Romanov: Is it done, Yuri?
Yuri: No, Comrade Premier... it has only begun.
Yuri: No, Comrade Premier... it has only begun.
"It's over!"
"No... it's only just begun!"
Exactly What It Says on the Tin. This is stock phrase and possibly the most obvious comeback to someone telling you that your plans/goals/dreams are over. Over? No, they're not. They've only just begun.
Sometimes used by villains before revealing the next stage of their Evil Plan, sometimes used by heroes before standing back up and dealing a righteous ass-whooping, sometimes used by other people for... ...stuff.
Compare The War Has Just Begun, My Death Is Just the Beginning.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Sailor Moon: In episode "The Purity Chalice" (Cloverway American dub):
Mimet: You've brought great disgrace to the honorable Bad Behavior Bureau. You must turn in your skull keychain and Fire Buster immediately.
Eugeal: Not a chance! The fight has only just begun, you back-stabbing weasel! - Yubisaki Milk Tea: Touko and Yuki are playing basketball:
Touko: Basket number 8! You have zero! That was a "Drive fake"! Should we better stop?
Yuki: No, not yet! I first begin now! - Neon Genesis Evangelion: As Gendo and Fuyutsuki watch the berserk Eva Unit-01 howling against celling of the Geofront:
Fuyutsuki: Was this also part of your script, Commander Ikari? It's begun, hasn't it?
Gendo: Yes. It all starts now.
Audio Play
- Big Finish Doctor Who
- In I, Davros: Innocence, a young Davros hears the air raid siren and asks his mother if The End Is Nigh. His mother replies with this trope.
- In I, Davros: Guilt, Davros kills the Supremo and the Council of Twelve after they get in the way of his plan to create the Daleks.
Supremo: This...isn't...over...Davros...(dies)Davros: How right you are, Supremo. How right...you are!
Comic Books
- Supergirl:
- Several Silver Age Supergirl's enemies uttered this sentence or some variant after being defeated for first time.
- In Adventure Comics #397 Kara gives 'Nasty' Luthor and her bullying squad a lesson, after which she warns that she will get tougher the next time she catches them hurting someone. 'Nasty' mutters Supergirl can count on there being a next time.
- Starfire's Revenge: After Supergirl captures Starfire (no relation to the female Teen Titan), and her gang, the villainess assures "This is only the beginning". Ironically, Starfire would never be seen again.
- Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #24:
Jeyra Entinn: You won this round, Legionnaries... But this is only the beginning...!
Cosmic Boy: Wow. Is there some super-villain book of quotes they all work off of? - Escape from the Phantom Zone: After sneaking out of a Project Cadmus' secret base, Batgirl openly says Supergirl she has the feeling that their stealth mission has only been the beginning of their adventure, and they will soon meet Psi again.
- Judge Dredd: A second-hand source reports that during the Necropolis crisis, the Dark Judges held daily meetings to tabulate the number of citizens that had been exterminated or died that day. Invariably, Judge Death replied "Only the beginning!"
Fan Works
- Once More with Feeling: After Shinji has destroyed Sachiel, Misato reassures him that it is over. Meanwhile Shinji thinks this is only the beginning.
"Its okay" Misato assured him over the comlink. "We'll have you out of there in a couple of minutes…Shinji, Shinji you did great out there, its all over".
No Misato Shinji thought as he leaned back to rest in his command chair, closing his eyes as he listened to the soothing hum of the entry plugs life support systems.
This has just begun.
It probably would have worried him to know his Father was thinking much the same of the Captain's statement as he gave the main screen a smirk, before turning and walking out of the command center.
Films — Animated
- In Anastasia, when Sophie refers to Anya and Dimitri's elopement as 'the perfect ending', the Empress corrects her, saying 'No, it's a perfect beginning.'
- Zira says this to Simba in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
Simba: Take him and get out. We're finished here.
Zira: Oh no, Simba. We have barely begun. (evil chuckle)
Films — Live-Action
- The evil hotel room 1408 mocks Enslin through the radio by playing The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" repeatedly.
- Die Hard 2:
Trudeau: McClane, is this their final response?
John McClane: No. This is only the beginning. - Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Max refuses to give Blaster the Coup de Grâce after discovering the Giant Mook is actually a drooling idiot. Master is furious when he realises Max has been hired by Aunty Entity to kill Blaster, thus removing his muscle.
Master: No more methane! This place, finished!
Ironbar: No little man. We've only just begun. (shoots Blaster) - In None Shall Escape (a 1944 film about a trial against a Nazi officer following the end of the then-ongoing second world war, told via flashbacks from the points of view of the witnesses at the trial), Jan says this to Dr. Matek about the defeat of the Polish army in the context of the war against the Nazis:
"You think the war is over because our army has been defeated. No, the war has just begun."
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones::
- When Dooku escapes Geonosis, he says this to Yoda:
Dooku: This is just the beginning!
- The last lines of the film:
Obi-Wan: I have to admit that without the clones, it would have not been a victory.
Yoda: Victory? Victory you say? Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun the Clone War has.
- When Dooku escapes Geonosis, he says this to Yoda:
- Thor: Ragnarok: Near the beginning, Thor attempts to assure his father Odin that he stopped Ragnarok because he killed Surtur but Odin answers that Ragnarok has already begun.
Literature
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Double-subverted. Ironically, said in a flashback:
Arthur Dayne: And now it begins. (draws his sword)
Eddard Stark: (regretfully) No. Now it ends. - Also Catelyn Tully-Stark to little Robert Arryn.
- Double-subverted. Ironically, said in a flashback:
- Nyx says some variation of this in almost every book in The House of Night series.
Live-Action TV
- The advertisements for American Chopper Senior vs. Junior start with "What looked like the end...was only the beginning!"
- In the last episode of the first season of Robin of Sherwood, the Sheriff managed to surround and kill Robin Hood ... and then the new Robin Hood showed up to rescue some of Robin's men. Dismayed, the Sheriff said, "Just as I'd begun to believe it was all over. It's not over. It'll never be over."
- 24 season 7 has Jonas Hodges saying something along these lines as he gets arrested, because he was only one member of a much larger group of villains.
- In The Aquabats! Super Show! episode "Cobraman!":
MC Bat Commander: The game is over!
Carl: Oh, but the game has only just begun! Ha ha ha, (flips some switches) TECHNOLOGY! - Babylon 5 episode Into the Fire:
Morden: You just made a mistake, Londo! Even if my associates lose this war they have allies! They'll make sure Centauri Prime pays the price for what you've done here today!.Mollari: What I have done?! Oh, Mr. Morden, I have not even started with you yet.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Drusilla (as a seer) appears to foretell the coming of Angelus this way.
Angel: This can't go on, Drusilla. It's gotta end.
Drusilla: Oh, no, my pet. This is just the beginning.- Tara in a dream, and Dracula in the following episode, both tell Buffy, "You think you know who you are, what's to come. You haven't even begun", referring to what trials she'll undergo and what she'll find out about herself.
- Person of Interest.
- In "Foe", former Stasi hitman Ulrich Kohl has captured John Reese and is torturing him.
Kohl: I don't know who you are or how you know to be here, but this is just the beginning.
- In the episode that introduces criminal mastermind Elias, The Dragon reports to him that they've finished their purge of the local Russian Mafiya bosses.
"Scarface" Marconi: Boss, it's done.
Carl Elias: Nah, it's just beginning. Veni, vidi, vici. - The Big Storm Episode "Proteus" involves Harold Finch and John Reese stuck on an island during a storm, trying to identify among several other people trapped there which one is a serial killer. They succeed of course, but the end of the storm does not mean the end of their troubles, as the Benevolent A.I. that gives them their information has started to malfunction.
Reese: At least the storm is passing.
Finch: No, Mr. Reese, I have a feeling that it's just beginning.
- In "Foe", former Stasi hitman Ulrich Kohl has captured John Reese and is torturing him.
- Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond. Commander Ian Fleming wants to investigate the German nuclear program. Naval Intelligence tells him not to bother as the war in Europe will soon be over. Fleming gives this trope in a clear reference to the upcoming Cold War with the Soviet Union, whose advancing troops are likely to seize the intelligence for themselves. Interestingly, in real life Fleming was ultimately proven wrong, at least about the Nazi nuclear program; they were decades behind the Manhattan Project and what the Soviets did manage to seize was of little value.
- The Professionals ("Private Madness Public Danger"). When CI5 captures the Villain of the Week, Cowley tells him it's all over. The man shouts back, "All over? IT HASN'T EVEN BEGUN YET!" as he's just activated a Time Bomb.
- In Jesus (1999), Satan says this almost word-for-word after his temptations in the desert fail to turn Jesus from his mission. (They do meet again the night before Jesus is crucified.)
"See you again, Jesus. It's only just begun."
Video Games
- Batman: Arkham Asylum has Batman and the Joker going back and forth with this.
Batman: It's over, Joker.
Joker: Over? Why, my dear delusional Dark Knight, it hasn't even begun. - Gradius's final bosses are this and total liars about it.
- "DE BADDLE HAS JUSD BEGUNNN!" It's left up to interpretation if the broken English is supposed to represent Sigma's utter Sanity Slippage by that point, the "Blind Idiot" Translation, or some combination thereof.
- The END Begins End of God of War 2, but the battle for Olympus has just begun
- Used in Resident Evil 5:
Chris: It's over, Wesker!Wesker: Over? I'm just getting started! (infects himself with Uroboros)
- From Halo: Combat Evolved:
Cortana: Halo, it's finished...Master Chief: No. I think we're just getting started.
- Book-ended at the conclusion of Halo 3, except this time... :
Cortana: But you did it. Truth and the Covenant, the Flood. It's finished.Master Chief: It's finished. - From Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, when the Soviets have shut down the entire US Missile Command.
Romanov: Is it done, Yuri?Yuri: No, Comrade Premier, it has only begun.
- Vlad says this in Max Payne 2, after Alfred Woden protests that the killing has gone on long enough.
- Sean Devlin says this at the end of The Saboteur.
Veronique: Is it over?Sean: No, it's not over. I'm just getting started.
- "It has only begun" is a recurring phrase, bordering on Arc Words, in Mortal Kombat.
- Total War: Warhammer II; in the trailer for the Dark Elves, Morathi declares that she and her son Malekith have their revenge on the High Elves after razing one of their port cities. Malekith dismisses her and says he's "only begun" as he eyes the Great Vortex at the center of Ulthuan.
Web Animation
- RWBY: Unusually given by the villain when said villain is actually winning. The end of Volume 3 saw all the previous plot threads and evil schemes by the villains come together at once, resulting in the the villains pretty much winning and the heroes being scattered (see the RWBY entry under Darkest Hour for details), only for the Greater-Scope Villain the previous villains work for to finally make an appearance and reveal that her Evil Plan is just getting started.
Salem: This was just the opening move. It's the beginning of the end Ozpin. And I can't wait to watch you burn.
Webcomics
- Wanda says this to Parson in Erfworld, at the end of Book 1.
Western Animation
- In Teen Titans, Robin and Slade have this exchange at one point.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: While trying to get their third brother back, one of the two Duck Brothers in "The Duck Brothers" exclaims "We have not yet begun to fight!".
- In Silverwing, when Goth got himself electrocuted
Marina: It's over, Shade.Shade: (grimly) No, it's just begun.
- Cow and Chicken: In episode "Super Model Cow", the Red Guy made Cow a supermodel. However, her fame was short-lived, and she was desperate enough to feel it again she agreed to sing at Red's "Milky Bar". After Chicken rescued her, she thought it was over but Chicken, as he watched a poster of his beak with the writing "Just Cluck It", said it was only the beginning.
- Samurai Jack: In Jack and the Lava Monster, Jack's opponent knocks him down, and pleads with him to fight as hard as he can.
Jack: "Do not worry. I have not yet begun to fight."
Real Life
- Slight variant: At the Battle of Flamborough Head during the Revolutionary War, when Captain John Paul Jones was asked if he intended to surrender, his famous response was "I have not yet begun to fight!"
- After the rout of the Afrika Korps at Alamein, Winston Churchill said "Now this is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
- Most likely, in the time it takes you to read this sentence, more content will have been added to this wiki. Now, compound that out for however far into the future people will still read and contribute to this wiki.
