NAIDA AND RUBINA: WHAT'S BEHIND THE MASK - 40
By Gerdha & Joe7
(first article: here; previous article: here)

UFO ROBOT GRENDIZER: THE HISTORY OF DUKE FLEED'S INTERIOR JOURNEY

We also know that Duke Fleed suffers from an atrocious sense of guilt because he considers himself as the cause of the destruction of his people (ep25).

Therefore, something surely happened in those 9 months. To justify his thought of responsibility, Duke Fleed must have done something, must have committed a tragic mistake to make Rubina to decide to abandon Fleed.

Given the lack of explicit dialogues in OV (Original Japanese Version) on this subject, here we we can only assume possible hypotheses, to which I normally try to remain extraneous. But looking for a logical explanation does not mean inventing a fanfiction. If anyone believes - as I think - that the Authors of Ufo Robot Grendizer were not superficial, but tried to tell a deep story, that is the inner journey of Duke Fleed to overcome his feelings of guilty, then it's due trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle using the logic, the context and the known poetics of its author. Go Nagai has never told trivial stories; his protagonists are never spotless and fearless knights. They are complex characters, who make mistakes and seek redemption.

The only explanation that - given all the FACTS above - I can logically find is that Duke Fleed, returned home from the lake and discovered that there really was an agreement of imminent marriage for him with Rubina - being well aware of the infatuation towards him by the princess and of his gaffe at the lake - he accepted, for reasons of state, the engagement and tried in good faith to interrupt his relationship with Naida, unfortunately without success. A too great passion was bounding them, and so the relationship continued clandestinely (I don't discuss here neither on the initiative of who, nor if regularly or sporadically: it is not important).
But something goes wrong, and the veghian officers on Fleed find out what's going on. Taking advantage of Duke Fleed's trip with Morus - who keeps him away from Grendizer - they inform Rubina of his betrayal with Naida. Rubina, infuriated, decides to take revenge, suddenly leaving Fleed and then allowing the attack.

Duke Fleed immediately realizes that his incredible lightness has caused the attack, and, by psychological reaction, from then on, he turns himself into a man always and exclusively acting by the highest sense of duty and sacrifice. This is my explanation of the absurd scene of ep49, in which he abandons his sister: even then, his sense of guilt for being the cause of what was happening directs his life choices.

Naida, on the other hand, follows a different interior path. The fact that Duke Fleed prefers to take care of saving Grendizer instead of her, in her mind is a so serious betrayal to unleash a fierce and invincible hatred that she will carry with her for 6 years and will be the leitmotive of all her behavior in ep25.

Already he had betrayed her by formally accepting his engagement with Rubina, but, perhaps, Naida still hoped that it would have been cancelled and they could openly continue their relationship in the sunlight. A different point is for Naida the fact that Duke Fleed believes it is more important to save Grendizer instead of her. Her passion is not love: it is a feeling of possession, which understands nothing of the true motions of the soul of the other person that it is said to love.

The sense of guilt that Duke Fleed proves to have indirectly provoked the attack on his home planet explains very well, in my opinion, certain aspects of his personality. And it provides a much more reasonable explanation respect of his supposed love for Rubina for his attitude in the final scenes of ep72.

For Duke Fleed's mind, the situation represents psychologically a terrible deja-vu. Rubina could have saved Fleed with her physical presence on the planet, and in ep72 still she could save the Earth the same way, if he had accepted the "alliance" that she offered him. Rubina caused the destruction of Fleed by abandoning the planet, and now her death could cause the destruction of the Earth because most likely King Vega - without any heir and now in serious strategic difficulty - would have made a desperate attack with all the available forces (of which Duke Fleed does not know the exact extent). Rubina had been struck by a ray of Zuril's spacecraft because Grendizer had changed trajectory.

Duke Fleed feels suddenly overwhelmed by the sense of responsibility for the princess' death and he is terrified at the idea of being again the cause of the destruction of his own planet (because he considers as such the Earth now).

The reason for his desperate cry and his despair at the end of ep72 is, for me, to be sought in the sense of guilt and terror from which he feels totally overwhelmed at that moment. Exactly like in ep25.

And so, Duke Fleed runs desperately in tears in the flowery meadow, as if he were hunted by the ghosts of the inhabitants of Fleed who had already persecuted him in ep25, this time chased also by the potential ones of the terrestrial population, in a physical representation of what upsets his soul in that moment.

But the inner evolution of Duke Fleed is a story of fall and redemption, hence a story of hope. As the dawn rises behind Mount Yatsugatake, Duke Fleed stares at the rising sun with a serious but dry look with no trace of despair. Only a few minutes have passed since the setting of the previous scene, but Duke Fleed's mood has calmed down. He probably understands that this time he can still avoid a tragedy, he can still do something to save his planet (the Earth).

However, an important consideration must be made. Naida and Rubina are two matrioska inserted by the authors in the anime to help us to discover the real human story of Duke Fleed. But they are not two identical matrioska with the same content, regardless of their different personalities. Rubina is not Naida for Duke Fleed: the two women represent something quite different for him. They trigger different emotional reactions in him. Naida stirs up the worst part of him, he even requires an electroshock therapy to overcome it. Rubina does not have the same destructive potential, because the emotional bond that united him to the two women was very different (the passion against the reason of the state).

The episodes of Ufo Robot Grendizer usually end with the graphic representation of the sunset (ep23, ep25, ep44, ep63, ...); ep72, instead, is the only episode that ends depicting the dawn.

It is a very important and significant choice of design by the Authors, which must have a profound meaning. I think that it represents the overcoming by Duke Fleed of his guilt for what happened because of him on Fleed: even if he committed a imprudence with terrible consequences, his existence as a human being cannot be defined by that only, even if serious, mistake. His life can still have a positive meaning.

It could however amaze the fast change of scenery in ep72 between despair and calm in Duke Fleed in a few frames. It is true that one episode had an average duration of 23 minutes, so, at that point in the episode, the time available to depict various situations was in short supply. But I don't think this is authors’ carelessness even this time. There is a well consistent psychological explanation for those who want to look beyond the surface.
The Duke Fleed of ep72 is NO LONGER the Duke Fleed of ep25.

In the 47 episodes lasted between ep25 and ep72, his subconscious has naturally evolved. It should not be overlooked that between ep25 and ep72 he lived, among other things, the disease, he found his sister...

...and his soul was strongly nourished by positive feelings, above all with the love and support of, and for, Hikaru.

Duke Fleed, therefore, is a much stronger person, mentally and psychologically, in ep72 than in ep25. The ghosts that chased him must stop and then disappear in front of the dawn light of his new inner life. For this reason, I wrote already in my analysis on Hikaru that I consider ep72 the real final episode of Ufo Robot Grendizer: even if the story's events are not yet finished, the fundamental theme of the anime, which concerns the inner evolution of Duke Fleed, concludes here.

The "matrioska writing style" of the anime screenplays is, in my opinion, a masterpiece in the history of animes. Ufo Robot Grendizer represents, for me, an unsurpassed example of drawn psychoanalysis, which still awaits to be fully understood in all its aspects.

(to be continued here)

HERE ALL THE ENGLISH LINKS ABOUT GRENDIZER

Edited by joe 7 - 21/5/2020, 14:36