Tough episode to watch, man. The already tenuous relationship between Athanasia and her father hits a snag when she sounds exactly like her mother during breakfast. I mean, she’s drinking a tea from her mother’s homeland, so what did Claude expect? Two people can’t have the same opinion about something? But all of a sudden, Claude is too busy to see his daughter. He gives her hope just to snatch it away because she made an innocent, innocuous comment. Next thing you know, she’s burning pictures she’s drawn of her and her father. That’s legitimately heartbreaking. No matter how smart she is, Athanasia is still just a baby who just wants her father’s love and attention. I’m not even a father and I still feel all choked up over this scene.

Maybe Claude has actually been busy, but that’s still a poor excuse. If you can’t spare five minutes for your own kid — and five minutes is practically the bare minimum — there’s something wrong with you. But who’s here to tell him that? No one. He’s the emperor, after all. Is there a single person in this entire country with the moxie to criticize the emperor? Is there a single person in this entire country who isn’t afraid to stand up to him? I bet the answer is no. I bet this is why he’s so weird and awkward — why he’s such a terrible father. Not only is he poorly socialized, he probably doesn’t know the damn thing about being a good father. Someone should’ve scolded Claude a long time ago for neglecting his daughter, but that person doesn’t exist. All we get is a well-intentioned busybody in Felix. Let me smack this barrier with a sword! See? It rejected me! It didn’t reject you! Do you like my roundabout explanation of your father’s love?

But here’s the thing, right? We all know Claude’s a shitter. I know it, you know it, even the anime knows it. But the difference with the anime is that it still wants us to be sympathetic. It won’t outright tell us why Claude is so torn up about losing Diana, but we get little hints here and there. He doesn’t sleep well, because he suffers from nightmares. Maybe even every night. Only when Athanasia sings him a lullaby does he finally get some decent rest for once. Claude also makes a curious comment near the end of the episode: “In another year… I’d have been able to forget, but now…” Memories of Diana pain him so much that he just wants to get rid of them. But that also means he would have done exactly this if Athanasia hadn’t accidentally stumbled upon him in the first episode. That’s where my sympathy disappears. No matter how tragic the backstory might be, you can’t excuse treating your own daughter like this. I honestly think the well has been poisoned. I have no doubt that Athanasia’s relationship with her father will only continue to improve. They might even be able to hug each other when this series is said and done. But I don’t think I could ever respect this character. No shot.

Next week’s preview has Athanasia meeting several new faces, including the girl who is supposed to be her half sister. This signals to me that we’ve hit a milestone in the relationship between her and her father. We’re comfortable enough with the relationship to start moving the plot forward. And I guess you could argue that. Claude seems to accept that he won’t be forgetting Diana anytime soon. As a result, he uses magic to reconstruct one of his precious memories of her. Finally, Athanasia can finally see her mother’s face. Shh, just pretend that memories are completely accurate and infallible. Let the kid believe in fairy tales, alright? So sure, we’ve gotten somewhere. It ain’t much, but at least he probably won’t banish her to a tower anytime soon. I think. It still feels weird to say that we’ve hit a milestone, though.

I dunno, I was unsure about blogging this show after the first three episodes, and I’m still kinda iffy even now. I’ve got a slew of new shows to watch today, and while none of them seem all that promising at first glance, The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess hasn’t exactly set an insurmountable standard. The jury’s still out. Oh man, I just wanna play Final Fantasy Tactics. I’m like ten trophies away from getting the plat for one of my favorite childhood games. But nooooo, I gotta check out this anime about a dude who wants to fuck a clanker. What a cruel world.