relistening to merle’s tsc episode, and i forgot how utterly earthshattering his last question was — “are you my friend?”
merle highchurch is a symbol and clint mcelroy is a legend
i mainly wax poetic about taako and magnus, and that’s a damn shame, because merle is like. at least 70% responsible for the balance ending.
there’s not much to say that hasn’t been said before. merle stared down a being of discontentment and dissatisfaction and hunger and asked if they were friends. his family was suffering the burden of their impossible choice and he still wanted them to find joy every day.
the way griffin used his answering speech to really drive home john’s ‘existence is horrible and we’re going to fight it’ philosophy shows how important merle’s beliefs were – and would continue to be – to this ultimate confrontation.
griffin has mentioned that the balance ending could have been a lot darker, and i like to believe that once he heard his dad say “if we ever meet each other somewhere in infinity, you can apologize to me and tell me you were wrong”, he knew how important it was to center their victory around the joy of existing.
(given clint’s comment on the topic, i think it’s safe to say that all of this proves that their mother is the biggest reason for how inherently good balance was. all four of them showed us how much of an incredible woman she was.)
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