History Main / HeartwarmingInHindsight

* In ''Film/Clerks'', the main character, Dante Hicks, is on the verge of pissing away a firm good relationship with girlfriend, Veronica Loughran, in order to chase after his ex, Caitlin Bree. Then, when Jay and Silent Bob, two drug dealers who spend their time loitering outside Dante's place of employment, enter to shoplift. They learn of his dilemma and give him advice. During this conversation, Jay mentions all the good things Veronica has done for Dante, who responds with "She's my girlfriend." To which Jay replies "I had some girlfriends too but all they wanted was weed and shit." Come ''Film/JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack'' 7 years later, Jay would finally get a girlfriend who loved him for him, and not just for his drugs.

* In the [[TheSeventies 1970s]], people said that there would be a ''black'' U.S. president [[CueTheFlyingPigs when pigs fly]]. [[HilariousInHindsight Eventually in November 2008]], we got UsefulNotes/BarackObama, and sure enough, [[BlackComedy swine]] [[JustForPun flu]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTiggerMovie ends with [[spoiler: Tigger handing his family locket to Roo as a PassingTheTorch to his fanboy. Quite fittingly, Roo would get an upgraded role in a long string of projects afterwards, culminating in [[WesternAnimation/PoohsHeffalumpMovie his own spotlight movie]], meaning Tigger essentially signalled Roo becoming BreakoutCharacter just like he had before.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTiggerMovie ends with Tigger handing his family locket to Roo as a PassingTheTorch to his fanboy. Quite fittingly, Roo would get an upgraded role in a long string of projects afterwards, culminating in [[WesternAnimation/PoohsHeffalumpMovie his own spotlight movie]], meaning Tigger essentially signalled Roo becoming BreakoutCharacter just like he had before.]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Luffy [[spoiler: asking Jimbei to join his crew]] in the [[Recap/OnePieceFishmanIslandArc Fishmen arc]] becomes even more heartwarming when you remember that [[spoiler: Jimbei was there to pull Luffy out of his HeroicBSOD after Ace's death]]. Hence, Luffy already had [[spoiler: a Straw Hat with him]] when the rest of his crew couldn't be there for him.

* A key part of ''Anime/CowboyBebop''[='=]s arc was Spike's relationship with his old flame Julia -- which ended in their deaths. However, their respective English voice actors, Creator/SteveBlum and Creator/MaryElizabethMcGlynn (the latter was also the voice director for the dub), entered into a relationship that eventually saw them get married.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' has Mario and Luigi's dad (voiced by Creator/CharlesMartinet, longtime voice of Mario and Luigi in the games) congratulating and being proud of his boys for saving Brooklyn at the end of the movie becomes even more meaningful with the recent news regarding Charles Martinet officially retiring from voicing Mario and Luigi to become a Mario ambassador entirely meaning that Mario and Luigi's dad voicing how proud he is of his boys will now be Charles PassingtheTorch to the new actors portraying Mario and Luigi. Charles' memorable "Too much? It's-a Perfect! Wahoo!" scene as Giuseppe praising Mario and Luigi's Italian accents in their commercial as well, showing how he was very proud of the accent and the ''voice'' he created and gave to Mario and Luigi to the very end.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' has Mario and Luigi's dad (voiced by Creator/CharlesMartinet, longtime voice of Mario and Luigi in the games) congratulating and being proud of his boys for saving Brooklyn at the end of the movie becomes even more meaningful with the recent news regarding Charles Martinet officially retiring from voicing Mario and Luigi to become a Mario ambassador entirely meaning that Mario and Luigi's dad voicing how proud he is of his boys will now be Charles Passing the Torch to the new actors portraying Mario and Luigi. Charles' memorable "Too much? It's-a Perfect! Wahoo!" scene as Giuseppe praising Mario and Luigi's Italian accents in their commercial as well, showing how he was very proud of the accent and the voice he created and gave to Mario and Luigi to the very end.

* WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie has Mario and Luigi's dad (voiced by Creator/CharlesMartinet, longtime voice of Mario and Luigi in the games) congratulating and being proud of his boys for saving Brooklyn at the end of the movie becomes even more meaningful with the recent news regarding Charles Martinet officially retiring from voicing Mario and Luigi to become a Mario ambassador entirely meaning that Mario and Luigi's dad voicing how proud he is of his boys will now be Charles Passing the Torch to the new actors portraying Mario and Luigi. Charles' memorable "Too much? It's-a Perfect! Wahoo!" scene as Giuseppe praising Mario and Luigi's Italian accents in their commercial as well, showing how he was very proud of the accent and the voice he created and gave to Mario and Luigi to the very end.
* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' had Master Oogway choosing Po to be the Dragon Warrior after the latter accidentally landed in front of him [[Heartwarming/KungFuPanda and, despite everyone's worries, having full-on confidence in him and believes that Po landing in front of him wasn't an accident]]. This becomes more heartwarming after ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'' revealed that [[spoiler: Oogway's life was once saved by Pandas, which gives [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe a new perspective of his attitude towards Po]]]].

** In "[[Recap/ArthurS14E2TheAgentOfChangeDWUntiesTheKnot D.W. Unties the Knot]]", D.W. sets out to plan her dream wedding after being inspired by a reality show about fancy wedding parties and chooses her preschool classmate James as her groom. While they obviously don't actually get married in the end, being preschoolers and all[[note]]D.W. didn't realize until after the wedding planning was already underway that a wedding means actually marrying the groom and not just having a fancy party.[[/note]], D.W. tells her best friend Emily that she would like her to be the bridesmaid again at her real wedding 20 years in the future. Fast forward to 2016, six years after the episode first aired, and [[https://www.today.com/news/20-years-later-these-preschool-sweethearts-got-married-t113358 two kids who met in preschool did actually get married exactly that amount of years later]], so a [[ChildhoodFriendRomance future romance]] for D.W. and James is very much plausible.

** In Season 20's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E16EenyTeenyMayaMoe Eeny Teeny Maya Moe]]", Homer points out to Moe that even though things didn't work out between him and Maya, he should be happy that a woman actually loved him and remain hopeful that he will find love again. [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS33E4TheWayzWeWere 13 years later]], Moe and Maya ''do'' get back together!

* In the TV spinoff of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'', which takes place before the events of [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 the original movie]], Ursula was noticeably not as nice to Flotsam and Jetsam as she was in the movie. It's possible she's grown more attached to them as time progressed.

%%* A missable one in ''LightNovel/FateZero'' Just before the end of Rider's and Archer's fight Rider asks his master Waver if he would become his retainer. Waver agrees. Rewind back to the first use of Rider summoning his retainers with Ionian Hetaroi and you can clearly see a retainer who looks like an older version of Waver.

* In the eleventh volume of ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', Koneko is the first person to confess her feelings for Issei. Fast forward to 2019, and it turns out that in real life, Creator/AyanaTaketatsu (Koneko) and Creator/YukiKaji (Issei) ended up marrying in real life. Which is even more significant as ''no one'' saw that coming since the two of them don't have that many roles that have them together.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' made Tony Stark and Pepper Potts parents to a little Ada. It was before ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' showed them discussing the eventuality of having kids. [[spoiler:And now that ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' is released, they ''did'' have a baby girl together.]]
* ''Fanfic/WhiteSheepRWBY'' started as a CrackFic because the premise of [[BigBad Salem]] settling down as a housewife looked so far-fetched. Then ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''[='s=] Volume 6 revealed she did have a family thousands of years ago, but it ended in tragedy. In this timeline, she was able to move on from her grief and love again.
* ''Fanfic/FrozenHeartsRedWitch'': In this story, Betty leaves Simon after he goes on some kind of nutty rant under the crown's influence. Then, in canon, it is revealed that Betty never truly left Simon, she simply jumped into the portal to the future to be with him.

* In the fifth season of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' we discover how Uncle Ben came up with the "great power comes great responsibility" creed, [[spoiler:as it turned his best friend, Keene Marlow was also a superhero himself, and now his own nephew ended up being a superhero too.]]

* ''Film/StarTrek2009'': Creator/LeonardNimoy reprising the role of Spock [[spoiler:Prime]], PassingTheTorch to the new cast, has gotten more heartwarming since he was the next TOS cast member to pass on in 2015.
** On a related note, from ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', [=McCoy=]'s line after Spock's funeral is especially poignant.
--->'''[=McCoy=]:''' He's really not dead, as long as we remember him.

* In the fifth season of ''WesternAnimation/SpidermanTheAnimatedSeries'' we discover how Uncle Ben came up with the "great power comes great responsibility" creed, [[spoiler:as it turned his best friend, Keene Marlow was also a superhero himself, and now his own nephew ended up being a superhero too.]]

* ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm2'': Naruto and Hinata's "Secret Lovers" title, which freaked out quite a lot of shippers back in the day. The epilogue of the manga reveals that [[spoiler:they are HappilyMarried with [[BabiesEverAfter two children]], and the {{canon}} movie ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie'' shows how [[TheyDo they fell in love]] and became the main OfficialCouple. The instances of ShipTease between Ino and Sai in the game also become this for the same reason.]]

** In the short story "Love Hurts," Harry and Murphy get whammied with a love spell. Having already gone through quite a lot of {{UST}}, they're at first relieved, even when they finally realize what's happened, but make the decision to break the spell for the sake of everyone else. Several (in- and out of universe) years of WillTheyOrWontThey later, in ''Literature/SkinGame,'' TheyDo. Took them a while, but even without the spell, they still got together after all.

[[AC: Western Animation]
* ''HeartwarmingInHindsight/BojackHorseman''
* ''HeartwarmingInHindsight/StevenUniverse''

* ''HeartwarmingInHindsight/StevenUniverse''
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