History Main / EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce

* Inverted in the Gardens & Graveyards Mode of ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesGardenWarfare''. The Zombies are under a TimeLimit to take down each of the Plants' strongholds; if the Plants manage to fend them off long enough for the time to run out even ''once'', the game automatically ends with their victory.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' Vimes thinks this about the repeated assassination attempts he suffers. However, in the end the Assassin's Guild declines to accept more commissions on him. One reason is that his role in the management of the city has grown vital enough that they don't want the disruption removing him would cause. The other is that their repeated failures were just getting embarrassing, and assassins value their own lives highly.

* An issue of ''ComicBook/NintendoComicsSystem'' focusing on the ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' segment has Zelda say this. Link beats Ganon over and over, but if Ganon wins once and gets the other Triforce, he'll be unbeatable. They go on a quest for a magic flute she'll used to take the Triforce to another kingdom where Ganon will never find it, but she'll never see Link or Hyrule again. [[StatusQuoIsGod She changes her mind and decides to stick around at the end]].

* As a counterpoint to the "one good day" philosophy stated in the page quote, ComicBook/TheJoker believes that normal people are only "one bad day" away from total madness. In ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' he attempts to demonstrate by [[spoiler:Kidnapping Commissioner Gordon, humliating him, and psychologically torturing him by shooting Barbara Gordon and photographing her naked. Gordon's response: He ordered Batman to bring in the Joker ''by the book'', to show he wasn't driven to revenge or insanity.]]

** Brainiac [[InvokedTrope invokes this]] in one story by saying "I only need to win once!".

* In general, ThouShaltNotKill on the part of heroes effectively results in this. No matter how many times the heroes win, the villains need only sneak one win to kill a hero.

* An issue of ''The Nintendo Comics System'' focusing on the ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' segment has Zelda say this. Link beats Ganon over and over, but if Ganon wins once and gets the other Triforce, he'll be unbeatable. They go on a quest for a magic flute she'll used to take the Triforce to another kingdom where Ganon will never find it, but she'll never see Link or Hyrule again. [[StatusQuoIsGod She changes her mind and decides to stick around at the end]].

* Man Of Action's ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' joins the party with the introduction of the meta-nanites, [[spoiler:special nanites which can bestow the power over things like matter, antimatter and the like, if Van Kleiss, the Consortium (Providence's higher ups who [[AGodAmI intend to use them and become gods]]) or Black Knight who intends to acquire their power for herself]], gets their hands on them it's game-over. It turns out that [[spoiler:Evil never had a chance in the first place. The Meta-nanites had been programmed by Cesar and his parents in such a way that only Rex could use their full power. That is the only reason Cesar cooperated with Black Knight to gather the Meta-nanites in the first place -- he had been planning to give that power to Rex all along. Too bad [[NiceJobBreakingItHero he never told Rex that]].]]

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' had this with Dr. Robotnik/Eggman as one good victory against Sonic meant that he can easily trample through the resistance with ease. A good idea of this was the TimeSkip when Sonic was in space - without Sonic around to stop him, Eggman was able to regain all of his lost areas and then some.

* In Creator/EmilyCarroll's collection of short stories ''ComicBook/ThroughTheWoods'', the final story 'In Conclusion' features a version of Red Riding Hood (implied to be a semi-autobiographical of Carroll herself as a child.) The girl passes through the woods without incident to her mother's house, and as she's settling down to sleep she remarks that she knew the wolf wouldn't find her.
--> "Oh, but you must travel through those woods again and again..." said a shadow at the window. "...and you must be lucky to avoid the wolf every time...
--> But the ''wolf''...the wolf only needs enough luck to find you ''' ''ONCE.'' ''' "

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->'''Spike:''' We just keep coming. But you can kill a hundred, a thousand, a thousand thousand and the armies of Hell besides, and all we need... is for one of us, just one, sooner or later, to have the thing we're all hoping for.\\

* Creator/RogerZelazny subverts this for ''Literature/ANightInTheLonesomeOctober''. The initial assumption is pretty well justified, as the Evil in this case is the entire collection of Lovecraftian {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. But it is revealed in an offhand way that Good has lost before, albeit not in recorded history, and the lead character has contingency plans in case Good loses again.

* UsefulNotes/Christianity inverts this: since God is omnipotent, He only has to beat Satan once for the Devil to be permanently unable to harm anyone ever again, and it’s implied that the only reason He hasn’t done so already is [[HumansAreBastards to give humans time to repent]]. Taken even further because [[ForgoneConclusion Satan can never win at all]]; it is certain he will lose at Armageddon.

AsLongAsThereIsEvil, good must rise to the challenge and defend the world. Beating the BigBad and [[DivineChessboard his pawns]] will maintain the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil and keep the world safe. Good doesn't always win, however, whether it's [[YouCantThwartStageOne Stage One]] of the EvilPlan or in the final battle, heroes do occasionally lose. In these cases the old heroes, or a group of new ones, must again rise to challenge the bad guys, usually with better results.

In some stories this won't happen, because TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed. [[TitleDrop Evil only has to win once]] in order to [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt permanently turn]] the [[CrapsackWorld world into a crapsack]] VillainWorld with absolutely no [[EarnYourHappyEnding hope of being deposed]]. Heck, if the villain is an OmnicidalManiac [[ApocalypseHow there won't even be]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom a world to save]]. It's one of the justifications for XMustNotWin (in this case, X is the villain).

When Evil Only Has To Win Once, heroes need to step up their game because the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil just divided by zero. Usually this shows up in stories where there is some kind of repeating challenge against the forces of good; be it [[Franchise/MortalKombat a martial arts tournament for control of the planet]], a resurfacing SealedEvilInACan, or just a laundry list of [[SortingAlgorithmOfVillainThreat progressively more dangerous enemies.]] You can expect TheChosenOne to feel the pressure — there are hundreds of {{mook}}s, dozens of mid-level bad guys, a [[TheDragon Dragon]], one BigBad villain — and one [[TheHero Hero]] (or [[TheTeam a team]], but you get the idea) to face the threat. There's no one else to face the threat... [[ItsUpToYou usually, at least]]. Hopefully [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits the replacements]] can [[WeDoTheImpossible do the impossible]].

* ''LetsPlay/{{Dream}}:'' Evil only has to win once from Dream's point of view . If Dream dies once, his opponents win automatically unless Dream has killed the Ender Dragon before then. The hunters are not under that stipulation, however--they can die however many times they want and continue the fight, their only losing condition is Dream killing the Ender Dragon.

* In Literature/TheLordOfTheRings TabletopGame/{{Risk}} game, this trope is the essential mechanic to the Good vs Evil gameplay mode. The One Ring moves along its path towards Mt Doom at the end of each turn. If an Evil player controls the territory it was in, they get a chance to find/claim it by rolling a 12 (or lower if they have other factors in play). Good wins if the game lasts long enough for the Ring to reach the end of the path, but Evil wins if they can even ''once'' find/claim the ring at any point during the game.

** The original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'': Link arrived in a burned-out wilderness, a Hyrule utterly devastated by Ganon (the usual name for Ganondorf in boar-demon form) and his minions: a miscellaneous army of ogres, adventurers, summoned monsters, tame dragons, wild centaurs, unquiet spirits, {{GiantEnemyCrab}}s, and animated suits of armor. But there were still a few survivors, hiding out in caves and mountain glens; Link got the assistance of the scattered remnants of the population, challenged Ganon in his mountain (which had been hollowed out and surfaced internally to where it distinctly resembled a castle), and defeated him.

-->"A ‘great one-shot wonder,' am I?" asked Badra, slapping Diana again. And again. And again. "Perhaps I won't need more than two shots to achieve my objectives. Will I, Diana? Will I?"

-->'''Loki:''' 'Anytime soon'.
-->'''Tony:''' ''Ever.''
* ''FanFic/{{Webwork}}'': [[FallenHero Jade]] justifies her losing streak in the Essence hunt to [[BigBad Tarakudo]] by pointing out that each loss has been narrower than the last. Sooner or later, they'll succeed in gaining at least one General on their side, and that one victory is all they need to tip the scales in their favor.
* Discussed in Chapter 4 of ''FanFic/WhatTheCatDraggedIn''. Hawkmoth doesn't lose anything but time when his akumas are defeated, and the [[PerceptionFilter glamour]] seems to make it impossible to track where akumas appear from or disappear to. In short, Hawkmoth can keep trying as many times as he wants, until eventually one of his akumas gets the Miraculouses.

This trope is often the unsaid {{justifi|edTrope}}cation for having {{Showy Invincible Hero}}es.

** ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' Cohen the Barbarian says it doesn't matter if he fails to kill the Discworld Gods, it just matters he tries because ''"Next time someone'll try harder"''.