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Sudden Downer Ending: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:mario-downer_7971.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''"Imagine that [[Nintendo]] made a game where [[Super Mario Bros|Mario]] defeats Bowser, and he finds Princess Peach, poisoned, lying on a bed, [[Dying Declaration of Love|telling Mario with her last breath that she loves him]]...and then the game ends. [[What Do You Mean
A [[Sudden Downer Ending]] is a series finale in which an otherwise completely [[Sugar Bowl|upbeat, accessible series]] ends on an [[Downer Ending|unimaginably bleak note]]. Can also apply to self-contained movies, books, video games or etcetera with such endings.
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Often done because [[True Art Is Angsty]] and because [[Mood Whiplash]] is an effective way of manipulating your audience, or as a way of adding depth to the main characters at the last moment.
The 3-way baby of [[Mood Whiplash]], [[Cerebus Syndrome]] and [[Downer Ending]]. See also [[The End of the World As We Know It]], [[The Bad Guy Wins]], [[Gainax Ending]], [[Cruel Twist Ending]], and [[Kill
As an [[Ending Trope]], expect spoilers.
'''If a work was dark or serious to begin with, it does not qualify for this trope and is simply a [[Downer Ending]].'''
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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* ''[[Fairy Tail (Manga)|Fairy Tail]]''. The S-class/Tenrou Island arc ends with {{spoiler|the main cast and semi-main cast being blasted by Acnologia and presumably dead.}}
* ''[[Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt (Anime)|Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt]]'' takes it [[Up to Eleven]]. In the very last minute of the series, {{spoiler|Stocking turns out to be evil, slices Panty into 666 pieces and walks into sunset with the revived [[Big Bad]]}}.
* ''[[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
* 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.
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* Notoriously, the original ending to ''[[Clerks]]'' would have ended with this. A lighthearted comedy about two lazy store clerks wasting a day shift? The original version ended with a robber entering the store and shooting the main character, killing him instantly.
* The original ending to ''[[Dodgeball]]'' had the Globo Gym ''Cobras'', the main antagonists, '''winning''' in the final round. Fortunately, this ending tested so poorly that a much, ''much'' better ending was devised.
* ''[[This Island Earth]]'': Sure, the earth is saved, but the [[
* 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.
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* 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.
* The finale of ''[[Black Adder]] Goes Forth''. Made all the more sad because the same trope ([[Kill
** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that [[Played for Laughs|playing the events of the finale for laughs]] this time would not have produced [[Dude, Not Funny|the best reaction]] [[World War I|given what they concerned]].
*** Also because for anyone with any emotional investment in [[WW 1]] (read: everyone in Britain above a certain age), the ending is actually [[Tropes Are Not Bad|incredibly touching, respectful and appropriate]]. Writer Ben Elton's uncle, an eminent historian specialising in the period, was outraged when he first saw Blackadder Goes Forth and practically disowned him for what he saw as trivialisation of the war. After seeing the final episode, he wrote his nephew a letter apologizing and praising him for the way it was handled.
* The finale of ''[[Roseanne]]'', where it's revealed that the entire last season was fictional, and that Roseanne wrote it to cope with the death of Dan.
* In the last episode of ''[[ALF (TV)|ALF]]'' our wise-cracking alien protagonist is captured by the Alien Task Force presumably never to be seen again by the Tanners. The producers were told they'd get a TV Movie to [[Wrap It Up]], but it wasn't until years later that it actually happened, and the tone of it was distinctly darker than the series.
* This trope began a season early in the BBC's version of ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]''. At the end of season two, {{spoiler|Maid Marian}} was brutally murdered at Guy of Gisborne's hands, changing an upbeat family show into something unimaginably bleak, and without any hope for a happy ending. Bizarrely, season three tried to regain its reputation as a family show, but the fed-up actors left for greener pastures, ensuring that the show ended with the deaths of {{spoiler|Robin Hood, Allan-a-Dale, Guy of Gisborne, and the Sheriff of Nottingham}}. Despite the gutted cast, there was an attempt to introduce a [[Legacy Character]] for Robin Hood, but the show was not commissioned for a forth series. The show ended with the remaining outlaws vowing to continue the fight against Prince John, but anyone with [[Fridge Horror|a rudimentary knowledge of English history]] knows how well ''that'' [[Foregone Conclusion|would have turned out]].
* Publicity for the last ever episode of largely light-hearted series ''[[Lovejoy]]'' focused on the return of [[Will They or Won't They?]] love interest Lady Jane and Lovejoy's wedding to [[Replacement Love Interest]] Charlotte. Instead, the [[Villain of the Week]] kidnaps Lovejoy on the way to the wedding as revenge for foiling his plot and Charlotte refuses to believe it, thinks she's been jilted and takes a job away from the area. What's more, Lovejoy's other two friends also take jobs away from the area and he's effectively evicted from his home/shop. The final scene of him packing his things into the back of his truck and driving off alone is actually quite depressing.
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'''s two-part series finale is arguably an subversion. The show itself was about [[Jerkass|selfish, horrible people]] [[Karma Houdini|coasting through life]], and the finale showed them finally [[Laser
* 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.
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* The original ''[[Jerry]]'' short.
** The final ''Jerry'' short was also quite dark compared to the others.
* [[Doctor
* The 100th episode of ''[[Weebl and Bob]]'' actually ends with {{spoiler|the death of Donkey, Chris the Ninja Pirate's wife.}}
** Inverted in the following episode, which revolves around Weebl, Bob, and Chris attending Donkey's funeral. [[The Fun in Funeral|Cue Mr. Teeth.]]
{{quote| '''Mr. Teeth''': It's time to put the donkey into the asshole!}}
* [[Tales From the Table (Web Video)|Tales From the Table]] started off very comedic and ends in a surprising and depressing way.
* The flash series "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony]]: [[Portal (Video Game)|Thinking With Portals]], is a lighthearted comedy crossover between MLP and ''Portal'', and features each of the Mane Cast (and the Princesses) having lighthearted hijinks with portal guns. The final episode, which will involve Twilight getting her revenge for being the [[Butt Monkey]] for the entire series, is stated to be ''much'' more serious than the rest of the series, the author admitting some of it may end up veering into [[Grimdark]] territory. {{spoiler|However, the author has personally leaked that in the end, [[Everybody Lives|everpony lives]].}}
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