Open ended finales in animation.

K

Kunmui

New member
Understandably, the writers will end the season of a show in a cliffhanger in hopes of the showing maintaining an interest to views and keep them tuning in. But in doing so you risk an incomplete story in doing so.

And for Western Animation it has happened quite a bit.

Now endings that don't close the story don't have to be a bad thing either. The trick is to provide closure, while opening the door to a new story, rather than leaving a story unresolved. That way if the show doesn't get renewed, there's a sense of satisfaction, while if the show does continue, then you have something to explore rather than making things up.

So that said, what finales do you find accomplish this?

1. Dungeons and Dragons Requiem (Unproduced episode): Okay, it wasn't made, but it fits the thread nicely. The show ends with the kids redeeming Venger and reuniting him with his father who is Dungeon Master.

Dungeon Master reveals, however, that there is still trouble deep within the realm. Though he feels that he owes them a chance to return home, so the episode ends with the kids having to choose between the portal home or to go further into The Realm.

But yes, this ending works as it sees the end of a major villain, and there is no diress at the moment.

2. Gargoyles Hunter's Moon Part 1-3: While the revelations of gargoyles to the public isn't really a good thing at the time, the Manhattan Clan are back in their ancestral home, and Goliath & Elisa share their feelings.

3. Sonic The Hedgehog SatAM: Yeah, I would like to have seen the third season as much as the next viewer and agree that the show deserved a continuation, The Doomsday Project was still satisfying.

There's the Sonic/Sally kiss and the defeat of Robotnik, and really, while Snively's declaration of taking over in place of Robotnik is suspenseful, it's really not so unsatisfying when you consider the previous mentioned positive moments of the episode. Now if the end of the episode had Snively attacking them, and rendering things hopeless for The Freedom Fighters, then it would lack satisfaction.
 
Uh, just to be clear, we're talking about cliff-hangers that were never resolved because the series ended, right?



Hm. The only one of those that I remember with any clarity is the ExoSquad finale. It tied up a lot of loose ends, repaired some of the major damage done in the course of the show, and then ended with the fleeting appearance of a potentially major threat--actual beyond the soloar system aliens--that had been hinted at earlier in the show. And that was it.

What was most effective about it was how it brought certain character arcs full-circle. Most notably--most chillingly--was what they did with the character of Sean Napier. In some of the very first episodes, Napier prevented an assassination of a polititian at a peace rally. When the polititian tried to thank him, Napier all but spat in his face, refusing to shake his hand and saying that he personally much agreed with the would-be assasin, but did hope for peace. As it turned out, the polititian Napier saved turned out to the be villain of the series, who promptly started a war and murdered millions, etc, etc. Well, by the time of the finale, Napier had become a reluctant polititian, and was holding a bit of a peace rally in front of members of the defeated enemy. There was an assasination attempt on Napier, which was foiled by one of the defeated enemy. When Napier tried to thank his rescuer, the rescuer all but spat in Napier's face, refusing to shake his hand saying he personally agreed with the would-be assasin but did hope for peace, using the exact words--or nearly the exact words--that Napier had uttered so long ago... That haunting moment, while obviously hinting that there could be more of the show to come, just felt like a perfect wrap-up for the series...
 
Maybe a poor choice of wording, but I'm looking for finales which provide closure incase a show doesn't get renewed, but leaves open some plots incase a continuation is made.

Your example works with what I'm looking for though.
 
It doesn't really fit what your looking for (in fact, I don't understand what your looking for outside of the very simple topic title), but my favorite animated clifhanger was the season 3 finale of Code: Lyoko. The protagonists pretty much lost their entire battle, while it's final scenes introduced gamechanging plot points for the next season. Very dark for a CN show at the time.
 
I'm looking for shows that leave the story open for the next season, yet provides closure so that if it doesn't continue,

Take the scripted, but unmade Dungeons & Dragons episode. The ending sets up for the planned, but unmade Season 4. But it provides closure in the fact that Venger is no longer antagonizing them.
 
The Transfomers' Rebirth 3-part finale. In the conclusion, the Decepticons are defeated and Cybertron is reborn, but you see that Galvatron really isn't dead at the very end.
 
Masters of the Universe 2K version ended with a cliffhanger, with the Masters defeating the Snake Men. The third season could introduced Hordak and the Horde and maybe She-Ra. But that isn't going to happen.
 
That's the opposite of a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger should make you think and gasp. It shouldn't provide closure, it should make you want more.

In any case, Futurama's "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" fits what you are looking for.
 
What you're looking for is an open ending, not a cliffhanger.

A cliffhanger ending leaves the characters, or the situation in jeapordy. The kind of ending where you don't know wether or not the characters or situation will come out of things.

The ending to Reboot Season 2 (before it got renewed) and by extension, Reboot Season 4 would qualify as cliffhanger endings.
 
Understood. I just figured that it still worked in that regard.

In any case, I'm thinking that I'll just fix the title of the thread.
 
Xiaolin Showdown had a pretty satisfying one. While all the Shen Gong Wu weren't collected and the villains were still running around. The show wrapped up some key points such as making Raimundo the leader(which is why I think he was the REAL main character of the show and not Omi) and the scene with the monks and the Heylin gang attacking each other in the final sequence was pretty satisfying.

If only it got a DVD release past Season 1...
 
In another Kids WB example, the final episode of Legion of Superheroes felt very much like a finale, while also having a brief scene at the end of the revived evil Braniac.

Which, in terms of superhero shows, I'm fine with open-ended finales. Evil is never permanently defeated, which Evil!Braniac's resurrection was supposed to demonstrate.
 
He-Man thanking Zodac wasn't enough closure for you? :P

From what I remember, season 2 was supposed to be 26 episodes with the Horde planned for season 3. The last DVD set came with the episode 40 script, revealing a new addition to the Snakemen's ranks.
 
MTV's Spider-man. Pete just gives up being Spidey after accidentally pushing a girl off a building and making her end up in the hospital. That's it. It's over. He gives up being Spider-man, sinks his costume to the bottom of the river and walks away. The end.
 
Two words:

Spectacular Spider-Man.

Finale airs:

Viewers: OMG WUTS GONNA HAPPEN BETWEEN HARRY, PETER AND GWEN? THE SYMBOITE IS STILL OUT THERE. WHAT ABOUT THE GANG WARS? AND NORMAN IS ALIVE?! I cannot WAIT TIL NEXT SEASO-

CANCELLED

Viewers: ...RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGEEEE
 
And on that note, the 90's Spider-Man cartoon.

We end with Peter and Madame Web dimension hopping to find Mary Jane. There's not even a scene of Peter reuniting with his true love.
 
Wow. 90s Spider-man TAS, Spider-man Unlimited, MTV's Spider-man, and Spectacular Spider-man all ended with cliffhangers. It's like a curse or something.
 
X-Men: Evolution had a pretty open-ended ending.

Everybody defeats Apocalypse, but Prof. X talks about all this future stuff that he saw in Apocalypse's mind. The disappointing part was showing Jean Grey as Phoenix/Dark Phoenix which would have been AWESOME during X-Men: Evolution.
 
Does Wolverine and The X-men count?

Basically because at the end things sort of took a turn for the better. The X-men are back together. Jean is back. Cyclops is doing better. Rogue now believes in Wolverine not abandoning or leaving the team anymore. The war and the apocalyptic future were averted. However, a new ominous future scenario involving Apocalypse was created in which it appears Cyclops is working for Apocalypse. So its SORT of an ending but that epilogue that will never be followed up on.

Also what about Thundercats?
 
See, I don't consider that to be open-ended because most of that stuff (the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix Saga, flying Rogue, the Sentinels) we already saw in the Fox series. The way I look at it, after the teens graduated, they went on to become the more familiar incarnations from the comics and other TV and movie adaptations, so there was no need to carry Evolution any further.
 
Back
Top