History Main / GutPunch

* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'' started out as a cute SliceOfLife series; while it did have an overarching plot, it didn’t really impact the lightness of the show. Then came “Queen for a Day”, and the tone shifted ''[[CerebusSyndrome considerably]]'' in the final scenes, [[spoiler: with Varian – the NiceGuy DitzyGenius and the last person you'd expect – making a FaceHeelTurn and becoming the BigBad for the rest of the season.]] This was a ''huge'' shock. It's even reflected in the end credits.

* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'' started out as a cute SliceOfLife series; while it did have an overarching plot, it didn’t really impact the lightness of the show. Then came “Queen for a Day”, and the tone shifted ''[[CerebusSyndrome considerably]]'' in the final scenes, [[spoiler: with Varian – the NiceGuy DitzyGenius and the last person you'd expect – making a FaceHeelTurn and becoming the BigBad for the rest of the season.]] This was a ''huge'' shock.

* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' begins as a somewhat violent, but relatively lighthearted story about teenage superhero Mark Grayson/[[ProtagonistTitle Invincible]], maybe pushing a soft R at worst. Then comes issue 6, in which Mark's father Omni-Man turns on the Guardians of the Globe and [[CurbStompBattle slaughters them]] in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutal and horrific ways]]. The comic gets much more serious after that.

* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' begins as a somewhat violent, but relatively lighthearted story about a teenage superhero in training, maybe pushing a soft R at worst. Then comes issue 7, in which Omni-Man--Mark's father--turns on the Guardians of the Globe and [[CurbStompBattle slaughters them]] in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutal and horrific ways]]. The comic gets much more serious after that.

* Franchise/JamesBond has always been known as the man who always survives any death trap with a [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's gadget]] or a wild stunt, allowing him to defeat whatever BigBad comes for him and be with the GirlOfTheWeek. So, at the end of ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', It seems like Bond is about to complete one last mission successfully and live happily ever after [[spoiler:with his family. Cue Safin repeatedly shooting him and injecting him with nanobots that will kill his wife and daughter if he's exposed to them. With no good options, Bond completes his mission and opts to stay so that he won't become a weapon, and perishes when missiles hit the island]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Attracting all demographics, the show initially follows teenagers adapting to their [[ExtranormalInstitute new school]], training to fight scary monsters, engaging in wacky hijinks, and glossing over serious events such as off-screen murder. During the third volume's combat tournament, Yang predictably defeats Mercury only to be attacked by the sore loser; after punching him to the ground, she is arrested in front of an angry, booing crowd. The episode ends with arena television revealing to Yang and the audience that Yang needlessly attacked a defenceless, prone Mercury, shattering his leg. After the episode, the creators released a statement warning that the show was originally intended for mature audiences and adults should now supervise child access; the episode was a gut punch to kick off the [[FromBadToWorse darker storyline]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Attracting all demographics, the show initially follows teenagers adapting to their [[ExtranormalInstitute new school]], training to fight scary monsters, engaging in wacky hijinks, and glossing over serious events such as off-screen murder or easily-fixed monster invasions. During the third volume's combat tournament, Yang predictably defeats Mercury only to be attacked by the sore loser; after punching him to the ground, she is arrested in front of an angry, booing crowd. The episode ends with arena television revealing to Yang and the audience that Yang needlessly attacked a defenceless, prone Mercury, shattering his leg. After the episode, the creators released a statement warning that the show was originally intended for mature audiences and adults should now supervise child access; the episode was a gut punch to kick off the [[FromBadToWorse darker storyline]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Attracting all demographics, the show initially follows teenagers adapting to their [[ExtranormalInstitute new school]], training to protect their world from scary monsters, getting involved in light-hearted, wacky hijinks, and glossing over serious events such as off-screen murder or easily fixed monster invasions. During the third volume's combat tournament, Yang predictably defeats Mercury, then is attacked by the sore loser; after punching him to the ground, she is arrested by security in front of an angry, booing crowd. The episode ends with arena television revealing to Yang and the audience that Yang needlessly attacked a defenceless, prone Mercury, shattering his leg. After the episode, the creators released a statement warning that the show was originally intended for mature audience and adults should now supervise child access; the episode was designed to be a gut punch warning fans that the intended [[FromBadToWorse darker storyline]] was starting.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Attracting both adults and children, the show initially follows teenagers adapting to their [[ExtranormalInstitute new school]], training to protect their world from scary monsters, getting involved in light-hearted, wacky hijinks, and glossing over serious events such as off-screen murder or easily fixed monster invasions. During the third volume's combat tournament, Yang predictably defeats Mercury but is unexpectedly attacked behind from the sore loser; she punches him to the ground only to be arrested by security in front of an angry, booing crowd. The episode ends as arena television reveals the truth to the fanbase and Yang; a defenceless Mercury was lying on the ground while Yang needlessly assaulted him, shattering his legs. After the episode, the creators released a statement requesting that, from now on, adults should supervise any child access to the show; originally intended for a mature audience, this episode was designed to be a gut punch warning fans that a [[FromBadToWorse darker storyline]] was starting.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Attracting both adults and children, the show initially follows teenagers adapting to their [[ExtranormalInstitute new school]], training to protect their world from scary monsters, getting involved in light-hearted, wacky hijinks, and glossing over serious events such as off-screen murder or easily fixed monster invasions. During the third volume's combat tournament, Yang predictably defeats Mercury but is unexpectedly attacked behind from the sore loser; she punches him to the ground only to be arrested by security in front of an angry, booing crowd. The episode ends as arena television reveals the truth to the fanbase and Yang; a defenseless Mercury was lying on the ground while Yang needlessly assaulted him, shattering his legs. After the episode, the creators released a statement requesting that, from now on, adults should supervise any child access to the show; originally intended for a mature audience, this episode was designed to be a gut punch warning fans that a darker storyline was starti It goes FromBadToWorse for the rest of the Volume. [[spoiler: It turns out that Yang was tricked into assaulting Mercury by Emerald's "Hallucination" Semblance, which she proceeds to use on Pyrrha to trick her into using her "Polarity" Semblance at full force against [[RobotGirl Penny]], ''destroying'' her and revealing her robotic nature to the public. Cinder then takes this opportunity to use this reveal to stoke everyone's mistrust of Atlas and the kingdoms, and the negative emotions running attacts a massive Grimm attack, which is made worse by the White Fang bringing in more Grimm, Roman hijacking a millitary airship, and Cinder's virus hijacking Atlas's robot armies. The aftermath of all of this: Beacon Academy is left a wrecked Grimm nest, [[AnyoneCanDie Pyrrha dies]], [[BigGood Ozpin]] goes missing, Yang is maimed of an arm and traumatized, Blake decides to run back home out of fear of [[PsychoExBoyfriend Adam]] going after her or her friends, Weiss is forced to go home to her abusive family, and Ruby is left taking the remnants of Team JNPR with her to Haven Academy in hopes of finding answers to what happened and how to stop such a tragedy from happening again.]]

--> '''Marty''': "You disintegrated Einstein!"

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' is full of such moments, the most infamous one taking place within the first few hours of gameplay. After the player is given enough time to get to know [[TheHero Shulk]] and his two best friends [[TheLancer Reyn]] and [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Fiora]], their hometown [[DoomedHometown Colony 9]] is attacked by the [[KillerRobot Mechon]], [[spoiler:and Fiora is killed right in front of them.]]

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* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': When [[BigBad Megabyte]] rockets [[TheHero Bob]] into the Web during their EnemyMine situation, stranding him there before starting his conquest of Mainframe. We're led to believe that Guardian Enzo can protect the city, but then he [[TheBadGuyWins loses a Game]], [[EyeScream his eye]], and gets [[TimeSkip Time Skipped]] into an edgy gun-toting AntiHero.

** And the gut punch regarding Casca doesn't end here. Not only was she pregnant at the time of the Eclipse, the fetus ended up tainted by the Godhand's demonic power and was born prematurely, though the demonic baby in question does end up keeping its mother save during danger. But when Guts and his group head to Elfheim to try and restore Casca's memories, they ''do'' end up succeeding. But she has completely [[TraumaInducedAmnesia repressed the memories]] of the Eclipse, and seeing Guts causes her to [[TraumaButton remember things]]. She ends up screaming in terror and shaking, leaving Guts to realize that he cannot even be near her anymore. [[StarCrossedLovers These two cannot catch a break]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' opens with the FantasticNuke being set off and the assumed deaths of hundreds if not thousands of Atlanteans (including Kida's mother, [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence sort of]]), but it doesn't hit that hard since A) [[ForegoneConclusion Atlantis gotta sink at some point]] and B) what kind of Disney movie lets the princess [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest retain both her parents?]] The next half an hour or so are fairly lighthearted,colorful and thrilling pulp adventure movie. Then the [[MechanicalAbomination Leviathan]] shows up and destroys the expedition's submarine in five minutes of screen time, killing a '''[[KnightOfCerebus staggering]]''' number of people onscreen and racking up a [[RedshirtArmy good-guy casualty rate]] in the triple digits that will likely never be topped again in a Disney movie.

** The second moment is Keita's death clip on Day 2. While you saw a death clip for Daichi on the first day, ButThouMust was in full effect and you always arrive JustInTime to save him. So when you meet a new team member and get a vision of his impending death, surely you can TakeYourTime, right? Wrong. Mess around doing too many side events, and Keita's death clip ''will'' come true, [[FinalDeath depriving you of a party member forever.]] This hammers in that death clip missions should be prioritised, and [[AnyoneCanDie that party members can end up dying.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{MGCM}}'' is the colorful [=RPG=] MagicalGirlWarrior game with a sheer of comedy, cuteness and FanService. However, at the end of chapter 4 until the end of chapter 6, [[spoiler:some heroines die all over again and in some cases, [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie are corrupted into demons]], after which they're resurrected by the GroundhogDayLoop. On their own, all the recurring deaths can be emotionally taxing for the audience. And then, it turns out that the "time loops" were actually just a case of moving to [[AlternateUniverse parallel worlds]] that Omnis have created using his ability, and that '''nobody''' got resurrected. That sting of false hope can be the last straw for players who didn't expect that level of darkness, and things get [[DarkerAndEdgier darker]] and [[MindScrew deeper]] as Tobio and the heroines find out]].

* [[SlowPacedBeginning The first few episodes of]] ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' played out like your typical animated adult SitCom up until "The Telescope", in which Bojack tries to make amends with his former friend Herb, [[FriendOrIdolDecision who he betrayed to save his stardom 20 years ago,]] after finding out he's in the late stages of rectal cancer. Normally, this would end in a GoldenMoment and Bojack gaining Herb's {{forgiveness}}. It's quite the shock when RealityEnsues and Herb [[RejectedApology refuses Bojack's apology]] and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls it out for the obviously insincere attempt to soothe Bojack's conscience that it is]].

** The Eclipse. Since the Golden Age arc was basically a twelve-volume long prologue explaining [[HowWeGotHere how Guts became the Black Swordsman]], it was already clear that it would eventually explain just what caused Guts to go from a reluctant member of the Band of the Hawk to actually deciding his place was with them to becoming the aggressive, ruthless, and terrifying warrior on the brink of madness because of his obessive desire to get revenge on Griffith. And it certainly does. [[TotalEclipseOfThePlot The Eclipse]] involves Griffith deciding to sacrifice everyone in the Band of the Hawk to become a member of the Godhand, resulting in brutal and graphic deaths of [[EverybodysDeadDave most of the known cast]]. And Guts' lover and main source of comfort, Casca, gets raped into insanity by the newly-created Godhand that Griffith turned into -- all while Guts [[ForcedToWatch has to watch]]. And Guts fails to save his friends and lover, while losing [[EyeScream an eye]] and [[LifeOrLimbDecision an arm]] in the process. To make matters worse, Casca being raped into insanity absolutely [[StarCrossedLovers destroys their relationship]] and leaving Guts with nobody, and deciding to start his RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* The original ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' gets two back to back in the same sequence. First we get something that looks like this, specifically the deaths of [[spoiler: Tom and Judy]]. In any other horror movie made at the time, that sequence alone would have been enough to qualify as this trope. It doesn't, but only because the '''real''' punch comes immediately afterward when we see an extremely graphic (for its day) image of the zombies chowing down on the recently charred corpses that changed the film from "goofy b-movie" to "terror incarnate." Creator/RogerEbert's reaction provides the page quote. It's worth emphasizing the "[[SurpriseCreepy Darker than the audience has been led to expect]]" bit:

* In ''Series/DowntonAbbey'', there's [[spoiler: Lady Sybil's death. Series 3 is just as melodramatic as the previous two, but the graphic, gasping death scene of one of main family members, who had just become a mother and a nice person was unprecedented and shocking. William's death was noble, drawn out and sweet; Lavinia was perhaps destined to die — but Sybil's death was frantic, quick and horrifying. Never before had the show been so shocking to watch.]]

* ''Film/{{Drive}}'' shifts fairly abruptly from being a low key character study to being a BloodierAndGorier RoaringRampageOfRevenge crime story when [[spoiler: Standard]] is killed. To clearly state the shift for anybody who wasn't clued in by that, the villains then proceed to [[spoiler: splatter [[Creator/ChristinaHendricks Blanche]]'s brains all over the wall]] a few minutes later.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' had a {{downplayed|trope}}, {{lampshaded}}, and promptly-{{subverted}} GutPunch when it first came out, which may have been mostly forgotten nowadays. When Doc Brown first demonstrates his time machine, he ties the dog Einstein into the [=DeLorean=]. At the point where the car disappears in a flash of fire-trails, many in the audience worried that the dog may have really been destroyed.

** Then the movie delivers a real one when [[spoiler:Doc Brown is gunned down by the Libyan terrorists, and Marty is forced to watch it happen twice]].

* Related to the above, the ending of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' is an awful, awful punch in the gut for anyone who had become attached to almost any MCU character. [[spoiler:The infamous Snap disintegrates literally half the population of not just Earth, but the ''entire universe''. Many fan-favorite characters turned to ash right before the viewers' eyes, including Bucky Barnes, the Black Panther, Peter Quill, and the teenage Spider-Man.]] It actually manages to get a little worse in the early part of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', when the surviving Avengers (and the audience) learn about other allies and loved ones whose deaths were ''not'' shown in the previous film. These include [[spoiler:Princess Shuri of Wakanda and Hawkeye's ''entire family'']].

* In the WhamEpisode of ''Anime/MaiOtome'', the turning point in Arika and Nina's characterization is [[spoiler:the death of their mutual friend Erstin at Nina's hands, not long after she had been revealed as TheMole]].

* For the first 40-50 minutes of ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', the story is about a boy and his giant robot friend and they mostly goof around while trying to evade an incompetent G-man. Then the boy and the giant stumble upon a deer recently shot by a gun lying on the ground. [[OhCrap This triggers a momentary glimpse at the giant's dormant but aggressive programming]], and things only get worse from there once the G-man starts becoming a real threat. Then nuclear weapons and Cold War paranoia get involved.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' just sounds like some cutesy kids film about animals, but then we find out that NIMH stands for something: [[spoiler: The National Institution of Mental Health. The mice are for science experiments. OhCrap.]]