History Main / OrcusOnHisThrone

**** And one of the few times where he actually does do anything is when he personally shows up to kill Drakuru, his [[MagnificentBastard very capable]] lieutenant who managed to conquer the entirety of Zul'Drak and 'almost' transformed the player into his undead [[TheDragon Dragon]]. WhatAnIdiot.

** D&D is perhaps the worst example of this trope, in fact. There are about a million staggeringly lethal beings that could utterly ruin the universe if they wanted (including the Primordials, creatures who CREATED the universe in the first place and now want to destroy it due to it violating their cycle of creation and destruction), but instead sit around making occasional foreys into the mortal world, only to get driven off by a bunch of ragtag adventurers who all met in a tavern somewhere.

*** And to be fair to [[spoiler:Pain]] he was quite busy, what with [[spoiler:a civil war and slaughtering everyone who happened to work for somebody who once said high to a relative of his arch-enemy on the street]].

* ExcelSaga has Il Palazzo, who sits on his throne playing dating sims and guitar while Excel and Hyatt do all the actual work. This, despite having (in at least the anime) psychokinetic powers that let him tear through an squadron of Ropponomatsus without the slightest effort, as well as at least some level of SuperStrength and SuperSpeed. Among other things, he is unscathed by a half-dozen or so Ropponomatsus latching onto him and self-destructing, catches a mini-missile launched at his face with one hand before throwing it aside like a piece of junk, and zips across the floor too fast to follow and {{Neck Lift}}s the original Ropponomatsus... then proceeds to behead them by squeezing his fists shut.

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''CodeGeass''. TheEmperor has since left the conquering to his elder children Schneizel and Cornelia because he's busy preparing to [[spoiler:[[strike: initiate {{Instrumentality}}]] "kill the gods"]].

** He's finally fighting, if that's an improvement... it just took the death of almost his ''entire'' strongest squadron (at least one of which he killed [[YouHaveFailedMe himself]]) to really get him off his ass.

* {{Shinzo}} has Lanancuras, who technically has a good reason to sit on his throne : it's his prison. Except he never tried breaking out until AFTER the barrier maiden had discovered the power to keep him there, which is three hundred years (five hundred in the dub). And he does absolutely nothing during that time.
* Knives from the Trigun anime fits this to a tee. The ability to destroy cities? Check. [[FantasticRacism Rabid hatred of humanity]]? Check [[spoiler: he looks human but isn't, he's actually a plant]]. Sits in an oasis in the middle of nowhere for the entire series? Check.
** Justified since he spent most of the series recovering in a healing tank [[spoiler: after taking the full brunt of Vash's [[WaveMotionGun Angel Arm]]. He only recovers in the second to last episode.]]

* Darkseid from TheDCU, despite being a major BigBad who ruled an [[{{Mordor}} entire planet]] with an iron fist, had access to [[{{Magitek}} incredibly advanced technology]], and possessed [[AGodAmI divine powers]] that could smite just about anything in the universe, didn't get around to committing much actual villainy (outside of the original New Gods series anyway). Justified by his obsession with the "Anti-life Equation"; a formula that removes the free will of anyone that hears it. Note that [[spoiler: in Final Crisis, when he finally has a chance to use the Equation, he immediately enslaves the population of Earth, has his son Orion killed, launches a campaign to subdue the Earth's heroes, and nearly conquers the entire Multiverse. Oh, and he also subjects {{Batman}} to a FateWorseThanDeath, closely followed by [[KilledOffForReal actual death]].]]
** [[spoiler: Hell he basicly does all this ''while sitting in a chair'']]

** Amusingly, [[spoiler: he fights the final battle, and technically dies in his chair as well.]]

** PowerRangers in general has BigBads who subscribe to this trope. Most of them have a reason for not just flattening the annoying, spandex-clad bugs opposing them before they grow strong enough to do real damage to their operations. Other times, however, they're content sit around and berate their underlings continual failures until the final five episodes or so.

* The First Evil from ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Ohhhh god. The ENTIRE SEVENTH SEASON consists of nothing but waiting for her to start taking over the world. By the end, [[spoiler:even the HEROES get tired of waiting and have to go down into the hellmouth to fight her minions there]]. Honestly, what was she waiting for all that time?

[[AC: {{VideoGames}}]]

* Ganondorf in ''TheLegendOfZelda: Ocarina of Time''. Sure, [[CapitalCity Hyrule Castle Town]] is deserted apart from [=ReDeads=] and the castle is transformed into his evil lair, but the rest is relatively safe from him. Okay, he has his minions spreading terror, Zora's Fountain has been frozen solid, but he's just sitting in the castle waiting for Zelda to show up. You'd think he'd go after Link when he starts gathering the PlotCoupons, but no, he doesn't. He makes just one appearance after you take down Phantom Ganon, but that's just to get rid of him in a YouHaveFailedMe moment and taunt Link about how "the real me won't be so easy" before returning to the castle. He's mainly an "act through his minions" style of EvilOverlord.

** Same with Zant in ''Twilight Princess'' after the fourth dungeon (where he appears to revive the boss).

* In ''[=~Dissidia: Final Fantasy~=]'', Chaos does remarkably little for being the God of Discord and the BigBad of, possibly, the entire series. Sure, he [[spoiler:nukes Cosmos]] that one time, but aside from that one moment, he spends the game doing an impressive SlouchOfVillainy on his throne until someone finally shows up to fight him. [[spoiler: It's mostly because the endless repeating cycles of his war with Cosmos have burned him out to the point that he just doesn't ''care'' any more.]]

* Subverted in the older computer RPG ''{{Ultima}} VII'', where the Big Bad plays mind games with the player ''before the player generates his character and enters the gameworld''. Within the gameworld, you're never quite certain either, as the Big Bad (named the "Guardian") continues to try to [[MindScrew Mind Fuck]] the player - sometimes by helping the player with hints,sometimes by misleading the player with those same hints. [[spoiler: OF course, the player's ultimate goal in ''VII'' is to prevent the Guardian from entering the gameworld and Ending The World As We Know It - this is not revealed to the player unti near the end of the game]]

* Pretty much every ''MegaMan'' villain strategy, starting with Dr. Wily, has been "wait for Megaman to fight his way to each Robot Master who themselves are waiting for him in a airlocked room, beat them, go through one more level and possibly fight all the copies of the Robot Masters in a row before fighting the main villain of that game.
** The implication, of course, is the Wily is controlling his various Robot Masters to take over the world. When MegaMan inevitably defeats them, he barricades himself in his massive, well-defended fortress, hoping it will be enough to keep the Blue Bomber away. Through the magic of video game protagonist determinism, it never is.

*** Unfortunately, as of ''{{Castlevania}}: Symphony of the Night'' and onward, forcing the hero to run through his entire castle and kill a butt-load of his minions does the exact opposite of weaken them. Yay experience points.
*** Also, Dracula is stupid enough to leave loads of powerful weapons lying around in his castle to be taken and used against him. So he should either try to stop that or to send his most powerful troops immediately (there actually are a few examples of something similar in ''Symphony of the Night'').

** She's not the only one, either. In the sequel, [[MasterComputer FATE]] has already succeeded in opening the seal to the [[McGuffin Frozen Flame]] using Serge's body, and she can control the mind of every single inhabitant of El Nido via the Records of Fate. What reason could she possibly have to let Serge and [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters his small army]] infiltrate Chronopolis, other than brag to them in person about erasing Prometheus? And for an almighty, otherdimensional creature of GaiasVengeance that has [[OmnicidalManiac vowed immediate annihilation upon humanity]], the Dragon God seems pretty content just chilling atop [[OminousFloatingCastle Terra Tower]], keeping an eye on the Frozen Flame, and waiting for the heroes to arrive.

* Ilya from ''FateStayNight''. Her Berserker is the strongest of the servants currently participating in the Holy Grail War and she's an extremely powerful magus on top of it -- but besides her first appearance in which she almost effortlessly subdues both Shirou and Rin combined, she never takes another offensive action afterwards, in any of the three routes, despite the fact that she could probably flatten all the other participants [[spoiler:except for Kotomine and Gilgamesh]].

* Averted in ''PrinceOfPersia: Warrior Within''; when you finally reach the Empress of Time's throne room, it's completely empty. Turns out [[spoiler: the Empress is actually the woman companion who's been following you around for much of]] the game.

** Biara, [[spoiler: disguised as Queen Isabel]]. When [[spoiler: her disguise is removed by Arantir]] she gets off the Throne and back to wreaking havoc across the Empire.
* Apparently, every male in ''{{Touhou}}'' is this way, as [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials]] say that there are male monsters, and even a Tengu King... but no humanoid male ever bothers to fight or even come on-screen in ''Touhou'', and the only ones who do are a talking cloud and turtle. Supposedly, with an [[PinkBishoujoGhetto all-female lineup]], they just WouldntHitAGirl, and so, don't show up.

** This is actually explored in later games, which have shown gym leaders (and sometimes Elite Four as well) outside of their gyms. In ''Platinum'', the gym leaders, Flint and some other characters will visit the player's villa; in HeartGold/SoulSilver, the gym leaders appear outside of their gyms at certain times where you can take pictures of them and such, and they will also commute to the Fighting Dojo for rematches.
*** Only in later games? I seem to remember that even in Red and Blue, [[spoiler:Giovanni, [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready the Viridian City Gym Leader]], is also [[BigBad the leader of Team Rocket]]. It shows. And also, your rival is the champion]].

* Leon takes a short crack at this in ''{{Resident Evil 4}}'' with the option to sit in Saddler's throne, complete with [[SlouchOfVillainy evil slouch]] and dramatic camera angle.

* ActionRPG ''MetalWalker'' reveals the final boss, and the source of the island's problems, is [[spoiler: a supercomputer]], justifying why the Metal Masters are sent out in [[spoiler: its]] stead. [[spoiler: Supercomputers ''can't walk'']].

** Ozai was actually waiting for [[spoiler: Sozin's Comet]] to appear and grant his army of fire benders absurd levels of power, such that no other surviving military force could realistically oppose them. At the start of the series, the Air Nomads had been wiped out about a century ago, the Southern Water Tribe had been deprived of most of their water benders, and the Earth Kingdom was essentially on the ropes, with their own king sitting on his throne and the [[spoiler: Dai Li]] in control of everything.

* Prince Phobos of ''{{WITCH}}''. [[spoiler: This actually becomes a plot point in the second season finale- the Guardians are trying to lure him to a place that will rob his powers if he enters, but he throws a wrench in that plan by simply being too lazy- or as [[NobleDemon Raythar]] puts it, "doesn't want to muss his hair"- to leave his throne room until his forces are victorious. And then it backfires on Phobos too, because it gives [[TheStarscream Cedric]] the oppurtunity he needs to seize power himself]].

* In Simon Spurrier's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''Lord of the Night'', Sahaal remembers his primarch, the Night Haunter on his throne, and has his followers build him a throne where he sits while they search the hive for information he wants.

* ExcelSaga has Il Palazzo, who sits on his throne playing dating sims and guitar while Excel and Hyatt do all the actual work. This, despite having (in at least the anime) psychokinetic powers that let him tear through an squadron of Ropponomatsus without the slightest effort, as well as at least some level of SuperStrength and SuperSpeed. Among other things, he is unscathed by a half-dozen or so Ropponomatsus latching onto him and self-destructing, catches a mini-missile launched at his face with one hand before throwing it aside like a piece of junk, and zips across the floor too fast to follow and {{Neck Lift}}s the original Ropponomatsus... then proceeds to behead them by squeezing his fists shut.

** Arthas plays this again when his citadel is invaded at the climax of ''Wrath of the Lich King.'' Rather than ganging up on the raiders with any one of the other bosses waiting within, he casually sits on his throne and waits for them to reach him. [[spoiler:Then, when you finally reach him, he one-shots the entire raid and explains that he did all this so he could resurrect you all under his control.]]
*** During one Alliance quest in Howling Fjord, it's possible for the player to encounter Arthas in the spirit world. Arthas immediately incapacitates you and tells you, [[spoiler: "It is not yet your time to serve the Lich King. Yes, a greater destiny awaits you. Power... You must become more powerful before you are to serve me."]] before sending you to the nearest graveyard. Other encounters during leveling in Northrend with similar themes turn from FridgeLogic ("Why does he keep saying that?") into FridgeBrilliance when it's revealed that's ''exactly'' what you've done by the time you are able face him directly in Icecrown Citadel.

* ActionEPG ''MetalWalker'' reveals the final boss, and the source of the island's problems, is [[spoiler: a supercomputer]], justifying why the Metal Masters are sent out in [[spoiler: its]] stead. [[spoiler: Supercomputers ''can't walk'']].

* ActionEPG ''MetalWalker'' reveals the final boss, and the source of the island's problems, is [[spoiler: a supercomputer]], justifying why the Metal Masters are sent out in [[spoiler: its]] stead. [[spoiler: Supercomputers]] ''can't walk''.

* ''{{Exalted}}'': The Deathlords once unleashed the Great Contagion, a plague that wiped out 90% of all life in Creation. Then they did nothing but plot for millennia. Somewhat justified, in that their [[EldritchAbomination Neverborn]] masters really hate failure. The First and Forsaken Lion was welded into his own armor -- painfully -- for screwing up his own plan by encouraging the Fair Folk to run wild and incidentally add strength to reality, and Princess Magnificent With Lips of Black Coral was almost fed to Oblivion for losing hold of her shadowland until the Lion spoke up for her. If one of them's going to come up with a fiendish plan to destroy Creation, they're going to make damn sure it ''works'' first. Amusingly, this might be [[NiceJobFixingItVillain the sole reason Creation still exists]] - if the Neverborn had been willing to stomach a few failures instead of [[YouHaveFailedMe terrifying the Deathlords too much to try]], the destruction of the world might have been a done deal already. Though, in fairness, one probably can't expect much management skill from half-dead, maddened {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.

* Van Kleiss of Generator Rex, though with [[JustifiedTrope good reason:]] his powers only work if he is in contact with his native soil of Abysus. Most of his plans involve him trying to avert this somehow, with varying degrees of success. As long as his powers are active, (or he has some plan in the background that will ''get'' his powers active) he's perfectly willing to leave home to fight the good guys directly.

* Averted in ''HarryPotter''. Though of course most of the "grunt" work goes through his minions, Voldemort starts kicking ass almost instantly after being resurrected and doesn't stop. The only times he gets "lazy" are when he's a powerless ghost and when there's a job he has a good reason to avoid doing.

--> -- '''[[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses The Nostalgia Critic]]''', on ''Animated/TheLegendOfZelda''

Villainous counterpart to AchillesInHisTent. A very common trope in VideoGames, where the villain waits passively in his throne room while the hero is levelling up, killing his minions, and methodically foiling his plans (see also TakeYourTime). Similar to OffstageVillainy, where we only know the villain is evil because the author says so; with OrcusOnHisThrone, we only know the villain is ''dangerous'' [[InformedAbility because the author says so]].

The BigBad might also be spending all his/her/its time offscreen searching for a MacGuffin (ForgottenSuperweapon, ArtifactOfDoom, etc.) that would render conventional means of conquest unnecessary. Why waste time and effort commanding the LegionOfDoom when you could conquer/corrupt/destroy the kingdom/country/world/galaxy/universe/[[DoctorWho REALITY! ITSELF!]] with the push of a button? When they do get off their throne, expect them to be a MobileMenace.

Looks like we have a case of OrcusOnHisThrone. A villain with great power and the potential to wipe out the Forces of Good turns out to be a lazy bastard. Oh, sure, he's out there somewhere being [[DesignatedVillain generically evil]], probably [[OffstageVillainy oppressing someone else]], but he doesn't actually seem to do much; he just [[SlouchOfVillainy sits about]] waiting for the BigDamnHeroes to come and overthrow him. One wonders how he ever mustered the ambition to climb to his position of power in the first place.

** Orcus' arch rival Demogorgon tends to do the same thing. His excuse is that he considers the wars with devils and other demons a necessary annoyance, and his true interest is researching the nature of the Abyss. For the record? Demogorgon is said canonically to be more powerful than Orcus, and at least in some versions, was the demonic equivalent of Asmodeus himself.