Earn Your Happy Ending: Difference between revisions

''The glassy hill I clomb for thee,

''Thy bloody clothes I wrang for thee;

 

 

 

 

Often comes after the [[Darkest Hour]]. In this case, things have gotten as bad as they can get for the hero, they may be at the brink of the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and need to be snapped out of a [[Heroic BSOD]] but in the end, they don't quit and manage to battle [[Back From the Brink]] to save the day. Done right, this version will likely be a [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moment of Awesome]] as the hero prevails against all odds.

Not to be confused with the [[Golden Ending]] in video games, where players actually have to [[Video Game Rewards|earn]] their happy ending.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Blue Gender]]''. Very dark, gritty, cynical, cold world after the Blue has taken over the Earth. Human life has lost all of its value and the only thing that matters is defeating the Blue, regardless of any and all cost. Even the idealistic Yuji goes insane for a few episodes before the formerly cold and cynical but now warm-hearted and caring Marlene saves him. It has a happy ending for Yuji and Marlene, as well as the other humans who live in harmony with nature.

* ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' seems to make this point. It even manages to approach it from a quasi-religious angle without seeming preachy--[[Author Tract|a rare feat, unfortunately]].

** The religious angle is arguable; the novel makes a point of that even though religion is well-meaning by nature, it's unable to help people suffering from serious depression. Misaki's uncle and aunt are deeply religious, and want to help their niece to the best of their abilities, yet are still quite blind to the fact {{spoiler|that she's close to being suicidal.}}

* ''[[Planetes]]'' waffles a bit at the beginning, then nosedives into increasingly cynical or even pessimistic territory... but idealism wins in the end, even with {{spoiler|the terrorist characters}}.

** Terrorist subplot was [[Ripped from the Headlines|greatly overblown in anime]], while the crazy salarimen antics were invented out of the whole cloth, but the manga had its share of troubles and hardships. They're mostly on the Fee's part, as [[The Woobie|most Clare's problems]] in the anime happened to ''her'' in the manga, though Tanabe didn't escape them too.

** As of chapter 252, {{spoiler|She has both and more. In a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|heart-warming scene]], she becomes Konoka's partner instead of bodyguard, and can thus help her instead of simply protecting her.}} She also {{spoiler|finally got to [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|make out with Konoka]], which she had obviously [[Bodyguard Crush|wanted to do for quite some time]].}}

* ''[[Mars (manga)|Mars]]'' has this in escalating spades, culminating in a white-knuckled, tear-jerking [[Grand Finale]] when Rei gets stabbed in the gut by recurring [[Depraved Bisexual]] Masao Kirishima, while he's on his way to the party celebrating his marriage to the girlfriend he's been through hell and resolved all of their respective [[Backstory]] trauma with. They still get to live happily ever after.

* Saji Crossroad from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''. [[The Woobie|The poor guy]] had [[Break the Cutie|everyone he loved taken from him]], spent most of a season finding out just how much he lost, wound up as the hostage of the very people he thought were responsible for it, then [[Love Hurts|nearly died]] at the hands of [[Broken Bird|the]] [[Dark Action Girl|person]] (''and also'' [[Murder the Hypotenuse|his]] [[Oedipus Rex|love]] [[Military Brat|rival]]) he was trying to return to ''multiple times''. And only ''barely'' succeeds in getting said person ( {{spoiler|Louise}}) back to sanity. If ''anyone'' in recent fiction earned the right to a happy ending, it's him.

* Juri Katou from ''[[Digimon Tamers]]''. Starting as a [[Genki Girl]], then {{spoiler|seeing her Digimon partner die, being captured by the [[Big Bad|D-Reaper]] and suffering through what may be ''weeks'' of [[Mind Rape]] where the viewer learns that [[Stepford Smiler|her apparent persona was just a facade]]...}} even series creator Chiaki Konaka himself implies in his character notes that he ''struggled'' to give Juri her happy ending.

* The ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' anime ends on a very happy note. Excel and Il Palazzo escape the exploding ACROSS base by going down the trap door together, the closest thing to mutual affectionate gesture the two have ever had; Watanabe escapes with Hyatt and the rest of Daitenzin, technically beating ACROSS; and Pedro and Sandora defeat Tha Man and rescue Pedro's Sexy Wife. While it could be interpreted that everyone died in the explosion, the scenes shown during the credits show everyone alive and back to their old lives. Everyone is also alive during the next episode, but the canocity of that is dubious.

* Among other things, Elie of ''[[Rave Master]]'' had to {{spoiler|fake her death, go into a deep sleep for fifty years, and never really see her friends again}} in order to stop the ultimate evil.

** And then, the [[Grand Finale]] has everyone else earn their ending {{spoiler|when they believe Haru makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to finally destroy Endless. Everyone (especially poor Elie) has to endure that knowledge for a whole year (with varying degrees of response). The ending's finally earned when they return to the site of the battle exactly one year later...and he reappears, having been [[Time Travel|sent one year into the future]] by Star Memory to save his life}}.

* ''All'' the happy season finales of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' are earned through blood, sweat, and an ocean-ful of tears.

* ''[[Perfect Blue]]'', not unlike [[Blue Velvet|a certain other psychological thriller with "Blue" in the title]] (see below), pulls a happy ending at the last minute. Y

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' Ed and Al. I mean, come on, after everything that happens to them. Let's remember, shall we? Their father, Hohenheim, leaves them and their mother, Trisha, without telling them why (Trisha knew, though). They lose their mother at the tender age of 4-5. The parents of their best friend, Winry, were murdered. They try to bring their mother back from the dead just so they can feel the love they so desperately miss. They fail and come back screwed up. They than fail to save a little girl, Nina, from her insane father, Shou Tucker. Later they lose a close ally, {{spoiler|Hughes}}, and later discover it was partly their fault he was murdered. They than have to deal with the fact they left a family broken. {{spoiler|Next, they discover said best friend's parents murderer, Scar, and have to try and stop her from trying to exact revenge. Then their close friend, Ling, is [[Demonic Possession|possessed by a homonculus]]. Then they have to take on [[Big Bad|Father]], the original homunculus on a quest for godhood, who blinds Roy and steals the souls of ''everyone else in the country'' (dooming all those people to [[A Fate Worse Than Death]]) to fulfill that quest. Next, Al sacrifices himself so Ed could survive and win. Then Ed sacrifices his ability to use Alchemy to bring back Al. In short: wow, they really did deserve that happy family photo at the end of Chapter 108.}}

** The death of {{spoiler|Hughes}} wasn't their fault at all, despite what the boys may think. He was investigating the leader of his own military as a traitor. Even in [[Real Life]], this could easily be seen as leading to treason; it didn't help that the people he was investigating were alchemical constructs with superpowers. It was only a matter of time, really.

** This trope is practically the moral of the story.

"A lesson without pain is meaningless. to gain something, you must sacrifice something in exchange. [[Character Development|But if You withstand the pain and overcome it, you gain a stronger heart]]. [[Title Drop|a full metal heart.]]" }}

* ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'' features the [[Ronin]] Yusaku Godai's near never-ending attempt to graduate college, get a good job, and marry the woman he worships. In his path are middling grades, general mediocrity, financial woes, [[Jerkass]] roommates, a "girlfriend" he's too cowardly to dump honorably, a teen girl who is obsessed with him, and another suitor to the girl of his dreams, who is extraordinarily wealthy and perfect. Does he earn it? ''Hell yes''.

== Fairy Tales ==

* Many a fairy tale hero or heroine has found that [[Forbidden Fruit|violating the prohibition]] requires a long, arduous [[The Quest|quest]] to reach their wife or husband again. But it's [[Worth It]].

 

 

* ''[[The Hill of Swords]]'' ending has Shirou, after 5 seperate {{spoiler|re}}summonings, and who knows how many years finally {{spoiler|reuniting with Saber in Avalon.}}

* Even with all the madness and [[Dark Fic|downright cruelty]] in ''[[All He Ever Wanted]]'', Austria was at the receiving end of some the worst abuse to the point of being forced to see his beloved Hungary raped by Prussia. {{spoiler|He also happens to have one of the better endings compared to the other characters.}}

** The part in the credits was actually added after a test screening because about half the audience walked away making the rather realistic assumption that humanity died in about a week.

** ''Everything'' WALL-E does to win EVE's heart pays off with EVE deciding she'd rather spend her life with WALL-E than follow the life her programming leads her to do. This leads to another potential happy ending that needs earning: WALL-E gets badly damaged and needs to be fixed with parts that can only be found on Earth, leading ''everyone'' who was affected by WALL-E in a beneficial manner to work together to bring him home. Naturally, WALL-E's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] does not improve his chances of survival, but it helps the above ending come to pass. Cue thirty seconds of EVE's hardcore repairmanship, coupled with [[True Love's Kiss]], in an effort to save WALL-E's life. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Guess how well that pays off]].

** [[Toy Story 3]] ''especially'', since some moments within it were the darkest moments in the whole series by far, {{spoiler|1=but the movie arguably had [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t51XXAEnnbs the happiest ending of the three movies as well.] }}

* ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' is one of the few instances in a Disney film where the hero has to directly confront and slay the villain, rather than causing them to be [[Hoist by His Own Petard|Hoisted By Their Own Petard]]. Considering [[Big Bad|Malificent]] is considered [[Magnificent Bastard|one of the most dangerous villains in Disney history]] and you've got yourself a textbook case of this trope.

* In ''[[The Last Samurai]]'' after the destruction of the samurai army and the death of {{spoiler|Katsumoto}}, although the Narrator says that no one is sure what happened to Algren, the final scene shows that he made it back to the village and Taka to find "some small measure of peace."

* ''[[The Artist]]'' has George Valentin lose everything as a silent film actor and filmmaker in a artform that seems to have passed him by and comes within a hairsbreadth of suicide, only to be saved at the last moment and shown that he has talent that would make him a star in the sound era.

 

 

* ''[[Catch-22]]'' is a [[Only Sane Man]] story in a [[Crapsack World]] featuring [[Kill'Em All]], but still has a very uplifting ending.

* Compared to some of [[John Brunner]]'s other works (particularly ''The Sheep Look Up''), ''[[The Shockwave Rider]]'' might have an ending that qualifies. "Well-- how did ''you'' vote?"

** [[Stephen King]] even warns readers who have reached the last chapter to stop reading if they want to have a conventional happy ending. The real ending [[Broken Base|divided fan opinion...just a little bit...]]

* [[Harry Potter]] goes through hell and loses several friends along the way, but in the end, he is able to defeat Voldemort through [[The Power of Love]].

* [[Honor Harrington]] really has to do this in one case especially. Over the course of "In Enemy Hands" and "Echoes of Honor" she is {{spoiler|forced to surrender a ship captained by one of her oldest friends, with that friends' ''birthday party'' on board, captured, put into the hands of someone who is basically Himmler without the intelligence to not believe the propaganda, has her empathic and emotion - sharing treecat permanently crippled (found out later - he can no longer speak to other treecats), has her artificial eye and half her face electrocuted, is sentenced to death, sees her sworn retainers die in the (barely) successful escape attempt, loses an arm, lands on a prison planet, takes over said prison planet, builds a navy from all the ships stopping by at the prison planet, steals transports for all the people on the prison planet, and finally arrives back in the nearest friendly system to discover everyone thought her dead - and they'd held the funeral, and named ships after her, and she had a brother and sister that were planned to inherit her title. And somehow the whole thing is worthwhile in the simple sentence: "She was taking them home, and they were taking her home, and that was all in the universe that mattered."}} Yes, all that happens in between her leaving on an escort mission and getting home again.

** No, the line that makes everything worthwhile is, {{spoiler|"We're home, System Command.... It took us awhile, but we're home."}}

* ''[[The Candy Shop War]]'' is surprisingly dark for a kid's book, and features, among other things, a [[Jerkass]] witch-hunter, {{spoiler|a [[Bad Future]]}}, a ''ten-year-old'' getting trapped in an [[And I Must Scream]] scenario, and enough [[Body Horror]] for ''five'' books. However, it ends with {{spoiler|all the kids back to normal, everyone friends, good changes on the horizon, and the [[Big Bad]] herself rendered harmless as a friendly little girl}}.

* ''[[The Acts of Caine|Blade of Tyshalle]]'', to a degree that can neither be safely summarized without spoiling everything, nor summarized well in a manner that does the novel justice.

* In the second ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' book, humanity suffers ''heavy'' losses against the genocidal Achuultani invaders, {{spoiler|destroying the entire wave at the cost of many [[Heroic Sacrifice|heroic sacrifices]] galore, the destruction of most of the military--including Colin's [[Big Damn Heroes|big damn reinforcements]]--and a death toll on Earth exceeding 500 million people}}.

* ''[[Maurice]]'' by E.M. Forster ends on this note. This was the reason why the book was not published until 51 years after it was written.

* The cast in ''[[Dragons in Our Midst]]'' go through hell and back for their happy ending. And no, that's not speaking metaphorically, a few of them literally go through hell.

* ''[[The Acts of Caine]]'': what could count as a [[Downer Ending]] in another work is a rather happy ending in this book, compared to the hell the characters have been through.

* In the ''[[Xanth]]'' this is pretty much the entire schtick behind Good Magician Humphery's missions: Successfully completing a Humphery-given task pretty much guarantees you (and those who helped you) a [[Happily Ever After]]. And most who get stuck with the year's service as payment for his answers end up better off for the experience. It's implied that many of Xanth's citizens know this for a fact and that's why so many are willing to give up a year's freedom (at a minimum) to petition Humphery.

* {{spoiler|John Taylor}} and {{spoiler|Suzie Shooter}} from Simon R. Green's ''[[Nightside]]'' series. Though given how things work in the Nightside in general, and relating to {{spoiler|John and Suzie}} both together and individually, [[Bittersweet Ending|bittersweet]] is almost more than they or pretty much everyone in the series would expect/hope for. Though in the [[Crapsack World|Nightside]], Bittersweet ''IS'' happy when you put things in perspective. Of course [[Tempting Fate|there's still one final book left to finish the series,]] so it's possible they might not even get that.

* All of [[Ayn Rand]]'s fiction, except for ''[[We The Living]]''. Howard Roark gets his skyscraper, recognition of his artistic genius, and the girl in ''[[The Fountainhead]]''; John Galt gets America, and the girl, and the heroes are setting out to rebuild a second golden age in ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''; and Equality 7-2521 escapes, gets the girl, and sets out to rebuild the world in ''[[Anthem]]''.

* The two characters who get the happiest endings in the first duology of the ''[[Arcia Chronicles]]'' are {{spoiler|Shander Gardani}}, the [[Stoic Woobie]] who performs several [[Last Stand]]s and is magically tortured for months by the [[Big Bad]], and {{spoiler|Princess Ilana}}, whose ambitions lead her to become the [[Big Bad]]'s personal plaything and to lose everyone she loves. The two end up surprisingly [[Happily Married]] and found a dynasty that endures uncorrupted for many centuries.

 

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* The central plot of ''[[Angel]]'' was the titular character Angel "helping the helpless" to make up for the evil he had done in the past, after discovering that an ancient prophecy stated that a "vampire with a soul" would become human again by playing a part in one of the upcoming apocalypses. The entire series is Angel earning his happy ending. {{spoiler|Ultimately [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] by the end of the series, when he must give up his chance of ever becoming human in order to defeat the Circle of the Black Thorn.}}

* [[Steven Moffat]]'s episodes of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' (with the possible exception of "The Girl in the Fireplace") tend to go this way.

** Especially true of the two-parter "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances"; {{spoiler|after all the loss and suffering he had seen in his life, not to mention the fall of the Time Lords during the Great Time War, for once the Doctor was able to achieve a complete victory against death. "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, [[Everybody Lives|EVERYBODY LIVES!"]]}}

** And codified again in series 5. "The Big Bang" provides the biggest, ''happiest'' ending of any DW season ''ever''.

** Perhaps it's most accurate to say that sometimes, they leave it up to the audience to sort out whether it's a case of [[Downer Ending]], [[Bittersweet Ending]] or Earn Your Happy Ending.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. Applies to the series as a whole, but most particularly in season nine and ten. World after world bows down to the Ori, SG team members getting killed left and right (even a lot of normal people on earth thanks to the Prior plague), villains constantly getting away scot free and in two years, barely a dent is made in the Ori attack. Then [[The Ark of Truth]] kicks down the [[Downer Ending|Downer Ending's]] door, beats it up with some [[Stargate Verse/Awesome|Crowning Moments of Awesome]] and proceeds to give the team the [[Happy Ending]] they deserve.

* ''[[NYPD Blue]]'': Andy Sipowicz went through one murdered wife, one murdered son, two dead partners (and a third quitting in disgrace), and two cancer scares (His own and his toddler son's), all while trying to clean up his act after spending much of his career being an alcoholic [[Rabid Cop]]. He ends the show's run as squad commander, with a [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife|beautiful wife]] and newborn daughter at home.

* ''[[The Wire]]'': In a show in which practically all victories are of the Pyrrhic variety, and happy endings few and far between, there was much rejoicing in seeing {{spoiler|Bubbles}} walk up those steps...

* ''[[Blackadder]]: Back And Forth'' was a long awaited [[Happy Ending]] for the ''[[Blackadder]]'' series. After four seasons, over five hundred years of trying to take over England, or at least trying not to die, {{spoiler|(a) Blackadder finally controls England, openly, with a hot wife and a puppet Prime Minister, and is universally loved}}.

* ''[[Lost]]'' is ultimately an example of this. {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|And]] [[Tear Jerker|how]], as the [[True Companions]] reunite and [[Ascends to A Higher Plane of Existence]].}}

* On ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Sydney {{spoiler|leaves the spy world behind and finds peace in Santa Barbara.}}

* It might have been a [[Bittersweet Ending]] for the rest of the outlaws (heck, maybe even a case of [[Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending]]) and just a hallucination for the [[Official Couple]], but when [[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]] and Marian are finally reunited in their [[Together in Death]] scene, there's not a single viewer that can't say they didn't shed literal blood, sweat, and tears for that moment.

* ''[[Friday Night Lights (TV series)|Friday Night Lights]]'': Kind of the whole point of the show.

* ''[[The Haunting Hour the Series]]'' has many episodes end on either a [[Downer Ending]] or a [[Cruel Twist Ending]], but the episodes that don't do this tend to have this as their main rule: The characters will have to go through hell to get their happy ending.

* To an extent, the ending of ''[[Hawking]]'' (the 2004 BBC drama with [[Benedict Cumberbatch]]). [[Stephen Hawking|Stephen]]'s had to deal with a serious incurable illness while working very hard, but by the end of the movie he's made a scientific breakthrough, his university's offered him a fellowship, his girlfriend's agreed to marry him, and despite his medical issues, he's [[Portal (series)|still alive and doing science.]]

**** In other words: no matter how hard you work, you can't earn your way to Heaven. This sounds pretty bad at first, until you realize that Paul's meaning in this is that because Jesus [[Heroic Sacrifice|died]] for our sins, all we have to do is accept him as our savior to make it to Heaven, which is a lot easier than [[Failure Is the Only Option|trying to earn brownie points with God]].

**** To be clear, it is a bit more complicated than that. A person's good deeds do not directly merit their salvation, but refusing to do good deeds when given the chance is a mortal sin that can lead to damnation.

* Well, it is played straight for Jesus. After all the hell (literal and symbolic) He went through to save us, the Book of Revelations seems to position Him as the future ruler of the Ressurected faithful. This is somewhat subverted in that, being God, his dominion over us should have been His birthright rather than something earned, and many people will end up in Hell anyway.

 

* Arguably this is the main format of a standard wrestling match. The face starts out strong but is quickly taken over by the heel, is beaten up and worn down to when the crowd is sure they're done...until they manage to come back and pull off the win.

* [[Trish Stratus]] embodied this trope as she was hired by WWE with no wrestling ability and appalling mic skills. Over the years she trained and became one of the most accomplished wrestlers in the company. She was rewarded with a retirement match in her hometown of Toronto against long time rival [[Lita]] with the Women's title on the line. She ended the match by making Lita tap out to the Sharpshooter and was given a standing ovation from the crowd as well as the staff at ringside.

* This happened to, believe it or not, [[Zack Ryder]]. He started off 2011 as just a perennial lower card jobber, but quickly gained popularity through his ''Z! True Long Island Story'' web show. As the year progressed, he started to pick up steam and became a contender for the United States Championship, even gaining the support of [[John Cena]].<ref>Cena ultimately sacrificed a WWE Championship shot at WWE TLC to give Ryder a well-deserved US Title match.</ref> The culmination came at ''Tables, Ladders, and Chairs'', when Ryder defeated Dolph Ziggler (the current US Champion) to finally capture his first singles title in WWE. Not bad for an Internet sensation.

 

* How about Jerome Bettis? Plays the first 12 years of his career without getting so much as a sniff at the Super Bowl, and by his final season, he was practically a cripple (he was in pain just from walking), and then the Steelers have to play the vaunted Indianapolis Colts, led be future [[HO Fer]] Peyton Manning in the divisional round of the playoffs. When the Steelers got the ball at the Colts 2 yard line with a 21-18 lead, and only 1:20 left in the game, they hand it off to Bettis, who hadn't fumbled once that year to seal the lead. He fumbles. Then cornerback Nick Harper scoops up the loose ball, and starts running for the Colts endzone, with only quarterback Ben Roethlisberger the only Steeler between him and a go ahead touchdown. Somehow, Roethlisberger makes the open field shoelace tackle to save the game, and a few minutes later, after a missed field goal, the Steelers win and advance to the AFC championship game. After beating the Denver Broncos, the Steelers advance to the Super Bowl, being played in Bettis's home town of Detroit, Michigan. And then after the Steelers win the Super Bowl, Bettis announce's his retirement.

* Ray Bourque, who set several team, position and league records in his 21 years for the Boston Bruins...including one for NOT having his name on the Stanley Cup despite his lengthy career of 1,826 regular and playoff games. A secret trade to the Colorado Avalanche in 2000 put him exactly where he needed to be for the 2001 Finals. After trailing 3 games to 2 against the New Jersey Devils, Colorado came back to win in Game 7. Avs captain, one of the greatest players in recent memory, and all-around great guy Joe Sakic violated tradition by handing Bourque the Cup to take the first victory lap rather than himself. And it was sweet.

* The brand new 2011 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks are a prototype example. For the first 20 plus years of their existence, they were either mediocre, or they were great...right up until the playoffs. On top of that, every period of Mavericks excellence coincided with another team's dominance; i.e. the Lakers in the 80's, the Rockets in the 90's, and of course, their hated rivals the Spurs in the early 2000's. It never helped that while the the Mavericks couldn't make to the Finals, their rival Texas teams managed to win multiple championships. But then....the Mavs finally make it to the NBA Championship in 2006 against the Miami Heat..and even managed to take a commanding 2-0 lead. The Miami Heat behind the phenomenal play of Dwayne Wade beat the Mavs 4-2. Also, the Golden State Warriors eliminate the heavily favored Mavs the following year ''in the first round'', making them the ''best regular season team ousted in the first round in NBA history''. Beyond that, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry wind up being the only two guys from that '06 squad to remain with the team over the next few years. By the time the '10 - '11 season rolls around, the Mavs are largely forgotten. But they win 57 games to clinch a spot in the playoffs, they then outlast the Trailblazers in a tense 6-game series. They then take on the vaunted superstar-packed LA Lakers AND SWEEP THEM. After beating a talented OKC Thunder team, they make it to the NBA Finals and face.......that's right, the same Miami Heat team that defeated them five years ago, only now instead of Shaquille O'Neal, Dwayne Wade is joined by LeBron James and Chris Bosh, two of the NBA's biggest stars. It certainly seems like history will repeat itself when Miami goes up 2-1 on Dallas. But, Dallas, led by Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd (another guy who earned his happy ending), Terry, Chandler, et. al. pull it out and wind up beating the mega-team of the Miami Heat. Well earned, indeed.

* Jenson Button, the 2009 [[Formula One]] World Champion probably counts. It was his tenth season, he'd only won one race and had most recently endured two years in absolutely hopeless Honda cars and few people believed he really had what it takes any more. Then to cap it off, Honda pulled out of the sport after the 2008 season - leaving Button possibly without a drive for the next season, which he had sacrificed a strong performance in 2008 in anticipation of. Then, Honda Racing F1 Team Principal and co-architect of Michael Schumacher's string of successes at Ferrari, Ross Brawn took over the team with Honda's blessing (They even supplied some funds to help pay off debts & get through the season - they felt it was the honourable thing to do) & Button seized the day - winning six of the first seven races (Including four in a row and the the first three races ever won with a single F1 engine) becoming the first man to win the Championship before its final round since Fernando Alonso did it in 2005. He has since gone on to success at the prestigious McLaren team (Britain's answer to Ferrari), including becoming the first man to ever beat Lewis Hamilton whilst driving the same F1 car as him in 2011 - a season in which he was also pretty much the only driver able to consistently challenge the dominant Sebastian Vettel (Who is often called the Baby Schumacher with good reason). All this after his career had at one point looked like it had run its course without him fulfilling his early promise.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' has Golconda, which similarly allows a vampire to escape their state—although into ''what'' is vaguely defined. It's arguably even ''worse'', though. On top of having similarly stringent requirements to actually obtain, it's entirely within the Storyteller's power to rule [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|Golconda doesn't actually exist and you've just been wasting your time]]—unlike becoming human in ''Promethean'' which is a core part of the game's premise.

* ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion]]'' was, in many ways, the precursor to ''Promethean'', only [[Up to Eleven|even darker]]. Right, so you're stuck in a decaying afterlife with the foot soldiers of Oblivion, a power-mad undead empire that would just as soon ask for your vote as melt your corpus down to fill the treasury, and [[The Heartless|a voice inside your head]] trying to convince you to give it all up and tear the world down. But if you can remember what made you human and come to terms with the [[Unfinished Business|ties that bind you]] to this world, [[Epiphanic Prison|you're free to move on to the true afterlife]].

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has The Return of the Scarlet Empress—a campaign detailing the culmination of the [[Hell on Earth|Reclamation Conspiracy]]. The final climax includes {{spoiler|the Ebon Dragon, [[Complete Monster|the Yozi who]] ''[[Complete Monster|created]]'' [[Complete Monster|the concepts of misery, vice, cowardice and evil]], returning to Creation and attempting to install himself as a fundamental aspect of Creation.}} The Exalted heroes, unlike the time when they combined their heroism and strength to defeat the Primordials, are shattered and turned against each other. The Solar Exalted, the most mighty of all, are only young and weak. Creation has been ravaged for decades by the demonic forces of Hell... But if the Exalted stand against the Yozi and fight with all their might, they might -- ''might''—defeat the invaders and protect Creation from another apocalypse. But it will be a bloody fight where giving up seems to be the comfortable and sensible option...

** This is Exalted ''as a whole''. The challenge isn't saving the world from horrible monsters, it's saving the world from ''yourself'' and/or making it a place worth saving.

* ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]''. Sometimes everything that you try isn't enough to change the world. Sometimes your greatest triumphs lead directly to your downfall. But when you open your heart to someone else, and you change each other, then whatever may come, you are unlimited.

* ''[[Don Quixote|Man of La Mancha]]'', both the [[Show Within a Show]] and the show itself.

* The more seriously themed [[Cirque Du Soleil]] shows invoke this trope.

** ''Alegria'' - Power is too often in the wrong hands, but the forces of good can and must fight and (re)claim it. The movie inspired by this show takes this trope much further: the world it takes place in seems to be a [[World Half Empty]] where (as a song puts it) "children suffer and then want to die", but beauty and love have the power to change someone from despairing to hopeful - and to change everyone around them in the process. And every person has the power to be that source of beauty and love to someone else.

* ''[[A Raisin in the Sun]]'' by Lorraine Hansberry is a good example. The end of the play sees the African-American Younger family moving into a house in a white neighborhood so hostile that they sent a representative to offer to buy their house out from under them. Walter, the family patriarch, having blown the bulk of his father's life insurance payout, including money earmarked for his sister's education, nearly accepts the offer, but finally realizes that the family's pride is more important than money. Despite the looming challenge of being the first black family to live in their new community, and knowing that they will all have to work harder than ever to maintain their suburban life financially, the tone of the final scene in which they are moving out of their run-down apartment is one of hope.

* ''[[Angels in America]]'', while ending on more of an uncertain ending, still {{spoiler|had Prior survive a terrible fever he had been fighting since his HIV infection, after being haunted by the ghosts of his ancestors, losing his boyfriend, having bizarre visions, being ordered to serve as a prophet, and finally going to heaven and telling off the angels for trying to have humanity not move forward.}}

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Thief|Thief: The Dark Project]]''. Almost a [[Trope Codifier]]. After going through some of the scariest and most intense scenes in shooter history, you finally have a moment to breathe [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AdhWsObqvk&NR=1 at the end]. Not ''all'' is well, though.

{{quote|'''Garrett:''' {{spoiler|Tell my friends that I don't need their secret book, or their glyph warnings, or their messengers. Tell them I'm through. Tell them it's over. Tell them Garrett is ''done''.}}

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'''s characters ''definitely'' earn their happy ending, after what they went through in the game to get there. Well, except Hope. Poor Hope.

*** On the other hand, although Hope's lost his mother, the Web Novelisation epilogue ''Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-'' features him discovering that his father is alive. Given that said novelisation is also a lead-in to the coming sequel, ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]'', it counts as canon - and speaking of which, [[Word of God]] has it that Lightning herself will finally find her happy ending during the sequel, though it remains to be seen how true this is.

** This is a truly bizarre but awesome example, since the series properly establishes that [[Anyone Can Die]], and in the end, {{spoiler|a lot of people manage to live.}}

** Not necessarily a completely happy ending, but the hopeful future that looms at the end is definitely heartwarming.

* ''[[Ar tonelico]]'' does this in two ways: the game has multiple endings, in some of which you can {{spoiler|redeem the [[Big Bad]] instead of killing it off;}} Also, in the visual novel-like adventure within the "soulsphere" of Lady Shurelia, {{spoiler|which plays like a [[Magical Girl]] TV show, you get a surprising [[Bittersweet Ending]], unless you go back again- then you find out that it was actually due to tampering by the Big Bad itself, and you get the chance to earn a happy ending instead.}}

* The ''[[Suikoden]]'' series actually makes this into a game mechanic: the characters will suffer through all the tragedies and losses of war and then some, but if you [[One Hundred Percent Completion|recruit all 108 Stars of Destiny]], everyone gets a truly happy ending. Keep in mind that this is not at all easy, and neglecting to get even one of them will result in a much more [[Bittersweet Ending]], or even downright [[Downer Ending|tragic]] ending.

* The ''[[Silent Hill]]'' games have an incredibly literal example of this; in each of the games, there is a potential good ending, but the player has to earn it through his actions while playing the game {{spoiler|with the exception of ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'' and Origins, which actually force a good ending on the player the first time through. But, well, the characters still literally go through Hell to get it, so...}}

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' as well. The original campaign not so much, but definitely in Mask Of The Betrayer.

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' definitely invokes this trope. The squad members Shepard gathers are basically the platonic ideal of [[Dysfunction Junction]], but if you do their loyalty missions, you and they can help heal their myriad personal issues through a lot of hard work and shooting things. In a wider sense, depending on both your actions and decisions during the endgame mission and preparations you make for it throughout the game, you can either A: succeed, but lose some or most of your party, B: [[Kill'Em All|lose the entire team]], including Shepard (''the [[Player Character]]'') [[Take a Third Option|or C]]: choose everyone right, get every upgrade for the ''[[Cool Starship|Normandy]]'' and do every loyalty mission, and you'll not only get through the end unscathed, you'll get the [[Crowning Music of Awesome|first game's theme playing]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|as you gaze into dark space]], full of thousands of [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]], [[Badass Crew]] intact.

* The newest incarnation of the ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' series by [[Sierra]] ended its trilogy based on this trope. {{spoiler|The world literally cracks apart after the Dark Master has seemingly won and accomplished destroying the world. But Spyro uses his powers to save the world at the last moment with Cynder at his side. All their friends are okay and Ignitus, thought dead, is now the new Chronicler. The bittersweet part is that Spyro and Cynder are apparently dead... until its revealed they miraculously survived and after all the crap they've gone through, they've earned the happy ending they both deserved after all those scenes of angst. Oh, and apparently Cynder loves Spyro so they're more then likely in love now. Only took the end of the world for the relationship to become canon.}}

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' features a literal incarnation of this trope, as most players will unexpectedly receive a bad ending after picking the wrong choices of dialogue in two different scenes. Achieving the good ending is such a [[Guide Dang It]] that beating the game actually makes you feel like you accomplished something. All of this is doubly true for the True Ending since the game ''actively tries to steer you away from it during the "ending sequence."'' Nobody said reaching out to the truth was ''easy''.

* ''[[Max Payne 2]]'' has the player literally earn the happy ending. Only by beating the game on the hardest difficulty level do you see the ending where Mona Sax lives.

* ''[[Drakengard]]'' ''2'', [[World Half Empty|surprisingly enough]], pulls this off in its third ending. After grueling fights against [[Cosmic Horror]], a lot of sacrifice, and torrents of blood having been spilled, the game ends with {{spoiler|both the dragons and [[God Is Evil|the Gods]] fading away, and leaving mankind free to pursue their own destiny. Meaning that Nowe and Manah will get the normal lives they longed for, Eris won't have to sacrifice her future and become the new [[Barrier Maiden]], and the world finally regaining a semblance of peace.}} Also, a ''literal'' use of this trope since, to achieve this ending, the player must complete the game twice at the lower difficulty settings, and then finish the game in [[Harder Than Hard|Extreme]] difficulty.

* In ''[[Oddworld]] Abe's Oddysee'', if you don't save more than half your coworkers (who you don't even know you're meant to save until halfway through, and over half of whom are in secret areas), you get [[The Bad Guy Wins|dropped into a meat grinder at the end by the Big Bad]]. [[Nightmare Fuel|You get to see the bits go flying, too.]]

** [[All There in the Manual|The manual mentions that]] rescuing enough of them turns you into a god, so there is an incentive.

** If you leave enough of them to die, you get the arguably ''worse'' ending of being recruited by your [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] bosses for your rampant disregard for your coworkers and skill in getting them killed.

** ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' is a bit evil with this: there's an event on Day 3 involving Haru. If you don't do it, you ''cannot'' get any ending except for {{spoiler|[[Downer Ending|Yuzu's]]}} because it disables the {{spoiler|Belial}} fight on Day 6, thus screwing up the War of Bel, and ''making the Laplace email predict something completely different''. Not to mention, of course, that you have to fight at least one friend regardless of your ending.

*** The game also qualifies story-wise. The only way to win is to fight. [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]] is {{spoiler|a quick way to wreck the world, even if you can fix the mess in ''Overclocked''}}. On the other hand, if you do {{spoiler|seize the Tower of Babel}}, you can make a difference and save the world.

* ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'' finally featured the human side of the [[Robot War]]'s story (showing the humans' perspective of the [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|Reploids]], which border on [[Fantastic Racism]]). However, over the course of the game, the humans and Reploids finally learn to put aside their differences, creating true peace that lasted for almost two centuries. Tragically subverted, since the ones who fought so hard and so long for this peace [[Heroic Sacrifice|gave their lives in the process]] just so the war could finally end.

* The ending for ''[[Nintendo Wars|Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'' is hopeful, light and upbeat in a [[Darker and Edgier]] game set [[After the End]]. You just have to go through [[That One Boss|Sunrise]] to get it.

* This is more or less how the [[Celestial Bureaucracy]] in ''[[Grim Fandango]]'' works: Upon arrival at the Land of the Dead, each soul has to take a four-year-journey through the land to reach the Land of Eternal Rest, and how saintly they were in life determines how comfortably they can get there. The saintliest souls are eligible for a ticket on the Number 9 express train that shoots through the Land of the Dead in four minutes, while the biggest schmucks and sinners may have to just walk the whole trip, or even get sent in by parcel post.

* The ''Burning Crusade'' expansion of [[World of Warcraft]] definatly ended this way for the Blood Elves. After having their homeland ravaged by the Scourge, becoming addicted to magic due to the Sunwell's loss, abandoned by the Alliance and betrayed by their own Prince, they finally manage to redeem themselves and cure their addiction through the combined efforts of Velen, Lady Liadren, the Shattered Sun Offensive and, of course, the player. The fact that they managed to banish Kil'Jaeden from Azeroth was icing on the cake.

* ''[[Cave Story]]''. The story is dark enough, with cute NPCs dying or being transformed into monsters, and the [[Big Bad]] threatening to unleash said monsters on the world. But, by making [[Guide Dang It|the right choices]], it's possible to not just defeat the apparent [[Big Bad]], but to avert the [[Bittersweet Ending]] by saving two main characters (who would otherwise die), preventing the island from crashing, and killing [[The Man Behind the Man]] so this threat will never arise again. This requires the protagonist to [[Bonus Level of Hell|storm Hell]], the hardest level in the game—so both the characters and the player have to earn the good ending.

* Much like ''[[Silent Hill]]'', ''[[Fatal Frame]]'' has the protagonists going through hell, ''almost literally'', to get to the end, but it's really up to the player to do what's necessary to unlock the Good Endings. The requirement this time is to play the games in higher difficulties.

** Of course, the effort put into this becomes kind of pointless when the series is infamous for making the worst possible endings canon...

** The sequel has this as well, since {{spoiler|your actions influence Eleanor, the girl that Delta was bonded with. If the player remains good, the ending has Eleanor save her [[Complete Monster]] mother Sofia Lamb and absorb Delta's essence so that they can finally be together as one.}}

* ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]'' has the happy ending earned by ''every single character in the series''. We find out that Algo and its inhabitants were created ''solely'' to produce heroes meant to keep the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] in its can, and that the struggle against Dark Force has gone on for thousands of years because of a flaw in the seal; Chaz loses his mentor and has a crisis of faith when he realizes that the forces of Light are just as ruthless and manipulative as the Darkness, and [[Refusal of the Call|refuses]] to fight on its terms—but chooses instead to fight for the sake of all the people who came before, and lived, fought, died, and were forgotten or lost in their struggle. The ending finds the heroes of the game continuing on and happily living the lives they always wanted to, and the souls of the heroes from the previous games finally being able to rest.

** One end of ''[[The Bard's Tale]]'' is when The Bard {{spoiler|[[Takes a Third Option]] and tells both the Demon Queen and the Druid to stuff it and leaves them arguing to go [[Go-Karting with Bowser|drinking with the rapping, breakdancing undead he's been fighting throughout the game]].}}

* A wonderful example of Earning your Happy ending would be in ''[[Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter]]''. The game is so ridiculously hard that it can easily take restarting the game more than once to actually beat it. The ending, however, is well worth it.

* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' has you [[Guide Dang It|jump through numerous hoops]] to get the best ending, but it's oh so worth it. {{spoiler|Having faced down your previous incarnations and being forced to watch as [[Big Bad|the Transcendent One]] (aka your own mortality made sentient) butchers your party one by one, you finally confront it and convince it to give up its hopeless plan to be independent from you and rejoin with you, ending your immortality. After this, you restore your friends, bid one final farewell to them, and finally, ''finally'' die and begin your penance for the crimes of the First Incarnation. Yes, it seems bittersweet, but the Nameless One still has the knowledge that his friends are all alive, in some cases (Dak'kon, Morte) absolved of their guilt/servitude, and can leave their adventures with him better people who will likely go far. Besides, TNO now has all the power and knowledge of ''all'' his incarnations, so it's not like he'll be defenseless in the battlefields of the Blood War.}}

* The best ending for ''[[Splatterhouse|Splatterhouse 3]]'' definitely counts. Rick manages to finish every level of his house in time, saving his wife and son, destroying a [[Cosmic Horror]], and finally taking down {{spoiler|the Terror Mask}} once and for all. After [[Tragic Monster|being forced to kill his girlfriend in the first game]], and then [[To Hell and Back|punching his way through the Gates of Hell]] [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|and taking out an]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[The Power of Love|to save her]] in the second, he damn well ''deserves'' a happy ending.

* ''[[Fable III]]'' handles this... interestingly. In the game's third act you become the King or Queen, and you're now on a one-year timer {{spoiler|before an [[Eldritch Abomination]] conquers your kingdom.}} The game expects you to have to make some tough decisions -- [[Honor Before Reason|do you keep all your promises to your subjects only to watch them die in the coming war]], [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|or do you oppress your people in order to raise money for an army to save your country?]] Or do you [[Take a Third Option]], making all the "right" decisions and paying for the army out of your own pocket, thereby proving to your brother that you're the leader he never could be? Well...

** ...as it turns out, [[Money for Nothing|it's super easy to raise enough money over the course of your adventures provided you're willing to invest heavily in real estate]] (which most players want to do anyways, because it's tough to make ''any'' money in the game unless you buy up property like crazy) and putz around with sidequests for a little while as your coffers automatically fill to bursting. Earning the happy ending is therefore not the Herculean challenge that the game makes it out to be.

** Actually, Ethan cannot have a happy ending unless another person finds out who the killer was or Shaun was at least. Ethan going in alone will wind up getting him killed.

*** If you complete the Bear Trial without failing any QTEs, {{spoiler|Ethan won't break his ribs and the [[Shoot Him! He Has a Wallet!|police won't shoot him]].}}

* [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]], after all the crap he went through, finally got his happy ending at the end of ''[[Epic Mickey]]'', and he most definitely deserves one.

* ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'' has this, because Alice has to {{spoiler|battle the Red Queen and kill her in her [[Eldritch Abomination|true form]] so she can regain her sanity.}}

** The same could be said about ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]''. Yeah, you could breeze through the game, but that's not the Hero of Time's style.

* Especially when compared with the original ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'''s [[Yank the Dog's Chain]] ending, ''[[Portal 2]]'' is a prime example of this trope. After fighting off {{spoiler|two!}} psychotic [[A Is]], traveling through the bowels of a [[Fridge Horror|nightmarish]] [[Mad Science]] lab and basically going through hell and back, [[Determinator|Chell]] finally succeeds and {{spoiler|earns her release from Aperture.}} The game ends with a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|lovely scene]] of {{spoiler|the blue skies, wheat fields and [[Not Quite Dead]] Companion Cube outside the facility.}}

* The ''[[Resistance]]'' trilogy. Over the course of the first two games, humanity is slowly overwhelmed by the Chimera. By the start of the third game, the Chimera look set to wipe out what's left of humanity. But once Joe Capelli {{spoiler|destroys the wormhole the Chimera are using to freeze Earth}}, things start to turn around as the humans finally begin to beat back the invasion.

** The Resistance example is arguably the most surprising example of this trope. In the lead-up to the third game, [[Word of God]] all but promised that the Chimera would erase humanity.

** Salsa and Samba are kidnapped and tortured by the Pigmasks.

** Countless (note: sentient) creatures across the Nowhere Islands are torn limb from limb and reconstructed into Chimeras.

 

== Visual Novels ==

* ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. Any ending that can remotely be considered "happy" is earned in gallons of [[Heroic Sacrifice|blood]], [[Heroic Resolve|sweat]], and [[Tear Jerker|tears]]. Mostly blood and tears, actually.

* In ''[[Tsukihime]]'', Hisui's Good End, which is still rather bittersweet, and Kohaku's end. Kohaku's end gets the benefit of {{spoiler|looking like not only did this path's heroine just die, but you'll have to kill Akiha because Roa is corrupting her.}} But neither happens.

* ''[[Little Busters!]]'' requires the player to have gone through each of the other girl's route in order to {{spoiler|have Riki and Rin become stronger}} and even after you have gained access to the refrain route {{spoiler|it requires you to have Riki live through the 'real' events where the bus crash killed everyone but him and Rin, and then fix that reality so everyone lives}}

* [[Family Project]]. Seriously, for a game where a [[Dysfunction Junction]] is the ''premise'', things turn out pretty well in the end.

* In ''[[Yume Miru Kusuri]]'', both Kouhei and the chosen heroine go through many, ''many'' trials together (such as {{spoiler|horrific bullying, drug-addiction and existential crises}}), but they eventually resolve their problems and go forward together to a well-deserved [[Happy Ending]].

* ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'': All of the routes involve some deal of angst, but two routes stand out amongst the rest. {{spoiler|In Lilly's route, she seems to go off to Scotland and Hisao runs after her only to ''have a heart attack and appear to die''. Even when you realise he's still alive he's stuck in a hospital again with an even more reduced lifetime knowing that Hanako is happy away with her other friends and that Lilly is gone forever. At least, until you hear the music box and Lilly reappears, promising to stay in Japan and with Hisao.}} Secondly, in {{spoiler|Rin's route, which is as a whole noticeably darker than Act 1 and the other routes, she goes through a slow spiral into depression in her attempt to create art and find herself and doesn't really snap out of it until the very end, leaving many players to become convinced they've accidentally gotten a Bad End.}}

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', so far at least. There's lots of grim details in the background, particularly the details of Annie's [[Parental Abandonment]], and her extensive prior experience with [[The Grim Reaper]]s, as well as poor Robot's [[The Chew Toy|misfortunes]]. The main characters remain well-balanced and optimistic in spite of these, and there's nothing to suggest that this is naivety on their part.

** To elaborate, the Order visits an Oracle who tells everyone on the team the answer to one of their questions. [[The Reveal]] heavily implies {{spoiler|the imminent death of one member, the ultimate demise of a second, the corruption of a third, and the fall of a prominent good nation because a fourth phrased his question poorly -- even after the Oracle heavily hinted this last one. While a fifth's foretelling is positive, only}} the ending to Elan's story is guaranteed to be happy.

 

== Web Original ==

** Which ''[[Sailor Nothing/Headscratchers|apparently]]'' was a ''bad'' thing, because it meant someone's pick for "designated casualty" failed to die horribly.

* Summed up spectacularly with [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s review of [[Don Bluth]]'s ''[[Thumbelina]]'', where the despairing heroine is surprised to find her prince Cornelius alive and well - "Things are impossible! Things are... oh! Hi dead boyfriend! Thanks for coming along and proving my pessimism wrong and not making me work for that happy ending!"

* When [[The Nostalgia Critic]] fell into pretty epic depression in his "Commercials Special", he got to win by doing a [[Crowning Music of Awesome]] and be happy for the first time in a long while.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Moral Orel]]'' ends in this way, where despite the fact that the main character lives in a [[Crapsack World]] of hypocrisy and zealotry and having one of the worst father figures imaginable, Orel ends up growing up to raise a genuinely happy family, with his brothers becoming a fireman and a policeman, though his parents are seemingly doomed forever to misery and hatred. That and throughout the final season it's been shown that there's a few residents of Moralton that have a chance at happiness.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': [[Earth Is a Battlefield|Century-long war?]] Check. Implacable foe, impossible odds? Check. Last, best hope for <s> peace</s> victory is ''[[Improbable Age|twelve]]''? Check. [[Heroic Sacrifice|Multiple]] [[Redemption Equals Death|heroes]] [[Doomed Hometown|dead]] already? Check. Countdown to utter, utter defeat? ..oh, guess. Sounds like the sort of situation very few people walk away from alive, right? {{spoiler|Wrong. At the end of the Finale, ''all'' of the [[Everybody Lives|good guys alive at the start of the finale are still here]], there are [[Official Couple|three romantic pairs among them]], the war ended [[Balance Between Good and Evil|without either side getting reduced to paste]], Zuko gets to be king, and [[Retired Badass|Iroh]] [[I Just Want to Be Normal|gets his tea shop back]]. [[Tear Jerker|Win]], [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|win]], ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|win]]''.}}

* ''[[South Park]]'' has a bunch:

** In "Chef Aid", the boys hold a benefit concert for Chef after he is sentenced to jail due to bad legal judgement over the song "Stinky Britches". However, the executive, who claims he is "above the law", tries to sabotage the concert and nearly succeeds, but Johnnie Cochran saves the day in the end.

** Kyle yet again earns his happy ending in "Crack Baby Athletic Association", with help from {{spoiler|[[Slash]] of [[Guns N' Roses]] fame.}}

** The ultimate ''[[South Park]]'' expression of this trope may well be the "Imaginationland" storyline. An apocalyptic war between good and evil in the subconscious of humanity! Beloved characters die gruesomely! Kurt Russell gets raped by forest animals! But in the end, it is ''Butters'' of all people who pulls victory from the jaws of defeat and saves the day, insuring everyone gets a happy ending. Even Al Gore is vindicated about the Man-Bear-Pig!

* After '''over ten years''' of various defeats, setbacks and humiliations, ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' ends with the eponymous characters being actually liked and respected by the neighborhood kids who previously detested them.

* Could be considered to apply to Fry and Leela in ''[[Futurama]]''.

* With so many [[Downer Ending|downer endings]] for the [[DCAU]] [[Batman]], the [[Fully-Absorbed Finale]] for ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', "Epilogue", was about as happy an ending as Batman can ever expect but boy, did Bruce, Terry, and the audience have to go through a lot to get it. Terry finds out that Bruce is [[It Makes Sense in Context|his biological father]] and is ''pissed'' about it. For most of the episode he's angry and bitter about Bruce, Batman, and fate. But with the help of Amanda Waller (again [[It Makes Sense in Context]]), he realizes that he has control over his own life and that he ''isn't'' Bruce even if he may be his son. So in the end, Terry is determined to live a happy life and be Batman at the same time while Bruce is left with a protégé he trusts to carry on the/his fight after he's gone and a family he's always been looking for.

* The eponymous character from ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' certainly qualifies. After three seasons of being despised by everyone as a human and a ghost, hunted down, and having a just plain miserable life, in the [[Grand Finale]], it all pays off: He becomes known as a hero to the entire planet, his secret is let out to everyone including his parents thus leading to perhaps a more popular reputation and perhaps becoming closer to his family, and to top it all off, he finally hooks up with his female friend which has been hinted at since the series began. It definitely seems that his future is brighter than it was [[Bad Future|originally]] [[Future Me Scares Me|intended]].

* [[Balto]] earns his big time. He started the movie the hated outcast who was constantly being chased away from the one he loved, with the movie's [[Jerkass]] [[Big Bad]] trying to ruin his life, and being unable to accept himself as a dog or a wolf. He has to go on an epic adventure through a blizzard, facing horrible danger at every single turn, and ultimately getting the tar beaten out of him by Steele, but in the end, he saves the entire town and is honored as a hero. On top of that, he finally accepts what he is and manages to get the love of his life. Sure, the next film shows there are some dogs who still make fun of him for his wolf half, but his life is a ''lot'' happier than it was.

** "A Canterlot Wedding" is another prime example of this. By the time Celestia finally gets around to declaring the {{spoiler|real}} bride and groom formally married, there's no doubt that both of them have earned it after what they've been through. And of course Twilight Sparkle, after having her suspicions blown off by everypony and for a while seeming to lose her friends, her mentor, ''and'' her big brother over it only to have the main villain promptly banish her underground as soon as everypony else has left...ultimately gets them all back ''and'' gains a new [[Cool Big Sis]] in the bargain.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Happiness Tropes]]

[[Category:Idealism Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]