There are subjectives, and then there are these. While you may believe a work fits here, and you might be right, people tend to have rather vocal, differing opinions about this subject. Please keep these off of the work's page.
Dethroning Moment: Literature
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One moment per book to a troper, if multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut.
Moments only, no "just everything he said, " "The entire book" entries.
No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
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Long Gunner 15: The entire battle of Yonkers in World War Z. The tanks are ineffective... somehow. The artillery is ineffective... somehow. Anything but a magical headshot from a semi-auto. 22 or mystical katana is absolutely useless, doubly so from those evil, evil Westerners.
Pulpo Oscuro: I think the author took the "invincible zombie" thing a bit too far. An APFSDS *
terlwyth: Katniss vow to force the Capitol children into Hunger Games for retribution after the Capitol is defeated,claiming it to be "For Prim" even after witnessing the horrors of the Games when her earlier nature implied she wouldn't wish such on anyone,and when you realize Prim was a caring soul. Mockingjay was a letdown overall,but this is horrible.
Insanity Prelude: Seconded. Even her traumatized and somewhat-insane state at the time can't justify it.
WafflePluto : This Troper found the death of Prim itself a DMOS. It felt extremely stupid that Katniss spent three whole trying to protect Prim for that to happen at the end.
Xander77: The wedding proposal in the Vorkosigan Saga novel "A Civil Campaign". It's also listed on the series Crowning Moment of Awesome page, so YMMV, but the contrived nature of the scene specifically setup to present Ekaterine with a moment of awesome is so incredibly Narmish ( and Nikki muttering "go-go mama!" made me throw up in my mouth a little.
Cliche: Atlas Shrugged's DMOS came at the conclusion of Chapter 7, Part II, or Chapter 17 of the entire book. Some asshole politician decides that he would rather have a train go through a tunnel despite it being not safe to do so rather than wait for a safer alternative because it would mean missing his rally. Everyone on board suffocates to death, as the following chapter informs us. You'd think this would be a scene demonstrating a Senseless Waste Of Human Life, but no. Ayn Rand sinks as low as fucking victim blame by Demonization of every passenger on board as fitting one of her Evil Socialist Bad Dude Trade Snark character templates. Worst of all, some of those don't look inherently evil, despite the Demonization. None of the other Wall Bangers even comes close to the horridness of this scene.
StevePotter: In addition to the above scene, there was also John Galt's ninety minutes speech... written verbatim. As terrible as the book was, it was at least interesting before this point. I'd hate this if John Galt was promoting human ideals, but instead we got a hundred pages saying that poor people are evil and people should look out for themselves. What shit.
Samadhir: The infamous rape-scene in Rand'sThe Fountainhead, where Howard Roark forces himself on Dominique Francon. Now, I'm aware of the various justifications that have been offered for the scene, like "it wasn't really rape" or "she actually wanted it" or that it was "rape by engraved invitation", which might actually be true (though that would open an entirely new can of Unfortunate Implications by itself). But even if you accept that, the scene just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Up until this point in the novel, Roark has shown absolutely zero sexual or romantic interest in anyone, and is also presented as a man of integrity who's a staunch supporter of individual rights and self-determination. And then suddenly, the novel wants us to believe that over the course of a couple of days, by seeing Dominique from a distance at his quarry and doing some repair-work in her house, Roark's sexual instincts arise, he recognizes her as his life's true love (as he never shows any interest in anyone but her throughout the novel), and manages to deduce enough about her psychological make-up from a couple of short meetings to know that she will enjoy being raped. Aside from being extremely impropable, the scene destroys much of Roark's character and makes him a lot less sympathetic. Of note is that the scene isn't an isolated incident; whenever a sex-scene occurs in the novel it's usually described as violent, rough, or "a shocking intimacy that needed no consent from her, no permission", a pattern that repeats itself in Atlas Shrugged. Since reading the novel, I have read several analyses where the rape-scene is presented as "an abstract meditation of violence and frigidity" or "a violent, joyful answer to the age-old paradox of what occurs when an immovable object meets an irresistable force" (no, seriously), which I think misses a much simpler explanation: Rand enjoyed rape-fantasies and so she wanted a scene in her novel that expressed that, regardless of whether it made any sense or if it destroyed its characters.
Ri L: I found a moment at the end of Son of a Witch: after a long, rambling, essentially pointless story, suddenly these two characters have sex! Out of nowhere! With no explanation, leadup, or bearing on the story! Unfortuately Maguire tends to shoot himself in the foot in just about every story by dropping in something gratuitously and rather pointlessly sexual/scatological seemingly just for the shock factor (like the scene with the tiger in Wicked). It is, to paraphrase Yahtzee, like eating a delicious meal only to have the chef randomly come out and fart in your face.
Sophie Summer: Same for this troper. I also found the fact that she pretty much raped him and it was never really addressed very, for lack of a better word, disorienting. The scene didn't even really make sense, logically. Ok, so she's trying to warm him up. Ok, she's climbing on top of him. Wait, why is she undressing him? How did we get from trying to save his life to mounting him?
Iron Lion: In The Belgariad, the Fate Worse than Death with which Belgarath punishes Zedar comes across as Disproportionate Retribution of the highest order. Zedar was a Punch Clock Villain at worst; some of his acts, such as his involvement with Errand, were necessary for the Prophecy of Light to resolve. And he triggered Belgarath's fury by doing no more than defending himself against a completely unwarranted attack by Durnik.
The Real CJ: There's a moment in Maskerade that made me very annoyed. Early in the book, Granny Weatherwax gives a gullible villager a potion that contains the ingredients "Suckrose and Akwa" - Suger and water. It would have been very funny if not long after, the joke is baldfacedly explained to the reader.
Eegah: From Animorphs, the characterization of Chapman in "The Andalite Chronicles." Elsewhere in the series Chapman was portrayed as a deeply tragic figure, who voluntarily became a slave to the Yeerks to ensure his daughter's safety and is now anguished at having to help them conquer the world. And then this prequel novel hits, and it turns out teenage Chapman is a JerkassNietzsche Wannabe who gleefully tries to sell out his whole planet For the Evulz, which kills alot of the previously established sympathy for the character dead.
Ecliptor Calrissian: There's also The Ellimist Chronicles. While a good story on its own, every single tidbit about the Ellimist's nature from the regular series is completely ignored, which makes it fail - hell, not even try - at being the great revelation of our mysterious ally. If "Ellimist" were a more common name, you'd probably figure they were two guys who happened to have the same name. Also, Crayak's origin is pretty much "and one day some Crayak guy who destroys For the Evulz showed up." This standalone story about an alien gamer who happened to use the handle "Ellimist" is interesting, to be sure - but it is not about the Ellimist we know at all, doesn't tell us anything we didn't know about Crayak.
Theenglishman: Remus Lupin trying to abandon his pregnant wife in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Interestingly, Lupin's behaviour could be seen as an in-universe Dethroning Moment of Suck in Harry's eyes. Lupin had slowly become more deranged and paranoid since Voldemort's return, and combined with the guilt of both marrying Tonks and the chance that his son might be a werewolf, it culminated in Lupin's offer to join the Power Trio. Harry, realizing that Lupin had completely lost it, called him out and told him to grow a fucking pair, after which Lupin bolted from Grimmauld Place with his tail between his legs. True to the DMOS formula, it is the absolute nadir of his character and when we see Lupin next, he has indeed become more of a family man.
Samadhir: Near the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, before the final battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort sends a message to the school that if they hand over Harry, they will all be spared destruction. This leads to Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin, to immediately state that they should give in to his demand without a word of protest from any other Slytherin, nor any agreement from any non-Slytherin, prompting McGonagall and members of the other houses to immediately throw her and the entire Slytherin house out from the school. This moment has always angered me because it could have been an awesomeand moving moment for Slytherin if they had chosen to stand with their schoolmates and brethren, and finally earn some genuine respect from them. Instead, they're all shown to be cowardly backstabbers to the very end. It was a completely wasted opportunity for Rowling.
Storm Requiem: Something that has always bothered me in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the way the Ron/Lavender "relationship" is handled. Obviously, I wasn't expecting them to end up together at the end of the series or anything like that, but the way Ron treats Lavender disgusts me. Yes, she's annoying and clingy, but she's a sixteen-year-old girl in a new relationship, and it's obvious she likes Ron more then he likes her and he basically snogs her repeatedly to prove something to everyone and make Hermione jealous. I recall Rowling saying something like she paired the two of them together because Hermione had a lot more relationship experience then Ron and she felt at that point he didn't "deserve Hermione"...So, to make him "worthy", she has him date a girl he obviously doesn't have genuine romantic feelings for, lead her on, then inevitably dump her for Hermione. And he doesn't even have the balls to actually do it to her face, he just lets her see him with Hermione and waits for her to break it off herself. How exactly does that make Ron worthy to date anybody?
bguy: In the Dragonlance Chronicles novel, "Dragons of Spring Dawning", when Laurana falls for her Arch-Enemy Kitiara's Obvious Trap. Much of the Chronicles is about Laurana's personal growth as she evolves from a naive and self-absorbed child to a dedicated and intelligent heroine capable of successfully leading armies. This incident completely destroys all that Character Development and turns the Golden General into a love-sick ninny who is so irresponsible as to abandon her army at the height of a war and so stupid as to blindly trust enemy general and romantic rival Kitiara, even though Kitiara has obvious motives to want to harm Laurana, provides no proof for the claims she is making, and insists on Laurana coming in person to a meeting site without bringing any guards or telling anyone. And as if turning Laurana into a complete idiot who can not see a trap that is obvious even to Cloudcuckoolander Tasslehoff Burrfoot is not bad enough, the reason Laurana does all of this, leaving her troops in the lurch and putting her own life in great jeopardy, is for a man who has already rejected her and who she believes is willingly serving the Dragonarmies. The end result is Laurana is kidnapped, nearly raped, and spends the rest of the novel as a Distressed Damsel.
Ravenya003: Susan's fate in The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically, The Last Battle. In the final book all the main characters die and enter Heaven - all of them except Susan, who has apparently lost touch with Aslan and Narnia because she's fostered an interest in "nylons and lipstick and invitations" and has ceased to believe in the fantastical adventures of the previous books. Not only does this feel rather Out of Character (it seems bizarre that a character who was witness to Aslan's sacrifice and rebirth can eventually dismiss it as "a funny game we used to play as children") but Fridge Horror sets in when you realize that because Peter, Edmund, Lucy and their parents have died in the real world, Susan has just lost her entire family to a train accident. There is nothing in the text itself to suggest that she'll eventually refind her faith, and the fact that her friends and family ridicule her before deciding to simply not talk about her anymore is an incredibly callous way to go about dismissing a major character just so Lewis can make a subtextual statement about how overt femininity and sexuality is bad for women.
SophieSummer: Her fate makes even less sense when you consider that all the children grew up to adults in Narnia before being changed back to children when they were sent back home. She's already grown up, so why would she just now be going through the lipsticks and nylons phase?
Lale: Anne Elliot's "I have nothing to reproach myself with" speech in Persuasion. So, according to the narrator in Chapter 4, Anne considers her decision eight years ago a mistake, yet she tells Captain Wentworth she feels exactly the opposite? Hypocrite! Captain Wentworth has to apologize for taking her rejection seriously and not running back as soon as he had his first few thousand pounds to the woman who made it clear his proposal was unacceptable; yet, Anne doesn't have to make any sort of apology to him at all?! Double Standard! The plot doesn't lead to any Character Development or disillusionment for Anne but to her (and everyone else) realizing she always was and always has been perfect, and how dare anyone (including herself) think otherwise? Mary Sue! And her response to Captain Wentworth telling her how much he loves her and how badly he still wants to marry her is telling him that she would have suffered more had she remained engaged to him eight years ago? Why would anyone take her back after that?! I would cling to the frail hope that Austen was being ironic but A) the scene is played too seriously to be a Spoof Aesop like Lizzie's and Darcy's conversation in Pride and Prejudice, and B) it's consistent with the anvilicious moral of the absurdly-executed scene at Lyme. This speech ruins the entire book — what has been an equally beautiful and painful love story becomes a vehicle for preaching the importance of women yielding to persuasion and singing the praises of a supposedly perfect heroine! UGH! I want to rip my hair out and scream just thinking of it! And I want to throttle anyone who claims this is better than Mansfield Park! How can such a preachy novel (of out-of-date morals, nonethless) be so overrated?!
Gravityman: There probably doesn't need to be any specific examples for Twilight, but before this moment, I looked at it as a cheesy tween romance novel. One that isn't supposed to be good, as long as it sells well to kids who don't really know much about quality. But to me, what absolutely sold me that Twilight couldn't be saved as anything other than horrible was Charlie's reaction to Jacob taking Bella home. Now, to give you an idea of the Character Derailment at work here, Charlie had already been established as an overprotective police officer father toward Bella. Hell, he's probably the only truly likable character in the series up until this point. But for whatever damn reason, after Jacob forcibly kisses Bella (technically sexual assault), and then basically brings her home to brag about it, Charlie fucking congratulates him for doing so. His exact words were "Good for you, kid." What may be even worse is that everyone plays this up as if Bella should love Jacob because of this. What sort of drugs was Meyer taking when she wrote these books?
Ronfar: The scene in Naked Empire in which Richard and his followers hack their way through a crowd of unarmed human shields as the author praises Richard and his men for their heroism in seeing past their "peaceful" appearance: the human shields were protecting the Bad Guys, and therefore deserved to die, not even rating a "What a Senseless Waste of Human Life" moment.
Kilgore Trout faithfully bought and read just about every Star Wars Expanded Universe novel published that was set after Return of the Jedi. Did I read Dark Empire? Yes. The Jedi Academy Trilogy? Indeed, I bought that. Darksaber? I didn't like it, but I still bought and read it. The only one I think I didn't read was "The Crystal Star" and the "Young Jedi Knights" series. I bought all those books, from mediocre to good to awesome to terrible, because no matter how much I disliked any of them nothing was enough to make me give up on the EU entirely. ("Darksaber" was enough to make me give up on Anderson, though.) So what finally did it? What finally made me swear off the EU for the foreseeable future and possibly for good? Why, Legacy Of The Force. One of my favourite characters, Jacen Solo, turns into a Complete Monster for the flimsiest of reasons and begins acting wildly out of character—and this wasn't just a single author getting him wrong, this was everybody. Then, he kills off another of my favourite characters, Mara Jade, which I felt was a Moral Event Horizon. You can blow up a Death Star, you can destroy Carida, but if you kill one of the EU's greatest characters how the hell are you supposed to atone for that even if you want to? Kyp Durron at least came to regret his actions and tried to atone for them. Jacen didn't. I stopped reading the books after the seventh one and read what happened next on Wookieepedia. Turns out that Jacen converted Tahiri—a character I fell in love with after first reading about her in the New Jedi Order books—into a Sith, so that she proceeded to become his Dragon and does all sorts of horrible, evil shit. And while Tahiri eventually, finally snaps out of it, it turns out that she's getting put on trial and might be executed for her crimes. So, to recap: this series of books killed off two of the biggest heroes of the EU (since Jacen dies at the end as well), might result in the death of a third as well depending on how Fate of the Jedi plays out...and the cherry-shaped mini-turd on top of this shit sundae of a story? They decided to take another character who made great points about how fucked up the Jedi philosophy was in Vergere, and Retcon her into being a Sith because I guess George Lucas got his panties in a knot over the very idea that they had a character saying "There is no dark side; your actions determine whether you're a good or bad person, not your emotions, not what Force powers you use." So yeah, I'm done.
Gholateg: Before all that? What killed the EU for this Troper, who had every damned book, young jedi and crystal star included? The death of Chewbacca, done only to "Shake things up" and "Make the next series interesting." Bastards. They couldn't even be bothered to give him a proper send off, but gave him a pointless, meaningless death. The little useless sod he gave his life for died a few books later, negating anything his death accomplished. Stackpole, Anderson, go fuck yourselves.
SunnyRae read all the Evernight series by Claudia Gray. Now, she loved the first book, the second book she liked, the third book was "meh" but the last book was just awful. Talk about a stupid ending. Bianca and Lucas, who spent all of the previous books trying to be together, are finally together at the end. The Big Bad is dead even after she became sympathetic, Lucas is no longer a "monster" (vampire) due to some Ass Pull Gray used by having Bianca, who is now a wraith, bringing him back with her ghostly blood. Stupid. They had eternity together but they gave it up because Lucas turned into a whiny bitch about being a vampire and didn't like it. Now they have 50, 60 years tops together before Lucas dies of old age. Yeah sure, that's love. Leaving your lover to be alone for all of eternity because you didn't want to be a supernatural.
Insanity Prelude: I'm going to second the one earlier on this page about Gregory Maguire's thing for gratuitous sexual/scatological/just plain squicky details. The "menstrual fountain" scene in Mirror, Mirror wasn't what put me off of his books for good (although it pretty much put me off of finishing reading that book)- it was when I tried to read A Lion Among Men and wham, gratuitous shit and equally-gratuitous masturbation (thankfully, this wasn't in the same scene.) That's when I realized it was really a pattern with his books.
Sick Brit Kid: Legacy of the Force: Revelations completely dethroned the entire Star Wars EU for this troper. Though his interest in the EU had steadily been dying after New Jedi Order, the death of Ensemble Darkhorse Mara Jade in Sacrifice was then followed by what is without a doubt the absolute worst EU book of all time. Featuring Character Derailment, Flanderization of the Jedi, and the propping up of a race of Mary Sue characters, the already-decried Legacy of the Force series dealt another massive blow to what was once regarded as a great Expanded Universe. This troper hasn't picked up a Star Wars novel since, as a result.
CCHooks: Steven Wakefield's Suddenly Sexuality in Sweet Valley Confidential. Especially since he had shown no signs of being gay, and had married one woman (Cara), been engaged to another (Billie), and had a nervous breakdown over a third's death (Tricia) to the point where he broke things off with Cara twice to pursue girls who looked like Tricia and mold them into her (and one of them dumped him because of this, which caused him to snap out of this).
millernumber1: Emma during the picnic on Box Hill. After a mounting sequence of self-delusions with increasingly serious social consequences, Emma Woodhouse publicly insults a defenseless, silly, socially precarious older lady who she has known all her life. To her considerable credit, she heeds the sharp reprimand of her oldest friend Mr. Knightley and makes a significant Heel Face Turn from Rich Bitch into benevolent and mature lady of the village.
Lil Maibe: Unseen Academicals, after the main-protagonist (No, not Trevor. Guess again) ran away, then came back to the university and he and his friends are 'greeted' by Ponder Stibbons. Ponder is almost panicking because he couldn't train the team in the protagonist's absence and instead had them run on the spot, what wasn't very effective. It's the reason given why he couldn't train them. It is not because he, who has a sh*tload of jobs to do at the university, didn't have the time as his jobs need to be done. No. It because he could NOT remember any of the stuff the protagonist came up with! It's that moment that cemented the Mary Sue-status of the protagonist and the utter derailment of the previous established characters soley to have said protagonist shine. In short, that's stuff I expect in bad fanfiction, not in a genuine novel. And in a Discworld-novel even less so.
Super Saiya Man: From George R. R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire we have Joffrey's death. This is right off the heels of the Red Wedding where most of the protagonists are killed off. Instead of him being killed in a rebellion, stabbed in the back by a main character, or hell dueling Arya in one of her epic Roaring Rampage of Revenge...he gets killed off by choking on poisoned pie. To make Tyrion's and Sansa's lives more horrible since they get blamed.
Caellach Tiger Eye: Personally, I think it was appropriate - such an Anti-Climax death served to powerfully underline what a Smug SnakeBig Bad Wannabe Joffrey is. The entire point of it was to show that he's not worth killing in a cool matter - he's a very uncool character, so he gets an uncool death... I agree on some level about Tyrion and Sansa being blamed, though - sometimes GRRM's love for angst does become ridiculously gratuitous, especially concerning Tyrion, Sansa, and Arya. The fallout of Joffrey's Karmic Death is certainly a strong contender.
Mzytryck I agree, and consider Joffrey's death to be totally appropriate, especially since I think one of the main points of the books is subverting the traditional expectations and hopes for various characters, best exemplified by the death of Tywin Lannister. Unlike Joffrey, Tywin is a genuinely powerful, threatening figure and has even more characters with a reason to kill him. Whether or not you think he deserved such an ignominious death, it is probably safe to say it was a surprise to many readers.
Tropers/Achaemenid: Whether or not ASOIAF suffers this is still up in the air for me. My favourite character is Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Pod Payne (who may well have Longbottom blood), and at the end of Brienne's bit of AFFC, he is about to be hanged. If he dies, Martin, if he dies...
Peteman: It'd be so easy to say "Everything Curtis Saxton has tried to quantify in Star Wars, except maybe the Executor", but that goes against the rules. So I'm going for the "quintillions of droids" bullcrap. It's not just the ridiculousness of fielding an army several times the size of Coruscant, the biggest population center of the Republic, for every star system in the Republic (or several dozen times the size of Coruscant for every star system in the Republic, if we are using the The Phantom Menace novelization's line about 10'000 Jedi serving across a hundred thousand worlds). It'd be like if during the American Civil War, the South tried to separate and had an army the size of (modern) New York City for every village, town, and city of both sides. It's not just because this is arguably bigger than the total population (including the non-Republic worlds) of the Star Wars Galaxy. It's the fact that this overshoots the G-Canon established clone numbers from the Attack of the Clones novelization by at least 12 orders of magnitude *
The callousness of it all struck Obi-Wan profoundly. Units. Final product. These were living beings they were talking about. —AOTC novelization chapter 16. "Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said. "Prime Minister Lama Su has informed me that the first battalion of clone troopers are ready for delivery. He also wanted me to remind you that if we require more—and they've another million well on the way to completion—it will take more time to grow them." "A million clone warriors?" Mace Windu asked in disbelief. —AOTC novelization chapter 18.
. This goes above and beyond his usual several orders of magnitude overestimation. Just because the numbers are ridiculous in one direction does not give one the right to summarily ignore higher tier canon, especially in order to give just as ridiculous numbers in the opposite direction.
Woolie Wool: The rape scene in The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant. The sheer senselessness and cruelty of it completely destroyed any sympathy I may have had for Thomas Covenant and made me throw the book down in disgust. There's no point or attempted justification, it's just "I'm gona violate you now, kay?" If this asshole is supposed to be the hero, why should I care if he defeats "Lord Foul" or not?
Mooncalf: Terry Pratchett's Thud!. There's a part where Angua and Sally are amazed that Nobby (sufficiently hideous and ugly that he has to carry signed papers identifying him as a human being) has landed an apparently genuine relationship with Tawnee, a dim but extremely beautiful stripper - he's apparently the only one who's ever approached her that way. They realize that while most men would get cold feet and consider her "out of their league", Nobby didn't care and asked her out anyway. Well that's neat, an interesting social observation. Except Angua announces it as "The jerk equation!" Say what? So apparently stepping out of your social bounds and trying to get along with a woman you're too ugly to deserve makes you a jerk? Tarring with a broad brush, there.
Septimus Heap: The first book of Septimus Heap. There is that line where it says that Jenna has no Magykal powers. It can break your mind trying to understand why this line - and the whole Muggle Princess aspect - had to be part of the story. In a story where all people with Magyk have Green Eyes, giving the hunted-down Princess to a Wizard family is basically just askingfor trouble. Also, there is no evidence whatsoever that this aspect is required for the plot to work. The biologybehind itis fishy as well.
Alexoftheworld: The book 'The Girl Who Could Fly' was nothing more than a cheesy, poorly written clone of far more successful series', but two moments destroy it. One scene is where the main character, Piper, is crippled and loses her memory. One kid didn't know what his powers were. All of a sudden, he has the power to heal and bring back peoples memories. The second one involves the villain, Dr. Hellion. The twist is that she can fly, but as a result of a tragic accident involving the death of her sister, she is devoted to killing other mutants. If she's so depressed about her sister, why didn't she just kill herself. Killing other mutant creatures isn't a way to make you feel better; it's just selfish! And to make matters worse, we are expected to ignore all her actions, and pity her. NOW do you see why this book makes me vomit?
