History Main / HopelessWar

* The Dragonsong War for Isghard's history in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has lasted for a thousand years between the people of Ishgard and dragons. Nidhogg, the leader of the brood that has been in the war, started the war because of his eye being yanked out by Isghardians a thousand years prior. The war itself has been more or less a stalemate with neither side gaining any advantage over the other while both sides have suffered heavy losses of life. You don't get a chance to alter the course of the war until the ''Heavensward'' storyline and you find out there's more to the war than you heard. [[spoiler: The war actually started when King Thordan and his twelve knights kill Nidhogg's sister and ate her eyes to gain more power. Nidhogg wanted revenge and led his brood to war, which eventually cost him an eye. Your allies theorize that Nidhogg could have easily destroyed Ishgard many times over, but had chosen not to do so and purposely prolonged the war just to make mankind suffer as long as possible until A) everyone dies from the war or B) everyone gives up in despair and become dragons via drinking dragon blood.]]

** After a while, the South's goal wasn't even to ''win'', but instead to achieve recognition of the Confederacy by European powers (similar to what the United States itself did in the Revolution). They almost got that... and then Antietam ended in a draw and Lincoln used the opening to release the Emancipation Proclamation. Suddenly the Confederacy lost every chance of such recognition; if Britain or France recognized them as a sovereign country, they would be declaring support for ''slavery'', which was something they would never do. This left the South's only hope with Northern stupidity, and after 1863 that was in short supply. And then a few montgs later their attempt to break the Union's will to fight by raiding Washington backfired with the decisive Union victory at Gettysburg rallying support for the war (with the final Confederate charge in that battle frequently referred to by historians as their "high water mark").

More often than not, the war might have been intended as a minor engagement before things went [[PlethoraOfMistakes FUBAR]], got complicated, and then went completely to hell, and now everybody is SOL. It's basically the war equivalent of KickTheDog, ShootTheDog and ShootTheShaggyDog... and of course WarIsHell. In this bleak situation there's bound to be DespairEventHorizon, IDidWhatIHadToDo, BlackAndGrayMorality, or GreyAndGrayMorality. All for the sake of victory, but WasItReallyWorthIt Beware bad writing, for it can turn this into prime fuel for DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

** After a while, the South's goal wasn't even to ''win'', but instead to achieve recognition of the Confederacy by European powers (similar to what the United States itself did in the Revolution). They almost got that... and then Antietam ended in a draw and Lincoln used the opening to release the Emancipation Proclamation. Suddenly the Confederacy lost every chance of such recognition; if Britain or France recognized them as a sovereign country, they would be declaring support for ''slavery'', which was something they would never do. This left the South's only hope with Northern stupidity, and after 1863 that was in short supply.

*** This is sort of a weird one. The "hollow victories" are the result of artillery. This happens to have been an arm in which the British army was extremely backward at the time (this was ground home by the 2nd Boer War, only a couple of years later), leading to the supposition that if the Martians had landed anywhere else in Europe things might have been a little more hairy for them. Of course, this is completely missing the point.

** Of course, because the film is set as an in-universe Federation propaganda piece, this detail is sunnily glossed over; the deranged general is just dismissed by his troops as a DirtyCoward who just doesn't ''believe'' enough in the Federation victory, which is surely inevitable. I mean, [[FantasticRacism bugs that]] ''[[FantasticRacism think]]''? Preposterous! Now, why are you still here? Join now! Service guarantees citizenship!

*** This is sort of a weird one. The "hollow victories" are the result of artillery. This happens to have been an arm in which the British army was extremely backward at the time (this was ground home by the 2nd Boer War, only a couple of years later), leading to the supposition that if the Martians had landed anywhere else in Europe things might have been a little more hairy for them. Of course, this is CompletelyMissingThePoint.

** Smallpox is one of those diseases and one that can destroy an army. It's estimated that smallpox killied about 90% of the North and South American Indigenous populations during the early parts of the the Age of Exploration.

* The last leg of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was a pretty good example for the Nazis. The foot soldiers obeyed Hitler till the bitter end, despite knowing fully well that German defeat was inevitable. Any government and people ''not'' convinced that they were about to be exterminated by near-human beasts (i.e. [[RedScare the Communist Asians under Jewish domination]]) would have sued for peace. Compare this to the end of World War I, when the previous German government chose surrender when it became clear that they were less than a year (at best, and six months at worst) from total military defeat; sparing their country the ravages of a drawn-out war on their own soil, but also conceding to the monetarily crippling and emotionally humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The consequences of this decision was the creation of the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic.

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', there are two, one averted and one played straight.

* The few humans in the world of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' are sequestered into four tiny pockets of civilisation which are constantly under siege by a race of LivingShadow [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horrors]] called the Grimm. The militaries as well as [[HunterOfMonsters the Huntsmen and Huntresses]] are just enough to hold the line, but all attempts to break out and expand have ended in failure. Even worse, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Salem]], the master of the Grimm set out to [[HopeCrusher crush humanity's spirit once and for all]], is [[CompleteImmortality completely immortal]] and ''cannot'' be defeated. [[BigGood Ozpin]] desperately keeps this AwfulTruth hidden, lest it lead to utter despair.]]

* The Jewish Revolts against the Roman Empire can be seen as this. You have on one end a group of people who are fighting for their faith, taking cities and defending them to the last man (occasionally literally -- Josephus was the only prisoner taken from Masada), or fighting guerrilla campaigns that needle the enemy's weak points. On the other side, you have one of the most powerful empires in existence, going to enormous lengths to bring out and break the revolting cities, up to and including ''moving mountains''. When it ended, it resulted in the expulsion of ''an entire religious group'', and came at a massive cost to the Roman Empire.

* The second half of the second half of the Amaris Civil War in ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}]]'' was this for the Amaris forces. The first half involved the Star League Defense Force (SLDF) running roughshod over Stefan Amaris' home empire, the Rim Worlds Republic, and taking it completely out of the fight through a three year campaign of conquest. After resting and refitting, the SLDF then attacked Amaris' new empire, the Terran Hegemony, centered around Earth. However, Amaris had used all his time building up his defenses, and the SLDF couldn't actually break through the defense satellite network around Hegemony territory without absolutely horrific and untenable losses. [[OhCrap Then they got lucky and found out how to subvert the defense satellites completely]], and the civil war became a Hopeless War for Stefan Amaris. With that defensive wall out of the way, the SLDF curbstomped their way through Hegemony territory until they managed to reach Earth, by which point everyone but Amaris knew that the war was lost, with all the previously neutral powers (who were content to sit and wait for a likely victor to emerge) threw their weight behind the SLDF. With his holdings reduced to literally one planet from an empire that had once spanned hundreds of stars, Amaris was offered a chance to surrender and [[WhatAnIdiot refused]]. The war on Earth lasted for two ''more '''years''''' before Amaris was inevitably defeated.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has this in the seventh season. in the sixth season finale, [[spoiler:Cersei managed to kill all of her enemies in Kings Landing and usurp the Iron Throne. However, this left her with no allies and the rest of the seven kingdoms as well as Daenerys' invasion force coming for the Throne.]] She insists they can win anyway and, thanks to Jaime's battle strategies [[spoiler:as well as the Greyjoy fleet]], is able to get a few victories. However, once the enemy decides to unleash its full force, Jaime realizes there's no way they can win and that she's just delaying her inevitable defeat. [[IRejectYourReality Not that she will listen to him]]. And indeed in Season 8, [[spoiler:Daenerys furiously incinerates all of her forces, destroys King's Landing and has her Dothraki and Unsullied forces massacred the citizens. This made Cersei realize that she indeed lost the war and she and Jaime are perished when the Red Keep collapses on them]].

** In ''Fractured'' the Reaper War might look like this since the TechnologyLevels between Citadel races and the invaders is so vast), until the [[TheCavalry Trans-Galactic Republic]] shows up with [[FrickinLaserBeams superior firepower]] and better shields. The CurbStompBattle is thus turned on the Reapers as a Star Destroyer just [[NoSell ignores]] even the strongest Reaper beam weapons, and modified deflectors ward off indoctrination.

** [[spoiler:Ultimately becomes this during the Ragnarok Arc. Even if Eren is defeated in the end, he already won by destroying the countries of the world, which means that whatever isn't stomped to death by the titans is practically doomed to brutal anarchy and more fighting. Also, he has supernatural control over everyone who ''could'' become a titan.]]

* ''Webcomic/GoneWithTheBlastwave'': We're not given a whole lot of detail about the wider war, but the city where the action takes place has been so thoroughly wrecked by the fighting that its strategic value is probably close to nil, and yet the three factions are still at it.

** 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.]]

** The ISA managed to pull a [[spoiler: last minute victory from the Helghast which involves triggering [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the Petrusite Bomb]], which came at the cost of billions of Helghast lives.]]

* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' has a bleak war going on between humans and a race of subterranean mutants called the Locust who literally come from up under the ground and begin to slaughter everything and everybody. Ironically and cruelly, most of the human casualties comes from the human military [[NukeEm scorching the planet]] (along with civilian survivors) with [[KillSat orbital laser satellites]] in order to stop the rampaging hordes of Locust from commandeering cities and equipment that may be of use to them. Now the humans are fighting a dire guerrilla war with the Locust. In the first game you unleash a massive bomb that is supposed to either destroy the Locust or cripple them so badly that they cannot recover, you're treated to a cutscene of the bomb gloriously detonating and wiping out a ton of Locust, then the [[HiveQueen Locust Queen]] reveals that the Locust have survived and the war is far from over. The second game brings new developments in the war: a lethal disease known as Rust Lung that comes from exposure to Imulsion, the COG's main fuel source, and the fact that the Locust have a new weapon that can destroy entire cities, forcing COG onto the offensive to wipe out the Locust. However, it becomes apparent that the Locust are fighting their own losing war against humanity as well as [[TheVirus the Lambent]]. By ''Gears of War 3'', the COG has disbanded. [[spoiler: However, the remnants form an alliance with their old enemies to hit both the Lambent and Locust's last strongholds and finally, a superweapon which removes the parasite in Imulsion is unleashed which kills all the Lambent and Locusts on the planet. Ending the Hopeless War once and for all.]]

* The first BadFuture in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'''s Season 5 finale has all of Equestria's resources including the Mane Five mobilized in a futile war against the [[SorcerousOverlord King Sombra]]-controlled [[TheEmpire Crystal Empire]]. In the second, the Changelings have conquered Equestria, and the surviving ponies are reduced to a LaResistance band residing in the Everfree Forest.

** The majority of [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mages]] have been divided into two major factions which have continuously been at war since before recorded history, with no signs of it letting up ever. Both sides have goals which could be considered simultaneously altruistic and incredibly selfish, and even within the two groupings there is much infighting, backstabbing, and vicious politicking. If Mages don't fall into these two groupings, they are either 1) individuals who choose to go it alone and have little to no support network and probably won't last very long, 2) self-hating magic haters who have basically declared war on all other Mages, and will pursue this goal with fanatical single-mindedness, 3) members of the so-called "Left-Handed Legacies" which even if they aren't serving the agenda of some manner of reality eating monster, will still do some truly reprehensible things (cannibalism, soul-eating, etc.), or 4) dead. And then there's the constant struggle against the Abyss, which isn't so much a reality eating monster as it is a ''[[EldritchLocation reality]]''.
*** Not quite if you play as an archmage. It ''is'' possible to change the world for the better through usage of Imperial Rites and high-level spells, it just won't be easy, as your opponents have same level of power and you have to preserve [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction Pax Arcanum]] in order to not be killed by them for overstepping. But it's still a chance.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' Campaign setting has the Blood War: an eternal struggle between Lawful and Chaotic Evil, both of which possess infinite amounts of troops, that has been going on ever since the two forces first met. It paused, twice - once to assess the threat of the Illithid Empire, and once when the forces of Good tried to intervene directly... [[CurbstompBattle and were utterly stomped]]. Most forces not directly involved are desperately trying to keep the fight going, for fear of what would happen if either side actually *won* ...