Index Failure

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"If at first you don't succeed, you fail."

—GLaDOS, Portal

There are a lot of tropes about failing. That should probably tell you something.^[1]

Tropes

Assassin Outclassin' (You fail at assassination)
Audience Participation Failure (You fail to get audience backup in your show or song)
Author Existence Failure (You fail at finishing your series before you die)
Bonus Feature Failure (You fail at providing good bonus content)
Can't Get Away with Nuthin' (You fail at staying out of trouble)
- Can't Get in Trouble For Nuthin' (You fail at getting into trouble)
Color Failure (You fail at keeping your colour when you lose your cool)
Critical Existence Failure (You fail at being alive, even though you were fine one hitpoint ago...)
Critical Failure (You fail at rolling a 2 or higher, thus leading to more fail)
Critical Psychoanalysis Failure (You fail at psychoanalysing a guy)
Critical Research Failure (You fail at knowing the first thing about a topic)
Defensive Failure (You fail at remembering you have a weapon in your hand)
Designated Hero (You fail at making a good guy)
Designated Villain (You fail at making a bad guy)
DIY Disaster (You fail at renovating your house)
Dude, Not Funny (You fail at keeping your comedy in good taste)
Entendre Failure (You fail at making a double entendre)
Epic Fail (When you fail so hard, you break reality)
Exact Time to Failure (Initiating failure in 3...2...1...)
F Minus Minus (You fail so hard at schoolwork)
Facial Composite Failure (You fail at drawing an accurate wanted poster)
Failed a Spot Check (You fail at spotting something two inches away from your face)
Failed Audition Plot (You fail an audition for your dream career, but find a reason to keep trying)
Failing a Taxi (You fail at hailing a taxi)
Failsafe Failure (You fail at making a failsafe. Winner for having two fails in it)
Failure Hero (You fail at saving the day)
Failure Knight (You failed something in your backstory, which is why you're so pathetic today)
Failure Is the Only Option (You have no choice but to fail because succeeding would end the story)
Fake Balance (You fail at balancing your video game characters)
Femininity Failure (You fail at being ladylike)
Fight Scene Failure (You fail at directing an awesome fight scene)
Floorboard Failure (The floorboards have failed to support your weight)
General Failure (Your plans fail at proving you earned your rank as General)
Glamour Failure (You fail at hiding who you really are)
Gone Horribly Wrong (something doesn't just not work, it works in ways that are disastrous)
Hero-Tracking Failure (You fail at shooting a moving target with Plot Armour)
It's a Wonderful Failure (Let me show you the repercussions of your failure before you get a game over)
Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance (You fail at realising your own ignorance)
Imposter Forgot One Detail (You fail at convincing others you are someone else)
- I Never Told You My Name / I Never Said It Was Poison (Your act fails because you give away knowledge of things you aren't supposed to know)
I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure (Alice has failed, so Bob's gonna feel the pain)
My Greatest Failure (You fail at failing harder than this)
Necessary Fail (You failed, but if you won, the following events would have been worse)
No Dead Body Poops (You fail to remember to brown your pants when you die)
Of Course I Smoke (You failed at pretending to be a smoker.)
Parody Failure (You fail at making a good parody)
Pass Fail (You fail at being recognised as a white guy, even if you're not)
Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure (You fail at recognising another generation's pop culture references)
Potty Failure (You fail at keeping your pants clean)
Redemption Failure (You fail to stay a good guy)
Rummage Fail (You fail at finding something in a bag of random items)
Sarcasm Failure (You fail at sarcasm)
The Show Must Go Wrong (You fail at preventing every disaster ever during your performance)
Skepticism Failure (You fail at proving that the supernatural doesn't exist)
Special Effect Failure (You failed to fund the SFX department)
Springtime for Hitler (Invoking a failure, might not work)
Status Quo Game Show (You failed at winning a gameshow because Status Quo Is God)
Stock Footage Failure (You fail at realising that was a bad time to use stock footage)
Strange Pond Woman (You fail to get the respect you deserve, or thought you deserve)
Straw Man Has a Point (You fail at making your opponents look irrational)
Suspect Existence Failure (You fail at finding suspects for a crime)
Symbology Research Failure (You fail at remembering that cool logo you saw the other day and put into your work actually has religious meanings)
Tutorial Failure (You fail to properly teach how to play a game)
Unwinnable (When the game can only end in failure, no matter how much you win)
- Unwinnable by Design (When the programmer does this on purpose)
- Unwinnable by Insanity (When the player does this by trying really hard)
- Unwinnable By Mistake (When this was because the programmer failed)
Voodoo Shark (You fail to cover your plot holes)
World Limited to the Plot (You fail to build a context for your story.)
What the Fu Are You Doing? (You fail at martial arts)
Where's the Kaboom? (you fail at blowing stuff up)
You Can't Thwart Stage One (You fail at stopping a villain's plan even when you should have succeeded)
You Have Failed Me (You have failed at pleasing your superior)