Life is harrowing, and what a fucking piece of shit Arthurs life in particular was. Losing both of his parents, and seeing his surrogate father slowly lose his mind. Getting fucking tuberculosis, and coping with constant fear of all the ways he or his friends could die a disgraceful, pointless death. Spending most of your last days regretting huge chunks of your garbage life, while being able to observe your own body just falling apart. Lets take a moment, to let this sink in, and recognize that this is just to much to handle, even for a big stupid brute.
(Insert Arthurs: "I´m afraid")
But here comes the beauty of the last chapter and the epilogue:
Making me watch John milking cows, ramble in front of his son, and teaching him how to fish and other boring shit, while knowing full well, that John will die a miserable death in a few years as well, confused me at first.
Should I feel happy for them? Is this epilogue supposed to make me feel good? Arthur is dead, and John will be as well. What the fuck was the point of this long ass game?
But then it hit me, really hard.
These boring years are the point. This is what Arthur could achieve for John and his family.
Arthurs life ended after he brought forward a enormous amount of emotional strength in his last days. This is superhero-levels of strength, but not in a physical sense. What he had to face, the uncertainty, the betrayal, the pain, he still believed that his actions may have worth.
And all this shit, it wasn´t for naught, because Jack could have his father for a few more years. This is the worth, this is what Arthur wanted for John and his family.
That Arthur had to die this way, is horrible. That John will die too early as well, is horrible.
But these things can´t take away the good years.
It can have worth to power through horrible, painful times.
So, yeah, very good, inspiring boring epilogue, imo.
