What If S02E01 Review: Nova

What If, Season 2, Episode 1: What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?

I'm back with MCU content reviews, though fair warning -- I'll take much longer to go through these. It's a bit of a slow burn for me, though I suppose it's going to be good practice for me writing more succinct reviews. 

I have watched all the way to the end of the second season of What If?, and it's rather interesting that... I guess they took some of the criticism of the first season eventually becoming serialized to heart, and actually a good chunk -- more than half -- of the episodes in the second season of What If are actually utterly standalone. At least, for now. It's always a bit of an interesting conundrum with What If as a show in general, because an animated format that doesn't even have to care about continuity can theoretically do anything. Some of the best parts of the first season arose from these questions, like giving villains or side-characters that were basically wasted after a single movie (Killmonger, Ultron and Arnim Zola all come to mind respectively) chances to shine in alternate dimensions. But not all of them are particularly good or engaging. 

And with season two, I get the feeling that they are trying to focus on more interesting alternate continuities, and exploring different styles of storytelling that end up with interesting stories. The premier episode, "What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?" is actually a pretty great start to a season that -- slight spoilers for my subsequent reviews -- didn't really deliver all that well. 

But this one does. Now I perhaps expected more exploration to the honestly rather basic "space cops with fancy Star Wars armour" Nova Corps. If they were going to devote some lore to adapting some of the superpower-granting helmets of the comics, you'd think that a What If episode would be exactly it. But instead, they go for a Blade Runner or Cyberpunk inspired film noir in space, with Nebula as a former crook-turned-cop in a city under heavy lockdown, on her own and trying to figure out the roots of a massive conspiracy.

The 'what if' in this question, interestingly, has very little to do with Nebula or the planet she's in, but rather with Ronan the Accuser. In this alternate timeline, Ronan managed to harness the Power Stone and kill Thanos, and a chain of events later ends up with Ronan besieging Xandar, home of the Nova Corps, and leading Xandar to close up the entire planet with a forcefield. Under siege (and constant noir lighting), the people of Xandar are starved, angry, and at the limit as previously-good Nova Corps policemen like Garthan Saal end up being cruel, crooked cops. 

Nebula herself has been taken in by her mentor, Irani Rael the Nova Prime, and made into a Corpsman. And after some setup about this alternate history, she ends up finding Yondu dead in the gutter. Again, there's a very fun film noir theme to the whole thing, and Nebula's background as a reformed criminal means that the other Nova Corps like Saal don't quite trust her. She knows Yondu is murdered by something, and ends up finding information that Yondu might have stumbled into something huge. Yondu's yaka arrow turns out to contain a holographic map that seems to be hinting at something much, much bigger than what a thief should be involved in. 

Her mentor Nova Prime calls in, goes through a whole 'secure line' deal, and hints at some urgent dark forces threatening Xandar. Nova-Nebula is basically all-in with protecting Xandar, constantly emphasizing that the Nova Corps took her in and gave her shelter and purpose -- not unlike a more organized version of the Guardians of the Galaxy compared to her main universe counterpart, I suppose. 

We get another fun bar scene with the MCU's wacky space cast. Howard the Duck (who gets his biggest role in an MCU project yet) is running the seedy underground casino, with Groot, Korg (who shows up everywhere in these What If's) and Miek running security. Nothing out of these scenes are honestly particularly exciting compared to other sci-fi noir stories, though, other than the appeal of seeing Nebula get to do take a significantly more central role than what she got in the main movies. 

Anyway, the data can take down Xandar's forcefields, potentially ending the siege but also allowing Ronan a chance to get in. We get the surprise and unexpected inclusion of another MCU character -- the also criminally underused Yon-Rogg from Captain Marvel, who's found himself into a jail cell in Xandar. Again, under the flag of "I can trust no one", Nebula ends up freeing Yon-Rogg and enlists his help in breaking into the data core, which... is basically actionized filler. It's all right filler, though, and while the Nebula episode isn't the prettiest of all the What If episodes (that honour probably goes to the race episode) we've got some pretty fun visuals. 

Nebula is able to use her robot brain to access the central codes or whatever, but in a wholly expected plot twist, Yon-Rogg double-crosses her. In a slightly less-expected plot twist, however, it turns out that Nova Prime is in on the plot, having gone crazy in the isolation and wanting to use greater good as an excuse to surrender Xandar to Ronan. They just needed Nebula's robo-brain to get access.

The tropes are pretty basic, but I do feel like Karen Gillan and the replacement voice actor they got for Nova Prime do a pretty great job at delivering Nebula's utter disgust and disappointment at Nova Prime for betraying the Nova Corps oath, the very thing their organization stands for. Nebula manages to escape Garthan Saal and the other nameless Nova Corps goons from killing her by, again, yet another trope -- them kicking her off a ledge and assuming her dead. 

She's a monstrous cyborg, though, and she shows back up at Howard's casino. Howard uses some plot device shenanigans to put Nebula back together. Howard and "rock, paper, scissors" (Korg, Groot, Miek) also decide to arm up after Nebula makes some funny jokes about how Howard would lose his alcohol license if Ronan manages to make landfall. Nebula dons Yondu's coat and the yaka arrow mohawk, and the five of them storm Nova Prime's headquarters. Again, not a whole ton to really say about the action here. It's competently done, though it does rely a lot on the badassery of Nebula using Yondu's arrow, as well as the ridiculousness of seeing Howard the Duck as an action hero for the first time in the MCU. 

The ragtag team almost fail, but plot-twist-upon-plot-twist, Nebula actually gave Yon-Rogg fake codes, and the encoded instructions opens the planetary forcefields long enough... for Ronan's ship to enter and get squished and blown up by the closing shield. Nebula fights Nova Prime and tries to bring her to justice, but Nova Prime is too far gone, refusing to accept help from a 'machine' and falls to her death. Nebula realizes that she has embodied the Nova Corps' ideals and code more than the woman who led them, and ends up becoming Nova. Or as Howard calls her, Super Nova. End scene. 

And... it's a pretty fun experiment. I'm not sure just how necessary Howard and Korg and their dynamic mesh with the rest of the more serious and somber episode, and if they fit the tone at all (Howard being featured more in this series is a huge A+ from me for sure). And, as I mentioned repeatedly in the review... the episode itself is very trope-heavy, I think by design. I feel like it probably would've worked better as a 15-20 minute episode as opposed to the 30-35-ish one they gave us. I do welcome the obviously-coming but still well-done twists with Nebula, Yon-Rogg and Nova Prime double-crossing each other. Pretty all right episode. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• This episode is technically a riff on the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, taking place in Xandar with a majority of that movie's cast -- including the Ronan's Dark Aster battleship and Nova Corps, which were basically ignored afterwards. Ronan actually did have a plan to attack Thanos, and this What If? scenario basically lets that play out. 
• Interestingly, in Captain Marvel, Yon-Rogg is noted to be rather disgusted with Ronan's carpet-bombing tactics because it would often result in Kree casualties. This episode has Yon-Rogg be fanatical to Ronan's cause, though it might be because of many different reasons -- the timeline's different; there might not be other Kree on Xandar; or imprisonment might've caused Yon-Rogg to get a bit crazier. 
  
• Korg, Miek and Howard are shown playing a game of rock, paper and scissors, referencing a similar joke that Korg makes in Thor: Ragnarok. 
• In addition to all the speaking roles, Drax makes a brief cameo as a casino-goer. 
• The comic-book version of Garthan Saal actually did become evil, and actually took the title of Super Nova for himself (one of the various characters to do so). Ironically, comics' Garthan Saal became evil because Xandar and the Nova Corpse were decimated... by Nebula. 
• Returning Live-Action Actors are...: Karen Gillan (Nebula), Jude Law (Yon-Rogg), Seth Green (Howard the Duck), Taika Waititi (Korg), Michael Rooker (Yondu), and rather interestingly, Peter Serafinowicz (Garthan Saal; more than a decade after playing the role in live-action). In addition, Jeffrey Wright returns from What If season 1 as Uatu. 
• Notable non-reprises is Irani Rael, who's voiced by Julianne Grossman; Drax, who's voiced by Fred Tatasciore in all of the What If series; Groot, who's also voiced by Fred Tatasciore. 

Let's Play Pokemon Violet - The Indigo Disk, Part 4: Four Heavenly Kings

After enough exploration and mucking around with synchronization, I finally decide to tackle the Elite Four! And since she's the first one that introduced herself to me, I decided to challenge Lacey's trial first. She's located in the Coastal Biome, which... isn't an area that I really associate with Fairy-types. In fact, I really can't think of a single Fairy-type Pokemon there, it's all mostly just Alolan Pokemon and assorted Water-types. 

Oh, and I also have to pay 50 BP to challenge the Elite Four members. In the grand scheme of things it's really nothing, I think I made that much just defeating Pokemon and picking up items just on the way towards Lacey's little tetris-block stadium, but it's an interesting little twist that basically forces you to interact with the Terarium. I like it. 

In a neat nod to the voting stuff earlier, Lacey actually apologizes for voting against me joining the BB league, and reiterates that it's not merely just because of the rules. It's just partly because of it. Mostly, Lacey doesn't want me to be embroiled in the whole school politics. But since I'm here, it's time for some fun with her trial...

...which is a whole big quiz, and it's something I adore. Lacey's apparently all about cutesy-wutesy Pokemon, and she kind of tests my knowledge. The first question is asking me where a Pikachu's electricity is stored, the second question is asking me how a Venonat senses things at night. And I love how Lacey notes just how adorable Venonat is, and yes, I agree. Out of all the Bug-types, Venonat does actually rank pretty high for me in terms of being cute. And if you disagree, just look at this adorable older TCG artwork form Skyridge or something. 

The third question asks me to identify which of the three Sinistea is an 'authentic' cup, the fourth is a memory spinning-cup game with Miniors, and the final one is a trick question that you have to beat a nearby trainer to know -- where does Lacey like to sleep on her adorable Granbull? It's the belly. Doggo bellies are a nice source of warmth.

And after answering all of her questions, Lacey finally decides to get serious and fight me, noting that this time around she's not going to dick around with Plusle/Minun teams and actually use her proper Elite Four Team. And she's got a full team of six! I was bringing a level 60-something Roaring Moon to train that died very quickly to her initial duo of Granbull and Whimsicott. 

Meanwhile, my Clodsire manage to cripple both the Granbull and the Whimsicott with Poison Jabs before repeated Ice Punches from that big bad Granbull took Clodsire out. The poisoning from Poison Jab finishes off the Whimsicott, while my Ogerpon (who's just there to accumulate experience before the eventual smackdown she's going to inevitably have with Kieran) Ivy Cudgel's Granbull. 

Lacey then brings out a PRIMARINA. She has starters! I always love it when the designers remember to put starter Pokemon into trainer parties. They barely do it anymore! I always found it so special when Gardenia pulls out a Turtwig, or a random Victory Road trainer in the Johto games pulls out Charmeleons and Ivysaurs.

Of course, the Primarina falls easily to Ogerpon, a legendary Grass-type, but it's the thought that counts. Meanwhile, Lacey's fourth Pokemon, a Galarian Slowbro... isn't even a Fairy-type! He's a fake Fairy! He's Psychic/Poison, which are the two other purple types! And the combination of Quick Draw and Shell Side Arm allowed the Slowbro to murder my Ogerpon and Darkrai with impunity, before finally falling to a Shadow Ball from Skeledirge. 

Lacey also has an Alcremie that... well, she's got Sweet Veil, which means that I wasted a turn trying to cast Dark Void with Darkrai. That was kinda neat, I liked that I was bamboozled by abilities that I should have known about. The Alcremie basically doesn't do anything but use Decorate to buff her allies. I guess that was how the Slowbro managed to sweep half my team. 

And finally, Lacey's final Pokemon is the same old Excadrill from her original battle, her daddy Clay's Excadrill... and she immediately terastralizes Excadrill into a Fairy-type. You know what? You know what? This is actually one of the few times Terastralization actually thematically made sense in the game for me. I still have nothing but disdain for the type-swapping mechanic, but I can admit when it's done well. Like this time! Lacey's a Fairy-type trainer, and she's kinda committed to the type... but her absolute favourite Pokemon isn't her Granbull, it's the Excadrill she shares with her dad. That's probably one of Lacey's absolutely favourite Pokemon in the whole world. 

But Excadrill isn't a Fairy-type, which is why in order to fit her theme and specialized type, Lacey Terastralizes Excadrill into a Fairy-type. That's actually extremely adorable, and I like the little story being told here. 

Anyway, after Excadrill falls, Lacey waxes lyrical about how adorable all the Pokemon are, going into a small rant about how cute everyone's Pokemon are. You can try flirting with her and saying that she's cute, but she will just get angry and say that she's talking about the cute Pokemon. After taking a picture with her and the Pokemon from the quiz, Lacey declares that I've beaten her trial. Drayton shows up a bit afterwards for some dialogue, musing that Lacey's only strict with him while polite to everyone else, before noting that my arrival's going to shake everything up... including the stick-in-the-mud that is Kieran. 

At this point, I made my way to the next Elite Four member, which I decided was going to be Crispin... and I stumble upon a swarm of Duraludon. Now my original intention was just to farm some Duraludon materials in case I need them for TM crafting, but then my Skeledirge refused to fight one of the Duraludons. Which... you know what this means! It's a SHINY! It's actually a bit surprising and kinda funny because Duraludon is one of those shinies where barely anything changes -- the little red 'inhaler button' on top of Duraludon's head becomes silvery-chrome. It's stupid! I remember the Gigantamax shiny has different windows on the tower, but that form doesn't exist in this game. 

Yes, technically the inner side of his belly and hands are a bit bluer, but good luck telling that apart without having two Duraludons stand in front of you side-by-side. 

Archaludon does, though. And I know there's an item in the school store that is unfamiliar to me. A quick google search tells me that, yes, the Metal Alloy is what will help 'London' evolve into his brand-new DLC form, so I proceed to go farming for more BP to buy that item. 

I also have a fair bit of fun running around exploring the Terarium while also mucking around with this Synchronization thing. I love that I don't have to return to the scientist NPC to do it, and I can just L + R and synchronize on the fly. I love how some Pokemon like Clodsire also have swimming animations. And while they make for terrible auto-battlers, it's cute to use smaller Pokemon like Quaxly or Fuecoco or Pichu or Milcery to wibble-wobble around and collect items. 

Of course, I end up stumbling into Crispin's trial anyway and decided to activate it. And... I'm not going to go through every step of the way, but it's a rather simple 'trading chain' puzzle as I try and swap around sandwich ingredients to make the spiciest possible thing for Crispin. Crispin himself, personality-wise, is pretty straightforward... he just likes spicy food. There are a couple of extra battles with potato salads on the line, and I particularly like the battle with an Earthquake-dodging Eelektross and a Discharge-immune Camerupt.

I do like that Crispin's "sandwich orgasm" cutscene is shown with six Magmortars, so as not to spoil his party other than his signature Pokemon. 

Anyway, Crispin is a lot simpler for me to beat, though I also came in prepared (no 'free meal' level 68 Roaring Moon for him to beat up this time). I get ready with my Clodsire and his Earthquake in order to do some double-battle strats... and then of course the first two Pokemon Crispin sends out are Talonflame and the levitating Heat-Rotom. Of course. Crispin then proceeds to make a mockery out of Clodsire by Will-o-Wisping him, and before I can spam Surf, another one of his Pokemon casts Sunny Day.

Poor Clodsire is just there slinging Poison Jabs with the vain hope that he might proc a poison status, while I swap in Darkrai to unleash the Dark Void on both of Crispin's Pokemon. Having a rather low proc chance is kind of annoying, though ultimately a combination of Dark Pulses and Bad Dreams allows Darkrai to sweep Rotom and Talonflame in a single turn. 

Next up from Crispin are Camerupt and... Exeggutor? So every Elite Four just has a single Pokemon that's weird and not connected to their typing? Magnificent. Exeggutor proceeds to one-turn Solar Beam my Darkrai to death, while Camerupt puts poor gimped Clodsire out of her misery with an Earth Power. I send out Skeledirge and Water-mask Ogerpon to replace them. Skeledirge manages to take out Exeggutor with a sunny-day-boosted Torch Song, before falling to a critical Earth Power. Ogerpon's Ivy Cudgel is weakened a bit thanks to the sunny day, but it's enough to take down the already-weakened Camerupt. 

And Crispin's two final Pokemon are both Fire-types... including yet another starter! Blaziken this time. Blaziken and Magmortar, and the Blaziken Terastralizes into Fire-type... and then my Garganacl from the original main playthrough just unleashes a Rock Slide that knocks out the Blaziken and almost takes Magmortar with it, but another Ivy Cudgel finishes off the fire duck. 

And in the midst of talking about food and trials and whatnot, Crispin bemoans that things are 'good or bad', or 'spicy or non-spicy'. Such a binary view of life, Crispin. Of course, that really just makes you rather naive in navigating the complex social situation that is high school politics, but there you go. We get another talk with Drayton, though this time Kieran also shows up to remind us that he exists and reminds me not to lose before I get to him and his goofy-ass new hairstyle. 

Pretty fun fight, and Crispin is a good sport about everything in general. Again, after the disappointment of the actual 'La Primera' in the main region's championship, it's great to see the BB Elite Four putting up a bit more of a fight. I also like that they have a bunch of additional Pokemon in their roster like Galarian Slowbro, Excadrill and Exeggutor that fit their personality or tactics... something I always wished more 'elite' trainers in-game do. 

Anyway, I'll leave Amarys and Drayton for the next one... which might not be for some time. Again, it's kind of annoying that I wasn't able to finish the DLC in a timely fashion in the month that it's released in, but real life got in the way. I'm really not trying to drag this on or anything, it's just that the time I have to play video games did really diminish a lot in the past couple of weeks. 

Random Notes:

• If you look at the descriptions of the Elite Four members before embarking on the challenges, you actually get to see which towns they're from. Drayton's obviously from Opelucid City; while Amarys is from Castelia and Crispin is from Virbank. I didn't get to catch Lacey's description since I challenged her a bit too fast, but since she's Clay's daughter she's definitely from Driftveil. 
• Man, I really liked Virbank City from B2/W2. I just like sewer levels in 2D RPGs in general, I think. But you can totally see the very straightforward Crispin coming from the same town as ol' Rosie. 
• Venonat is cute. I don't care who you ask. 
  
• I need to evolve my shiny Milcery into an Alcremie. I haven't found any of the nonsense held items that Milcery needs to evolve, though, and I'm honestly wondering if I care enough to figure out which of the three dozen Alcremies I like. I don't particularly care that much, to be honest. 
• When talking to me after I beat Lacey, Drayton quotes the gym guides from previous generation, calling me 'champ in the making'. That's cute. 
• While the first Crispin goon fights me with the very nice Eelektross/Camerupt duo, the other trainer fights me with... two Pyroars who spam Hyper Voice. Not very creative, Gamefreak.
• Darkrai's given out to everyone for free because Dark Void is insane in double battles, yeah? 
• Oh, hey, they even have a shiny Duraludon card!
• I find that they did a nice job making a lot of the Pokemon that are rare in base Paldea become common in both Kitakami and the Blueberry Terarium. Slakoth, in particular, are just hanging underneath the palm trees in the Coastal Biome and I find a lot more Rotoms and Happinys around. 

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5 Royal, Part 35

 

And so we finish our coverage of Persona 5 Royal, with the final boss -- Takuto Maruki and his Personas -- as well the third-tier Personas of the party members I haven't covered yet. It's been a wild, wild ride! I actually kind of lost interest in Maruki as a character around halfway through this final semester, though they did a great job at trying to make him basically the antithesis of literally every other antagonist we've faced before in being a well-meaning man who's just utterly deluded. The third semester is... interesting? Part of my playthrough of it is basically trying to make sure I get all my confidants to rank 10, and to finish as much of the game as possible... and that did sour my enjoyment of the part of the game between the cutscenes that heralded the start of Royal and the end. The fact that there really wasn't much to do in the night segment is almost a mockery of the sheer amount of stuff piling up waiting for me to do in the day, too. 

But overall? Overall, I do think that Persona 5 Royal will go down as one of my all-time favourite games. And perhaps that was why I was a bit iffy about Royal, because the 'altered reality' stuff that's been extending since the end of the Shido plot really was kind of divorced from the 'secretly fighting the society's evil people that is untouchable by regular civilians' setup with all the villains from Kamoshida all the way to Shido. Maruki was at least a fair bit more grounded compared to Yaldabaoth, and I do think it's a brilliant idea to tie him into Sumire's story. 

Not the biggest fan of how the story awkwardly does a weird cosmic retcon to keep both the original Persona 5 ending events from going on, and if they were going to do that anyway I honestly would've rather the original prison stuff from vanilla Persona 5 was kept and this Royal semester happened afterwards. Eh. 

Still... it's been a really fun ride. I could go on and on about things I wish the game could improve (lesser confidants having something to do/say after their rank 10's, for example, or more enemy variety in dungeons), but considering that it's been out for a while and provided me with so much content to talk about in terms of monster design, I'd say that this is a successful game all around. 

What next? I know Persona 5 Strikers exists, but I'm not that too keen on playing a musou game so quickly. I think there's only a couple of extra new Personas and bosses there anyway, too. Meanwhile, Persona 3 and 4 would be such a gigantic time-sink, and I am planning on doing a different game. Next up, I think I'll play a couple of shorter games first before jumping into something huge like Final Fantasy XII or the entire Metroid Prime trilogy or maybe the Persona 3 remaster?

Either way... it's been a blast playing through this game, a massive experience with a great soundtrack and a stylish UI. It really did 'take my heart', so to speak. 

____________________________________________

Ella

"I want to show him that I found a way to face reality. 

• Arcana: Faith

Sumire/Kasumi's story is modelled a lot around Cinderella, except a Cinderella that didn't realize that she was adopting a different identity. It's overall a pretty interesting storyline. I do also like that the Persona is actually just called 'Ella'. Unlike what Disney's extremely well-known adaptation indicates, Cinderella -- or rather, Cinder Ella -- is actually a derisive nickname in the original story, where her evil stepmother and stepsisters mocked her for being always dusty and sooty from all the work she did, and how she's forced to sleep next to a fireplace, hence Ella is always covered in cinders. 

Again, Sumire's story isn't exactly a one-to-one with that of the Cinderella myth (I do really like her initial awakening's line of comparing her 'false glory' to 'living in ashes'), but the idea of Sumire finally deciding to accept her true self and move forwards as Sumire instead of emulating her dead sister all the time -- despite the severe grief, depression and impostor's syndrome -- is pretty nice. The real Cinder Ella also ends up marrying the prince without the enchantment of the gown and the glass slippers, but rather as her true self. 

Design-wise, it's basically a 'wedding dress' remix of Cendrillon. I very much think this one is a bit more of a boring design compared to either Vanadis and especially Cendrillon, but I can get what they were going for. I think what gets me to not like Ella quite as much is her attack animation, which is entirely just her throwing that bouquet of flowers behind her like a bride... which I felt is kind of a step-down from her previous animations. 

Gorokichi

"I've found my teacher. And with him, the path to truly grasping my mother's art. I will not lose my way again."

• Arcana: Emperor

Gorokichi is the birth name of Ishikawa Goemon. The historical Gorokichi is mentioned in two sources, though the accuracy of these sources are rather questionable. Again, it's more or less the same story as Goemon that I covered so many months ago. 

And... Yusuke's third-tier Persona here is... certainly a look. He's my least favourite out of the final Personas, but he's at least flashy and I actually do really respect what they are going for here. For the most part, the designs of Celestine, Lucy, William, Diego and even Ella go for a 'what would these characters look with a modern-themed design', and Gorokichi takes Goemon's traditional Japanese samurai look and... goes in hard with the pompadour. Gorokichi looks like a flamboyant gang leader, with a big-ass pimpin' pink and Dalmatian skin cloak, fancy pointy shoes, skin-tight leather pants, a bright blue pompadour, golden chains and he's swapped his traditional pipe with a big-ass cigar. I'm not sure how it fits with Yusuke, who is the epitome of being the most traditional character of the cast... but Yusuke is also easily the kookiest member of the main cast, so maybe him adapting the modern world does fit with this look? Again, I respect what they were going for here. 

Also... Gorokichi here is not to be confused with Goro Akechi! 

Al Azif

"Let's go take back our own reality. The reality where we can beat anything the world throws at us, as long as we have each other."

• Arcana: Hermit

Futaba getting a brand-new Persona is kind of interesting, even if, again, she's not a fully-playable character. Al Azif goes back to a UFO, but where the original Necronomicon was a cartoonish, dome-shaped UFO, Al Azif looks far more like a UFO that a modern-day sci-fi setting would imagine. Sleek, angular, and... it still has a whole lot of random equations and symbols at the bottom. That's neat! It's really kind of a shame that Futaba's Persona wasn't allowed to really do much beyond brief cameos whenever her all-out attack triggers, though. I couldn't even tell if Al Azif has the same tentacles that Necronomicon has!

The name 'Al Azif' is, in the Cthulhu Mythos stories, the original Arabic name for the Necronomicon, so it's even another 'true identity' or 'original identity' of a first-tier Persona. 

Hereward

"Do you think I'll be happy with this? Being shown mercy now, of all times? I don't want to be pitied -- this isn't something I'm debating with you!"

• Arcana: Justice

I didn't manage to get this Persona, because apparently you needed to answer certain questions specifically to trigger Akechi's meeting with Joker prior to the final battle. Anyway, Hereward is based on Hereward the Wake, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman living in the 10th century in England, who opposed the Normans and led a rebellion against them. Hereward roamed the Fens, which covers the modern-day Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. 

All the third-tier Personas emulate the original, but Hereward, delightfully, only really does so by being based on a superhero and wielding a big-ass bow. I absolutely love this design from a thematic standpoint, by the way. Akechi was always hiding his true, bloodthirsty and manic self under a veneer of being a gentlemanly detective prince. And as such, his 'original' Persona was Robin Hood, which had a very Superman-themed build and a lot of heroic wings and feathers -- like you'd find in superheroes like Thor, Flash or Captain America. 

Hereward, on the other hand, goes to being a bow-themed superhero... but a darker vigilante superhero in the vein of Batman, Daredevil, Vigilante or Punisher. Blacks and reds, a somewhat more 'realistic' and 'modern' set of armour. It's got devil bat wings for ears, an almost robotic or mechanical faceplate, and even the giant, impractical bow is a more realistic compound bow instead of the fantastical one that Robin Hood had. A fair amount of the third-tier Personas just modernize the original one without really having much of a thematic cohesion with the character development of the character, and I'm glad that Akechi did! 

Azathoth

• Arcana: Councillor

Now, the final villain of the Royal story is Azathoth! Keeping up with Byakhee and Hastur, it is nice that a reality-warping plot ends up being one of the elder gods in the Cthulhu Mythos. I am somewhat disappointed that we didn't get more Cthulhu Mythos characters as minibosses in Maruki's Palace, however, especially since we've already had some Cthulhu characters appear in previous entries! But no, the miniboss in this dungeon is... Siegfried? Eh. 

Azathoth is Maruki's Persona, and we fight him alongside Maruki himself (though I don't think he has any offensive attacks) dressed up in a rather ridiculous-looking golden outfit topped with a cape. In typical Cthulhu Mythos monster fashion, Azathoth also continually summons three tentacles with claws -- each claw having a different effect. One tentacle attacks, one shields, and one heals. They also have completely different resistances, forcing you to not just spam area attacks. 

(Though since this is the final battle, any sufficiently powerful Persona with an AoE Almighty attack can just rampage through this fight. I could've done it with the Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro I have, but that would ruin the spirit of a boss fight)

Not really going to talk too much about the boss fight, which really just feels like a drawn-out boss sink. I do think Maruki's taunting to our heroes is far more personal compared to Yaldabaoth. The design of Azathoth is... an interesting one? We really only see the central golden segment of the Persona whenever it manifests next to Maruki, but the tentacles ending in jagged, spindly fingers appear all throughout the dungeon itself. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a bit more of a tree/vine motif since that seemed to be what the dungeon was initially going for, though. 

The shadowy black tentacles are kind of obvious, and I do like how they coil around Azathoth's central form, but I also really do like the golden shape of Azathoth itself. A golden cross with spiky edges, as well as a carving of a nervous system? It's just the brains, the spinal cord and two creepy eyes, connected to the glorping black tentacles. It's not the most elaborate design compared to designs like Yaldabaoth or Satan, but I do feel like it's a pretty interesting take on an eldritch being. 

In the Cthulhu Mythos, Azathoth is the most powerful god in the mythos, residing at the exact center of the universe. Also known as the Nuclear Chaos, the Daemon Sultan, the Deep Dark... and most importantly, the 'Blind Idiot God'. Azathoth is the ancestor of most of the other deities, such as Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep. Azathoth, while being the creator god of the universe, is a 'blind idiot' who created the universe from an accident. Reality itself is caused by Azathoth dreaming and manifesting it into reality, which fits with how Maruki is using his brand-new Persona powers to position himself as the locus of the altered reality... but it's ultimately just a flawed dream. 

Adam Kadmon

• Arcana: Councillor

I am rather disappointed, however, that there were only two fights to the Azathoth/Adam Kadmon sequence. With there being pointedly three degrees of Persona for all of our playable characters, I really thought that there was going to be three phases to this fight... and they even modeled in a half-formed, skeletal version of Adam Kadmon in the cutscene, so I thought it was a bit weird. (Instead, Adam's glowing parts just glow blue and red differently in the sub-phases of this fight) Adam Kadmon is formed when Azathoth consumes Maruki and fuses with him, a process that's actually voluntary on Maruki's part. Due to the sheer size of Adam Kadmon, it's shown that Maruki's basically controlling this gigantic being Attack on Titan style, where he's nestled safely in the head wrapped by Azathoth's tendrils.

We jump from Cthulhu Mythos to the Kabbalah. Adam Kadmon, meaning 'Primordial Man', is the original, perfect prototype man, created directly from God's Infinite Light. Thus, Adam Kadmon is paradoxically both 'Adam' (man) and 'Kadmon' (divine). In the teachings of the Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon stands in contrast to Adam Ha-Rishon ('First Man'), or the Adam of Eden, made from earthly clay. Adam Kadmon is symbolized by the Sephiroth, the Ten Circles of Creation. 

The design of Adam Kadmon is... interesting. The most important thing to note about this thing is that it's a big boy, towering over skyscrapers. I don't think it's quite as big as Yaldabaoth, but I do think that there's a special degree of creepiness with Adam Kadmon being so humanoid. Sure, he's robotic and he's got a creepy human skull (we get to see the 'nervous system' of Azathoth get layers of robotic 'flesh' form around it) but the end result does remind me of the giant human Reaper from Mass Effect 2 or the Titans from Attack on Titan. There is a lot of contrast between the creepy, writhing black-and-blue innards of Adam Kadmon and the similarly-coloured tentacles of Azathoth, with the very bright and prominent golden plating. Maruki also wears a full suit of golden armour, but he's lacking the black-and-blue creepiness, which I think is meant to represent Maruki himself, who is so driven by his own grief and personal demons that he's projecting the toxic, unhealthy escapism to everyone in the form of the golden sheen of 'salvation'. Or something along thsoe lines. 

...again, I honestly would've rather the final boss actually be the Sefirot tree or the Garden of Eden tree that the dungeon and honestly even Azathoth's design itself has been hinting, but as far as giant humanoids go, Adam Kadmon here isn't the worst thing out there. 

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5 Royal, Part 34

Well, I originally intended for all of this to be in a single article with the final boss, but then the original versions of 'part 33' ended up being so bloated with so many different late-game Personas that I decided to split this final segment into two pages. Maruki was always going to be the eyecatcher for the final part of this series, and I thought I could get there without having to use Ohya and Shinya... but I guess there are a lot of Personas when you count all the second-tiers that I've never unlocked, and all the new third-tiers! I swear I wasn't trying to stretch this series out longer than it should, but there are just a lot of designs in this game!

And Ohya... I just don't really like her. I'm not sure why, since on paper her story isn't bad -- it's a typical one that you find a lot in superhero stories, I guess, of an intrepid reporter going against the power of propaganda and whatnot in order to uncover the truth. But I just find Ohya as the straight-up Confidant that I don't like at all, and I really did feel very uninvested in her story. Doesn't help that even with Royal reworking a lot of the Confidants' effects, Ohya's affecting the security level seems very underwhelming. 

____________________________________________

Lucy

• Arcana: Empress

We'll start off with Haru's third-tier Persona, Lucy, which like most third-tier Personas is tied to the original one. Lucy Hay, the Countess of Carlisle, is a real-life person who was active during the Second Civil War, and is notable for aiding both sides at different points of the conflict. Prior to the Civil War, she was an ally of the Parliamentarians, and during the war itself, she switched sides and helped the Royalists, leading to her arrest and imprisonment. Her duplicitous actions inspired the creation of the character of Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers. 

And her design is... not the most interesting? Most of the third-tier Personas are 'modernized' versions of their first-tier Persona, but while Lucy does have a lot more modern features like the hairdo, the suitcase and the manner of her dress looking more like a lady with a longcoat instead of a lady in a ball... she's just not different enough from the original, I feel? I really did think they could've given her a bit more of an oomph. Especially when you compare designs like Celestine to Carmen, or William to Kidd. It's all right, I guess, but I honestly did feel like this is a bit of a downgrade from Astarte. 

Prometheus

• Arcana: Hermit

Oh! It is kind of a shame that Futaba's Persona really is out of focus most of the time. I don't think she ever says out 'Necronomicon' at all even when her effects trigger on the battlefield! But she does have an upgraded Persona, and this one is Prometheus. Where Necronomicon is a weird UFO, Prometheus is a giant pulsating ball with alien circuitry running all over it, with parts of it resembling a grinning face. Of course, the light pulsates in and out, though the markings don't actually change.  This fits with the whole mysterious ancient-alien technology and circuitry vibe that Futaba's dungeon has, actually. 

And Prometheus, of course, is a famous figure in Greek mythology. He's a Titan that sided with the Olympians. Prometheus sympathized with the mortal humans, and he would steal fire from Mount Olympus. Prometheus would bring fire to man, and taught mankind how to use the previously-unknown power of fire. This enraged Zeus, because Prometheus taught mankind a way to defy and trick the gods. As punishment, Prometheus was chained to a rock for eternity, where a great buzzard would come and eat his liver every single day, and at the end of each day his liver would regrow. This lasted until the hero Heracles freed Prometheus during his adventures. 

As tied to Futaba's own hacker themes and the whole 'forbidden knowledge' being a stand-in for both repressed memories and conspiracies in her storyline, the idea that Prometheus as a figure that gave mankind forbidden and potentially destructive knowledge definitely fits!

Maria

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Faith

The ultimate Persona of the Faith arcana is Maria, mother of Jesus Christ in the Bible. In the Bible, after being visited by the angel Gabriel, Maria (translated as 'Mary' in English) goes through a virgin pregnancy and gives birth to Jesus Christ. Because of this, she is honoured as the mother of God, particularly among Catholics, who honour Mother Mary as a great saint.  

I don't really have much to say here, though I am pleased to see that Maria isn't 'just a woman', but rather a moving block of marble with... animals around her for some reason? Which I originally thought might be a reference to the cherubim, but then one of the animals is a T-rex, and I can tell you that a T-rex isn't in the Bible. We also have three trilobites on the back part of the statue. So... eh? There are a bunch of golden discs around her and stuff, and a golden ring that I think is meant to be a halo? It's neat. 

Mada

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Tower

Mada, the ultimate Tower Persona, is a monstrous deity in Hinduism. It was summoned by the sage Chyavana to battle the deity Indra during a conflict on whether the twin deities Asvin was allowed to enter a feast of the gods hosted by Indra. Chyavana summoned Mada, who was described as being so enormous that it could use its jaws to swallow the earth and the heavens at the same time. At the sight of Mada's arrival, Indra surrendered and allowed the Asvin twins to enter the feast. 

In Hindu mythology, Mada is considered as one of the Arishadvargas, the six enemies of the mind, symbolizing negative attributes such as arrogance, pride, obstinacy and stubbornness, and an obstacle to attaining salvation. 

Mada's design is a fun one here, being a four-armed giant demon with a very angry mouth and a ring behind him. I love how he's just stomping in place, and how its waist kind of flares up to something akin to a bowl of fire. Mada's head is also a literal tower that rises up to another torch. I can't find any descriptions of Mada's appearance online beyond identifying him as a giant 'Rakshasa'. I am actually surprised that we get a somewhat humanoid figure -- as cool as Persona's Mada looks -- instead of a giant set of jaws or something!

Odin

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Emperor

Huh? Huh! Emperor's ultimate Persona is the Nordic chief god, Odin the All-Father (also Odinn, Wodan, Bileygr, Drottinn, Fengr, Fjolnir and many other alternate names). And the design is... a purple-skinned man only wearing a cloth around his waist, a cape and a golden horned helmet? He's at least got the iconic eyepatch and the spear Gungir, but it's definitely not what I expected from an 'Odin', particularly compared to how the game has depicted other Nordic mythology figures like Thor, Loki, Surtr and Freyr. While I do like that they didn't go for the obvious 'just a Viking with some features' look that so many depictions of Odin and Thor do, it's a bit weird that he kinda looks like a wacky cartoon elf or something. It is admittedly an interesting look, but not one that I personally like. It does look like something from Devilman, which I appreciate, but I'm looking at the different Odin designs throughout SMT's history, and I definitely think this is the least-interesting one out of them. 

As the All-Father of the Aesir gods, Odin is associated with wisdom, war, knowledge, battle, magic, sorcery, poetry, healing, royalty, prophecy, victory and the hunt. In particular, his other most common name, Wodan, translates to 'Lord of the Frenzy', associating Odin with the fury and frenzy of battle. Odin is the son of Borr and Bestla; has two brothers Vili and Ve; is married to Frigg and has multiple famous children, like Thor and Baldr. Odin has sacrificed one of his eyes in order to drink from the well of Mimir to obtain wisdom, and would later hang himself from the world tree Yggdrasil also to obtain wisdom. In some later folklore, Odin is associated with the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession of the dead that ride through the winter sky. 

Odin wields the mighty spear called Gungnir, and has many animal familiars. He has two wolves, Geri and Freki; two ravens Huginn and Muninn who bring information from Midgard to him; and rides the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In some myths, Odin slew the primordial ice giant Ymir, and gave life to the first two humans of Midgard, Ask and Embla. He provides mankind knowledge of runes, writing and poetry. Odin is a central character of many Nordic myths, and throughout all of it he has shown many different magical and warlike abilities. Odin is also associated with the hall of Valhalla, where those that die in battle are taken there by the valkyries, where he prepares for the final battle Ragnarok with his Einherjar. In Ragnarok, Odin is prophesied to be killed by the great wolf Fenrir. 

Let's Play Pokemon Violet - The Indigo Disk, Part 3: Schoolyard Politics

Happy new year! Things are still proceeding very slowly for me, I'm afraid, and a lot of the articles in January would still be pre-written ones. Basically the only exception would be the Violet playthrough and any One Piece chapter reviews, but I'll have to delay anything super recent. I'll try to slowly go through the second What If season, but the payoff to that season is so underwhelming compared to the first season that I really don't have much of a motivation to write too much about it. 

Anyway, Pokeymans! Last we left off, we're about to go on a not-date with Drayton in the cafeteria.

Drayton starts off the conversation with another talk that's probably meant to make me let my guard down and be distracted a bit, talking about which food is the nicest and giving a ridiculous answer as well. But then he gets right down to business, telling me that since I'm strong, I can challenge Kieran as top dog of the academy. He spins it as something wild, seeing an outsider join and win the BB league... but with the context that Carmine just gave me, it's clear that he's not trying to be encouraging so much as he's looking for someone to help him take down Kieran for him. School politics!

And then the rest of the BB Elite Four show up. Lacey's pretty prominent in the opening scenes, and we've had a brief cameo of the Steel-type Amarys who has as much of a personality as a robot. But rounding up the group is a guy carrying a frying pan called Crispin. He walks with huge strides. I like him. 

Apparently, Drayton has oh-so-innocently arranged a meeting with the rest of the Elite Four, and oh what a coincidence that the brand-new transfer student that's a threat to the power structure of the school just happens to be there. I love, though, how Kieran initially gets super-condescending towards Drayton, mocking him for goofing off and noting that it's probably the reason he always loses to him. 

Kieran actually gets a bit shocked when he realizes I'm sitting there with Drayton, and apparently Kieran's just completely out of the loop -- neither Lacey nor Drayton's informed him. What follows next is something I do like, as Drayton sets up a little voting session on whether to allow an outsider like me to join the BB League. Amarys and Lacey are a bit more rule-oriented and doesn't want to disrupt rules, Crispin just seems chill, and Drayton gives a whole, very insincere sounding speech about 'excluding fun and friendship or some such'. They put it into a vote, and the tiebreaker ends up being Kieran... who coldly notes that "I don't lose". Them's fighting words, neck-mole. 

Kieran storms off, not willing to let any more of his previous personality leak through. The other three also leave, though Lacey points out that Drayton's just manipulated people to get what he wants. Which I assume is just Kieran's defeat.

There's a brief short scene afterwards as I go to the lobby of the Blueberry Academy, all the way in the surface level, and there's a brief sequence as the lobby receptionist is very much unsure about Drayton's claim that the Elite Four and Champion has okay'd my signing up to the BB League. Kieran and Carmine show up, with Kieran confirming my enrollment before proceeding to tell me that he's going to kick my ass and that I'm not allowed to lose until I face him.

...you know what? Them's fighting words, and I actually find it rather refreshing. He just really wants to pound my face to the ground for a combination of the Ogerpon thing and the 'lying' thing, and we get a particularly insane grin from him. They do a rather good job, relatively speaking to other anime and anime-games, at making Kieran both come off as insane but not too insane, if you get what I mean. 

He also then proceeds to be extremely rude to Carmine, telling her to 'shut up, sis', before buggering off. Carmine and Drayton goes into a bit of an argument about whether Drayton manipulated everything (he did) but it's not like my character's got anything urgent to do at this moment until someone realizes that the giant disco ball is probably a jail for Terapagos or something. Carmine heads off and she's honestly just kinda here, while Drayton explains that each area has its own Elite Four member, and because I'm a special student I get to skip all of the battles that lead to fighting the Elite Four, and I just get to do fun wacky puzzle trials. 

...yay? To be honest, I'd rather have the battles. It'd actually make the whole 'Blueberry Academy is focused on battling' deal actually mean something. Anyway, Dragon-type Drayton hangs out in the Polar Biome; Fairy-type Lacey is in the Coastal Biome; Steel-type Amarys is in the Canyon Biome; and Fire-type Crispin is in the Savannah Biome. Neato.

And, of course, while Drayton tells me to get on with the whole BB League challenge, I instead just go around and explore all the areas. I've ran around in the savannah and the coastal areas the most, where they seem to be nods to the Kanto Safari Zone and the Alolan region in general, but I also finally run around in the Canyon Area and its massive mountains, cliffs and lakes. Lots of fun faces. Seadra, Chinchou, Hitmontop... but we've been to a lot of generic mountain areas in Paldea.

No, what does feel special is the polar biome. It's as neat as the Snowpoint Mountains in Legends: Arceus, and I feel an extra sense of nostalgia hearing that Black/White wild Pokemon battle theme as I fight Unovan-originating Pokemon like Cubchoo, Minccino and Solosis. Not sure why the two latter ones are in the polar biome, but sure! I actually have half a mind to raise up a Solosis and use it in the team, honestly. Solosis is one of those Pokemon that I've always liked, but I've never actually properly used in a playthrough. 

At some point while running around and catching Pokemon, Cyrano upgrades my BBQ's... though if I'm being honest I don't see much of a difference. 

The coolest sub-area is the Chargestone Cavern, a gigantic reference to Unova's Chargestone Cave, which lies smack-dab in the underground regions of one of the mountains in the polar biome. It's just very nostalgic! I don't have the biggest nostalgia for Unova, but it's Castelia City, Nimbasa City and Chargestone Cave that I really associate with Unova. And to see Chargestone Cave kinda recreated here, with giant electric crystals, spiderwebs all around... and even a whole bunch of returning Pokemon from Unova... I think we're just missing Klink from the original population of Chargestone Cave, though a bunch of appropriate Pokemon like Electabuzz, Minior, Magneton and Porygon show up here. It's neat!

Also love, again, seeing a lot of these older Pokemon in a more 'open-world' environment. Games like Snap, Sword/Shield and Legends Arceus all have variations of this, of course, but there's just a really awesome feeling seeing Pokemon like Araquanid actually walk around and be cool badass spiders that move on top of water surfaces. The other Pokemon have their own AI, but it's moments like these that really feel special. 

There are also Duraludon wandering around, too. I know he gets a brand-new evolution, Archaludon, and I'm going to assume that either Drayton or Amarys has it as their ace Pokemon. At this point I've been spoiled at the appearances of some of the newer Pokemon, but I'm not sure if I've seen all of them. 

Anyway, at this point I decide to finally do the Elite Four challenge... which will be in the next episode because that'd be episode four and it'd be super-appropriate for me to start doing those there. Instead, I finally end up meeting the one scientist in the Central Plaza who teaches me about a brand-new gimmick that I was completely unaware of until this playthrough... Synchronization!

And after a couple of tutorials, the scientist gives the device to me. And for those of you who, like me, are not aware of what this Synchronization is (it's everywhere in social media, I've just been avoiding Pokemon-related posts) is, basically it allows you to run around as the lead Pokemon in your party. Including the walk/run animation cycle and attacking and gathering items. It's a very simple mechanism, but considering just how long it took for them to re-implement Pokemon walking alongside us again (it took all the way from HG/SS to the DLC's of Sword/Shield!) it's such a triumph to be able to walk around as anyone you want. I especially had fun picking out my party and walking around with them, though some Pokemon like Clodsire and Garganacl are obviously much slower than others. 

It's also glorious to see the walk/run animations of some Pokemon. I mean, I've seen some of these in the datamined animations from Sun/Moon and Sword/Shield, but seeing Slaking run around like a gorilla, or the comatose Komala just run around like a doofus is glorious. I don't think I had as much fun with synchronization with a lot of people out there, but it really is very fun to just run around as a Pokemon! 

Random Notes:

• New food in the cafeteria! The pizza looks filling as hell, and the fries look like one of those overpriced crap that cafes like to sell, but the Academy Shake looks gloriously calory-ridden, one of those super-awesome desserts that will make you regret eating it for the week. Drayton, meanwhile, likes the 'Academy Special', which is an udon set... because he doesn't have to chew anything. 
  
• "Chew your food, Drayton."
• I muck around in the school classrooms and there's really not much of interest to really talk about. There is a funny NPC who asks me if I can 'hear the call' of the darkness or whatever, which I thought was going to be a sidequest for a legendary Pokemon like Darkrai or something... but he's just teaching me how to do the emo chuunibyou Gladion pose. "My left hand! It trembles!"
• Damn, that Paradox Rift TCG artwork for Joltik is adorable as all hell. The Lokix art is also very badass. 
• Tera Raid Battles are a lot more bearable when I just have to do the 3-star ones to clear a BBQ mission or two.
• I keep mis-typing 'Drayton' as 'Drayden', and I really wouldn't be surprised if they both are related in some way. If you showed me a picture of Drayton, I'd guess that he's a Ghost-type trainer, though. His hair reminds me of Hisuian Zorua.
• I don't think it comes off in the main body of the let's play, but let me state just how much I enjoy Drayton's smug-ass 'who, me?' manipulation of everybody. 
• I think I said it before when I was reviewing the Teal Mask, but I'll eventually do a full 'all DLC Pokemon in this generation' Review-Em-All. I actually do have a writeup done for all of the Pokemon released in Teal Mask and slightly before that, but with this DLC finally giving us the dex entries (and presumably some context) for Iron Leaves and Walking Wake; and having something extra with Dipplin, it's definitely a very good move that I delayed doing a review for the Pokemon in that DLC!