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]].

 

 

 

{{endingtrope}}

{{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]]''

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': One of the lucky ones. The Ori [[Arc]] is concluded with ''[[The Ark of Truth]]'', a direct-to-DVD movie.

** They also averted it as they were able to wrap up the major, major plot points of the entire series by the end of Season 8. The Ori Arc was subsequently introduced as part of a [[Retool]] at the beginning of the ninth season.

* ''[[Tru Calling]]'' is (sadly for its unluckily small cult fanbase) an ''excellent'' example of this. Not only was the final episode [[Missing Episode|never actually aired]], but even the network's ''initial'' episode order for the second season turned out to be only 6 episodes... when the writers had not only obviously been settling in for the long haul by setting up an epic-level [[Myth Arc]], but, according to the writing staff, they had already planned through episode '''''eight''''' of that season. ''Ouch.''

** Not to mention, the series was cut ''directly after'' the episode with extremely important plot lines - namely that Tru had just learned that others have her same powers... that other being her own father {{spoiler|and Jason Priestley's character, although they both try to do the opposite of what Tru does i.e. make sure people stay dead.}}.

** Although, in the words of series creator Shaun Cassidy, "we saw the ending coming soon enough to wrap the story up," the last episode of ''[[American Gothic]]'' left a lot of unanswered questions: what did Merlyn's disappearance mean? Was her {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice]] a failure, or not? Was she absorbed into Caleb? Does he now possess her powers and innate goodness with which to fight Buck's sinister influence?}} Will Gail still be under Buck's thrall, or will she snap out of her [[Chickification]] and bite him in the balls again? Will Selena ever stop going through that [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]? Is Buck going to succeed in corrupting Caleb or not? Even for a mystery show, and one which by its very nature is cyclical, not much makes sense here.

* ''Profiler'' ended on a cliffhanger.

* The 2002 sci-fi series ''[[Odyssey 5]]'' ends with astronaut Angela Perry abducted by the AI's and scientist Kurt Mendel being arrested on suspicion of killing her. Plus the mysterious Cabal, which the team assume have something to do with the AI's and the impending destruction of the Earth, turn out to be a government force trying to ''stop'' the AI's and who believe that the Odyssey 5 team are the traitors.

* ''[[Kyle XY]]'' ended with Kyle uncovering a nefarious plot and discovering {{spoiler|the identity of his mother}}. It's left at a Cliffhanger with Kyle only partially stopping the plot. It's left unresolved who his true love interest is. [[Word of God]] described the rest of the series in broad strokes. Very annoying as the series was cancelled halfway through the season and no moves were made to provide even the slightest of a better resolution.

* [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|The original ''Battlestar Galactica'']] got cut short after the final episode "The Hand of God", although it did get a follow up of sorts with ''[[Galactica 1980]]'', which original series fans [[Fanon Discontinuity|prefer not to talk about]], and which itself was canceled after only ten episodes. Then it got [[Remake|re-imagined]] into the [[retool]]ed [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|2004-2009 ''Battlestar Galactica'']].

* The last episode of ''[[Carnivale]]'' left multiple plot threads unexplained, as well as introducing a [[Heel Face Turn]] and a resurrection in the last few minutes.

* ''[[Riget]]'' ended after two seasons with many loose ends due to a rare TV case of [[Author Existence Failure|Key Person Existence Failure]]: two leading actors died, the risk of this having been heightened due to the lengthy gaps between seasons and the advanced ages of several characters.

* ''[[Nowhere Man]]''. Ended on a huge cliffhanger. Gets extra points since it was one of UPN's most-watched and most critically-acclaimed shows. Was replaced by a show that was so horrible that it didn't even last 10 episodes.

* 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.

** ''[[Spider-Man Unlimited]]''

** ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]'' also suffered from this, cancelled entirely due to a Fox employee's fit of pique. While we did get something of a workable final episode, a few plot threads had to be forgotten; most notably the real Mary Jane was never rescued from limbo.

** Another example is ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', who got cut short despite good ratings due to the shuffling of rights.

* The two American-made [[Humongous Mecha]] [[Animated Series]] from [[The Nineties]], ''[[Exo Squad]]'' and ''[[BattleTech]]'', both end with unresolved [[Cliff Hanger]]s.

** The last episode of ''[[Exo Squad]]'' ends with JT Marsh watching in horror as strange alien ships appear out of nowhere, steal Mars (yes, the whole planet), and disappear again.

* ''[[Clone High]]''. At least it was some kind of resolution since it was supposed to be the season finale, but it was a [[Cliff Hanger]].

* ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' seems to have fallen victim to this. Due to its abrupt cancellation, it ended with many unresolved plotlines and unexplored characters. The final episode itself only resolved a ''fraction'' of the many plot points introduced earlier in the season.

* ''[[Sonic Sat AM]]'' had a very resolving ending...until the last 10 seconds, where they pull a cliff hanger on the audience. The show was [[Screwed by the Network|promptly cancelled after that]] because it was beaten in the ratings by the [[Merchandise-Driven]] ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]''.

* ''[[Sonic Underground]]'' got screwed for the [[Dreamcast]][[Retool|-driven]] ''[[Sonic Adventure]].'' In some cases, it was cancelled in MID-BROADCAST, leaving the audience hanging.

* ''[[Wolverine and the X-Men]]:'' The last episode ended with a scene in which Apocalypse rules in the future leaving no clue as to what's going to happen next. The show only lasted one season.

* Obscure 1980s cartoon ''[[The Bluffers]]'' centered around a [[Gang of Critters]] trying to find out the secret of a villain named Clandestino. It got canceled before they could say what his secret was.

* ''[[King Arthur and the Knights of Justice]]'' was unexpectedly cancelled after two seasons and 26 episodes, with its premise (collecting all the [[MacGuffin]]s and freeing the original King and Knights) far from resolution.

* ''[[Sym-Bionic Titan]]''. The conflict was building up, the show was gaining fans, and the staff was all set to make a second season. Then the show got canceled because it failed to secure [[Merchandise-Driven|any key toy deals]]. Attempts to get the second season made were fruitless, and [[Genndy Tartakovsky]] was so displeased with the way [[Cartoon Network]] handled his series that he left them to form his own studio under Sony.

* The last episode of ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' ends with all the villains gathering together for a last Xiaolin versus Heylin Cosmic Clash Showdown.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]