Archon

Review from April 2026
There was new Warhound this month and so it must be talked about. I really liked it.

This is a two part story with an epilogue that focuses on Kione and radio girl. I really liked the return to Kione as a focus. Given that Rescue Hound was the longest part of the series and that it had Kione as a POV character she has, to me at least, felt like the main character of the series. Perhaps even the protagonist. I understand that this is maybe not a popular view but it is how I view things and it is therefore wonderful to see her back as the driving force in a story. She is spectacular, just as you would expect. She's petty and she's arrogant and I just felt so very sorry for her by the end of part two.

The first part features a really wonderful fight scene. The mech battles are some of my favourite parts of recent Warhound. I loved the fight between Ancyor and Kosterion but this one managed to top even that. The writing as radio girl keeps getting more and more desperate just sings out and her deeply felt need for violence and revenge is so wonderful and it is all so almost cathartic. It's not though, the catharsis does not arrive: Kione is who Kione is. I love her. She is, by far, my favourite Warhound character.

The one thing that I didn't really mesh with was the final epilogue in the piece. All the conversation I had seen around Archon had me thinking it was going to be this huge emotional gut punch but, for me, it lacked the weight found in either of the previous two chapters' twists. I do think it works really well as an epilogue but it's just maybe not the emotional sledgehammer that the community had me expecting. I don't know, maybe I'm heartless, but I felt nothing. No tears for radio girl or her Kione.

All said, this is probably my favourite entry in the Warhound series. I really think that this is a new height. The fight scene is brilliant. Kione is as good as ever. I don't need to tell you to read this because you probably read it months ago.