Truly unfair that my shrooms kicked in properly during Snake Eyes but not this.

Great movie. Art direction off the charts. Could’ve been hornier, but the pseudo-oedipal sexuality of it was probably good to keep in check. I GUESS. I have not read the poems.

Jokes aside, if the debate is “does he die” my answer is yes. He’s on a quest for honour but doing it as dishonourably as possible. The forest, like a dream, reflects and distorts his experiences (like Us or Annihilation) - his weakness, his laziness, his relationships with sex and with his mother and the messy places those overlap. Instead of facing or examining these things, he gives up or runs from them. His courage lies only in surviving. When he’s tied up, he sees himself as a corpse, knowing that’s what he’ll become if he stays on his current path. At the end, faced with running or facing the consequences of his actions, he sees the life he’d have if he stayed a coward. When he chooses to let the knight retaliate, taking his life, he relinquishes his sins and cowardice. He is “free.” In this moment he must die, for that’s the end of his quest. His death is his honour!

Missed opportunity to give a credit for “Cum Wrangler” imho.