Warning: There are going to be many spoilers of various books, movies, and T.V. shows ahead, mainly due to this topic being about the endings of said stories. I will not be blocking them as there would end up being too many to block. I will try to let you know beforehand what is about to be spoiled so that you may skip over that part if you want to discover the ending on your own.

You have been warned.

I recently finished reading the manga series Rosario+Vampire (seasons 1 and 2).

The story ended with them all returning to their school and hinting that the two halves of Moka's soul are becoming one. It wasn't a bad ending and it fits with what the rest of the series was about. But it felt kind of unsatisfying.

Another book series I finished reading was the Artemis Fowl series.

The series ends with Artemis losing his memories as part of a heroic sacrifice and his friend Holly about to explain to him his own tale, i.e. The stories from his own series of how he got to this point. Again, it wasn't a bad ending and if you read the series and the ending, you can see how well it fits with Artemis's journey. But again, the ending didn't really feel very satisfying.

Now, this isn't just one of those things where I'm one of those people who gets so invested in the story that no ending will be satisfying. Because I've read other book stories to the end and found their endings quite satisfying. I enjoyed the ending to book series such as Harry Potter, Negima!, and Dragon Ball, to name a few, and anyone who has read any of those knows that you get very invested in their stories.

So what's the difference? Why am I feeling less satisfied with the endings of some stories than others. I am of course aware that they are all different book series with different authors and are not the same as each other. But two works of fiction don't need to be the same in order to tell a good story and certainly not to tell a good ending.

So, what I think the main difference between the works was is the epilogue at the end of some of them.

One of the more well known epilogues is the ending of Harry Potter (though I'm referring to the book here more than the movie).

The series ends by showing Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny 19 years later seeing their kids off to Hogwarts. I really liked this ending, though I've heard that there are many who don't, though that could just be the movie crowd.

The Dragon Ball manga had an epilogue ending that I enjoyed as well.

That series also ended by skipping ahead a few years into the future. It showed Goten and Trunks as teenagers, Gohan and Videl had a daughter, I think either Krillin or Vegeta had a mustache, and Goku goes off to train the reincarnation of Boo. It was a fairly pointless ending, but it was an enjoyable one.

The Negima! manga ended by just showing the profiles of the characters in their future and what they are doing. It was just explanation, but it still felt satisfying.

So why are these simple epilogues that are just showing a day or days in the characters lives more satisfying than the stories that end when the conflict ends?

The best reason I can think of is just what you would want out of the endings of most stories: Payoff.

Stories tend to be leading up to something. If the story was the same from beginning to end and nothing really changed or developed, we'd be pretty board or pissed. In Rosario+Vampire, you can see the relationship between Tsukune and Moka develop. You see that he loves her and doesn't want to hurt his other friends who love him. You want to see Tsukune and Moka get together and how Tsunune deals with the situation he's in with the other girls.

...And none of that really happened. At the end it is implied that Tsukune and Moka might later be together, but that was what was hinted at during the entire series. The end shows all the girls still after him and him not really being able to do anything about it. There were some things at the end that separate it from the rest of the series of course, like Tsukune being trained by Moka's father, but it the end, nothing was really changed that much and there was little payoff because, while the story felt like it was leading up to something, it didn't.

Similar with Artemis Fowl, the story ending with Holly telling Artemis about his life has little payoff because it's just circling back around itself. Instead of showing where the characters have gone because of all they went through and how it has effected their lives, it's just going into repeat.

In the epilogue of Harry Potter, you see how the characters lives are after everything that they went through, that their lives continued on after the events of the books and how it effected them. This is the same for Negima! and Dragon Ball.

The possible reason for why this works is because you are seeing the end of the character's stories instead of just the end of the story.

With Rosario+Vampire and Artemis Fowl, the story for the readers just ends. The characters and such are still there and you know that more stuff is going to happen to them in the future because of the events in their story. But the story just ends at the end of everything they went through, showing you nothing more. With the time-skip epilogue stories, you see what has become of the characters because of the events in their stories and what ultimately happens to them. This allows you to close the book on the characters rather than just the story that had them all in it. Fans who get really invested in a story saga tend to become invested in some of the characters as well and want to know what happens to them.

So, in my case at least and possibly some of your's, the time-skip epilogue endings tend to be more satisfying because you get more/better closure. You get the endings to the actual characters, rather than just the story and it leaves you with less of a need to know more, mainly because you saw how it does end for the characters. You are satisfied because there are less unknowns and less unanswered questions.

Now, does this mean that all stories should be ending with time-skip epilogues? Of course not, because it wouldn't always work or you're not supposed to know what really happens next.

The series of Yu-Gi-Oh! ended with the Pharaoh finally moving on and Yugi and friends going on to a life without him.

The series ends with them moving on towards something new. You don't see what happens to them after and you are not really meant to. It is the start of Yugi's story now without the Pharaoh and whatever happens he will face.

An epilogue might ruin the feel of the unknown new adventure that awaits the character, because it's supposed to remain unknown.

Similarly with the graphic novel Watchmen, the time-skip epilogue would not work because you are supposed to wonder what could happen next. What will happen if Rorschach's journal is published? Has Ozymandias really saved the world? You are supposed to consider what might happen and that would be ruined if it had an epilogue that just showed you.

And there are also some things that don't need the time-skip epilogue because their ending was satisfying enough. The show Danny Phantom (although it was ending because it was being cancelled) had an ending where there was plenty of payoff.

Unlike with Rosario+Vampire, Danny Phantom changes everything at its ending. Danny's secret is known to people now, he's dating Sam, Tucker is mayor somehow, and Vlad is exiled to space. It ended like the end of a story and the beginning of what may come next, instead of just ending like it was just another episode that maintained the status quo. It was an ending where an epilogue could have been used, but it wasn't needed because the ending did a good job of wrapping things up.

On the other side of that coin though is a show like Code Geass, where it maybe could have just ended, but the epilogue made it a very good ending.

(This is the only time I'm going to warn you about spoilers in the actual blog because this show is really great and I don't want to ruin anything for someone who would watch it. Go find that show and watch it right now and then come back so you can agree with me about how great it was because this show is awesome as SH*T!!!!!)

The show ends with a small time-skip after Suzaku (disguised as Zero) kills the dictator Lelouch. The epilogue shows how well the world seems to be doing and briefly shows what has become of the remaining living characters. This time-skip epilogue has great payoff because it shows you exactly what the series was working towards to entire time: the world where the weak could still be happy and not under the oppression of the strong. The show accomplished what it set out to do.

So, as with most works, the need and usefulness of a time-skip epilogue does depend on how well it's written and what kind of story it is to begin and end with. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's needed, sometimes it isn't.

So what do you think? Would more stories with unsatisfying endings be better with a time-skip epilogue? Can you think of any? Or are the stories I mentioned the exception and most stories should not have the time-skip epilogues? Leave a comment below on what you think.