Liminal heroquest in Galactica finale

From: roko_joko <roko_joko_at_cuRVWhXKVUIlUK4-hYSoi7ckl07IR-FbtpfYbUSgBkCZQFEg44SiqH9-xFh1ZozLnn>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:08:23 -0000

In the series finale of Battlestar Galactica (light spoiler follows)

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I liked the scene where the characters flip back and forth between the space ship and the opera house. It was a cool illustration of a liminal heroquest where the participants are simultaneously in the regular world and on the other side in a mysterious way.

"Liminal heroquest", or whatever the lingo is now. My emphasis here is not on the fine points of Gloranthan magic. If you buy that Glorantha has some ceremonies where you go into some kind of a halfway state, that's what I'm talking about.

Granted the show had some ambiguity as to whether the characters were actually experiencing the back-and-forth in the moment, or whether it was more of a flashback from a narrator's point of view. But some of the editing and some of the characters' gestures and expressions point you to the in-the-moment interpretation.

So now, if you need to explain the liminal aspect of heroquesting to someone, you can use that episode as an illustration that a lot of people will be familiar with.