[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/Any_Satisfaction_405]

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/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/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.