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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38189
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In order for your last ending to feel worthwhile, it needs to complete some important part of the protagonist's story arc left unfinished at the big battle. The _Wizard of Oz_ has an anticlimatic second ending, but it has a crucial purpose. The apparent first ending (flying home with the Wizard in his balloon) is too passive. Dorothy still needs to learn that she controls her own destiny --she has her own source of power.

Your story, as currently presented, doesn't give the reader this, so it will feel doubly frustrating. First, the build up to the battle will seem like an unnecessary repetition. Then, the battle itself will seem like a useless cop-out.

But that doesn't mean you couldn't rewrite it to make it function properly. You'll need to find some way to make the first ending less satisfying, and to build a promise into it that you'll fulfill with the second. For instance, maybe your main character is saved only by outside help in the first ending, and the second one is where he proves he can stand on his own. Or he's tempted by dark power in the first ending, and decisively rejects it in the second. Something like that.

Original score: 3