Flight of the Heron read-along: Part V chapter 5 and Epilogue

[regshoe]

Better loved ye cannae be...

The final chapter.

I'm planning to do a sort of wrap-up post in a couple of days' time for any last thoughts, and to recommend some Flight of the Heron fic and some other books that may be of interest. I will say goodbye and thank you properly then!

Comments

Re: My Thoughts on the Ending

[sanguinity]

I agree that it's something of a cop-out, to spare Keith having to make that choice, and to likewise spare him having to live with its consequences. But I also think that narratively, it would have opened a whole bag of worms: the aftermath would have rattled on for ages, and would have opened the question of whether they would ever meet again after all the dust had settled, etc. These are obviously questions of great interest, to myself and others (*gestures at all the fix-it fic*), but it wouldn't have been in keeping with the prophecy trope she was writing, and it wouldn't have had the resonant finality of the ending she chose.

I feel very much the same way about Znvgynaq'f raq va Gur Qnex Zvyr -- to let him live out his confession and redemption would have been long and messy, very nearly another story unto itself. Instead, she chose to give it a decisive, tragic ending. Which is definitely a tool that exists if you want to make someone feel the full weight of their choices/dilemma, without the messiness of them actually having to live with said choices or dilemma.

Re: My Thoughts on the Ending

[regshoe]

You're absolutely right, of course—having Keith experience the consequences of his choice would completely alter the shape of the plot, and the shape it's already in is a very elegant and fitting one and perfectly structured around the prophecy and all its narrative fatefulness and finality. Yes, and that's a good point about her other use of the same tool as well.

(...still, couldn't he have chosen to warn Ewen, done it definitely, and then got stabbed? That would give us part of it...)

Re: My Thoughts on the Ending

[osprey_archer]

V sryg gung Znvgynaq'f qrngu va Gur Qnex Zvyr jnf n pbc-bhg, ohg V qvqa'g srry gung jvgu Xrvgu'f qrngu, nygubhtu V'z abg fher jul V sryg fb qvssreragyl nobhg gurz. Creuncf cneg bs vg vf fvzcyl gur cebcurpl? Gurer'f n funqbj bs qrngu unatvat bire gur jubyr obbx, fb gung ol gur gvzr Xrvgu qvrf, gur gentrql srryf varivgnoyr. Znvgynaq'f qrngu, va pbagenfg, whfg frrzf pbairavrag.

Vg znl nyfb or orpnhfr Xrvgu'f qrngu VF gentvp, juvyr Znvgynaq'f qrngu vf... zvyqyl fnq znlor... ohg nyfb n eryvrs gb Rjra naq Vna, jub xabj uvf frperg. Vg'f pbairavrag va-fgbel nf jryy nf pbairavrag sbe gur nhgube.

Re: My Thoughts on the Ending

[regshoe]

Lrf, V nterr gung gur hfr bs gur cebcurpl gb tvir rzbgvbany fgehpgher naq frafr gb gur cybg vf n pragenyyl vzcbegnag cneg bs jung znxrf Syvtug bs gur Ureba fb tbbq naq fbzrguvat Oebfgre'f bgure obbxf qba'g qb arneyl fb jryy, naq gung'f bar ernfba jul gung ovg va Gur Qnex Zvyr qbrfa'g ernyyl jbex.