History Main / AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp

* In the second season premiere of ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', when the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Dark Hand Enforcers]] are robbing a bank using the talismans divided up amongst them, Finn has the Dog ([[ImmortalityInducer Immortality]]) and Horse ([[HealingFactor Healing]]) talismans, which he feels is [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment redundant]], so he trades the Horse talisman to Ratso for the Pig ([[EyeBeams Heat-Beam Eyes]]) talisman. He later finds out that while he's immortal, he can still suffer painful injuries as when he smashes into [[LowClearance a cliff above a tunnel]].

* In ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'', some of the secondary characters pull a BigDamnHeroes moment by flying their hovercraft into the dock and activating the EMP, shutting down every robot in the place -- [[NiceJobBreakingItHero only to be informed by the general that this has also disabled all of their best defenses against the next wave]]. Might be a subversion, however, as the dock was already said to be lost when they conceived the plan; Lock was just looking for a scapegoat.

* In the 2005 remake of ''Film/FunWithDickAndJane'', Dick gets promoted to an executive position at his company, so he suggests to Jane that she should quit her job as a travel agent since his new salary can easily support them. Unfortunately, he finds out that the company's filing for bankruptcy and he was actually PromotedToScapegoat, so thanks to the fallout, he can't get another job.
** He also spends a full day doing nothing instead of looking for a new job. And then a few more days (or even longer) only looking for vice president positions because he feels he's owed that. Only after that does he start looking for ''any'' job.

* ''Fanfic/BridgesBurned'': After [[ManipulativeBitch Lila]] convinces all of Marinette's classmates that she's been bullying out out of jealousy over her [[CelebrityLie supposed connections]], Alya leads everyone in publicly decrying their friendship with her. Marinette responds by gradually revealing that ''she'' has connections with [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover a wide range of famous figures]], including Alya's idol [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]]. Alya proceeds to have an ExplainExplainOhCrap moment as she realizes Lois declared she was only interested in meeting Marinette's ''friends'', and she no longer qualified.

* ''[[Fanfic/ALadysScout A Lady's Scout (and the Salt Within Her Soul)]]'': Alya, Nino, and the rest of Marinette's [[FairWeatherFriends Fair-Weather Friends]] ditched their "everyday Ladybug" in favor of [[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila]], who lied about [[CelebrityLie personally knowing several celebrities and famous figures]], including Ladybug. Marinette rewards their fickleness by dropping hints that she played a role in Ladybug choosing several students from their class to be temporary heroes, causing the majority to flock back and start trying to curry favor with her again, refusing to recognize how they'd already destroyed their chances with their betrayal.

-->'''Robbie''': ''(Sheepishly)'' [[ContrivedCoincidence What are the odds?]]

* In ''VideoGame/GodOfWarII'', Kratos drains his divine power into the Sword of Olympus so that he can destroy the (animated) Colossus of Rhodes. Of course, given that the whole thing was just a BatmanGambit on the part of Zeus, Kratos shortly learns the drawback of vesting all your power in an artifact, as Zeus betrays him and sends him to [[PlanetHeck Hades]].
* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' provides a fairly tragic example. Early in the game, [[LonerTurnedFriend Lucatiel of Mirrah]] gives the player a Human Effigy- an item Undead use to retain their human form and sanity- as a gift of thanks, while admitting that she doesn't actually know what it is. Her own sanity begins to fade away shortly thereafter.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda:'' A side-quest on Elaaden has Ryder run into a scientist whose shuttle crashed in one of the moon's sinkholes. She explains that while stuck she became delirious from thirst, and bartered with some local outcasts for water. Problem is, once she came back to her senses, she learned she'd traded her shuttle's engine. Ryder has to go track it down for her.

* In one episode ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'', the penguins cure Mort of his fetish for Julien's feet, however, when Julien ends up dangling over a grill, Mort needs to pull him up by his feet. Fortunately, he immediately snaps back to his old self and saves Julien. The penguins even lampshade the irony.
* This happens in more than one [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner Roadrunner and Coyote]] cartoon. For example, in "WesternAnimation/HairiedAndHurried," Wile. E attempts to catch the Roadrunner by jumping off the cliff above him, complete with [[HollywoodSkydiving skydiving equipment]]. However, upon jumping off, he ends up in a miniature tornado that was passing. Once tossed out of the tornado, a dizzy Wile. E discards the skydiving equipment and marches off in disgust... right over the edge of a cliff. He tries to head back to retrieve his pack, but winds up with nothing but air beneath him... and another date with gravity.
* "WesternAnimation/TheJetCage:" Sylvester uses ping pong racquet-shaped flaps to go chasing after Tweety. Once he catches up to his prey, he hits on the bright idea of [[IShallTauntYou taunting him]]. Then...
--> '''Tweety:''' How you gonna get me? You got your hands full.
--> '''Sylvester:''' Oh, yeah? ''(tosses away the flaps)'' Well, now I haven't! ''[[GravityIsAHarshMistress (takes a look at the fields below, as the flaps flutter down, before plummeting)]]''

!!Examples

-->'''Misty''': ''(Annoyed)'' [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe That's typical!]] [[NeverMyFault It figures Psyduck isn't around the one time I really need it!]]\\
'''Ash''': ''[[LampshadeHanging You're]]'' [[LampshadeHanging the one who left it at the center!]]

* During an ''ComicBook/IronMan'' storyline, Tony Stark is ordered to wear an anklet that will temporarily shut down his technology-interfacing Extremis abilities due to concerns about his psychological state; the system has reached a state where his brain is filtering information through his subconscious and making him aware of key details through hallucinations of people whose deaths Tony feels in some way responsible for. However, just as he accepts the anklet, he realises that his old foe, the Mandarin, has returned and is preparing to implement a plan that would kill 97.5% of the world's population, the loss of Extremis severely hindering Tony's attempts to oppose the Mandarin. Eventually [[spoiler:Tony is forced to cut off part of his own ankle to remove the anklet and restore his powers to stop the Mandarin's missiles (although he also regains the HealingFactor to recover from that damage)]].

-->'''Pig''': ''[Rifling through the dump for his stuff]'' ALWAYS...KEEP...EVERYTHING!!

* In ''FanFic/ConstantTemptation'' [[TheAtoner Light]] is kidnapped soon after he decides he doesn't really want to be Kira or use the Death Note anymore.

* In the RecursiveFanfiction, ''Fanfic/LilasLament'', Lila controlled things around her to manipulate people into catering to her whims and escape consequences for her lies. But by wishing to have Adrien's life as a TeenIdol, she loses any sort of control over anything in her life, from the spreading of her lies to every media platform to [[ControlFreak Gabriel]] micromanaging every minute of her day.
* In ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse'': ''Costumes'', for Nightmare Night, Trixie decides to dress as her grandfather and allows her magic message sending hat to go in for its 10,000 letter tune-up while telling Princess Luna she was sure she could run a little festival without calling for help. This comes back to bite her when Rarity accidentally causes everypony wearing her outfits to [[BecomingTheCostume become their costumes]] and Trixie has no way of telling Luna.

-->"Should've kept our swords, I think".

* Used dramatically in the climax of ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. [[spoiler:After Batman and Superman's brutal fight ends, during which Batman almost impales Superman with a kryptonite spear, Lois Lane decided to get rid of the spear so it couldn't be abused. Unfortunately, soon after, Doomsday appeared, with only Kryptonian weapons being able to kill him, thus resulting in a chain of events which lead to the death of Superman]].

* Narrowly averted in ''[[Film/StarWarsEwokAdventures Ewoks: Caravan of Courage]]''. Before the quest began, the members of the caravan are granted totems by the Ewoks' medicine man. While everyone else receives useful and amazing {{Plot Coupon}}s, Mace receives...a rock. [[MyNewGiftIsLame Feeling it worthless]], he throws it away before the caravan begins. It's only towards the climax does he learn [[ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest the rock did have a use]]: inside was a mystical arrowhead that would lead to the entrance of the lair of the Gorax. Fortunately, Wicket had picked it up immediately after he had discarded it and had been holding onto it the whole time.

* An episode of ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger'' featured this, when the team's [[GadgeteerGenius ace mechanic]] Swan was given an award and encouraged by the others to take a break and go to the award ceremony. Naturally, the city is attacked while she's gone, and it's immediately demonstrated that the team's TransformingMecha start breaking down if they miss even one day of maintenance. Which either proves that Swan is an incredible mechanic or an incredibly lousy mechanic.
** The Rangers are all going on about how they don't know if they can hold their own without Swan, but they have to support her decision to go away because [[HeroBall "we have to do what's best for Swan"]]. Regardless of the fact that the Earth might be destroyed as a result.

* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': The ASBO five, wanting to get their normal lives back, sell their powers to Seth. Within a day, [[spoiler: Nikki has been shot and Curtis no longer has the power to turn back time and save her.]]
* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Barney wore a silk suit to bed so he'd look his best in case a woman came by his apartment in the middle of the night, but after being told that the chances of that happening were ridiculous, he switched to a nightgown. [[GaveUpTooSoon Turns out that it ended up happening and when the woman saw the nightgown, she immediately left]].
* An episode of ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' combines this with UnwantedAssistance. Having had enough of Jeannie's attempts to help him, Tony orders her to not get involved in his life anymore, so she takes a mystic vow that prevents her from going against his order without turning to dust...only for Tony to be taken hostage by Chinese spies at gunpoint moments later. Fortunately, Jeannie manages to circumvent it by having Roger temporarily become her master.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', during an argument with Crichton, D'Argo petulantly throws his [[MixAndMatchWeapon qualta blade]] off a catwalk into [[LivingShip Moya's depths.]] Later, the Luxan fighter craft they took in earlier has [[SelfDestructMechanism its self-destruct failsafe]] activated. The only way to turn it off is to show it an object of definitive Luxan origin... like D'Argo's qualta blade.

* At the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCatTheMovie'', when the land of Oriana was being invaded by the mechanical army of the Duke of Zil, it was mentioned that the country was defenseless because the Princess had dissolved the Royal army years ago, which made the Duke's conquest easier.

** In the episode "Patty Hype", upon seeing the success of [=SpongeBob=]'s Pretty Patties, which he had deemed as ridiculous, Mr. Krabs tricks him into trading his stand for the Krusty Krab. Unfortunately, [[StolenCreditBackfire he ends up getting blamed]] when the patties end up causing their eaters' bodies to change into the patty colors, and is forced to run from an angry mob of customers[[note]]who want a refund[[/note]]. Mr. Krabs then tries to hide out in the Krusty Krab, only to find the door is lock and he can't find his key...and then remembers he had given it to [=SpongeBob=].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado'', where after getting caught cheating with loaded dice, Tulio and Miguel act out a saber duel in order to get away. Upon reaching the roof of a building in their "fight", they promptly chuck the swords away before jumping over the roof to safety...[[OutOfTheFryingPan only to land right in front of a big angry bull]]. As Tulio put it:

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "The Great Patty Caper", the Krusty Krab runs out of Krabby Patties and Mr. Krabs and [=SpongeBob=] have to make more. Unable to recall the order of the ingredients, they go to double-check the Krabby Patty recipe - [[HalfwayPlotSwitch when Plankton appears trying to steal it]]. After [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption the obvious foiling]], Mr. Krabs decides he's fed up with Plankton's theft attempts and so [[OutOfSightOutOfMind sends the recipe to the other side of the ocean]] [[NoMacguffinNoWinner to keep him from getting at it anymore]]. It's only after the recipe is sent off that [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs get back to making more Krabby Patties...[[DidntThinkThisThrough only to realize they forgot to look at the recipe before shipping it away and now have to go all the way across the ocean to get it back]].

* In the backstory of ''Film/BlackAdam'', [[spoiler:Adam's son Hurut is chosen as Champion by the Council of Wizards, with him using his powers to defy the tyrannical ruler of Khandag, Ahk-Ton. In retaliation, Ahk-Ton had his assassins attack Adam, with Hurut giving his father his powers in order to save his life. Unfortunately, the moment he was {{De-Power}}ed, one of the assassins took the opportunity to murder Hurut]].

* ''Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites:'' Erik wins immunity at the final five. Guaranteed to be in the Final Four, right? Not if the Black Widow Brigade has anything to say about it.