This really needs to be a cautionary tale for writers. In my experience the weight of the ending far exceeds how physically big a part of the story is. A good ending can redeem a flawed story for people. A bad ending can ruin everything that went before it, no matter how good. https://twitter.com/ccfinlay/status/1361053057312694272

Which makes endings even more stressful! 100% sticking the landing on a long story is so hard; I think I’ve only done it a handful of times. But you really, really do have to do your absolute best to stick that landing.

And if you don’t care, if you do it sloppily or cheaply, your audience will notice, and they will be pissed off, and they will not forget, and very possibly they will never trust you again.

Back when TWD made a move I have never been okay with, I wrote a lengthy, angry thing about kindness and trust in stories and about how the relationship between creator and audience has to incorporate both of those things.

That doesn’t mean you’re nice.

Doesn’t mean you don’t hurt them. But some of the very best stories hurt and are even cruel. The kindness and trust comes in because your audience trusts you to make the cruelty make sense in the context of the story. They have faith in you that it will be justified.

I have written some *cruel* fucking stories. It’s not like I’m resistant to that. As an author and a member of an audience I really enjoy a good spot of brutality.

But it must make sense. Otherwise I don’t trust you, and I shouldn’t.

And the same is true of endings. Particularly if your story is very long, your audience has made a tremendous investment in time and energy. They are trusting you to bring that thing in for a satisfying ending.

Not necessarily a happy one. Not necessarily a clear one, either; I super dig ambiguity and clearly so do a lot of other people.

But it has to work with the story. Otherwise it’s just bad.

If your ending is bad, that’s a betrayal of trust.

And again, your audience won’t forget, and neither will they easily forgive.

Now, I should say that there are cases in which audiences have had intensely negative reactions to endings and still loved the thing. Mass Effect 3 is a good example. So is BSG. But the thing about those endings is I did get a sense that the writers really *tried*.

The other thing about audiences is that they’ll ultimately forgive a lot if they feel like you cared and you tried. The unforgivable sin is laziness.

I really appreciate how this has turned into a gripe session about endings we hated

See what I mean? Some of these endings happened years and years ago. Forever bitter.