Basic Trope: No-one is upset by the horrible experiences they've gone through, because hey, they're alive and the bad guys lost.
- Straight: Officer Bob screwed up and Kane the Killer got loose. He goes after Alice, whose testimony should've put him away; her home gets burned down, she suffers serious injuries, and Bob only just saves her with a well-aimed bullet at the last moment. She thanks him profusely and doesn't blame him for Kane's rampage at all.
- Exaggerated: Alice's family were killed; her dog died trying to protect her; she was beaten, raped, and shot; and she lost her no-claim bonus on her car insurance. Kane was barely killed at the last split-second by Bob. When Bob tries to apologize for letting Kane escape, she shuts him up with a kiss, and goes on as if things had been wonderful during all this soul-crushing ordeal.
- Downplayed:
- Alice is kidnapped and held at knifepoint. Nothing else happened mention is made of any fallout from this traumatic experience.
- Kane is actually just a minor Jerkass who tends to mess with Alice and her friends. However, after a few talks between them and Bob the Teacher, it is proven that Kane is actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and apologizes to Alice. She accepts it and no mention is made of anything that he did from that point on.
- Justified:
- Kane was so horrible that everyone agrees the pain and damage was worth it.
- The problems Kane caused were actually so minimal and inoffensive that there's no reason it would make the happy ending be any less happy.
- Kane was about to kill Alice, and Bob was terrified the whole time, but Alice actually never knew she was in danger until she was saved so she gets over it quickly.
- Inverted:
- Everyone is angry with Officer Bob over trivial problems caused while he hunted down Kane.
- No-one is grateful to Bob for the positive experiences they had.
- Subverted: When Bob tries to apologise to Alice, she tells him not to mention it... to her, because her lawyers will be taking care of all correspondence.
- Double Subverted: Alice's lawyer gives Bob a Chew-Out Fake-Out.
- Parodied: Ridiculously over the top Deus Angst Machina happen to Alice right and left, Bob makes a lame joke, they both laugh while the credits roll.
- Zig Zagged: Some days are better then others for Alice and Bob.
- Averted:
- Nothing bad happens to anyone as a result of Kane's escape; it's just a manhunt in the wilderness.
- Everything goes wrong and nobody thinks this was a happy ending, even if Alice is alive.
- Enforced: "You are not going to bog down the Dénouement with all that angsting over how messed up Alice is now!"
- Lampshaded:Bob: "Wait... you're seriously not mad at me?"Alice: "I feel like I should hate you, but it turned out okay, so... I'm good."
- Invoked: Alice is willing to forgive Bob's mistakes and suck the trauma up in order to not complicate the lives of everybody involved.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- After someone mentions that everything ended up fine, it is stated that Alice faced a period of shell shock afterwards and had to go into therapy, probably for a very long time. As for everyone else, they're alive but it was a Bittersweet Ending and Bob may have faced legal or disciplinary actions (or, at the very least, suffered from a heavy conscience).
- "I lost my home, I almost died back then, I saw a man die in front of me, I may lose any of my limbs or mobility, or may contract any form of illness because of these injuries, all because of your idiocy... AND YOU THINK THIS WAS A HAPPY ENDING!?"
- "I never said it was a happy ending for me. I'm the one who screwed up and let you go through all that, after all, now it's my turn to end up in trouble."
- Discussed: :
- "You know, it's a good thing that Kane died, otherwise this ending would have been pretty sad, right Bob?" "Right, Alice! I think this ending can be considered pretty good as long as we don't think about anything else Kane did!"
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: While we don't see Alice after the ambulance takes her away, Bob is back on duty the next day, implying no legal or disciplinary action was taken.
- Deconstructed: Kane is never punished for his actions just because he failed to seriously harm anyone by pure luck, and he goes on to commit later crimes that do leave people dead.
- Reconstrtructed: Bob ultimately captures Kane, who can now actually be punished for his more successful crimes, which left everyone so fearful of him that they were overjoyed to see him finally brought to justice.
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