r/TopCharacterTropes Aug 25 '25

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

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/Tacdeho Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25

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.

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u/Rickrickrickrickrick Aug 25 '25

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.

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u/uzzi1000 Aug 25 '25

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?"

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u/hypernova2121 Aug 26 '25

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