The following contains spoilers for The Green Knight.
The Green Knight is definitely a memorable story. It tells a compelling tale and is certainly anything but predictable. This is especially true of the movie's ending. It ends rather abruptly and might leave some viewers confused. Don't worry; there are answers to the movie's questions. The audience follows Gawain on his quest from the beginning, and some might be surprised by the sudden finale. However, The Green Knight's ending is not a strike against the story as a whole. It still overall makes some sense. Yet, it is also a fantasy story, and those are never completely logical. Before understanding the ending, however, it is important to remember how the story begins.
The Green Knight follows Gawain (Dev Patel) as he wakes up on Christmas morning. Though he has to make a fast stop home for some boots, he quickly gets dressed and heads to where King Arthur (Sean Harris) is holding court. To his surprise, Gawain is invited to sit next to the king. The king talks to Gawain, wanting to get to know him better. Gawain doesn't feel he has any stories to tell. The queen (Kate Dickie) adds a "yet" to that sentence. Shortly after this conversation occurs, the king gets up to give a speech. He wants someone to tell him a story of their adventures. No one immediately volunteers, but this is when the Green Knight appears. He challenges the king or one of his knights to a duel.
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There are, however, rules to this game. Whoever fights the Green Knight has to go search for him a year later and let the knight injure him wherever the Green Knight himself is injured. None of the King's knights are exactly jumping up to volunteer for this duel. Until Gawain speaks up. He volunteers to fight the Green Knight, no doubt hoping that doing so will finally be his chance to prove himself to his king and the knights. Gawain himself is not exactly a knight yet. So he sees this as an opportunity to become one possibly. He does need a sword, and the king volunteers his own. Gawain then begins to fight the Green Knight. Except, the knight gives no sign of fighting back.
Gawain is, of course, shocked. Yet, he quickly recovers and truly begins to fight in earnest. The duel ends with Gawain cutting the knight's head off. Of course, Gawain doesn't have long to savor his victory. The Green Knight's body stands up and picks up his head. He reminds Gawain to find him in a year at the Green Chapel. Gawain doesn't know how to react to such a thing. He doesn't get much of a chance anyway, as the Green Knight rides away, laughing creepily. In a year, he reluctantly heads towards the Green Chapel, but he is tested a lot on the way there. Some people rob him, he meets a rather unusual Lord (Joel Edgerton) and his Lady (Alicia Vikander), and a fox follows him, at the end speaking with his mother's voice.
Eventually, he arrives at the Green Knight's Green Chapel and he is nervous. He imagines what would happen if he were to survive the encounter, what his life could be like. And what he imagines isn't too good. He becomes king, but at a price. He is not respected by his people and one by one, everyone leaves him. Gawain realizes, then, that he would not be honorable if he did not let the Green Knight have a chance to attack him. But he has something, a secret weapon. He has a sash around his waist that is meant to protect him, but he removes it. The Green Knight then mentions cutting his head off, yet there are multiple ways to interpret this scene. The Green Knight could let him go, after all. Yet that is not what appears to happen.
So no, Gawain doesn't survive. Yet at least, after all that struggle, he remains what he wanted to be from the beginning: an honorable knight. Of course, not everyone who watched The Green Knight will agree with this assessment of its ending. Some might prefer to think that Gawain makes it after all. That the Green Knight lets him survive. That's fine, everyone is different. Yet it seems, that without the sash to protect him, he has no chance against the Green Knight. And that's somewhat tragic. Yet it's also, in a way, the best ending for Gawain. Because he proves that he is truly honorable. And that's all he ever really wanted. Perhaps he was not technically a knight, but he did prove that he would deserve to become one by facing the Green Knight at the end. And that is definitely a good ending for the protagonist.
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