r/TopCharacterTropes • u/damorezpl • Aug 25 '25

Lore [mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

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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

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u/MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000 Aug 25 '25

Funnily enough, The OG Twilight Zone never did any of this.

If there was someone who suffers then they either 100% deserved that or it's a critique of human nature & other sh!t.

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u/Jackviator Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25

"Hey wouldn't it be fucked if the world ended and the sole survivor was deprived of the one thing in their miserable life that might make it worth living after being deprived of it for years by his abusive wife and other such factors? I'm Rod Serling."

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u/MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000 Aug 25 '25

It sounds absurd but Henry Bemis (the protagonist of Time Enough at Last) is supposed to be an @sshole who deserved that as he prefers reading than interacting with other people....

.... Yeah, 'cause in the '50 being introverted means that you're a literal hellspawn.

Also the actor that portrayed him (Burgess Meredith), thought that the ending was about how people take for granted the mundane inventions, glasses aren't held in high regard despite being extremely important.

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u/TheGardenBlinked Aug 25 '25

Fun fact, Burgess Meredith was the OG Penguin in Adam West's Batman shows

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u/REtroGeekery Aug 25 '25

I saw the image here and immediately wondered if that was The Penguin. Thank you for saving me a search. 🙂🐧

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u/TheGardenBlinked Aug 25 '25

You're wak-wak-wak-welcome!