Score: C+

I would like to say something clever about this episode, but it was straight forward. This episode kind of highlights how the show hasn’t quite figured out what to do with Tsubasa. His initial troubles were really locked in and easy to care about. He was a bird that couldn’t fly and desperately wanted to. But he kind of gave up on that dream once he became a Precure. Any thought of learning to fly as a bird, build airplanes, or anything else was instantly dropped once he gained that power. So, the story hasn’t had anything for him to do. With all that in mind, the only thing to do was kind of make him a motivational speaker for these dragon guys.

If only there was a way to ease this trek…

It’s nothing unusual, but I do wonder about the decision-making of this group. Tsubasa’s claim that nothing could be up there because of the strong winds seemed…odd. They are walking through a thick forest. Those trees certainly didn’t fly up there. And if the trees can be naturally there then animal life should be possible as well. He may be good at reading air currents, but his thought process on the ecology of sky islands seems a bit less solid.

Plus, if they have a long trek…why not transform? They are on a deserted sky island. There’s no one to keep any secrets from here. Just transform and get moving. Less time and energy wasted. Might also be handy if any unusual creatures happened to turn up…It’s nice that the dragons ended up being relatively easy to communicate with, but being ready for the unexpected seems far smarter. Even more so when they’d need a few seconds to transform and can’t be sure what threat level they are up against.

Stand on guard…but don’t transform!

The feeling of “why aren’t any of you transforming” just got stronger as the episode went along. Have someone help fly them up to put the jewel back? All of them can just jump up there and Tsubasa can transform and fly. Just go and do it! Thank goodness the villain showed up. That reminded the main cast that they could transform at any time.

I’m being way too hard on the episode. But it just lines up with the somewhat questionable writing in a lot of these filler type episodes. Is it that hard to have an episode that just feels a bit more coherent? The point of the episode is obvious. Give Tsubasa reasons to be confident in the skills he’s gained, encourage others that also can’t fly, and just that he’d be a good choice to talk to the dragon tribe. That’s why Yayoi sent him instead in the first place. She probably knew everything from the start but figured it would be good for Tsubasa’s development to do this. That’s all clear. But I just think some moments didn’t have to be quite so unsteady.

Life seems ok up there

Do the dragons even need to leave the island? The only threat right now is an enemy that won’t go there again unless the Precure are there. And someone does need to take care of the jewel. I mean sure if those guys really wanted to go then giving them a push is fine. But while the legends are a big thing for them, do they all actually want to go? It seems like a perfectly nice island. Maybe if Skyland actually masters some knowledge of air currents (which I feel like a civilization living on sky islands really should have figured out by now) then they don’t need someone constantly living up there. But it might not be a bad idea since that’s the one constant source of light for all night flying.

Just one of the team now

Majesty really has been powered down. Can’t say she’s any more effective than anyone else at this point. The only real benefit or special trait is that they don’t have to worry about protecting Ellee. If she’s durable enough to take some hits then they can focus on going on the attack. But this situation was so casual that Tsubasa had time to convince the dragons during the whole thing. Once they had their breakthrough he just had to fly around a bit and the enemy mostly defeated itself.

Now it isn’t unusual for the final Precure of a series to start overpowered and for things to even out. But it feels like it happened fast here. One can say it was necessary since she debuted so late in the show. But it isn’t like many of these episodes have been heavily focused on the main story. I don’t know that she needed to be powered down so quickly. Though I guess if she was still as strong as ever then she would have won before Tsubasa could convince the dragons of anything.

Onward to Halloween!

Not a surprise that they’ll fit in a Halloween episode here. But I do have to keep noting that we’re running out of time for this show. And yet they don’t seem to be in any rush to resolve Ellee’s situation or tell us anything about the enemy they are facing. So, it feels like they’ll cram the conflict with the Empress into the final few episodes and that will be it. At least a Halloween episode should be fun. Might be better to go full out silly instead of trying to really delve into anyone’s character arc for it. Fingers crossed that it’s a good time.