Basic Trope: A boss in a video game returns later as a regular enemy.
- Straight: Captain Shadowclaw appears as the boss of level one, but by level ten is a regular recurring enemy.
- Exaggerated:
- Shadowclaw is fought as a boss in one room. In the very next room, there are five of him acting as standard enemies, and all of them are stronger than the previous boss.
- Shadowclaw becomes the most common standard enemy at some point during the second half of the game.
- Downplayed:
- Shadowclaw doesn't return as an Mini-Boss until the last level, and there's only one or two of him.
- Shadowclaw’s only appearance as an enemy is in a Brutal Bonus Level. Otherwise he is a boss.
- Justified:
- When Shadowclaw first appears, the hero was level 5, but when Shadowclaw reappears, the hero is now level 20.
- Shadowclaw's boss, noticing that he was quite a formidable opponent for the heroes, decides to clone him. However, Clone Degeneration is in full force in this setting, so the duplicates aren't nearly as effective as the original.
- The first Shadowclaw faced was a Super Prototype - later Shadowclaws are rolled out after mass production begins, but it comes at the expense of the later prototypes being no more powerful than the original instead of upgrading to become more powerful.
- The Degraded Boss in question is actually just a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond - in its natural habitat, Level Ten, it's just an ordinary mook that is fairly unremarkable. However, one of them somehow managed to make their way to Level One, where its Level Ten stats gives it Boss status when compared to the usual fare in Level One.
- The emperor decided to send the most powerful Shadowclaw first, when he failed, he decided to send the rest, but in groups or accompanied by other types of enemies.
- The first Shadowclaw was Papa Shadowclaw, the others are his, at their oldest adolescent, children.
- The shadowclaw is an enemy that requires a special strategy to beat him, by the time more appear, the player is expected to know how to defeat them.
- Inverted:
- Shadowclaw was a Mook at the beginning before being promoted to a boss.
- The player knocks out a dozen Shadowclaws during the Taste of Power intro sequence. After the depower, one alone is a boss battle.
- Subverted:
- Recurring Boss
- The Hero winds up in a Shadowclaw cloning facility. Clone Degeneration is so severe that they immediately collapse on their own weight.
- There is no Clone Degeneration, so each new Shadowclaw is just as powerful as the original, or even more.
- Double Subverted:
- He's a Recurring Boss, then an enemy.
- Later however you face cybernetic versions of Shadowclaw clones that are only cosmetically different from the original.
- Even if they are as strong as the original, the hero became much stronger, so the clones can hopefully be considered Elite Mooks.
- Parodied: Shadowclaw was a Zero-Effort Boss in the first place, so it's quite fitting.
- Zig-zagged: Shadowclaw is a Recurring Boss in levels 1, 2 and 3, then a Mook in Levels 4 and 5, before being a boss again for Level 6.
- Averted: Shadowclaw never returns after his first appearance.
- Enforced: "We spent quite a few resources in order to animate and render Shadowclaw! It would have been kind of a shame to only have him as a relatively minor boss fight, so we added lesser versions of it so you can enjoy his awesome super-moves!"
- Lampshaded: "Weren't you a boss some time ago?"
- Invoked: Enemy recruitment is easier with someone who already has experience as a villain.
- Exploited:
- The Hero doesn't defeat Shadowclaw, knowing that he'd just come back as an enemy later anyway.
- The hero specifically faces Shadowclaw as a boss because while powerful he was still weaker than Deathclaw and he would rather fight Shadowclaw repeatably than Deathclaw.
- Defied:
- The Hero kills Shadowclaw at their first meeting.
- Captain Shadowclaw averts Villain Forgot to Level Grind.
- Discussed: "It's weird how many people get demoted from villain to Mook, eh?"
- Conversed: "Will there ever be a villain who doesn't show up again later in the game?"
- Deconstructed: As a standard enemy, Shadowclaw has to live through the gruelling life of the working class.
- Reconstructed: Shadowclaw returns at the end of the game as the final boss again.
- Played for Laughs: Shadowclaw keeps trying to monologue while an enemy before realizing that he is not in that position.
- Played for Drama: All of the minions that he treated like crap before hate him now that he's their equal.
Back to Degraded Boss.
