Blog #9: Why I hate cliffhangers

Remember last blog when I said I kinda wanted to bring more of my life into my blogs? Well, this is one of those. But there's a picture at the end, so scroll down if you want. Really, I don't mind.

So the weekend came around once again, and after a week of filing reports, taking phone calls, and walking a mile in the pouring rain (long story) I was more than happy to chill out and have a nice weekend to work on my main project, Nova Force Go. Unfortunately for that project, I decided to have five minutes on the internet before I started writing... And in this five minutes, I discovered an amazing web-series on YouTube called RWBY. It began with finding a song from the series, then sourcing that song to a trailer, which made me think "Okay, I'll check this out. I'm sure writing can wait a bit."

A day later, I'd binged the entire series (four volumes, plus a non-canon comedy spinoff which is ACTUALLY funny, Teen Titans Go writers take note). I was so excited on the final episode of volume 4, not spoiling anything but let's just say things had become pretty dark and.... The finale sort of began to tie up loose ends, but then it just.... Ended. And after googling it, I found that volume 5 isn't out until autumn. This bothers me.

As a fan of Doctor Who, I'm kind of used to cliffhangers. That doesn't mean I LIKE them, but I can wait a week for the next episode.... But that's the problem with a series ending on a cliffhanger. The next episode isn't out next week. There's a much longer wait. This is why I'm actually kind of dreading Avengers: Infinity War next year; I love Marvel but I really hope it isn't a massive cliffhanger where everything's at stake and it leaves us desperate to know what happens next for a YEAR.

Another problem is the opposite, I remember a few years ago I read a drama web comic that was pretty good. Unfortunately the writer disappeared for like six months and by the time she came back, a lot of the tension in the series had died down. People didn't seem to be as hyped. Not saying this'll happen to Marvel or RWBY, it definitely won't, but it can bite smaller works of fiction hard. There are ways around this, primarily a refresher on the series, sort of a rundown of what's happened so far to get readers back up to speed on the events. I guess that's why a lot of post-cliffhanger episodes start with a "previously" segment.

But yeah, cliffhangers always bothered me. It never helped that I was, and sometimes still am rather impatient. I've got better in time, but that still doesn't change how annoying it is when a story ends that way. It's good to leave the reader wanting more, but too much suspense with no answer can just be frustrating.

Still, I'd recommend RWBY to anyone who likes a good bit of fantasy, drama, humour, heart, sci-fi, and ass-kicking magical ninjas. Might wanna wait a bit though if you hate cliffhangers like I do.

Here's a drawing of my favourite character Yang Xaio Long. It was also her theme song that led me to finding the series in the first place. I also intend to draw the other characters in the series soon.