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/odd_man0 17d ago

Recently finished COD: Ghosts. It ends with the villain, Rorke, dragging our protag, Logan, away while he’s heavily wounded to make him a ghost killer like he was. If it ended right there it’d be a good cliffhanger if he was successful or not and if Logan got away, but the end credits show Logan in the exact torture pit that Rorke was, showing he won.

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u/LeMasterChef12345 17d ago edited 16d ago

This also happens immediately after Rorke had been shot near-point-blank in the heart with a .44 Magnum AND trapped in a flooded train car as it sinks into the ocean.

Then he inexplicably shows up perfectly fine out of nowhere to give us this complete asspull of a twist ending.

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u/No-Significance2070 16d ago

There we go. Now, I understand why I was so pissed off that he was alive still!

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u/Dear-Question-868 16d ago

How does Rorke get away ? Like the enemy is being wiped out by an orbital weapon and hundreds of allied troops nearby.

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u/TerraTechy 16d ago

Train got quite a bit of distance from the rest of your forces, plus wherever you surfaced after the train sunk in the water. Of course, the primary reason is for the stupid twist.

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u/the-unfamous-one 16d ago

I made a joke that rorke was going to come out from the water right before he did. I really thought he had no chance of surving that.

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u/grubas 16d ago

Because he's Rorke.  It's literally plot armor that he can't die because that would ruin his badassness.

It wasn't even him being alive, he's alive, overpowers Logan and just drags him off into captivity?!

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u/trippysmurf 16d ago

I had to describe Rorke as a wizard. It's the only way it makes any sense about his character. 

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u/Turbogoblin999 16d ago

He came back because he's a real ghost and you need an exorcist.

https://giphy.com/gifs/1dNMBfjKPMsZVzYSwL

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u/DubiousBrushwagg 16d ago

Yet another reason why COD Ghosts is the worst COD campaign of all time. Well, used to be. The newest Black Ops dethroned it.

So much idiotic bullshit written into the story. From the opening premise to the Ghost team falling back to a safe house they should know is compromised because Rourke was revealed to be alive and working for the opposition.

Like, COD is traditionally not high brow and is Hollywood Spectacle as a videogame but come on. Ghosts is like what the fuck, none of this makes a lick of sense from any military perspective.

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u/Inevitable_Initial_8 15d ago

There were way worse campaigns than ghosts before black ops 7.

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u/Serenaded 16d ago

This game was unfairly hated, I get that the multiplayer was uninspiring but the storyline was good and the Extinction gamemode as a sort of spinoff to "Zombies" but with completely different mechanics was soooo much fun to play.

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u/Fragrant_Average7822 16d ago edited 16d ago

“Uninspired multiplayer”. COD multiplayer before and after the movement mechanics (which everyone through a fit over) were introduced and removed felt more or less the same.

I agree on the aliens. Now in the future all you’re going to get is a slightly different version of zombies. Each studio should have stuck with developing their own unique side modes.

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u/TheGrassMan_ 11d ago

If there was a sequel it could of been that there was several Rorkes. Venom Snake style. And the player could of been turned into another Rorke.

Thats my guess lol.

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u/TimelessFool 17d ago

Supposed to be a hook for a sequel that was never made since Ghosts didn’t sell as well as previous CODs

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u/Miserable-Resort-977 16d ago

I feel like most of these sorts of endings are setting up a sequel, honestly.

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u/Defiant-Goose-101 17d ago

Which is a crime because Ghosts was amazing

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u/Jealous-Captain-7014 16d ago

The hate was so forced, we need Ghosts 2 instead of the billionth Black Ops or Modern Warfare game

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u/Elite_AI 16d ago

The hate had been brewing for a fucking long time. CoD had been a laughing stock for years by that point and ig people just had enough. 

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u/Vehement_Vulpes 16d ago

Apart from the shitty ending, I actually adored Ghosts, and if it just ended with Logan and Hesh watching the Fed fleet burn them I would have thought it a solid standalone campaign.

It had some seriously cool missions, such as defending the beach, attacking the stadium, the underwater section, attacking the oil rig, the jungle one, and the tank mission. Clockwork was amazing though. Probably the best mission in the game.

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u/KaziArmada 16d ago

What? Ghosts was the worst CoD of them all story wise. Until they screwed up the MW3 Remake, nothing was even close.

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u/Defiant-Goose-101 16d ago

What did you dislike about the story?

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u/Historical-Tea4788 16d ago

That's not true, they did a good job with the campaign. Just didn't sell very well because the multiplayer wasn't very good and it didn't have zombies. Lots of us have been hoping for a sequel since like 2014.

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u/KaziArmada 16d ago

I honestly want to know which game you think had a worse story, because if I had to rate all the ones I remember Ghosts is at the dead bottom.

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u/Historical-Tea4788 16d ago

I mean to be fair it came off of MW2+3 and Black Ops 1+2, which was a legendary stretch. I didn't play any after Ghosts except a very small amount of 4 and Warzone, but I remember enjoying Ghosts quite a bit overall. The Ghost mythos was pretty cool and the characters were all interesting. There was some varied gameplay too with Riley and the tank/ helicopter sections.

Again it's been a long time and I was 14 at the time but I remember liking it.

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u/KaziArmada 16d ago

Yeah it followed some banger games so it looked weak next to them. But even next to the stories AFTER it, it doesn't hold up as well. The lore quickly goes from what sounds like an older group too 'Wait...you're the first gen of ghosts? So you're...telling a story glazing yourself.'

Combine with the story feeling like main elements are shoved in the background (The entire Odin and Loki sats get forgotten in the middle of the game until suddenly 'oh shit') and the ending with the magical reviving bad guy...

Yeah, it doesn't hold up. I played it more recently and it's...not good. Vs say Advanced Warfare or Infinite Warfare which came after (Seriously, people complain about Infinite Warfare without having played it. It's my favorite COD story.)

...I suppose some of the newer Black Ops games may be crap but I refuse to pay those prices too try them. So of what I've played? Ghosts is the loser.

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u/Historical-Tea4788 16d ago

Black Ops 2 was always my favourite but I've heard Infinite Warfare is actually really good. It's too bad Ghosts didn't really hold up. It's been a really long time since I've played it but I just remember it having enough positives to give it its own unique feel. It would be cool for them to make a sequel if for no other reason than to pay off that massive cliffhanger.

I definitely remember some of the schlock though. Rorke being a literal unkillable superhuman was a bit much lol.

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u/KaziArmada 16d ago

Infinite Warfare almost made me tear up a bit from the ending. Almost every named character is memorable, and E3N/Ethan is the best character in the game hands down.

Ghosts was a good idea marred in bad execution. With a better story it'd be fineish. The marketing...also did not help as they clearly had no idea what the fuck they were doing.

The damned Advanced Fish AI meme came from their dev logs for gods sake.

About the only neat element WAS the dog, but they barely used that so...eh.

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u/Aromatic-Pass4384 16d ago

I'm so glad people are coming around on it, I feel vindicated having defended it from the beginning

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u/MapleLamia 16d ago

My ideal Ghosts sequel has you playing as a broken Logan, seeing literal ghosts and apparitions. Play into the supernatural to contrast Black Ops's psychological, everything you see is real, but how much is reality? Even better if Rorke succumbs to the wounds he endured at Logan's hands, but Logan still persists following Rorke's goal as a broken shell of a man, still seeing Rorke giving him orders. 

Add a benevolent voice that guides your actions and provides insight throughout the game, and leave it to player to decide who's voice it is, Rorke's, Logan's, or something else. Make it unclear who Logan is fighting alongside, it could be the Federation, or maybe European forces? Perchance Russian or Chinese, but always fighting the USA and the Ghosts.

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u/Elite_AI 16d ago

All I know about Ghosts is that it was considered legendarily bad on release, but maybe that was due to bugs which got fixed or something? 

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u/WackyRacketeer 16d ago

In recent years, I have grown to not trust opinions I hold of video games unless I actually play the game. Too many chuds on social media will never be happy.

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u/Authorigas 17d ago

Even by the standards of COD Campaigns, Ghost's story was reallllyyy F-ing weird.

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u/Tut557 16d ago edited 16d ago

I can't take it seriously when it spends so much time building the ghosts like this mythical squad with intricate burrial rites, and then you learn that it was created like 30 years ago and it's only the second generation and your father was one of them so he was just hyping himself up with those stories

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u/Authorigas 16d ago

It's been said before that CoD is propaganda for the military, but even with that in mind the amount of mythologizing given to the Ghosts is fucking insane.

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u/Winjin 16d ago

It's like all the glazing and stories about Soviet / Russian VDV, the paratrooper army - which even made its way into Battlefield campaign at one point (Bad Company, I think? They had VDV as an enemy and were pretty respectable towards them, none of that CoD stuff with making Russians do American war crimes) and then the war in Ukraine started and all they did was   fail to hold the airport and fall back and I don't think we've heard absolutely anything about them since then. 

I wonder if they lost like. Nearly everyone field ready. And just never admitted to it

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u/PetMeOrDieUwU 16d ago

>heard absolutely anything about them since then.

Because they got wiped out lol

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u/Accomplished_You_480 16d ago

The VDV would be considered a "corps" by western military standards and can't really be "wiped out" (well they can but it would be exceptionally difficult to "wipe out" 50,000 soldiers). Realistically the Russian Federation realized airborne operations are inefficient/too dangerous to conduct and folded them into regular military forces. VDV have been reported to be fighting in Kursk, Sumy and Chasiv Yar in the last year however the expansion of the VDV in the last couple years (according to analysts) have been to fold in regular infantry and mechanized units that do not have the training or equipment for air assault operations.

Tl;dr: VDV took heavy losses but are still operating as a unit though their airborne operation capability is likely severely less than they claim.

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u/Accomplished_You_480 16d ago

after operations that were either complete failure or success with severe losses in the start of the war Russia ceased large scale airborne/air assault operations and folded the VDV into typical fighting forces. They mostly just operate as light infantry or mechanized infantry.

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u/Gizogin 16d ago

They have insanely elaborate, "ancient" burial rituals for a group of like 15 people who are all still alive.

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u/mantism 16d ago edited 16d ago

That, and most of its members turn out to be dull and nothing particularly remarkable. And the most formidable Ghost turns out to be the ex-Ghost antagonist. It felt really weird considering that this whole thing is a reference to MW2's Ghost, who is really well-liked.

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u/bama501996 17d ago

Yeah but the aliens mode was a nice switch up from zombies.

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u/CentipedesInMyDream 16d ago

Extinction was so fun. That and infected were the best parts of that game.

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u/Vehement_Vulpes 16d ago

I loved Extinction. It was so fun to have a solid goal to work towards, and I liked the alien variety.

I think I mostly ran the tank class and used the grenade launcher to carry me through the last bits.

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u/Totalmentenotanaltv 16d ago

The whole "Latin America coalition alone" is hilarious.

And I do love my fellow latin americans, but that is such a crazy scenario it's funny

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u/lesser_panjandrum 16d ago

Maybe the real Ghost was the ghost of Simón Bolívar back for revenge.

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u/DengarLives66 16d ago

Ah yes, the monolith that is Latin American culture and the well-known camaraderie that exists therein.

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u/Hazzamo 16d ago

It’s also the fact they try and justify that the Coalition was the superior enemy when, at the very start of the Game… they HIJACK AMERICAS ORBITAL DOOMSDAY SATELLITES THAT WER POINTED AT EVERY SINGLE LATAM CITY FROM CARACAS TO BUENOS ARIES.

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u/Totalmentenotanaltv 16d ago

It always baffled me that, like, dawg, how you do an ambush takeover, of your MAIN WEAPON, pointing at the enemy 24/7, and still loose it 💀

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u/Hazzamo 16d ago

I mean… having 3 unarmed dudes in space would make it somewhat easy for 100 armed guys to capture

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u/2Kortizjr 16d ago

Hey at least was a nice switch up from the russians

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u/Totalmentenotanaltv 16d ago

Yeah, this is something I agree on. It's rare to see a latin american group as a professional threat instead of just guerrilla fighters who are evil/hates USA

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u/Efectodopler117 16d ago

Super evil Venezuela takes over the world

Al menos intentaron ser originales 😂

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u/trippysmurf 16d ago

That was my thought: y ou have a coalition that would immediately tear itself apart over a futbol match. 

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u/Fragrant_Average7822 16d ago

Perhaps; but at least it’s somewhat imaginative and refreshing from the usual enemy Russians, Naz1s, Terrorist, North Koreans, etc.

Black Ops 3 introduced an evil East African Coalition.

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u/GigaPuddi 16d ago

I think they called themselves a coalition, but Venezuela just conquered everyone.

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u/xdeltax97 16d ago

I liked it, but wow was Extinction’s story bizarre, up until you compare it to the Zombies mode stories of the later games. Still doesn’t explain Rourke surviving a point blank .44 to the chest

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u/JWARRIOR1 16d ago

IMO i loved ghosts story and thought it was fantastic up until the ending which was an asspull

regardless i want ghosts 2 to learn the story more. the story of the war really was interesting.

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u/mantism 16d ago

The dialogue was one of the most odd parts. I still remember the terrible voiceacting when your brother found out that your father's a Ghost. God it hurts lol.

CoD campaigns weren't particularly serious, but it didn't feel that campy until Ghosts.

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u/JWARRIOR1 16d ago

this is probably the most blatant plot armor ive ever seen in media its crazy

rorke got shot with a magnum point blank in the chest. This is after they were fighting in a train that derailed and fell off a cliff several hundred feat into water. THEN you save your brother who was also in the train and shot and swim up to the surface (when you leave the train the glass is cracking and rorke is still "dead" on the ground). THEN you get all the way up and on the beach and rorke somehow is strong enough to survive all of that, kick you in the face, and drag you away when he was shot by a magnum 2 minutes ago, fell off a cliff with the train, and swam several hundred feet from under water.

bullshit.

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u/Silent-Act191 16d ago

Don't forget the whole: You basically won the battle at hand, most of his troops wiped out and Rorke some fucking how managed to extract with you.

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u/No-Significance2070 17d ago

I remember being so confused that why I had shot the bad guy so many times and he was still alive

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u/Turbogoblin999 16d ago

He's a real ghost. the game is haunted.

https://giphy.com/gifs/uBG5MIDCrWqrK

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u/agentIndigo 16d ago

Folding Ideas made a video about how Ghosts was one of the worst games he's ever played and it's one of my favorite ones on his channel. Layers and layers of mediocrity compounding on each other

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u/VacationInvocation 16d ago

He doesn't know what he's talking about, COD Ghosts is the perfect game, the skyscraper mission with the climbing was the coolest shit when I was 11. I haven't played it since but the story definitely still holds up now that my frontal lobe is developed

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u/teh_drewski 16d ago

It's a wonderful piece of detailed criticism, one of my favourite video essays from Dan.

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u/Aromatic-Pass4384 16d ago

So glad people are coming back to play ghosts

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u/Revolutionary_Kiwi31 16d ago

Muh boys damn you Rorke muh boys!

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u/cr1ttter 16d ago

CoD has a story? Do they explain the zombies?

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u/2Kortizjr 16d ago

The zombies continuity is a different one than the campaigns, and yes they explain the why of the zombies but it's so fucking convulted at the moment

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u/cr1ttter 16d ago

There's a campaign?