While The Stand is undoubtedly a classic by Stephen King's books, The Stand borrowed from what came before while becoming its own thing that would then go on to influence what came next. As such, it's a seminal work in post-apocalyptic literature.

While The Stand is collectively regarded as one of King's masterworks, even the most incredible book, if it's the length of The Stand, will have some flaws. That doesn't make it any less deserving of master status – in fact, one could argue that those flaws only serve to highlight the difficulty in remaining perfect in every aspect from start to finish, making the achievement even more impressive. Nonetheless, it doesn't erase those flaws, including another Stephen King conclusion that left readers wanting more.

Why The Stand's Ending Is Among Stephen King's Most Controversial Conclusions

It Was Too Abrupt For Many Readers

In keeping with that, for many readers, The Stand's ever-debated and controversial ending is its weakest part. After such an epic build-up, the problem is that it's just sort of anticlimactic. No great battle. No final fight for the heroes to engage in. The villain, at least in the 1990 "Complete and Uncut" edition, survives. In the end, the resolution is a deus ex machina - quite literally, as Trashcan Man shows up, conveniently at the right moment, with a leaking nuclear bomb, which the literal hand of God then descends from the sky to detonate.

The symbolism isn't subtle. And, as a symbolically fitting ending, it works – mostly – even if it is incredibly on-the-nose and a bit clunky. But as an ending to an epic tale, it's something of a letdown. Yes, the heroes are the noble sacrifice necessary for an Old Testament God to stop a force of pure evil, but as an ending for such beloved characters, it's hardly satisfying as a reader. And the aforementioned uncut edition actively makes it worse, ultimately rendering their sacrifice pointless.

The direct result of that ending is that it also makes for a rather anticlimactic aftermath, though, in fairness, Stephen King's book endings are a common complaint. The death of so many major characters abruptly ends their stories, as well as the storylines of any other surviving characters that are directly tied to the stories of those sacrificed. While rebuilding in the aftermath of the plague was shown in Boulder, that was just a start. The real rebuilding could only happen once Randall Flagg was vanquished and his evil influence purged from the earth. But the book never shows that, ending after the detonation and quickly wrapping up storylines for characters we might have spent more time with.

The Length Of The Stand Should Have Allowed More Time To Deal With The Aftermath

The Complete & Uncut Edition Missed An Opportunity

It's a frustrating way to end such an epic tale considering how long The Stand is, and especially considering how long the "Complete and Uncut" edition is. At 1,152 words (give or take a few hundred depending on the format in which you read it), the uncut edition is a monster of a novel. But even without the extra roughly 400 pages King added to the uncut edition, the original version of The Stand published by Doubleday was still a whopping 823 pages. That's still an incredibly long book, no matter how you slice it.

At 1,152 words (give or take a few hundred depending on the format in which you read it), the uncut edition is a monster of a novel.

While the uncut edition may be the version Stephen King always intended, that doesn't mean it's better. His fans are split on which version to read, with plenty of readers preferring the original version of the book and feeling the uncut edition doesn't add much that's necessary. Regardless of which version you prefer, there's no question that the ending of the uncut version of The Stand doesn't do anything to clean up an ending that had been begging for it for decades.

Stephen King originally cut those hundreds of pages because Doubleday was concerned the book would be far too long for people to want to read and expensive to market.

At well over 1,000 words, there was plenty of real estate to explore the aftermath of the detonation properly, which is why it's a bit of a head-scratcher that it didn't. It might have wrapped up the stories of the surviving characters and grappled with their grief in the wake of the sacrifice of their beloved friends Larry Underwood, Glen Bateman, and Ralph Brubaker, not to mention the previous unexpected deaths of Nick Andros and Mother Abigail.

The deaths of the millions who died from Captain Trips were horrific, but the deaths of those who beat the pandemic, only to die either in senseless ways, or as a pointless sacrifice, are even more devastating. It feels especially cruel, which is why it's such a rich vein of emotion to mine. The grief that stems from that sort of unfathomable, compound loss is the layered, complex kind of grief that King has always written so well and so thoughtfully in his stories, which is why it feels like such a missed opportunity that he didn't do it in The Stand.

The Stand Could Have Worked As Multiple Books Rather Than One Lengthy Novel

It Would Have Been Interesting To See The Story As A Series

All of the above considered, an intriguing hypothetical to ponder would be what The Stand might have looked like had it been split into multiple books as a series rather than one novel, epic as it was. Multiple books, even if they were just a duology, would have allowed for a much more thorough explanation of the stories whose endings weren't wrapped up satisfactorily. The Stand had a true ensemble cast, so some of the ing characters didn't get much fleshing out or development, and multiple books or even a single-book sequel to The Stand might have addressed that.

Regardless of the ending, or the characters who got short shrift, The Stand is still a masterpiece. Truly, it's one of the greatest post-apocalyptic epics ever penned, up there with any literary classic. Stephen King may famously refer to himself as "the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries," but with The Stand, he showed that he could hang with any of the greats, and indeed, in the decades since it was written, he has become one. It's just that it sometimes makes one wonder what its ends might have been had we stayed with the characters just a little while longer.