Like many people who grew up in the early 2010s, I have always had a special place in my heart for Lamas with Hats and how it transitioned short-form absurdist comedy into a broader story. What, now 15 years, later strikes me about the epilogue is how it reshapes the main message of the series in a way that feels like it has grown and aged with the changing times.
The original ending, sad and unceremonious does fit the series as a whole and looking back on it, it speaks to the sensibilities of the time - it was made around the rise of 'dark humor' as a mainstay in internet content and it illustrates the desire for stories with steaks and consequences. This particularly spoke to many young people who, as they are entering adolescence, grew tired of "happily-ever-afters" and the want for connection to the broader world - a world that they were just coming to understand the dark, complex, and scary nature of.
The new ending, likewise, reflects the new understanding of the world that its original audience now holds. We have experienced and watched death, destruction, and interpersonal conflicts similar to that "Lamas with Hats" touches on (albeit with less eating of hands). Constantly being bombarded with images and videos of tragedies all around the world has withered the appeal of hopeless endings. The new ending does not change any of the death or destruction Carl caused, humanity is still extinct and the world is still mostly reduced to rubble and sand, but there is still hope, not for those who have lost their lives, but for a better future.
Even someone as violent and selfish as Carl has the potential to change. That doesn't make them any less dangerous to be around or that their past actions should be forgotten, but that everyone can change for the better - but only if they choose to of their own free will, that you cannot (regardless of how much you care about the person or how damaging their actions are) make then want to change. Carl's change into a tree both symbolizes a literal rebirth and a metaphorical one, but his new form does not have agency in the world. He cannot move, we do not see him speak, he cannot hurt anyone anymore. For him, only by giving up all that he was could he begin anew.
On a smaller note, with his reincarnation, also brings hope for those he had killed in his previous life, that perhaps they too are somewhere in a new form with a new life. The harm that was done to them and to the world will never be undone, but the future will be better, kinder.
These are the hopes that I, along with many others, hope for the future of the real world. The dead are dead, the trauma inflicted, but the future doesn't need to be as harsh as the past and in this way I think the epilogue does an amazing job of keeping true to the characters and the world of the original while speaking to the new needs and experiences of its audience.
