History Main / OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow

* ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'' falls into this in ''Stream'': when the main villain's [[TheDragon Dragon]] is already pretty much invincible, and her boss can [[spoiler:erase Earth and violate every natural law with a ''thought'']], how are the heroes supposed to win? By having Bass.Exe utterly defeat her by impaling her with his arm.

* This happens in ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'', in a pretty stupid way. The heroes are currently getting pummeled by the Hückebein, a group of people who specialize in AntiMagic, forcing them to use ridiculous weapons that don't work right, in a sort of in-universe example of FakeDifficulty. To make matters worse, the leader of the Hückebein suddenly shows up and proves how strong she is by [[CurbStompBattle one-shotting three heroes in one chapter]]. How are they going to get out of this? Why, she just lets them go, of course! The only reason the protagonists have ''any'' kind of victory (grabbing the LivingMacguffin after they disappear) is because she can apparently predict the future, so what they do doesn't matter.

** [[BigBad Zeref]] already has CompleteImmortality as well as OneHitKill magic, and later in his final fight with Natsu he [[spoiler:absorbs Fairy Heart, infinite magic power, from Mavis]]. He doesn't even attempt to dodge Natsu's SuperMode-enhanced attack to show how potent his regeneration has become. How is Natsu, reduced to his base form, going to win now? [[spoiler:Zeref refrains from using his instant-kill magic because even now he's still wavering somewhat due to his DeathSeeker desires, and Natsu puts out even more magic power than ever to burn through the regeneration and take him down, chanting about the PowerOfFriendship all the way.]]
** [[GreaterScopeVillain Acnologia]] proves completely invulnerable to everything thrown at him ''before'' [[spoiler:he reveals that he can eat magic]]. The only thing left for the story to do is [[spoiler:hastily reintroduce a character thought to have been long dead along with a convenient black hole to shove him into]]... and even ''that'' doesn't work, in fact making Acnologia ''even stronger''. Said power-up forces Acnologia to [[spoiler:split between a now mindless Dragon body and a more vulnerable spirit form]], just to give the protagonists a fighting chance, [[spoiler:with the mindless Dragon acting on instinct and allowing the heroes on the outside to lure it into a trap while his spirit form fighting all the remaining Dragon Slayers can't actually kill them despite his claims otherwise because he needs to keep them alive long enough to forcibly extract their magic to stabilize his condition, which he was in the process of doing when Natsu managed to free the other Slayers from their prisons and lead the attack against him.]]

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' is no stranger to this, especially during the Creator/GeorgePerez [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Post-Crisis reboot]] that put more emphasis on magic and mythology. Perez's first Circe storyline stands as an especially shining example, with Circe more-or-less curbstomping all the good guys until she gets her clock cleaned by a ''literal'' god, namely [[spoiler:Hermes]].

* [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/392241/gem-fusion-rarity Gem Fusion Rarity]] parodies this in its prologue: [[VideoGame/AsurasWrath Equestria Vlitra]], an ancient being even more horrific than Tirek, effortless erases all Equestrian magic and steamrolls the ''Rainbow Powered'' Mane Six. The only reason why there's even a plot afterwards is because Rarity is a [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse half-Gem]] and regenerates back onto the Gem planet afterwards.

* This is kind of how the characters survived a particular situation in ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture''. [[spoiler:Layton, Luke, Flora, Celeste, and Prime Minister Bill Hawks are in Layton's car, which has just driven off the edge of the BigBad's HumongousMecha and is plummeting to the earth. Only then does Layton flash back to something that Don Paolo said, which was not previously shown (and, given the events of their conversation that ''were'' shown, seems improbable at best). Pressing a button gives the car the EleventhHourSuperpower of turning into a plane, and they're able to fly to safety.]]
** Though [[spoiler: Don Paolo is established as a MadScientist, he did fix the Laytonmobile beforehand, so it's not ''too'' unlikely that he made some Deus ex Modifications]].

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' does it with the Sith Emperor. He's an immortal EldritchAbomination whose resurrection and planet devouring plans occur no matter what actions players take. The heroes are informed he's far weaker than his previous incarnation, but that only amounts to eating planets one at a time, instead of dozens at once. The player only survives from being a snack by fleeing the planet beforehand.
* ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' has this happen InUniverse. The [[EldritchAbomination Dark Presence]] is using the manuscript that Alan wrote to achieve its goals, which allows Alan to use the reality warping power of Cauldron Lake to change the rules of the story. He gives it a weakness to light, writes in the ammo and weapon pickups that are found in-game, and the numerous near escapes he has from both it and local law enforcement. It results in an in-story GenreShift from it being a straight CosmicHorrorStory into LovecraftLite. [[spoiler:It doesn't come without cost as he must take his wife's place in the Dark Place for it to balance the scales]].

* In the fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' Slade came BackFromTheDead, with fire powers and immortality that let him [[CurbStompBattle manhandle all the Titans without breaking a sweat]]. And he was ''nothing'' compared to the BigBad Trigon, who [[WorldWreckingWave turned the entire planet into a fiery hellscape]] within ''seconds'' of [[TheLegionsOfHell entering our world]]. It's only through a handful of plot contrivances that the Titans even ''survive'' until the finale, and they only win in the end by Raven [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe suddenly becoming the most powerful being in the universe]]. This is somewhat foreshadowed by Raven [[spoiler: being the Demonic Invader's daughter and heir all along, with the SuperpoweredEvilSide you might expect]].

** [[BigBad Kars]] in [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Part 2]] becomes completely immortal and all Joseph can do is run. Luckily, Kars just so happens to get caught in a volcanic explosion that launches him into outer space. Joseph is just as surprised by that turn of events but pretends [[JustAsPlanned it was planned]].

* In the ''Manga/OnePiece'' Wano Country Arc two of the four most powerful people in the world make an alliance not long after just one of them had effortlessly managed to defeat Luffy in a single hit. How something like that can even be defeated remains to be seen, but it will almost definitely be a case of this trope.

** [[ManipulativeBastard Sosuke Aizen]] was a shinigami who was already very well skilled even before revealing himself to be a BitchInSheepsClothing. But by the time it came to finally confront him, he had gotten so ridiculously overpowered that virtually nothing the heroes did could even scratch him since it was always a part of his plan in some form or another. So how's he defeated? [[spoiler: Ichigo undergoing some last minute training, getting a major power up that'll likewise rob him of his power (temporarily as he gets them back in the next arc) and using that to beat Aizen. Heck he doesn't really beat him, just weakens him enough for a Kido spell Kisuke shot into him earlier to finally activate. And even then, they can't kill Aizen, just lock him away.]]
** And now we have [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Yhwach]], the final BigBad of the series who is pretty much Aizen 2.0. He steamrolls ''everyone'' that goes against him (including Yamamoto, the head of the Gotei 13 who has the ''power of a sun''), manages to get into the Soul King palace, beats his Elite Guards by reviving his own elite guards after they're initially defeated, and manages to take the Soul King's power and merge with it. His power at this point boils down to being a RealityWarper who can see and manipulate every possible future to his whim, even outright breaking the rules of other powers if he wants. By this point, readers are wondering if there's even a way for him and his cronies to be beaten since every new power the heroes use doesn't seem to put them down for very long. [[spoiler:Ironically, Aizen proves to be crucial to his defeat, distracting Yhwach long enough for Ichigo to kill him with a powerful Getsuga Tensho. When Yhwach uses his power to bring himself back from the dead, Ishida negates his powers by shooting him with the Still Silver arrow, which gives Ichigo just enough time to kill Yhwach for good.]]

** [[BrokenAce Sosuke Aizen]] was a shinigami who was already very well skilled even before revealing himself to be a BitchInSheepsClothing. But by the time it came to finally confront him, he had gotten so ridiculously overpowered that virtually nothing the heroes did could even scratch him since it was always a part of his plan in some form or another. So how's he defeated? [[spoiler: Ichigo undergoing some last minute training, getting a major power up that'll likewise rob him of his power (temporarily as he gets them back in the next arc) and using that to beat Aizen. Heck he doesn't really beat him, just weakens him enough for a Kido spell Kisuke shot into him earlier to finally activate. And even then, they can't kill Aizen, just lock him away.]]
** And now we have [[GodEmperor Yhwach]], the final BigBad of the series who is pretty much Aizen 2.0. He steamrolls ''everyone'' that goes against him (including Yamamoto, the head of the Gotei 13 who has the ''power of a sun''), manages to get into the Soul King palace, beats his Elite Guards by reviving his own elite guards after they're initially defeated, and manages to take the Soul King's power and merge with it. His power at this point boils down to being a RealityWarper who can see and manipulate every possible future to his whim, even outright breaking the rules of other powers if he wants. By this point, readers are wondering if there's even a way for him and his cronies to be beaten since every new power the heroes use doesn't seem to put them down for very long. [[spoiler:Ironically, Aizen proves to be crucial to his defeat, distracting Yhwach long enough for Ichigo to kill him with a powerful Getsuga Tensho. When Yhwach uses his power to bring himself back from the dead, Ishida negates his powers by shooting him with the Still Silver arrow, which gives Ichigo just enough time to kill Yhwach for good.]]

** Zeref already has CompleteImmortality as well as OneHitKill magic, and later in his final fight with Natsu he [[spoiler:absorbs Fairy Heart, infinite magic power, from Mavis]]. He doesn't even attempt to dodge Natsu's SuperMode-enhanced attack to show how potent his regeneration has become. How is Natsu, reduced to his base form, going to win now? [[spoiler:Zeref refrains from using his instant-kill magic because even now he's still wavering somewhat due to his DeathSeeker desires, and Natsu puts out even more magic power than ever to burn through the regeneration and take him down, chanting about the PowerOfFriendship all the way.]]
** Acnologia proves completely invulnerable to everything thrown at him ''before'' [[spoiler:he reveals that he can eat magic]]. The only thing left for the story to do is [[spoiler:hastily reintroduce a character thought to have been long dead along with a convenient black hole to shove him into]]... and even ''that'' doesn't work, in fact making Acnologia ''even stronger''. Said power-up forces Acnologia to [[spoiler:split between a now mindless Dragon body and a more vulnerable spirit form]], just to give the protagonists a fighting chance, [[spoiler:with the mindless Dragon acting on instinct and allowing the heroes on the outside to lure it into a trap while his spirit form fighting all the remaining Dragon Slayers can't actually kill them despite his claims otherwise because he needs to keep them alive long enough to forcibly extract their magic to stabilize his condition, which he was in the process of doing when Natsu managed to free the other Slayers from their prisons and lead the attack against him.]]

* [[spoiler:The real Uchiha Madara]] from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. To make a very very long story very short, he has [[spoiler: basically every power that Naruto, Sasuke, Pain and Hashirama ever had, all turned UpToEleven]]. By his own admission, Kishimoto [[WritersBlock had no idea]] how to beat [[spoiler: Madara]] at that point. [[spoiler: It took Naruto and Sasuke being revealed to be reincarnations of the Sage of Six Path's youngest and oldest sons, respectively, and the omnipresent Sage himself giving them both some of his chakra to fight Madara, until Madara got his other Rinnegan eye,]] returned stronger than ever, and proceeded to [[spoiler: activate the Moon's Eye Plan, leaving everyone but Team 7 under his control]]. This lasts for about a page before he's [[spoiler: abruptly killed off and supplanted as BigBad by [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Kaguya]], the series's mythological BigBad that even the Sage of Six Paths couldn't defeat alone. And then [[FauxActionGirl Kaguya puts up much less of a fight than Madara ever did]] [[AntiClimaxBoss and was offed in about ten chapters]] while it took Madara over a hundred to finally go down. While technically Kaguya is [[PhysicalGod even more powerful than Madara]], this is negated by the fact that she is [[WhatAnIdiot an idiot]] [[UnskilledButStrong with no clue how to actually fight]], repeatedly getting caught off guard by even the most simplistic tactics (it's a neat trick for somebody with 360-degree X-ray vision to manage to get ambushed repeatedly)]].

** Aizen was a shinigami who was already very well skilled even before revealing himself to be a BitchInSheepsClothing. But by the time it came to finally confront him, he had gotten so ridiculously overpowered that virtually nothing the heroes did could even scratch him since it was always a part of his plan in some form or another. So how's he defeated? [[spoiler: Ichigo undergoing some last minute training, getting a major power up that'll likewise rob him of his power (temporarily as he gets them back in the next arc) and using that to beat Aizen. Heck he doesn't really beat him, just weakens him enough for a Kido spell Kisuke shot into him earlier to finally activate. And even then, they can't kill Aizen, just lock him away.]]
** And now we have Yhwach, the final BigBad of the series who is pretty much Aizen 2.0. He steamrolls ''everyone'' that goes against him (including Yamamoto, the head of the Gotei 13 who has the ''power of a sun''), manages to get into the Soul King palace, beats his Elite Guards by reviving his own elite guards after they're initially defeated, and manages to take the Soul King's power and merge with it. His power at this point boils down to being a RealityWarper who can see and manipulate every possible future to his whim, even outright breaking the rules of other powers if he wants. By this point, readers are wondering if there's even a way for him and his cronies to be beaten since every new power the heroes use doesn't seem to put them down for very long. [[spoiler:Ironically, Aizen proves to be crucial to his defeat, distracting Yhwach long enough for Ichigo to [[AntiClimax kill him with one shot]]. When Yhwach uses his power to bring himself back from the dead, Ishida negates his powers, which leads to him dying immediately from a single attack from Ichigo.]]
** This is also true of Gerard Valkyrie, "The Miracle". His power amounts to getting bigger, stronger, and faster whenever he's attacked, no matter how thoroughly his body is destroyed. [[spoiler:In the end, Yhwach had to kill him off by taking back the power he'd been granted, simply because there was no believable way for the heroes to win against such a cheap opponent. The same goes for all the remaining Sternritter, whose powers pretty much amounted to "I'm invincible."]]
** Special mention goes to Gremmy Thoumeaux, "The Visionary," who had the power to make [[RealityWarper anything he imagined real]]. Whether it was creating truckloads of complicated machinery, large scale natural disasters, or just turning his opponent's body into something brittle, he had few limits. Luckily, when he fights Kenpachi, he [[spoiler:sticks almost entirely to physical attacks, mainly throwing larger and larger rocks at him. Someone called "The Visionary" suddenly lost all creativity and forgot powers they used minutes ago to become beatable. And then out of sheer pride he decided to imagine himself becoming ''physically'' strong enough to beat Kenpachi... except the fact that Kenpachi had survived such a ridiculous beating that Gremmy was starting to think of him as invincible. So by simultaneously imagining two contradictory things, Gremmy tried to imagine himself as having beyond infinite physical strength, with the result that [[RealityWarpingIsNotAToy he tore his own body to shreds]]. Kenpachi proceeds to note [[WhatAnIdiot what a complete moron]] Gremmy was]].

* ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'' has this problem with [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]] and the heroes stuck in space. The heroes are trapped on the outside of a powerful barrier covering the Earth. The only person who can break through it is the new Quasar, but she's put into a ConvenientComa early on. Other heroes attempt to break through it - Spectrum, who has the power to transform into any form of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum; Blue Marvel, who can manipulate matter and anti-matter; and Starbrand, whose power is the same as the one from ComicBook/TheNewUniverse, which is "do anything you want" -- and they ''still'' can't break through it. Even worse, ComicBook/{{Galactus}} refuses to help (due to being in a weakened state prior), and the ComicBook/SilverSurfer has decided to be a no-show for some strange reason.

%%* ''FanFic/TheStoryToEndAllStories'' ends this way.

** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': Averted to the very end, until the final enemy, who feeds on sadness, is defeated by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath hopes and dreams.]]

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' continues the tradition of not knowing what to do with villains that obtain CompleteImmortality. Sure you can beat them around all you want, but they will always come back for more. It takes a literal DeusExMachina to defeat [[spoiler: Future Zamasu]] after he transforms into the very fabric of the universe. [[spoiler: Goku accidentally summons [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse Zeno]], by sticking his hand in a pocket, who promptly [[{{Retgone}} erases the timeline from existence]] when he sees what's going on.]]

** In the Alvarez arc, the two strongest members of the Spriggan 12, who are only topped by Zeref and Acnologia in terms of power, both end up killing themselves. Irene Belserion, [[spoiler:Erza's mother,]] overwhelms Erza and Wendy throughout their fight and remains standing even after Erza's final attack; with both Erza and Wendy completely defenseless and at her mercy, she promptly guts herself [[spoiler:after having the internal realization that she could no more kill Erza now than when she was a baby]]. August, having [[CurbStompBattle dominated]] Gildarts and Cana, emerges from Gildarts' final attack relatively unharmed despite Gildarts discovering his weakness and decides to end the battle by killing everyone save Zeref with a suicide attack [[spoiler:out of sheer [[ThickerThanWater loyalty to him since [August's] his son]]]]. As the spell takes effect, however, [[spoiler:he sees his mother Mavis suffering in the destruction and, realizing he can't kill or hurt her anymore than he could disobey his father]], prevents the spell from completing but dies because it's too far gone to save himself.
** Zeref already has CompleteImmortality as well as OneHitKill magic, and later in his final fight with Natsu he [[spoiler:absorbs Fairy Heart, infinite magic power, from Mavis]]. He doesn't even attempt to dodge Natsu's SuperMode-enhanced attack to show how potent his regeneration has become. How is Natsu, reduced to his base form, going to win now? [[spoiler:Zeref refrains from using his instant-kill magic during the fight, and Natsu triumphs with bonafide [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship power]].]]
** Acnologia proves completely invulnerable to everything thrown at him ''before'' [[spoiler:he reveals that he can eat magic]]. The only thing left for the story to do is [[spoiler:hastily reintroduce a character thought to have been long dead along with a convenient black hole to shove him into]]... and even ''that'' doesn't work, in fact making Acnologia ''even stronger''. Said power-up forces Acnologia to [[spoiler:split between a now mindless Dragon body and his more vulnerable human form]], just to give the protagonists a fighting chance. [[spoiler:The Dragon body simply keeps firing at random without killing anyone despite being able to sense their magic, while the human form, who repeatedly rants about wanting the Dragon Slayers dead, wastes his time casually beating them up despite previously displaying the ability to kill the continent's strongest mage in the blink of an eye.]]

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' is no stranger to this, especially during the Creator/GeorgePerez reboot that put more emphasis on magic and mythology. Perez's first Circe storyline stands as an especially shining example, with Circe more-or-less curbstomping all the good guys until she gets her clock cleaned by a ''literal'' God, namely [[spoiler:Hermes]].

* ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'': This was a regular occurrence in the Golden Age campaign. However, being set in UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, the players knew that this would happen frequently going in, and eventually started suggesting bigger- and more-over-the-top ways to implement this trope.

#The heroes must not have [[ChekhovsGun previously shown]] that they have powers or skills that would help them escape this situation, and

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* In the [[Literature/TheDarkTower final book]] of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' saga Creator/StephenKing does this literally by sending his characters a letter to warn them of a trap. He even {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it in the note with a sentence to the effect of "Here comes the Deus Ex Machina!" Notably, the whole incident leads to them meeting the mysterious Patrick Danville, who eventually [[spoiler: kills the Crimson King by harnessing his unexplained ability to [[ArtInitiatesLife create living artwork]] to erase him from existence]]. It's heavily implied that King himself sends Danville to the Ka-Tet as a "secret weapon".

* {{Parodied|Trope}} by ''Blog/HowToWriteBadlyWell'': "[[http://writebadlywell.blogspot.com/2010/05/write-yourself-into-corner.html Write yourself into a corner]]"

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' had this in full force, with the series establishing it early on how advanced and beyond the galactic civilizations the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]] are. In the first game it took an entire fleet of warships to take down '''one''' Reaper, and the second game ends with a [[OhCrap shot of thousands approaching the galaxy.]] In the third game [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Admiral Hackett]] outright tells the PlayerCharacter that the Reapers can't be defeated conventionally. True to form, surprise! A DeusExMachina is introduced early in the game and is the only way to win -- or, depending on your point of view, a DiabolusExMachina is introduced that lets you choose which way you want to lose.

* In the ''Manga/OnePiece'' Wano Country Arc two of the four most powerful people in the world make an alliance not long after just one of them had managed to defeat Luffy in a single hit. How something like that can even be defeated remains to be seen, but it will almost definitely be a case of this trope.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' The White Walkers army can't be stopped, their leader can raise all his fallen enemies by waving his hands and the good guys just lost their WeaksauceWeakness in a fire. Thankfully for TheHero the tv producers confirmed the fan theory that Valyrian sword works on them too or it would have been even more hopeless.

* ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'' has this problem with [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]] and the heroes stuck in space. The heroes are trapped on the outside of a powerful barrier covering the Earth. The only person who can break through it is the new Quasar, but she's put into a ConvenientComa early on. Other heroes attempt to break through it - Spectrum, who has the power to transform into any form of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum; Blue Marvel, who can manipulate matter and anti-matter; and Starbrand, whose power is the same as the one from ComicBook/TheNewUniverse, which is "do anything you want" -- and they ''still'' can't break through it. Even worse, ComicBook/{{Galactus}} refuses to help (due to being in a weakened state prior) and, for some strange reason, the ComicBook/SilverSurfer has decided to be a no-show for some strange reason.

** Special mention goes to Gremmy Thoumeaux, "The Visionary," who had the power to make [[RealityWarper anything he imagined real]]. Whether it was creating truckloads of complicated machinery, large scale natural disasters, or just turning his opponent's body into something brittle, he had few limits. Luckily, when he fights Kenpachi, he [[spoiler:sticks almost entirely to physical attacks, mainly throwing larger and larger rocks at him. Someone called "The Visionary" suddenly lost all creativity and forgot powers they used minutes ago to become beatable. And then out of sheer pride he decided to imagine himself becoming ''physically'' strong enough to beat Kenpachi...except the fact that Kenpachi had survived such a ridiculous beating that Gremmy was starting to think of him as invincible. So by simultaneously imagining two contradictory things, Gremmy tried to imagine himself as having beyond infinite physical strength, with the result that [[RealityWarpingIsNotAToy he tore his own body to shreds]]. Kenpachi proceeds to note [[WhatAnIdiot what a complete moron]] Gremmy was]].

** Aizen was a shinigami who was already very well skilled even before revealing himself to be a BitchInSheepsClothing. But by the time it came to finally confront him, he gotten so ridiculously overpowered that virtually nothing the heroes did could even scratch him since it was always a part of his plan in some form or another. So how's he defeated? [[spoiler: Ichigo undergoing some last minute training, getting a major power up that'll likewise rob him of his power (temporarily as he gets them back in the next arc) and using that to beat Aizen. Heck he doesn't really beat him, just weakens him enough for a Kido spell Kisuke shot into him earlier to finally activate. And even then, they can't kill Aizen, just lock him away.]]

* [[spoiler:The real Uchiha Madara]] from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. To make a very very long story very short, he has [[spoiler: basically every power that Naruto, Sasuke, Pain and Hashirama ever had, all turned UpToEleven]]. By his own admission, Kishimoto [[WritersBlock had no idea]] how to beat [[spoiler: Madara]] at that point. [[spoiler: It took Naruto and Sasuke being revealed to be reincarnations of the Sage of Six Path's youngest and oldest sons, respectively, and the omnipresent Sage himself giving them both some of his chakra to fight Madara, until Madara got his other Rinnegan eye,]] returned stronger than ever, and proceeded to [[spoiler: activate the Moon's Eye Plan, leaving everyone but Team 7 under his control]]. This lasts for about a page before he's [[spoiler: abruptly killed off and supplanted as BigBad by [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Kaguya]], the series's mythological BigBad that even the Sage of Six Paths couldn't defeat alone. And then [[FauxActionGirl Kaguya puts up much less of a fight then Madara ever did]] [[AntiClimaxBoss and was offed in about ten chapters]] while it took Madara over a hundred to finally go down. While technically Kaguya is [[PhysicalGod even more powerful than Madara]], this is negated by the fact that she is [[WhatAnIdiot an idiot]] [[UnskilledButStrong with no clue how to actually fight]], repeatedly getting caught off guard by even the most simplistic tactics (it's a neat trick for somebody with 360-degree X-ray vision to manage to get ambushed repeatedly)]].

* The end of the ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' Mundus Magicus arc. The Mage of the Beginning has protagonist Negi Springfield's team, Ala Alba, completely beaten down through the last minute arrival of his own QuirkyMiniBossSquad, the expanded Cosmo Entelecheia, which barely were hinted at before their arrival. They utterly defeat Ala Alba, undoing ''absolutely'' everything they had achieved up to that point, something that had costed them around a dozen of chapters to do, in pretty much only a couple of chapters, and then are defeated just as soundly themselves by the just as unforeshadowed arrival of Ala Alba's predecessors, the Ala Rubra. '''Then''' the Mage of the Beginning soundly defeats them as well by himself, and nothing stands in his way... except because,[[VillainBall while nobody in his team was watching over the comatose Asuna, a key piece of his plans]], Ala Alba and the rest of Negi's Class 3-A students are able to wake Asuna up, who anticlimactically oneshots the Mage with Negi's help in a single chapter.
* In the ''Manga/OnePiece'' Wano Arc two of the four most powerful people in the world make an alliance not long after just one of them had managed to defeat Luffy in a single hit. How something like that can even be defeated remains to be seen, but it will almost definitely be a case of this trope.

* [[spoiler:The real Uchiha Madara]] from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. To make a very very long story very short, he has [[spoiler: basically every power that Naruto, Sasuke, Pain and Hashirama ever had, all turned UpToEleven]]. By his own admission, Kishimoto [[WritersBlock had no idea]] how to beat [[spoiler: Madara]] at that point. [[spoiler: It took Naruto and Sasuke being revealed to be reincarnations of the Sage of Six Path's youngest and oldest sons, respectively, and the omnipresent Sage himself giving them both some of his chakra to fight Madara, until Madara got his other Rinnegan eye,]] returned stronger than ever, and proceeded to [[spoiler: activate the Moon's Eye Plan, leaving everyone but Team 7 under his control.]] This lasts for about a page before he's [[spoiler: abruptly killed off and supplanted as BigBad by [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Kaguya]], the series's mythological BigBad that even the Sage of Six Paths couldn't defeat alone. And then [[FauxActionGirl Kaguya puts up much less of a fight then Madara ever did]] [[AntiClimaxBoss and was offed in about ten chapters]] while it took Madara over a hundred to finally go down. While technically Kaguya is [[PhysicalGod even more powerful than Madara]], this is negated by the fact that she is [[WhatAnIdiot an idiot]] [[UnskilledButStrong with no clue how to actually fight]], repeatedly getting caught off guard by even the most simplistic tactics (it's a neat trick for somebody with 360-degree X-ray vision to manage to get ambushed repeatedly)]].

*** The show had two different ways the villain could have been beaten in a more satisfying manner, but both of them were shot down in-story: [[spoiler:the plan to seal Zamasu away with the Mafuba (Evil Containment Wave) failed because Goku suddenly became ForgetfulJones for the sake of comedy]], then during the final battle [[spoiler:Zamasu [[FusionDance fuses]] with Goku Black, only for their fused body to become corrupted and malformed specifically because it's the result of an immortal and mortal fusing. Future Trunks then [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cut them in half]], which would have been the ideal ending for the arc, only for Zamasu's spirit to come back and ShootTheShaggyDog.]]

* In the final issue of ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' the universe splintering war between Snow White and Rose Red is resolved [[spoiler:when Rose speaks to one of her soldiers (implied to be Boy Blue BackFromTheDead),and he simply asks her [[ArmorPiercingQuestion what happens]] to Snow's ''kids'' after it's all over.]] Rose Red [[HeelRealization decides she doesn't want to continue the war]]. She also realizes [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne entire point of their conflict]] is meaningless as Snow has sons, which should be impossible.

* ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'' has this problem with [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]] and the heroes stuck in space. The heroes are trapped on the outside of a powerful barrier covering the Earth. The only person who can break through it is the new Quasar, but she's put into a ConvenientComa early on. Other heroes attempt to break through it - Spectrum, who has the power to transform into any form of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum; Blue Marvel, who can manipulate matter and anti-matter; and Starbrand, whose power is the same as the one from ComicBook/TheNewUniverse, which is "do anything you want" -- and they ''still'' can't break through it. Even worse, ComicBook/{{Galactus}} refuses to help (due to being in a weakened state prior) and, for some strange reason, the ComicBook/SilverSurfer has decided to be a no-show for some strange reason.

* A humorous InUniverse example in WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged's ''Dead Zone'': [[spoiler:Krillin writes himself into a corner by giving the main villain immortality, so he's forced to resolve it by having said villain open the Dead Zone - [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the only thing which could defeat him]].]]

* In the [[Literature/TheDarkTower final book]] of his Franchise/TheDarkTower saga Creator/StephenKing does this literally by sending his characters a letter to warn them of a trap. He even {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it in the note with a sentence to the effect of "Here comes the Deus Ex Machina!" Notably, the whole incident leads to them meeting the mysterious Patrick Danville, who eventually [[spoiler: kills the Crimson King by harnessing his unexplained ability to [[ArtInitiatesLife create living artwork]] to erase him from existence]]. It's heavily implied that King himself sends Danville to the Ka-Tet as a "secret weapon".

* ''Literature/OutOfTheDark'' is a hard-SF tale of an alien invasion of Earth. Near the end of the book, the aliens, having run out of other options, decide to simply destroy Earth completely with a massive asteroid, and it's been established many times that humanity has no defense whatsoever against orbital bombardment. The day is saved thanks to a DeusExMachina in the form of [[spoiler: Count Dracula and an army of vampires.]] In what, up until that point, had been a "realistic" hard science fiction novel!

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''' fifth season finale ends with [[spoiler:Damon and Bonnie trapped on The Other Side, the afterlife for magical creatures, just as the dimension is about to collapse. The episode ends with the two accepting their fate as the scene [[FadeToWhite Fades To White]]. The next episode reveals that they are trapped in a prison dimension. The existence of this dimension is explained in the StoryArc of the season, but just how and why Damon and Bonnie ended up there remains vague and is not dwelt on.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' does it with the Sith Emperor. He's an immortal EldritchAbomination whose resurrection and planet devouring plans occur no matter what actions player takes. The heroes are informed he's far weaker than his previous incarnation, but that only amounts to eating planets one at a time, instead of dozens at once. The player only survives from being a snack by fleeing the planet beforehand.

** {{Invoked|Trope}} when [[spoiler:the Handmaid]] tries to [[BreakingTheFourthWall break a]] [[PlayingWithATrope fifth wall]] to allow Andrew Hussie's AuthorAvatar to save her from [[PhysicalGod the current narrator]]. The author literally charges in to rescue her like a BigDamnHero [[spoiler:but ultimately fails. She escapes from the current narrator, but is immediately caught by his master, who's even worse]].

** In ''Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2'', the ponies have lost in a ''big'' way. Tirek has the magic of countless ponies, the Mane Six, all the princesses, and even Discord. The princesses are locked in Tartarus. The Mane Six are near comatose and helpless from having their magic drained. Tirek has won, and he knows it. How do the ponies stop him? When, via a sheer stroke of luck, they gain "Rainbow Power" which [[OneHitKO one-punches]] Tirek, drains him of all his stolen magic, and restores it to all of Equestria. While it's not the first time a power like this has saved the day, other times the power was suitably foreshadowed[[note]]The Elements of Harmony with their powers and "rules" were firmly established in the prologue, we saw Queen Chrysalis wield the PowerOfLove against Princess Celestia and win, and the Crystal Heart was well-established as what would defeat King Sombra with the entire plot being about finding it[[/note]], where Rainbow Power or its capabilities had never been even hinted at: the most foreshadowing it got was in the form of a mysterious box with six locks earned in the premiere and no real hint whatsoever of what was inside or even that the ponies had found a single key.