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In my opinion, if it seems logical (to the reader, not necessarily to the writer) for the story to have a downer ending, then it probably should. Personally, I prefer (both to read and to write) what I would call a "hopeful" ending--a sense that things probably suck for the characters right now, but there's still some way for them to move forward from this point and maybe, just maybe, have their lives not suck. You know, if they try really really hard.

I don't appreciate writers throwing in an a**-pull bad ending, like killing one of the main characters in a horrific way off-screen for the purpose of extending the series one more novel, or building up to what could be a happy ending for the main character only to have the final scene involve their hitherto-assumed-dead arch nemesis show up and put a gun to their head--but then end the entire series before the gun goes off. That's not only cheap, it's infuriating.

And yes, both of those scenarios have played out in books I've read. In the same series, no less--a series I liked up until the author decided to start killing everybody off and sissified the main character to the point of him bursting into tears every third chapter. Both times I threw the book across the room and either busted into tears or was too angry to even cry.

I don't take well to authors killing off my favorite characters. I admit, sometimes it turns me off reading a book entirely, though I'm trying to get over that.

I've been pondering the issue, and here's my view:

First off, I should point out that, while I think that excellent writing should make you wish the protagonists well, most things I read don't accomplish this, and I don't really hold them to it. I can recall maybe five protagonists I have really, really rooted for, and (surprise, surprise) they appear in my favoritest works ever. But I don't need everything I read to meet that standard. I'll call them out on it, but I don't feel that it's something they need to do. Yes, my relationship with stories I read is weird and complex. I'm a writer, and an English major, and a jaded idealist, and I bring all of those to what I read, so hell yeah it's weird and complex.

No book should do an about-face in the last act. That's just lazy and annoying and not good storytelling: if you want a character, say, open a box, have him pick up the damn crowbar earlier on, don't make it fall out of the sky. Introducing problems without visible solutions as a source of conflict and then solving the problem because you don't want to deal with the consequence is just inexcusable. So is the reverse.

I guess I don't like either happy or unhappy endings if they are unadulteratedly so. It just... it feels fake, and that's the last thing I want in a story. I've known for a while that I don't get my story-high from putting myself in the place of a character, but from things being interesting.

Like, one time I was telling a friend (different friend- I have more than one! This is an accomplishment!) how I thought one character should have died instead of another in a book we were reading, and he, thinking himself wise, replied, "Who are you to decide who should live and who should die?" and I responded, "A writer." My original opinion didn't stem from actually liking one character more than another, it stemmed from the idea that killing the other character would have presented the surviving characters (and by extension, the readers) with an emotional and ethical dilemma, thus making things more interesting.

So- the short answer is that I really don't care whether an ending is "happy" or "sad" so long as it follows logically from the premise and progression of the story and it is interesting.

I guess I tend to write about problems that I don't see having definite solutions, so things don't always go so well for the protagonist. In general, I think we need to write about problems with no definite solutions, so that might tip me into the BAD ENDINGS GOOD camp. However, I guess I have a bit of a problem with taking my DEEP BURNING ANGST out on the characters a bit too much at the end, but it is something I work on.

And, well, if we can come to expect a happy/sad ending from any given story, that just makes it cheap. There's no real conflict, because we already know how things are going to turn out. And realizing that I already know exactly how a book/movie/what have you is a real turn-off. It makes me want to throw things, and I've been known to just set a book down without finishing it if I realize I can 100% predict the ending.