The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess

Episode 7

This week, Athanasia learns a very important lesson: do not taunt incredibly powerful four-hundred-year-old wizards. Or maybe the lesson is to taunt them, because when he's not sending Athy on a vindictive little journey to meet Ezekiel, Lucas seems thrilled by the fact that she's not afraid of him. We still don't know much about him besides his profession and rough age, but before coming to Obelia, he seems to have spent a lot of time alone in his tower, just Rapunzel-ing it up as a combination of both princess and witch. Some of his teasing or harsher reactions feel less like Lucas is a jerk and more like he's completely forgotten how to interact with people, much less children. And he does care about Athy, as we see when she has her second encounter with the predatory pond weeds. It's not so much that he can't figure her out and more that he can't quite grasp his own reactions to her.

That's a bit of a common theme when it comes to men and boys interacting with the princess. Duke Alpheus is flummoxed by the way she's taken against him and thwarted his plans, Ezekiel isn't sure how she ended up in his garden and why she's hiding her identity (or being so kind to him), and Claude…well, Claude has the emotional intelligence of a garden snail, so he's mostly confused that he cares at all. But the common point is that none of them are entirely sure what's going on with Princess Athanasia or how to handle her. While it made more sense in the source material, the implication here is still that she doesn't act the way anyone expects, and that's what throws them all off. Generally speaking, princesses are probably supposed to be a lot more meek than Athy is.

But the main event this week is that we meet Ezekiel. Athy's dreams of the future led her to believe that he'd be in his father's pocket, but the boy she actually meets isn't Alpheus 2.0. Ezekiel seems quiet and anxious, and like he's been made to act much more grown up than he actually is, which we can see in all of his thoughts and actions. He's more like a tiny adult than an eight-or nine-year-old boy. He figures out who Athy is the minute he sees her jeweled eyes, but he respectfully hides that knowledge in a way that's not typical of his age. His main concern about being sent to study in another country isn't that he doesn't want to leave home, but that he's worried about Jennette, which again speaks to an outsize maturity. Alpheus doesn't appear to have done his son any favors in raising him to be “perfect,” and although Athy can't quite verbalize that, it's still clear that she notices.

More interestingly, though, is that she's very probably set him up for a better future. In her dreams, Ezekiel is his father's puppet, doing his bidding without objection. But that's before our Athy refused him as her study buddy. Since she did, he's being sent away to school, which at first looks like a bad thing. However, if you think about it, studying in a different country means that he'll be out from under his father's thumb. In being removed from the duke's sphere of influence, Ezekiel will have the chance to grow up into his own person, one who feels comfortable going against dear old dad's wishes. By refusing him as a companion, Athy has allowed him to change his future with his own hands.

That opens the door to more questions than answers. Will Jennette's fate also be altered by this change? How will Lucas's presence and Athy's mastery of water magic influence the future? Will Claude ever stop carrying his daughter like a naughty kitten? Actually meeting Jennette next week should start to give us some idea.

Rating:

The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.