History Main / MainCharacterFinalBoss

* ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': Nightmare Eclipse is the final boss of the Dark World arc. She is a future version of Twilight, a corrupted alicorn who has learned time magic and is using it to keep the Dark World timeline in a 1,000-year GroundhogDayLoop to punish Discord -- the former BigBad -- for all eternity. Every time the current Twilight and her friends have defeated Discord, Nightmare Eclipse finds some way to corrupt that Twilight into another Nightmare Eclipse, absorbs her to increase her own power, and then begins the loop again with new versions of Twilight and her friends. After defeating her and finally breaking the loop, Twilight fuses with her to become a fully ascended alicorn: Princess Amicitia.

* ''Film/FantasyIsland2020'': Melanie is presented as the protagonist but in the end she wants to kill all the people in the island.

* ''Series/DexterNewBlood'': Dexter is the villain protagonist of both ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' and its sequel series, ''New Blood''. ''New Blood'' ends with Dexter as the final boss, and he is killed by his son Harrison after murdering Logan to escape justice for his crimes. However, Dexter allowed this to happen so that his son could live a life free of Dexter's crimes; it's also implied that he would eventually be revealed as the Bay Harbor Butcher.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': An interesting case. The show slowly consolidated its cast until it was following three storylines and had a protagonist or two for each, with Jon Snow in the North, Jaime Lannister in the South, and Daenerys Targaryen in Essos, eventually culminating in all parties meeting and (briefly) allying to fight [[GreaterScopeVillain the Night King]]. Once the Night King is dealt with, however, the show frames Cersei Lannister as the final villain, only for Daenerys to [[JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope dive headfirst off the slippery slope]] in the runup to the Battle of King's Landing and completely ransack the city, killing innocents and burning the city to the ground, making her the show's true last antagonist that Jon has to kill.

* In ''[[VideoGame/OneHundredPercentOrangeJuice 200% Mixed Juice]]'', the final bosses are Protagonist and Navi, better known as Suguri and Sumika, who are respectively the [[OutOfFocus nominal]] main protagonist and FairyCompanion.

* ''VideoGame/BlueRevolver'': If playing on Parallel and you meet the conditions to fight the TrueFinalBoss, or rather, the True Final ''[[DualBoss Bosses]]'', your opponents will be Dee (the regular FinalBoss) and whichever of the two player characters you didn't pick.

* An interesting case happened in ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma''. Savan starts out as a DecoyProtagonist and then we find out that he has become something of a deity and becomes the final boss. If you play on NewGamePlus, the character you played previously will be the FinalBoss.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'': It's played straight at first with the end of Abby's three-day plotline concluding with a boss battle against the game's main protagonist Ellie. After a TimeSkip, it's zigzagged as the protagonist Ellie then pursues Abby to California, and her final battle is Abby.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch'' has Zizou play the role of both main protagonist and final boss in most of her games. This is averted in the Brave Dungeon games where she's a {{Superboss}} instead.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch'' has Zizou as the main protagonist and final boss (of [[VillainProtagonist Riva's]] story), winning out in both her and Riva's endings (using blackmail to force [[VillainProtagonist Riva]] to stand down after getting her ass kicked)
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch2'' has Zizou as the main protagonist and final boss (of Sola's story). Unlike the previous game, she simply accepts her defeat simply because Sola isn't a villain (and Zizou had already taken care of the BigBad anyway.)
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch3'' has Zizou as the main protagonist and final boss (of [[VillainProtagonist Day's]] story). After being defeated, Zizou lets her sister Mati fight Day instead of attacking with her full power. Justified because it's implied that Zizou had already taken care of Simeone like in her story and that she and Mati were stalling for time until Day's friends arrive to convince her to stop her quest for revenge.
* In ''VideoGame/CryOfFear'', the final boss is either the imaginary Simon that the player has been controlling throughout the game, or the real wheelchair-bound Simon, depending on earlier choices.

* In BreathOfFireIV, if Ryu agrees to merge with Fou-Lu, he becomes this and fights his former teammates.

** In games with versus mode, each playable character has a story route, including the usual FinalBoss. They then usually fight series protagonist Reimu Hakurei as their final opponent, making her the TrueFinalBoss of the game. This happens in ''VideoGame/TouhouSuimusouImmaterialAndMissingPower'', ''VideoGame/TouhouKaeidzukaPhantasmagoriaOfFlowerView'', ''VideoGame/TouhouHisoutenScarletWeatherRhapsody'', and ''VideoGame/TouhouShinkirouHopelessMasquerade''

* ''VideoGame/Contact'': The player character Terry finally figures out that you've been controlling him all game and decides he isn't gonna have any more of it -- requiring you, the player, to stylus-tap him into submission. Fortunately for you, Terry himself is a ZeroEffortBoss because he has no actual means to fight back.

* An interesting case happened in ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma''. Savan starts out as a DecoyProtagonist and then we find out that he has become something of a deity and becomes the final boss. If you play on NewGamePlus, the character you played previously will be FinalBoss.

* ''VideoGame/FlawedCrystals'': The final boss is Steven Universe himself after succumbing to his corruption. Your party either has two choices, you can choose to kill Steven in self-defence and get the Bad Ending or use the Talk function to call Steven out on his selfish and cowardly fantasies that he created in Rose's Room, which is key to uncorrupting Steven and getting the Good or Best endings.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16893568000.88527500
%% Please see thread to discuss a replacement.

* ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' has Anakin Skywalker gradually become more corrupt due to Emperor Palpatine playing on his fears of Padme's death. By the end of the film, Anakin has killed several younglings and now intends to rule the galaxy as Darth Vader. After a climactic fight, Anakin loses his limbs and is left to die by Obi-Wan, ensuring Anakin is DoomedByCanon to become Darth Vader, the iconic villain of the Original Trilogy.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/DragonsDogma https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/savan.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Above: Savan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq_2Ezhc_rU as protagonist]].[softreturn]Bottom: Savan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS4JsIAOuvk as final boss]].]]

* '' Manga/AttackOnTitan'': Eren becomes the BigBad after he convinces Ymir Fritz to give him the full power of the Founding Titan, intending to wipe out all of civilization outside of Paradis Island so they won't exterminate his people and it's revealed that he's been planning this all along via a StableTimeLoop by influencing the previous wielders of the Attack Titan's power. The endgame revolves around Eren's former comrades teaming up with Marley's remaining Titan Shifters in order to put a stop to him.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'': Homura is the main protagonist of the film, due to it taking place after the original series which ended in Madoka being erased from existence after her ascent to godhood. During the film's climax, it's revealed that the witch controlling the Mitakihara witch barrier is Homura's own witch form Homulily. Even after defeating the witch, Homura succumbs to her madness and steals Ultimate Madoka's god powers to become [[GodOfEvil Homura Akuma]] and [[GildedCage creates a new world where Madoka will never be harmed again.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': Billy Butcher - leader of the titular protagonist group- ends up as the final boss of the series when after going off the deep end and killing every member of The Boys except for Hughie, and intending to do the same to anyone with Compound V in their blood. Hughie has no choice but to kill Billy to prevent Billy's genocidal plan from coming to fruition.

* ''VideoGame/FlawedCrystals'': The final boss is Steven Universe himself after succumbing to his corruption. Your party either has two choices, you can choose to kill Steven in self-defence and get the Bad Ending or use the Talk function to call Steven out on his selfish and cowardly fantasies that he created in Rose's Room; which is key to uncorrupting Steven and getting the Good or Best endings.

* ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': Nightmare Eclipse is the final boss of the Dark World arc. She is a future version of Twilight, a corrupted alicorn who has learned time magic and is using it to keep the Dark World timeline in a 1,000-year GroundhogDayLoop to punish Discord -the former BigBad- for all eternity. Every time the current Twilight and her friends have defeated Discord, Nightmare Eclipse finds some way to corrupt that Twilight into another Nightmare Eclipse, absorbs her to increase her own power, and then begins the loop again with new versions of Twilight and her friends. After defeating her and finally breaking the loop, Twilight fuses with her to become a fully ascended alicorn: Princess Amicitia.

* In ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'', the two DownerEnding routes have main character Roland as the Black Silence acting as the final boss, revealing himself to have been planning Angela's destruction as revenge ever since the start of the game, and that his friendly care-free attitude was merely a facade. The GoldenEnding route, however, subverts this as Angela and Roland forgive each other and the TrueFinalBoss is a OneWingedAngel rematch against the Reverb Ensemble.

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'': Oersted, the protagonist of the unlockable chapter "The Middle Ages", loses everything at the end of the chapter after being betrayed by the people he thought were his friend and lover. He then calls himself "Odio" and vows to take revenge on mankind, sending an incarnation of himself bearing the name "Odio" as the final boss of the previous chapters. He also appears in the Final Chapter "The Dominion of Hate" as either the protagonist who sets out to MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight by taking control of the other bosses or as the final boss of the game. The 2D-HD remake adds a third form for the final boss called Sin of Odio, which allows Oersted to finally redeem himself by separating himself from the embodiment of his hate and being the one to destroy it.
* ''VideoGame/MadnessProjectNexus2:'' Hank, the protagonist of Project Nexus and the Madness series in general, becomes the final enemy for Sanford and Deimos to fight after pulling a FaceHeelTurn and seeking to destroy Nevada.

* ''VideoGame/{{OMORI}}'': After Omori realizes he can no longer hide the truth about Mari's death from Sunny he goes all out attacking Sunny and trying to make him [[DrivenToSuicide take his own life.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'': The combination of everyone no longer needing him, Steven's own crisis about what he's supposed to do now that everyone no longer needs him, and his bottled-up trauma from the entire franchise causes him to spiral into [[DespairEventHorizon a complete mental breakdown where he sees himself as a monster]] -- and because his powers are so entwined with his emotional and mental state, this causes him to turn into an ''actual'' monster, blinded by rage and completely unable to be reasoned with. It takes his family [[CooldownHug restraining him in a hug and reaffirming to him that he's not a monster for Steven to return to normal]].

* ''VideoGame/MidnightSuns'': For the final boss, the custom main player character is possessed by the big bad, forcing the player to control the remaining heroes to defeat them.

[[caption-width-right:350:Above: Savan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5OgczS-6KU as protagonist]].[softreturn]Bottom: Savan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS4JsIAOuvk as final boss]].]]

* An interesting case happened in ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma''. Savan starts out as a DecoyProtagonist and then we find out that he has become something of a deity. If you play on NewGamePlus, the character you played previously will be FinalBoss.

* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris'': Tee is the main protagonist on the Tetris side, being introduced as a calm and stoic character who is very good at Tetris. Come the seventh chapter (which is the final chapter of the main story), and he wants to take Ex's place as Keeper of Dimensions, his reasoning in the Japanese version being him thinking that it would be better if he'd be trapped instead of Ex. The final battle has you playing as Ringo as she battles Tee to snap him out of this mindset.

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'': Oersted, the protagonist of the unlockable chapter "The Middle Ages", loses everything at the end of the chapter after being betrayed by the people he thought were his friends and lovers. He then calls himself "Odio" and vows to take revenge on mankind, sending an incarnation of himself bearing the name "Odio" as the final boss of the previous chapters. He also appears in the Final Chapter "The Dominion of Hate" as either the protagonist who sets out to MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight by taking control of the other bosses or as the final boss of the game. The 2D-HD remake adds a third form for the final boss called Sin of Odio, which allows Oersted to finally redeem himself by separating himself from the embodiment of his hate and being the one to destroy it.

* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris'': Tee is the main protagonist of the Tetris side, being introduced as a calm and stoic character who is very good at Tetris. Come the seventh chapter (which is the final chapter of the main story), and he wants to take Ex's place as Keeper of Dimensions, his reasoning in the Japanese versions being him thinking that it would be better if he'd be trapped instead of Ex. The final battle has you playing as Ringo as she battles Tee to snap him out of this mindset.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDarkWitch has Zizou play the role of both main protagonist and final boss in most of her games. This is averted in the Brave Dungeon games where she's a {{Superboss}} instead.

* In ''[[VideoGame/OneHundredPercentOrangeJuice 200% Mixed Juice]]'', the final bosses are Protagonist and Navi, [[spoiler:better known as Suguri and Sumika,]] who are respectively the [[OutOfFocus nominal]] main protagonist and FairyCompanion.