History Main / DoomedMoralVictor

* Creator/JRRTolkien was, perhaps a little bit overly, fond of invoking this trope. Eomer invokes it at the climax of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', only to be dramatically saved by a PlotTwist. Aragorn also invokes it at the Black Gate: and again, gets dramatically saved. Of course, not everyone who invokes the trope gets saved: at least one Ent perishes in their attack on Isengard, as was their intention. And their actions do pave the way for [[spoiler: Saruman's downfall at the hands of Wormtongue, by making him see that the fallen wizard is not invincible.]] But perhaps the straightest example of this trope in the Legendarium comes from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': with the death of Fingolfin. Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor, upon seeing the devastation wrought by the Dagor Bragollach gets so angry, people mistake him for a Vala and challenges [[BigBad Morgoth]] to single combat [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu with the entirely predictable result of getting himself horribly killed]]. However, because of his moral power he manages to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Morgoth permanently]] and his actions ultimately pave the way for Morgoth's eventual downfall at the hands of the Valar. Although a bunch of other really bad stuff happens first, including Maedhros crossing the DespairEventHorizon after the death of Fingolfin's son Fingon, and [[AvertedTrope averting this trope in the most horrifying way possible]].

* Ofelia in ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', in thematic parallel to the CNT-FAI in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, the film's setting. Outside of the fairy tale parts of the film, the communist rebels win the day and kill the main villain, but it is only one battle in the aftermath of a war they've already lost, and Spain will remain under Franco's rule for the next 31 years. Several of the rebels suspect that they can't actually win the war, but nevertheless continue to fight.

* Ofelia in ''Film/PansLabyrinth''. This parallels the CNT-FAI in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, the setting of the film. While the communist rebels win the day and kill the main villain, it is only one battle in the aftermath of a war they've already lost, and Spain will remain under Franco's rule for the next 31 years. Several of the rebels suspect that they can't actually win the war, but nevertheless continue to fight.

* Ofelia in ''Film/PansLabyrinth''. This parallels the CNT-FAI in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, the setting of the film. While the communist rebels win the day and kill the main villain. Unfortunately, they will ultimately fail to liberate Spain and Franco will rule for the next 31 years.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' when it's shown that during the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement Robert GotVolunteered by a group of SuicidalPacifist Freedom Riders who sought to invoke this trope by letting the racist mob kill them. Both Robert and the narrator point out how insane they sound, and the episode ends with them all being arrested.

* Due to the ValuesDissonance between the 17th and 20th centuries, Literature/DonQuixote is now seen as one of these. This is especially true in TheMusical ''Man of La Mancha'' with its song "Dream the Impossible Dream".

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': [[spoiler:Donquixote Rocinante's entire conflict with his older brother Donquixote Doflamingo. Rocinante dedicated his entire life to ending his brother's madness, but ultimately it ends in vain. Though, he still manages to get one up on his brother by preventing him from getting the Op-Op Fruit and giving it to Law, saving his life and allowing him to be free. On top of that, Law's love and devotion to Roci causes him to hate Doflamingo for his death and plan vengeance for the next thirteen years of his life. In essence, while Roci wasn't able to achieve his goal in life, his and his brother's actions created Doflamingo's worst enemy to take up his crusade against his brother in his stead, something that Doffy is very much aware of. Eventually, Roci's wishes come to pass when Law allies himself with Luffy, who finally ends Doflamingo's reign of terror for good]].
** In a broader sense, an incident like this is part of the series's premise: The legendary pirate captain Gold Roger, having been captured by the World Government and to be publicly executed, rather confidently tells the audience below that his treasure still exists and that anyone who finds it first can have it. This inspires huge amounts of people to go looking for it or to otherwise become pirates, creating a level of anarchy that the World Government, 22 years later, is still struggling with.

* In several countries, memories of historical defeats are treasured more in folklore than historical victories.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'': Tekkadan and [=McGillis=] have their vices ([[CharClone McGillis]] especially]]) but they at the very least have more scruples than [[DiabolicalMastermind Rustal Elion]]. After a season-long chess match between the two sides, [[spoiler:[=McGillis=] springs his uprising within Gjallarhorn and Tekkadan meets Rustal's Arianrhod Fleet in open battle. However, Rustal claims victory after an attempt to blow up his flagship narrowly fails and spends the final few episodes hunting Tekkadan down, culminating in Mikazuki and Akihiro (and separately [=McGillis=]) mounting an epic last stand against the Arianrhod forces. While all of them die, they are able to buy enough time for the rest of Tekkadan to escape and find new lives, and they're able to leave enough of an imprint to force Rustal to give Mars its independence and implement some reforms to Gjallarhorn (although the changes Rustal enacts involve making himself sole leader of Gjallarhorn, so its questionable how much Gjallarhorn actually is reformed).]]

[[folder: {{Religion}} & {{Mythology}}]]

[[folder:{{Tabletop Games}}]]
* Creator/GamesWorkshop's ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40,000]]'' event ''[[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Fall_of_Medusa_V The Fall of Medusa V]]'' was a world-wide tournament effort. Various official tournament results were submitted, and the results would be aggregated and used to determine the fate of the planet Medusa V. There were several Space Marine armies participating (as expected for Games Workshop's iconic flagship army) but many of these armies lost, dragging their overall average well below many other factions participating (it could be speculated that as a popular starter army they had a per portion higher number of inexperienced players participating.) As these losses would seriously undermine the image of the face of their entire brand, Games Workshop declared that though they had lost most of the land battles, the Space Marines had won a "moral victory" by succeeding at most of the space battles (which were not part of the calculation from the player base anyway.) Understandably, several players of the other factions which did succeed were [[DudeWheresMyRespect a bit sore about this]].

* [[spoiler:Captain Brenner/O'Brian, the mentor of]] ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict''. [[spoiler:Although he dies, his army unit carries on in his name and TheHero eventually wins.]]

** The book features a running gag of bit characters defiantly telling Cohen they would "Rather die!" than betray their Emperor. So then Cohen kills them, mistaking their bluster for this trope. Eventually the other characters start cautioning everyone that they make sure they're feeling very, very sincere about such comments before they say them.

** When the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have gathered to fight the Auditors in ''Thief of Time'', protecting life and humanity from being extinguished in favour of a mechanically simple universe, War points out that they're vastly outnumbered.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman'' is a story much like ''1984'', where Harlequin is [[spoiler:captured, broken and changed in the end. Despite this, he still wins something as his actions have an effect]].

* Pretty much every named character in Literature/BraveNewWorld. They end up banished to islands.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The crew in ''Series/BlakesSeven'', according to one interpretation of the BolivianArmyEnding.
** [[spoiler:Considering that the group manages to take out more than two-thirds of the Federation's military forces, allow for several other human powers to expand, and begin a full-scale (though now leaderless) rebellion by uniting various warlords, it's easy to see why.]]

** Robb Stark admits it's starting to look this way in "The Climb":
--> '''Robb:''' I've won every battle, but I'm ''losing'' this war.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': PlayedForLaughs. The TARDIS has just materialised in the secret organisations base; only problem is, they knew he was coming, and the scanner is turned on to reveal lots of men with automatic weapons pointed at the TARDIS doors. The Doctor steps out anyway, pleased that they're "cutting to the chase".
->'''Rose:''' Doctor, they've got guns.\\

** A Bajoran priestess hangs herself in protest of the Dominion during the occupation of Deep Space 9 at the start of season 6. This galvanizes the main characters remaining aboard (mainly Kira and Rom) to start sabotaging the occupiers.
** {{Defied}} to much controversy among the fandom in "In the Pale Moonlight". Sisko ultimately ''refuses'' to be a Doomed Moral Victor, deciding that the survival and independence of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant nations as sovereign states trumps compromising his morality. [[spoiler:He covers up Garak's murder of a Romulan senator and FrameUp of the Dominion as having tried to silence the senator before he could reveal a planned invasion of Romulan space, thereby bringing the Romulan Star Empire into the war on the Federation's side.]]
** A somewhat less dire and literal version happens in the episode "Take Me Out To The Holosuite", during which the station home team (called "The Niners") gets absolutely creamed by the visiting Logicians, an all-Vulcan team. Vulcans have vastly superior strength and speed to most other humanoid species, and it is implied that they've been training for quite a while just to beat whatever team Captain Sisko could pull together on short notice. In the end, the Niners only manage to score a single run against the Logicians' eleven, but they have ''fun'' doing it.

* In the recent BBC series ''Series/RobinHood'' Robin gets this at the end of Season Three.
** It also happens to Marian at the end of the second season. [[spoiler:She finally stands up to Guy and admits to him (and herself) that she's in love with Robin. Guy then runs her through with his sword.]]
* Happens to the original Robin Hood, Robin Of Loxley in ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' in the first series finale "Time Of the Wolf". Sending the other outlaws to safety, he is cornered by the Sheriff and Gisborne, but fires an arrow next to the Sheriff's head, showing his arch-enemy that he could have killed him had he chosen to, before being killed himself. His mantle is taken up by the new Robin In the Hood, Robert of Huntingdon.

[[folder: Web Original]]

-->-- '''Søren Kierkegaard''', Journals

** Cell is ''disgusted'' with Gohan's SuicidalPacifism, as he refuses to use his full power when everyone else is fighting both for their lives and to save the planet even though they ''[[DeterminedDefeatist know]]'' they can't win. And to top that, Android 16's final speech is a harsh TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that [[{{Deconstruction}} tears this trope to shreds]]:

** Cell is ''disgusted'' with Gohan's SuicidalPacifism, as he refuses to use his full power when everyone else is fighting even though they ''know'' they can't win. And to top that, Android 16's final speech is a harsh TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that [[{{Deconstruction}} tears this trope to shreds]]:

** Robb Stark dies trying to make amends to the Freys after breaking a wedding pact, and his family and his mothers' family are deposed from their places of power as a result. Stark loyalists in the Riverlands remain in open revolt (mostly pacified by Jaime, but the Brotherhood Without Banners is still killing any Frey they can get their hands on). The Northern lords play nice with the Boltons, but events around Winterfell make it clear at least some of them are just waiting for an excuse to openly revolt.

* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', you can choose to play the board game ''Suzerain'' with Kim. The game has you play as a colonial official competing for resources and favor, and enables several different strategies for victory, most of which are decidedly morally cruel, such as plundering other states for treasure or exploiting your workers to death. However, you can also play the game far more beneficently, and focus your resources on building infrastructure and improving the lives of the people, becoming a beloved leader... which yields far less victory points than the alternatives, only providing a small increase in resource gain, and trying to go down this path will cause you to lose (if anything, it results in you ''losing'' points). Kim, your opponent, points out that the game is [[DeliberateValuesDissonance about glorifying Revachol's imperialist past through the perspective of its aristocracy]]; its rules are going to be steeped against you if you aren't on board with the kind of monstrous actions they partook in, and they didn't particularly care about their citizenry, either. Nonetheless, he compliments you for sticking to your guns.

* ''Literature/CagingSkies'': Roswita, the mother of the NaziProtagonist, is hanged for being a part of TheResistance of NaziGermany. Made even more heartbreaking in the [[Film/JojoRabbit film]], ''where her 10-year-old son finds her hanged corpse in the public street''.

* Creator/JRRTolkien was, perhaps a little bit overly, fond of invoking this trope. Eomer invokes it at the climax of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', only to be dramatically saved by TheTwist. Aragorn also invokes it at the Black Gate: and again, gets dramatically saved. Of course, not everyone who invokes the trope gets saved: at least one Ent perishes in their attack on Isengard, as was their intention. And their actions do pave the way for [[spoiler: Saruman's downfall at the hands of Wormtongue, by making him see that the fallen wizard is not invincible.]] But perhaps the straightest example of this trope in the Legendarium comes from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': with the death of Fingolfin. Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor, upon seeing the devastation wrought by the Dagor Bragollach gets so angry, people mistake him for a Vala and challenges [[BigBad Morgoth]] to single combat [[DidYouJustFlipOffChthulu with the entirely predictable result of getting himself horribly killed]]. However, because of his moral power he manages to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Morgoth permanently]] and his actions ultimately pave the way for Morgoth's eventual downfall at the hands of the Valar. Although a bunch of other really bad stuff happens first, including Maedhros crossing the DespairEventHorizon after the death of Fingolfin's son Fingon, and [[AvertedTrope averting this trope in the most horrifying way possible]].

A villain, often an EvilOverlord with ZeroPercentApprovalRating, harms the hero or their people who are not nearly as high ranking and powerful. Despite being hopelessly outmatched, the brave hero strikes back and wins some battles through cleverness, willpower and sheer charisma.

** [[spoiler:Rei's]] death as well. His injuries at the hands of Raoh leaves him with three days before dying horribly, which he uses to hunt down and kill his sworn enemy and ScrewDestiny for Mamiya, before wandering off to die alone so no one will see the carnage.

* [[spoiler:Franz]] from ''Anime/{{Gankutsuou}}'', who [[spoiler:secretly takes Albert's place in the duel with the Count]]. He knows very well that it's impossible for him to win, but he still goes through with it, and tries his hardest to fight. He dies a very painful and bloody death.

** The scholars of Ohara continued their study of poneglyphs and the Void Century despite it being punishable with death because they believed all history deserved to be known. When they were finally caught red-handed, the amount they had learned was enough to startle the World Government's highest officials into ordering the island's complete destruction. Even as cannon fire and flames engulfed them, the scholars devoted their last minutes to saving as much of their knowledge as possible. In the end they were able to protect a vast amount of books from the fires and Robin escaped to continue their search.

* The title character in ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' becomes a darling of the public, kills the emperor in a duel and dies afterward.

* The central theme of ''Film/VForVendetta'' is that it's worth being a Doomed Moral Victor. Valerie Page's refusal to give in even as she's tortured, experimented upon and eventually killed by Norsefire for no greater crime than being lesbian forms the emotional climax of the film. She writes that her integrity was more important to her than her life, which sparks a similar mental and emotional change in V and later Evey when they read her story: V becomes a freedom fighter who knows there is no place for him in the world he wants to build, and Evey learns to stop fearing death because compromise would be worse.

* Ofelia in ''Film/PansLabyrinth''. This parallels the CNT-FAI in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, the setting of the film. While the communist rebels win the day and kill the main villain. Unfortunately, they will ultimatly fail to liberate Spain and Franco will rule for the next 31 years.

* ''Film/TheLastSamurai'' for the final battle has a modern army of conscripts, cannons [[spoiler:and gatling guns]] against a traditional Japanese army of samurai and retainers with bows, swords and spears, and the former also outnumber the latter six to one. The samurai [[spoiler: still manage to kill two-thirds of the modern army before being killed almost to the last man themselves]]. In so doing, they win the moral victory, as the intention was to show that traditional values, and especially courage in the face of difficult odds, need to be respected.

* In ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', Howie is in the end sacrificed by the pagan islanders to bring about the harvest next season. Before he goes however, he warns their leader that if the crop fails (and it likely will because fruit was never meant to grow in the island's frigid Scottish climate) then the islanders will have no choice but to sacrifice ''him'' next. After all, he may not believe that the appeasement of Celtic deities leads to bountiful harvests, [[GodGuise but he has convinced the islanders that it does]].

* ''Film/{{The Star|2002}}'': The entire Russian reconnaissance squad, which has been operating behind German lines, is killed when they are cornered in a farmhouse. But before they died they radioed back the necessary intel that allowed the Soviets to crush the German attack--and of course the Russians are going to win the war eventually.

* Inverted rather tragically in ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', with [[spoiler:Kurda Smahlt]]. After discovering that his friend is a traitor, Darren exposes the plot, and helps the vampires wipe out [[spoiler:Kurda]]'s allies... only for it to be revealed at the later trial that [[spoiler:Kurda]] was trying to save the vampires from the war that was destined to happen, that would wipe them all out. Darren comes to see his point of view, somewhat, but due to the vampires' HonorBeforeReason attitude, [[spoiler:Kurda is still seen as a traitor and absolute scum, completely dishonored. After Kurda's death, Darren is offered the throne that was to have been Kurda's, and Darren is regarded as a hero for his role in exposing the plot.]] Later on, several characters acknowledge the fact that [[spoiler:Kurda]] had good points that should have been listened to before it even came to that, but it's too little, too late.

* In Creator/RogerZelazny's short story ''The Keys to December'', the main character's people are {{terraform}}ing a world to fit them, since the only world they could live on was destroyed. The native lifeforms, under the new evolutionary pressure, evolve sentience and religion (worshiping the main character as he awakes every 250 years and patrols the world to see how the terraforming is going). [[spoiler:He realizes that they cannot evolve further and, after failing to convince his people to stop or slow the terraforming, leads his believers in a rebellion.]] Finally, he and his main rival agree to put the question to a vote of their people--as the main character says, if he loses, "I'll retire and you can be God." [[spoiler:He loses, and lives out his life as the God of the presumably now-doomed people.]]

** Davos Seaworth goes to White Harbor to convince the Manderlys to fight for Stannis, but is arrested and sentenced to execution. [[spoiler:Then subverted, Lord Wyman Manderly executes a common criminal in Davos' place and tells Davos he had to work secretly as his son Wylis Manderly was a prisoner. When they are returned he reveals his plans to Davos to restore the Starks.]]

* In ''Literature/FiveLittlePigs'', many of the people Literature/HerculePoirot interviews about Caroline Crayle, the woman convicted for the murder that he has been hired to exonerate, note that although they don't believe in her innocence, the brave and dignified way she meets her conviction and eventual death was really quite impressive. [[spoiler:And she actually turns out to be this for the real murderer, who -- in addition to ruining her life and chances for future happiness due to her crime -- can't even take any satisfaction in seeing Caroline go down for the murder she committed, because Caroline's bravery and nobility just further remind her of how empty and pathetic she really is deep down.]]

* ''Literature/CagingSkies'': Roswita, the mother of the NaziProtagonist, is hanged for being a part of TheResistance of NaziGermany. Made even more heartbreaking in the [[Film/JojoRabbit film]], ''where her 10 year old son finds her hanged corpse in the public street''.

** [[spoiler:Considering that the group manages to take out more than two thirds of the Federation's military forces, allow for several other human powers to expand, and begin a full scale (though now leaderless) rebellion by uniting various warlords, it's easy to see why.]]

* Happens to the original Robin Hood, Robin Of Loxley in ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' in the first series finale "Time Of the Wolf". Sending the other outlaws to safety, he is cornered by the Scheriff and Gisborne, but fires an arrow next to the Scheriffs head, showing his arch enemy that he could have killed him had he chosen to, before being killed himself. His mantle is taken up by the new Robin In the Hood, Robert of Huntingdon.

* Subverted in one episode of ''The Shadow of the Tower'' miniseries which featured a heretical/protestant preacher in what was then a Catholic England. The preacher refused to recant his beliefs knowing that he would have been burnt at the stake either way. He managed to remained steadfast (though somewhat conflicted) even an argument from King Henry VII himself and it seemed that he will die while maintaining his beliefs. [[spoiler:Just moments before his execution though, he was overwhelmed by the fear of uncertainty and finally recanted his beliefs.]]

* In several countries memories of historical defeats are treasured more in folklore then historical victories.

** 40K being the fun and happy place it is, ''Chaos'' can use this trope as well. Since the Dark Gods are incarnations of an emotion, it doesn't matter who feels it for it to feed them (e.g. the SenseFreak Slaaneshi cultists who enjoy defeat as much as they do victory, since it's still a different sensation from the norm).

* In ''13 Days'' the game can end prematurely if nuclear war is triggered. In that case the faction who did not start the war is declared the winner (presumably future generations of survivors will consider them the "good guys"). This is sometimes subverted as the faction behind on victory points will often trick the other faction into starting nuclear war and thus really has no moral ground to stand on.

** Zalbaag is probably a better example. Depending on how you view the ending, Ramza might never really qualify as doomed. Zalbaag dies specifically trying to do what is right. The only reason he doesn't do so sooner in the plot is because Ramza's accusations are unbelievable because of others' ploys. As soon as he finds evidence proving them, he fights and dies for it. Ramza doesn't do so.

* The obscure, semi-canonical (Bradbury was on the dev team), text-adventure sequel to ''Literature/{{Fahrenheit451}}''. Guy manages to break into the Library and find Clarisse (who apparently faked her death at the end of the book), who has stolen a monumental stash of microcassettes containing the contents of the New York Public Library. They lock themselves in a transmitter room long enough to upload the cassettes' content to the Undreground's archives all over the world. They finish their upload, but don't have time to escape when the Firemen bust in and immolate

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII:'' At the end of the game, Desmond is faced with a SadisticChoice: [[spoiler:Use Juno's device to save Earth from a solar flare, and let her loose, which will kill him, or let the world burn, become a new messiah, and let human history repeat itself. Desmond regards the later choice as hopeless, and decides to go with the sacrifice, reasoning that ''someone'' will manage to stop Juno. Later works show Desmond was right on that score, when the Assassins ultimately killed Juno once and for all with the help of his son Elijah. But he still dies. And Abstergo steals and mutilates his corpse to make video games.]]

* [[spoiler:Satoko]] in ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'''s ''Meakashi'' arc is brutally killed via stabbing by [[spoiler:Shion]] proclaiming that she will neither cry nor beg for [[spoiler:her brother]] to save her. And she doesn't. It's enough to make [[spoiler:Shion]] realize what horrible things they've been doing. [[spoiler:[[IgnoredEpiphany In a manner of speaking]], because she feels she's [[IveComeTooFar gone too far to deserve redemption]]]]. [[spoiler:It does influence her in a later arc however, where Shion has now become Satoko's loving surrogate sister and is willing to risk her life to protect her.]]

** In the third game, [[spoiler: after the exorcism of the true villain, Godot]] stops the end of the trial to point out that they still haven't found the killer and insists on using the evidence to do so, knowing that [[spoiler: it will undeniably lead to him being accused (correctly) of murder]]. It's done to point out that the guilty must always be punished, no matter how sympathetic their goals or efforts, ''especially'' when [[spoiler: Phoenix realizes what the truth is and desperately tries to avoid it]].

* From ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' we have Wan, the very first Avatar. After [[spoiler:releasing chaos into the world and sealing it back up again, he (along with Raava, the embodiment of good and order) travel the world in an effort to prevent violence and war while Wan learns all four bending arts. Many years later, Wan dies of fatal wounds on a battle field, with Wan lamenting his inability to keep the balance. Raava promises him that they will always be together, until they create a world of peace.]] And thus, the Avatar cycle is created.

* Something similar happens in ''TabletopGame/TwilightStrategy''. If DEFCON reaches 1, nuclear war breaks out, and whoever's turn it was when that happens loses the game - even if they didn't play the cards that triggered it, history will record them as being on watch when civilization burned to the ground, making the other player the "winner".