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.
Haven:
wordle
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!
The in-story premise of the Factory is that it builds all of the boss monsters the
Big Bad's been sending to the Mushroom Kingdom. The conveyor belts and machinery in the background are constantly constructing all sorts of monsters. These Giant Space Fleas aren't coming from nowhere, they're being built by the Factory as replacements for the bosses you've already defeated.
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.
