After much thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t talk about Act III without spoiling it. To summarize it up until the end would be pointless and boring; it’s fifteen minutes of your life. Just watch it.

From here on out, Act III will be spoiled. Continue at your own peril.

Lots of people have described this conclusion to Dr. Horrible’s story as heart-wrenching, sad, tearjerking, and depressing. One of my friends on Livejournal set her mood status to “gut-punched.” Joss Whedon sure does have a talent for jerking people around, but I - someone who sobbed like a baby at the conclusion of Buffy’s second season - mostly just went “huh?”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. After pondering for a few minutes, I went to the source of all knowledge - Something Awful’s general interest forum. As expected, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog had its own thread. (Browse forums with caution - some contents may not be SFW, depending on your workplace.)

There are, basically, two ways to view Act III. It’s either a sad story that is meant to end abruptly, or it’s setting itself up for a sequel. Perhaps some combination of both. Forums member mushoo has the simplest theory:

mushoo posted:

Here’s my thoughts on Act III - and this has nothing to do with any parables or actual plot, really.

If you think about it as a pure business plan test, it’s kind of awesome.

Make essentially a pilot for a TV series, but stretch release out over the course of a week. Release it in segments on the internet, and since your production budget is low, push for top-notch writing and humor. Make people talk about how awesome it is for the week during release, and then give them an ending that leaves them all wanting more.

Sell your DVDs, soundtracks, whatever, that’s still not the final step. Once you have some numbers from the sales, and a large fanbase clamoring for more, you take it to someone and say ‘We did this on our own. With no intervention from the big corporations. We’ll cut you in on the profits, if you give us complete free reign on how the project works and runs, and pay for production costs.’

Here’s the obligatory “and it was all a dream” theory:

Count Choculitis posted:

I think that whole thing - attacking Hammer, killing Penny, becoming famous, getting into the League - was his speculation on what would happen if he tried to kill Hammer. I think he realized that it wouldn’t really be him anymore, which is what that little flash of him in regular clothes meant.

I could be totally wrong - maybe it did all happen, and he gave up being a villain afterwards. Or something else! But I prefer to think of it as if Penny didn’t really die, cause I’m a sap like that.

This bit is obviously symbolic - but of what?

CarnivorousThing posted:

Another thing I noticed about the ending.

It sort of flipped Dr. Horrible’s life around. Before, he was usually “Billy” and only in his villain clothes when he was doing a blog entry or some actual villainy. But now his normal persona is the villain and he can only wear his sweatshirts and such when he’s doing his blog thing.

Now, kazmeyer jumps in with these words of wisdom: “Now everyone try watching it again, with this in mind: It’s a parable about the writer’s strike.”

This leads to a flurry of theories. kazmeyer’s is still the best, though.

kazmeyer posted:
Billy is the corporations. He wants to run everything, to control everyone around him and have it his way. He ends up forcing the issue when he can’t get what he wants, achieving his stated goal but killing his inspiration in the process. The result is an empty, directionless victory.

Alternately, of course, there’s the classic interpretation.

Hattori Hanzo posted:

Billy/Dr. Horrible begins as a likable guy, misguided by the lure and glamor of evil, but still with a heart that makes him yearn for Penny, who’s pretty much everything good wrapped into a redheaded cutie. By the end, he’s a full on supervillain, Dr. Horrible, a monster to be feared and respected, a member of the ELoL and everything, but the last shot reminds us he’s still just Billy, who still accidentally killed the girl he loved. It’s the story of a fall from grace. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE STORY OF DARTH VADER, DAMMIT.

Maybe Joss Whedon didn’t have any of these things in mind when he wrote Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Maybe he was thinking of something else entirely - or of nothing at all. But if we all buy the episodes on iTunes and the DVD release when it comes out, maybe we’ll get the chance to find out.

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