Shannon Casull

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Shannon Casull is a fictional character in the anime television series Scrapped Princess. He became the older brother of the Casull family after his parents found and adopted Pacifica, the Scrapped Princess. His skill lies in swordsmanship; he is sometimes referred to as a "lone swordsman", as he is able to battle solo, without the aid of, say, a mage or ranger. He, alongside his twin sister Raquel, defends their adopted sibling as they travel together.

In episode 6 of the anime, Shannon becomes a temporary D-Knight - which stands for Dragon Knight - and is capable of using the power of a Dragoon named Zefiris to fight the Peacemakers, "merging" with her to gain huge powers, up to becoming a large, powerful dragon. Although he does not trust Zefiris enough to unleash her full power for much of the series, his capabilities are still rather impressive.

In the last few episodes of the anime, Shannon gains the power to unleash the full powers of the D-knight. Together with Zefiris, they fight alongside the Gigas, or Gigantes against the two remaining Peacemakers. The power to fully "merge" comes from Shannon's willingness to trust Zefiris, for without this trust Zefiris cannot facilitate abilities; Dragoons are built around a safety system which prevents them from doing much without the consent of their D-Knights. Although we can see some bits of mutiny in Natalie while inside the "Skid", we can safely assume that Zefiris cannot act completely independent from Shannon.

Shannon seems to be a very protective person. Although Pacifica is on his top priority list, he has also been shown looking out for his older sister Raquel, Winia Chester, the little girl Sim (Cz's compressed form) and eventually Zefiris (he even gives her the pet name "Zefi"). He is also incredibly practical and somewhat domesticated, seeing that he can cook, clean, and shop for groceries (even his sisters' lingerie on one occasion). Zefiris commented once in episode 3 that he would make a good housewife, likely a reference to his domestic skills (laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.), and that he was cleaning at the time.

The affection shared between Shannon and Pacifica is evident throughout the anime. On numerous occasions, the two of them are often involved in friendly banters, or one shows signs of irritation - perhaps jealousy, even - when the other's attention is on someone else. In episode 1 of the anime, Pacifica secretly confesses to Shannon that she "[loves him] a lot". His answer, in a very typical, in-character monotone, is that he already knows. In episode 14, flashbacks show a very close-knit relationship between Shannon and a small Pacifica. When she comments that she looks nothing like them and asks if she's not his real sister, Shannon reassures her, promising to protect her and the lifestyle she loves (unfortunately, he happens to be brainwashed to protect Pacifica regardless of everyone else, and that memory reinforces it further). Although this mutual affection is obvious wherever and whenever it is shown, their relationship appears to stand exactly on the fine line between brother-sister affection and romance, leaning toward neither side.

[edit] Trivia

The name "Shannon" means "little old wise one". This is an interesting fit to Shannon Casull's character as reserved, calm, cynical and seemingly bored with everything that life throws at him. Pacifica has also teased him at times for acting like an old man. The wisdom denotation comes in his actions, where he is able to quickly take stock of a situation and react accordingly. This is illustrated in one adventure where he burned the god Mauser's symbol in order to gain acceptance from a village loyal to the "devil" Lord Browning.

In the light novel series, Shannon is able to perform high level magic spells if Raquel implants the spell incantation in his mind prior to its casting. Shannon's mental capacity greatly exceeds Raquel's, thus allowing him to cast high level magic without any training. However he lacks the concentration to perform such spells on his own, thus needing Raquel to first imprint the spell in his mind for a one time use. It was for this reason that Yuma Casull made Shannon the swordsman and Carol Casull made Raquel the sorcerer. He activates 'emulators' of spells from Raquel during his two battles with Christopher Armalite, and won because of them (whilst in the anime he was able beat him without the use of magic.)