History Main / SeriesFauxnale

** ''End of the Spider-Verse'', also by Slott, is one for the Spider-Verse saga. Here every single Spider in the multiverse find themselves under threat from the insect totem queen Shathra, forcing them to ally with their greatest nemesis Morlun, they all succeed in overcoming her in a gargantuan battle across New York City. The MC2 version of Spider-Girl is finally reunited with her father. Peter, cut off from the web of life and destiny, finds himself in a world where he may be crippled, but Uncle Ben is alive, he works for a sane Norman Osborn, he dates Liz Allan, and is Cindy Moon's tech-savy sidekick. Despite possessing no powers, plain ordinary Peter is ultimately the one to vanquish Shathra (with the aid of his equipment). Once the StatusQuoIsGod ending kicks in, Peter finds he is no longer the chosen one of the Spider-Verse, Cindy is. He decides to accept only the responsibility of protecting his own world.

* Zigzagged with Episode 60 of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. While it did seem like a finale, a teaser was present at the end for Season 4. However, the prospective fourth season wound up being cancelled due to creative fatigue and the belief that Episode 60 made an excellent GrandFinale. ''However'', then came the spin-off show ''WebAnimation/HFIL'', an original plot that follows right after Episode 60, starring the now-dead Perfect Cell suffering punishment in Hell with the series' other villains.

* Zigzagged with Episode 60 of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. While it did seem like a finale, a teaser was present at the end for Season 4. However, the series wound up being cancelled, so the finale wound up becoming exactly that.

Given the nature of this article, '''several spoilers have been left unmarked.''' Read at your own Risk.

* ''WesternAnimation/HildaAndTheMountainKing'' served as this for ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'' in case Creator/{{Netflix}} didn't renew the series for a third season, the movie notably wraps up any existing [[StoryArc series arc]] and ends in an [[AndTheAdventureContinues And The Adventure Continues]] ending where Hilda is now a teenager.

* After escalating CreativeDifferences, Music/YellowMagicOrchestra intended to wrap up their careers with their fifth album, ''Music/{{Technodelic}}'', with the closing track "Epilogue" in particular being intended as their GrandFinale. However, due to {{contractual obligation|Project}}s, they were only able to go on a hiatus at most, and put out two more albums-- ''Music/NaughtyBoys'' and ''Music/{{Service}}''-- before being allowed to split up in 1984. Even that didn't last, with them eventually reuniting to make ''Technodon'' in 1993 and a few non-album singles in the 2000's, continuing since then as an on-and-off live act.

** ''End of the Spider-Verse'', also by Slott, is one for the Spider-Verse saga. Here every single Spider in the multiverse find themselves under threat from the insect totem queen Shathra, forcing them to ally with their greatest nemesis Morlun, they all succeed in overcoming her in a gargantuan battle across New York City. The MC2 version of Spider-Girl is finally reunited with her father. Peter, cut off from the web of life and destiny, finds himself in a world where he may be crippled, but Uncle Ben is alive, he works for a sane Norman Osborn, he dates Liz Allan, and is Cindy Moon's tech-savy sidekick. Despite possessing no powers, plain ordinary Peter is ultimately the one to vanquish Shathra (with the aid of his equipment). Once the StatusQuoIsGod ending kicks in, Peter finds he is no longer the chosen one of the Spider-Verse, Cindy Moon, alias Silk, is. He decides to accept only the responsibility of protecting his own world.

** ''End of the Spider-Verse'', also by Slott, is one for the Spider-Verse saga. Here every single Spider in the multiverse find themselves under threat from the insect totem queen Shathra, forcing them to ally with their greatest nemesis Morlun, they all succeed in overcoming her in a gargantuan battle across New York City. The MC2 version of Spider-Girl is finally reunited with her father. Peter, cut off from the web of life and destiny, finds himself in a world where he may be crippled, but Uncle Ben is alive, he works for a sane Norman Osborn, he dates Liz Allan, and is Cindy Moon's tech-savy sidekick. Despite possessing no powers, plain ordinary Peter is ultimately the one to vanquish Shathra (with the aid of his equipment). Once the StatusQuoIsGod ending kicks in, Peter finds he is no longer the chosen one of the Spider-Verse, Cindy is, and decides to accept only the responsibility of protecting his own world.

** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': Just in case editorial had the series cut short, James Roberts, the author, did script a finale to conclude the series, but since he was given the go ahead for Season 2, this all got released during the season's second arc. It has all the signs of "finality" in it, as the mysteries set up in the very first issue of Season 1 (Brainstorm's briefcase, how the Sparkeater got into the ship, who sent the foreboding message from the future) are answered in a time travel plot that also details the start of the war (notably Megatron's birth), and we even learn how the ship the series takes place on, the Lost Light, was created. It also closes out the trilogy of Flashback arcs that were sporadically told throughout Roberts's and Costa's runs.

** ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkPostCovidTheReturnOfCovid'' could be interpreted as a GrandFinale for ''South Park'' given that the kids are all grown up in the end with Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and even Butters getting a happy ending, while Cartman finally gets karma for all the bad stuff he's done, except that ''South Park'' was renewed to 2027, with 12 more movies are expected to come out on Paramount Plus and Season 25 premiering in February 2022.

* When, after five books, Creator/LFrankBaum grew tired of writing ''Literature/LandOfOz'' novels despite their popularity, he issued ''Literature/TheEmeraldCityOfOz'' in 1910 as a finale to the series, going so far as to state in the final chapter that with Oz now magically cut off from the rest of the world, there would be no further installments, as Dorothy could no longer communicate with him. Three years later, the financially struggling Baum, finding that his non-Oz books weren't selling, resumed the series with ''Literature/ThePatchworkGirlOfOz'', offering the in-universe explanation that the "wireless telegraph" enabled further communication between him and Dorothy. Thereafter Baum published seven more Oz volumes before his death, and the official series, under various writers, continued until 1963.

* Sara Shepard's ''Literature/PrettyLittleLiars'' series (which is written in "arcs" of four books each) was originally intended to end after the second arc/eighth book, "Wanted", and the earliest editions advertise it as the final installment. It fully repairs the girls' friendship and wraps up their character arcs, albeit with a TheEndOrIsIt ending. Then the series continues, and "Wanted" ends up only being the halfway point; we also get a prequel, an interquel, and two more arcs/eight more books, wherein there's some HappyEndingOverride and AesopAmnesia for the series to continue. "Vicious", the 16th main-line book, is the true finale, and likewise ends on a TheEndOrIsIt note.

* ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'' was supposed to be the final ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' film, but then it was followed by the SpinOff movie ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots''. There's since been talk of a ContinuityReboot for the franchise, though as of 2021 it appears to be stuck in DevelopmentHell.

* ''WesternAnimation/PoohsGrandAdventure:'' could have served as the finale to not only ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' but all Winnie the Pooh media altogether as it deals with Christopher Robin leaving the Hundred Acre Wood. However, since its release there have been numerous sequels and additional TV shows.

* The purchase of World Championship Wrestling by the then-World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) coincided with the cancelation of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT, so a great deal of rivalries and loose ends were tied up. Booker T reclaimed the WCW World Championship from Scott Steiner, Ric Flair and Sting, who squared off on the first ever edition back in 1995, book-ended the show with a main event match, and in a special simulcast, Shane Mcmahon appeared on Nitro to give the promotion a Ray Of Hope ending by announcing he had purchased the organization from underneath his father's nose. WCW would continue to be promoted on editions of WWF Monday Night RAW and Smackdown as part of the ill-fated 'Invasion' angle, before being granted a FullyAbsorbedFinale at the November 2001 edition of ''Survivor Series'', where in a DownerEnding, it was dissolved in a winner take all elimination match by the World Wrestling Federation, ending the storied rivalry between the organizations once and for all.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' was clearly meant to be the series finale. It takes place a full ten years after the first two films, is full of [[CallBack Call-Backs]] to the first two, ends with the grown-up Andy [[AndTheAdventureContinues passing his toys on to another child]], and [[BookEnds has a shot of a cloud-filled sky as its final image, recreating the shot of Andy's sky-and-cloud wallpaper that opened the first film]]. But then came the announcement that ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'' was in the works. Lampshaded by Ducky and Bunny in the teaser reaction video.

* Though the localizers realized the game wasn't gonna end with him ''too late'', the Franchise/AceAttorney originally had the phocus, sorry, FOCUS, on Phoenix Wright. By the time the Third Instalment was brought to America for the Nintendo DS, however, a sequel was already in development. So however Phoenix' (and several supporting characters') story arcs came to a close, a bunch of them got a HappyEndingOverride with Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Since then the HappyEndingOverride ''itself'' got a [[SubvertedTrope an override]], with two more sequels, a crossover, ''and'' two prequels set in ye olden Victorian times.

** Several of the popular alternative universe Spider-Man titles, such as [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/SpiderGirl ''Spider-Girl'']], [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManRenewYourVows ''Renew Your Vows'']] and the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/SpiderMan ''Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip'']] can be considered ideal endings for the character as he is able to settle down with the love of his life Mary Jane and enjoy a steady income, while dealing with the pressures of more adult responsibilities such as raising children. Some argue the 2009 remake of the nefarious [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/TheCloneSaga Clone Saga]] also allows the saga, and the franchise, to conclude on a more optimistic note, with almost everyone that was killed in the original saga surviving and Peter again allowed to be a father.

* The purchase of World Championship Wrestling by the then-World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) coincided with the cancelation of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT, so a great deal of rivalries and loose ends were tied up. Booker T reclaimed the WCW World Championship from Scott Steiner, Ric Flair and Sting, who squared off on the first ever edition back in 1995, book-ended the show with a main event match, and in a special simulcast, Shane Mcmahon appeared on Nitro to give the promotion a RayOfHope ending by announcing he had purchased the organization from underneath his father's nose. WCW would continue to be promoted on editions of WWF Monday Night RAW and Smackdown as part of the ill-fated 'Invasion' angle, before being granted a FullyAbsorbedFinale at the November 2001 edition of ''Survivor Series'', where in a DownerEnding, it was dissolved in a winner take all elimination match by the World Wrestling Federation, ending the stories wrestling rivalry between the organizations once and for all.

* The purchase of WorldChampionshipWrestling by the then-World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) coincided with the cancelation of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT, so a great deal of rivalries and loose ends were tied up. Booker T reclaimed the WCW World Championship from Scott Steiner, Ric Flair and Sting, who squared off on the first ever edition back in 1995, book-ended the show with a main event match, and in a special simulcast, Shane Mcmahon appeared on Nitro to give the promotion a RayofHope ending by announcing he had purchased the organization from underneath his father's nose. WCW would continue to be promoted on editions of WWF Monday Night RAW and Smackdown as part of the ill-fated 'Invasion' angle, before being granted a FullyAbsorbedFinale at the November 2001 edition of ''Survivor Series'', where in a DownerEnding, it was dissolved in a winner take all elimination match by the World Wrestling Federation, ending the stories wrestling rivalry between the organizations once and for all.

* Music/{{Bathory}} intended for their final album to be 1991's Twilight of the Gods. Perhaps an example of where this shines best is the final listed track Hammerheart, which reads out like a man's final speech on his deathbed, using the more solemn, calm tune of Thaxted with an orchestra, rather than the more metal-oriented sound of the rest of the album, and the only instance of a guitar is in the ending line. After some years, though, in 1994, they would release their next album Requiem.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': On one hand, it could be argued that the controversial ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' served as the 'finale' to the original uninterrupted 1962-2007 continuity for the 616 variation of the wall-crawler, but many other fans argue the conclusion of Nick Spencer's run on the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' title is more fitting, as it addresses and resolves an entire AudienceAlienatingEra of stories from the last decade, including the equally divisive ''Sins Past'', Peter not only reconciles with the love of his life Mary Jane, but he also lets the Black Cat back into his confidence, his arch rival Norman Osborn is also cured of his sins and his true origins are revealed. The story ends with the tease that Peter and MJ's daughter will be the one to defeat the demon Mephisto, who had been responsible for the events of the last decade or so of stories.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': On one hand, it could be argued that the controversial ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' served as the 'finale' to the original uninterrupted 1962-2007 continuity for the 616 variation of the wall-crawler, but many other fans argue the conclusion of Nick Spencer's run on the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' title is more fitting, as it addresses and resolves an entire AudienceAlienatingEra of stories from the last decade, including the equally divisive ''Sins Past'' and culminating in the happiest both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson had been in years, with a hopeful future for their daughter and the ultimate defeat of the devil himself, Mephisto, teased.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': On one hand, it could be argued that the controversial ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' served as the 'finale' to the original uninterrupted 1962-2007 continuity for the 616 variation of the wall-crawler, but many other fans argue the conclusion of Nick Spencer's run on the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' title is more fitting, as it addresses and resolves an entire AudienceAlienatingEra of stories from the last decade, including the equally divisive ''Sins Past'' and culminating in the happiest both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson had been in years, with a hopeful future for their daughter and the ultimate defeat of the devil himself, Mephisto, teased. In October 2022, WordofGod officially decreed that Spencer's run was indeed the GrandFinale to the OMD saga.
** Several of the popular alternative universe Spider-Man titles, such as [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/SpiderGirl ''Spider-Girl'']], [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManRenewYourVows ''Renew Your Vows'']] and the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/SpiderMan ''Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip'']] can be considered ideal endings for the character as he is able to settle down with the love of his life Mary Jane and enjoy a steady income, while dealing with the pressures of more adult responsibilities such as raising children. Some argue the 2009 remake of the nefarious [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/TheCloneSaga Clone Saga]] also allows the saga, and the franchise, to conclude on a more optimistic note, with almost everyone that was killed in the original saga surviving and Peter again allowed to b a dad

** The mini-series ''The Lost Hunt', by J.M Dematteis, set in the time of the Clone Saga, where Peter is powerless Mary Jane is expecting a child with him, is considered a potential candidate for a finale as Dematties admitted to a fan comment on his personal blog that he was treating the story like it were separate from the events that follow in 616 continuity, and that as far as he was concerned, Peter and MJ (and presumably Ben Reilly also) all get their happy endings

** Several of the popular alternative universe Spider-Man titles, such as [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/SpiderGirl ''Spider-Girl'']], [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManRenewYourVows ''Renew Your Vows'']] and the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/SpiderMan ''Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip'']] can be considered ideal endings for the character as he is able to settle down with the love of his life Mary Jane and enjoy a steady income, while dealing with the pressures of more adult responsibilities such as raising children. The 2009 remake of the nefarious [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/TheCloneSaga Clone Saga]] also allows the saga, and the franchise, to conclude on a more optimistic note.
** While promoting his mini-series ''The Lost Hunt'', set in the time of the Clone Saga, J.M DeMatteis admitted to a fan that he was treating the story like it were separate from the events that follow in 616 continuity. This would retroactively mean ''The Final Adventure'' is another candidate for a final instalment in Peter's story, with this serving as an epilogue, as Peter will be powerless and expecting a child with Mary Jane in both stories.
** ''Sinister 60th'', by Dan Slott, appears to be this for his own controversial take on the wall-crawler, set in a distant future where Peter is still web swinging well into his golden years and appears to have grown old with Mary Jane, who he's once again married to.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': On one hand, it could be argued that the controversial ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' served as the 'finale' to the original uninterrupted 1962-2007 continuity for the 616 variation of the wall-crawler, but many other fans argue the conclusion of Nick Spencer's run on the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' title is more fitting, as it addresses and resolves an entire DorkAge of stories from the last decade, including the equally divisive ''Sins Past'' and culminating in the happiest both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson had been in years, with a hopeful future for their daughter and the ultimate defeat of the devil himself, Mephisto, teased. In October 2022, WordofGod officially decreed that Spencer's run was indeed the GrandFinale to the OMD saga.