Darkest Hour: Difference between revisions

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* In ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', the main one comes when Sakura believes she's lost to Yue; she has a lucid dream in which the catastrophe actually takes place, and friendships... well, ''no longer exist'', at least for the people Sakura was close to.
* In ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', the main one comes when Sakura believes she's lost to Yue; she has a lucid dream in which the catastrophe actually takes place, and friendships... well, ''no longer exist'', at least for the people Sakura was close to.
* In ''[[Pluto]]'', when all of the seven great robots of the world have been destroyed. Except for Atom, who may be insane at that point.
* In ''[[Pluto]]'', when all of the seven great robots of the world have been destroyed. Except for Atom, who may be insane at that point.
* [[Twentieth Century Boys]]' darkest hour is at the end of the second arc, which sees an even crueller person donning the Friend mask, killing several million people, and [[Crapsack World|molding the world in his own image]], making all the protagonists work up till then all for nothing.]] After that, things start to eventually look up, starting with the return of the supposedly dead hero from the first third of the story.
* [[20th Century Boys]]' darkest hour is at the end of the second arc, which sees an even crueller person donning the Friend mask, killing several million people, and [[Crapsack World|molding the world in his own image]], making all the protagonists work up till then all for nothing.]] After that, things start to eventually look up, starting with the return of the supposedly dead hero from the first third of the story.
* HUGE one in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' now: Father's just activated his transmutation circle and absorbed the entirety of Amestris. Then he absorbed '''[[God|the Truth]]'''.
* HUGE one in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' now: Father's just activated his transmutation circle and absorbed the entirety of Amestris. Then he absorbed '''[[God|the Truth]]'''.
** Another one is the Elric brothers' first meeting with Father and the aftermath. Basically, they've found out the horrible secret of their country and they're led to believe there's nothing they can do to stop it. One of the chapters in this arc is even called "Inside the Belly."
** Another one is the Elric brothers' first meeting with Father and the aftermath. Basically, they've found out the horrible secret of their country and they're led to believe there's nothing they can do to stop it. One of the chapters in this arc is even called "Inside the Belly."
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* ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'': the [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|ending]] to the short story functions as this. On the other hand, most of the videogame functions as a Darkest Hour until the endgame.
* ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'': the [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|ending]] to the short story functions as this. On the other hand, most of the videogame functions as a Darkest Hour until the endgame.
* Katie MacAlister's ''Aisling Gray'' series ends book three at such a low point that it took this troper at least a year to pick up book four.
* Katie MacAlister's ''Aisling Gray'' series ends book three at such a low point that it took this troper at least a year to pick up book four.
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] [[Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', Rafen first, under psychic attacks, nearly [[Despair Event Horizon|commits suicide]]. Fighting against the attacks, and a vision, free him from the compulsion but make his duty clear to him: he tries to blow up the city where his fellow Blood Angels are breaking with their Chapter. It fails, they pursue him. It ends only when they catch him in a factory, and it explodes.
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 40,000]] [[Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', Rafen first, under psychic attacks, nearly [[Despair Event Horizon|commits suicide]]. Fighting against the attacks, and a vision, free him from the compulsion but make his duty clear to him: he tries to blow up the city where his fellow Blood Angels are breaking with their Chapter. It fails, they pursue him. It ends only when they catch him in a factory, and it explodes.
* The ''[[Star Trek]]: Destiny'' trilogy by David Mack has its Darkest Hour (and arguably, the Darkest Hour of the entire [[Star Trek]] franchise) at the end of the second novel, when enough Borg ships to lay waste to every planet in known space come screaming into the alpha quadrant and [[Curb Stomp Battle|tear through the combined forces of Starfleet, the Klingons, the Cardassians, Romulans, Ferengi and Talarians as if they were made of tissue paper]].
* The ''[[Star Trek]]: Destiny'' trilogy by David Mack has its Darkest Hour (and arguably, the Darkest Hour of the entire [[Star Trek]] franchise) at the end of the second novel, when enough Borg ships to lay waste to every planet in known space come screaming into the alpha quadrant and [[Curb Stomp Battle|tear through the combined forces of Starfleet, the Klingons, the Cardassians, Romulans, Ferengi and Talarians as if they were made of tissue paper]].
* The ending of ''[[Sword of Truth|Soul of the Fire]]'' sees Kahlan hanging to life by a fragile thread and having lost the child she was carrying, Richard believing that the Imperial Order is impossible to defeat, and a general lack of ''anything'' good having come from the events of the book, with Richard, Kahlan, and Cara quietly leaving in utter defeat.
* The ending of ''[[Sword of Truth|Soul of the Fire]]'' sees Kahlan hanging to life by a fragile thread and having lost the child she was carrying, Richard believing that the Imperial Order is impossible to defeat, and a general lack of ''anything'' good having come from the events of the book, with Richard, Kahlan, and Cara quietly leaving in utter defeat.
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** ''Logopolis'', the final story of the Fourth Doctor (the longest running Doctor on television to date). <s>Most of the universe</s> ''One tenth'' of the universe, to be specific (which is still a hell of a lot), has already gotten destroyed, the situation has gotten so dire that the Doctor's future self had to bail him out, and the Master finally decides to take the remaining universe hostage.
** ''Logopolis'', the final story of the Fourth Doctor (the longest running Doctor on television to date). <s>Most of the universe</s> ''One tenth'' of the universe, to be specific (which is still a hell of a lot), has already gotten destroyed, the situation has gotten so dire that the Doctor's future self had to bail him out, and the Master finally decides to take the remaining universe hostage.
** "The Sound of Drums" (which again features the Master) counts as a Darkest Hour, for the Doctor and for the Earth.
** "The Sound of Drums" (which again features the Master) counts as a Darkest Hour, for the Doctor and for the Earth.
** Possibly the darkest hour in not just the show's history, but in the whole of fiction occurs in ''The Pandorica Opens'' when {{spoiler|it is revealed that the apparently [[Back From the Dead]] Rory is actually [[Tomato in the Mirror|an Auton duplicate]] with the original's memories created as part of a huge trap for the Doctor by an alliance of all his enemies, who kills Amy just as she remembers him. The Doctor is shut in the Pandorica, an inescapable prison, despite his pleas for them to listen to his warnings of the impending destruction of space and time. It's in vain, because the TARDIS explodes with River inside of it, creating the cracks that set the season in motion in the first place and causing [[Apocalypse How|every star in every universe to explode at every moment in history]], [[Ret-Gone|making it as if reality never existed]] in the first place.}} It all gets better in the finale though.
** Possibly the darkest hour in not just the show's history, but in the whole of fiction occurs in ''The Pandorica Opens'' when {{spoiler|it is revealed that the apparently [[Back from the Dead]] Rory is actually [[Tomato in the Mirror|an Auton duplicate]] with the original's memories created as part of a huge trap for the Doctor by an alliance of all his enemies, who kills Amy just as she remembers him. The Doctor is shut in the Pandorica, an inescapable prison, despite his pleas for them to listen to his warnings of the impending destruction of space and time. It's in vain, because the TARDIS explodes with River inside of it, creating the cracks that set the season in motion in the first place and causing [[Apocalypse How|every star in every universe to explode at every moment in history]], [[Ret-Gone|making it as if reality never existed]] in the first place.}} It all gets better in the finale though.
** "A Good Man Goes To War", where the Doctor rose so high, and saw everything taken away, when {{spoiler|Melody is taken away from under his nose, so she can be raised to kill him}}.
** "A Good Man Goes To War", where the Doctor rose so high, and saw everything taken away, when {{spoiler|Melody is taken away from under his nose, so she can be raised to kill him}}.
* The end of the ''[[Chuck]]'' episode "Chuck Versus Sarah" is arguably the most depressing moment of the series. Not only has Sarah lost her memory, but after seeing her video logs, she starts to realize just how crucial the last five years of her life were and how different she became after falling in love. She sets out for Quinn with the knowledge that killing him won't actually make that any better, and Chuck watches the love of his life walk away from him knowing that she remembers almost nothing of their time together.
* The end of the ''[[Chuck]]'' episode "Chuck Versus Sarah" is arguably the most depressing moment of the series. Not only has Sarah lost her memory, but after seeing her video logs, she starts to realize just how crucial the last five years of her life were and how different she became after falling in love. She sets out for Quinn with the knowledge that killing him won't actually make that any better, and Chuck watches the love of his life walk away from him knowing that she remembers almost nothing of their time together.
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* The end of the episode "Spiral" in season 5 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Hellgod Glory has kidnapped Buffy's little sister/cosmic [[MacGuffin]] Dawn/The Key, and is going to use her to end the world. Plus, Giles is badly injured and the gang are stranded in the middle of nowhere.
* The end of the episode "Spiral" in season 5 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Hellgod Glory has kidnapped Buffy's little sister/cosmic [[MacGuffin]] Dawn/The Key, and is going to use her to end the world. Plus, Giles is badly injured and the gang are stranded in the middle of nowhere.
* In ''[[Angel]]'', argubly one of the darkest moments is the end of season three where Wesley has betrayed the team and been abandoned, Cordelia has [[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence]], and Angel's been trapped at the bottom of the sea by his own son.
* In ''[[Angel]]'', argubly one of the darkest moments is the end of season three where Wesley has betrayed the team and been abandoned, Cordelia has [[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence]], and Angel's been trapped at the bottom of the sea by his own son.
* In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', the episode "Best of Both Worlds" marks a "darkest hour" for the crew and for the series which was facing cancellation. At the end of Season Three, Enterprise is damaged, the Borg have decimated the forces massed at Wolf 359, and they have captured Captain Picard assimilating his knowledge and their one trick shot with the main deflector dish fails and damages the ship. Riker is forced to take command of the ship and appoint his rival Lt Commander Shelby to be his first officer, as the Borg move to assimilate Earth. That's about as bad as it gets on TNG.
* In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', the episode "Best of Both Worlds" marks a "darkest hour" for the crew and for the series which was facing cancellation. At the end of Season Three, Enterprise is damaged, the Borg have decimated the forces massed at Wolf 359, and they have captured Captain Picard assimilating his knowledge and their one trick shot with the main deflector dish fails and damages the ship. Riker is forced to take command of the ship and appoint his rival Lt Commander Shelby to be his first officer, as the Borg move to assimilate Earth. That's about as bad as it gets on TNG.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' has quite a few involving the Dominion. The two most likely candidates occur when the station is abandoned at the end of season 5, and is not recaptured until 6 episodes into the next season, and "In The Pale Moonlight", when it appears that Senator Vreenak has discovered the falsified evidence Sisko and Garak had made to get the Romulans to join the war.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' has quite a few involving the Dominion. The two most likely candidates occur when the station is abandoned at the end of season 5, and is not recaptured until 6 episodes into the next season, and "In The Pale Moonlight", when it appears that Senator Vreenak has discovered the falsified evidence Sisko and Garak had made to get the Romulans to join the war.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' season 5 leads up to this: despite defeating Apophis once and for all at the start of the season, one by one, Earth and its allies are targeted for destruction by Anubis; the Tollan are destroyed, the rebel Jaffa and Tok'ra are scattered, and Earth escapes a [[Colony Drop]] unscathed (barely). Anubis turns out to have Ancient technology that can rival the Asgard, and Thor gets his brain sucked out. Oh, and Daniel Jackson is dead. They're screwed, and the next season doesn't give them much more hope.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' season 5 leads up to this: despite defeating Apophis once and for all at the start of the season, one by one, Earth and its allies are targeted for destruction by Anubis; the Tollan are destroyed, the rebel Jaffa and Tok'ra are scattered, and Earth escapes a [[Colony Drop]] unscathed (barely). Anubis turns out to have Ancient technology that can rival the Asgard, and Thor gets his brain sucked out. Oh, and Daniel Jackson is dead. They're screwed, and the next season doesn't give them much more hope.
** Season ''four'' ended with such as well. Teal'c last seen being taken by Apophis' [[Dragon]]. Then, because of the effects of [[Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?|the sun blowing up]] on [[Subspace or Hyperspace|hyperspace windows]], the ship belonging to SG-1 is flung ''galaxies'' away, with zillions of years at maximum hyperspace between them and home. Just after that sank in, [[It Got Worse]]: Apophis comes through the same window and is ''literally'' right on top of them, his command ship docking with theirs the way theirs would dock with a pyramid.
** Season ''four'' ended with such as well. Teal'c last seen being taken by Apophis' [[Dragon]]. Then, because of the effects of [[Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?|the sun blowing up]] on [[Subspace or Hyperspace|hyperspace windows]], the ship belonging to SG-1 is flung ''galaxies'' away, with zillions of years at maximum hyperspace between them and home. Just after that sank in, [[It Got Worse]]: Apophis comes through the same window and is ''literally'' right on top of them, his command ship docking with theirs the way theirs would dock with a pyramid.
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