| 1 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1501471290048925300 |
| 2 | %% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a new image. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | ->'''Green Shirt:''' Are you waiting to get some punch?\ |
| 5 | '''Yellow Shirt:''' No, they're still setting it up.\ |
| 6 | '''Green Shirt:''' Then where's the punch line?\ |
| 7 | '''Yellow Shirt:''' I don't think there is one. |
| 8 | -->-- A complete comic strip from ''WebComic/CyanideAndHappiness'' |
| 9 | |
| 10 | TheClimax is one of the oldest devices in storytelling. For those who don't know, the climax is when the story reaches its head, when the most important or exciting part occurs; in an action film, the climax is almost always a large, spectacular fight. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | As a result, the ''subversion'' of the climax, the Anticlimax, is probably almost as old. The anticlimax is when you're set up for a climax, such as a spectacular, battle-to-end-all-battles between the hero and the villain. It's built up more and more until the suspense is extremely exciting, and the reader/viewer can't wait for it...then the hero kills the villain in one hit, or the villain spontaneously drops dead, or [[DeusExMachina some other random guy shows up]] and destroys the villain before the hero does anything. Thus is the anticlimax. A ShaggyDogStory almost always features an anticlimax. Interestingly, however, cases of ShootTheShaggyDog usually ''do'' have a climax. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Not all anticlimaxes are intentional, though. Oftentimes, they are caused when the story writes itself into a corner. Other times, it's caused when the writer realizes that their planned solution just wouldn't make sense compared with the logical one. Sometimes, it's caused when there are teams of writers that don't communicate very well. The planned resolution of a StoryArc is nullified by another writer, who might have written out the plot device intended. Sometimes, in the case of film and television, it's caused by budget constraints or unexpected cancellation. It's rather rare for unintentional anticlimaxes to show up in single works, usually popping up in long serials where there isn't a chance to unobtrusively go back and rewrite some pivotal moments to set up the proper climax. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Anticlimaxes can work well if it's clear that the subversion of audience expectations is the point, either for humorous purposes (such as the AnticlimaxCut) or as a more serious commentary on the genre of the work. If the anticlimax is unintentional, however, or if the author's purpose just isn't sufficiently clear to the audience, the result is serious audience frustration. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Use caution]]. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | JustForFun/NotToBeConfusedWith a GainaxEnding. A story with an anticlimax will train a pilot, build his jet, fuel his jet, prepare the runway, prepare the radio tower, prime the jet to launch, then cancel the launch as the pilot reads a book in the cockpit. A story with a GainaxEnding will train the pilot, build the jet, fuel the jet, prepare the runway, prepare the radio tower, prime the jet to launch, then take the jet to its destination via the talons of a giant eagle. An anticlimax is a climax that isn't: a GainaxEnding is a climax that comes from nowhere. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Compare NoEnding. For anti-climactic deaths, see DroppedABridgeOnHim. For anti-climactic boss battles, see AntiClimaxBoss. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | !!Examples, which are somewhat spoilerish: |
| 24 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[folder:Animation]] |
| 27 | * ''Animation/WaltzWithBashir'': Near the end of the movie, after the true intention of the Phalangists is discovered, we see how the news of the massacre wanders up the ranks of the IDF. When it finally hits an Israeli officer who cares and takes action, it's already morning. We then see a military jeep driving up to the Phalangists, a man gets out, picks up a bullhorn... and says in a deadpan voice: "Stop the shooting". The Phalangists stop, the surviving refugees return to their destroyed camp, and the man drives off again. |
| 28 | [[/folder]] |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 31 | * The final episode of ''Anime/DotHackSign'' ends with the player-character heroes facing up with one of [[BigBad Morgana's]] [[EldritchAbomination Phases]], and it looks as if there's going to be a big climactic fight scene. Instead, [[spoiler:the uber-hacker Helba just switches off the World's server and kicks them back to the real world]]. The ending that kinda makes up for it, though. The whole thing was a lead-up/prologue for the ''.hack'' games from one person's perspective (that person being Tsukasa). Considering the fact that [[spoiler:Skeith can't be defeated without subverting the physics of the game world with Data Drain (without a Twilight Bracelet or [[TokenGoodTeammate Macha/Mia]]'s own abilities, Skeith and the other Phases are completely invulnerable)]], it would have been even ''more'' anticlimactic and a DownerEnding for everyone to get Data Drained by him and end up as more Lost Ones. |
| 32 | * ''Literature/BofuriIDontWantToGetHurtSoIllMaxOutMyDefense'': |
| 33 | ** Maple & Sally encounter a squid boss. The arena is a pocket of air surrounded by water. The boss mostly hides in the water while attacking with regenerating tentacles and flying fish. While Sally swims in and out, Maple accidently pollutes the water with poison, thus they could no longer use that strategy. After a while the boss is almost defeated and it's using charge attacks which even hurts Maple. Sally prepares to dodge and for her final attack... and then the boss suddenly dies, due to the poison in the water. They find this ending unsatisfying. |
| 34 | ** In the anime version, after attacking and dodging the tentacles for a bit, Maple floods the water with as much poison as she can. The boss's health rapidly drops to 0. Sally alone finds this unsatisfying but is also glad it was easily dealt with. |
| 35 | * ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': |
| 36 | ** The series essentially [[ZigZaggingTrope plays ping pong with this one]] during the Negi/Rakan fight, which starts off with an apparent anticlimax ([[spoiler:Negi K.O.ing Rakan]]), before having 3 or 4 climactic moments, only to keep going. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Negi's final massive attack fails to knock Rakan out, but drains him enough that they resort to GoodOldFisticuffs before fainting from exhaustion in a tie]]. Whether this is an actual Anti-Climax, a subversion thereof, or some kind of combination is up for debate. |
| 37 | ** The Lifemaker. He showed up (flashbacks aside) for less than a dozen chapters, did pretty much nothing but oneshotting Negi and Fate and immobilizing Ala Rubra, literally did nothing else as Class 3-A freed Asuna, on whom his plans hinged, and then he was vanquished away by Negi and Asuna in a single chapter. And his final defeat after that happened '''out of panel''' and only mentioned away in passing in the final chapter. Fortunately, Creator/KenAkamatsu would correct this by finally showing the battle in ''Manga/UQHolder''. |
| 38 | * Creator/RumikoTakahashi seems to love these ones, ending a "will they/won't they" romantic comedy with an "I don't know" not [[Manga/UruseiYatsura once]], but [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf twice]]. |
| 39 | * ''Manga/SchoolRumble''. [[spoiler:Harima & Eri get engaged. He moves to Yakumo's house. Timeskip a couple of years. Harima has left a long time ago and nobody knew where he was.]] |
| 40 | * After being filled with all sorts of [[RuleOfCool cool]], awesome fights, the final battle of the ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'' movie between MessianicArchetype and the DarkMessiah, built up over about two hours, lasted literally all of five seconds. |
| 41 | * There's a decent amount of complaints that the ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' anime's final battle between Chrono and Aion is much, much too short, particularly after all the build up. The fact that the ending is a DownerEnding in the end probably doesn't help. (Parodied amusingly in [[http://comixqueen.deviantart.com/art/Smack-40976001?offset=25#comments this fanart.]]) |
| 42 | * ''Manga/MariaHolic'' ends almost every episode by introducing some dangerous situation or even a monster, only to have it resolved within the first two minutes of the next episode and never mentioned again. |
| 43 | * This happens pretty frequently in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', especially toward the end of arcs. Kubo will normally set up a lot of battles to give whatever of the large amount of characters still standing something to do. Once the final battle is over, the resolution of the fights set up during this time oftentimes taking place off screen, some of them even going so far as to not even reveal who won. |
| 44 | ** At the end of the Arrancar arc, Yammy becomes a {{Kaiju}} and demolishes Rukia, Renji, and Chad (in the manga, off-panel no less) and tanks everything Ichigo can throw at him and more. Once Kenpachi and Byakuya take over, they treat him as a joke and spend half the fight focusing on each other. Even after he transforms again into something even bigger, the end of the arc reveals that they simply killed him off screen. |
| 45 | ** 3rd Espada Tia Harribel is about to take on Hiyori, Lisa, and Hitsugaya at the same time. Before we see a single exchange of blows as the two Vizards prepare to fight seriously for the first time, [[spoiler:[[BadBoss Aizen]] attacks Harribel for no reason]]. |
| 46 | ** [[spoiler:Tousen]] reveals his OneWingedAngel form, only to get [[spoiler:stabbed in the head and killed by his ex-lieutenant]]. |
| 47 | ** The final episode of the anime ended with the [[spoiler:Lost Substitute Shinigami]] arc, where the final battles were very [[CurbStompBattle one-sided]] in favor of the Soul Reapers, more so than any other arc so far ([[spoiler: Kenpachi's]] battle against [[spoiler: Giriko Kutsuzawa]] is quite possibly the shortest "fight" in the series' history). Ichigo didn't even have a hard time defeating [[spoiler: [[BigBad Kugo Ginjo]]]]. What a way for the anime to end. The Bleach fans who don't bother with the manga and watch the anime exclusively must be pissed. |
| 48 | ** The BigBad of the first half, Aizen, is built up to be [[OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow unstoppable]], defeating the entire supporting cast with one blow on average. After the main character trains for [[YearInsideHourOutside three months/an hour]] (consisting mostly of him being stabbed) the enemy who has been hyped up throughout the entire series is defeated in three chapters with absolutely no effort on the part of Ichigo. |
| 49 | ** Even worse than The Espada was [[spoiler:Ginjo]]. After all the buildup after TheReveal about him being both the BigBad of the arc and his talk of his strength, Ichigo proceeds to fight him for one chapter in bankai before one-shotting him. |
| 50 | ** Due to the manga's early cancellation, the final fight with Yhwach goes shorter than it was likely originally intended. The last leg of it in Soul Society takes only a few chapters, ending with a last-minute power-up from Uryu turning his powers against him and giving Ichigo a chance to cut him down. |
| 51 | * ''Anime/IrresponsibleCaptainTylor'': epic use of the [[SoundtrackDissonance William Tell Overture]] heralds what is an Anti-Climax for the titular character: [[spoiler:having been given command of the entire UPSF fleet, Tylor gives one order: advance. Eventually, he gets so close to [[WorthyOpponent Ru Baraba Dom's]] ship that the two can see each other; he raises his hand, as if he was giving the order to fire (Dom does the same), and then instead of ordering the attack he salutes the Raalgon commander. The fleets pass each other and the conflict is resolved with no losses.]] |
| 52 | * The ending to the animé adaptation of ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'' drastically differs from the manga and many anime fans feel that it was anti-climactic. |
| 53 | * ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': |
| 54 | ** The finale of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' ends up being this due to the characters finally meeting the {{Big Bad}} of the series Apocalymon and then completely beating him in the next episode, right after he's been introduced. |
| 55 | ** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' has [=MaloMyotismon=] defeated by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath the children simply preaching their dreams and goals]] instead of an epic battle with both universes at stake despite the fact that [=MaloMyotismon=] should be at his strongest. |
| 56 | ** Episode 12 of ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'' ends with a NegatedMomentOfAwesome for [=WezenGammamon=], as he's stopped from unleashing his most powerful attack on TheHorde of Weedmon by their father showing up to remove them from the city peacefully. |
| 57 | * In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', Gon spends the entire series searching for his father Ging. When he finally makes his first present-day appearance, he's just shown talking with the fellow members of the Zodiac with no build-up or fanfare whatsoever. Even better, the Zodiac itself gets a ''huge'' build-up, culminating in a two-page spread of them walking towards Hunter HQ. Except that they're all facing away from the reader, so it's impossible to tell that one of them is Ging. |
| 58 | ** Most story arcs ends in what is at least partially an anti-climax: |
| 59 | *** The Hunter Exam ends in a tournament. Instead of a typical win by knockout or win by kill, the contestants must make their opponents surrender. The winner of each round passes the exam, while the loser moves on. This builds the expectation of a full-fledged tournament that will function as a contest of wills, as only one of the finalists can actually fail at this point. However [[spoiler: after Killua ends up facing his manipulative brother Illumi, he snaps and kills another contestant, automatically forfeiting the tournament and ending it prematurely.]] Those who passed the exam are left will little chance to celebrate, as their focus is quickly drawn to what needs to be done next. |
| 60 | *** The Zoldyck family mini-arc is set up with Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio making their way through the Zoldyck Estate. We expect them to fight through a series of professional killers, and possibly even a series of booby-traps. Instead [[spoiler: Killua's father Silva gives him permission to leave with Gon, and Killua simply walks out the front gate with his friends.]] |
| 61 | *** During the Heaven's Arena arc, we learn that fighters who advance far enough and earn enough victories at the Tower of Heaven may challenge a "Floor Master" for the position. Every other year, the floor masters take part in the Battle Olympia tournament, where the winner receives an exclusive penthouse suite. Gon and Killua mostly ignore this information, and ultimately [[spoiler: decide to leave after Gon's fight with Hisoka. Gon was only there to train for that battle anyway, and once it's over, he can return his attention to finding Ging.]] |
| 62 | *** During the Greed Island arc, Gon learns that [[spoiler: Ging created the game at least in part to train Gon. Once Gon has beaten the game, he expects to be reunited with Ging. However, Ging decided that if Gon tried to take anyone with him to meet Ging, the card they were using would instead send them to Kite.]] |
| 63 | *** The Chimera Ant arc builds up the King as the ultimate life form, far stronger than any human. Chairman Netero is still determined to face him, and their battle does indeed prove to be the stuff of legends. [[spoiler: Netero's full power isn't enough to kill Mereum, but he came to the fight with a bomb in his body set to go off once his heart stopped. Meruem survives the explosion by feeding on his guards, which makes him even stronger. Things seem to be at their darkest, but it turns out the poison/radiation from the bomb is slowly killing Meruem anyway. He it at least able to die with his rival and friend Komugi by his side.]] |
| 64 | *** During the Election arc, multiple notorious hunters engage in a game of manipulations in order to determine the outcome of the election. Ultimately, [[spoiler: Pariston wins, only to immediately resign, passing the position on to Cheadle as he was {{troll}}ing everyone from the start.]] |
| 65 | * In ''Anime/UmiMonogatari'', there is no final battle, as Sedna's nature and the accompanying sorrow is accepted by the islanders rather than sealed away. There is, however, an emotional battle to save Urin. |
| 66 | * In the TV series of ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}'', the final villain comes out of nowhere. While some of the craziest action takes place during the final battle, it was still short lived and not entirely tense due to the lack of buildup and plot value. |
| 67 | * In ''Devil and Devil'', the characters arrive to prevent Satan's resurrection, only to find that [[spoiler:he's already been dispatched by an [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Angelic Assassin Team]]]] |
| 68 | * The second time Kotaro shows up in order to face Manga/{{Yaiba}} he's bisected by [[PaperThinDisguise Rokuemon Ishida's]] attack. Justified, because Kotaro was totally unaware of his plans. |
| 69 | * Laxus vs the Raven Tail team on ''Manga/FairyTail'' turned out to be this. Despite being hyped as having been trained to specifically combat Fairy Tail members, outnumbering him 5 to 1, and one of these five, Ivan, being the Guild Master AND [[BigGood Makarov's]] son, Laxus defeats the five of them without breaking a sweat. [[OneHitKO With one hit each]]. |
| 70 | * ''Anime/HenkeiShoujo'': Nana leaps out of a plane to rescue Hiromi from a leaky raft, transforms into a battleship, and makes a giant splash in the water. It is then revealed that Nana's battleship form is somehow ''smaller'' than her human one, and tinier than Hiromi's raft to boot. |
| 71 | * The Obsidian Lord in ''Anime/MyHime'', largely because [[spoiler:the rest of the Himes have had their Most Important People revived (and a few were revived themselves) and are working together to defeat him]]. After the Hime Star is destroyed, he gets incinerated in one attack from Kagutsuchi. |
| 72 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 73 | ** The first half of the third part of the Chuunin Exam in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' consisted of a series of knockout battles to halve the contestants. The penultimate three battles were Naruto vs Kiba, Hinata vs Neji and finally Lee vs Gaara (which lasted three episodes, caused several minor earthquakes and ended with [[spoiler:the grievously injured Lee being carted off to hospital]]). The final battle was between Choji and Dosu -- so short it was embarrassing. |
| 74 | ** Hanzo from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' was seen as one by a large portion of the fanbase when he fought against Mifune, his perfect counter. [[spoiler: Considering their battle only lasted a ''single chapter'', when [[BashBrothers Kinkaku and Ginkaku]] got a three page battle and Kinkaku was demolishing two entire divisions with his SuperpoweredEvilSide, they do have a point, and Asuma got a two chapter fight with his team a chapter later, they have a point. However, Mifune was still his perfect counter and Hanzo ''did'' take down an entire division beforehand without trouble.]] |
| 75 | ** [[spoiler:Madara Uchiha]], hyped as an InvincibleVillain and apparently the BigBad of Naruto responsible for the entire conflict, is [[TheWorfEffect disposed off]] and body-snatched in 4 panels by [[spoiler: Black Zetsu]] who is later revealed to contain the will of [[spoiler:Kaguya]], aka the first human to ever wield chakra. |
| 76 | * Of all the characters who got anti-climatically killed in ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'', it's [[spoiler: [[AxCrazy Freed]]]] who gets killed in ''seconds'' by [[TheAce Kiba]]. |
| 77 | * Yugi of ''Anime/TenchiInTokyo'' is built up to be a very dangerous TykeBomb that has actively screwed with Tenchi and the girls for the entire series. By the end of the series, Tenchi restores his "family", gets back his {{BFS}} and confronts Yugi... [[spoiler:by slapping her, then giving her a CooldownHug]]. |
| 78 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'': |
| 79 | ** [[spoiler: Hody Jones]] loses to Luffy rather easily despite having a few advantages- [[spoiler:he's a Fishmen, a species that is several times stronger than humans, amplified strength further by taking steroids and is fighting underwater, where Fishman techniques are stronger]]. Justified by two factors: first, [[spoiler: the crew just came from two years of intense training in order to face the New World,]] and second, he basically was a SmallNameBigEgo without much experience. |
| 80 | ** Bellamy, whose only justification is the latter reason. He got beat by Luffy with '''''one punch''''', long before any of the Straw Hats got ''really'' strong. |
| 81 | ** The next villain after [[spoiler: Hody Jones]] is [[spoiler: Caesar Clown, a sadistic scientist who ate the Gas-Gas Fruit]] who is taken down easily by Luffy [[spoiler: who now has the ability to touch Logia in their SuperSmoke forms]]. Justified in that [[spoiler: that the Logia he had fought previously were much stronger than this one for two reasons, one they were some of the strongest characters in the series, and two they had back-ups to when their abilities are cancelled, while Caesar completely relies on his]]. So it is a case of SmallNameBigEgo. |
| 82 | ** [[spoiler:Caesar may have been the BigBad of the arc, but to be quite honest, of the three main villains of the arc (him, Monet, and Vergo), it became clear that he was the ''weakest'' of them. Monet, asides from being a snow logia (meaning she has weaker and more smoke-like powers of Aokiji's), also used some icepicks as weapons, yet even she was somewhat of an Anti-Climax Boss, being taken down by Zoro by just ''fear'', and then finished off by Tashigi. Vergo however was the only subversion during this arc -- he was not only the most dangerous, he was also the most effective -- he had Law's heart, allowing him take out one of the five people who could possibly beat him that were on the island (Smoker, Law, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji). Sanji had tremendous difficulty with him and soon got distracted by Tashigi and the Marines of G-5, Law couldn't beat him until he regained his heart, and since neither Luffy nor Zoro had any personable desire to face him as they were too busy with the other two, that just left Smoker to take him on.]] |
| 83 | ** The Zou arc features this in a way that manages to be both anticlimactic ''and'' epic. [[spoiler:Jack the Drought, one of Emperor Kaido's top men, with the highest bounty revealed to that point in the series (one billion Berries), shown to be an incredibly powerful and insanely ruthless warrior that fought for days without slowing down, with a fleet of ships and monsters under his command... gets taken out in one shot. How is that epic? Because the one who does it is Zunisha, an elephant several miles tall, to protect the citizens who dwell in the city on his back, just with a single sweep of its trunk that took out the entire rest of the fleet as collateral damage. Ending an entire threat in a literal minute is rather an anticlimax, but when it's a nation-sized creature doing so it's still quite amazing. Of course, Jack later turns up during the battle for Onigashima, and loses to the Sulong-powered Duke Dogstorm and Cat Vipr off-panel]]. |
| 84 | * The final BigBad of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' is Darkness. He's already pretty near this territory, given that he had a total of one onscreen win to his name, and lost to protagonist Judai no less than three times. But we're four episodes from the end, and all the other times were just warmups. It's time to see his real Deck... and it's a gamble deck. A gamble deck that takes up his entire Spell and Trap zone. Then he proceeds to give Judai everything he needs to bring out the superpowered Neos Wiseman. Then he finally brings out his ace, Darkness Neosphere... but before he can even use its effect, Judai copies it with Black Panther and proceeds to use it on him and ruin his entire strategy. All told, the progenitor of the World of Darkness goes down in one and a half episodes. |
| 85 | * V in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' was heavily hyped as the most powerful of the Arclight siblings, and his two brothers both demonstrated substantial skills in their respective duels. When he finally duels Kaito (supposedly his apprentice), he brings out the largest monster in the entire series, Dyson Sphere... and that's basically it. He uses no complex tactics or intelligent plays; he just sits on Dyson Sphere and uses it to tank Kaito's first few attacks. When Kaito proceeds to pull out Neo Galaxy-Eyes, which V knew he had and had seen him use to defeat the other two Arclights, he had absolutely nothing to counter it. |
| 86 | * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': |
| 87 | ** The rivalry between Ash and Gary is set up in the show's very first episode and establishes that a victory over Gary is one of Ash's important long-term goals. After "Showdown at the Po-ké Corral" has Ash promise Gary that they would finally fight during the Indigo League, Gary is eliminated in a fight against a different trainer during the first round of the tournament. |
| 88 | ** In ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire'', Team Aqua and Magma's two-part finale suffered from a rushed pace and horrid animation. |
| 89 | ** In ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles]]'', Team Galactic is thwarted by Cyrus disappearing into a portal after he nearly succeeds in his plans to remake the universe. There is no real explanation as to why this happens and no climatic battle to lead up to this, he just up and vanishes. Then Dialga and Palkia are stopped from going out of control by Ash, Dawn and Brock just...wishing really hard. |
| 90 | ** In ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite Black & White: Adventures in Unova]]'', Ghetsis never battles with Reshiram, who is brought back to his senses with one shot from Pikachu. N then stops Reshiram from rampaging by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking it down.]] The promised Reshiram vs Charizard battle never happens either, though that could be a case of [[NeverTrustATrailer Never Trust an Opening]]. |
| 91 | * ''Manga/SgtFrog'': All through the Episode 101-103 arc, it was being set that there was going to be a huge epic showdown between Dororo and Zoruru. Of course, right when it was going to begin, Dororo revealed that he didn't remember Zoruru, and well, Zoruru just left. '''HE JUST LEFT'''. |
| 92 | ** [[spoiler: Events in Volume 17 and Season 7 correct this error.]] |
| 93 | ** This gets played for laughs too, several times. In the fourth movie, [[spoiler:the climax sees Keroro willingly undergoing the ritual to evolve himself into a dragon, and Shion starts reciting from the spellbook, as Keroro starts to glow and the music slowly builds up -- so slowly that Keroro catches a cold first]]. |
| 94 | * ''Manga/CaheDetectiveClub'': In Machi's introduction her on-going bet with her cousin Shizuka is explained. If Machi gets her ribbon she'll switch to her fighting club and consequently the cafe would be shut down due to not enough people. After they both demonstrate superhuman martial arts for the day, Machi plans to win with her hidden strength on the final day tomorrow. At the end of the next day [[spoiler: Machi got a cold so she admits defeat]]. |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 98 | * ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': One occurs at the end of "Friends and Relations". [[spoiler:The big fight between Honor Guard and several dozen massive battle robots ends when [[RobotMaster Ellie]] gently orders the robots to stand down, restrain the villain, and fly off.]] |
| 99 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': |
| 100 | ** It's established at the end of the first story arc of ''[[ComicBook/BatmanBeyond Batman Beyond 2016]]'' that the Joker is still alive. His eventual return follows him terrorising the city once again, effortlessly outmaneuvering the police, taking command of the remnants of the Jokerz, setting a psychotic cyborg on Terry and torturing the location of the Batcave out of Matt. When he arrives at the cave, he squares off with Bruce for a final showdown, and after a few panels of cane vs. crowbar duelling, keels over dead of a heart attack. An autopsy in the next issue confirms that this is definitely the real Joker and he is definitely dead, and he will not be coming back to life. |
| 101 | ** The return of [[ComicBook/BatmanTheCult Deacon Blackfire]] was built up ''huge'' in ''ComicBook/BatmanEternal'', his rise from hell being one of the story's longest-running subplots. How does it conclude? [[spoiler: After being sufficiently beaten, ComicBook/TheSpectre awakens within Jim Corrigan, gives Blackfire a big fat "nope" and boots him and his legions of hellspawns right back to the other side like it's nothing.]] |
| 102 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}'': Played for laughs. Tommy finds a video of a man who's the son of the only gunman Tommy has ever feared, a master marksman Tommy beat by pure luck. He sees the guy is even better than his father, a master shooter who hits the bulls-eye without even looking. In a huge shootout, Tommy finds the guy getting the drop on him, gun to his head, no way he can miss...*click*. He's forgotten to remove the safety. It hits Tommy (and the reader) that we've only seen this guy shooting targets as he's never shot a real person in a real gunfight in his life. Grinning, Tommy empties his chamber into the guy. |
| 103 | * ''ComicBook/JenniferBlood'': Pete Blute is built up as the smartest, toughest, and all-around deadliest of the eponymous [[{{Antihero}} antiheroine's]] uncles, so much so that she repeatedly says she's not sure if she can kill him. Issue seven ''begins'' with her already having given him a mortal wound. Of course, she then proceeds to taunt him as he lies dying by giving a major [[EvilGloating anti-villainous monologue]], so readers spend the issue waiting for the other shoe to drop... |
| 104 | * ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'': An issue commonly cited about the comic was how easily Mega Man took down each of the first six Robot Masters, wiping them out in two issues with relative ease, making Mega Man look like an InvincibleHero. It may be justified in that Mega Man was using their weakness weapons and gaining more combat experience while the original six were meant to be maintenance robots. This was remedied by later foes like the fortress bosses, Oil Man, Time Man, and the second games Robot Masters being much tougher. |
| 105 | * ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': The "World Engine" arc Creator/WarrenEllis did for ''Thor''. The story involves Thor contracting a mysterious illness and someone tampering with Yggdrasil to create a new race of humans. Thor assumes this is the work of one of his well-known foes like ComicBook/{{Loki}}, but instead, the mastermind is revealed to be a new villain named Price, an ex-college professor who gained strange visions after eating psychedelic mushrooms. The new humans all die due to a biological flaw Price failed to predict, and Price himself is then killed by his clone assistants. The whole thing was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d and foreshadowed just a few pages earlier. |
| 106 | -->'''Enchantress''': I must confess, I was expecting someone a little more ''dramatic'', Mr. Price. |
| 107 | -->'''Price''': Am I an anti-climax, madam? Well, it is often the way of things. |
| 108 | * ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': In ''[[ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX Punisher Max]]'', The Punisher's fight with The Heavy/[[spoiler:Jigsaw]] in "''Girls in White Dresses''" is a three-page fight scene that ends with Frank knocking him out a window and onto a passing freight train. |
| 109 | * ''ComicBook/RedSonja'': ''The Art of Blood and Fire'' has Sonja chasing six world-famous artists with a 30-day deadline. With one day to go, she kicks in the door of the inn where her last target performs stating that she's taking him and killing anyone who gets in the way. The innkeeper informs her that everyone already knows her quest and wants to help; the target comes along willingly. Sonja herself finds it underwhelming. |
| 110 | * ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': An all-too-frequent occurrence in the post-Vaughan arcs. "Dead End Kids" builds up to a huge battle between the Upward Path and the Sinners that the Runaways choose to flee, while "Rock Zombies" ends with the ArcVillain disappearing, his second-in-command stealing Nico's Staff of One and then immediately dying from [[AssPull its new magical anti-theft enchantment]], and Molly somehow figuring out a way to undo the enchantment that has turned most of the population of LA into zombies. And then the final arc got cut off halfway through, leaving the series on a cliffhanger that was later halfheartedly resolved in other series. ''ComicBook/{{Runaways 2015}}'' continues this grand tradition, with Team Puce being allowed to run away after Sanna defects and Bucky agrees to take the fall for their escape. [[spoiler:He is killed by the Doombots, and Valeria, disheartened at the loss of her favorite minion, decides to shut down the Institute.]] |
| 111 | * ''ComicBook/ScoobyApocalypse'': Secret Squirrel's self-proclaimed arch-enemy Le Loup Astucieux a.k.a. the Wily Wolf spends a few chapters preparing for an eventual confrontation between them. [[spoiler:When it finally happens, he's so perplexed by Secret not remembering him Agent Bea easily knocks him down.]] |
| 112 | * ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim'': Lucas Lee is defeated when [[spoiler:Scott goads him into an impossible skating trick and he fails]]. Also, [[spoiler:Roxanne]] is beaten with a SingleStrokeBattle, but there's plenty of buildup. |
| 113 | * ''ComicBook/SinCity'': The comic does this from time to time: |
| 114 | ** The Yellow Bastard is pretty ineffectual in battle and the final scene is no different. He is quickly stabbed, dismembered, castrated, and beaten to death. |
| 115 | ** Manute is set up as the main villain in ''A Dame To Kill For'' [[spoiler: but it turns out he's more of a MiniBoss]]. When it comes time for his first battle against Marv, a similar MadeOfIron character, he's beaten senseless and gets an eye torn out. He does get to come back for the climax, however. |
| 116 | ** The Colonel, the BigBad from ''Hell And Back'' ends up captured off-panel and we see him briefly before he gets a bullet through his head. The protagonist, meanwhile is [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl rescuing his love interest]] and relegates himself to diving for cover with her in his arms while his friend blows up the attacking BlackHelicopter that had caused him trouble earlier. This was all orchestrated by the main character but it serves as a little anti-climatic considering how badass the story had been up until that point. |
| 117 | ** Jackie Boy in ''The Big Fat Kill'' combines this with DiscOneFinalBoss, formerly named Decoy Antagonist. He shows up with a few of his friends to menace Dwight's girlfriend Shelly and then leaves for Old Town. Dwight decides to follow with the firm belief that he and his friends are going to harm more women that night. This seemingly sets Jackie Boy up as the BigBad of the story until he and his friends are slaughtered by DarkActionGirl Miho mere moments after entering Old Town. The conflict occurs when [[spoiler: they realize Jackie Boy was a cop and his murder might start a mob war]]. |
| 118 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': This is the case with the penultimate issue of ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan2013'' as [[spoiler:Doc Ock just gives up and gives Peter back control of his body when things go belly up]]. |
| 119 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': In the ''ComicBook/TheSupermanAdventures'' issue "Jimmy Olsen vs. Darkseid". Seconds after Jimmy breaks Superman out of Desaad's bindings and reverses the body swap, the lord of Apokolips himself shows up. The two heroes brace themselves for a battle, only for Darkseid to tell them he doesn't want to fight Superman now and let them go home. |
| 120 | * ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'': |
| 121 | ** ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': Kraven the Hunter, although it comes immediately after a genuinely intense fight. Spider-Man has just beaten Doc Ock when Kraven arrives (after promising to kill Spidey on live television) and demands they fight. Spidey would rather Kraven helped him get someone out of a trashed car, has no idea what his deal is, and eventually gets fed up and one-shots him, declaring, "Huh. I thought he had superpowers or something. Showbiz phony." Kraven does gain superpowers later on. And is taken down, if anything, even ''swifter''. |
| 122 | ** ''ComicBook/UltimateFF'': Sue's baby is born, Ben and Jonny are there with her... and a bizarre Cyclops monster storms into the room. |
| 123 | ---> '''Johnny:''' Can't we have one major life event in this family without a villain-monster-whatever charging in to...? |
| 124 | * ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'': Mr. Rictus. At least one character told Wesley that Rictus would eat him alive if they fought, and Wesley [[spoiler: kills him in less time than it took for me to write this sentence.]] Add to that the mass of supervillains that Wesley takes down just prior to this and ''just'' as easily and it's a rather disappointing climax. |
| 125 | * ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': [[spoiler:"Do you seriously think I'd explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? [[YouAreTooLate I did it 35 minutes ago.]]"]] Long story short, without giving too much away: the way things end up going, none of the characters you've really been following constantly for the entire run end up having any kind of impact at all. |
| 126 | * ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'': The second ''ComicBook/OldManLogan'' series involves the titular character traversing across Battleworld during the events of ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}'', where he gradually begins to learn that God Doom, the supposed BigGood and ruler of Battleworld, is actually the BigBad. The final issue has Emma Frost inform him that a massive revolution against Doom's regime will soon be at hand, and that Logan will be the one leading the charge. Before any of this can occur, Logan blacks out and wakes up on the newly restored ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel Earth, with the (seemingly successful) final battle against Doom long over. |
| 127 | [[/folder]] |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 130 | * In ''Fanfic/AeonNatumEngel'' the [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Israfel]]-equivalent of this fic gets owned by Asuka, avoiding the dancing. Not without consequences, though. In ''Fanfic/AeonEntelechyEvangelion'' what was presumed to be a Harbinger-4 was actually a false alarm. |
| 131 | * Creator/{{Swing 123}} is quite fond of this trope when writing for Fanfic/{{the Calvinverse}}: |
| 132 | ** A scene near the end of ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheMovie'' lampshades this: |
| 133 | --->'''Calvin:''' You mean to tell me that I wasted a perfectly good drama scene while Camp Pine wasn't even a mile from here! |
| 134 | ** While Calvin and Hobbes fend off a giant octopus in ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesIILostAtSea'', Hobbes gets it to leave by telling it that there's better prey elsewhere. |
| 135 | ** In the beginning of Chapter 11 of ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesIIIDoubleTrouble'', the duo are about to face a group of aliens, only for the lunch bell to sound, attracting all of them |
| 136 | ** Subverted in ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries''. When a tornado that the two have been dealing with all episode appears to get sucked back up into the sky, [[LampshadeHanging Calvin remarks on how easy it was.]] Then it turns out it merely landed elsewhere. |
| 137 | ** Played straight in "Pug" - after a lengthy sequence where the duo attempt to find the titular dog and the MTM, it turns out the MTM was in one of the holes Calvin and Hobbes had dug, and Tug had come in the house earlier. |
| 138 | * In ''Fanfic/RoboBando'' every single fight is one expect for Chapter 4 and 6. |
| 139 | * In ''Fanfic/{{Sight}}'' While at school, Ichigo senses the Grand Fisher at the Kurosaki Clinic and runs off to take care of it once and for all. [[spoiler: Isshin kills it off-screen before Ichigo could get home.]] Ichigo lampshades the anticlimax, remarking that the lack of resolution has him feeling disappointed and numb. |
| 140 | * ''Fanfic/ADelicateBalance'': After six chapters of buildup, Twilight finally gets the nerve to ask Applejack whether or not she's willing to go out with her. [[spoiler: Applejack's answer? "I don't know". It isn't for two more chapters that Twilight actually gets a definite response.]] |
| 141 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' story, ''[[Fanfic/LegacyTotalDrama Legacy]]'', the show's producers scrap the final episode's scheduled jury vote in an attempt to avert a major anti-climax, as they can see that one finalist has only token support at best. A winner-take-all final challenge is substituted. |
| 142 | * In ''Fanfic/TheWorldsGreatestChuninExamTeam'', Team Terumi faces a "super-powerful" team from Kiri who was hiding their abilities in order to get revenge on the Fourth Hokage for killing their parents in a border skirmish years before Naruto was born by killing his son. They boast about how they deceived their jonin-sensei and their peers, and how they are the genius users of extinct bloodlines. B... has them beat in fifteen seconds. This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Naruto and justified by Gaara, who points out how their deception worked against them, as because of their facade they were never given any tough missions or training. Self-training can only get you so far, causing them to lack any experience that would make them any sort of a viable threat to a team of three S-Class shinobi. |
| 143 | * ''[[Fanfic/RealityChecksNyxverse Tirek Gets A Righteous Beatdown]]'': The Mane Six spend most of the story trying to open the box from the Tree of Harmony so that they can defeat Tirek, and finally do, gaining the [[SuperMode Rainbow Power]] as per canon... only to find that Tirek has already suffered the titular [[CurbStompBattle beatdown]] from [[spoiler: Crystal Champion mode Spike]] and is literally ''[[VillainsWantMercy begging]]'' to go back to Tartarus. |
| 144 | * The last shown battle in ''Fanfic/ChristianHumberReloaded'' is against Chaos, the forces of Chaos, the US Army and the President. Vash takes them down about as easily as most of his enemies, killing Chaos in three moves (Wind Scar -> Backlash Wave -> Hell's Warm Welcome) and the President with Hell's Warm Welcome alone. |
| 145 | * ''Fanfic/ThoseLackingSpines'' gives us the Grand Master Fangirl. The fic is all about three members of [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Organization XIII]] going through tropes and settings of bad fanfiction in order to defeat the {{Seme}} versions of the characters to restore their... [[UnusualEuphemism you know]], and by doing so, restore the {{Uke}} versions of said members. The GMF attempts to use the Semes to take over Fandom Hearts. She is defeated by none other than [[spoiler:Fanfiction.Net's Terms of Service]]. |
| 146 | * ''Fanfic/RoboBando'' gives us [[spoiler: Chris Chan]] who is hyped up to be one of Lucy's strongest insane followers only to be beaten by Robo Bando without even scoring a freaking hit on Robo Bando. |
| 147 | * ''Fanfic/{{Anthropology}}'': Although reaching him proves rather risky, much like [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic in the show]], [[spoiler:Discord doesn't even try to fight back or stop Lyra when she and her new human friends use the Elements of Harmony on him, turning him into a statue with no fuss other than his screaming]]. |
| 148 | * ''Fanfic/FriendshipContract'': [[spoiler: Tayuya, for Shikamaru and Tenten.]] A few seconds of teamwork does wonders. |
| 149 | * ''[[Fanfic/TheNuptialverse Families]]'': [[spoiler: Olive Branch is set up as the BigBad throughout the story... but at the climax of the story, he turns out to be a SmugSnake whose plans fall apart completely and easily. His [[TheDragon dragon]] Speedy Delivery turns out to be [[DragonInChief much more of a threat]]]]. |
| 150 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8933408/15/Wizard-Runemaster Wizard Runemaster]]'': While [[TheDragon Sapphiron]] manages to overwhelm both [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Onyxia and Ysondre]] and requires [[Literature/HarryPotter Harry]] to use a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to defeat, Kel'thuzad is immediately destroyed by Onyxia's and Ysondre's dragon fire. |
| 151 | * ''Fanfic/Zero2ARevision'': After Shaun managed to get the upper hand against Demon and kick him out of the typhoon of fire and promptly get blasted by the entire marine army, Demon decides to throw away his clothes and unleash his full power, quickly overwhelming Shaun. Just as the Digidestined decide to join Shaun and confront Demon to an epic battle, "Piedmon" [[spoiler: aka Myotismon]] decides to swoop in and kills off Demon with just a simple ''Soul Banishment''. The entire Digidestined are appropriately shocked by this revelation. |
| 152 | * ''Fanfic/SonicXDarkChaos'': [[spoiler: Venus's death in Episode 66]]. Tsali and [[spoiler: Venus]] had been hunting each other and battling for three decades; when Tsali finally finds and kills her, she's half-dead and completely insane [[spoiler: thanks to Dark Tails possessing her]]. Tsali himself lampshades this and muses his disappointment that they couldn't have a climactic final battle. |
| 153 | ** Episode 63 subverts this. Sonic, Shadow, and Eric end up defeating Tsali fairly easily thanks to their Super forms. Then Tsali [[GodzillaThreshold summons Maledict himself for aid]], beginning the actual climactic fight. |
| 154 | ** The ending is a lesser example. [[spoiler: Sure Sonic and friends get their Planet Egg back and save the galaxy, but [[KarmaHoudini none of the villains get any sort of retribution for their crimes]]. Instead, they all make tenuous cease-fires with each other and leave quietly.]] |
| 155 | * ''Webcomic/{{Guardian}}'' has Lulu and Wakka join Father Zuke's pilgrimage after Lulu takes the step of retraining her black magic, fully intent on dying so that Yuna won't have to. But nothing much happens; the journey itself is short and uneventful, and Zuke calls it off in the Calm Lands. |
| 156 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''Fanfic/IAmNOTGoingThroughPubertyAgain'' during the final round of the Chunin Exam Preliminaries. We get 20+ paragraphs about Karin's desire to win the fight because her crush is watching, only for her opponent to forfeit the second the match starts. |
| 157 | * Fanfic/TheLoneTraveler is a kind of multiversal fix-it man, who travels through realities trying to make things better and save people. Once his task is complete, he--involuntarily--moves on. In one trip to [[Series/BabylonFive Babylon 5]] he is incensed to find out his sole purpose was to provide cooking advice that helps make flarn taste better. |
| 158 | * ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndEmerald'': Normally in [[spoiler: Dad for One]] fics such as ''Fanfic/ConversationsWithACryptid'' or ''Fanfic/FromMuddyWaters'', the revelation is usually a major reveal or major ongoing character arc. Here, Inko and Izuku find out when Inko shows All Might her wedding photos. It’s just something that Izuku and Inko have to deal with but not life-changing. |
| 159 | * ''Fanfic/LegendarilyPopular'' makes short work of the plot of each Pokémon movie, with only [[spoiler:the fourth movie]] being close to a truly dramatic build-up. The Power of One, in particular, is PlayedForLaughs, when [[spoiler:Lawrence captures the three Legendary Birds of Shamouti, and comes back to find that all three of them are apparently Zapdos. Turns out he actually caught a ''different'' Zapdos, plus Mew in two different disguises, with Mew having ''gone back and retrieved a Zorua to stand in for him while he took on the second disguise'', just because [[ItAmusedMe he thought it would be funny]]]]. |
| 160 | * ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'': |
| 161 | ** An InUniverse one for the Wolf: Having spent prodigious sums on magical wargear, mercenaries and weapons in preparation for killing the Night King in the name of Chaos, expecting he can reimburse the cost from whatever loot is to be found after the battle, [[spoiler:he has nothing to show for his investment when the Night King is accidentally shattered by Arya instead]]. |
| 162 | ** Another happens when Akkarulf is dueled for command of the [[CoolShip Silence]] by Gorion. The Wolf is excited to see a fight between the two about to happen, a circle of onlookers is formed... and Akkarulf concedes right away, ceding command of the ship to Gorion. He explains to a disappointed Wolf later on that [[UriahGambit Gorion is likely to get himself killed anyways]], so Akkarulf just needs to wait a bit. |
| 163 | * ''Fanfic/HarryIsADragonAndThatsOk'' has several examples, which makes sense for a story where Voldemort is mostly a background nuisance and the focus is on life at Hogwarts. |
| 164 | ** In his first Quidditch game against Hufflepuff, Harry catches the Snitch in a couple of seconds. Justified by Harry having instincts for seeking out treasure and the Snitch being a ball of gold. |
| 165 | ** The search for [[spoiler: Ravenclaw's lost diadem]] takes about 12 seconds when Dumbledore simply [[spoiler: asks the House Elves to look for it]]. |
| 166 | ** After a year of building conflict, Dumbledore [[spoiler: fires Dolores Umbridge]] with a single line at the Leaving Feast. |
| 167 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/19466455 Crash and Burn]]'', BigBad Hawk Moth is killed not in a dramatic final battle, but in a mundane car crash. |
| 168 | * An InUniverse anticlimax happens in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31172579/chapters/77037878 A Word for a Thousand Pictures]]'' when Midoriya's classmates show him a news article theorizing that he and Todoroki are siblings with the hope that he'll have a FreakOut of epic proportions. Not only does Midoriya barely react, he had already seen the article earlier that morning. |
| 169 | -->'''Ojiro:''' I feel like this is getting less funny... |
| 170 | * ''Fanfic/ADragonsRoar'': |
| 171 | ** This is how Elia feels about Jaime's duel with the Smiling Knight, seeing as it ends quite abruptly during his recounting. Jaime notes to her that, unlike in minstrels' songs where duels could take hours, actual fights usually take only minutes or even seconds. |
| 172 | ** The {{civil war}} ultimately ends with [[spoiler: [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Rhaegar being killed offscreen by a random arrow.]]]] |
| 173 | * ''Fanfic/ShadowsOverMeridian'': The Phobos loyalists at Snowpoint feel this way about the situation when they discover that Elyon's forces have [[KnowWhenToFoldEm suddenly withdrawn without a showdown]]. |
| 174 | * ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': Ash's Charizard feels this way both times he evolves during the story, due to his opponents at the time being small bugs. The first time, it happens against Lt. Surge's Joltik, and the second when [[OffhandBackhand he casually flicks a Weedle trying to attack him from behind without even looking]]. Both times he decides to make up a more exciting story about it. |
| 175 | [[/folder]] |
| 176 | |
| 177 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 178 | * Tuma from ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn''. Even accounting for his BadassDecay compared to his portrayal in the comics/novel/online serial, his defeat was truly pathetic, considering how the characters previously reacted to him. One of the serials at least gave retroactive justification for his weakness, showing how he got his injury that got exploited in the movie. |
| 179 | * ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'', had this big time. When the final boss, [[spoiler: El Macho, injects himself with the serum, and becomes a huge monster]], you are expected to believe that ''[[LetsGetDangerous shit is going down]]''. The fight lasts in less than a few minutes, and is defeated by something as simple as an electric shock from a lipstick compactor, followed by a [[{{Fartillery}} fart gun shot]]. |
| 180 | * In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', the final fight between Po and Lord Shen is over in about fifteen seconds. Though this is somewhat offset by the large and appropriately climactic battle that took place just before. |
| 181 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': |
| 182 | ** A large, obviously unusual spider stalks Miles. It takes about five minutes, the tension and the music slowly ramping up, until it finally bites his hand, injecting him with its mutagenic venom and turning him into the next Spider-Man. The music then cuts out as Miles nonchalantly brushes it off. He doesn't even say "ow". |
| 183 | ** As Peter B., Miles, and Gwen prepare to fight Doc Ock in the Super Collider's room, an 18-wheeler immediately rams into her, never to be seen again. |
| 184 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'': After some fistfighting, Zigzag is defeated by having his clothes sown. |
| 185 | * ''WesternAnimation/TrollsWorldTour'': The Funk Trolls get ready for an all-out battle with the Rock Trolls when they arrive, even having battle music play as the population grab their instruments and are heading off to face them... [[spoiler:only for the Rock Trolls to [[CutTheJuice cut their power]], leaving them sitting ducks]]. |
| 186 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'' sets up an epic conflict between the armies of darkness and the forces of good, building up to the fight between the heroic wizard of light and his arch nemesis when [[spoiler:the good guy pulls out a handgun and shoots the bad guy, avoiding the promised epic magical duel]]. |
| 187 | [[/folder]] |
| 188 | |
| 189 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 190 | * In ''Film/TwelveYearsASlave'', Solomon Northup's freedom does not come from a dramatic escape or revolt. Instead, a sympathetic figure sends a letter to his family, and they are able to send an independent witness who can identify Solomon as a free man and order his release. |
| 191 | * ''Film/The47Ronin'', which is 4 hours long, is about UsefulNotes/The47Ronin, and their efforts to exact revenge on Lord Kira for the death of their master, Lord Asano. One might imagine that the end of the film would be the ronin getting their revenge and taking out Lord Kira. Nope. First, the attack on Lord Kira's estate and the ronin murdering Lord Kira takes place about 3/4 of the way through. Second, the attack is not even shown, being instead recounted after the fact in a letter. Third, as noted above, the film meanders for nearly an hour after the killing of Lord Kira. The ronin bring Kira's head to Asano's grave. They wait around for a while at another lord's house. After getting flowers from Lady Asano that are a signal that they will be forced to commit harakiri, the ronin proceed to—put on a variety show. (One of them dances). There's a subplot in which Mino, a character who is neither seen nor mentioned until the last half-hour of the movie, sneaks into the compound to find out if the ronin that romanced her really loved her. Then the ronin commit harakiri. Then the film ends. |
| 192 | * ''Film/AmericanMary'' has [[spoiler:Ruby's husband. There is no confrontation, he and Mary don't know each other, so there is no emotional context. As for the "fight" itself, Mary gets stabbed and bites his throat out. Fight's over]]. |
| 193 | * ''Film/BatmanFilmSeries'': All of the major villains in each of the films except for [[Film/BatmanAndRobin Mister Freeze]] are physically weaker than their henchmen and not quite intelligent enough to make up for the deficiency. Particularly pathetic are [[Film/BatmanReturns the Penguin]], who is defeated by a small flock of bats, and [[Film/BatmanForever the Riddler]], who is defeated ''instantly'' [[NoOntologicalInertia when his brainwave-sucking machine is blown up]]. |
| 194 | * ''Film/BobLeFlambeur'' is a casino [[TheCaper heist movie]] -- with no heist! The gang shows up at the casino only to be met by the police, who have been tipped off. All but one of them are killed in a short firefight. |
| 195 | * Every fight scene in ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. [[spoiler:Especially the way that TheDragon and the BigBad are killed. TheDragon practically just lets Buffy kill him, then the BigBad shows about as much skill with a katana as a drunk sloth before he also gets killed in an anticlimactic way. While both are ostensibly played for comedy, it makes one wonder why the other slayers have been completely incapable of killing them.]] |
| 196 | * The final battle between [[spoiler:[[DarkActionGirl Selena]]]] and [[BigBad Claudio Perrini]] in ''Film/CollateralDamage'' consists of a very short fistfight that ends with [[spoiler:Selena getting electrocuted and Gordon throwing a firefighter's axe toward Claudio's chest]]. |
| 197 | * InUniverse in ''Film/DangerousMoves''. The world chess championship match between Liebskind and Fromm is tied at five games apiece when Liebskind has to withdraw, having suffered a heart attack. Fromm wins the championship by forfeit, with the organizers paying him a visit and handing over his winner's check. |
| 198 | * At the end of ''Film/{{Diggstown}}'', "Honey" Roy Palmer has fought his way through nine boxers in a row, including the seemingly invincible ringer "Hammerhead" Hagan. Then it is revealed that he must now fight Menoso Torres, who is "tough as nails" and "dirty as they come" -- so dirty, in fact, that when Palmer's manager Gabriel Caine orders Torres to take a fall, he immediately does so. This only partially counts, however, since Hammerhead is actually treated as the final boss until Torres's surprise appearance. |
| 199 | * TheDragon in ''Film/District13Ultimatum'' ticks all the boxes on the Fight Scene Buildup Checklist; LeaveHimToMe, KnuckleCracking, PreAsskickingOneLiner... and is promptly finished with a single [[GroinAttack kick to the 'nads]]. |
| 200 | * ''Film/DjangoUnchained'': [[spoiler:One half of the BigBadDuumvirate, Calvin Candie is shot through the chest without seeing it coming. The other half, Stephen is knee capped and left to die with a stick of dynamite. Elaborate yes, but Stephen's men don't put up a fight and Stephen is more or less a NonActionBigBad.]] |
| 201 | * ''Film/Downfall2004'' gives no drama or fanfare or final speech to the suicide of one of the evilest men of the 20th century. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler simply [[AteHisGun eats his gun]] offscreen during a random dinner scene, and the moment his death is announced, [[CigaretteOfAnxiety every single person in the bunker lights up a smoke]]. |
| 202 | * The fight with O'Hara in ''Film/EnterTheDragon''. Up to that point, O'Hara has been built up as some sort of ImplacableMan who has CharlesAtlasSuperpower-level strength and endurance ([[ItsPersonal also, he was responsible for the death of Lee's sister]]), but Lee takes him down with just a couple of kicks. |
| 203 | * In ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'', the battle between [[TheDragon Andrew Brandt]] and John Preston has been led up to the entire movie. In a previous training sequence, they've been shown to be an even match. [[spoiler:Brandt dies in a SingleStrokeBattle.]] The BigBad, however, puts up a much better fight. |
| 204 | * ''Franchise/FantasticFour'': |
| 205 | ** ''Film/TheFantasticFour'' has Doom step into the room and start doing some EvilGloating over his enemies, only to realize mid-sentence that they've beaten all his goons and escaped, and he's only talking to himself. He takes it surprisingly well: |
| 206 | --->'''Doom:''' [[DullSurprise Hm.]] |
| 207 | ** ''Film/FantasticFour2005'' is often criticized for seeming like this. Dr. Doom is now a metallic being with lightning energy surging through his arms. How do the Fantastic Four stop him? Surely they would have to do something to put this power mad villain through hell. Using their all of their powers, the heroes... freeze him by turning him into a big metal statue. Movie over. Roll credits. |
| 208 | ** ''Fantastic Four'' movies [[RuleOfThree must be cursed to have anticlimactic battles]], as it happens yet again, ''except even worse'', with ''Film/FantasticFour2015''. Thanks to a combination of Creator/JoshTrank not knowing what he was doing and [[ExecutiveMeddling the team Fox put together to replace Trank]] having little time to fix [[TroubledProduction the mess Trank had left]], the final (and only) battle in the film takes less than five minutes, and pretty much consists of Doom [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomping the four]] when they fight individually and then getting curb-stomped himself when Reed realises that teamwork would be a more effective tactic. |
| 209 | * ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'' would have been a lot more climactic if Freddy hadn't just walked away from being KilledOffForReal five films in a row without so much as even a flesh wound. Of course, it was kind of VindicatedByHistory in the sense that they didn't continue [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet the main franchise]], but still... |
| 210 | * Frog One at the very, very end of ''Film/TheFrenchConnection II''. This being The70s, when Doyle catches up with the Frenchman after being humiliated and tortured for two ''long'' films, [[spoiler:he calls out his name and shoots him. Twice. Cut to credits. It takes all of four seconds]]. |
| 211 | * Done deliberately in ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'': the epic showdown between the Natives and the Dead Rabbits is interrupted before it can even properly begin when the New York Draft Riots (which have been simmering in the background throughout the whole movie) finally explode, and the Navy starts shelling Manhattan to quell them. Amsterdam gets to kill Bill in the end, but since the latter has already been mortally wounded by shrapnel, it's more of a MercyKill than anything else. |
| 212 | * The Goblin King in ''Film/TheHobbit''. Enormous and intimidating enough to warrant a similar threat level to a troll, and he is hyped up for an epic fight with Gandalf. [[CoolSword Glamdring]] ensures that the fight lasts a few seconds at most. |
| 213 | * ''Film/IdleHands'' has a hilarious Anti-Climax ending. The plucky teen heroes are trying to save their friend from demonic sacrifice, when the ActionGirl suddenly arrives and skewers the possessed hand with her magic knife. It writhes for a second then disappears in a little puff of smoke. Creator/SethGreen {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it, saying something like, "What, that's it? No explosions? No hellfire? No WRAAARGH? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad everyone's okay, but... that was weak!" |
| 214 | * The finale of ''Film/JackieBrown'' tensely heats up to an imminent confrontation with Jackie and Ordell as the latter comes to take back the money she stole from him and, presumably, eliminate Jackie for the trouble. We see her practicing drawing a pistol out of the desk she sits at and trying to calm her nerves. When Ordell does enter the room, he barely has time to address her before [[spoiler:the police suddenly come in through the back, weapons drawn, Jackie screams that Ordell has a gun and he's immediately and unceremoniously shot dead]]. |
| 215 | * ''Film/JamesBond'': |
| 216 | ** Film/DrNo. He gets punched. Fight over. |
| 217 | ** This could certainly be argued with the final stand against Auric Film/{{Goldfinger}}. He essentially has Bond on the back foot throughout the second half of the film and comes closer to defeating him than Blofeld ever did... and it ends with him being sucked out of an aeroplane window after spending too long posturing how great he is. |
| 218 | ** Blofeld in the beginning of ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''. In previous films he was established as Bond's arch nemesis, responsible for the death of his wife and master of disguise. So how does the final confrontation between him and Bond play out? He plays RC with Bond's helicopter before Bond gets back control and promptly [[DroppedABridgeOnHim drops Blofeld down a smokestack]]. End of rivalry. This was necessary after Blofeld became off-limits due to the legal dispute between Kevin [=McClory=] and Eon Productions over the ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}'' copyright, because DisneyOwnsThisTrope. Also note that the bald villain is never named in the movie or credits. |
| 219 | ** The Bond vs. Nick Nack fight at the end of the ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''. Of all the PostFinalBoss fights Bond has had, this is, by far, the easiest. |
| 220 | ** The start of ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' has Bond on a mission to take out a Section Chief leaking [=MI6=] secrets. The chief's contact provides one of the more intense one-on-one fights in the series, but the chief is defeated simply by having his bullets stolen by Bond before he even makes it to the office. |
| 221 | ** The third act of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' is widely regarded as the weakest portion of the movie even by its fans. A leak of the script during the Sony hacking scandal revealed that the studio executives regarded the original ending as even worse (the suppression of an important document, deemed rather boring for the plot of a Bond movie) and the film ended up having five or six writers, one of whom was Daniel Craig himself. Doesn't help that the one we ended up with -- [[spoiler:a nighttime chase in London between the hero and the leader of the resident NebulousEvilOrganisation, which culminates in the latter being captured, while the hero and his allies prevent said organization from gaining control of encrypted data files]] -- was ''very'' similar to the finale of ''Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation'', released earlier the same year. |
| 222 | * The ending of ''Film/KillBill''. While there was some great dialogue between the Bride and Bill, many people were expecting a kick ass fight scene. Blink for a second, Bill is dead. |
| 223 | * ''Film/TheLastJedi'' has this multiple times as part of its CentralTheme of failures, most notably with TheReveal of [[spoiler:Rey's parentage. All the build-up and suspicion that she was part of some mythical legacy was all just fantasy on her part. Her parents were scrap-trading junkies who sold their daughter into slavery for money and ended up dead in a ditch on Jakku. No dramatic reveal, no complex plot, no justification... just a pair of scumbags who abandoned their kid]]. [[spoiler:However, [[Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker the next film]] reveals that there is more to the story.]] |
| 224 | * In ''[[Film/TheLostSkeletonOfCadavra The Lost Skeleton Returns Again]]'', the Skeleton (just a skull at this point) finally meets the monstrous Magraclop, and zooms towards it announcing "Prepare for the battle of the century!" He/it barely manages to finish saying this before the Magraclop [[CurbStompBattle crushes him to dust]] between its claws. |
| 225 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 226 | ** In ''Film/IronMan2'', when Rhodes brings the War Machine armor to Hammer for upgrades, Hammer installs a bunker-buster weapon he calls "The Ex-Wife" ("It takes everything!"). During the final battle with Vanko, Rhodes launches the Ex-Wife, which promptly bounces off Vanko's chest and lands sputtering on the ground. ("Hammer tech?" "Yeah...") Also, Vanko himself at the end; it takes all of two minutes to take him down with a ChekhovsGun. |
| 227 | ** In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', after Thor [[spoiler:recovers his powers]], he winds up [[spoiler:taking down both the Destroyer and Loki]] within the span of five minutes. |
| 228 | ** In ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', Loki confronts the Hulk, and begins yet another long-winded monologue about his superiority, how everyone are bugs beneath him, and how he will not be "bullied" by [[spoiler: '''[[MetronomicManMashing HULK SMASH]]''']]. |
| 229 | --->'''Hulk:''' Puny god... |
| 230 | ** In ''Film/IronMan3'', the Mark 42 flies in to save Tony, only to hit the side of a crane and fall apart. Subverted because [[spoiler:Tony uses it to trap Killian, then tells Jarvis to blow it up]]. |
| 231 | --->'''Tony:''' Whatever. |
| 232 | ** When Nick Fury appears in ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' he's yet to lose his eye and gain his iconic eyepatch, setting this movie up as the one where "[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier the last time he trusted someone he lost an eye]]". [[spoiler:It's clawed out by a cat in a bad mood when he tries to pet it.]] |
| 233 | * The [[GainaxEnding ending]] of ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. The heroes are about to storm the castle and take the holy grail... and then the budget for the movie ran out. They never shot the epic battle that was intended. Instead, [[ItMakesSenseInContext everyone gets arrested]]. |
| 234 | * Goro from ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie''. He's set up as a major threat, but it's hard to take him seriously after Johnny Cage easily defeats him by [[GroinAttack punching him in the crotch]] and dropping him off a ledge. |
| 235 | * Most of the plot threads in ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' have no conventional payoff. |
| 236 | * The ending of ''Film/Next2007'' reveals that half of the movie was [[AllJustADream a vision of the future]] where the nuclear bomb did go off. The film ends with Cris joining up with the FBI to stop the events of his vision from happening. To say audiences felt cheated by this would be an understatement. |
| 237 | * ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'': [[spoiler:The main character gets killed offscreen, the other main character retires, the villain gets away with just a broken arm, and we never find out for sure what happens to the money.]] |
| 238 | * This is {{defied|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Ophelia}}''. Having [[SparedByTheAdaptation faked her death]] to save her own life but returned to Elsinore in disguise to save Hamlet, Ophelia pleads with her beloved to abandon his quest for vengeance and leave with her while they have a chance, stating [[LampshadeHanging "Not every story must end with a battle."]] Hamlet refuses and the story subsequently plays out much as it does in [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Shakespeare's tale]], ending in a bloodbath that [[EverybodyDiesEnding leaves nearly every named character dead]]. |
| 239 | * The ending of the mostly mediocre and forgettable 1998 Hong Kong action film ''Raging Angels''. Most of the movie is rather dull, with its supposed action scenes (all three of them, consisting of a thirty-second shootout and two average fistfights) being short and passes by too quickly before audiences can really savour them, but the final 6 minutes had both its ActionGirl protagonists taking on the BigBad in an intense, actually rather decent and well-choreographed fight scene... [[spoiler:and it ends right at its peak when the police suddenly arrives and breaks up the battle by arresting ''everyone'']], cue credits. |
| 240 | * The ending of the 1993 adaptation of ''Literature/RisingSun'' sets up a great climax, as Lieutenant Smith and Captain Connor finally confront the man who murdered a high-priced call girl in an office tower. They confront the suspect, a sleazy lawyer, who manages to escape and run away. The detectives follow him, setting up either a great fight scene or a shocking twist where one of the pair dies... then the audience learns that he's been thrown into a pool of wet concrete by low-level Japanese thugs. ''Offscreen.'' It's implied that he was killed to prevent him from testifying against the company bigwigs who ordered him to commit the murder. |
| 241 | * In ''Film/TheRunningMan'', it looks like there's going to be an epic final confrontation between Richards and Sven, the hulking bodyguard of the BigBad Killian. [[spoiler:Sven, apparently disgusted by the reveal of Killian's treachery and definitely ticked with Killian's insults to him earlier, [[BodyguardBetrayal simply walks away and leaves Killian to his fate]].]] |
| 242 | * ''Film/Safe2012'', has its final conflict between Luke Wright, a OneManArmy who came out on top in the middle of a three-way war between [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Chinese gangsters]], [[TheMafiya Russian gangsters]], and a squad of {{Dirty Cop}}s, versus his EvilCounterpart [[spoiler:Adam, TheDragon for the corrupt mayor. Before a single punch can be thrown, Mei, the little girl that Wright had been protecting throughout the film, picks up Adam's gun and shoots him in the leg. Wright then quickly picks up his own gun and finishes it with a few shots to the head. Mei [[JustifiedTrope justifies it]] by pointing out that she'd seen Adam single-handedly slaughter a group of Triads and knew that if they actually fought, Wright would be in serious danger]]. |
| 243 | * ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' does this for laughs. Scott has just defeated his girlfriend's seventh and final evil ex, and it seems like all of the action is finished, until [[EnemyWithout Nega-Scott]] shows up out of nowhere and with only the vaguest of foreshadowing. Scott and Nega-Scott get into position for an epic final battle, but the scene suddenly cuts straight to Scott and Nega-Scott leaving the building, laughing like old friends and planning to get together for brunch the following week. When pressed for details, Scott shrugs and says they have a lot in common. |
| 244 | * ''Film/TheSniper'': Despite expectations of a violent shootout, Eddie Miller (the eponymous sniper) meekly surrenders when the police catch up with him: a pitiful figure cowering on his bedroom floor. It is a surprisingly effective ending that plays against the conventions of the FilmNoir. |
| 245 | * ''Film/SnowFallingOnCedars'': Kabuo's trial ends in one; Ishmael finds his conscience and brings to attention evidence exonerating him, and the trial simply ends, and he's freed without the matter even going to the jury. |
| 246 | * The apparent "climax" of ''Film/SpyKids2IslandOfLostDreams'' is a ProfessionalWrestling style fight between Creator/AntonioBanderas and Creator/MikeJudge, complete with everyone else shouting advice from the sidelines. Seriously. |
| 247 | * A few of the Film/{{Hammer|Horror}} {{Dracula}} films have this problem. The worst example is probably ''Film/TasteTheBloodOfDracula'', which ends with [[spoiler:Dracula stumbling into a chapel by accident and collapsing to dust because of the holiness surrounding him]], rather than the usual uber-violent burning or impaling scene that most of the movies opted for. |
| 248 | * ''Film/{{Ticker}}'' ends with Nettles and Glass placidly defusing two bombs whilst mumbling to each other in hushed tones, succeeding, and then strolling about in the night by what appears to be some big stadium. |
| 249 | * In the best-known ending of ''Film/{{Topaz}}'', after two hours of intrigue and murder across the US, Cuba, and France, the villain is politely asked to leave a confidential discussion and, realizing he's exposed, leaves for the USSR without incident. |
| 250 | * The Fallen in ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen''. The final battle between Optimus Prime and the Fallen lasts [[CurbStompBattle about 45 seconds]]. |
| 251 | * ''Film/TheWildWorldOfBatwoman'': The "climactic" "battle" at the "end" resembles nothing so much as a hybrid of a WimpFight and a square dance. |
| 252 | * The Silver Samurai in ''Film/TheWolverine''. Most complaints are about his overhyped feature in the film, yet his single fight scene dpes not last long in the climax -- and he's the modern PoweredArmor version, to boot. |
| 253 | [[/folder]] |
| 254 | |
| 255 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 256 | * ''Literature/TwentySixSixtySix'': |
| 257 | ** The big boxing match Fate was supposed to report about? It’s described plainly and barely lasts a paragraph. |
| 258 | ** [[spoiler: The novel ends with Archimboldi discussing Fürst Pückler ice cream with a descendant of the inventor just before he leaves for Mexico to save Klaus.]] |
| 259 | * ''Literature/AcrossTheNightingaleFloor'' ended with the protagonist heroically fighting his way into the villain's inner sanctum, only to discover that [[spoiler:he's already dead]]. Later, in ''Brilliance of the Moon'', the climactic final battle is completely averted when [[spoiler:the leader of the enemy army gets shot just as the battle is about to begin]]. Lian Hearn seems to be fond of this trope. It did show [[spoiler: the BigBad's death]], and arguably the heroic fighting could be considered the climax anyhow. May count as a subversion. |
| 260 | * The climax of the big fight in ''Literature/AmericanGods'' is anticlimactic. [[spoiler: Shadow says a few dozen words, then everybody leaves quietly.]] |
| 261 | * ''Literature/GoodOmens'': [[spoiler:Just when it looks like the Apocalypse has been averted, a mighty rumble from underground signals that [[{{Satan}} Crowley's boss]] isn't going to let this go easily]]. Crowley and Aziraphale arm themselves for the final battle, [[ItHasBeenAnHonor exchange speeches]], [[TransformationSequence change into]] [[OneWingedAngel their true forms]], and the human characters decide to join them in the upcoming fight... [[spoiler:then Adam waves his hand and suddenly there's no battle to be fought. Everything's back to normal now and the characters can get on with their lives!]] This is a deliberate form of Anti-Climax, [[spoiler:as Adam using the [[RealityWarper supernatural powers]] given him by his own [[{{Satan}} father]] [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters to send him away]] and deny him even his RoaringRampageOfRevenge]]. |
| 262 | * ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}'' ends with the big trial by combat to determine the fate of Rebecca. Brian [=DuBois=]-Guilbert, the invincible Templar, is facing Wilfred of Ivanhoe, the only man to have unhorsed him (but who is suffering from a crippling wound that has laid him up for most of the book so far). The horns are sounded, the horses charge, lances are leveled... and Guilbert drops dead of a heart attack. Of course, in the book it's a thinly disguised metaphor for his guilty conscience at all the evil things he's done overcoming him--he would have obliterated Ivanhoe, dooming Rebecca to an unjust death. After this, the Templars grumblingly but freely accept the verdict, allowing Rebecca and Ivanhoe to go free. |
| 263 | * ''Literature/{{Oona}}'': The buildup to Oona [[spoiler:using the long pointy shell to grab the crown in the crevice]] is built up in this manner. She takes a deep breath, holds the shell out with [=AIM!=] nearby... [[spoiler:then a tiny "Clunk!" as she gets the tiara on the shell.]] |
| 264 | * ''Literature/SnowCrash'', by Creator/NealStephenson. After an exciting sword/gun battle, the Protagonist, the heavily armed Mooks and cops pile onto their respective motorcycles, pickup trucks, and cop cars, and after that "it's just a chase scene." The next chapter has Hiro arriving safely at his destination. |
| 265 | * The book ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'' has the villain Le Chiffre torture [[Literature/JamesBond Bond]], but before he can kill Bond off he is killed by a SMERSH assassin--at the end of the second act. This only seems strange after the later tradition of grand Bond vs. villain plots. The central conflict in the first novel is whether Bond will decide if being a spy is "worth" the torture, solitude, pointless involvement, etc. The (traditional) climax is actually [[spoiler:Vesper's double-agent betrayal and suicide.]] |
| 266 | * Creator/LawrenceWattEvans uses this trope very, very deliberately in ''Literature/TheAnnalsOfTheChosen''--as usual for Watt-Evans, ThisIsReality, and [[spoiler:the death of the first book's villain is less an honorable battle than an execution]]. The same occurs in the third novel when [[spoiler:Sword ambushes and kills Artil with little difficulty]]. |
| 267 | * The ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series has an anticlimax ending for the ages. The only two heroes left are dying, Carpathia's armies are storming the walls of Jerusalem, resistance is rapidly crumbling and there is no chance of turning the tide. Suddenly, '''Jesus'''! The stage is set for a titanic showdown between the Messiah and the Antichrist and his armies. Then Jesus opens up a hole in the ground leading to a fiery pit of eternal damnation and Carpathia jumps right in with a devil-may-care attitude. Presumably saying something like, "Alright, good game, guys. Time to pack it in. We had some fun the last seven years though, didn't we?" On top of this, Carpathia's [[TheDragon Dragon]] jumps in right after him, plugging his nose as if jumping into a swimming pool. That doesn't compare to the biggest anticlimax of them all -- the Satan vs. God battle at the end of ''Kingdom Come''. He amasses an army larger than the one Nicolae Carpathia had a thousand years earlier, and it just gets smoked into ashes in seconds! All Satan can do is just bow in total defeat before he gets sent to the Lake of Fire. |
| 268 | * ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': [[spoiler:The final battle between [[TheHero Harry]] and [[BigBad Voldemort]]: The fight is literally just Voldemort throwing ''one'' killing-curse at Harry (after Harry gives him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech), and Harry throwing a disarming-spell at the same time which causes said killing-curse to backfire and kill Voldemort instead]]. |
| 269 | * Stephen King's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' has dozens of storylines that almost all end in anticlimax. |
| 270 | ** The most notable is the fight between Roland and the [[TheStarscream Man in Black]]. Their conflict is resolved when [[spoiler: the Man in Black is [[EatenAlive eaten]] by [[GiantSpider Mordred]] near the beginning of the final book. He is never mentioned again]] despite the fact that Roland spent the entire first book chasing him. |
| 271 | ** And then there is The Crimson King. After all that build-up, ''that's'' the big confrontation with the BigBad?! [[spoiler: A few pages of horribly written taunts and a quick erasure from reality?!]] The physical form that the Crimson King turns out to take doesn't exactly help. After being built up as the ultimate embodiment of evil, eclipsing even [[Literature/TheStand Randall Flagg]], it turns out that he's actually just a doddering old man. A doddering old man whose entire final strategy against Roland amounts to [[spoiler: hiding at the top of the Dark Tower and throwing hand grenades at him]]. |
| 272 | * Charles Palliser's ''The Unburied''. The solution provided by Courtine to the mystery is so elegant that it deserved to be investigated further and either proved or disproved. The whole book is an account of how an innocent man went to the gallows, sent to his family to explain what happens, but the novel itself promises a lot more in the way of an [[TheExoticDetective Exotic Detective]] story and fails to deliver. The FramingDevice just feels like an afterthought, and the RomanticPlotTumor, probably pretty irrelevant to the intended recipient of Courtine's account, is also left unresolved. |
| 273 | * In ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', just before the Universe ends, the Church of the SecondComing of the Great Prophet Zarquon excitedly greets Zarquon as he makes his prophesied appearance: |
| 274 | -->Zarquon coughed. He peered round at the assembled gathering. The stars in his eyes twinkled uneasily. He handled the microphone with confusion.\ |
| 275 | "Er..." he said, "hello. Er, look, I'm sorry I'm a bit late. I've had the most ghastly time, all sorts of things cropping up at the last moment."\ |
| 276 | He seemed nervous of the expectant awed hush. He cleared his throat.\ |
| 277 | "Er, how are we for time?" he said. "Have I just got a min--"\ |
| 278 | And so the Universe ended. |
| 279 | * In the novel version of ''The African Queen'', the protagonists' plot to destroy the German gunboat ''Königin Luise'' fails when [[spoiler:the eponymous river barge is sunk by a storm]]. Instead, the pair is captured by the Germans and -- given their pathetic condition -- released into the custody of their countrymen, who [[spoiler:have already contrived to bring their own gunboats to the lake, and sink the ''Königin Luise'' on their own]]. |
| 280 | * The poem "A Perfect Afternoon" from ''The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom'' by Creator/GordonKorman. The narrator talks about how he's feeling very creative today and all the wonderful things he could do. For example, he could hollow out a tree to build a kayak, carve a nearby rock into a famous sculpture, write an opera, or create a blown-glass masterpiece. Then in the last line, he reveals that he won't actually be doing any of these things because his father is making him mow the lawn instead. |
| 281 | * ''Jaws'' ends with the shark dying of wounds it sustained during the battle with the heroes, and GreatWhiteHunter Quint being pulled overboard by loose rope and drowning. TheFilmOfTheBook decides to [[EatenAlive change both]] [[StuffBlowingUp of their deaths]]. |
| 282 | * ''Literature/DyingOfTheLight'' is an interesting case. After a frantic chase through Challenge and the forests and [[spoiler: the destruction of Kryne Lamiya, the main characters essentially hide out in Larteyn getting CabinFever while the bad guys all die off in an EnemyCivilWar]]. However, Dirk's internal conflict is arguably the main one in the novel and that is resolved in Larteyn. |
| 283 | * TheManBehindTheMan in ''[[Literature/KittyNorville Kitty Takes a Holiday]]'' is about to attack when [[spoiler:he sees the protection charms Ben and Kitty got from his granddaughter, realizes he can't win, and just lets them go]]. Arguably leads to the book being HijackedByGanon, [[spoiler:since the remaining chapters are spent on the Kitty/Ben romance that drove the first third or so]]. |
| 284 | * Just about every ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' BigBad whose fight is a short CurbStompBattle. But the biggest one would be Slagar, [[spoiler: who falls down a well before the protagonists can even touch him]]. |
| 285 | * Bèbelle from ''Literature/{{Malevil}}''. For all the talk of how [[PsychoKnifeNut dangerous]] and [[CreepyCrossdresser frightening]] he is, he gets taken down with a single shot in the night. |
| 286 | * [[spoiler:Arawn]] from ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'' is swiftly dispatched in the last book with barely any lines and little fanfare or attention afterwards. More attention is spent on the final moments of [[spoiler:Arawn's last victim Achren]]. The way he dies underscores the fact that, for all his evil and fearsome reputation, [[spoiler:Arawn]] was just a man. |
| 287 | * [[EvilCripple Ivar Ragnarson]], ManipulativeBastard and utter [[TheSociopath sociopath]], is the cause of almost all the misery in Creator/GuyGavrielKay's ''Literature/TheLastLightOfTheSun''. Yet he's killed about three quarters of the way through, when Bern stabs him in the back [[ShutUpHannibal mid-speech]]. The political ramifications of what he did, on the other hand, last far longer, and lead to the deaths of a whole lot more people, so in a way, Ivar's legacy lived on. |
| 288 | * In ''Literature/KeysToTheKingdom'', the battle with Superior Saturday is over in one page. |
| 289 | * ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has a couple: |
| 290 | ** After five books worth of build-up, Sammael (a member of [[QuirkyMinibossSquad the Forsaken]], the ''de facto'' ruler of a powerful nation, and a noted [[TheStrategist military leader]] and [[EvilSorcerer channeler]] in his own right) gets eaten by [[FogOfDoom Mashadar]] after a short, not particularly spectacular fight with Rand. WordOfGod, however, is that the author thought Sammael was a "louse" of a character who didn't deserve a dramatic death, so this trope can be safely said to have been invoked. |
| 291 | ** In the last book [[spoiler: Padan Fain/Mordeth/Shaisam, recurring villain from the first book on and all around horrifying HumanoidAbomination, thanks to running straight into Mat, who's immune to his powers from previous exposure and is therefore able to easily kill Fain's relatively frail, still mortal human body]]. |
| 292 | * In ''Literature/TheChathrandVoyages'', though there are much bigger villains out there, [[GodEmperor the Shaggat Ness]] is consistently portrayed as a seriously nasty piece of work, and one of the most hated and feared people in recent history for a reason. He's an AxCrazy berserker with a god complex who intends to take over the world using an ArtifactOfDoom and is scarily good at convincing people of his own divinity. [[spoiler: He dies in chains, killed by a single well-placed kick to the neck by a girl barely out of her teens. However, this makes sense on several levels- not only did the heroes have [[EldritchAbomination much scarier]] things to worry about by this point, but the Shaggat was too arrogant to see death coming and make any effort to defend himself. Furthermore, the fact that she offed the most infamous monster in the world with so little fanfare- and in a way that left the body easily identifiable- cemented Neda Pathkendle's reputation in-universe as a certified badass.]] |
| 293 | * [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] and PlayedForLaughs in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. Near the end of the third book, the characters begin a quest to find God's Final Message to His Creation, written in thirty-foot-high letters of flame on the side of a mountain on a distant planet, which they have been warned is guarded by "the Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob." [[BrickJoke In the next book]], they ''meet'' the Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob--and it turns out he's a small man in a ticket booth, ''selling tickets'' to tourists wishing to see the Final Message. They pay their admission fee, and he leaves them alone. |
| 294 | * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': |
| 295 | ** Daenerys Targaryen's conquest of Meereen is entirely offscreen, with Dany describing it while ruling it as queen, sometime after it happened. It's notable since the city put up the most resistance to her advances among the Slaver's Bay cities. Somewhat made up by the fact that she spends the next two books dealing with the politics of the city. |
| 296 | ** [[spoiler:Tywin Lannister]], despite being, more-or-less, the powerful BigBad of the first three books, gets a quick, painful, and humiliating death where he's [[GroinAttack shot in the groin]] and dies on the toilet. |
| 297 | ** The reveal of [[spoiler:Joffrey]] being the one who hired the catspaw to kill Bran near the same point in time as the death above. This reveal comes two books after it was mostly relevant and the two characters most interested in solving the mystery [[spoiler: Ned and Catelyn]] as well as the ''culprit responsible'' are dead, involves some very specific and bizarre motivation, and the reveal itself comes as a "by the way" conversation from two characters who aren't terribly interested in the matter at this point. |
| 298 | * In ''Clariel'', the prequel to ''Literature/TheOldKingdom'', [[CorruptPolitician Guildmaster Kilp]] and his son [[TheDragon Aronzo]] are the main villains for most of the book. In the end, though, the [[EntropyAndChaosMagic Free Magic]]-powered Clariel finishes both men off in less than a page of fight scene [[spoiler: only to face her ''real'' challenge when her bound Free Magic spirits decide now is a great time to turn on her]]. |
| 299 | * ''Literature/TransformersExiles'' ends with the Star Seekers, space pirates who hate Cybertronians, capturing Wreck-Gar and a group of Junkions, taking the powerful Requiem Blaster for themselves and being joined by Axer, who has intimate knowledge about the Autobots and Decepticons. [[spoiler: In the sequel, ''Transformers: Retribution'', before the main plot even begins the Star Seekers confront Megatron and his ship of Decepticons. However, using the Requiem Blaster causes their ship to quickly lose power and results in them being easily routed by the Decepticons and they don't show up again for the rest of the novel. Furthermore, Wreck-Gar and his Junkions are able to escape in the chaos of the battle while Axer tries to rejoin the Decepticons, only for Megatron to order that he be tortured and executed as a traitor.]] |
| 300 | * "Literature/InsertKnobAInHoleB" is a build-up to a ScienceFiction resolution to the elimination of unclear assembly instructions. The solution created by the best engineers on Earth is... [[ShaggyDogStory an unassembled robot with unclear assembly instructions]]. |
| 301 | * In the short story "Literature/AModelLife", James believes he and his wife Alexis are in danger and insists they leave the model. Their car is surrounded...and then it turns out there was no model, and that it was all an elaborate scheme to get James to realize he needs therapy. |
| 302 | * ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': The [[HeroicVow Ideals of the Knights Radiant]] are ancient, supernatural oaths that bind a Surgebinder to their Order; while the exact wording varies from person to person, they all center around the purpose of their specific Order. When a Radiant successfully swears a new Ideal, it's a NextTierPowerUp that comes with a LevelUpFillUp. So it is, of course, extremely useful in the middle of a battle. A RunningGag is Lopen, a Windrunner, failing to speak the Words in battle... only to ''accidentally'' swear them after. |
| 303 | -->'''Lopen:''' Storm me! You did it ''again?'' I almost died out there, and you accept the Words ''now?''\ |
| 304 | '''Stormfather:''' IT IS THE RIGHT TIME.\ |
| 305 | '''Lopen:''' Where's the drama? The sense of timing? You're ''terrible'' at this, penhito!\ |
| 306 | '''Stormfather:''' I TAKE OFFENSE AT THAT. BE GLAD FOR WHAT YOU HAVE. |
| 307 | * ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'': |
| 308 | ** We never see the Cullens' fight against James, because Bella, having been wounded by James biting her, blacks out midway through and wakes up at the hospital, where she learns the aftermath of the fight. |
| 309 | ** ''Literature/BreakingDawn'' ends with this. After spending half of the book setting up the combatants for a confrontation with the Volturi, the problem with Bella's child ends up being resolved through talking, after which the Volturi elect to leave the Cullens in peace. The only kill count is the vampire who instigated the conflict in the first place, and she is executed without resistance. |
| 310 | |
| 311 | [[/folder]] |
| 312 | |
| 313 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 314 | * ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' has had this happen four times: |
| 315 | ** The Season 1 finale's final fifteen minutes were mostly filler, as the top two teams got on two different trains, fifteen minutes apart, to the Finish Line, while Joe & Bill were still stuck in Alaska. |
| 316 | ** Despite being one of the more memorable seasons overall, Season 17 had an Anti-Climax over the last few episodes. Nick and Vicki wound up so far behind due to a six hour penalty that there was pretty much no suspense that the final three would be anybody ''but'' Brook & Claire, Jill & Thomas, and Nat & Kat. Then in the final leg, Jill & Thomas get lost halfway through the episode, while Nat & Kat so thoroughly dominate the final leg, it became pretty obvious that they were the season's winners. |
| 317 | ** They suffered from this in the last episode of Season 19. Of the three teams who arrived in Atlanta on the same flight, third-place Amani and Marcus effectively eliminated themselves immediately by taking far too long on the first task. Jeremy and Sandy suffered from a miscommunication with a local who inadvertently directed them to the suburbs instead of the correct destination downtown. As a result winners Ernie and Cindy had an enormous lead by the midpoint of the episode, completing the last task and leaving for the Finish Line before Jeremy and Sandy even arrived to start the last task. This robbed the finish of all suspense. |
| 318 | ** Season 22, Bates & Anthony got so far ahead they did not see another team after the midpoint of the episode. |
| 319 | * Typical problem in the championship rounds of robot-fighting shows, specifically ''Series/BattleBots''. Tournament rankings are such that the most favored to win will only meet late in the tournament... when the overall damage of fight after fight after fight severely limits their awesomeness. |
| 320 | * In Season 3 of ''Series/TheBoys2019'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad Homelander]] finally shows up for his dramatic showdown with Soldier Boy, and gets smacked around in a 1v3 with him, [[EmpoweredBadassNormal Butcher, and Hughie]]. Right when the three have him pinned down and Soldier Boy's charging a blast that could've potentially killed everyone in the room, Homelander gets a [[HeroicSecondWind Villainous Second Wind]] and [[DirtyCoward uses it to overpower them all & escape]].]] |
| 321 | * Done on purpose a couple of times in ''Series/CobraKai'': |
| 322 | ** When Daniel's seedy cousin Louie and some biker punks torch Johnny's car to retaliate for the duo's feud. That episode ends with Johnny riding off on a motorcycle to confront Daniel, seemingly once and for all, with the teaser for the next episode showing them ready to have their big fight. [[spoiler:While it ''almost'' escalates to that, Amanda who has been the [[OnlySaneMan voice of reason this entire time]] and is ''thoroughly'' fed up with how Daniel has been acting lately and has no interest in an immature thuggish fistfight breaks up the fight and has them talk it out over breakfast instead-- since Johnny is making an earnest effort to try and put their past behind them at this point and Daniel admits the guy was ''genuinely'' wronged by Louie, it works:]] |
| 323 | ---> [[spoiler: '''Amanda:''' Yeah, you two seem to have this well in hand, just a normal Saturday afternoon, a couple of grown men about to kick each other into a pool? You know, as much as I would ''love'' to watch you and your childhood karate rival duke it out, I kind of don't want to get any blood on the patio. So what do you say we try and resolve this over some breakfast instead? \ |
| 324 | '''({{Beat}})''' \ |
| 325 | '''Daniel:''' You wanna go inside? \ |
| 326 | '''Johnny:''' I could eat.]] |
| 327 | ** Later, when Hawk and a couple of students trash Daniel's dojo, vandalize his car, and even steal Mr. Miyagi's medal, the fight is ''on''. Daniel is enraged, pushed to his limit, goes straight to Johnny's dojo, stares the man down, and tells him in no uncertain terms it's time to settle this and ''throw the first punch''. [[spoiler:Any other day Johnny would have been on that like a dog on a side of bacon, but as luck would have it earlier that day he'd gotten some sage advice from Miguel's mother who told him [[DarkAndTroubledPast from personal experience]] that a rivalry will only end in [[PyrrhicVictory pain and suffering, the "victory" will never be worth it]], and the only way to move past it is to just let it go. Johnny takes this to heart and matter-of-factly tells Daniel he's going to be the bigger man and refuses to fight, leaving Daniel who will ''never'' use his karate for anything other than self-defense or protection with no option but to storm out of his dojo.]] |
| 328 | * ''Series/DenshiSentaiDenziman'': Since his introduction, Banriki has been build up to be this fearsome, powerful warrior who is more than a match for the heroes. In the final episode, [[spoiler:Banriki battles Hedrian for like a second and ends up blinded, unable to fight. Come the Denzimen and they one-shot him with the Denzi Boomerang. Hedrian fairs no better. She simply escapes.]] |
| 329 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 330 | ** The end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]" shows a mysterious hand with red nail varnish picking up the Master's ring, accompanied by a sinister female laugh. Fans went into overdrive speculating who it could be, most suspecting the Rani, a fellow renegade Time Lord (or Time Lady). It was finally re-visited two whole years later, and the character turned out to be someone we had never seen before, and who died moments after her introduction. (Still, at least nobody guessed her identity, for obvious reasons.) |
| 331 | ** The ending to The Key to Time Saga is an infamous example. The Doctor finally obtains the eponymous {{MacGuffin}} that he spent an entire season seeking and...scatters it across the universe again. |
| 332 | * Savvily averted in ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. The writers intended for [[TheGhost Maris]] to stop being SheWhoMustNotBeSeen and/or [[HeWhoMustNotBeHeard She Who Must Not Be Heard]] at some point in the series, but after realizing that the character they had [[TakeOurWordForIt built up]] was so outlandish and monstrous that no writer or actress could do her justice and would just end up as a big letdown for the audience, they decided to keep her offscreen to the end instead. |
| 333 | * ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': |
| 334 | ** The final battle in the first season. Over half a season was spent teasing the audience for an epic showdown between the lead villain, Sylar, and main character Peter Petrelli. In every case leading up to the finale, the writers either ended the interaction between Sylar and Peter suddenly (during their second altercation, Peter is stabbed in the head after a few seconds) or takes place ''offscreen'' (as seen in "[[Recap/HeroesS01E20FiveYearsGone Five Years Gone]]"). The NBC promos hyped it to no end. A lot was riding on the epic showdown at Kirby Plaza.... until it happened. Everyone took turns whaling on Sylar (including Nikki/Jessica, who beats on Sylar with ''a parking meter''). The fight ends with Hiro teleporting in, with his sword ''stuck out in front of him'', landing the final blow. Sylar and Peter had a [[CoconutSuperpowers complete assortment of powers at their disposal]], and never used them. A complete letdown.[[note]] It was stated the finale was going to be a two-hour event with a huge FX-filled battle. But at the last minute, NBC cut down on the time and budget, forcing them to do a smaller version.[[/note]] |
| 335 | ** Still better than the season 3 finale, in which the over-hyped battle between Peter and Nathan vs. Sylar takes place behind closed doors and '''all you see''' is '''Claire's eye'''! [[note]] Again, defended by the creators as not having the time or budget "to do it like we wanted".[[/note]] |
| 336 | * ''Series/HoleyMoley'' did this for humor, spending all of season 2 hyping up the final championship hole, The Tomb of Nefer Tee-Tee, as an epic masterpiece, only for the hosts to be taken aback when it's revealed to be... a more or less standard hole with an Egyptian theme that doesn't really have anything to set it apart from any other hole except for being the final one. |
| 337 | * ''Series/HorribleHistories'' draws humor from this in Bobby Leach's Stupid Death. Leach was a Victorian stunt man who went over the Niagra Falls in a barrel and swam the rapids three times. In each case Death guesses this is what killed him but Leach points out he was rescued on all occasions. His stupid death? Slipping on an orange peel and dying of gangrene. |
| 338 | * In ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'', Ransik's entire army has been destroyed, his last giant robot has been destroyed, and the rangers move to face him. [[CurbStompBattle He blows them away]], then goes after the last standing member Jen. So how does the series end? Not in a hopeless and brave final battle between the wounded rangers and Ransik, but when Ransik realizes he [[MoralityPet almost killed his daughter]], and surrenders to the rangers. On the flip side though, [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] commented that it's "rather anticlimactic for this whole big series, but I give it points for being something other than just a big battle." And lord knows, we always get those in Franchise/PowerRangers. |
| 339 | * An in-universe example from an episode of ''Series/{{Lucifer}}''. The writer of a popular YA sci-fi series is killed before she can finish the final book, which she's struggled with for five years. After various twists, Lucifer and Chloe discover the author had decided that, instead of an epic huge battle with multiple deaths, she wanted a "grounded, peaceful ending of people finally understanding one another." Her editor was utterly horrified that this wasn't the wild finale he'd been promised and "boring." He's convinced that the book would bomb and readers hate it and when she refused to use the "good" version a fanfic writer submitted, he killed her. He even defends destroying the manuscript as "no one could read that pathetic joke of an ending!" |
| 340 | * ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'' ends with the hilariously short legend war, and after it's over, no epilogue. The rangers run off in the distance. And unlike the other Neo-Saban seasons, there is no follow-up holiday special. We never see anyone besides Gia again. |
| 341 | * ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Season six ends with Sabrina falling under the same heartbreak curse that she had just saved Hilda from, which turns witches to stone and shatters them. This gets gets resolved in the first minute of season seven, before the opening credits even, by Zelda restoring Sabrina by sacrificing her age and reverting into a child, and the episode goes on with Sabrina barely acknowledging that her aunts are no longer in her life. |
| 342 | * In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E6Twisted Twisted]]", the NegativeSpaceWedgie that is warping the ship and everything and on it (and incapacitating the crew) is really a bunch of aliens trying to say "hello." And there is no harm done and no reference to these events ever again. |
| 343 | * In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E06SacrificeOfAngels Sacrifice of Angels]]", the heroes have been defeated and a fleet of enemy warships is about to come through a wormhole. Sisko appeals to a group of godlike beings who inhabit the wormhole, and the enemy ships mysteriously vanish. The end of the war is one too. The fighting is bitter, the Dominion refuse to admit defeat...and then Odo comes down, performs a "link" with the female founder, and boom, the war is over. |
| 344 | * The [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E21TheseAreTheVoyages finale]] of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', a series which had been building towards the founding of the Federation throughout its run, is really just a Holodeck program being run by Riker in-between scenes of the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E11ThePegasus The Pegasus]]" and splits its focus between Riker's conflict in that episode and a relatively minor sub-plot in the ''Enterprise'' timeframe. Viewers never even get to see the legendary speech that Archer gave which was played up by the characters. Made worse by the fact that for many years, this was ''the'' last episode of a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' television series. Meaning that this was not only the end of 18 continuous years of Star Trek TV series, but also 19 years of Star Trek productions that started with Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome. |
| 345 | * ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' often has anticlimactic endings to episodes, and in many ways the final episode itself was. Many villains are built up to be very sinister and frightening, only to be beaten with a punch or two. One villain was even defeated off screen, only referenced with a throw away line. The final episode tried to build up the villains' evil by having them kill off a few characters (only one of those characters was a main character, and it was a retcon anyway, as he had been dead for most of the season,) but the parallel story being told about Hayes Cooper not only made the main story quite short, the villains still didn't have anywhere near the setup many other recurring, multi-part episode, or even some one-time villains did. After the dream episode in which Trivette and Walker are killed before the cavalry arrives to presumably end the threat, a biker gang isn't very epic for a final episode. |
| 346 | * ''Series/TheWestWing'' brilliantly subverts its tendencies for its characters to go on epic speeches in "[[Recap/TheWestWingS03E07GoneQuiet Gone Quiet]]". |
| 347 | -->'''CJ:''' Can ''you'' answer it? |
| 348 | -->'''President Bartlet:''' "Why do I want to be President?" ''[sighs]'' I've been thinking about it for a couple of hours. I almost had it. |
| 349 | -->''[CJ stares blankly; episode ends]'' |
| 350 | * A few seasons of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' have had an anti-climax: |
| 351 | ** ''Palau'': When Ian was voted out, it seemed pretty obvious that Tom had that season in the bag. |
| 352 | ** ''Exile Island'' - The two obvious winners (Terry and Cirie) finished third and fourth, respectively, leaving us with a final two of Aras and Danielle. This is a more subjective example - as the season wouldn't have been as predictable if the final two consisted of Terry or Cirie and one of the other two. |
| 353 | ** ''Redemption Island'' - About halfway through the season, it becomes practically a ShaggyDogStory that Rob has the game in the bag because everyone else is [[TooDumbToLive too stupid to vote him out]]. |
| 354 | ** ''One World'' - About the time Toryzan is voted out, you can pretty much guess that Kim's going to win. The final episode was pretty much an Anti-Climax, since anyone can guess that Alicia and Christina are going out next, with only a legitimately interesting final immunity challenge and Christina's CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass moment to carry the episode. |
| 355 | * ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'': |
| 356 | ** The series tried to redo the JATO rocket myth, having a huge build up (both literally and thematically) till the rocket car was slowly approaching the ramp... at which point it just [[MadeOfExplodium blew up on the ramp]]. The looks on everyones faces was so deliciously tragic. |
| 357 | ** Season 10 starts with another attempt at the rocket car. This time we get a result! [[spoiler:The first car rolls after hitting the bump, the second car goes about 70 feet before hitting the ground and spiraling.]] |
| 358 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 359 | ** The show has a big one in its season 4 episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E4FearItself Fear Itself]]". At one point in the episode, a fear demon is accidentally summoned ... but it turns out the demon is barely the size of a hand and poses no threat at all. |
| 360 | ** There is lots of build-up over the enigmatic Anointed One, Collin, his mysterious powers and his role in Buffy's battle with the Master. In the end, it basically boiled down to Collin escorting her to him. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen While he was supposed to take a more active role in season two]] as the DragonAscendant, [[RealLifeWritesThePlot the child actor was starting to hit puberty which wouldn't work for a character who couldn't age in-universe]] so he was killed shortly afterward. |
| 361 | ** Played with in the Season 5 premiere "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E1BuffyVsDracula Buffy vs. Dracula]]". Though Dracula demonstrates powers no other vampire in the series has, he's still treated like a bad joke by Spike, and easily defeated. |
| 362 | * The first two seasons of ''Series/{{Longmire}}'' built up the fact that Walt would have to fight for reelection as sheriff against his younger, slicker and more political deputy Branch Connally. The election day finally arrives, both men give their final speeches and then [[spoiler: Cady is in a serious car accident and both men forget all about the election to rush to her side]]. We only find out that [[spoiler: Longmire]] won when the other candidate is told that he forgot to give his concession speech. The election is barely mentioned after that as the real climax of the second season begins. |
| 363 | * ''{{Series/Charmed|1998}}'': |
| 364 | ** The Season 5 finale features the Titans getting released after years of imprisonment. They're able to turn Paige to stone, kill most of the Elders and Leo has to give the sisters powers of Greek Gods to stop them. They're easily beaten by Piper in one fight scene - and the last ten minutes of the episode instead focus on Piper having to deal with [[spoiler: Leo becoming an Elder]]. |
| 365 | ** Subverted in "Charmed and Dangerous". The episode opens with a big battle with the Source of All Evil - ''the'' BigBad of the show. After trapping him in a crystal circle, he dies when one of his own fireballs is deflected onto him. However this turns out to be just a vision of the Seer's - and the eventual battle is a bit longer. |
| 366 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': |
| 367 | ** After Darkseid was being built up for all of the final season as the ultimate unstoppable personification of evil, he goes down fairly quickly. His Unholy Trinity (Godfrey, Desaad, Granny Goodness) also go down easily to [[spoiler: Green Arrow, from one arrow each]]. |
| 368 | ** Doomsday from Season Eight, though at least his encounter with Clark can legitimately be called a "fight." Once again, after building up the tension in previous episodes that season, and constantly stressing how Clark could die, The battle was 3 or 4 minutes, mostly off screen and Clark was just fine afterwards. Having arguably the two most powerful Superman villains taken down so quickly is part of why the later seasons aren't looked upon so well. |
| 369 | * Season 3 of ''Series/TheShield'' had Margos Dezerian, a ruthless assassin for the Armenian mob sent to wipe out the Strike Team, who after being built up as a ruthless psychopathic badass is dispatched rather easily at point blank range in a hallway by Vic Mackey. |
| 370 | * Isaak Sirko in the Season 7 of ''Series/{{Dexter}}''. A mafia boss, physically strong, charming, deadly, a perfect BigBad. [[spoiler: Except he is neither this Season's BigBad or climax Boss. [[DroppedABridgeOnHim He gets killed by an enemy gang]] after spending half of the season chasing Dexter (who killed his lover) and then befriending him.]] |
| 371 | * ''Series/StrangerThings:'' The first season ends with Eleven using her telekinetic powers almost to the point of death then seemingly sacrificing herself to destroy the Demogorgon, but with a hint that she somehow survived. What happened? Well she woke up just fine in the Upside-Down shortly after her apparent death, walked down the hall, and found a portal back. Then she went through it. If she hadn't decided to stay away to avoid the government agents looking for her they'd have barely noticed she'd gone. |
| 372 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones:'' At the end of season 5, [[spoiler:Jon Snow was killed by his fellows at the Night's Watch,]] as happens in the books. This caused a media sensation, with everyone wondering whether he was really KilledOffForReal, as in the book it's implied that he will remain alive, but that particular cliffhanger hasn't been resolved yet. [[spoiler:He remains dead for the first few episodes of season 6, but is then resurrected via a simple-seeming spell and shrugs off being dead as not a big deal.]] |
| 373 | ** In an earlier season, Yara learns that her brother is being tortured by Ramsay, and sets off at the end of the season, set to stirring music, [[RoaringRampageOfRescue to bring a fleet to come to his rescue.]] Come the next season, her 'fleet' arrives (now just one small boat), and they attack Ramsay's castle. But far from hardened Ironborn warriors, they barely manage to even hold their own against the castle's dogs - and then, comedically, [[InvincibleVillain Ramsay]] comes out not just without armor, ''but entirely bare-chested'', and somehow still manages to fight them off. Yara manages to make her way to Theon, but he's too brainwashed and traumatised to follow her willingly. So, she... just gives up and they all go home. Far from the daring rescue implied previously. |
| 374 | ** The Season 7 finale shows Theon and his men planning to save Yara from Euron's clutches. You'd expect a big fight against Euron and his fleet...and then the Season 8 premiere shows Theon's crew easily killing all the guards and getting Yara off the ship she's on. The whole thing takes about a minute, tops. |
| 375 | ** The massive battle against the White Walkers ends with [[spoiler: Arya jumping at the Night King practically from out of nowhere and killing him with one stab from her Valaryan steel dagger. And when he dies, [[NoOntologicalInertia the rest of his army soon follows]].]] |
| 376 | ** Since Season 4, the Golden Company were hyped as a hardened, well-trained private army of sellswords over 20,000 strong. [[{{Recap/GameOfThronesS8E5TheBells}} When we finally see them in a real battle]], there's only around a few hundred soldiers actually present...all of whom stand around doing nothing for two minutes straight before [[spoiler: they're unceremoniously incinerated by Drogon. Their commander, Harry Strickland (who is one of only two survivors), doesn't even have the dignity of [[DoNotGoGentle going down fighting]], instead opting to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere futilely run from Daenarys' army]] before getting speared in the back by Grey Worm.]] |
| 377 | ** The rest of the [[spoiler: Lannister's forces]] fare no better. [[spoiler: Their main army and the Iron Fleet are ''completely decimated'' without ever getting the chance to do anything remotely meaningful against Dany and Drogon, with the Scorpion balistas that were ''specifically designed'' for combating dragons missing every shot fired at the two.[[note]]Which is superbly ironic, considering those same balistas were shown to be extremely efficient at killing Rhaegal in the previous episode[[/note]]]] The only allies of [[spoiler: Cersei]] who actually put up a fight against their enemies were [[spoiler: Euron (who manages to critically injure Jamie before getting ran through by his sword) and Gregor (who is shown to be such an unstoppable [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] that Sandor has to [[TakingYOuWithMe tackle him down to the fires below and die in the process]] to kill him). It's not uncommon for fans to point out that Gregor was harder to kill than the Night King.]] |
| 378 | * Series/TheGoodDoctor leaves episode Quarantine: Part 1 on a series of massive cliffhangers ([[spoiler:Lim]] is passed out with a deadly disease, Shaun is [[spoiler:having a mental breakdown]], [[spoiler:Park's son]] is collapsing in a coughing fit, [[spoiler:Glassman's cancer is back]]) that promise to majorly change the cast and structure of the series. Quarantine: Part 2 resolves every single one of the problems in increasingly unbelievable ways, leaving none of the problems standing. |
| 379 | * ''Series/WuAssassins'': In the final episode, Kai finds himself confronted by the Wood ([=McCullough=]), Metal and Water Wu, while Lu Xin and Tommy are unable to help him, CG is possessed by the Metal Wu, but Kai does have Jenny, who holds the powers of the Fire Wu. It seems a final large battle with all the Wu's is set up, but then Kai tries to give himself an extra edge by giving Tommy the powers of the Earth Wu. This in turn transports everybody to the Dao, where al the Wu Pieces leave their hosts, [[BroughtDownToNormal stripping the Wu's of their powers]] and rendering them easy targets for the heroes. [=McCullough=] is subsequently defeated in a short struggle with Kai that doesn't involve either of them using their supernatural powers. |
| 380 | * ''Series/EurovisionSongContest'': One of the most memorable parts of the show is every participating country calling the hosts and announcing their votes. This however meant that, more often than not, the winner could be determined before the end of the sequence if there weren't enough available points to cover the gap with the other contestants. {{Averted}} starting from 2016: only the jury points are now announced by the countries and the televote points are instead given in aggregates to each entry, to maintain suspense until the last second. |
| 381 | [[/folder]] |
| 382 | |
| 383 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 384 | * Played with to a ridiculous extent by Music/FiveIronFrenzy at their final live show. In the middle of the show, Reese Roper went into a long monologue about how he hated the practice of bands saving their best song for the encore, then announced instead that FIF would play the best song they ever wrote, right then in the middle of the show. It would be all downhill after that, and the fans could all go home early. And then "the best song they ever wrote" turned out to be [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdM6RrJM1-0 this]]. |
| 385 | * The old Swedish pop song ''Balladen om det stora slagsmalet pa Tegelbacken.'' (The title means "The ballad of the huge fight at Tegelbacken.") It tells the story about two gangs of young hoodlums from Stockholm, who meet in the middle of the city to have a huge fight. The two gangs spend four hours standing there, yelling at each other and waving their fists. Then, after four hours of nobody having the guts to ''actually start fighting'', everybody turns around and goes home again. |
| 386 | * In "The Battle of Epping Forest" by Music/{{Genesis|Band}}, there ''is'' an epic battle between rival gangs, but at the end of it [[spoiler:everybody's dead except the rival bosses, so they just toss a coin to settle it]]. PlayedForLaughs, more or less. |
| 387 | * Classic metal song "Stargazer" by Music/{{Rainbow}} plays this in unexpectedly comical manner: [[spoiler: First 5 minutes of song is massive build up towards the climax, where The Wizard climbs on top of his finally finished tower and steps in the air to fly... And falls straight down crushing dead in the dirt]]. Nevertheless, the ''music'' remains awesome. |
| 388 | [[/folder]] |
| 389 | |
| 390 | [[folder:Pro Wrestling]] |
| 391 | * {{Subverted|trope}} at ''Wrestling/{{R|ingOfHonor}}OH Nowhere To Run'' in 2005 when Wrestling/RoderickStrong set up Jack Evans for an elevated double stomp on former Generation Next leader Alex Shelley only for Evans to completely miss Shelley and scream "[[CheapHeat Chicago isn't worth it!]]" Instead of getting the easy cover they expected [[OddCouple the last minute pairing]] of Shelley and [[Wrestling/HunterJohnston Delirious]] started to gain the advantage, causing Evans to come off of Strong with the stomp without hesitation at the next opportunity. |
| 392 | * Wrestling/{{KENTA|Kobayashi}} was known for his aerial offense early in his Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH career, which makes sense considering his "learning trips" tended to be to South American promotions, but after being pushed into the heavyweight division (in spite of hardly qualifying as one) he became known for making impressive leaps at his opponents...only to land next to them and deliver offhand kicks. |
| 393 | * Definitely an example of writing themselves into a corner, the "Fake Kane" storyline ended by the real Wrestling/{{Kane}} beating up his impostor, de-masking him, and just throwing him out of the building. Mind you, this is ''after'' Kane ''lost'' to the fake Kane in a match but the reaction was so overwhelmingly negative, Wrestling/{{WWE}} just decided to burn the whole thing down as quickly as possible. No one ever found out who was under the mask[[note]]In reality it was the future [[Wrestling/DrewHankinson Festus/Luke Gallows]] under the mask[[/note]], where it was supposed to go, or why the fake Kane had even appeared. He posed a legitimate threat to the real deal since he had successfully beaten him but he was disposed of in unceremonious fashion regardless. |
| 394 | * In 1992, Wrestling/JakeRoberts came to WCW and targeted Wrestling/{{Sting}}, so they were booked to face each other in an "Unsanctioned" match at that year's ''Halloween Havoc'' which would have a stipulation chosen by a spinning wheel. Over the next few weeks on ''WCW Saturday Night'' and the other shows, this match was hyped over how dangerous it was, with special attention paid to the "Spinner's Choice" option and wondering what match the sadistic Roberts would come up with if that were chosen. Then, come the event and it ended up...a Coal Miner's Glove match, the lamest of the choices. [[note]] It's a match where there is a pole with a steel-lined glove atop it which can be used by whoever obtains it, but getting the glove is not necessary to win the match. [[/note]] Sure, the match did see [[spoiler: Jake get bit in the face by his own cobra]] but that had to be one of the most unsatisfying ends to a feud ever. |
| 395 | [[/folder]] |
| 396 | |
| 397 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 398 | * ''Radio/TheGoonShow'': |
| 399 | ** Lampshaded and PlayedForLaughs in "The Childe Harolde Rewarde". A long sound effect of approaching footsteps is followed by Eccles saying "Um... I'm de anti-climax". |
| 400 | ** Several episodes end rather anti-climactically. Spike Milligan allegedly just wasn't very good at writing endings.[[note]] When Milligan turned his attention to sketch comedy, he sidestepped his struggle to write endings by simply having the sketches run straight into each other.[[/note]] In "The Africa Ship Canal" this is lampshaded by the sound of an angry audience advancing menacingly toward the stage. |
| 401 | ** Individual gags would also frequently use this. |
| 402 | --->'''Seagoon:''' Suddenly...\ |
| 403 | ''Long dramatic {{Sting}}''\ |
| 404 | '''Seagoon:''' ...nothing happened. But it happened suddenly, mark you! |
| 405 | [[/folder]] |
| 406 | |
| 407 | [[folder:Religion]] |
| 408 | * ''Literature/TheBookOfMormon'': Nephi sees a vision of the future, first of his descendants, then the "many nations and kingdoms" of the Gentiles, then the last days, when both the church of God and the church of the devil will fill the earth and wars will break out everywhere -- at which point he's instructed not to write the rest of his vision, because that is the apostle John's job. |
| 409 | [[/folder]] |
| 410 | |
| 411 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 412 | * From the Witch's backstory in ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'': |
| 413 | -->'''Witch:''' I was watching him crawl back over the wall\ |
| 414 | [[LargeHam WHEN BANG! CRASH! THE LIGHTNING FLASHED!]]\ |
| 415 | But that's another story, nevermind! Anyway... |
| 416 | [[/folder]] |
| 417 | |
| 418 | [[folder:Theme Parks]] |
| 419 | * When Kings Island built Mystic Timbers in 2017, their marketing campaign for the ride revolved around its finale element in an enclosed shed after the brake run. It seemed like something big is going to happen in the shed, which amounts to...well....[[https://youtu.be/psJKQ90m5J8?t=109 one of three random projections]]. |
| 420 | [[/folder]] |
| 421 | |
| 422 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 423 | * ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'': Should you have Gale in your party when you confront Ketheric Thorm and the Absolute, he will use this opportunity to blow himself up if the player doesn't talk him out of it, taking the party, the Absolute, and the Chosen with him. The game ends right there and then without any fanfare. |
| 424 | * ''VideoGame/BugFables'': A sidequest involves needing to fix a few robots in the Hive Factory after they malfunctioned. They're set up as minibosses, having defense that reduces most attacks to ScratchDamage... except they cannot attack at all. As they are simple fixer robots never built for combat, they only spend their turns saying error messages, allowing the party to freely attack them. When the quest is over, Team Snakemouth lampshade that it felt disappointingly easy. |
| 425 | * ''VideoGame/TheCommunitree'': In ''Giftcode Hunter'', [[spoiler:you can leave the room once you get a 1e12 multiplier. When you do so, the game just goes "ok, i'm not going to do anymore of this" and grants you a 1,000,000 multiplier to end it quickly.]] |
| 426 | * In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077PhantomLiberty'', it's possible [[spoiler:to end the expansion's main storyline prematurely on two separate occasions:]] |
| 427 | ** [[spoiler:The first is if [[PressStartToGameOver V takes too long during (or intentionally leaves) the opening mission to rescue President Myers]]. Myers will be unceremoniously KilledOffscreen by Kurt Hansen's forces, Songbird will furiously chew out V for their failure, and simply cut off all contact. On the other hand, [[{{Deuteragonist}} Johnny Silverhand]] will snarkily congrats V for abandoning their NUSA allegiance altogether.]] |
| 428 | ** [[spoiler:The second occurs if V succeeds in rescuing Myers and brings FIA agent Solomon Reed to her. At this point, Reed will give V the chance to [[LeaveYourQuestTest back out from any further dealings with the NUSA]], though Myers makes it clear that this will also cost them the cure Songbird promised. If [[RefusalOfTheCall V backs out]] [[ScrewThisIMOuttaHere nonetheless]], the story ends right there, and the NUSA cuts off all contact.]] |
| 429 | * ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'' has creepy events taking place in a national park with the protagonist trying to get to the bottom of them. [[spoiler: It turns out that the stalker was just a grieving father whose son died in a caving accident, and was trying to scare people away from the body, and none of the game's choices will impact the ending either which has caused a rift on forums discussing the game.]] |
| 430 | * ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'': Mask of the Betrayer'' has a staggeringly bad example of this for good-aligned characters. Throughout the entire campaign, you are told about how the Wall of the Faithless represents everything that is pointlessly cruel in the Gods' grand design. Slowly but surely you go about an epic quest to cast down the wall and rescue the tortured souls trapped within, culminating in an assault on the realm of the dead itself. [[spoiler: Upon tearing apart the God of the Dead's city and making your way to the wall, the God of the Dead himself appears before you... and reveals you only got that far because he secretly pitied you. What's more, he's decided you've done enough damage and won't let you destroy the wall, despite admitting how evil its existence is and he just says ButThouMust and sends you away. There is absolutely nothing you can do to stop him.]] [[ExecutiveMeddling Intervention]] on the part of Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast also meant that no major canon-altering changes could be present in the end-game, even if the canon is poorly thought out in this respect (discussion of [[spoiler: the Wall]] in most fora is basically FlameBait). The only way to fight him would be to take the ultra-evil ending where you become a world-devouring [[EldritchAbomination monstrosity]]. You may be evil but you actually get a good ending! |
| 431 | * Deliberately invoked in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'''s "Link the Fire" ending: [[spoiler: Much of the game details the fact that though the first linkings of the First Flame gave birth to eras of prosperity, each linking made each subsequent Age of Fire ever [[CrapsackWorld weaker and darker]], to the point that by the time the Ashen One sets out to link the flame, all the souls in the world can no longer fuel the fire. So if you choose, despite all of this, to still link the fire once more, you're treated to seeing an ending in which the First Flame covers the Ashen One and then... nothing more... No WorldHealingWave like in the first game, just the Ashen One sitting down by the fire in the dark world as the screen fades to black. The implication is that you're only pointlessly delaying the inevitable, and your HeroicSacrifice is a completely futile effort.]] |
| 432 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'': |
| 433 | ** ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry'': A humorous moment where Kat warns you that you'll need to get through "five floors of hell" while ascending an office building. How do you do it? Walk into the elevator. The electronic display will then read a few random numbers, and then switch back-and-forth between the third and fourth floors above your starting position. ''All while elevator music is playing.'' |
| 434 | --->'''Dante''': ...She was right. This ''is'' hell. |
| 435 | ** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': |
| 436 | *** The secret ending. [[spoiler:If you beat Urizen in the prologue,]] the game just ends there. No revelations, no more crazy action fights, no anything. The game will even tease you about it. |
| 437 | ---->'''Card:''' Indeed, this was the perfect conclusion all had hoped for. |
| 438 | *** If you do the aforementioned secret ending in Vergil Mode, there's another version of it. |
| 439 | ---->'''Card:''' Usurper slain, an empty throne the crown lies covered in blood. Power is its own reward and we have just begun. So grab your blade, the time has come we only have each other. |
| 440 | * The GBC VideoGameRemake of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' when you ''finally'' get all of the [[RandomDrop medals]] from all of the monsters, the Grandragon, the ''ultimate'' critter.... falls asleep. |
| 441 | * The Scout Tournament in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonstersJoker''. You face three adversaries, one stronger than the other, and eventually face off your rival in a fight that made itself wait for the whole game up to there...[[spoiler:and she gets disqualified for hitting your monster... victory is yours, no sweat broken.]] |
| 442 | * ''VideoGame/FableII''. The hero spends a great deal of time gathering other heroes and preparing to defeat Lucian. When the player expects a final battle of epic proportions, [[spoiler:Lucian is defeated simply by holding the A button and letting a magical music box kill him, and then pressing either B, X, or Y to finish him off with a single hit. (Or not, and letting Reaver shoot him instead)]] |
| 443 | * ''VideoGame/CaveStory'': This can happen in the first fight with [[RecurringBoss Balrog]]. When he asks you if you want to fight him with "that pea shooter of yours", one would think you would [[ButThouMust have to say "yes"]], but if you say no, [[SkippableBoss he just leaves]]. |
| 444 | * ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' (just the game itself, not the expansion packs) does this in spades. The final mission (where you have to reclaim Project Purity) starts with a glorified escort mission, where you stay behind a giant robot as it guns down Enclave soldiers outside the Jefferson Memorial. The game then becomes a joke, as you find yourself facing a final boss ([[spoiler:Colonel Autumn]]) who can either be put down in just a couple of hits, or persuaded (if your speech skills are high enough) to stop what he's doing. The entire game wraps up with a ButThouMust-style decision, wherein you have to decide whether to [[spoiler:kill yourself in a radiation-soaked control room or have your partner sacrifice herself for you]]. Despite the fact that you have multiple companions immune to radiation, you can't use them (one explains that it's "your destiny") unless you have the Broken Steel DLC. The game finishes with a 60-second cut scene that doesn't explain very much about what happened, and if you really want to know more, you'll have to buy Broken Steel. To add insult to injury, Broken Steel [[spoiler:retcons your HeroicSacrifice into severe radiation poisoning that causes a short term coma instead of death. Sending your partner in, on the other hand, will actually result in her death]]. Additionally, Broken Steel allows you to send in the radiation-immune companions, but the resulting cutscene still calls you a coward for ''doing the smart thing''. |
| 445 | * ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'': Steve, [[spoiler:the {{Precursor}} who lives at the center of the galaxy]], after an impressive-looking intro, turns out to be [[spoiler:a cute FlyingSaucer with a squeaky voice]]. |
| 446 | * ''VideoGame/TheHalloweenHack'' pulls this off in a frustratingly well-done manner. [[spoiler:After spending a large chunk of the game in the hellish Magicant of the insane Dr. Andonuts and finally facing off with him, you suddenly snap back awake in his lab to find the recently deceased man sitting before you. Completely unfazed, you return home to go make out with hot chicks and get drunk. You're a bounty hunter, after all.]] |
| 447 | * ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'' actually ''subverts'' this when you encounter Paxton Fettel. The confrontation ends with you putting a bullet in his head, and then that's it. No huge boss fight, no giant final battle, nothing particularly....wait, what's that laptop....is that Harlan Wade.....what's he doi-'''[[spoiler: OH SHIT ALMA'S LOOSE]]!''' |
| 448 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has the series' famous GottaCatchThemAll goal. Achieving it nets you... [[AWinnerIsYou a certificate]]. |
| 449 | * In two of the final missions of ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'', you get fire control over [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Black Sun]] at the end. Literally, a button appears on the interface saying "Fire Black Sun: End the Infinite War". Clicking it causes you to win. By this point, it should be noted, you've already wiped out all the enemies on the map. |
| 450 | * The manga adaptation of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' pulls this full force at the end of the run. In the game's penultimate level, you fight Riku, Maleficent, Dragon!Maleficent, and Ansem!Riku, then you move on to the final level and fight [[SequentialBoss Ansem, Darkside, Ansem again, then Ansem aboard his battleship]]. The manga adaptation of the game has absolutely ''none'' of these fights: Riku runs from the first fight, then he kills Maleficent himself, the possessed Riku then ''hands'' Sora the dark Keyblade so Sora can release his heart, and once they track down Ansem, he gives his speech, unveils his huge battleship, and is then destroyed by the light of Kingdom Hearts without Sora and friends doing a damn thing. The game had a total of ''eight'' boss fights in its final two levels and the manga skips all of them--so not only is the manga an anti-climax, it's a lot worse for anyone who played the game first and was expecting some epic fight scenes. This is a problem with the manga in general. If boss battles appear at all, they tend to be really lame {{Single Stroke Battle}}s. |
| 451 | * In ''VisualNovel/YoJinBo'', if you are paired up with them, Jin and Muneshige will get in a fight. Then Kasumimaru will show up and interrupt them before a real victor is decided. Presumably, this is to keep the player from knowing who is the better fighter (and thus being persuaded by it). Additionally, the BigBad of the story is only confronted and defeated in the Good endings; in most of the Bad and Forgotten Dream endings, he's still at large at the end, although there is one instance in which he's simply captured and imprisoned offscreen. |
| 452 | * In ''The Ball,'' after the [[AdventurerArchaeologist protagonist]] braves a myriad of deadly traps, fights off hordes of mummies and a handful of gigantic, vicious monsters, [[spoiler:and explores a massive, terrifying, practically ''[[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]]'' factory at the center of a volcano,]] the [[spoiler:aliens take their ball and go home]]. This is not a metaphor. |
| 453 | * In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the goblin starter story. At the end when [[spoiler:you and Thrall finally defeat [[KarmaHoudini Trade Prince Gallywix]], who has so far screwed you out of your life savings, tried to enslave you, successfully enslaved your friends and committed various other atrocities, you stand there intending to lay down some righteous retribution, right? Nope, Thrall has other plans for him, like letting him remain the trade prince without any real repercussions for what he's done]]. |
| 454 | * In the Super NES version of ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', after a boss battle with TheDragon, the final dungeon essentially consists of several floors of enemies before a hacking sequence as the final playable part. Jake then guns down the BigBad and his two bodyguards in a cutscene. |
| 455 | * The climax of ''VideoGame/LeftAlone'' is this. [[spoiler:Instead of Joel being killed by the murderer or saving his friends, he finds an underground lair where a GovernmentConspiracy is kept.]] |
| 456 | * ''VideoGame/PeasantsQuest'' involves you to try and defeat the evil Trogdor the Burninator from destroying Peasantry. When you get to Trogdor's cave, he's huge. You throw a sword, he wakes up from his sleep, explains that he's "kinda invincible", and burninates you. The game then congratulates you, saying "You didn't defeat Trogdor, but you got closer than anyone else! You win!" |
| 457 | * ''VideoGame/ShinSuperRobotWars'': After the final scenario, Ryuusei speaks for you all when he hopes that this really was the end, and that you're not going to hear the beep of another message calling you to battle. You do in fact hear a beeping, but it's just Watta's watch telling you all that it's time for tea. Ryuusei gives him a mostly good natured clunk on the head, which Watta's butler finally responds to in kind on Ryuusei's noggin. |
| 458 | * Invoked in the "Sir Hammerlock" DLC for ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', having finally fought your way through hordes of savages to Professor Nakayama's hideout and defeating the MadScientist's ultimate creation, Nakayama himself emerges, [[spoiler: and trips, falls down a flight of stairs, and dies without [[TheUnfought ever fighting you.]] At least you get to loot his lab afterwards]]. |
| 459 | * In the "Heaven's Feel" route of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shirou confronts [[spoiler:Kotomine]] in the final battle. Revelations are made, lines are drawn, and the two engage in a [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutal fistfight with the intent of killing one another]]. Just as the intensity is reaching a peak [[spoiler:Kotomine]], having dominated the fight, abruptly stops mid-punch as he finally dies due to a pre-existing injury. |
| 460 | * Level 100 of ''VideoGame/BallRevamped'' says, "Get ready for the Master Ball...". This is the last level of the game. There's no fight against the Master Ball. |
| 461 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. Trevor's rampage side-missions have him fighting members of factions that increase in threat, starting with rednecks before moving to the two major gangs of Los Santos and then climaxing with the US Army. The final group faced are {{Hipster}}s. |
| 462 | * ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' does this with its secret ending. [[spoiler:If you choose not to escape from the palace at the beginning of the game and simply wait around for a little while, Pagan Min will eventually return and take you to Lakshmana's tomb, explain the entirety of the plot, and allow you to complete your objective and the game without firing a single shot.]] |
| 463 | * The standalone version of ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic the Hedgehog 3]]'''s ending is very much this, especially compared to the ending of [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 the previous installment]]: Launch Base Zone is nowhere as sinister or menacing as Scrap Brain Zone or Metropolis Zone, the recurring villain Knuckles is disposed of in a cutscene where Sonic does absolutely nothing, and the final battle ends with the Death Egg exploding moments after taking off. This is fixed however by locking the game on to ''[[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo Sonic & Knuckles]]'', making Launch Base Zone the halfway point of the game, [[{{Retcon}} retconning]] the explosion of the Death Egg, and featuring a [[LetsYouAndHimFight confrontation]] with Knuckles and his HeelFaceTurn, as well as a memorable AstralFinale. |
| 464 | * ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo20thAnniversary'': The ending of Amitie's story. [[spoiler:After wondering for so long about what the mystery of Amitie's hat is, Miss Accord just brushes it off, and states that it's just Amitie's imagination, despite the events that happened earlier in the story stating otherwise.]] |
| 465 | * ''VideoGame/MonsterBash'' has the villainous vampire Count Chuck constantly taunting and cursing Johnny throughout the game and daring Johnny to come and face him. Johnny eventually does so in the end of episode 3... [[spoiler:only to find Count Chuck hanging upside down, fast asleep. Aside from a few of his bat minions coming at him, Johnny faces no resistance in this "fight" and effortlessly knocks the Count from his perch.]] |
| 466 | * The ending of Karate Man in the first ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven'' (AKA Karate Man Returns). The music starts speeding up and becoming more and more intense... and then drops into a comedic ditty followed by one boulder. The only interesting thing is that [[https://youtu.be/xzGICboGzuU?t=51s the speed of this final bit is randomized]], one of the few cases where the timing isn't the exact same each time. |
| 467 | * ''VideoGame/DeathTrips'' seems like a typical indie SurvivalHorror game where you explore an abandoned hotel in search of the serial killer "Lady Death"... [[spoiler: but when you meet the killer, she runs at you only to [[DeathByFallingOver trip over a potted plant and break her neck]]. Cue end credits.]] |
| 468 | * ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'' has you hunting down [[spoiler: Cartman to stop him from becoming mayor of South Park in the last quarter of the game. The story builds up the lead to the confrontation by revealing that Cartman had the sixth graders experimented on to become near mindless muscle increased brutes, effectively forces the New Kid to kill one of his parents so the way forward is opened, and then he has Kyle's cousin become a huge fat and giant mutant to slow the heroes down. After some time travel shenanigans, you finally stop Cartman and expose his plans to the town (put cat urine in the alcohol to induce more crimes, get the current mayor blamed for doing a crappy job, then take over as new mayor). The end result? All the citizens decide to just go to the next town over to get drunk without the cat pee being in their drinks. Cue credits]]. |
| 469 | * ''VideoGame/MysteryScienceTheater3000PresentsDetective'' lampshades this, as the game it's riffing on ends in a spectacularly underwhelming manner. After spending the entire game trying to track down a murderer, once the player character finally finds him, this happens: |
| 470 | --> You enter room 30...after a harrowing gun battle you conk him on the head and take him in.\ |
| 471 | '''Tom:''' What the...?\ |
| 472 | '''Crow:''' That's IT?!?\ |
| 473 | '''Tom:''' We sat through the whole game for THIS?!?! |
| 474 | * ''VideoGame/CrashMindOverMutant'': The worst that some of the villains get after their defeat is to be told to leave by Aku Aku. |
| 475 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' when Wheatley is telling you his "scary" "ghost" story (note the quotations). Every single time he gives the slightest bit of build-up he immediately gives the next bit of info that completely negates it, culminating in a story about a bunch of robots screaming for no reason: |
| 476 | --> "They say the old caretaker of this place went absolutely crazy. Chopped up his entire staff. Of robots. All of them robots. They say at night you can still hear the screams. Of their replicas. All of them functionally indistinguishable from the originals. No memory of the incident. Nobody knows what they're screaming about. Absolutely terrifying. Though obviously not paranormal in any meaningful way." |
| 477 | [[/folder]] |
| 478 | |
| 479 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 480 | * ''WebAnimation/AstroLOLogy'': The episode "Color Me Mad", which is about Cancer getting karate training, ends with her receiving her red belt and then declining to fight Taurus for her black belt. As it turns out, she just wanted the red belt to go with her pinafore. |
| 481 | * ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': There is never a fight with Psycho Man in [='VRcade'=], which he promised when he appears in the middle of the episode if the gang defeats all his Mooks. He just ends up leaving like a DirtyCoward. Amber even lampshades this. |
| 482 | * Played for laughs in ''WebAnimation/SonicManiaAdventures''. [[spoiler:Sonic and Tails are able to defeat a Chaos Emerald-powered Metal Sonic, but Eggman pulls out the Master Emerald and Metal Sonic prepares to super-charge himself, complete with a remix of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog3''[='s=] final boss music, making it seem like it's going to be Sonic, Tails, Mighty and Ray vs. Super Metal Sonic... until Knuckles suddenly rushes, smashes Metal Sonic in the face, punching him into Eggman and sending the villains out of Eggman's base. The four heroes can only stand there and gawk as Knuckles walks out with the Master Emerald with Sonic shrugging his shoulders in confusion. Cue JumpCut to the four eating chili dogs while the Zone Clear theme plays.]] |
| 483 | * ''WebAnimation/{{Fanfictasia}}'': After the reveal of multiple other arenas full of enslaved fictional characters at the end of "WebAnimation/SuperShowdownBowl", the heroes are able to return and rescue them with no fuss. {{Justified|Trope}} due to Oscar's death. |
| 484 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''WebAnimation/TheGastonTrilogy''. It looks like the third video is going to end with [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Lefou and Gaston]] giving up on their Taco Bell plans, but then that's just a CreditsGag right before the episode's intermission. |
| 485 | * In ''WebAnimation/PimpLando'', the CliffHanger ending of "Pimp 2K" (episode 6) is completely resolved before the titles roll in "Love Changes Every Pimp" (episode 7). |
| 486 | * ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'': The finale of the Blood Gulch Chronicles, high drama and an exploding bomb on an escaping ship... |
| 487 | -->'''Andy:''' 3... 2... 1!\ |
| 488 | ''[Pelican transport goes pop]''\ |
| 489 | '''Everyone:''' ...\ |
| 490 | '''Grif:''' Boo, no explosion. That sucked! |
| 491 | :: Immediately followed by a massive fireball when Grif's back is turned, but the climactic moment is still lost. |
| 492 | -->'''Donut:''' Whoa! What a cool explosion!\ |
| 493 | '''Grif:''' What explosion?! What explosion!? I missed it! Do it again!!! |
| 494 | * Trypticon/Starscream spends ''WebAnimation/TheTransformersTitansReturn'' shrugging off everything thrown at him and rampaging throughout Iacon with even Metroplex and Fortress Maximus failing to stop him. Then he eats Perceptor and the Matrix of Leadership growing even larger with the heroes only looking on silently and helplessly. Then suddenly Trypticon coughs and falls over and Starscream's ghost exits the behemoth and passes on, the Matrix having cleansed Trypticon after all. |
| 495 | [[/folder]] |
| 496 | |
| 497 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 498 | * ''{{Webcomic/Sarilho}}'': chapter 3 follows a long, action-ridden battle scene that ends up as a wounded Nikita gets ready to fight the mysterious Eurico... And we cut to chapter 4, two weeks after the scene, and we're never told what happened in the meantime. |
| 499 | * ''Webcomic/SupernormalStep'': |
| 500 | ** The comic sets up an epic battle between Van and a monster who has kidnapped two women. However, when it turns out that the women are... working with with the monster, Van points out that the fight [[http://supernormalstep.com/?p=39 has been rendered pointless]] and walks off. |
| 501 | --->'''Van''': Get a life, you jerks! |
| 502 | ** There's another great moment when Jim reveals a BigSecret. Fiona reacts very rationally given the revelation. |
| 503 | --->'''Jim''': [[LampshadeHanging No super bitch explosion?]] |
| 504 | * ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' is ''full'' of these. Indeed, Brian Clevinger has stated that [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/04/03/teaser/ his favorite jokes are on the audience.]] He even [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/04/01/episode-133-if-you-did-see-it-coming-you-might-be-psychic-joke-comic/ faked]] [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/12/11/episode-1070-what-were-you-expecting/ an ending]] twice (though the first was kind of exempt due to being on [[AprilFoolsDay April's Fools]]). |
| 505 | ** Of the four fiends, only one was ''not'' killed by someone who entered the scene in the same panel in which they killed the fiend and two of those had been presumed dead. |
| 506 | ** In fact, the comic's ending turned out to be an especially epic DoubleSubversion. After delaying things for several months while assembled heroes and villains bicker pointlessly, we finally get what looks to be a suitably dramatic fight of [[spoiler: the remaining Light Warriors squaring off against VillainProtagonist and apparent FinalBoss Black Mage]], followed by [[spoiler: TheReveal of Sarda as the real BigBad and a resultant CurbStompBattle leading to an apparent last-minute victory by ZanyScheme]]. All very awesome. But then: [[spoiler: Sarda turns out to have survived, only to be almost immediately killed by PhlebotinumOverload and HijackedByGanon.]] The last arc is a slow-paced ShaggyDogStory centering around the Light Warriors trying and failing to amass enough power to beat the TrueFinalBoss. In the end, they fail, and he's instead disposed of- ''offscreen''- by [[spoiler: a secondary character and a BrickJoke from one of the very first comics]]. All amidst several months fraught with drama-defusing ScheduleSlip. "The best joke is played on the reader", indeed. |
| 507 | %% * The ending of ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge''. |
| 508 | * Hedge of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' pulls this enough for it to be considered a RunningGag. Some examples can be seen [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-05-23 here,]] [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-06-04 here]] and [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-10-22 here]] (complete with LampshadeHanging via the titles). |
| 509 | * The ending of the [[CerebusSyndrome miscarriage arc]] in ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel''. Seriously... weeks of exposition, then cue to ''HappilyEverAfter''. |
| 510 | * "Blink" from ''Webcomic/CollegeRoomiesFromHell'': All of the main cast are at Vernon's mercy, two of the six are technically already dead, another two are dying, one is suicidal, and...suddenly we cut to Dave's EasyAmnesia-induced hijinks two months later, when he's living idyllically with Blue and everyone else is at least physically safe. |
| 511 | * ''Webcomic/{{Collar 6}}'': Well, what else would you call [[http://collar6.com/2009/anticlimactic-56 this]]? |
| 512 | * In ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'', the stolen sword arc ends with an epic battle between Quentyn and two gangs of street punks--- or it [[http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00303.html WOULD have...]] |
| 513 | * Done amusingly in ''Webcomic/{{Cheer}}'' when Agent 32 and Alex (transformed into a centaur for the occasion) fight off a horde of gnome-creatures. They burst into the gym to finish them off...to find it empty. [[http://www.cheercomic.com/?date=2006-08-05 "Well this sure is anticlimactic!"]]. |
| 514 | * ''Webcomic/KoanOfTheDay'' uses this for comic effect in this comic, where the [[http://www.koanoftheday.com/19/ most important truth in the universe]] is alluded to but never revealed. |
| 515 | * ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'': |
| 516 | ** [[spoiler:Kuu-Drahc is played up as a major antagonist and personal rival to Emily, culminating in a CombatByChampion scene. [[http://spacetrawler.com/2011/10/30/spacetrawler-181/ A random rockslide crushes Kuu-Drahc]] before the fight even begins. All Emily can say is, "Oh, come onnnn..."]] |
| 517 | ** Much later, one of the [[spoiler:unclamped Eebs]] is revealed to have survived. He's found and disposed of within five pages and without any fanfare. |
| 518 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' hilariously {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this trope in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0600.html its 600th strip]].[[note]](Warning: Major spoilers before the joke is made.)[[/note]] In fact, Anticlimax is deliberately invoked by Elan in dealing with Tarquin. [[spoiler:Rather than fighting him in a climactic father-and-son battle as Tarquin wanted, Elan chose simply to strand him in the middle of the desert, thereby leaving their story arc with no real resolution, and [[VillainousBreakdown Tarquin screaming about how this isn't how things are supposed to end.]]]] |
| 519 | -->'''Tarquin:''' "Elan! This arc isn't over yet! Where's the growth? You didn't lose anything! Nothing has changed! YOU GET BACK HERE AND GIVE THIS PLOTLINE A SATISFYING RESOLUTION THIS INSTANT! ELAN!... ELAN, THERE'S NO SENSE OF CLOSURE! ... I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! ... THIS IS A TERRIBLE ENDING!" |
| 520 | * ''Webcomic/DragonBallMultiverse'': After nearly 700 pages of build-up, XXI appears on screen for the first time. And then, the chapter ends with a bad gag before heading into a special. |
| 521 | * The writers of ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' like to keep a number of story options and character developments in hand at any time, some of which never come to much; they are also inclined to go for the quick joke rather than any sort of intricate long-term plot. As a result, some of their stories come to less climactic, faster resolutions than some of the dedicated readers expect. For example: |
| 522 | ** Amber mistook [=DiDi=] for Yuki, ''and'' was forming some kind of plot to save Gary from her. Then Gary showed up at her front door, so she just jumped him. Later, Zii simply corrected the [=DiDi=]-Yuki confusion in casual conversation. |
| 523 | ** Yuki, Zii, and Sonya woke up naked in bed together. Zii jumped to the conclusion that they'd had sex (which many readers guessed would be wrong), then discovered that their clothes were missing, then found the clothes in the bathroom with a smell on them that made her think "Oh gawd!" Then it turned out that she was remembering that they'd jumped in a swimming pool fully dressed (so presumably the smell was chlorine), and the three of them had simply dozed off after hanging the clothes up to dry. |
| 524 | * In ''Webcomic/Persona3FTW'', Strega are even more easily disposed than in the original game. In fact, the Protagonist beats both Takaya and Jin by pushing them off a bridge while on the way to defeat the Hanged Man shadow. |
| 525 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', it looks like a MeleeATrois will occur among [[spoiler:God-Tier Vriska, Eridan, and sober!Gamzee]]. Before any of them can do anything, [[spoiler:Kanaya, resurrected as a rainbow-drinker]], runs over and ''kicks [[spoiler:Gamzee]] straight in the [[GroinAttack bone bulge]] and punts him off a cliff''. Earlier, [[spoiler:Gamzee]] effortlessly garroted [[spoiler:Equius]] with a bowstring and [[spoiler:clubbed Nepeta to death]] and is the strongest in the trio, but was easily defeated by a bone bulge kick. And then it happens ''again'' when [[spoiler: Karkat, Terezi, Kanaya, and Sollux all get ready to fight Gamzee]] but then [[spoiler: Karkat]] shoos away the others and then proceeds with TalkingTheMonsterToDeath. |
| 526 | * In the second episode of ''WebVideo/TheFantasticFavioBros'', ''[[http://www.vimeo.com/4954944 The Horrors of Ecstasy]]'', the two {{Evil Twin}}s who believe that EverybodyMustGetStoned try to merge together into an "unholy combination" which embodies the evil powers of ecstasy. [=MaCavio=] gets on [=LeTony's=] back, they prepare to fight, and then [[spoiler: they fall down and are defeated]]. |
| 527 | * Being attacked by an ancient and powerful halfling lich in ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'': |
| 528 | -->'''Artax''': Get back in your box and we won't step on you. |
| 529 | * ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' has this between Chris and Slaweel the Witch. One of the big events culminating a few issues worth of animosity... ends in one page. |
| 530 | * ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' has a number of anticlimaxes and {{Troll}} moments, as Tom Siddell likes to subvert expectations and play with the readers, but perhaps the greatest is [[spoiler:the entirety of chapter 55, where Annie sets up a [[CallingTheOldManOut gigantic confrontation]] to get Reynardine back -- which is resolved in one page by Annie simply making her wishes clear and her dad giving her the doll]]. |
| 531 | * Early in ''Webcomic/TheSanityCircus'', Posey makes a great [[TheReveal reveal]] to Attley about her true nature - forgetting to consider that Attley never realised there was anything up in the first place. |
| 532 | -->'''Posey:''' ''I suppose I should put your suspicions at ease, hm?'' (Turns around with GlowingEyesOfDoom) ''I am not human!'' |
| 533 | -->'''Attey:''' ''Suspicious? I wasn't... I wasn't suspicious of that...?'' |
| 534 | -->({{Beat}} panel) |
| 535 | -->'''Posey:''' ''But- But surely, [[TouchOfDeath that spell you saw me use on the demon]]! You must know that is far too advanced for a human to use!'' |
| 536 | -->'''Attley:''' ''No!'' |
| 537 | -->'''Posey:''' ''...Oh. Do you know anything about magic?'' |
| 538 | * Examples of this occur in several ''Webcomic/TheBirdFeeder'' strips. A notable example is the [[http://thebirdfeeder.com/comic?sort=409 Josh's Dream story]], which had involved all of the birds gearing up to launch an all-out attack on the humans. The dream ends, however, with Josh realizing he can't go because he's in his underwear. |
| 539 | [[/folder]] |
| 540 | |
| 541 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 542 | * Done [[spoiler: as a fakeout]] in ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall''. The threat of Mechakara had been building for a good thirty or so episodes and Linkara takes him down with a single pistol shot before continuing his Youngblood #1 review. [[spoiler: And then Mechakara gets back up at the end of the review. And ''then'' the fun starts.]] |
| 543 | * In That Guy With the glasses 2ND year anniversary event, WebVideo/{{Kickassia}} when [[spoiler: Santa Christ arrives to bring harmony to everyone but the Nostalgia Critic accidentally kills him]], the Critic gets people all over the world (including the user) to say "I believe in Santa Christ". Increasingly uplifting music is played as it gets closer to what might be a climax. [[spoiler: In order to add to the comedy, Santa Christ stays dead and is thrown into a skip.]] |
| 544 | * "Stay tuned for more exciting ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z7xfQDasCs Tales]] of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2RURK8d1bM Disappointment]]''!" |
| 545 | * ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'': |
| 546 | ** The Garlic Junior arc begin on episode 31. [[spoiler:It also ends the Garlic Junior Arc on episode 31, due to the fact their plan relied on outmatching Mr. Popo. Given how he is characterized compared to canon, and how much Creator/TeamFourStar ''hates'' the Garlic Junior arc for being useless filler, you can guess how this turned out.]] |
| 547 | ** Episode 60 Epilogue has Trunks comment that he's experiencing one of these [[spoiler:after effortlessly atomizing Future 17, 18 and Cell]]. |
| 548 | * The ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' episode "Stay Tuned!" demonstrates how much a climax or an anti-climax depends on the context. It's an abridged version of the ''MLP:FIM'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne "Party of One"]]. In the unabridged "Party of One", Pinkie Pie thinks all her friends have abandoned her, and she grows increasingly unhinged until she discovers that her friends were actually organizing a surprise birthday party for her. ''That'' is a satisfying conclusion. In "Stay Tuned!", Pinkie Pie is a police detective investigating Applejack's massive criminal empire, and she grows increasingly frazzled as it becomes clear that all of her friends are in on the conspiracy. When Pinkie storms into Applejack's barn and demands an explanation... she discovers that her friends were actually organizing a surprise birthday party for her. ''That'' is an anti-climax. |
| 549 | * Numerous joke CreepyPasta will build a dark and spine-tingling atmosphere, then end with the phrase "...and then a skeleton popped out." |
| 550 | * The first three parts of ''[[Creator/TwoFiveSixPiAlternate Michaels Dead Book Of Solomon Jizz]]'' chronicle Older Creator/MichaelRosen's quest to go to "The Shop Downstairs" to rescue a girl named "Eileen Ogle". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uhloS1Wsg In the final part]], he gets there and confronts the owner, Rob, the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' music gets tense...and she was just a voice from Rob's television, ending the conflict in less than two seconds. |
| 551 | * Fire Sensei in ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin''. After winning all of the fire suit in Card Jitsu Fire, which can be very hard, you have to fight the Fire Sensei to get the fire gem. You expect Sensei to be quite hard, but when you fight him he suddenly starts using weak cards and gets beaten very quickly. |
| 552 | * In the Feast Master run of ''WebAnimation/BananaNanaNinja'', Shomaru Domatsu kills himself in lieu of having to face Baninja, who had just defeated the Feast Master Champion. |
| 553 | * In ''WebVideo/SonicTheHedgehog2SpecialEdition'', most of the endgame is much easier than it was in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic 2]]''. The boss of Wing Fortress Zone is the same, but this time it's plot-mandated that you fight it as Super Sonic. In Death Egg Zone, Silver Sonic doesn't fight at all--he simply points out where the final boss is, then tells you to have a nice day. Said final boss ([[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere not Robotnik]], but [[spoiler:[[MindScrew "the last piece of logic left"]]]]) goes down after a single hit. |
| 554 | * ''Roleplay/RollToDodgePrincessCelestia'' can very well have the best Anticlimax bosses. |
| 555 | * Discussed in this WebSite/{{Cracked}} article of [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18851_7-movie-badasses-who-completely-fail-to-deliver.html 7 Movie Badasses (Who Completely Fail To Deliver)]] |
| 556 | * Used as a RunningGag in ''AudioPlay/KingdomPaf'', where almost every boss is defeated easily by some nonsensical DeusExMachina, thus preventing the protagonist from gaining XP and leveling up. |
| 557 | %%* Almost every cliffhanger in ''Fanfic/FarceOfTheThreeKingdoms''. |
| 558 | * After WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd finishes his review of the ill-fated Amiga [=CD32=] console, he reads a warning on the ''Zool'' disc telling him not to play track 1 in a normal CD player. Curious, he does it anyway to set up a cliffhanger for a review of ''VideoGame/TheTownWithNoName'', and at the start of the next episode, he finds his answer: [[spoiler:the disc plays a bunch of white noise, because the disc was coded so that the game data was stored on track 1]]. |
| 559 | * Some of ''[[WebVideo/{{Dream}} Dream's]]'' Minecraft Manhunt videos end this way. For example, at the end of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgdSJdeGF_0 "Minecraft Speedrunner VS 3 Hunters FINALE,"]] [[spoiler:after defeating Sapnap and George, Bad comes out of nowhere and kills Dream]]. |
| 560 | * When ''WebVideo/JonTron'' is reviewing Food Games and is gearing up to review ''Kool-Aid Man'' on Platform/{{Atari|2600}}, the camera dramatically focuses on a brick wall... and then deftly moves to the right as a man in a shoddy Kool-Aid Man costume meekly comes through the door to hand Jon the game. |
| 561 | * At the end of the first ''[[WebVideo/DowntonWars Downton Wars]]'' short, ''The Phantom Valet'', Thomas and Bates [[ScreamingWarrior charge screaming]] at each in the hallway, lightsabers at the ready... and then Carson interrupts them, ordering Thomas to come help out in the dining room. The fight is abruptly canceled, and everyone just goes back to their duties. |
| 562 | * ''Blog/GaryLandlordOfTheFlies'' In a tongue-in-cheek fashion, Gabe expresses his disappointment in how the trial went in [[https://strangerthaneviction.tumblr.com/post/635545450/may-26-the-world-according-to-gary his final post]]. In lieu of a dramatic legal showdown, Gary's defense turns out to be as weak as one would expect, and the judge quickly rules in favor of Gabe after going over evidence of Gary's unsavory behavior. |
| 563 | -->"This whole time I had been hoping it would all play out like an epic courtroom drama, where Gary had come up with some sinister web of lies and in the end he calls his surprise witness; James (the tenant he stole from), Dan (the other tenant he evicted) or Mat (the Indian friend he called a 'spic') to the stand and unravels my entire case. Sadly this is not how it played out." |
| 564 | * Since ''Literature/TheQuintessentialMarySue'' is a commentary on the MarySue and how it ruins a story, it intentionally uses this trope. Mary-Sue kills the Faceless One instantly just with a flick of her wrists, the Faceless One having served only as a token villain to let Mary-Sue show off her power. |
| 565 | * In WebVideo/{{Lythero}}'s ''Dark Shenanigoons vs. Sonic Heroes'', [=PaperBoxHouse=] is confused and annoyed that Goku Black-Who-Is-Actually-Black and Zamasu [[FusionDance fuse into]] [[VideoGame/SonicForces Infinite]], proclaiming "[[TakeThat How ya'll combine and make mid?]]", causing the rest to burst into laughter. |
| 566 | [[/folder]] |
| 567 | |
| 568 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 569 | * Used brilliantly to teach the lesson of "Operation: D.W.!", an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''. D.W. learns she has to have ear surgery and spends the episode learning about it and becoming anxious and afraid. She is reassured by the other characters that the surgery will be over before she knows it since she'll be put under during it. At the end of the episode, D.W. bravely braces herself for it, and the camera fades to black... and she immediately wakes up, the surgery having been a complete success, and for her, it was over in an instant. All to help teach kids not to be afraid of surgeries. |
| 570 | * The WesternAnimation/HappyHarmonies short "The Old Pioneer" ends with a very jarring anticlimax; during the battle between the indian tribe and pioneers, when the Indian Chief is just about to attack the eponymous pioneer, he finds out from the little indian kid (who they were trying to rescue) that they saved his life just beforehand, and at the drop of a hat, he changes his attitude and ''instantly'' calls off the battle. However, given it's a story told from the perspective of an old man to a kid, he may have just been embellishing. |
| 571 | * In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood'', the confrontation between the rats and the other animals is brought to a conclusion when the rat's leader has his tail bitten off, and everyone laughs at him. Which, considering the rather darker battle that takes places in the books, is a little off the mark. |
| 572 | * ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Some episodes were about Cree's plan to detach the KND moonbase from the moon and send it to the sun. In fact, the first of those episodes was about Cree stealing what she believed to be vital data for her plan but actually being fake data planted by her younger sister Abby. After finally reaching the moonbase, she was [[spoiler:discouraged by Chad telling her he had recently tried (and failed) to do so and we never learned how the fake data would have ruined her plans. Later it turns out Chad failed on purpose just to thwart her plan]]. |
| 573 | * Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Detentionaire}}'' revealed [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness The Council]] as TheManBehindTheMan to the brainwashing scheme, and they were considered a big threat, due to their immense resources and MechaMooks. Then, two of them are taken out unceremoniously after only a handful of episodes [[note]] Kerrigan ends up in a coma after opening the pyramid incorrectly and Fateous Mann dies because of [[IdiotBall an incredibly stupid reason]] due to rushing into said pyramid after Finnwich rigged it to explode. [[/note]] and since [[NoNameGiven "His Eminence"]] is basically OrcusOnHisThrone (and doesn't even appear not in shadow until the last few episodes), that leaves just [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Cassandra]] and The Serpent to do the group's heavy lifting. Then, the Serpent defects, and Cassandra turns on her boss, only to be defeated in virtually a few seconds in a manner that's PlayedForLaughs. These dangerous villains, who could make people disappear and were supposed to be a legitimate threat, end up being defeated due to a combination of their own hubris and some teens. Talk about disappointing. |
| 574 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In "Wishology", Timmy needed Crocker's help to defeat the Darkness and Crocker would only help if Timmy admits he has fairies. Timmy complied. Crocker felt it was anti-climatic but, since he was [[IGaveMyWord "a man of my word"]], he helped. |
| 575 | * ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': |
| 576 | ** The fourth season finale had [[spoiler:the Winx beat the remaining Fairy Hunters within the ''first five minutes.'' But since one of the Fairy hunters had been killed off earlier, in addition to the fact that their magic was weakening, it makes sense somewhat that the final battle between them and the fairies was finished off rather quickly, with the Fairy hunters being frozen and then falling into a chasm. There were also several sub-plots that had to be settled]]. Still, it was so badly done that fans were disappointed and it's usually agreed to be not only the worst season finale, but one of the worst episodes of ''the entire series.'' |
| 577 | ** Chimera and Cassandra from the third season. Even if they were just minor antagonists, Chimera turned Stella into a powerless an ugly monster, and Cassandra mind controlled Stella's dad, and made him to disown Stella and appoint Chimera as princess of Solaria. When the episode in which Stela was finally going to set things straight, everybody expected a huge brawl between Stella and Chimera. Well, Chimera went down after ''one hit'', and Cassandra surrendered without putting up a fight. |
| 578 | * ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch'': |
| 579 | ** In one episode, Johnny and Nick managed to get Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster together, and get them to fight to the death. The fight lasts precisely [[CurbStompBattle six]] [[OneHitKill seconds.]] |
| 580 | ** In another episode, Genghis Khan is brought back from the dead to fight. However, it turns out he had his brain swapped with that of Mahatma Gandhi, so he just sits there looking scared instead of actually fighting. |
| 581 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In the episode ''Spike at Your Service'', we get this cool buildup to a [[KingMook huge timberwolf]] as it slowly reassembles itself from pieces of the timberwolves that were killed at the beginning of the episode. After an entrance like that, you'd expect some epic showdown right? Wrong. Spike throws a pebble down its throat, and it dies. That's it. It isn't even on screen for thirty seconds. |
| 582 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'': |
| 583 | ** "A Visit to Anthony" features our heroes crashing at a young fan's house. Anthony's father, a [[EmotionalBruiser big, hot-blooded man]], hates cartoon characters. When Anthony gets hurt on their watch, the wrathful dad takes Ren and Stimpy to his den for a chat. The scene gets tense; the fireplace [[BurningWithAnger reflects in the man's eyes]] while he sweats profusely. He switches from [[TranquilFury simmering rage]] to [[UnstoppableRage near madness]] and back again. After mocking Ren and Stimpy and calling them pampered celebrity snobs, he asks them a question. ''Just ONE...SINGLE...SOLITARY THING'': [[spoiler: "So, what [[AnimatedActors makes you guys move, anyway?"]] Stunned by the [[MoodWhiplash sudden change in tone, Stimpy vomits on Ren.]] Anthony and his father share a hearty laugh at the two cartoons' expense. The end!]] |
| 584 | ** Used and PlayedForLaughs in the episode [[Recap/RenAndStimpy1x02RobinHoekNurseStimpy "Robin Hoek";]] before Robin (Ren) can rescue Maid Moron (Stimpy), he has to fight The Sheriff of Dodge City (George Liquor) who he quickly defeats by whipping out a turkey baster and smothering him in a shot of gravy. Liquor immediately collapses and surrenders Maid Moron. |
| 585 | --->'''George Liquor''': [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Thou hast besquirted me, O leotarded one!]] ''(falls over backwards, then raises his head)'' The maiden be thine! ''(passes out)'' |
| 586 | * The reveal of Lin's dad in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. After literally waiting four seasons, we get to know his name. Instead of the epic bruhaha surrounding Zuko's mom, it is revealed his name is Kanto and that it didn't work out between him and Toph. That was about it. |
| 587 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' |
| 588 | ** While Mr. Freeze is more than a match for Batman throughout [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE14HeartOfIce "Heart of Ice"]], after a brief fight during the climax, Batman quickly defeats him by spilling a thermos of hot chicken soup ([[ChekhovsGun which Alfred had given him to aid his cold]]) over Freeze's containment suit helmet, which cracks it open and leaves him powerless, struggling and gasping for breath on the floor. |
| 589 | ** Invoked by Charlie Collins during his BatmanGambit in [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE22JokersFavor "Joker's Favor"]]. Threatening to blow himself and the Joker up with a bomb. Knowing that meeting his end at the hands of "some nobody" rather than in a final battle with Batman would scare the Joker enough to give up. |
| 590 | * ''Franchise/Ben10'': |
| 591 | ** ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'':Vilgax cements his BadassDecay during the finale. With his ship crippled and flooding, and Ben in one of his new ultimate alien forms, Vilgax decides to reveal his true form...a giant squid. Yes, Vilgax, feared throughout the galaxy, conqueror of worlds Vilgax, morphs into a squid. What's worse, the fight wasn't even shown onscreen, as it immediately cut to Ben escaping before the ship exploded. |
| 592 | ** ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'': For most of the first season, Aggregor was unstoppable, easily manipulating the heroes and defeating them when forced to fight. Yet, in the finale confrontation, he is easily beaten up and depowered by Kevin, who then replaces him as the BigBad for the remain of the season. When the heroes defeat Kevin in the finale and bring him back to his sane state, his powers are stolen by Darkstar... who immediately loses them when it turns out [[BetrayalInsurance Ben saw it coming and was ready for it]]. |
| 593 | * A sizable portion of the villains in the ''Toys/HeroFactory'' TV show. Worst is the first season's BigBad, Von Nebula, who was defeated without an actual fight -- the Heroes simply snatched his weapon away, and that was it. Most of the "regular" bad guys are also beaten through very simplistic means. In the first season finale, BigBad Von Nebula is defeated when the Heroes ask him to guess which one of them is holding the device that can destroy Nebula's black hole -- his old teammate Stormer or the rookie Furno. Nebula picks Stormer because he thinks he's selfish, but when Furno reveals that ''he'' has the devices, the supposed mastermind acts so shocked that he lets Furno chug the things into the black hole and then the Heroes simply snag Nebula's MagicStaff out of his hand and trap him in a pocket dimension. No fight occurs, and the other villains are also defeated very easily, despite coming off as near-unbeatable in previous episodes. |
| 594 | * In "House of Villains", a special episode of Mickey's ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'', the villains (Led by Jafar) take over the eponymous nightclub. After Mickey manages to get back in the nightclub, an anticlimatic battle ensues between Mickey (In his sorcerer garb) and Jafar, basically playing baseball. Then all of a sudden, Aladdin sneaks out of the kitchen (The other friendly Disney characters were trapped) and throws Mickey the lamp, which Mickey just uses it to trap Jafar. What happens next? A long and epic battle? NOPE! The villains just flee. Yep, flee. |
| 595 | * Mal in the finale of ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama: All Stars]]'', all it took was a push of a button. |
| 596 | * In the spin-off ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'', Jacques and Josee--the BigBad pair known for winning most of the legs through cheating--get eliminated at 3rd place due to a flat tire. To make matters even more interesting, their enemies ([=MacArthur=] and Sanders) are the ones in the final two, competing with another team (Brody and Geoff) they have no bad blood with. |
| 597 | * It's easier to list episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' that ''didn't'' end on an incredibly handy victory for the heroes. Those that weren't from a CurbstompBattle usually involved some random twist of fate bringing down the villains' plans entirely. While this was somewhat expected against {{Harmless Villain}}s the Urpneys, not even Zordrak was allowed to put up much of a showy fight most of the time. |
| 598 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In "Blood Moon Ball", with Tom enraged by his plot having been thwarted, he starts screaming and the whole room bursts into flames, making it seem like an epic battle with the demon will ensue. Then Star nonchalantly freezes him in a block of ice, with less effort than it takes to beat Ludo's notoriously incompetent {{mooks}}. |
| 599 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}}'' episode, "[[Recap/TeenTitansS4E2CyborgTheBarbarian Cyborg The Barbarian]]", the final battle has the tribe getting overwhelmed by giant insects, Sarasim suffering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from a monstrous Krall, and in the DarkestHour, Cyborg ready to sacrifice what remains of his energy to turn the battle around only to be unexpectedly dragged back to the present by Raven. And then it turns out Sarasim's tribe had won, after all. |
| 600 | * ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': Master Splinter's third encounter with the Rat King plays out this way. Having been defeated and thrown down the same pit the Rat King fell down in their second fight, he finds himself at the Rat King's mercy. Rat King torments him and tries to get him to abandon his humanity and surrender, but Splinter refuses and stumbles further down the pit where he discovers a skeleton in the Rat King's clothes revealing that he apparently perished in their second encounter and everything up to that point was a hallucination. |
| 601 | * In the episode "Free Churro" on ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', we find that Beatrice Horseman has passed away between scenes, and Bojack spends the entirety of the episode giving a eulogy. A huge part of his emotional turmoil was that he spent most of his life hoping that his mother loved him and wanted a grand gesture of this love or some proof of it... and then she died before it happened. Now he's left confused as to what she wanted, his feelings on the matter, and frustration at the fact that the only thing he got out of it was a free churro at a Jack-In-The-Box restaurant out of sympathy from an employee he didn't even know. |
| 602 | -->'''[=BoJack=]''': When you’re a kid, you convince yourself that maybe the grand gesture could be enough, that even though your parents aren’t what you need them to be over and over and over again, at any moment, they might surprise you with something… wonderful. I kept waiting for that, the proof that even though my mother was a hard woman, deep down, she loved me and cared about me and wanted me to know that I made her life a little bit brighter. Even now, I find myself waiting. |
| 603 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocoyo}}'': The song "The Great Race" has all of the racers neck and neck, close to the finish line...and then their cars run out of fuel. Then they decide to move the finish line to the back of their vehicles so they can win together. |
| 604 | * PlayedForDrama in season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''. [[spoiler:After 350 years of planning, Emperor Belos is poised to wipe out all life on the Boiling Isles with his Draining Spell. But before it can end up actually killing anyone, King frees The Collector from his prison, who proceeds to reduce Belos to a goopy smear on the wall with a single finger poke and end the eclipse powering the Draining Spell [[PerspectiveMagic with all the effort of dragging an app across a touch screen]]. Unfortunately, [[OutOfTheFryingPan this now leaves the Isles as the mercy of the Collector]], who is both a frighteningly powerful RealityWarper and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality has little understanding of concepts like restraint or morality]].]] |
| 605 | [[/folder]] |
| 606 | |
| 607 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 608 | * The first "real" loss of [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts MMA fighter]] Fedor Emelianenko; After 32 wins and generally being considered unbeatable, he tapped out on the second minute of the first round against Fabricio Werdum. |
| 609 | * The highly-publicized "Fight of the Century" between boxing champions Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, which received so much attention that even non-fans of boxing were excited for it. The problem was that the match itself wasn't conducive to an exciting turnout: Pacquiao sustained an injury to his right shoulder prior to the match, putting him at a serious disadvantage; meanwhile, Mayweather was a [[StoneWall defensively-oriented fighter]] whose style, while [[BoringButPractical practical]], wasn't necessarily as interesting to watch as [[LightningBruiser Pacquiao]]'s more aggressive style. As a result, those who were [[FanOfUnderdog rooting for Pacquiao]] were let down when Mayweather won; those who wanted to see brutal combat were disappointed when there weren't even any knockdowns; and every party that tuned in was out short of $100 for the pay-per-view event. |
| 610 | * Australia's Donald Bradman is widely considered to have been the greatest batsman in the history of UsefulNotes/{{cricket}}. He entered his last Test Match in an Ashes series with a test career average of 101.39. Unfortunately, he was bowled for a duck in his first innings in that match. Still, he only needed four runs from his second innings to ensure a final Test career average of 100 -- to this day nobody else has come close. England promptly collapsed to an innings defeat so that Bradman never got to bat again. He ended his Test career with an average of 99.94. |
| 611 | * After cutting a bloody swath through Europe, breaking the back of the Western Empire and the Eastern's purse, UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun turned back after a chat with UsefulNotes/ThePope, and died of a nosebleed a while later. |
| 612 | * At the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, everyone expected to see [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] pay for his war crimes. Instead, he shot himself. Though in the long run, the ''other'' part of the climax was, [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki well...]] |
| 613 | * Almost everyone thought the United States would win UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar easily. Instead the US troops left after over 10 long years of fighting and with the reputation of warcrimes outraging the international public. Only 2 years later after US withdrawl, the Vietnamese communists redeclared war on South Vietnam and [[CurbStompBattle won with practically no resistance]]. |
| 614 | * The final broadcast of Creator/{{UPN}} had no special advertising or last program specials and instead just faded to black after a broadcast of ''Wrestling/WWESmackdown''. |
| 615 | ** Inversion: The network that UPN merged with, Creator/TheWB, to form Creator/TheCW had a whole special called ''The Night of Favorites and Farewells'' for the end of the network with pilots of their most popular programming with [[WesternAnimation/OneFroggyEvening Michigan J. Frog]] even making an appearance despite being phased out of the network's branding in 2004. Due to issues with various former WB affiliates, the ratings for the special were ''very'' low and not many people saw it. |
| 616 | ** Similarly, the final broadcast or Creator/{{Vortexx}} on The CW was treated like a normal broadcast with no special advertising. Even sadder when you realize it will probably be the last block to air non-educational [[SaturdayMorningCartoon Saturday Morning Cartoons]] in a very long time, maybe forever. |
| 617 | * Every doomsday prediction ([[TemptingFate so far]]) has been met with this, with [[MillenniumBug Y2K]] and the [[MayanDoomsday 21st of December 2012]] being the biggest examples in recent history. |
| 618 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Three_Secrets_of_Fátima The Third Secret of Fátima]] is infamous for this. It was built up to be the most shocking vision in recorded history; so much that Pope John XXIII is supposed to have fainted and a few others (including, supposedly, John Paul I) reportedly ''died'' upon hearing it.[[note]]John XXIII, the first to open it, simply said "the world is not ready yet" and put it away. Subsequent popes did the same, and it's likely John Paul I never got around to reading it.[[/note]] It was finally released to the eagerly waiting public in 2000; it turned out to be a set of surrealistic images that anybody could interpret however they liked. Even Joseph Ratzinger (who was to become Pope in 2005) admitted that it was pretty underwhelming considering all the hype.[[note]]Pretty good, considering the 1984 interview in which he said he'd read it and it had to do with TheEnd.[[/note]] |
| 619 | * Nearly everyone expected UsefulNotes/RichardNixon to be impeached because of [[{{Scandalgate}} Watergate]]. Instead, he just [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere resigned]]. |
| 620 | * The infamous Geraldo Rivera hosted a live broadcast of the opening of UsefulNotes/AlCapone's vault: after hyping it up massively, claiming that it could contain everything from bodies to compromising photos, the safe turned out to contain... nothing. |
| 621 | * Comet ISON, after being hyped by the media as being the comet of the century that could be brighter than the full moon... just disintegrated near the sun and disappeared. Maybe somebody should have foreseen this, given that something similar had happened a generation earlier with Comet Kohoutek. |
| 622 | * The Silbury Hill digs of the late 1960s and early 70s hoped to discover BuriedTreasure within a neolithic earthen mound in south west England. Turns out the mound was just a mound, and didn't contain anything except earth. |
| 623 | * For decades, everyone was sure that the Cold War would end in a nuclear WorldWarIII breaking out between the United States and the Soviet Union, ending with either one wiping out the other or them mutually destroying each other (and probably taking the rest of the world with them). Instead, the Soviet Union ultimately dissolved (relatively) peacefully due to internal economic and political pressures, without a single shot fired at or by the West. |
| 624 | * At the 2021 Academy Awards, viewers were surprised when Best Picture, always reserved for the final award, was presented before the acting awards. It became obvious the producers were planning on closing out the show with Creator/ChadwickBoseman (who had passed away the previous August) winning Best Actor for his role in ''Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'' and the show would end with his widow accepting for him. Instead, the award went to Creator/AnthonyHopkins who was not only not in attendance (staying in his home in Wales due to the COVID-19 pandemic) but didn't even have anyone ready to accept it on his behalf and the Academy forbade any video acceptance speeches. Thus, instead of an emotional tribute to a late beloved star taken too soon, the ceremony ended with an awkward cut to the credits. |
| 625 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Main / Anticlimax
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
