Happily Ever After: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Willy Wonka:''' But, Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted.

'''Charlie:''' What's that?

 

So, we've had a whole love story. The main couple have passed through all the possible obstacles separating them: physical distance, a [[Love Triangle]], a properly jealous villain ([[Alpha Bitch]], maybe), maybe even the [[Big Bad]] (common in epic fairy tales). Now, they are [[Kissing Tropes|kissing]] each other [[Against the Setting Sun|at sunset]] as the very well known words are narrated:

See also [[True Love's Kiss]], [[Died Happily Ever After]], [[Babies Ever After]], [[Dance Party Ending]], [[The Good Guys Always Win]]. Contrast [[Downer Ending]] and [[Bittersweet Ending]], the cruellest examples of which make us ''think'' they're going to be a case of this trope before [[Cruel Twist Ending|yanking the rug out from under the audience]]. Compare [[Maybe Ever After]], which leaves open the possibiity of a happily ever after ending, but doesn't make it a certain conclusion, and [[Earn Your Happy Ending]], in which the characters only live '''Happily Ever After''' if they're prepared to put some effort into it. In more modern works, even a straight '''Happily Ever After''' can have the rug pulled out from under it in the sequel, in which we catch up with [[Prince Charming]] and his princess and find that they're [[Downtime Downgrade|getting on each other's nerves]] and [[Sequelitis|have to fall in love all over again]].

 

 

Not to be confused with the [[Happily Ever After (film)|animated Filmation feature]]. Or [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqIL78NEHAw a certain song] [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|from a certain mecha show.]] Or even a [[Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child|series of multicultural fairy tales]] that aired on [[HBO]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' - in spite of the intentional Cliffhanger as Sakura jumps across the wide gap between her and Syaoran, it is already clear that the couple (and possibly the other characters, too) get to live happily after the story. The [[Power of Friendship]] and the [[Power of Love]] prevail! One of the very few anime shows that actually have true happy endings.

* Heavily implied in [[Tokyo Godfathers]].

* The eventual end of [[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]] had everyone (including the main villain) survive. Shame it took a thousand years to accomplish.

 

* ''[[Rio]]'', as per tradition of most of the known western animated films.

* Just about every Adam Sandler movie has this. Even if the film doesn't end with him "getting the girl," it will at least end with some kind of happily-ever-after epilogue (case in point: [[Big Daddy]]).

* [[Back to The Future]] both subverts and plays this straight. We can assume Marty's parents lived "happily ever after" once Marty altered their meetup in 1955... if only Doc's time machine would quit getting in the way.

 

== Literature ==

* Subverted in ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'': the narrator's father said that the characters 'lived happily ever after,' but when the narrator gets around to reading the book himself as an adult, he finds out that it's actually an open ending with the success of the escape [[Left Hanging|left in doubt]]. The movie adaptation, however, plays this trope straight.

* Regardless of what [[Fanon Discontinuity|some fans think about it]], the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' epilogue shows this happening to the heroes.

* In [[Peter S. Beagle|Peter S Beagle]]'s ''[[The Last Unicorn (novel)|The Last Unicorn]]'', Schmendrick tells Molly that "[[Deconstruction|There are no happy endings,]] [[Tropes Are Not Bad|because nothing ends.]]"

 

* ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'': it's possible to live happily ever after ''one day at a time''.

* ''[[The Steve Harvey Show]]'': Steve follows Regina to her new job in California, Ced and Lovita win the lottery just as Lovita goes into labor, and Romeo, Lydia, and Bullethead graduate from high school and are accepted at college.

* The happy ending of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' has been a [[Foregone Conclusion]] since the first minute of the pilot episode.

 

* A core element in many religions (such as Christianity and Islam) is the promise of an infinitely perfect afterlife for believers. This element is not found in Judaism, which predates both of the aforementioned religions in the development of Abrahamic monotheism.

 

* A classic subversion is found in the play ''[[The Fantasticks]]''. Act One concludes with a classic Happy Ending, with the fathers ending their "feud" and approving their children's romance after the boy rescues the girl from a (staged) abduction. Act ''Two'' starts as reality begins to set in.

* ''[[Into the Woods]]'' has a similar setup to ''The Fantasticks'': Act One concludes with a classic Happy Ending, but then there's Act Two...

{{quote|"No royal curse, no [[Trojan Horse]],

And there's a happy ending, of course! }}

* Parodied in ''The Stoned Guest'' by P.D.Q. Bach. This "half-act opera" would end with a [[Kill'Em All]], except then the entire cast inexplicably rises again to sing a final chorus. It even ends on the words, "Happy ending!"

* A few of [[Shakespeare]]'s plays give the characters this, particularly ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]], [[Twelfth Night]],'' and ''[[As You Like It]]''.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'' (also known as ''Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk''), there are three possible endings. In one, the "good ending" (dubbed "the mega-happy ending" by the author of this statement) {{spoiler|Emil and Marta end up together, through a complicated series of circumstances. Emil's personality is separated from that of Ratatosk, and that personality is allowed to live his life as a human.}}

* The same applies to ''[[Cave Story]]''. Aside from the "good" ending, there is also a [[Guide Dang It]] "best" ending, which saves two NPC's who otherwise die, stops the island from falling, and offers redemption to the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]]. The final cutscene shows Curly, {{spoiler|Quote}}, and {{spoiler|Balrog}} flying off into the sunset, resolved to find someplace with a beautiful view to live the rest of their days.

* At the conclusion of the ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' series, your character can earn a truly happy ending by renouncing godhood and marrying his/her [[Love Interest]]. {{spoiler|Unless the [[Love Interest]] happens to be Viconia -- that relationship ends on a more [[Bittersweet Ending|bittersweet]] note.}}

 

* ''[[Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!|Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai]]'' invokes this in a couple of different ways. In their respective routes {{spoiler|Wanko}} is [[Happily Married]], {{spoiler|Miyako}} gets [[Babies Ever After]], and {{spoiler|Mayucchi}} [[Grow Old with Me]], to name a few examples. At the end of the Ryuuzetsuran route, the ryuuzetsuran is transplanted to the Kawakami School of Martial Arts, the family has gotten a new member and is still going strong, and even the villains are getting a [[Redemption Quest|shot at redemption]].

 

* ''[[Bob and George]]'' ends when all the characters who were supposed to die in the Cataclysm, plus Bob and George who were supposed to go home and be miserable and die young respectively, fake their deaths, move to Acapulco, and live happily ever after.

* ''[[Axe Cop]]'' once married [[Gender Bender|Girl Abraham Lincoln]] and lived Happily Ever After... until he got really bored.

 

== Web Original ==

* Mike Nelson has inverted this trope a couple of times in his [[Riff Trax]] of movies. One example is his Riff of ''[[Road House]]'' where he goes into detail during the closing credits about how all the character's lives go horribly wrong after the movie's ending.

** This happened earlier in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'''s sporking of ''[[Soultaker]]'', where Crow and Servo refuse to accept the movie's Happily Ever After and instead offer a [[Downer Ending]] where the protagonist ends up in jail. Mike asks if they aren't being a little doom-and-gloom, and they [[Sarcasm Mode|sarcastically]] suggest a [[Sugar Bowl]] ending that is literally rainbows and unicorns. Mike asks if there can't be a middle ground and they say nope, it's either prison or unicorns.

* [[Multiple Endings|One ending]] of ''[[Three Worlds Collide]]'' makes living happily ever after ''horrifying''. Happiness is overrated.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Pretty much everything [[Disney]] does. Except ''[[The Fox and the Hound (film)]]''. Keep in mind that the ending of the [[The Fox and The Hound (novel)|original novel]] was [[Downer Ending|even worse]]...

* Every [[Don Bluth]] movie too. In fact, Bluth has gone on record to say that as long as the story ends Happily Ever After, then kids can handle whatever dark and depressing stuff happens beforehand (and in Bluth's earlier movies, happen it does.)

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Happiness Tropes]]

[[Category:Idealism Tropes]]

[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]

[[Category:Romance Novel Tropes]]