Cheapshot Defeats

So, folks, what are some of the insulting or "You've gotta be kidding me!" defeats you've seen in comics/movies?

A recent thread reminded me of a panel where Codpiece defeats a policeman by punching him with a spring-loaded boxing glove.....from his crotch. The symbolism just.....ain't right.

And then there's Boba Fett. Supposedly bad-(Watch yo' mouth!) Bounty Hunter, taken down by a blind guy whacking him once with a stick, and having a very unlucky equipment malfunction that launches him into the Sarlac pit.

What else ya got?

Storm vs. Toad in the first X-Men movie. Stupid line by Storm. Even more stupid defeat.

Palpatine vs. Mace Windu in Revenge of the Sith. Palpatine gets beat down by his own Force lightning, then blasts Windu (one of the more bad-*** Jedi out there) out a window?!?!? WTF?

Deadpool vs Captain America

'Nuff said.

A giant alien squid passing by the earth took the free will of every being on the planet except Deadpool because of the alien armor he was wearing, the entity was speaking through Captain America. The decision point was everyone could be mindless and happy, or free will and potentially miserable. Deadpool chose free will for the planet.

The end of "The Departed" had a lot of cheap defeats in my opinion.

As long as we are on the subject of Star Wars, how about Obi-Wan vs. General Grievous?

Good battle, rather anticlimactic end. At the very least run him through with a lightsaber(or two), but a gunshot to the chest? Could have done better.

Most villains in Dragonball Z.

The original Dragonball gets away with it, since you know how most of the villains got stronger. Cell, who never trained a day in his life, is able to wipe the floor with the majority of the cast, who had to work to get as strong as they are.

Well, he did have to "work" to absorb the androids but still.

Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events

After 13 books of terror and dark comedy in rapidly alternating succession, how does he get his come uppance? A random guy walks up, goes "Hey, I know you! You owe me five bucks!", shoots him in the stomach, and leaves.

The End.

I loved that series, and it technically fit the theme, but it still annoyed me.

Dennis Quaid taking out the serial killer in the "future"/present in the movie "Frequency".

Yes, it was an emotional scene, but I hate it when the big bad is defeated by a character who, up until that point, was off-screen.

Ho about mr smith from the matrix. There was a billion of them, and neo killed all of them by defeating one?

Wolverine beating Lobo during the Marvel/DC crossover of the mid-90s. Fan vote chose the winner. The writers couldn't come up with a convincing way to show it so the whole fight was off-screen (took place behind a bar with just an occasional hand reaching up).

So, dude with bone claws (in 1996) and slightly super-human strength can beat up a guy who can take a punch from Superman, get back up, and punch Superman hard enough that Supes can feel it...right. I see the fight actually going something like: Wolverine breaks his claws on Lobo, then Lobo starts to remove Wolverine's body parts until Wolverine's healing factor can't keep up long enough for the fight to be called in Lobo's favor.

If Wolverine had his adamantium it would at least be a contest and would be decided on who could out damage the other persons healing factor.

Gol-

Tosha Yar,

Great opportunity to kill off a recurring character and they drop the ball by making it so anti-climatic.


Wash,

Suffered from a Joss moment.

Granted, it was for moving effect and foreshadowed far earlier in the film, but John Wayne's death in The Shootist was the definition of a cheapshot.

Also,

Captain Kirk's death in Generations.

They build up how important taking risks are to living life, and how Picard needs Kirk in order to win the battle, and after all that what do we get?

He throws a few punches, quips a joke, then falls to his death when the scaffolding beaks under his weight.

Really? Seriously?

The Stand (TV miniseries version, didn't read the book)

Besides the fact that a scientific disaster (plague) somehow becomes a supernatural apocalypse (wait.. wha?..), everything the 'good guys' did amounts to nothing since God shows up and smites the bad guys the end.

God: "I give you the chance to take a stand against evil and show... no you're supposed to create a community.. no, stop that, don't walk into their lair.. wait, you're doing it wrong... nevermind! I'll take care of it! ZAP!"

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was full of cheapshot defeats.

People talk about Joss Whedon like he set the standard for killing off characters like that, but damn.