Random Poll of the Day! (159)

[PhoenixTears]

The first book is hard to judge. The plot is quite shallow and a lot of pages are taken up by not especially exciting exposition, but the nostalgia factor is too high for me not to like it. I remember how blown away I was when I read it- the world created was so magical and so real at the same time (being 8 at the time obviously helped). Even today, I still feel a very strong connection to the series, helped by the fact I was born in 1991, which was the year when the series "started" (referring to the internal series chronology there) and which meant that I was very close in age to the protagonists when the last book was published.

Ah, I think that may be why I like Book 2 as much as I do - the nostalgia factor. I don't feel that with the first book because I already knew about the the magic and everything when I read it, so it wasn't as special to me as it is to everyone else.

[Kor]

Book 7 was that bad? Rowling didn't succeed to deliver the final book too well?

[xpon]

the final chapter .. the endinng.. the story 15 years after that incident is the worst part of the WHOLE SERIES!

[KainTheVampire]

Azkaban

[Kor]

I suppose it goes to the idea that the start of a series and the end of a series are the hardest things to do well. The end is probably the hardest to do, especially if it's in very popular series, because it can always come out as not satisfying enough.
I have no clue how I'm going to end my series, but chances are that it won't be with an odd time-skip or with a bunch of characters getting married at the end.
Personally, I prefer endings that are not absolut:
- don't end the story with "there is no more evil in the world" because the whole point of good vs. evil is that there is always evil and there is always good. As long as there's goodness, there will also be evil.
- leave room for continuty or for future adventures of the characters. just because they finished with this specific story, doesn't mean that it's the end of their story in general. In fantasy especially, leave us some room for our imagination to fill.

A story that "absolutely" ends is usually unsatisfying because there is nothing more to say about it. A story that while ends, does leave the "it's not the end of the story yet" or "there is still evil left to face against", in my opinion is a good story.

For example - Inuyasha. Remember how the first anime ended? That one hour special. Nothing was resolved at the end and it left a bit of a bad taste knowing there isn't more, however, it also left you with wanting to continue (do mind, that was 5 years ago, and I didn't know about manga back then). However after I discovered the manga and waited for the ending, it was really unsatisfying for me. Yeah, thankfully that long-ass series finally ended, but it didn't end in the greatest way (though perhaps there wasn't any better way to end it anyway).
This does make me wonder though how will the fans in the forum will react to the end of DC. If we like the series so much, chances are that no matter what ending there will be, many people will find it unsatisfying for the series they loved so much. I'm pretty sure that some people will have the "20 years of cases, and THIS is what we get?" kind of feeling.

In a start vs. ending, the ending is probably the hardest thing to write.