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For a bittersweet ending, I’m tasting more of the bitter than the sweet. I respect the ending for its send off of the cast, which came across as heartfelt and fair – the impression that everyone earned their happy ending felt cathartic. Approaching the ending as an attempt to imagine “the ideal vision of the best and most equitable afterlife” is where I start to feel unsettled. There is some sort of tension I believe we need to experience for life to feel alive. Maybe not necessarily to the extent of “death gives life meaning” but some sort of struggle even in a paradise afterlife to maintain goodness, as opposed to a retirement villa of eternal relaxation or fulfillment. If the best that a good place can offer is to discover and meet all personal fulfillments, and assuming that fulfillment of all life sentience has been met leaving no need to offer assistance, then I empathize with the next step of choosing eudemonic euthanasia as a way to end things on a high note. I think this choice is limited to our imagination as finite human beings. Tahani’s choice strikes me as the one option that gravitates towards a path of continual challenge and creativity, though I guess it leaves the question open of what happens if she gets bored, or mortal humanity comes to an end and being an architect as a vocation becomes obsolete. Although the general impression I get is that going through the door is total annihilation, I took the floating light essences to hint at a panentheistic influence where the “retired” can still exert a positive influence. This still doesn’t feel ideal to me. I like to imagine that the ideal step after being bored with the best human afterlife lived out would be imagining a next step evolution/revolution – perhaps the pursuit of becoming a Janet-equivalent. I think depicting this within the series would have been an incongruent story-wise as it would break from the human character development we learned over four seasons, but part of me wishes that this was the other option besides the door (maybe this is something achievable as Tahani becomes an architect through infinity).
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Feb 4, 2020 12:56
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| # ¿ Mar 23, 2025 06:19 |
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