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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"There are no [[Happily Ever After|Happy Endings]] because nothing ever ends."''|'''Schmendrick the Magician''', ''The Last Unicorn''.}}
So the series ended with the [[Masquerade]] being lifted, or the [[Last-Minute Hookup|couple getting together in the last five seconds of the show]], or otherwise the
Solution: They don't. Everyone either lives [[Happily Ever After]] or has a [[Downer Ending]]; but it's not the writer's problem anymore.
Woe to any writer who suddenly has to answer
May overlap with [[Lonely
{{examples}}▼
{{endingtrope}}
== Anime & Manga ==▼
▲{{examples}}
* In ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', Sakura and Syaoran are left with a rather large obstacle in their relationship. Syaoran is from a magical family from Hong Kong, and Sakura lives in Japan and quite [[I Just Want to Be Normal|content with her idea of a normal life, magical pets notwithstanding.]] [[CLAMP]] isn't the slightest bit interested in explaining how they manage this.
** The manga averts the trope. In the [[Distant Finale]], it's revealed that after several years of maintaining their relationship long-distance, Syaoran completes the paperwork to move to Japan on a permanent basis, making it more of a [[Happily Ever After|happily ever after ending.]]
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== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Watchmen]]'' arguably ends this way: although [[The Reveal]] (actually a series of revelations) resolved a whole lot of plot points, Dr. Manhattan, who's in a position to know this kind of thing, claims that nothing ever ''really'' ends. The [[Denouement]] apparently bears out his claim: the world is now just barely politically stabilized under a fragile peace accord that may or may not last, the costumed vigilantes Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk are still at large and plying their trade under new identities for how much longer no one can be sure, and a certain journal that a very minor character may or may not be about to discover may or may not ultimately blow the lid off the huge secret these costumed vigilantes are keeping from the rest of the world. It's deliberately left up to the reader to speculate what's going to happen next.
* [[Sandman| Death of the Endless]] knows her job will not be done until she is the last being still alive in the universe. But what will she do then? She has an answer, one that's somewhat cryptic: "I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave."
== Film ==
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* ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067418/ Melody (1971)]'' ends with Daniel Latimer and Melody Perkins escaping from the adults' raid on their wedding and cranking themselves down the railroad track on a trolley. However, this "man" and his "wife" are only ten years old! No government is going to recognize their marriage legally. They barely even know anything about kissing, let alone sex. So what kind of honeymoon are they going to have? [[Figure It Out Yourself|Good question.]]
== Live
* The ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' finale played this one perfectly straight. In the last scene, Xander lays it all out for Buffy: {{spoiler|the Hellmouth is closed forever and Buffy isn't special any more, doesn't have any destiny}}... so now what? The last shot of the series is Buffy starting to grin as she realizes that for maybe the first time since she picked up a stake, the answer to that is totally up to her.
** And of course, the question was answered in the Season Eight comics.
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== Literature ==
* ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'': Hoorah, we've defeated the Martian invasion! That's the last we'll see of them! Well, until they invent disinfectant, anyway.
** Actually, the final chapter of the book claims that a second invasion would fail even if they did develop a vaccine, seeing as they lost the element of surprise, and their canister-like spacecrafts could be demolished by the military long before they could emerge. The last chapter also suggests they abandoned Earth and were attempting to colonize Venus.
== Tabletop Games ==
* One of the biggest examples of [[The Starscream]] in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' cosmology is Mephistopheles, ruler of the Eighth Layer of Hell. While all the Archdevils plot to usurp Asmodeus and assume his throne, Mephistopheles is the most blatant case, having told his intentions to Asmodeus' face. What would happen if he ever succeeded? Given how power-hungry he is, Mephistopheles' own minions have said (behind his back) that it would take him less than an hour to start wondering why he also didn't rule Mount Celestia.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic|KOTOR]] II'' was supposed to end with the main cast flying away from Malachor V in the ''Ebon Hawk''. Atton would then ask the Exile "So...where're we going now?"
* At the end of ''[[Portal 2]]'', {{spoiler|1=Chell, and her Weighted Companion Cube, are finally released from the facility by GLaDOS. The only problem? It's "several hundred years" in the future, there's no sign of humanity, and [[Half-Life 2|the Combine]] might still be around.}} The fact that she's a [[Heroic Mime]] won't help much, either.
* Yuriko's campaign in ''[[Command
* In Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, it's strongly hinted that Klonoa has divine blood and that his forced wanderings are serving some greater purpose. The game ends just as he's being drawn out of Lunatea. Namco never released another Klonoa game.
* ''[[Ultima IV]]'' is ''entirely made'' of this trope. See, in all previous Ultima games, you defeated supreme evil...and now there are no more bad guys to fight aside from random monsters in dungeons. What's your goal? To become a Messiah!
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Ending Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:This Index Asked You a Question]]
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