Cut Short: Difference between revisions

Even more frustratingly, often shows create [[Myth Arc]]s haphazardly, stringing viewers along and never really intending to offer any conclusion to the story [[arc]]s they tell the first 2/3s of, or answering the questions they raise. This is called [[The Chris Carter Effect]], and it typically occurs when [[They Just Didn't Care]].

 

 

Compare [[No Ending]], in which there is a deliberate decision to end a work abruptly. Can also happen to [[Curse Cut Short|curses]]. If it doesn't deal with the major plot issues, a [[Gecko Ending]] will include this. See also [[Dead Fic]], [[Left Hanging]], [[Orphaned Series|Orphaned Ser]]

 

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{{examples}}

* ''Yamato Gensouki''.

* The anime version of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' abruptly ended about two-thirds of the way through the story. The manga continued to [[No Ending|the Grand Non-Finale]].

* ''[[Faeries Landing]]'' started off slow and then built up to ramming speed with the plot, finally hitting important and very well put together plots and scripts, introduced a new love interest, finally had the main heroine meet her parents completely and both the main villain of the heroine and the main villain of the hero attack their respective targets and just as the hero and heroine go towards their targets for battle...... the volume ends. What makes this a problem? The author dropped the series to start on another promising to come back for it and never doing so. Effectively the series ENDS on a cliffhanger just before the resolution!

* The anime of ''[[Psychic Academy]]'' ends after the [[Beach Episode]], barely a third of the way through the manga storyline. Not only does it not resolve the love triangle, it barely managed to finish defining it!

* ''[[Zombie Powder]]'' ends without a conclusion or resolution to the story. Rumor has it that [[Tite Kubo]] had a [[Creator Breakdown]] that led to its cancelation.

* A new addition is ''[[Domina no Do]]'', where the manga just suddenly ends with no [[Character Development]] and nothing resolved.

* The anime version of ''[[Souten Kouro]]'' stops suddenly after a minor battle in a new war that was only getting really started. The rest of the story is dealt with in a few screens of white text on black background right where the preview for the next episode would have been, for a very low value of "dealt with".

 

* ''[[Cross Gen]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s entire [[Myth Arc]] was cut short due to financial collapse, and even the [[Wrap It Up]] mini series was nipped in the bud. Especially ironic for fans who were leery over getting involved due to having experienced the same thing with Valiant, a few years earlier.

** The ''[[Cross Gen]]'' characters are now owned by Marvel and a revival of some kind is in the works.

* The ''Maggie the Cat'' mini-series, a spin-off from ''[[Jon Sable Freelance]]'', was cancelled after two issues with no resolution.

 

* "Woody's Roundup," the ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story 2]]'' [[In-Universe]] children's show. The final episode featured Woody and Bullseye attempting to jump the Grand Canyon to rescue their friends the Prospector and Jessie from imminent destruction. The next episode never aired as the show was cancelled due to the launch of Sputnik.

* An [[In-Universe]] example is found in ''[[Galaxy Quest]]''; the original TV show the actors were in was cancelled, but the final episode ended with the words "Activate the Omega 13.". Fans had spent years trying to figure out what the Omega 13 might do, since there were no further episodes to show its use or effects.

 

* ''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]'', [[Charles Dickens]]'s last novel, was Cut Short when Dickens died halfway through writing. What made it even worse was that ''Drood'' was published serially, like all of Dickens' novels, thus frustrating his readers.

* This appears to be the fate of the [[Erast Fandorin]] series of Russian mystery novels, at least for English-speaking readers. Thirteen books have been published in Russia but book #10, ''The Diamond Chariot'', is the last to be translated into English.

* [[.hack|.Hack//Zero]] A series of novels set in the main .hack canon that tells the story of a (female) Heavy Axmen named [[Gender Blender Name|Carl]] and her encounter's with Aura and Skeith/Sora. The series abruptly ended with no real resolution after it's first volume relegating Carl's story to side materials (She ends up Data Drained by Skeith apperntly) and since the .hack series as a whole has moved on a good number of years in the timeline(Being on the 3rd version of The World no) it shows no signs of ever being finished. It's also a case of [[No Export for You]] likely due to it's unifinished nature.

 

* ''[[Dear John (British series)|Dear John]]'''s star Ralph Bates died in 1991, so plans to continue the series were scrapped.

* ''[[American Dreams]]''

* ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' ends with them finding a baby that does not belong to them. There was going to be more explanation of the baby's origins had the show continued.

** This was the same episode where they were told that Kryptonians are genetically incompatible with humans (or, at least, Clark and Lois aren't), destroying their hopes of starting a family.

* ''[[Marker]]''

* The 1970s UK sci-fi show ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'' was cut short due to a strike at ITV. It was meant to end properly with an epic two-parter, but plans had to be scrapped.

* Being a [[Sketch Comedy]], ''[[The Amanda Show]]'' itself didn't suffer from this after its abrupt cancellation, but [[Show Within a Show]] ''Moody's Point'' had ended the final season on a huge [[Cliff Hanger]] in which the main character learned that she'd been [[Switched At Birth]] and that she wasn't who she thought she was. Even creator Dan Schneider doesn't know what would have happened next, because he never got a chance to write it.

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' ends abruptly due to this shortly after Angsty Teen!John Conner gets himself sent to a future where no one recognizes his name due to being pulled out of the timeline.

* ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'' ran as a serial strip in newspapers for 86 years until it was unceremoniously cancelled in 2010. The final strip inexplicably did not resolve the ongoing plotline, but instead [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/06/14/little-orphan-annie-ending/ ended on Annie being held in South America by a serial murderer and Daddy Warbucks staring hopelessly into the distance believing his beloved daughter to be murdered by gangsters.] The sun ''won't'' come up tomorrow in this universe...

 

* ''[[Shenmue]]''. The second installment ended with Ryo finally meeting Shenhua and discovering that the mirror he's been carrying does indeed have some sort of supernatural power. Then Yu Suzuki got the plug pulled on his series, so we'll never know the significance of this, nor Lan Di's ultimate role in the story. Then Suzuki quit at Sega, guaranteeing that we'll ''really'' never know how it all would have turned out.

* The 1999 PC [[Survival Horror]] game ''Nocturne'' ended on a positively agonizing cliffhanger, which over a decade later has yet to be revisited thanks to the game's storyline morphing into ''[[BloodRayne]]''. All is not lost, though: an interview with the developers stated that ''Nocturne'' is not [[Canon Discontinuity]], and that they created ''Bloodrayne'' specifically to have an intellectual property they could relinquish to Majesco if and when they severed ties with the company. They still hope to release a true sequel to ''Nocturne'' someday.

* It would be easier to list multi-part modules for ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]''/''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' that managed to finish their plot than ones that don't.

 

* ''[[Elf Only Inn]]'', twice.

* ''[[RPG World]]'' made it all the way up to the final battle before the [[Creator Breakdown]] the author had over people wanting him to finish the story before moving on to side projects finally made him give up on the whole thing.

* It seems traditional for ''[[A Modest Destiny]]'' to be cancelled just as some sort of epic climax is about to occur (or, is in fact, occurring), only to be once again resurrected. Only to be cancelled again. Then resurrected. Then cancelled. There's a pattern here, is what we're saying.

 

* Many roleplays on ''[[The Gungan Council]]'' end short of the planned climatic grand finale.

* Not quite an episode itself, but ''Smash Kingdom'' had the ''Sonic vs Mario'' clip, which ended with a cliffhanger as Super Sonic and Super Mario resuming their fight. However, it was not resolved in the last episode of the series.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SIxQmwca5U&feature=g-u-u&context=G213b43eFUAAAAAAAAAA Episode 9's first scene did get released, though.] Unfortunately, it leaves it on a bigger cliffhanger with Mario and Luigi squaring down with Basilisx and Shadow with Mecha Sonic... On the other hand, the ending of the trailer, as posted on Alvin Earthworm's [[Deviant ART]] account, does have the words "The End?", implying the possibility that he might consider restarting the series at a later date.

 

* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', until due to popular demand it got a final season in 2017.

* About half of all animated adaptations of [[Spider-Man (comics)|Spider-Man]] since the 1990s have suffered this:

 

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