THE INITIAL CONFLICT IN OTHELLO - GENDER-FLIPPED

THE INITIAL CONFLICT IN OTHELLO - GENDER-FLIPPED
This was a bunny I had for a while. Inspired mostly by Wicked and Othello, and also by the fact that Yaga (for Jadwiga) and Kasia (for Katarzyna) are completely real Polish terms of endearment. Going from there to Baba Yaga and Catherine the Great as well as to Elphaba and Glinda was not that hard, actually.
This is most likely to not swell into a full story. That bunny is already rabbit stew, what with Jadwiga getting Kasia drunk (the latter takes drugs for her hyperactivity) and Else starting a relationship with a local celeb (we're talking about the Polish provinces, the Oder region) whom I hadn't decided for male or female. That bunny is already rabbit stew. But at least I had a beginning for this retelling...

"You can do it, Jadwiga," she says to herself as she walks down the garden path. By her full name. She tightens the rubber band in her queue and the belt around her waist.
She hates being called Yaga, even though her mum calls her that still, and even though it's supposed to be a term of endearment. At class, they once called her Baba Yaga. She had no friends. Messy dark hair, rimmed spectacles on an aquiline nose. All that was missing was and is the croft on chicken's legs, or the flying mortar boat.
Anyway, Fräulein Else will pick her aide, who will also be her Polish-German interpreter during the tour to launch her latest single -Heute durch die Brust geschossen-, pretty soon.
Now she wears specs without rims, a lot of gel in her hair, looks a lot less like the wicked witch in her storybooks. She is Jadwiga, after all. Herself. Trying to find a new identity.
And who is standing in the middle of the path if not Kasia, in that peony-like frilly pink dress?
Unlike Jadwiga, Kasia prefers being called by the term of endearment. Maybe because she's so outspoken and excitable, like Jadwiga herself has never been. Maybe because her full name, Katarzyna, is too much of a mouthful to say. Maybe because she's tall and blonde and buxom and cultured and charming like a czarina... "I bet they once called her, and they still called her, Katarzyna Wielka (Catherine the Great), which is definitely a far cry from Baba Yaga."
Loathing, unadulterated loathing, for her face, her voice, her clothing...
They have been roommates and classmates for two years already, Yaga being the senpai to Kasia's kohai.
But, interestingly, it was Kasia who helped the socially awkward Jadwiga to rise in popularity. Like having the PR advisor with a more-than-middle-class background that surpasses your muggle self's. What shoes to wear, how to fix her hair, to be good at sports... how to be popular, long story short.
There she is, cheerfully waving and hooking her right arm to Jadwiga's left as they enter, or rather storm (against senpai's will), the auditory hand in hand.
Fräulein Else, the Valkyrie of Warnemünde, is so mannish, and wears male lolita visual kei attire for the record, that her short hair, broad shoulders, and contralto lead most people to gender confusion. Still, it is this bifauxnen persona that has made her a celebrity all over Europe. The most redoubtable one of the decade, in fact.
She strides onto the stage, eyes fixed on the auditorium packed with expectant Translation students, most of them female, who signed up for the offer, and clears her throat as she opens the envelope in her hands and announces the name of her aide out loud.
Jadwiga is biting her fingernails. Kasia is polishing her fingernails.
That deep, heroic contralto finally reaching the part of the speech when she mentions the name of her personal interpreter and Girl Friday:
"Katarzyna Mikhailova!"
"YAAAY!" an elated Kasia hugs Jadwiga so tight that her senpai is not only worried about suffocating.
In fact, little does she know about the state of shock for which her senpai is putting on such a brave face.
That post should have been Jadwiga's own by right. Not some frilly, excitable, self-absorbed second-grader's. But that of someone more serious approaching the end of her degree. Not everyone is fit of becoming the Valkyrie's assistant.
Maybe Else wants a blonde like herself, to give the impression of being like sisters... maybe she was smitten with that aura of charm that Kasia seems to exude even with her perspiration... She instantly remembers the shock she was in at her first impression of her prissy blonde kohai with the rooming two years ago:
What is this feeling, so sudden and new, I felt the moment I laid eyes on you?
My pulse is rushing, my head is reeling, my face is flushing...
what is this feeling?!
What is this feeling, fervid as a flame? Does it have a name?
Loathing, unadulterated loathing, for her face, her voice, her clothing...
There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation, so pure and so strong...
Then, let me be the Baba Yaga. There is no need for flying mortar rowboats or cottages on chicken legs; after all, real villains have never been obvious, Jadwiga thinks to herself. Time to hide her cards within her sleeve and to be content as Kasia's understudy. After all, she knows her kohai like the back of her hand and will soon strike her soft spots, without either Katarzyna Wielka or Else, whose fangirl she is since the latter rose to stardom -and of whom she knows practically everything- feeling the pain of the borrowed blade entering their backs...

BEAUCOUP DE NOUVEAUX DÉBUTS

KIRAKIRA PRETTY CURE À LA MODE -
Episode 24
My Own Review
BEAUCOUP DE NOUVEAUX DÉBUTS
(Lots of New Debuts)

**cue opening credits**

Post-opening, we return to the Monde Noir, which apparently is not as empty and far vaster than we had ever seen so far.

So Glaive makes all these mooks by hand...

LISA: Leo's sick leave is lasting for ages...

LANGUAGE TEACHER:

GLAIVE: Kirakiraru! Stained in darkness! NOIRE INFLATION!!






(I would not have posted this if Aoi and Ciel weren't present and in a fight-ready stance)

CHOCOLAT AROMASE!!


Then, Cure Gelato freezes the pavement, creating an ice skating rink for Macaron to skate...

(Macaron glacé? Well, thinking of that right now...)



CURE MACARON: Tickle tickle tickle...

PS. OPENING CREDITS

Voilà la petite blonde...


Will Giulio return at the end of this arc?

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:
This brand new arc breaks the ice in the best of possible manners: Pikalio/Giulio can be resurrected!! (Pop that Moët champagne!!) Only that the Cures will have to find these orbs to bring their ailing little friend back...
Lots of new debuts: Ciel as a schoolgirl and a martial artist, the new cadres, gathering these orbs to resurrect Pikalio...
I'm a bit sad this episode didn't take place at Ichigozaka High --which appears to be rather palatial, and I also expect the headmistress to be a she (since the headmaster of Ichigozaka Secondary is a guy)-- because of all this audience surrogate thing. Still, the next episode may take us to the Koukou and/or the Kotozume Yashiki, as YUKARI GETS A SUITOR...
Anyway, Ciel being the foreign exchange student who is perfect at anything she does... as the resident Ace, she towers high above her classmates (except in Japanese writing, given her French/yousei background), something that would not have been possible if she were a high-schooler in a far more challenging environment. But still I wonder what could have been if she had transferred to the Koukou (instead of the Chuugakou). I wonder for instance if she would get a fanclub, how the Koukou uniform would fit her, and how this environment would react to her Kirarin form.
And also, this arc gives us two cadres for the price of one --a Sensitive Guy Sissy Villain (Elysio) and a manly Dark-Skinned Blond Large Ham (Glaive); anyone else agreeing that these two blokes are gay (and anyone else expecting Zoisite-and-Kunzite-style tragic drama as well)?-- I was made to think (more than of Zoisite and Kunzite, given the way Glaive and Elysio contrast in personality and colour scheme) of Dextra and Nistro in YGO Zexal... if you made Dextra a guy and made Nistro blond, that is. I just love this stark contrast, along the lines of a feminine guy (or lady) with lots of sang-froid paired up with a hot-blooded buff fellow...

(Any similarity is purely coincidental)

Their MO, or at least the one of buff blond Glaive, involves buffing up their mooks, while Elysio is a strategist led by using card spreads --think Cardians or Clow cards... man, those monsters of the week made my kid self terrified of Tarot cards!--
The battle... impressive when Cure Macaron tickled the henchman of the week.
Cure Parfait charges ahead of the others, but that turns out to be a mistake. She is told that they can rely on each other, and the Cures launch a joint attack.
Parfait's new attack, Parfaite Étoile... (Perfect Star)... Then there's Kirakuru Ruban, her Finishing Move... I love the French sprinkled throughout the series. The non-audience-surrogate Precures' magical names, the names of their attacks, the opening theme... C'est tout simplement redoutable!
Ciel officially becomes a part of the KiraPâti. She makes some cupcakes...
The next episode, THE MUCH EXPECTED EP 25 WHERE YUKARI GETS A BETROTHAL, and that will also shed some spotlight and relationship development on Yukakira, also leaves us a pleasant foretaste with a European prince as the Disposable Fiancé/Count Paris-style suitor! Instead of wearing a Victorian uniform, however, this prince dresses like something out of Shakespeare or some other Tudor fiction, puffy sleeves and all... and that right hand kiss isn't anything to disregard either!

So he's basically Prince Edward of Andalasia (pictured above), but made blond. Still, like the Kimimaro debut episode, I hope there is a solution to this --even more given the fact that Yukari has already got a partner, and a bifauxnen, a commoner maiden but nevertheless a gentlemanly one, to boot. Still, my blood pressure cannot do anything but rise!!!

"Next episode, the focus is on Yukari and Akira as Elysio makes his move on Yukari which causes some tension between Akira and her." So will this be a queer Othello scenario, with Elysio in the role of Iago and this foreign prince in that of Cassio? Actually, seeing Akira as Othello and Yukari as Desdemona could make for any good AU...
Anyway, let's wait for next week to see how this scheme unfurls... and, if it doesn't play out Othello-style, that AU scenario is worth giving a shot, right?



IN NEXT EPISODE (25):

A European royal has caught sight of our Yukari...

he's even kissed her right hand... will she fall and be his quarry?!

Now Akira's affection is on trial, and by fire...
It seems that she, as Chocolat, will struggle through things dire!