Just to add to this interesting discussion; the privileging of male perspectives in story, in film and television, is definitely evident from data, in terms of roles for women in front of and behind the camera:
https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2019_Its_a_Mans_Celluloid_World_Report_REV.pdf
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/family-films-twice-many-male-female-characters-says-new-study-exclusive-193648252.html
https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/key-findings-gender-disparity-family-films-2013.pdfÂ
And itâs true, sometimes female fanbases are actively disliked and discouraged:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/paul-dini-superhero-cartoon-execs-dont-want-largely-f-1483758317
I donât think we can analyse all these texts as suffering from exactly the same failings in terms of their ending, however. Â
Game of Thrones may have tried to surprise fans, but Supernatural and Rise of Skywalker tried to please certain segments of the fan audience (at the expense of others). A Reylo ending for Rise of Skywalker and a Just-the-Brothers ending for Supernatural were fanservice. And it was that, cartoonish idea of, fanservice which impacted narrative and character growth. Â
Avengers: Endgame - the privileging of the heteronormative family remains a given in products this huge. The ending wasnât âleftfieldâ to evade fans who had guessed ahead. The ending was, predictably, normative. Women are seen as a ârewardâ for male heroism; Peggy becomes Capâs reward. Women who are not family-normative are seen as expendable; hence Natâs sacrifice for Barton (because Barton had a heteronormative family). Elements capable of âqueer readingsâ (the team as âfound familyâ, the close relationship between Cap and Bucky) got shut down by a heteronormative ending - dull and regressive, yes, but not leftfield.
In fact, itâs not the narrative trying to âsurpriseâ fans which unites the endings of Game of Thrones, Rise of Skywalker, Avengers: Endgame and Supernatural; itâs the unimaginative straightjacket of (white) heteronormative patriarchy. Disruptive elements allowed space in the middle of the story are given normative endings.Â
Rey, is the hero of the new Disney Star Wars trilogy, and hey, thatâs cool, a woman in the Luke role. But, sheâs written by men (and the virgin/ whore dichotomy is, apparently, still going strong with them) and so she is girlish and un-sexual (virgin category) and her story evolves to revolve around a troubled white man (Kylo Ren). Reyâs âpurityâ saves petulant Alt-right manchild Kylo, changing him back into âniceâ Ben. Itâs Beauty and the Beast, in space.Â
Wonderful female characters who were allowed to breathe and evolve over the course of Game of Thrones get put back in their boxes at the end. Cersei becomes just the bitch her âniceâ brother couldnât escape from. Dany becomes just the power-mad bitch her âniceâ lover Jon Snow had to murder. And the final scene is Brannâs council (all dudes except Brienne) discussing the need to rebuild the cityâs brothels as a top priority. Proper patriarchy is restoredâŠ
Supernatural, well, what even was that fuckery. But there are no women, no POC, and no queer folk visible in that final Heaven, only white men-folk. All the interesting elements allowed to breath in the middle of the story were bleached out at the end; blood family was reinscribed as more important than found family; Sam got some blurry heterosexuality; Dean and Cas were not allowed to reunite, in case queerness âtaintedâ the final bow on the corporate product.
Greater diversity in writers rooms, directorsâ chairs, producer roles and, crucially, at senior corporate levels in the film and television business is so, desperately, desperately, needed, to lift the curse of the Boring Dudebro Ending.Â