->"All yet ''seems'' well..."
-->-- '''The King of France''', at the end of ''All's Well That Ends Well''

A director/author/etc. writes what he thinks is a HappyEnding. Surely, nobody could think of a more wonderful, uplifting way to conclude this story!

...But apparently, they could. The ending makes the audience cringe, shutting their eyes tightly and reminding themselves [[MST3KMantra it's only fiction]]. The critics hammer the hell out of it. It gets several TVTropes mentions under NightmareFuel. What happened? Well, it turns out the vast majority of the people don't have the same opinions about a happy ending as the work's creator. FridgeLogic, FridgeHorror, {{Glurge}}, UnfortunateImplications, and InferredHolocaust are all common causes of this. ValuesDissonance may be another source; changing values may make a formerly happy ending seem [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] or [[DownerEnding worse]] today.

At the same time, there can certainly be disagreements about what particular endings properly classify as such, or at least to what specific extent they do, but the constant is that some of the viewers don't buy the perceived happiness of the finale.

See GrowingUpSucks if the writer doesn't clarify things well. Compare InferredHolocaust and OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding.

'''As an ''EndingTrope'' there will be unmarked spoilers!'''
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* The anime of ''ElfenLied'' ends rather positively, because it adds a new ending before the manga crosses the DespairEventHorizon. If you know the background information that is revealed later in the manga, the anime ending isn't happy at all.
** For that matter, the manga's ending is iffy--[[spoiler:the Diclonii will be completely eliminated within a generation. Their powers are arguably too dangerous to allow them to continue to exist, but they're not all bad people, and their extermination is at ''best'' a necessary evil.]]
* Subverted in ''BirdyTheMighty''. At the end of season 1, [[spoiler:the Roppongi area of Tokyo gets completely trashed by a combination of the ryunka and the sanctum sanctorum Killsat used to attack it.]]. However, season 2 is mostly about how these events affected people, including the survivors.
* ''BlueGender''. A few humans have survived GaiasVengeance, and they can all live in harmony with mother nature, free at last of technology! Then the FridgeLogic sets in - the only survivors will be physically strong people. If you're a person who is crippled, blind, deaf, has a curable terminal disease, etc. then you're hosed. Mother Nature hates you and you have no right to live.
** And those well-meaning humans who were trying to save the planet by living in a space station (to ease the strain placed on Earth) and eliminating the hostile creatures that had infested Earth? [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll Screw them]]]].
* ''CodeGeass'' ends with an uplifting ending showing all the surviving characters smiling, despite the bittersweet nature of the preceding events [[spoiler:and Lelouch's death]], which is enough to make certain viewers consider the whole thing a tragedy. The ending also leaves open what will happen to the world during the subsequent reconstruction phase. It is possible for viewers to speculate about how all the resulting death and destruction would have affected the social and economic structures of Japan, which may paint a rather pessimistic picture of this fictional world's future when all is said and done.
** The main culprit of this seems to be Okouchi and Taniguchi letting some of the staff throw out suggestions which caused the visuals to be insanely happy with one scene borderline TastesLikeDiabetes (the wedding photo) while the narration points out how there is a lot of rebuilding to be done which we never actually see.
*** On top of all of this, when the circumstances leading to the Zero Requiem are dissected, namely Lelouch [[spoiler:[[DespairEventHorizon falling into ultimate isolation and despair]] following the Black Knights' mutiny and Nunnally's supposed demise, and [[ForWantOfANail that otherwise, Lelouch would have likely went with a less destructive and suicidal method]]]]. Add to that that the survivors included a few of the worse killers in the series, and [[spoiler:[[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom the two people responsible]] for [[KangarooCourt aforementioned hasty betrayal]]]] getting the HappyEnding, among other things from throughout the series, and you have some very UnfortunateImplications.
* SpaceRunawayIdeon has this with ''Be Invoked''. Yep, the universe is destroyed, but the spirits of the dead are preparing to celebrate its rebirth again as the Messiah takes the souls to a new planet. It took ''SuperRobotWars'' to create a proper DownerEnding as [[GodOfEvil Keisar Ephes]] corrupts the Messiah, allowing him to take control of the universe properly this time around.
* Many people were dissatisfied with the ending of the ''HotGimmick'' manga. While it was obvious that Hatsumi was going to end up with Ryoki, some readers held on to the hope that there would at least be enough CharacterDevelopment to give [[LoveMartyr Hatsumi]] a backbone or make Ryoki less of a {{Jerkass}}, but the general consensus is that there was little if any sign of any of that ever coming to pass. It didn't help that Azusa's CharacterDevelopment was negated at the end thanks to AesopAmnesia and that Shinogu, [[FanPreferredCouple arguably the most preferable match for Hatsumi]], suffered from a blatant case of CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds. In fact, about the only thing most readers liked about the ending were the [[BetaCouple Subaru/Akane]] bits.
* As another work that features [[RealityWarper reality warping]] and a "face reality" Aesop, ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' encounters the same issues as ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance''. Sure, everyone's free of Drosselmeyer's control, and Mytho's tragedy will no longer repeat, but Duck and Fakir are no longer the same species, and romance is now impossible between them. Then again, Fakir still has Drosselmeyer's power, so this may not be a permanent problem if you reject the story's Aesop as stupid (which many, ''many'' [[FixFic fanfic writers]] have done.)
* The anime of KareKano. Hinting that [[spoiler:the official couple will break up sooner or later, and that it's OK,]] is a "happy ending" for Hideki Anno.
* ''AfterSchoolNightmare''. [[spoiler:The entire series was taking place in the minds of the unborn babies in a maternity ward. The babies are all born safely, but they grow up knowing nothing about anything that occurred in the series.]] A scene at the very end shows [[spoiler:Mashiro and Sou]] running into each other and having no idea who the other is, pointlessly teasing readers about possibilities that will never be.
* ''{{Bokurano}}''. The Earth survives the ordeal in one piece and humanity is relatively safe, which when compared to what happened in ''{{Narutaru}}'' is a positive cause for celebration. All the main characters died (and several of them were mentally broken little monsters anyhow), thousands of Japanese died, some 33 thousand other universes and Earths were destroyed, and the game goes on with a new set of [[strike:victims]] players as if nothing has happened... Yay?
** One example of the backlash was the anime's director. The GeckoEnding went on to brighten things slightly: [[spoiler:While ''most'' of the above still happens, one of the main characters survives and the last pilot breaks the game and makes sure it cannot be repeated elsewhere.]]
** The concept gets discussed in the manga, when Kirie wonders why people would consider a movie in which [[OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding many people die but the main characters get what they want]] as having a happy ending.
* ''MacrossFrontier'' (and major ending spoilers abound) mostly ends on a happy note. The BigBad is defeated, EveryoneLives (barring a bazillion {{Redshirts}}), and they definitely [[EarnYourHappyEnding Earned Their Happy Ending]], so what makes it so esoteric? Though the action and overall plot all concluded neatly, the LoveTriangle that composed the greater part of the series was left unresolved to avoid upsetting the fans of either girl, which just upset ''both'' {{Shipping}} factions. Some though preferred it this way. Nevertheless, the debates wage on.
** Returns with the movies (Yay, more massive spoilers) with the ending being a TearJerker. [[spoiler:It leaves off with Alto apparently dead and Sheryl in a coma right after Alto confessed to Sheryl. The fandom's going theory was that this was how they ended up, and that Sheryl's earrings, which being made of fold quartz ignores the normal laws of time and space, kept their hearts together, for at the end one was worn by Sheryl and one was worn by Alto, making it a very BittersweetEnding a la TogetherInDeath. [[EpilepticTrees Among other theories]]. An interview with Kawamori later had him wondering how anyone got this idea and {{Jossed}} it by declaring that Alto survived and Sheryl woke up]].
* [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion The End Of Evangelion]] is definitely meant to be horrifying, but has a spark of optimism at the very end. It sees every human put through a death of the ego and their bodies dissolved, but Shinji gives them the chance to live again if they have the will. On a world wrecked by at least two disasters on a planetary scale. But it taught Shinji to accept himself and understand happiness.
* NowAndThenHereAndThere. Even setting aside the whole [[spoiler:GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion thing]], the script seems to entirely forget that Sara's parents [[spoiler:are now never going to see her again and she's very likely going to be killed by the Earth's still supernova-ing sun]]. Shu's optimism seems just a ''little'' misplaced.
* The ending of ''Anime/AngelBeats'' is about as esoteric as they come. Everyone [[spoiler:except Otonashi]] eventually moves on and leaves the afterlife, which seems like a vaguely happy BittersweetEnding, but only if you share the characters' faith that they'll be reincarnated and meet again in the next life. If you think passing on means CessationOfExistence, or that (as some characters theorized) they'll be reincarnated as water fleas or some other lower life form, the ending becomes ''super'' depressing. Even worse, in the last scene [[spoiler:Kanade and Otonashi finally confess their love for each other, which makes Kanade disappear, causing Otonashi to understandably [[SayMyName flip out]]]]. But ''that'' extreme DownerEnding is ''maybe'' undone by TheStinger, in which [[spoiler:they appear to find each other again in some future life...[[EpilepticTrees but many people think this last scene is a dream]]]]. In short: plot resolved with ambiguous FridgeHorror, last scene is happy but may not be real, so...who knows?
** There was the short ova Another Epilogue that definitely showed that [[spoiler:Otonashi stayed and became the Student Council President, and that he's [[IWillWaitForYou waiting to be reunited with Kanade.]] ]] This is obviously setting up a new season, so we can only wait to find out how it will turn out.
* At the end of the ''{{Area 88}}'' manga, [[spoiler:Soria, Rishar, and King Zak]] are left to transition Asran from a monarchy to a modern republic. While Asran's civil war is over and the people are jubilant, Asran's future is far from secure. First, the country's infrastructure and finances have been devastated by years of war. Second, the civil war has probably left Asran's people with deep resentment toward each other. Finally, the whole mess has been inherited by [[spoiler:a conservative monarch, a WideEyedIdealist, and an amnesiac who spent the previous two decades in cryogenic suspension]]. Suddenly, Asran's future doesn't look so bright ...
** Also at the end of the manga, [[spoiler:Ryoko reunites with Shin. Shin suffers from amnesia due to head trauma and does not remember his time at Area 88.]] On the surface, this appears to be a happy romantic reunion, until you realize that [[spoiler:Ryoko will need to explain to Shin why he's in Asran and why years of his memory are missing. To boot, Shin will undoubtedly suffer from unconscious war trauma, even if he can't remember Area 88. Finally, Shin broke Ryoko's heart several times throughout the manga, suggesting that he has cold tendencies. In short, Ryoko has chosen to marry a traumatized, amnesiac jerk, raising questions about what their life together will be life.]]
* In ''GuardianFairyMichel'', the Black Hammers lost all the fairies they captured and the Tree of Life is saved...but Michel dies in order to rejuvenate the tree, and Kim leaves the island. While Michel will be reborn later, [[spoiler:the bad guys still have the floating castle, and without Michel or Kim around to protect them, the fairies could easily get captured again]].
* An in-universe example with YakitateJapan during the Yakitate 25 arc, where Azuma starts declaring every victory for Pantasia a happy ending, apparently ignoring the fact that their opponents (who most of the time aren't particularly bad people) have been [[ItMakesSenseInContext transformed by Pantasia's bread]] with no sign of changing back any time soon, or the two occasions where the match ended with Ken becoming a {{Yakuza}} leader against his will or Kuroyanagi suffering from serious internal bleeding. Kawachi is usually quick to point this out.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'' appears to end with the villain (and his fanboy successor) dying and the world returning to normal. Until that final scene revealing that a happy-go-lucky shinigami was the sponsor for the fake Kira three years later, he liked the experiment, and he has an arsenal of death notes just waiting for new owners. How did he get them? He bought them from the king, who has no problem with selling each death note for 7 apples, and has not made any laws against this tourist trend. Which now means that Ryuk and hundreds of shinigami will be sponsoring hundreds of nonviolent sniping killers, each with their own ideals and agendas, all of whom will inevitably duel and war with each other unless something goes horribly wrong. This is considered a fitting end to this dark series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* Happens very often with Creator/JackChick tracts. There are too many examples to list specific ones, but they tend to fall into a few distinct categories.
## The main character converts to Christianity, dies an untimely (and usually also cruel or painful) death and goes to heaven. For example, in "The Little Princess," while Heidi gets herself and her family saved before dying, one has to wonder what it's like for her parents and brother to lose her.
## The main characters, following the death of someone close to them, convert to Christianity. The unsaved loved ones are promptly forgotten about, and the saved people will never see them again. This is especially jarring in "Happy Halloween," in which the boy killed in the traffic accident is forgotten about.
## The main characters convert to Christianity after suffering terrible traumas with no indication of any long-term problems, and with those responsible being EasilyForgiven or becoming outright [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdinis]]. For example, in "Lisa", the girl may have gotten saved and may no longer be suffering abuse, but she also has herpes now and no shortage of trauma associated with this.
## Truly despicable people do terrible things all their lives, convert after one minute of EasyEvangelism, and go to Heaven, facing no consequences for their actions ''ever'', while people who did nothing wrong except ''not'' instantly choose to devote their lives to God, needing more than simply having John 3:16 read to them once in order to believe, have freak accidents kill them the next day and go to Hell.
## The ultimate fate of Earth. God will triumph over the Devil, but not before ages of suffering for the people of Earth followed by the majority of humankind being sent to Hell.
* ''JLAActOfGod'' has the story attempting to tell us that a new generation of heroes is about, the problems with this are that there were likely millions of innocents killed due to people losing their powers, few Superheroes getting over their problems, and Kyle Rayner, ultimately, ends up killed due to psychotic obsession. This isn't getting into the fact that many tech-based supervillains keep their powers and abilities, and [[spoiler:one new, superpowered being]] doesn't make the world better.
* JoeQuesada has stated that when looking back at ''OneMoreDay'', he sees Aunt May saved through the Parkers' HeroicSacrifice of their marriage. Most fans see the OfficialCouple being forced apart and the villain getting what he wants.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* This is common in the darker side of fanfiction. A good example of this can be found [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3684981/1/The_Plushtopia_Chronicles_Lugia_II here]]. For those who don't want to read that, here's the cliff notes version: Guy picks up a plushie that is alive. Turns out the plushie is a {{Yandere}}. It asks him nicely if he wants to turn into a plushie too. He refuses; it violently and painfully kills him and then rebirths him as a plushie. Now they'll be together forever - and it's treated as a good thing.
** Funnily enough, this is ''exactly'' what happens in an episode of ''GrowingUpCreepie''. It turns out that not everyone agrees with Creepie that "everyone gets turned into giant mutant moths" (or, more generally, bugs) is a happy ending.
* Any piece of smut written by a NightmareFetishist.
* The Rose Potter series is an interesting example. Because the author slavishly copies as much of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' canon as he can, each story ends on a happy note if and when the canon books do. Because the author tries to make things DarkerAndEdgier however, it just opens up a whole mess of FridgeLogic, plot holes, and generally makes the Ministry's arguments that Rose is psychotic look rational. One fine example would be Rose discovering the "Golden Patronus", which essentially lets her destroy the hundreds of Dementors in the third story. This is treated as a beautiful thing, with the "released souls" thanking her as they return to their bodies. Thing is, Dementors were used to carry out the wizarding equivalent of the death sentence, which means that Rose also released the souls of a number of dangerous criminals.
* Frequently discussed in the Fanficrants community on Live Journal. Apparently far too many fic writers do not understand how sexual consent and/or absence thereof works, and balk when informed that what they've written is effectively ''rape fic'' and really should be labeled as such.
* One particular ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' fanfiction had a MarySue protagonist determined to save the seas and bring back freedom to the pirates. She accomplishes this by [[spoiler:killing Calypso. Who, in the movie, was one of the few mystical beings remaining in the sea, especially after the Kraken was destroyed by Beckett, and one of the few things left keeping the world from "getting smaller". Oops...]] Everyone treats her as a hero for this. Also, you know, making the world a better place for pirates is making it a worse place for everyone who likes to keep their belongings and not get raped.
* The WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic FanFic/TheConversionBureau. The premise: Things aren't going well for humanity or Earth, so the ponies offer to let some of the humans into Equestria. Awesome, right? But then the FantasticRacism kicks in: anybody going in has to first be transformed irreversibly into a pony. This might not be so terrible if it wasn't repeatedly and explicitly stated that [[NotHimself someone who's transformed into a pony has their personality fundamentally altered]]. In other words, faced with a troubled species, the pony solution is, [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide well...]] While it's a DeadFic and thus never properly ended, the author implies this is meant to be a JustBeforeTheEnd scenario.
** Gets worse in the ExpandedUniverse stories. All of humanity being forcibly converted into ponies with no resemblance to who they once were, or if they refuse, murdered outright? Authors other than the original love to present this as being ''the best thing that could possibly happen to the world''. There's a ''reason'' this setting has a '''''massive''''' {{Hatedom}}.
* Happens within the [[PlotParallel titular game]] of the ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' fanfic [[http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=2435 "Broken Dolls"]], where the [[MultipleEndings "best end"]] still involves the IllGirl [[{{Utsuge}} dying.]]
* TwoWords: {{Hate Fic}}s
** Two more words: {{RevengeFic}}s
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'' ends with the apes being escaping to a forest and a tearful goodbye between Caesar and his foster-father. [[spoiler:Then humanity dies during the end credits.]]
* ''ATrollInCentralPark.'' Stanley ends up burying all of New York in a jungle, a scene eerily similar to the original ending of ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors''.
* ''{{Knowing}}''. Almost everybody is killed as the entire planet is incinerated, but some 30-odd kids survived and went to a wonderful Garden of Eden-esque place! [[YouFailBiologyForever And they're gonna repopulate the human race!]] AMillionIsAStatistic indeed.
** Since the aliens only saved a handful of prepubescent children and refused to rescue even one of the most highly-educated adults on the planet, their concern is clearly preserving human DNA, not human culture or civilization. [[FridgeHorror Why]]? [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture Are they breeding slaves?]] [[ToServeMan Cattle?]]
** We don't know that only children went. They said they were taking anyone who could ''hear them''. It's our assumption that "only children are capable" of such experiences that makes us think only kids went. And there were a lot more than thirty people under that gigantic tree at the end.
* ''Film/TimeBandits''. The boy's house is a smoking ruin and his parents are dead... but his parents were neglectful bastards to start with, and Agamemnon is now a firefighter, implying that he has a good future ahead of him. According to director Creator/TerryGilliam (on the Criterion [=DVD=] commentary), parents in the test audiences were upset with this ending, but their ''children'' liked it!
* This may or may not be the ''point'' of ''LetTheRightOneIn''. There are two outcomes of the ending; [[spoiler:one is that Oskar takes on the role of TheRenfield for Eli and procures blood for her for the rest of his life, the other (endorsed by WordOfGod) is that she turns him into a vampire.]]
* ''TheIncredibleShrinkingMan'': While Scott may have come to terms with the fact of what's happening to him as he shrinks to nothing (he states in the voiceover that "To God there is no zero"), this is, at best, bittersweet. He faces almost certain death; plus, his wife and his brother are convinced that he died a horrible death; being torn apart and eaten by [[CatsAreMean THE CAREYS' OWN CAT]]
* The indie drama ''Sleepwalking'' tries to make its ending seem like a happy and uplifting one: The mother finally returns realizing that she does love her daughter and her brother has realized how he is not enjoying life and decides to take charge, ending with the optimistic line "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Well OK except for the fact that the mother is still unemployed, now homeless along with her daughter, and is probably going to get charged with abandonment and not be allowed to keep custody of her daughter who'll be forced back to her hated foster care and probably won't end up well. Meanwhile her brother will have to [[spoiler:spend the rest of his life as a fugitive for the murder of his father.]] Not all that uplifting after all.
* ''Film/SevenPounds'' which tries to make Tim's obsessive self-flagellation and ultimate suicide a morally uplifting HeroicSacrifice.
* ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'' ends with [[PerfectPacifistPeople the]] [[SpaceAmish Bak'u]] welcoming [[BigBad the Son'a]] [[spoiler:(who are banished Bak'u)]] into their society and allowing them to keep their planet and its fountain-of-youth powers. Except that it was pointed out that it will take ten years for the planet's rejuvenating effects to really affect the Son'a, and many will not make it that long. Plus, the Bak'u will maintain a monopoly on rejuvenating powers which would certainly benefit billions across the galaxy.
* ''RockyV''. Rocky kicks Tommy's ass in a street fight, but he's still broke, and Tommy is still the champion. No wonder Stallone declared it CanonDiscontinuity.
* ''SourceCode'': Colter ''finally'' creates an AlternateUniverse where the train disaster is averted and he gets to live HappilyEverAfter with his new girlfriend... in the body of her old boyfriend Sean, who is now essentially dead since his consciousness has been overwritten. Colter will now have to adjust to living a life that is not his, with a family and career which are utterly unknown to him. He also has to try and very carefully pick the right time to tell his new girlfriend that he met her that day and has almost no idea who she is. Oh, and this reality also has a version of his brain in a box, so it's not like his suffering has actually ended at all. And apparently there's one alternate reality where Sean's friend remembers his last actions as irrationally attacking a random guy because he looks Middle Eastern, before falling onto a railroad track.
* ''AIArtificialIntelligence'': Your loved ones and your familiar world has died out, but you can go under the ocean and relive an illusion of a single, long lost day, made artifically based on your memory. And ''that's'' your happiest day? Seriously?
** It wasn't an ''illusion'' strictly speaking. The advanced robots were only able to bring back a person's memory through the 'space-time pathway' for a single day, and then they died. It wasn't based on David's memory, it was his actual mother [[spoiler:. . . and then she dies :(]]
* The 2008 remake of ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill2008'' ends with Klaatu agreeing to spare the Earth and humanity, but only after he generates an EMP so powerful that it stops ''all'' technology on Earth. Assuming that it really is an EMP, and that the technology that is currently in existence is affected, then millions will die initially and then we will swiftly reconstruct the technology we had already designed. We will likely achieve world peace, which was his aim in the original, but we only be at peace with each other in order to better prepare to wreak vengeance on the aliens that caused this cataclysm. We may become more concerned with the environment, or simply not care about it anymore, in our rush to achieve sustainable civilisation outside of Earth's atmosphere. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint But at least Jacob finally called Helen "Mom", right?]]
* According to WordOfGod, the idea for ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' came from the director wondering whether or not an ending where the main character [[spoiler:goes insane]] could be happy. YMWV on whether or not he pulled it off, (even ''he'' isn't entirely sure) but it doesn't stop it from being a [[CultClassic good]] [[SoCoolItsAwesome movie.]]
* WordOfGod describes ''Film/{{Oldboy}}'' as having a happy ending that's sad or a sad ending that's happy. Either way, the implication is that [[spoiler:the protagonist continues to carry on an incestful relationship with his own unwitting daughter, and that he may or may not know himself.]]
* ''DeathProof'' ends with [[spoiler:the second group of girls getting vigilante justice on Stuntman Mike...by straight up murdering him on the road, in broad daylight, with possible witnesses to the act and a body to dispose of. Hope life imprisonment was worth killing the guy instead of just letting the cops haul him off, ladies! Also, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was left as "collateral" for a car that is now totalled, in the hands of an implied sexual predator. She'd better *hope* that the police arrest her friends fast!]]
* ''ThePlayer'' is a [[IntendedAudienceReaction deliberate]] example that [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] the FocusGroupEnding: the obligatory happy ending simply doesn't work when [[AntiHero the hero]] not only [[KarmaHoudini gets away with murder]], [[ExaggeratedTrope but steals everything his victim had]].
* The {{Lassie}} film, ''Film/ThePaintedHills'': Shep (Lassie) managed to avenge the death of her owner by driving his killer, Taylor, off a cliff. And rather than simply give up and die, she decides to live on with Tommy, the son of Johnathan's late partner. But Taylor had killed Johnathan in order to steal their gold claim for himself. The site of Johnathan's claim died with the two of them, and Taylor had hid the gold dust he and Johnathan had already gathered. A fortune lost to Tommy and his mother.
* The ending of ''{{Film/Juno}}'' takes on a disturbing light once you realize that [[spoiler: Vanessa is still reeling from her painful split with Mark, and is uncertain about her motherhood skills. Let's not even get started about the stress of her well-paying job...]]
* ''TheCabinInTheWoods'': [[spoiler:The protagonists allow {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to ''wipe out mankind'' due to them refusing to continue the ritual regular sacrifice of humans meant to keep them at bay. WordOfGod confirms this is meant to be uplifting since "Humans are more important than Humanity".]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* HarlanEllison claims that the ending of ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'' is intended to be happy. Sure, the narrator ends by saying the title line in utter despair, after [[spoiler:mercy-killing every other remaining human in the world]] but he's so [[UnreliableNarrator unreliable]] he hasn't realized that his actions represent the final triumph of the human spirit. The game makes it into more a BittersweetEnding, with the humans finally taking down AM and settling into the duty of being a watchdog for the [=AIs=] as they await the reawakening of the humans on the moon.
* Creator/HansChristianAndersen's "Literature/TheLittleMermaid" (not [[{{Disneyfication}} the Disney version]]). The little mermaid is turned into "daughter of air" with a prospective to eventually enter Heaven, very probably was a result of revision by Andersen. Initially, this was the selected ending, even put in the working title, but there was and happily reworked version for which the mermaid apparently just dissolved into foam in the end.
*** Even the happier version has the FridgeHorror of knowing that the [[DeaderThanDead dissolving into foam]] fate is eventually going to befall the Little Mermaid's sisters and family if they don't act as she did. But as long as SHE is saved, everything is all right... right?
** "Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl", too. TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth turned UpToEleven. The tone of the ending is [[BittersweetEnding very sad for the townspeople who discover her frozen corpse, but happy for the girl as she has ascended into Heaven]]. As such, some remakes from our more cynical times either rewrite it to give her a more materialistic HappyEnding ([[DeusExMachina somehow]]) or portray it as a truly tear-jerking DownerEnding.
*** [[Discworld/{{Hogfather}} Even Death can't stand it.]]
** It's also explored in Discworld/WitchesAbroad where Lilith gives what is usually considered to be a happy ending to people whether they want it or not, including convincing a wolf it's human so that it nearly starves to death and goes insane, since it can't live as either human or wolf now, so that it would eat a grandmother.
** By all accounts, Andersen [[CreatorBreakdown was a very depressed man]]. Out of all his fairy tales, there are only a few with unambiguously happy endings.
* Creator/RobertSilverberg's stories fall into this occasionally because his personal philosophy is so different from how most people (or at least most modern Western readers) view life and humanity. A particularly jarring example is ''The Face Upon The Waters''--the main character spends most of the story trying to maintain his cultural identity after the destruction of Earth and the scattering of its people, but ultimately concludes that people should adapt to whatever culture they live amongst... [[spoiler:and joins up with TheCorruption[=/=]{{Instrumentality}}, which has a stated goal of assimilating everyone it can and killing everyone it can't.]]
* ''A Girl Called Blue'' is about girls growing up in a strict home for children in 1960s Ireland (run by Sadist Nuns). The book ends with Blue rejoicing that she's finally found a family of her own. Except the "family" is two people she's met twice and they're not allowed to adopt her so she has to wait three years before she's old enough to leave the school with them only allowed to visit her twice a year. Also three of her best friends have now left, one being drowned, another going back to live with her father and the last being sent to another school and she has been forced to sleep alone in a cramped room, and will likely still have to endure plenty more abuse from the nuns for the next three years. Oh and she never finds out who her real mother is either and the nuns will keep abusing children for many years in Ireland.
* The ending of Creator/CSLewis's final {{Narnia}} book, ''The Last Battle'', qualified as this for many young readers. Narnia ends, and absolutely everyone dies. Some minor characters are tormented and destroyed by a horrific many-armed demon-god, while others are judged unworthy and vanish forever into Aslan's shadow. But the important people don't care about that because they all go to the real Narnia (a stand-in for heaven) as the Christian Subtext becomes text. It can be uplifting or inspire nightmares, depending on which scenes stick with you.
* Roald Dahl's ''TheWitches''. The protagonist learns that he's stuck as a mouse and that mice don't live very long, but he's happy because he'll probably die near the same time as his elderly grandmother and doesn't care about living if he's not with her. They also plan to hunt down every witch left in the world.
** The two also ponder Bruno's fate. One states that his mouse-hating mother probably drowned him in a bucket. They don't really seem very disturbed by this possibility.
** The movie, however, has an unabashed happy ending where the last witch, who had undergone a HeelFaceTurn, undoes the mouse spell on the protagonist and is implied to do the same to Bruno. While many were appreciative of this happier ending, Roald Dahl was infamously ''not''.
* Coupled with ValuesDissonance for ''Literature/ALittlePrincess''. The book ends with Sara being restored to her wealth while Becky becomes her personal attendant. Oh and [[SadistTeacher Miss Minchin]] gets [[KarmaHoudini away with treating them like prisoners]]. However if one takes into context the period the story is set in (Victorian London) then Becky going from little better than a street urchin to a powerful position in the household (with a kind and generous mistress too) where she would get a roof over her head and financial security, it's a happy ending for Becky indeed. Oh and Sara is now a child with both her parents gone so YMMV on how much of a happy ending this is for her.
** This is most likely why the Alfonso Cuaron adaptation changed it to Sara's father turning up alive, implying that he's adopted Becky and Miss Minchin loses the school and is reduced to working as a chimney sweep.
* At the end of ''AtlasShrugged,'' Galt's Gulch is the only non-Crapsack place left in the whole world. Which is great, because all of the looters and moochers are gone and the good people can rebuild the world, right? Then you remember the [[InferredHolocaust millions of innocent children who were left to starve...]] (Then again, by the book's morality, this is the looters' and moochers' fault rather than anything to blame on the protagonists . . .)
** Very much a case of ValuesDissonance. Rand makes very clear her belief that leaving the weak to die rather is the moral choice. Moreover, she spends several pages earlier in the book arguing that everyone other than her heroes were either the causes of society's collapse or complicit because they did nothing to stop it (including children, apparently).
* ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms.'' Shu, Wei and Wu are united into one at last and peace throughout the entire country of China can finally begin. Unfortunately the victors are a splinter group of Wei who usurped the throne, conquered Wu and Shu who at the time were being ruled by Liu Shan (a truly incompetent ruler who defiles everything Shu originally stood for) and Sun Hao (a tyrant almost as bad as Dong Zhuo). The kicker? When these two surrendered they were given lucrative positions and the readers were told they lived out their remaining lives in luxury. To be fair though this novel closely follows the real life events in history and not a lot could be changed.
** Even worse, historically, the hard-fought reunification of China ended a decade or two later with [[HereWeGoAgain a new barbarian invasion.]]
* Back when ''TheIronGiant'' was a book instead of a movie, it ended with an encounter with a dragon-like alien that sang in a hypnotic manner. It sang loud enough that the entire world heard it, and everyone in the world spent the rest of their lives alternately taking care of necessities and listening to the song. It's specified that all war was completely eliminated, and the implication would be that art and culture vanished too. If the wording is to be taken literally, people didn't even converse with each other. Now, does this sound {{Utopia}}n, or does this sound like a nightmare?
* The final book of the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series gave Jacob, who had been suffering for unrequited love for Bella, his own happy romantic ending by having him imprint on Bella's newly born daughter Nessie. Oh, don't worry; Nessie grows really fast, so she'll be 17 years old in 7 years and ready to start a relationship with her "Uncle Jacob" then!
** Also, [[InherentInTheSystem there's apparently no good way to get rid of the Volturi or vampires like them]]. Given that the Volturi are growing more and more afraid of human technology, and more and more inclined to lash out at humanity, this is a ''very bad thing''.
* ''Bend Sinister'' by Creator/VladimirNabokov ends with the protagonist arrested by his nation's totalitarian government, and his young son horrifically killed by a crowd of mental patients--on film!--due to a ''clerical error''. But then Nabokov [[{{Metafiction}} reaches through the layers of reality]] and gives his main character the gift of insanity to make him forget all his pain. So...yay?
** It's even worse. The novel ends with Adam Krug, as a result of his insanity, rushing the dictator and being shot to death. Nabokov, however, refuses to write this conclusion (after implying its inevitability) and instead describes his room and decides to go mothing. It's a strange case of being incapable of giving Krug a happy ending (even the insanity so benevolently bestowed upon him results directly in his being killed), and so at least giving him the consolation prize of not writing it at all, and therefore not allowing it to happen. It's about as esoteric as a 'happy ending' can get.
* ''LeftBehind'' gets this a lot for its ending where not only are all non-Christians sent to FireAndBrimstoneHell, but the paradise where all the protagonists end up is depicted as a faintly creepy commune where you can no longer eat meat or form relationships with anyone you want, and nobody experiences any strong emotions other than love of God. [[ValuesDissonance The writers treat this as a utopia.]]
* Nearly all of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's books have one of these.
** Save the GreenSkyTrilogy, and only because she realized she made a big goof, and authorized a sequel in the form of a video game, possibly the first video game to be acknowledged as {{Canon}} for something written in another medium.
* Creator/HPLovecraft's short story "Celephais," which ends with the main character finally returning to the wondrous dream-city that he created in his youth where he is appointed the chief god of all of the regions of Dream; and all he had to do was [[spoiler:fall of a cliff and let the tides cast his corpse upon the rocks]].
** Lovecraft [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this later in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" when ''that'' story's protagonist meets this exact character who's since come to regret his decision but obviously can never go back.
* Mindswap by RobertSheckley. The protagonist is in the corrupted world but believes he has succeeded in his mission and has returned home.
* ''Literature/HushHush'' has a great happy ending, if you ignore the fact that [[spoiler:part of Nora's house was burned down, there's a ClingyJealousGirl of a fallen angel after her, and that she is blissfully dating the guy who spent the book stalking her, sexually harassing her, and outright attempting to ''murder her''.]]
* At the end of ''Literature/TheGoddessTest'', we learn that [[spoiler:Kate's beloved mother is actually the goddess Demeter, so she and her mother can be together for eternity]]. Sounds great, huh? [[spoiler:Except if you think back to the prologue, where we hear Demeter outright telling Hades that she's going to have her second daughter to take the goddess test and be his wife, even though eleven girls have already died in the attempt and Hades ''says'' he wants to just give up rather than see anyone else die for him. There's also the fact that the last girl who was manipulated into an arranged marriage with Hades later begged for death.]]
** [[spoiler:Throughout the story there is a lot of emphasis on the fact that being there is Kate's choice. However the reason she made the deal with Henry in the first place was to save Ava and then the reason she kept the deal was so that he could keep her mother alive and she could spend time with her before she died. Except you find out that both Ava and Diana are Goddesses and were never in any real danger. So that means that while it was technically Kate's choice, her entire choice was based on a lie.]]
** Plus the ending reveals that [[spoiler:Diana put her daughter through four years of emotional turmoil by making her think that her mother was on the verge of death for years and forcing Kate to take care of her for no reason other than to set her up for the test.]]
* The "Susannah in New York" epilogue of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series has Susannah going into an alternate reality version of New York where Eddie and Jake are still alive and in fact are brothers. She appears in Central Park at Christmas time, alternate-Eddie greets her with a cup of hot chocolate, and it's clearly supposed to be her happy ending... Except many readers feel that Susannah abandoned the quest and is now trapped in a world that isn't her own with a couple of ReplacementGoldfish who aren't really the people she loved.
* The end of ''Literature/TheDarkIsRising'' sequence is unsatisfying in several ways. The forces of the Dark have been beaten back; all the main characters are OK and have forged a close bond; Bran has grown up normal, decided to stay with his foster-father, and has realised he's attracted to Jane. But not only do five of the Six have to forget that magic exists and never see their beloved Merriman again, the lovely magic of the Light is going to withdraw from the world altogether. And poor John Rowland is going to believe that his wife has suddenly died (which is presented as better than knowing [[spoiler:she was an agent of the Dark]]). Will gets to remember everything because he's an Old One, but he'll have nobody to talk to about it for most of the time.
* Chris Adrian's ''TheChildrensHospital'' ends with every single adult left on Earth dying, as the global flooding secedes and the children leave the eponymous hospital to inherit their new Earth. The final image is the main character screaming as her newborn child is taken away and she dissolves into ash. But, uh, at least the kids got their paradise?
** Lampshaded throughout the book by the narrator who, as an angel who was once human, is supposed to wholeheartedly accept the end of the world as righteous, but can't quite do so.
* Whatever Evelyn Waugh may say about God's love and the power for redemption in ''Literature/BridesheadRevisited'', the facts remain as such: Sebastian's a hopeless alcoholic, Julia and Charles, having gone through with their respective divorces, decide never to see each other again, and the entire world is going to be inherited by the likes of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mottram]] and [[TheScrappy Hooper]].
* ''TheSoldierSon''. After almost three books of stressing how bad it is for Nevare's soul to be split, he is finally reunited with Soldier's Boy and absorbed by an ancestor tree, together with his beloved Lisana. Is the end? No, he is split again. Admittedly, that half gets back together with Amzil, marries her and inherits the Nevare estate, but wasn't it bad to have one's personality split? Other issues concern the discovery of gold that draw the Gernians away from the Speck lands: how long before they'll return? And finally, Nevare completely destroys the source of the Plainspeople's magic in the process, sealing their fate. This is given almost no attention.
* Some of the "good" endings in the ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' books merely consists in the main character surviving, stopping the BigBad temporarily, or implying that ''perhaps'' you will have success in the future, leaving many plot points unsolved.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* ''{{Dollhouse}}'' has a BittersweetEnding at best, but some people are divided on the "Happy Ending" for Echo and Paul, in which Paul dies, but Alpha makes an imprint of Paul's personality for Echo to upload into herself. FridgeLogic questions whether it would be so great to [[SharingABody share a body with your true love]], if Paul would be more significant than [[MindHive the other hundred or so personalities]] inside Echo, and some just didn't like the pairing, which started out as Paul LovingAShadow and TheDulcineaEffect and became serious offscreen during a three-month TimeSkip.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'''s finale is both very religious and very LuddWasRight, pissing off most of the sci-fi fans who'd watched it (if only because without modern technology, most of the survivors would have greatly shortened life expectancies and greatly reduced quality of life.)
* ''KamenRiderDecade'' does this in a couple of arcs due to forgetting WhatHappenedToTheMouse. Yaaay, the Grongi are defeated, and all the millions of people who have been turned into Grongi have ceased to exist when the main villain was destroyed! Aweso- wait, ''what?'' Using the secret weapon that's the last hope of the few surviving humans on the world where monsters and dark Riders rule, the Riders defeat a few enforcers before leaving forever, taking said device with them! New toy, yay-- wait, ''what?''
* ''{{Seinfeld}}'' is an example for an esoteric nonplussing ending. Larry David likely only intended to write an episode that is absurdist UpToEleven, and a setting to have a large number of characters BackForTheFinale, and when talking about the finale, had never hinted at any [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic intentions]]. However, the four main characters being sent to prison resulted in fans being unhappy, or stipulating that the show was intended to be about [[{{Fanon}} jerkasses]].
* ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'': Spinner and Emma's [[spoiler:AccidentalMarriage (and deciding to STAY MARRIED)]]. Especially frustrating, since the characters [[StrangledByTheRedString hardly even interacted before that]].
* The finale of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''. The writers were actually booed at the final screening.
* The finale of ''Series/{{Lost}}'' could certainly be seen this way. Everybody from the Island remains friends in the afterlife, except for the ones you don't see for some reason. Okay, fine. But why does Sayid have to be with Shannon and lose Nadia? Why can't Locke stay with Helen? Christian Shepherd seems to have dictatorial powers over the lives of people he didn't even really know.
* Happens in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Love and Monsters." One of the characters becomes a face on a paving slab ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]) and she cannot move, eat or feel. [[FridgeHorror She also will never age.]] This is presented as a good fate for the character.
* The TV movie ''Ice Angel'' is about a male hockey player (Matt) who dies and is brought back to life in the body of female figure skater (Sarah) so he can win an Olympic gold medal on the ice. He is suprised and unhappy at his unasked for GenderBender but adjusts to his new life and learns to let go of his old girlfriend and friends who have moved on. As he (now she) is in the middle of winning the gold medal the two angels who have been watching over Matt mention that as soon as the performance is over 'Sarah' will forget all about being Matt. This is presented as a happy ending but comes across more like Matt - who has already his Aesop and seems content to continue life as Sarah - gets his identity erased for no good reason.
** This is true to the source of the story ''Here Comes Mr. Jordan'' where the soul and habits of the deceased do live on in the new body but they will forget all else about their adventures and time in Heaven and the Afterlife Bureaucracy. It is meant to help the soul and person go back to living a normal life.
* Depending upon whom you ask, ''{{Chuck}}''.
* GossipGirl ends with the reveal that Dan Humphrey is Gossip Girl, the blogger who stalked and terrorized the other main characters for years. That wouldn't be so bad if the main heroine and the object of his obsession, Serena, didn't consider the reveal to be the hottest thing ever since [[StalkingIsLove he did it all to get her.]] Everyone else seems fine with it too. In fact, his plan gains him the respect of all the other characters and he finally [[InWithTheInCrowd becomes one of them.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The last movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 ends in a [[HappinessIsMandatory forced triumphant cry of the high strings and the brass]], suggesting one such trope.
** Not only that, but as conductor Michael Tilson Thomas notes, he slips in a few [[TakeThat zingers]] into the final "rejoicing" flourishes. When the music reaches major chords played by the brass, Shostakovich signals a conventional ending -- but, we find out a moment later that, instead of keeping put in that resting chord, Shostakovich ''keeps pushing'' the brass section higher and higher into minor registers, before lurching heavily into a tacked on ending.
* "Judy's Turn to Cry" -- the sequel to "It's My Party And I'll Cry if I Want To" by Lesley Gore has the singer pull off OperationJealousy to get Johnny's attention back (after he came to her party with another girl). It works: Johnny decks the poor sap and ditches Judy to come back to our heroine, who now... gets the guy who abandoned her for nothing and hits people for little provocation. Great?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* ''GlengarryGlenRoss'' ends with Levene arrested for stealing the best leads from the office, but Roma is out six thousand dollars after Williamson lies about Lingk's cashed check (admittedly, Lingk was a total sucker, but it was still a fair deal), and it's likely everyone in the office is going to end up bankrupt due to slowing sales. While the play was all about the cutthroat world of business, most of the men in the office come across as fairly decent (if down on their luck) salesmen, even Levene, who the play frequently points out has a daughter he's trying to support.
* The end of ''{{Grease}}'', where Sandy [[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan remakes herself as less of a Sandra Dee innocent]] in order to win the attraction of Danny, has both its defenders and detractors. Depending on how well each individual show portrays it, either an uptight girl learns to loosen up a little in order to get the guy she's attracted to, who himself has been attempting to do the same, or else a perfectly fine woman changes herself for the worse in order to be conform with people who have acted like jerks for the past two acts.
* The opera ''{{Turandot}}''. Essentially, deposed PrinceCharming hooks up with [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen the evil queen]] (well, [[IceQueen evil princess]]), immediately after she tortures his [[IncorruptiblePurePureness loyal slave girl]] [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth to death]]. Yes, this is supposed to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone trigger]] the [[DefrostingIceQueen Defrosting of the Ice Queen]], but seriously, they get a happily-ever-after wedding hours after ''[[KarmaHoudini she tortured the best person in the whole opera to death]]'' - and nice job sending their life - and the hope of your people - into ruins, O Mighty Prince Calaf!
** In real stage time, it takes place ''minutes'' after.
* Samuel Beckett--The theater director Charles Marowitz has written in praise of Beckett's "no-bullshit optimism."
* Creator/{{Shakespeare}}'s got several of these. They're sometimes classed as "the problem plays," because it's hard to figure out what to do with them.
** The ending of ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' can be interpreted in many ways, which fall into three basic categories: A. Based on the values of the time, it's a happy ending in which an unpleasant shrew gets what's coming to her and learns a valuable lesson. B. Interpreted subversively, Katarina either learns to manipulate her husband or they come to an understanding. C. Taken literally, it's a comedy that becomes a tragedy, in which a strong-willed woman has her spirit broken by the kind of physical and psychological abuse favored by [[DomesticAbuse domestic abusers]], [[ColdBloodedTorture interrogation experts]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking members of any political party you don't like]], and [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing everyone thinks that's a good thing]].
*** It's even worse if you consider the epilogue, which often is not included. You see, there's a framing device in the play where a drunk is taken off of the street, dressed up like royalty, and shown the production of the play, all for the amusement of a nobleman. The epilogue shows that the drunk passes out, is put back in his own clothes, and left on the streets again. When he wakes up, he decides that it was all a dream and decides to use the tale of Kate and Petruchio as a lesson on how to deal with his own shrewish wife. Yeah...
*** Also, the concurrent definition of "comedy" was "a play ending with a wedding," so it's not necessarily funny.
** ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice''. Okay, this one might just be ValuesDissonance, since a Jew being forcibly converted to Christianity was considered a good thing at the time. All the same...the play is ''very'' dark for a Shakespearean comedy, prejudice seems to be a theme running through the whole story, and Shylock does get that "if you prick us, do we not bleed" speech. And, frankly, while Shylock's a terrible person, all the Christian characters in the play are greedy, unlikeable bastards. Are we really supposed to be glad they won?
*** Antonio's okay except that he's apparently abused Shylock in the street for being a usurer and a Jew for years. Bassanio is a GoldDigger and the drama is set up by his taking advantage of the fact that Antonio will [[HoYay always give him whatever he asks for]], even if it means asking for a loan off that Jew he so despises. Although interestingly, the dialogue leans toward Shylock asking the security of a useless 'pound of flesh' should Antonio default, to prove he doesn't actually ''want'' people he does business with to ruin themselves, rather than toward his hoping to get a chance to kill Antonio. Then his daughter steals everything she can lay hands on and elopes with a friend of Antonio's, and he flips out.
** ''Theatre/AllsWellThatEndsWell'' ends with the sweet, lovely and clever Helena having succeeded in forcing the young nobleman [[SpoiledBrat Bertram]] -- a snobby, childish {{Jerkass}} who hated her guts for no good reason -- to marry her. And this is clearly ''not'' just ValuesDissonance, because other characters point out that Bertram is clearly not good enough for her. But the play seems like a comedy, so...yay?
** ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure'' has the just, lawful Duke put back in power, the wicked chancellor Angelo punished and made to marry his forgotten sweetheart, and the virtuous Isabella gets to marry the Duke. Great! Except... the Duke is kind of an amoral fellow who sits back and watches his own city fall apart, any woman getting married to [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny Angelo]] should ''not'' consider that a happy ending, and Isabella is a nun-in-training who DoesNotLikeMen, loathes the thought of sex, and she and the Duke have practically no interaction before he says they'll get married.
** The ending does make it ambiguous as to whether or not Isabella actually accepts the proposal, mind.
* {{Theatre/Wicked}}, though that case might be intentional. Sure, Elphaba and Fiyero survive, but they can never come back to Oz, and Glinda is stuck as a StepfordSmiler, believing everyone she loved to be dead.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''SteambotChronicles'' can end in one of two different ways: either the villain and his right hand are killed and his plan to [[NietzscheWannabe obliterate society]] thwarted, or the player can descend into cackling supervillainy and carry out the villain's plan himself. The former is ''infinitely'' more depressing than the latter.
* ''CrusaderOfCenty'': In a game which not only [[BrokenAesop breaks its aesop, but jumps on the pieces]] a lot of time has been spent setting up that monsters aren't evil, and just want peace, except when you have to fight them, which you spend the entire game doing (as I said, really broken aesop), with scenes with them begging you to find way for humans and monsters to live in peace... You go back to before humans existed and send all the monsters off to their own world, because HumansAreBastards, and will never, ever accept them. This is meant as a happy ending, evidently.
* Like a lot of works that feature both [[RealityWarper reality warping]] and a "face reality" Aesop, ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' ends with the characters returning to the real world and facing all the problems they'd previously tried to escape from. This makes a certain degree of sense in the Japanese version, but the English translation puts less emphasis on how many people are suffering in Mewt's world, and more emphasis on the idea that perhaps said world is just as real as their own, making the whole thing somewhat pointless. What's more, Doned is still crippled.
* ''SonicAdventure'': Sonic and friends sit in the middle of Station Square, congratulating themselves on beating [[EldritchAbomination Chaos]] and stopping Eggman's evil plan...but the city has been completely destroyed, and there may be thousands, if not ''millions'' of people dead. ''[[KarmaHoudini And Eggman gets away!]]''
** If by "get away" you mean "gets his Egg Carrier 2 blown up by Perfect Chaos" then yes, he got away.
** Hang on, Eggman's evil plan was to destroy Station Square using Chaos. [[GoneHorriblyRight Which happened.]] The only thing Sonic accomplished was getting Eggman to change his mind about founding his evil empire upon its ruins, because...wait, [[IdiotBall why didn't he?]]
** When you think about it, this is particularly hard on Tails, whose character storyline ends with him saving Station Square from Eggman's "if I can't have it, no-one will!" revenge plan to nuke the place. Then again, it might be easier to rebuild from a flood than a nuke...
* The good ending of ''{{Eversion}}'' plays this for laughs--the princess turns into a monster, but the hero becomes a monster as well, and the two live happily ever after.
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar III'': After killing anyone and everyone who has ever even vaguely pissed him off until there is nothing left of the world but a charred, storm-swept wasteland, Kratos discovers that he has accidentally become the physical repository of the concept of hope, released from Pandora's Box. Instead of giving it to the ghost of Athena to rebuild mankind on her terms, he commits suicide to release it to all of mankind... The currently busy with drowning, being riddled with plagues and locust swarms, tormented by the dead returning from the graves and having no afterlife, having to escape fire falling from the sky, ravaged by constant lightning strikes and uncontrollable storms and living in a world without sunlight, order or gods of mankind. But hey, at least they have hope.
** According to IGN, the whole thing is supposed to play out as a Twisted "Comedic" Tragedy, where the main character makes all the wrong decisions; fighting the gods, killing the gods, feeding innocent people (more than one in this game) to death traps, and leaving the power vacuum without a successor. It's heavily implied that this is not any kind of happy or downer ending; Kratos WON... and that's a bad thing.
* ''AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' has a handful of initially-unrelated plotlines, chief among them a fighter pilot upset over having to retreat and abandon his family, and a refugee (who believes her fighter pilot husband was killed in the failed defense of the city) searching for her missing daughter. When allied forces finally liberate the city, are we treated to a heartwarming scene of the fighter pilot husband reunited with his refugee wife and newly-found missing daughter? [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot Nope]]. The refugee's husband is actually dead, ''and so is the fighter pilot's family'' (they were killed during the initial invasion, so have been dead [[ShootTheShaggyDog the entire time he was fighting to liberate them]]). The pilot briefly becomes a DeathSeeker, but ends up a WheelchairWoobie instead after his probably-unnecessary HeroicSacrifice [[BungledSuicide doesn't work out how he wanted]]. But wait, it's okay! The pilot meets the refugees after the war and they become each other's ReplacementGoldfish. [[SarcasmMode Hooray, happy ending]]!
* ''PokemonMysteryDungeon: Red/Blue Rescue Team'' had a very odd ending in that the player character gets a choice between going home to the family they grew up with and staying as a Pokemon. There is no option window for this, only the player character telling the other Pokemon that "I know there are people back there that love me, and that I love", and yet the player character [[IChooseToStay stays a Pokemon for the rest of their life]]. So even though the player character ''knows that they're leaving behind loved ones'', they're still going to stay as a Pokemon, even after ''dying'' (they get better, obviously), going through unimaginable amounts of Nightmare Fuel, and having the worst life ''ever''. And the 'choice' they get isn't even a real choice.
** Though there's always the chance that the player had an ''even worse life'' before then, since Gardevoir stated outright that the player character willingly wanted to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forget everything from their past life]]... which leads to the question: [[FridgeHorror What exactly happened to the player character during their time in their own period to make them willingly sacrifice their whole life for a world that they most likely had no idea about in the first place?]]
* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]]'' has a beautiful, uplifting ending...unless you play ''MajorasMask'' and prefer to take a darker interpretation of the WordOfGod stating that [=OoT=]-Link eventually becomes ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'''s Hero Shade. Things might not have gone so hot for Link after the ending...
** There's also the knowledge that even though Link went back in time and created a new timeline where Hyrule ''wasn't'' burned and conquered by Ganondorf, the original timeline is still going on, one where the people are finally free, but a lot of them are dead, the castle is completely destroyed in a lake of lava, and the Hero of Time has vanished and thus can't help them anymore, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker leading to the flooding of Hyrule when Ganondorf resurfaces]].
*** Even then, the new timeline still has to face the ravages of Ganon ''at least [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess two]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures more]] times''.
** The worst might be from ''LinksAwakening'', where our hero [[spoiler:causes a DreamApocalypse and wakes up stranded in the middle of the ocean]].
*** One would assume that the Wind Fish would be grateful enough to escort Link home...
** ''SkywardSword'' ends with Link and Zelda [[spoiler:settling down at the temple where the Triforce is stored, storing away his sword and the ability to travel to any area other than the temple grounds, saying farewell permanently not only to those who sacrificed their lives for their cause, but also the entire population of Skyloft (including her father) and ''their soul mate birds'', essentially [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl giving up every single aspect of their lives in favor of being together]]. Also, Demise's spirit lives on and he will attack many more times, but at least that's a story for prior games.]]
*** [[spoiler:When is it implied that they're saying goodbye to everyone? Zelda says that she's choosing to stay on the ground, but we see their Loftwings there (who had never been able to go below the clouds before). If anything, this implies that they're starting a civilization on the ground, but they can still go back to Skyloft anytime. Sure, Demise's spirit will live on and cause crap down the road, [[CaptainObvious which is bad]], but it's not that depressing. Things are actually very ambiguous to what actually happens]].
**** [[spoiler:The next shot after Zelda suggests remaining on the surface is their Loftwings (and by the distinctive colors, they're definitely theirs) taking off and returning to the sky without them. Loftwings are never seen again in "later" installments.]]
**** [[spoiler: Since the entire reason Skyloft was created was as a refuge for the Hylians from Demise's forces, it can be assumed that the rest of the populace followed them, leading to the founding of Hyrule - this is chronologically the first game in the series, after all. Likewise, the Loftwings are said to be born of Hylia's divine protection, so [[ButNowIMustGo their role is over]] once the surface becomes safe for the Hylians again.]]
* TheHero has beaten the BigBad in ''FragileDreams'' and is set to journey with the heroine to find other survivors in the empty world. What makes this an example is the ending dialogue features a voiceover of the aged hero, with many implications he's at the end of his life, his female companion has died and he's back to square one of being alone again. The game ends following his monologue; needless to say, players weren't exactly pleased with this outcome and the hero's statement.
* InThe1stDegree has several endings, and the best ending is to convict Tobin of first-degree murder and grand theft. It sure sounds like a happy ending. Well, until you start wondering what will happen to Ruby, Simon and Yvonne as a result of all this. The art gallery is shut down, Simon is back to his old job, Yvonne's career and reputation are probably sunk, and Ruby now has no boyfriend and it is uncertain what she is going to do now. Then again, the game is a simulation of a murder trial and it was likely trying to show that you can get the defendent punished to the full extent of the law, but the people involved in it will still be left to pick up the pieces.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', [[spoiler:Chell is finally set free by an emotionally exhausted GLaDOS and dropped off in the middle of a wheat field, the CompanionCube from the first game by her side. Good for her!...]] Except the ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' games take place in the same universe as ''HalfLife'', meaning that [[spoiler:Chell is likely now living in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by tyrannical aliens from another dimension, overrun by monsters and zombies, with no weapons or knowledge of how to handle herself in a Combine-run society.]] Given, there is some timeline confusion between ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' and ''HalfLife'', but the fact that [[spoiler:the ''Borealis'' is missing from its loading dock in ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'']] confirms the Combine Invasion has already happened in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'s'' timeline.
** [[spoiler:Hey, now, [[DevelopmentHell we may not have seen much of him]] [[VaporWare for a little while]], but have a ''little'' faith in Gordon Freeman. Seriously, the wheat field she's in looks too even and cultivated to be wrecked by the Combine or anything from Xen, and at the end of the Art Therapy DLC you can hear a man's voice yelling outside--humanity's made it. It's a BittersweetEnding, but a hopeful one.]]
** [[spoiler:Then there's GlaDOS: After a game and a half of being a murderous rogue AI, we find out she has a soft side, the recorded personality of Caroline, Cave Johnson's trusty assistant. As soon as she gets the chance, GlaDOS deletes Caroline from her mind. From her point of view this frees her from emotion and allows her to devote all of her attention to testing, but from our point of view she's just destroyed the only good thing about her.]]
*** [[spoiler:Various lines from 'Want You Gone' (the song in the credits) imply GlaDOS didn't really erase Caroline.]]
** [[spoiler:And what about {{SelfDemonstrating/Wheatley}}? Sure, he may have tried to kill Chell all through the second half of the game, but it is made very clear that he isn't ''evil'', just ''incredibly stupid''. He is also arguably one of the most charming and lovable video game characters of all time. At the end of the game he is left to drift through space forever, wishing that he just had the chance to genuinely apologize to Chell. Oh, and his only companion is a corrupt personality core whose only coherent thoughts are "Gotta go to space!" and "I'm in space!" Sure it was fun defeating Wheatley, but at what cost?]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' ends on an upbeat note, with Squall having made substantial progress in overcoming his emotional issues, Ultimecia defeated, and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Time Compression]] thus prevented. Unfortunately, the StableTimeLoop means that Ultimecia's rise in the future, and her subsequent reign of terror up until her death at the hands of the protagonists, are inevitable.
* ''Videogame/MassEffect3's'' ending, especially in its original state, was a case of this to many fans, with [[spoiler:the mass relays being destroyed and thus shattering galactic transportation and stranding much of the galaxy's combined forces on a planet that may not support food compatible with their biochemistry (assuming Earth even stays intact--MassEffect2's Arrival DLC showed that the force of an exploding relay would also destroy the system it was in)]], the [[spoiler:destruction of the Citadel]], and [[spoiler:the ''Normandy's'' crew being stranded on an alien world where, depending on local vegetation, some or all of the crew would starve to death]]. The free Extended Cut DLC, however, clarified the endings and also modified the cinematics. In three of them, [[spoiler:the mass relays, previously obliterated in the originals endings, were damaged but quickly repaired, the ''Normandy'' was repaired quickly, the Citadel, also previously destroyed but left intact in the DLC, was rebuilt, and galactic society recovered and rebuilt itself, possibly with the help of either repurposed Reapers (in the Synthesis ending) or an ascended Shepard (in the Control ending)]]. In the fourth, [[spoiler:the galaxy falls to the Reapers, but through Shepard's efforts the next civilizations in the subsequent cycle are able to win against the Reapers]].
** There also isn't much reason given for why the [[spoiler:Synthesis]] ending is better than the [[spoiler:Control]] ending (based on the assumption that the ending that requires more War Assets is the better one). All that really seems to be different is everyone [[spoiler:having glowing green eyes]] and [[spoiler:EDI]] [[ShowDontTell informing]] the viewer that [[spoiler:there aren't going to be any more wars]] without giving any reason for why this is so.
* Depends a little bit on your interpertation of the epilogue in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. If you think/support [[spoiler:Luke coming home, and Tears' tears being from joy,]] then you win. If you support [[spoiler:Asch coming home, and Tears' tears being from the realization that she'll never again see the man she loved,]] then this fits it pretty well. Either way, though, [[spoiler:Natalia has lost someone close to her]]. You ''can'' TakeAThirdOption and choose to believe [[spoiler:the person who came back was a SplitPersonalityMerge of Luke and Asch, [[LoveTriangle either]] of [[OneTrueThreesome which]] leaves the ending happy but complicated.]]
* In ''MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'', Max lays in the destroyed Inner Circle manor and mentions a dream about his dead wife, who is dead but "that was alright". But the closest thing he had to a ''living'' spouse/girlfriend/what have you is dead, anyone who can explain anything is dead including the extremely powerful Alfred Woden, who had connections to senators. His death, and the death of Detective Winterson are going to be in all likelyhood put squarely on Max's shoulders. So not only is he going to be a scapegoat for the death of these powerful people, but also justly prosecuted for the death of a detective with a ''blind son'', who is now an ''orphan''. An Ex-Cop is going to be sent to jail, and we all know how well they go over there. This was probably intentional given the narrative, but it's something of a miracle that a sequel was produced at all that did not involve Max getting shanked to death in the first thirty minutes.
** If you finish the game on the hardest difficulty, the final Noir cutscene ends with Mona waking up, implying that this could be an EarnYourHappyEnding.
** The third game runs with the "Mona is dead" ending as canon and goes out of its way to point out how unhappy Max was, with or without her. EnforcedTrope?
* VideoGame/MOTHER3 ends with the corrupted world being destroyed by a benevolent EldritchAbomination, and then cuts to total blackness. However, you can still walk around in it, and you soon discover that everyone made it out alive. You can talk to the other characters, who are apparently right there with you, and most of them seem relieved that they no longer have to live in that [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack of a world]]. However, given the fact that you're all in a black void, and the ''world was just destroyed'', you all may very well be ''floating through space''. Plus, nothing can change the fact that Lucas's Mother and Brother are dead.
* The first ending to the original [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts Kingdom Hearts]] mildly fits this trope, as the ending was intended to be bittersweet either way. The final cut-scene shows Sora and Mickey sealing the door to (then referred to as) Kingdom Hearts with Riku's help, and Sora has a sort of spiritual talk with love-interest Kairi, desperately getting out that he will indeed find his way back to her somehow, before they are symbolically and spiritually separated as the fragments of worlds realign to their original places, and [[TheChosenOne Sora]] has saved the universe! FridgeHorror sets in when one realizes that a defenseless best friend Riku and King Mickey have been trapped permanently in a dimension populated entirely by an army of Heartless monsters, and that Sora and the party are either in some zero-space between worlds (since they were not restored to their "proper homes" as the end montage shows for everyone else, even making a point of showing Kairi alone on the island), or at worst, since their final showdown was on a patchwork planet made up of what was left of the worlds devoured by Heartless, they may have been left in cold, dark space to die without a planetary body to sit on, and their spaceship, made up of the old barriers between worlds? Yeah, that barrier has been restored, presumably with their spaceship.
** This ending disturbed the American representatives at Disney so much, that in the American release, a game-footage Coda was tacked onto the end of the stunning FMV ending, signaling that Sora and co. may not be home, but they're at least alive and "looking for Riku and the King" implying they too survived.
** At the time, Kingdom Hearts was a stand alone Square game never intended to become the multi-part, multi-platform series it's known as today. When that decision was made, Square released a THIRD version, Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, which attempted to lay out explanations and Chekov's Guns for establishing why everyone didn't die after the final battle, which are still (mostly) considered canon.
* VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2 gives us The Liberator Ending. You decide to kill Polaris. The only problem is that you've removed all supernatural influence from the world, even the good ones. The void isn't undone, leaving only Tokyo and a sea of undrinkable water. You pretty much doomed what's left of humanity to slowly starve to death, and yet the game treats this ending as a good thing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In SilverChaos, Adonis and Might have to die in order to be together, then reincarnate and lose the memory of each other. A small déja vu will be left, though.
* In ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' the upbeat "love conquers all" vibe becomes FridgeHorror when you realise [[spoiler:WordOfGod has outright stated that Junpei not only will never, ''ever'' find Akane again, but he'll also never give up and her, and spends the rest of his life futilely trying to be with her again.]]
** And guess what sequel game ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' confirms? [[spoiler:That Junpei ''does'' destroy his own life trying to find Akane again, that he endangers his adopted son doing so, and that after he finally reunites with her he realises that the innocent Akane he knew is gone]].
* The True End of ''KaraNoShoujo'' seems to have been shooting for the bittersweet feeling that most True Ends have, but fridge logic kind of shoots it down. [[spoiler:First of all, about half the cast is dead. Second, Reiji's sort of girlfriend Toko is among them. Third, he's still alone. All he has that he didn't have before is closure over his dead fiancee.]]
* In-universe in ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'', everyone complains about Strong Bad's ending for ''Dangeresque 3''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Played with in ''TheDementedCartoonMovie'', which shows the caption "HAPPY END!" over an EarthShatteringKaboom.
-->'''Guy in Green Chair''': "Happy end"? What the hell is "happy end"?
* The ending of ''Theatre/{{Starship}}'' features Bug [[spoiler:accepting his bug form and getting his true love February, Tootsie and Mega-Girl getting married and everyone saving the bug world from the G.L.E.E. Happy right? Well, what happens when the G.L.E.E. comes back and investigates? Where do the Rangers go from here, are they stuck on the planet? Mega-Girl is still a robot. So what happens when Tootsie ages and dies while she stays the same? And Bug is still a bug so he and February have, at most, probably a week together.]]
* Cracked [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16570_the-6-most-depressing-happy-endings-in-movie-history.html has]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20108_6-happy-movie-endings-that-actually-ruin-heros-life.html numerous]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19536_6-happy-endings-that-accidentally-screwed-movies-hero.html articles]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18684_6-movie-heroes-who-actually-made-things-worse.html that]][[LampshadeHanging point out]] that several films has [[DesignatedHero protagonists]] that believed they had done the right thing, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but actually screwed up badly]] [[FridgeHorror if you think about it]] .
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The ''[[TheRenandStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy]]'' two-parter "Stimpy's Big Day". Stimpy [[CelebrityIsOverrated gives up his celebrity status and fame]] to return to living with Ren. After a tearful reunion, Ren [[WhatTheHellHero smacks the everloving hell out of Stimpy]] because [[EasyComeEasyGo he also "gave away" his vast multimillion dollar fortune.]]
** Actually, ''TheRenAndStimpyShow'' is ''stacked'' with these. The banned "Man's Best Friend" ends with Ren beating his owner George Liquor to a bloody pulp with an oar... after which he commends Ren for being such a good guard dog and the cartoon closes with them dancing along with Stimpy to upbeat Raymond Scott music.
** In "Rubber Nipple Salesmen", the two finally manage to sell some rubber nipples after many failed attempts. The surburbanite couple that purchased them kicks Ren and Stimpy out the door and on the backs of a couple of crazed bulls who then ride off into the distance.
*** That would better fall under GainaxEnding, though.
*** It's a ShoutOut to Film/TheThreeStooges, for what that's worth.
* Lampshaded on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', at the end of the episode "Rosebud."
-->'''Homer:''' Well, we didn't get any money, but Mr. Burns got what he wanted... Marge, I'm confused. Is this a happy ending or a sad ending?\\
'''Marge:''' It's an ending. That's enough.
** "Love is a Many Strangled Thing". We are genuinely expected to consider it a good thing that Homer and Bart destroyed an innocent man's life. You'd think they'd at least lampshade it, but nope.
* ''HomeMovies'' - in-show example in "Kafka: The Musical" [[spoiler:"Hello Franz Kafka! My name is God! I think you are going to like it here!"]]
* The ending for the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Tree Trunks" ends with the eponymous character of the episode, an elderly, grandmotherly elephant, finally eating the crystal apple she traveled alongside Finn and Jake, who kept [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter putting their lives on the line]] to prevent any of the [[EverythingTryingToKillYou many monsters in the Evil Forest]] from harming her. As soon as Finn asks her how it tastes, she suddenly explodes. However, after a few seconds of Finn and Jake [[HeroicBSOD staring blankly]], it soon cuts to Tree Trunks merrily dancing along inside the crystal. [[SubvertedTrope Later Subverted]] in Crystals Have Power when we learn what really happened to her.
* The infamous ''CasperTheFriendlyGhost'' cartoon "There's Good Boos Tonight" has Casper befriending a cute little fox, only for the fox to be killed by hunters... but it's okay, the fox comes back as a ghost so they can be together forever. To some this makes it suck because it effectively renders the pathos over the fox's death meaningless. To others this makes it suck because he's still dead (in the way "Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl" is far from a happy ending.)
** Casper's technically "dead" too, so it's anyone's call.
* Ben10Omniverse: the Inkursian invasion Story Arc is concluded in ''Frogs of War'', where it turns out all that happened was a BatmanGambit from [[DaddysLittleVillain Princess]] [[MagnificentBitch Attea]] all along to [[TheStarscream overthrow]] her father [[TheEmperor Emperor Milleus]]. By the end of the episode, she agrees to leave Earth with the Inkursian Empire in exchange for the Plumbers keeping her daddy in custody, which is presented as an acceptable, if not entirely happy, ending. The thing is, in previous episodes, it had been clearly etablished that Attea was ''much'' worse than her father, being an AxeCrazy PsychoticManchild motivated by RapePillageAndBurn whereas her father was a more [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]] GalacticConqueror. In fact, she almost blew up Earth ForTheEvulz in her introduction episode. Now, granted, she is now sort of in a DatingCatwoman situation with Ben, so she will most likely avoid attacking Earth again, but this means [[FridgeHorror the heroes basically unleashes her in charge of an Empire that can blow up planets with a switch in the entire Galaxy]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' episode entitled "Madame Blueberry" is surprisingly shocking and rather brutal, considering how light-hearted the series was at this point. The episode details of how the titular character goes around buying things in hoping that it won't make her feel sad anymore. However by the time [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre she learns that she just needs to be thankful for what she has already]], her own house gets destroyed, all of her possessions become worthless, and she herself becomes homeless. What on Earth you can still be thankful for at that point is beyond this troper.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' ends with Moses having freed the slaves from Egypt. The final scene is Moses walking back to the Israelites, having made the Ten Commandments. Anyone who is well versed in the story of Moses knows [[FromBadToWorse this is the point where things start going downhill for them.]]
[[/folder]]

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