Line #15 PlayingWith/PyrrhicVictory


1	'''Basic Trope''': Victory at a catastrophic cost.
2	* '''Straight''': [[TheHero Bob]] and his friends manage to stop [[BigBad Emperor Evulz]]'s EvilPlan, but several of his friends die in the attempt, and Evulz manages to escape and will undoubtedly cause problems again in the future.
3	* '''Exaggerated''':
4	** [[TheHero Bob]] and his friends manage to stop [[BigBad Emperor Evulz]]'s evil plans, but all of Bob's friends and family die in the attempt, and Bob himself [[DyingAlone dies a lonely and miserably slow death]] as he bleeds out in the mud on a battlefield. And barely a week passes before Emperor Evulz has rebuilt his strength and makes another attempt at his EvilPlan.
5	** Bob and his friends stop Emperor Evulz from taking over the world and causing a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum, and Evulz is KilledOffForReal, but they all die to a man and a big chunk of the continent they are standing on becomes victim to a severe ecological disaster. The generations to come, in the midst of their ''Film/MadMax''-style hand-to-foot existence, curse the heroes' names alongside Evulz's.
6	* '''Downplayed''':
7	** Bob becomes a HeroWithBadPublicity as a result of stopping Emperor Evulz's plan.
8	** WonTheWarLostThePeace
9	** Bob finally beats a NintendoHard game after dozens of tries, but at that point he's so done with it that he feels no satisfaction and just wishes he had given up earlier instead of spending all that time raging at a game he wasn't enjoying.
10	** Alice wins the race but pulls a hamstring.
11	* '''Justified''':
12	** It was all part of Emperor Evulz's XanatosGambit against Bob.
13	** The GodzillaThreshold had been crossed.
14	** [[DidntThinkThisThrough Bob didn't think things through]].
15	** [[TaxmanTakesTheWinnings Expenses and taxes]] put Bob's net profit [[ExaggeratedTrope in the negative]].
16	** TheMole had crippled Bob's side from within, and it really handicaps Bob and company's ability to fight Evulz. If not for that, they would have had a straight victory with minimal losses.
17	* '''Inverted''':
18	** Bob and his friends end up better off after SavingTheWorld.
19	** Though Bob and his party [[YouCantThwartStageOne utterly lost their first fight against Evulz]] and were forced to flee for their dear lives, they are alive and well nonetheless, and the years of exile [[BackFromTheBrink gave them an opportunity]] to build TheAlliance of an epic scale and gain tons of [[MiseryBuildsCharacter personal]] and [[TookALevelInBadass combat experience]]. Evulz, in the meantime, can hardly control the country due to problems with soaring LaResistance and [[EnemyCivilWar infighting between her generals and warlords]]. When Evulz finally dies, soon [[RightfulKingReturns Bob's mates triumphantly come back and resume ruling the realm]]. In the end, Bob was a VictoriousLoser, and their initial defeat a NecessaryFail.
20	* '''Subverted''': [[TheUnfettered Bob]] doesn't care about how much it cost, he just cares about winning.
21	* '''Double Subverted''': ...But he wonders WasItReallyWorthIt?
22	* '''Parodied''':
23	** Bob manages to catch a mouse that was bothering him, but in the process he completely destroys his house.
24	** Alice wins the track race, but does after being stripped naked and has photos of her go viral later.
25	* '''Averted''': The victory, if any, is clear-cut and the victors do not lose too much in the process.
26	* '''Enforced''':
27	** The [[ExecutiveMeddling execs]] believe that [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsforKids unambiguously happy endings are unrealistic]] and insist that Bob must defeat Evulz at great personal cost.
28	** Bob was TheScrappy in the original series, so the sequel has him die in his final victory, setting up the near-apocalyptic conditions that the new villain Mallory uses to her advantage.
29	** [[BrutalHonesty The producers aren't sugarcoating the historic event being retold.]]
30	** DoomedByCanon- ''Tropewars I'' started with the good times enjoyed at the end of ''Tropewars II'' ending shortly after they started.
31	* '''Lampshaded''': "Well, technically you have won Bob. But what are you gonna do with this victory, now that you have lost everything to have it?"
32	* '''Invoked''':
33	** VictoryIsBoring
34	** Emperor Evulz [[GenreSavvy knows from the start]] that he's not going to win, so she at least tries to screw the heroes over as much as possible before her [[YouCantFightFate inevitable defeat]].
35	** Bob [[AlreadyTheCase has already lost everything]]. He goes after Evulz in one last RoaringRampageOfRevenge to claw a Pyrrhic victory out of what would have been a full-blown DownerEnding.
36	* '''Exploited''': Every time she meets Bob after this first defeat, Emperor Evulz [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating rubs Bob's "victory" in his face]].
37	* '''Defied''':
38	** Bob recognizes that a frontal assault would be successful, but at a great cost. Instead, he settles for a siege and a mutually-disadvantageous stalemate so as to get a VictoryByEndurance.
39	** Bob surrenders, at least for the time being, rather than attempting to defeat Emperor Evulz when he knows victory can only come at the expense of his friends or another disaster that he couldn't possibly repair afterwards.
40	* '''Discussed''':
41	-->"If you're going to lose that much, does it really count as a victory?"\
42	"[[TheUnfettered Winning is all that matters]] -- [[WeHaveReserves we can rebuild afterwards]]."
43	* '''Conversed''':
44	-->"Can't the heroes in this show win without something horrible happening for once?"\
45	"Given how cynical this show is, I highly doubt it."
46	* '''Implied''': The story [[NoEnding ends immediately after Bob's victory]], leaving the audience to figure out [[DownerEnding what will happen to the heroes]].
47	* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob is oblivious to the consequences of his actions, even though the others keep telling him "it'll go horribly wrong".
48	* '''Played For Drama''':
49	** [[AMillionIsAStatistic Bob doesn't care at all about the other heroes' deaths]], and is thus revealed to be extremely selfish and a megalomaniac.
50	** Against all odds, Bob won the epic final battle against Emperor Evulz, but several close friends and allies [[HeroicSacrifice gave their lives]] in order to make his victory possible. Even though the world is at peace and Bob is celebrated as a hero, he [[SurvivorsGuilt is haunted by those losses, unable to move on or enjoy the peace he helped achieve]].
51	* '''Deconstructed''': Bob's "victory" costs so much that the public decides that things would have been better if they had just let Evulz win, and he is hanged for treason.
52	* '''Reconstructed''': Bob's "victory" may have cost him everything, but it's still better than Evulz winning, and Bob mourns his losses while training the next generation to surpass him so they will score a more decisive victory in the future. Ultimately, the "victory" is WorthIt.
53	----
54	Enjoy your PyrrhicVictory while you can, before you enjoy paying for all that it cost you.
55	----
56	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:

Context PlayingWith / PyrrhicVictory