Pride of Baghdad

[history79]

"Comics have always had a pretty rich tradition of telling meaningful stories with anthropomorphized animals. I thought experimenting with that genre in a standalone graphic novel would be a good way to push myself, get away from my usual dumb pop-culture references and shocking cliffhangers. At the same time, I was also hungry to write something that addressed my conflicted feelings about the Iraq War. When I read reports about this pride of escaped lions, everything just kind of fell into place."

- Brian K. Vaughan


Warning for Rape




41.66 pages of 125

Comments

[informationgeek]

I gotta be honest. I hate the ending to this comic.

I absolutely hate almost all stories that end with this kind of ending. You can talk and talk and talk and talk all you want to me about the meaning, the symbolism, the importance, the impact of this and how it is fitting or perfect, but it is meaningless to me. When you go for a kill them all ending, it almost always renders the experience moot and pointless. Everything we just read, watched, or experienced meant nothing since nothing was accomplished, nothing was gained, nothing changed, and so on. It makes me feel like I wasted my goddamn time and it sours my overall experience. You could say the ride was worth it or what I felt meant something, but all I feel is bitterness towards the material and towards the creators after all is said and done.

Pride of Baghdad, Funny Games, Witch's House, Uzumaki, 1984, Sheltered, and so much... it all just leaves me so unimpressed.

There are rare exceptions to this mind you. Rogue One and A Machine for Pigs come to mind, but those worked more due to feeling like I walked away with some sense of accomplishment was achieved in experience. I don't even mind a downer ending either (Animal Farm), just... this type of ending almost always ruins everything. Pride of Baghdad was my first, real experience with this ending and it still sits in the back of my mind. Not because it is haunting, not because it is powerful, not for any reason the writer thinks, but because it is so disappointingly empty and bitter.

I hate this ending and honestly, I kind of hate the comic because of it.

[lordultimus]

I mean... to be fair, it's a real incident. An infantry squad came across lions that escaped from the Baghdad zoo and shot them. So the ending was written in stone, basically.

Personally, I'm just glad that the soldiers weren't depicted as high-fiving each other over a sweet kill, or something.

[locuatico]

The problem is that, even if it is a thing that happened, as a story, something should feel like it was acomplished or made you, as a reader, feel like it was worth your time. Even slasher films at least have the entertainment value of over the top, cartoonish violence.
It's the same thing with the movie The Perfect Storm. Yes, the crew died in real life, too. But what does their deaths acomplish within the story that they are telling?

Now, the book doesn't have this problem. Because it is non-fiction. And the point of non-fiction books is this sort of things. A book trying to unravel the real-life tragedy of the disapearence of a fishing boat and it's crew is well within what makes non-fiction books appealing in the first place.

[sadoeuphemist]

What's the difference between the endings of 1984 and Animal Farm? And how do you feel about like, Romeo and Juliet, or Hamlet, or the genre of tragedy in general?

[informationgeek]

I don't think I read Hamlet. Romeo & Juliet end with both leads dead but both families finally ending their stupid quarreling so it did feel like something ended up happening. I read 1984 once but Animal Farm a few times, including watching both film versions. I think I'm more left curious about how the allegories would change as the Soviet Union did.

As for tragedy in general, I don't think I read or experience much in that genre. I can't really think of much from that genre. Maybe Code Geass but I don't like that because its badly written and quite sexist.

[lissa_quon]

Yea the ending just left me numb.

But the book itself never worked for me - cause the whole "It's Symbolism they aren't Lions they are Representing Something Else" - and its like yea but they don't even feel like lions. The words used and the outlook don't feel like lions enough for me to care about them as anything. Like the facade was too shallow to work to reach the point.

It's like I'm pretty sure Watership Down is allegory for something else. But The story works for me cause the tale also works on it's own. Pride is too dependent on it's allegory to stand up on it's own.

[rainspirit]

This is the comic series that solidified in my mind that BKV's endings are always the worst.

I hated this ending then and I hate it now.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

"This is the comic series that solidified in my mind that BKV's endings are always the worst."

"Ex Machine protagonist...is a Republican!"

Though I think these days, that would actually be a lot more scary than it was.

[filthysize]

The annoying thing about Ex Machina is that it's actually a really good and fitting ending to that character. I like an ironic end, and it echoed how Vic Mackey ended up in The Shield finale. It's just shocking and jarring because Hundred becoming a monster and then failing was all told in the span of one issue. Never understood why the 2008 election wasn't an entire arc or two. I really think fans would have accepted it more if it was.

[lordultimus]

I always wondered if he would have used that ending if McCain won IRL.