Writing "Canon" and the Problems of Being "Real"

[Zylinder]

For me, the problem is not whether there are multiple endings but whether any of the choices matter after all. Say a hero sets out on a journey to fight a dragon. He's always going to kill the dragon, but how you go about amassing strength to kill it might determine whether you're lauded as a hero... Or the magic you've stolen earlier turns you into a dragon and now the villagers hunt you. That's vastly preferable to 3 different endings where you either killed it, was killed by it, or befriended it etc. and you have to do it 1000 times in order to successfully kill the dragon.

Plus, it solves continuity problems. The dragon is always dead. Even if you turn into a dragon, maybe you set up a lair elsewhere. So I guess I would say, the author's challenge is to maintain the illusion of choice within the canon path?

[TheDesman]

You can also take a look at it the other way around. What happens when you don't have a true ending? In essence what you get is an open-ended story. Even though each of the endings might be definitive in and of itself, you're still in a position where you're forced to speculate about what is and what is not. Some people are really going to enjoy thinking about that, but others are not. What true endings brings with them is a sense of closure, where everything is wrapped up and you can move on.