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RUBINA AT ZURIL'S SERVICE
Dialogue 2 contains the key to understand the whole structure of ep72 and all the subsequent events in the episode. It also explains all the little "strange" visual details that viewers notice throughout the episode.
King Vega does not promise Rubina as a bride for Zuril. His literal Japanese sentence is: "Nozomuto araba, Rubina wo omae ni tsukawashitemo yoi". The literal translation is: "If you want, I can send Rubina to you as a servant".
According to my mother tongue stepsister translator, the use of the word "servant" means that King Vega wants Zuril have power on Rubina. In this way, she is without her real prerogatives: simply, in a word, Rubina is dethroned. Then Rubina becomes a "subordinate", subdued to Zuril. The Japanese word used is really "servant": according to japanese social rules, Zuril is authorized to give her orders and to do whatever she wants with her, including having sex. This explains Zuril's facial expression shortly after King Vega's declaration.
Anyway, let's precise: the exact Japanese word is "servant", not "slave": that is, a person who is legally free, but has the duty to obey the orders of someone. Zuril had a great passion for Rubina (this is clear in Zuril's other dialogues in the episode, not posted here), so having her as a "servant" from her father would have meant for him the great opportunity to have legally sex with her. From the moment Zuril accepts King Vega's proposal, he becomes Rubina's "owner": she is legally subordinated to him, losing all her authority as Vega Princess. However, a marriage with the Minister of Science seems to be excluded, at least as a direct consequence of King Vega's decision.
I asked myself for years for what reason King Vega gave Rubina as wife to Zuril (as I thought in the Italian version of 1978); but, even knowing now that she was actually given to Zuril as a servant (in the Original Japanese Version, VO), the question remains. After all, Rubina did not express any dangerous statements, when she contacted her father on her ship: she had not even been very angry with her father about the old lie about Duke's death. Listening to the OV, Rubina speaks with her father in a very respectful way (the language used is formal). Besides, from the point of view of the images, she appears disgruntled, not angry or upset.
Well, honestly, at our current level of knowledge, King Vega should not have had any special reasons to make a similar decision in advance to block Rubina's various initiatives as a princess. The purpose of King Vega, nevertheless, is clear: he wanted to erase any power, or authority, that Rubina could have at that time - she was the heir to the throne of Vega Empire; besides, she was an official representative of the Empire, acting on account by King Vega himself - changing her into a "second-line" figure behind Zuril.
However, in this way, King Vega would have avoided the risk that Rubina could act towards Duke Fleed as the legal representative of the Empire. The reason because of King Vega deprives her of his authority is only to prevent her from acting wrongly with Duke Fleed: I see no other reasons.
We must assume that King Vega possessed certain informations about Rubina's personality that we don't know: informations that makes him fear something. His statement to Zuril in Dialogue 2 is interesting: the problem is not the fact that Rubina knows the truth, but the feelings of her daughter.
King Vega: Dammit, Rubina has got to know that Duke Fleed is still alive! (...) If only got discovered it, would have been even better, but Rubina still loves Duke Fleed.
King Vega says that his daughter still loves Duke Fleed after 8 years. But yet, whatever happened at Planet Fleed, it must not have been so crucial to convince Rubina to get rid of her father, or at least to be not involved in his politics. If she had been in love with Duke Fleed so much, it would have been difficult to see her as a governor of Rubi, with her father's total trust.
Anyway, King Vega - who is not stupid - decides to make such a serious decision as to dethrone his only heir: then, there must be a motive of utmost importance for this decision.
Rubina suddenly abandons Rubi Planet: it is clear, from the dialogue between King Vega and Zuril, that her behavior was completely unexpected. We also know that, evidently, during 8 long years, Rubina never expressed any regrets towards Duke Fleed, because the discovery of the existence of her daughter's still alive feelings for him surprises King Vega. Not only this: Rubina flew away from Rubi without telling anyone; she went, without warning, to Skarmoon Base. Usually, it is assumed that Rubina wanted to go to the Skarmoon Base to negotiate peace with her father, but, if it is so, why would she not forewarn him of her arrival? Evidently, Rubina had some further intention, which her father believes he knows, to make the decision to reach him at the Skarmoon Base. King Vega believes that Rubina wants to do something about Duke Fleed using her role as a princess that could endanger the Empire, and that the only way to stop her is to dethrone her.
This reasoning of cause and effect has the following mental sequence in King Vega: a rebellion broke out on Rubi => Rubina will shake the uprising => Rubina has left Rubi => Rubina is coming to Skarmoon Base => Rubina has discovered that Duke Fleed is alive => Rubina still loves Duke Fleed => the situation is problematic => Rubina must be dethroned. Apparently, the reasoning of King Vega is not very logical in the conclusion, yet precisely because it seems strange - as in other cases in the anime - we must suppose that the truth is hidden elsewhere. What does fear King Vega? The answer, in my opinion, has to be sought in the general Veghian military situation. An interesting matrioska ...
Well, at least it is really strange, and also perplexing, the fact that King Vega makes his daughter servant to Zuril: a man who could be her father, being a father himself. Besides, he is known by his veghian friends as a great womanizer (Gandal mentions it in episode 72: the dialogue has not been transcribed here).
My explanation comes from the dialogue between Zuril and King Vega: Zuril knew very well the background story of the engagement between Rubina and Duke.
Zuril: The King of Fleed seemed to intend to wed Princess Rubina to Duke Fleed in order to maintain peace between the two planets.
If his words are true (and King Vega himself confirms it), the idea of the engagement started from the King of Fleed, as an attempt to avoid the invasion of the planet. Zuril was perfectly aware of this because, as Minister of Sciences, he was very interested in the Fleedian technology, so much to participate in the invasion plans.
I also suppose that the idea of gaining time to better prepare Fleed invasion by pretending to be in agreement with King of Fleed's proposal on the engagement between Duke and Rubina started with Zuril. King Vega had always shown a deep trust in Zuril, among the few subordinates who had remained around him at the time: Zuril was the smartest. Who else King Vega should have trusted to "supervise" his daughter? Considering also that Zuril knew the story behind the attack on Fleed, I think this choice was quite logical.
It should be noted that Rubina's words at the beginning of Dialogue 3 make it clear that she had already started an argument with her father about Duke Fleed, alive and on Earth:
Rubina: (fixing the map while giving her back to her father) So this means that Duke Fleed is somewhere in this archipelago, isn't he?
The reply of King Vega to his daughter's first words is included here in their literal translation, and they seem meaningless:
King Vega: But if you are so, what do you think to do with Planet Rubi?
What does it mean "so", which is like saying "in this state"? These words may very well be related to the fact that Rubina has lost her authority, being now subordinated to Zuril; she can no longer act as an official representative of Vega towards the Planet Rubi. If this interpretation is correct, Rubina is already conscious in this scene of her father's decision to give her to Zuril's orders. She knows, in short, that she has been dismissed and has no decision-making power.
Rubina has already learnt about King Vega's decision to dethrone her and to make her as Zuril's servant even before she reaches Skarmoon Base: probably, she was warned by her father via radio. In fact, when she lands, Zuril supposes to have the right to embrace her (Gandal himself is aware of it: the next dialogue confirms it), but she treats him with haughtiness, and this would have made no sense, if Rubina had not already been warned of his father's decision.
Anyway, in Dialogue 3 she was certainly already aware of it. And this will lead her to a tragic decision: the betrayal of her people. In fact, by communicating to Duke Fleed the position of Skarmoon Base, Rubina betrays not only her father, but even her people, because he gives Daisuke a strategic information that will be essential for him to finally defeat King Vega.
Rubina, in this situation, acts as if she cares nothing for her father's fate, or for her people, as well as for her royal rank. It is possible that her revelation is in fact a revenge against her father for having delivered her in the hands of Zuril, depriving her of hereditary authority.
It is noteworthy that, when Rubina leaves her father, she takes off her dress and puts on her "combat uniform". A scene shown in a few moments, a floating dress, which seems to have no meaning.
Yet it was not essential to add this scene. Instead it is present. Why? Here is my interpretation, based on the facts found on the original translation and on the visual aspects. It is a symbolic scene, to allow viewers to correctly interpret Rubina's next attitude in the episode. The deposed royal dress is the symbol of the dethronement of the princess. Rubina acts throughout the ep72 from that moment on with the sole purpose of taking revenge on her father and restoring her royal authority that he had erased. This explains well the visual scenes and the dialogues of ep72, which thus assume a consistency that otherwise is missing.
Rubina's rebellion is not so much a "positive rebellion", that is helping Duke Fleed and obtaining peace; rather, it is a real insubordination in hatred of her father. When Rubina is in front of her father, she wears her royal dress: my idea is that she was trying to impress her father, hoping that seeing her dressed as a princess would make him change his mind. But King Vega does not change his decision.
Otherwise, this dialogue would not make much sense. Does it seem impossible that Rubina can hate her father? Yes, it is a possible thing: it is a well-known psychological phenomenon. Don't forget that King Vega does something extremely outrageous to Rubina: he always treated her like a princess, he gave her his royal powers ... and, in a minute, he removes all that she considered important, everything for which she had been trained to be: a princess. Besides, King Vega delivers Rubina to the orders of Zuril, an alien (remember: Zuril IS NOT a Veghian!).
How could be her feelings, after learning this from King Vega? Rubina also explicitly demonstrates this, during ep72, showing how much angry she is about her dismissal and how much she despises Zuril. Before leaving for the Earth, she threatens to kill him.
At the meeting with Duke Fleed at the meadow, she gives orders to Zuril, as if she is still the princess of Vega: but he refuses to obey.
At the second meeting, she destroys "Spider's Web" in insubordination towards her "master".
And that first scene at the flowered grass between Zuril and Rubina doesn’t get unnoticed by Duke Fleed…giving afterwards a more logical explanation to his subsequent behavior...
Edited by joe 7 - 28/4/2020, 14:18
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RUBINA TALKS ABOUT DUKE FLEED AT SKARMOON BASE
In Dialogue 3 it is not clear why Rubina claims that Duke Fleed's opinion should be relevant from a legal standpoint. In fact, when she talks to his father, she says:
Rubina: (...) For what Duke Fleed is concerned, I will see him directly and I will talk with him.
Officially, for several years Planet Fleed was a Veghian territory: Duke Fleed, although was formally the King of Fleed, had no more authority on that planet. It can therefore be assumed that Rubina intends to meet Duke Fleed not as King of Fleed, but as the pilot of Grendizer, the "enemy" who was fighting against Vega for years.
As she speaks about a possible peace with the Earth, she might consider Duke Fleed as an appropriate interlocutor for negotiating with Vega Empire.
Moreover, Rubina speaks to her father about Planet Fleed who is returning to life: it can be a new planet for Veghians, who had lost their own one. Let's read again:
Rubina: (...)Don't attack Earth anymore!
King Vega: (disappointed) But what are you saying? We have anything but hope of conquering Earth as we have lost Planet Vega.
Rubina: No, we have also Planet Fleed.
King Vega: (surprised) Planet Fleed?
Rubina: Planet Fleed is re-birthing itself. Let's go to Planet Fleed, and start creating a new homeland. For what Duke Fleed is concerned, I will see him directly and I will talk with him.
King Vega: No!! We cannot have peace unless we defeat Grendizer and conquer Earth!
Substantially, King Vega says that, without ending the war against Grendizer and Earth, the matter of transferring the Veghian population makes no sense. In fact, King Vega did not have the necessary resources for such a mass transfer: even if they wanted to move to Fleed, King Vega was using all the latest available resources (especially energy) in the war against Grendizer.
The answer of King Vega to Rubina is very logical. His daughter seems to underestimate the practical problems that Vega kingdom has, which seems unlikely. So, the explanation for Rubina's attitude should be different. Duke Fleed could be her passport to regain her royal prerogatives. If Duke Fleed had accepted her as an interlocutor, she would have reacquired her role as a princess. But the plan could work only if Duke Fleed ignored her true legal status. In fact, Rubina lies to Duke Fleed on Earth "forgetting" to reveal the "small" detail that, legally, she was no longer Vega princess. An information that would certainly have been of the greatest importance to Duke Fleed. She is a perfect manipulator ...
Anyway, it is not clear, even in this case, the relationship between cause and effect that Rubina attributes to the meeting with Duke Fleed, and why King Vega considers this meeting so dangerous to dethrone her daughter and then to consent to the dangerous (for her) Zuril's plan to use her as a bait to capture Grendizer pilot. All this contrasts with King Vega's sorrow for Rubina's death in ep73: if he really loved (though in his own way) his daughter, why does King Vega assume these inconsistent behaviors in ep72? Is it a question of superficiality from the authors, a question of scenes and dialogues written at random for not knowing how to pass the time? Or, so far, the script is building the matrioska to be unveiled later?
Edited by joe 7 - 30/4/2020, 14:40. -
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MEETING ON EARTH: RUBINA'S FEELINGS
It is essential identifying correctly the feelings in Duke Fleed and Rubina's hearts in ep72, to understand what happens in this episode and also the personality of the characters. Normally, it is believed that Rubina is in love with Duke Fleed and that she acts in ep72 because of these feelings.
Yet, looking at the visual details and listening to the VO (Original Version Japanese) dialogues, there is something wrong with this theory. When Rubina and Duke meet again on Earth for the first time in eight years, she surely has never heard of him until recently: she probably could not get much detail when she learnt in Ruby the news that he was still alive. She should love him, she is seeing him for the first time in 8 years: well what happens? Rubina does not ask him anything about him, not even a polite "how are you?". Nothing. Not a word about Duke Fleed as a person.
Note also that Rubina never says to Duke Fleed "I love you", not even when she dies ... and neither does Duke.
Someone could object that, in this series, neither Daisuke nor Hikaru say this phrase: but, in such a dramatic context like that of Duke and Rubina, there is little time to speak, so the most important things should be said immediately, shouldn't they? Well, should to say at least "I love you" be the most important detail of their relationship? Unlike Ep25, where Naida declares her feelings about Duke Fleed, in ep72 Rubina does not say a word about this topic.
Moreover, when she meets Duke, Rubina is not in an altered state haunted by memories. She is rational, careful to choose the right moment to show him the photo of Planet Fleed.
It is clear that Rubina leaves Rubi after an irrational impulse; but, apart this, she behaves like an experienced and acute person. Her relations with Zuril, King Vega, Duke Fleed, show that she is not irrational. She understands very well her "fallen princess" position and acts consequentially.
Hers is not an irrational behaviour. In case Rubina asked Duke Fleed to marry her, for example, then she would have been really an irrational girl. But this is not the case: she does not propose any marriage, she is silent on her legal status of "fallen princess"... she also does not immediately tell Duke about Planet Fleed.
She waits the moment in which Duke speaks about his planet: only then she tells him the news. Irrational behavior? It seems rather studied: Rubina seems to test Duke Fleed to understand how to relate better with him.
Please observe her behavior: she runs towards Duke ecstatically, but Duke is not doing the same.
(instead, when Duke and Naida met, he also ran like her),
Not only this: Duke stops Rubina with a gesture: then, she completely changes her look and behavior.
Please note that Rubina, however, is not worried for Duke in any way. She does not show any sign of real interest on him, or about his physical or mental state. She is not sad about his reaction, she is only disappointed because he stopped her. She is also surprised that Duke makes observations about Planet Fleed (!!!).
She acts seductively with him.
Substantially, Rubina never shows any interest in Duke Fleed as a person. She does not even show interest to see her "beloved"'s face, always covered by a helmet.
Someone could object: "But, if Rubina does not care about Duke Fleed, what about all that "last flower" talk? She does not want to be forgotten by him, after all ".
The answer is simple: she wants to be remembered indeed. What connection would there be between wanting to be remembered and feeling "love"? Rather, it seems that Rubina wants a confirmation that Duke must remember her in spite of everything.
That red flower, in fact, recalls the embarrassing situation created between them during the Fleed boat trip, where she realized that he was not in love with her, so this cannot be the main reason for her request. It's not really the best as a love memory ...
There must be another reason. That is, Rubina wants to remind Duke that she was the one who gave him the victory over Vega. One day, he will be able to come back to Fleed, just because she told him about Skarmoon position. Of course Duke promises her to call the red flower "Rubina" while she dies. How could he say no to her in that situation??
Edited by joe 7 - 2/5/2020, 14:33. -
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MEETING ON EARTH: DUKE'S REACTIONS
There is another important aspect to analise, which is necessary to understand the meaning of ep72: was Duke Fleed in love with Rubina or not? We could try to resume the TTOTC 1 here, taking care only of the visual evidences. What evidence do we have that Daisuke was in love with Rubina? Honestly, I can only find three ambiguous evidences and one, perhaps, certain:
1° AND 2° AMBIGUOUS PROOF
A couple of ambiguous dialogues (Koji and Daisuke in the bedroom).
3° AMBIGUOUS PROOF
At the lake scene with Maria Grace, while reminding for a brief moment a young Rubina, Daisuke’s expression is mostly inscrutable: no particular feelings are revealed by his face.
Personally, I think this scene has the main purpose to directly connect Rubina and Daisuke for the first time in the episode and nothing more, as Daisuke reminds her soon after looking at his sister jumping in lake while he is playing guitar (and his memory is in fact related to the boat trip in Fleed which has more or less the same particulars), but it could even be a nostalgia thought from him, so I put this scene in the ambiguous evidence list.
1° CERTAIN PROOF (perhaps)
Only after Rubina is dead we visually face a total change in Duke Fleed’s attitude, suddenly increasing from sadness (his first tears) to a total desperation (the first scream, the erratic circle, the rush through the flower grass, the other scream at the precipice).
These are really not much evidences, in my opinion, even if the last one, at first sight, could be considered sufficient. But do we have some indications that show the opposite, namely that Daisuke is not in love with Rubina? Well, looking at the visual aspects of the episode, it could be possible. For example:
1° PROOF AGAINST
Daisuke's first reaction when he first meets Rubina (= when she presents herself) is of total surprise (his expression is clearly visible, even under the helmet).
He does not express any relief or happiness for having finally seen Rubina: he shows surprise. As he never supposed that Rubina would have ever come here to meet him; as he found normal that Rubina would have never come to see him. Actually, at first, he thinks to a trick.
2° PROOF AGAINST
Only after a few scenes, when Rubina's spacer arrives close to Grendizer and Duke sees her for the first time, he is surprised once again seeing her crying for joy, like he did not expect her to have still feeling for him (his motion of surprise is clearly designed).
3° PROOF AGAINST
While Grendizer and Rubina's spacer fly in parallel and she continues to cry for joy, Duke for sure does not share a tear or a possibly happy expression. A natural reaction for a man deeply in love for a woman who he did not see for 8 years, right?
4° PROOF AGAINST
When Rubina's spacer is ahead of Grendizer some seconds later, Duke's expression is everything but moved or happy; I would call it instead angry or hateful.
5° PROOF AGAINST
At the first flowered grass scene, she runs to him joyfully, while he makes only a couple of steps outside of Grendizer giving to me the same feeling of a dead man walking.
6° PROOF AGAINST
When Rubina recalls the Fleed dialogue, she is designed full of enthusiasm at the idea of the possible union, unlike Daisuke, who, for the most time, avoids to look at her including the moment he tells her his best possible compliment (if I would like to do another exception to the no-dialogues rule, I would add that, of all possible word exchange between two lovers, Rubina is not able to find anything better to remind her man how deeply in love he was for her 8 years ago than that he told her "You are beautiful like that flower". Wow, I really hope nothing similar ever happens to me).
7° PROOF AGAINST
Once Rubina has proved her identity, Duke's attitude does not change at all. So we cannot suppose that his previous behaviors were due to the possible disbelieving about meeting really the girl he loved as now he doesn’t neither smile nor show any little joyful reaction in being 5 meters close to his unforgettable love.
8° PROOF AGAINST
The first emotional reaction from Duke arrives when Rubina shows him the photo of Planet Fleed. Even through his helmet, we can see his surprise and shock.
9° PROOF AGAINST
After hearing about the news about his native place, Duke turns to look at the sky (I suppose towards Fleed – no alternatives are possible for me) and continues to rest motionless along whole Rubina’s discourse about the need for them to get “together” in order to end the war and allow Vega population to transfer on his native planet. Duke does not stop to look at the sky not even when he comments about her proposal. He looks at her only for a second when she embraces him, but soon after his eyesight comes back to the sky again and we see a tear falling from his left eye. Again I get an unique impression: no love feelings towards Rubina at all, and instead the complete different guess that his thoughts are all concentrated on planet Fleed only. 
10° PROOF AGAINST
In my opinion, the balcony scene is one of the best one of whole Grendizer anime, and personally I can hardly find anything worth of comparison even in other cartoons. What I would like to underline here, from this particular scene, is the total lack of enthusiasm from Daisuke after the first meeting with the woman he is supposed to love and willing to marry from 8 years. Instead, look at how he behaves. His facial expression is instead sad, worried and distressed.
11° PROOF AGAINST
At the balcony scene, we see a total lack of enthusiasm from Daisuke after the reunion of his "sweetheart". He has a worried, sad and stressed expression. He is looking at the sky while Koji, Maria Grace and Hikaru arrive: he does not change when his dearest friend and his sister talk to him
and reverses his eyesight to the ground when he turns back to the building.
Yet he has just received the best possible news for him: he could bond himself with the woman he has been loving from such a long time and he could go back with her as a prince on his native planet. Sorry, I find the visual aspects of the Centre balcony scene in total contradiction with the love affair hypothesis. However, we know Daisuke as a reserved person and usually without an expensive personality, this seems to me really too much. IMO something is wrong here if he has a lovestory going on with Rubina; the visual evidences seem instead to let me believe that Daisuke is in deep trouble and probably facing a conscience struggle.
12° PROOF AGAINST
More or less the same visual evidences arrive from the Centre control room scene, where Daisuke has a worried expression after Rubina’s call: he turns his eyesight left and right with what I intend is a scared expression – like somebody who is discovered doing something forbidden for example – then rushes out of the room without a word. Without getting too romantic, a really inexplicable behavior if Daisuke would have listened to his beloved woman asking him to reach her for a meeting.
13° PROOF AGAINST
At the bedroom scene, Daisuke once again seems to have more a serious than happy expression.
It seems that, at the beginning, certainly by Umon's suggestion, everyone went to sleep without thinking about Rubina's appointment. So she wasn't considered trustworthy. Daisuke does not seem at all happy at the thought of reviewing his "love". Note that all the time he does not look to Koji when he speaks. Not to mention that, when he talks about Rubina and their engagement, he looks serious and closes his eyes, as if he was remembering a painful memory.
It's an ambiguous expression, because the painful memory may be due to having abandoned Rubina because of the destruction of Fleed, or in remembering an imposed marriage. In any case, he is not happy to remember his relationship with Rubina. According to what Koji says in Dialogue 6 ("The Head of the Center should have told you not to leave, right?"), after Rubina's message, Umon must have met Daisuke, after he left the control room, to convince him not to listen to her request for a new meeting, and Team Grendizer is aware of it.
Or, Koji may have asked Umon to do this, since the scientist is the only person who could have made Daisuke change his mind. He does not seem happy with the return of Rubina: on the contrary, he seems to be resigned to a sort of inevitable destiny. Just watch him talking to Koji in the bedroom while he dresses and talks about Rubina. He does not look at him, closes his eyes, interrupts the sentence. In any case, his expression is certainly not cheerful:
Koji: What happened between you two?
Daisuke: (turning his back to Koji and keeping the serious expression) If the war with Planet Vega did not break out, now me and Rubina would be... (he leaves the sentence suspended and closes his eyes) 
Daisuke's visual expression during his dialogue with Koji, when he says that "he would be"... married to Rubina? Most likely it is consistent with the proof against their relation: he says this closing his eyes, as if remembering a painful memory for him. Or the painful memory is because he could not get married to her? But it should not be coherent with Duke's behavior on the grass with Rubina, when he meets her the first time on Earth.
14° PROOF AGAINST
Duke, anyway, does not share a tear during Rubina's agony. He is very calm instead and seems to be in control of the situation.
Like in every other similar circumstances faced before: to remind only the most recent episodes, Kein’s suicide in ep68 – a guy he should have known as he was a childhood friend of his sister – and Morus’ death just the ep before.
I would say that being close to loose the beloved woman should be for every sensible man a bit worse than every other situation, right? Well, it’s not the impression I receive looking at this scene, whatever dialogue I am hearing. For sure this is another ambiguous scene, but anyway I don’t find particular evidences of a Duke’s strong attachment to Rubina.
15° PROOF AGAINST
The very final scene of episode 72 is another surprise. Duke is shown looking at the daylight without a single tear in the eyes (this scene should happen few moments after the desperate cry as the sun started to appear during Rubina’s agony) and with a strong and fiery expression.
Okay, maybe I’m stupid, but I don’t understand how this is possible. If his desperation was due to the death of the woman he loved, I must otherwise suppose his desperation was caused by something different, in order to let this final scene to have a meaning.
16° PROOF AGAINST
I admit I am not completely honest in jumping to ep73, but another evidence I would like to underline is related to the scene where Umon's satellite is flying to the Moon and Daisuke recalls Rubina telling him the location of her father’s base. Again, no particular moved expression is shown from his side, he is serious but not sad or desperate, thinking about her.
I find this strange and, to be generous, I would define this as an ambiguous evidence, taking into account Araki is not the designer of this episode, so there could be some inaccuracy in the drawing (which I believe anyway unlikely – but the final episodes are another topic).
17° PROOF AGAINST
To notice the difference, I would like to briefly show some visual aspects on ep25 (Naida's episode). Daisuke runs towards Naida with a big smile on his face when they meet; he expresses joy, sadness, anger during their meetings; he is not afraid to introduce her to his friends.
Ep25 is the only one in which we see Daisuke as a passionate man. For example, he and Naida roll on the grass, they kiss, Daisuke caresses her face with a flower, they hold hands together as they run to the lake. His eyes are shining when he and Naida are together.
In short, what I see in ep25 from Daisuke is not friendship, but love. A “teeny” kind of love, but, anyway, love. For instance, ep25 is designed by the same person as ep72 (Shingo Araki), so a possible not co-ordination between drawing teams should be excluded. I believe the different attitudes shown by Daisuke in ep25 and ep72 with the two girls have been purposely included in the storyboard in order to let us understand something. Even the writer, in both cases, is Mitsuru Mashima: so I think that Daisuke's different attitudes in these two episodes can tell us something.
At the end of this playful investigation, the final count of visual evidence about Duke/Rubina relationship is to me 1-17-3 (love – no lovestory – ambiguity). So, even considering as a pure theoretical hypothesis that all ambiguous evidences are in favour of the love affair, the contrary indications are anyway more than double. Coupling this result from visual indications analysis with the systematic considerations of the previous paragraph, I personally exclude that the script of ep72 meant Duke being in love with Rubina. Not only this: the history would make sense only if Duke did not love Rubina.
Instead, if Duke would love Rubina, the whole anime would be based, in my opinion, on a huge screenplay hole: I doubt it is so. In fact, the hypothesis of Duke Fleed in love with Rubina would show such a great narrative problem that would nullify the meaning itself of the anime, even the presentation of the character of Daisuke. In fact, only with two episodes from the end of the anime we learn that Duke was not only the Prince of Fleed, but he was also destined to become nothing less than the King of Vega. Think about it for a second. Rubina was the heir to the throne after her father (King Vega himself will confirm it indirectly in episode 73),
therefore her husband will become, consequently, the future King of Vega. This means that, for 71 episodes, we saw Daisuke fighting against his potential father-in-law, killing, among other things, the population of Rubina, the woman he theoretically loved deeply and without interruption for 8 years and with whom he intended to reign, without any particular scruple of conscience (well, he has several, but not this one).
Does it make sense, in your opinion, considering how the character of Daisuke has been developed up to ep72? We have seen a very psychologically correct anime: how is it possible that a similar contradiction suddenly emerges after a total of 71 coherent episodes? It is true that Daisuke has always been presented as a peaceful man who does not want to kill anyone and tries to avoid the death of the enemy if possible, but exactly this characteristic of his personality makes me think the possibility that he was not in love with Rubina, or otherwise here we would be facing a huge narrative hole. There must therefore be more as the cause of Duke Fleed's desperate reaction, but it can not be "the loss of the woman he loved".
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1 TTOTC: Total Trial Of The Century. It was an analysis procedure of Ufo Robot Grendizer anime based exclusively on the visual aspect, which was used by Gerdha and by some users of the previous French forum.
Edited by joe 7 - 5/5/2020, 13:49. -
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MEETING ON EARTH: FLEED THAT RETURNS TO LIFE
In Dialogue 5, Rubina talks to Duke about Planet Fleed which is coming back to life. Let's read:
Duke Fleed: Not only that, but Planet Fleed was polluted by Vegatron radioactivity too, and was turned into a planet of death!
Rubina: (turning to Duke Fleed) No, Duke, luckily Planet Fleed is not completely destroyed.
Duke Fleed: (astonished): What?
Rubina: (showing to Duke Fleed the picture she took from her spacer) I've seen it arriving from Planet Rubi. This is its picture.
(Duke Fleed watches the picture in total surprise and emotion)
Duke Fleed: The suspicious aura of Vegatron radioactivity which covered Planet Fleed does not exist anymore!
Rubina: Vegatron radioactivity is becoming weaker, and Planet Fleed is going to regenerate itself.
Duke Fleed: (turning his eyesight to the sky in the opposite direction respect to Rubina's position) Planet Fleed is going to regenerate itself?
Examining Duke Fleed's comments looking at the picture of his home planet, we can see that he was totally aware of the fact that his planet was contaminated and it was no longer capable to preserve life. 
I have to repeat this: Planet Fleed was completely contaminated: otherwise, if it was not so, Daisuke would have no reason to escape to Earth. He had Grendizer, King Vega only had the Giru Giru and the mini UFOs: if Daisuke wanted, he could win them (in episode 1 he defeats Giru Giru in 2 minutes, years after the last time he had driven Goldrake).
He could still do something for his people, at least to die like a hero to save someone. Instead, Duke Fleed escapes, starting a new life without ever thinking about going back, definitely convinced he was the only survivor.
Basically, Daisuke understood that there could not have been any survivors on Fleed, especially after a particular event he had witnessed: a Vegatron mega-bomb that contaminated all Fleed planet.
Otherwise, given his personality, he would have behaved differently. Well, how many times in the anime he spoke about planet Fleed as a dead planet? Dozens of times, including Daisuke's presentation to Koji in ep2.
How many contrary evidences do we have? None, except Naida's words. Other concrete evidence of this? None. Does Naida give any evidences of what she says? None, you just have to trust her words. It is definitely not much.
Among other things, don't forget that the authors of episode 25 are the same as in episode 72 in which, coincidentally, Rubina shows Duke the photo of the planet Fleed that is just returning to life.
Then, previously Planet Fleed was an unquestionably dead planet. Furthermore, it is a curious coincidence that Naida and Rubina both say the same thing: that is, the planet Fleed is alive. Only, the first one says this while lying, and the second one tells instead the truth, showing a proof.
Please note that ep72 posteriorly validates the theory about Naida’s lie, so confirming also the existing link between the 2 episodes.
In VO (Japanese Original Version), Rubina explicitly talks about Fleed “returning to life”, so implicitly confirming that before it was a dead planet; so posteriorly invalidating Naida’s words and supporting the idea that she lied by her own will.
It has to be noted that Duke Fleed is surprised by the news of Planet Fleed returning to life, so evidently he really believed that it was a dead planet. It means that after ep25 he should have reconsidered Naida’s speech and understood it was a lie.
Edited by joe 7 - 7/5/2020, 14:35. -
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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.
Edited by joe 7 - 9/5/2020, 14:15. -
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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.
Edited by joe 7 - 12/5/2020, 14:00. -
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RUBINA'S DEATH
But, once landed, the movement of air due to the explosion of Zuril's spaceship aggravates Rubina's conditions.
When Duke Fleed lays her on the grass, Rubina is already aware that there is no hope for her. Then,she makes the decision to reveal the location of Skarmoon Base. The father who dethroned her will not be able to survive her for long.
But Duke Fleed does not seem very impressed by the situation, nor he does seem to particularly appreciate the revelation. He does not say: "Thank you for this crucial information", but rather he asks her in OV (Original Japanese Version):
Duke Fleed: (a bit surprised) Why are you telling me such a thing?
These words seem to imply once again the doubt in Duke Fleed on Rubina's real intentions, again a doubt about her honesty.
However, only after about 20 minutes of an episode of a total of 23 minutes in duration, we can see Daisuke moved for Rubina, when she reveals him the exact position of Skarmoon Base. OV still helps us to understand what happens in the anime. At the moment, when Rubina is about to die, the intonation of Kei Tomiyama, Daisuke's voice actor in the OV, during this section is always very calm and strong, without any trace of sadness or emotion, until the moment when Rubina dies.
Only when she is dead, Kei Tomiyama makes Duke Fleed's tone desperate.
It is important to note that Daisuke cries only after Rubina's death, not during it. Only after Rubina is dead, we can see a change in Daisuke's behavior, whose sadness increases (his first tears)
to a total despair (the first cry)
the circle ride,
the run on the lawn,
the other cry on the precipice).
It would seem to be an immense pain for the death of the beloved woman or, at least, for a good innocent princess who gave her life for him and for peace.
But this is not the last scene of ep72. The next one, set only a few moments later, shows us Duke Fleed who, without a tear and with a proud look, fixes the dawn that rises on Mount Yatsugatake.
Would such a scene be possible if Duke Fleed had been in love with Rubina? Or if he had even felt a little love and respect for her? I don't think so.
The meaning of this scene is therefore different. Just like different is the reason for the scream of pain of Duke Fleed. Have we already seen him in that state? Yes, in ep25. And what do ep25 and ep72 have in common? The whole design team: the only case in the anime together with ep63. It cannot be a coincidence.
There could be a thin red line bonding the two episodes. A bond that allows us to interpret them for what they really are. I believe they are the flash in the dark on the inner story of Duke Fleed.
Edited by joe 7 - 14/5/2020, 14:08. -
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CONCLUSION - EP 25 AND EP72: THE MATRIOSKAS
In my analysis about Hikaru, written in 2003, I mentioned how the personal evolution of Duke Fleed is in reality the main theme of the whole anime, its true reason of existance, the true story that Nagai wanted to tell. I am still convinced of this; actually, the knowledge of the OV (Original Japanese Version) dialogues has reinforced my opinion.
Since we see Duke Fleed talking and acting during the anime in a certain way, some specific idea may be assumed spontaneously about his personality; but, if you look at the story with conventional lenses, superficially, you don't understand who he really is. The so-called "inconsistencies" or "anomalous" behaviors of the characters are normally explained as script errors or, even worse, as superficiality by the authors (it is an anime for children, the authors did not take care of the details...I read every type of comments about it on the web along the years). At Ufo Robot Grendizer anime worked Nagai himself (he himself admits it in Grendizer Roman Album) and the best professionals available at that time on the market: Araki, Komatsubara, Katsumata, Mashima, Uehara, Tamura, Fujikawa, Ishikawa...
Yet, even by the so-called "die-hard-fans" of the anime, it is assumed their contempt for the viewers or their absolute stupidity. I find this attitude from the fandom absolutely unjustified and disrespectful. Before reaching the conclusion that the authors did not care about the coherence of the story, or that they let Toei and Dynamic Planning spend money writing random scenes, I think it is necessary to ask the question: "maybe there is a reasonable explanation? Maybe we neglected some details?".
I find the most eloquent example of this approach in the usual interpretations of ep25 and ep72. The poor conditioned Naida, the sweet peaceful princess Rubina...and Duke Fleed acting illogically and "outside the box" in both episodes, without an adequate explanation, apart the usual "the authors did not take care of the coherence".
The latter being also the explanation to justify the existence of two contemporary girlfriends - because there’s nothing to say the contrary: in ep25 Duke Fleed and Naida never hint at breaking their relationship for reasons of state. Even, someone supposes that ep25 was "a mistake" that the Authors tried to fix with ep72! I am amazed. Why on Earth the fact that Duke Fleed entertained a relationship at the same time with both Naida and Rubina should be a mistake?
This point is absolutely crucial: but it is normally rejected by the fandom as "impossible": Duke Fleed apparently represents the prototype of the spotless and fearless hero, so it is unthinkable and unacceptable that he could have a "dark side": for example, that on Fleed he was a spoiled and irresponsible prince so he could “keep his feets in two shoes”.
Me too have been a victim of this mental scheme for many years. Then, I discovered the list of the episodes production team and I realized that I had to accept another explanation.
Ep25 and ep72 share the same writer, the same director and the same sakkan; the production team differs only for the curator of the background (Tsuji versus Uchikawa), the presence of Michi Himeno as support to the sakkan (she arrived in the Araki team in ep50) and the change of character designer (from Komatsubara to Araki). But the differences in the production team do not concern the strategic roles. It is the only case, together with ep63, throughout the full anime. Mashima, Katsumata and Araki worked together for the first time in ep25, then they returned to the team only for ep63 and ep72. It cannot be a coincidence.
But, if it is not a coincidence, it is absolutely impossible that the same identical development team could have made such a serious and strategic mistake in delineating the character of Duke Fleed and his interpersonal relationships with Naida and Rubina. There must be a logical explanation, which is respectful of the intelligence and professionalism of such a list of authors. And the only reasonable explanation is: there was no mistake.
This is confirmed by the fact that, from the point of view of both history and visual aspects, Telonna of Uchu Enban Daisenso (the pilot movie) is clearly and unequivocally divided in Naida and Rubina.
Telonna is a childhood friend in love with Duke Fleed; she is blonde; she has an electronic panther called Queen Panther; she is the daughter of King Yabarn; she dies on her spacecraft hit by a beam directed towards Gattaiger. The first three features are displayed in Naida, the second three in Rubina.
The two Uchu Enban Daisenso flashbacks that remind Telonna along with Duke Fleed on Planet Fleed are both present in Ufo Robot Grendizer, the first in ep25 and the second in ep72.
The division of Telonna, the co-protagonist of Uchu Enban Daisenso into two distinct characters was necessarily a conscious and voluntary choice of the authors. Therefore, the necessary consequence is that ep72 was conceived since the beginning of the anime: when the authors wrote ep25, they already knew, at least roughly, in what terms they would have developed ep72. Maybe they did not know exactly when and with what details - MariaGrace, for example, had not been even conceived at the time of ep25, and there are various rumors that indicate that the duration of the anime should have been originally of 78 episodes (the sudden managerial decision to shorten it explains the sudden final rush of the story) - but surely the idea that the story of ep25 was incomplete so it had to be closed in another episode at the end of the epic, had already been fixed at the beginning of 1976. Not only this: in the Roman Album, Nagai and Katsuta explicitly admit to be personally the creators of ep25. If so, the paternity of ep72 must also be attributed to them. It's a bit difficult to assume that they did not know what they were doing...
But, if this is true, it means that the events of ep25 are not self-consistent: that the episode presupposes that a part of the story is not yet revealed and its complete explanation is postponed to ep72. But it's not Naida to be "postponed" to ep72, nor is Rubina to be "anticipated" in ep25: Duke Fleed is the only common factor to both episodes. Therefore, it is necessary to focus the attention on him in order to understand the real intentions of the authors: a hidden message which is so important to require such a complicated storytelling strategy. It must be something that could only be revealed at the end of the story, i. e. that it made sense to place there for narrative reasons.
But, in reality, the authors don't leave the audience completely pending in the 47 episodes lasting between ep25 and ep72. Halfway, when the authors are forced, in ep49, for the production events that I narrated in Hikaru's analysis, to introduce the character of Maria Grace Fleed, they place another crucial clue which, however - for the same reasons mentioned above - it is hardly caught by fandom for what it is. MariaGrace remembers the attack on Fleed: and what does she remember? She recalls only that she was abandoned in the midst of the flames by her brother Duke Fleed, who hears her voice, but prefers to run away to go to recover Grendizer.
That scene in ep49 is absolutely senseless, yet it has been inserted: so it MUST mean something. MariaGrace was a character originally not foreseen in the anime, and the authors had to invent a story to justify her existence. Well, of all the explanations that they could invent, they choose the one of a Duke Fleed who abandons his sister? But wouldn’t have had more sense to use another solution, for example that Duke Fleed entrusted her to the tutor in order him to bring her to safety? But no, they choose to show us an "anomalous" Duke Fleed. As "anomalous" is the attitude of Duke Fleed in ep25 and ep72.
Is there any link in the team of authors who tie ep49 to ep25 and ep72? Yes: Shingo Araki. Ep49 is the first episode in which Shingo Araki is a character designer: it is in this episode where Araki takes over Komatsubara's role (who has gone on to manage Gakeen for reasons that have never been completely revealed). Araki is the inventor himself of the character of MariaGrace Fleed: how to introduce her in the anime was also his responsibility, even if the script of ep49 is by Tamura.
It is difficult to speculate that such madness has been invented either for fun or lightness. That scene wants to tell us something specific. What? And why?
I first mentioned the "anomalous" behavior of Duke Fleed in ep25 and ep72. It is now necessary to carefully analyze this point and find for it an adequate explanation in order to finally understand UFO Robot Grendizer's biggest matrioska.
In ep25, Daisuke is overwhelmed by a sense of guilt which is absolutely exaggerated, related to what we know of his history up to that time. He took Grendizer and escaped from Fleed when the Vegatron mega-bomb exploded, so what? What else could he have been able to do?
But, in his stammering answer in the hangar in front of Naida, there is no reasonable reply; he is paralyzed by the terror for something he thinks he has done and that Naida's words remind him.
And in his delirium, after being hit by the bar by her, his inner nightmares include a Grendizer covered of Fleedians' blood. This is his sense of guilt: he believes to be responsible for his population's death.
But why? It is not exactly what Naida has accused him of: she told him he is a traitor because he abandoned them when there were still survivors on Fleed planet, but it is a lie and Daisuke knows it well. But Naida's words still generate a nightmare in him, and this Duke Fleed's nightmare refers to something different: he considers himself as responsible for the extermination of his people.
This is not a matter of interpretations of dialogues or of dubbers' intonations: it is a precise scene, which has required manpower, time and money to be realized, so it is there for a specific purpose. Also, it is not even the first time in the anime that we see such a scene. We have already seen it in ep1, when Daisuke plays the guitar on the lawn and then he is caught by a conflict of conscience. Some memories of the destruction of Fleed appear in his mind; and there is a scene very similar to that of ep25; the real difference is that in this case Grendizer is not covered in blood.
Something happened in Duke Fleed's mind between ep1 and ep25: the meeting with Naida awakened in him a feeling of guilt for his planet's destruction. Therefore, Naida must be linked in some way to the events of the attack on Fleed: otherwise, the Duke Fleed's inner nightmares in that episode would not have an adequate explanation.
But what could it be? In ep25, there is no indication about it. The viewer is left at the end of ep25 with the feeling that something is wrong: ep25 is an "exaggerated" episode, out of the average atmosphere (even if usually dramatic) of the anime up to that moment. Nagai and Katsuta say in the Roman Album that they wanted to do an experiment with ep25 and that, given the positive feedback, they continued on this path even afterwards. So, you must take the content of this episode seriously: it was not a mistake, there is no inconsistency. Only, evidently it cannot be explained by itself.
And 47 episodes later, with the same development team, the viewer is slapped with an incredible news: Duke Fleed, at the time of the attack on his planet, was officially engaged with King Vega's daughter. I still remember what I thought when I saw ep72 for the first time when I was 13 years old: what the hell is this story?
It should be noted that this is a big difference with Uchu Enban Daisenso: Telonna and Duke Fleed in this pilot movie are NOT engaged. They are only childhood friends, that's all.
So, when normally someone says that the history of ep72 is taken from Uchu Enban Daisenso, he/she makes a mistake: there are some references, but the underlying story is very different.
But, in ep72, Duke Fleed does not seem - until Rubina's death - in the same mental state of when he meets Naida in ep25. In the latter, throughout all ep25, he is disconnected from reality: Naida tells him a lot of lies which he believes, together with disconnected phrasing.
In ep72, instead, he is well present to himself and replies point by point to Rubina at the lawn.
This happens until she shows him Fleed's picture: then he is moved looking at the sky in the direction of his planet. We have seen only few times Duke Fleed crying in the anime: and we see him so twice in ep72.
The original title of ep72 is: "The Long Distance Homeland Star". Planet Fleed is the protagonist of ep72, but the matrioska game makes us believe at first impression that the title is related to the news that it is coming back to life. But it made no sense for the authors to name an episode relying only on this topic, which is very marginal in the story. In OV (Original Japanese Version), titles are very poetic and are related to the profound meaning, to the "moral" of the episode itself. So, to have the honor of being the title's topic of ep72, Planet Fleed must be the true protagonist of the story. I mean that it is the story of what really happened on Fleed Planet, which must be the real protagonist of ep72: Rubina is the matrioska in the matrioska. If Rubina had been introduced into ep72 just to interpret the second alter-ego of Telonna, none of the dialogues of OV had any reason to exist.
The interpretation key to "The Long Distance Homeland Star" is in the dialogue between Duke Fleed and Rubina at the meadow. When he remembers her the attack to Fleed, in OV Rubina asks for forgiveness for herself, not for her father. She does not call herself out of the responsibility of the attack, she does not say that she had nothing to do with it and that she was against it, that she tried everything possible to avoid the tragedy. No, she turns her eyes down and asks for forgiveness. And Duke Fleed is not surprised by her answer. He does not tell her "poor dear, I know you have nothing to do with it". No, he fully accepts Rubina's statement and goes on recriminating for the radioactive pollution of Planet Fleed.
These are not opinions, or fanfiction hypotheses. These are the OV dialogues. In an episode like this, the apex of the whole anime, developed by the same team of ep25, it is not possible to think to a mistake or superficiality in the writing of dialogues, because they are matched with coherent drawings. We must accept that Rubina declares herself as co-responsible for the attack to Planet Fleed.
But what reason would have had Rubina to let attack, or, at least, to consciously consent to the attack to Fleed Planet? In addition: did she really have the possibility of deciding, or anyway doing something to allow or, conversely, to prevent the attack on the planet, so that she considers herself co-responsible for the attack?
It is the OV of ep2 to help us here. In the Japanese version, Duke Fleed explains that:
Duke Fleed/Daisuke: "But one day, suddenly, King Vega The Great, who was aiming to the total conquer of Vega Constellation, attacked Planet Fleed, setting up the Allied Army".
But, in ep72, King Vega and Zuril declare that the King of Fleed conceived the engagement between his son and Rubina to keep the peace.
Thus, the King of Fleed was perfectly aware of King Vega's expansion plans. So, why does Duke Fleed tell about a Vega's "sudden" attack? What was more natural than a Vega attack under normal conditions? Evidently, the Fleedians thought, for some reason, that they were safe. And what could have made them feel safe, if not the fact that Rubina was not only engaged with Duke Fleed (ultimately a formal protection only), but she was also physically present on the planet, thus effectively preventing any attack?
Planet Fleed could feel protected only if King Vega could not dare to attack because of his daughter's physical presence on the planet. Thus, the dialogues of ep2 are connected in a sensed way with those of ep72 only by deducing that Rubina had been on Fleed for a long time and she left suddenly, and also in secret. Duke Fleed, in fact, is far from the royal palace and Grendizer and the attack takes him by surprise in another city, where he is with Morus (see the flashbacks of ep71).
Someone might think that Rubina was taken away by Fleed with deception or force by emissaries of King Vega, but, then, her apologies at the lawn in ep72 would make no sense.
Her admission of co-responsibility may be explained only if her departure was her voluntary choice and she was well aware that this would have allowed the Veghian Allied Forces - specifically created - to attack Fleed. And Duke Fleed knows all this well, because he is not surprised by her excuses, nor he rejects them.
But, if this interpretation is correct, then the next logical question is: why does Rubina decide to leave and then let attack Fleed?
Once again, the OV dialogues support us. In the flashback of ep72 at the lake on Fleed, when Rubina mentions the already organized wedding, a bewildered Duke Fleed answers instinctively in OV "but this is impossible!". Rubina is surprised by the answer and supposes this is a problem of attraction towards her, to which Duke Fleed awkwardly tries to remedy.
In fact, Rubina has reasons to be amazed. Why could her marriage with Duke Fleed be "impossible"? On the contrary, it was something very logical, given the general situation. Yet, it is also evident to her that the King of Fleed had not informed his son of the concluded negotiations (in OV, Rubina's words presuppose an already signed agreement), and that for Duke Fleed there is some problem regarding this marriage about which she is in the dark.
The comment about the impossible marriage must be associated with another dialogue in OV, this time in ep25: Gandal reports to Blacky that Naida was taken as an hostage on Fleed and she was held prisoner on Planet Vega.
Hostage? Why? For what purpose? A hostage is only useful as a weapon of blackmail. And who could ever be blackmailed through her? There is only one possible answer: Duke Fleed. Gandal, therefore, had to be aware of a VERY special relationship that linked Duke Fleed to Naida. It is unlikely that such news came to him officially during the negotiations for Rubina's wedding. Considering the silence of the King of Fleed with his son about the marriage, I don't think that he would have conversed with the Veghian officers about the relationship that existed between his son and the Baron Family's daughter. Gandal must therefore have come to know this information in another way.
The sentence about the impossible marriage would not have left Rubina indifferent. She should have developed a very strong infatuation for Duke Fleed, so much so that 8 years later her father fears it is still so strong to endanger the Empire and to let him decide to dethrone her (VO ep72).
So, what clues do we have about what really happened on the Long Distance Homeland Star? We know that Duke Fleed and Naida are in love with each other with an overwhelming passion (if what we see in ep25 even vaguely reminds their bond after 6 years...). We know that the King of Fleed secretly agrees with King Vega for his son's engagement with his enemy's daughter. We know that Rubina is sent to Fleed and she unexpectedly takes (OV dialogue between King Vega and Zuril in ep72) an infatuation for Duke Fleed. We know that, when he learns from Rubina about the engagement, Duke Fleed declares her that the imminent marriage is impossible. We know that this dialogue takes place in late spring (Mizubasyo flowers drawn to the lake) but the attack to Fleed begins in winter (ep68 and ep71), i. e. about 9 months later. 
We know that, in the meantime, the Allied Forces of Vega are formed, and that Rubina suddenly leaves Fleed by her own initiative, so that the planet is attacked.
Edited by joe 7 - 16/5/2020, 13:27. -
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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.
Edited by joe 7 - 19/5/2020, 14:05. -
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INSIGHTS
Copyright © 2014 Gerdha & Joe7, All Rights Reserved
Article by Gerdha, based on her posts on the french forum originally owned by DJInspace (now disappeared) and on her own analysis.
Notes, images and added considerations by Joe7. I assume any responsibility towards the Authors and I am available to modify the article upon their demand.
All the references to the original content of Ufo Robot Grendizer’s Roman Album are related to its translation in italian language by Stella Di Fleed, which was originally published on www.nagaifans.it (as of today 12/31/2021 no longer active). The analysis / interpretation of the content of Roman Album are the exclusive work by the authors of this article.
NAIDA IN THE HANGAR: GRENDIZER'S PROTECTION SYSTEM AND THE BOMB
Here I'm deepening an aspect of the analysis about Naida. In ep25, Naida enters in Grendizer's hangar with a bomb in her hand, to eliminate the robot. According to Daisuke's words, Naida should have known that, approaching Grendizer, she could have been electrocuted. Still, she had gone on anyway. So:
- Naida didn't know about it. Then, why did Daisuke say she had to know?
- Naida knew it. Then, why she had gone on anyway? Did she want to commit suicide? And for what purpose? Here is Gerdha's hypothesis that can explain the apparent impasse.
Surely Duke Fleed is telling the truth: Naida should have known it, but she had forgotten, or she has thought that the device had been disabled by Duke Fleed for some reason. I don't find anything strange in this, considering her mental state (Naida is in fact not lucid: not because of her conditioning, but because of her mixed feelings of hate/love for Duke). Furthermore, it is interesting that Umon does not appear to be aware of this, as he does not try to stop Koji when he runs into the hangar assuming he can guide Grendizer.
But Hikaru certainly knew about it, given her comments she reaches Koji in the hangar. It is impossible to believe that Umon was not aware of Grendizer's protective device: therefore it means that he thought it was inactive at the time, or, not being able to run after Koji, he had instructed Hikaru to reach him in the hangar (in fact, what was she doing there at that time?). This also shows how confidently were Hikaru and Daisuke: in fact, only he could have told Hikaru about the Grendizer "burglar alarm" (while, among other things, he evidently had not told Koji: another hidden message which shows the deep confidence that Daisuke had towards Hikaru, while with Koji Daisuke has spoken less). Sure, Umon could have warned Hikaru by explaining the danger Koji was running into, but he couldn't have time to tell her everything in the few seconds Koji was running to Grendizer.
Let's now analyze an interesting detail of the hangar scene: when the proton bomb, which Naida placed, explodes in the hangar, it only causes the destruction of a part of the ramp.
Still, it should have been powerful enough to wipe out Grendizer, in Naida's words.
Instead, it turns out to be a trivial bomb, little more than a firecracker. A real bomb capable of destroying Grendizer would certainly have destroyed not only the ramp and the hangar, but also the entire Research Center. In any case, Naida and Daisuke would have been killed without a doubt (they were only a few meters from the bomb!).
So what were Naida's true intentions? Did she know or not that the bomb was not powerful enough? Thinking well about the story well, I think Naida had no idea about the low power of that bomb. First of all, one should wonder where she got it from. At the end of episode 25, we see that the device that she piloted when she arrived on Earth was still close to the wood where she left it, and it still contained the other proton bombs: those that will eventually explode with her.
It may be thought that, some time before the hangar scene, Naida returned to the spaceship to take the bomb and take it to the Space Research Institute, so the one that explodes in the hangar must have been of the same type as the others.
Those bombs seem harmless enough: they therefore contain only "standard" explosives and not proton-type explosives (note: the fact that Daisuke indicates it as a "proton bomb" is another sign of his altered state, as described in the analysis).
The final explosion of the Vega Monster Dari-Dari and the fleet of minidisks is more due to a chain effect than to the power of the self-destructive explosion of Naida's vehicle itself.
In fact, Naida ignites a bomb on the spaceship, but the destructive explosion occurs only when, for a chain effect, the other spaceships also explode and, consequently, the debris first hit the minidisks, then the damaged monster turns and explodes later. In OV (Originall Japanese version), the disc on which Naida travels doesn't have a name, so it mustn't have been completed yet, or it didn't have all the weapons that the Enbanju normally had. Therefore, it could hardly have contained proton weapons, the prerogative of the Enbanju/Vega Monsters (even minidisks are not equipped with proton rays). It is therefore not surprising that the bomb brought to the hangar was not actually capable of doing much damage. However, it is significant that Naida was not aware of this.
If destroying Grendizer had been part of Gandal and King Vega's plan, and therefore a consequence of telepathic conditioning, it can be imagined that they would have equipped Naida's disc with bombs capable of effectively detonating the robot. But, as it is not so, we can assume that in reality the plan to try to destroy Grendizer was the result of an independent idea of Naida, thus reinforcing the hypothesis that vegan conditioning has little to do with his actions and speeches in the hangar.
Edited by joe 7 - 9/1/2022, 23:09. -
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INSIGHT
Copyright © 2014 Gerdha & Joe7, All Rights Reserved
Article by Gerdha, based on her posts on the french forum originally owned by DJInspace (now disappeared) and on her own analysis.
Notes, images and added considerations by Joe7. I assume any responsibility towards the Authors and I am available to modify the article upon their demand.
All the references to the original content of Ufo Robot Grendizer’s Roman Album are related to its translation in italian language by Stella Di Fleed, which was originally published on www.nagaifans.it (as of today 12/31/2021 no longer active). The analysis / interpretation of the content of Roman Album are the exclusive work by the authors of this article.
HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI IN GRENDIZER: THE MEANING OF THE NANOHANA FLOWERS AND THE BAMBOO BOAT
In episode 72 there is a scene where Duke and Rubina meet in a meadow full of yellow flowers. This scene has very deep symbolic meanings.
These flowers, in fact, are rapeseed or rapeseed flowers (Brassica napus), "nanohana" in Japanese (菜の花), a word that means "beginning of spring" (spring in Japan lasts in our calendar from February 5 to May 6) .
Why do they matter? The fact is that nanohana flowers (and also sunflower - "himawari" - among other things) absorb a lot of radiation. And it is interesting to note that, despite the fact that it absorbs radiation, the seeds of the nanohana flower are not contaminated. So much so that these flowers were used to help clean up radioactive soil, and were also planted in the prefecture of Fukushima, in the areas most affected by the earthquake that hit the nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011.
I think this is the reason why the meeting between Duke Fleed and Rubina takes place in a nanohana meadow: in fact, we are talking about the planet Fleed that comes back to life after the destruction by the Vegatron. It is one of the many examples of hidden meanings and symbolism found in the anime.
Every year, in May, in Yokohama there is the Nanohana Matsuri, the festival of these flowers. The detail of the Yokohama festival confirms that ep72 cannot be set on February 13, 1977 (the release date of the episode in Japan), but weeks later. The Nanohanas bloom in the way described by the anime immediately after the full bloom of the cherry trees, which in Tokyo area normally happens in late March. So ep72 is probably set in mid-April.
Another reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the series is in the bamboo boat scene that Hikaru puts into the water in ep72 (the scene was described in the analysis on Daisuke and Hikaru here ).
In fact, it is a reference to a typical traditional Japanese gesture to remember the dead ones (equivalent to the western tradition of carrying chrysanthemums on tombs). Maria and Daisuke in that scene were talking about Fleed, so the explanation for Hikaru's gesture is, in my opinion, that she wants to pay homage to the dead population of her man's home planet. She closes his eyes in silent prayer for all the innocents killed there by Vega, and Daisuke does the same, because he knows the meaning of what Hikaru did.
In fact, it is a Buddhist tradition in Japan that - normally at the beginning of August - Japanese families bring bamboo boats to the river, placing a burning candle on them and then letting them flow in the current to the sea, in memory of their dead; since the post-war period, the ritual has also taken on a special significance as a reminder of the victims of the atomic attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In various episodes of Ufo Robot Grendizer there are explicit references to the fact that both Umon and the Makiba family (that of Hikaru) are very tied to the Japanese cultural traditions, therefore it can be safely assumed that they have regularly performed this traditional gesture, even if the the event is not shown in any episode. It is therefore legitimate to assume that Daisuke, at the time of ep72, was aware of this anniversary and it is therefore normal that he understands the meaning of the gesture of Hikaru. Please also note the particular physiognomy of the bamboo boat built by Hikaru, which exactly resembles a candle carried by the boat itself, confirming the reference in the scene to the traditional gesture and its interpretative context.
Edited by joe 7 - 9/1/2022, 23:11.
NAIDA AND RUBINA: AN ANALYSIS BY GERDHA |
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