Damage Control, RH Finale-Style
Because finales are never meant to be easy, and there are inherent dangers in getting attached to a fandom, even with its crack and retcon, bad writing and all.
In other words, I badly need to write something before I burst a major vessel and haemorrhage messily all over my laptop.
REDEMPTION ARC WINS!
And it was a bloody sucker-punch, and I might've cried a bit, and I definitely had to pause the video for 10 minutes to come to terms with the fact that Guy of Gisbourne is dead.
GUY. DEAD. And it was a noble death, and a death I personally had been hoping for him, and he died in honor and with acceptance and peace, and I'm glad he died. Somewhat. Because it fit the tragic arc so well - and that's what hit me the most. That he could only find peace in death; that it must've been a relief to finally put an end to all his struggles and suffering, and he was finally free of the misery and betrayals that plagued him all his life. I wouldn't have had Guy go out any other way, because in this, we saw a measure of the man he could've been, and despite the corollary of his circumstance, he found that part of him in the end when everyone, even himself, had thought his soul was beyond hope, beyond salvation.
It's a tragic character arc of bloody Shakespearean proportions, and I love him for that.
And I need to watch that bit again, but I just found out (couldn't quite hear the first time round) from the IMDB boards what his last words to Robin were:
"I lived in shame, but because of you, I die proud - and free."
Whoever wrote this - I think I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW. I'm getting an aneurysm just writing about it. And RA was absolutely brilliant. I thought his Meg scenes in 3x09 were good. This? THIS was ballpark homerun bat-smashingly awesome. I'll just be here in the corner babbling before the men with the straitjackets come.
TRUE LOVE WINS!
So I'm as shameless about shipping Guy/Maz as the next fan. But Robin and Marian's final reunion was a tearjerker. Mostly 'coz we got to see Lucy again, but there's no denying the legend and the love story. And they looked so happy together!
The writers didn't go 100% sappy as I'd expected them to, because after Robin kisses Marian in the afterlife, we immediately cut to his hand grasping empty air before he slumps back down, dead. Reminded me very much of the final scene in Pan's Labyrinth, and there surfaced a wrenching niggling backthought that maybe this was all in his mind. That he doesn't actually reunite with Marian, that there isn't exactly an afterlife. And this is a strange time to get all metaphysical and philosophical, but that all that love and life just ceasing to exist like that makes me all kinds of sad.
But at least Robin gets that in his death. I'm still slightly put out by the fact that this of course meant no G/M references, but the show is about Robin Hood. It's called Robin Hood. I keep forgetting :(
And did I see tears, Jonas? Good on you, kid.
I suppose I'll do a proper episode review and pick out plot holes and bad points galore, but right now, my brain is in meltdown and I'm still reveling in the lives and deaths of my tragic characters, and loving every pain-filled moment of it.
Masochist who?