Hashi Lebwohl wrote:Just like a Wagnerian opera, there won't be a "happy" ending.
I expect neither Covenant nor Linden to walk away from this one, especially if Linden chooses to sacrifice herself to save Jeremiah, which she would. Foul cannot be killed so he will wind up either outside the universe or locked in some pocket dimension. Roger will die but he is pretty inconsequential, in any event.
I am still trying to figure out how. Opposition failed. Accpetance failed. Right now, I still cannot see the third option but I reread the final chpater of AATE, with the tsunami. The third option is hinted at there because the wave can neither be opposed nor accepted.
I'll have to find the quote, but the second 'option' was Sacrifice. These Chronicles are about Acceptance. The key with these options, also, is that it is not a matter of 'failure'. You can not Sacrifice without Opposing and you can not Accept without Sacrificing. All in capital letters, of course, since these are specific ideas... for example, I imagine 'Acceptance' is in a since of "I tried my damnedest and gave it my all, I can rest easy knowing that." Of course, there could be a flip side to these qualities as well, one that 'serves' Despair instead of fighting it. Opposition in the form of 'nothing else works, so I must nuke it all!' Sacrifice in the form of not being able to see a way forward without sacrificing someone close to you, and a nihilistic Acceptance where you accept that there is no point and nothing to be done that is not futile.
I do not know how this will end either... namely because all our real world characters are dead in the real world: there is no going back.
Really, we are kinda looking at a sort of 'gnosis' for the ending, and I imagine SHE is going to be key to this sort of ending. I doubt Foul will be (or even should be) redeemed as some have mentioned .