Making my character not kill everyone

I'm really stuck on trying to figure out a way through a problem in my story. To start, my story has two characters who are gods that represent Life versus Destruction. Neither is good or evil in this story. However, they both influence each other. Overtime the God of Life has absorbed more destruction and vise versa for the God of Destruction. When they are close to coming into equilibrium, some of the other gods step in to prevent their nature changing.

There is a Goddess who warns that the God of Life, because he radiates life without control, will radiate destruction when his nature changes destroying everything around him. To prevent this, the God of Balance seals away the God of Destruction so that their nature can no longer influence each other. Of course, through the course of the story the God of Life discovers where the God of Destruction is and comes into contact with him once again.

I'm not sure how I can make a good ending from this scenario. I know a bad ending would be the ending everyone is trying to prevent: the God of Life changing to the God of Destruction and destroying everything around him because he doesn't know any control. But how can I have him make this transformation to the God of Destruction and prevent him from radiating death? I'm at a loss right now so maybe some fresh eyes or suggestions for inspiration can get me out of this rut. I appreciate any feedback.

Why can the balance god do nothing to contain the life god if he can so readily seal away the destruction god.

edited 1st Apr '18 11:22:18 PM by Eagal

They're both inside the seal at this point since the seal is more of a place/prison to separate them. It also took 4 other gods not mentioned to make it.

Honestly, I don't see why you shouldn't go for a bad ending in this scenario.

I mean, certainly, one should strive to write good endings if it is possible, but in this case it seems to be that you've written yourself into a corner and the only way out would be via a blatant plot device. Of course, some people very much would use the aforementioned plot device to get out of it, even some bigger and acclaimed authors have (e.g. Madame Rowling), but personally I feel that if walking the road that your story laid out for you ends with a particular outcome the so be it.

Now, I do not know everything about your story, and it's possible that the plot element you are asking about it only tangential to the main plot of your story and you just don't want it to ruin the more important parts. However, the way you presented it, it appears to me that it is a fairly important part of the story, and as such one that needn't be tempered from affecting other parts (even if everyone dying as a result of this part's ending would be unfortunate), so at this point I am left with the impression that you basically wrote your god of life as going “oh, hey, let's be a stupid teenager” and you somehow miraculously, with an out-of-nowhere plot device, fixing everything would feel ... well, like basically showing the readers that “you know what, you can be a completely irresponsible moron, consequences don't matter”. Maybe it wouldn't feel to me that way if I read your whole story, but with the limited information and the limited perspective that I have that's how it feels to me.

Unless your god of life simply never knew that there's this kind of thing happening, in which case let me comment: “what the everlasting fuck?”

Thank you for your feedback. I left the details minor because I kind of feel like the details are what is getting me stumped. For the bad ending, I definitely plan on doing that. I'm telling this story in a format that allows for multiple endings so I can do more than just this one.

The reason that I want the God of Life to not get out of this without changing is because this story has a theme of people changing over time and learning how to accept that. The God of Balance doesn't really care if the God of Life ends of destroying everything; they just don't want him to change. So having the God of Life change is important for character growth and all that jazz. But now I'm thinking that maybe I should have the God of Life manage to escape the seal before meeting the God of Destruction and just let him have his explosion outside it somehow. That or the fact that the God of Life wouldn't have any control over their new power can be a lie the God of Balance crafted because they didn't want the God of Life to change. I'll keep brainstorming, and hopefully not come up with an answer that is convoluted heh heh...

edited 2nd Apr '18 2:52:30 PM by CheyTea

You could always write a twist ending where the newly changed God of Life doesn't kill everything and become a new God of Destruction but instead takes on a nuanced understanding of "destruction". Like, he doesn't kill everyone but radiates energy that causes mutations (such as UV light or even gamma rays), effectively becoming a sun god instead.

Or some other kind of twist. The ither gods don't have to be correct in their hypothesis that he'll radiate "the opposite of life".