History Main / MeaninglessVillainVictory

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'' finale has Dr. X able to accomplish all of his goals. He's gained superhuman abilities, doesn't need food or air any longer, and becomes NighInvulnerable... and then Action Man traps him on an empty rock floating in the immense vastness of space with no means of escape. He actually does scream Action Man's name one last time as the rock drifts away from earth.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
** At the end of Season 4, The Lich [[spoiler:tricks Finn into opening a portal to Prismo's Time Room. He then uses the one wish that anyone who enters the Time Room gets to wish for the extinction of all life. However, since Finn and Jake followed him through the portal before he made the wish, they weren't affected and also got wishes. Coaxed along by BenevolentGenie Prismo, Jake wishes that the Lich had used his wish to send Finn and Jake back home. All of the Lich's schemes and trickery to get to Prismo's Room are instantly rendered moot.]]
** And in Season 5, he makes a grand impact by successfully unleashing a jailbreak in the multiverse's #1 Superjail, but since Finn defeats him he's not around to lead the criminals into destroying the multiverse, so they're busy spreading plague and endless disease and all kinds of malicious life, the exact opposite of what he wanted.
** [[spoiler:The spin-off ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTimeFionnaAndCake'' reveals the timeline the aforementioned wish to destroy all life created still exists, leaving a version of the Lich that succeeded there. Except not only was any sense of satisfaction robbed from the Lich [[AndThenWhat with the fact he has nothing more to do]], but his underlying motive of doing so (to appease his god GOLB) [[AllForNothing was never going to get him any approval]] because he mistakenly believed GOLB was an intelligent GodOfEvil instead of an AlmightyIdiot that could never comprehend his work. By the time Fionna, Cake and Simon find him he's so despondent [[NotWorthKilling he can't be bothered to kill the new life that showed up]], having accomplished nothing but create a dead universe.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' had this with "Chained." Sure, they got the untrusting townspeople to hand over Gooseman, they free their leader, Macross, and the gang can now get their cache of rare [[GreenRocks starstones]]. They get the stones, but the stones degrade quickly when exposed to ultraviolet light (and they buried the cache in a desert - meaning the stones start crumbling as soon as they unbury the box), and then some townspeople led by sympathetic settler Annie show up armed and sporting for a fight seeing as the gang ''did'' trash their settlement on the way in. Macross and the gang high-tail it, leaving Gooseman behind, but they get nothing for their trouble.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', a villain tries to get control of the Great Book, by stealing Zummi's medallion. In the end, after Zummi outright gives him the medallion, he promptly tries to kill the Gummi Bears... and is himself incinerated instead, since "Nothing in the Great Book can hurt Gummi Bears."
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'':
** In the season 4 finale "The Disaster", [[spoiler:Rob]] finds a remote that can be used to control real objects and uses it to ruin Gumball's relationships with all his loved ones, make his parents get divorced, and very nearly kill Penny, before pausing time to reveal himself for a confrontation. He then uses the remote to open a portal to the Void, and tries to eject Gumball, but the remote doesn't work and [[spoiler:Rob]] assumes it's broken. He then tries a second plan: he throws the remote into the Void, forcing Gumball to jump in to try and find it so he can fix everything. [[spoiler:It turns out one of the batteries had just fallen slightly out of place; Gumball finds it, fixes it, and rewinds time back to the beginning]].
** Happens again in the follow-up "The Re-Run". [[spoiler:Rob actually manages to make things [[FromBadToWorse even worse than last time]], leading to Gumball's parents reverting to babies, Anais getting erased from existence, Darwin turning back into a regular fish in the middle of a mall and then suffocating to death, and Gumball getting trapped in the Void with him. However, when Rob sees that even after everything he's done, Gumball is still willing to risk his life to save him from being trapped in the Void for eternity, he has a fit of conscience and rewinds time to undo all the damage he's done and destroy the remote before he had done anything with it.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': After Hayley and Jeff absconded with $50,000, Roger tracks them down and begins harassing them to get the money (mostly by just making a really annoying sound over and over, which drives them crazy). After an elaborate chase around the world, they finally give in and give him the money... or what's left of it, since they spent most of it trying to get away from him.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': One of Azula's major motivations, alongside sticking it to her older brother Zuko, was to become the Fire Lord as their father Ozai's successor. [[spoiler:She gets her wish in the series finale, but only after the extreme lengths she's willing to go to get there cost her the respect of the few people in her life who genuinely care about her. ''Then'' once she's finally crowned Fire Lord, Ozai promptly installs himself as the ''Phoenix King'' and the Fire Lord's superior, making the Fire Lord nothing more than a puppet figure. The realization that she's basically thrown away everyone close to her for nothing drives Azula to a VillainousBreakdown]].
** In the sequel series, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', the end of Season 3 sees Zaheer achieve his goal of [[spoiler:dispatching the already corrupt and incompetent Earth Queen, resulting in the Earth Kingdom descending into chaos, but in the process he's lost everyone he cares about and ends up in prison for his crimes. What elevates this act from a PyrrhicVictory to this trope is Kuvira promptly [[TyrantTakesTheHelm installing herself as the dictator of the newly christened Earth Empire]], and thus [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains taking over]] as the new BigBad of the fourth season. To add insult to injury, he also tried to get rid of the Avatar for good as part of his scheme, which incapacitated Korra to the extent that she wasn't able to deal with Kuvira when she otherwise could've, allowing the latter to become a far more oppressive and monstrous despot than even the Earth Queen could've hoped to be - and for someone who values freedom as much as Zaheer does, spending life in prison is nothing compared to the knowledge that the only thing he succeeded at in the long term was making an already bad global situation even ''worse''. When Korra visits Zaheer in prison and calls him out on all of this, Zaheer admits that she's absolutely right, and [[HeelFaceTurn redeems himself]] by [[TheAtoner offering her some covert assistance in cleaning up Kuvira's mess]]]].
* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'': In "[[Recap/BackToTheFutureTheAnimatedSeriesS2E3AFriendInDeed A Friend in Deed]]", Biff finds a deed saying he owns the Parkers' land. After Marty and the boys have gone back in time to fix it, Thaddeus Tannen still succeeds in getting Wendell Parker to sign over his land to him to save his wife, and he still manages to run off and bury the deed where Biff Jr. will find it in the present. However, because [[GuileHero Marty]] gave Wendell a pen full of disappearing ink, the signature doesn't show up and the Parkers keep control of the extorted land.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' ends with Bat-Mite screwing over the show to get it cancelled so that a darker, more serious Batman series will be made in its place. The new series focuses primarily on Bat''girl'', and as ComicBook/AmbushBug points out, a serious Batman series has no room for [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] silliness... like Bat-Mite himself. Bat-Mite realizes his mistake seconds before he is [[PuffOfLogic erased from existence.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/BeanyAndCecil'', Dishonest John invites himself to Beany and Cecil's show to watch the ShowWithinAShow "Defective Story" (a detective show starring dogs), because he's read that TheBadGuyWins. In the episode, a criminal named Doberman ([[PunnyName Alias]] "[[PunnyName The Pincher]]") kidnaps a popular actress and is pursued by detective Fido Vance. Doberman seemingly ends the episode a KarmaHoudini by shaking off Vance and asbsconding with the actress, but the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue shows Doberman has become an unhappy Henpecked Husband slaving over chores and feeding a litter of puppies. Beany and Cecil are delighted, and Dishonest John is forlorn, at this turn of events.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'':
** After spending the episode racing against Enoch of the Forever Knights to obtain an ancient Mayan superweapon, Max lets him have it after a FriendOrIdolDecision when the kids were about to fall to their deaths. Enoch holds the weapon above his head in triumph... only to have it crumble into dust. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Even an ancient superweapon can't stand against a few millennium of decomposition]]. The episode ends with Max and the kids walking back to their van laughing as Enoch tries to cusp the dust into his hands, obviously [[VillainousBreakdown mentally broken]].
** Played more painfully in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien''. Charmcaster actually succeeds in killing Ben, Gwen, and Kevin and manages to drains the souls of every living being in Legerdomain, [[DealWithTheDevil which she then feeds to Diagon in return for her father being resurrected]]. Unfortunately for Charmcaster, her father Spellbinder would not allow countless innocents to be sacrificed for his life and goes back to the dead. With the bargain refused, Diagon returns the souls to their rightful bodies [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone leaving Charmcaster crushed by what her actions ended up costing her]]. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin don't even arrest her because of how bad they feel for her.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'':
** The episode "Operation: C.R.I.M.E." had a boy pretend to be able to predict the future so that everyone else in school would be in detention and he'd be first in line at the cafeteria before the good food runs out. He succeeds in his scheme, but finds that today's lunch is a lima bean sandwich rather than the pizza bagels he desired.
** Invoked by the heroes in the episode "Operation: C.A.K.E.D.T.H.R.E.E." which starts out as Sector V trying to steal the Delightful Children's birthday cake, like normal. However, [[ItMakesSenseInContext a bunch of chickens that Sector V was going to use]] end up [[ToiletHumor doing their business on the cake]], at which point Sector V decides to leave. The Delightfuls (who didn't realize what happened) are confused, but go along with their plan of eating their cake on live TV for all the children of the world to watch...only for no child to be jealous or upset, but rather utterly grossed out.
** In "Operation: R.O.B.B.E.R.S.", the Six-Gum Gang manage to succeed in stealing everyone's spelling homework and give it to the Delightful Children. However, the first paper the teacher reads is [[DumbMuscle Numbuh 4's]], whose horrible spelling causes the Delightfuls to get detention.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
** In one episode, Vlad succeeds in becoming mayor, but after being tricked into injuring Danny, he has to undo various actions he did to avoid bad publicity.
** In the GrandFinale, Vlad reveals himself as a ghost and offers to save the world from the approaching asteroid for complete domination. Unfortunately for him, the asteroid is comprised of material that not even ghosts can touch, with Vlad leaving the planet knowing he'll be hunted if he returns.
* ''Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse'':
** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', shy researcher Jervis Tetch is infatuated with his co-worker Alice, who does not return his interest. He uses his mind control research (earlier demonstrated to work just as well on humans as it does on mice) in order to secure the perfect [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Wonderland date]] with her ([[GoGoEnslavement including putting her in an appropriately-themed outfit]]). When Batman shows up, he calls Tetch out on it, pointing out that any part of her personality that might have attracted him has been suppressed by the mind control stuff, leaving her as a perfectly compliant but utterly blank doll. Tetch has a breakdown, [[NeverMyFault blaming Batman for forcing him to resort to such measures]].
** In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', after Terry had to take off his mask to rescue a young boy from a fire, the boy reveals on the news he saw Batman's face. This gets the boy captured by Kobra agents to have his mind scanned to recreate Batman's face. By the time Terry reaches them, they completed the face recreation and the leader mocks Batman that his identity will be revealed to Kobra before jumping into a SnakePit. That is, until Terry sees the face Kobra made was actually the face of the boy's action figure.
** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
*** In "Hereafter", Superman is sent to a BadFuture in which the only human remaining is the immortal Vandal Savage. In this timeline, not long after Superman's apparent death, Savage had completed a device that [[GravityMaster granted him control over gravity]], in his bid to dominate the world. However, it worked too well, disrupting the gravitational balance of the solar system, and resulting in the extinction of most life on earth. Savage had reflected on how meaningless his ambitions were for tens of thousands of years after the fact.
---->'''Savage:''' I should never have done it.\\
'''Superman:''' Done what?\\
'''Savage:''' This. I destroyed the world.
*** ''Unlimited's'' "Patriot Act" has Wade Eiling, having used a SuperSoldier formula to become a hulking behemoth, attack a parade where the Justice League sent a number of its members to show support. His intent was to defeat the League and prove the danger of superpowered individuals, and he delivers a brutal CurbStompBattle to the Leaguers present--but ends up accomplishing the exact opposite of his goals. As it turns out, all the Leaguers present were {{Badass Normal}}s with nothing but tech and magical equipment at best, and yet still managed to HoldTheLine through sheer gallantry in the name of protecting the civilians. And, as is pointed out, Eiling's attempt to prove that the Justice League are dangerous metahumans resulted in him ''becoming'' [[YouAreWhatYouHate a dangerous metahuman]], which the Justice League exists to combat. If anything, his attack actually ''raises'' the profile of the Leaguers involved, who were previously seen as CListFodder who were picked for parade duty in the first place for not being involved in anything important at the time: the crowd goes from disappointed to hailing them as true heroes.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' involved a soapbox derby that many of the kids take part in that has a top-secret mystery grand prize. When Bebe and Chalky end up in trouble towards the end of the race, Doug and Skeeter decide to turn back and save them, allowing Roger to win the race. However, as Doug puts in his journal at the end of the episode, Roger won the mystery grand prize that everyone ''thought they wanted'', a week as vice mayor, a.k.a. a desk job where Roger has to do paperwork for Mayor White.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'': Played with. There are actually moments Zordrak succeeds in sending nightmares to the Land of Dreams, and while he does actually savor that victory, the negative effect it has on the heroes is [[PokeThePoodle so short-lived]] (to the point of sometimes being offscreen) and usually met with a [[DisproportionateRetribution far more brutal retaliation]] (a few instances the Urpneys managed to send dreams they were met with a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown), that it's hard not to view it as this trope. This is especially evident for the Urpneys, who usually hate their job and usually the best they hope out of a victory is that it keeps their BadBoss from lashing out at them.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'':
** Glomgold manages to beat Scrooge in a race to gain the wishes of a magic lamp, using the first wish he sends Scrooge to a deserted island and while gloating about his victory, he accidentally uses the second wish when he said he wishes to see the look on Scrooge's face and ends up on the same island. Angered that he's stuck with the person he hates the most, Glomgold shouts that he wished him and Scrooge never found the magic lamp, thus hitting the ResetButton.
** In another episode, Glomgold succeeds in taking ownership of a mine filled with hundreds of diamonds, and sends Scrooge to take ownership of another mine filled with nothing. Just then, a volcanic eruption occurs that blasts all of the diamonds in Glomgold's mine towards Scrooge's side, leaving Scrooge with all of the diamonds and Glomgold with zero.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
** Ma Beagle manages to get her hands on the Lamp of the First Genie before Scrooge and his ally Djinn. Except, there is no genie, so all Ma Beagle got was an old oil lamp.
** The grand finale becomes this for [[spoiler:Bradford Buzzard]]. After spending more than twenty years of his life enacting the perfect plan to rid the world of adventure, it comes to fruition when he [[spoiler:gets Scrooge to sign a magically-binding contract that he only gets to keep his family if he agrees never to adventure again.]] Sadly for him, [[spoiler:the contract accepts the [=McDuck=]/Duck family's interpretation that "Family is the greatest adventure of all," which renders the contract meaningless.]]
* The dream demon Morpheus in ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'' too late realizes that he was invulnerable as long as he stayed in dreams. When he became corporeal, he became vulnerable to the Ghostbusters' weapons.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' special "Timmy's Secret Wish", Foop succeeds in making Timmy look like the worst godkid ever and having all his wishes undone, including Poof. However, he learns too late that as Poof's anti-fairy, he gets erased from existence too. This brings AscendedFridgeHorror into play when many wondered what would happen to Foop if he succeeded in erasing Poof.
* ''WesternAnimation/FanboyAndChumChum'': The original ''WesternAnimation/RandomCartoons'' short had Berry the Ice Monster agree to thumb wrestle Fanboy for the last of the Frosty Freezy Freeze in Fanboy and Chum Chum's possession. Berry wins, but finds out after being handed the cup that it's already empty due to Chum Chum drinking it all.
* ''WesternAnimation/FenderBender500'': The Fender Bender racers were in Russia to compete for "The Red Square Prize". Dick Dastardly won, and the prize was a red square instead of ''that'' Red Square.
* ''WesternAnimation/FreeWilly'': In an episode, Jessie and Willy are looking for a lost treasure and lose it to the villain. Then, it is revealed the chest actually contains whistles.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'':
** In "[[Recap/GargoylesS2ThePrice The Price]]", David Xanatos discovers a method to immortality based on the cauldron of life story. He kidnaps Hudson as a plan to test the formula by forcing him to bathe in it first, but Hudson is able to escape. Afterwards, Owen decides to dip his right arm into the formula. It's discovered that the formula does work, only it turns the person into ageless, solid, stone. Owen's arm remains turned to stone for the rest of the series. [[spoiler: Good thing he was really Puck in disguise and can easily neutralize the effect with his magic.]]
---> '''Xanatos:''' What does the legend say? Whoever bathes in it will live as long as the mountain stones. [[ExactWords How literal minded]].
** "Metamorphosis" has Xanatos gain the loyalty of several humans mutated into creatures similar to the Gargoyles, and they don't appear again until well into the show's second season, which ends with them turning on Xanatos.
** Another episode ends with Xanatos acquiring a dangerous computer virus that nearly destroyed the cyborg Gargoyle Coldstone, and is [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never brought up again]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'', Van Kleiss [[spoiler:gets his hands on the Meta-Nanites, the keys to godhood, before anyone else... only to learn that he can't tap into their united power because Cesar and his parents programmed them in such a way that only Rex could do it.]]
* I.R Baboon actually beats ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel'' in "I Are Big Star". Baboon steals Weasel's pelt and sidelines him for the rest of the episode. Baboon gets to act alongside a beautiful actress and his "performance" is praised by the director. Then he gets run over by a bus and he loses the memories of the best day of his life.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' had MAD searching for a formula to turn lead into gold. They succeed in reproducing the formula, then later on, they drop one of the transmuted gold bars, to discover that what the formula really made was lead-based gold ''paint''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', Zim uses MindRape (via virtual reality helmets) in order to sell millions of candy bars and win a school fundraiser. He makes first place, but the "secret prize" he coveted so badly turns out to be literally nothing.
* ''WesternAnimation/KiddVideo'' and his band once came across Master Blaster's good twin brother who's been imprisoned by the villain. It turns out he's the mayor of a city based around plumbing and has access to the city treasury. The kids try to get the good one recognized as the real deal, but their mother intervenes to let Master Blaster have the treasury. And he does go to take it...only to discover it's a pile of shower heads.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'':
** "[[Recap/KimPossibleS2E28RonMillionaire Ron Millionaire]]": Drakken steals the royalty money Ron gets for inventing the Naco, as in ''''ninety-nine million dollars'''' (a nickel for every Naco sold). While the two fail to get Ron's money back, Drakken still ends up failing, having spent the money on a new lair and laser cannon... but the diamond to power the cannon is too big, causing the cannon to backfire and destroy it and the lair.
** "[[Recap/KimPossibleS4E8ClothesMinded Clothes Minded]]": Drakken's plan to merge the continents together with his new weather machine actually works, but [[DidntThinkThisThrough he didn't think to earthquake-proof his new lair]], which results in it and the machine being destroyed in the process.
** Bonnie once spent an episode scheming to replace Kim as cheerleading captain, since Kim's world-saving exploits kept her too busy to compete. In the end, Kim concedes... then points out that all the hard work Bonnie did to get elected is just the beginning, and she now has to keep it up. All Bonnie wanted was the clout that came with being in charge, not the responsibility, so the position is actually meaningless to her. (Next time we hear about it, [[StatusQuoIsGod Kim is captain again.]])
* ''WesternAnimation/{{MASK}}'' did this a few times:
** Similar to the ''Dukes of Hazzard'' example above, one episode has a search for buried money in Washington, D.C. which turns out to be worthless Confederate money.
** Another episode has a search for a golden totem pole. Mayhem gets his hands on it first, but scans it for purity and discovers it's actually amber.
** Another episode has a search through the Scottish Highlands to find a buried treasure. Mayhem is last seen climbing out of the treasure chamber asking "Is that all there is?" and escaping. It turns out the "treasure" was the warmth of the cavern during cold weather.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E15TheSuperSpeedyCiderSqueezy6000 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000]]": The Flim Flam Brothers win the cider-producing contest to claim the exclusive rights to sell cider in Ponyville. But to do it, they had to turn their machine's quality control off, resulting in a horrible product. Combined with the way they thoroughly alienated everyone in town with their gloating over winning, they're quickly convinced to leave.
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E11KeepCalmAndFlutterOn Keep Calm and Flutter On]]": Discord secures his freedom by making Fluttershy promise to never use the Element of Kindness against him (thus neutralizing all of the Elements of Harmony, as they have to be used together), a promise she refuses to break because doing so would invalidate the trust and friendship they have built up. However, when he returns to his old ways after having ensured that the only possible threat to him is entirely out of the picture, she makes it clear that their friendship is over, and Discord realizes that Fluttershy has worked her way into his heart enough that sacrificing their bond just isn't worth it. Well played indeed.
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E25TwilightsKingdomPart1 Twilight's Kingdom]]": Tirek sets out to [[ManaDrain steal all magic from Equestria for himself]]... and he succeeds, with Twilight [[HostageForMacGuffin exchanging all the alicorn magic she was imbued with for the safety of her friends]]. The aftermath ends up with more and even more powerful magic being created, and the seemingly all-powerful Tirek being {{Curb Stomp|Battle}}ed back to Tartarus with an express ticket.
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E8RarityTakesManehattan Rarity Takes Manehattan]]": Suri gets away with stealing Rarity's designs and the prestige that came with them. However, Rarity still manages to beat her in the fashion contest with new designs she whipped up the previous night, and her actions also cost her her HypercompetentSidekick Coco Pommel, meaning she's left in no position to build her business any further.
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E13TheMean6 The Mean 6]]": Although Queen Chrysalis' plan to take control of the Elements and rebuild her hive falls through and her new minions are destroyed, she manages to learn of the existence and location of the Tree of Harmony without the main characters knowing anything about it, providing her with potentially extremely useful info on the source of the main characters' power. Then the Tree [[spoiler:is destroyed alongside the Elements]] in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E1TheBeginningOfTheEndPart1 The Beginning of the End]]" and [[spoiler:reborn as an entirely different entity with no direct connection to the main characters' power]] in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E3Uprooted Uprooted]]", thus negating any advantage Chrysalis may have gotten for the tribulations she went through to get that information.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS1E17WingItLikeWitches Wing It Like Witches]]", AlphaBitch Boscha catches the GoldenSnitch that wins the grudgby match for her team. By doing so, Boscha's team wins the bet with Luz's team, which will let Boscha bully Willow and her friends even more. However, Boscha's friends come to like Luz and Willow, and Boscha sees she'll probably lose her spot as team captain if she continues to abuse them. Boscha has an arrogant attitude, but puts a ''lot'' of her self-worth on her grudgby skills, especially being team captain. So while Boscha ''can'' cash in on the bet, it would be in her best interest not to. Not only that, but this cements Amity's HeelFaceTurn that causes her to leave Boscha's social circle.
* ''WesternAnimation/PacMan'': When Pac-Man has to drive an armored truck, Mezmaron believes it contains power pellets and orders the ghost monsters to steal it. They do steal it but, instead of power pellets, it has fireworks.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
** While calling her a "villain" might be extreme, the one time Candace finally manages to expose her brothers' antics to their mother Linda and have it stick, it's nullified by the fact she reveals it to the version of their mother twenty years in the future (during a TimeTravel adventure), at which point things like holograms, flying cars, and jetpacks are commonplace, the future Phineas and Ferb are by then independent adults, and present day Phineas and Ferb aren't technically her jurisdiction anymore, so there's not much Linda can do to punish them. Candace at least finds a little solace in being vindicated and in the fact it's even possible for her to win.
** Dr. Doofenshmirtz has a victory like this during the episode, "Cranius Maximus". He is trying to steal the key to the city as he believes that it works like a master key for the city and can open any door. Towards the climax of the episode, he does succeed in getting it, but realizes that it's meant to be an award and can't open anything. And then he gets struck by lightning.
** Another Doofenshmirtz example occurs in the episode, "Magic Carpet Ride", when he tries to take petty revenge on his brother Roger (who, years ago, accidentally ruined a masterpiece painting Heinz poured his heart and soul into), by ruining a painting Roger is about to unveil to get even. Dr. Doof actually succeeds in preventing Perry from stopping him ruining the painting, but too late does Heinz find out that the painting being unveiled was ''his'' painting Roger had been fixing since then. Doofenshmirtz is so depressed by his "win" that he doesn't even flinch as Perry sends him and his hovercraft crashing into the street.
** Yet ''[[RuleOfThree another]]'' Doofenshmirtz example in "Happy New Year", when he creates an "-inator" which changes everyone's New Year's resolutions into helping him take over the Tri-State area as his minions. It worked as intended but Doof ''didn't'' anticipate the fact ''no one keeps their New Year's resolution''. In fact, Perry predicted this exact outcome and didn't stop Doof from enacting his plan because he knew it was doomed to fail.
** ''Another'' Doofenshmirtz example happens in "That Sinking Feeling". Doofenshirtz reveals that, ever since he purchased the building that would become Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, he tends to have sleeping issues due to a variety of ships at the docks making too much noise when moving towards the lighthouse at night, so he decides to put a stop to it by moving the lighthouse elsewhere by installing rockets on it, in order to finally get a peaceful night. He succeeds, as the lighthouse flies away while the ships chase it no matter where the lighthouse is going. Unfortunately, later at night, the lighthouse crashes right ''into'' Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc, with the ships surrounding the building, thus making Doof's nights more noisy than before.
** This happens in the SeriesFinale, when Doofenshmirtz uses a TimeMachine which induces a GroundhogDayLoop, allowing him to keep trying and trying until he finally ends up governor of the Tri-State Area by exploiting a legal loophole, then making it illegal for Perry to stop him. However, he doesn't get long to enjoy his victory, partly because the invention goes haywire and started gradually erasing everything from existence, spontaneously resetting the timeline on increasingly shorter intervals, resetting his victory as well, and partly because his motivation to become tri-governor to stop his daughter from wanting to move out (since he believed it was because she thought he was a loser) is rendered moot when she tells him her moving out had nothing to do with him being "cool" or not, and she convinces Doof to [[HeelFaceTurn give up his evil ways]] because she can tell he only does it out of obligation rather than from his heart.
* One ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' episode, "When Mice Rule The Earth", has the duo going back in time in order to uplift prehistoric mice so that their species becomes dominant. They succeed, but this results in a world of...Pinkies!! Horrified, Brain goes to push a ResetButton, as while he ''could'' rule the world as it was... "Who'd want to?"
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}:'' In "The Medusa Bug" Hexadecimal successfully tricks Megabyte into spreading the Medusa Bug across Mainframe, turning everyone except her and Bob to stone. Bob is unable to cure anyone. However, not only was Hex's beloved pet Scuzzy infected, which leaves her heartbroken, but Bob points out Mainframe will be perfectly still and orderly ''forever'', something that Hexadecimal abhors. She decides to cure Mainframe herself, reversing her victory but allowing chaos to exist again.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'': A sketch based on ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' has a flood wiping out the Smurf village, allowing Gargamel to finally achieve his goal of eating the Smurfs. After taking one bite, he finds out that they taste really bad, so he throws them out and orders Chinese food.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': In "[[Recap/RockosModernLifeS4E5EdGoodRockoBadTeedOff Ed Good, Rocko Bad]]", Rocko and Ed run for city dog catcher, with Rocko being (justifiably) afraid that Ed will be cruel to the dogs. Thanks to a ton of mudslinging, Ed wins in a veritable landslide... but another measure passes that turns the dog catcher position into an undesirable job with no real power (in case you wanna know, he became a glorified poop-scooper).
* One arc of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' had Bullwinkle discover he was the heir to a recently dead British aristocrat and stood to inherit something like "a million pound note." Some of the aristocrat's relatives believed themselves the rightful heirs and did everything they could to keep him from inheriting. In the end it turned out he wasn't the heir after all (or was he?) and the relatives got their prize, a million pound PROMISSORY note. They were now responsible for paying back the aristocrat's debts, while Bullwinkle and Rocky literally sailed off into the sunset.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', Aku hires cat-like hunter aliens to capture Jack. After a long, arduous chase, they finally subdue him. Unfortunately for Aku, however, their people have a custom that any prey who can give them such a challenging hunt deserves to run free.
** In another, Aku lured Jack to a graveyard and then wore him down with an endless army of undead before joining the fray himself. He manages to disarm Jack, has him completely at his mercy and is preparing to execute Jack with his own sword. Even Jack prays for forgiveness from his father for his failure. And then the sword bounces harmlessly off of Jack's chest with a metallic *tink* sound. The momentary distraction allows Jack to reclaim the sword and go on the offensive while stating that even he had forgotten that the sword was forged to destroy evil, it is completely harmless to the pure of heart.
** In season 5, Jack loses his sword - the only weapon that can harm Aku - but Aku himself is unaware of it [[VillainousBreakdown because he's since given up on tormenting Jack directly]]. Scaramouche, one of Aku's [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots mechanical assassins]], finds out, and after [[NotQuiteDead managing to survive]] his [[OffWithHisHead apparent destruction at Jack's hands]], starts seeking out Aku to tell him the good news. The problem is, he's now just a head with none of his impressive combat capabilities, can only move around by hopping, and has lost favor in the eyes of Aku after his defeat, making it difficult for him to actually get through to Aku. After many trials and tribulations he finally succeeds, and Aku rewards him with a brand new body... [[spoiler:and then immediately [[YouHaveFailedMe vaporizes him]] when it turns out that while Scaramouche was trying to relay his message, Jack had gotten his sword back in the meantime.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'': In "The Agony of De-Bleat", General Specific manages to capture Sheep for use in the Secret Military Organization's sheep-powered raygun. However, the threat of General Specific having to downsize the SMO and fire everybody now that their big mission is complete inspires Private Public, the Angry Scientist, and the Plot Device to [[StatusQuoIsGod conspire to set Sheep free]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E17MySisterMySitter My Sister, My Sitter]]", after Lisa is put in charge of babysitting Bart while Homer and Marge are away, Bart decides to ruin Lisa's reputation as a babysitter out of anger, and succeeds in doing so when a prank [[GoneHorriblyRight Goes Horribly Right]] and he ends up injured (a dislocated shoulder from falling down the stairs) and unconscious, and she accidentally brings him to the pier where everyone is while trying to get him to the hospital. However, despite her now looking like the worst babysitter ever, Lisa ends up still getting calls for babysitting jobs as she's still the only reliable sitter in town.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "Flighty's Plight", Gargamel gets his hands on his godfather Balthazar's book that contains the gold-making formula and escapes his castle with it...but unfortunately the book isn't written with waterproof ink, as Gargamel finds out when he opens the book after coming out of the moat.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** {{Inverted|Trope}} in "Le Petit Tourette", where Cartman fakes having HollywoodTourettes so that he can shout anti-Semitic things as much as he wants without anyone getting mad. He even gets a TV interview, which Kyle naturally tries to stop, and succeeds in doing so. Unfortunately, while he was doing that, Cartman discovers that spending all that time just blurting out whatever thoughts popped into his head has caused him to lose all ability to ''not'' do that, and he couldn't stop blurting out horribly embarrassing secrets about himself. Cartman couldn't have been more relieved that Kyle got his interview cancelled on him.
** In "Dances with Smurfs" Cartman uses his position as morning announcement leader to basically become an obnoxious sensationalist pundit who blames Wendy, the school president, for literally ''everything'' as well as accusing her of trying to kill Franchise/TheSmurfs, which ends with Wendy admitting Cartman is right and stepping down so Cartman can become the school president. Except, Wendy admits he was right in a way that makes him seem like the bad guy in his fictional Smurf story with her being heavily sympathetic, ''she'' sells the rights to the story to Creator/JamesCameron who uses it to make ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', Cartman can no longer read the morning announcements since that can't be done by the school president, and he learns said school president is at best [[PuppetKing a figurehead with no real power]]. Naturally, it also ends with the new morning announcement kid blaming all the school's problems on the school president.
** In "Christian Rock Hard", Cartman makes a bet with Kyle over who can form a band and earn a platinum album first. Cartman creates a Christian rock band, Faith + 1, and actually manages to sell one million copies of their debut album to qualify, while Kyle's rock band, MOOP, ends up wasting time by going on strike against people downloading songs on the internet. However, Cartman's victory becomes meaningless, because in the world of ''South Park'', Christian music albums can only go gold, frankincense and myrrh, meaning he doesn't actually win the bet because [[ExactWords his album did not specifically go platinum]]. To make it even more bitter for him, he spent all the money the band made on an excessively extravagant platinum album ceremony confident that the band's future success would make up for the losses. Upon learning that he could never go platinum, however, he ruins any chance of the band having future success by angrily cursing out Jesus, which their Christian fanbase naturally doesn't take kindly to. And to add insult to injury, he insults his bandmates, causing Token to beat him up and Butters to fart on his face as he's on the ground.
* In the Season 1 finale of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', the Kingpin steals the sample of "Prometheum-X" that astronauts brought back from an asteroid (along with the Venom symbiote...) It's a fissile material, like uranium or plutonium, but isn't radioactive unless heated, and thus can be carried around safely without any special equipment. The Kingpin intends to sell it on the black market to the highest bidder - despite his chief scientist Smythe's warnings that he should run more tests on it first. Spider-Man steals the Prometheum-X from the Kingpin, who then takes hostages and demands that Spider-Man trade it back. Spider-Man actually spends a few hours studying the sample, however...and then happily agrees to the exchange, and leaves without making further effort to obtain it. When the Kingpin tries another test explosion, however, it's a dud: Smythe discovers that the entire sample has decayed into simple lead. It turns out that Prometheum-X is so powerful because it is unstable - so unstable that it has a very short atomic half-life, so that the entire sample just naturally burned out into uselessness in a matter of days. Kingpin realizes to his chagrin that Spider-Man figured this out, and it's why he agreed to the trade.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''
** In "Plankton's Army", with the help of his brethren, Plankton manages to get into the Krusty Krab safe and procure the Krabby Patty formula. As he reads the ingredients out loud, he discovers that the most important one is four pounds of freshly ground [[spoiler:plankton]], which causes Plankton and his family to run out of the Krusty Krab. [[spoiler:It's then revealed that what Plankton found wasn't even the real formula and that Mr. Krabs has the actual one in his home under his mattress]].
** "Bucket Sweet Bucket" has another one involving Plankton. After tricking [=SpongeBob=], Patrick, and Squidward into fixing up the Chum Bucket, Plankton manages to get into the Krusty Krab safe and find the formula, [[spoiler:only for it not to be the formula, but a To Do list and that Mr. Krabs had the formula with him while he was on vacation]]. In addition, since [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick used the ''entire Krusty Krab'' to fix up the Chum Bucket, Plankton also lost his restaurant when Mr. Krabs pushes his back to its normal spot.
** Yet another one involving Plankton, in "For Here Or to Go", Plankton enters a contest at the Krusty Krab where the prize is a free Krabby Patty (and he brings in a contest official that makes Mr. Krabs allow Plankton to enter). Plankton manages to win and despite Krabs's attempts to prevent the patty from being made, Plankton gets his patty, but has to eat it on the premises. However, Plankton makes it back to the Chum Bucket and has the patty analyzed before it's digested, with him selling Krabby Patties the next day. [[spoiler: However, they taste awful, due to Karen having analyzed all the contents of Plankton's stomach, which in addition to the Krabby Patty also included things such as stomach acid and pills.]]
** The episode "I Heart Dancing" has this combined with KarmicTwistEnding. [=SpongeBob=] has been chosen to audition for a role in a dance number, but Squidward, jealous of him, decides to "teach" [=SpongeBob=] various dances in an effort to overwork him so he can't go to the audition and eventually works him like a dog. In the end, [=SpongeBob=] is too tired to go and Squidward auditions instead and gets the part. However, it turns out that the number Squidward's going to be dancing in is [[spoiler:Squilliam's, who proceeds to work Squidward like a dog much like Squidward worked [=SpongeBob=] like one]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' the antagonistic ensign competing with Boimler to be named acting captain succeeds while Boimler humiliates himself to save his crewmates. He serves as acting captain only for a few moments before being relieved by the next shift, and it's made apparent none of the officers regarded who filled the seat as a question of the slightest importance. By contrast, Boimler's actions were noted and commended by a senior officer.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': Toffee's EvilPlan to [[spoiler:recover his missing finger, completely restore himself, and destroy all magic, making him nigh-unstoppable and his enemies powerless,]] goes off without a hitch... only to be nullified seconds later when [[spoiler:Star manages to undo his corruption of magic and attain her SuperMode, allowing her to blast him with so much raw power that even his precious HealingFactor can't save him]]. To add insult to injury, [[spoiler:in the GrandFinale Star destroys magic again anyway, admitting long after Toffee's death that [[VillainHasAPoint he wasn't entirely wrong to do so]]]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' has Darth Maul work with Death Watch to take over Mandalore, and then pulls an EvilerThanThou on their leader, leaving him the uncontested ruler of the planet. Unfortunately for him, this draws the attention of [[BigBad Darth Sidious]], who shows up and puts him well and truly in his place, rendering his victory moot.
-->'''Sidious:''' You have become a [[SuddenlyShouting RIVAL]].
** Maul doesn't do any better in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. Every encounter with the heroes ends with him getting at least part of what he wanted, moving him closer and closer to a final reckoning with Kenobi... who kills him in a CurbStompBattle that lasts two seconds and three moves.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'':
** "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987S03E11AprilsFoolAKAAprilFoolish April Foolish]]": Shredder manages to get away with a rare isotope. Unfortunately for the bad guys, the isotope is unstable under high atmospheric pressures (especially those deep within the Earth), and the sample explodes after the Shredder returns to the Technodrome -- which is parked many miles beneath the Earth's surface.
** "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987S03E43Shredderville Shredderville]]": Shredder becomes emperor of the world and mismanages it so badly that when the turtles arrive he begs them to take him to their world where he doesn't rule. [[spoiler:However, this turns out to all be a dream the Turtles have.]]
** "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987S06E1RockAroundTheBlock Rock Around the Block]]": Shredder successfully uses a laser to free the Technodrome from its ice prison only for Bebop and Rocksteady's violent argument over a comic to cause the laser to blast the ice underneath them, which results in the Technodrome being trapped underwater.
* In ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', Haggar manages to reach [[spoiler:a reality where Zarkon and Lotor are alive, until Lotor immediately pointed out that the woman standing in front of him isn't his real mother. After this, she decides nothing is worth living anymore and decides to destroy all of existence.]]
* ''Westernanimation/{{Wakfu}}'' has this [[spoiler:as the end result of the plans of its first season villain, Nox. He's spent 200 years killing living things in order to gather their [[LifeEnergy wakfu]] to use that energy to rewind time and prevent the death of his family. Despite the heroes' efforts in the final battle, he defeats them, succeeds in draining the Tree of Life, and having left everyone left who could stop him dead and/or broken he finally turns back time...but it turns out that much wakfu was only good for a 20-minute rewind, making everything he's spent the last 200 years trying to achieve pointless. What's worse, the only thing the 20-minute rewind managed to do was undo even that final worthless victory. The only thing that is seemingly not undone by the rewind was Sadlygrove's death, but even then he comes back early into the next season, meaning Nox ended up achieving absolutely nothing. The revelation that all of his atrocities were pointless ends up sending Nox into a VillainousBreakdown.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/WildWestCowboysOfMooMesa'' episode "Stolen on the River" had Sheriff Terrorbull cheat in a raffle to win the tickets to the Dixie Trixie that were given to the C.O.W.-Boys by a wealthy couple in gratitude for rescuing them from Five Card Cud and his gang. Sheriff succeeds, but his victory turns out to be pointless when it's discovered that the Dixie Trixie was just a front for Five Card Cud to dupe wealthy people out of their valuables and that the heroes had the boat hauled onto dry land when this was found out.
* The 1980 WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner short ''Soup or Sonic''. In the last gag, Wile E. Coyote chases the Road Runner through a series of smaller-diameter pipes until they come out tiny at the end. Wile E. waves the Road Runner back through. Out the large end, the Road Runner is back to normal, but Wile E. is still tiny. At this point, the Road Runner allows Wile E. to "catch" him. But he is now way too big for Wile E. to actually eat.
-->'''Wile E. Coyote''' (signs to the audience): Okay, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him. '''Now''' what do I do?
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'', an episode involved a reindeer race that Kip O'Donnel and Neil Beiderman took part in where the prize was 1000 lievos. At the end of the race, Eliza exposes Kip and Beiderman's reindeer as a racehorse in disguise, which disqualifies them, but they're then shown making off with the 1000 lievos anyway. Turns out that "lievos" means "pastry" and that Kip now has 1000 pastries (no wait, 12 of them are Beiderman's).
* ''WesternAnimation/YogisTreasureHunt'': An alien known as Dr. Mars gave a 24-hour deadline for an old chest to be recovered or Earth would be destroyed. Dick Dastardly and Muttley found it and left Earth with it and the flying saucer of Dr. Mars, who explained to the heroes the chest contained no treasure but a bomb.
* While most of the victories by The Light in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' play some part in their larger scheme, even events where their involvement seems tagged on, the episode that introduced Lex Luthor, which ended with him gaining the trust of the leaders of Korea stand-ins, turns into this simply because it's never ever brought up again.
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory:'' At the very end of the film, [[spoiler:Peter reveals that he sold the deed to the Average Joe's gym to [[BigBad White Goodman]] for $100,000. Which he then bet on his own team to win. At 50 to 1 odds, that leaves him with '''5 million dollars'''. When Goodman claims that [[EvilIsPetty he's not selling Average Joe's]] "for all of king Midas's silver", Peter points out that he can just buy ''Goodman's'' gym instead (which is a publicly traded company, so buying all the stocks effectively means he owns the company), [[OutGambitted allowing him to regain Average Joe's and fire White with one fell swoop]].]]

** In season 6, Walder Frey finally defeats the Tullys and Starks [[spoiler: then Arya Stark feeds him his sons in a pie before killing him. He also dies oblivious to the fact that Sansa Stark and Jon Snow have taken the North back]].

* ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory:'' At the very end of the film, [[spoiler:Peter reveals that he sold the deed to the Average Joe's gym to [[BigBad White Goodman]] for $100,000. Which he then bet on his own team to win. At 50 to 1 odds, that leaves him with '''5 million dollars'''. When Goodman claims that [[EvilIsPetty he's not selling Average Joe's]] "for all of king Midas's gold", Peter points out that he can just buy ''Goodman's'' gym instead (which is a publicly traded company, so buying all the stocks effectively means he owns the company), [[OutGambitted allowing him to regain Average Joe's and fire White with one fell swoop]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FreeWilly'': Jessie and Willy were looking for a lost treasure and lost it to the villain. Then, it was revealed the chest actually contained whistles.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' was rather infamous for this in its two major arcs where Aizen and Yhwach were the primary antagonists. Both villains basically achieve all their primary goals, with Aizen [[spoiler:successfully creating and fusing with the Hōgyoku]] and Yhwach [[spoiler:essentially destroying Soul Society and absorbing the Soul King]], only for the both of them to be defeated at the very last second by Ichigo.

* The Big Bad successfully unleashes a SealedEvilInACan, but then learns the hard way that EvilIsNotAToy. To add insult to injury, the hero then proceeds to re-seal the evil, or even [[DidTouJustPunchOutCthulhu kill it]].

* The Big Bad successfully unleashes a SealedEvilInACan, but then learns the hard way that EvilIsNotAToy. To add insult to injury, the hero then proceeds to re-seal the evil, or even [[DidTouJustPunchOutCthulu kill it]].

* The Big Bad successfully unleashes a SealedEvilInACan, but then learns the hard way that EvilIsNotAToy. To add insult to injury, the hero then proceeds to re-seal the evil, or even [[DidTouJustPunchOutCthulhu kill it]].

** At the end of Season 4, The Lich [[spoiler:tricks Finn into opening a portal to Prismo's Time Room. He then uses the one wish that anyone who enters the Time Room gets to wish for the extinction of all life. However, since Finn and Jake followed him through the portal before he made the wish, they weren't affected and also got wishes. Coaxed along by BenevolentGenie Prismo, Jake wishes that the Lich had used his wish to send Finn and Jake back home. All of the Lich's schemes and trickery to get to Prismo's Room is instantly rendered moot.]]

** After decades spent attempting to wield power through others, (first her drunken, apathetic King of a husband and later her children) Cersei finally grabs the reins of power for herself at the end of Season 6. [[spoiler:Too bad nearly every single region of the Seven Kingdoms is involved in either open or covert rebellion against her, Cersei's family and the throne have utterly bankrupted themselves, her armies are in tatters from "winning" the war, her beloved children are all dead, and ''everyone'' around is looking to pile on, including old enemies, new rivals, and even supernatural threats. Good luck, Cersei. Enjoy it while it lasts.]]
** In the end, Cersei really doesn't. [[spoiler:Her sole true achievements in the final season, killing Daenerys' friend in front of her via execution and one of her two surviving dragons via her underling, ends with Daenerys fully embracing the Targaryen madness and unleashing the full might of her armies and remaing dragon upon King's Landing. It's more than a CurbStompBattle, it is a '''massacre''', and Cersei is forced to first declare surrender to the North and then try to run away... only for her to find out the escape tunnel caved in and then finally get crushed by a collapsing ceiling.]]

** While the World Government got away with summoning a [[AlphaStrike Buster Call]] on Ohara for trying to translate the Poneglyphs and research the [[SuppressedHistory Void Century]], their victory was rendered utterly meaningless over time by a number of factors: one, [[SoleSurvivor Nico Robin survived the destruction of Ohara]], the event driving her to complete the research her colleagues died for; two, the very act of [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure wiping out an entire island]], [[LeaveNoSurvivors civilians included]], [[DisproportionateRetribution just for researching history]], [[ThisMeansWar galvanized Monkey D. Dragon]] into [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified forming the Revolutionary Army]], an organization dedicated to fighting the World Government's injustices across the globe for the next twenty years; and three, [[spoiler:the research texts used by the scholars of Ohara that they dumped into a lake that the Marines conveniently ignored would end up salvaged by the giants of Elbaf, who eventually shared it with [[WorldsSmartestMan Dr. Vegapunk]] so that he would independently continue their research in secret]].

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Happens in the Dressrosa arc, chapter 742: [[spoiler:Usopp is the only person left who can knock out Sugar and return all the people she transformed into toys to normal. He tries to stand up against her bodyguard Trebol, but gets thoroughly beaten. However, Sugar feeds him the grape she assumed was poisoned to get rid of him (it's actually spiked with an ultra-spicy substance). The result is Usopp screaming in absolute agony while making a ''spectacular'' NightmareFace, [[AccidentalHero scary enough to make her scream and faint in turn]], rendering her victory moot]]. Comes up a bit again later when [[spoiler: Usopp weaponizes her newly-gained trauma to save Luffy and Law by launching a projection looking like said face to render her unconscious again, all while unlocking Haki.]]

* In ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', King Aultcray and Malty seek to deprive Naofumi Iwatani, the Shield Hero of any advantages in order to keep him a destitute and impoverished nobody, and had latched onto him owning a Slave as a Party Member as [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil a reason to demonize Naofumi]]; [[{{Hypocrite}} conveniently ignoring the fact that they were the ones who made slavery legal in the kingdom.]] Having beaten Naofumi in a challenge that resulted in him losing his slave and removing her RestrainingBolt, the recently-freed Raphtalia berated and yelled at them for doing this, citing that while she was purchased as Naofumi's slave, she was but a Slave to him in-name-only and that she saw Naofumi for the kind man that he really was; and as such ''willingly'' went back to Naofumi's side to prevent him from falling into a DespairEventHorizon, resulting in Naofumi and Raphtalia's bonds with each-other deepening [[RestoredMyFaithInHumanity as it helped stabilize Naofumi's troubled mind.]]

* The BigBad kills the hero and squashes the rebellion against him, but only succeeded in making his victims martyrs who inspire more widespread rebellion.

A Meaningless Villain Victory occurs when there's a last second caveat that renders the whole point of the villain's win moot. [[WorthlessTreasureTwist The big pile of gold he's just won turns out to be pyrite]]. The ancient superweapon he's claimed is irreparably broken, and probably has been for a long time. The BigBad achieves his goal to become immortal, but is now [[AndIMustScream trapped forever inside of an inescapable location]]. The Big Bad gets the throne/promotion/influence he wanted, but crossed the MoralEventHorizon so hard that [[LonelyAtTheTop everyone he wanted that power for now hates his guts]]. The BigBad kills the hero and squashes the rebellion against him, but only succeeded in making his victims martyrs who inspire more widespread rebellion. However it plays out, the audience can rest assured that evil never pays, and the villain has just blown a boatload of his evil resources on a SnipeHunt.

* ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2017'' has Professor Croix finally manage to unlock the Grand Triskelion, AKA the world restoration magic. Too bad that, without the Shiny Rod, it's nearly useless, amounting to a small twig that can only be used for party tricks. VillainousBreakdown ensues.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'', Gabby Gabby's plan is to steal Woody's voice box and use it to repair her own. She's been left on the antique store's shelves for decades and believes that Harmony, a girl who frequents the store, will buy her if her voice box works. [[spoiler:Woody willingly gives up his voice box to Gabby Gabby, but Harmony leaves her on the shelf, to Gabby Gabby's sorrow.]] Gabby Gabby is sympathetic enough that the trope gets subverted: [[spoiler:Woody persuades her to come with him to the nearby carnival, where Gabby Gabby finally ''does'' get HappilyAdopted by another young girl]].

** Same goes for Kreese himself in season 4. Thanks to Tory's victory, the Cobra Kai dojo as a whole is awarded the Grand Prize, but he doesn't get to enjoy his victory for long. Silver soon reveals that he [[FrameUp framed Kreese for aggravated assault and attempted murder]], leading to his arrest and Silver acquiring full control of Cobra Kai, which he plans to franchise. Kreese had also made a gentleman's bet with Daniel to close down Miyagi-Do if they lost the tournament, which Daniel [[ILied flat-out refuses to do]] and recruits Chozen to continue the fight against Cobra Kai.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E15IShotAnArrowIntoTheAir I Shot an Arrow into the Air]]", a group of astronauts crash-land on an asteroid. The villainous SoleSurvivor kills his crewmembers and takes their water, [[spoiler:only to find out that it was EarthAllAlong. They crashed in the Nevada desert]].
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E60TheRipVanWinkleCaper The Rip Van Winkle Caper]]" features a band of crooks who pull off a gold heist and put themselves in suspended animation to avoid the {{statute of limitations}}, sleeping for 100 years. The rest of the story deals with the lengths each member goes to (culminating in every one of them dying) trying to get the most gold. Then we learn that [[spoiler:[[WorthlessYellowRocks gold is worthless]], [[ShootTheShaggyDog because it can now be manufactured]]]].
** A famous example is "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E61TheSilence The Silence]]" in which a snobbish Colonel bets a fellow club member in desperate need of money that he can't keep quiet for a year. When despite all odds the man actually succeeds and goes to collect his money, it turns out that the Colonel is broke and can't pay him his winnings -- however, the man had his vocal cords severed so he could win the bet.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger:'' [[spoiler:During ''VideoGame/TheOldRepublic'', Jedi Knight Nariel Pridence set out to hide Nihilus's mask (which contained his soul) in the Unknown Regions where no one would ever find it. Determined to stop her, Nihilus's spirit sacrifices what little strength he has left to kill Nariel and set her ship off course. Nariel's ship is looted by smugglers not long after, who take the mask to their hideout on Volik... a remote planet in the Unknown Regions. The smugglers later abandon their base and leave Nihilus's mask behind on Volik where it sits untouched for thousands of years... [[AllForNothing exactly what Nariel wanted in the first place]].]]

* ''Fanfic/LovedAndLost'' has a variation in that while the villain does manage to [[TheBadGuyWins achieve victory]] early on, it's his actions ''afterward'' that render that victory moot. [[TheUsurper Prince Jewelius]] seizes the Equestrian throne after [[ForWantOfANail helping Twilight Sparkle capture Queen Chrysalis and her Changeling army]] ([[spoiler:which he himself helped invade Canterlot before double-crossing them]]) by [[LetNoCrisisGoToWaste exploiting the tense atmosphere of the aftermath]] and the emotionally-driven behavior on the part of everypony involved to turn the Mane 6 ''sans'' Twilight, Shining Armor, and the princesses into [[HeroWithBadPublicity hated scapegoats]] for enabling the invasion to occur (though in fairness, VillainHasAPoint is also in play), getting them all exiled and leaving him free to [[CorruptTheCutie manipulate Twilight as he sees fit]]. One week later, however, it's shown that he's decided that it isn't enough to simply have power, [[DarwinistDesire a bride in the form of Twilight to father powerful heirs with]], and the acclaim of Canterlot's citizens - [[spoiler:he also wants to ensure his success by having Celestia and Cadance killed off. After luring the fugitives back to Canterlot and capturing them again, however, he [[JustBetweenYouAndMe gloats about his success to their faces]] which motivates them to try and spring Twilight out of the peril [[CassandraTruth that she and the rest of Canterlot deny ever being in despite their warnings]]. On top of this, he also forgets to capture Luna, who suspected that the heroes were being lured into a trap and split from the rest to avoid it, allowing her to free the others starting with saving Celestia from her PublicExecution. In the ensuing chaos, all of the Changelings also escape, but Jewelius, believing them to be incompetent without his leadership, [[SkewedPriorities focuses entirely on punishing the escaped heroes]] which are now the public's smallest concern (partly due to the citizens and Twilight beginning to forgive the fugitives and especially Celestia who gave them all a touching apology speech), and eventually lets his sociopathic pettiness get the better of him in all of the events to follow, causing Twilight to have a JerkassRealization and cut off all ties with him. By the time the dust has settled, not only has Jewelius lost his authority and the respect of absolutely everypony he manipulated into turning upon each other, but a vengeful Chrysalis has served him a [[EatenAlive gruesome]] DeathByWomanScorned as well]].