History Main / YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle

* Thank you [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]], [[Franchise/GreenLantern Kyle Rayner]], [[ComicBook/RedHood Jason Todd]], and Bob the Monitor! [[Comicbook/CountdownToFinalCrisis But Ray Palmer Is In Another Universe.]]

* The final line of dialogue of ''Fanfic/QuarterLifeHalfwayToDestruction''.

* ''Film/{{Australia}}''. The film could easily have been split in two, [[EndingFatigue which might have been for the better]].

* Happens in ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}''. Twice.

* Occurs in ''Film/DarkStar'', where the self-destruct has seemingly been aborted.

* The ''Film/{{Halloween 2007}}'' remake features the famous exchange in which Michael Myers is compared to the boogeyman. For those who watched the original, movie's over, right? Not exactly...

* ''Anime/GaoGaiGar FINAL'' serves up a variation in the form of a ''battle'' with a bit of a LensmanArmsRace thrown in. Several times during the final battle between 3G and the Sol Masters, it looks as if one side or the other has won the fight only for the other side to come back and kick some more ass. First, all the good guys transform/combine and bust out their best moves, only for the Sol Masters to regenerate and "kill" the heroes. Then Mamoru gets a {{Determinator}} moment that kicks off a slew of MyNameIsInigoMontoya moments from the defeated heroes, coupled with more than a few {{Limit Break}}s and {{Eleventh Hour Superpower}}s which seem to defeat the villains for real... only for the villains to regenerate ''in droves'', and seemingly kill off any hope for the heroes to win...

In CrimeAndPunishmentSeries, this trope usually results in the detained suspect being AcquittedTooLate. In [=RPGs=], this often takes the form of a DiscOneFinalDungeon. See also SnicketWarningLabel, NiceJobBreakingItHero, ShaggyDogStory and HopeSpot. Closely related to YouCantThwartStageOne and HeadsIWinTailsYouLose; may also overlap with FailureIsTheOnlyOption.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Well, Luffy, it seems you finally got to the Sixth Level of [[TheAlcatraz Impel Down]] to [[RescueArc rescue your imprisoned older brother]]. Sure it literally [[EquivalentExchange took ten years off your life]] and you had to suffer eighteen hours of excruciating agony to be healed after being [[CurbStompBattle wiped off the floor]] by the [[AuthorityEqualsAssKicking head warden]], but at least you got there in ti-- OhCrap, it looks like you just missed your brother being transferred to his execution site! Tough break, buddy.

* ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' featured a lovely ending: Le Chiffre has lost and died and James Bond gets TheChick he's been eyeing for the entire movie. They kiss and begin a romance, with Bond deciding to quit [=MI6=]. Everything is hunky-dory ... then Vesper betrays Bond, running away with the cash to pay her fiancee's ransom.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': It looks like the plot of season 1 is resolved by episode 6. Adar and the Orcs are defeated, Sauron was kKilledOffScreen by Adar sometime before the show began, thus ending Galadriel's mission to find him, and the Southlanders found their long awaited king in Halbrand. But Orodruin just had to erupt and ruin everyone's good time. Oh, and Adar escapes, and there are other 2 episodes to air. [[SarcasmMode The future is looking bright]].

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': It looks like the plot of season 1 is resolved by episode 6. Adar and the Orcs are defeated, Sauron was kKilledOffScreen by Adar sometime before the show began, thus ending Galadriel's mission to find him, and the Southlanders found their long awaited king in Halbrand. [[spoiler:But Orodruin just had to erupt and ruin everyone's good time]]. Oh, and Adar escapes, and there are other 2 episodes to air. [[SarcasmMode The future is looking bright]].

* "Lay Down Your Burdens", the second season finale of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. At the 55-minute mark everything seems returned to the status quo, even if Roslin had a rig an election for it. Then Gaeta uncovers the fraud, and the extended-length episode runs for another 30 minutes setting up the first story arc of Season 3.
** Played straight with freaking Revelations. They find Earth, [[VideoGame/CaveStory huzzah!]] But there's still half a season left, and all is not joyous as it seems.
** The cliffhanger version of this trope happens in "Kobol's Last Gleaming". Boomer discovers beyond all doubt that she's a Cylon, but blows up the basestar as ordered. It appears next season will be about how Boomer copes with this newfound knowledge. Instead her Cylon side forces the issue by shooting Adama twice in the chest.

* In ''[[WebVideo/DoctorWhoTheMovie Doctor Who: The Movie]]'', the Doctor and Lucy spend most of the movie arriving just too late, defeating the monster left behind in this or that timezone by the Master only to realize that he has already moved on to the next one. Since two or three of the locations are in fact castles, the Doctor even gets to say "According to my time readings, he's in another castle", thus not only playing this trope straight, but even almost verbatim!

* Any time Money in the Bank is cashed in right after the Champion had already won a hard-fought title match. Notable examples include Wrestling/{{Edge}} cashing in on Wrestling/JohnCena after an Elimination Chamber, Wrestling/CMPunk cashing in on Wrestling/JeffHardy after a ladder match with Wrestling/{{Edge}}, and Wrestling/TheMiz cashing in on Wrestling/RandyOrton after a title match with Wrestling/WadeBarrett. The last one is particularly notable because it happened on an episode of Raw and anyone who looked at the clock after Orton beat Barrett would have guessed that something like this would happen.

* A double example: in 2009, Wrestling/CMPunk attempted to cash in on an exhausted Wrestling/{{Edge}}, only for Wrestling/{{Umaga}} to storm the ring and give Punk a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.

** There was the time there was a rash of serial killings of young teenaged black boys that looked like copycat killings of a white supremacist [=McCoy=] successfully prosecuted years ago. The detectives discover the killer is a black religious fanatic who confesses to everything...and reveals he was no copycat. He was the original serial killer all along. The white supremacist was innocent. The rest of the episode focuses on the mounting legal troubles [=McCoy=] faces for this blunder. It turns out his female assistant (and lover) at the time deliberately withheld evidence that would not only have cleared the white supremacist, but also pointed to the real killer. This became a NeverLiveItDown moment for [=McCoy=] (though it didn't stop him from eventually becoming the head DA).

* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Happens a lot to Team Inuyasha whenever they battle Naraku; by the time he goes down for good, they've been to as many castles and killed as many fake {{Big Bad}}s as Mario himself.
* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' has 'invasions to end the war' happening near constantly. Given that the show is 110 episodes long, no one is really expecting invasions in Episodes 20 or 40 to really succeed.

** In ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'' The Nexus is destroyed, Master Org's ritual has (seemingly) failed and turned him to dust, and the last 2 orgs Jendrix and Toxica [[HeelFaceTurn declare a truce]] and wander off for a road trip. Then [[LastVillainStand Master Org comes back]] and [[OhCrap systematically destroys their animal crystals thus depraving them of their zords]] [[FromBadToWorse which tangically unmakes their morphers, so they can't morph]] [[UpToEleven and the Animarium comes crashing back to Earth]] [[CombatTentacles while his vines are taking over the city and his foot soldiers are attacking the people]] And this is only part 1 of the two parter. Thankfully our heroes restore their powers though sheer HeroicWillpower and proceed to curbstomp Master Org by an energy blast from about 40 billion revived animal crystals in the DeusExMachina of all endings.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ClassOfTheTitans,'' the heroes actually defeat Chronos at least twice, but he always escapes before he can get thrown back into Tartarus.

* In the "To Thine Own Self" arc of Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault, the alliance between GPF, the UGA and LaResistance of the Nega-Verse manages to capture Emperor Nicholas, Duchess Ki and General Duncan, as well as freeing the captured Nick. At that moment, the aliens with whom Nicholas had been fighting a HopelessWar attack, and the heroes discover that they are unable to use the Mutex to get home or contact the people in their dimension.

* Another instance, this time involving Wrestling/TheNexus. After months of tormenting WWE, attacking almost every single superstar on the roster, including ''Wrestling/TheUndertaker'', and even getting Wrestling/JohnCena [[TenMinuteRetirement fired for a little while]], leader Wrestling/WadeBarrett suffers a pretty decisive defeat from Cena, leading everyone to assume the group was done. However, two weeks later, Wrestling/CMPunk, one of the most talented, charismatic, but also [[SociopathicHero one of the most ruthless]] wrestlers in WWE, decided to become Nexus' new leader after being fed up with Cena's MoralDissonance. [[OhCrap Uh oh]].

[[caption-width-right:240:[[CurseCutShort "Son of a Bi--!!"]]]]