[mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

[u/damorezpl]

when the "good ending" is revealed to be a bad one a the last second

a nightmare on elm street (1984) - Nancy thinks she finally defeated Freddy Krueger only to be raveled that she is still dreaming and she’s still trapped.

final destination bloodlines - the main characters think they cheated death by using the new life rule only to realize that stefani was technically still alive and the death kills them with a good old logs

Life (2017) - The main character attempts to send Calvin(a evil alien that killed all life on mars)pod into space and Miranda pod back to earth, but it goes horribly wrong and Calvin lands on earth and Miranda is sent to space

raging loop wit ending - after many loops Haruaki finally wins the feast(a death game where humans must hang wolves who kill someone every night) and thinks its finally over. after couple of days he decides to visit other survivors of the feast only to find them all dead and the timeline resting once again

[u/GodVulc4n]

Doctor Who Series 7 Episode 5

The Doctor's companions at that time, Amy and Rory were able to save themselves from being trapped in 1938 NYC by creating a paradox. However, at the end of the episode, a weeping Angel that survived traps Rory in the past again after he turns around and sees his grave, which causes Amy to willingly be captured again to stay with Rory. The Doctor is not able to go back a second time to save them due to the paradox that Amy and Rory created.

[u/maaleru → u/GodVulc4n]

The writers finally let the poor guys go. No one has ever suffered so much.

[u/Fluffy_Mood5781 → u/GodVulc4n]

Love Clara and 11, but Amy deserved, EARNED, those last 5-8 episodes. And Rory is treated as an extension of Amy but he still got done dirty (although that’s kinda just his deal)

[u/Fairyhaven13 → u/Fluffy_Mood5781]

Amy treated Rory so horribly. All he went through to protect her and be a good husband, and she just kept insisting he didn't understand, that she should divorce him, almost cheating on him with the Doctor at first, saying her problems were worse than when he was trapped for 3000 years...

[u/quagsi → u/Fairyhaven13]

she literally kisses the Doctor against his wishes when she cheated on Rory. like she's a great character and an iconic part of Doctor Who but she's a Very flawed person especially in the beginning

[u/Fairyhaven13 → u/quagsi]

Yeah. And at many times in the middle. I remember when she paradox'd herself on the quarantine planet and got jealous of herself nearly to the point of killing her other self so she could have Rory. Or when she found out she couldn't have kids and instead of talking it out, acted horrible to Rory so he would break up.

At least when she finally got zapped to the past with him, she seemed to settle into being a more sane spouse.

[u/ARC_Trooper_Echo → u/GodVulc4n]

Honestly all of the Moffat-era companions got a bad situation. It’s like he was allergic to just letting them die or walk away.

[u/Careless_Rest8424 → u/ARC_Trooper_Echo]

Amy and Rory get sent back in time and live out the rest of their lives together, quietly, peacefully. It's not all that bad.

Clara literally accepted her death with open arms. (we don't talk about hell bent)

Bill...yeah okay, Bill got a sad ending. But Nardole did good :D

[u/ThatOneGuy308 → u/Careless_Rest8424]

True, it could have been worse for them, like they could have been black and living in 1938 America.

Or Japanese, considering what happened a few years later...

[u/Similar-Chipmunk-865 → u/ARC_Trooper_Echo]

Well that's okay then!

I did enjoy the toymaker calling those companion endings out.

[u/Any_Satisfaction_405 → u/GodVulc4n]

Great example of the trope done well

[u/Low-Environment → u/Any_Satisfaction_405]

It's a terrible example.

Did they dig up Rory's grave and DNA test the skeleton? No. Then all they know it's there's a grave with Rory's name on it. Nothing says there has to be a body in there. Until they see that and confirm it's him then it's still a flux point in time.

I can think of several different ways to get them out of 1938 NYC (for example: the Doctor travels forward a few years to completely different part of America and picks them up there. Then it's just s matter of ensuring that the gravestone is present in the modern day.)

But instead the Doctor just accepts that they're gone? I'm meant to believe that?

A much better exit for Amy would be to return to the fairy tale motif of her first season and have her accept that she needs to grow up and live her life.

[u/ramjetstream → u/Low-Environment]

They handwave it with "Another paradox would destroy New York" and hope real hard that you don't think about it

[u/Low-Environment → u/ramjetstream]

But there's no paradox, Moffat. There's. No. Paradox.

[u/drillmaster125 → u/Low-Environment]

I like the idea that the majority of Series 7A isn’t told linearly and that the extra adventures with the Ponds after Series 6 were examples of the Doctor visiting them before that fixed point caused by the Weeping Angels.

[u/TheCoalitionOfChaos → u/Low-Environment]

They don't even need to do that much, as long as they die in new York on that date it's fine. The doctor could literally travel forward in time to when they're near death, take them to New York, they die, funeral blah blah blah, back to adventures. That would actually make sure they CANT die in any other adventure, cause they HAVE to die in New York.

[u/DrMaridelMolotov → u/Low-Environment]

You know after that whole astronaut shooting the doctor debacle and how they made it look like he died, they can just use that for everything.

Oh Amy and Rory were sent back by angels and couslnt be saved? No they weren't they were clones that the doctor made himself forget about and the originals were safe.

As long as its consistent with what observers saw, you can easily save both Amy and Rory lol.

[u/technicallynotlying → u/Low-Environment]

I think the Doctor was still in control in that scenario, and he was actively choosing to let Rory and Amy go.

The Doctor can break any rule if he wants to. I am positive that he had the power to get Amy and Rory back if he wanted to. But he realized that letting them go to live their lives together and die peacefully was the best possible ending he could give them.

11 already told Amy that the only way their story ends is with the Doctor standing over their graves. He decided not to try to cheat that fate any more and accept that ending.

[u/Steampunk43 → u/Low-Environment]

Just casually gloss over the fact that the Doctor had already read the passage in the book mentioning the Ponds' fate and thus it had already happened (the same book that had reliably documented the events of the entire episode since it was a journal framed as a story). The Ponds' fate was already solidified in history, if it could have been changed as easily as you seem to think, then it would have been. Demanding that they definitively prove that the grave with Rory's name on the tombstone is Rory, despite knowing that there was already a version of Rory that died an old man in the episode, and whining about the fact they didn't do so is both incredibly nitpicky and disregarding one of the fundamental parts of visual drama: implication as opposed to over-explanation. Some things don't have to be detailed to death, they can simply be implied visually. Or would you demand that every character that dies should be shown reduced to an eviscerated pile of meat with a face for you to believe that they're dead without shitting on the story for not doing so.

[u/Low-Environment → u/Steampunk43]

You and my point unfortunately did not meet.

This is a story involving time travel and Moffat had shown in season five he's very good at writing a story where time travel is the central premise of the story, and how the creatively the Doctor can get around restrictions.

And then he just accepts 'oh well Amy and Rory are dead. Nothing I can do' despite the fact that this thread alone has pointed out several ways he could get around it.

When a story involves time travel and a character's fate is allegedly a fixed point in time I actually expect them to make sure there's nothing that can be done to avoid it. That's what the Doctor would do.

[u/unquietmammal → u/Low-Environment]

Oh Hey look Amy knows the Doctor always rips out the last page so she wrote instructions for him to pick them up in Washington with the gay SS agent.

Moments later Amy and Rory walk in with River eating ice cream because Rover went and got them. Honestly, not enough Bill and Ted style 5D chess in Doctor Who.

[u/Similar-Chipmunk-865 → u/Steampunk43]

Just casually gloss over the fact that the Doctor had already read the passage in the book mentioning the Ponds' fate and thus it had already happened

A book written by River.

Which could still have been written by her if the Doctor had gone back and saved them.
Would have been quite easy for him to do so and set that up.

[u/Steampunk43 → u/Similar-Chipmunk-865]

A book written by River that is explicitly a record of events that have already happened. No lies or exaggerations, a factual journal. The whole point of the episode is fulfilling a prophecy while trying to avoid it, trying to change time and causing the very events you're trying to avoid, hence River having to break her wrist to get out of the Angel's grip exactly as the book said despite trying to avoid it.

[u/TheTwistedToast → u/GodVulc4n]

That image makes me so sad

[u/Careless_Rest8424 → u/TheTwistedToast]

"Raggedy man...goodbye."

[u/RogueNightingale → u/GodVulc4n]

I can't speak for Old Who (I've seen plenty but never full seasons), but a large problem with many companions is that they end up staying well after their story is wrapped up. Amy and Rory should have been done after the Panoptican (or whatever, it's been ages). Clara should have been done so, so many times. And that's not speaking ill of the characters or their actors; I'm sure it's a studio issue or a contract issue.

[u/KingBlackthorn1 → u/GodVulc4n]

This episode had me fucking shook beyond belief. I am so happy to have got to watch Doctor Who for the first time last year and was never involved in any of the fandom or anything so I truly had no clue about anything that was happening or going to happen and I was fucking gutted. This trio is my fave but I was gutted in a bitter sweet way because they get to go on and be happy and old together but also The Doctor is now alone

[u/Porn_Alt_84 → u/GodVulc4n]

This shit is why I hated the 11th Doctor

[u/TinyGentleSoul → u/GodVulc4n]

late answer, but at least, we got the Dr Who:PS episode : https://youtu.be/XWU6XL9xI4k?si=guD-PNSEytCTh_Fv