'Violet Evergarden' Episode 11

Violet goes on a request that Claudia receives from a soldier deep in the battlezone of the civil war taking place in the north. However, this was also a request that Claudia was planning on rejecting as a result of the danger that is involved in this job. The only reason why Violet went was because she overheard Claudia talking to Cattleya about it late after hours. During this conversation Cattleya laments that it is a shame the request has to be rejected, because there are also feelings the soldiers would want to communicate with those back home, that would not get the chance to otherwise. After everything that she had experienced since she had started working as a Doll, she felt compelled to go to the soldier, her own background affecting her choice to go.

While her choice is admirable, it is unfortunately slightly too late, as the soldier that requested a Doll was sent out to scout the enemy with a squadron. Said squadron was ambushed, and his base was destroyed. After the ambush he was the only survivor, and was hunted by the rebels. During this time Violet had managed to get a delivery man to fly her over to the danger zone so that she would be able to fulfil her contract. The rebels catch up to the soldier and the soldier is shot. He is then surrounded by the rebels; however, to his amazement Violet jumps off of the plane, fights the rebels, and forces them to retreat. The fact that one of the rebels remembered her from the war was a major factor in this retreat as he knew they would not be able to win against her.

During this short fight we get to see how Violet had changed since she had become a Doll. Even though she still moves like a soldier and fights like one, unlike the previous times we had seen her in a battle, this time she goes out of her way to make sure that the rebels are beaten, not killed. In working as a Doll she had learned the value of life.

She takes him to a nearby cabin so that he would not freeze to death in the cold. Despite her efforts, he himself knows that he is not going to last too much longer, and so asks her to write the letters for him. Even though she does not have a typewriter or any way of writing, she manages to memorize the two letters so that she could write them when she has returned. Once the letters had been memorized he passes away. The next morning she buries him and travels to an open field to meet with the pilot so that she could be extracted from the danger zone. Once she is safe, the pilot lets Claudia and the rest know that Violet is in fact safe.

It is from this point onwards where the episode starts to become emotional. Violet makes a stop on the way home, and delivers the letters the soldier had wanted to write directly to his family and the woman that he loved. It is a simple moment where the family and the woman he loved is coming to terms with the fact that he had passed. This is an emotional moment for Violet as well. She contemplates on the futures that she had taken away during the war. Beyond that the number of soldiers that were never able to tell their families how they felt before they died.

What is beautiful here is that her actions had managed to bring this family a sense of closure, something that they would never have gotten had she not gone to fulfil the request. Seeing this reaction brings her to tears as she regrets not being able to do more. The emotions cascading themselves all over her as she starts to experience survivor's guilt, not only for the soldier that she had just buried, but for the soldiers that took part in the war as a whole.