Better Late Than Never
I just saw this, and I was thrilled to finally see someone who actually seemed to see the end of the series the way I did.
Although I watched QAF from the first minute of the first episode, I was never into discussion boards, or fandoms--didn't even know they existed. I watched the last show by myself, a couple of weeks after it had aired (I needed to see 512, which I'd missed and had to find online). By then, my husband had watched the last episode himself, and I watched it a few weeks later. He said he had liked it, and initially, I said I found it quite soul satisfying--and I was surprised to see how negative the reactions were.
You got exactly how I felt about Justin in relation to the rest of the gang. No matter how mature Justin was, he was still a very young man at the end of the series. His going to New York was sort of like going away to college, or grad school. And in general those moves are not considered to be permanent, just an opportunity to grow.
I never thought of Brian and Justin breaking up. To me, the last scene with them, where at the end, Brian "cuddles"; that is the essence of the relationship, the real victory. Everything else was just details.
The one thing that I understood about Justin's character is that he must have more or less liked Brian the way he was. It doesn't seem possible to be so in love with someone if you share none of their interests, sex notwithstanding. I wouldn't see Justin as really wanting the Stepford life; he only wanted what it because it would have symbolized the fact that Brian was committed to him. If Brian could prove that on a table in the loft, then he would be fine with that too.
And I too was pleased to see Blake and Ted together.
Emmett, I felt, was just marking time until Drew came back. I liked the two of them together, and as old as Drew may have been, he, like Justin, was attending to his higher education.
NOW; the gripes.
Justin and Brian getting married and settling down in Britin may have unnerved me, but Justin just up and going to New York like that was--with the exception of the Pink Posse--the stupid, most ill considered move Justin ever made. Did the writers ever step foot in New York? How long would Justin have lasted, with no real place to live or work?
And the really stupid thing about it all is that why would it be necessary to move to New York? You don't have to live in New York to be an artist. Hell, with the cost of maintaining himself there, Justin would have saved money by going up and staying in a hotel once a month.
The solution would have been understandable for a singer or actor, but an artist doesn't have to be on call on sight 24/7.
I've seen fan fiction where Justin was offered a fellowship or something like that, which would have been more believable, but to just up and move like that, would be asinine.
And of course, the same with Lindsay and Mel--exactly, plot hole the size of Jupiter. Just up and move with two kids, no jobs, and the major wage earner moving to a place where she wouldn't be licensed to do her job? Come on, guys, give us a little credit for having some idea of how life functions!
As I said, I wasn't unhappy with the end, viz a viz Brian and Justin, because I felt it was temporary--and New York and Pittsburgh aren't exactly bi-coastal--but I felt as though the writers did a very sloppy job of wrapping things up. And it didn't matter if they hadn't planned on ending the show quite that soon. They really could have tied things up better with just a few lines. Give Justin an actual job opportunity in New York, and move the ladies away from the big bad city--anywhere in the U.S.; hell Pennsylavania is a big state! But not Canada. I actually know two women who did the same thing after September 11th; they sold their apartment in Manhattan, and moved themselves and their two daughters to Woodstock, New York. Completely different life, but at least not out of the country. And you know what? The lawyer of the pair ended up having to work in New York and go up on weekends, I presume, because even with a New York state license to practice law, she couldn't make a living there!
So, now I feel better for unloading once again on a sympathetic soul.