Pyrrhic Victories in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- This
fanmade 1 Minute Melee between Jasmine and Numbuh 4 ends up this way for the victor. While Jasmine does beat Numbuh 4 in the fight, her leg is broken, the island is blown up, and her hat is stolen as a trophy. - Abberation (Worm): While The Simurgh is killed, they manage to reveal Alexandria's identity as Chief Director Costa-Brown in their final moments.
- Conquest: When Halsey claims that his fleet can defeat the Empire at Earth, Picard points out that his tactics of abandoning member systems in order to cluster his forces together have made the Federation government so unpopular that worlds are seceding from it en masse. Even if he successfully beats back the Empire, they can just build another fleet; the Federation cannot.
- Happens as an Offscreen Moment of Awesome in Harry and the Shipgirls. Five Abyssal Fleets attacked the Northern Ocean Princess in Unalaska after Hoppou made it quite clear that she refused to participate in their plans for the genocide of humanity. While those five fleets may have technically won the battle, it was at a cost of six of them sinking for a single member of Hoppou's fleet, meaning that after the battle was over, it was a simple matter for the shipgirls to mop up the remainder of their forces. What's more, they were unable to harm the people of Unalaska, the survivors were able to eventually rebuild their forces, and Hoppou herself survived and was adopted by none other than Nagato of the Big Seven, completely invalidating their victory.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
- Chloe's classmates in 5-E, led by Sara Diktalyis and Yeardley Lobelia, made her life a living hell out of jealousy over her being the daughter of the local Pokémon Professor. This reached the point of her running away from home after being pressured to fight Ash, not wanting to face her classmates after losing to the Alola Champion (the sequel reveals that they pressured her because she knew that she would lose). Near the end of Act 1, they gloat to her little brother about all the ways they tormented, tortured, and humiliated her, only to learn that their words were caught on camera. Not only do they get expelled, the video goes viral, their families are humiliated and ashamed... and all of this comes before Parker unleashes the Unown. When it's all said and done, Sara has no choice but to enter foster care, Yeardley has been raked over the coals for his misogyny, and the rest are struggling to put their lives back together by the time of the sequel.
- The Apex crippled, murdered, destroyed, and did everything they could in order to be at the top, to have high numbers, to be strong. The Fog Car destroys their philosophy with all the subtlety of a donut holer to the face, as it forces them to recognize that they were supposed to be trying to leave the whole time, but considered their fun to be more important than returning to their families, friends, and homes. Grace is exposed as someone who was too proud to admit that she knew she was wrong, Simon is turned into a monster and drowned by what remains of another lost member. Come the sequel, the remnants of the Apex are completely separated, and are being hunted down by the same denizens they once loved to torture and 'wheel'.
- Chloe spent most of the first story up until the end of the second arc fearing that nothing would have changed by the time she gets off the train and wanting to see the people she hated (her bullies, father, Goh, etc) punished for 'not accepting her' note . When she sends Parker a email stating that she will get back onto the Train and stay there if all of Vermillion doesn’t work to earn her forgiveness, he decides to take things into his own hands once the Unown awakens, resulting in several people traumatized, her family and her own’s home and reputation ruined (the latter occurring since people start piecing together just how bratty Chloe really was with her threats and demands) and Miss April and Goh nearly ending up dead from suicide. In the end, Chloe did get her wish of having things change and of having the people she hated punished, but she’s left without her brother or her home and instead with the bitter truth of how much of an spiteful entitled brat she was, how much harm she caused to everyone with her demands (which nearly resulted in several deaths) and the fact that the majority of the people now hate her because of it and won’t put up with her past behaviour anymore.
- In Metal Gear: Green, after being forced to accept a deal with Snake, the African clusterfuck is painted as this to the public. An attack on villains that resulted in 10,000 heroes killed and nearly 12,000 or more being missing. In reality, the 12,000 captured heroes would later defect to the MSF when it became clear the HPSC left them to die.
- This is largely the viewpoint after the Steel Sabers arc in My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator for both the heroes and villains. For the heroes, no dead hostages and 48 heroes requiring hospitalization (loads better than 48 dead heroes), but All Might is down to an hour a day and everyone needs therapy and the HPSC cannot cover the clusterfuck up. For the LOV, they managed to snag the blueprints for the QAH, but the Steel Sabers are wiped out, Wolfram's group is dead and now they're on the Slayer's radar, with it being clear that the Slayer intends to give a Cruel and Unusual Death to all of them, starting with Curator and the Volcano Thieves first.
- In Necessary to Win, Ceylon, discontent with what she believes to be overly lenient policies by her predecessor as St. Gloriana's commander, becomes very harsh in her leadership of the team, to the point of being abusive. The team advances to the semifinals, but is defeated as a result of one of Ceylon's mistakes, and partly the result of a mistake made by one of her panicking subordinates; Ceylon tries to scapegoat the latter for what happened. In the end, Ceylon leaves the school as a pariah and leaves high school feeling empty.
- Common in The Night Unfurls.
- The Good Hunter obtaining the "Childhood's Beginning" ending in Bloodborne is revealed to be this. He Surpassed the Teacher, slain the Moon Presence, ended the Night of the Hunt, and ascended to the status of great one while retaining his mind. Unparalleled, none can stop him. Pretty cool, except his psyche has become so, so battered — the horrific memories of Yharnam automatically emerge whenever the guy is idle. Since Kyril is immortal, the Hunt is never going to go away any time soon. Even more, he befriended several survivors and fought with his fellow hunters, with high hopes that they would all triumph, only for him to witness every single one of them dying or losing their minds. As for Yharnam, the city itself is ruined beyond repair, but it would certainly be not the last region to be condemned to the same fate.
- Ansur Arc: The Seven Shields Alliance successfully repels the Black Dogs from Ansur and regains control over the territory. Besides, its criminal elements are expected to diminish for Kyril has offed the criminal families responsible. However, the high death toll and property damage means that relief efforts are going to take quite a while. Maia, technical ruler of Ansur, suffers a Rape as Drama, and even though an interim council of nobility had been established to rule over the city, it remains in a precarious position.
- Rad Arc: The most severe one. Kyril and his men manage to prevail against the mutated Elite Mooks while averting a possible case of Redshirt Army. Rad is retaken, which would be good if not for the fact that the fortress city is so ravaged that it's considered cursed. The majority of civilians were mutated into Elite Mooks, so they end up mercy-killed, all of them. Those who are lucky enough to come out in one piece would lose their home forever. Luu-Luu's death strikes a blow against the Seven Shields, while Shamuhaza, the one responsible for what happened to Rad and its people, escapes retribution, which definitely causes more problems in the long run. The very fact that he gained knowledge from The Eldritch Truth means that the threat of a Beast Plague 2.0 or similar Apocalypse How is still looming.
- Hunt for Mandeville Arc: John Mandeville, the major sponsor of the rebellion in Ken, plus other cronies are in chains, expected to be executed in the near future. With the reveal that House Mandeville is heavily involved in the slave trade and trafficking of dark elves, the current patriarch being under arrest means the protagonists have made substantial progress in combating slavery and eliminating traitorous elements. On the other hand, the capital of Eostia suffered horrendous damage due to the rebellion, as per the scribes' records, with the eastern district still in a state of chaos. Chloe is unresponsive as a result of her Cold-Blooded Torture at Mandeville's hands, while her liege lady Olga is suffering a serious Heroic BSoD because of this.
- In Power Rangers Mythos, this term essentially applies after some of the Mythos Rangers' victories over the alien alchemist Avanth, such as intercepting a convoy transporting cows to Avanth for unknown reasons or saving the employees of a local news station that tried to oppose Avanth's control of the media; such victories only achieve a short-term goal while leaving Avanth to pursue his own long-term plans.
- In Raise Your Voice Against Liars, the Principal Election is resolved this way: Ms. Bustier wins, but her change of heart makes her break down and confess her crimes onstage. She then gets Akumatized, followed by her arrest post-battle, ensuring she can't serve as the principal despite her victory.
- Remnant Inferis: DOOM:
- Ozpin tells the Slayer that if he can land one hit on him, he can leave Beacon grounds and do whatever he wants. While Ozpin stalemates the Slayer, he takes several hits, so he lost his bet and has to give the Slayer free reign over where he goes.
- The first victory for the Night Sentinels during the defense of Argent D'Nur's capital was described as this in the codex entry before Chapter 5.
- A Song of Ice, Fire and Heart: Robert's rebellion came to a victory and resulted in him being crowned king, but the woman he loved and for whom he fought died, and Ventus whom he considered a brother and fought alongside had vanished after the death of Rhaegar's wife and children being condoned by Robert.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Helen ends up finally getting Bitsy's money after years of putting up with her crap. However, she gets it after the Kingpin beats Bitsy to death, which subsequently leaves her too traumatized to revel in her newfound wealth.
- The Miraculous Ladybug/Zootopia crossover Ultrasonic has Ladybug and Chat Noir's fight with the Chemist, which ends with the akuma defeated and purified, but the Black Cat Miraculous is lost, Adrien is killed, and Ladybug destroys her Lucky Charm in the process before she can repair any of the damage.
- The Weaver Option opens in the 45th Millennium with Chaos having won its long war against the Imperium. However, this has thoroughly exhausted all the races of the galaxy, meaning none of them are able to put up a fight when the full might of the Tyranids finally arrives and proceeds to wipe out everything remaining.
- In Wizard Runemaster, humanity (Harry Potter in particular) managed to drive the Burning Legion from Earth and convince them the planet wasn't worth conquering, all at the cost of roughly 90% of the human population after a twelve-year war.
- This is the end result of Dirty Sympathy. Phoenix manages to prove Kristoph guilty of poisoning Vera Misham and of forging the evidence that disbarred him and proved the jury system effective. The cost? He loses his apprentice, found out that he (the apprentice) and his lover committed a multitude of crimes, and learns that Kristoph was innocent of the crime that got him sent to jail in the first place.
- Among Us in Character ends this way: while the killer is caught, only three survivors remain, and one of them is revealed to have been infected by an alien parasite.
- All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if Tom ended up leading the Animorphs?", Tom dies early on, and this absence of a leader causes Marco to make a series of increasingly more brutal decisions. At the end, he saves Jake and wins the war... at the cost of thousands of other Yeerks and hosts, and humans are now forbidden from leaving Earth.
- When All Your Dreams Come True explores what would have happened if Prince Zuko had actually managed to capture Team Avatar. The results are nightmarish, with Sokka publicly lynched and his corpse put on display in a museum, Katara forced to spend the rest of her life fighting in a gladiator arena in order to bloody virgin troops, and Aang is bodily mutilated to the point where he can't threaten anyone, to the point where the last we hear of him is him having gone insane to the point where he begs his guards to let him out to feel the sun on his skin one last time. And the worst part for Zuko, aside from the guilt of seeing that happen? No one back home believes he actually captured the Avatar. They think Iroh did and then gave the credit to his incompetent nephew. The fic ends with Zuko escaping into a fantasy life where he made friends with Team Avatar, while outside in the real world the Fire Nation wins the war.
- Dominoes:
- Played With when Shinichi gambles on the notion that his friends will fail to keep a simple promise. Winning validates his worst fears, convincing him to dump Ran and break off their friendships. While this is incredibly painful for him, it also forces his 'friends' to confront how strained and distant their relationships had become, to the point that only Aoko and Kazuha are able to deny reality.
- Part 1 climaxes this way for everyone involved: Shinichi solved the case of the kidnapped children, saving Tokyo, and Kaito got the nullifying agent... but this all came at an immense cost.
- Discussed in God Save the Esteem. In this AU Helen is still a lawyer, but self-employed and The Quincy Punk. After a long debate with Jim Vitale, she admits that yes, if this case goes to court then his big, powerful law firm will probably win...but her case is strong enough that it will be a long, difficult trial, and them having such trouble against her will make them look stupid. After a moment of thought, he agrees to a settlement.
- I don't want to be a superhero: How earth-1970 Zack see his life. He reached the maximum level and became the new ruler of Apokolips but he spent so much time leveling up that he neglected his friends' growth and they died during the fight against Darkseid. Zack even thinks Darkseid won by turning his life into Hell.
- Dragonball Z: Legacies: In the Phantom Enemy Arc, Sentinel Buu successfully cements themselves as the "grand chancellor of the universe" and defeats the remaining Future Z-Fighters. But their triumph is tarnished when Bulma infects him with a nano-virus that prevents him from transferring his consciousness out of his body, then activates a bomb designed to wipe out all life in the universe, organic and synthetic alike. All Sentinel can do is furiously struggle as Super 17 restrains him, as he and everything he's accomplished is erased in a single blast.
- From Fake Dreams:
- Chapters 35 and 36 see Witch!Caster survive Shirou's assault on her temple, force him to reveal several trumps, keep him from rescuing Marjatta, steal command of Rider from him, and use Assassin to physically and emotionally attack him and Illya after taking one of Berserker's lives. Yet, she came out of the whole thing worse off than anyone; having to recover from a mortal wound given to her by Shirou, her plans pushed back, her workshop damaged, all of Assassin's leeway towards her gone in place of blatant hostility, and having used up all but one of her command seals, which leads to Shirou getting the last laugh after they've called a cease-fire when he points this out to everyone and says that he'll leave Bazett, Lancer, Rider, and Assassin at Ryudou Temple where she'll have to deal with them. Her position in the War is balancing on a knife's edge at this point, and she knows it. And those are only the things that she knows about. On top of all that, her actions have paved the way for a reconciliation between Shirou and Illya, meaning that she will soon be dealing with Saber and Berserker working together, she doesn't know that Luvia and Rin were spying on her and know just how precarious her situation is, and she's completely oblivious to the fact that she probably ticked off Merem when she killed the King of Rats. All in all, she loses more than anyone due to that battle and stands to lose even more because of it.
- Chapter 38 more or less confirms this, seeing as Illya agrees to team up with Saber for the time being, and Luvia and Rin grudgingly agree that their matchup is the one that is the least likely to blow up in everyone's face, compared to other options.
- Chapter 42 is definitely one. Gilgamesh is dead, but Shirou is completely drained, and Saber is pretty much spent, and there is a threat to the girls in the castle warranting roars from Berserker.
- Chapter 43 gives another. Kirei is dead, but Witch!Caster has stolen his seals. Illya's maids have been killed by Witch!Caster, Sakura is about to burst from absorbing Gilgamesh, and Merem had to break the fight to avoid further casualties/catastrophes and was forced to take over Kirei's position. Witch!Caster has STILL lost once again because with her being the only one caring for the Grail and because she made the stupid mistake of killing Kirei, she's effectively united everyone left against her and Merem can now secretly support Shirou from behind the scenes.
- Barring getting her wish coming true, this is precisely what Witch!Caster will settle for: if she dies or does not get her wish, then no one gets to be happy. This is because she figured Shirou's mindset. Averting this is the main drive for the protagonists, and the reason for the Gambit Pileup in Chapter 48.
- Chapters 35 and 36 see Witch!Caster survive Shirou's assault on her temple, force him to reveal several trumps, keep him from rescuing Marjatta, steal command of Rider from him, and use Assassin to physically and emotionally attack him and Illya after taking one of Berserker's lives. Yet, she came out of the whole thing worse off than anyone; having to recover from a mortal wound given to her by Shirou, her plans pushed back, her workshop damaged, all of Assassin's leeway towards her gone in place of blatant hostility, and having used up all but one of her command seals, which leads to Shirou getting the last laugh after they've called a cease-fire when he points this out to everyone and says that he'll leave Bazett, Lancer, Rider, and Assassin at Ryudou Temple where she'll have to deal with them. Her position in the War is balancing on a knife's edge at this point, and she knows it. And those are only the things that she knows about. On top of all that, her actions have paved the way for a reconciliation between Shirou and Illya, meaning that she will soon be dealing with Saber and Berserker working together, she doesn't know that Luvia and Rin were spying on her and know just how precarious her situation is, and she's completely oblivious to the fact that she probably ticked off Merem when she killed the King of Rats. All in all, she loses more than anyone due to that battle and stands to lose even more because of it.
- In The Fifth Act, when Angeal finds out that his illness is terminal and that Cloud's genetics might hold the secret for a cure. Angeal succeeds in kidnapping Cloud and sold him out to Hollander in order to find a cure. He then finds out that Hollander has no intention of curing him and fully intends to experiment on Cloud to find out what made Cloud superior. Then Hollander is killed and Cloud is kidnapped again with no cure to show for it. He betrayed Cloud's and his friends' trust, is now a fugitive, and has completely betrayed his ideals, and is still going to die.
- A Flower's Touch: Aerith realizes the war the Ancients fought against Jenova wasn't really won, they just managed to contain her while their civilization was all but destroyed.
- A Brighter Dark: The Battle of the Clearing becomes one for both sides.
- While Nohr wins the battle, Saizo and Kagero light a fire behind him, cutting off their advance army from the rest of their forces and preventing them from making any further conquests.
- On Hoshido's end, they manage to cut the main Nohrian army off from their advance force and keep them out of Hoshido, but several shoguns cite the damage dealt during the battle as an excuse to secede.
- In i'm giving you a nightcall, by shooting Fullmetal and saving General Hakuro, Roy Mustang finally gets the promotion he wanted so badly. Doing so let the dirty General Hakuro go unpunished and loses him his boyfriend just when he was going to tell Roy the truth about his superhero activities and tell him that he loved him back.
- In Raised by Jägers, one footnote claims that the trope name in Europan parlance is a reference to Agatha's ancestor Pyrrhus Heterodyne, who tended to invoke these in his foes and single-handedly embarrassed an entire generation of heroes.A Pyrrhic victory, in European parlance, refers to the inexplicable event in which a Spark defeats you even though he spent the entire battle dealing grievous damage only to himself.
- Abraxas: Empty Fullness: "Damnatio Memoriae" shows that Ghidorah's first ever act of planet-wide omnicide was this. They annihilated all visible life on the planet, but not only were the heads apparently further traumatized by what they'd done; they also discovered shortly thereafter that it had only made the Old Noise which drove them to kill abate temporarily, even with nothing left on the planet for them to kill.
- The Best Revenge reveals that Petunia effectively sabotaged her own life. Attempting to show Lily up, she married the first suitor that came along, rushing to have a child before her sister could. This left her stuck in a loveless marriage to a man she couldn't stand, with a son she didn't know how to raise properly.
- Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past:
- In the first timeline, Alastor Moody turned the siege of Azkaban into this. Voldemort eventually broke through and killed the defenders, but by the time he did, all the prisoners whom he hoped to rescue were dead, all the structures were levelled, and the casualties among his own forces were so bad that Moody's Catchphrase, "Constant Vigilance!" became a Berserk Button for the Death Eaters.
- This is also the general premise of the story: Harry defeated Voldemort, but at the cost of everyone he knew and loved and a Broken Masquerade, which presses him into sending his consciousness back into the past so that won't happen.
- Wish Carefully: While the Death Eaters won, Lucius realizes that Harry ensured that their victory is a hollow one, as Voldemort now rules over a dying empire while the rest of the Wizarding World is rebuilding anew, leaving them to face a slow, inevitable decline.
- Owl's Hell That Ends Well: I.M.P. still win the bet with Verosika from "Spring Broken" via blackmailing her, but their victory ends up feeling quite hollow, as Blitzo and Octavia's already-fragile relationship has taken a massive hit amid their argument on the beach.
- Shadows Over Hell: I.M.P. finally win enough money to escape their poverty and live comfortably, but they're physically and psychologically traumatized by having to fight through leagues of deranged cultists to get there, and Moxxie is so shaken that he almost leaves I.M.P. entirely. To say nothing of the money they earned getting stolen later anyway.
- A Thing of Vikings: Downplayed. Though the Song Dynasty manages to rout the Pechenegs, their casualties are huge, being measurable in the tens of thousands compared to several dozen Pechenegs and their dragons. However, the victory does buy the Song Dynasty and their neighbours time to prepare a response, so while the casualties from the New Year Fire Rout are costly, they have a chance to avoid more such casualties.
- Weeping Willow: Tristan wins the Fifty-second Hunger Games, but Willow, the sister he was trying to protect, has been killed, meaning he now has no surviving family. According to Tales of the Hunger Games, which incorporates Weeping Willow, he later becomes addicted to alcohol and morphling and suffers Survivor Guilt over the fact that he got out of the arena alive, whereas Willow did not.
- The Ultimate Evil: The expanded backstory of Lo Pei included his beloved daughter Lo Mei being forcibly taken as a bride by Shendu, leading to the sacred warrior rising in rebellion. While Pei imprisoned Shendu and freed his people, he couldn't save in time Mei who died by her own hand.
- In the fanfic The Shrouded Path, Terra, Ven and Aqua escape from Silent Hill, but are severely traumatized by the ordeal. Although they managed to completely wreck The Order, everything else they destroyed regenerates the instant they leave (including Pyramid Head). Plus, Silent Hill's God, Vanitas, is still out there with every intention of going after them again, and this time he's willing to kill Terra.
- Cheshire: The Volpina Incident; while the heroes eke out another win, it comes at the cost of Mayura stealing the Horse Miraculous and giving it to Hawk Moth. Marinette admits that nothing good came from this 'victory'.
- The Lament Series (ChaoticNeutral): A Running Theme in the series is that those who make a Wish tend to end up in a Self-Inflicted Hell, trapped in their new reality with the consequences of their actions.
- In Gabriel's Lament, his Wish restored Emilie back to full health... but she's become one of the defenders of Paris, fighting against their own akumatized son. Who was akumatized entirely because of Gabriel's efforts to dictate his life, leaving him feeling so trapped that his emotional turmoil was easily exploited by the new Hawkmoth.
- Chloé's Lament opens with her triumphing as Miracle Queen, successfully turning Ladybug into one of her mindless thralls and usurping control from Hawk Moth. Yet she finds it to be a hollow victory, as the mind-controlled Marinette doesn't react to her Evil Gloating, and Adrien finally stands up to her, rejecting her offer to rule alongside her, dropping some hard truths about how much everyone despises her for being a Spoiled Brat. Chloé's so shaken that she impulsively decides to Wish on the combined Earrings and Ring to trade places with Marinette, mistakenly believing that this will ensure she gets to become Paris' beloved superheroine while Marinette is stuck as the one everyone hates. Instead, everyone still hates her because she's so mean, but since her father is now a simple baker instead of the mayor of Paris, she doesn't have his money and status to protect herself from everyone's loathing. Meanwhile, Marinette now lives the high life with her mother as mayor of Paris and her father as the owner of the Grand Paris Hotel, and everyone loves her even more because she uses her wealth to help others.
- Lila's Lament: Envious of Adrien's wealth, Lila Wishes to have everything he has. She becomes Lila Agreste, a rich and famous teen supermodel with a fashion designer for a father...but being famous means she's under heavy public scrutiny, and every Celebrity Lie she tells is swiftly unraveled by the tabloids and discovered by her classmates, who know she's a chronic liar and no longer trust or like her. And since Gabriel is her father, he controls everything she does, down to putting her on a strict diet of salads and grilled chicken to keep her in perfect shape for her modeling career.
- One step backwards and Three forwards: Tikki and Plagg deliberately twisted the Wishes made by Hawkmoth and his colleagues in order to make them as miserable as possible.Tikki: May you get exactly what you wish for.
Plagg: And may you choke on it.- Gabriel Wished to go back in time and undo his mistake; his Ripple-Proof Memory makes him aware of deviations like the death of Emilie's sister and nephew, while the information he doesn't have, like who Ladybug was, continues to haunt him.
- Nathalie Wished that Emilie would be saved and that Adrien would be happy; both have been effectively brainwashed into contentment.
- Alya Wished to become a great reporter who could easily find great stories; her new supernatural sense for detecting 'interesting stories' has also made her a trouble magnet, attracting plenty of unwanted attention and consequences. She's also magically compelled to investigate, forcing her to confront Awful Truths that she'd really rather ignore.
- Nino Wished that he and Alya could be together forever; instead of the happy relationship he desired, the two of them constantly stumble into each other's paths as their bond unravels.
- Lila wished to become a rich and famous celebrity, to be the center of Adrien's universe, and that Ladybug would suffer. Infamy counts as being famous. Her second Wish effectively split Adrien into two, with Felix retaining his memories of being Chat Noir. And her desire for 'Ladybug' to suffer cursed the Ladybug Miraculous, with the brunt of that curse falling upon its current holder, Emilie.
- Occasionally crops up in the Smart Adversaries AU:
- In Collected But Not Calm, the Collector manages to seal Ladybug and Chat Noir into his book... but in doing so, unintentionally costs himself the chance to make his Wish and save Emilie, along with jeopardizing his own secret identity.
- In Puppeteer Too, Puppeteer allows Hawk Moth to win, giving him the Earrings and Ring...except they're fake, as this is nothing more than one round in the game she intends to play over and over with everyone.
- In Truth and Consequences, Marinette performs a Face–Heel Turn with the intent of bringing back Adrien's mother, ending the war with Hawkmoth without revealing his relation to Adrien, and being free to pursue a normal, non-superhero lifestyle. By the end of the story, she's accomplished all of this, but has alienated all her former friends, who are furious and heartbroken over the betrayal; no one will ever know who Hawkmoth was, but it's because he's dead; Adrien has his mother back, but he can't forgive Marinette for betraying him and ends their relationship, leaving Paris to fight evil around the world. She gets to pursue a normal life, but it's because she's been effectively exiled by the other heroes, who've taken up the defense of Paris without her. She even gets to pursue her fashion career in London as she wanted, but it's because she can't bear to stay in Paris when all her friends hate her.
- In this unnamed collaborative work, Gabriel gets to Wish his wife back to life after Lila manipulates the whole class into betraying Ladybug and Chat Noir. He even gets to pettily use Marinette's life as the price. But his attempt to manipulate Adrien into accepting this backfires, and Adrien either sacrifices his father (and potentially his classmates) to bring Marinette back or sends evidence of his crimes straight to the police. Either way, Gabriel's victory comes at a higher cost than he'd anticipated; his wife survives, but Gabriel gets sacrificed or sent to jail.
- This also applies to Lila, Nino, Alya and the rest of the classmates: she successfully convinces them to turn on Ladybug en masse and gets Marinette killed, but this comes at the cost of them all getting arrested... if they aren't just outright killed by Adrien in order to bring Marinette back.
- And on Adrien's side, he ensures that their victory doesn't last, but it comes at the cost of either Marinette's life or the lives of his father and former friends.
- Crimson and Emerald: While Bakugou wins the Sports Festival, his poor conduct, attitude, and tantrums leave his reputation in tatters, with the public regarding him as a sore winner who lacks what they're looking for in Pro Heroes.
- Danger Days: Izuku and Bakugou pass the final exam against All Might. But the victory is hollow for Bakugou, who put his pride and spite over the self-discipline, proper judgement, and teamwork for which the exam was actually testing, ultimately performing so poorly that Izuku had to trick him into cooperating so as not to fail. Izuku and Bakugou both technically passed, but only Izuku succeeded on his own merits, while Bakugou's "pass" just put a spotlight on his failures.
- The training camp attack ends this way for the League of Villains in Deku? I think he's some pro...: in addition to the Vanguard Action Squad losing everyone except Dabi, Twice and Magne, alongside their sole captive, Izuku Midoriya, sneaking a tracker with him, Izuku ends up convincing the remaining members to turn on All For One, leading them to destroy his life support and ultimately kill him, destroying the Nomu Factory in the process.
- Green Tea Rescue plays this for laughs when Izuku and Ochako get their U.A. letters. Neither one wants to open theirs first, so Ochako opens Izuku's, only to find that All Might's holographic message addresses both of them at once, declaring that he knew they'd watch them together, so both disks have the same message. Then he reveals Ochako's results first.
- This proves key to Mischief/Midoriya's plan for Revenge upon Bakugou in Nemesis. As he explains to Katsuki, Pro Heroes with nemeses are more popular than those without. By rising to prominence as Mischief while Katsuki was in school and declaring their rivalry the day after he officially got his license, he ensured that their names are inexorably linked — when people think of Ground Zero, they'll think of Mischief as well. Not only that, even if Katsuki manages to become the next Number One Hero, he'll never know for certain if he could have made it without Mischief's existence boosting his popularity.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Anchor Foal: In Chapter 37, Fleur successfully humiliates Blueblood into giving up his attempts to "court" Fluttershy, and exposes Sweetbark as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All who was relying upon Fluttershy to handle the risky veterinary cases. However, this comes at the price of Blueblood verbally lashing out at Fluttershy, along with nearly killing an unfortunate cockatiel. On top of this, Sweetbark is so humiliated that she moves away from Ponyville, leaving Fluttershy stuck handling all the clients there.
- Bitterness: While Shining Armor and Princess Cadence defeat Chrysalis with The Power of Love, Twilight rejects Applejack's casual apology, relinquishes her position as the Bearer of Magic, and breaks off her friendship with the others.
- A Brief History of Equestria: The conclusion of the Celestine Civil War: Sullamander is overthrown and the balance of power in the river valley is maintained, but Wind Whistler is killed, Celestine itself lies largely in ruins, a large chunk of the population view Hurricane and the rebels as traitors unfit to rule, and Lake Trot, the objective which instigated the war, freezes over, rendering all the death and destruction pointless.
- In The Conversion Bureau: Not Alone, this is the end result of the war for humanity and Earth, combined with a Bittersweet Ending. Although humanity wins the war against Equestria's Assimilation Plot, forcing them to retreat, several soldiers have been killed in the war. Not only that, but South Africa (which has suffered a staggering loss of infrastructure thanks to the barrier wiping it out) is rapidly turning into a fascist hellhole, and several countries, running on paranoia due to humanity's first encounter with an alien species being an Alien Invasion with the intention of xenocide, have started to spend massive amounts of money (at the cost of education and healthcare) on beefing up their military forces and preparing for a war that will never happen.
- Heir of the Nightmare: Nightmare Moon succeeds in locking Celestia in the moon, turning her daughter Twilight against Celestia, driving the Elements of Harmony into hiding, destroying Ponyville, imprisoning Cadence, and making the ponies of Equestria fear Celestia's sun. However, in the process of turning Twilight to her side, she brainwashed Twilight into becoming a heartless murderer named Nightmare Nova with no love for anypony, only blind obedience, and causing the death of hundreds of ponies in Nova's rampage. Lampshaded by the title of the chapter "Pyrrhic Victory", in which Nightmare has become so disgusted with Nova's heartlessness, and haunted with guilt over what she did, she is forced to beg an imprisoned Cadence for help to restore Twilight.
- The Immortal Game: Titan's forces initially succeed in capturing Canterlot, turning Twilight and Rainbow Dash into brainwashed minions, and stripping Celestia of her divine power while constantly torturing her. However, all of these initial victories turn out to be too pricy to hold as the surviving Mane Four and Princess Luna are able to operate as La Résistance from Canterlot's Underground, Nihilus, the entity possessing Twilight, turns out to be less than loyal and not very bright, and Celestia eventually escapes to rally the resistance, leading Titan to abandon Canterlot, kill all his followers and withdraw to the Everfree Forest.
- Long Live The Queen: During her battle with Starlight Glimmer, Twilight ends up in a timeline where Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic, overthrew Celestia, banished her to the human world, and destroyed the magic mirror so Celestia could never return. Sunset transformed herself into an alicorn, petrified everyone else powerful enough threaten her, and now rules Equestria unchallenged. However, she is hated by her subjects, and immortality means she'll endure their scorn forever. Abandoning her position is out of the question since Sunset is the only alicorn left to raise the sun and moon, she can't fix the mirror to the human world, and using fear to keep said subjects in line has left Sunset totally miserable and admitting to herself that it wasn't worth it. Sunset ends up so jaded that she allows Twilight to restore the original timeline, knowing that she'll end up Ret-Gone.Sunset Shimmer: Equestria and her ponies hate me. Yet, they also fear me. And in their fear, they are obedient. That is the best I can achieve for at least many years to come until the memory of Celestia fades and none but I remember her. You tell me, Twilight Sparkle. Am I happy in this world?
- In Metamorphosis, this is Queen Chrysalis' origin story. She was once a pegasus soldier, exiled from Commander Hurricane's forces for trying to start a war with the earth ponies and unicorns, who made a deal with Discord to gain the powers of all three pony tribes. He gave her a unicorn's horn, an earth pony's strength, and an entire changeling army, but transformed her into her current hideous bug-like form, and stripped her of her cutie mark and original name. Despite her newfound power, she was forced to be his servant, with the promise of a Fate Worse than Death if she disobeyed him.
- The Same Box: Starlight Glimmer has equalized every pony in Equestria, including herself, and imprisoned Princess Celestia in a machine that drains her magic to move the sun and moon, as her cutie mark cannot be removed. After warning Starlight one final time that her false utopia will end in disaster, to no avail, Celestia commits suicide rather than live in Starlight's equal world. With Celestia gone, Equestria is stuck in a state of Endless Daytime, as equalized unicorns' magic is not strong enough to move the sun or moon. Equalized pegasi cannot control the weather, and equalized earth ponies cannot farm the land to grow crops. Plants and animals die in droves, reducing Equestria to a barren wasteland. Life is no longer worth living or enjoying because all traces of individuality have been eradicated and nothing meaningful can be achieved anymore. The equalized ponies abandon Equestria in search of a better place to live, leaving Starlight alone in the abandoned ruins of Canterlot.
- In Time Will Catch Up, Starlight uses the time travel spell to figure out how to keep Twilight and her friends from escaping the village and restoring the Equal Ponies' cutie marks. She commits a number of heinous crimes, including cutting off Rainbow Dash's wings and burning Rarity's boutique, to make sure they have no choice but to follow her philosophy of twisted equality. She eventually obtains even the Princesses' cutie marks and rules over Equestria. It quickly collapses under her rule—ponies starve due to farmers' inability to grow crops and chefs' inability to make edible food, others freeze in uncontrollable weather, houses collapse due to incompetent builders, and disease runs rampant due to a lack of doctors. Eventually, everypony dies and Equestria is reduced to a completely lifeless wasteland. Realizing her mistakes, Starlight waits for her original-timeline self and Twilight to arrive so she can show herself what Equestria will look like if she turns everypony "equal".Future Starlight: You wanted to build a world where everypony is equal. We're all equal in death.
- Better Left Unsaid: The first mission following the Time Skip resolves this way: while they successfully rid the Land of Water of Otogakure's influence and survive a run-in with Akatsuki, Orochimaru manages to escape with the big prize: he's become the Sanbi's new jinchuuriki.
- Little Uzumaki: Neji wins his fight against Hinata, only to find that the rest of the Branch House wants nothing to do with him after he beat up the White Sheep of the Main House.
- One Eye Full Of Wisdom: After Misume kills Yoroi, Kakashi notes that he's effectively sacrificed his future in order to win the fight, asking "Who would risk themselves for someone who'd kill his own teammate for a promotion? Who would aid him? Who would show him mercy?"
- Evangelion 303: Asuka won her duel against Mari... but Mari shot her down a few seconds later. In a real battle, she would be dead. Moreover, their little duel earned her another severe reprimand from Misato. Still Asuka was gloating later to Mari that she won. Mari laughed and called her a "kamikaze".
- Mr and Mrs Gold: It is not until after Emma gets Mr. Gold to alter his deal with Ashley does she find out that he and his wife were planning on adopting it themselves, being unable to have kids. Even more, Emma recalls that Ashley and Sean are still just teenagers.
- Second Wind: Implied to be the premise, and confirmed as such in Chapter 22: Luffy and Zoro make it to Raftel, but not before everyone else has been killed.
- AAML: Diamond and Pearl Version: When Ash fights Paul at Lake Acuity, his opponent is so determined to win that he ignores the rules and orders his pokémon to use Unnecessary Roughness upon Ash's team. When the battle's resolved, Ash feels like his victory wasn't worth it, given how badly his friends were injured in the process.
- Symbiosis: The rangers at the Safari Zone deliberately hid a child who'd been separated from his parents, intending to groom him into a functional Wild Child whom they could exploit. Their plan works, but ultimately comes back to haunt them when various criminal organizations learn about Tommy and come after him, killing off the rangers in droves.
- In The Soulmate Timeline, Homura has been able to defeat Walpurgisnacht without Madoka turning into a witch as a result at least twice. It is doable with the help of all of the Magical Girls in Mitakihara working together without issue. However this has always left Homura as the only survivor, a result she doesn't want so she's has to leave these timelines to try again and figure out how to get at least Madoka through it alive.
- Event Horizon (RWBY): In the second to last loop, Beacon wins the battle, but many people died, and the Academy is only still intact in the loosest of terms. It's only a victory because Ciel saw all the other loops, where they were completely curb-stomped. Even though she knows she might not have enough time left, she kills herself to loop back one more time and try for a better outcome.
- In A Farmer Or Something, Pyrrha's canonical partner never attends Beacon. As a result, Pyrrha becomes an incredibly famous warrior who's immortalized in many tales... but, all throughout her life, she's lonely and disillusioned.Pyrrha: Guilt and disgust and trauma at fighting for "necessity," for "the greater good," for other people's battles in other people's lands for other people's reasons.
- In A Rabbit Among Wolves, Vale suffers this when they win their case against Jaune. While they spitefully have him shipped off to a maximum-security prison, their reputation has been shattered beyond repair, and they face a potential loss in the next election.
- Relic of the Future begins in the aftermath of a final battle between forces of good and Salem. While the heroes technically won and saved the world, none of them save Jaune survive past the battle, and humanity had already been decimated and fallen into anarchy. The rest of the story centers around Jaune trying to change the past in hopes of achieving a real victory.
- In Dragons of Ice and Fire, the Battle of the Snows is this. Jon Snow’s northern coalition wins, but between the enormous losses to their side, several traitors among the Northern houses, the murder of (who they think is) Arya Stark, and their greatest asset, Jon's dragon, being poisoned, peace hangs by a thread. Relationships between Jon and the free folk and the North are so tense in the aftermath that Jon must keep hostages and guests in Winterfell, even from the houses still loyal to him. This was Roose Bolton’s whole strategy, and for good measure, he surrenders just to sow more chaos and distrust.
- In Let the Galaxy Burn, the battle of Craster's Fort ends up an absolutely disastrous victory for the Others. Starting with 130 cruisers, thirty-six battleships, twenty dragon-carriers (each having one ice dragon), and their superweapon, against about 7,000 Night's Watch Brothers in eight heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers, and sixteen scout cruisers plus several thousand obsolete missile platforms, they lose one hundred and forty-nine ships, including all of the dragon carriers and four of their dragons, plus damaging their superweapon. To add insult to injury, the totality of the Wilding fleet has escaped and the leftover corpses are so mangled and so few it's unlikely they'll manage to revive anybody.
- Purple Days: The final battle of the Blackworks loop works this way for Daenerys. She wins King's Landing and succeeds in killing Tywin and Joffrey - at the cost of losing two of her dragons, an enormous chunk of her army, and showing herself to be the same kind of lunatic as her father. Plus, every other kingdom is rushing to deliver the death blow to the Targaryens, since the brutal attack wiped out any potential hostages, leaving her with no means of averting their wrath.
- Both played straight and discussed in the final episode of Sonic X: Dark Chaos. Maledict succeeded in creating an "Ultimate Weapon" greater than he ever dreamed of... but the fact that his prized Ultimate Weapon ( both of them, in fact) ended up turning against him thanks to his own actions made his success ultimately pointless. Even Maledict himself admits his Gambit Roulette wasn't worth it in the end.
- In post-Iconian War stories in Bait and Switch (STO), it's repeatedly mentioned that, while the Iconians have been defeated, the nations of the Star Trek galaxy are now having a hard time keeping the peace because of the losses they took and a massive refugee crisis.
- In The Unabridged Memoirs of Darth Plagueis the Wise, the Battle of Outer Hapes is this for the Republic. They destroy most of Ackbar's Rim Liberation Front fleet, ending his blitz, but in the process lose a significant number of their own ships. Plus, the blitz has already devastated a vast swath of Republic territory.
- In Deserving, Courtney gets the million dollar briefcase, but the million dollars is used to pay her lawyers for the extravagances she included for herself when she re-entered the competition mid-season and all she's left with is $20. Not only that, but Duncan dumps her because she left him dangling off a cliff, hooking up with Gwen instead after she saved him. The final insult? She gets her head shaved by Heather!
- King Nothing: Justin wins Total Drama Action and gets the million dollars. However, everyone hates him because he has revealed himself to be a manipulative, backstabbing liar — even his parents. Even after he graduates, he still can't get a job because no one will hire him, and finally turns to a drinking habit. Eventually he runs out of money and the last we see of him is working as a janitor at some crappy bar, and having lost his good looks from his alcoholic habit.
- The Undying: Thanks to how much determination Undyne manifests to fight the human, she manages to take over control of the timeline after they die because she's got more determination than Flowey, the next-most-determined being in the Underground. Sans has no idea what to think when he discovers this; while the anomaly that was screwing around with the timeline for at least three years is out of the picture, it came at the cost of his brother, the lady in the Ruins he shared jokes with, and dozens of other monsters.The resets were over. But they had taken the people he loved most with them.
