Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Literature: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* In the ''[[Anita Blake]]'' novel "Blue Moon" the entire plot's problems, involving hostile vampires, necromancers and werewolves stem from Anita SHRIEKING ABUSE at another city's paranoid Master over the phone, and then stomping into his territory with a bunch of very powerful vampires and weres.

** To be fair, Anita is a bit too hotheaded most of the time. I'm all for womens rights and being equal to men, but she takes it too far, assuming that any act of kindness from a male is derogatory.

** In the third, {{spoiler|Harry spares Wormtail by proxy, only to have him escape and help ensure Voldemort's return}}, but hey, at least {{spoiler|Buckbeak and Sirius}} live!

** And, to a lesser extent, in the same book, when they {{spoiler|manage to break every damn prophecy and all the Time Turners in the Ministry of Magic.}}

** For errors committed by Voldemort, see [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]].

* In the SF novel ''Legacy of Heorot'', human colonists on an alien planet manage to eliminate the "grendels", a native, komodo-dragon like species, that threatened their existence. They find out too late that the grendels were the mature (female) form of these tasty (male) "fish" that are just about ''everywhere''. (Think frogs and tadpoles. Only the frogs are a lot bigger. And have big, pointy teeth. And decide that people taste good.) The mature grendels kept the population down through cannibalism. Now that there are no more mature grendels all of the immature grendels start to grow up and undergo metamorphosis, and they're ''hungry''. Even worse, all of them can move almost faster than the eye can see. Guess what they decide to snack on...

** Nice job breaking the food chain, heroes.

* This is more or less how the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series moves from one book to another: Resolving the conflict of one book leads directly to the problems in the next, at least in the beginning.

** The problem is that all of these things are so contrived that by the sixth book it feels like the author intended to end the series last book, but got such a lucrative deal to keep going he had to think up something on the fly to explain the next story. Apart from that, though, they are decent books...

** The titular group are hunting ghost-like creatures that they can see congregating around injured and dying people. They want to destroy them to prevent them from sucking away people's life force. {{spoiler|Too bad they do nothing of the kind. They're benevolent creatures that feed on pain, easing people's suffering. And the kids' killing them off causes them to crop up in larger and larger numbers, so that many of them begin starving to death.}}

* Done several times in Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Mistborn]]'' trilogy.

** First, at the end of the first book when Vin kills the Lord Ruler he warns her that she has no idea what he does for mankind and that she has doomed the world. In the second book, the protagonists discover that the mists that have covered the world for the past thousand years are growing thicker and destroying crops. In addition, the mists are killing a small fraction of the people that go out in them.

** Also, in the backstory, the Lord Ruler, {{spoiler|when he held the power at the Well, tried to burn off the mists by moving the planet closer to the sun to make it hotter. He moved it too far and made the world too hot, so he tried to push it back and made it too cold, then he tried to put it back into its proper orbit and made it too hot again. He finally gave up on that tactic and created the Ashmounts to spew ash into the air to cool the planet, which would have killed all the plants, so he altered the plants to survive, which then required him to alter the people and animals to eat the altered plants and not choke to death on the ash}}. The end result of this was an ash-covered [[Mordor]] landscape where the sun was red and the plants were brown that was the setting for the trilogy.

* This happens in ''[[Warbreaker]]'' as well. {{spoiler|Vivenna is deceived into furthering the plans of the villains. Denth tricks her into helping to start a war between Hallandren and Idris. After discovering this, she spends the rest of the book trying to make up for her mistakes by helping Vasher prevent the war.}}

* And it happens in ''[[Elantris]]'', too, when Sarene's curiosity leads to King Iadon being deposed. Sanderson really likes this trope.

** Though in his defense, it's technically better than it ''could have been'' had the Dark One won.

** This was also his last resort. His original plan involved both men and women going to fight and seal the Dark One, but the women refused in favor of another plan. One which fell further and further out of reach as the war raged on. The women weren't changing their minds, even after several years, so he had no choice but to go with men only. To be fair, it's possible that if the women went as well, they would of gone insane to, but no-one knows for sure.

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series, it is [[Retcon|implied (or outright stated, whichever)]] that Palpatine formed [[The Empire]] and ordered the construction of weapons such as the Death Star to prepare for the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong, a species whose sole purpose is taking evil to a level that Palpatine could only ''dream'' of, making the original movies a Nice Job Breaking It Trilogy. However, it has also been commented that since The Empire lost to the Rebels, they might not have done as well against the Vong as they would have liked to think.

** Not only that but the death of Palpatine created a vacuum of power. It caused a fracture of the Empire into multiple smaller dominions led by psychotic warlords, who, to solidify their positions, hold even ''worse'' weapons, like the [[Jedi Academy Trilogy|Sun Crusher]]. It caused Admirals (and the last Grand Admiral) to start ploys to resurrect the Empire, raising the specter of a new round of Clone Wars, a working prototype Death Star, and various Super Star Destroyers. It allowed for a [[Dark Empire|cloned Emperor]], if possible even more insane than the original, to unleash Devastators on Coruscant. It allowed for criminal organizations to flourish and get into the superweapon race themselves, like the Hutt's ''Darksaber''. It opened the way for [[The Black Fleet Crisis|genocidal races]] to use left-over Imperial ships. The New Republic isn't even stable and threatens to collapse many times.

* In Kevin O'Donnell's novel ''ORA: CLE'', set in a universe where [[Science Marches On|all computers run unprotected operating systems like DOS and all news are shown in Bulletin Board Systems]], the news is censored by a viral software implanted by [[The Government|the global Coalition]]. This is a perfect excuse for a ''coup'' by a group of erudites, who then keep the ''status quo'' and keep the censors; as the protagonist is an erudite but does not agree with the methods of the new group in power, he arranges to hack the several levels of censor programs, each more seriously defended, until immediately before deactivating the last one, he's warned by the leader of the group in power about not deactivating the last censor. The protagonist does anyway and {{spoiler|the leader kills herself while communicating with the protagonist}}. Later is discovered that the censor programs {{spoiler|were implanted to prevent extraterrestrial avian invaders, who use Earth as their hunting grounds, from finding out about a plan to transform Jupiter into a star in order to blind their sensors and allow Earth to launch everything against them in a last ditch effort to get rid of the invaders.}}

* In the final arc of ''[[Deltora Quest]]'', Leif and friends have to destroy the Four Sisters who are killing their land slowly by singing evil spells. No one hears their songs, as they are so quiet and have been in place for so many hundreds of thousands of years that everyone just thought of their songs as the sound of silence. When they finally manage to kill the last one, {{spoiler|it turns out that the singing that was making the land barren actually also kept an even worse monster locked down: basically a bubbling pot of poisonous goo that will keep expanding until the entire land--the mountains, streams, forests, cities, and everything alive--is buried under a thick, hard crust of grey stuff. Essentially, it is unbeatable: swords cannot cut it, there is nowhere to throw it away and it expands too fast to curb it in any manner}}. The [[Big Bad|Shadowlord]] thought he had them beat there: die slowly or die quickly were the only options. {{spoiler|Thankfully, the goo is not flame retardant, and they did have six gargantuan fire-breathing dragons on demand}}.

** Adam and Eve manage to achieve this for the entire human race. Having been given the paradise of Eden in which to live they are told that there is one rule: they must not eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. One talking snake later and... yeah, nice job.

** Joseph's eleven brothers plotted to kill him out of jealousy. The eldest son, Reuben, suggests that instead of killing him outright they throw him in a pit in the desert and leave him to die. Reuben leaves momentarily and Judah, another one of them, convinces the rest to lift Joseph out of the pit and sell him to slavery instead of letting him die. Then Reuben returns and majorly freaks out - he was trying to save Joseph all along, and planned to return later to the pit and rescue him. Nice job breaking it, Judah.

** To those who see Visser One as a [[Noble Demon]], she might be guilty of this as well. In the [[Alternate Reality]] where the kids never found Elfangor and the Yeerks ''did'' declare all-out war on Earth, the humans won [[We Have Reserves|through sheer numbers]].

* In the original novels of ''[[The Ring]]'', the Asakawa delves into the mystery of the [[Artifact of Doom|Cursed Tape]] not only because it's a good story, but to save himself, his family, and his friend from the killing curse. In doing so, he chronicles his investigation in the Asakawa Report, which details every little incident of the quest. By the end of ''Spiral'', the second novel, {{spoiler|Sadako reveals that the curse has mutated and taken on the Asakawa Report as its new vector, as well as any of its adaptations --movies, television, radio, and any other form of media where the tale is recounted. Eventually, all of mankind will have been destroyed as she replicates within each individual, infected human}}. At least the Cursed Video was contained...

*** Asimov didn't write that follow-up, but Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter did, in their novel ''Light of Other Days''.

* In another Asimov story, ''The Life And Times Of Multivac'', humans chafe under the generally benevolent but definite [[Master Computer|control of Multivac]]. One of them {{spoiler|figures out a way to maneuver Multivac into making itself vulnerable, then crashes it. The protagonist declares that humanity is now free... and realizes that it's not at all clear that freedom -- including responsibility for running the world without Multivac -- is what humanity really wants.}}

* Early in the first ''[[The Hollows|Hollows]]'' novel Ivy Tamwood is gifted with a wish. Rather than use it selfishly for herself she gives it to a Mia, a banshee who once gave her life altering advice. Banshees in the Hollows are the life draining apex predators of a world already filled with powerful monsters. Through various means Ivy's wish allows Mia to gain a human mate as murderous as she is, deceive people long enough to drain them of life before they can defend themselves and conceive a child more powerful than any banshee before her. [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]] indeed.

* In ''[[The Company Novels]]'' by Kage Baker, {{spoiler|Dr. Zeus the AI relies on the threat of this to preserve himself after his period of omniscience comes to an end. It doesn't work.}}

* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Neverwhere]]'' {{spoiler|this is basically the entire plot. All Richard has to do is help Door bring the key to The Angel, Islington, so It can return to Heaven and Door can be reunited with her family. Oh, Islington didn't mention that It isn't in Heaven right now because It had been banished to Earth by God? And its return would lead to God's will being subverted and war in Heaven, possibly leading to Heaven's destruction as well as humanity's? Oops.}}

* A recent short story featured an American sniper recruited to test a prototype portable time machine. His mission? Go back some years before the 9/11 attacks and kill [[Osama Bin Laden]]. Which he does, only to return to an America suffering a severe depression due to terrorist attacks using nuclear weapons, which he realizes happened because there was no bin Ladin to desire to do something showy, but strategically minor. So he tries again, going back a little further. And again. And again. The end featured him one of Pontius Pilate's dungeons awaiting execution due to a failed attempt on the Roman's life.

* What Liquidon in ''Stationery Voyagers'' is convinced he's done to start the Imperial War of Markerterion. In reality, it would've happened with or without him {{spoiler|killing Astriliad}}. But by doing that, he convinced Astrabolo to switch from a campaign of [[Take Over the World|conquest]] to a plan of [[Depopulation Bomb|viral genocide]].

* In ''The Ask and The Answer'' by Patrick Ness, {{spoiler|Todd thinks he's saved an alien from death. Technically true. He's also allowed it to go raise an army so that said army can come back and kick everyone's ass. This was Mayor-excuse me, I mean President Prentiss's plan.}}

* In ''[[Perdido Street Station]]'', Isaac collects a staggering variety of winged animals for his study of flight, then gets fed up and releases or destroys all but one large caterpillar, which he feeds some of New Crobuzon's latest psychotropic street drug. It survives and pupates under Isaac's tender loving care ... and then emerges as a mind-devouring, hypnotic moth-monster that eats his roommate's psyche, escapes into the city, and frees others of its kind, which commence chowing down on every sapient mind they can catch. Nice work, Isaac.

* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Air Battle Force'', a Russian attack on a Turkmeni city is averted by destroying the bombers that would have carried it out; however, this spurs the Russian acting president, who was a bomber crewman and sees it as a personal slight, to {{spoiler|carry out nuclear sneak attacks on the USA in the next book.}}

* Defied in ''[[Rainbow Six]]''. Homer Johnston is ordered not to kill a terrorist who would go on to {{spoiler|kill a [[Littlest Cancer Patient]]}} because doing so would most likely lead to the other terrorists killing more children before the Rainbow teams can formulate and execute a plan to take them down. Understandably, no one is pleased about this.

* In ''The Burning Realm'', Kan Konar sets out to avenge the Deathlings by destroying Xoth, home fragment of the Cthons. He succeeds by destroying the Runestone of the fragment that shielded Xoth from sunlight, causing it to move aside, and forcing the nocturnal Cthons to flee their homeland or perish by the sun's rays. {{spoiler|At the end of the book, Pandrogas discovers that this Runestone's destruction, coupled with previous disruptions caused by the Circle, has reduced the time remaining before the Shattered World's sustaining spells are exhausted from several decades to less than a year. Nice Job Breaking It ''Again'', Hero.}}

* At the end of the second book in the [[Star Shards Trilogy]], Dillon {{spoiler|brings back the [[Eldritch Abomination]] parasites from the first book, infects Okoya with them, and tosses him back through a dimensional vortex}}. Unfortunately, in the third book, it turns out {{spoiler|the parasites run amok in the other dimension, displacing its powerful, soul-eating inhabitants, who are now forced to flee from their home dimension and decide to take over Earth}}. That turned out well, didn't it?

* In [[The Pendragon Adventure]], without naming the millions of times this happens, a notable mention should go to Bobby, who let the [[Big Bad]] nearly win {{spoiler|''because he quit''}}, and it's slammed in his face at every opportunity just about until the end of the final battle.

** Actually, there are a ''lot'' of moments in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. Two more that have to do with Dany are when she picks a healer for her husband who was ''raped by her husband's men''. This...didn't go so well. {{spoiler|Drogo's dead.}} And speaking of that healer, she {{spoiler|tries and succeeds in killing Khal Drogo, but in getting her revenge, she makes Dany more dangerous than either her husband or unborn son would have been by ''having her life-force used to hatch three fossilized dragon eggs''. Oh, and teaching her that mercy is for wimps. Nice going, Mirri.}}

* This happens very frequently in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. Perhaps most notable in ''Ghost Story'', where Harry realizes two different ways he's done this. {{spoiler|Unleashing Mort's insane ghosts against Capiocorpus allowed her to devour them, manifest, then take any body she wanted and live again. In a wider sense, destroying the Red Court created an [[Evil Power Vacuum]] that brought out long-dormant monsters, some clearly more sadistic than the Court was, and engaging in open warfare to seize their resources. The first of these problems can be resolved fairly simply by destroying her, the second not so much.}}

* This is what happens in ''[[Dark Sun]]'' when they kill the Dragon which had been plaguing the world. Turns out he and the Sorcerer Kings had been keeping a greater evil Rajaat imprisoned. Whoops.

* Played with as [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth Inc. In Action]]'', in which Guido and Nunzio enlist in the army to try to sabotage it from within. Every attempt they make to mess with its efficiency and operations, however, not only turns out to ''help'' the army, but gets them involuntarily promoted for their excellent leadership. Nice Job ''Not'' Breaking It, Hero!

** Marcia returning to the Castle in ''Magyk''.

** Jenna bringing Septimus to the Glass in ''Physik''.

** Beetle's attack on the DoorKeeper in ''Queste'', resulting in them being trapped in the House of Foryx.

* [[Return to Neverend|Neverend]] pretty much collapses due to David leaving it for twenty years. {{spoiler|Creating the [[Big Bad|White Queen]] made it even worse.}}

 

{{reflist}}