History Main / DoomedProtagonist

* ''DragonAgeOrigins''. [[spoiler: At the end of the game just before the final battle, you find out that in order to kill the Archdemon, a Grey Warden has to strike the final blow and will die in the process. You can choose to sacrifice yourself or ask the other Grey Warden in your party to do it, or TakeAThirdOption.]]

* ''TheHouseOnTheBorderland'' by Creator/WilliamHopeHodgson

* ''FinalFantasyXIII-2'': [[spoiler: Serah. The game also reveals that ''all the player characters except Fang and Vanille'' were supposed to be this for the previous game.]]

* {{Godzilla}} in the film ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah''. [[spoiler:He dies of nuclear meltdown due to radiation overdose.]]

* The LegacyOfKain series has [[spoiler:Raziel]]. Pain, betrayal, torture, humiliation and death? Oh yes, he has that coming in spades, but his is a more brutal kind of doom: After being executed by his master Kain, he's resurrected as a soul-devouring entity. Later, he becomes bound to a spectral blade known as the Reaver. After traveling back in time [[spoiler:he learns that the Reaver is in fact the soul of his own future self, once imprisoned within the blade and driven insane after millenia, and that it is his destiny to suffer the same fate.]]. He resists at first, but by the end realizes it ''has'' to happen and accepts it.

* A couple of ''{{R-Type}} Final''{{'}}s endings leave the pilot disabled and floating in space.

-->-- The protagonist of [[BenCroshaw Yahtzee's]] [[http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/features/expedition.htm "The Expedition"]]

* Guts from ''{{Berserk}}''

* In ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler:the magical girls are doomed to become witches -- if they don't die first]].
* Seita from "GraveOfTheFireflies": The first scene is him dying in the streets and then it flashes back to the past.

* Two of [[BenCroshaw Yahtzee's]] Fully Ramblomatic stories, ''[[spoiler:The Hopeless Endeavour]]'' and ''[[spoiler:The Expedition]]'', end this way: one with the main character discovering that he's [[spoiler:the latest in a series of thousands of clones infected with a terminal disease that will kill him within a few days and cause him to be replaced with another clone]] and the other with [[spoiler:the main character becoming a prisoner of [[ChzoMythos Chzo]].]]

* The LegacyOfKain series has [[spoiler:Raziel]]. Pain, betrayal, torture, humiliation and death? Oh yes, he has that coming in spades, but his is a more brutal kind of doom: After being executed by his master Kain, he's ressurected as a soul-devouring entity. Later, he becomes bound to a spectral blade known as the Reaver. After travelling back in time [[spoiler:he learns that the Reaver is in fact the soul of his own future self, once imprisoned within the blade and driven insane after millenia, and that it is his destiny to suffer the same fate.]]. He resists at first, but by the end realizes it ''has'' to happen and accepts it.

* Might be the fate of the two lead protagonists in DeadRising. [[spoiler: even the fate of the survivors are in question,]] well in Otis' opinion anyway. Also, at the end of the "real" ending, the message [[spoiler:"And yet he complained that his belly was not full."]] is shown.

* ''FinalFantasyX''. [[spoiler: At first, Yuna is doomed as were all the summoners before her to die after the Final Summoning is performed. Once the cycle is broken, Yuna is no longer doomed, but it becomes clear that Tidus is now doomed because he only exists as a dream of the Fayth and will fade once Sin is destroyed and the Fayth awaken.]]

* At the end of ''MetalGearSolid4'', [[spoiler: Old Snake, having survived fighting numerous Metal Gears, [[SerialEscalation walking through a microwave chamber]], and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown fighting Liquid Ocelot]], knows that he only has about six months to live before his [[CloningBlues artificially accelerated aging]] finally kills him.]] But it's okay, because he's happy.

* Nearly every ending in G-{{Darius}} ends this way. Even the best ending is a little ambiguous.

* ''{{Resistance}} 2'', where Hale has indeed been corrupted by TheVirus, and fully transforms at the end.

*** Although everyone DOES die eventually and in a society like theirs most people wouldn't live much longer than that anyway.
*** Avernus would LOVE to prove you wrong, as he's, pardon my words, old as shit AND a grey warden who's prolonged his life using blood magic.
**** However, most people in the Dragon Age universe consider blood magic to be an evil branch of magic, to the point that it is the reason templars basically effectively imprison all the mages they can.

--> '''Baron Praxis''': The dark eco inside you will eventually kill you, Jak. Its destructive effects cannot be stopped once you are in its chaotic grip. It will not let you go until you slide into insanity.

* ''JakIIRenegade'': After [[PlayingWithSyringes being experimented on]] for two years, Jak has become [[TheCorruption corrupted]] with [[Phlebotinum dark eco]]. He is repeatedly assured that there is no good waiting for him at the end of the tunnel: first he'll go insane, after which he'll die a slow, painful death. There is no way of taking away the eco, [[spoiler:but luckily the Precursor entity within the stone balances him out, halting the effects.]]

* ''Film/{{District 9}}'' plays with this trope. It may not be the best example, since the the moment of realization occurs halfway through the film, and no one prior to Wikus had experienced it before. However, it definitely counts.
** However, he isn't going to die, he is just turning into an alien. And Christopher said he would come back for him.

* ''FinalFantasyX''. [[spoiler: At first, Yuna is doomed as were all the summoners before her to become the next Sin after the calm. Once the cycle is broken, Yuna is no longer doomed, but it becomes clear that Tidus is now doomed because he only exists as a dream of the Fayth and will fade once Sin is destroyed and the Fayth awaken.]]

Either way, we know he's screwed. And unless he can FindTheCure, fight off his fate or have some miraculous DeusExMachina save him, all he can do is sit back and wait to die. In most cases, he's not going to find the cure or get rescued. (Except maybe in FanFic. [[AliensMadeThemDoIt By aliens.]])

* The premise of the classic FilmNoir ''D.O.A.'' and its 1980s remake.

* {{Godzilla}} in the film ''GodzillaVsDestoroyah''. [[spoiler:He dies of nuclear meltdown due to radiation overdose.]]

* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', [[spoiler:Winston and Julia are slated for execution by the Party, and they know it.]]

* The ending to ''{{Diablo}}''.

* In ''NineteenEightyFour'', [[spoiler:Winston and Julia are slated for execution by the Party, and they know it.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* [[spoiler:All the kids]] in ''{{Bokurano}}'', due to [[spoiler:the way that mecha battles in this series generally work -- if you win, you die. If you lose, ''everybody in your universe'' dies]].

* Seita from "GraveOfTheFireflies": The first scene is him dying in the streets and then it flashes back to the past.

[[folder:Comic Books]]

* ''{{District 9}}'' plays with this trope. It may not be the best example, since the the moment of realization occurs halfway through the film, and no one prior to Wikus had experienced it before. However, it definitely counts.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Commonly used by Creator/HPLovecraft. For example, at the end of ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'', the protagonist realizes that he shares ancestry with the people of Innsmouth, and is destined to eventually turn into a Deep One.
* ''{{The House on the Borderland}}'' by Creator/WilliamHopeHodgson

[[/folder]]

* Two of [[BenCroshaw Yahtzee's]] Fully Ramblomatic stories, ''[[spoiler:The Hopeless Endeavour]]'' and ''[[spoiler:The Expedition]]'', end this way: one with the main character discovering that he's [[spoiler:the latest in a series of thousands of clones infected with a terminal disease that will kill him within a few days and cause him to be replaced with another clone]] and the other with [[spoiler:the main character becoming a prisoner of [[ChzoMythos Chzo]].]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* ''{{Persona 3}}'' ends this way. [[spoiler: All the heroes know that it is futile to fight Nyx Avatar. Sure enough, after fighting it, [[TheBattleDidntCount The Battle Didn't Count]]]]. Shouldn't be all that surprising because it's a MegaTen game and "Memento Mori" shows up quite a bit in the intro. [[spoiler: Its ultimately subverted by the protagonist making a [[HeroicSacrifice Heroic Sacrifice]] to contain Nyx Avatar.]]

[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'' implies that Charlie will eventually die as a result of the intelligence-enhancing operation he underwent, as Algernon and other lab animals died after having the operation.
* In ''NineteenEightyFour'', Winston and Julia are slated for execution by the Party, and they know it.

* Commonly used by Creator/HPLovecraft, for example, his story ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'' may count. In the very end the protagonist realizes that he shares ancestry with the people of Innsmouth, and is destined to eventually turn into a Deep One.

* The title character of the {{Glurge}} movie ''SimonBirch'' is going to die. You know this from the beginning, as TheIshmael is narrating the entire movie over his grave.
* Alien 3 has [[spoiler:Ripley with a queens embryo inside her.]] Granted we learn this approximately halfway through, but still.

* Commonly used by HPLovecraft, for example, his story ''Shadow over Innsmouth'' may count. In the very end the protagonist realizes that he shares ancestry with the people of Innsmouth, and is destined to eventually turn into a Deep One.
* ''{{The House on the Borderland}}'' by WilliamHopeHodgson