I watched the finale of a show that I like (that shall remain unnamed, as it hasn't yet aired in Australia). It was unusually dark, even for a show that opens up some heavy psychological worm-cans on a regular basis. A character was staring in the face of complete despair, alone and desolate, and considering throwing away everything he'd worked for over the season, even though he knew it would cost him the only thing left that he cared about.

And then, just at the precipice, a rope was thrown. Love was offered, and understanding. Everything was going to be alright.

And it was sickening.

It wasn't the happy ending in itself. I have no problem with dark stories being given happy endings. But it felt very much like one of the series writers saying "oh crap, this is a really dark story, how can we avoid bumming out all our fans?" and the others grinning back with "they'll never see this coming!"

Well, no, we didn't see it coming, because you just made someone act completely out of character, throwing away something that fulfills them and makes them happy for something that is broken and in all likelihood going to make them miserable and they know that. It will not, cannot work (because if it does work, if they're not miserable, this particular show doesn't have a premise anymore...).

But that's not even the sickening part. Shoehorned happy endings I can just about live with (the show has a lot going for it... I'm willing to forgive a fair whack of stupid), especially if they're not planning another season (no idea) - if that's the ending to the whole show, it kind of works. Characters have completed significant arcs, and are at meaningful points in their lives. Most things have been resolved to a point where you could imagine it might just possibly work - that the problem embodied by the premise has been solved. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there's no next season - this is the first happy ending for a finale in the show's history, and I'm not sure where they can take things from here that isn't utterly predictable and repetitive.

But the dialogue. The reasoning given for the out-of-character stupidity. The construction of that happy ending - these were not in keeping with the show. The feel was wrong, the allowance of lack-of-logic was wrong. Characters who've lived in a world of sarcastic banter and mindgames are confessing undying love. It's just so sappy, so sacharine. It's entirely the wrong tone for the show - the same plot-ending could have been achieved in a bittersweet-but-optimistic fashion, and kept things far more 'real'.

A happy ending doesn't mean everything's alright. Rainbows and lollipops are overrated - if you make your characters too happy in the end, your audience loses faith. (Actually, I suspected this ending was a character hallucination, until they lampshaded that away). A too-happy ending doesn't have the essential "truthiness" (thank you, Colbert), the verisimilitude necessary to satisfy your audience.

How much happy you give your characters depends wholly on the tone, audience and story. For some novels, the fact that they survived is happiness enough. Others need a lot more - but there should always be a price. Something that didn't work out, something that failed, that they lost. Because we never get everything we want in life - what we want to get out of the story is that sometimes we can get 'enough'.

But never break your character to force a happy ending. If character A really wouldn't do whatever Ending A requires them to do, find another Ending - find another way to give your main character some solace, some reward or thing to cling to. If the formulaic ending doesn't ring true for your characters, then the story will almost certainly be stronger for looking outside the formula, rather than cramming things to fit.

But go easy on the sweetness and happyhappies. A real ending still has teeth.