Load Bearing Boss - Television Tropes & Idioms

Hero: I remember being irritated that the Vale of Merdelain wasn't more structurally sound.
Ammon Jerro: Yes. That powerful and evil beings insist on causing destruction even as they die is an unfortunate habit.
— Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.

A boss-type monster whose destruction causes the location to self-destruct (see Collapsing Lair). Usually results in a scene after the final battle wherein the player must make a hasty escape before the clock runs out.

Commonly happens with Final Bosses in RPGs and Metroidvanias.

Always seems a bit too contrived, though Terry Prachett suggested in his first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic that this phenomenon was due to entropy (having been frightened away by the Cosmic Horror boss) making up for lost time. Or perhaps the lair simply has No Ontological Inertia.

Can be justified by some form of Dead Man Switch. Not related to Load Bearing Hero, except in as much as he'll have to hold up the resulting Collapsing Lair for his friends to escape.

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Probably the earliest example (from 1470) of the Load Bearing Boss, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur features a fight between Balin and King Pellam. Balin's sword breaks, so he steals an ornate spear that happens to be lying around.
And when Balin saw that spear, he gat it in his hand and turned him to King Pellam, and smote him passingly sore with that spear, that King Pellam fell down in a swoon, and therewith the castle roof and walls brake and fell to the earth, and Balin fell down so that he might not stir foot nor hand. And so the most part of the castle, that was fallen down through that dolorous stroke, lay upon Pellam and Balin three days.
Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash has a rare example of Load Bearing Boss without a Collapsing Lair. Raven, a big mutant Aluet has a hydrogen bomb he carries around with on a motorcycle sidecar. It's hooked up to an implant that sends the detonation signal if his heart stops. (This, combined with his incredible fighting skills and use of undetectable glass knives, leads the main character to label him "The Baddest Motherf**ker in the world")
- Lelouch uses the same kind of trap in the first season finale of Code Geass, except the bomb is on his chest.
Literary subversion: in Captain's Fury, fourth book of the Codex Alera series, one of the villains has managed to tie the ongoing calmness of a volcano in his homeland to his own survival via magic. Rather than waiting for the volcano to go boom upon the villain's eventual defeat, his rival Gaius Sextus actually uses this to defeat the villain in the first place him by blowing the volcano up on top of the still-living villain, burying him and his entire capital city in volcanic ash a la Pompeii.
- The villain had been inspired to do this by Lady Placida's accidental use of it in the previous book; she had used her powers to suppress destructive furies in her homeland that would be unleashed upon her death, forcing her husband to find another way to keep them contained after the villain kidnapped her. She'd had no intention of using it as a weapon, and was merely trying to help her people.
In The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (one of the Chronicles of Narnia), the death of the Lady of the Green Kirtle causes not just her fortress, but her entire underground kingdom to be destroyed. The protagonists speculate that she had used sorcery to ensure this would happen as a means of posthumously avenging herself on her killer.
The destruction of the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings causes both the death of Sauron and his Dark Tower to collapse.
- In the third movie, Peter Jackson made it even more extreme — the entire land of Mordor collapses into a pit.
King Haggard and Haggard's castle in The Last Unicorn, both in the novel by Peter S. Beagle and the animated movie.
As noted above, in The Colour of Magic when Bel-Shamharoth, a Cosmic Horror, retreats from his temple, this causes the released inertia from formerly stopped time to erode it away to nothing in seconds, being a Justified Trope version of No Ontological Inertia.
Dracula was apparently originally going to include a scene where Dracula's castle collapsed upon his defeat (though it would not have been a threat to anyone, since the climactic battle takes place outside of the castle).

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Metroid is sometimes kind enough to have an explanation for the timer, initially using it for final bosses but lately just as often with the Warmup Boss instead. In Metroid Fusion, the self-destruct had already been activated, and you needed to win the battle before the time runs out. In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, there's two final bosses, one that's load bearing and one that you fight during the escape.
- Metroid Prime: Hunters includes an escape timer after every boss except the final. If you don't make it out on time a wave of energy takes up the screen and you die but unlike explosions revisited in other games it does no damage to surrounding area. Just made to break you suit apparently.
- Metroid II for the Game Boy avoided this trope; when you killed the Queen Metroid you simply had to make your way to the surface at your own pace and reenter your ship. Don't worry though, Samus gets to blow up the planet later.
- Super Metroid makes up for it by slapping you with a timed explosion right at the start of the game, immediately after futilely facing the Warmup Boss Ridley, who killed the ship's crew and stole the baby Metroid.
- Strangely enough, in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Samus herself gets a load bearing Hypermode when she lands on Phaaze. She has to not only FIND and KILL Dark Samus, but also Aurora Unit 313 before time runs out and she becomes wholly corrupted.
Often occurs around the middle of the game in the Final Fantasy series.
- In Final Fantasy VI, defeating Kefka in his final form results in the collapse of his tower as the protagonists escape. Although, to be fair, the tower was made of magically combined junk and trash isn't known for its ability to hold together in a safe form all by itself.
- Final Fantasy IX has an unusual twist on this trope, the Evil Forest that your airship crashes into after the introduction turns to stone after defeating its core. In a subversion, one of the Tantalus bandits doesn't make it out in time.
- Played straight with Barbariccia and the Tower of Zot in Final Fantasy IV.
The final boss in Cobra Mission activates a series of bombs as he dies. His Evil Laugh echoes through the cut-scene as the heroes escape.
Ganondorf in Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, complete with a rather elaborate escape from the fortress.
- Ganondorf destroys the castle "with his last breath", I'm guessing out of spite.
  - This also provides the location for the final battle against Ganon, on the ruins of the former castle.
From a gameplay perspective, it also happens toward the end of Mario And Luigi Superstar Saga, after Cackletta's ghost is defeated. Storywise, another character had rigged the castle with a Time Bomb.
All of the original Mega Man games, though usually without the "escape the fortress" level.
- A boss from the first Mega Man Zero game plays it straight. Thing is, fighting the Boss is the halfway point, and escaping from the Collapsing Lair is the second half of the level.
  - Megaman X3 subverts this if you fight Vile in his factory stage. At the start of the fight, he says the factory is already set to destruct. Once you win, you always have about a minute to escape before the factory blows up.
In the online game City Of Heroes, this is revisited in the "Hess Trial", which references a lot of classic tropes. The final mission of a series takes place inside an active volcano, on dinky walkways suspended above a sea of lava, in which a Humongous Mecha stands ready for launch. The final boss, a cybernetically-enhanced army officer (and the only one capable of piloting the Megatech) causes the base to inexplicably self-destruct upon his defeat, prompting the involved heroes to flee with mere seconds to spare...
- This is actually also very dangerous for groups that haven't done the mission yet, due to the way the engine displays those type of messages. They jump onto the screen then fade out one at a time, and finishing the mission triggers a large stream of them: "Mission Completed!" "Badge Earned!" "Level Up!" "1:00 to escape!" "Enhancement Found!" Leading to memorable "Wait what was that last one" moments before a mad dash to the exit.
Inverted in The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind; the final boss, Dagoth Ur, is functionally immortal and, if killed, simply resurrects immediately and attacks you again. The only way to defeat him is to destroy his lair. Played straight in Oblivion; when you kill Big Bad Mankar Camoran, his otherdimensional "Paradise" dies with him. But then, he did create it after all.
Likewise, in Resident Evil 4, during your final battle with Krauser, he activates his time bombs, which only gives you three minutes to beat him and escape.
- Not to mention that the final battle ends in you escaping on a jet ski while the entire island explodes for some reason.
- This one is given a lampshade. When Leon matter-of-factly tells his charge that they have to get off the island before it explodes (He's been in this kind of game before), she answers with , "It's going to what?"
  - And before we move on, let's not forget to point out that every single Resident Evil game ever fits this trope. Whether the deadline starts before the boss fight or afterward, you can be sure the mansion/base/castle/ship/island will explode in the following cutscene.
  - Both Resident Evil Outbreak games takes this trope to the logical extreme. The city gets NUKED after the the final boss fights.
In the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game Ristar the bad guy's fortress starts to explode as soon as the final blow is struck. However, the big bad seems to escape.
In No One Lives Forever, one of the encounters towards the end of the game, while not much of a boss fight, has a strong element of this. The vanquished foe has previously ingested a liquid, timed explosive, forcing Cate Archer to conduct a swift evacuation of the area in which the battle takes place.
Dracula, in the Castlevania series, is a classic, and possibly the most famous, example of a Load Bearing Boss. When defeated, Castlevania, his lair, will almost always crumble, usually ending with the hero(es)/heroine(s) standing on a nearby cliff watching the castle fall. Possibly justified, as the two are mystically connected — doing it in reverse (sealing off the castle and then killing Dracula) is how Dracula was Killed Off For Real.
In Cave Story, beating the final boss will cause this, but beating the Bonus Boss will stop it.
A variation: after the final battle in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which is against a former ally who betrayed you, rather than against the Big Bad), the Big Bad shows up and then runs away again, stopping only to set some explosives that will destroy the building, giving you just enough time to escape. The mechanics of the mission fit this trope (you fight the Boss, then have to escape before the building is destroyed), but the explanation is different (in that there actually is an explanation).
The Nightmare Before Christmas's Oogie Boogie's defeat leads to his manor being destroyed in Kingdom Hearts. To be fair, Oogie had somehow merged with his manor.
Defeating Vaati causes the castle to start collapsing in The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
Master Archfiend Zoma in Dragon Warrior III, and Necrosaro in Dragon Warrior IV.
- Zoma's case is a little odd, since later, in Dragon Quest 1, Castle Charlock is still standing. Even if a new castle was constructed on the site, how would Dragon Lord have known the original layout given that he was a hatchling when it originally fell?
"Dorothy" from Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2.
As Andross is defeated in the Star Fox series, the area in which the fight takes place explodes, forcing the player to escape. In 64, this is complete with Andross yelling, "If I'm going down I'm Taking You With Me!" At this point, James McCloud shows up and you have to follow him through a maze to get out again - make a wrong turn and you'll get caught in the explosion.
Defeating Myria in Breath of Fire III causes her space station to collapse.
Mario, from Dead Baby Comedy-filled I'm O.K.
Neo X from Streets of Rage 3.
The Master from Fallout triggers a bomb on a countdown timer that will destroy his base. You could also trigger the bomb yourself and run away cackling like a little sadistic schoolgirl as an alternative to dealing with the Master.
Upon the defeat of Bio-Haz in Great Greed, his castle collapses and the heroes escape in a balloon. Shortly afterwards reoccuring boss Sarg is defeated, his hideout collapses as well.
Defeating the Golden Diva in Wario Land 4 causes the golden pyramid to sink into the ground as Wario escapes with the treasure.
Defeating Mundus in Devil May Cry causes the collapse of the entirety of Mallet Island.
Defeating Dr. Robotnik at the end of most of the Sonic The Hedgehog Sega Genesis games.
In Chrono Trigger, defeat of Magus and Lavos Core creates a time warp which consumes the surrounding environment. Also, defeat of Queen Zeal destroys The Black Omen.
- There's also an inverted example: the Kingdom of Zeal collapses after your first battle with Lavos... but only if you don't defeat him.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has a load bearing ally. You fight the boss in his fortress and nothing happens, but once you see the Almost Dead Guy (actually a computer) kick the bucket, the place starts falling apart around you.
- After the Final Boss in the first Paper Mario, the castle begins to explode because the battle was so intense. Bowser's castle explodes right then and there in the sky while Peach's Castle with Mario and others are saved by the Star Spirits.
In Ico, the moment the final boss is killed, her entire castle, and the thousand-foot-high outcropping of rock it stands on, immediately crumbles into the sea for no discernable reason during an extended cutscene.
Subverted weirdly in Suikoden II: After defeating the final boss, the Beast Rune Incarnation, L'Renouille begins to rumble violently. Your hero is semi-literally dragged out of the throne room by one of his generals to keep from rushing into search for his Ho Yay Bishounen "childhood friend" Jowy (I haven't an idea what happens here if you leave your respectable characters at home and bring a party of, for instance, Meg, Gadget, and 3 squirrels to the final battle. Perhaps General Mukumuku is the one to convince the Hero he must choose his nation over his friend). Anyway, once the non-Timed Mission cutscene ends of everyone escaping... nothing happens to the castle and it still stands. However, the rumbling could conceivably have just been from the Beast Rune's unearthly death roar.
- Having once beat the final boss in such a matter, I can confirm that, yes, even Shiro, the feral wolfdog, will convince the hero that he must flee. Somehow. With growling. Then presumably bites onto him and drags him out manually. IIRC, some characters do make a scene about the castle crumbling, making the fact it's still there after even weirder. (Maybe they didn't know? Wolfdogs just aren't good judges of falling architecture.)
Fire Emblem is no exception as this also happens in Path of Radiance when the Black Knight is beaten. This editor knows at least a couple people who were more irritated by the fact that the giant pile of rubble meant there was no seeing the face beneath the helmet than any real danger to the characters.
- He gets better in the sequel, so that you can kill him again, this time with the reveal, though without the load bearing duties.
Every level in Descent 1 and 2 requires you to destroy a reactor or boss robot, starting the countdown.
This troper is interested that Half Life 2 wasn't mentioned. After you disable Dr. Breen's teleporter, it explodes in a reality ripping manner. Of course it does this almost immediately afterward, leaving no time for escape. The only reason you survive is because of the G-Man's timely intervention.
- The Episode 1 expansion introduces a subversion: the first mission is to get back into the collapsing base and stop the explosion, so as to make time to evacuate the city surrounding.
In Quake II, after the final boss Makron is defeated in the level Final Showdown, the space station where it is staged blows up as soon as the protagonist, the Marine, escapes in Makron's escape pod.
Romeo Guilderstern in Vagrant Story. Since he had stolen the key to Lèa Monde's power, and subsequently became its focus, his defeat ripped the Dark loose from the city's foundation. When Ashley inherited the Bloody Sin, he became the bearer of the Dark, and the ravage of time and decay that had been kept at bay for centuries suddenly swept into the ancient city.
The last boss of Neverwinter Nights 2 is holed inside an ancient ruin, which his destruction inevitably causes to collapse. Unusually, the game doesn't leave the player a chance to escape, but just cuts to the credits.
- The expansion lampshades this, providing the above quote.
- Ironically Jerro himself is guilty of this. He mentions after you defeat him that if he dies his Haven will collapse and everyone within will die.
When The Sleeper is killed at the end of Gothic, his underground lair collapses around him — unfortunately, The Hero is still inside. (This does set him up nicely for a With This Herring moment in the sequel.)
In La Mulana, defeating Mother causes the ruins of La-Mulana to collapse. Which makes sense, since the ruins are the body of Mother, and the five-tier boss that you took down is her soul.
Averted in Tomb Raider 1 and Anniversary, where it's actually destroying the scion (load-bearing artifact?) that makes Atlantis collapse, and the fight with Natla is done while it is collapsing (Anniversary seems to be far less explicit about this for some reason). Played straight in Tomb Raider 2, where killing the Big Bad and getting the Dagger somehow makes a big portion of the Great Wall explode in the ending. Played straight again in Tomb Raider 4 The great pyramid suddenly starts falling apart after Horus/Set is sealed, although in this case it's an important part of the ending
Played in various ways (mostly straight) in Metal Slug 3. In the last level, a particularly large Mook Walker can only be fired upon from underneath; defeating it means you then have to avoid being crushed as its legs give out and its upper portion falls to the ground. One of the minibosses, a humongous, bolt-firing brain, brings down the house with its defeat. The rest of the level is spent escaping from the mothership as it collapses (harmlessly) around you. Then you fight the brain again, liberated, as it tries to Mind Rape you and your tank.
In Tales Of Symphonia defeating the boss Winged Dragon causes its flying nest to fall apart and drop into the ocean. The Mad Scientist responsible for sending you there knew about this, and used a trap that uses Colette's Life Energy to create an Ominous Light that threatened to ~~engulf us~~ keep everyone on the Collapsing Lair.
- On a lesser note, the first two times you take down a Desian Grand Cardinal, Raine activates their Lair's self-destruct system, destroying them.
Like Castlevania above, the NES Ninja Gaiden games always finished with a shot of Ryu watching the Big Bad's fortress crumble into ruins while standing atop a distant hilltop.
Tenchu: Defeating the dark lord at the end of the game causes his evil lair to begin collapsing. This supposedly kills Rikimaru, until we learn in a later game that he escaped through a time portal into a futuristic world of technology. No, really.
Happens quite a lot in the Super Mario Bros series. (Bowser's Castle in Mario and Luigi and Bowser's Galaxy Reactor being somewhat notable examples).
- Super Mario Galaxy takes it a step further by having a gravity-bearing boss!
Happens nearly every time to King K. Rool in the Donkey Kong Country series, where Gangplank Galleon often sinks after he's defeated, and in the later games, as does the entirety of Crocodile Isle (in a way very much similar to Atlantis).
- To be fair with Crocodile Isle, he was knocked into the island's core.
Syrup Castle in Wario Land 1 and 2 explodes after Captain Syrup is defeated, the first time being explained by a gigantic bomb being placed in the throne room, the second actually sending the boss flying into the horizon.
- There's also Rollanratl in Wario Land: The Shake Dimension, who's a literal Load Bearing Boss. He's actually holding up the boss arena ceiling, and once defeated the roof pretty much falls and crushes him.
All four of The Corrupted in the 2008 Prince Of Persia explode spectacularly when killed. Whether or not this causes the subsequent Collapsing Lair escape scene is unclear.
Happens with the final boss of almost every game in the Bomberman franchise, and sometimes the regular bosses as well.
GLaDOS in Portal. Something of an inversion in that you are able to escape, after the fact, because of the explosion.
In the classic Nintendo Hard game, Life Force, after you destroy the heart of the Living Planet, the planet begins to self-destruct (or explode, hard to tell on 8 bit games). Cue the high speed escape through closing gates that has surely resulted in many a broken controller lodged in many a TV screen.
Stargate for the Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES has Ra's pyramid explode after his defeat because O'Neil activated the nuclear bomb the team brought with them to explode and teleported out just before detonation.
At the end of The Throne of Bhaal the plane you're fighting on collapses shortly after the battle as the power that was sustaining it and that the Final Boss was channeling departs after their defeat. Unusually, you're at no risk having already left, but the boss, who wasn't quite dead, gets crushed by it.
Justified in Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, where defeating Hydra will make the psychic barrier she has raised around Y'ha'neth'lei to vanish, allowing the navy submarine to torpedo the place, unaware that there's someone inside aiding their efforts.

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