Tropescilloscope: Bittersweet Ending

An ending that's more or less happy, but still has significant sad notes. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes One-Man Army Artistic License – Military Wrong Genre Savvy Get Out! Almost Kiss She's Got Legs Bowdlerise This Is Gonna Suck Exactly What It Says on the Tin Abusive Parents Knight Templar Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? The Alleged Car Meaningful Background Event Empathic Environment Faux Affably Evil Fate Worse than Death Romantic Comedy Narrator Instant Death Bullet Double-Meaning Title Death Seeker Imagine Spot Manipulative Bastard You Have Failed Me Punny Name Artistic License – Gun Safety Bilingual Bonus Camera Abuse Lighter and Softer Only a Flesh Wound Boom, Headshot! I Did What I Had to Do Age Lift War Is Hell Shut Up, Hannibal! Would Hurt a Child B-Movie Unusual Euphemism No Ending No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Light Is Not Good Big Fancy House Thriller Badass Longcoat Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Getting Crap Past the Radar Stock Footage Flashback Dull Surprise Horror Comedy Evil Sounds Deep Good Is Not Nice Freeze-Frame Bonus Soft Glass Heroic BSoD Insistent Terminology Asshole Victim Only One Name Storming the Castle Dramatic Irony Animated Credits Opening Bury Your Gays Cool Old Lady British Films Redshirt Army Heroes Want Redheads Mexican Standoff Karmic Death Authority Equals Asskicking Say My Name Big "NO!" Wretched Hive Demonic Possession Accidental Murder Deconstruction Evil Counterpart Major Injury Underreaction Pretty Little Headshots Lock and Load Montage Knife Nut Awesome, but Impractical Ripped from the Headlines Dressing as the Enemy Here We Go Again! O.O.C. Is Serious Business Truth in Television I Need a Freaking Drink Gratuitous English Dark and Troubled Past Villainous Breakdown I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Badass Normal Groin Attack Eldritch Abomination Genre Throwback "Awesome McCool" Name Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Race Against the Clock Blatant Lies Chekhov's Gunman Didn't Think This Through Eiffel Tower Effect Adaptational Heroism Epic Fail Posthumous Character Foil Determinator Bottomless Magazines Slasher Movie Mercy Kill Tempting Fate Death by Sex "Shaggy Dog" Story Heel–Face Turn Daddy's Girl Reality Ensues Left the Background Music On Interrupted Suicide Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Arranged Marriage Actually Pretty Funny Eye Scream Alliterative Name Anachronism Stew Sports Stories No-Sell Visual Pun Ambiguously Gay Rated M for Manly All There in the Manual Bullying a Dragon Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Television Movie Index Amoral Attorney Villain with Good Publicity Award-Bait Song Hero Antagonist Combat Pragmatist An Axe to Grind Wicked Cultured Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Smug Snake Love Triangle Even Evil Has Loved Ones Shirtless Scene Market-Based Title Homage Rule of Symbolism Genre Savvy Adult Fear As the Good Book Says... Intrepid Reporter Victoria's Secret Compartment Destination Defenestration Kill 'em All Important Haircut The Remake Loads and Loads of Characters Pay Evil unto Evil Determinator aka: The Determinator Cassandra Truth Adaptation Expansion Spared by the Adaptation Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Red Right Hand The '90s Serial Killer Intergenerational Friendship Vitriolic Best Buds Comically Missing the Point Henpecked Husband The Dreaded Fanservice Madness Mantra The Load True Companions There Is No Kill Like Overkill Whole Plot Reference Mighty Whitey Offscreen Teleportation Eureka Moment Self-Deprecation Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Title Drop Arc Words The Reveal Failed a Spot Check The Power of Love Fatal Family Photo Black Comedy Not Quite Dead Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Random Events Plot From Nobody to Nightmare Logo Joke The Lost Lenore Christmas Movies Index Freudian Excuse Index of Film Westerns Animal Title Index Military and Warfare Films Skewed Priorities Film Series Evil Is Petty Star-Crossed Lovers Video Credits Psychological Thriller Hate Sink Off with His Head! All Girls Want Bad Boys Meaningful Name Shout-Out Artistic License – Law Playing Gertrude Action Genre Covers Always Lie Not So Stoic Hypocrite Never Trust a Trailer Ungrateful Bastard Pretty in Mink Properly Paranoid Real Life Parental Neglect Cool Old Guy Mystery and Detective Films Parental Abandonment Dirty Old Man Disappeared Dad Gory Discretion Shot Serious Business Beard of Evil All There in the Script Depraved Bisexual The Ace Aluminum Christmas Trees Chase Scene The Hero Dies Gainax Ending Adaptational Badass Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Framing Device Love at First Sight folderlabel Kids Are Cruel Break the Haughty Mad Scientist A.I. Is a Crapshoot Big-Bad Ensemble Have a Gay Old Time Rousing Speech MacGuffin I Have Your Wife Early Installment Weirdness Betty and Veronica The Atoner Bald of Evil Wham Line Those Two Bad Guys Historical In-Joke Foreshadowing The Ghost Cold-Blooded Torture You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Be Careful What You Wish For Your Head A-Splode Setting Update Casting Gag Bavarian Fire Drill Unusually Uninteresting Sight Rule of Three Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie And Starring Drill Sergeant Nasty Unwitting Instigator of Doom Stuff Blowing Up Immune to Bullets Badass Grandpa Artistic License – Biology Sacrificial Lion Heterosexual Life-Partners Heel Realization Laughing Mad Bare Your Midriff Suspiciously Similar Substitute It's All About Me Offscreen Moment of Awesome One Steve Limit Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Dramedy Hoist by His Own Petard Badass Bookworm Darker and Edgier Kubrick Stare Scenery Porn Zombie Stories Black Best Friend Blood Knight Action Survivor The '60s Off-into-the-Distance Ending All for Nothing The Cavalry Diabolus ex Machina Foregone Conclusion Jerkass Ambiguous Ending Bait-and-Switch Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Blackmail Taking You with Me Suddenly SHOUTING! Nothing Is Scarier Police are Useless Historical-Domain Character Dumb Blonde Word of God Face–Heel Turn Roaring Rampage of Revenge Man on Fire Back from the Dead Death by Irony Closed Circle Pimped-Out Dress What You Are in the Dark Tagline Bond Villain Stupidity Composite Character Obviously Evil Accidental Misnaming "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Pet the Dog Kill It with Fire Batman Gambit Loophole Abuse Anguished Declaration of Love Manchild timeperiod Throwing Your Sword Always Works Bunny-Ears Lawyer Drowning My Sorrows Curb-Stomp Battle Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Brick Joke Disney Villain Death Hero of Another Story The Faceless Took a Level in Badass Large Ham Twist Ending Worthy Opponent Dogged Nice Guy I'm a Humanitarian Plucky Comic Relief Bond One-Liner Sassy Black Woman Ambiguous Disorder Catapult Nightmare Deliberate Values Dissonance Badass Boast Naïve Newcomer Creator Cameo The '70s Married to the Job Tranquil Fury Killed Mid-Sentence Translation Convention Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Film Noir All Just a Dream Mundane Made Awesome Chiaroscuro Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Adaptation Dye-Job Totally Radical He Who Fights Monsters Fun with Acronyms Death of a Child Sir Swears-a-Lot Japanese Films Put on a Bus Character Development Undying Loyalty Easily Forgiven Bad Boss Romantic False Lead Historical Villain Upgrade Arch-Enemy Animal Motifs 20 Minutes into the Future Anachronic Order Papa Wolf Early-Bird Cameo Shown Their Work Non-Indicative Name Everyone Has Standards Bring My Brown Pants Italian Films The Lancer Fiery Redhead Armor-Piercing Question Science Fiction Films Belligerent Sexual Tension Evil Is Hammy The Smurfette Principle Your Cheating Heart Drugs Are Bad Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience "The Reason You Suck" Speech Affectionate Parody Ascended Extra Anyone Can Die Cowboy Cop Cluster F-Bomb Rape as Drama Big Applesauce Shipper on Deck Parental Incest And the Adventure Continues Soundtrack Dissonance Evil Laugh Brutal Honesty Sci-Fi Horror The Stinger Developing Doomed Characters I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Fake Shemp Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Expository Hairstyle Change Re-Cut Bad "Bad Acting" Mistaken for Gay Defrosting Ice Queen Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Evil-Detecting Dog Faking the Dead Neck Snap Men Are the Expendable Gender The Hero The Smart Guy La Résistance N-Word Privileges Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Adaptation Name Change Double Entendre Big Bad Duumvirate Grey and Gray Morality Vomit Discretion Shot Silent Movie Missing Mom Happily Married Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Body Horror Alas, Poor Villain Conspicuous CG Establishing Character Moment Male Frontal Nudity Reasonable Authority Figure Informed Ability Extreme Doormat Ship Tease Cat Scare Hidden Depths As You Know The Bad Guy Wins A Father to His Men Bar Brawl No Name Given Slashed Throat Friend to All Children Vampire Fiction Darkest Hour In the Back Sequel Escalation Chewing the Scenery Crapsack World Beauty Is Never Tarnished Children Are Innocent Final Girl Product Placement Fan Disservice Adults Are Useless Last-Name Basis The '50s Dutch Angle Hypocritical Humor Fire-Forged Friends Refuge in Audacity Corpsing Irony Contrived Coincidence Leitmotif Let's Get Dangerous! One-Word Title Never Found the Body Moment Killer The Bully Auto Erotica '80s Hair Shoot the Shaggy Dog Manly Tears Not Even Bothering with the Accent Earn Your Happy Ending My God, What Have I Done? Match Cut May–December Romance A God Am I Epic Movie Show Within a Show Spell My Name with an "S" The Musical Big Damn Heroes Corrupt Corporate Executive Abhorrent Admirer Fanservice Extra Bloodier and Gorier Fingore Decoy Protagonist An Aesop Five-Man Band Cool Shades Credits Gag He Knows Too Much Downer Ending Riddle for the Ages Eagleland Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Politically Incorrect Villain Hollywood Law Creepy Child Australian Movies Chekhov's Skill Beware the Nice Ones Really Gets Around Expy Gold Digger Rich Bitch Book-Ends Eyepatch of Power Well-Intentioned Extremist Does This Remind You of Anything? Guns Akimbo A Minor Kidroduction Jump Scare Jerk Jock Artistic License – Physics Neck Lift Only in It for the Money Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Wham Shot Slasher Smile Mama Bear Male Gaze Idiot Ball Calling the Old Man Out Dwindling Party Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism The Quiet One Oh, Crap! Together in Death Defiant to the End Demoted to Extra Rule of Funny Insult Backfire Novelization Stealth Pun In Medias Res Outrun the Fireball Babies Ever After Cain and Abel An Arm and a Leg Domestic Abuse Overprotective Dad Spanner in the Works Take a Third Option What the Hell, Hero? Smoking Is Cool The Oner Race Lift Ghost Fiction Affably Evil Our Zombies Are Different Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Honor Before Reason Biopic Adaptational Attractiveness The Cameo Mooks Kick the Son of a Bitch Action Girl Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Bloodless Carnage Death Glare Pragmatic Adaptation Red Oni, Blue Oni The Casanova Naked People Are Funny She Cleans Up Nicely Gone Horribly Right Broken Pedestal NO INDOOR VOICE "Well Done, Son!" Guy Facial Horror The Ditz Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Vacation Films Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Ironic Echo Mr. Fanservice Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Manic Pixie Dream Girl Half the Man He Used to Be Department of Redundancy Department My Greatest Failure Peek-a-Boo Corpse Mr. Exposition Card-Carrying Villain Screw This, I'm Outta Here! You Killed My Father Crucified Hero Shot Dark Reprise The End... Or Is It? Advertised Extra No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Black Dude Dies First Celebrity Paradox Four-Temperament Ensemble No Celebrities Were Harmed Costume Porn Does Not Like Shoes Annoying Younger Sibling Better to Die than Be Killed Blood from the Mouth The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Flipping the Bird The Stoic Fainting Historical Hero Upgrade Adapted Out Obstructive Bureaucrat The Film of the Book Black Comedy Rape Bland-Name Product And I Must Scream Car Fu Stealth Hi/Bye Driven to Suicide Villain Protagonist Room Full of Crazy Frame-Up Up to Eleven Hooker with a Heart of Gold The Chick Training Montage Nice Guy Brainless Beauty Author Avatar Lampshade Hanging Deliberately Monochrome Jitter Cam Improbable Weapon User Superhero Sequel Hook Red Herring Stalker with a Crush Sealed Evil in a Can Drives Like Crazy Deus ex Machina No Antagonist Maybe Ever After The Brute Gender Flip Psychopathic Manchild Disguised in Drag Horror Films Cool Car It Will Never Catch On Obfuscating Stupidity French Films Kick the Dog Call-Back Music Stories Leave the Camera Running Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Fantasy Films The X of Y Coming-of-Age Story Wounded Gazelle Gambit Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Exact Words Tap on the Head Captain Ersatz Toplessness from the Back Precision F-Strike Needs Wiki Magic Love Sexy Discretion Shot As Himself Yandere Death by Adaptation Older Than They Look Shower Scene Cat Fight Villain Opening Scene The Place Poor Communication Kills The Big Guy Anti-Villain Genre Shift Cruel and Unusual Death Even Evil Has Standards Beta Couple Ms. Fanservice Greater-Scope Villain Funny Background Event Spiteful Spit Butt-Monkey Silence Is Golden Woman Scorned The Voiceless Becoming the Mask Disney Death Not Using the "Z" Word Reckless Gun Usage Fantastic Racism Our Vampires Are Different For the Evulz Malevolent Masked Men My Beloved Smother More Dakka A Date with Rosie Palms Woman in White As Long as It Sounds Foreign Dark Action Girl Pyrrhic Victory Line-of-Sight Name Slap-Slap-Kiss The Alcoholic Big Eater Improbable Aiming Skills Brother–Sister Incest Curse Cut Short Canadian Movies Attempted Rape Deadpan Snarker Dramatic Gun Cock Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Straight Gay Noodle Incident Action Prologue How We Got Here Took a Level in Jerkass German Films Villain Song Black and Gray Morality Every Car Is a Pinto Gilligan Cut Captain Obvious Reality Has No Subtitles Once More, with Clarity! Bi the Way Actor Allusion Same Language Dub Cloudcuckoolander Stylistic Suck After the End Those Wacky Nazis Motor Mouth Only Known by Their Nickname Dies Wide Open Evil Brit From Bad to Worse Broken Aesop Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Those Two Guys Jerkass Has a Point The Mafia Hollywood Darkness Only Sane Man Berserk Button BFG Rewatch Bonus Artistic License – Geography Scenery Gorn You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Author Appeal The Sociopath Hong Kong Films Sole Survivor Crazy-Prepared Artistic License – History Monumental Damage The Dog Bites Back Femme Fatale Big Brother Instinct Crazy Jealous Guy Psycho for Hire Anti-Hero Evil vs. Evil Names to Run Away from Really Fast Leaning on the Fourth Wall Central Theme Scary Black Man Bittersweet Ending Plot Hole Not So Above It All Protagonist Title Pre-Mortem One-Liner Creative Closing Credits Damsel in Distress Dropped a Bridge on Him Parental Substitute Despair Event Horizon Ax-Crazy Camp Gay Apocalypse How Retcon Film Noir Index Unreliable Narrator Broken Bird Red Eyes, Take Warning Not So Different Punch-Clock Villain Overly Long Gag Deal with the Devil No OSHA Compliance Unspoken Plan Guarantee Running Gag Adaptational Villainy Martial Arts Movie Hope Spot Sanity Slippage Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Badass in a Nice Suit Very Loosely Based on a True Story Documentary Antagonist Title In Name Only Dark Is Not Evil Big Bad Take That! Humans Are Bastards Retirony Sinister Minister Handicapped Badass Due to the Dead Made of Explodium Jerk with a Heart of Gold Russian Films Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Super Strength Did Not Get the Girl Country Matters Grievous Bottley Harm Face Death with Dignity All Men Are Perverts Nice Hat Agony of the Feet Guile Hero Dual Wielding Token Minority Famous Last Words Based on a True Story Too Dumb to Live Laser-Guided Karma Suspiciously Specific Denial Ominous Latin Chanting The Chessmaster Real Life Writes the Plot Small Name, Big Ego Disproportionate Retribution Aside Glance Evil Plan Never My Fault Rasputinian Death Mugging the Monster The Great Depression Meaningful Echo Fat Bastard Air-Vent Passageway World of Ham Adorkable Stepford Smiler Police Brutality Hell Is That Noise Vomit Indiscretion Shot Sadistic Choice Dirty Cop Fish out of Water Paper-Thin Disguise Time Skip The '80s Mythology Gag Works Set in World War II Trailers Always Spoil Dirty Coward Continuity Nod Canon Foreigner The Mole Red Shirt Reality Is Unrealistic The Vamp The Starscream What Happened to the Mouse? Morality Pet Bound and Gagged Recycled IN SPACE! Insane Troll Logic Enemy Mine Break the Cutie Extremely Short Timespan Danny Peary Cult Movies List Ass Shove Pragmatic Villainy Daylight Horror It Can Think Fourth Date Marriage The Dragon Adaptation Distillation Taking the Bullet The Stoner Redemption Equals Death Funny Foreigner The Un-Reveal Retired Badass Karma Houdini Would Hit a Girl Dying Moment of Awesome Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Dissonant Serenity Hair-Trigger Temper Shell-Shocked Veteran Scare Chord Amusing Injuries Rule of Cool Bolivian Army Ending Unresolved Sexual Tension Improvised Weapon Green-Eyed Monster Call-Forward Fatal Flaw Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Meet Cute It's Personal Villain Ball Mood Whiplash Heroic Sacrifice Not What It Looks Like Gorn Implacable Man Distracted by the Sexy Cool Guns Mind Screw For Want of a Nail Bloody Hilarious Spiritual Successor Revenge Breaking the Fourth Wall Alpha Bitch Chekhov's Gun Public Domain Feature Films Catch-Phrase Made of Iron Humiliation Conga Make It Look Like an Accident