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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47847
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47847
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

The protagonist(s) win/s, the antagonist(s) is/are defeated (even temporarily), and the reader can imagine the protagonists continuing on to other adventures, or with their lives, in some positive way.

- I would argue that _Endgame_ is a _mixed_ ending, not a happy one, specifically because not all the protagonists win and get to continue on (Tony, Natasha, Vision, Loki, Heimdall).
- _Avengers_ has a happy ending.
- _Armageddon_ is mixed because Bruce Willis's character dies, even if his daughter is safe. 
- LOTR as a trilogy — you know, I was going to say it has a happy ending, even if it has some bittersweet notes, because the elves and Ring-Bearers (plus Legolas and Gimli) who depart go on to the West and become immortal. (Arwen and Aragorn, long-lived but mortal, are bittersweet: they do go on with their lives, but their lives are not infinite.) But we lose Boromir and Thèoden. I guess that could be argued either way. 
- _The Hobbit_ is more mixed because so many of the dwarves die.
- _Cinderella_ is a fairy tale and does not have to adhere to modern narrative structures.

> Given a story in which the heroine does something very wrong which causes several deaths, but then makes a sacrifice that prevents something even worse from happening. Would you say that that is a happy ending? (This one is personal for me.)

I wouldn't call that a _happy_ ending if her sacrifice ends in her death. It may be satisfying, karmic, or redemptive, but the character herself doesn't get to continue on.

Original score: 5