http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeriesFauxnale

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A Series Fauxnale is an installment of a work that was originally planned to serve as its conclusion, but ultimately becomes known as just another (if particularly impressive) episode.

Perhaps the creators were uncertain of the future, so they produce something that can quickly tie up the big loose ends in the event they aren't able to continue, but then they were told they could. Perhaps they actually did complete the Myth Arc and this was the Grand Finale they always planned, but the work's immense popularity has the powers that be demand for them to continue onwards. Whatever the reason, a series finale of some kind was created, but the series went on after that, making that previous series finale a "fake" one.

It is likely to have all the attributes of Stock Series Finales. The natural result of a Post-Script Season, though some shows last for many, many years thereafter. If the following years of the work are considered lackluster, there'll be more than a couple of fans that claim Fanon Discontinuity on it, and say that this was when it really ended.

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Can overlap with Status Quo Is God if the new season, book, or film downplays, reverses, or just plain attempts to ignore anything done in the series fauxnale that would prevent the characters from engaging in their usual hijinxs.

Given the nature of this article, several spoilers have been left unmarked. Read at your own Risk.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Deliberately invoked with the Superman books during "The Death of Superman" storyline. The last issue of the second arc, "Funeral for a Friend," ends with Superman's body being returned to its final resting place, Lois accepting that her fiancee is gone now, Luthor getting past being unable to be the one to kill Superman himself, and Jonathan Kent apparently succumbing to a grief-induced heart attack as the last page shows him flatlining. The title of the story was even called "The End," and both the title and issue credits came at the end of the comic, and the issue was filled with tons of Continuity Porn flashing back to key events from Superman comics since the Post-Crisis reboot began. After that all the main Superman books went on hiatus for a couple months, with only a few specials and one-shots getting published during that period, before the books finally came back and began the "Reign of the Supermen" arc. In reality, DC was never intending to end Superman for good, and only put the books on hold to help build up the hype for Superman's eventual return.

The Final Night miniseries, which ends with Hal Jordan as Parallax sacrificing himself to relight the sun, was meant to be the final fate of the beloved Green Lantern after the "Emerald Twilight" and "Zero Hour" events turned him evil. The fans demanded Hal back, so he came back first as the new Spectre and then as Green Lantern in a major retcon.

A company-wide version of this happened just before the New 52, with all the characters with running series "signing off" In-Universe at the end.

The intended finale of Milligan's Shade, the Changing Man was supposed to be a Downer Ending, at the end of 'A Season In Hell' arc. Executive Meddling forced the creator's hand, and what followed may have made a better story under a different title (as Milligan probably intended.)

Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog issue 50 certainly has that final issue feel to it — Dr. Robotnik was dead, Sally (who was thought to be dead) was alive, everyone was safe from Robotnik's tyranny and, if the series stopped there, things wouldn't have felt off. Granted, though, this was probably due to Executive Meddling forcing them to alter the comic.

IDW's Transformers comic recently had a deliberate example. Issue 31 of the ongoing series is purposely written so that it can be used as the final issue for the entire IDW continuity. As such, exactly what's happened between the previous issues and issue 31 is unclear. It takes place hundreds of years in the future, Ironhide and Alpha Trion are some of the few remaining members of the original Autobots, the Transformers live on Gorlam Prime instead of Cyberton, and Megatron and Optimus Prime have disappeared. This has now been Jossed. The Transformers: Dark Cybertron saw Gorlam Prime destroyed and left Ironhide concerned and suffered with depression that the happy ending he saw will not come to pass.

The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye: Just in case editorial had the series cut short, James Roberts, the author, did script a finale to conclude the series, but since he was given the go ahead for season 2, this all got released during the season's second arc. It has all the signs of "finality" in it, as the mysteries set up in the very first issue of season 1 (Brainstorm's briefcase, how the Sparkeater got into the ship, who sent the foreboding message from the future) are answered in a time travel plot that also details the start of the war (notably Megatron's birth), and we even learn how the ship the series takes place on, the Lost Light, was created. It also closes out the trilogy of Flashback arcs that were sporadically told throughout Roberts's and Costa's runs.

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Fan Works

Films  Animation

Films  Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Pro Wrestling

The 2015 revival of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling could have ended after a year with FMW For Whom the Glory is Final ~ FMW Disbands Immediately If it Doesn't Become a Full House Special. The turnout was apparently adequate, though, as it kept going.

As it wasn't clear if Lucha Underground would get picked up for a second season, the first season ended with Femme Fatale Catrina, Wrestling Monster Mil Muertes, and Terrible Trio the Disciples of Death capturing most of the championships and taking control of the Temple, while Corrupt Corporate Executive Dario Cueto had to go on the run.

Puppet Shows

According to this Defunctland podcast , the final episode of Bear in the Big Blue House was going to be "And To All A Good Night", which had several signs of it being a finale, with the most notable being the scene where every character who ever appeared on the show sang the Goodbye Song together and having different closing credits than any other episode of the series. This was because the cast was not sure if the show would be renewed for a third season.

Toys

LEGO Ninjago was originally intended to end in the first half of 2013, with the sets' boxes even being labeled as "The Final Battle", not to mention that the storyline in the TV series was also wrapped up with a series finale depicting the events of said Final Battle. And then? LEGO releases this teaser image ◊ , signalling the toy series' comeback and the announcement of a season 3 for the TV series.

, signalling the toy series' comeback and the announcement of a season 3 for the TV series. BIONICLE was supposedly originally planned to only last for three years, hence why 2003 ended with the Big Bad Makuta seemingly defeated by Takanuva. In spite of this sense of finality, there's still The Reveal of Metru Nui and behind the scenes concept art that show that the twist of the Matoran Universe actually being within Mata Nui who is a giant robot was planned from the very beginning. This eventually expanded even to the actual Grand Finale of the toyline, as the storyline continued in the form of online serials...that were ultimately Left Hanging.

was planned from the very beginning.

Video Games

Web Animation

Death Battle's hosts had to release a video soon after the Season 1 finale battle between Goku and Superman ended with the Earth being destroyed , letting fans know that there's going to be more Death Battle — this was just a Season Finale, not the Series Finale.

, letting fans know that there's going to be more Death Battle — this was just a Season Finale, not the Series Finale. Eddsworld's final Legacy episode "The End" was originally intended to be the series finale, as it was the last full-length eddisode produced with Thomas Ridgewell as showrunner. However, shortly after the release of "The End (Part 1)", Edd's mother Sue Gould revealed on twitter that she would be taking over as showrunner, which was later confirmed by Edd's sister Vicky Gould.

The end of each story arc of Red vs. Blue, especially Episode 100, which actually served as a Grand Finale when it was released. Notably, it had multiple endings thanks to the magic of the internet, and wrapped up the five seasons of the Blood Gulch Chronicles and could easily have ended the series. The endings of Season 8, 10 and 13 are all deliberately poignant and could serve as series finales.

Translations Gone Wrong: The translation-gone-wrong for "I'll Fly" has a montage of previous translations and the words "The end", because Nevel the creator wouldn't have enough time on his hands to make more videos for a while... but when that while ended, he started making more translations.

Webcomics

Back when the Mega Man Sprite Comic was just a series of Filler Strips, Bob and George ended the sprite comic in September 2000 by having Dr. Wily kidnap the Author and kill him, paving the way for the intended real comic (a hand-drawn one) to be launched the following month. After more than a week of the hand-drawn comic, the Author felt it wasn't working out, so he abruptly brought the sprite comic back for good and had the storyline be about the title characters stuck the Mega Man universe.

Web Original

Originally, Dream's "Minecraft Speedrunner VS 3 Hunters FINALE" and the rematch was going to be the final episode of the 1v3 Minecraft Manhunts. Two weeks after the rematch, however, due to popular demand, Dream released a grand finale that would be the end to all 1v3 Minecraft Manhunts.

Web Videos

Western Animation