Snicket Warning Label: Difference between revisions

This trope is named for the warning the "[[Literary Agent Hypothesis|author]]" of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' gives at the beginning of each book, that the reader would likely be much happier if he read something else. [[Sugar Bowl|Perhaps about a happy little elf?]]

 

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* The end of the 13th episode of [[Princess Tutu]] appears to be a bog-standard romantic happy ending to the series. Except it's only half finished. The (in-universe) author from beyond the grave gives off the warning.

* ''[[Saikano]]'''s fansub had a variant of this. Episode 10 ends with "A friendly warning from the team: This is the ending of happiness in ''[[Saikano]]''. If you would prefer the anime to have a happy end, consider stopping here and pretending there are no more episodes. Continuing will only bring misery and pain. You have been warned." at the bottom of the credits. [[It Got Worse|Boy howdy,]] [[Kill'Em All|are they right.]]

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The "Season of Mists" story arc of ''[[The Sandman]]'' ends with a (fictional) [[G. K. Chesterton]] quotation about how any story can have a happy ending if you just stop reading in the right place—and if you want ''The Sandman'' to have a happy ending, that's not a bad place to stop reading.

 

== [[Film]] ==

 

== [[Interactive Fiction]] ==

* A variant: Adam Cadre's ''Varicella'' has an [[Easter Egg]] which allows for the only even remotely happy ending in the game. One can have Primo Varicella dispose of all those horrible rivals, and then type WAKE UP to get an ending where the whole scenario is [[All Just a Dream]]. If you don't, then you're stuck with a [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] ending where Primo Varicella is tortured to death by the prince, whose nasty experiences at the hands of the rivals has caused him to cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]] himself and become a horrible, Caligula-like [[Complete Monster]] who, in addition to torturing Varicella, kills his own mother and starts bloody wars on other nations.

* The 2006 Interactive Fiction Competition game ''[[Deadline Enchanter]]'' (not to be confused with [[Infocom]] games of similar names) has a warning in it towards the end, where the text implies that completing your mission will result in the death of the being who sent you on the mission in the first place. You're then told that there won't be a happier ending, and that if you can't handle it, you should turn the game off and go do something else.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** And fandom was split on the actual ending of the series in ''The End''. {{spoiler|Many plotlines were unresolved at the end, but on the other hand we ''had'' been warned all along...}}

* Variation in the last book of the ''[[Dark Tower]]'', where [[Stephen King]] tells the reader to stop right before the coda because it's all about his journey to get to the Dark Tower, and not what happens within. The inevitable taking of the [[Schmuck Bait]] leads to a [[Here We Go Again]] ending. It's also used several other times in that book: just before the deaths of Eddie and Jake King warns the reader that they should stop because the next part was very painful to tell, and will be very painful to hear.

** Hardback copies of The Lightning Thief had this on the back of the book/as the blurb, telling the reader not to go on if the summary "made something stir inside of them".

 

* In the season 4 finale of "Dexter", Dexter {{spoiler|kills the trinity killer and goes home to pack for his honey moon with his wife, Rita and their three kids in Disney World only to find his son, Harrison in a pool of Rita's blood as she was killed by Trinity just before Dexter captured him.}}

* [[Friends|Phoebe Buffay]]'s mother would turn off movies like ''[[Old Yeller]]'', saying, "That's the end" before the sad ending, so Phoebe didn't know the ends to lots of sad movies. The films whose endings she finally discovered in that episode include ''Old Yeller'', ''Charlotte's Web'', ''Pride Of The Yankees'', among others. All of those films would probably count for this trope.

* Mike Rowe from [[Dirty Jobs]] has done this on occasion, such as during the episode on rendering, where a dead cow is lowered into a grinder where...

** "I don't ever want to tell you not to watch this show, but..."

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** "The one that must not be seen" [[Brain Bleach|is certainly]] [[Fan Disservice|right.]]

* ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' (2008). Leave Elika deceased, honoring her [[Heroic Sacrifice]], or suffer the consequences.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In-universe example in the webcomic ''[[Krazy Larry]]''. Vicious misanthrope Larry idolizes [[How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (animation)|the Grinch]], so his friends go to great lengths to make sure he never sees the last five minutes of the TV special.

{{quote|"No one is going to like this chapter. No one. Its going to be horrible."}}

* In the authors notes for [http://asherhyder.deviantart.com/art/Roommates-206-Return-266360157 penultimate strip] of the zombie Halloween arc of ''[[Roommates 2007|Roommates]]'' ([[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]]) we get the warning that those who want it to have an unequivocally happy ending should "cue credits here." The [http://asherhyder.deviantart.com/art/Roommates-207-Immutable-266360821 ending] is a [[Mood Whiplash|rapid switch]] from humorous to [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]]. (Warning for [[Zombieland]] spoilers!)

 

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ending Tropes]]