Raven Wilder
My understanding is that it's when an ending radically alters the status quo of the series. There's no immediate problem that has to be solved as in a Cliffhanger, but it ends things in such a way that, when the series continues, it'll either have to hit the Reset Button or continue as a very different story from what it was before.
It's sort of a meta-cliffhanger, where the tension comes, not from how the in-universe characters will handle a shocking turn of events, but how the writers will handle this destruction of their own status quo.
"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko
So this would require continuing the work like a series or sequel installments, right? Most examples I see are stand-alone works where the user wonders what would happen after the end. Is this misuse or a secondary function of this trope?
The more I look at this the less sure we have a consistent distinction between "What Now?" Ending and Now What?. This was probably inevitable when they wound up with such similar names.
"What Now?" Ending seems to be intended for an ending to an installment which isn't a satisfying conclusion to the story as a whole but doesn't necessitate immediate followup, while Now What? is more like what RavenWilder mentioned: the plot develops to a point where continuing requires a radical shift in the premise of the work, and the work may or may not end there. But then the laconic on the latter ("The premise is resolved without a satisfying conclusion.") doesn't quite fit with the examples (e.g. The Princess Bride highlighting Iñigo resolving his revenge mission and getting an idea of what to do next, upon which the movie concludes).
Oldest Internet Archive copy
for reference.
Weirdly, Now What? is almost the same age. As far as I can tell from both the current and old descriptions, it almost seems to be complaining about the work having a satisfying ending. It's basically saying, "everyone got their Happily Ever After, but what happens next? The writer's a coward for not tackling what happens next!" No, the writer brought the story to a natural conclusion, why do you think they owe it to you to continue past it? (If it were a little older I would suspect it was a relic of when the site was still TV Tropes, though even then I think the Grand Finale page predates it.)
Edited by MorganWick on Jan 8th 2024 at 12:46:53 PM
I have a hard time understanding the purpose of "What Now?" Ending. Can someone explain? And do the on-page examples fit that definition?