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Who You Are: Why I don't want an easy or completely happy ending

(Crossposting in the How Should It All End? thread)

Right now, some fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are screaming at the
television. They want there to be a happy ending for this season, for this
show, for these characters. After all, they've earned it, right? They've
faced the undead so many times and they've done so many good things that
they've earned a happy ending, right? That innate desire to see a happy
ending may really be about fans personally identifying with the series --
thinking that if the show has an unhappy close, then they in turn will.

I don't want this show to have a happy Hallmark Hollywood ending. I don't
want to see anyone riding off into the sunset. As I wrote before, what will
matter to me most in the final episodes is this: Not only what is done, but
how it is done, who does what and why they do it. Cause and effect.
Motivations and intentions. Respect and understanding. Acceptance and
perseverance. I do want to see closure regarding portions of the past and
hope for the future. A glimmer of hope - that one grain of sand - is far
more important to me than a romantic ending or a world that has been rid of
all evil.

Nothing is perfect. No one is perfect. What comes easy never stays. What
comes hard sticks around. You may have one moment of happiness, but no life
is happiness every minute of every day. That's the point. You can't enjoy
the happy times without the bad times. You can't appreciate the one who
stays if you hadn't suffered through the one who abandoned you. You can't
have good without evil. You can't appreciate being healthy if you've never
been sick. It's not about having what you want but wanting what you have.

This show has repeatedly forced us to look at humanity -- in both of its
faces. Good folk, bad folk. Clean folk, dirty folk. First love, first loss.
Fulfilling prophecies, rewriting prophecies. Twisting the written word, the
spoken word, the dream, the visions, the assumed, the subtext and making it
into something symbolic, shocking, different, unique, thought-provoking.
Taking what you thought you knew, all that you held dear, what you figured
was safe as houses, and turning your head slightly so that you see the big
picture alongside the small picture, the world's story alongside your own
story, the whole truth alongside your truth.

"If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters,
then all that matters is what we do... 'cause that's all there is. What we
do, now, today."

This isn't about having a happy ending. Not everyone is going to survive.
Some characters are going to die in this battle. Some are going to live.
Some are going to be cleansed by their own good deeds, some are going to be
tainted by their own bad deeds. There may be those who are going to beg to
be forgiven; some will be, some won't. It's not about who is standing
against you, but who is standing with you, who will give up their lives for
you, for their loved ones, for a random innocent person, for the greater
good.

"It's all about the journey, then, isn't it?"

It's about overcoming obstacles. Not only going around walls but knocking
them down. Not bowing down to something or someone stronger than you. Not
feeding someone else's need for control or power. Not wanting that control
or power yourself. Instead, you must know who you are. You must accept who
you are. You must know that, even if everyone is taken away from you, even
if everything gets stripped away, you still have you.

"Me."

. . . And that's all you need.

Little Willow