History Main / SequelEscalation

* The first season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' was primarily based around Jack trying to prevent an single assassination attempt. The second season was around trying to prevent a nuclear weapon from destroying Los Angeles. The third was around trying to stop a biological weapon that could cripple the United States (and possibly the world). After that, you can always just assume the stakes are really really high.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' starts off as a relatively low stakes PoliceProcedural, with a [[VigilanteMan vigilante hero ]]gaining information from a mysterious source. It is eventually realized that the source of the intelligence the characters are receiving is [[InstantAIJustAddWater The Machine]]. A [[AIIsACrapshoot second AI, Samaritan]] is eventually developed, with the stakes rising further each season that it exists. The season 4 finale ends with [[spoiler:The Machine going offline.]]

* At first, LetsPlay/{{Dream}}'s Minecraft Manhunt [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgdSJdeGF_0 finale video]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7t5B69G0Dw the rematch]] was going to be the end of the "3 Hunters" series of Manhunt videos (it's later clarified that Manhunt as a whole would have continued but in a different manner). But then, one week after the Unsolved Mystery of Herobrine video released, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylNqtyj0gs grand finale]] released because the last Minecraft Manhunt video got over a million likes. In a ''day''.

** The first season is hard on its own; a small hardcore world with limited resources where you're given three lives. If you aren't the first one to become a Red Life, then you'll have [[OmnicidalManiac Red Lives]] at your throat trying to kill you. When you become Red, then you'll have to balance trying to kill people while also surviving yourself.
** The second season, Last Life, has every player randomly generate with 2-6 lives, meaning some players are given a vast disadvantage from the start. Lives can be given, meaning that they're the most valuable -- but severely finite -- currency on the server. Then there's the Boogeyman mechanic. Each session, at least one non-Red Life is randomly cursed to be a [[MonsterOfTheWeek Boogeyman]] and must kill someone or else they automatically become a Red Life next session. There's also the new rules surrounding the enchanting table -- there is one enchanting table set at spawn and players are unable to make more. Throughout the bulk of the series, the table is constantly stolen, traded, held hostage, or profited off of, consequently making enchanting gear and tools a hard task.
** The third season, Double Life, adds the soulmate mechanic. Although the randomly assigned lives, lives transfer, and Boogeyman are absent from this season, the new twist ensures that people are twice as likely to die and twice as quick to become Red Lives. Players are randomly assigned a soulmate and the two must [[{{Synchronization}} share a health bar]]. It's possible to [[CantLiveWithoutYou suddenly die if your soulmate happens to brush too close to a Creeper]], but in the case of both soulmates being attacked, the health bar depletes so fast that they're given little time to fight back. The Enchanting Table is given a [[invoked]] DifficultySpike. Like the last season, there's only one, but it's located deep underground in the Ancient City. Not only must players find it, they also must evade the strongest mob in the game, the Warden, or at least make as little sound as possible to not spawn it in. The first session having 4× as many deaths than Last Life's first session (4 versus 1) is a testament to its difficulty[[note]]Even if half of the deaths involved are [[CantLiveWithoutYou proxy deaths]] via the soulmate system[[/note]].
** The fourth season, Limited Life, shakes things up greatly. Everyone has at most 24 hours to live, and lose an hour's worth of life if they die, and ''gain'' half an hour's worth if they kill someone. That much is simple, including the fact that Yellow Lives can kill Green Lives legally now. ''And then'' the Boogeyman system from Last Life makes a return, with a twist: every Boogeyman kill is a loss of two hours' worth of life, and they lose up to ''eight'' hours' worth if they fail to kill someone by the end of the day. By the time the season is over, it has racked up a total death toll of more than the past three seasons ''combined'', which ultimately serves as a testament to its difficulty.
** The fifth season, Secret Life, makes things interesting by giving everyone 30 hearts, but also [[AntiRegeneration removes any normal means of healing]], meaning any damage taken is permanent. The only way to get health back, aside from receiving a single gifted heart from another player, is to successfully complete the secret task each player gets assigned to them at the start of each session by the Secret Keeper. Some of these tasks are simple and relatively safe to perform, but others are extremely difficult and incredibly likely to force the players to put themselves in danger, with some tasks even requiring players to sabotage or harm other players, regardless of whether they are Red or not. Failing to complete a task results in the player receiving no hearts, but succeeding results in gaining 10 hearts. Players also have the option to re-roll their task in an effort to gain more hearts, but failing a re-rolled task, which is much harder and challenging than a normal task (at times bordering on ''{{impossible|Task}}''), will result in the Secret Keeper ''taking'' 10 hearts. Add in the fact that Yellows can make Greens fail their tasks simply by correctly guessing them and that Reds, who regularly receive tasks that are meant to harm others, can get multiple tasks in a single session, it's little to no surprise that most of the players learn to be extremely careful with whatever they're doing, as one wrong move, one tiny little mistake such as jumping off a small ledge or not paying attention to their surroundings, could leave them dangerously close to death, with little hope of recovering.

* While the original ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' centers on a small mountain valley, and the villain has mostly personal motivation and acts alone, ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' involves a big city and a villain who wants to TakeOverTheWorld and has an army of wolves, gunpowder cannons, and a freakin' river fleet at his disposal. ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'' escalates the stakes by introducing a villain with supernatural powers and an army of ghosts of former kung fu masters at his service.