r/TopCharacterTropes • u/MeepMan324 • 6d ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Endings so awful they completely destroy the legacy of the media.

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  1. Two and a Half Men's final episode teased Charlie Sheen's character coming back and going to harm the other characters whilst also having insults to his character and Charlie Sheen himself. It's clear the director had a grudge and the ending where his character comes up to knock then get crushed by a piano before it cuts to the director before he says "winning" before getting crushed by another piano
  2. This was an upbeat animated show about a magical teen princess. The writers desperately wanted a romantic endgame for her and her best friend, but the way they got there was essentially multiversal omnicide. To stop a villain, the main character unilaterally decides magic is the root of all evil and destroys it entirely. By doing this, she casually commits mass genocide against every purely magical being in the multiverse. It also triggers a massive apocalyptic event that violently crashes different dimensions together into a chaotic hellscape. But the show frames this horrific, mass-extinction catastrophe as a sweet, triumphant ending just because two teenagers get to hold hands in the rubble (Star Vs The Forces Of Evil)
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124

u/Cutie_Pie_6089 6d ago

Most good series end badly. Even Game Of Thrones one of the best ended awful. Years of political intrigue, wars and build up only for a rushed final season where nearly every character’s arc gets butchered.

74

u/mike_pants 6d ago

"We will fight to the death because we have the legitimate claim, consequences be damned!"

"What if we gave it to this kid instead?"

"Cool, seems fair."

49

u/MicroplasticCumshot 6d ago

"Yes, the magic cripple has a better story than the half Targ half Stark who came back from the dead, brought the wildlings over the wall, and is the only reason there was an organised resistance against the undead army"

7

u/SquirrelLuvsChipmunk 6d ago

Yeah… if the final decision of who sits on the throne really came down to “Who has the better story?” Maybe, I don’t know, they shouldn’t have left the character with the “best” story out for an ENTIRE SEASON and make his story so freaking boring in the other seasons he was actually in

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u/Side_show 6d ago

I will die on the hill that Jon Snow sucked.

He didn't rally anyone. Every single time anyone joined him, it was because one of his friends/advisors (not him) did the recruitment and inspired everyone else to join.

Be it Sam, Aemon, Tormund, Wun Wun, Davos, Melisandre, Lyanna, Sansa or even The Hound. He only ever gets his pals to trust him. Everyone else needs convincing by someone else.

And the number of strategic errors he makes is crazy. He is losing pretty much every battle he is in charge of until someone comes to rescue him. Loses to wildlings in his first ranging. Losing to the mutineers at Craster's Keep until Craster's daughters join and Ghost gets released. Losing to the wildlings at Castle Black until Stannis comes along. Gets shit-mixed by the white walkers at Hardholme. Gets (rightfully) deposed by his own men at Castle Black. Gets absolutely turned inside out by Ramsay until the Knights of the Vale come to the rescue. Gets surrounded by white walkers again north of the wall until Daenarys saves him (and loses a dragon because he's screwing around for too long). His dumbass plan at Winterfell is an absolute shambles in the big battle and is about to get ice burned by Viserion when Arya happens to end it all at that exact second.

In fact the only battle Jon Snow actually wins through his planning is the one where his army slaughters all the commoners of Kings Landing.

Also, despite being a "great warrior", he even needs to get saved multiple times by random characters or flukes when he is about to get smoked.

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u/goodnamestaken10 6d ago

IDK, it's how real leadership often works. The leader has really great people around them who trust them and will do the unsung work to make their vision into reality.

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u/sdpr 6d ago

It's a fair criticism, but I think you're right. I only say I think because I can't recall shit for the life of me, but I don't recall anyone being a "hard carry" for any situation the characters we're rooting for were in.

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u/ZiroLeHutt 6d ago

Yeah but he was a twit though and nobody liked him.

1

u/ExternalPromotion542 6d ago

Well yeah but "I dont wuant eet" remember?

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u/Hashtagbarkeep 6d ago

“Who has a better story than this weird kid that’s been sitting in a tree for a couple of years?”

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u/Kythorian 6d ago

A story so boring that he wasn’t in an entire season and people barely noticed.

14

u/Vyctorill 6d ago

My headcanon is that Bran was manipulating events Dune Style to make himself king. It makes it halfway tolerable if you gaslight yourself into thinking the show is an elaborate chess game between the Night King and the Three Eyed Raven on who gets to rule the world.

-4

u/IgnorantChampion 6d ago

Did you forget the part where everyone fighting for the throne was dead?

9

u/mike_pants 6d ago

Because that's how succession works, right? Someone dies and the rest of the country shrugs and goes home.

England and France would like a word.

-4

u/IgnorantChampion 6d ago

Soooooo..... you did miss it, good to know!

Pretty clear Sansa doesn't want it. She despises everything it stands for. She repeatedly says "I want to go home" the entire show. Why would she want it?

Arya is an assassin and just needs to leave. Her arc isn't that of a ruler. She has never sought political gain in any manner. Why would she want it?

Jon killed his aunt and the queen... it's either rule as the one that murdered the queen or ask for the black and return to the north. Only acceptable arc for him. His love, his freedom, and his sense of self were all in the north. Why would he want it?

Tyrion? The half man? No, he's a Lannister and best suited as am advisor, he realizes that. Bronn? Ha. Brienne? Double ha. So.... who? A Targ? A Lannister? A Stark?

You sounded so confident with your succession bit, but that line of thought either forces Jon (who would refuse and has refused at every step) or.... Bran

9

u/Kythorian 6d ago edited 6d ago

Or…almost any other lord?  Just because none of the ones the narrative focused on wanted the throne doesn’t mean other people don’t exist in the setting.  A lack of people with a strong claim on the throne makes historical civil wars worse, not better.  If everyone with a strong claim is dead, all of the hundreds of lords with weak claims all figure it might as well be them.

For that matter even if we are just talking about those at that meeting, Edmure Tully has a much stronger claim than Bran.  But he just gets talked over by Sansa and ignored because it’s another chance to pretend Sansa is super smart without her having to actually ever do anything smart, because girl power, I guess.

0

u/IgnorantChampion 6d ago

Oh, you're absolutely right. It didn't roll credits saying Bran led the 7 kingdoms to prosperity for decades, I could absolutely see tons of pockets of civil unrest with a few lords trying to rise up. Problem is, most of the lords would happily follow a Stark in the throne, and most of the others are dead or without allies. Sansa has the north on lock, so that's a huge alliance to the throne.

Edmure is an interesting call... he has mo blood right, did not conquer the lands, and was never elected, but you have a valid point of his opinions being scoffed at by Sansa during the great council meeting.

4

u/Kythorian 6d ago

Edmure is lord paramount of the riverlands, and while his own house is not doing great, his only real rival house is entirely eradicated, so it wouldn’t be difficult to rally support of the other riverlands houses.  That’s a drastically better position than bran, who has no military support of anyone.   Being allied with the now foreign nation that just wants to be left alone isn’t very meaningful.  Is Sansa going to march her army south again to defend Bran’s claim?  Seems doubtful.  She can’t say she wants the North to be independent, then try and force the rest of Westeros to accept Bran as their king.  Why would most of the lords be happy to follow a stark on the throne?  The only ones who care about that is the North, who are no longer subjects of the throne.

The most likely result of all of this is that the seven kingdoms just entirely breaks apart into eight or nine separate kingdoms.  If the North can secede, why not the rest?  What army is Bran going to have to keep the rest of them in line?  That’s not so much pockets of rebellion as the end of the iron throne.

1

u/IgnorantChampion 6d ago

That's a very solid take! I think Edmure is a little bitch, which is why he could never step up and take it like you imply, not without someone in his ear at least. I could certainly see the dissent among the other lord's and wanting to secede.

1

u/eawilweawil 6d ago

Every Baratheon would put their claim forward, noble houses are bigger than just 3 guys even if the show doesn't focus on them

1

u/samaldin 6d ago

Even if it was just the three Baratheon brothers, didn't Daenaerys legitimize Gendry shortly before? So he has a claim through Robert, whose claim through his Targaryen grandmother was considered the best and got him the throne (on paper). So even with Daenaerys not recognizing Roberts claim, her legitimizing Gendry seemingly gives him the best one with her gone (excluding Jon for kinslaying and regicide).

Or i don't understand how any of this works on paper (truth is just bigger army diplomacy).

0

u/eawilweawil 6d ago

Nobody in Stormlands will acknowledge Gendry's legitimacy tho, as far as they're concerned he's just some peasant boy claiming to be a Baratheon and since Dany is gone, nobody will back up his claim.

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u/mike_pants 6d ago

K.

-2

u/IgnorantChampion 6d ago

Eh, figures. I was trying to have a conversation based on what you said but you'd rather respond like a prick because you have nothing of value to add. Have a good one.

21

u/Soyunapina12 6d ago

Tbf that was mainly D&D fault due to them rushing all of season 8 aspects just to try to get their hands on directing a Star Wars movie or any other big IP project ASAP.

Had they not done that, GoT last season would hace ended at least in a decent way.

7

u/tomahawkfury13 6d ago

We could have gotten two more seasons if they didn’t rush things. They were offered a huge budget for them too

8

u/JaseDace1224 6d ago

Didnt they also get cut from Star Wars cause Disney saw the season 8 train wreck and went with another director?

3

u/Ezee8 6d ago

Not really. The plot was based on Martin’s notes and his plans for WoW, and Martin frankly can’t write fantasy for shit, and has, by his own admission, always been bad at ending stories. He didn’t know how to wrap up stories beyond just killing characters off, and season 8 just showed folks that

10

u/One-Earth9294 6d ago

GRRM said that he signed off on the show because at a dinner while taking the pitch, D&D correctly predicted the ending he had planned.

Which is why he will never finish those books; he saw what people thought of it.

9

u/Jaded_Audience9747 6d ago

I thought they predicted Jon Snow being the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, not the whole ending. It could very well be that GRRM has written the rest of the series without any definite plan or direction, and bringing it to any kind of satisfying conclusion is basically impossible.

6

u/licoricenipple 6d ago

You're correct, he asked them who Jon Snow's mother was and they correctly guessed it which proved to him that they were seriously interested in the lore and details and not just chasing any fantasy property in the wake of LOTR and Harry Potter's success. This meeting was over 20 years ago when the fourth book had only just come out. Bran hadn't found the Three Eyed Crow yet and Tommen was still king, deducing the ending at that point would have been a lucky guess.

8

u/Or1ginal_Username 6d ago

This is a preposterously bad take; Martin is an excellent fantasy writer, better than 99% of his contemporaries in the genre. His habit of 'killing characters off' is overinflated by people who have never read the books: there's 5 out of 24 POV Characters who die, and 2 of them have or will come back to life. The ending of the show literally can't happen the same way in the books, I'm not sure where this narrative comes from. ASOIAF is near impossible to wrap up in 2 books, which is Martin's problem, but ASOS does wrap up the first three books very well, so I don't see your point there either.

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u/jerpyderpy 6d ago

i just want to be a little nitpicky and add that (spoilers for books 1-5) there's also the 7 prologue/epilogue pov characters that all die. they are only pov characters for one chapter, but i do think they add to the "everyone dies" mythos of asoiaf because they are some great chapters that are the first and last things you read in the books.

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u/Ezee8 6d ago

If you think he’s better than “99% of his contemporaries”, then you really haven’t read much fantasy.
I’d like to clarify; I do like him as a writer, but not a FANTASY writer. He’s a good science fiction writer, which was what he was mostly known for before ASOIAF, but folks like you got into fantasy when that series blew up, and that’s what he became known for. He writes fantasy like science fiction, and it doesn’t really work

0

u/ElBroken915 6d ago

and it doesn’t really work 

You realize you're talking about one of the biggest fantasy series of all time, right? Just because you, personally, don't care for it doesn't mean it's objectively bad.

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u/Ezee8 6d ago

Biggest fantasy of all time? Are you on drugs? That’s the most “I haven’t read any mainstream fantasy in my life” sentence you could have said

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u/Or1ginal_Username 6d ago

I've read a lot of fantasy and Martin is one of my favourites. I don't know what you mean by writing fantasy like sci fi, it seems like that's all the rage nowadays w/ Sanderson and co., but the magic in asoiaf is pretty mystical and incomprehensible

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u/Ok-Rock-2566 6d ago edited 6d ago

Martin has directly said in many interviews that his ending will be very different to the show.

It is also pretty much imposible for the books to have the exact same ending as the show, since the show cut important plot lines like Young Griff and lady Stoneheart and completly changed characters like Euron and Tyrion

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u/Ezee8 6d ago

He only said that AFTER the ending crashed and burned. He spent the entire time leading up to that talking about how faithful to his intentions they were

1

u/Ok-Rock-2566 6d ago

Can you give an example ?

Because instead he was publicly voicing that he didn't like plot points like Littlefinger giving Sansa to the Bolton's

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u/bartekltg 6d ago

There is a difference between a bit unsatisfying story end, and freaking r/ExplainAFilmPlotBadly entry.
Denarys getting mad, Bran getting to be a king and ressurected John going beyond the wall wren't that bad on itself. How they got here was a much bigger issue.

The last one is a resurected by dark magic zombie. (Self)banishment is OK. First one was discussed heavily. Give her more time. Bran is the worst: time and causality manipulating oracle did nothing.

1

u/Kythorian 6d ago

There isn’t really anything wrong with the specifics of the way it ended.  It’s the process of getting there that was so stupid it ruined the show.  Dany having the potential to go as crazy as her father has been hinted at for the entire series.  It just can’t be compressed into an episode and a half.

Even Bran ending up as king, which is the most sketchy aspect of exactly how it ended, could be written well.  It just can’t be because he ‘has the best story’.  But the manipulative sociopathic three-eyed raven scheming his way to the throne could definitely be written well.

5

u/One-Earth9294 6d ago

It's just a million times easier to tease an audience with intrigue than it is to actually pay all those plotlines off.

You could argue that the show only got as big as it did because it was downright indulgent with setups.

2

u/Dr_Tibbles 6d ago

The only Character's ending that I liked was Hotpie's. That boy be baking

2

u/Initial-Hamster7068 6d ago edited 6d ago

Both this and Star vs had to experience their bad endings on the same day. Was not a good time for finales

2

u/Careful-Positive-710 6d ago

Its almost impressive how badly they screwed everything up. Its like they went out of their way to do it.

2

u/ItsNotMeItsYourBussy 6d ago

The last good series I watched which actually landed the finale was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and that aired in what, 2002? (It's spinoff show also had a good ending tbf) 

Modern TV writing is completely different, changed for the worse

1

u/ApprehensiveSoup2214 6d ago

Midnight Mass, Breaking Bad, Mr Robot come off the top of my head.

Most shows sucked then, most shows suck now. Buffy was an exception, not the norm.

I personally think this is the golden age of TV shows.

1

u/Hakarlhus 6d ago

For me, the last good season was Five, even then it wasn't as good as 1-4.

No lady stone heart and a greater movement away from established character development. I stopped watching part way through 6 and was given all sorts of shit for talking down about the direction of the show.

 It doesn't feel good to say I was right.

1

u/Deep-Regular4915 6d ago

“Even Game of Thrones” dawg GOT is like the poster child of fucking up the end of a series.

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u/ahundreddots 6d ago

Even Jesus was crucified.

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u/CapybaraIRL 6d ago

I INSTANTLY tanked the serie's cultural relevance. I used to stay up late talking about it with my family and next day I'd talk about it at school. Then it suddenly vanished.

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u/Historyp91 6d ago

It destroyed the media...but the media has two sucessful spin off series, a movie in production and the francise is overall still highly regarded?

0

u/Forsworn91 6d ago

So, so so many plots that never paid off or went anywhere, remember the dragon glass weapons? The horn that killed dragons? Nah, everyone just forget it

2

u/eawilweawil 6d ago

Dragon glass weapons were used against zombies are worked, they even showed how they were making weapons out of dragon glass. After zombies all got dusted, there was no use for them anymore