The Princess Bride

Sticking with our princess theme I am going to now rant about The Princess Bride. This is another one of those, love the movie but the book disappoints you with a terribly, tragic ending. The Princess Bride is a classic but when they say that they are referring to the movie where Wesley and Buttercup invariably ride off into the sunset, not the book. The book basically follows the movie (rather the movie follows the book but I watched the movie first so I will put that first) pretty directly till the author throws in this weird twist ending. The book ends happily like the movie or at least you think it does but then in this personal style of writing the author uses like he is directly talking to you tells you to stop reading and pretend that the story ends happily if you dislike troubled endings, and continues on with this depressing ending that involves killing off everyone. Who actually does that?! I mean if you’ve actually bothered to get that far in the book who is actually going to stop before they’ve reached the end, especially after being told to, it’s like being dared! In the book ending Indigo’s ( the charming Spaniard trying to avenge his father who befriended Wesley) wound reopens (that he got from avenging his father) and he starts bleeding profusely. The sweet, stupid giant that follows Indigo like a puppy dog gets separated from everyone else and not being able to navigate by himself will most likely despair and die. Wesley’s pill expired (Wesley officially died before he could save Buttercup from the evil Prince so Indigo and the Giant had to go to a wizard and get a magic pill that brought him back to life for twentyish hours)thus leaving Wesley once again dead. I don’t remember what happened to Buttercup, maybe wandering the woods by herself lost and helpless or something else equally horrible. Other than the obvious problem of this ending not being all bright and cheerful I hate his last words. The author never officially say’s any of the characters are dead he just leaves it hanging like that and say’s it’s up to you how you want it to end, even though he’s already practically finished off the story leaving really only one conclusion for his audience to assume. This is a cowardly way to end a story it’s like eating a whole cake except for a single tiny piece so you can say you didn’t eat the whole cake. I hate this book with a passion.