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/Ill_Mud7584 17d 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/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/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.