So suddenly, the King gets serious health issues huh? I’m sure Qualms has something to do with it too. But now I do feel the storm’s coming right in front of me (no, not that sandstorm), as many important events keep piling up: the last audition of Jean in Furawau (flower) district, which “happened” to be the homebase of Lilium, our current biggest threats. Now I can see that Lilium is a sneaky guy, using home advantage to pursue Jean to lead the coup. His whole ground for starting the coup is for the unity and order of the kingdom, but this episode slips it up that he might not think that way at all. He wants his district Furawau, and his family in charge of course, getting the power, possibly become a new capital city. Well, with the glimpse on what we see from the district, they are wealthy, like a Dubai city with skyscraper and mosque-like buildings; so they’re more than capable of becoming one. Things fall according his plan as well, except for the two obvious obstacles:
First, it’s Grossular. As we see throughout the episode, Lilium clearly controls and manipulates Grossular from behind, but I never once think Grossular is that stupid. He must knows what going on behind Lilium’s head, and if it wasn’t Lilium taking advantages of Grossular’s weakness like I assumed last week, Grossular would never fall into his scheme for just “unifying the nation”. I believe this guy still has something up his sleeves, but for some reasons he’s still waiting for Jean to make a move first. He’s pretty much in a stand-by mode for now. Muave, likewise, pretty much stands by his side because she trusts him (and to be frank, maintaining orders for the kingdom, plus her favorite Jean might take the throne are too good to refuse). They might play as an assistant role for Jean later on whenever he decides on which road he takes, only that…
…Jean still hasn’t make a goddamn move except for carrying his audits like usual. The later districts have been really opened about his royal blood and their opinions/ the cigarettes as well. Lithium might come from a wealthy district, but the last district that Jean visited in his current round, Pranetta (Planet) is the totally opposite and for my money this is one of the most interesting district that we have witnessed. The district is dirt poor, swallowed by a vast desert and holed themselves under the ground. The district remains with an extremely limited resource, without the sunlight for daily necessity and only have TV as the one entertainment source, an extreme opposite to casino-filled Yakkara last week (and I did notice based on the Dowa Kingdom map, Yakkara is located within Pranetta, interesting). But the residents there have a dream of mining, of one day finding something invaluable and they keep following the dream and being happy despite their harsh environment. They don’t care much about the coming coup, because they know it doesn’t make much different for them whoever take the throne (no wonder with that attitude, Jean feels himself really comfortable here). They simply don’t have anything to keep, or anything to even offer. That little scene between Jean and the branch chief, where the old man asks Jean’s cigar for a smoke, but then offers him the cigar back as an upvote really sums up the spirit of residents of Pranetta. Cigarettes are even something so luxury that out of their reach, but he trusts Jean (not the coup) to make a rightful decision.
And that is precisely why that perfect scheme of Lilium is going to be broken apart. Putting Jean as a mediator, a person who represents both ACCA and the rightful heir is a smart move. But by giving him time to explore every single districts, Jean gets to see the kingdom in multiple perspectives, from the riches to the poors, from the allies to the extremists, from what works and what fails and thus he no longer has the same outlooks with the men in power here, moreover he holds the key (his royal blood) to make it different, now it’s just the timing. For instance, Lilium would never get the appeal of Pranetta district. It might not be the class between ACCA and the royal, but the fight between the rich and the poor here.
And it’s freaking time now. The plot will get busy next week, now that the first princess second-attempts to murder Jean and Lotta, the King is dying; Jean visiting his final audit; the centennial ceremony is approaching and Nino still wanders somewhere, I know we will have a busy week with heaps of fun next week. Speaking of Nino, Lotta sure really fonds of him and the sequence when they’re talking about Nino and their “secret” feel so warm. But damn Nino, you missed your chance of becoming a prince Charming. Rejecting a princess even when she proposed to you? No wonder why he’s spirited away now.
ps: I’m tempted to spend some time to pick out the uniforms of each district, now that we encounter every single one of them. The show really knows how to scratch my itch. Diversity rules!