You Shall Not Pass / Video Games

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• Captain Brenner/O'Brian from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin stands fast in the face of the New Rubinelle Army to allow the Independent Legion and the Lazurian Army to escape. He actually manages to eject from his command vehicle and escape, but is nuked to death shortly after.
  • The combined Lazurian/Brenner's Wolves have another such moment later facing against Tabitha/Larissa's forces in a mountain pass. They're saved by the timely arrival of Will/Ed and reinforcements.
• In one of the campaign missions in Age of Mythology, one of the secondary heroes, Chiron, holds off an army of Fire Giants to allow the rest of the characters to escape.
• In Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, Alfman does this Immediately after his Heel–Face Turn. He blocks the entrance to an elevator against the Divine Army so the main cast can continue their climb.
• Battle for Wesnoth:
  • In "Pebbles in the Flood" scenario of The South Guard, while Deoran's troops manage to reach the border guards in the beginning of the scenario, Mal M'brin's undead army are right behind them, so Sir Gerrick and Urza Afalas stay behind with the border guards to hold the undead while Deoran goes to Westin to prepare an actual defense. They eventuall fall, but the longer they hold the undead, the easier the next (and final) scenario will be.
  • At the end of the second scenario of The Rise of Wesnoth, King Eldaric tells his son Haldric to lead their people away while he tries to hold off the orcs. Eldaric is never seen again after that.
• In the backstory of BlazBlue, a man called "Bloodedge" fought the Black Beast and held it in check for a year. Though he was eventually devoured by it, Bloodedge's act bought the Six Heroes the time they needed to develop the Ars Magus that would grant humanity victory against the Black Beast. A prequel novel reveals that Bloodedge was the time displaced main character, Ragna. He ended up inheriting his own moniker.
• Towards the end of Chapter four of Bravely Default The party is left with one final obstacle blocking the way to Everlast Tower and the Earth Crystal; Braev Lee, the Templar, Grand Marshal of Eternia. As the Bearer of the Templar Asterisk, Braev has the highest defenses of any boss in the game, taking damage in the low hundreds at a point in the game where thousand damage attacks are the norm. However, his attacks are underwhelming to the same degree, barely scratching the party at all. Where he gets this trope is when you finally deplete his health, he falls to his knees, whispers the trope name, and stands back up with full health. Taking him down once more repeats this, this time with Braev giving a shout that would make Gandalf proud. It takes a third beatdown for him to finally admit defeat. This is a man willing to stand and take blade and spell to an extent that should have killed him three times over, and yet he still survives the battle - just barely, and in such condition that he is never expected to wield a sword again.
• Breath of Fire II has a number of secondary characters sacrificing themselves for the party, the party sacrificing itself for the main character, and the main character sacrificing himself for everyone else.
• At one point in Chrono Trigger, when you first enter a room with Nizbel II, he doesn't do anything and seemingly lets you pass. The battle doesn't begin until you actually try to proceed to the next room.
  • The robotic Guardian of the Arris Dome also qualifies, since keeping you from getting to the food supplies is pretty much its primary function.
• In Dawn of War: Winter Assault, the Thunderhawk carrying the Titan's crew crashlands behind enemy lines next to a Chaos base. Fortunately, it was escorted by Space Marines, who prevent the Chaos forces from killing the Titan's crew.
  • In another mission, the Imperial Guard temporarily ally with the Eldar, protecting them until they can teleport their base inside your own. At which point it turns into Hold the Line until reinforcements show up.
  • Playing as the Orks or Chaos, a large force of Imperial Guard / Eldar / Space Marines is assembled in front of the gate preventing you from reaching the Titan.
• Axel pulls this one in Disgaea 2 when he holds off every Overlord in the multiverse who came to kill Zenon so that the heroes could do it. He's doing this both to be helpful and to be a colossal dick of astronomical proportions Dark Hero.
• In the ending of Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy, the Warrior of Light fights of a swarm of Manikins to keep Cosmos safe. The army appears nearly as massive as the one the other six heroes are fighting, and he lasts just as long as they did while completely on his own.
• Champions in Dragon Age: Inquisition have the Line in the Sand ability, which prevents enemies from moving past them in choke-holds.
  • Every player character in Inquisition will embody this trope during the sacking of Haven, staying behind to confront the invading Elder One in order to give their friends and the rest of the village's inhabitants a chance to escape to safety. It works.
• Leonard in Drakengard makes a stand against the Grotesqueries to let the others get through. In fact, here's the scene.
• Happens occasionally in Dwarf Fortress, especially against the HFS. Given that the Dwarves are one-tenth badass and nine-tenths obsessive-compulsive alcoholic lemmings, these occasions tend to end hilariously.
• Happens a lot in the sandbox universe of EVE Online none more famously as the "Siege of C-J6", Red Alliance's homeworld, by the then more powerful Lotke Volterra. The failure of the siege was the beginning of the end for LV.
  • Click the link for more details on this unscripted, player driven event http://eve-history.net/wiki/index.php/Red_Alliance
• Fate/stay night:
  • In the Fate scenario, Archer does this towards Berserker to let the heroes escape — the fact that a Command Spell was involved in making him do it is mitigated by the fact that he could probably have managed to save himself in the process if he had stuck strictly to the command wording, which was to 'delay', but chose instead to interpret it as an order to defeat Berserker.
  • After turning face, Lancer does this on Gilgamesh to let Saber get away with Shirou. Lancer lasts for 12 hours before Gilgamesh finally kills him.
  • Parodied in Unlimited Blade Works, where Shirou and Rin are faced with Lancer and both attempt to nobly stand in the way so the other one can escape. The realization that both want to give up their life for the other quickly devolves into a lovers' quarrel about which one of them is best suited for the role, both completely ignoring the situation that brought it on in the first place. After a few minutes of standing around watching the two bicker, an extremely amused Lancer reveals that he wasn't there to fight them in the first place.
  • A villainous example occurs at the end of Heaven's Feel when Kirei appears to stop Shirou from reaching and destroying the Grail. The result is a brutal fistfight that lasts until Kirei dies from a pre-existing injury Or, to elaborate...BOTH characters are Living on Borrowed Time, Kirei having had his heart ripped out earlier, while Shirou is slowly being ripped apart by his own power. The fight is basically who has the most Heroic Willpower. Shirou wins.
• In Final Fantasy II, when the Emperor returns from Hell as a demon, Ricard Highwind holds off the Emperor on his own so Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon can escape on the Wyvern.
• Final Fantasy IV has Cid. After Yang has just made his own (unrelated) Heroic Sacrifice and it seems The Dragon is about to finally kill the rest of the party by demolishing the Tower of Babil's bridge with them on it, Cid catches them on the Enterprise. They are still being chased by other airships, however, and after flying into a tunnel leading to the group's next destination, Cid gives the wheel to Cecil and jumps off the ship carrying explosives. As soon as the ship is clear, Cid detonates his bomb to seal the passage with the enemy still inside (and presumably incinerate/crush himself). However, it was just a Disney Death.
• Final Fantasy V has Galuf. The heroes are down, and everything looks poised for The Bad Guy Wins . Galuf's grandaughter pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment, but it turns into a Hope Spot that leaves her on the brink of death as well. And then Galuf gets up. He pushes through Exdeath's Agony Beam, saves his grandaughter from the spell trapping her, and then rushes the Big Bad alone. He goes head to head with the boss of the game, refusing to fall even in the face of Flare/ Holy /Meteor combos, even as he hits 0 HP. And he finally manages to defeat Exdeath on his own, driving him away to lick his wounds. And then he collapses. What follows is one of the most heart-rending scenes in any FF game, and the sole subversion to one of the most famous Console Roleplaying Game Cliches, as the heroes try everything to resurrect him, and it all fails.

  "Galuf! You can't die! Curaga! Please... Raise! Open your eyes! Phoenix Down! Elixir! Anything!"

• There are two examples in Final Fantasy VI. The first comes when the party is nearly captured by the Big Bad after their raid at a Magitek Factory; even though Locke believes her a traitor, Celes throws herself at the enemy forces and casts a spell that warps them (and herself) to parts unknown, allowing Locke and the others to escape. Much later in the game, as the balance of magic is broken and the world begins to tear itself apart, the mercenary Shadow double-crosses the Big Bad and traps him while the party escapes back to the airship. Although the player is free to leave once the goal is reached (presumably, leading to Shadow's death,) there is also a chance to subvert this trope by waiting for him until the last possible second.
• A posthumous example in Final Fantasy VII: Red XIII, who was led to believe that his father Seto was a deserter, discovers his petrified body on the border of Cosmo Canyon. Despite being run through by several magic arrows, Seto kept his footing and maintained an aggressive posture, ensuring that he would defend his city even in death.
• In Final Fantasy IX, Steiner, after finally realizing that Queen Brahne has been plotting against Dagger Garnet, offers to stay behind in Castle Alexandria, helping Freya and Beatrix fight the Queen's Black Mages, giving Zidane time to help Garnet escape. Steiner survives, and hooks up with Beatrix.
• In Final Fantasy X, Kimahri does one of these, standing his ground against a major villain while telling the rest of the party to run. They do, but then decide to obey the No One Gets Left Behind creed instead and run back to help him.
  • However, his heroism was later remembered by the villain, when most of his species stand against said villain later and are slaughtered. Only the ones who aren't home and the ones in the Blitzball team survive.
• In Final Fantasy XI after defeating the Big Bad, the Shadow Lord, he has a Heel–Face Turn when suddenly the even Bigger Bads Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche show up and summon the "Warriors of the Crystal" intent on destroying everyone in the room. The Shadow Lord stalls the Warriors of the Crystal giving Zeid, Lion, and you time to escape before he goes all explode-y all over the {{Big Bad}}s. (You have to fight the Warriors of the Crystal later though).
• In Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning plans on doing this so Hope can escape, but back-up arrives just in the nick of time.
• Final Fantasy XIV ends A Realm Reborn with this trope: Having been framed for the death of Ul'dah Sultana Nanamo ul Namo, the Warrior of Light and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn make their escape with an one-armed Raubahn holding off the Crystal Braves and Brass Braves ready to haul them off. As more soldiers come for their heads, the Scions turn into a Dwindling Party as Yda and Papalymo, Y'shtola and Thancred and finally Minfillia stay behind to buy time for the Warrior to escape, which frustrates them greatly. By the time it's ended, it's down to the Warrior, Alphinaud, and Tataru being forced to be The Exile in Ishgard while the remaining Scion Urianger hides in the Scions' old base.
• In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Micaiah spends a good part of the game trying to keep the enemies out of her country, by any means necessary. The situation gets so desperate that toward the end the enemies think she's suicidal and/or crazy, and they propose their help. To no avail.
  Micaiah: We will not lose! We cannot lose! If we lose today, everything Pelleas has done will have been in vain! In the name of King Pelleas, fight for Daein!
• In Grandia II, near the end and while on the moon, the group is surrounded by the young of Valmar, their transport is low on energy and the horde is closing in. Mareg throws the group into the transport and while fighting off massive number makes a prayer (to a) a god he doesn't believe in and b)a god believed to be dead) to send them safety. It works.
• In the original Prophecies campaign of Guild Wars, Shining Blade officer Saidra sacrifices herself to help the heroes and her leader Evennia escape from the Mursaat who are slowly approaching to kill you all by suicidally attacking them in order to buy time for you to reach the boat. Unfortunately the effect of the scene is somewhat undermined by the cold, hard facts of the game mechanics- the reason you have to flee the Mursaat in the first place is that their Spectral Agony power is so devastating at this stage of the game that any opponent not resistant to it dies in mere seconds. As indeed does Saidra. Combined with the minute-long cutscene where she says her goodbyes before her suicidal charge, the net result is that she lays down her life to delay you for 50 seconds.
• A variation occurs in Hacknet. In the endgame, most of Entech's servers are protected by an "Invioability Error" that prevents PortHack from working, necessitating the player to find out a correct user/password combination another way.
• In Half-Life 2, Father Grigori diverts the attention of the zombies in Ravenholm, helping Gordon escape to the mines. It is debatable whether he survives or not.
  • You an clearly see him setting the entrance on fire, killing off the entire zombie horde then running into the catacomb if you wait long enough, which counts as 'surviving' as far as the game tells us. Assuming the explosion of City 17 at the end of Episode 1 didn't take out Ravenholm with it...
• In Halo: Reach, Noble Six does this to let the Pillar of Autumn get away. S/he eventually falls to a small Covenant army, with seven Elites being the ones to finish him/her off.
• Seen in the final mission of Hello Kitty Roller Rescue, with Kitty stalling an invincible robot until the others can finish it off.
• Illusion of Gaia featured the protagonists captured by a village where the natives were so desperate for food as to preparing to resort to cannibalism. The princess' pet pig, a faithful companion who has gotten the party out of many tough scrapes by luck and its intelligence, leaps into the cooking fire, sacrificing himself to be food for villagers. Kind of sad...though also somewhat Narm worthy considering the reaction Will has if you examine the cooked remains. Oh, and the fact the pig's name is Hamlet.
• In Kingdom Hearts, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Mickey pull one when they close the Door to Darkness, preventing hordes of Heartless from invading the worlds.
• In Kings Quest (2015) Achaka can pull this potentially if you choose a certain option where he buys Graham time to escape.
• In The Last of Us, after Tess reveals that she's been recently bitten, she sends Joel and Ellie away so she can buy them time to escape the militia and take out as many as she can before she's gunned down.
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:
  • After Link manages to make his way to the Gate of Time just as Zelda and Impa prepare to use it, their reunion is rudely interrupted by Ghirahim, who uses his magic to keep Link out of the way while he tries to grab Zelda. Impa is having none of it, however, and holds him off while telling Zelda to run towards the Gate. While she doesn't last long, she lasts long enough for Ghirahim's magic barrier to dispel, allowing Link to take her place while Impa and Zelda go through the Gate before blowing it up, ensuring that Ghirahim (and sadly, Link) cannot follow them.
  • Every time Link fights The Imprisoned in the Sealed Grounds, his highest priority is to seal it again before it can reach the Sealed Temple outside the pit proper, or else it's an instant Game Over. Justified, since Zelda is sleeping in stasis within the temple in order to maintain the seal, and the Imprisoned intends to consume her soul in order to restore its power as Demise the Demon King. After Groose can do nothing but watch how his hated rival fights colossal monsters for breakfast, he fights off his ensuing depression by helping Link from the second encounter onwards by building a catapult to chuck large bombs at the Imprisoned, stunning it long enough for Link to do his job.
  • After Zelda awakens in the present, Ghirahim once again interrupts the reunion, this time successfully kidnapping Zelda. Aware that his master is dead in the present, however, he quickly figures that he can revive him in the past, and prepares to use the Gate of Time. Groose defiantly stands in his way, but an annoyed Ghirahim easily swats him aside.
• In Lunar: Dragon Song, Rufus sacrifices himself to hold off the giant monster Gideon from being able to chase after the rest of the party. Is killed, with the only thing left to show is his sword, which is later handed over to the Big Bad who gloats about it at the heroes.
• Subverted in Mass Effect's final battle. As the Citadel closes, the Turian Cruisers attempt this against Sovereign. Sovereign, being Sovereign, just smashes clean through them.
  • One of Shepard's backstories had them holding back an entire enemy platoon singlehandly.
  • In Mass Effect 2, most of your team for the Suicide Mission stays to hold off a horde of Collectors, allowing you and two others to destroy the Collector Base and The Human Reaper. Depending on who is left in that team and who is loyal, none, some, or all of them will get back to the ship and survive. For extra drama/comedy try leaving a single heavy to hold the line.
  • Shepard invokes this to Harbinger during The Arrival DLC, reminding him that when the Reapers arrive, if they want to take the Galaxy, they will have to face them first.
  • Urdnot Wrex during the Genophage cure, giving Shepard time to get to the Thresher Hammers: "I am Urdnot Wrex, and this is my planet!" Of course, being the toughest Krogan on Tuchanka, he's back on the radio a bit later shouting at Shepard to hurry up.
  • In the final part of one mission in Mass Effect 3, Grunt stays behind holding off a horde of huskified Rachni as the party evacuates. It is definitely awesome both for him and for the game designers who set the mood with several important deaths, making it clear that Anyone Can Die, only to pull a Disney Death on the player if Grunt is loyal, and a hilarious one at that. The entire scene is a homage to Serenity, and a similar scene with an engineered Super-Soldier who holds off an innumerable horde of monsters.
  Grunt: My turn. Heh heh heh.
• Featured in the opening cutscene of MechWarrior 4, where a lone Vulture pilot, as one of the final defense units still standing, attempts to "delay [the enemy 'mechs] here as long as I can". He delays them by, at most, twenty seconds, being outnumbered 4 to 1.
• Two in succession at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. First Meryl stays behind to hold off the FROGS while Snake goes on toward GW, then Raiden does the same. Snake is so awesome that he inspires two "You Shall Not Pass" choke points for the endless swarm of baddies.
  • Make that three. Lets not forget when Snake fends off the Scarabs in the server room to allow Otacon enough time to upload the virus.
• Gavenger will do this in MS Saga: A New Dawn to hold off the exceptionally humongous Psyco Gundam alone as a noble Heroic Sacrifice. There's a brief Hope Spot when you see a familiar Mobile Suit follow after you as you make your escape, but that hope is cruelly crushed when it's revealed that it's not Gavenger but a replacement character, specifically a former boss who did a Heel–Face Turn, taking Gavenger's suit after his death and following the heroes to help them.
• In the second NES Ninja Gaiden game, Robert, the CIA agent who is Ryu's ally for most of the game, holds off a horde of demons with a single pistol just long enough for Ryu to make it to the end.
• In Persona 3, this trope is used to justify the Arbitrary Headcount Limit during the Final Battle: while confronting Nyx Avatar, Fuuka detects a large number of Shadows approaching from the lower floors of Tartarus. Mitsuru then orders everyone not fighting Nyx to defend the combatants and hold off these hordes of enemies.
• Planescape: Torment does this with all your companions, except for three (one who just pretended to be dead, and depending on your alignment and if you have them with you, as many as two who decide they would rather kill you).
• Pokémon Black and White: While not explicitly said, the Six Sages of Team Plasma attempt this under Ghetsis' orders to bar you from your "destined" battle with N. This fails before it gets very far, as Bianca requested backup in advance. The Gym Leaders pretty much do the same to stop them from stopping you, with much more success.
• In the intro of Rise of Legends, a lone Vinci warrior, surrounded by dozens of Alin Heartseekers, reaches for a crashed Mini-Mecha and manages to fire its cannon one last time - at the bridge he's standing on and the Heartseekers need to enter the city. A moment later, many of the Heartseekers are seen crashing down.
• SaGa Frontier 2 has this in the one chapter where you control Johan the Assassin. Do note the enemies in that section are actually infinite, and Johan is poisoned to death, meaning you'll eventually lose - but Johan is so strong that you can easily rack up a huge kill count, and in fact, canonically, when people come looking for Gustave and Johan in the wreckage of the area they fought in, they find neither of their bodies among the hundreds of corpses that litter the area. Now you know why you don't mess with Johan.
• Somewhat parodied in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Richard Baxton held off four waves of mind worms on his own with a single recon rover, saving a colony. The parody is that his story rights are purchased, then altered and repackaged as "Recon Rover Rick" so that it can be sold as an entertainment franchise, downplaying the horror of his demise.
• Skies of Arcadia had defense-minded Worthy Opponent Admiral Gregorio standing fast to allow the heroes time to escape from Big Bad Galcian as his Heel–Face Turn.
• In Snatcher, Random does this for Gillian when Snatchers have them cornered.
• Exact quote from Aege, the Earth of Foundation, from Soul Calibur III, the Cute Bruiser Juggernaut Ditz with a unique trait that makes her unable to be thrown, knocked down, or stunned. She is the penultimate opponent of Chronicle 11, and cannot be avoided. It's also her quote after she's defeated, only this time said in a weak, halting manner because she's about to pass out (she and her Amazon Brigade are spared by your character).
• Happens near the end of Spec Ops: The Line, as Adams faces off against the last of the Damned 33rd to give Walker time to reach and confront Konrad.
• In StarCraft: Brood War, Fenix and Raynor get one of these in the first chapter. They survive.
• In Stella Glow when Angels swarm the Anthem Hall, Hrodulf stays behind so that the Harbingers, the Ninth Regiment, Queen Anastasia, and Regent Elmar can escape.
• Suikoden:
  • The first Suikoden game:
    • Viktor and Flik pull this one off, earning themselves a No One Could Survive That!! Of course, they did survive...they just didn't tell anyone that, for some reason.
    • Pahn, a loyal retainer who tries to hold off the imperial army after the hero's army was defeated. You actually get to control him in the duel which determines whether he lives or dies.
  • In the second Suikoden there was Jowy during the Highland camp infiltration, where he uses holds off the enemy with his True Rune and forces you to run no matter what choice you make. He comes back, but he betrays you shortly after.
• All of Mario's companions have separate You Shall Not Pass! moments in the final chapter of Super Paper Mario, leaving him to fight the Big Bad alone.
  • This could be seen as an inversion, since the point of the teams' supposed sacrifice was to get Mario and Tippi past the Quirky Miniboss Squad so that Mario could defeat the Big Bad before The End of the World as We Know It. So it's more like "You Shall Pass!"
• In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, Sanger holds back the UCC forces to give his teammates time to escape... but is actually defecting to the Divine Crusaders' side, because he feels that he can better prepare them for the coming battles as an enemy than as their commander.
• Regal's More Expendable Than You moment near the end of Tales of Symphonia was of this type, by standing fast in the face of an army of angels to allow the others to advance without their interference. Unlike most examples, he enters the battle intent on getting out alive, having sworn to Lloyd not to die. He survives.
  • Bonus points for him actually saying the trope name word-for-word.
  • Then he pulls one again in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, against an army of one.
• Literally done by Walter in Tales of Legendia. He shouts "You shall not pass..." and then runs off...
• Asch in Tales of the Abyss pulls this in the final dungeon, as he holds off 4 guards while Luke goes on ahead. To make matters worse, he just gave his sword to Luke, so he has to fight without a weapon at first (he takes one from an enemy mid-fight). Why he didn't ask Luke for his old weapon in return for the Sword of Lorelei is a mystery. In the end, he seemingly kills them, only for 3 to get up suddenly and impale him all at once. He does still manage to kill all of them, but dies of his wounds afterwards.
  • In the animated adaptation, Luke actually hands him his own sword in return, for all the good that did him.
• Seems to be a common trope in the Tales series as Judith says it to Nan and Tyson when the show up to try and kill Ba'ul in Tales of Vesperia.
• Tears to Tiara 2 has Monomachus The Big Guy stays behind as the party prepare to teleport out of Tartessos to buy time for their teleportation. The Redshirt Army that planned the battle in the first counts as well. By luring all the Krakens to Tartessos buys the rest of Hispania a few days as they have to redeploy after the battle.
• In Undertale, several bosses have a clear intention of not letting you pass them:
  • Toriel blocks your way and doesn't want you out of the Ruins, since all the previous children she let out ended up dead.
  • Undyne the Undying does this, too, trying to stop you on the bridge before you can kill any more monsters on the Genocide Run. She fails.
  Undyne: For the sake of the world... I, UNDYNE, will strike you down!
  (transforms)
  Undyne the Undying: You're gonna have to try a little harder than THAT.
  • Mad Dummy blames you for doing-whatever-you-did with his cousin and starts to fight you. When he's all out of attacks, he just plans to hold his turn forever so that you can't progress.
  • Sans applies the same method as his "special attack" in Genocide Run to stop you from destroying the world.
    • Actually, that entire battle might qualify. Sans is trying to stall you for as long as possible: he knows full well that if he kills you, you'll just respawn through Determination, but he's not gonna let that stop him from fighting to the death in the hopes you just give up. Maybe do something a little more peaceful.
  Sans: That expression on your face... that's the face of somebody who's already died once. Guess that just means I'm really good at my job.
• Happens in War Craft III, outside the vault where Frostmourne is held:
  The Guardian: Turn back, mortals. Death and darkness are all that await you in this forsaken vault.
  Arthas: I doubt there's anything more terrifying here than what we've faced already.
  The Guardian: Believe what you will, boy. You Shall Not Pass!.
  • This appears to be nothing more than an invocation of the trope title, until you realize that the scourge may never have become such a serious threat if Arthas hadn't taken up Frostmourne.
  • Then Sylvanas quotes the throne verbatim to Arthas in the middle of his invasion, after which she blows up the bridge he was about to cross and he has to find another way through.
  • Tyrande seems to do this during the events of The Frozen Throne, channeling Starfall standing on a bridge to hold back an advancing wave of undead. Unfortunately, said bridge turns out not to be able to support an elf on top of a tiger in full battle gear, breaking down and taking Tyrande with it (although why did she feel the need to stand on the bridge...). Two chapters later, it turns out the fall didn't kill her, and you have to rescue her from what would otherwise be a last stand on an island in the river.
  • Inverted in the first Undead mission of Frozen Throne: the remaining humans are all trying to flee their villages into the mountains. You have to prevent them from running off.
• In World of Warcraft's fifth expansion, Ga'nar, Durotan's brother, pulls one of these to prevent the iron horde from passing a narrow passage and overrunning the frostwolf forces, and give Drek'thar the time he needs to collapse the passage with his shamanistic powers, in the climax of the frostridge storyline, complete with an Obi-Wan Moment, or as close as one as an orc can get.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Vandham attempts this in order to give Rex and the party the chance to escape Torna, using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique to hold them off for a time when everyone else is having their powers supressed. Unfortunately, Rex is unable to accept leaving him to his fate, rendering it a Senseless Sacrifice and ultimately forcing Mythra to awaken to save them.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction, Joey and Yugi do this on the way to Pegasus's castle, leaving you alone by the time you reach him. Joey takes on Panik and the Mimic of Doom at the same time by himself, and Yugi does the same with Para and Dox.

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