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This is where a story ends on a happy, upbeat note, with all the problems resolved and everyone getting back to leading happy, fulfilling lives ... but only if they're main characters. Basically, the characters the audience know and care about get their happy ending, but it comes at the expense of minor characters who get stuck with a [[Downer Ending]].
Note that in this case, it should go without saying that the term "
Related to [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]], [[Inferred Holocaust]], [[Esoteric Happy Ending]], [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]], and [[Dwindling Party]]. If an [[Adam and Eve Plot
See also: [[What Happened to
{{endingtrope}}
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
* Arguably ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', mainly in the manga.
** ''
**
* Inverted in ''[[Code Geass]]'', where [[The Hero Dies|Lelouch dies]] and Suzaku [[Faking the Dead|fakes his death]] and forever takes on the identity of Zero, while the surviving main characters move on with their lives and attend Ohgi and Villetta's wedding.
* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''. Yeah, [[Official Couple|Miaka and Tamahome]] get their happy ending... Too bad the other Guardians of Suzaku are either trapped in a book or ''dead'' (and Miaka, at one point of the story, actually had the power to bring every one of them back to life and/or in the real world. But she resurrected only the guy she loves).
* In ''[[
* In some [[Jack Chick]] tracts, the main Christian will talk to one non-believer, who gets more focus than the rest of the cast and goes to heaven in the end, while the other non-Christians are implied to go to Hell. One example is "The Trial"; the twist is that the plaintiff's daughter accepted Jesus when her friend, the defendant, told her, and the girl's mother and the witnesses called in to testify (authorities from other religions) go to Hell. Then again, it's just as common to invert this, as in "Busted" the main prosecutor goes to hell while his secretary gets converted (however, we don't hear [[What Happened to The Mouse?|whether the suspect at the beginning was convicted]], much less whether he deserved the outcome).▼
== Comic Books ==
▲* In some [[Jack Chick]] tracts, the main Christian will talk to one non-believer, who gets more focus than the rest of the cast and goes to heaven in the end, while the other non-Christians are implied to go to Hell. One example is "The Trial"; the twist is that the plaintiff's daughter accepted Jesus when her friend, the defendant, told her, and the girl's mother and the witnesses called in to testify (authorities from other religions) go to Hell. Then again, it's just as common to invert this, as in "Busted" the main prosecutor goes to hell while his secretary gets converted (however, we don't hear [[What Happened to
== Film ==
* ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]'': Tony heads to the big city to dance on Broadway! He gets the girl! Well... the girl who wasn't treated like dirt, raped, and then forgotten about, that is. And let's just forget Tony's friend Bobby C, who falls off the Verrazanno-Narrows Bridge during an act of depressed recklessness.
* The most recent{{when}} movie version of ''[[Les Misérables]]'' ended the story before Jean Valjean dies, making it a happy ending as long as you're Jean Valjean, Marius, or Cosette and not any of the rest of the revolutionaries, who all died on the barricades.
* ''[[The Ring]]'': Rachel and Aiden make a copy of the cursed videotape, thus passing on the evil. Someone else will certainly watch the video and die, but it's OK because the main characters are safe! Then again, it's a ''horror'' movie. The only way to survive is to doom other people, and the only way to get out of the movie alive is to harden yourself to that. (Note that in the original, the person being set up to die is ''the lead's father''.)
* The end of ''[[Birth of a Nation]]'', with the main characters happily married and the Klan firmly in control of the South, is kind of like that. Or maybe that's just [[Values Dissonance]].
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* In ''[[Hellboy II]]: The Golden Army'' the movie ends with Liz and Hellboy planning on their future together with their children. Abe Sapien, on the other hand, gets to mourn the death of his lost love, Princess Nuala, who [[Heroic Sacrifice|killed herself]] to stop her brother from destroying the human world.
** Well, Hellboy himself is still prophesized to bring destruction to the world... and to hurt Liz most of all. One would imagine that she'd be more conflicted than outright happy.
* ''[[Avatar (
* ''[[Signs]]'': Millions or billions of people have been killed or enslaved by the alien invasion, but God smiled on this one family and saved them so yay!
** Unlikely. It wouldn't be hard for the rest of humanity to come across the aliens' [[Weaksauce Weakness]].
* In ''[[
* ''[[Red Riding Hood (
* ''[[
* The nuns in ''[[The Sound of Music]]''. The Nazis are certain to figure out that it was the nuns who sabotaged their car and enabled the Von Trapp family to escape. Things might get pretty unpleasant for Uncle Max, too.
== Literature ==
* Subverted and
* In ''[[Pride and Prejudice And Zombies]]''. Elizabeth marries Darcy. Nothing happens to [[Failure Is the Only Option|stop the zombie apocalypse]], though...
* Alexander McCall Smith's book ''[[The Careful Use of Compliments]]'' ends with the independently wealthy Isabel using her money to buy the journal she edits, firing the editorial board, and replacing it with her friends, all so she won't lose her editing job. Good for her, but sucky for the editorial board, the guy who was going to be the new editor, and all the journal's readers, since the journal will undoubtedly suffer a precipitous decline in quality.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Sure, the main characters go on to lead happy lives with kids and jobs and a future. Most of the secondary characters die. Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Moody, even [[The Woobie|Colin Creevey]].
** That is only a small part of the secondary characters. There are dozens more that also have happy/bittersweet endings.
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* In ''[[Breaking Dawn]]'', the main characters all get happy endings. Meanwhile, every other secondary character goes back to a nomadic life, presumably on the Volturi's target list.
* The epilogue of [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Shards of Honor]]'' starkly emphasizes that the leads may have gotten their happy ending, but a lot of innocent people died along the way.
* Discussed in ''[[
== Live-Action TV ==
* This sort-of happens in ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]''. Both Robin Hood and Marian end up ''dead'', but they are given a [[Together in Death]] scene that suggests that they have an eternity in Heaven to share. Everyone else? Shot, stabbed, dead, buried, abandoned, forgotten, or
* Similar to the ''[[Family Guy]]'' example below, at the end of the second season premiere of ''[[
==
* The play ''Life Is A Dream'' by Pedro Calderon de la Barca ends with the main couple having a beautiful wedding!
▲* This sort-of happens in ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]''. Both Robin Hood and Marian end up ''dead'', but they are given a [[Together in Death]] scene that suggests that they have an eternity in Heaven to share. Everyone else? Shot, stabbed, dead, buried, abandoned, forgotten, or stuck with [[Damsel Scrappy|Ka]][[Fate Worse Than Death|te]].
▲* Similar to the [[Family Guy]] example below, at the end of the second season premiere of [[Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]], Frank very conspicuously says "the important thing is that nobody ''important'' got ''seriously'' hurt'' after the gang got in a car accident. The camera then pans over to an unnamed character who was with the group at the time lying in a full body cast in a hospital bed calling them jerks.
▲* The play ''Life Is A Dream'' by Pedro Calderon de la Barca ends with the main couple having a beautiful wedding! Nevermind the pointless war the protagonist and his father were having.
▲* [[Older Than Steam]] [[Shakespeare|Shakespearean]] examples:
** ''[[Henry V]]'' ends with the wedding of the eponymous King and Princess Katherine of France after Henry fights a bloody war of conquest against his soon-to-be father-in-law. However, Shakespeare lampshades the trope by pointing out in the epilogue that Henry's conquests will be short-lived and his premature death will lead to a bloody civil war.
** In ''[[
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* The ending of ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Mystery of the Emblem'' is bad for practically everyone except Marth, Caeda, and a few others.
* In ''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'', if you sink your ship with the catapultic rock thing, Herman Toothrot will take you back to Melee island instead of them, and in the ending you'll get a nice sequence about how they're trapped in the cannibal hut. ''[[Escape
* ''[[Star Ocean]]'' and ''[[
* Inverted in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' for a female Warden who was in a relationship with Alistair and didn't harden him, or for a male Warden who was in a relationship with Morrigan. Everyone '''but''' the leads (in your party anyway) gets a happy ending.
* Appears in ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'', where Kirkwall has been devastated, Thedas is rapidly approaching its first world war, and the entire band of heroes has been split up...except for Hawke and his/her [[Love Interest]].
** Only in the ending where you side with the Templars (you become ruler of Kirkwall). If you side with the mages you end up fleeing your home. [[Book Ends|Again.]]
* Subverted in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''. Depending on whether or not you do the side and the companion quests and depending on who you sided with (or not) the outcome for
* The best ending of ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]'' has Wylfred finally find peace, his mother regain her sanity, and Tilte learning about Ancel's death and being able to grieve him properly instead of just sensing that something's plain wrong. [[Loads and Loads of Characters|The rest of the cast]], however, don't get featured at all in the ending and most of the characters that don't you meet but don't recruit get rather depressing ends. It doesn't help that the two other endings are [[Downer Ending
* Somewhat averted in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2''. The Exile's team goes off to found the new Jedi Order, fix the damaged Republic, and shut down the HK-50's while she is condemned to flying off to die at the hands of the True Sith. It's implied in The Old Republic MMO that she did manage to do enough to set back the invasion for almost 300 years, but she still misses out on the oppurtunity to see all of her actions come to fruition or pursue a relationship with Atton or the Disciple.
* Split fifty-fifty for the main characters in ''[[
** Also split fifty-fifty for the rest of humanity (or rather, the handful survivors). They lost their homes and are forced to live under the harsh conditions of Gran Pulse and are no longer protected by the fal'Cie. Then again the Fal'cie were the villains are trying to ''kill all of them''. The main characters's final act [[Plan]] was to stop the Fal'cie and, failing at that, to mitigate the damage.
== Western Animation ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Drama Tropes]]
[[Category:Ending Tropes]]
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