Final

The version everyone stops touching: approved, mastered, delivered, archived. A gate with a date, or it is not final.

Final is a state change, not an adjective: approvals collected, spec met, master archived, deliverables out. The gate matters because open ends rot projects, a film that stays slightly editable forever is never truly released and never truly archived; someone is always one small fix from breaking sync.

The paradox of final is that work continues, versions, cutdowns, next year's refresh, so the craft is scoping what exactly is frozen: this master, these deliverables, this date. Changes after the gate are new versions with new names, never silent edits to the frozen one. Final means citable; citable means untouched.