'aku' and 'waru', both words that mean 'evil' in different contexts. Hilariously,  some scans decided that this was a spell called 'A-Querl' or something along those lines. 
• Kirins are really kind of weird, sometimes being depicted on a spectrum of equine and draconic features, so I really do find it interesting how Oda decides to interpret this for Killingham's two beast modes. 
• Killingham notably does have sharp teeth, making people think that he might be part-Fishman... but with the Celestial Dragons being so racist I really don't think they would stand for that. 
• Chopper is based on Rudolph, so of course he can run in the air. Less comedically, people have theorized if this is him unlocking some variation of Geppo. 
• Hajrudin and Loki were arguing about their dad when Chopper's fall interrupted them. Interestingly, under all his brusque confrontationist attitude, Loki never denies that he killed his dad, but gets angry when they think he did it in cold blood. "He was my dad too!" So this argument happening around the time Domi Reversi was established is really interesting. 

Reviewing Magic: The Gathering #9 - Alliances

Welcome to the next part of my coverage of Magic: The Gathering. This time, we're covering 'Alliances', which is the sequel set to the 'Ice Age' set. Alliances is the conclusion to the story that Ice Age has set up -- with the intervention of the mighty nature planeswalker Freyalise, the climate change is reversed and the ice age itself is starting to melt. However, the evil necromancer Lim-Dûl still has his designs on Dominaria, forcing the rest of the forces to band up in the titular 'alliances' to stand against him. And while all of this is going on, the rest of Dominaria have to adapt to these god-like planeswalkers casting World-level Enchantments, dealing with a global heating this time instead of cooling.  

Mechanics-wise, Alliances would follow the theme of 'smaller' blocks expanding upon the major mechanics introduced in its bigger block, so we've got a bunch of tie-ins to Ice Age like snow lands and more cumulative upkeep. Alliances does introduce cards that have an alternate cost to casting it -- exiling cards instead of mana.

It's also worth noting that the structure of the three sets that make up the Ice Age block is a little inconsistent, with Homelands, the second set, being completely independent from Ice Age and Alliances. Much, much later, MTG would release a set called 'Coldsnap' to kind of 'replace' Homelands, which I've always thought wasa bit of a weird move. But we won't reach Coldsnap for a while. 

• Click here for the previous part, Homelands
• Click here for the next part, Mirage.
• Click here for the index.

[Originally released as 'Homelands' in August 2019; rewritten in April 2025]

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We'll start off with Lim-Dûl's High Guard. He could have been a generic skeleton, but I like how weird he is! In addition to his weird, asymmetrical helmet, he's got two arms sprouting out of his left shoulder, and a chain attached to his right shoulder. Very skinny bones, too! I can totally believe that the weirdness of his arm layout is what accounts for his 'First Strike' ability. And, of course, most older skeletons have regenerate to represent the ability of them putting themselves together after being scattered. 

Balduvian Dead is, I think, meant to be undead versions of Balduvian Barbarians from Ice Age. That's a nice little story across the expansions, showing that Lim-Dûl's forces managed to reach Balduvian and turned those poor barbarians into zombies. The center guy even still has his beard! We've got a nice little nod to their origin as Red-mana cards with the Balduvian Dead requiring red mana to activate its ability, which transforms one of the dead creatures in the graveyard into a 'Graveborn' token. 

Notably, thanks to the way the card is originally worded, this means that the token's creature type is 'Graveborn'. And since they apparently can't errata it because of... reasons I'm not sure about, Graveborn remains a token-exclusive creature type until today.

Insidious Bookworms has a pretty hilarious name... and it's actual worms! Real-life bookworms tend to be larvae of various insects, but it's just a 'worm' here. They're just scuttling around this pile of books. Having the bookworm eat cards from your opponent's hand is kind of flavourful, though I'm honestly not quite sure where the flavour is in having this effect happen when the Bookworm itself dies. 

Krovikan Horror is another Horror, though, again, the flavour of 'Horror' versus something like 'spirit' or 'undead' or 'demon' really is blurred. Pretty cool artwork, of this strange, phallic monster wrapping its tentacles around its victim's neck and draining... something green from his eyes and mouth. It's also got two strange appendages that end in little candle-flames jutting out of its shoulders. Creepy face, too. Shame that we don't really get any flavour text about him, I kind of want to know what he's all about. 

Krovikan Horror has an effect that's been since discontinued, where it cares about the order of cards (notice that it says a summon/creature card directly above it) in your graveyard, something that's a bit difficult to keep track of in a real game. 

Phantasmal Fiend, an Illusion creature, is a pretty neat one that shows the same creature from different angles. The first one shows off the ghoul in his full glory, and I like how he's half-transparent and shows off the colour of the doorway behind him. Pretty simple 'demon man' design -- hooved feet, long insect-like feet, and a skull-face with huge tusks. Phantasmal Fiend has an ability that swaps around its power and toughness, because that does feel like something that an 'illusion' can do, can't it? It works off Blue mana, too, steadily building up the idea of cards benefiting from putting it in a deck that has access to its 'ally' colours.

Swamp Mosquito! Mosquitoes are assholes, and I think this is our first mosquito, right? Although it's just considered an 'Insect' creature, because MTG only ever really gets super-specific with real-life animals if they're mammals. Swamp Mosquito is a simple giant mosquito, but it deals damage with the 'poison counters' we've seen before -- gain ten and you lose the game immediately! Notably hard to do with the Swamp Mosquito having a 0/1 statline. I guess this represents a disease that the mosquito spreads to you?

Both artworks for Phyrexian Boon here are pretty great, showing just how utterly strange and abstract the fleshy body-horror not-demons are. Back in these earlier sets the Phyrexians don't quite have the identity of the flesh-cyborgs that they are now, and are a bit more nebulous. I like the art on the left showing = almost human-like hands granting a bright-blue boon from a tentacle; but the art on the right shows the arms writhing and wrapping around that man, seemingly consuming it. 

It fits with the effect of the card as well, being an enchantment that can either buff or debuff a creature depending on its colour identity. Later on Phyrexians would have more colour identities than the simplistic "villain = Black Mana" we have here, but it does fit with the idea of Phyrexian power being a dangerous, forbidden Pandora's Box to those that aren't actually receptive to its ideologies and power. 

Speaking of obscure creature types that's still supported... Spiny Starfish! Starfishes are still a supported type, but I don't think any is as weird as the Spiny Starfish here. It's standing on two of its legs, and appears to be lobbing regular starfishes as if they're shuriken. That's a hilarious mental image! The Spiny Starfish is able to 'regenerate', representing the real life starfishes' ability to regenerate lost limbs... but as it does so, it creates more starfish tokens! It's not exactly accurate becuase starfish limb regrowth isn't exactly mitosis, but it's cute. 

Elementals tend to be a genie-like humanoid body in most fantasy settings, but we've blown through those in MTG's first expansion. Storm Elemental is pretty cool, yeah? It's got a weird bat-like body, a massive stinger tail that looks more organic than the rest of it, and its face is a bizarre combination of fish and cyclops. On its cheek are seemingly vestigial claws that just jut out from his body without any clear ability to actually function as hands... which would be weird on a regular creature, but on an 'elemental'? Sure!

We have a surprise new Homarid with Viscerid Drone. Remember we last saw the Homraids in Fallen Empires, but apparently after the Ice Age, these Homarids seemingly... mutated? The Viscerid Drone is still identified as a Homarid, but presumably it's evolved a somewhat centaur-like body that allows it to stomp out of the water into land? Its effect has it interact with Swamps. It's really hard to tell, though, since the Homarids from Fallen Empires never quite had a particularly consistent body shape. Judging by the flavour text, apparently these Viscerids are causing some unnatural flooding. 

Viscerid Armor is an enchantment that shows a blue-gray Viscerid wearing orange armour lashed together with what looks like string. The fantasy isn't quite well-showcased in the mechanic as the Thrulls from Fallen Empires, though apparently the Viscerids run around doubling up on lobster armour.

Phantasmal Sphere is another Illusion creature, and a creepy one! I find it creepier than the Phantasmal Fiend. This thing is just a swirling vortex of blue energy, with its underside cracking open and extending... tentacles or tendrils of red energy around whatever that yellow orb is. Apparently, whenever the Phantasmal Sphere dies (which is inevitable due to its upkeep event) it makes a smaller 'Orb token' for your enemy. (Which, like Graveborn, is a creature type specific to the token generated by this card) So I guess it's betraying you? I find the art super-cool, but I'm not sure how the fantasy really works. 

Storm Crow! I like Storm Crow. It's a bird trailing storm clouds, and this artwork has particularly long legs that make it look rather unnatural. I almost wished that the card had something more going on for it, because it's just a flying 1/2. 

A bit of an infamous card, Force of Will is a very powerful instant spell that allows you to counter a spell at instant speed for zero mana. You essentially just lose 1 life and exile a Blue card from the game. Very powerful and quite an expensive card. Not my favourite flavour, though, mostly because the artwork shows a resilient-looking barbarian. Future printings of Force of Will tend to show off more 'Blue Mana' mages blocking spells with the force of their mind. 

Speaking of cheap counters, Arcane Denial (which also has a very cool artwork of a mage blocking some kind of effect) is an instant that counters a spell and draws a card, which made it relatively cheap to slot into most decks, and made a rule that this kind of counter-plus-bonus effects needed at least two blue so that you can't just add Arcane Denial to any deck. 

Okay, wow, look at that artwork for Thought Lash. That poor lady is babbling some nonsense, but her head has mutated into an upside-down beast-skull with a fleshy tongue that seems to start off with the disturbing consistency of her brain. What the hell! That's quite creepy, and it's just kind of a shame that the effect is quite incongruous with the card art -- Thought Lash allows you to remove the top card of your library to prevent one measly damage. 

"I shape my weapons from the fears of my enemies". Okay, Awesome Presence, that is a very intimidating mass of yellow thorns, claws and tentacles that's being summoned there! Awesome Presence makes it so that a creature enchanted with this is so fearsome and terrifying that creatures need to be buffed with 3 extra mana to block this thing. The fact that it doesn't actually change any of the stats means that this is fully an illusion! 

Browse features a very primitive version of the mechanic later on known to be 'scry'. It's overcosted for its effect here, sure, but it allows you to essentially fix your next draw. That blue-skinned orc (?) looks particularly cute, too, as he shows off why you end up exiling the other cards -- he's literally ripping up pages and tossing them as he looks for the information he wants. As good ol' Jaya Ballard notes, "once great literature - now great litter".

Lat-Nam was mentioned all the way back in Antiquities, and we get a bit of a callback here. Lat-Nam's Legacy shows a wizard of some sort looking through a library of scrolls for the ancient wisdoms of Lat-Nam (represented as a drawing card effect) but most fun is the small squad of blue tiny men that's scuttling around the library helping her move scrolls. The one on the top right seems to be kicking a book in frustration! 

Deadly Insect is a very weird bug! It's just a 6/1 with the ability we'd later know as 'Shroud' -- which just means that it can't be targeted by spells of any players. The flavour text, however, talks about how deadly it is, which leads me to wonder if it was initially supposed to have an effect more similar to Deathtouch or even poison counters. This close-up artwork shows a rather whimsical-looking design, with a wacky, angular neck and a triangular head; a pair of mantis claws, and an abdomen that's connected to its thorax with a way too thin piece of flesh. At first, I thought that flower was part of its anatomy, like a anglerfish lure, but it doesn't seem to be connected to the Deadly Insect's body. It looks ready to kill that bird regardless, though. 

Splintering Wind creates a 'Splinter' token. Again, just like 'Orb' and 'Graveborn', since the card text specifies the token as a 'Splinter', this also means that Splinter is somehow still a creature type nowadays. Are these fairies flying around with their leafy wings and engorged stomachs, and explode into splintery wooden shards? That's... that's surprisingly graphic and uncomfortable looking, moreso than the outright gore in some of these cards. 

Yavimaya Ancients is another take on the Treefolks, but this one is probably one of my favourite in that it's 'tree' first and 'humanoid' second. The roots look like both scuttling legs and roots, and while there's a screaming face scaring that rider and her horse, the treefolk's face really looks like it's part of the natural grooves in the bark. 

Oh, hey, Elvish Bard! I think this is the first 'bard' creature, after the D&D crossover set introduced Bard (which is one of their most iconic classes) into MTG. The effect is quite similar to a reversal of what would become the 'goad' mechanic, with the bard forcing creatures that don't want to block it to do so. I'm not sure what that giant head in the background is, is that suppoesd to be a giant looming as the bard plays to his animal friends? 

Not our first gorillas (or 'apes', now) but we've got a couple of them. Gorilla Berserkers are a pair of really angry gorillas decked with some armour. Very Planet of the Apes. It's got Trample, and a variation of Menace -- it needs to be blocked by at least 3 creatures. It also gets Rampage, which allows it to become stronger if it's blocked by more than one creature. Cute combination of keywords!

Gargantuan Gorilla is obviously a King Kong reference, though he's not actually climbing a tree or a tower or a mountain. He's an angry gorilla, though, demanding you to sacrifice a forest or the Gargantuan Gorilla dies and deals damage to you. He also gains Trample if you sacrifice a snow-covered forest. Its tapped ability is a version of the 'Fight' mechanic later on, where you can force combat between two creatures. Not particularly sold on the flavour of this card, to be honest, but I like the ambition of the card-makers. 

Yavimaya Ants is a horde of ants, identified initially as a 'Swarm' though later retconned into just being 'Insect'. It's that trope of an unending wave of of army ants marching through a jungle. The ant we get a close-up of has a pretty spiky-looking carapace that doesn't look like any real-life ant I've seen -- those ridges almost look leaf-like. It's got Trample and Haste, and the devouring horde is flavoured as it literally consuming your forests as a cumulative upkeep. One of the cuter flavourings of that keyword I've seen!

Chaos Harlequin is just a human clown, and a rather chaotic one! He's not gotten errata'd to get the relatively newer 'Clown' creature type at the time of me writing this, but he should be. I like that he's surrounded by little fiery sprites, and his hair is also on fire. The Harlequin's effect is quite bad, exiling a card from your deck for essentially a coin's flip on buffing or de-buffing the card for a turn. The essence of randomness is cute, but the effect is minimal and the cost and risk are both so huge. 

Most of the gorillas are in green, but Red gets a couple of gorillas like Gorilla Shaman. This particular gorilla has a nicely manic look on his face as he glares at a collection of skulls presumably harvested from his enemies. The effect is rather overcosted for the destruction of an artifact. Also, we've got the return of Jaya Ballard in the flavour text of red cards!

The gorillas really hate artifacts, as the gorilla-themed sorcery Primitive Justice also has an artifact-destroying effect, though I'm not sure what the artwork is depicting. It looks more like the gorilla is skinning some kind of giant corpse? They do want you to build a Red/Green deck with the gorillas, with Primitive Justice synergizing with Green mana.

I genuinely don't have much to say about Red the most this time around. A significant portion of the Red cards are just Balduvian berserkers  Rogue Skycaptain has a cool artwork of a knight riding a giant hawk, and the idea that he's a 'mercenary' is reflected by you needing to pay mana for 'wage counters', otherwise the Rogue Skycaptain switches sides. That does make the card rather terrible, but I really like the flavour. 

I do want to highlight Death Spark's artwork because I'm not sure what the context is. The card effect fits with the name of 'death spark', allowing the caster to return Death Spark to his hand if a creature card enters the graveyard above it, but the artwork seems to show a chain-lightning-style effect piercing three heads in a row... and these screaming victims are submerged in what seems to be water? But the guy at the most back has a skeletal face, as if the three heads are progressively turning more decayed as we go to the back of the row? Very strange!

WHO'S A GOOD BOY, WHO'S A GOOD BOY? Clearly those mounts of the Kjeldoran Scout. I know nothing about the kingdom of Kjeldor, but clearly they are in the right here. Look at their knights! They ride huge horse-sized dogs with barding! And these knights aren't bothering anybody, they're just guarding trade routes between Karplusan and Balduvia and being proud at forming one of the titular alliances. And that dog in the second picture looks delightfully happy, too, with the tongue lolling to the side. 

Gargoyles hasn't been the most popular creature type, but the very first gargoyle in MTG appeared in Red. I think the combination of the more sinister gargoyles from Dungeons & Dragons and Warcraft have tainted the idea of gargoyles in my head. They're sinister-looking, too, which is intentional... but gargoyles are, in real life, associated with churches and guarding it, right? And it actually makes sense that MTG would turn gargoyles into a primarily-white creature type, with Ivory Gargoyle here being the first. Pretty nice design, too, a devil-man with a head that's a mixture of human, bat and lion features with Quinton Hoover's fancy backgrounds. This gargoyle keeps coming back from the graveyard at the cost of denying you a card draw. 

The Carrier Pigeon is quite cute! I like that this art showcases the human attaching a package on a cute adorable little reverse-backpack on the bird. Kjeldor has previously been established to be a kingdom with a lot of knights mounted on giant birds, so it's actually a cute little flavour that they've got regular-sized birds as well. The message given to you by the Carrier Pigeon is represented by exactly one (1) card draw. 

A lot of these double-artwork cards really do tell a nice story, and I think White having a lot of 'group together against powerful beasts' cards makes absolute sense. Reprisal shows small groups of what appears to be regular townfolk just fighting against these giant, monstrous beasts. "The meek shall fight as one", as one of the flavour text notes, and I like that the card effect specifically targets large, powerful creatures with power 4 or greater.

The first artwork showcases a dinosaur-dog creature with red scales, almost resembling a monstrous version of the Chinese lion dances. The second artwork has my favourite creature, thought, with a four-legged creature that has a flattened hammerhead shark head. 

Unlikely Alliance here is interesting. The artwork here is originally titled "Marriage of Convenience", with the card effect representing something similar to the famous White-mana removal Swords to Plowshares. Where Swords to Plowshares represented the exiled creature going off to be a farmer, Marriage of Convenience would've represented the exiled creature getting married off. And look at this card! A fancy noble with a 17th-century-style wig, getting married to a green-skinned cyclops with... interesting clothing. The parents in the background seem quite pleased, too. Ultimately, the effect they wanted to give to 'Marriage of Convenience' was deemed too powerful for a 'silly' artwork like this*, and some shuffling of effects was done until Unlikely Alliance was turned into an Enchantment that buffs a creature temporarily. 

*Ironic, considering modern day MTG explicitly has some jokey sets printed to be extremely powerful...

The original effect that Unlikely Alliance/Marriage of Convenience was supposed to have was given to Exile, which implies that the creature removed from the game is exiled to that remote castle. Exile would lend its name to this effect specifically, being removed entirely from game in a way that's not death, hence bypassing the graveyard. And it is interesting to find out that it was originally flavoured to be exiled away! Modern-day exile effects tend to be flavoured more like being removed from this plane of existence with a magical portal or something. 

Multi-coloured creatures now, and I think we need to start off with Phelddagrif. It's a cartoon purple hippo with two angelic wings that look ridiculously thin to support the girth of the hippo. Maybe that's why you need to pump the Phelddagrif with White mana and to give your opponent some health for the hippo to fly. In fact, the Phelddagrif's three abilities all give your opponent some benefit in some way. The Phelddagrif is a creature type original to MTG and have only shown up on this card and in joke sets.

That's because Phelddagrif is an anagram of (Richard) Garfield, PhD, the most famous creator of the Magic game. And they decide to immortalize him in his game as a hippo! A cute hippo, too. That explains why he's legendary!

Lord of Tresserhorn is a legendary zombie with a rather impressive 10/4 statline with the ability to regenerate... but has such a huge cost to bring into play -- even if you sacrifice tokens, your opponent getting to draw 2 cards is quite heavy. Pretty cool artrwork, though! The Lord of Tresserhorn is one of Lim-Dûl's lieutenants, and I like the gothic outfit and the huge battleaxe he's holding. 

Lim-Dûl's Paladin has a really fancy armour, and I like how his blue cape is also attached to his biceps and not just his back. Paladins in Dungeons & Dragons -- and therefore most fantasy settings -- tend to be typecast as holy warriors who serve justice and the light, but in real history 'paladin' is just a term for a trusted military leader. It is quite surprising that with the many new creature types introduced after the crossover D&D that Paladins have not made it into MTG, and that Lim-Dûl's Paladin is just a Human Knight. 

Lim-Dûl's Paladin is a really weird creature that temporarily becomes a 6/6 if it's blocked, and the Trample keyword allows it to deal damage over the enemy. But if it's not blocked, it'll always just deal 4 damage. But its base stats is 0/3! Kinda weird. 

The Red/Black/Green sorcery Misfortune has a fun artwork. That pink-haired adventurer trips on a skull, drops what appears to be her torch and scroll, smashes onto a mirror behind her, and her magical wizard staff snaps upon impact to the mirror. Oof! Misfortune also is quite interesting, where it's your opponent that makes the choice between two effects. The effect is always beneficial to the caster, but the opponent needs to pick whichever one benefits his game state better. I think there's not as much mind games to this decision than they originally thought, but respect for trying. 

Aesthirs are giant eagles seen in this block with the Kjeldoran Skyknights in Ice Age. This set also has a couple of 'Wild Aesthir' giant bird cards below... and it makes absolute sense that the magicians and artificers in Alliances would create their magical robots in inspiration of the majestic creatures in their world. Or rather, out of the majestic creatures in the world. The Aesthir Glider isn't just a cool metallic robot eagle, but actually made out of the corpse of an actual Aesthir... much to the disgust of the Sky-Captain quoted in the flavour text!

We have some more Phyrexian cards! Phyrexian cards would be a bit of a rarity until we move on to the climax of 'classic' Magic, but what few we get really do show off the 'monstrous mechanized assimilator demons from another world' vibe -- an unholy mixture of Borg and Diablo demons. Phyrexian Devourer is a strange artifact creature, looking like a twisted, alien version of a blacksmith's furnace -- shaped like a grotesque, strange conical snail of sorts. Very nicely alien texturing by artist Mark Tedin, with the Phyrexian's body looking almost like bone or chitin but also not quite, somewhat looking like concrete or something not quite natural. 

The effects of the Phyrexian Devourer is quite true to its name, where you control, to a degree, what the Phyrexian Devourer consumes. You feed the Devourer the top card in your deck -- which is exiled and turned into +X/+X counters based on the casting cost. The fantasy represents the Devourer eating whatever creature or spell you exiled! But like many of these doomsday machines in sci-fantasy settings, feed the Devourer too much (above 7 power, that is), and it explodes. 

The Phyrexian War Beasts are super-weird. We get two art pieces by Bill Sienkiewicz, and it looks almost like the same artifact creature, but mirrored. I'm not sure which part is supposed to be the 'head' -- it looks less of a war beast but more like a strange chariot of sorts. But is the huge, chunky piece closer to the ground like the front end of a vehicle? Or is it in fact the rear end, with the strange propeller/dragonfly-like piece of anatomy at the top end pulling the Phyrexian War Beast along like a strange draft animal?

I can see this thing quasi-hovering a few inches off the ground, terrorizing the countryside as this utterly incomprehensible mass of metals that belches smoke all around it. It has a fun Star Wars hover-vehicle quality to it... at least the one on the right. The one on the left seem to be supporting itself with mechanical legs. What a weirdo! I like him. 

But wait, we're not done! The Phyrexian War Beasts, despite causing havoc, ended up inspiring the Soldevi Steam Beasts created by Arcum Dagsson of the city of Soldev. Very cool looking! The Steam Beasts didn't quite master the hover-vehicle or land-destruction technique of the Phyrexian War Beast, but I like the design here. The main body almost looks like some strange deep-sea fish with two super-long legs and two tiny manipulator arms attached to it. And, of course, you've got chimneys belching out smoke. The second Steam Beast art that's stalking through a swampy area seems to even have a human-esque face! The first artwork also show that despite the 4/2 statline, these things are massive, towering over buildings and spires. 

I like the idea that the Steam Beasts were originally intended as guards in a city, hence the tiny arms. But as the flavour text notes... well, in any setting where a mad scientist experiments with otherworldly technology to create machines... things don't end well and the Steam Beasts end up going rogue and destroyed Soldev.

I like the idea of this Shield Sphere. It's not enough that it's a strange sphere that creates transparent magical arrows in multiple directions, but it's also an artifact creature. This thing is a Wall creature as well, and I like the idea of these soldiers running around with both hands focused on offense while the little Shield Sphere hovers next to them, expanding as needed to block attacks like a little auto-defense drone. The Shield Sphere gets more and more damaged and loses points off of its toughness as you use it as a blocker, though, which is a nice mechanic as it grows ever smaller. 

Phyrexian Portal shows off a very nice showcase of the robo-demon aesthetics of Phyrexia. The actual portal on the left side is clean metal with lots of Gigeresque flowing shapes and lots of wires... which really does fit the idea of 'alien technology'. But the portal it opens has lots of demonic arms and hellfire reaching out and tearing apart that human who's probably trying to make contact with the Phyrexians. The effect fits the 'power at sacrificing a cost', with you exiling half of your deck for a chance to choose a card from the remaining half-deck. The tutor effect is powerful, but you also have to pay 3 mana to activate the portal, and you lose half your deck and there's the risk that the card you want got exiled due to the Portal's effect. 

I really like the artwork for Lake of the Dead. For the most part, in these early expansions I won't be talking about land cards a lot, but the Lake of the Dead has such a haunting art as we take the point of view from the bottom of the lake, looking at the terrifying drowned corpse... whose stomach and arms seem to be torn apart by something even before decay. Lake of the Dead has quite an expensive effect, forcing you to sacrifice a Swamp just to get it onto the field (the idea, I think, is for a Swamp to flow over and turn into the Lake) and then you can sacrifice another Swamp for four times of the mana. Interesting effect, but it's mostly here because of the art!

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And with that, that's the end of the huge Ice Age block. With a lot of growing pains as MTG goes through and sees what work and what doesn't, we'll have a couple more years of stability and world-building as we head off to Mirage next expansion!