History Main / BackFromTheBrink

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'', where the grand evil empire has already won and the forces you fight in the first few missions are either petty space pirates or the fringe fleets of said empire who just happened to be in the area. In the briefings of some of the middle missions your intelligence officer even makes it rather obvious that your chosen flight route is designed to ''avoid'' having to deal with the bulk of enemy forces.

* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' uses this with its campaign for ''both'' sides: play Core, and your first mission to save your last remaining Commander (which is, incidentally, deactivated) from being found by Arm scouts on the Core homeworld, the last planet Core can stake at least a bit of claim to. Play Arm, and you have to defend your last Galactic Gate on ''their'' homeworld from the invading Core who have taken over everywhere else. In other words, which side is losing and which side is winning depends entirely on which side you choose to play as. There's some reason behind this, since the game's nanomachine-based construction enables both sides to fart out military-industrial complexes, making strategy much more vital than resources. In essence, both sides are fighting the war with rather chunky Gray Goo: Unless you destroy every single builder unit, the enemy can regain it's strength at an exponential rate. Hence the name, Total Annihilation. No other type of victory will do.

* ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'':
** The first game starts out with only a single major city of ''The Light'' still standing through forty years of war. After discovering a powerful magic artifact which allows several victories to be scored, pushing back the torrential hordes of darkness with great difficulty, the magical coup that allowed them turns on you and causes a civil war amongst The Light's already dwindling ranks. Upon regrouping, a desperate plan is concocted in which almost all of your remaining allies are implied to have purposely sacrificed themselves to provide a distraction, allowing you to capture the BigBad. When you finally destroy him, the ending CutScene indicates that you and your entire squad were wiped out in the resulting explosion.
** ''Myth 2'' retcons it: one guy lived. It wasn't you (or rather the narrator, since you aren't actually a character). He did a decent job rebuilding, too.
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft Episodes IV'' and ''VI'' start that way. And, of course, some individual missions.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'', in which Miana is simply one of several dozen Vinci city-states and your fight is primarily a war of conquest. Played straight in the Alin campaign, however, where the Alin Kingdom has been pushed back to the city of Azar Harif by the Dark Alin by the time [[TheHero Giacimo]] gets there.
* This is basicaly the premise of ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand''. The [=AIs=] have already annihilated the humans and other species in the galaxy, and you're the last bastion. The trope is being subverted, though: You have a chance at all because you are considered irrelevant - the [=AIs=] are fighting a greater foe somewhere else. If you do what you'd do in every other strategy game - take back systems one by one to build up power - you will be deemed a threat and eliminated by an unstoppable wave of ships that swat your fleets aside and destroy your stations. Instead, you have to obfuscate your progress by only taking over systems that are actually valuable and then orchestrate a lightning strike on both enemy home stations almost simultaneously. In a game of 80 planets, good players will only ever conquer 20 or so.
* In ''VideoGame/CreeperWorld'' humanity has been reduced to a single city which is forced to constantly flee from planet to planet to escape the advancing Creeper substance. It's not until the final level that humanity actually finds a way to fight back.
* Restoring failing empires in ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis IV'' at the time where the game starts is a common SelfImposedChallenge. Some of them, such as restoring the Byzantine or the Hindustani Empire, are officially recognized with a Steam achievement.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** In several instances throughout the series, faction questlines play out in such a way that the player brings them back from the brink, often after said faction [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen fell since the previous game in the series]].
** In-universe, this is the case for the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Dunmeri]] [[TheClan Great House]] [[ProudWarriorRace Redoran]]. House Redoran was almost completely destroyed during the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion Crisis]] after they rallied to defend against the invading [[LegionsOfHell Daedra]]. ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'''s ''Dragonborn'' reveals that Redoran has recovered quite well in the [[TimeSkip 200 years]] that followed, organizing most of the relief efforts following the [[ColonyDrop Red]] [[ChekhovsVolcano Year]] and raising a [[BadassArmy standing army]] to fight back against the [[LizardFolk Argonian]] invasion. Now, they're the current leaders of the Dunmer Council and their city of Blacklight has become the capital of Dunmer controlled Morrowind following the Argonian sacking of Mournhold.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': The Returners have a stronghold of sorts in the mountains east of Figaro--however, it's about the time that you start the game that the Empire starts occupying cities to build their own power, but also to try and stamp out the Returners. This is a slight aversion of the trope, as your objective as the player is not to win back control of the cities, but, eventually, to solve the issue diplomatically. [[spoiler: Just a shame that Kefka has to stab everyone in the back to become the God of Magic.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' does this ''a lot'', first with saving the last crystal from the forces of darkness and then bringing back stability to the world.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' starts off with the Reapers' invasion of Earth, crushing all resistance in their path. Commander Shepard is forced to flee the planet in order to gather allies and resources to take back Earth. Is ultimately an [[InvertedTrope inverted]] example: the Reapers can only be stalled, and by the end of the game they go from occupying a few systems to turning the entire map red.

* You start ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' with two low-level nobodies, a caretaker, and a hamlet that's virtually ruined. Over the course of the game you build it up into a thriving settlement, especially if you have the "Crimson Court" DLC (which lets you construct new buildings, while the base game is focused on repairing and enlarging the ones you already have). It can also happen within the game itself, where the heroes are fighting a losing battle, stress is piling up, resolves are tested, and suddenly a character reaches a Virtue and single-handedly saves the day.
* By the final act of ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', Arianna has nearly succeeded in her goal of wiping out the virtual world. All that’s left are a few scraps of land floating in a digital void. When the heroes finally make it past her Firewall, they’re not even sure if it’s possible to undo the damage that’s been done. [[spoiler:[[WorldHealingWave Thankfully, it is.]]]]

* The ''VideoGame/StarFox'' series is quite fond of this:

Compare LateToTheTragedy, except that the main character has been around for the whole time, [[CutsceneIncompetence just not under the player's control]]. Related to AlwaysClose, but with an ''entire war''. If you tilt your head and squint just right, this trope appears to be connected to ConservationOfNinjutsu: The less territory a side has, the more difficult they are to defeat. This may be a sort-of TruthInTelevision--barring things like nukes, a side with less ''territory'' but roughly the same ''personnel and material'' will have more people and machines protecting an area of a given size; supply convoys and so on won't have as far to go and thereby remain exposed less often; etc.

Compare LateToTheTragedy, except that the main character has been around for the whole time, [[CutsceneIncompetence just not under the player's control]]. Related to AlwaysClose, but with an ''entire war''. If you tilt your head and squint just right, this trope appears to be connected to ConservationOfNinjitsu: The less territory a side has, the more difficult they are to defeat. This may be a sort-of TruthInTelevision--barring things like nukes, a side with less ''territory'' but roughly the same ''personnel and material'' will have more people and machines protecting an area of a given size; supply convoys and so on won't have as far to go and thereby remain exposed less often; etc.

** In ''[[VideoGAme/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'''s Subspace Emissary, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Tabuu]] knocks out all of fighters appearing before him with one-shot of his Off Waves attack. Luckily, King Dedede had stashed away the trophies of [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Kirby]], [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Luigi]], and [[VideoGame/Earthbound1994 Ness]] with timed release revival brooches, allowing them to go and revive everyone. Additionally, when Tabuu tries the attack again, his wings are destroyed by [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]], forcing him to fight on even terms.]]
** In ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'''s World of Light, [[BigBad Galeem]] does a WorldWreckingWave, which Kirby is only able to survive by pushing his Warp Star to its absolute limit, leaving him the only one able to fight back.

** The remake, ''VideoGame/Doom3'' puts you in the shoes of a marine who is transferred to Mars for reasons unknown. Everybody on Mars is quickly wiped out in an ensuing demonic invasion (much like the first game) besides a handful of marine teams (Who quickly get taken out ''in a cutscene'') and the other 3 main characters. The player is basically responsible for stopping the invasion.
* Once you start reading the Luminoth Lore in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'', you begin to realize just how close to complete destabilization the Ing brought Aether before you grabbed up that Energy Transfer Module; specifically, the Ing were two rooms away from destroying the planet when you chanced upon them.

** In ''[[VideoGAme/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'''s Subspace Emissary, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Tabuu]] knocks out all of fighters appearing before him with one-shot of his Off Waves attack. Luckily, King Dedede had stashed away the trophies of [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Kirby]], [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Luigi]], and [[VideoGame/Earthbound1994 Ness]] with timed release revival brooches, allowing them to go and revive everyone. Additionally, when Tabuu tries the attack again, his wings are destroyed by [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]], forcing him to fight on even terms.]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
!!Warfare
* In 300 BC, when King Min took the throne, Qi was among the strongest states in China's Warring States period, if not the most powerful. But his corruption and incompetence were so legendary that in 284 BC, it was completely conquered by Yan, and King Min was executed. Oh wait, Qi was ALMOST completely conquered; although seventy cities were taken, two remained independent -- which was enough for Wangsun Jia and Tian Di to reconquer all the land Yan took.
* By 208, Cao Cao's forces controlled two thirds of China's people and was on the brink of unifying it. Then came the Battle of Chibi; against all odds, Cao Cao's forces were nearly annihilated, and China would remain divided for another seventy-two years--and that only briefly, remaining unified for about 25 years before falling into disunion again for nearly 300 years after that.
* UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic during the UsefulNotes/PunicWars, especially after Cannae. It's estimated that the battle wiped out a whopping ''80%'' of the entire Roman army. This catastrophic loss drove people to such despair that the Romans actually performed acts of HumanSacrifice to appease the Gods who seemed to have abandoned them. They then spent the next few years steadily supporting and helping their clients in a war of attrition, enjoying a lucky break with Hannibal not marching straight to Rome[[note]]or so it seemed to them at the time; Hannibal had no practical way of breaching the city walls, and didn't have the numbers or supplies to maintain a siege while the other Italian cities remained loyal to Rome[[/note]]. Thanks to generals like Scipio Africanus and Marcellus in addition to the Roman massive pool of manpower, eventually the Romans built a new army from scratch, out-strategized the Carthaginians, turned their Numidian cavalry against them, and came out on top at the Battle of Zama.
* The UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire that followed up the Roman Republic had a habit of this. While territory was lost multiple times, crafty Emperors found ways to come back from massive defeats and humiliations time and time again. While they eventually were conquered by the Ottoman Turks, by that point they had come back enough times from near destruction that historians ponder if they could have recovered just as they had against the Arabs and the Seljuk Turks with a comparatively minor change of events.
* By the time UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat came to power as the king of Wessex, the fledgling kingdom was the only Saxon kingdom left in England, with every other one fallen to the [[HornyVikings invading Danes]]. Unfortunately for the Danes, turns out Alfred the Great was a colossal BadassBookworm to the Nth degree. Between organising a rebel army in the swamps and dressing as a bard to infiltrate Viking camps and learn their plans, he [[CurbStompBattle defeated the Danes decisively]] at the Battle of Edington, then used the resulting peace to build up a network of defences to make his kingdom impregnable, while also doing other awesome things like codifying a system of laws and building the framework for an education system. Alfred was also savvy enough to realize that the Vikings didn't have much knowledge of siege warfare, and that most of them returned home to Scandinavia when the raiding season was over. So instead of throwing away men on grand pushes to take back the entire island, he focused on securing and fortifying each town they recaptured, slowly retaking the island one mile at a time. When he died, his [[BrotherSisterTeam son and daughter]] went on to deliver crushing defeat after crushing defeat to the Vikings and reclaim all the territory lost over the years. His grandson Athelstan mopped up the last Viking enclaves and became the first king of a unified and powerful England which was never threatened by invading Scandinavians ever again (bar the invasion by Cnut, and Harold, and...).
* The reinstatement of Admiral Yi Sun Shin. After several dramatic victories against the Japanese invasions (1592-1598), he was rewarded in 1597 with accusations of treason, arrest, torture, and demotion to foot soldier. His successor proceeded to lose the entire Korean navy in a single battle through startling incompetence, leaving only 13 ships that had withdrawn rather than fight (none of which were the famous turtle ships). After being restored to command and rallying what was left of his fleet, Admiral Yi proceeded to fight a fleet of 133 Japanese warships and over 200 support craft, routing his foe while destroying 31 enemy ships outright and crippling over 90 more, with no losses. Japanese morale was, fairly understandably, crippled by this, and the Koreans would win every naval engagement until the end of the war.
* Happens multiple times during the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar. First Bohemia revolts and throws Imperial forces out of Bohemia. The Empire strikes back, including beating an attempted Danish invasion, and looks on the verge of total victory. Cue Swedish intervention, that in a few years completely shatters the imperial stranglehold on northern Germany and has Swedish troops as far south as Munich. Then Gustav II Adolf dies, the Protestant alliance falls apart and the Emperor manages to drive the Swedes back to the Baltic again. [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle And we're only in the 1630s!]] France enters the war and it is finally brought to a negotiated settlement, with France and Sweden the nominal victors.
* By 1709, the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession was going very badly for France. The French had suffered multiple defeats at the hands of their Allied opponents, the costs of the war were staggering, and France was ravaged by famine. French King UsefulNotes/LouisXIV was at the end of his rope and tried to open peace talks, offering to give up almost all his military conquests during his reign. The Allies foolishly rejected this and demanded that Louis's grandson Phillip V give up the Spanish throne and that Louis forcibly remove Phillip if he refused. An outraged Louis broke off negotiations and resumed the war, saying that if he had to fight he would rather battle his enemies than his own family. Louis wrote a letter to his people that was read in every parish in France, urging them to one last stand. From the king on down, the French scraped together the money to rebuild their armies and started turning the tables on their Allies. The French inflicted a PyrrhicVictory on the Allies at the Battle of Malplaquet and outright won the Battle of Denain, preventing an invasion of France, while Franco-Spanish victories in Spain itself secured Phillip's throne. The British were increasingly unhappy at how much blood and treasure the war was costing them, especially when a decisive victory became increasingly unlikely. [[KnowWhenToFoldEm They signed a peace deal with France that gave them valuable commercial and territorial gains, while also ensuring the French and Spanish Crowns would remain separate.]] The rest of the Allies were unhappy at this, but they were [[VictoryByEndurance too exhausted to continue on their own and also settled with France.]]
* In the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar Prussia was badly outmanned and outgunned and its only ally (Britain) was busy fighting France and did not much care to save them. Then the Austro-Russian alliance does not march on Berlin (which was virtually undefended) and the Russian Czar dies. The next Czar is a great admirer of Prussia and its leader and the country is saved once more. A hundred years later Prussia would establish the German Kaiserreich. Another forty years after that the Prussian led Kaiserreich would go toe to toe with the rest of the world and come within an inch of winning bringing France to the brink of defeat and causing the utter collapse of Russia in the process.
* The most famous Real Life example would be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones John Paul Jones]], and is actually the original source of the quote "I have not yet begun to fight" which has then been parodied ever since. With his ship, the ''Bonhomme Richard'' burning and sinking, and the flag (aka "the colors") shot away ("striking the colors" was a symbol of surrender); one of John Paul Jones officers, apparently believing his captain to be dead, shouted a surrender. The British commander asked if they had struck their colors. Jones replied: "I may sink, but I'll be damned if I strike!" Eventually Jones won the battle and transferred his command to the captured enemy ship as his own ship sank.
* France during UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution was on a low ebb in 1793, its armies were suffering setbacks, the Austrians were marching to the capital and General Dumouriez, the hero-general of Valmy had become a defector along with other nobles. The coalition now included England who put a blockade on all food imports, the famine was increasing and there was political instability like no tomorrow with many people expecting that the New Republic would be easily defeated and steamrolled. So what do France do? They [[TookALevelInBadass got their act together]], [[HeroicSecondWind discover their revolutionary spirit and start winning]]. In the space of a single year, the French expanded their army by mass conscription, restructured it from the ground up while pioneering administrative reforms that put them ahead of the rest of the Continent.
--> '''Carl von Clausewitz''': "In 1793 such a force as no one had any conception of made its appearance. War had again suddenly become an affair of the people, and that of a people numbering thirty millions, every one of whom regarded himself as a citizen of the State... By this participation of the people in the war... a whole Nation with its natural weight came into the scale."
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. By early 1918, the UsefulNotes/GermanEmpire had practically conquered Eastern Europe, were about to come to a permanent peace settlement that would give them most of their conquests, all the Central Powers were -- while shaken -- still in the fight, and the Balkans front had been effectively pacified with the fall of Romania and Serbia. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians were shifting forces for two massive simultaneous assaults to try and destroy the Western Allies by striking both in France and Italy -- and would drive so far that they began minting medals in preparation for the falls of Paris and Venice, all while the Entente could not even divert needed units from Africa because of Von Lettow's actions and the Senussi rebellion. The only GOOD news for the Western Allies was that the US had now entered the war, but it was stuck with a seriously under-strength, under-equipped, undertrained, and under-experienced force on the wrong side of the Atlantic Ocean. Then came the Balkan offensive, the Turkish surrender, Armando Diaz's reforms and "three great campaigns" to anihilate the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belleau Wood, Amiens, the Hundred Days, and finally the October mutiny that struck at the heart of the Kasierreich.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: In November 1941 the USSR seemed to be living its darkest hour. Kiev had been taken and its 38,000 Jews summarily shot by the ''Einsatzgruppen'', Leningrad was besieged and its two million people were beginning to die of starvation, and Moscow was practically on the front lines. In reality German strength had hollowed out significantly, with German logistical strength suffering CriticalFailure that month as German non-preparation for subzero operations - a conscious choice taken so that the maximum amount of ammunition could be delivered - resulted in the train and truck fleets being reduced to a tenth of survival requirements as water pipes froze and burst. But still, had the USSR blinked or given in, it could have tipped the other way, and the Red Army and the people of the Soviet Union bravely rallied out and defeated the Germans. Prior to that moment, France and nearly half of Europe have fallen to the Germans, [[UsefulNotes/FascistItaly much]] [[UsefulNotes/TheFrancoRegime of]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Romania}} the]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}} other]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Finland}} half]] were collaborating with them with varying intensity and eagerness, the UK constantly endured German aerial bombings, and the US still maintained official neutrality. While there were some previous minor victories for the future Allies -- notably, denying Axis and pro-Axis regimes a significant foothold in the Middle East and Iran -- it was the ending months of 1941 when the first large-scale turning of tides came, with the USSR stalling German offensive before reaching Moscow, and the near-simultaneous official declaration of war by the US following the Pearl Harbor attack.
* The early days of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. Vastly enlarged and lavishly supplied and backed by Soviet equipment and advisors, the North Korean military pushed South of the DMZ and readily routed every United Nations force that tried to halt or at least delay it, to the point where all that the UN were pushed back to their final stronghold at Pusan and the surrounding towns, which the North Koreans rapidly besieged using superior numbers and equipment, with the UN commanders there living hand-to-mouth on reinforcements from Japan, and even THEN the North Koreans came close several times to crushing the main line of defense and taking Pusan. And THEN Inchon happened, which saw the North Korean military be encircled, decimated, and forced to retreat North while much of its strength was trapped in the South and destroyed. This war swung both ways, too. When the Chinese intervened, it was explicitly because the UN had reached from the DMZ all the way to the Yalu River. The very same Yalu River that serves as the Korean northern border, in fact - last stop, final destination, end of the line. The Chinese proceeded to demonstrate every guerilla and mass warfare tactic they learned in their Civil War to retake all of North Korea and reach shelling range of Seoul before their offensive was finally stopped, with the final result being...[[ShootTheShaggyDog the border ending up right back where it started, give or take a few kilometres]].
* In mid-2015, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Syria}} Syrian]] [[UsefulNotes/ArabSpring civil war]] had been grinding on for over 4 years. Under fire from [[ChurchMilitant ISIS, the al-Nusra Front]], [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized and dozens of other rebel groups]], it looked like Bashar al-Assad and his Syrian Arab Army were on their last legs. The United States along with other powers in the region such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia were already making plans for a Syria without Assad. Then in September 2015, [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets Russia]] [[DidntSeeThatComing entered the fray on Assad's side.]] With backup from Russian [[GunshipRescue airstrikes]], [[TheCavalry armor battalions]], and [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous special forces]], the SAA began to make a real comeback, and as of 2016 Assad re-emerged as a viable player in the war.

!!Others
* There is some evidence that humanity as a whole has been through this at least once. At least if the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory Toba catastrophe theory]] is to be believed...
* By the late 90's, all of the competitors to the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer and UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows had been driven out of the market except for Apple, whom many predicted would not last much longer. Their market share had shrunk considerably, with seemingly little chance of improving since their nearly decade-and-a-half old classic Mac OS was woefully out-of-date, lacking key modern operating system features like protected memory and preemptive multitasking. Having failed to develop a replacement OS in-house, Apple decided to acquire one the outside, and chose to purchase [=NeXT=], the company that Creator/SteveJobs had started after he left Apple due to CreativeDifferences over a decade prior. Though he was only an "advisor" at first following [=NeXT's=] acquisition, he quickly became interim and then fulltime CEO, and proceeded to revive the company with exciting new products such as the original [=iMac=], Mac OS X, the [=iPod=], and eventually the [=iPhone=]. Today, Apple, far from being on the brink of going out of business, is one of if not the most successful companies in the world.
* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series had fallen on hard times going into the [=2010s=], with the last major releases in the series, ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'', underperforming. Believing that the series was running out of steam, Nintendo gave developer Intelligent Systems permission to work on one more game, with the condition that if this game also failed to succeed, the series would be retired. The end result was ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', a game that would serves as the series's SwanSong if it failed to succeed, featuring elements from past games meshed into a big love letter to the fans. It quickly went on to be a KillerApp for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, and the series has enjoyed continued success ever since.
* In Politics, the 2018 midterm elections could count as this for the Democratic Party. Democratic Party was talked about as if it would fall apart soon (Given the grave losses suffered at all levels in the preceding years, Donald Trump wining the 2016 election, and the infighting, this was understandable). With the 2018 midterms, the Democrats gained seven governorship's, flipped the House of Representatives, and gained 350 state wide seats.
* Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign certainly seemed to be on the ropes, on the verge of collapse following serious defeats in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Then he won a crushing victory in South Carolina and won a landslide victory on Super Tuesday, effectively ensuring he would win the nomination.
[[/folder]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn''. The player starts with the control of Daein's [[LaResistance Dawn Brigade]], and in the only run the country really is restored; however, in Part III, when you play part their side part (as [[DealWithTheDevil pawn]] to TheEmpire) their opponents', they're steadfastly losing, and their LastStand ends as a dramatic defeat. It's also averted with the enemy country, Crimea; Crimea was the attacker in the conflict with TheEmpire, and was not losing in any sense of the word. It's played straight if you think of Crimea's [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask queen]], though, who in Part II was under fierce criticism and had faced a rebellion in her own country, and whose position in Part III is much more established.

In any video game where the player's country/faction is involved in a conflict before the game starts, the game will begin with the enemy about to deliver a deathblow to the allies -- they're about to kill off the last regiment, destroy the last base, or capture the last territory. Then the player will immediately take control and suddenly ItsUpToYou to fight Back from the Brink, completely reversing the course of the war up until that point.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':
** The first game has the protagonist fighting off a demonic invasion after all his comrades on the Phobos base are wiped out.

** The sequel ''Doom II: Hell on Earth'' has the combined forces of humanity making one last counter-offensive to retake the Starport and evacuate Earth. ''Every last one of them'' is annihilated besides the protagonist, who must then retake the Starport himself and save the day.
** The remake, ''Doom 3'' puts you in the shoes of a marine who is transferred to Mars for reasons unknown. Everybody on Mars is quickly wiped out in an ensuing demonic invasion (much like the first game) besides a handful of marine teams (Who quickly get taken out ''in a cutscene'') and the other 3 main characters. The player is basically responsible for stopping the invasion.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': By the time Link awakens in the future era, five of the six temples have succumbed under Ganondorf's influence, outmatching the Sages who attempted to protect them, and as a result all parts of Hyrule have remained in a dire state in one way or another. The only temple that is left intact from the Gerudo king's influence (and therefore has its Sage safe) is the Temple of Time (even then, the Market is still overrun by ReDeads and the nearby Lon Lon Ranch is now under Ingo's control), whose sage (Rauru) entrusts Link the mission to restore Hyrule to its former glory and eventually confront his deadliest enemy.

* ''VideoGame/Control'': At the start of the game, the Bureau of Control has lost the majority of its employees, the Oldest House is under lockdown, and the survivors are under siege by both the Hiss as well as Molded. Several of its artifacts and dangerous foes have also escaped containment. Jesse manages to single-handedly stop all of these threats and reorganize the survivors under her command.

* Any time a team is down 0-3 in a best-of-7 Series and wins the last 4. As of 2015, only five professional teams have accomplished this feat in North America, four in [[UsefulNotes/IceHockey the National Hockey League]]:

* Alan Kulwicki had to overcome a 278 point deficit after crashing out of the September Dover race to win the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. He wrote himself off, as the season was being dominated by Bill Elliott and Davey Allison. But then the unthinkable happened, as both Allison and Elliott started having problems down the stretch that drug not only Kulwicki into the picture, but Harry Gant, Kyle Petty and Mark Martin as well. Kulwicki pulled off the title, leading one more lap than race winner Bill Elliott, and he did it without first gear for most of the race.

** The main reason [[TheFederation the Union]] comes back from the brink of destruction despite your character having been around the whole time and [[BadassNormal whooping ass]] is that he's just gained the allegiance of ''a dragon.'' The second level which you play involves [[KillEmAll killing the entire besieging army with the dragon.]] Not content to be one-upped, TheEmpire deploys some interesting SchizoTech during a later [[FinalBattle climactic battle]], and when even that fails, just [[DeathFromAbove screws everyone over]].

* By the late 90's, all of the competitors to the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer and UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows had been driven out of the market except for Apple, whom many predicted would not last much longer. Their market share had shrunk considerably, with seemingly little chance of improving since their nearly decade-and-a-half old classic Mac OS was woefully out-of-date, lacking key modern operating system features like protected memory and preemptive multitasking. Having failed to develop a replacement OS in-house, Apple decided to acquire one from another company, and chose to purchase [=NeXT=], the company that Creator/SteveJobs had started after he left Apple due to CreativeDifferences over a decade prior. Though he was only an "advisor" at first following [=NeXT's=] acquisition, he quickly became interim and then fulltime CEO, and proceeded to revive the company with exciting new products such as the original [=iMac=], Mac OS X, the [=iPod=], and eventually the [=iPhone=]. Today, Apple, far from being on the brink of going out of business, is one of if not the most successful companies in the world.

* A villainous example in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' with [[spoiler:HYDRA. After the defeat of Red Skull, HYDRA was thought to be completely finished. However, his seemingly less harmful assistant was recruited into SHIELD as part of Operation Paperclip, and from day one began planting the seeds for HYDRA's rebirth inside of SHIELD itself. By the modern day, SHIELD is so thoroughly compromised, that HYDRA comes closer to completing plan than just about any other villains in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, and Captain America is forced to destroy SHIELD completely to end the threat. "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place", indeed.]]

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'': The previous legendary hero was slain long ago, Ganon's forces have ravaged Hyrule, the Triforce is shattered, and all that remains of the kingdom are a few random old people hiding in caves. And then Link appears.

** The second part of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' begins with Ganondorf in almost complete control of Hyrule.

[[folder:MMORPGs]]

** In ''[[VideoGAme/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'''s Subspace Emissary, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Tabuu]] knocks out all of fighters appearing before him with one-shot of his Off Waves attack. Luckily, King Dedede had stashed away the trophies of [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Kirby]], [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Luigi]], and [[VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} Ness]] with timed release revival brooches, allowing them to go and revive everyone. Additionally, when Tabuu tries the attack again, his wings are destroyed by [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]], forcing him to fight on even terms.]]

* The early days of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. Vastly enlarged and lavishly supplied and backed by Soviet equipment and advisors, the North Korean military pushed South of the DMZ and readily routed every Western Allied force that tried to halt or at least delay it, to the point where all that the Western Allies were pushed back to their final stronghold at Pusan and the surrounding towns, which the North Koreans rapidly besieged using superior numbers and equipment, with the Western Allied commanders there living hand-to-mouth on reinforcements from Japan, and even THEN the North Koreans came close several times to crushing the main line of defense and taking Pusan. And THEN Inchon happened, which saw the North Korean military be encircled, decimated, and forced to retreat North while much of its strength was trapped in the South and destroyed. This war swung both ways, too. When the Chinese intervened, it was explicitly because the UN had reached from the DMZ all the way to the Yalu River. The very same Yalu River that serves as the Korean northern border, in fact - last stop, final destination, end of the line. The Chinese proceeded to demonstrate every guerilla and mass warfare tactic they learned in their Civil War to retake all of North Korea and reach shelling range of Seoul before their offensive was finally stopped, with the final result being...[[ShootTheShaggyDog the border ending up right back where it started, give or take a few kilometres]].

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. By early 1918, the UsefulNotes/GermanEmpire had practically conquered Eastern Europe, were about to come to a permanent peace settlement that would give them most of their conquests, all the Central Powers were -- while shaken -- still in the fight, and the Balkans front had been effectively pacified with the fall of Romania and Serbia. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians were shifting forces for two massive simultaneous assaults to try and destroy the Western Allies by striking both in France and Italy -- and would drive so far that they began minting medals in preparation for the falls of Paris and Venice, all while the Entente could not even divert needed units from Africa because of Von Lettow's actions and the Senussi rebellion. The only GOOD news for the Western Allies was that the US had now entered the war, but it was stuck with a seriously under-strength, under-equipped, undertrained, and under-experienced force on the wrong side of the Atlantic Ocean. Then came the Balkan offensive, the Turkish surrender, Diaz's reforms and "three great campaigns" to anihilate the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belleau Wood, Amiens, the Hundred Days, and finally the October mutiny that struck at the heart of the Kasierreich.

* By the late 90's, all of the competitors to the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer and UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows had been driven out of the market except for Apple, whom many predicted would not last much longer. Their market share had shrunk considerably, with seemingly little chance of improving since their nearly decade-and-a-half old classic Mac OS was woefully out-of-date, lacking key modern operating system features like protected memory and preemptive multitasking. Having failed to develop a replacement OS in-house, Apple decided to acquire one from another company, and chose to purchase [=NeXT=], the company that Creator/SteveJobs had started after getting kicked out of Apple, which brought him back inside the latter company. Though he was only an "advisor" at first, he quickly became interim and then fulltime CEO, and proceeded to revive the company with exciting new products such as the original [=iMac=], Mac OS X, the [=iPod=], and eventually the [=iPhone=]. Today, Apple, far from being on the brink of going out of business, is one of if not the most successful companies in the world.