History Main / EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce

* In ''WesternAnimation/Epic2013'' it's not made explicit, but it's pretty clear if Mandrake stops a new queen from being crowned, the forest wouldn't be able to come back from him rotting it.

-->'''Mary-Jane:''' The thing is... he became Spider-Man because people like [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Norman and Otto and Eddie]] were running around raising havoc. People who normal people couldn't deal with. And one day, they just stopped showing up. When he went on reconnaissance, he found [[GameBreakingInjury Norman in a wheelchair, Otto with an oxygen tank]], [[ArsonMuderAndJaywalking and Eddie in the streets]].

* This seems to be the case in the world of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series. Over aeons, [[HistoryRepeats The Pattern endlessly repeats itself]], and the same heroes end up being reincarnated to fight the forces of the [[{{Satan}} Dark One]]. When the forces of Light win, the Dark One goes back to being SealedEvilInACan. If the Dark One ever wins, the Pattern will be destroyed, ending the cycle not just permanently, but retroactively back to the first turning of the wheel.
** However, it gets really weird. The Dark One only needs to win once to break out of his prison across its myriad permutations, but as long as one reality stands unbeaten, the Dark One cannot break free. It's weird.
*** There are also hints within the story that he ''has'' won before, only to find his efforts rendered futile as the ResetButton was pressed.
*** We will see if the ending of the story is yet another cycle, or if the various factors this time around will render their victory more permanent. In particular, balefire can erase things from the Pattern entirely, which may well mean that this cycle will be the last, for better or for worse - as things struck by balefire not only no longer exist, but if struck by strong enough balefire, never existed in the first place.
*** In the end [[spoiler: it's subverted. The Dark One can ''never'' truly win, because [[EvilCannotComprehendGood he does not understand why he loses]] and can never change. No matter how many times he tries, he'll always make the same mistakes.]]
** This is also central to [[TheDragon Ishamael's]][[spoiler:/Moridin's]] view of life. A former philosopher, he became savvy both to the endless repetitions of the Wheel ''and'' the fact that Evil Only Has To Win Once, and decided that not only was saving existence impossible (since the Dark One has an eternity to get it right), but since the cycle only repeated variations of the same events over and over again with no hope of true change, existence wasn't ''worth'' saving.

AsLongAsThereIsEvil, good must rise to the challenge and defend the world. Beating the BigBad and [[CosmicChessGame his pawns]] will maintain the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil and keep the world safe. Good doesn't always win, however, whether it's [[YouCantThwartStageOne Stage One]] of the EvilPlan or in the final battle, heroes do occasionally lose. In these cases the old heroes, or a group of new ones, must again rise to challenge the bad guys, usually with better results.

In some stories this won't happen, because TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed. [[TitleDrop Evil only has to win once]] in order to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt permanently turn]] the [[CrapsackWorld world into a crapsack]] VillainWorld with absolutely no [[EarnYourHappyEnding hope of being deposed]]. Heck, if the villain is an OmnicidalManiac [[ApocalypseHow there won't even be]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom a world to save]]. It's one of the justifications for XMustNotWin (in this case, X is the villain).

It just doesn't seem fair. Why is it that beating the BigBad doesn't bring about a thousand years of perpetual (hopefully not literal) light? There's two potential [[JustifiedTrope justifications for this]]: Good, ''true'' Good, won't [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans stoop]] to [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill the levels]] necessary to create a permanent SugarBowl, whereas Evil won't have a problem with completely wrecking the world. The other reason is that the Good Guys are usually the only ones concerned with maintaining the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil. Metatextually, the Author also probably wants a world where his ChronicHeroSyndrome suffering protagonist can't sleep. Also, we know VillainsActHeroesReact, and an action can often be tried many times until successful.

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', if even one of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Angels]] penetrate to the heart of the NERV base, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Third Impact]] will be initiated, wiping out all life on earth. [[spoiler: Technically, an Angel ''already'' penetrated the NERV Base... since before the start of the series. Said Angel is actually [[HumansAreCthulhu Humanity itself]] and they're also trying to initiate Third Impact. And ''they're'' the ones that succeed. This is one hell of a Crapsack World, huh?]]

* There's a version of this in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'': Shockwave tells Overlord that he isn't the first Phase Sixer (or OneManArmy) to bait Megatron. Overlord notes that he only has to be the ''last'' — the one who ''wins''. And while in this case ''both'' parties are evil, Overlord is probably the worse of the two.

* Discussed in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8518828/7/Crush Crush]]''. While Loki insists this trope is true, Tony claims that his side can make all kinds of little mistakes, and that they wouldn't be making big mistakes anytime soon.

** In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' Vimes thinks this about the repeated assassination attempts he suffers. However, in the end the Assassin's Guild declines to accept more commissions on him. One reason is that his role in the management of the city has grown vital enough that they don't want the disruption removing him would cause. The other is that their repeated failures were just getting embarrassing, and assassins value their own lives highly.

** However, it gets really weird. The Dark One only needs to win once to break out of his prison across its myriad permutations, but as long as one reality that stands unbeaten the Dark One cannot break free. It's weird.

** [[spoiler: If it was a ''stable'' timeloop, that wouldn't be a problem, since everything plays out the same way every time. But there may be slight changes every time it's repeated (Horn of Eld), so the outcome really is unsure.]]
** The implication is that it cuts both ways. [[spoiler:Roland saves the Tower, but he's done so many terrible things to reach it that by the time he does, he's unworthy of it. However, through the love of his friends he's redeemed himself just enough to earn a second chance. Presumably if he ever manages to make it to the Tower without compromising his humanity in the first place, he'll be worthy enough to ascend to the top and fix Creation such that it never needs saving in the first place.]] Evil Only Has To Win Once... but GOOD also only has to win, really decisively WIN, once as well.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' averts the trope in the specific context of its BigBad, but follows it concerning evil in general. As Gandalf explains, if Sauron wins his victory will be so complete that none can foresee his fall while the world lasts, but if he falls, he will fall so low that none can foresee him rising ever again. However, AsLongAsThereIsEvil (which there will always be, since it was woven into the fabric of creation itself by Morgoth), "the shadow will ever take another shape and grow again." To highlight this point, Sauron is the ''second'' shadowy, all-powerful force to attempt to dominate and envelop all creation; the first being Morgoth, Sauron's former boss.

* In the Creator/TomClancy novel[[note]]but not [[TheFilmOfTheBook the movie]][[/note]] ''Literature/PatriotGames'', the ULA terroist Sean Miller notes that anti-terrorist forces have to be lucky every time, while terrorists only have to do so once, in a nod to a similar comment made in the aftermath of the RealLife [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing Brighton hotel bombing]].

** Harry discusses and dismisses the idea when talking with [[spoiler:the book's BigBad Nicodemus]]. Sure Nicodemus and his group of humans possessed by {{Fallen Angel}}s could win this battle, gain access to a powerful magical weapon and cause the end of the world, but does he really think Heaven won't fight back tooth and nail within their bounds? That three new [[ThePaladin Knights of the Cross]], men or women who take up a Sword with a Nail from the Cross Jesus was Crucified on in the hilt, won't rise up a previous Knight is killed or unable to fight? That good people in general won't stop fighting? Harry says such an idea is foolish and likely a source of Nicodemus' deepest fears because his plans have been foiled countless times by such good people being in the right place at the right time.

* Inverted in the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series. The Arisians are completely indestructible against any existing force, so if Boskone's current agent is able to defeat Civilization, them's the breaks; the Arisians are perfectly capable of raising a new Civilization, new Lensmen and a new SuperBreedingProgram until they finally produce the weapon that can take down the Eddorians for good.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Spike asks Buffy how many vampires, demons etc she thinks she's killed.

** In the context of the episode, Buffy is worried about being killed in the line of duty, and wants to find out how Spike managed to kill two Slayers over the years. Spike explains that there ''is no'' big secret: partially by luck, he just managed to have a good day and the other Slayers had a bad one. Before Buffy, no Slayer has ''ever'' lived past 25 years old. It's a dangerous job and they just have a high turnover rate due to simple attrition. The adult son of one of the Slayers he killed later even confronts him about it, and Spike points out that if ''he'' didn't kill his mother, some other vampire eventually would have - few Slayers ever choose to have children because they know how dangerous their lives are, his mother ''knew'' when she had him that she was in a high-risk lifestyle which would probably leave him an orphan at a young age, but she chose that anyway. The Slayer's son actually accepts this as a good explanation, and doesn't feel a great need to seek revenge against Spike afterwards.

** Angel's main villains, the demonic law firm Wolfram & Hart and their allies, play with it. As far as they're concerned evil has ''already'' won and OmnicidalManiac villains like tend to feature on Buffy are as much a threat to them as to the good side. As to their specific interests and clients... eh, you win some, you lose some. In fact the most apocalyptic threat the heroes faced was from a "good" quasi-deity.
* Inverted in an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'', where the titular character is talking to a group of children about what he does as a detective. He says that he has made some mistakes as a detective, and that good guys and bad guys can both make mistakes, but a bad guy only has to make one mistake for the good guys to find him and arrest him.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': The demon [[GodOfEvil Overlords]] are sealed around the world, and the keys to their unsealing hidden in the Draconic Prophecy. There is always an opportunity for them to be unsealed--even if every avenue of escape is countered, the Prophecy is a living thing, and new potential escapes will be created. Eventually, one will get out. [[SubvertedTrope However]], if one of them ''is'' unsealed, the opposite is also true: There will always be a way to re-seal them. In fact, in the backstory Thrane was all but destroyed a few centuries ago when an Overlord escaped. The campaign and sacrifice to re-seal it created the Church of the Silver Flame, one of the greatest forces opposing supernatural evil in the world.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000:'' Chaos only has to win once. The Inquisition may be working overtime to root out cults and heretics, along with the Grey Knights taking down any Daemons that may pop up, but the moment Chaos wins, it's over for that planet. The planet will be terraformed into a [[HellOnEarth Daemon World]], where reality ceases to exist, and most importantly, makes it virtually immune against [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]], ensuring its denizens will be [[FateWorseThanDeath trapped in perpetual hell with no hope of escaping.]] It's telling that when Chaos is close to winning, the best course to action is to commit the planet to Exterminatus, as it denies Chaos of victory and [[MercyKill spares the inhabitans from eternal torment.]]

* In a sense, this trope is inverted with any game that has a [[VideoGameLives extra life system]]. In this case the ''player'' really only has to win the one time to beat the game. The antagonists have to keep winning in order to stop the player from doing so.

* Non-plot variant in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'': in Assault mode's rules. The match consist of two rounds, one defense and one offense; if the attackers in the first round win, they swap roles with the defenders and the new attackers must win faster. Example: your team starts with offense. If you lose the offense round, you instantly lose the match. If you win the offense round but lose the defense one, you lose the match as well. Under the same rules, if you were to start with defense you could win the match either by winning defense OR losing defense but beating the other team's time in offense... but if you play against the AI, you always start with offense and therefore you can't afford to lose even once. This can be particularly frustrating since [[ItsUpToYou the bots on your team are]] [[ArtificialStupidity severely handicapped in Assault mode]].

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' is mentioned in the trope description, but it's actually more of a funny variant of the trope rather than a completely straight example. By the time the events of the original game play out (after being RetCanon'd by the movie), not only has evil already won once, but has been doing so for the past 500 years or so. The tournament that is being documented by the game is actually the tenth such tournament following a string of nine victories by current champion Goro. If the Earthrealm fighters fail to crown a champion of their own in this tournament, Shao Kahn and Outworld has free rein to invade and conquer Earthrealm. So in ''Mortal Kombat'''s case, it's "Evil Only Has To Win One More Time". A look in the series' backstory reveals that the entire tournament [[spoiler:is actually rigged to keep anyone from uniting all of the Realms. The Elder Gods split the Realms to prevent the One Being from ever returning. Evil only has to win one more time... but the ones in charge won't let it win if they can help it.]]

* Played straight in the ending of ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII: Shadows of Amn'': [[spoiler:the main character is facing moral challenges in Hell, with various choices each with two different possible outcomes, one is "good" and the other "evil", the latter representing a character following the nature of a spawn of the god of murder. Even a lawful good paladin that always made good deeds in the game and chooses the good choice in all trials but one, will instantly become evil, because for a single moment he/she succumbed to Bhaal's taint]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has a version of this where the Ascians have been behind each of the many Calamities which led to the Umbral Ages of Hydaelyn. ''Heavensward'' reveals that they do this to revive their god Zodiark, the antithesis to Hydaelyn, and they need 13 pieces. Granted, this means that they're not quite there yet - even by the time of the Seventh Umbral Calamity that ended the storyline of the game's original release, they're only about halfway through. It's also revealed that they even have some failures - the Void was created by the Ascians flooding a "shard" (a separate world that acts as a "reflection" of the world the game normally takes place in) in darkness, creating a haven for demonkind rather than properly destroying that shard, and the setting of ''Shadowbringers'' is on another shard that is on the cusp of a similar fate to [[LightIsNotGood a flood of light]].

* While ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' runs on GreyAndGreyMorality, this is invoked by the games central conflict. In order to keep the First Flame alive, the followers of Gwyn must always keep the cycle of sacrifice going in order to continue the Age of Fire. However, all the followers of Kaathe and the Pygmy have to do is merely wait for the First Flame to die.

* Man Of Action's ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' joins the party with the introduction of the meta-nanites, [[spoiler:special nanites which can bestow the power over things like matter, antimatter and the like, if Van Kleiss, the Consortium (Providence's higher ups who [[GodhoodSeeker intend to use them and become gods]]) or Black Knight who intends to acquire their power for herself]], gets their hands on them it's game-over. It turns out that [[spoiler:Evil never had a chance in the first place. The Meta-nanites had been programmed by Cesar and his parents in such a way that only Rex could use their full power. That is the only reason Cesar cooperated with Black Knight to gather the Meta-nanites in the first place -- he had been planning to give that power to Rex all along. Too bad [[NiceJobBreakingItHero he never told Rex that]].]]

* Initially subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone''. Odd early occasions had Zordrak temporarily get his hands on the stone and successfully send nightmares to the Sleeping World which, while a horrific experience, had no long term consequences and [[TeamRocketWins served merely as a rare petty victory for the bad guys]]. Later episodes had Zordrak concoct new, more devastating apparitions for the stone; to corrupt its powers and use it to make him unassailable "Lord of the Universe", making each time his minions stole it a RaceAgainstTheClock.

->'''Spike:''' We just keep coming. But you can kill a hundred, a thousand, a thousand thousand and the armies of Hell besides, and all we need...is for one of us, just one, sooner or later, to have the thing we're all hoping for.\\

* In one ''ComicBook/BatmanGothamAdventures'' comic, The Joker claims that he's always let Batman win, because if the Joker wins once, Batman dies and can no longer be played with, but every time Batman wins, the Joker is simply sent to CardboardPrison and it's only a matter of time before the game begins again. Of course, this is [[UnreliableNarrator The Joker]] talking.
* This is the case for OmnicidalManiac villains whose threat is considered universe-reaching, such as {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} or ComicBook/{{Thanos}}. Since their influence can threaten the entire fabric of existence, letting them get their way even once would be an unstoppable catastrophe upon life itself.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has a version of this where the Ascians have been behind each of the many Calamities which led to the Umbral Ages of Hydaelyn. ''Heavensward'' reveals that they do this to revive their god Zodiark, the antithesis to Hydaelyn, and they need 13 pieces. Granted, this means that they're not quite there yet - even by the time of the Seventh Calamity that ended the storyline of the game's original release, they're only about halfway through. It's also revealed that they even have some failures - the Void was created by the Ascians flooding a "Shard" (an AlternateUniverse reflection of the world the game normally takes place in) in darkness, creating a haven for demonkind rather than properly destroying that shard, and the setting of ''Shadowbringers'' is on another shard that is on the cusp of a similar fate to [[LightIsNotGood a flood of light]].

* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', where it's revealed at the end that Evil has won in the end [[StableTimeLoop over and over and over again]] for nobody knows ''how'' long. The cycle only continues as long as Evil wins ''that exact'' battle -- if Evil wins earlier, or Good finally triumphs in the end, then it's over.

* ''Anime/YattermanNight'' takes place in a world where [[spoiler:Dokurobei]] finally wins his personal war against [[spoiler:the Yattermen]]. In the previous series, Gan and Ai could constantly bat back the Doronbo, but after countless defeats [[spoiler:Dokurobei]] finally decides to get serious and outright nukes Japan. [[spoiler:He then kicks out the Doronbo trio and usurps the Yatterman iconography to make them out to be a vicious dictatorship.]]

* Used as a villainous encouragement in''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''. When Tomura Shigaraki fails to defeat the heroes, his mentor All For One assures him that he can just try again and again until he succeeds. While the heroes clearly won the encounter ([[spoiler:taking out All For One, a large number of Nomus, and driving Shigaraki into the ground]]), they realize that with Shigaraki on the loose, he's just going to build up his forces and attack again.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'': He conquered Hyrule, dealt wholesale strategic destruction to its various populations (apart from his homeland, the Gerudos), and retired into his castle, leaving his minions to deal with the embittered remnants of the world's population. Link got the assistance of these scattered remnants, challenged Ganondorf in his castle, and defeated him. Even in the timeline where Link ''doesn't'' defeat him, said remnants eventually defeat Ganondorf on their own anyways.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'': Centuries after being sealed in the Golden Land, he returned [[FullBoarAction in boar-demon form]] and swept away all opposition, forcing the goddesses to drown Hyrule under a new ocean in order to stop him. Ganondorf eventually broke out of his underwater prison and began rebuilding his forces, but Link got the assistance of the scattered descendants of Hyrule's original population, challenged Ganondorf in his castle, and defeated him before he could reconquer Hyrule's remnants.

* [[BigBad Bowser]] in ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' fits this trope quite well; and there's an interesting difference here between Nintendo's two flagship franchises, ''Super Mario Brothers'' and ''The Legend of Zelda''. Bowser has none of Ganondorf's patience or dark charisma, none of his gift for intrigue, little of his impromptu gallantry, and not a whole lot of his personal courage; but he's willing and able to install garrisons, collect taxes, spare civilian populations, and generally ''rule''. Ganondorf likes winning, Bowser likes having won; and so Bowser, although much less dangerous and infinitely less frightening, is the one who can make his conquests stick. Mario can never risk defeat against him -- [[GoKartingWithBowser not even in a go-kart race]].

Contrast AsLongAsThereIsOneMan.

* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' operates on this principle, though so far it hasn't had to actually employ the trope. Every hundred years, Dracula's castle reappears, and whoever in the Belmont clan currently possesses the Vampire Killer whip has to storm the castle and slap Dracula back to the abyss. Should they fail... well, everyone's going to pay the price, but all Dracula has to do is wait another hundred years (a stone's throw in vampire time) and he gets to try all over again (until 1999 and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow a well-timed eclipse screwed him over for good]]). It's even more apparent in that Dracula is also resurrected several times outside of this hundred-year loop (Shaft controlling Richter Belmont five years after ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo of Blood]]'' to resurrect Dracula in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'', the death and destruction caused by the UsefulNotes/{{World|WarI}} [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Wars]] bringing the castle back in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines Bloodlines]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin Portrait of Ruin]]'', or the eponymous [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Order of Ecclesia]] utilizing glyphs to resurrect Dracula), but none of these obstruct the "fated" resurrections, which happen on their own regardless.

* The world is in for any variety of apocalypses if the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' fails to contain some threats. e.g. [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-231 SCP-231-7]] only has to give birth once.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has elements of this. [[spoiler:The antagonist, Salem, is a witch with terrifying magical power and control over [[AnimalisticAbomination The Grimm]], but what's more is that she has CompleteImmortality, having been BarredFromTheAfterlife by both of the two gods who originally created the world and humanity. Learning this nearly drives half of the protagonists to the DespairEventHorizon, as they spend their entire lives to keep Salem from getting her hands on the magical artifacts she needs to destroy the world, but she has all eternity to keep trying until she succeeds, and when she does it will render everything they've ever done or sacrificed moot.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': The demon [[GodOfEvil Overlords]] are sealed around the world, and the keys to their unsealing hidden in the Draconic Prophecy. There is always an opportunity for them to be unsealed--even if every avenue of escape is countered, the Prophecy is a living thing, and new potential escapes will be created. Eventually, one will get out. [[SubvertedTrope However]], if one of them ''is'' unsealed, the opposite is also true: There will always be a way to re-seal them. In fact, in the backstory Thrane was all but destroyed a few centuries ago when an Overlord escape. The campaign and sacrifice to re-seal it created the Church of the Silver Flame, one of the greatest forces opposing supernatural evil in the world.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', there is a reason the Empire [[spoiler:always loses when it bringa forth the Death Star and its evolutions in big fights, while it can win other fights with just Star Destroyers and Walkers. These superweapons are too destructive and can eliminate the heroes too quickly if they ever win. Which is why they don't, as if they do so, the heroes can't recover.]]

** Taken [[UpToEleven to its logical conclusion]] in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': Given enough [[{{Determinator}} determination]] [[spoiler:and in-universe SaveScumming]], the protagonist can never truly be defeated. If you take the VillainProtagonist route, the only hope of the heroes you fight is that you get bored or frustrated and quit. [[spoiler:And if you complete this route just once, your game will be forever ruined; even doing the pacifist route afterwards still results in the Fallen Child escaping the Underground and being able to wreak havoc on humanity. You can go so far as to alter or even delete the files on your computer, which will in fact allow you to earn the Pacifist ending again, but ''even then'' the game ''still knows you did that'' and will call you out on it. There's no escaping the consequences of allowing the Fallen Child a single victory -- after all, creating the most horrific, cruel ending scenario possible was entirely [[YouBastard your decision]].]]

* In Creator/EmilyCarroll's collection of short stories ''ComicBook/ThroughTheWoods'', the final story "In Conclusion" features a version of Red Riding Hood (implied to be a semi-autobiographical of Carroll herself as a child.) The girl passes through the woods without incident to her mother's house, and as she's settling down to sleep she remarks that she knew the wolf wouldn't find her.

* As a counterpoint to the "one good day" philosophy stated in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' by Spike, ComicBook/TheJoker believes that normal people are only "one bad day" away from total madness. In ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' he attempts to demonstrate by [[spoiler:Kidnapping Commissioner Gordon, humliating him, and psychologically torturing him by shooting Barbara Gordon and photographing her naked. Gordon's response: He ordered Batman to bring in the Joker ''by the book'', to show he wasn't driven to revenge or insanity.]]

* A one-shot Franchise/{{Superman}} villain created by a decent soul being yanked into hell and tortured into serving a demonic master after losing to Superman and being taken back to hell when questioned about his failure explicitly states that it's but the start of things and that his success is certain because he only needs to win once while Superman must win every time.
* Brainiac [[InvokedTrope invokes this]] in one story by saying "I only need to win once!".
* ''ComicBook/TheSupermanAdventures'': As Lex Luthor points out in Issue #27, those trying to kill Superman only need to be lucky once.
* An issue of ''ComicBook/NintendoComicsSystem'' focusing on the ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' segment has Zelda say this. Link beats Ganon over and over, but if Ganon wins once and gets the other Triforce, he'll be unbeatable. They go on a quest for a magic flute she'll use to take the Triforce to another kingdom where Ganon will never find it, but she'll never see Link or Hyrule again. [[StatusQuoIsGod She changes her mind and decides to stick around at the end]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' it's not made explicit, but it's pretty clear if Mandrake stops a new queen from being crowned, the forest wouldn't be able to come back from him rotting it.

* The ''VideoGame/SoulSeries.'' So far, the Soul Edge (the evil sword) has been shattered or destroyed at least three times (Soul Edge/Blade, Soul Calibur 1, Soul Calibur 2), twice by the Soul Calibur (the "good" sword). What happens each time? The sword just breaks into pieces (each one every bit as evil as the whole sword) and eventually reforms itself, stronger than before. Now, what happens in ''every'' ending where the Soul Edge wins instead? The world gets hosed, that's what. Even worse, in SCIV, we learn that the Calibur is actually just as evil, but with a penchant for Order rather than Chaos. This was amplified in the 4th game where several endings had the "good" sword freezing all life in crystals in order to prevent humanity from ever reforging Soul Edge.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' establishes that the Fell Dragon Grima returns to destroy humanity once every 1000 years, meaning that statistically speaking humanity is doomed because Grima only has to succeed once whereas humanity has to defeat Grima an effectively infinite number of times. The last act of the game gives the player, and by extension their Avatar, the choice to [[spoiler: let Chrom strike Grima down, only guaranteeing another 1000 years of survival, or deal the final blow personally and sacrifice themself to kill Grima permanently.]]

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', if even one of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Angels]] penetrate to the heart of the NERV base, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Third Impact]] will be initiated, wiping out all life on earth. [[spoiler:Technically an Angel ''already'' penetrated the NERV Base...since before the start of the series. Said Angel is actually [[HumansAreCthulhu Humanity itself]] and they're also trying to initiate Third Impact. And ''they're'' the ones that succeed. This is one hell of a Crapsack World, huh?]]

* Manga/{{Bleach}}: If Tsukishima so much as ''nicks'' you just once with Book Of The End, the fight is over - simple as that. It doesn't have anything to do with being a OneHitKO, rather it's a twisted form of MindRape with a healthy helping of {{Reality Warp|er}}ing: ''Anything'' Book Of The End cuts lets Tsukishima alter its past, person or thing. Therefore, cutting somebody lets him ''insert his existence into their past'' any way he likes, such as a family relative, best friend, or cherished mentor. In short, he strips the enemy of their ''will'' to fight him, and can even alter it so that they ''[[BrainwashedAndCrazy fight for him]]''. [[spoiler:Though it fails against Byakuya, who is willing to kill him despite the [[FakeMemories false memories]].]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Used as villainous encouragement. When Tomura Shigaraki fails to defeat the heroes, his mentor All For One assures him that he can just try again and again until he succeeds. While the heroes clearly won the encounter ([[spoiler:taking out All For One, a large number of Nomus, and driving Shigaraki to ground]]), they realize that with Shigaraki on the loose, he's just going to build up his forces and attack again.