Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!
She's just standing right behind Laura... MENACINGLY!
In General
- The Witch of Procrastination can be this as she is planning on putting Laura's life at risk.
- The Yaraneedas' main function is to suck the motivation to do anything out of all living beings nearby it, thus putting their victims into apathetic, almost zombie-esque states of mind. Thought our characters were safe too? They can get their motivation drained as well, as shown with Manatsu in Episode 10 and the other Cures in Episode 17 (although we didn't get to see much of it as La Mer restored their motivation shortly after)
Episode 1
- The Witch of Procrastination is introduced, and besides of the creepy red eyes and the dark room she's in, she's shown to be straining once she talks.
Episode 9
- The tenth episode is generally when the villains start to get serious (which warrants a group finisher), and this season is no exception. After the end of the episode, Butler explains to Chongire, Elda, and Numeri that the Witch of Procrastination was expecting their failures, so he decided to give her a Zenzen Yaraneeda ball on her behalf, which would strengthen the monster. What's worse is that judging from the following episode preview, they even steal Manatsu's motivation.
Episode 10
- Remember what the episode preview revealed? It happened this episode. To wit: Chongire summons a more powerful variant of the Yaraneeda, called a Zenzen Yaraneeda. It overpowers Manatsu to the point where she reverts back to normal and steals her motivation power. It even comes dangerously close to making quick work of the remaining Cures. Had Manatsu not regained her motivation, the villains would have won.
Episode 16
- After a leadup of Laura wanting to fit in with her friends despite having to stay in the Aqua Pot, she ends up getting trapped by a Zenzen Yaraneeda and taken to the Witch of Delays.
- Then there's her offer to Laura to become a human...The Little Mermaid references anyone? Whatever it involves is definitely not good. And that doesn't cover the Witch's Slasher Smile at the end.
Episode 17
- When Laura finds her Aqua Pot by the Witch of Delays, we are treated with a moment of the Witch of Delays right behind Laura, which looks absolutely terrifying. She then proceeds to grab her, which Laura ends up biting her and escapes.
- The Cures, without Laura, battle two Zenzen Yaraneedas. Manatsu tries to go after Laura, but Chongire blocks the way. All of them would've been done for if it wasn't for Laura transforming into Cure La Mer.
Episode 22
- We are introduced to the Witch of Procrastination hatching another variation of the Yaraneeda, the Zettai Yaraneeda, and it's not pretty. She sounds like she's in extreme pain as well.
- Additionally, the Yaraneeda doesn't seem tough at first, getting easily taken on by just four of the Cures, but when they attempt to use their finisher, it doesn't work at all. It just regenerates and almost defeats the Cures. It's a good thing Laura was able to upgrade her finisher when she did. And keep in mind that this Zettai Yaraneeda was not carrying any motivation whatsoever. It was at its base strength.
Episode 23
- Elda successfully brings in a cup full of motivation from Minamino Island's caves despite being held up by an unsuccessful opportunity to gather more motivation. The Witch's reaction as she empties the contents into her Fool's Casket is menacing enough, topped off with her Slasher Smile.
Episode 27
- It was clearly for comedy, but come on. Don't tell that you didn't feel disturbed by Minori being so fascinated on how poisonous jellyfishes can be.
Episode 29
- As if the Yaraneedas couldn’t get any more powerful, now the generals use still another new variant called a Chou Zettai Yaraneeda, summoned with red orbs. This one is able to No-Sell Laura's recent finisher as well.
- The episode definitely takes a far more serious turn too. It's the first episode where Butler personally leads an assault and when he summons the Yaraneeda, there's an ominous red glow surrounding him.
- Said Yaraneeda ends up being water. How bad can this be? It ends up spreading throughout the city, being capable of sapping multiple people of their motivation. Only one of them can be defeated, as the rest of them just pop when hit (yes, all of them can hurt too). It's definitely something that comes close to Perfect Chaos from Sonic Adventure.
Episode 36
- The situation of the Gran Ocean Palace is a grim one. Beforehand, the citizens had their motivation sapped and were slowly recovering from the Witch's attack, with the Queen relying on Laura to find Pretty Cure to help. It's already suspicious that the palace suddenly got better and the Gran Ocean citizens are suddenly feeling a whole lot better, but things get horrifying when we see that the Queen has already been captured and everything was just an illusion.
- The Gran Ocean Palace has a Lotus-Eater Machine, which the Pretty Cure consider horrifying. The worst part? It was already there before the villains even raided the place.
- The Chou Zettai Yaraneedas have an even more powerful variant which is formed when an orb is used on a live being as opposed to inanimate objects. This one's able to No-Sell the Land Beat Dynamic finisher, which would've knocked out a Chou Zettai Yaraneeda. And keep in mind that it didn't take any motivation either.
Episode 37
- The Witch of Delay's plan is implied to be immortality through the Fool's Casket, but as even the three villains discuss this, all of them feel as if there's something Butler's hiding from them.
- The Gran Ocean Palace is kind of a sad and terrifying one for mermaids. The Queen outright enforces a law that subjects mermaids to a Lotus-Eater Machine whenever they meet with humans. Laura herself was subject to it after a meeting with Manatsu when they were children.
Episode 42
- After a breather recap episode, the endgame of the season starts to kick in with Knight of Cerebus Butler leading a Yaraneeda assault. It's initially presented as a remora that gets effortlessly dispatched by the team, but then we see that there's still a lot of people that are still passed out. Cue a giant whale Yaraneeda. Butler means business this time too, and he's not going to let anyone take that motivation - so he destroys Laura's Aqua Pot and Manatsu gets eaten by said whale too. Looks like the show it starting to head for its Darkest Hour.
- Butler reveals that the Witch of Delays had a far more intimidating name back then ... the Witch of Destruction.
Episode 43
- The Witch is questioned over why she wants to cause 'eternal delays' only to abruptly ask herself what she's trying to delay, similar to someone suffering from Stockholm Syndrome suddenly realising the truth. Butler even operates like the instigator in those situations, forcing her to stop questioning things.
- Butler's plan to open the Fool's Casket is so severe, effectively extinction on a massive scale, that Chongire refuses to continue to work for either the Witch or Butler. His response? Turn him into a Yaraneeda. Think about this- the last time we saw an enemy get turned into a monster against their will was when Kawarino stuck a black mask on Hadenya. Even Numeri and Elda look upset at seeing their comrade in arms forced to fight the Cures.
- Speaking of which, Chongire's Yaraneeda form is terrifying. Unlike other Yaraneeda that have their eyes on their head, this Yaraneeda has its eyes on its torso. Chongire's actual eyes are lifeless in this form. Chongire's voice is also gone and is replaced with the standard Yaraneeda voice too. It's no wonder why everyone was so horrified.
- Just think ... Butler and the Witch of Delays were planning on destroying the world by using the Fool's Casket to let the Witch herself gain immortality. The Pretty Cure were fortunate enough that the villains would always be conveniently nearby whenever they attacked - had they succeeded in taking motivation from other places or if the Cures lost, things would've been really nasty quickly.
Episode 44
- With the Witch out of the picture, Butler decides to finish the plan without her, and transforms into a Yaraneeda himself. But unlike Chongire, he's clearly still capable of lucid thought, as he communicates in actual sentences. We're heading into the final battle, and the Cures will have to try their hardest to end Butler's plans once and for all.
- What's the first thing he does when turning into a Yaraneeda? Immediately drain the motivation of his subordinates and when that's not enough, attempts to do the same thing with the Pretty Cure.
- The episode preview does a really good job as depicting him as intimidating and nightmarish, especially as a towering behemoth.
Episode 45
- Butler introduces the Cures to the Witch of Destruction's mooks ... Kowasundas. These were the same ones shown in flashbacks that razed cities under the Witch's name. These aren't motivation sappers like the Yaraneeda variants - they're literal killing machines.
- Sure Chongire, Elda, and Numeri were shown fighting through them and being more than capable of taking them on, but when Chongire tells them to focus fighting Butler, the Kowasundas are shown to not be giving up either. The rest of this battle doesn't get shown on-screen and focuses solely on the Cures and Butler - but the next time we see Chongire (once the Fool's Casket blows up and everyone evacuates), Chongire's shown to have lost an eye and has a scar over it. Not that he minds though, but shows that the Kowasundas definitely gave them some trouble.
- Even before the Fool's Casket was about to be released, we finally get to see how the rest of the world is getting affected by it, and it's not pretty. We see news reports talking about natural disasters hitting worldwide and massive hurricanes covering the globe all over.
- The Marine Beat Dynamic not only fails to defeat Butler, but Butler manages to catch the whale and shock it to the point where the whale itself is screaming in pain.
- Even after his defeat, Butler still has enough energy to try to fill the Casket with his motivation. And guess what? It works. Had the Mermaid Pot not been repaired at that exact moment, and had the Cures not used it to destroy the Casket, that would have been it for everyone.
- The animation is considerably graphic for even a kids show. As Butler offers his motivation, his body is shown to shrivel up as if it looks like he's actually melting. This is compared to when everyone else has had their motivation drained, they just look zombified. Butler gloating on how the world would be destroyed just makes it worse. Notably, he is still like that after the Cures destroy the Casket, and with his motivation destroyed, he will be so for all eternity- not that he didn’t deserve it, of course.
