Re-listening to Prison of Plastic and I just realized something.

In the first chapter where we meet Rick Shades, Phoenica’s explanation of her hereditary magical destiny to assemble a group of five magical girls and defeat a powerful evil witch was actually foreshadowing—and not just for the described event itself, but also for the climax of this particular book!

(Major spoiler warning btw)

Think about it! The climactic final battle against Lorelei and her graham cracker dragon involves Giovanni, Rick, and the Neo Trio—five individuals in total, each of which have over the course of the book had some form of magical transformation or another, willing or not. On top of that, two out of the five of them have some form of special attack that they shout the name of out loud during the fight, plus Giovanni who has a history of doing such things so he also counts. And think of the method they use as their primary means of defeating Graham (besides various bear paws of course). They slice him up with the obsidian soul threads created by Rick Shades, threads which were literally forged with the power of friendship!

In conclusion, that final fight was in many ways a practice run for Phoenica’s magical girl destiny, complete with a magical transformation sequence on Rick’s part, two signature moves whose names were shouted out loud by Rick and Molly, an evil witch as the enemy, and five magical fighters who win using the power of friendship! Bam! Foreshadowing!