I've read this series three or four times now, have adored it each and every time, and I have to say that I don't think the ending was rushed at all. I think it ended perfectly, which is to say that its imperfections made it the best possible ending for what the story was trying to tell.
Tolza's death makes some people feel gross and incomplete, think that the writers had to cut a character arc short, but I think that's the point that the series was driving home to the very end. Death is all-encompassing, and you can't control whether you as a person will ever have a fulfilling end, because you may die tomorrow, and what of it? Tolza did the same thing to so many people in the beginning of the series, why would he get a pass just because we had traveled with him for longer? The world doesn't care about your character arc, just like how the world of Distopiary doesn't care that innocent "heroes" have to die for the sake of subjugating the demon lord. It's a very raw, intimate series that doesn't shy away from telling the reader that their needs (the heroes' lives) are unimportant for the sake of the larger story (the world).
I've read this series three or four times now, have adored it each and every time, and I have to say that I don't think the ending was rushed at all. I think it ended perfectly, which is to say that its imperfections made it the best possible ending for what the story was trying to tell.
Tolza's death makes some people feel gross and incomplete, think that the writers had to cut a character arc short, but I think that's the point that the series was driving home to the very end. Death is all-encompassing, and you can't control whether you as a person will ever have a fulfilling end, because you may die tomorrow, and what of it? Tolza did the same thing to so many people in the beginning of the series, why would he get a pass just because we had traveled with him for longer? The world doesn't care about your character arc, just like how the world of Distopiary doesn't care that innocent "heroes" have to die for the sake of subjugating the demon lord. It's a very raw, intimate series that doesn't shy away from telling the reader that their needs (the heroes' lives) are unimportant for the sake of the larger story (the world).