History Main / LateToTheTragedy

* ''[[VideoGame/BlasterSeries Reading Blaster: Ages 9 - 12]]'' does this, frequently incorporating the information about what happened into its [[AlphabetSoupCans language arts activities]].

** Averted, however, in the first ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', in that the player character directly/accidentally causes the resonance cascade, and all the expansions except ''Opposing Force'' put the player as other Black Mesa employees present as everything goes to hell (or technically Xen).

* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' boasts multiple layers of this trope. [[spoiler: Not only your character is late to the tradegy that [[ColonyDrop wiped out most if not]] [[CometOfDoom all humanity to begin with]], but practically all the underwater scientific stations that you are going to visit throughtout the game are completely derelict and/or devoid of life (barring one tiny exception), due to [[BrainUploading many]] [[BodyHorror additional]] [[AIIsACrapshoot matters]] that went VERY wrong and resulted in everyone running away for good, taking their own lives, or getting killed (or [[FateWorseThanDeath worse]])]].

* Most of the surviving Jedi featured in ''Literature/DarkLordTheRiseOfDarthVader'' experienced Order 66 up close, but Agricultural Corps Jedi Jambe Lu and Nam Proof were on a freighter in hyperspace, without any clones during Order 66 and found out what happened upon reaching their destination.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': ''Literature/{{Shatterpoint}}'' has ''the Clone Wars and the Republic at large'' be late to the "party" known as [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Summertime_War the Summertime Wars]]. Basically, conflict between offworlders and natives led to a war that starts when the winter snows melt and end when the autumn rains began. Each year. For thirty years as of the start of the book. The natives only support the Republic because the offworlders are supported by the Separatists. Mace Windu, the narrator, notes that his young native companions do not speak of [[{{Retirony}} what they will do "after the war]]". Because it's all they've ever known. [[spoiler:Which makes it kind of heartbreaking when Nick admits his feelings about what he wanted to do with Chalk ''if'' the war ever ended, while holding her corpse.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' boasts multiple layers of this trope. [[spoiler: Not only your character is late to the tradegy that [[ColonyDrop wiped out most if not]] [[CometOfDoom all humanity to begin with]], but that practically all the underwater scientific stations that you are going to visit throughtout the game are completely derelict and/or devoid of life (barring one tiny exception), due to [[BrainUploading many]] [[BodyHorror additional]] [[AIIsACrapshoot matters]] that went VERY wrong and resulted in everyone either running away for good or getting killed (or [[FateWorseThanDeath worse]])]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' boasts multiple layers of this trope. [[spoiler: Not only your character is late to the tradegy that [[ColonyDrop wiped out most if not]] [[CometOfDoom all humanity to begin with]], but that practically all the underwater scientific stations that you are going to visit throughtout the game are completely derelict and/or devoid of life (barring one tiny exception), due to [[BrainUploading many]] [[BodyHorror additional]] [[AIIsACrapshoot matters]] that went VERY wrong and resulted in everyone either running away for good or getting killed (or [[FateWorseThanDeath worse]]]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' boasts multiple layers of this trope. [[spoiler: Not only your character is late to the tradegy that [[ColonyDrop wiped out most if not]] [[CometOfDoom all humanity to begin with]], but that practically all the underwater scientific stations that you are going to visit throughtout the game are completely derelict and/or devoid of life (barring one tiny exception), due to [[BrainUploading many]] [[BodyHorror additional]] [[AIIsACrapshoot matters]] that went VERY wrong and resulted in everyone either running away for good or getting killed]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' boasts multiple layers of this trope. [[spoiler: Not only your character is late to the tradegy that [[ColonyDrop wiped out most if not]] [[CometOfDoom all humanity to begin with]], but that practically all the underwater scientific stations that you are going to visit throughtout the game are completely derelict and/or devoid of life (barring one tiny exception), due to additional tragedies that resulted in everyone either running away for good or getting killed]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' boasts multiple layers of this trope. [[spoiler: Not only your character is late to the tradegy that [[ColonyDrop wiped out most if not]] [[CometOfDoom all humanity to begin with]], but that practically all the underwater scientific stations that you are going to visit throughtout the game are completely derelict and/or devoid of life (barring one tiny exception), due to multiple (and in some cases separated) tragedies that resulted in everyone either running away for good or getting killed]].

* In the movie ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', main character Jim [[AbandonedHospitalAwakening wakes up in a deserted hospital]] after England has been ravaged by the [[HatePlague Rage virus]]. This leads to a "last man on earth"-type scenario, at least until he stumbles upon some zombies and ends up being saved by survivors who actually know what happened. The first twenty minutes of the film are basically one long homage to ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' in general and the 1980s BBC adaptation starring John Duttine in particular.

[[quoteright:346:[[VideoGame/BioShock1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bioshock19592_7019.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:346:''"Welcome to [[{{Dystopia}} Rapture]]!"'']]

** Interesting to note is that System Shock's development actually necessitated a Late To The Party story, as then-current computers simply couldn't render believable character interactions.
* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' (from the makers of the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games) takes place in an abandoned undersea utopia-gone-wrong, which the player character stumbles across, discovering more about what went wrong as they explore.
** Quite literally late to the party in this case, since everything went down on New Years Eve.
** In Bioshock's Alternate Reality Game. In Quain's "Utropolis" manuscript, it details his arrival at Rapture and discovery of the aforementioned New Year's celebration -- at which point he muses that he was "Late for the party."
** In ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'', there's a subplot of a businessman who stumbled upon Rapture looking for his missing daughter [[spoiler: who was turned into a Little Sister]] told through audio logs. [[spoiler: Right before you enter one area of the game, you hear - in the actual world and not an audio log - the man screaming to "get away from her." When you go inside, you can find a suitcase full of surprisingly-normal possessions and an audio log. The audio log ends with the businessman screaming the same desperate pleas you had just heard from outside the room. It turns out that you'd been mere minutes behind him for most of the way.]] You'd think that'd be the end of that plotline, but right before the finale [[spoiler: you're late to the party again, because apparently the businessman didn't die there, and was instead dragged off to become a Big Daddy who would serve his own daughter as a little sister. You find an audio log telling you this directly after you encounter (and let's be honest, probably killed) a Big Daddy with a name matching the businessman from the audio logs, right next to an operating table for the creation of Big Daddies.]]
** Averted in ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'', however. Both factions are still fighting, and Columbia hasn't been reduced to the horrific crumbling state of Rapture where everything seems to be hanging by a thread and ready to flood at the slightest provocation. It's still going to be very dangerous though. As [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee put it]], "this time, you're just in time for the party, because ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero the party is YOU]]''."

* In ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'', Kratos can find several journal passages from the architect who constructed Pandora's Temple. They don't serve to forward the plot at all, but it's very interesting nonetheless.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'': This happens several times, but the most notable instance is a late Mage's Guild Quest, where [[spoiler:you are sent to check up on [[TheMole a spy within the Necromancer Cult]]]], and you are outright told "You missed the party- the [[EvilSorcerer special guest]] has already left!" Of course, this means [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie bad things]] for [[spoiler:TheMole]].

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': many side-missions and places you can find in the overworld and certain dungeons fully engage in this, and you'll often find the bodies of hapless men, mer, or beastfolk who got on the wrong side of some monster or dangerous animal in the wilderness, or the smoking ruins of a house where you'll find the inhabitants have been murdered by bandits. One mission in particular is starts when you walk into a lighthouse in the mountains, where you find the body of a woman and a [[BigCreepyCrawlies chaurus]] and are immediately given the quest prompt to find out what happened. Another occurs when you happen upon an archaeological expedition into a dwarven ruin and find the bodies of the expedition littered through the whole dungeon as you slowly learn what transpired there.

* In stage two of ''VideoGame/JamestownLegendOfTheLostColony'', Sir Walter finds the eponymous Lost Colony, only to find it has been devasted by local swamp creatures which proceed to give him [[BulletHell a very ballistic welcome]]. Among the ruins, he manages to find Virginia, the first human born on Mars who is determined with finding Joachim, her father and the only other survivor.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'', the protagonist is present when the ''Aurora'' begins to crash, but gets hit over the head and wakes up after every other survivor has died, with their last moments saved in collectible PDA files. Later, it also turns out that ''Aurora'' itself was late to a far greater tragedy - [[spoiler:a near-total extinction of all life on the planet, and the massive plague that had ravaged the galaxy thousands of years before.]] This story is told thorugh ruins and the PDA AI's speculations.

* In episode 13 of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'': Ulrich arrives in the Forest Sector after Odd gains a Future Flash about Yumi falling into the Digital Sea. Despite bragging nothing bad will happen thanks to his [[SuperSpeed Super Sprint]], he misses Yumi's hand by a split second as she falls to the Digital Sea to his shock. Thankfully, the one-time program Jeremie accidentally developedto free Aelita from Lyoko could work to save Yumi at the cost of starting over from scratch.

** Notably averted in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'', in China. You're standing right there when the bio-bomb goes off that floods the entire city's streets with zombie gas. You get to watch as the innocent screaming civilians all turn into zombies and begin smashing through windows to ''devour'' the people who were indoors and spared from the gas itself in one of the most terrifying game scenes in history.

* The indie game ''VideoGame/ReturnoftheObraDinn'' has you investigating an abandoned ship that mysterious sails into London, and trying to find out what happened to the dead or missing crew members.

* Downplayed in ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'': [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2012-07-03 Criminy arrives back to find Fuchsia's painting things spread over the ground and no sign of her]]. But she emerges a second later to tell him of her {{Flashback}}.

* In Videogame/MortalKombatDeception Jade wanted to help the heroes fight the Deadly Alliance from the previous game but by the time she gets there the fight is over, the heroes corpses litter the ground and the new BigBad is just showing up.

* Then there is ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 2''. Arriving at Neo Arcadia 2 only to find every soldier involved dead (with the exception of one)

[[GoneHorriblyWrong Something bad has happened in the setting]]. Something very bad. The player arrives some time later -- days, perhaps, but possibly years, even centuries afterward. Their "official" goal is just to make it out of there with life, limb, and sanity intact, possibly liberating a treasure or two along the way. But in the course of achieving their own goal, they are going to find out a lot about the something that has happened, and the people it happened to. As part of the set-up, the player might have been [[SendInTheSearchTeam sent]] or [[DistressCall called]] specifically in response to the {{tragedy}} -- to find out what happened, or rescue some one or some thing. Alternatively, they may begin not knowing even that the tragedy has occurred, just happening upon it through bad luck -- the classic [[ClosedCircle "Our car broke down so we'll take shelter in this abandoned castle"]] set-up.

Typically, often as a direct result of the player's investigation, they will find themselves needing to learn from what they can piece together of the past to stop this bad something from happening again -- to them. In games with a supernatural angle, there will often be some component of "freeing the ghosts" of those involved in the past tragedy by resolving the situation.

This setup is not uncommon outside of video games, but the focus on discovering these fragments of the past is typically much stronger in the game -- the interactive medium is particularly well-suited to this kind of storytelling, as it lets the player control the pace and order at which the story is told, but the story itself needs not account for the player's pesky free will getting in the way.

* ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'': When Sonic and his friends leave their world to find the Chaos Emeralds, they quickly discover that the galaxy is a largely ruined CrapsackWorld devastated by the thirty-year Metarex War, fought over by JerkassGods, and nearly wholly devoured by the Shroud.

* After spending most of the movie being hunted by the Operative, the crew of ''{{Film/Serenity}}'' travel to the planet of Miranda in search for answers as to what happened there. They find out. [[GoneHorriblyWrong And it's not pretty]].
* The Soviet two-part film ''Film/MoscowCassiopeia'', humans receive a signal from a star in the Cassiopeia constellation and send a relativistic ship crewed by teenagers to make first contact. The ship finally arrives in the second part and discovers only strange white pillars where civilization used to be. Then humanoid robots show up as well as survivors of the former civilization who explain what happened. [[spoiler:There was a robot uprising, with the robots forcibly removing emotions from their creators to make them "happy", resulting in their extinction. The only ones who survived were aboard an orbital observatory at the time]].
* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar:'' The Guardians arrive to witness the aftermath of the explosion of the Statesman, with pieces of the ship and dead bodies floating in space.

* In the book ''Literature/PrinceCaspian'' from ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', the characters arrive at the ruins of the castle, and, over the course of the book, discover that Narnia has been overthrown by evil forces and they have been summoned to save it. Classic.

* ''StarWars: Literature/{{Shatterpoint}}'' has ''the Clone Wars and the Republic at large'' be late to the "party" known as [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Summertime_War the Summertime Wars]]. Basically, conflict between offworlders and natives led to a war that starts when the winter snows melt and end when the autumn rains began. Each year. For thirty years as of the start of the book. The natives only support the Republic because the offworlders are supported by the Separatists. Mace Windu, the narrator, notes that his young native companions do not speak of [[{{Retirony}} what they will do "after the war]]". Because it's all they've ever known. [[spoiler:Which makes it kind of heartbreaking when Nick admits his feelings about what he wanted to do with Chalk ''if'' the war ever ended, while holding her corpse.]]
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_%28interactive_novel%29#Novel Portal: A Dataspace Retrieval]]'' by Rob Swigart is a novelization of the 1986 ''Portal'' game above. One-man interstellar expedition returns after a century and finds that humans left Earth. He uses a computer terminal to figure where did everybody disappear.

* In Creator/KirBulychev's ''The City Above'', the Earth explorers are studying the centuries-old nuked ruins on the surface. Meanwhile HumanAliens struggle to survive underground. A "pipe-worker" fed up with this oppressive life leaves to search for "The City Above" or die trying. The book predates ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'' by 3 decades, but resemblance is coincidental.
* ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' opens with the protagonist waking up to discover he has quite literally SleptThroughTheApocalypse. The first couple of chapters, as he stumbles around slowly beginning to grasp the sheer enormity of what has taken place, have been homaged by about half the entries on this page.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]]: as told from the perspective of Sally Sparrow, she is learning of actions the Doctor took decades earlier. [[TimeyWimeyBall Which he hasn't done yet]].

* Done in a really tragic way in the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho story Lucie Miller/To the Death. When a plague is sweeping across Earth Lucie Miller sends a message to the Doctor. However he arrives years later, by which time the Daleks have invaded Earth. [[spoiler:It is revealed the Meddling Monk was responsible for the Doctor arriving late.]]

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