Some Random Stuff...

A place for the part of my brain that will literally not leave me alone unless I share the aesthetic somehow

[mozillavulpix]

if the events of episode 7 are true, I guess

imagining yasu going to the servants and being like "alright, you all are going to help me play the funniest prank on Jessica"

genji: "whatever you wish. but is this really suitable behaviour for the ushiromiya family head?"

yasu: "oh, and what *is* suitable behaviour for the ushiromiya family head? infidelity? rape? attempted infantcide?"

They would have had to deal with over a year of that...

like...actually I imagine Yasu wouldn't normally be that scornful of it, but it'd just suddenly come out in moments of weakness. Like their Kanon side.

[mozillavulpix]

I guess the best way to get a handle on things is to write it down.

Why would Luluka want to destroy Cure Eclair's Makoto Jewel?

There are a few theories I've seen so far.

The last time Cure Eclair transformed, she was badly hurt, and so Luluka wants to prevent her from being a Precure in case she gets hurt again. The doubts I have about this is that this is a children's show where they try not traumatise them by having their role models lose or get badly hurt.

Cure Eclair's power is unstable, and so she could end up being a danger to herself and everyone around her. Like, she's *too* strong. My doubts about this are once again Precure are role models so maybe that'd be weird and also why would Kurea be special like that?

Cure Eclair is in fact the Great King of Terror, which is why the prophecy is still on track. Once again it'd be weird for a Precure to be something sinister

(my theory for now I guess) The Book of Mirages prophesises something terrible will happen to the Detective Precure, so Luluka thinks she can save Kurea from that fate if she stops her being a Precure. Could work, although it'd make Luluka look like a jerk if Anna and Mikuru would be put in danger too and she doesn't care about defeating them.

[mozillavulpix]

and so the plot thickens

eclair's 'kirameki time' sure is interesting. first it's just cool having a precure with their own 'special ability', and one that isn't even tied to a toy. But also her eye when using it has the same four-pointed diamond that's part of the Phantom Thieves symbol. It's even the glyph in Usonoir's armor Fullmetal Alchemist style. Plus it having 'time' in it, like maybe it's actually some kind of Time Manipulation like Kiritsugu Emiya why do I keep bringing up completely different franchises-

My immediate thought on seeing the episode unfold was "oh, Luluka wanted to destroy Eclair's Makoto Jewel so that way her best friend wouldn't have to fight", and she just wants to defeat her now so she doesn't have to be potentially hurt anymore, but like...I can't imagine it being that simple. Especially with it using such intense framing. It would feel over-the-top if Luluka's whole dilemma could be solved by, like, talking to Kurea properly.

Like I know people love the Yuri and want to make this about the Yuri and sure they could definitely lean into that, but would Luluka really plunge herself to the dark side just for Yuri? Sure, Homura did it, but Homura went through a time loop of torture before she got to that state.

My thought is maybe Luluka (or Mashutan I guess) know something more about the future and can read the Tome of Mirages better than Usonoir. So they want to try and destroy Cure Eclair to break the prophecy since it mentions her, or something?

I guess we'll see, though. I could be totally wrong.

now going and looking through some other comments and the madoka comparisons thicken because if this is "Eclair's second time transforming", the first was when she shattered the Makoto Jewel while Luluka looked on in horror and trauma. Like, you know, Homura spending the entire time trying to stop Madoka from making a Contract only for her to do it and immediately one-shot Walpurgisnacht because of her potential.

but, like. What'd make this weird is...Kurea isn't Madoka. She's a random patissier. Unless Luluka was literally doing the Homura Time Loop thing to save her, there's no reason why Kurea would randomly be such an incredibly powerful Precure to the point it was dangerous to everyone.

and also I just don't think Precure should go the same route as Madoka where "sometimes it's better for the sake of the world that some people *shouldn't* be magical girls". It feels anti-genre, you know?

plus this has nothing to do with Anna and Mikuru at all, so it'd really take the focus away from them.

[mozillavulpix]

that person who's been doing the spreadsheet of all the audio in the detective precure toys (including unreleased stuff) updated with the eclair mirror loupe

I forgot that they're implying there's going to be two separate group attacks.

Or maybe it's just one and there's a special version of it with a different pin recognition.

perhaps for the movie?

I am still very concerned about how they're going to squeeze Cure Arcana toys and a group attack toy within 6 months while also pacing it out properly in the story.

[mozillavulpix]

"So when Goku and Vegeta play with their enemies, it's okay and cool, but when I do it, everyone's like 'stop dragging out the fight, Gohan!', 'You don't know what they'll do when they get desperate, Gohan!', 'You're being too arrogant, Gohan!'?" Why? Is it cause I'm a kid? Cause I'm not mature enough? That I'm just copying what I see the grownups do without fully understanding why? ...I just answered my own question there, didn't I?"

[mozillavulpix]

more star detective ramblings about anything and everything because I can't keep annoying people with them

spoiler-tagging because I'm also mentioning potential movie spoilers

I can imagine Luluka's reaction to Kurea once she manages to make Usonoir retreat for now will be like

"Why? Why did you come back? I had everything under control..."

It's interesting how her reaction to seeing her was, like, PTSD flashbacks, with the heartbeat sound effect and reflection in her eyes just like when Eclair shattered the Makoto Jewel. There's still so much we don't understand about them.

I made a joke that Luluka's white form will be Cure Arcana Lily because she's got a white flower-shaped staff (it's an FGO reference, they call younger alts of characters "Lily"), but actually maybe I'm on to something here. Maybe they'll do an Idol Precure and "Cure Arcana" is a different form that only appears in the show while Arcana Lily is movie-exclusive.

because really my only major issue with it is that it seems too simple and too much of one colour. It, like, makes me doubt Akane Yano's ability as a character designer. But what if it's just a movie fanservice thing of "what we'd expect a white Arcana to look like" whereas in the show it's more complex? that's my hope at the moment.

although it's not certain. after all, Cure Majesty is the same in the movie

on the one hand, there's no "Arcana Lily" or variation thereof in the toys. On the other hand, they could pull an Idol Heart Ribbon and put the audio only in the movie toy and make it so it doesn't interact like a regular Makoto Jewel

i'm thinking too much about this

[mozillavulpix]

my current theory is satoru and daifuku don't have precure names because the staff had enough difficulty coming up with Lillian and Nyammy's names that they said "oh hell no not again" and just gave up

[mozillavulpix]

I still really need to stop getting mad at other people's poor literacy skills (or observation skills, in this instance) but how on earth does anyone think these are remotely the same people?

I will say, though, I absolutely love the amount of cool, mature older women (with careers!) in the story this year

really helps teach girls that life doesn't end once you reach 18 and/or have children and you can still have adventures

[mozillavulpix]

It's interesting thinking about Rei in the most recent episode.

Like I am pretty sure it is Kurea, especially with how open they're being in saying "no, cure eclair is only one out of the four", so now my question is more...how are they going to make it satisfying for the other three candidates to say "welp, I wasn't chosen to be the next Precure so time to give up"

Both in an out-of-universe for the fans who were rooting for them and guessed 'wrong', but also especially in-universe.

Since Rei this week was literally saying "if only I had the power of a Precure, I could protect Pochitan and my school..."

and obviously if she's not eclair she won't get that wish granted

Thinking about how Precure and children's shows and power fantasy fiction does this, it's like...

on the one hand, I can understand that some characters are just designated as supporting characters, and in fact need to be supporting characters because it's a crucial function in the story. Sometimes you need someone who can help do something while the Precure are bogged down fighting in the second half of every episode.

And I do think it's a sign of emotional maturity that you have to accept that sometimes not everyone gets what they want and have to live with the cards that were played, instead of just throwing a tantrum because the person you wanted to get superpowers didn't get them.

But on the other hand, it's also just kind of an internal consistency writing dilemma. What's the reason that some girls who want to protect things get to be Precure and some girls don't? Is it because their will isn't strong enough? Because the Precure that year were chosen from birth by destiny? Or because they're not a girl and so there's no way Bandai would be comfortable turning them into a toy seller? (Looking at you, Satoru. And Seiji. And Black Pepper never getting a transformation bank)

They never really pull off an explanation that feels satisfying; even when they do try it often feels a bit artificial, like the writers are directly explaining hard rules of the universe to the audience so they stop demanding it (see, people still think Yui was robbed).

So yeah. Very interested to see what's going to happen in the next few episodes and how they handle this dilemma this year.

[mozillavulpix]

Now with the Reveal, I think what they were trying to get at was...

There are things the others want to do and maybe will be able to do?

Rei can protect Pochitan without being a Precure, since it's literally a flying baby thing

Shiruku has responsibilities as an actress, so she's going to try and help everyone in front of her before the bigger picture

Eriza...honestly not so sure. She kind of got the "bad luck" end of the stick, since she still wants to be a detective. But there's also a difference between that and being a Precure.

And, of course, there's the fact that Eclair was already a Precure before this, and since we haven't seen most of her memories, we don't know why they decided to be a Precure and how they could be a Precure in the first place.

We don't know how Luluka became one, either, after all.

The only person who even knew about Precure and wanted to be one was Mikuru, and that's presumably because her grandma was one and also her grandma gave her the pendant that she could use to transform.

Like, this isn't a Happiness Charge scenario where the Precure God can just hand out magical crystals that let you be a Precure if you have strong enough feelings. There are presumably rules and reasons that we don't know yet on how they show up

it could just be "fuck if I know destiny or something", but until we know everything, it's really hard to judge

this really is a season that could be and do five million different things at once, and that's neat

[mozillavulpix]

hard to come up with concrete thoughts about this episode, but I love how they paced the reveal.

Taking out the most obviously not-candidates first, Pochitan going to find Eclair and leaving who they're chasing a mystery for a bit, having a bit of misdirect with the second most-likely candidate and the perfume seemingly not working until the big dramatic moment. It all felt stunningly directed and intentional in a way that kept us truly guessing until the final moments and never felt like it was speaking down to the audience.

Plus the plot being that they *need* Eclair right now, so it's not just we want to know who Eclair is so we can get a resolution to the out-of-universe ballot mystery campaign - the story has a sense of urgency that she needs to return to save the other girls, so it makes you feel relief when she finally remembers instead of a triumphant "oh hey I guessed right"

But man, then the flashbacks happen and I was not expecting that much unanswered lore. Young part-black part-white Luluka! Fairies and humans! A mature woman who looks a lot like Anna? The plot is so thick and that's awesome

[mozillavulpix]

i'm not autistic but-

trying to see if I can learn something from precure merch listings

I dunno how this person does it, but they seem to always be first to break new merch listings, often even before the official precure_goods account.

anyway

From the implication of the tweet, Ensky normally only does one volume of the Kirakira Trading Collection? I think it's at the start of a season and it was one of the first things that got leaked this year.

The fact that's unusual would then make you think there's going to be a lot of new stuff in September (probably White Arcana focused), but honestly I'm not so sure.

The Ensky listing says there's 28 cards in total, and it already shows 15 of them.

If we assume the fact there's 4 types of Answer/Mystiques mean there's 4 also of Eclair and Arcana/Shadow, civilian forms for Luluka and whoever Eclair is (only 2 more days!), that already accounts for 23.

There's probably at least 1 full Precure cast card, so that's 24.

Could there be another 4 White Arcanas? I dunno. I would find that annoying.

(what if there's two group cast cards, and the three other eclair candidates?)

Or maybe it's one cast shot + all 4 "main" fairies individually.

okay looking at the listing for volume 1 maybe it's one cast shot, one all-civilian shot and then the last 4 idk

actually I don't think I learnt too much from this

oh well

[mozillavulpix]

It's interesting thinking about Rei in the most recent episode.

Like I am pretty sure it is Kurea, especially with how open they're being in saying "no, cure eclair is only one out of the four", so now my question is more...how are they going to make it satisfying for the other three candidates to say "welp, I wasn't chosen to be the next Precure so time to give up"

Both in an out-of-universe for the fans who were rooting for them and guessed 'wrong', but also especially in-universe.

Since Rei this week was literally saying "if only I had the power of a Precure, I could protect Pochitan and my school..."

and obviously if she's not eclair she won't get that wish granted

Thinking about how Precure and children's shows and power fantasy fiction does this, it's like...

on the one hand, I can understand that some characters are just designated as supporting characters, and in fact need to be supporting characters because it's a crucial function in the story. Sometimes you need someone who can help do something while the Precure are bogged down fighting in the second half of every episode.

And I do think it's a sign of emotional maturity that you have to accept that sometimes not everyone gets what they want and have to live with the cards that were played, instead of just throwing a tantrum because the person you wanted to get superpowers didn't get them.

But on the other hand, it's also just kind of an internal consistency writing dilemma. What's the reason that some girls who want to protect things get to be Precure and some girls don't? Is it because their will isn't strong enough? Because the Precure that year were chosen from birth by destiny? Or because they're not a girl and so there's no way Bandai would be comfortable turning them into a toy seller? (Looking at you, Satoru. And Seiji. And Black Pepper never getting a transformation bank)

They never really pull off an explanation that feels satisfying; even when they do try it often feels a bit artificial, like the writers are directly explaining hard rules of the universe to the audience so they stop demanding it (see, people still think Yui was robbed).

So yeah. Very interested to see what's going to happen in the next few episodes and how they handle this dilemma this year.

[mozillavulpix]

A little thing I find interesting is Dream Stage goods already have Eclair in them even though she isn't going to appear until later versions of the play

just speculating about post-movie spoilers now

Maybe White Arcana might genuinely be movie-exclusive?

Okay, let me explain.

The fact they're selling Eclair and Shushutan goods even before they officially appear in Dream Stage makes me think there's no way they'll make a new version with a different visual that replaces Arcana Shadow with Arcana. Because then all those Arcana Shadow goods are going to be genuinely worthless and wouldn't be able to be sold anymore. They're selling Eclair stuff now so they don't have to do a merch refresh when she shows up, so why would they then do that for Arcana?

And Dream Stage goes for a long time, even a bit after the series is over. So if Arcana Shadow stays as an anti-villain the whole time in Dream Stage, it would be weird if she was white and reformed in the show at the same time.

On the other hand, it looks like the Hirogaru Sky Dream Stage did genuinely also do an update replacing Ellee with Cure Majesty. And...it looks like they did do a reissue of the merch, too

If I was a collector I think I'd have been a bit pissed off about this.

"fucking, go and watch the show again with maybe minor differences because we made slightly different merch so you need to go back to collect everything"

At the very least this adds fuel to the idea that if they're doing this, White Arcana is debuting in September too.

I just genuinely wonder why they would do it like this. I dunno how well Majesty sold, but I feel like making a change so close to the end of the show does impact the story negatively. Would Toei and Bandai really look at that and say "yeah let's do it again?"

I still don't know.

And then there's the fact we don't know if the September toy is Arcana's transformation/attack item or a Group Attack item, and I have a whole train of thought about that too

maybe later

[mozillavulpix]

seriously any time I watch someone on youtube (in english) do a precure video I literally can't go for more than like 2 minutes before having to stop and cringe and think either "you're missing the point" or "you have no idea what you're talking about"

okay this one got a bit better as it went on, but like "i saw people on twitter" is just never worth discussing. people on twitter are stupid and toxic and brainwashed from algorithms. you should just block all the time and never listen to them

[mozillavulpix]

i really do love how sunday silence and mejiro mcqueen were like gay for each other

and then one of his sons got with mejiro mcqueen's daughters

it's a shame sunday silence can't appear in umamusume because he never raced in japan because the shipping would be immense

what am i gonna do, start looking up fanart?

oh fuck

[mozillavulpix]

there's no reason to rag on other people's literary comprehension, but

I'm pretty sure Luluka didn't know Usonoir had Eclair's Makoto Jewel, just that the Tome of Mirages would probably tell them where it's hidden. Given she didn't even say "Lie lie sir" until now, it seems like this is new information for her.

She probably thinks if Pochitan puts in Eclair's Makoto Jewel it'll return her memory "to where it should be"? Although she obviously didn't know they could do that until she saw the other Detective Precure in action.

Also definitely seems like Cure Eclair's transformation item is some kind of Pretty Holic perfume. They're trying to make something with the scent of lily, Jett-senpai is going to do it, it makes sense. Also because the Shiny Cats Pact sold well, and toy listings don't specifically say anything about her transformation item specifically. Maybe because the Pretty Holic stuff isn't listed in advance? I don't know how tokullectibles gets the early listings, anyway, just that they're clearly legit.

also tbh this kinda makes the White Arcana acrylic stand more likely to be fake because why would you give Arcana a new attack item that looks like a lily when Eclair is getting something like that too?

[mozillavulpix]

apparently you can't reply to mod posts on reddit, and maybe if I put a response there they'll ban me out of spite, so i'll bitch here

the worst mod post I've ever seen

on a precure sub

there's just so much wrong with this reply on so many levels

do you not know what a joke means?

are you trying to imply teenagers don't have sexualities? because if so, the show itself has news for you

are you trying to imply it's inappropriate to ship teenagers? because if so, the show itself has news for you

if you convert all their ages from animal years to human years and consider when they biologically reach sexual maturity, the animals would all be considered adults regardless of what their human form looks like or what grade of school they entered