Terthna
Professional Lurker
I want to complain about things in fiction I don't like; so have a thread where we can all do just that. I want to stress though that everything posted in this thread is merely the meaningless opinion of some nobody who will eventually die, and be forgotten; so try not to give it more weight than it's due, and get too upset over anything anyone says here. Also, this thread is for things that happen in fiction, not surrounding it; so try to keep the background politics to other threads, unless it's injected particularly blatantly into the work in question.
To start with, I want to rant about Gurren Lagann; specifically, Nia's death. I understand the thematic importance her death carries; Simon, in refusing to raise her from the dead, shows that he is willing the sacrifice personally to prevent the "spiral nemesis", or the overuse of spiral energy. The idea is that if he brings her back, he'd have to bring everyone back. There's also some stuff about having to let go, moving on, letting the next generation take over; et cetera, et cetera. The problem, aside from it being an alienating decision for someone like me, who despises the killing of characters (particularly cute girls), is that little effort is made to justify letting her die.
It is a fact firmly established in the show that Nia was born human, and was altered by the Anti-Spirals into their emissary; what, pray tell, prevented Simon from undoing what they did to her? Was it the cost in spiral energy? In that case; why did the Anti-Spirals, who did everything they did because they feared the overuse of said energy, waste it on something that was ultimately pointless in achieving their goal of subjugating our heroes? Just to mock them? Also, said heroes have an entire fleet of Arc-Gurrens in the epilogue; so clearly, some usage of spiral energy is acceptable in the face of the spiral nemesis.
Some point out the scene where the Anti-Spirals started to disassemble Nia, gouging out huge holes in her, and say that's where she died. Her continuing to exist beyond that point was her using spiral energy to hold herself together, and fixing her would have amounted to raising her from the dead anyways. To that I say; at what point is it ever made clear that raising people from the dead is a thing spiral energy can do? I get it; if you can bring Nia back from the dead, why not Kamina and everyone else who died? My answer would be; they've already passed on, but Nia was still there, clinging to life. Saving her is no different from saving someone hooked up to a life support system; and arguing that Simon shouldn't, because spiral nemesis, is no different than wanting to pull the plug on someone in the real world to save energy, because climate change.
In the end though, the specifics don't matter; the writers needed Nia to die to end the story how they wanted it to end. With Simon wandering the world alone, but for his animal companion. I just wish fans of said ending would stop insisting that "true art is angsty", or that I "just don't get it". "Art" doesn't have to be anything (including "art"; but that's a rant for another time), and I get what they were going for; I simply don't like the ending, and I would have ended it differently. Screw angst, and screw fanboys (and fangirls) who lash out at anyone who criticizes their favorite thing like their life was threatened; you make me want to hate an anime I actually enjoyed immensely for the most part, up until that ending happened.
To start with, I want to rant about Gurren Lagann; specifically, Nia's death. I understand the thematic importance her death carries; Simon, in refusing to raise her from the dead, shows that he is willing the sacrifice personally to prevent the "spiral nemesis", or the overuse of spiral energy. The idea is that if he brings her back, he'd have to bring everyone back. There's also some stuff about having to let go, moving on, letting the next generation take over; et cetera, et cetera. The problem, aside from it being an alienating decision for someone like me, who despises the killing of characters (particularly cute girls), is that little effort is made to justify letting her die.
It is a fact firmly established in the show that Nia was born human, and was altered by the Anti-Spirals into their emissary; what, pray tell, prevented Simon from undoing what they did to her? Was it the cost in spiral energy? In that case; why did the Anti-Spirals, who did everything they did because they feared the overuse of said energy, waste it on something that was ultimately pointless in achieving their goal of subjugating our heroes? Just to mock them? Also, said heroes have an entire fleet of Arc-Gurrens in the epilogue; so clearly, some usage of spiral energy is acceptable in the face of the spiral nemesis.
Some point out the scene where the Anti-Spirals started to disassemble Nia, gouging out huge holes in her, and say that's where she died. Her continuing to exist beyond that point was her using spiral energy to hold herself together, and fixing her would have amounted to raising her from the dead anyways. To that I say; at what point is it ever made clear that raising people from the dead is a thing spiral energy can do? I get it; if you can bring Nia back from the dead, why not Kamina and everyone else who died? My answer would be; they've already passed on, but Nia was still there, clinging to life. Saving her is no different from saving someone hooked up to a life support system; and arguing that Simon shouldn't, because spiral nemesis, is no different than wanting to pull the plug on someone in the real world to save energy, because climate change.
In the end though, the specifics don't matter; the writers needed Nia to die to end the story how they wanted it to end. With Simon wandering the world alone, but for his animal companion. I just wish fans of said ending would stop insisting that "true art is angsty", or that I "just don't get it". "Art" doesn't have to be anything (including "art"; but that's a rant for another time), and I get what they were going for; I simply don't like the ending, and I would have ended it differently. Screw angst, and screw fanboys (and fangirls) who lash out at anyone who criticizes their favorite thing like their life was threatened; you make me want to hate an anime I actually enjoyed immensely for the most part, up until that ending happened.
