So What Do We Do Now?: Difference between revisions

Line 27:

As a pseudo-endings trope, some Tropers forget their spoilers. Consider this your only warning.

== Anime and Manga ==

Line 54:

* ''[[Nextwave]]'' ends with the titular squad's members asking each other what they should do now that they've defeated the H.A.T.E organization, as they stand on the top of its former mothership. Monica's answer, {{spoiler|after she realizes the mothership is still ''fully operational'': "Anything we want."}}

* This is how the story ended for Link in the ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Comic Book)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' comic that ran in Nintendo Power. Zelda thanks him for his trouble, he puts the Master Sword back and that's it!

* In the [[Marvel Universe]], Richard Rider aka Nova went through this situation when he choose to give up his powers to leave the planet Xandar to return home. As it happens, his life was completely ruined with a disrupted education, dead end jobs and no future. At best, Rider tried to live as best he can while wishing with all his heart that he could get the powers back and become a superhero again. Unfortunately, the planet Xandar was destroyed later, which seemed to mean that any chance of Rider [[Re Power|getting repowered]] was gone forever. However, Night Thrasher, wanting a [[Flying Brick]] for his planned superhero team, deduced that there might be a way through a [[Die or Fly|high stress situation]]. To do so, Night Thrasher abducts Rider, drops him off a roof and sure enough, Rider's powers reignite before he hits the ground. Naturally, Rider overjoyed at this and even though he didn't care for the fact that Night Thrasher didn't know if his plan would work, Rider still owes him big time.

* In the [[Marvel Universe]], Richard Rider aka Nova went through this situation when he choose to give up his powers to leave the planet Xandar to return home. As it happens, his life was completely ruined with a disrupted education, dead end jobs and no future. At best, Rider tried to live as best he can while wishing with all his heart that he could get the powers back and become a superhero again. Unfortunately, the planet Xandar was destroyed later, which seemed to mean that any chance of Rider [[Re-Power|getting repowered]] was gone forever. However, Night Thrasher, wanting a [[Flying Brick]] for his planned superhero team, deduced that there might be a way through a [[Die or Fly|high stress situation]]. To do so, Night Thrasher abducts Rider, drops him off a roof and sure enough, Rider's powers reignite before he hits the ground. Naturally, Rider overjoyed at this and even though he didn't care for the fact that Night Thrasher didn't know if his plan would work, Rider still owes him big time.

* The ending of Mark Waid's [[Empire]]. Golgoth has succeeded in conquering the world and {{spoiler|killed his daughter and his only friend}}. Now what?

Line 83:

* At the end of book three of ''Secret of the Unicorn Queen'', Sheila gets to go home. By page two of book four, she's decided she can't focus on algebra and baseball, or her "normal life", so she goes back.

* The soldiers in ''[[All Quiet On the Western Front (Literature)|All Quiet On the Western Front]]'' worry about this, because being so young, they have left no roots behind in the world to return to. Lucky for most them, this problem is solved when {{spoiler|[[Kill Em All|they die.]]}}

* The soldiers in ''[[All Quiet On the Western Front (Literature)|All Quiet On the Western Front]]'' worry about this, because being so young, they have left no roots behind in the world to return to. Lucky for most them, this problem is solved when {{spoiler|[[Kill'Em All|they die.]]}}

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunts Ghosts]] novel ''Only In Death'', Rawne, who has long hated Gaunt, finds himself feel lost and bewildered, believing Gaunt to be dead. {{spoiler|When he learns Gaunt is alive, he gets [[Sand in My Eyes]].}}

* The last of Bernard Cornwell's ''Sharpe'' books has this as a central theme; after a quarter of a century of bloody warfare, Europe is finally at peace - and the world is full of old soldiers who have done nothing but fight their entire adult lives. Many of them have come to enjoy it. So what next? Two solutions are presented; you can either head for South America and join the first rebellion you come across, or you can do what Sharpe does and walk away.

** The TV series solves the problem by sending him to India.

* At the end of E.R. Eddison's ''[[The Worm Ouroboros (Literature)|The Worm Ouroboros]]'', after the heroes' final victory, they are feasting in their hall, feeling melancholy over their inability to complete any more great deeds, when one of their powerful magical allies offers them a gift for helping her earlier. {{spoiler|[[Nice Job Breaking It Hero|They wish for the villain and his henchmen to be resurrected so they can fight him again]], rather than being bored or turning on each other.}}

* At the end of E.R. Eddison's ''[[The Worm Ouroboros (Literature)|The Worm Ouroboros]]'', after the heroes' final victory, they are feasting in their hall, feeling melancholy over their inability to complete any more great deeds, when one of their powerful magical allies offers them a gift for helping her earlier. {{spoiler|[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|They wish for the villain and his henchmen to be resurrected so they can fight him again]], rather than being bored or turning on each other.}}

* Last line of [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth|Flinx Transcendent]]'' -- {{spoiler|'''Flinx:''' "I'm bored."}}

* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Neverwhere]]''. He gets to go back to the [[Magical Land]], though.

Line 116:

== Radio ==

* After satellite radio was created, talk show hosts came flooding in. Suddenly, they were given freedom of speech. Now they could say anything they wanted to. So what do you say? Suddenly, there's no censorship, no FCC over their shoulders, no [[Moral Guardians]] "protecting" their children's virgin ears. But what do you talk about? You don't have to be creative anymore with your euphemisms, but then it's not funny anymore. Soon, the shows ended up just being the word "fuck" [[Cluster F Bomb|every other word]], just because they could.

* After satellite radio was created, talk show hosts came flooding in. Suddenly, they were given freedom of speech. Now they could say anything they wanted to. So what do you say? Suddenly, there's no censorship, no FCC over their shoulders, no [[Moral Guardians]] "protecting" their children's virgin ears. But what do you talk about? You don't have to be creative anymore with your euphemisms, but then it's not funny anymore. Soon, the shows ended up just being the word "fuck" [[Cluster F-Bomb|every other word]], just because they could.

== Real Life ==

Line 122:

* Many veterans of the military found during their time of service that they felt they were truly living when danger was all around. Back in the civilian world, they often don't know what to do with the rest of their lives. This is why many go into mercenary work for private contractors. (A good dose of PTSD doesn't help, either.)

* Some people who are revived after being [[Only Mostly Dead|technically dead]] recount having amazing experiences before returning to life. In some cases (especially for those who believe they experienced the afterlife), ordinary life just doesn't seem meaningful anymore.

* After the Soviet Union fell, with glasnost, everyone suddenly had freedom of speech. What do you talk about? How the Soviet Union sucks? What do you do now that you have all this freedom? Do you go on with your daily lives and live the same as you always have? Do you go check out that new McDonald's in Red Square? [[Why ~~Were~~ Bummed Communism Fell]] is all about this. There are people nostalgic for the days of Communism in the Eastern Bloc because they had to be creative about everything they did. Now that they didn't have the excitement that little kids do when they do something naughty, it wasn't worth it anymore. It's hard to understand for Westerners (and those who were in the gulags).

* After the Soviet Union fell, with glasnost, everyone suddenly had freedom of speech. What do you talk about? How the Soviet Union sucks? What do you do now that you have all this freedom? Do you go on with your daily lives and live the same as you always have? Do you go check out that new McDonald's in Red Square? [[Why We're Bummed Communism Fell]] is all about this. There are people nostalgic for the days of Communism in the Eastern Bloc because they had to be creative about everything they did. Now that they didn't have the excitement that little kids do when they do something naughty, it wasn't worth it anymore. It's hard to understand for Westerners (and those who were in the gulags).

* There can be several moments in people's lives like this:

** High school students after graduation. Do we continue our education in college? What will we major in? What kind of job will we get?

Line 147:

* In the ''[[War Craft]]'' series, Maiev Shadowsong, a night elf warden personally responsible for the imprisonment of [[Villain Protagonist|Illidan Stormrage]], devotes her entire life to chasing him when he escapes prison. Eventually she ends up killing him, only to realise her life has no meaning anymore.

* Happens in the time between [[Star Fox (Video Game)|Star Fox]] 64 and Star Fox Adventures. After saving the Lylat System in the previous game the Star Fox team finds themselves out of work and with nothing to do. This causes Falco to leave the team and for all their fancy equipment to fall into disrepair. Same thing happens in the prologue of Star Fox Command, only this time the entire team breaks up.

* Shaundi asks this after the main story ending of [[Saints Row|Saint's Row 2]]. {{spoiler|The answer, of course, is "whatever [[Cluster F Bomb|the fuck]] we want".}}

* Shaundi asks this after the main story ending of [[Saints Row|Saint's Row 2]]. {{spoiler|The answer, of course, is "whatever [[Cluster F-Bomb|the fuck]] we want".}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' [[Fanon]] embraces this trope for [[Continuation|continuations]], usually featuring [[Anti Hero|Squall]] trying to come to terms with life after the war and a job that, now [[Big Bad|Ultimecia]] is no more, [[Deconstruction|is mostly paperwork.]]

* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' [[Fanon]] embraces this trope for [[Continuation|continuations]], usually featuring [[Anti-Hero|Squall]] trying to come to terms with life after the war and a job that, now [[Big Bad|Ultimecia]] is no more, [[Deconstruction|is mostly paperwork.]]

* Lance Boyle brings this up in the intro to ''[[Megarace]] 2'': "[The winner] is crowned King Megaracer 2, he experiences a sense of achievement, and returns in regal triumph to reality, where he will probably never readapt."

* [[Disgaea 3]] reveals that, after saving Veldime in [[Disgaea 2]], [[The Hero|Adell]] has pretty much jack-all to do. Turns out the Demon Hunter skill set doesn't transfer to other jobs very well.

Line 162:

* Season 2 of ''[[WITCH (Animation)|WITCH]]'' starts with Taranee trying to get into trouble out of fear of becoming anonymous; subverted by her teachers going easy on her since she had always been such a good student. The episode ends with a heartwarming [[An Aesop|aesop]] about how she will never be anonymous as long as she has friends.

** {{spoiler|Plus she didn't have to worry about not being done as a Guardian as a new [[Big Bad]] was currently building her forces at the time}}.

** At the end of season 2 the heroes are relieved to have finally put that behind them and are eager to resume their normal lives, clearly excited at the prospect of [[So What Do We Do Now]]... and then [[The Stinger]] shows one of the antagonists from the comics taking a position at their school, setting up the conflict for season three [[Too Good to Last|that will never happen]].

** At the end of season 2 the heroes are relieved to have finally put that behind them and are eager to resume their normal lives, clearly excited at the prospect of [[So What Do We Do Now?]]... and then [[The Stinger]] shows one of the antagonists from the comics taking a position at their school, setting up the conflict for season three [[Too Good to Last|that will never happen]].

* In the episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" of ''[[South Park]]'', [[That One Player|a griefer]] was killing each player discouraging them from playing, so in order to play again, the protagonists play for months, 21 hours a day, killing boars to gain experience points to achieve a level that allows them to beat him, and when they finally do with the help of the [[Infinity ~~Plus One~~ Sword]], the question is dropped and the answer is: "Now we can play the game, I guess."

* In the episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" of ''[[South Park]]'', [[That One Player|a griefer]] was killing each player discouraging them from playing, so in order to play again, the protagonists play for months, 21 hours a day, killing boars to gain experience points to achieve a level that allows them to beat him, and when they finally do with the help of the [[Infinity+1 Sword]], the question is dropped and the answer is: "Now we can play the game, I guess."

* [[Chuck Jones]]' latter-day [[Looney Tunes|Road Runner]] short ''Soup or Sonic'' ends with Wile E. Coyote finally catching his prey -- but unable to do anything with him due to {{spoiler|their difference in size}}. He holds up a [[Talking With Signs|pair of signs for the audience]] reading, ''Okay, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him - Now what do I do?''

* Averted at the end of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''; even with the defeat of Ozai, Aang and Zuko are clear on the fact that there is a lot of rebuilding to do, both in terms of damage caused by the war and in relations between the nations. It was long theorized that if there ''had'' been a fourth season, it would have focused upon rebuilding the lost Air Tribe.