When I watched The Fault in Our Stars for the first time, I bawled my eyes off. It became a favourite which I would rewatch from time to time. For me though, the movie ended before Augustus’s big reveal in Amsterdam. It was only recently when I saw it with the ending I had been avoiding for the longest time.
Hopefully, it’s not an overstatement to say that we all love and desire a story that ends happily. And not? For the most part, the media has surrounded us with stories where true love wins, where goodness defeats evil, where one achieves his/her goals, and where a difficult situation is resolved. Although none of these are shown to be a piece of cake, the main takeaway: it is eventually achievable and resolvable. Also, there are psychological benefits: mental and emotional satisfaction through feelings of hope, positivity, and optimism, and a belief that despite the uncertainties, it will work out in the end. Because of this, we ask for more.
The problem with that? There are detriments to our perception of reality and well-being. As one gets too attached to stories with happy endings, one can get detached from the complexities of reality we live in that contradicts the ones that are shown to be more or less simpler in stories. Not to say that stories shouldn’t have happy endings or pessimism take over, not at all! But this attachment has led to wanting the ending that we want rather than accepting the one presented to us.
There are stories in the media whose endings were changed to happy ones, and there are ones that got backlashes because they didn’t end as hoped or expected. I remember the reactions to the K-drama Twenty Five-Twenty One “2125” (2022). Upon its debut, 2125 was already a fan favourite, and so were its lead characters Na Hee-Do and Baek Yi-Jin. While it took foreverrrr for them two to get together, the series ended with a rude shock: they parted ways! Many hearts broke, and social media soon exploded with fans expressing their disappointment at the ending labelled as “the worst of all time”. To some, 2125 existed only until its 15th episode before things went downhill in the 16th. But that wasn’t all: there was a glimpse of hope in the major loophole in the series. The most important question left unanswered lead to fans speculating that the Hee-Do and Yi-Jin had indeed ended up together by digging up easter eggs, possibly implying as such. Unfortunately, they were just theories. Amidst all of this, there was also support towards the realistic storytelling that brought forth a central life-lesson: not all good things last.
There are many stories like these whose endings weren’t what we anticipated, leaving us disheartened, or we foreshadowed the unwanted but refused to admit or accept it. As important it is to show the bright side, so is to accept the fact that not everything happens according to one’s plans and hopes. Likewise, it is important to accept a story told the way it’s intended to, rather than soughting our preferred ending. That way, we gain the ability to get through unwanted and unexpected situations faced, to reflect and move on.