Epilogues? Yay or nay?

[Aishra]

For my current shamelessly cliche-filled romance VN project, I'm wondering whether or not to include an epilogue. As a horrible sap and closet-hopeless-romantic, I'm a sucker for kiss CGs or the couple to actually get together in the story, but for my VN, the paths for each obtainable guy seem to end up as more of a "friendship-with-romantic-possibilities". Like you would have inferred they get together later, but it isn't written in stone that they do. Slapping on a "confession" scene at the ending wouldn't flow naturally...and it just feels tacked on (although, to be honest, it would be).

However, I wouldn't want anyone to feel disappointed reading through 50k worth of words only for it to end there, leaving to reader to think: "Wait what? THAT'S IT?!"

Would it be preferable to just keep the endings as they are, or to put an epilogue that takes place a couple weeks/months after where they actually get together?

I want the end path line to have that "lingering" effect, and I feel like that would be taken away by an epilogue. However, I also wouldn't want the audience to feel like they wasted their time or that there's just something missing...

[LateWhiteRabbit]

An ending is either satisfying or it isn't - the presence or absence of an epilogue doesn't really change that.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for example, ends with the classic Bolivian Army scene - where we see our protagonists rush out to confront overwhelming odds. They will probably die, but maybe they'll live, we don't know. (Historically, Butch Cassidy is believed to have survived, while Sundance was killed.) Does it matter what happens? No. Because the story we started has finished. Those characters have nothing more to tell us - the moment they settled their personal demons in the church our story was concluded. Adding an epilogue showing them on a beach somewhere, or their funerals, would just cheapen the effect and add nothing.

So finish the story you started. If the story you want to tell is simply, "Could these two people ever be more than friends?" The moment you answer that question, the moment everything impeding possible romance is out of the way, and the characters have admitted the possibilities available to them, then your story is over. Adding an epilogue about them dating or being "happy ever after" would cheapen the sweet lingering effect you seem to be going for. There are a lot of beautiful love stories that end as soon as they start - the two people may never marry, or only be an "item" for a short time, but the chance they took on love still changes them - it was an emotional journey worthy of a story in this case.

So, just finish the same story that you start, and don't add anything else afterward.

[Death_HUG]

I actually really like epilogues! I like to now what happens after, but if you end the VN nicely, then I wouldn't really care for an epilogue. But this is just my opinion, I think you should do whatever you want to do ^o^

[HigurashiKira]

If you finished the story completely, don't go for the epilouge; if there are still some major plot strings still hanging, go for it.

[Kura]

I like tidy endings. If the story ends in a place that makes sense, and especially if it's a powerful ending, then being shown an epilogue right after will ruin that and I won't like it so much. However, I have definitely read some stories where I wanted to know what happened after the end, although I didn't want it presented directly right there after the ending.

There's also the option to put an epilogue in a bonus section or something, so that it's there for those who want to know it while being unobtrusive and distinctly separate from the ending itself (since you'd need to go back to the start screen and through a new menu to reach it).

[fleet]

You said, "However, I wouldn't want anyone to feel disappointed reading through 50k worth of words only for it to end there, leaving to reader to think: "Wait what? THAT'S IT?!"

If you were a betting person, it's a safe bet that somebody, somewhere, is going to be disappointed. You can't please everybody.
It's your story; put in an epilogue if you so desire.

[Fawn]

If it has character based routes, I love a good epilogue. I plan to have unlockable epilogues/after stories for my girls in a future game I want to make... It's so romantic to see their happy life after the end of the game!

[Aishra]

@LateWhiteRabbit: Thank you, that example really helped me think more clearly about the problem, and that issue of "cheapening the effect" I want to give is really what I'm conflicted with. I think the way you put it, I might as well not add the epilogue right after. Just to keep things tidier and maintain that lasting effect I want.

@Kura: I didn't think of putting the epilogue as an extra. I think that would work pretty well for those who are personally wanting to see what happens at the end, but seperating it from the main story would still keep the story's effect. I'll probably do unlockable epilogues for the player's viewing if they so choose. :3

@fleet: I know I can't please everyone, but I would hate for a huge majority to have an issue with that. xD

[azureXtwilight]

If it has character based routes, I love a good epilogue. I plan to have unlockable epilogues/after stories for my girls in a future game I want to make... It's so romantic to see their happy life after the end of the game!

I agree with this! :3

[LateWhiteRabbit]

@Kura: I didn't think of putting the epilogue as an extra. I think that would work pretty well for those who are personally wanting to see what happens at the end, but seperating it from the main story would still keep the story's effect. I'll probably do unlockable epilogues for the player's viewing if they so choose. :3

Honestly, even if the epilogues are an extra, unlocked or contained somewhere else, they still exist and will be considered canon. It doesn't matter WHERE the epilogue is, just whether or not there IS one.

Part of the impact of a lot of endings is their ambiguous nature. To go back to my Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid example - the beauty of that ending, the very thing that makes it go down in the history of cinema (and actual history) is that NOBODY knows what happened for sure. Did they get gunned down? It certainly looked bad for them! But maybe they made it to those horses! Maybe they got to Australia! And the beautiful part is that it doesn't matter one way or the other for the sake of the story. But by choosing to end the story there, the director left the audience with powerful emotions. The ending was still satisfying, but it got people talking with each other, debating and evaluating the whole storyline to validate their belief as to what happened after the camera stopped. If there had been pamphlets telling an Epilogue in the movie theater (perhaps available if you bought a large concession drink) then none of that debate would never have happened. People would point to the pamphlet as the truth, and the movie wouldn't have lived on so powerfully as it does in the minds of movie-goers.

Either your story needs an epilogue and the epilogue will make it better, or it doesn't need one, and the epilogue is just drawing things out and diluting the emotional impact.

So either do one or the other. This is one of those cases where you can't have your cake and eat it too.

[Fawn]

@LateWhiteRabbit: I'm a little confused on your position. While I agree that ambiguous endings are good, we're talking about romance here- you got the girl, or the guy... Isn't it nice to see what happens in their relationship later as an extra? How does it dilute the emotional impact?

For example one of my dream endings for a game would show the couple married many years later living a happy life with their daughter/son. Does that dilute the original ending of "you got the girl/guy"?

[LateWhiteRabbit]

@LateWhiteRabbit: I'm a little confused on your position. While I agree that ambiguous endings are good, we're talking about romance here- you got the girl, or the guy... Isn't it nice to see what happens in their relationship later as an extra? How does it dilute the emotional impact?

For example one of my dream endings for a game would show the couple married many years later living a happy life with their daughter/son. Does that dilute the original ending of "you got the girl/guy"?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying ambiguous endings are always better.

Instead, each story has an ending that is best for it. Sometimes that means having an ambiguous ending, other times it means wrapping everything up tight with a little bow on top.

Let's use another example - Lord of the Rings, Return of the King (the movie). The story was over when the ring was destroyed. Was it nice to see what happened to all the characters afterward? Partly yes, but 25 minutes of movie after the story is over destroyed a lot of the emotional punch of the storyline. We didn't need to see what happened to some of those characters because everyone KNEW what was going to happen to them - of course Aragorn would become king, yada, yada. Frodo was perhaps the only one that needed the extra closure.

But it all depends on the story. Like I said before, finish the same story that you start. Too many novice writers will finish a different story than the one they started, and it makes for poor storytelling.

One more example - Romeo and Juliet. Would an epilogue help that story? Would finding out whether or not the deaths of their children would make the Montagues and Capulets patch things up have improved the narrative? No, we would have lost the emotional stomach punch of the twin suicides, and it didn't matter whether the families made up or not - the damage was done. The story started was whether or not two star-crossed lovers, forced to be enemies by their families, could ever find true happiness with each other. (No. No they could not.) As soon as that question was answered, the story was over.

The question isn't really "Epilogue, or no epilogue?" but "Where do I end my story?" because an epilogue is just the final chapter by another name. Finding the right place to end your story is just as important as finding the place to start it. You really need to know both before you start, because some common advice is that the story should start as close to the end as possible. That's why Romeo and Juliet starts 3 days before their deaths, on the day Romeo crashes her party, and not a month before their deaths when he was still dating Rosaline.

[Sapphi]

But it all depends on the story. Like I said before, finish the same story that you start. Too many novice writers will finish a different story than the one they started, and it makes for poor storytelling.

My gosh, "Finish the same story you started" has been this vague concept floating around in my mind for some time now, and you just pinned it down for me! Thank you!

My experience with epilogues has been mixed...

I know a lot of people disliked the epilogue in Crime and Punishment and think that Dostoevsky should have stopped at the part where

Raskolnikov confesses to the murder.

Even the 1970 film stopped there. I actually disagree with that, though, because I think it still continued the story in a way that fit with the theme.

But... The end of Spielberg's film A.I. was a bad epilogue in my opinion. Spoiler'd for those who haven't seen the movie:

The story was set up as David's quest to become human. "Human" was defined in the words of Professor Hobby: "The Blue Fairy is part of the great human flaw: to wish for things that don't exist. Or to the greatest single human gift - the ability to chase down our dreams." Now... If wishing for things that don't exist is a human flaw, David became indisputably human when he sat under the sea in front of the Blue Fairy statue, refusing to move, praying over and over to her for something that could never happen. He became human by wanting to be human. If they would have ended the movie off there, it would have been one of the most poignant endings I could think of. Instead, they tacked on another half an hour of story to give David his (sort of) happy ending. I was glad he got to see his mom again (I cried, a lot) but at the same time, I was disappointed. The Blue Fairy ending would have been very powerful, IMO.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

But it all depends on the story. Like I said before, finish the same story that you start. Too many novice writers will finish a different story than the one they started, and it makes for poor storytelling.

My gosh, "Finish the same story you started" has been this vague concept floating around in my mind for some time now, and you just pinned it down for me! Thank you!

My experience with epilogues has been mixed...

I know a lot of people disliked the epilogue in Crime and Punishment and think that Dostoevsky should have stopped at the part where

Raskolnikov confesses to the murder.

Even the 1970 film stopped there. I actually disagree with that, though, because I think it still continued the story in a way that fit with the theme.

But... The end of Spielberg's film A.I. was a bad epilogue in my opinion. Spoiler'd for those who haven't seen the movie:

The story was set up as David's quest to become human. "Human" was defined in the words of Professor Hobby: "The Blue Fairy is part of the great human flaw: to wish for things that don't exist. Or to the greatest single human gift - the ability to chase down our dreams." Now... If wishing for things that don't exist is a human flaw, David became indisputably human when he sat under the sea in front of the Blue Fairy statue, refusing to move, praying over and over to her for something that could never happen. He became human by wanting to be human. If they would have ended the movie off there, it would have been one of the most poignant endings I could think of. Instead, they tacked on another half an hour of story to give David his (sort of) happy ending. I was glad he got to see his mom again (I cried, a lot) but at the same time, I was disappointed. The Blue Fairy ending would have been very powerful, IMO.

Glad I helped clarify that for you! I blame it on living in a family of Literature majors and professors. My bedtime stories as a child where Shakespeare! (What where you thinking, Mom?!)

I agree with you 100% on A.I. The story was meant to end there, but test audiences were unhappy with that ending, so they had to go back and tack on all that other crap. (Test audiences should not exist. Consensus of opinion does not good story-telling make.)

Oh, I also love that you are considerate enough to use spoiler tags - I'm a little bad about that. I have a statute of limitations on spoilers, and if something is very many years old, I expect people to have either already seen it, or that they have no interest in seeing it.

[Sapphi]

I think Shakespeare as a bedtime story is kinda cool actually. Then again, I was one of the only people in my high school literature class that didn't kvetch and moan about having to read Julius Caesar. (Or Lord of the Flies... or The Scarlet Letter... or anything else that actually required us to think.)

Test audiences decided that?!! No wonder it seemed to come out of left field...

Why thank you... actually, I never read Crime and Punishment OR saw A.I. until this year, so I figured some other poor deprived soul might not have either. I am not as well-read in classic literature as I would like to be, due to the depressing school system which dumbs down its curriculum to cater to people like my classmates described above, and I don't tend to watch a lot of movies, for a number of reasons.