Long Rambley *Unedited Stream of Consciousness* Stuff on Genre Stories, Endings, and Answers

[shipperx]

:
Warning: Spoilers for BSG finale, very vague but possibly spoilerish LOST finale, Spoilers for Star Wars, and, oh hell, Buffy, Angel, Farscape, and the BtVS comics too So I've been thinking about the Lost finale (I know. But... I can't help it. Actually, I think it's a good sign that it's continued to intrigue me) and I've popped over to TWOP

Comments

[sockmonkeyhere]

That said...um... it had a MONSTER in the premiere episode!

And a POLAR BEAR. On a TROPICAL ISLAND. A real polar bear would have been dead of a heat stroke there within days. Which meant that this was a magic polar bear. Bye-bye, logical science!

[shipperx]

Yeah. I was rather astounded that anyone anywhere thought that there would still be a 'realistic' answer. The show swerved into magic pretty much from day one. I can see not liking 'heaven' but if they were expecting something that made it 'realistic' they were nuts.

[rahirah]

See, I never expected a scientific explanation which would explain how everything worked in 'reality.' Obviously the science of LOST, such as it was, was fantasy science. And since I'm pretty sure they were pulling stuff out of their asses for at least 75% of the show, I knew it was too much to ask for that they'd tie up all the loose ends.

But I still hoped for an ending which tied up most of the major loose ends. And the more I think about it, the more I'm irritated that they basically wasted half a season on "And they all went to heaven and lived happily ever after." I mean, yeah, it's nice to know that they all go to heaven and live happily ever after, but... what I'm interested in is what happens to them in this world, not the next.

It's like, fine, be character driven - but don't try to tell me that you can't have good characters AND good plot. They're not mutually exclusive.

[shipperx]

I'm not actually talking about people being upset with they all went to heaven as the answer. I can understand disliking that

[rahirah]

Agreed, the midichlorians thing is bizarrely off base. If only because it's an anser to a question that no one was asking in the first place. I can't think of a single person who walked out of the first trilogy saying "But how does the Force work?!"

[shipperx]

Honestly, at first, I thought he could not be serious! The things he mentioned were all things that I hated. All he needed to do was add "And Jar-Jar Binks!" and I would be certain it's a troll.

Seriously, the obvious and ponderous political stuff? First, it wasn't that hard to figure out. It really wasn't that darn complicated. And mostly -- I did. not. care. The workings of the Jedi Council? Yawn. And midichlorians were just silly.

What I wanted, but didn't get, was a real emotional journey for the fall of Anakin Skywalker. I wanted big, Greek tragedy, darnit.

Instead I got midichlorians.

[eilowyn]

Um . . . you write lots. And make lots of good points. And so you make commenting kind of intimidating, LOL! Anyway, WORD to the midichlorians (have you seen the three-part review of Episode I youtube, as told by a creepy, misanthropic guy? It's brilliant, and he clearly states the WTF of midichlorians), the IT'S AN EFFING GENRE SHOW!, um . . . and other stuff you said. And this was one of the better explanations for the BSG finale I've ever seen. Yeah.

[shipperx]

Hee! I talk a lot. 99% of it is crap. This was just a really disorganized stream of consciousness. So, please comment away.

Do you have a link for the youtube thing? (Although, honestly, I've never watched Episode 1 a second time so I don't know what I'd even remember. Didn't watch Episode 2 at all. Did see Episode 3, but was somewhat underwhelmed. It wasn't as bad as the first one. But really, I think I liked the questions better than the answers in Lucas's world.

[eilowyn]

http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/19/FxKtZmQgxrI

The infamous Star Wars: Episode 1 review (part 1 of 7). Damon Lindelof actually praised this pretty highly on his Twitter account, and I really recommend you watch the whole thing because it's absolutely hilarious, as well as being an absolutely valid critique of the film. The other parts should show up alongside the video, or you can just go to his main page and see all the other films he's reviewed in his own unique way.

[shipperx]

Bwha! Awesome. I even watched all of the Clone Wars one. I've clearly a geek too because I totally cracked up at "Fuck you, Rick Berman! Wait. It's a different Rick. What's wrong with Rick's?"

[liliaeth]

I think that the big difference between Chosen and the Gift is the characters.

By the end of the Gift, it's possible to be hopeful and inspired by every single one of the characters. They're all shown at their best, doing the right thing for the right reasons. It's hopeful in a way.

Chosen might have a 'happy' ending, but all the characters who end up surviving come out looking like assholes. I have never forgiven Joss for that ending, with the scoobies joking over the graves of everyone who died in Sunnydale. That lack of caring, that lack of even vaguely giving a damn... that killed any liking I ever had for any surviving char other than Buffy, because she at least cared.

Compare that to NFA, which might have a bleak ending, but all the characters care. They're facing immediate death and still they all take a moment to mourn Wesley. I couldn't even stand Wesley, yet that very moment humanised every single character in that last stand and made me want to see them survive.

[shipperx]

I completely agree with you about Chosen and The Gift. When the Gift was over, I loved all of them. When Chosen was over, I was wishing that buss to drive over a cliff.

[flake_sake]

I'm still pondering if I should watch Lost so I only skimmed parts od your post. I just wanted to throw in my two cents about endings

[shipperx]

I actually didn't give the twist in LOST in the post (though I think it probably could be guessed). It is mentioned in Rahirah's and my responses. And I'll hopefully respond to your post tomorrow. Have to head to bed right now. :)

[shipperx]

I think to me it matters how much did the story toy with the questions it raised? Did it stylize them to be of great importance? Because if it did, then I want some kind of answer.

I'm not going to lie and say that they didn't leave some significant plot threads dangling. I can think of three off hand that had no hard answer. But of those three, one doesn't bother me primarily because it hasn't been mentioned in years. It is, without a doubt, a dropped plot. However, I can pretty easily see how it would have worked into the ending had it not been dropped when the actor left/was let go. I can understand, with all the myriad of returning touchstones and long departed characters why this issue/character not being addressed irks people. That's legitimate, but since it was something that went away so long ago, I didn't have an urgent 'need to know.' It wasn't high on my priority list

A slightly more spoilery expansion on the topic

[shipperx]

Also, I think some questions are things I thought were answered. For example, "But they never explained why the numbers were on the hatch!" No. They didn't. They never said "The numbers were the serial number on the hatch because _____" However, they did tell us explicitly what the numbers represented. Knowing what the numbers meant was enough for me. I never thought about the mechanics of how or why they arrived as a serial number. To me, it's sort of like the question of "Why did the characters keep crossing paths?" Again, no one ever explicitly says "This is why..." But I absolutely think that the answer is obvious. I consider that question answered. I honestly do, to the point where I scratch my head wonder "What do you mean that wasn't answered