Ending withdrawal

[Fox12]

Oh God, that awful feeling you get when you fall in love with a story. You laugh, you think, you cry all over. The writing was great, the characters were lovable, the dramatic scenes struck you hard in the gut, and then... it's over. The story is finished and you realize there will never be anymore. Then, the withdrawal hits. For me, this feeling is really rare, but boy, when it hits, it hits hard. I often think about the story for at least several days after finishing it.

I just finished Toradora, a series I started a few days ago, when I was looking for a nice comedy to wash out the taste of the most recent Urobuchi narrative (not bad, just sad). Well, I found it in Toradora, a fantastic, and hilarious, comedy anime that ironically left me more depressed than anything Urobuchi could ever cook up. The humor was fantastic, but clean, and it had what must be one of my favorite love stories in anime. Having finished it a half hour ago, though, I'm now going through a horrible case of withdrawal. The series is over, and after getting so invested in the cast, I feel awful. I don't know what I expected, but I got so much more than I bargained for. It's like saying goodbye to a good friend, knowing that you'll never make new memories.

What are those stories that leave you feeling deprived at the end. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that had the perfect buildup and pacing, and yet leave you craving more. The ones that have you rereading or rewatching the entire book or show over again from the beginning immediately after finishing. The ones that take up your thoughts for two day after they've finished, and that you remember fondly years later. What great stories left you with ending withdrawal?

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I know exactly what you mean..That particular kind of feeling that starts with glee progressing through despair and denial to finally end in a big hole in your existence you didn't know about before.
It's quite profound that adding an experience to your life could end up subtracting from it instead.

I'm terrible with names..and memory-things overall. I'll see if I can add things as they come to me.
I've found them in all kinds of media, from webcomics to movies,shows,games, everything able to carry a story in fact.

Let me see:
Shows:
Firefly (of course, duh)

Webcomics:
Outsider

Movies:
The Man from Earth

Games:
Anachronox

Books:
All those Solaris,etc big sci-fi book of collected stories always has at least one such story you would love to read more of.

Some of them just stopped, were put on hiatus or outright cancelled.
Those might belong to missing opportunity cases instead of a finished story though.

*Edit* Does edits count as new posts?
I mean, do people get a new mail about it?
Good to know for cutting down on edits and making mega-edits instead.

 

[Zhukov]

TV:
Battlestar Galactica.
I didn't really care for the ending or the entire last season, but the fact that it had ended still left me pretty bummed. The goodwill from the first seasons carried a long way and it felt like we'd followed those characters through a hell of a lot.

Xena
Don't look at me like that. I was 13, okay?

Games:
Mass Effect (Yes, I know.)
The combination of recurring characters, imported saves and a persistent custom protagonist got me crazy invested. I remember the 'ending withdrawal' setting in even before the actual ending (yes, I know). It was that bit where you're having a last chat with you crew, especially Liara and Garrus both of whom have been with you from the start, and the whole thing is just fucking dripping with finality.

Comics:
Y - The Last Man
Largely due to the nature of the ending. Anyone who's read it probably knows what I mean.

Movies don't really do it for me in that way. They're too short. 1.5-3 hours isn't really long enough to get inside my head properly.

Can't think of any books for some odd reason.

No, wait, I thought of one.

Animorphs. Also, Everwold, same author.
I said don't fucking look at me like that. I was... 14, I think?

 

[Tiger King]

yeah I know that feeling

the first thing that springs to mind is Stephen kings dark tower series.
it did lull a bit in places but I feel he did a good job in the final book, describing a worn down world, empty of life and taking in it's last few breaths. The saga had been written over many years so of course you grow attached to the characters too.

I get the same feeling with the show breaking bad.
I came late to the whole breaking bad thing, same with walking dead and game of groans to be honest. I just didn't trust what sounded like biased fan boy reviews, so I ignored it.
Anyway I watched the pilot episode on a flight last xmas and loved it. I watched every episode in about a week after that.
i'm sad it ended but I felt more sad at how dark things had gotten at the end.

as far as games go, final fantasy 7 left me wanting more and I replayed the whole thing straight away after I had finished it. I still wish the ending had been explained a bit better though.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Definitely know the feeling. However, it is much better than the drawn out depth of a franchise, which you keep consuming in the hope it starts being good again, but you don't expect it to.

Though, if you have the self-discipline, you can say it ends at point X, and stop paying attention to anything after that.

Do spin-offs count, though? The original has ended, but something similar keeps going? Then you can have both.

*Edit* Does edits count as new posts?
I mean, do people get a new mail about it?
Good to know for cutting down on edits and making mega-edits instead.

You mean when you quote someone? Nah, it's when the post is created that counts.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Definitely know the feeling. However, it is much better than the drawn out depth of a franchise, which you keep consuming in the hope it starts being good again, but you don't expect it to.

Though, if you have the self-discipline, you can say it ends at point X, and stop paying attention to anything after that.

Do spin-offs count, though? The original has ended, but something similar keeps going? Then you can have both.

*Edit* Does edits count as new posts?
I mean, do people get a new mail about it?
Good to know for cutting down on edits and making mega-edits instead.

You mean when you quote someone? Nah, it's when the post is created that counts.

Ah, thanks for the info about edits, always good to know.

Regarding drawn out franchises, I know several that you can almost point to a particular episode or season when it went down the drain.
See Andromeda for example. The whole of season 3 is very up and down and marked the real end for me.
Stargate SG-1 have 2 such points. Misfits have that episode. etc.

Captcha: "Don't stop". Sorry captcha, sometimes you just have to know when. or better yet, how.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Regarding drawn out franchises, I know several that you can almost point to a particular episode or season when it went down the drain.
See Andromeda for example. The whole of season 3 is very up and down and marked the real end for me.
Stargate SG-1 have 2 such points. Misfits have that episode. etc.

Captcha: "Don't stop". Sorry captcha, sometimes you just have to know when. or better yet, how.

Seasons, sure, but individual episodes? Can't think of any of those of the top of my head.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Regarding drawn out franchises, I know several that you can almost point to a particular episode or season when it went down the drain.
See Andromeda for example. The whole of season 3 is very up and down and marked the real end for me.
Stargate SG-1 have 2 such points. Misfits have that episode. etc.

Captcha: "Don't stop". Sorry captcha, sometimes you just have to know when. or better yet, how.

Seasons, sure, but individual episodes? Can't think of any of those of the top of my head.

Of course, everything is personal opinion regarding such things but I can think of three on the spot.
Have you seen; (Spoilers)
<spoiler=Andromeda>Where in Season 3 Episode 1 Andromeda crew thwarts an invasion attempt from another universe.
Tyr and Becka gets sucked into the rift and comes back changed.
<spoiler=Misfits>Season 2 Episode 7 where they all sell their powers because..yeah.
<spoiler=Farscape>Season 3 Episode 6 where Crichton gets doubled. Both are originals, yet not..it gets.. confusing.

 

[Fox12]

Definitely know the feeling. However, it is much better than the drawn out depth of a franchise, which you keep consuming in the hope it starts being good again, but you don't expect it to.

Oh, I definitely agree. I'm always grateful when a good show has a great ending, and I wouldn't change it if I could. The fact that I feel this way is usually a good thing, as its a sign of quality. Certainly better than feeling underwhelmed. I do admit that toradorah could have fleshed out the finale just a tad bit more though.

 

[Spacewolf]

Heh I remember making a thread about this last year. Think it was after Angel Beats, Toradora and general romantic Anime binge when I finally ran out of shows to watch.

 

[Thaluikhain]

<spoiler=Farscape>Season 3 Episode 6 where Crichton gets doubled. Both are originals, yet not..it gets.. confusing.

I didn't mind that, most shows would have had that as a one off thing that was resolved at the end of the ep, like it was for the others it happened to.

I thought the show went downhill earlier, when they fleshed the universe out. Instead of having a very bare bones setting with the potential for something interesting, they went and made it very boring and generic.

 

[Angelous Wang]

<spoiler=Farscape>Season 3 Episode 6 where Crichton gets doubled. Both are originals, yet not..it gets.. confusing.

Basically its mistosis not cloning. That guy slipt the original in two and created two new originals (and when a normal thing in nature preforms mistosis they grow back the missing half, so I guess they decided thats just how that worked, even though humans don't do it in nature).

It would be like the false theory of cutting a earthworm in half and making two, they are both still the original but not really the whole original as it was. Or if you saw the movie evoultion when the Aliens were still worms.

Outlaw Star, why did they redesign the the cast in the final episode only to never to have another series. They played tricks on me.

 

[bliebblob]

Don't remind me! I'm still in denial about how legend of korra is about to end D:

Anyway let's see here... Some recent-ish ones:
Final fantasy X (Bye Tidus :'( )
Bastion (Talk about bittersweet...)
Futurama ("What do you say, want to go 'round one more time?" Ow my feels...)

 

[Starbird]

Mm. I agree.

For me:
- The Shield. Easily the best TV series I've watched. Probably ended about where it should have but still...yeah.

- Boston Legal. At least James Spader is Ultron. Also - James Spader is Ultron!

- Moral Orel. Recent but yeah. Probably the best thing I've seen in years.

- Futurama. Finale still kills me.

- Naruto. Sure, it got a bit silly towards the end, but still - been reading this damn thing since I was in High School.

All of which left a big empty spot that I'm going to battle to fill.

 

[small]

only two for me.
first was a tv show.. warehouse 13. absolutely loved the characters, the stories, and then boom its over

The second was a movie "room in rome" arty film, but i loved the connection two people made over a single night

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

-Futurama (tv)
-morel orel (tv)
-berzerk (anime movies and series)
-clone high (tv)
-watchmen (graphic novel)
-The matrix (movie) too bad they only made one
-preacher (graphic novel) even though i loved the ending, oh man
-100 bullets (graphic novel)
-x-men (comics, the joss whedon run with kitty pryde and the giant bullet)
-firefly
-Suikoden 2 (ps1 game)
-tactics ogre (ps1 game)
-x-com enemy unknown (pc game)
-pikmin and pikmin2 (gamecube) - super psyched to get into pikmin 3 after x-mas gift cards go toward wii u
-Monster hunter (wii game) just cant hunt any more kurupeco
-one specific match of civ 5 where i was venice and my friend mitch was england, propping up his econemy specifically via piracy of my trade ships

I got it bad man *scratch scratch*

 

[Saetha]

You know, it's actually a decidedly rare thing for me to get truly invested in a series or work. Oh, sure, I'll watch something, think it's cool, and want to talk about it to anyone who will listen, but I generally don't get that feeling of profound loss - guess I'm just a cold-hearted *****. A lot of things that are famously talked about as sure to make you laugh or fall in love or cry... yeeeaaaaah, they don't usually push me to that. I dunno. It's kinda sad, actually. I kinda wish I could get so easily invested in stuff like that, to point of literal heartbreak when it's over, or a character dies, or whatever. It sounds nice, to get so caught up in a story like that. It's never really happened to me.

But I have gotten a little... obsessed over certain things. The most recent would probably be Girl Genius (I had one of the characters as my avatar for awhile) It's actually not over yet, but I don't like reading updates continuously, so I broke my addiction about a year and a half ago. Trying to wait a few more months before I get caught up again, but still... it was pretty hard to keep myself from going back, those first few weeks.

...On another note, have you tried rewatching? Or reading the TvTropes page? I find it brings some bizarre sort of satisfaction, when I series I liked ends.

 

[happyninja42]

TV:

Babylon 5: One of my favorite shows of all time. I hated to see it end, and was very hopeful for more stories in the universe created. Sadly the shows that followed it suffered from Development/Corporate Meddling, and came out terrible.

Firefly: For obvious reasons.

Jeckyl. A BBC short series, I think it was like 6 episodes, but it was SO good. I heard it was possibly going to continue with another season later, but nothing came of it. It was so good, love it, but sadly it ended. Thankfully, the ending was a pretty good cliffhanger type ending. It wrapped things up nicely, but left an opening for another story later.

Games:

Mark of Kri series. Such a fun pair of games, though I think the 2nd game was a little less than great. I would've loved to see more of this type of game and it's storytelling method. Alas.

Homeworld series. The original Homeworld, and Homeworld Cataclysm were some of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've ever had. Both games were able to engender real emotional reactions from me, which is always a high mark in my book. When you make a game well enough to make me emotionally give a shit about your little pixels on my screen, you've done a good job in my book. I know that Gearbox is probably going to make more games in this franchise, but I'm not sure how well they will do. I'm hesitantly optimistic that they will do a good job with it, but we'll see.

 

[WhiteNachos]

Breaking Bad

For some perspective I've seen tons of stories where the stakes are the Earth being destroyed, humanity being wiped out enslaved or conquered or things like that. Meanwhile in Breaking Bad was happening in real life, the story would not effect you if you didn't know the characters, didn't smoke meth or weren't a police officer (well except for one event involving a plane crash). And yet I felt more invested in what happens then a lot of the "tons of people will die" stories mentioned earlier.

 

[Fox12]

You know, it's actually a decidedly rare thing for me to get truly invested in a series or work. Oh, sure, I'll watch something, think it's cool, and want to talk about it to anyone who will listen, but I generally don't get that feeling of profound loss - guess I'm just a cold-hearted *****. A lot of things that are famously talked about as sure to make you laugh or fall in love or cry... yeeeaaaaah, they don't usually push me to that. I dunno. It's kinda sad, actually. I kinda wish I could get so easily invested in stuff like that, to point of literal heartbreak when it's over, or a character dies, or whatever. It sounds nice, to get so caught up in a story like that. It's never really happened to me.

But I have gotten a little... obsessed over certain things. The most recent would probably be Girl Genius (I had one of the characters as my avatar for awhile) It's actually not over yet, but I don't like reading updates continuously, so I broke my addiction about a year and a half ago. Trying to wait a few more months before I get caught up again, but still... it was pretty hard to keep myself from going back, those first few weeks.

...On another note, have you tried rewatching? Or reading the TvTropes page? I find it brings some bizarre sort of satisfaction, when I series I liked ends.

I almost always read the tv tropes page of a story I really like. In fact, apparently there's a trope for what I'm talking about on this topic. I love how the trope pages point things out in a way you've never noticed, or mention information about the creators.

I'll have to rewath toradora now though. It's never the same as the first time, but it scratches an itch, so to speak.