(L) Scrapped Princess

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

The novel ending is too much of an Ass Pull combined with some heaping helping of Deus Ex Machina; I liked the anime ending better.

Cin being alive again really bothers me; I prefer dead characters to stay dead. Bringing them back just ruins any emotional impact their "death" once held.

Yes; the novel series wasn't finished when the TV series concluded.

Oh, I thought you meant she never died in the novel in the first place...

But yeh, if they died, they should stay dead.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Angrypokstick

The novel is finished and have a slightly different ending. I personally liked the novel ending better even if its a little too much Deus ex machina for my taste. Other than the last volume of the novel the anime stayed mostly true to the novels. you can read the spoilers for the novel ending down below if you want.

Spoiler for HUGE novel spoilers ahead....:

In the last volume of the novel, out of nowhere they introduce Mauser's insurance plan and her last gift to mankind- A full blown space battle cruiser that's been missing in space for 5000 years with 5 dragoon knights aboard as a large part of a Xanatos Gambit. I won't bother explaining the details of how and why they got there but needless to say their arrival made the last battle with the peace makers a curb stomp. And now earth is in peace Pacifica is a princess again her brother rules the kingdom. Shannon is the Head Knight of the kingdom and Zephiris is still his dragoon but has choose to change her appearance to that of a 20year old- she is now also worshiped among the general populace as the guardian goddess of their country(and an idol figure among the knights due to her beauty and grace/cuteness) .In Fact all the dragons are now being revered when once they were called demons by the church. In general they are trying to unite all the countries in the known earth and with their new found allies they are scouring the earth for relic of their past civilizations for technologies to recover and also the recoveries of lost and damaged dragoons to be repaired(Natalie and gloria(that giant frog), and a couple other damaged and offline dragons are being brought back to life, though it will be many years before they are 100%).

All in all things are looking very well for the new humanity. Also Cin survived Yay! she remains in the form of a little girl and hangs around Pacifica and Shannon alot. So yeah things looks pretty good in the novel ending.

i gotta wonder why their pervious masters want Zeffier and Natalie in little girls forms when they can look any age

[DanielSong39]

While I'm not normally a fan of Deus ex machina, the anime ending was broken and I'm glad it was fixed in the novels.

I had particular problems with Forsyth and the rest of the corrupt human government and I'm glad they were overthrown. I felt they, and not the Peacemakers, were the true villains of the story - and to seeing them gain control of the human kingdom left a sour taste in my mouth.

Maybe it would've been more realistic for Princess Seness to become the new ruler, and/or for the Casulls to ally themselves to her and leave their homeland. That would've been a much better ending than seeing the villains gain all the power while leaving our heros holding the bag.

But the novel ending was way cool - too bad we're unlikely to see it in the States any time soon.

P.S. I suppose the Shannon-Pacifica romance was an anime-only concept. Man, I can only imagine what married life would be like for those two...

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by DanielSong39

While I'm not normally a fan of Deus ex machina, the anime ending was broken and I'm glad it was fixed in the novels.

I had particular problems with Forsyth and the rest of the corrupt human government and I'm glad they were overthrown. I felt they, and not the Peacemakers, were the true villains of the story - and to seeing them gain control of the human kingdom left a sour taste in my mouth.

Maybe it would've been more realistic for Princess Seness to become the new ruler, and/or for the Casulls to ally themselves to her and leave their homeland. That would've been a much better ending than seeing the villains gain all the power while leaving our heros holding the bag.

But the novel ending was way cool - too bad we're unlikely to see it in the States any time soon.

P.S. I suppose the Shannon-Pacifica romance was an anime-only concept. Man, I can only imagine what married life would be like for those two...

looking at the spoilers

Spoiler:

Forsyth is still in power

[Angrypokstick]

Spoiler:

Yes, Forsyth is still in power. The novel actually ended just as the crowing ceremony for Forsyth's ascension to King. The kingdom is all happy and people celebrating. His ceremony is actually the largest in their history, since leaders from multiple nations and kingdoms allied with them are attending not to mention the fact that 5 dragoon knights are participating in this ceremony in their full release state and wearing their equivalent of a military dress uniform(meaning decked out with fancy decorations, add-on armor and their respective coat of arms). They are are there to impress the populace and a show of force against the countries that refuse to ally with such a heretical nation. Yes there are still people who clings to the old traditions even the church has been slit into 2 those who believe in the old and those who embraced the truth.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Angrypokstick

Spoiler:

Yes, Forsyth is still in power. The novel actually ended just as the crowing ceremony for Forsyth's ascension to King. The kingdom is all happy and people celebrating. His ceremony is actually the largest in their history, since leaders from multiple nations and kingdoms allied with them are attending not to mention the fact that 5 dragoon knights are participating in this ceremony in their full release state and wearing their equivalent of a military dress uniform(meaning decked out with fancy decorations, add-on armor and their respective coat of arms). They are are there to impress the populace and a show of force against the countries that refuse to ally with such a heretical nation. Yes there are still people who clings to the old traditions even the church has been slit into 2 those who believe in the old and those who embraced the truth.

question

Spoiler:

was the 5k old spaceship the Moon?

[Angrypokstick]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

question

Spoiler:

was the 5k old spaceship the Moon?

LoL, that would have been an epic troll but no. The reasons are fairly contorted and would require the reader do experience a large amount of break-from-reality or fridge logic to accept. It was a weak part of the novel and was there cause the author wanted to give the good guys over powered allies without spending any more pages to explain more about the new guys. . But i suppose it makes good side story material if the author is willing to write more about the scrapped princes universe.

Also on another note The book Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber have an premise and background story all too damn similar to scraped princess. Is a good book though.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Angrypokstick

LoL, that would have been an epic troll but no. The reasons are fairly contorted and would require the reader do experience a large amount of break-from-reality or fridge logic to accept. It was a weak part of the novel and was there cause the author wanted to give the good guys over powered allies without spending any more pages to explain more about the new guys. . But i suppose it makes good side story material if the author is willing to write more about the scrapped princes universe.

Also on another note The book Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber have an premise and background story all too damn similar to scraped princess. Is a good book though.

i read it.

AR is actually base off of one of Weber earlier work the Heirs of the Empire.

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by DanielSong39

P.S. I suppose the Shannon-Pacifica romance was an anime-only concept. Man, I can only imagine what married life would be like for those two...

Huh? Aren't they siblings? Or at least adopted siblings?

I thought Pacifica ends up with the retarded dude...?
Or does she have actual feelings of love towards Shannon?

[Angrypokstick]

Actually Shannon-Pacifica romance runs even more deeply in the novel than in the anime. is just in the end Shannon feels he is duty bound to protect her. He loves her but he also sees her as a little sister so he can't bring himself to be romantically involved with her.

Spoiler:

Though the dude is really is short on the list of potential love interests
I mean one is a princess which he is duty and genetically bound to protect . Not to mention he sees as a little sister. And Zephris who does love Shannon , except she is an AI controlled robotic dragon and then there is Cin who is also an AI controlled umm Whatever she is suppose to look like weapon of mass destruction.
As for retard-dude well he has become a skilled knight and he still have a crush on pacifica but he also gets caught nowadays staring at the shall we say new and improved zephris. And of course he gets made fun for it by everyone else.

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by Angrypokstick

Actually Shannon-Pacifica romance runs even more deeply in the novel than in the anime. is just in the end Shannon feels he is duty bound to protect her. He loves her but he also sees her as a little sister so he can't bring himself to be romantically involved with her.

Spoiler:

Though the dude is really is short on the list of potential love interests
I mean one is a princess which he is duty and genetically bound to protect and serve whom he also sees as a little sister. And Zephris who does love Shannon as well except she is an AI controlled robotic dragon and then there is Cin who is also an AI controlled umm Whatever she is suppose to look like weapon of mass destruction.
As for retard-dude well he has become a skilled knight and he still have a crush on pacifica but he also gets caught nowadays staring at the shall we say new and improved zephris. And of course he gets made fun for it by everyone else.

yeh, I was feeling bad for Shannon too. I'd suck if he ends up a bachelor for the rest of his life because of his "duty" to protect Pacifica. Same for his sister...

[kk2extreme]

this makes me think that TTGL would not exist w/o SP

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by kk2extreme

this makes me think that TTGL would not exist w/o SP

lol, yeh. The plot is extremely similar... plagiarism?

But as someone mentioned above, the plot to "Off Armageddon's Reef" seemed to have been the influence for SP...

humans losing a war, so journey to a faraway planet. Some factions on the new planet decide the only way to evade detection by the aliens is to seal themselves on the new world and reduce their technology to stone-age level...

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Intranetusa

lol, yeh. The plot is extremely similar... plagiarism?

But as someone mentioned above, the plot to "Off Armageddon's Reef" seemed to have been the influence for SP...

humans losing a war, so journey to a faraway planet. Some factions on the new planet decide the only way to evade detection by the aliens is to seal themselves on the new world and reduce their technology to stone-age level...

huh?

Armageddon's Reef was publish 2 yrs ago, SP was about 5 or 6 yrs ago.

But AR was base of half the plot form Heirs of the Empire.

[Intranetusa]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

huh?

Armageddon's Reef was publish 2 yrs ago, SP was about 5 or 6 yrs ago.

But AR was base of half the plot form Heirs of the Empire.

O whoops. I guess it's the other way around...

[OkamiNoKaze]

Just finished this series today, watched the dubbed version, I rather liked the series, There were so many memorable characters. I actually have a tee shirt for it laying around somewhere that I got years ago from the video store when the series came out.

[RDNexus]

OK, to anyone who may still wander through this place...

Can anyone tell me how far in the novels they went in the anime, how well they adapted the story and what of the novels, in general, was left out of the anime in place of an original ending?

I'd be thankful of any possible answers...

[roriconfan]

Scrapped Princess is an interesting take on a rather tired formula, performing a major genre twist midway and colorizing story and characters in ways that are making them more than they appear to be at first. The end result is quite original as far as anime go, but still loses a lot because of its erratic pacing.

So this is an anime about a teen princess who has been prophesized to destroy the Medieval world of the series as soon as she becomes an adult and is on the run while protected by two siblings bodyguards. The initial episodes are very good at portraying the drama of being accused of doing things that are beyond your scope and even have a “fight your fate” feeling to this. If it remained at this, it would be average at best, as fatalism doesn’t leave much room for variety beyond “fulfilling the prophesy” or … “not”.

Yet as soon as the story hits its limit at what the premise can offer, it then does a major genre twist

Spoiler:

turning from sword and sorcery to light science fiction regarding spaceships and giant mecha and the whole prophesy is now a conspiracy made by advanced machines, while the state of the world is the result of alien caretakers.

That made the story far more original and fascinating than it appeared to be at first.
Still, even the greatest idea can fail out of bad planning and the series does suffer from lots of erratic pacing. That is, some episodes are far less interesting and slow than others, while the transition from one major event to another usually happens in a crude way. Sloppy, sudden and sometimes dried is what you get in peaking moments where you should be eating your nails. And then it’s ending of the series itself which is one of those rare occasions where although solid, complete and strong, it is far from satisfactory. Everything simply happens too fast to let you really enjoy its otherwise very interesting take on fate and conspiracy around lasting peace and stuff.
In all, I give the story a 7 for being quite interesting and more deep and complicating than what it appears to be at first, while at the same time it has a really bad pacing and a rushed ending.

The problems are not present only in the story but they are there in the characters as well. Pacifica, the lead girl, is given a great amount of depth, character coloring and development, easily becoming a lovable and sympathetic character trying to save her life and fight fate and the status quo of the world. Unfortunately, she is the only one that has all this charm.
All other characters are hardly original or memorable in any way because this is a story about a prophesy that does not allow anyone else to take part in it. In the usual fatalistic deadlock that a trope like “fate” offers, none can actually do anything without giving the feeling they are doing it for the center of the universe that is Pacifica. So even taking initiative ends up looking as “fate told you to do it” and practically kills all sort of individuality. Yes, fate in storytelling has this shit.
Anyways, even without this problem the character still fail to impress with their personalities alone, as none is given the focus Pacifica gets. The two sibling bodyguards are rather likable for being next to her from the very start, unlike most others who are lost in the crowd of seemingly unimportant characters. So are the enemy sub-leaders, the four Dragoons, for being more than heartless assassins. And… that is pretty much it. Likable guys but hardly special and almost invisible next to the spotlight of the lead. Bad move there guys; you should have done your homework.
A characters, Pacifica alone gets a 10 for her foul house focus, all others vary from 4 to 7 because of their lack of importance, for an average of 6.

The animation is of a very high level in terms of colors and details, plus it has a great variety of settings, weapons and action scenes.
Having a blob that eats people and keeps growing or a robot with spinning laser attacks was really awesome. Chanting of spells and controlling assassin disks through music was great too.
I give animation a 9 for not making me feel it had anything bad about it.

Music is ok as far as dialogues or sound effects go. The soundtrack is otherwise quite average and does not help in making you submerge in the setting of the world. I give sound a 7 for being ok without being great.

Down to it, Scrapped Princess is more interesting as an idea than an actual anime, as the story ends up being more interesting than the actual plot or cast and that ruins it in the long run. Average: 6.2/10

SUGGESTION LIST
Vision of Escaflowne
Xenogears (videogame)

[drobertbaker]

A big problem with Scrapped Princess (the unevenness you note) was that they were making Wolf's Rain at the same time and got hopelessly overcommitted, so much so that Wolf's Rain had to have four recap episodes in a row, a feat never seen before nor since. They had to make extra episodes on the DVD in order to finish the story, which they messed up.

Didn't you love Nefiris or little Suin at least? I really thought the beautiful (and full-breasted) Cz would turn the corner at the end instead of meeting the fate she did.

[roriconfan]

Originally Posted by drobertbaker

A big problem with Scrapped Princess (the unevenness you note) was that they were making Wolf's Rain at the same time and got hopelessly overcommitted, so much so that Wolf's Rain had to have four recap episodes in a row, a feat never seen before or since. They had to make extra episodes on the DVD in order to finish the story, which they messed up.

Really huh? Well, they killed two birds with one stone; double the lameness.

Originally Posted by drobertbaker

Didn't you love Nefiris or little Suin at least? I really thought the beautiful (and full-breasted) Cz would turn the corner at the end instead meeting the fate she did.

Yes as I said they were likable but by the end of the day they were just supports. Heck, the Dragoons ended up being cannon fodder.