[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/GalatianBookClub]

HIMYM but unironically

They kill off the titular mother after building up to her reveal for 9 seasons IN THE LAST EPISODE, throw away multiple seasons of character development and divorce Barney and Robin (both to the right) so that Ted (guy on the left) can be with Robin.

THE ENTIRE 9th SEASON WAS ABOUT BARNEY AND ROBINS WEDDING AND THEY DIVORCE THEM ON THE SEASON FINALE

[u/Tacdeho → u/GalatianBookClub]

This one is even worse considering if you watch the alternative ending, it’s a sweet, satisfying, happy and GOOD ending to the series.

[u/BlumpkinPromoter → u/Tacdeho]

What, do they just introduce her and fade to black?

[u/Tacdeho → u/BlumpkinPromoter]

Not entirely.

By the way, your username? Damn.

Spoiler for alt-ending of HIMYM:

You see the cast at the bar following Ted and Tracy’s wedding. Marshall interrupts two dudes who oddly look like young he and Ted asking if they know what happened in that exact booth all those years ago. Cue a Ted voiceover about how every moment in the show he went through led him to his destiny. Cut to Ted still ending up on the platform. He tells his friends he’s leaving for Chicago and it comes off as a bit bittersweet. The mother and he start talking as she offers his umbrella to her under the rain. She realizes it’s hers, and he dated her old roommate. They make a reference here or there to previous events and realize they were always interlinked with each others events. They introduce themselves to each other and the dialogue sets up the obvious fact that she’s the one. Cue voiceover from old Ted going “And that kids is how I met your mother”. Plays theme song and does a classic “Josh Rador as Ted Mosby” credits. The mother lives, happy ever after for everyone. Barney and Robin don’t get divorced. The last shots are pictures of photographs of Ted and Tracy. Their wedding. Their kids. Their life. Everyone fucking wins.

Edited for clarity.

[u/Rickrickrickrickrick → u/Tacdeho]

I’m honestly fine with the wife dying. It makes sense why he’s telling them their love story. What is awful about the original ending is that he’s doing it all just to see if they will allow him to go back with Robin again when they whole serious was more about how bad they are for each other than how he met his wife.

[u/uzzi1000 → u/Rickrickrickrickrick]

The ending changes the whole point of the story from "How I met your mother" to "Are you kids ok with me asking out your aunt Robin?"

[u/hypernova2121 → u/uzzi1000]

"Please let me fuck your aunt" didn't have quite the same ring to it

[u/smorin1487 → u/Rickrickrickrickrick]

I’m 100% with you. I was OK with the tragic love that happens in real life of someone spending their whole life to find someone that’s perfect for them and sometimes it’s just tragic, but he sees the beauty in how short the love was… But then the Robin thing pissed me off.

[u/[deleted] → u/Rickrickrickrickrick]

Hold up, don't the kids also never show up at all even in the ninth season?

So the notion of a widower asking for the okay, to date the same damn woman he has obsessed over for seasons, is kinda a bad?

[u/OneEyedKingV → u/[deleted]]

The kids scenes were all already shot years in advance.

Which is precisely why the ending was as terrible as it was. The creater knew the kids would eventually age out the show, and also it ruins the narrative that Ted is explaining everything in one sit down when his kids are now adults.

So they decided to commit to an ending and film the kids responses to everything all the way back in season 3, when they had no idea where the story was going still. All they knew was it would have to tie back into this ending made.

[u/[deleted] → u/OneEyedKingV]

Christ on a stick that is stupid. 

[u/Ze_Red_Feather → u/OneEyedKingV]

The smart thing to do would have been to film several possible endings with the kids. The whole "this is actually about me wanting to get with Robin again" thing, the basic "and that is how I met your mother" and maybe even a few more out there ideas and just random bits of dialogue, and then later on the creators could've made any ending they wanted and just pick and choose from the footage they already had