u/moyuxi

u/ConsiderationEasy842 had a post on the similarities between Calypso and MIST, which I noticed as well. But I think there's an extension to the rest of the last 2 episodes. The digital world + simulations are the perfect utopia -- a place free of pain, suffering, death. Calypso offered Oddyseus this basically -- Why would Odysseus so desperately desire to leave paradise and immortality though?

We see Maddie so vehemently opposed to to uploading after Caspian's "death" and her mom's uploading. Although she clearly respects the decision of others, she refuses to let her son upload. It seems confusing when she has so personally experienced and believed in the real life of UIs. But she ends up enduring 117,649 years with a hope to be with Caspian and her son once again.

Fundamentally the end of Pantheon is not about the technology or the nature of reality, but homecoming, nostos. And that is, in itself, the most important theme of both the Oddysey and Pantheon. For Oddyseus, it's homecoming to Penelope and Telemachus. For Caspian and Maddie, that means reliving suffering for eternity if that means that they can find their way home with one another again.

"Don't fear life, don't fear pain."

I usually fly United but for reasons needed a Southwest flight for a shorter direct to GRR.

Reading around, seems like SW regulars are upset at the changed boarding procedures. My experience (sample size of 2) is that the boarding is soooooooo much better than United.

1. On United, people are always spilling over each other fighting to get in line before their group is called. Maybe because United always has an enormous amount of Group 2 folks (which you get with any United credit card). SW? Orderly and calm. The staff directed which groups to come up, where to stand if you were in the next group or 2. No gate lice at all. Maybe it's because SW regulars are just more chill. Or I was flying to/from the Midwest.

2. The large number of groupings that SW has seems to be intended to try and funnel a reasonable order beyond status (window seat, then middle seat, then aisle seat; back to front). Y'all don't understand how revolutionary that feels and how much faster boarding it is than United. It takes like 2-3x as long as people are constantly getting in and out of rows to let people in.

So maybe things are worse than they were, but boy, they are a lot better than I've experienced elsewhere!