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Downer Ending/Western Animation: Difference between revisions
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** "Zuko Alone". Zuko offers to help out a small farm family by rebuilding their barn and protecting them from corrupt, dishonorable soldiers. He teaches the little boy to wield a sword and never give up without a fight. Meanwhile, [[Flash Back|Zuko remembers]] how back at home the only person who cared for him was [[Missing Mom|Ursa]]. It seems almost as if Zuko will find some acceptance in his new life as a refugee. But when his fight with the soldiers reveals who he is, he gets run out of town by everyone for being the Fire Nation prince. Poor Zuko.
** "City of Walls and Secrets" also qualifies as this with Jet being arrested and brainwashed, Joo-Dee being replace and the revelation of Ba Sing Se really being a dystopic and corrupt city where the Earth King is merely a puppet.
* ''[[Batman the Animated Series]]'' had a couple of these. Such as at the end of the episode Mudslide, Matt "Clayface" Hagen's structural integrity is slowly slipping away and his girlfriend and scientist Stella has almost completed a procedure that will allow him to stay in his human state whenever he wishes... until Batman appears and turns off the machine in a rather cold, [[Moral Dissonance|unheroic moment]]. Admittedly Hagen had to hurt several people and steal the technology and Batman originally offered to help Hagen himself, as well as claiming "the lab boys will take it from here", from which we can assume they would continue and finish the procedure. The two fight it out of the laboratory and Clayface is doused in rain, further loosening his integrity until the pair are hanging from a cliff. Batman loses his grip of Hagen and he falls into the water before dissolving completely (although later episodes reveal he was, of course, [[Not Quite Dead]]). The episode ends on a wide shot of the cliff, Batman climbing up and helping Stella who is now in tears. The tragedy of it all is somewhat dampened by the fact that this is a [[Shout
** In the sequel to that episode, the new Robin meets and becomes smitten with a cute girl who turns out to be an "extension" of the newly re-formed Clayface that accidentally developed a mind of her own. At the end of the episode she's forced to re-merge with her "father", and after Robin goes berserk on him demanding that he bring her back, Clayface can only inform him that "she" is simply ''gone''. Later when the police are trying to figure out just what to charge Clayface with, Robin bitterly says "Murder."
*** Batman even solemnly tells Robin at the end, "Sometimes, there are no happy endings."
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*** The louse hero does manage to save his baby and find refuge in a new home {{spoiler|in Angelina Jolie's pubic hair}} where, it's implied, they can live happily without fear, so this one might be upgraded to [[Bittersweet Ending]] on that front.
** "You're Getting Old" {{spoiler|Stan has a falling out with his friends and his parents get a divorce. Stan sees the entire world as shit.}} All of this happens while sad music plays.
* ''[[My Life As a Teenage Robot (Animation)|My Life As a Teenage Robot]]'', of all places, for an animated sci-fi/comedy has a really overly-dramatic Downer Ending in "Mist Opportunities". Jenny meets up with her friend Misty, whose ways of fighting evil aren't what Jenny cottons to. In the end, [[No
* The ''[[Lilo and Stitch The Series (Animation)|Lilo and Stitch The Series]]'' episode, ''Angel''. Stitch falls in love with an experiment (who basically looks like a pink female version of Stitch), but Lilo has suspiscion towards her because her siren-like song reverts any of the experiments that have been converted for good back to their destructive states. Luckily, Stitch and 625 were immune because they were made ''after'' Angel. In the end, [[Love Redeems|Stitch makes Angel see the error of her ways]], but sadly, she was captured by Gantu. However, this was due to [[Executive Meddling|the executives disliking the idea of Angel, much to the dismay and anger of the fans]]. [[Earn Your Happy Ending|It gets fixed in the series finale, ''Snafu'']].
* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy (Animation)|Ed, Edd n Eddy]]'' often ends with either the Eds humiliated or raped by the Kanker Sisters, and they're often funny endings, since it is a funny show. But only ONE ending actually qualifies for a Downer Ending: the ending to ''If It Smells Like An Ed''. The Eds were accused of ruining Friendship Day, and tried to clear their names. Unfortunately, Act II has the Eds accused of bounding and gagging Jonny when actually, they found him this way. The kids refused to believe the Eds and chased them into the woods. The Eds hid in a shed, only to run into The Kanker Sisters. The cowardly three are then trapped between the kids, who are practically wishing for the Eds to die, and the Kankers, who demand the Eds to make out with them. The Eds prefered to have fruit pelted at them by the kids. It was then revealed that '''Jimmy''', of all people, set them up. His motive? The wedgie (and subsequent humiliation) given to him earlier that day by Eddy. He then has the Kankers take the Eds away.
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** The final sequence of "Misplaced" juxtaposes a shot of Zatanna sobbing over the loss of her father with another of Klarion laughing maniacally as he and his fellow villains move one step closer to completing their master plan.
** The ending of "Insecurity" sees Artemis berated by her teammates for being immature and selfish, only to then be offered a chance to betray the team by her father.
* ''[[Western Animation/Ace Lightning|Ace Lightning]]'' had a fair few downer ending episodes. One where [[Wham! Episode|Sparx was killed by a couple of crazy puppets ''shooting her with her own sword'']] (which came [[Mood Dissonance|completely out of the blue in what had previously been a fairly light hearted episode]]), another in which the protagonist's ex-girlfriend all but ended up hating him through no fault of his own (actually there are a few of those), and then of course there's the final episode where at least one major bad guy gets away, Lady Illusion is shot dead and the ''other'' bad guy is shown to be well and truly alive in the Sixth Dimension -and holding the Master Programmer hostage. We never found out what happened due to the cancellation.
* The second half of the first Season of ''[[Winx Club (Animation)|Winx Club]]'' gets many of these too. Let's see: Mirta, the first (and only) friendly witch (who's also half-fairy) gets turned into a pumpkin when she was trying to help Bloom, speaking of which, she later finds that her boyfriend is a prince and is in an arranged marriage with another girl. After finding this, depressed, she returns to Earth, where the Trix steal her powers, becoming much more powerful. With her new powers, the Trix then proceed to take over Cloudtower, summon an infernal army to conquer the world. However, things got better for every good character.
** Episode 8 has Darcy successfully seducing Riven and walking away without any punishment. Stella outright says "We lost this one."
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** Naturally current showings of these episodes always cut to the credits.
*** Not true. Everytime I see the Mouseketeer episode on [[Cartoon Network]] it has the [[Downer Ending]] intact.
* ''[[Spider Man the Animated Series (Animation)|Spider Man the Animated Series]]'' has an episode that shocked us with its combination of Downer Ending and [[Wham! Episode]]. Mary Jane and Peter had finally gotten married at the beginning of the season, after MJ had been lost down a inter dimensional portal and come back. They are starting their honeymoon when Hydro-Man kidnaps MJ right under Peter's nose. He manages to find her again, only for it to be revealed that both Hydro-Man and MJ are in fact clones, made from a process that hasn't been perfected yet. MJ ends up disintegrating in Peter's arms. Even worse, when you realize that this means the real Mary Jane has been floating in the interdimensional portal all this time. These two episodes left many in a state of shock for hours. The remaining 5 episodes managed to turn it into a [[Bittersweet Ending]] as Spider-Man saves reality itself from being destroyed... but Mary Jane is still missing.
** Well, it was somewhat foreshadowed in that MJ's sudden return was totally out of the blue, she didn't seem traumatized by several months in interdimensional void and therefore something wasn't right. And the end of the series strongly implied that Spider-Man will find her, with Madame Web's help and all. The plan was to shoot five more episodes which would involve him doing just that, but [[Screwed By the Network|the show was canceled]].
* Similarly, ''[[Spider Man Unlimited (Animation)|Spider Man Unlimited]]'' ends with Spider-Man lost in time, the symbiotes spawned from Venom and Carnage taking over the city, and everyone is apparently powerless to stop them. An ending was scripted to have them overcome the infestation and Spider-Man, Eddie Brock, and Cletus Kasady making their way back to our Earth, but the series was canceled at that point.
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