Thoughts on the end

[clevermanka]

It was suggested that I link a post about my thoughts on the ending, so...I'm also pasting the relevant section here in case people don't want to see a couple personal life updates that are in the linked post. I hadn't thought about it being something I should maybe highlight for general fandom discussion--whoops!

I like the ending. It hurts, oh how it hurts, but it's so beautifully constructed from at least episode three that I can't be mad at it. Current western media has a noticeable lack of well-constructed tragedies and this is such a gorgeous one that I can't hate it. No plot twists, no gotcha moments, just a slow build to a Pyrrhic victory that the show producers left justttttt open enough for plausible fix-its. ranalore posted about the last several episdoes a couple days ago, and just yes. All that. The way our beloved heroes hit the ground running after Zhao Yunlan gets back from the past and things just. don't. slow. down until they ... well, stop. And while I probably wouldn't have complained about a canon happy ending for the drama, I feel like, the way it was presented from the early episodes, it wouldn't have been as...idk, powerful? Guo Changcheng sorta being hinted as the lantern wick was a great red herring and made ZYL's sacrifice more believable because of course ZYL would throw himself on that grenade before letting anyone else do it.

And yes, the Bury Your Gays chafes, but the fact that they presented the ending the way they did, considering the Chinese Tragic Romance Tradition, lends a bit of weight to the fact that this is an Actual Romantic Love Story.

Also, I am an emotional sadomasochist.

Comments

[clevermanka]

I mean, really all I can say to that is NOPE. *laugh-cry emoji*

[xparrot]

Haaaah yeah...when I say I don't like the ending, this is the ending I'm talking about, the one the show gave us...happier or more hopeful variations I see as fanon, not what the canon intended -- but what I vastly prefer!

[clevermanka]

And maybe I'm looking at it through too Western of a lens, but I feel like that isn't necessarily the case, because we have conflicting thoughts in canon as to whether humans even have souls or not. So who knows if the story of what actually happens to the lantern-lighter is correct or not. There are just too many unreliable narrators....

[xparrot]

Hmm, but if humans don't have souls than what is the final scene anyway?

And yeah, the Western lens is part of it. They aren't allowed to say "reincarnation" in the show because you're not allowed to get religious in modern Chinese TV; but the cultural context is such that everyone watching is intended to be thinking of reincarnation is a thing even if it's never namechecked.

[clevermanka]

Hmm, but if humans don't have souls than what is the final scene anyway?
Who knows! Up to the viewer!

[extrapenguin]

Hmm, but if humans don't have souls than what is the final scene anyway?
Hallows fuckery? Zhao Yunlan's stuck in one, Shen Wei (and Ye Zun) died in their close vicinity. For all we know, Shen Wei and Ye Zun are trapped in the Awl and are brainstorming ways to get into the lantern!