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7->''"We lost, and you weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work '''after''' the fact? What are-- the '''A-'''vengers? We're the '''A-'''vengers, not the '''Pre-'''vengers, right?"''
8-->-- '''Tony Stark''', ''Film/AvengersEndgame''
9
10Any time the BigBad is putting together an EvilPlan, you can ''always'' expect it to reach its final stage, no matter what the hero or heroes do to try to stop it. If the villain is trying to collect the [[RuleOfThree Three]] {{Cosmic Keystone}}s that will allow them to become a PhysicalGod, they ''will'' assemble them all. If the villain is trying to unseal a SealedEvilInACan, it ''will'' break free and need to be defeated or re-sealed. If the villain is planning to disgrace the king, [[HypnotizeTheCaptive hypnotize the princess]] and rule the kingdom, they ''will'' accomplish the first two before TheHero stops them. And so on.
11
12No matter what the hero tries, the forces of villainy will inevitably [[NearVillainVictory come within inches of victory]], forcing [[TheClimax one final showdown]] with everything at stake. This does not mean TheHero must be completely ineffective until this last battle -- [[TheDragon Lieutenants]] may be defeated and minor complications may be done away with, but these will be temporary setbacks. As for the brunt of the threat, there's no averting it until the eleventh hour. Naturally, once the eleventh hour arrives, TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin, but they'll be cutting it close. The closer, the better.
13
14This is especially painful to watch when TheHero or otherwise a good guy will attempt to foil the EvilPlan in a way that InUniverse seems like a perfectly good idea, but from a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] point of view is too anticlimactic to work. In the ''best case'', they fail at the earliest opportunity in a relatively harmless way. Otherwise, they may appear to be making progress -- obstacles will be cleared and the stakes will rise -- only for the story to inevitably YankTheDogsChain and pull the whole thing into catastrophic failure.
15
16This is what happens when FinaglesLaw meets the RuleOfDrama. YouAreTooLate is often involved. HostageForMacGuffin, MacGuffinDeliveryService, and XanatosGambit are frequently employed to make the hero effective without routing the villain. TeamRocketWins can give the heroes more of a challenge and justify failing at first.
17
18Compare YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle, SnowballingThreat, and UnspokenPlanGuarantee (the unspoken plan is stage ''two''). Contrasts PyrrhicVictory and BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu. Might be a cause of {{Railroading}}.
19
20Has nothing to do with [[NintendoHard being unable to]] ''[[ThatOneLevel beat]]'' [[EarlyGameHell Stage 1]].
21
22'''Due to the nature of this trope, all examples are likely to be spoilers.'''
23
24----
25!!Examples:
26[[foldercontrol]]
27
28[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
29* Hirohiko Araki, the creator of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', has said that he likes to see villains achieve their goal, only for it to be snatched away from them, so it's no surprise this comes up pretty often in his work.
30** In Part 1: ''Phantom Blood'', [[spoiler: Dio Brando successfully becomes a vampire and begins his plans for world domination. He is defeated by Jonathan at the height of his power.]]
31** In Part 2: ''Battle Tendency'', [[spoiler: Kars acquires the Red Stone of Aja, which he had spent the whole arc trying to get, and becomes the Ultimate Life Form. Joseph forces him into a position where [[AFateWorseThanDeath it'd almost be better for him to be able to die]].]]
32** In Part 3: ''Stardust Crusaders'', we find out that [[spoiler: Dio not only survived the boat's explosion at the end of Part 1, but was also able to attach his head to Jonathan's body.]] In the finale to the part, he manages to [[spoiler: kill Joseph and drink his blood, which removes the last few issues he had controlling Jonathan's stolen body. Jotaro manages to kill him after a grueling battle, and uses Dio's own blood to resurrect Joseph.]]
33** In Part 4: ''Diamond is Unbreakable'', [[spoiler: Yoshikage Kira succeeds in changing his appearance and settling down for a quiet life. He's caught by the son of the man he's impersonating and DraggedOffToHell when Josuke and his allies defeat him.]]
34** In Part 5: ''Golden Wind'', [[spoiler: it's averted for perhaps the only time in the series. Diavolo is defeated when Giorno uses the Requiem Arrow, but Diavolo never got the chance to use the Arrow himself.]]
35** In Part 6: ''Stone Ocean'', [[spoiler: Enrico Pucci succeeds in killing off most of the main cast and using his Stand to accelerate time, creating his ideal universe. The universe is only temporary until Pucci can reach the original point of acceleration, and he is killed by Emporio (the SoleSurvivor among the main cast) before then, [[RetGone erasing him from existence]] and undoing everything he'd done as a result.]]
36** In Part 7: ''Steel Ball Run'', [[spoiler: Funny Valentine successfully reassembles Jesus's corpse, and gains an upgrade to [=D4C=] known as Love Train, which gives him an infinite dimensional barrier that tosses all misfortune directed at him somewhere else completely random in the multiverse. He's defeated when Johnny uses the Golden Spin to unlock his ultimate Stand, Tusk ACT 4, which can completely NoSell Love Train.]]
37** In Part 8: ''[=JoJolion=]'', [[spoiler: it's played with, as Toru's plan to mass-produce the Locacaca Fruit for medical use and rise the Rock Humans over mankind is thwarted with; but his goal of getting the New Locacaca from the Higashikata Household is successful, as he eats the fruit to perform a exchange and cure his battle wounds... Only for Kaato to drop Tsurugi on him with her ability, and eliminate toru by forcing him to trade the rock illness.]]
38** This also applies to the VillainOfTheWeek many times per part, albeit on a smaller scale: despite the heroes' efforts, the villain is usually able to gain power and control until they can make the best possible use of it that the setting allows before they're finally defeated. A straightforward example is Sports Maxx in ''Stone Ocean'', whose Stand lets him make zombies out of corpses. He first uses a taxidermied bird at the heroes, then a crocodile, but when Ermes and Jolyne defeat the zombie animals, the fight moves to the nearby crypt, where he makes a zombie out of every corpse buried there. Another is Angelo in ''Diamond Is Unbreakable'', whose Stand lets him manifest in water. He begins with a small glob of water, which Josuke easily traps in a glass bottle, though he later escapes. By the time Josuke tracks down and finds Angelo again, it's raining outside, and Josuke is trapped in his own house where all of the faucets, showers, and bathtubs are on full-blast, filling the house with mist that Angelo can also manifest in. In a sense, this also makes the heroes even more impressive, as the villains get to their absolute strongest but are ''still'' defeated by the heroes.
39* The heroines of ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' were almost able to thwart Stage One in each of the three seasons, having retained one half of the [[MineralMacguffin Jewel Seeds]] in Season 1, convinced the Wolkenritter that finishing all [[NumberOfTheBeast 666 pages]] of the [[ArtifactOfDeath Book of Darkness]] might be a bad idea in Season 2, and rescued the MysteriousWaif before she could be used by the BigBad in Season 3. "Almost" doesn't cut it, though, as Precia executes her plans anyway with what she has no matter how unstable it is, [[spoiler:the [[MysteriousProtector Masked Man]] intervenes and uses the Wolkenritter's essence]] as fuel for the remaining pages of the Book of Darkness, and [[spoiler:[[QuirkyMinibossSquad the Numbers]] [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs invade and destroy the heroes' HQ]]]] to reclaim the MysteriousWaif respectively.
40** ''FORCE'' uses this too, but the manga's cancellation means Stage One is all there is. The fact that Stage One lasted for four years with no end in sight is often cited as a reason for said cancellation.
41* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' manga's Kyoto arc, not only did Negi fail to thwart Stage One -- [[spoiler:stopping bad guys from kidnapping Konoka]], he also failed to thwart Stage Two -- [[spoiler:saving Konoka to stop the Demon God from being summoned]] -- and even failed in [[spoiler:defeating the said Demon God after it was summoned]]. It took a VillainousRescue by [[spoiler:Evangeline]] to save the day.
42** Similarily in the immediately following Festival arc, Negi lost the entire game and only rectified that through the use of [[spoiler:time travel.]]
43* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'':
44** [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]] in the Dark Tournament arc when the BigBad is revealed to have a plan to [[spoiler:make a portal to the demon world]], but it stopped when he was still trying to amass sufficient funds. However, [[spoiler:the villains of the ''next'' arc have the same plan, but already have the means to do so]].
45** The Chapter Black saga also mostly plays it straight, as the heroes fail to prevent Kuwabara from being kidnapped, [[spoiler:fail to stop the opening of the portal, and destroy the barrier themselves. While they prevent a demon invasion, they learn that they were playing into Sensui's alternate plan]].
46* In the epilogue movie for ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', ''The End Of Evangelion'', the Instrumentality project orchestrated by SEELE is about to take place. Asuka's on the verge of defeating the mass-produced Eva units, but then the Spear of Longinus pierces her AT Field, at the exact moment Unit 02 shuts down. The [=MP EVAs=] then proceed to devour her and her mech alive. When Shinji's finally taken inside Unit 01, he's forced to witness her death right in front of him. Then the [=MP EVAs=] crucify Shinji's Eva, thus clearing the way for the Third Impact.
47* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
48** During the Water 7 arc, the Straw Hats try to get [[spoiler:Robin]] to come back to the crew on several occasions, but fail each attempt due to [[spoiler:[=CP9=] threatening the Straw Hats with the Buster Call, which prevents her from coming back]]. It takes them breaking into the heavily defended Enies Lobby, [[spoiler:convincing Robin she's one of them]] and saving [[spoiler:her]] just before [[spoiler:she]] is to be taken beyond their reach.
49** Similarly, in the [[spoiler:Impel Down]] arc, Luffy doesn't manage to save [[spoiler:Ace inside Impel Down]], but has to go all the way to [[spoiler:Marine Headquarters]]. [[spoiler:He ultimately fails, despite managing to free Ace from the execution platform.]]
50** Also the case with Blackbeard's plans, which go off without a hitch all the way through killing [[spoiler:Whitebeard, stealing his Devil Fruit power, and taking his place as one of the Four Emperors]]. This is even lampshaded by Blackbeard and his crew often talking about fate's role in their plan, as if recognizing that this trope would come into effect.
51** This is usually the formula in many arcs, where, despite attempts, the villain's plan progresses as intended and is only ruined in the final stage when Luffy defeats them, most notably in the Alabasta arc.
52* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': During the [[FlashbackEpisode Turn Back The Pendulum gaiden]], Yoruichi Shihoin challenges Kisuke Urahara to develop the best-case solution to the worst-case scenario when they face exile and abandonment because of Sosuke Aizen's machinations. Thus, the storyline's first half is a chess-game where Aizen always reaches the worst case scenario so that Urahara can come up with a best-case scenario to solve the situation. Because of Aizen being rendered the DiscOneFinalBoss, the indications are that the chess-game has switched villainous players from Aizen to Yhwach, leaving Urahara still planning the best solutions to the worst case scenarios. [[spoiler:It's eventually confirmed that Urahara is classified as one of the Five Special War Powers precisely because of his ability to devise a thousand different options for any given potential event.]]
53* As an added GutPunch to the already bleak universe of ''Manga/ElfenLied'', the anime version's cut off point kicks off the ''second phase'' of Kakuzawa's plans in the manga. The protagonists, who are warned of the incoming threat, are unable to stop [[spoiler:Kakuzawa launching a missile filled with the Diclonius virus set to explode over the Japanese shoreline, [[ThePlague infecting hundreds of thousands of civilians]] over the course of a few months, and [[FromBadToWorse spreading throughout the entire world]].]] Of course, if it was stopped, or if it never happened, [[FridgeBrilliance then the storyline would have ended like in the anime]]: [[GeckoEnding abrupt]].
54* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
55** In the Grand Magic Games arc, a version of Rogue Cheney arrives from an alternate future to help Hisui E. Fiore open Eclipse during the Grand Magic Games so that the dragons from the past would invade Fiore. Despite Lucy Heartfilia and Yukino Agria's efforts in closing Eclipse, Fairy Tail fails to stop the first half of the dragon invasion from occurring.
56** In the Tartaros arc, how many times did someone say Face has been stopped, only for it not to be actually be stopped? Three times total. Mard Geer wasn't kidding when he said Face being destroyed was AllAccordingToPlan. One down, thiry left to go before they all detonate.
57** In ''Anime/FairyTailTheMoviePhoenixPriestess'', [[spoiler:the phoenix]] gets released despite the group's efforts to stop it.
58* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Father plans on using Amestris to make a Philosopher's stone, like he did with Xerxes 400 years ago, which requires tunnels being dug throughout the countries, bloody battles taking place at critical points on the circle, and five people who have opened the gate being gathered. The presence of Pride makes destroying the tunnels impossible, so the heroes plan on defeating Father before "The Promised Day" arrives. [[spoiler:During the siege of Central, Father manages to gather Hohenheim, Ed, Al, Izumi, and Roy as his sacrifices]]. This is {{justified|Trope}}, as the centuries-old plan was already nearing the final stage when Ed and Al were born. Technically speaking, [[spoiler:the plan is never thwarted at all -- it's reversed ''after'' being completed.]]
59* In ''[[{{Anime/Raideen}} Chouja Reideen]]'', the heroes are completely unable to stop the Chouma from gathering the Zodiac Orbs by the simple problem of the fact that they don't even know they ''exist'', much less that the enemy is gathering them.
60* Prevalent in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
61** The BigBad of each Saga will always reach his strongest transformation, especially in cases where this involves absorbing somebody. However, the only strong characters have chronic cases of HonorBeforeReason and typically let the enemy ''get'' to their maximum power so that there's no doubt of [[MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours who's the strongest when it's over.]]
62** Subverted in the Frieza Saga, as although Frieza was allowed to power up to full by the heroes, he never got to wish for immortality (his actual goal). Okay, technically he did, but [[MeaninglessVillainVictory the opportunity meant nothing to him because he couldn't speak the right language.]]
63** Zig-zagged all over the place with the Cell Saga. The story begins with Future Trunks unceremoniously shredding Frieza and all his forces before they could carry out their planned revenge, and Dr. Gero, the person behind all the threats of the arc, is unceremoniously killed off shortly into it. Afterwards, however, Cell plays this straight when he is allowed to reach his Perfect form because Vegeta got cocky. Later, the story reveals that Cell is in the main timeline because his Future Trunks ''did'' thwart Stage One by killing Androids 17 and 18 before he could absorb them, necessitating his time travel (via killing Future Trunks and stealing his time machine) back to an era where they still lived. Present Cell is thwarted at stage ''zero''- Krillin destroys him long before he could awaken. And at the end of the arc, the Cell from Future Trunks' timeline is also thwarted at stage one, effectively preventing from reaching his stronger forms, as the now much stronger Trunks returns and kills both him and the androids.
64** The Buu Saga, wherein Goku and Vegeta, who were at least twice as strong as TheDragon and hundreds of times stronger than the BigBad, not only failed to stop [[SealedEvilInACan Majin Buu's revival]] but agreed to cause it so they they could settle their infighting. Cue tens of manga chapters and anime episodes of trying to undo the damage. [[spoiler:''Manga/DragonBallSuper'' reveals that Future Trunks ''did'' thwart Stage One when Babidi came to call in his own timeline: with the Supreme Kai's help, he killed Babidi and Dabura before Buu could awaken, thus never having to fight Buu in the first place. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero However]], the Supreme Kai ended up being killed in the battle along with the Elder Kai in the Z-Sword, which ends up having dire consequences since that ended up killing Beerus too, which in turn means Future Trunks doesn't have any way to get godly help when Goku Black shows up.]] In general, Future Trunks is the subversion that does things the sensible way in this franchise, though mostly off-screen or as an afterthought.
65** In the Future Trunks Saga of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' Goku and Beerus make a spirited effort at thwarting Stage One by [[spoiler:killing Present Zamasu before he could kill his mentor Gowasu and become Goku Black]]. This works out without a hitch, until [[spoiler:Black shows up again and reveals that his Time Ring made him immune to changes in the past, so while there is now a new timeline in which Zamasu died before he could do anything, the Goku Black version of Zamasu still exists]]. After all's said and done, Whis also goes to thwart Stage One by warning Future Beerus of the threat, though it's acknowledged that this isn't so much undoing the damage as creating a CloseEnoughTimeline where the problem didn't happen.
66* ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'', being a parody of shonen series, manages to double-subvert this. When Czar Baldy Bald III, the arc's BigBad, is about to emerge from a century of cryogenic freezing, Bo-bobo seals him back in, throws the container around a bit, and then blows it up. However, the Czar had managed to escape through [[MartialArtsAndCrafts his martial art:]] [[AWizardDidIt magic]].
67* In ''Anime/MyOtome'', the protagonists make moves against Nagi's plans for the first 16 episodes, but are unable to accomplish enough to stop him from [[spoiler:taking over Windbloom or activating the Harmonium, leading up to an attempt to liberate Windbloom, destroy the Harmonium and defeat him]].
68* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' does this a lot:
69** At the end of Part I, Orochimaru's plan to steal Sasuke succeeds, ensuring future and highly personal conflicts with Orochimaru and Sasuke.
70** The leaders of Akatsuki need to seal all nine of the Tailed Beast for their overall and personal goals to be completed. Inevitably, all but two are sealed and [[spoiler:Tobi is able to compensate for the missing beasts by using smaller pieces of their chakra.]]
71** Not only are the Beasts sealed, but [[spoiler: the Ten-Tails is reborn and Tobi manages to seal it into himself. Despite his overwhelming power, he is defeated...only for Madara [[DiabolusExMachina to reform the Ten-Tails and seal it into himself within minutes]]. Madara takes this one step further as he cannot complete his plan unless he acquires both Rinnegan. Despite the efforts of the heores he succeeds and enacts the Infinite Tsukiyomi.]]
72* ''Manga/Reborn2004'': The BigBad of the Inheritance Ceremony Arc, [[spoiler:Daemon Spade]], manages to steal [[spoiler:Mukuro's body]] near the end of the arc. He receives a ''massive'' power boost since he now has access to his full power, and the rest of the arc consists of the final battle against him.
73* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Homura can't prevent Madoka becoming a MagicalGirl, [[spoiler:[[GroundhogDayLoop but time will be rewound in case she can't protect Madoka anymore]]]]. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Nobody Can Complete Stage One, that is.]]
74* Fibrizo from ''Literature/{{Slayers}}''. [[spoiler:He had a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum, but ended up getting DeaderThanDead with a sudden appearance and attack from the Lord of Nightmares.]]
75* In ''Manga/BirdyTheMighty: Decode'', [[spoiler: the first season's bad guy actually ''does'' succeed in getting his hands on the super weapon he's after and ''does'' succeed in awakening it--but he can't control it as well as he thought he could. So he dies, and the heroes don't have to defeat ''him'' but they do have to defeat the weapon itself.]]
76* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
77** In the original ''Anime/YuGiOh'' series despite the cast's efforts, Zorc is able to revive and terrorize the recreated Ancient Egypt with the intent of changing the past. [[spoiler:The cast is able to beat him by reminding Yami Yugi of his true name that lets him fuse the Egyptian Gods into a singular goddess that completely destroys Zorc once and for all.]]
78** In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', Darkness is somehow able to pull everyone into his world leaving only protagonist Judai as the lone human on Earth. After a PowerOfFriendship speech, Judai is able to free everyone in time to defeat Darkness in a duel.
79** In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', despite Yusei defeating Aporia Z-One was still able to summon the Arc Cradle to destroy Neo Domino City. [[spoiler:It takes a long duel where Yusei is able to defeat Z-One which gives him a change of heart to stop the Arc Cradle from destroying the city at the cost of his life.]]
80** In ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' the big twist is [[spoiler:despite Yuya actually beating Yuri and remaining in control for most of their duel, Zarc is able to take control. Zarc then fully revives by absorbing Yuri, reuniting the four Dragon Boys back into one. Zarc then spends 5 episodes tearing through the remaining cast till his equal and opposite Ray is able to revive and beat him.]]
81* In ''Anime/SummerWars'', [[spoiler:two attempts to stop Love Machine fail due to internal sabotage, leading to the climax.]]
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84[[folder:Comic Books]]
85* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': Deliciously reconstructed in the story "Show 'Em All" -- the Junkman pulls off a major heist without a hitch, and lives a life of luxury while everyone wonders who was the brilliant criminal who committed the robbery. However, he is soon frustrated at not getting recognition for the heist, especially since the public assumes that the heroes must have caught the mastermind somehow at another time. This eventually drives him to repeat the robbery again, but with deliberately-included minor flaws, so he can get captured. He is then thrilled to be recognized for the initial robbery and savors the high-profile trial detailing his heist in extraordinary detail, at which point [[CrazyPrepared he plans to escape the consequences anyway]].
86* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'': The entirety of ''ComicBook/TheAvengersJonathanHickman'' is an example. The Illuminati try everything at hand to stop the Incursions, but everything fails. Of course, if they saved the day there would have been no ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}''.
87* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': Lampshaded by the Penguin, who commented that if you actually look at the numbers, he defeated Batman more often than Batman defeated him (people just remember Batman's victories because the Penguin went to jail afterward).
88* ''ComicBook/SinCity'': Averted in story ''Family Values''. Throughout this graphic novel, Dwight and Miho decimate an entire mob family with only a few instances where it's possible that Dwight may be killed or arrested. The drama actually comes from the mystery surrounding the reason why Old Town is going after this mob family and how the random pieces of information all link together.
89* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
90** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Darkseid plans to kidnap ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and turn her into his brainwashed slave. The combined forces of Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/WonderWoman and the Amazon army are unable to prevent the tyrant from abducting Kara and breaking her mind, forcing Clark, Bruce and Diana to take the fight to Apokolips to rescue the Kryptonian girl.
91** In the ''ComicBook/EscapeFromThePhantomZone'' crossover, young psychic Gayle Marsh goes into the Phantom Zone and falls into the BigBad's clutches despite Supergirl's efforts to prevent it.
92** In ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'', Lex Luthor bio-engineers a lethal disease and teams up with another villain called Ventor to get the bacteria culture out of prison -where Luthor is serving time- and get Superman infected. Even though neither Luthor nor Ventor have figured out how to exactly find and infect Superman beyond hyptonizing a pawn and ordering him to do it, their plan goes without a hitch.
93[[/folder]]
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95[[folder:Fan Works]]
96* In ''Fanfic/AceCombatTheEquestrianWar'', the griffins eventually manage to besiege Canterlot, despite the ponies putting up a good fight through the war.
97* ''Blog/BetterBonesAU'': Tigerstar's plan is for the Dark Forest to take control both as the main afterlife and to take control of the Clans to form a new [=TigerClan=]. Since he's dead and can only interact with the living, this goal takes the form of trying to replace the leadership of the Clans with Dark Forest apprentices. Hee has initial success in this goal with Firestar being killed and Thornclaw, a Dark Forest apprentice, becoming deputy, as well as Blackstar being manipulated by Sol giving an opportunity for the [=ShadowClan=] Dark Forest apprentices Ratscar, Redwillow and Applefur to take power.
98* Whatever changes occur in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2384630/1/Brothers_in_Arms Brothers in Arms]]'' or its various [[FollowTheLeader imitators]], the nuclear rearmament of the Earth Alliance and the Second Battle of Jachin Due almost inevitably will come to pass.
99* True to its roots as ''Nanoha'' fanfic, ''[[Fanfic/DevaSeries (On the) Path of Vengeance]]'' sees Akira managing to collect the parts of and assemble the Sword of Light before he gets stopped.
100* ''Fanfic/DragonBallZDynasty'': This is still the case with Cell's goal of devouring the androids to reach his Perfect Form. Even between Vegeta pummeling him hard enough to force him out of his semi-perfect form and ''not'' letting him reach his Perfect Form like in canon, along with Android 16 using his thermonuclear bomb in an effort to eradicate him, Cell not only survives, [[spoiler:he is able to coerce Vegeta into handing over the Future versions of Androids 17 and 18[[note]]both brought back to repair Android 18 after she was freed from Cell[[/note]] [[IHaveYourWife by holding baby Trunks hostage]]]].
101* Averted in ''Fanfic/TheFallOfLordFrieza'' when Raichi AI and Babidi's ship's cross paths in deep space. [[spoiler: Hatchiyak is sent out to annihilate Babidi's ship, causing everyone inside to die of exposure and thus end the Buu Saga before it even begins.]]
102* ''Fanfic/AGrowingAffection'': Done in both Books 2 and 4.
103** In Book 2, the Akatsuki [[spoiler:are able to kidnap Naruto and start extracting the Fox, before the demon makes a Heroic Sacrifice and Naruto's friends show up to rescue him.]]
104** In Book, 4 Gouki [[spoiler:is able to become Raikage, then take over the Waterfall and Grass countries, and then the Rain country; before the good guys start disrupting his plans.]]
105* ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'''s second story arc sees Darkseid successfully learning and speaking the Anti-Life Equation, in spite of the opposition of a veritable army of heroes, before he gets defeated by Orion.
106* ''Fanfic/HereThereBeMonsters'': By the story's mid-point, Captain Marvel has figured out where Doctor Sivana is hiding, so he heads towards his base. Unfortunately Billy is defeated, so he is unable to stop Sivana from going ahead with his plan.
107* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': Pyrrha and Ozpin ultimately fail to stop either Darth Nihilus or Cinder from achieving their respective goals. [[spoiler:Nihilus succeeds in [[DemonicPossession possessing Jaune's body]] and subjects the heroes to a brutal CurbStompBattle. Meanwhile, despite her plans going completely off the rails thanks to Nihilus's involvement, Cinder still manages to hijack control of the CCTS network and broadcasts footage of the aforementioned CurbStompBattle to all of Remnant. The resulting worldwide panic leads to Beacon Academy being completely overrun by the Grimm.]]
108* In ''Fanfic/QuarterLifeHalfwayToDestruction'', [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon]] and Jimm are unable to stop "a bad guy from the game" from stealing the isotope, and can't recover it before it reaches "[[ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics quarter-life]]."
109* ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheMinisukas'': The Minisuka "Leader" intends to counteract the Japanese army sending Mana as a HoneyTrap for Shinji by intercepting her, kidnapping her and mailing her to Bhutan. Despite the Minisukas' efforts and vigilance, though, they cannot prevent Mana from making it to the school and introducing herself to Shinji.
110* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10760622/1/Stage-One-Thwarted Stage One: Thwarted]]'' is just that: An aversion of this trope right in the title, regarding a ''Manga/LuckyStar'' fanfic titled ''Cries Unheard''. The latter fic features a ridiculous plot with protagonists ''and'' antagonists alike, and the former was meant to show the ''logical'' conclusion that would have been reached if the canon characters simply acted as smart as they canonically are.
111* ''Fanfic/TalesOfBleachUnrealSociety'' has this in its third installment ''Blades of Destiny'' where the BigBad, Album Atrum, has it set up that the heroes not only ''know'' he's planning something bigger, but they're powerless to make any attempt to stop it because of the GambitRoulette he has set up.
112* Technically speaking, it's Stage 3, but ''Fanfic/WhiteDevilOfTheMoon'' managed to avert the entire [[Manga/SailorMoon Infinity arc]] by [[Franchise/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha Shamal]] finding and removing the Mistress 9 parasite inside Hotaru long before Mistress 9 could fight back. Germatoid's actions in trying to stop Shamal led to the school being investigated, leading to the dismantlement of the Death Busters long before they were due to be a threat (keep in mind that the fic takes place during the ''first'' ''Sailor Moon'' story arc). Even Pharaoh 90 is no more: a TSAB fleet blasted it in the face.
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115[[folder:Films — Animation]]
116* In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', despite the attempts of the heroines to keep [[SealedGoodInACan Melody]] out of [[VainSorceress Lydia's]] clutches, the evil muse gets her hands on the girl-in-the-mirror and nearly gets her to give up the location of the [[MacGuffinLocation Diamond Castle]] before Liana and Alexis arrive to save the day.
117* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'': The Beldam manages to trick Coraline just like how she did with the other three children, and Coraline only discovers it on the third visit to the Other World (that is also the visit where the Beldam kidnaps her parents). It's only on the fourth visit that Coraline manages to find the ghost children's freedom, her parent's freedom and her own freedom from the Beldam.
118* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'': No matter how many times the good guys recover the diamond stolen by Bratt, he eventually uses it to power up his laser cannon and attack Hollywood. Only then he's stopped.
119* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Syndrome managed to launch his robot before the heroes were able to take him down.
120* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', the heroes are unable to stop [[BigBad Lord Shen]] from stealing metal for his cannons, conquering Gongmen City, building up his army, or ''leaving'' the city to conquer the rest of China. Po is only able to stop him at the [[NearVillainVictory last possible moment]].
121* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'': The Storm King's plan is to invade Canterlot, capture the four Princesses, and transfer their magic to his staff to control. The ponies manage to stop him just shy of the second part by getting Twilight Sparkle out of Canterlot, and they begin searching for a way to stop him. But then tensions boil over and Twilight has a nasty falling out with the others, leaving her alone and vulnerable. She quickly gets captured, setting the rest of the Storm King's plan back in motion, and it's only after he has succeeded that the ponies and their allies can finally stop him.
122* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'':
123** Interestingly, this gets {{inverted|Trope}} in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1 the first movie]]: Twilight manages to at least ''severely hinder'' Sunset Shimmer's plan to steal the Element of Magic crown, ''and'' she manages to foil Shimmer's plan to gain that crown by becoming Princess of the school ball. However, she eventually fails to prevent Sunset Shimmer from just taking the crown from her through brute force.
124** In ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks Rainbow Rocks]]'', things would have been way easier for the Rainbooms if they had stopped the Dazzlings earlier, when they were at their weakest. They try to just defeat them as soon as they're all together, but ThePowerOfFriendship doesn't activate, prompting them to find a more specific solution they must spend the film working on. In the end, they fall for the sirens' manipulations, letting them drive a wedge between themselves, which finally allows the Dazzlings to drain a good amount of the Rainbooms' Equestrian magic and regain a large part of their powers. Only then does the real Battle of the Bands start, and the Dazzlings are now very dangerous foes.
125[[/folder]]
126
127[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
128* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
129** In ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', Picard and Kirk can use the Nexus to travel anywhere in time or space to thwart Doctor Soran's plan to blow up a star. They decide to go to Soran's launch site, a few minutes before Soran fires the missile. Not, say, half an hour earlier, before Soran realized Picard had discovered him. Or six hours earlier, before Soran had arrived to prep the missile. Or back to the ''Enterprise'', two weeks earlier, when Picard could have radioed the science station to warn them about Soran's secret lab and the Romulan commando raid. Or three weeks earlier, when Picard could have emailed his brother to suggest he take that year's family vacation at Eurodisney rather than the Lethal Fire Caves of Vraxinor IX. Or 78 years earlier, when Kirk could've beamed Soran back into the Nexus [[UnwantedRescue like he asked them to]], making his entire genocidal scheme to return there unnecessary.
130** In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', Shinzon and the [[SlaveMooks Remans]] have managed to build, and make operational, the most powerful warship in galactic history -- a massive [[TheDreadedDreadnought dreadnought]] with a perfect [[StealthInSpace cloaking device]] and [[spoiler:planet killing radiation weapons]] -- without their Romulan masters ever catching wind of it. They did have a few secret supporters in the Romulan military, but still, it's a tad hard to swallow that the notoriously paranoid [[SecretPolice Tal Shiar]] wouldn't have caught on and put them down.
131* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
132** In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', the good guys are, of course, [[DoomedByCanon doomed to failure]], since otherwise the original trilogy wouldn't happen. If you watch the series in chronological order, their failure to stop Palpatine in ''Sith'' becomes this trope in play.
133** ''Film/RogueOne'' reveals that the Rebels weren't even aware of the existence of the Death Star until a few days prior the events of ''Film/ANewHope'', despite it being the size of a small planetoid and having been under construction for ''decades'' prior.
134** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', they destroy the second Death Star while it's under construction, but it still counts because the Death Star is already operational, halfway through wiping out the Rebel fleet, and luring the Rebels there ''was'' the Emperor's plan all along.
135** As the middle film of the original trilogy, the whole of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' is this trope, as the Rebels get chased off Hoth, Han and Leia spend the entire film on the run (before they get captured anyway and Han gets carbon-frozen), and Luke screws up his Jedi training, loses his hand, and gets severely emotionally traumatized. Creator/GeorgeLucas has stated that this was to give the trilogy the plot of a three-act play, in which the worst part always comes in Act II.
136* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'':
137** ''Film/BatmanBegins'': The League of Shadows manages to start spreading the toxin throughout Gotham (and are most of the way to blowing up its water mains) before they are defeated.
138** In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Bane [[spoiler:[[MemeticMutation breaks Batman's back]] [[ItWasHisSled and imprisons him]], and is left to do as he pleases with Gotham. When Batman finally arrives to deal with him, the nuclear fusion reactor he set to blow several months ago is just about a day away from exploding.]]
139* ''Film/RockyIII'' restores the drama by having the now-champion Rocky lose his title at the beginning of the movie to Clubber Lang, from whom he eventually regains it.
140* ''Film/{{Sherlock Holmes|2009}}'': The BigBad says early on that he will kill three people and Holmes will fail to save any of them. He succeeds in doing so, [[spoiler:but Holmes thwarts his plan before he can attack his fourth and final target]].
141* Likewise in the sequel ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', the BigBad Moriarty is always one step ahead of Holmes, managing to pull off his schemes without a hitch while distracting and misleading the good detective at every turn. By the end of the film, with minutes left to go, it looks like TheBadGuyWins -- until Holmes reveals [[spoiler:the fruition of his BatmanGambit to get Moriarty's notes, which allow the police to dismantle his financial empire.]] Even at this stage, [[spoiler:Holmes's AwesomeByAnalysis fighting style (which Moriarty is also capable of) predicts that he will be on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle from Moriarty unless he performs the iconic HeroicSacrifice over Reichenbach Falls.]]
142* In ''Film/{{Collateral}}'', Vincent kills all but one of the people on his hit list, although it's not until the fourth one that Max begins actively trying to stop him.
143* In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', Jake and the Na'vi fail to repel the human invasion until the last possible opportunity.
144* In the 2004 adaptation of ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'', all efforts to reach out to Marco fail [[spoiler:until he decides at the last possible second to have himself and his mother get shot instead of the president-elect, thwarting the conspiracy's plans]].
145* ''Film/AustinPowers in Goldmember'' subverts this when Austin and Her Majesty's Secret Service manage to catch Dr. Evil and his minions in the planning stages of their latest scheme to TakeOverTheWorld, and send Dr. Evil to jail (prompting Austin to check "Catch Dr. Evil in the first act" off his bucket list). [[spoiler:It's then DoubleSubverted when Dr. Evil breaks out and continues the EvilPlan anyway, thanks to having already set things up with Goldmember via time travel.]] Dr. Evil later lampshades this in song:
146--> '''Dr. Evil''': "Austin caught me in the first act/ It's all backwards, what's with that?"
147* Surprisingly averted in ''Film/JohnnyEnglish''. The titular agent gets too close to the BigBad's attempt to kidnap and impersonate the Archbishop of Canterbury, so he abandons that plan.
148* ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'': Billy and his mom almost succeed in killing the first five gremlins, which would end the movie, but of course the head gremlin just manages to elude him and replicate by jumping into a swimming pool.
149* ''Film/LaraCroftTombRaider'' would have ended a lot sooner if Lara Croft had followed her father's instructions and destroyed her half of the Triangle of Light. Or wouldn't happen ''at all'' if her father destroyed it years before the action of the film.
150* In ''Film/{{Hush}}'', Helen, who is expected to give birth at any minute, manages to hijack a car and get the hell away from the mansion of her insane mother-in-law who has been holding her hostage for the purpose of taking her baby from her and then killing her. So Helen drives around in blind panic for several minutes, finally manages to find a nearby highway, and collapses in exhaustion at the side of the road, raising her hand in desperation for someone to pick her up and get her to a hospital... And, what, five seconds later a car pulls by... And it's her evil mother-in-law! What are the odds of that! Said Evil mother-in-law then takes her back to the house so they can both be there for [[TheClimax her giving birth]].
151* In the ''Film/{{Apocalypse}}'' film series movie ''Revelation'', the Haters attempt to thwart the Antichrist Franco Maccalousso's Day of Wonders virtual reality program from going live by uploading a virus into the program. While they succeed in doing so by the end of the movie through [[CantStopTheSignal a miracle]], the virus only delays the program from going live, as it is seen in full use in the following movie ''Tribulation''.
152** And while the first and third (as well as the fourth, but there's no movie after that one) ended with Franco being exposed to the entire world, it never seems to stick, as he's still comfortably in power at the start of the next movie. The most acknowledgement we get is that by the fourth movie Franco wants to hold a show trial against Helen to boost his popularity.
153* In ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'', the plot could have ended halfway in if Liz melted their piece of the MacGuffin immediately after they got it instead of waiting until after losing it to the villain and having to defeat him to get it back.
154* In ''Film/{{Transcendence}}'', RIFT tries to nip things in the bud by destroying AI labs across the country, but the data survives and is melded with PINN to upload Will's mind and create a sentient AI. Then they try to prevent Will from going global, but Evelyn is able to network him before they get there.
155* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
156** Averted across the franchise: [[GreaterScopeVillain Thanos]] is trying to collect the Infinity Stones through minions, but the heroes in the various films are making that quest so difficult that by ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', he decides he has to get them himself.
157** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' the Captain manages to warn SHIELD that [[spoiler: they've been infiltrated by HYDRA, and they are moments away from accomplishing their plan]]. It's presented as a RousingSpeech and an inspiring moment where the SHIELD agents believe the wrongfully accused Captain. But to ensure a dramatic final battle for the protagonists, the SHIELD agents become a RedShirtArmy who get killed by the dozens while failing to stop any part of the EvilPlan.
158** Also averted in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''. Zemo's first plan to [[spoiler:get the footage of the Stark assassination]] fails due to Hydra member Karpov refusing to cooperate. He then turns to Bucky as another source of that intel, though he obviously goes further than ''just'' gathering info and starts softening the Avengers up for the kill while he's at it.
159** Played straight in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', as the entire movie is only part one of [[Film/AvengersEndgame a two-part story.]] [[spoiler: Despite the best efforts of nearly every hero in the setting, Thanos gains all six Infinity Stones and culls half the population of the universe.]]
160** In ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'', the protagonists attempt to stop the villain from accessing the sealed gate and releasing the SealedEvilInACan that is calling to him beyond it. They of course fail, and have to fight the ancient evil after it is released.
161* In ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'', Stage One, which is stealing the Witch Queen's heart, is accomplished before Kaulder realizes there's an EvilPlan in the works.
162* In ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'', Ryback and Zachs have a golden opportunity to bring Dane's plan to an end when they acquire the targeting CD for the satellite. At this point, they could have simply destroyed the CD, which would have completely taken away Dane's ability to control the KillSat, but they don't do this, and Dane ends up getting it back.
163* An aversion in ''Film/ThePenalty''. Blizzard is both a criminal mastermind and a legless cripple. He has an elaborate plot to stage a massive ten thousand man raid on the Financial District of San Francisco. But before he does that he wants Dr. Ferris to cut off Allen's legs and graft them onto his stumps so he can walk. Dr. Ferris doesn't cooperate, instead operating on the brain contusion that made Blizzard go crazy. The giant raid never happens.
164* ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'' has the evil scheme involving two synchronized nuclear bombs, meaning the BombDisposal can only occur if the countdown starts running in the first place - with the added hazard that the detonator must be stopped during the defusal so they don't explode.
165* ''Film/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty'' It is genuinely difficult to pin down whether Walter not bothering to simply fully inspect his carefully crafted gift or Sean trying so hard for vanity to be cute, making him an epic asshole is the bigger egregious sin that causes the entire film to happen.
166* ''Film/DieHard'': John can't stop Hans Gruber's plan, but he does manage to complicate it before the roof bombing. This includes getting the attention of the police sooner than Gruber would have preferred, and getting the detonators Gruber needs for his EvilPlan.
167* ''Film/TheForeverPurge'': At the end of the El Paso act, the group fails to make it to the border in time due to the situation growing beyond the military’s control.
168[[/folder]]
169
170[[folder:Literature]]
171* Happens in many of the ''Literature/AlexRider'' books, perhaps most notably in the fourth, ''Eagle Strike'', where Damian Cray actually succeeds in launching a nuclear strike against the sources of the world's drugs by hijacking Air Force One, and is only stopped when Alex's girlfriend Sabina is able to send the self-destruct command after Cray has been killed.
172* In ''The Amulet of Samarkand'', the first installment of ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'', Lovelace manages to trap the British government and summon Ramuthra before he is defeated.
173* ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'', where TheDragon manages to kill all four of the Preferiti before the plan is stopped. Subverted in the film, where [[spoiler:Langdon saves the fourth from his watery death]].
174* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': Up until Volume 9, Arthur fails to stop Agrona from achieving any of his goals in the leadup to his war on Epheotus, not just because of him getting OutGambitted and outplanned by Agrona at almost every turn, but also due to Agrona and his servants [[NiceJobBreakingItHero exploiting some of Arthur's past actions]] without him knowing.
175** When Agrona's agents instigate an attack on Xyrus Academy, Arthur is able to put an end to the attack but at great cost. He is unable to save several of his friends and classmates, in particular his best friend Elijah who is taken back to Alacrya to restore his original personality - Nico, the EvilFormerFriend of Arthur's past life King Grey. Making matters worse, in the aftermath he and his bond Sylvie are taken into captivity at the behest of the Council, who are being manipulated by Agrona into handing over Arthur and Sylvie to him. Only the intervention of the asuras Windsom and Aldir in purging the Council of Agrona's corruption prevents this from happening.
176** In spite of being one of the strongest mages on Dicathen and having trained in Epheotus for years, he is ultimately unable to prevent the Alacryans from conquering his homeland. Not only is this because Agrona had been preparing for this invasion millennia before Arthur was reborn and the asuras had lagged behind him in their own preparations with the Dicathians, the asuras themselves end up abandoning the Dicathians after Agrona uses a failed sneak attack on Alacrya to assassinate him - one which they did without informing their Dicathian allies - as a violation of their treaty to remove them from the war. At the end of the war, Sylvie is forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice to save him, which in turn causes him to end up in the Relictombs and left powerless.
177** With Arthur out of the picture, the Alacryans are able to capture his LoveInterest Tessia and [[ReforgedIntoAMinion turn her into]] [[GrandTheftMe the vessel]] for a third reincarnate, the Legacy, who as it turns out is Grey and Nico's shared ChildhoodFriendLoveInterest Cecilia and Agrona's trump card for when he goes to war against Epheotus. It is not until Arthur CameBackStrong during his time in both the Relictombs and Alacrya that he was finally able to reverse part of Agrona's plan, including returning to Dicathen and undoing the Alacryan conquest in a matter of days.
178** Ultimately, it turns out this trope is PlayedWith in that [[spoiler:Arthur and Tessia were ''not'' the originally intended vessels for their respective reincarnates. As it turns out, when Sylvie sacrificed herself, she was displaced across time and space to bear witness to Grey's life. When Agrona took Grey's soul for use in his plans, Sylvie was able to snatch the soul before it could be brought to the intended vessel and brought it to the unborn Arthur. This significantly altered his original plans, as Agrona was forced to look outside of Alacrya for a vessel for the Legacy]].
179* Subverted somewhat in ''Literature/{{Dune}}''. Baron Harkonnen's plan to take over Arrakis, destroy House Atreides, and eventually place his nephew on the Imperial throne has several important factors go wrong from the beginning (such as Paul and Jessica surviving and his [[TheDragon second-in-command]] [[PsychoForHire Piter]] being killed before he could assume control of Arrakis, and keeping a member of the Atreides staff alive and in his employ). The repercussions of these factors ultimately ruin the Baron, and probably meant that his plan wouldn't have succeeded in any case. As the Princess Irulan said, "A beginning is a very delicate time".
180* ''Literature/TheJenniferMorgue'': The villain {{invoke|dTrope}}s this with PostModernMagik that turns his destiny into an in-universe [[Franchise/JamesBond Bond villain]] narrative. He reasons that the villain's scheme is only foiled by Bond in the climax, so he can act with impunity until then, then disable the magic right before that final confrontation. However, he doesn't account for the narrative [[spoiler:both handing him the VillainBall and assigning the Bond role to someone unexpected.]]
181* The ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series includes several points where the main characters could probably disrupt the plans of TheAntichrist, averting the Tribulation entirely (or at least greatly throwing off the predestined order of events). They usually either reason that they cannot or ''should'' not, because the Tribulation is [[BecauseDestinySaysSo God's will]].
182* Arthur Dent and company totally fail to thwart the Krikket robots and their masters until the end of ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything''. This is one of very few tropes ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' plays totally straight.
183* Inverted in the ''[[Literature/{{Animorphs}} Megamorphs]]'' book ''Elfangor's Secret'', where the heroes thwart Stage One by saving Henry V at Agincourt but fail to prevent Visser 4 from killing George Washington and Admiral Nelson. They win in the end, though.
184** Inverted in another way by [[spoiler: going back in time decades before Stage One and thwarting the entire effort.]]
185* In the ''Literature/MediochreQSethSeries'', [[NebulousEvilOrganisation The Organisation Which I Represent]] is already on the ''tertiary phase'' of their plan before the series begins.
186* ''Literature/TheNightOfWishes'': Knowing Beelzebub and Tyrannia can't make the Notion Potion without their enchanted parchment, Jacob and Maurizio try to destroy it. The parchment is able to defend itself.
187* Averted in ''Literature/TheObsidianTrilogy'', when the Endarkened's first tactic is defeated before they can destroy their enemies. It still did a lot of damage before it was stopped, though, and they had other plans already starting to be implemented at the time.
188* In ''Literature/{{Pale}}'', the Kennet witch trio successfully recover the furs of the Carmine Beast, expose and imprison [[spoiler: the Girl by Candlelight]], hand Charles Abrams over to one of the most powerful magical practitioners in all of Canada to secure, and drive Maricica of Dark Autumn and the Wallflower Doppelganger Lis out of town in order to prepare for the battle for the empty Carmine Throne. Nevertheless, in the space of one night [[spoiler: Maricica breaks Charles out of the Blue Heron Institute, is able to drain the power of the Hungry Choir to allow Lis to usurp the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification spirit of Kennet]], and together they retrieve the furs from the folded space where the witches had hidden them, allowing Charles to enter the Carmine Contest with the power of the murdered Carmine Beast and the Hungry Choir.]]
189* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'' runs on the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality, and so the GenreSavvy Tyrant of [[AncientGrome Helike]] actively [[ExploitedTrope Exploits]] this trope. If the first step always works, all he needs to do is keep making new plans with new first steps and he can keep causing chaos for as long as he can keep juggling {{Villain Ball}}s.
190** It's implied that this strategy was also used by the in-universe historical figure Dread Emperor Irritant, "the Oddly Successful."
191--->'''Dread Emperor Irritant:''' Hahahahaha. Ha. You can’t beat me now, this is the first part of my plan!
192* ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'' series ends with the heroes fighting the BigBad to regain the [[CosmicKeystone Violet Keystone]] - if they're too slow, their world's defense fails. They catch up to him just when he's summoning his army.
193* The Doom of Mandos is basically a ''divinely-ordained'' version of this in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''. The Noldor and everyone associated with them are doomed to fail in all their efforts against Morgoth until they ask the Valar for forgiveness, and they only do when Morgoth has ''won''.
194* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Aegon's invasion. The Targaryen's had been on Dragonstone for nearly a hundred years following the Doom of Valyria. They were unable to begin their invasion sooner because their dragons at the time of the doom were too old to be of much use, and they had to wait a long time for their newborns to mature. Of course, no one thought to do anything about them while the dragons were young, resulting in the continent having to deal with three nearly full-grown dragons.
195* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'': Doctor Impossible manages to acquire all the components and build his DoomsdayDevice before he's finally stopped. It's a {{troperiffic}} tale, so the heroes even discuss that they're not likely to out-guess his EvilPlan before it's ready.
196** Also averted: One of the past plans Dr. Impossible mentions never even got to the evil stage before being shut down: [[spoiler:the plan that created superhero Fatale]].
197* Happens a few times in ''Literature/StarTrekTheEugenicsWars'':
198** When Gary and Roberta first infiltrate [[ElaborateUndergroundBase Chrysalis]] they've found that the scientists have already produced several classes worth of superchildren.
199** When Khan begins to build his empire after the fall of the Soviet Union he ransacks Garys office, hacks the Beta 5, destroys the transporter and steals valuable information on the other superhumans and a DoomsdayDevice.
200** Roberta tries to foil the launching of said device but Khan knew she or Gary would try to stop it and installed countermeasures.
201* Happens several times throughout ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
202** In the Original Series, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Tigerclaw]] ]] had a fairly simple plan. He would kill [=ThunderClan=]'s deputy Redtail, counting on his reputation to get him appointed the new deputy. Then he would stage a coup and [[spoiler: kill the current leader Bluestar]] so that he could become the new leader. It seems to be subverted when after he kills Redtail, [[spoiler: Bluestar appoints Lionheart as deputy instead, but it's double subverted when Lionheart dies in a battle and then Tigerclaw becomes deputy]]. And despite hero Fireheart's best efforts, the coup starts anyway, and [[spoiler: he only protects Bluestar by fighting against Tigerclaw, who is exiled for his treachery after the battle.]]
203** This trope is shown further in the books after [[spoiler: Tigerclaw's exile]]. He manages to accomplish all his goals anyway by becoming [[spoiler: [[MeaningfulRename Tigerstar]], leader of [=ShadowClan=], and kills Bluestar with a pack of dogs.]] And while Fireheart fights to stop [[spoiler: Tigerstar's]] new plan to unite the Clans under him, ultimately his EvilPlan isn't foiled until near the end of ''The Darkest Hour'' when [[spoiler: Scourge kills him and becomes the FinalBoss.]]
204* ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' (second book of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): Despite the protagonists doing everything in their power to stop it, [[spoiler: the Parshendi succeed at summoning the Everstorm and starting the next [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Desolation]]]].
205
206[[/folder]]
207
208[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
209* Each season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' has the villains' plans succeed to some extent:
210** In the first season, the plan to kill Teri Bauer succeeds while the Palmer assassination fails.
211** Season 2 has the bomb go off, even though only Mason is killed. This is significant because Palmer is forced to follow through on his threat that if the bomb goes off on U.S. soil, he will wage war against the people responsible.
212** In season 3, hundreds of people are infected with the virus, although a [[strike:city]] nation-wide epidemic is averted.
213** In season 4, one nuclear meltdown succeeds, and Keeler is incapacitated and possibly killed after Air Force One is shot down.
214** In season 5, the gas attack on the shopping mall partly succeeds, as does the attack on CTU headquarters.
215** In season 6, 12,000 people are killed by a suitcase nuke in Valencia, California.
216* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
217** In season 1, the confrontation itself triggers the final phase, as the BigBad needs Buffy's blood to give him the strength to set his plan in motion.
218** In season 2, Angel actually gets as far as awakening Acathla, who begins to suck the world into hell, forcing Buffy to sacrifice a now resouled Angel in order to seal the rift.
219** In season 3, by the time they figure out who the real BigBad ''is'', he's completed a ritual that makes him invincible until he's ready to go OneWingedAngel. (In this case, the Scoobies do actually capture an artifact required for the ritual, but, in doing so, Willow was taken hostage by the BigBad. Wesley argued that they should accept Willow as lost and destroy the artifact there and then, but in the end, the Scoobies traded it for their friend.)
220** Season 4 is a subversion of this trope. Adam was potentially the most dangerous foe that Buffy ever faced, but they managed to kill him before he secured a powerbase. If he had succeeded and gained the resources of The Initiative, then they would've really been in trouble!
221** Season 5: One of Glory's minions opened the portal home before Glory was defeated.
222** Season 6: Short answer: Yes. [[spoiler:Dark Willow]] is seconds away from destroying the world. Long Answer: No. The trio of nerds were the main villains for most of Season 6, only a handful of their plans even got past Stage 1, and none of them really went the way they anticipated (leading up to a frustrated Warren just [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim going to buy a freaking gun]]...).
223** Season 7: Short answer: again, yes, most of the major events of Season 7 go the way they do in order to have the climatic battle at the end. (And the span of human history leading up to it, according to the First Evil.) Longer answer: the season went mostly according to the BigBad's plans, but Buffy took it off the rails before the invasion was scheduled to begin. It all still came down to an all-or-nothing final battle with everything on the line, but it was done on the Slayers' timeline before the BigBad could open the Hellmouth and have the army of super-vampires start pouring out. The word "plan" is used loosely, as it seems to consist of little more than "screw with Buffy's head". Probably a result of the writers designing an omniscient, omnipresent villain with "unlimited resources" and still trying to make the show dramatic. By the final episode, even the writers had to lampshade how useless the First Evil was for all of their supposed power.
224* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Series 12's StoryArc has this in play. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon "Fugitive of the Judoon"]], the Doctor is warned about [[spoiler:a "Lone Cyberman"]], and that she must not give it what it wants. When she encounters the [[spoiler:Cyberman]] in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E8TheHauntingOfVillaDiodati "The Haunting of Villa Diodati"]], two {{Sadistic Choice}}s with history-shaking consequences force her to give in and let her adversary leave with what it came for.
225* ''Series/FirstWave'': Was a short-lived, low budget series about trying to do exactly this, the title being about the first phase of the aliens' three-step plan.
226* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Robert's plan to assassinate Daenerys in order to avoid a potential invasion by her Dothraki husband's forces is botched. Even when word of Daenery's dragons and her position as Queen of Mereen reaches King's Landing, the Lannisters are far too busy dealing with more immediate threats to risk sending out forces to take out Dany and her dragons while they are young. So, [[spoiler: by the time Cersei manages to usurp the Iron Throne, it's far too late to do anything about Dany, and as her long-sought reign begins Cersei is almost immediately faced with a full-fledged invasion of a massive army of Dothraki and three relatively mature dragons.]]
227* Most ''Franchise/KamenRider'' shows have some sort of villainous plan whose first stage can't be thwarted. Some are notable for smaller recurring cases:
228** ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' never stops a Zodiarts before it can enter its Last One phase.
229** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' actually forces the ''heroes'' to participate in Stage One early in the show, when they can't skip straight to using their cool and powerful Level 2 and Level 3 forms until they've separated the virus they're fighting from its host first, which requires fighting the patient/virus fusion in their goofy SuperDeformed Level 1 forms first. The show's format eventually changes so they don't need to do this anymore, but the lesson proves valuable against the FinalBoss.
230** The BigBad of ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' pretty much gets away with all of his plans, of which include [[spoiler: completing the Pandora Box and forming a structure capable of destroying the Earth, regaining his complete form and all of its powers, driving all of Japan into a three-way civil war in the process of accomplishing the previous goals, and backstabbing all the other villains once he got what he wanted from them]]. Late in the series, the heroes try to figure out what he's going to do next by looking back at his previous plans, and it pretty much amounts to a recap of ''the entire series thus far''.
231* ''Series/{{Lewis}}'': In "Magnum Opus" the murderer is a ThemeSerialKiller, who associates their murders with a four-part alchemical procedure. The first three murders go ahead and the killer is caught just in time to prevent the fourth.
232* Played for drama in the ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet." Hawkeye sees a friend die in the O.R., which devastates him. When he asks why he's crying for his friend and not the other soldiers who gave their life, Henry tries to be philosophical about it (which leads to Hawkeye going against his word and sending an underage soldier home):
233-->'''Henry:''' Look, all I know is what they taught me at command school. There are certain rules about a war. And rule number one is young men die. And rule number two is, doctors can't change rule number one.
234* Subverted in the fourth episode of the fourth season ''Series/{{Nikita}}'', where we're shown what appears to be the final stages of a plot that began with the assassination of the President of the United States. Team Nikita stops an attempt to cause World War III, believing it to be the conspirators' ultimate goal, only for the show to reveal that it had only a ruse to get Nikita out of their hair by allowing her to think that she'd stopped them. The actual plan, which is left unrevealed, had actually been abandoned earlier, after Nikita had killed two people essential for its successful execution.
235* Featured heavily in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' against Decima Technologies. In season 2, they manage to put a virus inside The Machine, though [[spoiler: Finch had planned on this all along as a means of freeing it from its original limitations]]. In season 3, they manage to create [[spoiler: a second machine and make it operational.]]
236* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', like its Sentai parent, usually sees villains get away with every stage of their plan but the last one:
237** ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'' -- the Rangers fight the demons for an entire series, but can't defeat Bansheera until after she succeeds in bringing her evil fortress to Earth.
238** ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'': We only learn that Lothor actually ''had'' a long-term plan in the finale, but it nonetheless plays out - filling the Abyss of Evil with his fallen minions until they all rise as an army. The Rangers and their recently-freed fellow students kick them all back in.
239* The 3rd season of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' is the epitome of this trope. Over the course of an entire season, the ''Enterprise'' doggedly and valiantly track the Xindi effort to build and launch their Sealed Death Star in a Can. However, no matter what they do, they cannot stop the Xindi from launching the device. For bonus points, the Xindi open one of their [[NegativeSpaceWedgie spatial rifts]] which enable them to cross the distance from their part of space to Earth in something like 4 hours. Note, it took the Warp-5 ''Enterprise'' months to reach the area.
240** Every move the crew of the ''Enterprise'' makes to stop the Xindi fails until they arrive within spitting distance of Earth.
241* The first 5 season finales of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' are made of this.
242** In Season 1, the Winchesters corner Azazel but fail to kill him, allowing him to continue his plan for Sam.
243** In Season 2, they are seconds too late to stop the Hell gate opening, and while they close it, over 200 demons still escape from Hell.
244** In Season 3, Lilith succeeds in dragging Dean to Hell, which opens the first seal to start the Apocalypse.
245** In Season 4, the main characters are attempting to prevent various seals from being broken and thus preventing the end times. It didn't go well. Sam is tricked into killing Lilith by Ruby, unwittingly breaking Lucifer's seal and releasing him onto Earth.
246** In Season 5, Lucifer succeeds in hijacking Sam's body, but in a subversion of this trope, Dean manages to snap him out of it long enough for Sam to throw himself and Lucifer into Hell.
247* In general, if a ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' villain has a plan, it's going to get past Stage One:
248** ''Series/ChoujuuSentaiLiveman'': [[spoiler:Bias suceeds in getting the twelfth brain, brainwashing the world, and becoming immortal. In other words, he succeeded. And he would have won if Yuusuke hadn't made it to the Brain Base or if Kemp hadn't heed Megumi's words and had a HeelRealization that led to the rest of his trapped students fighting back to get vengeance on Bias.]]
249** ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' has Sujigarano Akumaro planning to open up the barrier between the world of the living and Hell by creating six wedges out of human suffering. He succeeds in creating the wedges, but underestimates the true nature of the BloodKnight he manipulated into helping him with the final stage of his plan.
250* {{Discussed}} in a ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' sketch about one Nazi [[HeelRealization suggesting to another that they are in fact "the baddies" rather than the good guys.]] Among other telltale signs such as [[ObviouslyEvil having skulls as their insignia]], he says that while the war has been going pretty well so far, he can think of lots of stories where the villains succeed initially only for the heroes to rally and defeat them, but none where it happened the other way around.
251[[/folder]]
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253[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
254* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds''. The mechanics of the game actually help set up this structure. You have a few encounters with the villains, during which they set up their plans and, thanks to GM fiat, escape or muck up the heroes' plans. However, these complications allow the heroes to gain "Hero Points", which they can use to shift the odds in their favor or gain temporary bonuses, so when the final fight rolls around, everyone's at their best. On the other hand, there is a power under Luck Control that allows the [=PCs=] to cancel Villain Points, effectively telling the GM, "No, you do ''not'' get to escape this one!"
255* Interestingly, the inverse system used by ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' leads to the same metagame: players start each gaming session with poker chips, and can earn some more in a variety of ways. These chips can be used at any time to get bonuses on rolls, or reroll failed actions, or negate injuries etc... However, whenever a player uses a chip, the GM gets one, to be used on NPC actions. So, while using chips early in the story to stop Mooks or avoid an injury might seem like a good idea at the time, it WILL come back to bite the [=PCs=] in the ass. Trust me, pilgrim: let the outlaws rob the bank. Take the sucking chest wound. Use 'em chips when you know who the real BigBad is, and are drawing a bead on his noggin'. No sooner.
256* ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'' has Drama Dice, which work roughly the same. But of course, the entire point is heroism and general LargeHam behavior, so you really ought to hold out for the supervillain.
257* A similar dynamic exists in basically every incarnation of the [=FATE=] system. ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' in particular makes it explicit that powerful characters (including wizards like Harry), on account of having a low refresh and thus starting out with potentially no more than one lonely fate point to their name when a scenario unfolds, basically ''have'' to earn more the "hard" way by accepting setbacks and rolling with the punches as best they can in order to eventually have enough to help wrap up the plot.
258* This can occur in any game system where the [=PCs=] gain experience and level, [[VillainForgotToLevelGrind but the villain or villains don't]]. The first time they meet their enemy, the heroes are outclassed. By the climax, they have gained more skill and gear, and can face their foes on a more even footing. It can be averted if the [=PCs=] outmaneuver the GM. Usually causes the session to end early.
259* Inverted in ''[[TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep]]'', where the game is structured in such a way that it's actually entirely possible to stop certain aspects of various cults' plans ''before'' they are supposed to be launched if the [[PlayerCharacter Investigators]] go to the right places first. For example, if they choose to go to Shanghai ([[SequenceBreaking the canonical end game]]), they can potentially [[spoiler:stop [[TheDragon Penhew's]] rocket on Grey Dragon Island long before the launch date]]. If they go to any of the three major locations [[spoiler:of markers for the [[TotalEclipseOfThePlot Great]] [[ApocalypseHow Gate]]]], they can even stop the plan before they fully understand it, kill crucial characters and creatures for said plan, etc.
260* This is an important part of the flavour of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}}''. The Empire and Imperium are the preeminent powers in their respective settings, with enough resources available that they will always eventually defeat whatever evil scheme they're currently facing. But consistently failing to defeat stage one of said schemes means their strength is slowly but surely being drained while their enemies grow stronger - every Chaos invasion may be beaten back, but the Chaos Wastes advance a little further each time.
261* The system of ''TabletopGame/DontRestYourHead'' is built for this. The GM can "cast a shadow" over any die roll, canceling out successes and changing which result is dominant... but doing so requires dropping "coins of hope" into a bowl. The players can use this coins to change things in their favor. The end result is that "stage one" is hard to prevent, but makes the players more capable of ending "stage two".
262* The [[ChallengeRun Challenge Modes]] of several villains in ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' are set up for this.
263** Base Gloomweaver's Challenge Mode prevents you from triggering his InstantWinCondition by making his Relics indestructible. (Downplayed in that wiping out his HP before the third Relic hits the table will still beat him.)
264** Spite: Agent of Gloom and Skinwalker Gloomweaver share a Challenge Mode. When you defeat Spite, Skinwalker Gloomweaver has enough and bursts out of his corpse, forcing you to face him.
265** The Challenge Mode for [=OblivAeon=] [[spoiler:places Rainek Kel'Voss as the first Scion and makes him invulnerable until the third form of [=OblivAeon=] is defeated, ensuring you can't avoid his pulling a HijackedByGanon and becoming the fourth phase of the fight]].
266* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The plan to take out New Phyrexia by blowing up its World Tree with [[FantasticNuke the Sylex]] in "All Will Be One" was obviously not going to succeed, both because a massive Phyrexian onslaught across the multiverse was a much more dramatic development, and [[ForegoneConclusion Wizards had already announced "March of the Machines", the set about the massive Phyrexian onslaught in question]].
267[[/folder]]
268
269[[folder:Toys]]
270* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'':
271** In the 2004 saga, [[BigBad Makuta]] manages to put Metru Nui's entire population into coma, along with [[BigGood Mata]] [[PhysicalGod Nui]] himself, and gets back his full power, but his plan is foiled at the end by the heroes. This all happened because the heroes were [[YouAreTooLate genuinely late]] -- they didn't even need to fight [[CoDragons the dragons]], because Makuta [[DevourTheDragon absorbed them to gain power]].
272** At the end of 2008, he finally manages to fulfill his plan and become the ruler of the universe[[note]]although the heroes had no way of stopping him due to his acting in complete secrecy, another set of good guys did try to find him in a side story, so this counts as an actual example[[/note]]. However, due to the toyline getting cancelled before the originally planned story could be told, he is defeated in the following saga.
273[[/folder]]
274
275[[folder:Video Games]]
276* ''VideoGame/BackStab'' has the introduction stage which ends with the protagonist Henry discovering he's been betrayed by his commanding officer, Edmund Kane, who's in league with the Conquistadores, and his subsequent arrest, regardless of the player's performance. He even gets to fight Edmund, but it's a HopelessBossFight since he gets knocked out either ways.
277* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': After the Soultaker Dagger is stolen from you, it is technically possible (though difficult) to kill the cultist who took it, as she tries to teleport away, and recover the dagger from her body. However, even if you pull it off, the game will ignore it and proceed to release the demon as if she had gotten away.
278* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', no matter what you do, you can't avoid [[spoiler:having Irenicus steal your soul and having Bodhi steal Imoen]]'s. Even when the first confrontation seems to turn into your favor, he will manage to get away to continue his plans and [[spoiler:invade Suldanesselar with a horde of dark elves while he imprisons queen Ellesime and starts to steal the power from the tree of life]]. Also, closer to the beginning of the game, there is nothing you can do to [[spoiler:prevent Imoen from being taken away to Spellhold. She will always cast that one spell that makes the Cowled Wizards take her away, even if she has no spells left and/or is wearing armor that prevents her from casting magic.]]
279* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosOrigins'':
280** Despite Sagi, Gullo, and Milly fighting as hard as they can, Baelheit's Machina Armas are too powerful to stop the attempted promachination of Diadem, Sadal Suud, and Anuenue. And when he finally taps into his guardian spirit's true power, he stops promachination while its groundwork is still underway, but Baelheit has already become the Emperor.
281** Wiseman also fits, as he manages to promagnate the vast majority of the region's population and spark a war to claim the rest of them. That the heroes failed to stop him is a ForegoneConclusion, as by that time, Sagi and friends have realized that they're [[spoiler:in the past, and the heroes are on the losing side of the war]].
282** And as for [[spoiler:Verus, he hides his true nature so well and for so long that the first indication of him being the true BigBad is him murdering Baelheit in cold blood]].
283* ''VideoGame/BloodySpell'': You are a swordsman fighting the forces of evil in the martial world, while on the trail of your sister who's captured by an evil cult. After defeating tons of enemies in the first stage and killing the first boss, you then see your sister... and the HighPriestess who arranged for her kidnapping. Alas, you're automatically overwhelmed by the dark aura in a cutscene and passes out, and when you regain consciousness your sister is gone, again, and your search continues for several hours of gameplay.
284* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'': For almost the entire game the [[PlayerCharacter Vault Hunter]] is trying to stop Handsome Jack from [[SealedEvilInACan awakening the Warrior]], but he still manages to do it in the FinalBattle. But the [[PlayerCharacter Vault Hunter]], being the badass that they are, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu ends up killing it anyway]].
285* ''Franchise/DragonQuest'':
286** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'': The BigBad, [[spoiler:Rhapthorne, will return, which means that the descendants of the 7 sages ''will'' die]], and there's nothing you can do to prevent this from happening. An especially harsh display of this trope, as it involves several huge [[PlayerPunch Player Punches]], notably [[spoiler:the deaths of [[GoodShepherd Abbot Francisco]], [[TheWoobie David]] and [[CoolOldLady Marta]].]]
287** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestX'': Happens various times throughout the game, but the most prominent is during the Version 4 storyline, where despite defeating Kyronos's evolving body, he'll just escape to another place or rewind time to give himself an advantage.
288** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'': No matter what you do, you can't stop Mordegon from stealing the Heart of Yggdrasil and plunging the world into an age of darkness. [[spoiler:Except after defeating him, by going back in time with his own Sword of Shadows capable of letting you win the HopelessBossFight with Jasper that capped off Act 1, resulting in a completely different sequence of events leading to the true ending.]]
289* ''VideoGame/EasternExorcist'' has the campaign of Xiahou-xue, where her prologue ends with her defeating the first boss, the Snake Yaksha, only for the Yaksha to automatically revive and ambush Xiahou-xue in the following cutscene. Her brother Xiahou-qing subsequently uses himself as a shield to absorb the Yaksha's poison to save Xue, leading to her quest to save her brother which forms the game's main storyline. There's no getting around it, Xiahou-qing must be nearly killed via poison for the plot to advance.
290* ''VideoGame/GetInTheCarLoser'':
291** Subverted in the main story, where the party successfully seals away the Machine Devil before he can begin scorching the Earth again, [[spoiler:despite the cultists and the Divine Order unsealing the Machine Devil early in response]].
292** Played straight in the "Fate of Another World" DLC, which takes place in an alternate timeline where the Machine Devil was defeated after he already caused enough death and destruction to cause total societal collapse.
293* ''VideoGame/GladiatorSwordOfVengeance'' begins with your character being put through a series of GladiatorGames, to fight for your freedom. If you win, you then confront the tyrant responsible for your predicament, only to be killed by an unseen assailant. Your soul then travels to the Elysian Fields, for your ''real'' mission.
294* ''VideoGame/Halo4'' practically runs on this. [[spoiler:First, you fail to escape the damaged ''Forward Unto Dawn'' before it is torn apart by the gravity well on Requiem, causing you to crash into the planet along with the wreckage, only surviving because you're a heavily-armored SuperSoldier. Later, you try to shut down a relay station which is preventing you from warning the approaching ''Infinity'' against suffering the same fate. Not only do you fail to get the warning through in time, but in the process [[NiceJobBreakingItHero you also free]] [[BigBad the Didact]] from his [[SealedEvilInACan Cryptum]] at the station's core. Later, you fail to prevent him from leaving Requiem in search of his superweapon, the Composer, and after chasing him to its location you fail to prevent him from acquiring it and using it on the station's personnel. Pursuing him to Earth, you again arrive too late to stop him firing it -- and while you do manage to defeat him and destroy it, it's too late to save the population of New Phoenix, who were right in the firing line.]]
295* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'':
296** The Pillars will be corrupted. The entire series begins with this event in a cutscene before the player character is even born.
297** In Defiance, currently the "end" of the series, the ''collapse'' of the Pillars occurs in a cutscene, unavoidable just like the very first scene of the series. These events, while similar and even overlapping to a degree, constitute two separate evil plans by two separate evils. It is not a very victorious series.
298* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'':
299** The only time the party manages to prevent the theft of a Divine Moon Object is just before Shana is kidnapped and they're [[HostageForMacGuffin forced to turn over all three for her return]].
300** Similarly, they can't stop any of the Signet Spheres from being destroyed or the God of Destruction from being born, forcing them to kill the god themselves.
301* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
302** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': Subverted. While Link isn't able to stop Agahnim from sending Zelda to the Dark World and opening the portal between worlds, he is able to stall him by rescuing Zelda and hiding her at Sanctuary, forcing Agahnim's soldiers to search for her while Link retrieves the Pendants and the Master Sword. If Zelda had been banished at the start of the game like Agahnim was intending, Link would have had a lot stronger opposition to face in his quest, and Agahnim would have remained alive and made Ganon's foothold in the Light World significantly stronger.
303** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'':
304*** It's often said that the easiest way to beat the game is to get the Kokiri Emerald and then stop playing. Now that Ganondorf can't collect the three Spiritual Stones, he'll never enter the Sacred Realm. Link progressing in his quest, first with the Spiritual Stones and then with the temple Sages, is actually part of Ganondorf's plan.
305*** While the game otherwise plays it straight, WordOfGod is that it was actually subverted offscreen. After beating Ganondorf in the FinalBattle, Link went back in time and used his knowledge of the future to expose Ganondorf and have him arrested before his plan could really get started. This created two alternate timelines: one where Ganondorf was defeated during the climatic showdown (which led to ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass its]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks sequels]]) and one where Ganondorf was defeated early on (which led to ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]''). On the other hand, ''Twilight Princess'' showed that Ganondorf's attempted execution was a spectacular failure that only served to set up a new crisis, so that zig-zags things back to being played straight.
306** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', no matter what you do, you can't reach the Skull Kid until 5 minutes before the moon crashes into Clock Town. Despite the GroundhogDayLoop giving you effectively infinite chances to try to get on top of the clock tower before that point, you never can. Just like you can never get to Mikau (the Zora guitarist you get the Zora Mask from) until he's seconds from death.
307** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'': ''Ages'' and ''Seasons'' may end with Labrynna and Holodrum saved from Veran and Onox, but they both still technically succeeded in their goals [[spoiler:to ignite the flames of Sorrow and Destruction]]. In a linked game, whichever happens second will be shortly followed by [[spoiler:Twinrova lighting the flame of Despair]], as well. Only after all that, as the bad guys are on the verge of [[spoiler:sacrificing Princess Zelda to resurrect Ganon]] does Link truly interfere with their plans, barging in at the last moment and [[spoiler:fighting the witches to the death before they can resurrect Ganon properly]].
308** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': Link's attempt to rescue his sister ends in failure due to his inability to confront the Helmaroc King, forcing him to embark on a longer quest with the help of the King of Red Lions. When Link does a second attempt, [[spoiler:he manages to rescue her with the help of Tetra and her crew ''and'' defeats the Helmaroc King for good, but is unable to confront Ganondorf due to the Master Sword having lost its power (which means his new plan was ultimately doomed to fail as well)]].
309** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' has you gather three {{MacGuffin}}s that will help defeat the BigBad, only for said BigBad to teleport in behind you right after getting the last piece and stealing them all.
310** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'': The bad guys are trying to resurrect an ancient demon and you have to climb to the top of the Tower of Spirits in order to stop them. Guess what happens when you reach the top.
311** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' has a rather strange twist on the trend: After the first three dungeons, you effectively have thwarted the villain at Stage 1 once Zelda and Impa escape through a time gate and blow it up behind them. It's only because [[spoiler:Old Impa, presumably at the behest of Zelda/the Goddess]] insist you build a new time gate so you can hear an explanation and plan that she could have given you herself, that TheDragon can [[NiceJobBreakingItHero travel back in time]] to release the SealedEvilInACan at the end. [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption Had you not been forced to unthwart Stage 1]], [[spoiler:Demise would never have been released, and his curse that brought Ganondorf in existence wouldn't have happened. So ''Skyward Sword'' effectively is the unthwarted Stage 1 for every game that features Ganondorf as BigBad, which means [[HijackedByGanon most of them]]]]. Oops.
312** Inverted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''. Calamity Ganon's Hyrule Compendium entry reveals that as soon as he realized Link had awoken, Ganon focused all efforts on rebuilding his body. However, the process is interrupted and he only manages to slap together an incomplete spider-like form by the time Link arrived. This occurs whether Link clears all the dungeons first or goes straight for Ganon right away. So in a way, in BOTW the player always thwarts Stage One.
313** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': Midway through the story, the New Champions realize that [[spoiler:Ganondorf has been using Phantom Zelda to stall for time while he gradually recovers the strength of his body, having been desiccated after millennia being sealed underground. He finishes rejuvenating himself back to full strength just as Link arrives in his lair for their climactic duel. Even if the player skips every dungeon and just goes straight for Ganondorf at the earliest opportunity, the Demon King will always regain his old body right as the hero arrives.]]
314** In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'':
315*** Cia and Ganondorf each get their hands on the full Triforce and its infinite, reality-warping power early on in their respective arcs before somehow still being defeated by the heroes.
316*** On a smaller scale, Sequence Breaking is nigh impossible in Legend Mode; if you manage to bypass the enemies to get to the "main" target of the scenario (i.e. Wizzro in the first scenario of the Prologue), they'll quickly disappear to prolong things until the necessary storywise events have occurred (i.e. King Dodongo has appeared)
317*** This also happens in some Adventure Mode battles, combined with an unusual variation of You Shouldn't Know This Already: In many of them, you have to complete a mission, and are then told to find a boss key in a specific keep to access the overall boss of the battle; it is very possible to get the key early but the key won't work until you complete the starting mission.
318** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity'' is an AlternateTimeline retelling of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'''s backstory where the heroes get advanced warning about the return of Calamity Ganon, and thus begin work far ahead of time to stop it from happening, while ''another'' entity who also has this advanced knowledge starts working double-time to make sure it does come to pass. [[spoiler:The heroes succeed in thwarting Ganon's victory, though the initial stage of him hijacking the Divine Beasts and Guardians still gets underway.]]
319* ''VideoGame/{{Loopmancer}}'' sees you defeating the Big Guy, the easy first boss, and automatically dying in the next cutscene because your arch-enemy, Wei Long, has a sniper on standby. Your loop then resets itself, leading the main plot.
320* Astonishingly subverted in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga''. Despite Cackletta's efforts to steal Princess Peach's voice to awaken the [[CosmicKeystone Beanstar]] to conquer the Beanbean Kingdom, [[spoiler:she's ultimately (and ''spectacularly'') OutGambitted by Princess Peach, Prince Peasley, the Mario Bros., and Queen Bean. So she decides to use Bowser's flying castle to [[VillainousBreakdown destroy the Beanbean Kingdom]].]]
321* Played entirely straight to an almost astonishing degree in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', where everything the heroes do up until the Ultibed Quest is a complete failure in terms of stopping Bowser and Antasma. [[spoiler:They try and save Peach. They initially fail. Then they save her... but Bowser and Antasma do a VillainTeamUp against the heroes and set off to conquer the real world. They head for the Dream Stone, but Bowser and Antasma manage to steal it before they get there. The duo go to Mount Pajamaja, but the villains use MagicMusic to put the island to sleep and charge the McGuffin, eventually having their evil wishes granted. And to top it all of, when they try to hide Peach in Dreamy Driftwood Shore, they find that Peach is actually Kamek in disguise and the real Peach is being held hostage at Neo Bowser Castle. Or in other words... everything until the Ultibed thing is a complete ShaggyDogStory that Mario and Luigi may as well have not bothered with.]]
322** This even extends to the ''final'' Stage. The final villain has the [[ArtifactOfPower Dream Stone]] and is about to use it. Your allies decide to try their last-ditch option: [[spoiler:destroy it]]. They succeed. [[spoiler:Bowser uses the [[TheAssimilator Inhale]] ability [[ContinuityNod from the last game]] to [[SuperMode absorb the fragments into his own body]].]] Cue the FinalBoss.
323* ''VideoGame/NewLegends'' opens with the raid of the Soo Kingdom, and regardless of your performance, you ''will'' be captured by enemy lieutenants, witness the death of your father the Emperor, and be MadeASlave and thrown into the enemy labor camp. The following stage is a prison escape where you meet the LaResistance.
324* ''VideoGame/NineMonkeysOfShaolin'': The first stage, your DoomedHometown, can be completed within two minutes, concluding with you getting mortally wounded by the marauder captain who killed your grandfather and have your village burned down. You are then rescued by several Shaolin monks who nurses you back to health and trains you for your revenge, kicking off the main plot of the game.
325* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'':
326** In ''VideoGame/Shantae2002'' and ''VideoGame/ShantaeRiskysRevenge'', Risky gets away with the ArtifactOfDoom no matter what, and your only reward for beating the first boss is not dying.
327** ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'': This happens twice. First, you can't stop Ammo Baron from making a mess of Scuttle Town because [[spoiler:he is still legally the town's owner.]] Second, [[spoiler:even though you spent the entire game trying to prevent the Pirate Master from rising from his grave, he does it anyway.]]
328** ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'': The first boss is a DoubleSubversion. Shantae's ArchEnemy, Risky Boots, gives up the stolen blueprints to Mimic's Dynamo device after being defeated. However, it's a BatmanGambit on Risky's part, since she swapped out the blueprints for fakes.
329* Almost a little ridiculous in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games, where Bowser will always succeed in taking over most of the kingdom and Mario won't find out about any of it until he kidnaps Princess Peach. Actually averted in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', where Mario and Luigi go to rescue Peach from Bowser [[NotMeThisTime before Bowser ever did anything]], leading to quite a bit of confusion on the part of both parties as to who did it.
330* In an amusing example, one speedrun of ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars]]'' features beating the boss Punchinello on the first turn using Mario's Super Jump attack to cause more damage than the boss has HP. Punchinello normally goes through "stages" where he summons and throws bombs of increasing size; when killed early, he runs through all of his bomb summoning animations sequentially and then goes right into his death animation.
331* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', you can't stop the annihilation of all worlds. In fact, you get caught in the middle of one being annihilated! [[spoiler:Everything is remade at the end, however.]]
332* In ''VideoGame/Persona2'', this trope is justified, as the players are actually being manipulated by the villains as part of a huge BatmanGambit. And in ''Innocent Sin'' in particular, [[spoiler:[[ApocalypseHow Stage Two is still completed.]]]] This gets lampshaded a few times.
333-->'''Ulala:''' Always a moment too late...
334* ''VideoGame/Persona4'': You can't stop any of the victims from being thrown into the TV, you can't stop them from denying their [[BeneathTheMask Shadow self]], and you can't stop [[spoiler:the TV world's fog from leaking into Inaba, which is Stage 1 of this game's [[ApocalypseHow apocalypse]]]].
335* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', ''three'' separate Stage Ones manage to complete before the heroes can stop it. [[spoiler:You can't stop the traitor from betraying you, thus getting the protagonist arrested and nearly killed (although in this case, the Phantom Thieves [[BatmanGambit allowed the betrayal to go through in order to discover the identity of who the traitor was working for]]). You can't stop Masayoshi Shido from being elected Prime Minister of Japan. Lastly, you can't stop Yaldabaoth from merging the two realities and wiping you out of existence.]]
336* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'': Sovereign manages to dock with the Citadel before it is destroyed.
337* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'':
338** Even if you install all the ship upgrades as soon as possible, you can't use them against the Collector Ship until the FinalBattle. Specifically, Shephard can install the highly destructive Thanix Cannon (which [[OneHitKill one-shots]] it in the FinalBattle) before running into the Collector Ship two more times, without using it. The first time, Shepard is actually on board the Collector Ship as the Illusive Man has sent them there to gather intel, despite knowing that it's a trap. The second time, a virus embedded in the Reaper IFF disables the ship's weaponry, and Shepard decided to take the shuttle, preventing them from being able to do anything about the [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs Collector attack on the ship]].
339** In ''The Arrival'' you will always be captured when you discover the science team has been indoctrinated by Object Rho. Even if you defeat all the waves, you will be knocked unconscious by the artifact itself.
340* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', it's impossible to stop the Reaper invasion of Earth, causing Shepard to make an emergency escape as they watch civilians, and a child die before their very eyes. It's also impossible to prevent, or prepare for Cerberus turning against you, regardless of your relationship with the Illusive Man at the end of the previous game.
341* Subverted in the ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' game: If you can win an extremely difficult (but not [[HopelessBossFight hopeless]]) space battle, you can put an end to the BigBad's plan and win the game long before the villain's plans come to fruition. Unfortunately, while this rewrites the canonical [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Bridge Drop]], Kirk still stays dead.
342* In many ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games starting with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', the heroes are unable to stop the early stages of a villian's plan. Not so true for ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI I]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII III]]'', or ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX X]]'' because all the major stuff [[LateToTheTragedy happens]] ''[[LateToTheTragedy before]]'' [[LateToTheTragedy the start of the game]]:
343** In [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII the second game]], TheEmpire finishes its Warship/Dreadnought just before you reach it, necessitating a more involved plan to destroy it. And of course, you can't stop the Cyclone from [[spoiler:destroying most of the cities in the game. Mysidia survives, and Salmando and Bofsk, and you just manage to save Phin; Altea, Paloom, Porft, and Gatea go bye-bye. The Emperor destroys Palamecia Castle himself, and Dist and Kashuon are both abandoned and/or in ruins anyway]].
344** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', you can't save [[DoomedHometown Damcyan or Fabul]] from [[TheEmpire Baron]]. You can't save a single [[CosmicKeystone Crystal]], Light or Dark, from falling into Golbez's hands. You can't stop the awakening of the [[HumongousMecha Giant of Babil]] (though you can blow it up from the inside). You can't even fight the BigBad yourself, only his OneWingedAngel form.
345** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', you can't save ''any'' [[CosmicKeystone Crystal]] from shattering. Ever. You can't stop Exdeath from [[SealedEvilInACan unsealing himself]] and returning to power. You can't save the Elder Forest. You can't keep the worlds from merging. You can't stop Exdeath from [[SealedEvilInACan unsealing the Dimensional Rift]] and all its {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. You can't stop Exdeath from vanishing half the planet inside the Void.
346** In an extreme case from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', Kefka succeeds at becoming a god and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroying the world as we know it]] a year before our heroes finally manage to kill him and liberate the few survivors.
347** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', you can't topple Shinra, stop Sephiroth from acquiring the [[MacGuffin Black Materia]] or summoning [[ColonyDrop Meteor]], or even stop him from [[spoiler:skewering your WhiteMagicianGirl in a PlotlineDeath]]. You can, however, stop him from achieving ultimate power and kill him ''before'' he gets it rather than after. In the ending, however, [[spoiler:you can never release Holy before it's too late for it to thwart Meteor by itself.]]
348** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', this is because of a BatmanGambit. Ultimecia has to be [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist by Her Own Petard]], as her use of [[TimeCrash time compression]] is what allows you to go into her time and defeat her.
349** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', Zidane and Co. will always arrive at locations just after the villain has finished destroying them. If they're lucky, they arrive a few minutes beforehand, and ''then'' the town is destroyed while they're in the process of escaping.
350** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' avoids this by removing every "easy" way for the heroes to succeed early. If they had killed [[spoiler:Vayne]] early on, then Archadia would have come down ''hard'' on Dalmasca, the war between the two Empires (with Dalmasca right in the middle) would never have been averted, and [[spoiler:the Occuria would have retained their grip on the world]]. The entire plot is a gradual movement of all the pieces in play until the heroes ''can'' strike a decisive victory.
351** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', you can't save Alma from capture; you have to leave her under the "protection" of the monastery while you go off and do hero stuff. And that's just scratching the surface: earlier, you can't save Tietra, then you can't stop Ophelia from siding with Folmarv, you can't convince Zalbaag to avert the resulting Lion War, you can't stop Delita's machinations. An UnwittingPawn is you, Ramza. So unwitting, in fact, that he can't even stop the Church from branding him a heretic.
352* ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'':
353** Averted in the first game, where the villainous mastermind Sherudo gets killed halfway through the game, though the rest of it is spent chasing TheDragon, Wild Dog, through the fortress.
354** In ''Time Crisis II'', Keith and Robert fail to stop the military satellite from being transported via train, and can only stop it when it's about to be launched.
355* ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' does this quite a lot, but it's made more obvious in ''VideoGame/SuikodenV''.
356** While there may be battles and encounters with major enemies early in the plot, any attempt to stop them before you recruit TheStrategist is doomed to failure (although you will be forced to try anyway).
357** You cannot prevent [[spoiler:Lord Godwin from taking over the castle with Nether Gate, the King and Queen being assassinated, or Lymsleia being kidnapped and eventually forced into [[PuppetKing puppet-queendom]], no matter what you do.]]
358* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' has the heroes spending the whole game collecting five of the six Moon Crystals and keeping them out of enemy hands -- and then have no choice but to let the villain take all six, prompting a final battle.
359* At the start of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', you encounter Ridley making off with the Metroid hatchling. Nothing you can do can stop him. If he beats you, he'll escape to Zebes with the larva. If you beat him, he'll drop the larva, then pick it up again and escape to Zebes anyway.
360* In ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris2'', you can't stop [[spoiler: Squares from gathering enough power to wipe out the party.]]
361* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':
362** ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar''. The big final scheme involves the use of a very large rocket with a nuclear payload. You fight your way through a tough squadron of [[AcePilot ace pilots]], then through a twisting canyon with ridiculous SAM coverage overhead, and then fly into Avalon Dam to destroy the launch controls. Even then, the missile is ''still'' launched and you have to take out [[spoiler:your former wingman Pixy]], who turns out to be controlling the launch from his supertech-loaded plane; the final fight becomes a race against the clock to destroy the plane and thus the control before the missile can make reentry.
363** ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' is almost exactly the same: Fight through defenses, destroy launch controls, fight ridiculous air battle anyway. Against a ''KillSat''.
364** One more example in ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' is that the opening mission of the game is the defense of your country's capital city. Despite the player possibly being able to destroy every enemy aircraft there is (not counting the respawning ones) plus drive off the enemy aces, you're ordered to retreat anyways. Only to have to fight through everything again to reclaim the capital. Not to mention the end-all doomsday weapon mission afterwards.
365** ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' had Megalith still go operational even after ISAF desperately battled through Erusea's forces in an attempt to end the war before it could be used.
366** In the first DLC mission of ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', your mission is to help your allies capture the submarine ''Alicorn'', and destroying it (which is the objective of the third DLC mission) results in a mission failure. Brigadier General Clemens justifies this by citing local reports of the submarine containing weapons of mass destruction, and that capture will give leverage in post-war negotiations. [[spoiler: But he later turns out to be TheMole]].
367* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'':
368** Notably averted where the final boss is introduced relatively early and can theoretically be beaten less than halfway into the game. You can beat him within the first 20 minutes, which incidentally makes for an amusing conversation given that the fight has canned dialogue, so people who have no idea who or what the boss is are saying things along the lines of "So that was his plan all along!"
369** Played straight when attempts to prevent Magus from summoning Lavos or the Mammon Machine from awakening him fail, and you ultimately have to defeat Lavos yourself. [[spoiler:Although Magus's "summoning" of Lavos turns out to be ultimately unrelated to what you were trying to prevent anyway -- Lavos was already inside the planet, so stopping whatever Magus was attempting in the Dark Ages wouldn't have accomplished anything.]]
370* ''Franchise/MegaMan'':
371** In [[VideoGame/MegaManX1 the first]] ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' game, when you get to Sigma's Fortress, Vile will be waiting for you. Zero intervenes and gets his ass handed to him. At this point, it is possible to have already acquired the [[GameBreaker Secret One-Hit KO Hadoken]]. However, Vile's Ride Armor is resistant to it, and will proceed to throttle you, as there are no walls to hang onto.
372** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX2'', a Maverick called Morph Moth goes through two distinct fighting phases, [[TurnsRed changing between them]] when its health is less than halved. Just before you fight him again in the fortress, you can gain a skill that kills any boss in one hit. Against Morph Moth, however, you have to do it twice -- once to beat his first phase (2/3 health), and again to beat his second phase.
373** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'', your initial defeat of Sigma is [[UnwittingPawn part of his plan]], setting in motion a ColonyDrop. You then spend most of the game building machines to prevent the crash -- but no matter how good your {{luck|BasedMission}} is, you can't stop it completely. What's more, the second thing you try may turn Zero evil, and this was ''also'' part of Sigma's plan. (Even if Zero's okay, [[LetsYouAndHimFight he and X will end up fighting]], leaving just one hero to stop Sigma.)
374** The missions you undertake in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' games fail a lot. For instance, in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero2 Zero 2]]'', you'll just about catch up with [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels Elpizo]] several times before getting a chance to actually stop him.
375** ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' lives and breathes this trope. In all six games, Lan and [=MegaMan=] defeat lots of bosses but ''never'' stop them from getting what they're after, be it [[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork3WhiteAndBlue TetraCodes or Alpha]] or whatever. Only by beating the final boss can they score a decisive win.
376** Every robot created before X and Zero is ThreeLawsCompliant. In other words, VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}} can only hope to lock up Dr. Wily for a few months ''at best''. The one time he actually ''did'' try to kill Wily (''[[VideoGame/MegaMan7 7]]'', and only [[AmericanKirbyIsHardcore in the English version]]) ends with Mega Man's A.I. going into a Three Laws loop, which allows Wily to escape. Years down the road, Wily finishes his greatest creation: Zero. When Zero is released in 21XX, he goes on a rampage. Sigma manages to put him down, but [[TheCorruption has his data compromised by the Zero Virus]], slowly driving him mad until he finally [[FaceHeelTurn snaps and declares war on humanity]], [[TheChessmaster manipulating various parties in the process]], spreading the Sigma Virus over Earth, and (worst of all) [[ColonyDrop dropping the Eurasia onto the planet]], [[ApocalypseHow turning it into a hellhole]]. Sometime after Sigma ''finally'' goes down circa ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX8 X8]]'', Zero's anti-viral programming is examined, producing the Mother Elf as a way to eradicate the lingering effects of the Sigma Virus. Then [[VideoGame/MegaManZero Dr. Weil]] enters the picture. For no reasons other than [[FantasticRacism his belief that humans are superior to Reploids]] (and an implied desire to punish Reploids for the damages incurred during the various Maverick uprisings), he [[spoiler:steals Zero's mindless body (reprogramming this blank slate into a psychopathic killing machine known as Omega)]] and corrupts the Mother Elf (turning her into the Dark Elf), starting the Elf Wars. Final count? 60% of all humans and 90% of all Reploids '''''have been wiped out'''''. In the span of a mere '''four''' years! [[spoiler:[[SealedEvilInACan In order to seal away the Dark Elf]], X gives up his body, forcing the creation of an unstable KnightTemplar copycat of himself to rule Neo Arcadia in X's place, which doesn't bode well for anyone.]] By the end of ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero4 Zero 4]]'', [[spoiler:Weil has been defeated for good and the world is saved from yet another ColonyDrop, but at the cost of [[AntiAntiChrist Zero's]] [[HeroicSacrifice life]]]]. In the following centuries, humans augment their bodies with cybernetics and Reploids are given lifespans akin to humans, merging into a single race (Humanoids) -- showing that the peace established 200 years earlier is built to last while finally bringing Dr. Light's dream of harmony between humans and robots to fruition. Then [[ArtifactOfDoom Model W]] (heavily implied to be [[spoiler:Weil's soul merged with fragments of [[KillSat Ragnarok]] from the finale of ''Zero 4'']]) rears its ugly head in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZX ZX]]'', mucking up things yet again. [[LeftHanging This threat is presumably dealt with]], but the world somehow is [[TheGreatFlood sacked by a great flood]] and [[spoiler:humans all but disappear and are replaced by a race of {{Artificial Human}}s known as Carbons]] in the next 4400 or so years (the time of ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends''). And there are ''still'' problems in the world. And all of this can be indirectly traced back to one heroic robot being unable to kill one MadScientist. It is a vicious domino effect like no other.
377*** ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' only poured more salt on the wound with the reveal that it might have been possible to thwart Stage 1 after all: [[spoiler:Wily's StartOfDarkness came about when Light convinced the board of scientists overseeing their research to shut down Wily's work on the Double Gear System due to Light's concerns about the risk it posed to robots equipped with it. Light realizes his role as the UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom years later and once more extends the olive branch to his one-time friend, [[RedemptionRejection but Wily refuses and vows to continue his war]].]]
378* The first stage of ''VideoGame/NinjaCommando'' automatically ends with the BigBad, Spider, escaping via TimeMachine to [[SetWrongWhatWasOnceMadeRight rewrite history and prevent his present-day defeat]], and there's no getting around it. You then hijack another prototype time machine to pursue Spider.
379* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' is practically the poster child for the trope. The [[spoiler:initial]] BigBad succeeds in destroying the world within the first few minutes of gameplay, and, due to the structure of the plot, it only gets worse from there. [[spoiler:You can't stop your friends from turning into half-human monsters, heaven forbid talk them out of their [[FaceHeelTurn Face-Heel Turns]], you can't stop Hijiri going insane, you can't stop Isamu sacrifing him, you can't stop Chiaki from slaughtering the Mannikins, you can't stop Hikawa from opening the Ark of the Covenant, you can't stop anyone from gathering enough Magatsuhi to summon their "God", and it's only at TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon where you're able to defeat anyone]]. If you go for the True Demon ending, [[spoiler:Metatron can't stop you, plot-wise, from teaming up with Lucifer to destroy all worlds and RageAgainstTheHeavens]]. That said, this is averted when [[spoiler:Hijiri announces he'll form his own Reason, then is promptly kidnapped and killed by Isamu]], and if you decide not to pursue the True Demon path, [[spoiler:preventing Lucifer's plan from even really starting]]. It's also subverted if you go for one of the Reason endings, since there [[spoiler:you might not want to thwart Stage One]].
380* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
381** Subverted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''; turns out Snake could've stopped Stage One easily [[spoiler:if he died. Ocelot ''accidentally'' killed one of the hostages with the PAL codes (it's revealed later he had his reasons), so they couldn't launch Rex's nuke. Except that Armstech had created a special card key which would deactivate the nuke (if it was activated) or activate the nuke (if it was deactivated). All they had to do was convince Snake that they had the codes, and Snake [[NiceJobBreakingItHero went along and completed Stage One for the terrorists]] ("You found the key and even activated the warhead for us")]].
382** ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}'', Act 3: [[spoiler:Ocelot wins. He captured Big Boss's body while you were distracted by a decoy. He has enough control over the SOP system to completely shut down the world's armed forces. All that's left is to ensure that he cannot launch nuclear strikes as well.]]
383** The ''Metal Gear'' series provides one of the most excessive examples of this in all of gaming: the first five games are all stopping terrorists, who are eventually revealed to have been rebelling against the very dangerous conspiracy which is only thwarted in the final act of the last game. This EvilVersusEvil scenario means that the world would've been screwed regardless of whether Solid Snake succeeded or failed.
384** Perhaps if Ocelot, Liquid, Zero, or Big Boss had been killed off early, the dangerous conspiracies would never have even taken place at all. The HD Collection lampshades this with the Trophy/Achievement "Problem Solved, Series Over", which you get for killing Ocelot in the prequel ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater MGS3]]'' (which results in a NonStandardGameOver).
385** Played straight in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'': [[spoiler:All seems well when the President's trip to Pakistan is cancelled and Air Force One turns back, but [[BigBad Senator Armstrong's]] plan wasn't foiled: the fact that American soldiers died on the Pakistani base was more than enough to kick up support for a war that would see Armstrong elected and his vision for a SocialDarwinist America realized.]]
386* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', [[spoiler:the BigBad [[DeusEstMachina Deus]] is resurrected and nearly at full power. Because of what it has to do to resurrect itself (transforming the bodies of humans and fusing with them), almost all of humanity is wiped out. The hero, of course, slays Deus, though not before this all happens]].
387* ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA'' had a branching storyline, so it was entirely possible to completely screw up the bad guys' plans and get them all killed before the plot could come to fruition. However, this gets you a bad ending, since the plot never had a chance to get underway and as a result you never were able to piece together exactly what the hell was going on in the first place. More importantly, in the bad ending, [[AntiHero Nick Kang]] loses his job for accidentally killing the BigBad (or letting him die) and remains bitter for not finding closure. In the [[FromBadToWorse REAALLY Bad]] ending, [[spoiler:Nick's brother is murdered, prompting him to go [[HeWhoFightsMonsters full-on]] [[NinetiesAntiHero vigilante]], the BigBad escapes, and TheDragon teases Nick about knowing about what happened to [[DisappearedDad Nick's father]] just seconds before dying himself.]]
388* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
389** Played ''really'' straight in the [=GameCube=] ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake remake]]. When playing as Chris, you come across Wesker fighting Lisa Trevor. He'll say "Chris! Take a piece of the action!" when he sees you, and you fight her off together. However, Wesker can get knocked into the abyss by Lisa's attacks. If he does so, he'll ''still'' appear unscathed during the final battle, with no explanation. This ''started'' as a subversion, though. Originally, this actually would have killed Wesker, with the player receiving an entirely different ending. For whatever reason, the developers decided against it, and ''forgot to remove the line of code that allowed Wesker to be knocked off the edge''.
390** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' has [[WasOnceAMan William Birkin]] seeking out his daughter, Sherry, to put a G-Embryo into, as it needs a genetic relative in order to make that embryo grow into a viable G-virus mutant. Claire Redfield and Leon do their damnedest to keep her safe, but eventually she gets sucked down through a sewer duct and is knocked unconscious in the landing, with William arriving soon after to infect her. The heroes then spend the rest of the game engineering a cure, which they give to her in the nick of time.
391** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', Wesker's plan was to make a lot of virus, load that virus on to rockets, and fire them out of a plane at high altitude, infecting the entire world. He was "less than five minutes" away from "the optimum altitude for missile deployment." Fortunately, [[MemeticMutation complete global saturation]] was averted by crashing the plane into a volcano.
392* Blizzard seems to enjoy this trope as a means for making proper drama.
393** In ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', the chronological order of the campaign is Terran -> Zerg -> Protoss, with the Terrans introducing most of the cast and the threat of the Zerg, the Zerg campaign having them run rampant over most of the galaxy, and the Protoss managing to barely pull off a last second victory despite a [[spoiler:fully manifested Overmind on the surface of Aiur]].
394*** Subverted in the ''Brood War'' expansion, as the order is changed to Protoss -> Terran -> Zerg, with the Protoss simply doing their best to survive in their campaign, the Terrans introducing the new UED antagonists and succeeding much like the Zerg before them... and then [[spoiler:Kerrigan betrays ''everyone'' and the Zerg finish the game as the pre-eminent power in the Sector, with only Kerrigan's mercy holding them from overrunning her former allies she used to bring down the UED.]]
395** In ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'', the first two games were a continuity snarl as the Alliance and Orc sides had different, mutually exclusive endings if you played through them. ''Reign of Chaos'', however introduced a similar progression to ''[=StarCraft=]'', with the Alliance campaign ending on [[spoiler:Arthas' corruption into a Death Knight]], the Scourge campaign rolling up most of Lordaeron, before the Horde and Night Elf campaigns manage to beat back the Scourge's Burning Legion backers in an exciting climax.
396*** And much like ''[=StarCraft=]'' before it, ''Frozen Throne'' starts with the Night Elves dealing with the aftermath of the first game, moves on to the Alliance campaign setting up Illidan's powerbase, and then ends with Arthas [[spoiler:beating all comers around the titular ''Frozen Throne'' before putting on Ner'Zul's armor and becoming the Lich King, with the unlimited power the position entails no longer kept in check by the Throne's prison.]]'
397** ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is generally pretty reliable, with the villains getting their plans moving in spite of or [[NiceJobBreakingItHero because of]] the player character, to set them up with a power boost to be fought and killed later as a dungeon or raid boss. One notable exception happens in ''Wrath of the Lich King'' where players foil the Scourge's attempt to resurrect Galakrond, the {{Kaiju}} sized protodrake, borderline EldritchAbomination and father of dragonkind who required a Titan keeper and all five dragon aspects to kill. Stopping that plot was mandatory to keep the Scourge from instantly winning their war, and nobody since has made another attempt to revive Galakrond.
398** In short, you can't stop Stage One because, at any point where stopping the bad guys early is a real possibility, you're ''playing'' as them.
399** In ''VideoGame/DiabloII,'' you cannot stop Diablo from freeing Baal and reuniting with Mephisto. In the ''Lord of Destruction'' expansion, you can't stop Baal from corrupting the Worldstone, but you ''can'' kill him, letting Tyrael destroy the Worldstone before it can be used to turn Sanctuary into another Hell realm.
400** In ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', you cannot stop [[spoiler:Diablo from being resurrected as the Prime Evil at the cost of poor Leah's life and running roughshod all over the High Heavens]], but you ''can'' stop [[spoiler:him from completely extinguishing the Crystal Arch and casting both the Heavens and Sanctuary into darkness forever]].
401* ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' actually averts this trope. The first stage has Neo try to escape the Agents trying to arrest him at his office. Unlike the movie, however, Neo can climb the scaffolding and make it to the roof, meeting up with Trinity, and leaving the office undetected. [[spoiler:All this does is unlock Hard Mode, though.]]
402* ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2]]'' features this trope ''multiple times''.
403** In "No Russian", in which shooting the terrorists you are undercover with results in a [[NonStandardGameOver scolding for trying to be a hero and not going along with their attack]]. You can skip the level (though its events still enter into the canon), though.
404** The game's BigBad, [[spoiler:Shepherd, can be found as an NPC on the first level.]] Shooting him results in a [[spoiler:friendly fire game over. The concept does make for a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THU2H5_nadQ rather amusing video]], though.]]
405** The BigBad [[spoiler:Shepherd also helps Private Allen up at the start of the second level]] before walking away -- if you shoot at him, however, ''gunfire will not hit him''.
406* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryV: Dragon Fire'', no matter what you do, [[spoiler:the Dragon of Doom will rise and need to be defeated]] at the end of the game. Never mind that you and everyone else that matters in the Kingdom know which exact artefacts need to be protected in order to prevent that occurrence, and where these are; they get destroyed anyway. Also, the mysterious assassin makes a few appearances during the game; of course, [[CutsceneIncompetence you stand there like an idiot]] and can't deal with him until the plot says you can.
407** In the previous game ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'', the BigBad lures the player into a trap before siccing a horde of mooks on him. If you are quick enough and clever enough, it's actually possible to escape this ambush and make it back to a friendly town, where you're safe. But the plot requires you to be captured, and the BigBad will just keep trying every night until he succeeds.
408** ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIII'', yes, the Demons ''will'' assassinate the Leopardman and the Simbani leaders forcing you to find their hidden fortress in the depths of the Fricana junglet.
409** ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryII'', all of the elementals will be released onto Shapeir, you cannot save Ugarte, and you will get brainwashed into doing the BigBad's bidding.
410* Averted in the Extra endings of ''VideoGame/ShadowOfDestiny'', where you gain the ability to [[spoiler:foil the entire game in the ''prologue'']]. Especially notable in that, [[MindScrew depending on how you interpret the game]], [[spoiler:this is the final canon ending.]] If you take the time to consider how a lot of the plot plays out, ANY of the endings could be Stage One.
411* Taken to its logical extreme in the first ''VideoGame/WonderlandAdventures'' game: [[spoiler:the thwarts ''succeed''. The plan ''worked.'' The Void WILL engulf Wonderland no matter what you do.]] However, you get the chance to, essentially, [[spoiler:''repair the world.'']]
412* All over the place in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series:
413** You ''do'' thwart Stage One in [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red/Blue/Yellow]]: Whatever Giovanni had planned for Silph Co, you beat him down before he can get it, earning yourself a nice shiny TooAwesomeToUse Master Ball for your efforts.
414** {{Justified|Trope}} in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold/Silver/Crystal]]'' by the fact that [[spoiler:the guard won't let you higher up the Radio Tower, and, even if he isn't in on the whole thing, there's no way he would buy the excuse, "The director was kidnapped and Team Rocket has a fake up there!"]].
415** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald]]'' really had no excuse. You knock out Maxie/Archie's Pokémon, and have him cornered, with his back to magma, just asking for a DisneyVillainDeath. But he escapes.
416** Nicely handled in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Platinum]]'' with [[spoiler:Cyrus trying to attack you about 5/8ths in, letting you beat him down. He still escapes, though]], and you aren't able to access the Galactic Hideout early, even if you grind to level 100. That receptionist must have balls to still not let you go past at that point.
417** Happens again in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White]]'', where [[spoiler:you will never be able to stop N from defeating the Elite Four and Champion, no matter how fast you get to the Pokémon League. Alder states that he is going to give N the best thrashing he can, and while he fails, he insists you hold on to whatever stone your game provides in case things don't go as he expects (and, as stated above, they do go awry).]]
418** And in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Sun and Moon]]'', [[spoiler:you can't stop Lusamine from opening the Ultra Wormhole and going through it with Guzma. You have to spend most of the rest of the main plot getting to Ultra Space yourself to retrieve them, and then the main postgame plot cleaning up the damage she did by letting the Ultra Beasts into Alola.]]
419* In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', the Doctor succeeds in kidnapping the Mimigas, acquiring the demon flowers, and even creating a concentrated form of the flowers' active ingredient. You can't stop him until he's on the verge of turning the Mimigas into his personal army of monsters. ([[spoiler:Destroying the Core]] might or might not have been part of the Doctor's plan; you can't thwart that, either.)
420* Happens quite commonly in ''VideoGame/ProjectSylpheed'', thanks to the NewGamePlus feature. The first time you, the player, take on an enemy cruiser, it's quite the accomplishment, being very, very difficult even on the easiest difficulty settings. Your commander even admits that he's impressed, but he doesn't want to see you try anything that stupid again. Of course, over the span of the game, your space fighter gets weapons upgrades that are GameBreaker-level improvements... Which in no way affect the game's storyline or allow you to rescue or otherwise impact the story in any meaningful way. Even when you're regularly wiping out entire enemy fleets, your own fleet will still be desperately on the run.
421* Surprisingly averted in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' in that after defeating the villain, the SealedEvilInACan is never unleashed (until [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn the sequel]]) despite having been an apparent ChekhovsGun throughout the game.
422** This is played straight for most ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games, though, as Stage 1 usually involves the successful invasion of another country, an opening used in every game in the series, usually to the success of the bad guys. A more direct example would also be in [[spoiler:''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', where the villains successfully manage to defeat all the heroes and kill the protagonist. They then complete their later steps with no opposition, including taking over the world and resurrecting their evil god. In fact, the only thing the hero actually prevents in the end is a lengthy rule of evil.]]
423* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianTwilight'' is pretty extreme about this if you compare the two choices: you either work against Kane or with him. [[spoiler:In both cases, he wins. Although it's debatable if his ultimate plan is evil or not, his means certainly are.]]
424* ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 2|CursedMemories}}'' has the protagonist try to summon the final boss at the very start of the game. It doesn't work, but he does try.
425** [[spoiler:Actually averted, sort of, as he does summon exactly what he was trying to summon. He just didn't know the final boss was a fake Zenon and that the real Zenon has reincarnated as the bratty girl who called herself Overlord Zenon's daughter. ]]
426* ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' [[spoiler:is a deconstruction of this trope. Near the start of the game, your character, Renko, is thrown 50 years into the past -- going from a destroyed building to a building on fire. Coming across someone trapped in the fire, Renko saves him, then jumps back into the present -- where he (Dr. Demichev) has taken control of the world. Unfortunately, if you try to kill Demichev or leave him to die, the game will end.]]
427** This is explained by the endgame. [[spoiler:After fighting through Demichev's troops, Renko manages to create a bomb powerful enough to destroy the island's reactor -- he detonates it in the past. When he comes back to the present, Demichev is waiting for him in front of an ''operational reactor''. He says that it was pointless to destroy the reactor -- he just rebuilt it. Dr. Raikov, a supporter of yours, then says that the problem with the time loop wasn't the reactor, but Demichev -- since you rescued him from the fire. Demichev then says that ''you've already tried killing him in the past, and it changed nothing'' - as evidenced by notes scrawled on the wall by someone who turns out to be ''Renko''. Raikov then realizes that the only way to stop the loop is to destroy the one thing not present in the original timestream -- Renko.]]
428* Touched on in one of the opening levels of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'', which sends you to investigate a warehouse where gunfire was recently heard. One of the corrupt commercial cleaners at the place lets you in and shows you around the place, eventually leading you into an ambush. Killing him beforehand averts nothing, but instead causes the protagonist to make an off comment in his rampant monologuing about how obvious a brawl he was walking into.
429-->'''Max''': The perp's disguise didn't fool me. He was leading me into a trap.
430* Averted ''and'' played straight in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''. Straight examples: when playing through story missions, it always seems to come back to a climactic battle between you and the villain of the arc, even if you've successfully completed all the missions beforehand (and should have already thwarted his plans). However, you can also do one-off missions such as "Prevent the Xs from obtaining the Oxygen Destroyer!" Once you complete the mission, you never hear about it again; it is never explained just what ''would'' happen if the Oxygen Destroyer was obtained, but fortunately you thwarted Stage One!
431* In ''VideoGame/MafiaII'', there are several scenes where your target is visible running away from you, with the intention that you'd be too busy dealing with the next group of {{mooks}} to shoot him then. But if you DO take some well-aimed shots, he's seen taking the hits and ''completely ignoring them'', even headshots. Killing some targets earlier may have spared you having to drive Henry to El Greco or [[spoiler: saved Marty's life]].
432** Averted with the mission where you have to [[spoiler:warn Leo that Henry's been sent to kill him]]. It's difficult, but it is possible to simply avoid him and escape with [[spoiler:Leo]]. If you get caught, [[spoiler:Henry strikes a deal and allows Leo to leave town, letting him get payment for the job and keeping your old friend alive.]]
433* In ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed: [[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'' (2005), no matter what you do, Razor ''will'' rig your car, ''will'' win the race, and he ''will'' skyrocket to Blacklist #1.
434* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds,'' every major Chaos Lord so far has succeeded in awakening a Chaos Beast and breaking one of Drakath's seals before being defeated by the hero. The one time the hero does actually prevent a Chaos Lord from summoning a Chaos Beast during the Mythsong saga, [[spoiler:it turns out that he's not the real Chaos Lord, and that the real Chaos Lord, Kimberly of One Eyed Doll, was controlling him. And she has a Chaos Beast all ready for the hero to fight]].
435* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. CutsceneIncompetence stops you saving the Emperor from assassins at the start of the game. You arrive at Kvatch the day after [[OurDemonsAreDifferent The Daedra]] burn it to the ground, though thankfully Martin, the man you were sent to rescue, survived by hiding in a chapel with the people he helped to rescue. You take him back to the Weynon Priory just as the Mythic Dawn have finished ransacking the place, killed the head priest and taken [[MacGuffin the Amulet of Kings]]. You can't stop Mankar Cameron fleeing to paradise with the amulet, you need to adventure the length and breadth of Cyrodiil looking for components to build a portal so you can follow him. [[spoiler:And even when you finally get the amulet, Mehrunes Dagon still achieves his goal of being summoned to Tamriel.]]
436** If you join the Dark Brotherhood, [[spoiler:Lucien Lachance can't stop you from murdering half of the Brotherhood, all the way up to The Listener. You can't save him when the surviving members of the Brotherhood execute him for treachery, and the only way you can expose the real traitor, Bellamont, is when he tries to kill the Night Mother, by which time only you and one other Brotherhood leader, Arquen, remain. (Justified, the Night Mother is fully aware of Bellamont's treason, but reasons that if the rest of the Brotherhood can't find him, they deserve death for their incompetence.)]]
437** And you can only delay [[spoiler:Sheogorath's transformation into Jyggalag and the triggering of the Greymarch]], not stop it completely.
438* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
439** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', Sora spends so much time trying to lock every keyhole that [[spoiler:he doesn't even find out the Princesses of Heart are being kidnapped until he finds them in the final level, where they're being used for Stage One of "Ansem's" takeover.]] THEN [[spoiler:Sora [[BodyHorror carves out his own heart]] and completes Stage One for the guy.]]
440** Then, in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', you fail to get through Castle Oblivion [[spoiler:before all of Sora's memories are rearranged so that Namine replaces Kairi in Sora's mind.]] Thankfully, this isn't permanent.
441** Then, in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', it turns out that [[spoiler:all those Heartless you've been killing? Why, [[UnwittingPawn you've been helping Xemnas complete Stage One of his plan to give himself and his fellow Nobodies hearts]].]]
442** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', you can't stop Master Xehanort from successfully forging the χ-blade and putting his plan into unlocking Kingdom Hearts into motion. He is also doing this on a franchise wide level, having several times previously tried this plan, as seen in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', but escaping to fight another battle each time these attempts ''were'' thwarted. Only when he finally succeeds in forging the blade can he be defeated at long last. The only reason he doesn't get far is because [[spoiler:Sora's friends transport him to Scala ad Caelum using his power over time and space against him, allowing Sora, Donald, and Goofy to confront Xehanort and put an end to his ambitions once for all.]] And TheStinger reveals that [[spoiler:the entire trilogy was Stage 1 for Luxu, a.k.a ''Xigbar'', though what his end goal is is still unknown]].
443* In the Creator/{{Infocom}} text adventure murder-mystery, ''Witness'', the murder itself doesn't actually happen until a few minutes into the game. It's entirely possible to prevent the murder and completely derail the plot by doing something utterly insane (i.e. shooting the killer, or even murdering the victim yourself). However, any such act would end the game immediately with your character being sent to jail (or, if you decide to take the bullet for the victim, the morgue).
444* In specific missions, the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games sometimes do allow you to thwart a stage -- avoiding a car chase by planting a car bomb beforehand, sniping a villain who's fleeing to a speedboat, etc. The grand plot, however, is pretty strict -- sometimes you'll even have a required EscortMission for a character you'll have to kill in a later mission.
445* Averted in ''VideoGame/MetalGear1'', where you get to destroy the Metal Gear before it activates.
446* ''VideoGame/TouhouYouyoumuPerfectCherryBlossom'': you can't stop [[spoiler:Yuyuko from resurrecting herself with the [[SpringIsLate stolen essence of Spring]]]]. [[HoldTheLine The best you can do]] [[spoiler:is dodge her final spellcard, during which she is invincible]].
447** ''VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight'': you can't stop Eirin from tampering with Gensokyo's Full Moon. [[spoiler:[[ShaggyDogStory And it actually would have been better if you don't stop her and risk Gensokyo in the progress.]]]]
448** ''VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism'': you can't stop Utsuho from growing in both power and madness. CAUTION!
449** ''VideoGame/TouhouSeirensenUndefinedFantasticObject'': you can't stop Toramaru and co from unsealing [[spoiler:Byakuren. {{Subverted|Trope}}, they aren't villains by any means]].
450** ''VideoGame/TouhouShinreibyouTenDesires'': you can't stop [[spoiler:Miko's rite of resurrection]].
451* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': The series thrives on this. In many games, Sonic tries to stop some evil from being released or brought to full power (or in one case, the Chaos Emeralds from being collected, which unbeknownst to him and Eggman, releases an evil anyway). Said plot goes underway anyway despite his best efforts, and the final boss is him going Super Sonic to face the unleashed evil and bring peace to the world again.
452** In ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', Knuckles is being manipulated by Eggman into thinking that Sonic is coming to steal the Master Emerald. Sonic can't tell Knuckles that this isn't the case (be it his HeroicMime status or because Knuckles never sticks around long enough to listen), and no matter what, Sonic can never make it to the Hidden Palace in time to protect the Master Emerald before Eggman's ready to betray Knuckles. Doubly subverted, though, in regards to Eggman's plans to rebuild the Death Egg. Sonic's victory at the Launch Base causes the Death Egg to crash down to Angel Island in destruction before it can be launched into orbit ([[LoadBearingBoss ...somehow]]), but Eggman still succeeds at rebuilding it [[{{Determinator}} AGAIN]] and successfully launching it and stowing the Master Emerald inside.
453** It's most egregious in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', as you spend large amounts of the game searching for Chaos Emeralds at a snail's pace, and Eggman (or rather, Chaos) succeeds at getting every single one. [[spoiler: The last Chaos Emerald, hidden in Tails' Tornado and being used as a power source, lands in the Hidden Ruins at the end of the game. There is no way to take the Emerald out of the plane and by the time Sonic finally gets to it, Chaos has already found it and stolen it.]]
454** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'':
455*** No matter how quickly you get to the rocket launch station in Metal Harbor, it will always be 15 seconds from takeoff.
456*** [[spoiler:Eggman manages to get his hands on all seven Chaos Emeralds -- even swiping one from right under Tails's nose in the ending of the Hero story -- and powers up the Eclipse Cannon, as he had planned.]]
457** Happens twice in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'': while trapped in the BadFuture, Sonic learns that Elise is going to die soon back in the present when Eggman's battleship crashes and explodes. He arrives back in the present too late, but thanks to Silver and the use of Chaos Control, he's able to go back a little further in time to save her. [[spoiler:Later, Mephilis kills Sonic, causing Elise to cry and unleash Iblis, thus causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. It takes TrueLovesKiss reviving Sonic and a subsequent CosmicRetcon to set things right.]]
458** Happens twice in ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed''. The armada that Eggman controls in the game's intro was all just a ploy to trap Super Sonic and use the Chaos Emeralds to unleashed Dark Gaia. It's Sonic and Chip's goal to restore the Chaos Emeralds and the planet before Dark Gaia gains their full strength, [[spoiler:but thanks to Sonic's own Werehog transformation, Dark Gaia is returned to full power.]]
459** In ''VideoGame/SonicColors'', by the time Sonic and Tails even reach Tropical Resort, Eggman's already stolen a solar system's worth of planets, built a gigantic SpaceElevator, chained all the planets to it, imprisoned hordes of the Wisp species AND has successfully turned them (or at least a good chunk of them) into the horrible Nega Wisps. [[spoiler:In fact, Eggman succeeds at every step of the way. If it weren't for a ChekhovsGun moment destroying the Tropical Resort that Eggman had tied his whole operation to, he would've won.]]
460** ''VideoGame/SonicChroniclesTheDarkBrotherhood'' begins with the villains having already stolen six of the seven Chaos Emeralds. You can't stop them from stealing the seventh, nor can you stop them from stealing the Master Emerald. The best you can do is [[spoiler:follow them into their home dimension,]] defeat them, and steal them all back again. [[spoiler:And when you get back, you find [[YearOutsideHourInside Eggman's rebuilt in your absence]], and you couldn't thwart ''that'' either... cue BolivianArmyEnding]].
461** The Time Eater's gotten everything down by the time ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' even starts. Multiple areas in time and space have already been broken, Sonic's friends are TakenForGranite, and the Chaos Emeralds have been scattered (as usual, of course).
462** In ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', the BigBad [[spoiler:THE END]] intends to become free to wreak havoc on the universe. They do this by manipulating Sonic into [[spoiler:destroying the Titans and unleashing the seal to Cyber Space, which he does.]] This is an interesting variation, as it is the initial antagonist Sage who attempts to thwart Stage One by forcing Sonic to leave the Starfall Islands. Unfortunately, the only way to save Sonic's friends is for him to defeat the Titans. It's due to their opposing goals as well as Sage's inability to tell Sonic the full truth [[spoiler:since she is an AI created by his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman]] that lets the Big Bad get as far as they do, something that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot both characters acknowledge when they're forced to]] [[EnemyMine team up]].
463* Inverted in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994''. Everything that [[BigBad Giygas]] does to prevent the prophecy about the Chosen Four from becoming true, from [[spoiler:having [[TheDragon Pokey]] steal a helicopter to prevent them from reaching Summers or Scaraba, to launching an attack on Onett when the kids need to obtain a piece of the meteorite]], fails miserably, and in one case, even backfires. (If you need clarification on ''that'', [[spoiler:Apple Kid, Dr. Andonuts, and a Mr. Saturn were kidnapped into the Stonehenge base. This leads to them regrouping at Saturn Valley after Ness saves them, and brainstorming how they can help Ness and co bring Giygas down once and for all.]])
464* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', not only is Arkham City established before the events of the game, but Protocol 10 [[spoiler:kills a quarter of all inmates [[LateToTheTragedy before Batman can stop it]]]].
465* In the very first chapter of the original ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' game, it's not hard to figure out that [[spoiler:Desther]] is up to something fishy; even if you haven't played to the point where [[spoiler:he]] finally openly sabotages the attempt to find a cure for the Wailing Death yet, a number of clues pop up before then. Yet you can't actually ''do'' anything with them before it's time for the scripted final battle; [[spoiler:he]] can't be fought until then, and any accusations that the dialogue system even allows will simply be met with disbelief from the {{NPC}}s.
466* Averted in ''VideoGame/TheLastStory''. [[spoiler: SmugSnake bad guy has a plan to unleash a horde of monsters on the town, and steal in the chaos...you thwart it before he can release the monsters.]]
467* Inverted in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar: Winter Assault''. In the final Guard mission, the MightyGlacier Necrons only attack once you've built a Generator to power up the Titan. This gives you plenty of time to increase your forces, defending against a few ork and Chaos attacks (and when the Necrons appear, they do so ''inside'' the ork and Chaos bases, taking them out for you).
468* Inverted so hard it isn't funny in ''The Wizard of Oz'' text-based game for PC. At any time in the game, even as your very first action in Oz, you can enter the command "Click Heels". Dorothy will do it, return home, and you're treated to an alternate ending where Dorothy wonders what kinds of adventures she missed out on.
469* Averted in ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs2012''. The Villain's plans are, in fact, thwarted at something close to Stage One. Stage One is "Blow up a major landmark"... and it fails.
470* ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' justifies this one. The world is caught in [[StableTimeLoop a century-long time loop]] that starts with the [[EldritchAbomination Black Beast]] emerging in Japan in 2100, and ends with Ragna and Nu falling into the cauldron at Kagutsuchi, only for the loop to repeat from square one. This is because [[spoiler:Takamagahara, a triple-minded supercomputer that observes the flow of time, decides to stop observing a given timeline after Ragna and Nu fall in, wherein they become the aforementioned Black Beast. With the ability to stop observing a timeline and start anew at a backup point, Takamagahara can carry out their plan to induce absolute order on the timestream without anyone being able to interfere. The reason they do so is because they wish to destroy the Master Unit, Amaterasu, but because it buried itself in the depths of the Boundary, they cannot find it unless its Eye becomes manifest, and keep cycling until it does... in the form of Noel Vermillion. Their two observers -- Rachel Alucard and Yuuki Terumi -- engage in their own CosmicChessGame to try to shape the fate of the world, but Terumi has been liberal with the leeway he has to pervert events to his own ends, and shaped the events that would lead Noel towards the cauldron in Kagutsuchi so the timeloop would break, all of which curry to his favor]]. As a result, the events of ''Calamity Trigger'' play out to Terumi's advantage without exception.
471** ''Continuum Shift'', however, is quite a bit more complicated. [[spoiler:Takamagahara set a new backup point after the time loop broke to more directly control affairs and carry out its plans, and alienated Rachel Alucard in the process due to her actions in preventing Kagutsuchi's destruction after Noel saved [[PersonOfMassDestruction Ragna the Bloodedge]] from his fate. Its new plan involved using Terumi to smelt Noel into her original identity (Mu-12), use her to track down Amaterasu, and destroy it. While this plan goes off without a hitch, they were ready to reset should Ragna kill Mu... only he chose to restore her as Noel instead. [[OutGambitted Terumi planned for this, however, using Phantom's magic to peruse every possibility of the continuum shift]], [[EvilIsNotAToy and had Relius kill him before Ragna and Mu's fateful battle so he can infiltrate Takamagahara during this brief period and use a virus program to lobotomize them]] (for what it's worth, Ragna was supposed to kill Terumi, but the lifelink Terumi established with Mu would complicate affairs for him, and he left the bastard to bleed instead -- that's where Relius came in).]] So as much as the protagonists' brain trust of Rachel, Jubei and Kokonoe wanted to break the plan whenever possible, Terumi got what he wanted in the end. However, he had to pay a price of his own this time -- Ragna had to be issued Lambda's Idea Engine, which locks out Terumi's direct control over the Azure Grimoire Ragna wields, Noel survived and is now fully aware that Terumi was playing her (and as much as Terumi acts like he doesn't need her anymore, he really does, and plans on manipulating her in the future), and Jin Kisaragi awakened to the power of order that Terumi fears so much due to the combined efforts of [[spoiler:Makoto]], Jubei, Rachel, Hakumen and Ragna, and defected from Terumi's control as well. While Terumi got a new figurehead hero in Tsubaki Yayoi, that same power of order could sever the {{brainwash|ed}}ing that compels her to serve the now-corrupt Librarium. On top of that, [[spoiler:the aforementioned Makoto possesses knowledge that would cement Tsubaki's correction in alignment [[HeelFaceTurn towards good]] once said brainwashing elapses, and has sight of other plot threads vital to Terumi's post-Kagutsuchi operations, as well as one tied to her wrist that is linked to Relius' own designs.]] And that's not the entire bill. Suffice it to say, without a script to work off of, Terumi's going to have his hands full dealing with so many rogue elements at once. Depending on how well the protagonists cohere in Ikaruga, Terumi's plans stand on a razor's edge, with one unplanned rogue element too many away from tipping towards failure -- and this time, the damage won't be so small.
472** And the result in ''Chronophantasma'' is: [[spoiler:going out of control indeed. So much that Terumi ends up dead and Relius overly depressed. Still, the heroes cannot thwart their boss, Hades Izanami, to forcefully brainwash Ragna and prepare to use the Takemikazuchi Embryo to consume all souls in the world. Wait until next game to see how they thwart her plans.]]
473* Played straight in each of the original ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' campaigns.
474** ''Prophecies'': The Undead Lich acquires the Staff of Orr and unleashes the Titans, despite the efforts of the heroes and the Mursaat to prevent this. You must then slay the Lich and seal the Titans away.
475** ''Factions'': Shiro is resurrected using the blood of the Imperial line. You must kill him again in a final confrontation so he can be properly imprisoned.
476** ''Nightfall'': Varesh succeeds in her rituals to bring about Nightfall and opens a vortex into the Realm of Torment. You must enter the Realm of Torment and defeat Abaddon before he can break free.
477** ''Eye of the North'': In a meta example relating to the sequel, you cannot stop the awakening of Primordus the Elder Dragon. All you do is delay it, allowing a new story to develop centuries later.
478* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' also has this at the conclusion of Scarlet Briar's Living World storyline. You manage to drive her army out of Lion's Arch and kill Scarlet, but not before she wakens the sixth Elder Dragon.
479* Averted in ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition''. The Elder One's plan A to claim the Black City and become a god was thwarted before the game began when the player character unwittingly interrupted him at a crucial moment. The rest of the game consists of foiling the Elder One's backup plans.
480* Zig-zagged in ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault''. After a certain point in the game, you totally can thwart the villain's plan by [[spoiler:breaking a crystal]]. However, this gets you a less-satisfying ending than letting the villain take their plot all the way to the end and thwarting them at the last moment, since you've only forced them to wait 5,000 years [[spoiler:while that crystal regenerates]], instead of stopping them outright. And both endings actually reveal that they've already spent ''millions'' of years on their plan, so a 5,000 year wait really is only a minor setback for them.
481* ''Videogame/BravelySecond'' plays this very straight, and then subverts it beautifully. You cannot stop Kaiser Oblivion from achieving everything he sets out to do. You cannot win the [[HopelessBossFight opening fight that sees Agnes kidnapped]], you cannot stop Kaiser from [[spoiler:travelling into the past (or so he thinks)]], and you cannot stop his fairy companion from [[spoiler:destroying the moon, which unleashes unbeatable eldritch abominations upon the world and puts it into a permanent timeless stasis.]] You don't even get the chance to fight him again. There's nothing more you can do, and the heroes lament their utter failure. The only way to fix things, is to [[spoiler:start a New Game Plus and activate Bravely Second during the aforementioned hopeless boss fight, which pulls your previous characters into the past where they're actually strong enough to win. You then proceed to use your future knowledge of Kaiser's plans to utterly curbstomp him at every turn to the point that Kaiser's group laments ''their'' utter failure.]]
482* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'': At the start of the game, you are tasked with preventing the beacons on top the four elemental lighthouses from being lit up, as this would cause the unsealing of Alchemy. Needless to say, by the end of the second game they're all lit up (and you change protagonists between games, where your mission becomes lighting up the beacons). The ''second'' stage, however... [[spoiler:was Alex standing under the Golden Sun as it formed from all four beacons, using it to gain ultimate power. That failed thanks to a ChekhovsGun from the first game, and he was presumed dead until he returned in the third game.]]
483* ''VideoGame/TomodachiLife'': Every day when starting up a save file, three pairs of Miis will instantly begin brawling each other out of no context or reason, and these, along with any other fights that start up during the day, can never be prevented. These also occur if the game is left in Sleep Mode for a long period of time.
484* ''VideoGame/FableI'''s plot runs on this. CutsceneIncompetence forces the Hero to watch while the BigBad kidnaps his LivingMacGuffin mother, activates Focus Sites across the realm, and murders the mother to unseal the [[ArtifactOfDoom Sword of Aeons]], since no matter how fast the Hero moves, they're scripted events that YouAreTooLate to stop. Even if the Hero is a MagicKnight archery master who can [[TimeStandsStill freeze time]].
485* ''VideoGame/SnoopyVsTheRedBaron'': Despite all the effort you go through, the Flying Circus will still [[spoiler:build the Doodlebug by the end of the game. It's possible that you stopped them from mass-producing it, at least]].
486* Subverted in ''VideoGame/AkibasTrip''. Three of the routes have you fail spectacularly at it, with it not even being much of a concern until it's already happened. The other route not only has you stop it before Phase 1 is started, but also goes into a lot of depth in regards to the story the others don't.
487* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' runs with this idea to the point that the heroes don't even significantly inconvenience the main villains until the very final step of their evil plan. The closest you get is defeating Lloyd and taking the Divine Moon Objects from him, only to be told that Emperor Diaz has kidnapped Shana and is demanding said objects as ransom. You never stop the BigBad from gaining the next Divine Moon Object, breaking one of the Signet Spheres, or even the God of Destruction's birth.
488%% The Legend of Dragoon already has an entry located above; both entries will need to be merged at some point.
489* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse'', where Sam & Max do successfully foil [[spoiler: Charlie Ho-Tep's]] plan to summon the EldritchAbomination [[FluffyTheTerrible Junior]] and bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, thus thwarting Stage 1 -- but Max accidentally swallows some of the residue left behind and becomes a giant monster, leading into the SeriesFinale.
490* ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' reveals the events of [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown the previous game]] to be this as a whole: humanity couldn't stop the alien invasion, and by the time this game begins, [[VichyEarth Earth is firmly under alien occupation]], the Elders' dark plans for humanity proceeding apace.
491* [[ZigzaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad''. You can choose the order in which you'll investigate the three antagonist factions, and the first one you'll target will actually be stopped before achieving anything meaningful - however, the remaining ones will advance their plans in the meantime, [[spoiler: and so will the organization backing all three]]. In other words, You Can Thwart Only One Stage One.
492* ''Soma'' duology:
493** In ''VideoGame/SomaSpirits'', it doesn't matter whether you choose to get more Joy Orbs or Sorrow Orbs- either Dissonance will ultimately [[MacGuffinDeliveryService steal them all]] and gain the power to create a world without happiness, or [[spoiler:Form will steal them and do the same]]. And even if you get equal amounts of the orbs, [[spoiler:the two [[EnemyMine team up]] and steal them to destroy all of Soma]].
494** In ''VideoGame/SomaUnion'', [[spoiler:Zeta/Captain Guidance]] does a similar thing when he steals the three orbs from the heroes, combining them with the fourth he already has to [[spoiler:resurrect Absolution]], requiring the heroes to go to one last dungeon to stop him.
495* ''VideoGame/WildBlood'' has it's first boss being a dragon, which can be easily defeated... only for the dragon to instead defeat you in the following cutscene. Turns out said dragon is Morgana the evil sorceress in her monstrous form, who is immune to your default weapon, and you ''will'' lose said battle no matter what. You're then rescued shortly after by your fellow knight Gawain, and will need to seek {{Excalibur}} for a rematch.
496* The ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuest'' duology does this a lot.
497** In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires'', the heroes have to stop Boxxyfan from activating the three Spires and destroying the Internet. Naturally, he just beats them to the first two Spires, [[spoiler:and manages to activate the third one [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose even after they beat him]]; it then turns out that there is a fourth one, and that one he fails. Rcoastee manages to activate it instead- only for Catie to stop the destruction anyway]].
498** ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'' has several as well.
499*** The main game concerns the efforts of the heroes to stop the entity destroying the Internet via storms. Despite their best efforts to put together the [=PasSWORD=], by the time they are able to face the mastermind, the Internet is down to a few sites left.
500*** The post-game reveals that [[spoiler:Boxxyfan has returned and been manipulating everything from behind the scenes, and he successfully takes control of STORM. In the end, his scheme is undone by ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard himself]]'' accidentally awakening [[DestroyerDeity Legion]]]].
501*** The DLC adds yet another; the Social Justice Warriors, led by Mother, have enacted an ultimate plan to [[SealedEvilInACan unseal their leader]] from behind the Gamer Gate. The heroes manage to get to the Gate, only to be warded off by the [[CoDragons Elder Sisters]], and by the time they defeat them, it's too late- Mother is released from her prison and [[spoiler:vaporizes [[{{Gendercide}} all men]] from existence]]. However, the heroines band together to defeat her and restore everything back, turning it into a NearVillainVictory.
502* In ''VideoGame/{{Inscryption}}'', the player is intended to die early in their first run due to lacking certain bonuses and access to the Bone resource; dying progresses the story and introduces the mechanic. If they manage to get far enough, the game will glitch and spawn a nearly-unbeatable wall of bears to force a player death. Downplayed as while difficult, it is possible to win and continue. Then played straight again when beating the final boss without progressing the story will still result in being killed and the run reset.
503* The first stage of ''VideoGame/YokaiHunterShintaro'' ends with you facing the {{tengu}} who stole the Yokai shards, and the game's main villain. If you defeat him, the tengu will... unleash a powerful energy blast covering the entire screen, defeating ''you'' instead before he pulls a VillainExitStageLeft. Leading to the rest of the game where you hunt down the tengu starting with his minions.
504* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': The Ant Kingdom tries their hardest to keep the Everlasting Sapling out of the hands of the [[BigBad Wasp King,]] gathering the four artifacts needed to reach it and thwarting any Wasp soldiers sent after them. Despite their best efforts, [[spoiler:the Wasp King takes the artifacts by force, reaches the Sapling before the heroes, and manages to power himself with its last remaining leaf. Team Snakemouth just barely stops him before he can assert his new power over Bugaria and rule the land.]]
505* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': Lybac, TheManBehindTheMan for many of the problems or histories of the eight Travelers is still working on Step 1 of her plan: Locate the appropriate vessel for the resurrection of Galdera, the Fallen God. She is encountered twice by the Travelers directly before she finds the young man and lures him to the FinalDungeon for the ritual. By the time the Travelers reach the pair, the vessel has already been used and the only way to save him is beating back the ancient fallen god.
506* ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'': The Moonshade Order has one goal: Snuff out the four Sacred Flames across the land of Solistia and release Vide, the god of shadows, and end all human suffering by wiping everyone out. While one agent is looking for the locations of the unknown Flames, the rest of the Order is gathering the Darkblood weapons needed as part of the sacrifical rituals to put out the Flames. As the Order interacts with the Travelers, they either use or are hindered by the Travelers as the heroes have their own goals and only one of them knowingly deals with agents of the Order. After the completion of specific Traveler's stories, the Order succeeds and will have put out one of the Flames. Once all four are out, the Travelers have a shared dream of the darkness that is to come. While they work to reignite the Flames, Vide's prison has returned to the world and one final member reaches it intime to sacririce himself to free Vide, requiring the Travelers to beat back Vide.
507* ''VideoGame/SecretAgent'' did this retroactively for the HD remake version. The original three episodes had Agent 006½ recapture the blueprints for the Red Rock Rover laser weapon, and the final episode featured the BrainInAJar villain Dr. No Body chained to a chair in a room rigged with explosives. The remake added a new fourth episode, in which Dr. No Body was able to [[BodyBackupDrive download his consciousness]] into a new robot body, and build the Red Rock Rover from memory anyways, forcing Agent 006½ to travel to the Doctor's last island stronghold and stop him once and for all.
508[[/folder]]
509
510[[folder:Visual Novels]]
511* In ''VisualNovel/HerTearsWereMyLight'', you are required to fail at saving the character Space from [[spoiler:Nil]] and reset the timeline several times, with both you and [[spoiler:Nil]] retaining memories of these events, before you can hear [[spoiler:Nil's]] side of the story and start making better decisions.
512* ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations]]'': You have to [[spoiler: accuse Luke Atmey of theft]] in the first day of the trial, even though you later find out this was all part of his plan [[spoiler: to get away with murder]].
513* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': Even if you replay the first Class Trial with the knowledge that [[spoiler:Kaede is being set up by the true Mastermind, Tsumugi, you can't successfully accuse her of the murder, because the evidence pointing to her guilt isn't discovered until the final Chapter]].
514* Averted in ''VisualNovel/TimeHollow'', when after finishing the game normally and starting a [[NewGamePlus new game]], Ethan can foil the antagonist's plot by jumping straight to the solution. It ''is'' a game about using RippleEffectProofMemory to change the past, after all.
515* In the second half of ''VideoGame/SakuraWars2ThouShaltNotDie'', Keigo Kyogoku concocts a plan [[spoiler:to resurrect Musashi]]. By the time of Chapter 10, [[spoiler:the Imperial Combat Revue fails to stop him from carrying out the plan, leading to the chapter's DownerEnding]].
516[[/folder]]
517
518[[folder:Web Animation]]
519* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the ''WebAnimation/FinalFantasyTrilogy''. [[spoiler:Shadow sells out the group to Kefka to prevent them from killing him before the "Trinity Hour", so that they can kill him once the "El Taco" takes over him, and thus take both down at once]].
520* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Despite numerous opportunities and near-misses, the heroes fail to stop the villainous scheme of the Vale Arc from successfully completing in Volume 3, scoring only a few minor victories in response. The heroes' failures begin with their inability to stop the villains from infecting the control tower with a virus. They then fail to stop a bomb-loaded train from unleashing Grimm into the city, which enables the villains to establish themselves as allies by helping to save the city. [[spoiler:The villains are then able to manipulate [[HairTriggerTemper Yang]] into attacking an apparently defeated opponent during a live broadcast; they also manipulate [[TheAce Pyrrha]] into killing [[RobotGirl Penny]] during a live broadcast before using both moments in a speech over the global airwaves they've captured to trigger a massive Grimm invasion. [[ExtranormalInstitute Beacon Academy]] is destroyed, many people lose their lives including two important characters, [[TheHeavy Cinder]] obtains the [[ElementalPowers Fall Maiden's]] full power and Salem is able to confirm the [[ArtifactOfPower Relic of Choice]] is hidden somewhere in the school. The volume closes with [[BigBad Salem]] giving [[BigGood Ozpin]] a speech about how she intends to [[HopeCrusher snuff out the hope]] of humanity and [[DespairGambit destroy everything]] Ozpin ever valued. All the heroes manage to do is save the city of Vale, which the villains don't care about; freeze the Grimm Wyvern to Beacon's destroyed tower, which now attracts more Grimm to the school and prevents it from being taken back by the Huntsmen; and permanently maim Cinder, which has left her obsessed with seeking vengeance against Ruby.]]
521** It could be argued this was the result of the villains defining "Stage One" ''as'' everything they could do without being thwarted: every little thing they do is deeply rooted in FlawExploitation, all during a period when the opposition was most vulnerable to that (in a part of the cycle of training new people and developing new systems focused entirely on accentuating strengths rather than addressing weaknesses). On the one hand, they're still very successful at this - while maintaining the ability from the start to simply cut and run they do manage to take their plan to its conclusion, expending all of their preparations and intel. On the other, there isn't any equally clever Stage Two to follow, and the chaos left in their wake means they can't immediately repeat the process of studying a static target and planning how to destroy it to compose a Stage Two. [[spoiler: It's really just a surprise reopening of hostilities in a coldish war rather than a supervillain's plan to take over the world, which is why Cinder fails to live up to the role dramatic effect cast her in at this point.]] (The lack of clear endgame, in fact, seems to have been a factor in their success as it slowed the reactions of those who could tell they were being played but couldn't see where it was ultimately leading to.)
522[[/folder]]
523
524[[folder:Webcomics]]
525* ''Webcomic/{{Magellan}}'': Miasma and [=DragonKlaw=] manage to open the Equis portal before they are defeated.
526* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
527** BigBad Xykon, being smart, suggests to Roy that they follow this trope and declare the battle for one of three remaining gates that Xykon needs to examine a Mulligan: Instead, [[INeedYouStronger Roy can build up levels]] and they can have a final tussle all good and proper at a more suitably dramatic time. [[spoiler:Roy rejects it. Xykon kills him. He gets better.]] Not long after this, Xykon encounters a defense of the gate so powerful even he can't overcome it. Naturally, [[KnightTemplar Miko]] shows up to accidentally ruin everything just before [[BigGood Soon Kim]] can kill Xykon and Redcloak.
528** In the fourth book, Vaarsuvius, [[spoiler: who is temporarily DrunkOnTheDarkSide, decides to go and just teleport into Xykon's palace and assault him directly all alone to end it all at a very anti-climatic moment, before either party has still ''seen'' the last two portals, or managed to control one. Predictably, Vaarsuvius fails.]]
529** Tarquin's motivation for being a villain is this. He knows that ''eventually'' some hero will come and topple his empire and kill him... but until then, he's at Stage One and living the high life. [[spoiler:Elan realizes the only way to beat his trope-addicted father is to simply ''not attempt to thwart Stage Two'', which freaks Tarquin out and sends him into a downward spiral offscreen. The Resistance's new job is not to attack the Regime but to deal damage control on the inevitable collapse and fallout.]]
530* Book 1 of ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', wherein the main character, Parson, had been intending to do this to a group of {{PC}}s in a game he was going to run, and is instead pulled into a gaming universe where it continually happens to him. He finally becomes smart about it [[http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F134.jpg here]].
531* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'': The ''Sluggy'' crew try to stop Gwynn from summoning the demon K'Z'K. Doesn't work. They try to trick [[KillerRabbit Bun-Bun]] into killing Gwynn while she's [[DemonicPossession possessed by K'Z'K]]. Doesn't work. They try exorcising K'Z'K from Gwynn. It works... but it unleashes K'Z'K in his full power upon the world. They try freezing K'Z'K in time. He ends up going ''back'' in time instead. Only when Torg and Zoe also go to the past, where K'Z'K has amassed an army of demons to conquer the world, do they finally succeed in killing him.
532* In ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'', Trudy's plan to split up the cast proceeds smoothly until Nick is in the Statue of Liberty, [[UnwittingPawn unwittingly]] using his Velociraptor device to power the KillSat that she is using to hold the United Nations hostage in her bid to take over the world, leading to a final desperate attempt to stop her. Then again, it took until the previous chapter for the heroes to even realize there was a plan.
533* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': A version of this occurs by necessity in all games of Sburb. In every session, someone must defeat the White King (good guy) and begin the Reckoning, a 24 hour period during which meteors from the Veil (asteroid belt) bombard Skaia (sparkly planet-thing in the Medium vital to winning the game). The catch is that Skaia has defence portals which can send the meteors to the host planet (i.e. Earth in the comic), and these portals can send things to the past. It just so happens that the players of Sburb invariably create themselves, and the baby versions of themselves get sent back through these portals to become themselves. So if the Reckoning did not happen, the players of the game would not exist! So if Stage One were thwarted, that would cause a time paradox. Which doesn't happen in this universe (usually).
534* Cuco in ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' would very much like to avert this trope by preventing the Nightmare Knight's summoning, but the enemy -- and even some of his ''allies'' -- are determined to have it played straight.
535* During the PQ Saga of ''Webcomic/LsEmpire'', Phala manages to free all three of her generals from their prisons despite L's Empire's efforts to stop her. It's also subverted in the FZ saga when they keep on failing to reach the licensed characters before they can attack the Threaders, mainly because the licensed characters are repeatedly sent flying by whatever Threader they attack.
536* ''Webcomic/{{Xkcd}}'' [[https://xkcd.com/734/ #734]] is a parodic aversion that shows why this is usually necessary. With the ZombieApocalypse defeated five minutes after it starts due to good thinking by the protagonists, [[spoiler: the remaining 90 minutes of the movie are a RomanticComedy instead of a zombie flick]].
537[[/folder]]
538
539[[folder:Web Videos]]
540* In ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad Malachite]] regains the [[MacGuffin magic gauntlet]] that the heroes have been searching for, despite efforts from the over twenty adult nerds attempting to stop him]].
541* ''[[WebVideo/BlackrockChronicle The Tekkit Rebirth]]'': Think Zoey and Rythedin are going [[spoiler:to disarm that nuke under blackrock? ...Nope, it explodes, taking Zoey with it at the end in a massive Tear Jerker moment.]] This is particularly bad due to the fact that via the game mechanics, there where a ton of ways they could have stopped it; Rythedin even suggests some of these multiple times. Ideas included building a reinforced wall around it -- instant problem solver, which is shut down by Zoey saying it's just hiding the problem, not removing it. Using a jammer looks hopeful but fails when it ends up electrocuting everyone, and changing the frequency with a remote was not actually brought up but would have been an instant problem solver.
542[[/folder]]
543
544[[folder:Western Animation]]
545* Common and constant in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. Every season involves the heroes rushing around the world [[GottaCatchThemAll to find objects of power]] before the forces of evil can collect them all and become all powerful. Nearly every season ends with said forces of evil collecting everything anyway and having to be defeated at their most powerful. This was only averted twice: the first time, Jackie and co. did manage to stop Shendu from freeing all of his demon brethren, but then Shendu manages to find an easier way to do it and it happens anyway. The second time is to stop Daolon Wong from collecting Shendu's scattered powers ([[HereWeGoAgain echoing the plot of the first season]]) -- in an amusing twist, the season ends with Daolon having only some of them, trying to make a deal with Shendu to get it all, [[HijackedByGanon and then Shendu tricking him and getting all the power himself]]. Again.
546* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
547** The gang originally had the sensible idea of waiting until ''after'' Sozin's +300 Comet of Firebending was gone before deciding to take on the Fire Lord. Then they find out at the last minute that, in a shocking plot twist, the villains do ''not'' plan to spend their period of temporary nigh-omnipotence sitting in their respective throne rooms eating take-out. Slightly more surprising, they don't intend to use the power to merely overpower the remaining resistance forces in the Earth Kingdom; instead they plan to ''incinerate the entire continent''. So the heroes no longer have the luxury of waiting. Then various operational delays keep them from being able to attack the Fire Lord in the 48 hours available ''before'' the arrival of the comet. Nope, the final battle just ''has'' to be on comet day, and no other day.
548** Also, the fall of Ba Sing Se and the failure of the invasion on the Day of Black Sun are both instances of this trope in action. Had the heroes been successful in either, the epic battle of the season finale wouldn't have been quite as epic (if it had even happened), as the Fire Nation's resources would have been depleted. What's even worse is that they absolutely could have prevented Azula's takeover of Ba Sing Se; in fact, it looked like they were just about to do it... Until Zuko put HonorBeforeReason, betrayed them to his family, and shook up the battle enough for the [[EliteMooks Dai Li]] to show up, and for Azula to back-shoot Aang with lightning in the middle of his transformation into the Avatar State. And in turn, a victory by the Gaang in Ba Sing Se would've allowed the Day of Black Sun invasion to have been carried out with the entire army of the Earth Kingdom instead of just a few dozen people. Or heck, even the smaller invasion would have caught the Fire Nation by surprise if only the Earth King hadn't blurted out the invasion plan to Team Azula, disguised as Kyoshi Warriors.
549* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'':
550** The heroes fail to stop [[BigBad Aggregor]] from recapturing his prisoners, absorbing their powers to become [[OneWingedAngel Ultimate]] and get the [[MacGuffin Map of infinity]], the only reason they manage to defeat him is because [[HeroicSacrifice Kevin decided to absorb the Omnitrix power at the cost of his sanity]].
551* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': Viren becomes king, amasses an army, topples Lux Aurea, almost captures Zym, and...[[DisneyVillainDeath falls off a cliff]].
552* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
553** The last two episodes of season one. The ending of the episode "Dreamscaperers" has the gang manages to defeat Bill, but Gideon switched to "Plan B" (dynamite) while they were busy and managed to steal the Mystery Shack's deed. The following episode, "Gideon Rises", has them reveal Gideon's nature to the town and get him sent to jail.
554** Season 2's Weirdmaggedon arc has Bill Cipher successfully bring about the titular apocalyptic event. It's only until Part III that the heroes are able to come together and execute a plan to save the world.
555* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':
556** In Book 2, Korra has to prevent BigBad [[GodOfEvil Vaatu]] from escaping, and his servant Unalaq from merging with the evil spirit. Once Vaatu is freed, Korra ''almost'' re-seals him before getting blindsided by Desna and Eska.
557** In Book 3, the Red Lotus successfully kills the Earth Queen, causing the entire nation to fall into anarchy.
558** In Book 4, Kuvira manages to unite the entire Earth Kingdom and create her Republic City-destroying mech.
559* Lampshaded in ''[[Film/{{Spaceballs}} Spaceballs: The Animated Series]]''. In one episode, Dark Helmet tells Skroob that it's time to move to Phase 2 of their plan. Skroob suggests staying at Phase 1, because things always go so well during Phase 1, and Lone Starr never shows up to ruin things until they move to Phase 2.
560* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'':
561** Almost [[StrictlyFormula every episode]] sees Kim thwart the villain's scheme on the verge of either success or massive destruction. Particularly noticeable in ''[[TheMovie A Sitch In Time]]'', where she can't stop the villains from assembling the time monkey, or going back in time, or [[spoiler:Shego]] escaping to use it to TakeOverTheWorld, but fixes it by [[ResetButtonEnding undoing that whole timeline]].
562** Also [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossibleMovieSoTheDrama''; Kim foils Drakken's attempt to kidnap Mr. Nakasumi, preventing his capture and theoretically stopping or at least disrupting Drakken's plan long enough to foil it another way, but instead Drakken gets what he wants; [[spoiler:from Nakasumi's suit, which was all [[DarkActionGirl Shego]] could recover from the mess.]] This eventually gives Drakken what he needs to launch the scheme, thus using the trope somewhat straight despite being foiled.
563* The first three episodes of the second season of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' were unqualified successes for Xanatos: He got Fox an early parole in "Leader of the Pack" (which he outright stated was all he wanted to do); he turned Elisa's brother against the Manhattan Clan in "Metamorphosis"; and he acquired the code for the deadliest computer virus in the world in "Legion."
564* This seems to happen quite a bit in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.
565** Twilight Sparkle is unable to prevent the release of Nightmare Moon and she causes TheNightThatNeverEnds. Fortunately, she discovers of the Elements of Harmony and realized her plus five other ponies that she made friends with are able to utilize said elements, and thus use them to defeat Nightmare Moon. This may or may not be a BatmanGambit by Celestia.
566** Discord succeeds in breaking the six, turning their elements around and turning them into jerks and Twilight into a friendless sack of depression. Fortunately, Spike had been receiving the letters that Twilight Sparkle sent to Celestia concerning the studies of friendship, and reading them helped cause her to realize the importance of friendship and sets off to help her friends remember as well, thus allowing them to use the Elements to defeat Discord. This is more likely a BatmanGambit by Celestia, however.
567** Canterlot has been completely taken over and not only did Celestia get beaten by Queen Chrysalis, but the Mane Six also got beaten up by her mooks. Fortunately, ThirdActStupidity sets in for Chrysalis and leaves the six unguarded. This causes Twilight to free her brother and her sister-in-law-to-be and allow them to create a powerful shield to knock the Queen and her mooks out of Canterlot. No really smart gambits here. Heck, if Chrysalis wasn't holding the VillainBall, she would have ''won''.
568** King Sombra manages to make it through Cadance's shield and is dead set on reclaiming his throne, with Twilight being unable to bring the Crystal Heart to the others in time. Fortunately, her assistant Spike takes the heart for her and brings it over to Cadence, who with the help of the Crystal Ponies, manage to ''kill'' Sombra with a powerful concentrated blast. [[SpannerInTheWorks It's a good thing Spike was there]].
569** Tirek takes over ''all'' of Equestria with Discord in tow, uses Twilight's friends as leverage to get her to give up her powers, and literally has no opposition to defeat him. Celestia actually ''tried'' to thwart Stage One in the form of Discord, but [[FaceHeelTurn that failed]]. After that, Celestia opted to get Twilight supercharged, but she ran out of the BatmanGambit-planning power she had back in Season 2 and told her not to tell her friends, thus prompting the 'friends as leverage' part to go through. In short, not only did they not thwart Stage One, they didn't thwart stages two through four either. The ''only'' reason Tirek is defeated in the end is because that 'friends as leverage' wound up unlocking a treasure chest that was mentioned every episode or so.
570* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]], all of the eponymous villain's plans work swimmingly, except for the final (and most important): Killing Mayor Hill.
571* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wunschpunsch}}'': In some episodes, Jacob and Maurizio try to prevent the villains from casting the Spell of the Week. Their only measure of success was changing a spell so it'd make Bubonic and Tyrannia good people and they needed to break that spell because it turned them in [[HeroWithAnFInGood Heroes With an F in Good]].
572* Occasionally averted on ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain''; at least two of the Brain's plans to TakeOverTheWorld have required him to raise a large sum of money, only to have him fail to do that (one was to be a contestant on a parody of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', and the other was to enter the Kentucky Derby as a jockey). Amusingly, failing Stage One drove him to [[NeverRecycleYourSchemes scrap the entire plan]] rather than come up with another way to raise the money, even though he eventually did.
573* ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'':
574** The series subverts this in "Demons Aren't Dull." He apparently surrenders to the Demon of the Fourth Dimension and asks for a last request: to show Penfold how powerful the Demon is. As DM explains it, the Demon offers to demonstrate: the Demon connects a door from his dimension to a door in our dimension. Then DM explains that if the Demon's door is closed (which DM asks him to do and he obliges) and the door in ours is closed, the Demon would be powerless as he would be trapped between dimensions. [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu DM applies this instantly before he tells it.]]
575** In the sequence before, with him and Penfold in the Demon's dimension, he threatens to report the Demon to the 4-D Union (the union of Deadly and Diabolical Dimensional Demons) for violation of a clause in their contract--to return victims to their own dimension before the end of episode 4 or their powers are revoked by the Boss Demon. Scared, the Demon obliges and returns our heroes to their own realm. A double-double cross ensues: DM says he was bluffing about the contract clause, and the Demon deposited the duo in their own realm--in midair, causing them to tumble towards the Earth.
576* This happens in most ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'' seasons:
577** In Season 1, the Ninja fail to prevent Pythor from brining the four Fangblades to the Lost City of Ouroborus, leading to him unleashing the Great Devourer.
578** In Season 2, the Ninja fail to prevent the Overlord from completing the Garmatron.
579** In Season 3, the Ninja fail to prevent the Nindroids from brining the remnants of the Golden Weapons back from Delta V, allowing the Overlord to become the Golden Master.
580** In Season 4, the Ninja fail to prevent Master Chen from transforming his followers into Anacondrai.
581** In Season 5, the Ninja fail to prevent Morro from using the Realm Crystal to bring the Preeminent to Ninjago.
582** In Season 6, the Ninja fail to prevent Nadakhan from marrying Nya, allowing Nadakhan to gain infinite wishes.
583** In Season 7, the Ninja fail to prevent the Time Twins from collecting all four Time Blades and completing the Iron Doom.
584** In Season 8, the Ninja fail to prevent the Sons of Garmadon from collecting all three Oni Masks, allowing them to ressurect Garmadon.
585** In Season 12, the Ninja fail to prevent Unagami from gathering enough Energy Cubes, allowing him to open the Manifestation Gate so leave Prime Empire and enter Ninjago.
586** In Season 14, the Ninja fail to prevent Kalmaar from stealing the Storm Amulet, allowing him to awaken Wojira.
587** In Season 15, the Ninja fail to prevent the Council of the Crystal King from stealing the Golden Weapons, allowing the Overlord to crystalize the five generals.
588* This happens in the 4th season of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012''. The third season ended with the Triceraton Fleet using a black hole generator called the Heart of Darkness to suck Earth into a black hole (an EnemyMine to destroy the device before it could activate was foiled by [[spoiler: the Shredder killing Splinter]]). The Turtles go back in time with this verse's version of Honeycutt to obtain the pieces and destroy them before the device could be assembled, but the Triceratons are able to assemble it anyway.
589* In ''[[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'''s "Spider-Verse" arc, the Goblin goes on a trip through the multiverse to collect the DNA of various versions of Spider-Man. Peter chases after him and prevents him from doing too much damage along the way--plus helping defeat various local bad guys--but Goblin still manages to collect all the DNA, then uses it to turn himself into the Spider-Goblin.
590* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
591** In the Season 1 two-part finale, the Crystal Gems are captured and only in the second part to they manage to fight back and make the ship crash down.
592** In the "Wanted" arc, Steven and Lars are brought by ship to a trial on Homeworld. They almost get an escape pod off a ship and back to Earth, but it's destroyed after Steven wastes time arguing he should stay. They end up on Homeworld, and only escapes after the trial [[spoiler: through Lars' resurrected form's hair.]]
593[[/folder]]
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