The Perfect Ending

[_ocelott_]

Occasionally I ponder over what makes the ending of a story "right." As I believe most people do, I tend to prefer a happy ending, but that doesn't mean I want all the pretty ribbons tied up tightly in a basket of sunshine. If it's too neat, I can't believe in it, no matter how awesome the rest of the story was

Comments

[storyjunkie]

The most satisfying endings to me are the ones where the story is over (has a resolution of some kind), but you know the characters are going to keep doing things after you're not "looking" at them anymore. A sense of past and future extending out beyond the scope of the story I'm interacting with, I guess.

One of my favorites was Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber.

The ending that still gets me ranting isn't actually from a book - it's the end to the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II video game - there's a blatant unfinished-ness about it.