CARRY ON, WAYWARD SHUT

Go!Princess Precure - Episode 46

My Own Review:

CARRY ON, WAYWARD SHUT



NEW YEAR'S EVE IS CLEANING TIME

FALLEN FROM GRACE

TOWA'S FIRST WHITE WINTER

DO YOU WANNA BUILD A KINGDOM?

A WILD RANKO APPEARS!

The Return of Mr. Brave Doughnut!

SHUT, AWE-STRUCK

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T MENTION THE HOPE KINGDOM

Peering from the mirror...
No, that isn’t me!
A stranger getting nearer...
Who can this person be?

AND WINTER HOLIDAYS ARRIVE... (Music: Last Christmas, by Wham)

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:

On the Hope Kingdom snow castle: a nice metaphor to say that the beauty of the HK comes from the power of its people, like the teamwork of all of those students. A metaphor that also foreshadows the restoration of the realm in the finale and vertebrates this episode rather nicely. Towa's idea, and everyone else along with her bringing it to reality... a great scene, wasn't it? Gondor calls for aid... and everyone joins in.

On Ranko's appearance in this episode: Like Shut, RANKO IS ONE OF THOSE CHARACTERS SO DRAMATIC THAT I JUST MUST LUV'EM, BEING AN ATTENTION WHORE MYSELF. JUST LOOK AT WHOM ELSE IS WEARING A RED BUNNY COSTUME FOR WINTER CLOTHING. I ADORE THE FACT THAT WE ARE NOW GETTING MORE AND MORE OF RANKO, AND HOPE IT WILL BE SO IN THE FINALE AS WELL. 

On Seira's winter attire: Sharp indeed. You know this is my third fave female chara after Towa and Ranko, or maybe sharing the second place with Ranko. And that trenchcoat and scarf give her the air of a WW1 military man. Compare to both Minami and Ayaka with their more feminine looks, and Seira's will perchance be your fave's as well (I respect your opinions). But RANKO shares first place with Seira, IMOHO.

On the Kaidos' winter break: So they went to Antarctica (instead of Paris, or Vienna, or Dresden)... the last place they would go at the start of the series: apparently their daughter won them over and they spent the holidays caring for the various species of penguins and for the ozone layer, and hopefully seeing Asuka. Oh, and living in perpetual daylight, for there is no night there during the winter (which is summer south of the Equator), all holidays long.

On Kirara's winter break: Ken dropped by! How emotive and how significant this is... being an only child of divorced parents myself, I never had a Christmas for three since I was two years old, and my memories of it are rather hazy... Luckily, Twelfth Night is a holiday in Spain as well, so I usually spend Christmas with dad and Twelfth Night with mum... for my parents are not as close to one another as Ken and Stella (sobs). Lucky bitch, Kirara!!

On the Hope siblings' winter break: Playing a duet with their old guardian standing by... the fireplace gives it a rather cozy athmosphere which makes me feel even far warmer than the Kaidos' or Kirara's celebrations... They seem to have forgotten the loss of their parents, and even the pet-servants are eager to join their celebration.

On Towa's sense of snow: Like me during my Spanish childhood until I first went to Sweden for Christmas at 7, Towa has never had a white winter before. Looks like the climate of the Hope Kingdom is Mediterranean, with generally fair weather and rains for precipitations, as well.

On Shut in this great episode: After falling from grace following his last defeat, Shut becomes an empty shell, a wanderer without a purpose in life, crushed by all of his failures past... until he sees the HK royal castle our friends have made from snow and subsequently hits Towa's berserk button, reminding her of what has been wrested from her. (Remember Mr. Fawlty? "Don't mention the war.") An EPIC battle, just like every Shut vs. Scarlet battle so far (scrap Oberyn vs. Clegane: these combatants are better).

Cure Mermaid really hurt his feelings by showing him his furious face in that ice mirror. There's this little lovely fable/parable, my favourite by the way, in which a little girl is showed her reflection, while she's having a temper tantrum, by her mother. And the child is shocked by what she sees: hideous, red-eyed, frowning... Shut is a "sensitive guy" and en elegant aristocrat (or should we say aristocat), so that utterly crushed him.

In the end, having been expelled from the ranks of the Dysdarks, he can only trust himself, and his own image is also shattering: Andersen said, in The Philosopher's Stone, that when someone gives up on the world and on oneself, it's all over for that person. Seriously, Precures, show some sympathy for Shut: get him a nice warm cup of mulled wine laced with strychnine.

Then it's the fact that he blames Cure Scarlet for all of the misfortunes that heap upon him, like "You turned coat, you betrayed me, and everyone else treated me like a doormat, and then I've been cast out and have nothing to do: all because of your coat turn!" Way to ruin a relationship, Shut: you've really crowned yourself. 

Shut looks even better and more adorably feminine with his hair down: like the child Thranduil and Cersei Lannister could have had... <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

And unconscious, he is even better-looking and inspires more sympathy, looking so helpless and dejected.

And the end of it all was that, even when she smiled at him and reached a helping hand, telling Shut they could change together, he knocked that helping hand away and turned his back on her, Towa/Scarlet having now ostensibly become his evil counterpart and sworn enemy. That is his karma in a nutshell. Now Shut is completely shattered within. Like what happened to, for instance, Littlefinger or Scrooge, he has seen the light of his life get away... What may happen next?

Oh, no!!! My heart is breaking </3 !!!

So, is this the end of Shutowa/Shutlet and a premonition of Shutmour? Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in a pot nine days old. Some like Lannincest, some like Jaimienne (I'm one of the latter). This writer ships Shut and Towa/Scarlet as fiercely as she ships Jaime and Brienne: Cersei and Madame Shamour must die for the ships. But Shutowa is teetering on the brink of shipwreck, as the enemy counterattacks, after such a painful fall-out-of-love, with an unexpected act of kindness. Shut, still a deranged and aloof Byronic hero (and I love Byronic heroes, by the way), exit stage left wearing Madame's scarf around his pale, slender neck. (Music: An Officer and a Gentleman theme). Actually, Shut being an HK cat possessed by some evil spirit surprised me: he would have been Shamour's fiancé before the spirit of Shut took over from within?! (just a conjecture) "Shut" itself sounds like "chat" and like the first syllable of "Shamour"... Purrfect harmony? Is Towa the villainess of the piece!? Naval warfare is getting tense on this front, and we will have to wait to see until the finale to find out whom our favourite Dysdark will hook up with. Until then... Shutowa shippers, make your bets! Will the outcast mad hatter and the fire princess make amends sooner or later?

IN THE NEXT EPISODE (47)...

The Precures fall into a lotus-eater honey trap devised by Close. Will Shut be able to free them?

And furthermore, there are four episodes left until the finale... (GoT theme song playing in the background)

.....................................................................................................................easter egg of the episode for today:

Who would I have running Westeros? The Student Council of Noble Academy!

Queen: Minami Kaido

Hand: Seira Azuma

Master of Coin: Ayaka Nishimine

Master of (Relation-)Ships: Shun Imagawa

Master of Laws: Naoto Koshiba