XPost: rec.arts.tv, rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.movies.current-films   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: seawaspobvious@obvioussgeinc.com   
      
   David McMillan wrote:   
   > Sea Wasp wrote:   
   >   
   >> David McMillan wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Sea Wasp wrote:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>>>     I have similar conversations with other Escaflowne fans, who   
   >>>> think the ending of THAT sucks, too.   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>     ...okay, I'll bite.  What did YOU see at the end of Esca?  B/c I   
   >>> thought it worked pretty well, except that the whole implied "go home   
   >>> and never see each other again" bit.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>     To me it was the implied "Go home, make sure that the life you   
   >> have here isn't what you really want, but I will always be checking in   
   >> on you, and on the day you decide you want to come back to Gaia, we   
   >> will be together".   
   >>   
   >>     That is, Hitomi and Van are NOT parting forever. The very idea is   
   >> ludicrous. Their interest in each other survived the violations of   
   >> fate and became something that broke the Fate Engine.   
   >>   
   >>     But Hitomi was not, by the standards of OUR world, an adult. She   
   >> was ripped from her world and has had no chance to reach closure --   
   >> with her friends, with her family -- and she SHOULD before going to   
   >> this other world to live out the rest of her life with Van Fanel. Van   
   >> understands this, and Hitomi, having become pretty wise over the time   
   >> of the series, does too. So they part for some unknown time, but not   
   >> with too many tears... because they *KNOW* that they will one day be   
   >> together.   
   >   
   >   
   >     Okay, I can see that.  But the ending of the series just didn't come   
   > across to me that way.  Maybe because the tragic "forever seperated   
   > lovers" seems like such a tropism in anime.   
      
   	The reason I didn't interpret Esca that way -- despite, as you say,   
   it being a fairly common trope (not tropism!) -- was because the MOOD   
   was entirely different. Van and Hitomi had just gone through hell to   
   be together, and there's no way they would have managed to part   
   without more depression. Which simply wasn't there. The only   
   reasonable explanation to me was that they WEREN'T parting forever;   
   just for Hitomi to make sure it was what she really wanted.   
      
   >     But hey -- I like your interpretation so much better, I hereby   
   > declare it official.  :)   
      
      
   	MUAAAHAHAHAHAH! OTAKING!   
      
      
   --   
   				Sea Wasp   
                           /^\   
                           ;;;	   
   Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/   
      
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