As this is an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Times where the protagonist doesn't get together with whomever they've been pursuing in Western Animation.
- 6Teen: Jude with Starr when the latter decided to go goth.
- The final episode of Adventure Time not only doesn't have Finn hook up with anyone, but Simon loses Betty who sacrifices herself. Subverted in the post-finale comics: the Season 11 comic implies that Finn and Huntress Wizard are still dating while Marcy and Simon ends with Simon and Betty being reunited thanks to Hunson.
- This is taken even further in Adventure Time: Distant Lands where the question of whether Finn can hold a lasting relationship becomes a secret he literally takes to his grave, with his adventure in the afterlife having no mention of any spouse and focusing exclusively on his relationship with Jake (Worse yet, it's stated in Together Again that Finn never truly got over Jake's passing and became a minor case of a Death Seeker, and who knows how that affected his ability to have a partner).
- Steve from American Dad! is a poster boy for this trope as the episodes where he tries to get the girl always ends like this because Status Quo Is God. His longest relationship is with Debbie who dumped him in "Bar Mitzvah Hustle" (twice). When he dates Akiko (Toshi's sister), she disappears without mention in the next episodes and Steve has gone back to being single.
- Batman Beyond: Throughout the DC Animated Universe, Bruce Wayne has had many love interests: Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Zatanna (one-sided only, Bruce always considered them Just Friends), Talia Al-Ghul, Andrea Beaumont, Wonder Woman, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl... He doesn't end up with any of them and remains a single, old man.Bruce Wayne: When I was young, women used to throw themselves at my feet all the time.
Terry McGinnis: What did you do?
Bruce Wayne: Step over them.
Terry McGinnis: Smooth.
Bruce Wayne: I thought so. - A gender-reversed version happens in Family Guy with Meg twice with both Joe's son and the nudist boy. She does get Neil but then drives him away when he proves annoying.
- In Gargoyles, the young trio vie for the affections of Angela until it gets irritating that she demands they stop, roaring "The winner does not get to keep me!" Ultimately, she falls for Broadway, leaving Brooklyn heartbroken while Lexington is occupied elsewhere.
- The last episode of Gravity Falls doesn't show Dipper hooking up with anybody. There were already episodes devoted to the Ship Sinking of him with Wendy and Candy.
- The Legend of Korra: Mako messes up both his relationships with Korra and Asami by the end of book 2. So much so that by the end of the Grand Finale, he's the only one without a girlfriend of the main group. His brother Bolin ends up with Opal. Even Korra and Asami have girlfriends: each other.
- At the end of Regular Show, Mordecai doesn't end with either Margaret or Cloudy Jay, partly due to the former focusing on her career and the latter breaking things off when she thinks Mordecai might still have a feeling for Margaret (ironically when he was trying to confess his feelings for her during Muscle Man's wedding). Partly due to the whole being unwillingly blasted off into space for several years to save the universe. Once they return to Earth, he decides to focus on his own career as an artist and meets a bat woman during one of his art exhibits. The finale seeing that he ultimately married her and had many children.
- Samurai Jack: Jack and Ashi fall in love, but him killing her father Aku in the past causes her to fade from existence.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Shaggy and Velma have hooked up prior to the series' beginning, but he breaks it off with her when he thinks it means it'll jeopardize his and Scooby's friendship. She remains quite bitter about this for a while. This also happened with Ricky Owens and Cassidy Williams (a.k.a. Mr. E and Angel Dynamite), but in the Grand Finale's new timeline, they are Happily Married.
- Peter in The Spectacular Spider-Man, due to premature cancellation. The season two finale ends with Gwen remaining with Harry out of pity.
- Spider-Man (1981): The last episode "Under the Wizard's Spell", Spidey gets close with Inhuman Medusa and the two share a kiss at the end. She has to return home, leaving Peter heartbroken.
- Lampshaded in Spider-Man: The Animated Series at the end of the episode that introduced Kraven, where Peter complains to himself that it's supposed to be the hero (him) that gets the girl, not the reformed villain (Kraven).
- Beast Boy and Cyborg in Teen Titans. With Beast Boy: first Terra had a Face–Heel Turn; then a Heel–Face Turn that resulted in her being turned to stone; then she may or may not have been brought back to life, but either way Beast Boy lets her go. With Cyborg: he and Sarasim do kiss, but he's transported back into the future soon after since they do come from different times. He knows that she survived the battle, though. In the Teen Titans Go! tie-in comics, however, Cyborg does gain a girlfriend in Sarah, a caretaker for a group of handicapped kids, both of which are first seen in the episode "The Sum of His Parts."
- Played for Drama in Thunder Cats 2011 for Rebel Prince and royal heir Lion-O.
- He develops a crush on Cheetara, a woman he discovers is a member of his Church Militant Praetorian Guard, he realizes his Lancer brother Tygra, also has feelings for her. As they set off on a shared journey, the two develop a passive-aggressive, increasingly toxic Sibling Triangle rivalry for her affections to which she remains largely oblivious, with both brothers interpreting the attention she pays Lion-O as romantic interest. After they come to blows over her, Cheetara takes Tygra aside and apologizes for failing to confess her feelings. She and Tygra share a childhood history, and she's carried a torch ever since he did her a favor that helped her join the Clericy. They kiss just as Lion-O walks into view, confident he's avoided a prophecy foretelling Tygra's betrayal.
- He attempts to move on when he meets Pumyra. Though their relationship is rocky at best, as she originally blames Lion-O for the fall of Thundera, he's able to help bring out her good side. As time progresses, the two become close. However, it's revealed she faked her budding relationship and is working for Mumm-Ra to kill Lion-O, her vengeance being more important. He's heartbroken afterwards.
- Word of God says had the show continued, he would have found love with an aged-up Wilykit.
- Total Drama:
- Cody loses Gwen to another guy twice. It's possible he Hooks Up Afterwards with Sierra, though at the end of season three he insists they remain Just Friends.
- Dave in Pahkitew. Especially after finding out that the "girl" (Sky) already has a boyfriend, upon which his Sanity Slippage gets even worse than it already was.
