Why "The End" was such a dissapointment

[ferder]

Did any of you also find "The End" to be dissapointing? I couldn't put my finger on why it was for a long time, but I think I know the reason now:

There is no major revelation in "The End".

True, if we go back and look at the FAQ that make up the titles of "The Unauthorized Autobiography" (the questions we all wanted answered such as "What is VFD?" "Who is Beatrice etc) they are all answered by the time we have finished the series, but lets face it, there were enough clues in the series for us to figure most of them out by "The Slippery Slope." Hander laid out these clues very cleverly, and despite the fact that he didn't know that he was going to introduce VFD until he was partway writing the series, he ingeniously made it seem as though the early books were tied in with the VFD mystery (again, thanks to the hints in the Unauthorized Auto).
This made me appriciate the books, and Handler's writing skills in a new way.
Then things went bad. For some reason, perhaps because he realized that fans had already figured out most of the mysteries, Handler introduced a myrade of Red Herring mysteries (such as the Sugar Bowl and the Poison Darts). He leads up to believe, and mercilessly teases us with useless clues, that we will find out (either by explenation in the story, or by our own deductions) what the answeres to the mysteries are.

Instead of feeling like the true end to the epic series, The End felt far too much like just another stand-alone story in the Baudelar's lives. I personally couldn't have care less about any of the new characteres introduced or most of the plot points. That's why, in many ways, "The Penultimate Peril" is a more fitting end to the series. It's about characters that we are interested in, and it features all the important plot points drawing together (though again, with more useless mysteries).
The End is more about symbolism than being the conclusion to the story. This fact gives Handler an exuse to use his weakest plot element: The Great Unknown. At least in Penultimate Peril we are led to belive that many of the charaters are killed in yet another devestating fire (very appropriet to the series) but to have the Quamires just "swallowed up" is very weak. Yes, the Great Unknown works on a symbolic level (sometimes we don't know the fate of the people we meet along the way of the story of our lives), but it destroys the belivability of the fantasy world Handler created. It's basically a cop-out, a sorry excuse, and a slap in the face to the fans. It's as though the author is saying, "Uh, you know this is all just a work of fiction, right? I am just making up as I go along. I can do anthing I want to do (or not do, in this case) because this is the last book and I know you are all going to read it anyway."
What happened? Did he just run out of creativity? Even I could have come up with a workable explanation for the sugar bowl, but to not bother coming up with on at all is just sad considering the amount of time he spent giving hints about its purpose.
And where was the shocking truth about the Baudelare parents, promised on the back of the book? That they lived on an island for a time? I really can't see why that fact has any baring on the story.

Handler had set up all the necessary elements, but then it's like he just gave up. And it's not as though we have a right to complain (every book has a disclaimer saying that we shouldn't read them) but I wouldn't have cared if the end of "The End" was absolutely completely tragic, just so long as he actually acted on his forshadowing of a grand reveal.

To be truely satisfying, The End needed to reveal something so important to the overal arch of the series, that it would have changed the way we looked at the earlier books (just as the Unauthorized Auto did).

[PJ]

I think it was Handler's point that some mysteries aren't meant to be revealed. That's why he ended the series on such an ambiguous note, that's why we don't find much out. The End was all about why the Baudelaire Parents didn't divulge their own secrets, and how their children, and ultimately Snicket do the same.

And I think the revelation that Beatrice was the Baudelaire's mother was pretty big. I mean, the sugar bowl aside, Beatrice has been the biggest mystery of the series.

[Dante]

The only point on which I really agree with you is your point about the back cover of The End; you're right, there was no "truly haunting secret" about the Baudelaire parents, and I can't think why Handler would have put that, unless possibly his editor asked him to spice it up a bit.

Of course The End isn't going to be exciting and dramatic as The Penultimate Peril; structurally, it can't be. Each book follows the same basic structure: Beginning, long period of same-iness, twist in the middle that changes the status quo, carry on with that a bit, the denouement where the action comes to a head and the more pressing issues are resolved, and then the end, the falling action after the denouement. The series as a whole mirrors this structure - we have TBB, which is the beginning, and then there's a long period of books that are much the same, then in TVV the fake death of Olaf and the accusations against the Baudelaires vastly change how everything carries on, the plot follows that idea for a bit, then TPP is the denouement, the dramatic climax, where everything clashes together and the villains are eventually chased off into the sunset; The End is the end, the falling action, where the last few threads are picked up and we are given a conclusion and the overall message. Ends often do feel somewhat detached, too, precisely because the dramatic flow has broken off. The children of today are often accused of being too fixated on action and without appreciation for subtlety or more thoughtful aspects; that we're seeing it in aSoUE fandom is perhaps representative of a larger trend. (I enjoyed TPP more than The End, but that's inevitable; there was more that Handler could do with the denouement, he would be far more limited in what he could actually do in the ending as he needed to avoid spoiling the send-off with gimmicks and out-of-place ideas.)

For the record, I think TPP is the book which did cause some problems with answering questions; Handler's on record saying that he had to change the plot of the book to avoid contradicting himself, but the plot of TPP contradicts a lot else, in particular the timing of the schism. The End does the same as regards ignoring former foreshadowing, in particular with regards to the Quagmires and the self-sustaining hot-air mobile home; personally, I think he found he just couldn't fit some of those things in to a conclusion that satisfied the books' themes. But if you like, you can believe that Handler did plan to bring back the Quagmires, did plan to resolve some of the backstory surrounding, say, Fernald and Captain Widdershins. (The only person I think he might actually have forgotten is Phil, who doesn't even get a mention after TGG despite having presumably left with Widdershins; any time there's a reference to Widdershins, though, we can therefore read it as "Widdershins and oh his pal/cook Phil" because there's nothing to contradict that.)

The sugar bowl, as a McGuffin, was better than the Snicket File; the Snicket File is just a sheaf of papers, whereas the sugar bowl is far more mysterious; it seems trivial, and could hold a far wider range of items within it, although they'd have to be somewhat small. It's also easier to transport without damage, which makes it easier for the plot to move it along without so much human involvement (thinking in particular of its movements in the backstory from TSS to TGG). However, we never really learn what's in it - but we never really learn what the Snicket File says, either. In both cases the best we can do is make a good guess, so I think it would be an error to criticise the one and not the other. If you want to think of it that way, then they're both cop-outs.

In many ways, a mystery without a clear conclusion is better than one with some; the Snicket series, in the later books, has an atmosphere of mystery, and answering all the questions would ruin the atmosphere, ruin the mystery of the backstory, and, although they rarely appreciate it, ruin everything for the fans - at the end of the day, theorising is something that everyone's enjoyed, and in many cases, no resolution would be satisfying set against all the hype, and indeed, that's true of resolutions in general, they're less interesting than the preceding mystery - this is also true of the poison darts; never outright explaining it makes it more effective, not to mention giving the fans the final say, which naturally they never appreciate (but regardless, we can pick up pretty much all the necessary details anyway, there's no more that needs to be said). And the sea of questions and the dearth of answers are necessary, as they're part of a theme that, retrospectively, one can argue Handler's been building up since TSS, when Lemony swore never to reveal the names of the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard; the Question Mark, which we now call the Great Unknown, from TGG is the best example of that; it can easily have in-universe answers, but it works far better as something sinister and unknowable, and hence it takes on the role of death and what comes after in The End (arguably metaphorical death, the conclusion of a narrative, for whichever character you care to name). As for the fate of the Quagmires, etc., if they'd been brought to the island, it would have squashed up the story with other themes that don't belong - the Baudelaires have to decide for themselves what to do by now, hence Kit Snicket spends the story basically incapacitated. But some resolution was needed - hence, the Great Unknown. In its symbolic aspect, it's an appropriate way to wrap up these characters; in its literal aspect, then it serves its duty satisfyingly as well. There's no better way it could have been done, all things considered.

The End is, in many ways, a cop-out, but it's actually the best possible cop-out - to answer the questions raised by the series would actually be more of a cop-out, because Handler would be doing it more for the fans than for what's appropriate to the work, and because those answers wouldn't satisfy. It's the only way the series really could end, and the other books had been setting it up, thematically, for quite a while.

[LargeManFeOrMale]

I was extremely let down by the End. Although, I was more disappointed by the end of TPP, nearly everyone dies.... yeah... I thought that was setting up The End for disaster.

[ferder]

philipjucker said:

I think it was Handler's point that some mysteries aren't meant to be revealed. That's why he ended the series on such an ambiguous note, that's why we don't find much out.

I wasn’t expecting all the mysteries to be revealed. I just wanted at least one major revelation, one connected with the over-all story (not just the couple of books preceding it)

The End was all about why the Baudelaire Parents didn't divulge their own secrets, and how their children, and ultimately Snicket do the same.

True, that is an important piece of information that needed to be explained.

And I think the revelation that Beatrice was the Baudelaire's mother was pretty big. I mean, the sugar bowl aside, Beatrice has been the biggest mystery of the series.

But most of us had already figured this out long ago (though it was nice of Snicket/Handler to confirm it for once and for all). It seemed foolish the way he practically gave it away a few weeks earlier with the release of The Beatrice Letters though (unless that was an attempt to confuse people who thought they knew who Beatrice was ).

ffwf said:

The End is the end, the falling action, where the last few threads are picked up and we are given a conclusion and the overall message.

Funny, I was under the impression that that was what the word [ftp=http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=denouement]denouement[/ftp] meant (thought I guess there must always be an end after a denouement).

so I think it would be an error to criticize the [sugar bowl] and not the [snicket file].

I would have included it in my criticism if I had remembered it. I think that fact that the books were all released a year apart make us forget what has been going in the story (and we don’t realize that it’s gone from being about Olaf trying to get the Baud’s fortune, to trying to get the Snicket file to trying to get the sugar bowl)

Handler is on record saying that he had to change the plot of the book to avoid contradicting himself,

.
That's one of the most dissapointing things. It seemed like Handler knew where he was taking the series, then suddenly it's apparent that he's just making it up as he goes along.

and indeed, that's true of resolutions in general, they're less interesting than the preceding mystery

I realize this. I suppose it’s like learning the secret behind a magic trick. The trick itself is more interesting without knowing the meaning behind it. However, the real proof of whether this is a strategy for fiction is when the last Harry Potter book comes out. Rowling has promised that she will reveal the answers to all the series’ major mysteries in it, as well as leave the fans with plenty to speculate about. I guess we’ll just have to see which makes for a more satisfying end to a series.

[Dante]

ferder said:

philipjucker said:

And I think the revelation that Beatrice was the Baudelaire's mother was pretty big. I mean, the sugar bowl aside, Beatrice has been the biggest mystery of the series.

But most of us had already figured this out long ago (though it was nice of Snicket/Handler to confirm it for once and for all). It seemed foolish the way he practically gave it away a few weeks earlier with the release of The Beatrice Letters though (unless that was an attempt to confuse people who thought they knew who Beatrice was ).

We also had V.F.D. finally outright stated to stand for Volunteer Fire Department, but again, that's something that most of us already knew; there was doubt among some parties, though, as to whether that expansion - given in TSS, supported in TGG, and hinted at in several other places - really was the final conclusive answer or whether it was a mistake or red herring. So it was more of a reassurance than an answer. As for Beatrice, while most people predicted it, in TGG Snicket seemed to say that Beatrice and Mrs. Baudelaire were separate individuals, so that was something that needed definite clarification.

The Beatrice Letters I would expect to only exist for this generation - I don't think it'll be reprinted again and again for as long as the main series will be. The same applies to the U.A. (although it's being rereleased in the U.K. in September), and we've already seen the death of The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition. TBL did actually try to muddy the waters somewhat through the recurring language and the non-chronological structure, but Beatrice's surname was outright stated to be Baudelaire, and there wasn't much people could do about that. But anyway, my point is that TBL may have been a one-off novelty book that's rather different to the rest of the series; its writing was excellent, clearly quite well-planned, and as for its purpose, aside from aesthetic satisfaction and perhaps an experiment in a different style for Snicket, it served as a nice tool to build up hype and foreshadow The End, and to reveal the Beatrice twist in a far more interesting way than The End did. Those might not seem very good reasons to some to publish a book, but it is the aim of a publishing house to make money (and an author's aim, at that, but Handler should be a multi-millionaire and so it shouldn't really be a concern to him), and much of the expense and hype of TBL may have been incurred on the publishers' end rather than on Handler's end, if we assume he's merely responsible for the text. I think he's open to experiments. The U.A. was originally meant to be shorter and something more of a promotional booklet, if I recall correctly, but it grew into a whole book.

ffwf said:

The End is the end, the falling action, where the last few threads are picked up and we are given a conclusion and the overall message.

Funny, I was under the impression that that was what the word [ftp=http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=denouement]denouement[/ftp] meant (thought I guess there must always be an end after a denouement).

A fair enough point, and indeed I recall some wrangling over the definition of "denouement" on the board during the build-up to TPP, but I consider the only definition of "denouement" that's relevant to the series to be Handler/Snicket's own definition, as it ended up being given in TPP:

The denouement is the moment when all of the knots of a story are untied, and all the threads are unraveled, and everything is laid out clearly for the world to see. But the denouement should not be confused with the end of a story.

Admittedly, he goes on to undermine his own point by making up endings for several fairy-tales, and classifying the classical endings as instead being denouements, but that perhaps shows a pedantic, close interest in the subject.

There are some stories in which the denouement and the end occur simultaneously, such as La Forza del Destino, in which the characters recognize and destroy one another over the course of a single song, but usually the denouement of a story is not the last event in the heroes’ lives, or the last trouble that befalls them. It is often the second-to-last event, or the penultimate peril.

Considering that, it's interesting that there are those who say that TPP should have been the last book (or indeed, some thought it was the last book and that Snicket was playing a trick on everyone, although that's an overestimation of just how much freedom he has to be playful in his writing). Possibly, given that he needed to say it at all, it can be read as an excuse for the dramatic structure of the series, or rather, of the final two books; an admission that this isn't what people acquainted with a dictionary or with literary analysis would expect. But it makes sense; the point of highest dramatic action necessarily precedes a falling action as the story closes, no matter what name you apply to either of them. But that's by-the-by.

I would have included it in my criticism if I had remembered it. I think that fact that the books were all released a year apart make us forget what has been going in the story (and we don’t realize that it’s gone from being about Olaf trying to get the Baud’s fortune, to trying to get the Snicket file to trying to get the sugar bowl)

That may also be a factor for Handler; the later books took him around six months to a year to write, I think, and along the way it may well be easy to lose sight of a previous aim and move onto a more interesting idea.

That's one of the most dissapointing things. It seemed like Handler knew where he was taking the series, then suddenly it's apparent that he's just making it up as he goes along.

It's clear Handler knew some elements of where he was taking the series; the conclusion of the books, on the island, was probably planned way back around the time of TSS (if not before), as it's hinted at in the BBRE - but the pirates were more heavily hinted at and they failed to appear, so it's rather a tool for both sides there. I don't think he was making it up as he went along, as such - I think he knew where he was taking the series, and then he changed his mind and took it in a different direction and thought he knew where he was taking it, and then did the same again... he's also on record as saying that nothing's turned out as he expected it, which rather supports that. It isn't necessarily a bad thing; the change in direction of the series that came in TVV was one of the best things he could have done, as I'm sure people were complaining by then that the formula was wearing thin. The moral complexity is a high point for me, too.

I realize this. I suppose it’s like learning the secret behind a magic trick. The trick itself is more interesting without knowing the meaning behind it. However, the real proof of whether this is a strategy for fiction is when the last Harry Potter book comes out. Rowling has promised that she will reveal the answers to all the series’ major mysteries in it, as well as leave the fans with plenty to speculate about. I guess we’ll just have to see which makes for a more satisfying end to a series.

Handler's rather more... aSoUE isn't quite as widely-known as HP, and the fanbase is far less rabid. JKR has to answer the major questions or she'd be torn to pieces - just look at the shipping wars alone, I'm sure some people would have preferred no resolution to a resolution they hated. (It's because of the amount of time they put in, I'm sure - it must be awful to spend hours arguing and arguing that Hermione loves Harry or that V.F.D. stands for Volunteer Fire Detectives, only to find out that you're wrong.) If she's planning to leave some things for the fans to speculate about, that demonstrates that it's a powerful device (and an enjoyable one, really, as people can keep speculating, and there are no winners to mock the losers). HP's also more consistent; while it has its twists and its changes in focus, none of those are at the expense of previous ideas. Handler, meanwhile, can be a bit more artistic - or gimmicky, depending on your perspective. A satisfying end isn't necessarily the right one; for me, an "answer book" ending to aSoUE, in retrospect, just wouldn't have fitted the series particularly after TSS, TGG and TPP failed to dish out exposition. ASoUE went more for a resolution of its themes, and through that to some of its characters, and the waters couldn't afford to be muddied with McGuffiny plot resolutions along the way. I won't deny that some of the things I wanted most in the last book were more information on the backstory of the family Widdershins (not that they were actually called that, but we don't know the real surnames of any other members), and the presence of pirates, but the latter would have been hard to fit in given how the book had to end, and the former, too, would have interfered with the carrying-out of the plot. The End had to stand alone from most other plotlines so that it could achieve its resolution without too much mess.

[ferder]

ffwf said:

The Beatrice Letters I would expect to only exist for this generation - I don't think it'll be reprinted again and again for as long as the main series will be. The same applies to the U.A. (although it's being rereleased in the U.K. in September),

That would be too bad if the UA wasn't reprinted regularly. I think it's one of the best and most important books in the series (even if it is a companion book). It was wonderful to have a whole book dedicated to all the delicouse and hilarious behind-the-scenes Snicket/VFD/Beatrice stories that Snicket is always aluding to in the regular series.
I really wonder what it would be like for readers to read through the whole series and not read the UA. I guess they would just figure out the VFD mystery at the same rate as the Baudes instead of getting the enormuse head-start that the read of us got.
Too bad the cover for the new UK one is so bad. It probably shouldn't be covered with picks of the Baudes considering it's not even about them.

[thistledown]

I agree that TE needed a revelation. Nothing really happened--the entire book was flat, but I liked it even still. Even though we learned nothing really new about VFD, only more mysteries. Also, the setting was a bit too different for my taste--it felt like Snicket went out of his own world...the surreality of the series died a little, in my opinion. It seemed to me like he really didn't know what to write. And the fact that everything about Violet "taking care of her siblings and never letting anything happen to them" thing never came to anything...well, I was a tad disappointed.

But the series is wonderful--if it wasn't, I wouldn't be on this site. So I guess I really do have nothing to complain about. Snicket is a great writer. I'm just a selfish reader *grins*.

EDIT: And what happened to the Sugar Bowl? It was the central conflict for more than one of the books...and for him to let it just die like that...*sighs* Let's just say I wouldn't have written it like that. But personally I don't even think Snicket knew what was inside of the Sugar Bowl.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Don't get me wrong, I love asoue and I liked The End.
But yeah I was disappointed because he set us up with umpteen mysteries and he didn't address any of them, he just piled us up with more.
Yeah I know the theme of asoue is ambiguity and unsolved mysteries but come on. You have to give your readers something. But he didn't. Instead we got some character everyone hated, Ishmael, and some hint of an eerie romance between Kit and Olaf. I love how he resolved Olaf's character, but he didn't resolve anything else, except the identity of Beatrice.

It's one thing with the poison darts where you can pretty much guess what happened based on what we have, Kit gave the poison darts to the parents and they killed Olaf's parents, you don't necessarily need to come out and say it.
But to have Violet shout out a promise to catch up with the Quagmires in book 7 and have them gobbled up by some unknown monster in The End is the perfect definition of a cop-out. He didn't make time/know what to do with them and how to resolve them so he just tossed them into the sea and expected us to go along with it on the basis that "not every mystery needs to be solved."
And not everyone does. With the Snicket File you can again assume enough with what you have: it's loaded with evidence of Olaf's and the duo's crimes.
But to have everyone positively scrambling for the sugarbowl only to just completely forget about it in The End is another cop-out. He also copped out with most of his entire cast by throwing them into a burning building in book 12 and not telling if they heeded the bauds' warning or not.

I did like the ending, but it has problems and was lacking in resolution and revelation. I understand the entire book can't be exposition but to just have them walking around the sand with all these random people while you could be tying up ends is just annoying.

[jacob4000]

Sometimes, at night, I like to close my eyes and pretend that The End never happened, and that the real one will be coming out soon.

I feel like I wasted so much of my time with the series after The End. I love the characters, I love books 1-12. especially 12. But the final book made it all seem like such a waste. Halfway through, the Series turned into more of a great mystery in my eyes. I wasn't reading it for the "morals" which I often disagreed with, I was reading it for VFD, the Sugar Bowl, and more information on what happened. That's also why I snapped up nearly all the side books as well.

At the end the only questions that were answered were the ones that we had already figured out, as you said. I was crushed. Where were the great revelations? What was the Sugar Bowl? Darn it where the heck were the Quagmires that we had been hoping would come back for five freaking books? Oh yeah, they were sucked up by some monster because obviously Handler didn't want to deal with them. It was a cop-out of the highest degree, and one that showed a blatant disregard for the fans who had snapped up everything he had put out voraciously.

Some of you may argue that "it can't have an end." It's a book. An invention of the author. Of course it has an end. Of course there are answers. They're just locked away in Handler's mind, and I guess we'll have to wait for him to make another thirteen books to get any substantial answers.

[Antenora]

To those noting that The End didn't have a huge revelation about the sugar bowl: That plotline is arguably resolved in TPP, with the taxi driver. "I do know who the man was... and even the small item that sat on the passenger seat, still damp from its hiding place... "(p 251)
Assuming that the taxi driver was Snicket or at least an associate of his, we can infer that he has the sugar bowl, and it's been implied that whatever's in there would clear Snicket's name. It's entirely possible that Handler never decided on the precise nature of the evidence(it would probably have seemed disappointing or highly implausible if made more specific), but he's given us enough information to make an educated guess, so the sugar bowl secret is not truly unresolved.

The End was more about themes than plot, essentially, and I think that shows how the series itself has evolved-- from being fairly simple and two-dimensional, to having a highly convoluted plot with lots of mystery, and then to both narrative complexity and thematic depth. The big question is no longer "What exactly is the answer?", but we have unfathomable questions like "Can we ever know all the answers?", and consequently, "Can one be happy without knowing everything?", questions which apply to the reader as well as the characters. And the theme of constant mystery has been around since TSS, in which Snicket states outright that he can't or won't tell us certain things, but we're welcome to imagine(and speculate on and write fanfic about) what we cannot know; perhaps we shouldn't have been expecting straight answers. As Dante said, The End can be described as a cop-out, but it's the best possible cop-out-- I don't think I would have preferred an "answers section" sort of info-dump.

[thistledown]

I'm not saying I would have enjoyed a book full of answers--but TE was simply what the others described, quite well, as a cop-out. True, it was nicely written. But while I read, I was constantly hoping that the Quagmires would show up, or something would happen. Truth be told, nothing DID happen. It was completely anti-climactic. The best thing was that the Baudelaires got poisoned. And that was resolved in all of ten pages which was even worse. And Olaf's disguise was disappointing as well because he ALREADY cross-dressed before! I was hoping to see a new disguise. But the latter really doesn't matter much, of course, it's just a personal opinion of mine.

I just wish Handler would realize that we need more. And he would write...maybe...since he said Snicket wasn't gone forever, he'll clear up some of the mysteries one day.

[Dismay]

ferder said:

ffwf said:

I really wonder what it would be like for readers to read through the whole series and not read the UA. I guess they would just figure out the VFD mystery at the same rate as the Baudes instead of getting the enormuse head-start that the read of us got.

You mean what I did? I still haven't read UE and TBL, and only finished The End today.

I was dissapointed by some parts, mainly the fact that the Quagmires never returned, but it was also settling for me for some reason. Sure, there were answers to some of the mysteries, but did we really need all of them? Handler/Snicket himself talks about keeping secrets in the last two chapters, about how when you get one answer (for example: Quigley survived the fire), there will always be questions that follow it (for example: why didn't he (Quigley)turn up earlier and where was he during that period of time?). The plot of the book was... different. But I really liked the theme. It brought the theme of noble acts being horrible crimes forward into why someone would commit a horrible crime and yet it is still called a noble act (look at what Ishmael did- he made the Bauds' parents leave the island and sheltered the islanders, yet he was being protective, a parent, which can be called a "noble act" in some ways). So as a conclusion, yeah, it didn't cut it. It ended ambiguously, and left a few holes. But as a book in A Series of Unfortunate Events? It was a fairly good installment.

[thistledown]

I suppose. I just wish he'd re-write it, actually. Which won't happen, but I can always dream! ;D

[Deleted]

It was perfect. Just like The Sopranos ending was perfect, perfect perfect perfect.