# Movies/Shows you wish other things had happened in. OPEN SPOILERS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866 "2009-10-06T22:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/1 "2009-10-06T22:47:32Z")
In _My Best Friend’s Wedding_, I, personally, wish the guy had wound up with Julia Robert’s character. In _Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ (the show), I watch the early episodes and always say to myself “Now why didn’t they ever have Xander and Willow become a constant couple?” That would have been nice. I think they would have deserved that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/2 "2009-10-06T23:42:36Z")
From almost the opening scene, while watching Blair Witch I kept hoping that those jerks who were the stars of the movie would get killed by the witch and some more sympathetic characters would appear. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/3 "2009-10-06T23:49:24Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > From almost the opening scene, while watching Blair Witch I kept hoping that those jerks who were the stars of the movie would get killed by the witch and some more sympathetic characters would appear. Well, you got half your wish… ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/4 "2009-10-07T00:13:54Z")
First of all, Ducky should have gotten Molly Ringwald in _Pretty in Pink_. And I thought _The Notebook_ would have been better if the Ryan Gosling character turned out to have died at some point and the James Garner character was some other guy (maybe the guy she had been with) and he read her stories to her anyway because he knew Gosling was her real love. Oh crap, I think I’m in danger of losing my “Man Card.” ---
**Author:** ![Haunted](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/898d66/32.png) [@Haunted](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haunted)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/5 "2009-10-07T00:25:01Z")
I wish that chick in The Blair Witch Project had not filmed that huge wad of snot hanging out of her nose cuz, seriously, that’s like the most disgusting thing I ever saw. EVER. Just thinking about it makes me want to hurl. Phoebe never shoulda married that guy Mike in Friends. What the hell was that about? I wish that the four chicks in Sex and the City had not all turned out to be basically the same person in the end. Not that I really cared much about that show but I appreciated the fact that the women were different and wanted different things until it turned out that they, in fact, all wanted exactly the same thing and they all got the same thing at the end. All wrapped up with a pretty little bow and a cherry on top. Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/6 "2009-10-07T00:25:09Z")
At the End of _Maverick_, Mel Gibson is in a high-stakes, draw poker game. He has the ten-through-king of spades, draws one card, doesn’t look at it, and bets all this chips. (There’s an earlier scene where he tests whether he can will himself to find the ace of spades in a deck, just by wanting it enough. It doesn’t work.) Of course, at the end, he does get the ace[sup]\*[/sup], makes his royal flush, and wins the game. (As in all movie poker games, the other players have great hands, too.) Up to that point, the movie had been all twists and turns, cons and surprises. It was wrong to end it with something that appeared to be mythical, almost supernatural. But if they had to end it that way, it should have been the nine of spades. Still a straight flush, still the winning hand, but it would have been a surprise. There is another possibility. The dealer was shown to be cheating, dealing from the bottom to one of the other players. Mel makes a point of asking for his card off the top. If the deck was loaded (the only reason to deal from the bottom) perhaps the ace was deliberately on top, so the dealer could ensure Mel didn’t get it by accident. On preview: Hey, two James Garner movies in a row. ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/7 "2009-10-07T00:48:03Z")
In the first season of “24”, Jack’s wife should not have been killed. Jack should have been able to save her. Nina should have been killed. In “Babylon 5”, when an actor became unavailable, the character should not have been written out, the role should have been recast and the character continued along the originally intended path. The show suffered greatly because of the rewrites necessitated through the loss of the Sinclar and Ivanova characters. Also, the show should not have been prematurely wrapped up at the end of the fourth season (done because the writer/creator wasn’t sure at that time if he’d get a chance to do the fifth season). Because of that, the fifth season ended up an aimless mess. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/8 "2009-10-07T00:58:31Z")
I could probably make a long list for _Xena: Warrior Princess_, which went from being my favorite show to something I watched if I wasn’t busy to something I actively avoided because it made me angry. I think a big part of the problem was that a lot of the NZ behind-the-scenes people and some of the supporting actors left to work on the _Lord of the Rings_ films, and the production company was bought out by another studio and a lot of the original writers were replaced. IMHO things began to go wrong with the “Rosemary’s Baby” storyline in season three. Whoever thought it was a good idea to give Gabrielle a demon child needs to be smacked upside the head a few times. At the end of season four, the writers should have either decided that this was the end of the show and they were going to end on a very dark note, or that they wanted to continue for another couple of seasons. They should _not_ have ended the season with the brutal onscreen death of both heroines only to magically bring them back to life after the summer vacation. This wasn’t even a case of “it just looked like they died”, they really and truly died and went to heaven but came back again. I was fine with Xena’s occasional encounters with the Israelites, but a show loosely based on Greek mythology should not have introduced Christian angels and devils as major parts of the story. Speaking of which, here’s another bit of advice for the writers: if your show is based on Greek mythology, your viewers probably _don’t_ want to see the heroine personally wipe out the Greek pantheon. Sometime during the 4th or 5th season the writers also forgot that if you want to have a comedy episode, it should actually be funny. Xena’s baby was probably unavoidable due to Lucy Lawless’s real-life pregnancy, but the “send Xena and Gabrielle 25 years into the future so the baby will be grown up” thing was a lazy and stupid way to get around child care issues. It also effectively eliminated most of the supporting characters. I’m still upset about the ugly and manipulative way Xena was killed off in the final episode. First they made it seem right up until the last minute like Xena would be brought back to life yet again, then the reason given for why she had to stay dead 1) came out of nowhere and 2) undermined the message of the entire series. Rather than being told that bad people can redeem themselves through changing their lives and helping others, the show ended with Xena saying she had to die to make up for an event from her past, one so important that it had never been mentioned in any previous episodes, and that had really been an accident anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/9 "2009-10-07T01:20:51Z")
I have no problems with the way the Sinclair/Sheridan story played out in _Babylon 5_, but they damn sure should have given Claudia Christian the money she asked for and kept her around for season 5. Which should have been done completely differently than the lackluster season 5 we got. Xander should have married Anya. I still don’t get why they didn’t play that one out. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/10 "2009-10-07T01:33:55Z")
David shouldn’t have freaked out and destroyed those other android kids in _A.I_. And he shouldn’t have been limited to just one great day with his “mom” at the end. Han _always_ shot first. Jar Jar should never have appeared at all. Aragorn shouldn’t have mauled Arwen like that at his coronation. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8797f3/32.png) [@Brainiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/11 "2009-10-07T01:36:07Z")
In Annie Hall I wished they’d gotten back together. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/12 "2009-10-07T02:07:12Z")
In Original Trek’s “City on the Edge of Forever”-Kirk could have saved Edith-all he needed to do was subsequently tell her the truth, get her to stay low and work her humanitarian magic behind the scenes, and not interfere with the timeline. Letting her die was callous and pointless. Cut to present day bridge scene, Kirk gets duty roster from vaguely familiar yeoman-Spock confirms she is Edith’s GGGG granddaughter. Fade to credits. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/13 "2009-10-07T02:45:45Z")
I wish Brother Justin in **Carnivale** hadn’t gone 100% evil so quickly, and at the same time, I wish that when he did go evil, he had been able to accomplish some seriously devastating things rather than the middling evil things he did. I also wish Tommy Dolan had been used better in the second season…literally, used, by Iris. They had this great triangle going for a little while, with both Tommy and Iris using each other to get to Justin, Tommy pretending to be interested in her to get access to Justin for his story, Iris pretending to be interested in him to keep him around for Justin’s career. Their scenes together in the first season had electricity – they were both putting on an act, and they both knew the other was faking, but they couldn’t call each other on it. I thought that was so much fun. And to be honest, I wish the creepy, creepy tension between Justin and Iris had been taken further, and that it was done plausibly and consistently, rather than forced too soon and then abandoned. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/14 "2009-10-07T08:13:03Z")
Not to be a bore, but I don’t see why spoilers are open in this thread. It’s fine for threads dedicated to one movie or one show, but it’s unlikely that you’ll know all the references or key scenes that’ll pop up in this one. ---
**Author:** ![Buckler\_of\_Swashing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Buckler\_of\_Swashing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buckler_of_Swashing)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/15 "2009-10-07T08:20:09Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Xander should have married Anya. I still don’t get why they didn’t play that one out. Hell yes. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/16 "2009-10-07T12:58:39Z")
Anyone remember the HBO series _Dream On_? Martin (Brian Benben) spent most of the series trying to win back the affections of his ex-wife Judith (Wendie Malick), who consistently treated him like crap. In the end, he _did_ get her back. The final episode was their (re-)wedding day, and I kept waiting for Martin to realize that he didn’t truly want this awful woman; he just needed closure and to move on with his life. Nope. They got married. Everybody’s happy. Series over. Bleagh. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/17 "2009-10-07T13:02:05Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > In Original Trek’s “City on the Edge of Forever”-Kirk could have saved Edith-all he needed to do was subsequently tell her the truth, get her to stay low and work her humanitarian magic behind the scenes, and not interfere with the timeline. Letting her die was callous and pointless. Cut to present day bridge scene, Kirk gets duty roster from vaguely familiar yeoman-Spock confirms she is Edith’s GGGG granddaughter. Fade to credits. But how did they know that would have worked? Besides, even though that ending would have been nicer for them, it sure as hell would have been pretty dull and lackluster for the audience. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/18 "2009-10-07T13:36:52Z")
Actually, the real reason they didn’t use that ending for “The City on the Edge of Forever” is that Harlan Ellison would have shown up on the Enterprise and killed everyone on board. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/19 "2009-10-07T13:50:25Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > In _Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ (the show), I watch the early episodes and always say to myself “Now why didn’t they ever have Xander and Willow become a constant couple?” That would have been nice. I think they would have deserved that. 😛 Why do you hate Xander and Willow? Or have you forgotten what Joss does to happy couples? ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866/20 "2009-10-07T15:31:23Z")
Hm. There’s two ways to approach this: stuff you wish happened for story or emotional reasons, and stuff you wished happened for artistic reasons. On the former, I could name a fair few, but most are just “I liked X character, so I wish Y nice thing happened to them.” On the latter, two really come to mind: I wish Futurama’s constant wobbling between life and death hadn’t forced the creators to reneg on the original final scene, which was absolutely beautiful. Fry expressing his hope for the future as best he can, and Leela finally understand that he’s not just infatuated with her, but genuinely willing to do anything he can to make her happy. Really, really touching stuff from writers who really mastered the art of juxtaposing the comic with the maudlin. Still, I was glad for the resurrection because I wanted more Futurama. And now they have to reneg on their SECOND final scene, which was ALSO pretty darn good (if not AS good). And on a literary note, I’ve always HATED the ending of Jackson’s _The Haunting of Hill House_. I’ve always thought the vastly superior ending would have been for Eleanor to leave the house, return to her normal, dreadful life, and never really understand what had happened. The ending as it is is just so predictable and cathartic. I feel it really clashes with the sense of truly mysterious, illogical fear and danger that permeates the rest of the book. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-you-wish-other-things-had-happened-in-open-spoilers/512866.md?page=2)