The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess

Episode 8

At long last, we meet, Jennette. But who, or what, are you? As far as Athanasia's dreams led her to believe, Jennette is Claude's illegitimate daughter, taken in and raised by Duke Alpheus until the moment she replaces Athy as the crown princess. That's all well and suitable for dramatic purposes (betraying the fact that dreams have replaced a novel called The Lovely Princess in this adaptation), it raises a lot of questions even before Lucas realizes Jennette's true identity.

Not the least of those issues is that if Jennette and Athy are supposed to be around the same age, with Jennette being the younger of the two, if not, the chances of her actually being Claude's child drop dramatically. Although Diana, Athy's mother, hasn't played a huge role in the story, the most crucial piece of lore is how madly in love Claude was with her. He even ignored his own daughter because she reminded him of his lost wife. Would a man so devoted to his spouse have an affair with his ex-fiancée? If Athy and Jennette are the same age, that means he would have had to sleep with his ex while Diana was still alive. If Jennette were born slightly before or after Athy, he'd either be courting Diana or mourning her, which still doesn't make sense for a man who eschewed all company save that he couldn't avoid. It just doesn't add up.

Of course, we do know that Claude had an older brother. Could Jennette be his illegitimate child instead? Maybe, but again, the timing doesn't quite work, since Claude was already the king when Athy was conceived, and that was unlikely to happen if his brother was still alive. So there's almost no chance that Jennette is truly related to Claude and Athy, despite her jeweled eyes…which is where Lucas' observation that she's a chimera comes in. Unlike in other stories, in Who Made Me a Princess, a chimera is a person who has been tampered with using black magic, and in this case, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the reason why Jennette's eyes are the fabled gemstone color. We've already seen Alpheus demonstrate how much he wants influence with Claude; his original plan was to install Ezekiel as Athy's study buddy. When that failed, he tried to get Jennette into the palace as Athy's playmate. Since that, too, has failed, he's busy devising other plans, which involve sending Ezekiel away to study in a foreign nation, possibly to make it harder for him to refuse a place in Claude's inner circle. But holding onto a child with jeweled eyes is still a smart move on his part, even if he can't count on Claude's continued rejection of his actual daughter.

That's almost certainly the most significant change in what Athy believes the future holds. Far from rejecting Athanasia, Claude is now wholeheartedly embracing his daughter. When he picks her up and carries her, then promises to love her forever, it's a major departure from virtually everything else we've seen from him. He never says the word love, but that really would be too much too soon from him; it's more than enough that he sweetly confirms that he'll always do so. As Lucas notes, Athy has well and truly changed the future, saving herself and quite possibly Ezekiel.

But what about Jennette? It's hard not to feel bad for her. She's such a sad, lost little girl, and it seems very clear that Ezekiel is the only person who pays her any attention. It's a bit like she and Athy have switched lives, with Jennette now the neglected daughter and Athy basking in the adoration of others. That's pretty typical in villainess isekai, which this takes a lot of cues from. (Athy was never a villainess, though, even back when this was an isekai.) But the difference is that even with Athy's adult perspective on things, all of the children in this story are just kids. They're at the whims of the adults, and where Athy managed to change things for the better, Alpheus' two children are utterly at his mercy. They have no agency, putting them in a much worse position than Athy is in. Ezekiel will probably be okay, but Jennette is still stuck with Duke Alpheus, with no known allies. Is it worth saving one lovely princess only to destroy the other one?

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