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

[shipperx]

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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

[shipperx]

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

This person was arguing that "midichlorines" is a more substantial 'hard' answer which... I don't actually think it is. I think it's just another form of glossy distraction. That said, while there are answers not answered with LOST and plot holes aplenty (there were!) for myself... I really can't think of any answers that I needed. I mean, I know that there are things there that aren't answered. But call me unimaginetive, fanwanky or unattentitive, I can't think of any burning questions that I have that I have much need to be answered (i.e. Walt being "special." That was in no way answered. But, maybe I'm too well trained by a lifetime of soap operas. Once Walt left and it became apparent that the timeline wouldn't work with him because that little actor now looks like a full grown adult, I just sort of stored that away as 'dropped plotline' and I haven't thought about it much. I don't have any sense of urgency that it be answered.) Most stuff I can just fanwank.

And, I tend to think that they more or less told us what happened in this world and it...wasn't really happy. People died. Unjustly. Unfairly. Too young. etc. 'Real' life is messy and doesn't necessarily have happy ending (though I'm assuming that Rose and Bernard as well as quite possibly Desmond/Penny did). That's what happened.

What I actually find interesting at this point is re-thinking the sideways which, I freely admit that I had never thought to analyze in the light it was finally presented. It's interesting.

Sawyer (the con man) and Miles (the guy who stole stuff) became Cops. Was that indicative of change? Wish fulfilment? Atonement? All three? Whatever it is, it's pretty funny. I understand why Sun and Jin cracked up.

And thinking back, one reason that I feel that Desmond did get a happy ending is that he didn't seem to be working through sideways issues. In fact, upon thought, I think Desmond wasn't atoning. I think Widmore was. This time Widmore accepted Desmond. Rather than imprisoning Desmond, he made him rich and well travelled. And he pretty much aimed Desmond right towards Penny.

Eloise is now raising the son that she killed.

This was why Ben in Sideways was caring for his father, the father he murdered. And it's why that father, who was so negligent of him, is now dependent on him. And yet, this time his father loved him. And Ben couldn't go into the church and leave because he's still working his issues through with Alex and Rousseau. Rousseau gets to raise her child. Alex gets her life. He's atoning to them.

It's all fiction so Sideways is as "real" as the "island" and really whatever the physics are metaphysics, they essentially function as levels/tests to be worked though on the way to enlightenment...to their best selves.

It's actually making me re-examine all the stuff we've seen in the sideways, trying to figure out what purpose it served -- guilt they carried, baggage they had difficulty shedding. Are they atoning...or is it that someone like Ben is atoning to them? Or... failing to do so (Keamy!)

I actually think it's far less purgatory or limbo or heaven than a more hindu-like reincarnation thing where people work through successive planes of existence. And whether the island was LITERALLY purgatory is almost moot. It more or less functioned as one.

I'm not saying that there weren't holes to drive a truck through, because there were. And it was by no means tightly plotted. Much of it is disjointed and it meanders off the trail at a number of locations. So I truly do understand a ton of criticisms and being quite vexed with many things.

[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.