On (Not So) Happy Endings
Mar. 11th, 2013 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwaevalarinLooking at people's reactions, there seem to be two groups:
1) The ones who see a perfectly happy ending.
2) The ones who paid close attention to the last line (and the Origami figure), and see an ending where the three main characters decided to live in an illusion, and left the world to burn.
I think both groups are equally right and wrong. It can be both, and once you've set your mind on it you could probably argue either side and still never get an answer.
I think what the show tried to do, was give us an ending, where you can't shake the feeling that it's too good to be true. And then, with the last line brings that doubt to the surface, leaving this strange, unpleasant feeling of never knowing, whether their happy ending is actually real.
You'll never know for sure, whether they resisted the devil and defeated him, and got the reward that he couldn't give them, because he failed to understand. Or if he tried again, now that he knew how to get to them, and they gave in.
No matter how much we want to believe in the good ending, we're too disillusioned (or realistic) to believe in fairy tales. We don't trust them. We need at least some pain, some catch to be sure it's real.
And on top of that, there is this one stupid last sentence.
"I told him that he should have put us together. That it was incomplete without you two."
And the Origami figure.
In a way, the show gives US the choice between a happy ending that we can never entirely believe is real, and an ending that feels more real but painful.
The problem is: This concept should have been better executed. It seems it was both, too subtle and too strong. Too many people seem to have missed the hint completely, and too many seem to see prove in it.
But the main problem is: If they truly did make the deal, then how are we supposed to not see them as horribly selfish? The entire fake happiness vs. painful reality relies upon feeling for the character who has to make that choice. But that doesn't work, when the cost for their fake happiness is the end of the world. When everyone else literally gets hell on earth without a choice, and they don't even seem to care.
If the show was trying to give us the choice between a fake happy ending, and a painful real one, it made the mistake of making the real one too horrible, not because the devil wins, but because what it turns the characters we love into.
No points there, show.
But the concept itself is something I love for the ending of a show. It shows us that too perfect is something we have trouble dealing with. I personally prefer not to make up my mind, and stay in the ambiguity. Always hoping that it may have ended well, but always aware that it just as well may have ended horribly.
1) The ones who see a perfectly happy ending.
2) The ones who paid close attention to the last line (and the Origami figure), and see an ending where the three main characters decided to live in an illusion, and left the world to burn.
I think both groups are equally right and wrong. It can be both, and once you've set your mind on it you could probably argue either side and still never get an answer.
I think what the show tried to do, was give us an ending, where you can't shake the feeling that it's too good to be true. And then, with the last line brings that doubt to the surface, leaving this strange, unpleasant feeling of never knowing, whether their happy ending is actually real.
You'll never know for sure, whether they resisted the devil and defeated him, and got the reward that he couldn't give them, because he failed to understand. Or if he tried again, now that he knew how to get to them, and they gave in.
No matter how much we want to believe in the good ending, we're too disillusioned (or realistic) to believe in fairy tales. We don't trust them. We need at least some pain, some catch to be sure it's real.
And on top of that, there is this one stupid last sentence.
"I told him that he should have put us together. That it was incomplete without you two."
And the Origami figure.
In a way, the show gives US the choice between a happy ending that we can never entirely believe is real, and an ending that feels more real but painful.
The problem is: This concept should have been better executed. It seems it was both, too subtle and too strong. Too many people seem to have missed the hint completely, and too many seem to see prove in it.
But the main problem is: If they truly did make the deal, then how are we supposed to not see them as horribly selfish? The entire fake happiness vs. painful reality relies upon feeling for the character who has to make that choice. But that doesn't work, when the cost for their fake happiness is the end of the world. When everyone else literally gets hell on earth without a choice, and they don't even seem to care.
If the show was trying to give us the choice between a fake happy ending, and a painful real one, it made the mistake of making the real one too horrible, not because the devil wins, but because what it turns the characters we love into.
No points there, show.
But the concept itself is something I love for the ending of a show. It shows us that too perfect is something we have trouble dealing with. I personally prefer not to make up my mind, and stay in the ambiguity. Always hoping that it may have ended well, but always aware that it just as well may have ended horribly.
