History Main / EarnYourHappyEnding

* ''{{Elfen Lied}}'' for *everyone*.

* ''{Elfen Lied}'' for *everyone*.

* ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' does this ''every season''. MoodWhiplash is used like a weapon by the writers, turning some of the darkest, most painful depths of despair into happy endings where almost everyone gets a Good End. A's has the darkest ending of the entire series, and it's merely a BittersweetEnding. The sole exceptions to this are [[spoiler:Precia Testarossa]] in Season 1 and [[spoiler:the overarching conspiracy within the TSAB and Jail Scaglietti]] in [=StrikerS=]. Arguably, this prevents any case of KarmaHoudini that even the series' heavily grounded idealism couldn't excuse.

* It took NFL Hall of Famer John Elway nearly his entire 15-year career to win a Super Bowl. He took the Denver Broncos to three Super Bowls between 1986-1989 (XXI, XXII, & XXIV), and was blown-out every time, in addition to suffering jarring playoff exits (including being defeated by the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars in the '96-'97 playoffs after a 13-3 regular season). Finally, in 1998, the Broncos defeated the heavily favored Green Bay Packers (led by 3-time NFL MVP Brett Favre) in Super Bowl XXXII, giving Elway his elusive Super Bowl ring. The following year, the Broncos won Super Bowl XXXIII over the Atlanta Falcons; Elway was the MVP of the game, and it proved to be a fitting end to a long journey, as he retired shortly afterward.

** After being brutally injured by Cartman over the fate of ''FamilyGuy'', Kyle earns another happy ending in "Cartoon Wars", both thing happening in part 1 and 2 respectively.

**** [[DidntThinkThisThrough But not within the 3-year payback period required by the majority of privately owned companies companies.]]

***** Also worth noting is that this is the country that gave us the slogan "better dead than red". [[DirtyCommunists Some]] [[StrawmanLiberal individuals]] might qustion the wisdom of applying this motto to a country's healthcare system.

* The prequel to Twin Peaks, ''Fire Walk with Me''.

*** [[WordOfGod Rowling]] has stated in interviews that [[spoiler:there were changes to the Wizarding world following the defeat of Voldemort, helped by Harry and Ron taking jobs as Auras and Hermione first working to improve the lives of House Elves and then taking a job in Magical Law Enforcement. Kingsley as the new Minister apparently fixed stuff up as well, and since virtually everyone and thing that supported Voldemort was at the final battle, it would be safe to say that most of the Death Eaters were killed or captured. The book implied that a lot of Muggle-borns went into hiding (and some were saved by the heroes). And Rowling also stated that Voldemort was trapped in the limbo Harry visited and would be unable to come back as a ghost, so by all accounts he's gone.]]

* {{Lost}} is ultimately an example of this.

* Helen Stewart and Nikki Wade on ''Bad Girls''. It takes three years of torment, unrequited love, Paolos, denied appeals, breakups, makeups and tears before those two get ''their'' happy ending.

** 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", ruins everything, but Jesse Jackson saves the day in the end.
** Stan gets to do this in ''Asspen'', whether he wants to or not.
** Cartman does this in ''Red Sleigh Down'' to get on Santa's Nice List.
** Everybody in South Park does this in ''Red Man's Greed''. [[spoiler: Even after becoming homeless and contracting SARS, Stan helps them earn it with Sprite, soup and Dayquil.]]

** Kyle earns his happy ending in ''It's Christmas In Canada''. After having Ike taken away by his birth parents, the boys go all the way to Canada to get the prime minister to change his mind. [[spoiler: The prime minister turns out to be Saddam Hussein, who made up those absurd laws for the hell of it, and the Canadians beat the crap out of him, and Kyle is finally reunited with his little brother.]]
** ''Quest For Ratings'': The boys' news show is getting low ratings because everyone prefers to watch Craig's stupid show with the dogs wearing hats. The reason? [[spoiler: The viewers liked it because they were on cough syrup.]]
** An odd variation in ''The Losing Edge''. The kids are fed up with playing baseball and want to spend summer doing something else. [[spoiler: Stan's dad Randy manages to cause their team to lose inadvertantly, earning the kids their happy ending.]]
** After being brutally injured by Cartman over the fate of ''FamilyGuy'', Kyle earns another happy ending in ''Cartoon Wars'', both thing happening in part 1 and 2 respectively.
** The boys let themselves go and spend 2 months on the computer to earn another happy ending in ''Make Love, Not Warcraft''.
** The boys, Ike, and every last Canadian earn theirs in ''Canada On Strike''.
** Mr. Garrison earns his in ''Eek! A Penis!''
** ''Margaritaville'': Kyle earns everyone their happy ending. However, Barack Obama was praised for it instead, much to Kyle's dismay.
** One-shot character Kip Drordy earns his happy ending in ''You Have 0 Friends'', thanks to Stan.
* Ever since [[LiloAndStitchTheSeries Angel]]'s capture by Gantu, fans were not happy about this ending at all and have made fanfics about how Angel came back. Eventually, there was a canon way in the form of the series finale, ''Snafu''. The plot: Lilo was organizing her experiment log when she and Stitch suddenly remember Angel, who Lilo promised that they will get back, but she doesn't know where Angel is, so Nosey, who has escaped an episode earlier thanks to [[TheDitz Woops]], tells them the location. While Lilo and Stitch were devising a plan, Lilo discovers an experiment pod labeled "120", which causes Jumba to explain that 120 shouldn't be hydrated, which Pleakley does accidentally. As the title suggests, Experiment 120 ruins anybody's plans, the protagonists', in particular. However, when Stitch and Angel meet again, ThePowerOfLove saves the day, as well as the several experiments Gantu captured over the course of the show's run.

* Cinderella does this in ''Twist in Time''. [[spoiler:After he stepmother turns back the clock and enchants the prince to love Anastasia, Cinderella sets off to the palace and tries to first jog the prince's memory and then steal the magic wand from her stepmother. When that fails and the prince falls for Cinderella anyway, the stepmother makes Anastasia Cinderella's double while sending Cindy to be trapped in a pumpkin carriage that is to be driven off of a cliff on a mountain. Cinderella proceeds to escape, jump onto a horse, and ride all the way back to the castle to stop the wedding.]]

* With so many [[DownerEnding downer endings]] for the DCAU Batman, the FullyAbsorbedFinale for BatmanBeyond, "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 [[ItMakesSenseInContext 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 ItMakesSenseInContext), 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 protege he trusts to carry on the his fight after he's gone and a family he's always been looking for.

** After being brutally injured by Cartman over the fate of ''FamilyGuy'', Kyle finally earns another happy ending in ''Cartoon Wars''.

* ''FullmetalAlchemist'' 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 giving reason to them, Trisha knew though. They lose their mother at the tender age of 4-5. Their best friend, Winry, parents were murdered. They try to bring their mother back from the dead just so they can feel the love 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, 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 is they discover said best friend's parents murderer, Scar, and have to try and stop her from trying to exact revenge. Than there close friend, Ling, joins the bad guys. Next is 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 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 they people he was investigating were alchemical constructs with superpowers. It was only a matter of time, really.

** The death of 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 treason; it didn't help that they people he was investigating were alchemical constructs with superpowers. It was only a matter of time, really.

* [[NeilGaiman|Neil Gaiman's]] [[Batman]] epilogue "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" (Batman #686; Detective Comics # 853). Batman eventually realizes that [[spoiler: he's having a near-death experience at the end of his life, and comes to accept that even though he inevitably has to die, he's never given up or stopped fighting to save even one life, and that being Batman is its own reward.]]