Endings that should have well been the end...

[Ogoid]

And the Road Warrior? That was the last we ever saw of him. He lives now... only in my memories.

Kinda says all that needed saying, really.

What gets me, though, is that Thunderdome could have worked; there were some really solid ideas there. If only it hadn't been so all over the place in terms of tone and ended with Max either dying or going with Savannah Nix's half of the tribe to the ruins of Sydney and embracing his role as "Captain Walker", thus completing his redemption arc, it could potentially have been a perfect coda to the story.

Instead we got... well, what we got.

 

[Zen Bard]

My one will be a tad controversial, but Supernatural you know that show about those brothers that shoot salt at ghosts? Yeah, that one.

Loved it, adored it even. Spirits and such really tickle my fancy, and I enjoyed the modern wild west feel it gave.

But it should have ended at Season 5. I remember watching the ending and going 'Wow, they wrapped up everything, even thematically'.
Then I started watching Season 6 and I was all 'Wait, this is dumb, this is shit'. It's like having closure then some asshole rips it back open.
I later discovered it was meant to end with Season 5 but MONEY happened.

Yeah, didn't watch past a couple of episodes into Season Six. Don't think I ever will. Made me mad as all hell.

You beat me to it. But yeah, I came here to post this and TOTALLY agree with you.

And you know it's a bad sign when Robert Kripke, the series creator himself leaves the show after five years saying "Nope, I'm done. I finished the story I wanted to tell."

You were smart to have stopped watching when you did. I hung in there until Season 9 until it became painfully obvious they were recycling old story arcs.

OT:

Highlander - "There can be only one". It's in the damn tag line!

In general, I'm a BIG opponent to Prequels since I don't think they really lend anything to established characters or their stories. For instance:

The Dune Books written by Brian Herbert - I get that the guy has to make some money off his father's legacy. But the first four books in the Dune series are just fine (even though the last one is a stretch). Going into great detail in prequels to explain some of the events mentioned in the main series takes the mystique and reverence out of the history and world building.

Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace: - I'm not opposed to seeing the back story of one of the greatest villains in Science Fiction. But I don't need to see him as a little kid. It's completely unnecessary. There's absolutely a compelling story in the fall of Anakin Skywalker. But THAT'S the story. I think the 2nd and 3rd prequels should have been the 1st and 2nd. And the 3rd movie should been more like Marvel's new "Vader" comics that show how he went from crippled Sith in a painful suit to a universally feared bad-ass.

Caprica - I guess it might have been interesting to explore how the cylons came to be. But it's kind of boring when the original Twelve Colonies look suspiciously like near future Earth. And once again...I don't need to see William Adama as a little kid having night terrors. We know how his story ends and where his most pivotal arc is. Everything else is just padding.

 

[Hawki]

No, you know what Disney property I really feel needs to stop before they make another sequel? Toy Story. The third could not have ended things on a more triumphant note, but now they want to make a fourth.

I nearly considered adding Toy Story 4, but Toy Story 3 was pretty solid, as was Finding Dory. Pixar's sequel record isn't perfect (see Cars 2), but while I don't think a Toy Story 4 needs to be made (especially since Andy's out of the picture), I'm willing to give Pixar the benefit of the doubt.

If they go in to space for F&F 9, then anything else is going to be a step backwards.

F&F 8: Moon buggies

F&F 9: Mars rovers

 

[pookie101]

Alien and The Terminator should have been stand alone movies. The sequels to those movies were really over-rated and unnecessary.

I had this discussion last week. I thought Buffy The Vampire Slayer should have ended at Season 5. The season finale was a million times better than the one they ended on. Also, we could have skipped the last two "emo" seasons.

the last two seasons had some really good episodes but yeah the station swap and resurrection of buffy was bad

star ship troopers should of stopped at the original.
terminator and alien should of ended at the first sequels

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Certainly the Starship Troopers sequels aren't up to snuff. I mean Good Day to Die [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIsv1YOFNys] is a great song, but the movies are eh.

The Matrix should have just been a one-off. It got so up its own ass with 2 and 3.

I won't make friends with this, but you all should know me by now, so Star Wars Force Awakens. It was just A New Hope again. Abrams really is just a hack. He just copies other stories, changes the characters's names around, and then pretends its original content.

Gundam Wing Endless Waltz. Maybe I need to rewatch it, but I remember being incredibly confused the entire time. Like...is this an alternate reality? A retcon? A dream? Fucking MST3K bait?!

Oh, MST3K. Yeah, leave it alone Felicia Day. We get it, you're kinda nerdy and that was about 9% cute...20 years ago when Geek culture was still just in the comic shops and cons and no woman would be caught dead playing Magic at 11pm on a Friday at the Fantasy Shop. Now adays with Geek culture being a billion dollar trendy industry for Hot Topic, Funko and Disney it comes off as just cynical and desperate.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I didn't mind Pirates4, except for that annoying Johnny Depp person. Originally was going to be a stand alone story, but they stuck it into the franchise.

Stand-alone as in separate characters, or stand-alone in terms of plot? Haven't seen anything suggesting that.

Separate characters...I'm told (can't vouch for the truth of it) that someone happened to write a story with pirates and mermaids and stuff, and someone else bought the rights to it and stuck Sparrow in.

 

[Souplex]

Sex House: The second to last episode is a far better black-comedy note to end on than the "reunion" episode.
Full Metal Alchemist: The Good One, not the crappy remake: I'm told the followup movie is pretty bad. The series ending was great as-is.

 

[Morti]

Avatar (movie): I really like this movie, even if others don't, but as a pre-emptive entry, I don't think sequels are needed.

I'm hoping they do make one. Just to see what kind of half-baked plot they come up with to justify anything other than "Pandora gets nuked from orbit". With the state earth is in, what do they think is going to happen after the expedition get back with reports of huge quantities of unobtainium but aggresive locals that butchered the inocent mining teams? It's not as if Pandora can release their own PR on the events. Space rocks fall, Pandora dies, mining drones cleanup what's left.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I have... issues with Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion, though that involves a lot of spoilers. So watch the show for yourselves, or at least watch SFDebris' review'/analysis of it if you don't have the time and don't mind spoilers and/or snarky commentary.

Anyways...

Spoiler: Ye have been warned! I'm also writing this from memory, so I might get the details wrong.

At the end of the series, Madoka makes a wish to become a goddess and that magical girls no longer need to suffer despair and turn into Witches. Unfortunely, this means that she will never have existed, and the only one who remembers her is Homura, whom I think remains a magical girl in this new world to serve as Madoka's herald or something. Anyway, the series ends with Homura fighting "Wraiths" instead of Witches, since the Magical Girl system gets something of an overhaul afterwards. A bittersweet ending, right?

Then "Rebellion" came around and ruined everything.

The world we're shown in the movie seems bright and happy with all five magical girls (Madoka, Sayaka, Homura, Mami, and Kyoko) as friends fighting "Nightmares"... but there's something off... so Homura decides to look into things herself, even if she won't like what she finds...

Spoiler: Okay, spoiler time.

It turns out that apparently, the Incubators are using her as some kind of experiment (Bunnycat's a dick.) So Homura goes full witch and everyone has to stop her. Madoka becomes a goddess again to fix things... only for Homura to become a demon, and takes her place, trapping Madoka and everyone else in a dream world... again.

WHAT. THE. HELL.

On the one hand, I get why Homura did what she did. After all the crap she went through, it's little wonder she went mad. On the other hand, I can't condone the writer just ruining the series' bittersweet ending just to deconstruct it and fixfics. (Oh wait, Gen Urobuchi. Crap.)

To me, it feels like mean-spirited, sequel-baiting BS that brings our characters back to square one.

*SIGH* Sorry for ranting, I just really wanted to get that all off my chest... Puella Magi Madoka Magica is one of my favorite anime, and to see it go out like that... sucks.

 

[Dalisclock]

Avatar (movie): I really like this movie, even if others don't, but as a pre-emptive entry, I don't think sequels are needed.

I'm hoping they do make one. Just to see what kind of half-baked plot they come up with to justify anything other than "Pandora gets nuked from orbit". With the state earth is in, what do they think is going to happen after the expedition get back with reports of huge quantities of unobtainium but aggresive locals that butchered the inocent mining teams? It's not as if Pandora can release their own PR on the events. Space rocks fall, Pandora dies, mining drones cleanup what's left.

Yeah, I've been of the same mind. It would be quite easy to only send marines or people who will gladly tow the company line on the genocide plan. Pandora is a long way from earth, and the only story that is gonna make it back is the one told by the people running the ship.

It kinda sucks that the theatrical version didn't bother to explain why the Unobtainium is so important or how bad things are on Earth. Two bits of worldbuilding that go a long way towards explaining why the humans are pulling out all the stops to get that mineral, other then $$$$$$$$.

 

[lionsprey]

Dragon ball Z. just about after Frieza or cell. granted i haven't watched super so i don't know if its any good.

 

[BrawlMan]

Dragon ball Z. just about after Frieza or cell. granted i haven't watched super so i don't know if its any good.

While Super is better than GT, that is not saying a lot. Super has lot of ideas fan would mock other fans for making their fan fiction, yet as soon as Toriyama does something like that, it's okay. Similar to you, I felt the show should have ended at the Cell saga, though I have certain problems with too. Fuck Hercule/Mr. Satan! The Buu Sagea I fucking despise. It was the Cell saga all over again, but even dumber and more pointless. The only new thing Iliked about it was Videl.

Sex House: The second to last episode is a far better black-comedy note to end on than the "reunion" episode.
Full Metal Alchemist: The Good One, not the crappy remake: I'm told the followup movie is pretty bad. The series ending was great as-is.

You know the first FMA is a loose adaption by the halfway point of the original manga? Brotherhood is a more accurate adaption of the manga. If you like the 2003 version that's fine. Both series have certain things I like or dislike, but overall I prefer Brotherhood. FMA (2003) seemed to go out of its way to screw over our main characters too many times. Plus, that bastard Envy became a Karma Houdini and got what he wanted, despite dying. I will give the 2003 version of introducing me to the manga and a better adaption.

BTW, there are anime shows better than there original manga counterparts. So I agree with you on some level. See Shaman King, Yu Yu Hakusho, Gunsmith Cats, or Trigun.

 

[KaraFang]

I don't acknowledge the Bioshock Infinite DLC's as cannon, since it all hangs on a very flimsy reason that's in my view impossible to have happend.

Oh, yes, this.

I'm sorry, while Columbia was a fantastic world premise, and Elizabeth was the "least" annoying companion in a game (though I'm not sure that's an accolade we should cheer.... hum... she was "tolerable?") the ending of that game... man.

Look, I LOVED Bioshock, OK? Story was excellent and I will be one of those people who will admit to having NO idea about the twist until it happened. I LOVED that twist. I liked that the ending allowed us to have revenge (meh boss battle or not).

Bioshock 2 was decent. Didn't do much... got the feeling they ran out of steam towards the end. Should have focused on the dad looking for his daughter (I was part of the group of people trying to solve the clues on the website. Hell, I even tried to get time of work to go to Brighton at the set time to see if anything "washed" up (I missed the bottles they put there because I couldn't get the time off! )

Anyway. Infinites ending makes NO sense.

1/ They screw it up halfway through the moment Elizabeth pops them both into the alternate world of Columbia during that weaponsmith plot. (Because they can't get back. So anything you do from that moment is less than pointless.)

2/ The ending forces them into an endless cycle. The ending they want CANNOT happen (and you don't need quantum physics training to realise it - just ask youself "if they erase who they wanted, then as they won't exist... WHO ERASES in the 1st place?" GAH!.

Then, THEN< they force those of us who love Bioshock and wanted more to play burial at sea. All fine and good, was great to go back to Rapture. But I have issues with SO MANY PLOT POINTS. No reason (and no real gain either) for Atlus to do what he did to Elizabeth at all, I HATE that they FORCE Elizabeth to become a lynch pin for what happens... it.... GAH!! GAH! It's like they loved her SO much they HAD to have her in everything.

Like Lightning in FF. Just an excuse for those programmers to have their fantasy tits and ass... and then they keep PUTTING HER IN EACH GAME. She's SO DULL!


Oh, and Mass Effect. You people screwed up ME3's end SO BADLY we should have let the series die!! (I was, AM a huge fan... but that ending. Jesus. and now Andromeda has shit the bed too. Sigh.)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

On the subject of the Alien franchise, there's Alien: Isolation.

Spoiler

The whole game is about Ripley Jr. finding out what happened to Ripley Sr., while (unknowingly) enduring the same xenomorph-related trial and tribulation her mom did. She finally finds her mother's recording/parting words to her, achieves closure, stops the death of everybody on Sebastopol, her buddy sacrifices herself for her, the ship explodes... and goes back to the good old Dead Space school of "go push the button on the other end of the space station" for 5 more missions, stretching the end of the game for no reason.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The Season 8 show finale for Scrubs was absolutely perfect. I hadn't been watching it for a while, but I was still overwhelmed by just how perfectly things were wrapped up, what an absolutely wonderful note everything ended on.

And then the suits decided that there ought to be a Season 9....

 

[BrawlMan]

To add to that, the Alien vs Predator movies should not have been made.

Though I will say that Alien: Covenant shows promise and I am interested in seeing what James Cameron can do when the rights to Terminator revert back to him.

Speaking of AVP, the Capcom version is the only one that exist in my mind (replacing both movies), as that version was based off the original script for the movie. Capcom jumped the gun and assumed movie would be out by 1994, so the game became a stand alone title. The only good thing about the first AVP movie was that the black woman survive. I was a very happy teenager that day.

Not even James Cameron getting the rights back fills me with hope. There is nothing left to tell without retconning anything after T2. Yet again, T2 ended perfectly with no loose ends. So no bad future, no Skynet, and no convoluted alternate timelines or backups with 5000 other back up plans.

 

[KissingSunlight]

I had this discussion last week. I thought Buffy The Vampire Slayer should have ended at Season 5. The season finale was a million times better than the one they ended on. Also, we could have skipped the last two "emo" seasons.

If not season 5, then it definitely should have ended after season 7. I mean, that wrapped everything up nicely, Sunnydale and the Hellmouth destroyed and Buffy finally getting away from the Slayer life that she always wanted to do. They shouldn't have continued on in comic book form, there really was no need.

I tried to read Season 8. I got to about 3/4 of the way before I gave up.

 

[Chaosian]

Within the single entry of Limbo, I thought there was a way better place it could have ended, with the player smashing through the glass near the end. It almost looks like that was the original intent, like the game would perform a big infinite loop after that point and really live up to its own title... BUT I guess we have to get the dumb happy ending instead.

 

[Glongpre]

So I watched John Wick 2

It seemed pretty conclusive that by the end of John Wick 2, that they are gonna milk this and make another one. Number 1 was good, number 2 was good, but it had too much I feel. The gun fights didn't seem as great because they were throwing so many dudes at him, I immediately lost immersion. The hand to hand fights with him and the black guy were outstanding though. I don't think number 3 will be that good though, but who knows.

Mass Effect 1 - Reapers can't find a way into the galaxy, the end.

Source Code - Dude celebrates with the girl, world freezes, the end.