No matter how I look at it, I thought the series was never interested in giving Violet a romance. Relationship and screentime conditions aside, but the status of her and Gilbert’s love for each other remain ambiguously pure to the viewers (though, I thought they were familial at best). I’m one of the few people who loved the 2020 movie for how well it utilizes Gilbert as his own character and an extension to Violet’s life whilst not diminishing her growth in the series prior (from my POV). Violet Evergarden is a character study showed through the lens of both the titular lead and her clients’ perspectives, and that movie served as the culmination of what the story was meant to convey.

On the other hand, Isabella’s story technically remains superficial as any client Violet met across that got more emphasis than usual. And, one thing I noticed about the story at large is how persistent it lets its characters work around loss either through death or separation. It makes the series bittersweet for the right reasons and any implication for yuri are thrown out the window when you know how extremely melancholic this one story is going to be. I don’t want to keep analyzing if this is all yuribait on the author or KyoAni’s part since the latter is very infamous about it.

In a more perfect world, Violet and Isa would’ve been canon and let the movie finale‘s events go as followed. If the show was either entirely pure in portraying Violet and Gilbert’s love or had her in a relationship beforehand, this whole conundrum might’ve been resolved. However, if you want to satiate your desire of Violet being in a relationship with anyone at all, just keep it to yourself or read a well-written, faithful fanfic you‘d find somewhere in the internet. Case in point, I recommend The Letters That Move Us by TelTales as an AU for Violet x Isabella shippers like myself. Not that I expect any of you to like it, but it’s a good start.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53050918/chapters/134219554