What was the point of Scrooge's trip with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come? On a structural level, it makes sense--three is the fairy tale number, and you can't visit the past and present without also including the future--but on a character level, it doesn't quite seem necessary. Showing a man that he'll die alone, unloved, and unmourned seems like the strategy you take as the last-ditch effort to convince a guy that he needs to change his ways. But that situation doesn't apply to Scrooge. He started softening immediately after he first arrived in his past. By the time he finished with the Ghost of Christmas Present, he was fully onboard with the need to reform, so the Ghost's vision of his future seems like unnecessary cruelty. Why show him all this when he was already planning to change his ways?
A few things come to mind. One is that this vision of the future wouldn't have affected Scrooge unless he had already changed his ways. A cold, hard businessman could have seen his lonely death as just the way of the world, might have viewed the people who stole the clothes from his corpse as just people doing what's practical in this world. He needed to relearn the value of the intangibles--human connection, respect for others--to see the true horror of the lonely death and the vultures who defiled the dead man.
But why the horror? Can't he reform without being threatened with doom? It's possible--but it's also possible such a reform would be temporary. After all, Scrooge started as a friendly, loving young man, but retreated into himself and his business out of fear of poverty and fear of the way the world looks down upon poor people. Even if a reformed Scrooge started on a course of Christmas charity, there was always a chance that the enthusiasm would fade, and the worldly fears would start creeping back in. The only way to beat those fears is to give him something to fear that's even worse than poverty. He needs to see the horrible end that his selfish ways would lead to, so he won't be tempted to slide back into them.
There's also the fact that seeing his death makes him ecstatically happy to find that he's alive after the Ghost is gone. Had Scrooge been spared the vision of his future, he might have been happy to find himself on Christmas Day, but his joy would have been nowhere near the manic glee he experiences after coming back from the future. Now, he doesn't just get a new start--he gets a second chance. Coming back from his own grave makes him mindful of his death, but it also makes him hyperaware of the fact that he's still alive. He isn't in the ground yet. He still has time to do good and make connections with others so he doesn't die alone.
Seeing the past reminded him of the innocence he'd lost. Seeing the present reminded him of the people whose lives he was missing out on. Seeing the future reminded him that death is waiting, so it's important to live virtuously while we can. All three are important because all three brought him outside of himself and taught him to value the wider world, just in time to live through another Christmas Day.
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wouldn't it have been so fucked up if season one / st was actually a real ghost story and will rly had been dead the whole time n was communicating with joyce from the literal other side. like we as the audience know tht will was alive bc we're The Audience but to everyone else it jus sounded like a ghost story concocted by a mother out of her mind with grief. canonically. but like.......... the "he's been dead since the beginning" / "someone has to leave first. this is a very old story. there is no other version of this story" of it all hits so Hard
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Dug out the old Dr. Doom skin for some shenanigans with the sib @g0dp4rticl3 (I love the surprised look of players who didn't play back then during the marvel season that had this particular Dr. Doom in the BP and maybe even forgot he was a thing and are now like "WAIT HOW DO YOU HAVE DOOM ALREADY?!" *snickers*).
Well at least Dr. Doom and Megalo Don are besties now! B)
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→ Elizabeth Olsen as Tessa Gray
friends break up, friends get married
strangers get born, strangers get buried
trends change, rumors fly through new skies
but i'm right where you left me.
i cause no harm, mind my business
if our love died young, i can't bear witness
and it's been so long...
you left me no choice but to stay here forever.
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He can't believe that's all it took for something to happen—
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so there's only like 3 guys on second shift that are the same as when I was working 2nd so there's a bunch of new middle aged dudes that I do not need to meet and I told my friend who's the lead on that shift to let all the guys know that when I come back in a couple weeks, they don't need to feel obligated to talk to me at all Kfkdjdkddk
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