IN WHICH LORD DARKNEST STEALS CHRISTMAS

Star*Twinkle Pretty Cure

Episode 44 - My Own Review

IN WHICH LORD DARKNEST STEALS CHRISTMAS


Christmas is approaching, and as such Star ☆ Twinkle is giving us a festive episode. The Cures are not alone in enjoying the wintry cheer, as a couple of new unexpected guests show up. One of them isn’t exactly getting into the festive spirit, though.

Lala and Yuni get to experience Christmas for the first time in forever

Christmas is upon us in this episode of Star ☆ Twinkle, which ends up with the Cures discovering the one responsible for delivering presents is an alien Jack Frost/Elvis impersonator. Thus the others end up helping to deliver presents, but an attack from the enemy threatens to cancel Christmas.

A Santanian

Whilst there is some nice stuff coming from PreCures delivering presents (as they do every continuity because the giftgiver --always Saint Nick, never the Seven Gods on a Boat of traditional Shinto lore!-- suffers an occupational hazard), I’d say that the main draw of this episode is something that comes up a little later on. Before getting to that, there are a few moments worth mentioning.

Christmas Cures

Of course, delivering presents means that the others have to dress up for the occasion. Hikaru’s twin Santa hat thing is interesting. For the most part, the present delivery goes unhindered – though there is a child or two or three who now believe that Santa Claus is a catgirl. That would be an improvement over the jolly old fat bloke, if you ask me. And to top it all, we musical and classic literature nerds are intending to watch Cats on silver screen as the icing on the Christmas cake!! Yuni would DEFINITELY also sign in on that plan...

Another Elena x Madoka moment (YEAH 4 MORE SOLUNA!!)

We get a nice little nod to Elena’s development over the past few episodes. Seems that she and Madoka could end up following similar paths; hopefully they’ll do so together.

Darknest attacks

The main event from this episode has to be Darknest actually fighting the Cures (another thing that happens every winterval in every continuity has to be the overlord finally getting off his throne!). He is after Fuwa, of course, but it does look a lot like he is just asking for a hug the way he reaches out…

PreCures vs. Darknest

For the first time in Star ☆ Twinkle, the main antagonist steps up to battle PreCures (ut supra, another thing that happens every winterval in every continuity has to be the overlord finally getting off his throne!). Got to give props to Cure Soleil for leading the attack on Darknest, even if it doesn’t go quite as she hoped.

Cure Star vs. Darknest

The fight against Darknest is pretty enjoyable, and the first part even foregoes the usual stock footage attacks. Not so much for the second part, though, where everyone gets to use one of their stock footage attacks, followed by the usual finishing move.
There is a surprise at the end of the battle, but all I say is that this particular fight is most likely a hint of things to come.

So the Christmas plot was your pretty typical PrettyCure festive episode, but things certainly took a turn for the interesting with Darknest just showing up. That resulted in an enjoyable battle.
So, overall, a good Christmas episode.

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:

Ladies and gentlemen and adolescents of every gender and larvae of all stages of the jury, exhibit A. Lord Darknest wears a cowl themed after a cobra hood. As well as a pretty reptilian design on his belly, and fangs framing his overshadowed face.

This seems to confirm the well-thought-of theory that he might be the thirteenth and only male Star Prince, the one of Ophiuchus! You know, the serpent sign in between Scorpio and Sagittarius that got pruned off due to triskaidekaphobia and caused quite a stir last decade? Plus, Ophiuchus is known as "hebitsukai", literally "snake charmer," in Japanese, and what kind of reptiles do these performers use the most during their animal acts? (Cobras, of course!)

Ophiuchus in Zodiac Dancers, Star Darlings, and Romina Russell's Zodiac: of course in more than one Western Zodiac-themed franchise, the thirteenth sign had to pop up as the wild card. In the 12DP short story retelling "Zodiac Dancers," he is also the only male, thirteenth dancing prince, who seduces his sisters to entrap them in the underworld and have them wear out their shoesoles each and every night. In Star Darlings, albino Ophelia is a sixth... well, thirteenth ranger who replaces aloof punk-goth girl Scarlett (Scorpio) temporarily. In Romina Russell's Zodiac books, Ophiuchus or Ocus/Ochus for short is a major catalyst that underpins everything (NO spoilers here!!).