Yank the Dog's Chain: Difference between revisions
→Literature: Replaced redirects
(clean up) |
(→Literature: Replaced redirects) |
||
(30 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
[[File:CharlieBrownFootball.jpg|link=Peanuts
{{quote|'''Sokka:''' Well Aang, because when I'm being pursued by people who want to kill me, I'd rather throw them off by walking through a dense forest than ''fly through an empty sky on a giant freaking bison!''
'''Katara:''' That may make sense, but since you're trying to be the leader, I'm guessing this is gonna fail horribly.
'''Sokka:''' Oh c'mon, [[Tempting Fate|the writers don't hate me that muuuu....]]
|''[[Avatar: The Abridged Series]]''}}
Hooray! The [[Butt Monkey]] has finally had [[Throw the Dog
▲{{quote|'''Sokka:''' Well Aang, because when I'm being pursued by people who want to kill me, I'd rather throw them off by walking through a dense forest than ''fly through an empty sky on a giant freaking bison!''<br />
▲'''Katara:''' That may make sense, but since you're trying to be the leader, I'm guessing this is gonna fail horribly.<br />
▲'''Sokka:''' Oh c'mon, [[Tempting Fate|the writers don't hate me that muuuu....]]|''[[Avatar the Abridged Series (Fanfic)|Avatar the Abridged Series]]''}}
That, right there, is the feeling and painful acknowledgment by the [[Genre Savvy]] viewer that [[Failure Is the Only Option]]. Why? Because [[The Woobie]] is ''not'' going to get to keep her money and move out of [[Perpetual Poverty]]. [[James Bond]] will ''not'' stay [[Happily Married]] to the [[Girl of the Week|Girl of the Movie]] because of the [[Cartwright Curse]]. The home that [[The Drifter]] has been accepted into will promptly become a [[Doomed Hometown]]. [[Samurai Jack]] will give up the most recent [[Phlebotinum]] to return to his home time and [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] in order to save the helpful villagers nearby. [[Pokémon (
▲Hooray! The [[Butt Monkey]] has finally had [[Throw the Dog A Bone|something go right]] for once in their unhappy life! And with [[Snicket Warning Label|twenty minutes to spare]], we're sure to see [[Too Happy to Live|their new joyful existence play out for the rest of the episode]]... [[Tempting Fate|right?]]
While the permutations are endless, the result is the same: writers Yank the Dog's Chain, keeping [[Throw the Dog
▲That, right there, is the feeling and painful acknowledgment by the [[Genre Savvy]] viewer that [[Failure Is the Only Option]]. Why? Because [[The Woobie]] is ''not'' going to get to keep her money and move out of [[Perpetual Poverty]]. [[James Bond]] will ''not'' stay [[Happily Married]] to the [[Girl of the Week|Girl of the Movie]] because of the [[Cartwright Curse]]. The home that [[The Drifter]] has been accepted into will promptly become a [[Doomed Hometown]]. [[Samurai Jack]] will give up the most recent [[Phlebotinum]] to return to his home time and [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] in order to save the helpful villagers nearby. [[Pokémon (Anime)|Ash Ketchum]] will make it to the Top 4 of the [[Season Finale|Season Finale's]] [[Tournament Arc]] only to lose to a random [[Canon Sue]] who owns [[Olympus Mons]]. [[Peanuts|Charlie Brown]] will get the football yanked out from under him by Lucy once again just as he's about to kick it. And deep down, we know it and expect it.
▲While the permutations are endless, the result is the same: writers Yank the Dog's Chain, keeping [[Throw the Dog A Bone|the bone]] just out of reach, making even the simplest goals seem like [[Tragic Dream|Tragic Dreams]].
Clever writers can cause viewers quite a bit of tension and suspense this way, since we know the good turn can't last and that ''something'' will inevitably come to take it away. Hacks will merely [[Fan Disillusionment|cause viewers to bash in a new window and]] [[Rage Quit|abandon a series in frustration]].
A side effect of [[Status Quo Is God]]. Frequently seen when [[How We Got Here]] and [[In Medias Res]] are used. Not to be confused with [[Foregone Conclusion]]. Compare [[Like You Would Really Do It]] for the "positive" version. Viewers can avoid this if they read the [[Snicket Warning Label]]. Can be considered a sister trope to [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]] and [[Will They or Won't They?]]. See also [[Hope Spot]] and [[Diabolus Ex Machina]].
Despite how obvious they can be, there are spoilers below, so '''BEWARE SPOILERS.'''
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Advertising ==
* All the [[Trix]] Rabbit wants is some Trix. [[Cereal Vice Reward|The kids will never let him have any]], because [[Catch Phrase|"Trix are for kids"]] (and because [[Kids Are Cruel]]).
Line 28:
** And the one where he wins a figure-skating competition for a box, and the kids steal both the Trix AND the trophy.
** There was also one where kids could vote on whether or not the Rabbit could have some Trix. He wins the election and the kids STILL wouldn't let him have any.
** All this said, there were at least two instances where the Trix Rabbit ''did'' get to have some - both of which happened when the company let kids vote on it, [
== Anime
* ''[[Trigun]]'': This happens to Vash the Stampede all the bloody time. The cause of this can easily be traced back to the [[Big Bad]] constantly holding onto the chain. ''[[Break the Cutie|Hard.]]''
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''.
** Shinji... poor, poor Shinji. Specific example: That kind, charming young boy without any debilitating emotional trauma who actually cares for you? {{spoiler|He's actually an Angel, and you have to kill him}}. Sorry. As well as mid-series, where he begins to get some confidence, it seems that he has some chance to reconcile with his dad, and he feels in general a bit more like the hero of a giant robot
** Lest we forget about Asuka. She wakes up from a [[Convenient Coma]] in the movie and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|brings the awesome]] by going into combat within 5 minutes of getting out. She wipes out a whole army, so they send in these 9 [[Fan Nickname|Har]][[Eldritch Abomination|pies]]. She only has 3 and a half minutes of battery power and a progressive knife against a nearly impossible to break AT Field, They have no pilots (so they can't be incapacitated as easily) and a copy of the best weapon in the series. Asuka wins before she runs out of time. But the result is [[Nausea Fuel|really awful]]. She gets [[Eye Scream|speared through the eye]], her guts ripped open, and ''eaten alive'' while the poor girl is desperately trying to fight back. Then, it looks like it's going to get better as she is [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|STILL ALIVE]] despite having endured all of this. She reaches for the berserker mode button to reactivate the Eva and go back to kicking ass... but then they slice off her arm and [[Impaled
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' did this close to the end of the first season: Euphemia manages to talk Lelouch out of his plan to {{spoiler|start a revolt by making it look like she killed him}}, and for [[Hope Spot|a few seconds]] it looks like there's going to be peace... {{spoiler|and then Lelouch [[Power Incontinence|loses control of his Geass at the worst possible moment]] and accidentally orders Euphemia to start massacring Japanese people. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Which she does.]]}} Oops.
* [[The Woobie|Lithuania]] of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' has this happen to him often, often due to being a [[Horrible Judge of Character]] and also just being downright unlucky in everything.
** [[Naive Everygirl|Ukraine]]'s ''entire existence'' seems to be a long line of these.
* Light Yagami of ''[[
* ''[[Gantz]]'', so Kurono is freed from the Gantz Room, grown into a heroic, admirable person, and his girlfriend, the woman he loves, has been brought back to life. Sounds nice right? {{spoiler|Except Gantz took both their memories so they no longer remember one another, Kurono is back to how he was pre-Gantz, a cowardly [[Jerkass]], and vampires have sent a kill team after him. They succeed in murdering him, but not before showing him his younger brother's severed head first}}.
** To be fair, {{spoiler|he never completely reverts. As his memories and battle experience leaks back, he gets a moment of awesome when he managed to take out a few vampires using nothing but items he has in his room.}}
Line 45 ⟶ 44:
** ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei'' takes this to a new level of dickery: {{spoiler|Rika has successfully gotten to the bottom of the Hinamizawa Disaster, and stopped the [[Big Bad]]. As the fateful summer finally passes she has just enjoyed a peaceful day at the pool with her friends... And then she's run over by a truck. She awakens back in Hinamizawa. The [[Groundhog Day Loop]] is still in effect... And ''this'' time around, all the rules of the game have changed. For one, Keiichi isn't around anymore.}}
*** {{spoiler|She gets better. It was either a dream, a flashback/hallucination to another Rika in another world, or she died and was brought back to the previous world (the one she died in.}}
* ''[[Monster (
** The worst is probably {{spoiler|Richard Braun}}. If you didn't hate Johan or see him as the [[Complete Monster]] he is by that point, you probably did right after that.
** Even poor Roberto, Johan's worshipper and probably the character we least symphathize with, is {{spoiler|totally snubbed at the end of the series on his deathbed when Johan denies him the right to see the [[After the End|Scenery for a Doomsday]] that he's so looked forward to}}.
* In ''[[Ode to Kirihito]]'', Kirihito and Reira finally appear to be on way to Japan having escaped numerous gut-wrenching hardships along the way. There's even another Japanese guy on the plane, {{spoiler|who promptly decides that the bandages Kirihito wears are to hide the fact that he's an Israeli spy, and he calls Arab fundamentalists to sell Kirihito off. Except he isn't. The Arabs decide to kill everyone there for wasting their time, and they're only "saved" because ''another'' extremist group starts attacking the first one. "Saved", as in, now they get to wander around a desert in the middle of nowhere meeting, among other things, a baby that's starving to death}}.
* In Chapter 16 of ''[[Uzumaki]],'' rescue ships arrive to rescue the protagonists. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090326055435/http://www.onemanga.com/Uzumaki/16/26/ Guess what happens next. Go ahead. Guess.]
* In the [[Flash Back]] episode 24 of ''[[
* ''[[Bleach]]'' loves doing this, [[Break the Cutie|especially to poor Orihime]]. Want to fight? Cue dramatic determination followed by the destruction of your attack abilities! Want to get some training? Not a chance, without your attack powers you're useless! You've trained anyways, so now you want to help fight? {{spoiler|Sorry, but if you don't [[Sadistic Choice|surrender and defect to the enemy, your friends will all die horrible deaths]]! But look, Ichigo's beaten Grimmjow and now all of you can go back... NOT! Guess what? You were kidnapped solely to lure your friends and allies into coming to rescue you so that your home would be left unprotected! And look who's there with his laser-blasting finger pressed against your chest while he scoffs over your speech about [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|your heart!]] Oh, hey, seems like you've been rescued again... or the two lurking behind you could be readying for an attack. But look, [[Big Damn Heroes|Ishida joins the fray]], and you two are going up to help Ichigo, [[Oblivious to Love|who you just so happen to be in love with]]. Well, what do you know? [[The Dragon|Ulquiorra]] was waiting for you to show up so that he could blast a hole in his chest! And Ishida? He lost a hand. Wait, Ichigo's back... as a nearly mindless [[The Heartless|Hollow]] with the only goal being to protect you. Plus he just stabbed Ishida because he interfered in mutilating Ulquoirra's corpse, which made him view him as an obstacle in protecting you.}}
** And we mustn't forget that poor Ishida is as much of a [[Butt Monkey]] as Orihime is. Hey, you're a Quincy, which is cool, right? Nope! Because [[Mad Scientist|Mayuri Kurotsuchi the maniac scientist]] killed off most of your clan, including your grandpa! But at least there's this girl you like, right? Wrong! She's in love with [[Chaste Hero|Ichigo]] who doesn't even know she likes him! Oh man, you have to fight that scientist dude, so you pull your ultimate technique which {{spoiler|makes you lose all your powers!}} But don't worry, daddy is here to help, except that he has to {{spoiler|shoot you eighteen millimeters from your heart.}} Worked up the courage to tell that girl you like her yet? Oh, wait! She {{spoiler|just got kidnapped!}} So, just follow the hero blindly into a place you have absolutely no knowledge about! GASP! Another [[Mad Scientist]] has shown up, and you're about to die! Oh, it's okay, because {{spoiler|you get rescued by your worst nemesis, the scientist!}} Not to mention that the method he uses to heal his daughter [[Nausea Fuel|will scar you for life]]. Look out, some weirdo creature is attacking Orihime! You try to save her, except {{spoiler|your arm gets cut off!}} So yeah, poor Ishida doesn't have it that easy either.
** Poor [[Worf Effect|Chad]] also receives this during the Hueco Mundo Arc, as he managed to win a fight against a named opponent by effectively showcasing his new powers. Chad has enough resolve to feel that he will be successful in Hueco Mundo... [[Curb Stomp Battle|until Nnoitra showed up.]] That scene is another strong example that Chad is a Main Event jobber namely on how he can handle nameless [[Mooks]] and secondary named opponents but anytime he comes up against a remotely prominent opponent, well... let's just say he was on the floor for quite a while after that scene. In fact the GameFAQs Adult Swim Anime board once summed up the scene like this.
{{quote|
'''Nnoitra:''' LOL, no. }}
** [[The Woobie|Momo Hinamori]]. Oh, so you want to forever serve the man you practically are in love with? How nice... except oh no, he's suddenly dead and you've just found his corpse maimed and pinned to a wall! And after you try to attack the captain you're utterly convinced that did it, you get arrested! But wait, they found a letter from Aizen, revealing the killer's true identity... too bad that happens to be your childhood best friend, Toshiro Hitsugaya! So wracked with grief, you break out of your cell and try to kill ''him'', only to be knocked out soon after; when you do wake up, you follow him around, go to a part of the Soul Society inaccessible to even captain-level shinigami where you find the person you originally tried to kill, but what's this? He says there's someone who wants to meet you! And standing right behind you is ''your captain, perfectly alive.'' You immediately hug him and start to cry, because you're so happy he's alive and well
* In ''[[Ranma
** The anime has one of these that almost might approach the end of the manga in cruelty. {{spoiler|The Jusenkyō Guide comes to Japan because this is a special day, a day in which a certain body of water can be connected to Jusenkyō's base water, allowing it to be turned into an extension of whichever spring is desired. The lucky body of water is none other than the Tendō's koi pond, which means that every cursed person in Nerima can get cured -- even Shampoo, as once the ritual is complete the Guide can freely change the pond from Spring of Drowned Guy to Spring of Drowned Girl or whatever is desired. The episode leads up to the climax of the ceremony, everyone is literally a few seconds away from being cured... and what happens? Ryōga trips and breaks the rope, canceling the spell before anyone can get cured -- and what's more this ritual can't be repeated for another '''thousand years'''. And then the Jusenkyō Guide wanders back home before anyone can think of tagging along, or asking him to send them back some Nanniichuan.}}
* Tsunade, from ''[[Naruto]]'', almost always loses when she makes a bet, but when she wins, she takes it as a sign that something bad is going to happen. She gets on a winning streak while gambling shortly before she sees Orochimaru again, wins the lottery around the time Gaara is kidnapped, and after Jiraiya suggests that she bet all she has {{spoiler|that he won't make it back}}, on the assumption that she wouldn't win, {{spoiler|he gets killed by Pain}}.
* ''[[Pokémon (
** Speaking of Ash, you'd think the writers would give him a good run in a league conference for once, now that [[The Rival|Paul]] was repaid his own jerkhood by the Chimchar (now Infernape) he dumped. As much heat as [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|Smogon]] gets for their behavior, they deserve to feel vindicated after {{spoiler|Ash is put up against Takuto, who paves the poor kid 6-2 with a Darkrai and a Latios, the latter of which was a double-knockout alongside Pikachu}}. Fans are screaming [[Diabolus Ex Machina]], and for good reasons -- [[They Just Didn't Care|are the writers even trying anymore?]]
* Joey/Jou from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' makes a sudden comeback against Yami Malik in their Dark Duel in the Battle City Finals when he pulls out Gilford the Lightning and has him on the ropes. Yami Malik manages to hold out once again, but apparently has nothing else up his sleeve, with nothing left on the field or his hand, so our hero is in the clear, finally about to be the hero for once and save the damsel, Mai, from her [[Mind Rape|fate]], right? Things seem to be looking that way, as the following turn, Yami Malik draws Monster Reborn, with nothing powerful on its own in his grave to stand up to Gilford, including Ra at this point, since that would require a tribute summon to get any ATK points. So he's basically reviving a [[Memetic Mutation|giant flaming chicken]] with no attack points, except that it turns out that it has an [[Eleventh
* For another ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' example (this one from season zero), Jonouchi enters a game show to win a million yen so he can pay off his father's debts. In traditional ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' style, the host of the game show is a [[Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat|Cheating Bastard]], and rigs the game so Jonouchi can't possibly win. Yugi helps out by [[Mind Rape|Mind Raping]] the host, allowing Jonouchi to win the money. Of course, {{spoiler|the check ends up being no good anyways}}.
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' has a particularly [[Mood Whiplash
** Then {{spoiler|the Anti-Spirals attack, threatening to eliminate the human race}}, and none other than {{spoiler|Rossiu, Simon's [[Number Two]] in the new government}} goes all [[Well
** {{spoiler|The Anti-Spirals refer to this trope as "Ultimate Despair," and their goal is to do this to all Spiral Races.}} [[Averted Trope|It doesn't quite work.]]
* Almost the simplest one of the anime examples, ''[[
** Then again, {{spoiler|she}} only told him to do it because he was torn between the two choices presented, and {{spoiler|she knew that he'll come to blame himself for whatever happens after that since it would have been his choice. That's why she made that choice for him, in a rather sad example of [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]].}}
* ''[[Kaiji]]'' plays this ''brutally'' with {{spoiler|Sahara's death. After making his way across the bridge of death, he finally prepares to open the door to cash in on the price money... Only to be blown off the building by the air compression blast from the window towards a certain death}}. The anime itself is ripe with these moments, but this one moment has to be the worst.
* Upon managing to gather up all the spell fragments, [[Those Who Hunt Elves]] will ALWAYS blow it at the absolute final moment, usually due to Junpei and Celia's bickering.
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' has an infamous one that is just [[Tear Jerker|brutal]]. With a few teasing hints of her past, {{spoiler|Faye}} suddenly remembers who she is, and where she came from. She apologizes to Spike before she goes, showing she's starting to revert to a more softer side. She's coming home, mirroring herself when she was a little girl and a teenager. She then opens the gates in her flashbacks, but in reality {{spoiler|the entire mansion was burnt down to the foundation. So Faye [[Tear Jerker|draws lines in the sand of where her furniture was]] and looks up at the sky and reflects}}.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Billy Bat]]'' gives us {{spoiler|Lee Harvey Oswald}} who, because of his [[I Just Want to Be Special]] nature, gets yanked around by both the Bat and a [[Government Conspiracy]] to the point where he doesn't have any idea what the right thing to do is. By the end of his arc, it looks like he's done the right thing by trying to live a humble life and allowing [[The Hero|Kevin Yamagata]] to [[Heroic Sacrifice|give his life]] saving {{spoiler|President Kennedy}}. But wait! {{spoiler|Kevin isn't dead, and it turns out the Bat never wanted him to save Kennedy in the first place. JFK is shot, [[Foregone Conclusion|as history demands]], the police are rushing into the building, and Oswald is with a girl who saw members of the previously mentioned conspiracy setting up for the assassination. In a [[Bittersweet Ending]], the only way to save the girl from being eliminated is to let the police find him and take the fall for the assassination while she makes her escape.}}
* The second half of ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' starts with things [[Throw the Dog
* In ''[[
* In [[
* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', whether the protagonists will ever succeed is up for debate, but up to this point every time they get a [[Hope Spot]] things just keep getting worse.
* In ''[[High School
* Erza/Jellal get one at the end of the Nirvana arc in ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' by means of [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]. After managing to regain his senses after ''eight years'' being [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Jellal manages to convince Erza, who is relieved to have him back to normal, that he's good again, and even gains the acceptance of her friends. While he's trying to figure out what to do with himself afterword and Erza is attempting to confess her feeling to him he gets arrested for the things he was forced to do while brainwashed, and also sentenced to death.
==
* {{spoiler|Black Adam's}} entire storyline in ''[[
* In ''[[The Killing Joke]]'', [[Batman]] pleads with the Joker to reconsider the death course the two of them are on, making a genuine offer of help... and there's a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|panel]], about a panel and a half, where it looks almost like the Joker will accept. The Joker even turns the concept into a joke that has even Batman laughing.
* In the short-lived Marvel Adventures: ''[[Iron Man]]'' series, Tony finds out at long last that his father, who drove Stark Industries into the ground and abandoned him and his mother, had been cheated by a business associate and left in shame, but really had loved him. He hires a PI, Jessica Drew, to track his father down. And she finds him, and everything checks out, even memories.... Then it turns out to be a plot by the Chameleon. Later he does find his dad and realizes that he's just as irritating as ever.
* [[Spider-Man]] has a big support cast, and people keep getting killed. Sometimes the writers decide to bring them back. This never works. Possibly the biggest example is when his ''parents'' turned out to be alive again; they'd been killed when he was a baby. They turned out to be robots. Supporting cast coming back from the dead has only "stuck" twice: when the Aunt May who died turned out to have been an ''[[Voodoo Shark|actress]]'', and when Mary Jane, who had been [[Dork Age|killed in a plane accident]] because [[Superheroes Stay Single|having a wife restricted Spidey]], was not dead after all. (Cross your fingers for history repeating itself soon, folks.)
** And then [[One More Day]] happened, because [[Joe Quesada]] didn't like the changes that had been made to Spidey since the Silver Age and PARTICULARLY not his marriage to Mary Jane, resulting in probably the most infamous [[Cosmic Retcon]] of recent years. God damn it.
* Recently{{when}} in ''[[X
* ''[[Funky Winkerbean]]'': Lisa Moore's breast cancer has returned, but it looks like they caught it in time and she should be right as rain in a few months. Except the doctors mixed up her medical charts: her cancer wasn't in remission and by the time they caught the mistake, it was already too late to do anything but delay the inevitable.▼
▲* Recently in ''[[X Men]]'', {{spoiler|Magneto saved Kitty Pride from her [[Fate Worse Than Death]]...only for her to immediatly get a ''second'' such fate because now she's stuck in her "phased out" form, unable to interact with the world in any way without outside assistance.}}
* Sometimes, the pirates in ''[[Asterix]]'' think they can actually take down the ship they see. Or Can They? Nope! ''They'' are on board. It can be Phoenician, Egyptian, or Roman, but it's all the same.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
== Films -- Animation ==
* Scrat at the end of ''[[
* ''[[
* Played for laughs in the climactic battle of ''[[Shrek]] 2'', where the Fairy Godmother's magic gives Pinocchio about ten seconds to [[Become a Real Boy]], before a misfire turns him back into a puppet. Sorry, Pinocchio.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[Carrie]]'': For once, everything is going great for Carrie at the prom. And then they dump pig's blood on her. [[Unstoppable Rage|Oops.]] Cue her psychic [[No
* [[James Bond]] living happily with Vesper in ''[[
** Bond actually got married in ''[[
* John McClane's marriage is patched up at the end of each ''[[
* ''[[National Treasure]] 2'' uses a similar pattern, although it remains to be seen if it'll continue in the next film.
* Of all the things [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', this is the only one the film takes seriously.
* The ''[[
* In the ''[[Spider-Man (
* ''[[Oscar Wilde|Wilde]]'': Oscar has it pretty rough in the last 20 minutes or so, what with being imprisoned for 2 years of hard labor just for being gay (because homosexuality was actually ''illegal'' in England back then). Then his wife Constance comes to see him and, guess what? Not only does she ''not'' want a divorce even after he's cheated on her with ''men'' (and lots of them), but [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|she'll let him see his kids again!]] A happy ending for when he gets out of prison! Right? '''No.''' His sentence ends and he learns that {{spoiler|Constance is dead, which not only takes away her, but any hope Oscar has of seeing his two boys again.}}
* In ''[[I Am Legend|The Last Man on Earth]]'', Robert finds a dog and is overjoyed at the sight of another living creature. He practically fawns over it, tends its wounds, comforts it when it's frightened, and tells it about the happy times they'll share together. Immediately afterwards [[Tear Jerker|he learns it's infected and is forced to drive a stake through it]]. [[Laughing Mad|He breaks]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Psycho Beach Party]]'': The murderer has been caught, {{spoiler|Chicklet's [[Split Personality]] has been cured}}, romantic stories are all tied off happily, all of that is now behind them as the all live hap-oh god. {{spoiler|It was all a dream as Chicklet is in a mental hospital getting realistically horrifying shock therapy}}... Happy?
== Literature ==
* Happens ''hard'' to Mike Noonan in ''[[
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Arya Stark manages to make several daring escapes from different captors, but is always kidnapped by someone new shortly thereafter. {{spoiler|And she is ''finally'' brought back to her family... just in time for [[
** Her sister Sansa, after being held captive and abused for a year, is finally going to be taken away by some friendly people to marry a great guy... {{spoiler|Then her captors find out and force her to marry one of them instead, a terribly ugly dwarf. He's actually a decent person, but Sansa isn't mature enough to appreciate his good points.}} And now it's apparently in the process of happening ''again''. Stupid [[Stockholm Syndrome]] [[Genre Blindness]].
* Marcus Clarke's ''For the Term of His Natural Life.'' The entire book consists of nothing but [[
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
* The title character in Charlotte Bronte's ''[[Jane Eyre]]'' finally gets to the altar with her employer/true love Rochester when it is revealed that Rochester is already married to a mad woman he's got locked in the attic, and the wedding is canceled.
* In Charlotte Bronte's claustrophobic ''Villette'', the perpetually unhappy heroine Lucy has fallen in love with and become engaged to fellow-teacher M. Paul, only it is revealed ambiguously in the last few pages that Paul {{spoiler|probably died in a shipwreck before they could be married}}.
** Charlotte considered this a ''happy''
* ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Hemingway is such an example.
* ''[[Discworld]]'''s Rincewind has had this happen to him enough times that now he expects it. It has now gotten to the point that if anything good happens to him he will more or less panic until the other shoe drops.
Line 134 ⟶ 131:
** The short story "Day Off". Pretty much the entirety of it. Harry finally gets a day off, and is promptly challenged to a magical duel at 1 AM on that day. It goes downhill from there. The whole thing is [[Played for Laughs]].
* [[Mack Bolan]], the Executioner, eventually had things going pretty well for him. He's working for the government, so the cops aren't after him all the time, he's got a whole group of soldiers sharing his new mission, and he's got a girl he dearly loves. Then the KGB shoots up his headquarters and blows her to hell.
* The discovery of a later will at the end of ''[[Bleak House]]'' leads us to believe that Richard and Ada will live [[Happily Ever After]]. Unfortunately, it turns out that [[Shaggy Dog Story|the entire inheritance has gone into paying for the long-running court case]]. Although Richard is at last free of his obsession with winning the case, it is only so that he can {{spoiler|[[Dying
* This trope becomes common with the Baudelaires in Lemony Snicket's ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' series. There are times in the series where it appears Violet, Klaus and Sunny are going to catch a break,`but then Lemony Snicket crushes all your hopes.
* The whole point of the short story ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120507002152/http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/villier5.htm La torture par l'esperance]'' (The Torture of Hope) by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam is that yanking the dog's chain is the most sadistic form of torture.
* Pretty much the B-plot of every Travis McGee novel, with the exception of the books where it's the A-plot.
* Happens repeatedly to the protagonist of ''Master of the Five Magics'' by [[Lyndon Hardy]]: each time he risks it all to learn of a new kind of magic, a rival swoops in and gloms all the profits, leaving him with nothing but a clue to the next style of magic-use.
*
* Everything will be going well by the end of an [[Aubrey
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** Afterward, {{spoiler|Dualla's chain has been yanked enough and [[Driven to Suicide|she shoots herself]]}}.
** At the end of season 2, the fleet finds a habitable planet and, under the leadership of {{spoiler|President Gaius Baltar, settle on the newly-named New Caprica.}} Skip forward a year and, although there are some hiccups, things appear to be running fairly smoothly - more importantly, {{spoiler|there haven't been any Cylon attacks in that past year}}. Then...{{spoiler|yep, here come the Cylons. Since the fleet has been reduced to patrolling in orbit, they can't fight off the Cylon ships and Baltar is forced to surrender.}}
* In ''[[La Femme Nikita]]'', the titular character's dream is to be freed from life as an assassin and to continue a normal, happy existence. She often comes across opportunities to escape, but all her attempts fall just out of reach of success.
* ''[[
* The end of ''[[
** 'Course, really, this only counts for poor Baldrick, George and Darling. Blackadder knew damn well the whole while, as would anyone else with a little knowledge of trench life during the Great War. Honestly, it's part of the power of the moment that the audience already ''know'' there's a chain being yanked.
{{quote|
*** Even so, he was trying his best to get out. It just didn't work. The real punch is for Darling, who was at his desk at Command, safely away from the lines until Melchett decided he wouldn't want to miss the "fun".
* Poor old Richie in ''[[Bottom]]''. Just about to finally "Doooooo IT" with a beautiful woman... and he collapses from a medical condition. {{spoiler|And then Eddie and said woman "get bored" waiting for the ambulance to turn up: "Don't worry Richie, she was ''crap'' anyway."}}
* The season 3 finale of ''[[
** Let alone the Season 4 finale where {{spoiler|a ship comes from nowhere to blast the main couple after they agree to get married.}} (This also yanked the chain for the viewers, as the show's cancellation had already been announced.)
* In the original concept of ''[[
** In the [[The Nth Doctor|Eleventh Doctor]] episode, ''The Pandorica Opens'', things are going great for Rory. He's been {{spoiler|un-erased from existence}}, Amy's finally {{spoiler|remembered him}}, and he's about to {{spoiler|turn into an Auton}}, but hey, he's fighting it off pretty well. Then {{spoiler|out comes the gun in his hand, and he shoots Amy, fighting free of the Auton influence just in time to hold her as she dies.}} Whoops.
* ''[[Sliders]]'' did a lot of chain-yanking of the heroes' attempts to find their original world, as the characters would arrive on a new world, decide it's home, and then split up, only to discover there's something different (and usually horrible) about it after all. One episode in particular yanked ''the audience's'' chain, as the heroes decide it's not their world because the gate at one character's house fails to squeak as expected. Just after they slide on to continue the search, it's revealed to viewers that somebody ''oiled the hinges'', implying they really were home, but failed to recognize the fact.
Line 163 ⟶ 159:
* Often happens on ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'', but particularly cruel was the episode "Communication Problems", where it seems that Basil has finally managed to come out on top... only for it all to come cruelly crashing down around him ''in the last minute''.
* ''[[Good Times]]'' lived on this.
* Seeing as how nobody is allowed to be happy on ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', this tends to happen a lot.
** But especially cruel was the very beginning of Season 3. For about the first half of the first episode, House is reasonably happy with no leg pain, cane or vicodin. This obviously cannot last so the ketamine treatment starts failing, Cuddy and Wilson don't believe him when he says his leg is hurting again and let him believe that he couldn't save a patient in a [[Jerkass
** In Season 5, he switches to a new drug and throws away his cane because he's completely free of pain. Wilson and Cuddy (as usual) oppose this because the drug has serious side effects. (House ignores them, again as usual.) But at the end of the episode he decides to stop taking it because his diagnostic skills aren't as good when he's high on methadone.
** The writers outdo themselves in their cruelty to House in the Season 5 finale.
Line 170 ⟶ 166:
*** The trope was then painfully executed over the course of Season 7, driving House even further from happiness.
** A painful example in Season 7 occurs when House refuses to accept {{spoiler|Wilson is going to die}} in six months. When he finally accepts it and begins plans to make the most of the remaining time... he's sent to jail for six months.
* In ''[[The Invaders (TV series)|The Invaders]]'', a general told David Vincent that his safe contained enough information to blow the invasion plot. It had vanished, of course.
* Savvy fans of [[
** Yet another episode (without the romantic entanglement) is "The Zeppo" in which the story focuses on Xander, while what would usually be the "main" plot is seen only briefly. Though Xander does something useful and
** On ''[[
*** Only to act like her in situations to manipulate others. She does it well enough that as Wesley's dying, he asks her to lie to him with that illusion.
** Earlier on ''[[
*** ''[[
*** For people in the Angel/Cordelia camp, this was ''brutal''. At the end of Season 3 the two decide to confess their feelings for each other, only for Cordelia to [[Ascend to
** In ''[[
*** Amazingly, averted with Anthony and Priya. They do end up together.
* In one episode of ''[[Married...
*** Through most of the episode, Al demonstrated a startling amount of [[Genre Savvy|Genre Savviness]] by [[Lampshading]] this- stating that the "Bundy Curse" insures that every bit of good luck will bring a greater amount of bad luck the moment that he admits that he had said streak of good luck. (The curse also means that he has to be a shoe salesman.) (And has foot odor.)
** Note that the entire ''[[Married...
*** ''Married with Children''? Chain-yanking session? [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]?
** The two absolute worst ones that come to mind, are when Kelly goes through a [[Training
* In one episode of ''[[Nowhere Man]]'', Tom Veil recuperates on a woman's farm and they fall in love. On the verge of abandoning his search to regain his old life, he gets another lead. He hesitates, then takes the lead. She leaves; [[Status Quo Is God|he goes back on the road]].
** Another, a [[Christmas Special|Christmas episode]], had Veil reunited with his family, learning that it was all a mistake and the authorities had been looking for him to testify against the people in the photo at the centre of his drama. It was all an elaborate plot, of course.
*** Happens for the last time in the third to last episode. Tom wakes up in a hospital and is told that everything he experienced was a dream and that he had been in a coma. [[Genre Savvy|He doesn't buy it this time and is immediately suspicious of everything especially his wife]]
* Often happens in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' too but everyone knew all too well that as soon as Dean decided he didn't want to go to Hell in "Dream a Little Dream of Me", his fate as Hell's eventual bitch was sealed.
** Shooting {{spoiler|Lucifer}} in "Abandon All Hope". For a few moments it looks like it worked and {{spoiler|Ellen and Jo's sacrifice was worth it}}... And then he gets up. The expressions on Sam and Dean's faces because they thought they'd managed to win.
* ''[[
* Any episode of ''[[The Prisoner]]'' where Number Six gets off (or appears to get off) of the Village (e.g. "Chimes of Big Ben" and "Many Happy Returns").
* This is the foundation for first season finale of ''[[Eureka]]''. After the initiation of a risky experiment, the movie suddenly cuts to a world where the sheriff and Allison are happily married (which any other episode would tell you that it is no more than [[Ship Tease]] and love triangle material), his daughter is graduating, Henry, the man who the town constantly relies on, is in charge of GD, the [[Jerkass]] Nathan Stark left town, {{spoiler|Beverly no longer works for the Consortium...}}, and most importantly, {{spoiler|Henry's love interest, Kim, is alive and well}}. During the episode the sudden appearance of objects that should not exist in that way gives evidence to something a [[Genre Savvy]] viewer would already know, that this was not meant to be. {{spoiler|Turns out that Henry had gone back in time to save Kim after the experiment had gone horribly wrong. In order to prevent the paradox from ruining time, the Sheriff had to stop Henry from saving the life of the woman he loved as well as give up a future in which he and everybody he knew was happy. Talk about a [[Downer Ending]]}}. Thanks to this fact, this episode was the equivalent to a [[Heroic BSOD]] for most of the characters involved... and caused the mess of agendas and conspiracies that is Season 2.
* This is essentially the premise for pretty much every episode of ''[[
** Why the @#$% didn't they [[Just Eat Gilligan|just kill Gilligan?!]]
* Many episodes of ''[[Monk]]'' have the title character finally get something good in his tortured existence, only to have it snatched away by the end. Particularly heartbreaking is "Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk", in which Monk's condition is getting better, but {{spoiler|he ends up watching a woman who had been impersonating his late wife get shot dead}}, traumatizing him out of all his progress.
** An example of a Yank The Dogs Chain on another aspect of the show is {{spoiler|the people for his reinstatement changing their minds just as the one against finally caves}} in ''Mr. Monk Goes Camping''.
* In the fifth season of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Hiro finally manages to save Charlie from both Sylar and her blood clot. Of course, Samuel the evil carny comes along and has his own teleporting time master trap Charlie "somewhere in time", and then kills him so he can't tell Hiro where/when she is. Cue one of the most heart-wrenching scenes ever to befall our favorite [[Wide
* On ''[[Top Gear]]'', after Jeremy Clarkson and James May had spent two seasons mocking the forthcoming Dacia Sandero, they finally see one in Romania. May seems somewhat smitten, so Clarkson buys one for him. Half an hour later, a lorry backs into it where May had left it parked, caving in one side.
* This is the basis for many episodes of ''[[Peep Show]]''
* On ''[[
* ''[[Chuck]]''. Every time the poor boy meets someone, it somehow gets yanked away. It can't help having his 'ex' around all the time.
* The first season of ''[[
** Another early episode has Trapper thinking he'll get to go home due to a stomach ulcer, and even getting a farewell party, before being told by HQ that he'll have to stay in Korea and be operated on there.
*** Trapper gets put through the wringer again in "Kim", deciding to adopt a seemingly-orphaned Korean boy with his wife back in the States, then having to rescue the kid after he wanders into a minefield...''then'' having to watch as the kid's mother turns up and whisks him away.
Line 208 ⟶ 204:
** In B.J.'s intro episode, Hawkeye races to an airport to try and say goodbye to Trapper, who was discharged while Hawkeye was away on leave and couldn't stay any longer. Naturally, despite his best efforts, Hawkeye misses him by minutes.
** In the show's final episode, B.J. receives discharge papers, though they are quickly rescinded. Col. Potter is informed of this, but doesn't say anything - hoping B.J. will be stateside before anyone finds out. Unfortunately, B.J. makes it as far as Guam before he's yanked back to the 4077th. (However, he does ultimately get to go home - along with everybody else - when the war ends shortly thereafter.)
* The utterly miserable second half of [[The Sarah Jane Adventures|"The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith"]]. In the the thirty-three years since she left the Doctor, she never found anyone, until now. Even the first half of the story is bittersweet, as it feels too good to be true if her track record is any indication of what's to come; you can tell they're [[Star
* [[
* Rimmer, [[Chew Toy]] of the ''[[
** A particularly cruel example: in the episode "Timeslides", a bit of minor fiddling with time restores Rimmer to life. In his joy he starts running around, touching things, eating
** He gets [[Genre Savy]] to this in 'Back to Earth' where {{spoiler|when speaking to the writer of the show, he demands he be written a girl who he can fall in love with, marry and after the big night, NOT find out that she's his long lost sister}}.
* On the show ''Sisters'', second-oldest sister Teddy is FINALLY happy after years of turmoil that has included a struggle with alcoholism, miscarriage, her daughter's rape, her divorce, etc. Now, she's married to the love of her life, who's had similar problems of his
* Happens all the time in ''[[Oz]]''. The worst case is Beecher, of course. But every character has its moments. It's very painful.
* At least one victim in ''[[
* In Season 1 of ''[[Spartacus]]'', Dominus finally keeps his promise to find the title character's wife only to {{spoiler|deliver her moments from death.}}
* In ''[[
** And of course, once Jack and Ianto are really getting adorable, and we get to see some of Ianto's personal life... {{spoiler|he dies, too.}}
*** ''Torchwood'' LOVES this trope. A few episodes into ''[[Torchwood: Miracle Day
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. Oh my God, [[The Woobie|Merlin]]. He's reunited with his childhood friend who knows about and accepts his magical powers? He dies. He falls in love with a pretty Druid girl? She dies. At long last, {{spoiler|he meets his [[Disappeared Dad|father]]}}? He dies. Arthur begins to think that maybe, just maybe, Uther's wrong and magic isn't inherently evil? Merlin has to lie through his teeth and convince him otherwise in order to stop him from murdering his own father. Pretty much every time something significantly nice happens to Merlin, he gets the rug yanked out from under him.
* One episode of ''[[Smallville]]'' had Clark finally tell Lana his secret and propose to her at the same time. That was the teaser! She accepts the proposal, Jonathan Kent wins the state senate seat, beating Lex Luthor and everything seems perfect up til the 30 minute mark when {{spoiler|Lana is killed in a car accident caused by Lex trying to get Clark's secret out of her. Clark gets Jor-El to rewind time, ignoring his warning that the universe would find someone else to die if he saves Lana. Clark doesn't tell Lana his secret, Jonathan still wins the senate seat but ends up dying of a heart attack.}}
* Several episodes of ''[[The Fugitive (TV series)|The Fugitive]]'' have Dr. Kimble seemingly on the verge of being exonerated, but it always turns out to be a trap or something that otherwise falls apart...until the [[Grand Finale]], of course.
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* ''[[Funky Winkerbean]]'': Lisa Moore's breast cancer has returned, but it looks like they caught it in time and she should be right as rain in a few months. Except the doctors mixed up her medical charts: her cancer wasn't in remission and by the time they caught the mistake, it was already too late to do anything but delay the inevitable.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
* ''[[Paranoia]]'' reminds Friend Gamemaster to let the players score some temporary victories along the way to their inevitable hosing.
* ''[[Ravenloft]]'': the Dark Powers deliberately go out of their way to inflict this on those who have done unpleasant enough things to qualify as Darklords. As Lord Soth demonstrates, the way to get them to cut it out is simply to stop caring.
Line 239:
== Video Games ==
* In one of the endings of ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]],'' {{spoiler|Almaz loses everything when Mao's father declares him the overlord.}}
* ''[[Kane and Lynch]]''. Poor Kane.
* Eggman of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series. Sure, he's an evil bastard, but he's tried so many times to establish his Eggman Empire, coming quite close more than a few times, when suddenly and quickly all his hard work is washed away. You start to feel sorry for the guy...
Line 250:
* Apparently, [[Yggdra Union|Nessiah]] is just not allowed to be happy - he has ''one'' chance at it in [[Blaze Union]], and it's an extremely slim one. He's a main character in one of the three paths that story can take, but in it he gets the [[Villain Ball]] ''hard''.
* Oh, Kei. Near the end of ''[[Fatal Frame]] 3'', he reassures Rei that "there might still be some hope", as he thinks he's found out a way to potentially end the Tattoo Curse for good. {{spoiler|And then Reika kills him.}}
* In ''[[
** In a [[Call Back]] to the first game, GLaDOS presents you with a Weighted [[Companion Cube]] in one of her test chambers. The instant you pick it up, she fizzles it. Then drops another, which she also fizzles after you start to solve the puzzle with it. Finally she lets you complete the test, only to mention offhandedly that the Emancipation Grill is malfunctioning and ''[[Schmuck Bait|not to take anything with you]]''. Sure enough, if you try to leave with the Companion Cube, she fizzles it yet again. Bad, bad GLaDOS.
** At one point she offhandedly mentions having seen a deer outside. She offers, if you complete the next test, to let you ride an elevator up to the employee break room... where she'll tell you about the time she saw a deer again.
** After continously teasing you about being adopted (yet another [[Call Back]]), GLaDOS promises a surprise in which you're going to "meet two people you haven't seen in a long, long time." Of course, it's a lie. Then later in that same test chamber, she promises to put them on the phone, but instead puts on a fake "prerecorded message" in which they claim not to love you. Yes, GLaDOS, we get the point. You don't like Chell. [[Sarcasm Mode|Thank you for being so discreet about it]].
** The last one is more noticeable for being subverted [[Hypocritical Humor]]. Later in the game, she contradicts {{spoiler|Wheatley}} when he tries to pull the same "adopted fatty" insults on Chell, creating an "awwwwwww" moment, but promptly yanks the rug out when she whispers to you, "For the record, you ARE adopted, [[And That's Terrible]]."
*** And at this point, [[
== Web Original ==
* Any time it looks like [[Homestar Runner
{{quote|
'''Homestar:''' What? [[Big No|No, no-ho-ho!]] No, no, no. No, Coach Z, no. [[Overly Long Gag|No.]] No, you can't. }}
* In a slightly less sympathetic use of the trope, [[
* [[
* [[
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
* Subverted in ''[[
* ''[[
** Done far, far earlier when he briefly became the overlord of hell, with all the power and cowering minions the title provides, only to be shoved back into his former body before he could destroy it.
* At the end of the Kamikaze Kate arc in ''[[Misfile]]'' [[Our Angels Are Different|Rumisiel]] has successfully exorcised a very scary ghost and saved (at least) one soul from damnation and proven himself a [[Badass]]. Ash is ecstatic, this means he can get back to heaven and fix things. Except... heaven is full of [[Jerkass
** Later, Rumi gets the news that Heaven is willing to give him a hearing about letting him back into heaven. The catch? The next available hearing is in {{spoiler|73 years. Ash doesn't take it well.}}
* Angus McLeod's ''[[World War
{{quote|
'''Newspaper Headline:''' United States Declares War On Germany.
'''Germany:''' [[Oh Crap|FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU]]-- }}
* Patchy got hit with this hard in one of the arcs of ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* [[The Simpsons (animation)|Frank Grimes]]
** Specifically, Mr. Burns sees a documentary about how Grimes went through a hard life and had recently earned a diploma in nuclear physics. Impressed, he tells Mr. Smithers to find him so he can make him his executive vice president. By the time Smithers returns with Grimes, however, Burns had seen a heroic dog on TV and now wants to make ''him'' executive vice president.
{{quote|
''(Burns does not recognize Grimes)''
'''Smithers:''' The, the self-made man?
'''Burns:''' What? Oh, yes, that fellow. Mmmm, put him somewhere out of the way, and find that dog!
'''Smithers:''' [[Yes
* Done very cruelly in the final episode of ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'', when Lumpus has finally gotten praise and respect, when a [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] undoes it all, and to rub salt into the wound, {{spoiler|it turns out he was a fake who locked up the real scoutmaster and gets dragged off to an asylum}}.
* The kids in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (
** {{spoiler|Averted (sorta) in the [[Lost Episode]]. The kids are outright told by the Dungeon Master that they've done what he brought them here to do and that they can go home now if they want, but we don't see whether or not they do.}}
* Same in ''[[Jumanji]]'' (the cartoon). {{spoiler|Averted in the finale: Allen got his clue, solved it and got home legitimately with the kids.}}
Line 296:
** There are basically only three different episodes of ''Samurai Jack'': "Aku sends a new mercenary to stop Jack", "Jack frees innocents from the grip of Aku" and "Jack almost finds a portal but loses it to Aku who was disguised in an obvious costume." Once you've seen those, you've seen the whole series and you can walk away to stop getting your chain yanked. That said, the "filler" episodes like the one he goes "down the rabbit hole" and "learns to jump good" are a lot of fun, perhaps because in those he's not constrained to fail tragically.
*** Subverted in one episode, in which Jack appears to, yet again, suffer defeat when attempting to access an appropriate time portal, only for the episode to end showing an older Jack on the other side of the portal, and the implicit assertion by the portal's guardian that he will, eventually, pass through.
* Squidward from ''[[
** In "Bubble Stand" he briefly learns how to play the clarinet well after using SpongeBob's technique to blow a giant bubble... until his house gets sucked inside said giant bubble, and it loudly pops, apparently destroying his clarinet skills.
** In "Squilliam Returns" he briefly impresses Squilliam when Spongebob disguises the Krusty Krab as a fancy restaurant... until SpongeBob goes crazy due to Squidward's earlier [[Exact Words]] on forgetting everything that isn't about fine dining, including his name, and destroys everything.
Line 303:
** Plankton fits quite well here, but he kinda deserves it.
* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]],'' it really looks like Peter is the only superhero around, though naturally he's outnumbered by [[Super Villain|supervillains]]. One can hope that the supervillains are all local. So when J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son and all-around decent guy gets superpowers and is willing to help, wouldn't it seem like [[Big Applesauce|the Big Apple]] finally gets another hero? No, because [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]. Looks like the best Spidey can hope for are supervillains who aren't [[Friendly Enemy|quite]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|evil]] and won't stay local, like Black Cat, Sandman, and Molten Man.
* In ''[[
** Then there's poor Candace. [[Once an Episode]] she'll have solid proof of her brothers' schemes (which actually shares fun and joy to the neighborhood more than it harms), only to find that it's vanished or ruined when she shows her mother. Other times, any special moment with Jeremy will be interrupted by something (possibly just by Candace herself), and any attempt to impress him will backfire in a humiliating fashion.
*** Then again, Jeremy seems to be as mellow and kind to Candace when she's disheveled with branches in her hair as any other time. Candace ''fears'' being humiliated in front of him, but he's so much of a legitimately [[Nice Guy]] that it may be impossible. You could say Jeremy is the personification of [[Throw the Dog
** Happens at the end of "My Fair Goalie" to Football X-7 creator Professor Ross Efrop, who was forced into hiding when it was discovered his name was a palindrome, as the British at the time were very anti-palindrome. He is about to come back out when he's still shunned for his name being a palindrome.
* Happens repeatedly on ''[[The Fairly
* The ''[[Invader Zim]]'' episode "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom" has Dib finally achieve everything he wanted, including respect and acclaim, after being [[Touched
** To get back at him for throwing a muffin in his face, no less...
* The B-plot in the ''[[
** Or in the episode "Peter's Daughter", where Peter vows to treat Meg better if she wakes up from a coma, which she's in because he made her go into the kitchen to save his beer when the house flooded. Meg gets a sweet, affectionate, (over-)protective father, as well as a boyfriend, because she starts dating a med student who was there when she woke up. Then Peter accidentally ruins her relationship ... then she finds out she's pregnant ... But then Michael (her boyfriend) proposes to her, saying he loves her and wants to be there for her. [[Shotgun Wedding|Ignoring the fact that her dad was there with a rifle]]. So Meg's going to get married ... {{spoiler|except on the day of the wedding, she realizes she isn't pregnant, and isn't sure she can go through with it. Her mother tells her to do what she thinks is right, ("Thanks, Mom. I love you." "I, uh, you too.") and Meg tells Michael the truth when she gets to the altar, prompting him to run out of the church.}}
* This is pretty much standard for the [[Black and Nerdy|nerdy]] [[Butt Monkey]] Tucker from ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. He usually ends up getting the short end of the stick either through his numerous failures to pick up girls or constantly getting the most emotional/physical abuse due to his comic relief character setting. The best shown is "King Tuck" where he [[Dork Horse Candidate|runs for school president]] in order to get some respect from
* This happens to Henry in some ''[[
** Also in "You May Already Be A KaBlammer!", he's upset over the fact that no one finds him funny, so June tells him that she'll be his sidekick as long as he's hers.
** And since he's famous for falling in love, only to be rejected, he gets his happy ending in episode 29, which was the so-called "last episode" (they ended up making a lot more, and some didn't get to air due to the cancellation), when a girl gives him a kiss: June.
* Epically subverted in the ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' episode "Fistfuls of Ed". After being falsely accused of being a bully and subsequently ostracized by the entire school, and then [[No
{{quote|
* After being tortured, mutilated, and reduced to a [[
** It gets worse for him in "Good Genes, Part 1." Bishop effectively brings him [[Back
* Near the end of season 2 of ''[[
* ''[[
* The ''[[
* Similar to the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (
** Particularly noteworthy example: As a reward for saving one of its citizens, a small village gives Whiz one free wish from the local Wish Genie. However, when about to make the wish, Whiz learns that the others are endangered, and he quickly wishes them to be "safe at home". The Genie, being a [[Rules Lawyer]]-ing [[Literal Genie]], grants only the first ''half'' of the wish, reasoning that "being 'safe' and being 'at home' are '''two''' separate wishes."
* In the beginning of one [[
* While the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' [http://www.vimeo.com/11486841 TV short] based on the reality series ''[[I Shouldnt Be Alive]]'' is mainly based on footage of the original ''[[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner
== Real Life ==
* After four, terrible years and thirteen millions of people dead, they called [[World War
** They also wanted to see the end of death and misery. Well, the Spanish flu and the Great Depression got in the way of that...
** Speaking of WWI-Mustard gas. It might splash undetected as a liquid onto a soldier's skin or clothes and then when they went down into the trenches where it was warmer the liquid would heat up into a corrosive gas. So just when you think you're safe, you've escaped the fighting with your life you discover you and all your buddies are gonna die...
* Ireland. After centuries of being oppressed, they gain independence, and experience a massive economic boom, leading to them become one of the most developed countries in the world. Then when the recession hit, they became the most indebted country per capita in the world.
** In a similar case was the Philippines in the 1970s it was one of the fastest growing economies in Asia second only to Japan, then when the Marcos administration took over it all spiraled downward.
* In 1917, the working class of Russia overthrew the corrupt government of the tsar and the nobles and replaced their rule with that of a working class government, with [[Vladimir Lenin]] chosen as the leader. 1924, Lenin died by illness and the new leader who took over was named [[Joseph Stalin]]...
* The [[Disney Channel|Playhouse Disney]] fandom when the old Playhouse Disney shows returned on Disney Junior... only to get taken off again a few years later.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]
[[Category:Tear Jerker Tropes]]
[[Category:Tropey the Wonder Dog]]
[[Category:Plot Twist]]
[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]
[[Category:Yank
[[Category:
|