Gainax Ending: Difference between revisions
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[[File:gainaxending3 6677.gif|link=Neon Genesis Evangelion|frame|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8pvC3mxGo "Is this how you end a series???"]]] |
[[File:gainaxending3 6677.gif|link=Neon Genesis Evangelion|frame|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8pvC3mxGo "Is this how you end a series???"]]] |
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{{quote|''"I wanted controversy, arguments, fights, discussions, people in anger waving fists in my face saying, 'how dare you?'"'' |
{{quote|''"I wanted controversy, arguments, fights, discussions, people in anger waving fists in my face saying, 'how dare you?'"'' |
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|Patrick McGoohan on the ending of ''[[The Prisoner]]''}} |
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A [[Gainax Ending]] is an ending that doesn't make any sense. This is usually a deliberate form of [[Mind Screw]] or intended as a [[Sequel Hook]] to a sequel that was never made. For whatever reason, after watching a Gainax Ending, you won't have any idea what happened. After rewatching it, rewatching the entire series, discussing it with other fans, looking up the meaning of the symbolism, and subjecting the entire thing to a comprehensive literary analysis, you still might not have any idea what happened. If you're lucky, then there will be some kind of emotional or symbolic resolution even if it doesn't actually explain what happened to the characters, and you'll be left with the sense that the series as a whole was more deeply thought out than it seemed before. If you're unlucky, then you'll be left with more questions than when you started with, and the sense that the series as a whole has been voided of the meaning you once read in it. |
A [[Gainax Ending]] is an ending that doesn't make any sense. This is usually a deliberate form of [[Mind Screw]] or intended as a [[Sequel Hook]] to a sequel that was never made. For whatever reason, after watching a Gainax Ending, you won't have any idea what happened. After rewatching it, rewatching the entire series, discussing it with other fans, looking up the meaning of the symbolism, and subjecting the entire thing to a comprehensive literary analysis, you still might not have any idea what happened. If you're lucky, then there will be some kind of emotional or symbolic resolution even if it doesn't actually explain what happened to the characters, and you'll be left with the sense that the series as a whole was more deeply thought out than it seemed before. If you're unlucky, then you'll be left with more questions than when you started with, and the sense that the series as a whole has been voided of the meaning you once read in it. |
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* On the note of ''Stargate SG-1'', that show ended with Daniel, Vala, Carter, Teal'c, and General Landry spending several decades in a time bubble while Carter tries to figure out a way to get them out of their current predicament. Unlike previous seasons, none of the season's major plot threads are resolved, and the episode, while poignant, is a huge [[Mind Screw]] when placed as a [[Series Finale]]. The reason for this is that the creators were convinced they'd be picked up for an 11th Season (unlike every other season where they were sure they'd be cancelled), and saw no need to tie up loose ends this time around. |
* On the note of ''Stargate SG-1'', that show ended with Daniel, Vala, Carter, Teal'c, and General Landry spending several decades in a time bubble while Carter tries to figure out a way to get them out of their current predicament. Unlike previous seasons, none of the season's major plot threads are resolved, and the episode, while poignant, is a huge [[Mind Screw]] when placed as a [[Series Finale]]. The reason for this is that the creators were convinced they'd be picked up for an 11th Season (unlike every other season where they were sure they'd be cancelled), and saw no need to tie up loose ends this time around. |
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** Though they did change the ending of the finale at the last minute so it wouldn't be a total cliffhanger, and later came out with two movies to clean up the major [[Knight Templar|surviving]] [[Affably Evil|baddies]]. |
** Though they did change the ending of the finale at the last minute so it wouldn't be a total cliffhanger, and later came out with two movies to clean up the major [[Knight Templar|surviving]] [[Affably Evil|baddies]]. |
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* The end of |
* The end of [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the reimagined ''Battlestar Galactica'']]... The angels seen by Baltar and Six reveal that human/Cylon hybrid child Hera is Mitochondrial Eve and speculate on whether it's all going to happen again. After Head Baltar reminds Head Six that God doesn't like the name "God", she looks at him sternly and he cryptically says, "Silly me". They walk away unseen through the streets of modern New York while "All Along the Watchtower" plays over a montage of robot advances on television. |
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* Brazilian sitcom ''Toma Lá Dá Cá'' last episode: the cast was about to be killed by an invasion. And since one of the main actors is the main writer of the show, [[Post Modernism|they hand him a laptop and order him to write an ending that saves them]]... involving the arrival of an alien ship, which had previously "rescued" a character [[Put on a Bus]]. |
* Brazilian sitcom ''Toma Lá Dá Cá'' last episode: the cast was about to be killed by an invasion. And since one of the main actors is the main writer of the show, [[Post Modernism|they hand him a laptop and order him to write an ending that saves them]]... involving the arrival of an alien ship, which had previously "rescued" a character [[Put on a Bus]]. |
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* Joss Whedon's ''[[Dollhouse]]'' kindly gave us the [[Lost Episode]] first season finale "Epitaph One", which is ''really'' different from all the episodes that preceded it. The series finale "Epitaph Two" is a little bit less of a [[Mind Screw]] ending only in that it's setting was somewhat foreshadowed in the latter half of the second season and it is a direct sequel to "Epitaph One". It still counts as an extreme case of this trope though. Think of all those viewers who watched it without having even ''heard of'' "Epitaph One"... |
* Joss Whedon's ''[[Dollhouse]]'' kindly gave us the [[Lost Episode]] first season finale "Epitaph One", which is ''really'' different from all the episodes that preceded it. The series finale "Epitaph Two" is a little bit less of a [[Mind Screw]] ending only in that it's setting was somewhat foreshadowed in the latter half of the second season and it is a direct sequel to "Epitaph One". It still counts as an extreme case of this trope though. Think of all those viewers who watched it without having even ''heard of'' "Epitaph One"... |
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