![]() Characters die in really unnecessary and stupid ways, problems that are easily resolved unexplainably spiral into tragedy, or the bad ending just comes so out of nowhere that you are left wondering what the point of the entire book was. We hate everything that is girly and give critical acclaim to everything that is not.Īnd if we think about it, sometimes sad endings are unrealistic too. I don’t mean that as “everyone who hates happy endings is sexist,” but it does tend to be a thing that many of us have internalized. So, the less feminine a story is, the better, which seems to be borderline sexist. In addition, there’s this idea that cheesiness is feminine while grittiness is masculine. What’s the point of every book being “life sucks and then you die”? Not only is it unrealistic in and of itself, because I would say that sometimes good things do happen in real life, but it is also very boring and pessimistic. ![]() So sometimes we don’t want a story that goes the way it would go in real life, but we look for something that defies all odds and somehow ends up well. We go to them to experience something other than our own lives, for entertainment and escapism. We deal with real-life already just by existing, and many of us don’t turn to stories just to live through others’ also incredibly realistic lives. To counter these arguments, for me fiction has never meant “a literal representation of real life,” but a way to interpret, cope, and give it meaning. Something else that is implied in those previous statements, is that happy endings are inherently less worthy or meaningful because they are sappy and cheesy while sad endings are dark, gritty, and more impactful. One thing that’s always bothered me with the occurrence of a happy ending, however, is the immediate reaction of people saying “that’s unrealistic.” I’ve even heard people say things like “some books or movies would be more respected if they didn’t have a happy ending” or “it’s good despite the happy ending.” If we dissect those for a moment, we can see that what people really mean by that is that happy endings don’t exist in real life, therefore happy endings also shouldn’t exist in fiction. But generally speaking, I would take a happy ending over anything else. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I enjoy a good cry and a sad ending just makes more sense for the story. I love closing a book with all of my favorite characters alive and at peace at the end, with the couple that I’ve been shipping together finally becoming an item, and with the big bad defeated. A thing about me is that I love happy endings.
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