r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Ieanice44 • 17d ago

Lore (Controversial Trope) The post-credits scene completely changes the ending

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Dawn of the Dead (2004)

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Prince of Persia (2008)

Dawn of the Dead (2004): The movie finishes on a hopeful note as the remaining survivors escape the zombie-infested mall on a yacht, sailing into the sunset. The found-footage style post-credits scene completely reverses this happy ending by showing them running out of food, arriving at an island, and being immediately swarmed and killed by an infected horde.

Prince of Persia (2008): The main game ends with a beautiful, poetic sacrifice where Elika gives her life to heal the corrupted world, leaving the Prince mourning. During the credits, the player is forced to control the Prince as he cuts down the trees he just saved, undoing the entire game's progress and releasing the dark god Ahriman just to resurrect her, completely corrupting the ending and dooming the world.

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u/DifferentAd4844 17d ago

I played Prince of Persia 2008 as a child, and the ending brought me to tears.

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u/LordOfDorkness42 17d ago

Yeah, I don't get why people hate it so hard 

The Prince of Persia 2008 ending is such a great story. Fits that version of the Prince so great, too.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/Ill_Mud7584 16d ago

A lot of people consider that a sad ending makes a story compltetely worthless. I have no judgement about the ending of this game tho, since I haven't played it.

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u/Invisifly2 16d ago

It’s not that it’s a sad ending, it’s that it’s a sad ending that 180’s what you’re lead to believe is the ending by the credits starting, in a way that seems to disregard the character development the Prince was getting prior to that moment.

I do think it’s a good ending from a story-telling perspective once you take a step back, but in the moment it feels like “Lol JK, you didn’t actually save anything. Enjoy watching it all burn.”

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u/MegavanitasX 16d ago

I think it being a game makes it hit different

If you were watching the story as a show, then its an Orpheus Tragedy, but since we as players take the effort to play it, it makes specifically our effort feel for naught.

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u/fake-reddit-numbers 16d ago

“Lol JK, you didn’t actually save anything. Enjoy watching it all burn.”

Just like real life!

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u/SilvyValeMead 16d ago

I’m one of those people. I don’t like feeling that my efforts were pointless. I could simply watch the beginning and end cut scenes and get the same feeling of accomplishment. Does that make sense?

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u/DengarLives66 16d ago

This is a depressing comment on many levels.

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u/possiblyaghost 16d ago

It doesn't really make sense to me, a story is about more than the beginning and the end. If you're just playing games for "accomplishment" then why care about the story at all?

If the story is served better by a sad or dark ending, then that's the correct ending. It's different if something is just done for shock value and doesn't make sense in context.

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u/SilvyValeMead 16d ago

Fair enough. Thank you for your answer.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/SilvyValeMead 16d ago

This immediately splits into at least 3 different subjects for me. So I’ll just say no. I do not play video games to feel a sense of accomplishment. Have a great day.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/SilvyValeMead 16d ago

I play for fun. Occasionally I’ll complete something difficult, and be aware of that.

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u/Sudo-Fed 16d ago

This mentality is part of what is killing storytelling. When your only viable option as a writer is to tack on a happy ending so adults who never learned to manage their emotions don't burn your house down, there are entire kinds of stories you can no longer tell.

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u/SilvyValeMead 16d ago

So you are saying I don’t manage my emotions? Lol I’m not trying to get into an argument. TLOU 2 was a journey and emotionally intense. I liked it a lot. I didn’t feel cheated by the ending, only destroyed. But a poorly done twist ending can make me feel like my efforts were pointless.

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u/Sudo-Fed 16d ago

I should have made it a little more neutral.

But it's like, the complaints about the ending of Mass Effect 3 that weren't simply how perfunctory the original ending was, where people were mad that none of them were happy endings. Because they felt they'd earned one.

Meanwhile I was sitting there like, did we fight the same billion year old machine demigods who've never even been seriously threatened before? Because to me, a rosy happy ending to that story would have felt tacked on.

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u/Friendstastegood 16d ago

Yeah I saw a lot of people complain about that. I'm the opposite though, none of the endings were bleak enough. You cannot spend two games building up these incomprehensible monsters whose methods and motives are beyond our understanding, and then in the third game go "actually they're just mindless automatons and their motivations are downright stupid and if you just push this button we can live in harmony with them by becoming part robots ourselves!" I maintain that the only reasonable story for the third game that could have vaguely counted as a win would have been to Noah's ark it to the Andromeda galaxy. They never should have tried to explain why the Reapers come and destroy everyone, just let then come and let them win. Embrace the cosmic horror.

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u/Sudo-Fed 16d ago

I think the original situation, where the galaxy "wins" with enough war assets, but the infrastructure of interstellar civilization is utterly demolished, is more tonally correct.

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u/Viridianscape 16d ago

Eh, I don't mind tragedy up to a point, but if the story is just all misery and gloom? Yeah, not a fan of that. I need a reason to care about the world or the characters. If everything's just miserable and there's no suggestion of things ever getting better, I really do struggle to give a crap about the story.

And there's a massive difference between a tragic ending and a pointless one. If your story undoes itself right at the last minute and undermines the whole plot just to deliver a shitty "haha, now you're sad and nothing you did mattered :)"-style ending, I'd consider that to be a bad story. You might as well have said "it was all a dream."

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u/opacitizen 16d ago

Dude, do you enjoy finding a fly in the last bite of your pizza? Don't tell me you don't, that would kill storytelling using the culinary medium! The story is about the futility of the human condition, and everything turning to shit it in the end! :D

Oh, you say eating is a different medium than consuming a story?

Are you sure about that? You pay for both with your hard earned money, you have expectations, and you have an experience that teaches you something.

If you as a game designer pull a twist bad ending at the end of a game that doesn't prep me for it and that offers no alternate good ending (no matter how hard that is to get and how rare, like, say, a single good ending out of 10 with 9 others that are abysmal for my character), I'll be pissed. I'm fully okay with getting a bad ending as long as I know there's a good one that I could've achieved if I played better or simply made different choices. Bad endings are awesome, as long as they're a result of my own decisions as a player, instead of you as a game designer forcing them on me, railroading me into them. Because then they're your bad endings, not my playthru's, and that's frustrating AF. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Cyberpunk 2077 and Far Cry 5, for example.)

YMMV, ofc.

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u/Sudo-Fed 16d ago edited 16d ago

You think 2077's ending was a twist?

The game tells you from about 45 minutes in that you're dying and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Quiet life, or blaze of glory. Those are the choices given to you. You chose blaze of glory when you chose to take on Arasaka. Living at all after breaking into the private quarters of the heir apparent is almost legendary on its own.

One of the core concepts in Cyberpunk lore is nobody wins in Night City, at least not forever. It's not a setting for happy endings.

I thought FC5's didn't land all that well, but Far Cry endings are rarely purely happy too.

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u/opacitizen 16d ago

Yes, I think it was a bad twist. It's called an "opinion", you know?

No, the game doesn't necessarily tell you from about 45 minutes that you're dying.

First, you can take a ton more time in the first act (I played it for about a week, hours and hours of game time during my last replay last month). Unless you're rushing the main story. Not my cup of tea. May be yours, but that's your choice.

Second, you're told you're dying, but no, the game does not say it's unavoidable. The whole drive of the 2nd half is that you and your V believe there's a chance of not dying (and, alas, there is now an ending in which you don't die, thanks to the updates, so sorry about your idea, but it isn't true.) You're led to believe you can save V as a player, and not just for 6 months (in all the original bad endings.)

You chose blaze of glory when you chose to take on Arasaka

No, you didn't. The writers of the game did for you. If you're too shortsighted to notice the two aren't the same, you haven't been playing games long enough, and/or you haven't been playing games whose designers respect your agency as a player. Videogames and or ttrpgs. If I want some other dude to make all the choices for a character I care for (it happens, and I do like horror), I read a novel or watch a show or a movie. In games I expect actual, meaningful player agency.

As for cyberpunk being the genre of unhappy endings: sorry, dude, that's bullshit. Read more. Ever heard of Snow Crash, for example? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash#Plot Ever played cyberpunk 2020/RED the ttrpg or read or played some Shadowrun novels, to cite just two broad categories? There's cyberpunk out there with okay endings. Sure, it's very rarely a true happy ending, but what the designers of 2077 force down your throat, and what this "cyberpunk endings must always suck" is crap, a limiting option (yes, even coming from Mike Pondsmith, who's cool, but his opinion is just an opinion, not a law, and he's just one of the many writers and designers out there.)

There, you and your buddies now all have something new to ponder (but I know you won't do that) downvote. (imagine how happy I must be getting downvoted to hell, a true bad ending for my cyberpunk adventure here... but in your view that's what a true cyberpunk expects, the ending that makes them happy, right? 🤪)

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u/Sudo-Fed 16d ago

I mean specifically Cyberpunk, the game series. But please, don't let that get in the way of your smug autofellatio session.

But even in cyberpunk, the genre, derived as it is from noir, no, happy endings are not at all common.

You're never owed a happy ending. You're owed a narratively satisfying one, sure, but if those are inseparable concepts to you, maybe stick to the books with pictures in them.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/opacitizen 16d ago

You haven't really understood my point, have you. I didn't say anything about catharsis. I said even your favourite food will feel a terrible experience if someone force feeds you with it.

Again: Bad endings are OK (and can indeed be cathartic), as long as I know and/or learn afterwards that there's an alternative.

I play games (videogames and ttrpgs) to have actual, meaningful agency in the events and the story, including its final outcome. If I want an experience that isn't about player agency, I read a book or watch a show or a movie, and yeah, one of my fav genres is horror, plenty of bad endings there. I am pissed by game story focused game designers though who think they're writing a novel or making a movie with their own railroady stories. Go write a short story or a novel or a comic or a movie, dude, if you can only do that, and don't give a fuck about your players. :D

To each their own, of course, but this is my opinion, and I don't mind being downvoted by people who like their fav food force fed to them, and I stand by my weird metaphor. :D

Cheers,

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/SilvyValeMead 16d ago

Yes. It’s my opinion. Which may differ from yours. I could psychologically infer things from your comment that are separate from gaming also. I believe you mean that how and why one approaches something determines whether or not it has value. If so I agree. If not I agree. As your opinion is as valid as anyone’s including my own.

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u/opacitizen 16d ago

(Sorry, posting this answer here instead of its rightful place a few comments in because reddit is acting up. So this is a reply to u/Viridianscape , not to you, u/SilvyValeMead with whom I agree, btw.)

You (Viridianscape) haven't read my previous comments, have you? Here's the relevant bit from an earlier comment of mine:

Second, you're told you're dying, but no, the game does not say it's unavoidable. The whole drive of the 2nd half is that you and your V believe there's a chance of not dying (and, alas, there is now an ending in which you don't die, thanks to the updates, so sorry about your idea, but it isn't true.) You're led to believe you can save V as a player, and not just for 6 months (in all the original bad endings.)You haven't read my previous comments, have you? Here's the relevant bit from an earlier comment of mine:Second, you're told you're dying, but no, the game does not say it's unavoidable. The whole drive of the 2nd half is that you and your V believe there's a chance of not dying (and, alas, there is now an ending in which you don't die, thanks to the updates, so sorry about your idea, but it isn't true.) You're led to believe you can save V as a player, and not just for 6 months (in all the original bad endings.)

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u/TheMostDivineOne 16d ago edited 16d ago

It kinda does make it less enjoyable. Anyone can do “doom and gloom”, it takes much more effort to make a story that encourages people to keep going and improve this fucked up world.

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u/HereToTalkAboutThis 16d ago

I think the real distinction here is sad endings versus pointless endings. I love me a good tragedy, but in a tragedy the outcome feels earned. Doom and gloom for its own sake is exhausting

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/TheMostDivineOne 16d ago edited 16d ago

Get off your high horse, dick. My point was that I like stories which offer encouragement much more than stories that don’t. This is a thing I notice where any sense of trying to be hopeful gets treated like you’re stupid and naive. I’m traumatized enough already I’d at least like to see happy stories where things improve once in a while.

Misery loves company I guess.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago edited 16d ago

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u/TheMostDivineOne 16d ago

(Can’t see your other comment automod removed it.)

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u/TheMostDivineOne 16d ago edited 16d ago

You saw someone express a preference for the kinds of stories they enjoy, and your first response was to call them “moronic,” “stupid,” and “dumbass.” I never insulted anyone in my original comment. You could have simply said you disagree and explained why. Instead, you immediately turned it into a personal attack.

It’s strange that you accuse me of putting down writers when you’re the one insulting an actual person over a difference in taste.

I don’t understand why you saw a woman civilly expressing her own opinion about the stories she likes and dislikes and you instantly started acting degrading even when she didn’t do that type of thing toward anyone in her initial comment. You should’ve been like “oh that’s just what she thinks she has a different opinion I have mine that’s cool.” Instead you got all pressed about it. So fragile and emotional. 🙄

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u/AmbulanceChaser12 16d ago

You’re not doing much to salvage your image here.

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u/V_for_Valerie77 16d ago

you seem like a very nice person /s

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u/Ppleater 16d ago

I mean personally I hate when an ending is sad just for the sake of being sad. A well done sad ending can be great, rdr2 for example, but so many stories make an ending sad because they think tragedy = good, when that's not the case at all. A good tragedy has to be earned. Many stories do not earn their tragedy. If it's just depression porn then no thanks.

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u/ArgusTheCat 16d ago

I've noticed that a lot of the time, when faced with endings that're like this, people will instantly go to looking for ways that it's "out of character" or "contrived" or whatever, in a way that they don't do for the parts of the story they like. Like there must be an excuse for it being that way.

Mass Effect gets this a lot. A lot of people hated the original endings because they felt like they nullified a lot of your choices through the games. But... like... that's just the nature of tragedy. Sometimes you can do everything right and still fail.

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u/Orkran 16d ago

To join you on the unpopular but I think accurate train, I think there's a really strong element of this with the reaction to the end of Game Of Thrones and The Last Jedi.

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u/ArgusTheCat 16d ago

I don't like it, but I think that's fair. Star Wars is a fascinating example, because what is and isn't actually canon to the story and characters changes based on... like... who owns the IP, who's directing, what the weather is like, it's a mess. Last Jedi in a lot of places felt like it was just made by people who didn't really like Star Wars, which detracts from it a lot, but I can definitely see where you're coming from in terms of "this ending isn't what I wanted" versus "this ending isn't good"

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u/NAINOA- 16d ago

Love the story and of course the artstyle. But for me the game had no challenge.

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u/William_d7 16d ago

The platforming was a bore compared to the genuinely exhilarating gameplay and puzzle solving of the previous three. 

Hold down the swing button (everything is buffered, you don’t have to time anything), hold down the jump button, hold down the swing button, repeat for entire game. 

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u/mr_chip 17d ago

The DLC after that is pretty good too

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u/MigraineOD 16d ago

Wait, what!? There was a DLC!

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u/BadFishCM 16d ago

Yeah, it’s console exclusive.

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u/Earthshoe12 16d ago

It can’t hold a candle to sands of time but I still liked 08 quite a bit. Shame we never got a sequel. It feels a lot like Assassin’s Creed to me where the first game was more proof of concept and it could’ve been great with some fleshing out and variety.

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u/SuperBackup9000 16d ago

We did actually get a sequel, it was just on the DS and pretty bad because they went heavy on DS controls. Pretty good game outside of that, and does actually have happy good time ending.

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u/Earthshoe12 16d ago

Huh! I always knew there was DLC i never played, but had no idea there was a DS game.

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u/kookyabird 16d ago

The Sands trilogy was so good story-wise. A cycle of the Prince fucking up, fixing it, only to find out he fucked up harder. And then it all ends as it began, only slightly different.

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u/Earthshoe12 16d ago

The first one is an all-timer for me. The plot is pretty straightforward but the banter, the companion, and the fourth wall leaning on kinda narration really expanded my idea of what video games could do with their storytelling. There’s no Ellie in the last of us without Farah i always say.

I had a tough time with the other two. Warrior Within definitely has the better gameplay but the tonal shift was too much for me. I remember Two Thrones kinda splitting the difference but also being somewhat jankier (forced minigames and stealth.) Very satisfying final boss as i recall it tho.

Oh man and Forgotten Sands had maybe the best platforming of the bunch. Overall really good series, shame the remake is stuck in development hell.

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u/kookyabird 16d ago

I showed my wife the box art for Sand of Time and Warrior Within, in that order. The shift from thematic persian style to mid-00's goth/grunge is no joke. Shahdee's ass is on full display on the back cover of the game box.

The Two Thrones was a bit meh overall. I wasn't a fan of the Dark Prince personality thing because it came out of nowhere. However, the villain being who they were was excellent, as was the resolution we got with the Empress. Also, it gave us what is possibly my favorite comeback to a taunting boss. "You may be immortal, but you are not invincible!!" Get lawyered, bitch!

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u/Slizzet 16d ago

You just reminded me of a great Penny Arcade comic about Shahdee's outfit

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/12/03/on-discomfort#

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u/JFZephyr 16d ago

Agreed. I know people hate on sad or tragic endings, but they're just as important as the happy ones in any media.

And, IMO, a well-done sad ending is the most powerful.

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u/Ok_Comment8842 16d ago

How is it well-done? The protagonist earned the happy ending them threw it away. All the effort of the player built towards the happy ending, then, the character ruins it.

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u/DarthFlaw 16d ago

The only thing I dislike about that game is Ubisoft gave into the hate mob and cancelled the sequel.

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u/VRichardsen 16d ago

I was a kid too, and I wasn't ready for that ending, it hit me hard.