History Main / PlagueOfGoodFortune

* Nagito Komaeda from '''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' is an interesting interpretation of this. He was born suffering a vicious cycle of horrible luck followed by amazing luck followed by horrible luck, repeat ad nauseum; the plane he was riding on with his parents as a kid was hijacked, but a meteor hit it and sent it hurtling out of the sky, allowing him to survive, but he was the only passenger that made it out. He inherited his parents' fortune, only to be held ransom for it, but found a winning lottery ticket in the dumpster his captors abandoned him in. He's extremely wary of when good things happen to him, because he knows an awful turn of events is imminent.

* The Stand Milagro Man in [[JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion Jojolion]] curses whoever it's attached to to never lose money. Whenever the target spends cash, they get back more in return until it literally crushes them to death. The only way to transfer Milagro Man to someone else is to trick them into stealing one of the cursed bills from you.

* A fan script for an episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'' elaborated on the Luck Virus used on the series proper. It detailed Lister's day as his body began counteracting the virus, his brief stint of good luck after becoming infected turning into a day of bad luck at every turn. Of course, being a fan script of a comedy show, all the bad luck is played for laughs, especially at the end when it's revealed that Cat infected himself for a week of good luck, and Rimmer was riding high on months worth.

** Gladstone Gander's luck sometimes turns against him like this. He doesn't want it in some stories simply because it's boring. Creator/DonRosa also once gave this the bizarre and not all that logical reversing twist that Dewey, Huey and Louie made him lose a lottery by making it extremely ''likely'' that he win (since his luck makes him win when it's extremely ''un''likely). [[spoiler:They fill the lottery with ''his'' name and just one with Unca Donald. It works. But not really, turns out the "tropical" cruise Donald won was struck with cold weather]]

-->'''Terry Pratchett:''' Rincewind is one of those people who gets in the way of his own happiness. If it was raining kisses he'd be the only person with an umbrella.
** Sam Vimes spends most of ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'' worrying that the string of good luck he's had come his way in the last few years (marriage to a good woman, massive wealth, a revitalized City Watch, a son) can't possibly last, and sooner or later the bill's gonna come due. [[spoiler: It hasn't. Yet.]]

** Unscrewing a salt shaker top, and ruining Connie's lunch...only for a group of popular girls to walk by and invite her to have pizza with them. Bobby gives up after that (but not before Joseph begs Bobby to prank HIM so he can get some awesome good luck).

** In another Scrooge story, he winds up with a magic lamp that ensures riches are always coming his way. However, he's still in the middle of the desert and have to get back to civilization. Scrooge is desperately thirsty, but when he pours a drink from his waterskin, he gets a cupful of gold dust. When he sees an oasis on the horizon, he runs and dives in ... to a pool full of ''diamonds''.

* Although somewhat helped by his friends, ''Film/BrewstersMillions'' star Richard Pryor has serious trouble getting rid of his money. Every time he turns around, he either is getting helped by his friends who think his bad decisions are the result of a gambling and drinking habit, or he's winning at the failed stocks he throws his money behind.

* A well known episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' had a burglar seemingly sent to Heaven where he wins every game he plays. Heck even simply breaking the balls at pool just has them automaticlly going into the holes. [[spoiler: Eventually he grows bored and begs his "guardian angel" that he doesn't belong in Heaven and want to go to the "other place". Only to be to be told that this [[IronicHell "is the other place."]]]]

* Whenever Tsunade in ''{{Naruto}}'' gets lucky at gambling, it's a bad omen. And she's quite aware of this.

* Though this never happened in ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', Piper had a perpetual fear that, whenever she felt contented, something (generally a MonsterOfTheWeek) would come along and ruin it. This could be a real danger and weapon for in-universe Wicca. Magic tends to balance and use of the magic for selfish purposes will cause an eventual backlash. Bless somebody with good luck using magic and eventually the scales will balance violently.

* Or the near-identical events which happened to Martin in ''Series/{{Frasier}}''.

* In ''MedakaBox'', Naze Youka/[[spoiler: Kujira Kurokami]] is eventually revealed to be a victim of this sort of philosophy - essentially a combination of versions 4, 5 and 7. Growing up in a wealthy, loving family, possessing both prodigous intelligence and beauty, she despaired as her studies revealed to her that great achivements inevitably rose from adversity - believing that, by virtue of essentially being born with every conceiveable advantage, she was doomed to a life of mediocricy. So of course, she ran away from home, started wearing bandages around her head to disguise her beauty, deliberately set herself up to be ostrasized and bullied, [[spoiler: and used self-hypnosis to forget her happy memories... and her sister.]]

* Snape suffers from this in ''FanFic/InquisitorCarrowChronicles''. Carrow frequently gives Snape fantastically valuable Potions ingredients as gifts for his assistance in various matters, but more than a few of the gifts are also fantastically ''illegal''.

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* In ''Manga/MyBalls'', each person has three peaks of luck in romantic endeavours. The protagonist has all three peaks combined into a period of extreme "luck" during the same month that his having sex would cause the destruction of the world.

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* A "real life" story of this portion of the trope concerns a man who attempted to commit suicide by jumping off of a cliff, hanging himself from a rock that would fall on top of him at the cliff's bottom, setting himself on fire and shooting himself in the head after swallowing poison. He proceeded to jump, only to fire the bullet which severed the rope around his neck as he landed in the ocean off the side of the relatively small cliff, with the water putting out the flames and the shock of hitting the water causing him to vomit the poison out of his body. He was picked up by a local fisherman and taken to a hospital, where he died several days later of pneumonia from the extended period of time he spent in the cold water. ''{{WebSite/Snopes}}'' discusses this folk tale [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/suicide.asp here.]]

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* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', Slick suspects that {{Satan}} is behind it to trap him.

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* From ''WebAnimation/TheSagaOfBiorn'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU Is Biorn doomed to never die in battle?]]

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* Gladstone Gander's luck sometimes turns against him like this. He doesn't want it in some stories simply because it's boring. Creator/DonRosa also once gave this the bizarre and not all that logical reversing twist that Dewey, Huey and Louie made him lose a lottery by making it extremely ''likely'' that he win (since his luck makes him win when it's extremely ''un''likely). [[spoiler:They fill the lottery with ''his'' name and just one with Unca Donald. It works. But not really, turns out the "tropical" cruise Donald won was struck with cold weather]]

** In another story, Daisy introduces Donald to a TV executive who is looking for someone incredibly unlucky to play a part on a TV show. Naturally, every thing goes right for Donald and he doesn't get the part. He bemoans this state of affairs to Daisy who, after he leaves confesses to her diary that ''she'' was behind this: as soon as the two had left, she remembered that "TV people are superstitious" and started following them around setting up all these things not knowing that she was hurting Donald in the process.

** [[GenreSavvy Rincewind]], who just "knows" that this applies to him (and it [[CosmicPlaything often does]]). At one point, he speculates that he has "pre-emptive karma" - whenever it something good is even ''about'' to happen him, he gets sent off on another insane adventure.

* Literary example: [[GenreSavvy Rincewind]] in Terry Pratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books, who "knows" that this applies to him (and it [[CosmicPlaything often does]]).
-->'''Terry Pratchett''': Rincewind is one of those people who gets in the way of his own happiness. If it was raining kisses he'd be the only person with an umbrella.
** While Sam Vimes thinks in one novel that the string of good luck he's had come his way the last few years (marriage to a good woman, massive wealth, a revitalized City Watch, a son) can't possibly last, and sooner or later the bill's gonna come due. [[spoiler: It hasn't. Yet.]]

# All this good luck damages the character's philosophy of the world being a miserable place. Yes, some characters value that philosophy more than the results of the good fortune[[note]]TruthInTelevision it turns out, as studies have shown that people with low self-esteem/pessimistic world views actually get unconsciously stressed out when things go their way (most likely because it is challenging their believs about how the world works)[[/note]]. Alternatively, the character getting good luck means that somebody else is getting all their bad luck, so the world is still miserable.

* ''Literature/MobyDick'': A subtle example of type 4: Once Ahab has decided to destroy Moby Dick, a lot of good things (for a superior spirit, of course) happened to him: He discovers the beauty of nature, he appreciates the loyalty of his crew, he rediscovers love and charity again when he befriends Pip, Starbuck�s reminds him of his wife and son, the captain of the Rachel begs him to save his son... It's like the whole universe conspires to save Ahab from his self imposed doom, to convince to abandon his philosophy of RageAgainstTheHeavens � he only can blame himself.

# All this good luck damages the character's philosophy of the world being a miserable place. Yes, some characters value that philosophy more than the results of the good fortune. Alternatively, the character getting good luck means that somebody else is getting all their bad luck, so the world is still miserable.