Negated Moment of Awesome: Difference between revisions

A '''Negated Moment of Awesome''' is when a character is about to get their [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moment of Awesome]], only for it to never come. The MOA in question ends up accomplishing [[All for Nothing|nothing]], [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|making things worse]], or, if the MOA was a hero apparently emerging victorious in battle, the enemy gets back up and just completely turns the tables back on them. Compare [[Hope Spot]], [[Reality Ensues]], and [[What Could Have Been]]. Contrast with just [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moment of Awesome]] and [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]. Is surprisingly common in [[Darker and Edgier|more cynical]] works or even modern comedies poking fun at tropes and various cliches. Pretty much every [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] story ends like this.

 

 

{{examples}}

* In the ''[[Lucky Star]]'' OVA, Tsukasa got one of these in the volleyball game against Kagami.

* At the very end of the very last episode of ''Zan [[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'', the overall series's eponymous song and [[Crowning Music of Awesome|undoubtedly most awesome track]] begins to play... and then is abruptly cut off in favour of yet another [[Running Gag|obnoxious drawing game]].

{{quote|'''Ranma:''' Look! I can see [[Panty Shot|Akane's underwear]]! }}

 

* One early story in ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'' ended with the Avengers lunging towards the Masters of Evil, about to defeat them once and for all, but the Enchantress decided to [[Reset Button|turn back time to before the story began]].

 

 

* Pops up in ''[[Spy Kids|Spy Kids 3D: Game Over]]'' when [[The Chosen One|The Guy]] comes onto the scene with 99 lives in tow. Says a few words while exuding an aura of awesome. And gets killed immediately afterward, losing all of them in one shot.

* In ''[[Deep Blue Sea]]'', the protagonists are trapped in an underwater facility surrounded by giant hyperintelligent sharks. The place is flooding, everything looks bleak and the protagonists keep bickering. Then [[Samuel L. Jackson]] begins this rousing speech, it's the turning point of the movie...aaand then {{spoiler|a shark jumps out of the water and eats him}}.

* Bleys, in the ''[[Chronicles of Amber]]'', has a truly epic example of this at the end of the first book: he near-singlehandedly fights his way up the side of a mountain covered in troops (probably the single most impressive feat of swordsmanship we ever see, for all that he's supposedly only the fourth or fifth best swordsman)... and then gets knocked off the mountain only a few meters from the top. His army is soundly defeated thereafter, and we barely hear from him for the rest of the series. Bummer.

 

* In the Season 3 finale of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Wesley is there for the final battle with the Mayor's vampire forces, looking all stone serious. He goes to join the fray... and is instantly knocked down and out. His last appearance on the show was being loaded into an ambulance, complaining as the stretcher is moved.

** This was by Alexis Denisof's choice. [[Joss Whedon]] offered him the opportunity to man up and hold his own in the battle, but Alexis [[Rule of Funny|thought just getting knocked out would be funnier]].

** Wesley made up for it on ''[[Angel]]'' by taking [[Took a Level in Badass|A-Levels in badass]].

** In the Season 5 finale Doc bests Spike in combat, then faces up to Buffy knife in hand, saying "This should be interesting." Buffy throws him off the tower without even breaking stride.

* Cheese in the series finale of ''[[The Wire]].'' He spends several seasons working his way up through Prop Joe's organization and when he betrays Joe and Marlo is arrested, Cheese looks to be the next drug king of Baltimore. He steps up and starts of give a rant to bring all the other leaders under his wing, only for Slim Charles to get sick of his bullshit and murder him mid-sentence.

{{quote|'''Slim''': That was for Joe.}}

* Rhys from ''[[Torchwood]]'' has finally had enough of the interruptions on his wedding day and is about to get rid of the shape-shifting alien with '''a chainsaw''' when it conks out for no apparent reason.

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Angel]]'' Doyle is about to crash through the gates of a rich vampire's mansion in order to rescue his friends...except the gates hold fast and [[Crowning Moment of Funny|he just ends up with a dented car]].

* The ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' writers ''love'' doing this with Guinevere. In the episode ''Lamia'' she almost gets to kill a monster...until she's knocked off her feet and Arthur stabs it in the back. In ''The Hunter's Heart'' she runs all night and all day to warn Camelot of an impending attack from an army of mercenaries...but no one listens to her. And in ''The Sword and the Stone'' she goes toe-to-toe with Morgana...and is promptly disarmed and has to be saved by Merlin.

* In ''[[Game of Thrones]]'', Theon gives an epic [[Rousing Speech]] before a [[Last Stand]], but as soon as he finishes, [[Bodyguard Betrayal|one of his men knocks him out]], because all of the others except Theon were offered the freedom to return home if they surrendered. They decide to accept the offer. Heck, the guy who knocks out Theon even says that he only let Theon talk so long because it was a good speech and he felt Theon deserved a chance to finish it before getting a massive thump to the head.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* Invoked in ''[[Exalted]]''. This is a game where you're encouraged to attempt as many CMOA as possible, but a basic power that Ebon Dragon grant to his Exalts is the power to negate somebody else's CMOA. The Ebon Dragon is the dracomorphic embodiment of ''dickery''.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Halo: Reach]]'': the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Covenant]] just ''love'' doing this. Call in a [[Big Damn Gunship]] to finish your mission? A Covenant supercarrier blasts your ship out of the sky. {{spoiler|Use a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to destroy the supercarrier? ''half a dozen more'' Covenant ships jump into orbit around Reach}}. It's like the aliens are just ''waiting'' for you to get your hopes up.

* If your character in ''[[Super Smash Bros.|Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' can't pull off a Final Smash unless the opponent comes in close contact, attempts to use this attack on distant opponents can result in unfinished attacks. Captain Falcon in particular seems to express frustration when the Blue Falcon fails to hit his adversary.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]: Reconstruction'', Sarge, Grif and Simmons (who until then, had not appeared in the series at all) suddenly [[The Cavalry|come riding out of nowhere]] in their jeep, once again with the country music to attack the blues. Then they crash into a wall, then are crashed ''into'' by an object moving only two miles an hour. Perhaps a rare example where even after their Negated Moment of Awesome, the characters still prove to be a significant threat to their intended targets - the jeep's chain gun still works after all this.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy III]] Triology'', Setzer arrives to the "Chosen Ones'" battle with Kefka on his airship, having survived his fall in Part 1 by having landed on Relm's corpse (who died breaking Sabin's fall). He jumps out to join the fight, with "I need a Hero" playing in the background, but hits the edge of the cliff and gets broken in half, the music cutting off as he lands.

 

== [[Web Comic]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Aang in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' finally manages to control the Avatar State... and then Azula zaps him in the back right in the middle of the [[Transformation Sequence]], because she's [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] like that.

** Virtually ''every time'' she gets in her mecha, it's hyped up as a big awesome sequence, only for it to be destroyed immediately ''every single time.''

* In one episode of ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]'', [[Dawson's Creek|James Van Der Beek]] fought [[Saddam Hussein]]. Near the end of the match, Van Der Beek wrapped Hussein in the American flag, and beat him to a bloody pulp with a flag pole. It seems as if Van Der Beek had won the match. However, referee Mills Lane slapped handcuffs on him, and had him arrested for desecrating an American flag, rendering the match a no contest.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==