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I played Link's Awakening with my wife and daughter. My wife was taken back at the ending (surprised, not disliking). I think she basically just assumed the whole time that it wouldn't end with everyone on Koholint basically dying, or vanishing from existence.
This got me thinking about how I played this, or watched my brother play it, when I was the same age as my daughter. None of the media she consumes challenges her with difficult endings. Everything HAS to return to the status quo at the end, because we can't risk anyone being unhappy. In Frozen, Anna is unfrozen. In Moana, even Maui gets his fucking hook back after it breaks. Fake out deaths and fake out status quo changes happen left and right, but it is really rare to see something that actually sticks.
I love downer endings, and I think it made me who I am. It makes me sad and disappointed and a little disgusted to see basically all of the media of my kids' day be bland and not challenging them to really feel something other than a vague blandly happy dance party ending. Dance party endings aren't new, but have been made ubiquitous in the past 20 years. Same with fake out deaths, and I blame Marvel for that. I guess I personally chalk this all up to the general trend towards never making anyone uncomfortable, which is tied in with the corporatization of media and corporate-memphization of media.
They killed Data in that Star Trek movie and it's been just a shadow of itself after that. Even bringing him back (kind of) in Picard didn't do it for me. i will never fully forgive them.
I've had friends die and I still dream about them from time to time, as if it had never happened. Death sucks.
Maybe I'm immature or fundamentally out of touch with mortality but I don't take it well. Yes sure maybe there's salvation in suffering or whatever but I find very little art/positives in losing someone you have feelings for.
Interesting. I guess I could say there are 3 things you can do in media:
I love 1, but I probably hate 3 more than 2, and 3 is everywhere. I'm not 100% sure I know why I think 3 is worse than 2 though, I'll have to think about it.
You mentioned blaming Marvel fake-outs, but which category do you put Infinity War in? That was pretty shocking in the theater to the audience, and was probably also the franchise high-point (alternatively: final good marvel movie), although that's probably just a timing coincidence.
When I think about my reaction to various things like Godzilla Minus One, Fight Club, Rogue One, Fail-Safe, Dr Strangelove, Outer Wilds, 3:10 to Yuma, Double Indemnity, etc., I can't really pinpoint any consistent personal preference. I guess it probably is when a clear choice is made artistically, either way.
Godzilla Minus One was SO ridiculous. The movie sacrificed one emotional death (FMC's ), one character development (the natural story arc is for MC to finally redeem himself for his cowardice by carrying out a successful kamikaze mission on Godzilla ), and one dramatically satisfying ending (the threat is gone ) on the altar of a sequel hook.
I means, tons of movies have sequel hooks, but they are usually schlock; Godzilla Minus One hurts because it was so good. It's like if Titanic had ended with an elderly Rose suddenly opening her eyes, startled, then the camera zooms into her window for a menacing shot of the same iceberg that sank the ship all those years ago!
It's unlikely that anything mainstream in Japan published after 1945 would glorify a kamikaze attack. (Unless it's Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato, and Matsumoto didn't like that ending for exactly that reason.)
One of the points of Godzilla Minus Zero is that kamikaze attacks were a senseless waste of life.
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Yeah the last 4 minutes definitely subverted all my expectations, based on what they had achieved already. Didn't know if those choices were from a japanese culture angle, or yeah just the allure of making a follow-up. Although I still liked it and would always recommend it, I'm maybe less interested in rewatches.
As long as this is accompanied by the foreboding godzilla theme playing, I suppose I'd allow it.
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People can die without the ending being a downer (e.g. Anna Karenina).
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