Not Quite Saved Enough: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 4:
...and then the enemy superweapon levels the castle, killing the princess and demolishing the surrounding town. You and the protagonist sit there, stunned: what the hell just happened?
As it turns out, the princess was
Sometimes, no matter what the heroes do, destiny (i.e. the writer) just has it in for some characters. Save the princess? You come back later and find out she's suffered a [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. Rescue the village? The [[Big Bad]] burns it later. Recover the legendary artifact? Too bad; there's a mole among the good guys and he smashes it right before the heroes have the chance to use it. This is a very specific and special flavor of [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] that only happens when after the protagonists ''think'' they've won, a prolonged [[Hope Spot]] capped off with a [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] moment.
Line 41:
* A [[Real Life Writes the Plot]] example appeared in ''[[Monk]]'': in the fifth season episode "Mr. Monk Gets A New Shrink", Adrian Monk's psychiatrist becomes a murderer's next target and he has to save him. During the sixth season, the actor who played Monk's psychiatrist passed away, and this was written into the story in the seventh season, explaining that Monk's psychiatrist himself passed away.
* On ''[[Lost]]'', Locke spends the episode "Further Instructions" saving Eko from a polar bear. Two episodes later, the smoke monster kills Eko.
** Desmond uses his precognition to save Charlie's life but since [[You Can't Fight Fate]] Charlies is still going to die, just under different circumstances. Charlie is in a permanent state of
* Has happened a lot on ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Several times, characters will be rescued by the Doctor and his companions, only to killed a bit later on when the writer thinks they've outlived their usefulness to the story and can't think of anything to do with them.
** The new series 5 episode Vincent and The Doctor deserves a special mention. Admittedly it was a [[Foregone Conclusion]] as even in universe it is explicitly mention several times that Vincent van Gogh committed suicide. But it's still a little heartbreaking when Amy rushes to see if they saved him. {{spoiler|They didn't.}}
Line 51:
* On ''[[NCIS: Los Angeles]]'' {{spoiler|Dom was kidnapped by terrorists who were hiding in LA the whole time. He's finally found and is just within touching distance when he's gunned down.}}
* In ''[[Highlander the Series]]'', Duncan MacLeod rescues his mortal girlfriend Tessa Noel from a renegade Watcher ... only for [[Diabolus Ex Machina|a random mugger]] to show up and gun her down on the street outside when she doesn't hand over her engagement ring fast enough.
* On ''[[Deadliest Catch]]'', Capt. Phil Harris suffered a massive stroke that should've killed him, but doctors were able to relieve pressure on his brain in time. He was recovering wonderfully, even regaining some feeling in his paralyzed side until he had a second fatal "episode". The few [[Hope Spot
Line 71:
* ''[[Castlevania|Castlevania: Lament of Innocence]]''. Leon Belmont just saved his lover Sara Trantoul from the vampire Walter Bernhard. Just when Leon thought he could just put everything behind, he found out one nasty thing: Sara has been vampirized and is about to suffer [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. He's forced to use his Whip of Alchemy to put Sara out of misery, incidentally evolving it to the legendary Vampire Killer. Cue Leon's [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]. Oh, and the Vampire Killer has her soul sealed within it, for extra suckiness.
* In ''[[Sam and Max]]: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak'', [[Identical Grandfather|Sameth and Maximus']] [[Two-Fisted Tales|rip-roaring 20's-style pulpy adventure]] leads them through numerous close encounters with [[Death Trap|spring-loaded scimitars, diabolical crushing traps,]] [[Bad Santa|a villainous, gun-toting Santa Claus lookalike,]] [[Eldritch Abomination|mad priests of eldritch gods]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and an irate conductor]]: any one of these encounters can end in certain death for our two early 20th-century heroes, {{spoiler|but when all's said and done, the two are unavoidably skeletonized when Maximus mistakes little <s> Nefertiti</s> Bubbles' Protection Spell for her dreaded [[Baleful Polymorph|Holstein Hex]] and makes a break for it in the wrong direction.}} Considering, however, that the chapter ''starts'' with present-day Sam and Max finding their skeletons in the same boiler room that their story ends in, it's a [[Foregone Conclusion]].
* ''[[Obs Cure]] 2'' has Mei's efforts to track down and save {{spoiler|her twin sister Jun}} all come to naught when they're killed literally right before Mei can reach them. This is just the first of a series of [[Plotline Death
* In ''[[Jade Empire]]'', you get to save your [[Doomed Hometown|village]] from bandits in the prologue with a bit of help from [[The Obi-Wan|Master Li]], but {{spoiler|the village gets firebombed and the population massacred anyway while you're out saving Dawn Star}}.
* The Outcasts from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' that a Light Side [[Player Character]] saves? They get to their Promised Land, only to find it's a ruin. sure, it saves them from the bombing, but they're left to die a slow and horrible death by being picked off by rakghouls, disease, starvation, and toxic waste. But what do you expect from post-''[[Dragon Age]]'' [[BioWare]]?
Line 79:
== Webcomics ==
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', Doc Scratch tells the Handmaid that she's [[You Can't Fight Fate|fated]] to serve as an agent of destruction for [[Humanoid Abomination|Lord English]], but she wants no part of this. [[Author Avatar|Andrew Hussie]] himself comes charging in to rescue her and to regain control of the narrative. Hussie effortlessly overpowers Scratch, and the Handmaid leaps out a window to make her
| |||