Sliding Scale of Endings

	This page needs some cleaning up to be presentable. This needs to be turned into set of categories, with subcategories corresponding to the section headers on this page.

Originally, the word "comedy" meant that the story ended on a positive note, and the word "Tragedy" meant a Downer Ending (or, at the very least, a Bittersweet Ending). The meanings of these words have evolved over time, but the concept remains: Some stories end happily, and others...not so much. This is a scale of how happily a given story is bound to end.

Good Ending

• Golden Ending - Top of the list, variant of Multiple Endings. Usually invoking Earn Your Happy Ending. Everybody Lives is generally a prerequisite.
• Happily Ever After - The good guys win, the bad guys get their comeuppance or redemption (depending on the villain), and everyone is happy.
• Earn Your Happy Ending - The good guys will have to slog through a great deal of mud and tragedy first, but, ultimately, everything ends well. At least, for the ones that survive.
• Everybody Lives - Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Neutral Ending

• Bittersweet Ending - The good guys win, but, due to some terrible tragedy, they're not going to be happy about it. Or they die, but everyone else is happy.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Heroes win, but their victory means nothing.
  • Pyrrhic Villainy: The Bad Guy Wins, but his victory means nothing, and the conflict continues.
• Multiple Endings - A character's actions in the game decide how the ending turns out.
• No Ending, Bolivian Army Ending - The ending is ambiguous. Did the heroes win, or did they all die horribly? The author or creator ain't talking, so it's up to the viewer to decide.
• Gainax Ending - The ending is confusing and full of Mind Screw; differing interpretations can lead it to being placed in any of these three categories.

Bad Ending

• Downer Ending - The good guys lose. They might at least get to take the villain down with them, though.
  • The Bad Guy Wins - Or not.
• Have a Nice Death - You've lost the game and are dead but at least you get a cheery message about it.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog - The bad guys win. Or nobody wins and the whole ordeal is a waste of time and human lives.
• It's a Wonderful Failure - A game player has screwed up big time and has to watch the repercussions.
• Cruel Twist Ending - An story that screws the heroes at the very end.
• Diabolus Ex Machina - Similar to the above, but it comes out of nowhere.
• Esoteric Happy Ending - Happily Ever After in the mind of the writer/director, Downer Ending or Shoot the Shaggy Dog for the audience.
• Kill'Em All - Exactly what it sounds like.
  • Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Similar, but for a Show Within a Show under control of a character in the main show.