History Main / VictoryIsBoring

* VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog is prone to this. For instance, in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', he plans to take another vacation after his quest ends and ends up running off at the end of the game.

-->'''Nerd:''' ''(bleeding out, on the verge of death)'' No more shitty games. ... No more ''[[Film/TheKarateKid Karate Kid]]''? ... No more ''Film/TopGun''? ... No more ''VideoGame/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}''? ... No more ''[[Series/TheAddamsFamily Fester's Quest]]''? ... No more UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy? ... No more ''Film/DickTracy''? ... No more ''[[Literature/LittleRedRidingHood Little Red]] [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct Hood]]''? ... No more ''[[VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]''? ... I won't fucking '''''HAVE IT!''''' ''(gets HeroicSecondWind)''

* In the episode of ''WebVideo/TheAnnoyingOrange'' where Orange and Pear go to England and (predictably) meet an expy of Sherlock Holmes, the culprit turns out to be Watson all along. He was trying to help Holmes relive the thrill of the chase by pretending to be a criminal. The world of Annoying Orange being what it is, both Holmes and Watson become supervillains by the end of the episode and promptly begin to turn London into a smoldering wasteland using a death ray.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', we have The Ebony Warrior, an incredibly powerful foe that can only be battled when the Dragonborn has reached level 80 or over. The Ebony Warrior explains that he has done so many legendary deeds and has grown so mighty that nothing is able to pose a worthy challenge to him (the Dragonborn him/herself is liable to feel the same way by level 80). He sees the Dragonborn as his last remaining WorthyOpponent and the only one who can give him the honorable death in battle he needs to enter Sovngarde.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E28ANicePlaceToVisit A Nice Place to Visit]]", a deceased crook having been mistakenly sent to heaven soon becomes bored and restless from getting everything just handed to him, feeling that he is getting everything too easily for him to really appreciate it, so much so he asks to go to "the other place." [[spoiler:Of course, [[ThisIsntHeaven he's already there]].]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E116OfLateIThinkOfCliffordville Of Late I Think of Cliffordville]]" an evil bastard CEO quotes the Alexander line when he finds himself bored with his success. He ends up making a DealWithTheDevil to go back in time to when he was a young man so that he can have the fun of re-conquering the world. (Hilariously, he has to pay the devil in cash because the devil ''already'' has his soul.) This being ''The Twilight Zone'', things [[ReadTheFinePrint don't end well]] for him.

* In ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' this is the Man in Black's dark motive: after thirty years of being able to rape, murder, and torture the Hosts of the park, he's become bored and seeks the Maze to find the ultimate rival, a Host that can properly fight back. [[spoiler: When the Hosts gain sentience and begin their massacre of the park's guests, his response is to grin gleefully.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Man Who Killed Batman", Joker is clearly unconvinced of his nemesis' demise and goes about robbing a diamond store to force Batman to come thwart him. After a standoff several hours long, he grudgingly admits his greatest foe is gone and that [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction crime is no more fun]] [[AntagonistInMourning without him.]] He orders his gang to take nothing and leaves empty-handed.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': When [[GodOfEvil Discord]] [[WeUsedToBeFriends breaks the friendship between the mane cast]] and finally demoralizes Twilight Sparkle so much that [[DespairEventHorizon she gives up]], at first it looks like he's not having any fun without opposition. But then he once again displays [[FortheEvulz just how sadistic he is]] when he reveals his ''elation'' at Twilight's misery, and immediately goes back to [[WorldGoneMad raining]] [[RealityIsOutToLunch chaos]] (and [[MemeticMutation chocolate rain]]) [[SugarApocalypse upon Equestria]].

** Turns out in the episode "Smug Alert" that without Kyle to rip on, Cartman gets pretty bored.
** Averted in "Cartmanland," however. When Cartman gets what he's always wanted his whole life, a theme park all to himself, Kyle figures Cartman will bore of it before long. Kyle turns out to be wrong, however, as Cartman's ecstatic joy never ever slows down, though in part because he knows he succeeded where Kyle did not, and he derives literally endless joy in feeling that way.

** Also applies to the hero himself, Metro Man, who was [[spoiler:FakingTheDead as he had gotten tired of defeating Megamind over and over.]]

** In the SeriesFinale, after 104 days initiating his not-so-evil plans to take over the Tri-State Area that invariably fail, the show's {{Big Bad}} Dr. Doofenshmirtz finally formulates a really brilliant one by creating a political position known as Tri-State Governor and successfully getting himself elected for the office. To do so, Doof sets up 30 traps to keep Perry busy, and after winning the election, he takes the opportunity to sign a law forbidding any agent from thwarting him until his term is over, leaving Perry depressed. However, his daughter Vanessa points out that similar to Doof's HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood, [[VictoryIsBoring his victory didn't bring him any happiness at all]]. Realizing now that [[BeingEvilSucks it's not worth it]], Doof [[HeelFaceTurn decides to retire from evil]].

* ''Literature/TheWormOuroboros'': [[spoiler:The protagonists win, but find nothing else interesting for them to do after their victory. They wish for the conflict to happen all over again, causing the entire thing to start over again. [[{{Foreshadowing}} This is the purpose of the title]], as the Ouroboros is a symbol of a snake or dragon eating its own tail, symbolizing cyclicality.]]

* MarvelUniverse ''ComicBook/SecretWarsII'', issue #3. The Beyonder takes mental control of every living thing on Earth, then gets bored and releases them.

* ''Fanfic/ThroughHerEyes'': Pyrrha's lack of opponents that could give her any real challenge in her arena days has given her this attitude. When she learns that Ruby beat her to second place in the first test rankings (Weiss being first) by a three-point difference in their History test, she's ''excited'' at having too put in the extra effort, with a feral smile. She also asks Ruby to train with her and teach her how to wield a scythe, a weapon aknowledged InUniverse to be very hard to master. [[spoiler: This is also why she enjoys the fight against the berserk Ruby in the original story so much, it was more challenging than any fight she'd had before]].

* ''Literature/TimeScout'': Skeeter's life post HeelFaceTurn is rather disappointing. It comes to a head: You just beat up a knife-wielding thug and handed him to the cops! You just carried the woman he was beating to the hospital, receiving warm congratulations! You just handed a truant kid over to the cops and felt a connection with a formerly antagonistic cop! You just got to stand up to a bigot! You ... just got fired. Now what?

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Lucifer goes through one of these when he finally wins out and ascends to Heaven, essentially taking over and running both Heaven ''and'' Hell. It turns out he's so bored he can't even be bothered to sit on the throne and be worshipped. He finds interacting with the angels (who are so reduced in number and without purpose that they're constantly seeking direction) unbelieveably annoying, hates answering prayers because they're all so mundane, and hates the demons (which he created) even more.

** In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'', Ratchet is feeling this way again. At the beginning of the game, he says that he's not even sure if he still counts as a hero since it's been at least [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2016 five years]] since he's done anything heroic. Later, this is realized by [[spoiler: Emperor Nefarious, the more successful AlternateUniverse version of recurring villain Dr. Nefarious. After achiving what he thinks is total victory, he cuts his own celebration short because he doesn't feel any different. [[IgnoredEpiphany Of course, rather than learn anything from this or Dr. Nefarious pointing out his problem directly,]] Emperor Nefarious decides the reason he isn't happy is because he hasn't completely won by conquering the multiverse.]]

** [[spoiler: After The KOT levies a new email tax and places Strong Bad under house arrest, Strong Bad launches a coup to dethrone The KOT. After rallying the people of Free Country USA to his cause and succeding in said dethroning, Strong Bad realizes [[GoneHorriblyRight he is now stuck in the King of Town's castle with responsibilities, subjects, and food he does not want]]. Ultimately he decides to goad the KOT to retake his throne.]]

* Among the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' community, there are a lot of complaints about fans of the Ultramarines RunningTheAsylum, causing the official lore to constantly show the Ultramarines doing almost everything important, and being wildly succesful at everything. ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' plays with this, as the Ultramarines are all portrayed as somewhere between TheAce and MarySue... except their commander Calgar. He is strongly hinted to have made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with the Chaos Gods]] to make the chapter always succesful, and he is permanently frustrated with the effortless success his chapter has on even blatantly impossible missions, not to mention his underlings' resulting egos.

-->'''Calgar:''' [[InelegantBlubbering Waah!]] Nothing is fun anymore!

-->'''Nerd:''' ''(bleeding out, on the verge of death)'' No more shitty games. ... No more ''[[Film/TheKarateKid Karate Kid]]''? ... No more ''Film/TopGun''? ... No more ''VideoGame/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}''? ... No more ''[[Series/TheAddamsFamily Fester's Quest]]''? ... No more UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy? ... No more ''Film/DickTracy''? ... No more ''[[Literature/LittleRedRidingHood Little Red]] [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct Hood]]''? ... No more ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHyde''? ... I won't fucking '''''HAVE IT!''''' ''(gets HeroicSecondWind)''

** Ash ''himself'' eventually admits to feeling this way in [[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesAimToBeAPokemonMaster the final episode]] [[spoiler:after becoming world monarch, stating that he doesn't really feel like a Champion and how it wasn't his actual goal when it came to wanting ToBeAMaster. He then comes to realize that ItsTheJourneyThatCounts and goes WalkingTheEarth.]]

* "Level Clear!" by Creator/TomCardy centers around [[Franchise/SuperMarioBrothers a hero]] who finishes his quest and finds that everything he does after is [[GroundhogDayLoop impermanent]] and unsatisfying.

The {{Trope Namer|s}} is Mai from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', who proclaims the phrase after catching siblings Sokka and Katara during second season episode "The Chase".

* ''WebAnimation/{{Mappy}}'': Goro hired his nemesis Mappy to work at his company so he can try to foil the crime that he's planning. Why? Goro misses him.