We were better off with this movie not existing.
Animation just as bad as the filler arcs of the show.
Grandis and Co. Knocking Jean out without a care in the world and then caring when it's convenient, as if no chemistry carried over from the show.
Who names their child "Fuzzy" be fr.
This is an extremely flat villain; a joke to compare him to Gargoyle.
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Aug 9, 2022
Scrapped Princess
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings Spoiler
I enjoyed the premise of the show, three people standing against their societal power structures for the love of their family. It was sloppy in execution.
Episodes 1 through 10 is where I thought the show was at its best; traveling on the road to a destination with enemy of the day scenarios that set up an overarching villain, where the enemies posed a threat but they weren't overwhelming to the main characters (mainly Shannon) like the Peacemakers would end up being. Shannon and Pacifica's characterization is the best here because at this point their attention wasn't solely focused on a singular issue/threat like in ... episodes 11 through 15. We saw the gentler parts of Shannon's personality here that we don't get for quite a bit of the rest of the show, & these first 10 episodes in my opinion help carry your interest in this character for the remaining 14 episodes. Episodes 11 through 15, I think the storytelling takes a nosedive. The character of Seness Giat is introduced, she's perpetually angry that Pacifica isn't using her power in a way that Seness wants her to, and she's willing to drop Shannon on a dime as soon as he's not immediately useful to her, even though she wants Shannon on her side for his power. (Seness only being useful after this for backup in fights.) She infodumps on the group within a few episodes that humanity was locked in a barricaded off section of Earth by their alien foes after the humans lost the Genesis War and Pacifica's purpose is to free them. Except the writers don't want the main characters to understand this, and have the 3 siblings act dumb to this knowledge. Shannon had already killed a Peacemaker prior to this, but his attitude all but like the last 2 times he and Zefiris work together to kill them, is overwhelmingly negative. Zefiris explains to Shannon that because he doesn't trust her, that their fusion won't be successful and could have negative side effects to his brain, but they never address that again. They could have explained his pre-transformation anger as that side-effect, but they never address it, let alone as a bad thing. Stress could be a valid reason for his reaction, but they never choose to address it to give that as a reason. Throughout the show they bring up him not trusting her a few more times, and that it could be related to her using him to complete her mission so he feels like a pawn to her, but they never have a discussion about that or his trust issues. He only gets over his trust issues because she submits to his will. Why? They never give her thought process, they only show her uncomfortable when Natalie makes the siblings upset. But as to why she puts what Shannon wants over what she thinks is her mission is unclear. Episodes 16 through 24... I'm not exactly sure why people praise Pacifica getting amnesia as a smart writing choice, it only serves to kill time at the capital. Fulle is introduced but he's just Shannon with no personality, in my opinion. Shannon has the time to reconnect with Cz, but because it doesn't go anywhere; he makes no headway with Cz, doesn't learn anything meaningful from her, and doesn't convince her to come over to their side. He just walks around the city looking for Pacifica and moping around. Pre Pacifica getting captured, I think the most interesting scene is Shannon spending a moment with Fulle's dead body, it seemed like the writer's were trying to do some sort of parallel between Fulle and Shannon. What exactly they were trying to say alludes me. Pacifica loves the kind of man Shannon is and liked that within Fulle? And Shannon was in a way laying a reflection of himself to rest? Pacifica mistaking Shannon for Fulle in the castle in episode 20 lends itself to this reading. After Pacifica is captured & imprisoned the show gives what I think is the most touching scene of the show with Pacifica being unknowingly reunited with her mother. It seems like her mother knows it's her despite Pacifica going by Pamela at the time because Pacifica said she was the Scrapped Princess. I'll talk about Shannon's conversation with Zefiris after Pacifica gets her memory back further down. I figured from the start Chris would become an ally to Pacifica and it played out here as I expected. The 3 siblings are reunited & Pacifica has to choose herself or potentially the lives of the rest of the kingdom, I'll address this further down. Prince Forsyth, I had a feeling would end up harming Pacifica, didn't expect an attempted murder suicide- Although it makes sense because his mother was killed by his father, Pacifica was wanted dead by his father & could have destroyed the lives of his citizens for all he knew, and his father didn't love him. So it didn't seem like he had all that much to live for, and by going down with his sister it could to him feel like a moment of sharing the bond of death? The plot point of the gatekeeper woman that betrayed humanity in the Genesis War to save her siblings makes sense, but I just don't get where the "Guardian Gene" came from and who created it, because it wasn't the gatekeeper woman because she didn't want the system destroyed, and it wasn't her siblings because they died in the war, so who created it and why did they make it in a way that Pacifica looked like the gatekeeper woman and the Guardians looked like her siblings? And how did it just happen to be the secondary characters they were friends with that they met randomly also had the Guardian Genes? Doesn't add up. I'll buy Pacifica being brought back to life but... Why did they set her down in Shannon's hands naked. The writers forced that situation on Shannon, why? Incest joke not funny. The siblings being reunited was a nice scene, the writers hid quite a bit of Shannon's emotions by having him turn away his face or showing just the back of his head. I think those weren't good calls, toxic masculinity moves, let him show his emotions to the audience, don't you want us to connect with him? But we got to see him cry & I'm happy for that. The ending wrapped up pretty nicely. (I have nothing bad to say about Raquel, she was prefect the entire time.) So now I wanna go over two themes they brought up in the show but didn't go anywhere with. Leopold is a knight who buys into patriarchy & the concept of chivalry, and has a moral code that aligns with the societal system. That code tells him to kill Pacifica, but he doesn't agree with doing that and throws the concept of who is right or wrong and the concept of chivalry into question. Despite being on Pacifica's side the entire show, he never figures out that the moral code of society is what he should reject in favor of his own reasoning, and ends the show not figuring out what chivalry means to him or if he should just not follow it all together. (Having just finished Revolutionary Girl Utena I wanted him to reject chivalry.) The second theme addresses Pacifica's question, is her life worth more than potentially everyone in the kingdom? And Shannon's question, how many lives is worth Pacifica's life? Pacifica's question does at least get a conclusion, she determines her life is worth preserving even if that means everyone in the kingdom could die. But at no point do we get the reasoning behind how she made that decision other than saying she wants to keep living to be with her friends and family. Shannon does a flip and we never get him explaining why he did. Episode 10 Shannon decides to let Grendel get destroyed by the fake Scrap Princess cult. It would get rid of his enemies and could be what saves Pacifica from being killed by the church/government, at the expense of the lives of the citizens who also live there. Shannon is convinced to stop them out of a plea for humanity, but isn't necessary convinced he was wrong to want to choose Pacifica's life over the people at Grendel. Episode 13 the Peacemakers threaten to kill 1000 people everyday past the grace period of the 3 siblings not returning to Leinwan, but don't address the question of who is worth more, only that they might as well go back because what else could they do? Natalie tries to brainwash Shannon into choosing Pacifica over the people, but never say why they should choose the people. After Pacifica gets her memories back, Shannon has to choose between fighting the Peacemakers destroying the capital or going after Pacifica, and he chooses to fight the Peacemakers saying that he won't tolerate all the needless deaths, but what was his thought process when choosing the citizens over Pacifica when he's always been serious about his oath to protect Pacifica? Episode 23 when Forsyth stabs Pacifica and Shannon has to choose between saving Pacifica's life and saving the capital, he chooses the capital, and Pacifica *dies* because he chooses the capital citizens. What made him decide that thousands of people's lives were more important than Pacifica's? This question is very interesting for his character, and only he and Pacifica ever get internal monologue, so it was a waste of the writers to never give him time to think about what he prioritizes to the audience. Overall, I give the show a 6. It has some issues but I had a good time bingeing it and I would call myself a fan. (Love my Shannon statue <3)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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