Shoot the Shaggy Dog in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Dust and Echoes: All of the UNSC's efforts to fight the Insurgency on Vyraj ultimately amount to this when they're forced to abandon the planet once the Covenant shows up. Most of the planet's population is unable to evacuate before it gets glassed, and the horrified Huntsmen can do nothing but watch helplessly from the bridge of the Midsummer Night.
- In Fate Revelation Online Asuna, Silica, and Lisbeth go on a lengthy Chain of Deals quest so a husband can get his wife a gift. They suss out it's a Gift of the Magi Plot but are unable to find the wife as Zolgen had eaten her before they arrived. The husband later went on an epic trek to find his missing wife only to also get eaten by Zolgen.
- In the crossover fic The First Saniwa, when Hiromasa sustains a Wound That Will Not Heal, rendering any medical intervention by Yaobikuni moot, she decides to ask Yagen, Kasen and Izuminokami to gather ingredients for her so she can start experimenting on him to find a cure. However, when the three return with the ingredients, Hiromasa has already succumbed to The Corruption from the injury before any experiments can take place. To make matters worse, Miketsu revealed in a flashback that said corruption cannot be dispelled without breaking the laws of nature, meaning that experiments would have been meaningless anyway.
- Kamen Rider Amp Alternative: The Broken Hearted: Sasha massacres all of Wartwood, with Anne and Bessie as the only survivors... only for Bessie to then get killed by some toad bandits, leaving Anne completely alone.
- Kouja No Senshi: After everybody attempts to take Black Mamba and Dr. Viper's twins for themselves, the kids are sent away from Earth for their own protection. Alas, this turns out to have been totally useless when they wind up on Alderaan when it's blown up by the Death Star.
- Prince of Darkness No More: All efforts to prevent Soma from becoming Dracula are effortlessly unraveled by Carmilla.
- I Couldn't Live Without You
features an alternate Downer Ending that is as tragic and pointless as the bad ending of the original, despite Ushio surviving. Three years after Nagisa's death, a drunken Akio snaps at a still grieving Tomoya when he visits the Furukawa bakery, giving him an extremely brutal speech in which he blames him for Nagisa’s death and for being a horrible father to Ushio due to being absent. Sadly, Tomoya is irreversibly pushed over the Despair Event Horizon and once he gets home, he shoots himself in the head. In the end, all Akio did was cause the suicide of his and Sanae’s son-in-law and leave their granddaughter an orphan.
- While the whole story itself is not a Shoot the Shaggy Dog story, Ryouko Otonashi's character arc on The Pre Despair Kids qualifies. The audience treats her with suspicion the second she arrives at Hope's Peak, the boy she loves, Yasuke Matsuda, is murdered, and, due to her memory problems, she barely remembers any of it. And then it's revealed that she's a clone of Junko Enoshima, the one who ordered the murder of her boyfriend. And then it's revealed that said love is not actually dead, and was watching her because he was ordered to and not because he had any feelings for her. And then he stabs her with a knife and kills her.
- Gundam Seed Bloodlines: Feldt Grace is revived from cryostasis, revealing that the events of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 happened in the past — however, someone went to great lengths to erase all evidence of Celestial Being's accomplishments from history.
- If There Are Wolves Among The Stars: All of the Insurrectionists who helped Six and Jorge are gradually picked off in the latter half of the story, with the Pelican carrying the last survivors getting shot down before it can escape Reach's atmosphere.
- Sisyphus revolves around Harry being stuck in a Groundhog Peggy Sue loop wherein nothing he does can prevent him from going back in time after dying. Not even earning his happy ending.
- Karma Overbalance: The character arcs of both Adrien and Lila from The Karma of Lies are rendered irrelevant, Lila because she dies before she can spend any of her stolen money, and Adrien because he's going to be arrested for her murder and thus won't have any opportunities to redeem himself.
- Another Form Of Power: In the sequel, All for Power, All Might, Aizawa, Sir Nighteye, Mirio and Katsuki search for a way to bring down the popular politician Imoku Kakurete, who had dismantled Japan's Hero Society a decade prior. Unfortunately, they learn far too late that Imoku was fully aware of their search and manipulating them all along — especially Katsuki, who unknowingly helped purge some of the less loyal members of the League for Imoku. The heroes are all killed, having only succeeded in bringing a permanent end to the Era of Heroes.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Friendship is Failure: In order to ensure that Bill Dollar doesn't learn anything, he suffers a sudden heart attack due to being startled by a surprise party.
- Evangelion: You Do (Not) Belong: Michael has been trapped in the world of Evangelion, and wants nothing more than to go back home... even though that would mean losing all of the connections he's forged and going back to his abusive mother. Ultimately, it turns out that the only way he could possibly make it back would involve triggering the Third Impact.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines features a side story focused on Johanna. Her parents are in great need of surgeries and she needs to win the Grand Festival to pay for them. She does succeed, but unfortunately, the surgeries are not enough to save them. To top it off, she ends up facing serious financial troubles after they die.
- Arcanum: Cinder had their whole life stolen from them courtesy of the Sanctum, and wants nothing more to escape, get revenge, and live out the rest of their days in freedom. But when they finally manage to escape, it's revealed that all of the magic that's accumulated in their body over the many years they spent imprisoned can't be controlled without the Sanctum's dampening effects, resulting in a massive backlash that kills them.
- Lost In The Storm: A union organizer investigating Ironwood sneaks into Atlas to recover evidence of his corruption, but is unfortunate enough to be caught there while Salem's agents were breaking out Dr. Merlot. Ironwood accuses her of working for Salem, sending her to the Cerberus Black Site to be tortured for information she doesn't have. Then Salem blows up Cerberus.
- Not this time, Fate: During the finale, Jaune manages to achieve all of his goals, delivering his family to safety, helping Weiss defeat Cinder and killing Adam Taurus himself... only to succumb to his wounds and loop back to the beginning once more, causing him to have a mental breakdown. However, some time manipulation enables him to earn his happy ending after all.
- Dragons Of Ice And Fire:
- Jon desperately attempts to rescue his sister Arya from Winterfell, unaware that the girl he's trying to save is actually impersonating her. "Arya" winds up burning to death, leaving the entire northern coalition in disarray and the grieving Jon being blamed for her death.
- Margaery Tyrell spends seventy-seven days trapped in the Red Keep by Cersei, with nobody willing to risk her life... until Cersei strangles her in a fit of rage and resurrects her as a wight, using her as a distraction.
- A Northern Dragoness: Aemon is sent off to Lys to investigate the kidnapping of a noblewoman, unaware that said incident occurred sixty-five years ago and has long since been resolved. While the elderly noble is safe, sound, and delighted at her "rescue", his mission indirectly led to the death of Naerys.
- In Robb Returns, this is subverted. After all the efforts made to prevent it, it seemed like Jon Arryn would still get killed by Lysa, but the Maesters manage to pull him through.
- Tales of the Undiscovered Swords: Kiriha Sadamune has lost part of his memory due to being burned in the Osaka castle fire, so when he becomes human, he spends a lot of time writing his new experiences down so he won't lose them again. The diary containing his writings is burned to ashes, and in the same fire that burned him to boot, when he is on his kiwame journey.Kiriha: (kiwame letter) Not only do my lost memories not return, my new ones are also lost.
- Sasa Noyuki, the resident Emotionless Boy and Broken Bird. His whole kiwame journey essentially proves fruitless when a. he concludes he can't return to his old pre-traumatized self again, b. his depression returns and gets worse.
- Efforts to hold a fancy vegan dinner for Konotegashiwa under the saniwa's order in order to convince him to be vegan for reasons other than Mortality Phobia backfire when he still makes excuses to be a vegan jerk]].
- Avoiding Stupid Deaths In The 41st Millennium: Several of the entries amount to this. In Entry 420, an In-Universe Creator Breakdown results in a rant about how the entire 40k galaxy is effectively an example. Said entry is rapidly redacted and goes unpublished, as it could have provoked mass suicides.
- In Paper and Sand, any attempts to end the Cycle by killing Scion are doomed to failure thanks to Eden. Anyone who does manage to kill Scion gets turned into an Endbringer before Eden hits the Reset Button.
