My thoughts on the Metaphysics of S3
MESSAGE ORIGINALLY POSTED BY MICROMARY (needed to be re-posted because of a time stamp problem with the server).
quote:
[b]My thoughts:
First of all, I think everyone is wrong in trying to designate Fire as Hell and Water as Heaven. They’re called Fire AND Water. Together they constitute a place we Catholics call Purgatory. If you were somewhere between Evil Incarnate (and had an express ticket to Hell) and Candidate for Canonization (and had an express ticket to Heaven) – in other words, us everyday people – your first stop was going to be Purgatory. Purgatory is the place to purge your sins, your imperfections, or just plain get rid of your feelings of guilt. It’s the place to do the time for doing the crime, to write 100 times on the blackboard “I must not throw spit balls in class” until you get it right. It’s a second chance to avoid the fire and brimstone and gain admittance to the Pearly Gates. Well, you get the idea.
Now I was never taught the actual mechanics of Purgatory. I don’t know if it’s a continuous spectrum of steps you had to take and you could move forward or backward depending on how you comported yourself at each stage. That would explain how Schlemmi ended up on Gametown after one of his wake-ups. He may have accidentally done something especially GOOD on Fire that got him moved up the ranks several stages, sooner that he was actually ready to move. However, I really don’t want to think about what Mother Theresa could have possibly done to merit manning the bellows under Princetown, instead of being on one of the last cities on Water before you get to Heaven. [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]
It may be that Purgatory is a continuous spectrum of categories and you are assigned to one of those categories. You put in your time in that same slot, going over your sins over and over again, until you finally learn your lesson from those mistakes and get your ticket to Heaven. Season 3 makes more sense in this context, since even on Water there’s suffering and death and “waking up” again. Everybody on Water has been naughty – or less than perfect – to a lesser degree than those on Fire. While waiting in limbo to wake up again you have time to reflect on what you did and hope some of that introspection carries over with you when you do wake up.
Therefore, Princetown is where you go to just plain “work off” all your sins. Prince did say something about it being the place where the worst cases go. Hogtown is where petty bureaucrats who are too much in love with procedures and paperwork, to the extent they will let the bad go unpunished and the good suffer needless, go to endlessly shuffle paperwork until they wake up and realize they’re drowning in the stuff. K-Town is where we get to see Kai’s codpiece… errrr, sorry… [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] is where bullies get to pick on each other and throw rocks until they realize IT HURTS. Tunnels is where the psychopaths go to torture and be tortured until they realize it hurts the other guy as much as it’s hurting you.
Over on Water, Gametown is where people who can’t play well with others have to keep playing the game over and over again until they realize the way to win is to work together as a team. Boomtown is where people who too readily indulge their excesses go to wallow in those excesses until they become bored and realize how much time they’ve wasted in indulgences. Garden is where nuns who’ve had “naughty thoughts” go. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
Like Headgehog, I have a problem with Girltown. At first look, it seems to be saying homosexuality is a sin, since the sexes are completely segregated and seem to like it that way. But the “boys” seem more concerned with their points of order than each other. The only eyes they make at each other are to look angry or frustrated. The “girls” however, seem to be more intimate with each other, and certainly act rather “gay.” Perhaps Girltown was meant for chauvinists – male and female – to give them a taste of what it’s like for the “other side.” The “boys” find out that being the ones to make the rules is actually not that much fun and the “girls” find out just what it’s like to be “chained” to the housework.
Prince is the caretaker of Purgatory. He’s certainly one of the fallen angels, but he’s not Lucifer himself, since he’s trapped on Fire and Water. As much as he wants to, he’s not allowed to destroy Water, so even in his realm he’s limited. Like Lucifer and his minions, Prince tries to tempt and trick Stan and Xev into doing the wrong thing. When Stan faces his Judgment Day on the Beach and Prince tells him if he’d been willing to sacrifice his life rather than give up the amino acid codes, he’d be on Water right now, I think Prince is indicating that Stan still had some guilt/sin to work off. Stan is certainly carrying a lot of baggage, so Prince uses this to his advantage to give Stan the worst spot in Purgatory: manning the bellows below Princetown. Stan is certainly less-than-perfect, but I don’t think he’s done anything to deserve THAT harsh a punishment.
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