Poetic Justice or No?

I just left my Film Appreciation class and finished watching the “Ice Harvest”. Afterwards, we watched one of the alternate endings which possessed Poetic Justice. For those who don’t know, Poetic Justice is the classic principle that Good triumphs over Evil.

This got me thinking about my story, A Wizard’s Tale, and the ending I have planned for it. Originally, my story was to have Poetic Justice (Spoiler Alert) in that James was to kill his friends, but then be overcome with grief and commit suicide. However, I believe that to be a little cliché.

(Spoiler Alert) The new ending I have in mind is that James takes the Tears of Guthix and brings it to Draynor, where he is supposed to meet the mysterious man. Unfortunately, the mysterious man has slipped some poison into James’s drink. James dies looking the man in the eyes and asking why he had betrayed him. The story ends as the man doesn’t respond and walks away from the bar with the Tears of Guthix.

I think that this new ending will have more of an emotional effect than James just simple offing himself, and perhaps would be even more tragic considering that James, who betrayed his friends, was betrayed himself by someone that he trusted. Is this Poetic Justice because James, who had turned against his friends, was killed at the end or is it not, considering that another evil force is free to wreck havoc? Which ending do you prefer?