The sprouting of a new seed of calamity…

This episode is another Junichi Sato-Michiko Yokote joint, so stuff happens.  The hardest part about it is that things come so close to turning out right before it all goes horribly wrong.  There’s an awful lot of “prodding” this episode, as Rue, Duck, and Mytho each try to sort out their feelings, and figure out what to do about them.

Duck: Don’t you think it would be better if he had a heart?

Rue:  It doesn’t matter. The only one I’ve ever had eyes for is Mytho. Whether or not he has a heart does not in any way change the simple fact that I love him. I will continue to love him. I’m still far from having loved him enough.

Rue desires stability, a sentiment that Duck can’t quite comprehend, since she herself sees only what needs to be changed.  Rue is too proud to ask for help or advice, and Duck has her own worries, so they miss their chance to help each other.

Duck: I want to make sure, but both Rue and Fakir say that he doesn’t need a heart. Plus Mytho’s suffering. What is there to make sure, then? […] There was nothing I could do, right from the start. I just fell in love, and believed what I wanted to.

It’s pretty clear that Duck thinks she’s being honest with herself here, but it’s funny how her “admission” falls right in line with what everyone else has been telling her.  She’s falling prey to doubt and fear.

Just when she makes up her mind to give up her “vocation” as Princess Tutu, Herr Drosselmeyer shows up.

Duck: Why’d you give me the chance to become Princess Tutu?

Drosselmeyer: That’s easy! Because it would be fun! Er, no – what I mean is, you’re the only one who can.

You’re terrible at persuasion, Drosselmeyer.

Duck throws away her pendant, returning to her bird form, and Drosselmeyer makes his exit.  Then Edel reappears with the pendant.

Edel: A bird’s world, a girl’s world, the fabled and the real world. The gem that links your two worlds – will you cut that link, now that you’ve bridged the two?

Of course the thing that finally convinces her to take it is Mytho getting in trouble again!  Our favorite distressed dude spent the first part of the episode being haunted by nightmares of an “enormous black being” and alternately expressing fear of or desire to see Princess Tutu.  And wearing pajamas (seriously, this is the only time he ever has pajamas – while he’s at school he either wears just a shirt or nothing at all when he’s in bed). He’s swallowed up by some extremely dated CG water which, surprise surprise, is actually a heart shard.

Heart Shard: Princess Tutu, why do you restore his heart to him?

Princess Tutu: It’s because I thought that was what was best for him. […] Because I believed you would be happier that way, because I never imagined you would suffer so much on my account!

Tutu tells Mytho that she won’t appear to him again, and then Mytho starts acting all noble and princely and honest-to-goodness emotional.

Mytho: Even if it hurts, when I think of you, I can feel a small light being kindled and coming to life in my heart. If you were to disappear, I feel like that light would be snuffed out and vanish with you. That’s what I fear. I want you to restore my heart, Tutu.

I get the impression that the whole “fear of Tutu” thing is based on some wordplay that just doesn’t properly translate from Japanese to English.  Speaking of the writing, Yokote seems to like making original stories for the prologues.  Most of the non-Yokote episodes feature prologues that are retellings of other stories tailored to speak to that episode or the series in general.  This one… well, literally the only purpose I could find in the story was maybe to switch your focus on the heart shard in hopes of making you forget that episode title.

And look who just happens to see that meeting between Tutu and Mytho, who has been brooding on her own feelings for Mytho while the crows began to appear…

Princess Kraehe: I will give you nothing. I will let you do nothing.

Rue finally has the same kind of power as Tutu, and she uses it to prevent change rather than enact it.

Kraehe/Rue: Who-who am I?

Next time: Fakir steps into the mix…