Big 'Ol Mind Screw Endings

[ririruetoo]

What are your thoughts on endings that change the whole meaning of the story, or leave you with a feeling of 'I did not see that coming!' or 'WTF?' ? Such as in the famous anime Evagelion, or the manga After School Nightmare.

I personally like endings that make sense, but sometimes it's fun to read an odd ending to a story, one that makes you think long after the stories over and only later you grasp the full meaning.

So I guess my question is, what do you think? What are your opitions on such endings? Like them? Love them? Hate them? Does it depend on the media you are watching or reading that influence what you feel? ( Such as you like them in tv shows but hate them in VN, stuff like that.)

( I was bored....

[OokamiKasumi]

What are your thoughts on endings that change the whole meaning of the story, or leave you with a feeling of 'I did not see that coming!' or 'WTF?' ?
... what do you think? What are your opitions on such endings? Like them? Love them? Hate them? Does it depend on the media you are watching or reading that influence what you feel? (Such as you like them in tv shows but hate them in VN, stuff like that.)

The classic TV series Twilight Zone was made up of nothing but these stories.
-- I adored them. If you're interested, Writing for Television, an interview with Rod Serling, creator of the Twilight Zone.

[ririruetoo]

I love the Twilight Zone ( only the ones produced in the 60's though, I'm not a fan of the newer stuff...)!

[OokamiKasumi]

I love the Twilight Zone ( only the ones produced in the 60's though, I'm not a fan of the newer stuff...)!

I'm not a fan of the newer stuff either, but then, Rod Serling didn't write those.

Interesting note, Mr Serling didn't call those type of endings Mind-Screws, merely Ironic because, according to him, the endings were perfectly logical. That's why they were so horrifying.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Interesting note, Mr Serling didn't call those type of endings Mind-Screws, merely Ironic because, according to him, the endings were perfectly logical. That's why they were so horrifying.

That's what every ending should be - logical. The best twist endings, or mind screws, are so profound because they make sense. You can watch the film, read the book, or otherwise go back through the work a second time and see all the clues and breadcrumbs dolled out all along that are pointing to the ending - you just missed them the first time. A twist ending does not come out of nowhere.

And I would argue most of the Twilight Zone episodes didn't have twist endings or mind screws. True, a lot of the most memorable ones did, but I recently sat down and watched a couple of seasons of the show and maybe only 1 in 3 had the famous "mind screw" endings. Most were just good solid storytelling. In quite a few, the "twist" came early in the first act, and was the hook for the story to begin with. And some got cheeky and knew the audience expectation, so some episodes had a "twist" in that there was no twist, even when everything seemed to be building toward one.

You have to be very careful with mind screw and twist endings so that the audience doesn't feel cheated. Simply put, the mind screw should NOT be the best thing about your work, and the work should be equally enjoyable to experience again knowing the ending. In fact, it should be more fun, because the audience should now be able to pick up on the details and nudges and winks you've sprinkled into the story to prepare for the ending. Ideally, the first time the credits roll you want the audience slapping their foreheads and exclaiming, "Why didn't I realize it before? It's so obvious!"

In the classic Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" the audience almost immediately suspects the aliens of having bad intentions, and in fact, the main character does as well. The episode actually telegraphs it's bad ending, pointing it out, and then diffuses it so the audience believes their initial assumption was wrong. It spends the rest of the episode pointing out just how wrong you are....only to reveal you weren't wrong at all.

My favorite twist ending in a video game is "Silent Hill: Shattered Memories", and like all good ones, it makes playing the game again better and richer for knowing the ending.

[Taleweaver]

My favorite twist ending in a video game is "Silent Hill: Shattered Memories", and like all good ones, it makes playing the game again better and richer for knowing the ending.

Dat.

I'm a big fan of twist endings myself, both in my favorite media and in the works I create. One of my games, The Dreaming, has a rather infamous twist as its True Ending, and a German-language novel I wrote, "Die Tugend von Tokyo" ("The Tokyo Virtue"), goes from crime story to conspiracy thriller and eventually to an absolutely over-the-top crazy modern age samurai epic - until the ending reveals that the final third of the story only happens in the protagonist's mind as he lies in a drug-induced coma and the people he tried to bust actually won.

Some twist endings don't work well - as Shyamalan proved with quite a few of his movies - but if they DO work, boy, then I'm all for them.