Fridge Sadness

So, you've just finished watching the new movie, Puppy Boy and the Mischievous Miss Meow. Then as you're walking out of the cinema, you realize; Miss Meow decided to move to Earth at the end, but what about her family? They don't have spaceships, so they can't move with her. That's actually really sad.

Congratulations, you've just experienced Fridge Sadness.

Fridge Sadness is when you realize something about a work after experiencing it that makes the story sadder. This can be achieved via thinking deeply about the implications, looking at real-life events happening either now, or in the time period the media takes place in, or just wondering What Could Have Been.

Types of Fridge Sadness include:

The Not-So Happy Ending: The ending seems happy, until you think through all of its implications and realize that it might not have been as happy as it was presented. In other words, a more subtle variation of an Esoteric Happy Ending.
The Backstory Implications: A character's backstory is revealed, and once you think about it, it becomes much worse than initially implied. This is common with backstories that start with something bad happening to the character as a child.
The Past Installment Sadness: You've finished watching a sequel or spinoff, and after you're done, you suddenly think "Aw, man, it would have been so sweet if Bob from the first movie was here to see that". This often happens with characters who have died in previous installments.

What sets Fridge Sadness apart from Fridge Horror is that while Fridge Horror usually pertains to things that send chills down your spine or make you feel icky, Fridge Sadness makes it a little harder to watch the movie without feeling a little crushed.

Not to be confused with someone being sad because there's nothing (or something undesirable) in their fridge.

Media with Fridge Sadness moments include:

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Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Beasts of Burden
American Born Chinese: Chin-Kee's blatant view of white women as objects for procreation is bad enough of a stereotype. It likely hurts worse in-universe because Jin/Danny has a thing for all-American ladies.

Fan Works

Abraxas (Hrodvitnon)
Innocent
Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger
Maternal Instinct (MLP): Why does Chrysalis keep her distance from Pupa and bury herself in her work? She's lost so many children already, it's likely that she's (subconsciously or otherwise) afraid of getting attached to Pupa and then losing her too. Not to mention Pupa's many illnesses mean that her dying early is a strong possibility.''
Roommates: Memoirs of the Hairless Ape

Films — Animation

The Black Cauldron
Brother Bear
Chicken Run
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time
The Croods
DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family: In the "Batman dies" path, Joker just... stops being Joker. He disguises himself to look normal and goes to a therapist. He doesn't even go after the new Batman. Bruce's relentless crusade to clean up Gotham is also what's filling up whole graveyards and the only way for Bruce to end Joker's evil without breaking his code is to just stop being Batman, to stop trying to avenge his parents' deaths.
Despicable Me 3
Encanto
The Fox and the Hound
Scooby-Doo: Camp Scare
Turning Red

Films — Live-Action

Beast (2022): Besides being short for her name, you could wonder if Meredith decided to go by "Mere", a French word for "Mother", because she had to fulfill a motherly role for her younger sister after their mom died.
Bo Burnham: Inside
Dancin': It's On!: As sweet as Jen and Ken's reunion is, Jen doesn't actually live there; she's only there for the summer. The two will probably have to part for a while when summer ends and Jen goes back to her hometown for school.
The Dark Crystal
Deadwater Fell
Donnie Darko
Drag Me to Hell
50 First Dates
Friends
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
A League of Their Own
Love Actually
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Sunshine

Literature

Captain Underpants
Children of the Red King
The Chronicles of Narnia:
- The Silver Chair
A Christmas Carol
Goosebumps
Harry Potter
Malgudi Days: "The Blind Dog" has a prime example of this. To summarize the plot: a dog gets adopted by a blind beggar and looks after him when his caretaker dies; however, the beggar keeps getting more and more abusive of the dog. At the end, he remarks that the dog needed him to survive and would have starved on its own. But, as the descriptions show, it was actually healthy on its own and starving under the beggar's control, to the point where its ribs were visible. The fridge aspect: how could the blind beggar, who could have easily found out the dog's true condition by touching it, not have known this? He hadn't stroked or petted the dog after he had become reliant on it. Kick the Dog much?
- And there's also the Double-Meaning Title.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Running Out of Time
The Stepford Wives
Vorkosigan Saga

Live-Action TV

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Bunk'd: In the season 5 finale, Finn and Matteo were worried that they would have to get used to another counselor since Noah was going to Australia to film a movie and were used to Parker and didn't want him to leave either. Both either figured out they could stay or decided to do so for the next summer. Season 6 takes place in a new camp without Finn and Matteo but with not only Noah and Parker, but also Lou and their best friend Destiny. Imagine how they felt when getting to the camp and not seeing their inner circle for the past three years (Destiny and Lou) or two years (Noah).
Fuller House
Gilmore Girls
House of the Dragon
Freddy's Nightmares: Cosidering that the first segment of “It’s a Miserable Life” ends with the revelation that Bryan is dreaming this while dying after getting fatally shot by a robber at work, his father is going to feel a lot of guilt and sorrow considering he made him work the night shift after the original worker called in sick.
The Mandalorian
NCIS
Power Rangers Ninja Steel
Schitt's Creek
Sesame Street
This Is Us
Yellowjackets

Theatre

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

Video Games

A Way Out
BETADCIU: The end of "SpookEDD" shows Skid and Pump either knocked out or dead from a missle by Tord. One can only wonder how their families would react to this...
Dark Souls III
Ghost Trick
Halo: Reach
Henry Stickmin Series
HoloFunk - Pre-6.0: In the 5.0 lore, Aloe has short hair in a concept sketch of a family photo that appears to have been taken just before things before went to hell; her brother's hair is longer, but is tied up to give the impression that it's only as short as hers. This implies, together with another sketch showing that Aloe's brother later untied his hair post-betrayal, as his unmasked concept sketches show, that her long hair in the present is at least partially because it's unkempt from Mamoru's death causing their home lives to become completely dysfunctional and eventually non-existent.
Life Is Strange
Lonely Wolf Treat
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
Monolith:
- After clearing Hard difficulty for the first time, you are able to play as D-13 in Normal difficulty, and for each respective difficulty setting, D-13's and Null's runs are mechanically identical. This means that D-13 in Normal Difficulty, should you go far enough without being able to enter Nowhere, will effectively beat their best friend to Power Eternal and become a similar Tragic Monster to what they fight in Hard difficulty.
- The Sudden Death lethality renders you a One-Hit-Point Wonder. With it enabled, it is possible for your HP to be reduced to zero in the mirror practice fight against D-13. Imagine if D-13 accidentally killed Null this way while sparring with them. Unlike the D-13 Hard difficulty ending, that death would have been for nothing.
Neopets
OMORI
Tales of Xillia 2