Happy Endings are Tragic

Honestly, I think happy endings in stories are overrated. Like, I know that everyone
wants a good ending, but if that is what all stories strive for, then it halters creativity. To combat
this tragedy of predictability, more stories should have sad or tragic endings because it puts
stakes in the author’s future works, and the readers will not know if the heroes will win in the
end. The suspense of the story will keep things from being bland or repetitive if more storytellers
and world builders just decide to create both heartbreaking and joyful endings.
I am not telling all authors to ditch happy endings entirely or put together a random
ending to be depressing, but I think there should be more beauty in choice. Whenever you pick
up a book, you do not know how the story will end or that there are actual stakes. That a happy
ending is not guaranteed for the “good guys”. Also, when I refer to a tragic ending, I do not mean
someone died as a noble sacrifice at some point in the story, I mean when the ending is not in the
“hero’s” favor.
However, I find there to be something funny in all this. If an author is known to be
writing tragic books with miserable endings, it would be such an amazing shock to see a happy
ending. People would probably drop their books or phones in astonishment as they see an actual
pleasant ending being penned by the author. When the author continues to write tragedies, people
will still be theorizing about which few books will end in happiness. On the other hand, it will be
so gut wrenching to see a person who writes only happy stories finally write a pessimistic