Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"[[Monty Python]]. Where are they now? Well, they're here in this cupboard.''

 

A kind of epilogue where we're shown what happens to the characters, places and/or the setting after the series. It usually gets about a minute or two during the last extended credits of a [[Grand Finale]], or a less intrusive version of the closing credits may roll over it.

 

A staple of the [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]] films, it differs from a [[Distant Finale]] in that we get little flashes (such as photographs, still frames, little captions, narration/voiceover, or a [[Montages]] of individual clips) that tell us what happened to the characters, instead of a full scene with dialogue or character interaction. If it shows how each character meets his maker, a [[Deadly Distant Finale]]. If it happens while the credits are rolling, it might be [[Creative Closing Credits]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The last half of episode 11 in ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'' Finale where it shows under the credits and the ending theme where everyone is going. Also, a case of All Love is Requited.

* The end credits in the series finale of ''[[Soul Eater]]'' show what almost the entire cast got up to after Asura's defeat. They're mostly lighthearted (such as Maka improving at basketball and Joe finally getting his coffee) and the final seconds show the students together one last time.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' jumps 20 years into the future to show society is still advancing- but not without giving the viewers a solemn reminder of the events that have passed. It implies ons must accept the course of life and death as it is, or risk tampering with the fabric of existence.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The final issue of ''Avengers: The Initiative'' ended with one of these. Hardball and Komodo reconcile with each other and Cloud 9. Batwing and Butterball replace the U-Foes as North Carolina's state superteam, and are in the market for additional members. Bengal retired, moved to Sunset Park, and opened a martial arts school. Trauma starts [[Walking the Earth]], his exact activities [[Shrouded in Myth]]. And... well, there were [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in this series, you really don't need to hear about them all.

** Oddly, despite writer Christos Gage's obvious intention of this as a sendoff to these characters, whom he expected would never appear again except as [[C-List Fodder]], there was a [[Post Script Season]] in ''[[Fear Itself (Comic Book)|Fear Itself]]: Youth in Revolt''.

* The first issue of the ''Super Buddies'' mini-series showed what happened to the members of the [[Justice League International]] after their book was cancelled in the 90's. Most of the heroes were in dire straights, such as Fire, who was now running a softcore porn website.

 

== Fan Works ==

* The two-part epilogue of ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' includes a brief AP story that says, in essence, “[[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] are not reuniting.”

* ''[[My Little Avengers]]'' ends with a brief [[Time Skip]] showing what happened after the defeat of [[Big Bad|Loki]]. In addition to showing what happened to the story's central characters, it also shows what happened to a few of the minor characters, {{spoiler|including Twilight Sparkle becoming [[Doctor Strange|Sorcerer Supreme]], and Rainbow Dash leading a team of [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] [[Expy|expies]].}}

 

== Films -- Animated ==

* ''[[Americathon]]''

* ''Moving Violations'' ends with the police commissioner driving past one cast member after another, all of them having been pulled over for yet another traffic violation. An on-screen caption proclaims that the lead character was sentenced to traffic school so many times that the county made him the instructor in desperation.

* ''[[Anchorman]]''

* According to ''He's My Girl'':

Bryan became a major rock star, sold millions of records, and {{spoiler|returned to Missouri for sex re-education classes.}} }}

* ''[[Blame It On The Bellboy]]''

 

== Literature ==

'''Allan's last words''': 'Bad idea? How bad?' }}

* ''[[The Phantom of Manhattan]]'' ends this way, briefly describing the fates of the surviving major characters as well as those of [[Historical Domain Character]] Oscar Hammerstein and the Manhattan Opera House.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* [[Sea Patrol]] ended with a shot of each character with a one line description about their future.

* [[The Red Green Show]] did this on its final episode. While it didn't cover all the cast members, it did highlight most of the major ones and even one or two who hadn't been seen in a while.

 

== Music ==

* [[Five Iron Frenzy]]'s "That's How the Story Ends" serves as a followup to most of their prior comedic songs. Some of the characters come back from the dead, and others [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|get bridges dropped on them]].

* Bowling For Soup's ''Punk Rock 101''.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* [[For Better or For Worse]] ended its 29-year run on [http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/2008/08/31 August 31, 2008] with a strip showing what happened to the members of the Patterson family.

 

== Theatre ==

** Similiarly, the printed copy of ''[[Pygmalion]]'' comes with a very extensive epilogue chapter detailing the future of Eliza Doolittle, in which she lives out {{spoiler|one of the most mundane lower middle class lives ever put to paper, and '''absolutely positively does not''' get together with Higgins.}}

* The first production of the musical of ''Vanities'' did this; in subsequent productions it was rewritten into a [[Distant Finale]].

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** [[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]: Mao has himself a new guinea pig.

** [[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]] has a slightly different final epilogue depending on what [[Relationship Values]] you've built up.

 

== [[Visual Novels]] ==

* ''[[Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!|Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai]]'' has this for the six main endings, though the contents don't really vary from one to another.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' ''[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2010/06/01/the-epilogue finally]'' ends on one of these. To note, {{spoiler|White Mage is tracking down the Light Warriors to give them ''some'' credit for fulfilling the prophecy, the Dark Warriors are now world-renowned heroes having recieved the credit for everything the Light Warriors did, Red Mage has set up a group for sole survivors of mysterious sects with Dragoon, Thief is now living peacefully in Elfland as the King, and Black Mage and Fighter have disappeared with none of the others being sure of where they are (turns out they're exactly where they started when the comic began)}}.

* [[A Magical Roommate]] ended with twenty of these. There were still an number of characters whose ultimate fate wasn't mentioned, however.

 

== Web Original ==

* Sleuth Noir, the online detective game, has an example of this trope in Heimlich VonVictor's [http://noir.playsleuth.com/case/scripted_mystery.spy?mysteryid=3319512 The Executor's End] At the conclusion of the mystery, we find out in great detail what happened to every member of the ensemble cast of the mystery.

* When [[The Nostalgia Critic]] reviewed [[Mister Nanny]], he used a caption over the last shot ([[No One Could Survive That|Sean Armstrong flying through the air because the kids tethered his motorcycle]]) to explain what happened as a result.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Ending Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Consequences]]