Failure Is the Only Option: Difference between revisions

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Clicking X brings up the Close Error message box.

1) You can't win.
2) You can't break even.

3) You can't leave the game.

—The Laws of Thermodynamics summarized.

A series premise that allows the heroes or the villains to win minor battles along the way but prevents them from ever truly winning their overall "war" and achieving the Series Goal without ending or completely changing the series. They can't win, because then, of course, it would end the series.

On shows with premises like these, there will be episodes in which the characters make an attempt to actually resolve the premise. The frequency of such eps can range from occasional (Star Trek: Voyager, "Future's End") to frequent (Gilligan's Island, Samurai Jack, Dungeons And Dragons). Conversely, a character may briefly rise above his Genre Blindness and try to take advantage of the permanent state of failure, consequently falling right into Springtime for Hitler.

A related trope is Perpetual Poverty; the show's plot is the characters making a living doing something entertaining to audiences such as catching criminals for money (or maybe being criminals), and if they ever had a windfall they might actually choose to do something less troublesome and therefore less entertaining.

When a show's impending end is known ahead of time to the producers, they may choose to go out with a Grand Finale, in which Failure is no longer the Only Option.

Frequently results in viewers noticing writers like to Yank the Dog's Chain.

Ontological Mysteries are subject to this trope.

Road Runner vs. Coyote is a Sub-Trope of this.

Compare Easy Come, Easy Go, Status Quo Is God, General Failure, Victory Is Boring, Time for Plan B, You Can't Thwart Stage One, Joker Immunity, Foregone Conclusion

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 {{trope}}
-[[File:cit_error_operation_successful2.jpg|frame|[[Take a Third Option|Clicking X]] [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|brings up the Close Error message box.]]]]
+[[File:cit error operation successful2.jpg|frame|[[Take a Third Option|Clicking X]] [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|brings up the Close Error message box.]]]]
 {{quote|''1) You can't win.''
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 See also [[Fission Mailed]].
+{{Clippy|It looks like you're trying to succeed. Can I help?}}
-{{examples}}
+{{examples on subpages|Situations in which failure is the only option are listed on these subpages:}}
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Advertising|Advertising]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Anime And Manga|Anime and Manga]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Comic Books|Comic Books]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Film|Film]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Literature|Literature]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Live Action TV|Live Action TV]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Myths And Religion|Myths And Religion]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Newspaper Comics|Newspaper Comics]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Professional Wrestling|Professional Wrestling]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Tabletop Games|Tabletop Games]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Theatre|Theatre]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Video Games|Video Games]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Web Comics|Web Comics]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Web Original|Web Original]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Western Animation|Western Animation]]
-* [[Failure Is the Only Option/Real Life|Real Life]]
 {{reflist}}
+[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
 [[Category:Narrative Devices]]
 [[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
 [[Category:Index Failure]]
-[[Category:Failure Is the Only Option]]
 [[Category:Finagle's Law]]
 [[Category:Depressing Tropes]]
+[[Category:Victory and Defeat]]