© Rikachi/Kodansha/”Nina of the Starry Sky Kingdom” Production Committee
You can’t trust anyone these days. Or at least, no one from the royal family. As briefly mentioned last week, they’ve been playing the substitution game with their own offspring for some time now, with Cerulean replacing the dead prince long before Nina was chosen to be Alyssa. It’s an interesting hint about how the family operates – did they start with Az, or is Nina just the latest in a long line of fake royals? The first thought was to find a kid of a similar age to replace the original Azure’s name and character, which seems to mean this isn’t the first time this has happened – then know he Aziz’s immediate plan is to find a fake Alyssa, but he has inherited a dark tradition. Since all but a few of the swaps are shrouded in secrecy, it means this potentially dark history will remain relatively unknown. After all, only a few people know about Azure, and they don’t seem to be talking about it.
Unfortunately for the Queen, this only makes her look worse, because unless she’s a lot more subtle than she’s been drawn so far, it means she just hates Celeste for being the son of a previous concubine. She’s like a less bloodthirsty Nakia (via Chie Shinoharaof red river), trying to clear the way for her son to ascend the throne, even though she arguably didn’t have to; her husband apparently voluntarily demoted Cerulean to Muhurum after the birth of his prince. Granted, the Queen doesn’t seem to be a major character, and the title of next week’s episode suggests Nina will be heading to Galgada, but still. In a courtroom story such as this, it’s never a good idea to exclude someone just because they appear incompetent.
Az quickly realizes this about Nina. He chose her because of her appearance, but he thought a kid from the slums would only echo the princess’s masquerade and not ask too many questions. Perhaps he drew this expectation from his own experience and failed to remember that there is a big difference between uprooting a four-year-old and uprooting a teenager. But Aziz is also a planner. His great-grandfather taught him from an early age to always put king and country first, and that’s what he did when he bought Nina: put the interests of the kingdom before his own – he might even have thought it would Make things better.
Her desire for life surprised Qi Lan. While Nina is busy making the best of her situation—cleaning her cell with a blanket is Disney princess-level frivolity—Az realizes that she’s not a pawn, she’s a person. Maybe, just maybe, that meant he was a human being, too. He spent much of his life thinking that he must live up to the expectations of the royal family who took him in as a replacement for their dead son. He’s all but erased himself, and is even willing to let the Queen’s assassins succeed if it’s what’s best for the country. But Nina’s unabashed confidence in herself is changing that since he agreed to call her by her first name. Will things get tricky now that they’re pretending to be siblings? Of course, and she was engaged to Prince Galgada. But when Aziz kisses her, he’s playing himself, not the Blue Prince.
How this will play out for him is unclear, although we can make an educated guess based on the images in the book of the ending theme, which are slowly revealed as each “night” passes. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that even though Nina starts out as a pawn, in the game of chess, a pawn can turn into anything—even a queen.
grade:
star bride nina Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
