Neat and tidy endings just don't work

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I'm finally back to reading after having spent the first half of this year fighting lots of uphill battles that kept me away from the written world and denied me the chance to tear through my backlog of books and enjoy a most pleasurable experience that I had sorely missed.

But one thing I'm noticing is that a lot of authors (particularly those just getting started) seem hellbent on committing one of the cardinal sins of writing: neat and tidy endings.

Let me explain...

Borrowing from another medium, one of the things most lauded about Futurama's (then) series finale was the fact that the writers chose to forgo giving each of the main characters an ideal ending, choosing to focus on Fry and Leela instead. They argued that a neat conclusion in which everything wrapped up nicely would have looked great on paper, but wouldn't have been satisfying (and would also have robbed the main duo of precious screentime the last time they were going to appear in a new episode).

That AV Club review got me thinking and... yeah, I don't know of a single "all-encompassing" ending that felt satisfying to me. The best ones usually choose to wrap up one story or subplot while letting everyone else carry on — visibly still there, but just out of frame.

Is there any "nice and tidy" ending that felt great (and not forced, rushed, or unsatisfying) to you?

 

[RageBurner]

Not really, but in a way that's sad, isn't it?

The more we experience life, the less acceptable happy endings are because hope often suffocates under the weight of reality.

 

[Unassuming_Spook]

I've been reading more Sue Grafton and James Patterson books these days and some older Nora Roberts. I kinda' get you on this, but new material from older authors mostly stick with a realistic ending to their books. Some are pleasant happy ever after, some are depressing and wish it didn't happen that way. I'll tell you one thing though, I REFUSE to read Curtain, the last book of the Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie) series because I refuse for one of my favorite detectives to die. If didn't read it, it didn't happen. I shall remain ignorant. LOL

 

[Pearly]

I've come across many complaints about many endings, and it's largely stemming from either complete cliff-hangers, which I can understand, and if it doesn't end like the return of the king, basically unless there's an extended epilogue for everyone it's suddenly a bad ending.

An example would be the original evangelion series gave Shinji and Shinji alone an ending, he accepts himself essentially.

End of Evangelion has Asuka and Shinji confronting harsh reality together but we get only those two and that makes sense since their dynamic is the core of the story. I adore end of evangelions ending.

The newer rebuild movies gives everyone an extended epilogue and ending for the sake of it and even a further different reality type epilogue with everyone in it but Asuka(she's an undetailed npc in the far background) and it was very dumb, and has since it's release, gotten severely clowned on as it tried to make a caricature of character important by having them front and centre. People can enjoy that ending and those movies if they want, but they are objectively sub-par compared to the series and EOE.

I love Blade Runners ending, I love the original ending to dragonball, there's many endings I love and it's not trying to hard to tie everything up in a neat little bow for every character, which is pointless and dilutes an ending if anything.

Also I agree on the futurama ending, well the OG ending, the focus on Fry and Leela was great and I recall being quite satisfied with that ending.

Excessive epilogues for a large cast is overkill IMO, and a favourite ending of mine is in fact final fantasy 8, I adore the ending of that game, gives Squall and Rinoa their moment, has them missing from a party that gives quick glimpse of everyone else and the gives us one last scene with them, finally showing Squall having a smile on his face as he leans in to kisss Rinoa.

The internet had many convinced Squall was dead from the end of disc 1, and that Ultimecia was Rinoa etc., the writer had to come out and say nearly 20 years after the games release that none of that was true and what happened in the game is all actually as is, this ultimately led to the ending of that game not being appreciated by those that lived on forums back then. I didn't hear of these wacky fan theories till 2008, I'd had 9 years with the game and my interpretation lined up with the writers intent, and I generally stayed away from online FF8 discussion as a result of no one making any sense

 

[Bakuma1997]

Yup, that's why i prefer Bittersweet endings over clear cut "Happily Ever After" ones, that means that while victory was achieved, it had to be earned

For an example Avatar: TLOA has a happy ending where the Fire Nation is finally defeated and Ozai, while still alive, won't bother anyone ever again, what made that ending stick was the fact that while the final villian was defeated, all the damage done doesn't magically get fixed, ditto for LOTR, the hope isn't the fact that the world is fixed in a whim, but the fact that it can finally begin to heal