The message of loss wouldn't be lessened if Tadashi does indeed return as a living and breathing character. But that's just a lot of us. You have your own way of interpreting things but I won't stand by and let you say that what we want is a "cop out" because frankly its not. Damage has been done, Hiro still felt the loss.
I apologize that you feel upset that I used the word “cop out”; I had no intention of suggesting any disrespect to the desires of fans who want Tadashi to come back, and I hold no disrespect to people who have that desire. If you are curious to understand more, what I mean is that I do honestly feel that his return would significant take away from the central message of Big Hero 6, a message that is incredibly important for those of us who must live through loss, who will never have the possibility of our real lives’ “Tadashis” coming back to us.
It is absolutely true that, even if Tadashi turned out to be alive after BH 6, Hiro would still have felt the loss and we as audiences would see Hiro struggle through that loss. Hiro’s emotional struggle doesn’t get reversed because we cannot move back in time. Hiro feels the pain, that’s always going to be the case, and I think you and I definitely agree on that! As you so well say, damage has been done. That’s not the thing that bothers me about a potential Tadashi return, though. That idea’s perhaps somewhat of a strawman position to the central message of BH 6. Personally what I feel is so impacting about the message behind BH 6 is the idea that Tadashi isn’t coming back.
And if Tadashi does come back… well, that retroactively erases a lot of the point in BH 6 about what it means for people to grieve and be in loss.
The truth of life is that we have to learn to live with loss. It’s not just about experiencing and coping with grief, but it’s about the fact that this loss is permanent and we have to heal through it. When a loved one dies in our own real lives, that person is forever gone. There is almost never, ever, ever going to be case that this person didn’t die and is actually going to come back.
As uncomfortable as this reality may be to us, it’s important to be able to understand it. It’s important for us to be able to learn that people have these emotional struggles so we can help them; it’s important for us to be able to learn how to cope when we ourselves experience such a loss. Watching a story that is about permanent loss can help us find strength in our lives; because we see a character who also has to handle something unpleasant but permanent, and he works through his own emotions regarding it… we can also productively work through our parallel experiences in real life.
Big Hero 6 tells the story of someone who has to learn how to live through this permanent state of loss, and it is such a story by which people who have had struggles of loss can relate, grow, and heal. I find the movie very unique and respect it in that regard. Lots of stories handle the pangs of death, but it’s often not the case that the characters’ death is used as a central storytelling message about coping with such permanent loss. And while plot twists of characters returning to life can be exciting and juicy, and while it can be done in very emotional manners, I do think that in this case a Tadashi return would retroactively jeopardize this message.
The first movie says, “This loss is permanent and painful, but you can grow and heal from it.” It’s one of BH 6′s great messages. But what happens if Tadashi returns? Then suddenly, this loss isn’t permanent. This return revokes the primary message of the first movie. This takes away that respectful lens of what we humans actually have to live through when we lose someone. Hiro would get Tadashi back… but none of us viewers would get our deceased beloved grandmother back, or our best friend, or anyone else who left from our lives.
It would take away a lot of relatability to many viewers, I think. Perhaps not to individuals like yourself, and that’s okay! Nevertheless, for many people who watch BH 6 to process their own losses in life, seeing the main character’s “loss” NOT be a permanent loss… would be to toss aside much of the relatable message by which the audience members first attached to the story. If people need a movie to help them cope with their grieving, they’re not going to want a story where that dead character comes back again because that can’t happen in their lives! In many ways, it’d hurt to see that person come back because that’ll never happen for people like me with our own deceased. And to throw aside the relatability of such a deep and personal concept as to how people *struggle through death*… that’s REALLY not a subject you want to reverse on. You don’t want to trivialize the idea of permanent loss by making that loss not be permanent.
Big Hero 6 is about the fact Tadashi isn’t coming back. It’s about the story that “Tadashi’s gone.” Yes, I agree with you, it would still be a story of hurt and growth if it turned out Tadashi lived, but it would definitely no longer be a story about how we humans must heal from those who are forever gone from our own lives. This message of permanent loss is so important and so wonderfully done in BH 6. Tadashi returning would compromise that. And I think that would be an enormous, enormous shame to lessen the impact of that truth.
There is a place for characters to return from the dead. There definitely is a place and I can have a lot of fun with it! I love me some well-done, dramatic returns! I mean, written incorrectly (which frankly is how lots of return-from-the-dead plot twists go), it lessens the impact of a death on screen. But written correctly, it can blow an audience member’s mind with feels.
But when a story is about the fact “Tadashi’s gone” …and it’s about how we need to handle permanent loss… that loss needs to be and stay permanent for the message to stand intact.
I hope you can understand why this message is so important to my heart and why I believe that this message should not be compromised. By all means, have a wonderful day, and thank you so much for engaging me on a good topic with Big Hero 6!
