Pyrrhic Victory - TV Tropes

Flame over, little buddy.

"Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone."

— King Pyrrhus of Epirus in the Battle of Asculum, his second Pyrrhic Victory against the Romans

Few victories come without cost, but the cost of a Pyrrhic Victory is ruinous to the victor. A Pyrrhic Victory will often involve a Heroic Sacrifice or people asking Was It Really Worth It? If it happens at the end of a work, it will inevitably lead to a Bittersweet Ending or even a Downer Ending (and likely Inferred Holocaust). Often the implication of a Lonely at the Top situation, where someone gets everything he wanted, but lost everything and everyone that helped him get there. A clever enemy can use a Defensive Feint Trap to trick an opponent into "winning" such a victory.

Villains are not immune to this trope either and if anything it happens to them even more often than it happens to heroes (so much so, it used to be a separate trope). This is often done to show how futile being evil truly is, never being able to win even when you do technically win. It is also a good way to have a Karma Houdini still pay for their crimes in some way. Compare Meaningless Villain Victory, in which whatever victory the villain had is instantly negated by some unforeseen consequence or interference. The key difference is that for Pyrrhic Victory, the villain must sacrifice or lose something they cherish in order to win, whereas in Meaningless Villain Victory no sacrifice need be made; the victory can be nullified purely by circumstances outside of the villain's control.

These are common in Darker and Edgier series and is one of the defining characteristics of a Crapsack World. Compare We Win, Because You Didn't, where one party considers a Pyrrhic Victory to be worth the cost. Compare and contrast Shoot the Shaggy Dog. If the bad outcome of a victory is due to post-victory arrangements rather than victory itself, you may look for Won the War, Lost the Peace. When dealing with Eldritch Abominations, this overlaps with Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu. Contrast Xanatos Gambit, where "losing" might benefit the planner more than outright victory. Contrast Godzilla Threshold; any victory will do, with no price too great to achieve it, and The Unfettered are the most likely to carry it out; and A Success, by Comparison, where you failed at the task but were acknowledged to have performed surprisingly well under the circumstances.

Named for King Pyrrhus of Epirus, a Greek general who attempted to conquer Rome fairly early in its lifespan. In the Battle of Asculum, he defeated a Roman force and inflicted far more losses on them than he took in the process... but as he was fighting on Roman turf, they could rebuild their forces easily and he couldn't, meaning he'd burned through a good chunk of his best troops and couldn't get them back (he had planned to recruit from local enemies of the Romans, but found little success), leading to the above quote. If anything, it was noted that his early victories only served to piss off the remaining Roman forces, making them even more determined to defeat him. He was forced to withdraw from Italy, and by the time he'd returned, the Romans had built an army strong enough to kick him out permanently.

Though based on real life events, due to massive edit warring in the real life section, the section is now closed. Fortunately, there's a page with details of these battles on Wikipedia.

As this is a Victory and Defeat Trope and an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

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Arts

Marriage A-la-Mode: After "winning" the Duel to the Death against the Earl (who instigated it), Silvertongue is tried and executed for murder.

Audio Play

In Kankinkon, the most powerful man in the setting, the Saijou family patriarch Touji, has accomplished this. He used his connections, riches, and good public face to kidnap the woman he fell in love with, force her into marriage, and then fool her family into thinking she was taken care of after hitting her head and giving him their blessing. He even received a son and heir out of the ordeal, had his family curse put to an end though the boy, and gets to have wild sex with her whenever he wants, but none of it even matters since he grew to only desire her love. And he will never get it, because he trapped her into the marriage in the first place.

Comic Books

Aquaman: In Aquaman (2011), at the end of the Throne of Atlantis story arc, Aquaman has become ruler of Atlantis and stopped the war against the surface. Unfortunately, he's now looked at with fear and mistrust both by humans and his own kingdom.
Avengers Undercover: Arcade laments his situation in #3. He can't outdo what he did in Avengers Arena, not to mention he's hunted by superheroes outside of Bagalia. #10 reveals he fully demanded respect he thought he earned with Murder World, only Zemo and the others chose to reward Corriander for putting the setting together in the first place.
Batman:
- The Long Halloween ends on this. Batman, Jim Gordon, and Harvey Dent form an alliance to take down Carmine Falcone just as Batman's familiar Rogues Gallery start to appear like The Joker, The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and The Riddler. Falcone's empire is brought down—but the series ends with the Rogues Gallery in control, Harvey Dent has been transformed into Two-Face, one of Harvey's first acts as Two-Face is killing Falcone himself, and both Batman and Gordon are left wondering "Was It Really Worth It?"
- In Batman: Under the Hood, when Batman faces Jason Todd, who forces him to choose between letting Joker die or killing Jason, Batman makes Jason drop his weapon and sends him into shock by throwing a batarang at a pipe so it rebounds and cuts the side of Jason's neck.
  Joker: I love it! You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!!
- In the Elseworlds Batman Vampire trilogy, Batman defeats Dracula's forces at the cost of his identity as Bruce Wayne as he becomes a vampire himself, with the final book in the trilogy seeing Batman killing all of his original enemies as he succumbs to his vampire instincts, forcing Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth to sacrifice themselves to restore Batman's sanity long enough for him to destroy himself.
- Played with in The Batman Adventures's final issue with "Fear Itself": Joe Chill ended up in jail on an unrelated charge after shooting Thomas and Martha Wayne, meaning that the police^noteand Batman overlooked him. By the time he finds out just who he shot — and just who the boy that he'd spared that night was — said boy's become an "untouchable millionaire" long out of Chill's reach, and Chill is depicted as seeming to be living relatively scot-free^noteand in fact, he would have been... except for his constantly hallucinating the adult Bruce Wayne's face wherever he goes, spending every day day in mortal fear that someday Bruce Wayne will remember his face and finally finger him to the cops. Not only do Batman and a GCPD detective both not recognize his face, Batman actually mistakenly believing Chill to be a henchman of Killer Croc's^note, but finding out his real name and his alias doesn't ring a bell either, meaning that Joe Chill was in a hell entirely of his own making.
Blacksad: Faust LaChapelle from "A Silent Hell" will never be punished for his crimes while he was a Snake Oil Salesman, as everybody who could expose him is either dead or a nobody without a voice. However, Faust's guilt is also consuming him, he has alienated his own son, and is dying of cancer anyway.
Blaze of Glory: Caleb Hammer expresses this sentiment to Rawhide Kid in the ending. Indeed, half of Wonderment and the majority of the cast are now dead, so the reader may be left with this sensation as well.
The Boys: The series ends with Vought still up and running under a new name, but at the cost of their main source of income, superheroes, being out of the picture after most of them were killed in their coup attempt against the U.S. government, Butcher leaking everything they had on them to ruin the ones that weren't, and Hughie threatening to go through with Butcher's Final Solution should they ever overstep their bounds again. Stillwell, who spent the entire course of the series being an unfeeling sociopath willing to do anything to improve Vought's bottom line, has a Villainous Breakdown after realizing his years of scheming led to nothing.
Civil War: After the Marvel Civil War ends in the death of Captain America, Iron Man actually mentions Pyrrhus in The Confession. Overwhelmed with guilt and grief, he ultimately concludes that the victory was worthless.
"It was the right thing to do! And I was willing to get in bed with people we despised to get this done. And I knew the world favors the underdog and I would be the bad guy."
Crisis on Infinite Earths: The heroes beat the Anti-Monitor, but in the process the entire multiverse is lost (and this is canon). Arguably, the heroes can't be held responsible for the worlds lost before they got involved, but there were still six or seven worlds remaining when they began their counter-offensive, two of them were destroyed and the other five were collapsed into one that was almost but not quite like one of the five with a few borrowed elements from the other four. And thanks to Brightest Day, the Anti-Monitor is back and ready to give it another go.
Daredevil: Mark Waid's first run on Daredevil (Mark Waid) ends with Matt Murdock exposing the Sons of the Serpent and saving a many Wrongly Accused, but, because he revealed his identity as Daredevil, he is disbarred from practicing law in New York for perjury, which threatens his friend "Foggy" Nelson, as he's getting treatment for cancer. Thankfully, he realizes he can practice law again in a state he previously did and moves to California.
Disney Ducks Comic Universe: In one story, Donald buys his first cell phone and tries to impress Daisy with it by calling her from ever increasing distances from Duckburg. However, each time Daisy informs him she’s already received a cell phone call from one of her friends from a greater distance away, prompting Donald to travel even further and try again. Donald is about to give up when Daisy receives a cell phone call from a friend in Australia, but then he gets abducted by aliens. The story ends with Donald calling Daisy from the aliens' home planet, stating that he won but he's not happy about it.
Doomsday Clock (2017): This occurs when Ozymandias manages to pull off another massive plan to make Doctor Manhattan save both worlds by making Superman persuade the former to reset both worlds and convince that there is hope again. He succeeds in doing so, but was forced to serve a lifetime in prison in his own HQ back in the Watchmen world after being saved by Rorschach II when he got shot by The Comedian, instead of dying as a hero like he intended.
Empire: Golgoth wins, but it's heavily implied to be a hollow victory since he's lost everything that's important to him in the process, and it's highly unlikely that his empire will survive him.
Fantastic Four:
- In Emperor Doom, Doctor Doom succeeds in conquering the world by brainwashing everyone. By and large, he's a fairly benevolent monarch and does much to solve many of the world's problems. Unfortunately, he's so bored out of his mind that when the one unaffected hero manages to break the spell on a few others, he lets the rebellion win. He'd rather be a conqueror than a Desk Jockey.
  - This is a running theme with Doctor Doom; every time he manages to take control of a nation/planet, he'll spruce the place up very nicely and run it better than most governments ever manage, but will ultimately get bored of running it. Doom enjoys the challenge of taking over a nation and solving problems, not the mundane managerial work of keeping national status quo. The exception is in Doom 2099. He conquers the United States, and actually intends to keep power, so he can fix the entire world. It doesn't end well for him, the country, or most of the heroes.
  - In the Crisis Crossover One World Under Doom, Doom successfully takes over the world again and curbstomps the heroes every time they try to stop him (by Save Scumming with his Time Machine). After the Four destroy his time machine he beats the heroes again in the final battle, but in the process accidentally kills his goddaughter Valeria. In the end he has to make a Bargain with Heaven to bring her back, at the cost of his own life.
Injustice 2: In the comic book prequel to the video game of the same name, Ra's Al-Ghul manages to get rid of the corporate executives polluting the world as well as successfully assassinating the President of the United States for his anti-environmental policies with none of the heroes being able to stop him. However, in the process, his animal reserve with several endangered species being devotedly guarded by Ra's gets destroyed during a battle with the superheroes, leading to their species being practically extinguished. He lets his enemies go because there is no more point in fighting, and makes sure to tell them whatever victory he made that day is meaningless due to the price paid before swearing to carry on the fight even more ferociously.
Monica's Gang: Frankie gave a bone to his dog, which spent most of the story trying to recover it from one adversity after another. By the time he got it back, he no longer had any teeth.
Onslaught: The crossover invoked this trope by name in the last trade paperback that collected the series. Virtually every major hero within the main Marvel Universe is forced to sacrifice themselves in order to stop the main villain, Onslaught, by giving him a physical body. The mutants present at the fight, who were unable to sacrifice themselves in the above fashion, are forced to slaughter the heroes in order to destroy Onslaught once and for all, though much of the world ended up believing that they had simply killed off a huge crowd of beloved heroes.
Paperinik New Adventures: The two Battles of New Xerba.
- The first is one for the Evronians: they have captured the last free Xerbians and captured Xadhoom by using them as hostages, but all that means is that the device that reverse Coolflamization and prevents former Coolflames from being enslaved again on planetary scale is in the same place as an entity that can power it and has all reasons to do so, especially because by doing that the Evronians lose their hostages, leading immediately to the second.
- The second ends with the Evronian Empire losing their mobile homeworld, the Emperor, most of the Imperial Council, the best and brightest of the Scientific Caste and a large chunk of their military, shattering their might... And Xadhoom becoming a star to give a new homeworld to the last survivors of her people, meaning the one person that could stop an Evronian resurgence is gone... And, as shown in the relaunch stories, there are still Evronians capable of rebuilding the Empire out there.
The Sandman: At the end of the "Kindly Ones" story arc, Lyta Hall, aided by the Kindly Ones, succeeds in killing Dream and avenging her son's apparent death. There's just one problem: Daniel wasn't actually dead, and for her crimes against the Dreaming, he is forced to become the new Dream, so she will never, ever get him back. And on top of that, her actions have pissed off a lot of people, leaving her with a lot of enemies.
Lyta: I was looking for Daniel...
Larissa: As I understand it, your actions have ensured that you will never see Daniel again... I'd take a show and start running, if I were you. Lots of people are going to want to hurt you or kill you for what you've done. (beat) Including me.
Sin City: All victories in this series are Pyrrhic and then some.
Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- The Freedom Fighters defeat Eggman, at the cost of Princess Sally being roboticized.
- A non-canon Yet Another Christmas Carol has Robotnik taken to see the future. Robotnik has finally defeated the Freedom Fighters, but he has rendered himself the last man alive in doing so, turning Mobius into a barren wasteland. However, Robotnik doesn't grasp this and fails to learn his lesson.
The Smurfs:
- In the story "Sagratamabarb", Gargamel gets into a Wizard Duel with his cousin Sagratamabarb, who with his genie creates a house identical to Gargamel's right next to his. Gargamel tries to destroy the house, only to find out that his own house also suffers the same damage. Gargamel calls upon Beelzebub for his help in defeating his cousin, though he had to offer his own soul in exchange for the victory. Though Beelzebub was easily chased off by Sagratamabarb's centaur, Gargamel soldiers on and calls upon all the powers of darkness to defeat his cousin. Eventually Gargamel wins the duel, though it not only cost him his house, it also cost him his eternal soul, as Beelzebub returns at the end to drag Gargamel down to Hell with him.
- The Finance Smurf from the comic book story of the same name gains the entire village after all his fellow Smurfs, including Papa Smurf, have left it behind along with all their money...only for himself to be left without anybody to share his new-found good fortune with, making him very sad and lonely. This makes Finance Smurf come to his senses and go out to find the Smurfs to tell them he's giving them back everything and abolishing the money system.
Star Wars: Kanan: Discussed. When Caleb is subjected to his first death—the death of his friend Stance—by Colonel Sear, he realizes for the first time in his life that he wants to kill. During the fight, however, he realizes that it would just lead more death and isn't worth it. He spares Sear, though Sear ends up committing suicide anyway and Caleb considers it his first blood.
Sub-Mariner: In Sub-Mariner: The Depths, Stein successfully covers up Atlantis' existence and kills all the witnesses, allowing to continue living in his materialistic lifestyle. It brings him none of the joy or peace he was clearly seeking, instead just adding unending guilt onto his trauma and misery.
Supergirl: In the storyline Last Daughter of Krypton, Supergirl defeated Simon Tycho's private army, beat him up, got her stolen Sunstone back ,and blew up his space base. 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.
Superman: In Superman: Space Age, Lex cements his victory over Batman, Wayne Enterprises, and the world the day the world ends. To add insult to injury, the fact that he refused Superman's DNA extraction means nothing of him remains on the new Earth.
The Transformers Megaseries: The end of the Great War. By The Death of Optimus Prime, the Decepticons had lost, and badly: their infrastructure broken, their remaining forces scattered through the cosmos, most of their leaders under watch or simply gone, and the Autobots firmly in control of Cybertron. But the Autobots themselves had also lost almost all their outlying territories, and millennia of war had made them pariahs among the rest of the galaxy and even much of the non-aligned population. Much of the series deals with the fact that, while they did manage to take Cybertron, they don't have the manpower to hold it, and they end up handing control of it to a civilian government while moving operations to Earth.
Watchmen: The series ended with Ozymandias stopping World War III by creating a fake extraterrestrial monster and siccing it on New York, killing millions and forcing the US and Russia into a tenuous alliance. Ozymandias however will be haunted forever by the lives he took to ensure peace. However, a clue Rorschach left before he died might unravel the whole thing in any moment so Ozymandias' scheme might come to nothing.
What If? (Marvel Comics): In "What if Juggernaut killed the X-Men", the Juggernaut successfully kills Xavier and the X-Men, but he doesn't get to enjoy it because without the X-Men to stop them, the Sentinels release a poison gas into the atmosphere that kills everyone but Juggernaut due to his powers, and he finds that he can't interact with people hiding in shelters because breaking in exposes them to the gas. So he's all alone in the world, forever.
Wonder Woman: In Wonder Woman (1987), Diana wins her duel against Medusa but everyone Medusa killed is still dead and Diana is blinded. Highlighted by how Di sinks to her knees holding her badly wounded side immediately after killing the gorgon and says a simple unenthusiastic "I win."
X-Men: The Adventures of the X-Men manages to give both the heroes and villains a Pyrrhic Victory. On the heroes' side, they were unable to stop the destruction of the multiverse, but Jean Grey managed to use her psychic powers to foil the Dweller in Darkness' plan to use this opportunity to feed on the fear of all lifeforms in the multiverse by telepathically encouraging them to Face Death with Dignity. Likewise, the Dweller succeeded in destabilizing the multiverse, but did not benefit from it as he had planned due to Jean's aforementioned actions. The only one who got a clear victory out of that was D'Spayre, who seized the opportunity to feed on his master's despair over his failed plan and gave the Dweller a much-deserved Karmic Death.

Comic Strips

Calvin and Hobbes: In one story arc, Calvin attempts to weasel out of having to do a writing assignment for school by using time travel to get it in the future when it's already written. It doesn't end up working out, because in order for the assignment to exist in the future he had to have written it in the past (which he did not do), but the past and future Hobbeses together, realizing in advance Calvin's scheme won't work, write up a story themselves and give it to Calvin, so he still gets out of having to write a story himself in the end and he gets an excellent grade for it as a bonus. Unfortunately, when Calvin presents the story the next day, he finds out that Hobbes wrote the story of 'How Hobbes, the Handsome Tiger, Saved the Day- No Thanks to Calvin, the Time Traveling Chowderhead', all about how much Calvin's plan sucked and what a useless idiot he was for trying to use time-travel to weasel out of doing his homework. According to Calvin, it made him the laughingstock of the class.
Jason in FoxTrot often purposely fools his siblings into "winning" bets that are this.
- In one Horrible Camping Trip, Jason bets Peter a dollar he can't hit a tree with a hatchet. Peter takes that bet, and hits it perfectly. When Andy is angrily chewing him out for doing something so dangerous, Jason considers the show a dollar well-spent.
- On one Thanksgiving, he bets Peter a dollar he can eat more than him. He eats two helpings and calls it quits; Peter eats 27 platefuls before even checking the score, eventually passing out without closing his eyes. Again, where else could Jason have gotten so much fun for a dollar?
- It happens to Jason himself when he bets Marcus fifty cents that he can write a longer essay. His thousand page essay easily trumps Marcus' 500-page one, but while Marcus gets an A on the essay, Jason, for all his work, gets a D, and fifty cents. (And he doesn't learn a thing afterwards.)
Garfield
- In the October 05, 1986 strip, Garfield resists Jon's attempts to force him to exercise. Jon still succeeded in dragging him around, and even repeatedly smashed Garfield's head into a table multiple times, but then Jon gives up and declares Garfield won. Garfield actually agrees he won, but it's an empty victory.
  Garfield: An empty victory. But a victory nonetheless.
- The strip from November 07th, 1993 has Garfield and Jon both beat the complete bejesus out of each other over the last muffin. Garfield manages to win, but only takes a single bite.
  Garfield: Yuck! The last raisin muffin!
- The September 17th, 2000 strip has Garfield and Jon challenge each other to a hot pepper-eating contest. Garfield could not handle the Peruvian Death Pepper and breathes flames, so he drinks a glass of water and declares Jon the winner. All Jon got from it was an Ash Face.
A minor example in Retail occurred when Josh, the assistant manager for Grumbel's, lied about getting a job offer from a competing store in order to secure a raise. He initially got away with it...until Marla (the store manager) found out about it, and proceeded to tell Stuart, their district manager who was formerly Josh's supporter. No longer having Stuart's protection, and with Marla planning to fire him, Josh quickly got himself a new job and quit.

Film — Animated

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: This is the crux of the flashback. The Joker is dead and Harley Quinn is presumed the same, and Tim is saved, but he was still irreparably traumatized from being tortured for weeks by the Joker and then being the one to kill him. The Bat Family permanently disbanded after Bruce refused to allow any of his other proteges from putting themselves in harm's way and it would take years of intense therapy to bring Tim back to relative normalcy. Even afterwards, he's grown cynical and jaded of his Robin days as a result of the whole experience, Bruce and Barbara's relationship wouldn't recover for decades, and Neo-Gotham would be terrorized by a powerful gang called the Jokerz created by violent fans of the Joker. Barbara grimly comments in hindsight that the Joker, even in death, ultimately had the last laugh.
In Batman: Under the Red Hood, Batman manages to stop the Red Hood/Jason and save the Joker's life, but as the Joker points out, all Batman did was make it so that no one got what they wanted and nothing has changed.
In The Boxtrolls, Snatcher does get a white hat, and he does 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.
In Cars 1, the Piston Cup comes down to a three-way contest between hero Lightning McQueen, Big Bad Chick Hicks, and defending champion Strip Weathers, who is planning to retire after this race. Hicks cheats and causes Weathers to wreck out, which in turn causes Lightning, in the lead, to drop out to help Weathers at least finish his last race. The result is that Hicks wins, followed by Weathers in second place and Lightning in third, but Hicks accepts the trophy under a barrage of boos and thrown objects, including from his own pit crew, now that he’s publicly known as a cheater. It also costs him a coveted sponsorship deal with Dinoco (the company that sponsored Weathers and was searching for a new racer following his retirement), who instead offer a deal to McQueen for his sportsmanship despite losing the race.
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War ends with the heroes finally defeating Darkseid once and for all — but many of their ranks are dead, many of those still alive are mutilated cyborgs, Nightwing is insane because of his death and resurrection, and Darkseid managed to cause irreversible damage to the Earth. The only sure way to fix things is for the Flash to cause a Cosmic Retcon to reboot the whole universe.
The Alternate Ending of The Lion King was one of these for Scar. He beats Simba and throws him off Pride Rock but unknowingly saved Simba's life in the process, as the fires engulf Pride Rock, killing Scar. All Scar's "victory" did was result in killing himself and allowing Simba to become king. At that point, however, he probably didn't care, seeing how he was also laughing as he was burning up.
In the climax of Monsters, Inc. 1, Waternoose's plan to enslave children for their screams to keep Monsters, Inc., going and end the energy crisis is exposed for all to see, leading to his arrest. But as he is led out, he warns Sulley that by trying to keep Boo safe and get her home safely, he has destroyed Monsters, Inc., which no longer has any more screams, and thus doomed Monstropolis to a state of permanent blackout. And indeed, later, all the monsters in the building are standing outside with the company seemingly out of business, and even Sulley is worried that his good intentions have cost him his job. Mike tries to cheer him up.
Mike: Hey, you all right? Come on, pal, cheer up, we did it! We got Boo home! Sure, we put the company in the toilet, and, gee, hundreds of people will be out of work now. Not to mention the angry mob that'll come after us when there's no more power, but hey... at least we had some laughs, right?
- Things get better, however, when Sulley remembers right then that laughter is just as effective a power source as screams. In fact, laughter proves even more effective than screams, so things work out for the best after all.
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'': Doc gives Dopey one simple task while the others wash Grumpy: “Get the soap!” Dopey wrestles with the slippery bar until he finally catches it… by accidentally swallowing it. What should’ve been a triumph quickly backfires, leaving Dopey planted on the ground hiccuping bubbles while the others have fun without him.
Tad, the Lost Explorer: A band of mercenaries called Odysseus led by the intimidating Kopponen seek the Idol of Paititi to gain immortality. However, seemingly acclaimed archeologist Max Mordon also turns out to be a mercenary seeking the same relic and is Kopponen's boss. Mordon actually succeeds in obtaining the idol...but turns out the idol only grants immortality to those who hold it by turning them into mummies! Thus, he is transformed into a living mummy and sent to the Mummy prison for all eternity.
The Transformers: The Movie
- Although the Autobots manage to repel the Decepticon threat (with Megatron mortally wounded), Optimus Prime loses his life in the Battle of Autobot City, as do several other named Autobots. The Decepticon casualties, meanwhile, end up being zero thanks to Unicron reformatting Megatron and the other dying Decepticons into Galvatron and his minions, who swiftly attack the city again, forcing the surviving Autobots to flee.
- Galvatron himself runs afoul of this, setting off the Final Battle in the process. He manages to dismember Ultra Magnus (he gets better) and retrieve the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, but instead of handing it over to Unicron to be destroyed, he attempts to use it to destroy him instead. Of course, it's called the Autobot Matrix of Leadership for a reason, so he fails and is forced to watch Unicron begin laying into Cybertron before the Chaos Bringer devours him whole for his insolence.
In Turning Red, Mei succeeds in defeating her mother in the climax however Ming's massive kaiju body is not in the ritual circle, Mei is not strong enough to pull her into it and time is running out to perform the ritual to save her. Fortunately, Mei's other female relatives help her pull Ming into the circle in time.
Vengeance Most Fowl: Feathers McGraw manages to escape Wallace, Gromit, and the police... without his coveted Blue Diamond, with his Revenge plot against the duo completely undone, his entire Norbot army rebooted to "Good", and with the now-promoted Officer Mukherjee on his tail.
In Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph gets the medal he wanted and returns to his own game, after destroying Vanellope's race car to prevent her from racing. There finds out that Fix-It Felix has left trying to find him and has yet to return, and their game is about to be unplugged. So, Ralph's won a medal, broke a little girl's heart, and has the key to a Penthouse suite he was told he'd never get in a game about to be unplugged... though he does set everything right in the end.

Gamebooks

Downplayed in Demons of the Deep, if you spar with Cyrano the swordfish. If you win, he acknowledges you as a master swordsman but he is as well and he's also a teacher of his fellow masters so you gain +1 to your maximum Skill level. If you lose, you gain a better +2 to your maximum Skill level instead.
Happens twice in Gary Gygax's Sagard the Barbarian books, if you choose to fight someone for the love of a beautiful girl - if you win, she chooses the loser. Regardless whether you win or lose, you realize you've just been played by a vain girl who's "love" is worthless. You get the most experience points by telling her you won't fight for her at all.

Jokes

Morris and his wife Esther went to the state fair every year, and every year Morris would say, "Esther, I'd like to ride in that helicopter". Esther always replied, "I know Morris, but that helicopter ride is 50 dollars — and 50 dollars is 50 dollars".

One year Esther and Morris went to the fair, and Morris said, "Esther, I'm 85 years old. If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance." Esther replied, "Morris that helicopter is 50 dollars — and 50 dollars is 50 dollars". The pilot overheard the couple and said, "Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say a word I won't charge you! But if you say one word, it's 50 dollars."

Morris and Esther agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of fancy manoeuvres; He flew in circles, climbs and dives, zigs, zags, and everything in between, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still not a word. When they landed, the pilot turned to Morris and said, "By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn't. I'm impressed!"

Morris replied, "Well, to tell you the truth, I almost said something when Esther fell out, but you know -- 50 dollars is 50 dollars."

Music

The Eurovision Song Contest is a Real Life example: the winning country traditionally hosts next year's contest, at high cost.
Blue Öyster Cult's "Veteran of the Psychic Wars":
You see me now a veteran of a thousand psychic wars.
My energy is spent at last, and my armor is destroyed.
I have used up all my weapons, and I'm helpless and bereaved.
Wounds are all I'm made of...
Dare you say that this is victory?
The Dethklok song "Bloodrocuted" tells of an electrician being chased through the woods by bounty hunters because he just so happens to look exactly like a wanted criminal with a large bounty on his head. He stumbles upon an electrical substation and manages to kill the bounty hunters by cutting his arms and electrifying a puddle of his own blood for them to step in. He then realizes that he has no way to patch himself up and will therefore bleed to death very soon.
"The Mariner's Revenge Song", by The Decemberists. The narrator is finally in a position to get revenge upon the man he met as a young child, who conned him and his mother out of home, which led her to contract a fatal case of tuberculosis and begging him to exact vengeance on him...but both have been Swallowed Whole by a giant whale, and the narrator will likely not live long after killing the man.
In "The Willow Maid," a man wants to force the titular willow maid to marry him. He succeeds in chopping down her tree and dragging her out of the forest ... but once she is out of the forest, she turns into a flower. Thus, his plan to make her bear his children will likely not work out.
Metallica's "King Nothing" is about a person who uses extreme methods to achieve a goal, stopping at nothing to get it and letting nothing stand in their way. They get it, but everything comes crumbling down and they're left with nothing. They sacrificed everything for something that was worthless in the end.

Myths & Religion

In The Cattle Raid of Cooley, Queen Medb and her army manage to kill the legendary Cu Chulainn and steal King Conchobar mac Nessa's prized bull - but is forced to retreat from her advance by Conchobar's assembled army. Well, at least she managed to succeed in her ultimate goal of getting her own super-special bull like her husband has, right? Well, when she brings the bull back, he and her husband's bull proceed to kill each other, leaving them both with less than they began and making the entire victory pointless.
This was, according to medieval myth, the fate of anyone who stabbed a basilisk. Lucian described it thusly: "What though the Moor the Basilisk hath slain, and pinned him lifeless to the sandy plain, up through the spear the subtle venom flies; the hand imbibes it, and the victor dies."
In the American folk tale/folk song of "John Henry", the eponymous character competes against a machine to prove that a man can drill rock for a railroad tunnel faster than the machine built to replace him. John Henry beats the machine in the race, but collapses and dies afterwards from a heart attack due to overexertion, thus resulting in the machine replacing him anyway.
The Bible:
- Jesus says in Matthew 16:26, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
- The Four Gospels' Judas Iscariot may be an example. Sure, he got a tidy sum for betraying Jesus, but, according to Matthew, he was so overcome with guilt afterwards that he hanged himself. Exactly how things worked out for Judas varies a bit depending on who's telling it. The Gnostic Gospel of Judas (rejected when New Testament's contents were formalized) even claimed that Judas "betrayed" Jesus under Jesus's orders. Of course, that "tidy sum" of earthly treasure is a mere pittance compared to the honor his fellow apostles would have of "sitting on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel", not to mention sharing in the same inheritance that the Lord and His believers would receive from His Father. To compare it to another part of the Bible, Judas' thirty pieces of silver is the equivalent of Esau's bowl of pottage which he traded his birthright inheritance for with his brother Jacob, which brings us the Aesop that sacrificing one's future (heavenly) inheritance in exchange for the satisfaction of immediate short-term (worldly) gain isn't a good thing.
The Book of Mormon: After years of constant warfare, Coriantumr finally beheads his arch-enemy Shiz. But by that point, all the women and children had been conscripted into their respective armies, which then proceeded to mutually annihilate each other, meaning that Coriantumr "wins" a dead and empty kingdom.
During Ragnarok in Norse Mythology, Surt and Loki succeed in ending the world and sinking it into the sea. But they along with all their minions and children die in the process, Odin's son Vidar avenges his father's death and survives, Odin's sons Baldur and Hodur come back to life, and in most versions of the story a new world is reborn from the ocean.
Mahabharata: The Pandava ultimately win the Kurukshetra War, but the Kuru Kingdom has been utterly ruined, millions of people have died, including most of their allies, mentors, and sages. The Pandava have broken so many rules of the war that they cannot even be considered righteous anymore (e.g. Yudhishthira, well known for his honesty, had to lie, and now his formerly floating mount is firmly rooted to the ground), they accidentally killed their half-brother Karna, their sons were massacred by the Kaurava on the final day of the war, and the only survivor of that massacre, Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, dies years later for disrespecting a rishi. Their cousin and most valuable ally, Krishna, was cursed by the Kaurava's grieving mother to die in an unrelated civil war. To top it off, when they ascend to Heaven, they learn that the Kaurava also ended up in Heaven. This is lampshaded by Duryodhana of all people, who points out how hollow the Pandava's victory is on his death throes.
I have studied, given charity, governed the wide Earth with her seas, and stood over the heads of my foes! With all my well-wishers, and my younger brothers, I am going to heaven. As regards yourselves, with your purposes unachieved and torn by grief, live in this unhappy world!

Pro Wrestling

Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997 but not before his opponent dropped him on his head, resulting in a legitimate bruised spinal cord and temporary paralysis. Austin would be out of action for months and his wrestling career was shortened by years.
Brock Lesnar was hospitalized after beating Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 19 when a botched Shooting Star Press almost broke his neck. Angle was also battling his old neck injury and had to be hospitalized too.
Daniel Bryan ended up being screwjobbed out of winning the WWE Championship at SummerSlam 2013 when special guest referee Triple H put the Pedigree on Bryan (after the match had ended), and Randy Orton cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to win the WWE Championship. After having his Night of Champions victory against Orton stripped away by Triple H, Bryan demanded a rematch at WrestleMania 30, with the winner of Bryan vs. Triple H going on to face Randy Orton and Batista in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship. After beating Triple H, Bryan went on to face off against Orton and Batista and win the WWE Championship belt. After successfully defending his championship against Kane at Extreme Rules 2014, Bryan lost all strength in his right arm and would have to undergo neck surgery, it was revealed that Bryan was physically unable to compete at Money in the Bank, which resulted in Stephanie McMahon stripping Bryan of his championship on the June 9th Raw episode, ending his reign at 64 days. Bryan would return in November 2014, and go on to face Intercontinental champion Bad News Barrett and win the belt at WrestleMania 31, only to hit his head on the SmackDown announcers' table a week later, splitting his forehead open and requiring surgery. After undergoing an MRI, Bryan voluntarily relinquished the Intercontinental belt and announced his retirement in February 2016. (Though he would return to the ring in 2018; he's since moved on to All Elite Wrestling, now performing again under his real name of Bryan Danielson.)
At Survivor Series 2014, Team Cena (John Cena, Erick Rowan, Ryback, Big Show, and Dolph Ziggler) faced Team Authority (Kane, Luke Harper, Mark Henry, Rusev, and Seth Rollins) with the stipulation that if Team Cena was victorious, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would step down from power, but with a caveat: only Cena could bring back the Authority. In the end, after Big Show punched out Cena and walked away from the ring, Ziggler was the only remaining member of Team Cena, who would successively pin Kane, Harper, and Rollins, giving Team Cena the win. On the December 29 Raw, Seth Rollins threatened to curb-stomp special guest Edge, who had retired from multiple neck injuries, demanding that Cena bring back The Authority after little more than a month of exile. Cena had no other choice but to grant Rollins's demand, and as a result, Ziggler, Rowan, and Ryback were temporarily fired, and Cena was applauded by Triple H and Stephanie for bringing them back into power.
After the breakup of Special K, The Lovely Lacey dumped Izzy and Deranged in favor of managing Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer. However, they ended up being a less effective Tag Team as Lacey's Angels, mostly due to Lacey's attempts to "improve" Jacobs, which caused Whitmer to turn on him when Jacobs's concern for Lacey led to them losing a RoH Title match to Generation Next. Lacey didn't care about Jacobs but felt Whitmer had betrayed her personally and ordered Jacobs to put him out of wrestling. This led to a one-sided feud where Whitmer almost killed Jacobs with power bombs on two separate occasions. And when Jacobs finally did manage to give Whitmer an injury Jacobs was so injured himself he required crutches.
Britani Knight wrestled five matches in twenty-eight hours, leading up to her defeating Nikki Storm in the tournament finals to become the first champion of Pro Wrestling Eve. Then she came down with glandular fever.
The Undertaker suffered one during his WrestleMania 27 match with Triple H. Though Taker won the match, moving his WrestleMania undefeated streak to 19-0, he was so worn out afterwards that he couldn't even stand up to do his darkness salute. Taker had to be taken out on a stretcher while Triple H, the loser, was at least able to walk to the back under his own power. This would later be the reason for their rematch one year later at WrestleMania 28. Undertaker wasn't happy with him having to be taken out of the arena on a stretcher.
Any gruesomely tiring or injurious match can be turned into one of these for the WWE Champion thanks to the introduction of the Money in the Bank briefcase. The briefcase can be cashed in at any time for a WWE Championship match, even if the champion is too worn out to properly defend their title. Notably, this is how the first cash-in went, with Edge defeating John Cena in a short match after a bruised and bloody Cena had just defended the title in an Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution 2006. Other examples include CM Punk beating Jeff Hardy after winning the title from Edge in a Ladder Match at Extreme Rules 2009, Kane squashing Rey Mysterio after he just retained the title in a grueling match with Jack Swagger at Money in the Bank 2010, and Sheamus beating Roman Reigns after he just won a tournament for the vacant title at Survivor Series 2015.
The 2026 Royal Rumble has a Pyrrhic victory for Gunther; he beat AJ Styles in their singles match, forcing the latter to retire as per the match stipulation, but was eliminated from the men's Royal Rumble match later that night by the winner Roman Reigns.

Radio

Big Finish Doctor Who: The Grand Finale to the New Eighth Doctor Adventures, "Lucie Miller"/"To the Death" has a massive one. Though the Dalek plan to turn Earth into a plague planet is defeated and the Daleks destroyed, the Doctor's great-grandson Alex and companion Lucie die in the process. The Doctor is left utterly broken and departs, deciding he needs to stop being so merciful.

Theatre

The ending of Sophocles's Antigone, in which the sympathetic Anti-Villain Creon succeeds in bringing his rebellious niece to justice, but at the cost of his entire family, makes this Older Than Feudalism.
Strepsiades in The Clouds will do anything to escape his creditors. One of his ideas is suicide, as the dead can't be convicted. What he actually does is still this trope: he turns his son into a manipulator who successfully teaches him how to give his creditors the boot. Then his son uses his new wit to manipulate his father into letting him hit his own family.
Curtis from Dreamgirls cheats and double deals his way to the top of the music industry but it all catches up to him. Deena turns against him and gives Effie evidence of his shady business deals which she uses to get exclusive rights to her hit single "One Night Only". Deena leaves him and the rest of The Dreams disband. Even though Curtis is trying to move on to a new artist, it's possible he'll never get the same success he once had.
An Irish play called The Field has a farmer trying desperately to get a plot of land from the woman who owns it. The reason? He wants to pass on something to his son. Of course, the farmer goes to such awful lengths to get the land (including killing someone), that by the time he finally does get the land, it's worthless to him.
Hadestown ends with Persephone returning aboveground for spring, Orpheus having finished his song and healed Hades and Persephone's relationship in the process. However, he loses Eurydice when he turns around just steps from reaching the end of their journey out of the Underworld, and is left Walking the Earth alone.
In Hamilton, Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in their duel, but after it's over Burr realizes that Hamilton had no intention of killing Burr. The duel and Hamilton's death wrecks Burr's political career and weighs heavily on his conscience. Furthermore, Burr (who was once obsessed with upholding the legacy and good name of his parents and grandparents), goes down in history as a villain while Hamilton becomes a martyr.
Hamlet manages to avenge his father, but nearly every major character dies as a direct or indirect consequence. Lampshaded when he asks an actor to recite a speech about Pyrrhus, albeit the Homeric Pyrrhus and not the trope namer.
Inherit the Wind has Matthew Harrison Brady supporting the state's prohibition on the teaching of evolution by serving as the prosecuting attorney against teacher Bertram Cates. While he technically wins the case, the defense never really denies that Cates broke the law, instead attacking the law itself. Brady is soundly humiliated by his inability to defend the law, and Bertram is only handed a nominal punishment for breaking it. In the end, he has done far more to damage the state's prohibition than defend it. To make things even more blunt,he promptly has a heart attack.
In The Invisible Hand, Nick earns his freedom, but the method of earning the ransom money plunged Pakistan into civil war. The sounds of gunfire and bombs draw closer to the building before the final Fade to Black and company bow.
Jesus Christ Superstar ends with him dying for man's sins but a lot of lives were ruined in the process. The existence of God and the resurrection are also never cleared up.
Macbeth: The MacBeths killed King Duncan, forever destroying the mental peace of Lady Macbeth and turning Macbeth into a Fallen Hero who essentially sold his soul to the devil, all for a temporary victory. In the long term, what they accomplished was to make Banquo's descendants kings.
Inverted for half the cast of Ordinary Days. At the start of the show, Warren tries to give out fliers as a way of displaying artwork, and Deb tries to complete her thesis on Virginia Woolf as part of her Graduate Dissertation. The show ends with them both taking the things they'd worked on and throwing them off the top of a building after realizing that these items weren't helping them achieve their goals. Despite this, it's portrayed as a happy ending, with both of them finally free from the things that were causing them so much stress.
The Capulets and Montagues at last make peace at the end of Romeo and Juliet. All it takes is the death of Paris, Mercutio, Tybalt, Lady Montague, and of course their two only children, Romeo and Juliet. A bitter peace indeed.
Sleuth: Both Andrew and Milo end up accomplishing their goals, but at a cost so heavy it becomes moot: Andrew does kill Milo after all, but the police are on their way and he'll most certainly go to prison for it, while Milo gets his revenge on Andrew and completely humiliates him but at the cost of his life.
Urinetown ends with the protagonists defeating the local Corrupt Corporate Executive and his idea of preventing people from using toilets (with very harsh taxation and enforcement — the Title Drop turns out to be a Released to Elsewhere Deadly Euphemism used by the cops) which allows people to go to the loo at will... and the town's water supply running dry, which is a very big problem considering there is a borderline-apocalyptic drought going on, which was the reason the CEO put that law in place to begin with, even if he was way too evil enforcing it.
Wicked: Both Elphaba and Glinda have these. The former has survived her death sentence, but must pretend to be dead, grievously hurting her best friend, Glinda, and accept voluntary banishment. Glinda has ascended as the effective ruler of Oz, but at the cost of the lives of her friends and fiancé.

Visual Novels

Ace Attorney:
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All:
  - The Non-Standard Game Over in the final case ends this way for Matt Engarde. Sure, he's able to escape conviction for the murder of Juan Corrida, but the pristine public image he'd fought so hard to protect is left in tatters after the court uncovers his role in driving Celeste Inpax to suicide, which was the exact thing he'd had Juan silenced to keep from getting out.
  - This also holds true for Phoenix Wright in the same case in the same ending. He won the case, but he got a very evil person scot-free. He wandered on the streets out of shame, never setting foot in a courtroom again. While Shelly De Killer might have released Maya, Phoenix never saw her again, implying that she ceased contact with him.
- Chapter 3 of the first installment of The Great Ace Attorney gives Ryunosuke an ultimatum. He will become a lawyer if he can get an acquittal for a local philanthropist. As the trial comes to an end it becomes clear the defendant is guilty, but he tampered with the evidence during a recess and made it impossible to indict him. So he gets acquitted. Ryunosuke realizes his mistake by the end and though he officially becomes a lawyer, the guilt of letting a killer off weighs heavily on him. Not helped when his client is burned to death shortly afterwards.
- In Case 5 of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, Larry Butz challenges Edgeworth to a "battle of wits" to prove that he is a plausible suspect in the murder investigation. As Edgeworth puts it:
  Edgeworth: (Larry, have you forgotten that, should I "lose", your victory prize will be your arrest?)
Danganronpa:
- 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 rallies everyone to choose hope and vote Junko guilty in order to leave the school and help rebuild society because it allows her to feel the unparalleled despair of having her plan, the plan she spent years meticulously poring over, experimented on her own body for, tormented her friends for, even killed her sister for, to fail at the absolute last minute — she happily walks herself to her own execution so she can taste the once-in a lifetime despair of death. And even that fails as the machinery jams, catching her by surprise (depriving her of the despair she would have felt when it came down), then smashes her a half-second later before she could process the despair of not dying like she'd hoped.
- In chapter 5 of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, it turns out Nagito planned his own murder so that the class would vote wrong and everyone but his killer would die. Hajime manages to win the day and prevent a mass execution, but at the cost of sentencing Chiaki to death, even though she was tricked into unknowingly killing Nagito as part of his plan.
Muv-Luv Alternative has many examples. The Operation 21st, the defence of Yokohoma base and specially Operation Ouka in which only 2 survived the battle in the Original hive and that's not including many that attacked other hives to act as a diversion for the attack on the original hive. The entire BETA invasion can be taken as one as it reduced the human population to just 1 billion and turned Eurasia into a big wasteland despite eventually turning the tide with Operation Ouka.
The Song of Saya has this in all of its endings, to some degree. The worst example is the ending in which Kouji and Dr. Tanbo manage to kill Saya and Fuminori, but afterwards, Dr. Tanbo dies, and Kouji ends up more or less schizophrenic, and is horrifically traumatised, suffering constant nightmares. He keeps a single bullet in the cabinet in case it ever gets just that bad.
Tavern Talk:
- Some bad endings of quests have the patrons succeeding in their main goal, but at a great cost.
  - In the first quest, Fable successfully catches Dragan and sends him to the swamp witch to try curing him of his lycanthropy. However, Caerlin is still hung-up over his abandonment of her, and Fable tries cheering her up by introducing her uncle to the werewolf community. Unfortunately, he isn't allowed in it because his story is "too sad" and the community feels hopeless for him. Fable then feels guilty of not letting Dragan talk it out sooner.
  - In "Hey There Evelynn!", Zephir kills Evelynn and returns the Cape of Invisibility to Kyle, but the latter feels melancholic upon receiving it because he still loved his ex-wife deep down despite her stealing his cape from him on their wedding day.
  - In "Until Sunrise", Caerlin collects the Wyvern Chimera's saliva for Kyle's vampire sunscreen by slaying it, but she regrets doing so because she believes her Baba (grandma), who communicated with Guardians like the Chimera, would be furious at her for it. Caerlin at least gives it a proper burial to honor it and her Baba.
  - In "A Scandal in Zoford", Melli solves the case of the missing familiars, but she and Zephir get into a misunderstanding with the wizard and end up fighting him instead of talking things out with him. The wizard, who genuinely tried freeing the familiars from their masters by turning them into regular animals, dies in the fire he caused to try killing Zephir and Melli, and they don't realize his actual plans until the familiars telepathically communicate that to them. Melli then feels guilty of the wizard's death after the familiars check on him and run away from her in grief.
  - In "Mission: Magically Possible", Hex successfully retrieves the spells he wants to study, but the tower is set ablaze due to his team's carelessness, destroying the rest of the treasure and leaving him disappointed.
  - In "The Vegan Dead", Caerlin and Skully successfully slay most of the horde of zombies gnawing on the trees of Pale Woods, but they don't find out why they're doing so because they didn't have enough charisma to resolve the situation nonviolently and ask around what was happening. It's not until Tia warns them of what's happening to the Aether Tree in the capital when they realize too late why the remaining zombies were eating the trees.
- In the Innkeep's backstory, Quasar was forced to cast the soul-shattering spell on Kerebosia after she killed the other party members, making the Innkeep run away out of grief. Kerebosia was destroyed for good, but the spell didn't resurrect the others, so Quasar blamed the Innkeep for their deaths and grew to hate them ever since.

Web Animation

In episode 19 of "Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two", titled "Last One Standing", Grassy experiences a case of this right before the voting screen.
Camp Camp: The episode "Keep The Change" centers around David trying to prove to Max that people can change their ways, as a response to him denying that he's gone through Character Development. Ultimately, David manages to prove that he's correct... except his methods of doing so (engineering a moment where the corrupt Cameron Campbell conveniently has the only thing needed to save the camp) leave everyone disappointed in him, and he comes to the disturbing realization that he's becoming more like Max.
A few episodes of DEATH BATTLE! end this way:
- Goku vs Superman: Superman came out on top, but the world gets an Earth-Shattering Kaboom in the process. Although, Goku vs Superman 2 would have Superman using the Dragon Balls to restore the damage done in the first episode.
- Fox vs Bucky: Not quite as harsh, but still relevant. Fox manages to kill Bucky, but Slippy Toad was killed before the battle began (granted most fans of Fox's home series would consider this an added benefit).
- White Tigerzord vs Epyon: Even though Zechs manages to destroy the tigerzord and kill Tommy Oliver the White Ranger, his beloved girlfriend, Noin, was killed before the start of the battle. The battle ends with him crying Ocular Gushers over the remains of the Gundam she was piloting, while Zordon is left mourning Tommy's death.
- Played for Laughs in Iron Man vs Lex Luthor. While Tony defeats Lex without any life-threatening results to himself, his victory comes at a literal high cost: $5 billion for the property damage that occurred.
- Also Played for Laughs in Donkey Kong vs Knuckles. While Donkey Kong kills Knuckles for digging through his banana stash, he has to find his bananas all over again, thanks to the fight.
- Dante vs Bayonetta: Not outright stated, but it becomes this when you realize that Bayonetta was the Left Eye of the World. Dante kills Bayonetta, unknowingly failing his mission to retrieve the Left Eye (having been under the impression the Eye was an artifact). Plus, the DBX battle that accompanies this one revealed Dante's partner Trish was killed by Bayonetta's partner Jeanne.
- Joker vs Sweet Tooth: Joker triumphs by killing Needles Kane (the driver of Sweet Tooth) with Joker Venom, but the beating he took during the battle leaves him in no condition to resist the police who show up, presumably to ship him back to Arkham.
- Lara Croft vs Nathan Drake: Lara kills Nathan and retrieves the Holy Grail, but her helicopter was destroyed in the process, leaving her stranded in the desert. While she's survived similar conditions, it's still inconvenient.
- Natsu Dragneel vs Portgas D. Ace: Natsu kills Ace after he attempts to run out of town for not paying for his meal, but it comes at the cost of setting the town on fire. He's thrown out face-first into the dirt for the devastation and not even learning about Ace's extremely high bounty due to his wanted poster going up in flames.
- Sub-Zero vs Glacius: Sub-Zero kills Glacius, but loses his hand in the process.
- Samurai Jack vs Afro Samurai: Jack kills Afro, but loses his arm in the process.
- Black Widow vs. Widowmaker: Black Widow kills Widowmaker, but Widowmaker had already killed the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent she was working with.
- Deadpool vs The Mask is an odd case, as it's not a Pyrrhic Victory for The Mask, but for Wiz and Boomstick. In their eagerness to be rid of Deadpool and his annoying antics forever, they purposefully pitted him against someone he had no chance of defeating, and in doing so they had violated their own impartiality. Their guilt is further fueled by a posthumous letter from Deadpool, thanking them for helping him rediscover himself after getting lost in his internet meme fame. A bit subverted when the Continuity Stone brings DP back to life, but still.
- All Might vs Might Guy: Might Guy kills All Might, but he was impaled through the chest and had to resort to the Eighth Gate: The Gate of Death, meaning he joins his opponent soon after.
- Goro vs Machamp: Machamp kills Goro, but lost one of his arms and fainted from a Burn he suffered during the fight.
- Sanji vs Rock Lee: Sanji kills Rock Lee, but lost his leg in the process.
- A meta one that's Played for Laughs in Shadow vs. Ryūko Matoi: Shadow finally got a win in DEATH BATTLE!, but he had to kill his favourite anime character to do it, which the hosts lampshade.
- Lex Luthor vs Doctor Doom: Doom kills Luthor, but the LexCorp building and Luthor's laboratory was blown up in the process. The whole reason why Doom challenged Luthor was to try to claim Luthor's technology and resources for Latveria.
- Blake Belladonna vs Mikasa Ackerman: Blake kills Mikasa, but had her Aura broken and lost her arm in the process. Then a Titan shows up. Blake confidently charges into battle.
- James Bond vs John Wick: Bond kills Wick, but was stabbed in the chest and is bleeding out. Plus, he killed Wick in The Continental, so the guards will likely try to kill him although Bond has managed to get himself out of similar situations before.
- Martian Manhunter vs Silver Surfer discusses this trope as the two come to realize that their fight ultimately had no real meaning and the two are left in the dark as to why they felt they had to. Martian Manhunter gives Silver Surfer his wishes that he will be able to live with the uncertainty as he perishes.
- Bill Cipher vs Discord: Bill Cipher is given the dubious honor of being the first combatant in DEATH BATTLE! to have lost in every possible way despite winning the actual fight; he manages to destroy Discord but not before Discord traps Bill in the Nightmare Realm, saving Equestria from Weirdmageddon and restoring it to normal. Bill undergoes a brief Villainous Breakdown before trying to brush it off saying that he'll escape just like last time and offering a deal to the viewer. However, his final appearance of the episode is him still stranded in the Nightmare Realm petulantly screaming at Wiz and Boomstick to let him out, indicating that escaping has proven much more difficult than he anticipated and/or Bill is still angry at the fact that Discord managed to get one over on him. What's more, as the spirit of chaos, Discord will just come back as long as chaos itself exists.
- Frieza vs Megatron: Frieza kills Megatron, but not before being reduced to one arm and half his torso. While he can survive in this state, he lacks a Healing Factor and would need outside help to be restored, which is a bit difficult considering all of his ships and men were blown up during the battle as well so he'll have to make the trip himself. Plus, he blew up Cybertron, a planet he had intended to conquer. Because of this, Frieza promises to make every surviving Cybertronian pay.
Death Race:
- In "Batmobile BATTLE!", the Adam West Batmobile wins... but only because it was propelled by the blast of an explosive dropped by the Tim Burton Batmobile, which also destroyed the vehicle.
- In "Optimus Prime VS Thomas the Tank Engine?", Optimus Prime wins by destroying Thomas the Tank Engine and Lightning McQueen... which goes against his strict code of honor, causing him to commit "Robo-Seppuku" by driving off the track out of shame.
In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device the Emperor absolutely hates his most loyal subjects because they've basically transformed most of mankind's "victories" into massive unrepairable losses, quadrillions dead and millions of souls devoured for pointless reasons, which sadly, are all entirely canon.
JaidenAnimations: "I Attempted a Pokémon Platinum Nuzlocke": Jaiden defeats Cynthia and becomes the new Pokémon League Champion... but half of her team fell against Cynthia's Garchomp. Then she finds out that she's in an alternate reality, and that her original self suffered a Total Party Kill. She is left racked with guilt and unable to enjoy her triumph.
In Mario Brothers, King Koopa and his army are defeated for once and for all... at the cost of the lives of Princess Toadstool, the Toads, and even the Mario Brothers themselves. The Mushroom Kingdom itself may even be doomed to destruction, since the last we see is the land being overtaken by the lava erupting from Koopa's castle.
Red vs. Blue has the defeat of the Meta and dealing with the remainders of Project Freelancer come at the price of Alpha-Church and several other AI Fragments being destroyed in an EMP blast, Tex imprisoned in the capture unit that Epsilon-Church then joins her in (which is thrown into evidence and deemed useless) and Wash almost killed, then forced to masquerade as Church to avoid prison time. Oh, and Red Team lost Lopez. He comes back (as a head still/again) in season 11, though.
RWBY:
- Pyrrha Nikos has a name of Greek origins. While her first name comes from a word meaning "flame-haired", her surname means "victor of the people". The term "pyrrhic victory" comes from the name of King Pyrrhus, whose name shares the same origin as Pyrrha. Pyrrha's name therefore can translate to "Pyrrhic Victory". During Pyrrha's tournament match against Penny, she defeats Penny but only in a way that leaves her feeling devastated. As a result of Emerald making her see a threat that doesn't exist, Pyrrha uses the full force of her magnetism Semblance to repulse Penny's swords. As Penny is a secretly a robot who is controlling her swords via wires, Pyrrha's act accidentally entangles Penny with the wires, garroting Penny so successfully that her body is torn into pieces on live television.
- In Volume 6, the protagonists disable Cordovin's giant mecha, which gives them the opportunity to leave for Atlas in their stolen airship, only to discover that the battle has so unnerved the city that their collective negativity has lured in a giant Grimm from deeper waters, and an onslaught of winged Grimm is flying in from further inland. The mecha was designed for the purpose of fighting giant Grimm from deep water, so the city has very little effective offensive power to use against it. The heroes decide to fix the problem by staying to see what they can do to help, but there's nothing they can do beyond Ruby trying to activate the power of her silver eyes, which only works on the Grimm for a few seconds before it begins breaking free. This does buy Cordovin the time to get the damaged mecha into just enough working order to finish off the Leviathan.
TheParryGod: The rebels' ambush in Patient Zero worked, and they wiped out the Ground Protection Team. Problem is, they got more or less the same in return, with at best two members of their five-man squad being left alive by sheer luck and/or Improbable Aiming Skills. It's unclear what they hoped to gain.
Wolf Song: The Movie: the heroes are able to force the Death Alpha and his goons to retreat, but Arrow, Damien and the alphas have all been killed, two members of the heroes side have defected (one of which being Evil All Along, the other having his true alignment prior to this unknown) and whatever is left isn’t exactly in the best shape, physically or otherwise
The Wrath of Giga Bowser: Giga Bowser is eventually defeated by Roy... but every other character is dead.
SuperDoodleMan: "There won't be a sequel. Everyone but Roy is dead, how could there possibly be sequel?"

Webcomics

The end of the Dr. McNinja saga "Doc Gets Rad" has the doc trap Sparklelord in an infinite time-loop, preventing him from conquering the world. Of course, by doing this, he eliminated the one threat that could have permanently defeated King Radical, which Radical is more than happy to rub in Doc's face.
- Reversed with the same effect in "The End, part 1". Due to crossing the Godzilla Threshold, Doc brings Sparklelord back from banishment to stop King Radical from destroying the world. It works, but Sparklelord's vengeful ghost uses his new powers to simultaneously piss off most of Doc's Rogues Gallery and pin the blame on Doc, renewing his enemies' hatred of him to the point that they hunt him down with everything they have. And since King Radical is still president of the US, that means America itself has become Doc's enemy.
In Drowtales:
- Sarv'swati Vel'Sharen works together with her sisters, Snadhya'rune and Zala'ess, to launch The Coup against their mother and kill her. This makes Sarv'swati the de-facto leader of the Sharen clan, but destabilizes their empire and eventually provokes half of the clans into rebellion. By the time it's over, most of her children are dead and the throne room itself is under siege, with Sarv'swati breaking down in tears and begging the very mother she killed to come back.
- The Big Bad, Snadhya'rune Vel'Sharen, enacts a series of schemes to ravage her city and make it collapse so that she can take over uncontested. She is completely successful in ruining the city, and partially successful in taking over, but the city continues to fall apart beyond her control, leaving even her unhappy with how little there is left to rule.
- For extra irony, Chapter 46 is a more serious case of pyrrhic victory for the Sharen colony of Felde: the Nidraa'chal push back the Owl faction ^note effortlessly, proving to the rest of the Drow that Felde can stand on its own, but in the process Snadhya'rune and Kalki both separately and very publicly lose their tempers, go on a rampage, and end up alienating some of their allies, sowing the seeds of rebellion. Kalki's rampant and sadistic slaughter of allies and enemies (which managed to cause serious losses for Ariel) convinces Snadhya that she's uncontrollable, and murders Kalki with a magical bomb.
- The Sarghress manage to conquer all of Chel^note, but without any critical infrastructure left intact, they lose the food supply lines, and all of Chel is plagued by mass starvation. Snadya'Rune quickly bribes the remaining factions with table scraps from her farming colonies to buy ironclad loyalty from millions of potential soldiers, and the Sarghress break into civil war once Quain reluctantly makes an alliance with one of the Sharen.
- Snadhya'rune finally obtains the title of Empress, dispersed a plague only she could cure, and forced all of Chel to accept demonkind as the new normal, but she's pissed off too many people in the process, the plague is now incurable, and many of those high-level demons want her dead. The frequently warring clans hate her so badly that they form a coalition so large it floods the streets; they storm the palace, destroy her life's work in mad science, and convince her few remaining loyal allies to defect or go to ground - in one day. She's left staring in visible despair at her inability to obtain what she really wanted, and sets off the self destruct to take the rest of the Empire down with her.
This◊ Erfworld story arc involves something on a smaller scale. Gobwin Knob has made a series of losing attacks on the Jetstone forces, which were reported to their commander as victories by the pseudo-magical "rules" that make Erfworld function like a tabletop game. It takes a couple minutes for someone to point out that, by attacking, inflicting losses, and retreating, the Gobwin Knob forces were technically losing the engagement but still inflicting critical damage on the Jetstone siege forces.
- Erfworld prides itself on pyrrhic victories. The first book concludes with Parson linking Thinkamancer Maggie with Croakamancer Wanda and Dirtamancer Sizemore to uncroak the active volcano underneath Gobwin Knob - croaking thousands of friendly and enemy troops and destroying the city. This is then immediately subverted when Rockwell discovers that the tunnels under the volcano have loads of gems, making them the richest side in Erfworld, and Wanda finding the Arkenpliers, which she uses to decrypt all the formerly croaked soldiers of all the armies to her side.
- The second book starts with Stanley and the Royal Crown Coalition II thinking they have a trump card to easily win the major battle in Spacerock. It ends with Stanley losing every dwagon and Archon he had, shifting his capital to an incredibly underdefended position in the Spacerock ruins, and having his casters and Parson marooned in the Magic Kingdom. Meanwhile, every part of the RCC II loses: Jetstone loses Ossomer and King Slately, Spacerock and all its soldiers; Haggar loses Prince Sammy and his army; Transylvito is nearly broke when Jillian of Faq goes rogue; Faq loses all support from the RCC and Charlie all for Ansom, who is still loyal to Wanda; and Charlie loses the trust of Trammenis, the one Jetstone who has faith in him.
  - Summed up nicely by Parson himself in a post-battle strategy meeting with his top commanders, where he summarized the monumental victory they all just achieved.... and then bluntly states that, "It. Was not. Worth it."
Goblins:
- The Shield of Wonder helps Complains a lot in the Battle of Brassmoon, killing or transforming several Elites that wanted him dead and allowing him to survive, but gets destroyed during the battle. Its destruction is not the steep price, rather it's the fact Complains partially becomes a demon because of the Shield's effects, losing part of his soul and accidentally speeding up an apocalypse later, which he can only reverse by literally going to Hell.
- Weaponized by Minmax in the final battle of the Maze of Many. Arc Villain Psion Minmax is forced to win by being thrown into the exit portal of the Maze of Many. The problem is that he wanted to use the Maze to eradicate his own existence. To do so, he needs to be inside of it. You cannot re-enter the Maze once you've completed it.
Psion Minmax: So you see, it doesn't matter how long it takes, I will win eventually.
Minmax: No. [grabs Psion Minmax] You win now. [throws him into the victory circle]
In Homestuck, the troll session ends with the trolls defeating the Black King and creating our universe - which allows the B1 Jack Noir to gain First Guardian powers, destroy all the planets in the trolls' Medium, including Prospit, Derse, and the Battlefield, and trap the trolls in the Veil for several weeks long enough for internal conflicts to kill off half of them.
In Kevin & Kell Kevin's platform when he ran for a position on the school board was to get rid of high-stakes testing (which, in this universe, meant that there was a ten percent chance a student would be eaten alive). He eventually gets enough votes from the board to get rid of it...only because the deciding voter, Camille, learned that the testing industry decided to push for a new model that required multiple tests instead of one 'all or nothing' exam.
Kell: Kevin! You won!
Kevin: I... guess...
Magick Chicks: From the moment Melissa transferred to Artemis and learned Faith was the school's 'big girl on campus', there's only been one thought on her mind: dethrone her. Except none of her plans ever got off the ground. She only wound up becoming the new student council president due to circumstances prompting Faith to abdicate her position. Melissa only wanted the prestige of being the most popular girl, not the responsibilities that came with it.
In Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, Leonidas and Kratos get into a battle of gay chicken. After a long time, Leonidas concedes defeat because he misses his family. Kratos taunts him for giving up just so he can go home to his family... but is immediately reminded that he has no family to go home to now.
The Order of the Stick:
- The Start of Darkness prequel book shows this happening very, very heavily to Redcloak, who loses nearly everyone and everything he cares about as he tries to make progress on the quest his god has given him. It also happens to a lesser extent to Xykon, whose transformation into a lich has made him immortal and more powerful than ever... and becoming an undead also means that he has lost all the earthly pleasures that he had believed made life worthwhile before his transformation. (The loss of his sense of taste and ability to enjoy coffee being the one that gets emphasized by the book.)
- Vaarsuvius's Deal with the Devil, literally harnessing the powers of evil, ultimately doesn't accomplish what they planned. In a twist, V's subsequent actions cause a LOT of change, some of it even good, but they're left morose at how badly things went awry. Thankfully, this has started V down some real character development.
Our Little Adventure has two:
- The second Minotaur battle at the end of book 1. The Minotaur was killed sure enough, but it also killed Pauline, the group's Barbarian and beloved friend. What's worse is that she doesn't come back when Julie attempts to revive her at a temple, due to not wanting to.
- The Silverfronds Invasion ends this way in the end of book 3. The Souballo Empire did not succeed in taking over the Silverfronds Kingdom...because the kingdom is instead being destroyed by a powerful, unwittingly released Demon. The Souballo Empire has since put the war 'on hold' until this new evil can be dealt with.
Sluggy Freelance: In "GOFOTRON Champion of the Cosmos", Zorgon Gola tries to invoke this by imbuing a puppy with the light-seeking tendencies of a moth and the universe-destroying-chain-reaction powers of a cascade missile. Once the puppy manages to reach a sun, it will destroy the universe (or Punyverse, as the protagonists call this small alternative universe). Gola's real plan is to wait for GOFOTRON to defeat the puppy but be destroyed or crippled in the ensuing explosion. His plan sort of works, but ends up Hoist by His Own Petard when his plan results in a pyrrhic victory for himself. Thanks to the Idiot Heros, GOFOTRON becomes unable to perform said Heroic Sacrifice. With Gola unable to cancel his plan, this results in the complete annihilation of not only GOFOTRON, but the entire Punyverse.
In Tales of the Questor, Quentyn kills the dragon—except his arm is broken, he must spare the mortally-wounded Ember any further suffering, and it was the wrong dragon.
Tower of God hands out Pyrrhic Victories like candy by design. Standard trials will either push contestants far past their physical and mental limits, or manipulate them into sacrificing something precious about themselves. And to unlock new floors, climbers have to force their fellow climbers to drop out - usually, this involves murder. Most Rankers (successful climbers) are so riddled with trauma and mental illness that they can't think about anything not related to the caste system of the tower.
- It's implied that the Tower gauntlet was specifically designed to change its contestants so the lucky champion who reaches the top is not the same dreamer who knew what they wanted from the tower in the first place. Of the few who made it to the top, none had enough of their past selves remaining to ask for the wish they desired at the bottom. Jahad sealing the true final floors so nobody could obtain a true wish didn't help. Bam might be on the fast lane to the top due to his powers, but those same powers have changed him over time to the point that he wants to kill Rachel, the girl he climbed after in the first place. Making things worse is that his hatred has been cultivated, by his master no less, with the express goal of turning Baam into a tower-destroying demon overlord, no matter the cost to the world if Baam eventually snaps.
Unsounded: The Inak are locked beneath the shrine because three of their teenagers broke into Lori's office. They try to team up with the invading Lions of Mercy in an Enemy Mine situation to show them the military facility hidden beneath the shrine only to be degraded, beaten and slaughtered. In response they trigger the self destruct spells, destroying everything beneath the shrine including their own village. One of the two survivors describes their actions as winning, as they'd taken some of their subjugators with them and been freed from their subjugation.
"Man...never sees. Like hatchlings. Anything smaller than them's only there to be eaten or toyed with. But now we've won."*sobs*"We've won."
In this The Whiteboard strip, Roger describes the aftermath of an indoor snowball fight (It Makes Sense in Context) as being a Pyrrhic victory after the use of a snowblower results in Doc's office getting three feet of snow dumped into it. While this is the one time it's mentioned, a Pyrrhic Victory tends to be a regular occurrence in any conflict on or off the field, due to the fact that the participants have a habit of going overboard.

Web Videos

Discussed by The Angry Video Game Nerd, who considers beating The Karate Kid (1987) on NES to be a Pyrrhic Victory that leaves no satisfaction, but only regret. He likens it to coming out the winner of a fist fight, but achieving nothing for your victory other than bloody bruises and broken bones.
Bennett the Sage and JesuOtaku have done several crossover videos, with the idea in mind being Bennett attempting to Break or Corrupt the Cutie with terrible and sexually shocking or exploitative anime. In the third such crossover, JO reviews Master of Martial Hearts for Bennett, and he agrees that Sage has won and shown him something so gratuitously cruel and horrific that he just can't laugh it off or remain unaffected by it. However, after a relatively short spell of being horrified and depressed, JO remembers that it was just fiction and all the good things about real life, then goes outside to enjoy himself and cheer himself up by playing with his roommate's dog. Meanwhile, Sage is left in a deep depression with his "victory", pondering where mankind has gone wrong, and whether a species capable of such cruelty and darkness is worthy of redemption.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog:
- The titular character gets, in his own words, everything he ever wanted: respect as a villain, entrance into the elite Evil League of Evil, and the defeat of his nemesis. However, it costs him the life of the only woman he's ever loved before he's even been able to tell her how he feels. Not to mention her last words. Can you imagine any satisfaction in his "victory" at all after something like that?
- Note that the Evil League of Evil pushed Dr. Horrible into doing something that might result in this trope ("and now assassination is just the only way"). This is implied to be standard procedure for the ELE, so that applicants end up losing all their ideals and become simply evil before they finally enter.
- In the prequel comic that detailed Billy's past, it's shown that his inspiration was witnessing a Mad Scientist villain named Mister Maniacal successfully killing the superhero Justice Joe. Later on in the comic however, it's mentioned that Maniacal was soon killed by a lynch mob afterwards.
Lampshaded when the host of Feeding the Trolls was planning on doing a video about Lord Steven Christ, a complete whackjob conspiracy theorist known for preaching for 15 years that everyone has been living on the inside of the Earth this whole time, along with other wild antics... until he suddenly came out as "The Best Troll Ever". He did a video about him anyway, claiming that completely destroying his reputation simply wasn't worth it.
According to the Game Grumps the ending of Resident Evil 3 (Remake) is this, and they even reference this trope by name at one part before Dan sums it up:
Yay! Alright! Well, that was a very uplifting ending! You don't get the vaccine, the city explodes, two people live, and that is it.
Internet Historian
- He describes the ultimate fate of He Will Not Divide Us as this, where the only way to thwart the online community's Scarily Competent Tracking abilities and stop them from stealing his flag was to lock it in a house in front of a webcam. While it's true Shia LaBeouf had "won" and the trolls couldn't get the flag, he had only done so by effectively taking his ball, going home, and hiding in the basement with it. The internet got to spend several years having the time of their lives playing him for utter clownshoes, messed with every attempt at art he had made, caused him grief to the point he suffered emotional breakdowns and legal consequences, got to even joke that the only way he could stop them was to build a wall to keep them out, and had gotten away scot-free with memes and footage and jokes that they'd be able to laugh about for years, while all Shia got out of it was to be able to pat himself on the back and say "My flag is up!"
  What's the bloody point?! This is no better than uploading a still image and declaring victory! It's boring!
- He also describes the Kony 2012 campaign as this, where Jason Russel set out to make Ugandan war criminal and cult leader Joseph Kony a household name. Where he did at least succeed at that and make the whole planet aware of Kony, it came at great personal cost to Russel where he suffered a complete mental breakdown from the stress and a devastating blow to his PR, it pissed off Uganda who's prime minister declared "We do not need a slick video on Youtube for us to take notice!"[sic], the actual turnout for the event was underwhelming, many folks used it as an excuse to vandalize, as of 2022 Kony is still at large and reported to be hiding in Darfur, and absolutely nothing came of the event except a bunch of people are now aware Kony exists.
Mentioned by name by LegalEagle when he's reacting to Bee Movie. Legal Eagle explains how, unlike in the movie, you can't sue the entire human race; you can only sue a recognizable entity who can show up in court and hire an attorney. He explains this is why lawsuits against God can't work — even if you won, there is no way to notify Him and or get anything out of Him. (And for the record, this is the logic behind lawsuits against God which have been filed in real life.)
Even if it goes forward, the case will go into what's called "default"^note. Which means that the propounding party wins because the other party didn't respond. But the problem is there's no way to recover whatever winnings you might be entitled to from God, so it's a Pyrrhic Victory in either case.
Logan's Tale: Logan's Day ends with Logan defeating the Think Tank and rescuing Veronica, but she is horribly injured, and Boone dies pointlessly, robbed of even the chance to go down in a blaze of glory like he wanted.
TryHards: In the video Last One To Leave Their Garden Wins, Tom spends 60 consecutive hours outside in the hopes of lasting nearly as long as Elliot - only for Elliot to reveal that he had an anxiety attack and had to go back inside after only 12 hours.
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog YTPMV "Win the Race" ends this way. Robotnik finally gets his wish, beating Sonic in a race. But he is only able to do this by holding Tails hostage to threaten Sonic into throwing the race, which makes this "accomplishment" completely hollow and meaningless, and everyone knows it. Moreover, he apparently spent all his money trying to find a way to outdo Sonic. And lastly, the victory doesn't even actually serve any purpose beyond his own self-gratification - he didn't even capture Sonic by the end of it. But at least he won the race!
When Possum Reviews is discussing the very disastrous critical reception and box office draw of Joker: Folie à Deux, he points out how many have taken it as a deliberate Take That, Audience! against fans of the first movie who identified with Arthur... and argues that if this is the case it's a pretty costly "victory":
Possum: You can probably imagine that intentionally alienating your audience doesn't exactly translate to box-office success. You can say this movie was made to make the "incel chuds" mad and laugh about it, but at the end of the day the incel chuds aren't the ones who shot themselves in the foot by spending $200 million on a movie that's flopping harder than Morbius and will probably end up ruining some people's careers.

Pyrrhic Victory
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As this is a Victory and Defeat Trope and an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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El Mungo Stink Bomb

Alternative Title(s): Pyrrhic Villainy

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Pyrrhic Victory 49 Following

As this is a Victory and Defeat Trope and an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

Video Example(s):

El Mungo Stink Bomb

Alternative Title(s): Pyrrhic Villainy

Previous

Index

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El Mungo Stink Bomb

Pyrrhic Victory
49 Following