two am and I can't fucking sleep because of anders fucking loves maria
There are two broad categories of ways to fuck up the end of a story: outside influence and fucking stupid writing/plot.
For the first, see Babylon 5: a planned-to-be-five-season-show canceled in the middle of the fourth season, they did their best to finish up the series in the eleven or so eps left. Then, TNT picked them up, and they had to fill in a season with mostly new plot since the planned stuff got squished into the latter half of season four. Also, a major actress walked away between seasons, so they didn't even get to kill off her character properly. Not to mention they had set up a nice plot arc for her (well, if by "nice" you mean voyeuristic sex with psychics. It makes sense in context).
In book-world, see author death, or FUCKING WHEEL OF TIME. Robert Jordan was in the middle of book twelve of a twelve book fantasy series that is twelve times better than Lord of the Rings (hrhrhr) when he keeled over from some rare blood disorder. Although the jury is still out on this one; he took copious notes and supposedly the new guy, Brandon Sanderson, is really good. He's splitting the last book into three so the publishing companies don't throw a bitch fit at a 3000-page book, and since I'm rereading the series it'll probably be summer by the time I get to the first one he put out.
Then there are awesome stories that got ruined all by themselves, like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Fucking awesome for about three seasons, then down the shitter she goes. The writers' strike is not an excuse; it started sucking before that (first part of season four) and they were going to end after ten more eps anyway. One thing you can't do is set up VERY SPECIFIC foreshadowing without knowing pretty much exactly what you're going to do with it or you end up looking stupid. See that whole goddamn opera house sequence they show pretty much through half the series, and the lame-ass series of events it's actually supposed to "represent" on the series finale. Also the complete handwaving nonexplanation of Starbuck post-asplody, head!Baltar and head!Six. There's a difference between leaving things open-ended and giving plotholes through which I could fly the International Space Station. And the ultimate fate of hu-cylon-manity (on Earth TWO now with moar Africa)? Instead of building a city or two, they say "technology BAD, let's go bang cavemen!"? Really? I wouldn't be surprised if the entire writing team spent half their working time completely shitfaced and the other half hungover.
And then there's Anders Loves Maria. Lovely webcomic, until the second to last entry (which finally updated sometime this past week, and why I'm writing this instead of being able to sleep). If you're going to kill a character, at least have their death MEAN something. If you're going to do it at the VERY end, it has to bring a sort of closure to the story, like The Giver, or The Matchstick Girl, or hell even Nana's Everyday Life. You can't just leave a hueg gaping hole and that's fucking it. Generally you should have stuff leading up to it, but if you're just going to make it sudden, DO something with the death. A wonderful example of someone dying out of nowhere handled well is the last two episodes of the second season of West Wing (loltastic on tiny details such as everything they say ever about New Hampshire, but otherwise a good series).
To sum up: you can't kill someone off at the very end, AND do it suddenly (ie no buildup), and have it add to the story. Unless the story is "life sucks and then you die" postconstructionist bullshit, but that's crap. I'm going to have to reread Anders Loves Maria when I'm less pissed off and more not-2-am, but I'm 90% sure there was no lead-up.
Protip: Do not read webcomics before bed.
For the first, see Babylon 5: a planned-to-be-five-season-show canceled in the middle of the fourth season, they did their best to finish up the series in the eleven or so eps left. Then, TNT picked them up, and they had to fill in a season with mostly new plot since the planned stuff got squished into the latter half of season four. Also, a major actress walked away between seasons, so they didn't even get to kill off her character properly. Not to mention they had set up a nice plot arc for her (well, if by "nice" you mean voyeuristic sex with psychics. It makes sense in context).
In book-world, see author death, or FUCKING WHEEL OF TIME. Robert Jordan was in the middle of book twelve of a twelve book fantasy series that is twelve times better than Lord of the Rings (hrhrhr) when he keeled over from some rare blood disorder. Although the jury is still out on this one; he took copious notes and supposedly the new guy, Brandon Sanderson, is really good. He's splitting the last book into three so the publishing companies don't throw a bitch fit at a 3000-page book, and since I'm rereading the series it'll probably be summer by the time I get to the first one he put out.
Then there are awesome stories that got ruined all by themselves, like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Fucking awesome for about three seasons, then down the shitter she goes. The writers' strike is not an excuse; it started sucking before that (first part of season four) and they were going to end after ten more eps anyway. One thing you can't do is set up VERY SPECIFIC foreshadowing without knowing pretty much exactly what you're going to do with it or you end up looking stupid. See that whole goddamn opera house sequence they show pretty much through half the series, and the lame-ass series of events it's actually supposed to "represent" on the series finale. Also the complete handwaving nonexplanation of Starbuck post-asplody, head!Baltar and head!Six. There's a difference between leaving things open-ended and giving plotholes through which I could fly the International Space Station. And the ultimate fate of hu-cylon-manity (on Earth TWO now with moar Africa)? Instead of building a city or two, they say "technology BAD, let's go bang cavemen!"? Really? I wouldn't be surprised if the entire writing team spent half their working time completely shitfaced and the other half hungover.
And then there's Anders Loves Maria. Lovely webcomic, until the second to last entry (which finally updated sometime this past week, and why I'm writing this instead of being able to sleep). If you're going to kill a character, at least have their death MEAN something. If you're going to do it at the VERY end, it has to bring a sort of closure to the story, like The Giver, or The Matchstick Girl, or hell even Nana's Everyday Life. You can't just leave a hueg gaping hole and that's fucking it. Generally you should have stuff leading up to it, but if you're just going to make it sudden, DO something with the death. A wonderful example of someone dying out of nowhere handled well is the last two episodes of the second season of West Wing (loltastic on tiny details such as everything they say ever about New Hampshire, but otherwise a good series).
To sum up: you can't kill someone off at the very end, AND do it suddenly (ie no buildup), and have it add to the story. Unless the story is "life sucks and then you die" postconstructionist bullshit, but that's crap. I'm going to have to reread Anders Loves Maria when I'm less pissed off and more not-2-am, but I'm 90% sure there was no lead-up.
Protip: Do not read webcomics before bed.