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The variations are endless, but below is a condensed catalog of horrors that will make you doubt in the [[Auto Revive]] of [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]].
* Sacrificing your own happiness: It can be any type of happiness, be it [[
* Giving up your ambitions: Usually these are selfish or dark ambitions, and denying them actually ''helps'' the character in the long run. When a character wants [[Revenge]] for the murder of a [[Friendly Target|loved one]] in a world where [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]], their giving up murder (though not necessarily forgiving the villain) will cost them dearly but ultimately be the right thing. However, this can extend to less dark goals, when [[Ambition Is Evil]]. If the story deems the character's dream as "selfish" or bad, they have no choice but to give up.
* Good behaviour. Obvious as it is, being good requires, well, ''acting'' good. This means sharing, [[Forgiveness|forgiving others]], not killing people and generally acting contrary to one's impulses to be a [[Jerkass]] to those disliked. No matter how much they may wish or be tempted to do otherwise.
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On the other side of the fence, this crops up when [[Evil Feels Good]]. Often applies to a [[Heel Face Turn]] character, or the [[Badass]] of the team who laments that they have to save somebody they hate from a burning building, or they don't get to kill their most hated enemy, all because of a stupid oath they took.
In a [[Crapsack World]], not only does Good Feel Crappy, but it ''will'' eventually destroy you, your [[Soul]], and [[Tragedy|everything and everyone you love and care about.]] Granted, usually there's a reason behind that, like, say, [[Redemption Equals Death]]
[[Opposite Tropes|Contrast]] [[Being Evil Sucks]].
Also, see [[Downer Ending]], or, if you're lucky, [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]. Compare [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]], where the good action (rather than the process of being good) is what gets the characters in trouble. Contrast [[Karma Houdini Warranty]], where trying to turn over a new leaf can bring down heaven's wrath.This is one way people become an [[Iron Woobie]] or a [[Knight in Sour Armor]], depending on whether the suffering is taken with quiet dignity or grumpy complaining.
Of course, there are many instances in real life in which being good doesn't suck that much. Scientifically, deeds perceived as good entail social recognition and approval, and bad deeds entail reprisal. Justice is one of the fundamental evolutionary imperatives that allows human society to function coherently; we may not all be saints, but we're not all lawless murderers. And especially when you haven't got superpowers, [[Selfish Good, Selfish Evil|it's usually more profitable to abide by society's rules]]. At least unless you just so happen to be a [[Villain
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==▼
* [[
▲== Anime ==
▲* [[Anpanman (Franchise)|Anpanman]]. Sometimes feeding the hungry means getting your head chewed apart on a daily basis.
* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''. Being the Priestess sucks. Sure you get 3 wishes, and people bow down to you. But, either you use your wishes solely for the good of others (with the possible exception of making one specifically to get home safely) and put up with [[Virgin Power]] in a [[Cast Full of Pretty Boys]] deterring your love life, or you are consumed body and soul by the Beast God you summon if you fail this [[Secret Test of Character]].
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' pounds this trope in excessively. Sayaka's attempt at being a moral crusader backfires and the strain of fighting as a Magical Girl while not getting what she wanted causes her sanity to start leaking down the drain. {{spoiler|The ending also qualifies, as Madoka's tradeoff for saving magical girls from their inevitable fate was being erased from existence}}
== Comics ==▼
* ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]''. Come on, everyone he gets close to dies (Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy), gets critically injured (Aunt May, Betty Brant), goes insane (Harry Osborn, Dr. Connors), and he still is the best of the good guys .
** Spider-Man is the best of the good guys ''because'' he always has the option of walking away. He can just throw away his costume and live in obscurity whenever he chooses, but he doesn't. He accepts that the good he does is worth the price he pays and fights the good fight. It's slightly masochistic, really.
*** [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|It's not his fault.]]
** More like he's always [[Disproportionate Retribution|Reminded]] [[You Can't Fight Fate|by fate]] every time he goes off course. Just remember when he gets the dark suit (in all instances, comic, cartoon, movie) and just lets his impulses go a bit. Then, when he decided to make money with his new powers, Ben dies. And so on. He tried to be, if not bad, at least something else than saintly, and it all blew up in his face most disproportional to his "crime".
*** He's sacrificed everything he is on multiple occasions, one might as well call this trope
*** At best, when he retired he was followed by idealistic fan who got her powers through mystic ritual and dressed up as Spider-man to keep up with the name. Peter ended up taking back his name and she became Spider-woman when she failed and Peter had to save her.
* [[Daredevil]] is possibly the best example of this trope. His life as both a crime-fighter and lawyer have caused endless tragedy in his life.
* The [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] protect a world that fears and hates them.
* Before the X-Men, there was [[
* This could apply to almost ''every'' superhero at one time or another, even [[Superman]]. Sure, he has much better publicity than Spider-Man {{spoiler|except for the government conspiracy that wants to kill him and all of his people}} and most of his friends and family are still around (except for Pa Kent), but deep down [[I Just Want to Be Normal|he really just wants to be Clark Kent]]. And like Spider-Man, he ''could'' just leave the Superman identity behind and live his
* This is one of the major themes of [[Sin City]]. Every protagonist goes through crap and sometimes has to forfeit his life in order to do the right thing.
* [[Batman]] is full of this. At any point he could give up his identity and live the easy life as Bruce Wayne. And he keeps going. Against a [[Monster Clown]] who embodies everything he hates, along with some of the most bizarre enemies any hero could have, but his determination and borderline insanity has kept him fighting, even going as far as to go toe-to-toe with [[Darkseid|a god]]. {{spoiler|[[Final Crisis|He died]], [[Back
== Film ==
* ''[[Casablanca]]''. Pretty much every main character gets this at some point during the movie, and Rick gets it CONSTANTLY. All three of the primaries make (or try to make) absolute soul-crushing personal sacrifices for the greater good, and as often as not, it hardly matters. They all get a roughly happy ending, but none of them get what they want, or deserve.
* John McClane of ''[[
* Referenced in ''[[Star Wars]]'': "Is the dark side stronger?" "No, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."]]
* In the original ''[[A Nightmare
* Metro Man in ''[[Megamind]]'', which led to him {{spoiler|faking his own death so that he could finally get a chance to live his own life}}.
==
* Discussed a lot in ''[[Night Watch (
*** There's probably a reason books called "Night Watch" examine [[What You Are in
▲* Discussed a lot in ''[[Night Watch (Literature)|Night Watch]]'': the protagonist constantly wonders if it is really worth being good if all he does is angst about not being able to do more.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Ironically also used in [[
▲*** There's probably a reason books called "Night Watch" examine [[What You Are in The Dark|this particular trope]].
**
* [[The Dresden Files
** One particular example of Harry lampshading how Being Good Sucks is when he's lent a Rolls Royce just as the situation starts to hit rock bottom. He finds the car irrationally comforting because he knows there's no ''way'' he's driving to his death in a car that nice.
* Winston and Julia in ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' know this pretty much from the beginning.
* In ''[[Ivanhoe]]'', Rebecca refuses to marry Wilfred of Ivanhoe because she was Jewish and he was Christian and crossovers were looked down on on both sides. Sir Walter Scot said specifically that he was trying to avert [[Good Feels Good]] because he thought teaching readers to be good for that reason was a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]].
* Played with in the [[Star Trek Enterprise Relaunch]] novels, where the heroes have to acknowledge that being an ethical being often ends up...well, sucking, due to how ineffective it sometimes makes them. During this particular timeframe in the ''[[
* A recurring theme in [[A Song of Ice and Fire]], with the biggest example probably being [[Honor Before Reason|Ned Stark]], whose unrelenting efforts to do the right and honorable thing {{spoiler|ultimately result in his execution, the near-destruction of his family and all the many calamities that Westeros has endured since his death.}}
* [[Airframe]]: Towards the end of the book, the heroine is feeling this way. She's been investigating a strange near plane crash and has been trying to do the right thing throughout and all she has to show for her efforts are a couple of videos showing the terrifying ride, she's being hounded by reporters who sense blood in the water, and it turns out she's been set up to take the fall if the plane is discredited.
==
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The Book of Job in ''[[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]]''.▼
** The Bible in general describes the path of righteousness as a narrow and perilous road, compared to the wide and easy path of sin.▼
*** YMMV. Much of the Bible stresses the blessings that accrue to the righteous, and the sufferings that will befall the wicked, and assure the reader that it is within anyone's ability to be righteous and to keep G-d's laws.▼
▲* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|Battlestar Galactica]]'', Roslin, Tory, Tigh and Dualla {{spoiler|Help rig the presidential election so that Roslin wins. A Baltar presidency was thought by most intelligent characters to be potentially disastrous because his platform was for settling the fleet permanently on a less than ideal planet rather than find Earth.}} Adama finds out and [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls out Roslin on it.]] Despite her less than stellar moral record, she was a champion of democracy for much of the series (despite her veering dangerously close to authoritarianism at times), so this gets her to tearfully confess and {{spoiler|call off the fraud as a matter of principle. Pity they were proven [[Gone Horribly Right|horribly right]] about Baltar.}}
** In the pilot miniseries, Helo gave up his seat on a Raptor ride off of Caprica to Dr. Baltar, thus condemning himself to an almost certain death, because Baltar was one of the Colonies' most brilliant scientists and thus Helo thought Baltar was more important to the human race's survival. The same Baltar who, unbeknownst to any other human, had given Number Six access to the Colonial defense mainframe, causing the holocaust in the first place. {{spoiler|It doesn't turn out that bad for Helo afterward, but in the Miniseries itself this is definitely the trope played}}.
** Also during the Pegasus story arc. It was obvious that Admiral Cain was going to take over and completely undermine everything Adama and Roslin believed, and yet Adama was reluctant to do anything about it. (Probably because he had faced many of the difficulties she had.) Roslin has to practically order him to have her assassinated. {{spoiler|Both Adama and Cain make plans to off the other, but wind up calling it off. Fortunately, Baltar released a Cylon prisoner who really hated Cain, and she did the job.}}
* In ''[[
** In a straighter example, Mal and Wash get kidnapped and tortured for refusing to steal medicine from a planet where an epidemic had broken out. (Not to mention the time and fuel they wasted without even getting paid.)
* In the ''[[
** He ''believes'' he's going to hell. His status as a champion for The Powers That Be and their intention to reward him suggests he might not. At the very least, it's unlikely his soul will go there.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
** Jack, too. When he goes into a suicide mission against the Daleks, he even says that he was better off a coward.
* Jonathan the angel in ''[[Highway to Heaven]]'' and his sidekick Mark Gordon both dislike the fact that they have to do God's will when they'd rather beat someone up. In one episode, Jonathan goes against God's will and beats up a group of guys for (gasp) stealing a guy's lunch.
* A [[
== Religion/Mythology ==
▲** The Bible in general describes the path of righteousness as a narrow and perilous road, compared to the wide and easy path of sin.
▲*** YMMV. Much of the Bible stresses the blessings that accrue to the righteous, and the sufferings that will befall the wicked, and assure the reader that it is within anyone's ability to be righteous and to keep G-d's laws.
== Tabletop RPG ==▼
* ''[[
** Exception: ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[
** Fortunately, new rules have been provided which allows an Abyssal's Lunar Exalted Mate to ease their burden through the [[Power of Love]] (or [[Power of Friendship|friendship]], if that's how they roll). An Abyssal can freely commit "sins of Life" with their Lunar Mate (protecting their lives or having sex with them, for example), and the Neverborn are incapable of punishing them for it. If the Abyssal actually cares for their Lunar, they can even freely commit "sins against Death" for them with
** Same thing applies to the Green Sun Princes. If they decide to go against the will of their Yozi patrons (which is usually "Make Creation such a shithole that it can technically count as Hell, which means we can get out of our prison"), they begin to accrue Torment that leaks out and affects others. In fact, the only way to bleed off Torment is to [[Card-Carrying Villain|perform cliched acts of utter bastardry]]... mind you, it says nothing about who you have to perform them on...
*** And unlike Abyssals, Green Sun Princes ''cannot'' be redeemed into normal Solars during life. However, the same difference also means that if their essence was somehow delivered to Autochthon, the Unconquered Sun, or a similar entity after death, it could be purified in this manner.
*** Of course, part of this is because Infernals don't ''need'' to redeem to do good, unlike Abyssals. Infernal Charms were specifically designed to subvert [[Bad Powers, Bad People]] by seeming evil at first glance, yet not being particularly malevolent in practice. You can use Infernal Charms to feed the hungry, force corrupt gods to do their damn jobs, protect your loved ones, bestow regeneration on loyal agents and turn into a benevolent counterpart to a hostile Exalt, while most Abyssal Charms boil down to "hurt people" and "be like the dead".
*** GSP's who are serious about [[Faustian Rebellion|breaking out]] can [[Averted Trope|kick the snot out of this model]] around Essence 6, however. There's an entire keyword, Heretical, for Charms that revolve around flipping their patrons the bird, and one such Charm allows them to tell the will of the Yozis to go screw.
* ''[[Deadlands]]'', with [[Black and White Morality|"Faustian" morality]], narratively fits in the same niche as the above example. Later settings, including ''[[After the End|Hell on Earth]]'', went so far as to codify how much
* [[Ravenloft]] is a world purposely designed to make sure evil always flourishes and good never triumphs. The entire world is ruled by [[Powers That Be|the dark powers]] that put psychotic overlords in charge of each land. Even if you kill them, someone else will likely take their place. Oh, and you can no longer talk to your gods. The book series really brings this home, with every hero dying pointlessly while evil flourishes.
* Paladins of [[Dungeons
== Theater ==
* ''[[Fiddler
* A major theme in ''[[A Man for All Seasons]]'', which provides one of the quotes above.
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== Video Games ==
* Just every [[First-Person Shooter]] so far this generation of gaming that isn't mercenary work. Yes, it is no longer worthwhile to fight for your country
* Kotomine in ''[[Fate/stay
* The peculiarly [[Genre Savvy]] Ganondorf makes use of this trope in a few installments of the ''Zelda'' series, most notably ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
* ''[[
** [[It Got Worse]] in the sequel. {{spoiler|Being good means, in the end, that you'll have to kill thousands of people, including yourself, some of your closest companions, and many innocent or outright heroic individuals to save millions.}}
* ''[[Prototype (
* Dr. Freebird's wrestling with this is central to his storyline in ''[[Trauma Team]]''.
* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' - Ramza's a [[Wide
* The Followers of the Apocalypse in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' have an ethos of providing medicine, food and education to anyone who needs it. In the post-apocalyptic Fallout-verse, this results in them being understaffed and forever running out of supplies.
** It gets better if {{spoiler|you set up an ending in which the Great Khans flee the Mojave to establish a new empire with the assistance of the Followers. Turns out Brains + Brawn is a winning combination.}}
** Similarly, companions Arcade Gannon and Veronica Santangelo, both idealists in their own way will not end up with particularly satisfying endings. Arcade will see that an Independent New Vegas isn't as perfect as he wants it to be but do what he can to help others. Veronica will either [[My Country, Right or Wrong|stay with]] the Brotherhood of Steel despite knowing that their current path will lead them to ruin or be forever traumatized by their zealotry after leaving to join the Followers. J.E. Sawyers states that one of the themes of the game is that in a world as harsh as the Fallout setting, the idealist is the one to be hurt the most.
** This also applies to the Honest Hearts DLC with New Canaanite Missionary Daniel. If he succeeds in evacuating the Sorrows as he wanted, he'll forever question himself on whether or not he did the right thing. If they instead choose to [[Training the Peaceful Villagers|stay and fight]] the White Legs, he'll be forever haunted by their loss of innocence.
* A milder variant in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', no matter how nice [[The Messiah|Paragon Shepard]] is and how many good things s/he does at his/her own personal risk, s/he still gets reprimanded and screwed over by the politicians of the Citadel Council and Ambassador Udina around every corner.
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* At the beginning of the ''[[Sam and Fuzzy]]'' NMS revived arc (when Devahi starts working for them), Sam and Fuzzy are dispatched to take care of a problem that involves megalomaniacal gerbils and some really sinister wine. When, at the end of the job, Sam tries to take the wine with him, the owner of the restaurant who hired him stops him, because even though it's opened, and partially drunk, and incredibly dangerous, it's still gotta be worth at least as much as he's paying Sam to save his sorry hide. Sam walks out, with the wine but sans pay, commenting that doing the right thing sucks.
** Sam ''always'' tries to do the right thing, and it ''always'' sucks for him.
* Acknowledged in ''[[The Order of the Stick
** Likewise, in ''[[Start of Darkness]]'', Xykon explicitly argues this to a Professor X [[Expy]] as a reason he's turning towards evil. Why the hell should Xykon ''protect'' a world that hates and fears him?
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[
** They revised it. Fry was around that whole time, so he did have a happy life.
*** Except for when Fry spend years searching for Leelo the narwale in the Artic. A pat on the head before getting killed doesn't really help much.
* In ''[[
* The ''[[Justice League]]'' quote above comes from a scene in which Superman compares himself to his [[Evil Counterpart]] from another dimension, and he ''won't'' reduce [[Lex Luthor]] to a splatter across the nearest building for the loss of [[The Flash]].
** Mind, the Justice Lords were apparently pushed too far by the death of the Flash and whatever else their Luthor had done before that Superman killed him. Everything they did later, they probably did gradually and with plenty of rationalization as to how it was good. The Justice League benefited by seeing the stark results of what would happen if they chose that path.
*** However,the League defeated the Justice Lords by giving Luthor a presidential pardon in order to disrupt the Lords' powers. To make it simple, Being Good may suck "but it's better than the alternative".
* Kronk from ''[[The Emperor's New Groove
* The amount of abuse Buttons the Dog gets while protecting little girl Mindy in ''[[
** In [[The Movie]] ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Doug]] once found an envelope with a large amount of money and decided to turn it in at the local police station. His friends, and his sister, Judy gave him a fair amount of flack for it until 30 days later when no one claimed the money, making the money legally his. Doug then heard on the news about a little old lady who was missing the exact same amount of money. Reluctantly, he returned the money to her, whereupon she rewarded his honesty with ''[[Dude, Where's My Reward?|a pack of spearmint gum.]]''
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* Anytime anyone sacrifices their own life to save another. Sure, dying so that others may live is perhaps one of the most selfless things that anyone can do, but you still have to ''die''.
* It's a well-known (and [[Tear Jerker|sad]]) fact that kids who are bullied at school often get in trouble for retaliating in self-defense. Now, go ask somebody who has tried to interfere and protect a victim from being bullied. Chances are they got in trouble along with the victim.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120511075647/http://now.msn.com/living/0416-ohio-hs-grad-ban.aspx This high school student] was unable to graduate because he missed 16 days of school. Those days were spent caring for his cancer-stricken mother. Fortunately, the decision was reversed.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]
[[Category:
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