[META] "I stay in the Castle."

[greywash]

Earlier today I meta'ed for like 4k instead of doing literally anything useful with my morning!!

"I stay in the Castle.":

So, in my meta post from—whatever the fuck day that was, this whole week was—something else, guys, but now my project's formally in QA, so, whatever—I said this as a parenthetical:

I have a secondary meta essay here on the quest, and what the quest actually "is meant to" teach them, particularly vis-a-vis "The Beauty of All Life" and what Quentin/we are actually supposed to take away from the Mosaic, but that's an essay for another time.

This is that secondary meta essay!

[...]

I sort of think that a lot of what we see, in terms of arc creation/foreshadowing in The Magicians, is them laying the groundwork for multiple distances of ending. Like, yes, maybe we will have to wrap after this season, but maybe we won't—and so I think they've done a lot of work to construct the show so that they can end it semi-satisfyingly on fairly short notice. Obviously this wouldn't help them if they got cancelled in between wrapping filming for Season A and starting Season B, but I do think they're trying to keep their options as open as they can.

For example, it's very interesting to me how they overlap Big Bads, and how the end of a Big Bad storyline almost never aligns with a season break. [...] Alongside those, like—big plot-driving arcs, all the characters have their own personal arcs—and the relationship arcs that involve them—being developed in parallel, and in communication with the big plot-driving arcs. The plot-driving arcs tend to be very out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire, but that's not a big surprise, given how fiction works, but the personal arcs are a little more complicated, because—in a way that isn't always true, on TV—characters on The Magicians actually do learn and change and grow. And I think the character of which this is particularly true is Quentin. And Quentin's arc—the core arc that he's been on since the start of S3—has been shaped, intensely, by the simple fact of him (a nerd English major who is also deeply conversant with the way stories, especially fantasy stories, are supposed to work) going on a quest.

( The rest of this is [fake] cut [to my journal] for S4 spoilers through—I guess I'll say 04x08, for safety; and comes with a strong warning for discussions of death, loss, mental health issues, and suicide and suicidal thoughts. Also, this first big hunk of it is just—really fucking sad. )

So, that was cool! Come talk to me about quest narratives and the profound tragedy of trying to teach Quentin Coldwater not to love!!

[As an aside, I have also extended the deadline for my proposed Marina-centric mini-fest out by a week, to Friday 3/22 at 4 pm Pacific, since literally 0% of the current participants are done. /o\ So!! If you want to hop in, come on! Water's fine! And late. The water is late, and also fine.]