

Violet wants to become an Auto-Memory Doll because she wants to understand the
meaning of "I love you," the last words she hears from her Major. Throughout
the series and the movie, we learn that Violet became attached to the Major
because he essentially raised her. Throughout the series, Violet encounters
various forms of love: romantic love, sibling love, parent-child love,
friendship love etc. However, it's not clear to me which love we are supposed
to assume that Violet and Gilbert share. And whether or not it is even the
same kind of love?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-10T19:31:10.280
67106
2022-08-11T22:39:13.143
62015
question
violet-evergarden
What is Violet and Major Gilbert's relationship?


Haven't seen this series, but from r/VioletEvergarden FAQ
[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/VioletEvergarden/comments/vq2qiv/welcome_to_rvioletevergarden_rules_and_faq_read/):

* * *

You are not the first; most people do. We encourage everyone first to watch
the series (and read the novels) in order to come up with your own impressions
of this relationship that lies at the heart of the series. If you have done
that and are still confused, here briefly are some of the mods’ thoughts on
the matter. For deeper dives into this complex relationship, please see the
collections tab of this subreddit which contains several posts on the topic.

> It is somewhat ironic that while Violet’s journey is a quest to understand
> Gilbert’s “I love you.” that same “I love you” confuses so many viewers of
> the anime. Some are quick to conclude (often based on a faulty understanding
> from the previous question) that Gilbert’s words are simply an expression of
> romantic love, which, given their relationship and ages at that moment, can
> be disturbing. Unfortunately, the tendency to categorize Gilbert's
> relationship to Violet as a solely romantic, and then treat Gilbert's dying
> words the same as a confession from some generic high school romance is
> quite common. That simplistic categorization may seem to make things easier
> to understand, but the series and movie (and novels) go to lengths to show
> his concern for her humanity and free will was primary. This love is
> something that defies simple categorization into standard categories of
> human relationships precisely because it was forged in unusual
> circumstances. Thus, Violet needs to learn what love is through encountering
> love in its manifold forms as an Auto Memory Doll.

> That is how the atypical nature of Gilbert’s love synergizes with the
> series' episodic structure as Violet's exploration of various incarnations
> of love. Even Gilbert's word choice in Japanese makes his "I love you"
> clearly distinct from those romantic confessions as shown above. One can see
> romantic love as a part of this declaration of love, but to see their
> relationship solely in this light would be a mistake and a detriment to
> appreciating the show, which portrays the communication of love in its many
> forms.

For the anime and movies Kyoto Animation

> chose to leave their relationship more ambiguous for a variety of reasons
> that can be speculated. This ambiguity shifts the focus onto Violet's growth
> in learning about the various types of love and allow examinations of guilt
> less prevalent in the novels.

The novels, on the other hand, by their nature

> lend themselves toward making the internal dialogue of Gilbert clear to the
> reader. And following the conclusion of the second volume, it is
> unambiguously romantic.

* * *

My note: Lol you'd think 'on the other hand' would be in spoiler text.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-11T22:39:13.143
67112
2022-08-11T22:39:13.143
4484
67106
answer