History Main / DiedHappilyEverAfter

* In ''Film/{{Ghost}},'' Patrick Swayze's character finally goes on to heaven once his murder is avenged and his fiancee protected, but not before a final, phantasmal kiss is shared.

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja,'' at [[http://web.archive.org/web/20070316081126/http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=52&issue=5 the end of the D.A.R.E. arc]].

-->'''Anghammarad:''' This is perfect. I am free.

* Wanda, a transsexual woman with a crippling fear of sex-change surgery in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' graphic novel ''A Game of You'' is denied entrance to the dreamworld on the basis that for magical purposes, she's not a "real" woman, is killed ignobly, and her parents insist on burying her dressed as a man with her birth name "Alvin" on her gravestone and not acknowledge that she self-identified as female for most of her adult life. [[TraumaCongaLine Yikes]]. But when the main character Barbie sees her spirit enter the afterlife, it is as a woman, secure in her identity and no longer "camp or artificial" as she had appeared in life (as her facial features were too recognizably masculine for her to appear quite as feminine as she desired).

* The whole movie ''What Dreams May Come'' is a prime example of this trope: We follow the protagonist as he explores the afterlife and is ultimately [[spoiler:reunited with his deceased family, and decides to reincarnate with his wife after saving her from hell.]]

** The ending of another of this fairytales, ''Literature/TheRedShoes''[[spoiler: Concludes with the main character finally finding peace and being taken to Heaven.]]

* At the end of ''Film/TheAdventuresOfMarkTwain,'' Twain dies ''awesomely'' ever after by [[spoiler:first merging with his dark side, and then [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending To A Higher Plane Of Existence]] by ''actually becoming part of Halley's Comet.'' His smiling face appears in its celestial ripples to bid the three {{Tag Along Kid}}s farewell.]]
** In the 1944 original, Twain is called away by Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and they walk down the road to heaven together while Halley's Comet zooms by overhead.

* Almost every single story by Creator/HansChristianAndersen ends like this. It has reached the point where Danish students are taught to specifically look after this trope while reading his works.
** ''The Little Mermaid''. When she dies, she becomes a spirit of the air who will be able to shape a true soul for herself - mermaids don't have them naturally - because she was not willing to kill her human lover. She bids her prince and his bride goodbye (though they don't sense her) before joining her fellow spirits. (The 1984 ''Fairie Tale Theatre'' adaptation has a version of the smiling from the clouds bit for the final shot.)
*** The 'not sensing her' part is played with in [[{{Music/Vocaloid}} Megurine Luka]]'s Version of ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vxXjx568RA The Little Mermaid]]'' to add a real punch to the already insanely sad TearJerker. Though, an arguably less sad example not long after that has the sisters hearing her voice and smiling, also fitting the trope albeit in a non-visual sense...
** The ending of ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'', [[spoiler:in which the little match girl dies, but her soul joins her beloved grandmother in Heaven.]]

* [[spoiler:Namine and Roxas]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. Er, sort of.

* One of the better ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books, ''The Ghost Next Door'', ends with the heroine ascending into heaven, having saved someone from a terrible fate.

Occasionally overlaps with AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Very likely to occur with two people who are TogetherInDeath as well as GhostReunionEnding. Compare WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath, AfterlifeWelcome and DontFearTheReaper. Contrast GoOutWithASmile, DyingAsYourself.

* In ''[[FanFic/TheRivalPrefectsTrilogy The New Prefect]]'', [[spoiler:Thomas is happy to be a ghost because it means he can float around Hogwarts naked forever]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', [[spoiler:Ray]]'s shockingly not a DisneyDeath is softened when it is revealed [[spoiler:that he became a star and is now united with Evangeline.]]

* Happens a couple of times in Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure, most notably at the end of ''Stardust Crusaders'', featuring [[spoiler:the souls of Avdol, Iggy, and Kakyoin, the three Crusaders who were killed during the arc, are seen in the clouds looking down on Joseph and Jotaro]], and during the climax of ''Vento Aureo'' where [[spoiler:upon Bucciarati's HeroicSacrifice, his soul is seen rising towards Heaven, but not before holding an encouraging speech]].

Occasionally overlaps with AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Very likely to occur with two people who are TogetherInDeath as well as GhostReunionEnding. Compare WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath and DontFearTheReaper. Contrast GoOutWithASmile, DyingAsYourself.

** [[spoiler:Miko]] ends up dying happy (or at least at peace) when, despite knowing that [[spoiler:she will never be a paladin again, she learns that her horse and possibly only friend Windstriker will be waiting for her in the afterlife, even if he'll only be ''visiting'' her from Heaven in whatever Neutral afterlife she's bound for]].

** [[spoiler:Miko]] ends up dying happy when, despite knowing that [[spoiler:she will never be a paladin again, she learns that her horse and possibly only friend Windstriker will be waiting for her in the afterlife]].

* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and ultimately [[AvertedTrope averted]] in the Discworld novel ''{{Literature/Hogfather}}''; Death runs across and {{Expy}} of The Little Match Girl and is horrified by the situation, not because of the fact of her death (that's [[AnthropomorphicPersonification his thing]], after all) but because it's supposedly sentimental and an integral part of the "Hogswatch spirit."

** [[spoiler:Miko]] ends up dying happy when, despite knowing that [[spoiler:she will never be a paladin again, but her horse and possibly only friend Windstriker will be waiting for her in the afterlife]].

* ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon Sun And Moon]]'' Features an episode in which a Stoutland who had served as mentor to what would ultimately become [[TheWoobie Ash's Litten]], dies of old age. It simply disappears, leaving its pupil distraught and looking for it until they come to realize what has happened. Ash manages to snap Litten out of its depression and catches it. At the end of the episode, Stoutland is seen in the clouds walking beside a rainbow.