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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/1631
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm curious. After reading some other questions, I've been pondering about the frequency and reason for happy endings. That is, a positive and/or hopeful ending, even if not everything went right, such as the protagonist sacrificing themselves for the good of those around them.

I think personally, I don't like the idea of a negative or hopeless ending because as a reader essentially trying to be entertained in some fashion (intellectually, imaginatively etc), I would rather be left feeling positive at the end of a story. Something good has to continue on or else it can make me feel strange afterward.

An example of a movie with an ending not unlike this is _The Departed_. By the end almost every character you thought you were emotionally invested in gets gunned down, even the good guys like Di Caprio's character and the sole survivor wasn't a major character in the story and certainly wasn't the nicest guy on the block (at least as far as good guys go).

So my question is, how often does a story end badly for the protagonist or the "good guys"? And how does it affect you as a reader?

Original score: 11