History Main / OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow

* ''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 - [[ComicBook/MonicaRambeau Spectrum]], who has the power to transform into any form of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum; [[ComicBook/AdamLegendOfTheBlueMarvel 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.

** Special mention goes to [[CreepyChild Gremmy Thoumeaux]], [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve "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]].

** Later on in the series, Garlic Jr returns, only to [[WhatAnIdiot do the exact same thing]]. Keep in mind again: Garlic Jr has CompleteImmortality. He could defeat literally anything in the universe by just poking it repeatedly. He went for this solution ''[[TooDumbToLive twice]].''

* In the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, the last eight or so books have a constantly advancing horde of Imperial Order soldiers advancing little by little across the New World. The heroes have minor victories here and there, and during the fighting retreat led by Kahlan under Operation Fuck Your Shit Up, the D'Haran army slaughtered the Order by the dozens for every casualty they took, but the Order [[MillionMookMarch had the sheer numbers]] to [[ZergRush overwhelm all opposition]]. In the end, the Imperial Order had cut right through the middle of the Midlands and had advanced to D'Hara, where the only army of consequence left in the New World was holed up in a city on a plateau surrounded on all sides. Even sending cavalry into the Old World to [[MoralDissonance pursue a policy of total war]] as part of Operation Fuck Your Shit Up ''Twice'' barely made a dent (partly because said cavalry was fought off by [[spoiler:a witch riding a Dragon]]). The only way the heroes managed to pull out a victory was to find the MacGuffin from the first book and eventually use it to [[spoiler:create a new world (which is, incidentally, implied to be [[EarthAllAlong Earth]]) and magically banish everybody that shared the Imperial Order's philosophies there to live out their lives without magic, wonder or the hope of an afterlife. [[IronicHell Essentially, the sort of world they were trying to create in the first place]]]].

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' does it with the Sith Emperor. He's an immortal EldritchAbomination whose resurrection and [[PlanetEater 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.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': [[spoiler:The real [[PredecessorVillain Madara Uchiha]]]]. His powers can only be described as [[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 make him lose at that point. He was able to accomplish his master plan and [[spoiler: trap everyone but Team 7 in a permanent dream]]. Almost immediately after, [[spoiler: he gets abruptly killed off and supplanted as BigBad by [[GreaterScopeVillain Kaguya Otsutsuki]]. While Kaguya is [[PhysicalGod even more powerful than Madara]], she gets defeated relatively quickly due to having [[UnskilledButStrong little fighting experience]], 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.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': [[spoiler:The real [[PredecessorVillain Madara Uchiha]]]]. His powers can only be described as [[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 make him lose at that point. He was able to accomplish his master plan and [[spoiler: trap everyone but Team 7 in a permanent dream]]. Almost immediately after, [[spoiler: he gets abruptly killed off and supplanted as BigBad by [[GreaterScopeVillain Kaguya Otsutsuki]]. While Kaguya is [[PhysicalGod even more powerful than Madara]], she gets defeated relatively quickly due to having [[UnskilledButStrong little fighting experience]], getting repeatedly caught off guard even with her near 360 degree vision.]]

* [[spoiler:The real [[PredecessorVillain Madara Uchiha]]]] 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 [[AbusivePrecursors Kaguya Otsutsuki]], the series' mythological GreaterScopeVillain that even the Sage of Six Paths couldn't defeat alone. And then Kaguya puts up much less of a fight than Madara ever did 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 has [[UnskilledButStrong 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)]].

** 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 ThePowerOfLove 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.

** In [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo Part 5]], the protagonists are once again faced with a [[BigBad villain]] with a power they cannot counter. Or even [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm describe sensibly]]. So the Stand Arrow does its thing, jumping out of the villain's hand to grant Giorno the new power to [[NoSell just prevent every 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 ComicBook/{{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]].
* ''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; ComicBook/BlueMarvel, 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.

** Somewhat the attitude some fans had about the practically god-like Ori. In fairness, though, the writers have found reasonably believable ways for the Ori to be battled -- but the eventual resolution in ''Film/TheArkOfTruth'' was nevertheless a DeusExMachina, involving an impossibly convenient and previously unmentioned piece of LostTechnology. Presumably, if it had played out over the course of a season instead of crammed into a single film, there would have been more believable build-up.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2'', the Combine Advisor. Something that can throw people with telekinesis and suck out brains? Scary. Something that flies, throws people with TK, paralyzes everyone around it, eats brains, that I can't harm or avoid, and it hates me, and knows where I am? No longer frightening, it's in DeusExMachina's hands now. Since ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' doesn't do cutscenes, they have to make do with [[CutscenePowerToTheMax Scripted Event Power To The Max]].

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' has its share of unstoppable giant space fleas that show up near the end before getting stopped anyway. (At least the characters are certainly established as capable of taking out a wide array of horrors.) ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' 's heroes both suffer an initial defeat in their final battle, only for their friends to revive them through ''prayer'' for a HeroicRematch.

* For its final two seasons, ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' pit its heroes in a losing battle against the forces behind Samaritan, an artificial intelligence covertly exerting ever-greater control over humanity. In the series' final season, Harold Finch pit the Machine, his own A.I., against Samaritan in a series of simulations, which the Machine never won. In the end, it takes a computer virus that had apparently always existed but had never been mentioned to weaken Samaritan enough for it to be destroyed, which it does in the space of two episodes.

* That's how ''Manga/ShamanKing'' ended. By the look of it, the heroes are completely screwed. Due to ExecutiveMeddling, the series was [[CutShort canceled]], and fans were left with NoEnding, or worse, a presumed DownerEnding. The author has since released the ending, which [[spoiler:still has him win- the heroes just change his mind]].

* 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.

->'''[[AC:The Reader]]''': But are The Plague Dogs then to drown\\

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. Our heroes only survive the Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh because [[AuthorExistenceFailure the animator suffers a fatal heart attack]]. Director Creator/TerryGilliam admitted in the DVD commentary that he wrote himself into a corner in that scene and had no idea how the characters could get out of their dilemma. Thankfully the film is over-the-top comedy so he could come up with the solution of just killing himself (since he was the animator) off.

See also ThePlotReaper, LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt and StrongAsTheyNeedToBe. Not to be confused with the literal PostModernism case where the AuthorAvatar [[AuthorPowers is forced to save the characters]].

* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}} (Chronicles)'' may be an example of this. The Armies of Evil (tm) not only have better troops, including the draconians, which can kill even when dying, they also have dragons and gods. If not because a pretty obvious DeusExMachina or two (some of them in the form of an actual god, even) the heroes would have lost, and died.

* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse: The New Adventures'' combines this with MediumAwareness in the episode "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy" (prefaced immediately as a cautionary tale). Mighty Mouse is getting married to Pearl Pureheart, only he's getting cold feet when taking his vows. As he stammers "I...I...I...," the scene suddenly changes to a live action shot of the pencil drawing of Mighty Mouse on an animation's table. The animator can't go through with it.

** [[spoiler:There was a very very early [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Gun]], however. Whereas every other claymore in existence was fused with Yoma remains, Claire was instead fused with ''Teresa's'' remains, which is why Clair was referred to as one-quarter Yoma.]]
* ''Manga/{{Tokyo Ghoul}}'' plays with this trope when the main character, by now a powerful and feared ghoul, towards the end of the series encounters Arima, a CCG investigator considered the strongest of all, who's built a reputation as being essentially undefeatable. It seems this trope will come into play. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope It doesn't.]] [[CurbStompBattle He loses.]] '''[[UncertainDoom Badly.]]''']]
** [[spoiler: This trope actually does come into play, eventually, but not as part of the Tokyo Ghoul manga. Only when Tokyo Ghoul:re is released does everybody see the main character back in action. So the author sort of does save him: Our hero is revived by the power of sequels!]]

* 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.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Also {{invoked|Trope}} in ''WebComic/LsEmpire'' to defeat Dark Star. After all; [[spoiler: what could stop an [[AuthorAvatar author]], aside from another author]]? Invoked again in the final arc when [[spoiler: Temporary Dark Samus (now an editor) takes one of the authors hostage and [[TimeStandsStill causes the comic to grind to a near permanent halt]]]].

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' gets like this sometimes. The Winchesters have no magical abilities of their own and routinely go up against demons and monsters with telekinesis or other powers that render the boys' weapons (even the magical ones) totally useless. Yet somehow something always allows the boys to pull out a win. Actually an in-universe exploited trope in the early seasons when the Winchesters realized that they were essentially fated to be the [[spoiler: protagonist and antagonist]] in a story being mutually written by the cooperative forces of heaven and hell. They dove right in to several obviously inescapable situations simply because they knew by season 4 that either fate or divine providence would save them, or [[spoiler: if they died the angels would haul them right back]]. [[spoiler: Death]] was not particularly amused by these stunts.

** Somewhat the attitude some fans had about the practically god-like Ori. In fairness, though, the writers have found reasonably believable ways for the Ori to be battled -- but the eventual resolution in ''Film/TheArkOfTruth'' was nevertheless a DeusExMachina, involving an impossibly convenient and previously unmentioned piece of LostTechnology.

* ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'' has an InUniverse example during the ''Ancient Forge'' event, which centers around a movie script written by [[GothGirlsKnowMagic Lava]] and [[HumanoidAbomination Nian]] starring them as the hero and villain respectively. Nian proves to be a ridiculous InvincibleVillain, besieging the city of Lungmen with an army of immortal soldiers and shrugging off every attack the heroes attempt on her. In the end, Lava is able to lure her inside a reactor and [[HeroicSacrifice blow it up like a firecracker with both of them inside]], but when the smoke clears we learn the "Nian" caught in the blast was [[ActuallyADoombot actually a body double she created]], and the real Nian reappears to transform the city into a {{Kaiju}}. Upon reading this Lava demands she change the ending, partly because filming it as-is would put them severely over budget, but also because she can't think of a satisfying way to wrap up the story after what just happened.

* ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'' has an InUniverse example during the ''Ancient Forge'' event, which centers around a movie script written by [[GothGirlsKnowMagic Lava]] and [[HumanoidAbomination Nian]] starring them as the hero and villain respectively. Nian proves to be a ridiculous InvincibleVillain, besieging the city of Lungmen with an army of immortal soldiers and shrugging off every attack the heroes attempt on her. In the end, Lava is able to lure her inside a reactor and [[HeroicSacrifice blow it up like a firecracker with both of them inside]], but when the smoke clears we learn the "Nian" caught in the blast was [[ActuallyADoombot actually a body double she created]], and the real Nian reappears to transform the city into a {{Kaiju}}. Reading this, Lava begs her to let her change the ending, both because filming it would put them severely over-budget and because she can't think of a satisfying way to wrap up the story after what just happened.