It seems really silly to let the ending of a series retroactively make you dislike what came before.

[Deleted member 61196]

You hear it all the time.

The Rise of Skywalker, Game of Thrones season 8, The Matrix sequels...

Like, I understand that we would all prefer it if the endings to these franchises we love would be satisfying but why are people so dependent on what comes after to enjoy what came before? Sometimes I feel like I am the only one who can view media in a vacuum, and I'm not talking about "head canon" because that's also silly.


If you enjoyed The Force Awakens but didn't like the other two do you need to throw all three under the bus? If you were dissapointed with the later seasons of a show must you now be unable to watch the first ones you did enjoy?

I guess for me, I struggle to see why we can't be honest with ourselves and admit we enjoyed what we enjoyed despite the outcome. It would certainly make for better conversation.

 

[Android Sophia]

I think it just really depends for me. A disappointing ending is one thing, and I can get over that if the overall journey was good. But a massive drop in writing quality that leads into controversial plot points (such as in Rise of Skywalker) can absolutely ruin what came before it.

 

[Deleted member 16657]

I have had this exact same discussion with my friends. I'm in the same boat as you OP. If I don't enjoy the ending, it doesn't retroactively ruin my experience with the previous parts of the work. But for my friends, they argue that the whole story leads to the ending and if that is a letdown, so was the buildup. This was really incredible to me, because one of my friends has been reading One Piece since middle school and said he would be disappointed and consider it a bad series if the ending was poor. That just confused the heck out of me, because if I'm enjoying a series for such a long part of my life, that enjoyment that I felt weekly can't be suddenly undone or tainted because of a few bad episodes at the end.

I guess its genuinely just a matter of opinion, but MAN am I glad that a bad ending doesn't bother me in the least. It means I can enjoy things without fear of my so-called "time investment" going bust.

 

[Neece]

The journey is greater than the destination most of the time. Game of Thrones is an exception though.

 

[Deleted member 61196]

I have had this exact same discussion with my friends. I'm in the same boat as you OP. If I don't enjoy the ending, it doesn't retroactively ruin my experience with the previous parts of the work. But for my friends, they argue that the whole story leads to the ending and if that is a letdown, so was the buildup. This was really incredible to me, because one of my friends has been reading One Piece since middle school and said he would be disappointed and consider it a bad series if the ending was poor. That just confused the heck out of me, because if I'm enjoying a series for such a long part of my life, that enjoyed can't be suddenly undone or tainted because of a few bad episodes at the end.

I guess its genuinely just a matter of opinion, but MAN am I glad that a bad ending doesn't bother me in the least. It means I can enjoy things without fear of my so-called "time investment" going bust.

Click to shrink...

Loved reading this perspective and I agree whole heartedly. It's all fake anyways. I think the problem is many (including myself) go to these things for escapism. When a series ends with dissapointment it reminds us of the real world, which also never goes according to plan.

 

[RocketKiss]

You can never erase the ending from your head. Ain't possible. For instance, if Luffy's straw hat ends up being an actual laser doomsday weapon of destiny it will ruin the series.

 

[Brinbe]

all depends.

himym was so bad it soured almost everything that came before it.

 

[Bishop89]

I've always been a journey over destination guy, so don't really care if the ending doesn't quite land.

 

[Immortan]

Thrones season 8 doesn't kill my love of the series, but it does make me really dislike season 8 lol How I Met Your Mother final season though......that puts me in a bad mood.

 

[Dr Doom]

I was fine with Game of Thrones.

but I really hate ending"after life happy ending Lost and the 100. It's like having a cake and eat it too

 

[Cokomon]

You can never erase the ending from your head. Ain't possible. For instance, if Luffy's straw hat ends up being an actual laser doomsday weapon of destiny it will ruin the series.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it's hard to enjoy the journey a second time when you know the destination is going to be disappointing.

 

[Edzi]

If you're working your way through some delicious ice cream only to find literal turd at the bottom, it's understandably going to ruin your overall experience with that ice cream.

 

[Lotus]

Completely disagree. How something ends is very important to me, a shitty ending can in fact ruin the whole thing. GoT S8 and RoTS just happens to be the latest two infamous examples. For long running series in particular it can be extra painful. You watch or read something for years, only for it to crap the bed, yea, that shit is gonna hurt.

There are obviously exceptions, but yes, a shitty ending can definitely make me go "Well damn, that was a waste of my time getting into this"

 

[Deleted member 61196]

all depends.

himym was so bad it soured almost everything that came before it.

Click to shrink...

See I completley disagree with this train of thought, though I definitely don't think it is any less valid of an opinion than my own.

 

[astro]

You hear it all the time.

The Rise of Skywalker, Game of Thrones season 8, The Matrix sequels...

Like, I understand that we would all prefer it if the endings to these franchises we love would be satisfying but why are people so dependent on what comes after to enjoy what came before? Sometimes I feel like I am the only one who can view media in a vacuum, and I'm not talking about "head canon" because that's also silly.


If you enjoyed The Force Awakens but didn't like the other two do you need to throw all three under the bus? If you were dissapointed with the later seasons of a show must you now be unable to watch the first ones you did enjoy?

I guess for me, I struggle to see why we can't be honest with ourselves and admit we enjoyed what we enjoyed despite the outcome. It would certainly make for better conversation.

Click to shrink...

It's not silly.

A big part of enjoying the journey is the unknown destination, and once you've experienced something and the destination is not appealing, the journey itself feels less meaningful.

the ending itself can also undo a lot of what came before it. If that happens it's even worse as it makes the entire thing feel pointless.

 

[Raiden]

You're probably right but I can't help it.

That last season of Game of Thrones ruined the entire series for me, and for a lot of other people. I wish I could enjoy it but I can't..

 

[I am a Bird]

If the ending invalidates the journey then it makes the whole thing pointless.

 

[Deleted member 61196]

Completely disagree. How something ends is very important to me, a shitty ending can in fact ruin the whole thing. GoT S8 and RoTS just happens to be the latest two infamous examples. For long running series in particular it can be extra painful. You watch or read something for years, only for it to crap the bed, yea, that shit is gonna hurt.

There are obviously exceptions, but yes, a shitty ending can definitely make me go "Well damn, that was a waste of my time getting into this"

Click to shrink...

I guess I should be thankful I have the ability to seperate what I liked from specifically how it all ended as it seems I am definitely in the minority.

 

[RocketKiss]

If Berserk ends without the fated confrontation and everyone just goes home it will ruin the whole series.

 

[Deleted member 61196]

You're probably right but I can't help it.

That last season of Game of Thrones ruined the entire series for me, and for a lot of other people. I wish I could enjoy it but I can't..

Click to shrink...

I really wish season 8 worked for more people. I personally loved the ending. TRoS on the other hand was unfortunate but I still love the prior two films.

 

[balohna]

TROS made me divorce any thoughts I have about Star Wars from caring about canon. It didn't ruin the ENTIRE series, but sure made the sequel trilogy feel pointless and sure made me think "wow, this is dumb."

 

[Lord Vatek]

For me, it depends on how much the ending can be ignored and still be considered a complete story.

If a story is entirely revolving around a mystery or a conflict and the resolution to those are bad, then the story as a whole is bad because the resolution of that mystery or conflict is the main thrust.

But like, if a TV series solves its main plot, then keeps going with a new plot that ends badly, you can just ignore the new plot.

 

[Korigama]

I almost didn't give Kotaro Uchikoshi one more chance with AI: The Somnium Files after how poorly the Zero Escape trilogy ended with Zero Time Dilemma (I already wasn't fond of Virtue's Last Reward as it was, ZTD's developments did actually manage to make both VLR and 999 worse retroactively).

 

[Lotus]

Something TROS is even harder to look at in a vacuum, because if you're a fan of TLJ, then TROS basically spits on any fan of that movie lolol

I've always been a journey over destination guy, so don't really care if the ending doesn't quite land.

Click to shrink...

A meh or okay ending is one thing. It's still a shame, but you'll live. If we're talking something completely shitting the bed like GoT, then that's a lot harder for someone to get over.

You can never erase the ending from your head. Ain't possible. For instance, if Luffy's straw hat ends up being an actual laser doomsday weapon of destiny it will ruin the series.

Click to shrink...

Imagine being a fan of that something you've been reading for over a decade, just for it to shit the bed at the very end.

Did that with Naruto, let's hope it doesn't happen with One Piece lmao

I guess I should be thankful I have the ability to seperate what I liked from specifically how it all ended as it seems I am definitely in the minority.

Click to shrink...

Yea, a lot of people just don't work like that. Like at best I might occasionally reminisce about an earlier episode or season I liked. But if a horrible final season or ending tainted the whole thing, that spoils the whole thing. I'm not going to recommend it to people or anything either, because well, why would I let them (likely) get ultimately disappointed as well lol

 

[808s & Villainy]

Not really. In fact, I'd argue it makes no sense to ignore the ending of a series. Events throughout are contextualized by what they lead up to. A bad ending can render what seemed like clues or small puzzle pieces of the overall narrative meaningless.

 

[Deleted member 1698]

Lets be honest, it isn't the ending that does it.

Take game of thrones, people watched it, loved it, it was up and down in quality (bad pussy anyone?) and became this big thing. But the bigger it becomes? The less people sit down and actually watch it for enjoyment.

Enjoyment is part of it, but that part gets smaller and smaller.

Instead they have resetera or reddit open beside them to comment as they watch. Or as they watch they are thinking "I can say something funny about that later! Or "i bet that gets attacked, better defend that now" or "I bet that will be a meme lol".

Basically it is rarely the show. The viewer and how they watch it changes by the ending and that is the real problem.

 

[Lotus]

Not really. In fact, I'd argue it makes no sense to ignore the ending of a series. Events throughout are contextualized by what they lead up to. A bad ending can render what seemed like clues or small puzzle pieces of the overall narrative meaningless.

Click to shrink...

Yea, you rewatch an episode for example, but now you know that a future episode renders it pointless or is very unsatisfying. Now that old episode you may have liked back then is now made worse due to what came after it.

 

[Deleted member 16657]

Loved reading this perspective and I agree whole heartedly. It's all fake anyways. I think the problem is many (including myself) go to these things for escapism. When a series ends with dissapointment it reminds us of the real world, which also never goes according to plan.

Click to shrink...

Judging from the other responses, I think people like us are in the minority. I don't know why. Like let's say One Piece, a story all about Luffy becoming the King of the Pirates, ends with a wet fart. Maybe he fails to achieve his dream or just gets hungry and goes back home, something stupid. While this is thematically horrible and a shitty ending, I find it quite hard to understand how it retroactively ruins the series. I still enjoyed reading it as long as I did and I still remember certain moments quite fondly. It's just not in my nature to think "wow I loved that moment... OOPS I GUESS IT DOESN'T MATTER IN THE END!" The second part of that thought just doesn't come to me naturally. Each moment is its own thing for me.

I wonder if its because I grew up watching Bleach which got progressively worse as it went on, and I was able to say "well I really liked the first arc and none of this new stuff really ruins that"

 

[RocketKiss]

People hated the ending to GOT so much that they are hoping the books which may never come out will erase the bad ending for a good one. They're so desperate for a good conclusion that they are denying the reality that S8 actually happened.

but the taint always remains seared into the brain and it will spread into the good memories

 

[Deleted member 61196]

Not really. In fact, I'd argue it makes no sense to ignore the ending of a series. Events throughout are contextualized by what they lead up to. A bad ending can render what seemed like clues or small puzzle pieces of the overall narrative meaningless.

Click to shrink...

I don't ignore endings, I just accept the ones I don't like for what they are and still feel joy for what I loved that led up to that point.

 

[Lozjam]

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It's really kind of that simple.

Like, sometimes in the case of the sequel trilogy, it totally does. The Force Awakens was built around this amazing puzzle box mystery, and The Last Jedi answers that with the premise of Rey and Kylo being good and bad. That feeling of anger, and this expansive universe where anything can happen..

And Rise Of Skywalker completely invalidated both movies. Both from the central theme of "passing the torch" (which was super super strong in both TFA and TLJ). Plus very little payoff of any of the characters.

Now don't get me wrong, things can go wrong and shit the bed for other things, as long as it doesn't really invalidate what came before. For example, The Hobbit Trilogy has no effect for my thoughts on LOTR. I think it just depends honestly.

 

[CloseTalker]

Thing with Game of Thrones is it wasn't the end that soured people, it was like the last third of the series And the end was just confirmation of how bad it had become.

 

[Kapryov]

I think it can depend on how the story is told.

If the story is about the mystery, or all about how they will solve this oncoming issue (or something like that) then the result can impact the overall series. The series was constantly referring to and leading to this one resolution, it's hard to separate the ending from the rest of it. I guess Game of Thrones is kinda like this, there was a constant dread over the "winter is coming" saying and white walkers, etc (I bailed out at season 5 though)

More character-driven series that focus on character arcs/growth, instead of spending all their time teasing about a big mystery, I think these tend to age better if the ending doesn't land. Like "monster of the week" shows (Buffy or X-Files for example) that do have ongoing stories and mystery to them, but are still recommended even if people don't like how they ended up.

 

[adj_noun]

Watching HIMYM again these days for me is like watching Old Yeller for a second time.

What works still works, but there's an underpinning of sadness.

 

[Kard8p3]

I hear you

but the ending of Dexter and Game of Thrones was fucking catastrophically bad.

I hate both series now.

 

[Hexa]

It doesn't make me dislike what came before, but bad endings can be bad enough to make the series overall bad even if everything that came before it was good. As my most extreme example, I was reading a light hearted comedy about a guy teaching a girl how to clean her house. 90% of it was great. But then the ending suddenly got super dark with a sudden out of nowhere attempted rape scene. There's no way I can think about what came before it without thinking about the ending, and thus I view the overall manga as pretty bad.

 

[RocketKiss]

Usagi Drop invalidates the argument in two words.

 

[FF Seraphim]

If the ending invalidates the journey then it makes the whole thing pointless.

Click to shrink...

Yep. Whats the point of the journey if it was all meaningless at the end?

 

[M. Wallace]

Yep. Whats the point of the journey if it was all meaningless at the end?

Click to shrink...

This. Mass Effect 3 says hey

 

[Lotus]

Judging from the other responses, I think people like us are in the minority. I don't know why. Like let's say One Piece, a story all about Luffy becoming the King of the Pirates, ends with a wet fart. Maybe he fails to achieve his dream or just gets hungry and goes back home, something stupid. While this is thematically horrible and a shitty ending, I find it quite hard to understand how it retroactively ruins the series. I still enjoyed reading it as long as I did and I still remember certain moments quite fondly. It's just not in my nature to think "wow I loved that moment... OOPS I GUESS IT DOESN'T MATTER IN THE END!" The second part of that thought just doesn't come to me naturally. Each moment is its own thing for me.

I wonder if its because I grew up watching Bleach which got progressively worse as it went on, and I was able to say "well I really liked the first arc and none of this new stuff really ruins that"

Click to shrink...

Like I said, it depends on the story. One Piece is definitely one of those stories where yes, you could definitely taint the whole thing with a horrifically bad ending.

Pretty much if it ain't episodic or something (or interactive like a video game with great gameplay), it ain't safe lol. But yea, this is why I consider the ending of a story to be the hardest part to get right. Overall, people just want to know their decision to commit to a series was ultimately worth the time investment.

 

[Uzzy]

I fundamentally disagree OP. The ending, more than any aspect of the work, is what gives meaning and context to the work, signifying it's themes and message. A story is a curated experience by one or more authors, and they should care enough to bring their work together in a satisfying finale that delivers on the promise of what came before. If the creators don't care about delivering that, then why should I care, and what's more, it just reflects poorly on their work throughout.

There's certainly elements I can enjoy in works with bad endings, but if the creator didn't care about where it ended up, I'm sure as hell not going to either.

 

[Darth Karja]

all depends.

himym was so bad it soured almost everything that came before it.

Click to shrink...

That's the one for me.

 

[Mekanos]

Most truly bad endings (not just underwhelming) are preceded by a stretch of bad writing which taints the whole thing further. Dexter and Game Of Thrones are two of the most obvious examples, and basically all of Rise Of Skywalker is badly written. I thought Breaking Bad's finale was underwhelming, but it didn't ruin the show for me.

 

[shinobi602]

I agree. I can not retroactively deny the quality of the work I enjoyed throughout a film, game or TV series even if the ending itself ends up bad. Yes it's a sour note to end on, but I'm not going to lie to myself and take back my feelings for what came before.

 

[Selphie]

It depends on how you read/watch something, with what kind of mindset. You can just go with the flow, or think about how stuff that happens effects the overall plot. Both ways are as valid as the other, but I think the second way does get effected by a bad ending a lot more than just going with it.

 

[the lizard]

Ehhh disagree. A big part of what makes content like that appealing is the anticipation of what's to come: secret revelations, mysteries exposed, cathartic moments. To use your example of TRoS, knowing how that trilogy ends takes all the weight out of the movies that come before. I can't just pretend like it's going somewhere cool.

can I appreciate individual parts of TLJ or TFA? Specific moments, cinematography, etc? Absolutely. But it's ridiculous to think my overall enjoyment isn't going to be affected by the knowledge of a lackluster ending.

 

[Jonathan Lanza]

Being able to stick a landing is a very important thing because the ending serves a lot of different purposes. One of those purposes may be to answer whatever thematic question the writers have previously asked. What that answer is could paint a series in a completely different light. The quality of an ending can be the difference between something really profound to something that makes good entertainment and nothing else.

 

[Tovarisc]

In a lot of cases ending do matter a lot as they are how you tie up all narrative threads you have opened and give conclusions to your characters.

Like many have stated one of biggest examples of this is GoT. A lot of narrative threads just abandoned or ran into brick walls to save time. Major and very sudden changes to character motivations, behaviors etc. to justify character endings that needed a lot more time to work logically. Show that spent multitudes of seasons showing how Dany is doing everything not to become her father had her become her father with drop of an hat over basically single episode.

Lumberjack Dexter is another good one, such random and weird ending for that whole arc. It wasn't deserved ending.

Mass Effect 3 - The RGB

I'm more "It's the journey, not the ending" kinda a guy more often than not, but really badly handed ending(s) do ruin journey too.

 

[Pluto]

See I completley disagree with this train of thought, though I definitely don't think it is any less valid of an opinion than my own.

Click to shrink...

In many cases I can ignore a bad ending but How I met your mother is a special case because the entire show is narrated by Ted and once you've seen the finale and realize why Ted is really telling the story it changes everything. Old Ted's narration is a constant reminder of the finale for me, it's just not the same anymore.

 

[Joni]

When the ending plays a big role in the series, ie how I met your mother it will absolutely retroactively ruin a show. Compared to let's say the 100 where the ending was never that important. Game of thrones is simply because the ending showcases perfectly that the last complete seasons of the show sucked.