Bittersweet book endings
By blog on Apr. 28, 2009.
So I finished Reaper’s Gale yesterday… And well… I am a bit sad, actually. One character in particular was taken out, and I really didn’t want him to be. Trull Sengar had gone through so much, to be taken out at the very end like that… ahh, it is really sad. And the grief that his best friend, Onrack, felt… or Hedge’s reaction to Trull’s death… I am personally not in favor of Quick Ben’s actions regarding the murderer, I mean sure, torment for a short while, but that kind of permanent hell like torment? No, that isn’t right either. But then they clue you in to Seren having his child, and whilst I am really happy about that, I am still frustrated and saddened that some moron could be the one to take out Trull… He stood before waves and waves of Edur, but no, one guy gets to stab him in the back.
Although that does lead me to question if he really is gone, I mean look at all that happened with Silchas Ruin and Scabandari Bloodeye… but anyway. No, none of that. Today I am now feeling a little melancholic and I feel the need to look over other books that have contained these bittersweet endings. I find they leave you unsatisfied, but you aren’t angry about it… It is a very strange emotion to identify, actually.
When I talk of bittersweet endings, the first fantasy series that comes to mind has to be Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s self-recrimination and his leaving for the Grey Havens is a very sad ending for such a brave little hobbit. You aren’t surprised by his leaving, you don’t feel as though he should have stayed, but it is still sad that he does go.
I also think of Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy when I consider bittersweet endings. Fitz has to be one of the characters most prone to this writing format. Okay that could be Hobb’s penchant for that kind of thing, but anyway. Fitz gets kicked around for most of his life, and at the conclusion of this series is out in the middle of nowhere all by himself. I think the end of the Tawney Man trilogy is even worse, he ends up with some girl he has been pining for his entire life, who was never particularly nice to him, isn’t particularly smart, pretty, kind, or anything. I hated Molly, she was a little snit who should have been booted from the series and Fitz should have married that other girl from Ripplekeep, Celerity I believe.
Anyway, enough of that, because tomorrow I start Toll the Hounds!
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