I don't actually know the plot of the three musketeers

I read it years ago

And then just now skimmed wikipedia

It involves a lot of court politics so we're SUPER simplifying shit

In this world, precures are just

all over the place

They're a known phenomenon

They protect Earth from the forces of darkness in some way I haven't QUITE figured out yet

which has happened before - in happiness charge, there's precure teams in various countries

and report to the Queen of Light

Who is the King of Light's right hand woman

The King's left hand is the sinister Cardinal Richelieu

Who is bitter of the Queen's influence and wishes to reduce her influence on the King by making her precures look incompetent

So he's working behind the scenes to make the forces of darkness more powerful and the precures look less competent

Richielieu is our main antagonist

do we set this in the modern day or in fantasy period france

Earth is modern day but there's also a kingdom of magic that's fantasy 1600s France

Richelieu has more influence over the King's guards, who are recruited from the magic world

while the Precures are recruited from Earth

So OUR PROTAGONIST, D'artagn-chan

(that's a terrible name but don't worry about it)

Is like

fiesty

let's call her dart

She has a good heart and wants to be a precure but her struggle is she often loses her temper and says things she regrets later

The first episode is of her getting mad at three separate girls at her school who are all like "let's settle this after class"

She's like "oh god I just picked three fights in one day"

This is pretty nonstandard precure protag behavior but work with me

So the three girls are, of course

very standard Musketeers behavior

Athos the cool older senpai girl, Porthos the friendly gullible girl, and Aramis the....

god, Aramis' main thing is he's always got a bunch of sordid womanizing going on on the side

how do I precurify that

She may just be like the ambitious one who wants to be an idol

I like that

she just likes attention

So Dart goes to meet after school, thinking "maybe I can take them one at a time?" and finds that all three of them are friends and are hanging out together

Dart gets ready to deal with this but we, the audience, get the impression that the trio don't like

really want to fight her

They want to deal with this as quickly and simply as possible because they have other shit going on and are ready to talk things out because talking out your problems is cool

UNFORTUNATELY

At this point, Richelieu (or more realistically one of his slightly comic goons) shows up to summon a monster of the week at them

Dart watches as the trio transform into precures and fight

yeah he needs three to five ineffectual lieutenants

The girls are on the ropes

when Dart steps in to intervene, even though she's just a normal girl and can't stand up to this kind of situation

At which point the willingness to defend others activates her latent magic and she joins the team

And kind of flails her way while super jumping around through the fight

as is traditional

And saves the day

And is inducted as a provsional trainee member of the team of the Three Precures

(four, now, but she still has to prove herself)

I think that their monster purifying attack involves a big doofy looking magical musket

that shoots like a giant heart laser

there is also precedent for precure with a gun

oh really?

nice

they also have cute colorful swords

two, both of them are also guitars

I see

Anyway

The bulk of the plot arc is the girls trying to fight off various monsters of the week and deal with their self actualization problems

While also trying to stop various plots by Richelieu to ruin the Queen of Light's reputation

The mid season climax is that the Queen of Light lost her diamond necklace

but she's hiding it from the king because it was a gift he gave her

and Richelieu is like "Hey king we have a big ball coming up, what if you asked the Queen to wear that necklace you got her"

D0804 スイートプリキュア♪ 必殺技「プリキュア・ハートフルビートロック」（キュアビート）anyway

And the Queen is like "Sure......I can do that......"

"Precures I REALLY need you to go on a magic gem hunt so I can reassemble my necklace before the grand ball!"

The second half of The Three Musketeers gets confusing and murky so we're throwing it out

except....I don't know if I really have any better ideas?

It's weird

In the book they never actually like

defeat Richelieu

they just impress him enough that he leaves them alone

I think it's a strong initial hook though!

That's... kind of like purifying.

Richelieu was a historical figure who remained in power basically right up until he died so the book was kind of limited in where it could go if it wanted to stick with that

fair enough

Something something Aramis-chan's idol career changes him with the power of song.