Snowflake Challenge Day #4

[kingstoken]

Challenge #4

In your own space, add something to your fandom’s canon

This isn't about one specific canon, but in general I find I have rarely ever liked the ending of most series.  The writers always feel like they have to have this huge dramatic ending.  Yes there has to be a climax, but afterwards please give us a soft ending.  I can't tell you how many shows I have watched where they end it with a main character dying, the team breaking up, one character going off into the unknown never to be heard from again, etc, and they always leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.  I want to think that after the show ends that these characters continue be friends, a found family, that they continue having adventures together.  So, if the show is ending for good (and they know about that in advance) I wish they would just give us a few scenes at the end showing the characters being happy.  Have Dean, Sam, and Cas living together in the bunker; have all the Stark siblings gathered at Winterfell; have Sharon and Andy happily married and helping Rusty move into his first apartment.  Give us the soft ending please! We love these characters so much and we just want to leave them in a good place.

(On a side note: this is the one thing I think some of the Star Trek series did well.  The TOS movies end with the original crew going off on one last adventure before retirement (we do not speak of Generations), TNG ends with the senior crew still on the ship and enjoying a poker game together.  And yes, some of those characters returned later in other films or series, but if you end it where it was originally intended it feels like a satisfying ending for these characters, the soft ending they and we deserved.)

Comments

[spikedluv]

I agree! I feel the same way with the writers who think they have to kill characters off during the show to raise the stakes. Or who need cliffhangers at the end of a season to bring people back. No, you don't!!!

[kingstoken]

Exactly! I think cliffhangers made some sense back in the heyday of network television, but right now they don't make a whole lot of sense.

[james]

I liked when movies would give an epilogue saying where people ended up after the events of the movie, especially when they gave people happy endings.

[kingstoken]

Yes, epilogues could sometimes be very satisfying.

[rodo]

I think this might depend on what type of show you're into. The type of canon ending you describe isn't rare at all, but it's definitely rare in some genres. Personally, I like myself a good everyone dies ending - and the generally less positive ones - but in my experience, it depends on a lot on the genre and tone of the show. Stuff like Game of Thrones or Supernatural would probably never have done a classic happy end (although I thought GoT was pretty happy, considering the show), because it doesn't fit with the overall tone.

I mostly encounter this with Korean dramas, where you can often tell whether a show has a happy end or not by the first couple of episodes (although not always).

[kingstoken]

Yes, that is very true, I guess I am thinking more sci-fi/fantasy shows, their endings always seem to be a disappointment to me, but I have also seen some police procedurals and other more common fare with bad endings.

[rodo]

I think it's not just genre, but also often tone. So, if you've got a slice of life romance, you'll likely get a quiet happy/sad end, depending on the tone. Take Game of Thrones, for example - lots of high stakes, people paying for their mistakes/faults even if they don't deserve it and aiming to be more "realistic" in terms of storyline (which, of course, has its limits) - the tone wouldn't permit for all the surviving Stark siblings to happily live in Winterfell because it doesn't fit with the rest of the series, even though of course that's what we all wanted for them. So if you tend to prefer the tone of one and the ending of another type of story, that might result in fewer canons that fit that bill. When that happens to me, I usually turn to fic to provide me with alternate endings - with varying degrees of success.

(If you want a sci-fi movie - not series - with a happy end: Space Sweepers is a Korean sci-fi movie with bonus Richard Armitage that ends in pretty much literal found family.)

[kingstoken]

Thanks for the rec.

[dolorosa_12]

I don't always want this kind of ending, but I agree with you that it's usually dissatisfying or open-ended endings that most inspire me to write fanfic. I either want to fix the ending, or I want to know what happens next after the author left things ambiguous.

[kingstoken]

Fix-it fics are a balm to the soul, and if there is some sort of possibilities then it means we can write new adventures for the characters.

[colls]

Endings are so hard! There are many shows that come out that seem interesting, but I admit to waiting to see how people feel about the ending before giving it a go.

[kingstoken]

You have more patience than me, I don't want to wait if it sounds like something I might like, but then a bad ending is a risk I take.

[sysann]

*nods* I find it near impossible to truly enjoy a rewatch if I know that everything will go to pieces by the end. What's the point of investing in a relationship if you know one character will die or leave? Why support a team that'll split up anyway? What's the point of following someone's struggle to make things right if you know that it'll be futile by the end of it all? --- And I get that people don't want a completely sugar-coated ending. But if there's no hope at all, why bother with the fandom any more beyond the occasional fix-it fic? Don't go too high, but also do not go too low seems like a good rule of thumb?

[kingstoken]

Exactly! If a show ends on a sour note you are not going to want to revisit it. I don't need my ending to be all sunshine and rainbows, but I need hope, like you said.

[rekishi]

Oh, this is a very good point!

It happens in books, too, unfortunately, not just tv. But yes, I fully agree that this is a thing especially in long running things. It's like they don't actually know how to end it. Which would theoretically be easy. I think the Malazan books handled this relatively well (despite so many people dying, but it is high fantasy), but on tv I'd be hard pressed. (I'd say Farscape, if Bad Timing hadn't happened.)

[kingstoken]

Yes, book series are also notoriously hard to end well, and some just never end (looking at you A Song of Ice and Fire), and high fantasy does have a lot of deaths usually, but you got give me a hopeful ending, or what was the point of reading all these books?

[rekishi]

Well, ASoIaF will simply never end. But that's totally on Martin. I'm still glad I pulled out of that clusterfuck after Book 2 when I noticed how long it had been since last publication and where it was heading.

This is why I appreciate Erikson, he understands how to end (at least the main series) on a note that everyone who survives can either live with or live will with and where they actually grew as the series progressed. Can't speak for the newer books since I haven't yet read them, but the main series definitely ended as positively as was reasonable.

[wearing_tearing]

I think some writers mistake a good and solid ending for a shocking/tragic one? Especially nowadays where every new tv show and movie needs to Be More and Do More than what came before. Not every story needs to end with everything on fire/everyone miserable.

[kingstoken]

Exactly! I don't mind a good twist in a story, but what brings me back to a story is the characters and the world, and I won't want to revisit these characters and this world if it is all just misery porn.

[corvidology]

There's a somewhat silly Chinese dramas called Maiden Holmes (woman disguised as a man is a detective in Ancient China) which I will always have a soft spot for just because of its soft ending following the ending the tidies up all the mystery's loose ends.

That's the lone way round of agreeing that it's rare but I love it!

[kingstoken]

That sounds great.

[shipperslist]

*enthusiastic nodding*

Yes yes yes.

I have read/watched/listened to so many endings and some of my favorites are ARS Paradoxica and Wolf 359. Sheesh. The final episode was spectacular and the way they played the very ending is just *chef's kiss*.

[kingstoken]

I'm so glad they had good endings for you, also I have heard good things about Wolf 359

[silveradept]

Soft endings are very nice to have when you've put your characters through a lot over the course of the series. I personally would prefer it if every series had, from the beginning, an episode filmed that was the "we got cancelled" episode, so there was always an ending available just in case.

[kingstoken]

I would love a requirement for a "we got cancelled" episode in any contract, I've had a few series just end abruptly because of cancellation, even worse if they end on a cliffhanger.

[silveradept]

That's terrible. It would be even better if each "we got cancelled" episode updated for each season the show went on, so that the escape hatch would be appropriate to bring a thing to a close.

[pronker]

Soft endings give us a warm glow, and I approve of any warmth coming from TV/Monitor/Phone rectangles.

[kingstoken]

Very true, lol

[svgurl]

I totally agree! It's fiction so everyone surviving and everyone living happily every after is a perfectly reasonable ending, especially when you have seen them struggle and suffer. I know it's not possible for all canons but I feel like it is for many and I would take it over the shock deaths and bittersweet endings any day.

[kingstoken]

Yes! Give me soft over shocking any day.

[barbaratp]

Man I really understand you here, it's so sad when the end seems to be that classic soap opera scene "a wedding, a funeral, a reunion and a farewell". It's an awful cliché that people still insist on following. Wears out any fan. We want something beautiful, with people happy and following in a way that leads us to understand that in the future all the best awaits them.

[kingstoken]

Exactly!