Exhausted Farm Simmer

An Adult, TM. She/they. Here, queer, chronic pain no longer so severe but notably persistent. I don't reblog donation posts, sorry! [Header ID: A screenshot of Laura from Tropical Rouge Precure sitting grumpily inside a seashell, her face scrunchy and her body language tight. Icon ID: Splish Splash Barrier pin from The World Ends With You, a round white pin showing an orange cartoon goldfish swimming in a small blue fish bowl, with a swirling purple void in the corners. End IDs]

[regallibellbright]

So I've finally got the opportunity and excuse to embark on one of my long-time dream projects, a mobile full of Drifloon which can hang over a bed.

I'll probably iterate on it a bit - put an extra stitch or two between the eyes and make the X a bit more pronounced, maybe see if I can add an extra puff to the cloud - but for my first attempt out of the eight or so I'll be making (one of which will be shiny,) and one which I did the bulk of in a day, I'm quite happy with it!

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Great, that's done. Now get the fuck to sleep, Reg.

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Kanon Tachibana makes it two weeks into her old job and three weeks into her new life before she can't stand it anymore.

I still need to get to those edits for the rest of Revels, but it literally would not leave me alone so here we come back to it.

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Today's Girl Genius:

I mean, I'm as astonished as everyone else, but also: KLAUS. NO. I repeat, you are NOT allowed to explode your way out of your children yelling at you.

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I can crochet again! Yaaaaaaay but also oh shit I've gotta get this done by tomorrow.

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This has been your midseason update about Precure. In conclusion: Yuri. Thank you for your time.

Me on a Discord server, summarizing my takeaway from the latest episode.

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SO. Cure Eclair.

Cure Eclair is very plausibly the great king in the Tome of Mirages. Like, that's the only explanation that makes sense for what happened, right? Someone who actually speaks Japanese can probably weigh in on whether or not the "great king" is gender-neutral or not, but either way... If it's not Usonoir, it has to be Eclair, right? (Of course, that assumes Luluka is telling the truth in the ending, but... well, Usonoir DIDN'T achieve his goals and WASN'T empowered with a useful Makoto Jewel, so...)

Cure Eclair is so powerful she effortlessly destroys buildings without even using all of her power. (When was the last time that happened that a CURE instigated that? I'm sure the answer isn't "never" but haven't watched enough of the early seasons to know.)

Cure Eclair is so powerful she has to ACTUALLY BE NERFED BY HER OWN POWERS, joining Nodoka in the Halls of Disabled Precures as very possibly the first one to be disabled IN PRECURE FORM.

Also love Kurea's complete un-reaction to Anna going "I'm actually from thirty years in the future." Of course they had to explain it to her, and of course that's going to sound absolutely absurd.

Meanwhile, Luluka.

Luluka who entered with the absolute DRAMA at the end there.

Luluka who knows her girlfriend Cure partner is too powerful to be left unchecked. (Probably out of concern for Kurea, too, given the amnesia and the fact that Kurea actively disorients herself in fighting, but we'll see.)

Luluka who once again regains her status as The Most Fascinating Character In This Show.

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Goodbye, Lara:

Calling it now. Lara's true love which will save the mermaids.

Is.

BOXING.

Clearly. The photo we opened on was the moment she discovered her love for the sport at Mari's tournament. No other explanation makes sense.

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Can I trade my lungs in for a better-functioning model? I'm getting really, REALLY tired of this cough.

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... It is probably justifiable for me to stay up a bit later while waiting for the Mucinex to kick in, because I seem to cough slightly less while upright.

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Body, I've got actual deadlines to meet. Stop being sick. Stop making me cough up half a lung. LET ME CROCHET.

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Today's Girl Genius:

So we're counting it, now. Twenty minutes for the escape sequence, which Klaus had BETTER be on, because he's not allowed to explode his way out of his children yelling at him. (Especially as "blew up with Castle Wulfenbach" is one of the few things I don't think even the triumvirate could resurrect him from.)

Also, we haven't seen Zoing in a while. Is he okay? Has he successfully escaped from the airship, on an escape vehicle that WASN'T full of wasped Black Squad members? Can he get hugs, seeing as he's had a very stressful day and his home's about to explode?

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And we finally get the reveal. I do appreciate that the other girls all got at least one moment to shine, and Kurea regaining her memories was done well.

But also, the Phantom Thieves. We'll start with Luluka, who is for once the LESS interesting one. She has been working, if only for the last two or three weeks, to get Kurea's Makoto Jewel back. I think she knew all along and this was her motive from the start working with the Phantom Thieves, but I can see a reading - at least until we have time to properly debrief with the two senior Cures - that she didn't know and joined for other reasons. Whether that was in despair when Kurea clearly didn't remember her or still as a double agent who decided that was the best way to try and stop Usonoir, I can see it.

But the real interesting thing IMO was Nijee, Ageseine, and Goemon. First - we know the Phantom Thieves Guild is made up of malicious fairies, that was established in like, episode two. So Usonoir's true form threw me a LITTLE - I assumed he'd taken human form like the others - but not too much, this isn't news. What's strange is that all three of them work together to set up a field to contain Usonoir, after Ageseine and Goemon were excited for Usonoir's takeover. And Nijee sure as hell didn't seem to be, which fits with his role the LAST time Usonoir took the field. (Back then, Ageseine seemed not to support Usonoir actually fighting the Cures, either.) I don't know for sure about the others, but I think it's very possible that Nijee, at least, isn't actually in favor of Usonoir taking over the world.

Also, given Usonoir's been revealed so early - is this season actually going to pull a Mahou Tsukai, deal with one villain around the halfway point and then have another for the rest of the season? I don't know, and I don't hope so given Mahou Tsukai's two halves feel rather disjointed, but I do think it's POSSIBLE. And honestly, if the weirdness around Nijee is because HE wants to usurp Usonoir as the season villain, I would find that a satisfactory twist - Usonoir's been assuming the prophecy refers to him, and it would be interesting if it weren't because he overlooked his minions. It also notably WOULDN'T have the "new villain kind of comes out of nowhere and the attempt to connect the two halves of the season feels lackluster" issue Mahou Tsukai had. (Particularly if it's Nijee, who HAS seemed to have a different agenda on more than one occasion, as opposed to Ageseine who's on board with things now or Goemon who's never had a "wait, huh?" moment.)

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Today's Girl Genius:

And so, Klaus is finally made aware of Krosp after so many, many years.

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Goodbye, Lara is shaping up to be

Very, very, interesting,

Really gorgeous, and

Potentially gay? I'm not getting my hopes up YET but the fact that we started with the photograph of Mari and Lara together definitely suggests they will at least be the throughline of the show.

Also, I love that Mari can hear and talk to Grace/Gon-chan, and apparently has SOME idea her pet is a legendary witch, and just. Does not care. It's great.

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All caught up on TanPre!

It's interesting. In any other season, Rei would DEFINITELY be the fourth Cure after that episode - her link to Pochitan, her outright wishing to have the power to protect her friend, her ONLY not knowing because of the glasses fall, all of that would make her a shoo-in.

But. This season we're playing with an existing Cure with amnesia. And an existing Cure who has her own fairy, no less. And as a result, we're basing this not off who has the best chemistry with Anna and Mikuru, not who would be the most driven to BECOME a Cure (which I'd give to Shiruku or Rei, for the first, and Rei outright for the second,) but who's the most likely to have worked with LULUKA, which is clearly Kurea based off Luluka's interactions with her. And I like Kurea a lot more after her second focus episode! But that's in part because us knowing so little about her is now a clear sign she has amnesia.

I hope the other three girls get to stay important AFTER the reveal - since they're all getting new casual outfits, too, that gives me some hope - because Rei in particular is way too interesting a character to get sidelined completely once she's revealed not to be the fourth Cure, and I really like Shiruku and Eliza. Besides, it's been a bit since we had a really good supporting cast, so giving at least those three more time in the spotlight would be great.

[takofukkatsumi]

Reblog this and tell me what was your biggest crying over a piece of fiction. You can be vague if you don't want to spoil.