As a writer, this is why I’ll never condemn cozy books with happy endings. This type of media, whether it’s games or books or music, helps real people get through crappy times intact, even if elitists sneer that overly happy stuff isn’t this or that. Usually people who are going through the worst times irl are the ones who need avenues of escape most. If you’re already living through crap, you don’t need media to remind you of the crap, you already know good and well that crappy things exist.
As a reader, that’s definitely why I do condemn overly negative books and other media. Even after reading all horror books available in the library as a teenager. Life’s complicated enough by itself.
I’m trying to write a story, and I struggled with this, especially when confronting certain realities:
While fantasy, the story is meant to reflect some harsh political realities
Multiple villains are killed, but the heartfelt good guys live.
The ending has everything fixed and everyone’s happy.
I’m aware most stories don’t come anywhere close to a full happy ending like this. Every Batman story ends with Gotham still a miserable shithole. Every noir story ends with the case solved but everyone broken for it and the city still a dystopia. It generally has good reasoning, to reflect harshness of reality, but that’s a realm of fantasy I really want to venture into; one where things just work out.
As a writer, this is why I’ll never condemn cozy books with happy endings. This type of media, whether it’s games or books or music, helps real people get through crappy times intact, even if elitists sneer that overly happy stuff isn’t this or that. Usually people who are going through the worst times irl are the ones who need avenues of escape most. If you’re already living through crap, you don’t need media to remind you of the crap, you already know good and well that crappy things exist.
As a reader, that’s definitely why I do condemn overly negative books and other media. Even after reading all horror books available in the library as a teenager. Life’s complicated enough by itself.
I’m trying to write a story, and I struggled with this, especially when confronting certain realities:
I’m aware most stories don’t come anywhere close to a full happy ending like this. Every Batman story ends with Gotham still a miserable shithole. Every noir story ends with the case solved but everyone broken for it and the city still a dystopia. It generally has good reasoning, to reflect harshness of reality, but that’s a realm of fantasy I really want to venture into; one where things just work out.
What about Steampunk & Cyberpunk ? Funny that there are no biopunk, Solarpunk, teslapunk or even clockpunk stories