Hope Spot: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

 

Any visible sigh of relief? After escaping imminent peril? Well, [[Take a Moment to Catch Your Death]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[End of Evangelion]]'', the alternate [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''; {{spoiler|1=Asuka comes out of her coma, seems to successfully defeat the Mass Production EVA's, but is then suddenly skewered by a Lance of Longinus replica, right in her EVA's eye, just as her power runs out. The Mass Pro EVAs come back to life and proceed to rip EVA-02 to shreds. Subversion as Asuka tries to put her EVA in berserk mode, but is quickly and cruelly double subverted as we see her arm visibly split in two as the Mass Pro EVAs finish her off.}}

** And her death here is [[Cruel and Unusual Death|much, much, worse than what stated here]].

** Then there's the [[Downer Ending|ending]] of that film where {{spoiler|Shinji ultimately decides against human instrumentality and sends all of humanity's dead souls back to Earth where they can come back to life if they choose to. Except...we then see that the world is a ruined mess covered by an ocean of LCL and that the only human beings who have been restored thusfar are Shinji and Asuka, both of whom are traumatized psychological wrecks. Appropriatley enough, the film ends with Shinji crying and Asuka murmmering "disgusting".}}

* The ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'' two-part episode "That day, Riot Force Six" is filled with Hope Spot after Hope Spot as {{spoiler|the characters unleash their power and teamwork like they're supposed to... but Shamal and Zafila still get shot, the TSAB headquarters still gets destroyed, and Ginga and Vivio still get "confiscated"}}.

* Subverted (along with one of the usual episode formulas) in ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5|Yes! Precure 5]]''. Cure Aqua is fighting Hadeenya and the [[Monster of the Week]] alone and losing badly. Suddenly, the other four Cures arrive! [[The Worf Effect|And it takes the bad guys about thirty seconds to kick their asses thoroughly]]. Well, that didn't help. ...Except that they bought Aqua the time she needed to recover and figure out how to even the odds.

* ''[[Bleach]]''

** When Ichigo tries to stop Renji and Byakuya from taking Rukia back to Soul Society, he gets pummeled by Renji for a while, but as just as his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] is hinted at and he starts to turn it around, Byakuya comes from literally nowhere using flash-step and cuts him down.

** The Fake Karakura arc: {{spoiler|Yamamoto has imprisoned Aizen and his fellow defectors, allowing the participating captains to handle the Espada and their subordinates. As the battle drags on, all but the last and most powerful Espada are defeated and even Starrk is looking hard pressed as he finds himself up against two of the oldest and most experienced captains in Soul Society. Then, Wonderweiss shows up out of nowhere, accompanied by a gigantic uh...thing? Wonderweiss promptly one-shots Ukitake and then proceeds to apparently revive the previously defeated Espada as the big "thing" blows away the fire-prison containing Aizen and the others. With several characters worn out or otherwise out of commission, it looks as though the good-guys are set up to be wiped out. Fortunately, who should show up at that moment but [[Big Damn Heroes|Shinji and the other Vaizard]].}}

** In chapter 391, Aizen apparently {{spoiler|gets pwned and Hitsugaya stabs him in the back}}. Then, in chapter 392, it turns out {{spoiler|Aizen was using his Complete Hypnosis ability and had switched places with Hinamori}}. Worst of all, Ichigo may well have been screaming the truth at the top of his lungs the whole time; they wouldn't have been able to hear him if Aizen didn't want them to.

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', when Rock Lee goes all out, removes his [[Power Limiter|power limiters]], and hits Gaara with his final attack, only for Gaara to barely survive it and respond by crippling and nearly killing the weakened Rock Lee.

** Later, {{spoiler|Asuma}} is saved from a killing blow only for his opponent to come at him again and succeed with the exact same attack.

** In the manga, after infiltrating the Akatsuki home base, {{spoiler|Jiraiya pulls out all the stops and manages to kill off the three bodies of Akatsuki leader Pain... only for Pain to reveal that he has ''six'' bodies, and that he can resurrect the ones that die.}}

* ''[[Gash Bell]]'' has a lot of these near the end of the series, {{spoiler|when the last ten books are being burned, most of them belonging to good guys. Arth and Elly's fight with Gomu and Mir is a prime example; just as is seems that Arth is a goner, Elly calls forth his ultimate spell and summons thousands of flying swords. Without breaking a sweat, Gomu and Mir use a dimensional spell to destroy the swords, then finish off Arth with one blow.}}

* When Guts leaves Griffith in ''[[Berserk]]'', he hopes that Griffith will get over his leaving. [[It Got Worse|He doesn't.]]

** At the end of the non-canon Dreamcast game, Casca briefly regains her sanity before she reverts to her child-like post-Eclipse state.

** The nuanced and sympathetic way the buildup is presented for {{spoiler|Griffith's}} inevitable {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn]]}} makes us somehow believe he will not do it after all (Bullshit! He would NEVER do such a thing!), even though [[Foregone Conclusion|we just know better]] already.

* ''[[Kaiji]]'' is ''built'' on Hope Spots. ''Every time'' it looks like Kaiji's finally gotten the advantage and is about to turn his luck around, [[Crapsack World|life beats him right back down again]].

* ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' is way too fond of these:

** At the end of the ''second'' season: {{spoiler|the Knights and Eagle have freed Lantis from Nova's [[Mechanical Lifeforms|Rune God]], and have returned to Cephiro. Although Eagle's [[Humongous Mecha|FTO]] is heavily damaged, and Eagle himself is injured, it's a great victory all around. Then [[Cosmic Horror|Debonair]] shows up and one-shots FTO.}}

** The [[OVA]] is absolutely ''riddled'' with these.

*** Subverted, then subverts the subversion and then subverted back again in the final episode of FINAL when each of the Yuushabots are fighting their respective [[Evil Counterpart]]. Initially, it seems as though the heroes have won, blasting straight through their enemies with the power of awesome without breaking a sweat... {{spoiler|Then the bad guys ''regenerate'' and proceed to beat the stuffing out of our heroes, seemingly killing each one. THEN Mamoru kicks Cain's ass, prompting the Yuushabots into unleashing their [[Heroic Sacrifice|true ultimate attacks]] and blow the 11 Planetary Masters of Sol into oblivion. Then resubverted when Pisa Sol resurrects the Planetary Masters...And duplicates them, forming armies of clones, each more powerful than the original. This is all the worse since the good guys are practically dead from the effort of defeating a single original. Finally re-resubverted when it's revealed that this situation is EXACTLY what the heroes wanted, since Pisa Sol, and thus by extension everything made by Pisa Sol, is now vulnerable since it has to re-charge. '''[[Drop the Hammer|LET'S BREAK STUFF!]]'''}}

** Episode 31, anyone? GaoGaiGar's attempt to defeat the first 3 Primevals.

* ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' may contain the shortest one ever near the end of the series: {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Rau le Creuset]] nearly destroys Flay's escape pod, but the shot is conveniently blocked by the Freedom's free-floating shield, saving her...until Rau destroys the escape pod with his [[Attack Drone|DRAGOONS]] instead, leading to her fiery death.}}

* ''[[Fafner in the Azure]]'' has an extremely striking version of this near the end. {{spoiler|After Michio Hino, already fairly high on the [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality]] from the start thanks to being the [[Big Brother Mentor|older vet]] who [[Heel Face Turn|started off on]] [[Redemption Equals Death|the wrong team]], racks up a few more points by resuming his relationship with and getting engaged to his ex, insisting that he remain in the fight despite being over the age to pilot a [[Humongous Mecha|Fafner]], and promising that he'll always return alive. Sure enough, an extremely powerful Festum arrives soon after he makes this promise, completely sweeps the entire team, and starts devastating the entire island. Michio grapples the Festum as they separate the section of the island he and the Festum are on, activates his [[Self-Destruct Mechanism|Fenrir system]], loses his always-worn [[Hachimaki]] to reveal a photo of his ex that he had been carrying all of these years, and generally appears ready for a grand [[Heroic Sacrifice]] dramatic even for this [[Anyone Can Die]] series. He then appears to [[Subverted Trope|subvert it]] by ejecting his cockpit, shooting free with seconds to spare...right until the Festum grabs his pod out of midair and smash it to pieces against his own Fafner. The Fenrir system then [[Sphere of Destruction|blows both units to nothing]], just for good measure.}} And the episode still has a post-credits scene to make it even worse.

* A great one in ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'': a match is lit and then dropped onto some gasoline to commit a heinous act of arson. The match extinguishes on hitting the gas and then bounces away. Just when you think that the fuel wasn't ignited, the flame pops up and spreads down the stream. The timing is great: it's long enough to give the hope spot, but not too long that it looks ridiculous when the flame does pop up.

** ''Monster'' is full of these. For example, during the Be My Baby arc, Nina [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|briefly befriends a captured Turkish woman and promises to save her]]. And then, {{spoiler|just a few seconds after this happens, [[Tear Jerker|the woman dies]]}}.

* Also happens several times in ''[[Pluto]]''. The most heart wrenching one may be when {{spoiler|the sun rises during the second Epsilon/Pluto fight. It's still not enough to save the solar-powered pacifist, Epsilon.}}

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', {{spoiler|Euphemia and Lelouch/Zero agree to work together to create a special zone of equality for Japanese and Brittanians. Too bad they didn't realize there were 3 episodes left in the season.}}

** ''R2'' even has a world-wide one: {{spoiler|Lelouch declares himself the Emperor of Justice and seems to be undoing all the evil of Brittania... only to start systematically crushing all opposition and generally being worse than his predecessor.}} Of course, this is partially subverted since {{spoiler|he is actually setting himself up as a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]... sorta.}}

* The ''[[Battle Royale]]'' manga has a ''lot'' of these. Three notable examples:

** And {{spoiler|Hiroki Sugimura's battle with [[Big Bad|Kazuo Kiriyama]] is one big ''string'' of "I can do this!" Hope Spots}}.

** {{spoiler|Whenever somebody turns their back after a supposed 'victory' over Kiriyama, something bad's ''bound'' to happen. Or they'll just sit and talk a while when they should be running away like kids from homework.}}

** To a lesser extent, later on when it turns out that {{spoiler|Sailor Uranus and Neptune hadn't betrayed Sailor Moon with their [[Deal with the Devil]]. However their [[Batman Gambit|gambit fails]] and [[Death Is Cheap|they die]].}}

* Used in ''[[Death Note]]'' in that the [[Villain Protagonist]] Light Yagami gets one of these. Even after it appears Near's completely beaten him, he pulls a hidden notebook piece, and even after the pen he was holding is shot away he attempts to at the very least take out Near.

* One of the mooks (Chess) gets one in the ''[[Shin Hokuto No Ken]]'' OAV. The [[Big Bad]] hit one of his [[Pressure Points]] to kill him later on, but temporarily undoes it before gaining Chess' servitude. When Chess begs him to undo it permanently, he actually does so, and Chess does a [[Happy Dance]] that lasts all the way until Ken punches through the door, incidentally hitting the same [[Pressure Point]]. [[You Are Already Dead]] ensues.

* ''[[One Piece]]'': Luffy finally {{spoiler|after [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|failing to get his brother out of Impel Down]], a long drawn-out battle between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Marines, and beating his way past foe after foe, rescued his big brother Ace from and got him out of the seastone cuffs so he can fight! Ace dies.}}

* The ''[[Planetes]]'' anime has a hum dinger. All at once {{spoiler|in the finale, it looks as though Goro will restart the engine thanks to having held off the boarders, Fee (who has just managed to regain control of the Toy Box) and Kho will push the Von Braun out of the way, Hachi will beat Hakim, and Ai will make the final 11th mile of her carrying Claire before running out of oxygen…}} But ALL of them fail, only saved by a last second compromise and two astounding coincidences.

* In ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai]]'' [[Kill'Em All|The Massacre Chapter]] it seems like Rika and her friends will win against {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Takano]]}}, but no, they all get snuffed. Fortunately they get to try again.

** No, the best one would be {{spoiler|now that Hades has been defeated, the real Acnologia is coming!}}

** Elfman and Evergreen are facing Rustyrose, who wears glasses that protect him from Evergreen's [[Taken for Granite|petrifying gaze]]. Elfman manages to trick Rustyrose and get close enough to steal his glasses and destroy them. Rustyrose panics as Evergreen looks into his eyes... then Rustyrose gives them a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] and ''his glasses are back on his face''. Rustyrose reveals that he just pretended to panic to toy with them and he's a ''[[Reality Warper]]''.

** Cana arrives to save her friends from Bluenote, armed with the legendary Fairy Glitter spell. Before she can fire it, Bluenote casually knocks her out of the air. Natsu manages to distract Bluenote enough for Cana to power up and fire the spell, complete with epic [[Theme Music Power-Up]], the storm clouds splitting to let in the heaven's light, and Bluenote going [[Oh Crap]]... then Bluenote is unharmed. {{spoiler|Fortunately, [[Big Damn Heroes|it was enough to allow Gildarts to arrive and save them]].}}

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' season 4, Fubiki gets the upper hand in his duel with Yusuke, with Yusuke having a pitiful [[Villainous Breakdown]] and begging Fubiki not to finish him off... until Yusuke reveals he was joking and most of the duel was an illusion, winning with ease.

* In ''[[Claymore]]'', Teresa is fighting Priscilla in order to preserve her own life as well as to protect Clare. While Priscilla is absurdly powerful - and was promoted to #2 in the organization - she is still inexperienced and a bit naive, much to Teresa's advantage. Teresa, who is #1 at the time, isn't even using most of her yoki to beat her, and she eventually gets Priscilla on her knees. At this point, Priscilla is [[Superpower Meltdown|on the verge of becoming an awakened being]] and is [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|begging Teresa to end her life]] before she becomes so, to which Teresa complies. However, it only took ONE MOMENT of hesitation from Teresa for Priscilla to take advantage and disarm Teresa by chopping off her hands and then {{spoiler|[[Too Cool to Live|decapitating her]], [[Alas, Poor Yorick|right in front of little Clare.]]}}

* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', {{spoiler|When Yusuke plans to be killed by sensui to motivate his team. Kuwabara tries to tap into his new power and break out of the uraotoko. He succeeds and frees himself and his allies before sensui deals the finishing blow. Surely that means they can save Yusuke and defeat sensui as a team right?.. no... This makes the [[Tear Jerker]] moment even more so.}}

* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', after [[Brainwashing|unwillingly]] betraying their friends during the rebellion the remaining Saint Beasts get one when they think they will succeed in rescuing Judas and Luca from hell with the help of the Goddess. {{spoiler|She betrays them and they are separated and [[Taken for Granite|turned to stone]] instead.}}

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* At the end of ''[[Watchmen]]'', after {{spoiler|Ozymandias}} explains {{spoiler|his}} plan in detail, Nite Owl is glad they made it in time to stop {{spoiler|him}} from starting its final phase, which would {{spoiler|result in the death of everyone in and near [[Big Applesauce|New York]]}}. But then {{spoiler|Ozymandias}} says this:

* [[Blackest Night|Black Lanterns]] were invoking this trope by making their victims feel hope, among other emotions, before killing them, so they can feed upon said hope.

* ''[[Sin City]]'' has a brutal one in the first act of ''That Yellow Bastard''. John Hartigan has been stabbed in the back by his partner, is being framed for a crime he didn't commit, and is getting beaten to a pulp while handcuffed to a chair. Suddenly, he finds the strength to snap the cuffs and pulverize his torturer... only for the readers to discover that it was just a fantasy.

 

 

* Late into ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5362357/1/Carnage_Necropolis Carnage Necropolis]'', Misty discovers that the L-Ject she got has a chance of curing Ash of his infection. When she reaches him, though, he's too far gone to be healed, and the only thing she can do is kill him.

 

* ''[[The Lion King]]:''

** In a villainous example, [[Evil Uncle]] Scar survives [[Disney Villain Death|dramatically falling off a cliff]] after the [[Final Battle]] with the hero with relatively no injury, and then relaxes in relief at seeing his [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|usually comedic henchmen]] approach him ("Ahh, my friends..."), only to be begging for his life moments later as they proceed to rip him apart for denouncing them in a cowardly episode that he thought that no one had heard or witnessed.

** The stampede scene is a sequence of multiple Hope Spots. The stampede catches up to Simba.. but then Mufasa arrives, grabs Simba and drops him off on a safe ledge. Then he's dragged away by the stampede, vanishing out of Simba's sight. He jumps back and grabs a ledge.. which is a cue for Scar to show himself to Mufasa. Mufasa thinks that Scar's there to help him, only for Scar to commit his [[Moral Event Horizon|supreme act of evil]] by sinking his claws into Mufasa's paws and throwing him back in. After the stampede, as Simba is looking for Mufasa, you hear movement. Simba looks up saying "Dad?" and for half a second, you the viewer think that maybe it's not that bad. Then a wildebeest runs by. Then you see what it just jumped over.

** Later in that battle, the tide is turning as the Mumakil begin to fall. Then...the [[The Dragon|Witch King]] shows up.

* The ''[[Battle Royale]]'' movie has Shinji Mimura's team succeed in hacking into the government's computers, temporarily deactivate the collars, and load up a truck with enough home-made explosives to blow up the school that serves as the government headquarters. They're about to start their attack when {{spoiler|Kiriyama shows up and kills them all. However, Mimura is able to set off the explosives, blinding Kiriyama just as the other main characters show up.}}

* ''[[Carlitos Way]]'' has a cruel one at the ending. It looks like Carlito has gotten away from his enemies and he'll finally escape to a peaceful life with his girlfriend, but right before he makes it into the departing train {{spoiler|he is shot by [[Chekhov's Gunman|Benny Blanco]]}}.

** This ending is only in the original British version. The American ending {{spoiler|cuts [[The Reveal]] that Sarah was hallucinating her escape, making it so that she gets out of the cave alive}}. This is the ending that the sequel follows.

* ''[[Black Water]]'' is full of this. Every time they make some attempt at escape, it either turns out to be fruitless, or they have to get in the water and the croc attacks someone. Then in the third act, Lee leaves the injured Grace in the relative safety of the tree so she can have another go at getting the boat. {{spoiler|She actually ends up taking a gun off a previous victim and shooting the crocodile dead. She then makes her way back to the tree, calling out to her sister that she "did it," and she's coming and they can go home... Then she gets back to the tree to discover Grace died from her wounds while Lee was away. Ouch.}}

* During the Normandy Landing sequence of ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'', a bullet hits the edge of a soldier's helmet, narrowly missing his skull. Astonished, he removes his helmet and gapes wonderingly at the holes ... and then he gets shot in the head.

** Somewhere in the same battle, a team of medics manages to stabilize a wounded soldier's condition in the middle of the fighting. As soon as they finish and it looks like he'll live, a bullet goes through his helmet and into his brain. The medics, not surprisingly, are pissed off at the Germans.

* The final fight in ''[[Scarface]]'' has Tony holding out against the swarm of [[Mooks]] invading his mansion, and it seems that he might make it...then he gets riddled with bullets by the Mooks and a shotgun gets fired into his back by the only named assassin of the bunch (the Skull) and he topples over the parapet into the pool underneath, dead.

** ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' shows that {{spoiler|The One is the last hope spot and the final system of control in the endless cycle of the matrix}}.

* The [[Badass Bystander|shotgun-toting mob bank manager]] from ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy|The Dark Knight]]'' looks like he might be able to drive off the robbers, but fails. {{spoiler|Then again, can't have [[The Joker]] get killed so early, right?}}

** And then Joker and his gang got imprisoned, Gordon is actually alive, and Harvey and Rachel are set to ride off into the sunset... [[It Got Worse|Or so you think]].

* Used in the film ''[[Godzilla]], Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack''. At first, it looks like King Ghidorah (Who is ironically the good guy in the movie while Godzilla is the [[Big Bad]]) has the upper hand against Godzilla. However, {{spoiler|it turns out that Godzilla has simply been absorbing all of his attacks and then fires a super-charged Thermonuclear Breath attack at Ghidorah causing him to explode.}}

'''Larry''': Well... no. Probably not now. }}

** A curious inversion is also presented at the end; after a day in which Phil has proved himself to be a new man and has finally won over Rita, the scene cuts to the same shot of Phil, lying in bed at 6:00AM with Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" playing, suggesting that he ''still'' hasn't managed to break the loop. {{spoiler|1=Then, after the song, the DJs begin a different conversation, and Rita leans over him and turns the radio off...}}

*** "I got you babe" does start at a differant part in the song on Feb 3. it's done much more straight in the "Christmas Every Day" version, in which the kid wakes up on Dec 26, to the EXACT same rendition of "Jingle Bells", at the EXACT same point in the song, and hears his little sister exclaim "Santa came! Santa Came!" which turns out to be the rest of the family watching a tape of the day before.

* ''[[Drag Me to Hell]]''. Oh Lord. Christina digs up the Gypsy lady's corpse and passes the curse back to her by shoving an envelope containing the cursed button into her mouth. It's over, right? {{spoiler|Well, it turns out that the envelope that Christina buried the Gypsy woman with didn't contain the button at all, but rather, her boyfriend's rare coin. She still technically owned the button, which meant that, since three days have passed, she has to go to Hell.}} Got to love [[Sam Raimi]]'s sense of humor.

* ''[[Funny Games]]'' has three examples. {{spoiler|In the first, the wife manages to grab the killers' gun and shoot one of them. It looks like the other killer loses his mind when he tries to undo the event with a remote control, but it actually ''works''. The scene rewinds and this time the killers hang onto the gun. After the killers shoot the family's son, they make a second hope spot by promptly leaving. The mourning husband and wife tearfully embrace and vow to survive, but the killers soon return, smugly Lampshading the fact that they needed to force a Hope Spot to keep things interesting}}. Lastly, when the wife is {{spoiler|tied up in the boat and they are about to push her into the lake, she spots the knife her son had left there earlier and for a few moments it looks like she might actually be able to get away. However, one of the killers notices it too and grabs it before she has a chance to take it.}}

* ''[[The Ring]]'' has this at the ending of the film. {{spoiler|Right after Samara Morgan's body is found you think everything is done and all is safe. However, the [[Creepy Child]] informs his mother, the main character, that "she never sleeps." The main character's male companion soon ends up dead because of Samara and they figure out that the only way to stay alive is if they make a copy of the video tape and spread it around. Talk about a cheerful flick.}}

* Freddy Krueger ''loves'' giving his enemies hope spots in the ''[[Nightmare On Elm Street]]'' movies: his usual method is to let the heroes think they're actually hurting him, and then shrugs off his injuries with a laugh as soon as they let their guard down. Among others there's Will, whose dream-powers as a wizard seem to be working against Freddy until he gets within striking range, Kincaid, whose superstrength sends Freddy flying until he simply adjusts his own strength to match, Kristen, who seems to take control of her dreams via lucid dreaming and change it into a pleasant summer beach before Freddy turns it back into a nightmare, and Alice, who suffers two of them in two different movies as her attempts to fight Freddy seem to be intimidating him, until he smiles, waves his hand and undoes all the damage.

** He even does it to fellow horror villain [[Friday the 13th (film)|Jason Vorhees]] in their dream-world fight in ''[[Freddy vs. Jason]]''. When Jason manages to hack off Freddy's arm with a machete, Freddy gives an exaggerated "oh no, ''not my arm!''" And then, after a beat, he simply conjures up a new arm.

* ''[[Saw]]''. Zep is about to shoot Dr. Gordon when {{spoiler|Adam suddenly wakes up, trips him, then crushes his head with a toilet tank lid. Good job! Jigsaw's dead, Gordon's family is safe and Adam survived his gunshot wound. Now all that's left is for Adam to get the key to his chains off of Zep's body. But, what's this? A tape recorder? "Hello, Zep." and suddenly the dead guy in the middle of the room starts to rise...}}

* There's an absolutely brutal one at the end of ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''. {{spoiler|Ben is the only character who has lived through to the end of the night, by being calmer, smarter and all-around more [[Badass Normal|badass]] than the other survivors. It's morning, and the police and military are systematically killing the zombies. They reach the house where he's staying, Ben looks out of the window, and they ''shoot him in the head'' and move on without even a word of dialogue.}}

* At the end of ''[[Brazil (film)|Brazil]]'', Sam Lowry {{spoiler|is restrained to a chair in a large, empty cylindrical room in the Ministry, to be tortured. However, before his torture begins, members of the resistance break into the Ministry. The resistance rescues Sam and blows up the Ministry building as they flee. Sam and Jill drive away from the city together, and they are pictured living in a trailer in the countryside. However, It is then revealed that Sam has gone completely insane and is catatonic in the torture chair, humming a happy tune.}} Cheerful!

* In ''[[Pitch Black]]'', the crash survivors are stranded on a desert world with three suns. Searching for water, they eventually find some trees on a hill on the horizon. Yay, right? Sadly, {{spoiler|the 'trees' are the skeletal fins of a giant space beastie... and beyond the hill, there's a canyon full of such skeletons. Imam gasps [[Tempting Fate|"What could have killed so many great beasts?"]]}}

* In ''[[Serenity]]'', {{spoiler|"I'm a leaf on the wind."}}

* The ''[[Mystery Team]]'' thinks they have the case all wrapped up.... then they find {{spoiler|Leroy and Destiny dead}} at the lumberyard, and suddenly none of their theories make sense.

* Towards the end of ''[[Sunshine (film)|Sunshine]]'', {{spoiler|Corazon finds a small plant growing in her burnt-out oxygen garden. They don't have to kill themselves! They can return home and have air! Whoops, got stabbed.}}

* In ''100 Feet'', after another day of the protagonist being terrorized by the ghost of her abusive husband, another character comes over to "comfort" her. While they're having sex, she sees the ghost hovering above them, but it fades away harmlessly. She figures this is the last she's seen of the ghost, seeing as how by this point, she's gotten rid of seemingly all of his possessions. But when she and the other character awaken the next morning and she goes to look out the window at the beautiful day outside, the camera pans to the wedding ring she's still wearing, and character she just slept with is suddenly knocked across the room and given a lengthy and fatal [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] by the ghost as she's forced to watch.

* About two-thirds of the way through ''[[Collateral]]'', {{spoiler|Detective Fanning pulls Max away from a nightclub firefight to safety. He believes his story, looks like he's going to help solve all of Max's woes...then is gunned down by Vincent without a pause}}.

* In ''[[The Culture/Surface Detail|Surface Detail]]'' by [[Iain M Banks]], this forms a major plot point, and is [[Played With|subverted, inverted, averted, invoked, exploited, played straight...]] [[Mind Screw|Yeah.]] There's a lot you can do when you have an entire virtual reality construct devoting itself to messing with your afterlife.

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' includes what is presumably a [[The Parody|parody]] of these in the scene where Ford and Arthur are [[Thrown Out the Airlock]]:

'''Ford:''' No. I was only fooling. We're going to die after all. }}

** In the TV version the first part of this scene is accompanied by swelling music, just to heighten the effect.

* ''[[A Thousand Splendid Suns]]'' by Khaled Hosseini has so many Hope Spots that you begin to dread something good happening, because it will most likely lead to the book, once again, [[It Got Worse|getting worse]].

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', the fight between {{spoiler|the Red Viper and the ''[[Complete Monster|evil, evil]]'' Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides, includes not merely a hope spot but a giant hope searchlight. At first the Viper looks rather outclassed by the Mountain. Then the Viper turns it around and puts the Mountain on his back, badly wounded by a poisoned spear. He steps on the Mountain's chest to finish him off -- and the Mountain grabs his foot, yanks him down, and taunts him horribly before smashing his skull with one enormous fist.}}

** Also from ''A Storm of Swords'', [[Break the Cutie|Sansa]] looks like she's about to escape [[Deadly Decadent Court|King's Landing]] and [[God Save Us From the Queen|Cersei]] with Ser Dontos, who gets her off the grounds, through a forest, and to a ship, where she finds out the one behind her rescue was none other than {{spoiler|[[Magnificent Bastard|Littlefinger]], the closest thing the series has to a [[Big Bad]] who's already given off some creepy vibes for her. [[It Got Worse]] from there.}}

** An inversion occurs in ''A Dance With Dragons'' when a hero does this to a villain. Jon Snow is fed up with {{spoiler|Janos Slynt}} after he refuses a direct order, and Jon orders {{spoiler|Janos hanged. Watching his men prepare this while Janos is pleading, Jon thinks that this is wrong and tells his men to stop. Janos, shaking, thanks Jon Snow for his mercy. To which Jon famously responds:}}

* Near the end of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'', after being worn down by months of torture and brainwashing, Winston Smith finds one last reserve of strength and devotion to Julia... which gives his captors the excuse to introduce him to [[Room 101]], and kill even that source of hope forever. The end. Unless you read the [[Newspeak]] glossary and notice it's in the ''past tense''...

** Moist von Lipwig, imprisoned, attempts the old trick of digging his way out of prison with a spoon. Having worn his spoon down to the hilt to loosen one stone in the wall he takes it out only to discover... Another wall. With fresh mortar, implying it had been made while he was digging his way through the last one. {{spoiler|Vetinari, of course, knew and had it put in intentionally, to give the prisoners something to focus on and increase their morale while still making sure they wouldn't get out. He also [[Magnificent Bastard|provided a new spoon, placed in a small hollow between the two walls]].}}

** {{spoiler|Or in the corpses of little old ladies.}}

* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Legacy of the Force|Sacrifice]]''

** Chapter 20 closes with Mara about to shoot Jacen in the face. {{spoiler|He uses the Force to save himself, and proceeds to murder her in the next chapter}}.

** After {{spoiler|Mara's death}} Luke goes after Lumiya, mistakenly blaming her. He out-fights Lumiya, and then saves her from falling off a cliff saying "I would never let you fall," giving the audience the momentary impression that he's going to spare her {{spoiler|and then he decapitates her.}} Then again, {{spoiler|her death ''was'' [[Thanatos Gambit|all part of the plan]]}}.

** [[Outbound Flight]]. There are so many times when characters come close to averting the disaster that's a [[Foregone Conclusion]]. Lorana Jinzler even talks to Thrawn, who encourages her to do something about C'baoth. And even after it happens, there are several spots where the reader can believe that she, at least, will survive. But she doesn't.

** In the middle of ''[[Fate of the Jedi]]: Ascension'' Luke is back on Coruscant and is leading the Jedi Order once again; the Moff/Senatorial conspiracy is falling apart; all three villains ([[Cosmic Horror|Abeloth]], [[Manipulative Bitch|Daala]] and [[Evil Counterpart|the Lost Tribe of the Sith]]) are on the run with few resources left; Vestara [[Heel Face Turn|chooses to become a Jedi]] and [[Only Sane Man|Wynn Dorvan]] is about to be elected Chief of State. And then all goes to Hell.

* In ''[[Ciaphas Cain|For The Emperor]]'', two guardsmen presumed dead are found alive, before being promptly shot {{spoiler|as they had already been infected by genestealers}}.

* In ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'', the hope spot comes as [[Rebellious Princess|Miriamele]], [[Magical Native American|Binabik]], and [[Dirty Coward|Cadrach]] burst into Green Angel Tower to see [[Evil Sorcerer]] Pryrates completing his [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] of several minor characters. Miriamele happens to have a [[The Fair Folk|Norn]] arrow nocked in her bow, and fires it reflexively, hitting Pryrates right through the neck and apparently killing him. There's just enough time for the good guys to exult over the victory before he staggers back to his feet, pulls the arrow out, and indulges in some serious [[Evil Gloating]]. This display of invincibility serves to utterly destroy what little hope the heroes had left.

* The [[Imperial Guard]] novel ''Desert Raiders'' has one after the regiment has managed to destroy the tyranid swarm in a series of [[Heroic Sacrifice|HeroicSacrifices]] and [[Last Stand|LastStands]]. There are only a few survivors and they are without supplies in the middle of the desert. Still they are hopeful that they can last till the fleet returns. Then they found out that {{spoiler|the defeated swarm was just a scout force and the main swarm is arriving}}.

* [[Complete Monster|Gilles de Rais]] of [[Fate/Zero]] basically has giving his victims a Hope Spot as his fetish. His [[Establishing Character Moment]] was {{spoiler|kindly freeing an orphan only to have one of his pet monsters devour the child as he ran for the door.}}

** Shown in loving detail in episode 2 of the anime. And is now the trope page picture.

* In Henri Barbusse's [[World War I]] novel ''Under Fire'', set in 1915, the narrator goes with a fellow soldier, Poterloo, to view the village where Poterloo used to live, now an unrecognizable heap of ruins. After being briefly stupefied, Poterloo begins talking about how he and his wife and their neighbors will rebuild everything after the war is over (soon!) and becomes quite cheerful. At the same time, the sun comes out and the first bird of the spring begins to sing, which to the narrator seems like a sign of the end of the war being near. A few hours later, Poterloo, still cheerful, is killed by a shell.

 

 

* In ''[[NCIS]]'' {{spoiler|Kate's death. She's shot in the chest, but was wearing a bulletproof vest. She gets up, and is killed mid-sentence. Sentence being? "I never thought I'd live-" She's shot in the head, by the way. No way she's surviving that.}}

** Its [[NCIS: Los Angeles|LA counterpart]] with {{spoiler|Dom. Kidnapped by terrorists and missing several months, the team discovers he's in LA and launch a rescue mission. Sam finds him on the roof (Dom admitting he always knew they'd find him), only for Dom to get gunned down moments later.}}

* ''[[Early Edition]]'': Gary enters a hospital where some beat-up teen is being treated. Gary's newspaper tells him that the teen is slated to die. He tells the reception at the hospital about the teen who's about to die, but the reception insists that he's making a recovery. Suddenly, the teen indeed kicks the bucket, and the next scene is his funeral.

* ''[[Stargate Infinity]]'''s villains, on these: "It's very gratifying to give people hope, and then snatch it away."

* In the ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' episode "Six Months Earlier", Hiro travels back in time to rescue Charlie from Sylar. {{spoiler|It turns out she would have died of a blood clot in her brain anyway. Then Hiro accidentally teleports to Japan and can't get back until she's already dead}}.

** Subverted somewhat when in season 4 {{spoiler|Hiro goes back again, and this time convinces Sylar to remove the brain defect from Charlie}} then unsubverted when {{spoiler|later that episode, after being cured, Charlie is kidnapped by the new big bad, Samuel, before Hiro and her can run off for their happy ending}}

** ''Mystery Spot'' also had one of these. It's a Wednesday, Sam thinks they've beaten the trickster but Dean gets shot by a mugger, is dead before Sam even gets there and Sam can't even wake up this time.

** As Sam pretty much says in ''Devil's Trap'', they're still alive (although Dean just barely), they've still got the Colt and we would love to believe him if it weren't for the fact that, in a second, a ''giant truck'' will smash into their car on purpose, leaving all three of them bloody and unconscious. What a ''fun'' way to end the season!

* We spend most of the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "Greatest Hits" expecting Charlie to drown in a flooded underwater station at the end. When he gets down to the station, it's not so much flooded, and Charlie doesn't die. Then in the next episode, {{spoiler|Mikhail ''does'' flood the station, and Charlie dies in a poignant [[Heroic Sacrifice]].}}

** There's also the bizarre double case in which Locke, {{spoiler|after causing Boone's death, goes to the hatch and begins banging on the door and screaming. This causes Desmond, who was in the hatch, to abandon his suicide attempt because he thought Locke was his new button pressing partner. Desmond shines a light up through the hatch door just as Locke is screaming at the island to give him a sign. Of course, Locke turns out to not be Desmond's new partner and, when he finally gets into the hatch, the computer winds up getting shot, which causes Desmond to both panic and go into a deeper depression than before. Locke goes on to destroy the computer that gave him so much hope and purpose after he loses faith it. Later on, Locke is killed, taking away his "special" status and making his moment of hope meaningless.}}

** In ''Fear Her'', all the drawings have returned to life - except the Doctor. {{spoiler|Then the other drawing comes to life, and it's an [[Oh Crap]] moment.}}

* In ''The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith'' from ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' we see present day London in ruins and Sarah Jane and Luke stuck in the past with no idea how to defeat the Trickster without...bad things happening to Sarah Jane's parents. Cut to the image of a Blue Police Box as the Doctor's music plays. {{spoiler|It turns out to be just a policeman}}.

* The midseason finale of Season Four of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''. {{spoiler|The humans and Cylons have put aside their differences and found Earth together. Cue exulting music. Oh wait, Earth is a nuclear wasteland and has been for two thousand years.}}

* Rare example of a villain getting this from the pilot episode of ''[[New Tricks]]''; a vicious, psychotic gangster has been released from jail following an appeal of his conviction for the murder of a barmaid two decades beforehand. He and his friends are celebrating in a posh restaurant when the main characters enter the restaurant to officially and publicly announce that DNA evidence has cleared him of the murder he was convicted for. The entire room begins to celebrate... moments before more police officers flood in to arrest him for another murder two decades ago that same DNA evidence can now conclusively prove he ''did'' do. {{spoiler|Oh, and turned out his wife murdered the barmaid under the mistaken impression she was having an affair with her husband.}}

* ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' has one. {{spoiler|Logan's mother dies}}, and he is convinced that she is still alive. He asks Veronica to find her for him, and she tries to do so ( {{spoiler|encouraged by the knowledge that the woman who supposedly witnessed the suicide was a liar}}) until Weevil finds a freshman with a tape that shows, amongst other pointless things, {{spoiler|something dropping off the bridge at around the time that his mother jumped.}} Logan then gives up until Veronica gets a hit on one of his mother's credit cards- someone used one. They go to where it was used and find a woman there. {{spoiler|Logan}} tentatively asks 'Mom?' only to have the woman turn around to be revealed as... his sister, Trina. [[Tear Jerker|Makes you want to cry.]]

** Supposedly her death was purposefully left ambiguous in case the writers wanted to bring her back, so does that count as only a half-futile hope spot?

* ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'':

** The two-part [[Grand Finale]] of same show can be summed up as {{spoiler|"Every time things seem to be going right, somebody dies". The Sheriff's army make their presence known by dumping Allan a Dale's body at the castle gates just when it seems like the battle's over; when it seems like the blocked escape tunnel might be cleared allowing everyone to escape, Gisborne gets killed and Robin is lethally poisoned. The other outlaws don't find out about this last part until the castle and the Sheriff's entire army has been killed.}}

* ''[[24]]'' has too many to count, but a particularly cruel one happens to Tony Almeida on Day 3. {{spoiler|After an agonizing 4 or 5 hours of knowing his wife Michelle is trapped in the hotel where a fatal virus has been released, he learnes she's immune and breaks down crying in relief. As Michelle is on her way out of the quarantine zone she's taken hostage by the Big Bad, who immediately forces Tony into a [[Sadistic Choice]] between betraying all of his colleagues or letting his wife die after all.}}

'''Mr. Feeny:''' I had a cat. }}

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': "Master Vile and the Metallic Armor part 2". Tommy and Kat have nabbed the Zeo Crystal and recovered the Falconzord. They blast Globbor, then combine with the Ninja Megazord to pound him. They seem to have won... then Globbor gets up and turns out to be just fine. And worse still, Master Vile reveals that Ninjor is absorbing the damage. Globbor defeats both the Ninja and Shogun Megazords, which are then teleported to a distant planet with the Zeo Crystal now linked to Master Vile. Globbor also drains the Rangers' energy, weakening them severely.

 

* As noted above every wrestling match featuring [[Ricky Morton]] ever.

* A classic ladder match between [[Jeff Hardy]] and [[The Undertaker]] (then a heel with a LOT of heel heat, mostly for his [[Kick the Dog]] moment of making [[Jim Ross]] kiss [[Vince McMahon]]'s ass a few months earlier) for the WWE Championship in 2002 featured several moments where even though everyone knew that [[Jeff Hardy]] had '''no''' chance to beat [[The Undertaker]] and get the title, he was so close to grabbing the belt that [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] kicked in and we all got ready to cheer our lungs out anyway.

** A similar motif was used in a match featuring [[Triple H]] and Kai En Tai member TAKA Michinoku, who would face off for the former's WWF Championship. Despite nearly all the fans knowing that [[Triple H]] had all but zero chance of losing his belt on free television to a jobber, several near falls in TAKA's favor drove the crowd into a frenzy until [[Triple H]] was finally victorious with a Pedigree.

*** Also used in a Sunday Night Heat match, pitting then WWF Champion [[Kurt Angle]] against Crash Holly, the two made it look like Crash may get the upset victory about 6 times before Angle uncorked an Angle Slam and retained.

** In a similar vein, [[ROH]] had Naomichi Marufuji vs. Nigel McGuinness for the GHC Heavyweight Championship, which Marufuji had only won a week before. Yes, it was obvious who was winning at the end... up until McGuinness rebounded off the ropes, sent his forearm into Marufuji's neck, and brought him down for a ''thisclosealmostthreecount''.

* Essentially all of Takeshi Morishima vs. Bryan Danielson II, as the latter went into the match with an [[Eyepatch of Power|eyepatch]], Morishima having fractured his left eye socket and detached the retina in their encounter mere weeks before.

* [[The Miz]] vs. [[Randy Orton]] on the 11/22/10 edition of Raw. Orton had just suffered a brutal beatdown by [[The Nexus]] that injured his knee, and barely survived a title match with Wade Barrett thanks to [[John Cena]]'s interference, [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|only for The Miz to show up and cash in his Money in the Bank]]. Unlike most times the Money in the Bank is cashed in, Orton actually fought off [[The Miz]] pretty well, and many points in the match it looked like Orton would overcome the odds, and the fans cheered when it seemed he would actually pull off the win when he went for the RKO...only for The Miz to counter it into the Skull Crushing Finale for the pin and the title.

 

She would strike a match off her forearm and tell you to go and dance in the front room for money. }}

 

* [[Tennessee Williams]], to a T. Whenever a character is about to achieve the desire that would redeem them and improve the [[Humiliation Conga]] they have called their lives thus far, it comes crashing down beautifully. Just ask Blanche (her white knight calls her too dirty to take to his mama!) or Laura (the Gentleman Caller even broke her favorite glass animal, the one thing that gave her joy.)

* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]:

 

== Video Games ==

* The [[Interactive Fiction]] ''[http://www.wurb.com/if/game/918 Shade]'', after {{spoiler|causing almost everything in the PC's apartment to turn to sand and strongly implying that the PC is actually dying in the desert}}, reveals that all this horror was [[All Just a Dream|just a nightmare]] and everything is actually fine and normal. Then {{spoiler|the apartment room itself vanishes, and it's made clear that it was a near-death hallucination all along.}}

* The ending of [[Mass Effect 2]] could be considered this: {{spoiler|The collectors have been exterminated, the Human-Reaper destroyed, the Collectors' advanced technology has been captured for humanity (if Renegade), and Shepard looks out of the window with an expression of quiet determination...and then the camera shows us dark space, where hundreds of Reapers are approaching...}}

** And again in the {{spoiler|final charge to the Citadel: after a series of gruelling battles, Shepard and the Hammer ground forces make a final unopposed dash to the Citadel Conduit, ready to storm the Citadel and seize a victorious ending...until [[Big Bad|Harbinger]] decides [[Memetic Mutation|direct intervention is necessary]] and obliterates the ''entire force'' (save for Shepard and Anderson) with his [[Wave Motion Gun]].}}

* ''[[Ace Attorney]]'', all the time. When you think you've bested the prosecutor, he/she ''will'' smile smugly and pull a new witness out of his/her ass. Also subverted, though, in that eventually you strike a successful blow.

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]''. You defeat [[The Dragon|Pious]] just as the [[Eldritch Abomination|Ancient]] you summoned finishes ripping the [[Big Bad]] apart, when you suddenly see into the mind of the winner and see that it's just as evil as the one that you spent all game trying to defeat, and that now that you've summoned it it plans to enslave/slaughter every living thing it can. {{spoiler|Partially subverted as Edward's spirit manages to reverse the summoning spell and banish it, but leaving Alex with the knowledge that these horrors are out there, just waiting for a chance to break through and destroy everything.}}

** At least until you {{spoiler|beat the game for the third time; turns out each play-through was in an alternate, simultaneously occurring timeline, [[Xanatos Roulette|one big plot by Mantorok to reign in the three other chaotic gods]]. All is well and the balance is restored, leaving only Mantorok itself... [[And I Must Scream|trapped, rotting but never dying]], scheming, plotting...}}

** There was a false ending where General Leo defeats Kefka and peace between humans and ESPERS is restored. But it turns out that Kefka was [[Not Quite Dead]]. He kills Leo, then the emperor, and destroys the world.

** The whole first part of the game could be considered something of a slowly progressing hope spot that, with the small interlude for the [[Darkest Hour]], is exchanged for a slowly progressing recovery from the [[Despair Event Horizon]].

* Cruelly played straight for [[Cliff Hanger]] purpose in ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generations'', bonus section. When all things looked hopeless and it seems that the heroes cannot beat some sense to the [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Lamia Loveless, she goes on to defy her brainwasher, giving her whole minions a [[Superpower Meltdown]], thus gives Kyosuke an opening to eventually plug her out into safety. Unfortunately, instead of hurrying to store her into safety, Kyosuke [[What an Idiot!|proceeds to have a cozy chat with her]], and thus comes the unexpected cheap shot from Juergen that made people think he killed Lamia. But as OG Gaiden reveals, turns out she's [[Not Quite Dead]].

** And ''OG Gaiden'' reverses this trope to 'Good condition-Bad condition-Good condition'. The first phase deals with how Lamia was still alive, but the second phase was how she was [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] again, and there's almost no way they could bring her back to her senses. And the third phase finally involves [[Heel Face Turn|Axel]] screwing all those bad conditions and still rescue her, thus finally making a successful, happy conclusion for the EFA.

* An almost-hope spot in [[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]. {{spoiler|When you use the Oath to Order on the clock tower at the end of the third day before saving all the giants, the giants you HAVE saved will come to stop the moon, and for a moment, it looks like they may do it, but soon will tell you they aren't strong enough.}}

** {{spoiler|They aren't strong enough to completely stop the moon even if they ''are'' all there. The only difference is that if they are, then the moon will open up and absorb Majora's Mask before continuing to fall, giving you one last chance to finish them both off.}}

* At the end of ''[[Resistance]] 2'', you kill Daedalus and set the fleet up the bomb, but it don't mean a thing to the Chimera. Worse, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|it apparently teleported Earth into an alternate dimension]], [[And Then John Was a Zombie|and now Hale is a Chimera]].

* Done excellently in ''[[Portal 2]]''. {{spoiler|After a battle with the final boss, you gain access to the room containing the button to remove him from control and to stop the place going up in flames,only to, brutally, discover that he booby-trapped it.}}

* Often times in [[Left 4 Dead]] it will get really calm right before a horde, Tank or Witch (or any combination of the three) appear.

* In ''[[League of Legends]]'' Karthus is built for creating these. His ultimate creates red light over the head of every enemy champion which deals damage after a short period. This red light appearing over their head signals doom to any champion who, protective resources exhausted, has just managed to limp to apparent safety.

** The Resistance {{spoiler|manage to get Xykon's phylactery}} and return to their base, {{spoiler|only to find Redcloak got there and killed everyone. The Resistance then tries to hold Redcloak off while two of their number escape with the phylactery, only for one of them to turn out to be a polymorphed spy, who leads the other into a trap and takes the phylactery himself.}}

** Redcloak and Right-Eye get one in Start of Darkness. They'd just had a fun adventure together which finally convinced Redcloak to settle down with his brother and his family. And then Xykon returns after three years of absence with [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]].

* ''[[Nana's Everyday Life]]'' has a '''lot''' of these in its short, heartbreaking run. One of them lasts a very long time.

* Repeatedly during the Sturmhalten arc in ''[[Girl Genius]]''. Wishing to avoid the notice of a prince who previously stole one of two valuable machines from them, the circus Agatha's traveling with uses Jägers as an excuse to bypass his city? {{spoiler|This irregularity is enough to warrant a report to the nefarious prince, who requests a command performance}}. The circus is unmolested, and the show goes smoothly? {{spoiler|It turns out that the prince is part of a secret society bent on using a particular girl to resurrect a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]], a device in the theater surprises the prince by showing that Agatha IS that girl, and Agatha ends up being carted off. The prince is killed by his own daughter Anevka at the last second? Anevka killed him only so that she could ''do something else nefarious'' with Agatha. Agatha is saved from being tortured to death by Anevka's brother Tarvek? Agatha happens to run into some other prisoners of Anevka's just as she's about to escape? Who reveal that Agatha is the daughter of [[Big Bad|The Other]] and overwrite Agatha's mind. After managing to temporarily overcome The Other, Agatha and Tarvek are about to use a signal device they built to spoil the villains' plans and call for rescue? Tarvek betrays Agatha and reactivates her [[Enemy Within]]}}.

* In ''[[Looking for Group]]'', Cale is leading an army to reinforce the Northlands allaince, several comics show them getting closer an closer ending in a dramatic pose complete with ralying battle cry as they are about to swarm over the last hill and reach the ensieged Bloodrage camp. {{spoiler|Next page they come over the hill only to find out they were to late and the entire area has been destoryed and the attacking Legarna forces are long gone, leaving only the charred bones of the fallen behind.}}

* [[Homestuck]]: {{spoiler|Jack Noir}} ''loves'' giving these moments.

** The trolls were ''this'' close to claiming the ultimate reward for beating SGRUB before {{spoiler|he emerged from the other side, set on killing them}}.

** The Bobby Jacks vs. Ric Chee fight, in which the wire thin misfit Ric manages to hold off [[Scary Black Man]] Bobby, a ''professional boxer'' with little more than a stick for a significant length of time, even managing to pick himself up from a seemingly decisive blow. {{spoiler|Bobby proceeds to violate the conditions he put on the fight by pulling out a concealed weapon and stabbing Ric, serving as something of a [[Kick the Dog]] moment. Not long afterwards, Bobby put Ric down for keeps.}}

** [[Complete Monster|John "the Riz" Rizzolo]] versus [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|Emma Babineaux]], who had a crush on him during high school. After a brief fight, {{spoiler|Emma gets a hold of John's gun, but is unable to bring herself to kill him. John appears to have a change of heart when she tells him there may be a way to escape [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game|the game]], and as the two of them embrace and kiss, John impales her with a sword before shooting her in the head.}}

* ''[[Troper Works/The Caretaker Reborn|Caretaker: Reborn]]''. At the end of chapter 3, everybody but the psi-immune title character have been knocked unconscious by a mental command, and even Caretaker has been rather thoroughly injured by a super-strong enemy. Said villains are just leaving when Caretaker takes a stand... and [[Curb Stomp Battle|gets horribly, painfully demolished for his trouble]].

* Every time things start looking up for [[Enemy of My Enemy (Fanfic)|the defenders of Horizon City]], something happens that gives the Brutes the upper hand again. Suffice to say, there are more Hope Spots in this story than can be counted on one hand.

* [[Red vs. Blue]]: The evil A.I. O'Malley is driven out of Cabooses Mind, everyone has their Radio turned of so he can´t take over anyone else, leaving him to 'die'. The Camera hangs over the scenery for a while, with O'Malleys transmission/Bodysurf signal getting slower and weaker and finally fading completely. Then Doc (whom everyone forgot) calls command and O'Malley gets him.

** At the end of ''Recreation'', Simmons, Donut, and Lopez are cornered by [[Big Bad|the Meta]] when suddenly Agent Washington shows up. Simmons, knowing that Agent Washington fought the Meta during the previous season, thinks they're safe. Then Washington calmly orders the Meta to stand down instead of attacking it. Then he starts asking what the Red Team did to the Epsilon unit. {{spoiler|[[It Got Worse|Then he shoots Donut and Lopez]]}}.

** [[The Nostalgia Chick]] had really hoped that a [[Meat Loaf]] [[Actor Allusion]] joke had meant that ''[[Spice World]]'' had redeemed itself. But what did the next scene involve? ...aliens.

** [[Kickassia]] has {{spoiler|Santa Christ}} accidentally get shot and killed, horrifying all present. Then [[Fan Nickname|N. Bison]] realizes that since he is made up of the hopes and dreams of everyone, maybe, just maybe, if they [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|believe hard enough]] he will return. Cue everyone putting aside their conflict to clasp hands and chant "We believe in {{spoiler|Santa Christ}}!", along with a huge parade of [[That Guy With The Glasses|the site]]'s other contributors joining in. It would be a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]...if it had worked. They end up dumping the body in a dumpster. {{spoiler|Subverted in that he ''does'' return, just not right away}}.

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Kids Next Door]]'', "Operation Turnip": Numbuh 3 calls in a [[Humongous Mecha]] she used during training, to combat a huge turnip. Except that the turnip's ''much'' huger than "Hippity Hop", and the turnip takes a pre-emptive first strike against it. Result: Two minutes or so of wasted screentime.

* Bender's fight against Destructor in ''[[Futurama]]'', right about when he says "It's Bendering time!".

** A future episode did this where Bart pretended to be nice so he could date a charitable girl, the only drawback being that Milhouse got jealous of them together and told the girl about Bart's true nature. Bart begged the girl to stay with him, despite his nature, since he changed it for her. She's first seen angrily frowning, then smiles, thinking she'll be with him for the rest of the episode (like the other girls Bart dated for periods of time). But then, it goes back to the angry frown, and the next shot is of Bart crying, lamenting about how the girl broke up with him.

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' gives Goliath the chance to prevent Demona from becoming evil by using the Phoenix Gate to go back in time and [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|give her a moving speech to warn her against betraying the clan]]. Unfortunately, the Phoenix Gate [[You Can't Fight Fate|can't be used to change history]] and she reveals at the end that she never forgot Goliath's "little speech". His speech may have in fact made her ''more bitter.''

* Near the ending of ''[[Winx Club]]'' S4 episode 24 {{spoiler|Nabu manages to close the dark abyss that the Fairy Hunters had created to seal away the Earth fairies, but dies in the process. Bloom reminds Layla that they still have the Black Gift, which can be used to bring Nabu back to life. However, as soon as Layla takes out the Black Gift, [[Big Bad|Ogron]] steals it and wastes it on a dead flower.}}

* In the ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' episode "Omens Part Two" the invasion of Thundera is nearly foiled by Jaga's [[Kung Fu Wizard|Clerics]] and King Claudus wielding the Sword of Omens. Then {{spoiler|Mumm-Ra (disguised as Panthro) murders Claudus, and slays nearly all of the Clerics with a wave of dark magic.}}

** There's another one in "A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1". It looks like Twilight and Cadence are going to make up when Cadence pats her on the head, {{spoiler|But then "Cadence" pulls out a [[Slasher Smile]] and drops Twilight Sparkle into the caverns below Canterlot.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]