History Main / HappyFlashback

* ''Manga/FoodWars'': After tasting Megumi's food, [[spoiler:Koujirou]] starts remembering when he was a child and got in a lot of fights with the other kids at school. After his mother reassured him that he was a nice kid deep down, he cried a little and went back home to have dinner.

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', "Abyss", Chloe starts to forget everything due to Brainiac's interference. She is rushed to a hospital in which the doctor tells her to focus on her happiest memories while they scan her brain. [[spoiler:They are ''all'' intimate moments with Clark. Including their FirstKiss. ''Aww''.]]
* ''Series/{{Jericho}},'' in a decidedly dark episode about a [[spoiler:war with nearby town New Bern]], has multiple flashbacks from Jake to the day of his brother's wedding.

* Opens chapter 20 of ''Fanfic/NotAsSimpleAsAHappyEnding''.

The Happy Flashback is often used as a mood counterpoint in a scene that is decidedly dark. It especially helps when the entire story is very sad or even [[{{Tragedy}} tragic]] because it provides a "breather" for the audience and helps avoid DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. It's similar to comic relief, with the benefit of adding BackStory and helping to breathe some [[HopeSpot hope]] back into a character or plot. The emotional counterpoint is especially useful for storytellers since it serves to show that the character(s) aren't walking bags of {{Angst}}, they ''can'' feel other emotions, and the pain they feel now is all the more keen because they once were happy.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}: PlayedWith when the Winchester brother are killed and sent to Heaven, and Heaven manifests as flashbacks to their happiest moments. For Dean, this is when Sam and he set off Roman candles by themselves when they were young and when his mother cut the crusts off his sandwich when he was four. For Sam, he experiences moments from his childhood when he got away from his father and Dean, which hurts Dean when he realizes this is what happiness was to his brother.

** ''Series/SchittsCreek'': The ChristmasEpisode begins with a rare glimpse of the Rose family's former life, as Johnny flashes back to one of their lavish Christmas parties. They are in their BigFancyHouse, surrounded by admirers and Moira and David perform a Christmas medley, known as The Number, for their guests.

''Series/SchittsCreek'': The ChristmasEpisode begins with a rare glimpse of the Rose family's former life, as Johnny flashes back to one of their lavish Christmas parties. They are in their BigFancyHouse, surrounded by admirers and Moira and David perform a Christmas medley, known as The Number, for their guests.

* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' has a one of these in another flashback. The viewer briefly gets a glimpse of America's childhood, with England taking the younger nation's hand and them going home together. It serves to contrast [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution the current situation]] with how happy they used to be.

* ''ComicBook/LesInnommables'': A flashback of people burning alive (thrown into locomotive furnaces) turns out to belong to [[PsychoForHire Colonel Lychee]], who's smiling happily at his wartime memories.

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[[caption-width-right:350: Those were the days of our lives...]]

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* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'', Ike remembers [[spoiler: sparring with his dad]].

A Happy Flashback is pretty much ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, a {{Flashback}} to a happy time in a character's past. Frequently they have a drastically different color palette from the rest of the film/tv show [[FlashbackEffects in keeping with]] most {{Flashback}}s. It'll be very bright, warm and colorful (possibly even supersaturated with color) or almost completely white from the brightness, or in simple [[DeliberatelyMonochrome sepia tones]] with blurriness added. Then again, it might be drawn in crayon to ''really'' invoke the "good old days" feel.

* ''WesternAnimation/ElenaOfAvalor'' uses this in its second Dia de Los Muertos episode during the segment where Elena sings "Make Them Proud" as she looks back on fond childhood memories she had with her deceased parents.

* In ''FanFic/{{Mutant}}'', this is combined with FlashBackEcho to wrench all the pain she feels out for the reader.
* In ''Film/TheMatrix'' {{Slashfic}} ''Fanfic/BringingMeToLife'' Smith has a few about Neo. The moonlit picnic in a field with star-gazing, being one example.
* "Fanfic/ToAbsentFriends": Eleya remembers her, T'Var, Birail, and Tess going on vacation [[BeachEpisode at the beach]] and somehow getting onto the subject of sex and of how T'Var is apparently a virgin. When queried by Gaarra, Eleya insists that she has absolutely no idea how they got on the subject. Tess theorizes:

* ''Film/JusticeLeague'' opens with a home video of Superman being [[CutenessProximity interviewed by children]] at the scene of his heroics. We then get a montage showing the worldwide mourning and DespairEventHorizon caused by his death in the [[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice previous movie]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons,'' Bart and Lisa are on opposing hockey teams. While staring each other down during an overtime shootout, they each have one of these, remembering good times when they were ''friends,'' and not just siblings. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming They end up hugging and skating off the rink arm-in-arm]], [[MoodWhiplash causing a riot in the stands]].