[Music] there is no hierarchy of art by saying this I want to counteract the belief that any form of artistic expression possesses a higher intrinsic value than another when discussing art the prerequisite to find the mediums work is often diluted to a measurement in its disposability a generalized perception that suggests one form to be more cultivated that's more necessary than its pair and of course the conflict of cinema versus television is where this notion emerges most frequently the idea that television is an expendable form I believe needs to be eradicated because the anatomy of the
televisual medium is endowed with methods of storytelling unobtainable in film for example the clearest benefit of a serialized story is length more than cinema television can grow in complexity over a longer lasting period the character isn't confined to a two-hour tail and that intricacies can must blossom with patience however what may not be instantly recognized as a crucial storytelling device is the episodic nature of television the consortium of three acts structures inside of a larger 3x structure much like chapters in a novel can imbue a lyrical quality to a story wherein themes and ideas are
found through repetition and we emergence few shows have a reliance on this method of storytelling even fewer in which every episode will be circumscribed to unique story and universe yet beneath the main narrative it constructs is inside this melting pot of individual stories that we can discover the identity of Cowboy Bebop [Music] can we as humans find something in nothing fun purpose beyond survival these ontological thoughts that play girls make up the same existential drift our characters repeatedly find themselves in and it's what is most significant for the journey of Cowboy Bebop it's science fiction
setting following the crew of bounty hunters and their unique adventure is all peripheral because when we dissect the whole piece rather than analyze each separate episode the series becomes a metaphysical expression of how people overcome meleides particularly the lingering grief that comes along with them bebop offers a unique portray in the manner in which life plays itself out is less of a linear path towards a goal more of a haze that we must venture through without any guidance because the sad reality of bebop story is our cast of characters are lost in the cosmos without
any justification for why they live other than to exist and the only recurrent theme that provides any kind of motive for them is the reconciliation with one past this is what I paid ya for being too gung-ho and running ahead of the game you get the point I don't want to do this yet then why are you let's just say my past is catching up to me yet why deliver it in such a pathetic fashion the compendium of episodes rather than forming a continuing arc is comprised of individual plots where the hunting of chess master
or computer hacker the basic solving with a bebop remains consistent were introduced to a bounty the crew pursues them the episode concludes admittedly this is a lame description because when we examine the essence of Cowboy Bebop we discover this episodic formula servicing something very transgresses [Music] understanding its structure is the first step to discovering meaning in Cowboy Bebop although each episode focuses on a new character our plot the stories themselves have no direct association to the narratives of our main protagonists and though the colorful crew of spiking company is the one consistent element of the
series the real subjects of each episode are only viewed through their lens our characters are typically the secondary facets in the story presently unfolding they're either the obstacles that must be overcome or more often than not I'm merely involved through circumstance hang on to this huh meet me tonight know tomorrow night at the Cathedral on the edge of town what a way Aryan gathered hmm our protagonists are made to be distant to the events from the outside because it's important if these stories may be to the subjects directly involved to our characters these stories don't
matter why because each of our protagonists has a past a hold onto daily a past ever present in their mind which isolates them to a world where only their concerns are relevant for the crew of the bebop a yearn for that own narratives to be addressed rather than serve as a background for the announcements of others they narrowed their view of the world to believe that nothing else could be more important yet they don't allow themselves the reality that there are others that suffer through the same fate and so the only survival tactic they can
employ to overcome these feelings is to distance themselves from the personal strengths of others stoicism welcome whatever happened as the lack of affection the sidestepping of personal responsibility spike in the rest of the crew utilized this whatever happens happens approach not because they actually believe it but because it's a replacement for their avoidance of reality the truth that these strangers that they interact with are nothing more than reflections of themselves humans that are willing to sacrifice everything for harmony and purpose in their lives just as our protagonist can't afford to form attachments to these unique
characters the same is also said for the subjects in question they aren't concerned about the struggles of our protagonists because every person that we see is living in existence forged by their past and they do anything to make things right even though our characters recognize the struggle within every person they encounter they have to live their lives vicariously through others because their own is so empty empty time it sounds good to call bounty hunting freelance work but all that really means is it was self-employed so when there's no one don't we have nothing nothing to
do nothing to live off because imagine living a life of regret a life in which your past feels unfinished as though there were a piece missing and you have to find it our characters are unable to live with purpose in the present because of the sorrows chaining them to their past they're the detached outcasts that were once part of this world but now like to stray souls unable to form a connection inside it whether it's a unable to remember her earlier years or jet unable to fathom the loss of this previous life our characters regrets
manifest into indifference to the world surrounding them every episode ends that could our crew just marking time it's as though the events that occur never happens they already feel so distant and because of the series episodic nature I never mentioned again our characters don't want to acknowledge the hardships of others because they can't risk opening themselves completely the fear of even further misery that past is the priority and it's hard to put anything else first when you already live with so much sorrow I'm not going there to die I'm going to find out if I'm
really alive I have to do it say the constant search for purpose is the summary of our characters lives which means an endless urge to impose meaning in each insignificant day-to-day moment Bertrand Russell wants to scribed philosophy as a no-man's-land that which isn't currently known and to me this is the most apropos description of Cowboy Bebop depiction of how we journey through life although saturated with ennui and silent moments of contemplation the grandiose ideas dispensed through Cowboy Bebop a done in a manner that seems on fulfilling and almost incomplete the characters don't have answers they
just hypothesize oh am i my past my future these are questions every you can ask for each one for their life there's the show work on the dairy of continent we're all selfish I'm going to go look for my woman you can go look for the other one or does it propose a more humanistic view of us what's your price to keep from leaking this thing to the press just leave the old guy alone all off the bounty hunters that's all we ask these constant contradictions and questions suggest that any philosophy our characters implement is
never consistent and it leads to the shows brutally honest reminder that no matter how much we convince ourselves the majority of our lives are lived without purpose there is no unifying belief that makes everything connect the truth is often the simplest answer but I still don't know why it carved pictures of weird creatures at all what in the world was that all about her @bz is lonely so do some friends our characters act as though if they keep searching perhaps they will discover life's greater purpose because they fear to acknowledge that they've built an existence
fused to that past and they don't tell that point all they do is we wait endlessly for something or someone to make everything ok again does they'll fabricate an individual philosophy as a way to avoid this truth it's an accurate depiction of the human race will do anything to find meaning in the meaninglessness because the truth of the matter is that as humans we typically have only one goal in our minds finding that one connection that makes us feel whole and everything up to that point is devoid of any true meaning our characters want to
feel connected but avoid the truth that their only objective is simply awaiting the confrontation with whatever spawn the emptiness they feel then only think about the past right before their death that is they're researching frantically for proof that they were alive eventually our main characters are confronted with their past and Addie's moment that behavior radically changes much like the rest of the inhabitants within this universe they become willing to abandon everything in pursuit of it their facility dissipates revealing their vulnerabilities and their true nature you think I'm vicious you don't know what [ __ ]
is yeah and this sudden 1:18 attitude tied to the episodic vision of the show reveals Cowboy Bebop true message to the audience we follow the stories of various characters which in the larger picture may first seem meaningless however if we consider how this episodic format is still serving the mind of our main character is reflective of what most of our lives are a singular sequence of unrelated events defectors indirectly the subjects of each episode serves as a separate entity to be Bob's overarching narrative these unique characters that make up the catalog of the human experience
completely contrast the on empathic stature of our protagonists the playful the melancholic the absurd why such a division because what cowboy bebop is is a demonstration of a subject viewed by the outsider a display of how the attitudes of that surrounding us will affect our perceptions our main characters were constantly surrounded by others who are able to confirm that paths while they were still searching for their own catharsis the subversion is that each episode isn't circumscribed to its own universe to our characters every episode accumulated as one single event creating a mindset in them that
clearly the past was something which had to be reconciled with to the audience we saw an episodic formula to the characters it was all one giant episode in each unique plot they saw a continuous unchangeable pattern as a different way people confront their lives and create this mosaic in which our protagonists were able to gain an objective glimpse at the unpredictable nature of life to others and one that will be reflected upon with an almost grim nostalgia but when they themselves finally able to confront their past what happens they no longer have the subjectivity because
they view everything through a soul egocentric view they finally become the subject of the story something they have longed for through the entire series but then you becomes the outsider at the finale of the series we're greeted with the phrase you're going to carry that way originally spike was our subject and the characters of each episode were his subjects we watch Spike watch others but when Spike has no more subjects to view he unconsciously becomes them confronting his past with no concern for others and the show realizes that in turn we had become spike when
the outsider finally watching a man confronts his past unfiltered justice spiked it this time we've been given the context as to why it's so important to him to the seal it and it is finale Cowboy Bebop demonstrates this grander subversion by making all the focus just despite carried the weight of everybody else he encountered bebop asked us to do the same view the entire work of eyes presented us with the entire chronology of spike story and asks will we merely carry the burden of seeing someone come from our own past or will it be the
catalyst we needed of how we are to come from our own regardless of our choice nothing changes what we saw nothing changes what happened the past is going to stay with us we're gonna carry that weight [Music] for me the entire message of Cowboy Bebop can be summed up at the end of the episode Jupiter jazz our heroes didn't succeed in what they aim to achieve and so they must wait and don't tell their next opportunity is nothing more than survival well there's nothing wrong with this Cowboy Bebop never displays pessimism in this lack of
meaning in life because it teaches us that although the universe doesn't always purpose or hope we're still the creators of our own destiny every single person you encounter has a past a suffered more than just ourselves but the truth is if we want to live a life where we create our own meaning we must accept our pasts because if we hold on to them they'll channels to a tunnel vision of life even when this was explained outright to spike he wouldn't accept it yeah I understand [Music] thank only after his concentration did spike realized that
all our characters had to accept their past one way or the other because it was the only way that they could form their own destiny but by then his choice has been made there the final image of bebop offers a sense of finality a spite becomes immortalized through the mural of his dying image pictur alized this is how he's remembered and it shows that he truly had nothing else to live for becoming so chained to his history when the Spike's objective was to confront is past and nothing more well as we see the remaining characters
continue to survive just like how once the subjects of each episode dealt with their pasts the lives of the bebop crew continued no matter what your struggles are everybody around us will carry on surely that offers some kind of hope in life we each of our own stories to live we can't let ourselves be shackled to our own sadness there must be some closure however it may be achieved yet once we've learned the acceptance of our past we finally be able to live which have a life we please [Music] if she tastes a tow hook
the kick [Music]
