#and of course Hikaru who was willing to give up everything (possibly repeat the original ‘mistake’) just so Yoshiki wouldn’t lonely | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

muthaz-rapapa · 5 years

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StarPre Ep 13: Culture Shock & “Fitting In”

Ok, I’ve only ever studied abroad for one summer semester so I can’t claim to know what it’s like to be a foreign exchange student.

But WOW did it not feel that this episode portrayed the realism of that experience in spades (for me, anyways).

Which is why in spite of it being another filler, ep 13 shot itself up the ladder to become, perhaps, one of the best episodes in the season so far.

But before we get into that, I just want to say this. Though we have four lovely protagonists to drive the plot forward, it’s pretty clear that the heart of StarPre’s overall story lies with Lala and not the lead Cure, Hikaru. Lala is the actual main character here (heck, even her personal motif is a heart so take that how you will).

Much like how MahoPre focused on Riko gradually letting go of her self-limitations and opening her mind to the world, Lala is slowly learning to release her constant grip on the AI and look for something that data cannot give her.

Hikaru and Mirai may be responsible for building the bridges, extending their hands and establishing the connections between the different worlds of their respective seasons (which is JUST AS IMPORTANT and don’t you let anyone else tell you otherwise!) but Riko and now, Lala, are the ones who demonstrate the necessity of meeting them halfway, however hard it may be at first, in order to gain true understanding.

So, with that said...

Lala’s first day at school. She’s very excited and of course she is!

Back on her home planet Saaman, she didn’t have school. The AI is the go-to for everything. So she’s never known what it’s like to interact with other kids her age, attend classes together, study together, etc.

It’s totally brand new to her and she wants that. She wants to know what life is like for Hikaru, Elena and Madoka. She wants to be a part of that life because that’s where her friends are.

And in their lives, they don’t have AIs to aid them throughout the day so Lala decides she wouldn’t need hers either.

Lala didn’t realize it at the time but the fact that she chose to leave her AI glove at home spoke volumes of her willingness to step outside her comfort zone.

Again, she’s relied on that AI for her entire life up till this point so if she brought it with her to school, just to have some sense of security while she adjusted to the setting around her, nobody would say anything about it. Yet she didn’t.

Lala really wanted to experience what it was like to be a normal kid on Earth. She didn’t want to be the old Lala who clutched to her AI like a lifeline. She wanted to become someone who could handle things without the AI.

The only reason why she brought AI-chan with her the second day was not because she grew afraid and backtracked on finding her new identity but because she underestimated the culture shock that would bowl her over.

And what a culture shock it was. Look, there are even lightning strikes for emphasis.

LOL, anyways...

Things on Earth are so different from things on Saaman that it physically drains Lala’s energy after she discovers just how different they are.

What’s more, for all of Saaman’s apparent “advancement”, it seems that its civilians can’t do much without AIs, which makes Lala feel ashamed when she compares herself to the Earthlings, who do make an effort to learn and understand what they learn.

Not just absorb details and retain them.

On Earth, they ask questions, they make theories, they perform tests and experiments and they repeat the process.

Lala, who’s always been told what the answers are, has never learned how to do that and she feels so lost because of it.

Then there was the ill-timed comment from Himenowhatsherface on her fluency in Japanese and therefore also, indirectly (and unbeknownst to mostly everyone), Lala practically been home schooled since forever so of course she wouldn’t know about the rule of no running in the halls.

It’s no wonder Lala’s become so depressed by lunchtime.

Poor girl. That’s a lot to take for just the first day.

What’s sad is that Lala’s misunderstanding the whole situation. She thinks that it’s her fault for not acting like the other kids when in reality, no one really expects that of her.

She’s from a different country, speaks a different tongue, has different customs. They all know that. Nobody is asking her to change that, to be like everybody else.

But given Lala’s perfectionist nature, every “mistake” she makes only drives her desperation to “fix” it as fast as possible.

Remember beginning!Lala? How she closes people off when she’s frustrated nothing’s going her way? How the more she tries to make things right, it just becomes more of a mess?

Yea, Lala still doesn’t do well under stress.

But this time, the stress has lead her to making the wrong assumptions.

The next day, she’s got her glove on again and doing her best to talk to everyone in “lun”-unaccented Japanese.

All the way down to the keigo.

Considering that Lala was completely fine with not using honorifics or acknowledging seniority and the like before, it’s no surprise that this new development shocked her friends.

The issue is not Lala’s attempt to assimilate. The issue is that she’s trying to assimilate when there is absolutely no need to.

And I’ll say it again. If Lala brought AI-chan with her to feel more at ease in an unfamiliar environment, maybe to have AI-chan help her translate some things or explain some Earthling stuff, then that’s one thing.

However, Lala continuously referring back to AI-chan throughout her second day at school and asking it what she should do to appear more “Earthling” is counterproductive to her original objective (learning not to rely on the AI).

She’s taken the phrase “when in Rome, do what the Romans do” a little too much to the extreme.

She’s trying to erase what makes her unique so she can blend in with the people around her.

Which is so...awful to even say out loud but that’s just how badly Lala wants to fit in!

But even more than that, she’s so afraid that her being different will damage her friendship with the other girls.

She doesn’t want to be so “foreign” or “odd” to other people that it would affect how they look at Hikaru, Elena and Madoka as well. She doesn’t want to inconvenience her friends that it will change their relationship. She doesn’t want to be what breaks them apart.

After all, they’re the biggest reason why Lala’s going through all this trouble. They’re the reason why she wants to stay on Earth in the first place otherwise she wouldn’t have fought so hard in the last episode to stay together with them.

Lala’s willing to give up being herself just to stay with them (AWWW) and reassures Hikaru that she’ll do her best to get used to being “Earthling” (read: not Lala).

But Hikaru and the others, being the awesome friends they are, straight up tell her “No, Lala, you’re wrong” and set about reminding her why she wanted to go to school with them in the first place.

Yea.

They love Lala for who she is.

The would never demand Lala to act like them or speak like them or know every single Earth custom there is to know in order to hang out. Friends don’t give friends those sort of conditions (wow, that would be majorly screwed up).

They just wanted to spend time together with Lala and give her the experience she didn’t have on her home planet.

Lala never needed to worry about “fitting in” because she fits in with Hikaru, Elena and Madoka perfectly fine and she always had. Just because she goes to school with them now, nothing has changed.

Nothing that truly mattered had changed.

And they’re going to keep it that way.

had to correct it, not apologizing for anything except that text font, srslywtf “yeppers”?!

Finally, I think if this has taught Lulu anything (other than what’s already stated above), it’s that if she lets people to get to know her, including all her oddities and quirks and whatever makes her Lala, then they will surely respond to her sincerely and learn to appreciate her just as much as her own friends do.

It’s a scary thought, to face an unknown world where you might be rejected for who you are or what you are not.

But it’s not so bad when you do find someone who does understand and wholly accepts you.

That makes being different, being unique, everything worthwhile.

#i hope i mentioned everything i wanted to say #star twinkle precure #hagoromo lala #cure milky

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