Bittersweet Ending / Web Animation

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As said on the main page, spoilers are unmarked.

The following have their own pages:

• DEATH BATTLE!
• Helluva Boss
• SNARLED

• The Amazing Digital Circus: "Candy Carrier Chaos!": Gummigoo dies an abrupt death by Caine, and a spiteful Jax unleashes the Fudge upon the Candy Canyon Kingdom. Despite that, the funeral at the end is sincerely sweet with everyone truly saddened to see Kaufmo get abstracted. With Ragatha's kind reassurance, Pomni not only has her nightmare turn into a hopeful dream where the gang rescues her from the pit, but she finally displays a genuine smile as uplifting music plays, a sign that she may be stuck, but she's not alone.
• Bunnykill: While the first three movies end triumphantly, Bunnykill 4 is more bittersweet, mainly because the potential love interest got killed by the Big Bad. While Mottis did state that the love interest's return was possible, the series ended with her still dead.
• Crater Face, which ends with an astronaut successfully uniting two previously separated moon pimples, at the cost of his own life.
• At the end of Chadam, Sandy is dead, and most of the city is destroyed, but Viceroy was defeated, and Chadam managed to at least save Ripley.
• Citipati ends with the dinosaurs extinct. However, in its final moments, the Citipati makes peace with itself.
• Delusions of Grandeur ends with the world being saved from Razanak, but Fox has been fatally injured and dies after completing his redemption. On top of that, both Roy and Mewtwo decide to retire from participating in Smash tournaments.
• Doris & Mary-Anne Are Breaking Out of Prison: The series ends with Doris serving her sentence, leaving Mary-Anne alone in the cell... along with Doris' lockpicking device.
• The Final Exit of the Disciples of Ascensia: Mira and Celisse, thinking the disciples will be killed en masse, run away. They were wrong and get captured by Ascensia, who forces them to work as servants to the mothers for the rest of their lives. They still have each other and can interact with the other disciples, but the situation is pretty bleak. Mira's song doesn't help much in the way of keeping a lighthearted mood, either.
• Goodbye Robin: With Kai successfully helping the giant release his emotion, Mika has finally accepted the loss of his childhood friend.
• In Grubhub Commercial: Revenge of the Kid, the Grubageddon is prevented and the Kid is destroyed in a dance-off with the Boogieman, saving the universe. However, the Boogieman was fatally wounded in the process and dies, and Salad Girl, Sushi Guy, and Sushi Girl were all killed by the Kid.
• Kiwi! is about a kiwi who figured out how to fly. Once, as he is all but stated to have died trying.
• Klay World: The finale, "All Gone" ends on this note. The Big Bad Dr. Bob is defeated by Chip, but in the process, every klayperson but him is dead, and Bob isn't in good enough shape to rebuild them(not like he was going to anyways). However, Chip resolves to rebuild everyone and turn Klay World into Clay World, where less violence and stupidity will happen.
• In Lucky Day Forever, 514 got to be with his girl, but they're in a Lotus-Eater Machine, unaware that they're being used to revitalize the Whites's bodies.
• Melvin's Macabre: In "EARWAX", Melvin successfully gets the parasite out of his ears, only for Angela to walk in on him lashing out at it. She falls for its manipulations and snaps at Melvin, angrily rebufffing him while letting the parasite into her ears and taking it to the concert, leaving a despondent Melvin behind.
• Minilife TV: Season 4 ends with Minilife Studios getting destroyed by Baby Crotchrash, rendering the efforts to save it from debt moot. However, because Wilkins called Paglo Bricks earlier in the season, the company is looking to partner with Chris and Ian to continue Minilife TV and expand it to other franchise opportunities.
• The flash animation Nightmare City Catastrophe ends with the hero succeeding in destroying the Lotus-Eater Machine, but since his Love Interest was a part of it, she fades away with a sad smile on her face before he can even reach her hand.
• Nightmare Tales: About half of the stories turn out like this in some way or another. While many of their protagonists manage to survive the horror they find themselves facing it's extremely common for them to lose something precious along the way or possibly even suffer a sort of cruel Fate Worse than Death by the end.
• Tar Boy. A bunch of rich robot "fat cats" ruled the world and used robot slaves to work the land for their greed. Eventually, they found an easier solution for mining resources, and threw all the robot slaves in a boiling pool of tar. However, instead of dying, their memory chips infused with the tar and created a being made up of the tortured souls of thousands of robots. With every soul hungering for revenge, a battle erupted between Tar Boy and the rich, as he destroyed and blasted the fat cats' cohorts and robotic minions. But before Tar Boy could take revenge on the fat cats themselves, they tricked him into a room with a giant heater and melted him down, presumably killing him. However, it's revealed that the old grandpa robot narrating the story was the janitor at the facility, and managed to collect Tar Boy's gooey remains years ago; he believes that a piece of him escaped and is searching for the rest of his body — and when Tar Boy's body is complete, he will cast ruin on the fat cats once and for all.
• Nomad of Nowhere: Don Paragon has been defeated, and so the Oasis and other surrounding communities will no longer suffer under his tyranny. Furthermore, the Nomad being responsible for that has further broken his Hero with Bad Publicity reputation around Nowhere, with him and Skout now having the courage to take the fight to El Rey's bounty hunters and Governors. Unfortunately, El Rey is now very much aware of the Nomad, and Toth's relationship with Skout has quite possible been irrecoverably ruined by the latter siding with the Nomad over her.
• Nyan AH: Both entries see Nyan Cat losing someone close to him, but managing to get a happy ending of his own.
  • Nyan Cat falls in love: Although he’s still distraught by his girlfriend’s death, Nyan Cat is saved from his suicide attempt at the last moment by her spirit, who convinces Nyan Cat to keep living as Earth’s protector.
  • NYAN BATTLE: Nyan Cat manages to save Earth from Tac Nayn’s attempted cataclysm, but only after Donut Cat’s sacrifice, whose death Nyan Cat mourns, though this doesn’t keep him down this time.
• Paranormal High School: The Winter 2024 Special Episodes ended this way, uniquely among every other arc up to that point. Hikaru has been turned back to normal, and all the people absorbed by Noriko are safe and sound. However, when questioned about why Noriko wanted to be Hikaru's girlfriend by Masa, she simply states that she liked Hikaru from afar and just wanted to date him. Masa breaks down, realizing he was targeting Noriko out of jealousy, but Noriko affirms that due to her powers, Hikaru was in danger regardless and she was growing increasingly jealous of his friends. Though Masa promises to find a way to help her stay with Hikaru safely, she simply states it's either her or his friends. She then has Masa promise to watch over and protect Hikaru, before erasing herself from everyone's memories. Everyone involved has their memories of the event erased except Masa, who promises to Hikaru that he won't forget her.
• Pretty Blood: Near the end of "Dream Terror", Ron is still alive, even with her new tongue. However, Berry still committed suicide, Supa still lost his legs, and Miny still had her eyes gouged out.
• Puffin Forest: The ending to "My players LOSE the final fight!". The party stop Malikar's evil plan to destroy the world, but they fail to defeat him in battle and inadvertently sent him to Mount Celestia^note A realm of Lawful Good presided over by armies of paladins and angels and the dragon god of enlightened justice, Bahamut.. The fighter and his drow elf lover ended up in the Beastlands^note A wild Neutral Good paradise dimension filled with intelligent, magic-capable talking animals, the sorcerer ended up in Arcadia^note A realm of Lawful Neutral where Perfect Pacifist People live in harmony and do not know disease, the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing ended up in Ysgard^note A Chaotic Good realm where valiant warriors and immortal heroes pit their skills against each other, and the monk escaped the tower alive and was greeted as a hero. The monk lived on falsely believing that all his friends died in the tower that day and fearing that Malikar would one day return, he diligently waited until his old age wore down his body and then he gave the Mournblade to his son. The next campaign Retconned the events of that ending so Malikar survived and does return, but the heroes manage to reunite so they can go on one last adventure to stop him, which ended with them triumphing over Malikar and gaining immortality but having to part ways forever, for real this time.
• Red vs. Blue:
  • In the last episode of The Blood Gulch Chronicles, the Reds and Blues defeat Omega and Wyoming and tie up all the loose ends of the earlier time loop, but apparently lose Sheila, Tex, Andy, and Junior in the process.
  • The Recollection trilogy is even worse:
    • Reconstruction ends with the Big Bad seeming to have been defeated, and the Reds and Blues have new bases, but Alpha-Church is permanently destroyed, along with Delta, and Washington's fate is left ambiguous.
    • Recreation ends with Church having been revived in spirit as Epsilon, the return of Tucker, and one of the season's two big bads finally killed, but the Reds and Blues apparently have to fend off a force of aliens. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Agent Washington pulls a Face–Heel Turn and kills two major characters.
    • Revelation has Washington pull a Heel–Face Turn, and the Reds and Blues finally kill the trilogy's Big Bad, and all go off to continue their Red-Blue battles. Unfortunately, Epsilon is trapped in a powerless memory storage unit, unable to escape, trying to find Tex, though he seems fairly content with his circumstances.
  • The Project Freelancer Saga puts the Recollection to shame:
    • At the end of season 9, Epsilon is rescued from the capture unit, but he thinks it's the unit failing and finally comes to peace with Tex by "forgetting" her... only to discover it was actually a rescue attempt and now Tex may well be gone permanently.
    • Season 10 picks up where season 9 left off. The good guys win, but the final episode includes a seriously depressing reveal, an off-screen suicide, and two main characters leaving the others behind without saying goodbye.
  • To draw even more of a line, The Chorus Trilogy has its fair share of these. Season 11 ends on the aftermath of a massive battle between the Federal Army of Chorus and the Reds and Blues. The New Republic manages to extract the good guys. but only Simmons, Grif, Tucker and Caboose. Wash, Sarge, Donut and Lopez are left as POWs of the Federal Army, who are no doubt expecting their friends to rescue them.
• Revenge Films:
  • "Someone comes to our door, and then my mom tells me to lock myself up in my bedroom": Hiroshi is only given a suspended sentence for his Attempted Rape of Takako due to his mental disability and Takako herself is still attending therapy to deal with all the sexual harassment Hiroshi did. However, Hiroshi’s father divorced his mother, who fully enabled said harassment and the attempted rape, and moved away with his son, ending both his harassment and his mother’s enabling for good. And Takako finally gets engaged to the man who stayed with her for ten years, finally confident that she would be able to love a man.
  • "A girl got injured so I called her mom but she wouldn't pick up. I took her home and...": Suzy ends up having to move away with her father so his parents can help rise her, despite her teacher’s hopes that she will stay. However, her father was able to successfully divorce his cheating wife, getting the alimony that he deserves, and Suzy and the teacher exchanged addresses before Suzy moved away, allowing them to communicate through letters.
• SAKA MEN: The monk seals away the titular Yōkai, at the cost of one of his arms. And while he was unable to save either parent, their baby survives the ordeal and he decides to raise the child on their behalf.
• Sawtooth Waves: This video theorizes that Twilight Sparkle's rule ended this way. There was an unknown crisis similar to the one from the Season 8 finale, and because of the urgency, Twilight had to create the unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus crystals. In doing so, however, she sacrificed her alicornhood, separating her magic into its unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony components and infusing them into the crystals so that said magic can survive the crisis and be used by further generations. Her un-becoming an alicorn was seen by others the same way her transformation into an alicorn was: with her cutie mark in the sky, which explains the mural in the abandoned station in Zephyr Heights that Sunny, Izzy, and Zipp would wind up coming across. Without the alicorn magic that prolonged her lifespan, Twilight lived out the rest of her days as a mortal, the reason she is not around by A New Generation. Even as the pony tribes became separated and Twilight's sacrifice was forgotten about, Argyle's teachings to his daughter Sunny Starscout led her to find the crystals and restore magic to Equestria, avenging Twilight's legacy.
• Shadows of the Past: At the end of the first season, after the two assassins trying to kill them and a giant mech with a crazy A.I. and a mission to kill all "idiots" within a hundred mile radius are defeated, Venus is accepted into their group as a friend despite her betrayal and everything is shaping up to be a happy ending... until the box. Sage activates an ancient piece of technology that transports him to yet another unknown world where alternate versions of his "friends" knock him out and drag him away.
• Snowdrop (2013): Sort of. By the end of the short, Snowdrop has been dead for a long time, and the first snowflake she created is still being kept in preservation by the Princesses. They release it, and Snowdrop's work continues to live on.
• Sodor: The first season ends this way. Diesel 10 is stopped, but the scars he left on Sodor are implied to be long-lasting, and the future of the NWR is left uncertain.
• Sodor's Dark Times: A Frenzy Payback: "Intervention" ends like this, as Peter Sam and Skarloey are able to save Sir Stewart's life from one of Captain Sudrian's agents, the attack on Brendam Docks still goes as planned.
• Sodor Then And Now: The first season ends with all the engines appearing to have survived Patrick Boomer's attack on Sodor, with Charles promising to rebuild Sodor. On the other hand, Sodor has suffered immense damage from Boomer's attack, numerous engines have been damaged (with Duck's fate being left unclear), and Sir Bertram Hatt is dead. Plus, it seems that Peter Boomer (Patrick's son) has escaped.
• The Twins (2022): Lake no longer has to suffer the constant torment from Lucas or live in his brother's shadow and even has the chance to rewrite the narrative on just who Lake "was" as Lucas should he choose to. However, it comes at the personal cost of having to keep up appearances and pretend to be Lucas for the rest of his life, or at least until Lake becomes an adult and decides to live independently.
• VCraft Enchanted: Lament is defeated once and for all by Kalvin and Nabubu, and after a climactic battle, Vetruvius is accepted again by (most of) the townsfolk along with the rest of the Knights of Ars, with him finally letting go of his father’s legacy and renaming himself Willerton II after his mother. However, L ends up disappearing along with Lament, leaving only Lucky behind to occupy the body they shared^note though Word of God from Lucien states that L may still be in there, just in a dormant state, and Roswell remains in doubt about how much he really knew about his friend in the aftermath. Kalvin remains in search of his mother, but ultimately decides that said search will not rule his life anymore, and he reunites with Granny Minterva and Malim (the latter of which still has not regained his memories from before Lament killed him, but is eager to make new ones in the future). Finally, Zealand makes good on his oath to leave New Witchington behind upon the Knights of Ars being forgiven and disappears, though several of the townsfolk hold out hope that they will see him again someday, one way or another.
• Wolf Song: The Movie: The heroes are able to force the Death Alpha and his goons to retreat, and Kara is able to reconcile properly with her father, but she is sadly forced to end his life and her love interest has been killed during the final battle. The final shot is the characters celebrating their victory while mourning all the many who lost their lives along the way, and the nature of the battle suggests the Death Alpha and his goons are in a much better condition to fight than whatever is left of the heroes, meaning their next encounters will be much more challenging.
• Xionic Madness: All of Bolverk Squad is dead; Askad sacrificing himself to ensure victory, Kary choosing to kill herself rather than die to XV, Omega successfully convincing Xero to put him down, and Xero himself going out in a blaze of glory against an entire army. But Enid will continue the fight.