History NiceJobBreakingItHero / Literature

** ''[[{{HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire}} Goblet of Fire]]'': Harry comes up with the idea of [[spoiler:both he and Cedric grabbing the secretly-transportational trophy simultaneously; once they arrive at its destination, [[SacrificialLion Cedric]] is [[NoNonsenseVillain Kadavra'd]]. Whoops. Of course, if just Cedric had grabbed it, things ''might'' have turned out even worse since there wouldn't have been anyone to alert the wizarding world (or at least Dumbledore) of Voldemort's return.]]

** Subverted in the ''[[{{HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows}} Deathly Hallows]]''. Harry [[spoiler:realizes he must let Voldemort kill him.]] As this was all part of the plan, and Harry suffered no more than a bruise, it all worked out.

* This is more or less how the ''{{Sword of Truth}}'' series moves from one book to another: Resolving the conflict of one book leads directly to the problems in the next, at least in the beginning.

* In Mitchell Scalon's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' HorusHeresy novel ''Descent of Angels'', Lion (with Luther's help) unites Caliban to exterminate its horrific monsters, despite warnings that this might ruin Caliban. In Mike Lee's ''Fallen Angels'', it is revealed that the monsters stemmed from Chaos taint, and so kept the people untainted, since they would avoid the monsters; killing them [[SealedEvilInACan unleashed the taint]].

* In ''Literature/{{War of the Dreaming}}'' by JohnCWright, the heroes' derailing the villain's EvilPlan and keeping the MacGuffin away from him result in [[spoiler: the GodOfEvil getting loose and initiating a HellOnEarth.]]

* In the ''Ravnica'' novel ''Dissension'', Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (leader of the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Azorius Senate]]) explains to our heros that [[BigBad House Dimir]] isn't the reason why [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed the plane/city of Ravnica has had a significant increase in existence-ending disasters]]: it's because our heros arrested/killed the leader of House Dimir in the first book. Since Ravnica is a world where [[JokerImmunity every Guild and its leader are legally required to exist, even if they are legally required to attempt to kill everyone]], arresting/killing the leader of House Dimir had doomed the plane/city to obliteration.

* What Liquidon in ''Stationery Voyagers'' is convinced he's done to start the Imperial War of Markerterion. In reality, it would've happened with or without him [[spoiler: killing Astriliad]]. But by doing that, he convinced Astrabolo to switch from a campaign of [[TakeOverTheWorld conquest]] to a plan of [[DepopulationBomb viral genocide]].

* In ''The Ask and The Answer'' by Patrick Ness, [[spoiler: Todd thinks he's saved an alien from death. Technically true. He's also allowed it to go raise an army so that said army can come back and kick everyone's ass. This was Mayor-excuse me, I mean President Prentiss's plan.]]

* In TedDekker's Circle Trilogy, the entire plot of the first book involves the protagonist attempting to save two worlds and, consequently, bringing about the disasters (developing a biological weapon in one, letting evil back into the world in the other) he intended to stop. Nice job dooming two whole realities, hero.

* In the original ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' novel, the five male members of the {{nakama}} insist that Mina Harker [[StayInTheKitchen stay home while they do the dangerous work]] and frequently [[TemptingFate talk about]] what a relief it is that she's safe at home while they're hunting down the vampire because a woman surely couldn't handle it. Dracula deliberately takes advantage of this as an opportunity to bite Mina and metaphorically rape her. Nice job with the chivalrous misogyny, heroes!

* Happens every book in ''Literature/HarryPotter''.
** In the first book Harry rushes to save the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort. [[spoiler: Turns out the Stone was hidded so that only a "pure of heart" (basically) could retrieve it, which Harry does, and the Stone nearly falls into Voldemort's hands]].
** In the second he rescues a girl and [[spoiler: destroys the evil artifact that was controlling her, meaning they have no proof that she was controlled, and she's is left the only suspect to blame for the attacks]]. Thankfully in both cases villains promptly grab massive {{IdiotBall}}s and negate the damage.

** In a more subtle example, the majority of the population tends to call the BigBad by impersonal aliases, like You-Know-Who or The Dark Lord, while Dumbledor calls him by the name and encourages others to follow suit. This backfires in the last book, when Voldemort charms his own name, so that whoever utters it will be stripped of all wards and exposed to his minions.

* In IsaacAsimov's short story ''The Dead Past'', the main character's research into time travel reveals that the government has been conspiring to hide the fact that [[spoiler:it is easy to build a time telescope that can see perfectly anywhere in the world anytime in the last several centuries. The release of this information dooms humanity to existence with no privacy whatsoever, because you can just as easily set the time telescope to see 1/100th of a second ago as 100 years ago]]. Sometimes the government keeps secrets for good reasons, geniuses.

* In ''PerdidoStreetStation'', Isaac collects a staggering variety of winged animals for his study of flight, then gets fed up and releases or destroys all but one large caterpillar, which he feeds some of New Crobuzon's latest psychotropic street drug. It survives and pupates under Isaac's tender loving care ... and then emerges as a mind-devouring, hypnotic moth-monster that eats his roommate's psyche, escapes into the city, and frees others of its kind, which commence chowing down on every sapient mind they can catch. Nice work, Isaac.
* In the DaleBrown novel ''Air Battle Force'', a Russian attack on a Turkmeni city is averted by destroying the bombers that would have carried it out; however, this spurs the Russian acting president, who was a bomber crewman and sees it as a personal slight, to [[spoiler: carry out nuclear sneak attacks on the USA in the next book.]]
** In ''Rogue Forces'', a Turkish airstrike aimed at a Kurdish separatist recruitment drive kills the husband and children of former Kurdish separatist commando Zilar Azzawi, [[MamaBear who retakes her sword in response.]]

* In TedDekker's Circle Trilogy, the entire plot of the first book involves the protagonist attempting to save two worlds and, consequently, bringing about the disasters (developing a biological weapon in one, letting evil back into the world in the other) he intended to stop. Nice job dooming two whole realities, hero.

* Pretty much the point of R.A. Salvatore's ForgottenRealms novel ''The Pirate King''. The heroes lead a rebellion to free a city of the evil wizards that have been ruling it. They succeed, but leave large sections of the city destroyed, a good chunk of the population slaughtered, with a shortage of food and shelter and a long winter approaching.
* KittyNorville just wanted to help out a fellow lycanthrope who called in to her radio show. She [[DidntSeeThatComing had no way of knowing]] that she was actually enabling [[spoiler: a psychotic serial killer who went on to kill four women before Kitty and Cormac put him out of his misery.]] Although, she can share that Nice Job with [[spoiler: Meg, the BigBad of the book, who infected James as part of a plan to assassinate Carl, then left him to fend for himself. Which eventually leads Kitty to expose Meg's scheme.]]

* In the ''{{Necroscope}}'' series almost every single victory the good guys have end up solving the immediate problem, but creating something far worse for the next book. Eventually they manage to "win" their way to ending the world.

* In ''WarriorCats'', during the ''OmenOfTheStars'' arc, Ivypool tries to protect [=ThunderClan=] from being invaded by [=ShadowClan=] by getting her clan leader to declare war on them first. However, the entire invasion was made up by the Bigbad Tigerstar so he could weaken both clans just before a harsh winter set in.

* Happens every book in ''HarryPotter''.

* Happens not once but twice in the EoinColfer novel ''TheSupernaturalist''.

* HalfUponATime ends with [[spoiler: Jack, May, and Phillip accidentally releasing the Wicked Queen back into the world.]]

* [[ReturnToNeverend Neverend]] pretty much collapses due to David leaving it for twenty years. [[spoiler:Creating the [[BigBad White Queen]] made it even worse.]]

* JackVance's "The Miracle Workers" was set on a planet where human colonists made HollywoodVoodoo ''work'' to replace their aging technological weapons. When the planet's natives finally decided to attack the humans, one of the "jinxmen" noticed that dying natives spewed a purple foam . Deciding this foam must be associated in the aliens' minds with death, he used his powers to project the image of purple foam into the minds of a large group of natives. Another jinxman explained, "Then he learned that purple foam means not death--purple foam means fear for the safety of the community, purple foam means desperate rage." So he tried to intimidate them with an effect that turned them into {{Determinator}}s. Oops.

** To stop this, Vin finds the Well of Ascension, which is rumored to have the power to stop the mists. When she finds the well, she releases the power in it as described in the prophecies. Rather than saving the world, this releases the SealedEvilInACan. Oh, and the mists are still getting thicker, but that's the least of their problems from this point on. [[spoiler:It turns out that the mists were not created by the sealed evil but his now-defunct opponent. He just made them stronger in order to distract the heroes from his true goals. He also [[PropheticFallacy perverted the prophecies]] to play out his XanatosGambit. Luckily, it turns out his opponent had anticipated him breaking free and [[OutGambitted planned for it]], but it was still a close call.]]

* In ''Literature/{{War of the Dreaming}}'' by JohnCWright, the heroes' derailing the villain's XanatosGambit and keeping the MacGuffin away from him result in [[spoiler: the GodOfEvil getting loose and initiating a HellOnEarth.]]

* In ''War of the Dreaming'' by JohnCWright, the heroes' derailing the villain's XanatosGambit and keeping the MacGuffin away from him result in [[spoiler: the GodOfEvil getting loose and initiating a HellOnEarth.]]

* ''BladeOfTyshalle''. Full stop. Deliann, [[TheMessiah nicest guy you'll ever meet]], fucks up. ''Big time''.

* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': Simon Heap should ''really'' have known better than to set the [[OurMonstersAreDifferent Things]] free.

** However, as the RogueCop Agrus Kos points out, that makes the first book into an UnwinnableTrainingSimulation: [[spoiler:The first book culminated in Szadek draining the leader of the Selesnya guild - the power sustaining the legal and magical obligation for all the guilds to exist. If Kos hadn't incapacitated Szadek, the power sustaining the civilization would have been destroyed, because he did, the resulting magical imbalance destroyed the civilization anyway.]]

* Happens quite often in ''HarryPotter'', but you have to look at the whole series to see the ultimate effects of the examples. To some extent, this may be because of the need for each book to have a TwistEnding, and the title character is not usually allowed to be the one to surprise us; thus, whatever grand scheme the hero(es) had in mind must be turned on its head. In the first three books, this trope's presence is quite debatable. The final events of the first were in some sense [[spoiler:overseen by Dumbledore all along]]; in the second, [[spoiler:the rescue is unambiguously beneficial, fine]]; and in the third, [[spoiler:Harry spares Wormtail by proxy, only to have him escape and help ensure Voldemort's return]], but hey, at least [[spoiler:Buckbeak and Sirius]] live!

*** Except that Harry's blood was a necessary reagent in the spell, so if only Cedric had gone it wouldn't have even been possible.
*** Actually, Harry's blood wasn't necessary, as Wormtail told Voldemort, he could use the blood of any wizard who hated Voldemort. Voldemort agreed that it would work, but pointed out that he wanted Harry's blood specifically for the protection in his blood.
** Played tragically straight, however, in ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', where Harry's [[spoiler: desperate attempt to rescue Sirius winds up drawing Sirius to his death, instead.]] The upside -- Voldemort being exposed as alive -- pales in comparison to the loss; ironically, since the entire book was about Harry's frustration with not being believed and attempts to make people believe him, only for Harry to not give a damn anymore when he was shown to be right.
** And, to a lesser extent, in the same book, when they [[spoiler:manage to break every damn prophecy in the Ministry of Magic.]]

* In ''WarriorCats'', during the ''OmenOfTheStars'' arc, Ivypool tries to protect [=ThunderClan=] from being invaded by [=ShadowClan=] by getting her clan leader to declare war on them first. However, the entire invasion was made up by the Bigbad Tigerstar so he could weaken both clans just before a harsh winter set in.

** To stop this, Vin finds the Well of Ascension, which is rumored to have the power to stop the mists. When she finds the well, she releases the power in it as described in the prophecies. Rather than saving the world, this releases the Sealed EvilInACan. Oh, and the mists are still getting thicker, but that's the least of their problems from this point on. [[spoiler:It turns out that the mists were not created by the sealed evil but his now-defunct opponent. He just made them stronger in order to distract the heroes from his true goals. He also perverted the prophecies to play out his XanatosGambit. Luckily, it turns out his opponent had anticipated him breaking free and [[OutGambitted planned for it]]. It was still a close call.]]
** Also, in the backstory, the Lord Ruler, when he held the power at the Well tried to burn off the mists by moving the planet closer to the sun to make it hotter, he moved it too far and made the world too hot, so he tried to push it back and made it too cold, then he tried to put it back into it's proper orbit and made it too hot again, so he finally gave up on that tactic and created the ashmounts to spew ash into the air to cool the planet, which would have killed all the plants, so he altered the plants to survive, which then required him to alter the people and animals to eat the altered plants and not choke to death on the ash. The end result of this was the {{Mordor}} landscape with a red sun, covered in ash, and brown plants that was the setting for the trilogy.
** This happens in ''{{Warbreaker}}'' as well. [[spoiler:Vivenna is deceived into furthering the plans of the villains. Denth tricks her into helping to start a war between Hallandren and Idris. After discovering this, she spends the rest of the book trying to make up for her mistakes by helping Vasher prevent the war.]]
** And it happens in ''{{Elantris}}'', too, when Sarene's curiosity leads to King Iadon being deposed. Sanderson really likes this trope.

* Done twice in Brandon Sanderson's ''{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy.

** To stop this, Vin finds the Well of Ascension, which is rumored to have the power to stop the mists. When she finds the well, she releases the power in it as described in the prophecies. Rather than saving the world, this releases the Sealed EvilInACan. Oh, and the mists are still getting thicker, but that's the least of their problems from this point on. [[spoiler:It turns out that the mists were not created by the sealed evil but his now-defunct opponent. He just made them stronger in order to distract the heroes from his true goals. He also perverted the prophecies to play out his XanatosGambit. Luckily, it turns out his opponent had anticipated him breaking free and planned for it. It was still a close call.]]

* From the Bible (making this trope OlderThanDirt):

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* ''SeptimusHeap'' has several NiceJobBreakingItHero moments:

* In the regular ''{{Animorphs}}'' series, [[SacrificialLamb Elfangor]] tends to come across as noble and wonderful, a cross between TheObiWan and TheMinnesotaFats, willing to break his people's laws, yes, but only to serve the greater good. In ''[[{{Prequel}} The Andalite Chronicles]]'', however, we see that Visser Three's capture of Alloran is a direct result of Elfangor refusing to kill a mass amount of unhosted Yeerks. This capture also led to Visser Three's eventual promotion. While he originally gained prominence by being the Yeerks' authority on Andalites, his brutish ways and lack of subtlety wouldn't have let him progress much further. Thanks to Elfangor, who opened the door for him to do what no other Yeerk could, Visser One's agenda is the only thing keeping Visser Three from declaring an all-out space war on Earth!

* In the final volume of Tad William's ''[=~Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn~=]'' trilogy it is revealed that the swords the hero had been trying to bring together to defeat the Big Bad were in fact the only things which would release the BigBad from his prison. Whoops.

* Played with as RunningGag in ''[[MythAdventures Myth Inc. In Action]]'', in which Guido and Nunzio enlist in the army to try to sabotage it from within. Every attempt they make to mess with its efficiency and operations, however, not only turns out to ''help'' the army, but gets them involuntarily promoted for their excellent leadership. Nice Job ''Not'' Breaking It, Hero!

* Nakajima Akemi of ''DigitalDevilStory'' could be a poster boy for this trope.. Sure, he successfully develops the Demon Summoning Program. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, he failed to build in proper safeguards that would impose a contract on a summoned demon. The great demon lord he summons turns on him very quickly, resulting in the deaths of at least half his classmates, as well as many innocent bystanders.]] To top it all off, [[spoiler: after Nakajima defeats Loki, the demon he originally summoned, his teacher, Ohara, ends up summoning Set, the most powerful evil god of ancient Egypt.]] As icing on the breaking cake, [[spoiler: Many demons have sensed the pathway Nakajima opened to their world, kindling their ambition to conquer the human world. More than just a handful of those demons want to ally themselves with Nakajima.]]

* Becomes a RunningGag in ''[[MythAdventures Myth Inc. In Action]]'', in which Guido and Nunzio enlist in the army to try to sabotage it from within. Every attempt they make to mess with its efficiency and operations, however, not only turns out to ''help'' the army, but gets them involuntarily promoted for their excellent leadership!

* Becomes a RunningGag in ''[[MythAdventures Myth Inc. In Action]'', in which Guido and Nunzio enlist in the army to try to sabotage it from within. Every attempt they make to mess with its efficiency and operations, however, not only turns out to ''help'' the army, but gets them involuntarily promoted for their excellent leadership!

* This is what happens in ''DarkSun'' when they kill the Dragon which had been plaguing the world. Turns out he and the Sorcerer Kings had been keeping a greater evil Rajaat imprisoned. Whoops.