History Main / TheBadGuyWins

* ReBoot season 2 ends with Megabyte sending Bob into the Web and beginning his real attack on the city. Later in Season 4 Megabyte also takes over the Principal Office and [[CutShort the series ends on an unresolved cliffhanger]].

* ReBoot season 2 ends with Megabyte sending Bob into the Web and beginning his real attack on the city. Later in Season 4 Megabyte also takes over the Principal Office and the series ends on a cliffhanger.

* The entire {{Saw}} Franchise. If you think you have won, think again!

* ''The Strangers'' get away with it, and without much difficulty either.

** There are at least two entries in the DisneyAnimatedCanon with examples as well; ''Disney/{{The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad}}'', in which it's left unclear weather or not the Headless Horsemen killed or kidnapped Ichabod, and ''{{Disney/Pinocchio}}'', in which this trope is averted by Stromboli and Lampwick but played straight by "Honest" John Worthington Foulfellow, his sidekick Gideon, and the Coachmen, who all win (though in the Coachmen's case this is because nobody opposes him).

** There are at least two entries in the DisneyAnimatedCanon with examples as well; ''Disney/{{The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad}}''[=* =], in which it's left unclear weather or not the Headless Horsemen killed or kidnapped Ichabod, and ''{{Disney/Pinocchio}}'', in which this trope is averted by Stromboli and Lampwick but played straight by "Honest" John Worthington Foulfellow, his sidekick Gideon, and the Coachmen, who all win (though in the Coachmen's case this is because nobody opposes him).

** There are at least two entries in the DisneyAnimatedCanon with examples as well; Disney/''{{The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad}}''[=* =], in which it's left unclear weather or not the Headless Horsemen killed or kidnapped Ichabod, and ''{{Disney/Pinocchio}}'', in which this trope is averted by Stromboli and Lampwick but played straight by "Honest" John Worthington Foulfellow, his sidekick Gideon, and the Coachmen, who all win (though in the Coachmen's case this is because nobody opposes him).

** There are at least two entries in the DisneyAnimatedCannon with examples as well;

** In "The Bogeyman" the protagonist tries for years to escape the bogeyman who killed his offspring and stalked him endlessly. At the end of the story it turns out that the therapist he's been telling the tale to was the bogeyman in disguise, who evidently gets him.

* Arguably [[TheDarkKnightSaga The Dark Knight]]. Sure, the Joker is captured, but he's managed to corrupt Harvey Dent and thereby strike a huge blow to Gotham's hope.

*** [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses NO! BUT I EXPECTED ONE FROM A FUCKING BUGS BUNNY CARTOON!]]

* Arguably, Arc the Lad II. Even though the heroes win and defeat The Dark One, the titular Arc and his love interest both die, and most of the world is completely destroyed. One of the characters puts it "but at least there is something left!", but it does not change the fact that the bad guy managed to more or less wipe out 9/10 of the world's population.

* In the [[Civil War]] ark of Marvel the Pro Registration side won.

* ''ElfenLied'' ends with Lucy dead, Kurama blown up the fate of the main characters in uncertainty, and BigBad Kakuzawa laughing manically after declaring his victory.
** [[spoiler: Well, Lucy may or may have not survived, but that's because of the Cliffhanger/ BolivianArmyEnding of the anime due to AdaptationDecay. However, in the manga, the ending is more along the lines of TearJerker/ BittersweetEnding.]]

* The first ''{{WarCraft}}'' apparently ended with the orcs winning and burning down the human city. (There were two possible endings, the canon is the orc victory).
** As the orcs were also a player campaign in ''[=WarCraft=]'', and are now a player faction in WoW, this probably isn't a good example.
*** [[YourMilageMayVary Arguable.]] The orcs from ''[=WarCraft=]'' and ''[=WarCraft=] II'' were evil conquerers. They didn't begin to try redeeming themselves until Thrall took over as Warchief for ''[=WarCraft III=]''.
** The human campaign of ''[=WarCraft III=] Reign of Chaos'' ended with your young [[HairOfGold blond]] KnightInShiningArmor hero returning home to cheers and showers of rose petals in a really pretty cutscene. Then it turns out that [[spoiler:he's gone crazy and he's only in town to murder the boss of the good guys from the last game... his dad. The king of one of the last human kingdoms around. Which he then announces he intends to burn to the ground. And then he does]]. So yeah.
*** Granted, the good guys do prevent the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, [[spoiler:which is a part of the said bad guy's XanatosGambit to get rid of ''his'' boss]].
*** In the expansion pack ''Frozen Throne'', do things get better? No. [[spoiler:The human campaign baddie not only has a corporeal form now, but his power is now totally unchecked and is increasing exponentially, and he's not working for anyone any more - he's ascended to BigBad from [[TheDragon Dragon]]. Also? The reason he's got a corporeal form is because he's fused with the guy from the previous example. Say bye-bye to your hero unit.]]
* ''{{StarCraft}}'''s human campaign ends with [[spoiler:the LoveInterest getting [[NeverFoundTheBody overwhelmed]] by the enemy and the leader of the LaResistance being [[MeetTheNewBoss as bad as the old boss]]]]. The Zerg campaign ends with [[spoiler:the BigBad successfully invading the Protoss homeworld]]. However, the Protoss [[spoiler:manage to kill the said BigBad via a HeroicSacrifice.]] In the expansion, the DarkActionGirl-upgraded LoveInterest puts her XanatosGambit into motion [[spoiler:and wins. The human commander commits suicide.]]
** Kerrigan wasn't THE bad guy, though; Mengsk, [=DuGalle=] (the aforementioned human commander), and Duran were [[EvilVersusEvil also bad.]]
*** It's implied in a hidden mission, that Duran was the true mastermind, and he achieved what he wanted.
*** Apart from the xenophobic (and somewhat stupid) thoughts of conquering the Protoss, what was so bad (morally) about [=DuGalle=] and the UED?
**** Whose side are you on, son? Don't you love your Planet?
**** It's AllThereInTheManual. The original game's manual, that is. The UED was the successor state of a one-world genocidal Fascist police-state that killed hundreds of millions of 'impure' people. While nothing is said directly about how much the UED differs from it's predecessor, the background is enough to mark their victory as ''probably'' a Very Bad Thing.
***** YourMileageMayVary. Considering Earth was rather CrapsackWorld by the time UED was formed, well... getting human race back to shape, iniating space colonization and ensuring human genepool from rampant and most likely harmful mutation, UED may be more of UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans.
** Discussion aside, Kerrigan and Duran ''are'' definite [[BigBad Bads]] and they both have what they wanted.
* ''{{Diablo}}'' ends with [[spoiler:the BigBad successfully convincing the hero to make a HeroicSacrifice and become the [[SealedEvilInACan can to seal the evil in]]]], which in ''Diablo II'' proves to be [[spoiler:a SenselessSacrifice]]. ''Diablo II'' ends with [[spoiler:the successful XanatosGambit of the [[BigBad Big(ger) Bad]]]]. In the expansion, the new BigBad [[spoiler:manages to corrupt the CosmicKeystone enough to force the protagonists to destroy it]]. However, this paves the way for ''Diablo III'' because [[spoiler:the keystone was the only thing preventing a full-scale demonic invasion]]. [[BlizzardEntertainment Notice a pattern yet?]]

* ''TheWire'' ends with [[spoiler:two of the main police characters, [=McNulty=] and Freamon, who have been fighting the good fight for five seasons being forced to retire after being corrupted into faking evidence; a reporter from the newspaper who made up his stories out of thin air winning the Pulitzer whilst his honest boss gets demoted and his colleague who tried to blow the whistle gets transferred; two of the four kids from Season 4 ending up in dire straits, with one as a drug addict and the other in a foster home getting beaten up daily; the main drug kingpin Marlo surviving with all of his money, merely being forced to give up the game; and Mayor Carcetti, formerly idealistic and trying to do the right thing for the city, being reduced to getting the police to fiddle the stats and making up spin to avoid his failures as he chases the dream of becoming state governor]]. Just about the only positives in the ending are that [[spoiler:[=McNulty=]'s relationship with Beadie just about survives, Carver gets his promotion, Bunk and Kima become an effective homicide-investigating partnership and Bubbles finally goes clean and gains acceptance from his family]].

* The 1963 Cold War paranoia film [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ''The Day mars Invaded the Earth'']] shows us a scene where the brother of the main character (a scientist who has stumbled upon the martian invasion plot) is disintegrated by the aliens and replaced by a doppelganger. Said doppelganger then cheerfully rounds up the hero and his entire family on the pretense of escorting them to a safe hiding place. We then abruptly segue into a shot showing all of their disintegrated outlines (kids included) on the ground, which are swiftly washed away. Roll credits!

* Played straight and then subverted in ''MistBorn.'' The premise is that one thousand years ago, a man set out on a heroic journey. Long story short, The Bad Guy Won. Said Bad Guy, the "Lord Ruler," has ruled as a tyrant for half a millennium in a CrapsackWorld. The events of the book are mainly concerned with finding a way to kill the Lord Ruler and undo a thousand years of damage. The subversion comes when they succeed in killing the Lord Ruler, only to find out that he was keeping an infinitely greater evil at bay for all that time.

* The season two finale of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender''. [[spoiler: Azula ''kills'' [[TheMessiah Aang]] before he can go into the Avatar State, then proceeds to conquer Ba Sing Sei with her recently [[FaceHeelTurn face heel-turned]] brother Zuko. (Although, fortunately, before season three, Aang [[IGotBetter got better.)]]]]

* ''{{Gilgamesh}}''... [[XJustX Just]] ''{{Gilgamesh}}''.

** The end of the first ''DarkTower'' book, ''The Gunslinger''. [[spoiler:Roland is forced to choose between dropping Jake to his death or catching the man in black. Roland chooses to drop Jake. While he does catch the bad guy, one can argue that he destroyed himself doing so.]] Especially if you read it when it was released originally and did not know there would be sequels.