Gungrave 24-26
Jul. 28th, 2005 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlock24
Guns, guns, and more guns! And look over there, yet MORE guns! ... I wonder why they call it it Gungrave? ...Nah.
Aaaahh...Bunji, you rock. And your cat rocks too.
25
The cat rocks even more because... Looking at it made Harry crash. I love love love that the bloody Harry McDowel, killer and mobster and ruthless tyrant, crashes his car while swerving to avoid a cat.
Bunji's cat, no less. That rocks.
re: flashbacks
Okay, I could watch scenes of young Brandon and Harry running around being petty street hustlers for 26 episodes. I don't need the mafia and the conflict and the gangbanger wars and the death. I think I loved Brandon in the flashback with Maria's meeting best of any moment in the whole series. Not the fact that he wants to be her rescuer. No, it's the conversation directly preceeding. It's the way Harry gives his spiel about selfish non-involvement, and Brandon nods like he completely agrees--and turns around to interfere without even hesitating a second after nodding. I think I love that. It's so...Brandon.
Ooooh.... the mirror, the street, the car... that was a really smooth set of transitions right there. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
26: final episode
Well, that exceeded my expectations for the final episode. It wasn't quite like the end of FMA, but it was pretty damn good. Nicely resolved the central relationship of the series and the plot, and managed to be a curtain call of sorts as well. I particularly enjoyed the flashes of Harry and Brandon as young men, as adults, and as their older selves, intersperced in their conversation. I'll have to rewatch it to analyze what lines were said in what "form" to understand the whole significance. I also like how with a lot of those lines it was difficult to tell if Harry was thinking it or speaking it. But in the end it doesn't matter, because Brandon's so good at interpreting Harry that he can probably just read his mind by now anyway.
Two lines that caught my interest:
"He took away the most important thing in my life!"
...Big Daddy took away Harry's trust in Brandon. I was right: Harry did value Brandon above all other people, including the woman he was in love with. I still maintain that Harry was in love with Brandon and living in denial of it. Clearly Brandon loved Harry, but I don't think he loved Harry the way Harry loved him. To the same degree, but not in the same quality.
But he did love Harry just as much, which brings me to the second quote:
"I keep making the same mistake: choosing Harry McDowel over Millenion."
Aaahhhh, irony. How Gungrave loves thee. Brandon was just too good for Harry, and although Harry loved Brandon just as much or more, Harry's insecurities and inherently more selfish nature meant Harry couldn't trust Brandon to stand by that love and friendship. Even when Brandon refused to kill him, in Harry's mind just drawing the gun meant Brandon was too close to being lost to him. What if Brandon *could* shoot next time? Paradise lost, mobster style.
Although I wanted Brandon to shoot Harry, I can see how just coming face to face with Harry was ultimately enough. After all, nothing Brandon ever does now will be worse than what Harry's own fucked up head is doing to him. And even that is an experience not long to continue. And this way Brandon still managed to protect his family... even the one family member who least deserved that protection. Because that's what family is, after all: the people who protect and love you even when you don't deserve it anymore. Too bad Harry never learned that, not even in the end.
The scene of Kenny, Jolice, and the other guy beckoning Harry and Brandon to "join them" as spirits was touching and hit all the right notes. Actually, that's something I appreciate about this episode as a finale-- it hits all the right notes emotionally.
Now if only I could make Harry and Brandon stop saying each other's last names as if they would forget them if weren't repeated often enough. Plus--and I've had this complaint the entire series-- every time someone says Brandon's last name and tries to convey heavy emotion they make him sound like a porn star.
Guns, guns, and more guns! And look over there, yet MORE guns! ... I wonder why they call it it Gungrave? ...Nah.
Aaaahh...Bunji, you rock. And your cat rocks too.
25
The cat rocks even more because... Looking at it made Harry crash. I love love love that the bloody Harry McDowel, killer and mobster and ruthless tyrant, crashes his car while swerving to avoid a cat.
Bunji's cat, no less. That rocks.
re: flashbacks
Okay, I could watch scenes of young Brandon and Harry running around being petty street hustlers for 26 episodes. I don't need the mafia and the conflict and the gangbanger wars and the death. I think I loved Brandon in the flashback with Maria's meeting best of any moment in the whole series. Not the fact that he wants to be her rescuer. No, it's the conversation directly preceeding. It's the way Harry gives his spiel about selfish non-involvement, and Brandon nods like he completely agrees--and turns around to interfere without even hesitating a second after nodding. I think I love that. It's so...Brandon.
Ooooh.... the mirror, the street, the car... that was a really smooth set of transitions right there. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
26: final episode
Well, that exceeded my expectations for the final episode. It wasn't quite like the end of FMA, but it was pretty damn good. Nicely resolved the central relationship of the series and the plot, and managed to be a curtain call of sorts as well. I particularly enjoyed the flashes of Harry and Brandon as young men, as adults, and as their older selves, intersperced in their conversation. I'll have to rewatch it to analyze what lines were said in what "form" to understand the whole significance. I also like how with a lot of those lines it was difficult to tell if Harry was thinking it or speaking it. But in the end it doesn't matter, because Brandon's so good at interpreting Harry that he can probably just read his mind by now anyway.
Two lines that caught my interest:
"He took away the most important thing in my life!"
...Big Daddy took away Harry's trust in Brandon. I was right: Harry did value Brandon above all other people, including the woman he was in love with. I still maintain that Harry was in love with Brandon and living in denial of it. Clearly Brandon loved Harry, but I don't think he loved Harry the way Harry loved him. To the same degree, but not in the same quality.
But he did love Harry just as much, which brings me to the second quote:
"I keep making the same mistake: choosing Harry McDowel over Millenion."
Aaahhhh, irony. How Gungrave loves thee. Brandon was just too good for Harry, and although Harry loved Brandon just as much or more, Harry's insecurities and inherently more selfish nature meant Harry couldn't trust Brandon to stand by that love and friendship. Even when Brandon refused to kill him, in Harry's mind just drawing the gun meant Brandon was too close to being lost to him. What if Brandon *could* shoot next time? Paradise lost, mobster style.
Although I wanted Brandon to shoot Harry, I can see how just coming face to face with Harry was ultimately enough. After all, nothing Brandon ever does now will be worse than what Harry's own fucked up head is doing to him. And even that is an experience not long to continue. And this way Brandon still managed to protect his family... even the one family member who least deserved that protection. Because that's what family is, after all: the people who protect and love you even when you don't deserve it anymore. Too bad Harry never learned that, not even in the end.
The scene of Kenny, Jolice, and the other guy beckoning Harry and Brandon to "join them" as spirits was touching and hit all the right notes. Actually, that's something I appreciate about this episode as a finale-- it hits all the right notes emotionally.
Now if only I could make Harry and Brandon stop saying each other's last names as if they would forget them if weren't repeated often enough. Plus--and I've had this complaint the entire series-- every time someone says Brandon's last name and tries to convey heavy emotion they make him sound like a porn star.
