[Fish Sandwich]

Ooooookay, I missed a lot since the last time I posted. Not really going to be able to say everything I want to at this point (everyone has been saying lots of good things I wish I had time to directly comment on!), but the main takeaway right now is that Die did actually end up feeling better by the end. Like, way better. I legitimately didn't think this would happen, but I'm seriously happy it did. Partly because, you know, it'd just a supreme bummer if barely mitigated disappointment was the note Die left Faiz on after all this time, and also because, purely for my own sake, I absolutely adore Faiz, and have always felt its finale does a lot of things very very right that I never see given any credit. So seeing Die pop in here with a beautifully written post all about how the emotional resolutions and thematic work of episode 50 of Faiz shine so brightly any quibbles with the plot suddenly seem like a minor concern was a pretty great feeling! There's not a whole lot I can add on to it! Although I will link to the series wrap-up I did after my rewatch of Faiz, which contains a ton of my thoughts on the characters and why the show works so well for me.

I do have one thing to add, though. After all that talk about the symbolic use of that screen, I have to do my duty and point out the final two episodes of the show were directed by... Ryuuta Tasaki. Because, you know, he's pretty darn good at what he does too, I just haven't gotten the chance to mention it a lot in this thread. I think Die will find he also did a darn good job with Paradise Lost in a bit.

Takumi breaking out of a screen was right in the opening this whole time, too, but what's also of note is that it's the visual the entire series ends on. I've never been too sure what exact significance that's supposed to have beyond looking nice, but going by all the very smart stuff Die said, it's maybe become obvious?. If the screen in Takumi and Yuuji's conversation represents basically all the negative things Takumi has learned to move beyond through all his character development, then that final visual of the show, him, Mari, and Keitarou all enjoying some peaceful time together, framed through a gap in the screen, maybe that's the "small happiness" Soeno was talking about? Like there's just the most simple, humble sort of joy of these three people lying on a hill, and the more the bad things seems to dwarf it, the clearer it becomes that it will never truly be engulfed. Or something? This is all probably reading way too much into things, but Die went and put me in a very analytical mood!



Faiz's last episode, though, it really is a good one. I'm very much in the same boat of not even being able to care about the Orphenoch King plotline when the stuff that springs out of it is so wonderful. I said after episode 17 that "people having to make difficult choices about what they value and how they want to live their lives in a world that refuses to provide easy solutions is just about the raw essence of this show", and my foreknowledge of how everything plays out is maybe why I was bummed Dark Yuuji wasn't immediately working out for Die. It's hard to remember, but I may well have been just as disinterested in him for those few episodes when I first saw the series. The finale is really what makes it click into place, for sure. The concept of the Orphenochs being doomed to an early grave might seem to go against the show's idea of coexistence at first, but I see it as basically the ultimate expression of Faiz's overall attitude. It's extolling very idealistic values through a seemingly cynical, heavily pessimistic lens, and that's what makes Takumi's big declaration that he's going to live his live with everything he's got work so well. Faiz is a dark show, but that only adds weight to the statement it lands on, which is that it's worth holding on to your values, no matter how miserable that path can seem. Takumi starts out as this deeply sarcastic anti-hero, but by the end, he's unironically saying his greatest wish is making the world a happier place. The show ultimately leaves it ambiguous how much time he has left to make that happen (people take note of the blurry vision in the last scene, but often fail to notice the lack of any ash on his hands), but as Die pointed out, that's just not what matters to the story, which is really all that needs to be said about the issues with the plotting in the final stretch. They simply can't undo the poignancy Faiz's story was packed with.