Sudden Downer Ending: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{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 It's for Kids?|This is sort of devious plot that child psychologists must concoct in order to increase their clientele.]]"''|'''[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/rodland/rodland.htm Hardcore Gaming 101]'''}}

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 last few episodes of ''[[Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai|Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi]]'' turn what was a series of parodies of video games and anime into a serious fable about dealing with grief.

** Then again, the series was from [[Gainax Ending|Gainax]]...

* ''[[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 & Stocking with Garterbelt|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]]}}.

== Live Action TV ==

* 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!]]

* The finale of ''[[Blackadder]] Goes Forth''. Made all the more sad because the same trope ([[Kill'Em All]]) was played in two previous series...[[Played for Laughs|for laughs]].

** [[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]].

* This trope began a season early in the BBC's version of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|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.

* 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.

** In the original ending, things were a bit less... subtle. {{spoiler|In the bar scene at the end, Conker was supposed to shoot himself in the head. The only reason this was changed was because the creators were planning on a sequel.}}

* [[Death Spank]] is a comedic hack and slash rpg that prides itself in its wacky, lighthearted [[Monkey Island]]-esque humor. {{spoiler|1=Then, at the end of the sequel, DeathSpank's closest ally and possible love interest [[Face Heel Turn|goes batshit insane]] due to the Thongs of Power's corrupting power, and he must either let himself be killed to fuel her delusions of godhood or cut her down himself, which greatly troubles him as he mourns and buries her. Unlike literally the entire rest of the series, this is all treated as somber and tragic as possible.}} And the canonical choice? {{spoiler|He kills her.}}

** 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]].

* ''[http://doobl.comicgenesis.com/d/20060623.html Doobl]''. What appears to be a normal family-friendly webcomic for a fair number of strips, then has the protagonist go crazy and slaughter the cast before killing himself. Meanwhile, in the news posts, the author's mother dies. He spends the remaining posts increasingly lashing out against the world. It ends with a newspaper clipping covering the author's suicide. {{spoiler|It turned out to be a hoax.}}

* ''[[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.

* ''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.}}