History Main / PosthumousVillainVictory

+ ''VideoGame/BloodRayne2'': Rayne's ArchnemesisDad Kagan is killed at the end of the game, but not before [[HostileTerraforming saturating the Earths atmosphere with a gas that makes sunlight filtered through it harmless to vampires and mutagenic to living creatures]] allowing vampirekind to rule the earth.

** In the Tartaros arc, Erza tries her best to stop the countdown of Face (a system that is meant as a last-ditch move by the magical council to wipe out all magic in the world if a threat to the land gets critical. It was meant to deter invading nations but the demon guild hijacked it for their own ends) before it can activate. However the demon she's fighting, Kyoka, integrates herself with the activation system to make the timer on Face go faster (at the insistence of her leader Mard Geer) while she battles Erza. Erza does manage to defeat and kill Kyoka, but is ultimately too late as the timer reaches zero as intended. This definitely would've been game over for the heroes [[spoiler: if not for the arrival of the surviving dragons who destroy the system just in the nick of time.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'': Joker wound up causing Batman a great deal of pain during their battles, but he upped the ante in this film by [[spoiler: kidnapping, drugging, and torturing Tim Drake, aka Robin, to the point he was turned into a twisted "Joker Junior" ''and'' spilled all of Batman's secrets to him]]--all just to spite the Dark Knight. While it [[spoiler: does lead to his initial demise]], it winds up being the sledgehammer that drives the Bat Family apart, causing Bruce to become cold, distant, and alone, while his old allies are apathetic to him ''at best'' and hate his guts ''at worst''. It gets even worse when it's revealed [[spoiler: Joker grafted his DNA onto poor Tim to come back from the dead and torment Bruce even more, leading to much more destruction and Bruce nearly dying as a result of him pushing Terry away.]] Terry does beat him in the end, but it doesn't undo the damage the Clown Prince of Crime has wrought. Thought the ending does imply the Bat Family is finally on the path to recovery.

** In the first movie, Micheal manages to rescue Donna and kill Yorga when he attempts to choke him but makes the foolish decision to do so while Micheal still has the stake in his hand while he's rushing him, running right into it. Yorga turns to dust right after, but NoOntologicalInertia isn't in effect here, so those he turned remain vampires meaning Erica, a friend of Micheal's, stays undead and continue to come after him regardless of her master's death. Micheal manages to ward her and a fellow vampire bride back with a cross and make them run off. [[spoiler: But Donna soon reveals that she's now a vampire herself, Yorga having long turned her by the time Micheal reached her. She promptly attacks and kills him.]]
** ''Return of Count Yorga'' ends with Baldwin trying to rescue Cynthia but gets cornered in a hallway by Yorga's brides with seemingly no way out. Just as Yorga's about to claim Cynthia as his, Balwin seems to miraculously escape and continue his pursuit. The chase ends up on the balcony of the house where the men fight, Yorga looks to have the advantage but Cynthia, whose memories of her family dying by the brides Yorga send after them gradually coming back, fully regains them and attack Yorga from behind with an axe. This kills him and Balwin finishes him off by throwing him off the balcony. All seems well [[spoiler: except Balwin reveals he didn't get past the brides unscathed and was in fact bitten by them. He turns right then and there and proceeds to bite Cynthia.]]

** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'': ...where we see the fallout from the battle and opinions split on Superman in which many people are scared or angry at him for his role of his battle in Metropolis, one of which is Bruce Wayne aka Batman, basically turning the people Clark just wants to protect against him. If that wasn't bad enough, Lex Luthor, who is against Superman for his own personal reasons unrelated to the above, uses his science and connections to claim Zod's body for his own, revive him into a monstrous being dubbed "Doomsday" and uses him as his backup plan should his ploy to have Batman kill Superman fail (which it does). At the end, aided by Batman and Wonder Woman, Superman manages to kill Doomsday with a Kryptonite spear. [[spoiler: But Zod/Doomsday likewise mortally wounds Superman in the clash and kills him as well, fulfilling Lex's goal in process. The victory is only soured in that 1) Lex is arrested shortly after for his crimes and sent to prison 2) Superman's sacrifice ''greatly'' sways public opinion of Superman to the positive with the world finally seeing him as the hero he is and 3) the death in undone in ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'']].

* In the final battle of ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'', Azog and Thorin fight each other and Azog dies after he falls into the icy lake and freezes to death. [[spoiler: However, Azog manages to mortally wound Thorin, and he dies shortly thereafter, meaning Azog was successful in hunting Thorin. Not only that, but Thorin's two nephews, who would have kept Thorin's bloodline going, are also killed, fulfilling Azog's greater goal of trying to wipe out Thorin's bloodline. The Dwarves put Thorin's cousin, Dain Ironfoot, on their throne.]]

** ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': ZigZaggedTrope regarding [[BigBad Lyutsifer Safin]]. On one hand, his genocidal EvilPlan to unleash the Heracles {{nanomachines}} on the world and unveiling it for other nations to capture and use is thwarted by Bond. On the other, his last, desperate goal of [[spoiler: [[TakingYouWithMe killing James Bond]]]] ultimately succeeds, with [[spoiler:Bond mortally wounded and now infected with a strain of Heracles capable of killing his wife and daughter with a single touch. Bond himself is forced to stay on Safin's island and help destroy the virus for good, dying from the missile strike launched by the Royal Navy he himself had called in]]. This all happens just minutes after Bond [[BoomHeadshot shoots Safin thrice in the head]].
* ''Film/KamenRiderZeroOneOthersVulcanValkyrie'': Lyon Arkland (the BigBad of the film before it) dies without being able to mass-produce the [[RobotSoldier Solds]] he wanted to enter the global arms race with. He DID, however, [[spoiler: accomplish his goal of turning the members of Metsubojinrai into the DesignatedVillain he wanted said Solds to fight and claimed the lives of most of the heroes by proxy of the [[TheBerserker insane]] MechanicalAbomination he inadvertently transformed the four into doing it for him. For bonus points, the entire incident sours the relations between man and machine the heroes had been fighting to establish all season, with ''the government itself'' planning a renewed crackdown on Artificial Intelligence]].

** In ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'', Peter manages to stop Quentin "Mysterio" Beck's plot. In the process, Beck is shot by one of his own killer drones and expires -- but Mysterio still gets the last laugh. [[spoiler:The post-credits scene shows an underling of Mysterio anonymously post a video Mysterio recorded before Peter killed him, where the former frames the latter for the elementals' damage and claims he's gone rogue.]] ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' winds up [[DownplayedTrope mitigating this this to a degree]], as [[spoiler: [[Series/Daredevil2015 Matt Murdock]] is able to get the legal charges dropped, but Peter winds up being hounded in his social and personal life to the point MIT won't accept him or his friends due to his controversial image. All of this leads Peter to having Doctor Strange cast a spell to erase all knowledge of his identity from the public, but poor communication between both men causes the deceased villains of Sam Rami and Marc Webb's series to be brought back and wreak havoc in the MCU. This also becomes a {{double subversion}} by the end, where Peter asks Strange to remove everyone's memories of Peter Parker, which proves successful at the cost of all his friendships. Nobody knows that Peter is Spider-Man anymore, but Mysterio ''still'' managed to ruin his life by not only leaving him completely broke and living in an empty apartment in search of a GED, but also, despite no longer revealing Peter's real identity, Mysterio still managed to turn Spider-Man into a controversial figure, ruin the name of Stark Industries, and be seen as a FakeUltimateHero like he dreamed of.]]
** ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever'': [[spoiler: N'Jadaka/Erik "Killmonger" Stevens having all the heart-shaped herbs burned ultimately meant he posthumously succeeded in his goal to kill [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim T'Challa]], as T'Challa died of a serious illness that the herb could've cured.]]

** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': ZigZagged by Darth Maul, whose actions cause the entire saga to unfold thanks to [[spoiler:killing Qui-Gon Jinn]], thus forcing Anakin Skywalker to be trained by the well-meaning, but ultimately flawed Obi-Wan Kenobi. Without [[spoiler:Qui-Gon's]] teachings to help the emotionally troubled boy, Anakin winds up a troubled young man distrusted by the Order who trained him, and easily manipulated by Palpatine into becoming the man who would destroy the Jedi and allow the Sith to have their revenge as Maul was aiming for: Darth Vader. Where the zig-zagging kicks in is that Maul, as ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' revealed, [[spoiler: was not dead, but had survived on a junk planet; a wreck of his former self. Him being found and nursed back to health by his brother Savage Opress gives him the opportunity to make Obi-Wan suffer even more by taking over Mandalore and killing the woman he loves, Duchess Satine. It gets even worse when his rule over the planet keeps Anakin's former Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, away from her old master at his most critical moment, leading to [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith his downfall]] and her losing all but one of the men under her command when Order 66 goes online. Then Maul causes trouble for the Phoenix crew in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' by blinding Kanan Jarrus and causing Ezra Bridger to have a brush with the Dark Side, but then he ''finally'' bites it when he tries killing Obi-Wan on Tatooine and falls to the Jedi Master.]] All of this and more occurred because of Maul, both in life and in death.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': In Season 5, Prometheus, aka [[spoiler: Adrian Chase]], has spent the entirety of his appearance trying to prove that Oliver Queen is nothing more than a monster, and make him suffer in any way that he can. He doesn't succeed in breaking Oliver, who refuses to fall down the dark path, but he ''does'' manage to add in more suffering when [[spoiler: he takes his own life]]--a bomb on Lian Yu (the island where Oliver spent five years trying to survive) that he had tied to his heartbeat detonates, killing [[spoiler: his son William's birth mother]].

* Raul Menendez in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' can be killed in the final mission. [[spoiler: If you do, it triggers a video release which is part of his final plan to cause an uprising against the United States government. However, background material in [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII the sequel]] does some [[CuttingOffTheBranches branch-cutting]]; while Raul is canonically said to have died during the attack on his base in Haiti, it is revealed that the nature of his death (being killed as he was trying to escape, disguised as a soldier) caused backlash within the Cordis Die movement, with many seeing his death as cowardly; as a result, his movement split, and subsequently collapsed from the infighting and the uprising never happened.]]

* At the end of Operation 008 in ''VideoGame/TheWonderful101'', [[spoiler: Gimme is killed after being knocked into his own heat lasers. Unfortunately, they don't shut off after Gimme dies, and thus Gimme's objective of destroying Mother Platinum comes to pass.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In "Cloak of Darkness", Nute Gunray is being transported to Coruscant for trial after his capture in the previous episode, leading the Separatists to launch a full-scale assault to bust him out before he can blab. He winds up escaping thanks to [[spoiler: Captain Argyus, a traitorous Senate Guard]], costing the Republic a key chance to end the war earlier. Where the "Posthumous" part comes in is that [[spoiler: Asajj Ventress offs Argyus rather pettily when he tries to prop himself as the reason the plan worked.]] The next episode shows his actions leading to further death, as Kit Fisto loses his men and former Padawan to General Grievous himself while trying to pursue the Viceroy.

* In the final battle of ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'', Azog and Thorin fight each other and Azog dies after he falls into the icy lake and freezes to death. [[spoiler: However, Azog manages to mortally wound Thorin, and he dies shortly thereafter, meaning Azog was successful in hunting Thorin. Not only that, but Thorin's two nephews, who would have kept Thorin's bloodline going, are also killed. The Dwarves put Thorin's cousin, Dain Ironfoot, on their throne.]]

* In the final battle of ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'', Azog and Thorin fight each other and Azog dies after he falls into the icy lake and freezes to death. [[spoiler: However, Azog manages to mortally wound Thorin, and he dies shortly thereafter, meaning Azog was successful in hunting Thorin.]]

** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': ZigZagged by Darth Maul, who's actions cause the entire saga to unfold thanks to [[spoiler: killing Qui-Gon Jinn]], thus forcing Anakin Skywalker to be trained by the well-meaning, but ultimately flawed Obi-Wan Kenobi. Without [[spoiler: Qui-Gon's]] teachings to help the emotionally troubled boy, Anakin winds up a troubled young man distrusted by the Order who trained him, and easily manipulated by Palpatine into becoming the man who would destroy the Jedi and allow the Sith to have their revenge as Maul was aiming for: Darth Vader. Where the zig-zagging kicks in is that Maul, as ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' revealed, [[spoiler: was not dead, but had survived on a junk planet; a wreck of his former self. Him being found and nursed back to health by his brother Savage Opress gives him the opportunity to make Obi-Wan suffer even more by taking over Mandalore and killing the woman he loves, Duchess Satine. It gets even worse when his rule over the planet keeps Anakin's former Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, away from her old master at his most critical moment, leading to [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith his downfall]] and her losing all but one of the men under her command when Order 66 goes online. Then Maul causes trouble for the Phoenix crew in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' by blinding Kanan Jarrus and causing Ezra Bridger to have a brush with the Dark Side, but then he ''finally'' bites it when he tries killing Obi-Wan on Tatooine and falls to the Jedi Master.]] All of this and more occurred because of Maul, both in life and in death.

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': It's noted after Cluny's first defeat that if he simply gave up on conquering Redwall and retreated, it would ruin his reputation as a feared warlord that he had been driven off by mere mice. As a result, he resolves to take Redwall or die trying. He comes very close to succeeding and is killed by Matthias after a fierce duel, but later books show that his legacy remains intact as he's still remembered as one of the biggest threats the Redwllers ever faced, an honor given to few of the series' other villains. He also succeeds in fatally wounding Abbot Mortimer, who dies soon after Cluny is killed in turn.

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': It's noted after Cluny's first defeat that if he simply gave up on conquering Redwall and retreated, it would ruin his reputation as a feared warlord that he had been driven off by mere mice. As a result, he resolves to take Redwall or die trying. He comes very close to succeeding and is killed by Matthias after a fierce duel, but later books show that his legacy remains intact as he's still remembered as one of the biggest threats the Redwllers ever faced, an honor given to few of the series' other villains.

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': It's noted that after Cluny's first defeat that if he simply gave up on conquering Redwall and retreated, it would ruin his reputation as a feared warlord that he had been driven off by mere mice. As a result, he resolves to take Redwall or die trying. He comes very close to succeeding and is killed by Matthias after a fierce duel, but later books show that his legacy remains intact as he's still remembered as one of the biggest threats the Redwllers ever faced, an honor given to few of the series' other villains.

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}: It's noted that after Cluny's first defeat that if he simply gave up on conquering Redwall and retreated, it would ruin his reputation as a feared warlord that he had been driven off by mere mice. As a result, he resolves to take Redwall or die trying. He comes very close to succeeding and is killed by Matthias after a fierce duel, but later books show that his legacy remains intact as he's still remembered as one of the biggest threats the Redwllers ever faced, an honor given to few of the series' other villains.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Charlie, The villain of the episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam "Kerblam!"]], is an EvilLuddite who blames {{Job Stealing Robot}}s for the galaxy's unemployment crisis, so he plans to commit mass-murder against a MegaCorp's customers by hijacking their delivery robots and having them deliver explosives to the customers, in the belief that the resulting scandal would force the corporations to stop depending on automated labour. Although he ends up [[HoistByHisOwnPetard blown up by the bombs he planned to use for the crime]] before he can pull off the mass murder part, his pre-mortem MotiveRant convinces some of the MegaCorp's managers that the VillainHasAPoint, and they decide to review their policies to allow for more human and fewer robot workers.

** In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', Zod notes that Superman is unwilling to put civilians in harm's way and, once he starts growing accustomed to the powers Earth's sun has given him, deliberately takes the fight around Metropolis, causing monumental damage and claiming a number of untold lives in the crossfire despite Clark's efforts to stop Zod. Ultimately, the fight moves into an area where civilians are hiding and Zod uses his laser eyes to attempt to kill them with Clark struggling to keep him from doing so via headlock. When Zod refuses to listen to Clark's pleads to stop. Clark has no choice but to snap his neck and kill him since it was the only way to end his rampage permanently. While Clark does recover from having to do the deed and is assured by Lois he did the right thing. The damage from the fight was done, literally and figuratively, leading to....

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'': Joker wound up causing Batman a great deal of pain during their battles, but he upped the ante in this film by [[spoiler: kidnapping, drugging, and torturing Tim Drake, aka Robin, to the point he was turned into a twisted "Joker Junior" ''and'' spilled all of Batman's secrets to him]]--all just to spite the Dark Knight. While it [[spoiler: does lead to his initial demise]], it winds up being the sledgehammer that drives the Bat Family apart, causing Bruce to become cold, distant, and alone, while his old allies are apathetic to him ''at best'' and hate his guts ''at worst''. It gets even worse when it's revealed [[spoiler: Joker grafted his DNA onto poor Tim to come back from the dead and torment Bruce even more, leading to much more destruction and Bruce nearly dying as a result of him pushing Terry away.]] Terry does beat him in the end, but it doesn't undo the damage the Clown Prince of Crime has wrought.

* Subverted in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast1991'': Gaston [[DisneyVillainDeath falls to his death]], but only after mortally wounding the Beast, who [[DisneyDeath dies]] in Belle's arms moments later. But Belle's AnguishedDeclarationOfLove for the Beast breaks his spell and restores him to life in human form, denying Gaston his posthumous victory.