Poll: How do you feel about cliffhangers?

[Dead Seerius]

Cliffhangers are used in pretty much all forms of entertainment media - games, movies, TV Shows, you name it. Their main purpose is to excite you for a sequel, but how do you feel about them in general?

Does it bother you to know that you'll be left guessing at the end of a movie/TV season for God knows how long? Or does that make you enjoy the product even more? Or something in-between?

(You have my recent re-watching of National Treasure 2 to thank for the prompting of this thread. While I don't care much any more, that ending pissed me off as a kid. And still no sequel.)

 

[BathorysGraveland]

Well, depends how they're done. In good cases, it'll excite me to no end for a sequel. Take Witcher 2 for example, when you..

Spoiler

See the glorious army of Nilfgaard fording the Yaruga and marching upon the North for the third and most likely, final time

..it made me really excited for the third game now, and I want to see how shit unravels and take part in it. So in that case, a cliffhanger is extremely successful and I like it. Third game can't come fast enough.

 

[Shadowstar38]

I really hate cliffhangers. The story being told needs to be both self contained and have a few doors open for something after. I don't want anyone fucking around and leaving a bunch of questions unanswered that we have to wait 2 or 3 years for.

 

[Marter]

If a sequel/continuation is guaranteed, I don't have much of a problem with them. If not, then they're a huge pain and can ruin a perfectly good experience.

 

[Aris Khandr]

If a sequel/continuation is guaranteed, I don't have much of a problem with them. If not, then they're a huge pain and can ruin a perfectly good experience.

This. I absolutely loved Terra Nova, for example. Until they got to the cliffhanger ending, and I found out that the show hadn't been renewed. So now we have this unresolved major plot point, and no answer will be coming. Frak that.

 

[klown]

Depends really on the cliff hanger, and the medium.

For Movies, if it ends in a cliffhanger that is meant to make you think, such as Inception, they can make you reassess the entire movie in a fantastic way. It isn't leaving it open for a squeal but leaving it open for interpretation.

In games, they generally leave on a cliffhanger to setup another game that may never come, and I'm not the biggest fan of that. I like more how Assassin's Creed Brotherhood ended, where the story was self contained, but they raised a few questions at the end to leave you interested on what will happen next, knowing the next game is only a year out.

So I guess, when done right, they are very effective at making me want to see the next thing, or make me assess the current product better. When done badly, it makes me hate the time spent waiting to see the conclusion.

 

[DoPo]

I don't really like them much. I like endings. They don't have to be conclusive endings - open ones work, but I do like endings. For a while now, I don't really commit to series before I am somewhat sure of an ending. That's what got me into Mass Effect, really - was attracted to it being announced as a trilogy. Same with Assassin's Creed - I first got it just about a year ago, when I knew there would be an ending (that of Ezio's story). I'm still not sure whether to continue with AC3, yet.

But cliffhangers, while still annoying, would be fine, if I'm reasonably sure the work will have an ending. The Dresden Files had one of the worst cliffhangers ever but at least I am promised a continuation, so I lived through it. I just don't want them to turn into a never finished thing.

 

[Catfood220]

I don't really hate cliffhangers but I hate it when the leave it on a cliffhanger that is never going to be resolved, like Babylon 5 spin off, Crusade where it basically goes "...we will continue looking for the cure to the plague" and swiftly got cancelled. Or the ending to Beyond Good and Evil for which a sequel is never getting released, no matter how much Ubisoft tease us.

Joss Whedan did it right with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he never knew if there was going to be another series (with the exception of series 6/7), so would tie everything up at the end of the series but leave doors open so they could come back.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

If a sequel/continuation is guaranteed, I don't have much of a problem with them. If not, then they're a huge pain and can ruin a perfectly good experience.

I can agree with that. I do like the kinds of cliffhangers that just go naturally with the story as a point where you could leave your viewer/reader waiting for more. I don't like the really cliché ones that are just a blatantly obvious set up for the next instalment.

Execution is key.

 

[Zhukov]

Hate 'em.

An ending should give a sense of finality and closure, not try to sell me a sequel.

I can tolerate them in TV shows on an episode-to-episode basis.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Depends on the speed of the resolution. I don't mind a cliff hanger for a year for a book or game or such, but when you leave a cliff hanger, but don't get to resolve it in a timely fashion* It just pisses me off.

 

[kortin]

I tend to despise cliffhangers. The one at the end of Psych season 6 is just infuriating. ;____;

Spoiler

You know, with Shawn's dad getting shot and all...

 

[Smeggs]

It depends on the context, so I'll put indifferent.

For example, the legendary ending for Halo 3 after the credits. It did not promise much, but left us with just enough to hope for and-SURPRISE-get Halo 4.

RAGE did it horribly. No lead up to an abrupt end and suddenly, "BOOM-TO BE CONTINUED"

There's a certain mood or nerve you need to strike with a cliffhanger ending.

 

[Yopaz]

I tend to despise cliffhangers. The one at the end of Psych season 6 is just infuriating. ;____;

Spoiler

You know, with Shawn's dad getting shot and all...

Yes! This was the first thought that popped into my head when I saw this thread! I instantly had to check Wikipedia to see when the next season would air, I even started following Psych on Facebook in order to get the news as soon as possible. That seriously pissed me off.

OT: I usually dislike Cliffhangers. There are currently a few I am waiting to see resolved and I can't wait. It just seems like a cheap shot in order to increase the amount who watch/play/read the next installment. If it's a TV series and there's a cliffhanger between two episodes and the next episode comes next week I don't mind too much, but when it's done like in Psych above and there's almost a year until the next episode then I hate it. I was already going to watch and love the next season, I didn't need urging.

 

[Strazdas]

currently watching a TV Show where every episode ends with a cliffhanger.
hating it. im all up for overarching story to last over whole season or two, but cliffhangers jut for the same of cliffhangers is bad bad bad.
its even worse when it ends at cliffhanger and then they studio decide to cancel the show. woot woot.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

They're tolerable if there's some sort of guarantee that the story will be continued at some point either by a sequel or a new episode/season, or whatever the case may be. However generally I hate them as I'd much prefer to have closure.

 

[Lawyer105]

Mostly hate them.

It's not that I really have anything against a cliff hanger, more that I hate leaving things unresolved. If the promised sequel turns out to be so much hot air (as happens FAR too often), then that cliffhanger lives forever, and it's massively unsatisfying.

 

[smithy_2045]

I'll let you know next week.