The Fated Magical Princess: Who Made Me a Princess

Episode 9

My, doesn't time just fly by. It seems like only one episode ago, Athanasia was about seven years old, and now, in the space of a week, she's about to turn fourteen. That's the beauty of the time skip – hop right over those pesky growing pains and get right to the good stuff. And, of course, in the case of this show, that means skipping over the years Ezekiel is out of the country so that the romance subplot can start moving.

Not that Athy's all that interested in boys romantically. Lucas is, right now, entirely too dedicated to being a pain in the ass, although his apology this week does let us know that he's working on being a better person, or at least a person who knows how to interact with others on a less self-involved level than he used to. Where he first showed up in Obelia (or at least at the palace) because he couldn't figure out what Athy was up to and how she was merrily reweaving the threads of fate, now he seems to be there because he likes it. Yes, he still gets to bother Athy obnoxiously, but he appears to be genuinely invested in her as a person now. That makes it interesting that the jealousy he felt towards Ezekiel in past weeks doesn't seem to be present when he's looking at the pictures of prospective dance partners – his ego lets him brush them off as a threat because Athy doesn't know them at all, whereas she felt some fondness for Ezekiel. One wonders if his tune will change when Duke Alpheus' son returns; the preview for next week seems to indicate that it will. That may mean that Lucas is simply biding his time while the other young man (can I call Lucas that?) isn't around…or that he's blind to his own emotions, which frankly seems like a real possibility.

It's probably for the best that Athy is leaning towards dancing with her father at the ball, though. Claude has done a lot of calming down since he embraced fatherhood, but that might make him even more of a threat to potential partners – Felix certainly seems to think his life is worth nothing if he dances with the princess. But the more interesting piece of this is the way that Claude, for all that he loves his daughter, is still unable to view her birthday as a positive day. Diana indeed died in childbirth (or at least as a result of it), so Athy's birthday is Diana's deathday. Although he's probably had Athy in his life longer than Diana at this point, his pain is what keeps her in his mind and heart. He's afraid that if he lets it go, he'll truly lose Diana.

That's what makes Athy's gift to him so important. While it's significant in and of itself that she's giving her father a present, it's what that present is that matters more. Not only is she trusting that he won't destroy it like all the other portraits of Diana that used to exist, but she's showing him that through both herself and Claude, Diana lives on. She's not fully lost, and she never will be. Diana is a part of them both, somewhat literally in the case of her daughter, and Claude doesn't need to fear losing her. When we see him standing before the painting, it's symbolic of him reaching a turning point, one he's been moving towards since he acknowledged to Athy that he'd always love her.

The story may be getting ready to move to a place where Athy's romantic prospects are more important, but that's not, and shouldn't be, the point of the story. This is about family, and Claude is beginning to understand that.

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