History Main / DoomedProtagonist

* Music/TheCaretaker's ''Everywhere At the End of Time'' is essentially a doomed-protagonist audio simulation, putting you in the shoes of someone who's going through all the phases of dementia, from the beginnings of memory loss through confusion, panic, and the inevitable ending of brain-death.

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* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': In that universe, PlagueZombie bites can take anything from a few days to a couple weeks to start showing consequences. The small chance of not being infected after all means it's worth waiting to see if symptoms appear or not, but once they do, the only possible outcomes are being killed by ThePlague or becoming a zombie. This "showing symptoms" scenario eventually happens with [[spoiler:Tuuri]].
* Four out of the six members of the Lambsbridge Gang in ''Literature/{{Twig}}'' are human experiments created with an intended expiration date in their early twenties at the latest, where their bodies and minds will break down under the strain and the scientists maintaining them can move on to new and improved iterations of their projects.

* ''Literature/TheHouseOnTheBorderland'' by Creator/WilliamHopeHodgson.

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

* Misuzu from ''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}''. In fact, [[ItWasHisSled this spread like a virus.]]

* At this point in time, [[spoiler:Eren and the rest of the current titan shifters]] in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. [[spoiler:A shifter will die 13 years after inheriting their titan powers if they're not passed down beforehand. This is known as the Curse of Ymir, after the first person to wield titan powers died 13 years after acquiring them: the idea is that nobody can possess the powers for longer than Ymir did. [[note]]Eren currently has 4 years left, Armin has 9, Reiner has 2 (theoretically so does Annie if she's aged), Zeke has less than 1, Porco has 13, and Pieck most likely has 2.[[/note]]]] The plot currently involves [[spoiler:trying to save Eldia and Paradis Island before Zeke's term is up.]] Currently, there's no cure.

* ''ComicBook/TheMask'' had Stanley Ipkiss turning more psychotic as a result of all the murderous release [[JekyllAndHyde the evil alter-ego brought by the mask]] gave him. His girlfriend doesn't like it, and eventually kills him to stop him from continuing his killing spree. (this was changed in [[Film/TheMask the movie]], as Stanley's inhibitions lost by wearing the mask are much less evil)

* ''Film/ThisGunForHire'', another classic noir, features a [[ContractOnTheHitman betrayed hitman]] out for revenge against insurmountable odds. Along the way, he makes a friend and [[CharacterDevelopment ascribes greater meaning]] to his goal, but it is clear that there is no real way out for him.
* The heroine of ''Film/TheRing'' (the U.S. version at least), when she realizes that she only has a few days to live after watching the tape.
* ''Film/District9'' plays with this trope. It may not be the best example, since the moment of realization occurs halfway through the film, and no one prior to Wikus had experienced it before. However, it definitely counts. He isn't going to die, though, he is just [[spoiler:turning into an alien. And Christopher said he would come back for him.]]

* This is the premise of ''Film/{{Crank}}''. [[spoiler:However, it's subverted, as he ultimately survives.]]
* ''Film/SevenPounds'', [[spoiler:in a rare, self-inflicted version]].
* In ''Film/TheWrestler'', the protagonist collapses due to a heart attack and his doctor tells him in no uncertain terms that he has to stop wrestling or he will die. But after he messes things up with his daughter, wrestling is all that he's got.

* The original ending of ''Film/TheCrazies2010'' remake had [[spoiler: David getting a nosebleed, this showing that both him and Judy were actually infected with [[TheVirus Trixie]]]].
* Everyone in ''Film/{{Threads}}''. [[spoiler:It doesn't look like humanity, at least in the UK, will last beyond a few generations.]]

* ''Franchise/FinalDestination'' is basically ''[[TheProblemWithFightingDeath Doomed Protagonists: The Movie Series]].''
* The title character of the movie ''Film/SimonBirch'' is going to die. You know this from the beginning, as the FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator is narrating the entire movie over his grave.
* ''Film/Alien3'' has [[spoiler:Ripley with a queen's embryo inside her]]. Granted, we learn this approximately halfway through.

* Max of ''Film/{{Elysium}}'' is given 72 hours to live after getting doused with radiation. And if that wasn't enough, [[spoiler:the [[NeuralImplanting brain-encrypted data]] he steals is designed to instantly flatline anyone who uses it.]]

* 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.
* ''Literature/TheHouseOnTheBorderland'' by Creator/WilliamHopeHodgson.

* Two of [[Creator/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 [[VideoGame/ChzoMythos Chzo]].]]
* Four out of the six members of the Lambsbridge Gang in ''Literature/{{Twig}}'' are human experiments created with an intended expiration date in their early twenties at the latest, where their bodies and minds will break down under the strain and the scientists maintaining them can move on to new and improved iterations of their projects.

* Damn near every playable character in ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''. Which, you know, is inspired by Lovecraft, so...
* [[spoiler:Shirou during the Heaven's Feel route]] in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', after [[spoiler:having his arm removed by the Shadow and getting Archer's grafted onto him.]] The DangerousForbiddenTechnique that comes from using it would be survivable (though with a reduced lifespan) if he had years of gradual training to ease into it and did not have to overuse it -- unfortunately, he hasn't got the luxury of either. Whether this is a subversion or not depends on the ending; in the True End, he gets better, in the Normal End, [[DownerEnding he doesn't]].
** The prequel, ''Literature/FateZero'' has this happen to Kiritsugu, who is cursed by the Grail, and dies a few years later, before ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' begins.
* The ''VideoGame/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.
* It looks like [[VideoGame/MegaManLegends Rockman Trigger]] will remain stuck on Elysium. He's been up there for over a decade, and all of Roll and Tron's attempts to bring him back to Terra have failed.
* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}} 2'', where Hale has indeed been corrupted by TheVirus, and fully transforms at the end.
* Might be the fate of the two lead protagonists in VideoGame/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.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' this is the fate of [[spoiler: Sgt. Forge when he volunteers to take the slipspace "bomb" into the shield world's sun]].
** Noble Six from ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', after staying behind to cover [[spoiler:the ''Pillar of Autumn'']]'s escape. The game doesn't even ''attempt'' to hide it, with the first view of the titular planet focused on his/her broken helmet in the middle of a burned-out wasteland.

* ''VideoGame/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.]]
** The joining ritual that the wardens undergo is itself a death sentence. [[spoiler:You die 30 years or so later, as your body finally succumbs to the taint.]]

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'': [[spoiler: In an early Chapter 2 mission, protagonist Arthur Morgan goes to retrieve a debt from a very sick looking man. He eventually loses his temper and beats said man down, who then coughs right into his mouth. It's then revealed later on that the man passed his Tuberculosis onto Arthur, and since the game takes place in 1899, roughly fifty years before the development of antibiotics, this ultimately seals his fate by the end of Chapter 6.]]
* A couple of ''VideoGame/RType Final'''s endings leave the pilot disabled and floating in space.
* ''VideoGame/Persona3'' ends this way. [[spoiler: All the heroes know that it is futile to fight Nyx Avatar. Sure enough, after fighting it, TheBattleDidntCount]]. 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 to contain Nyx Avatar.]]
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/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.]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': [[spoiler: Serah. The game also reveals that ''all the player characters except Fang and Vanille'' were supposed to be this for the previous game.]]

* The Nameless One is damned even in the best endings of ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''. Somehow it's not a DownerEnding, as Nameless is at peace with himself, and battling in the Lower Planes is old hat to him by now.
** And you've worked for that damnation almost the entire game - the quest for your mortality (and death) began right at the end of the first "dungeon". On a happier note, depending on who you have with you at the end and whether they survive said end, they promise to come for you.

* In ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'', even if one avoids all the [[BadEnd Wrong Ends]] and follows the True End path, [[spoiler:four of the main characters die, along with a plethora of other victims]].
* ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'': After [[PlayingWithSyringes being experimented on]] for two years, Jak has become [[TheCorruption corrupted]] with [[AppliedPhlebotinum 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 is able to balance him out, halting the effects.]]
* Promotional material for ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadowMirrorOfFate'' makes it clear from the start Trevor never makes it out of Dracula's castle.
* In both ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'', the player character is one of the Undead. Sooner or later they ''will'' go Hollow -- using Humanity and Effigies only delays the inevitable. Due to the nature of the Curse, even death is denied to them (and in fact may [[FromBadToWorse speed up the process]]). In the first game the protagonist doesn't even try to save him/herself, merely following the advice of others in the hopes of doing something meaningful with his/her remaining time. In the second game the protagonist is lured to Drangleic with rumors of a possible cure [[spoiler:that doesn't exist.]] Ultimately they don't go Hollow [[spoiler:though their fates at the end of each game are arguably worse.]]
** However, if you complete the DLC of ''Dark Souls II'' [[spoiler:you actually ''do'' find something that can stave off hollowing indefinitely, but if they choose to stay alive this way or sacrifice themselves is up to the player's imagination. Also, the "cure" is not permanent and only affects one person at a time, meaning the player [[BlessedWithSuck can do nothing but watch everyone]] ''[[BlessedWithSuck else]]'' [[BlessedWithSuck they might have met die and turn hollow.]] [[WhoWantsToLiveForever Possibly forever.]]]]
** In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', the GrandFinale of the series, [[spoiler:it is ''averted''. By taking certain steps, there is a way to survive the inevitable end of the Age of Fire. However, doing so pretty much requires sacrificing your moral compass by siding with the Pilgrims of Londor and becoming the Lord or Lady of Hollows who Usurps the Flame. You essentially become the First Flame and the Dark Soul incarnate.]]

* This tropes serves as the basis of ''VideoGame/HeroMustDie''. The protagonist dies shortly after defeating Satan, [[BackFromTheDead but is granted an extra five days to live by an angel]] to see the world that he saved. No matter what you do over your last five days, [[spoiler:the protagonist is always fated to die and be taken to heaven, leaving his companions and lover to mourn his loss during his funeral.]]
* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': [[spoiler:V gets shot in the head while they have the personality biochip slotted into their head. Their death activates the chip, [[BackFromTheDead bringing them back to life]], but also causes their brain to get slowly overwritten by the personality on said chip, belonging to Johnny Silverhand. V is slowly losing their sence of self, and the entire second and third act of the story revolves around V's race with time to find a way to separate themselves and the personality on the biochip. It turns out that, while V and Johnny can be untangled, the chip has degraded V's brain beyond repair, and they only have six months to live. They can also give their body to Johnny, but that involves them being forever trapped in the virtual space, essentially stuck in limbo forever.]]

* [[spoiler: Chtholly's]] fate in ''LightNovel/WorldEndWhatDoYouDoAtTheEndOfTheWorldAreYouBusyWillYouSaveUs'' had already been sealed since the first episode's ColdOpen, and one of the series' [[WhamEpisode whammies]] after TheReveal only hammered the point further, as fitting for the [[{{Tearjerker}} series']] [[{{Tragedy}} tragic]] genre.

* ''Comicbook/TheMask'' had Stanley Ipkiss turning more psychotic as a result of all the murderous release [[JekyllAndHyde the evil alter-ego brought by the mask]] gave him. His girlfriend doesn't like it, and eventually kills him to stop him from continuing his killing spree. (this was changed in [[Film/TheMask the movie]], as Stanley's inhibitions lost by wearing the mask are much less evil)

* ''Film/{{This Gun For Hire}}'', another classic noir, features a [[ContractOnTheHitman betrayed hitman]] out for revenge against insurmountable odds. Along the way, he makes a friend and [[CharacterDevelopment ascribes greater meaning]] to his goal, but it is clear that there is no real way out for him.

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

* Everyone in Film/{{Threads}}. [[spoiler:It doesn't look like humanity, at least in the UK, will last beyond a few generations.]]

* ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' has [[spoiler:Ripley with a queen's embryo inside her]]. Granted, we learn this approximately halfway through.

* Creator/RoaldDahl concluded ''Literature/TheWitches'' with a more {{bittersweet|Ending}} form of this trope. [[spoiler:The hero is permanently turned into a mouse, shortened lifespan and all. He doesn't mind because he wouldn't want to outlive his grandmother, with whom he plans to spend his remaining years hunting witches.]] TheFilmOfTheBook made the ending more unambiguously happy, a change which [[DisownedAdaptation angered Dahl]] to the point where he stood outside his local cinema with a megaphone urging moviegoers not to see ''The Witches'' ([[http://www.mayonews.ie/comment-opinion/45-cmere/6417-the-season-of-the-witch]], [[http://www.universityobserver.ie/otwo/top-10-films-with-questionable-endings/]], [[https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/friday-1127/Content?oid=1298906]], [[http://whatculture.com/books/9-times-authors-disavowed-adaptations-of-their-work]]). Mind you, this was mere months before the man died; ''that's'' how pissed off he was.

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

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' ends this way. [[spoiler: All the heroes know that it is futile to fight Nyx Avatar. Sure enough, after fighting it, TheBattleDidntCount]]. 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 to contain Nyx Avatar.]]

* The ending to the original ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' has your player character, after defeating the title archdemon, sticking his soulstone into his or her own head to attempt to contain his evil. Come ''Diablo II'', this turns out to have been a very bad idea, and not only did the player character become the new host for the Lord of Terror, but the others were also corrupted by the other Evils and your new protagonist has to kill them.

* In both ''Videogame/DarkSouls'' and ''Videogame/DarkSoulsII'', the player character is one of the Undead. Sooner or later they ''will'' go Hollow -- using Humanity and Effigies only delays the inevitable. Due to the nature of the Curse, even death is denied to them (and in fact may [[FromBadToWorse speed up the process]]). In the first game the protagonist doesn't even try to save him/herself, merely following the advice of others in the hopes of doing something meaningful with his/her remaining time. In the second game the protagonist is lured to Drangleic with rumors of a possible cure [[spoiler:that doesn't exist.]] Ultimately they don't go Hollow [[spoiler:though their fates at the end of each game are arguably worse.]]

** In ''Videogame/DarkSoulsIII'', the GrandFinale of the series, [[spoiler:it is ''averted''. By taking certain steps, there is a way to survive the inevitable end of the Age of Fire. However, doing so pretty much requires sacrificing your moral compass by siding with the Pilgrims of Londor and becoming the Lord or Lady of Hollows who Usurps the Flame. You essentially become the First Flame and the Dark Soul incarnate.]]

* ''VideoGame/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.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': [[spoiler: Serah. The game also reveals that ''all the player characters except Fang and Vanille'' were supposed to be this for the previous game.]]

* ''Comicbook/TheMask'' had Stanley Ipkiss turning more psychotic as a result of all the murderous release [[JekyllAndHyde the evil alter-ego brought by the mask]] gave him. His girlfriend doesn't like it, and eventually kills him to stop him from continuing his killing spree. (this was changed in [[Film/TheMask movie]], as Stanley's inhibitions lost by wearing the mask are much less evil)

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* [[spoiler: Chtholly's]] fate in ''LightNovel/SukaSuka'' had already been sealed since the first episode's ColdOpen, and one of the series' [[WhamEpisode whammies]] after TheReveal only hammered the point further, as fitting for the [[{{Tearjerker}} series']] [[{{Tragedy}} tragic]] genre.

* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}} starts with the protagonist Legasov's suicide. It's later revealed that he didn't have long to live anyway, because he spent too much time near the destroyed reactor helping with the cleanup.

* ''Film/WithnailAndI'' ends with Withnail alone, in complete and utter despair, still unemployed, and on the brink of getting evicted. It's not a question of ''whether'' his self-destructive lifestyle will kill him, but a question of ''when''. (Withnail's real-life counterpart, the little-known actor Vivian MacKerrell, never found success in life and died fairly young of throat cancer).

* This tropes serves as the basis of Hero Must Die. The protagonist dies shortly after defeating Satan, [[BackFromTheDead but is granted an extra five days to live by an angel]] to see the world that he saved. No matter what you do over your last five days, [[spoiler:the protagonist is always fated to die and be taken to heaven, leaving his companions and lover to mourn his loss during his funeral.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' ''[[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne Season One]]'', [[spoiler: Lee Everett gets ambushed by a walker and is quickly bitten on his left wrist near the end of Episode 4. The entirety of Episode 5 is then focused on recusing Clementine before Lee dies from the bite's infection. Although you can choose to [[AmputationStopsSpread cut off Lee's arm]] in an attempt to stop the infection, Lee will still die by the end of the game.]]

* In an early chapter 2 mission in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption '' protagonist Arthur goes calling on a debt from a very sick man. He loses his temper and shakes said man down who then coughs right into his mouth which seals Arthur’s fate. He passes his TB to him and since the game takes place in 1899, roughly fifty years before the development of antibiotics, this seals his fate. He doesn’t get diagnosed until late chapter 5 but he will die regardless of his [[KarmaMeter honor]].

* The Bloggses from ''ComicBook/WhenTheWindBlows'' are basically already dead once the nuclear war happens.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in one episode of ''Series/TheMentalist'', where Jane and Lisbon appear to be this after they're supposedly exposed to the lethal virus that killed the VictimOfTheWeek. [[DramaticIrony The audience knows]] it's just another BatmanGambit from Jane, but Lisbon doesn't, and is furious when Jane tells her it's not for real.

[[folder:RealLife]]
* [[WeAllDieSomeday Nothing lasts forever.]] Literally every single thing that could possibly consider itself a protagonist is doomed. Even this Troper [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou and you]].
[[/folder]]

* Nothing lasts forever. Literally every single thing that could possibly consider itself a protagonist is doomed. Even this Troper [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou and you]].

* Pick any {{Biopic}} or film about a historical event and chances are a lot of them will have doomed protagonists in them, because we as the audience have the advantage of knowing these people died because of...

** Murder: UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln in ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'', UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi in ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'', UsefulNotes/MalcolmX in ''Film/MalcolmX'', Oscar Romero in ''Film/{{Romero}}'', Steve Biko in ''Film/CryFreedom'', UsefulNotes/CheGuevara in ''Film/{{Che}}'', Bugsy Siegel in ''Film/{{Bugsy}}'',...

** This tropes serves as the basis of Hero Must Die. The protagonist dies shortly after defeating Satan, [[BackFromTheDead but is granted an extra five days to live by an angel]] to see the world that he saved. No matter what you do over your last five days, [[spoiler:the protagonist is always fated to die and be taken to heaven, leaving his companions and lover to mourn his loss during his funeral.]]