History Main / DefeatAsBackstory

* The prologue of ''Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy'' tells us how an uprising Wing-Chun star, Cheung Tai Chi, retires from the martial arts world after being defeated by Ip Man.

-->-- ''[[Literature/TheDogsOfWar The Dogs Of War]]''

[[folder: Audio Drama]]

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'': Kratos' story and downfall began primarily when his Spartan army lost a major battle against a barbarian horde, as he begged the titular god of war Ares to bring him victory, just before Kratos himself could be killed by barbarian king Alrik.

* This is true for both groups in Franchise/{{Tsukipro}}'s ''Alive'' series, but in very different ways. The series follows two bands, Soara and Growth, as they audition for the titular music label. Growth is made up of three high school students with experience in the professional entertainment industry. Their failure is that they were cut from their old agency's newly debuting unit. They decide that instead of staying with that agency as second-tier members, they will leave and audition for a different label as a unit, with their fourth member, a composer they met by chance. Soara, on the other hand, is made up of five ordinary high school students, but their leader, Sora, had had a fifteen-minutes-of-fame experience as a songwriter when he was in middle school. But the "can-you-believe-this-talented-kid" media circus moved on, and only the rude dregs of the internet were left. He quit, emotionally scarred by the experience, until his new friends persuade him to compose music for the band they want to start, after which they audition for Tsukipro.

[[folder: Audio Drama]]
* This is true for both groups in Franchise/{{Tsukipro}}'s ''Alive'' series, but in very different ways. The series follows two bands, Soara and Growth, as they audition for the titular music label. Growth is made up of three high school students with experience in the professional entertainment industry. Their failure is that they were cut from their old agency's newly debuting unit. They decide that instead of staying with that agency as second-tier members, they will leave and audition for a different label as a unit, with their fourth member, a composer they met by chance. Soara, on the other hand, is made up of five ordinary high school students, but their leader, Sora, had had a fifteen-minutes-of-fame experience as a songwriter when he was in middle school. But the "can-you-believe-this-talented-kid" media circus moved on, and only the rude dregs of the internet were left. He quit, emotionally scarred by the experience, until his new friends persuade him to compose music for the band they want to start, after which they audition for Tsukipro.
[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/Mistborn:TheOriginalTrilogy'' had this as Brandon Sanderson's initial pitch. Describing his initial concept, he said: "The second idea was to write a story about a world where the good guys lost. I wanted to take the standard fantasy story I’d read a dozen times, that of a young peasant hero who went on a quest to defeat a Dark Lord, and turn it on its head. What if the Dark Lord won? What if, in the final climactic moments, he killed the hero and took over the world? Hence, Mistborn. A thousand years ago, the prophesied hero from lore rose up to overthrow a great and terrible evil. Only, he lost, and the Dark Lord took over and has been ruling with an iron fist for a thousand years."

A protagonist (or some other character's backstory) in a story begins by having been defeated either before the story began, or early on in the story (often in a prologue). While this usually applies to a character having fought on the losing side of a war, it can also apply to someone having lost an important game as an athlete. This defeat forms a significant aspect of that character; fighting on the losing side may have closed doors for that character, or they may be burning for revenge, or they're trying to pick up the pieces and move on. If a character is trying overly hard to prevent a similar defeat from happening again, then they are a FailureKnight. If someone is SealedEvilInACan, they will have by design a previous defeat as part of their backstory (that's how they managed to get sealed into a can, after all).

Subtrope of [[DarkAndTroubledPast]].

[[AC:Anime And Manga]]

* ''Anime/GenesisClimberMospeada'' has Stig's entire squadron wiped out by the Inbit, with his fiance killed in the process. He ends up WalkingTheEarth with [[LaResistance a ragtag crew of misfits]] in a quest to defeat the Inbit.

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[[AC:Live-Action TV]]

* ''{{Series/JAG}}'''s Harmon Rabb was a F-14 pilot, until a crash and a diagnosis of night blindness forced him to transfer to the Judge Advocate General's office.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' has Roland, the last of the gunslingers, having lost to John Farson's forces at the Battle of Jericho Hill before the series begins.
* ''Literature/TheDogsOfWar'' starts off with "Cat" Shannon and his fellow mercenaries trying to flee from Nigeria, having fought on the losing side in the Biafra War.

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[AC:Real Life]]

* In ''Film/CreedII'', Ivan Drago hopes to avenge his defeat in ''RockyIV'' through his son, Viktor, challenging Adonis.

* ''Series/JAG'''s Harmon Rabb was a F-14 pilot, until a crash and a diagnosis of night blindness forced him to transfer to the Judge Advocate General's office.

* Countries that have been defeated in war will have to come to terms with their defeat, especially if losing the war causes a change in government (such as what happened with Germany and Japan after WWII, and Argentina after the Falklands War).

* Mal and Zoe on ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' fought on the losing side of a war, with the first episode showing the last moments of the last battle of the war. Six years on, during the main timeframe that the show takes place in, they still wear the brown coats of the independent forces, and the spaceship they live on is named the ''Serenity'' after that battle. Mal still has trouble adjusting to living under his former enemies' rule, and always ends up getting into a fight on "Unification Day".

-->--'''''[[Literature/TheDogsOfWar The Dogs Of War]]'''''

--> ''"He had seen Hoare depart and John-John Peters take over, had quarreled with Peters and driven north to join Denard at Paulis, had been in the Stanleyville mutiny two years later and, after the Frenchman's evacuation to Rhodesia with head wounds, had joined Black Jacques Schramme, the Belgian planter-turned-mercenary, on the long march to Bukavu and thence to Kigali. After repatriation by the Red Cross, he had promptly volunteered for another African war and had finally taken command of his own battalion. But too late to win, always too late to win."''

[[AC: Video Games]]

[[AC: Real Life]]
* Countries that have been defeated in war will have to come to terms with their defeat, especially if losing the war causes a change in government (such as what happened with Germany and Japan after WWII, and Argentina after the Falklands War).

A protagonist in a story begins by having been defeated either before the story began, or early on in the story (often in a prologue). While this usually applies to a character having fought on the losing side of a war, it can also apply to someone having lost an important game as an athlete. This defeat forms a significant aspect of that character; fighting on the losing side may have closed doors for that character, or they may be burning for revenge, or they're trying to pick up the pieces and move on. If a character is trying overly hard to prevent a similar defeat from happening again, then they are a FailureKnight. If someone is SealedEvilInACan, they will have by design a previous defeat as part of their backstory (that's how they managed to get sealed into a can, after all).