12 Monkeys and Into the Badlands season finales
12 Monkeys: How to write a season finale with a brilliant and unexpected twist that adds layers to character and reinforces your ongoing themes and leaves your fandom going “Whhhaaaaaa.....?
Olivia as the "true" witness didn't necessarily come out of nowhere, but it was sufficiently shocking and a great twist, in large part because she had no idea. It also means that the Witness is entirely self-created and self-motivated, in both the good and the bad ways.
Regarding Athan...I'm sure they'll find a way to bring him back. I don't know that I WANT them to being him back, but I think they'll find a way.
Regarding little!Cole and his father and the Ouroboros, I know a lot of people jumped to "does this mean Jennifer is his mother" But my brain jumped to Olivia, since she IS the Ouroboros.
Into the Badlands: How to write a season finale with a twist guaranteed to piss off the majority of your fanbase, displays bad and lazy writing, and tosses themes that you get praised for and season long character arcs into the garbage for shock value, leaving your fandom going “WTF HATEHATEHATEHATEHATE.”
So, here's the thing, even beyond the fact that a show that receives praise for it's diversity and it interracial main pairing killed off it's only black woman (and one of the few black women on TV who get to be sought after and protected), this pretty much rejected what set ITB apart from so many other SFF shows these days. Despite being set in a violent and depressing post-apocalyptic world ITB has never approached the GrimDark side of things until now. It has consistently been about hope and family and escaping or destroying the oppressive system. Veil has always been the main symbol of that. Not only that, but Sunny being reunited with Veil and Henry has been the core emotional journey of the season. 9 1/2 episodes were building up to that. The war in the Badlands and The Widow's revolution and the quest for Azra remain important, but they're secondary. The story of sunny and Veil-two slaves seeking freedom for themselves and their child- has always been the main element that propels the plot forward. Hope and safety have always been the carrot at the end of the stick, and everything about the show always promised us that we'd get that carrot, even if the hardships wouldn't be over by the end of the season. But killing Veil killed that hope, and sent the show into GrimDark territory. It isn't about a family trying to be reunited and escape a war. Now it's about the war, with an angsty protagonist who has a fridged wife.
Olivia as the "true" witness didn't necessarily come out of nowhere, but it was sufficiently shocking and a great twist, in large part because she had no idea. It also means that the Witness is entirely self-created and self-motivated, in both the good and the bad ways.
Regarding Athan...I'm sure they'll find a way to bring him back. I don't know that I WANT them to being him back, but I think they'll find a way.
Regarding little!Cole and his father and the Ouroboros, I know a lot of people jumped to "does this mean Jennifer is his mother" But my brain jumped to Olivia, since she IS the Ouroboros.
Into the Badlands: How to write a season finale with a twist guaranteed to piss off the majority of your fanbase, displays bad and lazy writing, and tosses themes that you get praised for and season long character arcs into the garbage for shock value, leaving your fandom going “WTF HATEHATEHATEHATEHATE.”
So, here's the thing, even beyond the fact that a show that receives praise for it's diversity and it interracial main pairing killed off it's only black woman (and one of the few black women on TV who get to be sought after and protected), this pretty much rejected what set ITB apart from so many other SFF shows these days. Despite being set in a violent and depressing post-apocalyptic world ITB has never approached the GrimDark side of things until now. It has consistently been about hope and family and escaping or destroying the oppressive system. Veil has always been the main symbol of that. Not only that, but Sunny being reunited with Veil and Henry has been the core emotional journey of the season. 9 1/2 episodes were building up to that. The war in the Badlands and The Widow's revolution and the quest for Azra remain important, but they're secondary. The story of sunny and Veil-two slaves seeking freedom for themselves and their child- has always been the main element that propels the plot forward. Hope and safety have always been the carrot at the end of the stick, and everything about the show always promised us that we'd get that carrot, even if the hardships wouldn't be over by the end of the season. But killing Veil killed that hope, and sent the show into GrimDark territory. It isn't about a family trying to be reunited and escape a war. Now it's about the war, with an angsty protagonist who has a fridged wife.