Through a flawed glass: The question of Robertine

[narcasse]

Meine Liebe and by annoyingly canon-expanding extension Meine Liebe, Wieder is the sort of series that’s based on character interaction and more specifically on the development of characters through their interaction with each other. Meine Liebe itself was less about an overarching plot than it was about how a bunch of schoolboys got on with each other in many and varied circumstances, it was for lack of a better term a sort of relationship drama. Granted things happened towards the end but in the same way as in Wieder which followed, after the crisis everything seemed to hit some sort of magnificent reset. Being pretty much a case of ‘oh, look Beruze leapt over a hedge and ran away, again’ or a ‘goodness, Orpherus has done his usual dodging being shot simply by virtue of looking good while holding a sword, again’ and so on.
In that sense the entire Meine Liebe universe may well be menaced by the grim tattoo of encroaching armies but they don’t seem to be doing much of a job of getting there. The crises are all internal and personal conflicts, even the great chunk of plotfullness in Wieder was a domestic affair that just took a little schoolboy resourcefulness to be sorted out, well, schoolboy resourcefulness and a healthy dose of Liechtenstein cunning into the bargain to set things right. Eduard still has a stepmother after all and Naoji is still allegedly going back to Japan at some point and Camus still likes his flowers. Though what’d I’d really want to see is an epilogue some fifty years on where a suitably aged Naoji is still protesting that no really, eventually he’s going to leave Ludwig so Ludwig had better get used to the idea by which time they’d probably be living together and Ludwig would be making suitably agreeable noises to what’s turned into Naoji’s yearly speeches on the matter:

“Eventually, I will leave you.”
“Yes, dear.”
“I simply have to return to my homeland.”
“Of course, dear.”
“It’s not that I want to leave you but I must!”
“I understand completely. Now where have you put my gin?”


So with the point of the entire thing being interaction assorted characters do seem to get pretty much shafted. Isaac doesn’t quite get enough interaction or just general screen time to really establish what he’s about beyond being an ineffective spy, Alberto comes across as a bit of a wet blanket who’s just there to add to Orpherus’ long-standing trauma, Eduard’s father is there to fill out the role of brainless country squire, Naoji’s sponsor simply doesn’t get enough screen time what so ever, what do you mean bias? I’m not entirely biased on the part of Foster-san at all, really and where are Camus’ deranged, haemophiliac sisters anyway? But more seriously, Robertine, the great, sainted, very much dead Robertine whose existence is integral to Orpherus’ primary trauma simply doesn’t get fleshed out as a character at all. She smiles, she likes her brother, she was going to get married and that’s about all the detail there is to her. She pretty much gets entirely shafted for a character that really is rather important in setting the background for the plot. But considering the nature of the series it does make a certain kind of sense.
The character of Robertine herself isn’t exactly essential in the sense that it’s not her that’s the issue but rather the perception of her through Orpherus and possibly somewhat through Alberto and Eduard. Beyond what they think of her and presume that she was, her actual character leaves lots open to interpretation. The perception of her via Orpherus particularly is going to be spectacularly flawed due to a combination of issues that contribute to his image of St. Robertine, which may or may not be entirely removed from the actual hints of personality that we actually do get though a flashback or two.

In Orpherus’ eyes her unjust death elevates her to a certain sort of sainthood where it easy enough to argue that he then selectively remembers aspects of her that he was aware of while she was alive. Her smiles, her indulgence of his childish antics, her meek compliance with her given role and so on are all filtered through his perception of her. It’s like the argument that it’s entirely possible that Eduard doesn’t really remember his sister at all.
Normally, selective memory is more difficult to sustain when the object of that memory is still very much active or within the same sphere as the perceiver but in Robertine’s case she’s been removed so entirely that there really is nothing for Orpherus to check back against when he considers his perceptions. Eduard should provide something of a balance but Eduard’s perceptions of Robertine would also be somewhat filtered through Orpherus’ interpretation to a certain degree and Alberto is really a whole other kettle of fish into the bargain. Thus Orpherus’ memories of his sister become far more about the idea of her rather than Robertine herself. It’s not to say that she might have been entirely contrary to his perspective but that he’d presumably be selectively erasing various aspects of her from the image that he was perpetuating in his head. It’s easier to remember stark caricature anyway so it does make sense that the image of her becomes distilled into the sweet, kind, indulgent, smiling sister. It also makes better propaganda that way, if Orpherus has his wits about him.

Thus I suppose I don’t really have much of a complaint about the lack of defining characteristics for poor Robertine at all really because it’s not really about her at all but about Orpherus’ flawed and carefully edited perception of her, in which case the anime does handle that rather well after all. It holds up Orpherus as a flawed glass though his perceived stereotypes and selective memory and makes the potential of the character of Robertine entirely more intriguing. She does in a sense become the sainted figure that throws light on a more murky situation, though not in a simplistic and flat sense but rather in the manner of cleverly revealing just how potentially flawed is her mirror.
The more I think about it, Meine Liebe is actually wondrously subversive on a good many accounts and that makes it marvellously entertaining beyond the pretty German schoolboys and rather jolly soundtrack really. Though of course, that could be entirely a matter of the cracked and coloured glass of my own perception.