History TheBadGuyWins / Literature

* This happens in many Creator/StephenKing novels:

* The finale of Marcus Sakey's ''Brilliance'' trilogy is a nested series of these. [[spoiler:The civil war ends in an armistice, but no-one is punished for the atrocities committed; the government eludes punishment for systematic traumatizing of "brilliant" children in government academies, the redneck militias are forgiven for marching into the sole Brilliant holdfast on a campaign of genocide using those same children as ''human shields'', and said holdfast is forced to give up all further attempts at sovereignty and is the only party forced to pay reparations. After all of ''that'', the epilogue where Brilliant terrorist John Smith's decades-long plan is revealed to have ''worked perfectly'' is actually quite satisfying; the single carrier of the Brilliant upgrade virus is shown to have escaped, gained Brilliant abilities, entered the infectious stage, and embarks on a multi-state journey he estimates will infect over ''nine million others'' -- '''initially''' -- transforming every human into a Brilliant, save those over the age of 25 who lack the neuroplasticity to adapt to Brilliant abilities, which it will drive to suicide instead, destroying the culture that victimized Brilliants]].
* Jason Matthews's ''Literature/RedSparrow'' ends with Dominika's resolve to continue spying for the CIA appearing to waver as she is returned to Russia in exchange for Korchnoi, who is assassinated right before the CIA get a hold of him.

* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's short story ''Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado'' Fortunato is walled up alive in a catacomb by his "friend" Montresor due to some unspecified insult. And Montresor not only kills Fortunato, he gets away scot free.

** The BiggerBad of The Others have won every engagement they've fought directly so far, have had everything north of the Wall ceded to them, and thanks to everyone else killing each other off are currently winning the greater game by default.

* In Creator/BenCounter's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' novel ''Galaxy In Flames'', the [[RebelliousRebel betrayed Space Marines]] manage to survive the first bombardment. Which means they get brutally hammered by an assault, and then bombarded again, wiping them out. Their only consolation is having hurt Horus's forces and not DyingAlone -- and the assault, Horus points out, was a ShootYourMate that [[XanatosSpeedChess ensured]] that his forces were all committed.

* The ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' short story ''The Resurrection of the Wellsians'' ends with the reveal that everyone else in the plot has been the Wellsians' UnwittingPawn this entire time: even the heroes come to investigate were actually called by them so that they could make their escape aboard the heroes' own spaceship. Which they do.

* This happens in some of Creator/StephenKing's short stories as well.
** ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheCorn'', not the 1984 film, but the original story ends with He who walks behind the rows continuing his control of the children and the heroes dying.
** In ''Gramma'', the child realizes all too late what's going on and fails to escape being possessed by his recently deceased witch of a grandmother, who rises, possesses him, and lives again through his young body, apparently to harass or wreak revenge on her hated family anew.
** In ''The Bogeyman'' (published in the collection ''Literature/NightShift'') the protagonist tries for years to escape the bogeyman who killed his offspring and stalked him endlessly. At the end of the story it turns out that the therapist he's been telling the tale to was the bogeyman in disguise, who evidently gets him.
** In ''The Road Virus Heads North,'' the main character fails to destroy the magical picture or evade the murderous entity it brought to life who's been stalking him, and he dies a bloody death as a result.

** It's worse in ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', even if the reader knows about the eventual intervention of the Valar. [[TheDragon Glaurung]] may have been killed but he has caused Hurin's children [[spoiler:to [[DrivenToSuicide kill themselves]].]] Hurin unknowingly sets into motion events that will destroy two Elven Kingdoms. Though it is not in the book, Hurin ends up killing himself.

* Count Olaf won in many of the early novels of ''Franchise/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''; not that it [[BeingEvilSucks truly made him happy in the long run.]]

* Jason Matthews's ''Literature/RedSparrow'' ends with Dominika's resolve to continue spying for the CIA appearing to waver as she is returned to Russia in exchange for Korchnoi, who is assassinated right before the CIA get a hold of him.

*** To be fair, the last time the Valar intervened, it destroyed half the known world. The maps in the Silmarillion show that the world as of the LordOfTheRings books used to be way off to the east, rather than the extreme west of Middle Earth. They thus swore never to directly interfere again, though they do send emissaries to help guide the peoples of Middle Earth; the wizards.

** ''Literature/PetSematary''. [[spoiler: By the end of the novel, Rachel, Gage, and Jud are dead, while Louis is on the verge of a mental breakdown when Rachel comes back from the dead after the former buried her in the titular cemetery, leaving his ultimate fate ambiguous. Also, the fate of his daughter Ellie (who was left in Chicago with Rachel's parents) is left in the air. The [[Film/PetSematary film]] leaves Louis' fate less ambiguous by having Rachel attack Louis with a knife as the film cuts to credits]].

** [[TheWarHasJustBegun The war goes on]] [[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]], but [[VillainSue knowing]] [[CrapsackWorld the series]] I would [[ForegoneConclusion not bet any money on the Samothracians]].

** ''Literature/PetSematary''.

* This trope is [[ForegoneConclusion the standard, rather than the exception]], for the MindControl genre of erotic fiction, as virtually every story in the genre either follows a protagonist that will [[DoomedProtagonist eventually succumb to mind control]], or a protagonist that's ''already'' enslaved and working as a pawn for the BigBad.

* The finale of Marcus Sakey's ''Brilliance'' trilogy is a nested series of these. [[spoiler:The civil war ends in an armistice, but only the leaders are punished for the atrocities committed; the government eludes punishment for systematic traumatizing of "brilliant" children in government academies, the redneck militias are forgiven for marching into the sole Brilliant holdfast on a campaign of genocide using those same children as ''human shields'', and said holdfast is forced to give up all further attempts at sovereignty and is the only party forced to pay reparations. After all of ''that'', the epilogue where Brilliant terrorist John Smith's decades-long plan is revealed to have ''worked perfectly'' is actually quite satisfying; the single carrier of the Brilliant upgrade virus is shown to have escaped, gained Brilliant abilities, entered the infectious stage, and embarks on a multi-state journey he estimates will infect over ''nine million others'' -- '''initially''' -- transforming every human into a Brilliant, save those over the age of 25 who lack the neuroplasticity to adapt to Brilliant abilities, which it will drive to suicide instead, destroying the culture that victimized Brilliants]].

* The finale of Marcus Sakey's ''Brilliance'' trilogy is a nested series of these. [[spoiler:The civil war ends in an armistice, but only the leaders are punished for the atrocities committed; the government eludes punishment for systematic traumatizing of "brilliant" children in government academies, the redneck militias are forgiven for marching into the sole Brilliant holdfast on a campaign of genocide using those same children as ''human shields'', and said holdfast is forced to give up all further attempts at sovereignty and is the only party forced to pay reparations. After all of ''that'', the epilogue where Brilliant terrorist John Smith's decades-long plan is revealed to have ''worked perfectly'' is actually quite satisfying; the single carrier of the Brilliant upgrade virus is shown to have escaped, gained Brilliant abilities, entered the infectious stage, and is planning on a multi-state journey he estimates will infect over ''nine million others'' -- '''initially''' -- and transform every human into a Brilliant, save those over the age of 25 who lack the neuroplasticity to adapt to Brilliant abilities, which it will drive to suicide instead, destroying the culture that victimized Brilliants]].

* ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' ended with Napoleon securing rule over the farm, with the other animals being treated worse than they were by the human farmer at the start of the novel. Unsurprisingly, since the whole thing is a metaphor for the Russian Revolution. This was [[ArtisticLicenseHistory changed]] for the AnimatedAdaptation.

** ''Franchise/ChildrenOfTheCorn'', not the 1984 film, but the original story ends with He who walks behind the rows continuing his control of the children and the heroes dying.

* In ''Literature/ChristianNation'', the evangelical Christians in control of America in the AlternateHistory that follows SarahPalin becoming President succeed in bringing forth "one nation under God"...a [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou Big Brother-ish]] theocracy where God's law and the Fifty Blessings supercede the Constitution, though it required military effort on the part of the Christians in order to achieve this. The only HopeSpot for the return of freedom and democracy in America is a small LaResistance movement called the Free Minds that the protagonist becomes a part of.

* The finale of Marcus Sakey's ''Brilliance'' trilogy is a nested series of these. [[spoiler:The civil war ends in an armistice, but only the leaders are punished for the atrocities committed; the government eludes punishment for systematic traumatizing of "brilliant" children in government academies, the redneck militias are forgiven for marching into the sole Brilliant holdfast on a campaign of genocide using those same children as ''human shields'', and said holdfast is forced to give up all further attempts at sovereignty and is the only party forced to pay reparations. After all of ''that'', the epilogue where Brilliant terrorist John Smith's decades-long plan is revealed to have ''worked perfectly'' is actually quite satisfying; the single carrier of the Brilliant upgrade virus is shown to have escaped, gained Brilliant abilities, entered the infectious stage, and is planning on a multi-state journey he estimates will infect over ''nine million others'' -- '''initially''' -- and transform every human into a Brilliant, save those over the age of 25 who lack the neuroplasticity to adapt to Brilliant abilities, which it will drive to suicide instead, destroying the culture that victimized Brilliants]].

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Despite the combined efforts of the entire world, Othinus gains her full power as a Magic God and immediately destroys the universe. This is ''not'' the end of the series, however. The main character Touma manages to survive (thanks to his [[AntiMagic power]]) and the next book details his efforts to fight back. [[spoiler:In the end, he's still unable to defeat her. However, Othinus realizes that, because of their shared experiences, he's now able to truly understand her as a person. This was her goal all along. She relents and restores the world to its original state.]]

* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, Voldemort wins definitively at the end of ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]''. He seems to win at the end of ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', [[spoiler:but the next book reveals that he actually played into Dumbledore's ThanatosGambit.]] In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', the good guys win overall, but [[TonightSomeoneDies at a terrible cost]]. ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' ends with [[spoiler:Wormtail escaping, but also with him owing Harry a life debt and with Sirius avoiding the Dementor's Kiss]]. The first part of [[Film/HarryPotter the movie]] of ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'' ends at a point where Voldemort has, for the moment, won.

* The seventh volume of LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign has [[TheHero Kyousuke]] create the Colorless Little Girl, an artificial summoned being, to defeat his nemesis the White Queen. The Girl actually manages to pull it off... or so it seems at first. The Queen reappears, having somehow survived her apparent destruction, and reveals that this was all part of her plan. She claims that the Girl will, as a result of defeating her, [be warped into an even greater monster than the Queen was. To stand against this new threat, Kyousuke will have no choice but to [[EnemyMine work together with the Queen]], which was her goal all along.

* ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'': The killer's plan proceeds perfectly, ultimately leaving ten dead bodies on the island and an unsolvable mystery for the police to find.

* ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'': The killer's plan proceeds perfectly, ultimately leaving ten dead bodies on the island and an unsolvable mystery for the police to find.
* In ''Literature/ChristianNation'', the American Christian theocrats are seen as the bad guys, and they pretty much win as all of America ends up subject to them and their President.

* ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'': The killer's plan proceeds perfectly, ultimately leaving ten dead bodies on the island and an unsolvable mystery for the police to find.

* ''Literature/MobyDick'': Played with. Moby Dick is ostensibly the villain, and in the end it kills Ahab along with all his crew save Ishmael. However, Moby Dick is (probably) just a wild animal trying to defend herself, rather than a truly evil being, and so an argument could be made that Ahab is the real BigBad due to his insane obsession with killing the whale at any cost, which would make it an aversion.

* In ''Literature/StrangeEons'', Mark Dixon becomes Cthulhu at the end and destroys everything.