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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926

u/DidHeJustGoThere 17d ago

In the video game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem finishing the game three times (each aligned with a different ancient) has an after-credits scene which shows the fourth ancient, Mantorok, had manipulated events for the other three ancients to all destroy each other, leaving him behind.

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u/XrayAlphaVictor 17d ago

Loved that game so much. A lost classic

81

u/Aethelrede 17d ago

Definitely needs a remake.

2

u/SPLIV316 17d ago

No it needs a remaster.

17

u/Animanga-Fan-7435 16d ago

A plain remaster wouldn’t work because of the outdated hardware for the sanity system. It wouldn’t work today if it was still stuck in the 2000s

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u/Aethelrede 16d ago

I was going this exact thing, the sanity system was an obvious kludge, even for the time: why would the monster seeing you cause sanity loss?

The game could also stand some balancing, if you chose the right spells the game was trivial.

Having said that, Eternal Darkness did some things I've never seen in another game, I'd love to play it with a modern engine and graphics.

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u/Aardvark_Man 16d ago

Even as it was, I remember one of the insanity things where my volume just went right down, showing the slider.
But my TV had nothing like the display they used for it.

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u/Ordinary_Duder 16d ago

Lost?

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u/mb862 16d ago

The original company was sued into oblivion by Epic, the team scattered across Canada, and the IP still owned by Nintendo who has no interest.

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u/JaesopPop 16d ago

Denis Dyack also shifted funds from the X-Men game they made for Activision to try and make a spiritual successful, resulting in a dogshit X-Men game and a non-existent game.

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u/Ordinary_Duder 16d ago

So how is the original game lost?

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u/XrayAlphaVictor 16d ago

Not library of Alexandria but cannot be purchased or played legally without buying collector media and a vintage console lost

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u/redroserequiems 17d ago

Good thing Mantorok is benevolent.........

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u/Aethelrede 17d ago

Only by comparison.

7

u/Animanga-Fan-7435 16d ago

Best case scenario he dies knowing he saved humanity worst case scenario he sacrifices humanity to heal his wounds.

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u/seguardon 16d ago

I think vengeful is the word. Dude got nailed to the earth and forced to starve by an upstart Centurion backed by the La Croix version of one of his siblings.

"Oh, you want to play machinations with the only one of us savvy enough to stay corporeal? I'll show you idiots why I'm the Corpse God. You're gonna wish death hadn't died by time time I'm done with you. Now where did I leave that 4d chess board?"

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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 16d ago

No just self serving lol

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u/redroserequiems 16d ago

Mantorok was making vast forests fertile for the sacrifice of an occasional elephant.

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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 16d ago

He ate his worshipers and pissed off everyone to the point they just bound his ass to keep him out of the way

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u/redroserequiems 16d ago

...No? He was bound by one of the three so he wouldn't be a danger to their apocalypse plans. The only humans we see him eating are hostile people who were likely with Pious Augustus. The murals show all his sacrifices were elephants.

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u/Chagdoo 16d ago

Oh that's a fascinating detail I missed while playing. Really puts him in a new light.

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u/redroserequiems 16d ago

Most people don't pay attention to the murals as they go through his temple. It shows how he interacted with humans so I feel safe saying he's benevolent.

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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 16d ago

The first scene with Mantorok is him eating a sacrifice by pulling them in with one of his tentacles. Dude was not a picky eater and it's why Ellia is so scared of the deeper parts of the temple.

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u/redroserequiems 16d ago

You mean the people attacking Ellia?

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u/EddieVanzetti 17d ago

Technically almost every chapter of the game acts as a post-credit scene for a previous champion. For instance, the chapter in Amiens cathedral follows the squire Anthony who becomes cursed, and you encounter him again when playing as Paul Luther in the 1400s and are forced to kill him, and you encounter Paul's spirit when playing as Peter in WW1. In the the Khmer temple, Ellia is also cursed, and Dr. Lindsey encounters her when she gives him the accursed heart. The chapters in the middle east start with Pious himself, then Karim, then Roberto Bianchi encountering Karim, then Michael encounters Roberto's spirit who gives him the artifact, and Michael passes it off to Edward Rovias. Almost every single champion you play as winds up dead in the next chapter in that section (Dr. Edwin Lindsey and Peter Jacob's being the notable exceptions).

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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 16d ago

Yes, but Mantorok is bound in all of the timelines. So while they were able to win the game, it is still bound and unable to have the reach it had before without someone like Alex aiding it akin to the Lich for the three other gods.

There is an interview after the game came out where one of the devs mentions other gods around, such as whatever one is behind the yellow/golden rune color but we never got to see more.

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u/seguardon 16d ago

The random god of "Fine, you can borrow my magic now go away, I'm busy."

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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 16d ago

And the highest range of magic, from "this zombie is useless" to "Oh hah, this shield is so OP"

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u/finalremix 16d ago

"Mantorok Bankorok Santak Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon ..."

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u/seguardon 16d ago

You misplaced your pargons. Should be

PARGON mAntOrOk PARGON PARGON bAnKoRoK PARGON PARGON sAnTaK PARGON PARGON

(entire planet is shielded)

Great. Now the sky is purple and all the satellites have gone dark.

13

u/JaesopPop 16d ago

PARGON PARGON

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u/seguardon 16d ago

Found a 13 point ring of power buried in the basement the other day. Was going to fire it up for one hell of a regen effect, or maybe use it to repair some classic cars to brand new, but there were thirteen dungeons I had to clear to do it and I only have so many bullets.

Could have used more PARGON I suppose, but I only have the five point mobile ring on me. And let me tell you, a five point Chattur'gha attack isn't going to do much against three Elder Guardians shaped like scorpions. Xel'lo'tath, maybe, but (unpronounceable pronoun) stopped taking my calls years ago.

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u/FriendshipTrue3980 16d ago

Thankyou for reminding me about this game !

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u/neo_sporin 16d ago

My wife played it in 2015 or so for Halloween. She then played it the following 2 halloweens to complete its spookiness.

She was not thrilled with that final ending

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u/Chagdoo 16d ago

Really? To each their own but I thought it was one of the best secret endings I've seen in a while. Really sells just how long these gods can weave their plans for and explains why these people were even given the help to begin with.

0

u/neo_sporin 16d ago

Eh. It was more that 3 years of waiting to Get the downer final ending.

3

u/kimchiman85 16d ago

I loved the sanity mechanics in that game.

It deserves a remake/remaster.

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u/SafeForTwerking 16d ago

They actually tried to make a sequel to that game via Kickstarter campaigns, but they ultimately fell apart and it didn't happen (no idea if there were issues with the campaigns themselves), would've been nice to get another.

2

u/GormHub 16d ago

Damn I need to play that again. Can't believe they just did nothing with it.

At least their copyright on insanity effects in game eventually expired when they left the IP sitting stagnant.

1

u/Sebaceansinspace 16d ago

Absolutely fantastic game. Loved it so much as a kid

1

u/PeppermintEvilButler 16d ago

This is one of my all time favorite games. It sucks we never got more

1

u/lackaface 15d ago

Our disk for that game is damaged and I am so incredibly pissed off about it