I definitely have most of the same feelings you have about The Thing--these were books I would sneak out of my room at midnight to pull from the library and read in secret, because they belonged to my sister and she was petulant and wouldn't share--and I've spend the better part of two decades trying to puzzle out why it ended the way it did, especially because it's so unsatisfying. I don't know that I have an answer, but I do have something of a counterargument. (Not fully fashioned, and not necessarily where I land, but one I've been thinking about.)
In a sense, the whole narrative, apart from Will's own role as the last Old One to remain in this universe or whatever, is one working towards freedom, a freer will than had apparently existed in the battle between the Dark and the Light, framed by the Arthurian saga of a previous age. By wiping the memories of the participants, and especially calling it a mercy, I wonder if Cooper is making an argument about freedom: though all the characters have participated in the conclusion of the event, to a lesser or greater extent, it's only by forgetting the pattern they were actors in that they could truly break free of it.
Furthermore, by banishing it from mortal memory, it becomes a ward against the return of a pattern; Will is the only keeper of that knowledge, with the Dark cast out and the Light having retreated. When those he loves die, there is no mortal avenue left to revive the pattern, so mindwiping is like an insurance policy.
All that being equal, there was a very interesting Yuletide submission in TDIR that challenges the above perspective: Once and Future (1696 words) by Llwyden ferch Gyfrinach. I don't know that I agree with it per se, but I was definitely intrigued by it.
no subject
In a sense, the whole narrative, apart from Will's own role as the last Old One to remain in this universe or whatever, is one working towards freedom, a freer will than had apparently existed in the battle between the Dark and the Light, framed by the Arthurian saga of a previous age. By wiping the memories of the participants, and especially calling it a mercy, I wonder if Cooper is making an argument about freedom: though all the characters have participated in the conclusion of the event, to a lesser or greater extent, it's only by forgetting the pattern they were actors in that they could truly break free of it.
Furthermore, by banishing it from mortal memory, it becomes a ward against the return of a pattern; Will is the only keeper of that knowledge, with the Dark cast out and the Light having retreated. When those he loves die, there is no mortal avenue left to revive the pattern, so mindwiping is like an insurance policy.
All that being equal, there was a very interesting Yuletide submission in TDIR that challenges the above perspective: Once and Future (1696 words) by Llwyden ferch Gyfrinach. I don't know that I agree with it per se, but I was definitely intrigued by it.