Stories that should've ended much sooner

Dragon Ball
So... DBZ ended at the perfect place: the heroes had just defeated the most ridiculous exaggerated monster they could, encountered the biggest stakes in series history (the world had literally been depopulated), it literally required the contribution of all the people in the world for the first time in history the Spirit Ball actually worked... and to double-dog-sure it, Buu's "evil" half got reincarnated as a good guy, Goku is destined to live for 1000 years, and he's training a successor.

The primary reason none of the DBZ follow-ups ever worked, IMO, is because... there's nowhere to go. Unsurprisingly the various sequels do what superhero comics do: reset buttons, nostalgia baiting, introducing a multiverse.... and all the while they wind up just kinda making the end of DBZ kinda pointless, while the "lore" of the series--a series that was already accused of being rather autistic--gets even moreso.
Funny thing enough coming from the resident number one fanfag of DBZ, it was confirmed after Akira's time finishing OG DB there was no direction else he wanted to go but people wanted more it was supposed to end after Dragon Ball once they found the Dragon Balls, but continued. Then Dragon Ball Z ended. But then Dragon Ball Evolution happened and it was so awful that Akira decided that, the movie shouldn't be the last he'd go out with. Because of Evolution we got Dragon Ball Super, Daima and a whole tonof SNCA. You can blame Evolution for the shit. But I suppose without Evolution the man who played Piccolo wouldn't be Zamasu, Matt Mercer wouldn't be Hit and we wouldn't get Degesu.
 
The primary reason none of the DBZ follow-ups ever worked, IMO, is because... there's nowhere to go.
I disagree, DBGT had some good ideas, they were just implemented incredibly poorly, such as evil Dragon Balls, a Tuffles revenge plot, ect. The problem is the one thing which never happens but was always meant to, which is passing off the torch to someone else, maybe Goten or even Gohan. Have enough time pass that things settle to early DBZ or late DB levels so you no longer have galaxy-busting feats to contend with and fights can go back to being interesting with strategy instead of just raw power scaling, and let characters climb up to DBZ era power scales as new threats get worse and worse. Maybe have the OG Z Fighters become martial arts teachers like Tien, Yamcha, Chiaozu & Krillin with Goten, Trunks, Pan, ect. under their tutelage. There are still things you can do with a setting like DBZ.
 
The Game of Thrones TV show should have ended with the Red Wedding. I remember reading the whole reason D. B. Weiss and David Benioff wanted to adapt the show was to do that scene. They even tried to one-up it by having the guy stab Robb Starks pregnant wife in the stomach to start off the massacre, but they shit the bed by focusing too hard on Robb's relationship and not enough on his generals who all died or were captured at the wedding in the book to make normies more invested. (Robb's wife doesn't go in the books and survives) so while the book had multiple very important character deaths of basically every important person in the North, the show had Robb his mom and his wife.

You can also tell how after that scene, and that season, they really just sorta lost motivation for the show in general and started doing dumb shit that wasn't in the books for shock value. Killing off random important characters who lived far into the books just so they could make their show the SHOCKING DEATH SHOW instead of continuing to tell a good story. I also think them speed running to end the show is what ultimately killed GRRM's motivation to finish the books after people's justifiably negative reaction towards the overall ending.
 
House of Cards
4 seasons were probably about as far as things should have gone, season 6 sucked for unrelated reasons of course but the show was already slowing down.
Everything should've started going downhill after he knocked on the Resolute Desk at the end of season 2. That should've been the midpoint, instead of dragging things out as long as possible and trying to make Robin Wright the main star.

The show's called House of Cards. 4 seasons, 13 episodes each. 52 total. A full deck detailing Frank's meteoric rise and similarly swift downfall. They had one job.
 
Went on too long, but not sure where it should have ended
  • Supernatural
Season 5 is an obvious place to stop, with Sam in hell forever, Bobby and Castiel dead, and Dean meeting up with Lisa and presumably settling down. They won, but at a tremendous cost. You just need to not include the last scene of Sam coming back.

IIRC there was a different ending if CW didn't pick them up for another season, with the details being largely the same, but Dean also dies and goes to heaven.
 
The majority of kamen rider seasons. While many are able to stay strong the whole way though most really slump at the 2/3rds mark. Basically anytime a new villain is introduced near the end its a clear sign the last dozen episodes are going to be a slog even if they do pull off a good ending.
 
Mainstream comics from the big two should have ended in the 90s or even 80s. And I know they keep them going for copyright reasons but even then at a certain point enough is enough. But the one that I feel really should have ended is Halo. Good lord if Halo ended at 3 so much would be right in the world.
Invincible should have ended after the Viltrumite War. It's just a car crash in slow motion from there.
I agree. Viltrumites were the endgame of the series and needed to be stopped or destroyed for the good of the galaxy. After that happens its a bunch of misadventures and contrivances and soap-opera nonsense.
 
Resident Evil should have started and ended in Racoon City.
3 games and that's it, keep some of the side stuff like Outbreak.
You want to make a game about fetish vampires?
Cool, don't call it Resident Evil.

MCU should have ended after Endgame, the story was done.
Just a complete stop to everything.
Disney has X-Men now, they can make a new universe just from that and give MCU a break.

Star Wars should have ended after Return of the Jedi.

Star Trek should have ended after Enterprise.

Dragonball should have ended after DBZ.

John Wick should have been just 1 movie.

Highlander should have been just 1 movie.

Terminator should have been just 1 movie, T2 is entertaining enough but it fucks with what was established in the 1st one and introduces an annoying kid.

A lot of franchises had a really good 1st movie or a decent trilogy... but then they just keep making more.
 
Almost everyone agrees silent hill plummeted after it left japan so the discussion is more weither it should have ended at 4 or 3.
Resident Evil should have started and ended in Racoon City.
3 games and that's it, keep some of the side stuff like Outbreak.
You want to make a game about fetish vampires?
Cool, don't call it Resident Evil
My gut wants me to disagree just because of how incredible 4 is but honestly there no reason it couldn't have been spun off into a new game like devil may cry and onimusha where. I mean there not even zombies and umbrella is defeated off screen, plus the napoleon midget with his wooden robot replica always felt a bit to far even for resident evil. The big thing though is Leon and Ada, I don't think Spanish parasites, the quest for the president's daughter would have been anywhere near as good without them.
 
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Hellsing Ultimate
That catboy ruined everything.

Higurashi
Surprisingly Im not talking about Gousotsu tho that should have ended before the story board was even produced. I don't like the answers arc, it's boring and almost feels like a slice of life anime and loses all the tension and mystery of the first season. I typically disagree with people who say good horror should remain unexplained but in this case I have to agree that I do not care one bit for any of the "lore" behind hinamizawa and believe that it actively hurts the narrative. I thought the queen carrier stuff thats vaguely referenced in the first season is intriguing but I do not need to know about the shadow organization or family bloodlines that add "le nuance" to the story.
 
Dexter should have ended before the it's-technically-not-incest
I think, the "good" place to end things compared to the travesty that followed was the penultimate season where Laguerta tried to catch Dexter. The original idea for ending was that entire series is just Dexter's flashbacks while he awaits for lethal injection on a death row, so Deb choosing to catch him instead of shooting Laguerta in penultimate episode would've worked perfectly. Fuck, even her asking him "remember the monsters?" would've fit there.


They did ok with the whole arc where he built a new team and then for a season or two after that, but once that whole bit where he hallucinated a relationship with Cuddy finished and it wrapped up there, the show should've just ended with him going into the asylum.
Don't get me wrong, Hugh Laurie acted his ass off for that bit, but to then go and try to actually answer the "will they/won't they" between the two was a bad idea.
I think, penultimate season's ending would've worked fine. We had every possible plotline resolved and House chose not to LIVE IN A SOCIETY, so him saying "fuck it" and leaving would've made sense. Instead we've got more literally who's and the rehash of old shit for 100th time. Fuck I even remember there was an episode about faith in the last season and it didn't end with usual "they prove it was a disease, believer agrees, but choses to keep his faith", no, they had some limp dicked "oh, we cured him with this - but that's a regular medicine! I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

Invincible should have ended after the Viltrumite War. It's just a car crash in slow motion from there.
Invincible should've ended on season one and that's me being generous. What was afterwards was a travesty. I remember watching Omniman going psycho and thinking "Jesus Christ, if he is so crazy then what about those who are even stronger than him?". Then season two comes and it is just neverending "oooh, next time we're gonna kill you!" And then turns out that they have a number of obvious weaknesses that nobody have figured out despite entire galaxy shitting their pants at a prospect of facing them. This is so stupid.

WestWorld
This went on for way too long. Season one was excellent and season two was somewhat fine, the next seasons were watching it get shittier and shittier. Things stopped making sense, too many twists that weren't not needed at all. Pacing was a fucking disaster, tried going way too into depth while forgetting about the action, and the characters were not consistent at all. Scenes were rushed or took way too long.
Season one was a mixed bag to be fair. The stories of Black hat and a man who fell in love with an android were awesome, the rest however... Especially the one with robohooker. "I want you to increase my IQ. - No, we can't. - OOOH, I DIED SO MANY TIMES, WHAT ABOUT YOU? - Ok...(" Yeah, no wonder shit fell apart.


Season 5 is an obvious place to stop, with Sam in hell forever, Bobby and Castiel dead, and Dean meeting up with Lisa and presumably settling down. They won, but at a tremendous cost. You just need to not include the last scene of Sam coming back.

IIRC there was a different ending if CW didn't pick them up for another season, with the details being largely the same, but Dean also dies and goes to heaven.
IMO it all went to shit when they started introducing more and more supernatural stuff and angels, who are almighty and not restricted like demons being too stupid to catch two regular humans... To me it ruined everything. If it ended on season 3 with Lilith killing Dean and Sam killing Lilith it would've been better. He would end up where it all began minus his girlfriend and there would be a sense of irony - he tried so hard to escape his family and now they are all gone.

My picks:
- Prison Break. Everything that was after season two was stupid and unworthy of any attention. Probably, because if you call your show Prison Break, you should end it when people actually escape prison.
- Bones. I was only able to stomach the first season and this shit had what, 12 of them?! How in the fuck?!
- One Punch Man. I mean, it was funny to think about, but in essence it is just that - one note character. How long can you drag this joke around?
- Fullmetal Alchemist. This is why original series WITHOUT OVA is much better to me than Brotherhood. It is also... More mature and less shounen? I don't know why people hate it so much.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer. It was just too long and too ridiculous. Same for Angel which I liked way more.
- Obvious light years long shit like Naruto and especially Bleach. The latter was chewing on the same shitty concept of "here are enemy ranks, let's go from the bottom to the top, but it's squad captains, then it's numbers, then it's letters". The whole quincy arc was even more retarded than a previous one, somehow. It should've ended with Ichigo beating up Aizen and losing his powers, but Kubo had to pull YHWA out of his ass. One Piece is not here since I was never a fan and do not plan on becoming one.
- GANTZ. It worked better than a rather short story. The further its author went the more ridiculous it was getting. The last arc and especially ending sucked ass. The OVA worked better with Kei jumping under a train after the shrine mission.
- Berserk. Never was a big fan of it, but Miura should've stopped where the TV series stopped if he had no idea how to continue.
- Someone mentioned John Wick should've ended after the first one. I disagree, they just should've made the third movie that had element of the third and fourth and wouldn't be ALMOST THREE FUCKING HOURS, IT'S AN ACTION MOVIE, ARE YOU INSANE?
 
Berserk should have ended immediately after Casca woke up in the fairy realm.

Yes it would have been an aborted ending but I read a few recent chapters and it's legitimately worse than the boat arc. Now we're in India and Guts is a mopey weak sad man again.
 
So here's one that was on my mind earlier:

Scooby Doo
So I tend to actually see the era from 1969-1985 as like a long saga, because if you really pay attention it does feel like things are changing for our heroes (the team splits apart, even stops solving mysteries for awhile, the villains change up their gimmicks, they even run into legit monsters... and I swear Scooby and Shaggy become less cowardly over time). Then Pup is basically a reboot.

Even before Velma, I was always one of the people who disliked post-1990s Scooby stuff. My biggest gripe is that Scooby Doo is the poster child for the standard issues with these types of things: while the characters never had much personality in the first place, they end up being written as blank slates who can do whatever the writers want, or even reduced to one-note jokes (Fred's obession with traps--no, not that kind of trap!--and Daphne literally being allergic to fake leather are things that bug me).

And instead of good writing, the show started being about one-note jokes and memes. I remember cringing when I saw Shaggy literally talking about burning tunes to a CD-R.

Also when you're literally titling your movies stuff like "Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword" or "Scooby Doo and the Spooky Scarecrow" you've got to give up. What's next? "Scooby Doo and the Bad Thing?"
 
- Prison Break. Everything that was after season two was stupid and unworthy of any attention. Probably, because if you call your show Prison Break, you should end it when people actually escape prison.
I'm pretty sure it was supposed to end with them escaping on the airplane near end of season 1, but at last second they decided to keep milking the series and so they got stranded on the airfield. It ended up being some kind of unholy amalgamation of Mission Impossible and James Bond at the end of making prisoners work with CIA or some shit.

LOST comes to mind as well, but that show just got progressively worse and worse, especially when they find some bullshit reason to get back to the Island from which they just escaped, and the supernatural good vs evil bullshit . Explaining some of the threads was nice but too much of it was unnecessary, ruining the 'show, don't tell' mystery behind it.
 
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Scooby Doo
So I tend to actually see the era from 1969-1985 as like a long saga, because if you really pay attention it does feel like things are changing for our heroes (the team splits apart, even stops solving mysteries for awhile, the villains change up their gimmicks, they even run into legit monsters...
Scrappy never bothered me, but it did really piss me off as a kid when the monsters became real. I was watching the old 60's-70's episodes in afternoon reruns and one 80s Saturday morning decided to check out the new episodes. It was just Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy running around like retards from real monsters. I don't think there was even any dialogue from what I saw, and I turned the channel in disgust.
 
It was just Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy running around like retards from real monsters.
Yeah I remember that era, when they were trying to see if Scooby could work more like made-for-TV Looney Tunes shorts. Hanna-Barbera always tried that weird kind of experimentation with Scooby and it always had mixed results (in this one, Shaggy drives race cars! In this one, they're on a global quest to trap monsters in a magic chest!)

It's always best when Scooby and the gang are solving mysteries... and I do kinda get a kick out of the silly crossovers. (Scooby Meets Detective Conan when?)

Then there was A Pup Named Scooby Doo, which these days I see as a harbinger of things to come. It's not bad, but it was the first series to rely on self-referential humor and play up the "comedy," whereas earlier seasons actually could be a little bit creepy in a "Goosebumps book" way.
 
That 70s Show. When Topher Grace left that was it for me. I consider the show concluded at that point. Red and Kitty were the only reason I even bothered after Topher Grace's exit.
That 70s Show should have ended when the gang graduated from High School. All of the "jump the shark" stuff seemed to happen after that.

Scrappy never bothered me, but it did really piss me off as a kid when the monsters became real. I was watching the old 60's-70's episodes in afternoon reruns and one 80s Saturday morning decided to check out the new episodes. It was just Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy running around like retards from real monsters. I don't think there was even any dialogue from what I saw, and I turned the channel in disgust.
I hated the switch to real monsters, since I felt the whole point of the show was to encourage skepticism among children. I guess too many people were complaining about the bad guys always being some old man in a rubber mask. Gotta give the audience what they want, I guess...

There was a revival series of the Jetsons in the 80s, where they made a bunch of new episodes with the same voice actors. Whereas the original series was a satirical jab at life in the 60s, showing everyone in the future complaining about being overworked and stressed, despite their lives being far easier, the revival episodes had no such edge and were just straightforward and kind of boring. They did confuse my Dad, though, who wondered why Elroy was burning things to a CD in one episode.

Just about every popular show gets a terrible revival movie or series. Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, The Beverly Hillbillies, X-Files, etc. I don't want to see sad, old, tired versions of the characters I grew up with. At least do a complete reboot if you're going to use the same characters.
 
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