What Does Alternate Ending Mean?
Fic TypeA fic that rewrites how a story concludes, replacing canon's finale with a different outcome. It can also refer to an author offering a second ending to their own fic.
Alternate Ending in Practice
Alternate endings are among the oldest impulses in fanfiction: when a finale disappoints, fandom simply writes a better one. They overlap heavily with fix-it fics, though an alternate ending does not have to fix anything — some make events sadder or stranger rather than happier. Authors occasionally publish alternate endings to their own works as bonus chapters or separate stories in a series, letting readers choose between, say, the bittersweet ending and the indulgent one. Finale season in any big fandom reliably produces a wave of them.
Example usage
"The show's finale never happened to me; I only acknowledge the 80k alternate ending someone posted that May."
Related Terms
Fix-It
A fic that repairs what canon broke — reversing deaths, redeeming wasted arcs, rescuing characters from endings fandom rejects. Written in the firm belief that the source got it wrong.
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Canon Divergence
A story that follows canon faithfully up to a chosen point, then branches onto a different path. The premise is usually a single changed decision, survival, or revelation, with consequences unspooling from there.
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Everybody Lives
An AU tag promising that the characters canon killed are alive and stay that way. Often phrased in full as 'Everybody Lives AU' or paired with 'Nobody Dies.'
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EWE (Epilogue? What Epilogue?)
A Harry Potter fandom tag meaning the fic ignores the books' nineteen-years-later epilogue — its marriages, careers, and children never happen. The name performs its own denial.
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