[precure] honestly, the two times Hiropre has used the "let me solo everything, you just go back to being a civilian and live a normal life" trope have been way less annoying than it usually is

the first time, we see right away how much it's eating at Sora and why she's acting this way even if it's unfair to Mashiro

she's spent her entire life in pursuit of her goal and never made a friend, got extremely attached once she did make one, and now she's acting irrational because she's terrified

and we know she is being irrational, this isn't "she's just too cool and Mashiro needs to git gud and prove herself"

this is a Trauma Response and Sora needs to work through it

the second time was this last week and in the complete opposite direction because Ageha isn't intentionally trying to stop the others, she just doesn't register what she's doing

she's a preschool teacher

so she does what preschool teachers do: she runs activities, she takes over household management, she encourages the kids, and she focuses on keeping them safe and taking on all the responsibility

she's also the adult in the situation and is socially expected to take on more responsibilities and keep the kids from harm

which is not conducive to an equal relationship between teammates, and leads to her deciding that she is babysitting both Ellee and Tsubasa when Tsubasa is supposed to be babysitting Ellee, or to her not calling Sora and Mashiro for help and for trying to solo the fight when Tsubasa was right there

I don't know, both of these seem a lot more refreshing than the usual "I'm too cool for help, you'll get yourself killed" take on this.

there's definitely a lot more nuance there

It’s adorable

i was thinking about this and it also ties in thematically with the whole idea of "what is 'strength', really?" from the undergu empire's whole Deal. the people who are obsessed with being "strong" in the sense of "i beat shit up" or "you cannot defeat me" are shown as being fragile for that

- and they also are appearing one at a time, which is a departure from how precure's worked lately. the undergu empire doesn't have a group and that feels relevant when this is the stuff the protags are up to.

"we're stronger because we have friends and are together" is not new material for magical girls or anime in general but hiropre is very deliberately walking the walk with showing it in practice instead of just yelling about it

by doing things like demonstrating how taking everything on yourself is not "strength"

nods nods

the Undergu generals are barely coworkers, they aren't even shown together

even in the op we only get them one at a time!

previous groups, even in seasons that worked through one villain at a time, had them talking to each other even if they all hated each other

each of the Hiropre villains is alone

i also liked the interaction in ageha's henshin ep where the little boy (takeru?) at first thought being a precure meant beating up the bad guys, and he expressed that by being a dick to his classmates, so he had to learn that wasn't what this is about
beating up the bad guys is a way the precure are heroes, it's not what makes them heroes

it's not what makes them "strong"

nods nods

Dragons Dragons yeah. they're so alone that kabaton's only social outlet is the dude who makes his oden