Pyrrhic Victory: Difference between revisions

* After [[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]] ends in the death of [[Captain America]], [[Iron Man]] actually [[Invoked Trope|mentions Pyrrhus]] in ''The Confession''. Overwhelmed with guilt and grief, he ultimately concludes that the victory [[Was It Really Worth It?|was worthless]].

* When Batman faces [[Back From the Dead|Jason Todd]], who forces him between letting Joker die or killing Jason, Batman [[Take a Third Option|makes Jason drop his weapon and sends him into shock]] by [[Improbable Aiming Skills|throwing a batarang at a pipe so it rebounds and cuts the side of Jason's neck]].

* [[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]: The heroes beat the Anti Monitor but in the process the entire multiverse is lost (and this is canon.) Arguably, the heroes can't be held responsible for the worlds lost before they got involved, but there were still six or seven worlds remaining when they began their counter offensive, two of them were destroyed and the other five were collapsed into one that was almost but not quite like one of the five with a few borrowed elements from the other four.

** And thanks to [[Brightest Day]], the Anti Monitor is back and ready to give it another go. We're either in for epic [[Villain Decay]] or the [[Grand Finale]] of the DC Universe.

* ''[[Clonus]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Clonus being exposed and Senator Knight's political career ruined. However, anyone who tried to help Richard is now dead, Lena is lobotomized and Richard's own heart now beats in the body of Sen. Knight's brother (who Richard was cloned from)}} For added [[Downer Ending|downer]] effect, we learn that Walker's first name is {{spoiler|George}}.

* ''[[Mallrats]]'': the Stinkpalm, a practical joke which involves sticking one's hand between one's own buttocks before shaking hands with the prankee.

'''Brodie:''' "Small price to pay for the smiting of one's enemies." }}

* ''[[Cloverfield]]'': {{spoiler|The monster is (probably) defeated, but every single main cast member (except one, and she may well actually be dead too) is dead, along with most of the population of New York City, and the city has been destroyed.}}

** In fact Pyrrhic victories are quite common throughout Middle-Earth's history. The [[The Silmarillion|War of Wrath]] ended with Morgoth's defeat, but all of Beleriand was laid waste in the battle and sank under the sea. The Last Alliance managed to defeat Sauron, but lost so many people that the kingdoms of Elves and Men ended up depopulated and ripe for attack by Sauron's human allies, which led to the destruction of Arnor and the reduction of the Elves to just a few small settlements. Even the final victory over Sauron in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' was Pyrrhic, in that destroying the Ring led to the final waning of 'magic' in Middle-Earth and the departure of the remaining Elves to the West.

* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[The Lies of Locke Lamora]]''. {{spoiler|Locke and Jean kill their enemies, but they have to leave Camorr forever, they're both injured (Locke especially so), and all their friends are, by the way, dead.}} The exchange goes something like:

Locke: It can go fuck itself. }}

* [[The Dresden Files]] has several such victories, most notably in ''Turn Coat.'' {{spoiler|1=Morgan is dead, the (only identified) traitor in the council is dead, Dresden and McCoy have no further information on the Black Council, the White Council has lost three of its most valuable members (the man Morgan was framed for murdering, Morgan, and the traitor), virtually everyone within the council needs to go in for [[Deprogram|deprogramming]] from mind-control magics, the Senior Council is now living in a permanent state of wondering if their actions were truly their own, and their newest member may or may not be a member of the Black Council.}}

* From ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'':

** [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in "What You Leave Behind":

** [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in the two-part special "The Way of the Warrior", when the battle between ''Deep Space Nine'' and a Klingon attack force reaches a stalemate.

'''Gowron:''' "'And ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat'." }}

** In the opening battle of the Dominion War, Dukat managed to capture Deep Space 9, but lost over 50 ships, a vital shipyard, and failed to bring in reinforcements through the wormhole. Nevertheless, that didn't stop him...

* The [[Chinese Paladin]] (Xian Jian Qi Xia Zhuan) TV Series {{spoiler|definitely qualifies here, as the main character, Li Xiaoyao, literally loses everyone dear to himself except his newborn daughter a couple scenes right after the "final battle."}}

* Played for laughs in ''[[Friends]]'' when Chandler got the highest score in Ms. [[Pac-Man]] but his hand became spasmed and stuck in a "claw" formation.

* The Battle of Witchhead in ''[[Andromeda]]'' turned into this for the [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzscheans]], although they arrived to the battle preparing to ambush a fleet of 100 High Guard ships with an armada of 1500, which would've been a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]. Then Hunt (AKA the Angel of Death) shows up and wipes out 1000 ships, damaging the rest, and sewing disarray among the Nietzchean ranks. The High Guard fleet shows up shortly after and is still wiped out, but the Neitzscheans are left with hardly anything themselves. In fact, the ruling Drago-Kazov Pride was supposed to form the dynasty for the new Nietzschean Empire, but their losses mean that they no longer have the power to unite the warring prides, resulting in a 300-year power vacuum.

 

* ''[[Ravenloft]]'', for both heroes and villains. The heroes won't be able to achieve particularly significant things, and it's quite likely they will die in the process of saving a handful; on the Darklords' side of the ledger...well...Count Strahd saved his homeland at the expense of his youth and became immortal at the expense of the life of the woman he loved, to name just one example.

* [[Risk]]- If you've played a few games, this has happened to you at least once.

'''(several rolls later)''' *one army is left to occupy the territory before the continent* "FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU" }}

 

** The situation on Rannoch in [[Mass Effect 3]] can quickly turn into this. {{spoiler|Shepard just took out a Reaper on foot, freeing the geth from their control. But this also made the geth vulnerable to the still-at-war quarian fleet. If you haven't [[Take a Third Option|earned the requirements for peace]] between the two sides, [[Sadistic Choice|you have to choose between them]]. And you will probably feel horrible no matter which side you choose.}}

** As it turns out in [[Mass Effect 3]] {{spoiler|''ALL'' the endings are this trope.}}

In the other Ending {{spoiler|all of organic life ''somehow'' gets bonded with artificial life, essentially trading organic diversity for a forced homogenous existence with the Reapers.}} }}

* In the last GDI mission of ''[[Command and Conquer]] 3: Tiberium Wars'', choosing to drop the Liquid Tiberium Bomb not only wipes out all of the Nod forces, but all of your own forces and [[Disaster Dominoes|sets off a chain reaction that kills]] ''[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|twenty-five million civilians]]''.

** Same in ''Napoleon: Total War'', where this troop replenishment model was first implemented. Unlike the previous games, where a seriously depleted elite unit would lose experience by diluting veterans with rookies (training only does so much), troops starting with ''Empire: Total War'' no longer suffer this effect.

* The ending of ''[[Arc the Lad|Arc The Lad 2]]''. Let's have Elc explain it, shall we?

* ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'' quickly escalates into a [[Wham! Episode]] about 1/2 of the way through Story Mode and then divebombs into this trope for the [[Grand Finale]]. {{spoiler|Raiden, after grieving over how [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|his attempts to prevent Armageddon]] have yielded no positive effects (in fact, they arguably made them ''worse''), finally realizes that the words of his future self ("He must win.") refers to [[Sheathe Your Sword|letting]] Shao Kahn ''[[The Bad Guy Wins|win]]'' the Outworld tournament and merge Earthrealm with Outworld, so that the Elder Gods can punish him for his treachery. Raiden, however, has practically crossed the [[Despair Event Horizon]] due to the [[Senseless Sacrifice|futility of everyone's sacrifices]]. [[Anyone Can Die|The only heroes left]] (out of Raiden, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Jax Briggs, [[Cyborg|[Cyber]]] Sub-Zero, Smoke, Kitana, Jade, Nightwolf, Kurtis Stryker, and Kabal)? ''[[Kill'Em All|Raiden, Sonya, and Cage]]''. Even worse, the [[Sequel Hook]] with Quan Chi and Shinnok ([[The Dragon]] and [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Mortal Kombat 4]]'') shows that Shao Kahn's defeat has left a ''major'' villain vacuum.}}

* The backstory and supplemental material of ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' explains that the Aperture Science researchers who built [[Master Computer|GLaDOS]] found out a little too late that her idea of "supervising the functioning of the Enrichment Center" involved, as a first step, [[AI Is a Crapshoot|murdering all of them]] with a deadly neurotoxin. Just prior to dying, the scientists managed to install a [[Morality Chip|Morality Core]] to restrain her homicidal impulses, but it was far too late for any of them.