Sudden Downer Ending: Difference between revisions

 

'''If a work was dark or serious to begin with, it does not qualify for this trope and is simply a [[Downer Ending]].'''

{{examples}}

 

* ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' parodies this, like everything else, in one late-run episode, which is very dark and humorless compared to the other episodes and ends with Excel being shot and left to die. {{spoiler|It's actually around episode 23 of 25; the ''actual'' final episode (#26) was unaired due to [[Crosses the Line Twice|crossing the line]] ''way'' too many times. In fact, it was ''created'' with the intention to never be aired, and is not considered part of the actual story anyway.}}

* ''[[Mahoromatic]]''. It's a [[Foregone Conclusion]] that Mahoro would die; it's the whole premise. The ending is still ridiculously dark. [[Gainax Ending|And confusing.]]

* ''[[Master of Martial Hearts]]'': The first 4 out of 5 episodes will make you think that this OVA is just a silly, goofy, mushy comedy with some brutal fights between the main character Aya and her opponents in a tournament. Then the 5th episode comes in. To wit: {{spoiler|Aya ends up killing her opponent in a [[Berserker Rage]]. Then she finds out that every one of her friends was a [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]] who had manipulated her right from the beginning. They mentally broke all the losers of the tournament, making them into "perfect women" to be sold into sexual slavery. Aya's "friends" did this because her parents did the same thing to their parents, and they want to kill her to get back at her mother. Then Aya's mother shows up and kills them off, revealing to her that this is a [[Cycle of Revenge]] going back to their grandparents. So [[Kill'Em All]] ensues, with Aya limping away from the blown up building. Then her so-called best friend's mother gets a visit from someone that she is very scared to see...}}. There had been very few hints that something like this was going to happen. Yikes!

* The 1975 anime adaptation of [[A Dog of Flanders]], true to the original material, has the main character {{spoiler|freeze to death}} in the last episode. The series is quite positive and upbeat (and looks like ''Heidi'') otherwise, so to many children this came as quite a shock.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[This Island Earth]]'': Sure, the earth is saved, but the [[Everybody's Dead, Dave|entire Metalunan race is wiped out]] by the [[The Bad Guy Wins|Zagons]]. The Metalunans weren't really bad, just desparate. And the movie ends with [[Last of His Kind|Exeter]]'s ship crashing into the ocean in flames.

* The silent film ''Exit Smiling'' is a zany comedy about a terrible actress in a traveling theater troupe trying to save the man she loves from going to jail. She succeeds. But he never finds out she was the one who saved him, and he's so happy about being able to stay in town with some other girl he likes that she simply doesn't tell him. The movie ends with her crying quietly as he steps off the train.

 

== Literature ==

* In the final chapters of ''Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House'', one of the dolls is [[Killed Off for Real|burned to death]].

 

* In the final [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPTUA_wdp78 episode] of ''[[Dinosaurs]]'', the main character accidentally triggers an ice-age by over-industrializing the world. He then has to explain why they're all going to die to his youngest child. Cut to the outside of the house, where snow is piling over the entire house. In the final shot, a newscaster solemnly states that the snow is getting harsher, the days are getting darker, and there's no end in sight. He issues a formal "Good night". He reconsiders for a moment, then looks straight in to the camera with weary, uncertain eyes, and solidly states, "Good bye". [[Fade to Black]]. [[Tear Jerker|This show was supposed to be FUNNY, goddammit!]]

* In terms of individual seasons, ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'' ends rather sadly. ''Turbo'', being based on [[Gekisou Sentai Carranger|a parody sentai]], was written as light-hearted (even compared to ''[[Power Rangers]]'' in general). However, the ending is downright depressing. It is, so far, the only season to end with the Big Bad actually ''winning''. The ending of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' came close, but the start of ''Zeo'' reversed most of its more serious consequences back to the status quo, whereas the start of ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'' took the Sudden Downer Ending and ran with it.

* Although ''[[Medium]]'' dealt with many bad things, it's overall ethos was generally that the bad guys always got caught and everything turned out well in the end. Which made the series finale {{spoiler|in which Alison's husband Joe is killed in a plane crash, most of the episode is taken up with a bizarre soap opera tale of it all being a ghastly mistake and an amnesiastic Joe is living in Mexico which turns out to be a dream and then Alison spending the next 40+ years of her life without the one person who has kept her sane throughout her psychic travails and who she has repeatedly been shown to depend on utterly and all alone because she never finds someone else or remarries}} all the more difficult to take. Even more so when the producers apparently thought it was a happy ending {{spoiler|because, well, those forty years don't matter when you get reunited when you eventually die. Right?}}

* [[True Life]] "I Don't Trust My Partner" had two couples talking about their trust issues. The audience sees Nikki and Shawny, the second couple interviewed, fighting for the extent of the episode, thanks to Shawny flirting with girls behind his girlfriend's back, and eventually going to couple's therapy to see whether they should move in together. Fast forward some months later, the show pans over to the new apartment the couple talked about renting, with their stuff inside. Problem is, shortly after they moved in together, Shawny suddenly died, because of a hernia problem, and Nikki went through a period of overwhelming grief. For a show that usually goes no further than a [[Bittersweet Ending]], this depressing conclusion came out of nowhere.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** However, since it only happens in the middle of the story, it's more the game's way of saying that [[Wham! Episode|it's done pretending it's lighthearted, and things are going to get serious from now on]].

 

* ''[[Concerned]], the Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman'', is mostly a gag strip that ends with... [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|oh, guess]]. Of course, it's still ''funny'' while doing so.

* [[The Last Days of Foxhound]] has everyone [[Doomed by Canon]]. As such, the last chapter is just a montage of their bodies. It's emphasized by how sudden it is—cutting straight from the "preparing for battle" montage to the death montage. At least the ghosts of the dead characters show up to joke about their ineptitude, providing a relieving comical note.

* ''It's All Been Done'' ended with the main character and his wacky group of talking toys about to have an adventure when {{spoiler|he realizes the entire thing was an attempt to avoid dealing with his wife's death.}}

 

== Web Original ==

{{quote|'''Mr. Teeth''': It's time to put the donkey into the asshole!}}

* [[Tales From the Table]] started off very comedic and ends in a surprising and depressing way.

 

== Western Animation ==