Directed by: Johnny Castuciano
Written by: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Puss and crew enter the tower of the second Eldritch Sister Malaranea, who gladly offers her piece of the Gem of the Crown of Souls to our heroes, only to then spring a trap on them and attack. Puss gets caught in a web, and put into a deep sleep as Malaranea begins to drain the life force out of him.
Tropes:
- Badass in Distress: Puss in Boots is trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine and it's up to Dulcinea to save him before his life force is completely drained or he will die.
- Call-Back: As Dulcinea tries to fight off Malaranea disguised as her, she summons the Goodsword while the Evil Dulcinea summons the Scimitar.
- Contrived Coincidence: The first sign that Puss is in a dream is when he recovers the second piece of the gem and then immediately stumbles upon the third by accident, instead of from a third witch as it's supposed to be.
- Dream Walker: Artephius and The Duchess are able to put Dulcinea into Puss' dream to try and save him, which is described as entry level magic.
- Dream Within a Dream: Puss almost realizes he's in a dream several times, but simply wakes up within another layer of the dream.
- Foreshadowing: Malarenea can't shake the feeling that she's met the Duchess somewhere before.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: When Puss enters the bar to celebrate his victory, he floats up to the table without moving, and then notices everyone in the bar is the same person.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Malaranea puts her victims to sleep by spitting venom into their mouths. After Puss in Boots is freed from her dream, she tries to do it again, but Puss catches the venom in a bowl and throws it back down her throat, putting her to sleep.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Malaranea keeps her victims in a pleasant dream as she gradually sucks the life force out of them.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Once the Real Dulcinea enters the scene, Malarena doesn't even bother to keep sounding like Dulcinea and the Dream Dulcinea starts talking with Malarena's voice instead.
- Ship Tease: As Puss keeps seeing through the various illusions set before him, Malaranea decides to pull out all the stops and pretends to be Dulcinea marrying Puss.Real Dulcinea: So, do you always dream about marrying me?
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Malarena pretends to be Dulcinea and marrying Puss to keep him distracted. Naturally, the real Dulcinea shows up at the perfect time;El Moco: And if anyone should object, now is the time to do that.
Real Dulcinea: I object!
Puss in Boots: ...Do I have to get married twice? - Spotting the Thread: Puss does do this to various degrees as he notices oddities of his dreams, but Malaranea is able to either distract him or simply trap in him another dream layer until his ability to notice fades as he gets closer to death.
- The Unreveal: Puss faces and defeats the Bloodwolf in his dream, but since he presumably does not know what the Bloodwolf looks like, we are never given a clear look at the Bloodwolf.
