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Not Quite Saved Enough: Difference between revisions
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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.
Compare [[Pyrrhic Victory]]. Can rely on [[Cutscene Incompetence]]. If this applies to an entire setting as opposed to a single character, it becomes [[Happy Ending Override]]. See also [[All for Nothing]] and [[Yank the
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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* In ''[[The Ruins]]'', {{spoiler|Amy escapes the ruins, but not without having been infected.}}
* ''Das Boot'' has a particularly cruel example. Most of the film deals with the sheer terror faced by the men in a German U-Boat during World War II, including several points where they're nearly sunk by Allied depth charges. {{spoiler|Somewhere in the last quarter of the film, the titular submarine actually sinks, but the crew manages to devise a plan, repair the damage, get to the surface, and return home. It seems like the film will have a happy ending as the crew survives and makes it back to port, and then the majority of them get killed in an air raid.}}
* In ''Play Dirty'', another WWII movie, this one set in North Africa, the hero and [[The Lancer]] destroy a Nazi fuel depot the night before the Allies take the city it's in. They lay low in a nearby shack, and wait for the Allied forces to arrive, at which point {{spoiler|[[Cavalry Betrayal|both main characters are promptly shot because they had to don enemy uniforms to complete their mission, despite the fact that they are walking slowly with their hands up and holding a white flag]]. [[Everybody Dies|This means that there is only one member of the team who might still be alive at the end of the film, and that 'survivor' is immobilized with a serious gut wound in a vehicle that no one living knows about, making his death only a matter of time.]] [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Even worse, the Allied commanders had changed the minds about the fuel depot, deciding (too late) to try and take it intact, so the protagonists' efforts were all for nothing.]]}}
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* ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'', especially the 2.5/Gaiden. According to the OVA that it's based on, once Kyosuke saved Lamia from the Bartolls, all should be well. So they're free to chat leisurely, right? Then Juergen pops by and shot down Lamia, making everyone think she's dead and Kyosuke failed to save her. It then continues for the true save later in the Duminuss arc, though.
* ''[[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
* ''[[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|Plotline Deaths]] that render the player's actions [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|practically pointless]], as only {{spoiler|two characters}} survive all the way to the {{spoiler|[[Bolivian Army Ending|Bolivian Army]]}} end.
* In ''[[Jade Empire]]'', you get to save your [[Doomed Hometown|village]] from bandits in the prologue with a bit of help from [[The Obi
* 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]]'' [[Bio Ware]]?
* In ''[[Avernum]] 4'', {{spoiler|Vahnatai}} assassins magically ambush the king's adviser in his chamber in the party's presence. The unarmed NPC falls extremely easily in the ensuing battle, but with enough power and quick action it is possible to defeat the assassins before he is killed. He then collapses and dies anyway, from a poisoned wound.
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