Too Happy to Live: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Hey, you know what else I love? Living! I love living! I hope to do a lot of living while I'm still alive. I'm just so lively. Wouldn't it be a great tragic irony if I was to ''not'' be living? God, I love being alive. ''Alive!''"''|'''[[That Guy With The Glasses|Nostalgia Critic]]''' on Hiller's ([[Will Smith]]) best friend in ''[[Independence Day]]''}}
{{quote|''"You know how in some [[RPG
The pursuit of happiness is one of the fundamental activities of mankind, be it from accomplishment, family, or gainfully performing a duty or calling. This is why characters who are shown to have attained a certain amount of happiness are very sympathetic to an audience, something indispensable for an author to tell a good story. However, people who are happy [[Refusal of the Call|don't usually go out of their way]] to answer the [[Call to Adventure]], making their involvement in a story very difficult. The solution writers [[Enforced Trope|most often employ]] is to [[Doomed Hometown|kill the happy characters]].
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This isn't confined to beginnings or backstories though. Any character close to achieving their goal or enjoying great happiness in the course of the story will have the writer [[Yank the Dog's Chain]] with the [[Diabolus Ex Machina]].
This isn't to say this trope is only used to unjustly torment heroes; [[Start of Darkness|villains can be born from these tragedies]] (or kept from a [[Heel Face Turn]]) in equal measure. Nor is the use of this trope a sign of poor writing; personal [[Tragedy]] is a valid motivation for characters, as is the struggle to [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]. Only when the story [[Tragic Dream|sabotages the character's dreams]] to preserve [[Status Quo Is God]] at the expense of [[Emotional Torque|catharsis]] does
If several characters had this happen to them, it may result in [[Dysfunction Junction]]. Stories with a [[Snicket Warning Label]] outright warn readers this will happen. [[Retirony]] happens to characters ''about'' to become happy.
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== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[The Ultimates]]'', Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are [[Brother-Sister Incest|a couple]], but how happy they are about it is the portent of tragedy.
* Though nobody dies, this is just one of many reasons why ''[[Spider-Man]]'' fans hate ''[[One More Day]]''. Peter and Mary Jane have been [[Happily Married]] for about twenty years ([[Comic Book Time|real-time]]). But we can't have ''that''; how are we going to get Peter caught up in [[Love Triangle
** Peter and MJ recently reached the 25 year mark in the newspaper strips, so that's some small comfort, and there [[Happily Married]] in [[Spider Girl]]
* You're a Vietnam vet with a good life with your lovely wife and adorable children. Then they all get murdered by a botched Mafia hit. So what do you do? Starting wearing a [[The Punisher|black shirt with a white skull]] printed on it, [[More Dakka|get as many guns as you can carry]], go [[Axe Crazy|completely nuts]] and [[Kill'Em All|kill everyone]] [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner|you believe might]] be even [[Disproportionate Retribution|vaguely criminal]].
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* Ianto in ''[[Torchwood]]''. Okay, ''happy'' might not be the exact word, but he's just managed to accept his relationship with Jack, tell his sister about it, and generally ''not'' be a blob of angst in a sharp suit... And then boom, incurable alien virus.
* On ''Sisters'', second-oldest sister Teddy was finally happy after years of trauma and preparing to buy a house with her new husband (who himself had been through years of hell), when he was killed via a [[Car Bomb]] by a crime lord he was preparing to testify against.
* The pilot episode of the 2000 remake of [[The Fugitive]] spends the first 15 minutes establishing that Richard Kimble basically had it all--[[Happily Married|a beautiful wife he adored]], plans to buy a house, discussion of starting a
== Video Games ==
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{{quote|'''Jack''': Too many of them... I knew I'd get hit on this job. I was too happy... too happy with you.}}
* ''[[Mother 3]]'' opens with Hinawa, Claus, and Lucas visiting their grandfather, happily playing with friendly dinosaurs, eating lunch, and preparing to depart for Tazmily in the afternoon. [[Tear Jerker|It's all downhill from there]].
* Ancel in the extra Angsty ''[[Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume]]''. [[Lampshade
{{reflist}}
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