History ShootTheShaggyDog / WebOriginal

* The final episode of ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl'' has one with Link. After revealing that he survived being stabbed by Zelda, he rallies her back to the side of good, only for them both to be killed nigh instantly.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sintel}}''. A young girl befriends a baby dragon only to see it snatched away from her by a larger dragon. She quests to find and rescue her friend, searching for what seems like forever before finding the dragon's lair and confronting its owner, only to find after mortally wounding the dragon that it bears the same scars her dragon suffered as a baby. She had traveled all that way and not only failed to rescue her friend, but she killed him herself.
* The Grickle short,[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuhZuMl9StM "The Smartest Dog In The World"]] story consists of a dog trying to save his dying owner. The dog looks up a map to the nearest hospital, find diagrams on how to ride a motorbike, places his unconscious owner on the back, leave the garage... then promptly crash through a wall three houses down, which causes the motorbike to burst into flames, killing them both AND anyone who may have been inside the house at the time. At least the cat survives.

* A mild version is present in WebVideo/{{Manwhores}}. Even after Kevin gets up the courage to go out to [[WretchedHive Dead Man's Cove]] for the job necessary to save their apartment and bail Randy out of jail, and then confronts/seduces his ex-girlfriend, now the VP of an entire bank chain ("It's been one week!"), Kevin and Greg are still busted for prostitution and sent to jail.

* ''WebVideo/RomeoAndJulieta.'' Unlike the [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet source material]] the deaths of the protagonists fuel no ultimate good or bittersweet outcome whatsoever. No, here they are shown building up a mutual bond ''solely'' to be brutally killed. Additionally, the humans responsible suffer no retribution, and it's possible they don't even realize what they've just done, or do and are just bastards to the point of not caring.

* Joseph from ''Literature/AfterlifeLabirynth'' died 591 times by 2014-07-28.
* "The Grand Heist" episode of Creator/AchievementHunter's ''[[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterGrandTheftAutoSeries Let's Play Grand Theft Auto V]]'' is a particularly cruel one. The team had pulled off an incredible heist with Ray pulling off a HeroicSacrifice to get the rest of the gang airborne in a Titan, with Gavin in the controls. The team is flanked by helicopters, but Gavin's doing his best to keep them in the air, but he overcorrects and stalls the plane. He could have easily corrected this, but by ''sheer dumb luck'', a helicopter gets under him and causes the Titan to explode, killing the rest of them.
* In the ''WebAnimation/CampCamp'' episode "Eggs Benefits", the camp's platypus mascot lays eggs and the campers are ordered to take care of them until they hatch so [[ConMan Cameron]] can sell the hatchlings. All of the eggs are broken (or in one case, [[RuleOfFunny runs away to get away from Nurf's spousal abuse towards Preston]]) before they can hatch, with the exception of Max and Nikki's, but the platypus mother eats the hatchling, rendering the whole thing pointless. Max is upset that his Saturday was wasted.
* In ''LetsPlay/PBGHardcore'' Minecraft #6, the group is given the opportunity to pursue a side quest in order to get a Totem of Undying, which will allow them to bring one person back from the dead. After losing Mcjones in an easily-avoidable accident two episodes in, the group decides to find the totem. They succeed in finding the totem and getting it back to their base with no casualties, only for Dodger to die suddenly to a creeper just outside the house. They end up choosing to revive her over Mcjones, rendering the entire sidequest a waste of time as she would not have died in the first place if they hadn't pursued it. Then, Dodger dies again- permanently this time- a mere three episodes later without accomplishing anything noteworthy.
* In LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}}'s let's play of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', he manages to get [[ThatOneSideQuest 5,000 fans for Ursula]] in the span of just ''one minute'' shy of 23 hours over the course of 3 days. He also laments over the fact that because he wants to respect the current continuity, he can't do any concerts at Indol, which forces him to up Ursula's Affinity Chart without any additional help. ''Right'' at the moment when he reaches the objective, he unlocks new concerts in continuity-friendly Titans, which won't do anything for him now and would've helped him out hours ago, rendering a good majority of his time towards the end stretch as wasted.
* In the [[InteractiveFiction interactive]] online horror story ''The Dark Forest'', the protagonist's goal is to reunite with their guild after being separated from them during an attack. In the only route where you actually to find them again, the protagonist joyfully greets them and they resolve to leave the titular EldritchLocation together... only for it to turn out that they had been attacked by werewolves, and the protagonist had been bitten by one. [[FaceMonsterTurn He promptly transforms and slaughters them all without a second thought.]]

* "[[https://towritecomicsonherarms.tumblr.com/post/64167787483/cbldf-liberty-annual-2013 What If Wertham Was Right?]]" uses this trope for an ''absolutely '''vicious''''' TakeThat against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Wertham Fredric Wertham]]'s hypothesis about comic books inducing violence in children, widely publicized in ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent Seduction of the Innocent]]'' and cited as a major contributor to the creation of the controversial [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code Authority]]. The premise being that Wertham's claims were true instead of being based on [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml falsified data]], the comic shows three children discovering some comic books with one of them taking one home, only for the military to be called in when the book is discovered. The effect of the comics is demonstrated when the boy becomes a homicidal EnfanteTerrible who slaughters all but one of the soldiers and his father, and is about to kill his mom as well when the surviving trooper shoots him down. Only afterward is the possibility brought up that ''there were multiple comic books'' ([[{{Foreshadowing}} which was true as shown in the first few panels]]), and it's then shown that many ''other'' kids have been turned into murderous berserkers as well. In the end, the mother and the soldier, [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled the latter having turned his gun to his head]], can only watch in horror [[BolivianArmyEnding as the entire neighborhood is overrun]].
-->'''A now-deleted reply on Website/{{Tumblr}}:''' I wouldn't be surprised if this is what people literally think about most entertainment media.

* "[[https://towritecomicsonherarms.tumblr.com/post/64167787483/cbldf-liberty-annual-2013 What If Wertham Was Right?]]" uses this trope for an ''absolutely '''vicious''''' TakeThat against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Wertham Fredric Wertham]]'s hypothesis about comic books inducing violence in children, widely publicized in ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent Seduction of the Innocent]]'' and cited as a major contributor to the creation of the controversial [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code Authority]]. The premise being that Wertham's claims were true instead of being based on [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml falsified data]], the comic shows three children discovering some comic books with one of them taking one home, only for the military to be called in when the book is discovered. The effect of the comics is demonstrated when the boy becomes a homicidal EnfanteTerrible who slaughters all but one of the soldiers and his father, and is about to kill his mom as well when the surviving trooper shoots him down. Only afterward is the possibility brought up that ''there were multiple comic books'' ([[{{Foreshadowing}} which was true as shown in the first few panels]]), and it's then shown that many ''other'' kids have been turned into murderous berserkers as well. In the end, the mother and the soldier, [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled the latter having turned his gun to his head]], can only watch in horror as the entire neighborhood is overrun.
-->'''A commenter on Website/{{Tumblr}}:''' I wouldn't be surprised if this is what people literally think about most entertainment media.

-->'''A commenter on {{Tumblr}}:''' I wouldn't be surprised if this is what people literally think about most entertainment media.

* "[[https://towritecomicsonherarms.tumblr.com/post/64167787483/cbldf-liberty-annual-2013 What If Wertham Was Right?]]" uses this trope for an ''absolutely '''vicious''''' TakeThat against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Wertham Fredric Wertham]]'s hypothesis about comic books inducing violence in children, widely publicized in ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent Seduction of the Innocent]]'' and cited as a major contributor to the creation of the controversial [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code Authority]]. The premise being that Wertham's claims were true instead of being based on [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml falsified data]]), the comic shows three children discovering some comic books with one of them taking one home, only for the military to be called in when the book is discovered. The effect of the comics is demonstrated when the boy becomes a homicidal EnfanteTerrible who slaughters all but one of the soldiers and his father, and is about to kill his mom as well when the surviving trooper shoots him down. Only then is the possibility brought up that ''there were multiple comic books'' ([[{{Foreshadowing}} which was true as shown in the first few panels]]), and it's then shown that many ''other'' kids have been turned into murderous berserkers as well. In the end, the mother and the soldier, [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled the latter having turned his gun to his head]], can only watch in horror as the entire neighborhood is overrun.
-->'''A commenter on Tumblr:''' I wouldn't be surprised if this is what people literally think about most entertainment media.

* "[[https://towritecomicsonherarms.tumblr.com/post/64167787483/cbldf-liberty-annual-2013 What If Wertham Was Right?]]" uses this trope for an absolutely vicious TakeThat against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Wertham Fredric Wertham]], whose hypothesis about comic books inducing violence in children contributed to the creation of the controversial [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code Authority]]. The premise being that Wertham's claims were not based on [[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140804/08494028095/learning-history-how-one-lying-liar-almost-screwed-comic-book-industry.shtml falsified data]]), the comic shows three children discovering some comic books with one of them taking one home, only for the military to be called in when the book is discovered. The effect of the comics is demonstrated when the boy becomes a homicidal EnfanteTerrible who slaughters all but one of the soldiers and his father, and is about to kill his mom as well when the surviving trooper shoots him down. Only then is the possibility brought up that ''there were multiple comic books'' ([[{{Foreshadowing}} which was true as shown in the first few panels]]), and it's then shown that many ''other'' kids have been turned into murderous berserkers as well. In the end, the mother and the soldier, [[BetterToDieThanToBeKilled the latter having turned his gun to his head]], can only watch in horror as the entire neighborhood is overrun.