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Diabolus Ex Machina: Difference between revisions
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== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Darker Than Black]]''. What was that? You thought {{spoiler|Havock}} was going to get a ''happy end''? ...Don't be a fool.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam
** Something happens like this in the Gundam Side-Story ''Space, to the End of a Flash'', where the pilot of the Gundam Unit 5 survives the battle of A Baoa Qu and is returning to the ship... {{spoiler|only to be shot in the back by a barely alive Gelgoog}}.
*** And again in the ''Gundam Evolve'' story involving the [[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory|Dendrobrium Orchis]], {{spoiler|where the pilot is shot by a dying Zaku when he back was turned just as they were cutting to the credits}}
* ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'' seems to fall into this trope. Especially when Setsuna finally reunites with his loved sister, a wacko angel girl shoots her and enrages Setsuna, causing [[The End of the World
* ''[[
* {{spoiler|The death of Nia}} in ''[[
* ''[[
** What makes {{spoiler|the "kill all Japanese"}} incident SO much worse is that Lelouch clearly was about to confess all his wrongdoings to {{spoiler|Euphemia}} and leave his villainous ways behind. Only to slip up and stumble right into the [[Moral Event Horizon]] without even wanting to. After this you just know {{spoiler|there will be no happy ending for Lulu.}}
** Given the number of times Lelouch has horrible events happen right in his moment of triumph, one might expect that he leaves an open place setting at his dinner table just for Diabolus.
** Sometimes it's like Lelouch WANTS something bad to happen [[Tempting Fate|". . . it's like if i told you to kill all the Japanese."]] really? Of all the things you could have said?
* ''[[Weiss Kreuz]] [[Oddly
* The final sequence of [[
* ''[[End of Evangelion]]'', or even ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Evangelion]]'' in general loves this. In ''EoE'' {{spoiler|Asuka finally snaps out of her depression coma and gets a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when she kills nine Mass Produced Evas in three minutes.}} She barely finishes, but it's looking up. The {{spoiler|1=Seele army has been driven out, Rei, Shinji and Asuka are alive, Ritsuko's plan to detonate the entire complex failed, Shinji isn't in his psychopathic mother and [[Instrumentality]] has been averted. Then [[Cruel and Unusual Death|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bpx66Ld-TI Asuka gets speared by a Lance of Longinius, right as her power runs out. Her Eva is then partially EATEN ALIVE by the Mass Production EVAs]]], [[Egregious|who simply regenerated the wounds Asuka inflicted on them]], [[Human Pincushion|and skewered to death by even more fake Lances]]; Shinji gets in Unit 01 and Rei fuses with Lilith, becomes a giant white god and turns all of humanity into orange juice on Shinji's orders.}} You could say [[It Got Worse]].
** While in normal Eva, everything is going fine, if not a tad [[True Art Is Angsty|angsty]]. Shinji's social skills are improving, Asuka's teamwork is going well and Rei is beginning to show some humanity. A few episodes later and {{spoiler|Asuka's been [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]], Shinji is catatonic and Rei is dead, replaced by a clone.}}
* A similar scene occurs in ''L/R''. The bad guys are defeated and one of the partners of the title agency has fallen in love and is all set to live happily ever after. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, while walking down the street near his office, one of the villains of the series pops into view and shoots him dead. Instantly. He doesn't even ''get'' a poignant flashback.}}
* A non-death example... ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]] Naisho'': Hazuki has taken an unlikely lead in the final leg of a relay to decide a swim meet... then she suddenly gets a cramp on the way back, allowing the other room to easily win the race.
* A few arcs of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** Higurashi ''Kai'' does even better than that. In Minagoroshi-hen, {{spoiler|Rika has spent more than a hundred years of constantly repeating the same month, ''knowing'' that she's going to die a horrendous, bloody death at the end. However, there is ''one'' world that Keiichi manages to change in the slightest way. A tiny little change leads to a string of minor miracles, with many a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]. Then, right before the club can finally save Rika, the [[Big Bad]] reveals herself and ''shoots them all in the face. Then'' she ritualistically disembowels Rika and goes on to initiate the aforementioned poison gas attack on the village.}} Although that chapter title (It translates to {{spoiler|Everyone-killing chapter}}) is a bit of a tip-off...
*** Palm goes to Higurashi ''Rei''. {{spoiler|Rika finally manages to end the endless loops of death. She's so happy that she gets all careless and runs into a truck, dying in the process and ending up in a perfect world where everybody is happy and there is no Watanagashi tragedy, but in which she has no good friends (Satoko is a bitch and Hanyuu just isn't there in that world) and the village will be destroyed due to the dam project. She finally gets back to the old world by ''killing her own mother''.}}
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*** Because 1. He probably didn't have this skill, and 2. They were expecting the Earth's natural moon to show up if things ever went south. Of course, Piccolo blew it up expecting them to do this. Still, Vegeta using this ability came out of nowhere.
** In the Frieza saga, this appears, though is more so in the anime. Piccolo is fighting Frieza in what is presumed to be his true form, losing, [[I Am Not Left-Handed|then powers up to full strength]]. Whether or not this would have made a difference because Frieza reveals he has two more transformations, transforms into the first one and demolishes Piccolo. In the anime, Piccolo manages to take the upper hand, then Frieza transforms.
* The ending of ''[[
** There ''was'' originally a sequel in development that got canned that would've linked the GGG verse with ''[[Betterman]]'' more. Part of the development involved Genesic GaoGaiGar erupting out of the ''Sun''.
* The [[Wham! Episode]] in ''[[
* It'd be a shame to leave out ''[[Ga
* Occurs in the second season of ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'', to complete the [[Hope Spot]] for Hikaru and Eagle --having defeated Nova and saved Lantis, the Knights and Eagle return to Cephiro only for Debonair to show up out of ''nowhere'' to kill the Autozam commander. Especially jarring since Debonair had never actually attacked anyone directly until this moment.
* Used quite well to make a point in ''[[
** Kiriko laughs? Black Jack curses the heavens. In fact, thanks to the new releases of Black Jack manga, it can be seen that just about one fourth of his cases end like this. A running theme seems to be that even the world's best doctor isn't omnipotent.
*** This isn't just restricted to Black Jack, either- many of [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s works feature such occasions. The 1980 ''[[Astro Boy (
* ''[[
* [[Mad Doctor|Faust]] from ''[[Shaman King]]'' has the unfortunate distinction of getting one in his [[Start of Darkness|origin story.]] He works for years to save his wife from a terminal disease, finally succeeding a few months before a burglar shoots her.
* At the end of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'', Spike finally finds his lost love Julia, {{spoiler|only for her to be shot dead by a random mook when the Red Dragon makes their move on them both, setting off Spike's final [[Storming the Castle]] moment and the final showdown with Vicious}}.
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** {{spoiler|But then it's countered by a deus ex machina where she just says "Yeah, I got better after you killified him." Which doesn't necessarily turn out to be much better, though, depending on Shiki's actions afterward.}}
* In the FRLG arc of ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', yay! The good guys defeat the bad guys, stop an airship from crashing into Vermillion, free Deoxys to let it go where ever it wants, have a happy reunion of sorts... then WHAM! They get [[Taken for Granite]].
* Several in ''[[
* At the end of the [[Super Robot]] anime ''[[Space Warrior Baldios]]'', {{spoiler|the hero Marin and his allies can only watch as the [[Big Bad]], Zeo Gattler, unleashes his "Final Weapon" which triggers a cataclysmic series of gigantic tsunamis that ravage the surface of the earth. The last shot of the series is a freeze-frame of a tsunami wave, with the word "End" appearing next to it. Thankfully, there was a movie afterwards that improved the situation a bit, but things still didn't get completely better.}}
* In episode 278 of ''[[
** The final fight with Aizen. {{spoiler|It's revealed that the Hougyoku has left him immortal so he can't be killed. Instead he's imprisoned, which means he has the potential to return.}}
* ''[[
* In ''[[Pokémon (
** In the opening two-parter of ''[[Pokémon (
* In [[Panty
* A minor example of ''[[
* ''[[Shin Mazinger]]'' has a pretty brutal one at the end. {{spoiler|Kouji confronts and defeats Dr. Hell in one last climatic battle and it seems that Mazinger-Z stands triumphant. However, it turns out to be a [[Xanatos Gambit]] by ''Baron Ashura'', who sacrifices his/herself to allow the Mycene Empire to arrive on Earth. Cue [[Cliff Hanger]] Ending.}}
** This is based on the ending to the original [[Mazinger Z]], which had the Mycene Empire come out of nowhere to wreck the titular robot, only for [[Great Mazinger]] to equally [[Deus Ex Machina|come out of nowhere]] and save Kouji.
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* Let's be honest here - ''[[Marvel Zombies]]'' '''is''' this trope.
* It's also a favorite of [[The Walking Dead]]. Was it really necessary for Rick to {{spoiler|loose his hand, his wife and his newborn daughter?}} Not really, but it makes everyone reading it feel ''horrible.''
* A pretty stupid one from [[
* Remember at the end of ''[[Watchmen (
{{quote| {{spoiler|Ozymandias}}: {{spoiler|Do it? Dan, I'm not a Republic Serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.}}}}
* Messiah Complex. The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' have finally defeated all of their enemies and {{spoiler|Scott has given the mutant baby to Cable to take into the future.}} Everything seems great. {{spoiler|Until Bishop, who's been trying to kill the baby to prevent his horrible future, shoots at the baby and Cable.}} And {{spoiler|Cable is already disappearing from that point in time, leaving the shot to go through and hit Professor X in the head.}} It really sucks to be a mutant. Granted he got better since this is a comic book and {{spoiler|Professor X missing at the end was a hint.}}
== Fan Fic ==
* The [[So Bad It's Good|cheesy yet fairly popular]] ''[[Half-Life]]'' fanfic series, ''[[Half Life: Full Life Consequences
** To be continued...?
** And the second installment, after the defeat of the evil boss, ends with the dead Gordon Freeman becoming a ''zombie goast''.
** This is followed up with a glorious [[Deus Ex Machina]] in the third chapter, when even further into the future, John Freeman descends from the heavens to assist his son in defeating the Combines and sending them back to science and outer space.
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]] Virtual Season 8'' uses one of these after the crew is almost home, getting them lost again in order to [[Fix Fic|fix a few plot holes]] as well as to set up a more satisfying climactic battle in Virtual Season 9.
* The [[Powerpuff Girls]] [[Dark Fic]] series ''[[
== Film ==
* ''[[Carlitos Way]]''. The producers and bigwigs {{spoiler|actually allow the main character Charlie Brigante to die as he's about to escape to paradise}}. In the commentary, the filmmakers joke about whether or not to shoot the "Bullet Proof Vest Scene" before even showing the current cut to their higher-ups for approval.
* ''[[City of Angels (
* The movie-version of [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Mist]]'' takes this all the way into [[Deus Angst Machina]] territory.
* Even [[James Bond (
** Then again, this does seem to follow naturally from the premise that Blofeld, as shown throughout the movie, is an [[Sophisticated As Hell|enormous dick.]]
** Director Peter Hunt said that originally the film was to end with the wedding and then the next would start with the assassination and follow from there. However since Lazenby gave up doing the sequels, it wound up in ''OHMSS''. The following movie, ''[[
*** At the beginning of ''[[For Your Eyes Only (
*** It's very carefully structured to be open to the interpretation that it leads on from either ''[[
* The ending of ''[[Easy Rider]]'' was already on its way to being interpreted as a [[Downer Ending]], with Fonda telling Hopper that, despite their financial success, they failed at their goals from a moral and spiritual standpoint. But even that was too ambiguous, so the movie sent a couple of truckers with a shotgun to shoot them both dead for no good reason in the last two minutes of the movie. Closure!
* The Sean Penn-helmed ''[[The Pledge]]'' had a particularly brutal example of this, and it also proves that you ''can'' make a [[Downer Ending]] out of the death of the antagonist. The child-murderer being pursued by [[Jack Nicholson]]'s character dies in a fiery car wreck, drawing his full share of karma down on his head but ensuring that Jack ''never'' fulfills his titular pledge to find him, meaning that all he's risked in the movie, including winning the trust of the mother of the killer's next planned victim, [[Shaggy Dog Story|is for nothing]] (other than the fact that the killer never makes his next hit). We last see Jack's character sitting in front of the rural gas station he owns, rapidly fading into self-hatred and senility.
* One particular death ({{spoiler|Book's}}) in ''[[
* The brilliant French film ''Z'' does this ''with the ending titles.'' The bad guys have been caught and are all going to jail, the heroes have won out, freedom is on the march again in Greece, and then we get a news broadcaster discussing how the bad guys all got off light, some of the good guys went to jail for nothing, and, instead of the credits, ending titles listing all the things the military junta banned afterwards in Greece: "long hair on males; mini-skirts; Sophocles; Tolstoy; Euripedes; smashing glasses after drinking toasts; labor strikes; Aristophanes; Ionesco; Sartre; Albee; Pinter; freedom of the press; sociology; Beckett; Dostoyevsky; modern music; popular music; the new mathematics; and the letter "Z", which in ancient Greek means "He is alive!" The book is based on [[Real Life]], and this more or less how things actually ended for Greece after WWII.
* Diabolus' fickle finger can also be detected in the end of ''[[Forrest Gump]]''; simple Forrest has finally achieved all he ever wanted in winning the heart of his troubled childhood sweetheart Jenny, who herself has finally fallen in love with a good man who loves her completely and unconditionally and can give her a good life... {{spoiler|so Diabolus gives her a terminal illness.}}. She's perfectly fine at the end of the book, however, though [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome|this is remedied in the sequel]] 'Gump and Co.'
* In ''[[Rise of the Planet
* The ending of the Canadian horror film ''[[
** ''Cube 2''. {{spoiler|After surviving many perils, the heroine, who turns up to be a special agent, manages to escape the Hypercube and return to the normal world... where her superior has her summarily shot in the back of the head for no apparent reason. The worst is that she obviously knows what's coming, but merely closes her eyes instead of trying anything.}}
* The ending of ''[[Pitch Black (
* The ''[[Saw]]'' series of movies is chock full of Diaboli Ex Machina, some coming within ''seconds'' of the protagonist thinking he's found a way out of the nightmare.
** The third movie is particularly sadistic, but actually gives an explanation for it. {{spoiler|The traps in the 3rd movie weren't actually designed by Jigsaw. They were designed by his ridiculously [[Ax Crazy]] apprentice, Amanda, whose philosophy differed from Jiggy's in that she thought the people were irredeemable and explicitly deserved an unpleasant death. She catches a bullet to the neck.}}
* The ''[[Final Destination]]'' movies are built around Diabolus hunting down people who escaped his clutches the first time around and dispatching them in a variety of unpleasant and unlikely ways.
* ''North Dallas 40'': Long before the demons stuffed Carney and Anderson's kicks (which see below), {{spoiler|it had Dallas bungling the snap on the point-after after we hear the commentator talk of the kicker being called "Mr. Automatic" for having successfully converted several consecutive previous attempts, thus preventing Nick Nolte's last-gasp TD from tying the game. New Orleans Saints fans might find that last bit familiar... As might Tony Romo (who co-incidentally ALSO played for the real Dallas on his fateful play).}}
* ''[[
* Averted by ''[[Clerks]]'', which originally ended with {{spoiler|a robber killing Dante}}, but after the [[Executive Meddling|distributor]] complained that this was pointlessly violent and tragic, the scene was removed.
* {{spoiler|The allied bombing raid}} at the end of ''[[Das Boot]]''. Sure, it was hardly an [[Ass Pull]], what with World War II going on, but it's still just ''mean as hell''.
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* Echoed in the end of ''Dead Men Walking'', {{spoiler|where the sole survivor makes it out of the zombie-filled prison, only to be shot dead by one of the snipers sent to keep the zombies from escaping.}}
* The film ''Whoops Apocalypse!'' follows a desperate attempt to stop a nuclear war, which would have succeeded were it not for a hypnotist routine being disturbed - a navy officer is programmed to believe there is a large fire in progress when the hypnotist snaps his fingers (desperately yelling 'FIRE!'). Owing to an unfortunate intervention, this is never undone. When the officer receives the good news that the missiles don't have to be fired, he is so relieved that he doesn't respond to the questions being asked - leading to somebody snapping their fingers to get his attention....
* ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Adam Sandler]] delivers this on himself in the ''middle'' of ''[[
* In the Korean melodrama ''Failan'', the male protagonist decides to honor his wife's memory (who he wed for purely financial reasons, and had neglected until her death) by turning his back on his gangster wannabe lifestyle, even turning down a request from a fellow gangster to take the fall for a murder and serve his subsequent prison sentence. {{spoiler|He ends up being garroted by that same gangster in an unexpected act of reprisal, while he sees his deceased wife (through the videos he was watching before the attack) as the life slowly drains from him (symbolized by the picture in the video gradually losing its color)}}.
* ''[[Pay It Forward]]'', both infamously and egregiously. That came out of ''nowhere.'' AND served NO point. Except to ruin any good feelings you had. And arguably to [[Broken Aesop|break the film's aesop]].
* ''[[Halloween (
* Parodied in ''[[
* In ''[[The Blue Lagoon]]'', a movie based primarily around emotional and physical self-discovery, Diabolus is personified in the form of a three-year-old boy. Richard is exploring one of the islands in the archipelago while Emmeline is watching over their son. Emmeline nods off to sleep in their rowboat and while doing so, their son Paddy throws one of the oars overboard. Richard swims out from the island and retrieves the oar, but is spotted by a shark. Emmeline throws the other oar at the shark to distract it and Richard is forced to abandon the other one to escape, and their boat is swept out to sea. To make matters worse, Paddy has gotten his hands on a bunch of dead-and-berries, swallowing a handful before his parents stop him. With a dying baby and no hope of rescue, Richard and Emmeline eat the remaining berries...[[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|barely hours before a ship with Richard's father (Emmeline's uncle), who had been searching for them for several years, happens upon their boat]].
* In ''[[Screamers]]'', the captain survives the [[Late to
* ''[[Walk Hard]]'''s Dewey Cox dies 3 minutes after his last performance.
* ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]'' ends with our heroes assembling an army to fight the dastardly French and reclaim the Grail once and for all. Just as the army begins its assault, modern-day police vans hove into view and arrest everybody, including the cameraman, thus ending the film.
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* [[Fridge Logic|If you think a bit more]] about ''[[Knowing]]'', the survivors from the plane crash and later subway accident weren't so lucky after all. For those who haven't seen the movie, {{spoiler|the sun incinerates Earth and all life on it a few days later. Bonus points for the whole world learning about its upcoming inevitable demise with several hours to spare...}}
* Toward the end of the Eddie Murphy - Martin Lawrence movie ''Life'', the two find out that the warden's hunting friend is the same corrupt, racist sheriff who had them sentenced to life in prison, and the warden basically declares that he screwed them over and "gave the state of Mississippi 50 years of free labor" which the warden overheard and literally shot him out of disgust. The warden then tells them that he'll sign the papers to release them the next day. {{spoiler|That night he died on the toilet before he could sign the papers the next day.}}
* At the end of the 50s [[B-Movie]], ''[[
* ''[[Vertigo]]''. Just as it seems [[Earn Your Happy Ending]] ensued, {{spoiler|a nun enters, scaring Judy who falls to her death.}}
* ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' they finally uncover the plot by the madman base commander to start a nuclear war and order back all their planes ... only it's too late because one plane doesn't get the message since their radio is damaged and World War III begins.
* ''[[Mission Impossible (
* ''[[Haywire]]'' has a particularly bizarre one where, in a movie that otherwise strives for realism, the heroine manages to outmanoeuvre her opponents in a car chase only for the car to crash anyway because a freaking ''deer'' jumped into it.
* In the last minute of ''[[The Cube (
* [[Scream]]: {{spoiler|[[Sacrificial Lion|Tatum]] manages to really hold her own against the killer when her time seems to have come. She manages to knock him on his ass ''twice'', and puts up the best fight so far. One might think she could escape to warn Sidn- wait why is she [[Idiot Ball|crawling through the cat flap]]?}}
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== Literature ==
* ''The Hapless Child'' by [[Edward Gorey]] is this trope turned [[Up to Eleven]] over and over and over again. Bonus points for an ending which seems to be headed towards [[Deus Ex Machina]] but goes with [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] instead.
* ''[[
* Proof that the Diabolus has been around [[Older Than Feudalism|for a long, long time]] exists in the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, the bard, who walked into Tartarus to bring back his wife, Eurydice, who had died on their wedding-day. After giving a performance that made the Furies weep, Hades gave his permission for Orpheus to bring her out with him -- so long as he walked all the way out without turning around and looking back. The catch? Nobody told him he had to wait before ''both'' were outside... For a second, he sees her shade, before she is pulled back to the underworld, crying his name...
** Some versions of the myth omit the Diabolus and have him lose his nerve for some other reason; thinking that he heard her cry out, for instance, or just plain ol' lack of willpower.
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*** Carol Ann Duffy's version is rather... unique.
* [[Tom Holt]] has a good working relationship with the Diabolus. This is particularly exemplified in ''Little People'', where he introduces an entirely new metaphysical rule just to ensure the [[Downer Ending]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Edgar Allan Poe|The Pit and the Pendulum]]'' uses both this and [[Deus Ex Machina]].
* ''[[Perdido Street Station]]'' by [[China Mieville]]'s summons the Diabolus Ex Machina with an unholy ritual of [[Dungeon Punk]] [[Functional Magic|Thaumaturgy]]. The fact that two completely separate incidents, with no relation between them, ensures that ''all'' the main characters will spend the rest of their days being utterly miserable makes this one of the nastiest examples of the demon's works. [[Deus Angst Machina]] was invited to the party, and danced all night long...
** Mieville's other books, ''[[
*** The author has said a happy ending would be a betrayal to reality and the everyday suffering of the oppressed. He believes life is one big [[Diabolus Ex Machina]].
* Diabolus crosses over with [[Chekhov's Gun]] in ''Midnight Tides'' (Book 5 of the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]''). {{spoiler|The Royal Champion of the Letheri people has just given his life to take down the cursed Tiste Edur emperor (He had to be crippled, not killed, because his cursed sword would resurrect him, stronger and more insane than before, but the sword wouldn't heal physical injuries.). But a demon (that one of the protagonists had befriended earlier) wandered in and finished the Emperor off (thinking it to be an act of mercy). Why they didn't just cut his sword arm off before he revived involves a bit of a cultural [[Idiot Ball]]...}}
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* Ian Irvine goes all out in his ''Well of Echoes'' trilogy (which [[Trilogy Creep|became a quadrilogy]] almost, it seems, so Diabolus could strike). The world is saved! All is harmonious! At which point one of the [[Big Bad]] ''whose son explicitly identified him as dead earlier'' turns up. To top it all off, the heroes then destroy all the world's magic, hoping to overload his personal magic source, but that backfires, leaving him the only one with any real magic in the entire world and the rest of civilization pawns to his whims. All so the author could go on and write a dictatorial dystopian trilogy as a follow up. Go figure.
** The author loves his [[Cliff Hanger|cliffhangers]], with only one of his fantasy books actually having a proper, satisfactory ending. The others have such glorious situations as {{spoiler|one character inadvertently summoning an interdimensional invasion force to her world, the magical field failing at a pivotal battle, rendering the vital magically powered walking tanks useless in the face of a horde of giant winged and clawed mutant monster things, and all the protagonists being captured by a [[Big Bad]] and sentenced to be flayed alive.}} No happy endings here, folks.
* In ''[[Warhammer 40000]]: [[
** Poor {{spoiler|Sehra Muril, the red-haired girl with a "deliciously dirty laugh". She was going to be first FEMALE VERGHAST SCOUT if it hadn't been for Cuu!}}
* [[Hans Christian Andersen]], "The Flying Trunk": Things are going well for the beggar guy with the titular trunk with his romance with a princess, {{spoiler|until the trunk gets destroyed by shrapnel from celebratory fireworks. Seriously. For a Hans story, that's pretty rough. Guess that's why it's not as well known as his other tales...}}
** Hey, even his "happy endings" can be pretty depressing. "[[
*** A rather large portion of his fairy tales are actually pretty depressing. "The Christmas Tree" and "[[The Little Mermaid]]" come to mind.
* ''[[The Kite Runner]]'', by Khaled Hosseini. The protagonist and his best friend's son are getting along well and all set to move to America when {{spoiler|the main guy tells boy he might have to go back to the orphanage for a short time, and the little boy tries to commit suicide and stops talking.}}
* ''The Princetta'': The main characters return from their adventures and are all set to live [[Happily Ever After]], Malva and Orpheus get together... {{spoiler|and then Orpheus is murdered at the last minute.}}
* A rare good use: ''[[All Quiet
* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls''. All fictional universes are real alternate universes in their reality. One of the characters points out that a hero (a writer) is not permitted to resurrect the [[Big Bad]] of his favorite fictional universe because of this trope. The character asks if the hero can just retire as head of the training school but apparently the risk is that the story will evolve to need a serious villain, who will come into existence if written.
* The end of the ''[[Redwall]]'' series book ''Martin the Warrior'' does this to a degree that the flashback story it's based on ends on a [[Tear Jerker]]. Everything seems great, {{spoiler|Martin gets his father's sword back and kills his enemy Badrang the Tyrant...but right after it's revealed that the mouse Rose, Martin's friend and possible love interest for the entire book, was killed during their fight against Badrang. Martin then leaves his friends and promises never to mention his interactions with them again so they won't be put into danger.}}Of course then it fast forwards to the present day in Redwall where everything is okay and they discuss how Martin founded Redwall and was a great hero. But it still puts a damper on the entire ending and is one of the few Redwall books to do this.
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* Arguably one of the worst examples occurs in the book ''[[Final Destination]]: Dead Man's Hand''. After the set up disaster the survivors are being transported by a cop, who dies in a freak traffic light accident (the group manages survive the car going out of control though). At the very end of the book the [[Final Girl]], who thinks she's beat Death and won, gets a call from her doctor, who says she has very advanced HIV, contracted from being splattered in the cop's blood at the beginning of the book.
* Ellen Hopkins's book ''Burned'' throws a ''completely random'' {{spoiler|car crash}} to cause an {{spoiler|inconvenient miscarriage and kill the protagonist's [[Love Interest]].}} The author seems contractually required to provide a [[Downer Ending]] or [[Bittersweet Ending]] because [[True Art Is Angsty]], but all her other protagonists got themselves in trouble with their own actions and not a snowstorm. Note to author: [[Voodoo Shark|It doesn't count as foreshadowing if you don't foreshadow until five pages before the event!]]
* ''[[
** That last part is usually omitted from retellings, for [[What the Hell, Hero?|obvious reasons.]]
* [[The Dresden Files]] book ''Changes'' has a very nasty one at the end - after barely managing to win the climactic battle, {{spoiler|Harry gets shot and killed.}} However, in the next book, ''Ghost Story'', this is ''subverted.'' {{spoiler|Harry arranged for himself to be killed and had his memory of arranging the assassination erased.}}
* ''Seekers'', by Erin Hunter. A young polar bear, Kallik, is orphaned and alone. After much wandering and hardship she gets caught by humans, who plan to re-release her alongside Nanuk, a mother who'd lost her cubs, in the hopes that she would adopt Kallik. After some consideration, both bears decide that this is an acceptable arrangement. {{spoiler|Nanuk immediately dies in a helicopter crash}}
* In Lord Sunday, the final installment of [[Keys to
* [[Secret Histories|In From Hell with love]] {{spoiler|at the end of the book An Immortal disguised as Isabella stabs Eddie. Then, bites his poison tooth and dies. While Eddie is slowly dying}}
* At the end of ''[[Harry Potter]] and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' it seems as though Harry will be able to leave his abusive foster family to live with his godfather, while an unconvicted criminal will go to jail. Then {{spoiler|Remus Lupin}} turns into a werewolf (it just having happened to be the night of the full moon, and him having forgotten to take the potion which would keep him safe), and in the confusion the criminal escapes {{spoiler|meaning the innocent man convicted in his place needs to go on the run rather than take in Harry. Although it later turns out that to live with the man in question would have compromised Harry's security from potential attackers}}.
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* ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' lampshades and ends up subverting the trope. Initially Dantes blames God and fate for all the terrible things that occured to him, but with the help of a fellow inmate, is able to reason out how certain ''people'' wanted him to suffer, not God. Thus, it becomes a core part of his philosophy that once he breaks out, he can't count on Diabolus to hand out random punishment. It has to be up to him.
* The ending of ''[[Malevil]]'' tastes a little of this, because of a [[Distant Finale]]. Some 575 pages are spent on a six-eight month period and the final 20 pages are a 3-year epilogue. More tragedy strikes in the final pages then the whole novel before because it covers a much larger span of time.
* At the end of ''[[
* [[Bridge to Terabithia]]: all goes well for Jess, he finally warms up to using his imagination... and then {{spoiler|Leslie dies in a [[Contrived Coincidence]], which drives home the point that cruel reality trumps imagination...}}
** Not so contrived, actually; the best friend of [[Katherine Paterson]]'s son {{spoiler|was stuck by lightning}}, inspiring Paterson to write [[Bridge to Terabithia]].
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
** Poor little Cassie from "Help", rescued effortlessly from both an evil cult and arrow booby-trap, only to die from shock due to a heart condition (which was mentioned) as the arrow trap (which one of the villains sets up and discusses) activates. Buffy catches it without even blinking but it is too much for Cassie.
** Tara was lethally shot through a window and died almost instantaneously while in the middle of the room on the second floor. The gunman was outside on the ground shooting a pistol randomly into the air and yet on pure luck managed a hit so precise that a Marine sniper perched on the opposite rooftop with a rifle would have been hard-pressed to match it. Seriously, this one's a [[Trope Codifier]].
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* This happens in quite a bit of ''[[Serues/Cold Case|Cold Case]]'' episodes, like "November 22nd", "The Crossing", "The Letter" {{spoiler|We're in love, cue KKK rapist/murderers}}, "World's End", "Forever Blue" {{spoiler|''We were the lucky ones.''}}...
* Jordan (as Diabolus) reveals all the secrets and issues among the main-cast to each other at the Season 1 finale of [[Scrubs]], even though she has quite few to do with the specific persons (Ex Machina).
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'': Charlie is killed by Sylar for her power. Hiro decides to go back in time to save her, but overshoots yesterday and winds up six months in the past. He develops a strong relationship with her, and she becomes his first love interest. Just before leaving with Hiro for Japan, she reveals she has a blood clot in her brain that'll kill her right around the time Sylar kills her anyway. This rips Hiro's heart into pieces and makes his power go wonky, accidentally putting him in Japan, far away from her, so she stays at the diner and is killed by Sylar anyway.
** And let's not forget the third season. Hiro (and a newly-reformed Sylar) return to the diner where Charlie worked (due to their time-travel shenanigans) and use Sylar's powers to remove the clot in her brain. Almost immediately afterwards, at the end of the episode she was healed in, she gets kidnapped by the Big Bad and deposited in 1944, thereby robbing Hiro of any potential relationship with her.
** Happened a second time with poor Hiro, albeit this time less touching and more stupid. He goes back sixteen years, and meets his dying mother. She gives him the catalyst, and he vows to keep it safe from Arthur, who wants to use the catalyst to fuel his army of supersoldiers. Somehow, for no explained reason, Arthur knows that Hiro has the catalyst and teleports exactly to where Hiro and Claire are. He steals the catalyst, sends Claire to the present, and almost kills Hiro.
** Sylar has benefited from this trope so many times it's not even funny. He technically "died" in Company custody halfway through the first season, but got a mysterious off-screen resurrection. Eden's [[Compelling Voice]] and Mohinder's power-disabling serum both worked against Sylar at first, but conveniently and inexplicably failed right when they were about to kill him. In the finale of the first season Niki uses her [[Super Strength]] to wail on Sylar with a parking meter, Hiro runs a friggin' ''katana'' through his body, and he ''still'' survives.
* The Diabolus has occasionally been employed by ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' and ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', as indicated above -- they have a healthy partnership.
** A particularly impressive example of their partnership is the episode where an unfortunate, timid man has locked himself in a bank-vault to get the peace to read his many books -- and because of that, survives a [[The End of the World
* In the seaon two finale ("Twilight") of ''[[
{{quote| '''Kate''': I was sure I was going to die before-- ''([[Boom! Headshot!]])''}}
* ''[[Blake's Seven|Blake's 7]]'' is loaded with Diaboli ex Machina. For example, people who say they hate Servalan, and have no reason to like her, keep betraying the protagonists to her, even though she has never [[Rewarded
** Servalan is some form of walking [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] generator - most grievous example is what was meant to be the finale, her trapped on a ship on the edge of the galaxy that was about to explode, orbiting a planet that was also ''soon going to explode''. Come next season, it is confusingly revealed that somehow the fact that the ship was being eaten apart by a ravenous space virus made the teleport TEN THOUSAND TIMES STRONGER than ever before, and even though she had no idea how to operate it by pure luck managed to land herself NOT in empty space for a start (because the teleport had no safety mechanism to prevent that), and then of all the thousands of possible planets not only a habitable one, not only a populated one, but one governed by her own people... COME ON!!!
* Just think: if it weren't for the miniseries, this is how ''[[
* In ''[[
** Another example -- a lesser one because it's a newly introduced, comparatively minor character, but still a punch in the gut -- is in the next season finale, "Posse Comitatus," when C.J.'s stalker is apprehended and she ''just'' begins a relationship with the special agent who'd been assigned to protect her... and he leaves her sight for a minute to pick up a candy bar and a flower from a convenience store, finds himself in the middle of an armed robbery and is shot and killed.
* ''[[Good Times]]'', James Evans, Mississippi. For a ''comedy'' titled "Good Times", Diabolus sure was busy [[Yank the Dog's Chain|depriving the Evanses from having any...]]
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** The ending to the 2010 episode "Cold Blood". They've stopped the bad guys, got the humans and the Silurians at least on the right track to start living together in a thousand years, and are all set to escape when a crack in the space-time continuum appears, leading to not only the death of {{spoiler|Rory, but his erasure from existence. Luckily, he's revived in time for the season finale.}}
** The last of the 2009 specials, "The End of Time", involves a prophecy that the Doctor is soon to die. It concludes with the Doctor {{spoiler|vanquishing the Time Lords and sending Gallifrey back into the Time War, seemingly defying the prophecy. Then Wilfred Mott gets stuck in a box. Which is about to be flooded with radiation. And the door is locked. And it won't open unless somebody goes in the other side of the box. And there's no override. And the sonic screwdriver won't work.}} You can almost hear the writers straining to make this into a situation that requires the Doctor to sacrifice himself.
* ''[[
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''
** "Playthings". Sam wants his turn at being a martyr and, after getting drunk, forces a promise out of Dean that he would kill him when/if he turns evil. He's hung over the next day and we and Dean think he doesn't remember. But at the end of the episode, he brings it up again and they drive off in an uncomfortable silence. Add it on to them not exactly saving the day either and you've got one hell of a [[Downer Ending]].
** The Season One finale: John's been possessed and shot, Dean's been tortured, but everyone is alive and Sam is driving them to the hospital, and it looks like everything will be fine. Until a huge truck slams into the Impala, totaling the car, and the episode ends with all three men bloody and unconscious.
** "Mystery Spot" has this trope happen, but {{spoiler|it is reversed}}.
* By way of [[Crack Defeat]], an example where the demon is revealed ''after'' the fact: One of ''The Torkelsons'' has made it to the final of a contest whose winner will get to be a foreign exchange student in Paris. After her final interview she comes out and announces that she lost. [[Status Quo Game Show|No biggie, so?]] Well, she recounts her interview and ends with saying that she got the highest score. Why did she lose then? Because the exchange student deal is a homestay (we already knew this), and the French family involved would like a boy ([[Ass Pull|but not this]]). Well, [[Ungvichian|ISTR]] that would have made the final interviews [[Shaggy Dog Story|meaningless]], because there was only one boy amongst the three finalists.
* The ''[[Law
** "Marathon" (''[[Law
** "Suicide Box" (s13e16): A young black male shoots a cop outside of a diner, out of anger that his brother's murder had been swept under the rug. They had him dead to rights... then the mitigating factors rolled in: His brother's death had been ruled a suicide, the man who shot him never denied it (by the cops never looked at him). His and his mother's protests were brushed aside by the cops. And, oh yeah, his brother's body? Gone. The funeral home buried a casket full of trash (an ongoing fraud scheme, it turned out).
** "Screwed" ([[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]] s8e22)''': The episode features the trial of Tutuola's stepson, Darius (crimes committed in the earlier episode, Venom (s7e18)). Except that ALL the evidence except his confession had been thrown out due to questions about Fin's credibility, also Darius (well played by rapper Ludacris) was only going to trial to hurt and embarrass his mother, Fin's ex (who denied him for most of his life). When Fin's ex got on the stand, Darius (acting as his own council) forced her into dropping her own pain-filled bombshell: Darius was a child of rape... by her father. Acquitted of the murders, in the end, Darius can't even take joy in beating the rap and rubbing Fin and his mother's nose in it.
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** Of course, sometimes the same person will show up a few seasons later where they actually will get what's coming to them.
* In the second season of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'', Duncan Macleod successfully rescued his mortal girlfriend Tessa from a kidnapper ... only for her to be shot dead by a random mugger less than three minutes after the escape.
* Although this is generally [[Butt Monkey|what's always happening]] to [[
** Well, this was foreshadowed earlier in the show, what with {{spoiler|Prince Ludwig's title of "The Indestructible"}}, and the creators not assuming that [[Viewers are Morons]].
* ''[[24
** Day One: The Drazens are all dead, Senator Palmer is safe, as is Jack Bauer's daughter [[Damsel Scrappy|Kim]], and the real mole inside CTU has been caught...but then Jack goes into the CTU server room and finds that {{spoiler|Nina, the aforementioned mole, killed Jack's wife, Teri, before she fled and was caught}}.
** Day Two: The nuclear disaster has long since been averted, the terrorists' mastermind, while not dead or captured, has been sufficiently scared out of the US, and everything appears to be safe once again... until now-President Palmer makes a public appearance and shakes hands with a random "civilian" {{spoiler|who turns out to be a terrorist; with the handshake, she'd infected the President with some sort of biological agent. The episode--and season--ends with Palmer collapsing to the ground, the ending clock replaced with a heartbeat sound effect}}.
** Day Five: the conspiracy has been exposed, President Logan is arrested and everything seems fine and dandy, {{spoiler|until the Chinese pop up out of nowhere and haul Jack off, meaning he has to spend the next twenty months enduring torture at their hands.}}
* ''[[
* This was used in one of the season finales for ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''. The Big Bad of the season is temporarily defeated, [[One True Pairing|Sydney and Vaughn]] finally get to drive off into the sunset together... only for Vaughn to tell Sydney "I'm not who you think I am," and a semi to come out of absolutely nowhere, slamming into their car and ending the season.
* The Season 5 Finale for ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'': {{spoiler|Just when you think House has removed that annoying hallucination of Cutthroat Bitch, kicked the Vicodin, and gotten it on with his long time flirt interest Cuddy, it all turns out to be the biggest screw-over in the history of anything. It was ALL a hallucination! He's NUTS! It NEVER HAPPENED! Cutthroat Bitch was standing there the entire time in his mind, and so was the deceased Kutner. The season ends with House being led into a mental hospital.}}
* An episode of ''[[
** Another one has a man returning from a war seeing his wife and newborn and even holding said newborn only to be gunned down by some random intoxicated guy.
* One of the last few episodes of ''[[
* The final episode of Series 3 of ''[[Primeval]]'' where humanity has been saved from evil Helen by a hungry raptor. However the Pliocene anomaly closes, trapping Danny 3 million years in the past.
* Col. Henry Blake was already written out of ''[[M*A*S*H
* ''[[
* Some people actually have been screwed over by unexpected twists in [[Reality TV]] [[Reality Show|shows]], this may qualify.
** Shi-Ann in ''[[Survivor]]: Thailand'' tried to network with the other tribes when time came for the merge, only for instead, they're told they're living on the same beach... so when Shi-Ann's tribe loses, she's low man on the totem pole, so bye-bye Shi-Ann.
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* While not the end of the series (although it could have served as such if the writers strike had not been resolved), season 4.1 finale "Revelations" of the ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' is a major [[Wham! Episode]] that also pulls this trope. Hard. (And things get worse before they get better.)
* The sixth-season ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' episode "Rock This Town" involves many of the main characters attending a birthday party for their friend Liberty. It soon gets out of control when a group of kids from another school show up, but it turns out to be fairly harmless, and everyone has a number of embarrassing moments...until the very end, where Diabolus strikes its head by having one of the main cast (J.T.) stabbed out of the blue by a guest character who never appeared in any episode before or after the one in question.
* In ''[[The Walking Dead (TV series)|The Walking Dead]]'', Rick and Glenn spread walker blood all over some raincoats and wear them to blend in with them. Just when you think their safe, an absolutely random rainstorm shows up, stays just long enough to dull the smell from the blood by washing it away, and it stops raining after the zombies have noticed they're not undead.
* Several episodes of ''I Shouldn't Be Alive'' can come off as this. The people who the stories are about almost seem to have been cursed by some malevolent deity based on their awful luck. One episode had a man who had been stranded in a raft for weeks and had to drift from Africa to the Caribbean. He had just reached Caribbean waters, took good supplies, figured everything out and seemed pretty much set to make it all the way to one of the islands safely, when he went to spear a fish with his harpoon, his harpoon snapped in half, the fish did a barrel roll, punctured his raft, and swam away, leaving him to just barely patch his raft up.
* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'': The overall finale has Xena execute an ambitiously dangerous plan involving her being killed, so she could go off and fight the spirit [[Big Bad]] in the spirit world. She sets Gabrielle the task of bringing her back afterwards using her ashes, and magic spring water. It's not until Xena's actually won, and Gabs (and by extension the audience) is all ready for that happy ending, that Xena drops the bombshell, that {{spoiler|this time she has to stay dead, or her [[Heroic Sacrifice]] won't mean anything.}} The twist is not hinted at before it happens, is a disproportionate response, and is largely unnecessary since she mostly seems to have a massive [[Guilt Complex]] about the original precipitating incident, which was pretty much an accident. Since Xena claims she knew beforehand, she comes across as something of a [[Jerkass]] for not pre-warning Gabs about it.
** Remedied in the "director's cut" version of the episode, which provides foreshadowing (though still a little too close to the end) and shows us that Xena didn't really know beforehand that she {{spoiler|would have to stay dead.}}
* In the second season of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' every single thing that can go wrong, ''does'' go wrong in order to kill off Maid Marian. Marian acts wildly [[Out of Character]]. Robin and the other outlaws are inexplicably missing at a crucial moment. No one bothers to give Marian a weapon to defend herself with. Every single one of Guy's [[Berserk Button|Berserk Buttons]] are pressed. The [[Idiot Ball]] is thrown about with such abandon that it leaves [[Plot Hole|Plot Holes]] in the scenery. The contrived sequence of events unfold with the sole purpose of forcing Guy and Marian into the "right" frame of mind that lead to her murder. (And it ''still'' doesn't make any sense).
* This is the driving force behind the plot, and the source of much of the humor, in ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]''.
* [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]: In the episode "Duet," Aamin Maritza [[Xanatos Gambit|pretends to be Gul Darhe'el so that a war crimes trial can be put on and Cardassia can admit to the atrocities it committed]]. Kira decides to be the one to try to end the cycle of violence between Bajorans and Cardassians by letting him go and telling everyone that he's actually Maritza, so an innocent man won't be executed for crimes he did not commit. Everything seems to be wrapping up, as Maritza realizes that he can work with the Bajorans to try to atone for the past in a different way. However, [[Chekov's Gun|a Bajoran drunk who we hadn't seen since the beginning of the episode]] comes up behind him and stabs him in the back, killing him, not because he was Darhe'el, but simply because he was a Cardassian.
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** Ironically, the author's [[Did Not Do the Research|complete ignorance]] on military discharges was such that he overlooked an entirely ''legal'' way to suddenly recall Wally to service. All initial enlistment contracts are for ''eight'' years of service obligation, not four. The typical arrangement is only four years of active duty and then four more years of 'Individual Ready Reserve' status, the practical upshot being that short of medical disability, Bad Conduct Discharge, etc., you can be yanked back in entirely at their discretion up until eight years have passed since your initial enlistment. The recruiter is required to make durn sure you understand this before you sign.
* If you're going into the funny pages, [[Peanuts|Charlie Brown]] learned that the demon of heartbreaking sports losses can attack ''after'' the end of the game, when he had a rare win stripped from him over a "gambling scandal" (Rerun betting Snoopy a nickel that they would win). [[Gretzky Has the Ball|Can they do that? No, seriously, can they?]]
* [[Curtis|* GULP!* ]] [[Kids Are Cruel|It's Derrick and]] [[Only Known
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== Tabletop Games ==
* To some ''[[
* The [[Metaplot|ending]] to the ''[[Deadlands]]: Hell on Earth'' setting involved the [[Player Party|PCs]] getting a chance to kill the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of the game. After going through a bunch of [[Rail Roaded]] scenes, they're presented with the opportunity to win and a ship to do so ({{spoiler|but they have to [[Powered
* The entire universe of [[Warhammer 40000]] was probably made by Diabolus.
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== Theatre ==
* In the Richard Strauss opera ''Elektra'', the title character, in the midst of rejoicing over the deaths of her mother and her consort, suddenly drops dead at the end for no reason except to bring down the curtain on a crushing downer note.
* [[Shakespeare]] is a notorious offender. For example, in ''[[
** ''King Lear'', like many of Shakespeare's other plays, was based on earlier stories that his audience would have been familiar with. {{spoiler|Lear}} and {{spoiler|Cordelia}} don't die in those stories. Shakespeare killed them off because he wanted to surprise the audience. This ending was subject to a lot of [[Fanon Discontinuity]] in later centuries, and many performances ended with {{spoiler|Cordelia}} marrying {{spoiler|Edgar}} instead ... even though she already got married earlier in the play.
** ''[[
== Video Games ==
* A lot of the moral choices in the second [[Army of Two]] game end this way. You either choose the "bad" option, or you choose the "good" option...except that the guy you gave up some advantage to save turns out to be corrupt AND selling weapons to terrorists. Or a guy you choose to save instead of killing in exchange for money is later killed in a plane crash accident.
* The updated ending to ''[[Portal (
* In any game where a chopper is called in to rescue your party halfway through the game, it will probably get shot down or otherwise destroyed, as in ''[[Resident Evil 3 Nemesis]]'', ''[[Dino Crisis]]'', ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', or ''[[Call of Duty 4]]''.
** [[Left 4 Dead]] had the infamous Chopper pilot dying at the end of the first campaign. It was nixed when many people found the ending too depressing and cheated out of their feeling of accomplishment. Ironically it was the fan backlash that caused Valve to create a filler campaign between No Mercy and Death Toll, reinstating what was taken out. They use this again in the sequel, to link all of the campaigns together. This meant that some sort of Diabolus Ex Machina would show up in the ''beginning'' of each campaign, serving as the Machina of the last campaign (this included a chopper pilot dying as well).
** In [[Serious Sam]] 3, after seeing at least two choppers get shot down, (one of which he was ON at the time), Sam decides he's not going to get on any more choppers.
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Prometheus: Well, there ''was'' a helicopter... }}
* The path towards the fourth ending in ''[[Drakengard]]'' is shaping up to be a [[Bittersweet Ending]], which, given the only other "good" ending is also bittersweet, doesn't seem too bad. After all, after finding out that the [[Creepy Child]] [[Big Bad]] is [[Complete Monster|irredeemably evil]] even after the protests of her twin brother, the heroes have finally succeeded in killing her once and for all. Now the world is saved. Except, wait, [[Eldritch Abomination|something's falling out of the sky...]]
** Justified in that said [[Creepy Child]] was essentially the avatar or representative of said things falling out of the sky. We probably should mention that said things are ''pissed off as hell'' after she dies and with no seal holding them back...[[The End of the World
** The real kicker is the fifth ending. The heroes cross over into another dimension to kill the mother of all the aforementioned elderitch abominations. She and the heroes are transported to modern day Tokyo and, after a climatic boss battle, get shot down by missiles from an aircraft. Wow...
*** [[It Got Worse|And then]] [[Nie R]] [[It Got Worse|happens.]]
* ''[[Apocalypse]]'': Bruce Willis/Trey Kincaid has defeated the four horsemen, (i.e. the [[The Dragon|Dragons]]), and is about to take down the [[Big Bad]] Reverend. Unfortunately, he gets a [[Demonic Possession]] ex machina. [[Downer Ending]]. Or maybe intended to be a [[Cliff Hanger]] leading to a [[Vaporware]] sequel?
* Raiden's ending in the original ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''. Evil vanquished: check. BBEG dead: check. Hey fellas; let's break the world ourselves!
** And Reptile's ending in ''[[
*** Reptile's ending is ''always'' a Diabolus ex Machina. The one time that he actually has a happy ending is in ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon
*** ''[[
* ''[[
** Heck, look at [[Half-Life]], {{spoiler|if you decide not to side with the ostensibly evil G-Man, you're immediately dumped into the middle of a bunch of angry monsters with no hope of victory.}}
* ''[[
** The [[Expansion Pack]] ''Extraction Point'', takes this trope one step further {{spoiler|by killing off those NPC teammates and foreshadowing a devastating war.}} Ironically, {{spoiler|1=[http://www.projectorigincommunity.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5928&postcount=7 Word Of God] [[Canon Dis Continuity|is not considering this as canon.]]}}
** Basically any time your less-than-useless Delta Force escorts come to extract you/insert you they all get killed horribly before the fighting even begins.
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** The fake-surrendering Japanese soldiers who kill Roebuck/Polonsky at the end of "Breaking Point" in ''World At War'' could qualify, too, seeing as the mission had been a success up to that point, and Roebuck even said in the opening narration that they would all go home at the end. Even worse, [[Sadistic Choice|you have to choose which one to save.]] In about a split instant.
*** But that one's kinda okay, considering one choice leads to your group essentially being led by Jack Bauer.
* Not quite the ending, but the climax of World 1 in ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' is rather like this. Against all odds, you finally managed to get to the last elemental crystal in time, unlike all the other ones that ended up breaking. The bad guy's possessed puppet gets beaten back, there's a lovely reunion with one of the characters and his granddaughter, where he gets his memory of her back, and a reunion of two of the characters and their long-lost father... and then the crystal shatters anyway, because if the [[Big Bad]] ''stayed'' [[Sealed Evil in
* Disc 2 of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is a [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] strewn throughout an entire disc. Aside from {{spoiler|[[It Was His Sled|Aeris dying at the end of disc 1]]}}, The party chases Sephiroth to the Northern Crater, where they prepare to battle him once and for all, {{spoiler|until Sephiroth decides to [[Mind Rape|break poor Cloud's mind]] and force him to learn that he's a [[Tomato in
* ''[[
* Parodied in ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]''. At the end of it, you defeat The Guy, take his gun, and return home triumphantly as the credits roll. You also walk under a tree with one of the game's [[Everything Trying to Kill You|deadly]] <s> [[Everything Trying to Kill You|apples]] </s> [[Running Gag|giant cherries]] on it, which falls. If you're not expecting it and don't move, it lands on you, killing you and giving you the standard Game Over screen even though it's ''after the credits''. Fortunately the game still counts you as having beaten it.
** SOMETIMES!
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** Due to gamer outcry at this being one of the dumbest endings in gaming history, one of the expansion packs, specifically ''Broken Steel'', changes this ending, allowing you {{spoiler|to send in say, a highly resistant super mutant, a ghoul who is actually healed by radiation, or a goddamn ROBOT! And if you go in yourself you don't die. You can still send in the girl though, if you want to be a dick.}}
*** {{spoiler|The game will still chastise you for being a coward, despite the fact that you found a way to accomplish your goal and get everyone out alive.}}
* At the end of ''[[Marathon
* The ''[[
** It's put as a rumour, so you can basically decide whether your character would have done that or not.
* The ending to [[Infocom]]'s text adventure ''Infidel'' has always been somewhat controversial with fans because it's a good example of this trope being used to [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]. The protagonist (despite being selfish, greedy, and foolish) makes it to the pyramid's burial chamber to claim the riches ... {{spoiler|only for the walls to collapse and trap him there to die}}. And this, after solving a bunch of very difficult puzzles (including a few 'learn by dying' puzzles).
* As [[Retcon|retconned]] in the intro to ''[[Turok (
* Near the end of ''[[
** Private Jammy is a soldier stationed at Fort Mourningwood in ''[[
* ''[[Free Space]] 2'' does this with a flourish: at the end of an arduous, complicated and desperate campaign to destroy the Shivan dreadnought Sathanas which threatens the (known) galaxy, you learn that the Shivans have about a bazillion more such ships.
* ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak X]]''. Non-fatal example, but after you've won the game, {{spoiler|Rayn is suddenly revealed to have been manipulating you all along, wasn't poisoned, and oh yeah, she's now the biggest crimelord in the world. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Well done, Jak]].}}
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** To be more exact, the first game ends with you killing the Big Bad, Diablo and ramming his soulstone into your own head so you can contain him with your mind. It did not work so well. In fact, Diablo possessed the hero and used his power to strengthen himself so he could escape the dungeon and revive the other Prime Evils. The second game ends with you killing the last of the three Prime Evils, Baal, just ''after'' he corrupted the Worldstone, the thing that keeps the demons out of the world (not that it was doing a good job). Archangel Tyrael goes for the lesser of two evils and destroys the corrupted Worldstone. The one you've fought so hard over to protect. And for ''Diablo 3'', Blizzard has revealed that the destruction of the Worldstone ''also'' blew up the entire mountain, destroyed the barbarian capital and turned the continent into a nuclear wasteland. By the way, the Worldstone not only kept the demons out but also the angels because some of them view humanity as a taint on creation and are quite eager to destroy it. Instead of just the Prime Evils raising an army, a full scale demonic AND angelic invasion involving pretty much every character from either side with a name is about to occur. But hey, congratulations, you won the game.
*** Oh, and you know how all the player characters of the first game either went insane and / or were possessed in the second? Prepare to be not surprised at the ultimate fate of most of the heroes of ''[[Diablo II]]'', or that the three [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] were in fact manipulating you all along to do their bidding.
* ''[[
** Not Quite! {{spoiler|It's later revealed that the guy responsible for reviving people was absent. In fact, the whole game was invalid because of that; only the GM knew the Composer was gone and would have been shafted if anybody, including his subordinates, knew. Thus, it was just a cheat to keep the two in limbo and prevent from being found out.}}
* Charlie, who always dies in his endings due to [[Foregone Conclusion]], manages to corner Bison in ''[[Street Fighter]] Alpha 2'', only to be shot on the back by his intended back-up chopper.
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** [[It Got Worse]] when {{spoiler|Fayt's dad dies, then Earth is destroyed}}
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the Pit of Saron: when Scourgelord Tyrannus is defeated, the freed slaves run onto his overlook en masse, celebrating. Suddenly, Sindragosa appears and blows nearly everyone to smithereens, the players themselves saved by Sylvanas/Jaina's teleport.
* ''[[Aquaria (
** The creator has admitted in [http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=2384.0 this] message board thread that there were never any fixed plans for a sequel, and that he wanted to avoid a happy ending, possibly making this an intentional example after all.
* In ''[[Killzone]] 2'', the ISA has busted their asses to get to and defeat Visari, only to find out that the Helghast have a huge reserve fleet coming.
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* ''[[Metroid]]: Zero Mission'' is a [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of the original ''Metroid'' that continues after the original ended. It accomplishes this by {{spoiler|having Samus shot down by Space Pirates while leaving Zebes, destroying her ship and suit}}.
** Which is followed up by {{spoiler|an inversion of sorts in the form of an ancient Chozo temple giving Samus an older yet far more advanced Power Suit (the one she's pictured with in most incarnations). It even is capable of recognizing the incompatible Upgrades she received earlier in the game.}}
* Quite a few Bad Ends for ''[[
** Probably the best example of this is one Bad End where Hiroshi attempts to commit suicide after {{spoiler|becoming a Kamibito and losing his friends}} only to be saved by Nemuru, who convinces him to keep living. Sounds like a happy, potentially [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|heartwarming]] way to end a chapter, right? {{spoiler|Cut to one month later, where Hiroshi comes across his old mufflers that have his old, strong honey-like scent attached, which causes him to go insane and attack his sister, which then leads to his implied execution.}}
* In ''[[Zenonia]]'' ''4'', Regret spends most of the game trying to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] with [[Time Travel]]. ''Every time'' he changes the past, something else happens to ensure that the world is still doomed. Regret eventually decides to face the threat head on rather than running back to the past in a futile attempt to avoid it.
* ''[[
** Slightly earlier in the ending, when the heroes' huge assault force are planning to assault {{spoiler|the teleportation beam leading to the orbiting Citadel/Catalyst}}, Harbinger shows up. No, not a [[Villain Override|mook possessed by Harbinger]] like in the previous game; the actual, kilometers-tall, leadership-caste Reaper himself, who proceeds to utterly massacre the entire assault force; {{spoiler|only Shepard and Anderson survive, with Shepard mortally wounded}}.
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[
* Din and Jin from ''[[Las Lindas]]'' seem to be this trope personified. Their latest "prank" rivals the [[Code Geass|Euphinator Incident]] in terms of everything going to hell in the worst way possible just when things were going good for the cast.
* Meta-referenced in [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3523 this] ''[[Sinfest]]''-strip, courtesy of a semi-sentient, diabolical book.
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* The finale of ''[[Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]''. [[Mad Scientist]] [[Villain Protagonist|Dr. Horrible]] held at gunpoint with his own death ray? The gun explodes and he survives. The [[Made of Iron]] superheroic jerk Captain Hammer who fired it? Injured and humiliated, but survives. Naive heroine, Penny, on the far side of the room, who has just realized Dr. Horrible and Billy Buddy are one and the same and in love with her? Sorry, Penny. You get [[Jossed]] with Penny-seeking shrapnel.
* In ''Sims Big Brother 5'', the main twist of the season was that there was a liar in the house. By "liar", I mean someone playing under a false identity. The Liar was revealed to be Logan, but not to the houseguests. One week, there was a double elimination week and Michael Goldsmith said they had to evict the Liar, or else they would lose a portion of the grand prize. (Which the Liar would receive) Knowing he was in trouble from the other alliance, Logan persuaded the majority and the floaters that the liar was Darby. Thus, the house cast their votes for Darby and Logan, and since Darby received more, she was evicted.
** Diablous ex Machina struck once before. In ''Sims Big Brother 2'', there was a week in which 6 people were taken into the Solitary chamber, making themselves immune from the vote during Public Voting Week (in which ''everyone'' was up on the block, sans the 6 in the chamber). However, the person who lost all of the challenges was more or less screwed. They couldn't use any of the luxuries, couldn't compete for Head of household, were automatically nominated for three weeks in a row, had to eat an instant meal diet, and if any of those rules were broken, they'd be expelled. Dora unfortunately lost....meaning she had many of the worst weeks of her life in the house. Is it any wonder that after becoming the Unlucky Houseguest, she [[Suicide
* [[Parodied]] in [[
** Of course, this was mocking one of their complaints about the movie, namely that Satine's consumption--and her decision to break up with Christian instead of telling him about it--seem like this trope.
*** Though the fact that it's basically a retelling of La Traviata only with the entire last act and a half condensed into 3 minutes has a fair bit to do with that.
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== Western Animation ==
* Even the kid-friendly world of ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]]'' is not safe from the Diabolus Ex Machina. In one episode, involving a new cat dubbed "Cookie Chomper the 3rd", a [[Death
* This trope is played for laughs in ''[[Stone Trek]]'': Every episode ends on a happy note... until the Starship Magnetize explodes for no apparent reason.
** The early episodes of ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' also always ended with the Sealab exploding. The most notable example of this trope is the episode that's just an episode of the original ''Sealab 2020'' series, and so it's fairly normal and has a happy ending. Then the Sealab explodes for no reason.
** It exploded because the captain of the submarine gave such bad directions to his helmsmen, they drove right into Sealab. ''THEN'' it exploded.
* It didn't involve any dying, but... ''Codename: [[Kids Next Door]]'', "Operation Elections": Nigel Uno has just led his school to fend off an attack against a rival middle school, and is making a speech as he's assuming his rightful position as 4th grade president position that was robbed from him by the Delightful Children, who had instigated the attack by the middle school. {{spoiler|And then the guy who earlier told him that he had won the election now tells him that he ''still'' lost the election to some random guy. Diabolus pours salt into Uno's wounds by suggesting that his fellow operatives ''also'' voted for the other guy.}}
* In other election news, a lizard-suit wearing [[The Simpsons (
** In another ''Simpsons'' episode, "Brother From Another Series", Sideshow Bob appears reformed and gets work release when his brother Cecil offers him a job for a dam project. Bart is convinced that Bob is up to no good, but in the end it turns out Bob really ''has'' reformed and Cecil was trying to embezzle millions from the dam project. Bob actually helps stop Cecil and saves Bart and Lisa's lives, but when the police arrive to arrest Cecil, Police Chief Wiggum insists on arresting Bob as well for no good reason.
{{quote| '''Bob''': (In the backseat of the police car with Cecil) But I ''saved'' the children!<br />
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'''Bob''': ''You'll live to regret this!'' ...Oh, great. Now ''I'' sound crazy. }}
* ''[[Hey Arnold]]!'': The Devil sure loves stalking [[The Chew Toy|Eugene Horowitz]]...
* The show ''[[
* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' episode "Ballin" has Riley coming close to [[Broken Streak|finally]] winning a game when {{spoiler|the mentally challenged replacement center for his main competition turns out to be a child-prodigy at basketball}}. Of course, {{spoiler|[[Laser-Guided Karma|he ''really'' deserved that]], since he got that far by sending the previous center off crying when told her her mom did cocaine, was cheating on her dad at the country club, and her parents were waiting until after her birthday to tell her they were getting divorced}}.
* ''[[
** [[Dark Horse Victory|Cupcake stamina boost, anyone?]]
* ''[[Peanuts|It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown]]'': Final play of game, and we're looking at either Charlie slotting in the game-winning field goal from short-range, or Lucy humiliating herself in front of the crowd for pulling ''that trick'' (you know the one). Even Charlie pulling a John Carney wouldn't have been as bad as {{spoiler|Lucy pulling the trick anyway and ''not'' getting any of the blame for the loss, not even from poor old Chuck.}}
* Pretty much the entire purpose of the Kanker Sisters in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''. They tend to show up anytime something's actually going ''right'' for the titular characters for a change (ex. "Over Your Ed", "Look Into My Eds").
* Happens on a regular basis in ''[[Invader Zim]]'', usually with [[Butt Monkey|Dib]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Re Boot]]''. The final episode of the series has {{spoiler|Megabyte captured and our heros celebrating. But then it turns out the captured Megabyte was an alias (aka a decoy) and that Megabyte had infiltrated the Principal Office and then took over.}} Cue Cliffhanger.
* This trope is a recurring theme in ''[[G.I. Joe: Renegades]]'', where [[Failure Is the Only Option]]. Every time the Joes find something that will clear their names, it's a safe bet it will either get burned, blown up, smashed, stolen, or stabbed. {{spoiler|That is until the season one finale where the Joes returned to the Pentagon with all the evidence they needed to clear their names after destroying Cobra Mansion and defeating Cobra Commander, who survived and is ticked off by the way. The series is now on hiatus until the second live action movie is finished but it's doubtful the Joes will suddenly become wanted crinimals again when it resumes.}}
* During the [[Christmas Episode]] of ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', Doctor Rockzo, The Rock and Roll Clown (he does cocaine) sells all of Toki's Secret Santa gifts, for some cocaine. When Toki finds out, he prepares to give the clown a sound thrashing. Unfortunately, before he can reach him, Murderface's drunk Grandma crashes her scooter into a cross, trapping Toki under it. Rockzo escapes punishment, and even gets a handjob from Skwisgar's mom.
* ''[[
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