The Darkest TV Series Finales In Kids Shows
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Anyways here are some I'd also throw in, but I understand that this video did have a limited run time so I will not get salty saying you should have included this.
Go Lion. You are likely to know this show better by its localized name, Voltron. Voltron is a walking example of everything wrong with older anime dubs, at the same time all the deaths cut out were a necessity because in Go Lion, almost everyone outside of the main cast would be sadistically killed off. The original pilot of the Blue Lion? Dead. Just any supporting characters the heroes met? Most of them died to.
So by the finale, almost everyone outside the main heroes are dead with just the last villain, and the twin brother of Blue Lion's pilot (the dub cutting out his death allowed both of them to be written as the same character, rare case of editing out death working in a dub's favor. Voltron is nearly destroyed and the twin gives his life to kill the main villain as they both fall to their deaths. Gave the show quite the bitter sweet ending.
Power Rangers. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers Turbo to be exact. These obviously were not the end of the franchise but they were unexpectedly dark.
The original Power Rangers had its final season focused on retrieving the pieces of a magic crystal. The Power Rangers succeed in getting their hands on it, only for the villains to steal it and then blow up their base with a bomb. Yes Power Rangers seriously ended with the titular heroes seeing their base get destroyed.
Power Rangers Turbo's finale was even more grim. Both of the Rangers' Megazords are destroyed by a giant monster and they have to sacrifice their weapons to kill it afterwords. Basically unarmed, they are one their own as an army of foot soldiers break into their base and the Rangers are forced to retreat before its blown up with explosives. On top of this the planet that was source of their powers is taken so they lose their powers right afterwords. Despite losing their powers, the Rangers still grab a space shuttle to chase after the villains, who were summoned by an even bigger villain for an unseen reason. The show ends with the Rangers leaving Earth, with a message that the show will be continued in Power Rangers in Space.
Yugioh GX. Okay this was a weird one thanks to the English dub. A entry in the Yugioh franchise, 5Ds, had started to air by the time 4Kids had gotten to the end of GX's third season. I don't know all the details but regardless the decision was made to not dub GX's fourth season. Because of that and the way the finale of season 3 was edited, the episode was dubbed in a way that made it look like the hero was dead. Seriously what the hell? 4Kids apparently was so afraid of death appearing in their dubs yet they made it look like they killed GX's hero after all the crap he went through in the season instead of showing him return to his friends in the Japanese version.
Gundam Zeta. The show's hero is basically left a vegetable after a battle with the main villain, the show's supporting villains escape without so much as scratch and are prepared to launch their own plans to conquer Earth now that their enemies have exhausted themselves fighting each other.
Silver Surfer and Spectacular Spider Man. Both of these shows got cut short so they did not end on a high note. The former had the entire universe seemingly be destroyed by Thanos as the Silver Surfer desperately fought to undo it in a huge cliffhanger.
Spectacular Spider Man had our hero get into a huge fight with the Green Goblin, the Goblin seeming die only to reveal he had faked his own death. On top of many other plot points that were not resolved, this meant the show did not end on a high note.
Sailor Moon: If you grew up with the show but are confused by me bringing this up, that is because the show had a fifth season that thanks to its less than stellar reception in Japan, was not dubbed. A villain named Sailor Galaxia showed up and killed everyone on Earth, including the Sailor Scouts, with only Sailor Moon surviving. Sailor Moon still wins and undoes the deaths, but with how bizarrely comedy focused and kid pandering the show had gotten, it's surprising it had such a dark ending.
Dinosaurs. Okay now this one I do feel should have been included. After a show focused on sitcom antics, we had a dark finale where deforesting caused a huge environmental disaster. The dinosaurs try to fix it, but that just ends up causing the ice age instead. The show ends with everyone struggling to stay warm as they freeze to death.
Date: 2020-07-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
Ka
They forgot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 series but now in ends with whole world being destroyed and turned into a never-ending Wasteland buy a giant mutagen bomb every human on earth is killed except for mutants this includes Rafael who is now an old man and Donatello who is now a cyborg Michelangelo who has gone a little insane due to the fact that he has been a loan in the Wasteland for quite some time 50 years to be exact and Leonardo gets absolutely brainwashed not really remembering how he came to be he is not terribly mutated because he saved his brothers from being caught in the blast he eventually find each other again to go find the Oasis the story is very similar to Mad Max it's never explained who what's responsible for the mutagen blast and we really don't get too much detail about the other meetings from the show that for some reason I don't appear in this episode or some of the other characters in this show like Casey and April it's been speculated that Casey main fact had died with the blast mainly because he is an ordinary human but I always had a theory that April man fact had survived the blast to the fact that she is part human part Alien Part mutant anyway the Wasteland episode actually isn't the last episode that aired due to the fact then how dark the finale was they replaced it within 1 hour special call Tales from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inter Bebop and Rocksteady which is basically a one-hour movie of the 80s Ninja Turtles coming to the 2012 Ninja Turtles dimension it's a really funny movie but due to the fact that the time line still takes place when they're teenagers and the Wasteland episode takes place when they're in their sixties or 70s mutant apocalypse is really the last episode
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They forgot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 series but now in ends with whole world being destroyed and turned into a never-ending Wasteland buy a giant mutagen bomb every human on earth is killed except for mutants this includes Rafael who is now an old man and Donatello who is now a cyborg Michelangelo who has gone a little insane due to the fact that he has been a loan in the Wasteland for quite some time 50 years to be exact and Leonardo gets absolutely brainwashed not really remembering how he came to be he is not terribly mutated because he saved his brothers from being caught in the blast he eventually find each other again to go find the Oasis the story is very similar to Mad Max it's never explained who what's responsible for the mutagen blast and we really don't get too much detail about the other meetings from the show that for some reason I don't appear in this episode or some of the other characters in this show like Casey and April it's been speculated that Casey main fact had died with the blast mainly because he is an ordinary human but I always had a theory that April man fact had survived the blast to the fact that she is part human part Alien Part mutant anyway the Wasteland episode actually isn't the last episode that aired due to the fact then how dark the finale was they replaced it within 1 hour special call Tales from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inter Bebop and Rocksteady which is basically a one-hour movie of the 80s Ninja Turtles coming to the 2012 Ninja Turtles dimension it's a really funny movie but due to the fact that the time line still takes place when they're teenagers and the Wasteland episode takes place when they're in their sixties or 70s mutant apocalypse is really the last episode
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Zenn
I saw all these shows from beginning to end (sorta, I may havve missed some episodes, except for Mighty Max and Digimon Tamers. Those were REAL script writers that did not shy away from the darker side of tales just because they were meant to be kid-friendly. Honestly, those shows always felt more solid and engaging than the regular kid-friendly stuff. Nowdays, they just pussyfoot from writing and making good stories because they are afraid of a little violence.
Producers just don't know anymore what a REASONABLE amount of violence is. The producers of these shows (and Gargoyles by DISNEY, if you can Fung believe it) knew the 'right' amount of violence necessary to give depth to a story, to the point that the deaths that ocurred in those shows were meaningful because of their rarity and (pardon the pun) proper execution. But tell that to all those that would go and call shows like these extreme. American animation has lost so much indeed.
I just hope I can find these shows somewhere around the internet. They are all worth watching again. And again.
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I saw all these shows from beginning to end (sorta, I may havve missed some episodes, except for Mighty Max and Digimon Tamers. Those were REAL script writers that did not shy away from the darker side of tales just because they were meant to be kid-friendly. Honestly, those shows always felt more solid and engaging than the regular kid-friendly stuff. Nowdays, they just pussyfoot from writing and making good stories because they are afraid of a little violence.
Producers just don't know anymore what a REASONABLE amount of violence is. The producers of these shows (and Gargoyles by DISNEY, if you can Fung believe it) knew the 'right' amount of violence necessary to give depth to a story, to the point that the deaths that ocurred in those shows were meaningful because of their rarity and (pardon the pun) proper execution. But tell that to all those that would go and call shows like these extreme. American animation has lost so much indeed.
I just hope I can find these shows somewhere around the internet. They are all worth watching again. And again.
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Dave
My favorite show as a kid was Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. It was a live-action show that was basically a combination of Power Rangers and Terminator.
The first season finale (which wound up being the series finale) had one of the darkest (but best) endings ever. One of the most popular characters is alone in the base when it's attacked. She disobeys orders to evacuate and instead gathers crucial supplies for her fellow soldiers, and then has to manually destroy the base while she's still in it to prevent the enemy from gathering their intel.
I remember my friend and I being on the edge of our seats wondering how she'd get out the the situation. Would she escape? Would her team get there in time to save her?
Nope. Seconds before the villain can kill her, she looks him right in the face, says Go to hell, and hits the switch to blow them both up.
It was devastating for 8-year old me, but I can't say many other TV moments have stuck with me for over 30 years.
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My favorite show as a kid was Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. It was a live-action show that was basically a combination of Power Rangers and Terminator.
The first season finale (which wound up being the series finale) had one of the darkest (but best) endings ever. One of the most popular characters is alone in the base when it's attacked. She disobeys orders to evacuate and instead gathers crucial supplies for her fellow soldiers, and then has to manually destroy the base while she's still in it to prevent the enemy from gathering their intel.
I remember my friend and I being on the edge of our seats wondering how she'd get out the the situation. Would she escape? Would her team get there in time to save her?
Nope. Seconds before the villain can kill her, she looks him right in the face, says Go to hell, and hits the switch to blow them both up.
It was devastating for 8-year old me, but I can't say many other TV moments have stuck with me for over 30 years.
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Jared
Two issues with the video; first, you used footage from the new Reboot show, which is technically still ongoing and also sucks. Second, and more egregious, is the fact that you misinterpreted the ending of Tamers. Yes, the Digimon got dragged out of the real world, but they were sent BACK to the Digital World, not oblivion. It also doesn't help that your interpretation of Tamers is a little understated as it is the darkest Digimon series by far.
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Two issues with the video; first, you used footage from the new Reboot show, which is technically still ongoing and also sucks. Second, and more egregious, is the fact that you misinterpreted the ending of Tamers. Yes, the Digimon got dragged out of the real world, but they were sent BACK to the Digital World, not oblivion. It also doesn't help that your interpretation of Tamers is a little understated as it is the darkest Digimon series by far.
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Thomas
Dinosaurs (maybe not entirely a kids show but it was. ended with them on the brink of extiction. no seriously. Long story short. earth is being over run but a plant due to the insect that eats it dying off. they have the bright idea to solve it with a super volcano to block out sun or something. causes ice age. series ends with them looking on as ice fall which their fate unknown (well to us. duh they die)
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Dinosaurs (maybe not entirely a kids show but it was. ended with them on the brink of extiction. no seriously. Long story short. earth is being over run but a plant due to the insect that eats it dying off. they have the bright idea to solve it with a super volcano to block out sun or something. causes ice age. series ends with them looking on as ice fall which their fate unknown (well to us. duh they die)
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Azinye
You missed the 1987 version of teenage mutant ninja turtles. It ends with a human saying he will spend the rest of his life making sure the turtles don't mutate further and kill each other and that's it. Even though we all know he found a cure, the series ended before it happened so unless you read the comics you have to assume they killed each other until 1 was left.
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You missed the 1987 version of teenage mutant ninja turtles. It ends with a human saying he will spend the rest of his life making sure the turtles don't mutate further and kill each other and that's it. Even though we all know he found a cure, the series ended before it happened so unless you read the comics you have to assume they killed each other until 1 was left.
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Jame
I think Max and Reboot where never suppose to be final episodes but rather season finales, but since nether was renewed they became the end of the franchise. Superman would come back in Justice League, and while they never explained what had happened in between the shows, they made sure they showed that there was still a lot of bad blood left from that incident.
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I think Max and Reboot where never suppose to be final episodes but rather season finales, but since nether was renewed they became the end of the franchise. Superman would come back in Justice League, and while they never explained what had happened in between the shows, they made sure they showed that there was still a lot of bad blood left from that incident.
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Robert
You forgot the seldom-aired finale to Schoolhouse Rock's America Rocks series. It ends with a menacing orange-hued real estate developer from NYC being elected President; dark clouds gather, democracy is put in danger of going pffft, racist violence ensues, and the last stanza of the song warns that if we don't all vote, things will turn out like this.
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You forgot the seldom-aired finale to Schoolhouse Rock's America Rocks series. It ends with a menacing orange-hued real estate developer from NYC being elected President; dark clouds gather, democracy is put in danger of going pffft, racist violence ensues, and the last stanza of the song warns that if we don't all vote, things will turn out like this.
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The
Sorry, but no. Reboot was genuinely dark. David The Gnome was beautiful, showing kids that everything ends, and it's okay. Mighty Max got a second chance. Superman and Digimon were open-ended, allowing for further stories. Reboot aside, these aren't even very dark. Look at Batman Beyond for dark yet hopeful, or sat am Sonic for just plain dark.
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Sorry, but no. Reboot was genuinely dark. David The Gnome was beautiful, showing kids that everything ends, and it's okay. Mighty Max got a second chance. Superman and Digimon were open-ended, allowing for further stories. Reboot aside, these aren't even very dark. Look at Batman Beyond for dark yet hopeful, or sat am Sonic for just plain dark.
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