Quote:robkelk wrote:Hate to break it to you, Rob, but if you're not alone, you're certainly in the minority. Just kidding! ^_^
Am I the only person in the world who's never had that reaction to the end of a GAINAX production?
Mind you - I didn't -quite- have as strong a reaction to the end of the Evangelion series (and the movie End of Evangelion) as I have had with Mass Effect. Simply because a bleak ending seemed to be perfectly in line with at least the entire latter half of the series. I'm pretty sure that even if Anno had been totally in his right mind at the time, that the ending would still have been pretty dark. (Though I STILL think to this day that what he did to Asuka in EoE was just WRONG, no matter what else happened in the end. She did NOT deserve that. I'm hoping for much better in the reboot.)
I think one of the problems with Mass Effect 3's ending is that it just flat doesn't fit thematically with the rest of the series. Both in terms of "ass-pull" deux ex Machina characters introduced at the last minute that we've never seen before and in terms of characterization of the main character, who has NEVER been that passive before that point. Not to mention logic holes with Normandy leaving BEFORE the battle is over, which those characters wouldn't do, etc. etc. The entire build up of the series has been that you were either going to succeed as "Big Damn Heroes" or die trying. But the ending as presented has your main character being forced to kneel to evil and accept one of three possibilities that that evil has chosen FOR you. I'd be okay with failure as an option. Or a bittersweet ending where Shepard sacrifices her life and we get to see that her sacrifice saves her friends, her lover and the galaxy at large. But the ending as presented just feels wrong. Anyway - not to repeat too much what I've said several times with examples over in the Mass Effect thread.
Evangelion's original ending (both series and movie) might have been weird and even bleak. But it fit the rest of the story. Plus - the characters stayed themselves. (well mostly. I'm still of the opinion that they threw out all the character development that Shinji had gone through in the rest of the series. But it doesn't take too much of a leap to figure out how that could've happened in context. In any case. It's a minor nit that doesn't undo the rest of the movie.)
I think Ankh may be right, though. If there's already a trope that fits, then perhaps stick with it. But since "Gainax Ending" is so specifically tied to one source - and isn't even really fair to Gainax since the majority of their stuff has actually NOT been like that (Gunbuster, Diebuster, Gurren Lagaan, and looking like Rebuild of Eva is going to be more positive) - maybe propose that "Fandom Gank" should be an alternate name for the already existing trope?