NAIDA AND RUBINA: WHAT'S BEHIND THE MASK - 37
By Gerdha & Joe7
(first article: here; previous article: here)

ANALYSIS ABOUT RUBINA

RUBINA'S SACRIFICE

Someone could object: "But...if Rubina only wants to manipulate Duke Fleed, why does she immolate herself to save him? Strange "manipulation"!

That's how it seems. But, if you look carefully at the scene in slow motion mode, you'd notice some oddities. Zuril throws the beam at Grendizer, while Rubina's spaceship approaches.

Grendizer, into the Spacer, at first falls down: if it continued to fall, it would not have crossed the trajectory of Rubina's spaceship.

But, then Grendizer in the Spacer ascends upwards, followed by Zuril's beam: climbing up, they cross Rubina's ship that is passing in front of them, and it is hit in full!

Therefore, this appears as an accident, more than a voluntary sacrifice ...

At this point, a question may arise: Duke Fleed is captured by Zuril with his Spider Web. Was Rubina in agreement with Zuril?

It was hard for her not to notice that there was Zuril's huge spaceship underground, along with the receiving antennas that protruded, around the place where she had been staying all night long. So, why does Rubina release Daisuke by attacking the antennas?

I think that Rubina had no idea that Zuril's spaceship had hidden underground and she did not know even about the existence of the Spider's web. The antennas, in fact, are quite camouflaged in the night and Zuril could have arranged them there some time.

After all, we don't know where Rubina is located, when she invites Duke Fleed to join her in the same meadow of the morning meeting (the scene shows only the Queen Panther suspended in the sunset sky, without any geographical reference on where it is).

If Rubina was not at the meadow after the first meeting with Duke Fleed, Zuril may have listened to the message, preceded her there and installed the device without her knowledge.

Rubina needs Duke Fleed alive: she needs him for her plan to reconquer her hereditary right to the Vega throne that her father took away from her. If Duke Fleed dies, he could not help her. For this, she frees Grendizer from the antennas: he wants Duke Fleed to kill Zuril to free her from her role as a servant.

For this reason, I don't believe that Rubina voluntarily interposes with her spaceship to protect Grendizer from Zuril's attack: committing suicide would not have helped her. On this point, the successive dialogues in OV (Original Japanese Version) seem significant to me: during Rubina's agony, Duke Fleed never thanks her for saving his life, he does not ask her "why did you do it?"; anyway, he does not say a word about the event that led to the wounding of the princess. Not even Rubina says anything about having saved his life: her dialogue is focused on other topics.

It seems strange and inconsistent, assuming the case that Rubina had interposed voluntarily. My interpretation remains valid also by observing the scene following Rubina's wounding, when she hits and burns Zuril's spaceship with a ray emitted by Queen Panther, initializing the sequence of events that lead to Zuril's death.

Rubina wants Zuril dead and Duke Fleed alive to free herself from her role as a servant. At that moment, she is still thinking she can survive.

JOE7'S NOTE

Not to mention Rubina's expression, when she realizes she has been hit: she expresses surprise and anger. She certainly does not expresses any sense of sacrifice and relief in knowing that Duke was saved with the sacrifice of her life.

(to be continued here)

HERE ALL THE ENGLISH LINKS ABOUT GRENDIZER

Edited by joe 7 - 14/5/2020, 14:19