Real Apocalypses

[MaxC]

Wasn't sure if this belonged here or the Caritas.... oh well, I'm sure someone will correct me.

Anyway, both Angel and Buffy dealth with various version of apocalypses. But what constitutes as a real apocalypse??? Is an apocalypse the end of the world as we know it, as in humanity as the dominate species, or end of society - or just end of the world period? Can there be another apocalypse after one had already taken place?

For example, if the vampires of Buffy season 7 succeeded in taking over the world, (which would probably turn the world into a similar version of the alternate universe in 'The Wish') then that can be considered an apocalypse, but humanity still had a chance to survive? Maybe another apocalypse could have taken place.

Whereelse, if Acatha manages to swallow the earth into hell, or Willow destroyed or life, then it would very much be final.

Just a thought.

[quantumcat]

Very good question!

I think it's kinda like the difference between a war and a police action.

An official,licensed Apocalypse has no going back.

All options are eliminated.

All loose ends are tied.

For the 'good guys',it means the big bads are defeated,the innocents are safe
and the heroes can ride into the sunset.

A victory by the evil or amoral,natural forces means that the world is unmade
or destroyed and there is no tomorrow.

(One can imagine an eternity of Hellish agony.)

Lesser upheavals can be tragic but they can also be the birth pangs of something
better.

In one sense,they are just another turn of the Wheel.

Same 'Verse. Different song.

Climates may change.

Cultures may change.

But something survives to bring things back to 'normal'.

(Even if 'normal' is radically different.)

If a scenario is very bad,it's either going to get better or
disappear.

You know all those horror stories about the crazed mutant
dictators and their dystopian worlds?

Well,in a few generations,either all the people become healthy
and sane with the anarchists creating and upholding the rules
or their dysfunction leads them to self destruct.

They'll either wise up,be replaced by someone more rational
and humane or they and their victims perish.

The question is,how many non-fatal onslaughts can a people
or a planet withstand before they succumb?

Can we expect that the finale (if and when it comes as fortold
in our cultures)to include us as we are now or might we be a
brief footnote in the multiversal history like the tasmanian wolf
or the passenger pidgeon?

(Don't write them off.
They could come back!)

All we can do about any apocalypse is what we do in any crisis.

We take it one moment at a time,do the best we can and know that
any day we draw breath could bring the best of the best or the worst
of the worst to us.

We have to act as if there will be no tomorrow and as if we'll be here
to reap the whirlwinds years from now.

We have very little choice.

It's the only experience we have and all we're likely to see.

Whatever happens to the world,our tiny piece of it in space and time
is all we can do much about.

Whether our little actions have much to do with a big story is an interesting question.

It gives us something to look forward to as well as dread.

Ultimately,until the only end we can fathom arrives,we gotta keep eating,sleeping.
learning,loving and taking out the garbage.

"Every season can be your last and getting cancelled doesn't mean your story's over."

It works for fiction.

I guess we can apply it to the real world till we get something better.....

[tjaman]

Well said, q!

My take on this is that an apocalypse is the destruction of the world. The ubervamps being readied by the First would've brought about a much worse vision than that of "The Wish," because they'd be a ravenous, destructive and almost impervious force and they'd spill out of every Hellmouth in every direction.

The vamps in "The Wish" still had their sense of irony and limited appetites.

Willow destroying all life would've been an apocalypse. Jasmine taking our will would be an apocalypse, but one we'd enjoy, as far as we knew. Problems require effort to solve them. Jasminions couldn't even convincingly board up a door -- most of them were like people with television hangovers. W&H/The Senior Partners getting everyone to hate each other would lead to such a breakdown of the social fabric that the apocalypse would be inevitable without them really doing much of anything.

In that perception is reality, any life ended destroys the world, and the same with any soul. People get so upset they get suicidal and how many worlds are destroyed if they succeed? So, since any one of us has the ability to destroy the world in the eyes of our loved ones, how much more destructive are the overt efforts of Big Baddies?

[quantumcat]

Thank you,tj!

Trust you to discover yet another meta reality about all
this.

(Maybe the only reality)

Perhaps bodily death (self-inflicted or no) is not required.

Perhaps all that is needed is a form of soul-killing (a 'sum' icide
if you will), that destroys a person's essence and his future.

Whether we do this by ending a life or thwarting its potential,
all its hopes and all the good it could accomplish cease to exist.

This is an ending to that individual and the world his influence
could have made.

It is a murder we may not know to prevent,grieve or avenge.

This is an apocalypse in microcosm that can trigger the more
extensive version as its consequences are felt.

Our fates may hang less upon the big things in life than on
an inexpensive nail,the flutter of a butterfly's wing or a word
whispered at a pivotal time.

While we look at headlines and conspiracies and forces of nature
run amok,perhaps we miss the true determiners of our future.

Maybe the small,''trivial' parts of life make all the difference.

When we touch these embryonic destinies,how we treat them
(carelessly,with reverence or deliberate animosity) can decide
what futures are created and which are halted before they can begin.

[tjaman]

Thank you for always building up bigger and brighter destinies everywhere you go, q.

[quantumcat]

Awwwwww.....