Vedi numero 1 ( )

(spoilers for the whole first trilogy)

There are, when it comes down to it, two things I really love about this story and its conclusion here (aside from how pretty it often is): One is of course the friendship between the girls and how strong it is: Believing in their friends makes them stronger; they care about their friends and are rewarded for it: with new armour and magic, but mostly with the other girls being friends with them in return. It's a simple message, but a beautifully effective one.

I've seen complaints about how unrealistic it is, how the girls shouldn't have formed such a deep I-would-die-for-you friendship that quickly, or that they shouldn't have been constantly cracking jokes back in volume one because of how "traumatising" suddenly being in a different world full of monsters would be and I... kind of think these complaints are missing the point. One, there is nothing wrong with an optimistic tale about the power of friendship. Two, and this is now also touching on the other thing I love about this, the "simplified" narrative of this first trilogy is so very, very intentional.

Again and again the girls lampshade how much their quest resembles the standard videogame/RPG/Fantasy plot - save the princess, save the world! - and it's a very black and white story. Except, of course, that once we get to the famous twist at the end, we see that it isn't all black and white at all. And it hasn't been for a while. But by making the story so far so simple, so formulaic, so Save-The-World-From-Evil-ish both the girls (when it comes to Zagato) and the audience get stuck in that mindset of good vs evil and it's a surprise when the twist hits: the "bad guys" actually have a motive.

... except it doesn't quite come out of nowhere like that. Before they lend their power to the girls, the Mashin demand to see the strength of the girls' heart first. And each girl demonstrates her friendship with the other two admirably, but that's not when the Mashin relents: Each time it's when the girl shows compassion for her enemy, realising that Ascott, Kardina and Rafalgar had their reasons too, that they weren't evil, that this black-and-white world of Cephiro is not actually black and white at all. And the final battles against first Zagato and then Emeraude herself drive that lesson home in an especially heartbreaking manner.

Show compassion to others because everyone has a reason for their actions, and be a good friend and people will be good friends to you. Again: Simple, optimistic lessons, but good ones, and ones that I for ones can't hear often enough, especially if they come bundled with girls being awesome and being awesome friends.

(The inherent injustice of the Cephiro's Pillar system, of how one person needs to sacrifice their self for the good of the world, is merely touched upon here at the end, but of course we'll see more of it in the second trilogy.) ( )