Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,897
edits
Doomed Protagonist: Difference between revisions
italics on work names, grammar, potholes, spelling
m ({{endingtrope}}) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (italics on work names, grammar, potholes, spelling) |
||
Line 17:
{{endingtrope}}
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* {{spoiler|All the kids}} in ''[[Bokurano]]'', due to {{spoiler|the way that mecha battles in this series generally work -- if you win, you die. If you lose, ''everybody in your universe'' dies}}.
* In ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', {{spoiler|the magical girls are doomed to become witches -- if they don't die first}}.
* Seita from
* Hibiki of ''[[Senki Zesshou Symphogear]]'' is going to die. The opening scene of the show is Miku visiting her grave. The rest of the show is functioning as a [[How We Got Here]] to this. {{spoiler|And then it's subverted when we get past that point.}}
Line 28 ⟶ 27:
== Film ==
* The premise of the classic [[Film Noir]] ''[[D.O.A.]]'' and its 1980s remake.
* The heroine of ''[[The Ring]]'' (the U.S. version at least), when she realizes that she only has a few days to live after watching the tape.
* ''[[District 9]]'' plays with this trope. It may not be the best example, since the the moment of realization occurs halfway through the film, and no one prior to Wikus had experienced it before. However, it definitely counts.
Line 36 ⟶ 35:
* In ''[[The Wrestler]]'', the protagonist collapses due to a heart attack and his doctor tells him in no uncertain terms that he has to stop wrestling or he will die. But after he messes things up with his daughter, wrestling is all that he's got.
* [[Godzilla]] in the film ''[[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah]]''. {{spoiler|He dies of nuclear meltdown due to radiation overdose.}}
* The original ending of ''[[The Crazies]]'' remake had {{spoiler|David getting a nosebleed, this showing that both
* Everyone in ''[[Threads]]''. {{spoiler|It doesn't look like humanity, at least in the UK, will last beyond a few generations.}}
* This is the very idea behind Jean-Pierre Melville's ''[[Le Samouraï]]'', but in a simple crime drama. You know what's coming. {{spoiler|And so does he.}}
* ''[[Final Destination]]'' is basically ''Doomed Protagonists: The Movie Trilogy.''
* The title character of the movie ''[[Simon Birch]]'' is going to die. You know this from the beginning, as the [[First-Person Peripheral Narrator]] is narrating the entire movie over his grave.
* ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien 3]]'' has {{spoiler|Ripley with a
== Literature ==
* Commonly used by [[H.P.
* ''[[The House on the Borderland]]'' by [[William Hope Hodgson]]
* Several stories by [[Clark Ashton Smith]] including: ''The Double Shadow'', ''Genius Loci'', ''The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis'', and ''The End of the Story''.
Line 56 ⟶ 55:
* {{spoiler|Shirou during the Heaven's Feel route}} in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', after {{spoiler|having his arm removed by the Shadow and getting Archer's grafted onto him.}} The [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]] that comes from using it would be survivable (though with a reduced lifespan) if he had years of gradual training to ease into it and did not have to overuse it—unfortunately, he hasn't got the luxury of either. Whether this is a subversion or not depends on the ending; in the True End, he gets better, in the Normal End, [[Downer Ending|he doesn't]].
** The prequel, ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' has this happen to Kiritsugu, who is cursed by the Grail, and dies a few years later, before ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' begins.
* The ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series has {{spoiler|Raziel}}. Pain, betrayal, torture, humiliation and death? Oh yes, he has that coming in spades, but his is a more brutal kind of doom: After being executed by his master Kain, he's
* It looks like [[Mega Man Legends|Rockman Trigger]] will remain stuck on Elysium. He's been up there for over a decade, and all of Roll, Tron's, and ''Capcom's'' attempts to bring him back to Terra have failed.
* ''[[Resistance]] 2'', where Hale has indeed been corrupted by [[The Virus]], and fully transforms at the end.
* Might be the fate of the two lead protagonists in ''[[Dead Rising]]''. {{spoiler|even the fate of the survivors are in question,}} well in Otis' opinion anyway. Also, at the end of the "real" ending, the message {{spoiler|"And yet he complained that his belly was not full."}} is shown.
* In ''[[Halo|Halo Wars]]
* ''[[Breath of Fire]]: Dragon Quarter''. About thirty minutes into the game, protagonist Ryu is "infected" with the dragon power. At no point in the game does he even think about trying to find a cure or a way of fixing his condition. You do the math. {{spoiler|Then subverted in the final cutscene when, at the end of his life, Ryu is granted a second chance by Odjn.}}
* ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]''. {{spoiler|At the end of the game just before the final battle, you find out that in order to kill the Archdemon, a Grey Warden has to strike the final blow and will die in the process. You can choose to sacrifice yourself or ask the other Grey Warden in your party to do it, or [[Take a Third Option]].}}
** The joining ritual that the wardens undergo is itself a death sentence. {{spoiler|You die 30 years or so later, as your body finally succumbs to the taint.}}
*** Although everyone
*** Avernus would
* Nearly every ending in G-[[Darius]] ends this way. Even the best ending is a little ambiguous.
* A couple of ''[[R-Type]] Final''{{'}}s endings leave the pilot disabled and floating in space.
| |||