Tilia asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

In the Vorkosigan Saga, all the (lead) characters end up in happy, heterosexual, harmonious... satisfying relationships. Even Bel, whom Miles thought of as more man than woman, ends up with a quadi woman. In a world that is otherwise so believable, it makes it all feel less realistic, untrue to imperfect human nature. What prompted you to write them this way? How much did you consider this aspect of the stories?

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[It's a little unclear just what aspect of my endings you are objecting to. Ethan Urquhart and Terrance Cee ended up in a happy, homosexual, harmonious satisfying relationship, which I don't regard as any less unrealistic and untrue than any other characters' fates. (Well, the telepathy thing is arguable.) How to typify Lord Dono I leave for others to debate. Utau, Razi, and Sarri were in a longstanding poly relationship, as were Aral, Oliver, and Cordelia for many years. Umegat and Daris clearly had experienced an exceptionally rough time, but they seemed to have come to a quiet harbor when last seen by the narrative. I don't see how anyone could have regarded Ekaterin and Tien as happy, hetero though they certainly were. Abbot Monreale was apparently celibate, etc., etc.

Given "all true wealth is biological", really, a happy ending that consisted of the main character crowing alone atop a big pile of cash, or bodies, or whatever his solipsistic goal, would seem peculiarly unsatisfying. Riches or revenge are all very well, but most readers wouldn't want to place them at the top of a hierarchy of values. Even enhanced bio-social status, the primary goal of the protagonists in most coming-of-age tales, requires a context of other people to exist and be meaningful.

So the greatest reward for any character's struggles is usually found in another human or humans. (Or, in F&SF, sympathetic other sentient being.) The payoff might be romantic or sexual, embodied in an individual or other configuration, it might be achieving or saving a family, or becoming part of a team or making good friends. Or just showing one's doubters what-for. Lots and lots of ways to play it.

But for true realism in the end, if one follows any character out far enough, what they end up as is dead. And the greater the happiness, the more devastating that final truncation of it, as Cordelia and Oliver found. All happy endings are ultimately an illusion created by stopping short. (Or by jumping to a new point of view, I suppose, navigating nimbly away from death after some next-generation fashion.)

Ta, L. (hide spoiler)]

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