NAIDA AND RUBINA: WHAT'S BEHIND THE MASK - 36
By Gerdha & Joe7
(first article: here; previous article: here)

ANALYSIS ABOUT RUBINA

EP72: RETURN TO FLEED?

Besides, there are again two situations to explain about ep72 to understand its exact meaning. What does Rubina mean when she offers Duke Fleed on Earth: "let's go back together to Planet Fleed" and again: "to take our hands together"?

As already mentioned, this is not a marriage, but only an alliance between private persons. Well, it is correct anyway: Rubina has no power of legal representation for Vega, having been dethroned, and Duke Fleed is a king without a throne, exiled in a foreign land. But, this being the case, what strategic relevance could Rubina's proposal have? Legally, none. In addition, if Duke Fleed agrees to return to Fleed, the Earth would remain defenseless and Vega could conquer it in a moment. An unacceptable scenario for Duke Fleed, and I don't understand why Rubina would make such a stupid proposal.

Also, there is another question still to be answered: why does Duke Fleed go to the second meeting? After the outcome of the first meeting, the probability of repeating the same pattern was high. Yet, Duke Fleed thinks he must absolutely go. Why?

Rubina's goal in ep72 is only this: to recover her authority as Vega princess. Her proposals are consistent with this goal. Rubina does not specify to Duke Fleed "when" to return to Fleed. In ep72, planet Fleed is only at the beginning of its rebirth: at that moment, it was still inhospitable. The VO (Original Japanese Version) dialogues are clear on this.

When I wrote Hikaru's analysis, I had not yet access to the VO dialogues, so I considered the possibility of a long temporal separation between King Vega's death and Duke Fleed's departure from Earth only a hypothesis based on visual details: now I firmly believe I was right in my hypothesis. It could have passed not only months, but even years between Vega's defeat and the last scenes of ep74.

In ep72 Rubina proposes to her father the hypothesis to live on Fleed, but also with him she does not specify a date or a plan for an immediate execution.

Rubina's expression "to join our hands" refers, in my opinion, to the hypothesis that she asked for asylum on Earth; from there, she would calmly negotiate Vega Empire surrender and the return to Fleed with her father, once the planet had returned to life. By accepting her as an interlocutor, her father should have returned her the royal authority.

The peace for Earth, i.e. the topic Rubina is speaking about at the grass in VO refers, in my opinion, to the same situation already experienced on Fleed: she is on a threatened planet to avoid Vega's final attack. There was no rush to go back to Fleed, because it was still uninhabitable. Rubina knows that she has nothing to fear and that her father will be forced to accept her plan, because Vega has no more monsters and he is in trouble.

Why I'm sure of this? Please note the events: the last real Vega monster we see acting is in ep70, overloaded with Vegatron (it is a really strange thing, thinking about the lack of energy on Skarmoon Base: it seems almost an extreme attack, trying everything for everything), but it fails and it is not able to kill Duke Fleed, despite the severity of his injury.

The monster of ep71 is used, despite being damaged: it really seems a sign that Vega has serious armament problems. But not even Morus defeats Grendizer, rather he heals Duke Fleed from his Vegatron wound (but Vega cannot know this).

In ep72, no monster is sent to Zuril's rescue, which is strange: the Minister uses his own spaceship as a weapon, which would make no sense if monsters were available there.

In ep73, Gandal complains about King Vega's inaction, but, if there were monsters available, Gandal would have organized an attack by himself: the monster guided by Lady Gandal is her personal device and it is not even much strong in terms of power and armament (again, it is strange and without much sense under normal conditions).

Finally, in ep74 the final attack takes place without supporting monsters: there are only the royal spaceship and the mini-UFO (King Vega himself identifies them as all the available forces).

This also explains the time gap between ep71 and ep72 (ep71 is set in early February, while, given the nanohana flowers that are clearly drawn, ep72 must necessarily be set after mid-April): several months are spent, during which there is no attack, because it could not be possible.
I believe that Rubina, during the journey from Rubi to Skarmoon Base, becomes aware of the situation (or even she came to know it when she was on Rubi), so she believes that it is only a matter of time before Duke Fleed understands how their conditions really are and attempts a direct attack, destroying the Vega kingdom. So, she think it's best to deal with him. King Vega dethrones her and then she tries to regain her power by allying herself with Duke Fleed.

Therefore, only a final attack with the royal spaceship and with all the mini-UFO could conquer Earth, but it is unlikely that King Vega would dare to launch it, if Duke Fleed welcomes Rubina on Earth. Rubina has nothing to lose: if her plan works, she would regain her regal powers; if she fails and King Vega attacks the Earth, despite her presence there, she could also think of being able to save herself and if she were to die it would not be a tragedy, considering that she probably considers her life without purpose as deprived of her title of princess.

But Duke Fleed is not aware of the dramatic situation of Vega's armament: also, he is not knowing exactly the location of Skarmoon Base, so he cannot even attempt an exploratory sortie (as he will do in ep73 with Umon's satellite).

At the meadow, Duke Fleed does not understand well the meaning of Rubina's words: he is too focused on the news about the rebirth of his planet. But then, at the balcony, he finds himself trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle and he realizes that something is not clear to him: Rubina made him a proposal with an unusual language and Zuril behaved strangely.

But he has no other choice to confirm what is happening, if not talking to Rubina again. For this reason, he decides to go to the second meeting, although he is not enthusiastic (see his expression in the bedroom with Koji): "he wants" to believe her (dialogue VO, Original Japanese Version). This means that Duke knows Rubina would be able to lie, but, in this case, weighing the clues in his possession, he thinks she could also be sincere.

Theoretically, even if deprived of regal authority, Rubina could really want to protect Earth because of the infatuation that she had for him and which still could exist; it was worth checking.

Duke Fleed surely noticed Zuril's particular behavior, who disobeyed to Rubina on the meadow: so, he certainly has some suspicions about the reason behind, but he cannot be sure without talking about it with Rubina. But, after the first meeting, he does not know where she is or how to track her down. So, the only way he can talk to Rubina is to reach her by following her new proposal for a meeting. For this reason, he goes to the second appointment.

(to be continued here)

HERE ALL THE ENGLISH LINKS ABOUT GRENDIZER

Edited by joe 7 - 12/5/2020, 13:59