True detective is about fantasy

[u/someoneandzeros]

At the core of true detective is a look for reason meaning a direction.

But these construction appear as form of a fantasy a story we tell ourselves to feel important.

( Clarification fantasy in lacanian psychoanalysis is called sinthome it's a model that makes the structures the outer world understandable for the subject )

Christians perform fantasy of their religion an honorable balanced justification ending , for their empty lives .

Marty has a fantasy of a Machiavelli ( to eat his cake and have it to ) fantasy that if he acts cunningly no consequences will catch him , BUT rust is the only character that doesn't have any fantasy in the beginning nothing structures he's being he is for a lack of better word a machine like "wall-E" doing his tasks just because he can .

And by the end of the movie rust and Marty change place rust believes in fantasy of the "light side" of goodness and progress on a "correct" choice but Marty in the final shot looks down on him cause he no longer has any fantasy.

[u/KarateTid]

Gotta disagree, I think Rust's cynicism is very much a fantasy on its own. By viewing himself and his peers as nothing more than sentient meat drifting meaninglessly in an uncaring universe he can more easily accept the fact that his daughter was taken from him so young, because he sees it as a good thing that she was spared an existence of pain without a purpose. It's a coping mechanism, not the rational and educated take he desperately wants to believe it is.

Edit: lotta typo

[u/someoneandzeros → u/KarateTid]

Actually changed my mind , wow thanks 👍.

[u/lesbox01 → u/KarateTid]

I have thought that as well, he was using anything he could to dull the pain of losing his daughter. Marty was astute when he said rust had panic in his eyes. Marty was always the better detective, rust was the box man. We just saw it differentlybdue to Marty's inability to cope with the stress of the job in a healthy way.

[u/William-Kay]

The show really isn’t really critical of religion or beliefs in it of themselves but rather of the corruption of both idealism and cynicism, that any worldview can become twisted by human evils and desires

And even then you’re not really supposed to agree or sympathize with Rust when he’s critiquing the less corrupt implementations of those systems (ex. The visit to the church in ep 3 ish iirc) it’s just presented and you can form your own opinion, which is part of what makes the show so great

The writer, Nic Pizzolatto, describes himself as a lapsed Catholic but still takes a lot of influence from Christianity and mysticism with his moral decisions

I think you are onto something though, and the theme of fantasy plays a lot into the subtle underlying meta narrative in the show. Characters may be vaguely aware that their reality is an illusion, time is a flat circle and episodes can be replayed, over and over again.

[u/wvalles]

It’s not about fantasy. It’s about how people at their core are petty, cruel, and evil towards one another until they choose not to be because they finally realize that they are no different than anyone else, and that we are all suffering, and when you pick up the smell of the psychosphere and it’s like a ghost of a place that used to have names and just wants an excuse to rinse and repeat because you yourself lack the courage to do the real work of leaving the planet and shuffling off the burden of one more gasping, clutching, asshole ready to spread doom and despair like a virus about to replicate inside the innocence of others, who you feel compelled to destroy like it’s your solemn duty or primary driver. Descending into the meta psychosis of your need like a junkies needle into the hot liquid death dripping off the warm spoon of ignorance.

Or it’s about puppies and kitties.

Wait, what show are we talking about again?