The ending, again

[trobadora]

Mariem just pointed me to a post that is almost a year old, but has to be shared nonetheless. We've discussed the ending of the trilogy here before, and I always felt I couldn't quite express just why it bugs me so. Well, astolat manages to put her finger exactly on the spot.

Excerpt:
And my god, of all the unsatisfying -- I mean, what I want, as a reader, if that's the choice -- give up Damien or die -- is for Gerald to be willing to die first. That would be the right choice, the redeeming choice. If Tarrant is prepared to give up the friendship that saved and redeemed him just in order to prolong his life -- he's learned nothing. That's exactly where he started.

Go and read:

Coldfire -- analysis of the ending by astolat

Comments

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

*deep sigh* If only that ending had been different...

A prime example for why fanfiction exists, really. Because we simply have to fix this mess.

[trobadora]

You're back! *hugs*

I've no idea why she thought it would be a good idea to give the book three endings - anyone can see that it only makes them all less effective. But if the result is that people feel compelled to write alternate endings, well... I'm not going to complain. *bg*

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

Well, given LotR has about ten endings, maybe we should consider ourselves lucky.

And really, if there had been a fourth ending to the book it probably would have been Gerald and Damien riding off into the sunset together. ;-)

[trobadora]

Well, that I could have gone with, of course!

As for the LoTR endings - have you seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? *bg*

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Just imagine twenty more pages to CoS - it would have been inevitable.

I missed that one - our cinemas didn't show it. Was it good?

[trobadora]

Good? It went so far beyond good it's not even on the same scale any more. Seriously - it was easily the best film I watched all year. Incredibly, incredibly smart and funny and geeky and... I'm just so very much in love with it. (And it jokes about about ending several times, which is what I was originally alluding to.)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

*notes title for next shopping trip*

[mariem-1.livejournal.com]

There is an article at csfriedman.webpark.pl/g_1.htm with some interesting thoughts about the ending.

[trobadora]

Oh, you have an LJ now! Welcome aboard. :-)

Thanks for the link! I read that article a while ago, and some of the thoughts are very apropos, especially with regard to the name issue. But it did seem to me that it glossed over what bothered me (and astolat) about the ending. Yes, it is a sacrifice - but then, so was Almea's murder. It wouldn't have worked if it had meant nothing to him, after all.

[mariem-1.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have it and I am still amazed about it, because I am a very private person. And I agree with your estimation of that article.Btw, I visited polish Coldfire forum (I know Polish), so i can tell you what was discussed there, if you are interested

[trobadora]

That would be fabulous! The fandom is so small, and it's frustrating to be cut off from parts of it due to the language barrier. I'm sure a lot of other people on this community would love to hear it too, so why don't you post it to the comm?

I've friended you, btw.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen it before - thank you for sharing! It really brings up some very interesting ideas.

Friended you too, btw.

[mariem-1.livejournal.com]

Thank you all for friending me! As for Polish forum, I actually meant that I'll tell about it there. Sorry if it wasn't clear enough.