○ Interlude 1: Foundation

"Who are Jose and Henrietta and what is their relationship?"  

This is the question that has guided the first two episodes, and the answer is complicated.  While Fratello is dedicated primarily to Jose and Orione to Henrietta, the truth is that just like their characters they are mixed, inseparable, forming a single whole like their two stars.  Just as neither episode makes full sense without the other, their persons cannot be boiled down to a single descriptor, with the effects of each reverberating through the other's personality.

Jose

At heart, Jose is a good man who is both sympathetic and kind.  His misguided behaviors, of which there are many, should not be confused with malice or manipulation.  Without this core he would not exert the pathos that he does on the viewer.  However, his virtues are counterbalanced by a fatally complementing flaw: a weak will.  Jose intends to do good but cannot generate within himself the power to act.

Given time, the repeated failures to stand up for his principles has produced in him a state of perpetual lassitude.  Jose is so tired in all his scenes, sapped of his energy by the mental load of an active conscience without the means to support it.  Every new quandary is a wearisome challenge to his depressed state, and so he turns to avoidance and procrastination.  Better to focus on just making himself feel better when the problems seem so deep and endless, and he has failed so much anyway.

This unfortunate combination of sensitivity and fragile resolve has yielded the most tragic choice of his life: Henrietta.  Unable to oppose his brother, he eventually found himself in a situation that he could not turn away from.  He was disturbed to take her from that hospital; staring into the glass, tugging at his tie, he did not see her but himself and the lamentable decision he was about to make.  Yet he took her anyway.  Why did he do this?

In a phrase: excessive empathy.  This seems a contradiction, as such ought to promote virtuous behavior.  But in an emotional and sensitive man such as Jose it can be dangerous.  By feeling Henrietta's suffering as his own, it becomes his own.  With this transcription of her pain into him the natural compassionate choice, to serve her best interests, is short-circuited and ultimately supplanted by a need to assuage his own distress.

Faced with her broken body and mind he wanted to aid her, truly and sincerely.  Anybody decent would.  But this need to help, which rationally should be counterbalanced by the knowledge that selecting her would remove all future hope, is overtaken by a focus on his own emotional discomfort.  He can't do nothing.  Everything that follows is the result of the guilt that he is saddled with for that one fateful mistake.

Jose With Henrietta

With Henrietta in his life, the worst tendencies of Jose's psyche have been exacerbated.  Unable to face up to this greatest sin, stealing an innocent child and turning her into a killer while shortening her life, he assuages his conscience with lesser acts, salvaging his self-image by matters of degree.

These exhibit themselves as small rebellions, such as standing apart at meetings or refusing to condition Henrietta beyond the minimal levels.  In this way he can establish to himself that even though he commits evil, he does so less than other people, and whereby can maintain a positive view of himself.  This is the deep reasoning behind why a successful raid was so important: Jose needed it to prove that he was not sacrificing competence for moral superiority.  His failure gives Jean the leverage he needs to accost Jose's position, and conscience, once again.

It is in this ground that Jose's project to cultivate in Henrietta a normal little girl germinated.  It is a hybrid, a torturous chimera of his desire to escape his current reality by delusion and recompense for the future he has stolen from her.

On one hand, he needs a shield from the truth; otherwise he will wither under the glare of his own conscience.  It is simply not possible to continually face the reality that he has robbed from her in order to satisfy his own weakness.  This is seen most strongly when the pretense falters; stripped of his defenses a guilty horrified panic overtakes him and he is unable to act sensibly, or even act at all.

Simultaneously, he is trying to apologize, for there is genuine regret as well.  By giving her nice clothes, good food, and stargazing he can offer her a small piece of the normal life she will no longer enjoy.  Whether this is for her sake or his is impossible to tell and may not have a clean answer; like so much of Jose, it is difficult to ascertain where his good intentions end and his selfishness begins. 

All of these failings above culminate in one tendency that will be seen repeatedly: Jose's refusal to correct Henrietta when she makes mistakes.  He is too empathetic to punish her, too conscious that her aberrant behaviors are his fault, too fragile to face reality, and ultimately too tired to deal with any of it.  Henrietta is left to figure things out on her own based on his reactions.

In the end, one may ask how Jose can be described as a "good man."  It is to highlight his potential.  Despite all his failings he genuinely wishes to do better for Henrietta.  He knows he has not lived up to his standards in the past, and continues to falter frequently, but so too has he overcome himself in rare moments as well.  It gives hope for the future that his care for Henrietta will in time allow him to do the right thing.  For her, and for himself.

Henrietta

In the beginning the bare programming dominated.  Henrietta reacted soullessly and automatically to Jose's demands, with no hint of intrinsic character.  Because of this he was misled into believing that due to her erased past, he could make in her anything he desired, viewing her as nothing more than the product of the agency and his choices.  But this is in error: even if her explicit memories are gone, there remains much more to Henrietta.

First is her quietude.  She was the victim of such senseless evil that the residue will never leave her, having been imprinted on her very soul.  Henrietta may be happy or energetic at times, but she can never be described as boisterous or carefree.  She will always be drawn inward.

More than this, her personality has survived and exhibits itself to be both intense and earnest.  She feels strongly and acts on those emotions, for having recognized what she desires she pursues it with a single-mindedness that borders on fanaticism.  A passionate girl who, by virtue of her authenticity, is vulnerable to the petty selfishness of those around her.

However, much of this is camouflaged by her front of robotic behavior.  Guided by her powerful programming, she seeks to be an ideal servant for her master and so automatically subordinates herself to him.  It isn't not so much that she doesn't feel strongly, but that she considers her own needs unimportant by comparison.  Only through the corners of her character peaking around the edges of this mask is the person underneath revealed.

This collision of the two halves of Henrietta's reality, the genuine girl and the conditioning, is what defines her.  While the former exerts a pull, the latter insists that she be repressed in favor of Jose.  To have or express her own desires, especially in front of him, is anathema.  It is critically important that she always be ready to imbibe his will... though she slips in a sugar cube to make it sweeter, unacknowledged by even herself.

Curiously, these twinned elements are not entirely in conflict.  Henrietta's own personality is one in which submission is natural; she wants to be in the service of something greater, and is willing to submerge herself entirely in the object of her devotion...

Henrietta With Jose

Through Jose, Henrietta has found a focus for her restless and single-minded ardor.  He is more than an object of loyalty; she loves and worships him with her whole heart.  Like a trellis overgrown, the conditioning that gave shape to her behaviors has been covered by her own personality.  They amplify each other, her innate devoutness mingling with the programmed response.

In her subservience, Henrietta regards Jose as perfect; he does not make mistakes.  Concurrently, looking up to him, she knows that he watches out for her and is responsible for her development; therefore he cares about her.  He is a crucial guardian in this terrifying world to which she has awoken.

Under this assumption, there is only one conclusion she can draw when things go wrong: it is her fault.  Regrettably, due to Jose's inconsistent instruction Henrietta is distressingly prone to making errors.  Desiring only to serve him properly, but never sure if what she is doing is right, she is perpetually fretful that her actions are inappropriate.  It hurts her more than anything to fail his expectations, and that he may love her less for it.

The rest of Henrietta's character will wait for now, as it is the project of the series to construct her in finer detail.

Foundation

Despite its unusual premise, Gunslinger Girl contains a profound realism rooted in the exquisite care given to detail.  From the accurately depicted weaponry and technique to the animals and plants that are drawn precisely enough to be identified by species, there is an attention to ensuring that what is portrayed actually exists.  The locales strikingly extend this to the setting, being faithful reproductions of the original Italy.  Even the periodicals, which have not been seen yet, posses a photo-realism.

Supporting this immersion is the way that life is shown to continue unperturbed about the scenes.  People pass by the brothers in the hospital, not taking any notice; the hideout is raided while diners sit nearby at a cafe, unaware.  In many scenes there is a murmur of conversation in public places, or a muted cacophony of traffic in the distance.  A mundane soundscape giving the sense that the events are embedded in the world, not separate.

Nowhere is this verisimilitude more important than in the psychology.  Jose and Henrietta are intricate personalities, both of whom have multiple competing needs and desires that need not be coherent.  Their depth is an indication of how they are as real as the Italy they inhabit.  This is necessary for the story that follows, to recognize that all of the characters should be viewed as people experiencing a vibrant internal world.

By devoting two episodes to the star characters, giving insight into their psyches, the series is now equipped to explore the other fratello, many of whom share similar themes.  For the trainers it is disconnection, numbness, and inconsistent behavior as they grapple with the consequences of their choices.  For the girls it is devotion, anxiety, and the need to be loved as they seek to find the connection their hearts desire.  They are all of them human, and despite the extreme situation their problems are emphatically human too.

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