How Does 'The Wicked King' End?

The ending of 'Wicked' by Gregory Maguire is a beautifully tragic twist on the classic 'Wizard of Oz' tale. After Elphaba's relentless fight against the Wizard's oppressive regime, she seemingly meets her demise when Dorothy melts her with water. But here's the kicker—Maguire leaves it ambiguous whether she actually dies. The novel hints that Elphaba might have staged her death to escape persecution, with subtle clues like her green-skinned 'corpse' being unrecognizable. Meanwhile, Glinda ascends to power in Oz, burdened by guilt and the weight of her choices. It's a bittersweet ending that makes you question who the real 'wicked' one is—the system or the rebel. What sticks with me is how the book reframes villainy. Elphaba’s activism is painted as radical, yet her motives are deeply humane. The ending doesn’t tie things up neatly; instead, it lingers in moral gray areas. Even Glinda’s triumph feels hollow, underscoring the cost of complicity. Maguire’s finale isn’t just about a witch’s death—it’s a commentary on how history vilifies the marginalized. I still get chills thinking about that last scene where the Witch’s hat is recovered, leaving you wondering if she’s still out there somewhere, watching.

For the deeply invested in lore, the ending is pure nectar. The source of the ashes that have been so central to the conflict is finally revealed, and it ties back to the world’s myth of creation in a moment of pure clarity. The various legends and children’s stories of old quoted in the chapter epigraphs all finally make sense in a heart-breaking sort of way. We find out the true history of the “First King” and how his mistakes have influenced all the conflicts since in profound ways. The ending does not so much solve the plot as solve the history of the world in which the story took place. It’s a complete and tragic story that has now been brought to a close, and it was painful to get there.

The ending of 'King of the Gypsies' is a bittersweet culmination of generational conflict and cultural identity. After years of tension between the patriarch Zharko and his rebellious son Dave, the story closes with Dave ultimately rejecting the traditional gypsy lifestyle his father tried to enforce. Instead of stepping into the role of king, he chooses a more modern path, leaving the community behind. The final scenes are haunting—Zharko, now old and frail, watches as the world he knew slips away, while Dave drives off into an uncertain future. It’s not a clean break, though; you can feel the weight of what’s lost in that silence. What sticks with me is how the film doesn’t judge either character. Zharko’s stubbornness comes from love for his heritage, and Dave’s defiance isn’t framed as outright rebellion but as a search for something different. The ambiguity of the ending makes it linger—you’re left wondering if Dave will ever reconcile with his roots or if Zharko’s legacy will just fade. The cinematography in those last moments, with the caravan camp empty and quiet, really drives home the theme of change versus tradition.

Ugh, this was a huge cop-out for the ending of this series. It had built up so much potential and actually developed some wonderful characters, but in the end it had to force a philosophical ending on us using a deus ex machina. It took away many possibilities for the natural development of the characters just to force home a point. Many of the character arcs were affected in poor ways, but I was especially hurt by how the main character of this series had his development entirely ripped away in the last couple of chapters just to make some grand point. The ending was also so very rushed, and was very contrived as well. The art in the final battle was sublime, I’ll give it that. But the rest of the ending? Tons of disappointment. I was a huge fan of this series until the last volume or so.

I haven't finished mine yet. I'm currently reading the part with the big council meeting. As I'm trying to avoid spoilers in this minefield of a thread, I can only rely on the reactions here. Apparently, it’s either going to be a masterpiece or a letdown – no in-between, it seems. I’m very fascinated by the passion of both camps. For now, I’ll just read on and see where I end up. The journey so far has been very good anyway.

Man, remembering the ending of this book is like trying to remember a particularly disturbing and disgusting nightmare. I never read such a book by King before, and it’s typically NOT his style to leave readers bereft of closure and extremely, excessively unsettled. So after all that drama traversing across the entire country or whatever King came up with for that bit, the last few chapters take place in Kashwak, some tiny desolate town in the heart of nowhere, that’s supposed to be the refuge for ‘phoners’– the insidious Phone People organization responsible for the horror he experienced. And here’s the twist for you– a big one– Kashwak isn’t a refuge. In fact, it’s a very large, pulsating cell phone tower. The signal is reprogramming all the phoners. They all become one big, mindless, docile monad, completely bent to do whatever their new "primary controlling unit"– i.e., “The Tower”– wants them to. Jordan, the little son of the main character– it’s Clayton– was one of them already. But then, very nobly for King, for what he manages to accomplish in the end– very guardedly, ambivalently, and vaguely, though still effectively– the devastated and heart-broken father manages to prepare a makeshift detonator, runs to the heart of the monstrous structure, and– an act of superhuman, relieved mercy– blows up the core of the phone-tower monstrosity. The book ends with that explosive event and then– extremely hauntingly– continues months after the event. In that setting, a completely, devastatingly broken man– the odious, greatly bitter main character– is left all by his lonesome walking South. And he can hear something in the distance– extremely, unthinkingly, constantly and eerily and vocally and annoyingly ringing, jangling– a phone. And that was apparently the whole, ultimate "point" of this heartbreakingly dark, second-rate horror novel by the perhaps declining author Stephen King. Yeah– until the signal is stopped, the infamy will continue forever.

I also really appreciated the cost to the dragon of this happy ending. When he finally has the human in his arms as a human, his hands are shaking. This creature who was able to hold up mountains in all their dragonous size and power was shaking. I loved this. It wasn’t about losing power. It was about trading one kind of strength for another. And then the reader got to see just how rich and full this quiet life was of simple joys that he had never even known to want before – like seasons changing, growing his own food, the gossip of the neighbors. This was all so wonderful and it validated the life he had chosen as being just as full and as meaningful as his life in the crystal palace. But the real closing is for the secondary characters as well. His gruff second-in-command weeps uncontrollably as he leaves, as if he has lost a brother. The learned friend of Elara the scholar puts together the definitive treatise on dragon-human relations in memory of them. The closing of the story of this one creature has the ripples of the central story, but it also has the outer rings of change in the world that this creature and this woman have brought about. It is not a closed ‘The End’ but the opening of a new, better world for them. That is why I consider this a hopeful, tearful ending.

The antagonist is defeated in an extremely interesting psychological way. Instead of being killed by the Luna, he is tricked into having his own curse turned on himself. The result is that he is forced to live in an eternal illusion where he can have everything his heart’s desire, but he knows it’s all fake. I think this is even worse than dying. After his defeat, the story is allowed to meander through the after effects of the conflict at its own pace. It’s rather rare to see a story’s main character deal with the trauma of what they’ve been through in the denouement, but we get to see Luna dealing with her grief in the story’s conclusion. In the end, the King comforted Luna, which is typically reversed from their normal relationship. The overall mood is one of healing, not just winning.

To me, the two biggest differences between Kubrick and King’s endings are their tone and purpose. Kubrick’s is elegant and eternal, cold to the point of making the viewer shiver. King’s is messy and somehow cathartic, giving the reader closure on his beloved characters. Not to say one is better than the other, but they’re two very different movies trying to accomplish two very different goals. The book’s goal, after all, is to make you care deeply about a set of characters and then bring them to some kind of resolution that speaks to their journeys. So Jack dies a hero, not a monster. Wendy survives in some measure of dignity, not as some helpless victim. And Danny is left with some kind of burden to carry into the future, to be sure, but it’s a burden he can, in time, learn to carry. And, overall, it’s a ‘warmer’ ending to a far more horror-richt movie than Kubrick’s version. You feel you’ve gone on a long and grueling journey with people you came to care about deeply, and in the end, they found some peace.

The ending sets up a potential sequel nicely while not leaving a bunch of cliffhangers. The new system is still a little rickety, the rest of the empires are leery, and the old nobility is still grumbling. And yes, Leo is alive and still involved but not in the way that one would expect of a king. The author has set up a great starting point for a number of stories on building a democracy in a fantasy setting, and I feel that the author gave Leo the closure to his personal war that he so rightly deserved. This ending is very satisfying while at the same time leaving a lot of room for further stories to be played out within this very rich and alive world. Whether or not the author returns to this world in future stories, it is a great ending either way.