Secrets therapists don’t want you to know!
— More flashbacks? More flashbacks. Here’s a super angry Violet. This is because some soldiers had dared to shoot at her dear Gilbert.
— So we finally learn how Violet came to lose her arms. Her right arm literally got shot off, and yet, she struggled on. She refused to leave Gilbert behind, which is understandable. After all, they were comrade-in-arms. Anyways, an enemy soldier eventually lobbed a grenade at the couple, and that was how Violet lost her other arm. For the vast majority of us, this sort of injury would have sent us into shock if not outright kill us from the blood loss. But for a child like Violet? Eh, no big deal. Seriously though, if she’s human, how is she so tough? Will we ever find out the source of her strength?
— On the plus side, I like the BGM here.
— But frankly, thanks to the show plateauing weeks ago, Violet’s final moment with Gilbert doesn’t hit me as hard as it should. Plus, we’ve already seen it. We’ve already heard Gilbert’s last words. Hell, his confession is the sole reason why Violet decided to become an Auto Memoir Doll in the first place. As a result, again, the scene doesn’t hit me as hard as it should. Finally, we know how young Violet was back then, and how young she still is now. So yeah, I’m not exactly enamored by this love story no matter how tragic it is.
— Back in the present, Violet goes all the way to that same fortress and starts digging through the rubble. She has to know he’s long dead by this point, but I suppose finding his body could provide some comfort. She could get closure and also give him a proper burial.
— All of a sudden, Claudia casually walks up to her. He said he knew she’d be here. We later see a car waiting for him, so he only just arrived. I feel as though it would’ve made more sense if he had actually come early and waited for Violet to show up. Otherwise, it’s just too coincidental that they both happened to arrive at the same time.
— According to Claudia, she was found at the base of some stairs. So with Gilbert’s last breath, he saved Violet by pushing her out of the way of the falling rubble. Man, I wish I was emotionally engaged right now. I really, really do. I just don’t feel anything for all of the reasons I listed above.
— Violet wants to know why Claudia lied to her back at the hospital. They all lied to her. They lied to a child. I know they had good intentions, but still… what was he hoping to happen? What was the best case scenario? Was Claudia hoping to tell her in a few more years, and she’d just shrug it off? The truth was going to wreck her sooner or later. Wouldn’t you rather deal with it right away? I would. I wouldn’t also want to compound matters by lying.
— At first, Violet refuses to come back home with him, so Claudia says he will stay here as well. I sure hope he remains a mentor to the girl and nothing more. I sure do hope that.
— Claudia: “He definitely didn’t see you as a tool of warfare.” But near the end of last week’s episode, Claudia himself questioned why Violet was still on the front lines. I like to think Gilbert could’ve gotten her out of there if he really wanted to. At the very least, he could’ve spared her from the last battle. I feel as though he wanted her there to ensure victory, and isn’t that using her as a tool of warfare? Could any of us send a young child into war just to guarantee victory? Note, also, that the last battle — or any of them! — wouldn’t have necessarily been lost without her. Gilbert may have only thought that he needed her. Violet was a great fighter, sure, but it’s not like a single combatant can change the entire course of a battle by herself. This isn’t a video game.
— Eventually, Violet relents and goes home with Claudia. After all, what choice does she have? She can either die or live on, and Gilbert wanted her to live on. Dying would not only disrespect his final wishes, she’d also be throwing away his last sacrifice.
— Claudia should give it a rest, though. He finally convinced her to come home. Great. On the other hand, he doesn’t have to keep asking her over and over if she’s okay while they’re trapped in a car together. Give the grieving girl some damn space.
— But nope, the guy keeps talking.
— Eventually, our party runs into a blockade. Why? Because the town ahead has been attacked by an anti-peace faction… oh boy. This has been a looming threat in the series for quite some time now. Unfortunately, the hard-fought peace that they have earned is rather fragile. I wonder how this subplot is going to play out in the final few episodes. I hope it isn’t something that can be resolved by writing a goddamn letter. Man, I’d be so disappointed if that happens.
— For some reason, Violet sees her younger self saluting her outside the car. Okay…
— Violet has returned home, but she hasn’t returned to work. Cattleya thinks Benedict would be the best person to see her, but we haven’t spent any time with him all season. As such, we have no idea why she would think this.
— Our heroine is huddled up in her room. Cattleya finally decides to drop by with some food, but the despondent girl is even less talkative than ever. We really don’t know how long Violet’s been like this. Has it been one week? One month? Two months? The time span is important, because if our heroine’s only been out for a week, then I’d say give her more time to grieve. On the other hand, more than a month is worrisome.
— So of course, Violet blames herself. She thinks that this is her punishment for all the bad things she’s done. Claudia’s words from the very first episode continue to haunt her, and as a result, the girl bears the guilt of losing Gilbert. That’s kinda messed up. She needs help, man. This is the sort of thing that can take people months or perhaps even years to get over. And what’s even worse is how Claudia truly believes Violet has to decide on her own what she should do next. She’s a child! If this was the real world, Violet’s best bet would be therapy. But since this is anime fantasy land, all bets are off.
— It would also be a bigger slap in the face if Violet recovers too quickly. Imagine if her friends simply writes her a letter, and it does the trick. If our heroine is A-OK again by the end of the episode, I’m going to be so disappointed.
— Oh hey, this guy just showed up. He’s, uh… that girl’s older brother. I think her name is Luculia. I don’t remember his name, unfortunately.
— Violet later has a nightmare where she gets to see Gilbert again, but he sure does sound more like Dietfried than himself. Again, her guilt is weighing on her.
— Funnily enough, writing a letter might help the girl. They say if you want closure, you should write a letter to the person in question. You don’t have to send it. You don’t have to do anything with the letter. Just writing the letter itself is therapeutic. This will allow you to work through your unresolved feelings and emotions. Violet could imagine what she would say to Gilbert if he was alive. Confess her feelings to him. Get everything off her chest so that she can move forward in life.
— Or scream out a window then punish this poor stuffed animal. Either or…
— Violet also tries choking herself, but she eventually gives up as tears stream down her face. This time, I don’t love the BGM.
— All of a sudden, someone knocks on her door. A letter has come for her. Oh no, don’t tell me that’s where this is going.
— Do these two have a thing? I’m just sayin’… they sure do hang out a lot.
— But before Violet can read the letter that she’s received, she will apparently help the friendly old man with the rest of his deliveries. Okay then.
— I get what the friendly old man is trying to say, but oh man, I do not agree with him: “No letter deserves to go undelivered.” Yeah, uh, no. Some letters are meant just for the writer.
— Finally, after getting the job done, Violet opens her letter to find that it had come from Erica and Iris. Yes, they’re worried about her. Yes, they’re waiting for her. Yes, they’ll help her with anything if she just asks. Oh yeah, Luculia’s brother — Spencer, apparently — wants to enlist her services as well. Naturally, the very next scene has Violet typing out a letter for Spencer.
— Violet confesses that Erica and Iris’s letter had made her very happy. Then on her walk back, she sees that Charlotte is doing well. All thanks to our heroine! That author who had lost his child? Also doing well! Again, all thanks to Violet, our blonde anime Jesus! Gosh, look at all these people that Violet has positively impacted! Last but not least, she sees a bunch of violets, and they remind her that Gilbert never would’ve blamed her for his death. Gilbert loved her, after all. And just like that, Violet seems to have fully recovered. Ugh.
She then barges into Claudia’s office and asks if it’s okay for her to continue living this life despite everything, but her heart already knows the right answer to that question. And that’s precisely the problem with this anime. I don’t have issues with Violet’s recovery, and I’m sure Erica and Iris’s letter was very, very touching. But the show wraps every single problem it comes across in a neat, little package. It wants to be taken seriously, but it never takes any of these problems very seriously. Violet falls into despair and even considers suicide at one point, but then her recovery occurs within a snap of the fingers. It’s ridiculous. It feels cheap and unearned.
Moe Sucks 
Without a doubt, this has to be one of the most disappointing shows I’ve ever watched. Honestly, even the much vaunted animation seems muddy and unimaginative.
muddy and unimaginative? There are some effect choices that don’t always work but i find your statement faaaar from the truth…like really far
The picture quality is a bit washed out. Even this scene doesn’t pop as much as it should. That’s probably what he means by muddy.
No yea, that’s what i mean by some of the effect choices not being productive to the overall quality of the series. I get the series looking a bit muddied because of the washed-out effect, but I don’t get nor do i agree with the animation being “unimaginative.” Like the picture you just linked, this show has been blanketed by this obnoxious haze-like filter since ep 1, which quite frankly, I don’t understand why the digital effects team thought this would have an enhancing effect. I advocate experimentation but some of the choices made aren’t always for the better. If this was not meant to be a creative visual gimmick, I assume the reason may be that the haze was implemented so that the show would not need to be dimmed down severely on Japanese airwaves; I’m sure you’ve had moments while watching anime where you thought the back light on your computer has stopped working. The show is really colorful and bright (with quite a bit of lens flare) so i imagine this was the photography team’s way of assuaging that problem without needing the show to have an annoying dimming effect impede the visuals. Assuming that’s the case, the choice they made didn’t solve the problem they were trying to avoid.
Beyond that visual stumble , I just find it very hard to not be appreciative of the skill on display with the series’ visuals, particularly the storyboarding, the lovingly hand-painted backgrounds demonstrating a nice attention to color theory and gradient, both the mechanical and character animation, and a good deal of the photography choices. I find that all these elements easily shine through the hazing’s effect on the picture quality. But then again, I guess one’s mileage will vary regarding how much the haze takes them out of the visuals.
We just got done with a bunch of wartime flashbacks, and those scenes have been the weakest in terms of overall composition and storyboarding. Although the visuals are the least of the show’s problems, I still get where the other commenter is coming from. I expected better from KyoAni.
Yea but that’s one episode compared to the skillful craftsmanship of episodes like 1,2, 5,6 (editing and storyboards were on point in ep 5 and 6), and 7. And even ep 8 while not on the caliber of those episodes, still has really effective animation cuts and layouts. While i think Violet evergarden is visually ambitious for a tv anime, especially considering the small production team that’s working on this series (their consistent ability to make character designs with this much line count move as fluidly as they do with such a constrained production team should be applauded; makes me wonder what they could do with a normal-sized production team), I don’t think it’s Kyo ani’s best work visually. For one, I find a silent voice a more visually appealing package overall; but then again i expect nothing less from Naoko Yamada and a movie production team. Still, id say this looks better than Clannad, Haruhi, Amagi, chuunibyou, beyond the boundary phantom world, munto; and considering that’s most of their tv animation catalog, i’d say that’s a good quality bar to be at. I would also confidently say that certain aspects of its visuals exceed the efforts of Hyouka and Eupho, even if I woudn’t say it looks better than those two shows as a whole; I’d rather wait until i see the blu-rays of evergarden before i make that full-on judgment.
Of course this looks better than shows that came out years ago. Why are we comparing this to Clannad? The problem is that KyoAni should always have the best visuals in any given season, and Violet Evergarden doesn’t take that prize. Maybe on a technical level, but certainly not in terms of composition and storyboarding. I’m not dsprizer. I’m not as harsh as he is about this show. In a vacuum, I still think it looks great. But it should look mind-blowingly amazing. A handful of episodes have met that mark on a purely technical level. A handful of episodes, however, also have not. Still, I write enough words about it every week. I’m not going to get into this topic any further until the next episode rolls around.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s a given that a current production would look better than shows that came out years ago. Eureka seven is a Bones show that came out in 2005 and yet it looks better than Noragami, another Bones show in 2015, that’s why i brought up the clannad comparison regardless of its age. I’m just teasing though, I know what you were trying to imply. But yea, I agree that any Kyo ani show airing has the responsibility of looking better than all of its competitors in any given season and that it may not arguably be the case this season. For example, I find after the rain’s storyboarding and composition to rival, and at times, surpass that of Violet evergarden on certain occasions (eps 3 and 6 of after the rain come to mind). But yea, we’ll just have to wait and see regarding how the last 5 episodes hold up.
I never said they would look better, but it should. I just don’t think it’s a crowning achievement for Violet Evergarden to outshine a show that came out in 2004. At the end of the day, the visuals are all part of the storytelling process. After the Rain has done a far superior job in leveraging its visuals to convey feeling, emotion, and subtext. Violet Evergarden looks great, but rarely do the visuals add significantly to or help further our understanding of our heroine’s journey.
“After the Rain has done a far superior job in leveraging its visuals to convey feeling, emotion, and subtext”
This I absolutely agree with and it’s the reason why after the rain has been a show i find myself enjoying both on an emotional and cerebral level than most of what winter season has to offer. The subtext in evergarden’s visuals are definitely there and I appreciate its technical brilliance and visual direction, but these elements don’t coalesce with the emotional and thematic storytelling as well as it does in something like after the rain, and that ultimately comes down to the talent of the directors of each show.
On another note, the point behind me comparing evergarden to other kyo ani works in the past (from 2005-2017 mind you) was to point out how kyo ani’s efforts have surpassed that of those they have put into previous series and imply the degree to which they have. You may not see that as a crowning achievement (and it doesn’t always have to be to still be impressive) but I think it’s just as important to compare art against its previous works and note how far it has come as it is to compare it to its contemporaries. My point was that evergarden is one of kyo ani’s technically superior works. If evergarden is looking better than a kyo ani show in 2012 or 2015 that set the benchmark to what tv anime could reach in those years, then surpassing that (or surpassing elements of it) is an accomplishment as violet is also pushing what is capable with a tv anime “budget” in 2018. Whether evergarden’s visual acumen is lacking in facilitating all its other narrative elements compared to other shows is a different story but technically speaking, evergarden is doing a lot and mostly succeeding (key word being mostly). But like you said, we can save that convo for a later moment when it’s really relevant to discussion
The original point is whether or not Violet Evergarden is meeting expectations. You brought up old KyoAni works. I contended that surpassing a show from over a decade ago does not factor into whether or not Violet Evergarden is meeting expectations now. Anyway, you tend to become overly verbose and I feel that this makes your arguments muddy. But perhaps your comments are far better than what they were years ago. I’d have to go back and check.
“Anyway, you tend to become overly verbose and I feel that this makes your arguments muddy”
Ill give you that; i do tend to be verbose quite often, although i wouldn’t say it particularly muddies my argument (not all the time any way), at least not in this case as it feels more like maybe you’re just not getting my point. But hey, perhaps that could be because I’m not presenting my argument in a cohesive or succinct enough manner for you to see where I’m coming from . I’m willing to accept that this might be the case. Regardless, if there’s one thing i appreciate from you ever since you came back to blogging, it’s that you’re no where near as rude and dismissive as you were years ago. I actually feel like i can have a conversation with you in the comments, which is refreshing considering how you use to be.
Anyway, me bringing up other kyo ani works wasn’t the only argument i made about the studio meeting expectations of today. I specifically mention in my previous comments how evergarden is doing things that other tv anime airing now are incapable of doing on the expectations of today’s tv anime budget (and doing it beautifully i might add). In doing so, I also decided to compare it to other kyo ani works of the past: works of which were either where benchmarks of tv anime at the time or are still benchmarks of tv anime expectations currently in 2018. You focused primarily on few of the titles i mentioned that are over a decade ago, but you miss the fact that are I also brought up works that at max, would date back to 2 years like phantom world, eupho, and even the recent chunnibyou projects; those works are still within the current expectations of anime today and still serve as benchmarks. My argument was two-fold, but perhaps i could have expressed that better. Maybe i should have excluded older kyo ani works like munto, clannad, and haruhi from my argument as it seemed to have zoned in on those works and made it seem like that was the main crux of my argument; but hey, I couldn’t help it. Those shows still look good and trounce most of tv anime today.
On a side note, it would be interesting to see some of my posted comments from years ago.
well that’s just rude
Hahahaha I didn’t mean that in an aggressive way; but hey, even you’ve acknowledge that you’ve mellowed out :)
Mellowed out towards anime. Towards commenters, I’m still the same. I just reply less often. Part of preventing myself from burning out is learning to ignore certain comments. It’s not worth the energy to reply to everything.
that makes sense. I was going to bring up how you seem to reply to comments less often but I overlooked the fact that it possibly served as measure to prevent burnout on your end (or prevent you losing your shit on comments you might find insipid)
I’m actually glad the show resolved all this quickly. Besides, it’s not like this whole thing started this episode. It started since the beginning of the show. She knew he was dead. She just didn’t want to believe it.
But then again, maybe it’s just me. I like my drama to get resolved quickly.
I know exactly what you mean by wanting drama to resolved quickly; not all dramatic moments need to be these big theatrical, multi-arced odyssey’s of character introspection and belabored emotional strife. However, there are times when it is appropriate for the conflict a character is contending with to not be resolved so quickly or so matter-of-fact. For me, my gripes about this episode’s conclusion is less about the drama being resolved quickly. The issue isn’t even that violet is recovering by the end of this episode(although it wouldn’t have hurt if it bled into next week’s ep). It’s the degree to which this episode implies that she recovered is what i don’t vibe with completely.
I think my contention with that comes from the fact that all the turmoil violet deals with in this episode didn’t have the prior staging necessary to make it feel as impactful as it could have. It would have been nice to see violet actually show signs of PTSD from the war prior to this episode and how her job as an auto-memories doll not only helped her find emotional solace from her old self, but also challenged certain beliefs she used to have. This would have made her crash this episode that much more resonant because just as you think she’s beginning to recover and find a new path in life, learning about the death of Gilbert sets her back, making you genuinely want nothing more than to see her get back on track with her life. It would be the equivalent of a acquaintance to you who you have watched make such effortful strides to overcome substance abuse, have a tragic moment that set them back into using drugs again. Since you’ve seen the turmoil the person has overcome and how good they were when they stopped abusing, you want nothing more than to see them recover vs just being told that the acquaintance you never knew had a history of drug abuse started abusing drugs again. Sure you want him/her to get better, but you’d more than likely empathize with the acquaintance who you’ve watched the ups and downs of their emotional journey.
It would also have been nice for the show to have effectively illustrated the detached affection Claudia has for violet and how the man was growing to care for violet yet struggling with doing what he may have deemed best for her. 9 eps in, Claudia and Violet’s relationship doesn’t feel authentic; i wouldn’t even know how to describe their dynamic or explicate the narrative strengths of said dynamic. If the relationship between Claudia and Violet felt more poignant, it would make his difficulty telling Violet the truth and the guilt he feels all the more evocative. Lastly, tt would have been nice to see how much the supporting cast had grown to love violet by the interactions. Sure we’ve had episodes illustrating how she had earned the respect of her peers, but orchestrating more down-to-earth character moments between them would make their concern for her feel that much more palpable. What we got of them rallying for Violet was functional but perhaps it could have been a bit more. In short, I think the presentation and the overall moving parts of the storytelling here are top-notch, but the preparation to get to this point is what could have used a bit more time and care.
“But the show wraps every single problem it comes across in a neat, little package. It wants to be taken seriously, but it never takes any of these problems very seriously.”
To be honest, other than effort, I can’t appreciate the story of this anime. I know it made an effort to tell an earnest, serious story and it’s kinda charming, but effort alone isn’t enough. The fact that it don’t take its story in any new way and don’t optimize the potential of its setting just make it worse. It also has no depth, and is just FEELS from the beginning to the end. (I remember that you made a theory about some sort of social messages in the first few episode and it didn’t go anywhere. Heck, you come up with a few theories in this episode, and I’m also sure that it won’t go anywhere as well.)
“Violet falls into despair and even considers suicide at one point, but then her recovery occurs within a snap of the fingers. It’s ridiculous. It feels cheap and unearned.”
One of the main problems with this anime is that the focus of its story is Violet and her feelings, but it don’t give her feelings or even Violet herself the spotlight other than to be your anime blond Jesus. It tries to be this emotional anime with a bunch of revolving cast of emotional characters, but because those characters aren’t the focus of this anime and just glorified fillers, it doesn’t go anywhere and just come up as cheap and shallow. So, the focus of this anime don’t get enough focus and development time and thus she becomes as cheap and shallow as those fillers.
Heck, the last two episodes are supposed to be about Violet, but that Gilbert comes out more as the focus and the main character of these episodes. The anime also tries to sell the guardian and his charge relationship between Violet and Claudia, but the anime didn’t lay out enough foundation for it and thus it comes out forced. In fact, the anime feels disjointed. It’s like there are one or two episodes missing. Or its creators are just lazy and take things for granted, assuming the viewers are morons like we’re going to think a scene is romantic if they said it’s romantic, animate some romantic imagery, and play some romantic music.
The only thing that this anime have is that at least it looks pretty and even then, its visual do still have some problems.
‘Anyways, an enemy soldier eventually lobbed a grenade at the couple, and that was how Violet lost her other arm. For the vast majority of us, this sort of injury would have sent us into shock if not outright kill us from the blood loss. But for a child like Violet? Eh, no big deal.’
This is hilarious.
I haven’t watched VE, but your description of how the show handles trauma brought up memories of how Your Lie in April went about it. Most anime are just BAD at presenting how to deal with trauma. The storytelling in that regard comes across almost disrespectful and insensitive to anyone that’s gone or going through similar emotional turbulence. Sure, the feels may provide immediate satisfaction, but when you dig into it, writing one measly letter is not going to resolve much of anything. The human brain is not that simple, Japan.
Hey there, I’m new to this blog. Thecartdriver introduced me and boy am I glad they did. I was looking for a quality discussion platform or commentary and this is perfect! The actual comments under animes like these are simply cancerous. I pointed out similar flaws in this episode but I forgot most of the commenters were tweens madly obsessed with KyoAni. Anyways, I’m really liking your simple and sarcastic writing style. The idea of her writing a letter to Gilbert actually makes a lot of sense! This episode definitely lacked a connection to Gilbert that could have given her the final push. Flashbacks and violets really don’t do it for me. I was thinking it would be nice for her to read something he wrote, maybe a will or a note. But having her write a letter would have been absolutely perfect. Man, I just see wasted potential here.
Oh no, the pressure.
Thinking about it over the past week, Violet Evergarden would’ve made more sense as a two-cour anime. KyoAni had to include all of Violet’s successes in this adaptation. They just had to. Her recovery in the most recent episode hinged on those successes. Without seeing how she had positively impacted all of her clients, she wouldn’t have had a strong reason to forgive herself for her past crimes. But each of these successes took up an episode each to cover, and even then, some of us — or maybe just me — balked at how rushed they all felt. Playwright depressed over his daughter’s death? One episode to resolve. Kid who distrusts dolls and felt abandoned by his mother? One episode to resolve. A princess who has to marry herself off to someone who is practically a stranger? One episode to resolve. Because the show is slated to end by the end of the season, one episode is all that KyoAni can give them. At the same time, however, one episode wasn’t enough. And likewise, Violet’s own fall and subsequent resurrection could only get two episodes. After all, we’re fast approaching the end of the winter season, and we still have the subplot regarding the anti-peace faction to resolve. Considering how ambitious this adaptation feels, I’m kind of surprised KyoAni hemmed themselves in with just a one-cour adaptation.
I absolutely agree that a 2 cour (26 episodes) adaptation would have been the perfect remedy for some of the problems that have creeped into this series. They could have done something akin to the structure of the first season of Darker than Black wherein every case is a 2 part episode. Each of violet’s clients could have been two episode arcs that took the time to not only flesh out the conflicts of the clients, but also how each her interactions with these client’s tells us something about violet’s inner turmoil with her past/war trauma, her feelings concerning Gilbert, and how she slowly grows to overcome said turmoil. With each story arc, we could get bits and pieces of violet’s wartime past interspersed within the series instead of laying it all on us in just one big flashback. Big flashbacks aren’t inherently bad, but they can feel like a lazy way to flesh out underdeveloped emotional/plot threads which can cause disconnect between the audience and the narrative.
This two-part structure would continue for little over 2/3s of the series, methodically building on the foundations of the characters and themes, setting up the overarching narrative of the anti-peace faction, and the inevitable moment of Violet learning about Gilbert’s death. All of this would simmer and boil until around ep 18 where Violet learns about gilbert’s death and has her breakdown. Ep 19 and 20 would be spent on her dealing with her depression, with ep 20 culminating in violet finding the strength to go back to work. Ep 21 and 22 would serve as a two part arc showing that while Violet could summon the strength to go back to work, she hasn’t fully recovered. This changes for the better when an encounter with a client going through some dark shit as well allows her to confront her psychological and emotional barriers, ultimately leading to Violet making more significant strides to recovering.
From there, you could have last four eps be about the anti-peace faction and the subsequent havoc that arises from their malicious efforts. Fights begin to break out in the streets and Violet does what she can to protect the people she loves while trying to find refuge for them. Before, Violet only fought because she was following orders; this time however, it will because she actively chooses to protect all the people who have grown to love her and that she loves in return. These last 4 eps would see a darker shift in tone for the series (but not excessively so) due to the impeding potential of war breaking out, The series could end with the auto memories dolls doing their best to dispel the advent of war by writing letters to certain important figureheads, whether it is the rulers of the countries or the main culprits facilitating the anti-peace group. The letters written by the dolls being the key to eliminating the potential of war would highlight a point made by the series in the beginning about the position giving women the ability to make a difference in these times. Cheesy? Yes, but it would be reflective of the themes of communication and language posited by the series and mostly, it would feel earned . I don’t know, just some rough ideas, but ones that i think could have made this series stronger and less safe narratively.
ughhh.. i swear this was supposed to be a short comment.
In defence of violet evergarden,
And as an attack towards your post,
Firstly, Violet did not go through depression. It is clinically not classified as depression. Violet is just a somewhat special human being that is greiving for a loved one. Anyone can grieve for a loved one and not get depressed.
Secondly, her suicidal tendencies are— in her case, to be expected. Violet has been numbed by the meaning of what it’s like to die. She has killed countless people, and through self guilt, decided try and end her own life.
I haven’t read your whole post, but from a brief glance, this is what I felt needed to be addressed.
I’d consider the words of actual veterans who have gone through what she has, and saying it’s very much like this, to be far more trustworthy than some armchair “psychologist” reading into it. She isn’t dealing with clinical depression, she’s dealing with a combination of PTSD and grief. Those are very, VERY different things from depression. Further, she isn’t “cured” at the snap of a finger, and in fact she’s never cured. The final episodes show this, she’s still dealing with the grief. She’s just brought back from the edge of suicide and given a purpose. Something showing she can go on living.
Even if she did have depression, I can tell you as someone who has had bouts of it that this isn’t unusual. Contrary to popular belief, depression isn’t an off or on thing. It’s a spectrum, sometimes it is a lingering feeling in the back of your mind, others it’s a crushing weight on your soul making life seem meaningless. Mood swings are often part and parcel of it. I’d go from a couple hours of being fine, and then over another couple of hours get disgusted at various aspects of myself until finally I’m a sobbing mess, feeling utterly defeated with no way out of my despair. If a friend would message me wanting to do something, it usually brought me back from that brink. I’d still feel shit, but I wouldn’t be sobbing and might even perk up a tad.
Also the scene was perfectly done. You want it to be more complex than it needs to be, and that would have ruined it. I honestly don’t understand what you guys wanted with this scene.