Kamen Rider Revice 16 Review: Deadman Infighting

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 16: Desire to Protect - Time of the Three Igarashi Siblings!

Episode 16 is a bit of an interesting one, especially how it resolves the cliffhanger from the previous episode. I do really like that the Deadmans immediately resolve down into squabbling and infighting -- Olteca gives this huge speech about how Aguilera is just a puppet for their cultists to rally around. Julio gets absolutely angry and fights Olteca and "Yujiro", and I do find it fun! Again, it'd be nice if we saw Julio's backstory instead of him ranting about how Aguilera 'saved him' and gave him a purpose and stuff, but it's nice that these bad guys do get some characterization. Aguilera, however, out of nowhere pulls out her own transformation stamp -- and unless I'm forgetting something, this is the debut of her Queen Bee Deadman form. It's pretty neat. Aguilera rampages and shoots needles everywhere, but it's also kind of clear that Ikki's far more devoted into trying to get Aguilera to calm down more than anything. 

There's a neat acknowledgement of the deaths of the Sabertooth and Planarian Deadmans, and how the triple rider kick is, indirectly or not, one of the causes of their demise. Ikki and Daiji have a pretty well-done conversation in the bath, with Ikki trying to shoulder the burden of essentially killing these Phase 3 Deadmans... but Daiji insisting that he's also enough of a warrior to do so. It's a nice little acknowledgement of mortality for a franchise that has spent a fair amount of time either handwaving it or making death feel really cheap due to A.I. backups or ghost magic. 

There's a bit of a running thread in episodes 15 and 16 of Mama Igarashi being not at all pleased that Sakura is off fighting monsters, and goes around hiding her driver... until Hiromi comes and explains how the Igarashi siblings are super-special since not everyone can effortlessly transform like they can. 

We get to check in with the Deadmans after this, and I do really like how the villains are given ample time and being made a bit of an ensemble cast themselves -- one of the biggest weaknesses of recent shows like Saber and Zi-O is that their villains really do feel very flat, or pretty identikit. Julio's basically just being a supremely loyal follower of Aguilera, who herself is just frustrated that Julio's concerns actually do make sense. We get to hear "Yujiro" give his little speech about how he hated himself and his true identity, and Olteca... well, Olteca just wants to rule the world. Kind of the most basic villain motivation, but the fact that the rest of the villain ensemble do have something going on for them does hopefully mean that we get some backstory or depth to him in later installments. 

"Yujiro" attacks the Igarashis as they're out buying beef, and... well, in a less kid-friendly show, Mama Igarashi'd be completely dead. Instead, she just gets knocked out in a locker room and "Yujiro" didn't have the time or the mind to stab her with the knife that he's about to use on Ikki. Hiromi also helped, having put guards on the Igarashi parents -- I guess the point of this episode is to have the kids show off in front of Mama Igarashi and have her realize both the necessity of her children becoming Riders, as well as the capability of their children. 

The fight against the Chameleon Deadman is pretty cool, with him going invisible and stuff. We also get to see the Eagle, Kong and Mantis forms get an outing. Daiji gets a brand-new form, the Ex-Aid based Jackal-Live form... which feels kind of understated, I feel? He just uses it to blitz through some of the footsoldiers and that's it. I am also not the biggest fan of how they dealt with the Chameleon Deadman, who just gets kicked and blown up without any huge character moment -- not even catharsis for Daiji and Hiromi, or any resolution to the 'I hate myself' monologue. A bit weak in that part, I feel, especially since the Chameleon seems to be the primary focus of this episode. 

The episode closes with a double cliffhanger -- apparently Papa Igarashi has no heart? Who knows what the fuck is up with that. And Sakura goes to one of her classmates' house to find a mysteriously glowing and empty house. 

A bit of a slower episode and I do honestly feel like the Chameleon Deadman's story could've been extended more, but I actually am a bit excited to see what's going to happen with the three primary Deadmen. 

Random Notes

• The previous episode implied that Fenix arrested a lot of the random clubbers that are identified as cultists, but the episode noting that Aguilera is necessary for cultists to gather around really does confirm that all the footsoldier monsters that were killed before were created from these guys who willingly turn into monsters, huh.
• Hiromi, showing signs of wear and tear last episode, ends up straight-up collapsing in the opening act. Maybe him taking the 'sacrificial tertiary rider' role will actually happen...
• He does get a fancy cape to come with his new position as Fenix commander, though!
• It's kind of understated since I did a double-episode review last time, but I did enjoy how Yujiro/Chameleon's actor gets to really snap between pretending to be a serious character and a hammy bastard that's the Chameleon's true identity. 
• Oh, we actually do get to see what the Chameleon's true face is, briefly, before he disintegrates. 
• Okay, I get the creepy exposed muscle and the eyeballs, but why does a chameleon monster have a giant insect abdomen hanging off his ass?

Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword, Part 3

 The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

 

We're doing part three of Skyward Sword's bestiary! After the Lanayru Desert and a bit of a detour in fighting the Imprisoned, the game takes us to a new area -- the Thunderhead -- but unexpectedly, ends up sending Link back to the previous areas he's visited before! As of writing this, I end up going through most of the overworld segment in the return to Faron and all throughout the Ancient Cistern dungeon, the 'water temple' of this game.

I seldom do this with Zelda games, but since we actually talked about the Zoras and Gorons in either Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild, I think I can spare a few words for the new races introduced in the game. To wit:

Kikwi: The forested region of Faron is represented by a handful of interesting creatures called Kikwis. Crossing the kiwi bird and the kiwi fruit isn't really the biggest leap one would make, but the Kikwis are freaking adorable! Huge, fat birds with tiny stubby limbs, and adorable mask-faces that the franchise also did earlier with the Koroks, the Kikwi also carry around bulbs on their back that they use to disguise themselves. The bulbs open up like a Bulbasaur into shrubs and flowers... and effect that's nowhere as effective as the Octoroks because the Kikwis, well, they're big fat bird-people. At least they try! I found this little bit pretty dang charming. 

Mogma: The Gorons actually appear in the game as well, but we get a new race to represent the fiery, mountainous region of Eldin. And it's the Mogma! There's... I don't really have too much to say about them. They sure are mole-men, they sure have weasel-esque faces, and they sure burrow through the ground. Out of all the new sentient races in Skyward Sword, I find the Mogma probably the most underwhelming. 

Ancient Robot: I talked a bit about how the Lanayru region's gimmick works, and throughout the present-day era, you stumble on a lot of the deactivated ruins of the Ancient Robots and the machinery and magic-tech they used to operate. When you timeshift into the past, this is what they look like! Adorable, with those giant arms held aloft with electricity. I feel like these guys do really work well as the embodiment of a race of 'not too sci-fi' robots. It's interesting to note that these guys are just the miners and labourers, and the Beamoses and Armoses we meet in the dungeon are probably just the warriors and guards of the 'race'. We never did find out who made the Ancient Robots, or why or what they are mining Lanayru for...

Parella: Another race living in Faron, the Parella are an aquatic race that's a glorious mix of a seahorse and a jellyfish. And it works so well! They really don't do much and don't leave too much of an impression (plus I don't like the swimming mechanic) but I did like the visual design. I like that the main 'skeleton' of this creature is a wacky-looking seahorse, but it's got this huge... 'skirt'? It's more of a set of poofy shoulders. And a pair of fins that serve as arms. Pretty neat-looking aquatic creature! 

Not too much to say, but I did feel like tossing in a bunch of allied people that aren't just strictly humans/Hylians does make the world feel so much bigger. 

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Skytail: So this huge segment of the game takes us to a bunch of... sub-areas that are a lot smaller, or places where we revisit previous areas and explore deeper into them. One of the areas we first show up in is the gigantic storm-covered part of the Sky itself, the Thunderhead! And... it's actually rather disappointing, just a bunch of floating islands in the middle of a storm. We do get these bizarre things, though, and disappointingly, Fi doesn't have anything to say about them. The Skytails are very cool enemies that just show up in the Thunderhead and try to bite our flying bird, and are otherwise just there. I really love their designs, though! Especially check out that very cool-looking concept art! The Skytail is clearly some sort of flying insect-based creature, with those fancy pincers. It's got a serpentine body, three pairs of butterfly wings, and a massive head of moth-like hair behind its head. The concept art also shows that it's got a weird bulb on the tip of its tail... some sort of propulsion organ? Very, very cool for what's disappointingly such a minor part of the game. 

Blue Bokoblin & Green Bokoblin Archer: Once Link returns to the Faron, Eldin and Lanayru regions after dealing with the Imprisoned and Thunderhead sequences, the enemies in those areas are upgraded! Nothing too fancy, but I do appreciate that the overworld becomes just a bit more dangerous as our hero also becomes more powerful. These Blue Bokoblins show up in the overworld and are just a bit stronger. Fi identifies them as having different skin colour due to 'hailing from a different environment'. In the revisit to the Skyview Temple, apparently the Green Bokoblin population have gotten their hands on bows and arrows. Really not too much to say about them, they sure are 'blins. 

Wooden Shield Moblin: It's around this point that the Moblins also show up! These are pretty cool -- the Moblins in 3D incarnations Zelda have always been portrayed as being bigger ogre-like enemies, being straight-up menacing bulldog-men twice the size of Link in Ocarina of Time; and being troll-like lanky giants in Breath of the Wild. This incarnation of the Moblins opt for a different trope of 'giant enemy', making the Shield Moblin look imposing by virtue of being ginormously fat. They still look pretty formidable, all things considered, and are actually reasonably annoying. Their size also means that between their massive spear and their belly-slam attack, they've got a fair amount of reach. According to Fi, Link needs to hack and slash the wooden shield down to pieces in order to make the Moblin unprotected, though I honestly prefer just running circles around the Moblin and unleashing barrages of sword-stabs onto the Moblin's unprotected giant bum. Pretty cool variant of the 'blins, all things considered. 

Also, yeah, pierced nipples. You do you, Moblin, you do you. 

Earth Watcher & Sky Watcher: At this point, Link gets sucked into the 'Silent Realm', which is a minigame/sub-area where Link finds himself in a spiritual mirror of the Faron Woods (and later the Lanayru Desert, and presumably we get another version for the Eldin Mountain) without any monsters or equipment. It's a test realm, and Link has to rely on his own body to run around and collect a bunch of spirit orbs or what-have-you... while these ghostly beings try and track you down. It's an absolutely fun game of chicken, and I can't believe I'm saying this -- stealth sequences in Zelda games have always bugged me, but the Silent Realm sequences have been absolutely fun. 

None of these Silent Realm 'enemies' are really ones we fight, nor do they have Fi entries, but they do have some very, very cool designs. These two are the Watchers, vaguely resembling the Poes of previous Zelda games. They look very, very inhuman while also 'holy' in some way? They're kind of an equivalent of angels or something if they're working in a trial made by the goddess, right? I do like that they really don't look super hostile but look eerie nonetheless. The fact that it's just a robe over nothing... that red glowing eye isn't attached to a body! It's just hovering under the robes, and then below the robes are either a singular lantern or a chandelier of six of them. 

Again, it brings to mind the visual image of Zelda's resident lantern-carrying ghosts, the Poes -- particularly Twilight Princess's iteration version of them. And I do like that these giant lantern ghosts are just flying around shining their light and trying to catch you. They're just testing you!

Earth Guardian: What happens if the Watchers catch you, though? These guys get activated and start heading to bash your brains in. It's a non-standard game over and there's no combat, but man, these Guardians look pretty badass, don't they? I'm disappointed to know that they don't actually become an enemy we fight later on. The Earth Guardian can only travel on the ground, and they're basically just giant statues holding a particularly badass giant segmented club. I also really like that very flat mask, too -- the reverse triangle eyes, the triangle earrings, the triangle mouth? Gee, laying it on a bit thick that this guy serves a goddess whose whole motif is the number three, huh? The face also seems to be more of a mask grafted on to the golem than an actual face. Very cool looking, and I do love that it contrasts the other 'golem' aesthetic of the Beamoses and Armoses we saw earlier in the game as well. 

Sky Guardian: Even cooler than their 'Earth' counterparts are the Sky Guardians, who fly above the terrain as they hunt you down. I do love how they almost have a body. Almost! It's just a head, a cloak shaped like a hunchback, and two arms whose shoulder ball-joints just connect into nothingness. Very cool look all around, and of course it's got two gigantic fuck-off curved swords held in skeletal hands.  It kinda reminds me of those Death Scissors from Devil May Cry, although obviously the Sky Guardian is designed and drawn to look more... well, less obviously hostile. It's still going to kill you with its giant blades, but it's doing so as part of a goddess's holy test. 

Cranioc: The return to Faron Woods gives Link the ability to swim underwater, and while most of the enemies he faces are just the Froaks (who look more at home in the water), we do get these guys. Which are... man, what a weirdo! It's a cartoonish fish with giant lips and buckteeth, and its forehead is just a massive, scarred lump. It's like a version of a swordfish or something, but it's got a ramming appendage instead. We do have  real-life fishes like the Flowerhorn or the Parrotfish that have bumps on their heads, but they don't actually use those bumps to ram each other. The Cranioc just looks so weird because of that, and that's without taking those faces into account. 

They're kinda one-note, though -- Link just one-shots them with his underwater spin attacks. 

Blue Chuchu: Also one-note are these Blue Chuchu, which are just Chuchu that pop up underwater and also die to a single shot. I'm just doing this because I'm pedantic and want to include every single enemy I meet. 

Furnix: An interesting enemy! The Furnix, despite its rather impressive design, is just a common enemy that's faced in the next dungeon -- the Ancient Cistern. The Ancient Cistern itself is a dungeon whose design is very spiritual-looking and has a very cool heaven-and-hell vibe to it. The Furnixes fly in the skies of the central chamber, spitting fireballs at Link. I really like how they've got multiple wings, and their tails look really cool! Link needs to use his whip item to drag the Furnix down to the ground when their tails are fully unfurled. Not my favourite enemy, but cool nonetheless!

Cursed Bokoblin: The final part of the Ancient Cistern basically takes Link into a dungeon based on the underworld from Buddhist myths -- and the skeletons spread all over the ground will rise up into these Cursed Bokoblins! Very neat-looking, I like how they took the regular Bokoblin model and changes it just enough to make them spooky zombies... but still keeping an air of goofiness about them. That outstretched tongue is probably my favourite detail. Unlike how zombies are usually depicted in video games, Cursed Bokoblins are actually tougher than regular Bokoblins and keep standing up again and again. A neat little detail is that Link's Sacred Shield will actually drive them away. 

Stalmaster: The miniboss of the Ancient Cistern is the Stalmaster, which is pretty dang impressive! Decked out in golden armour and wielding four different-looking weapons, the Stalmaster looks particularly impressive in motion, where those giant swords are twirled around in pretty badass motions. General Grievous here is a lot stronger than a regular Stalfos, and it often only leaves one direction open for you to get a sword strike in -- but more than any enemy before him, I feel like the Stalmaster is extra-quick in changing which direction you can strike him from. 

Very cool -- it's a rather logical upgrade of a previous powerful enemy, and looks a lot more impressive despite just adding a pair of arms and changing the armour colour! 

Ancient Automaton: Koloktos: The boss of the Ancient Cistern is the Ancient Automaton Koloktos, which used to be the guardian of the temple that got corrupted by our good pal Ghirahim. Koloktos starts the battle as just a bunch of parts scattered across the room, and is held together by the purple miasma that you can see peeking out of his joints. This is important, because this is how you beat Koloktos! He's a giant statue peeking out of the floor of a boss room, and initially just seems invincible. Its two upper arms keep throwing those axe-blades at you, while the two lower arms just swing around and bash you. But since the arms aren't actually physically held together, Link can use the openings of Koloktos's attacks to whip and dismantle the joints of Koloktos's fragile limbs, eventually tearing down enough hands to expose the red core in Koloktos's chest. 

After doing it enough times, though, Koloktos actually reveals that he's got legs this whole time, stands up, and quintuple-wields gigantic scimitars. Very cool animation going on here, and during the fight, Link would pick up these giant scimitars and bash Koloktos to death with it. It's not my favourite design when I first saw him on a still image, but the actual boss fight and how smooth the animation for this guardian golem is, I really end up liking him a lot. 

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A bit of a shorter one, and as of the time of writing, I'm around halfway through the revisit of Lanayru Region, and we don't really have too many new enemies. I think I'll wait until I finish two dungeons before I do the next part of this! 

Hawkeye S01E05 Review: The Fat Man

Hawkeye, Season 1, Episode 5: Ronin

Spoilers for the final shot of the episode, although considering I'm around a month late to this show (I binged the show around the time this episode dropped), I don't think I am the one who needs to be spoiled. But... Kingpin baby! It doesn't just really mean the fact that one of my favourite supervillains is back, but it's the specific incarnation with the history so lovingly explored in Daredevil, which also meant that the character's history and portrayal by Vincent D'Onofrio -- and the canonicity of the MCU's unfavourite child in the Netflix Defenders shows -- are open. And that alone is the biggest Christmas present that Hawkeye can really give me. The actual buildup to the Kingpin isn't too much of a surprise, considering we've been hinting at Maya's mysterious 'boss' or 'uncle' that even Clint Barton fears for the past couple of episodes, but there was a huge, huge chance going in that Kingpin was just going to be a wink-wink-nod cameo while Echo, Yelena and Swordsman are going to be the co-antagonists of the show. 

Well, scratch one Swordsman off the list, with Jack Duquesne just kind of shipped off to prison after Eleanor goes off to investigate and finds out that the Hawkeyes' little clues actually do sync up... except, of course, turns out that Eleanor herself turns out to be pretty dang shady herself. But let's put her aside for a while... we did spend a fair bit of time with Jack, but it seems like we're either saving him for a second season of the show, or he's a genuine red herring just to set up Eleanor. I'm not really sure how the Swordsman fans out there will take it, but I for one am glad from a story-writing perspective that we're starting to clear the board. 

A good chunk of the episode splits up Clint and Kate after the huge cliffhanger of the previous episode, and while the jury is out on whether that cliffhange is warranted or necessary, it does lead to Kate meeting up with Black Widow II, Yelena Belova. While we didn't get a recap of the post-credits scene of Black Widow, we did get a showcase of what she's up to immediately prior to -- and immediately after -- she was snapped. Which, of course, makes Yelena's hurt and confusion about Natasha all feel so much more raw to her.

(I've always headcanon'd Black Widow's extremely work-focused mentality in Endgame and how she's devoting 100% of her life to being an Avenger to be partially because her family from Black Widow all got snapped)

Of course, Yelena doesn't quite go full Ronin the way Clint did in Endgame, which I am grateful for. The showmakers clearly know just why Yelena ended up being so popular in Black Widow, being a snarky young-but-competent little Black Widow, alternating between delivering some genuine pain whenever Natasha is brought up, effortlessly handwaving how easily she could've murdered Kate Bishop... and then delivering the most adorable "HIIII!" and making box mac-and-cheeses and making jokes about being a tourist in New York. It really does speak to the strength of acting for both superheroes that a good chunk of the episode is just Kate and Yelena sitting eating macaroni and bonding, and the episode doesn't really ever get quite boring. 

A really great part is that this episode does start to pad some of the problems that I did have with how they handled Black Widow as a character. What a confused way to tell her story, releasing her solo movie as an interquel after her death -- and neither Endagme nor Black Widow really acknowledged Natasha's death in the same way that Tony Stark's was throughout Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home or Steve Rogers was in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It's not much, and it feels like it's mostly Clint and Yelena, but the way that Natasha's easily the most imporant person in the world for the two of them, we really feel the impact of the Black Widow's death here. 

The argument does end up causing Kate to defend Clint to Yelena, and basically get Kate to -- after a breakdown in front of her mother before the meeting -- question why she trusts Clint so much. Slightly off-screen, Kate also unintentionally causes Yelena to question why she's hunting Clint and who would put the crosshairs on good ol' Hawkeye.

Clint does end up having his own sub-plot, of course, although it's pretty simple. Not that it's bad, though -- Jeremy Renner really does sell the 'tired older superhero that needs to do this shit'. There's none of the roiling, barely-restrained Punisher anger or desire for vengeance. Between his call to his wife (Laura Barton doesn't really get to develop a personality, but what a champ of a wife) and the tired way that he dons the Ronin suit, Clint Barton is intense and takes everything he's doing seriously, and it's clear that he's carrying a lot of pain, but there's never any malice behind the beatdown of Echo's gang. 

Now I'm not spoiled about what happens in the final episode at the time of writing this, so I did find the events of the Ronin-vs-Tracksuit-Mafia sequence cool but somewhat puzzling. Clint as Ronin dismantles Kazi, all the background Tracksuits, before going one-on-one against Maya in a very well-choreographed sequence. He also reveals his identity, confirming that Clint Barton is Ronin... delivers the warning to stay away from his family, but... but then just drops the bombshell that Maya was betrayed by someone inside, heavily implied to be Kazi and Kingpin?

The action sequences are so cool that it did take me away from thinking too much about it at the time, but while Maya does have her own spinoff show coming in the future -- and it would be a decent enough exit after Clint 'takes down' her -- it does raise some questions since we barely even skirt over the whole 'pay up for the killings you've done' thing. It's a bit odd that we get the Ronin/Echo confrontation without actually getting a proper resolution to Clint's guilt? 

Kate does show up to bail Clint out, and while Maya seems to go exit-stage-left, Yelena has been doing some personal detective work on the person who hired her. Turns out that it's not (just) Contessa Valentina that's behind Yelena, but she went to track down who the real one who put the hit out on Clint... and it's Eleanor Bishop. Who's also hanging out with the Kingpin, who the show has been alluding to throughout its season. 

Don't get me wrong, the Eleanor twist and the Kingpin reveal is pretty great. And it's painfully obvious that Yelena was going to be an ally sooner or later. But I do wonder that with so many plot threads dangling (what about the watch?), which one the final episode would focus on? How many of the plot threads will be picked up in spinoffs, which are getting increasingly harder to track if you don't open a Wikipedia page? Will this episode be able to handle all the plot threads it has set up satisfactorily? Still, the show has been so enjoyable throughout its run, and I'm willing to give the writers the benefit of the doubt for suer. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The cold open/flashback for this scene shows Yelena being snapped, which obviously takes place concurrent to Avengers: Infinity War. The sequence is framed similarly to Monica Rambeau in WandaVision, where we get to see a supporting character previously introduced in the movies get snapped and return. 
• We last saw Kingpin in the Netflix Defenders TV series-es, namely in the events of Daredevil's final season. 
• Yelena makes several references to Black Widow, namely a nod to a 'daddy' (Red Guardian), giving Kate points for saving a dog (Yelena likes dogs in that movie) and liking macaroni and cheese (which a young Yelena wanted in the opening scenes of the movie).
• The ex-Black-Widow that adopted a child is another rebuttal against the much-maligned scene of Natasha declaring herself a monster for being sterile in Age of Ultron. 
• The Statue of Liberty is being mentioned as being improved, which will be relevant in the concurrently-released but chronologically-later Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

Hawkeye S01E04 Review: Guest-Starring...

Hawkeye, Season 1, Episode 4: Partners, Am I Right?

A bit less action-packed compared to its preceding episode, and one that feels to be mostly setup. In a vacuum, the episode could be handwaved as 'it's the one where the two partners get into a fight, setting up the big emotional reunion in the pre-finale episode'. Which is exactly what this is -- unless episodes 5-6 really try and pull some Loki-level plot twist. Of course, Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld's chemistry and their mentor/mentee dynamic works so well that I'm actually genuinely invested in their pseudo-surrogate-parent relationship. 

The huge cliffhanger from the previous episode with Swordsman fighting against the Hawkeyes surprisingly doesn't pan out too much and ends in a civil discussion... which initially led me to believe that they might just be saving Jack Duquesne for the next season. And I kind of want them to, since we have two very active antagonists by the end of this episode. But while Clint bows out of the Bishop family drama, he gets his wife Laura to look into Jack Duquesne, and she finds out that Kate's actually right, and he is actually shady. Just to rub this point in a bit more, we even have a scene where Kate, Eleanor and Jack actually do begin to bond over them making fun of Jack's inability to say idioms properly. 

The middle part of the episode is admittedly a bit bland, with the comedy bits not all landing quite as well -- though I really, really did enjoy Kate deciding to spend her Christmas trying to get Clint to have fun a little. She sets up a movie marathon and gets them a pair of ugly sweaters because Clint's missing the same activities with his own children... and, hey, Kate's basically, like I said, his pseudo-child at this point. It's adorable as all hell, and Clint even begins to be a bit vulnerable, confiding to Kate how he first met Black Widow; as well as teaching her how to do a little coin flip trick thing. I do like the more serious moment, too, where Kate just asks Clint about whether he is Ronin, which Clint confirms. Again, I can totally see a version of this show where this scene just plain doesn't work. 

The LARP-er scene... eh. I did like the one-off joke in the second episode, and while it's funny to see Kate interact with them in a much more positive manner than Clint did, it's also rather obvious distraction to pad things out before the third act of this episode. I tend to not mind such subplots in these superhero shows, but this one felt particularly egregious considering how tightly-plotted these Disney+ shows have been. 

And then we get the huge action scene. Between Clint and Kate bickering about exit and entrance strategies, they find out that Echo has been researching Clint and making a hit list about his family. We also learn that the watch from the first episode is actually important, Clint and Laura know about it, and Echo has it in her apartment. It's... it's a bit off, admittedly, why the Hawkeyes treat this as a huge revelation, but then we have the huge fight. Kate Bishop fights Echo, while Clint Barton fights against a mysterious assailant with glowing goggles... and it's Yelena Belova!

(The revelation might take people who haven't watched Black Widow off-guards, but as someone who blogs about these things, I really don't care too much about people complaining that a comic-book show has comic-book-style guest stars -- regardless, I'm confident that the show will recap who Yelena is as needed.)

The fight scene is admittedly nowhere as impressive or flashy as any of the fight scenes in episode 3 -- though part of it might be because Maya, Clint and Yelena are all dressed in black on the rooftop. I do really like the flashier tricks that Yelena pulls in the fight, and while the discussion about Natasha earlier in the episode does kind of make her appearance here a bit predictable, it's still a pretty cool sequence. 

The whole Black Widow thing also ends up having Clint flashback to Natasha's death in Vormir, which the show very unsubtly delivers a flashback when Clint has to hold Kate in the same way he did Natasha. And it's a better reason than most to have the whole 'grizzled hero tells plucky young partner to fuck off' storyline to occur. It's definitely well-done, and I really like Clint basically shutting down any notion that he's a hero -- he's a 'weapon aimed by people who aimed [him] at the bad guys'. Again, a pretty cool episode all around -- Hawkeye's more grounded and relatively standalone story does feel like a breath of fresh air I didn't know I need. Definitely looking forward to see how the show concludes it. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The 'boomerang arrow' discussion is taken from Hawkeye #3 from the 2012 run, the same one that inspired the previous episode, albeit with the roles reversed.. That argument is one of the trick arrow arguments in the car chase in that issue; with the boomerang arrow being the useless arrow that saved the day there. 
• Kate also wears a Laika shirt in the first issue of Hawkeye 2012. 
• Wendy Conrad is the supervillain Bombshell in the comics -- here, she's just a LARP-er, and 'Bombshell' is instead a nickname from her wife. 
• Yelena Belova, a.k.a. Black Widow II, returns hunting Clint Barton after the events of Black Widow's post-credits scene. MCU Black Widow and Hawkeye's first meeting were explored in The Avengers and Black Widow. 
• Yelena's night goggles is a reference to her modern-day costume seen in Thunderbolts, which features five of them.
• Another 'Thanos was right' meme-acknowledgement takes place with a mug.

Kamen Rider Revice 14-15 Review: Fight Club

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 14-15

Episode 14: The Commander is a Deadman?!

It's been a while, and I'm trying to catch up! Real life got in the way for weekly reviews. Episode 14 is an... interesting one, because of the pretty huge revelation that the previous episode gave us, but mostly it's just because this one revolves around the rest of the cast reacting to said revelation. George gathers Daiji and Hiromi and tells them that he's deduced that Wakabayashi is the traitor in their midst -- though they don't find out about the Chameleon Deadman thing until a bit later on in the episode. Our heroes decide to set up a trap for 'Wakabayashi', and while the audience already knows (or could guess) that Wakabayashi has been replaced by the Chameleon Deadman, it's certainly nice to see less-prominent characters like Hiromi panicking and still being in shock and denial over the whole thing. 

It's also a very interesting way to kill off a character, too. Modern Rider has been very skittish about actually killing off characters -- the most dramatic and well-executed ones end up being reversed at some point in the story. But the real Wakabayashi straight-up got murdered and replaced by the Chameleon Deadman prior to the first episode, so can you really call that 'killing a character'? From a narrative standpoint, not really, but we do get the raising of stakes that the knowledge that the Deadmen actually killed someone. 

The main bulk of the episode, though, is rather lighter affair. Sakura's at school being super-excited that her alter-ego of Kamen Rider Jeanne is proving to be very popular, but she's the target of the vendetta of the Planarian Deadman, whose real name is -wikis- Haitani Amahiko. Did they ever say his name on-screen? There's a small bit of comedy here and there, and a brief bit of trying to set up the secret identity dilemma that DC/Marvel superheroes are known so much for, but... but there really isn't any sort of tension because Sakura just shrugs, goes 'fuck it' and transforms to save the day. It's been a long, long while since public-secret-identities matter in these Kamen Rider shows. 

Ikki, meanwhile, fights against the evil lawyer Kudo Yasushi, who transforms into the Saber-tiger Deadman, another phase two. He just attacks Ikki in the bathhouse, and gives a bit of a dressing-down to Ikki about how he's just helping people to satisfy himself, making himself a nosy jackass, but it's something that I feels lacks a bit of a bite. 

Both Ikki and Sakura beat up their respective Deadmen enemies, but then Olteca and Julio show up to gather the two sacrifices, noting that they had their chance to deal with their 'niggling business'. Meanwhile the Chameleon Deadman steal the Giff stamp, the three other Deadmen get transformed into "Giftexs" (which are ascended Deadmen like Olteca and Julio), and we get the surprise revelation that Aguilera isn't Giff's wife, but the next sacrifice. 

Overall... pretty solid episode, I just do feel like the episode did lack a bit of an oomph. It feels a bit procedural, although it might just be intentional since the senior Deadmen are just letting Amahiko and Kudo get their vengeance attempts out of their system. Still, an overall interesting twist, and I most certainly have been liking where this show is going compared to how Saber had been at this point in its run.

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Episode 15: Eradicate! Showdown! Deadmans!

This one, meanwhile, is a pretty climactic episode that ends up being -- or feeling -- like the climax of the first long arc in Revice. A good chunk of this episode is just a huge brawl between the forces of Fenix and the Deadmans in their underground club. Apparently, "George Karizaki never loses", and he's embedded a chip within the Giff stamp in order to hunt down where the Deadmans' base is. There's a bit of a sub-plot in the first half of the episode of our heroes turning Daiji into Kagerou in order to find out the secret door to teleport into the underground base, but the Kagerou bit really just feels like padding so that the bulk of the action takes place in the second half of the episode. 

The villains are a bit more interesting, though -- particularly the primary trio. We've seen Aguilera be in a position of power for so much of the show that it's actually interesting that the dynamic is reversed. Turns out she's getting cold feet when Giff changes the deal -- she's going to be the sole sacrifice while the other five are simply there to funnel energy or something. Aguilera's been so indoctrinated into the cult that she's willing... but most certainly reluctant. Even more reluctant is Julio, who actually fights the other Giftexs for a bit before he gets subdued by numbers. A villain being redeemed isn't anything new, but I do find Aguilera's situation pretty interesting. 

Of course, a good chunk of the episode is just action scenes. Kamen Riders Revice, Live, Jeanne and Demons, as well as George and a bunch of Fenix goons, charge into the underground nightclub and fight against all the bad guys. It's pretty neat to see so many people in play, and we do get a couple of brief bits of characterization here and there -- Jeanne and Planaria Deadman have a bit of a spat; Ikki and the lawyer exchange words about the 'egoist-kun' title; Hiromi gets a pretty cool sequence of declaring how he'd rather 'struggle than die'. Also, George hams the shit up, and it's approximately twice as funny because of his English. (Oh, we get the random power-ups for Demons and Jeanne, who use the scorpion and turtle stamps respectively)

The Planaria and Sabertooth Deadmen were ultimately dissolved into light particles and absorbed by Giff when they get triple-rider-kicked by the Igarashi siblings. Also, I was most convinced that Hiromi was going to bite the dust, by the way -- he was fighting the Chameleon Deadman and while he did get a cool moment of declaring his resolve, we get to see Julio sneaking around in the background. Nope! Hiromi made it out alive!

Giff ends up... partially resurrecting? The club turns out to be some sort of weird saucer UFO with tentacles that rises up of the ground, and Ikki and Vice stay behind to try and save Aguilera (and also Julio, who's just conked out in the corner). A neat showcase to Ikki's whole 'I'm a busybody' deal, and Ikki manages to blow Giff's saucer up by spending around three minutes summoning his entire roster of CGI yoga animals. I'm... I get where they're going for and I respect them for going all in with the gimmick, but the CGI remix forms give me such a headache. 

Still, with Giff seemingly knocked down, while Aguilera and the rest rescued or arrested, it's a very interesting ending to the first arc of the show. I do wonder where we go on from here -- I feel like a good chunk of this episode is spent on making the villains a bit more distinct from each other, establishing the dynamic between them that made other shows with groups of villains (like Drive or W) so strong. These two episodes do a pretty good job at shaking up the status quo, I must say!

Random Notes

• Always did wonder why they casted a Rider alumni if he's just going to stand around in the background and be wholly unmemorable. 
• It is a nice little handwave that they want to keep the original Wakabayashi actor by having the Chameleon Deadman say that he likes this appearance more than his original one. 
• Really love that the Sabertiger Deadman's design has the eyeball within the jaws of the creature. It's just so weird. 
• The Giff statue is always pretty yonic, but seeing George caress it makes it a bit more obvious. 
• "Wow! GODDAMN!" George gets to speak so much English in episode 15. I love him. 
• The turtle stamp gives Sakura a GODDAMN MISSILE LAUNCHER.

Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword, Part 2

 The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

 

We're doing part two of Skyward Sword's bestiary! This one covers the Lanayru region, mostly. I did spend a lot of time doing side-quests and collecting missions which is why this one took quite a while to make. I'm told that I've reached around one-thirds of the way through the main plot, which is surprising -- I thought I'm more than halfway through! But I guess I've only really gone through three dungeons, huh.

Yellow Chuchu & Thunder Keese: As what is expected of 3D Zelda games, a lot of the enemies are just repainted, stronger versions of ones that we've met before. I kind of get it, and the Yellow Chuchu and Thunder Keese are essentially identical to the two first enemies we met in the game -- they're just slightly stronger thanks to having the power of electricity. They periodically get a charge, and anything metal on Link's person becomes a conductor that will stun Link if he comes into contact with them. Neat.

Electro Spume: A bit more interesting than the other two repaint enemies are the Electro Spume, although that might just be because the Spumes themselves feel a lot more complex than Chuchus and Keeses. They look visually more or less the same with their Magma counterparts, but they live in sand and spit electrical bolts instead of fireballs. It's kind of interesting how much more 'exotic' the lava-dwelling Magma Spume is compared to the Electro Spume, comparatively.

Rock Octorok: And here we go with the most literal 'Octorok' that you can get. It's an octopus that hides with a rock on top and it shoots rocks at you! I still really like just how Skyward Sword combined the classic 2D and 3D versions of Octoroks into something that feels so natural! Er, natural in a Zelda setting, of course, but still. 

Hrok: A new enemy! Oh, it's a roc that spits rocks. I didn't get that until literally just now as I was writing this. Kind of an obnoxious enemy, this one, but it just feels so... mundane? It's just a big bird that flies up into the sky and drops rocks down on Link, with its throat swelling up like a pelican.  Fi's description of the Hrok is interesting, noting that Hrok feeds on rocks, but any that it doesn't digest are collected in the throat pocket, which the Hrok will them amalgamate and regurgitate as boulders. Such a cool series of flavour text, it's a bit of a shame that the Hrok itself is visually pretty mundane. 

Ampilus: This one is super-duper cool! The Ampilus is a giant hermit crab-esque creature. It's got the general body layout of a giant crustacean, and I really love the rendering of that very prawn-y face and those mean, hooked claws. But the shell that the Ampilus lugs around looks more like the concentric shape of something like an ammonite! Interestingly, the Ampilus fights not by attacking you with its crustacean claws, but rather retreating entirely into its shell, charging up the shell with electricity, and just spin around the desert trying to run Link over as a spinning electrically-charged wheel. Fi's reading of the Ampilus identifies it as accomplishing this with an internal organ. Not a necessary detail to tell us, but I appreciate that the game takes time to do so. 

You kill the Ampilus by tricking it into slamming into something that's not Link, and then when it's stunned, Link can kill the vulnerable real body. The shell, notably, sticks around after an Ampilus's death, and both the Ampilus and its shell can freely walk on top of quicksand -- meaning that this is one of those enemies that is instrumental to solve puzzles. But that's not all!

One of the best area gimmicks I've seen in Zelda for a while, and easily one of my favourites, is that Lanayru Desert has these 'Timepiece Stones' that Link can hit and revert part of the desert into the past when the land is lush and has trees, grass, and the ancient robots and their still-working technology. And Link has to go back and forth between the past and present in order to access areas and stuff. That's not the main topic of this article, but if the Ampilus gets hit by that time-reversal area, they revert into Ampilus Eggs, which are adorable little rocks with an eyeball peering out. They periodically light up with electricity, and are used to solve puzzles. Very cool way to incorporate the time-travel gimmick, though!

Technoblin: So what else is in the past? These guys, the Technoblins, which are Bokoblins with... they're not quite cyborg outfits because Zelda isn't that kind of franchise, but it's neat to see them wearing something pretty futuristic. I was expecting like, magic-tech robots (and we do get those), but I didn't actually think the Bokoblins were going to get in on the game. Pretty cool variation, I do like those goggles that they have. The Technoblins' weapons are probably the most interesting thing about them. What do you call those? A fly-swatter? It's a weird rectangle that's charged, meaning that Link really can't clash swords with the Technoblin's weapon unless he wants to get zapped. 

Fi's notes insist that like their present-day counterparts, the Technoblins are also obsessed with the latest fashion in undergarments. Okay. 

Aracha: The dungeon in Lanayru Desert is the Lanayru Mining Facility, an old abandoned warehouse that used to be run by robots... but in the present day is infested with scuttling monsters like this guy. It's the desert, of course we're going to have a desert scorpion enemy! The Aracha are actually relatively harmless, but I do really like them. They look so... fleshy. I think they're meant to be this game's take on the classic enemy -- the Gohmas -- especailly since they have only a huge, giant eyeball on their buggy faces. It looks so unnatural, doesn't it, seeing such a non-arthropodal eyeball on a scorpion? They're not particularly powerful, but there's a lot of them, they jump on Link and are generally a huge nuisance throughout the dungeon. 

Froak: While the Arachas are pretty thematic, these guys are... um... they exist? I get the idea -- these are giant cartoon pufferfishes, they float around and they go kaboom because pufferfishes look like underwater mines. There's no real explanation to why they are floating around in a desert dungeon, though. It's kind of weird, and I guess I'll just chalk it up to random RPG enemy encounter?

The Froaks would later actually appear in the underwater areas in the Faron region and its second dungeon, the Ancient Cistern, where they feel a lot more at home. It's still bizarre that they first showed up in the Lanayru Mining Facility, though. 

Beamos: Because the Mining Facility still retains the time-shifting gimmick of the Lanayru overworld, parts of the factory soon end up transforming from ruins into enemies, and I love the bizarre magic-technology that they have. There's always a sense of some of these enemies being quasi-robotic, but even Twilight Princess depicted them as more of a golem than anything. I don't think it's until Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild that the ancient culture that exists in Hyrule is shown to be... well, technology-powered-by-magic. 

The Beamos looks pretty cool, too! It's a rattling robot that shoots lasers at you, but the decision to make it a totem pole with those ornament-looking fan-ears gives it a degree of fun fantasy look to it. Love the boxy mouth, too. Of course, Link needs to bash the Beamos's lower body parts down like a Jenga tower before he can stab his sword into the eyeball.

Sentrobe: Not quite having an obvious 'face' as the Beamos or the Armos below, the Sentrobes are flying balls with adorable little helicopter blades that shoot missiles at Link. The most efficient way is to shield-bash the missiles back to destroy the Sentrobes. At some point, though, the Sentrobes will send two of those Sentrobe Bombs at Link, and he needs to cut them according to the glowing lines. Not too much to say about this one, it's neat that we've got a new technological enemy, but having no real 'face' to speak of, the Sentrobe looks a bit less of a 'monster' and more of an obstacle. 

Armos: Sharing the same role as the Stalfos and Lizalfos as being a miniboss that ends up just showing up as an enemy later on, the Armos in this incarnation is a giant two-faced giant Easter Island statue thing. It's hard to tell here, but the reverse side is also a face. The Armos just hops around and tries to stab Link with those giant spikes on its bottom, but interestingly enough, since this version of the Armos is explicitly a mechanical device, there's a set radius of area that the Armos will bounce around away from its designated spot. 

The way to beat the Armos is to point your brand-new 'Gale Bellows' item to spin the windmill on top of the Armos's head, which will unscrew the upper halves of the faces and leave the Armos's core vulnerable... except the core will jut out on only one face. An interesting redesign -- it fits the aesthetics of the dungeon, but it's most certainly not my favourite version of the Armos. 

Thousand-Year Arachnid: Moldarach: Boss time! It's actually surprising that despite being themed all around time-travel and revisiting what the Mining Facility looked like when it was ran and automated by the robots, the boss of the Lanayru Mining Facility is... a giant scorpion. It's the thousand-year old adult phase of all the Arachas that I've killed in the course of traveling through the dungeon, and it makes thematic sense that way, but I'm actually pretty surprised that we didn't get a giant Armos or Beamos fight. Or that Moldarach didn't have a second phase where he becomes a cyborg scorpion. A Scorponok. 

But, hey, Moldarach looks pretty goddamn badass! He looks just so mean-looking, with the glistening rock-like carapace being such a stark contrast to the vulnerable-looking larval Arachas. Every single part of the Moldarach is armoured other than those two eyeballs that it has on its claws. Because, uh, it's a Zelda boss so it has eyeballs everywhere, I guess? We get another showcase of the game's directional-attack feature, where Link's sword can only really hit the eyeballs when you swing them in a certain direction. After Link blows up both of his claws, Moldarach dives under the sand and just tunnels through the ground and attacks you with its stinger (which is engorged like a mace!) and you need to blow the sand off and stab it in the eyeball. 

Very cool visually, a very fun boss to fight against... I just kind of wanted more, you know? 

The Imprisoned: After finishing the Faron, Eldin and Lanayru regions and their respective dungeons, Link gets brought back into the Sacred Grounds, where the ancient evil sealed by the Goddess at the bottom of the ravine is unleashed. This is a plot detail that has been spoiled to me by practically everyone -- and in Hyrule Warriors -- so it's not a huge surprise. I also know that I'm going to face off against the Imprisoned at least two more times later in the game. 

And... it's a pretty neat-looking giant whale, I guess? The kaiju-sized beast walks up the spiral path out from the valley where it's imprisoned, and Link needs to stop it before it reaches the top. And as a formless shadow demon, the Imprisoned does look kind of neat. Giant eyeless whale head with fangs... body made entirely out of glistening scales... the shadows rippling off of its back... and then there are those two feet with huge sausage toes, and then the Imprisoned ends up looking goofy just because of that one detail. Sure, those toes end up being the weak points that Link needs to break to cause it to fall down and expose the sealing sword on its nose, but... eh. Maybe it's because I beat this guy up so many times in Hyrule Warriors, but I wasn't super impressed by his design. The boss fight and the music is pretty fun, and the visions leading up to the Imprisoned's release does make him look a lot more imposing. I don't know, though... not the biggest fan of this one. 

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I did progress a bit more after the Imprisoned fight, going through a gauntlet of fetch quests to reach Thunderhead and the Isle of Songs, but I'll save the couple of enemies there until I clear another significant segment of the game. It's been fun! I'm really enjoying this game!

Hawkeye S01E03 Review: Trick Arrows

Hawkeye, Season 1, Episode 3: Echoes

A very interesting episode, this one. Of course, knowing now that the first two episodes were released together in the same day does make a bit more sense due to the amount of stuff that they set up in those two episodes -- and now that Kate and Clint's relationship are a bit more well-defined, we can go off to do build up the story surrounding them. We've gotten bits and pieces with the creepy Jack Duquesne doing suspicious stuff in the background with Kate's mother; or the Tracksuit Mafia doing whatever the hell they do (bro) but ultimately they're just distractions to the real stars of the show. 

And now that the dynamic between Kate and Clint are well established, this episode finally allows us to do build up the rest of the cast. Or, rather, one of them -- Maya Lopez, otherwise known to the comic-book audience as the superhero Echo. I'm completely unfamiliar with this character other than her connection to a maybe-cameo by Kingpin in this episode, so it'll be fun to see what she'll do in the series. 

The final shot of episode two is a reveal that lacked a bite since we know absolutely nothing about Echo, but the brief prologue we get this episode is a huge exposition dump that... that works really, really well. We get to see deaf little Maya grow up and, sure, her dad is a criminal, but he's also her dad, and a very good one at that. We see her struggle and eventually dominate despite her physical disabilities... and then she has to arrive in the moment of carnage as Clint, in his Ronin alter-ego, murders his way through William Lopez's little organization. It's a very poignant theme to explore in any of these shows where the heroes are murder-happy, and unlike the questionable writing decisions made in Black Widow (which I'll review eventually when I finish doing the rest of phase 3... at some point), there's no way that Maya's dad was hidden away in the background actually alive so that all our characters can go home guilt-free. 

And then after Maya's gruelling backstory, we get to see the present-day Maya, the badass leader of the Tracksuit Mafia. And, sure, the Tracksuits are mostly lovable goobers, bro, that say bro all the time, bro, with their funny accents... but while I'm waiting for her to do more in the back-end of the season, Maya does feel pretty interesting in this first episode. She gets to show that she's perhaps a bit too obsessed with murdering the Ronin, or looking for someone to blame for her father's death -- even when Clint tells her the metaphorically true answer that, hey, Ronin got killed by the Black Widow. She got so pissed off and invested in drawing some blood that her second-in-command and interpreter Kazi had to pull her back. 

This, of course, leads to the badass fight in the abandoned K-B toy store, which features some absolutely fun moments amidst pretty badass action sequences -- chief among them Clint swimming through a goddamn ball pool. Throughout this fight, Maya, who's had some discussion with Clint regarding his hearing aid, seems to zero in on that and smash it to bits. This whole sequence does actually salve my fears from the first two episodes that there won't be too much excitement as far as action sequences go in this show.  

This leads to what's probably going to be the signature scene of this show -- a deafened Clint driving a car while Kate randomly picks and yells and tries to communicate with her mentor while she shoots Clint's insane assortment of trick arrows at the pursuing Tracksuit guys. Oh, while Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "A Mad Russian Christmas" plays in the background, because we're going all-in on the Christmas theme. It's absolutely amazing, and it's the exact thing that I love about the MCU team in general -- they don't just respect the adaptation of some of the sillier parts of the source material*, they make stupid shit like suction-cup arrows and goop arrows look fucking cool. Eat your heart out, Arrow!

*Although typing this paragraph, I realize that they clearly draw the line at a comic-book accurate Silver Age Hawkeye costume. Can't be perfect.

Eventually, we get a pretty cool superhero goofiness moment as Hawkeye uses a Pym particle arrow to enlarge a regular-ass arrow and causes destroys the Tracksuits' pickup track. This ends the hostilities of the episode, but oh boy, what a fun episode that was. 

There's a continuing theme of communication between Clint and Kate throughout not just the fight, but the aftermath. It of course leads to some pretty great comedic moments ("deleted, blocked"; them independently talking about taking the dog out to walk) but it also gives us some genuinely well-done bonding moments between Clint and Kate, particularly in that scene in the apartment when Clint is unable to communicate with little Nathaniel over the phone, and Kate needs to help.

There's also that great scene in the restaurant where Kate shows all the excitement about the whole 'branding' thing and, yes, even grouchy old Clint has to admit that Kate Bishop's one of the world's greatest archers. But then in-between the dorky energy of Kate showing Clint her spin on Hawkeye's classic uniform, we get that pretty amazingly-delivered speech about how Clint talks about how this superhero business eats you, and puts your families at risk. On the other hand, though, Kate Bishop refuses to downplay the fact that Clint Barton donning the superhero spandex and running around as Hawkeye most certainly has inspired some people, chief among them her. Which, of course, tosses in the fact that Kate doesn't actually realize that Clint was Ronin into a brand-new light and a plot thread to follow up on later down the line. 

There's also some stuff with the Tracksuits moving out of their base in the background, but other than that, the episode does end off in a very telegraphed cliffhanger as the Hawkeyes try and look into the Bishop penthouse and end up being intercepted by Jack Duquesne with Ronin's sword. Pretty organic cliffhanger, and I'm assuming next episode we'll be getting a bit more from this antagonist instead. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The main action sequence of this episode of the two Hawkeyes bickering about trick arrows in the middle of a car chase is taken from issue #3 of the 2012 Hawkeye run, except Clint and Kate swap places, and in the comic run, they actually ride a 70's red Dodge Challenger. 
• Maya's dad tells her that 'dragons live in another world' off-handedly. The events of Iron Fist and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings proves that in the MCU, he is right, whether he knows it or not. 
• The auto-repair shop where Echo sees William get killed by Ronin is called 'Fat Man', a common descriptor of the Kingpin in the comics. It's also very heavily implied that Maya's 'uncle' is Kingpin himself.
• The USB arrow, of course, is the infamous trick arrow that Hawkeye uses in Avengers.
• Hawkeye uses a Pym particle arrow to enlarge a regular arrow, which, of course, is a nod to Ant-Man. 
• During the flashback, William leaves a bloody handprint on her face, which is a nod to her comic-book counterpart Echo's similar faceprint. 
• Kate's doodle is Hawkeye's notoriously non-live-action-friendly comic book costume, with Kate pointing out the H on the forehead and the 'hawk horns'.