I don't think you guys are quite grasping the gist of Kanade's perception of her relative position to Nanaki. It's not that she has some deep seated psychological trauma that gives her fatal self doubt: as far as I've seen she's rather ordinary. Rather the problem is that she idealizes Nanaki too much, to the point of perfection. She treats her like an angelic figure in a Renaissance painting, seated at the right hand of the Almighty with her face covered in a halo, while a Cherubim passes the mashed potatoes to her. When she tells her that she doesn't deserve her, she's telling her she belongs on an art gallery wall to be similarly idolized by a worshipful throng. And she lacks the selfishness to seize that portrait for herself, as she's too much of a conformist. Defusing this situation will take every gram of Nanaki's tact and empathy to resolve.
This is certainly part of it to an extent, but she does also have a problem with her self-worth stemming from having been told since young that she's unfit to become a princess. Even after Fujishiro's makeover and being recognized as being just as beautiful by others, inside she's still the same little girl who resigned to play the horse for the rest of her life.
last edited at Mar 6, 2021 8:43AM