Darkest Hour: Difference between revisions

Compare [[Belly of the Whale]], the first of the dark hours. [[Eucatastrophe]] is a subtrope.

 

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** Because of Gohan's own arrogance, his father sacrificed himself {{spoiler|in vain}}; Trunks is lying in a pool of his own blood; Vegeta, the only other person even ''remotely'' capable of standing up to Cell has been incapacitated with a single blow; and, [[It Got Worse|to top it all off, Gohan only has the use of one of his arms.]]

** Piccolo Daimao had killed Goku's best friend Kuririn, with him failing to avenge him, now his [[Old Master]] Muten Roshi is also dead along with Chaotzu, Piccolo got his wish for eternal youth, and worst of all, he killed Shenlong himself so that he is no longer challenged.

** Sensui's power far exceeds Yusuke's being and S class while Yusuke was a B+ at best. Knowing he has no chance in hell of ever beating Sensui, Yusuke opted for a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] letting Sensui kill him thus boosting the the power levels of Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei up to A class.

** 3 A Class fighters against an S Class was still a very one sided [[Curb Stomp Battle]] in favor of Sensui. It took two [[Deus Ex Machina]] just to beat him.

** ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'': In the finale of the first season, [[The Hero]] was defeated and forced into hiding with his [[Humongous Mecha]], his [[The Lancer|lancer]] was shot down, his [[Love Interest]] was dying, the base was taken by one of the [[Co-Dragons]] of [[Big Bad]], and the Professor was tortured.

* Most of the Rossiu arc of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', where the heroes are discredited, stripped of power, and seemingly impotent in the face of the apocalypse. The Darkest Hour for the first two arcs is Simon's [[Heroic BSOD]]. {{spoiler|And for good reason, [[Two Words: Obvious Trope|Two Words:]] [[Memetic Badass|Ka]][[Decoy Protagonist|mi]][[The Obi-Wan|na's]] [[Killed Off for Real|Death!]]}}

* By the last episode of ''[[Scrapped Princess]]'', Pacifica has sustained a mortal wound, Prince Forsythe has given ''himself'' a mortal wound, Shannon and Zefiris have been dragged off by the surviving Peacemakers, and for good measure, the Royal Forces start blasting the place. It ends well.

* The Darkest Hour in ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' is when the children realize they can't beat the D-Reaper even with [[All Your Powers Combined]], Juri is in a suicidal, catatonic state, they learn that the D-Reaper obliterated the Digital World, making it a Barren Wasteland, and they realize it's plan to cause a [[Apocalypse How|Class 6 Apocalypse]].

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', the Darkest Hour for Lelouch comes in R2 episode 19. He doesn't take the news of Nunnally's death well. Unfortunately, by episode's end, with the Black Knights betraying him and Rolo dying to save him, [[It Got Worse]], and he has passed the [[Despair Event Horizon]]. This leads to some [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|regrettable]] [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|decisions]].

** In the anime, Rosette is kidnapped by Aion and brainwashed to take part in his plans. Chrono manages to free Joshua from the horns, but they've damaged his mind so much he barely remembers anyone, and in the process Chrono is frozen in time. Thing spiral out of control from there, and don't get better until Chrono's final fight with Aion, and even then, the rest of the series is grim up until the [[Tear Jerker|ending.]]

* In ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', the Darkest Hour is when the Raven turns the townspeople into crows and captures Mytho when Princess Tutu can't remove her pendant from her neck (which is Mytho's last heart shard). Ahiru becomes so depressed that she believes the only way she can help everyone is ''by killing herself''. Fakir stops her by convincing her that he will always be with her and they can save Mytho together. The Darkest Hour comes to an end when Ahiru finds the courage to give Mytho the pendant and return to being a duck.

* There's one at the end of each ''[[Slayers]]'' season.

* The result of a [[Gambit Roulette]] orchestrated by the main villain, Tamaki's [[Evil Matriarch]] grandmother, in an attempt to separate him and Haruhi in ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]''.

** Part 6 - Pucci upgrades his Stand to one that can reset the universe, and he plans to make a world where the Joestars never existed. The only one stopping him is a kid with no offensive abilities whatsoever.

** Part 7 - Valentine has all the corpse parts and merges them with Lucy, giving him complete immunity to Johnny's attacks, Gyro's strongest attack doesn't work and gets him killed, and then Diego shows up...

** The little black circle things? Those are seeds. In a world that seems to be undergoing an ice age and random geological phenomena. I'll buy the "reset button" but that doesn't really explain anything about the doppelgangers / protagonist look-alikes. Seems to suffer from Anime Ending Syndrome, which is to say it doesn't make much sense even on a symbolic level.

* The last part of the manga ''[[Hellsing]]'' develops with the city of London destroyed by vampires and crusaders, with Alucard far away in a ship, and the Hellsing manor almost destroyed and under the attack of vampires. The situation doesn't get better until Alucard arrives (which actually makes things ''worse'').

* The Water Seven and Sabaody arcs in ''[[One Piece]]'', both storylines in which the Straw Hat Pirates have come close to annihilation.

** Those are tame compared to The Marineford arc. The marines succeed in executing Ace, Blackbeard kills Whitebeard and steals his powers, Luffy has sustained a massive amount of damage and sacrificed part of his lifespan in vain, and several villains from previous arcs have now been freed from prison ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|by Luffy himself, no less]]), and as the cherry on top, Luffy lost his brother despite all the sacrifices he made.

* By episode 11 of ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', Homura is the only magical girl left alive and is fighting a losing battle against Walpurgisnacht even after unloading a small army's worth of firepower on it. After repeating the same six weeks who knows how many times, she finally gives up hope... {{spoiler|cue [[Wishplosion]] courtesy of her beloved Madoka.}}

* ''[[The End of Evangelion]]'' carries this trope to its logical extreme. It's pretty dark.

* ''[[SD Gundam Force]]'': Most of Neotopia's population is [[Taken for Granite|turned to stone]], Commander Sazabi has stolen Captain's soul drive, and is preparing to rule over the world with it.

* The approaching end of the Fullbringer arc in ''[[Bleach]]''. All of Ichigo's Nakama are either fighting against him due to the [[Big Bad]]'s [[More Than Mind Control]] or are critically injured, the guy who he thought was a friend turns out to be working with the big bad the entire time, the powers he worked to attain throughout the arc are taken from him, and after getting stabbed through the heart he finds his father behind him, seemingly the one who did it.

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': Sango and Miroku waiting for the Wind Tunnel to absorb them while their despair consumes the light within the Shikon no Tama leaving it in darkness.

* ''[[High School DxD]]'''s Darkest Hour occurs in the 11th volume when Opfus had 75% of her powers drained from her. Then they're trapped in an alternate dimension surrounded by grim reapers. They were able to destroy the statues and were already about to get out of that place when Opfus gets kidnapped by a newly-rebuilt Shalba Beelzebub, and Ise has to rescue her. {{spoiler|The volume ends with Ise getting hit with a [[Achilles' Heel|dragon-eater Samael blood coated]] on an arrow, leaving him to die in that place. That's not all however; Hades starts a war on the Underworld, Azazel's been accused of cooperating with terrorists even though he's the one who wanted peace in the first place, and every single member of the Occult Research Club suffering a [[Heroic BSOD]].}}

 

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' graces us with [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=186081 Darkest hour ]. As far as the storyline is concerned, this point is reached when [[Eldritch Abomination|Yawgmoth]] personally manifests himself on Dominaria.

** And again with New Phyrexia. If you haven't gleaned how that's a Darkest Hour from the title, the Phyrexians have invaded another plane. This time, ''they've won''. From what's been spoiled so far, it seems as if ''they've been able to infect mana itself.'' The multiverse is ''screwed''.

 

* Among other incidents, unprecedented amounts of crap hit the fan at the end of chapter 100 of ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' - right in the middle of the Ultimate [[Cloning Blues|Clone Saga]]. To whit: Peter has already found at least one violently insane clone of himself and has tangled with a mysterious Spider Woman; Mary Jane has been kidnapped by another warped and insane clone of Peter who intends to transform her to make her "just like him" (and as of the last page of the chapter has apparently succeeded); Nick Fury has shown up outside Peter's house to arrest him with an army of "Spider Slayers"; Gwen Stacey has mysteriously returned from the dead, but panics and transforms into Carnage (the monster that killed her in the first place) when Fury shows up; Peter was forced to tell Aunt May his secret when she discovered him with Gwen, driving her lash out at him for lying to her all along and telling him she doesn't want to have anything more to do with him, before the repeated shocks (Gwen transforming into Carnage being the straw that broke the camel's back) cause her to have a heart attack; and Peter's supposedly long-dead father Richard Parker has apparently shown up, with Peter shocked to realize that May had known about him for a while and had kept Richard's return a secret. That's a LOT of crap to be going down at once and [[It Got Worse|it still has to get worse]] before it gets any better. And while I could say it all turns out alright, that would be what we call "a lie". ("Mostly alright" is about as close as we can get.)

* [[Final Crisis]] for entire DCU.

** About midway through the Iron Dominion Saga, the Iron Queen [[Brainwashed and Crazy|hacks NICOLE]], allowing the Dominion forces to seize control of New Mobotropolis and send the Freedom Fighters running.

** The series seems to be heading into a new one, in the aftermath of the ''Genesis'' arc—not only has Eggman succeeded in {{spoiler|roboticizing Sally and nearly killing Antoine}}, but [[Big Bad Ensemble|rival villain]] Ixis Naugus has successfully manipulated the fear of the citizens of New Mobotropolis following the Iron Dominion occupation and subsequent events, allowing him to {{spoiler|install himself as King.}}

 

== Fan Works ==

* ''[[My Little Avengers]]'': Chapter 14 and roughly the first third of chapter 15 -- [[Big Bad|Loki's]] [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Dark Avengers]] have managed to defeat the Avengers, and a threat on Pinkie Pie's life gets Big Macintosh to surrender Mjolnir and Thor's power to Loki, who proceeds to pervert the [[Power of Friendship]] to strip the other Avengers of their powers as well. The Dark Avengers then assault the royal palace, banishing Luna to the moon and taking a depowered Celestia prisoner, with Loki proclaiming himself the new ruler of Equestria. {{spoiler|Fortunately, Big Mac gets a [[Rousing Speech]] from a ponified [[Stan Lee]], and he proceeds to do the same to his teammates, using the ''real'' [[Power of Friendship]] to restore their powers. They then take the fight to Loki, setting the stage for the [[Final Battle]].}}

* The 15th chapter of a different [[crossover]] fanfic, ''[[Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]'' certainly fits. The griffins manage to seize Canterlot and the castle becomes the only save area. Many ponies were injured during their raid, some died. Tornado Swirl and Overdrive lost every one of their wingmates, the Stingray squadron was wiped out completely, Blueberry died a [[Cruel and Unusual Death]] and {{spoiler|Carrot Top [[Died in Your Arms Tonight|dies in Derpy's arms]]}}, much to her despair. The situation is so crushing that even [[Plucky Girl|Cloud Kicker]] bursts into tears!

 

== Film ==

** The first time comes when {{spoiler|the Helicarrier is barely functioning after [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Hawkeye's attack and the Hulk's rampage; Thor is gone, Banner is gone, Iron Man's armour is a hair's breath from completely crapping out, Black Widow is inches from a [[Heroic BSOD]], Agent Coulson is dead, Loki has escaped, and S.H.I.E.L.D. '''still''' has no idea where the Tesseract is.}}

** The Darkest Hour of the [[Final Battle]] is when {{spoiler|the Avengers, despite having assembled, have been ridiculously outnumbered and outgunned by the Chitauri. Iron Man and Hawkeye are running low on ammo, Thor and Cap are surrounded, the Hulk is being ''pummelled'' by weapons fire, and to top it all off, the WSC declare "Fuck this!" and [[Nuke'Em|fire a nuke at Manhattan]].}}

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'' (both the book and the movie), the boy gets a little upset at the part where Westley is dead and Buttercup supposedly marries Humperdinck. What's the point of reading this story? That's not how it's supposed to end! It takes him ''years'' to realize just how deeply that moment affected him.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'''

** In ''Philosopher's Stone'', Harry throws away for his House any realistic competition in the House Cup and resolves to give up saving the Stone.

* ''[[Someone Else's War|Someone Elses War]]'': Matteo and his friends have come up with a clever plan to arrest the ranking officials of the LRA without any violence. And then half his friends are wiped out in a single move when the LRA decides they've got too many mouths to feed.

 

** "The Sound of Drums" (which again features the Master) counts as a Darkest Hour, for the Doctor and for the Earth.

** "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 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.

* ''[[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.

** 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.

** In the first episodes of season 3, the ''New Caprica'' arc. Most of the insurgency's leaders are held prisoner on the planet. The free ones, Saul, Anders and Galen are increasingly desperate, with Galen getting careless after Cally is arrested and Saul unhinged after being tortured. Starbuck is missing, held prisoner by Leoben and subjected to [[Mind Rape]] with no way to reach her husband or allies. On the Fleet, the two Battlestars are undermanned and have no viable means of penetrating the planetary defence. William and Lee are in increasing disagreement on what to do, feeling hopeless and unable to help the people they love.

** Starting at the middle of season 4… Ooooh boy. The Fleet finds Earth after years of searching, but the whole planet is a radioactive wasteland. The friendly cylons have been all but decimated, with only one sheep surviving. Galactica herself is wounded and falls apart with old age. People fall prey to suicidal and auto-destructive behaviors, a situation that culminates in a bloody mutiny. The one child that symbolizes humanity's future is kidnapped by the bad cylons… and ''it keeps getting worse'' until the beginning of the [[Series Finale]].

* The two-part opener of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' series four is called "The Darkest Hour." Furthermore, the tagline for the season as displayed on the posters is: "The darkest hour is just before the dawn." It's also a line of dialogue in the first episode, as said by Prince Arthur.

* The [[Power Rangers Samurai]] episode ''The Tengen Gate'' ends with team leader Jayden poisoned and captured by a monster, the rest of the Rangers injured and unconscious, and [[Sixth Ranger]] Antonio left standing alone in despair.

 

== Music ==

Just know that I love more than anything, just in case

We all die... }}

 

== Theater ==

** Actually, the Darkest Hour was [[It Got Worse|yet to come]]: the Continental Army was soundly thrashed in the initial engagements at New York, and the broken remnants fled across New Jersey desperately attempting to escape the British. It was this that prompted Tom Paine to write "These are the times that try men's souls...."

* The third act of ''Vanities'', where the characters' friendship is strained to the breaking point. Worse, [[Downer Ending|this was the original non-musical play's finale]].

 

== Video Games ==

* This was both literally and figuratively the case in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' before the player character escapes the northern undead prison. The First Flame is dying, and when it does all light and fire shall go out with it. As a result much of the world is suffering through endless nights. The world has also be devastated by a curse of undeath called the Dark Sign and many, many civilizations have collapsed as a result.

 

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', as might be expected from such a plot-heavy series of its length, has at least three examples.

** The first is at the end of Chapter 12, when Gwynn is in an apparently irreversible coma, and Torg and Zoë are trapped in pre-Norman Britain in an [[Evil Dead|Army of Darkness]] parody.

** The trolls are first introduced right in the ''middle'' of their Darkest Hour. They finally beat the game, and are just about to claim their reward...when Jack shows up and starts killing everything, forcing the trolls to hide out on an asteroid and pretty much wait for death.

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'': In [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-09-27 the ninth part of the Sister II arc] Nanase futilely tries to talk to Abraham to convince him to spare Ellen's life but he cuts her fairy doll avatar down. This hurts her unimaginably as she can feel everything but she creates another avatar and tries again. Abraham thinks he is fighting puppets controlled by the elf he defeated earlier and refuses to even acknowledge what she is trying to tell him believing it to be trickery. Instead, he cuts the avatars down as fast as Nanase can create them each time causing her physical pain but she keeps trying over and over again. All this while every mortal being in the area who could possibly help her has either been put into a deep sleep by Abraham or is unaware of her plight.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[There Will Be Brawl]]'' - the butchers are still on the loose, Princess Peach is still missing, and to make matters worse, [[Complete Monster|Kirby]] has escaped from jail.

* [[Whateley Universe]] example: the story "Christmas Elves". One chapter ends with Fey trapped and powerless in a magical circle so she can be mindslaved, Shroud gone, and Generator locked to a table and stabbed through the heart so hard that the athame goes through her and is stuck in the table.

 

== Western Animation ==

** And in the follow-up episode, Discord reveals to Twilight that [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|she led them into the trap because she didn't think the riddle through to the end]]. Despite that, Twilight ''does'' manage to assemble the Elements of Harmony—only for them to fail. The Mane Six go their separate ways and Twilight [[Despair Event Horizon|actually gives up]] and is ready to leave Ponyville. It takes a timely intervention from Celestia to snap her out of it.

** In the season finale, the Changeling Queen Chrysalis manages to defeat both the Mane Six ''and'' Princess Celestia, and take over Canterlot in a preparation for her horde to conquer Equestria. She's only defeated when {{spoiler|Cadence uses [[The Power of Love]] to supercharge Shining Armor's shield spell, which banishes the changelings from the city [[Pokémon (anime)|Team Rocket style]].}}

 

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