Happy? Sad? Bittersweet?

I'm thinking about endings in books and films.

 

At first I was all grrrr I hate happy endings, gimme gimme gimme bittersweet or I will cut you. The more I thought about it, I realised that it's not happy endings I dislike. In fact, I like quite a few. It's just that character had to have earned that ending.

(This is my idea of a good happy ending, also, incidentally a favourite film of mine. It made me squidgy on the inside.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a happy ending to work for me, the characters have to suffer for it, they have to lose things, learn things, they have to change. The happy ending they envisioned for themselves at the beginning of the book must be different to the happy ending they finally get.

And I think that maybe that's what I really mean when I say bittersweet.

 

Talk to me – tell me about endings you loved – upper, downer, or inbetween. I want to hear your thoughts. (Also, yanno, I love book & film recs so…. *grin*)