No Ending: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

When the main plot is resolved but other threads aren't, that's a different trope: [[Left Hanging]]. If a happy ending would seem like an [[Ass Pull]], it's a [[Bolivian Army Ending]]. When the lack of ending is passed off as being a good reward, it's [[A Winner Is You]]. This trope may be combined with [[Negative Continuity]], if the last episode's problems simply disappear. But when a big story arc is dismissed with a [[Hand Wave]], it's an [[Aborted Arc]].

Occasionally the story picks up later with a [[The Remake|Remake]] or [[Spin-Off]]. If this was intended all along, it's a [[Cliff Hanger]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* The [[OVA]] of ''[[Kujibiki Unbalance]]'' represents episodes 1, 21, and 25 of a fictional 26-episode TV series, meaning that we never get to see the conclusion. Just to heighten the annoyance, episode 25 ends with Ritsuko ''about'' to announce the conditions for victory in the tournament. (The manga of ''[[Genshiken]]'', which featured it as a [[Show Within a Show]], clarifies that the last episode was never aired due to a typhoon, so it is sort of justified.)

** The ''[[Genshiken]]'' manga itself doesn't really have any real ending, the idea being that just because the members graduate doesn't mean that club is going anywhere. More members will join and life (and doujinshi) will go on.

** The second season fully embraces this trope, while doing the preview for the final episode [[Nobuyuki Hiyama|Madarame]] loudly proclaims: [[Lampshade Hanging|YES!]] [[Gratuitous Japanese|MIKAN]] [[Large Ham|IS]] [[Gratuitous English|BESTO]] ENDO!!!

** {{spoiler|The whole series apparently ends with Watanuki and Doumeki talking about a dream of Yuuko's. Except that it's Doumeki's ''grandson'' and Yuuko's dream is telling Watanuki that he can leave the shop at last. Nothing about the fates of Kohane, Himawari and her husband, the original Doumeki, the unhatched egg that's now a Doumeki family heirloom, and Syaoran.}}

* ''[[Dai-Guard]]'' doesn't end when all the Heterodynes are destroyed, it ends when all the characters realize that the Heterodyne attacks are simply a fact of life in 2030 Japan the same as earthquakes and hurricanes and the point is not about putting an end to them, but how you deal with them. From protecting the lives AND livelihoods of the civilians and working with the military and your allies (rather than against them) to deal with the situation properly.

* ''I Hate Gallant Girl'' ends with Tempest having just survived a vicious attack from the title "heroine" and just itching for the chance to get back at her. You'd almost think the book was [[Cut Short]] halfway through.

* ''Métal Hurlant'' / ''Heavy Metal Magazine'' married this trope and had kids. Just about every other story in it ends this way.

 

== Film ==

* ''Blood Debt'' ends with the main character shooting the villain with some sort of rocket derringer, causing him to explode. The film ends the instant he detonates, with a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u61F_qvdid0&feature=watch_response_rev title card] essentially acting as the entire denouement.

* In the drama film ''Safe'' (1995), the main character develops the mysterious multiple chemical sensitivity disorder and goes through treatment in the second half of the film. The film ends with her having fully embraced the treatment center and being around people who accept her, but it's completely left open whether she is recovering at all or only getting worse.

 

== Literature ==

* The ''Butter Battle Book''. It was nearly the victim of [[Executive Meddling]], as Geisel was pressured to change the ending to a happy one by his publishers. It is appropriate to the story as a parable about the [[Cold War]], since ''it'', quite thankfully, ended without a definitive resolution.

* ''[[War and Peace]]'' ends right as political unrest is beginning to swell in 1820, and one of the deceased main characters' sons has [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone|an ominous dream]] about taking part in a revolution. It's implied that this revolution divides all the main characters into two camps who will have to fight each other.

** Actually, it's quite authentic; [http://ansible.co.uk/misc/eyeargon-big.pdf here's a link to a PDF facimile of the original fanzine, with that exact ending].

* ''[[The Handmaid's Tale]]'' {{spoiler|ends with Offred fleeing Gilead with the help of [[La Résistance]], but the reader never finds out whether or not she survives. The epilogue tells that the dictature of Gilead won't last forever, however.}}

* [[The Grapes of Wrath]] doesn't end so much as run out of pages, with Rose of Sharon breastfeeding a sick man, some of the Joads gone from the group or dead, and the rest just weathering the storm.

 

* ''[[The Sopranos]]'' infamously ended with a simple [[Smash to Black]] mid-scene. People who worked at cable companies had to answer hours and hours of angry phone calls because they thought something was wrong with their televisions; news programs even ran segments on it afterward.

* Every single ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode ever, period.

** Face it, if those episodes had been allowed endings, Scully would have become a believer by the end of Season 2.

** [[Your Mileage May Vary|Arguably]] a far more [[The Chris Carter Effect|frustrating]] example is the series finale. After ''nine years'', not only is the series' [[Myth Arc]] [[Kudzu Plot|not tied up by any stretch of the imagination]], we are given a last minute [[Sequel Hook]] about an alien invasion coming in ten years. Six years later the movie comes out and being a [[Monster of the Week]] [[Non-Serial Movie|episode]], of the series' many supporting characters only [[The Cameo|Skinner]] appears. Furthermore, [[What Happened to the Mouse?|not a single passing reference is made]] of the impending alien invasion!

* A Thanksgiving episode of ''[[The King of Queens]]'' that took place almost entirely in a supermarket. Doug kept running in to a guy he used to know but couldn't remember. The two apparently had a huge argument in the past and the guy kept apologizing. Throughout the whole episode Doug tries to figure out what happened in the past, and the guy keeps asking if Doug has really forgiven him. By the end of the episode, Doug has invited The Guy (his name escapes me at the moment) to Thanksgiving dinner in the hopes that he'll remember him by then. Thanksgiving is never shown, and The Guy is never seen or heard of again.

* Both ''[[Without a Trace]]'' and ''[[The Practice]]'' have had "Death Row" episodes, which employed this trope.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an episode of the British Comedy TV Series ''Mr Don & Mr George'' in which the titular characters comment on how neatly all the plot elements of the episode were wrapped up; which is immediately followed by an montage of all the other characters asking 'what about...?' with references to the many plot holes.

* The original gravedigger episode of ''[[Bones]]'' ends with the characters being re-united with their friends. Who the gravedigger is and whether he was ever caught is not addressed. This was eventually followed up, but not for another two seasons, making it seem like a classic No Ending for quite some time.

** ''[[Hancock's Half Hour]]'' used a similar plot over a decade earlier. Hancock becomes obsessed with solving a murder mystery with the final page torn out. He tries tracking down the author at home only to find that he died several years earlier; he can't find another copy of the book; every attempt to solve the murder himself ends up failing. Eventually he hits upon the idea of looking up the British Library's file copy... only to discover that {{spoiler|the author died before finishing the book, so it was printed with the ending missing}}.

** [[Fridge Logic]] - there was probably more than one page missing. How many murder mysteries can you name that reveal the murderer, his or her motive, and conclude the story all on one or two pages?

 

== Music ==

* The [[Boards of Canada]] album Geogaddi is a dark, twisting, vaguely conceptual nightmare filled with [[Subliminal Seduction|backmasking]], references to cults, and eerie songs with evocative names. It reaches its climax with the haunting "You Could Feel the Sky," then suddenly cuts to the peaceful, droning "Corsair," which closes the album. The result is that the album doesn't feel so much like a complete story told through music, but rather a fever dream with scattered chronology and no definite resolution other than "Corsair" being the moment that the fever dream ends. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|It's done so well that fans wouldn't want it any other way.]]

** Likewise, [[Radiohead]]'s "Hail to the Thief." Based on comments from Thom Yorke, most of the album signifies a nightmare, and [[Adult Fear|"A Wolf at the Door"]] is the horror of waking up only to find that while you slept, the world has become just as bad as the nightmare. It's all very metaphorical and political.

** The Who's ''Quadrophenia'' ends with the singer trapped on a rock in the middle of the ocean. He yields himself to love and reconciles his inner nature, or something, but he's still trapped on a rock in the ocean. Then it ends.

** ''Our House'', The ''Madness'' musical has two possible paths of the protagonist's life leading to two possible endings right from the start, with no indication of which one actually happened. However, after those are both sort-of resolved, halfway through the reprise of the title song, we're treated to a ''third'' possibility which, if it was real, would mean that neither of those endings could have happened, and absolutely nothing is resolved, or indeed, actually happened at all.

** [[Rush]]'s ''2112'' ends with an unidentified, ominous mechanical-sounding voice proclaiming "'''ATTENTION ALL PLANETS OF THE SOLAR FEDERATION - WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL.'''" Whether this is meant to symbolize the triumphant return of the Elder Race as imagined by the protagonist, or the priesthood's spiritual domination of him, is left up to the listener's imagination.

** Likewise, [[Pink Floyd]]'s ''[[The Wall]]'' ends with the wall coming down, but whether Pink's being "exposed before [his] peers" will be for good or ill is much less certain.

 

== Radio ==

* Episodes of ''[[The Goon Show]]'' almost never had real endings, but sometimes they made it completely obvious, such as:

{{quote|'''Greenslade''': What do you think, dear listeners? Were they standing on Rockall? Or was it Napoleon's piano? Send your suggestions to anybody but us.}}

 

== Theater ==

* Luigi Pirandello's ''Absolutely! (Perhaps)'' tells the story of a family who become fascinated by their new neighbors, as one of two completely different scandalous stories is true depending on the true identity of one of them. At the end, this person finally appears but refuses to tell them who she is because their attempts to find out have been so intrusive. She leaves with "I am...whoever you believe me to be." The one member of the family who wasn't interested in the mystery at all then turns to the audience and says "Are you satisfied?" before laughing hysterically as the curtain comes down.

* Harold Pinter's ''Old Times''.

 

== Video Games ==

* A 1996 Point and click adventure game called ''Fable'' (no relation to the other ''[[Fable (video game series)|Fable]]''). After an epic adventure full of [[Scenery Porn]], the protagonist learns of a race called the Mecubarz and takes the knowledge for himself using their technology. The ending is then...a cutscene of him reading a book on what happened in a jail you saw earlier in the game (In Hell) with a narrator mentioning something that doesn't make ''any'' sense. Supposedly; that was the UK version of the game (Which is what you will most commonly find on [[YouTube]]) The US version, according to rumours, gave a different ending that was only slightly better, wherein Quickthrope returns to have lunch with his girlfriend. Many people agreed the ending was perhaps one of the ''biggest'' screw-yous in gaming history, as absolutely ''no'' closure was given to the story at all. This is also a good example of a [[Gainax Ending]] gone ''totally'' wrong.

* [[Obvious Beta|Due to its rushed release]], ''[[Double Dragon|Super Double Dragon]]'', gives the player a clearly tacked on text-only epilogue after defeating the final boss instead of the originally planned ending. The Japanese version, ''Return of Double Dragon'', despite being a more complete game in every other aspect, doesn't even bother with such pretense, but instead skips straight to the end credits.

* The [[ZX Spectrum]] newsgroup comp.sys.sinclair had this as a local meme; in a parody of the dropout messages provided by ancient Hayes modems, FLGT@:WEV:#l;[;#[[@V:W]]V@É+++ NO CARRIER +++ was [[Interrupting Meme|a common way to end a post]].

** It was/is usually a form of euphemism; and if you don't believe me, you can go [[Curse Cut Short|fu]][NO CARRIER]

* The original Japanese computer versions of ''[[Snatcher]]'' ended with the Snatcher menace still a threat and the Junker agency left without its Chief after he was killed and replaced by a double. The ending could be seen as a [[Cliff Hanger]] [[Sequel Hook|to the sequel]], but was actually intended to be a cut-off point for the third and final act, [[Obvious Beta|which was left out due to time constraints]]. The proposed ending would later be included in the CD-ROM remakes of the game.

* ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Football]]'' on the Game Boy Advance has ''no ending at all''. Not even a trophy for winning the Cereal Bowl.

** That may be called a [[Bolivian Army Ending]].

* The arcade ''[[Battletoads]]'' (an action-oriented revamp of the NES and SNES games). After smashing the last boss, Robo Manus, someone, presumably the Dark Queen, hisses "I'll be back!" The heroes crash-land on a lifeless planet and use their portable transporters to instantly zap back to base. Mission accomplished! Meanwhile, the Dark Queen is still alive and plotting, the heroes are still stuck in the forms of overgrown amphibians, and Volkmire is still lurking around somewhere. Issues which will never be resolved, as Rare never produced another Battletoads game. (Mega Man very nearly suffered the same fate and isn't out of the woods yet.) Though according to a prank calling campaign started by Anonymous there is one coming out for the Xbox 360. [[Memetic Mutation|You should call your local gamestop and ask for it]]

* Arguably X's ending with Zero alive in ''[[Mega Man X]] 5'', originally intended as the grand finale of the Rockman X story. Though having finally defeated Sigma for good, X lost his best friend, Zero, after both are severely wounded after the fight. After his miraculous recovery by Dr. Right/Light, he continues to fight without Zero. Whether a [[Bittersweet Ending]] or No Ending, [[Your Mileage May Vary]].

** Well, we were told at the end of X3 that Zero's death would somehow help foster world peace. X4 hints that it's because the Sigma Virus was originally the ''Zero Virus''; X5 confirms this with the Sigma heads representing the virus being replaced by air-dashing Zero "virus ghosts" that [[Gameplay and Story Integration|poison you twice as fast]]. With Zero finally destroyed, X stepped up in a leadership position in the Maverick Hunters and helped defend the world against the odd malfunctioning Mechaniloid. Seems like a decent ending to me, and it did to [[Word of God|Keiji Inafune]]; [[Executive Meddling|once X6 started getting developed behind his back]], though, he had some major scrambling to do, since the above ending was supposed to set up the ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' series.

* ''[[Dreamfall]]'' ends with Zoe falling into coma, April stabbed and falling off-screen, Kian arrested for treason, and the [[Big Bad]]'s plan seemingly succeeding. How exactly the latter part happened after Zoe destroyed Eingana, whether April really died, and what fate awaits Kian is left open.

* The arcade version of ''[[Shinobi]]'' actually had an ending, which for some reason was not carried over to the [[Master System]] adaptation. Instead the player is awarded with a blank [[Game Over]] screen after defeating the final boss, the same screen the game gives when the player loses all of his lives.

* The normal ending of ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' treats you to a brief animation of the [[Eldritch Abomination]] final boss escaping through a portal, then a title card saying 'Fin'. The good ending, meanwhile, is firmly cemented in [[Gainax Ending]] territory.

* ''[[No Man's Sky]]'' hyped up a great secret at the center of the galaxy significantly prerelease. When you do get there {{spoiler|the game throws you into a new game. Not [[New Game Plus]], it plain old starts a new game like you could at any time}}.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[RPG World]]'' had a particularly horrendous non-end. The characters reach the final boss, begin fighting the final boss [http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20050705.html and then...] nothing. As it turns out, the creator just plain got tired of working on the comic and axed it.

** What makes this example [[Egregious]] is that the bottom of the last non-[[Filler]] page said [[Blatant Lies|"To Be Continued"]].

* [[Achewood]] had an arc that involved Ray becoming possessed whenever a note was played on a mystical banjo. The last strip in the arc had Ray telling Pat to say good things about his penis as Pat called him while being dragged down the sidewalk by the banjo come to life, which was followed by a hiatus when Chris Onstad's daughter was born. When the strip resumed, the banjo was never mentioned again.

 

== Web Original ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYsb24DiEZE This] [[Pokémon]] spoof. Just when the Pokémon are about to butt heads in their final strikes, the video cuts to the cast singing the theme song and we never see the outcome.

* ''H! Flash''. 51 chapters, the last few of which definitely feel like they're leading to some closure, and ''[http://www.improfanfic.com/h/segs/hf051.txt this]'' is how it ends? With a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|piece of fluff from nowhere?]] What about all of the plot threads? What about Yummi-chan and her weird agenda? [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]...

* [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] pulls this off while he was reviewing [[The Problem with Licensed Games|a game based on]] the ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' series, as the video cuts to black just when Spoony is about to tell what would happen in the second level. (The first level ended just as abruptly, to be noted.)

** [[Shout-Out|Even more appropriate]], before the cut you could hear the ''exact'' same song that played during [[The Sopranos|the certain more famous occurrence of this trope.]]

* The infamous fanfic [[Legolas By Laura|legolas by laura]] literally ends in mid-sentence.

* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' V2 ends with {{spoiler|Bryan Calvert receiving a [[Hannibal Lecture]] by [[Big Bad|Danya]]. Bryan attacks Danya,}} and... well, nothing. As of v4, people ''still'' don't know what happened after that. There was supposed to be a part two, but at this rate we'll never know other than [[Big Bad|Danya]] and [[The Dragon|Wilson]] got out of the situation alive. A final end may or may not be upcoming, however.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Many episodes of ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' have no ending, the 1st being ''The Cybernetic Ghost Of Christmas Past From The Future.'' This probably is because the show has a runtime of 11 min.

* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' ends this way. Aku is still alive, Jack still hasn't gone back in time, and some episodes in the series also have no end.

* ''[[Danger Mouse]]'' had several episodes with anticlimactic (non)endings, including "The Tower of Terror".

* ''[[The Proud Family]]'' featured Penny making friends with a Muslim girl and realizing that several post-September 11 stereotypes about Islam are wrong. After a post-Ramadan dinner that she attended with the family, they come to their house to find it TPed and the phrase GO HOME TOWELHEADS done in spray paint across the roof and front of the house. The episode continues with [[An Aesop]] where Penny learns about intolerance and gives a speech, but we never learn who did it or how the family reacts.

* ''[[Street Sharks]]''. The protagonists are never turned back and the mystery about what happened to their dad is never solved. Apparently the closest there is to a conclusion is the [[Big Bad]] being proven guilty but he escapes.

* ''[[King Arthur and the Knights of Justice]]'' ends with only four Keys of Truth having been recovered, and the guys are stuck in the Dark Ages still dealing with Queen Morgana and the Warlords while the real King Arthur and his knights remain stuck in the Cave of Glass.

* The ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' episode "Cow Tipping" was about Beavis and Butt-head going cow tipping and it results with Butt-head pushing over a cow that crushes Beavis. Just then the scary farmer appears and calls the cow as good as dead and gets his chainsaw. Beavis tells the farmer to kill the cow and not him...it fades to black and all we hear is Beavis scream, the chainsaw running and the farmer laughing. While this episode is accepted by fans as non-canon (due to it being implied that the farmer kills Beavis), one would think given the series' past with censorship issues, this episode had that problem. That's not true though. The ending to this episode was not so violent or gory it had to be censored...the ending it has is just how it ends!

* The ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Fatbeard" was about Cartman going to Somalia to become a pirate and it results with [[Determinator|Kyle]], [[What the Hell, Hero?|who previously encouraged Cartman to go]], coming after him because Ike went with Cartman, [[Laser-Guided Karma|only to be held captive by the fat pirate leader against his will.]] Just then, a U.S. ship comes and shoots all the Somalian pirates... and then the show goes straight to the ending credits.

 

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ending Tropes]]

[[Category:Writer Cop Out]]