History Main / Anticlimax

* TheDragon in ''Film/Banlieue13Ultimatum'' ticks all the boxes on the Fight Scene Buildup Checklist; LeaveHimToMe, KnuckleCracking, PreAsskickingOneLiner... and is promptly finished with a single [[GroinAttack kick to the 'nads]].

* Used [[TropesAreNotBad brilliantly]] to teach the lesson of "Operation: D.W.!". D.W. learns she has to have ear surgery and spends the episode learning about it and becoming anxious and afraid. She is reassured by the other characters that the surgery will be over before she knows it since she'll be put under during it. At the end of the episode, D.W. bravely braces herself for it, and the camera fades to black... and she immediately wakes up, the surgery having been a complete success, and for her, it was over in an instant. All to help teach kids not to be afraid of surgeries.

* At the 2021 Academy Awards, viewers were surprised when Best Picture, always reserved for the final award, was presented before the acting awards. It became obvious the producers were planning on closing out the show with Creator/ChadwickBoseman (who had passed away the previous August) winning Best Actor for his role in ''Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'' and the show would end with his widow accepting for him. Instead, the award went to Creator/AnthonyHopkins who was not only not in attendance (staying in his home in Wales) but didn't even have anyone ready to accept it on his behalf. Thus, instead of an emotional tribute to a late beloved star taken too soon, the ceremony ended with an awkward cut to the credits.

* When Nick Fury appears in ''Film/CaptainMarvel'' he's yet to lose his eye and gain his iconic eyepatch, setting this movie up as the one where "[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier the last time he trusted someone he lost an eye]]." [[spoiler:It's clawed out by a cat in a bad mood when he tries to pet it.]]

* Tuma from ''WesternAnimation/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn''. Even accounting for his BadassDecay compared to his portrayal in the comics/novel/online serial, his defeat was truly pathetic, considering how the characters previously reacted to him.

** The rest of the [[spoiler: Lannister's forces]] fare no better. [[spoiler: Their main army and the Iron Fleet are ''completely decimated'' without ever getting the chance to do anything remotely meaningful against Dany and Drogon, with the Scorpion balistas that were ''specifically designed'' for combating dragons missing every shot fired at the two.[[note]]Which is superbly ironic, since those same balistas were shown to be extremely efficient at killing Rhaegal in the previous episode[[/note]]]] The only allies of [[spoiler: Cersei]] who actually put up a fight against their enemies were [[spoiler: Euron (who manages to critically injure Jamie before getting ran through by his sword) and Gregor (who is shown to be such an unstoppable [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] that Sandor has to [[TakingYOuWithMe tackle him down to the fires below and die in the process]] to kill him). It's not uncommon for fans to point out that Gregor was harder to kill than the Night King.]]

** The rest of the [[spoiler: Lannister's forces]] fare no better. [[spoiler: Their main army and the Iron Fleet are ''completely decimated'' without ever getting the chance to do anything remotely meaningful against Dany and Drogon, with the Scorpion balistas that were ''specifically designed'' for combating dragons missing every shot fired at the two.]][[note]]Which is superbly ironic, since those same balistas were shown to be extremely efficient at killing Rhaegal in the previous episode[[/note]] The only allies of [[spoiler: Cersei]] who actually put up a fight against their enemies were [[spoiler: Euron (who manages to critically injure Jamie before getting ran through by his sword) and Gregor (who is shown to be such an unstoppable [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] that Sandor has to [[TakingYOuWithMe tackle him down to the fires below and die in the process]] to kill him). It's not uncommon for fans to point out that Gregor was harder to kill than the Night King.]]

** The rest of the [[spoiler: Lannister's forces]] fare no better. [[spoiler: Their main army and the Iron Fleet are ''completely decimated'' without ever getting the chance to do anything remotely meaningful against Dany and Drogon, with the Scorpion balistas that were ''specifically designed'' for combating dragons missing every shot fired at the two.]] The only allies of [[spoiler: Cersei]] who actually put up a fight against their enemies were [[spoiler: Euron (who manages to critically injure Jamie before getting ran through by his sword) and Gregor (who is shown to be such an unstoppable [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] that Sandor has to [[TakingYOuWithMe tackle him down to the fires below and die in the process]] to kill him). It's not uncommon for fans to point out that Gregor was harder to kill than the Night King.]]

** The rest of the [[spoiler: Lannister's forces]] fare no better. [[spoiler: Their main army and the Iron Fleet are ''completely decimated'' without ever getting the chance to do anything remotely meaningful against Dany and Drogon, with the Scorpion balistas that were ''specifically designed'' for combating dragons missing every shot fired at the two.]] The only allies of Cersei who actually put up a fight against their enemies were [[spoiler: Euron (who manages to critically injure Jamie before getting ran through by his sword) and Gregor (who is shown to be such an unstoppable [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] that Sandor has to [[TakingYOuWithMe tackle him down to the fires below and die in the process]] to kill him). It's not uncommon for fans to point out that Gregor was harder to kill than the Night King.]]

** Since Season 4, the Golden Company were hyped as a hardened, well-trained private army of sellswords over 20,000 strong. [[{{Recap/GameOfThronesS8E5TheBells}} When we finally see them in a real battle]], there's only around a few hundred soldiers actually present...all of whom stand around doing nothing for two minutes straight before [[spoiler: they're unceremoniously incinerated by Drogon. Their commander, Harry Strickland (who is only one of two survivors), doesn't even have the dignity of [[DoNotGoGentle going down fighting]], instead opting to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere futilely run from Daenarys' army]] before getting speared in the back by Grey Worm.]]

** Since Season 4, the Golden Company were hyped as a hardened, well-trained private army of sellswords over 20,000 strong. When they're finally UnseenNoMore in [[{{Recap/GameOfThronesS8E5TheBells}} "The Bells"]], we only see around a few hundred soldiers...all of whom stand around doing nothing for two minutes straight before [[spoiler: they're unceremoniously incinerated by Drogon. Their commander, Harry Strickland (who is only one of two survivors), doesn't even have the dignity of [[DoNotGoGentle going down fighting]], instead opting to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere futilely run from Daenarys' army]] before getting speared in the back by Grey Worm.]]

* To say the final season of ''Series/GameOfTHrones'' brough unsatisfying ends to many important, overarching plot points would be an understatement.
** The Season 7 finale shows Theon and his men planning to save Yara from Euron's clutches. You'd expect a big fight against Euron and his fleet...and then the Season 8 premiere shows Theon's crew easily killing all the guards and getting Yara off the ship she's on. The whole thing takes about a minute, tops.
** The massive battle against the White Walkers ends with [[spoiler: Arya jumping at the Night King practically from out of nowhere and killing him with one stab from her Valaryan steel dagger. And when he dies, [[NoOntologicalInertia the rest of his army soon follows]].]]
** Since Season 4, the Golden Company were hyped as a hardened, well-trained private army of sellswords over 20,000 strong. When they're finally UnseenNoMore in [[{{Recap/GameOfThronesS8E5TheBells}} "The Bells"]], we only see around a few hundred soldiers...all of whom stand around doing nothing for two minutes straight before [[spoiler: they're unceremoniously incinerated by Drogon. Their commander, Harry Strickland (who is only one of two survivors), doesn't even have the dignity of [[DoNotGoGentle going down fighting]], instead opting to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere futilely run from Daenarys' army]] before getting speared in the back by Grey Worm.]]
** The rest of the [[spoiler: Lannister's forces]] fare no better. [[spoiler: Their main army and the Iron Fleet are ''completely decimated'' without ever getting the chance to do anything remotely meaningful against Dany and Drogon, with the Scorpion balistas that were ''specifically designed'' for combating dragons missing every shot fired at the two.]] The only allies of Cersei who actually put up a fight against their enemies were [[spoiler: Euron (who manages to critically injure Jamie before getting ran through by his sword) and Gregor (who is shown to be such an unstoppable [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] that Sandor has to [[TakingYOuWithMe tackle him down to the fires below and die in the process]] to kill him). It's not uncommon for fans to point out that Gregor was harder to kill than the Night King.]]

* The Scout Tournament in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters: Joker''. You face three adversaries, one stronger than the other, and eventually face off your rival in a fight that made itself wait for the whole game up to there...[[spoiler:and she gets disqualified for hitting your monster... victory is yours, no sweat broken.]]

* At the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, everyone expected to see [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] pay for his war crimes. Instead, he shot himself. Though in the long run, the ''other'' part of the climax was, well...
* Almost everyone thought the United States would win the Vietnam War easily. Instead the US troops left after over 10 long years of fighting and with the reputation of warcrimes outraging the international public. Only 2 years later after US withdrawl, the Vietnamese communists redeclared war on South Vietnam and [[CurbStompBattle won with practically no resistance]].

* The ending of the film ''Film/{{Next}}''. It is revealed that half of the movie was [[AllJustADream a vision of the future]], where the nuclear bomb did go off. The film ends with Cris joining up with the FBI to stop the events of his vision from happening. To say audiences felt cheated by this would be an understatement.

** Another happens when Akkarulf is dueled for command of the [[CoolShip Silence]] by Gorion. The Wolf is excited to see a fight between the two about to happen, a circle of onlookers is formed... and Akkarulf concedes right away, ceding command of the ship to Gorion. He explains to a disappointed Wolf later on that [[Uriahgambit Gorion is likely to get himself killed anyways]], so Akkarulf just needs to wait a bit.

* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'': An InUniverse one for the Wolf: Having spent prodigious sums on magical wargear, mercenaries and weapons in preparation for killing the Night King in the name of Chaos, expecting he can reimburse the cost from whatever loot is to be found after the battle, [[spoiler:he has nothing to show for his investment when the Night King is accidentally shattered by Arya instead]].

* Of all the characters who got anti-climatically killed in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', it's [[spoiler: [[AxCrazy Freed]]]] who gets killed in ''seconds'' by [[TheAce Kiba]].

** Episode 60 Epilogue has Trunks comment that he's experiencing one of these [[spoiler:after effortlessly atomizing 17, 18 and Cell]].

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

** Team Aqua and Magma's two-part finale suffered from a rushed pace and horrid animation.
** In ''Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles'', Team Galactic is thwarted by Cyrus disappearing into a portal after he nearly succeeds in his plans to remake the universe. There is no real explanation as to why this happens and no climatic battle to lead up to this, he just up and vanishes. Then Dialga and Palkia are stopped from going out of control by Ash, Dawn and Brock just...wishing really hard.
** In ''Black & White: Adventures in Unova'', Ghetsis never battles with Reshiram, who is brought back to his senses with one shot from Pikachu. N then stops Reshiram from rampaging by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking it down.]] The promised Reshiram vs Charizard battle never happens either, though that could be a case of [[NeverTrustATrailer Never Trust an Opening]].

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':

** ''Breaking Dawn'' ends with this. After spending half of the book setting up the combatants for a confrontation with the Volturi, the problem with Bella's child ends up being resolved through talking, after which the Volturi elect to leave the Cullens in peace. The only kill count is the vampire who instigated the conflict in the first place, and she is executed without resistance.

* In the episode "Free Churro" on ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', we find that Beatrice Horseman has passed away between scenes, and Bojack spends the entirety of the episode giving a eulogy. A huge part of his emotional turmoil was that he spent most of his life hoping that his mother loved him and wanted a grand gesture of this love or some proof of it... and then she died before it happened. Now he's left confused as to what she wanted, his feelings on the matter, and frustration at the fact that the only thing he got out of it was a free churro at a Jack-In-The-Box restaurant out of sympathy from an employee he didn't even know.
-->'''Bojack''': When you’re a kid, you convince yourself that maybe the grand gesture could be enough, that even though your parents aren’t what you need them to be over and over and over again, at any moment, they might surprise you with something… wonderful. I kept waiting for that, the proof that even though my mother was a hard woman, deep down, she loved me and cared about me and wanted me to know that I made her life a little bit brighter. Even now, I find myself waiting.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'', had this big time. When the final boss, [[spoiler: El Macho, injects himself with the serum, and becomes a huge monster]], you are expected to believe that ''[[LetsGetDangerous shit is going down.]]'' The fight lasts in less than a few minutes, and is defeated by something as simple as an electric shock from a lipstick compactor.