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There was a serious lack of fulfillment as regards the ending, with Violet's decision to stay with Gilbert on the island. Her arc and her development would have been completed had she stepped back on the ship instead of jumping, finally saying goodbye to the figure that raised her, loved her, and hurt her, so she can truly *live* unfettered and free, learning to live with the past instead of returning to it. I am not the author of the novel nor the producer of the anime, but Gilbert's entire thing is that he's ashamed and "burning up inside" (as Hodgins would say) about his ... hypocrisy in simultaneously wanting Violet to live a good life like a normal child while using her for her combat abilities in a horrific industrialised war which culminated in her getting maimed. He should have read that letter and lamented, ran after her ship, but Violet should have shown that there is more to life than one person and walked away: she has friends in the postal office, she touched so many people's hearts through her work, her life has blossomed into an actual *life*, not a following of orders! That's Dietfried's entire thing and how he changes in his relation with Violet over the series and the four years until the movie. Of course I did feel happy when she was happy, she's such a sympathetic character, but sometimes happiness is not the lesson to be learned. I would go so far as to say that this situation was even set up during the movie, right at the end when Yuris dies and she decides to leave without meeting Gilbert anyway. That was a *huge* moment in her character and showed how she became more than a doll or a Doll, she became a person who understands a little bit of what "I love you" truly means. And that was thrown out of the window in the final few minutes. Such a shame. I can't in good consciousness call this film bad, but the ending utterly fails to hit the mark for me.