alt title(s): Mega Happy Ending
Willy Wonka: But, Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted.
Charlie: What's that?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after.
—
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
So, we've had a whole love story. The main couple have passed through all the possible obstacles separating them: physical distance, a
Love Triangle, a properly jealous villain (
The Libby, maybe), maybe even the
Big Bad (common in epic fairy tales). Now, they are
kissing each other
at sunset as the very well known words are narrated:
"
And they lived Happily Ever After..."
Normally, that's the end.
However, this ending is so
classic it's sometimes considered a
Discredited Trope, or even a
Dead Horse Trope. It is often a subject to
parody, and is frequently avoided in favor a
Twist Ending.
Despite being one of
The Oldest Ones In The Book, this trope is still used more frequently than you'd think. Many audiences simply
want a
Happy Ending because it makes them feel good.
True art may be angsty, but
Angst Aversion is also a fact of life. Everyone has their own favorite spot on the
Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism, and the Happily Ever After ending is meant to appeal to those who prefer the more idealistic side of things.
The original source of the
Happily Ever After endings, the
Fairy Tale, often dealt with the end of the evil characters, with great finality and with more details than the hero and heroine's happiness. The
Wicked Stepmother arrives at
Snow White's wedding, whereupon she is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes and dance until she dies, and this is an utterly typical fairy tale ending.
See also
True Loves Kiss,
Died Happily Ever After,
Babies Ever After,
Dance Party Ending. Contrast
Downer Ending and
Bittersweet Ending, the cruellest examples of which make us
think they're going to be a case of this trope before yanking the rug out from under the audience.
In more modern works, even a straight
Happily Ever After can have the rug pulled out from under it in the sequel, in which we catch up with
Prince Charming and his princess and find that they're getting on each other's nerves and
have to fall in love all over again
As this is an ending trope, unmarked spoilers abound.
Examples
Fan Fiction
Film
- Titanic The Legend Goes On has a Happily Ever After ending. However, because it's based on real-life event, it can be considered a true Wall Banger.
- Subverted in the film adaptation of The Tale Of Despereaux, as Narrator gives the epilogue about how everything was put right and notes that normally, she would note that everyone lived happily ever after. However, she then remarks "but what fun is that?" as you see Despereaux gliding away for his next adventure.
- A bittersweet variation on the standard appears in Brotherhood of the Wolf, in which the narrator admits that he does not actually know what happened to the hero and his love interest, "but it pleases me to think that they were happy." The audience never finds out whether the final scene of the two living happily together is the truth or merely the narrator's fantasy.
- The film adaptation of Stardust seemed to be headed to a "happily ever after" ending, but the ending turned out to be even happier, as the lead couple get transformed into stars when they reach old age, enabling them to truly live "happily ever after" (or at least for several billion more years).
- This is actually a Double Subversion: the narrator notes that "no man can live forever . . . except he who possesses the heart of a star. And Yvaine had giver hers to Tristan completely."
- Enchanted: naturally, the Power Of Love prevails over the modern world.
- Wayne's World lampshaded this trope by initially ending with a Downer Ending, then switching to a Scooby Doo ending, then finally settling on "The Mega Happy Ending" in which Wayne wins the heart of Cassandra, Garth gets the "dream woman", and Russel and one of Garth's friends discover "platonic love can exist between two grown men". The sequel does the exact same thing, with a sad ending in which Wayne and Garth die of thirst, a Thelma And Louise ending, and another "Mega Happy Ending" with all the bands arriving at Waynestock and everyone reuniting again at the successful event.
- Played with in The Illusionist. The two lovers would seem to get a happy ending, but it could also have been Inspector Uhl's hopeful imagining of how the titular character could have pulled off his greatest magic trick in order to be reunited with his beloved.
Literature
- The Discworld novels often deconstruct this rather fiercely, especially Witches Abroad. While many end happily, it's the "ever after" part that doesn't hold up past the start of the next book.
- Subverted in The Princess Bride: the narrator's father said that the characters 'lived happily ever after,' but when the narrator gets around to reading the book himself as an adult, he finds out that it's actually an open ending with the success of the escape left in doubt. The movie adaptation, however, plays this trope straight.
- Regardless of what some fans think about it, the Harry Potter epilogue shows this happening to the heroes.
- Subverted in Atonement, in which the narrator Briony, who pulled an I Should Write A Book About This, says she wanted to give her sister and her lover a happy ending, but in reality both are dead.
- Subverted in Candide. The title character has reunited with his love and Pangloss goes on another diatribe about how this is the best of all possible worlds. Only the girl is sunburned, leathery, and peevish from outdoor labor and, with all the tragedy Candide gamely suffers throughout the story, he politely tells Pangloss to shove it.
- Most Xanth books end like this, at least for the major protagonists, though even people who've had their happy endings sometimes get into an adventure again, usually because of an unrelated problem.
- Exaggerated in Tom Holt's Flying Dutch. Happily Ever After really means something when the elixir of life is a major plot point.
LiveActionTV
Theater
- A classic subversion is found in the play The Fantasticks. Act One concludes with a classic Happy Ending, with the fathers ending their "feud" and approving their children's romance after the boy rescues the girl from a (staged) abduction. Act Two starts as reality begins to set in.
- Into the Woods has a similar setup.
Video Games
- In Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (also known as Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk) there are three possible endings. In one, the "good ending" (dubbed "the mega-happy ending" by the author of this statement) Emil and Marta end up together, through a complicated series of circumstances. Emil's personality is separated from that of Ratatosk, and that personality is allowed to live his life as a human.
- The same applies to the Cave Story. Aside from the "good" ending, there is also a Guide Dang It "best" ending, which stops the island from falling and shows Curly, Quote, and Balrog flying off into the sunset.
- Played very straight in one ending of The Bards Tale. It's the evil ending. The good ending requires sacrificing wealth, power, and the hottest body in the world to save the world, with no reward or even recognition for doing so.
- The implied ending for Final Fantasy VIII, with Squall and Rinoa kissing on the balcony of Garden as it sails off in the middle of the night.
Western Animation
- Pretty much everything Disney does.
- WALL-E: Played straight as the love-struck robots kiss at the end while the humans rediscover their humanity. The epilogue shows human civilization advancing back to full glory.
- Avatar The Last Airbender: After some of the darker undertones of the series, the ending is downright saccharine.
- Subverted in two South Park episodes, dropping a bridge on a character each time:
Web Original
- Mike Nelson has inverted this trope a couple of times in his Riff Trax of movies. One example is his Riff of Road House where he goes into detail during the closing credits about how all the character's lives go horribly wrong after the movie's ending.
