Trippy Finale Syndrome: Difference between revisions

 

See also [[Final Boss, New Dimension]].

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The last three or so episodes of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' - whenever that [[Space Is an Ocean|space ocean]] shows up.

* The ending of the first ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime could be called an inversion of the trope. The ending takes place {{spoiler|in what the characters see as a strange alternate realty, but it's ''our'' reality, the real world during World War II. It's the rest of the series that takes place in the world full of magic and monsters.}}

* ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' has its final battle in Michel's realm, which appears to be the dream of a drugged-up [[Evilutionary Biologist]]: the pillars in the sky are DNA strands, fish are flying, and everything has wings grafted onto it. {{spoiler|There ''is'' evil genetic engineering involved, but Michel, being a [[Disc One Final Boss]], is not aware of this.}}

** The second season, well... {{spoiler|Let's just say that a Contractor copying the entire ''planet'' is one of the easier things to understand.}} If you think you know what happened, you're wrong.

* [[Serial Experiments Lain]]'s {{spoiler|[[End of the World Special]]}} had shades of this.

 

== Card Games ==

* The Invasion story arc from ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' ends with "enemy" colors (white/black, blue/red, black/green, red/white, green/blue) being allies, an alternate win condition where all you have to do is have one creature of each color and one basic land of each basic land type, and ''the essence of Dominaria itself'' forming a tribe called Kavu. Also, Rath has become one with Dominaria; don't ask how that happened.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''Breakdown:'' One's character is brainwashed by a computer and sees himself where he was trained. Everything is now filled with a green haze, the steam shoots from random places, and the television screen is filled with static. He has to shoot all of his partners, then is attacked by large, half naked men while a light flies around him.

 

== Film ==

** Although [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s companion [[All There in the Manual|novel]] offers ''an'' [[Mind Screwdriver|explanation]], if you really must have one.

* The otherwise conventional western ''[[Blueberry]]'' (aka ''Renegade'') ends with the hero and villain taking peyote and entering the spirit realm to do battle. The hero then has an epiphany that is visualized with trippy abstract images and Native American chanting. It has to be seen to be believed.

* ''[[The Quiet Earth (film)|The Quiet Earth]]'' (1985), a rare post-70s example, ends with the main character {{spoiler|seemingly transported to the moon of a distant ringed planet, or possibly the afterlife, or perhaps he remains where he is and the universe changes around him. It makes no sense. It wasn't meant to.}}

* ''[[At Play in the Fields of the Lord]]''. Moon gives the Indians the flu, they all die, Randy dies, and in the novel, Moon is (metaphorically) the only man on Earth. [[Gainax Ending]] indeed.

 

== Literature ==

* ''Dragon Ultimate'', the seventh and final volume of Christopher Rowley's ''Dragons of the Argonath'' series, sees heroes Relkin and Bazil transported to the Sphereboard of Destiny, an abstract representation of the multiverse, to inhabit a pair of giant constructs (reminiscent of the piloting of giant Japanese robots) and battle a golem for the fates of all oppressed peoples in all realities. Needless to say, it's a bit of a departure from the series's usual, relatively traditional, fantasy setting.

* In ''[[Perfume]]'', Grenouille finally uses his perfect perfume {{spoiler|at his execution. Overcome by the beauty of his fragrence, the crowd universally proclaims him innocent and then falls into a massive orgy. Unsatisfied with the perfume's hollow effects, Grenouille kills himself by dumping the remainder of the perfume over his head, causing a nearby crowd to devour him out of overwhelming love.}}

* Almost every [[Stephen King]] book, at least those that include the supernatural.

 

* "Fall Out" in ''[[The Prisoner]]''

* "Forever ''[[Charmed]]''".

* ''[[Lost]]'', somewhat inverts this: it ends in a mysterious imaginary realm whose events are far more prosaic than the supernatural ones on the Island. Yet it contains a few mindscrews of its own with its inconsistent timeline and trippy memory flashes.

 

== Video Games ==

* Pretty much every single ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' hack ever to some degree. Examples include VIP 2-5 (which have a ridiculously psychadelic looking rainbow coloured final level filled with random gimmicks), [[Brutal Mario]] (second part of Bowser's Castle especially), [[An SMWC Production]]'s void level, ASMT's void level and probably a whole lot of others.

* The finale's of ''[[Hellsinker]]'' are noticable for being incredibly surreal and wierd even by the game's standards.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Bionicle]]'': The first seven chapters of ''Brothers In Arms'' focus entirely on Mazeka and Vultraz. Once the two finally meet in battle, they fly through [[Deus Ex Machina|a portal that randomly opens in front of them]], sending them to an alternate reality where Spherus Magna was never destroyed and the Matoran Universe was never created. [[Shaggy Dog Story|The conflict between the two is never resolved]], [[Writer Cop Out|due to this]].

 

== Western Animation ==