History Main / ThePawnsGoFirst

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[[quoteright:315:[[VideoGame/StreetsOfRage https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sor2_finale_5.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:315: Why get that suit dirty when you've got men willing to get dirty for you?]]

* In ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' [[spoiler:Medea]] could, at any time, achieve her end goal by personally [[spoiler:destroying the world]]. Instead she sends an army to fight the defenders and observes the battles because [[ForTheEvulz she enjoys watching her enemies struggle and fail]]. She only intervenes if her forces are in danger of losing ground as she doesn't want anyone else to win.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter,'' [[BigBad Voldemort]] often shows reluctance to go into a battle unless a) he has no choice, or b) he's absolutely sure that he can't lose (though of course, this will get subverted so our heroes can survive). In the final battle Harry's visions show him holding back as his forces attack the school, and Hermione actually sounds shocked and indignant that he's not willing to fight himself.

* In ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', Magneto holds back while his hordes of lesser-powered mutants blitz Alcatraz, telling his right-hand man, "[[TropeNamer In chess, the pawns go first]]." This moment serves as one of Magneto's major KickTheDog moments: for all his grand-standing on mutant rights and brotherhood and superiority, he's just as willing to watch them get slaughtered. When the opening charge of weaker mutants gets taken out by the human forces' new PowerNullifier weapons, Magneto explains to Pyro (who he'd held back from joining the attack) "That's why the pawns go first."

* In ''Film/{{Dredd}}'', happens along a sorting algorithm. Gang leader Ma-Ma has Judge Dredd and his rookie Anderson trapped inside of her 200 level skyrise under lockdown, but she honestly ''hopes'' that the initial groups of low-ranking thugs she sends will kill him. She advances to sending more men, to using ''miniguns'' against Dredd, but nothing stops him. Once all of the pawns are used up, she sends in the knights - a squad of four Dirty Cops to take him out. She only does this reluctantly because it is very expensive. Nonetheless, during their ensuing fight the corrupt Judge Lex taunts Dredd that he used up all his ammunition fighting the cannon-fodder from Ma-Ma's gang (which he needed now more than ever because the other Judges are as well-armed and trained as he is). The tactic worked, and they come the closest to killing Dredd: he runs ''completely'' out of ammo mid-fight, and suffers a gut-shot as a result. To push the analogy even further, Ma-Ma herself turns out to basically be the King. While not completely helpless, she's no match for Dredd in a one-on-one fight, who throws her off the top of the building to her death.

** ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' was the more blatant about this as Lothor kept sending more and more of his generals out to be sacrificed. [[spoiler: But turns out he had a reason for it, as each monster defeated kept filling the Abyss of Despair up enough that it would be opened, reviving all the monster defeated and starting his conquest for world domination.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerAttackOfDarkforce EXTRAPOWER Attack of Darkforce]]'': Every boss battle operates like this, with the player party on one side, the boss character/s on another, and a field of enemies in between. The bosses, like all enemies, will start to engage when a player character is within a given range, but you'll have to fight your way to that point. Especially in the end game, it's not uncommon to see most of your transcendental power, HP, or overall combat effectiveness drained to precarious levels before you make it through the [[{{Mook}} Mooks]]!
* In ''VideoGame/KeroBlaster'', the boss fight in the Greenery Zone starts with Kaeru fighting the one-eyed mudmen enemies that appear late in the level as they pop out of the mud; killing one takes off health from the boss's life bar. After enough of them are killed, a KingMook version of the mudmen (known in the code as "Gorgon") burrows out of the ground, and uses the rest of the life bar as its health.
* In the first entry of the ''VideoGame/KunioKun'' series ''Nekketsu Kou ha Kunio Kun'' (as well as its Western localization ''Renegade''), Kunio would fight {{Mooks}} while the stage's boss would hang to the side and watch. When you were down to two or three mooks, the boss would then join in the fight.
* Hiroyuki from ''VideoGame/{{Loopmancer}}'' leads his own band of CyberNinja enemies, and appropriately in the [[RecurringBoss two stages]] he's fought in, he will send his underlings to deal with you while waiting for you at the boss area, which you defeat before fighting him. As a boss, Hiroyuki fights alone.

* This is apparently what the [[Franchise/StreetFighter Street Fighters]] are doing in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXMegaMan''.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheIncrediblesRiseOfTheUnderminer'': The heroes think that the [[EternalEngine powerplant]] foreman Dug is doing this, but it turns out that [[TrappedInVillainy he was never loyal in the first place]], and was deliberately getting all his bodyguard robots destroyed at the heroes' hands so he'll be free to [[OptOut negotiate with them]].
* In ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone,'' boss and mini-boss units will skip their turns until your units get close to them, while the {{Mooks}} start charging from the beginning.
* The ''{{ComicBook/Spawn}}'' video games. The demon king Malebolgia is your most common enemy, and he's always seated on a giant throne in Hell. In the SNES title, he shoots lightning from his hands while you box with the Mad One. Afterwards, he gets off his throne and sends you to fight his creation, the New Breed. In ''Eternal'' for [=PlayStation=], he stays in the background during the rematch with Violator.
-->'''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd''': He's just sitting there in the back! ''[[SoulEating Eating souls!]]'' ''Like'', sitting in the back of a bar eating buffalo wings!
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Vindictus}}'' mission "Friends?", unlike most missions, the boss doesn't spawn immediately when you enter the boss room. Instead, you face a constantly replaced swarm of {{Mooks}} and EliteMooks, and the boss doesn't show up until you've taken out one hundred of the latter.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** Some of the instance bosses who are guarded by trash mobs do this. For instance, when you enter Emperor Thaurissan's throne room in Black Rock Depths and start cutting your way through his senators and other members of his court, he will make remarks like "They were just getting in the way anyways."
** In Tempest Keep, Kael'thas only fights the player after they defeat each of his advisors, defeat the weapons he summons to attack them, and then defeat all four advisors together.
** On Mount Hyjal, the first four bosses are faced after defeating ten waves of trash mobs, which will reset if the raid wipes.
** Gothik the Harvester in Naxxramas forces players to fight waves of minions, which will come in on one side and respawn in the other as undead after they're defeated. The player fights him after enough time passes or all the minions are defeated.
** In the Warmaster Blackhorn encounter, Blackhorn will attack the players from his mount Goriona, but won't jump down to fight them until his minions are dead.
** In the Siege of Niuzao Temple, the first phase of the fight with Commander Vo'jak involves you and a few allied Pandaren [=NPCs=] defending the top of the stairs and fending off his minions as they try to climb up to face you. Vo'jak declares that those who fall against you were too weak to live, and only joins the fight after all his minions are defeated.
* The fight with Hercules in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarIII'' starts with you fighting a small legion of skeletons. He joins the fray assisted by more skeletons, only making it a one-on-one after you destroy his armor.
* The Kingdom Hearts series:

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', this is justified as part of [[spoiler: Master Xehanort's plan]]. The members of the True Organization XIII [[spoiler: are meant to fight Sora and co. because a clash of light and darkness is needed to create the weapon that Xehanort needs to accomplish his goal. Xehanort does not care in the slightest about what happens to them after that]].
* The Paper Mario series:
** In ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' General Guy will deploy his elite soldiers to fight Mario and only emerges directly into battle once all of the Shy Guy combatants are down.
** In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'', Lemmy will not fight Mario until Mario defeats all of his circus performers. The last group will provide Mario with a trampoline so Mario can meet Lemmy on the roof of the tent. This is a [[JustifiedTrope justified case]] in that Lemmy guards the Green Big Paint Star, which Mario needs to restore the fountain in Port Prisma--Lemmy's strategy is to hide the Big Paint Star where Mario can't get it, as Lemmy never actually intended to fight Mario in the first place, instead making Mario waste his time fruitlessly at the circus.
* Baroness Von Bon Bon's fight is like this in ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}''. The first three phases are each against one of her minions selected from a pool of five. Bon Bon herself only starts fighting in the final phase, and even then she relies mostly on her living castle.

* This is how the fights against Mr. X go in the first two ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' games. He [[SlouchOfVillainy sits on his throne menacingly]] while hordes of {{Mooks}} attempt to kill you (in the second game, he sics his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Shiva on you as well). After enough henchmen/Shiva are defeated, he joins the fight, brandishing his signature tommy gun. A similar scenario seems to play out in the third Streets of Rage game, except that after defeating the mooks [[spoiler: [[ActuallyADoombot the supposed Mr. X is revealed to be a robot, which you have to defeat.]]]]
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', when you face the Emperor inside the Cyclone, he declares that you're unworthy of fighting him and sics two waves of Royal Guards on your party before you fight him. Even after you defeat his {{Mook}}s, he still [[FlunkyBoss fights alongside a Wood Golem and two Royal Guards]], with the Emperor himself being in the back row, making him very difficult to attack until you defeat the enemies in front.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. When [[TheConqueror Kuvira]] goes into a one-on-one battle with [[KungFuJesus Korra]] over control of Zaofu she turns to her forces and announces that [[VillainousValour she won't send them into any confrontation that she's not willing to take on herself]].
* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': During one attack on the Maximals' base, Megatron told Quickstrike to go first. Inferno asked why he wasn't chosen to take point, to which Megatron replies, "When expecting booby traps, always send the boob in first!" Sure enough, Quickstrike got splattered before Megatron could finish the sentence.

* The fight with Hercules in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarIII'' starts with you fighting a small legion of skeletons. He joins the fray assisted by more skeletons, only making it a one-on-one after you defeat them.

* In ''Film/{{Dredd}}'', happens along a sorting algorithm. Gang leader Ma-Ma has Judge Dredd and his rookie Anderson trapped inside of her 200 level skyrise under lockdown, but she honestly ''hopes'' that the initial groups of low-ranking thugs she sends will kill him. She advances to sending more men, to using ''miniguns'' against Dredd, but nothing stops him. Once all of the pawns are used up, she sends in the knights - a squad of four Dirty Cops to take him out. She only does this reluctantly because it is very expensive. Nonetheless, during their ensuing fight the corrupt Judge Lex taunts Dredd that he used up all his ammunition fighting the canon-fodder from Ma-Ma's gang (which he needed now more than ever because the other Judges are as well-armed and trained as he is). The tactic worked, and they come the closest to killing Dredd: he runs ''completely'' out of ammo mid-fight, and suffers a gut-shot as a result. To push the analogy even further, Ma-Ma herself turns out to basically be the King. While not completely helpless, she's no match for Dredd in a one-on-one fight, who throws her off the top of the building to her death.

* In TabletopGame/{{chess}}, there isn't a villain per se, but generally, the king's underlings are sent out to fall in battle before the king himself becomes active in the endgame. (And yes, the pawns usually do go first.[[note]]You ''are'' able to start by moving a knight, such as in the Zukertort Opening (1. Nf3).[[/note]])

* In TabletopGame/chess, there isn't a villain per se, but generally, the king's underlings are sent out to fall in battle before the king himself becomes active in the endgame. (And yes, the pawns usually do go first.[[note]]You ''are'' able to start by moving a knight, such as in the Zukertort Opening (1. Nf3).[[/note]])