2019 - The Year of Endings · 10:04pm Feb 14th, 2020
(Credit goes to Smashology for helping me with this list.)
Happy Valentine’s/Hearts and Hooves/Single Awareness Day, everyone. I’m MetaLord395 and today I want to talk about something.
2019. The last year of the 2010s, and the year that so many things have come to an end. Have any of you noticed that a lot of pop culture phenomena have ended last year? I certainly have, which leads me to the conclusion that 2019 is the end of an era, not just for the past decade, but for many things TV- and film-related.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at a sample of some of the major movie franchises and TV shows that have ended last year. Please keep in mind that I have not seen everything that ended last year, so if there is a movie/TV show that I left out, please add it in the comments.
Movies:
1. How to Train Your Dragon
The final installment of the beloved series premiered on February 22, 2019, wrapping up a journey that started in 2010, with 3 films and over 118 TV episodes to date. Now, the franchise lives on in the spin-off Dreamworks Dragons: Rescue Riders.
2. Toy Story…possibly
Yes, you read that right. One of Pixar’s most beloved franchises is presumably at a close, with Woody and Buzz parting ways, possibly forever. I know that people keep saying that there’s always the possibility of sequels/spin-offs (hence the “possibly”), but as far as I’m concerned, the franchise is over, because it just doesn’t feel the same without the two main leads that made it iconic. Plus, Don Rickles (the voice of Mr. Potato Head) is dead, and in my honest opinion, nobody else can really replace him.
3. The Skywalker Saga of Star Wars 
The Rise of Skywalker was, simply put, wasted potential. Aside from more retcons and plot holes that the film tries to either explain or handwave, there are also a lot of inconsistencies (How did Palpatine survive the Death Star II’s explosion? How can Star Destroyers blow up planets now? How can Palpatine not survive Force lightning now when he clearly didn’t have a problem with it in Revenge of the Sith? Who are the Knights of Ren?). Plus, a lot of plot points from the last two films are not resolved, not to mention that a lot of characters end up shunted to the side (Rose Tico, anyone?). It’s clear that Jar Jar Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, and the rest of the Disney executives behind this film did not have a clear roadmap of what to do. It’s sad that My Little Pony was able to wrap up most of its plot points in its final season and still manage to make a passable finale, something that this movie, nor Game of Thrones, was able to do.
Yes, we live in a world where a kids’ cartoon has a better ending than a beloved space opera and a fantasy drama TV series. Let that sink in. (But hey, at least there’s The Mandalorian and Clone Wars Season 7 to look forward to, as well as all other future TV series.)
4. The MCU … as We Know It 
After 11 years, the Infinity Saga ended with Avengers Endgame, wrapping up a story arc that started in 2008. Endgame also sees several high-profile actors (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth) leave the franchise for good. All that is known at the moment is that Phase 4 will see a new generation of MCU actors take up the mantle post-Endgame. And while we will still have more movies and TV series coming soon, 2019 pretty much marks the end of the MCU … for now anyway.
5. Frozen …possibly
After six years, we finally managed to return to the wonderful land of Arendelle for one last visit (for now) with Anna, Elsa, and their friends. Set three years after the events of Frozen, the film sees the gang embark on another journey beyond Arendelle to discover the origin of Elsa’s ice powers and save their kingdom from an oncoming threat on the horizon. The filmmakers have stated in interviews that with this movie, they’ve told a complete story, meaning that this franchise is possibly over for good.
6. Descendants
Yeah, I knew this would be on my list eventually. After 3 movies, the hugely series ends with the Villain Kids bringing down the barrier between Auradon Prep and the Isle of the Lost, merging the societies of heroes and villains. This is a perfect way to end the series because this last movie wraps up all loose ends. Plus, the death of Cameron Boyce (Carlos de Vil) all but precludes the possibility of a 4th film ever happening.
TV Shows:
1. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic/Equestria Girls
Naturally, this would be a given, since it’s obviously on this site. I know a lot of people on this would be upset that Grogar was actually Discord in disguise, but honestly? I was okay with it. I didn’t grow up with the 80s version of the show, so I’m currently not nearly as attached to the original counterpart of the character. Plus, the other three villains had pre-established characters, whereas Grogar would have appeared out of the blue for the finale, leaving us little time to explore his character, so I would have given the twist a pass.
As for “The Last Problem”, I still thought it was an okay episode, but I still had a few problems with it. But the one that bothered me the most is that it is implied that Twilight will now outlive her friends. How is that exactly a happy ending for her? Plus, how exactly would one princess take over for two? Am I missing something here? Flurry Heart will take over for her parents one day when she grows up, so Twilight taking over for Celestia and Luna doesn’t make any sense at all.
2. The Amazing World Of Gumball
To start this off, I’ll use a quote from Smashology’s blog on the finale:
Cliffhangers, right?
You know how some shows give you an open-ended finale, leaving you to figuring things out yourself? Well, “The Inquisition” is one of those episodes. And judging from the title alone, you probably would not have guessed that this would the final episode.
And after seeing this episode, all I can say is … Wow. That was dark.
It’s like the show all of a sudden did a complete 180 tonally. Granted, there were dark moments in the show before, but they were actually pretty tame compared to what was going on here. But this? This feels like Cartoon Network ventured into The Twilight Zone for this final episode. Granted, this was for a reason, but we’ll never know, because the last shot of this episode shows Gumball’s reality starting to crumble for some reason.
And the last shot of the series raises more questions and doesn’t provide us with any answers. All we can hope for at this point is that we get some sort of actual conclusion to this series, whether it be in the form of a seventh season or a TV movie.
3. Star Vs. The Forces of Evil
Hoo boy, where do I begin? This one I had an issue with because there were so many things that went wrong. The series finale left a lot to be desired. It left a lot of plot threads open (not only is Mina Loveberry not defeated, but she could still be a threat in the future), and it basically contradicted Star’s entire character arc (about creating her own destiny instead of following what was expected of her) by having her do things because “it was her destiny” or something. Not to mention that characters we haven’t seen in a long time (Ludo, anyone?) barely make a cameo her.
And the shipping. Oh boy, the shipping.
Guys, I shipped Starco during the show’s run, but if I had known that my wish was on a monkey’s paw, I would have taken it back in a heartbeat. As a member of the RWBY fandom, I can say with certainty that when you prioritize shipping over good storytelling, you end up with episodes like Seeing Red, and that’s kind of what I’m seeing here. I feel like out of all the characters throughout the series, only Star and Marco get happy endings, while the rest of the cast have to deal with the sudden reality merge brought about by the destruction of magic and the catastrophic consequences (not to mention that,according to the creators, there are still monsters out there that can’t be defeated without magic). No wonder people in the fandom are calling on Daron Nefcy to create a fifth season for the series or at least a TV movie to wrap things up.
4. Game of Thrones
Another contender for worst finale right here. I won’t go too much into this, having never seen the show myself, but from what I’ve gathered, the reason that the final season was a mess was because of many factors, including a lack of course material, rushed pacing, sloppy execution, undoing of character development, not showing important moments, and buildup without payoff. The end result? A lackluster sendoff that leaves viewers and diehard fans disappointed.
5. Fairy Tail
After almost a decade, the long-running popular anime series ended on September 29, 2019 with Natsu and friends defeating Zeref and Acnologia and embarking on the guild’s “100-Year Quest”, implying that the show could return someday.
6. The Lion Guard (and possibly, the entire Lion King franchise)
The last episode of the series, “Return to the Pride Lands”, wraps up every major character’s arc in a satisfying way: Kion becomes king of the Tree of Life, and he and his friends become the Tree’s protectors, possibly bringing to a close a franchise that has been 25 years in the making (excluding the live-action counterpart of the first movie).
Honorable Mentions:
1. A Series of Unfortunate Events
2. X-Men
3. Bizaardvark
4. Game Shakers
5. O.K. K.O.!
6. Tuca and Bertie
So what do you think? Did you like any of these endings? Did you think I missed something (which I’m certain I did)? Is this just the ramblings of a madman? Put your thoughts in the comments.
Citations:
All The Movie Franchises Ending In 2019
Review: 'Descendants 3' Is Both A Satisfying Finale And The End Of An Era
