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It's easy to break a man's heart. First, give it "Hope", then obliterate it.
—Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon, Cardfight!! Vanguard
"Terror, in its truest sense, is not a static state but a dynamic one. It is the moment when hope turns to despair."
— Caster, Fate/Zero
When hope seems to be at hand, but then you find it out of your reach, that is when your Despair becomes deepest.
—Nia Teppelin, Anti-Spiral, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
I LOVE getting your hopes up just to crush them.
—Pegasus, Yu-Gi-Oh! (Chicago 2013
)
) Comic Books
In my dream, the world had suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shut out the sun, and the darkness was alive with the moans and screams of wounded people. Suddenly, a small light glowed. A candle flickered into life, symbol of hope for millions. A single tiny candle, shining in the ugly dark.
I laughed and blew it out.
I laughed and blew it out.
—The Joker, Shadow of the Bat #37
I do truly love the feeling you people get when hope is snatched away. It's like nothing else.
—Tiamat, Ghostbusters (IDW series)
For the first few seconds, it seems like we might have a shot at winning this... but only the first few seconds. Even making super clones of Bizarro... they're still not powerful enough to win this fight.
Grandfather was amused, and awarded me the prize. I had never won anything before. Afterwards, my father congratulated me and praised me. Dawn had come and I felt the sun on my face for the first time. "I see you now, Mardok," he said, and made me his apprentice on the spot. I was suddenly rich and famous and had won my father's regard. A life of privilege and inclusion lay before me, and I grinned like the biddable halfwit I was... oblivious to what was lying in wait.
—Mardok, Maestros
Then the truly unexpected happens, the miraculous! He is one of the X-Men - goes by the name of Wolverine! Of all the combatants, he would have been the last I thought capable of delivering the death blow-
[Wolverine, fresh from impaling Thanos, suddenly screams and collapses, leaving Thanos unharmed]
But then my hopes plummet from the mountain heights to the depths of the dark valley. Adamantium transforms into spongy rubber, and the most-vicious of Earth's defenders flops to the ground, helpless.
—Eros, narrating, The Infinity Gauntlet
Wraith: (to Nightcrawler, who failed to escape from Weapon X) Oh, I get: you're wondering if you've still got enough energy to reach that passenger plane? Sure, it might be two miles up, but you have teleported that kind of distance in the past. Why shouldn't you be able to do it when you really need to, huh? A pillow, a blanket and your first hot coffee in over eight months are just a heartbeat away, kid. You could change your life forever if only you had it in you for one last leap. (kicks him in the face, and hauls him back to the complex)
Fan Works
I just know this is going to go to Hell somehow. It always does. Something good happens, and then the world shits all over us again. You and I meet, then spend years missing each other's signals. We're beating the Angels easily, coming together as a team, and then your asshole father springs the Dummy Plug system on us. We survive the Third Impact, then get a world of thugs, rapists, and warlords. And now we finally... Talk to each other, and then this... I just know something more is going to go wrong here, because this world hates us.
—Asuka Langley Sohryu, A Crown of Stars, Chapter 46
Can you not smell it? There is hope and ignorance here. This settlement's undampening was gentle; our wild brethren are far away. This place appears to be the ideal haven from the elements and will shine like a beacon to those who've survived the fires of ruin. They shall crawl from out of their holes and make their way here with the promise of asylum. Let the populace grow larger, so that when you return or another returns, the slaughter shall be plentiful.
— Raqyquaza, Poké Wars: The Defervescence
Film - Animated
Rex: Woody! Look, I can see daylight! We're gonna be OK!
Woody: ...I don't think that's daylight.
[camera zooms in to reveal that the light is coming from an incinerator]
Woody: RUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!
Woody: ...I don't think that's daylight.
[camera zooms in to reveal that the light is coming from an incinerator]
Woody: RUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!
Cottage Appliances: There goes the sun
Here comes the night
Somebody turn on the light
Somebody tell me that fate has been kind...
Elmo's Appliances: YOU CAN'T GO OUT, YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!
Here comes the night
Somebody turn on the light
Somebody tell me that fate has been kind...
Elmo's Appliances: YOU CAN'T GO OUT, YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!
—It's A B-Movie Show, The Brave Little Toaster
Film - Live-Action
It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.
— Brian Stimpson, Clockwise
There can be no true despair without hope.
— Bane, The Dark Knight Rises
YES! I AM INVINCIBLE!
— Boris Grishenko's last words, GoldenEye
Tito: Miranda's family flew home...but she didn't! And she has been everywhere searching for you!
Eddie: She has?!
Tito: Screw off, I'm joking!
Eddie: She has?!
Tito: Screw off, I'm joking!
Literature
Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick....
It's a thread thrown to a drowning man. It's an oasis shimmering in the distance. Barclay is not the kind of man to let wishful thinking trump the facts on the ground, but we are all in such desperate need of good news.
For a moment or two I almost think he's going to go for it.
But then he looks around at the huddled civilians under his protection, at the ragtag soldiers under his command, at the duct tape and chewing gum he's using to keep it all together, and I know exactly what lesson from Strategy 101 is going through his head: Never fight a war on two fronts. The oasis is a mirage.
[...] But you know what really got him scared, Roger? You know what he really fears, now that he's just seen a whole platoon of Ceph turn into beef consommé before his eyes? I see it the moment they haul me into the VTOL: I see it in the look on his face as we dust off.
Hope.
[...] What do you do when you've finally resigned yourself to your own inevitable extermination, and someone offers you a way out? Any hope in a place like this almost has to be false; all it can do is shake your determination, tempt you with thoughts of after this is over when you should just be thinking about getting the job done now. Hope is distraction, hope is fear undercutting resolve, because hope gives you back that most terrible of battlefield commodities: something to lose.
For a moment or two I almost think he's going to go for it.
But then he looks around at the huddled civilians under his protection, at the ragtag soldiers under his command, at the duct tape and chewing gum he's using to keep it all together, and I know exactly what lesson from Strategy 101 is going through his head: Never fight a war on two fronts. The oasis is a mirage.
[...] But you know what really got him scared, Roger? You know what he really fears, now that he's just seen a whole platoon of Ceph turn into beef consommé before his eyes? I see it the moment they haul me into the VTOL: I see it in the look on his face as we dust off.
Hope.
[...] What do you do when you've finally resigned yourself to your own inevitable extermination, and someone offers you a way out? Any hope in a place like this almost has to be false; all it can do is shake your determination, tempt you with thoughts of after this is over when you should just be thinking about getting the job done now. Hope is distraction, hope is fear undercutting resolve, because hope gives you back that most terrible of battlefield commodities: something to lose.
— Crysis: Legion
It would be typical of the followers of Chaos to perpetuate such a hoax, if only to give desperate humans a shadow of hope that could be snatched away.
Little did I imagine, my dear Mother, when I sent off my last letter, that the delightful perturbation of spirits I was then in would undergo so speedy, so melancholy a reverse.
— Catherine Vernon, Lady Susan
At such moments particularly, Alexei Alexandrovitch had a sense of perfect peace and inward harmony, and saw nothing extraordinary in his position, nothing that ought to be changed.
But then... then he heard the whisper.
DESTROY IT
DESTROY IT
DESTROY THE CHILD
DESTROY
And he knew in that instant that the struggle was not over. He knew that besides the blessed spiritual force controlling his soul, there was another, a brutal force, as powerful or more powerful, which controlled his life, and that this force would not allow him that humble peace he longed for. There had been a period of detente, and now it was at an end. His Face, his dear friend and most fearsome enemy, had returned.
But then... then he heard the whisper.
DESTROY IT
DESTROY IT
DESTROY THE CHILD
DESTROY
And he knew in that instant that the struggle was not over. He knew that besides the blessed spiritual force controlling his soul, there was another, a brutal force, as powerful or more powerful, which controlled his life, and that this force would not allow him that humble peace he longed for. There had been a period of detente, and now it was at an end. His Face, his dear friend and most fearsome enemy, had returned.
—Android Karenina
And he flew up through the ambulance roof, his soul soaring out of his body - for a long, long moment feeling triumph, exulting in his release. He was going to be free of his earthly suffering at last! Perhaps he would meet God and God would at last explain...
Soaring on wings of hope - sure, because the Devil likes it that way. He likes them to think they're about to escape, going to go up that smooth tunnel into that loving, welcoming light.... Let them kid themselves about that. So it can be ripped away from them ... hope ripped away like a child struck by a car while rushing to her mother's arms.
And Constantine, spiraling up over Los Angeles, gazing in awe over the city, its millions of mortal lives... suddenly realized that Satan's little joke was reaching its punch line.
—Constantine: The Novelization
I've survived too long. I forgot what universe this was. For a while there, I thought, maybe… this was the universe where we win sometimes.
— Marion Wheeler, There Is No Antimemetics Division
Live-Action TV
You have to give them hope. If you bring a human being to the brink of death, and then you offer a chance, no matter how small a chance, to survive, they'll grab it. And they'll thank you for it. And then, you can do whatever you want. And believe me, I did.
— Nate Haskell, CSI
For one lovely moment, it looks like The Doctor has evaded fate. The happiness and surprise on his face are cruelly ironic moments later.
"You gave me hope and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it will do to me. Basically... RUN!"
— The Doctor reacts badly to this trope, Doctor Who, "The Doctor's Wife"
Tim: I had this dream last night. You know, the one everyone gets about being in the water in the dark.
Gavin: No...
Tim: You know! You're up to your neck in water, an' you can't see anything. An' you feel trapped because there's no way out. An' then suddenly, it's like a lid lifts off the sky, an' there's light everywhere and you can smell pine trees an' you think "I'm gonna be saved, I'm gonna be saved!".
Gavin: Yes?
Tim: An' then you realize you're in the toilet. An' looking up, you see this great big hairy hand reaching for the flush...
He's tryin' to smoke us out! Help me, Ed! They'll see. Somebody, they'll see, and they'll- they'll call someone. They'll see. ...Oh, my God. Ed. It's just like the movie. The movie I was watching this morning with the guy all tied up - the Gerhardt - on the TV. There was this- there was this couple- this French- and they were on the run... from the Nazi, I- and... and the husband or whatever he was, he- he got shot. Just like you! But then they hid out in this- Well, it wasn't a supermarket. It was a farmhouse. But they hid out, and the- and the Nazi tried to smoke them out just like this. But they got out! Ed, they got out! They were saved! ...Ed?
—Peggy Blumquist, Fargo, "Palindrome"
Music
And then when it all seemed clear
Just then you go and disappear.
Just then you go and disappear.
—Tori Amos, "Glory of the 80's"
I tried to revive what's already drowned
They think I'm a fool who can't realize
Hope plays a wicked game with the mind
'Cause I thought that love would bind
I cannot revive what's already drowned
She won't come around...
They think I'm a fool who can't realize
Hope plays a wicked game with the mind
'Cause I thought that love would bind
I cannot revive what's already drowned
She won't come around...
—Within Temptation, "Lost"
When I think I can overcome
It runs even deeper.
It runs even deeper.
—Nine Inch Nails, "Even Deeper"
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way, yeah.
— Metallica, "No Leaf Clover"
Tabletop Games
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
— Imperial proverb, Warhammer 40,000
Life started looking up: he became a program volunteer and worked to help others with addiction problems. His ex-wife started calling him. Then, he got that first graduation announcement from one of his former students who made it through Howard University. Once again, life was worthwhile. George went out and partied for the first time in months, and he made the mistake of having one drink... and then another... and then another. After he lost track of time, he stumbled into a metro station and collapsed in a corner. When he woke up, the station was closed, and he was trapped inside.
And he wasn't alone.
He hasn't seen the light of day since.
And he wasn't alone.
He hasn't seen the light of day since.
—Vampire: The Masquerade - D.C. By Night
The theme of this setting could be thought of as “lost hope.” When the characters hear about the miraculous powers of the caverns, they may be wildly optimistic about their chances of finding a place where such healing is possible. But that hope is dashed when characters reach the village. The paranoid village. The village of narrowed eyes, hidden meanings and deadly games.
—"The Village Secret," Mysterious Places
Theatre
Francesca: After a stomach flu. You know...that moment when you've been- sitting up all night in bed with pain, running to the bathroom, throwing up bile, passing out while you throw up, drinking almost a whole bottle of antacid and endless cups of hot water, and just trying to beat it and just when I think I really cannot stand it any longer, when I think I will just decompose with the pain, the pain... lifts. And I believe in God again.
Patsy: Oh to me that's just the devil playin' with you. Because you know that stomach flu is coming back.
Patsy: Oh to me that's just the devil playin' with you. Because you know that stomach flu is coming back.
Video Games
We made it, I can't believe we actually made it! (the bridge they're crossing is air-bombed) OH, COME ON!
— Nick, Left 4 Dead 2
This is all just a GAME. If you leave the underground satisfied, you'll "win" the game. If you "win," you won't want to "play" with me anymore. And what would I do then? But this game between us will NEVER end. I'll hold victory in front of you, just within your reach... and then tear it away just before you grasp it. Over, and over, and over... hee hee hee.
— Flowey, Undertale
As I have said, my brothers, I grow weary. I have no doubt that Evil exists. I have seen it with my own eyes; I have seen its cruelty. But is it not cruel for the gods to give hope, only to dash that hope again and again?
— Ord Rekar, Diablo II
And so, the Scandinavian Lostbelt was saved... The Shadow Border drove off into the sunset...and they all lived happily ever after. ...It would sure be nice if that's how it went, wouldn't it? Nothing is ever so easy, though.
— Sitonai, Fate/Grand Order
Do you know what the cruelest thing in the world is?
Neither total darkness, nor endless torment, nor a dark alley filled with murderers.
It is when a gentle hand pulls you out of a nightmare, just as you thought it was over, and all the pain would come to an end.
Only for you to realize that salvation was just a cruel joke, a brief respite before falling further into the darkness.
Even greater suffering is gazing upon you, within a stone's throw.
And you are powerless before such mockery.
Neither total darkness, nor endless torment, nor a dark alley filled with murderers.
It is when a gentle hand pulls you out of a nightmare, just as you thought it was over, and all the pain would come to an end.
Only for you to realize that salvation was just a cruel joke, a brief respite before falling further into the darkness.
Even greater suffering is gazing upon you, within a stone's throw.
And you are powerless before such mockery.
— Siege, Arknights
Visual Novels
Tragedy always strikes when one least expects it. But to wait for a man to stand before striking him down seems almost crueler than dealing the fatal blow while he lies on the ground.
— Narrator, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
You can't despair until you've hoped for happiness.
— Yuki Minakami, Wonderful Everyday
Webcomics
"I'm enjoying seeing people pick up on the vague sense of dread that comes from everything seeming okay."
— Mary Cagle, author of Sleepless Domain
I tell you, Ugly. There's nothing funnier than false hope. You really thought you had a chance there for a second.
— Xykon, The Order of the Stick
Web Original
many times I've seen susie murder the shit out of some poor fucker 0.001 millimeters away from victory right inside the box. crawling towards safety and freedom, only for it to be snatched away in the last second.
— This tumblr post about Goldenglow from Arknights
about Goldenglow from ArknightsBull's dreams are coming true, if by "dreams" you mean "aspirations to coach college football that are granted to you because you are a distant second to the person they really wanted to hire," which is about the best you can hope for. [...] Not only does he get the hell out of Westview, which I have to imagine is the #1 dream of everyone in the cast, but he gets more money, too! Why, this has to be the best opportunity anyone in this strip full of alcoholism and dead wives has ever had!
Be a real shame if something
happened to it.
Be a real shame if something
happened to it.
Hey, that's a ladder! That means this is legit; this might actually go somewhere! I mean, it probably leads to a room filled with poison gas and a bunch of dead people that look just like me, but I don't know that, so there's room for hope, I guess.
The reason why this platform is so large is because it gives you a chance to walk around and think about it. It gives you hope. There is no hope, it just gives you some hope that there actually is a way out. There isn't one. [...] As soon as they start digging in the wall, they're like, "Oh, I can just jump that," they'll start realizing, uh, no. No they can't.
— Pakratt explains the Furnace Prison in Minecraft
in MinecraftBASK IN THE MEDIOCRITY OF MIKE TICE!!! [Week 6, 2003 season] Wait, nevermind, you're 6 and 0. Playoff island is in your sights. [Week 17, 2003 season] ...You lost 6 of 9. For fuck's sake, just beat the 3 and 12 Cardinals and you'll make it in. You're beating them by 11 with three minutes left. Surely you can't fuck THIS up! [Final play, Week 17, 2003 seasonnote ] How are they back in this game?! HOW?! ... At least this Bridgewater guy looks promising. [article headline: Teddy Bridgewater suffers dislocated knee, torn ACL] ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!?! [September 3, 2016] YOU SENT A KING'S RANSOM FOR SAM BRADFORD! Heavens, to fucking Murgatroyd... [Week 5, 2016 season] ...The Vikings are 5 and 0. This is honestly kind of surprising. You've got playoffs in your future! [Week 16, 2016 season] ...You lost 8 of 10. (takes out a drink and starts pouring) Vikings gonna Viking.
”I don’t know why, but I’ve always envisioned the idea of introducing totalitarianism in an alt-XIX century as the most disturbing deviation from history, bar none. It’s like imagining a world of radical social, political, and economic changes and then hearing someone cracking a whip to interrupt your dreams just to tell you: ‘Ah! Nope… death camps.’”
—The Berlinguer, comment on What Madness is This?
What Madness is This? Western Animation
Klokateer: If he cannot find Toki, then nobody can.
I'm telling you sire, this is our man!
Charles: That's good. Where is he?
Klokateer: He's dead.
Charkes: Oh. Throw him in the garbage.
I'm telling you sire, this is our man!
Charles: That's good. Where is he?
Klokateer: He's dead.
Charkes: Oh. Throw him in the garbage.
Scratch: Whew! Darryl, I thought I wasn't gonna stop you in time from releasing those photos.
Darryl: Photos? I was ordering burrito. The photos are already up.
(the crowd gasps at the photos showing that Andrea cheated at the fundraiser)
Scratch: That's one for the "whoops" column.
—The Ghost and Molly McGee, "The Don't-Gooder"
Homer: Everything really wrapped up nicely. Much quicker than usual.
Real Life
"It is too soon to thank God yet!"
—Ignacy Hryniewiecki, to Tsar Alexander II, before throwing a second bomb at him
Hope leaks into our lives by way of spreading cracks we always meant to repair but never did.
(Oddly enough, when the cracks yawn their widest and the promised deluge comes at last, it is not hope at all that finally breaks through and drowns us.)
(Oddly enough, when the cracks yawn their widest and the promised deluge comes at last, it is not hope at all that finally breaks through and drowns us.)
— Thomas Ligotti, on the works of H. P. Lovecraft
In the midst of any painful experience, there always comes a time when one first hopes that the worst is over. The dentist seems to be about to put away the drill, you suddenly reach a part of the cliff rich with handholds which seem to lead straight to the top. These expectations rarely turn out to be justified: the dentist has put down the drill to find a knife to cut the gum, the handholds are friable slate that lead to an overhang. Still, the delusion is a relief while it lasts, and in certain situations it may revive your enthusiasm sufficiently for you to make some real progress.
— John J. Reilly, "Imperial Populism", in Spengler's Future
", in Spengler's FutureHOPE. Pandora brought the box of ills and opened it. It was the gift of the gods to men, outwardly a beautiful and seductive gift, and called the Casket of Happiness. Out of it flew all the evils, living winged creatures, thence they now circulate and do men injury day and night. One single evil had not yet escaped from the box, and by the will of Zeus Pandora closed the lid and it remained within. Now for ever man has the casket of happiness in his house and thinks he holds a great treasure; it is at his disposal, he stretches out his hand for it whenever he desires; for he does not know the box which Pandora brought was the casket of evil, and he believes the ill which remains within to be the greatest blessing, it is hope. Zeus did not wish man, however much he might be tormented by the other evils, to fling away his life, but to go on letting himself be tormented again and again. Therefore he gives Man hope,- in reality it is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of Man.
Our flight to Philadelphia, which is a short one - New Hampshire to Philly, you're up in the air for maybe 55 minutes - we get to the tarmac, and mechanical issue, Blah, Blah, Blah bullshit, we can't take off. It took us, I think, 45 minutes just to taxi. It was the exact amount of time to give us hope, but then they fucking take it away.
—Jonathan Paula, Don't Fly @AmericanAir! - My Nightmare Travel Experience
Despite the considerable destruction to the airframe, the aircraft appeared to be controllable until just before the crash.
— Presidency of Civil Aviation of Saudi Arabia/Transportation Safety Board of Canada, on Nigeria Airways Flight 2120
