So Lucas disappears, and Claude no longer remembers Athy. We’re back to square one, except Athy is a teenager with powers. I guess that’s marginally better than being a baby with no powers, but still, what the hell, man? The worst part is that there’s no need for this. In order to save her father in the first place, Athy had to break through his defensive barrier — his trauma of losing his wife — and thus make him remember that he still has his daughter. So when he still loses his memories of her anyway, it’s like for what? Why rehash this storyline? I can’t help but think that this is just a cheap ploy to keep viewers or readers hooked. No, please, don’t leave! We have more story to tell… uh, Claude doesn’t love Athy anymore! So you gotta stick around to see if she can thaw his heart again! Yeah! The sad part is that we already have an overarching villain ready to go! It’s that evil wizard who created this mess in the first place. It’s that evil wizard who has been in cahoots with Duke What’s-his-face. Future storylines can be about taking him down, so we don’t need to redo the whole Claude bullshit again! So again, what the hell, man?
“Oh, did you expect every series to have a happy ending?”
No, but this isn’t even an ending. Hell, it’s not even just a big, fat “to be continued” with no closure whatsoever. This show has the gall to hit the reset button. It’s taking my feelings, throwing them on the floor, stepping on them repeatedly, and saying, “Well, let’s do that again!” But I’m a petty man, so I’d rather just cut the cord here. Like with Sanda, I’d rather just say, “Aight, I’m done. You’ve shown me what you’re willing to do, which is spit in my face, so I’m good.” And this isn’t anything new. I also hated how the first season of Dandadan ended. You can argue that it was a split cour, fine. But Dandadan was so good, I had to keep watching. On the other hand, The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess is just… aight. It’s pretty decently animated. I didn’t love the fact that Athy’s entire story is all about winning her deadbeat father’s love, but I was still relatively emotionally invested in her journey. Nevertheless, the show isn’t good enough to do this sort of “non-ending.”
There are so many things I can be doing with my time instead of being jerked around by an “aight” show. I have a huge backlog of games to play and books to read. Redoing the Claude storyline would be a huge waste of my time. Maybe I’ll change my mind after some time has passed. Maybe by the time another season rolls around in a year or two, I’ll relent and take another look at this series. But for now, I’m pissed, so to hell with Athy’s story. I don’t care if she ever wins her father’s affections back, ’cause we already did it! We’ve been through this exact storyline. Now we want to do it again?! I have no desire to do so. Nor do I have the patience to see whether or not some creepy ass hundreds-year-old wizard ever returns to our teenage princess’s side. I tried to ignore this red flag for so long, because Athy’s a charming character. I wanted to see if she ever got her happy ending. But now? Nah man, we’ve got to stop forgiving a jerkass dude just because he’s hot.
Stray thoughts & observations:
- Some evil version of Athy shows up and starts whispering doubts into her ears. She also shows our Athy glimpses of the other timeline, so I guess we get to see what really happened. She tried to bake some sweets for her father, but Jennette took a bite instead and immediately collapsed. The sweets were apparently laced with a poison, but Athy thought it was a potion that would make her father love her. As such, she was imprisoned. Obviously, this Athy was framed, but for what end? Oh look, it’s the daughter of a dancer who can’t even use magic! Let’s fuck her life up even more! Why does it serve the evil mastermind’s purpose to frame a girl whom Claude was already ignoring like the asshole that he is? Welp, I guess I’ll never find out ’cause I have no desire to continue watching this show!
- It’s unclear to me if evil Athy is a product of her own self-doubt or if it’s actually the evil mastermind trying to interfere and prevent her from saving Claude.
- So Athy is imprisoned by her doubt and insecurities, but her mother shows up out of nowhere to save the poor girl. At first, I thought this was just a figment from Claude’s mind since, y’know, we’re in his memories. But no, this is the real thing, because she has the ability to lift the seal that has been holding back Athy’s power. In the process, evil Athy simply disintegrates. I don’t think a dude’s memories of his late wife would be able to do that. So… how is Diana doing this? Has she briefly returned from the dead just to save her husband and daughter? It’s like deus ex machina but with your mother’s ghost. Did she cast a spell before dying that would allow her spirit to linger around long enough to lift her the seal? But again, I’ll never find out!
- Hell, if Diana could do this all along, maybe she should show up in her husband’s dreams and tell him to stop being such a shit dad.
- So our princess gets her magical girl transformation and saves her father. Kinda. I mean, she saves the man who looks like her father. But this guy is back to being a deadbeat, so did she really? Did Athy really save Claude at all?
- And just like that, Lucas fucks off. “Oh, I can’t protect you, so I need to leave you in order to find enough magic to protect you.” Cool story, bro. Athy sends him a letter via magic, but I bet he won’t even write back. But people will forgive him anyway, ’cause he’s hot. “LOOK HE’S NEVER HAD A FRIEND BEFORE SO THAT’S WHY HE TRIED TO SCREW OVER THE WORKING CLASS!” Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. At least I won’t be complaining about this guy anymore!
- I think I would’ve ended the first season right after the debutante ball. Sure, that was the eleventh episode, but they could’ve gone back and fleshed out some of the previous subplots. This way, we’d end on the twelfth or maybe even the thirteenth episode. I still would’ve been pissed to redo the whole “please stop being a deadbeat, Claude!” subplot, but not as pissed as I am now.
