Scrapped Princess ep.13-15

April 14, 2004 | 3 Comments

I just realised that I have a rather long list of previous seasons' anime that I haven't completed yet. I normally like to take my time with them but it's a bit overwhelming right now due to the sheer amount of new series that I try to watch. Having said that, I don't want to drop them off my watching list either since thus far most of them are actually quite good. I guess I just have to keep doing it as much as I can while keeping up with the new series. Speaking of the older series, Scrapped Princess is getting more and more interesting now that I've finished the first half of the series. The series has definitely answered the majority of the mysteries thus far even if those answers are provided in expository manner. And those answers in some ways explain why Pacifica is referred to as "the girl who will destroy the world" by the other characters in the show.

The thirteenth episode starts with a flashback from Zephiriss' memory. The flashback concerns that of her previous master, Lord Beckenham, who turns out to have similar physical resemblance to Shannon Cassull. It's clear from this flashback that Zephiriss blames herself a great deal for being unable to protect her previous master. The next day, Raquel awakens Pacifica from her sleep and the two have a light conversation about the battleship that they use to navigate the sea. They're basically amazed at the futuristic and advance technologies that are available inside the ship such as two ways monitor, intercom, etc. Anyway, The Casulls eventually join Seness and Eirote in the dining room and they discuss their options to deal with the threat given by the Peacemakers. At the end of the day, however, they all agree that they can't let thousands of people die in vain and therefore decide to set the ship to the Sauer capital.

All of them then head towards the control room and along the way, Seness asks The Casulls if any of them knows the meaning of the continent's name. Raquel answers that 'Dustbin' means a trash can in human's ancient language. Seness confirms that Raquel is correct and comments on how sad that humans are considered as trash and are trapped and sealed in this world. The Casulls are a bit surprised upon hearing this and wonder what Seness means by 'trapped'. Seness explains that Lord Browning, who is considered by Mauser Church's followers as the devil was in truth is one of human ancestors. He and the rest of mankind once fought the beings that the Mauser Church referred to as 'Gods' by creating powerful weapons. Mankind, however, lost the battle and ended up being sealed in this continent by the Mauser Faith and is regularly observed by the Peacemakers. This imprisonment has apparently lasted for 5000 years.

Eirote adds that after long years of being imprisoned in this continent, mankind has slowly forgotten that they are in fact, prisoners. Mankind's knowledge and powers which were very advanced 5000 years ago has also been taken away and civilization was then set to to a period known as the middle ages to prevent mankind from developing similar type of power that they used to have. In addition to this, Peacemakers' supervision ensures that mankind does not develop their knowledge. A small number of humans who lived outside the continent have actually been trying to set the trapped humans free. But in order to do that, they need powerful forces. Using human DNA, the factors that were used in the war 5000 years ago were scattered throughout the continent with precise calculations so that it'll create future guardians and providence breaker which can be used to fight the enemy in the future.

The Grendel prophecy was then created to prevent the rise of the Providence Breaker. This is because Providence Breaker is able to repel the authority of the Peacemakers, gain the will to defeat them, and give other people similar type of will. On top of that, Peacemakers can't kill Providence Breaker. I think by now, it's understandable why the Mauser Church calls Pacifica 'the girl who will destroy/poison the world'. If Pacifica functions as a catalyst that can destroy the imprisonment that mankind is currently in, then in some form, she really is the world's destroyer, or at least this 'fake' world that mankind currently occupies. Anyway, Pacifica and her siblings are obviously confused with these explanations because it's like having someone telling them that their whole life turns out to be a lie. Never the less, they have no time to get repeat explanation because the ship suddenly powers down for some reason.

It soon becomes obvious that the ship has been stopped by Natalie and Zephiriss who think that the humans are heading to a trap if they go into Sauer capital. Both Natalie and Zephiriss think that the lives of 40,000 dead people are preferable than the lost of Guardians and Providence Breaker. Their argument is obviously not winning any favour with anyone and Seness immediately suggests that they manually turn on the generator themselves instead of relying on the Dragoons to do it. Pacifica, Seness, Raquel, and Shannon then start to enter the engine room and The Casulls immediately wonder why the battleship was built to begin with. Eirote explains that was because they were in a war with intelligent alien beings. Because of this war, biological weapons like Zephiriss, Natalie, and BUGs were developed. Unfortunately, they were not very effective in the battle and human leaders, George Browning, had to came up with another idea. The idea was to place a powerful seer called Celia inside a free orbital fortress so she can utilise the technology to create precise prediction.

Thanks to the combination, humans were able to predict the enemy's attack beforehand. However, despite this effort humans were still overwhelmed by the enemy's attack and to make things worse, Celia then betrayed humanity and joined the enemy. As the group gets further into the machine room their movement are observed by Natalie who thinks that maybe brainwashing the Guardians by hacking 'the system' is not such a bad idea to deter the group from going further. Zephiriss argues that Dragoons have no right to interfere with human's free will but Natalie replies that she's not a Dragoon anymore. She's just a virtual personality and she's about to do what is need to be done to protect the Providence Breaker. Meanwhile in the Castle of Pacifica's original family, Chris continues his investigation but is interrupted by Forciss who tells him that he knows his real identity but won't interfere. Forciss, however, asks Chris to at least let him know what Chris has find out thus far. Back at the Giat's battleship, Seness and Raquel all of sudden is separated from Pacifica and Shannon.

Episode fourteen continues from where episode thirteenth left with Shannon and Pacifica being separated from Seness and Raquel. Shannon is immediately greeted by Natalie while Pacifica ends up talking to Zephiriss. Raquel and Seness, on the other hand, get a visit from Raquel's supposedly dead father. Upon seeing him, however, Raquel immediately executes a spell to destroy the form. She then tells Seness that her father is dead and she was the one who cleaned him up and burnt him. So a mere mind illusion will never be able to convince her that her father is still alive. Meanwhile, in the city of Sauer, Baroness Bailaha gathers her Obstinate Arrow team to tell them that the King has issued a direct order to kill his own daughter. To make things worse, since Pacifica is now joining forces with Scarlet team, if Sauer tries to kill her now, there could be potential war between Sauer and Giat. Baroness' seer, Jill, also saw the possibility of the Sauer Royal Forces to use a long-banned magic called Super Range Strategic Class Assault.

At the same time, Pacifica receives another session of exposition but this time coming from one of the Dragoons themselves, Zephiriss. According to her, long time ago, humans had the ability to reach the space and the stars. However, one day unknown enemy appears from one of the stars and began attacking for unknown reasons. Humans try to fight by producing weapons such as Zephiriss themselves, which are called Dragoons. Dragoons are supposed to have God-like power and are therefore called the last beast. However, there are flaw in the AI design of the weapons. Many ended up malfunctioning, leaving only 26 units in operation. The remaining 26 units ended up receiving heavy protection and without the permission of their riders, D-Knights, they can't use 90% of their combat-purpose program. Because of this inefficiency, Dragoons are only used for limited wars. Their replacements are the units called the Valkyrie. However, the Valkyrie units ended up brainwashed by the enemy and turned against humanity by becoming the Peacemakers.

Zephiriss then asks Pacifica as to what she should do in regards to making a decision in regards to Natalie. Apparently Natalie is about to brainwash Shannon so that he won't feel remorse over the death of thousands of people as long as Pacifica is alive. Zephiriss wants to know what Pacifica thinks she should do because Pacifica is the only person who is similar to her previous master, in the sense that they both accept Zephiriss for what she is and does not fear her. Elsewhere in the ship, Shannon's brainwashing has started. He starts seeing images of his parents when they first encountered baby Pacifica and decided to save her. His parents then named the baby 'Pacifica' because they want the baby to be loved by everyone and not neglected and thrown away like the first time they met her. Meanwhile, Seness and Raquel manage to reach the central control room and they start reading the manual which turns out to be written in an ancient language called English. Seness activates the power and the ships begin to move again.

Pacifica finally manages to find Shannon and Natalie but unfortunately, Shannon is completely brainwashed by now. He doesn't care about anything else as long as Pacifica is alive and well. Zephiriss tells Pacifica that the only way they can return Shannon's remorse is by tapping into his mind. Pacifica agrees and is immediately transported by Zephiriss into Shannon's mind. Inside her foster sibling's mind, Pacifica sees how happy Shannon was when he was a kid. She saw how Shannon attempts to cheer up Pacifica because she can't get an egg to make an omelette. She also saw how happy her foster family was when they have lunch together. Clearly, Pacifica's presence in The Cassulls' home actually brought some happiness for the family which explains why both Shannon and Raquel fight tooth and nail to defend their foster sister. The show then shows us the time when Pacifica asks Shannon for the first time if she's not his real sister because she's different from him and Raquel.

Shannon, however, told her not to worry about such things and promised that he'll protect her and the lifestyle that she enjoys so much. The problem is, these memories reinforces Shannon's brainwash and makes him reject every suggestions that will separate him from Pacifica. Meanwhile, the real Pacifica has seen enough and decides to confront her foster brother but since Shannon is still under the influence of the brainwash process, he ended up stabbing the real Pacifica with a sword. Pacifica was about to keel over until the happy laughter of fantasy Shannon and Pacifica grates on her and she decides to punch and slap her foster brother to get him back to reality. Fortunately for her, the simple method seems to bring Shannon back to reality. Seeing Pacifica's perseverance, Natalie relents and agrees that right now the only way to go is to probably face the Peacemakers. Pacifica then thanks Zephiriss for helping her to bring back Shannon into reality.

Episode fifteen shortly changes its focus from Pacifica and her companions to the situation that is brewing inside the Sauer capital. The King (or Pacifica's real father) has gathered every important politicians and generals to discuss what they should do in regard to Giat's supposed 'invasion'. General Peters Stahl, who is ambitious about his plan in conquering Giat, suggesting the use of the forbidden magic, much to the shock of Baroness Bailaha. The Baroness then tries in vain to persuade The King that Giat's skid battleship may not have harmful intention. However, The King seems to be hell bent on killing 'The Scrapped Princess' and release an order to attack the Skid by any means necessary including the use of the old forbidden magic. After hearing this order, Baroness has no choice but to gather her Obstinate Arrow crew to let them know about the progress. She, however, tells them they have to make their own decision whether or not to join in the war. Chris, immediately choose to leave the meeting to let Forciss know about the development.

After hearing the news, Forciss attempts to persuade his father to think the whole thing over before engaging in a war. However, his father ends up acting like a maniac and accuses Forciss of looking like his mother, who disobeyed him and let Pacifica go in safety. The King thinks that Forciss probably has the same eyes as Pacifica. Meanwhile, Uinia and Leo have finally arrive in front of Baroness Bailaha's house where Chris supposedly resides. However, once Chris arrived at the house, he immediately ignores Uinia and harshly slam the gate shut so to prevent her from coming over. Uinia is clearly disappointed but choose to take a glass half-full perspective by reasoning that Chris probably has his reason for acting indifferent. Meanwhile, the Mauser Church's priests have finally received the order to use the Forbidden magic. At first the priests refuse and attempt to explain that the magic will hurt many people who live in the coastal area. However, they are silenced by their superior who tells them that the order comes from The King himself.

Meanwhile back at the Skid battleship, Shannon and Pacifica has an argument about Zephiriss. Shannon doesn't think that Zephiriss can be trusted while Pacifica tells him that he should thank his lucky star that Zephiriss helped him to get out of the brainwash. They, however, decide to can their argument because there is a more important matter at hand. Zephiriss thinks that the Peacemakers plan to use the forbidden magic that Lenard attempted to use on the heretics a couple of episodes ago. Raquel thinks that if the spell is cast by trained wizard, the result can be devastating. Zephiriss then informs them that the rule that prohibits the use of the forbidden magic has been taken away thanks to the Peacemaker's influence of the Mauser Church. And to make things worse, although the Skid can withstand the magic, the Peacemaker is about to change that very soon. Not long after this, the Scarlet team immediately finds out that their defence system is decreasing for unknown reason.

Natalie then appears to tell them that they better run away now because the ship has turned into a floating target. However, despite their attempt to move the ship, there seems to be some kind of force that prevents them from moving it. Shannon then decides to distract the Peacemaker so that hopefully, it'll allow the ship to move away from the place. Shannon requests to Zephiriss that she releases all of the power that she possesses. Zephiriss at first is reluctant but when Shannon insisted, she can't do anything but obey the order. Immediately, Shannon is transformed into a black flying Dragon. Seeing the development of the situation, CZ decides to confront Shannon in a fight so that he won't be able to focus his attention on the other Peacemakers. CZ then transforms into her Divine Punishment form and starts attacking Shannon's Dragon form. At the same time, abnormal weather condition starts to happen around the coastal area. The water from the sea seems to slowly being sucked into the cloudy area, creating a huge vortex in the sky.

Inside the ship, Raquel realises that a powerful spell is approaching the ship so she immediately chants a magic that protects everyone inside the ship by encasing them in a blue magical sphere. Unfortunately, at that point she was far away from Pacifica and can't do anything to reach her foster sister without breaking the spell. As Pacifica calls after her foster sister in fear, a gigantic black orb materialises from beneath the ship and devours the ship in its entirety then turns it into dusts. Shannon, who's in the middle of the fight with CZ can only watch in despair. CZ uses this opportunity to get away from the fight and flies to safety. Not long after the incident, General Stahl declares that the forbidden magic has destroyed the Skid and the Scrapped Princess. Meanwhile, at the nearby coast, the remains of the destroyed Skid can be seen all around the coast. A man called Fulle decides to survey the damage and as he does it, he encounters an amnesiac Pacifica. Much to his annoyance, Pacifica decides to follow Fulle around just in case he meets someone that she knows.

I personally am quite pleased with the ending of episode fifteen. Everyone is now completely separated from each other and I expect that this will place quite a strain on each character considering that they used to be together most of the time. And on top of things, Pacifica has now lost her memory and is separated from people who have always protected her. Thankfully for her, she seems to have met someone who is kind. Fulle looks a bit like Shannon, well except for the earring part and the slightly softer voice. I am also glad to finally see the real reason why Shannon and Raquel are hell bent on protecting Pacifica. So their reason is definitely not one of those 'our parents told us to' variety, but instead because they really enjoy their foster sister's company. It was also interesting to see the contrast between Pacifica's real father and Pacifica's adopted father. While one simply wants to kill his own daughter so that he'll be relieved of his own shame, the other wants his adopted daughter to be loved by everyone and therefore decides to name her Pacifica.

© memento 2003