"You're telling me that I'll die soon, now that I'm more powerful than anyone? I'm gonna... die!?"
— Kuja, Final Fantasy IX
Sometimes, The Bad Guy Wins, but doesn't profit.
A Meaningless Villain Victory occurs when the antagonist of the story thwarts the protagonist and/or achieves their goal, but a last-second caveat, oftentimes self-inflicted, renders the whole thing moot:
- The villain stole a big pile of gold, but it's just pyrite.
- The villain stole a big pile of gold, but he doesn't live long enough to enjoy it, or gold has no spending power in this setting.
- The wicked king gains possession of the legendary superweapon, but apparently its power was just a myth.
- The evil sorceress cast the forbidden spell to become immortal, but is now trapped forever inside of an inescapable location.
- The obnoxious social climber gained a position of power, but since he backstabbed all his friends and associates to get there, he has no one to stand with him.
- The tyrant kills the heroes leading the rebellion against her, but now her victims are martyrs, and more citizens are rallying around their names.
- The Big Bad successfully opens a Sealed Evil in a Can but learns the hard way that Evil Is Not a Toy. To add insult to injury, the hero then proceeds to re-seal the evil, or even destroy it.
In short, this can best be described as The Bad Guy Wins + "Shaggy Dog" Story.
This trope makes for a satisfying ending: the audience generally wants to believe that the wicked never prosper, and a particularly direct way to get that across is to show the villains 'succeeding' but ultimately gaining nothing or even taking a loss.
Often involves a Literal Genie or Prophecy Twist. In folklore, a Deal with the Devil can often be broken in this way. This is generally a form of All for Nothing.
Also known as a Quibble; arguably synonymous with Exact Words. Overlaps with Pyrrhic Victory and And Then What?.
Not to be confused with Off the Table, the trope formerly known as Pound of Flesh. This trope was formerly known as Pound of Flesh Twist.
Compare Victory Is Boring, You Can't Thwart Stage One, and Wanting Is Better Than Having. Won the War, Lost the Peace is when the act of winning a battle begets long-term consequences that nullify the satisfaction of victory. Contrast Xanatos Gambit, where a character (not necessarily a villain) ensures they will benefit from any outcome — although a particularly spiteful hero might set this up as a failsafe so that the villain can never truly win under any circumstance, even apparent victory.
As this a Victory and Defeat Trope (and also sometimes a Death Trope), unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Example subpages
Other examples:
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Asian Animation
- BoBoiBoy: In a second season episode, Adu Du tries to defame BoBoiBoy by creating a talk show attacking BoBoiBoy. In the end, the show is aired and watched by four and a half people, which is enough for Adu Du to consider it a win. Except it turns out the people who watched it are people who wouldn't believe or get the anti-BoBoiBoy message.note
- Lamput: In "Break Out", the main antagonists, Specs Doc and Skinny Doc, put an end to their Road Runner vs. Coyote chase when they capture Lamput no strings attached. What seems like it should be a big moment for them (and it is to the other docs) becomes meaningless when they realize they are bored and ironically miss chasing him.
Comic Books
- Astro City has the Junkman, who found himself in one of these when he managed to pull off his perfect heist. He makes off with seven million dollars while robbing a bank in the Superhero Capital of the World, and initially, he's gleeful that he left no evidence whatsoever. But then, Junkman realizes that he didn't become a supervillain to make money, but to prove that his life still had purpose and society was wrong to throw him away. While the money was certainly enjoyable, it meant nothing if they couldn't trace the crime back to Junkman. Fittingly, Junkman gets out of this by inverting the trope; he returns home and kicks off a new crime spree, then lets himself get caught so he can go on trial and tell the world exactly how he pulled off his genius plan.
- In a story from Bernie Wrightson: Master of the Macabre, the Villain Protagonist is a jealous 49er who murders his miner partner and takes all the miner's possessions, all of which backfire on the killer. The miner's dog attacks the 49er and has to be put down, the miner's rifle explodes the first time the 49er fires it, a crate of whiskey is all skunked, their whole haul of gold dust is so diluted that it's only worth six cents, and the miner's girlfriend turns out to be a man dressed as a woman. This all leaves the murderous 49er at a net loss because his ill-gotten gains are almost all worthless to him, and the gold he steals is so small in value that it might as well be worthless.
- In Death: The High Cost of Living, the villain manages to steal Death's symbol, her ankh, and gets away with it, under the impression that it's an artifact of great power. Turns out it really is just a symbol; Death buys a new one from a street vendor, and all is well.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
- A Carl Barks story has Uncle Scrooge unwittingly signing a contract in which he agrees to give the Beagle Boys all of his fortune if he fails to deliver unharmed a dozen eggs from a rare kind of egg-laying rabbit. The Beagle Boys then try to destroy the eggs through various means throughout the story, but although they actually succeed in shattering the eggs in the end, the eggs are revealed to actually be chicken eggs, rendering the contract void.
Scrooge McDuck: So, you villainous Beagle Boys misrepresented the cargo. The contract is no good.
- A Little Something Special: Thanks to teaming up with Scrooge's other enemies, Magica DeSpell actually obtains her goal of stealing Scrooge's #1 Dime, which she needs to melt down for a special amulet. However, Scrooge points out that the spell specified the first dime of the world's richest man, making it worthless when the rest of Scrooge's fortune has been stolen by the Beagle Boys.
- Magica DeSpell runs into a similar problem in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. She time-travels back to get the dime, succeeds in taking it... but since she took it before it was paid to Young!Scrooge, it wasn't the first dime earned by the world's richest man. She's forced to Set Right What Once Went Wrong to ensure that it will have any value in the future.
- A Carl Barks story has Uncle Scrooge unwittingly signing a contract in which he agrees to give the Beagle Boys all of his fortune if he fails to deliver unharmed a dozen eggs from a rare kind of egg-laying rabbit. The Beagle Boys then try to destroy the eggs through various means throughout the story, but although they actually succeed in shattering the eggs in the end, the eggs are revealed to actually be chicken eggs, rendering the contract void.
- DuckTales: In a one-shot story, all of Scrooge's efforts to get first pickings at a hill of gold in a native king's territory come to naught as Flintheart manages to get it instead...but it turns out there is no gold on the hill; it's a hill covered with golden flowers which make any would-be plunderer sneeze for months.
- Issue #15 of Justice League Adventures, the comic-tie in with the Justice League series, has Kanjar Ro hired by Kromm and Sayyar, two warlords who are in "war games" with Queen Hyathis. Kanjor Ro ends up capturing Hyathis' latest prize, the Gamma Gong, and the Justice League as well. Kanjar Ro uses the Gamma Gong to entrance Hyathis' people, and loot her trophies. When it seems that Ro will get away with his loot when the Gong's destroyed, Hyathis gives him a proposition Batman advises her to: join the Warlords in their games. This gives Kanjar Ro "respectability", as it means he's no longer scurrying around like a thief; but Queen Hyathis then reminds Ro that he's limited in the use of his loot, and that she'll watch him, Kromm, and Sayyar to make sure they don't cheat from here on. To help with enforcement of this, the Queen shows her new allies — the Justice League!
- Justice Society of America: Marc Guggenheim's run features a posthumous example where Richard Lusk, a Loony Fan of the original Mr. Terrific Terry Sloane, makes it so that the current Mr. Terrific, Michael Holt, is gradually losing his intelligence all because he can't stand that his favorite hero's successor is a black man. After hanging himself and leaving a DVD of himself gloating about his scheme and how there's nothing Michael Holt can do to reverse the process, Holt simply does his best to re-learn the essential information he lost through educational videos and has his intellect restored by the end of the comic.
- MonsterVerse: Camazotz in the tie-in comic Kingdom Kong, in the long term. The giant bat-like monster invades Skull Island from the Hollow Earth, enveloping it in a perpetual storm to block out the sunlight which he hates, and he tries to wrest the island from King Kong so he can make it his own territory. Kong defeats Camazotz and banishes him back into the tunnel to the Hollow Earth from whence he came, but the radical change he made to the island's climate doesn't clear up with his death, resulting in the island's ecological death and Kong being forced to leave it for good in a few years to find a new home during Godzilla vs. Kong. So Camazotz did succeed in terraforming Skull Island and driving Kong out, but it doesn't mean much since he didn't get the island for his own either.
- During the Time Travel arc of PS238, Zodon winds up tens of thousands of years in the past. He realizes that with his intellect and a lack of any pesky superheroes to stop him, he could easily conquer the world. However, he also realizes that he has no interest in ruling a world devoid of video games or other modern forms of entertainment and opts to freeze himself in a glacier until he reaches the present again, instead.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) issue #7, Sonic and his friends are trying to find a treasure chest hidden away by Uncle Chuck, believing it to be a key tool in defeating Robotnik. However, he swoops in and steals it away before the Freedom Fighters can get their hands on it. It is then that Sonic remembers that what was inside the box was of sentimental value. The next panel has Robotnik having a hysterical Villainous Breakdown after finding out that it was Sonic's bronze baby shoes.
- Spider-Man:
- In issues #74 and #75, Silvermane successfully forces Dr. Connors into deciphering the Ancient Tablet by holding his wife and son hostage. Connors uses the information to create a potion for Silvermane to drink, who finds himself having become younger, in fact, in the age of his prime, when he could even take out Man-Mountain Marko. His victory isn't so meaningless at first, until he starts to grow younger still, given the body of a 20-year-old, where the weight of his punches against Spider-Man start to feel weaker, eventually deteriorating into that of a pre-teen kid, and finally, an infant until... nothing. Spider-Man himself even sheds a tear for him.
Silvermane found the youth he sought... and the prize will be his— forever!
- The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko): Issue 14 has the Green Goblin orchestrate a complicated plot to get large numbers of gang members arrested, thus weakening the gangs enough to let him take over. It works a little too well — so many gang members end up arrested that there aren't any gangs left for Gobbie to take over!
- In The Spectacular Spider-Man issues #15-#20, the villain The Queen, who has the power to control anyone with an insect-gene, takes a romantic interest in Spider-Man after he impresses her in their fight, and desires to have him as her mate and father of her children. She technically succeeds when she mutates Spider-Man into a Giant Spider, putting him under her total control where he accepts his role as her mate. Unfortunately for her, the mutation was unstable due to his body changing too quickly and rejecting the process, causing him to "die" right in front of her shortly after she finally had him by her side. Though Spider-Man is revived shortly after this, Queen realizes she can't have him as her mate and attempts to kill him herself.
- In issues #74 and #75, Silvermane successfully forces Dr. Connors into deciphering the Ancient Tablet by holding his wife and son hostage. Connors uses the information to create a potion for Silvermane to drink, who finds himself having become younger, in fact, in the age of his prime, when he could even take out Man-Mountain Marko. His victory isn't so meaningless at first, until he starts to grow younger still, given the body of a 20-year-old, where the weight of his punches against Spider-Man start to feel weaker, eventually deteriorating into that of a pre-teen kid, and finally, an infant until... nothing. Spider-Man himself even sheds a tear for him.
- Superman:
- In one story, Dracula fights Superman. Dracula succeeds in hypnotizing him so he can get close enough to drink Superman's blood and gain his immense power — only for it to turn out that because Superman is solar powered, when he drinks his blood, his head explodes.
- Lex Luthor
- One Silver Age story has Luthor making a scheme to rob Fort Knox, and one of Superman's robot doubles goes to try and stop him. However, due to flaws in the robot's AI, it falls for Luthor's scheme and Luthor easily escapes with tons of gold in tow. Luthor is initially overjoyed to have defeated his nemesis... but when he finds out it was a robot, and he only won because the robot wasn't as smart as the real Superman, he's so disgusted by the hollowness of his victory that he gives the gold back.
- The Black Ring: Luthor becomes a Physical God at the climax, just as he'd wanted, but he cannot use the power for negative purposes. This is largely fine by Luthor, who uses the power to banish suffering from the universe... until he finds out that he can't harm Superman. He winds up throwing away everything he'd spent the series working for so he could attack Superman again. Total time with unlimited cosmic powers: less than 5 minutes. To top everything, that was his final appearance in the pre-Flashpoint continuity.
- Last Daughter of Krypton: Supergirl defeated Simon Tycho's private army, beat him up, got her stolen Sunstone back and blew his space base up. As for Simon Tycho himself, he lost the lower half of his body because of the explosion. Still, because he got a sample of Supergirl's blood completely by accident, he thinks he came out on top.
- The Transformers: Combiner Wars: Starscream successfully pulls a False Flag Operation by setting loose Menasor on Caminus and appearing with his own combiner to save the day. In the end, he comes out on top, ready to expand his position of ruler of Cybertron onto other Cybertronian colonies forging his own empire. However with the conclusion of the Combiner War, two of the titular combiners are still loyal to the Autobots, and the only Decepticon one is Devastator whom Starscream cannot control. In addition he must retain his Villain with Good Publicity act by sharing his power with representatives from the different colonies, and as future series show he's put up against a number of other shady and shrewd politicians.
- The Wacky Races story "The Scavenger Scramble" (Gold Key #7, April 1972) had a big purse up for grabs to the winner (a "big purse" interpreted as a cash prize as per standard race). Dick Dastardly wins, and he receives the prize — a big, flowery ladies' purse. It’s not entirely meaningless though since he finally won a race in this continuity, something he never did in the series.
- In Watchmen, Adrian Veidt's plot to end the Cold War by faking an alien invasion is completely successful. The US and USSR unite, and the characters who learn his plan discover it too late to stop him. On the other hand, it's not clear if the false peace would actually last in the long run, and Rorschach's journal could possibly reveal the conspiracy to the public. Doomsday Clock (2017) confirms this. The journal is found and reveals Veidt's actions to the public, forcing him to go on the run. The false peace falls apart and nuclear war is about to go down.
Comic Strips
- One strip of Nodwick has Artax deconstruct the fact that villains are experts in planning but always seem to go wrong with the execution which renders any victories moot.
- An evil warlord raised an army and sacked a celestial temple to lay claim to a powerful artifact. Only to discover that the item can only be worn by a size 1 waist and requires some exotic anatomy.
- An evil sorceress summoned a powerful elemental storm to lay waste to the enemy kingdom to the west. Forgetting that her castle was on the east side of her domain.
- The clerics of an evil deity gained the power to foul any liquid they touched and used it to destroy city water supplies. However, they forgot that they funded their church primarily through wine sales.
Fan Works
- Archenemies to Superfriends: Lila successfully turns the rest of the class against Marinette, only to learn her victory is a hollow one: her newfound followers are still Fair-Weather Friends who are All Take and No Give, turning them against Marinette was MUCH easier than she'd anticipated, and No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction for her. Adding further insult to injury, she learns that Marinette didn't realize she was motivated by more than pettiness; Lila saw her as a Worthy Opponent, only to discover she was just an Unknown Rival in the other girl's eyes, and that she likely did her a favor by ensuring she didn't have to do favors for her False Friends anymore.
- A Snow Queen In NYC: During one mission, the Sando brothers got away with stealing a crate from someone's storage. However, Donatello learns with a bit of Internet sleuthing that they'll be disappointed by what's in the crate: the storage room belonged to a golf course owner, who rented the room to store old golf balls.
- Batman 2033 AD (Batman and Metro 2033): Joker succeeds at breaching the Vault, despite sacrificing goons and at least one drill. The part of the Vault he enters has nothing significant before Batman catches up. That's because Batman and Robin got there first and removed the canisters Joker was after before he got there.
- Downplayed in The Best Case Scenario, if you're being "realistic": During the Battle of Jaku, Skeptic hacked into the HSPC's database and publicly exposed their corruption. In the aftermath, Japan's government decided to revisit and revise the restrictions on how citizens could use their Quirks, just like the Meta Liberation Army wanted. Problem is, most of the MLA didn't survive long enough to see this: Re-Destro, all of his lieutenants and the majority of its members were either killed during the war or got arrested and sentenced to life in prison afterwards. Meaning none of them will actually get to enjoy the "freedom" they were fighting for.
- Brutal Series uses this for its second and fourth What Ifs: Russia survives and seemingly gets away, only for the follow-up to heavily imply that he wound up locked away in an asylum and poses no further threat.
- Deserving
, a Total Drama fanfic: During the free-for-all hunt for the million-dollar briefcase, Courtney has a choice between letting Duncan fall off a cliff or grabbing the prize money. She chooses the latter, but during her victory interview, her lawyers show up to collect their expenses for getting her back into the competition, which add up to so much that she's left with just $20. Duncan also dumps her for choosing the money over him and hooks up with Gwen instead.
- Discovery, a The Fairly OddParents! fanfic, has what could be considered more of a "Meaningless Unwitting Pawn Victory". Tootie, jealous that Timmy won over Trixie, is given a Love Amulet by Juandissimo, which she uses to make Timmy hers. Later, during Trixie and Tootie's fight, Trixie points out to Tootie that if she only has Timmy through the Love Amulet, all she really has is his body rather than Timmy himself (since he's basically a mindless slave with the Love Amulet on). Tootie realizes Trixie's in the right and removes the Love Amulet from Timmy.
- Ducktales: Twenty Years Later: Magicia De Spell manages to get her hands on Scrooge's Number One Dime, and the subsequently uses it to create an elixir to give her eternal youth. It works... for a few seconds, then her body starts to rot, and she suffers from a gruesome death. As Dewey explains, he inherited Scrooge's wealth when the latter died, so the dime no longer has any power.
- Harry Potter and the Power of Paranoia: Voldemort finally gains control of the Ministry and establishes his pureblood rule... after the "Great British Muggleborn Diaspora" occurs. So he now leads a shell of Magical Britain that has lost the vast majority of its population and economy, Harry Potter is still alive (Voldemort cannot remember he needs to kill Harry due to the Fidelus), and he's now locked in a shadow war with Dumbledore and his people who occupy Hogwarts.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Simon, after becoming Destruction, killed Chloe and Tuba in order to become the True Apex, but he learned the hard way that A) his Destruction form only works in the Fog Car; if he tries to leave it, he returns into a human where everyone on the Train wants his head for all of the atrocities and the audacity of killing Chloe of the Vermillion, B) Atticus resurrected Chloe with his Pendant of Life, and Tuba's death opened Hazel and Grace's eyes to the Apex, and C) he gets killed off shortly thereafter by the Phantom who was actually Sean, the Apex kid who he dismissed as "Weak" for dying, and drowns in Toluca Lake, alone, like Chloe predicted.
- Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: During Star Wars: The Old Republic, Jedi Knight Nariel Pridence set out to hide Nihilus's mask (which contained his soul) in the Unknown Regions where no one would ever find it. Determined to stop her, Nihilus's spirit sacrifices what little strength he has left to kill Nariel and set her ship off course. Nariel's ship is looted by smugglers not long after, who take the mask to their hideout on Volik... a remote planet in the Unknown Regions. The smugglers later abandon their base and leave Nihilus's mask behind on Volik where it sits untouched for thousands of years... exactly what Nariel wanted in the first place.
- In King Nothing: Justin wins Total Drama Action and gets the million dollars. However, everyone hates him because he has revealed himself to be a manipulative, backstabbing liar — even his parents. Even after he graduates, he still can't get a job because no one will hire him, and finally turns to a drinking habit. Eventually he runs out of money and the last we see of him is working as a janitor at some crappy bar, while having lost his good looks as a result of his alcoholism.
- Left Beyond has plenty, regardless of who you think the villains are. The Millennium Force score two with the capture of a prototype Spider Tank and the destruction of what they thought was the Omega mainframe... but this has no strategic effect in their favor since the Spider Tank is inferior to regular tanks in the flat terrain, and the Omega had been cloud-based for years when the old mainframe is destroyed. The Omega deal a crushing blow to Satan... just before Jesus scours the Earth of all life anyway. The Other Light conquer Russia and Western Africa... but mostly because the other two factions let them do so since the territories are no longer strategically relevant. God succeeds in fulfilling all the prophecies, and revels in the glory of judging humanity forever... but post-humanity gets on with life.
- Loved and Lost has a variation in that while the villain does manage to achieve victory early on, it's his actions afterward that render that victory moot. Prince Jewelius seizes the Equestrian throne after helping Twilight Sparkle capture Queen Chrysalis and her Changeling army (which he himself helped invade Canterlot before double-crossing them) by exploiting the tense atmosphere of the aftermath and the emotionally-driven behavior on the part of everypony involved to turn the Mane 6 sans Twilight, Shining Armor, and the princesses into hated scapegoats for enabling the invasion to occur (though in fairness, Villain Has a Point is also in play), getting them all exiled and leaving him free to manipulate Twilight as he sees fit. One week later, however, it's shown that he's decided that it isn't enough to simply have power, a bride in the form of Twilight to father powerful heirs with, and the acclaim of Canterlot's citizens — he also wants to ensure his success by having Celestia and Cadance killed off. After luring the fugitives back to Canterlot and capturing them again, however, he gloats about his success to their faces which motivates them to try and spring Twilight out of the peril that she and the rest of Canterlot deny ever being in despite their warnings. On top of this, he also forgets to capture Luna, who suspected that the heroes were being lured into a trap and split from the rest to avoid it, allowing her to free the others starting with saving Celestia from her Public Execution. In the ensuing chaos, all of the Changelings also escape, but Jewelius, believing them to be incompetent without his leadership, focuses entirely on punishing the escaped heroes which are now the public's smallest concern (partly due to the citizens and Twilight beginning to forgive the fugitives and especially Celestia who gave them all a touching apology speech), and eventually lets his sociopathic pettiness get the better of him in all of the events to follow, causing Twilight to have a Jerkass Realization and cut off all ties with him. By the time the dust has settled, not only has Jewelius lost his authority and the respect of absolutely everypony he manipulated into turning upon each other, but a vengeful Chrysalis has served him a gruesome Death by Woman Scorned as well.
- Monster in the Mountain: Frisk never went to the Underground, and thus Asriel Dreemurr could collect all the souls of the Underground by the time of the story starts. However, in every timeline he reveals himself to humanity they always succeed in almost killing him, forcing him to stay in the Underground against his will. Except it was never a permanent issue, and he often even triumphed over them and even conquered the world. However, he found no lasting fulfilment in any timeline, as he had deprived himself of anyone who would love him through his actions.
- In Monsters, Mewmans, Magic, Toffee succeeds in eradicating magic from Mewni... and is left with no idea what to do next. Having spent centuries dedicating himself to the fight, the concept of doing anything else is completely foreign to him... and the consequences of having overworked himself rapidly catch up with him.
- Nan The Keyblade Master: In Chapter 8 of Sora's Adventure in Rogueport Remake, Lord Crump blows up the Boggly Tree with a spare detonator but Vivian saves Mario and the gang with her powers of going into the ground, Madame Flurrie and the Punies decide to rebuild the tree and the next chapter has Crump getting chewed out by Sir Grodus over what happened including the possibility that Crump may have blown up the Crystal Stars (which he didn't).
- Now You Feel Like Number None: Played With; while Barragan's complete victory over Soul Society is effectively rendered pointless as reality continues collapsing, Barragan himself doesn't care. The only thing that matters to him is the notion that he's the one on top even as it all falls apart.
- Oh Lady Luck (How I miss you so!) opens with Lila successfully turning most of the class against Marinette, who boot her out as their class rep and hit her with a collective "The Reason You Suck" Speech about why none of them want to be her friends anymore. There are only two exceptions: Adrien and Chloé. Adrien immediately informs the whole class that they're not friends with HIM anymore either, and promptly gets Lila fired from her modeling gig with his father's company, while Chloé sets out to rub in their faces just what they've given up by ensuring the trio enjoys various luxuries in full view of their classmates, day after day, talking about all their amazing plans together.
- Power Trip, a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic: Lila's main goal is to prove to the people she's manipulating that she's a better class president than Marinette by making their annual class trip one to Disneyland Paris. Even without the help of the majority of the class, she manages to secure permission and raise enough money for the trip, and even manages to get Adrien to return her affections in the process. However, shortly after they get back, it's revealed that Marinette took the classmates that were excluded from the class trip (and a few others) on an even better trip: a tour across the United States. Lila is forced to spend the rest of the summer watching her enemy have a far better time than her...and to add insult to injury, one of the friends Marinette makes on the trip exposes Lila's manipulations, causing her to lose all the influence she had amongst her classmates.
- Downplayed in Rather be Me (than with You): Lila successfully manipulates her classmates into Easily Condemning Marinette... but then Marinette discovers The Power of Apathy and stops caring about how her classmates see her. Marinette moves on, making new friends outside of Miss Bustier's class, while Lila is surrounded by fickle "friends" whom she acknowledges will likely turn upon HER just as easily as they did their "everyday Ladybug". However, while she knows how delicate her situation is, Lila still considers the power and influence she holds over her class to be Worth It, and schemes to set Alya up as her next scapegoat in order to maintain control.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness Act IV: Despite Tsukune and the gang's best efforts, Hokuto ultimately succeeds in his plan to resurrect Alucard, who proceeds to go on a rampage to destroy the world. Of course, right after he succeeds in doing so, Hokuto is killed by Tsukune, and in the penultimate chapter of the act, Tsukune and co. figure out Alucard's weakness and destroy him, rendering Hokuto's victory utterly meaningless.
- Rise of Mariposa: The villainous Harlequin manages to steal the Black Cat Ring when it falls off Adrien's finger; however, Plagg doesn't come with it, rendering the Miraculous effectively useless and preventing her from combining it with the Earrings to make her selfish Wish. Tikki gleefully points this out to her.
- Ruby and Nora: In the final story, Cold, Salem manages to acquire all four Relics and use them to awaken the God of Destruction, Void, and finally obtain godhood like she was promised, only Void isn't planning on keeping his promise and strips her of her powers. Not long after, Ruby manages to destroy Void with the power of the Silver Eyes, making everything Salem did all for nothing, followed by her meeting her end by Winter's hand.
- Silent Midorijima: While Toue wasn't overthrown in this AU, it hardly matters as the fog of Silent Hill takes over the island. He has absolutely no control over the fog and is left cowering in Oval Tower for months. Regardless of the ending, he ultimately gets killed off.
- Underdressed and Overpowered: In a canon omake, All for One successfully takes over Shigaraki's body, only to learn the heroes had already successfully captured him and he's currently in an identical cell as All for One's original body.
- Vengeance of Dawn: In trying to win back her former status as Princess Celestia's student and her mentor's love, Breaking Dawn successfully carries out an elaborate scheme to make herself look like a hero, gets her hooves on the Elements of Harmony, defeats Twilight in the process, and appears at a crucial moment to save Celestia from being captured by foreign zebra soldiers. However, the second Celestia is freed, she hits Dawn point-blank with a restraining spell, reveals that she is aware of every horrible thing her former student has done up to this point, and makes it very clear that Dawn has crossed the Moral Event Horizon in her eyes. Even when Dawn escapes and tries one more time to prove herself by trying to save Canterlot with the stolen Elements, they fail to work because she is not worthy of them after the crimes she's committed.
- The plot of iteachvader's Win The Race ends up like this. Dr. Robotnik is so obsessed with beating Sonic in a race that he cheats and pulls all kinds of dirty tricks, including holding Tails hostage in order to force Sonic to let him win. It ends up working, and at the end, Sonic admits defeat and reclaims Tails, but doesn't seem to care much that he lost one race. Robotnik, on the other hand, is now out a billion mobiums, which he spent on all of his plans to ensure his win.
- You Got Whacha Want: For all intents and purposes, Lila and Chloé did win in the original timeline, since the heroes were unable to prevent them from making their selfish Wish. It's just that, in making said wish, both girls gave up any power they already had in exchange for what they believed they'd get with Marinette and Adrien's lives...which turns out to be literally nothing.
Films — Animation
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): Aladdin tricks Jafar into wishing for life as an all-powerful genie. Jafar makes the wish, and Genie grants it — not telling the villain that "phenomenal cosmic power" comes with "an itty-bitty living space". Jafar is trapped in his lamp as a magic servant for eternity and then imprisoned a second time in the Cave of Wonders.
- The Boxtrolls: Snatcher ultimately succeeds in doing what he set out to when he effectively wins the final confrontation, gets a white hat, and forces the others into letting him taste cheese in the tasting room in the end. That tasted cheese causes his allergy (along with the rest of his built-up allergic reaction) to do him in.
- Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie: Mr. Krupp's efforts to put George and Harold in separate classes in order to destroy their friendship end up becoming this due to the fact that they're next-door-neighbors and therefore could hang out after school.
- Cars 1 ends with Chick Hicks winning the Piston Cup because Lightning McQueen forfeited his own chance, stopping just short of the finish line to go back and help the third racer whom Chick caused to crash. That plus Chick's gloating over his victory may have ensured that this win is his last.
- This ends up being subverted in the tie-in game, which takes place the following year and season. With The King retired, Lightning and Chick are duking it out for the title; Lightning is clearly the crowd favorite though, meaning Chick still lost whatever respect and credibility he had with the move, which wasn't much.
- Cars 3 reveals that Chick signed a deal to host his own TV series about the racing industry, and, still having learned nothing, he uses the show as an outlet to attack Lightning at every chance he can get.
- Corpse Bride: Lord Barkis successfully marries Victoria as planned, but it turns out that her family is poor and so he can't get any of the riches he wanted from her. Ironically, his inability to accept this by attempting to kidnap Victoria and leave town with her so he at least has something sets off a chain of events that leads to his death.
- Heavy Metal 2000: The Man Behind the Man gets his immortality... of course, he then gets sealed in a chamber that can only be opened from the outside with a key lost in the depths of space.
- Kung Fu Panda 1: Tai Lung does get the Dragon Scroll eventually. But it's blank. Or rather, it has a mirrored surface to show the reader It Was with You All Along. Po gets the message, Tai Lung doesn't, and gets his tail kicked by Po because of it.
- The Lion King (1994): Scar succeeded in killing his brother Mufasa, drove his nephew Simba into exile, and took over the Pride Lands as king, but what did he gain from it? Considering the Pride Lands' condition at the time of his reign, not much. Bringing lions and hyenas together only allowed the latter to eat practically everything in the land, leaving no food or water for anyone, putting everyone on the brink of starvation, and thus, Scar would eventually not even have a kingdom to rule. In fact, Scar's claims of being able to do whatever he wants as king during this period basically confirm that he wants to be king to be in charge and no other reason. His victory doesn't even last, as Simba returns many years later to take back the throne, which he eventually does.
- Megamind: The eponymous Villain Protagonist finally accomplishes what he's been working toward for years in killing Metro Man. But now that Megamind has finally defeated his Arch-Enemy and Metro City is Megamind's for the taking, Megamind realizes that he'd been so focused on killing Metro Man that he doesn't really have any idea what to do with Metro City. Even the few ideas that Megamind comes up with quickly lose their novelty. His life now direction-less, Megamind decides he needs to create a new super hero to fight against! Of course, this goes horribly right when Megamind creates a hero that's way too powerful and not much of a hero after all.
- Ratatouille: Skinner manages to get Linguini's restaurant shut down. So Linguini, Colette, and Remy start a new restaurant that becomes just as successful under a different name.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Evil Queen successfully feeds Snow White a poisoned apple, putting her in a deep sleep, but not only does she get herself killed trying to escape the dwarfs, the spell is broken later when the Prince gives Snow White True Love's Kiss.
- Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay: The ruthless and Secretly Dying Amanda Waller sends the titular Suicide Squad to get a MacGuffin, the Get Out Of Hell Free card, that allows one person to escape Hell no matter how bad they were in life. The Suicide Squad eventually complete their mission and return the card to her... after Deadshot has used it for Bronze Tiger. The card only works on one person and can't be duplicated, so it might as well be a Monopoly card for all the good it will do her. When the Suicide Squad appears in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, they mention that Waller passed away recently with the obvious implication of where she ended.
- Toy Story 4: Gabby Gabby's plan is to steal Woody's voice box and use it to repair her own. She's been left on the antique store's shelves for decades and believes that Harmony, a girl who frequents the store, will buy her if her voice box works. Woody willingly gives up his voice box to Gabby Gabby, who uses it to attract Harmony's attention. Unfortunately, Harmony leaves her on the shelf, to Gabby Gabby's sorrow. Gabby Gabby is sympathetic enough that the trope gets subverted: Woody persuades her to come with him to the nearby carnival, where Gabby Gabby finally gets Happily Adopted by another young girl.
- The Wild Robot: Universal Dynamics succeeds in returning Roz to human civilization, after she and her animal friends fought for her to stay on the island. However, this was a deliberate decision by Roz, knowing that they won't stop trying to capture her and the animals can't resist them forever. Furthermore, they didn't erase her memories, and Brightbill is still able to visit her during migrations.
Literature
- The Bad Beginning, first in A Series of Unfortunate Events, ends with Violet successfully arguing that a marriage contract to her evil cousin wasn't signed "in her own hand" because she used her non-dominant hand (and thus it wasn't her true signature).
- The original plot of The Merchant of Venice, the former Trope Namer, is subverted in the Star Trek novel Dark Mirror, wherein Picard reads a mirror universe version of The Merchant of Venice. In the Mirror Universe Shylock gets his pound of flesh because no one would really think you can really get a pound of flesh without shedding blood. They weigh it, it is too much, and they laughingly say he can take some of it back.
- Occurs at the very end of The Dresden Files: Ghost Story, when Harry ultimately realizes that, although he is the Winter Knight, Mab still doesn't have any actual power over him, allowing him to retain his free will and enabling him to determine how or even if he follows Mab's orders.
- This is different from the original Winter Knight, who was punished for allying with Summer, his supposed mortal enemies. As long as he doesn't commit treason, Harry is completely unbound. When Mab is told that he knows of this, she goes from creepy maternal to outright scary slave-owner in seconds, and Harry laughs in her face.
- In Five Little Pigs, Elsa succeeded in killing her lover Amyas and framing his wife Caroline for the murder. Even when Poirot deduces that she was the culprit instead of Caroline sixteen years after the murder, he admits that he doesn't have the concrete evidence to get her convicted. However, Elsa still feels like she ultimately lost because not only did Caroline's serene acceptance of her fate deprive her of any satisfaction she might have gained from watching her love rival get punished in her place, but her own life has been empty and devoid of joy after Amyas's death with her being unable to love any other man.
- In Girls Kingdom, when Asuka wins the Salon Struggle, Misaki genuinely thinks that Kagura will have to give up the Sky Salon. However, it is then revealed that this was just the first round, and Asuka will have to beat at least three other people: The Kokonoe twins and Himeko. Asuka valiantly goes forth against the twins, despite knowing that there's no way she can win, and, in the end, her attempt to take over the Sky Salon fails.
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort spends a large portion of the book looking for the Elder Wand, and eventually takes it in Dumbledore's tomb. The Elder Wand transfers its allegiance to the one who defeated its last master. Voldemort assumed that this meant 'to kill' and so he killed Snape, who had killed Dumbledore. However, Snape wasn't really the one who had defeated Dumbledore, as it had been planned out beforehand. Draco Malfoy, who had broken through Dumbledore's defenses and disarmed him, was the real master of the wand, although he didn't know it. Then Harry defeats and disarms Malfoy, meaning that the Elder Wand is his. Then when push comes to shove, the Elder Wand refuses to act against its master, and Voldemort's own killing curse backfires on him.
- In Haunted (2005), a reporter ruins the life of a Former Child Star turned veterinarian and gets a hefty fee for the story, but his dog gets sick and he doesn't know any other vets so it dies.
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: The Grinch succeeds in stealing all of Whoville's presents, decorations, and feast items on the night of Christmas Eve, but he's astonished to hear the Whos continuing to merrily celebrate the holiday even without any of it. Confused how nothing he did could stop Christmas from coming, it leads him to a Heel–Face Turn when he realizes Christmas isn't about "stuff", it's something more.
- For three consecutive books in the Journey to Chaos series, Gruffle tries to kill Eric. It even becomes his Unfinished Business. Then he finally succeeds at the end of Transcending Limitations. Unbeknownst to him, Eric plotted with another reaper to thwart him. This reaper felt indebted to Eric and so travels to the Abyss, at Eric's request, to revive him moments after Gruffle took his disembodied soul there.
- In the Left Behind book Kingdom Come, Abdullah Smith points out to Sarsour the futility of Satan's and The Other Light's plan to overthrow God by telling him that even if Satan has a chance of winning, he wouldn't be able to resurrect all the people who died as martyrs for The Other Light because God hasn't given Satan the power to do so.
- The Lord of the Rings: Gollum finally gets his hands on the One Ring again, only to fall into Mount Doom and burn alive with it. In the books, he becomes careless and while jumping for joy slips off the edge, while in the film trilogy Frodo fights him over the ring and they both go over the edge, though Frodo is able to grab the ledge.
- Millennium Falcon does it twice in a row. The heroes and their competitors are looking for a location of something "of immeasurable value". The heroes get to it first and find an old relic made of common materials. The competitor then arrives and explains that the item had collector's value to him all along. But then he discovers that the item is actually a replica and the original relic is still out there somewhere — a Shout-Out to the Maltese Falcon, on which the plot was based.
- The Mortal Instruments: Valentine Morgenstern eventually does manage to summon Raziel, only to learn that everything he did on the way there, including torturing Raziel's younger angelic brother for experiments and allying himself with demons (when the Shadowhunter society was conceived in the first place to fight them) have essentially made him an enemy to angels. Raziel proceeds to give him a truly vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech before incinerating him to ashes.
- In the second book of The Mysterious Benedict Society, Mr. Curtain escapes the island with all the world's duskwort, a plant that can send an entire town to sleep by burning the tiniest bit of it. However, it is actually thwart-wort, a weed that looks similar to duskwort but is not soporific in any way.
- Pride and Prejudice has Wickham succeeding in nearly ruining Lydia's reputation, and Darcy hurriedly pays him off to marry her. Although the two of them are living off Jane and Bingley's estate by the end, it's implied that even they are growing sick of them. The final time we see the couple in Joe Wright's film implies that the marriage will probably end in Domestic Abuse.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: A victory so meaningless we only even heard about it months after the fact. Percival Whalley, the opposition candidate for Student Council President, placed higher than The Lancer Nanao Hibiya on points during broomsports tournament, but nobody cares because Nanao still downed him in their solo dueling match.
- The second book of Renegades ends with the Anarchists successfully stealing Ace Anarchy's helmet, which would let Ace recover all of his powers. Unfortunately, at the same time the Renegades capture Ace, rendering the helmet completely worthless.
- The Silmarillion: After 500 years of struggle, the last remaining Sons of Fëanor, Maedhros and Maglor finally get the two remaining Silmarils. In the process, they lost their father, all their brothers, their kingdoms, their followers and, thanks to them committing genocide against other elves on three separate occasions, they've made enemies of the entire world, and they reject the Last-Second Chance offer for them to return to Valinor for trial (where they may eventually be reunited with their dead family). And when they try holding the Silmarils in their hands? The gems burn them due to all the evil they've done, so they can't even hold them without feeling unbearable agony. Maedhros ends up throwing himself off a cliff with his Silmaril, while Maglor throws his away and spends the rest of his days Walking the Earth lamenting their folly, too ashamed to ever face another living being again.
- A Song of Ice and Fire
- A Clash of Kings: Theon and his Ironborn raiders capture Winterfell but they are too far away from reinforcement and resupply. He is Made a Slave by Ramsay Snow.
- Everything starts going to hell for the Lannisters right after their apparent victory over House Stark in the War of Five Kings, rendering it pointless. Joffrey is poisoned. Tyrion snaps after being falsely accused and convicted of his murder, his family and kills Tywin. Cersei runs the Seven Kingdoms into the ground with her incompetent leadership and is overthrown by the resurrected Faith Militant that she authorized. Meanwhile, House Stark isn't quite as dead as everyone believes, with some of the surviving Stark children poised to take a level in badass.
- Ser Gregor kills Oberyn Martell, but Oberyn had poisoned his weapon and Clegane dies a long and painful death.
- The Freys and the Boltons massacred the Starks and their bannermen in the Red Wedding which earned them new titles from the Iron Throne. However, this made them become easy targets by the Brotherhood Without Banner and everyone in the Riverlands and the North who like to remind them that "The North Remembers".
- House Hoare capped off the conquest of the Riverlands with the construction of Harrenhal. It took 40 years to build. Aegon the Conqueror burned it down with the Hoares in it in just one night.
- Archmaester Gyldayn's Histories: Word of God says Aegon II was a villainous usurper who is recognized in the history books as the rightful king, but he lost his family, their dragons and his life after reigning for only two years.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants picture book Hooray for Dads! has Plankton compete in the Dad and Kid Games with his father under the impression that the grand prize will be the Krabby Patty Secret Formula. He ultimately wins, but not only are the other participants not upset about losing due to being content with having fun with their dads, it also turns out that the prize is that the winners' names will be inscribed on a plaque that will be placed in a new rock and coral garden in the center of town, which isn't useful to Plankton's goals at all.
- In Starlight and Shadows, various factions of evil drow attempt to steal a powerful magical artifact called the Windwalker from Liriel. Liriel's main nemesis, Shakti, eventually succeeds in claiming it; but by that point its magic has been exhausted and it is worthless.
- In Thomas, the protagonists meet a magician and find themselves caught up in a quest to defeat an evil cult hoping to resurrect their demon master by recapturing the pieces of a magical egg from which he will hatch. The heroes end up prisoners, helpless witnesses to the dark ritual... except it goes wrong. The magician gloats to the confused baddies that they've fallen into the goodies' trap — the Big Good knew this would happen one day, so he and his followers spent years enchanting the egg with goodness so that it would destroy the demon instead of reviving him if the heroes failed to stop the cult. Unfortunately, it turns out that demonic abominations are good at improvising...
- In Without Remorse, though the Americans end up with leverage to get the return of the captive soldiers from Vietnam, the Russians still managed to break some of them and extract highly sensitive information from them, and even with the loss of the interrogation records, the interrogator can reproduce much of the data from memory. But it doesn't matter. Everything he got from the captives was high level strategic stuff that likely would never be used unless WWIII broke out, and since the Americans know that he knows, all of the leaked plans will be changed long before anyone finds a way to exploit them.
Music
- In Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Beethoven's Last Night, Mephistopheles forces Beethoven to give up his 10th Symphony in exchange for not torturing a homeless girl to death. Fate (literally) steps in, and Mephistopheles signs a contract for one copy of the 10th Symphony, written by Ludwig von Beethoven, first son of his parents. However, the composer is actually Ludwig von Beethoven the second, as his elder brother of the same name died shortly after birth. While you could say that they can't pay up and Meph gets a refund? It was implied in-script as the fact that his soul in Heaven could write music and that the tenth symphony of Ludwig the elder (should it ever be written) will belong to Mephistopheles.
- In the song "One Tin Soldier", the people of the valley slaughter the people of the mountain for their treasure (which the people of the mountain had offered to share). They find that the treasure is simply a message stating "peace on earth."
Mythology and Religion
- Norse Mythology: Loki bet his head to the dwarf Brokk on whom could give the Aesir the better gift. When Brokk wins the bet, he demands his payment. Loki at that point pointed out he'd never bet any of his neck, and neither side could agree on what constituted the head and what constituted the neck. Brokk got annoyed by being cheated out of his prize and sewed Loki's mouth shut to stop his word twisting (Loki was unable to argue that it was in any way not part of his head).
- Piers Shonks, a knight from Medieval England, killed a dragon belonging to Satan, who turned up in a rage and promised that "whether you're buried in the church or out, I'll have your soul!" When Shonks died, he was buried ''in the wall'' of a church near Brent Pelham, with the inscription "Shonke one serpent kills, t'other defies / And in this wall as in a fortress lies."
Theater
- Occurs in Beetlejuice (2018). Right at the end of the play, Betelgeuse gets exactly what he wants by marrying Lydia and coming back to life. But then, Lydia just instantly kills him again. And since Betelgeuse is now recently deceased, he can be banished to the Netherworld and never escape.
- The Merchant of Venice: Shylock pleads his case in court, and the court finds that, indeed, the contract he made with Antonio is binding, giving Shylock every legal right to extract a pound of flesh from him. However, the court also rules that Shylock is not entitled to any blood. Therefore he would have to take the flesh without spilling a drop of blood, which everyone simply accepts is impossible. Not just that — he asked for a pound of flesh, which also means he can't take any more or less than an exact pound of Antonio's flesh, adding to the impossibility of the task. To rub salt into the wound, he is forced to convert to Christianity by the man he tried to take vengeance on, and he cannot even take his own life to get out of it.
Theme Parks
- In Kung Fu Panda Adventure at Universal Studios Hollywood, the ride's villain, Kang, succeeds in getting the "Liquid of Ultimate Power", but his victory is short-lived as it turns out that it was actually just a bottle of hot sauce, which he experiences the full effects of upon drinking it.
Video Games
- In Baldur's Gate III, Minthara and the goblin forces can succeed in massacring the residents of the Emerald Grove with the Player Character's assistance. However, Minthara is more or less doomed no matter what happens afterwards. Either Minthara will turn on the player themselves after getting suspicious about their true motives, resulting in her death, a Dark Urge origin character will straight-up murder Minthara after seducing her, or Minthara will leave the Player Character in peace, not realizing that the MacGuffin she's been looking for was with them the entire time. The third outcome results in her being condemned by Ketheric Thorm in Act 2, and while it is possible to rescue her and recruit her into the party proper, this will result in Minthara being freed from the Cult of the Absolute's brainwashing, causing her to disavow her actions in Act 1.
- Capcom Fighting Evolution: Play as Jedah Dohma and for him, victory is assured. Swarms of Q-Bees are assaulting civilians, Kongou and Gi Gi are wreaking havoc, and cities have been devastated. Jedah, rather fittingly, decides to celebrate his triumph... oh yeah, and Dante's about to kill him right there and then.
- Castlevania
- Castlevania: Lament of Innocence: As canon demands his demise, Mathias aka Dracula succeeds in manipulating his way into immortality just to get revenge on the Heavenly Father over his wife's death, but in doing so, alienates his friends in the process, with his bestie Leon calling him out on this and even if he gets to meet his wife again in some form and have a family, he'll lose her again, and be killed by Leon's descendants over and over for nearly a millennium.
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: In the bad ending, Celia successfully resurrects Dracula. The problem is that she accomplished it by pretending to murder an emotionally unstable teenage boy's girlfriend in front of him (Dracula declared war on humanity when his wife was murdered) and then goading him into killing her as retribution. Predictably, she is "rewarded" for her efforts with nothing but death.
- In the Chzo Mythos, this trope is in effect for the Chzo cultists. Chzo finally has the bridge to crossover from the World of Magic into the World of Technology at the very end of the story. However, the cultists vastly overestimated Chzo's interest in doing so. Chzo was more interested in the pain and suffering the cultists inflicted upon themselves in making the bridge, as well as the emotional pain when they realized Chzo never cared about them and was never going to reward them for anything they'd done.
- The Coffin of Andy and Leyley: The "Shots and Such" ending of Chapter 3 - Decay essentially has Ashley and Andrew Graves succeed in evading the authorities and get away with their various crimes, hiding out in a small place forever away from any reach. Not only are they forever slaves to the Entity, doomed to provide it with souls or get devoured themselves, but their relationship spirals down into Domestic Abuse and Ashley gets pregnant, adding another complication to their life; all escaping justice got them was an Awful Wedded Life and eternal servitude.
- The Soviet campaign in Command & Conquer: Red Alert ends with Stalin being assassinated as he celebrates the victory. And it is revealed that Kane (the Big Bad of the entire Command & Conquer franchise) is the mastermind. He will eventually discard the Soviet Union itself once it has served its purpose.
- The Chaos Rising DLC of Dead Rising 3 ends with Hunter killing his rival Spider and becoming the new boss of the biker gang. The camera then pans out to show Nick and his group making their way towards them, meaning that Hunter basically gets to be leader of the gang for less than an hour before he gets killed as the first boss of the main game.
- Disciples II, Mortis successfully resurrects her husband Gallean but he rejects her instead.
- Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man: Although Pontius Pilate succeeds in wiping out the Zealots resistance and executing Jessua, he doesn't have long to celebrate it, since the Demiurge soon launches a massive laser towards Kenoma. Pilate tries to evacuate, but Nicodemus kills him because he refuses to relinquish the lance containing Jessua's blood.
- Fallout: New Vegas has Allen Marks, who was known to have killed and robbed many wasteland inhabitants for Sunset Sarsaparilla star caps just so he could win a "legendary treasure" from before the war. Once he had collected enough caps, the guardian of the "treasure", Festus, (who was nothing more than a primitive robotic mascot with pre-programmed phrases) allowed him entry into the prize vault. Somehow, he became permanently trapped inside and discovered that the prizes were merely plastic deputy badges for children. Eventually, he succumbs in the tightly sealed vault from lack of oxygen, and his body is found slumped against the wall by the time the Courier arrives. All the caps Allen collected were for nothing, and all the people he killed died in vain.
- In the Dead Money DLC, one of the endings has the insane Ex-Brotherhood of Steel Elder Father Elijah finally get into the treasure vault...only to activate a trap and die there.
- Final Fantasy:
- In Final Fantasy VI, Kefka gets what he wants, ascending to godhood by absorbing the power of the Warring Triad and then rearranging their statues. Once he's arrived at the pinnacle, he suddenly loses all sense of purpose, and sets about killing people for his own amusement, until he grows bored of that too. Following this, he just decides to destroy the world because he believes that life has become unbearably meaningless. The protagonists, meanwhile, inverted the trope entirely by finding purpose and reasons to live after their defeat, and are able to put a stop to him.
- In Final Fantasy IX, Kuja's mastery of Xanatos Speed Chess allows him to out-maneuver every other character and eventually ascend to become a Person of Mass Destruction unrivaled by any other in the story. He celebrates by killing his master, and then prepares to finally Take Over the World. However, the spirit of his master then tells him that his victory is meaningless, because Kuja was designed to have a finite lifespan and thus will die soon. Kuja... does not take it well. At all.
- In Final Fantasy XIV, A Realm Reborn ends with a Wham Episode where it looks like The Conspiracy has pulled a fast one on the Warrior of Light and furthered the conspiracy's plan to corrupt the city of Ul'dah. But they get to enjoy this victory for only a couple of minutes, tops. Teledji Adeleji manages to make it look like the Warrior of Light assassinated Nanamo, the Sultana of Ul'dah, by poisoning her. But Teledji is such a Smug Snake that he can't help but insult Nanamo in front of Raubahn, her most loyal bodyguard. As a result, Raubahn literally slices Teledji Adeleji in half, and the Warrior of Light manages to escape in the chaos. On top of that, another member of the conspiracy, Lord Lolorito, recognized Teledji's plan as far too risky, so he had the poison for Nanamo replaced with a sleeping potion. Upon waking up, Nanamo recognizes the circumstances that led to her near-assassination, working with Lolorito to formulate a plan for Ul'dahn refugees, which cements Nanamo's seat of power. In short, not only did Teledji Adeleji's plan work for little more than a few minutes, but he got himself killed shortly thereafter and managed to make his target even more powerful. Between A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, Lolorito even recognizes that Teledji could not have "succeeded" much worse.
- In Golden Sun, Alex manipulates both the heroes and the villains into breaking the seal on Psynergy so that he can claim the awesome powers of the Golden Sun for himself. And succeeds. But then The Wise One shows up and informs him that it placed a small portion of the Golden Sun's energy into the Mars Star that Issac carries, rendering Alex's powers slightly less than god-like. Now, being almost omnipotent should be prize enough, except for the fact that the Wise One is omnipotent, and swiftly renders Alex unable to move. It's also a case of Chekhov's Gun: at the very beginning of the first game, the Wise One asks Isaac to show up the Mars Star for a brief moment, and nothing is made of it until that moment.
- In Half-Life: Opposing Force, black ops are sent to Black Mesa to cover up the incident once and for all by murdering everyone present there, including the Marines previously sent there to do exactly that, culminating in using a nuclear warhead to detonate the facility. The world finds out everything that happened anyway due to there being survivors, and not long after the world is invaded and annexed by the Combine.
- Her Heart, Anew: Although Gabe succeeds in stealing from Ezul's chamber and leaving the party empty-handed, it turns out he stole a dragon egg rather than the Ruby Eye jewel. Ezul placed the egg there as a decoy specifically to mess with adventurers. Played with in that the egg hatches into a dragon whelpling and therefore could have some utility for Gabe's future crimes, but he's too consumed by greed and is too obsessed with his original objective to be happy with what he has.
- Jak 3 features Veger accomplishing his goals to meet the Precursors, as well as become one of them. But, it turns out the Precursors are actually ottsels, like Daxter. And Veger only learns that after he wishes to become a Precursor, leading him to realize this mid-sentence before he's polymorphed into a fuzzy rodent.
- The King of Fighters:
- Both Ángel and K9999/Krohnen end up achieving one in The King of Fighters 2001. Good news: they successfully wounded Foxy, traumatized Kula, and escaped with their lives. Bad news: their employer is rendered essentially defunct and they're now in the same boat as the very traitors they were meant to be hunting. They seem to be handling life on the run well enough by The King of Fighters XV, though.
- The Awakened Orochi Team in XV score such a victory in their ending. They successfully ensure the genocide of the human race, allowing their master Orochi to reclaim the Earth... except that they now have nothing to go do after that and nobody but themselves for company. Chris is the only one celebrating, as both Shermie and Yashiro show some apprehensiveness about what they just pulled off.
- Killing the Jedi Masters in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and effectively wiping out the Jedi Order results in Kreia confronting The Exile. Asking what, if anything, they have really accomplished. She points out that it's gotten them no closer to defeating the Sith who are hunting them, and questions if it brought the Exile any sense of peace.
- Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda gets this thrice.
- Ganondorf's manipulation of Zelda and Link in Ocarina of Time nets him access to the Sacred Realm and the Triforce and neither of them can do anything to stop him... But unfortunately for him, the Triforce has a caveat that unless a person is perfectly balanced with its virtues, they can only possess one piece of it. This means that Ganondorf only gets one third. The most powerful third (Power), yes, but still not quite the ultimate power he had envisioned, and he becomes doomed by fate to forever be thwarted by the owners of the other two pieces (Zelda having Wisdom, and Link having Courage), which together overpower Ganondorf.
- In the backstory of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Ganon succeeded in killing Link at the end of Ocarina and gained the full power of the Triforce. Before he could do anything with said power, however, the Seven Sages sealed him in the Sacred Realm. So Ganon simply wished to Take Over the World, but the Triforce acted as a Literal Genie and gave him dominion over the Dark World where he was imprisoned, buying Link's reincarnation enough time to be born and prepare for their rematch.
- At the end of The Wind Waker, after he beats up Link and summons the full Triforce before him, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule comes out of nowhere and touches the Triforce first, causing his wish to be granted instead of Ganondorf's. Of course, since Ganondorf had gained sufficient wisdom and courage to be accepted by the Triforce, he no longer even desired the ultimate power that he had wanted so long before.
- The bad ending of LEGO Island has the Brickster gloating "It's mine! All mine!" before it slowly dawns on him that he destroyed everything, hence there's nothing left to be "all his".
- The bad ending of Live A Live, achieved by selecting Oersted as the main character for the final chapter and winning all the reverse boss fights, features him defeating all the other protagonists and "proving" that humans are weak and selfish after all. Only now he has nobody left to witness his victory, since he already wiped out all of Lucrece, so Oersted is left to wander around in a depressed state.
- Limbus Company:
- Captain Ahab's mad quest to kill the Pallid Whale does end in the Whale's death alright... at Ishmael's hands, robbing her of the satisfaction of doing so herself and completely breaking her.
- During Canto VIII, the Sinners find themselves beset by assassins who aim to kill Hong Lu in order to prevent him from participating in his family's Hierarch Evaluation, led by the Night Drifter of the Drunken Palm. Regardless of how you do in the boss fight, he will successfully assassinate Hong Lu either during gameplay or in a cutscene before he flees with the job complete... but since Death Is Cheap for the Sinners, which the assassins didn't know, Dante just brings Hong Lu back without issue as soon as all the assassins are gone.
- Mastermind: World Conqueror: The ending has the Mastermind successfully destroy the Earth... only to realize too late that he's stranded in his escape pod with nobody left to save him. And he left his cheesy snacks back on Earth, which he is even more displeased with.
- Mortal Kombat: Armageddon: Shao Kahn's arcade ending is the canonical one, as he ultimately wins after the events of said Armageddon by surviving the ascent up the pyramid and follows that by killing Raiden (who sends a message to his past self about the events, thus setting the stage for Mortal Kombat 9). Finding out there's nothing else left to conquer, Shao Kahn is Driven to Madness.
- Mother 3: Porky gets into the Absolutely Safe Capsule, meaning he can never be harmed. Because of a side effect of time travel, he can never die through natural means. But he also can't leave the Capsule or interact with the world through it, making his victory completely meaningless as the heroes simply leave him where he is.
- In The Neverhood's bad ending, Klogg succeeds in convincing Klaymen to put on Hoborg's crown and gloats about his victory. Seconds later, Klaymen is corrupted by the crown's power and kills Klogg, declaring himself the Neverhood's new ruler.
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Grodus succeeds in his goal of getting into the Thousand Year Door and managing to reawaken the Shadow Queen, even successfully managing to dupe the heroes into helping him. However, when Grodus attempts to order the Shadow Queen to destroy the heroes, he quickly learns that Evil Is Not a Toy, as the Shadow Queen effortlessly destroys his body, leaving him as just a head. To add insult to injury, the heroes manage to defeat the Shadow Queen anyways, meaning that even the one part of his plan that was successful didn't amount to anything.
- Persona:
- The end of Persona 2: Innocent Sin has Nyarlathotep succeeding in destroying the world with the help of several deluded humans, but thanks to an intervention from Philemon, the heroes managed to bring back the world before he intervened. Then in Eternal Punishment, Nyarlathotep tries again only to be defeated by a new team of heroes, and is banished for his troubles.
- Persona 3: Despite having masterfully manipulated SEES since the very beginning and coming within a hair's breadth of killing them, Ikutsuki's plan was always doomed to fail; other than being unaffected by the Dark Hour, he's a completely ordinary human who can't even use a Persona, Nyx is a primordial entity that can't be controlled or reasoned with, and the Fall will wipe out all life without distinction. Even if he had succeeded, instead of becoming the godlike ruler of a new world like he believed he would, the only "reward" waiting for him was the same pointless death he wished on everyone else.
- Persona 5: The Phantom Thieves never manage to stop Shido from becoming Prime Minister, but they do succeed in changing his heart, preventing him from taking any joy in his achievement, ever. Moreover, thanks to this changed heart and the rest of their efforts, his day in court is rapidly approaching.
- In Pokémon Platinum, the Big Bad Cyrus manages to successfully enslave the gods of time and space for his Godhood Seeker plan, but the Lake Guardians' failure ends up alerting the god of antimatter, Giratina, who keeps the two in balance. As shown in the original duology and the Alternate Universe in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, he only needed one of the two for his plan, but he overextended himself and ensured that either Giratina (who also stopped Ultra Cyrus) or the Player Character would've showed up to make his efforts meaningless. No matter what he did, Divine Intervention doomed his plan from the start.
- Red Dead Redemption 2: Micah and Dutch successfully fend off Arthur, but his helping John to survival ensures that both will eventually meet violent ends, the former in 1907 and the latter in 1911.
- In Silent Hill 2, Maria, who serves as the Final Boss in most routes, gets what she wants in the Maria ending, in which James does accept her and they leave the town together. However, since she served as a living Secret Test of Character to James, one he can only pass by rejecting her (accepting Maria as a Replacement Goldfish for Mary means that he's refusing to accept his flawed but real relationship with Mary in favor of an idealized one that only exists in his delusions, which was the problem that got him to Silent Hill in the first place), the James she leaves with is a Villain Protagonist who if anything has backslid on his Fatal Flaw, so it's implied her victory will be short-lived as Silent Hill inflicts her with an Incurable Cough of Death, implying she'll suffer the same fate as the real Mary: James killing her after her health worsens and their relationship is no longer picture-perfect.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- In Sonic Riders, Eggman appears after Sonic and co. make it through the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, and when the treasure for which Eggman sacrificed the Chaos Emeralds, the series's go-to Mineral Macguffins, is within sight, he actually holds off the heroes with a laser gun in order to grab the treasure at the last minute. However, when Eggman opens the chest containing said treasure, he finds an ancient prototype Gear in the form of a Flying Carpet, outclassed by every other Gear currently available to the public and therefore worthless to Eggman who promptly faints in disbelief. At least it was a really nice rug...
- In Sonic Unleashed, Eggman finally manages to build Eggmanland after alluding to it in some previous games. However, Sonic survives the ensuing gauntlet and defeats him as per usual, with Dark Gaia also giving him his just desserts after it fully awakens.
- In the Decepticon mode of Transformers: Call of the Future, the Decepticons succeed in getting the Zel Quartz and defeating every Autobot that stands in their way, but Starscream attempts to take the Zel Quartz for himself and it turns out that the Zel Quartz loses its power when removed from its environment without a proper covering. Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge also end up disappearing because their assistance in helping Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave obtain the Zel Quartz before Shockwave found it has altered the course of history.
- The Undead campaign in Warcraft III ends with Arthas and Kel'thuzad summoning Lord Archimonde into Lordaeron, only for him to set them aside and putting the Scourge under the command of his dreadlords.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- In the final case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, the killer confronts Phoenix with the sadistic choice of getting a sociopathic murderer acquitted and sending an innocent woman to jail, or getting the killer sent to jail but having Phoenix's assistant be killed by an assassin. After some Big Damn Heroes moments with the last crucial pieces of evidence, Phoenix reveals to Shelly de Killer that Engarde taped him killing Juan Corrida, and planned to blackmail de Killer with the footage. This means that Engarde has broken his bond of trust with an assassin that values his bond of trust with his clients above all else, a fatal mistake. It puts Engarde in a Morton's Fork of getting either life in prison with his prized reputation destroyed or hunted by one of the best assassins in the world, with either one spelling Engarde's demise. At his point, Phoenix can choose to either change his plea to guilty and send Engarde to jail right there, or to keep pleading not guilty in the smuggest way possible, stressing to Engarde that this is an act of Cruel Mercy. Either way, Engarde screams in court that he's guilty, claws the hell out of his own face in pure panic, and ends the trial completely humiliated.
- Case 2 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies has Florent L'Belle, a supposed business partner of the victim commit murder in order to gain access to the Forbidden Chamber and steal the giant chunk of gold contained within. While the killer's plan ultimately works, somebody had already stolen the gold many years ago, so all the killer got for their trouble was an empty room and a murder conviction. And once that comes to light, the killer rapidly gets a series of phone calls in court during their Villainous Breakdown where every one of their business partners backs out of deals, because they don't want to be associated with a murderer, leaving them not only headed to jail but completely broke.
- In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Straw Nihilist Junko Enoshima caused The End of the World as We Know It because her Awesomeness by Analysis ability made her able to predict and plan for (almost) anything several steps in advance, which made normal life completely monotonous and quickly drove her mad with boredom and ennui. Her Evil Plan goes off without a hitch, except that she's unable to actually experience the Villain World she created to relieve her boredom since she locked herself in the school with her classmates as part of her plan to solidify her control over it from the very beginning. When she finally shows her face during the final class trial, she's even more jaded and apathetic than she was previously, implying that not even the global chaos she caused was enough to satisfy her. In the end, she's downright ecstatic that Makoto gives her an excuse to kill herself.
- Henchman Story has Madame Scorpion experience a meaningless victory in the "Lord Stanley" ending. After successfully corrupting her protege Stanley into becoming a ruthless villain and defeating Shining Nova and Crimson Dynamo, Scorpion gets betrayed by Stanley himself, who's decided he can just rule alone. As a consequence, she's subjected to a brutal Mind Rape right as she's basking in her victory.
Web Animation
- DEATH BATTLE!:
- Bill Cipher vs Discord ends this way; before getting destroyed, Discord reveals he trapped both him and Bill in the Nightmare Dimension, thus undoing the latter's conquest of Equestria. This, combined with the fact Discord can eventually reform and Bill's inability to find anyone who doesn't know enough about him to agree to one of his deals, means Bill's victory is worth absolutely nothing in the end, leaving him to throw a tantrum in the solitude of space.
- From the same season as the above, Frieza vs Megatron. While the former ultimately takes home the win, his army and fleet of spaceships have both been destroyed and in his haste to win, he's destroyed Cybertron—the very planet he showed up to conquer. Megatron himself points this out to Frieza before the final clash, enraging him to no end. Also, Frieza's lost both legs and an arm. Downplayed if not subverted as Frieza has come back from worse and is now hellbent on wiping out all Cybertronians as retribution.
- Disventure Camp: The third season, All-Stars, ultimately ends with Riya winning the season and three million dollar grand prize. However, due to her bad attitude and playing dirty the entire game, she ends up being Hated by All among the entire cast, with even Connor rejecting her and wanting nothing to do with her anymore, which goes entirely against her original goal of wanting to make friends. While the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows everyone else is happily living their lives outside the game, hanging out with the friends and relationships they made and fulfilling their dreams, with Connor even ending up Happily Married to another woman after cutting Riya out of his life for good, Riya is completely miserable, spends her time crying all alone, and is unable to enjoy her victory, especially since the money does absolutely nothing to change her life since she’s already rich. The warning her old friend Rosa Maria told her the previous season ultimately comes true; she may have won the million, but is all alone.
- In episode 35 of No Evil Charles breaks the last piece of the Black Tezcatlipoca but is quickly reminded that Xipe Totec and the Monkeys didn't so much seal the Black in a can, as make it into the can sealing the Red Tezcatlipoca. And it does NOT find him worthy to wield it.
- In Red vs. Blue, the villains of The Chorus Trilogy get ahold of the MacGuffin they need to kill everyone on the planet... but said MacGuffin is Loyal Phlebotinum that only works for its wielder, in this case General Doyle. So until Doyle is dead and one of their own can pick it up, they're out of luck. Felix is more than a little frustrated with this revelation.
- Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: In SMG4 Movie: Revelations, the Box Club Leader finally gets to the God Box thanks to Melony!Niles, and upon it being opened, immediately jumps in to absorb some its power. It ends up being too much for him to handle and he disintergrates.
Webcomics
- In an early arc of Antihero for Hire, Doctor Nefarious successfully launches and uses his mind-control satellite, only to learn that he doesn't have the ability to issue orders to anyone the satellite is controlling, making it useless.
- The Order of the Stick: "Dim Sun", set in a non-canon continuity parodying Dark Sun, has Belkar betray the rest of the Order because he's rather content with living in a Crapsack World. Everyone dies except for him and V, and the two of them and Team Evil go to celebrate with some human pot pies baked from the Order's remains. All seems fine and dandy until V points out one thing: Since none of the villains have any interest in fixing their Crapsack World and would rather make others suffer, the planet is doomed and the only survivors will eventually be insects. Which V is fine with, given how they're a thri-kreen in this continuity. The reactions from the smarter Team Evil members make it clear that V is absolutely right and nothing they have is going to last.
- Scarlet Lady: "Animan" ends with Chloé achieving victory in her stated objective of ruining Adrien and Marinette's date. It becomes meaningless because it was more of a friendly outing, and it certainly doesn't stop Adrien from loving Marinette or trying to date her in the future — and, either way, any attempts Chloé might make to date Adrien are bound for failure, since he doesn't even consider her a friend anymore.
Web Videos
- Vampires SMP: Owen ends his series believing himself triumphant, only for all of his plans to be undone. Legs escapes Owen's attempt at forcing him to be immortal by performing a Heroic Sacrifice, saving the rest of Oakhurst in the process. Louis, rather than being satisfied with his vengeance, is disappointed with Owen's fall to evil, and rather than spending eternity with his love interest, Owen only sees him for a few moments before being Dragged Off to Hell.
