Carnivale

[karohemd]

Feeling better after three hours sleep. Still some gurgling in the lower regions but no more pain. My rugged digestive system strikes again but damn it for not coping this afternoon. :o( So I watched the end of Carnivale...


sogoth is right, it works as a closure point, in a way, as there's no cliffhanger as such, just open questions.
Reading various sources on the 'net (wikipedia and links from there to interviews and statements from Daniel Knauf) confirms my theory of Ben and Justin being Avatars (they say of Light and Darkness but Knauf also says that they aren't necessarily either, just as I suspected).
The orginal plan had been six seasons, consisting of three "books" of two seasons each, which means the first one was actually completed.

The not quite evil and not quite good nature of the avatars is also reflected in the way the avatars are passed on, which is unconnected to actual bloodlines and can be random:
Ben (current avatar of light) is Scudder's (previous avatar of darkness) son while Justin (avatar of darkness until the end of Season 2) is the son of Management/Belyakov (previous avatar of light). Assuming Sofie is the new avatar of darkness (as well as the Omega whatever that means, other than the end or the last one), she would actually have inherited it from her actual father.

How could it have gone on?
I don't think either side could have won as there needs to be balance but I guess there could have been total annihilation (the atomic bomb explosions in the visions) or some sort of combination resulting in utter balance (Ben and Sofie, i.e. the two opposite avatars kissing in visions or the first rain in years when they make love for the first time)

Damn you, dim-witted average US audience (members of flist excluded), who didn't get the whole symbolism thing and made the ratings drop. Damn you to Hell. :o/
Still, a fantastic series, and I urge everyone to pick up or rent the DVDs.

Comments

[sogoth.livejournal.com]

From what I read about Carnivale, Sophie isn't a new Avatar of the dark. Being the Omega she has the powers of both light and dark (both of which she demonstrated in the last couple of episodes) and is pretty much what the whole endless cycle of light and dark has been building up to. Sophie currently resides on the dark side of the path as she feels betrayed by Ben's companions. I think the next cycle would have been Justin leading Sophie further down the dark path and the third cycle would have been Ben bringing her back to walk the middle line and ending the age of magic.

Either that or Sophie would end up hunting down and killing both Jusin and Ben to bring everything back into balance just before the end of the age.

This matches up with various mythical and biblical sources which have been the basis for the whole Carnivale cycle (I forget which though).

The original carnivale forums had some amazingly detailed essays on the subject with quotes from the writer to back up statements.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Ah, Sofie being both makes sense. I hadn't thought of that.