I think this will be the last thing I say on the show choices, before I escape into playing with my dolls. And I totally acknowledge this is my personal take based on my own experiences, others may have a completely different view.
While I completely agree with those who say the moral the show was ‘trying’ to go for is: Sometimes you give it your all, and shit still happens. So the point is to enjoy the journey and value the life lived, no matter what. And keep trying, the effort made is/was never pointless, the purpose was in the living.
I think it's a poignant life lesson. But I think the show had the perfect advocate for that already, and it's Hob. And it's delivered the right way, a kinder way. Hob tries to change and does, but so often he doesn't see a reward for those efforts, life still repetitively kicks him, often for no reason. But Hob never sees any of his efforts as pointless and no matter how brutal, treasures every moment he has. His suffering is never treated as some divine punishment to get him from A to B. It happened and its fucking awful, but Hob gets its just a factor of life sometimes.
(Because the point of that message is, your suffering IS NOT punishment or atonement for a sin. Suffering shouldn't be glorified or made to look like some noble sacrifice you had to make for personal development. Shit actually just happens. Always remember that.)
But most importantly Hob understands death is never a fix, it's a mugs game. The sacrifices and suffering he's endured aren't defined by some grand finale. Redos and second chances take nothing away from his actions. His life isn't defined by an ending. It's in the telling, in the living. That's the important bit, not the full stop.
Which is why I think the end result comes off feeling so unbalanced. As we see both Morpheus and Hob travel the same path in the show, change equally from 1389 onwards, but the outcome is so different.
By the finale, Hob has transformed from the sword for hire we met in the 14th century. He still suffers despite it. But we leave him on such a hopeful note. Morpheus too is unrecognisable from the brat prince dragged kicking and screaming to the Waking by his sister. But for him, it doesn't matter, there is no hope, cosmic law decrees it. And the two narratives ending in such opposition feels so out of alignment. And I get that's life, it's unfair and what one gets another is denied. But if you are aiming to deliver a core message to your audience, it feels messy. And I think that's the ultimate issue with the story they tried to tell, it's messy.
Either way, no matter how we may personally feel about the ending, you can bet Hob would be incensed he got chances his friend was denied. And I look forward to some good fix its.
