- It was established early that Dr. Horrible's inventions never work exactly the way he wants them to -- there's always *some* malfunction/something not thought through.
- It was established early that Dr. Horrible shies away from killing. "Besides, there's kids in that park, so..." (The "murder is neither original nor creative" ist just an excuse, I think.) And even here, he can't make himself pull the trigger on Captain Hammer. The fact that he doesn't means that he is not irredeemably evil.
- Penny *had to* die. I'm not into the "death of innocence" interpretation. Rather, for me, it's that he obtained what he believed he wanted, at the price of that he really wanted. Also...
- It was clear in Act II that Penny was getting through to him. If Penny had lived, he would have been redeemed. With Penny gone, it's not innocence that is lost (it's not, he still hasn't crossed the final line, he still hasn't killed). It's hope. With Penny, hope died. Even if Penny had married Captain Hammer (as an extreme -- I know she wouldn't have), Doctor Horrible would still have had the hope that they would have gotten together.
(As I said, marrying Captain Hammer is an extreme example. It was clear that she had finally seen through Hammer's facade and noticed the jerk he really is.)
I ran several possible alternate endings through my head, but nothing I can come up with would have worked as well as this.
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Date: 2008-07-31 11:22 am (UTC)- It was established early that Dr. Horrible's inventions never work exactly the way he wants them to -- there's always *some* malfunction/something not thought through.
- It was established early that Dr. Horrible shies away from killing. "Besides, there's kids in that park, so..." (The "murder is neither original nor creative" ist just an excuse, I think.) And even here, he can't make himself pull the trigger on Captain Hammer. The fact that he doesn't means that he is not irredeemably evil.
- Penny *had to* die. I'm not into the "death of innocence" interpretation. Rather, for me, it's that he obtained what he believed he wanted, at the price of that he really wanted. Also...
- It was clear in Act II that Penny was getting through to him. If Penny had lived, he would have been redeemed. With Penny gone, it's not innocence that is lost (it's not, he still hasn't crossed the final line, he still hasn't killed). It's hope. With Penny, hope died. Even if Penny had married Captain Hammer (as an extreme -- I know she wouldn't have), Doctor Horrible would still have had the hope that they would have gotten together.
(As I said, marrying Captain Hammer is an extreme example. It was clear that she had finally seen through Hammer's facade and noticed the jerk he really is.)
I ran several possible alternate endings through my head, but nothing I can come up with would have worked as well as this.