Happy endings. Right. Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't outright
hate those. By that I don't mean all I want to see are sad, tragic endings. No,
no. Perhaps I should specify: I hate the 'fairytale-kind-of' happy endings. I
don't mind when a story ends positively at all. As a matter of fact, it is what I tend to yearn for – that's
just how we people are - we (usually) want things to end well. But I want the
stories to be real, too – and this could very well be the reason why I was
never into fairytales as a kid. I want stories you can relate to because good
things happen to the characters and so do the (really) bad ones. And such
stories don't usually result in a happy ending. I think it's debatable whether that
is actually possible.
Another problem I have with happy endings is that I feel stories
ending in such fashion don't generally have characters reflecting all human
qualities. The good guys have good, respectable qualities and the bad guys are…
well, bad. No! That doesn't happen! Things
are never that simple. C'mon, we all know life isn't black and white. There's
good and there's bad in all of us. Our lives take unexpected twists and turns, there
are highs and lows. If at the end of
it all you can say everything was awesome and you couldn't possibly wish for a
better life… holy cow, I sure would envy you! But if someone wants to write a
good story, they'd better not try to shove a happy ending down my throat. Because
basically, for me a story loses its credibility the moment it concludes in such a manner. Not to mention happy endings are boring.
Although, if you think about it, endings don't even matter - the
journey is what it's all about. You don't enjoy the path you or the story is taking, you're only
bound to be disappointed with what you might find at its end. By the way I'm not sure if I'm making
any sense as it is Friday night so I'm just going to pretend I am, okay? Okay.
I agree with you, I also don’t like these kinds of happy endings. They usually don’t happen in a real life. Maybe this is the reason why people like them. When people are not satisfied with their lives, they can watch a film or read a book with a happy ending, and then dream about a better life in which everything is perfect just like in a fairy tale.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't agree with the majority of this article (I know that the fairy tale kind of endings don't happen in real life but I like them anyway -- sometimes I just want to switch off and not worry about anything, including searching for the bad side in a hero and the good side in a foe), I definitely agree with the last point that you made, that the journey is more important that the ending.
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ReplyDeleteI almost expected the post to end with you shouting and possibly with a picture of you burning all the fairytale books you could find, I'm glad you kind of calmed down, mate. (but if you someday will decide to burn something (not the books!) don't forget to somehow contact me, please)
ReplyDeleteI think the best thing is when the story/journey has some endings with different importance along it, wouldn't you agree? And don't deny that sometimes you don't want(/wouldn't like) to see things end in a sentimentaly simple way (just as a relief from reality or I don't know)