Only the Leads Get a Downer Ending

Sometimes, Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending in a story. And other times, it's the opposite; the main characters are the only ones stuck with a Downer Ending while side characters and/or the overall setting gets a Happy Ending.

Maybe the Big Bad is defeated and the world is saved, but The Hero Dies in the process. Maybe the main characters, in order to defeat the Big Bad, have to sacrifice themselves so the world can live on. Maybe the story is making a point about our heroes nobly putting the safety and prosperity of the world over their own happiness. Or maybe the main character is a Villain Protagonist whose demise is a happy ending for everyone else.

A form of Bittersweet Ending. The Hero Dies is a subtrope. See also "Better if Not Born" Plot. If the fates of the main characters come off as particularly cruel and undeserved, this can become an Audience-Alienating Ending.

Note: This is a Spoilered Rotten trope, which means that EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE on this list is a spoiler by default and most of them will be unmarked. This is your last warning, only proceed if you really believe you can handle this list.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• By the end of Bokurano, the pilots' home universe survives, but all of them die, except for Kana and Seki in the anime.
• Code Geass: Lelouch vi Britannia orchestrates his own assassination. Suzaku Kururugi, who fakes his own death to forever take on the identity of Zero, is the one to kill Lelouch and must now forever remain Lonely at the Top. The surviving major characters move on with their lives; Kallen Kozuki gets to finish school without having to hide her identity, Kaname Ohgi and Villetta Nu have Babies Ever After (and probably both go back to teaching school after Ohgi's term as prime minister), Shinichiro Tamaki opens a bar, and Empress Nunnally vi Britannia, Chairman Kaguya Sumeragi, and Empress Tianzi Lihua rule over a peaceful world. And C.C. rides off in a cart to who-knows-where. The Compilation Movie continuity — specifically the aptly-named Lelouch of the Re;surrection — subverts this in Lelouch's case, as C.C. brings him back from the dead, and the now immortal Lelouch joins C.C. in Walking the Earth.
• Downplayed in the anime version of DARLING in the FRANXX, where Hiro and Zero-Two die or ascend after successfully defeating the VIRMs forces in space, which leaves their friends back on Earth to live happy and peaceful lives as they rebuild the Earth, but the two are reincarnated in the Distant Finale and resume their romance.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: The main members of Tekkadan (Mikazuki, Orga, Akihiro and Shino) all die one by one in the final episodes, and Tekkadan is destroyed, but everyone else still alive (and that includes Rustal Elion and his entourage, Julieta Juris) get happy endings. Kudelia gets elected leader of a newly independent Mars, Eugene and Chad survive the final battle and become her aides, most of the other surviving Tekkadan members all get jobs at the repair shop Nadi and Merribit open up, Atra becomes a farmer and raises her new child with Kudelia, Azee sets up a new Teiwaz subsidiary with the surviving Turbines, and Rustal uses his new position as the undisputed leader of Gjallarhorn to enact some reforms, including signing a treaty banning the use of Human Debris, while setting Julieta up to be his successor. The only living exception is Ride, who refuses to let Gjallarhorn get away with their crimes and is last seen assassinating one of their big collaborators, with the story glossing over how this will affect the other survivors and if they'll start being hunted down again.
• Raideen: In the Grand Finale, Akira and his friends have finally defeated the Demon Empire and ensured they'll never wreak havoc on Earth or any other planet again...at the cost of Akira's long lost mother, Princess Lemuria, dying and giving her life to ensure a shot at Barao's One-Winged Angel form. As she lies dying in Akira's arms, her cold exterior breaks as she tells him she's proud of him. All the cast can only stare in sadness as the Ancient Ship of Mu picks up her body for the last time.
  Akira: I won... I won because of my mother!
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: While humanity progresses and moves forward, the protagonists take big hits. The supporting section of the group survives but must deal with the deaths of the gunman pilots (especially the Black sisters with Kittan's death and Leyte and her children with Makken). They do rescue Nia, only for her to die a week later, after her marriage with Simon. Simon ends up Walking the Earth with Boota and Yoko returns to her isolated life as a teacher and later principal. Considering the overall messages, this is pretty jarring. The movies aren't as bad. While Kittan still dies, the other pilots still live. Nia's death still occurs and Simon's and Yoko's fates are still the same, if not played out mildly more optimistically.

Comic Books

• Black Science: The Multiverse is restored to health, everybody who died is revived, the bad guys are defeated, all of the supporting cast gets to ride off into the proverbial sunset, and Earth becomes a peaceful utopia where almost everyone is happy... but the Stable Time Loop that makes this possible requires that the central-most cast (the McKays, Kadir, and Chandra) all meet a horrible end that render their struggles pointless; the Kids and Chandra die, Kadir goes completely insane, and Grant and Sara go back in time to try and get their children back, becoming the evil alternates of themselves that appeared back near the start of the series and are obviously Doomed by Canon.
• In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), the only Runaway who is guaranteed a happy ending is Klara, who quit the team prior to the beginning of the series and got adopted into a loving family. Meanwhile, her former teammates are stuck dealing with the ramifications of their various previously dead members all being resurrected, which has included the rise of a new generation of the Gibborim and the activation of Victorious, Gert's future mortal nemesis.

Fan Works

• Charles Manson Vs The Teletubbies opens with the main character, Charles Manson, bragging about how he tricked the entire world into thinking he was dead and planning on resuming his crusade of serial killing. However, he makes the mistake of messing with the Teletubbies and is killed as he begs for mercy.
• Fallout: Equestria: By the end of the fanfic, the last two Element Bearers have been found, the Gardens of Equestria, which is designed to purge the land of radiation and taint, has been activated, alicorns are now a viable pony species, and the New Canterlot Republic is a stable government. However, for this to happen, Littlepip, the main character of the fic, had to permanently seal herself into the SPP mainframe, essentially giving up everything she holds dear and placing her in an And I Must Scream situation to ensure control of the weather. The only alleviation of this bleak ending for Littlepip is that the afterword shows that her friends can occasionally see her, and sealing herself extended her life after it was cut short by her times in the Wasteland.
• The Flash Sentry Chronicles: The ending of Season 9 ends with one of these. It initially seems that by defeating Armalum and the Legion of Doom, Flash has successfully prevented the future he was warned about so long ago and has constantly been reminded of, where he must sacrifice himself to save everyone. However, it is revealed that due to Armalum seemingly killing Faust, the whole world is starting to fall apart without a God to maintain it. Flash is the only one that can take her place due to wielding both the Sacred Light and Corrupted Shadow now, and says a tearful goodbye to his family and all of his closest friends, including his lover Twilight, before he proceeds to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, saving the entire world and everyone in it, but leaving behind his heartbroken friends, seemingly ending the series with an extremely Bittersweet Ending. However, the next story, The Last Problem, subverts this when it is revealed that Flash's sacrifice restored Faust, and she managed to bring him back to life by rebuilding his body six months later, allowing Flash to rejoin Twilight and the others shortly after her coronation, and granting him the future he deserves and giving everyone a Belated Happy Ending.
• Ribbit: In the "Remains Uncertain" ending, Manos is destroyed and the world is restored, the NPCs are back to normal, and Noyno is crowned king, with him promising to let go of his Jerkass Façade and be a just king. But YOU and Susie, who have grown close over the journey, end up having to fight each other, as Susie, being The Master who served Manos and a ghost herself, must be killed to fully rid the world of Manos' influence. The two drag out the fight, wanting a way out but unable to think of one, and the game ends before we see the result. The secret New Game Plus ending indicates Susie won, but by that point, YOU is able to forcibly change the ending to a better one for everyone.

Films — Animated

• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: Possibly, in The Story of Ichabod Crane. Ichabod either gets killed by the Headless Horseman or splits town and finds a wife of his own. It's left ambiguous if he survived, but if you go with the interpretation that he died, Brom Bones (the Anti-Villain antagonist) marrying Katrina (Ichabod's crush) could qualify.
• Leafie, a Hen into the Wild: The titular protagonist Leafie opts to allow One-Eye to eat her so that she can provide milk to her litter of weasels after her adopted duck son Greenie becomes the leader of a flock.

Films — Live-Action

• Kamen Rider Zero One Others Vulcan Valkyrie: By the end of the film, Isamu and every member of Metsubojinrai end up taking each other down in a Mutual Mercy Kill; everyone presumed dead thanks to an entirely-avoidable tragedy nobody can get justice for; making this the second time Aruto has had to see his loved ones die. The incident worsens the relations between Human and Humagear to record levels; a now-powerless Yaiba forced to argue with a hostile Defense Minister intent on bringing new anti-AI legislation to the table (implying that the fighting will just continue). Both The Ark and Gai Amatsu sit the entire Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai incident out and get away scot-free with all the suffering they heaped on the heroes during the show as a result; The Ark took refuge in the internet and gathered more data while Gai reformed into an Anti-Hero and ended up starting his own company (albeit with complications). Everyone other than the heroes is for the better...at least until History Repeats and another evil AI rears its ugly head.
• The Mist: The movie ends on a much more hopeful note for mankind than the book, as the military is seen rescuing survivors, clearing out the mist, and exterminating the monsters inside it. However, it has a much, much worse fate for the main characters, with the father performing a Mercy Kill on his son and the others, not realizing rescue was only moments away.
• Rogue One ends with all the main characters dead, but they've accomplished their mission and given the Rebellion a fighting chance against the Death Star.
• Spider-Man: No Way Home: The MCU version of Peter Parker ends up with the absolute worst resolution of everybody else in the cast: Despite the events of the film, MJ and Ned get into MIT. Happy loses his apartment and his love, and his job is still at risk because of the government investigating Stark Industries, but there is a chance he will bounce back. Doctor Strange did exactly what he wanted to do, exiling the people who incurred the MCU and only getting a few bruises and annoyance from it (he did show some respect in the end to Peter, but it's peanuts). The villains and the other Spider-Men returned to their respective universes with the implication that they resolved their plights (and for the villains, did not die). Meanwhile, Peter is magically Unpersoned, Aunt May dies, and he is still despised as Spider-Man while losing everyone and everything he had over the course of the previous films. He doesn’t even want to repair his relationship with MJ and Ned for fear of dragging them back into his own misery. By the film’s end, he still soldiers on, because with great power...

Literature

• Animorphs: A Time Skip reveals a world that is brighter and kinder than is usual for the series, and lead characters who've all but fallen apart. The long-enslaved Hork-Bajir are free and living in Yellowstone, the Yeerks and Taxxons have escaped their bodies and live in other forms, there is peace and trade between humans and Andalites. Eva, Alloran, and other hosts get to live free. But Rachel is dead, Jake is mired in depression and self-hatred, Tobias lives as a hawk in isolation, Ax has gone Blood Knight and recklessly pursues trouble, and Marco keeps himself busy and claims happiness but jumps to throw it all away for a suicide mission. Cassie calls herself and Marco the "only two survivors" among the Animorphs, but she's the only one who's managed to move on and make a new life and find love. The last several books in the series feature these characters looking at their options and choosing again and again to work for that world above their own personal interests, so perhaps it's not surprising.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Claude Frollo is thrown from Notre Dame by Quasimodo, Esméralda is hanged for the murder of Phoebus (although he never died) and Quasimodo starves himself to death near her body. Phoebus gets the "happy" ending of marrying Fleur-de-Lys, but Hugo informs the reader he's likely to have an Awful Wedded Life. Pierre Gringoire (based on an actual playwright) is successful, though, as he becomes a playwright of tragedies that get him positive attention.
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: This happens with the main characters Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. After ruling Narnia for many years, leaving it as a wonderfully happy place, and becoming young adults themselves, they accidentally go back through the wardrobe, finding themselves as children in ordinary clothes in the mundane reality of their own world. They realise that the wardrobe will never take them to Narnia again, but they are given the hope that they might return to Narnia one day.
• At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth is saved from Sauron (and his One Ring destroyed so he will never be back), the Shire is saved from Saruman, but Frodo has been damaged in the process of the destruction of the One Ring, and goes off to the Grey Havens while leaving Sam behind.
• The Metamorphosis: The protagonist Gregor undergoes a transformation where he becomes an insect-like being. In the end, after overhearing his neglectful family state that they'd be better off without him, he opts to starve to death so that they can live in peace. Though his mother and sister Grete are shaken by this at first (his father certainly isn't), they move on with their lives, and Grete becomes more successful.
• Vasquez Private Eye: All of Johnson's friends and those affected by the fallout of the Firebird Airlines crash are able to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the current murder spree, while Johnson himself has to live with the knowledge that his own mother had murdered several people and enabled numerous Karma Houdini moments to make it possible.

Live-Action TV

• 24 frequently has Jack Bauer save the day while refusing to grant him a measure of peace. Day 1 ends with the murder of his wife and Live Another Day ends with him surrendering himself to the Russians. He loses another three significant women in his life along the way.
• Choushinsei Flashman: The Flashmen end up defeating the Mess Empire once and for all, yet end up almost succumbing to the Anti-Flash Phenomenon and have to leave Earth, their home planet, as a result.
• Kamen Rider Blade: The Battle Fight is restarted, preventing the apocalypse, but at the cost of Kenzaki becoming a Joker Undead and making sure he never crosses paths with Hajime again, lest the two fight and end up restarting the apocalypse.
• Loki: The series ends with Loki successfully dissolving the Temporal Loom, saving the branched timelines from the failsafe destruction and allowing all of his friends and loved ones to survive. But by doing so, he is condemned to a life of solitude where he will spend the rest of his days sustaining the branches of time indefinitely.
• Star Trek: Enterprise: At the end of "Terra Prime", the conference that will eventually lead to the formation of the United Federation of Planets has been established, making it a happy ending for society as a whole. On the other hand, the ending is far from happy for the crew of the Enterprise, since a baby named Elizabeth is dead. This is particularly sad for Trip and T'Pol since Elizabeth was created from their DNA, so they kind of saw her as their daughter.
• The Suite Life on Deck, and by extension its parent series, ends on a rather downer note for both Zack and Cody. They've both graduated high school, but Maya dumped Zack before heading off to the Peace Corps while Cody was rejected by Yale even though Bailey got in. With all of their friends going off in separate directions, the two of them depart the S.S. Tipton unsure of what their next steps are.
• Torchwood: Children of Earth ends with the 456 being defeated, the children of Earth being saved from their fate of being turned into a Fantastic Drug, and the corrupt British government being given punishment for their actions in the whole fiasco. However, of the three main protagonists, Ianto is dead, and Jack had to sacrifice the life of his own grandson to defeat the invasion, breaking down his relationship with his daughter for good. In the end, Jack, unable to live with the guilt, departs Earth, and Torchwood is thus disbanded.

Theatre

• In Don Giovanni, the eponymous character, a lecherous, deceitful jerk with at least two attempted rapes on his conscience, is Dragged Off to Hell after refusing to repent. His victims are incredibly relieved to be rid of him (even Elvira, who still harbored a Mad Love for him, joins in the final celebratory chorus, and her feelings were clearly shown to be a Destructive Romance that did her no good).
• In Hadestown, Orpheus and Eurydice end up in the worst position by the end of the play, as they're separated forever. Meanwhile, Hades and Persephone are on the mend and spring returns to the world above, and there's an implication that Hadestown itself will improve.
• Hamilton: A downer for both participants in the duel: Alexander Hamilton is killed at the age of 49 with his reputation in tatters, and Aaron Burr will be remembered as a villain for all time. Additionally, Hamilton has lost his best friend, son, and father figure. However, Hamilton's widow Eliza dedicates the next fifty years of her life to preserving Hamilton's legacy, and for the nascent America as a whole, the future looks bright, thanks in part to Hamilton's brilliant financial system, something even his surviving rivals Jefferson and Mafison have to admit.
• Macbeth is only a tragedy from the perspective of the titular Villain Protagonist, who is ultimately slain after he has become a murderous tyrant oppressing Scotland, and the story ends with the rightful and good prince Malcolm taking the throne.
• Once on This Island: Ti Moune doesn’t get to be with Daniel, the boy she loves, and he marries Andrea instead. But the gods are moved by the strength of her love for Daniel, and instead of simply letting her die, they turn her into a tree. It breaks open the gates of the Hotel Beauxhomme, allowing the peasants and the rich to mingle together and become one. A young peasant girl and Daniel’s son play in the branches of Ti Moune’s tree, hinting that they will fall in love and live happily ever after and that it was her sacrifice that made such a thing possible.
• Romeo and Juliet kill themselves in the end, but this makes the surviving members of their Feuding Families as well as the Prince realize how destructive their enmity is and agree to bury the conflict for good, bringing a new era of peace between them.
• In The Snow Maiden, the Snow Maiden is melted by the sun and her bridegroom Mizgir drowns himself in despair. Tsar Berendey declares that thanks to the Snow Maiden's death, the people will no longer have to endure Spring Is Late, and everybody sings a chorus praising the sun-god.

Video Games

• Bayonetta 3: Though Singularity is defeated and the multiverse saved from his plans to rule it, allowing the characters to return back to their old universes, but Arch Eve Bayonetta and Luka are Dragged Off to Hell, though they at least accept their fate and go together.
• Blazblue Central Fiction: The game ends with Ragna erasing himself from existence and everyone's memory so that life can move on because he realizes he is the titular "Central Fiction" that the Master Unit Amaterasu keeps "dreaming" of, and keeps resetting the world for the sake of. The game ends with a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where most of the cast (especially Ragna's siblings) live their lives happily.
• Conker's Bad Fur Day: At the very end, Conker the title character becomes king against his will, and he's deeply depressed because his girlfriend Berri was killed in front of him and wasted the only chance he got at resurrecting her. Everyone else, however, can live in peace now that the original ruler, the Panther King, is dead.
• Dark Souls: In one ending, the player character sacrifices their soul to rekindle the First Flame that sustains civilization as the world knows it. Dark Souls II confirms that this led to a renewed age of prosperity, but it still left the Chosen Undead to burn.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy X: The game ends with the defeat of the world's evil overlord Sin, which had tyrannized the world for one thousand years. All characters all over the world can be seen partying in the ending sequence, but the main character Tidus disappears, as he was only a dream by the Fayth and they stopped dreaming when Sin was defeated. He leaves his love and the female lead Yuna behind, who is heartbroken. However, this can be subverted in the Golden Ending of the successor Final Fantasy X-2, where Tidus comes back after all.
  • Final Fantasy XVI: Despite all the death and chaos, with even more implied to be on the way, the ending has a note of hope with Ultima beaten for good and mankind left to forge their own future. But it comes at the cost of Cid, Dion and (maybe) Joshua being dead, and Clive beginning to petrify all alone thanks to overuse of his Dominant powers throughout the game. The only leads left alive are Jill and Torgal, who are shown to be devastated as they seem to realize what happened to Clive, whose final fate is left unknown.
• Genshin Impact: In-universe during Furina's story quest. After much debate on how to end "The Little Oceanid", the cast pick this route. Both the Oceanid and her human lover tragically lose each other (and their dreams) forever, but in exchange the water of their society is replenished creating joy for the rest of their town. This is poignant for Furina since she ended the archon quest miserable, after sacrificing so much to save her country.
• Halo: Reach: At the end of the game's campaign, the Pillar of Autumn containing the ship's captain Jacob Keyes, Cortana and the Master Chief in cryostasis successfully escape Reach, but every member of Noble Team (with the exception of Jun, the team's sniper) died, with the main protagonist Noble Six staying behind to keep the Covenant from going after the Pillar of Autumn. Noble Six's sacrifice would ultimately allow humanity to win the war not just against the Covenant, but also the parasitic Flood.
• Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals ends with the main Hero Maxim and his wife Selan sacrificing themselves to save the world. The DS remake gives you a chance at an alternate happy ending, though, courtesy of New Game Plus.
• Mega Man Zero 4: Zero is implied to die at the end of the game after his battle with Doctor Weil, and Ciel is heartbroken at the loss of her crush, but at least the world is saved and the surviving humans and Reploids can live in peace, free from Weil's oppressive rule.
• Mortal Kombat 11: Both the main story and the now-canon Aftermath DLC end like this. Past Liu Kang has become a God of Fire and Thunder thanks to Raiden's intervention and fusion with both the Past and Revenant Liu Kangs. With his new strength and additional abilities, he is able to defeat Cetrion, Kronika, and Shang Tsung, thus making Liu Kang the new Keeper of Time. In doing so however, everyone he knew and loved before has had their lives (and all the lives in the universe) reset and reshaped to his design. Come Mortal Kombat 1, he succeeded at making all of his friends' and mentor's lives, as well as his neighboring realms, much more peaceful than before.
• Nightmare Of The Snow: The true ending, only available in New Game Plus, sees the ghosts trapped inside the pocket dimension finally freed and able to ascend... but only because the heroine Yuki sacrificed herself to the ice god Hikami, leaving both her best friend and love interest heartbroken. The ending at least shows they might have found a way to bring her back, leading into the sequel, Restless Dreams.
• In Paper Mario: The Origami King, Mario and his partner, the Origami fold Olivia, succeed in stopping Olivia's brother King Olly from performing a Toad genocide, just before he would have finished folding 1000 Origami Cranes, which would have granted him the wish to do so. Olivia finishes the 1000th Origami crane instead and wishes that every doing of Olly be undone. Unfortunately, that includes herself, who Olly folded to reign by his side. Therefore, she vanishes and unless you reach the Golden Ending, there will be a big party in Toad Town without Olivia.
• Persona:
  • The Persona 2 duology ends with the heroes having saved the world in the Eternal Punishment timeline after the heroes of the Innocent Sin world failed to do so, but Tatsuya has to return to the doomed Innocent Sin timeline to prevent a repeat of said bad ending.
  • Persona 3: The game ends with the Fall successfully averted and Nyx sealed away, but it comes at the cost of the protagonist sacrificing their life in the process. The Answer campaign deals with the fallout of said sacrifice among their friends and allies in SEES.
• Planescape: Torment: In the best ending, the Nameless One convinces their mortality, the Transcendent One, to rejoin with them. This means that they're no longer immortal and now all the crimes their past incarnations have committed have come due and they're going to be punished with an eternity in the Lower Planes. However, they resurrect all the companions that accompanied them to the Fortress of Regrets, Morte has been able to let go of his guilt, Dak'kon has been freed from his servitude, and all of them are free to go off and live their own lives. And Fall From Grace promises the Nameless One that she'll search the Lower Planes until she finds him.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, the hero and their partner succeed in saving the world by defeating Primal Dialga and preventing the Temporal Tower from collapsing, which would have caused the time to stop and the world to be stuck in eternal darkness. However, the main character, who themselves was from a bad future in which the time had indeed stopped, disappears, as their time was prevented from ever happening. The partner is left behind at the feet of Temporal Tower, grieving and lonely. However, in a true Deus ex Machina, Dialga uses their power to revive the hero a couple of in-game weeks later, subverting the trope.
• Red Dead Redemption II: Arthur Morgan dies. John Marston is able to settle down with his family, but anyone who played the first game knows it won't last long. Meanwhile, though some gang members like Strauss and Karen come to bad endings, some of the others are able to move on and lead successful lives. Namely: Pearson ends up getting married and owning the general shop in Rhodes. Mary-Beth moves away and becomes a writer of some repute. Charles leaves the gang to seek a new life in Canada as a family man. Tilly marries a lawyer in Saint Denis and lives in a beautiful estate house with him and their daughter. Swanson drops his drinking habit and moves to New York where he becomes a preacher. And Sadie cools down her Ax-Crazy tendencies and moves to South America in search of a quiet life.
• Seraphic Blue: Vene, the main party member, is still struggling with nihilism and barely survives a rare disease in the ending while the other party members seem to have found far more peace of mind.
• Sonic Adventure: This is how Gamma's story ends. Gamma takes it upon himself to destroy his brothers and free the Flicky birds within them. He immediately adds himself to his log, making it abundantly clear that he's planning on killing himself in order to free the Flicky inside him. However, before he gets to do that, Beta fires a beam at him before they both explode, which releases the Flicky. Everyone else seen in Gamma's story will get a happy ending in some way (Sonic, Amy, Tails, Big, and Knuckles), but Gamma ends up Dying Alone, as almost no one knew him that well, and Amy never sees him again like she wanted to.^note Although in the Sonic X adaptation, she does get to say goodbye to him.
• Starcraft II Legacy Of The Void: Amon died for good in the epilogue, his Hybrids no longer exist, and all three races enjoyed a period of relative peace (until the next conflict, anyway), with the Zerg being led by the Kerrigan-mentored Zagara, the Terran Dominion being rebuilt under Valerian Mengsk's leadership (which also includes the former Raynor's Raiders), and the Protoss finally united and having returned to their homeworld of Aiur (plus, the Purifiers and the Tal'Darim dissenters having been accepted as part of the Protoss society as a whole). But all of this came at heavy costs: armies aside, Kerrigan used most, if not all, of her Xel'Naga-infused life essence to banish Amon from existence, and it's heavily implied in the epilogue at the Mar Sara bar that Raynor and her Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence, never to be seen again. And that's not counting the many heroes and named characters who died between 1998's Starcraft I and the epilogue of this game.
• Unreal II: The Awakening: While the Tosc threat is gone for good alongside the Artifacts and Sector Commander Hawkins, lots of people (including protagonist John Dalton's own crew and the crew of the Dorian Gray) ended up dead. As for Dalton himself, he's left stranded in outer space in an escape pod of the Dorian Gray, without fuel, listening to his crew's last words.
• Unreal Tournament III: The Necris invasion was fended off, so Taryd is safe. However, in their quest for revenge, most of the Ronin team ended up dead, with Jester dying in Reaper's hands, and Reaper, the sole survivor, being on the receiving end of a Bolivian Army Ending.
• Until Dawn: Depending on the choices and reactions the player makes, it is possible for the Final Girl Sam and/or Deuteragonist Mike to be the only playable characters to die trying to stop the wendigos, since they cannot be killed in the narrative until the final battle, while the others are safe by that point as long as they get out of the house in time. Downplayed, since the survivors are left to be questioned by the authorities and none of them are in a better place to survive their ordeal (except perhaps for Chris and Ashley getting together). Not to mention, Josh "surviving" guarantees him turning into a wendigo.

Visual Novels

• In the true end of Chaos;Child, the titular disease is cured and the heroines all get to live their lives... without Takuru, who ends up in jail for the New New Gen Murders that he didn't commit.
• In some endings to Long Live the Queen, Elodie makes her kingdom a better place and makes "her legacy stretch into the future" at a tragic price for her personal life:
  • If her beloved father Joslyn duels the King of Shanjia, the Shanjian invasion is called off, but Joslyn is killed or sent into a vegetative state in the duel.
  • Under certain conditions, Elodie can be poisoned and rendered infertile by her aunt Lucille, and it can lead to the breakdown of her marriage.
  • If Elodie is attracted to Working-Class Hero Evrard but has low Noble Approval, the epilogue has her realize their marriage will not be accepted and resort to being Better as Friends.
  • In the most clear-cut example of the trope, if Elodie destroys the invading Shanjian fleet with magic, she unleashes the terrible Kraken, and she has a choice of performing a Heroic Sacrifice to pacify him.
• The Song of Saya has two of the three endings:
  • In the first available ending, Fuminori is locked away in a sanitarium for Saya's murders, and while his agnosia is cured, this means Saya herself cannot pursue a relationship with him any longer as her true form could drive him insane, so they have to say a tearful goodbye. But this is also the only ending where Yoh and Ryoko are unharmed, and Koji's sanity is still intact.
  • In the "humanity wins" ending, Koji successfully saves the world from Fuminori and Saya, killing them for good. Unfortunately, he's now the PTSD-addled Sole Survivor of the gruesome events. He can't receive any help for this since the world is blissfully unaware of Saya's existence, and the only thing that keeps him from shooting himself is the fact that he can do it easily if he wants to.

Web Animation

• Meta Runner: While most of the heroes managed to Earn Their Happy Ending after defeating Sheridan once and for all, lead character Tari was forced to give up her physical presence in order to ensure the full resurrection of Lucinia, and her human friends are left believing that she’s truly gone. But it’s not all hopeless; she managed to bring Theo back and relocated themselves into her own server cobbled together from the remains of Sheridan’s server where they have all the time in the world to play video games for fun together, and Tari remains hopeful they’ll manage to find a way back to reality one day.

Western Animation

• Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "Robot Randy", the titular Randy learns to use his gifts to make people like him. But in doing so, Courage, Muriel, and Eustace's home is completely destroyed and all they are left with are Randy's wooden Reindeer, merely as a token of their friendship. Eustace even lampshades how much they were screwed over in the end:
  Eustace: Great! Now we can rebuild the farmhouse with these stupid reindeer!
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In the Christmas Special "A Lost Claus", it's an interesting case since of the two main characters, it only applies to Bloo and not Mac. Bloo spends the whole special scheming to get more presents after learning that he’ll only get one from Herriman now that he's living at Fosters, whereas Mac is having an existential crisis after learning that Imaginary Santas exist, and therefore, Santa might not be real after all. Luckily by the special's ending, Mac's faith in Santa's existence is restored, which is only re-enforced after learning about what happened to Bloo. After a botched attempt at re-enacting the events of a Christmas Carol, Bloo winds up with no gifts at all, and is given a large pile of coal instead.
• The Legend of Korra: Season 3 ends on this note. Everyone was saved, Zaheer was defeated, and a new Air Nation is born. Everything looks bright for everyone—except Korra herself, who is physically and mentally broken from her experiences.
• Samurai Jack ends with Jack and Ashi returning to the past and slaying Aku, ending his threat forever. However, when Jack and Ashi go to get married, No Ontological Inertia kicks in and Ashi is erased as Aku was killed way before she was born. It’s no surprise that Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time undoes this.
• Squidbillies: In the series finale, despite being the central character, Early is the only one not to have things go well for him. Rusty and Tammi move out with their son Randy. Lil has a good boyfriend and is becoming sober. Granny becomes a ghost and reunites with Gaga Pee-Pap. Sheriff and Deputy Denny plan on starting a podcast. As for Early, most of his family members have distanced themselves from him, and he is left alone to wallow in his own misery.

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