Basic Trope: A story ends abruptly, without resolving the plot.
- Straight: Bob's Journey ends with Bob still on his journey to find Alice.
- Exaggerated:
- The story is ended on the very beginning of his quest.
- The story ends a few seconds after the start.
- The story somehow ends before the start.
- The story is a video game with multiple "endings", and none of them resolve anything, simply gives you a Game Over screen.
- Downplayed:
- The story ends with Bob defeating Emperor Evulz, but it is never shown what became of Alice.
- The story ends years later, with Bob and Alice together, but no explanation as to how they reunited.
- The story ends immediately after Bob and Alice reunite.
- Bob eventually gives up on his quest and goes home, having apparently forgotten about both Emperor Evulz and Alice.
- A series has many sequels, which all vary between having proper endings and lacking them.
- A Winner Is You for video games.
- "The end...for now."
- There is an ending, but it is anticlimatic and raises more questions than it solves.
- Ending Fatigue
- Justified:
- It is a game with absolutely no win condition, and doesn't even lie about it.
- The story is told from the first person perspective of an individual in a Crapsack World, and ends directly with their death which comes suddenly.
- The story is told through Alice's then-current diary, the rest is found in her subsequent diaries. (assuming there are any)
- Inverted:
- The story has no beginning, i.e., it starts with Bob in the middle of his quest.
- The plot is abruptly resolved.
- Bob's Journey begins on the final chapter, with Bob and Alice together and goes through the chapters in reverse order, with the final one shown being the prologue...but the prologue provides no information as to Emperor Evulz's origin or what motivated him to kidnap Alice.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!
- Subverted:
- It's continued in the sequel, which does have a satisfying ending.
- Double Subverted:
- ...then the next sequel also lacks an ending.
- ...But Bob still never finds Alice.
- Parodied:
- Bob questions if he'll ever find Alice. Not even he gets an answer.
- Bob himself was somehow the cause of the story ending abruptly.
- Zig Zagged:
- The plot has neither a beginning nor an ending.
- It's continued in the sequel, which does have a satisfying ending... then the next sequel also lacks an ending. Or does it? Bob protests "I'm not done yet!" and the film continues as normal. But Bob still doesn't find Alice, and the credits roll... "Will you please stop trying to end the film?! For fucks sake, not only do I, but the audience also wants to know where Alice is!" Then the credits glitch out and the Big Bad appears, indulging in an Evil Laugh as he glitches the film out. That is, until the credits become sentient and fight back. The credits eventually defeat the Big Bad, and start to roll... "WILL. YOU. STOP?!" and then Bob has to literally fight the ending.
- Averted: The story has a traditional ending, which may be good, bad, or somewhere in the middle.
- Enforced:
- Died During Production kicked in, but the publisher publishes what's been written anyway.
- The writer forgets about Bob's Journey.
- The broadcaster's bankruptcy has stopped the show dead in its tracks.note
- Lampshaded:
- "Well, so much for figuring out what happened to Alice. And now I'm not even sure I'll ever make it back home."
- "The End. Or rather, the stopping point."
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz has a story-ending machine, and deliberately ends the story so Bob can't save Alice.
- Exploited: The Emperor knows the story is going to end anticlimactically, so he holds Alice captive until the end.
- Defied: The credits start to roll, before Bob protests "I'm not done yet!" The film then continues as normal.
- Discussed:
- "The End... But not right now."
- "If you start a story, you have to finish it."
- Conversed: "What a wonderful way to end this story!" "Well, at least this way, I can write a fanfic that ends the way I want without contradicting Canon."
- Implied: Even after all loose ends are tied, the story ends with a narration along the lines of "But is it over? No, nothing is ever over. Such is the true nature of life itself."
- Plotted A Good Waste:
- The writer is a Trolling Creator.
- The story was supposed to end on a vague note, or a no-ending actually works better in the setting than tying up loose ends.
- The story dragged on for long enough to where the writer decided to just stop it at that moment.
- The writer decided it was better to set a abrupt ending there than at a later, less opportune moment.
- The writer wants people to imagine their own desired endings.
- Deconstructed: As a result of lacking an ending, the story didn't get well reception, being infamous at best.
- Reconstructed: The story had a general aura of nihilism which made the no-ending actually work better than one more definitive.
- Played for Laughs: The story cuts off when Bob is in mid-sentence.
- Played for Drama: Bob dies on the way to Emperor Evulz's castle, and Alice's fate is never mentioned.
Well, that's the end of this page. Or is it?
