Pyrrhic Villainy: Difference between revisions

* [[Villain Protagonist|Kratos]] in the first ''[[God of War]]'' ([[Backstorybackstory]] included) gains a great deal of power at the cost of ''many'' lives, kills the original God of War, Ares, and becomes the new God of War in the process. Unfortunately for our [[Heroic Sociopath]] protagonist, his burning ambition costs him the lives of his family ({{spoiler|by his own hand}}), possibly the only thing he genuinely cared about emotionally, and causes him to go nearly insane with guilt and endless nightmares. After learning that all of his efforts towards his goal of ending said nightmares were ultimately futile, he, despite everything that he had gained, he descended further into [[Ax Crazy|madness]], (leading to the events of ''God of War 2''), {{spoiler|Wherewhere he ends up killing Athena, the one Goddess who was sympathetic to him.}}.

** The third game ends Kratos' story within the trilogy in this manner. {{spoiler|Kratos finally has his revenge on Zeus, and has brought down nearly all of Olympus AND the Titans. However, each god he killed caused a major calamity to strike the world. By the end, the oceans have risen (Poseiden), the sun has been blotted out (Helios), a plague has broken out (Hermes), all vegetation has died (Hera), and what little remains has been covered in Gaia's remains. Even worse, Pandora's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] (something he was trying to ''prevent'') was utterly pointless, as the power to defeat Zeus was in him the entire time. When Athena's ghost pulls her [[Face Heel Turn]], he finally has had enough and impales himself, which releases Hope and helps the world a little... but he's still dead, and can never rejoin his family. '''Damn.'''}}

*** {{spoiler|...Or is he? Waiting through the credits reveals Kratos may be alive., and the [[God of War (2018)|2018 ''God of War'']] confirms it}}.

* At the end of ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', Delita successfully manipulates his way to absolute power over Ivalice, destroying all of the competing factions and ascending to the throne by seducing and marrying Princess Ovelia. Unfortunately, his methods so thoroughly alienate his new bride that she decides she must have been part of his machinations too,as well and stabs him, possibly fatally. This forces Delita to kill her in retaliation, and he is left wondering if it was all worth it as he falls to his knees clutching his wound. (The painfulness of this scene is increased further if you believe that Delita genuinely loved Ovelia.)

* One of two inevitable outcomes of ''[[Nuclear War]]'' (the DOS game by New World Computing, not the actual political option). Either the last remaining ruler on Earth presides over a blasted wasteland, or the entire world is destroyed.

* ''[[Shantae|Shantae: Risky's Revenge]]'' ends with Risky victorious, having tricked Shantae into destroying Nega-Shantae, an entity that embodied her genie-half, leaving the heroine powerless. However, as the ''next'' game shows, the remains of Shantae's genie half have now brainwashed Risky's crew, causing them to overpower and oust her. And yes, [[Word of God]] claims this was the intended plot all along.

** ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' does asomething similar thing with Inque's daughter {{spoiler|who screwed her over and tried to kill her. She now lives in fear of the vengeance of the assassin who can be anywhere, as anyone or anything, seeing her in every shadow}}.

*:* This may be an inversion: to the audience and everyone in the Venture universe the Monarch's actions seem Pyrrhic, but the Monarch himself considers whatever cost he has to pay in order to destroy/inconvenience Dr. Venture absolutely worth it. In his twisted mind those caterpillars were money well spent.

*:* It's also unclear how taxing a price that is to the Monarch. It's never stated just how much money he has, but he's been consistently referred to as being wealthy. A couple of mils might be well within his budget. It was also mentioned in that show that the reason he was asking for a ransom, which was against the usual guild rules, was that they were low on money.