plot - Genre conventions: Which end do readers expect?

I need help with the concept of my story:

My protagonists live in a mild dystopia. Think of your own country today ;-) They have the opportunity to kill about 20 persons, which will cause a fundamental change in their society that makes life much better for everyone. Imagine the effect being similar to:

• no one needing to work more than 50%



• with the prices remaining the same, everyone earning at least twice your current average national income


• no one earning more than twenty times that


• free public transport, housing, schooling, health services

You get the idea. No anarchy, socialism, or whatever, just what we have today with less inequality and better social system.

The story can have three endings:

1. the protagonists cannot decide -- this might make for an intriguing but unsatisfying end


2. the protagonists kill the 20 -- this be satisfying to the readers, but at the same time morally questionable


3. the protagonists walk away -- this will be morally superior, but unsatisfying

If I managed to tell all three stories in a gripping and convincing way so that all endings resulted naturally from the storyline and characters, which end wozld satisfy readers most and what end would they expect in a YA dystopian novel?

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Edit [2014-05-21]

In comments and answers there has been some complaint that you don't know enough to know what ending readers will prefer. You don't know about my protagonists, you don't know the society or "the 20", so obviously all depends on how I tell that tale. Sure. But that's not what I'm asking.

First, I'm telling you what kind of society it is. My question says: Imagine your own country. So – I hope – you know what kind of society you should consider. As for the protagonists or "the 20" (which is just a random number, not the number of people in my story), they really don't matter to this question, because this question is not about my story, but about genre conventions and reader expectations as they exsit before those readers even pick up this book.

The question is: Given a society like your own, which ending would readers expect or be most satisfied with, disregarding any specific plot. Do readers expect protagonists to kill the bad guys? Would they feel better if the protagonists had moral qualms and did nothing? In short:

Do readers enjoy self-administered vigilante justice? Or do they prefer moral heroes?

In the Seventies there was widespread support and approval among German students when the Red Army Faction killed employer and industry representative Hanns Martin Schleyer. How do readers of YA dystopian fiction today feel about social revolutionary terrorists killing key figures from politics to attempt a change in society?

There is nothing beyond the genre you need to know to answer this question. All you need is familiarity with the genre, current politics, and readers of YA fiction.

Answer

This answer is highly, highly subjective. But I personally dislike almost every YA dystopian future novel I've ever read (they're all the same thing to me and they're all predictable), so I think if you're asking about reader expectations, I might be a good person to answer the question... mostly because I see similarities in all of the YA novels I've slogged through. So maybe I can point out what things I think readers expect. But again, not a fan of YA dystopias.

Also, the links. They are all to TVTropes. You're welcome.

What end would they expect in a YA dystopian novel?

Either the underdogs win or the underdogs win. So, you know. Choice 2.

This isn't to say that this is the best ending, but it is what people expect. If you put a rag-tag team together in real life to battle it out against 20 other people who (assumedly) are a group, then... they probably won't make it if the 20 people are a bunch of rich philanthropists willing to throw money at some crazy plan to all become equal parts Lex Luthor. In a book, though? The underdogs probably win. Even against those odds. It's not even a surprise, it's just something we consider to be true.

Anyway this is still pretty dependent on the 20 people-- if they're the 20 people running the dystopian future, then your heroes going through with it but now having a moral quandary on their hands is expected. We expect Batman to beat the Joker because the Joker is the bad guy doing bad guy stuff and working for the forces of bad. If the 20 people are people working to keep the dsytopia running and they are doing bad stuff to do it, then it is ending 2 is expected. Unexpected is "So then we all talked about what to do and ended up doing nothing" even though that's realistic (based on protagonist age and socio-economic status among other things).

However, you're saying that the description you gave us is basically all the readers get (I think?) in which case we don't know:

• If the 20 are working together



• If the 20 are the cause of the dystopia's inner workings


• If the 20 are good/bad people


• If the 20 are related (to each other or to the protagonists)


• If the 20 are corrupt somehow and could be fixed another way


• If the 20 know each other

And in that case, indiscriminately killing 20 people we know nothing about would probably end pretty badly. Sure, there's a chance our heroes are killing bad guys. But they could also be killing good guys. Or morally ambiguous guys. What do we expect when you're killing indiscriminately with no reason? We expect punishment even if the characters are supposed to be doing "good". Recalling that no matter how awesome you are, CRIME DOES NOT PAY (except for the women and the cars and the money and the Towers of Doom), anyone who is just skulking around killing people should eventually get their come-uppance, unless they're good guys being forced to do such a thing in which case, they will be vindicated.

I will also note that the other two endings are usually routes taken by "weak" characters. In our YA dystopian books/movies that are now popular, the protagonists are always proactive, even if there are obvious downfalls to their pro-activity, and then they get out of those with sheer pluckiness. Weak characters are indecisive and walk away from problems instead of being chipper plucky problem solvers (generalization). Sometimes this is the best decision. But we play them up like they are not. Even if the protagonists act weak (are indecisive) they will come to a conclusion that is generally not of the "go home and suffer quietly" variety.

Which end would satisfy readers most?

This is... kind of reader based. Generally speaking, I think the second ending is the most satisfying, even though it's expected... but that's still not saying much.

Part of it could be that people like to be right-- if they guess that at the end of your book, the 20 people are dead and then... you end the book and the 20 people are dead, they feel good. Harry Potter spent 7 books killing Voldemort and we all knew Voldemort's number was up after book 1. Sure there were probably people wishing he'd live, but I don't doubt most people were aware he couldn't make it past the last book and still be evil. We aren't surprised by the ending itself. The surprise is how the ending is reached, how smoothly it's executed, and so on. So people expect something and thinking they'll be right, they read through and hopefully come to the conclusion that they are right. And being right can conjure up feelings of satisfaction, so long as there are surprises along the way. On the other hand, it can also bring up the notion "this is tired," if the story isn't written well enough for someone's personal tastes. Given that there are multiple types of people reading your story each with different tastes and experiences... there is no surefire way to know for certain what will be the most satisfying.

Judging by the way we have been writing books (and interpreting them for the masses), it is far more likely that you'll reach wider audiences with ending 2. And by reaching wider audiences, you would end up satisfying/letting down a greater range of people. Then it just turns into a numbers game, but with a large audience reached successfully... you would be able to tailor the book to satisfy the majority.