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mycrofts-gunbrella · 3 years ago

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Caring is the Greatest Advantage- Mycroft Holmes x Reader (Part Six)

AN- Two chapters in one night... hope you like them! Soft Holmes Brothers scene at the end because, especially after the Eurus situation, the boys truly do love and care for each other! Not proof read either of these yet so apologies if there are mistakes!

Word Count- 4405

The younger brother's eyes had flicked over you both only momentarily, the tiniest flick up of his lips at the side of his mouth that disappeared so quickly it could have been misinterpreted for a twitch.

"Ever the delight, Sherlock." Mycroft spoke, standing straighter, his chin poking up a little higher. Sherlock glanced over his posture and rolled his eyes.

"Oh for God's sake don't start that Mycroft. Had I blamed you for everything I can assure you I wouldn't have bothered opening the door, don't make it so obvious that you care about my opinion of you- it's embarrassing for both of us." And with that he spun around and headed up the stairs to 221B, leaving the door to the flat wide open and disappearing into the bathroom.

"Well that was.."

"Easy? I told you that you shouldn't worry." You nudged Mycroft into the building before ascending the stairs.

"Sherlock Holmes, possibly the only man in the world to forgive somebody for nearly killing him in a heartbeat, but held a 6 month grudge when I took the last custard cream from the biscuit jar when I was 12.." Mycroft muttered, making his way into the flat and sitting beside you on the two seater sofa. John walked into the room from the kitchen shortly after, a tray of tea and biscuits in hand as he said his hellos.

"Figured I'd stick the kettle on when you said you were on your way.. Greg shouldn't be long now." He gave a smile, taking his place in his own armchair. "How have.." He glanced at Mycroft. "How have you been? He won't admit it, but Sherlock's been worried about you." Mycroft took a breath, sending a polite smile in the direction of the army doctor.

"Doctor Watson, I can assure you that I am fine and have been perfectly well looked after." His eyes flickered to you for a moment and then back to the doctor. "I presume the pair of you have held up well as I haven't heard any reports of gunfire towards the wall for a fair bit of time." John grinned, casting his eyes over to the smiley face on the wall that had thankfully been left alone.

"Good. Yeah, uh, things here have been.. good.. too." A blank stare matched with a more thoughtful raise of lips. ".. Very good, actually.."

"Catch." Sherlock came stalking into the room, a damp flannel thrown in Mycroft's general direction which he caught expertly, not allowing a single moist patch to appear on his clothing.

"And this is.."

"A flannel? Christ Mycroft has trauma affected your brain cells that much?" Sherlock quipped, flopping down into his armchair and lazily holding his hand out for his tea that was a mere few inches away from his fingers. John placed the mug in his hand without thought or argument, his fingers brushing over Sherlock's slightly before moving away. A biscuit soon followed, John holding out the digestive while Sherlock partly opened his lips, and shoving the food between them. It was your turn to raise your brow now, but you didn't say anything, instead just nudging Mycroft with your knee to make sure he had seen it too. Of course he had. "It's for your face, Y/N's lip balm is all round your mouth and it's making me feel a bit sick." John's eyes widened as he looked between the pair of you. You shrugged your shoulders and smiled, Mycroft simply sweeping away the slightly pink balm from underneath his lip and folding the wet cloth back up to place on the side. At least he hadn't picked up that you did it on purpose. Before anybody else could speak, the sound of someone bounding up the stairs filled the flat.

"Sorry I'm late, Ms Hudson let me in an- what did I miss?" Greg stood breathless at the door, satchel slung over his shoulder and a carrier bag in his other hand, staring at the apparent awkward glances shared between half the room. You stood from the sofa and headed over towards him, swiftly wrapping your arms around him and placing a small kiss on his cheek to say hello. He made his way into the room and perched on the arm of the sofa closest to Mycroft, casting another look at everybody when his question still hadn't been answered.

"Nothing of importance. Mycroft and Y/N have obviously decided to stop moping around each other like lovesick teenagers and finally admitted they've been infatuated with each other for years.. Now you're all caught up, can we get these papers sorted out so I can be more productive with my time?" Sherlock huffed.

"Nothing of importance? Don't be an arse Sherlock, that's excellent news." Greg clapped Mycroft on his shoulder and shot you a toothy grin. "Declaration in the park was it? Might be a good enough reason for me to not punch you for closing off St James'.." John's eyes widened more, if it were possible.

"You just.. closed off St James'? Can you even do-" The look Mycroft shot John made him cut his sentence short. "Right, yeah. British Government." He nodded, standing to go fetch Greg a coffee (yourself and Mycroft still held a shared judgement against Greg and his hatred for tea) and continuing to ask questions about your newly confirmed relationship. Mycroft sat awkwardly through the encounter- briefly talking about his emotions in front of you was one thing, a whole flat full of people was entirely different- so you gave his knee a quick squeeze and answered for him. "Who bit the bullet then?" John sat down. "Christ I know I mistook the pair of you being together when I met you, so surely these two have been waiting longer for you to get on with it." Greg grinned, nodding in agreement at John's assumption. Sherlock, on the other hand, stay lying on his chair completely unphased by the conversation going on around him.

"To cut a long story short, we were watching telly, I said Stephen Fry was a bit sexy, Mycroft informed me that he used to get told he had a slight resemblance to him, I realised I'd stuck my foot in it and had a ramble.. Went from there. Nothing too exciting, sorry." You left out the parts where the night before you had handled a broken Mycroft to the shower, how he had gripped onto you, how you held him as you slept. You also left out the way he had allowed himself to cry, how you held him while he wept- and, for that, Mycroft was incredibly thankful. Sherlock probably knew though, somehow, in his Sherlock way of knowing things- but he was either too kind to announce it to the room, or didn't care enough to waste his breath.. probably the latter.

"That's disappointing. You've mentioned about fancying Stephen Fry for years, this could have happened ages ago." John teased.

"Nothing compared to Hugh Laurie though. I'm pretty certain that I'm straight but I'd let him-"

"The papers!!" Sherlock's shout cut Greg's ramble off, making the silver haired man jump and grab his satchel, handing out the reports in a way that reminded you of a teacher with test papers.

"Right, yeah. Sorry. Basically the proper forms aren't ready for another week or so so these are just a few basic questions- nothing too in depth yet since I wanted to give you guys time to... yeah just basic for now." Mycroft chose to read through all the questions before answering them, whereas Sherlock hastily scribbled his response to each question as he went along- the smaller details in the Holmes brothers' differences are always interesting to stumble upon. As he held the page in his hands, you carefully leant over to have a glance at the questions, your hand resting lightly on his shoulder and your cheek resting just against your fingers- blissfully unaware at the 2 sets of eyes openly staring at your movements, and the one set that watched from the side. Greg was right, in a way, the questions definitely weren't as overbearing as they could be- but that doesn't mean it was an easy task. The questions targeted Mycroft a lot more than it did John and Sherlock, asking things about scenarios and situations that had occured before they were taken, how long it had been since they had any contact with Eurus prior to that evening/ what they discussed, and a few basic questions about any incentives Eurus may have had, and anything that aided her into her plan. Of course the papers weren't labelled with the sister's name, they were generically printed and typically handed out to anybody involved in any kind of criminal behaviours, but that didn't make it seem any less like these were questions that targeted Mycroft in particular. Mycroft took a deep breath and laid the papers back onto the coffee table in front of him, pulling a pen out of his pocket and beginning to write. In this moment you had noticed the small bounce of his left leg, a movement only ever shown by him in times where he had a particularly stressful day at work, or a troubling encounter with his brother- it was a movement that let you know his brain was running a mile a minute and he felt a little more overwhelmed that usual. Without making a point of it, you move your right hand to rest on his mid thigh, allowing your thumb to rub small shapes into his leg to show your support.

Turning your gaze to the rest of the room, you noticed Greg's eyes on you, a grin on his face that practically stretched to his ears. You rolled your eyes at him, using your other hand to flip him off and smiled.

It had taken just under two hours in total for the boys to finish completely (well, an hour and twenty minutes for the Holmes siblings, an extra forty minutes for John whose brain simply didn't work as fast as theirs to convey the information on the paper). The time had passed fairly quickly, with yourself and Greg not wanting to disturb the silence and instead just drinking your hot drinks and stealing a couple of biscuits from the tray. You gave Mycroft's leg one last squeeze before sitting back against the sofa, stretching a little after finally getting out of that position.

"Thanks again for getting this done today." Greg spoke, taking the papers in and putting them in a plastic folder. "I'd better be off anyway, get these filed in." He stood, heading for the front door and tripping over the carrier bag he had brought in with him earlier. "Shit, yeah I almost forgot." He picked up the bag and handed it to you. "Got your coat, and I may have accidentally read your mind if you had been talking about Stephen and Hugh.." You dug through the bag and grinned as you pulled out the box at the bottom.

"You, Gregory Lestrade, are a bloody legend. God I could kiss you!" Your boxset of 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie' rested in your hands and you showed it to Mycroft, beaming at him. His lips raised at your reaction, showing a small glint in his eye, as you explained how now the pair of you would have to binge watch it since Mycroft had never got round to watching them before. Greg barked out a laugh.

"I wouldn't. I don't fancy being hunted by Mycroft's secret services." Mycroft let out a small laugh himself. And with that, Greg was gone and left the flat to the four of you once more.

***

You hadn't stayed at the flat long before you all made your way to Angelo's restaurant, even managing to convince Mycroft to just take a cab rather than bothering his chauffeur for a 5 minute journey.

"Ahhh Mr Holmes, Doctor Watson!" Angelo greeted, pulling the aforementioned men into an awkward half embrace, half headlock. "Back again so soon? I shall get your usual table set up, grab some candles. Anything for you!" The pair of men awkwardly shifted out of the hold and Sherlock offered a smile.

"Not today Angelo, we need a table for four if that suits your capacities here?" Sherlock peered round at the tables inside.

"Of course, a double date, very lovely to see! Come, come!" He led the four of you inside, you grinning at Mycroft at Angelo's casual mentionings of Sherlock and John's usual 'romantic' set up. You were all ushered inside of a small booth and handed menus, the benches were small but tolerable, your thigh just brushing against Mycroft's, him offering a shy smile at the close contact. "You stay here, I'll get to work on those candles. Just for you, Mr Holmes." Angelo spoke again, clapping Sherlock on his shoulder and disappearing into the back of the restaurant.

"He's.. uh.. a bit enthusiastic sometimes." John spoke, his cheeks burning a little at the memories of previous encounters here.

"Quite. Seems a pleasurable fellow." Came Mycroft's response, glancing over the menu. It had taken no time at all for the restaurant owner to appear back with a handful of small tealight candles in glass jars, and a single flower resting in a vase to lay on the table, taking everybody's orders and leaving once again. Then as the food turned up, Sherlock began to prod at the chips on his plate with his knife.

"What are you doing? Eat your bloody food, Sherlock." John quipped, elbowing the man to his side.

"Don't want it.. whoever decided that dessert was only customary after a meal? I'd much rather wait." John gave Sherlock a look and he spoke again. "Don't give me that look, this was your idea. Who even suggests 'late lunch' as a valid meal time? It's impractical. I didn't eat breakfast because we didn't get out of bed until well past the respected breakfast hour.." 'We'.. you didn't press. "So I had a sandwich at lunch which has ruined my appetite for this. Then I'll be hungry again later, but later than dinner time because of how late this lunch is." Sherlock childishly squashed his chip with his thumb. "It's just ridiculous.. they keep adding new names for new meals at new hours, I feel like we're becoming Bobbits."

"Hobbits, brother mine." Mycroft corrected, the faintest smile playing at the side of his mouth as Sherlock's words sounded alarmingly like the ones he had told you only this morning- it was nice when they just got along.

"That's what I said."

"No, you said Bobbits."

"Boys!" John warned, and you broke out into a small fit of giggles.

"We really can't take you anywhere, can we?" You chimed in. Sherlock just huffed, stabbing a chip and eating it as John gave him a stern look. It was quite sweet, actually, watching them be all domestic. By the time you'd finished your meals, yours and John's plates were clear, Sherlock's leaving only a few chips and a mouthful of burger as he found, after starting to eat the food, that he really enjoyed it and wanted more. Mycroft, on the other hand, had managed to leave little over half of his spaghetti bolognese, making comments about the pasta being far too rubbery, or the sauce being too thin, crossing the cutlery over in the centre and making a dismissive comment about making something to eat when he got home- you all knew he wouldn't.

Sherlock had practically jumped for joy when Angelo came out with a tray of chocolate fudge cake, offering slices around the table which you all, bar Mycroft, accepted happily.

"I shan't spoil my appetite for when I get home." Was his small excuse, raising a hand to prevent Angelo from spouting his claims that he had the best cake in London and that he must have a piece, and instead asking for a coffee. Without words being spoken, John cast his eyes over to you and you offered a small sad smile. Nobody had told John of Mycroft's past, but he was a doctor and always knew when signs were displayed. You had taken an extra fork from Angelo just in case and took a small bite with your own fork, unable to let out the (embarrassingly erotic) moan that had escaped you.

"Christ he wasn't lying, this is incredible." You praised, taking another small piece on the second fork. "Mycroft please give it a try." You offered your hand out towards him, the sliver of cake resting on the tip of the fork's prongs. He looked over at it, his mind telling him to give it a go, at the very least because it had been offered by you, but the image of himself in the mirror this morning came back to mind. He declined the offer and you sighed. Mycroft truly did love cake, and any sweet things, so it was heartbreaking for you to see him turning it away because of the thoughts that ran through his brain. Sherlock had already cleared his plate by this point and stood up abruptly, hoisting his coat back over his shoulders.

"I'm going to go out for a cigarette, care to join me Mycroft?" He had asked, walking past the table. Mycroft creased his eyebrows into a frown.

"Sherlock, the pact? I haven't smoked for three years."

"Neither have I, let's go." Sherlock spoke back quickly, hoisting his brother from the booth and taking the pair of them outside. You raised a brow at John who simply shrugged his shoulders.

"I stopped questioning the pair of them and their motives a long time ago." He reasoned, the pair of you turning your heads to see the two Holmes boys outside resting against the restaurant's window.

"I try my best to.. they just still fascinate me." You spoke back, your eyes lingering on Mycroft a little longer before turning back to the table.

"So.. you and Mycroft. Going well?" John asked, his mouth raising in that side smile he often displayed when he was teasing somebody. "I can count on one hand the amount of times I've seen Mycroft Holmes smile in a non-threatening way, and over half of those were from since you walked into the flat earlier. I think I can only just about count on two hands times where he's pulled an expression that isn't stoic and emotionless."

"Yeah.. I didn't expect it to happen, if I'm completely honest with you. We've spent so many years just avoiding the subject, but after.. Eurus.. I don't know. It flicked something in Myc that made him regret not doing something about it sooner." John nodded, understanding where you were coming from. "You also don't give him enough credit. Everybody just assumes he's this 'iceman' persona, but it's all a front.. I've watched him laugh so hard that tears fall from his eyes, he's one of those people who throws their heads back and lets out an absolute belter of an infectious laugh. I've seen him get angry at the telly if I came over and some stupid reality show came on the telly.. He shouted at Kim Kardashian once on there for some reason or another. I've stayed up all night with him after he had gruelling days at work, him offering to do the same for me if I had a bad case and couldn't sleep. And then, very recently, I watched him cry." You continued on. "Mycroft Holmes is one of the most emotional, caring people I've ever known, he is just incredibly particular at who gets to see it. You're a doctor, John. You know how experiences in life can shape one's emotional stability, how it alters their mental health. Had you grown up without very many people being kind to you, you'd be scared to let somebody else in too." You finished.

"Sorry.. I didn't mean it to come out in a bad way.. I just meant.. It's nice. Seeing Mycroft acting like that, it's.. nice." He apologised. You waved it off. You knew John didn't mean any harm.

"Mycroft and I are old news anyway.. What about you and Sherlock? When did that surface?" You asked, beaming at the deep red John's face had become as he choked on a sip of his drink. "Oh come on, don't act like that. We've all been waiting for this one to happen since you moved in."

"I.. I don't know what you-" Glaring at him, he stopped himself. "Yeah fine, okay. When we got back to the flat that night we went into the front room and Sherlock lost it. I'd never seen him anything like it before, he just.. he just sobbed into a heap on the floor." He explained, the nervous tapping of his fingers against his glass trying to distract him from his eyes watering. "I didn't know what else to do, so I scooped him up and put him in his bed. He begged me to stay with him and I did. Then he apologised to me, for dragging me in all of that mess, for almost getting me killed and he just wouldn't stop apologising.. So I stole the stereotypical movie move and kissed him. Just kind of went from there. I think that night made us realise that beating around the bush all these years wasn't helping either of us, and the thought that we could have lost the other only a few hours beforehand woke us up." He coughed, his voice breaking slightly.

"God look at us.. All the people in the world and we've landed with the Holmes'" You grabbed John's hand from across the table and laughed. "Makes you feel quite special though, doesn't it? That, equally, there were all the people in the world and they chose us?" John grinned, giving your hand a squeeze.

"Could never tell them that though, their egos would go through the bloody roof."

***

"They're talking about us." Sherlock mused, breathing in the London air.

"It seems people do little else." Mycroft returned, casting his glance to you smiling with John at the table.

"She really does like you. I've spent years deducing everything about her to make sure she wasn't a secret Russian spy sent with the motive to kill you." The younger spoke playfully. "You could have eaten the cake."

"Hmm?"

"The cake. I know you wanted it, but you're going back to how you used to be. Now that you're together, you're nervous." Sherlock's voice was nonchalant, simple observations, which didn't ease his older brother at all. "It's pointless. She's entirely infatuated. I thought the childish doe eyes disappeared after being attracted to somebody for a few weeks, but she still looks at you like I look at a triple homicide."

"Resulting to similes now?"

"You need to stop that too. Dismissing it whenever somebody is trying to be... kind... to you. That's just annoying and not a good defence mechanism for insecurities, like a mask made of clingfilm, it's too obvious." Mycroft didn't speak in turn and Sherlock huffed. "She worries for you, she seeks for you to be comfortable in trialling situations, her eyes do that little light up thing every time you open your bloody mouth. Since standing here she's looked over 3 times and smiled to herself seeing you stand here with me without us arguing. I caught her 4 times on the way to the cab from the flat looking at your arse and your legs in that damned suit. You don't have to worry about anything with her- the way she looks at you is so lovesick it makes me queasy."

"And you know this how, Sherlock? Or is this another one of your cruel schemes to embarrass me?"

"Because, Mycroft, it's the same way you've looked at her for as long as I can remember you knowing her. Jesus, Mycroft, I haven't seen you smile this much since we were children.. before we did everything that led us to believe we were any better than anybody else, that we deserved more than sentiment. And it's the same way I.. the same way I look at him." Sherlock's eyes now locked onto John.

"Always did say there would be a happy announcement between the pair of you. Good to see I'm correct once again." Mycroft mused. He remained stoic, but his brother's words were whirring in his brain, leaving him in a state of shock at the curly haired man even displaying this form of kindness towards him.

"You told me once that caring isn't an advantage. But these last few days, no matter how short it has been, have already led me to believe that caring is perhaps the greatest advantage of them all. And I strongly believe you feel the same way, no matter what bull you make up to argue against it." The pair of them watched through the window once more, the image of you and John laughing at whatever joke had been shared between you. "We both have wasted many years fighting against this, and I don't want you to screw yours up. Y/N will remain by your side and feel the same way towards you, whether you wear a bin bag, lose your job, put on weight- she's in it for the long haul. She's spent so many years pining after you that she deserves the best from you and to be happy. And you, brother mine, have been through enough with not good people; you deserve the happiness too." Sherlock trailed the last sentence. It's incredibly rare for them to show it, but Sherlock and Mycroft would always have a particularly close bond, they've been through too much together not to- and so times like this were precious to them. Mycroft simply let out a small cough, reaching his arm over to rest on his younger brother's shoulder to give it a quick squeeze, before patting it twice and letting his arm rest back by his side.

"Sentiment appears to be dwelling well on you." Mycroft spoke, heading back to the door of the restaurant to head inside, holding it open for his brother.

"As it is on you, brother. As it is on you."

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somefantasticplace · 4 years ago

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MISTER AND MISTER

We asked comedians Vic and Bob the same questions in separate rooms. Then we compared their answers…

HERE for pictures.

What are the rules in your relationship? Is there a line that you'd never cross?

Vic: We've never needed to have rules - apart from who makes the tea next. We never speak to each other on the phone unless it's to say, 'I'm not coming in today,' or 'Will you bring some milk in?’ We have completely functional phone calls because we see each other every day. We live about 10 miles away from each other. We're very medieval in that we do all our writing with a pen and paper. Bob tends to hold the pen more and write things down more, but that's entirely down to my idleness. I have to do the drawings because his drawings are indecipherable.

Bob: If we don't want to work, we don't have to and we never make an issue of it. We never phone up and say, 'I'm really sorry, I've got to do this or that.' We just say, 'I'm not working today. See you tomorrow.' We're both quite unassertive, so there's no obvious dominance. It could be [why neither of them is the straight man]. We compromise - it's unspoken. We talk about most stuff, but not sexual things. I don't know why that is. You always imagine that everyone else does. If he's been out with a lass, I'll say 'So how did it go?' I don't really ask anything like, 'Did she have nice tits?'

Tell us a secret about the other.

Vic: He's got an anal dysfunction. Let's just say there's some kind of angle involved. He backfires.

Bob: He collects a percentage of his used condoms in a jar and keeps them. He does! Last time I saw it was in his house. So there you are!

What surprises can we expect in the new BBC TV series of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)?

Vic: I think the best bit is a very camp psychedelic episode, set in a big toy shop, with giant puppets and evil mannequins. it's got that late-60s Avengers feel. I fly through the air a lot. I was hurled down a corridor by a flaming man [no need to swear- ed]. No, he was on fire. It's always good working with Tom Baker. When we're together we camp it right up. He even gives me a kiss - it's quite full on and I wasn't expecting it. He was telling me something really close up and he finished off by grabbing hold of my face and going mwwwwwww. I was pretty startled. You don't think, 'Oh, he's a good kisser!' You think, 'What's he doing?'

Bob: There's one bit where we're in a jungle and Derek Jacobi is in a wheelchair with his face peeled off; Dervla Kirwan is on a sex machine (a punishment machine that gives women orgasms continually until they hate it); Emilia Fox is having a fight with a huge lady prison officer; and I'm being beaten up by two huge men. It's a lovely little tableau.

Hopkirk (Vic) is Randall's (Bob's) spectral minder. Who would you choose as your spirit guide?

Vic: Don Johnson from Miami Vice because he'd be suave. Or Michael Knight from Knight Rider. Or Peter Glaze [of Crackrjack]. He was quite short with little round specs and he'd look good if he appeared behind a bush in spectral form.

Bob: it would probably be quite good to have Jim [Vic's real name is Jim Moir]. He'd do anything you asked. I'd get him to spy on people and report back. I think he'd Iove it. I don't suppose he could carry a camcorder, but I'd like to see images from D-grade celebrities’ homes and Jim would be up for doing that. I'd send him to spy on Anthea and Grant. Could it be true that no one watched Anthea's show? I take no pleasure in that. I just couldn't believe her viewing figure was zero. You'd think Grant would have tuned in, though.

Who has the better sense of style?

Vic: Bob has his own particular sense of style, which I admire. He’s a very clean man, but he wears dirty clothes. I admire that because he pulls it off. He sometimes buys unsightly shoes and I'll say, ‘I think we should burn them.' I've burned a lot of clothing and taken photographs of it. I took a photograph of a pair of old woman's shoes on fire beneath a standing stone with a pool around the bottom. I had eight copies printed; I'm going to frame them and offer them out at Christmas.

Bob: I have no sense of style and I get a lot of abuse for it. But I'm beginning to think that I'm the more stylish man because I have no style. I don't buy anything. This is all bought for me by my girlfriend [points to his chunky sweater and scuffed jeans]. I hate male perfumes, male jewellers. I hate walking into a room and the first thing people see is your suit.

Vic/Jim has said: 'People can't seem to understand that Vic is just a character I play.' Are they two different people?

Vic: It just goes back to the fact that not many people can pronounce Moir [rhymes with lawyer]. I changed my name because I was only going to do one night - and I thought it was right for that night. 'Vic' is when I'm on TV.

Bob: I think Vic and Jim are one and the same.

Who would you least like to be chained to a radiator with?

Vic: Terry Waite. Or Donald Duck. I don't like the way he looks, I don't like the way he speaks. His attitude is all wrong. And his nephews! If they were chained as well I'd slit my throat. Eat them? I'm not sure anyone's ever eaten a cartoon yet.

Bob: Bubble from Big Brother. I'd probably irritate him - it wouldn't be a good mix. I think Vic would pick Bigfoot out of Bigfoot And 7he Hendersons - that big hairy thing.

You wake up one day to discover you are women. What kind of women would you be?

Vic: Probably much the same as the men that we are. Vaguely interesting. I don't think we'd be smart. Eclectic. I'd be wearing Victorian clothing, a high-necked, long, black dress, looking like a widow. Or Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. Dusty and dowdy.

Bob: I'd be the same as I am. I’d be a mummy. I’d be like Nigella Lawson, but anonymous. Jim, he would be like Ulrika.

Complete the following: I’d die if I ever had to… again.

Vic: …live.

Bob: I couldn’t face doing the conveyancing on a house again. I used to do that in another life.

How do you make your kids laugh?

Vic: Stupid walks, fart jokes – they always win. I can’t fart to order, but I can belch to order. Words always make kids laugh. You’ve got to get on their level and sing things like, ‘There’s a woman on a bike, wike, thike, nike, fike, like.’ They love it.

Bob: Repeating a non-word such as ‘uballah’ over and over, very loudly – that seems to get them going. Or walking like a monkey.

What would you never, ever lend the other?

Vic: My car [a Jaguar], as he’s always crashing cars. The interior of his car [a Lexus] is like a council tip. When we were filming, we had a boot sale and put everything from his car on a trestle table. There was cat litter, one shoe, a bra, plants, food, jam – everything you could possibly imagine - stashed away. He doesn't have his cars long. I'd say it takes him about an hour and a half to fill one and perhaps two hours to wreck it.

Bob: My dog and my cats. He'd be useless. He'd probably feed them the wrong stuff.

How do you know when he's down and how do you help him snap out of it?

Vic: I ring up Middlesbrough Football Club and tell them to pull their finger out. He doesn't know I do this. He gets into a terrible depression if they aren't doing very well, but that's the only time he does get depressed. He always cheers me up with his cheeky grin.

Bob: I don't bother, he's always down, so there's no worries.

Who has the better body?

Vic: My body is turning into what it was like as a young boy - there's nothing there really. Bob's is very manly - a big hairy chest, broad and brawny. I'm in pretty good shape. I do a lot of walking. But Bob's in better shape than he's ever been. He has this secretive world where he does a lot of digging. He moves gravel around and stuff like that.

Bob: We fluctuate. You'll see photo of him sixth months before and he'll be as trim as a tuppence. But at this moment in time, I might be able to top him. One thing Jim does is put weight on his face. If he's had a Christmas where he's scoffed and drank for a week, it all goes on his face.

If you could send the other on a course, what would it be?

Vic: Fly-fishing. I think he's got a secret wish to be a fisherman. We've been fishing about twice in 10 years. I think it's something he'd be into. I think he'd also benefit from learning how to draw. I would imagine his children can draw better than him.

Bob: An assertiveness training weekend. He came into work yesterday and said, 'The builders are after me for money.' I said, 'Have they done owt?' He says, 'Not that I can see.' So I said, 'It's very difficult, Jim, but when they phone up, if they haven't done the kitchen, the dining room and the bedroom, at least say, "Could you have the kitchen finished by five?" before you give them the cash.' He says 'Yeah, I'll try and get something out of them.' So he phones the builder and says, 'So you want some money? I'll put the cheque in the kitchen drawer.' He couldn't do it!

You’re in a room full of smart, beautiful women. Who do they gravitate towards?

Vic: Neither of us, I'm convinced. They'd probably turn their backs us. Maybe they'd gather around Bob first because they'd want to mother him and I think that's the first urge of a group of beautiful women in a room.

Bob. Jim. He's sassy. He's a single man and there's an air about him. You wouldn't notice me walking into a room.

Could you order for each other in restaurant?

Vic: Definitely. He'd have what you consider old person's food - tongue, potatoes and cabbage, and a steamed pudding with custard, with tea or a lager. If he chose for me, he'd go for something more obscure. If there was something odd on the menu, I'd try it.

Bob: Jim always has the most bizarre thing on the menu. He likes to try things. He'd order me potatoes.

If you were invisible for a day, where would you hang out?

Vic: Can I breathe underwater or be ethereal? I'd float over the capital and blow down chimneys and through windows at quite high speed. I wouldn't be that interested in spying on anyone. I might like to creep into a tiger's cage or maybe get inside an apple. I wouldn't find anything interesting in being a peeping Tom. I'd rather spy on a cat than a person.

Bob: I'm tempted to say at Grant and Anthea's again, but the truth, of course, is that I'd hang around wherever in 24 hours you'd see the most nude women.

How far would you go for friendship? Would you: a) lend him your underpants; b) give him your kidney; c) help him on the toilet?

Vic: a) I wouldn't want to wear his underpants. Have you seen the state of them? b) I'd give him my kidney, depending on how many I had spare on my plate. He'd enjoy it. c) I would help him on the toilet, yes, if I had to.

Bob: a) Yes, I'm sure I would. b) Can you survive with only one? I'd think about it. c) Yes, definitely.

What is the other's most irritating habit?

Vic: He would probably say blowing his nose on his clothing. But he quite often leaves some marmalade or something on the front seat of his car, so, when you get in, you really need to put a towel down first.

Bob: Not buying drinks.

What's the most endearing thing he's ever done?

Vic: Just being him really. He always makes me laugh. We're not present givers. We ignore Christmases and birthdays.

Bob: There's lots. He bought me a very rare record, which surprised me. It was an original copy of Free Live! He always looks after me. With the odd lives we have, we do have to look out for each other. It's one of the stabilising things about being in a double act. You can't start being poncey because you've got the other person with you. You can help each other out.

What scares you?

Vic: I've got a terrible fear of heights. Before I pass out, the sky comes in and I start ducking.

Bob: The thought of my children getting hurt. You see something on the telly and think, 'God, if that were them, I couldn't bear it.'

Do you go on holiday together?

Vic: We do. We've been off on our own a few times - we've been on motorcycling holidays, we've been camping. We're probably quite insular. We act like children.

Bob: On holiday, he's a bit too busy for me. He can't sit down. We're in a cafe and I just like watching people. He'll be saying, 'Have you finished your fag? Come on!'

If the partnership ended tomorrow, what would you both be good at?

Vic: I'd probably just paint pictures. I think he'd like being a gardener or maybe do up houses.

Bob: I'd like to be a gardener, if I was financially able to just garden. I can't act, so I wouldn't go down that line. Jim does it already, but I suppose he'd like to paint.

What sort of old people will you be?

Vic: I will sit in an old people's home, staring out of the window, listening to a distant Alsatian. I've often imagined myself sitting on a park bench with a dusty novel. And a bottle of milk. If they stop putting milk in bottles, I'll be cantankerous and lead the march to Trafalgar Square to reinstate bottles of milk. I'd imagine Bob would be very much the same, but he'd be sitting on a dusty chair with a bottle of milk watching the TV - anything that's on. He's a channel hopper.

Bob: Quite traditional, really: nice tweed suits, brogues, lonely. Together would be nice. We would probably be... [sighs at the inevitability] in a pub.

Former solicitor Bob Mortimer (42) was born only a few months and a few miles apart from Vic Reeves in Middlesbrough . They didn't meet until 1986 when Vic was performing at the Goldsmith's Tavern in London. Vic thought Bob was 'quite quiet' but it transpired he was eating a macaroon and didn't want to talk with his mouth full. Bob lives with his girlfriend Lisa Matthews and their children Harry (4) and Tom (3) in Kent .

Vic Reeves (42, James Roderick Moir to the Inland Revenue] lives in Kent with his wife Sarah (though they are separated) and their children, Alice (8), and Louis (4). It’s just down the road from Bob, at whose house they write every day. The two have had many series on TV including Shooting Stars, Families At War and Bang Bang It’s Reeves & Mortimer. Vic has also published a book of his paintings, sunboiledonions (Michael Joseph, £12.99).

Eve

Nov 2001

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rocketzealot · 4 years ago

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—— CHARACTER STUDY.

Tagged by: @invictarre told me to steal it Tagging: Everyone who would like to have a go ;)

layer 001 : the outside.

NAME : Frederick “Fred” Ellsworth

EYE COLOUR : Brown, with a slight orange tinge

HAIR STYLE / COLOUR : Short, shaved back, looks like its touchably soft, like he “just woke up like that”, but really he spends a great deal of time getting it to look that way. Baby blonde.

CLOTHING STYLE : Likes a mish-mash of aesthetics. Bright, 90s call back fashion, graphic tanks, sports wear, plastic jewellery- a lot of trashy stuff he probably subconsciously picked up from his Mom. Also has a soft spot for oversized sweaters and hoodies.

BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE : These 💪 Guns 💪 Babey!

layer 002 : the inside.

FEARS : Loneliness. Humiliation. Manipulation. Death. Pikachu

GUILTY PLEASURE : Slowpoke tails. Trashy pop. Slot machines.

BIGGEST PET PEEVE : Being underestimated. He feels talked over very often, or people assume he can’t do something, because he is stupid and small. He loves proving people wrong (when he can).

AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE : Fred isn’t used to having ambitions. He’s never had one in his life, but for now, he just dreams of being acknowledged by his superiors. Every day he chases that feeling of ‘Well done, Ellsworth’.

layer 003 : thoughts.

FIRST THOUGHTS WAKING UP : "Wassat? Wha’s goin’ on? Where am I s’posed t’be?”

WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT MOST : Friendship :’) Fred would be an anime protagonist in another life or a cartoon horse.

WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT BEFORE BED : Whatever he was just doing or whoever was just doing him. If it was setting his alarm, for example, he’s thinking about why he has to be up so early. If it was watching a video, it’s the contents of that video, maybe fantasising about the characters or hosts. He’s a simple man.

WHAT THEY THINK THEIR BEST QUALITY IS : Oh no. Fred doesn’t have, in his opinion... a best quality. He may allow that some of his qualities are good. He tries hard, he loves his friends hard, he works out, but none of that really constitutes a best quality. He’s not that good, is he?

layer 004 : what’s better ?

SINGLE OR GROUP DATES : Groups! The more the merrier!

TO BE LOVED OR RESPECTED : Hm. Tough one. He knows how no respect feels, but the instant gratification of ‘I love you’ is intoxicating.

BEAUTY OR BRAINS : Fred vc: you chose books, I chose looks ✨

DOGS OR CATS : Dogs, obviously. But he’s not one of those dog people who thinks all cats are bastards, he’ll pat the HECK out of a friendly cat, and coo over how cute they are.

layer 005 : do they…

LIE : Occasionally, but mostly to himself

BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES : Sometimes, but mostly no.

BELIEVE IN LOVE : In a very hopeful, naive way, yes.

WANT SOMEONE : Not anyone in particular.

layer 006 : have they ever…

BEEN ON STAGE : Not unless you count a gym floor as a stage, no!

DONE DRUGS : Yes, he has been offered weed on more than one occasion, but definitely couldn’t make a habit of it.

CHANGED WHO THEY WERE TO FIT IN : Yes.

layer 007 : favourites.

FAVOURITE COLOUR : Custard yellow, sunset orange, fuchsia pink... warm, holiday colours.

FAVOURITE ANIMAL : D-doggies owo

FAVOURITE BOOK : He’s not quite Jared, 19, but Fred doesn’t read unless he has to.

FAVOURITE GAME : He’s been getting lost in some gentle open world games, some dating sims and co-operative multiplayers recently. He’s... healing from the hurt of being friends with an aggressively competitive Smash player.

layer 008 : age.

DAY THEIR NEXT BIRTHDAY WILL BE : 8th of July! Which next year is a Thursday!

HOW OLD WILL THEY BE : 25! And it’s gonna be the last time I age him up on a birthday lmao.

layer 09 : finish the sentence.

I LOVE : "My friends!”

I FEEL : "Alright, I guess...”

I HIDE : "When Mr Proton finds out I ate his pudding :(”

I MISS : "Bein’ a kid.”

I WISH : "... I could have another go at this...”

#☆ r e c r u i t e d ! ! ☆『tagged』#//this is a BIG one but a good one #//yall should have a go if u got a sec

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analyzingdestiel · 6 years ago

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DESTIEL REVIEW OF 6X3: THE THIRD MAN

youtube

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************** SCENE 1

DEAN So we're listening to the guy with the bug in his custard? That's -- that's the, uh, the theory you want to go with?

SAM Dean, angels got to have something to do, right, now that we're post-Apocalypse?

DEAN opens a beer.

DEAN We should call Cas.

SAM You're kidding, right? [ Scoffs ] Dean, I tried. It was the first and second and third thing I did, soon as I got topside. Son of a bitch won't answer the phone.

DEAN [Sitting on a bed. ] Well, let's give it a shot. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray to Castiel to get his feathery ass down here.

SAM You're an idiot.

DEAN Stay positive.

SAM Oh, I am positive.

DEAN Come on, Cas! Don't be a dick. We got ourselves a... plague-like situation down here, and... do you...do you copy?

SAM Like I said... [ clears throat ] son of a bitch doesn't answer -- he's right behind me, isn't he?

CASTIEL Hello.

SAM Hello?

CASTIEL Y-yes.

SAM [ Imitating Castiel ] "Hello."

[ Normal voice ] "Hello"?

CASTIEL Uh, that is still the term?

SAM I spent all that time trying to get through to you. Dean calls once, and now it's [ imitating Castiel ] "Hello"?!

CASTIEL Yes.

SAM [ Normal voice ] So, what, you -- you like him better or something? [ Scoffs ]

CASTIEL Dean and I do share a more profound bond. [ To Dean ] I wasn't gonna mention it.

DEAN Cas, I think what he's trying to say is that... he went to Hell for us. I mean, he really took one for the team. You remember that? And then he comes back without a clue, and you can't take five friggin' minutes to give him some answers?

CASTIEL [ Strongly. ] If I had any answers, I might have responded. But I don't know, Sam. We have no idea who brought you back from the cage... or why.

SAM So... it wasn't God?

CASTIEL No one's even seen God. The whole thing remains mysterious.

SAM What the hell does that mean?

CASTIEL What part of "I don't know" escapes your understanding?

DEAN Cas, look, if Sam calls, you answer. Okay? You wing your ass down here, and you tell him, "I don't know." Just because we have some sort of a -- a bond or whatever...

CASTIEL You think I came because you called? I came because of this. [ Walks to table where Dean's research is spread out. ]

DEAN Oh, well, it's nice to know what matters.

CASTIEL It does help one to focus.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

DESTIEL REVIEW OF SCENE 1

SAM I spent all that time trying to get through to you. Dean calls once, and now it's [ imitating Castiel ] "Hello"?!

CASTIEL Yes.

SAM [ Normal voice ] So, what, you -- you like him better or something? [ Scoffs ]

CASTIEL Dean and I do share a more profound bond. [ To Dean ] I wasn't gonna mention it.

So here Castiel confirms that Dean matters more to him than Sam. I had mentioned this in previous reviews because for me, it is obvious, but the fact that Castiel has come out and said it is important. So the times he has said "I did it for you and your brother"; he had mostly done it for Dean. Sam is secondary for Castiel and I feel this is significant to mention. If he felt the same way for Sam as he felt for Dean, the Destiel pairing wouldn't be as believable because we would consider this to be "just how Castiel behaves". Though Castiel has made it clear yet again that Dean, for him, is special.

I find it especially interesting that he turned to Dean and said "I wasn't gonna mention it", as if he felt that Dean was entirely aware.

SAM What the hell does that mean?

CASTIEL What part of "I don't know" escapes your understanding?

Castiel is cruel to Sam yet again. He often does not hold his tongue where Sam is involved. He shows much more understanding and patience where Dean is concerned.

DEAN Cas, look, if Sam calls, you answer. Okay? You wing your ass down here, and you tell him, "I don't know." Just because we have some sort of a -- a bond or whatever...

Dean here is saying this for Sam's sake, because of course he cares deeply for Sam and he wants Castiel to respect him. And I feel that after this episode, if Sam does call, that Castiel may indeed respond. If he does, it would be proof that Castiel is very loyal to Dean and basically does whatever it is Dean asks of him. He's done this before in previous episodes. I mean he sacrificed all of Heaven for Dean, because he asked him to. And then he went with the hooker because Dean asked him to. And so Dean asking this... I can almost guarantee that he will respond to Sam's call in a future episode because Dean told him to. I feel that was the reason this scene was written.

Castiel certainly is bound to Dean in particular.

CASTIEL You think I came because you called? I came because of this. [ Walks to table where Dean's research is spread out. ]

Though Castiel did come because something of import was happening, I feel he certainly would have responded to Dean's call whether he'd come for that in particular or not. Castiel has arrived to Dean merely because he'd asked in the past and I don't feel anything would have changed that. Especially considering their "bond".

This may or may not be related. Though after this episode I feel, in a way, that Castiel is trying not to feel. He said himself, when having to harm the child to get the name of the angel, that he "can't care about that" as he "doesn't have the luxury". Does this mean he is INCAPABLE of feeling, or that he has to put emotions in the back of his mind because otherwise he wouldn't be able to do what's needed to be done? I certainly feel that Castiel has emotion and that he does feel regret and guilt, as has been established in Seasons 4 and 5. So I think that what he meant by this, is that he can't allow himself to feel because if he did, he wouldn't get anything done. After all, he is a soldier.

He slices at Dean’s hand rather nonchalantly during this scene as well. But even though Castiel does have some emotion, and perhaps doing this to Dean bothered him on a minute level, it would make sense because Castiel knows Dean has dealt with much worse (such as Hell) and there’s also the fact that Castiel is most likely entirely aware that if he’d informed Dean that he needs human blood, Dean would instantly offer it.

DEAN Oh, well, it's nice to know what matters.

Dean is bothered by the fact that Castiel supposedly didn't come because he called but rather, because what they were dealing with was of import. Basically Dean feels insignificant and as if he doesn't matter to Castiel. Oh how the tables have turned.

Castiel has dealt with this sort of feeling from Dean on many occasions, especially considering Castiel is able to read minds.

After episodes where Dean showed no real care for Castiel's death, and Dean betraying Castiel, that Castiel did almost "move on from Dean" in a sense. I think it was clear that Castiel's feelings for Dean were not reciprocated. They were certainly more intense on Castiel's side than they were on Dean's. Castiel left his entire "family" for Dean's sake. He killed what he referred to as his "brothers" to save Dean. Dean would never have done that for Castiel. And who is to say that Castiel wasn't aware of this fact? He is very aware. He knows Dean.

And despite this sort of one-sided relationship, Castiel is still loyal to Dean. He still comes when he calls, and still obeys him. He does not have to do either of these things. He’s chosen to, because of what he feels for Dean.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

youtube

SCENE 2

RAPHAEL grabs Castiel by the collar and throws him back against a set of double doors that fall open. RAPHAEL kicks CASTIEL while he's down, then pulls him up to punch him several times. CASTIEL falls half-way down the grand staircase. RAPHAEL kicks him to the bottom and teleports there to punch CASTIEL again.

RAPHAEL [ Raising an angel blade. ] Somehow, I don't think God will be bringing you back this time.

BALTHAZAR Hey! Look at my junk. [ Holds up a glowing crystal. ]

RAPHAEL No.

RAPHAEL turns to salt from head to toe. The salt clatters to the floor.

BALTHAZAR [ Chuckles. ] Same thing happened to Lot's wife. Iodize the poor sucker, and your kitchen is stocked for life. [ Laughs. ]

CASTIEL You came back.

BALTHAZAR Well, now Raphael will have to go shopping for a new vessel. Should give me a nice long head start on him. Until next time.

CASTIEL Next time.

DEAN No time like the present. [ Flicks a lighter and drops it on a circle of holy oil that surrounds BALTHAZAR. ]

BALTHAZAR Holy fire. You hairless ape! Release me!

DEAN First you're taking your marker off of Aaron Birch's soul!

BALTHAZAR Am I?!

DEAN Sam?!

SAM Unless you like your wings extra crispy -- [ uncorks a bottle of holy oil ] -- I'd think about it.

BALTHAZAR Castiel, I stood for you in Heaven. Are you gonna let --

CASTIEL I believe... the hairless ape has the floor.

BALTHAZAR [ Laughs. ] Very well. [ Inhales, touches his clasped hands to his forehead, exhales. ] The boy's debt is cleared. His soul is his own.

DEAN Why you buying up human souls, anyway?

BALTHAZAR In this economy? It's probably the only thing worth buying. Do you have any idea what souls are worth? What power they hold? Now... release me.

DEAN Suck it, ass clown. Nobody said anything --

CASTIEL lowers his hand, lowering the flames.

DEAN Cas, what the hell?

CASTIEL [ To BALTHAZAR. ] My debt to you is cleared.

BALTHAZAR Fair enough. [ Sound of an angel in flight. ]

DEAN Cas, are you out of your mind?!

CASTIEL disappears.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

DESTIEL REVIEW OF SCENE 2

Balthazar is considered a "good friend" to Castiel. He is also referred to as a "brother". Castiel refers to all other angels as his brothers. So this would, in a way, be the equivalent to what Sam and Dean have. Though what Dean and Sam have may be more intense, Balthazar is ultimately Castiel’s brother. I mention this because Castiel sides with Dean in the next scene, despite this fact.

Balthazar saves Castiel from Raphael. Castiel even uses the all-common phrase used between lovers in romance movies "you came back". This shows that Castiel hadn't expected him to come back, and especially not to save him. This also goes to show that his siding with Dean is not entirely easy though he does it none the less. Dean never ceases to be number one in Castiel’s life.

DEAN No time like the present. [ Flicks a lighter and drops it on a circle of holy oil that surrounds BALTHAZAR. ]

BALTHAZAR Holy fire. You hairless ape! Release me!

BALTHAZAR Castiel, I stood for you in Heaven. Are you gonna let --

CASTIEL I believe... the hairless ape has the floor.

Despite the fact that Balthazar just saved Castiel, Castiel allows Dean to "take the floor". He sacrificed his "brother" for Dean's sake yet again. He also did this, I feel, so Balthazar would give the child his soul back. You could say Castiel made this decision for both Dean and the child. Perhaps he did it for the child in the first place because he realized Dean cared. Or perhaps Castiel truly did care for the child and he knew it was the right thing to do. Though ultimately he sided with Dean over the man who just saved his life and so I feel that could be note-worthy. Castiel even uses the term "hairless ape", as Balthazar did, basically as a way to "stick it to him". Meaning he was displeased with Balthazar for referring to Dean as such. It can be viewed as Destiel-related or it can be viewed as Castiel doing “the right thing”. I feel it’s both. I suppose it depends on the viewer.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

DESTIEL REVIEW FOR EPISODE OVERALL

So we have confirmation that Castiel favors Dean. Though this was obvious even if unspoken in previous episodes. Outside of Heaven, the number one thing that matters, is Dean. And even with Heaven included, Dean is number one, because as we all know, Castiel basically in one way or another, gave up Heaven for Dean's sake. So as usual, Castiel loves Dean.

Dean shows that he does care about Castiel. It feels almost as if he views Castiel as a business partner though we do know Dean considers him a friend as he's referred to him as such in previous episodes.

The rating doesn't go up or down as I was already aware of these things.

DESTIEL RATING AFTER EPISODE (based on how believable): 4.5/10

#castiel #dean winchester #supernatural #destiel

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queenlua · 6 years ago

Text

trusting fiction

tl;dr: wow, uh, this got long. literary musings ahead, if that’s your thing! but the upshot is, this manga is really good so far and someone should read it with me :P

“Trust” is a word you hear thrown around a lot, when readers talk about particular authors. Le Guin once wrote about her first time trying to read José Saramago’s Blindness:

“. . . I began to get scared. The story was, to put it mildly, a nightmare. Tough-minded thrillers I’d read were custard sauce to this. The idea of everyone in a city suddenly going blind, not all at once but at random over several days, is fairly horrible in itself; Saramago’s even, quiet narrative tone brings the horror home as he describes it through the eyes (all too literally) of one ordinary person after another. Despite or because of governmental efforts at control, the city soon begins to break down—cars driven by blind drivers, fires in homes, panicky soldiers faced with panicky citizens. A disused mental hospital where the early blind are locked away very soon becomes a hellish concentration of the worst that terror and weakness can bring out in people—bullying, enslavement, gratuitous cruelty, rape... At this point I stopped reading the book. I couldn’t handle it.

To read on, to be willing to read about terrible cruelty, I had to trust the author unquestioningly, the way one trusts Primo Levi. I had to know that Saramago was not merely putting on a horror show, exploiting his power over his readers. I was quite ready to admit the power, his Dostoyevskian gift for communicating suffering, but I needed to trust him enough to let him tell me this fearful story in the confidence that he’d make it worth enduring. The only way to find out if he deserved such trust was to read his other books. So I did.”

He did end up earning that trust, by the way.

I most recently heard about this “trust” in a different context—a notable editor for a short story magazine said that a really good first page, even a really good first paragraph, can make you trust the author, make you say: damn, they are going someplace, someplace good, and I know they’re going to take me there.

Firstly because it’s competent writing—no grammar errors, no words badly out of place. But mere competence doesn’t earn trust. (That was another interesting bit from this editor; rarely does he get story submissions that are obviously lacking. But you can’t get a story published that’s just fine.)

Rather, the trust is usually bound to some keen and startling detail, some striking turn of phrase, or something that makes you laugh—a thing that convinces you an author has absolute command of their story.

You can probably think of such a moment, in something you’ve read. I think of the finest short story I ever had the pleasure of workshopping in college, centering around an arranged marriage in Hassidic Jewish community in New York City—a culture and a city that I knew nothing about—but they portrayed it with such keen detail (they either had firsthand experience, or researched the shit out of the subject) and such tenderness, that by the time the central couple spoke their first words to each other as a married couple (and those words were so perfect—awkward, and nervous, and kind), I realized, by God, this is gorgeous, it’s only been a few pages but I want so much for these humans and I’m going to read every other page about them that’s here.

(...I wonder if she ever published that, now that I think of it. Hm.)

I think very dense or inventive fantasy/science-fiction has to earn your trust, in a similar way, and it has to do it before your bafflement overwhelms your trust. I remember reading Too Like the Lightning, a novel with ridiculously dense worldbuilding—and I remember laughing so hard at a relatively early bit, where deep in the midst of a tense multinational political discussion, I realized one character was panicking in Lovecraftian manner over a doomsday prophecy in the form of a damn mathematical economic model! That’s probably the moment when Palmer “won” me—this is the kind of book that blurs the fantastic and the mundane so smoothly that I may not even realize it until I’m halfway through a chapter, and it’ll make me laugh—though she won me over in a hundred other smaller ways roundabout there. (I’m far from the first to comment on the whole “I don’t know what you’re doing but you have me in your clutches” allure that book has.)

((Similarly, shouts to Cat Valente’s Silently and Very Fast, which won me over the second I realized the super-AI had once been a house built by an eccentric genius on the coast of Shiretoko, with foxes and bears snuffling in the night outside. How oddly, charmingly specific. It helped that I’m in love with Hokkaido, of course.))

Anyway.

I was thinking about all this, because I’m trembling with excitement after finishing volume one of “Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest,” a manga I bought on total impulse this weekend, because I was at a local store and the shopkeeper was nice and there were birds on the cover.

It’s not trust—at least, not in any of the senses that I mentioned above (the author being horrific but not gratuitous, the author convincing me via some crucial detail that this story is going someplace solid, the author convincing me if I just “go with” the worldbuilding it will pay off beautifully). It is probably far harder for a manga/comic author to earn my trust, probably takes far longer, because even if the art is gorgeous—and my God, the art in this volume is gorgeous—well, we’ve all read our share of comics that were visually gorgeous but ultimately proved hollow, and failed to connect.

For me, the thing that will earn my trust is the story, and since comic panels move more slowly than the written word, it takes longer for me to feel like I really know any given character, or the shape of the plot, well enough to trust them. I managed six volumes of Pluto, for instance, before I gave up, realized that it just wasn’t my thing.

The feeling I got out of this manga wasn’t trust, exactly—much more like the feeling of a giddy, nervous, but overall-splendid first date. It helps that he’s good to look at (did I mention the art is gorgeous? and such a fun setting; I’ve never thought overmuch about Iceland, but the vast panoramas of windswept grasses and winding roads we see made me want to go there, badly). The story’s primary conceits (our protagonist’s grandpa can talk to birds; the protagonist himself can talk to machines) are subtle so far, and border on magical realism—it’s not like the car talks back to the protagonist, not in any way we can see. But he banters as he drives, as if to no one in particular, but afterwards just knows things about the car, stuff he couldn’t know any other way. He leverages this little talent into a knack for finding shit for other people, teenage-detective-style.

There may be other characters with similar knacks, too—we get a hint of it in the last chapter—but it’s hard to know for sure, and I like it that way. I don’t want it to veer into supernatural shenanigans; I like the idea of lots of only-very-slightly-magical people making sense of what their sixth senses are telling them. But that subtlety means I need to watch it longer, so I can see where it’s going with all this, quietly-oh-so-quietly.

There’s a bit of the haha-grandpa’s-kind-of-a-pervy-old-man humor going on in this volume. Mercifully very little, but still, sigh. (It’s a first date and his sense of humor seems a little immature—is this a triviality to be overlooked? or a sign of deeper trouble?)

And, as is all-too-common in manga, the first volume ends just when I feel like we’re digging into something meaty—what’s the deal with his younger brother?—and now I’ve gotta either wait until August or go scrounge up a fan translation to read what happens next.

So no, I don’t trust North-by-Northwest absolutely yet, but it got a lot right, and I’m just thrilled by the possibility of this thing, this serendipitous gorgeous little book. I smile when he texts the next day, I’m rereading the pages of what just happened, maybe it just ends up being a weirdly-paced standard detective manga, or maybe he’s The One.

Meanwhile I trust that next Friday it’ll give me a good time, something new to change up the pace a bit.

#writing about writing

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qdtquietdownthere · 5 years ago

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Day 7- Cats and dogs and aerobics.

Day 7

I eat a Portuguese custard tart from the library this morning. I am becoming obsessed. Tell you what though, they've made me a local, a regular, and I am now at the point where the lady who runs the cafe says hi to me in the morning. I say hi back too of course. ( golden rules- become a regular)

Straight to exercise class with a Portuguese tart still in my upper belly. Its in the community centre that the lunch club was in, but this time its upstairs in an equally run down space. This makes is a safe space though, it is nothing too snazzy, too characteristic to make walking into an unknown class scary. Unlike a virgin active gym or one of these snazzy soho gyms this space is honest. Honest is inviting. It is for everyone.

The class is free and there is around 12 of us. Im told to wear comfy clothes so I am wearing a jumpsuit and a t-shirt. Bad call- I sweat profusely. It is a mixture of cardio strength and punching and dancing followed by a little yoga. We hold a plank position for 2 minutes on an off and I feel I am in some insane olympic boot camp. There is a range of fitnesses and our teacher (a local who knows everyones names) is encouraging and funny. I like being here and feel completely valid and welcome in whatever I am wearing and whatever my fitness. I speak to a lady after class who comes regularly and must be in her late 70’s. There is also a younger woman in the class who brings her little boy. He sits in the buggy and sometimes cries but it is not a problem. This relaxed atmosphere, no booking, no scary music, no ‘being late’ or issues about leaving early are a problem. It makes it accessible.

The class is women only and this is for religious reasons, Sahara tells me (the class teacher) after our 1hr session. We walk and talk about art and the area. She talks about Churchill gardens history and the history of Dolphin square.

So I head on over to Battersea towards the Dog and cat home. A different world. A free bicycle station is set up just before the bridge. Its funded by Westminster council and it makes me happy to see yet another free service. Again, it is approachable. I write on my phone as I walk, and as I walk over the bridge I look back over at Churchill gardens, with its amazing flats sticking out over the canopy of trees. It is oasis like. It seems to be cut off from the rest of the world.

The next section is from the notes on my phone:

Battersea bridge. A huge development across the water. Flats over the bridge are all a development. Flats with concierge and glass balconies. The area and walk to the cat home feels like a new pair of shoes which need to be worn in. I don't feel so comfortable here, its so clean that it feels a little dirty. I want to go back to Pimlico. They want to build a pedestrian bridge which will connect Battersea with Pimlico from Georges park. Pimlico is not happy with this…and the reasons? I have heard mixed opinions varying from who will it attract, will it bring crime, whats the point. More importantly the word ‘Waitrose' has also come up a few times. Elizabeth is keen to be able to cycle over and get to Waitrose, but a lady in my exercise class said that everything the community needs is on our doorstep (and how could we forget the number 24 bus which goes straight to the big Tesco) I notice that communities thrive in routine and comfort of the predictable. Don't we all? When I worked at the museum every day half way through my cycle home I would stop at one particular Sainsbury's express to get this one particular coconut chocolate bar thing. Creatures of habit and place. It is becoming more apparent how clear the boundaries of each estate and area are. Not in a hostile way. It is just common knowledge where people are from and where their street ends. So many times I have been told about roads or given direction with this confident presumption that i know each street by its name. This community is interwoven in its place.

I fight constantly between ideas on expansion and local. But people want to belong to a group and a group that works. whats happening in Tottenham is not happening in Westminster ( Local maybe wins this short tangent of a debate)

I am at Battersea dog and cat home. I eat another sweet treat and try to adopt a cat called Marley. It doesn't feel local here. I have an interview with a lady about my suitability to be a cat owner, during which I try to ask about the area and where the cats go/come but she tells me she cannot say as the work they do is so far reaching. Its nice though, and I fall involve with a big fat dog and a big cat fat. We would have all made a great family.

I walk home towards Pimlico, back along this major road but I duck into Battersea park, which is where I am writing from. The sun is on my laptop (I hope it doing combust) and a green parrot has just flow in front of me. I will stay here for a while thinking and writing and watching. I feel funny today, Its a bitty day. The schedule feels a little jolted, which it has never felt before. I think maybe it feels like this because i have left the area I have come to know. Its funny leaving it and entering new uncharted lands. Whenever i have done this by myself I do it on my bike. Walking is different. I can see why people don't leave Pimlico. Or why anyone doesn't leave their areas. Comfort and confidence.

I am now sat eating a curry in Pimlico Spice and I do not want to be here. I am the only person in the restaurant and I order something i would never order. The two young men serving me are probably wondering what I am doing by myself at 6pm eating a huge bowl of curry. I would never go out for dinner by myself. Eating lunch- fine. But dinner? Actually maybe it would be fine if there was at least one other person in this restaurant eating. Not just me. At 6pm. I am funny about food. Brought up with broccoli every night I don't like to eat unhealthy things. Food is something we have control over and I like eating what I like and know. Sat here with the two waiters awkwardly walking around me I feel on display. Food, new food, is a social thing. I should have a friend here, or anyone. I wouldn't think twice about it. I don't want to eat the food I have in particular but it was a chef special and I think it is time to branch away from a Saag Paneer. 2 groups of people come in, all for take away. Eating dinner in a restaurant by myself makes me feel so lonely. I want to go home now.

I am home and downstairs is a half eaten curry in tup a wear in the fridge. When I was on the tube I was worried it was going to spill everywhere, all over my lap and the floor and the seat, and everyone would know I am the girl who ate a sad curry by myself for my dinner.

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xadial · 6 years ago

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black paladin lance?

probably just incoherent rambling. but here are the reasons i think lance will have some relation to the black lion, even if it is co-leadership with keith.

honestly, i... have absolutely no reason to doubt it’s going to be a thing in some shape or form based solely on this fucking shot

why? well, this is from where allura is delegating the lions, and this shot in particular is for black. first and foremost in the shot is shiro, who was the first pilot, and then second there’s keith, who was the second pilot, and third there’s lance, who--

yeah.

but alex, you say, this doesn’t prove anything

these two were the only ones shown on screen during the entire time the blue lion was mentioned, and the only time where allura acted differently - an anomaly to set her role in giving blue away apart from the rest of the lions if you will. they were also in order in a way - allura saying the stuff about the blue lion in the shot before these two can be discounted as a formality or whatever you want to call it. it appeared in all the other lions’ giveaways (shut up it’s late) so it isn’t anything significant. so first shown was lance, and second was allura, which is also the order that they piloted blue.

you need more evidence?

these three were shown in the red lion part, and the reason that allura holds on to red for a long time is because of the connection with her father (it could be a hint at when she breaks down in red when she can’t fly her because she feels she’s failed her duty and heritage) - but the only two actually looking at red are keith and lance. and they’re in order of who flies red (foreground -> background) at that.

so this scene by itself is one fucking colossal five minutes of foreshadowing. sometimes the writers fuck up and sometimes they do this. oh and just to wrap this scene up

these two are the only ones in the shots relevant to their lions and guess what - they haven’t changed roles at all and are exceptionally unlikely to do so.

so... absolutely everything in this scene is foreshadowing that’s actually canonically happened at some point, apart from lance and black? and lance is next to keith in the shot of black? and keith is flying black at the moment? have patience we have four seasons left that’s all i’m saying

regarding the lions and their paladins

allura is permanently in blue

i don’t have the will to screenshot it but in season three there’s a massive scene about allura joining the team and lance handing blue over to her. you know, the one in the hangar? we even see the bayards change hands which is the boldest symbolism of permanence and closure you could ask for. then, allura bonds with blue and unlocks that sonar thing waaaay faster than lance did and lance even goes and acknowledges this to keith. so, allura is staying and lance is done with blue.

however. there was absolutely nothing like this for keith and lance, with red. it might have been because of time constraints in the show or a fear of being repetitive but if they wanted to show any sense of permanence they would have done the very bare minimum of showing some exchange. it just feels like lance isn’t quite settled yet.

all the lions just really seem to fucking adore keith

count how many times red has rescued keith compared to all the other paladins and their lions. i can think of at least three separate occasions and it’s kind of disproportionate. their relationship (?) was dynamic, to begin with it was more difficult than the rest but these are some of the things that make it kinda standout. again, the lack of permanence about the bayard exchange for red runs both ways - it also feels like keith isn’t entirely done with red yet.

keith bonded exceptionally fast with black, but i’m not absolutely 100% on the validity of this. shiro’s essence was in the lion the whole time to help him and we haven’t actually seen him try to pilot black again without his brother’s help. to me it would make a heckload of sense if he struggled a little more with black now shiro can’t influence anything. also, i think shiro’s essence being in black absolutely affected her choices. it’s why she chose keith over anyone else to pilot her after shiro, yes lance wanted to pilot her for himself (to prove his own self-worth to himself) instead of the team but shiro was also in there and shiro wanted keith to lead. i also believe that shiro played a part in black rescuing keith after his fight with kuron - would black have come otherwise? it’s likely but it’s just an interesting thing to think about. it just shows you the influence shiro had or may have had over things that black did - and black really, really loves shiro too.

shiro is probably retiring

he has grey hair. need i say any more?

everyone except him has a lion, if he had to displace anyone it couldn’t be allura, pidge or hunk - i explained allura’s and he doesn’t appear in pidge or hunk’s shots when they get their lions, you know in the first bit of this post. he’s not going to pilot them. i feel patronising explaining that part because everyone know that lol. so it would have to be lance or keith he replaces, when keith had this massive arc about being leader and lance flies red which i cannot at all picture shiro taking.

anyway, the ‘rest now’ thing is probably not only for only shiro in that scene but also applies to him in the rest of the show. dude spent two years forcibly dissociating and then comes back with an arm missing, i doubt he feels like fighting much more.

hella foreshadowing

what, even more foreshadowing alex? i’m going to end up doing that thing where you say spoon too many times and it ends up burning a hole through your cerebral cortex

shhhh

anyway look at this and tell me it doesn’t remind you of something

and this was a scene where he showed legitimate leadership skills. also. heh. literal. uh. FOREshadowing. heh. gotta be competing with tungsten for the highest density award to see absolutely nothing in this. (also, putting my chemistry brain nerd back in his cupboard and dumping custard over his head just give me a second there we go okay let’s continue)

this shadow (you know. like shiro’s scar. shiro the black paladin leader shiro.) is only there for a few seconds and has no relation to lighting or anything, it isn’t caused by the helmet. make of it what you will.

other than this

-when keith flies black he complains it’s too slow and when lance flies red he complains it’s too fast. seems like a problem that could be solved by...... switching.......

lance doesn’t have a fixed place or role on the team, not really, and i realise you’ve likely heard the ‘water sign, adaptable, yada yada’ before but it’s true. each paladin has only unlocked one class of weapon and variations of that class, apart from him. he’s unlocked two classes and it’s almost as if he could fly... two things..... as well

idk though i guess the altean broadsword was alfor’s weapon so it may signify his adapting to flying red, alfor’s old lion. BUT this still shows adaption so all hope is not lost

anyway keith and lance are the only two who still feel slightly incongruous in their lions? as i mentioned at the start i have a very very strong hunch about some form of co-leadership. keith admittedly was given that writing cop-out and now is magically a good leader, but as i said half of that was with shiro’s help? if everything with keith and black remains as progressed as it got with shiro’s essence in black i’d be surprised i guess.

i don’t know how exactly it’s going to happen but

this means something and it makes no sense for lance to appear here otherwise.

we have four seasons left. lance has been called stability, wingman, impulse control. his role, whatever it is, will still be critical in keith’s leadership. don’t quote me on this (i might edit once i finish my re-watch) but in s6 when keith came back and led voltron him and lance had a lot of communication when fighting as voltron? more so than with any other specific paladin at least. they have a bond, next to shiro lance is the paladin keith is closest to, and from a shipping standpoint or not this means something and it will have an effect on the team and the way that they are lead by keith.

anyway. i cannot emphasise enough. even if my brain is too fried to figure out what and how exactly is going to happen in relation to lance and the black lion, this means something.

tl;dr

lance is hella adaptable and shows this in contrast to the rest of the team which could equate to being adaptable with which lion he flies (..... both red and black for our awesome bi boi cough cough)

no closure with keith and red which means keith could still fly red at some point, even temporarily -- if you look at the shot of red with keith and lance at the top of this post they’re waaaaay more balanced to look at than the dramatic shot and imbalances with character heights in black’s part, which suggests kinda equal power with her? am i wording this right?

he first and foremost communicates best with keith when fighting

so much foreshadowing you could drown in it

im. very tired.

lance would want you to have hope

#black paladin lance #come on guys i worked hard on this monster #lance vld #voltron meta #voltron #bp lance

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darkershining · 6 years ago

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DarkerShining’s thoughts on Pretty Cure: Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode

It’s that time again! Time to write another one of these! Yay!

Last time, I talked about Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, and this time, I’ll be talking about Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode.

Our story begins when a cheerful young girl named Ichika Usami is heading home to bake a cake for her mother, who is coming home for a visit after being busy travelling due to her job as a doctor. Around the same time, a strange explosion of cream happens on top of Strawberry Mountain, and Ichika and four other girls notice clouds in the shape of various types of sweets in the sky.

Returning home and trying to make a cake, Ichika keeps messing up and can’t seem to get the cake to rise properly. Suddenly, a puppy-like fairy called Pekorin ends up falling into Ichika’s kitchen, and despite initially freaking out, Ichika is quick to assist the young fairy when Pekorin says she’s hungry for sweets. She can’t find anything right away, but reluctantly allows Pekorin to try one of the failed cakes, which she finds good despite the failure since it’s still full of kira-kiraru. Ichika returns to baking, and Pekorin notices what Ichika is doing wrong and gives her some advice. With Pekorin’s help, Ichika is able to successfully get the cake to rise properly.

Before Ichika can decorate the cake, she receives a phone call from her mother, and finds out that she had to delay her visit because something suddenly came up. Feeling downcast at the news, Ichika doesn’t feel like finishing the cake. However, Gummy, a fairy that Pekorin was trying to stop from stealing the kira-kiraru from the sweets in town shows up. Gummy uses the kira-kiraru from the failed cakes to power up, and Pekorin quickly flies off with the one successful cake to stop Gummy from taking the kira-kiraru from it.

Ichika chases after the two, and suggests they just hand over the cake so Gummy will leave Pekorin alone, since her mother isn’t coming home today after all. However, before Ichika can hand the cake over, Pekorin convinces her that all the feelings Ichika put into making the cake are too important for her to just surrender, and Ichika realizes that Pekorin is right and that she can’t bring herself to do so.

Ichika’s strong feelings resonate with the kira-kiraru inside the cake, and as Ichika decorates it with a rabbit-motif, it suddenly transforms into Animal Sweets and a Sweets Pact, giving Ichika the power to become Cure Whip, one of the legendary patissier Pretty Cure. With her new powers, Cure Whip is able to defeat Gummy and force him to retreat.

Soon, Ichika is able to bond with four other girls through their love of sweets, who join her as Pretty Cure. Together, they fight to protect everyone’s feelings, while running a café at the side.

All right, you know the drill! The rest of my thoughts will be put under the Read More and there will be spoilers for the whole series. (previous parts can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)

Ichika Usami/Cure Whip

Our lead pink Cure of the season. Ichika is an energetic girl who loves sweets, baking and seeing people’s smiles. She’s good at connecting with others, and understanding others’ feelings. She’s initially not that good at baking, but with the help of Pekorin and her fellow Cures, she gradually improves her skills at making sweets. She’s also quite creative, and comes up with the various animal themed designs for the sweets she makes with her friends when inspiration hits her. Thanks to Pekorin, she realizes how important her feelings are, which allows her to become Cure Whip, a strawberry shortcake- and rabbit-themed Cure with enhanced hearing and good jumping skills, and the Pretty Cure of cheerfulness and smiles.

I really like Ichika. She’s got the energy and ability to connect with others that you’d expect of a lead Cure. I also admire her creativity, with how she’s able to come up with those animal-themed designs for the various sweets she and her friends make. Of course, even with her usual cheery demenour, she also has her worries, as seen when her mother is brought up, as Ichika obviously wishes she could be around more, but also understands and respects her mother’s work since she’s able to help so many people. Ichika tends to hide her more vulnerable side, which is something I can understand, since sometimes there are things just feel are better kept to yourself, and don’t want to worry those around you with.

Her designs are also really cute. It’s been a while since we had a pink lead Cure as the one with pigtails as her usual hairstyle, come to think of it. I also really like her character development, especially how it near the end is influenced by her friends gradually figuring out their own goals for the future, leading her to begin wondering if she should be putting more thoughts into what she wants to do in the future. It’s natural to think about your own future when seeing what those around you are doing with theirs. All in all, I think Ichika’s a really great main character.

Himari Arisugawa/Cure Custard

The second Cure to be introduced this season. Himari is an intelligent, but socially awkward girl. She’s especially knowledgeable when it comes to the science behind making sweets, but grew to become rather shy when those around her age showed no interest in hearing about it and she couldn’t keep up with their interests. Things begin to change for Himari when Ichika comes into her life, and is genuinely interested in learning about the science of sweets so she can improve her own skills at making them. Ichika and Himari end up making some pudding together, and Ichika comes up with a squirrel design for it, feeling that it suits Himari’s personality. When another of the kira-kiraru stealing fairies attack them, Himari ends up becoming Cure Custard, a pudding- and squirrel-themed Pretty Cure with the ability to run really fast, the Pretty Cure of intelligence and courage.

Himari is adorable. I can totally identify with this girl’s struggles when it comes to socializing and the difficulty of finding someone who shares your interests and is willing to listen to you go into detail about it. I’m really happy that she was able to bond with Ichika over their mutual love of sweets, and become friends with the other girls from there. I really enjoyed Himari’s character arc, watching her gradually become more confident in herself. I also like her habit of carrying around a little notebook that she writes down her recipes in.

Her designs are really cute too. I feel it’s also fitting that she’s the shortest of the Cures. I think it’s pretty neat that they introduced the yellow Cure second, since it’s usually the blue one who is the second to be introduced in most series. It’s clear throughout the series that Himari’s knowledge is important to the KiraPati’s success, so it makes sense she’d be the first to join Ichika. She’s probably one of my favorite characters from this season.

Aoi Tategami/Cure Gelato

The third Cure to be recruited by Ichika. A freedom loving girl from a wealthy family who is part of a band. Ichika and Himari first meet her when she’s struggling to come up with lyrics for a song she’s writing for a music contest, in which the person who inspired her to get into music will be one of the judges. Ichika and Himari cheer her up by making her some ice cream with a lion-theme, which helps her remember how she felt when she first saw her idol perform, and helps inspire her. When another kira-kiraru thief comes for the ice cream and interrupts the contest, Aoi’s strong feelings let her become Cure Gelato, an ice cream- and lion themed Pretty Cure with ice based powers and a mighty roar attack, the Pretty Cure of freedom and passion.

Most of the Cures from wealthy familes of previous series that come to mind are usually the calm and refined type, so I feel Aoi is an interesting variation of this character type. The episode revealing her family’s status shows how Aoi feels trapped by the expectations set upon her, since her butler, Mizushima, feels her band and the KiraPati aren’t fitting hobbies from the proper lady he feels he needs to help her become. Thankfully, she manages to get through to him, and is allowed to continue doing the things she enjoys as long as she keeps up with her studies and gets good grades, in the process revealing that she is also smarter than one might assume. She’s also one of the physically strongest Cures.

I really like Aoi. Her designs are great, and I like her songs. And like every blue Cure (+ Cure Magical) since Cure Beauty up until this point, she has at least some ice themed abilities, which does makes sense since the sweets associated with her is ice cream. In Aoi/Cure Gelato’s case this particular element is interesting on her, since it can be sort of a contrast with her hot-blooded personality. All in all, I think she’s a fairly good character and it’s nice to see new variations of character types we’ve seen before.

Yukari Kotozume/Cure Macaron

The fourth Cure to join the Cures is Yukari, who is a bit older than the previous three Cures, being a high school student rather than a middle school student. She’s a beautiful girl who is rather well-known for being good at everything, however, Yukari gets easily bored. When she meets Ichika, she takes an interest in her, and eventually comes to the KiraPati to try to make macaroons. Yukari is shown to be a bit of a perfectionist, as when the first batch comes out with almost no taste, she immediately tries again. While the second batch comes out cracked, Ichika makes the most of it by decorating it with a cat motif. When yet another kira-kiraru thief appears, Yukari manages to become a Pretty Cure, the macaroon- and cat-themed Cure Macaron, the Pretty Cure of beauty and excitement. Finding this turn of events interesting, she decides to stick around.

Yukari is another character I really like, mainly because she’s so different from other Cures we’ve seen throughout the franchise. She’s a character who gets easily bored and is somewhat selfish, and tends to do whatever she feels like to amuse herself. However, she also has a strong intuition and is able to think outside the box, coming up with plans and solutions to problems faster than the others. Over the course of the series, she develops a close bond with Akira/Cure Chocolat, who helps her overcome her hidden insecurities, and accept the dark parts of herself while also realizing that she does have light inside of her as well.

All these aspects make Yukari very entertaining to watch, and I think she’s a lot of fun. Her designs are really nice too. Her relationship with Akira/Cure Chocolat is also really sweet, although I do wish that with all the ship teasing they were doing for the pairing that they would’ve actually gotten past just being implied love interests. Ah well. I guess it can’t be helped. Besides, Pretty Cure is mainly a series focused on friendship in the first place, and the Cures who have male implied love interests usually never really get past that point either. Anyways, Yukari is probably another one of my favorite characters this season.

Akira Kenjou/Cure Chocolat

The fifth Cure introduced, another high school student who moves in next door to Ichika early on. Due to her appearance, she is often mistaken for a boy, and Ichika even developed a bit of a crush on her during her debut episode, not realizing until the end of that episode that Akira wasn’t a boy. Anyways, Akira is a very kind-hearted girl, who goes out of her way to help everyone she can. She asks Ichika to help her find good places to buy chocolate for her younger sister, Miku, who spends most of her time in the hospital due to health problems. When a kira-kiraru thief steals the kira-kiraru from most of the chocolate in town, Ichika suggests they make something for Miku out of the chocolate from a box Akira bought for Ichika as a thanks for showing her around town, which the kira-kiraru thief happened to miss. Ichika makes some chocolates with a dog theme, which Akira thinks Miku will like. However, when Cure Whip and the others are attacked by the powered-up kira-kiraru thief, and Akira discovers that Ichika is Cure Whip after the bad guy makes Cure Whip de-transform in front of her, Akira steps in to defend her, her feelings resonating within one of the chocolates, and letting Akira become Cure Chocolat, a dog- and chocolate themed Pretty Cure with an enhanced sense of smell, the Pretty Cure of love and strength.

I really love how kind-hearted Akira is, and how she’s sort of like a big sister to the rest of the team. Her relationship with her little sister Miku is also sweet, and it’s clear those two want what’s best for each other. Akira always being willing to help those around her brings to mind several previous lead pink Cures, but Akira does give off a different vibe from those characters, since she’s a few years older than those characters, being calmer and more mature. Near the end of the show, she also decides to study and work in medicine, which I of course feel is a perfect choice of career for her based on these personality traits.

I like Akira’s designs, with her short hair and how Cure Chocolat gives off a bit of a prince-like vibe. I guess it is partially meant to contrast with the more feminine looking Yukari. As mentioned above, I do like the relationship between those two characters. I think Akira is also another one of my favorite characters this season.

Ciel Kirahoshi/Kirarin/Cure Parfait

And like most Pretty Cure series since Fresh Pretty Cure, of course we have another Cure join the team halfway through the season. In this case, a blonde girl named Ciel Kirahoshi, who has become well-known in France for her skills at making sweets. However, she is really a fairy from Strawberry Mountain named Kirarin, who left to study making sweets abroad along with her brother, Pikario.

Ciel returns home to Strawberry Mountain in hopes of finding her brother, who has mysteriously disappeared some time ago. She also opens up another sweets shop, which gets the attention of Ichika and the others. Ciel is initially unaware of everything that has happened in her absense, including why all the fairies have gone missing. In the meantime, she continues to make her sweets, and Ichika tries to convince Ciel to teach her more about making sweets. While Ichika fails to get Ciel to agree to take her as an apprentice, Ciel continues to be intrigued by Ichika and how she is able to create so much kira-kiraru when her sweets are just ordinary.

Kirarin/Ciel also admires the Pretty Cures, and has always wanted to become one along with her brother. When she meets Cure Whip and the others, she quickly flips over into total fangirl mode. She eventually discovers the identities of the Cures during the night when all the fairies are reunited, not long after Ichika and the others learn about Ciel actually being a fairy that same night. After learning that Ichika is Cure Whip, Ciel assumes that this is why Ichika is able to create such kira-kiraru, and even asks to be her apprentice. However, the events that unfold shortly after all this shows Kirarin/Ciel that there’s more to Ichika’s sweets.

Julio reappears, his broken wand having been repaired by Noir, and Ciel suddenly recognizes his hairpiece and realizes that he’s actually her twin brother, Pikario. She is shocked to discover that it is partially her fault that Pikario turned to the dark side, as she improved her skills at making sweets a lot faster than he did, even gaining the ability to take human form, and after a poorly timed comment on Pikario’s waffles being nothing special, Pikario began to feel more and more like he couldn’t possibly catch up to her, and these feelings got worse until Noir approached him and used these feelings to corrupt him.

During the final confrontation between the five Cures and Julio, Cure Whip is finally able to reach his true feelings and return him to his true form. At this point, Kirarin realizes that the real reason Ichika’s sweets have so much kira-kiraru is because Ichika is always thinking of those who will eat those sweets and is much better at understanding the feelings of others than Kirarin/Ciel is. This revelation leaves Ciel/Kirarin in a heroic bsod, not helped by the fact that Pikario continues to act cold towards everyone and can’t seem to make sweets anymore.

With this state of mind leaving her vulnerable, Noir attempts to take the oppurtunity to corrupt Ciel. Ichika and Pikario/Julio refuse to let that happen, and work together to reach Ciel’s heart. After tasting some waffles made by her brother, Ciel is able to return to her senses, and she is able to draw out the full power of her kira-kiraru. With the power of her kira-kiraru, as well as Ichika’s flash of inspiration and Pikario’s waffles, Ciel makes some sweets that form into her own animal sweets, finally allowing her to become a Pretty Cure, Cure Parfait, a pegasus- and parfait themed Cure with the ability to fly, the Pretty Cure of dreams and hope.

I really like Ciel. In the beginning, she’s a cheerful and well-meaning person, but she failed to notice what her brother was going through, and unintentionally made things worse. I feel like she undergoes some good character development after realizing where she went wrong with Pikario and after becoming a Cure, as she pays better attention to the feelings of those around her and puts in more effort to reach out to others. Through her friendship with Ichika and the others, she is able to become an even better patissier. She even plays an important role in redeeming Bibury.

I like her designs too, both as a human and as a fairy. Her Cure design looked a bit all-over-the-place at first, but it quickly grew on me. I was a bit surprised they went with pink hair for another green Cure so soon after Cure Felice, but then again, I guess it makes sense since it’s Kirarin’s natural fur color. Plus, it’s nice to see yet another green Cure. I also think it makes sense for Cure Parfait to be the only one who is based off of an animal that doesn’t exist in reality, since she’s not actually human. Plus, her ability to fly is really neat.

The Fairies

Now to talk about the fairies. Since I just talked about Kirarin, and will talk about Pikario’s role later, I’ll mainly be talking about Pekorin and Chourou.

I’ll start with Pekorin, the chubby little puppy-like fairy. Like most fairies in the series, she loves making and eating sweets, even if she wasn’t all that good at making them to begin with. Even so, she has more experience than Ichika, and that the most important part is the feelings that go into making them. Her words are what help Ichika realize the importance of her feelings, resulting in Ichika becoming Cure Whip. After the initial five Cures have been assembled, we learn more about the incident that happened on the mountain in the first episode, which caused all the fairies to be scattered. Pekorin is worried about her friends and feels lonely, but Ichika cheers her up with some donuts and gets the idea to open the KiraPati and make sweets there in hopes that it’ll help the missing fairies find their way back home eventually.

Pekorin along with Chourou later help Ichika return to her normal self after Ichika is drained of her kira-kiraru by Julio, and after that, Pekorin doesn’t really contribute much for a while, being mostly a side character. Pekorin’s next big role comes when Lumiere gives her the ability to turn into a human, like Chourou, Kirarin and Pikario. She takes the oppurtunity to help the Cures out for the day, by heading into town to buy ingredients for sweets on her own, as well as making sweets for all her friends. When villains attack during her fun time with her friends, Pekorin is able to use the power granted by Lumiere to protect her friends, but in the process loses the ability to become a human. However, this isn’t the last we see of Pekorin’s human form...

As the Cures gradually begin to figure out their goals for the future, Pekorin grows more and more anxious of the Cures eventually going their separate ways, but despite her worries of being left alone, she does accept that each of them have their own dreams. However, when Noir attacks the Cures during Ichika’s birthday party, and Erisio suddenly decides to take a different approach and strip the world of its emotions, it is up to Pekorin, who along with Chourou were left unaffected by Erisio’s plan because Cure Whip managed to shove them into the KiraPati box before it happened in hopes of keeping them safe.

With everyone having forgotten their passions, Pekorin sets out to try to at least bring the Cures back to normal the only way she knows how, by making sweets. However, Glaive confiscates the donuts before she can let the Cures try them, and drags Pekorin and Chourou along as he goes to dispose of the donuts. But at the very least, Pekorin’s actions have already piqued the curiousity of the Cures, which gradually helps them regain their memories. Pekorin does what she can to prevent the donuts she made from being destroyed, and eventually, her strong feelings cause something unexpected to happen: Not only does Pekorin regain her ability to take human form, but she becomes a seventh Pretty Cure: Cure Pekorin.

After the other six Cures return to their normal selves, Cure Pekorin assists them during the final battle, and in the end, vows to protect Strawberry Mountain alongside the other fairies, to show Ichika/Cure Whip that she’s okay with Ichika/Cure Whip travelling the world if she wants to and not having to worry about her hometown. It’s implied that Pekorin continues working at a spiritual successor to the KiraPati, making animal-themed sweets.

So, for most of the series, I wasn’t sure what to think of Pekorin. I mean, I didn’t dislike her or anything, but after about the halfway point, I felt like Pekorin didn’t really have as big of a role as previous fairy mascots in the franchise. However, in the last few episodes, she really got a chance to shine and even become a seventh Cure. These last few episodes really made me love Pekorin a lot more, and I think her Cure form had a pretty cute design, even if it wasn’t as elaborate as the others.

I know there were some mixed opinions on Cure Pekorin, but I personally liked it, especially the more I thought about it. After all, it was Pekorin’s words to Ichika in the first episode that made Ichika realize the importance of her emotions, which led to Ichika becoming Cure Whip. Ichika would then meet the other girls that would go on to become Cures too. Basically, Pekorin is the one who set the events that would lead to the world being saved from Noir and Erisio in motion. She also gave Ichika the idea of opening and running the KiraPati.

With all this in mind, I think Pekorin becoming a Pretty Cure near the end made perfect sense. She knew from the beginning how important ones feelings are, and never forgot that. Also, another thing I realized, in the last few episodes, Pekorin keeps expressing concern about the Cures going their separate ways in pursuit of their dreams. Keeping in mind what happened at the beginning of the series, it’s understandable that Pekorin wouldn’t want to be separated from her friends again. However, when she realizes that Ichika is hesitating to follow her dreams, she puts her own worries aside to reassure her that she’ll be around to protect Strawberry Mountain and that the most important thing to her is her friends’ happiness, showing how much she has matured.

Pekorin’s design is cute, as you’d expect. Her ears changing colors depending on her mood is an interesting fairy quirk, although it doesn’t really have much of an effect on anything. I guess it is mainly there due to the whole theme of the importance of feelings. I think my favorite designs of hers are her design as Cure Pekorin, and the slightly older version of her human form seen briefly in the last episode.

Next, I’ll talk about Chourou. Chourou is older than most of the other fairies we meet this season, and for most of the show, is in a ghostly state due to being separated from his body during the accident that happened in the first episode. In his ghost-like state, he is bound to the KiraPati, and can’t move far away from it. He also has the ability to turn into a human to assist the Cures running the KiraPati, although he's still incorporeal in this state and must keep this hidden from any other humans in the area. Chourou is for the most part an advisor to the girls, at least when he knows what’s going on.

I think Chourou is interesting too, with the whole older advisor thing and his ghost-like state keeping him bound to the KiraPati. He also gets a great moment during the last few episodes, when he’s the one who shows the Cures what they must do in order to save the world, after the Cures find themselves in a situation where they simply can’t figure out what to do. In the last episode, he also finally reunites with his body, after helping calm it down after it goes on a rampage from having been left alone for too long.

As for the other fairies, I guess the rest of the fairies I want to talk about can be divided into two groups. The first are the fairies living on Strawberry Mountain, that were scattered during the cream explosion in the first episode. They’re a peaceful bunch who like to make sweets. The fairies are eventually able to return to their home with the help of Gummy and his pals, who helped them find their way home to make up for their actions while they were under Julio’s control, and as a thank you to Ichika and the others for bringing them back to their senses and showing them kindness. The fairies are also shown to have a close relationship to the animals living on Strawberry Mountain, which also becomes a minor plot point.

Yeah, not much else to say about these guys, really. I mean, they’re mostly minor characters. But hey, they have cute designs, and they do end up helping save the day in a few episodes. As for Gummy and his pals... Actually, they do belong in the next category as well, so I’ll talk about them there. On that note...

The Villains

To begin with, our villains consist of a bunch of fairies that go around stealing kira-kiraru, their belts making them grow bigger and more powerful after consuming a certain amount. The first of these is Gummy, and with each new episode we are introduced to one after another, until they all come together during the eleventh episode, during which the Cures gain their Candy Rods and use them to purify them all, breaking their belts. After this, we learn that they made a deal with Julio, who gave them the belts to make them stronger, but the belts made them lose control of themselves. Thanks to the Cures, they were able to return to normal, and they eventually help the missing fairies return home as thanks.

Not gonna lie, when each new episode kept bringing in a new one of these fairies each episode, as well as the show not really having established its storyline yet, I had some concerns, and I’ll talk about those some more once I get to discussing the story and stuff. However, after episode 11, those concerns were dispelled. With that said, I did end up liking these guys after learning just what their deal was, and that they were basically just unwitting pawns for someone working with the real villains. I also like how they helped bring all those fairies back home, I thought that was a neat way to resolve that particular plot point. Their designs are cute too, especially their purified forms.

Next up, the person behind these fairies’ actions, Julio. A mysterious young boy who seems to be performing various experiments with kira-kiraru. He’s the first villain shown to take kira-kiraru from people’s hearts, rather than just taking it directly from sweets like the kira-kiraru thieves had been doing up until that point. After the kira-kiraru thieves were defeated, Julio decides to take matters into his own hands. He starts attending Ichika’s school as a transfer student named Rio Kuroki, in order to keep a close eye on Ichika, Himari and Aoi.

Over the course of the next few episodes, each of the girls confront Julio as he studies each of them, while they remain unaware that he and Rio are the same person, with the exception of Yukari, who suspects something is up with Rio from the start and eventually confirms her own suspicions during her fight with him by giving him false information about herself. In battle, Julio wields a special wand created by Noir, which can take different shapes after absorbing kira-kiraru. After his battle against Yukari/Cure Macaron, Julio was left enraged after falling for Yukari’s lie involving an older sister, since it reminded him of what led to his own corruption, and his identity was revealed to the Cures after he took Ichika’s kira-kiraru, leaving her drained of her emotions and unable to transform.

After Pekorin and Chourou help Ichika return to normal by helping her bake the cookies she planned to send to her mother and thus reminding her of her feelings, she is able to rejoin the other Cures and take down Julio, breaking his wand in the process. With his wand broken, Bibury takes the oppurtunity to try and deal with the Cures herself, which is also around the time Ichika and the others meet Ciel. When Noir eventually decides to give Julio another chance and fixes his wand, Ciel/Kirarin learns what has become of her brother when she recognizes the hair decoration he’s wearing. Now knowing his true identity, Cure Whip and the others do their best to try to bring Julio back to his old self.

Cure Whip is eventually able to get in touch with Julio’s true feelings, and is seemingly able to tap into Lumiere’s power to return him to his original fairy form. However, even after being purified, Pikario remains cold towards Ciel/Kirarin and the others, and still can’t seem to make sweets, as his waffles just turn out gray and without any kira-kiraru. However, once Noir sets his sights on Ciel, Julio works together with Ichika/Cure Whip to save her, and after some convincing, tries to make waffles for Ciel. When his waffles bring her back to her senses and suddenly fill up with kira-kiraru, Julio finally realizes what he had forgotten this whole time. He is able to assure Ciel that it’s not her fault that things turned out this way, and is relieved of his own fears that everything that had happened had left him permanently corrupted.

As Ciel begins to make her own animal sweets, Pikario allows her to use his waffles as part of it, before taking an arrow for her. Cure Parfait manages to defeat Bibury and send her flying, before Pikario’s injuries cause him to fade away into kira-kiraru. Thankfully, he turns out to be alive, but is left in a comatose state inside the shrine dedicated to the legendary Pretty Cure while his body gradually reforms. He stays like this until episode 39, when he finally awakens just as the Cures are in a tough spot. With powers temporarily lended to him by Lumiere, he comes to their rescue and helps them out of a tough spot.

After waking up from his coma, Rio’s human form now looks more like a mix between Julio and the form he used when he went to Ichika’s school as a transfer student. He and Ciel are on good terms once more, and he’s finally able to make sweets again without trouble. Erisio does try to cause some trouble for the two by making it look like Rio is sabotaging other sweets shops to help out Ciel, causing Rio to nearly leave town, but luckily Ciel manages to catch up to him and the two talk some things out. Rio continues to assist Ciel at her shop, and occasionally assists the Cures.

I really like Pikario/Julio/Rio. I like his various designs, they’re pretty cool. He starts off as a mysterious character, who was implied to have had something happen to him in the past that led him to hate sweets. We gradually get more clues regarding his mysterious past, until we learn about Ciel/Kirarin’s brother Pikario and it all comes together. I thought it was interesting to see him still acting rather cold towards Ciel and the Cures and such even after being purified, until Noir went after Ciel, at least. I felt bad for him when he took the arrow for Ciel and faded away, and hoped he would return. Luckily, the next episode at least clarified he was still alive, so after that it was just a matter of when he would wake up.

His return after being comatose for several episodes was also pretty cool, with his new outfit and all. While he might not have become a Cure himself, he managed to sort out his feelings and was once again able to make sweets alongside his sister with confidence and kept doing what he could to support the Cures during the last few episodes.

The next villain I’ll talk about is Bibury, the only girl among the villains this season. She’s introduced after the Cures learn Julio’s true identity and break his wand. Bibury is more than happy to take the oppurtunity to show off to Noir, and starts spreading rumors about the KiraPati so that they won’t get any customers. However, Yukari eventually discovers what she’s up to with the help of her fangirls. In battle, Bibury has her doll, Iru, fight for her after she has him absorb enough kira-kiraru to power-up. The doll was given to her by Noir, and she is quite protective of it.

After being sent flying during a battle against the Cures, Bibury is left stranded on an island for a few episodes, and with Iru being low on power, we learn how Bibury wound up working for Noir as she wanders the island alone. We see that as a child, Bibury ended up all alone and was taken in by Noir, who gave her Eru and promised to always love her. Learning her backstory, Ciel attempts to reach out to Bibury, but Bibury initially rejects her attempts at getting closer to her.

When Bibury is accidentally brought 100 years into the past along with the Cures during a battle, she comes across her younger self and discovers that Noir was the reason she ended up alone in the first place. Horrified by this relevation, Bibury comes running to the Cures for help as Noir attacks the town of 100 years in the past. While Cure Lumiere fights off Noir, the Cures and Bibury return to the present. Bibury is still torn up by the revelation, when Iru suddenly comes to life once more and attempts to absorb her. With the help of the Kira-Kiraru Creamer entrusted to them by Cure Lumiere and the power of the Crystal Animals, the Cures are able to rescue Bibury, their feelings having finally reached her.

After Bibury recovers from the battle, she ends up staying with Ciel and helping out in her sweets shop. She provides the Cures some more information on Noir, and is shown to have quite the appetite after being purified.

I really like Bibury too. I like her design, and how she had sort of a rivalry going with Julio. I felt bad for her when her backstory was revealed, and she was shown to have been a lonely girl that got manipulated into serving Noir, which got even worse when it was revealed that Noir was the reason she ended up all alone to begin with. I’m glad the Cures were eventually able to save her, and that she stuck around as a supporting character. I also liked the fact that she still wore dark clothing after switching sides, with just a slightly different, less somber version of her original outfit. I also like how she still has a bit of an attitude after switching sides, coming off as a bit of a tsundere.

The next villain is Glaive, introduced along with Erisio at the half-way point. A guy with tanned skin and blonde hair, who drives a flying, evil car and has tiny doll-like minions working with him, that he can combine into bigger forms. He’s evil and proud of it. We don’t know as much about him as Rio or Bibury, but from what we can tell of his past, he seems to have been some sort of corrupt businessman, who ended up joining Noir after his methods had caused him to become a social outcast. He eventually attempts to make himself stronger by stealing Diable’s power and combining it with his car.

He eventually uses this power to put nearly the entire town under his control, draining most of the kira-kiraru. The Cures find themselves in a tough spot, even as Rio (who had just woken up from his coma) comes to their aid. Eventually, the Cures, Bibury and Rio are able to keep him distracted while the fairies and animals of the town make more sweets to create the kira-kiraru needed to save everyone. Glaive is ultimately taken out by the Cures’ newest finishing move, before Erisio seals him, his car and Diable into cards.

Glaive returns in episode 47, after Erisio turns against Noir and removes all emotion from the world. However, Glaive is now under Erisio’s control, with Pekorin commenting on how obeying Erisio like that isn’t like Glaive at all. Once Cure Pekorin helps the Cures regain their emotions and they in turn help everyone regain their own feelings, Glaive returns to his normal self. He later helps the Cures by offering up his kira-kiraru when they are all trapped inside the void in Erisio’s body, since he doesn’t want to be stuck there forever. It is unclear what Glaive ends up doing after the events of the finale.

Glaive has a cool design, which also contrasts well against Erisio’s more elegant design. While we don’t learn quite as many details about him as we do of Rio, Bibury and Erisio, he still manages to stand out in his own way. His desire for power leads him to take Diable’s power, and he comes pretty close to defeating the Cures with a well thought-out plan, which only fails because he forgot to factor in the fairies and animals of the town. He also shows he’s different from Rio and Bibury, as he himself admits, he’s proud to be evil. Even so, he is willing to put that aside and help the Cures when the only other option is to disappear from existence along with the rest of the world.

While we do see him in the brief glimpses of what everyone is up to a few years into the future, it is unclear what he has been up to. It seems Bibury might be trying to convince him to work at the sweets shop, but his fate is ultimately left ambiguous. Since Noir is no longer around, it can at the very least be assumed he’s no longer posing a threat to Strawberry Mountain.

Next is Diable, a wolf-like shadowy creature that is first seen attacking the town near Strawberry Mountain one hundred years in the past. He is able to darken kira-kiraru and turn people against each other through his mere presence. He was wounded by Cure Lumiére, but returns in the present to fight the new generation of Cures, even if he has not having fully regained his physical form yet. After each fight with the Cures, he retreats to Noir’s realm to regain his power. He gradually gains more and more of his original form, until he finally takes a humanoid form in episode 36. However, after being defeated that time, Glaive attacks him with his car upon his return in order to steal his power.

Diable ends up forcibly fused with Glaive’s car, allowing Glaive to use his power to put most of the townspeople under his control. After the Cures foil Glaive’s plans, Diable is sealed into a card by Erisio. Erisio ends up borrowing Diable’s power a few times after this in his attempts to take away the things the Cures love.

Diable is quite different from the rest of Noir’s minions. He seems to be made of dark energy, which gives him some interesting abilities, namely being able to simply split off part of his shadow to deal with the Cures while he’s still trying to regain his power. We don’t know much about his origins, but I guess he’s meant to be sort of an extension of Noir’s own dark power. But as mentioned, his power is ultimately stolen and used by Glaive, and later Erisio. Not much else to say, but Diable does have a cool design.

Finally, our main villain Noir, and his second-in-command, Erisio. Due to a certain reveal near the end of the season, I felt it would be best to talk about them both like this. During the first few episodes, there wasn’t any clear indication of who or what the main threat was, but after Julio made his appearance, we gradually learned the identity of the big bad, Noir. We find out that Noir is a shadowy being that is quite good at manipulating others, as shown through how he recruited his minions by approaching them when they were in a vulnerable state. Erisio is introduced at the half-way point of the series, and is shown to be very loyal to Noir and is initially presented as a bit of a foil to Glaive.

Erisio’s methods when dealing with the Cures are similar to Noir’s in some aspects, as he tries to use their weaknesses to break them down. Over time, particularly after sealing Glaive away, Erisio’s strategies gradually get even crueler. However, after being defeated by the Cures again and again, we start to see a change in Erisio.

This leads up to the final confrontation between the Cures and Noir. As Noir takes on a form similar to Erisio himself, we finally learn what Noir really is:

He was originally a human, who had presumably been involved in some kind of war or something, and felt like his heart had been tainted. He happened to wander into the town where Lumiere lived, and she tried to look after him. He grew attached to her kindness, and wanted her love all to himself, demanding that she only make sweets for him. When Lumiere told him she couldn’t possibly do that, he allowed himself to become a force of darkness and hatred. He even shed his human body, which became Erisio after he poured darkened kira-kiraru from one of Lumiere’s cupcakes into it.

However, during the confrontation between the Cures, including the spirit of Cure Lumiere, and Noir, Erisio suddenly reappears after having seemingly been absorbed back into Noir. Erisio proceeds to betray Noir, take both his and Lumiere’s power, and decides to use them to reshape the whole world so that the conflict between love and hate won’t keep repeating itself, namely by taking away everyone’s emotions.

When this fails, due to the efforts of Cure Pekorin managing to jog the girls’ memories and allowing them to start bringing back everyone’s emotions and memories of the things they love. Erisio then decides to go one step further, by absorbing everything into his body and letting it all disappear into nothingness. The girls struggle to find a solution, but everyone offers up their kira-kiraru to help them out. When this proves insufficent to save the world, Erisio tries to convince them to stop, since the conflicts between love and hate will only keep repeating themselves otherwise.

The girls try to reason with Erisio, convincing him that even he has a heart and bringing up all the times he would try to manipulate them. Erisio claims that he was only doing so to imitate humans, but they gradually get him to realize that even he has emotions. As the girls finally begin to reach him, his kira-kiraru is able to take shape, and he allows them to add it to that of the others’ kira-kiraru so they can return the world to normal. As the girls return to their own world, Erisio tells them that spreading love throughout the world will be a difficult task, but if they are willing to take it on, then he will look forward to seeing what world they create, before leaving.

All right, Noir. His shadowy design with the mask-looking face is simple, but still cool. His human form also has a good-looking design. As mentioned before, his specialty is manipulating others, targetting them when they are vulnerable and twisting their emotions. Again, simple, but effective. As for his backstory... Well, the way it was presented and how it was covered in just a few minutes, can kind of make it come across as this one guy deciding to declare war on everyone because this one girl rejected him. It doesn’t help that we don’t really know the full details of what exactly he went through before he met Lumiere.

The way I suppose it was meant to be interpreted, is that Noir believed himself to have lost his humanity and the ability to feel love from having been involved in battle for so long. After Lumiere nursed him back to health, taught him how to make sweets and just generally showed kindness towards him, a kindness he had not known for a long time, he felt that maybe he could learn to feel that love again. However, since he didn’t understand her selflessness and wanted Lumiere’s love all to himself, and when she told him this was not possible, he ultimately decided to embrace the darkness that had stained his heart and truly cast away his humanity.

Or something along those lines, anyways. Actually, come to think of it, his character feels like sort of a mix of Red and Queen Mirage from Happiness Charge Pretty Cure. Red also had a tendency to manipulate others, believed love was a lie and in one of the last episodes had a conversation with Cure Lovely that was pretty similar to a conversation between Noir and Lumiere in the flashback revealing their history. While one of the catalysts for Queen Mirage becoming evil was being rejected by Blue.

As for Erisio, he has a pretty cool design, looking more feminine and elegant compared to Glaive, who was introduced the same time as him. Erisio, like Noir, is good at manipulating others and his usual strategy is to try to break the Cures by going after the things they love most and take advantage of their own flaws and feelings about things they are not confident about. As time goes on, particularly after absorbing Glaive and Diable into cards, Erisio’s strategies grow more and more cruel. His methods bring to mind previous villains such as Kawarino from Yes! Pretty Cure 5, and Joker from Smile Pretty Cure. Both of these villains were also much crueler than the rest of the villains, would try to break down the heroines and would even turn on their own allies once they’ve failed one too many times.

However, there are a few major aspects where Erisio differs quite a lot from these two villains. Kawarino and Joker were both dedicated to their goals to the very end, while Erisio begins to have his doubts after being defeated by the Cures again and again. Even more shocking is the fact that this leads him to betray Noir, who he had been loyal to up until this point. The fact that we had just learned that Noir and Erisio were originally the same person also explained why Erisio was his most loyal follower, which probably also made his betrayal even more surprising.

In the last few episodes, Erisio completely changes his strategy, first trying to take an approach that reminded me of Cyrus’ plan from Pokémon Platinum, in that he decided to get rid of everyone’s emotions, thus getting rid of love and hate entirely. When that failed thanks to Pekorin’s efforts, he tried to just destroy everything. He comes dangerously close to winning, but he ultimately gives up once the Cures manage to show him that he too has developed a heart of his own, and is capable of feeling just like other humans. Erisio allows the Cures to add his kira-kiraru to that of everyone else, and restore the world to how it was.

In the end, Erisio shows the Cures his support, before releasing Lumiere and Noir’s power and leaving for parts unknown. As mentioned before, Erisio reminded me or characters such as Kawarino and Joker, and thus, Erisio being redeemed really caught me by surprise. Usually, villains of his type, performing such cruel actions and looking down on the feelings of others quite understandably tend to be unredeemable. So, the events of the last few episodes certainly took a surprising turn.

As I’ve also mentioned in my post about Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, I liked how that show tried some new things, experimenting with new twists on the typical plot points we’ve seen in past Pretty Cure series, and I feel like Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode has done the same in many aspects, which I’ll probably go more into a little more detail about later in this post. So, I thought it was interesting to see Erisio coming to doubt himself and his master’s plans, turning against him and ultimately being redeemed. I thought this was an interesting twist on this type of villain. I think Erisio might be the best of the villains of this season, and I thought it was neat to see him take over the main villain position for Noir for the last few episodes.

I also liked how he played into the last few episodes’ sub-plot of Ichika wondering what she wanted to do in the future, as his parting words to her and the other Cures helped inspire her, eventually leading her to the conclusion that she wanted to travel the world and spread smiles to people all over.

So, yeah. I really liked the villains of this season, my favorites of the bad guys being Julio, Bibury and Erisio.

Other Characters

All right, let’s go over some of the notable recurring characters in the supporting cast.

I’ll start with Cure Lumiere. We know from the beginning that there was another Legendary Patissier Pretty Cure before Cure Whip and the others, and we eventually begin to learn more about Lumiere, the Pretty Cure that fought against Noir one-hundred years ago. Cure Lumiere’s spirit rests within a shrine that the Cures uncover halfway through the season, and she is the one who grants the Cures the crystals that become the Crystal Animals. When the Cures are pulled back into one hundred years into the past, we finally get to meet Lumiere.

Lumiere is shown to be a kind young woman who likes to make sweets for the people in the town, which also helps keep Noir and his minions at bay by generating kira-kiraru. She also fights Noir and his minions directly as Cure Lumiere. After the Cures assist her in making sweets, she gifts them her frosting pump before they return to their own time, which grants them a new power-up which allows them to save Bibury. Later on, Lumiere appears to Pekorin in a dream, and grants her the ability to turn into a human for unknown reasons. However, Pekorin later uses up the power Lumiere gave her to protect her friends, losing her ability to transform in the process.

Cure Lumiere’s spirit basically assists the Cures throughout the second half of the series, before finally manifesting near the end during the final confrontation against Noir. It is at this point that her past connection with Noir is revealed, and that she had been trying to find a way to save Noir too, but failed in the past. While pleading with the Cures to do what she could not, everyone is caught off-guard when Erisio appears and betrays Noir. Erisio proceeds to take the power of both Noir and Lumiere for himself, and carries out his new plan. After the Cures stop his schemes and get him to reconsider, he releases the cards containing Lumiere and Noir’s powers. In the final montage at the end, we see Ichika offering sweets to a young boy and girl, who appear to be Noir and Lumiere reincarnated (along with a dog that may be Diable).

I like Lumiere, and how she assists the Cures throughout the second half of the series. I also like her design, and how she seems to be a bit older than the other Cures, seeming more like a young adult rather than a teenager. And of course, she wants to protect everyone, which includes Noir, even after he made an unreasonble demand of her and become a force of evil. Even after she couldn’t do so one hundred years ago, she still had hope of saving him and even tried to assist the present day Cures in doing so. Of course, things didn’t really go as she expected, with Erisio taking both Noir and her power and becoming the new main villain and all. In the end, though, I hope she and the reborn Noir were able to become friends and finally find happiness. I also do wonder if Pekorin becoming a Cure was her plan all along when she first granted a portion of her power to her to let her become human, since I don’t think it was ever explained why she did that, other than it being one of her contributions to supporting the Cures, I guess.

Next, I think I’ll talk about Ichika’s parents. Ichika’s dad, Genichirou, runs a martial arts dojo, and tries his best to support his daughter, even if he goes a bit overboard at times or messes up. He plays a prominent role in episode 11, where he shows up at the Sweets Festival despite Ichika not wanting to go with him, and is proud when he learns that Ichika and her friends were setting up their own stand at the festival. Throughout the episode, however, Ichika seems mostly annoyed with his antics, and he gradually seems to realize that his little girl is starting to grow up. Even if she won’t spend the festival with him like she did when she was younger, Genichirou decides to at least try to make the best of the situation and buy her something she’ll like at one of the stands.

When Gummy and the other evil fairies show up, Genichirou actually tries to join in on the fight, even managing to knock back one of the fairies with his martial arts skill. When the fairies eventually fuse together and get the better of him, he explains to Cure Whip, not knowing she’s Ichika, why he wanted to protect the cake he’d bought. He acknowledges that it’s difficult for him to not get involved with what Ichika was doing, but at the very least, he figured he’d buy a shortcake that she could share with her friends later. Touched by her father’s words and remembering the times they had spent together at the festival in previous years, Cure Whip apologizes for earlier, before she and the Cures manage to get their first major power-up, the Candy Rod, from the gathered kira-kiraru from the guests of the festival, which includes most of the people they had helped in previous episodes. After Ichika’s father regains consciousness after things have calmed down, Ichika offers him a slice of the fruit tart she and her friends had made to sell at the festival as a way of apologizing.

Throughout the rest of the series, Genichirou continues to be a supportive father to Ichika, showing that he is pretty perceptive when it comes to her feelings, at least most of the time. I really like him, and his relationship with his family.

Next up, I’ll talk about Ichika’s mother, Satomi, who is essentially a major factor of sorts in how the story gets started. Satomi is a travelling doctor, who helps people around the world, and therefore, is away from her family most of the time. In the first episode, she was supposed to return home for a visit, and thus Ichika wanted to bake her a strawberry shortcake. After several failed attempts, Ichika eventually managed to bake the cake thanks to some advice from Pekorin, only to learn that something had come up, and her mother would have to delay her visit, much to Ichika’s disappointment. Well, I already mentioned at the beginning of this post how this led to Ichika becoming Cure Whip, so moving right along...

Throughout the series, we see that Ichika and her mother, while far apart, have a close relationship, and stay in touch. Satomi on one occassion also sends Ichika a box of sweets as a present, and Ichika in return bakes cookies to send to her. We finally get to see Satomi in person when she finally manages to make an unannounced visit, surprising Ichika. Throughout the episode, Ichika is seen dealing with some mixed feelings, due to not having seen her mother in a while, and knowing she’ll have to head back out again soon. Satomi seems to notice that Ichika is hiding something, but can’t quite figure out how to talk to her about it.

It is only after Ichika once again fails to bake that cake she had wanted to bake for her mother in the first episode, that Ichika finally confronts her feelings on the matter, and has a talk with her mother. The two manage to talk things out, and Ichika finally manages to bake the cake, giving it to her mother to take with her when a monster attacks town just as she and her father are following her mother to the airport. We also see in flashbacks that Ichika gave her blessing for her mother to travel the world as a doctor, back when she was first given the offer of taking on such a job. In a conversation with Akira in a later episode, we also see how Ichika admires her mother when Akira brings up her work.

Satomi later returns again near the end to visit Ichika for her birthday. However, Noir ends up crashing the party, and things escalate from there. After Erisio has been defeated and the world restored to normal, the Cures are finally able to return to the KiraPati and continue celebrating Ichika’s birthday. In the end, Ichika’s decision to travel the world herself is also partially inspired by her mother, seeing how her mother spreads smiles wherever she goes, and realizing she wants to do the same with her own skills.

All in all, I like Satomi, and the relationship between her and Ichika. While it is clear that Satomi wishes she could spend more time with her daughter and husband, she knows that they support her and the job she does. And we do see how much Ichika admires her mother’s work despite missing spending time with her, and how Satomi in many ways has had a major influence on Ichika’s worldview.

Next up, I’ll talk about Akira’s younger sister, Miku. The first things we learn about her in Akira’s introduction episode is that Miku spends most of her time in the hospital due to some sort of health problem, and Akira often brings her chocolate in order to cheer her up. When we are first introduced to Miku, we find that whenever she’s in good enough condition to leave the hospital, she’s quite energetic and eager to help out her big sister, and she ends up getting along well with Ichika and the others as well. Of course, in the episodes focusing on her, Miku tends to end up targetted by the villains in some way, with Erisio in particular trying to use her to get to Akira on two separate occasions. Of course, Akira/Cure Chocolat always manages to come to Miku’s rescue, and won’t let the bad guys get away with harming her sister.

When Akira eventually decides to become a medical researcher, Miku worries that Akira is only doing it because of her, and not because it’s what Akira truly wants. Erisio takes advantage of and manipulates these worries, letting him capture Miku and fuse her consciousness with a snowman-based monster. Akira eventually manages to reassure Miku, letting her know that she is certain that studying medicine is the path she wants to pursue.

I really like Miku, and the relationship between her and Akira. The two sisters really care about each other, and want the best for the other. Plus, Miku is just plain adorable. I hope that at some point after the events of the show, that a cure was found for whatever that illness she had was.

Next, I’ll talk about the Tategami family’s butler, Mizushima. He is introduced as a well-meaning butler who has Aoi’s best interests in mind and wants her to become a proper lady due to his loyalty to the Tategami family for taking him in as he had no family of his own. He initially tries to get Aoi to quit her band and working at the KiraPati, much to her dismay. With the help of Ichika and the others, Aoi is eventually able to get her feelings through to Mizushima with the help of sweets and her music, and Mizushima’s kira-kiraru later helps Aoi gain the upperhand against Julio when he targets the party held at her place. After this, Mizushima and Aoi are able to reach a compromise, and Aoi is allowed to continue with her band and the KiraPati, as long as she keeps getting good grades at school.

Mizushima’s appearances in later episodes has him fully supporting Aoi and her ambitions, eventually leading to the resolution of Aoi’s character arc in episode 42, where her parents see Aoi perform for themselves, acknowledging her passion and that she should be allowed to pursue it, and suggesting that Mizushima would make a good successor of the Tategami house.

I really like Mizushima. I like how even before he comes around to giving Aoi permission to keep doing what she’s doing, he is clearly somewhat conflicted about the whole thing, but can’t bring himself to be honest about his own feelings. I also thought it was really sweet how his dedication to the Tategami family payed off, as Aoi’s parents do acknowledge him as one of them and feel he already has the qualifications to be the heir of the Tategami house while Aoi pursues her own dream.

Next up is Misaki, the vocalist of a popular rock band. Aoi happened to listen to one of her performances at one point, which is what gave Aoi her passion for music and inspired Aoi to become a singer herself. After watching Aoi and her band, Wild Azur perform, Misaki takes an interest in them. However, while interested in seeing how far Wild Azur will go, Misaki can also be brutally honest when Aoi or her bandmates are facing issues that affect their performances.

I like Misaki, and the role she plays in Aoi’s character arc. She’s more experienced when it comes to music and knows how tough it can really be, and while she believes Aoi and her band have potential, she wants to make sure that they really do have what it takes. I think her character design is really cool too.

Speaking of Aoi’s band, I guess I’ll briefly talk about the other members of Wild Azur. Kei Sonobe, founder and leader of the band, plays the electric bass guitar. Sara Asaka, playing the drums, and Ryuuta, on the electric guitar. Aoi was the newest member to join the band, when Kei recruited her as their vocalist. Aoi also helped them pick the name for their band. They often perform together on the stage in the park, and after getting Misaki’s attention after taking part in a music contest, they get a few other oppurtunities to show their skill.

In episode 42, Kei reveals that he’s planning to leave the band because he needs to focus on entrance exams, leaving the future of the band uncertain, since he also wrote most of their songs. With some encouragement from the other girls, Aoi manages to write a new song, and reassures Kei and the others that the band will be able to continue even without him. Despite Erisio trapping the other three band members in order to try to break Aoi/Cure Gelato once more, Cure Gelato manages to muster the strength to sing from her heart to break them free even after Erisio tries to silence her voice.

I like the designs of Aoi’s band mates. I kind of wish we’d gotten to know them all a little better throughout the show.

Next, I guess I’ll briefly talk about Yuu Tachibana, a sweets’ professor that Himari looks up to, being the author of a book on the science of sweets that Himari is fond of. While this character only really played a major role in one episode, with later appearances being bit roles, I feel I should still talk about him briefly due to his connection with Himari. After trying out the sweets at KiraPati and showing an interest, he leaves a note on the variations of sugar at different temperatures, which gets Himari’s attention and allows him to discover her interest in the science of sweets. After introducing himself as the writer of the book on the sweets of science, he reveals that he was looking for an assistant to help him out at a live show the next day, and gives Himari a brief quiz that she manages to answer without any problem.

After he gives Himari a flyer for the event and asks for her assistance, she is unsure if she’s up for the task, so Yuu asks her what is the most important thing when making a sponge cake. When Himari is unable to figure out what answer he’s looking for, he encourages her to accept his offer to be his assistant at the live show, suggesting she may find her answer there.

At the live show, Himari assists in trying to bake a giant sponge cake. She is initially nervous, but soon gets into it as Yuu Tachibana and his crew follow her instructions. Despite their best efforts, the cake doesn’t come out quite right, collapsing shortly after completion. However, Tachibana still considers the experiment a success, telling Himari that the most important thing is the feelings of the baker, and that Himari’s thirst for knowledge is what helped get them this far. After the Cures have their usual fight with the villains, Ichika is inspired to use the remains of the sponge cake to make something else, which Tachibana agrees to be a good idea when Himari explains it to him. The events of this episode allows Himari to gain her Crystal Animal.

So, while he only really played a major role in one episode, I really grew to quickly like this character due to how he’s so quick to take on this quirky mentor role for Himari, who shares his passion for the science of sweets. During the live show where she helps out as an assistant, she gradually gains the confidence to take charge and try to make that giant sponge cake. She even uses this newfound confidence during the battle against the villains, giving the other Cures directions on how to weaken the monster of the episode based on her knowledge. Even after this episode, we see that Himari and Tachibana stayed in touch, since his cameo in a later episode has Himari visiting him at his lab for advice on whether or not to try out for an audition for a sweets making show. It’s clear how Tachibana sees potential in Himari, and wants to help her reach that potential.

Okay, as for other notable recurring characters, I guess I feel like talking about Yukari and Akira’s fan girls, two groups of five girls who are animated slightly different than the rest of the cast due to their eyes being less detailed. These two groups of similarly acting girls who almost always speak in unison initially play an antagonistic role due to worrying about Yukari and Akira’s image if they continue to spend time with each other and at the KiraPati, until Yukari and Akira win them over with the newest sweets from the KiraPati. After this, the fan girls continue to play small roles in later episodes, usually showing up for a few gags, but also occasionally providing assistance, such as Akira’s fan girls managing to clue the girls in on why they’re having less customers recently by letting her know about the rumors Bibury had been spreading, and Yukari having her own fan girls help out in catching the person spreading said rumors.

I find these characters amusing due to how over the top some of their antics can be, and I like some of the moments in later episodes when they manage to play a small role by helping out Akira, Yukari and the others.

Finally, I suppose I’ll talk a bit about the cats and other animals around town. This might seem like an odd one, but I do feel there’s things to talk about here. One of the recurring cats is a chubby gray and white cat with a pattern that resembles three white stars on its forehead. Due to these stars, the cat, known as the 3-Star Kitty, is said to bring good luck to any store it goes near, which is why Ichika attempts to get its attention in some early episodes, one such attempt leading to her first meeting with Yukari, who has better luck taming him than Ichika does.

The cat plays a bigger role in the somewhat odd episode 34, in which Yukari, transformed into a cat after switching bodies with her Crystal Animal, discovers that there’s some sort of conflict going on between the cats and the local fairies, who normally get along well. The 3-Star Kitty is revealed to be the leader of the local cats, and quickly decides to have Yukari join the cats as their representative in the conflict with the fairies after she easily tames two of his underlings.

After Yukari pulls a gambit to try to put an end to the conflict by painting herself as the bad guy and falling off a cliff, the cats and fairies decide to stop fighting and save her and Kirarin, who had jumped down after her to try to save her and managed to grab onto a branch to keep them from falling. After the cats and fairies make up, and it is revealed that it was a fragment of Diable that caused the conflict between them, Yukari and her crystal animal manage to switch back, and the Cures fight off Diable.

The cats and the other animals later play a big role in getting things back to normal after Glaive corrupts all the humans and nearly takes away all the kira-kiraru, by helping the fairies make enough sweets to create enough kira-kiraru to free the humans from Glaive’s control, helping the Cures turn the situation around. It was the 3-Star Kitty that came up with said plan.

I like this whole friendship between the fairies and animals of the town. Aside from being a really cute world building detail, it even ends up playing an important role in a later episode when the animals help the fairies think of a plan to help the Cures, with Bibury providing a distraction so they can put said plan into motion and help the Cures out of a tough spot. I also like how this essentially turned the 3-Star Kitty into a chekhovs gunman of sorts, by having him play a small role in early episodes, before getting these bigger roles in episdoe 34 and episode 40.

I guess that’s most of the characters I wanted to talk about. While there are a few more recurring characters, such as Yukari’s grandmother and a few of the recurring classmates and KiraPati customers, I don’t really feel like I have enough to really say about these characters. At the very least, I really like the character designs, and I do enjoy seeing these recurring characters.

Overall Thoughts

I really did enjoy this series. It was fun, really colorful, had a lot of great designs and music, as the Pretty Cure series tend to have. The sweets and animals theme ended up working out pretty well, with another major theme revolving around feelings and dreams. I’ll go more into detail about that later.

I’ll admit, while I still liked the first few episodes, I was a bit worried at first that this series was going to be sort of similar to Smile Pretty Cure. Now, don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy Smile Pretty Cure a lot. But as I mentioned in my review of that series, I just prefer the series that focus more on the story and have at least some focus on other characters than the main cast, since Smile Pretty Cure barely had any notable recurring characters. The fact that there was a new evil fairy introduced each episode as the villain of the episode, as well as the developing formula of “Ichika and her friends help people by making sweets” didn’t really help these concerns. However, once episode 11 came around, all my worries were dispelled as Julio made his appearance, the characters from previous episodes made a reappearance, and the Cures got their first power-up.

After that, things got a lot more interesting, as we learned Gummy and his evil fairies were just pawns being used by one of the actual villains, in this case, Julio. The first ten episodes were just setting things up, and from there, things really started to pick up. We gradually began to learn who the real villain was, and gradually learned Julio’s story and how he ended up working for Noir, which also played into the arc of our sixth Cure, Ciel/Cure Parfait. In the second half of the show, we were also introduced to Glaive and Erisio, and got more details on the backstory and learned about Cure Lumiere. All in all, I think the story was pretty well done for the most part.

As for the action scenes, I felt most of them were done pretty well, and the attacks were pretty colorful and creative. Of course, many of the fight scenes do end up feeling like they’re missing something, due to this particular show’s lack of hand-to-hand combat, which is one of the things the Pretty Cure franchise is known for. Still, I feel they still managed to pull off some nice action scenes, even if they had to cut down on the hand-to-hand combat for this particular entry.

I feel the character development was handled pretty well too. Each girl has their own character arc of sorts, and we see how each of them grow throughout the show, culiminating in each of them figuring out what they want to do in the future. Like with Go! Princess Pretty Cure and Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, we even get a brief look into what the girls are up to a few years later, which is also a nice touch. During the first half of the series, however, I felt that the show didn’t really focus enough on the relationships between the Cures aside from Ichika/anyone and Yukari/Akira, but this got a little better in the second half, particularly with a few episodes focusing on different combinations of Cures who we hadn’t seen interact one-on-one all that much.

One of the things I enjoyed about Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure was how it experimented with the usual Pretty Cure formula, and tried to do some new things with it. This series continues that trend to some extent, which is something I appreciate. One particular thing I liked is how each of the major villains in this show had their own unique ability and method of creating the monsters the Cures fight. As I mentioned earlier, I was also caught off-guard by the fact that Erisio was redeemed in the end, since villains I find very similar to him, such as Kawarino and Joker, never saw the error of their ways, the former meeting his end at the hands of one of the other villains he betrayed earlier, while the latter allowed himself to be absorbed into the main villain just before the final battle. Erisio however eventually ended up becoming disillusioned with the whole battle against love and hate, which ultimately made it possible for the Cures to reason with him. Also, a smaller thing, but another interesting detail is that unlike most, but not all, previous series, there isn’t really a second world involved that the Cures must save along with their own. The fairies sort of just live on Strawberry Mountain too and like to make sweets. Maybe it’s because Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure prominently featured two different worlds that the Cures kept travelling between and had to protect, so they felt like doing something a little different with the next series to mix things up?

I like how each of the Cures had some special abilities related to the animals they’re themed after, with Cure Whip being able to jump higher and having enhanced hearing, Cure Custard being a fast runner, Cure Gelato’s roaring attack, Cure Macaron’s scratching attack, Cure Chocolat’s enhanced sense of smell and Cure Parfait’s ability to fly. However, I do feel as if some of these skills weren’t really used all that much. Some use their skill more than others, which does make some sense since some skills would be more useful than others, but still, I feel they probably could’ve done a little more with them. Another minor plot point that they probably could’ve done something more with is the kira-kiraru pot in the KiraPati, which gathers up the kira-kiraru generated by the sweets the Cures make, and is mainly used to create decorations for the KiraPati. Chourou at one point mentions that the kira-kiraru stored in it can be shaped into dreams, but aside from the making decorations thing, this is never really brought up again.

Anyways, I feel like the biggest theme of this show is ones feelings and dreams, in this case often shown in the form of kira-kiraru, the colorful sparkles seen within people’s hearts and the sweets filled with the feelings of those who made them. Noir’s main method of recruiting his minions was to target them when emotionally vulernable and manipulating them, with Erisio using similar methods to try to break down the Cures. Erisio’s final plan is to try to eliminate everyone’s emotions, particularly love and hate, entirely so that the conflict between the two sides can be ended once for all.

Ones emotions and dreams are common themes throughout the various series of the Pretty Cure franchise, and I feel this one also manages to make it work really well and does some interesting things with it. One of Ichika’s/Cure Whip’s greatest strengths is her sense of empathy, which is especially shown when she is able to reach Julio and free him from Noir’s corruption. While the series is light-hearted for the most part, there can still be some surprisingly dark moments, particularly when Noir or Erisio is involved. It is kind of similar in tone to Smile Pretty Cure in that regard, I guess.

Interestingly, I don’t actually see too many paralells between this show, and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Smile Pretty Cure that came before it. I mean, all three shows have the same (initial) number of Cures one particular villain whose main strategy is to psychologically corner the girls, fairies that can turn into humans, and a female fairy eventually gains a human form that can fight alongside the Cures at some point, but aside from that, this show is actually pretty different from those two previous shows.

I also thought giving each girl a familiar of sorts in the form of the Crystal Animals was a nice touch. I mean, we already have the fairies, but this was something a little different. I also like how the cute little animals take on bigger forms that the Cures can ride on when doing the Animal Go Round and Fantastic Animale attacks. I also like the upgrades the Cures get to their uniforms when using the latter attack, making them look fancier while still looking kind of goofy.

I don’t know if I made a joke about it already, but part of me wondered if the creators were inspired from seeing Cure Miracle and Cure Magical in their goofy candy-themed Topaz transformations, and liked it so much that they decided to go with a similar style for the Cures of this series. Still, the show makes it work really well, and the outfits are certainly creative and manage to look cool despite the somewhat goofy elements.

As I mentioned earlier, I found Noir’s backstory and history with Lumiere... Well, it could’ve been done better. However, Erisio turning out to have once been the human body that Noir discarded when he became a force of evil was an interesting twist, which made it even more surprising when he ultimately betrayed Noir and took his power. Erisio proceeded to create a world without love or hate, and tried to get people to discard everything they were once passionate about in order to prevent those feelings from returning. The only thing that can stop him is Pekorin, who along with Chourou was saved by Cure Whip’s quick thinking. Eventually, Pekorin is able to become Cure Pekorin, and restore the other girls’ memories, allowing them to reclaim the items they had discarded containing their feelings, and transform once more.

From there, the townspeople gradually begin to regain their memories and feelings, eventually driving Erisio to resort to sealing everything inside his own body and wait for it all to fade away. The Cures are left not knowing what to do, but Chourou lets them know that not all is lost yet, and he’s willing to lend them his kira-kiraru to help them out. Julio, Bibury, and eventually the rest of the townspeople offer up their kira-kiraru as well, but it is still not enough. In the end, the Cures are only able to break free and return everything to how it was after reasoning with Erisio and helping him realize he has feelings too.

The Cures return to their now restored world, Erisio releases Lumiere and Noir’s powers, and the Cures return to the KiraPati to continue celebrating Ichika’s birthday. In the final episode, Ichika looks over pictures of different places her mother has been to while working, admiring her and thinking back to Erisio’s parting words to her, about creating a world where everyone is truly connected.

We cut to a year later, to everyone’s last day working at the KiraPati. We get to see how each girl has made progress in pursuing their dreams during the time skip, with Himari starting to become known for her sweets science, Aoi’s band having become more popular, Yukari having been travelling abroad, Akira having gotten into medical school and Ciel having been making sweets alongside Rio.

Pekorin feels it is going to get lonely with everyone going their separate ways, but Ichika assures her that she’ll be staying. Just like with the last episode of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, we get a surprise appearance from the next pink lead Cure, as Hana Nono stops by the KiraPati, bringing along Hugtan. Ichika and her friends make something for Hugtan, and Ichika adds a photo of the two to a wall she’s made showing the happy smiles of their customers. When the Crystal Animals find a bunch of hidden travel brochures, Ichika is forced to admit that part of her had thought about travelling the world to spread smiles, like her mother.

However, due to her concern for Pekorin and Strawberry Hill, Ichika can’t bring herself to leave. As Chourou’s missing body suddenly goes berserk from having been separated from its spirit for so long, the Cures must fight it to calm it down. During the fight, Cure Pekorin and the fairies come together to help fight it, with Cure Pekorin having realized that Ichika/Cure Whip has a dream she wants to pursue too, and wanting to assure her that she’ll be able to stay and protect the town, and that Ichika/Cure Whip doesn’t have to hold back for her sake.

When Chourou’s body traps the fairies in his umbrella, Cure Yell ends up joining the fight, actually kicking his body in order to release the fairies, before cheering on the other Cures as they help calm down Chourou’s body so his spirit can reunite with it at last. After everything that has happened, Ichika feels renewed energy and decides to travel afterwards, with Chourou suggesting she take the KiraPati with her since he’s no longer bound to it.

Like with Go! Princess Pretty Cure and Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, we get a final look at what everyone is up to a few years into the future. I feel this final episode neatly wraps up the remaining loose ends, such as Ichika finally finding her dream, Chourou finally reuniting with his body and what became of Lumiere and Noir after their power was released by Erisio. It is really sweet to see Pekorin realizing what Ichika is willing to sacrifice so she won’t be alone, and deciding to overcome her worries of being left behind so Ichika can pursue her dreams without regret.

I think another interesting thing about the last few episodes is that the Cures didn’t really get any new power-ups besides what they already had, although they do get a seventh Cure in the form of Cure Pekorin, who while not as strong or experienced as the main six, still manages to help out during the final confrontation with Erisio and help restore the world to normal. I also like how the concept of kira-kiraru, which is the source of the Cures’ power and something that exists in everyone’s hearts, make it easy for the townspeople to help out the Cures and gain new power throughout the series. The Cures gain both the Candy Rod and the Sweets’ Castle that way, and of course, all the people they’ve helped throughout the series also pitch in during episode 48 to give the Cures the kira-kiraru they need to restore the world. Really shows how much the townspeople appreciate the Cures and all they’ve done.

So, yeah. This series does have some flaws, but I still think it’s pretty good. I feel like the fact that it has such a light-hearted tone for the most part also allows for the current series, Hugtto Pretty Cure, to tell a bit of a darker story. I’ve certainly been enjoying Hugtto Pretty Cure so far, and next year, after it concludes, I’ll look forward to doing a post with my thoughts on it! Of course, that means it’ll be a while until my next one, although I suppose I might do some posts on a few of the Pretty Cure movies in the time in-between. We’ll see! :)

#darkershining's thoughts on pretty cure #pretty cure #kira kira precure a la mode #long post

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adriennegad2fmp · 4 years ago

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Finding the Theme

+Between The Lines: Between the lines is a phrase that is usually referred to when reading, to read between the lines means to understand the implicit meaning in a written communication, a spoken communication or a situation. The implicit meaning is the meaning which is not directly expressed. The idiom read between the lines is most probably derived from a cryptography practice where the true meaning of a communication was contained in between the lines written in a letter. See also, or to infer something, to try to understand what is meant by something that is not written explicitly or openly. After listening to what they said, if you read between the lines, you can begin to see what they really means. This expression derives from a simple form of cryptography, in which a hidden meaning was conveyed by secreting it between lines of text. When making an inference, you are using background and observation to reach a logical conclusion. In literature, we use inference to find an intended meaning and what we think the author is trying to teach us. We have often been told that the left hemisphere of the brain is the analytic, mathematical, logical, which is in charge of reasoning. we are picking apart the writing and gathering evidence to create an idea and invert one and this is reading between the lines quite clearly using are left hemisphere of the brain, the right hemisphere of the brain is primarily used for emotion and creative ide as therefore it's fairly obvious that to read between the lines this is not the part of the brain that would be necessary. The corpus callosum allows the two hemispheres to communicate with each other and allows for information being processed on one side of the brain to be shared with the other side. Normally, we are not aware of the different roles that our two hemispheres play in day-to-day functions, hidden information but vital to something to read between the lines or to infer is a natural ability of all of humanity that are trained into nowadays as a lot of language used and it's almost a defensive mechanism today to infer and understand what people mean it also can create better communication and conversation between two characters creating a more informed and intelligent character. Looking into some imagery on the phrase between the lines there is a lot of typography Sharon as imagery to represent this idea.

After looking at a few pieces of typography I began to think what lines actually can mean what they can represent what they can produce and I have seen several pieces aware that someone has created different objects out of lines and how they can bend and represent something else, I then began a search for more imagery but focusing more on objects and less typography because I know no I'm typography is something that I'm not particularly interested in I believe it's just a little too easy and and not my style of art. Let's be honest with a theme of between the lines it is going to refer to a lot of reading and a lot of typography however I believe I may have found a new style that can involve the theme of read between the lines and completely sore out of the idea of typography. this type of line work I feel is very mysterious and creates a lot of movement and bounce almost the lines acting like strings that act as if it's almost a net sheeting a figure of some sort with itself creating each bounce each vibration and each movement that they have within themselves, advising it bizarre how the plane lines can create such movement and texture and life within.

Generating a few more ideas I have looked into synonyms and what other ideas are generated from the phrase between lines it was quite interesting how the same word but put differently can infuse the brain and generate more ideas, it also has engaged me more into the idea of using the theme between the lines because giving me a deeper understanding each word that has been produced into the mind map below.

Surface: A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is the portion with which other materials first interact. The concept of surface has been abstracted and formalized in mathematics, specifically in geometry. Depending on the properties on which the emphasis is given, there are several non equivalent such formalizations, that are all called surface, sometimes with some qualifier, such as algebraic surface, smooth surface or fractal surface. The idea of the surface area interacts with our senses communicating with mostly touch and view. It is a continuous set of points that has length and breadth but no thickness. As a verb it can be used as to rise or come up to the surface of the water or the ground or maybe come to people's attention; become apparent. Surface area impact is the reaction rate of surface area reactants, transforming these into powder. This can result in dangerous combustible powders, such as custard powder. If you think about the surface area of the earth it is horrific sometimes the impact that it can have on us the pure and shear power that it can produce which is devastating and completely overthrowing of the whole human race, impact that can be made by simple surface areas combining other elements of science, for example 65 million years ago the gigantic lizards roamed the earth named dinosaurs and the whole kingdom of this species was completely wiped out by the impact of a meteorite plummeting towards the surface of the earth the impact of the surface of the meteorite on surface of the earth completely wiped out the dinosaurs completely in a giganotosaurus events caused by this single one devastating completely changing it. This is simply one example of how surface areas colliding can completely rotate the tables and change time. If you think about the surface areas of other things I often believe that the surface area is almost like a lie,if you take fruits and berries for example in Britain there are red berries which are in edible and poisonous however they look like any other Barry that we may be able to eat creating a false sense of security and and wearing the mind in. More than likely the surface area doesn't usually matter it is what is beyond the surface area that truly matters, this is a bit of a cheesy quote but it is what is inside that counts, this quote is usually referred to when talking about humans and their personality instead of their looks. However there are many quotes that I like this for example don't judge a book by its cover I wish you could take literally for the surface area of a book has a front cover and if you don't think you'll like it why you still may like literature that is written inside however many take it to be very genuine and free with what it could mean it is a metaphor and and could refer to anything. Surface areas usually have a reason though for example defense. Another example is the armadillo his surface area and his back is as hard as rock he has no no nerve cells in it and therefore we can't feel any pain in it, at least that is on the outside of it however once you get beyond that of course like every other animal he has flesh skin and blood, his hardback outer shell even protect him from predators.

This is some imagery that I have managed to collect that represents and reminds me of of the idea of surface, the doors in particularly represents a different view of things, restore the white this door represents arrive of sunshine and light inside however it is only the entrance of a room the outside and the crust of what the room can hold. I think the door is a great example of a a idea of surface. However looking into the idea of paint and covering something creating a different image then got me thinking about the idea of makeup. The wild of makeup as vastly grown, Special effects make-up is the term used for the team who are applying the pre-made prosthetics or smaller on-skin effects. This type of make-up can include creating the appearance of things like wounds, scars and wrinkles for ageing effects applied directly onto the skin. Applying this to one face create a new image and therefore a new appearance leading to a new surface area leaves us some examples of imagery that I've been able to collect that show the complete change.

Generating a few more ideas I have looked into synonyms and what other ideas are generated from surface it was quite interesting how the same word but put differently can infuse the brain and generate more ideas, it also has engaged me more into the idea of using the theme surface because giving me a deeper understanding each word that has been produced into the mind map below. And the inspiration that I have been given a by the imagery above is quite unique to its qualities.

Repetition is the simple repeating of a word, within a short space of words this can be including a poem, with no particular placement of the words to secure emphasis. The action of repeating something that has already been said or written or perhaps the recurrence of an action or event can create such a strong sense of exorcism because it's not only clarifying an idea but then reinstating it back into the mind only seconds later so it's strong in their memory. A thing repeated, that's all it is. Used as used in literature for the ideal purpose of emphasism creating a clearer idea of the power of the word and engaging the audience and reader even more creating at the word to be more memorable and therefore may be creating the character to be. There are several types of repetition commonly used in both prose and poetry. As a rhetorical device, it could be a word, a phrase, or a full sentence, or a poetical line repeated to emphasize its significance in the entire text. Repetition is not distinguished solely as a figure of speech, but more as a rhetorical device. It is a multilinguistic written or spoken device, frequently used in English and several other languages, such as Hindi and Chinese, and so rarely termed a figure of speech. In rhetoric, antimetabole is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order It is related to, and sometimes considered a special case of, chiasmus. The tautology Superfluous repetition of the same sense in different words then there is Atanaclasis is the repetition of a word or phrase to effect a different meaning. Conduplicatio is the repetition of a word in various places throughout a paragraph. Mesodiplosis is the repetition of a word or phrase at the middle of every clause. There are at least 13 different types of repetition in the literature world I've only named a few. However it is not in literature turns up there is only repetition unfortunately people with a stutter tend to use a lot of repetition. also called stammering or childhood-onset fluency disorder is a speech disorder that involves frequent and significant problems with normal fluency and flow of speech. People who stutter know what they want to say, but have difficulty saying it. For example, they may repeat or prolong a word, a syllable, or a consonant or vowel sound. I find this speech disorder really hits me hard and because it is completely unfortunate that a lot of people market and that someone who can speak has such difficulty actually communicating. Communication is the human world and we all need it. has someone to not be able to get their words out and communicate is almost a strength of being trapped inside yourself. Possible causes of developmental stuttering include abnormalities in speech motor control. Some evidence indicates that abnormalities in speech motor control, such as timing, sensory and motor coordination, may be involved. Stuttering tends to run in families. It appears that stuttering can result from inherited (genetic) abnormalities.

If I am perfectly honest in none of the imagery that I found I was particularly impressed or affected by any of the artwork I found that in photography it was slightly more impressive however still incredibly predictable, predictable is something that I do not want to be. However it was interesting to find that the work Andy Warhol came into this category and I suppose he would with his designs that he would explore the same the way that the use the idea of the mirror to create an ongoing repetition of one another. The idea of the same idea being repeated again and again and nothing new is just too boring and gave me no inspiration. Maybe like if I looked into typography like I did with the the phrase between the lines I would have more of a variety of imagery however like I have mentioned previously typography is not an area that I'm particularly interested in.

Generating a few more ideas I have looked into synonyms and what other ideas are generated from Repetition it was quite interesting how the same word but put differently can infuse the brain and generate more ideas, it also has engaged me more into the idea of using the theme Repetition because giving me a deeper understanding each word that has been produced into the mind map below.

Historical source/ reference from 1920s: Historical source also known as historical material or historical data, is original source that contain important historical information. These sources are something that inform us about history at the most basic level, and these sources used as clues in order to study history. To discover factual information about the historical world there is a detailed investigation where historians collect information from primary research and secondary. Primary sources of history include newspapers, books, and letters from the time period being studied as well as artifacts like artwork and tools, and generally help create the secondary sources. Secondary sources were created by someone who did not experience firsthand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. Historians use primary sources as the raw evidence to analyze and interpret the past. They publish secondary sources-often scholarly articles or books-that explain their interpretation. When you write a historical research paper, you are creating a secondary source based on your own analysis of primary source material. Secondary sources were created by someone who did not experience firsthand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. going back historical as definition means of or concerning history or past events, belonging to the past or based on an analysis of its development over a period. Sources defined as a place, person, or thing from which something originates or can be obtained, a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. The opposite of sink. And then looking into the 1920s, The Roaring Twenties refers to the decade of the 1920s in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe, particularly in major cities such as Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, and Sydney. The decade beginning with 1920 in the United States is commonly referred to as the Roaring Twenties because it was a time of extreme and often excessive celebration and advancement. However, the 1920s was much more than that. It was the decade that bought dramatic social and political change, flare and freedom to women, and advances in science and technology. Here are some key events that defined the Roaring Twenties. The Roaring Twenties kicked off with two significant amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 10 World-Shaping Events That Happened in 1920, The League of Nations was established. In an address to Congress in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson presented what he called the “Fourteen … And then America had a de-facto woman president. Jazz is a perfect way to describe the carefree vibe of the 20s. One of the best musical fun facts about the 20s is that this decade was also known as the “Age of Jazz.” The pioneer of the new style of music was Louis Armstrong. Jazz became the music of choice in the popular (but illegal – the 1920s was also the Age of Prohibition) speakeasies of the day. Hence, the older generation saw the Jazz genre as a representation of the sinful decadence of the Twenties. Thankfully, that misrepresentation has since been forgotten and Jazz is now considered to be one of America’s most monumental cultural achievements. 1920s fact we can all be proud of is that the decade saw significant improvements in women’s rights. This was the decade when the 19th Amendment was ratified, officially giving American women the right to vote. This coincided with an increasing sense of independence among women in the country, many of whom held jobs and were much more daring in their fashion sense.

This appears to be a very bright and colourful time for racing colours cascading in a college and erupting from center. Looking at different types of imagery that have been produced from the 1920s I find that there is a lot of gold and and warm fluorescent yellow that a bounce out and and claim the audiences eye. In this first collage of imagery that I've created there is a portrait of a woman. I've seen several of these throughout my own lifetime and then began to look deeper into that idea of portraits. During this time the portraits of mainly of women in their prerogative jazzy clothing that conquered the idea of the time. If you look below there are some more portraitsall dressed rather similarly however the biggest similarity is each and every one of them has red lipstick on, a true indication that they are definitely or from the same era.

Generating a few more ideas I have looked into synonyms and what other ideas are generated from Historical source/ reference from 1920s it was quite interesting how the same word but put differently can infuse the brain and generate more ideas, it also has engaged me more into the idea of using the theme Historical source/ reference from 1920s because giving me a deeper understanding each word that has been produced into the mind map below. And the inspiration that I have been given a by the imagery above is quite unique to its qualities.

Daily reflection:

Today I once again continue researching at my 10 concept ideas and completed all 10 of my words. I also was able to complete my first study group session discussing all 10 of my words and concepts that I want to further engage and has completely helped me with some ideas to further refine my research. From this study group I've discovered out of the words that I have chosen today that I would like to look into to the idea of historical source/reference from the 1920s because I could look into for example the acceptance of black music. This is such a broad subject and and it would be nice to further look into it and see what other pieces of imagery in inspiration I can gain from it. I also believe I'm going to use the word surface and further develop my research on this word because I feel that I could developed quite a bit more inspiration from this idea it also relates to what I have included in my study group about the idea of my interior and exterior inspiration it's quite strong and I can still gain some inspiration from those ideas.

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