Saga cartoons

[nakak]

You know those saga cartoons. An entire series devoted to characters who has to go on an adventure to complete their task, like "Here Comes the Grump" or "Pirates of the Dark Water".

However, how many of them actually SUCCEDDED in completing the task? Most shows stupidly doesn't solve the task in the last episode of season 1, because they're hoping it'll get picked up for 2nd season, but doesn't.

Only one I can think of is "13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo".

[GagaMan]

I pretty sure that's what happened to 'Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors', as they planned a video movie to conclude the series that never got made.

'Dungons and Dragons' did it too. They never got back home in the end XD

[Sage Shinigami]

You know those saga cartoons. An entire series devoted to characters who has to go on an adventure to complete their task, like "Here Comes the Grump" or "Pirates of the Dark Water".

However, how many of them actually SUCCEDDED in completing the task? Most shows stupidly doesn't solve the task in the last episode of season 1, because they're hoping it'll get picked up for 2nd season, but doesn't.

Only one I can think of is "13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo".

13 Ghosts finished???

I never knew that....

Anyways.....PoDW was awesome. That's pretty much all that need be said here, since the only point you seem to be making is that these types of cartoons need to shove their whole plotline into a single season. ;)

[IDistractedYou]

I had heard that Pirates of Dark Water was concluded in the video game for the Sega Genesis. (Ren's sword becomes a full one and the Dark Dweller is banished) I've also heard rumors that Here Comes the Grump had a final episode but it was only aired once.

Here's a link to the Premiere PoDW site on the web the picture is somewhere on there but I'm too lazy to look for it right now.
http://www.piratesofdarkwater.net/index.html

[nakak]

I've also heard rumors that Here Comes the Grump had a final episode but it was only aired once.
Unless more concrete evidence exists, I think this rumor is false.

IMDB lists this in the trivia page, but they're full of BS, that they would be mistaken.

Also, the complete "Grump" DVD set was released and the last episode didn't conclude the sega. It was just a regular episode with no series finale feel.

[Viceroy]

I've heard Mighty Orbots had a definite finale with the Orbots defeating Umbra. But then, the producers knew going in that the show would only have one season (the Ewoks/Droids cartoon had run into difficulties and there was a hole in the schedule).

[RogueFanKC]

'Dungons and Dragons' did it too. They never got back home in the end XD

Actually...in the last episode "Requiem" which never made the air but the script IS available on the Internet... :)


The kids find out that Venger is Dungeon Master's son and they use the key and rather destroy it per Venger's request so that he fulfills his part of the bargain to send them home, they use the key to free his prison and release the "pure" Venger and all the creatures in the realm (who coincidentally, are also prisoners like the kids) have portals open to their world so they get to return home.

Dungeon Master thanks the children and says the real reason he wanted to keep the kids in the world was because they were the only ones who could redeem his son's path to evil and bring him back to normal. DM then opens a portal to the kids' world and says he can send them home OR they can choose to continue their adventures in a new world.

It ends with the kids looking at each other and crying, and the scene fades out. We never know if the kids choose to continue their adevntures or if they decided to take the portal home, but despite the ambiguous ending, they DID achieve what they were sent to do: to help Venger and release him so that he becomes good again.

:)

[PC!]

Sonic, Sonia and Manic never reunited with their mother (although they did see each other from time to time) and overthrowed Robotnik in Sonic Underground.

And of course we can't forget ol' Samurai Jack.

[Gary L Thompson]

"Josie and the Pussycats" never returned from outer space (as far as we know, though they did show up in a "Scooby Doo" movie).

The kids never returned home to New England after joining together the "Shazzan" ring....

"Moby Dick" never got the kids and their pet seal Scooby home....

"The Smurfs" never got home from their trip through time in their final season....

Phineas Phogg never completed his trip "Around the World in 80 Days"....

The son of the hero of "Gulliver's Travels", never found his father in Lilliput in the "Adventures of Gulliver"....

Nobody ever returned from the "Valley of the Dinosaurs" or "Land of the Lost" (in any version). Then again, "Wacky and Packy" never returned to their caveman time from modern America (assuming the dimwit duo even thought of trying).

"Gilligan" and the other castaways never found their way off the island naturally. Except they did, and never found their way off "Gilligan's Planet" (except they must have found their way back to the original island in time for the 1980s movies, how on earth did Filmation come up with that dumb idea?)

"Star Trek" never finished its five-year mission on either the original show or in cartoonland.....

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" apparently never concluded on the earth's surface....

Princess Sara never left her American western ranch to reclaim her rightful throne with the help of "Wildfire".

I imagine more could be thought of. Somebody should do a movie or something about SatAM characters forever stuck in limbo of never-ending quests.....

[Artimus Gigan]

I imagine more could be thought of. Somebody should do a movie or something about SatAM characters forever stuck in limbo of never-ending quests.....

That was Mighty max

[I.R Joey]

Well if we keep our fingers crossed we should be able to add Avatar to that list eventually.

Exosquad I suppouse you can say falls into that cateogory as well. As does the SatAm Sonic cartoon. Both revolved around liberating a planet (or planets in Exosquad's case) from evil despots.

[Gary L Thompson]

That was Mighty max

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of somebody stumbling across the cast of every SatAM show without a satisfactory resolution. Something like a "Dungeons and Dragons" episode where the heroes find innumerable people stuck in limbo.

A few more SatAM unfinished sagas:

"H.R. Pufenstuf" never was able to get Jimmy and his magic flute home and safely out of Witchipoo's reach.

The heroine of "Lazer Tag Academy" never ran down that criminal from the future.

"The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" was never finally defeated (nor were the gains of the enemy in the second season even reversed).

[Dudley]

Well for those that did finsih their task:
Digimon, in all its incarnations, they defeated evil entities.
YGO, Yami finds out his history and past life.
Doraemon, Nobita grew up to become succesful (regardless of the fact that the show is still running).
Sonic X: the characters made it back home.

[JMorgan]

Well for those that did finsih their task:
Digimon, in all its incarnations, they defeated evil entities.
YGO, Yami finds out his history and past life.
Doraemon, Nobita grew up to become succesful (regardless of the fact that the show is still running).
Sonic X: the characters made it back home.

Those are all anime, they end to be resolved much, much more often than not than these old American cartoons these guys are talking about.

Heck, almost no American cartoons really finish what they set out to do. I guess in many cases the creators are afraid that doing so will mess up the probability of more episodes so wanna do it until the series ends on its own, or it'll make storywriting harder, or any number of other reasons. Obviously with any show based on comics or something else, the writers cant' completely resolve the characters' quests or that'd mess everything up. Even with shows like these, 9 times out of 10, even if half the excitement of watching the show is hoping they'll finish, or at least make a big step of progress towards, their ultimate goal, they inevitably never will, because if they do that'll be.. the end.

Samurai Jack, a great recent example. What if he defeated Aku, went back to the past, and very easily defeated him back then (a weaker Aku from the past, after Jack had trained for God knows how long, rigorously, in the future? That one episode with the blue Morpheus-looking guy guarding the gate foreshadowed that it would be many years and Jack would probably be some ultimate warrior by then who'd be able to rip rifts in time and space with his own sword at will probably, anyways--he'd decimate past-Aku with nothing but a glare)...what'd happen then? I'd love a more realistic Jack set back in the past or something, but heck, he'd be so invincible by that time that nothing would stand in his way anymore. He'd probably be able to kill that big thing that spawned Aku, then have the universe forever ridden of all essence of evil. The end.

Obviously, though, it still pisses me off. I wish that once a series ended, the guys who made it would then make an OVA-type thing or made-for-TV animated special.

[Rover_Wow]

Exosquad I suppouse you can say falls into that cateogory as well. As does the SatAm Sonic cartoon. Both revolved around liberating a planet (or planets in Exosquad's case) from evil despots.

And both ran two seasons, both ended in 1994, and both teased a potential new threat as a cliffhanger to end season 2.

Man, they shared a lot.

And as for sagas that ended: there was "Conan The Adventurer" (yeah, my sister loved watching it... I couldn't stand the theme song tho), and the animated version of "Jumanji" that ended.

Meanwhile... read this article: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FailureIsTheOnlyOption

[creativerealms]

Sonic SatAM ended it's first main Saga, of course it built up a second one that never even started.

Mighty Max ended to with a final battle. Sure it ended back at the beginning but he had the knowladge of his past adventures so they would have been much easier to complete this time around.

But yeah most cartoons that try to have a strong story they build up often don't get to compete is.