This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Cidolfas: I modified the description slightly after some discussion here
. In many RP Gs, even the random encounters come out of nowhere; it's perfectly fine for the bosses to be out-of-nowhere when the normal encounters are as well. To that end I pruned a bunch of examples, e.g. Final Fantasy VII, Secret Of Mana, and Wild AR Ms 5, because the expectation was never really there for the boss to "make sense". Some additional requirements have been added for these sorts of games, and I'd appreciate someone who's played the other games on the list to do some additional pruning.
Nezumi: Okay, I have to ask: Where does the name of this trope come from? As is mentioned in the entry, the one literal giant space flea from nowhere in video games isn't one in the sense of the trope.
- Grimace: I didn't make the trope, but it always made me think of Yevon in FFX. He literally transforms into a floating, blue, thing (as far as I recall) that looks like a tick. He didn't exactly come from nowhere though (kinda central to the plot n' all), so I'm not sure if that's it.
osh: IIRC, there meme was 'f*cking ____ out of nowhere', and my general observation a lot of bosses end up being these weird cthonic cosmicky looking things.
Sotanaht What I get out of the definition of this article is that a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere is a boss that NOT ONLY has no storyline significance, but is placed in such a way that it is a complete surprise that you are even fighting a boss AT ALL (middle of the dungeon, no save point, etc). A lot of the examples here seem to only meet the first criteria, it makes sense that you will be fighting a boss at the end of the large cave, so long as it isn't in the middle, and its somewhat obviously the end when you get there. Though the trope does seem to include bosses that are unexpected because it should be a different boss you fight, in the manner of the Necron example.
Cosmetor: I don't see any indication that the latter is part of the definition. It looks like just "bosses who only exist for the sake of having a boss and are unconnected to the story".
Little Beast: Is there a related trope for non-video games, or should I just shove it in here?
Lord Helmchen: Snipped this bit from Vampire Bloodlines (which may not really belong here at all in the first place), because it's flat-out wrong:
- In fact, since there's not even a cutscene of The Sheriff transforming, so it was probably Executive Meddling at the last minute: "Wait! It's a vampire game! Can't have one without a giant bat!"
There IS a cutscene, and it DOES show the transformation.
BritBllt: Removing this entry under Super Mario RPG...
- And then you infiltrate the main villain's weapon factory, and tying things in to the plot get thrown out the window. A giant clock that tells time to deal damage? Sure! Two jesters who summon a snake when one of them dies? That sounds fine, too! A Mini-Boss Rush that ends with a battle against a machine seemingly powered by egg yolk? Throw it in there, it's the end of the game and we need as many bosses as we can get!
Burai: Removed...
- In Tabletop Games like Dungeons And Dragons, these are called "Wandering Monsters," and there are charts the game master can use to randomly determine what sort of potentially nasty but non-plot related critter the players may encounter while traveling in different terrains.
Those aren't Giant Space Fleas, they're Random Encounters. The whole point to the charts (whether they succeed or not is a question of implementation), after all, is the intention that the creatures which appear will be those one would reasonably expect to come across when travelling in such a reason.
Fighteer: Cut this from the World Of Warcraft section:
- Come to think of it, all of the Elemental Lords can be considered this. The players decide to take out Ragnaros the Firelord just because he's there, and his only objective is to kill the much more evil dragon at the top of the mountain. Then you have C'thun. It seems that Blizzard had decided that they had better make that barren wasteland that has nothing significant in it useful by opening up a raid dungeon. Even when going in there, you would think that the Big Bad of the dungeon would be a giant bug...but it's an Eldritch Abomination whose name hadn't even been so much as mentioned up until that point.
- Again, it makes sense if you pay attention to the backstory. The Old Gods are sealed evils in cans left by the Precursors, who are presumably upset about the Titans remaking their world. Ragnaros (who had been previously mentioned as one of the lieutenants of the aforementioned Sealed Evil in a Can) himself gets tons of lore in the surrounding zones, which are ''on fire'' because of his summoning, which was done by the Dark Iron Dwarves because they felt pinned between Ironforge and the Wildhammer dwarves in the Hinterlands, because they started a civil war, because of various kings killing each other, Blah, Blah, Blah. This backstory is spread out all over the continent, because frankly about a third of it (the center) is being menaced by him. The quest chains start around level 20 and persist until 60. It's a massive story arc.
- Deathwing could maybe be considered one for the upcoming third expansion, Cataclysim as the only time he was mentioned in the current storyline was a short scene during a boss fight with the other Eldritch Abomination, Yogg-Sauron, and that was in his human disguise.
- Deathwing makes sense to those who played earlier games and know the lore, however. Unfortunately, most of the 11 million don't follow or care about the lore (probably why most of it is now on the cutting room floor).
- Come to think of it, all of the Elemental Lords can be considered this. The players decide to take out Ragnaros the Firelord just because he's there, and his only objective is to kill the much more evil dragon at the top of the mountain. Then you have C'thun. It seems that Blizzard had decided that they had better make that barren wasteland that has nothing significant in it useful by opening up a raid dungeon. Even when going in there, you would think that the Big Bad of the dungeon would be a giant bug...but it's an Eldritch Abomination whose name hadn't even been so much as mentioned up until that point.
The Old Gods and Elemental Lords are well established in Warcraft lore, so this is a bit pedantic. Further, the Silithid quest lines in Feralas, Tanaris, Un'goro Crater, and Silithus itself all lead directly to the reveal of C'thun. And about Deathwing... umm yeah, you can only call it a GSFFN if we weren't told about it a year in advance of its release.
Cherojack: Do either of the cited Mass Effect examples count? The second game's boss is admittedly a bit more out of left-field than the first, but both have well-explained roles in the plot that are foreshadowed before The Reveal.
Jerrik: Yes, I agree. I don't think the Reapers fit this at all.
