So obviously hindsight is 20/20 and it's a lot easier to analyze a finished work than one in progress but looking back I think I realized why so many people felt let down by the cr2 finale and its because they thought the story was about people banding together on an epic quest to solve their problems and save the world but felt confused when none of the "big story arcs" were resolved. But looking back its clear that resolving all of the m9's unfinished business wasn't the point of their journey. The point of their journey was them finding each other and through that finding the emotional support and growth they needed to go off an resolve their unfinished business in their epilogues. The point of their journey was literally the "friends we made along the way" and how that changed them.
The best example is caleb. A lot of people initially (myself included) mistakenly thought his story arc was about defeating the volstuckers and reforming the corrupt empire. And that's an easy mistake to make because he says thats his goal at various points but it's not what his story is about. It's not the story of a revolutionary vs a corrupt empire, which a lot of people thought it would be. It's about an abuse survivor finding love and support and finding a way to cope and heal from the trauma and regret that consumed his life to the point where all he wanted was to break reality to fix it. And that's the resolution of his story is that through the m9's love and support he is able to get to a place where he can move forward and start to work toward fighting corruption. The story is his healing and thats why the conclusion feelings like a beginning of another story rather than an ending because that's the point. Because of the m9 he can have a life beyond his past and his trauma.
You can see it with beau and fjord as well. Without the m9 beau would've continued to be a jaded, isolated loner convinced she had no place in the world and didn't deserve love. Without the m9 fjord would never have found the courage to break free of ukatoa. Even though he never truly "defeats" ukatoa he is able to free himself from ukatoa's grasp and become his own person (both by shedding the fake persona he clung too and by shedding ukatoa's pact). People were disappointed that there was no bombastic final battle between ukatoa and the m9 or between beau and any of the corrupt fractions she now stand against but again it's because the story was about these broken damaged people finding strength in each other so that they can go on to do great things not about them doing the great things.
It's the same with Jester's coming of age story, Caduceus leaving home only to return to it wiser and better equipped to fight the corruption of the savalirwood, veth refinding her identity and her place in the world, yasha rising from her fallen state through the power of friendship. Esseks whole character arc. Even Molly/Lucien/Kingsley takes this sort of theme. The ending is not that they lived happily ever after, but because of the love and friendship and family they found in each other on this strange chaotic journey that they were able to go on and live.
Does that make any sense?
