Why A half-wave dipole has a doughnut-shaped pattern: current flows along the wire, and radiation is strongest at right angles to that wire, which is called broadside. Plotted in the plane of the antenna this looks like a figure-8, with two lobes perpendicular to the wire and deep nulls off each tip. That is why you aim a dipole by turning it sideways to the station you want to work.
Watch out Radiating off the ends is exactly backwards, since those are the null directions; an equal pattern in all directions describes an isotropic radiator, which is only a theoretical reference, and the feed line direction has nothing to do with the pattern.
Dipole = figure-8: strong off the sides, deaf off the ends.
A warship fires broadside, off its side, never off the bow. A dipole does the same: strongest off its sides, dead off its ends.