fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2259 ]

[ SECRET POST #2259 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2259 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 100 secrets from Secret Submission Post #323.
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Does anyone else really hate them? Especially the misty-eyed "LOOK AT HOW HAPPY EVERYONE IS [X AMOUNT OF TIME] LATER" ones, ugh.

It depends. Sometimes they feel like tacked on bullshit, and sometimes it's just the thing needed for the story to feel complete.

I don't hate them. I think they provide closure. I really didn't hate Harry Potter's epilogue at all, although I think the book would have been stronger without it. I guess it was more for Rowling's sake, than ours. So people would leave her alone about where they ended up. So she could canonize what she wanted to happen to these characters.

But I do tend to find them a bit trite. The Hunger Games' epilogue felt kind of distasteful to me.

(anon under you)

Yes, exactly! I liked Harry Potter's epilogue and that it gave closure, even though it is weaker than the rest of the book. Mockingjay's epilogue felt so out of place... Although admittedly, there are many things wrong with the rest of the book as well.

Seconding "I didn't think Harry Potter's epilogue was that bad". I kind of liked it. I also agree it would have been stronger had it just ended with Harry falling asleep in his bed after saving the world, but overall, the epilogue didn't bother me at all.

It depends. It's nice to have a well-rounded ending. But sometimes it's just... too much, it pulls the story, stretches it too thin. See: Mockingjay.

Haven't read Mockingjay yet, but this.

Re: Epilogues in fiction

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-10 22:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Epilogues in fiction

elaminator - 2013-03-10 23:19 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Epilogues in fiction

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-10 23:56 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Epilogues in fiction

elaminator - 2013-03-11 02:49 (UTC) - Expand

It depends. I like the epilogue to the Darkest Powers series. It showed they were okay, for now, but were still on the run from the cabal/Edison Scientists.

As I seem to be perfectly unable to hate one part of a work of fiction while liking another, no, I do not. But the epilogue of Pygmalion was truly odd.

It changed the message completely, but I think that it reflects Shaw's personality and writing style very well, so I even find it cute.

I love the part about HG Wells fandom friendships though!

I'm generally okay with them when they're not the trite, "EVERYBODY ENDED UP WITH THEIR HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART AND HAD BABIES AND LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER" sort. *coughharrypottercough* I'd rather they actually be a continuation of the story rather than something that feels like an attempt to dissuade people from shipping non-canon pairings.

If there's a significant time jump involved, then yes. I don't want that much closure, it kills all the speculation.

I hate it in ALL fiction honestly.

Depends. Sometimes it works with the feel of the story, sometimes it just seems like randomly tagged on. I really dislike a story where the epilogue is just random "AND THEN THEY HAD SEX" NC-17 scenes, especially if the rest of the fic was sex free. Like they just tag that on for the hits or something.

I've only read one novel with that kind of epilogue before, but yeah. It just feels so pointless.

Well...yeah, I do just tag those epilogues on for hits. :) I don't actually like sex in my fics, but if I don't include sex, 9 out of 10 of the comments will be "this was great but...why no sex?"

It gets annoying, so I tend to write sex scenes just to avoid it, but I don't want to include them in the "story" portion of the fic because it crowds out the story I actually want to tell.

Re: Epilogues in fiction

charming_stranger - 2013-03-11 08:19 (UTC) - Expand

I tend to like epilogues when the rest of the work was riddled with angst and hardship. It's comforting to me that everyone got a happy ending after some time. I've also seen sequel hook epilogues and those are fine by me too.

I like them for the most part, when they just tell what happened to the characters (good AND bad) after the story ended, but when they're of the "everyone lived happily ever after" variety and everything is tied up in a neat bow, they annoy me.

While it's easy to have a terrible epilogue, there are some stories where I think it's better to have one than not, because the larger problems are not solved by the final battle. For example, a sword-and-sorcery novel that would have otherwise ended with the overthrow of the Evil Overlord. You don't necessarily want to sit through reading the entire reconstruction of the kingdom, so having a chapter set five years later can show you that, yes, they recovered and thrived: the treaty with the trolls is about to be ratified by the now-stable Senatorial Council, the new king really is competent because he's handling the drought in the plains like a boss, the discrimination against sorcerers is becoming less acceptable because this once-bigoted side character just smacked someone down for a casually bigoted comment, and they just had a successful raid that ought to scatter the last of the loyalists. It can show lingering problems being addressed, giving a better ending than the victorious team standing around the rubble of the dark fortress and going, "Damn, what now?"

But yeah, most epilogues aren't that. I'm all right with most of the stuff other people hate in the Harry Potter epilogue, for example, but it's actually really depressing on a "how did the world recover" level. JKR can talk all she wants about how all bigotry got stamped out somehow, but Ron's one line about Confunding his driving instructor completely disproves every word she says. If it's still perfectly okay for a freaking Auror to Confund a Muggle for no good reason (and then joke about it afterward!), then nothing changed. All their struggles didn't accomplish anything: there will be more Voldemorts and Grindelwalds, probably pretty immediately, because none of the attitudes that led to their rises actually changed.

Re: Epilogues in fiction

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-11 04:25 (UTC) - Expand

I think they're unnecessary and a bit lazy on the writers part, like if they really complete the story then you need to find a way to put it in the MAIN STORY and not just tack it on.

If isn't necessary, then don't put it in. Readers can imagine their own future for the characters, sometimes I prefer it that way myself.

I don't all out hate epilogues, I just think writers should more often consider if they really NEED them.

I hated the LotR epilogue because it follows the characters through to their deaths/passing into the west. Now the story is truly over and I can't imagine everyone living happily ever after.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE.

*stabs them*

In books I'm usually okay with them, but I'm against epilogues (as in onscreen text) in fictional drama movies. Obviously it's okay if it's based on a true story and it's explaining what really happened, and it can be kind of charming in comedies (Legally Blonde, Can't Hardly Wait), but in dramas it's just sort of cheating and feels too fake (Unbreakable, etc).

I really don't like epilogues and tend not to read them. Short little 5 or so page chapter summing up their life? noooo

and the few times I have read one it's kind of tainted my reading of that final book. i.e. The Hunger Games. I got the point behind it, but I didn't like it. I thought the final paragraphs were a nice enough summary, the epilogue was over the top.

The saccharine ones annoy me, but otherwise I don't mind.

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