I haven't read the manga but I wanted to give my thoughts based on the show after my first time watching, since I haven't yet to avoid spoilers. My thoughts on what the Borderland was is basically a bunch of games that essentially people played when the meteor hit(which all occurred in real time of the meteor impact. The 'one minute' or so. So, in the last episode you notice people have the same injuries they got from the games. Also the ending of this show reminded me of the end for The Promised Neverland manga. (won't say any more to avoid spoilers for those who haven't read it.) As for the challenges I feel like the deaths may have been symbolized for deaths that occur when the meteor hit. Notably I thought that the King of Spades basically mass killing people was essentially showing how many people died from just the meteor impact, but there were many who struggled to live with just the collateral damage from the impact, and that was the place for the games. May have been transported to a world for the games that is connected to the real world, or all just in their heads idk. Either way they likely saw each other at some point which is why they vaguely remember each other in the hospital. And as for the Joker I am curious as to his part in the story. I think I heard it's explained in the manga so I'll have to check it out. But based on what the Joker is in Poker, it's an outlier that has the ability to transform into any card so I would imagine it has the best of the face cards seen in each suit, or perhaps the Joker is the meteor itself. I definitely wanna check out the manga to see.
Blitz Cam
2023-02-21 18:48:18 +0000 UTC
Ive first time watched the last couple eps with you guys and now after the last ep i went to check the end of the manga and there's some nice details. Also the joker appearing in front of arisu after the games ended and having a brief exchange with him. The very last chapter also shows arisu and others 2 years after present time. If yall want to check it out ill leave the link to the chapter where the game ended here https://alice-in-borderland.com/manga/alice-in-borderland-chapter-63/
FedeZ7
2023-02-19 19:36:41 +0000 UTC
I love that I've never noticed the tiny detail of Mira, the Queen of Hearts, being the only person in the show to pronounce Arisu's name almost exactly like 'Alice', whereas everyone else makes the 'su' part much more prominent.
And I know the ending is a little vague, but I think it's great. The growth was the main part of the show besides the games, and to be honest, not remembering the trauma of the Borderlands is reward enough for most of these people. If they never gain their full memories, Aguni won't remember shooting Hatter, Arisu won't remember the Wolf game, and most of them probabaly won't recall The Beach massacre.
I am curious if they're going to do another series after this with the Joker card, because that doesn't really follow any of the manga (at least from my knowledge). If they did, I'd be wondering if they made more games or just a new series focusing on the lore of the Borderlands, since the show itself wants it to be lesser known.
perserverantSoul
2023-02-19 19:06:58 +0000 UTC
You’re right about everything but the purgatory thing. It’s called limbo instead. Purgatory is as Hman said when you’re already dead
Monkey D. Moritz
2023-02-19 18:57:34 +0000 UTC
Why does H Man prewatch these shows smh my head
TimTakDoh
2023-02-19 16:21:41 +0000 UTC
guys you should watch the movie (god loves caviar) is a very good movie based on treue story it follows the life of a greek pirate at the time of the greek war of indipedence and its in english you can find it on the youtube
Vasileios Mitsos
2023-02-19 15:35:37 +0000 UTC
Yes it is purgatory or the in-between of life and death. Yes it happened before and happens again in fact there is a spin off/sequel where Arisu goes back and when he does he remembers his first trip to the borderlands. They don’t remember what happened when they won the game but you can tell they still have a sense of knowing each other. Also the girl at the end in the hallway who walked by was the girl who was taking care of the kid in the borderlands
brosenthalUO
2023-02-19 12:32:29 +0000 UTC
ok gonna do my best to explain stuff because the show kinda makes it hard to understand:
so all of it was real n happened. everyone who was caught in the blast from the meteor was sent to the borderlands and it acted as a kind of limbo between life n death. if you died in the borderlands you died in real life, if you survived the borderlands then you survived in real life but would retain no memories of what happened
in the manga, after completing the queen of hearts games arisu actually meets the joker card and has a small conversation with them asking them who they are.
the joker is a sort of intermediate of the borderlands, they dont rule it but more so watch over it. they symbolise the ferryman from greek mythology who watches over n transports the souls of the dead
dotto
2023-02-19 10:03:16 +0000 UTC
The most confusing ending of any show
Alius
2023-02-19 08:34:23 +0000 UTC
if there are any sync issues, I'm sorry, I did my best - hman