Scrapped Princess ep.7-9

January 18, 2004 | 0 Comments

One of the things that impresses me about this series is the part where it has always been able to introduce new characters on a regular basis while still manages to develop the existing characters as well as the story. Because of this, the world of Scrapped Princess feels vast and immense. There's a sense that the entire show is one big adventure for the three main protagonist, Pacifica, Shannon, and Raquel. On top of that, these new characters often shows another side of the main characters that we'll otherwise won't see if they only interact with one another.

Episode seven is a good example of this. In this episode, a new character called Suin appears and creates a bit of a ripple between the Casulls. Suin is a little girl who Shannon finds standing in front of a city gate looking lost, sad and lonely. Suin doesn't remember any of her past and simply thinks that she has to wait in front of the gate for someone. Feeling sorry for the little girl, Shannon decides to take her back to his hideout with Pacifica and Raquel. Suin's arrival, however, is not taken very well by Pacifica who feels jealous of Shannon's affection for the little girl. Suin's arrival seems to have triggered the dormant non-sisterly feelings that she has for Shannon even though she knows it's silly to do so since Suin is just a little girl. Things got even worse for Pacifica when Zephiriss appears in front of her asking her to kill Suin if she wants her foster brother and sister to stay alive.

Episode eight starts with Pacifica looking shocked at hearing Zephiriss' request and refusing to consider it. However, she becomes terrified when Zephiriss' form helplessly dissolves into the thin air as Suin appears next to them. As a result, when she sees Suin running into Shannon, her fear of losing Shannon took over, causing her to grab and throw Suin away from Shannon. This causes Shannon to become angry at Pacifica and vice versa. It's not long before the two say things that they'll later regret. Pacifica accuses Shannon of having an obsessed need to protect someone to the point that protecting anyone will do. Shannon, on the other hand, is angry at Pacifica's action and is dismayed to know that Pacifica doesn't believe his sincerity in wanting to protect her.

Meanwhile Chris has been sent by Baroness Bailaha to investigate the Cardinal Garnest Hogue of the Mauser Church. This Cardinal is the General of the purgers annihilation squad who almost eliminated the Taurus village back in episode three. Chris grills the Cardinal about the 5111th Prophecy, telling him that since there is no hard copy left about the Oracle of Grendel and the prophecy, he wants to hear the prophecy from the Cardinal's mouth first hand. Chris questions the cardinal about the fact that the prophecy has been wrong twice in the past, asking the cardinal if it's possible for an almighty 'God' to make a mistake two times in a row. He also questions the decision of 'God' to kill what looks like an innocent girl as well as the entire Taurus village.

Back to the Casulls, Shannon decides to patch things up with Pacifica by buying an earring from the nearby village. Unfortunately on his way back to the hideout, Suin, who follows him, is almost hit by a carriage while trying to pick a flower for Pacifica. Shannon manages to push Suin off to safety but not before he injures himself badly. Pacifica who sees Shannon injured becomes even more angry at Suin, causing the poor girl to run away feeling guilty. However, eventually both Pacifica and Shannon admits their mistake and Pacifica realises that she's been unfairly blaiming Suin and decides to look for the girl. Meanwhile Shannon gets another visitation from Zephiriss who told him that she's been trying to contact him all of this time but have been unable to do so because an artillery type Peacemaker has been halting her attempts. That Peacemaker is Suin.

Pacifica finally manages to catch up with Suin and tells her that she's sorry for making Suin feels guilty. Pacifica says that she's always wanted a little sister and she wants Suin to become hers. Pacifica decides to prove this by giving Suin one half of the earrings that Shannon gave to her as a present, telling Suin that this means she and Pacifica will always be together. However, the reconcilliation between the two is interrupted by a Peacemaker named Steyr Civilian. Steyr explains that Suin is actually CZ, a Peacemaker that she's supposed to pick up from the city gate. Since CZ is an artillery type Peacemaker, her real form was compressed to facilitate easy movement. But while there was an attempt to uncompressed CZ, CZ's counterpart Galil died in the hand of Shannon and Zephiriss. As a result, CZ didn't have the chance to be fully uncompressed, leaving her form as a little girl and her memory non-existent.

Pacifica who realises the danger of the situation tells Suin to run as she attacks Steyr. However, Steyr manages to easily dodge Pacifica's attack, while closing in on Suin. Steyr then levitates Suin, causing the little girl to scream in pain, asking for help from Pacifica. Pacifica tries to help unsuccesfully as Steyr ripping off Suin's form, and changing her into the real form, CZ, a beautiful young woman. Shannon, Raquel, and Zephiriss finally reach the location of Pacifica and the two peacemakers. Zephiriss, attempts to stop the two by taking over Shannon's body and starts attacking both Steyr and CZ. Unfortunately, Steyr managed to deflect the attack and run away with CZ. The episode ends with the Casulls feeling sad because they've just lost what could have been another member of their family. Pacifica hopes that there's a way to revert CZ back to Suin but unfortunately Zephiriss suggests that there is no trace of Suin's personality in CZ.

In episode nine, the Casulls get to meet one of Mauser church's Heretics procurators named Bergens. Heretics procurators are basically henchmen who are assigned the task of capturing those people who don't believe in Mauser God in order to convert them. Despite this fact, Pacifica and Raquel think that Bergens is kind and hospitable and actually reminds them of Raquel and Shannon's deceased dad. Shannon, who seems to be jealous of Bergen's brotherly vibe towards Pacifica, however, is miffed at the suggestion that the guy looks like his deceased father. Never the less the four of them end up going the same way since Bergens has some business to attend to, one of which was looking for the Scrapped Princess.

However, before they manage to reach their destination, they stumbled upon a hidden village that is obscured from the normal eyes through the use of magic illusion. The village turns out to be the hideouts of people who refuse to believe in Mauser God. Of course, since Bergens is Mauser church's heretics procurator, the villagers immediately captures him. And since the Casulls are with him, they are taken to see the leaders, a woman named Elfitine and a guy wearing a Noh mask named Lenard. After some conversation, Elfitine and Lenard decide that the Casulls have the same belief as the villagers (non-believers) and decide to release them. After some conversation with Elfitine and Lenard, however, the Casulls are shocked to find out that the villagers refer to Elfitine as 'The Scrapped Princess'.

Upon hearing this, the Casulls decide to stick around for a couple more days to find out more information about the villagers as well as the two leaders. They learned that most of the villagers don't have a family and that they worship another God called Lord Browning. We then find out that in this world that Pacifica and the other lives in, people believe that the source of magic is actually a curse. A curse that the 'Devil' Lord Browning cast upon the world before he died after falling in a battle against the creator, Mauser. Lenard explains, however, that even though society thinks of Lord Browning as a 'Devil', the ancient tomb that was burned by the Mauser church for being heretical contains proof that Mauser is actually the 'Devil' who oppressed humans. And that Browning is actually a God that fought Mauser with the help of 26 Dragoons. The episode ends with Elfitine and Lenard about to perform a ceremony which supposed to change the world.

Overall it's interesting to see that more and more people within the series start to question their faith and their belief. Chris, for example, obviously starts to think that something is amiss with the prophecy. Meanwhile, we get to see some people who obviously don't worship the Mauser God and who are being hunted for not choosing that said God. We also get to see the dark side of the Mauser church being expanded upon. Obviously a church that is willing to decimate a village full of people already look questionable. But here we get the suggestion that the 'God' that the society worships may not be a 'God' after all. It makes me wonder how they started worshipping this 'God' to begin with. I like that the series puts forth even more questions while manages to answer some of them on every single episode.

© memento 2003