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"What Now?" Ending: Difference between revisions
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Sometimes, as a television producer or writer, you want the viewer to wonder "What Happens Next?" when a season is over.
One way to do this is a [[Cliff Hanger]]; but Cliff Hangers are a [[Cyclic Trope]], or maybe your series, which is already cliffhanger-heavy, wouldn't stand up to another cliffhanger, or maybe you're worried that you won't last another season. That's where the '''"What Now?" Ending''' comes in.
Instead of leaving the protagonists in mortal danger, this ending leaves them broken, or gone, or what have you.
The '''"What Now?" Ending''' allows the three months to a year to pass between new episodes in "series" time as well, if the writers so desire. Also, a '''"What Now?" Ending''' allows a form of insurance against [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]; actors who die or are unavailable can be handled by having something happen to the character during the [[Time Skip]].
If the [[Five-Man Band]] is broken up, or the hero leaves the [[City of Adventure]], or the wife of the protagonist leaves him, that's a '''"What Now?" Ending'''.
Not to be confused with [[So What Do We Do Now?]] or [[Now What?]], a different kind of "'what now?' ending".
{{examples}}▼
{{noreallife|reality is not scripted, and thus doesn't have endings.}}
{{endingtrope}}
▲{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' ended Volume 2 with two main characters dead, one character quitting in outrage at a morally dodgy solution to the [[Big Bad]], and the remaining two characters in an awkward state of post-romance and deciding to go their separate ways.
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* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' seasons 1 and 3 ended this way:
** Season 1:{{spoiler|Dean and Hank are killed}} (in the second season premiere {{spoiler|they come back for far from the first time}})
** Season 3: {{spoiler|Cocktease's group of
* ''[[Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Fred learning the [[Big Bad]] is his father, and then that actually he's ''not'' his father, and breaking the team up, while Shaggy's parents decide they're going to send him [[Military School]], and Scooby [[Released to Elsewhere|to a farm]]}}.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Ending Tropes]]
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:What Now? Ending}}
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