History Main / EndingAversion

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1628889586089646200 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

When people get involved in a story, many have the basic expectation that it will have a satisfactory ending. This, in and of itself, is not unjustified: no matter how good Acts One and Two are, if Act Three is unsatisfying, that is all that the people outside the theater will be talking about.

The thing is, so much conspires ''against'' a satisfactory conclusion.

Maybe the show was ScrewedByTheNetwork and was [[CutShort canceled]] before [[LeftHanging any of the questions it raised could be answered]]. Maybe [[KudzuPlot as time went on, the story collected so many elements]] that [[TheChrisCarterEffect there was no possible way]] that [[FanDislikedExplanation they could do each justice]]. Maybe it was the first part of a series [[OrphanedSeries left unfinished]] by the now-[[DiedDuringProduction deceased]] or [[AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder bored]] author. Maybe the SeriesGoal was [[TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised never achieved]]. Maybe the writers just plain [[SeasonalRot ran themselves out of creativity]] by the end of it, and so much FanonDiscontinuity is claimed, you could swear the fandom was composed solely of historical revisionists. Maybe the whole thing devolved into such [[GainaxEnding unspeakable surreality]] that tainted the rest of the experience. Maybe you know that [[DoomedByCanon in-universe material taking place later in continuity]] actually [[HappyEndingOverride makes any happy part of the ending]] a study in FridgeHorror. An exceptionally bad CruelTwistEnding, SuddenDownerEnding and/or EsotericHappyEnding can also be the cause.

Hearing about all these things makes many people very wary. No one wants to spend dozens of hours dedicating themselves to something that will leave them slowly disappointed. Maybe the overall experience would have more than compensated for any supposed deficiencies of the ending, but the potential viewer has been scared off.

This is Ending Aversion.

Now, of course, someone ''could'' make an attempt to keep watching it for as long as they liked it, then turn it off when they didn't. When someone becomes ''too'' attached to the characters and the whole story, however, that's easier said than done. This, then, often results in the viewer going online to complain about what happened in the story... and the cycle begins anew.

Ironically, the biggest contributor to Ending Aversion might just be those who consider themselves the most hardcore fans of a work. Criticism is fun to read and to write and fan discussion will inevitably lead to someone choosing to AccentuateTheNegative of the shows they love: "TheyChangedItNowItSucks", "It was better when [[RiddleForTheAges all the mysteries were still up in the air]].", "It was great when it started, but the last couple of seasons [[FanonDiscontinuity never happened]]", "The movie was actually pretty good until the ending ruined it", and so on.

And well, it's hard to say that [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife we're not somewhat to blame either]].

If a work is avoided because of a DownerEnding, that is AngstAversion.

Compare to HypeAversion and TheFireflyEffect (wariness of committing to a new show, as opposed to one that has concluded). See also AwesomenessWithdrawal. Contrast EndingFatigue when the audience starts ''wanting'' the story to end.

'''Warning: Ending SPOILERS below.'''

----
!!Examples and Reasons:

!!!GainaxEnding (It's completely out of left field)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is infamous for its GainaxEnding, and is the main reason (but far from the only one) why the studio that produced it, Creator/StudioGainax, became the TropeNamer. The last two episodes make so little sense that some fans might recommend you skip them and go straight to the movie ''End of Evangelion''... except that ''End'' is ''equally as divisive!'' This makes it the rare work that is a clear example of something hit by Ending Aversion, HypeAversion, ''and'' AngstAversion.
* ''Anime/TheBigO'' ran into a strange version of this. The first season ended on a {{Cliffhanger}} but due to the show's lack of popularity in Japan, the staff didn't expect to continue it. However, the show [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff became massively popular in America]], to the point where Creator/CartoonNetwork co-produced a second season. Unfortunately the inverse situation happened, with the second season raising far more questions than it answered with the full expectation that it would get a third season...which didn't happen.
* ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne:'' Is largely seen as disappointing. Its entire 26 episode run builds up the [[WillTheyOrWontThey relationship]] between Van and Hitomi, the latter of whom almost never thinks of Earth. When she does return in Episode 24 (through her own magical pendant, due to being [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere tired of war and death on Gaea]]), she's [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand so bored with normal life]] and [[LoveEpiphany realizes she loves Van so much]] that she returns to Gaea to be with him, and in two episodes the [[PowerOfLove strength and purity of their young love]] defeats the BigBad and restores peace of Gaea... and then ''not five minutes later'' she [[ButNowIMustGo casually decides to return to Earth forever anyway]], despite still loving Van and still having a magic "instantly teleport between worlds" pendant. The fans who've seen ''WebVideo/VisionOfEscaflowneAbridged'' actually find its ending to be BetterThanCanon because it ''[[TheyDo doesn't]]'' involve this trope.
* While featuring an entirely different continuity, ''Manga/YuGiOhArcV'''s manga adaptation has a particularly infamous ending, considered worse than the anime's. In the anime (and for much of the manga), Yuya and Yuzu are love interests and one of the more popular pairings in the franchise. The manga's final chapter instead makes it so that Yuya is actually Yuzu's KidFromTheFuture, and that she married his father (Yusho, who is also Yuya's father in the anime.) The relationship was seen as very creepy, especially since there was also ShipTease between Yuya and Yuzu in the manga, and their familial relationship was never alluded to beforehand. The twist utterly destroyed the manga's otherwise positive reputation, and it has completely overshadowed every other story element.

[[AC:Literature]]
* The final book in the ''[[Literature/TheSaddleClub Pine Hollow]]'' book series ends with the eponymous stable burning down and the deaths of five horses. What's more, the subsequent ending of the book is rather abrupt, not even offering the typical level of resolution for a DownerEnding.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/StElsewhere'' was one of the first television series to do this, ending with an AllJustADream revelation. The show was notable for lots of other things in its day, including being one of the first [[MedicalDrama medical dramas]], laying the groundwork for all future shows in the genre. However, the twist ending of its final episode and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Westphall#The_Tommy_Westphall_Universe_Hypothesis Tommy Westphall Multiverse Hypothesis]] theory that resulted from it have completely overshadowed everything else about the show since then -- therefore making it not very appealing to new viewers.
* The final episode of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'', "[[Recap/ThePrisonerE17FallOut Fall Out]]", was so confusing to audiences that Creator/PatrickMcGoohan had to ''go into hiding'' from fans who hounded his home looking for answers and clarification.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'', what with the fact that the ending chose to go for a more metaphysical angle, with several of the questions being unanswered.
* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' also had a variation of the ItWasAllADream ending which pissed many fans off to no end and has been the biggest barrier of entry for new fans. Naturally when the series was revived decades later, the ending was immediately retconned.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'''s ending has a sufficient reputation for being bizarre and incomprehensible to bring about this trope. There's some stuff about memes, genetic memory, passing the torch, and America's destiny in a narration by Solid Snake. There's also a little kind-of-but-not-really closure with Raiden and Rose, with a last-second MindScrew to set up the next part of the series. The general consensus is that the ending is definitely meant to say something... it's just hard to tell what exactly it said.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has gained a reputation of being to VideoGames what ''Series/{{Lost}}'' was to LiveActionTelevision and what ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' was to {{Anime}} (something that was made especially infamous by an interview made with the developers pre-release, which mentioned the former example by name and explicitly promised that the ending wouldn't be anything like that). The overwhelmingly poorly received original ending scared off numerous potential players, although the company [[AuthorsSavingThrow later released]] DLC that seems to have made the endings more palatable and is reducing the effect considerably.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' got a bit of a negative reputation after word of the ending, which involves [[SadisticChoice either the Lone Wanderer or Sarah Lyons]] [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing themselves]] to start up Project Purity, got out. The backlash was more or less mitigated by later DLC, though due to not altering dialog the game still mocks the player as a coward for sending in a radiation-immune character to complete the task.
* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2008'' appears to be building up to a climactic confrontation with [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], when it suddenly shoves that aside and presents the player with a SadisticChoice between which protagonist [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie gets possessed by him]].
* Seto and Ren from ''VideoGame/FragileDreamsFarewellRuinsOfTheMoon'' head out together in search of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, but the ending narration features an aged Seto in a voiceover claiming Ren has died some time afterwards and he's all alone again. Within context, this is nonsensical because the point of the story was to state how alone Seto wasn't thanks to the number of {{Non Player Character}}s who accompanied him on his journey, insisting YouAreNotAlone; Seto's monologue essentially puts him back to square one, which he was trying to avoid from the start of the game. What should have amounted into a BittersweetEnding[[note]]A post-story {{Manga}} explicitly mentions Ren is an IllGirl with YourDaysAreNumbered in effect ties into her impending demise[[/note]] instead winds up becoming an EsotericHappyEnding.
* ''VideoGame/OutlastII'': [[AllForNothing Blake fails to save Lynn]] [[DeathByChildbirth as she dies in childbirth]]. Afterwards, cult leader [[BigBad Knoth]] tells Blake that his child is TheAntichrist and there is nothing they can do to stop it. Knoth and all his remaining followers then [[KillEmAll commit mass suicide]] and Blake attempts to escape but then the sun explodes. What's worse is the sun exploding is implied to a hallucination, [[UncertainDoom leaving Blake's fate a mystery]].
** ''Webcomic/OutlastTheMurkoffAccount'' explains some of what is actually going on. Basically, Lynn experienced a psychosomatic (aka fake) pregnancy, the baby she gave birth to wasn't real, and Blake, Knoth, and Knoth's followers are just all collectively hallucinating due to being driven insane via a brainwashing experiment over the radio. However, the comic also explains that Blake, while alive, [[FateWorseThanDeath has been dragged off to be experimented on by Murkoff]]. Either way, the protagonists are either dead or very likely doomed.

!!!MindScrew (It's incomprehensible)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'': Tsubasa basically ends with the Japanese equivalent of ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', which just makes the plot utterly confusing and is a large departure from the originally advertised multi-dimensional adventures through numerous other CLAMP settings. WordOfGod admits even ''they'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard don't understand what's going on.]] The show is no longer remembered as fondly as it used to.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/TwinPeaks'', which also suffered from SeasonalRot in the second series, both of which resulted from ExecutiveMeddling. The writers had no intention of solving the main mystery of the show (Laura's murder) but were forced to come up with a solution by the network anyway. ''Then'' the network proceeded to order another season, even though the writers didn't have any plans beyond that. This caused massive amounts of MindScrew, KudzuPlot, and TheChrisCarterEffect.

!!!SeasonalRot (It's not worth the trouble getting there)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/BunnyDrop'' - While the second half of the story introduced a GenreShift and a TimeSkip [[BrokenBase that was disliked by some,]] what really turned off a larger portion of the audience was [[spoiler: the inverted WifeHusbandry aspect of the ending, where the female protagonist Rin is revealed to be in love with the man who raised her for at least a decade, who is her nephew. It follows through 'til the end, and they end up as a couple. Worse, the author randomly reveals they aren't related after all, destroying the central aspect of the series.]]
* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': While the final arc is at least not hundreds of chapters long, it is much longer than any other arc in the series, and gives extremely little in the way of any story resolution. The only major change that happens is the Black Market gets taken down, which was never the focus of the series and had several good characters such as Louis argue that it's more of a necessary evil. Every relationship thread (even the main one!) is left at "Maybe it'll work, maybe not," the issue of food and how carnivores will satisfy their instincts are never resolved (especially since Yafya rejects a possible solution), no side characters get any kind of conclusion to any developments they had, and most importantly, despite the title of the manga being Beastars, and it becomes a plot point that Legosi actually does want to become a Beastar together with Louis (justifying the plural in the title), absolutely nobody becomes a new Beastar, and Yafya even quits the post, leaving the position empty.
* Many would-be readers are put off by ''Manga/FoodWars'', knowing it ends with a decline in quality by introducing [[spoiler:[[TheScrappy Asahi]]]], who destroys the dynamic of the series by being a [[GenericDoomsdayVillain Generic Doomsday]] InvincibleVillain, bringing alongside him SerialEscalation breaking the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, and AssPull reveals, culminating with the manga having [[NoEnding a lack of any real resolution to its plot]].
* For ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' many fans dismiss everything following the [[ClimaxBoss Pain Assault]]. The following two and final arcs (The Kage Summit and the Great Ninja War) all [[ArcFatigue bleed into one another.]] Also, not helping matters is Sasuke's BaseBreakingCharacter status and the PowerCreep of the main characters finally reaches its zenith. That the BigBad was brushed away in favour of a brand new villain out of nowhere doesn't help. Said fans consider the battles unsatisfying and the epilogue has its own bag of worms due to [[DieForOurShip controversy surrounding the final pairings]].
* ''Anime/AldnoahZero'': Season 2 already suffered issues, such as [[CliffhangerCopout everyone surviving the season 1 finale]], Inaho becoming [[MaryTzu even more overpowered]] and Lemrina [[RememberTheNewGuy being introduced out of nowhere]]. The ending itself was controversial for several reasons, [[spoiler:such as Asseylum marrying a completely different guy and Slaine sentenced to life in prison.]]
* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'''s ending is generally disliked overall, with complaints about it being rushed, not tying up loose ends, and [[EsotericHappyEnding seeming happy even when it's not]] because the plotline about Yuya and Yuzu's alternate selves is resolved by said selves being merged within Yuya and Yuzu's bodies forever—a sore point for fans because they were established to be their own characters, with friends and loved ones of their own, and leaving them stuck in bodies that aren't their own is perceived as a FateWorseThanDeath. The ending has also hurt people's opinions of the series overall.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'': Book eight raised some serious TimeyWimeyBall questions and was considered inferior to most material preceding it, and books nine and ten are widely considered to be rot because they fail to adequately explain several plot threads, flat-out ignore others, throw in VillainDecay for the series' BigBad, and hit the ResetButton to pair up the author's preferred couple (and drop a bridge on an EnsembleDarkHorse).

[[AC:Film -- Live-Action]]
%%* The ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series. An excellent example of why {{myth arc}}s and mainstream-Hollywood-strength ExecutiveMeddling do not mix.
* The ''Franchise/StarWars''' sequel trilogy was already contentious... and then ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' begins by revealing that the entire reason the last two movies happened was that the original BigBad, Emperor Palpatine, never died (negating Anakin Skywalker's sacrifice at the end of the original trilogy) and had been manipulating the First Order from behind the scenes, possibly for years. While Palpatine dies again in the end, this time for real, the Skywalker bloodline is also extinct--although new protagonist Rey (who was earlier revealed to be blood-related to Palpatine) takes the Skywalker family name to continue their legacy. Altogether, the movie finishes on a very rushed and ambiguous AndTheAdventureContinues note, and many fans feel that the sequel trilogy ruins the original trilogy's definitive, hard-fought BittersweetEnding in favor of a vaguer and less satisfying resolution that fails to deliver any sort of decisive conclusion to the saga. Lucasfilm and Disney then decided to focus on the ''High Republic'' prequel brand and the Post-Imperial era before ''The Force Awakens'', with no plans to show or explain what happens after ''The Rise of Skywalker'', which didn't exactly help.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Season 4 made some decisions that weren't very popular, though the general attitude is that season 5 got better again. Creator/JossWhedon then took a year off during season 6 to focus on "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E7OnceMoreWithFeeling Once More, With Feeling]]" (and ''Series/{{Firefly}}''), and while people do remember and celebrate the musical episode even years later, this meant that he handed off writing duties for season 6 to other writers, and it showed. Things got moving again in season 7 when Joss came back full time, and the story intentionally built up to the final battle, but many still found it to be little better due to problems with the characterization of much of the cast. There may be a slight aversion about "not being worth the trouble" because those who have heard about the issues with seasons 6-7 can simply stop at the conclusion of season 5, which wraps up most dangling threads and has a definite and satisfactory, although bittersweet, ending.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': The first two seasons are great, to the point that it won a Peabody Award during the break between seasons two and three. When season 3 got underway, they started running out of ideas, and it was downhill from there. It didn't help that a large portion of the acclaimed writing staff (but not Creator/RonMoore) left the show before season 3 got underway, particularly all of the female writers (who were acknowledged to have been the guiding hand in the writing of the female characters up to that point). Though there is also a large contingent of fans that thinks the second half of season 4 was where things started getting bad. And that's not even getting into the controversy over the series' [[EsotericHappyEnding Esoterically Happy]] GainaxEnding.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Season 8 ended JD's story (our protagonist and narrator for the entire series) on a high note and was [[SeriesFauxnale intended to be a series finale.]] Season 9, however, revamped much of the cast (Turk and Cox were still regulars, others were relegated to guest stars), changed the setting, and had a different focus (med school). Series Creator Creator/BillLawrence initially wanted to rename the show [[SpinOff to make it clear that this was a new beginning,]] but this was [[ExecutiveMeddling nixed by the network.]]
%%* ''Series/TheWestWing'': The first four seasons had Creator/AaronSorkin at the helm. After he left, it just wasn't the same anymore.%% Zero Context Example
%%* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': Season 5 is generally regarded by fans as when the show went downhill. %%Zero Context Example
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' - Some people think the rot even began with the season one finale. The problem isn't that the writers never planned out the show... it's that they intended the show to have an anthology-format with a rotating cast. Problem was that the season one characters instantly became popular national sensations, so they were forced to come up with new plots for them on the fly. It didn't help that there was a Writer's Guild of America strike which truncated season 2. Viewers started leaving in droves during season 3 when they started just recycling plots from season 1 (how many times can Sylar flip-flop from evil to good and back?).
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' - They'd sort of resolved all of the main story arc by the end of season 7, and a later episode broke the Fourth Wall to say that fans felt they phoned it in for season 8. Still, it ended with a GrandFinale that took out virtually all major galactic threats for good. The real break was seasons 9 and 10, when they introduced an entirely new set of villains, which to be honest were [[MeetTheNewBoss something of a retread of the earlier ones.]] They were even going to rename the show "Stargate Command" when season 9 began to try to emphasize how different it was, but rather than make a sequel/spinoff, the network felt more viewers would stay if they kept the name intact. The actual final episode isn't really a finale at all, so they had to wrap things up with ''two'' DTV movies.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' - Depending on who you ask, the mid-series switch from Kes to Seven of Nine may cause this trope to apply to the early seasons. The finale is also controversial, especially the sudden Chakotay/Seven relationship. Old viewers are likely to warn new ones not to get invested in pairings like Janeway/Chakotay and Doctor/Seven for that reason.
* ''Series/RobinHood'' ended its second season with the murder of Maid Marian at Guy of Gisborne's hands, described enthusiastically by the creators as "a shocking twist" and a chance to "rock the show". Audience reaction ran the gamut from bafflement to disgust, and it became increasingly clear throughout season three that the writers had put little thought into what would happen ''after'' removing the show's emotional centre. The show floundered through a range of [[TrappedByMountainLions unconnected plotlines]] and [[ReplacementScrappy arbitrary new characters]] before being cancelled with all the [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favourite characters]] dead, the hated [[TheScrappy Scrappies]] still standing, and [[TheUnsolvedMystery several plot threads dangling.]] Still, it's quite fun telling non-viewers about Marian's death, they'll invariably pull a face and go: "Huh? Why would they do ''that''?"
* The show ''Series/{{Alias}}'' had two fascinating and complex seasons, but then a series of mistakes on the part of the writers, the producers, a dose of ExecutiveMeddling, and a nasty feedback loop from shippers in the fan community derailed the series in Season 3. Throughout much of S3, the show circled in a holding pattern. Then, in S4 and S5, the ongoing, overarching storylines collapsed and the writers even began to lampshade their own failures.
* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'', thanks to some of the most notorious ExecutiveMeddling, lost the intellectual "what-if" in favor of "movie ripoff of the week" and [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge dropped]] almost the entirety of the original cast, leaving most fans abandoning ship by the fourth season.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', starting with the fifth season, was heavily criticized for its focus on [[TheScrappy more less well-received characters,]] lots of {{padding}} resulting in uneven pacing, and often underwhelming resolutions to its plotlines. When the eighth season concluded, a lot of people would recommend newbies to stop at season 4.
* The 1980s hit the Classic series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' very hard. There are lots of wonderful times to be had in the decade, of course, including a couple of mini-golden-ages, but it eventually just peters out in a little speech from the Doctor in a field after the malicious ExecutiveMeddling and [[NoBudget increasingly minuscule budget]] finally choked the show to death. If you're not the kind of person who gets off on watching a hugely popular show get slowly derailed and destroyed over a decade, binge-watching the entirety of '80s ''Who'' is not going to feel good. (Of course, if you're not that kind of person, this may not be the kind of wiki for you either.)
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has a particularly disappointing final season, even compared to the previous mixed three seasons. Low points include the anticlimactic battle with the Night King and his forces in Episode 3, a confrontation that had been built up since the start of the story, Rhaegal suddenly [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off]] to artificially inflate Cersei's threat, Jaime declaring he never cared about the innocents and going off to Cersei, Daenerys JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and [[MoralEventHorizon torching King's Landing]], thereby doing what the Mad King would have done if Jaime hadn't killed him, and Bran being king because he had the 'best story'. Said developments sapped many people's interest in the show, and [[BileFascination some only continued to see how badly it might turn out]]. Beth Elderkin at i09 noted that [[https://io9.gizmodo.com/open-channel-remember-when-game-of-thrones-was-a-thing-1843548667 "It's kind of amazing how one of the biggest shows of the 21st century is now just something that happened"]], with merchandising, cosplay, etc. virtually vanishing in a few weeks.
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': After a divisive third season, the final one, which opens with [[spoiler:the death of Mary Watson]] is generally agreed to be a major dip in quality (with a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes from both Audience and Critics). In particular, the finale revolves around the convoluted backstory of [[spoiler: Sherlock and Mycroft's even more clever sister and her last-minute redemption]].
* ''Series/SleepyHollow'': After a well-received first season that was praised the most for having a well-developed black female lead (Abbie) who had great chemistry with her white co-lead Ichabod, the second season made the baffling decision to sideline Abbie in favor of Ichabod's family/relationship drama to the point where Abbie's actress decided to leave the show which resulted in Abbie being KilledOffForReal at the end of the third season. Disillusioned fans abandoned the show in droves and nowadays, hardly any of them will recommend watching the show except for maybe the first season alone.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' has its last season. While Season 3 was more divisive on whether or not it was a serious step down in terms of storytelling and characterization, Season 4 was nigh-unanimously agreed to be the lowest point of the series. Though there were fans who still enjoyed what comedy there was to be had, complaints were made towards everything else: from the main story arc mostly being sidelined in favor of [[RomanticPlotTumor excessive romantic drama]], to characters being either underutilized, {{flanderized}}, or performing spontaneous {{Face Heel Turn}}s, to the introduction of subplots that were either rushed or straight-up forgotten, to an ArcVillain deemed less intimidating as previous antagonists. The series finale only made things worse by ending with an InferredHolocaust committed by Star that none of the characters seem to acknowledge or care much about, followed by a [[MergedReality forcible merging]] of two vastly different worlds, with the show treating this all as a [[EsotericHappyEnding happy ending]]. This tarnished the series reputation to the point practically the only thing mentioned about the series afterward was complaints about the finale.
* Both halves of season 5, ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'''s final season, have gotten this reception for different reasons:
** Few, if any fans, approve of the last episode of ''All-Stars'' (the last season to feature the ''Island'' or ''Revenge'' casts), as it left many loose plot threads hanging and abandoned several beloved characters unredeemed in the show, OR in the fandom. The fact that Creator/FreshTV has abandoned the main series in favor of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'' only further adds to fans' dislike of it.
** The ending of ''Pahkitew Island'' gets this for the same reasons as ''All-Stars''; several plot threads introduced in the season (such as Amy and Samey's dysfunctional relationship and Dave's ultimate fate) are left hanging without resolution, only exemplified due to it being the absolute last episode of the main series. The finale is also considered disappointing due to it not bringing back any of the previously eliminated contestants beyond Dave and Jasmine and the endings not varying to any significant degree beyond a few seconds at the very end.

!!!BolivianArmyEnding (Heroes headed to what may well be their doom)
[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': While it's bad enough that the (still living) main characters are just as, if not more, broken and traumatized despite defeating the Yeerks, the knife twist comes when they decide to initiate what is most likely a suicide attack against [[DiabolusExNihilo an extremely powerful enemy that had only been vaguely alluded to in the previous books and just sort of shows up out of nowhere]].

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/PrincessAgents'' ends with Chu Qiao and Yuwen Yue falling through ice and sinking into a frozen river. Chu Qiao starts to swim to the surface, Yuwen Yue sinks deeper... and that's it.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The series ends with Angel and his friends [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Spike]], charging towards an army of demons and monsters they failed to prevent their incursion into Earth.
%%* ''Series/BlakesSeven''.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3: Awakened'' ends with Isaac and Carver returning to Earth after destroying the [[ThatsNoMoon Tau Volantis moon]], only to find the [[EldritchAbomination Brethren Moons]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt converging upon Earth and their ship]], before the credits roll.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar'' is this for the ''WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse''. When ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} uses ComicBook/{{Cyborg}} as an UnwittingPawn to catch the heroes off guard when they plan to attack him, the entire Animated Universe ends with a PyrrhicVictory as most of the heroes are dead, insane or crippled and the Earth left near-inhospitable, on the verge of Krypton-style destruction. This leads to Constantine ordering Flash to go back in time and prevent the tragedy from happening, which will change the entire timeline. Many fans feel that this makes the entire DCAMU not worth watching or getting invested in.

!!!TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised (Instead, it takes place in a different medium)
%%[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
%%* ''Series/{{JAG}}''

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{XIII}}'', a Licensed Game based on the first five volumes of [[ComicBook/{{XIII}} the Belgian comic book series of the same name]], ends with a "ToBeContinued" after TheReveal of the ManBehindTheMan. The game's poor sales meant that no further adaptations of the comics would be made.

!!!TheChrisCarterEffect (Much of the KudzuPlot goes unresolved)
[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': A particularly frustrating example because although the series repeatedly [[SnicketWarningLabel goes out of its way to warn you there won't be a happy resolution]], what it doesn't tell you until the last book is just how little will be resolved at ''all''.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/TheXFiles'', of course. Even attempts at TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised did not go so well (the series ends with the protagonists "waiting" for a future cataclysm; the second movie was an unrelated plot that preceded this disaster; the supposed third movie to finally give closure languished in DevelopmentHell; and while there was an UnCancelled tenth season miniseries, it started off [[{{Retcon}} retconning]] most of the built-up series mythology [[spoiler: and itself ended on a GainaxEnding cliffhanger.]]
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'' added three more plot elements for every plot point it addressed directly, reminding viewers unfavorably of ''Series/{{Lost}}''.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' pulls more plot threads out of nowhere in one dungeon than some games pull their entire ''length''. Chronopolis is already considered ThatOneLevel due to its status as a MarathonLevel, a large amount of {{Info Dump}}s from [=NPCs=] throughout the level, and generally difficult random encounters. However, what really seals the dungeon's (and therefore, the game's) fate is the fact that the plot begins to enter full-on MindScrew territory here in trying to properly tie it to the events of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. Few of these plot points get properly resolved, it kills one of the characters from ''Trigger'' apparently [[AssPull just for the sake of shock value]], and very little of it gets explained outside of the aforementioned info dumps if it gets explained at all.
* ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'''s [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma third and final game]] didn't follow up on that much from the previous game, and it ignored many promises made by WordOfGod.

!!!LeftHanging / CutShort (The central premise goes unresolved, often because outside forces kept it from doing so)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' was given a rushed ending when Creator/KenAkamatsu fought with the editors regarding property rights over the series and decided to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun End The Franchise Early And Run]] rather than surrender them.
** The first anime also had a very rushed ending as the creators thought they would have multiple seasons to work with ([[LongRunners as was necessary to adapt Negima faithfully]]) and were disabused of this notion with only 1/3 of the season left to wrap it up.
* ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' suffers from this due to ''[[TheMovie Prince Of Darkness]]'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen (Which was supposed to be the first in a trilogy)]] bombing from the number of problems with it including breaking from the spirit of the series. Having a Japanese Saturn-only game that explains what happens between the end of the series and the movie only made things worse.
** This also happens InUniverse with Akito hesitant to watch the last episode of Gekiganger. In the final episode, he did...and he said it sucked due to the massive amount of AssPull included in one episode.
* ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'' was cut short during the Fuji Arc, resulting in a hurried FinalBoss readers found unsatisfying (especially as the Takamiya Arc was a similar but longer version of it) and many plot threads about the Solomon Company left dangling. Thankfully the creator did manage to get an epilogue in, but that still left a lot unanswered.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' fell into this for a sizable segment of the fanbase. After a [[ArcFatigue very long, drawn-out final arc]], the BigBad abruptly [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness kills all his remaining minions]], is himself quickly dispatched with a method that had limited foreshadowing, and for the last two chapters the story [[DistantFinale fast forwards ten years]] to an epilogue that leaves multiple questions unanswered [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and included some controversial romantic pairings]]. Three months after the conclusion of the manga [[http://tenshiscave.tumblr.com/post/153300055417/kubo-tite-bleach-twitter Kubo revealed on his Twitter]] that he decided to shorten the manga due to health concerns, though the GrandFinale was in fact what he had always intended from the beginning.
* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'' (the manga) went into a hiatus since 2003 with the last scene showing Kamui, lying on the ground with Fuuma, preparing to stab him with his sword. A decade has passed and CLAMP became too focused on other projects, not even bothering to touch the series which made fans of the manga feel that the story will never continue at this point.

%%[[AC:Comic Books]]
%% * Creator/AlanMoore's run on ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}''.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' was abruptly canned after its second season, leaving just about every plotline unresolved.
* ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'' suffered a lot of ExecutiveMeddling in the second season, mainly using techniques to try and make it more marketable for teens, such as Joan getting missions from God to learn about herself rather than making the world a better place, and [[spoiler:Adam cheating on Joan, for the sake of melodrama]]. Fans were not happy about this, and although the season finale did imply that there was a bigger threat coming for Joan to deal with, the show did not manage to get a third season.
* ''Series/TruCalling'' was royally ScrewedByTheNetwork, only getting a six-episode second season, and then getting cancelled before the final episode (which itself ended on a cliffhanger) even airs.
%%* ''Series/HarshRealm''.
* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' - the series was cancelled after the 4th season ended on a Cliffhanger, with [[spoiler: the newly married]] Lois & Clark finding an infant at their doorstep, and a note claiming that the child belongs to them.
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' - cut short due to abrupt cancellation at the end of season 4, after they'd ''already'' been told they'd get a fifth season, so they didn't plan it as the final season. The show did later get a finale-miniseries which was intended to be the truncated version of the plot developments in what would have been season 5. Surprisingly, this actually provided good explanations ''and'' resolution for many of the running plotlines, so ultimately ''Farscape'' averted this trope.
** And now it has comics wrapping things up even tighter, including wrapping up the series-long plot point of Rygel wanting to take his throne back from his traitorous cousin (never done on the show because making and operating so many Hynerian puppets would have been impossible).
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'': SGU was plagued with issues from the very start, and the steadily dropping ratings convinced [=SyFy=] to cancel the show after its second season. As a result, the second season ended on a major cliffhanger, since the writers had assumed they'd have a third season or at least a movie to resolve the remaining plot threads.
* ''Series/{{Soap}}'' was written with a five-season story arc in mind, but was cancelled after Season 4, resulting in the show ending on several cliffhangers (specifically, [[spoiler:Chester finding his wife and son in bed together, Burt being ambushed by a political enemy and Jessica about to be executed by a firing squad]]). The show did get [[Series/{{Benson}} a spin-off,]] but it did nothing to resolve these cliffhangers.
* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' which attempted to save the show by coming up with the biggest twist they could think of, only for it not to save the show and ultimately drive fans of the show insane. With a completely unrelated Terminator series on the cards, it seems fans will forever be in limbo.
%%* ''Series/{{Flash Forward|2009}}''.
* ''Series/{{Caprica}}''. Not as bad as some of the examples in that the writers were given time after the series' cancellation to write an epilogue to wrap the show up, but the entire thing is just one huge sequence of WhatCouldHaveBeen.
* ''Series/TheEvent'' tried to set up an epic [[JigsawPuzzlePlot Jigsaw Puzzle]] MythArc about an AlienInvasion of Earth, but wound up bungling the setup so badly that it got cancelled after one season, just as it was GrowingTheBeard and finally moving into the proper meat of the story. You ''could'' watch it... if you don't mind sitting through hours of build-up only for the show to end right at the most dramatic part.
* ''Series/DarkAngel'''s Season 2 cliffhanger finale was planned to be resolved in the premier of Season 3, but [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Fox's cancellation of the show]] left it in limbo.
* ''Series/{{Profiler}}'' ended on a season cliffhanger--the Big Bad for most of the final season has been killed by another bad guy, of unknown motives, who is in the middle of carrying out his scheme.
* ''Series/{{ALF}}'' ended the fourth and final season with a cliffhanger with ALF getting abducted by the government. While there eventually ''was'' a followup, a TV-movie made six years later, for starters it's [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes hard to find]] due to not being widely available like the TV series, and second, the people who have seen it ended up disliking it especially due to [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome having no mention of what happened to the Tanners]], leading the same people to disavow its existence.
* The TV series adaptation of ''Literature/TheTripods'' was cancelled after just two seasons, despite being based on a book trilogy. As a result, the series ends on a ''massively'' depressing cliffhanger (which was also completely original to the series).
* ''Series/CrimeStory'' was supposed to have a five-year run in a story spanning two decades. It was cancelled after two, ending on an unresolved cliffhanger.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'': The game ended on a massive {{Cliffhanger}} that would have been a great SequelHook... except that (depending on who you ask) [[ScrewedByTheNetwork either Sanzaru Games had no plans to make a sequel and wrap up the game's plot, or Sanzaru did want to make a DLC or sequel but got shot down by Sony]]. The game itself is a ContestedSequel to the first three games, and with that plus the cliffhanger being a major DownerEnding when taken on its own, [[FanonDiscontinuity fans just don't want the series to end that way]].
* ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo: The Devils Cartel'': The game had already pissed several fans off by dancing around the fate of a character from the previous two games (I.E. not revealing whether they were alive or just missing) and its major plot twist halfway through the game (which many felt was completely nonsensical and utterly destroyed the characterization of previously good character for no good reason), and then to top it off the final scene throws out some vague hints towards a sequel, which given the games disappointing sales and its studio going bankrupt will likely never happen.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2'' ends on a major cliffhanger. However, Valve seems to have lost any interest in developing a continuation... at least, until ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' (which unfortunately doesn't actually help matters in the slightest due to being a self-contained prequel, but does at least suggest that Valve have ''some'' investment remaining in the franchise).
* ''VideoGame/BionicCommando 2009'' has a cliffhanger ending with Spencer falling to an unknown fate after killing Super Joe, and a Morse code [[TheStinger stinger]] telling of the activation of a new Project Albatros[s]. Poor sales of this and the LicensedGame of ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' led to development studio GRIN [[CreatorKiller going out of business]], and the following (and currently last) game, ''BC Rearmed 2'', was a midquel.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends 2'' ended with Mega Man Volnutt stranded on the moon, and Roll and Tron beginning construction on a rocketship to rescue him. Unfortunately, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork the third game got cancelled and Keiji Inafune left Capcom]], so the story will likely never be concluded.
* ''VideoGame/ShenmueIII'' finally came out after nearly twenty years of DevelopmentHell. Not only was the game widely derided for its shoddy technical quality and archaic game design decisions, but it ended the story on yet another cliffhanger, with no certainty of a fourth game ever coming out.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' was originally going to be a trilogy, but thanks to the mixed reception of both episodes, the third episode was cancelled and the second episode ended with Little Planet trapped inside the Death Egg Mk. II. Even collecting all the Chaos Emeralds does nothing, as the SequelHook cutscene was removed before the game's release.
* ''VideoGame/HavenCallOfTheKing'' is one of the most infamous examples in video game history, as the game ends with [[spoiler:Haven being betrayed by his best friend Chess, who was a mole for Lord Vetch all along, Athelion being killed and Haven being chained on a rock alongside Athelion's lifeless body for all eternity, leaving Vetch free to conquer the rest of the galaxy.]] This was the first game of a planned trilogy, but since the game sold poorly and had a mediocre reception, those plans were axed.

%%[[AC:Webcomics]]
%%* ''Webcomic/AModestDestiny''.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' finale set up the first high-stakes conflict of the show, kickstarted a new romance, and ended with the entire cast getting frozen solid. Unfortunately the first season was cancelled due to low ratings and controversy; a reboot is in the process, but it's unclear if they'll resolve this cliffhanger or start from scratch.
* ''WesternAnimation/SilverSurfer'' was cancelled early because of Marvel's bankruptcy in the 1990s. So the show concludes on a major CliffHanger where Thanos the Mad Titan ends all of existence.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpacePOP'' ends season 1 on a cliffhanger with nothing resolved, and due to lack of viewer interest, season 2 was never made.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingArthurAndTheKnightsOfJustice'' ended abruptly after two seasons, with only four of the twelve {{MacGuffin}}s recovered, and the original King Arthur and his knights still trapped in the Cave of Glass.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' infamously ended on a cliffhanger at the end of "The Doomstar Requiem" after a fallout between Brendon Small and Mike Lazzo, leaving the series unfinished for years. Fans begged to Adult Swim to bring back the series for years, but with no results. Years later, Small decided to appease fans by ending the story via a FullyAbsorbedFinale with [[Music/BrendonSmallsGalaktikon Galaktikon's second album]], although without mentioning anything Dethklok related to avoid copyright issues. Eight years after the series was cancelled, Adult Swim finally listened to their fans by announcing a Metalocalypse movie that not only takes place after the events of "The Doomstar Requiem", but it will also end the series for good.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' ended after only two seasons with a real DownerEnding of a cliffhanger [[spoiler: in which Harry emotionally blackmails Gwen into staying with him, [[DidNotGetTheGirl preventing her and Peter from getting together]], the Connors are fired and made to relocate to Florida, and Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) is revealed to have survived his battle with Spider-Man and is thus free to continue his schemes under a new alias]]. This cancellation resulted from the show being ScrewedByTheLawyers (Marvel extending Sony's film rights to Spider-Man in exchange for the character's television rights), as [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the show was intended to last five seasons]].
* In a truly stunning bit of bad luck, ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' narrowly avoided this with its third season, which [[WrapItUp warps up the major plot threads and gives a satisfying conclusion to the story]], only to get {{Uncanceled}}. The creators proceeded to go into season four [[TemptingFate with the expectation they would have at least five]]... and proceeded to get canceled a second time! As a result, the last episode ends on a massive {{Cliffhanger}} where the BigBad [[TheBadGuyWins takes control of the heroes' headquarters and all hope seems lost]]. There are quite a lot of fans who suggest to newcomers that [[FanonDiscontinuity they simply stop watching at the season three finale]] because of this.
* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'' was cancelled after season 3 which ends up on a massive DownerEnding with [[spoiler: Ash freeing [[BigBad Invictus]] from Final Space by draining Mooncake.]]

!!!DiedDuringProduction (Creator didn't live to finish the work)

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'': Sunao Yoshida died in 2004 and all the novels, manga, and anime ended with the same conclusion: Ester is crowned Queen of Albion and Abel goes on his quest to defeat his brother, Cain. The author did leave his notes which are complied as ''Trinity Blood Canon Summa Theologica'' and it contains information about the story's world and how he plans to continue the story after Ester's coronation. Unfortunately, it was never released in English and nobody bothered to pick it up. And [[http://newhumanempire.weebly.com/canon-summa-theologica.html as seen in the notes]], the events are much darker without no definite conclusion to the story.

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* The last ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' book, ''Tintin and Alph-Art'', was left incomplete by Herge's death in 1983. The book was published 3 years later (or at least, incomplete notes and rough drawings). The book ends with [[spoiler:Tintin about to be executed by liquid polyester]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' (the prose book series), which gets bonus points for having a resulting severe DownerEnding (with the villains victorious and all but one of the main characters dead), as Adams was in such a bad mood when he wrote what turned out to be the last completed installment. Another [[Creator/EoinColfer author]] however has since stepped up to continue the series, although his contribution (''Literature/AndAnotherThing'') has [[BrokenBase divided the fanbase somewhat]].
%%* ''Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood''.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/{{Riget}}'' - not the author, just around 4 essential cast members.

%%!!!AuthorFilibuster / AuthorTract (Creator's politics come to supersede the story)
%%* ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark''.

!!!EndingFatigue (Takes too long to ''get'' to that ending)
[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Faced with uncertainty over the show's renewal, Creator/JMichaelStraczynski rewrote Season 4 to resolve the show's MythArc. Season 5 was greenlit during production, and JMS' attempts to rework unused story arcs from Season 4 led to EndingFatigue until the actual finale. Fortunately, the DistantFinale (shot for Season 4 but held back after the show's renewal) is [[DownplayedTrope actually really good]] and satisfactorily wraps up all the remaining plot threads of the series. Many fans just skip straight from the end of the Shadow War (or the end of Season 4, which is after) to "Sleeping in Light." Some further downplay it by skipping the telepaths plot, which is the main source of ArcFatigue in season 5.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', due to being ChristmasRushed, had two of its planned dungeons scrapped and replaced with a lengthy FetchQuest of finding Triforce Charts, and paying Tingle to decipher those to find the Triforce Shards themselves. Luckily, the Wii U UpdatedRerelease simplified this quest so that only three of the Shards require Charts, the rest can be acquired directly.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' is infamous for its [[DisappointingLastLevel Disappointing Last Dungeon]], [[spoiler:YHVH's Universe]], being a massive network of teleporters in a dungeon that's not only obnoxiously big but also visually unappealing, with most enemies being simply souped-up versions of previously-encountered demons that can't be scanned and can't be talked to.

!!!NoEnding (Too much is just left completely unanswered or unaddressed)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''[[Manga/ToLoveRu To Love-Ru Darkness]]'': [[spoiler:The male protagonist chooses ''none'' of the girls in his UnwantedHarem, resulting in the awkward situation of everyone continuing to vie for his affections while he still remains {{oblivious|ToLove}} about some of their feelings. To top it off, while he does state that the GirlNextDoor[=/=]{{Childhood Friend|Romance}} is his "number one", and said characters are usually the preferred choice in such stories by most Western audiences, said girl is actually a BaseBreakingCharacter and viewed as the worst choice he could make by fans outside Japan]].

[[AC:Audio Plays]]
* In ''AudioPlay/ThirtySixQuestions'', while the ending makes it clear that [[spoiler:Jase finally forgave Judith for all the lies she told]], it does ''not'' make it clear as to whether or not they got back together in the end.

[[AC:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'' left some people unsatisfied with the ending, with only vague ideas of what all the leads will do once the store closes, and the final strip showing [[spoiler:the Grumbel's sign being taken down so a Dollar Admiral could move into its space.]] This resulted in some fans making up their own endings for characters. (There were some that did enjoy the non-ending though, as that's pretty much what would happen in real life when a store goes out of business: it just closes, is replaced by something else if it's lucky, and one may never know what happens to its former employees.)

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/StuartLittle''. It should be noted that this only applies to the original book and not the movies.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/TheSopranos'' is a particularly controversial example. [[spoiler: The ending ''may'' depict Tony's death but it's left very ambiguous and up to the viewer's interpretation.]]

[[AC:Video Games]]
* In a literal example, ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'': while the game is very open-ended, one of its goals is to get to the center of the galaxy. [[spoiler:Upon doing so, players are immediately teleported to a ''different'' galaxy, with absolutely no reward for their efforts]].

!!!OrphanedSeries (Creator just didn't finish what they started)
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TheBalladOfHaloJones'' was planned as a nine-issue comic, but got cancelled after just three, due to a dispute between Creator/AlanMoore and his publisher. So, we never got to see Halo's full journey.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/EdgarAndEllen'': The creators seemed to lose all interest in continuing the book series, after the animated TV series was greenlit. And if you were hoping the cartoon would tackle the serious MythArc the books were steadily building up, it doesn't; it quickly diverges from that plot to become an episodic comedy.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* Creator/JossWhedon planned ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' as a five-season show. It was cancelled after just two.

[[AC:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' was dropped in the final arc, right as the hero was confronting the BigBad, thanks to a combination of the creator losing interest and focusing on animation school. Years later, the creator got their own animated series called ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' and gave the comic a FullyAbsorbedFinale at the behest of a crewmember.
* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' unfortunately came to an end after the artist ran into severe health issues, compounded by [[OldShame regretting some creative choices]] making them uncomfortable with containing the comic as-is, effectively leaving the story off at the start of a new leg of the adventure.
* ''Webcomic/{{Hiimdaisy}}'' left off her Persona 4 comic right after Rise's dungeon and has stated she has no interest in finishing it.

!!!DoomedByCanon (Prequel-specific -- knowing what happens to the characters in the original makes it hard to care about their pasts)
[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' has the most literal case of DoomedByCanon possible, because the protagonists are directly responsible for setting the events of the first game in motion... Including the part where it turns out [[TheExtremistWasRight everything your enemies were fighting to prevent ended up happening.]] Oops.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'': We see in ''Film/TronLegacy'' that Beck's rebellion does ''absolutely nothing'' to even slow Clu down and [[spoiler: The BigGood of the series is twisted into TheDragon]]. Add a side of BolivianArmyEnding for good measure.

!!!KeepCirculatingTheTapes (There's an ending, but good luck finding it)
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}'', for quite a while. (The final set of print issues, representing Zot's adventures on our Earth, and often described as some of the best work of the series, was not collected in trade form until later.)

!!!CruelTwistEnding (also includes HappyEndingOverride and DiabolusExMachina)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' is infamous for its [[BrokenBase extremely controversial]] CruelTwistEnding. Especially troublesome because the original series already had a conclusive ending that was much more positive and hopeful; a sequel movie was never considered until the series became a runaway success, and with their starkly opposed conclusions, fans are forced to choose whether or not to consider ''Rebellion'' canon.
* ''Manga/PlatinumEnd'': The last chapter of the series is extremely bleak and cruel after the brief HopeSpot that makes it seem as though everything will turn out okay for both the new God and the other characters, making the whole journey ultimately feel pointless as [[spoiler:the entire universe dies out due to the new God's nihilism.]]
* An early fansub for the ''Manga/{{Saikano}}'' has a disclaimer at the end of the third to last episode in which [[spoiler: Chise abandons her duties and runs away with Shuuji]] saying that if the viewer wants a happy ending they should just stop right there.
--> A friendly warning from the team: This is the end of happiness in Saikano. If you would prefer the anime to have a happy end, consider stopping here and pretending there are no more episodes. Continuing will only bring misery and pain. You have been warned...

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FarCry5'' plays mostly like its [[VideoGame/FarCry3 two]] [[VideoGame/FarCry4 predecessors]], until you've witnessed [[MultipleEndings all three endings]] and realize [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption there's absolutely no way to bring the]] BigBad [[MortonsFork to justice]]. You either capitulate right in the intro cinematic, let him get off scot-free during your final encounter and assumingly get yourself brainwashed into killing all your friends afterwards, or you arrest him and thus trigger nuclear armageddon ''out of absolutely freaking nowhere'', which means [[TheExtremistWasRight this raving lunatic was right all along]]. Doesn't get much more unsatisfying than that, something that quickly began making its way to prospective buyers from the day after the game's release. Thankfully, the [[VideoGame/FarCryNewDawn sequel]] addresses this by having the player actually deal with Seed for good.
* In TheStinger of ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter: Logan's Shadow'', Gabe and Lian, discussing possible retirement, return to their gym hideout to find Lawrence dead and Teresa critically wounded at the hands of Trinidad, who proceeds to gun down Gabe as well, although he takes her out with a LastBreathBullet. Cue FadeToBlack with Lian performing CPR on Gabe. Sony has officially stated that they are done with the series. Years after the release of ''Logan's Shadow'', the series was brought back by Sony [[spoiler:in the form of ''VideoGame/DaysGone'', which takes place in the same universe.]]
* ''VideoGame/RiverCityGirls'' got hit by this fast and ''hard'' because of how drastic and out of nowhere the ending initially feels. Kunio and Riki were not only not kidnapped, but it turns out that Misako and Kyoko aren't their girlfriends, Hasabe and Mami are. The entire game was basically two ditzy StalkerWithACrush Ex-Girlfriends tearing up a city for the sake of a relationship that doesn't exist, for two guys who weren't in any danger and don't even know they exist. In response to the backlash, however, a patch has been released that changes the ending to be less mean-spirited with the original ending being {{Retgone}}.
* The UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis version of ''Battle Golfer Yui'' is largely disliked due to these endings: the DownerEnding where the titular protagonist ends up {{Brainwashed}} and [[FaceHeelTurn joins the]] BigBad's side if you fail to defeat him. The other one is a TrueEnding where Yui successfully defeats the BigBad and the latter makes a HeelFaceTurn. [[spoiler:Then, without foreshadowing, an explosion occurs as a result of both Yui and the BigBad holding hands, [[KillThemAll killing 20 million people, including them]]]]. The worst part? [[spoiler:These are the only endings, so no happy endings are available.]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'''s final episode is disliked by a majority of the fanbase with some complaints being about the fates of certain characters such as the deaths of [[spoiler: Allura and Lotor]], the former being a major [[TheWoobie woobie]] and the latter being a very deep and compelling villain who many thought would have more to do, [[spoiler: Honerva]] being a KarmaHoudini who gets away [[spoiler: with almost destroying the multiverse]] and for Lance's and Shiro's epilogue with the former [[spoiler: becoming an Altean for some reason]] and Shiro [[spoiler: marrying his communications officer who he barely interacted with]] as a hamfisted attempt at an AuthorsSavingThrow regarding the way they handled the character of [[BuryYourGays Adam]].

!!!Miscellaneous
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/AfterSchoolNightmare'' alienated multiple fan factions with its ending to a degree that they no longer recommend it, for completely different reasons:
** The people who were reading for the mystery arc, who thought that the final explanation was simply too silly and bizarre.
** The shippers, who were unhappy that Mashiro and Sou end up in the real world but with no knowledge of each other or memory of their love.
** The people who were reading for the exploration of ambiguous gender, who thought that the revelation that Mashiro's gender ambiguity is because they are actually fraternal twin foetuses sharing a mind meant that the situation was either reactionary in implication, or too fantastic to have any possible real-world relevance.
* ''Manga/{{Citrus}}'' ends with Mei leaving Yuzu for ''another'' ArrangedMarriage, long after her first one ended up falling through, thus forcing Yuzu to pull out all the stops to get through to Mei in time. Not only do many people dislike that Mei doesn't seem to have changed at all, but the situation is also largely resolved off-panel with a montage of dialogue-less panels, before cutting to a standard happy ending in which the two stepsisters[=/=]lovers get married. Many people are dissatisfied with the events in the last six chapters of the manga, the rushed conclusion, or both.
* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''[='s=] Future Trunks Saga started off strong; fans were glad to see EnsembleDarkhorse Trunks return, the plot was interesting, and the fights were some of the best-animated in the entire ''Dragon Ball'' franchise. But that all came crashing down around the FinalBattle; firstly by playing up Goku's IdiotHero tendencies despite the fact that they put the fate of the world at risk[[note]]The heroes had resolved to use the Evil Containment Wave to seal the immortal Zamasu away, but firstly Goku left the jar inside the time machine (which Goku Black blew up), ''then'' it was revealed that he left the PaperTalisman in the past, meaning the idea was doomed from the start[[/note]]. Plenty of fans were also unhappy with the {{Retcon}} giving the [[FusionDance Potara Earrings]] a time limit seemingly just to bring back Vegito without having to worry about the fusion being permanent. Then came the DiabolusExMachina at the end, where after being killed by Trunks, Zamasu returns as a bodiless energy being and manages to kill ''everyone'' aside from the main characters, followed by the Future Zeno completely erasing the timeline to permanently put an end to Zamasu, meaning Trunks' efforts were AllForNothing. And the final straw is the denouncement, where Future Trunks and Mai leave for a different timeline (where they'll still have to live alongside the versions of themselves from that timeline) presumably never to be seen again. The general consensus is that the story should have ended one episode earlier, with Trunks killing Zamasu.
* ''Anime/MacrossDelta'': The finale has the… unenviable position of having to tie up so many loose ends at once, making it clear the production crew was on a deadline. ''Delta'', especially in its second half, suffered from weak pacing, underdeveloped characters, and excessive subplots and the finale has to ignore for the sake of the main plot. ExecutiveMeddling is to blame for this one, as it forced Creator/ShojiKawamori to change the plans he had for the show.
* ''Anime/MyHime'', for undoing almost all the character deaths and associated traumas, although those critical of the darker tone in later episodes, among others, disagree.

[[AC:Films -- Animation]]
* The ending of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'' has earned plenty of controversy from fans of the series, as [[spoiler: Woody leaves Bonnie, as well as Buzz Lightyear and all his other longtime toy friends, for a new life as a "lost toy" with Bo Peep and her RagtagBunchOfMisfits.]]

[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AnnaAndTheApocalypse:'' Plenty of fans adore the first two acts of the [[GenreMashup zombie musical]] but take it pretty hard when the third act [[spoiler:starts going into DwindlingParty territory.]]
* ''Film/DaylightsEnd:'' Some people disregard the final battle or wish it had been different, feeling it's too by-the-numbers for the genre, wastes some good characters, and doesn't live up to some earlier parts of the film.
* Towards the end of ''Film/TheDirtyDozen,'' [[spoiler: our protagonists trap some German soldiers and civilians in a cellar, and then burn them to death]]. This has made some people reluctant to watch the rest of the film, which is generally good fun.
* Although some watchers feel OK about the ending of the Korean movie ''Film/LoveSoDivine'', the others disagree due to an EsotericHappyEnding where [[spoiler:the male protagonist finally gives up becoming a priest and go together with his love interest]], which is heavily implied that "Love is not ''like'' religion, but ''over'' religion" for some audiences who are Christians or Catholics.

[[AC:Literature]]
* Creator/DavidEddings:
** ''The Dreamers'' series. It's generally described as a pretty average series, not as good as the ''Belgariad/Malloreon'' or the ''Elenium/Tamuli'', but a decent read overall... ''except'' the ending. There are some fans who loved the whole series, but they are ''vastly'' outnumbered. Why? Well, [[spoiler: the ending had the most powerful gods decide to finally take down the enemy by going back in time and rendering said enemy infertile. Not only was there no reason why they couldn't have done this before, but this had the effect of writing the whole series out of existence, setting everyone back to where they were at the beginning of the series (with some changes- for example, a minor character got brought back to life, though one of the main characters had to stay dead) and making it so that nothing in the previous books had happened.]] Upon finishing the books and realizing that the first three books were entirely meaningless, most of the fans ''flipped their shit''.
** To make matters worse, he did the same thing in the standalone novel ''The Redemption of Alathas'': the titular character and his goddess girlfriend go back in time and defeat the BigBad in the past by waiting until he attacked their cabin and kicking him out of reality. Fans were especially upset when he used such a weak ending a second time.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* The Series/{{Arrowverse}}'s 2017 {{crossover}}, ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'' was mostly well-received, and was on track to being better than last year's own well-received crossover, ''Invasion!''. Of course then the ending happened: the infamous double wedding, where Felicity Smoak interrupted Barry Allen and Iris West just as they were about to seal their wedding vows, so she could selfishly and haphazardly tack on her own wedding to Oliver Queen. And this was after [[RomanticPlotTumor spending almost the entire crossover]] {{wangst}}ing about how she ''didn't want to marry Oliver''. This ending pleased absolutely no one except the writers and the hardest of hardcore Olicity shippers; everyone else hated it to the point that it killed whatever was left of Olicity's [[ShippingBedDeath dwindling popularity]] and [[NeverLiveItDown cemented]] [[CreatorsPet Felicity]] as the biggest {{Scrappy}} in the ''entire'' Arrowverse. For many, it was the moment they gave up on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' for good.
* While the ending is a foregone conclusion what with it being a part of history, the ending to ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' made a lot of people unhappy due to its SuddenDownerEnding where Earl accidentally ends up causing the Ice Age, leading to the inevitable deaths of the entire cast.
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'''s original ending in season 7, while left things fairly resolved on a positive note, the fact that it (along with season 7) wasn't written by creator Amy Sherman-Palladino left many of the fandom wondering what her true ending was and begrudgingly accepted it for what it was. Come 2016, and Sherman-Palladino revived the series to give it the true story ending that she wanted. Most fans were happy with how Lorelai and Emily's story arcs concluded, but the fact that [[spoiler: Rory ends up pregnant and likely to repeat her mother's mistakes and that Jess may or may not still be pining after her like his uncle did with her mother]] sent most of the fans into a rage and declaring the revival's ending non-canon.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'''s finale is one of the most controversial, love-it-or-hate-it endings on record. [[spoiler:Barney and Robin get divorced after only three years; Barney goes right back to his womanizing ways and fathers a child with one of his one-night stands; Tracy (a.k.a. the Mother) is revealed to have died in 2024; the kids encourage Ted to go after Robin yet again]]. The meltdown among fans and critics was big enough to make the news and is likely to haunt the series for years to come, although some fans have been mollified by the alternate ending released with Season 9's [=DVDs=] (which basically just leaves out the unpopular bits at the very end).
* While an unsatisfying winner can taint a season of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' (examples being ''The Australian Outback'', ''Samoa'', ''Kaoh Romg'' and ''Game Changers''), none hit as hard as the finale of Season 35, ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'', which throws a last-minute twist at ''the very last Tribal Council'' to save a contestant who was already a major EliminationHoudini and went on to win the game instead of several {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s, turning a previously acclaimed season into SeasonalRot. An even more controversial example is Season 38, ''Edge of Extinction '', in which a castaway who was eliminated third rejoined the game at the final five with an idol (meaning he only had to survive two regular Tribal Councils and was protected for one of them), and also won the game, angering fans of ''even more'' {{Ensemble Dark Horse}}s who believed he shouldn't have won and that the game was rigged for the Edge of Extinction returnee.
* The 2019 revival of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' had mostly positive reception. However, it received massive backlash from fans for the last ten minutes of the final episode in which [[spoiler: Veronica's love interest Logan is killed in a bombed car shortly after their wedding.]]

[[AC:Toys]]
* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' was hit by a KudzuPlot EndingFatigue which relied too much on {{Ass Pull}}s and was LeftHanging due to a massive ScheduleSlip, with only one of the plots wrapped up. Throw TheChrisCarterEffect in there somewhere, along with the post-script revelation that almost all the character deaths have been undone or ''re''done off-screen.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AkibasTripUndeadAndUndressed'' has an InUniverse example with the anime ''Striprism''. It's never explained why, but Nana, Kati, and Shizuku all agree that the final episode doesn't hold up to the rest of the series. Tohko, who's clearly not a fan, is just glad it's over.
* ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'' tends to have some [[spoiler: aversion due to its PlayerPunch endings in Book of Shadows and Corpse Party Bloodcovered, Blood Drive (the game that is in theory the GrandFinale of the Heavenly Host saga, as all manga adaptations and mainline games led to this installment due to time loops) takes the cake for not only causing this trope (in the western fandom AT LEAST) but also [[BrokenBase causing a huge division in the fans]] due to its almost downer ending and being a HOPE CRUSHER. Because despite all trailers and promotional material might suggest... Nobody was revived in Blood Drive, which is one of the main plots of the game. To add insult to injury, not only Ayumi was left in a vegetative state and had all the people's memories of her erased (except Yoshiki, that stayed with her) and the survivors didn't even say goodbye to their dead friends is another common complaint. The kicker to top it all off even more? Dead Patient has expies of characters like Seiko, Mayu... ]]
* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'':
** While ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'' received mixed reception before the ending, the last two episodes have been accused of this to the point that many who were defending the anime changed tune after they aired. The penultimate episode saw a FanDislikedExplanation for the Final Killing Game that was widely criticized for raising a lot of FridgeLogic and rendering a good portion of the anime pointless, along with making the mastermind [[TheScrappy heavily disliked by the fandom.]] The GrandFinale saw [[spoiler: Class 77-B coming BackFromTheDead]] (which triggered a ''massive'' BrokenBase) and basically [[SpotlightStealingSquad hijacking the plot]] from the rest of the cast. Plot threads the show had built up were left abruptly dropped for rampant PanderingToTheBase, creating a good number of {{Broken Aesop}}s, an {{Anticlimax}} and capped it off with the [[BrokenBase widely divisive]] resurrection of [[spoiler:Kyoko Kirigiri]] in the final two minutes.
*** The [[GagDub English dub]] even has [[spoiler:Kyoko]] [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] this before they changed it to a more accurate translation by stating [[spoiler:her resurrection]] doesn't make sense.
** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' somehow managed to top ''[=DR3=]'' in controversy with Chapter 6 and the final trial. Aside from the mastermind being fairly controversial compared to Junko Enoshima, [[spoiler:it's revealed that [[TrumanShowPlot the entire situation is all the 53rd season of a reality TV show]], and the sixteen students were all normal people with fake personalities implanted in them]]. That in itself is bad enough, but then [[TakeThatAudience it criticizes and lampoons the fanbase]] for enjoying the series and its fictional characters and wanting more killing games. It doesn't help that in Japanese, the meaning behind "[=V3=]" [[spoiler:(the number 53)]] is read as "gomi" or "trash". It had become so controversial, it was one of the many arguments used during debates where fans accused Kodaka of trying to TorchTheFranchiseAndRun after it was revealed that he would leave the Danganronpa team after this game.
* ''VideoGame/DyingLight'': Both of the endings in The Following result in [[spoiler:either Crane being turned into a volatile and spreading the infection outside of quarantine, or willingly activating a nuclear warhead to contain the infection by destroying all of Harran and its inhabitants]]. Suffice to say, the endings hurt many potential players' desire to play the DLC, or even the original game, for that matter.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' got a nasty case of this from the old guard once the ending of the first part came to light. [[spoiler:Sephiroth ([[EpilepticTrees potentially]] the same Sephiroth from '''[[TimeTravel after]]''' the events of ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'') manipulates Cloud and his friends into killing the "[[TimePolice arbiters of fate]]", leading to alterations in the timeline, the biggest of which is [[HeroOfAnotherStory Zack]]'s survival, with the implication that future events will not happen as they were supposed to as now Cloud and co. are aware of them]]. A lot of this is a case of TheyChangedItNowItSucks when some became convinced that future installments would veer more heavily from the plot of the original.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' has gotten some serious flak with the revelation that the BigBad, Xehanort, turns out to be a WellIntentionedExtremist after all, and many saw him as too EasilyForgiven by the heroes despite being the man who unleashed darkness across many worlds, the man responsible for ruining countless lives as well as the man who flat-out murdered Kairi in the same game just to provide motivation, leaving his defeat to be utterly unsatisfying. There is also the issue that everyone in the cast got their happy ending... except Sora and Kairi as the former has just sacrificed himself to save the latter using a vaguely explained ability, leaving them separated once again in a ploy that many fans found it to be a cheap SequelHook that could possibly take decades to release. Fortunately, Square Enix eventually released an expansion named ''Re-Mind'', set after the events of the story (but before the final scene and TheStinger) with the surviving characters (alongside [[TheBusCameBack returning Final Fantasy characters who were absent in the main game]]) tying up loose ends while giving them a chance to shine one last time. While not perfect, it gave a better finale to the characters than the vanilla game, which many felt rushed and unsatisfactory. Of course, you still have to pay 30 US dollars for something that ([[BrokenBase depending on who you ask]]) should have already been in the base game.
* ''VideoGame/MagicalStarsign'''s ending is heavily disliked, as not only does [[ShootTheShaggyDog the person you were trying to save the whole game die]], the epilogue has every character acting against the development they received or getting all-new hopes and dreams. The romance is also left unresolved.
* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' had this thanks to a desire by franchise co-creator; Ed Boon, to create a completely new cast of characters for the next game. For this to happen, [[KillEmAll they killed off nearly the entire cast]] at the [[PyrrhicVictory end of Story Mode]] in a very sloppy fight scene where the Earthrealm warriors are killed off one by one by Sindel and turned [[ReforgedIntoAMinion into evil undead revenants]]. The purpose of this scene was clearly to allow for a roster full of new characters in the next game. However, the ensuing fan backlash over the deaths of iconic characters like [[CoolHat Kung Lao]], [[AnIcePerson Sub-Zero II]], Jax, [[MsFanservice Kitana]] and [[AmbiguouslyBrown Jade]] and promising reimagined characters like Smoke forced them to include non-canonical older versions in the roster of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' (with the exception of Sub-Zero and Jax, who are fully revived). This was most notable with ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' as its story brings the younger versions of Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Kitana, and Jade (alongside a pre-CharacterDevelopment Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and a younger and optimistic Jax) into the present to fight their evil undead versions.
** The ending of the vanilla ''Mortal Kombat 11'' story has also become this as it ends [[spoiler:with the [[ResetButton current timeline erased]] and the [[ContinuityReboot promise of a new timeline]]]]. ''Aftermath'' was later released that allowed players to choose between a more fulfilling good ending or having [[TheBadGuyWins Shang Tsung win]], though that also came with its fair share of controversies (most notably over {{Retcon}}ning Sindel from a tragic martyr of Shao Kahn's cruelty and MamaBear to an [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen evil queen]] who willingly married Kahn).
* The finale of the Dwarves' quest line in ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' was controversial for its big twist. Turns out you'd ''already won'' in the penultimate quest and didn't know it, with your victory in that quest convincing the bad guys to give up. The only reason they're fighting you is that [[WhatTheHellHero you attacked them first]] in anticipation of an attack that was never going to come. In the end, the two main villains [[DrivenToSuicide sort-of commit suicide]] because you won't leave them alone. Yay?
* ''VideoGame/SonicMania'': The game, in a first for the Classic series, ends on [[spoiler:a SequelHook for ''VideoGame/SonicForces''.]] Considering how divisive [[spoiler:''Forces'']] is and the ending having [[spoiler:Sonic getting sent away]], some fans were ''not'' happy. This is somewhat reduced however with the UpdatedRerelease's new Encore Mode which [[spoiler: happens after the events of ''Forces'' with an ending which doesn't tease anything new.]]
* ''VideoGame/ThimbleweedPark'': The four PlayerCharacters (aka Delores, Agent Ray, Agent Reyes, and Ransome The Clown) all break into the Pillow Tronics Factory (each for their own reasons) and discover that the factory AI has merged with a copy Chuck's (Delores' Uncle) brain and is planning to take over the town and below. After Delores shuts down a few of the computer's cores, Chuck reveals the truth: [[spoiler: that Thimbleweed Park is just a video game and that they are all video game characters playing out a story]]. He then provides the characters with items to quickly wrap up their respective storylines before [[spoiler:Delores shuts off the game entirely]]. Not only are the incredibly rushed conclusions unsatisfying (with Ransome's being the only possible exception), many of the games other plot points are abandoned entirely (you never find out who killed Boris or Franklin and you never prove Willie's innocence). Even worse, you don't even have to resolve the other characters stories to finish the game, as the credits roll if you do Delores' part. Many felt the game took its [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall breaking]] way too far and deprived the game of a meaningful conclusion as a result.

[[AC:Webcomics]]
* ''Franchise/{{Homestuck}}'':
** ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' had the one-two punch of SeasonalRot in the form of the [[BrokenBase Base-Breaking]] Act 6 and a borderline GainaxEnding where only the bare-bones conflicts were properly resolved with a number of side characters seemingly [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse vanishing.]] A number of things, including the fate of the BigBad, are left to speculation. That the heroes' victory was mainly brought on by [[spoiler:introducing a new form of time travel that "retcons" away the old timeline]] does not help. Also not helping is that the comic is regarded to invert this trope as well, with the SlowPacedBeginning being seen as the biggest entry barrier for new readers.
** Three years after the conclusion, ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' were released, [[AuthorsSavingThrow which helped mend a few issues people had with the later parts of the comic.]] The concepts of the retcon and "canon" were elaborated upon and deconstructed, a few loose ends were tied up, characters were given more conclusive arcs, and the final battle from canon got a proper conclusion. However, the Epilogues broke the fanbase as well. Common criticisms/points of contention include the way everyone acted and whether or not it was OutOfCharacter, the MindScrew nature even by ''Homestuck'' standards, characters such as the Sprites being inexplicably absent,[[note]]Davepetasprie^2 ''does'' show up in the Meat path, but none of the other Sprites do despite being last seen perfectly fine[[/note]] and ending on a cliffhanger despite the title implying [[GrandFinale otherwise.]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* While it was received well by critics, the ending of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' received a mixed reception from fans. Some fans praised the ending for being a satisfying conclusion for the series and [[spoiler:officialy confirming Princess Bubblegum and Marceline's relationship as canon]], but others hated it and considers it an incomplete ending for [[spoiler:not having a battle between PB's army and the Candy Kingdom Haters (which were teased at the end of the previous episode before the finale), GOLB not having any character and just being a GenericDoomsdayVillain who does nothing, the absence of the Lich, Finn being reduced to a secondary character and a DistressedDude alongside Simon and Betty during the final battle, the DownerEnding between Simon and Betty's relationship, many plot points being left unsolved, the lack of closure of Finn's relationship with Huntress Wizard (doesn't help that most of the characters have some sort of romantic moment during the episode) and the lack of any scenes with Finn in the ending montage other than the last scene, with other characters such as PB and Marcy getting more focus]]. With the announcement of the ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventureTimeDistantLands Distant Lands]]'' sequel miniseries, fans are hoping that most of these issues get addressed.
** The post-finale comics somewhat reduce some of these issues. While ''[[ComicBook/AdventureTimeSeason11 Season 11]]'' ends with [[spoiler:a somewhat decent closure to Finn and the implication that he and Huntress Wizard are still dating]], the ending of ''[[ComicBook/AdventureTimeMarcyAndSimon Marcy and Simon]]'' got a very mixed reception. While some are happy that [[spoiler:Simon and Betty are finally together]], others feel like it negates part of the finale since [[spoiler:her sacrifice to save everyone from GOLB was rendered pointless.]]
** Sadly, this also applies to the ''Distant Lands'' special "Together Again". While it's considered the definitive closure to Finn and Jake's story, most of the problems of the finale, like [[spoiler:Finn's love life not getting closure again and Finn not beating the final villain, this time being the returning Lich]] are still present here, plus with new problems like [[spoiler:Finn's life after the finale being open, him not getting any character development since the series ended and becoming secretly [[DeathSeeker suicidal]] for years, waiting for death so that he can be with Jake again]] being added, which soured some fans. Not helping matters is that the previous special, "Obsidian", [[spoiler:gave more closure to Princess Bubblegum and Marceline than Finn by adressing most of their unresolved plot threads]]. And since this is the end of Finn and Jake's story, leaving these problems unsolved resulted in a finale that's equally as unsatisfying and divisive as "Come Along With Me".
* The final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', "The Inquisition", ends on a SuddenDownerEnding wherein [[spoiler:[[EldritchLocation the Void]] starts to consume Elmore (something that had been heavily foreshadowed prior), [[BolivianArmyCliffhanger with the heavy implication that the town and everyone in it is going to be erased from existence]].]] Much of the show's fanbase was not impressed that the show ended with [[spoiler:the show's world possibly being destroyed, and all of its beloved inhabitants along with it]], especially since further ''Gumball'' material since the main show ended has [[LeftHanging so far ignored its cliffhanger ending entirely]]. Unusually for this trope, the show's creator Ben Bocquelet agreed with the fanbase, claiming that the show was meant to end on a different note than the [[UncertainDoom highly uncertain one]] that the show ultimately used. Thankfully for the fans, not only a movie has been announced to properly finish the show, but a series revival was also announced.
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Creator Creator/GenndyTartakovsky, originally intended for a movie to end the series. The film kept getting hit with DevelopmentHell until it was ultimately decided to make it a fifth season instead several years later on Creator/AdultSwim. Season 5 was well-received but became divisive because of its CruelTwistEnding where [[spoiler: Ashi [[RetGone disappears due to Aku (her father) being destroyed before she was conceived]], denying Jack a true Happy Ending]]. While it makes sense as a solution to what would otherwise be a paradox, it only brings up the other paradox of [[spoiler:if Future Jack came back to the past and killed Aku shortly AFTER Past Jack had been flung into the future, how would Future Jack have come back to the past at all? Ashi wouldn't have existed in the future, because Aku was killed, but she was the one who brought Jack back to the past. You end up in a logic loop of "If Ashi exists, Jack erases Ashi's existence, but if Ashi doesn't exist, Jack can't erase Ashi's existence, allowing Ashi to exist.]]
** Three years after the series ended, Adult Swim Games and Genndy Tartakovsky released ''VideoGame/SamuraiJackBattleThroughTime'' to the public. Collecting every Corrupted Emperor's Kamon in the game and fighting Aku unlocks [[spoiler:a revised version of the show's ending, this time with Ashi surviving and marrying Jack, ending the series with them sitting under the cherry tree]]. Said game is considered canon to the show.
* ''WesternAnimation/TrollhuntersRiseOfTheTitans'' disappointed fans with its ResetButton ending. As in, the ResetButton applied not only to the events of the movie, but to three complete series before it.

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[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1628889586089646200 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

When people get involved in a story, many have the basic expectation that it will have a satisfactory ending. This, in and of itself, is not unjustified: no matter how good Acts One and Two are, if Act Three is unsatisfying, that is all that the people outside the theater will be talking about.

The thing is, so much conspires ''against'' a satisfactory conclusion.

Maybe the show was ScrewedByTheNetwork and was [[CutShort canceled]] before [[LeftHanging any of the questions it raised could be answered]]. Maybe [[KudzuPlot as time went on, the story collected so many elements]] that [[TheChrisCarterEffect there was no possible way]] that [[FanDislikedExplanation they could do each justice]]. Maybe it was the first part of a series [[OrphanedSeries left unfinished]] by the now-[[DiedDuringProduction deceased]] or [[AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder bored]] author. Maybe the SeriesGoal was [[TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised never achieved]]. Maybe the writers just plain [[SeasonalRot ran themselves out of creativity]] by the end of it, and so much FanonDiscontinuity is claimed, you could swear the fandom was composed solely of historical revisionists. Maybe the whole thing devolved into such [[GainaxEnding unspeakable surreality]] that tainted the rest of the experience. Maybe you know that [[DoomedByCanon in-universe material taking place later in continuity]] actually [[HappyEndingOverride makes any happy part of the ending]] a study in FridgeHorror. An exceptionally bad CruelTwistEnding, SuddenDownerEnding and/or EsotericHappyEnding can also be the cause.

Hearing about all these things makes many people very wary. No one wants to spend dozens of hours dedicating themselves to something that will leave them slowly disappointed. Maybe the overall experience would have more than compensated for any supposed deficiencies of the ending, but the potential viewer has been scared off.

This is Ending Aversion.

Now, of course, someone ''could'' make an attempt to keep watching it for as long as they liked it, then turn it off when they didn't. When someone becomes ''too'' attached to the characters and the whole story, however, that's easier said than done. This, then, often results in the viewer going online to complain about what happened in the story... and the cycle begins anew.

Ironically, the biggest contributor to Ending Aversion might just be those who consider themselves the most hardcore fans of a work. Criticism is fun to read and to write and fan discussion will inevitably lead to someone choosing to AccentuateTheNegative of the shows they love: "TheyChangedItNowItSucks", "It was better when [[RiddleForTheAges all the mysteries were still up in the air]].", "It was great when it started, but the last couple of seasons [[FanonDiscontinuity never happened]]", "The movie was actually pretty good until the ending ruined it", and so on.

And well, it's hard to say that [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife we're not somewhat to blame either]].

If a work is avoided because of a DownerEnding, that is AngstAversion.

Compare to HypeAversion and TheFireflyEffect (wariness of committing to a new show, as opposed to one that has concluded). See also AwesomenessWithdrawal. Contrast EndingFatigue when the audience starts ''wanting'' the story to end.

'''Warning: Ending SPOILERS below.'''

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!!Examples and Reasons:

!!!GainaxEnding (It's completely out of left field)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is infamous for its GainaxEnding, and is the main reason (but far from the only one) why the studio that produced it, Creator/StudioGainax, became the TropeNamer. The last two episodes make so little sense that some fans might recommend you skip them and go straight to the movie ''End of Evangelion''... except that ''End'' is ''equally as divisive!'' This makes it the rare work that is a clear example of something hit by Ending Aversion, HypeAversion, ''and'' AngstAversion.
* ''Anime/TheBigO'' ran into a strange version of this. The first season ended on a {{Cliffhanger}} but due to the show's lack of popularity in Japan, the staff didn't expect to continue it. However, the show [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff became massively popular in America]], to the point where Creator/CartoonNetwork co-produced a second season. Unfortunately the inverse situation happened, with the second season raising far more questions than it answered with the full expectation that it would get a third season...which didn't happen.
* ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne:'' Is largely seen as disappointing. Its entire 26 episode run builds up the [[WillTheyOrWontThey relationship]] between Van and Hitomi, the latter of whom almost never thinks of Earth. When she does return in Episode 24 (through her own magical pendant, due to being [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere tired of war and death on Gaea]]), she's [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand so bored with normal life]] and [[LoveEpiphany realizes she loves Van so much]] that she returns to Gaea to be with him, and in two episodes the [[PowerOfLove strength and purity of their young love]] defeats the BigBad and restores peace of Gaea... and then ''not five minutes later'' she [[ButNowIMustGo casually decides to return to Earth forever anyway]], despite still loving Van and still having a magic "instantly teleport between worlds" pendant. The fans who've seen ''WebVideo/VisionOfEscaflowneAbridged'' actually find its ending to be BetterThanCanon because it ''[[TheyDo doesn't]]'' involve this trope.
* While featuring an entirely different continuity, ''Manga/YuGiOhArcV'''s manga adaptation has a particularly infamous ending, considered worse than the anime's. In the anime (and for much of the manga), Yuya and Yuzu are love interests and one of the more popular pairings in the franchise. The manga's final chapter instead makes it so that Yuya is actually Yuzu's KidFromTheFuture, and that she married his father (Yusho, who is also Yuya's father in the anime.) The relationship was seen as very creepy, especially since there was also ShipTease between Yuya and Yuzu in the manga, and their familial relationship was never alluded to beforehand. The twist utterly destroyed the manga's otherwise positive reputation, and it has completely overshadowed every other story element.

[[AC:Literature]]
* The final book in the ''[[Literature/TheSaddleClub Pine Hollow]]'' book series ends with the eponymous stable burning down and the deaths of five horses. What's more, the subsequent ending of the book is rather abrupt, not even offering the typical level of resolution for a DownerEnding.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/StElsewhere'' was one of the first television series to do this, ending with an AllJustADream revelation. The show was notable for lots of other things in its day, including being one of the first [[MedicalDrama medical dramas]], laying the groundwork for all future shows in the genre. However, the twist ending of its final episode and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Westphall#The_Tommy_Westphall_Universe_Hypothesis Tommy Westphall Multiverse Hypothesis]] theory that resulted from it have completely overshadowed everything else about the show since then -- therefore making it not very appealing to new viewers.
* The final episode of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'', "[[Recap/ThePrisonerE17FallOut Fall Out]]", was so confusing to audiences that Creator/PatrickMcGoohan had to ''go into hiding'' from fans who hounded his home looking for answers and clarification.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'', what with the fact that the ending chose to go for a more metaphysical angle, with several of the questions being unanswered.
* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' also had a variation of the ItWasAllADream ending which pissed many fans off to no end and has been the biggest barrier of entry for new fans. Naturally when the series was revived decades later, the ending was immediately retconned.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'''s ending has a sufficient reputation for being bizarre and incomprehensible to bring about this trope. There's some stuff about memes, genetic memory, passing the torch, and America's destiny in a narration by Solid Snake. There's also a little kind-of-but-not-really closure with Raiden and Rose, with a last-second MindScrew to set up the next part of the series. The general consensus is that the ending is definitely meant to say something... it's just hard to tell what exactly it said.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has gained a reputation of being to VideoGames what ''Series/{{Lost}}'' was to LiveActionTelevision and what ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' was to {{Anime}} (something that was made especially infamous by an interview made with the developers pre-release, which mentioned the former example by name and explicitly promised that the ending wouldn't be anything like that). The overwhelmingly poorly received original ending scared off numerous potential players, although the company [[AuthorsSavingThrow later released]] DLC that seems to have made the endings more palatable and is reducing the effect considerably.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' got a bit of a negative reputation after word of the ending, which involves [[SadisticChoice either the Lone Wanderer or Sarah Lyons]] [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing themselves]] to start up Project Purity, got out. The backlash was more or less mitigated by later DLC, though due to not altering dialog the game still mocks the player as a coward for sending in a radiation-immune character to complete the task.
* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2008'' appears to be building up to a climactic confrontation with [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], when it suddenly shoves that aside and presents the player with a SadisticChoice between which protagonist [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie gets possessed by him]].
* Seto and Ren from ''VideoGame/FragileDreamsFarewellRuinsOfTheMoon'' head out together in search of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, but the ending narration features an aged Seto in a voiceover claiming Ren has died some time afterwards and he's all alone again. Within context, this is nonsensical because the point of the story was to state how alone Seto wasn't thanks to the number of {{Non Player Character}}s who accompanied him on his journey, insisting YouAreNotAlone; Seto's monologue essentially puts him back to square one, which he was trying to avoid from the start of the game. What should have amounted into a BittersweetEnding[[note]]A post-story {{Manga}} explicitly mentions Ren is an IllGirl with YourDaysAreNumbered in effect ties into her impending demise[[/note]] instead winds up becoming an EsotericHappyEnding.
* ''VideoGame/OutlastII'': [[AllForNothing Blake fails to save Lynn]] [[DeathByChildbirth as she dies in childbirth]]. Afterwards, cult leader [[BigBad Knoth]] tells Blake that his child is TheAntichrist and there is nothing they can do to stop it. Knoth and all his remaining followers then [[KillEmAll commit mass suicide]] and Blake attempts to escape but then the sun explodes. What's worse is the sun exploding is implied to a hallucination, [[UncertainDoom leaving Blake's fate a mystery]].
** ''Webcomic/OutlastTheMurkoffAccount'' explains some of what is actually going on. Basically, Lynn experienced a psychosomatic (aka fake) pregnancy, the baby she gave birth to wasn't real, and Blake, Knoth, and Knoth's followers are just all collectively hallucinating due to being driven insane via a brainwashing experiment over the radio. However, the comic also explains that Blake, while alive, [[FateWorseThanDeath has been dragged off to be experimented on by Murkoff]]. Either way, the protagonists are either dead or very likely doomed.

!!!MindScrew (It's incomprehensible)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'': Tsubasa basically ends with the Japanese equivalent of ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', which just makes the plot utterly confusing and is a large departure from the originally advertised multi-dimensional adventures through numerous other CLAMP settings. WordOfGod admits even ''they'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard don't understand what's going on.]] The show is no longer remembered as fondly as it used to.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/TwinPeaks'', which also suffered from SeasonalRot in the second series, both of which resulted from ExecutiveMeddling. The writers had no intention of solving the main mystery of the show (Laura's murder) but were forced to come up with a solution by the network anyway. ''Then'' the network proceeded to order another season, even though the writers didn't have any plans beyond that. This caused massive amounts of MindScrew, KudzuPlot, and TheChrisCarterEffect.

!!!SeasonalRot (It's not worth the trouble getting there)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/BunnyDrop'' - While the second half of the story introduced a GenreShift and a TimeSkip [[BrokenBase that was disliked by some,]] what really turned off a larger portion of the audience was [[spoiler: the inverted WifeHusbandry aspect of the ending, where the female protagonist Rin is revealed to be in love with the man who raised her for at least a decade, who is her nephew. It follows through 'til the end, and they end up as a couple. Worse, the author randomly reveals they aren't related after all, destroying the central aspect of the series.]]
* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': While the final arc is at least not hundreds of chapters long, it is much longer than any other arc in the series, and gives extremely little in the way of any story resolution. The only major change that happens is the Black Market gets taken down, which was never the focus of the series and had several good characters such as Louis argue that it's more of a necessary evil. Every relationship thread (even the main one!) is left at "Maybe it'll work, maybe not," the issue of food and how carnivores will satisfy their instincts are never resolved (especially since Yafya rejects a possible solution), no side characters get any kind of conclusion to any developments they had, and most importantly, despite the title of the manga being Beastars, and it becomes a plot point that Legosi actually does want to become a Beastar together with Louis (justifying the plural in the title), absolutely nobody becomes a new Beastar, and Yafya even quits the post, leaving the position empty.
* Many would-be readers are put off by ''Manga/FoodWars'', knowing it ends with a decline in quality by introducing [[spoiler:[[TheScrappy Asahi]]]], who destroys the dynamic of the series by being a [[GenericDoomsdayVillain Generic Doomsday]] InvincibleVillain, bringing alongside him SerialEscalation breaking the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, and AssPull reveals, culminating with the manga having [[NoEnding a lack of any real resolution to its plot]].
* For ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' many fans dismiss everything following the [[ClimaxBoss Pain Assault]]. The following two and final arcs (The Kage Summit and the Great Ninja War) all [[ArcFatigue bleed into one another.]] Also, not helping matters is Sasuke's BaseBreakingCharacter status and the PowerCreep of the main characters finally reaches its zenith. That the BigBad was brushed away in favour of a brand new villain out of nowhere doesn't help. Said fans consider the battles unsatisfying and the epilogue has its own bag of worms due to [[DieForOurShip controversy surrounding the final pairings]].
* ''Anime/AldnoahZero'': Season 2 already suffered issues, such as [[CliffhangerCopout everyone surviving the season 1 finale]], Inaho becoming [[MaryTzu even more overpowered]] and Lemrina [[RememberTheNewGuy being introduced out of nowhere]]. The ending itself was controversial for several reasons, [[spoiler:such as Asseylum marrying a completely different guy and Slaine sentenced to life in prison.]]
* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'''s ending is generally disliked overall, with complaints about it being rushed, not tying up loose ends, and [[EsotericHappyEnding seeming happy even when it's not]] because the plotline about Yuya and Yuzu's alternate selves is resolved by said selves being merged within Yuya and Yuzu's bodies forever—a sore point for fans because they were established to be their own characters, with friends and loved ones of their own, and leaving them stuck in bodies that aren't their own is perceived as a FateWorseThanDeath. The ending has also hurt people's opinions of the series overall.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'': Book eight raised some serious TimeyWimeyBall questions and was considered inferior to most material preceding it, and books nine and ten are widely considered to be rot because they fail to adequately explain several plot threads, flat-out ignore others, throw in VillainDecay for the series' BigBad, and hit the ResetButton to pair up the author's preferred couple (and drop a bridge on an EnsembleDarkHorse).

[[AC:Film -- Live-Action]]
%%* The ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series. An excellent example of why {{myth arc}}s and mainstream-Hollywood-strength ExecutiveMeddling do not mix.
* The ''Franchise/StarWars''' sequel trilogy was already contentious... and then ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' begins by revealing that the entire reason the last two movies happened was that the original BigBad, Emperor Palpatine, never died (negating Anakin Skywalker's sacrifice at the end of the original trilogy) and had been manipulating the First Order from behind the scenes, possibly for years. While Palpatine dies again in the end, this time for real, the Skywalker bloodline is also extinct--although new protagonist Rey (who was earlier revealed to be blood-related to Palpatine) takes the Skywalker family name to continue their legacy. Altogether, the movie finishes on a very rushed and ambiguous AndTheAdventureContinues note, and many fans feel that the sequel trilogy ruins the original trilogy's definitive, hard-fought BittersweetEnding in favor of a vaguer and less satisfying resolution that fails to deliver any sort of decisive conclusion to the saga. Lucasfilm and Disney then decided to focus on the ''High Republic'' prequel brand and the Post-Imperial era before ''The Force Awakens'', with no plans to show or explain what happens after ''The Rise of Skywalker'', which didn't exactly help.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Season 4 made some decisions that weren't very popular, though the general attitude is that season 5 got better again. Creator/JossWhedon then took a year off during season 6 to focus on "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E7OnceMoreWithFeeling Once More, With Feeling]]" (and ''Series/{{Firefly}}''), and while people do remember and celebrate the musical episode even years later, this meant that he handed off writing duties for season 6 to other writers, and it showed. Things got moving again in season 7 when Joss came back full time, and the story intentionally built up to the final battle, but many still found it to be little better due to problems with the characterization of much of the cast. There may be a slight aversion about "not being worth the trouble" because those who have heard about the issues with seasons 6-7 can simply stop at the conclusion of season 5, which wraps up most dangling threads and has a definite and satisfactory, although bittersweet, ending.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': The first two seasons are great, to the point that it won a Peabody Award during the break between seasons two and three. When season 3 got underway, they started running out of ideas, and it was downhill from there. It didn't help that a large portion of the acclaimed writing staff (but not Creator/RonMoore) left the show before season 3 got underway, particularly all of the female writers (who were acknowledged to have been the guiding hand in the writing of the female characters up to that point). Though there is also a large contingent of fans that thinks the second half of season 4 was where things started getting bad. And that's not even getting into the controversy over the series' [[EsotericHappyEnding Esoterically Happy]] GainaxEnding.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Season 8 ended JD's story (our protagonist and narrator for the entire series) on a high note and was [[SeriesFauxnale intended to be a series finale.]] Season 9, however, revamped much of the cast (Turk and Cox were still regulars, others were relegated to guest stars), changed the setting, and had a different focus (med school). Series Creator Creator/BillLawrence initially wanted to rename the show [[SpinOff to make it clear that this was a new beginning,]] but this was [[ExecutiveMeddling nixed by the network.]]
%%* ''Series/TheWestWing'': The first four seasons had Creator/AaronSorkin at the helm. After he left, it just wasn't the same anymore.%% Zero Context Example
%%* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': Season 5 is generally regarded by fans as when the show went downhill. %%Zero Context Example
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' - Some people think the rot even began with the season one finale. The problem isn't that the writers never planned out the show... it's that they intended the show to have an anthology-format with a rotating cast. Problem was that the season one characters instantly became popular national sensations, so they were forced to come up with new plots for them on the fly. It didn't help that there was a Writer's Guild of America strike which truncated season 2. Viewers started leaving in droves during season 3 when they started just recycling plots from season 1 (how many times can Sylar flip-flop from evil to good and back?).
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' - They'd sort of resolved all of the main story arc by the end of season 7, and a later episode broke the Fourth Wall to say that fans felt they phoned it in for season 8. Still, it ended with a GrandFinale that took out virtually all major galactic threats for good. The real break was seasons 9 and 10, when they introduced an entirely new set of villains, which to be honest were [[MeetTheNewBoss something of a retread of the earlier ones.]] They were even going to rename the show "Stargate Command" when season 9 began to try to emphasize how different it was, but rather than make a sequel/spinoff, the network felt more viewers would stay if they kept the name intact. The actual final episode isn't really a finale at all, so they had to wrap things up with ''two'' DTV movies.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' - Depending on who you ask, the mid-series switch from Kes to Seven of Nine may cause this trope to apply to the early seasons. The finale is also controversial, especially the sudden Chakotay/Seven relationship. Old viewers are likely to warn new ones not to get invested in pairings like Janeway/Chakotay and Doctor/Seven for that reason.
* ''Series/RobinHood'' ended its second season with the murder of Maid Marian at Guy of Gisborne's hands, described enthusiastically by the creators as "a shocking twist" and a chance to "rock the show". Audience reaction ran the gamut from bafflement to disgust, and it became increasingly clear throughout season three that the writers had put little thought into what would happen ''after'' removing the show's emotional centre. The show floundered through a range of [[TrappedByMountainLions unconnected plotlines]] and [[ReplacementScrappy arbitrary new characters]] before being cancelled with all the [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favourite characters]] dead, the hated [[TheScrappy Scrappies]] still standing, and [[TheUnsolvedMystery several plot threads dangling.]] Still, it's quite fun telling non-viewers about Marian's death, they'll invariably pull a face and go: "Huh? Why would they do ''that''?"
* The show ''Series/{{Alias}}'' had two fascinating and complex seasons, but then a series of mistakes on the part of the writers, the producers, a dose of ExecutiveMeddling, and a nasty feedback loop from shippers in the fan community derailed the series in Season 3. Throughout much of S3, the show circled in a holding pattern. Then, in S4 and S5, the ongoing, overarching storylines collapsed and the writers even began to lampshade their own failures.
* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'', thanks to some of the most notorious ExecutiveMeddling, lost the intellectual "what-if" in favor of "movie ripoff of the week" and [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge dropped]] almost the entirety of the original cast, leaving most fans abandoning ship by the fourth season.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', starting with the fifth season, was heavily criticized for its focus on [[TheScrappy more less well-received characters,]] lots of {{padding}} resulting in uneven pacing, and often underwhelming resolutions to its plotlines. When the eighth season concluded, a lot of people would recommend newbies to stop at season 4.
* The 1980s hit the Classic series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' very hard. There are lots of wonderful times to be had in the decade, of course, including a couple of mini-golden-ages, but it eventually just peters out in a little speech from the Doctor in a field after the malicious ExecutiveMeddling and [[NoBudget increasingly minuscule budget]] finally choked the show to death. If you're not the kind of person who gets off on watching a hugely popular show get slowly derailed and destroyed over a decade, binge-watching the entirety of '80s ''Who'' is not going to feel good. (Of course, if you're not that kind of person, this may not be the kind of wiki for you either.)
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has a particularly disappointing final season, even compared to the previous mixed three seasons. Low points include the anticlimactic battle with the Night King and his forces in Episode 3, a confrontation that had been built up since the start of the story, Rhaegal suddenly [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off]] to artificially inflate Cersei's threat, Jaime declaring he never cared about the innocents and going off to Cersei, Daenerys JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and [[MoralEventHorizon torching King's Landing]], thereby doing what the Mad King would have done if Jaime hadn't killed him, and Bran being king because he had the 'best story'. Said developments sapped many people's interest in the show, and [[BileFascination some only continued to see how badly it might turn out]]. Beth Elderkin at i09 noted that [[https://io9.gizmodo.com/open-channel-remember-when-game-of-thrones-was-a-thing-1843548667 "It's kind of amazing how one of the biggest shows of the 21st century is now just something that happened"]], with merchandising, cosplay, etc. virtually vanishing in a few weeks.
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': After a divisive third season, the final one, which opens with [[spoiler:the death of Mary Watson]] is generally agreed to be a major dip in quality (with a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes from both Audience and Critics). In particular, the finale revolves around the convoluted backstory of [[spoiler: Sherlock and Mycroft's even more clever sister and her last-minute redemption]].
* ''Series/SleepyHollow'': After a well-received first season that was praised the most for having a well-developed black female lead (Abbie) who had great chemistry with her white co-lead Ichabod, the second season made the baffling decision to sideline Abbie in favor of Ichabod's family/relationship drama to the point where Abbie's actress decided to leave the show which resulted in Abbie being KilledOffForReal at the end of the third season. Disillusioned fans abandoned the show in droves and nowadays, hardly any of them will recommend watching the show except for maybe the first season alone.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' has its last season. While Season 3 was more divisive on whether or not it was a serious step down in terms of storytelling and characterization, Season 4 was nigh-unanimously agreed to be the lowest point of the series. Though there were fans who still enjoyed what comedy there was to be had, complaints were made towards everything else: from the main story arc mostly being sidelined in favor of [[RomanticPlotTumor excessive romantic drama]], to characters being either underutilized, {{flanderized}}, or performing spontaneous {{Face Heel Turn}}s, to the introduction of subplots that were either rushed or straight-up forgotten, to an ArcVillain deemed less intimidating as previous antagonists. The series finale only made things worse by ending with an InferredHolocaust committed by Star that none of the characters seem to acknowledge or care much about, followed by a [[MergedReality forcible merging]] of two vastly different worlds, with the show treating this all as a [[EsotericHappyEnding happy ending]]. This tarnished the series reputation to the point practically the only thing mentioned about the series afterward was complaints about the finale.
* Both halves of season 5, ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'''s final season, have gotten this reception for different reasons:
** Few, if any fans, approve of the last episode of ''All-Stars'' (the last season to feature the ''Island'' or ''Revenge'' casts), as it left many loose plot threads hanging and abandoned several beloved characters unredeemed in the show, OR in the fandom. The fact that Creator/FreshTV has abandoned the main series in favor of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'' only further adds to fans' dislike of it.
** The ending of ''Pahkitew Island'' gets this for the same reasons as ''All-Stars''; several plot threads introduced in the season (such as Amy and Samey's dysfunctional relationship and Dave's ultimate fate) are left hanging without resolution, only exemplified due to it being the absolute last episode of the main series. The finale is also considered disappointing due to it not bringing back any of the previously eliminated contestants beyond Dave and Jasmine and the endings not varying to any significant degree beyond a few seconds at the very end.

!!!BolivianArmyEnding (Heroes headed to what may well be their doom)
[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': While it's bad enough that the (still living) main characters are just as, if not more, broken and traumatized despite defeating the Yeerks, the knife twist comes when they decide to initiate what is most likely a suicide attack against [[DiabolusExNihilo an extremely powerful enemy that had only been vaguely alluded to in the previous books and just sort of shows up out of nowhere]].

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/PrincessAgents'' ends with Chu Qiao and Yuwen Yue falling through ice and sinking into a frozen river. Chu Qiao starts to swim to the surface, Yuwen Yue sinks deeper... and that's it.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The series ends with Angel and his friends [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Spike]], charging towards an army of demons and monsters they failed to prevent their incursion into Earth.
%%* ''Series/BlakesSeven''.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3: Awakened'' ends with Isaac and Carver returning to Earth after destroying the [[ThatsNoMoon Tau Volantis moon]], only to find the [[EldritchAbomination Brethren Moons]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt converging upon Earth and their ship]], before the credits roll.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar'' is this for the ''WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse''. When ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} uses ComicBook/{{Cyborg}} as an UnwittingPawn to catch the heroes off guard when they plan to attack him, the entire Animated Universe ends with a PyrrhicVictory as most of the heroes are dead, insane or crippled and the Earth left near-inhospitable, on the verge of Krypton-style destruction. This leads to Constantine ordering Flash to go back in time and prevent the tragedy from happening, which will change the entire timeline. Many fans feel that this makes the entire DCAMU not worth watching or getting invested in.

!!!TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised (Instead, it takes place in a different medium)
%%[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
%%* ''Series/{{JAG}}''

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{XIII}}'', a Licensed Game based on the first five volumes of [[ComicBook/{{XIII}} the Belgian comic book series of the same name]], ends with a "ToBeContinued" after TheReveal of the ManBehindTheMan. The game's poor sales meant that no further adaptations of the comics would be made.

!!!TheChrisCarterEffect (Much of the KudzuPlot goes unresolved)
[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': A particularly frustrating example because although the series repeatedly [[SnicketWarningLabel goes out of its way to warn you there won't be a happy resolution]], what it doesn't tell you until the last book is just how little will be resolved at ''all''.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/TheXFiles'', of course. Even attempts at TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised did not go so well (the series ends with the protagonists "waiting" for a future cataclysm; the second movie was an unrelated plot that preceded this disaster; the supposed third movie to finally give closure languished in DevelopmentHell; and while there was an UnCancelled tenth season miniseries, it started off [[{{Retcon}} retconning]] most of the built-up series mythology [[spoiler: and itself ended on a GainaxEnding cliffhanger.]]
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'' added three more plot elements for every plot point it addressed directly, reminding viewers unfavorably of ''Series/{{Lost}}''.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' pulls more plot threads out of nowhere in one dungeon than some games pull their entire ''length''. Chronopolis is already considered ThatOneLevel due to its status as a MarathonLevel, a large amount of {{Info Dump}}s from [=NPCs=] throughout the level, and generally difficult random encounters. However, what really seals the dungeon's (and therefore, the game's) fate is the fact that the plot begins to enter full-on MindScrew territory here in trying to properly tie it to the events of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. Few of these plot points get properly resolved, it kills one of the characters from ''Trigger'' apparently [[AssPull just for the sake of shock value]], and very little of it gets explained outside of the aforementioned info dumps if it gets explained at all.
* ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'''s [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma third and final game]] didn't follow up on that much from the previous game, and it ignored many promises made by WordOfGod.

!!!LeftHanging / CutShort (The central premise goes unresolved, often because outside forces kept it from doing so)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' was given a rushed ending when Creator/KenAkamatsu fought with the editors regarding property rights over the series and decided to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun End The Franchise Early And Run]] rather than surrender them.
** The first anime also had a very rushed ending as the creators thought they would have multiple seasons to work with ([[LongRunners as was necessary to adapt Negima faithfully]]) and were disabused of this notion with only 1/3 of the season left to wrap it up.
* ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' suffers from this due to ''[[TheMovie Prince Of Darkness]]'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen (Which was supposed to be the first in a trilogy)]] bombing from the number of problems with it including breaking from the spirit of the series. Having a Japanese Saturn-only game that explains what happens between the end of the series and the movie only made things worse.
** This also happens InUniverse with Akito hesitant to watch the last episode of Gekiganger. In the final episode, he did...and he said it sucked due to the massive amount of AssPull included in one episode.
* ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'' was cut short during the Fuji Arc, resulting in a hurried FinalBoss readers found unsatisfying (especially as the Takamiya Arc was a similar but longer version of it) and many plot threads about the Solomon Company left dangling. Thankfully the creator did manage to get an epilogue in, but that still left a lot unanswered.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' fell into this for a sizable segment of the fanbase. After a [[ArcFatigue very long, drawn-out final arc]], the BigBad abruptly [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness kills all his remaining minions]], is himself quickly dispatched with a method that had limited foreshadowing, and for the last two chapters the story [[DistantFinale fast forwards ten years]] to an epilogue that leaves multiple questions unanswered [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and included some controversial romantic pairings]]. Three months after the conclusion of the manga [[http://tenshiscave.tumblr.com/post/153300055417/kubo-tite-bleach-twitter Kubo revealed on his Twitter]] that he decided to shorten the manga due to health concerns, though the GrandFinale was in fact what he had always intended from the beginning.
* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'' (the manga) went into a hiatus since 2003 with the last scene showing Kamui, lying on the ground with Fuuma, preparing to stab him with his sword. A decade has passed and CLAMP became too focused on other projects, not even bothering to touch the series which made fans of the manga feel that the story will never continue at this point.

%%[[AC:Comic Books]]
%% * Creator/AlanMoore's run on ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}''.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' was abruptly canned after its second season, leaving just about every plotline unresolved.
* ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'' suffered a lot of ExecutiveMeddling in the second season, mainly using techniques to try and make it more marketable for teens, such as Joan getting missions from God to learn about herself rather than making the world a better place, and [[spoiler:Adam cheating on Joan, for the sake of melodrama]]. Fans were not happy about this, and although the season finale did imply that there was a bigger threat coming for Joan to deal with, the show did not manage to get a third season.
* ''Series/TruCalling'' was royally ScrewedByTheNetwork, only getting a six-episode second season, and then getting cancelled before the final episode (which itself ended on a cliffhanger) even airs.
%%* ''Series/HarshRealm''.
* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' - the series was cancelled after the 4th season ended on a Cliffhanger, with [[spoiler: the newly married]] Lois & Clark finding an infant at their doorstep, and a note claiming that the child belongs to them.
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' - cut short due to abrupt cancellation at the end of season 4, after they'd ''already'' been told they'd get a fifth season, so they didn't plan it as the final season. The show did later get a finale-miniseries which was intended to be the truncated version of the plot developments in what would have been season 5. Surprisingly, this actually provided good explanations ''and'' resolution for many of the running plotlines, so ultimately ''Farscape'' averted this trope.
** And now it has comics wrapping things up even tighter, including wrapping up the series-long plot point of Rygel wanting to take his throne back from his traitorous cousin (never done on the show because making and operating so many Hynerian puppets would have been impossible).
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'': SGU was plagued with issues from the very start, and the steadily dropping ratings convinced [=SyFy=] to cancel the show after its second season. As a result, the second season ended on a major cliffhanger, since the writers had assumed they'd have a third season or at least a movie to resolve the remaining plot threads.
* ''Series/{{Soap}}'' was written with a five-season story arc in mind, but was cancelled after Season 4, resulting in the show ending on several cliffhangers (specifically, [[spoiler:Chester finding his wife and son in bed together, Burt being ambushed by a political enemy and Jessica about to be executed by a firing squad]]). The show did get [[Series/{{Benson}} a spin-off,]] but it did nothing to resolve these cliffhangers.
* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' which attempted to save the show by coming up with the biggest twist they could think of, only for it not to save the show and ultimately drive fans of the show insane. With a completely unrelated Terminator series on the cards, it seems fans will forever be in limbo.
%%* ''Series/{{Flash Forward|2009}}''.
* ''Series/{{Caprica}}''. Not as bad as some of the examples in that the writers were given time after the series' cancellation to write an epilogue to wrap the show up, but the entire thing is just one huge sequence of WhatCouldHaveBeen.
* ''Series/TheEvent'' tried to set up an epic [[JigsawPuzzlePlot Jigsaw Puzzle]] MythArc about an AlienInvasion of Earth, but wound up bungling the setup so badly that it got cancelled after one season, just as it was GrowingTheBeard and finally moving into the proper meat of the story. You ''could'' watch it... if you don't mind sitting through hours of build-up only for the show to end right at the most dramatic part.
* ''Series/DarkAngel'''s Season 2 cliffhanger finale was planned to be resolved in the premier of Season 3, but [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Fox's cancellation of the show]] left it in limbo.
* ''Series/{{Profiler}}'' ended on a season cliffhanger--the Big Bad for most of the final season has been killed by another bad guy, of unknown motives, who is in the middle of carrying out his scheme.
* ''Series/{{ALF}}'' ended the fourth and final season with a cliffhanger with ALF getting abducted by the government. While there eventually ''was'' a followup, a TV-movie made six years later, for starters it's [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes hard to find]] due to not being widely available like the TV series, and second, the people who have seen it ended up disliking it especially due to [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome having no mention of what happened to the Tanners]], leading the same people to disavow its existence.
* The TV series adaptation of ''Literature/TheTripods'' was cancelled after just two seasons, despite being based on a book trilogy. As a result, the series ends on a ''massively'' depressing cliffhanger (which was also completely original to the series).
* ''Series/CrimeStory'' was supposed to have a five-year run in a story spanning two decades. It was cancelled after two, ending on an unresolved cliffhanger.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'': The game ended on a massive {{Cliffhanger}} that would have been a great SequelHook... except that (depending on who you ask) [[ScrewedByTheNetwork either Sanzaru Games had no plans to make a sequel and wrap up the game's plot, or Sanzaru did want to make a DLC or sequel but got shot down by Sony]]. The game itself is a ContestedSequel to the first three games, and with that plus the cliffhanger being a major DownerEnding when taken on its own, [[FanonDiscontinuity fans just don't want the series to end that way]].
* ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo: The Devils Cartel'': The game had already pissed several fans off by dancing around the fate of a character from the previous two games (I.E. not revealing whether they were alive or just missing) and its major plot twist halfway through the game (which many felt was completely nonsensical and utterly destroyed the characterization of previously good character for no good reason), and then to top it off the final scene throws out some vague hints towards a sequel, which given the games disappointing sales and its studio going bankrupt will likely never happen.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2'' ends on a major cliffhanger. However, Valve seems to have lost any interest in developing a continuation... at least, until ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' (which unfortunately doesn't actually help matters in the slightest due to being a self-contained prequel, but does at least suggest that Valve have ''some'' investment remaining in the franchise).
* ''VideoGame/BionicCommando 2009'' has a cliffhanger ending with Spencer falling to an unknown fate after killing Super Joe, and a Morse code [[TheStinger stinger]] telling of the activation of a new Project Albatros[s]. Poor sales of this and the LicensedGame of ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' led to development studio GRIN [[CreatorKiller going out of business]], and the following (and currently last) game, ''BC Rearmed 2'', was a midquel.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends 2'' ended with Mega Man Volnutt stranded on the moon, and Roll and Tron beginning construction on a rocketship to rescue him. Unfortunately, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork the third game got cancelled and Keiji Inafune left Capcom]], so the story will likely never be concluded.
* ''VideoGame/ShenmueIII'' finally came out after nearly twenty years of DevelopmentHell. Not only was the game widely derided for its shoddy technical quality and archaic game design decisions, but it ended the story on yet another cliffhanger, with no certainty of a fourth game ever coming out.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' was originally going to be a trilogy, but thanks to the mixed reception of both episodes, the third episode was cancelled and the second episode ended with Little Planet trapped inside the Death Egg Mk. II. Even collecting all the Chaos Emeralds does nothing, as the SequelHook cutscene was removed before the game's release.
* ''VideoGame/HavenCallOfTheKing'' is one of the most infamous examples in video game history, as the game ends with [[spoiler:Haven being betrayed by his best friend Chess, who was a mole for Lord Vetch all along, Athelion being killed and Haven being chained on a rock alongside Athelion's lifeless body for all eternity, leaving Vetch free to conquer the rest of the galaxy.]] This was the first game of a planned trilogy, but since the game sold poorly and had a mediocre reception, those plans were axed.

%%[[AC:Webcomics]]
%%* ''Webcomic/AModestDestiny''.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' finale set up the first high-stakes conflict of the show, kickstarted a new romance, and ended with the entire cast getting frozen solid. Unfortunately the first season was cancelled due to low ratings and controversy; a reboot is in the process, but it's unclear if they'll resolve this cliffhanger or start from scratch.
* ''WesternAnimation/SilverSurfer'' was cancelled early because of Marvel's bankruptcy in the 1990s. So the show concludes on a major CliffHanger where Thanos the Mad Titan ends all of existence.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpacePOP'' ends season 1 on a cliffhanger with nothing resolved, and due to lack of viewer interest, season 2 was never made.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingArthurAndTheKnightsOfJustice'' ended abruptly after two seasons, with only four of the twelve {{MacGuffin}}s recovered, and the original King Arthur and his knights still trapped in the Cave of Glass.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' infamously ended on a cliffhanger at the end of "The Doomstar Requiem" after a fallout between Brendon Small and Mike Lazzo, leaving the series unfinished for years. Fans begged to Adult Swim to bring back the series for years, but with no results. Years later, Small decided to appease fans by ending the story via a FullyAbsorbedFinale with [[Music/BrendonSmallsGalaktikon Galaktikon's second album]], although without mentioning anything Dethklok related to avoid copyright issues. Eight years after the series was cancelled, Adult Swim finally listened to their fans by announcing a Metalocalypse movie that not only takes place after the events of "The Doomstar Requiem", but it will also end the series for good.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' ended after only two seasons with a real DownerEnding of a cliffhanger [[spoiler: in which Harry emotionally blackmails Gwen into staying with him, [[DidNotGetTheGirl preventing her and Peter from getting together]], the Connors are fired and made to relocate to Florida, and Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) is revealed to have survived his battle with Spider-Man and is thus free to continue his schemes under a new alias]]. This cancellation resulted from the show being ScrewedByTheLawyers (Marvel extending Sony's film rights to Spider-Man in exchange for the character's television rights), as [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the show was intended to last five seasons]].
* In a truly stunning bit of bad luck, ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' narrowly avoided this with its third season, which [[WrapItUp warps up the major plot threads and gives a satisfying conclusion to the story]], only to get {{Uncanceled}}. The creators proceeded to go into season four [[TemptingFate with the expectation they would have at least five]]... and proceeded to get canceled a second time! As a result, the last episode ends on a massive {{Cliffhanger}} where the BigBad [[TheBadGuyWins takes control of the heroes' headquarters and all hope seems lost]]. There are quite a lot of fans who suggest to newcomers that [[FanonDiscontinuity they simply stop watching at the season three finale]] because of this.
* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'' was cancelled after season 3 which ends up on a massive DownerEnding with [[spoiler: Ash freeing [[BigBad Invictus]] from Final Space by draining Mooncake.]]

!!!DiedDuringProduction (Creator didn't live to finish the work)

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'': Sunao Yoshida died in 2004 and all the novels, manga, and anime ended with the same conclusion: Ester is crowned Queen of Albion and Abel goes on his quest to defeat his brother, Cain. The author did leave his notes which are complied as ''Trinity Blood Canon Summa Theologica'' and it contains information about the story's world and how he plans to continue the story after Ester's coronation. Unfortunately, it was never released in English and nobody bothered to pick it up. And [[http://newhumanempire.weebly.com/canon-summa-theologica.html as seen in the notes]], the events are much darker without no definite conclusion to the story.

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* The last ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' book, ''Tintin and Alph-Art'', was left incomplete by Herge's death in 1983. The book was published 3 years later (or at least, incomplete notes and rough drawings). The book ends with [[spoiler:Tintin about to be executed by liquid polyester]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' (the prose book series), which gets bonus points for having a resulting severe DownerEnding (with the villains victorious and all but one of the main characters dead), as Adams was in such a bad mood when he wrote what turned out to be the last completed installment. Another [[Creator/EoinColfer author]] however has since stepped up to continue the series, although his contribution (''Literature/AndAnotherThing'') has [[BrokenBase divided the fanbase somewhat]].
%%* ''Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood''.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/{{Riget}}'' - not the author, just around 4 essential cast members.

%%!!!AuthorFilibuster / AuthorTract (Creator's politics come to supersede the story)
%%* ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark''.

!!!EndingFatigue (Takes too long to ''get'' to that ending)
[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Faced with uncertainty over the show's renewal, Creator/JMichaelStraczynski rewrote Season 4 to resolve the show's MythArc. Season 5 was greenlit during production, and JMS' attempts to rework unused story arcs from Season 4 led to EndingFatigue until the actual finale. Fortunately, the DistantFinale (shot for Season 4 but held back after the show's renewal) is [[DownplayedTrope actually really good]] and satisfactorily wraps up all the remaining plot threads of the series. Many fans just skip straight from the end of the Shadow War (or the end of Season 4, which is after) to "Sleeping in Light." Some further downplay it by skipping the telepaths plot, which is the main source of ArcFatigue in season 5.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', due to being ChristmasRushed, had two of its planned dungeons scrapped and replaced with a lengthy FetchQuest of finding Triforce Charts, and paying Tingle to decipher those to find the Triforce Shards themselves. Luckily, the Wii U UpdatedRerelease simplified this quest so that only three of the Shards require Charts, the rest can be acquired directly.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' is infamous for its [[DisappointingLastLevel Disappointing Last Dungeon]], [[spoiler:YHVH's Universe]], being a massive network of teleporters in a dungeon that's not only obnoxiously big but also visually unappealing, with most enemies being simply souped-up versions of previously-encountered demons that can't be scanned and can't be talked to.

!!!NoEnding (Too much is just left completely unanswered or unaddressed)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''[[Manga/ToLoveRu To Love-Ru Darkness]]'': [[spoiler:The male protagonist chooses ''none'' of the girls in his UnwantedHarem, resulting in the awkward situation of everyone continuing to vie for his affections while he still remains {{oblivious|ToLove}} about some of their feelings. To top it off, while he does state that the GirlNextDoor[=/=]{{Childhood Friend|Romance}} is his "number one", and said characters are usually the preferred choice in such stories by most Western audiences, said girl is actually a BaseBreakingCharacter and viewed as the worst choice he could make by fans outside Japan]].

[[AC:Audio Plays]]
* In ''AudioPlay/ThirtySixQuestions'', while the ending makes it clear that [[spoiler:Jase finally forgave Judith for all the lies she told]], it does ''not'' make it clear as to whether or not they got back together in the end.

[[AC:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'' left some people unsatisfied with the ending, with only vague ideas of what all the leads will do once the store closes, and the final strip showing [[spoiler:the Grumbel's sign being taken down so a Dollar Admiral could move into its space.]] This resulted in some fans making up their own endings for characters. (There were some that did enjoy the non-ending though, as that's pretty much what would happen in real life when a store goes out of business: it just closes, is replaced by something else if it's lucky, and one may never know what happens to its former employees.)

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/StuartLittle''. It should be noted that this only applies to the original book and not the movies.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/TheSopranos'' is a particularly controversial example. [[spoiler: The ending ''may'' depict Tony's death but it's left very ambiguous and up to the viewer's interpretation.]]

[[AC:Video Games]]
* In a literal example, ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'': while the game is very open-ended, one of its goals is to get to the center of the galaxy. [[spoiler:Upon doing so, players are immediately teleported to a ''different'' galaxy, with absolutely no reward for their efforts]].

!!!OrphanedSeries (Creator just didn't finish what they started)
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TheBalladOfHaloJones'' was planned as a nine-issue comic, but got cancelled after just three, due to a dispute between Creator/AlanMoore and his publisher. So, we never got to see Halo's full journey.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/EdgarAndEllen'': The creators seemed to lose all interest in continuing the book series, after the animated TV series was greenlit. And if you were hoping the cartoon would tackle the serious MythArc the books were steadily building up, it doesn't; it quickly diverges from that plot to become an episodic comedy.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* Creator/JossWhedon planned ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' as a five-season show. It was cancelled after just two.

[[AC:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' was dropped in the final arc, right as the hero was confronting the BigBad, thanks to a combination of the creator losing interest and focusing on animation school. Years later, the creator got their own animated series called ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' and gave the comic a FullyAbsorbedFinale at the behest of a crewmember.
* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' unfortunately came to an end after the artist ran into severe health issues, compounded by [[OldShame regretting some creative choices]] making them uncomfortable with containing the comic as-is, effectively leaving the story off at the start of a new leg of the adventure.
* ''Webcomic/{{Hiimdaisy}}'' left off her Persona 4 comic right after Rise's dungeon and has stated she has no interest in finishing it.

!!!DoomedByCanon (Prequel-specific -- knowing what happens to the characters in the original makes it hard to care about their pasts)
[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' has the most literal case of DoomedByCanon possible, because the protagonists are directly responsible for setting the events of the first game in motion... Including the part where it turns out [[TheExtremistWasRight everything your enemies were fighting to prevent ended up happening.]] Oops.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'': We see in ''Film/TronLegacy'' that Beck's rebellion does ''absolutely nothing'' to even slow Clu down and [[spoiler: The BigGood of the series is twisted into TheDragon]]. Add a side of BolivianArmyEnding for good measure.

!!!KeepCirculatingTheTapes (There's an ending, but good luck finding it)
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}'', for quite a while. (The final set of print issues, representing Zot's adventures on our Earth, and often described as some of the best work of the series, was not collected in trade form until later.)

!!!CruelTwistEnding (also includes HappyEndingOverride and DiabolusExMachina)
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' is infamous for its [[BrokenBase extremely controversial]] CruelTwistEnding. Especially troublesome because the original series already had a conclusive ending that was much more positive and hopeful; a sequel movie was never considered until the series became a runaway success, and with their starkly opposed conclusions, fans are forced to choose whether or not to consider ''Rebellion'' canon.
* ''Manga/PlatinumEnd'': The last chapter of the series is extremely bleak and cruel after the brief HopeSpot that makes it seem as though everything will turn out okay for both the new God and the other characters, making the whole journey ultimately feel pointless as [[spoiler:the entire universe dies out due to the new God's nihilism.]]
* An early fansub for the ''Manga/{{Saikano}}'' has a disclaimer at the end of the third to last episode in which [[spoiler: Chise abandons her duties and runs away with Shuuji]] saying that if the viewer wants a happy ending they should just stop right there.
--> A friendly warning from the team: This is the end of happiness in Saikano. If you would prefer the anime to have a happy end, consider stopping here and pretending there are no more episodes. Continuing will only bring misery and pain. You have been warned...

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FarCry5'' plays mostly like its [[VideoGame/FarCry3 two]] [[VideoGame/FarCry4 predecessors]], until you've witnessed [[MultipleEndings all three endings]] and realize [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption there's absolutely no way to bring the]] BigBad [[MortonsFork to justice]]. You either capitulate right in the intro cinematic, let him get off scot-free during your final encounter and assumingly get yourself brainwashed into killing all your friends afterwards, or you arrest him and thus trigger nuclear armageddon ''out of absolutely freaking nowhere'', which means [[TheExtremistWasRight this raving lunatic was right all along]]. Doesn't get much more unsatisfying than that, something that quickly began making its way to prospective buyers from the day after the game's release. Thankfully, the [[VideoGame/FarCryNewDawn sequel]] addresses this by having the player actually deal with Seed for good.
* In TheStinger of ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter: Logan's Shadow'', Gabe and Lian, discussing possible retirement, return to their gym hideout to find Lawrence dead and Teresa critically wounded at the hands of Trinidad, who proceeds to gun down Gabe as well, although he takes her out with a LastBreathBullet. Cue FadeToBlack with Lian performing CPR on Gabe. Sony has officially stated that they are done with the series. Years after the release of ''Logan's Shadow'', the series was brought back by Sony [[spoiler:in the form of ''VideoGame/DaysGone'', which takes place in the same universe.]]
* ''VideoGame/RiverCityGirls'' got hit by this fast and ''hard'' because of how drastic and out of nowhere the ending initially feels. Kunio and Riki were not only not kidnapped, but it turns out that Misako and Kyoko aren't their girlfriends, Hasabe and Mami are. The entire game was basically two ditzy StalkerWithACrush Ex-Girlfriends tearing up a city for the sake of a relationship that doesn't exist, for two guys who weren't in any danger and don't even know they exist. In response to the backlash, however, a patch has been released that changes the ending to be less mean-spirited with the original ending being {{Retgone}}.
* The UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis version of ''Battle Golfer Yui'' is largely disliked due to these endings: the DownerEnding where the titular protagonist ends up {{Brainwashed}} and [[FaceHeelTurn joins the]] BigBad's side if you fail to defeat him. The other one is a TrueEnding where Yui successfully defeats the BigBad and the latter makes a HeelFaceTurn. [[spoiler:Then, without foreshadowing, an explosion occurs as a result of both Yui and the BigBad holding hands, [[KillThemAll killing 20 million people, including them]]]]. The worst part? [[spoiler:These are the only endings, so no happy endings are available.]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'''s final episode is disliked by a majority of the fanbase with some complaints being about the fates of certain characters such as the deaths of [[spoiler: Allura and Lotor]], the former being a major [[TheWoobie woobie]] and the latter being a very deep and compelling villain who many thought would have more to do, [[spoiler: Honerva]] being a KarmaHoudini who gets away [[spoiler: with almost destroying the multiverse]] and for Lance's and Shiro's epilogue with the former [[spoiler: becoming an Altean for some reason]] and Shiro [[spoiler: marrying his communications officer who he barely interacted with]] as a hamfisted attempt at an AuthorsSavingThrow regarding the way they handled the character of [[BuryYourGays Adam]].

!!!Miscellaneous
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/AfterSchoolNightmare'' alienated multiple fan factions with its ending to a degree that they no longer recommend it, for completely different reasons:
** The people who were reading for the mystery arc, who thought that the final explanation was simply too silly and bizarre.
** The shippers, who were unhappy that Mashiro and Sou end up in the real world but with no knowledge of each other or memory of their love.
** The people who were reading for the exploration of ambiguous gender, who thought that the revelation that Mashiro's gender ambiguity is because they are actually fraternal twin foetuses sharing a mind meant that the situation was either reactionary in implication, or too fantastic to have any possible real-world relevance.
* ''Manga/{{Citrus}}'' ends with Mei leaving Yuzu for ''another'' ArrangedMarriage, long after her first one ended up falling through, thus forcing Yuzu to pull out all the stops to get through to Mei in time. Not only do many people dislike that Mei doesn't seem to have changed at all, but the situation is also largely resolved off-panel with a montage of dialogue-less panels, before cutting to a standard happy ending in which the two stepsisters[=/=]lovers get married. Many people are dissatisfied with the events in the last six chapters of the manga, the rushed conclusion, or both.
* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''[='s=] Future Trunks Saga started off strong; fans were glad to see EnsembleDarkhorse Trunks return, the plot was interesting, and the fights were some of the best-animated in the entire ''Dragon Ball'' franchise. But that all came crashing down around the FinalBattle; firstly by playing up Goku's IdiotHero tendencies despite the fact that they put the fate of the world at risk[[note]]The heroes had resolved to use the Evil Containment Wave to seal the immortal Zamasu away, but firstly Goku left the jar inside the time machine (which Goku Black blew up), ''then'' it was revealed that he left the PaperTalisman in the past, meaning the idea was doomed from the start[[/note]]. Plenty of fans were also unhappy with the {{Retcon}} giving the [[FusionDance Potara Earrings]] a time limit seemingly just to bring back Vegito without having to worry about the fusion being permanent. Then came the DiabolusExMachina at the end, where after being killed by Trunks, Zamasu returns as a bodiless energy being and manages to kill ''everyone'' aside from the main characters, followed by the Future Zeno completely erasing the timeline to permanently put an end to Zamasu, meaning Trunks' efforts were AllForNothing. And the final straw is the denouncement, where Future Trunks and Mai leave for a different timeline (where they'll still have to live alongside the versions of themselves from that timeline) presumably never to be seen again. The general consensus is that the story should have ended one episode earlier, with Trunks killing Zamasu.
* ''Anime/MacrossDelta'': The finale has the… unenviable position of having to tie up so many loose ends at once, making it clear the production crew was on a deadline. ''Delta'', especially in its second half, suffered from weak pacing, underdeveloped characters, and excessive subplots and the finale has to ignore for the sake of the main plot. ExecutiveMeddling is to blame for this one, as it forced Creator/ShojiKawamori to change the plans he had for the show.
* ''Anime/MyHime'', for undoing almost all the character deaths and associated traumas, although those critical of the darker tone in later episodes, among others, disagree.

[[AC:Films -- Animation]]
* The ending of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'' has earned plenty of controversy from fans of the series, as [[spoiler: Woody leaves Bonnie, as well as Buzz Lightyear and all his other longtime toy friends, for a new life as a "lost toy" with Bo Peep and her RagtagBunchOfMisfits.]]

[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AnnaAndTheApocalypse:'' Plenty of fans adore the first two acts of the [[GenreMashup zombie musical]] but take it pretty hard when the third act [[spoiler:starts going into DwindlingParty territory.]]
* Towards the end of ''Film/TheDirtyDozen,'' [[spoiler: our protagonists trap some German soldiers and civilians in a cellar, and then burn them to death]]. This has made some people reluctant to watch the rest of the film, which is generally good fun.
* Although some watchers feel OK about the ending of the Korean movie ''Film/LoveSoDivine'', the others disagree due to an EsotericHappyEnding where [[spoiler:the male protagonist finally gives up becoming a priest and go together with his love interest]], which is heavily implied that "Love is not ''like'' religion, but ''over'' religion" for some audiences who are Christians or Catholics.

[[AC:Literature]]
* Creator/DavidEddings:
** ''The Dreamers'' series. It's generally described as a pretty average series, not as good as the ''Belgariad/Malloreon'' or the ''Elenium/Tamuli'', but a decent read overall... ''except'' the ending. There are some fans who loved the whole series, but they are ''vastly'' outnumbered. Why? Well, [[spoiler: the ending had the most powerful gods decide to finally take down the enemy by going back in time and rendering said enemy infertile. Not only was there no reason why they couldn't have done this before, but this had the effect of writing the whole series out of existence, setting everyone back to where they were at the beginning of the series (with some changes- for example, a minor character got brought back to life, though one of the main characters had to stay dead) and making it so that nothing in the previous books had happened.]] Upon finishing the books and realizing that the first three books were entirely meaningless, most of the fans ''flipped their shit''.
** To make matters worse, he did the same thing in the standalone novel ''The Redemption of Alathas'': the titular character and his goddess girlfriend go back in time and defeat the BigBad in the past by waiting until he attacked their cabin and kicking him out of reality. Fans were especially upset when he used such a weak ending a second time.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* The Series/{{Arrowverse}}'s 2017 {{crossover}}, ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'' was mostly well-received, and was on track to being better than last year's own well-received crossover, ''Invasion!''. Of course then the ending happened: the infamous double wedding, where Felicity Smoak interrupted Barry Allen and Iris West just as they were about to seal their wedding vows, so she could selfishly and haphazardly tack on her own wedding to Oliver Queen. And this was after [[RomanticPlotTumor spending almost the entire crossover]] {{wangst}}ing about how she ''didn't want to marry Oliver''. This ending pleased absolutely no one except the writers and the hardest of hardcore Olicity shippers; everyone else hated it to the point that it killed whatever was left of Olicity's [[ShippingBedDeath dwindling popularity]] and [[NeverLiveItDown cemented]] [[CreatorsPet Felicity]] as the biggest {{Scrappy}} in the ''entire'' Arrowverse. For many, it was the moment they gave up on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' for good.
* While the ending is a foregone conclusion what with it being a part of history, the ending to ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' made a lot of people unhappy due to its SuddenDownerEnding where Earl accidentally ends up causing the Ice Age, leading to the inevitable deaths of the entire cast.
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'''s original ending in season 7, while left things fairly resolved on a positive note, the fact that it (along with season 7) wasn't written by creator Amy Sherman-Palladino left many of the fandom wondering what her true ending was and begrudgingly accepted it for what it was. Come 2016, and Sherman-Palladino revived the series to give it the true story ending that she wanted. Most fans were happy with how Lorelai and Emily's story arcs concluded, but the fact that [[spoiler: Rory ends up pregnant and likely to repeat her mother's mistakes and that Jess may or may not still be pining after her like his uncle did with her mother]] sent most of the fans into a rage and declaring the revival's ending non-canon.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'''s finale is one of the most controversial, love-it-or-hate-it endings on record. [[spoiler:Barney and Robin get divorced after only three years; Barney goes right back to his womanizing ways and fathers a child with one of his one-night stands; Tracy (a.k.a. the Mother) is revealed to have died in 2024; the kids encourage Ted to go after Robin yet again]]. The meltdown among fans and critics was big enough to make the news and is likely to haunt the series for years to come, although some fans have been mollified by the alternate ending released with Season 9's [=DVDs=] (which basically just leaves out the unpopular bits at the very end).
* While an unsatisfying winner can taint a season of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' (examples being ''The Australian Outback'', ''Samoa'', ''Kaoh Romg'' and ''Game Changers''), none hit as hard as the finale of Season 35, ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'', which throws a last-minute twist at ''the very last Tribal Council'' to save a contestant who was already a major EliminationHoudini and went on to win the game instead of several {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s, turning a previously acclaimed season into SeasonalRot. An even more controversial example is Season 38, ''Edge of Extinction '', in which a castaway who was eliminated third rejoined the game at the final five with an idol (meaning he only had to survive two regular Tribal Councils and was protected for one of them), and also won the game, angering fans of ''even more'' {{Ensemble Dark Horse}}s who believed he shouldn't have won and that the game was rigged for the Edge of Extinction returnee.
* The 2019 revival of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' had mostly positive reception. However, it received massive backlash from fans for the last ten minutes of the final episode in which [[spoiler: Veronica's love interest Logan is killed in a bombed car shortly after their wedding.]]

[[AC:Toys]]
* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' was hit by a KudzuPlot EndingFatigue which relied too much on {{Ass Pull}}s and was LeftHanging due to a massive ScheduleSlip, with only one of the plots wrapped up. Throw TheChrisCarterEffect in there somewhere, along with the post-script revelation that almost all the character deaths have been undone or ''re''done off-screen.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AkibasTripUndeadAndUndressed'' has an InUniverse example with the anime ''Striprism''. It's never explained why, but Nana, Kati, and Shizuku all agree that the final episode doesn't hold up to the rest of the series. Tohko, who's clearly not a fan, is just glad it's over.
* ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'' tends to have some [[spoiler: aversion due to its PlayerPunch endings in Book of Shadows and Corpse Party Bloodcovered, Blood Drive (the game that is in theory the GrandFinale of the Heavenly Host saga, as all manga adaptations and mainline games led to this installment due to time loops) takes the cake for not only causing this trope (in the western fandom AT LEAST) but also [[BrokenBase causing a huge division in the fans]] due to its almost downer ending and being a HOPE CRUSHER. Because despite all trailers and promotional material might suggest... Nobody was revived in Blood Drive, which is one of the main plots of the game. To add insult to injury, not only Ayumi was left in a vegetative state and had all the people's memories of her erased (except Yoshiki, that stayed with her) and the survivors didn't even say goodbye to their dead friends is another common complaint. The kicker to top it all off even more? Dead Patient has expies of characters like Seiko, Mayu... ]]
* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'':
** While ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'' received mixed reception before the ending, the last two episodes have been accused of this to the point that many who were defending the anime changed tune after they aired. The penultimate episode saw a FanDislikedExplanation for the Final Killing Game that was widely criticized for raising a lot of FridgeLogic and rendering a good portion of the anime pointless, along with making the mastermind [[TheScrappy heavily disliked by the fandom.]] The GrandFinale saw [[spoiler: Class 77-B coming BackFromTheDead]] (which triggered a ''massive'' BrokenBase) and basically [[SpotlightStealingSquad hijacking the plot]] from the rest of the cast. Plot threads the show had built up were left abruptly dropped for rampant PanderingToTheBase, creating a good number of {{Broken Aesop}}s, an {{Anticlimax}} and capped it off with the [[BrokenBase widely divisive]] resurrection of [[spoiler:Kyoko Kirigiri]] in the final two minutes.
*** The [[GagDub English dub]] even has [[spoiler:Kyoko]] [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] this before they changed it to a more accurate translation by stating [[spoiler:her resurrection]] doesn't make sense.
** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' somehow managed to top ''[=DR3=]'' in controversy with Chapter 6 and the final trial. Aside from the mastermind being fairly controversial compared to Junko Enoshima, [[spoiler:it's revealed that [[TrumanShowPlot the entire situation is all the 53rd season of a reality TV show]], and the sixteen students were all normal people with fake personalities implanted in them]]. That in itself is bad enough, but then [[TakeThatAudience it criticizes and lampoons the fanbase]] for enjoying the series and its fictional characters and wanting more killing games. It doesn't help that in Japanese, the meaning behind "[=V3=]" [[spoiler:(the number 53)]] is read as "gomi" or "trash". It had become so controversial, it was one of the many arguments used during debates where fans accused Kodaka of trying to TorchTheFranchiseAndRun after it was revealed that he would leave the Danganronpa team after this game.
* ''VideoGame/DyingLight'': Both of the endings in The Following result in [[spoiler:either Crane being turned into a volatile and spreading the infection outside of quarantine, or willingly activating a nuclear warhead to contain the infection by destroying all of Harran and its inhabitants]]. Suffice to say, the endings hurt many potential players' desire to play the DLC, or even the original game, for that matter.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' got a nasty case of this from the old guard once the ending of the first part came to light. [[spoiler:Sephiroth ([[EpilepticTrees potentially]] the same Sephiroth from '''[[TimeTravel after]]''' the events of ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'') manipulates Cloud and his friends into killing the "[[TimePolice arbiters of fate]]", leading to alterations in the timeline, the biggest of which is [[HeroOfAnotherStory Zack]]'s survival, with the implication that future events will not happen as they were supposed to as now Cloud and co. are aware of them]]. A lot of this is a case of TheyChangedItNowItSucks when some became convinced that future installments would veer more heavily from the plot of the original.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' has gotten some serious flak with the revelation that the BigBad, Xehanort, turns out to be a WellIntentionedExtremist after all, and many saw him as too EasilyForgiven by the heroes despite being the man who unleashed darkness across many worlds, the man responsible for ruining countless lives as well as the man who flat-out murdered Kairi in the same game just to provide motivation, leaving his defeat to be utterly unsatisfying. There is also the issue that everyone in the cast got their happy ending... except Sora and Kairi as the former has just sacrificed himself to save the latter using a vaguely explained ability, leaving them separated once again in a ploy that many fans found it to be a cheap SequelHook that could possibly take decades to release. Fortunately, Square Enix eventually released an expansion named ''Re-Mind'', set after the events of the story (but before the final scene and TheStinger) with the surviving characters (alongside [[TheBusCameBack returning Final Fantasy characters who were absent in the main game]]) tying up loose ends while giving them a chance to shine one last time. While not perfect, it gave a better finale to the characters than the vanilla game, which many felt rushed and unsatisfactory. Of course, you still have to pay 30 US dollars for something that ([[BrokenBase depending on who you ask]]) should have already been in the base game.
* ''VideoGame/MagicalStarsign'''s ending is heavily disliked, as not only does [[ShootTheShaggyDog the person you were trying to save the whole game die]], the epilogue has every character acting against the development they received or getting all-new hopes and dreams. The romance is also left unresolved.
* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' had this thanks to a desire by franchise co-creator; Ed Boon, to create a completely new cast of characters for the next game. For this to happen, [[KillEmAll they killed off nearly the entire cast]] at the [[PyrrhicVictory end of Story Mode]] in a very sloppy fight scene where the Earthrealm warriors are killed off one by one by Sindel and turned [[ReforgedIntoAMinion into evil undead revenants]]. The purpose of this scene was clearly to allow for a roster full of new characters in the next game. However, the ensuing fan backlash over the deaths of iconic characters like [[CoolHat Kung Lao]], [[AnIcePerson Sub-Zero II]], Jax, [[MsFanservice Kitana]] and [[AmbiguouslyBrown Jade]] and promising reimagined characters like Smoke forced them to include non-canonical older versions in the roster of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' (with the exception of Sub-Zero and Jax, who are fully revived). This was most notable with ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' as its story brings the younger versions of Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Kitana, and Jade (alongside a pre-CharacterDevelopment Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and a younger and optimistic Jax) into the present to fight their evil undead versions.
** The ending of the vanilla ''Mortal Kombat 11'' story has also become this as it ends [[spoiler:with the [[ResetButton current timeline erased]] and the [[ContinuityReboot promise of a new timeline]]]]. ''Aftermath'' was later released that allowed players to choose between a more fulfilling good ending or having [[TheBadGuyWins Shang Tsung win]], though that also came with its fair share of controversies (most notably over {{Retcon}}ning Sindel from a tragic martyr of Shao Kahn's cruelty and MamaBear to an [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen evil queen]] who willingly married Kahn).
* The finale of the Dwarves' quest line in ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' was controversial for its big twist. Turns out you'd ''already won'' in the penultimate quest and didn't know it, with your victory in that quest convincing the bad guys to give up. The only reason they're fighting you is that [[WhatTheHellHero you attacked them first]] in anticipation of an attack that was never going to come. In the end, the two main villains [[DrivenToSuicide sort-of commit suicide]] because you won't leave them alone. Yay?
* ''VideoGame/SonicMania'': The game, in a first for the Classic series, ends on [[spoiler:a SequelHook for ''VideoGame/SonicForces''.]] Considering how divisive [[spoiler:''Forces'']] is and the ending having [[spoiler:Sonic getting sent away]], some fans were ''not'' happy. This is somewhat reduced however with the UpdatedRerelease's new Encore Mode which [[spoiler: happens after the events of ''Forces'' with an ending which doesn't tease anything new.]]
* ''VideoGame/ThimbleweedPark'': The four PlayerCharacters (aka Delores, Agent Ray, Agent Reyes, and Ransome The Clown) all break into the Pillow Tronics Factory (each for their own reasons) and discover that the factory AI has merged with a copy Chuck's (Delores' Uncle) brain and is planning to take over the town and below. After Delores shuts down a few of the computer's cores, Chuck reveals the truth: [[spoiler: that Thimbleweed Park is just a video game and that they are all video game characters playing out a story]]. He then provides the characters with items to quickly wrap up their respective storylines before [[spoiler:Delores shuts off the game entirely]]. Not only are the incredibly rushed conclusions unsatisfying (with Ransome's being the only possible exception), many of the games other plot points are abandoned entirely (you never find out who killed Boris or Franklin and you never prove Willie's innocence). Even worse, you don't even have to resolve the other characters stories to finish the game, as the credits roll if you do Delores' part. Many felt the game took its [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall breaking]] way too far and deprived the game of a meaningful conclusion as a result.

[[AC:Webcomics]]
* ''Franchise/{{Homestuck}}'':
** ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' had the one-two punch of SeasonalRot in the form of the [[BrokenBase Base-Breaking]] Act 6 and a borderline GainaxEnding where only the bare-bones conflicts were properly resolved with a number of side characters seemingly [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse vanishing.]] A number of things, including the fate of the BigBad, are left to speculation. That the heroes' victory was mainly brought on by [[spoiler:introducing a new form of time travel that "retcons" away the old timeline]] does not help. Also not helping is that the comic is regarded to invert this trope as well, with the SlowPacedBeginning being seen as the biggest entry barrier for new readers.
** Three years after the conclusion, ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' were released, [[AuthorsSavingThrow which helped mend a few issues people had with the later parts of the comic.]] The concepts of the retcon and "canon" were elaborated upon and deconstructed, a few loose ends were tied up, characters were given more conclusive arcs, and the final battle from canon got a proper conclusion. However, the Epilogues broke the fanbase as well. Common criticisms/points of contention include the way everyone acted and whether or not it was OutOfCharacter, the MindScrew nature even by ''Homestuck'' standards, characters such as the Sprites being inexplicably absent,[[note]]Davepetasprie^2 ''does'' show up in the Meat path, but none of the other Sprites do despite being last seen perfectly fine[[/note]] and ending on a cliffhanger despite the title implying [[GrandFinale otherwise.]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* While it was received well by critics, the ending of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' received a mixed reception from fans. Some fans praised the ending for being a satisfying conclusion for the series and [[spoiler:officialy confirming Princess Bubblegum and Marceline's relationship as canon]], but others hated it and considers it an incomplete ending for [[spoiler:not having a battle between PB's army and the Candy Kingdom Haters (which were teased at the end of the previous episode before the finale), GOLB not having any character and just being a GenericDoomsdayVillain who does nothing, the absence of the Lich, Finn being reduced to a secondary character and a DistressedDude alongside Simon and Betty during the final battle, the DownerEnding between Simon and Betty's relationship, many plot points being left unsolved, the lack of closure of Finn's relationship with Huntress Wizard (doesn't help that most of the characters have some sort of romantic moment during the episode) and the lack of any scenes with Finn in the ending montage other than the last scene, with other characters such as PB and Marcy getting more focus]]. With the announcement of the ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventureTimeDistantLands Distant Lands]]'' sequel miniseries, fans are hoping that most of these issues get addressed.
** The post-finale comics somewhat reduce some of these issues. While ''[[ComicBook/AdventureTimeSeason11 Season 11]]'' ends with [[spoiler:a somewhat decent closure to Finn and the implication that he and Huntress Wizard are still dating]], the ending of ''[[ComicBook/AdventureTimeMarcyAndSimon Marcy and Simon]]'' got a very mixed reception. While some are happy that [[spoiler:Simon and Betty are finally together]], others feel like it negates part of the finale since [[spoiler:her sacrifice to save everyone from GOLB was rendered pointless.]]
** Sadly, this also applies to the ''Distant Lands'' special "Together Again". While it's considered the definitive closure to Finn and Jake's story, most of the problems of the finale, like [[spoiler:Finn's love life not getting closure again and Finn not beating the final villain, this time being the returning Lich]] are still present here, plus with new problems like [[spoiler:Finn's life after the finale being open, him not getting any character development since the series ended and becoming secretly [[DeathSeeker suicidal]] for years, waiting for death so that he can be with Jake again]] being added, which soured some fans. Not helping matters is that the previous special, "Obsidian", [[spoiler:gave more closure to Princess Bubblegum and Marceline than Finn by adressing most of their unresolved plot threads]]. And since this is the end of Finn and Jake's story, leaving these problems unsolved resulted in a finale that's equally as unsatisfying and divisive as "Come Along With Me".
* The final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', "The Inquisition", ends on a SuddenDownerEnding wherein [[spoiler:[[EldritchLocation the Void]] starts to consume Elmore (something that had been heavily foreshadowed prior), [[BolivianArmyCliffhanger with the heavy implication that the town and everyone in it is going to be erased from existence]].]] Much of the show's fanbase was not impressed that the show ended with [[spoiler:the show's world possibly being destroyed, and all of its beloved inhabitants along with it]], especially since further ''Gumball'' material since the main show ended has [[LeftHanging so far ignored its cliffhanger ending entirely]]. Unusually for this trope, the show's creator Ben Bocquelet agreed with the fanbase, claiming that the show was meant to end on a different note than the [[UncertainDoom highly uncertain one]] that the show ultimately used. Thankfully for the fans, not only a movie has been announced to properly finish the show, but a series revival was also announced.
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Creator Creator/GenndyTartakovsky, originally intended for a movie to end the series. The film kept getting hit with DevelopmentHell until it was ultimately decided to make it a fifth season instead several years later on Creator/AdultSwim. Season 5 was well-received but became divisive because of its CruelTwistEnding where [[spoiler: Ashi [[RetGone disappears due to Aku (her father) being destroyed before she was conceived]], denying Jack a true Happy Ending]]. While it makes sense as a solution to what would otherwise be a paradox, it only brings up the other paradox of [[spoiler:if Future Jack came back to the past and killed Aku shortly AFTER Past Jack had been flung into the future, how would Future Jack have come back to the past at all? Ashi wouldn't have existed in the future, because Aku was killed, but she was the one who brought Jack back to the past. You end up in a logic loop of "If Ashi exists, Jack erases Ashi's existence, but if Ashi doesn't exist, Jack can't erase Ashi's existence, allowing Ashi to exist.]]
** Three years after the series ended, Adult Swim Games and Genndy Tartakovsky released ''VideoGame/SamuraiJackBattleThroughTime'' to the public. Collecting every Corrupted Emperor's Kamon in the game and fighting Aku unlocks [[spoiler:a revised version of the show's ending, this time with Ashi surviving and marrying Jack, ending the series with them sitting under the cherry tree]]. Said game is considered canon to the show.
* ''WesternAnimation/TrollhuntersRiseOfTheTitans'' disappointed fans with its ResetButton ending. As in, the ResetButton applied not only to the events of the movie, but to three complete series before it.

----

* ''Series/RobinHood'' ended its second season with the [[StuffedInTheFridge murder of Maid Marian]] at Guy of Gisborne's hands, described enthusiastically by the creators as "a shocking twist" and a chance to "rock the show". Audience reaction ran the gamut from bafflement to disgust, and it became increasingly clear throughout season three that the writers had put little thought into what would happen ''after'' removing the show's emotional centre. The show floundered through a range of [[TrappedByMountainLions unconnected plotlines]] and [[ReplacementScrappy arbitrary new characters]] before being cancelled with all the [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favourite characters]] dead, the hated [[TheScrappy Scrappies]] still standing, and [[TheUnsolvedMystery several plot threads dangling.]] Still, it's quite fun telling non-viewers about Marian's death, they'll invariably pull a face and go: "Huh? Why would they do ''that''?"

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' has gotten some serious flak with the revelation that the BigBad, Xehanort, turns out to be a WellIntentionedExtremist after all, and many saw him as too EasilyForgiven by the heroes despite being the man who unleashed darkness across many worlds, the man responsible for ruining countless lives as well as the man who flat-out murdered Kairi in the same game just to [[StuffedIntoTheFridge provide motivation]], leaving his defeat to be utterly unsatisfying. There is also the issue that everyone in the cast got their happy ending... except Sora and Kairi as the former has just sacrificed himself to save the latter using a vaguely explained ability, leaving them separated once again in a ploy that many fans found it to be a cheap SequelHook that could possibly take decades to release. Fortunately, Square Enix eventually released an expansion named ''Re-Mind'', set after the events of the story (but before the final scene and TheStinger) with the surviving characters (alongside [[TheBusCameBack returning Final Fantasy characters who were absent in the main game]]) tying up loose ends while giving them a chance to shine one last time. While not perfect, it gave a better finale to the characters than the vanilla game, which many felt rushed and unsatisfactory. Of course, you still have to pay 30 US dollars for something that ([[BrokenBase depending on who you ask]]) should have already been in the base game.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'''s ending is generally disliked overall, with complaints about it being rushed, not tying up loose ends, and [[EsotericHappyEnding seeming happy even when it's not]], to the point that many fanfiction writers have either altered the ending to the series or just mentally erased it in its entirety. The ending has also hurt people's opinions of the series overall.

** The ending of the vanilla ''Mortal Kombat 11'' story has also become this as it ends [[spoiler:with the [[ResetButton current timeline erased]] and the [[ContinuityReboot promise of a new timeline]]]]. ''Aftermath'' was later released that allowed players to choose between a more fulfilling good ending or having [[TheBadGuyWins Shang Tsung win]].

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' was infamous for its ScheduleSlip, so much so that everyone was afraid of Kentaro Miura dying before it was finished. Few were surprised when it actually happened, though it's safe to say everyone was ''crushed''. What was made ends on a relatively high note, but it's anyone's guess if there will ever be an actual conclusion.

* ''Manga/BunnyDrop'' - While the second half of the story introduced a GenreShift and a TimeSkip [[BrokenBase that was disliked by some,]] what really turned off a larger portion of the audience was [[spoiler: the inverted WifeHusbandry aspect of the ending, where the female protagonist Rin is revealed to be in love with the man who raised her for at least a decade, [[IncestIsRelative who is her nephew.]] It follows through 'til the end, and they end up as a couple. Worse, the author randomly reveals they aren't related after all, destroying the central aspect of the series.]]

And well, it's hard to say that [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife we're not somewhat to blame either]].

** ''Webcomic/OutlastTheMurkoffAccount'' explains some of what is actually going on. Basically, Lynn experienced a psychosomatic (aka fake) pregnancy, the baby she give birth to wasn't real, and Blake, Knoth, and Knoth's followers are just all collectively hallucinating do to being driven insane via a brainwashing experiment over the radio. However, the comic also explains that Blake, while alive, [[FateWorseThanDeath has been dragged off to be experimented on by Murkoff]]. Either way, the protagonists are either dead or very likely doomed.

* The final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', "The Inquisition", ends on a SuddenDownerEnding wherein [[spoiler:[[EldritchLocation the Void]] starts to consume Elmore (something that had been heavily foreshadowed prior), [[BolivianArmyCliffhanger with the heavy implication that the town and everyone in it is going to be erased from existence]].]] Much of the show's fanbase was not impressed that the show ended with [[spoiler:the show's world possibly being destroyed, and all of its beloved inhabitants along with it]], especially since further ''Gumball'' material since the main show ended has [[LeftHanging so far ignored its cliffhanger ending entirely]]. Unusually for this trope, the show's creator Ben Bocquelet agreed with the fanbase, claiming that the show was meant to end on a different note than the [[UncertainDoom highly uncertain one]] that the show ultimately used. Thankfully for the fans, a movie has been announced, finally giving a chance for the series to end on a high note.