What Happened to Happily Ever After?

It seems that nowadays, there is a lack of the “Happily Ever After” ending in many narratives throughout media. From television, to film, to literature, there is no shortage of the dystopian narrative, but going further than that, there seems to be a general lack of the happily ever after trope in the current media.

But why is that? Is the generation of creators so scarred from the societal pressures and issues that have arisen in the past thirty years? Have the wars, terrorism, and economic downfalls hit the new creators so hard? Is the future so bleak one cannot imagine there being a way for it to end happily? Is there a way to get these happily ever afters back? And if so, do we really want them?

Throughout this post, I am going to be exploring these very questions, to varying degrees, and hopefully adding to ideas you may already foster.

Okay, so let’s start with the actual trope. Everyone knows the classic Disney-like ending that a lot of the chick-flick type of media gets. The girl gets the guy she wanted and they ride off into the sunset, soon to be married. Or, in a more general definition, there is a definitive ending that can be construed as wholly wrapped up and is, in a basic sense, pretty happy overall. There are not really major character deaths, and if there are, there is still a resolution between the character and those they left behind. (Or said character is dying to be reunited with their long-lost love) But in general, the endings seem to be joyous and uncomplicated.

[This is where I step in with my first “but.” Let us really think hard about these “happy” moments we are given. Say the girl gets the man of her dreams. Yes, she gets to be happy (in that moment) but there is still the fact that, most likely, there was a love triangle in this narrative, so at least one person is left out in the dust and that kinda sucks for them. So they don’t get that ending. But I digress.]

Okay, so let’s really step into the main bit of this post, shall we.

I will give those nay-sayers the benefit of the doubt and say that not ALL of the narratives have completely done away with the basic, people were able to be happy in the end part of the narrative. I get that. A lot of the novels I have been reading lately do have a semi-happy ending, but they are not the uncomplicated stories of yesteryear. (I really like that word and I am going to try to use it in every article, just so you know.) Gone are the days when people could be like Cinderella and ride off into the sunset. There are complications and repercussions these characters have to deal with.

So, let’s go ahead and start with my favorite topic, young adult fiction. This genre, I feel, is able to capture what the minds of my generation are thinking about. (Yes, I am a millennial) These books have shaped how we see the world and process what is going on around us, so it is important to look at this in a standpoint that is not patronizing and will not brush off the ideas that this generation has towards the world. We are the ones who are going to take it over at one point. Just a note, there are going to be spoilers about the series in the paragraphs I talk about them, so if you would like to not see those, skip that paragraph. (I won’t be offended, I promise)

Alright, first off is going to be everyone’s favorite dystopia: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It should be no surprise here that I am going to be talking about this because it does a good job of showing the “and they lived” of many of the stories we hear today. To just have a slight recap (SPOILERS HERE) though Katniss and her band of revolutionaries end up winning their war, she is left on the side lines having to live out her days practically alone with Peeta in 12 having to deal with the traumas they went through not only in the games, but in the war itself. There are even moments when it is possible that the same cycle they fought so hard to break out of (the reaping and the Games) was going to be repeated, though that was stopped by an arrow. This was one of the first real instances where I saw the blatant lack of a happy ending. Yes, she survived, but there were so many other issues that arose because of her actions that made it impossible for her character to be happy.

The A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas is up next. I just had to include this because I adore this series and not including it would break my heart. Okay, so this is a high fantasy series, (a totally different genre) and while it is not completely finished, this first trilogy is. There is a “happy ending” but it is not fully resolved. There is an openness that allows room for so many of the unresolved issues to creep back in. I’m looking at you (entire plot of ACOWAR). SPOILERS AHEAD! Okay, so with Rhys, he literally died. Like, straight up, no heartbeat, no attaching himself to Feyre, nothing. But he comes back (yay, happy). This does not come without a cost!!! We saw this with Feyre (and her guilt and self-hatred/starving/etc), so there is a fear of what will come with Rhys. We have not seen him in this pit of despair! But okay, the ending. There is no riding off into the sunset. IT IS NOT RESOLVED IN THE SLIGHTEST!! This world got ravaged by a war, alliances are very thin, and there are monsters still running loose. But this is one of those endings that will be looked at as a happy ending, thought there are these tensions running underneath.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is one of my favorite series I have read. Again, it is high fantasy, and again, it does a phenomenal job of giving us a quasi-happy ending. But like A Court of Thornes and Roses, this ending comes with casualties. (Do you feel a trend coming on here?) Yes, some of our favorites get to go on living their lives, hunting down bad guys, and bathing in money, but there are those who died. This would never be seen in a Disney movie. The monsters are not all killed (though they are as good as dead). The past has not fully been tucked away, but the series is over. There is no bow to put on top of this to call it good and wrapped up nice. Like many other young adult novels, there seems to not be a way for everyone to be happy in the end, and we have to live with that knowledge.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (basically anything by John Green) is not going to have a happy ending. Just trust me, it will not. Death happens. It is something in this post-traumatic world that we as a whole have had to adapt to and understand since a very young age. This book, while ripping out hearts, also gives the readers hope that there can be good times in life if you look for them, but then immediately counters with the downturn of how frail life is, and eventually the power of death.

Now onto everyone’s favorite HBO show and novels that take far too long to come out: Game of Thrones (also known as the Song of Ice and Fire series) by George R.R. Martin! Alrighty, there is no question in anyone’s mind that this, too, is about the unfairness of life and how the only thing that is constant in life is the fact that what lives must too die. So, yeah, there’s that aspect. But there is also the showing of how honor and duty get people nowhere in life. That is a bleak outlook on life if I have ever seen one. And I have seen all kinds of viewpoints. This is mirroring how a lot of people are seeing the world, right now and that is a truly frightening thing. Instead of hope, there is fear, corruption, terror, and cut-throat people looking to hurt you. And what is the saddest thing of all is this is a truth of society today. One cannot expect this level of bad, but it is not a good thing to be seeing now-a-days.

Superhero movies are not exempt from this rule, either. Let’s look specifically at Captain America: Civil War. So if you have seen this, you will know that this group of one time friends have been divided because of a law that the Avengers must report to the UN and (in the comics) must also register for a mutant/superhero list. This is much larger scale in the comics than it is in the film, by the way, but I digress. This film has NO happy ending for anyone. After being locked in jail, Cap’s friends are all on the run because they are now ESCAPED FELONS from a FEDERAL PRISON. Tony is alone, helping his best friend try to heal from partial paralysis. Steve is on the run and is no longer considered an Avenger. The country he fought so hard to protect now thinks he is a terrorist. Bucky has voluntarily gone into a cryo-freeze to stop Cap from having too much of an issue about him. Honestly, heartbraking. Superheroes have been divided and do not have a way back together at this point, really. So, yeah, no happily ever after there.

There was also a dramatic increase in the making of disaster and horror films. Why, you ask? Because people were able to channel their fears into a tangible thing. The fears of the world, say another terrorist attack, could be stopped by someone like The Rock in a helicopter. Natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding, etc.) showcased the end of the world, because that was where people thought the world was going. Horror films scared people, yes, but it was an escape from the fear they had of losing their jobs and their homes because of the recession. These films all have roots in what has happened in society.

Society is a bit of a shit show at the moment, in all honesty, and I am not sure how to properly deal with that brand of terrible, but I will try to go through possible reasons we have gotten to this point in our way of life, culture, creativity, and thinking.

On the heels of the sixteenth anniversary of the September 11^th attacks, I want to first say a thank you to the first responders and their families. You are amazing people and I respect and honor you for what you did. Because of the severity of this event, we cannot pretend that it did not affect how people looked at the world. Instead of seeing their neighbor as another friendly face, people started looking with suspicion. There was an dramatic increase in fears against the Islamic religion (which was uncalled for) because people did not know who they could trust. Instead of trying to connect, people withdrew. Children stopped being able to play outside, the internet increasingly became people’s first source of information besides the news, though not all of it was true. 9/11 was a horrific event that set people down a path of fear and hatred that caused a lot of the issues portrayed in film, television, and literature. This is continued in the terrorism events of today (as well as the wars fought in the Middle East) and can be seen in shows like 24, Homeland, Band of Brothers, and the like.

The 2008 economic crash was another societal issue that comes up in media today. The Hunger Games shows the unfair distribution of wealth. While the 1% lives lavishly in the capitol, everyone else has to literally fight to the death for food. This also shows the toll the recession took on the children, something many other narratives fail to do. This idea can also be seen in shows like The Walking Dead (the fact that zombies are an allegory for empty capitalism) and Breaking Bad (where Walter has to cook meth to be able to afford health care in this country).

War has also changed the thoughts of this generation of creators. There are very few people who have not been directly affected by any of the wars. Whether it be friends or family. And because of this, war, death, and again, fear, have all become a regular part of people’s lives. There has not been a time in my lifetime that the US has not been at war. This changes the thoughts of a generation because instead of there being any time for peace, there seems to always be a call for people to join the service.

Nuclear threats are a huge part of life now too. The fear of total annihilation is not something that people can take lightly. This is seen in our narratives today where people have to look for a place to live off of earth because of the dangers earth poses. But in real life, we do not have that opportunity, though this threat is very real.

Now we look to the future and think only of the bad that will happen. There is very little of what could happen, the wonder of the space race long gone in our thoughts and hearts. We only see the darkness that we think to be inevitable. And this has drastically affected our ability to see an uncomplicated “happily ever after” because we can barely comprehend an “ever after.”

So I guess we have to ask, how do we get these happy ending ideals back? How do we look to a future and not see destruction? First, we need to have faith in our leaders. I am not saying to trust in Trump. I would be an idiot if I said that. We need to get competent leaders in office who can actually lead us into a place where we can look to the future and hope for more than mass destruction. Our mindsets will not change overnight. We have to be able to see change in the world before we can make a change in how we will think. But being aware of what could be could help us onto that path.

Now we have to ask, do we really want it back? Yes, it is hard to look at these endings, since they are now more complicated and make us look at ourselves and our society a whole lot closer, but do we really want to go back to a time where we just blindly escaped from what we should have been thinking about? Could that blindness be a reason we got into this mess into the first place? I do not have a definitive answer to that question, and while I do like when stories are happily wrapped up, they would get boring after a while. We need the complications to be able to think deeper, feel what we know we should in response to these painful issues, and try to do something about it. It is important, however, to keep hope for something better. Yes, be aware that there is bad in the world, but we have to look for the good just as hard.

So in conclusion, our “happily ever afters” have changed into “and they lived” narratives because we understand (or believe) there is no absolute in us being able to be happy. There is always going to be a complication that makes our ending turn.

So this post got a little dark, but I think I always meant it to when I was thinking this idea up. But now, I have some questions for you. Do you believe in happily ever after? Is there any reason that you agree or disagree with? What are some narratives you think could disprove my ideas here? Let me know in the comments below!

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Until next time,

XOXO

Dana