After the End

Every storybook, movie, video game and etc follows a plot. Such as the main character grows up as a squire, trains to be a knight, falls in love with his childhood sweetheart, go trough a series of seemingly random yet specifically plot-driving events, slays the evil dragon and saves his beloved so that they can live happily ever after. The end. That's just an example.

So, what happens after the end?

Sequels suck. Plain and simple. Well, not all of them but at least most do. Why is that? Nobody likes the hero to live a normal life. But after achieving "happily ever after" there isn't really much to do that can be considered abnormal. Such as Mario saving the princess, again. Or how about sonic snow white eating a poison orange? Or pear? Well, it isn't the same for a reason.

There's only a handful of classic quotes and nostalgic story lines and they can't be recycled just like that. Even after going through a extensive make-over and re-packaging, it's really really hard to capture that moment of brilliance again, be it on film, paper or whatever.

And so, waves after waves of new characters flood our cinema, bookstore, and even our Play stations or X Boxes. During the same time, the old heroes plan their retirements and prepare themselves for layers after layers of dust to settle on top of them.

Actually, I hate endings. The first thing that comes to my mind after the end is: ""... And then what?". Back in the real world, happy endings never come. All that comes are happy moments, happy periods of time, happy whatever, but never endings. Because in reality, right after the perfect marriages, people still have to work their asses off to continue to survive. Even rich people who play golf all day have their share of worries.

In the real world, Snow White and her prince still face court charges for killing the witch, Mario would have been bankrupt paying for all the fines when he steps on the grass by the time he saves the princess, Ash still have to worry about animal cruelty because he had to stuff all the Pokemon he caught in a computer (gotta catch 'em all remember?). I'd go on and on but to then I'd be ruining everybody's favorite story, won't I?

Actually, I'm starting to stray really far from my point. After the end, good stories turn into classics, great stories turn into legends, the rest will probably get forgotten but the same rule applies to all of these stories, they don't really get to continue their stories on their on. It's a full-stop. When the original writer dies, so does the story, even if another person continues it, it'll always just be a different story with a similar hero.

What I'm trying to say is this:

We only have as long as our lives last to write our own story, do the things we have the passion in doing, until we lose the ability to do anything more. After that, all we can hope for is that time is compassionate in leaving good memories in those that are writing their own story.

Life's short. After the end, that's all there is. What are you leaving behind? A legacy? A legend? Or a lame excuse of a life?