History Main / HopelessWar

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' had a mild version of this trope. Much was made of the superiority of Goa'uld technology and the near-hopelessness of a war against them, especially in the earlier seasons. The last episode of Season 1 showed us an alternate Earth where the Goa'uld were slowly but unstoppably obliterating city after city. In later seasons, there was an episode where it turned out Teal'c never ''truly'' believed the Goa'uld could be defeated, and a number of episodes where every seeming victory over the Goa'uld just seemed to make things ''worse'' in the end. On the other hand, the Goa'uld's over-the-top villain act (often lampshaded in the show), the VillainDecay of their mooks[[hottip:*: Humans on Earth progressed technologically, while the Goa'uld mostly didn't]], the seeming lack of urgency to their threat[[hottip:*: Earth was relatively well-defended thanks to the Stargate Iris, and it's location in space was mostly unknown in the first season, then protected by the Asgard starting in the third season]], the heroes' gradually growing mastery of alien technology, and the overall very low Good Guy casualty rate[[hottip:*: Of course, SG-1 is the only group that experienced no casualties: other SG teams were mixed of Red and Mauve Shirts]], made this a particularly comfy and non-threatening Hopeless War.

* The Anime series ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. A century of hiding from man-eating titans, where sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people to 'reclaim' land from the titans (i.e. get slaughtered en masse) is a practical idea, where no territory taken by the giants has ever been reclaimed by humans, where it is normal to be ''EatenAlive''. Yup, [[SarcasmMode happy]] [[BlatantLies fun times]] everywhere!

* Japan at the end of WWII. By the end, they were litterally fighting the whole world. Germany had surrendered and Italy, along with others of Japan's allies, had pulled a HeelFaceTurn, leaving Japan to fight on alone against The Allies ''and'' the USSR. This was the phase of the war that added the world 'Kamikaze' to the english language. Even after [[UsefulNotes/TheAtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], [[GeneralRipper several generals]] had an audience with the Emperor wherein they ''demanded'' the right to fight on.

* Japan at the end of WWII. By the end, they were litterally fighting the whole world. Germany had surrendered and Italy, along with others of Japan's allies, had pulled a HeelFaceTurn, leaving Japan to fight on alone against The Allies ''and'' the USSR. This was the phase of the war that added the world 'Kamikaze' to the english language. Even after [[UsefulNotes/TheAtomicBombingsOfNagasakiAndHiroshima Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], [[GeneralRipper several generals]] had an audience with the Emperor wherein they ''demanded'' the right to fight on.

* Japan at the end of WWII. By the end, they were litterally fighting the whole world. Germany had surrendered and Italy, along with others of Japan's allies, had pulled a HeelFaceTurn, leaving Japan to fight on alone against the allies. This was the phase of the war that added the world 'Kamikaze' to the english language, even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese generals had an audience with the Emperor where they ''demanded'' the right to fight on.
** It goes beyond that, in order to fight on they actually decided to [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Rebel from the rule of the emperor]] (who at that time was thought to be a PhysicalGod to fight the Americans). It also should be noted that Japan was a resource poor nation with very little in the way of manufacturing fighting against the largest industrial powerhouse on the planet. By the end, Japan didn't have anything to replace all the planes, guns, ships, and men they had lost.

* In ''MortalKombat Conquest'', Shao Kahn was at war with the Deadly Alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, while trying to defend his realm from being over run by a AmazonBrigade of BeePeople. [[spoiler: It was hopeless -- for his enemies. In the finale he quit holding back and just sent his Shadow Priests to [[KillThemAll kill everyone]] -- ''[[DownerEnding including the heroes]]''.]]

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* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' wages a [[OneManArmy one man war]] against the legions of the Infected and the full

** The war was still quite brutal, and bleak for the humans though. As a good chunk of humanity got hit by SEVERAL [[DepopulationBomb Depopulation Bombs]].

* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' wages a [[OneManArmy one man war]] against the legions of the Infected and the full military might of the [[PunchClockVillain United States Marines Corp]] and [[ArmiesAreEvil Blackwatch]]. It is completely hopeless -- for ''them''.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'' series. A war that mankind is losing because their enemies, [[AlienInvasion the Chimera]], are so advanced that everything the humans have tried against them has been proven either obsolete (like [[spoiler: the anti-Carrier serum in ''Resistance: Retribution.'' Even if James Grayson succeeded in killing off all the Carriers with it, it did nothing at the end, since the Chimera had already changed their conversion methods beforehand]]) or ends up [[PlethoraOfMistakes failing horribly]] (examples in question: [[spoiler: the British capturing an Angel in the second game, basically becoming bait for an attack, and the [[SomebodySetUpUsTheBomb Fission Bomb in the second game]] ended up triggering the teleportation of Earth into some other place in space]]). It's also implied that [[spoiler: [[BigBad Daedalus']]]] [[EvilPlan plan]] [[TheBadGuyWins worked.]] And finally, with most of the key characters [[ShootTheShaggyDog either dead or incapable of recovering]] from TheVirus, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption the situation]] just keeps getting worse. However, in the third and final installment, [[spoiler: The human managed to pull through with a cure and the more obvious problem was solved through liberal application of firepower from an OneManArmy.]]
** [[spoiler: As of the end of Resistance 3, it seems that the hope is back into the world.]]
* ''FrontlinesFuelOfWar'' is set to one of these. [[PostPeakOil The oil's run out]], setting off WorldWarIII. Even after [[spoiler:taking control of Moscow, the Russian capital]], the war still persists. Partisan militias, the ChineseWithChopperSupport(who are likely to deploy TheDragonsTeeth) and the harsh Russian winter have yet to be seen in full force. Odds are, if a sequel comes out, things will be '''''extremely''''' bleak.
* TrafficDepartment2192. The player is a police officer helping defend a planet from [[TheEmpire the Vulture Empire]], which spans multiple solar systems. The planet's sole remaining [[LaResistance resistance]] consists of its [[AlmightyJanitor traffic departments]]. The traffic departments have [[CoolCar some hoverskids]]. The Vulture Empire, on the other hand, has many more hoverskids, {{KillSat}}s, a massive space fleet, and is able [[spoiler:and willing]] to wipe out entire cities or planets to deal with any attempts at rebellion.
* In ''Franchise/DragonAge'', the dwarves are fighting one against the darkspawn. Due to the darkspawn's overwhelming numbers, as well as the dwarves' low population and slow birth rate, they are slowly losing, down to only two cities (which hate each other). It's made worse by the fact that a large portion of their population is not allowed to fight, due to how dwarven culture forbids the massive surface-caste and castless population from serving as warriors. It's theorized that if the dwarven culture doesn't change soon, then it will be destroyed, even if the dwarves live on.
** Depending on your decisions, things may start looking a lot less bleak for them, even getting human troops to help out. Or, you could [[FromBadToWorse inadvertently cause them to be permanently sealed off from the surface]]...
*** The first Blight had seemed like a HopelessWar for the ancient Tevinter Imperium until [[BigDamnHeroes the founding of the Grey Wardens]].
*** While it hasn't reached full-scale war, the Tevinter Imperium has spent eighty years or so fruitlessly trying to drive the Qunari off the island of Seheron. As the Qunari once fought everyone else in the setting and almost won, Fenris doesn't think much of the Imperium's chances if they go on the offensive. "I believe the Qunari are saving their strength, building a massive fleet. When they wish true war, we will know."
* JadeEmpire had ghosts overrunning the Empire [[spoiler: thanks to the Sun brothers massacring the Spirit Monks and enslaving the Goddess in charge of the dead]]. There was no hope of winning: every ghost disrupted would eventually reform, and everyone killed by a ghost would eventually become one. And to make matters worse, the imbalance caused by the appearance of the ghosts is empowering demons.
* ''GratuitousSpaceBattles'' is set in a galaxy where ''everyone'' is at war with everyone else. [[BugWar The Alliance]] and [[ChurchMilitant the Order]] are on genocidal rampages to wipe out everyone who isn't them, TheEmpire is out to conquer whatever parts of the galaxy they don't rule already, [[TheHorde the Swarm]] are invading with their endless fleets, [[LaResistance the Rebels]] are fighting to overthrow the Empire and survive amidst all these crazy lunatics trying to wipe them out, and the Tribe have decided that the only way to bring peace and harmony to the galaxy is to blow everyone else to atomic ribbons. And all of the above owe TheFederation money, and their [[PrivateMilitaryContractors "Contract Enforcement Division"]] is coming to collect.
* In the {{backstory}} for the upcoming ''Dawn Of Victory'' [[GameMod mod]] for ''SinsOfASolarEmpire'', Earth is [[AlienInvasion invaded by aliens]] in the middle of [[WorldWarTwo World War 2]] à la ''WorldWar'' by HarryTurtledove. Despite the Scinfaxi (human name for the invaders) miscalculating the human level of technology, they proceed to CurbStompBattle humans to the brink of extinction using their HumongousMecha. Humans only once manage to score a decisive victory by luring the enemy into an ambush in a major North American city and then proceeding to shell the city with massed artillery barrages, scoring a blow to the alien forces at the cost of an entire city. The Soviets manage to capture a supply of plutonium from a Scinfaxi convoy and use it to build an atomic bomb. The [[NukeEm detonation]] wipes out most of the enemy forces in the region. Seeing this, the [[{{Eagleland}} Americans]], the [[ThoseWackyNazis Germans]], and the [[ImperialJapan Japanese]] follow suit, forcing the Scinfaxi to retreat to the Southern hemisphere. Until nukes are built, this pretty much fits the trope.
* ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'' perfectly illustrates the situation - the Empire of Cath Bruig has been razed leaving only a barren desert, the Free Cities of the North are under threat, and every day the Fallen Lords gain more ground.
* The Elder Wars in ''{{Lusternia}}'', fought between the [[{{Precursors}} Elder Gods]] and the Soulless Gods: not only did the Soulless outnumber the Elders, they ''ate them'' upon defeat and [[CannibalismSuperpower gained their powers]]. The Elders tried the same tactic against them, but it didn't go so well.
* This is how the war in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' was viewed by many Gallians [[spoiler:before Alicia's Valkyrur side awakens,]] as Gallia was severely outnumbered and didn't have many of the technological advances that the Imperials did. In fact, the battle in which the spoilered event occurs would have garanteed Gallia's defeat had said event not happened.
* A gameplay example: in [=MOBA=] games like ''LeagueOfLegends'' it is possible to realise your team is going to lose in the first 5-10 minutes, or even before the match starts (bad champion matchup in blind pick mode in ''[=LoL=]'') but you cannot surrender yet and are forced to keep playing and getting your face kicked in by a team that keeps getting stronger until you can finally surrender - assuming there are less than two people on your team that choose to decline the surrender vote and keep fighting a hopeless battle. And since an early '11 update the winning team is encouraged to drag out the game for as long as possible to get more [[BribingYourWayToVictory influence points]].
* In DigitalDevilSaga, it's heavily implied that before the events of the game, the Junkyard was in a perpetual stalemate. To the point where an alliance is ''almost unheard of''.
* ''VideoGame/TheBabylonProject'' plays out several battles of the Earth-Minbari war from ''Series/BabylonFive'', mentioned above.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' begins with the Reaper invasion of Earth. [[spoiler: Most of Earth's fleet are massacred before they can inflict any damage]], and the only possibility for victory is for Shepard to escape from Earth, leaving the Reapers in control as s/he tries to build an alliance to take back the planet and defeat the Reapers. [[spoiler: The rest of the game only serves to drive the point home that, while individual Reapers can be defeated with incredible effort, their fleet as a whole is completely unstoppable. There really is no hope of winning conventionally.]]
** To put in perspective just how badly things are going, the turians are the biggest BadassArmy the galaxy has, and they are the ones holding out the best against the Reapers, even managing to kill a couple in fleet battles. They report battles with an 85% mortality rate, and their homeworld is on fire within days of the invasion. Everyone else in the galaxy is far worse off.
** The entire reason the rest of the galaxy keeps on fighting is because the Reapers won't let them surrender, as it's a genocidal war, and to buy time for a special weapon to be completed. A weapon that no one is sure what it will do. [[GodzillaThreshold The war is so hopeless that everyone is willing to put their faith in a weapon that, for all they know, might wipe out all life as they know it.]]
* ''Videogame/AlienLegacy'' has this as its [[AllInTheManual backstory]] and is the entire reason for the game. You are the captain of the colony ship UNS ''Calypso'', sent to a remote system as part of a last-ditch effort to ensure humanity's survival. Earth is in a losing war against the Centaurians. While both sides are at about the same technological level, humans are limited to one system, while the Centaurians have already settled at least one other system (Tau Ceti is mentioned). They are also significantly more aggressive than your average human, and this ferocity is what's driving their desire to obliterate humanity. After a failed final offensive (contact lost with the last fleet sent to Alpha Centauri), the Earth governments unanimously vote to switch to a defensive strategy and start building colony ships. Each ship's crew is to maintain radiosilence and assume the loss of Earth and all other colony ships. By the time you arrive to Beta Caeli at the start of the game and wake up from your HumanPopsicle state, hundreds of years (if not millennia) have passed, and there have been no word from Earth besides a few messages several decades after the launch.
* The premise of MuvLuv is this, humanity discovers the Beta which quickly overwhelms humanity and have reached a point where almost every able man has been drafted or killed and humanity has about 10 to 15 years left before complete extinction.
* ''EpicMickey'': Before Mickey came to the Wastelands, Shadow Blot and the Mad Doctor had pretty much won the Blot War; they have conquered Oswald's castle and petrified his wife Ortensia, an act which sends him into a deep depression and causes him to lose his will to fight, leaving the fighting to small, weak bands of resistance groups. One of them, the crew of Captain Hook, has most of the members dead or turned into Beetleworx and the rest scattered leaderless in the jungle. Another group, The Gremlins, has been more successful in fighting off Blot's forces, but the sheer force of Blot's forces causes most of the Gremlins to be taken as prisoners, and their own village was under siege before Mickey helped in turning the tide.
* Overlapping with a ForeverWar is the war between the Shinkoku race and the Gohma from ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath''. The Shinkoku Trastrium civilization has fouight the Gohma, the embodiment of the planet's rage, for countless eons, with no clear victor on either side, with Vlitra, the leader of the Gohma factions, growing stronger and bigger with each awakening after being only subdued each time. This causes the 127th emperor, Strada, to loose hope that the war will ever end, and would rather have the Shinkoku move to a different place across universe and abandon their home planet of Gaea. This actually sparks the main plot, as Deus, the other BigBad, as well as a WellIntentionedExtremist, to betray strada and pin the blame on Asura to exact his plot to use [[WaveMotionGun The]] [[PlanetKiller Brah]][[KillSat mastra]] to blast Vlitra into oblivion once and for all.
** [[spoiler: To make this fact even worse, [[GodIsEvil Chak]][[TrueFinalBoss ra]][[JerkassGods vartin]], who created the Gohma in the first place to test the Demi-gods and see if he can find himself an heir amongst them, says that even if Vlitra were destroyed, he can make more Gohma at will, and implies that he has destroyed countless galaxies with the Gohma since time immemorial, and will continue to do so in the future.]]
* [[http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playing_the_same_game_of_civilization_ii/ "The Eternal War"]] is a single game of Civilization II has been running for '''ten years.''' The world is locked into a stalemate that has lasted [[ForeverWar nearly 2,000 years]]. Thanks to [[NukeEm nuclear warfare]] being a daily occurrence, the Earth is a mire of [[PollutedWasteland radioactive swamps]], and, as a result of the constant war and lack of any arable farmland, [[KillEmAll 90% of the world's peak population in 2,000 AD has been wiped out by 4,096.]] Anyone that steps outside of a city [[DeathFromAbove is nuked.]] Cities can't build improvements because 100% of all labor is needed to [[WeHaveReserves replace units killed at the front.]] The world is ''1984'' after 2,000 years.
** There are three main factions, the Americans, the Vikings, and the Celts. There were also minor factions remaining, like the Sioux. While life isn't great for any of them, it is likely pretty freaky being a one city state in a world where nukes are casually thrown around everywhere.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In the ''SluggyFreelance'' story "That Which Redeems," the Dimension of Lame is pretty much helpless before the Dimension of Pain demons, largely because Torg's the only person in the entire dimension who isn't a complete pacifist (most Dimension of Lame residents aren't even comfortable with the idea of ''food'' fights). The only thing stopping the demons from completely overrunning the Earth are their small numbers and Lord Horribus's poor decision making.
* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', the war between Prospitians and Dersites is this... quite literally. The dark kingdom (Derse) is always fated to win the war, [[YouCantFightFate no matter what the players in Sburb/Sgrub do to change it.]]
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[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''TechInfantry'' features an Earth Federation that is in two endless Hopeless Wars at once. The first is against [[BugWar The Bugs]], large insectoid aliens that never seem to be defeated, no matter how far they get pushed back at the cost of horrific casualties. The second is against itself, in a seemingly endless series of Civil Wars, coup attempts, resistance movements, and supernatural secret wars carried on behind the scenes inside the very power structure itself. Even when the Eastern Bloc conquers the Federation, beats the minor alien races along the border into submission, and seems to finally reach some sort of low-grade stalemate with the Bugs, the former Federation military-political power structure becomes the NEW LaResistance, carrying on the tradition of endless civil war from the other side of the barbed wire. Meanwhile, the Vampires, Mages, Werewolves, and other supernatural creatures continue their private and not-so-private power struggles as usual.
* The USA in the AlternateHistory ''DecadesOfDarkness'' become an expansionist, slave-holding EvilEmpire. Mexico and other Latin American states are fighting a HopelessWar against them (and eventually lose, too).
* In ''TheSalvationWar'', the forces of Hell find themselves in this situation when they try to conquer 2008 Earth and Humanity kicks their tails and proceeds to conquer ''them''!.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The war in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' lasted for nearly an entire century. By the finale of the show the nation of the Air Nomads had been wiped out, the Southern Water Tribe had been reduced to scattered villages, and the Northern Water Tribe had retreated to within its own borders. Vast areas of the Earth Kingdom had been claimed as Fire Nation colonies. The two major Earth Kingdom cities, Omashu and [[spoiler: Ba Sing Se]] came under Fire Nation control. The only thing standing against the Fire-Nation were small uprisings and guerilla armies. And the the comet came, giving the Fire Nation the ability to literally burn the continued resistance to the ground... of course, the good guys win, but without the Avatar they were basically screwed.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* ''Any'' war which does not end swiftly but become lenghtened. This is the morale behind '''war of attrition'''; the war is hopeless on the battlefield, and the only hope of winning is to hope that the enemy will first run out of resources. The result will invariably be complete destruction of the loser and serious weakening of the winner.
* The American Civil War was initiated under the presumption that it would be a quick and decisive enforcement. By no means was it imagined just how long it would drag on, resulting in hundreds of thousands of casualties even for the most strategically insignificant of skirmishes such as at Gettysburg, and result in the absolute economic deconstruction of an entire region of the United States, resulting in an AfterTheEnd scenario whose aftershocks would continues to permeate to this day.
* The last leg of World War II was a pretty good example for the Germans when you think about it. Whatever you say about them, the foot soldiers fought bravely till the bitter end against impossible odds. Any government likely would not go out and announce that they are losing, but pretty much everyone did know they had lost the war at that point. See also: ''[[Film/{{Downfall}} Der Untergang]]''. Compare this to the end of World War I, when the previous German government chose surrender when it became clear they could not win; sparing their country the ravages of a drawn-out war on their own soil, but also conceding to the harsh and arguably humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The consequences of this decision created the environment in which the Nazi party rose to power.
** And the German soldiers, especially on the Eastern Front, knew what was at stake if the Russians made it to their homes, especially considering what they had done on their advance East and the likely reponse. Several historians have suggested that the wisest course of action would have been for the Germans to surrender on the Western Front and throw everything to the East to keep the Russians out, but Hitler wouldn't hear of it until they were literally right outside the city. Those decisions doomed Eastern Europe and East Germany to nearly a half-century of Warsaw Pact oppression.
** This wasn´t Hitler's fault, the Allies declared on the Casablanca Conference (January 1943) that they would not accept anything else than the full and unconditional surrender of Germany. It is even discussed that this claim has prolonged the war because why give up and end up as an occupied country if you can fight on, in the hope that it will pay off in the end?
** Similarly, the first, few successful years of Germany's Operation Barbarossa saw what ultimately boiled down to a German effort to annihilate all (or, at least, a majority) of human activity--institutions, agriculture, lives--of the western Soviet Union, in an effort to free up 'living space'. And in many respects, they came close: in four years, the USSR sustained on the lower-end estimation of 23 (and on the higher, 27) million war deaths--between 13 and 16 percent of the 1941 population, and more than any other nation. And while Hollywood movies tend to over-exaggerated historical conditions, the Red Army found itself facing the German offensive under-supplied, under-trained, and with the knowledge that those captured would more likely starve to death in enemy custody. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, that was a hopeless war--the turn-around came as a considerable surprise.
*** The turn-around on the Russian Front in WWII from 1941 to 1943 is the real life equivalent of a ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' film, where he's beat up for most of the fight, then gets up off of the canvas to win.
*** The cracks in the German strategy were showing up even during the initial offensive. The first Battle of Rostov proved that blitzkrieg couldn't deal with Russian weather and Russian counterattacks. Whether any significant portion of the Soviet army was aware of this is a different issue, however -- it almost certainly seemed very hopeless at the time. Really, the war seemed quite hopeless to everybody right up until the end, prompting the first and only offensive use of nuclear weapons to ensure a definitive end.
* Japan at the end of WWII. By the end, they were litterally fighting the whole world. Germany had surrendered and Italy, along with others of Japan's allies, had pulled a HeelFaceTurn, leaving Japan to fight on alone against the allies. This was the phase of the war that added the world 'Kamikaze' to the english language, even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese generals had an audience with the Emperor where they ''demanded'' the right to fight on.
** It goes beyond that, in order to fight on they actually decided to [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Rebel from the rule of the emperor]] (who at that time was thought to be a PhysicalGod to fight the Americans). It also should be noted that Japan was a resource poor nation with very little in the way of manufacturing fighting against the largest industrial powerhouse on the planet. By the end, Japan didn't have anything to replace all the planes, guns, ships, and men they had lost.
* The [[IranIraqWar Iran-Iraq War]] of the 1980s, a decade long stalemate with Saddam Hussein on one side and a hardline theocracy on the other side. It really says something that Saddam [[BlackAndBlackMorality came out the moral victor]]: Iran used human wave tactics that far exceeded WWI in their pointlessness. Minefield blocking your way? Recruit a bunch of teenagers (Sometimes not even that) give them little plastic 'Keys to Heaven' and ''make them run across the minefield barefoot.''
** A very close victory when you consider Saddam's rather liberal use of chemical weapons on civilian populations, including ''his own''.
** Out of all the wars listed in this section, only the Somalian one could possibly have a bleaker outcome than the Iran-Iraq War. (Concerning present-day matters, of course.)
* The Bosnian War was this for the Bosniaks until 1994. After being abandoned by Serbia and the combined Bosniak-Croat offensive it briefly became this for the Republika Srpska with a little subversion: The Bosnian Serbs returned in time to the negotiation table and got even the best outcome of the war.
* TheVietnamWar, The U.S. goal was to go to Vietnam, kick Viet Cong ass and be home in time for corn flakes. Unfortunately the Viet Cong proved to be quite more resilient and [[TheDeterminator determined]]. Thus dragging out the war despite the horrific casualties they suffered.
** The tragedy ultimately outlasted the war and the American defeat. The fallout would give the world the two bleakest phrases of the later 20th century - 'The Killing Fields' and 'The Boat People'. Ironically, it would be Vietnam that would oust the Khmer Rouge and stand against the advance of Chinese communism in South East Asia.
** Even worse is the fact Kissinger and Nixon knew the war was lost as early as 1971, but prolonged it anyway, extending it into neutral countries like Cambodia and Laos. See this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3LIqzR6-Q
* The civil war in Somalia has lasted for 20 years now and shows no sign of stopping. The saddest part is that world governments deployed the might of their navies to curb a side effect, ocean piracy, and turn a blind eye to the disease - the genocidal warlords, the unchecked pandemics, the poverty and one of the bleakest and most chronic famines that the world has ever seen.
** Sounds like an attempt to ''avoid'' this trope, actually.
*** Not to mention that it's more a subversion. Don't forget that the United States and Ethiopia both led different interventions into the country to try and stabilize it, the U.S. from 1993 to 1995 and Ethiopia from 2006 to 2009. The world governemnts have ''tried'' to treat the disease, and it just hasn't worked.
*** Probably because the world governments dragged their feet in the beginning. By the time they acted it was too little too late.
* Great Sioux War of 1876-77
** Particularly the Battle of the Little Bighorn
** Attempts by native populations to resist European colonization were usually hopeless, given the Europeans' technological edge and their introduction of new diseases.
* The Battle of Thermopylae, long remembered as one of history's greatest {{Last Stand}}s. King Leonidas, his 300 Spartans, and their allies knew that they would not win against the massive army of the Persian Empire, but their sacrifice held the Persians back just long enough for the other Greeks to mobilize against them proper.
** And if they had held there, the Naval fleet at Artemisium would have kept fighting the hopeless battle against the larger fleet. It was only retreating to Salamis that they were able to turn the tables.
* The WarOfTheTripleAlliance. Paraguay decided that it would be a good idea to invade Brazil and crushed their army. Then, as if that wasn't enough, they went to war with Argentina and Uruguay at the same time. Paraguay won early victories, but ground down over six years.The war only ended with the complete conquest of Paraguay by the Alliance and the death of their dictator. Over half of the prewar population of Paraguay died before they finally surrendered.
** It got to the point where the Roman Catholic Church decided to allow polygyny (the "multiple wife" type of polygamy) because so many men had died there weren't enough husbands.
* The Invasion of Iraq, the Iraq forces had very little chance on standing against the Coalition forces. Hussein utterly fooled Iraq into thinking they could stand up against invasion with big speeches and mass propraganda, while in truth the invasion forces were having little trouble fighting of Iraqi forces. Many Iraqi forces instead try to avoid fighting the Coalition forces, some were desperate into surrendering than fighting back, one instance is a buch of Iraqis surrendered to a news crew. In the end the Coalition have captured Baghdad, Hussein went into hiding, and the statue of himself was brought down.
* The ArabIsraeliConflict, for both sides. The idea that Israel could ever be decisively defeated militarily is laughable, the fate of the Gaza strip is a prime example. On the other hand, Israel can not maintain the current status quo forever, Jewish birth rates are far lower than Muslims, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_threat#Israel 'Demographic Bomb']] that Right Wing politicians have warned about is very real, by 2050, Jews will be a minority in their own land, from then Israel will truly feel besieged. The obvious solution is of course, an end to the conflict - the 'Two State Solution', but that has been a HopelessWar all in by itself.
* The conflict between South and North Korea, which has not officially ended since the beginning of the Korean War. For the forseeable future, both countries are locked in an eternal stalemate, constantly fearing an attack by the other nation. South Korea doesn't want to attack because of North Korea's massive army while North Korea won't attack due to South Korea's massive technological advantage (and rather large army). Not to mention, [[WorldWarIII the United States and China are guaranteed to back their respective allies should hostilities break out.]] Finally, the ideological differences and stubborness of both sides means a peaceful solution won't be likely either.
** If it came to it, the South will probably win. Chinese support for the North is far from certain, and the US is not likely to support Southern aggression either. The South can rapidly build up its military, but the North cannot rapidly close the technological gap.
*** It would, however, be a PyrrhicVictory in many respects. North Korea has the capability to demolish Seoul, which boasts a population of 10 million (making it the eighth-largest in the world) and is the political and economic heart of the nation, purely through [[MoreDakka liberal use of fifty years worth of fortified artillery]]. More than that, attempting to integrate the hopelessly backwards North Korean nation would cripple the South Korean economy to a degree that would make the German post-reunification economic issues look like a mild economic blip. Some admittedly pessimistic estimates put civilian casualties in the first days of any shooting war on the peninsula at upwards of 2 million.
*** It's to the point that ''any'' saber rattling, such as when North Korea shelled several ships in late 2010, makes the world stop, look at the Korean Peninsula with fear, and then hope that it doesn't escalate. However, there is a HopeSpot: ''China'' has come out and told the North Korean government to calm the hell down, a ''massive'' shift in policy between the two traditional allies.
**** Since then, China's continually put a no Bullshit warning on NK's LeeroyJenkins moments. And with the recent threat of a missile launch (which ended in a MASSIVE EpicFail by North Korea)...
**** China has, as Wikileaks, discovered it was more than prepared and willing to have Seoul in command of the Korean Peninsula over Pyongyang. Not only that, its getting ready for an ''inevitable'' intervention now since 'Fattycakes' as the new Leader is called is threatening to launch a nuke on the US or its allies.
* The Western Front of WorldWarI seemed like this for years. There were great offensives on both sides, millions died, but the frontlines haven't moved.
** Largely true, but this aspect of it has been [[IncrediblyLamePun Flanderized]] to hell and back.
* Some see the ''War On Drugs'' as this ([[http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php including some law enforcement]]). It's definitely a [[FlameWar hopeless war]] if you bring it up on [[InternetBackdraft the internet]].
** Technically speaking, any war declared on a ''concept'' or ''item'' (drugs, terrorism, etc) is doomed to failure before it even begins. For example, the war on terror can't be won, because terrorism is a ''tactic'' used by stateless groups too decentralized to ever sign formal articles of surrender, while "terror" is an ''emotion''.
* Afghanistan; especially after the Wiki Leak files made it seem ''bleaker''.
** There's a reason it's known as the "Graveyard of Empires."
* The Italian front of WorldWarI. For the Italians, because their officers would continuously send them attacking well-fortified Austro-Hungarian positions uphill in the face of large artillery and machine gun concentrations. For the Austro-Hungarians, because no matter how many Italians died in futile attacks, [[WeHaveReserves they could replenish their losses]] (in fact the Italian commander in chief Cadorna, knowing that his army was underequipped due [[ObstructiveBureaucrat endemic corruption in the bureaucracy]] and the only previous commander in chief who understood modern weapons died of heart attack before he could make any impact, was ''counting on this'') while the Austrians couldn't, and Italian artillery was superior and ''growing''. Then, thanks to the Russian collapse freeing up the troops from the Eastern front and temporary German help in the form of assault troops, the Austro-Hungarians [[HopeSpot broke through Italian lines at]] [[CurbStompBattle Caporetto]]... And things got even worse, for them: the Germans were transferred on the Western front, the part of the offensive sent to occupy the area with most of the Italian weapon factories was obliterated on the Grappa massif by a ludicrous concentration of artillery even for Italian standards placed there [[GenreSavvy exactly for that purpose]], the Italians may have been at their limit of manpower but were ''still'' more numerous ''and'', as they were now fighting for the defence of their country, [[LetsGetDangerous had suddenly started to fight like demons]], Cadorna, who was incompetent as a field commander, had been replaced by the more versatile Armando Diaz, [[ParanoiaFuel Italian special forces started being everywhere]] (they even dropped leaflets on ''Vienna itself'' just to prove they could have bombed the city), and Austria-Hungary ''had exhausted their reserves''.
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* ''TheBabylonProject'' plays out several battles of the Earth-Minbari war from ''Series/BabylonFive'', mentioned above.

* The Anime series ''AttackOnTitan''. A century of hiding from man-eating titans, where sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people to 'reclaim' land from the titans (i.e. get slaughtered en masse) is a practical idea, where no territory taken by the giants has ever been reclaimed by humans, where it is normal to be ''EatenAlive''. Yup, [[SarcasmMode happy]] [[BlatantLies fun times]] everywhere!

* The Anime series ''AttackOnTitan''. A century of hiding from man-eating titans, where sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people to 'reclaim' (hint: get slaughtered en masse) land from the titans is a practical idea, where no territory taken by the giants has ever been reclaimed by humans, where it is normal to be ''EatenAlive''. Yup, [[SarcasmMode happy]] [[BlatantLies fun times]] everywhere!

* ''MassEffect3'' begins with the Reaper invasion of Earth. [[spoiler: Most of Earth's fleet are massacred before they can inflict any damage]], and the only possibility for victory is for Shepard to escape from Earth, leaving the Reapers in control as s/he tries to build an alliance to take back the planet and defeat the Reapers. [[spoiler: The rest of the game only serves to drive the point home that, while individual Reapers can be defeated with incredible effort, their fleet as a whole is completely unstoppable. There really is no hope of winning conventionally.]]

* The Anime series ''AttackOnTitan''. A century of hiding from man-eating titans, where sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people to 'reclaim' (hint: get slaughtered en masse) land from the titans is a practical idea, where no territory taken by the giants has ever been reclaimed by humans, where it is normal to be ''EatenAlive''. Yup, [[SarcasmMode happy]] [[BlatantLies fun]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel times]] everywhere!

** More than one commentator has suggested that the very phrase "War on Terror(ism)", in both its' variants, is by design unwinnable; terrorism is a ''tactic'' used by stateless groups too decentralized to ever sign formal articles of surrender while "terror" is an ''emotion''.

** Technically speaking, any war declared on a ''concept'' or ''item'' (drugs, terrorism, etc) is doomed to failure before it even begins. For example, the war on terror can't be won, because terror is an idea.

* Stephen Baxter's ''Exulant'' novel details the {{Scary Dogmatic| Aliens}} [[HumansAreBastards humanity's]] obsessive war against all other aliens in the galaxy. As the story opens they've been seiging the ''Literature/{{Xeelee| Sequence}}'' center of operations in the centre of the galaxy for several thousand years. The Xeelee are, well, just doing their thing and occasionally zapping the annoying primates.

* ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' novel has an example of this with the British military valiantly trying to bring down the alien tripods... Thus this is OlderThanRadio.

* The elves of [[TheLordOfTheRings Middle Earth]] are mentioned to have long been fighting a war they've always known they will lose, and which they even call The Long Defeat.

* The Cylons from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' nuked most of the humans and are hunting down the few tens of thousands of survivors in a ongoing costly war. In fact things got so bad the crew of the Pegasus started to cannibalize civilian ships for spare parts.....by ''force''
** It became somewhat of a hopeless war for both sides after the Cylons lost their resurrection technology.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' had the Earth-Minbari War as a backstory, in which the Minbari all but obliterate [=EarthForce=] and arrived at Earth with the intent to do the same to the planet. Even John Sheridan's [[CurbStompCushion big victory against the Black Star]] only served to piss off the Minbari more. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the war is that the humans managed to hold out as long as they did, in spite of the technology and power imbalance. Only when the Minbari learned something so [[ApeShallNeverKillApe soul shatteringly]] important about Humanity at the last moment did they stand down.
-->'''Londo Mollari:''' The War. The humans, I think, knew they were doomed. But where another race would surrender to despair, the humans fought back with even greater strength. They made the Minbari fight for every inch of space. In my life, I have never seen anything like it; They would weep, they would pray, they would say goodbye to their loved ones, and then throw themselves without fear or hesitation at the very face of death itself, never surrendering. No one who saw them fighting against the inevitable could help but be moved to tears by their courage, their [[{{Determinator}} stubborn nobility]]. When they ran out of ships, they used guns; when they ran out guns, they used knives and sticks and bare hands. They were magnificent. I only hope that when it is my time, I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes in the end. They did this for ''two years''. They never ran out of courage... but in the end, they ran out of time.

* The very basis of Teutonic myth is that even the ''gods'' are going to fall someday. The only bright spot is to fight with valor and take plenty of the enemy with you.

* Several of the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness games were based around supernatural wars that just couldn't end well, particularly ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' and its vampire GambitPileup, the Jyhad. Ultimately all of the wars ended up being [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt called on account of the destruction of Earth]].
** In the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'', [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken the Forsaken]] are locked in three major wars at once: against the Hosts, vicious half-spirit entities that want to either cut the spirit world off permanently (the Azlu) or rip its walls down (the Beshilu), the spirit world itself, and a faction of their race known as the Pure which views them as heretics. The Hosts are nigh-impossible to kill permanently. Nine out of ten spirits are more powerful than the strongest werewolf, and they tend to be extremely hostile towards living things. And the Pure collectively ''outnumber'' the Forsaken.
** Also, [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem the Kindred]] are also locked in multiple eternal struggles. They fight against [[SuperpoweredEvilSide the Beast]]. They fight with one another in a shadowy struggle for power. They fight against an AncientConspiracy of [[HunterOfHisOwnKind Vampire-hating Vampires]]. They fight against bloodthirsty packs of psychotic Vampires who want to [[OmnicidalManiac kill absolutely everybody]]. All this while trying to uphold the {{Masquerade}} because if they didn't, they'd have to fight humanity at large as well. And the CrapsackWorld is only getting worse no matter what happens.
** Also ''also'' in the New World of Darkness, the [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Changelings]] are fighting a never-ending guerrilla war against TheFairFolk, who will gladly drag any Changeling they can catch back to Arcadia, and generally have the power to do so. And that's not even counting spies the True Fae have planted [[SixthRangerTraitor in the Changelings' midst]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist radicals whose extreme tactics in battling the Fae actually do the Changelings more harm than good]], and the various political machinations, infighting, and squabbles that inevitably occur between the different Changeling Courts, [[InherentInTheSystem because it's the World of Darkness]]. And just to put the cherry of futility on the sundae of despair here, [[spoiler:the True Fae ''are'' Changelings, or, rather, what Changelings will eventually become when they finish growing to Wyrd 10.]]
*** [[spoiler:And [[KarmaMeter Clarity 0]]. So it isn't ''completely'' hopeless. The operative word being "completely"]]

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' set ''Shards of Alara'', the [[{{Mordor}} Grixis]] plane plays host to such a plight. In a world bereft of white and green mana, the last traces of humanity are left to fight a hopeless battle against demons, necromancers, and armies of undead.

** Not to mention Phyrexia. Originally a five year story-arc consisting of enemies to the entire Multiverse made of both machine and flesh. Originally defeated only through a huge war and the sacrifice of many main-characters to the story. Phyrexia is back as of "Scars of Mirrodin" and have turned the plane of Mirrodin into "New Phyrexia" despite the best efforts of the Mirrans to fight them off.

* ''AlienLegacy'' has this as its [[AllInTheManual backstory]] and is the entire reason for the game. You are the captain of the colony ship UNS ''Calypso'', sent to a remote system as part of a last-ditch effort to ensure humanity's survival. Earth is in a losing war against the Centaurians. While both sides are at about the same technological level, humans are limited to one system, while the Centaurians have already settled at least one other system (Tau Ceti is mentioned). They are also significantly more aggressive than your average human, and this ferocity is what's driving their desire to obliterate humanity. After a failed final offensive (contact lost with the last fleet sent to Alpha Centauri), the Earth governments unanimously vote to switch to a defensive strategy and start building colony ships. Each ship's crew is to maintain radiosilence and assume the loss of Earth and all other colony ships. By the time you arrive to Beta Caeli at the start of the game and wake up from your HumanPopsicle state, hundreds of years (if not millennia) have passed, and there have been no word from Earth besides a few messages several decades after the launch.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', the White Council of Wizards has been engaging in one of these against [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the vampires of the Red Court]] since the third novel in the series, and it hasn't been going well for them, partially because the vampires took out the Council's foremost expert on vampires early in the war and a traitor within the Council has been feeding information to the vampires. The Council has just barely been holding on, and the only thing that saved them from being wiped out was the intervention of [[TheFairFolk the Summer Court of Faerie.]] Then, in ''Changes'', [[spoiler: the war comes to an abrupt and literally heart-stopping end when Harry Dresden arranges to use [[BlackMagic a bloodline curse]] to kill ''every'' Red Court vampire at once.]]

** Without trying to sound too blase about it, virtually all wars start with [[HomeByChristmas the assumption that they will be quick and easy]]. They very seldom turn out that way.