That's a UF thing, yeah, but his smaller form isn't humanoid. It's just smaller. (His aloha shirts have holes in the back. :)

>(Am I confused, or is this bit completely unrelated to the A-plot?)

Yeah. The bit before the credits on Batman: The Brave and the Bold is always unrelated to the A-plot, and this was originally intended to be a Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold episode.

> - Asari crimebosses have been a force to be reckoned with on Omega
>for quite some time, eh?

Well, that particular one has, anyway.

> - I wonder where Laura learned to play the accordion.

Newfoundland, originally, although she picked up the bal-musette style in Paris.

> - Has Deadpool actually appeared onstage so far?

Yup, briefly. He's part of the cavalry in Icebreaker/Thankless.

> - I'm missing nearly all the references at the climax of the
>battle, but it certainly makes an impressive tableau.

Some of it is deliberately... not obscure, but certainly not explicated as completely as it could've been on-screen. The mantra Laura chants, for instance, is the one Guy uses while he's ramping up for the Hell and Heaven maneuver in early King of Braves Gaogaigar episodes, but where she learned it, what it's called, and what the narration implies it does aren't directly sourced from anywhere, and are to be explored later. Basically what she's doing with it is not the Hell & Heaven, but rather achieving the sort of transcendent focus associated with techniques like the Katsujinkenryû Inviolate Soul discipline.

--G.
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