First, an update on (working title) Twenty-One Palaces/The Burning Wheels: This rough draft is an unholy mess. As much as I enjoy the actual act of sitting with my laptop to write and revise a story, this is a rougher draft than usual. But, chin up and charge ahead. Doesn’t matter how fucked up it is. It’s fixable and it’s getting better with every pass.

Now onto what I wanted to talk about for this post: endings that upset fans so much that lose all interest, as portrayed in shows that have recently appeared on Netflix.

Spoilers for the endings of Veronica Mars and Stranger Things but not Game of Thrones (because I haven’t seen it).

So, the finale for Game of Thrones is infamous. Shortly after it came out, when fans and critics were still marveling about the awfulness of it, I saw a couple of articles about the earlier seasons, and how rewatches had fallen off the cliff. They’d made an ending so full of nonsense (apparently) that people’s hatred for it traveled back in time and ruined the previous seasons.

Veronica Mars, famously, ended season three on a downbeat. She’d just destroyed her father’s chances at winning re-election to the sheriff job. She’d broken up with Logan, the fan-favorite romantic lead.  Then the show was cancelled. No happy ending for our plucky little protagonist, which is very noir but still.

Then series creator Rob Thomas decided to turn to a new website called “Kickstarter” to see if he could raise a million dollars for a movie that would wrap up the story. He raised five million. Me, I pledged at the level that would get me a dvd of the finished film.

Which meant we got a second ending, paid for by the fans and which many people, quite reasonably, called fan service. At the end of the movie, Veronica and Logan–both much more grown up and sensible–were back together. She was once again working with her father. Everything had been reset to the best version of the show, which felt very much like a happy ending.

But those five million bucks caught the attention of streamers, and Hulu offered Thomas the chance to bring Veronica Mars back in a new, streaming-friendly format.

And Thomas decided that in order to move the show forward, he had to break from the past. He changed the town, the school, and the main romance in Veronica’s life. He killed off Logan right as they were (finally) about to go on their honeymoon.

Thomas himself said that he hoped fans would understand why he felt he needed to make that change.

The fans, many of them dedicated shippers for those two characters, really really did not understand.

What was supposed to be a new direction for the show turned out to be a detour that led right over a cliff. Fans rebelled, word of mouth was awful, and the revitalized Veronica Mars was cancelled.

Now, I know there are people who still rewatch the show. The Veronica Mars reddit still has a little life in it and it’s become more active since Netflix USA picked up the first three seasons. But most of them simply pretend that season four doesn’t exist. Rob Thomas’s inability to transition Logan, the show’s main love interest, from a source of conflict to a source of support ruined his chances for further seasons.

Which is why I’m also thinking about Stranger Things. The show ended recently and the main character, Eleven, either committed suicide in the finale or she faked her suicide. Either way, the boy she loved had to stand, helpless, and watch it happen.

Personally, I had literally spent years telling people that I thought Eleven had as much chance of an unhappy ending as Harry Potter, and boy howdy was I wrong. And while I have always said that I am not much interested in ships and shipping, it turns out that I am quite invested in the raw anguish of characters I’ve grown to care about over 9+ years.

Anyway, for me the final episode of Stranger Things was heart-breaking. I tip my hat to the Duffer Brothers for making me feel genuine grief for the pretend characters they created.

A number of people have said they can never watch the show again. They don’t want to watch little baby Eleven in that first season, hiding from her abusers, learning about the world from the kids who befriended her, and struggling to find her place, not when they know that it will end with her big death scene.

It’s too painful for them. Too futile. Too tragic.

So, another tip of the hat to the Duffers. They could easily have gone the safe route–a big “medal ceremony” followed by a kiss between happy lovers. That audience-pleasing ending was right there for them.

Instead, they gave us tragedy with a little glimmer of hope.

So, I’ve been thinking about these shows in particular as I work on the final Twenty Palaces book. Obviously, Ray and Annalise aren’t lovers and (spoiler) aren’t going to become lovers. I hope that’s already clear to everyone who’s been reading these books. But how are they going to come out of this series? Who lives? Who doesn’t?

And there’s a part of me that’s thinking about the readers who tell me they reread these books. What would absolutely ruin the series? Should either Ray or Annalise die in a heroic sacrifice? Or maybe both? Or neither?

To be honest, I’ve already written out the first draft of the ending, and I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with the choices I made. What I am sure of, though, is that I’ve put too many words into these books to pick an ending because I’m second guessing other peoples’ opinions.

I mean, I hope people will like it, but it’s a little late to start pandering now.