History Main / BelatedHappyEnding

* In ''ComicBook/AdventureTime'', the defeat of the EldritchAbomination LegionOfDoom in the "Dungeon Masters" arc releases Gata, Finn's and Jake's [[RememberTheNewGuy erased adopted sister]] from an earlier arc, from her status as a doomed ApocalypseMaiden and allows her to fully exist without causing horrible consequences, although it doesn't appear that the other characters recover their memories of their previous times with her.

* ''Literature/WordOfHonor'': Many thought that Episode 36 was the series' finale, making the show end with the main characters' deaths. However, the bonus episode, which is taken as Episode 37 or epilogue, turns out to be the true ending for the series[[note]]supported by the fact that the thanks to the author is in it, and not Episode 36. It does not help that this episode was not announced, nor is it available on Netflix.[[/note]] and shows the protagonists have become immortal and are living HappilyEverAfter.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy.'' To start, Creator/DouglasAdams had expressed the desire to continue after ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''' DownerEnding, but AuthorExistenceFailure caught up with him. One of his acquaintances, Creator/EoinColfer, was then given the rights to finish it by Adams' widow, and the book, ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'', ends on a fairly happy ending compared to the previous one.

Years pass. Then the author decides to return to the story, and a sequel or semi-sequel is released. It turns out Bob did win, Alice did make it out alive, the world found out about the truth, and everyone got their happy ending. This isn't just WordOfGod -- the sequel itself shows us what happened after the end of the first story.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' ended with a ton of unanswered questions and offscreen happenings, namely who Negi liked and how the [[BigBad Lifemaker]] was defeated respectively. The StealthSequel ''Manga/UQHolder'' has answered most of the lingering plot threads and gave definitive answers to who Negi was attracted to and showed how the Lifemaker was ultimately taken care of.

* Back in 2006 [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Asatsuki_Dou Asatsuki Dou]] released a horribly depressing ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' doujin called "Happiness". Not quite two years later they released "Happy End", which exists entirely to give "Happiness" a happy ending.
* For ''Manga/MyHeroAcademiaVigilantes'' in ''FanFic/CrimsonAndEmerald'' Kouichi married Tensei and joined him as a sidekick in Idaten. Pop☆Step is poached from Idaten as sidekick for Hawks, which means she's on her way to fame as she's his top sidekick.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'': While the original game concluded rather bittersweetly, with the protagonist [[spoiler: [[ButNowIMustGo leaving Inaba, possibly forever, with the reassurance that neither he nor the friends he made would ever forget their happy times together]]]], subsequent releases, from ''Arena'' to ''The Golden'' have all-but reversed that initial conclusion by allowing the Protagonist to repeatedly visit Inaba and generally keep in touch with everyone even years later, confirming his lifelong friendships with all involved.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' has Armaldo, who last seen in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' being arrested as an outlaw and forced to give up teaching Igglybuff exploring, now living a free and honest life as an explorer and befriended another Igglybuff as shown in his rescue mission.

* ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun'' ends with the [[BigBad Stone-Like]], having already wiped out all life on Earth save for a few survivors who fled Earth for a year, wiping out two of those remaining survivors, forcing the two {{Player Character}}s and their robot companion to flee into the past, where they too get killed by the Stone-Like and the robot creates clones of the protagonists to repopulate the Earth, knowing full well that the cycle will repeat again. In ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'', its protagonists commit a HeroicSacrifice to finally destroy the Stone-Like and put an end to the cycle.

* For ''Manga/VigilanteMyHeroAcademiaIllegals'' in ''FanFic/CrimsonAndEmerald'' Kouichi married Tensei and joined him as a sidekick in Idaten. Pop☆Step is poached from Idaten as sidekick for Hawks, which means she's on her way to fame as she's his top sidekick.

* ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun]] ends with the [[BigBad Stone-Like]], having already wiped out all life on Earth save for a few survivors who fled Earth for a year, wiping out two of those remaining survivors, forcing the two {{Player Character}}s and their robot companion to flee into the past, where they too get killed by the Stone-Like and the robot creates clones of the protagonists to repopulate the Earth, knowing full well that the cycle will repeat again. In ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'', its protagonists commit a HeroicSacrifice to finally destroy the Stone-Like and put an end to the cycle.

** Related to the above, we only found out Ramza and Alma survived the events of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' '''15 years''' after the game's initial release, courtesy of [[https://twitter.com/YasumiMatsuno/status/1096199010002456576 a Twitter post]] [[WordOfGod Yasumi Matsuno made]] on Valentine's Day 2012.

** Related to the above, we only found out Ramza and Alma survived the events of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' '''15 years''' after the game's initial release, courtesy of a [[WordOfGod Twitter post Yasumi Matsuno made]] on Valentine's Day 2012.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'': While the original game concluded rather bittersweetly, with the protagonist [[spoiler: [[ButNowIMustGo leaving Inaba, possibly forever, with the reassurance that neither he nor the friends he made would ever forget their happy times together]]]], subsequent releases, from ''Arena'' to ''The Golden'' have all-but reversed that initial conclusion by allowing the Protagonist to repeatedly visit Inaba and generally keep in touch with everyone even years later, confirming his lifelong friendships with all involved].

* The ending of ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' was fairly ambiguous, but then the sixth movie came out, showing that everyone did, indeed, reunite with their Digimon. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, multiple Drama CDs [[NoExportForYou not released outside of Japan]] ultimately declare ''Runaway Locomon'' non-canon with the Tamers only reuniting temporarily with their digimon in 2018, and even then Takato has gone missing and they have to use a digital clone.]]

* The ending of ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' was fairly ambiguous, but then the sixth movie came out, showing that everyone did, indeed, reunite with their Digimon.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'''s DLC ''Trespasser'' gives one to counter the DownerEnding that ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' ends with: [[spoiler:Varric inadvertently ends up becoming Viscount of Kirkwall when his complaints about one of his schemes being stymied by there being no official Viscount in the town and the complaint being misinterpreted as a volunteering for the post, and, depending on the state of things with the other [=DA2=] companions, his auspices give them a chance of a good life.]]

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' ended with a ton of unanswered questions and offscreen happenings, namely who Negi liked and how the [[BigBad Lifemaker]] was defeated respectively. The StealthSequel ''Manga/UQHolder'' has answered most of the lingering plot threads and gave definitive answers to who Negi was attracted to and showed how the Lifemaker was ultimately taken care of.

* The film adaptation of ''Film/TheGiver'' confirms that there was life beyond the dystopia featured in the book and Jonas joined them. It also gives the people of the dystopia back their memories, providing a happy ending for them as well. See the literature folder for a different take on the series.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy.'' To start, Creator/DouglasAdams had expressed the desire to continue after ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''' DownerEnding, but AuthorExistenceFailure caught up with him. One of his acquaintances, Creator/EoinColfer, was then given the rights to finish it by Adams' widow, and the book, ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'', ends on a fairly happy ending compared to the previous one.
* A [[TrilogyCreep sequel]] to ''Literature/TheDarkswordTrilogy'' was written a few years after the series was completed, in which [[spoiler: Simkin]] turns out to be alive, the war is finally settled, and Joram gets to finish all of his unfinished business.

* ''Literature/{{Blindness}}'': One person regained her sight in the end of the novel, but the sequel takes place years after forgetting the whole incident.

* In Goethe's ''Faust'', Mephisto takes Faust with him at the end, while Gretchen dies. In the sequel, Faust gets saved by... supernatural means.

* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Marshall's boss Arthur Hobbs lost his beloved dog Tugboat to his wife when they got a divorce, which he didn't take very well in season 6. We find out that by the time that [[spoiler: Robin and Barney were engaged]], he had gotten back custody of Tugboat.

* The Doctor and River Song's relationship in ''Series/DoctorWho'' ultimately has a BittersweetEnding -- the first time he meets her as Ten is the last time she meets him; their relationship hasn't happened yet on his end. He manages to upload her into the Library after her death, and from there his Eleventh self learns how she came to exist, fall in love with him, and so forth. But by the time his televised tenure is over, there is one key event not revealed -- the circumstances of his ''second-to-last'' meeting with her, a dinner date at the Singing Towers of Darillium. It was suggested that this happened offscreen, but two-plus years after the last story to feature her ("The Name of the Doctor", the Series 7 finale) came the ChristmasEpisode "The Husbands of River Song" (which aired post-Series 9). This episode reveals that Eleven kept putting off the date; rather, the '''Twelfth''' Doctor fulfills that meeting...in fact, he engineers it (and the circumstances of her being uploaded) based on the knowledge he's had since "Silence in the Library" when a starliner they happen to be on crashes on Darillium. And a night on Darillium lasts '''24 years''', so River Song finally has a full measure of happiness with her "sweetie" at last, fulfilling this trope -- in fact, the episode ends on the text "And they lived HappilyEverAfter...", though by way of acknowledging the fundamental bittersweetness of it all, the words dissolve first to "And they lived happily", and then to just "happily".
* The cancellation of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' after its third season didn't leave much room for any resolution, let alone a happy one. Six years later, nearly [[TimeSkip nine years have passed]] in-universe when Veronica returns home in ''[[BittersweetEnding an]]'' ending. She gives up her normal life of soon becoming a New York corporate lawyer (quitting with job offers from prestigious firms and an impending Bar exam in the near future) to start her [[CallToAdventure life of a private investigator]] anew. Even though her father is [[OverprotectiveDad less than thrilled]] and she has left behind a life of privilege and a semi-stable relationship, and is now addled with student loans, the tie-in book sequels make it clear that this homecoming is the closest she has come to peace. And even though his military life separates Logan from her twice in the span of a year, this is the closest any of them have ever come to a happy ending in [[CrapsackWorld Neptune, CA]].

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal'' (the expansion pack to the second game), Sarevok, the villain from the first game, can finally find redemption.
* Akiha's True Ending in ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' is rather bittersweet at best and very ambiguous on whether or not Shiki is even alive. The sequel/sidestory ''Kagetsu Tohya'' then had the short story "A Story for the Evening" which follows said ending. It reveals that he is alive.
* The True Ending of the first route in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' ends with [[StarCrossedLovers Saber and Shirou separated]]. Saber dies in the past and Shirou resolves to follow his dream, which is heavily deconstructed in the other routes with the implication that he'll ultimately end up following a similar path to Archer. The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Realta Nua]]'' version has an OmegaEnding where the two are reunited in Avalon, which also reveals Shirou didn't go down the same path as Archer because he had the goal to finally reunite with her.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' ends with Sonic erasing the events of the game from history... Except for Silver, who remains living in the CrapSackWorld [[BadFuture of his time]], and with his best friend Blaze now living in another dimension. Come ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' in 2011, Silver is reunited with Sonic & Blaze, and instead of returning to his own time at the end of the game, winds up living in the present with the BadFuture he comes from no longer a possibility. And he was also RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, too.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' has Armaldo, who last seen in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' being arrested as an outlaw and forced to give up teaching Igglybuff exploring, now living a free and honest life as an explorer and befriended another Igglybuff as shown in his rescue mission.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' does this in regards to what was previously a definitive DownerEnding for [[spoiler: [[EvilMentor Lucien Lachance]] from [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion the previous installment]], who after his horrific demise following being framed as a traitor is revealed to live on as the Spectral Assassin.]]

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', Gilgamesh was lost to the Void. Three games later, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', he returned, and has appeared in pretty much every ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game since, even retroactively including the ones before V by means of remakes. ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia 012 Duodecim]]'' explicitly confirms that he is indeed the same character from V in all appearances, having been wandering dimensions at the mercy of the Rift since his original disappearance but still determined to get back home.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', Gilgamesh was lost to the Void. Three games later, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', he returned - and has appeared in pretty much every ''''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game since. Even, retroactively, the ones before V. Then ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia 012 Duodecim]]'' came out, and revealed, once and for all, that Gilgamesh ''is'' alive. Wandering dimensions at the mercy of the Rift, but alive, and determined to get back home.
** The ending of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' was vague as to the outcome of the cast and human beings in general. A post-credits scene which showed exactly ONE of the party members still alive 500 years later (A slow aging lion-type creature) did little to answer questions as to the fate of the cast either. Cue the eventual Compilation EIGHT years later, which finally set the record straight.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' is an unusual case, as virulently hostile fan reaction to the original ambiguous-to-depressing potential range of endings led to the release of postscript DLC that improved it. A short turnaround time later and most of the endings are clarified to being some form of everything is eventually rebuilt and life goes on in peace, with the exception of one which is a flat-out DownerEnding (but can only be achieved with the [[EarnYourBadEnding very specific outcomes]] of you have the bare-minimum War Assets and choose the Destroy ending).

* The True Ending of the first route in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' ends with [[StarCrossedLovers Saber and Shirou separated]]. Saber dies in the past and Shirou resolves to follow his dream, which is heavily deconstructed in the other routes with the implication that he'll ultimately end up following a similar path to Archer. The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Realta Nua]]'' version has a GoldenEnding where the two are reunited in Avalon, which also reveals Shirou didn't go down the same path as Archer because he had the goal to finally reunite with her].

* The film adaptation of ''Literature/TheGiver'' confirms that there was life beyond the dystopia featured in the book and Jonas joined them. It also gives the people of the dystopia back their memories, providing a happy ending for them as well. See the literature folder for a different take on the series.

* The film adaptation of ''Literature/TheGiver'' confirms that there was life beyond the dystopia featured in the book and Jonas joined them. It also gives the people of the dystopia back their memories, providing a happy ending for them as well.

* For ''Manga/VigilanteMyHeroAcademiaIllegals'' in ''FanFic/CrimsonAndEmerald'' Kouichi married Tensei and joined him as a sidekick in Idaten. Pop☆Step is poached from Idaten as sidekick for Hawks, which means she's on her way to fame as she's his top sidekick.