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How the Mighty Have Fallen: Difference between revisions
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''Now in the morning I sleep alone
''Sweep the streets I used to own
|'''[[Coldplay]]'''
{{quote|''This is the guy who used to be able to turn solid stone into lava just by thinking hard at it. [[The Sixties|The 60s']] most powerful superhuman! And all he's fit for now is soaking up whisky like blotting paper and burning the toast!''
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This person once had it all. They were wealthy and powerful, sycophants hung on their every word, and it seemed like the world was their oyster. Then they fell, hard. Now their empire has crumbled, their money is gone, and they are scorned by the people who once admired them; there's nothing left for them to do but long for the [[Glory Days]].
Other characters may shake their heads in pity and comment, "'''How the
Someone powerful and [[pride]]ful who suffers a [[Humiliation Conga]] or [[Break the Haughty]] can have this fate waiting for them at the end. However, it can just easily happen offscreen, or to someone who wasn't excessively prideful.
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* The life of [[Fallen Princess|Fallen Prince]] Lelouch Lamperouge in ''[[Code Geass]]''. Even his [[My Hero Zero|Zero]] persona goes through this.
* In ''[[Black Butler]]'', Sebastian says this of {{spoiler|Ash/Angela}} in the first [[Season Finale]]. In this case, he's referring to three things exactly: first, the [[Irony]] that someone who adored [[Pure Is Not Good|Purity]] is now [[Emotion Eater|drawing power]] [[Hypocrite|from human corruption]], second that is a ''literal'' [[Fallen Angel]], and third, that {{spoiler|s/he}} is [[Curb Stomp Battle|about to go]] '''[[Curb Stomp Battle|DOWN]]'''.
* [[Your Mileage May Vary]], but... several of the countries from "[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]" can be seen as such. The Roman Empire himself, for starters, is said to have had everything, but then vanished one day (although, as a young Italy remarks, he had many scars and was in pain beforehand, probably for a long time). Prussia used to be a great fighter, and now, he isn't a nation anymore. During the Revolution, America remarks how England "used to be so big". Kind-of played with in the case of France, when he isn't invited to one of the Allies' meetings and tries to remember some of his "finest hours", all of them ruthlessly destroyed/parodized (in the cases of Joan of Arc and Napoleon, because of England, and in two cases he just jumped into the fight when the enemy was already weak).
* In the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' Bandit Keith was the intercontinental Duel Monsters champion (American champion in the original version) until Pegasus decided to take him down a peg at an exhibition match, letting a child (a volunteer from the audience) make the winning move against Keith for him. Of course, even if Pegasus had not had the unfair advantage the Millennium Eye gave him, it was obvious the kid was following his instruction to the letter. Even so, this loss hit Keith very hard, causing him to start drinking heavily and using drugs, the manga version claiming he started wagering on games of [[Russian Roulette]]. All while burning for revenge against Pegasus, leading to the modern day where he snuck into the Duelist Kingdom Tournament to do so, ultimately getting humiliated again, {{spoiler| and in the manga version, [[Killed Off for Real]].}}
** Same can be said for Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor, the Japanese champion and runner-up, respectively. Their defeats by Yugi and Joey in Duelist Kingdom caused their standing to suffer enough as it, Battle City made it worse, turning them destitute and the butt of every joke in the duelist community. Ironically, if they hadn't been so hell-bent on revenge against Yugi and Joey (and in Weevil's case, hadn't been such a rotten cheater) they might not have fallen so hard.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* Megatron in the ''[[Transformers Film Series]]'', by the third film, he's been left greviously wounded by Prime at the end of the previous film, hiding out in Africa. {{spoiler|In the end, he's getting beaten around by the ''real'' [[Big Bad]] and has to be reminded that he'll be nothing if he let's Sentinel Prime win. He tries to take control, only to be easily slaughter.}}
* Once scene in ''[[She Wore a Yellow Ribbon]]'' shows the burial of one of the older enlisted men of the regiment. He is revealed to be a former Confederate general.
* Eddie Valiant in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''; newspaper clippings show he and his brother were once saviors to the Toon community, investigating and solving cases that others could care less about, given the [[Fantastic Racism]] shown towards toons. One clipping shows they were even able to clear Goofy of treason charges! But his brother's murder hit him ''very'' hard, causing him to become destitute and alcoholic, reduced to convincing his girlfriend to steal money from her employer. (He owes her $100, which adjusting for inflation, would be about $
== [[Literature]] ==
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** The middle chapters take the player on an exploration of the old Aperture Science Innovators test facilities, far beneath the more modern chambers that you start the game in. You get to see what Aperture was like when its eccentric founder, Cave Johnson, was in his heyday, full of money and enthusiasm and with "astronauts, Olympians, and war heroes" jumping at the chance to test his products. Then you get to see it as a company struggling to survive and hiring bums off the street due to Congressional inquiries over the "[[Inferred Holocaust|missing astronauts]]". Lastly, you get to hear Cave's final recordings as a bitter, bankrupt old man dying of mercury poisoning and trying desperately to preserve some kind of legacy. Aperture may have recovered and gone on without him, but he's gone, his memories buried along with the empire he built.
** POTATOS. Though she gets back up again.
* In the epilogue of ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'', which occurs [[Distant Finale| 870 million years after the events of the game]], the Seven Deities have all been reincarnated, but have almost none of their godly essence, and some of them have also lost any trace of the dignity and authority they once had. Wyzen has it hardest, a lowlife working as a chef in some greasy spoon, while Kalrow is a grouchy old man, shown getting a citation - [[Cameo| from Chun-Li!]] - for using his Segway on a pedestrian walkway.
** Downplayed with Augus, who seems to now be a wandering scholar, no longer the raging berserker he once was. Deus seems to be doing relatively well, being a businessman and philanthropist, but Olga now has the stressful - and thankless - job as his secretary.
** And Asura? While not truly a god anymore, [[Earn Your Happy Ending| he at least seems happy]]. He is now [[Happily Married]], with Durga and Mithra again his loving family, all three still on good terms with Yasha, and the final scene implying he has indeed kept his powers, [[The Adventure Continues| which he may have to use again shortly...]]
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [http://nonadventures.com/2009/04/18/all-for-nautical/ In this comic], [[Wonderella]] is upset when she finds her old enemy [[Pirate Girl|Plunderella]] working at [[Burger Fool|a fast food place]]. ("It's not even a Long John Silver's!") Plunderella claims it's because [[Ruthless Modern Pirates| modern pirates]] are giving her old job a bad reputation.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* ''[[Transformers]]'': In part one of "The Five Faces of Evil" (the first episode to take place, chronologically, after ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'') this is the focus of a [[The Reason You Suck Speech]] Cyclonus gives the other Decepticons:
{{quote|'''Cyclonus:''' Once Decepticons nearly held the quadrant through terror. Now we scrap like slargs over a few energon cubes. Is this how you honor the memory of Galvatron?! Is this the fate of the mighty Decepticon Empire?!}}
* [[Evil Sorceress| Magica De Spell]] is usually regarded as one of the darkest, most dangerous villains [[Scrooge McDuck]] has ever faced. However, in ''[[DuckTales (2017)]]'', after her accomplice Lena (her own shadow, given life) turns on her, she is left nearly powerless. In her next appearance, she is reduced to shamelessly begging Lena to come back (Lena refuses) and in her appearance after ''that'', she is reduced to working as a stage magician at a [[Suck E. Cheese's]] (which, to add insult to injury has explicit rules against using dark magic on guests) not to mention the ''hundreds'' of empty pizza boxes in her house, suggesting she's binging on pizza out of depression. Naturally, she eagerly accepts Glomgold's offer to join his group as an [[Evil Counterpart]] to Webby, with the goal of not only revenge against Scrooge's family, but her employer who enforces that rule.
== Other Media ==
* Happens all the time in real life in the workplace, where a non-supervisory employee says, "I used to be in management and [whatever I don't like] was not how I/we did [X]."
* Subverted in this joke: Three refugees from <insert country here> talk about the old times. First one: "Here I live in a one-room apartment, but in the old country, I had a house with twelve rooms." Second one: "Here I am an ordinary secretary, but in the old country, I was a CEO." Third one (with a Mister Muffykins on his lap): "I'll admit, I'm a poor devil now as well as then. But in the old country, my dog was a St. Bernard."
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