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YMMV / The Thorn Birds

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  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Because of the juicy, scandalous premise of the book (priest and beautiful woman have an affair), a lot of people think it's a discussion about chastity, or God, or the nature of priestly vows. The driving arc for Ralph, however, is his letting go of the prideful idea of being the "perfect priest" (which really only strokes his own ego) and through making mistakes and self-awareness, eventually becomes a good priest.
  • Narm: "You can't make love for toffee" does not sound insulting so much as it sounds hilarious.
  • Sequelitis: The Missing Years suffers from this, thanks to the myriad of inconsistencies in storyline and characterization.
  • Award Snub: The miniseries won 6 Emmys, including one for Barbara Stanwycknote  Henry Mancini's score was overlooked - Not his only Emmy snub either.
  • Squick: Mary Carson's fly-blown corpse that begins rapidly decaying as soon as she dies. (She's that evil). Stephen King claimed this was his favorite part of the book.
  • Tear Jerker: Meggie and Fee finally ending years of estrangement and embracing.
    • Ralph's death. Especially as it's described in the book:
    The room had become filled with tiny cries, rustles, whispers; the clock was ticking in time with his heart. And then it wasn’t in time anymore. He had got out of step with it. Meggie and Fee were swimming to their feet, drifting with frightened faces in a watery insubstancial mist, saying things to him he couldn’t seem to hear.
    “Aaaaaaah!” he cried, understanding.
    He was hardly conscious of the pain, intent only on Meggie’s arms around him, the way his head sank against her. But he managed to turn until he could see her eyes, and looked at her. He tried to say, "Forgive me", and saw she had forgiven him long ago. She knew she had got the best of it. Then he wanted to say something so perfect she would be eternally consoled, and realized that wasn’t necessary, either. Whatever she was, she could bear anything. Anything!
    So he closed his eyes and let himself feel, that last time, forgetfulness in Meggie.
    • Even worse, this happens at the gathering after Dane's funeral, meaning Meggie just lost both of the men she loves almost simultaneously.
  • Values Dissonance:
    • Many Catholics were up in arms about Ralph, a priest, falling in love with Meggie and ultimately consummating his relationship with her. Oddly enough, the fact that this man had fallen in love with a woman he'd known since she was a child seemed to escape their notice.
    • Most people would instantly be suspicious of a grown man spending so much time with a little girl. But because Ralph is a priest everyone puts aside those suspicions (except for Mary Carson who senses Ralph's attraction to Meggie from the get-go). He only starts to avoid her as she grows up because he knows he can no longer hide his feelings and that people will no longer find their relationship so innocent. Nowadays, the reverse is true.
    • This one's a little tricky. The miniseries plays up a quasi-romantic vibe between young Meggie and Ralph. But the book is a lot more clear: Ralph's besetting sin was pride, particularly, that he imagined himself as being above all sexual need and feeling. On the night Mary Carson dies, and she tries to get him to kiss her and he refuses, she taunts him that he's probably impotent. In his later reflection about that conversation, it's implied that he hasn't felt sexual in years, if ever. In a conversation with Meggie a short time later, he explains that he can't spend so much time with her anymore because people will talk, she replies that if they knew him better, they would never consider it a possibility. When they finally do have sex (10 years later), he finally comes to the realization that that he's not so above it all, he becomes more humble, and a more compassionate priest.
      • Apparently - and ironically, considering the scandal surrounding the Catholic Church now - some merely shrugged and said "At least it was with a woman."
    • Here's a good one—Meggie is aghast at the notion of officially divorcing Luke even though she left him years ago because she's a good Catholic. A good Catholic who wanted a priest to abandon his vows to be with her and ultimately committed adultery with said priest, had his child, has passed the child off as her husband's and has repeatedly denounced the church and God, blaming them for the reason she can't be with the man she loves. Once again, it's Fee to call her out on her hypocrisy.
      • Which, at first glance, might be hypocritical irony. Fee herself had a child by a married man when she was young. Her father married her off to Paddy, her husband, in disgrace and the oldest son Frank grew up not knowing who his real father was. Mind you, Fee shows a great deal of remorse for keeping the secret from her son and is devastated when he leaves, so Fee is most likely trying to warn Meggie not to repeat her mistakes.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Meggie's pregnancy with Justine (the child of a husband she doesn't love) is difficult from beginning to end—frequent morning sickness, a delivery in which they both almost perish. Then, she produces no breast-milk and suffers from post-partum depression severe enough to keep her from bonding with her daughter. Her pregnancy with Dane (the son of the man she's loved most of her life) is ridiculously easy to the point where labor and delivery is virtually painless and takes no time at all and she's able to nurse with no trouble.


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