Point taken. But while both Bond and Tietjens persevere, while they continue to have value in the world for what they were, it is inescapably a different world and one in which each of them, as you note, will have to get their hands dirty. They can no longer be the perfect examples of—the perfect memorials to—their type.
Anybody who thought it was elegaic, though, missed M’s entirely sound (and, minutes later, proven correct) rebuttal against the panel’s attack on her employing the likes of James Bond.
I haven’t read or watched Parade’s End, so I can’t speak to Tietjens, but I’d submit that Bond DOES remain a perfect example of his type.
Hahaha, actually now that I think of it, the symbolism is kind of like getting concussed by Mount Everest. It’s not even symbolism! XD I mean, check it: he dies at the beginning, right? And then we’ve got that whole psychedelic opening sequence of death imagery and passing through portals (and some of that kaleidoscopic ‘dancing women’ imagery looks kind of…vaginal, doesn’t it? Please tell me that wasn’t just me; I’m pretty sure my mind doesn’t just go there automatically XD ). Then we’ve got Bond literally burning down his past, right after which he gets a ‘baptism.’ (Oh, water symbolism, will you never cease to haunt me?)
“What’s your hobby?” “Resurrection.”
Ridiculously in-your-face, isn’t it? But the end result is that this isn’t Bond as a memorial to his type, or as a repurposed warhorse. This is Bond reforged into a sleeker, harder, more perfect version of himself (on, to carry the metaphor, the anvil of his self; if they wanted to rock the ‘dark reflection’ motif any harder, they would’ve had to clone him), ready and waiting for the next trial that comes his way. He IS the perfect example of himself. In fact, at the end of Skyfall, you could say that at last he IS James Bond as we know him. He has finally taken his rightful place, and everything leading up to this has been his journey to it.
TL;DR: Parade’s End is about endings. Skyfall is about rebirth—the rebirth of Bond in the sense of him pulling himself together, his rebirth as a weapon for MI6 in a new world, and—most interesting to me and I swear to god the real reason I’m even writing this much on the subject—the rebirth of Bond as a franchise, where we have watched the development of and been handed a revitalized, more complex character who can survive in modern pop culture.
And that is way more critical analysis than even the deepest James Bond plot has ever really earned. ^_^
Capturing interest: Wherein PA thinks too much about James Bond.