Scrapped Princess ep.10-12

February 29, 2004 | 3 Comments

This series seems to be larger and more epic with each episode and it especially shows in these three episodes. It is also obvious by now that the series intents on developing the supporting characters we have met thus far beyond their one-off appearance. It's nice to know, for example, that even though Chris is not travelling together with Pacifica and the others, he is actually as involved as the Casulls in the entire Scrapped Princess matter. This is achieved by intersecting his investigation with the current adventure that Pacifica and her foster siblings go through as they travel from one area to the next. In more ways than one, Chris' investigation supplies additional informations that we otherwise won't get if we only follow the Cassuls' adventures.

The tenth episode basically continues where episode nine left off with the villagers who worship Lord Browning gathering at the center of the village to prepare for the upcoming 'major event'. Shannon who feels that whatever event is about to take place can't be any good insists that they leave the village as soon as possible. However, Pacifica refuses to leave the place without helping Bergens (the Mauser church's heretics procurator) first and runs off to go searching for him. Elsewhere, Lenard is busy trying to persuade the little girl from the village to take a potion that he has prepared. Immediately after the girl sip the potion, she fell unconscious, allowing Lenard to place her inside a capsule filled with a water and mechanical devices. Upon closing the capsule, we see that sparks of magic seem to have ignited from the capsule into the big device in the center of the room.

Meanwhile, in her quest to find Bergens, Pacifica accidentally stumbles upon Elfitine who's bathing in one of the underground cave's pools. Elfitine invites Pacifica to join her even though technically, she's not supposed to talk to or see anyone since she's in the process of 'purifying' herself. The two soon ends up in a heart to heart conversation with one another. Elfitine wonders if Pacifica is afraid of her because she's the 'Scrapped Princess'. Pacifica of course, tells her that she's not afraid of Elfitine because in reality, Pacifica herself been chased around and is feared by many people for reasons that she does not understand very well. So she feels a kinship to Elfitine. At the same time, Shannon and Raquel who are trying to find the whereabouts of their wandering sister are doing their investigation of the source of the magic that Raquel sense emmanating from the village. Their investigation lead them to the room full of capsules containing people who are liquidify with the same strange water that we saw earlier.

They soon meet with Bergens who have managed to set himself free and informed them that Lenard is planning to attack the holy capital Grendel. Hearing this, Raquel understands that all of the capsule was used to gather all of the latent magic power from each individual so that it can be concentrated into one powerful energy. Raquel, however, think that even with the power of all of the people in the village, there wouldn't be enough magic to reach and attack the holy capital Grendel. In any case, Bergens wants to stop them and wish that Shannon and the others will help him. When Shannon refuses and wonders if Bergens really want promotion that badly, Bergens calmly replies that the reason he wants to stop the attack is not because of his desire for promotion. He thinks that the presence of Browning and Mauser as Gods are unnecessary but he thinks that it can't be helped that some people need something to believe in or living will be tough for those people. He, however, disagree with the idea that you have to crush something just because it's not something that you don't believe in.

When Shannon inquires that what Bergens had said is exactly what the Mauser church has been doing thus far, Bergens reply that is why he doesn't want the people in this village to commit the same mistake as the Mauser church. As the group attempts to locate Elfitine and Lenard, they stumbled upon another room where the power of the magic seems to have become concentrated. Upon looking at the room, Raquel realises that the magic isn't meant to attack the capital Grendel but instead is to destroy the village. They soon catch up to Lenard who's been trying to drag Elfitine away from the village. Lenard soon revealed his true position as a Heretical procurator. He's been deceiving Elfitine and the villagers for the purpose of destroying the village to set an example for other 'heretics' and in the hope that he'll get a promotion. Lenard, however, got distracted when Elfitine decides to hurt herself with his weapon and this allows Shannon to throw a stone into Lenard's mask, showing Elfitine Lenard's, real, far from charismatic face. Lenard who's ashamed that his face has been seen by Elfitine, retreats backward and fell into the cliff and runs away.

Elfitine then returns to the village to tell them that they all have been deceived by Lenard and that the truth is, she really is not the Scrapped Princess. The villagers, however, don't care that she isn't the Scrapped Princess and still consider her as their leader. Pacifica, Shannon, and Raquel then bids goodbye to Bergens who decide to stick around the village for a while before going back to the holy capital. He, however, has no intention of reporting the village to the holy capital. Bergens also dropped one little bombshell when he told Shannon that the real Scrapped Princess must have it difficult. Bergens told Shannon to take good care of Pacifica and to be careful when they reach the Empire of Giat because there are other heretical procurators as well. He admitted that before he met Pacifica, he always thought the Scrapped Princess is a threatening figure but now he realises that she's just a good girl who tries to live her life. The episode ends with a short scene where Chris and Baroness Bailaha reaches the Castle of Queen Elmeyer, the mother of the Scrapped Princess.

Episode eleven starts with Pacifica, Shannon, and Raquel walking through what looks like an abandoned old bunker. Shannon theorises that the bunker probably was created back then before the Genesis war. Anyway, the bunker leads them to an open space and they Casulls have finally arrived at their destination, the empire of Giat. However, before they can have a rest, they were captured by a group of people from the nearby area. Their leader reveals herself as the third princess of Giat empire, Seness Lulu Giat and ordered the Casulls to be taken to a fortress which looks like a modern man-made invention (complete with automatic doors). She explains to the confused Casulls that the fortress is called Skid and is actually one of the few remaining fortress from the Genesis war which is still functional. She orders Pacifica to wait for her in a bunker while asks her soldiers to escort Shannon and Raquel to the beach. She also lets Shannon know that she is aware of his identity as a D-Knight.

Back in the Taurus village, Uinia is clutching a piece of letter which was sent by Chris. She appears to be waiting for Leo who wants to escort her while she travels to the capital city of Sauer. Meanwhile, inside the castle of Queen Elmeyer, Chris and Baroness Bailaha greets a woman who is supposedly the Queen of Elmeyer. Baroness explains straight away that Chris is used to be in the squad which hunted the Scrapped Princess but he has since been relieved of the duty. The Baroness informs the Queen that thanks to the Queen's effort, Pacifica is alive and well. The Queen, however, sadly replies that the fact is, she hasn't done much for her daughter since she herself is imprisoned in this castle. The Queen kindly asks Chris to describe her daughter. Chris then tells the Queen that Pacifica is alive and healthy and is travelling with her foster brother and sister. This piece of information surprises the Queen who didn't know that Pacifica was adopted by someone and proceeds to ask the whereabouts of Pacifica's foster father and mother.

From the answer provided by Chris, we find out that Pacifica's foster mother died from sickness a few years ago while her foster father died trying to fend off an attack from one of the assassins who tried to kill Pacifica. Back to the so-called Princess in question, Pacifica is looking dumbfounded inside her bunk as she watch some kind of a performance that is projected onto the ceiling of the bunk. Seness then tells Pacifica outright that she hates her and proceeds to draw her sword, hoping to scare Pacifica but she was impressed when Pacifica neither scream or move an inch from her sword. The two then gets into an argument about Pacifica's raison d'etre and when Pacifica stated that although she'd rather die than destroying the world because the world contains people that she cares about, Seness becomes upset and leaves the room. As Seness leaves the room, she meets her Adjutant, Eirote Borchard and proceeds to tell her that she hates spoiled girls like Pacifica. Eirote kindly tells Seness that different people has different way of fighting and for Pacifica dying for the world is probably one.

Seness, however, think that it's a waste of life and proceeds to go into the beach to challange Shannon in a sword fight. She basically wants Shannon's D-Knight power so if she wins, Shannon has to become one of her army which she claims she wants to use to conquer the world. Meanwhile, somewhere beneath the sea, Zephiriss who have told Shannon that she can't interfere in human fights decide to find more information about the fortress. She quickly realises that the fortress is actually a 'vanguard'. At the same time, she's confronted by someone who looks similar to her which Zephiriss immediately recognise as Weapon Serial 14, Natalie. Back to Pacifica, Eirote decides to keep Pacifica a company and explains to her that unlike Pacifica's foster brother and sister, Seness' brother and sister never protected her. When Eirote first met Seness, Seness was hiding in the bush after being hit for many times by her brother who was afraid that Seness will be the one to take over the throne of the Giat Empire. Because of this Eirote decides to protect Seness even though she realises how foolish that is because Seness is stronger than she is.

Pacifica however replies that is not true at all. In her opinion, having even just one ally no matter how strong or weak they are, will give the strength for a person to go on. Eirote then tells Pacifica that they are not Pacifica's enemy and in fact, Pacifica's real enemy is not the Kingdom of Leinwan or the Mauser church. Back to Zephiriss and Natalie, Natalie continues her story that 5000 years ago, she almost perished and decided to transfer her personality into the vanguard instead of letting herself disappear completely. Natalie wonders if Zephiriss is not afraid at all for putting herself through self-applied upgrade to make herself stronger. Natalie thinks if Zephiriss tries too hard, she may loses her personality. Zephiriss, however, dismisses this and claims that she is just a weapon and to that extent she's there to grant Lord Beckenham, her previous master, his wish. Zephiriss adds that Shannon is just her temporary master and that she'll be gone once she accomplished her task. She has no plan on forgiving herself for failing to protect her previous master.

Meanwhile, Shannon has managed to beat Seness in the sword fight and realising this, Seness decides to take Shannon and Raquel back to Pacifica. Once they meet with Pacifica, Seness explains that the fortress official name is the 'Free Orbital Fortress Vanguard'. They have learned to operate the Vanguard from a person who have been sleeping inside it but unfortunately, she has lost most of her powers. Seness leads them to a room which opens to reveal Natalie in the midst of conversation with Zephiriss. Natalie introduce herself to Pacifica which she calls 'Providence breaker' as well as Pacifica's 'guardians'. While all of the introductions are happening, the group doesn't realise that one of the peacemaker, Steyr is closing in to the area by controlling every single person inside the empire Giat battleships.

Episode twelve continues from where the previous episode left off with Natalie continuing her introduction. She explains how unlike Zephiriss, she has lost most of her ability since the Genesis war. She's now just an emulation running on a virtual system that is constructed by the Vanguard. Seness adds that on top of that Natalie has informed them of the identity of this world. Natalie explains that this world is actually a fake world created to control humans and that their existence are the last hope that her master left. The last mechanism to destroy the shell of this world. Zephiriss asks Natalie if it isn't too early to tell them this information. Natalie, however, disagrees and said that they can comprehend it quite well and besides the Scrapped Princess needs to know her true role and power. However, before Natalie got the chance to explain further, Seness' guards alerted them that Giat's 2nd fleet is closing in battle formation and brings with them 29 ships in total to attack the Vanguard. Seness therefore decides to fend off the attack while allowing Natalie to tell the rest of the story to the Casulls.

Back to the others, Natalie explains to Pacifica that she is the key to break the control that the Peacemaker has on this world. She adds that the Peacemaker has been using the Mauser church to halt the Dragoons' plan because they fear the Providence breaker. Shannon asks if that means all of those 'Scrapped Princess' were created by the Dragoon and Natalie answers in the affirmative. She says that the plan, the providence breaker, and the guardians were created by the Dragoon and their masters. Shannon then wonders if by 'Guardians', Natalie meant himself and Raquel. Natalie answers that he is correct but they are not the only ones and reveals to them in multitude television screens (like the one in The Matrix) the faces of people that they've met, among those: Uinia, Leo, Bergens, Elfitine, Kidaf, and....Pacifica's foster father and mother. These, according to Natalie, are people who carry the factors of 'Guardians'.

Natalie adds that Shannon and Raquel's father and mother had the factors but they were not as strong as the factors that reside within Shannon's and Raquel's. These 'Guardians' have been 'planted' by the Dragoons to provide protection to the 'Providence Breaker' from the Peacemakers. Meanwhile Seness and her Scarlet soldiers are overwhelmed by the attack from Steyr and the Giat battleships she's controlling. The battle becomes even more uneven when Steyr sends a couple of 'Rally-points' monsters to devour Seness' soldiers. Not long after this, Pacifica and the others arrive at the control room and immediately is awed by the technological advance inside the control room such as the surveillance cameras. Seeing the situation that they're in, Shannon decides to transform into a Dragoon despite Zephiriss disagreement that he should not become a Dragoon because he doesn't fully trust her.

In retaliation, Steyr decides to transform into a full-fledged Peacemaker size and immediately begins to take control of everyone inside Seness' control room. Eirote explains that the Peacemaker has released a 'providence control' and no humans can fight that control because it's been engraved in humans' mind since they were born. There is an exception to this: the Scrapped Princess. The Scrapped Princess ability to cancel 'providence' is contagious. It is, however, incomplete at the moment and only activated when Pacifica is in danger or become highly emotional. Eirote also adds that the Peacemaker can't attack the Providence breaker directly and that is why they never attack Pacifica directly before. Therefore, by using Pacifica as a rally point, people can fight against God and create a revolution. Meanwhile in the battle field, Shannon is overwhelmed by Steyr attack and has decided to retreat to what Steyr called the 'Phase Space'. Inside the fortress, Seness orders her soldiers to seal every entry and leave everyone who don't make it locked outside because she doesn't want the chance of the influence to spread into the fortress.

Hearing this cold order, devastate Pacifica who feels guilty for being the source of the fight. In her sadness, Pacifica screams and unleashed her 'providence breaker' power, ultimately releasing every humans within her power from the control of the Peacemaker. Back to the battlefield, Steyr is caught unguard by Shannon who manages to stick a sword into her body. Steyr, however, is not amused and tells him that he can't kill her without his Dragoon power. Upon mentioning this, Shannon calls upon Zephiriss who immediately inhabits his body and sends devastating attack into Steyr's body, almost killing the Peacemaker had Cz, the other peacemaker does not interfere and save Steyr. Cz realises that trying to kill the Guardians and the providence breaker through clandestine manner won't work anymore. Therefore, they'll set a time and place for a final battle which will happen 15 days from now in the capital of Leinwan. The episode ends with the Vanguard fortress becoming a fully-activated, mobile battleship and moves toward the night.

Like I said before, these episodes have been quite the revelations galore. We know now that something happened 5000 years ago in the Genesis war that causes the humans to become entrapped in this 'fake world' (sounds a bit Matrix-y for my liking but I supposed it was created when the Matrix was popular). Pacifica and her guardians were created as the last defence mechanism to allow the humans to fight 'God' and the Peacemakers. That doesn't mean the series is devoid any mystery now because the answers also raises more questions. For example, the series made me wonder why would a God need to fear a providence breaker? If one is to assume that God is almighty and therefore is the one who created everyone including the Providence breaker, then why does he/she needs to seal the world and ruled the world with iron fist? I also want to know what happened to Zephiriss and her previous master, Lord Beckenham, 5000 years ago. There's also the mystery of how the fortress that is used by Seness contains some of the most technologically advanced equipments while the rest of the worlds seem to got stuck in the medieval setting.

© memento 2003