What’s Wrong With Satisfying/happy Endings?

What’s wrong with satisfying/happy endings?

This is going to be a long post about the new generation of films, tv shows and books and how I dislike the fact that happy endings are not a thing anymore. Instead we are served with a lot of tragedy or subverted expectations at the end of a story.

I just finished „an ember in the ashes“ books and am again frustrated that my favorite character didn’t get her happy ending. And while I was thinking about my frustration I realized that this is how I feel 80% when finishing something these past 15 years. I was born 1980 so I grew up with shows that were much lighter, sure in most cases less complex than these days but complexity doesn’t have to go in hand with tragedy or a lot of weight. Of course there are tragic stories to tell and you cannot always finish something on a happy ending but it has to at least be satisfying and most importantly MAKE SENSE AND SERVE THE NARRATIVE. Especially when it comes to the so called endgames they barley work out these days. They feed us with this amazing lovestory, great chemistry and make us root for them only to take that away from us last minute. And usually it ends in Death. Why? Why do you want to serve us „you will never get what you want in the end of the day and on top of that we are taking it away from you the hard way“. Can someone please explain to me why I should like that? What about „hey you were excited about these two, here you go, here is something you will be satisfied with“. Don’t get me wrong there are deaths that make sense because it serves the narrative (Ned stark for instance) but this is not what my post is about. It’s about playing with and teasing people only to give them the middle finger.

So I was thinking is it us the audience/readers that had the desire to let everything end in total hopelessness leaving us frustrated or is this „Hollywood“ made? Is this a generational issue or is this spread across all generations? Are there local differences? I for myself am sick of this way of Storytelling. I spend hours and hours with a story which leaves me totally unsatisfied and frustrated, time I’ll never get back.

PLEASE DEAR STORYTELLER STOP TORTURING ME AND GIVE ME SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED ABOUT FOR YEARS. SHOWS I WILL WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN, BOOKS I‘LL READ TWICE, MOVIES I WILL WATCH WITH MY KIDS ONE DAY.

You ruined the rise of skywalker for me, you ruined game of thrones for me, you ruined Las chicas for me, you ruined Veronica mars for me, you ruined HIMYM for me…. The list is so long it needs a separate post.

How can I ever watch the entire Star Wars saga again when TROS was such a disappointment? How can I ever rewatch Veronica mars again knowing what will happen in the end. How can I ever watch the last episode of himym again knowing who is going to die in 2 minutes and how Meeting the mother didn’t even make sense anymore? How can I ever watch season 8 of GOT again when that season was inconsistent and totally stupid? The list of disappointments is so long it’ll need a separate post.

This leaves me with the decision to spoil myself before reading or watching something because I am not willing to waste time and end up being frustrated. I am done. So done.