This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Question:
- So is this trope for any time someone is forced to put off dealing with his/her enemy until after an even Bigger Bad is dealt with, or only for when the two enemies team up in the meanwhile and end up respecting each other at least a little?
Rebochan: I pulled the Final Fantasy examples for a few reasons. One at a time:
- Final Fantasy VII has Sephiroth, who takes over suddenly from the goal of defeating Shinra. At least you get to go back and beat up SOME Shinra people, but still, this troper wanted more Anti-Shinra action in Midgar instead of going around chasing after a White-Haired Pretty Boy. Yes, this troper knows that this is not the popular view.
Right, this is not a place to air one person's personal grievances. The majority of the plot of FF 7 was about Sephiroth - it's no different than how FFVI switched the main villain from Gestahl to Kefka. In both cases, the true villain was clearly built up to and gradually took focus towards himself via Character Development. This trope is covering people who come out of nowhere with no build up whatsoever.
- This is a lot better than FF 4 where a giant space alien appears to resolve all the plot ends. In a fantasy game. With no forshadowing ANYWHERE in the game. This lends support to the theory that the entire game was written on the fly (So first a 9999 attack seriously wounds, but does not kill Golbez, but when you fight him he falls to pieces after taking 3000 damage?)
- And let's not forget Chaos in Final Fantasy (taking over from the Four Fiends), Necron in Final Fantasy IX (taking over from Kuja in literally the last second]), [[spoiler:Yu Yevon in Final Fantasy X (taking over from Sin)... noticing a pattern yet?
- If you were paying attention in Final Fantasy X, it was completely expected. It's an important part of the plot, in fact, and definitely did not come out of left field. On the other's you have a better point.
Necron and Zemus/Zeromus are clearly Giant Space Flea from Nowhere - this trope assumes that the villain actually does something after killing the plot. Necron and Zeromus don't get any build up, hints, or really anything outside of "Oh hey, here's the real villain. FINAL BOSS TIME!" Yu Yevon is heavily foreshadowed - Sin is a mindless sea monster and the plot makes it clear as it unravels that someone had to have created it. Yu Yevon is a ridiculous pushover, yes, but he's not the conflict killer when the game was all about finding out who and what made Sin and how to stop it.
I also updated the article's introduction in hopes of making this a distinct trope from the Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
