Digimon Reviews, Episode 46: Bagra Army Seven Generals [Xros Wars Season 2]

So after Xros Wars' first season ended, we get a brief time-skip and the second season of Xros Wars, titled "Digimon Xros Wars: The Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms", something I've just been referring to as the second season throughout my Digimon reviews. We get a new batch of generals that Bagramon apparently has stashed somewhere, and it's basically a nice culmination of the storylines built up throughout the first season of Xros Wars.

The enemy is still Bagramon and we've covered all of his forms, but the seven generals are all-new Digimon, and we do get a bunch of new characters among the bad guys' army. the Seven 'Big Death Stars' or 'Seven Generals'.

This originally had a bunch of one-off 'Darkness Modes' for a lot of the generals that... just weren't adding anything. It's cute for the DigiXros gimmick, but ultimately were just big glowing swords and extra wings. With the Reference Book not acknowledging them and there not really being good artwork, I've removed Dorbickmon, NeoVamdemon and Gravimon's 'darkness modes'. 

I also randomly decide to move the Bancho Digimon here. They have nothing to do with Xros Wars, but they were released around this time, so they can hang out with the generals!

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Dorbickmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Dragon Man
• Attribute: Virus

I'm not sure what a 'Dorbick' is, but Dorbickmon here is one of the Seven Generals (called the 'Big Death Stars' in the dub, hilariously) and the first to fight our heroes as part of the Fire Fury Army, which is comprised mostly of draconic Digimon. Dorbickmon himself is a pretty neat little dragon-man, managing to look complex without being utterly cluttered like many other dragon-men in Digimon's history. He's kinda generically cool, although at this point I do think that Digimon has way more cooler dragon-men than Dorbickmon. His profile is basically just a highlight of how badass and cruel Dorbickmon is, and I don't think he does much other than be a mean, mean villain-of-the-week for our heroes to take down. The most interesting I really remember about Dorbickmon is the fan backlash that the writer ended up using Huanglongmon as his mount, which is... honestly kind of hilarious? I don't particularly care all that much for Dorbickmon, but he's not a bad design. He's just a dragon-armour man, we've seen a lot of these before. 

  6/10.

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Zamielmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Demon Man
• Attribute: Data

Zamielmon is the next member of the Big Death Stars, borrowing his name from a fictional hunter from the German opera Der Freischutz. And while I could really dismiss him as "oh, another humanoid monster", Zamielmon does have a couple of things going on for him that makes him a bit more memorable. The wacky elf getup, his weird tail that ends in an arm, and his lanky, robotic arms with crossbows attached are all fun features. Also a fan of his face, which looks pretty goblin-y like a lot of older Digimon. 

Zamielmon is the general of the Wood Spirit Army, leading fairy and plant type Digimon into battle, and this cheeky little fucker definitely looks like a particularly mean-spirited ouphe or fair folk that has dressed up in all sorts of armour. He's also kind of unremarkable in the anime, I think, but he definitely looks more impressive than I thought he would be. Interestingly, despite most of the Big Death-Stars being assigned Ultimate levels when the Digimon Reference Book gave levels to all the Xros Wars Digimon, Zamielmon is one of the few to be a 'mere' Perfect, alongside Splashmon and Gravimon. So the less brutish fighters, then?

  4/10.

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NeoVamdemon

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

And then, holy shit, one of the Big Death Stars is a variation of Vamdemon, and NeoVamdemon actually looks pretty damn cool! Leading the Moonlight army and, of course, all the spooky undead and zombie Digimon, NeoVadmdemon's design is perhaps a bit too cluttered, but I do really love just how thin his abdomen and upper arms are, and how gangly his arms are. He's more like a weird hybrid of Vamdemon and Devimon as opposed to just being a Vamdemon variant, which I definitely appreciate. Also like the weird, downwards-pointing wings that double as a weird cape, too. NeoVamdemon also has a pretty memorable two-parter in the anime, unlike his two predecessors. I do like the little description in his bio that NeoVamdemon is an utterly emotionless being (definitely not true for the NeoVamdemon in the show, but I digress) that he's not like most demon or undead Digimon. He doesn't relish in slaughter or murder, only finding it something fulfilling that he just feels obligated to do.


And where the original Vamdemon summons a whole lot of vampire bats, NeoVamdemon summons a bunch of shadowy... whale-like things with no eyes and just a huge fang full of teeth. Apparently these are called "Evilvils", which is just such a dumb-sounding name. Anyway, I do like NeoVamdemon a fair bit. A pretty neat goth boy. 

  8/10.

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Splashmon

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

Splashmon here might otherwise be another in a generic "oh, he looks like a cool MegaMan boss", if not for the utter style he has in the anime, where he relies more on subterfuge and pretending to be a human ally to our heroes. The fact that he has two forms -- a human villain with liquid for hair, and a monstrous, huge-fanged monster tiger form -- is also pretty damn cool. Splashmon's whole deal is that he can turn into liquid, which explains his malleable form, and interestingly, his "Water Tiger Army" is apparently comprised mostly of cyborg and machine Digimon. Splashmon is also someone that's vain and puts a lot of stock in maintaining his beauty. 

• Alternate Names: Splashmon: Darkness Mode; Splashmon (True)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Aquatic Beast Man
• Attribute: Virus

In the anime, the way that he assumes his monstrous beastly tiger form (alternately called "True" or "Darkness Mode") is by unzipping all of those zippers found on his humanoid form's white suit, which is a fun little gimmick! Of course, Splashmon hates his monster form because it's ugly, but come on, Splashmon, the fact that you're a giant snarly tiger makes you stand out so much more than the other Big Death-Stars! Easily one of the more memorable Death Generals for me from the anime, due to his personality and fun voice.

Splashmon seems to be one of the more popular among the Seven Generals. It shows up with more or less the same 'water monster' gimmick as a one-off villain in Adventure 2020 as Devimon's minion. A chattier incarnation shows up in Ghost Game as a beauty-obsessed villain. 

  7/10. (+2 points for personality and gimmick)
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Olegmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Marine Beast
• Attribute: Vaccine

Olegmon is the token good teammate of the generals, in that he's... he's not even really evil, but definitely not a good guy. Olegmon is like this viking leader of a crew of pirates, leading the Gold-Thief Army, and he just apparently sails around the sea with his crew and collects treasure. And he's in the employ of the Bagra Army despite being a pretty fun, chill dude because, uh... reasons. I'm not sure. But apparently we get an unexpected connection with one of our main characters, Ballistamon, and apparently Ballistamon used to be a member of his crew, or something. He still opposes our heroes, but not in an evil way, and the way Olegmon was eventually defeated was a pretty fun, manly "well, shucks, I lose" bit. It's kinda nice, and I do like the little detail from the profile that Olegmon's obsession with gold comes from the fact that he apparently eats gold. Design-wise he's honestly kind of bland, just being a cyborg Viking plated with gold, but I do like how he fights -- it's not with his axes, but by unleashing two genie-like entities from his shoulders, Jormungandr and Surtr, both references to Nordic mythology monsters. Anyway, Olegmon's kinda cool.

The Adventure 2020 team really likes the generals, and has Olegmon reappear basically as a big, rowdy but secretly having a heart-of-gold pirate in a viking-themed episode battling against Vikemon!

  6/10. +1 for personality

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Apollomon: Whispered

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: God Man
• Attribute: Virus

The actual 'token good teammate', it seems, is Apollomon, who actually opposes Bagramon! But he has an eeeevil split personality, called Apollomon Whispered. Which is a recolour of the regular Apollomon. It is the most relevant Apollomon has been, so there's something in that. Design-wise it's honestly kinda bland. I don't really have much to say about him, honestly. I'm reviewing him as a variant of Apollomon, he doesn't rank particularly high for me. 

 3/10.

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Gravimon

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

The final member of the Big Death Stars we face off is Gravimon, the general of gravity and leader of the Earth-God Army, and I'm a huge fan of him! From his voice, to his bizarre appearance... he's got these wacky, twisted, fucked-up limbs that look more like weird paper cut-outs that just taper off, that bizarre smoky cloud hair, and lots of wire tendrils jutting out of his back. Gravimon is a design that I feel was neat but ultimately unimpressive until I actually see him in the anime, and especially from the side. It's a pretty creepy look, honestly, and the fact that Gravimon can apparently manipulate gravity could probably give a couple dozen thematic reasons as to why his limbs look pretty fucked-up. Those papery limbs look quite distinctive, and it's even shown to wrap around Gravimon's slender, humanoid body like a cocoon or a straitjacket. Cool!

Gravimon can even detonate himself like an actual black hole, causing a big bang or something... although he doesn't want to do this because he's not sure how long it will take for him to regenerate. Overall, a pretty neat-looking villain!

Rather interestingly, Gravimon's Adventure 2020 counterpart actually is a heroic figure, curling up and being grouchy until our heroes' efforts ends up causing him to assist in a reconstruction effort. 

  7/10.
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GrandGeneramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate (presumably, no Reference Book profile yet)
• Type: Unique
• Attribute: ???

Of course, when you have a bunch of enemies together in a series all about fusion, it's sort of obligated to fuse them together. So at one point during the climax, the Big Death Stars (or their corpses, or something like that) are fused together into GrandGeneramon, which is like... it's kinda like Chimeramon, with multiple arms belonging to different generals, and the Dorbickmon/Apollomon combination forming the central torso jutting out of Splashmon's entire body as everything below the stomach. It's not the most creative look since it's basically just everything mashed together, but I do appreciate just how much of an abomination this looks like. Not my favourite design, but a neat little enemy to face as part of the story.

  5/10.

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BanchoGolemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Mineral
• Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Ban-TYO

We're going to talk a bit about some of the Digimon released post-Xros-Wars in the card games and assorted material, just because this article isn't quite that long and we can talk a bit about these four punks!

Back when BanchoLeomon was released, its profile notes that it's part of the BAN-TYO (sic) group, but it's not until this period that we've ever seen any other member out of that group. They're all Ultimate-level, and we're going to open up with BanchoGolemon. Who... actually has very little, design-wise, with the original Golemon beyond being vaguely associated with rocks. It's kind of just another generic humanoid made up of rocks, although I really do like the giant drill that his left arm has transformed into, as well as the little golem buddies that fly around it. BanchoGolemon is apparently a huge, huge dick, and will only help out his own buddies. He's honestly kind of boring, though, and in my opinion doesn't even deliver on the whole 'delinquent' theme particularly well. If you didn't show me his name, I wouldn't have guessed that he's even a Golemon.

 4/10.
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BanchoLilimon

• Alternate Names: BanchoLillymon
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Fairy
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Ban-TYO

A bit more like it! Lilimon isn't my favourite design, but going one step further and turning this cheery plant fairy into a delinquent schoolgirl isn't particularly creative. The simple addition of a spiked, thorny yo-yo that she weaponizes, though? That goes a long way into making BanchoLilimon a lot more charming. It's even got a funny little Togemon face, a neat little nod to Lilimon's most commonly-depicted pre-evolution! While her design is surprisingly a bit more 'real-world' inspired than I'd like, the Banchos are particularly based on a subset of Japanese culture anyway, and I do enjoy the fact that of all the possible Digimon that they picked to be delinquents, happy-go-lucky plant fairy Lilimon was one of the five they chose. Her profile is also pretty hilarious, describing what's essentially an emo punk teen, except this emo punk teen is an Ultimate-level Digimon.

 6/10.
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BanchoMamemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Ban-TYO

Heyyy it's Mamemon! With two giant... cutlass-club things (which, like BanchoLilimon, ends in Mamemon's goofy :3 face), and I do find it hilarious that the Jotaro Kujo cloak is basically stapled onto the back of Mamemon's body. A big fan of those random chains and smaller flying ball-heads, too. It's kind of a fun little variant, honestly. The Banchos aren't particularly my cup of tea, but I do find BanchoMamemon to be kind of hilarious. Not much to say here, though I tend to not mind the Bancho dudes as much as everyone else on this page. Might as well end this on a somewhat positive note, right?

BanchoMamemon does show up, rather hilariously, as a 'bancho' delinquent dropout of Babamon's school in Adventure: 2020, and goes through a typical 'delinquent actually respects the kindness of the teachers in the school' storyline. BanchoMamemon's funky chain-manipulation and tricked-out bats are in full display there, which I thought was quite fun! 

 6/10.

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BanchoStingmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Insect
• Attribute / Subgroup: Free / Ban-TYO

The last one here is BanchoStingmon, who is a red-coloured Stingmon with a delinquent cloak. And... and this is where the change in the Digimon aesthetic really ends up looking awesome, because the stylized, skinnier bug legs given to BanchoStingmon looks so much better than the action figure legs that the original Stingmon has. Plus, the fact that BanchoStingmon's weapons have became these cool-looking golden gauntlet with a single stabby claw? Stingmon was already kind of punk-looking, and apparently all you need to do is to give him a delinquent cape. BanchoStingmon, apparently also has a bunch of little stinger-bug buddies, so I wonder why it is BanchoLeomon and BanchoLilimon don't have their own flying lion heads or plant fairies to help them out. Anyway... the Banchos aren't particularly creative, but they ooze some amount of charm, at least.

 7/10.
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Series Review: Kamen Rider Ryuki

Kamen Rider Ryuki [2002-2003] 

"Advent."

Here is another show that everyone seems to love! I feel like whenever I see someone recommending a solid, good Kamen Rider show, Double,  Kuuga and Ryuki are always pretty high on everyone's lists. Ryuki is the archetypal 'riders fight riders' show, something that everyone will note that shows like Blade, Gaim, Kabuto and pretty much every single show in the past five yeras have danced around with. As the third show in the Heisei era, Ryuki was done apparently with the principle that 'your justice might not be the world's justice', showing that in this Rider Battle, there are some people who call themselves Kamen Riders and fight for a cause that might not actually be a right cause to fight for. 

From a Doylist point of view, Ryuki is when Toei finally gave in and allowed the title "Kamen Rider" to be slapped onto villains and not make it quite as exclusive. It is, after all, far more marketable to sell "Kamen Rider Ouja" and "Kamen Rider Gai" merchandise than "Shadow Moon", "Heart Roidmude" or "Horse Oprhnoch" as much as anyone who has watched those shows would tell you that they are far more important than some other riders in their respective shows. 

Marketing aside, though, Ryuki is a pretty fun show to go through. It's the first to break through the admittedly pretty short duo of Kuuga and Agito of having a relatively similar looking feel of being a quasi-supernatural show with ancient artifacts. The concept of Ryuki is pretty interesting, and one that, while feeling somewhat repetitive nowadays, is definitely fresh for the franchise at the time. In the setting of Ryuki, there has been a lot of missing people that the audience see get abducted by monstrous beings from mirrors, and our main character, ORE Journal reporter Kido Shinji, gets sucked into one of these mirror worlds during an investigation. He quickly finds himself discovering a bizarre 'Advent Deck', and with the reluctant help of Akiyama "Kamen Rider Knight" Ren, Shinji ends up finding himself involved in this mirror world as he accidentally makes a 'pact' with a giant CGI robot dragon and becomes Kamen Rider Ryuki when he tries to protect innocent lives from all the monsters. 

Poor Shinji finds himself way over his head when he realizes what this 'Rider Battle' is all about, though. In a very anime-esque way, some higher power have given out these advent decks out to thirteen Kamen Riders (only around ten appear in the show, with the others only showing up in specials and movies), and these Kamen Riders have to fight to the death in a Battle Royale style Rider Battle, and the winner will have their wish granted. Again, something that feels pretty fantasy anime-esque and some of the concepts here have been repeated in other subsequent Rider shows (Blade and Decade borrows the card aspect; Wizard borrows the contract beast aspect) but, again, Ryuki itself does a pretty great job at keeping everything pretty fresh. Though I will say that it's kind of a shame that the creepiness of the mirrors and a mirror world tends to be downplayed after the first dozen episodes or so -- the mirror world ends up just being a convenient place for our heroes to run wild and blow shit up without causing a large amount of casualties. 

The main set of characters are pretty solid, and I would daresay that the pair of Shinji and Ren actually ends up defining the archetypal primary rider/secondary rider for much of the Heisei era. Shinji is kind of dumb, sort of clueless about everything that's going on, but is so positive and earnest about his desire to stop the 'tatakae' (fight!) and is basically a naive, positive influence thrust into a cast of characters that are cynical at best and outright murderous at worst. As the secondary rider, Akiyama Ren, meanwhile, is aloof, a bit of a jerk, contemptuous of our main character and knows more than our main hero, but ultimately gets infected by Shinji's positive attitude and warms up a lot. Plus, Ren's reason as to why he feels it's justifiable to kill the other Riders in the Rider Battle is to revive his comatose girlfriend, something that he feels absolutely guilty due to the events that led up to it. And Kanzaki Yui, the main female character... she's kind of there? She's heavily involved in the backstory of the Rider Battle, and she interacts a fair bit with Shinji, but I can't help but feel like she's one of those characters whose inclusion to the story is more of an afterthought. 

Rounding up the main cast of primary riders would be the show's most entertaining and violent villain, the snake-skin jacketed serial killer Asakura Takeshi, Kamen Rider Ouja, easily one of the most reprehensible people to walk around with the title 'Kamen Rider'. On the other side of the spectrum, the sometimes-antagonist, sometimes-ally is the older lawyer gentleman, Kitaoka Shuichi, Kamen Rider Zolda, who is the epitome of a lovable jackass. A bit of a flirt, a bit of an opportunist, clearly loving money and influence more, Kitaoka (and his butler/servant Yura Goro) nevertheless ends up being roped into Shinji and Ren's more kind-hearted plots, although it's a bit of a coin toss what Kitaoka will do because he, like Ren, has a reason that he's fighting for because he wants to win the Rider Battle. 

Having watched the very multiple-Rider-heavy Gaim and Build before this one, it's actually very refreshing to see just how much the series focuses on the four primary dudes -- Ryuki, Knight, Zolda and Ouja. Sure, the six other riders that show up in the show do hang around for a bit, and there are moments where characters like Gai, Raia and Imperer sort of hang out and muck around for a huge battle royale, but for the most part the cast is limited to the four main characters and maybe one other secondary member of the cast. 

And for the most part, a good chunk of the show revolves around the phrase 'fight' (tatakae, as it's often rendered in memes). As is, what's the reason for fighting? Ryuki himself notes that he doesn't care about what the magic wish or the reason behind the Rider Battle existing is. Knight has a fervent goal that he fights for and he doesn't care if he damns himself for it. Zolda is more flippant and self-absorbed, but he, too, is fighting for a goal... and there's Ouja, who just uses the Rider Battle for an excuse to murder the shit out of people. The other seondary Riders have their own reasons. Plus, there is Yui's brother, the enigmatic Kanzaki Shiro and his other cohorts that act as minor arc villains, too, all have their own reasons. 

And that, I feel, is the best part of the show. Shinji, Ren, Asakura and Kitaoka are all very well-rounded characters, and while there's always a significant distance that Asakura keeps from the rest of the cast (being a reprehensible psychopath and all) the other three interact very, very well with each other and I'm an absolute huge fan of them. It's even better when some of the more well-realized secondary riders get tossed into the rider battle. Some are sort of one-off antagonists (Kamen Rider Scissors is basically a starter antagonist that gets killed off early just to show the horrors of the Rider Battle; and Kamen Rider Odin is an enigma wrapped in a mystery), but for the most part the show gets a lot of mileage playing the characters off against our main cast. 

Take, for instance, Kamen Rider Raia, Tezuka Miyuki (Ultraman Azul!), an oddball of a fortune teller that ends up helping Shinji out a fair bit before reinforcing just how brutal the Rider Battle is while being obsessed with changing the 'fate' that only he understands. Or Kamen Rider Gai, Shibaura Jun, a sociopath who delights in seeing all this as a game, but is very much willing to play the good guy ally to fool Shinji. Or the whole Tojo Satoru/Kamen Rider Tiger arc, which revolves around the poor dude and his desire to be accepted by his mentor, one of the people indirectly responsible for the Rider Battle. Or Sano Mitsuru, Kamen Rider Imperer, a person with such a warped upbringing that he believes that friendship and alliances are commodities to be bought and sold. They aren't counted as Kamen Riders, but the Alternatives are pretty fun arc villains for the short time they show up in the show. Again, all of these characters have their own reasons of fighting, they have their own reasons for Shinji to befriend and distrust, and it's very, very fun to see Shinji interact with them and basically mature throughout the course of the story.

One of the more interesting parts of the show is just how interesting Shinji Kido himself is... in that he's actually not a very good fighter, especially compared to how effortlessly powerful compared to other riders other main riders like Agito, Gaim, Kabuto, Blade and Build end up becoming over the course of their shows. He's not shown to be weak and has his share of monster-destroying kicks, but while it's not particularly on-the-nose, the show pretty distinctively shows off that Knight, Ouja and Zolda are far more experienced and far more willing to use more bloodthirsty methods to take out their prey compared to our good sweet nice protagonist Shinji. And yet Shinji still manages to be easily one of the most interesting members of the cast specifically because of this vulnerability and his staunch and naively positive outlook on life. A lot of observations has been done about Ryuki's story as a whole, with some noting that Shinji's role ends up becoming more of a 'voice of conscience' for Ren and Kitaoka, with the two of them being the characters with a reason to fight... and I honestly could totally see this story being framed as being Ren's story, and it just bills Shinji and Ren equally. 

There are some facets of the show that doesn't work quite as well, for sure. The Mirror Monsters end up basically being distractions while Shinji and the audience slowly learns about the rules of the Rider Battle. While they were not completely dropped, the Contract Monsters also feel somewhat underused; other than the brief subplot with Ouja's Genocider and both Shinji and Ren unlocking their Survive super forms, they are kind of handwaved aside. 

Especially early on, there's a lot of stuff with the ORE Journal side characters (which are wholly unmemorable) but it is another facet that gets dropped pretty quickly. I am especially not a fan of the handling of Kamen Rider Odin and primary antagonist Kanzaki Shiro... that Odin episode was absolutely badass and cool, but I feel like a lot of the revelations about the vague reality-breaking powers of Odin and the origins of the Rider Battle and Mirror world is sort of handwave-y. I think a bunch of details about the nature of Odin and the Rider Battle isn't even explained adequately in the show, and it's through word of the producers and spinoffs that they were made clearer. Thankfully, a lot of these are sort of relegated near the end of the series, and while I wouldn't say that Ryuki has the best conclusion... it's actually one of the better ones compared to a lot of other Rider shows. And, well, if you don't like the ending, Ryuki actually has several. 

Without spoiling that Huge Thing (tm) that happens in the penultimate episode, Ryuki has a bit of a alternate-splinter-timeline thing going on with the Rider Battle. In addition to the final episode of the TV series, we've got "Ryuki: Episode Final", a movie that serves as an alternate ending for the series; "Special: 13 Riders", a weird alternate retelling retelling of the Rider Fight with a completely different beginning and ending; and as recently as 2019, "Rider Time: Kamen Rider Ryuki", a three-part special tie-in to Zi-O that tosses the entire cast of Ryuki, even the dead ones, gets resurrected to continue playing this Rider Battle game, featuring nearly the entire main cast reprising their roles. It's a bit of a cop-out considering what a surprising (and very divisive) ending the actual TV series has, but ultimately I did feel like the actual series' ending might be one of the more poignant endings of others. Oh, and these side-movies feature the other 'missing' Kamen Riders from the lineup, with Kamen Riders Femme, Verde and Ryuga showing up in the former two specials.

Again, Ryuki is one of those shows that is a bit hard to talk about without spoiling specific moments in the series, but I feel like it strikes the perfect balance between a grimmer storytelling without losing sight of the optimism that the franchise is meant to be championing. I feel like I didn't quite get the hype of Ryuki when I first watched through it, but looking back at it, I feel like it's actually easily one of my favourite Rider series out there; it just stumbles quite a bit near the end. It's not perfect, but Ryuki is remarkably consistent in the themes and the stories it wants to tell from start to finish, which is certainly not something the next four entries in the Heisei era can claim. Slightly overhyped, but definitely a series that deserves the crown the fandom has placed upon it.

Kamen Rider Saber E18-20 Review: To Trust A Traitor

Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 18-20:

Trying to catch up. Honestly, these episodes are a lot more easier to watch because they're a lot more slower-paced. 

Episode 18: The Flame's Obsession, Defeating the Megid

A follow up of episode 17, this one is kinda slower-paced and much to the episode (and show's) benefit. There's not a whole ton to say here, and the plotline is simple. Touma and Mei are hell-bent on saving poor Yuki from being killed and being turned into the Shirayuki Yeti Megid. Yuri, meanwhile, continues to be elusive and continues talking about 'cutting her down' and having some conviction as a swordsman... but turns out that the episode ends with the revelation Yuri's sword-form actually being able to save the humans by cutting them. It's a bit of a cop-out, arguably, but at the same time I can also believe from what we've seen that Yuri's simply just terrible at communicating. 

Reika's still trying to get the other Logos swordsmen to hunt down Touma (and it mostly works for Ren) but Rintarou, Ryo and Daishinji are all starting to show doubts. Again, still not the biggest fan of how Touma's estrangement from Sword of Logos is handled, but these scenes do kind of make up for it somewhat. This episode gives us a bit of an excuse, with Touma protecting the Yeti Megid from Rintarou -- who doesn't know about the human-in-the-Megid thing. Wouldn't it be so much better if they swapped things around, had Touma's meeting with Yuri a bit earlier to facilitate an actual misunderstanding? No? Regardless, the episode's end seems to have Reika slowly becoming an evil mentor to Rintarou.

Still, the Rintarou/Touma stuff is great, and I do love that Rintarou is so desperate in not wanting to fight his buddy that he's trying so hard to get Touma to surrender to the organization. Yuri calls out Rintarou and Daishinji for fighting for the 'wrong justice'... and, of course, we get the fun three-way-fight between Saber, Blades and the Yeti. Slash fights Saikou, and, again, I feel like the action flows so much better in these newer episodes. Saber ultimately takes a blow meant for the Yeti and blows up, but Yuri just teleports them away. 

We get a nice little speech about the editor who got turned into the Yeti. It's simple "I want to make people smile with [X]" fluff that these Rider shows tend to do with a victim-of-the-week, but, again, it adds a fair amount to Touma and Mei's desperation to save Yuki. Their little speech about protecting the world makes Yuri get intrigued about saving the world. After getting an inspiration from a toaster toy, they go to the Toku Warehouse (tm) and fight both Legiel and Shirayuki Yeti. Touma's plan is to break the book right as it pops out, which... also is a kind of a cop-out since I'm not sure how he's so certain that there will be an opening, but sure, why not. The action scene in the warehouse is pretty fun, in any case. Saber dual-wields his own sword and Yuri's Saikou form, and chases Legiel away, and hey, turns out Yuri isn't actually super-murderous in the first place and tells Touma that they could've freed Yuki at any time. 

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Episode 19: Flame and Light, Sword and Sword

We're fully in a two-parter-monster-of-the-week form now, and I can definitely appreciate it. It's still Touma, Mei and kooky ol' Yuri against the world, and Yuri gives a bit of an info-dump about how Southern Base now has a monopoly on both swordsmen and books, and that makes them all the more closer to the Table of Contents. Also a bit more about Luna being able to bridge multiple worlds because she's one of those special anime plot device girls.

Meanwhile, as Reika continues to rile up the North-Base swordsmen (and emphasizes a lot on Touma being able to use the Sword of Light), the Megid Bros go around making more Megids, including this two-parter's victim-of-the-week, Shingo, who gets turned into the Hadashi no Ou-sama (King's New Clothes) Megid. Shingo is introduced as an absolute fanboy of Touma's literary works, which is fun! As a Megid, Shingo uses his ability to make a castle by stealing cars, while he briefly gets some time in his human form fanboying over Touma, but ultimately this side of the plot is pretty slow and perfunctory. 

Much more interesting is Tetsuo Daishinji getting some spotlight! Yuri's condemnation of the Sword of Logos last episode clearly rattled him, and he confides this to Ryo -- that they believe the organization, but really do want to make sure. We get a fight between Saber and Saikou against the King Megid and Storious... but the main appeal here is Slash arriving. We get another "don't attack the monster, it's human!" angst moment, but Storious disappears with the King Megid halfway through the fight.

And then we get a very cool "show me your conviction" moment between Slash and Saber. Power scaling has never been something Kamen Rider really cares about, but holy shit, Saber goes through King Arthur and Dragonic Knight, and Slash just uses his wacky rainbow musical scale effects to deflect everything. Absolutely love Yuri parroting Slash's moves in the background, and while the battle is interrupted by Shingo appearing elsewhere, I did really like the fact that Slash is slowly seeing the bigger picture, even if he does put his duty first. Much slower than the previous two episodes, but again, still very enjoyable. 

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Episode 20: To Destroy the Stronghold, the Will of the Sword

The conclusion of the Shingo two-parter, I'm including this here mostly just so my next review can be an uninterrupted two-parter review. The first chunk of the episode is just our heroes trying to hunt down Shingo, while the other secondary riders in Sword of Logos are trying to figure out what they think of the revelation that, hey, turns out that Touma's claims that humans are turning into Megid is actually accurate. Unfortunately, Reika spins this around to "we need to gain the Sword of Light for ourselves". Poor little gremlin boy Ren, who's still conflicted over Kento's death, ends up being the surprising focus of this episode since he's the one is the most confused about the whole thing. 

We get a huge rumble-fight between Saber, Saikou, Legiel, the King Megid and the arrival of Ren. If nothing else, what Ren seems to focus on is Kento's death and the fact that Touma still has Kento's Ikazuchi blade. Ren is just super angry and ignores everything that Touma is saying, beating him up savagely -- some great voice acting on the part of his actor! Oh, and Desast shows up and beats up Legiel, saying that he's free and he's going to fight everyone. Poor Ren, though, is just confused, especially when, well, he's so much wrapped up in the warped notion that Saber is evil and is besmirching Kento's death and that the Sword of Logos needs the Sword of Light. Poor kid! When the fight finishes and poor Ren is reduced to tossing his sword aside and screaming, it's actually well done.

Rintarou wants to work with Touma to save the humans, but Touma ends up, well, saying the absolutely worst thing he could say and talk about the enemy within the organization. Poor Rintarou and his blind loyalty to the organization that adopted him ends up being real angry about it -- though, to be fair, Touma's source of evidence is pretty dodgy. Reika shows up and also says the rather hard-to-argue-against point that Touma is also gathering power, like the supposed traitors. 

With some simple deduction from last week's castle model, Saber and Saikou fight against the King Megid and Storious. Touma gives a speech about how him suffering in battle helps to understand the victim's pain, and ends up going through a pretty badass little maneuver where he copies Slash's little jump-spin trick last episode. Shingo is freed from the Megid, and all is well! Anyway, it's more of a build-up chapter as we see the different opinions of the other swordsmen. Again, it's nothing too spectacular and I'm still not really feeling the series as much as I did the past couple of Rider seasons, but it's still a couple of pretty solid episodes. 

Random Notes:

• 100% approving of how much more relevant Mei is in these couple of episodes, even if it's as a sidekick. 
• Is "Megid" the official spelling now? Sure. "Megiddo" feels a lot better since it's an actual word, but it's not a deal-breaker like Izu and Is.
• How well-done if Reika had actually been shown whispering in the ears of the other swordsmen and actually building up the suspicion against Touma since her first appearance? If she had done so and our other secondary riders are starting to feel like they're being played now, it would've been so much better. 
• Are they making fun of Rintarou's "Homo sapiens" line from a couple episodes ago? His usage of it in episode 18 ("normal Homo sapiens do not become Meggido!") actually flows a lot better, though!
• There's a whole background plot of Yuri trying to steal Mei's phone in episode 19. It's kinda cute. Yuri also wipes the editor's memory in episode 19, which is convenient. Episode 20 has Yuuri attempt to ride a bike in the most uncomfortable way ever, and Mei basically forcing Yuuri to transform by putting the belt and the transformation device on. 
• Early on in episode 19 we get a very, very well-shot and cool montage of the three Megid Bros turning random humans into Megids. Zooius doing a couple of unnecessary backflips was probably my favourite part of that. 
• I didn't realize that the fake-X-Men comic book that Yuri has been reading is actually the basis of his "Shadow" humanoid form, that's a nice touch. 
• Desast has a magic scarf just like Zi-O's  Woz, apparently. 
• Mei gets wrapped up in a whole lot of random comedy bandages, the poor girl! 
• I'm 90% sure that "chinchinpuipui", the spell that the King Megid speaks, is the nonsense spell that Shunpei from Wizard likes to repeat. 

Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess Bosses

 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Otherwise known as 'my favourite Zelda game'! We'll covering the bosses this time around. Now Twilight Princess is an interesting game in that in addition to a lot of huge, traditional dungeons, we also get scripted battles against some bad guys in the overworld, and some of them get like, a 'title' and everything. So yeah, I'm going to cover these guys first from overworld bosses, to dungeon mini-bosses, to the actual dungeon bosses. 

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Overworld Bosses:

King Bulblin (and Lord Bullbo)

Actually low-key one of my favourite parts of the game is the fact that you keep bumping into this guy. I think you fight this huge leader of the Bulblins like three or four times, and in a very refreshing change of pace, despite playing into the trope of a fat leader of an orc-like race, King Bulblin is constantly portrayed as a badass throughout the game. And he's got a big horned devil-pig that he rides around... but King Bulblin himself is never actually played up as a joke, not in the way that I actually legitimately expect him to. It's an interesting amount of respect that's being paid to a character with a design that traditionally would get the characterization of a 'dumb brute' or a comedic villain, and yet instead King Bulblin, if anything, ends up being this badass worthy opponent warrior at the end of the game. 

He's the first of the game's recurring villains that Link meets, kidnapping the children from his village (because of... uh... I'm not sure why, actually), and Link fights him multiple times in pretty cool horseback sequences. And while King Bulblin himself is honestly just kind of a serviceable design, it's the fights against him -- there's a pursuit throughout the entire Hyrule Field; a horseback-vs-pigback joust on the Bridge of Eldin... then king Bulblin shows up on pigback with shield. And then he shows up again when Link assaults the Bulblin stronghold, where he fights you with an axe. Then finally, you fight him in the final dungeon, in Hyrule Castle, as part of a miniboss gauntlet. Again, I really do like just how much this enemy ends up being a fun recurring element in the game... and even actually concedes defeat to Link (he can talk!) and decides to 'follow the strongest side'. He sadly doesn't actually join Link in fighting Ganondorf, but he actually survives to lead his Bulblin people in peace as they ride around Gerudo Desert in the game's epilogue. 

He's overall not that important to the story of the game, but I appreciate him so much as a narrative tool and, in a franchise that has mostly treated most 'monstrous' enemies as being disposable, giving us a story of a sympathetic member of these monsters.

Twilit Carrier Kargarok

We talked about the Shadow/Twilit Kargaroks before, but at some point in the game you fight a particularly massive one with a Twilit Bulblin rider. I feel like maybe they could've done a bit more to make this monster design memorable, but I did gush about how much I like the Twilit Kargarok design and seeing it just bigger isn't a bad move. Interestingly, after you take out the rider in the boss fight, the Carrier Kargarok actually becomes your buddy and helps to 'carry' you around. 

Twilit Bloat

So throughout the game you've been freeing parts of Hyrule from being stuck in Twilight by finding and destroying the little Shadow Insects holding on to the fragments of the region's 'Light'... and in one of the final regions that you have to free, the Lanaryu region, as you go around looking for the Shadow Insects... turns out that one of them have mutated into a giant monster! Twilit Bloat here is a pretty nasty design, and... and sure, it's got a fat grub-bug body and a nasty mouth that would make a lot of real-life spiders and beetles jealous. But the most striking and nasty feature has to be those legs, which don't even look like arthropod legs anymore and more like the heads of some sort of parasitic... thing. I'm not sure what they remind me of... sea cucumbers, I guess? Or intestines? A very, very nasty-looking insect and one that just ends up looking so much creepier than if it was just a big fat fly monster. 

For some reason, the Twilit Bloat is able to summon electricity to attack Link, and, also predictably, those writhing pustulent legs are the weak points. 

Skull Kid

One of the more memorable aspects of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, this new incarnation of Skull Kid looks a lot more like a creepy puppet, and hoo boy, that face. Looka t that face, with that wide grin and glowing red eyes. Despite it all, as with most previous incarnations, the Skull Kid is actually just a mischievous prick living in the forest whose 'fight' with you is more of a little game, simultaneously guiding Link through the bizarre Lost Woods (you need to follow the trumpet song he's making) while also launching his Puppet armada at you. You fight him twice, and I honestly really love this guy. He's so creepy!

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Mini-Bosses:

Ook

The miniboss of the Forest Temple is this guy, a crazy baboon that is wielding the item that Link needs to obtain from the temple, the Gale Boomerang. The Forest Temple also has another 'pseudo-miniboss' in the single unique enemy, the Big baba... and I dunno. I like Ook in principle, the game gives him a fun voice and whatnot, but as just a crazy baboon slapping his ass at you, Ook is kind of an underwhelming enemy visually. Link eventually frees Ook from the Shadow Insect controlling him, and he'll help you and show up in the final boss as a Bombling delivery service. 

Dangoro

The miniboss of Goron mines, Dangoro is, like Ook, not particularly impressive. I do comment Twilight Princess for giving the Gorons and Zoras a fair bit more body variety (i.e. two or three different models instead of just the one) and Dangoro here is another example of them. He's just this huge ogre-Goron with armour plates grafted onto his rocky parts, though. His boss fight, at least, is more memorable than Ook's, mostly because you're fighting him on a wobbling magnetic platform suspended by fraying chains. Hilariously, the fight against Dangoro is more of a misunderstanding; he's a security guard who didn't get the memo that you're here to free his boss from mind control!

Deku Toad

A mistranslation of his Japanese name, Degu Todo ('Giant Toad'), the Deku Toad is the 'adult' form of the Toadpolis we've been fighting throughout the game. He's the miniboss of the Lakebed Temple and I really do like just how utterly large and gross this guy is,  and just how creepily tiny his legs are. How can those legs support that massive, dinosaurian body? I like those little feathery antennae, and in a behaviour that is clearly based on those weird frogs and toads that carry eggs on their back (like the Surinam Toad), the Deku Toad has a bunch of little eggs that will hatch into Toado, which are like legless Toadpoli that somewhat resemble pufferfishes or something.

It's sort of an Arrghus-style boss fight, actually, with the Deku Toad shaking off her eggs and causing them to hatch into swarming nuisance while the Deku Toad herself jumps around and attempts to smoosh Link with her massive body. Ultimately you have to try and find an opportunity to stun her then either bomb her mouth or slash at her exposed tongue. Not the most complex fight, but a fun one nonetheless. 

I also like that we basically get a full picture of the Toadpoli's life cycle, with them going from Toados to Toadpolis to the Deku Toads.

Death Sword

Visually, he's just a robed specter with a horned skull-head with a giant skull. A bit of a novelty for a Zelda boss fight, which tend to not go for typical demons and ghosts, but Death Sword here has a pretty cool introduction. You stumble into a room with a gigantic cleaver sword longer than Link is tall, chained to the ground with runes on it... and then when Link breaks one of the chains, the sword starts spinning around and attacking Link. Only with his wolf mode sense can Link see Death Sword's true demonic/ghostly form. Interestingly, throughout the fight, the sword is implied to be the true core of the creature, because Link's wolf-mode attacks stun the humanoid part, but it's the damage that Link's human form deals to the sword that ultimately counts. 

After beating him, the Death Sword disintegrates into twilight shards while the humanoid body breaks apart into a swarm of flies. Nothing about this guy is really explained, and I think that it's a bit of a more effective way of handling a boss like Majora's Mask's Gomess. There's just enough story behind Death Sword's room, his fight patterns and the Arbiter's Ground in general to guess what it is, but we don't get any real answers about him. 

Poe

So while the game has a bunch of Imp Poes scattered across Hyrule, four 'adult' Poes show up in Arbiter's Grounds in a homage to the Poe Sisters from Ocarina of Time. These are far more humanoid than a traditional Poe,  with a spooky skull-face, gangly sleeved arms and generally looking like scary specters. And they are actually pretty decent scary specters, I just feel like I don't think I like this design as much as the Imp Poe or the traditional goofy-looking Poes. 

Darkhammer

Known as "Hammer Knuckle" in the original Japanese as an obvious homage to yet another Ocarina of Time miniboss, Iron Knuckle, Darkhammer is a giant lizard man in full armour holding a giant ball-and-chain (which, of course, you steal after beating him). I actually like the fact that the Lizalfoses sort of have this 'boss' among them. The Darkhammer is a boss you fight in Snowpeak Temple, which, when you think about it, is kind of a weird place for a lizard-person to hang out in since lizards don't do well in cold weather. His fight is one that's extra-memorable thanks to the mechanics. It's a cage-match, and Link has to use his Clawshot to Spider-Man up the ceiling and walls and maneuver so he can get behind Darkhammer and beat at his unarmoured tail. 

Darknut

A returning enemy from the 2D games, Twilight Princess's Darknut isn't like, anything super-special. He looks cool, yes, with that black suit of armour and that mohawk and that fun, fancy sword and shield. But it's the execution here. Nevermind the fact that the Darknut is the single most difficult enemy in the game that requires you to actually master at least some of the fancy swordfighting skills (that you could simply not really learn and rely on spin attacks and gadgets) in the game. There aren't any Stalfos-style 'use a bomb, it's the weakness' way to cheese the fight against the Darknut. And while showing up as the miniboss in the Temple of Time, turns out that Ganondorf has a bunch of them just walking around Hyrule Castle in his employ, each of them traveling in pairs!

The Darknut even has a 'super mode' of sorts. Beat a Darknut enough and it will shed its armour, toss his sword at Link, then pull out an even bigger sword to become faster and more aggressive. 

Aeralfos

Sometimes translated as "Aerialfos", these are winged Lizalfos! They serve as a miniboss in the City in the Sky (multiple times, too), and also show up alongside the Darknut as part of a miniboss gauntlet in Hyrule Castle. I really do like that the Aeralfos has the more traditional-looking 'happy gecko' face that the Lizalfos usually have, in addition to, y'know, their wings. I think it really serves to make this design look so much more nimble. 

The Aeralfos miniboss is fought in a room with multiple holes on the ceiling, and it will swoop in and out of it to make targeting it extra-difficult, but later on when you fight the Aeralfos two or three at a time, they're a bit more easy to handle since Link will have the Double Clawshot from beating the first Aeralfos, and would have an easier time pulling these guys down. Not the most impressive miniboss, but I do like that they're giving us like these 'elite' versions of regular enemies. 

Phantom Zant

Oh, like Phantom Ganon, but actually a transparent Zant. The Twilight Palace already has a bunch of Zant avatars in the Zant Heads and Zant Hands going around, so it fits his modus operandi that the miniboss be a version of him, then? That makes him kind of a bland monster, though, particularly since Phantom Zant's fight involves him simply summoning Twilight monsters. The animations for his magic spells are cool, I'll give him that, but he's otherwise kind of unremarkable. 

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Dungeon Bosses:

Twilit Parasite: Diababa

And here we go with the bosses! The boss in the Forest Temple initially appears to just be two giant Deku Baba heads emerging from a pool of poisonous water. Until Link beats them up enough for the true form to appear. It's very video-gamey and I love it; turns out that the original form of the boss are just this guy's hands. Diababa's true form is also pretty cool, an engorged snake-like plant monster with a lower jaw that splits in half, and a tongue with an eyeball on it. Further inspection of his 3D model also reveals that it's got a bunch of bizarre insect-like legs jutting out of his 'spine' and sits on top like this little floating tiny network of roots like a water hyacinth. I'm not entirely sure how the Diababa even eats with that eyeball on its head, but maybe the Diababa only eats with its 'hands'? 

Regardless, though, the Diababa isn't actually a real organic being, but rather, like most of the bosses in the game, turns out to be a manifestation of a "Fused Shadow", a plot device that corrupts and mutates regular beings in this world and turns them into something terrifying. I actually think this aspect isn't shown quite as clearly -- the game also has a sub-plot of the Spirits of Light being corrupted and I'm genuinely surprised that none of the regional Spirits of Light end up being a boss at some point. But oh well. 

One of the biggest complaints I've seen about Twilight Princess is how all the dungeon bosses are vastly far more style-over-substance (especially when you compare it to the mechanics-heavy Majora's Mask bosses). And that's true; the Diababa fight mostly amounts to 'dodge, then do the right thing to make Ook drop bombs on Diababa, then beat the eyeball up'. But while gameplay wise it's a bit of a bummer, I really did find Diababa to be this 'whoa what the fuck' impressive titan of a set piece when I first saw it. 

Twilit Igniter: Fyrus

Or, as he's known in Japan, "Magdoflamoth", a far, far cooler name than the honestly pretty bland "Fyrus". Fyrus here is the mutated form of the Goron leader Darbus, who gets turned into a giant ogre-man with his body constantly on fire. Somehow, the other Gorons are able to chain him up and hold him in place in the center of the Goron Mines, which is where you fight him and remove the shard of corruption on his forehead. Nowhere as epic in scale or design as the other Twilight Princess bosses, and while he's not necessarily a bad enemy design, he does feel pretty underwhelming. 

Twilit Aquatic: Morpheel

"Twilit Aquatic"? That's not even a noun, that's an adjective! Morpheel here is a pretty interesting enemy -- when you first fight him, all you see is his mouth, a fanged lamprey or sarlacc-like mass that takes up the bottom of a massive trench at the bottom of Lakebed Temple, and he's got a mass of watery tendrils, which grow more and more as Link continues to damage the thing. And I think they're trying to make you think that it's just a simple maw-monster boss with little tendrils that make it a homage to Ocarina of Time's Morpha. The initial first phase of the fight is even more or less similar, with Link having to attack a 'nucleus' with a clawshot. Just underwater, and with Morpheel spitting out a bunch of bombfishes from his body. 

Then you damage it enough, and it reveals that all you've been fighting is just the head, and Morpheel himself is a giant bizarre giant eel and... what a badass-looking fish body, huh? This is where the gritty, more realistic graphics really work, I feel, with the grungy texture on Morpheel's body and tail really selling the idea of some sort of aquatic creature like a stonefish or something. That face is also pretty cool, too, being a lamprey mouth surrounded with another fish jaw surrounded by a bunch of aquatic tendrils. 

Unfortunately, despite being one of the most visually badass bosses, Morpheel is perhaps the easiest boss to fight in this form, as long as you know what to do. As it just rampages around the giant trench and completely ignores Link, all you have to do is to know to clawshot all the way up to his vulnerable eyeball, which would kill it. The other Twilight Princess bosses play the 'attack the weak point' trope up to the hilt, but I don't think any of them feels quite as disappointing as eel boy here. 

Twilit Fossil: Stallord

This one is another cool one! We're not sure what Stallord looks like when he's alive, or what the rest of his body is. When you arrive in the final chamber of Arbiter's Grounds, Zant himself shows up and stabs his sword into a random giant beast's skull... and then the beast rises up, revealing that he's still connected to a giant set of ribcage, arms and a spine. The moment that Satllord awakens, the entire chamber swirls around like a massive antlion sand-pit, with the Staltroops buried deep under the ground being constantly reanimated and falling into the pit's swirling sands as much as they do to Link's attacks.

At least in Stallord's case, its weak point feels a lot more sensible. It's his weak, exposed spine, and Link has to use the item he got in the dungeon, the Spinner -- a giant beyblade that Link rides around like a surfboard. Stallord's second phase is also pretty cool, too, because the game actually does fake you out by having his body shatter, his skull's eyes glow giving away and the sand in the room drain. All you have to do is access the final room and claim the plot device, right? Wrong! Because the moment you do activate part of the dungeon, Stallord's head flares back to life and you have to fight him jumping from one pillar to the next while avoiding a flying dinosaur head. It's... it's super-memorable, but very hard to explain because the Spinner is such a weird item in execution. 

Anyway, a very cool giant boss. 

Twilit Ice Mass: Blizzeta

So Snowpeak Temple is a bit of a fun dungeon. It's obviously originally a castle, but two friendly giant yetis have moved into it and are treating the castle as their own home. Which is adorable; you basically help Yeto the male yeti make soup to get his sick wife Yeta better while hunting down ingredients and unlocking parts of the mansion. At one point, though, Yeta stands up and brings you to a room. How's that terrifying Exorcist-style head-neck-snap, though? I saw Yeta being corrupted by the mirror shard from a mile away, but that jump scare did seriously shock me as a kid. 

Like Darbus, Yeta gets transformed into Blizzeta and she's basically constantly encased in a giant ice structure while summoning a bunch of icy pillars around her. It's an interesting look for a boss, and a good chunk of the fight involves the fixed camera meaning that Link has to constantly look at the reflection on the floor to figure out where Blizzeta's attack is coming from. Not my favourite boss fight or boss design, but still kinda neat. 

 

Twilit Arachnid: Armogohma

The dungeon boss of the Temple of Time is the Armogohma, because... again, we're not entirely sure why the Temple of Time is so invaded by the Gohmas. Armogohma, I feel, is a great integration of the Gohma's bizarre 'one-eyed spider' concept and a more realistic spider monster. Look at this guy! Eight legs, two long grasping claws, and a mass of pedipalps and fangs clustered around the face? And then you realize that there's a giant orange eye nestled within a shell that's bizarrely shaped like some kind of armour? Arthropod carapace are already sort of like armour, and I do like just how much the Armogohma's armour kind of blends in with its own body. 

Aside from being a giant spider, Armogohma's giant eyeball is a laser-shooting eyeball, because why not. A pretty fun boss fight, too, because you have to take control of statues in the room to literally swat and bash the bug. In a particularly bizarre bit, though, once Link shatters the armour, turns out that Armogohma isn't even a single creature, but a mass of Baby Gohmas operating a giant suit of armour. What? Click here. That giant eyeball, by the way, is actually the abdomen of the 'real' Armogohma, a far tinier spider that Link has to dispatch while the music turns wacky. 

The actual Armogohma design isn't super impressive, particularly by the franchise's standards, but knowing its true nature makes it so much better.

Twilit Dragon: Argorok

The boss of the City in the Sky is at least a pretty appropriate monster... in that it's a completely armoured Western-style dragon. I think that this is the first time Zelda has had a proper Western-style dragon as a boss? Volvagia was kind of its own original design, after all, and I don't think Gleeox and the other 'hydra'-style creatures count. And Argarok is kind of disappointing in that it doesn't really feel unique, but it is still a goddamn badass looking western dragon. And you fight it in the sky, clawshotting from hovering Peahat to Peahat before you try and latch onto his conveniently-shaped tail and drag him crash-landing to the ground. I don't really have a whole ton to say here, but I do find Argarok pretty damn cool -- keeping dragons as such a rarity in this franchise does mean than when they do bring one in, it ends up feeling so much more special. 

Usurper King: Zant

One of the primary antagonists you fight is Zant, the "Usurper King" who took over the realm of Twilight. And as with nearly all Zelda games, it turns out that Zant's just being used and is actually allies with Ganon all along, but I feel like Twilight Princess at least gives Zant a legitimately large amount of screentime of him being a threat and creating other bosses to sic at you. And his design is... pretty neat! Those weird shoes jutting out of his skirt, the long sleeves with tassels, and that bizarre body armour and helmet? That helmet, I think, is the coolest. I'm not sure what it's based on, it's like some sideways fish with a mouth like a bug or something. It looks bizarre. I like him. 

And then you fight him and turns out he's kind of a goof! And his boss fighting has him basically dance around like a loon as he summons the boss fight locations of Diababa, Dangoro, Ook, Morpheel, Blizzeta and King Bulblin, pulling out things like Dragon Ball Z energy balls or giant sword blades... he's kind of a walking anime trope, the wacky-but-threatening-villain trope, but he wears it well. And, of course, sometimes he just turns into a giant version of his head, or inflates himself and slams himself down at you... a wacko! I like him a lot. 

Ganondorf

The main villain of this game is, as always, Ganondorf. Probably the definitive fight against him in my mind. There have been others that were pretty cool, too, but the four-phase Ganondorf fight from the end of Twilight Princess has always been the most memorable to me. He's also built up as this ancient evil that a previous hero (heavily implied to be a previous Link, and his ghost teaches you some sword skills) defeated, and everything Zant did is in order to bring him back. 

Ganondorf goes through a four-phase form, and each feels pretty fun. The first phase is "Puppet Zelda", where, not content with holding Princess Zelda prisoner, Ganon actually mind-controls Zelda and turns her into a puppet to fight you. And guess what, turns out that this incarnation of Zelda is a badass sword-mage lady! Not too much to say here since Zelda is kind of just a fantasy princess, but the impact was certainly badass.

Normally other games tend to keep Ganon's "monster" or "beast" form for his final form, but here it's simply the second form. "Dark Beast Ganon" is the first to depict him as a giant four-legged gorilla-bull creature with big-ass tusks and a mane of red hair, looking still somewhat humanoid but really making him feel like a monstrous beast as opposed to the bipedal monster-form from Ocarina of Time. This would be taken up to eleven in Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors, but I feel like TP's Dark Beast Ganon might be my favourite because it doesn't go too much into making Ganon too piggy. 

Then the third and fourth form is just Ganondorf himself, who is a pretty cool character design. Black armour, jet-black skin, fancy cape, fancy hair, fancy sword... the third form has Ganondorf fight you on horseback (with Zelda helping you to snipe Ganon with the Arrow of Light, a franchise staple), and the final form has Ganondorf face Link one-on-one with swords. Honestly, this feels like a very epic showcase of just how much Link outclasses Ganon in all aspects of himself. As a giant monster, as a horse-riding warrior, as a one-on-one warrior... pretty cool!

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And, well, that's about it for Twilight Princess! I feel like this is a game whose bestiary is pretty well done. I certainly loved it a lot, even though I really did think that at least two of the themed areas (Temple of Time and City in the Sky) could really have used some extra minions. And, as always, TP has the complaint about the bosses not actually being too hard as bosses... but still, a pretty fun game through and through from a monster standpoint.