Opinion Editorial: Poor Ending Formations

By: Omar A., Grade 11

In the preface to his critically acclaimed novel, the Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson, when talking about newer writers, states: “I consistently found myself disappointed by the endings of these books, however. Granted, I'll take a book with a weak ending but great characters over the reverse—but I felt that a lot of writers were neglecting this key point of their stories. If I read an epic book, or series, that fully immersed me and took weeks of my time to get through, I wanted an equally epic ending.” 

Unfortunately, nowadays, we are seeing all manner of fiction — from the read to the watched — is suffering from that problem: their endings are awful, and every time, it just hurts to acknowledge, because they often come from works that I and so many others read and fell in love with over a long time. So, while Brandon was talking about newer writers in his quote, so many are disappointed as well in established and well-known writers. The poster child for something like that is always the Game of Thrones television show’s ending, which is a topic so beat to death since its airing in 2019, I feel no urge to talk about it here. However, recent examples are, of course, Arcane, Jujutsu Kaisen, and, most notably as of me writing this, Stranger Things (among so many others, of course). The reason that these are so well documented and seen is because they were commitments from the audience towards a grand and epic story that just didn’t pan out properly at the end. 

However, of course, there are so many ways to end any story, which means that there are equally as many ways to screw it all up to oblivion. But, also, even as disliked as those endings are, such matters are going to be subjective and decisive to a degree to the point that no one will be happy at the end, whether at the show or their fanbase for a difference of opinion. Such will always unfortunately be the manner when it comes to these sorts of things. But I believe that such opinions, good or bad, always rely on one core question, which itself could be split into many and many: were the characters done justice? 

That could be split into an infinite variety of questions concerning the topic, however the predominant concern is frequently about characters, regardless if the story is more plot- or character-focused. For example, were the characters rushed just to finish the story, were they given the chance to breathe, was it a satisfying ending to their arcs? Did the bad man who wants to do good do good, based on the events; did the evil man who shows not even a single hint of desire for redemption out of nowhere find redemption just to make the plot seem complex? These are obviously obvious examples, however they highlight the issue in writing. A plague that seems to strike at everyone. Oops. People who were putting out great stuff on the regular wimping out at the end of the line. Trust me, I hate it just as much as you. 

The fate of the characters and the pacing of said fate when done correctly, that creates a good ending. To illustrate this, I’ll give some prior examples. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t delve into specific spoilers however just an “overview” of the issue with the ending. In something like Jujutsu Kaisen, written by Gege Akutami — who I believe has continued to write his series to spite the fans at the end, but I digress — that ending, while again liked by some, is heavily disliked. Everything set up doesn’t pay off and it just ends in an arc that people like me and my sister despise to death. The final arc of the story was actually just…not good. I only read that stuff just to get it over with. Such a fall from grace. But it wasn’t that we couldn’t surmise from everything else that Gege wrote that he was a good writer; Jujutsu Kaisen was a hit and the story and characters were loved by your manga fans. But suddenly he was hit with the ironically called Plague that just made him give it up there at the end.

It almost seems that most writers are just excited to start a story — they get good ideas for it and just set up stuff, and think very little about how it will all conclude. How all of those storylines will merge into the end. That's the issue with why such long series end up horrible. Because it seems like they were almost never meant to end. The Writer loves to set up stuff and create stuff, but as they go on and progress with the story, they only like to add more. Sure, arcs could end well and parts of the story but the story overall, as a big picture isn’t ending. Arcs end the current sequence of events. Maybe that could also work as an end for the entire material, however there are often cases when they couldn’t work as a good ending for a series as a whole. An arc is just an ending lite for the story, but not a full one. That’s why I couldn’t believe it could be truly a replacement or a cop out for an actual ending. As it could also add stuff to the story and set up something new for the thing after. That's the issue of any writer, something that everyone who has the passion and experience should continue to practice: finish your work! That’s a lesson even I could listen to. 

But this is also another type of ending that doesn’t do any justice to the characters. That could be shown in Arcane. I was there when it released, and I was there when it eventually ended, and everyone who watched it could basically vouch for how delightful it was. The story was deep and profound and engaging and complex. The first season was almost basically a perfect season of television for all of those who had the privilege of watching it. But then comes the second season, which was so eagerly anticipated as anything could ever be. It was so fast paced, that it seemed like it was all over the place. I will not kid you and say that the ideas in the season were bad or anything, simply because they weren’t. But its presentation was so fast-paced that it made these supposedly impactful events seem like footnotes in the long run. It didn’t allow those events or characters to breathe in a manner that would’ve been justifiable for the story they were telling. If only it had been extended a little longer with something like an extra season, those characters, regardless of how immoral their actions are, will be done justice within the grand schemes of the story. Because simply much of those conflicts are what make a story so special and interesting. That makes all of the characters important. 

Regardless, while this might have been somewhat long-winded, what I am trying to get out is that endings matter much more than some people might think at first sight. “It’s just how the story ends, right? Who cares?! The actual content and story matter way more!” That is not true, and I have been burned before to the point that I can not go back and enjoy the story itself knowing that I am destined to a poor conclusion. Writers, particularly newer ones or those who haven’t practiced much with that — even some experience writers struggle with this aspect from time to time — should be attentive to how everything builds up and falls off at this point, because it could be either a great falling action that wraps up each character’s story in a befitting manner, or literally “a falling action” where the action falls to oblivion and it hurts the story just as much as it could hurt the reader. So really, it's just doing the characters justice throughout the entire story and let their stories be able to breathe and shine, not suffocate it or late it too far gone out in the cold wind, but let it shine and the readers would appreciate it far far more than anyone could imagine.