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Old 12-02-2016, 10:46 AM   #18205 (permalink)
The Batlord
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Originally Posted by Yac View Post
Spoiler for spoiler:
I think the general knew he had to tell her that because he was smart enough to figure out it initially came from him, in the future. It's been 18 months, there is peace and prosperity and she published a book about this language - I assume this time perception shift is widely known by then, if not widely understood. I took it as a nod towards the general, who started out as a cliche bad guy and ended up a humbled, sensible man.

What bugs me still is .. well, is there free will ? if time is non linear and past and future events can be observed, is there any choice ? Could Louise have chosen not to have a child ? Did she really choose or did she just surrender to the inevitable ? Heptapods knew what was going to happen in 3000 years .. not once did they hint this might happen, it will happen. Is there free will ?

I realize many of you might not like these spoilers but for your own good, if you haven't seen Arrival, don't look.
Spoiler for spoiler:
But the only thing that changed his mind was her call from the past, and if she hadn't seen the future when he told her what he needed to hear in the past then she wouldn't have been able to change his mind. It's a pretty clear time paradox that I can only make sense of if humanity is beginning to evolve into some kind of gestalt entity.

And if I had to guess I'd say the idea of free will is left up to interpretation, as it's said that she chose to have a child, even while it was also implied by the aliens that everything was preordained. Both perceptions might be subjectively correct depending on which species you ask, and I don't think the movie made it clear one way or the other.
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Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien
There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.
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