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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
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== Comic Books ==
* ''[[
== Film ==
* Perhaps the prototypal example is the original ''Night of the Living Dead.'' In a movie filled with groundbreaking departures from tradition, this trope was perhaps the most significant. {{spoiler|After a heroic struggle, Ben is left the only survivor of a night of mayhem and horror in the farmhouse. The next morning he awakes to the sound of a rescue party approaching the house, but as he peers through the boarded-up windows for a glimpse of his potential saviors, they mistake him for just another zombie and perfunctorily shoot him in the head. The movie ends with a sequence of still images of Ben's lifeless, anonymous corpse impaled on a meat hook and dragged to a human bonfire. No one ever knows who he was or what he went through to survive the night . . . of the living dead.}}
* In the second ''[[Tales
* An ending taken straight from ''[[The Fearless Vampire Hunters]]'', and also seen in both ''[[Count Yorga]]'' films.
* ''[[Drag Me to Hell]]'', {{spoiler|where Christine's attempts to escape the gypsy's curse prove to be in vain.}}
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* In the third book of the ''Tennis Shoe Adventure'' Series, Harry saves {{spoiler|Lamachi}} from being killed by one of Jacob's warriors. however {{spoiler|Lamachi}} was still badly hurt, and dies of infection only hours later.
** And while it doesn't quite stick, due to the nature of the series (time travel) the same happens to {{spoiler|Gid}} in a later book.
* ''[[War for
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** After leaving a town where the inhabitants have gone [[Axe Crazy]] due to a demonic plague, the brothers leave the two survivors they rescued. It turns out one of the survivors was actually demon possessed, and he quickly kills the other.
* The episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine titled "The Sound of Her Voice" did this, where {{spoiler|a Starfleet captain marooned on a planet with a toxic atmosphere, and running out of antidote, sent out a distress call that was picked up by the Defiant. After following the signal to her location in the nick of time, the Defiant crew discovered that the planet's atmosphere caused a temporal distortion in the communications, and they had actually arrived three years too late to save her.}}
* 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|Hope Spots]] of people relaying good news are heartrending, especially since [[Foregone Conclusion|he died several months before the season premiered.]]
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* ''[[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-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]]'' [[
* 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.
* Can happen of a sort in ''Persona4''. If {{spoiler|you get the bad or neutral endings, in which Nanako dies and stays in a perpetual coma, respectively.}}
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