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Pyrrhic Villainy: Difference between revisions
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== Anime andManga ==
* Although it may depend somewhat on your interpretation, SEELE's plan doesn't seem to have turned out the way they intended by the end of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''.
** Chairman Keel seemed quite pleased with the outcome. Presumably they are among the people who can't "imagine themselves in their own hearts", so no free resurrection card for them, but that's apparently what they wanted.
*** Shinji, arguably, fits this trope better. In both endings this is what he wanted. In both endings he got better, but after getting what he wanted...well, Alexander the Great might have wept over no more worlds to conquer but thanks to Shinji there's no longer a world.
** Gendo certainly didn't get what he wanted. Rei rejected him in favor of Shinji, and it's implied that he is not reunited with Yui in the psuedo-afterlife that is Third Impact.
* Subverted in ''[[Code Geass]]''. One of the battles over Tokyo ends in {{spoiler|Suzaku firing a FLEIYA, which destroys most of the city, which is where Nunnally was at the time. Somehow, she lives. The worst part is that Suzaku swore up and down that he would never fire it, and only did so because he was getting torn apart by Kallen and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|his "live" Geass activated]].}} This only works if you see Lelouch as a [[Villain Protagonist]] and not an [[Anti-Hero]].
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** Conversely, in the game's continuity he shows no remorse for killing Brandon/Grave (Harry in the game's storyline is depicted as little more than a complete prick). Either way he still wanted Mika, the innocent daughter of Grave's former love interest dead. {{spoiler|Harry even had Big Daddy used as a guinea pig and mutated him into an acid flame-spewing monstrosity, just to ''see what kind of effects Necro-Rise/S.E.E.D. would have on him'' and has no qualms about siccing Big Daddy on Grave as the [[Final Boss]] of the game. As a result, Harry dies, Grave lives, and moves on with his "life" with Mika.}}
* In ''[[Hellsing]]'' {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|The Major]] succeeds in defeating Alucard, even though [[Action Girl|Integra]] [[Shut UP, Hannibal|kills]] him in the end. Also, London ultimately rebuilds and life continues on like normal.}}
* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', having defeated two justified rebellions from the angels Zeus is sick of war and decides to retire and go into a long sleep.
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** This is a running theme with Dr Doom; every time he manages to take control of a nation/planet, he'll spruce the place up very nicely and run it better than most governments ever manage, but will ultimately get bored of running it. Doom enjoys the challenge of taking over a nation and solving problems, not the mundane managerial work of keeping national status quo.
*** The exception is in ''Doom 2099.'' He conquers the United States, and actually intends to keep power, so he can fix the ''entire world.'' It doesn't end well for him, the country, or [[Kill'Em All|most of the heroes.]]
* The end of the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' plays with this: [[Iron Man]]'s reputation has essentially become mud because of his support of the SHRA, and it's only further compounded by [[Captain America (comics)]]'s death.
{{quote|"It was the right thing to do! And I was willing to get in bed with people we despised to get this done. And I knew the world favors the underdog and I would be the bad guy."}}
* ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had an early, non-canon [[Yet Another Christmas Carol]] where Robotnik is taken to see the future. Robotnik has finally defeated the Freedom Fighters, but he has rendered himself the last man alive in doing so, turning Mobius into a barren wasteland. However, Robotnik doesn't grasp this, and fails to learn his lesson.
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* ''[[The Shield]]'''s Vic Mackey ends up with a cushy job as a Federal Agent, after burning every bridge imaginable with his family (disowned him and in witness protection), his friends (one killed his entire family/self and left a note blaming Vic for turning him into such a monster while the other, who's loyalty to Vic was never in question, was made into the scapegoat for Vic's crimes), and pretty much had ALL of his sins exposed to the world, as part of an immunity deal he landed as part of his job. Worse, his cushy job is a desk job, which plays against Vic's strengths as a law enforcement agent and his boss, horrified at the fact that Vic conned her, has vowed to make Vic's life a living hell in desperate hope to making him void his immunity deal, costing him his job and freedom. And even if he survives, after three years the Feds can fire Vic and with his sins all public knowledge, means that Vic will never gain employment in law enforcement again, denying him the justification he used to hide from his crimes. [[Humiliation Conga|Karma is a bitch, Vic.]]
* {{spoiler|Lucas North}} from ''[[Spooks]]''. He succeeds in selling [[MacGuffin|the Albany file]] to the Chinese, but in the process destroys the life he built and {{spoiler|causes the death of the woman he loves}}. And to top it off, {{spoiler|the weapon Albany is a blueprint for turns out not to work}}.
* Morgana from ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' lives for vengeance, but when she finally manages to have King Uther killed, it's clear that she doesn't feel the victory the way she thought she would.
* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," the ship is occupied by two aliens from a species where half are black on their right side and white on their left, and the other is the opposite, and the former have set themselves up as the societal superiors of the latter, in an obvious metaphor for the racism prevalent at the time. The black-on-the-right one is chasing the white-on-the-right one as a criminal, and ultimately succeeds in forcing the crew to return to his home planet, where his prisoner can be judged. However, they find that while the chase was going on, the war between the two sides escalated until every single person on the planet was killed. The two aliens promptly accuse each other of their people being responsible, and teleport down to the planet to continue their war, as Kirk somberly notes that their hatred for each other is all they have left.
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* In the first ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' game, {{spoiler|Ansem}} (Who you find out, in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', is really {{spoiler|Xehanort's Heartless}}), successfully opens the door which he believes would lead to ultimate dark power, however {{spoiler|Sora tells him that "Kingdom Hearts is Light", and the villain ends up getting disintegrated when the door opens.}}
* In ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] Teyrn Loghain's plan to take the throne of Ferelden works like a charm ... up until the point where it sparks a civil war and causes riots throughout the country. Ironically, in an effort to protect Ferelden from Orlesian occupation, he's forced to act just as badly as the former conquerors he once struggled against. This sends him into a deep depression and eventually sparks a [[Villainous Breakdown]].
* In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', one of the ways to talk down [[The Dragon|Legate]] [[Authority Equals Asskicking|Lanius]] in the [[Final Battle]] is to convince him that even if he were to beat the NCR and conquer Hoover Dam, the Legion would inevitably fall via attrition (due to [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] being a poor long-term way to sustain an army) or overextending themselves (much like the NCR themselves have done).
* At the end of ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', when it looks like Batman might not [[Save the Villain|save]] [[The Joker]] from his TITAN poisoning {{spoiler|the clown [[Back Stab|backstabs]] him to try and get the cure, causing it to drop and smash on the ground. Joker dies about a minute later.}} Extra irony-points because {{spoiler|Batman really would have saved him.}}
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** 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 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.
** Actually it seems more Monarch was ransoming the boys since he was well aware of Venture's money woes and since his psychological torment seems to fall flat most the time he'd try torturing his wallet, though according to later episodes the Cocoon funds are running low, atleast not enough to afford a small army's worth of body armor.
* In ''[[Wakfu]]'', Nox has spent 200 years of research, plotting, and ''genocide'' in order to gather the energy needed to travel back in time and stop his family from being destroyed partially due to his own negligence. In the end, {{spoiler|he manages to defeat the heroes, drain the Tree of Life (killing the Sadidas in the process), and uses the all the energy gained over this time period to travel back in time... a whole ''twenty minutes''}}.
* ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]'' Courtney finds out Gwen and her boyfriend Duncan kissed and vows revenge. She gets support from most of her team and eventually Gwen is voted off. However Gwen and Duncan remain a couple, while Courtney loses support from her team, fails in getting Duncan voted off, and gets voted off herself instead. And most of all, [[Love Martyr|blindly falls for Alejandro who is just using her]] and he loses anyway. So in the end, Courtney ends up with nothing and no one.
* ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. Lucius manages to push [[Wicked Weasel|the weavils]] off their land, but the mountain he was going to carve his face into ends up carved into a weevil head instead.
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