Eucatastrophe: Difference between revisions

Often, it's the very ''fact'' the villain is so close to victory that results in their downfall. They've got the heroes on the run, maybe they've got every right to think they're going to win or already have...then they get cocky. [[Nothing Can Stop Us Now|Because they already declared victory, they come to think the hero is no longer a real threat to them]]. Sometimes, they might even ignore the hero to focus on putting the finishing touches to their plan or announce themselves the supreme [[Evil Overlord]], confident they've got nothing to worry about. This gives the heroes the opening to make a big, crippling blow when the [[Big Bad]] is least expecting it.

When this trope gets subverted and the villain still wins anyway, you have a [[Hope Spot]].

** In the movies, this is kinda Broly's thing. Example: Pre [[Villain Decay]] (well, we're talking about a show where the heroes are exponentially more powerful every season and the Return is about 10 years later), Broly is in an entirely different league from the heroes, to the point no one in the entire cast can so much as stand toe-to-toe with him and trade blows. Broly is so powerful that the [[Blood Knight]] VEGETA is TOO SCARED to fight him until most of the cast is near death. Then Vegeta is put down in about 5 seconds. Goku, with the combined remaining power of the entire cast, lands one punch and it looks like Broly blows up from his own overpowered-ness. And then the planet blows up for unrelated reasons.

*** The Return: Well, teenage Gohan can go toe-to-toe with Broly now. Broly shows a tiny amount of what could be construed as fear when Gohan goes Super Saiyan... at which point Broly goes Super Saiyan 2. And proceeds to [[No Sell]] pretty much anything Gohan throws at him. He reacts a little bit to being drowned IN LAVA. The following is possibly the most intimidating [[Out of the Inferno]] ever. Because, y'know, LAVA. The Gohan / Spirit Form Goku team Kamehameha from the Cell arc? Yeah, that's how they take Broly down for the count. With Spirit Goku, Gohan, and Goten, Goku's other son.

*** In the [[Gosaku Ota]] manga episodes, Great Marshall of Darkness sucessfully blackmailed Japanese army into destroying Great Mazinger and the Fortress of Science. The army bombarded the Fortress and stormed into the place before blowing it up completely, and the heroes were forced to flee and lie low for a while. Meanwhile, Mykene army conquered Japan.

*** In the last episodes of the anime and [[Gosaku Ota]] manga, the Mykene army struck the Fortress {{spoiler|and in the manga, Marquis Janus traped Misato and cut her in half}}, and attacked Mazinger-Z and Great Mazinger separately. Kouji and Tetsuya nearly got killed, and {{spoiler|Prof. Kabuto commited a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save Tetsuya.}} The generals of the Mykene army laughed. [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|Five minutes later they were not laughing]].

* Occurs in all five of the final battles of ''[[Sailor Moon]]''

*** But Crow plays [[Game Breaker|Blackfeathers]]...

*** ...Wait, why are security guards playing [[Serious Business|Duel Monsters]]?

** The "Waking The Dragons" filler arc also had Yugi win his first duel of the season with 1000 Life Points left.

* ''[[ROD the TV]]''. Joker has Junior, with the intention of using his body to house the Gentleman (the former head of the British Library whose soul is in a set of books), and is set to brainwash the whole world into believing the British are all powerful (and somehow transforming reality into something 19-century). The heroes are there but since paper is their main weapon, there's none on hand. Trying to talk things out doesn't work. Nenene, who throughout the series was stressing over writing a novel and had only recently finished it, sacrifices the unpublished novel, which is more than enough artillery for Yomiko and the Paper Detectives to stop the baddies.

* ''[[Twentieth Century Boys]]'' uses this to great effect. Friend, for one, {{spoiler|actually ''succeeds'' in ruling the world and being hailed and loved as the world's savior}}. It's only when {{spoiler|he decides to destroy it}}, that things start to turn in our heroes favor.

* [[Digimon Xros Wars]] does it twice. First it seems DarkKinghtmone has completely absorbed his brother Bagramon till Bagramon fights back and absorbs him. Then Bagramon has the digital world and earth under his power, and prepares to destroy everything and remake everything in his will with the Code Crown power, {{spoiler|and just he is about to finish of Taiki Shoutmon appears and saves him, because the Code Crown chooses Taiki over Bagramon, and the tables start to turning in favor for the good guys there}}.

* Oh good ''Lord'', ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. In Chapter 104, {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]], Father, absorbs the souls of everyone in the country and eats [[God|the Truth]], making him powerful enough to conjure a sun in the palm of his hand.}} Luckily for the world, {{spoiler|Hohenheim had a circle in place to reverse it, leaving Father in a state of [[Superpower Meltdown]] due to not having enough souls to contain Truth.}} At which point [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesomeness ensued]].

* ''[[Tokyo Majin]]''. The heroes are up against a [[God Mode]] evil spirit (Yagyu Munetaka) who eliminates pretty much all the main & supporting cast heroes--which adds up to a fight of about TWENTY on ONE. Only the resident badasses are even able to deal damage to him. With all your typical anime Badass superpowers present. There is much buildup that they're likely to lose unless they unlock all four Godbeasts to turn Hiyuu into what amounts to the ultimate hero of awesomeness. So, as most of the cast lies there broken, dead or dying, in from left field comes the final Godbeast's vessel and bam, the Hero of Ultimate Bullshit is awakened. Screaming J-Rock in the background. {{spoiler|[[Hope Spot]]. Hiyuu STILL LOSES. And the heroes finally answer with their own [[God Mode]] [[Heroic Resolve]] as [[The Chick]] brings everyone back to life, declaring they will keep fighting until they win.}}

** Also, in the TV special ''Mewtwo Returns'', Giovanni came ''very'' close to success.

* In ''[[Project ARMS]]'', Alice has possessed Katsume, Ryo appears to have no choice but to kill them both, Keith White is quickly on his way to being a living god and destroying everyone on the planet to prove it, and the ARMS weapons - the only things that have a chance of stopping him - have been deactivated. {{spoiler|It's only after Kei is able to appeal to Azreal and get the ARMS weapons back up that things start to turn in their favor.}}

* Scar from ''[[The Lion King]]'' takes this trope farther than most, [[Magnificent Bastard|as he not only succeeds in taking over Pride Rock,]] but actually holds onto this position for several years (despite a [[Zero-Percent Approval Rating]]) until Simba returns.

** And he almost won there as well. The only reason he didn't is because his [[Fatal Flaw]], [[Pride]], came in as [[Just Between You and Me|he decided to let Simba in on "a little secret" before killing him]] leading to Simba's [[Unstoppable Rage]].

** Mozenrath keeps the tradition alive in the series.

* In ''[[Turtles Forever]]'', 2003 Shredder nearly manages to kill the Original Comic Turtles, nearly destroying every single universe, until he's done in by {{spoiler|Exploding Throwing Stars}} and {{spoiler|really bad timing by Bebop and Rocksteady, that's right, the 2003 Shredder was killed by ''Bebop And Rocksteady''.}}

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* The final battle over Area 51 in ''[[Independence Day]]''.

* Probably one of the best-known examples is in ''[[Star Wars]] Episode IV: [[A New Hope]]''. The Death Star is about to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blow up Yavin IV]] and the Rebel Alliance with it, their X-wing squad sent to destroy it have all been eliminated except for [[The Hero|Luke Skywalker]], who at the moment is about to be shot down by Darth Vader, when the [[Big Damn Heroes|Millennium Falcon appears out of nowhere]], knocking Vader's TIE fighter into space and allowing Luke to fire the shot to blow it up.

** Also, moments before Darth Maul's unlikely demise, Obi-Wan Kenobi was dangling from a wall fixture inside a bottomless pit, with Maul about to make a killing stroke.

** Count Dooku has the surviving Jedi on Geonosis trapped before [[Gunship Rescue|the Republican gunships arrive.]]

== Literature ==

** ''[[The Silmarillion]]'': The final overthrow of Morgoth by the Valar, in response to the plea of Eärendil and Elwing.

** ''[[The Hobbit]]'': The Battle of Five Armies, saved by the arrival of the Eagles.

*** The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, saved by Aragorn's arrival at Minas Tirith.

*** The Battle at the Black Gate - in which most of the main characters expected to die in an attempt to give Frodo a chance - is not the primary eucatastrophe. The real one is Frodo failing at the end of his quest and, in a wonderful twist of fate, Gollum destroying the Ring, which turns everything around by killing Sauron, which also confuses his armies, which allows Aragorn & co to win.

** Most obviously in ''[[The Deathly Hallows]]'': {{spoiler|everyone believes [[The Chosen One|Harry]] is dead. Neville}} has just tried to defy Voldemort, and is getting tortured {{spoiler|with a burning Sorting Hat}}. No one else dares to stand up to Voldemort, who is blockading the school with his Death Eaters. A lot of good guys are dead or wounded. Then, of course {{spoiler|the centaurs attack, Neville breaks free and slices Nagini in half, then Harry reveals himself to be [[Not Quite Dead]] and zaps Voldemort.}}

*** It's not ''quite'' as simple as the spoiler describes. However, the nature of the eucatastrophe ''is'' spelled out in black and white in {{spoiler|Harry's exposition to Voldemort}}, in which he describes in detail exactly how the pieces have been falling into place to {{spoiler|ensure that Voldemort will lose. Harry's victory}} is the product of him realizing what the pieces are and how they've fallen into place.

** Arguably played straighter earlier on in the book, when Voldemort overthrows the Ministry via his brainwashed pawn, starts having Mugglborns rounded up to be de-souled, and spreads the word that Harry was actually Dumbledore's murderer, thus getting a ton of people to persecute his most hated enemy. A good chunk of the book is Harry, Ron, and Hermione desperately trying to continue their quest while hiding from spies and "Snatchers".

* [[A Song of Ice and Fire]] sees a strange variation in A Clash Of Kings, with Stannis's forces being at the gates of King's Landing and looking for all the world like they'll take the city and end a lot of the political conflict of the story before Lord Tywin unexpectedly returns, smashing his host in a surprise attack. The strange thing is that Stannis is the closest thing to a 'good guy' in the situation, although it's definitely not a total inversion due to the series's notorious [[Grey and Grey Morality]] and [[Black and Grey Morality]].

* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', [[Complete Monster|Scourge]] kills [[The Chosen One|Firestar]], and is about to defeat LionClan when {{spoiler|1=Firestar, who is [[Only Mostly Dead]], is revived by StarClan, to kill Scourge. This is due to the fact that Firestar was given nine lives. However, there was still an off-chance that he would have died, given that Scourge killed the previous [[Big Bad]], who also had nine lives, with one stroke.}}

* The [[Inheritance|Inheritancecycle]] begins with King Galbotorix having all but extincted Dragons and their Riders, ruling his Kingdom absolutely, with only a few pockets of resistance on its outskirts. Eragon, a rider trains to beat him, barely manages to prevent being captured for 4 books, only because Galbotorix does not want to kill him, much less won't just fly out to fight him with his Eldritch Abomonation of s Dragon. When the final confrontation begins, he calmly reveals he knows every "secret" they do, proceeds to defeat every countermeasure they had against him so effortlessly. Besides having years of experience, power, swordsmanship, wards against damage over Eragon (which in this universe, almost locks victory in) , he also reveals he has knowledge of The Word, allowing him to control the concept of magic itself. He had shown evidence of perhaps being a [["Well Intentioned Extremist"]], and fans before had complained he did not seem evil, leading this troper to believe for the first time that [[a"Bad Guy Wins"]] ending that later turned out not be would happen. How this is managed showns great use of eucatastrophe.

* The [[Wheel of Time]] has this on a ''schedule''. At the end of every Age, the Dragon fights the Dark One; if he wins, this trope; if he loses, even bigger catastrophe. However, it's possible that the Father of Lies was, well, ''lying'' about having won the battle in prior ages. Or it could be future ages and he just doesn't know the difference - the books make it pretty explicit that he's just outside of the Pattern and would be pretty alien to all sorts of its characteristics.

== Live-Action TV ==

** And even then the villains generally cause enough damage before they are defeated up to the point where the heroes simply won't get to celebrate.

* Likewise, ''[[Star Trek]]'' is pretty adept at bringing our heroes to edge of disaster before they win the day.

** Unlike the top two examples, the Dominion actually managed to ''fire shots on the Earth's surface'', and succeeded in [[Monumental Damage|messing up the Golden Gate Bridge]]. Additionally, several shapeshifters made it to Earth and other Federation worlds, causing massive panic. For a moment, it really did seem that the Federation would meet it's first defeat ever.

* The best ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' example comes at the end of season four, wherein Adam is only defeated by Buffy coming up with a spell to tap mystical ancient powers that give her the power, knowledge, and skills of Giles, Xander and Willow.

** The spell required that they be close by (no just popping a spell pill and rushing off to the enemy's lair) so they ''all'' had to infiltrate a fortified underground base safely, then successfully reach a room where they hopefully wouldn't be bothered by the ''rampaging monster hordes'' and then, even when the spell is activated, there's a) the possibility it won't work at all, b) the possibility it won't work as intended, c) the possibility of it not being reversible (effectively killing Giles, Xander and Willow while making Buffy almost a demigod, and the longer the spell is active, the higher than probability gets) and d) the (proven) possibility of bad side-effects. So, it was kind of an ace in the hole, not something anyone really wanted to do unless they had to.

** Seriously awesome when Buffy uses [[Physical God|Willow]]'s power and Giles' knowledge to turn missiles into doves.

* The Series 4 finale for the new ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has {{spoiler|Davros literally seconds away from finally removing all non-Dalek life from existence.}} The scene itself and the leadup is pretty dark.

** In Series 3, the Master actually succeeds in ruling Earth for 12 months.

** At the end of Series 5, existence is literally wiped out for a brief time, and is saved only by Amy's consciousness. And so far, the perpetrators ({{spoiler|The Silence}}) have got off scot-free.

* By the series finale of [[Lost]], {{spoiler|Smokey/Locke had successfully killed three of the six remaining candidates, managed to get the last ones to help him uncork the heart of the island, was about to escape on the Elizabeth boat with the island collapsing in his wake, and ''fatally stabbed'' Jack. He was just about to deliver the killing blow and get off the rock when along came Kate...}}

* This trope is common for [[Power Rangers]] as nearly every season has the [[Big Bad]] nearly winning despite the victories and upgrades that the rangers have gotten during the season. Though special mentions include...

** [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]] - Rito Revolto destroys the Thunderzords and by extension the rangers powers. They would be able to wreak their havoc on the world had the rangers not gone to Ninjor and gotten new ones.

** [[Power Rangers in Space]] - The various villains from the previous ranger series team up with Dark Specter and mount simultaneous attacks across the galaxy. They succeed in subduing all the rangers and their various allies. The only thing that prevented them from winning {{spoiler|was a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by Zordon. sob.}}

** [[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]] - After Trakeena's fusion with Deviot increased her evil, she launches a massive Sting winger attack on Terra Venture with all of the strapped with bombs. She succeeds in destroying 2 megazords and nearly wipes out the civilians evacuating the colony. The rangers use the [[Power Rangers in Space|Astro Megaship]] to damage the Scorpion Stinger and it crashes on a nearby moon. However Trakeena isn't done yet. With the massive power boost from the cocoon, she is able to energize the ruins of Terra Venture and sends it on a collision course for the civilian colony on {{spoiler|Miranoi}}. The rangers try to defeat her, but to no avail. Leo uses his armor and fires a point blank shot at Trakeena, finally taking her down. But the colony is still in danger. Thankfully, the Galactabeasts are able to shift Terra Venture's trajectory away from the colony.

== Tabletop Games ==

*** In the course of the series, Phoenix (deep breath): {{spoiler|defends the sister of his mentor, apparently accused by the ''victim'' of the murder, successfully brings about the downfall of a man blackmailing half the legal system, defends a ''hated'' prosecutor accused of killing a man a few days before, then successfully defends the same man for a crime committed fifteen years ago by a different prosecutor who had never lost a case before, by correctly accusing the ''same'' perfect prosecutor, takes down a ''viciously corrupt chief of police'' while defending someone who had ''already confessed to the crime repeatedly and in detail'', defended someone ''without his memory'', defended his assistant from a crime that, circumstances show, could only have been committed by said assistant, successfully maneuvered a [[Manipulative Bastard]] into confessing to a crime while his assistant was held hostage to ensure said bastard's acquittal, defended someone ''already found guilty'', and finally, successfully defended a woman he thought had tried to ''kill'' him because he was convinced of her innocence (oh, and the evidence is all against her, too).}}

** Lampshaded by the fact every case except one (and the ''series title'' in Japan), all have the word "Turnabout" in them, ''and'' how in the English versions he's named ''Phoenix'' for his tendency to "come back from the dead".

* ''[[Soul Nomad]]'' had a few when you were fighting the World Eaters, Raksha especially seemed unstoppable

* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''. The [[Final Boss]] has effortlessly overpowered you. It seems like all hope is lost until....

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has [[Big Bad|Sephiroth's]] plan for Meteor to smash into the Planet almost succeed, even ''after'' his defeat. It's basically Divine Intervention that saves the day in the end.

* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' does this during a [[Hopeless Boss Fight]].

* ''[[Metroid|Super Metroid]]'' has another example when you nearly die fighting the [[Final Boss]].

** As does ''[[Metroid]] Fusion''.

* ''[[Castlevania|Symphony of the Night]]'' might do this during the prologue battle with Dracula. If your health reaches 0, Maria runs in and casts a crap load of buff spells turning the fight into a [[Foregone Victory]].

* At one point in ''[[Super Smash Bros]] Brawl'', ''every single playable character'' (and Master Hand) is dead (well, trophyified). Then Dedede's timed badges go off...

* ''[[Mortal Kombat|Mortal Kombat 3]]'': To break it down, Shao Khan revives his dead wife on Earthrealm, allowing him to step through the boundaries separating it from Outworld and claim her, thus forcing a merger of the two realms without the need of the eponymous tournament. Not only that, but he immediately steals the souls of everyone on Earth, and sends out extermination squads to take care of [[The Chosen One|The Chosen Ones]] who had their souls spared. He barely avoided victory, due to his underestimating the power and tenacity of his foes.

* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series does this in every episode.

** ''New Vegas'' has this as a ''possible'' ending; depending on how thoroughly you complete sidequests and make friends with folks that have a lot of firepower, the ultimate battle for Hoover Dam is either an unbelievably harsh battle of attrition, or a hysterically drawn out [[Curb Stomp Battle]] as all your allies come rushing in for one [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment after the other.

* At the end of ''[[Halo]] 2'' and the middle of ''Halo 3'', the Halos were activated and charging, and just a few minutes from firing and killing all life in the galaxy just before the heroes could push the off switch.

** Canonical ones in the series: walking into the wedding hall in [[King's Quest VI]] to see "Cassima" enthusiastically declaring her intent to marry the [[Grand Vizier]]. And in [[King's Quest IV]] when Lolotte nastily declares that Rosella will have the [[Standard Hero Reward]] of marrying her grotesque "son" {{spoiler|turns out he's just a prisoner, too}}, strips Rosella of all her possessions, and locks her up.

* In the [[Space Quest]] series : Roger is captured by Vohaul in [[Space Quest]] 2, shrunken down to miniature size, and shoved in a jar while Vohaul readies the launch of his clone army of life insurance salesmen. In [[Space Quest]] 5, Roger is stranded on the bridge of the Goliath, surrounded by Pukoids, and the ship's heading for Confederation space, ready to spread [[The Corruption]] to all of known space. If you prepared for this, then WD-40 and Cliffy show up for a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment. [[Space Quest]] 6 isn't as dramatic, but it is sad. After the [[Big Bad]] tried to kill Roger, Stellar shows up and pulls a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. He can only bang on the door helplessly as she appears to succumb to the gas. Worse, Sharpei is going to get away with it because [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections|she is the wealthy and well-connected widow of a famous admiral]] while Roger and Stellar are "just" a janitor and soldier.

== Western Animation ==

* [[Evil Overlord|The Supreme One]] [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|Shego]] from ''[[The Movie|A Sitch in Time]]'' of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' had every hero captured and was just about finishing them off, when [[The Dragon|Dr. Drakken]] got her to do some [[Evil Gloating]]. Would be a great idea, if it didn't trigger [[You Suck|Ron Stoppable's]] [[Berserk Button]].

*** Worse, Shego LEFT THE FREAKIN' BACKPACK with ALL of the gadgets IN THAT VERY ROOM!

** The [[Alien Invasion]] in the [[Grand Finale]] probably counts as well. It may actually be the closest in the series the world came to ending.

* This happens ''twice'' in [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]: {{spoiler|the Fire Nation ultimately wins the war at the end of the second season, forcing Aang and his friends into hiding on enemy territory. Later in season 3, the few remaining pockets of resistance unite for a surprise counter-attack on the Fire Nation capital; it fails, costing the Avatar most of his remaining allies.}}

** Frankly,the whole premise of the show runs on this trope, the Fire Nation have pretty much won the war at the beginning,it isn't until Aang is rescued from the iceberg that any credible threat arrives

* Played with on [[Re Boot]]: Megabyte takes advantage of the chaos during the Web invasion to get rid of Bob and cripple Mainframe's defense forces, but he's then imprisoned by Enzo at the start of the third season. Because the series follows Enzo's adventures in the Games after that, we don't know what happens to Mainframe until {{spoiler|he rescues Bob and finds a way home - only to find that Megabyte escaped and conquered the city a long time ago.}}

* [[Transformers Cybertron]] uses this. {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Galvatron]] has the [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]] in his hands. He knocks out ''[[Physical God|Primus himself]]'', and is on the verge of achieving his desire of [[A God Am I|godhood]]. The universe is literally minutes from being consumed by the Unicron Singularity, leaving Galvatron to remake things in his own image. The Autobot leaders - Optimus Prime, Override, Scourge, Evac, and Metroplex - manage to kick his aft by combining their Cyber Key attacks (leading to him having the following [[Oh Crap]] moment: "[[Gosh Dang It to Heck|Uh-oh.]]", which works beautifully as delivered by [[David Kaye]]). But he's not through yet. Galvatron, in a last act of spite, pitches the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys into the Unicron Singularity. If he can't win, nobody will. But even this fails. Override, Scourge, Evac, and Metroplex recover the keys, and Optimus Prime snatches the lock back from the jaws of the event horizon. The lock and keys couple to Primus' body, fully reconnecting his spark and bringing him back to full power. He uses the massive starship ''Ark'' to channel his power as a [[Wave Motion Gun]], firing it at the Unicron Singularity. The unnatural black hole of doom shudders, contorts, and disappears.}} His work done for now, Primus transforms back into Cybertron. But not as it had been, chewed up by the hell of war. It is reborn as a paradise for humans and Transformers alike. Just goes to show, the closer to ultimate victory you are, the harder you fall when it's snatched away.

** And the last 3 episodes in "Rebirth".

* Happened alot in ''[[Totally Spies]]'', such as the second episode, "The New Jerry", with the Spies trapped in a space capsule and Tim Scam firing on the Earth with the Evapo-Blaster.

** Happens again in the Season 2 finale. {{spoiler|The Changeling Queen has destroyed the barrier protecting Canterlot, unleashed her hordes upon the city to feed off the love of all the ponies, and has even defeated Celestia in a straight-up fight by tapping into Shining Armor's love for Cadence. Even worse, the Mane 6 fail to reach the Elements of Harmony in time, and are captured by the thousands of changelings that now storm the city. Unfortunately for the queen, she forgot that Cadence and Shining Armor are still in the room, ''and'' that Cadence's magic is [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|the ability to make ponies love each other.]] The result is Shining Armor getting a massive injection of the [[Power of Love]], which gives him enough power to reset the barrier and blast all of the changelings out of Canterlot once and for all.}}

* In the series finale for ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', [[Darkseid]] delivers an utter asskicking on Superman for almost the entire episode and constantly taunts him about how he's going to win. Even after Superman's [[World of Cardboard Speech]] and awesome [[Megaton Punch]], [[Genius Bruiser|Darkseid immediately turns the tide back into his favor by simply changing tactics]] activating an Agony Matrix that leaves Superman completely helpless. As [[Complete Monster|Darkseid]] pulls out a kryptonite knife to [[Nightmare Fuel|carve out Superman's heart for a trophy]] ([[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|and yes, this is a kids' show]]), [[Lex Luthor]] shows up with the Anti-Life Equation. For those who know the lore behind Darkseid and the New Gods, they know why this affects the outcome.