At what point should a series of ended?

[Nouw]

When there's just no more story to be told. As simple as that.

 

[Miumaru]

Depends on what the series is about. For example, I hope The Elder Scrolls never ends, but thats like saying I hope DnD or Star Wars does not end.
Really, any series that focuses too much on a small thing. For example, Halo, as Halo needs to end anyways. Is a Halo Ring going to even be in Reach beyond multiplayer maps?
Also, I hope Mass Effect continues, but Shepard's tale can feel free to end after ME3.

 

['Record Stops.']

I personally think a good game,book, movie series should end with a grand finale. A huge boom and then a good or realistic end to the franchise, as the developer,wrier, producer or whatever, it is their job to grant their fans a meaningful and satisfying end to the series that said fan has invested so much time in. It must be given effort and pride in the ending, because the fans had spent all of their money in either buying the successive games, reading each book to understand what happens next in the story, or watching the movies to understand what will happen to their favorite characters.

As a maker of a series, it is their job to end it and their job to give the fans a good last ahow. However, dragging out a series and then giving the fans a lack luster or absolutely horrible ending would be a kick in the balls or a slap to the tits for the fans who enjoyed the series to said end.

That's just my thoughts on the matter at any rate.

 

[RatRace123]

Force Unleashed, should've ended with the first one, at least storywise.
Having Starkiller be "cloned" just seems cop-outy.

His being alive kind of cheapens the sacrifice he made. The second game looks sweet, but storywise, I don't think the protagonist should be Starkiller again.

 

[Okuu_Fusion]

Friends... Should have ended around the time Chandler got all red and bloated...
That 70's Show... Should have ended two years before Topher Grace left...
Animes that are adapting manga that are still running... 6 episodes in if its a 13 episode run... 13 if its a 26 episode run...

 

[necromanzer52]

When the original creator(s) drop out.

Spyro should've ended after 3
Terminator should've ended after 2
And so on and so forth.

 

[[guys_its_ok]]

Scrubs should have finished loooong before Zach Braff eventually left. After around season five it got a bit iffy, started going downhill. After the main character left, they definatly should have called it quits then, but then they kept going......and it just dwindled and eventually petered out and just gasped and *poof* eventually it was gone. Only actor I've seen from that show since has been the Janitor, he's the dad on that show with the woman who used to play debra on everybody loves raymond now I think....

 

[Asukane]

When it reaches the point where the story the creators wanted to tell is done and to move on they have to make too many changes.

The best example I can think of is Stargate SG1. Great show, but anything after season 8 was just tacked on and had next to nothing to do with the orginal story. That and when the main character for 8 years leaves, it's time to pack it in.

 

[tomtom94]

Red Dwarf should have ended after series 6. As much as I'm delighted that it's coming back, it's not been the same without Rob Grant (half the writing team). I loved series 7 but not for the same reasons I loved the rest, and series 8 (and BTE) had too much CGI.

EDIT: Oh, and Artemis Fowl should have ended after book 4. Book 3 ended on what was definitely intended to be a conclusion but edited at the last minute to continue the prospect of sequels.
No. 4 was brilliant, so no complaints there.
No. 5 was meh.
No. 6 was just silly.

 

[Axolotl]

Highlander should have ended after the first film.

Same goes for Alien to a lesser extent and Terminator.

 

[nuqneh1]

Highlander, ended at the first movie.

It's a good thing T2 was the last Terminator movie. It ended at a good place.

 

[Space Spoons]

Kingdom Hearts should have stopped at one game. It was a fun, lighthearted adventure, if a little nonsensical at times. Then it got really melodramatic and the plot went weirdly metaphysical, mostly dealing with incredibly abstract concepts that make very little sense in the context of the story.

 

[Wandering hobo]

Series are just like gum.When you lose the original sweet taste its bland and boring afterwards.And when the over expand one idea through the whole series and spread the butter too thin.A good example is i guess SG1 and Heroes

 

[KwaggaDan]

As soon as introducing Jar Jar Binks or the Nuke Fridge sounds like great ideas...

 

[instantbenz]

They should "HAVE" ended when the plot obviously gets boring and random elements needed to be added.

 

[Palademon]

inb4 Death Note

I liked Gundam Wing, and am a victim of it's nostalgia, but by episode 30 something it loses all of it's goals and spends tons of episodes afterwards trying to figure out who's the bad guy just to go "Hey, me, your friendly rival am now the BIGGEST BASTARD IN THE UNIVERSE!"

 

[Gravyshanks the Pirate]

Highlander should have ended after the first film.

Same goes for Alien to a lesser extent and Terminator.

I don't know, I thought Aliens was pretty good. Honestly they could have ended it on either one, but the third and fourth movies are just silly. Why would Ripley go to a prison-planet with a dog-alien? Why would the company clone her afterwards and let mercenaries (one of whom is a crippled midget why?) onto their ship? And in all of these, everyone but Ripley dies. And Bishop keeps coming back. It's just dumb, the third is like a bad rip-off of the first, and the fourth is the same fro the second.

As for Highlander, I'm absolutely with you there. And Terminator really could have ended on the first or second, I liked both.