Line #37 Main/HappilyEverBefore


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6	->''"Since Nicanor's doings ended in this way, with the city remaining in possession of the Hebrews from that time on, I will bring my own story to an end here too. If it is well written and to the point, that is what I wanted; if it is poorly done and mediocre, that is the best I could do. ...Let this, then, be the end."''
7	-->-- [[Literature/BooksOfMaccabees 2 Maccabees 15:37-38,39d]][[note]][[CanonDiscontinuity Part of the Apocrypha]] accepted only by the [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic]] and Eastern Churches (about half of all Christians).[[/note]]
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9	An adaptation of a story ends before the story gets sad, turning a DownerEnding or BittersweetEnding into HappilyEverAfter by ending at an earlier point and just leaving off the sad part. Usually used for epic stories with [[CharacterDevelopment intriguing characters]], an [[EmotionalTorque epic adventure]], cool {{Fight Scene}}s, and great romance that just happen [[DownerEnding to end on a very sour note]]. So the writers just fade out on a calm HopeSpot. This may be seen as sacrificing what made the story "great" to appeal to the LowestCommonDenominator. Then again, if the story ended on a DiabolusExMachina, the fans may appreciate ending on the [[SeriesFauxnale Story Fauxnale]]. In order for an ending to qualify as this, it is obviously required that it is part of a faithful enough adaptation to the original to begin with.
10	Sometimes this trope is inverted to cut off the story ''before'' TheCavalry comes. This can come off as a cheap way to make things DarkerAndEdgier, or a way to remove an AssPull that came JustInTime to conclude the original.
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12	When adding examples, please avoid general examples that are not ''specifically'' choosing a happier or darker point to end the story at instead of completing it. Anything besides that falls under other MediaAdaptationTropes.
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14	Compare AdaptationalAlternateEnding where the ending may not even be part of a pre-existing plot and where everything could be ''alternate'', BolivianArmyEnding. All to likely to happen in mythological tales that are both far too many and less than likely to end on a positive note and biographies if they aren't highly fictionalised to begin with.
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16	'''Please note: given this is an ending trope, spoilers are unavoidable. You have been warned.'''
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18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	!!Examples of happier endings:
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22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* The ending of the 2001 ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' anime. It gets darker in the manga... which then ends on an extremely [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism idealistic note]], with ThePowerOfLove prevailing, and [[PairTheSpares most of the cast getting into a stable relationship]], ''including'' the BigBad Akito who does a HeelFaceTurn. They just [[EarnYourHappyEnding had to do a little more to earn it, first]].
24	* The manga version of ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' ends on a slightly more bittersweet note than the anime by explicitly stating that Hanon and Rina will eventually have to choose their kingdoms over their human boyfriends.
25	* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' ends with the Federation and Zeon finally resolving their conflicts and the implication that [[BittersweetEnding peace would finally be achieved]] in the Universal Century after so much bloodshed. That is if you didn't watch any of the Gundam series set after that. Chronologically, ''Unicorn'' takes place decades before the brutal [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Cosmo Babylonia War]][[note]]and a supplementary manga prologue even has yet another battle with the final(really-for-real-we-mean-it-this-time-honest!) Zeon remnants[[/note]] and, much later, the even more gruesome [[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Zanscare War]], which may be even worse than the One Year War, the Gryps Conflict and the various Neo Zeon incursions. Nevertheless, by revealing the contents of Laplace's Box, Banagher and Mineva ''finally'' put a hopeful end to a century awash in blood and tears, even if for just twenty-odd years.
26	* PlayedWith when ''Manga/{{Saikano}}'' was first translated by fansubbers; at the end of episode 10 (when Shuji and Chise reunite and run away to forget about the war and just live together) the fansubbers added a public service announcement that this was the end of any happiness in the series, and if viewers didn't want to be made incredibly sad by subsequent episodes they should just stop watching here and pretend this was the last episode.
27	* ''Manga/SchoolLive'' ends on an TheAdventureContinues ending where the girls are searching for a new place to stay after their school burns down. This is the end of the first arc of the manga. The second arc is where CerebusSyndrome ''really'' hits and things go FromBadToWorse. The anime also removed some of the more negative parts of the first arcs ending, such as [[spoiler:Kurumi and Miki being injured]] and [[spoiler:Yuuri's FreakOut]].
28	* The ''Manga/ShadowStar'' anime. The only thing the audience got there was a half-assed LeftHanging "ending" -- which may ''still'' have been preferable to what the manga [[DownerEnding ended with]].
29	* The ''Anime/{{Suzuka}}'' anime ends with the OfficialCouple getting together. The manga ends with [[spoiler:an unplanned pregnancy]] forcing the OfficialCouple to abandon the dreams that drove the [[SportsStoryTropes Sports Story]] side of the plot.
30	* The ''Manga/WanderingSon'' anime ends just when Nitori's voice is starting to break and before the puberty related drama really hit. The ending is comparatively much happier than the manga counterpart, as Nitori seems fine with her voice changing while in the manga she reacts with a blank expression.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
34	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'' ends happily with Balto bringing home the medicine to save the sick children, getting the girl, and finally being accepted as a hero by the town that previously hated him. The real Balto's life went quickly downhill after that when his {{Jerkass}} owner sold him to be paraded around in circuits for profit. Unsurprisingly, the sequels ditch the first movie's pretension of being based on true events and focus on a story made up out of whole cloth about Balto's fictional offspring.
35	* ''WesternAnimation/BolivarElHeroe'': The real Bolivar's life becomes a hell after he became president: Spanish South America ends up divided, he becomes unpopular (he even had to escape from an assassination attempt) and dies sadly. Those events are not shown even if there is a SequelHook at the ending.
36	* ''Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon'':
37	** Many novelizations of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' stop right before Bambi's mother's infamous death scene.
38	** ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' cuts off right after [[Myth/KingArthur Arthur]] finds the sword and gets declared king, sparing kids the saga of his doomed love life and the dissolution of everything he ever worked for. And it is perfectly justified, T. H. White's ''The Sword in the Stone'' ends there as well, but the rest of ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' covers Arthur's reign and final fall, which simply never got animated, thus adapting faithfully the adaptation of the myth that did it first. Trying to fit together [[ContinuitySnarl all of the different parts]] of the Myth/ArthurianLegend into one coherent line would be [[YourHeadAsplode frustrating, to say the least]].
39	** The VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory ''WesternAnimation/PocahontasIIJourneyToANewWorld'' has a happy ending with Pocahontas setting sail back to the Americas -- in RealLife, Pocahontas died on that voyage.
40	* While the animated adaptation of ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' doesn't end on the best of terms, with [[spoiler:Samuel-034's HeroicSacrifice]] and the still looming threat of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]], the series avoids the titular battle that results in the destruction of Reach, one of humanity's last strongholds and [[spoiler:the [[NotQuiteDead assumed]] deaths of all the other [[SuperSoldier Spartan-IIs]] besides the Master Chief]]. Instead, the animated series ends with [[BadassCrew Blue Team]] and most of the other Spartans alive and together. This was likely done to avoid confusing players who had not seen most of the ExpandedUniverse when Blue Team is shown together in ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', because the series was included with the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Limited editions]] of the game.
41	* The animated film of ''WesternAnimation/PlanetHulk'' ends with the Red King's overthrow, rather than going through with the horrible events that led up to ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' in the comics.
42	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' ends just after the Hebrews cross the Red Sea and escape, with a JumpCut to Moses bringing the Commandments down - skipping over that business with the ''calf'', the wandering in the desert, and omitting the ending where Moses dies on the Promised Land's doorstep.
43	* As usual with Moses and the Ten Commandments' adaptations, this happens in ''WesternAnimation/ATaleOfEgypt''. It leaves out the Hebrew incidents and the punishment of Moses' generation not seeing the Promised Land.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
47	* Many a {{Biopic}} chooses to end the story at the height of the hero's success (or perhaps their comeback). They might briefly acknowledge sad events that happened afterward, up to and including death, but that's all.
48	** Martin Scorsese's ''Film/TheAviator'' somewhat averts this. It ends on a moment of total public triumph for Howard Hughes, but in the last scene Hughes suffers an obsessive-compulsive fit and is reduced to hiding away, helplessly staring into a darkened bathroom mirror and repeating "the way of the future."
49	** ''Film/EdWood'' is pretty bad about this, as it ends immediately after the premiere of ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace''. The alcoholism that destroyed Creator/EdWood's career and reduced him to filming pornography at the end isn't dramatized (brief text epilogues do reveal his and his colleagues' ultimate fates).
50	** Averted in ''Film/{{Pollock}}''. The last half of the film chronicles Pollock's wife leaving him, his subsequent depression and the ultimate consequences of his alcoholism throughout the film: the final scene depicts the car wreck that kills him.
51	** ''Film/TheMadnessOfKingGeorge'' ends with George III hale, hearty, and reunited with his wife. The film neglects to mention that the king would be permanently insane within just a few years, and would spend his final years ignored by his family.
52	* The "Love Conquers All" ending of the American screening of ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' is this, ending the movie right after a bizarre and trippy sequence that Sam discovers is AllJustADream... but before the camera pulls away to show us that [[spoiler:it was all just a dream because his mind had snapped due to his torture]].
53	* Actually used to [[BolivianArmyEnding brilliant effect]] in ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'': [[spoiler:the last shot of the movie freeze-frames literally the instant before the two heroes are gunned down, leaving us with a final image of the two in which they are very much alive, and doing what they do best.]] Considering the rumors of the real Butch Cassidy surviving the shootout, this makes it rather interesting.
54	* ''Film/{{Challenger}}'', the 1990 MadeForTVMovie about the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster, ends about 45 seconds into launch, fading to black just before the actual moment of disaster.
55	* The 2010 film ''Conviction'' tells the true story of a single mother's 18-year struggle to get her brother released from a wrongful life sentence, including going to law school to defend him herself (which causes her husband to divorce her and her children to move in with him). The movie has a BittersweetEnding: the brother is released and the family receives a large settlement, but the DirtyCop Sergeant who fabricated evidence and coerced the other witnesses into testifying against him [[KarmaHoudini walks away]] due to the status of limitations. In real life not only did the latter happen but [[DiabolusExMachina the brother died from a head injury after falling off a wall only six months after being released from prison. His sister never practiced law again]]. This is mentioned in the DVD extras but not the film itself. An ending text explaining his fate was screened for test audiences, who were so depressed by it the filmmakers decided to remove this from the final film.
56	* ''Film/TheFighter'' implies that Dickie Ecklund successfully kicked his crack addiction after leaving prison; in reality, Ecklund has relapsed on several occasions since the events of the film.
57	* ''Film/FindingNeverland'', which is about the relationship between J. M. Barrie and the Llewelyn-Davies family, ends on a bittersweet note. The Llewelyn-Davies boys' mother dies, but the silver lining to the tragedy is that Barrie is going to raise the boys from now on. The implication is that the future is bright for this family. In reality, the Barrie/Llewelyn-Davies' lives were blighted with tragedy. Two of the brothers died while still essentially boys: Michael -- the real inspiration for Peter Pan -- drowned aged 20 in what was either a tragic accident or a suicide pact. His brother George was killed in the Great War, aged 21. Peter lived into his 60s, when he committed suicide, but his relationship with Barrie was already rocky by the time of his mother's death, and the association with Barrie and ''Peter Pan'' plagued Peter throughout his life. Jack's relationship with Barrie was also troubled. Ironically, the only Llewelyn-Davies boy who had a long life and a consistently positive relationship with his adoptive father was the youngest, Nico -- who isn't depicted in this film!
58	* ''Film/FirstMan'' ends on a hopeful note, showing that Neil and Janet's marriage remains strong despite the incredible stress his career put on the family. In real life, the marriage was on tenuous ground and the two eventually divorced[[note]]In retrospectives, family and friends noted that that the two had difficulty relating to one another (in part, due to Neil's taciturn nature) and that Neil had a tendency to take Janet for granted (such as leaving her in charge of managing their farm while he went off to do more glamorous business work)[[/note]].
59	* Creator/ClintEastwood's ''Film/FlagsOfOurFathers'' plays with this trope. Due to its non-linear narrative, we know and are shown--early in the film, in many cases--that many of the characters meet unhappy endings, but as the narrative loops around, the film actually ends on a sequence of the guys enjoying a bit of rest and relaxation down at the beach before they went back to the front lines.
60	* The film version of ''Film/TheGetaway'' omits the final chapter of the book.
61	* The film adaptation of ''Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath'' ends as the Joads are driving down the highway in a car and Ma offers some words of hope that were in the novel. The book ends with the remaining Joads in a barn after a flood, and the same words which wrap up the movie are spoken right before things start to go downhill.
62	* ''Film/TheGreatWarriorSkanderbeg'' concludes with the titular character having secured Albania's independence from the Ottoman Empire for decades and the movie closes with him giving him a triumphant speech about their freedom being guaranteed. In real life, Albania eventually fell to Ottoman occupation a decade after Skanderbeg's death.
63	* ''Film/TheLionInWinter'' ends with Henry II escaping the plots against him, and preparing to face the future with renewed vitality. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, he died six years later. Phillip and Richard raised arms against him, and Henry was too sick to do anything other than make a complete surrender. John publicly sided against him, and learning that was [[DespairEventHorizon the final shock that killed him]].
64	* The ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' film trilogy is divided up differently than the books and downplays it since it is only the end of a chapter rather than the whole story.
65	** ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'': The book ends with Boromir trying to steal the Ring, the departure of Frodo and Sam for Mordor and the capture of Merry and Pippin by the Uruk-hai. The film inverts it by including the first chapter of ''Literature/TheTwoTowers'', which has the redemption [[spoiler:and death]] of Boromir and the Three Hunters giving chase to the hobbits' captors, arguably ending on a more positive, hopeful note that comes ''afterwards''.
66	** ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'': The film ends immediately following the battle of Helm's Deep and with Faramir's release of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum to continue on their quest. The book continues for several more chapters, ending with Gandalf and Pippin racing to Minas Tirith pursued by the Nazgul and Frodo getting captured by the orcs of Cirith Ungol, then Sam trying and failing to get inside to rescue him.
67	* ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs'' does this, ending with Gwynplaine and Dea declaring their love for each other and sailing off together into the sunset. In the book [[spoiler:they both die shortly thereafter]].
68	* The behind-the-scenes/rehearsal documentary ''Music/MichaelJackson's This Is It'' never acknowledges that the actual ''This Is It'' concerts didn't take place because Jackson died of a prescription drug overdose before they were scheduled to begin; in fact, it doesn't even mention Jackson's death at all (not even an "in loving memory"). Drew [=McWeeny=], in his negative review at Hitfix.com, pointed out that this made the film useless as a documentary, since it was all buildup and no payoff -- for example, how did his death affect all those excited backup performers and musicians seen at the start of the film?
69	* ''Film/LesMiserables1998'' ends with [[spoiler:Javert committing suicide in front of Valjean.]] The last thing shown is [[spoiler:Valjean running away, now free to return to a peaceful life with Cosette]]. This conveniently cuts off before either Valjean decides to leave to protect Cosette's good name (the theater adaptation) or is driven away by Marius (the book), and Cosette and Marius only find Valjean again on his deathbed (both). The 1935 version starring Fredric March also ends this way.
70	* ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'' ends on a happy note with a [[Main/WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue]] that mentions only Creator/MarilynMonroe's highly successful next picture, ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', and not her death (and probable suicide) only three years later at an age of 36.
71	* The ''[[Film/TheGoldenCompass Northern Lights/The Golden Compass]]'' film famously dealt with the cruel twist at the end of the novel by [[NoEnding ending ten minutes early]]. Yes, it was a DiabolusExMachina, but it was also a little crucial to the rest of the story happening ''at all''. It was intended instead to make that scene the [[DownerBeginning opening]] of the second part of the trilogy [[StillbornFranchise that they didn't make]]. The stage adaptations of the trilogy also go with this, though at least there you can find out how it ends. The really, really irritating part is that the entire DownerEnding was ''actually filmed'', but it was [[ExecutiveMeddling cut at the last minute]]. That footage is sitting on some editor's hard drive somewhere, but we'll probably never get to see it. What little of it appeared in the tie-in game actually looked pretty good.
72	* This ''almost'' happened with ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', with the original ending being [[Film/JamesBond Bond]] and Tracy driving off happily. When George Lazenby [[RealLifeWritesThePlot announced he would quit]], Blofeld and Bunt killing Tracy was put in, rather than being saved for the sequel.
73	* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' ends with the heroes riding off into the sunset, leaving off the book's more ambiguous ending in which they are slowed down by various mishaps and the villain is shown to be on their trail. Then again, so did the book, kinda. (See the Literature section for details.)
74	* Peter O'Toole's ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes and the Valley of Fear'' cut the downer ending. Unsurprising, since a) the adaptation was written for children and b) there wasn't enough time provided to establish the ending as a legitimate downer. What is surprising is that all explicit reference to ''Moriarty'' was removed.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Literature]]
78	* InUniverse in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', when Jara Hamee tells Tobias the story of his people in ''The Hork-Bajir Chronicles'', he stops with Dak and freshly [[ShapeshifterModeLock mode locked]] Aldrea [[InterspeciesRomance sharing a kiss]], and Dak believing that there must be more hope that he can't see. While this isn't ''happy'', it's ending on as happy a note as the story could get. This is at a ''very'' dark moment in the story, after Aldrea's people have betrayed them and Dak and Aldrea have [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally released the Quantum Virus]]. Hork-Bajir, we're told, don't think of true stories as having actual endings; they continue on to today, and Jara skips past telling about the effects of the virus, surviving Hork-Bajir being rounded up, the increasingly doomed resistance of Dak and Aldrea, their deaths, and the capture and enslavement of their son, and any other implications. He jumps right to how his young daughter Toby is [[ChildProdigy special]], just as Dak had been.
79	* One storybook POVSequel adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' having the movie's plot be told from Kida's perspective ended when Kida shows Milo the underwater mural, [[spoiler: just right before Rourke reveals himself to be the BigBad mercenary trying to steal the Heart of Atlantis crystal, and hence Kida's crystallization.]]
80	* ''Literature/TheBible'': ''The Book of Acts'' leaves [[SupportingLeader Peter]] as an influential church leader and ends with [[SupportingProtagonist Paul]] under house arrest in Rome. They were both executed soon after during Nero's persecutions.
81	* ''Literature/BooksOfMaccabees'': In '''''1''' Maccabees'', TheHero died two chapters after the events related at the end of ''2 Maccabees''. The book then goes on to the leadership periods, and deaths, of the Hero's brothers. And there were only two, [[PopculturalOsmosis not six]].
82	* ''Literature/{{The Dark Tower\|2004}}:'' After the scene of Roland entering the tower but before the narrative shifts inside, King suggests the reader pull this by putting down the book and considering it to have ended happily.
83	* The novelization of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'' ends at the scene with Gru and Dru escaping Balthazar Bratt's island fortress.
84	* Some early storybooks based on ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'' end abruptly after Elsa [[spoiler: begins her journey to Atahollan.]]
85	* In the book ''Military Secret'' by A. Gaidar, a child, Al'ka, and his friends uncover a bandit conspiracy and help in getting the criminals arrested. But one of the criminals remains free, and kills Al'ka in the very end (before beng shot to death). The film adaptation, written by Gaidar himself, omits this.
86	* ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' does this ''in story'', with author Creator/WilliamGoldman's fictional father, who's been reading only "the good parts" of the story-within-a-story, leaving off the over-the-top NoEnding paragraph which states that as the heroes ride into the sunset, Inigo's wound reopens, Fezzik takes a wrong turn, Buttercup's horse throws a shoe, and Humperdink is hot on their trail.
87	* A number of adaptations of the ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', especially the comics or animated versions, tend to end with the battle of Chi Bi, where Wei's army is resoundingly defeated by the alliance of Wu and Shu. It's the last time that things go so well, [[spoiler:as Wu and Shu turn against each other almost immediately after, culminating in the deaths of a number of major characters]]. And of course, the movies have a tendency to focus solely on that same battle.
88	* {{Parodied\|Trope}} in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. A few pages before the end of the first book, the LemonyNarrator addresses the reader, telling them to put the book down at that point if they want a happy ending. Doubles as a SnicketWarningLabel.
89	* In ''Show Boat'' by Edna Ferber, the tenth chapter, in which Gaylord and Magnolia get married, ends with the line, "And so they lived h-- and so they lived ... ever after." ([[Theatre/ShowBoat The musical]] provides an act break at this point in the story, but, unlike the novel, it allows the couple to reunite for a HappyEnding.)
90	* ''Literature/TheVirginWidow'' chronicles the romance between the future UsefulNotes/RichardIII and his Queen, the widowed Anne Neville. In the book, they are still teenagers and endure a LoveAcrossBattlelines scenario but eventually marry and he takes her to the castle where they were children together to make their home. It ends long before the death of UsefulNotes/EdwardIV and the grim events that followed.
91	[[/folder]]
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93	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
94	* The third episode of ''Series/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'' focuses on the upcoming Apollo 7 mission as [=NASA=] moves on from the tragedy of Apollo 1. The three astronauts--Wally Schirra, Don Eisele, and Walter Cunningham--are being filmed for a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional documentary]] and are friendly and enthusiastic about their upcoming mission, and on the whole seems like things are going to go well. The episode ends with the mission launch... and does ''not'' go on to depict the flight itself, during which Schirra developed a head cold and infected the other two with his bad mood. They were so argumentative with Mission Control that they were pulled from all future flights; although Schirra was already set to retire, it was Eisele and Cunningham's first and ''last'' time in space.
95	* The SpeculativeDocumentary ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'', which is about what animals could eventually appear on our planet's surface in the distant future, apparently begins with the start of a new ice age, and ends with the formation of a new supercontinent, with the implication that [[spoiler: the squibbons]] [[CockroachesWillRuletheEarth will eventually become the new sapient species on the planet.]] However, the documentary does not account for the gradual increase in the Sun's luminosity, combined with the continued decrease of atmospheric carbon dioxide, that will eventually make Earth permanently uninhabitable to animals and plants, or even the possibility of the supercontinent causing another Permian-level mass extinction event.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Music]]
99	* Some cast albums of musicals end on a happier note than the show does, since older musicals tended not to fully score their more downbeat moments. An egregious case is ''Theatre/GoldenBoy'', where the original cast recording's "Finale" ends with the crowd cheering at the conclusion of the big fight; the show's continuation, however, reveals that [[CasualtyInTheRing the loser died]], the knowledge of which causes the winner to be DrivenToSuicide.
100	* Most recordings and performances of the Irish folk song "The Rising of the Moon" these days cut the last verse, which describes how the rebels of the rebel song all meet a bitter end in the 1798 rebellion, leaving the song more upbeat and universal.
101	* Igor Stravinsky's ballet ''Petrushka'' has a ConcertEnding that ends the piece before Petrushka's death, though most orchestras ignore it and continue on.
102	* The ConcertEnding of "Siegfried's Rhine Journey" from ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung'' gives the excerpt a happy E-flat major coda, where the opera instead modulates into a distant minor key by way of the ominous "Servitude" {{Leitmotif}}.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Theater]]
106	* Shakespeare often used this with his history plays:
107	** ''Theatre/HenryVIII'' ends shortly after the birth of Elizabeth, with Henry and Anne happily married - yeah, that went well.
108	** ''Theatre/HenryVIPart3'' ends with the House of York triumphant, their enemies dead or imprisoned, and a new heir literally just born, and Edward IV even commanding "Sound drums and trumpets! farewell sour annoy! For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy." However, his brother Richard has previously made it clear that he not only wants the crown but is willing to kill ''anyone'' who gets in his way, including his own family; many productions end with him holding his infant nephew and already plotting his next move.
109	* ''Theatre/JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'' ends happily, with Joseph's entire family reunited and settling in Egypt. Anyone who knows the Bible knows that within a generation or two, all their descendants will be enslaved by the Egyptians, eventually leading to the Exodus story. (Which also tends to be hit by this trope in adaptations. e.g. ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt''.)
110	* The "junior" version of ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'' completely cuts out the DarkerAndEdgier second act, and instead ends with the HappilyEverAfter ending of the first act.
111	* The stage adaptation of ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'' ends with Renton moving to London and swearing to stay off drugs and avoid his old waster friends. In the book, he reconnects with them for a drug deal and then steals their shares of the money.
112	* ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': The play covering its source material only up to the end of ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'' interrupts the story at a relatively happy point:
113	** The audience is spared the deaths of at least two likable characters.
114	** The negative aftermath of the deaths of less likable, but quite influential characters isn't shown.
115	** The play ends right after one of the candidates for the throne provides much-needed help for a pressing issue neglected by his rivals and is welcomed by the people needing the help accordingly. The long-term consequences of providing that help turn out to not all be positive in canon.
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117
118	[[folder:Video Games]]
119	* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' ends with Edward Kenway managing to get a pardon for piracy, return to England where he becomes rich, remarries and has a son. The only apparent dark spot is that by the time of TheStinger his relationship with his daughter has turned sour. Come the events of ''III'', Edward's son Haytham has turned Templar, and near-wipes out the Assassins in Britain and America. In-between? According to the novels, Edward was murdered and his daughter sold off into sexual slavery, with Haytham not managing to rescue her for decades.
120	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty2'': The game portrays the battle for Hill 400 as ending in American victory. Historically the Rangers did manage to capture the peak and HoldTheLine while under intense assault, but, on the last day of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, Germany recaptured the hill and held it until February 1945.
121	* ''Franchise/DragonAge'' games always end with the PlayerCharacter resolving a world-threatening conflict and being exalted as a hero... only for a new civil conflict and BigBad[=/=]EldritchAbomination to threaten the world again next game. This is {{lampshaded}} by the [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition third game]]'s player character after a two-year time skip following the [[spoiler:HappyEnding of the]] main game, who can angrily wonder, "Can one thing in this ''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking]]'' world just stay fixed??"
122	* ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'':
123	** The final scenario of the Greek campaign (which is also the final scenario of Alexander the Great's story arc) involves Alexander completing his conquest of Persia and thwarting an assassination attempt on his life, without going into his failed expedition to take India and eventual death. A similar thing happens in the final scenario of the Hundred Years' War arc of the British campaign, which ends with the battle of Agincourt, the last major English victory of the war before the French turned the tide.
124	** The German campaign glosses over the whole "lost WWI" thing after three missions with the Red Baron and segues into and unnamed Chancellor ordering a blitzkrieg on Poland, Norway and France, and the campaign ends with the success of Operation Sealion (the German invasion of England).
125	* In the Nuts Fujimori manga adaptation of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'', the story ends right before Sigurd marches to Phinora to meet Quan's reinforcements. Anyone who's played the game knows that [[spoiler:Quan will never reach Phinora alive, and Sigurd himself is not long for this world]].
126	* In ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' and ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'', all of the Persona-users are returned to their times after the conflict is resolved, but with their memories erased of the events that took place. Each group also happened to be pulled from their timelines shortly before tragedy befalls them.
127	** ''VideoGame/Persona3'': [[spoiler:With Ken Amada forgetting about his reconsideration of killing Shinjiro for the death of his mother in ''Q'' thanks to him spending time with Kanji Tatsumi, their conflict will still take place on October 4th, leading to Shinjiro’s death by Strega.]]
128	** ''VideoGame/Persona4'': [[spoiler:Nanako will be kidnapped by Taro Namatame and will die from her Midnight Channel-induced sickness, until a certain choice later either leaves her permanently deceased or resurrects her.]]
129	** ''VideoGame/Persona5'': [[spoiler:Akechi eventually betrays the Phantom Thieves during the raid at Shadow Sae’s Palace and Joker gets arrested.]]
130	* ''VideoGame/SamuraiJackBattleThroughTime'' is a subversion: the default ending cuts to credits immediately after the death of Aku, making it seem like this, only for the GoldenEnding to continue with a concluding scenario that completely ignores the show's CruelTwistEnding.
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
134	* At the end of ''[[VisualNovel/GyakutenKenji2 Ace Attorney Investigations 2]]'', Edgeworth has solved several cases and took down the BigBad, now with a newfound resolve to reform the legal system as a prosecutor. [[VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Five days later]], a certain magician is found dead in his hospital room, and a certain defense attorney gets disbarred for presenting forged evidence. The [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dark Age of the Law]] is about to begin...
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Web Animation]]
138	* The ''[[WebAnimation/ExtraCredits Extra History]]'' miniseries on [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Emperor Justinian]] originally ended on the high note, with [[UsefulNotes/FlaviusBelisarius General Belisarius]] finally taking Rome back for the Roman Empire. However, the second miniseries set the historical record straight by revealing how all of Justinian's efforts to restore the Empire to its glory have gradually been undone later.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Web Comics]]
142	* The ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' novelization ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheSiegeOfMechanicsburg'' ends immediately after Agatha has Gil kicked out of the city, revives the castle, and routs the Wulfenbach forces -- and immediately before [[spoiler:Tweedle kidnapping Agatha at the Mechanicsburg Red Cathedral, or Klaus setting off the Take Five Bomb]]. In this version, those events are delayed in favor of a ShipTease moment between Moloch and Violetta, a scene between Gil and Klaus, and Agatha giving a speech to the people of the city -- which suggests that the opening chapter of the next book is going to be a doozy.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Western Animation]]
146	* This sort of ending tends to occur in most adaptations of the Exodus story. It was even parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Simpsons Bible Stories"
147	-->'''Milhouse/Moses''': Well, Lisa, we're out of Egypt. So, what's next for the Israelites? Land of milk and honey?\
148	'''Lisa:''' ''(consulting a scroll)'' Hmm, well, actually it looks like we're in for forty years of wandering the desert.\
149	'''Milhouse/Moses''': Forty years? But after that, it's clear sailing for the Jews, right?\
150	'''Lisa:''' ''(nervously)'' Uh-huh-hum, more or less -- hey, is that manna?
151	[[/folder]]
152	----
153	!!Examples of darker endings:
154
155	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
156	* The anime version of ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' ended with [[spoiler:Guts losing his hand and eye and Casca getting raped by Griffith as Femto]] and leaving out [[spoiler:the two of them being saved by the Skull Knight in a BigDamnHeroes moment]] from the manga. This was mainly because, unlike the manga, [[spoiler:the Skull Knight]] didn't appear at all in the anime as the anime's focus was the Golden Age arc and how Guts got from there to his circumstances in episode one, and [[spoiler:having him and Casca saved like this]] would have been rightly viewed without any build-up as a DeusExMachina.
157	[[/folder]]
158
159	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
160	* Originally, the "Rite of Spring" segment of ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' which is more of a documentary about life on the planet, was actually going to extend into the Cenozoic era after they show the dinosaurs going extinct, complete with appearances of different extinct mammals such as wooly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, before finally ending with the appearance of mankind and their discovery of fire. However, due to ExecutiveMeddling, all of this was actually cut from the final version of the film, and as a result, all of this was replaced by a scene where the entire Earth gets lashed by earthquakes before finally being flooded by a massive tidal wave caused by a solar eclipse. Not quite a happy ending for the dinosaurs but at least a RayOfHopeEnding for life as a whole.
161	* ''Literature/ThePlagueDogs'', which ends with the title characters swimming off to their inevitable death. The book ''almost'' ends like this, but then they get [[DeusExMachina rescued by a boat]]. Then again, the last scene is of [[EarnYourHappyEnding the wooded island they've been seeking]], so [[spoiler:it's just possible they made it]].
162	[[/folder]]
163
164	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
165	* ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' initially ended with [[spoiler:Alex eventually straightening up and walking the straight and narrow on his own]]. However, publishers saw it as a DownerEnding, [[spoiler:seeing as how they missed the ''entire point of the book'' and had fun with Alex's antics]], and dropped the final chapter from the initial American publication. This extended to the film adaptation, [[spoiler:which blatantly glorified Alex's anti-social behavior]], something that famously annoyed author Anthony Burgess.
166	* The original ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' book ended with the Pods packing up and leaving after realizing that humanity will never stop fighting them, and the town slowly returning to normal. The [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956 1956 film adaptation]] has a bleaker ending (even with the semi-hopeful Framing Sequence placed by ExecutiveMeddling), and the [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978 first]] and [[Film/BodySnatchers second]] remakes are bleaker still.
167	* The classic [[FilmNoir noir]], ''Kiss Me Deadly'' ends with a big explosion. The original release shows the protagonists escaping; later, that was removed, implying their deaths.
168	* ''Film/LayerCake'': While the book ends with the protagonist recovered from being shot and living a tranquil life in the Caribbean, the movie ends with the shooting in a way that implies his death.
169	[[/folder]]
170
171	[[folder:Theater]]
172	* ''Music/JesusChristSuperstar'' ends with the death of Jesus and makes no mention of his resurrection as a historically accurate AmbiguousEnding where the audience can decide for themselves whether he returned or not.
173	* ''Theatre/TheLastTrial'': The ending usually played ends with the VillainProtagonist causing the destruction of the universe. In the ''Literature/DragonlanceLegends'' book trilogy on which it's based, this event is [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong retroactively prevented via time travel]]. [[ZigzaggedTrope However]], there is an occasionally played alternate ending that follows the books more closely.
174	[[/folder]]
175
176	[[folder:Web Original]]
177	* The Website/{{Twitter}} account ''[[http://twitter.com/spongecaps2 Spongecaps - Rehydrated]]'' truncated certain ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episodes in this manner:
178	** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS6E14DearVikingsDitchin Ditchin']]" had [[https://twitter.com/search?q=(from%3Aspongecaps2)%20since%3A2020-02-28%20until%3A2020-02-29&src=typed_query&f=live the flashback of Mrs. Puff reminding SpongeBob to return the bathroom key, followed by the final sequence]] to make it appear as though [=SpongeBob=] actually drowned in the Bikini Bottom Tar Pits. [[SnapBack Not that it has any bearing on the subsequent episodes]]...
179	** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS8E13 House Sittin' for Sandy]]" [[https://twitter.com/search?q=(from%3Aspongecaps2)%20since%3A2020-11-17%20until%3A2020-11-18&src=typed_query&f=live ended with Sandy aiming her ray gun at SpongeBob and Patrick]] without revealing what it actually does or what happens afterward.
180	[[/folder]]
181

Context Main / HappilyEverBefore