Ambiguous Name: Bonus Boss

To-do list:

• Move wicks to either Optional Boss or Superboss. The former is the supertrope for optional bosses in general, while the latter is a subtrope for bosses that are harder than mandatory bosses, including the Final Boss. If an example is clear about a boss being optional but not how strong the boss is, Optional Boss should be the default trope to move examples to.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 8th 2023 at 1:46:33 PM

Opening.

So if we move the page to Superboss, then Bonus Boss would become a disambiguation, right?

I would imagine so.

to turning Bonus Boss into a disambiguation and having the proper usage being Super Boss while giving a new home to the other optional bosses.

Edited by GrafVonTirol on Sep 19th 2021 at 10:45:39 AM

I support migrating the page. Superboss is the term that every other website uses, and I don't see a reason to go against the grain here.

I like the Primis's suggestion the most, so let me copy it with minor alterations.

• Optional Boss: Disambig/Index. Any boss you might not encounter.
  • Bonus Boss: Disambig/Supertrope. Any boss that has no effect on game progression or plot. Includes most sidequest bosses.
    • Secret Boss: Any boss that you must track down on your own, with no prompt from the game.
    • Superboss: Any boss that is designed to be tougher than any other boss. (May give give a Disc-One Nuke or Bragging Rights Reward on defeat and if you manage to beat it, Final Boss can become an Anti-Climax Boss.)
  • Route Boss: Any boss that is only encountered in one particular story branch.
    • True Final Boss: FinalBosses that are locked out until the player meets certain criteria. Usually unlocks a Golden Ending.
  • Skippable Boss: Any boss that is encountered in normal play, but can potentially be avoided depending on player choice.

BTW, we have Roaming Enemy, is this a boss trope or just goes for any enemy?

Bannered.

I support the suggested actions.

As do I.

I prefer Amonimus's suggestion.

Edit: Retracted. See my next post for what I now think should be done.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Sep 19th 2021 at 4:20:58 AM

I think that's just asking for confusion between Optional Boss, Bonus Boss, and Skippable Boss. I mean technically there's a difference but you can't expect tropers to remember which synonym means which.

So let's not have a disambig that points to a second disambig.

Since we're reshuffling thing, I'd like at add to the definition that a Superboss should never be allowed to qualify for That One Boss status. They're purposefully designed outside of the difficulty curve (almost always harder than the Final Boss by a huge margin), and games don't expect you to interact with them unless you want 100% Completion or bragging rights.

Edited by Karxrida on Sep 19th 2021 at 1:44:02 AM

I suppose it would be redundant, since a Superboss is, as you said, designed to be much more difficult than the other bosses, so Tropers who want to bitch about the difficulty can just do so on the Superboss page.

That's a good point.

I think we should just rename Bonus Boss to Superboss and turn Bonus Boss into a disambiguation between Superboss and Skippable Boss, and maybe also Route Boss and True Final Boss.

The fact that Superboss exists as a redirect means moving would be easier than if we moved the page to something that's currently a Red Link.

Edit: Actually, since Optional Boss already disambiguates between three of those four tropes, I'd imagine we could have Bonus Boss redirect to Optional Boss (or vice versa) after renaming the trope, rather than having Bonus Boss redirect directly to the new name (similarly to how Cosmic Horror, the old name of Cosmic Horror Story, redirects to Eldritch Abomination because wicks were misusing it in place of that trope).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Sep 19th 2021 at 9:34:29 AM

I was kinda thinking the same, though Skippable Boss is distinct from a Bonus Boss in that you fight it by default.

Well, another idea I had was broadening Bonus Boss to remove the requirement for them to be stronger than the mandatory bosses, since it's already being used that way.

(I don't know why I didn't bring that up earlier; I probably neglected to because I was focusing on other threads at the time.)

Edited by GastonRabbit on Sep 19th 2021 at 9:37:18 AM

That is basically what we are doing with Optional Boss and Secret Boss. However, the concept of a Super Boss is still very tropable and should be its own thing, given how often it is used outside the wiki.

I think what Amonimus suggested is fine. Bonus Boss doesn't need to be a disambiguation, just a supertrope.

I also don't think Secret Boss needs to be a separate trope? What makes a boss "secret" compared to other bonus bosses?

I suppose we could do a Trope Transplant by moving the current definition of Bonus Boss to Superboss and reusing the Bonus Boss name for a supertrope that applies to all optional bosses, regardless of strength.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Sep 19th 2021 at 12:36:11 PM

Honestly, I'm in favor of Amon's idea. If it causes confusion, we can address it later.

Spark9 already pointed out why it's confusing, particularly because we'd end up with one disambiguation page pointing to another.

I think Primis's original proposal (from this post), which is what Amonimus's proposal is a modified version of, would be easier to do and easier to understand:

• Optional Boss: Supertrope. Any boss you might not encounter. Includes most sidequest bosses. Bonus Boss redirects here.
  • Route Boss: Any boss that is only encountered in one particular story branch.
  • Secret Boss: Any boss that you must track down on your own, with no prompt from the game.
  • Skippable Boss: Any boss that is encountered in normal play, but can potentially be avoided depending on player choice.
  • Superboss: Any Optional Boss that is designed to be tougher than the Final Boss.
  • True Final Boss: Final Bosses that are locked out until the player meets certain criteria. Usually unlocks an alternate ending.

As a side note, doing this would mean changing Optional Boss from a disambiguation page to a trope.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Sep 20th 2021 at 2:20:09 PM

Secret Boss would basically be “any Optional Boss who isn’t also a Super Boss, True Final Boss, mandatory Route Boss, and Skippable Boss”. You know, sidequest bosses or bosses of mid-game Secret Levels.

Maybe Bonus Boss could be used to refer to a boss you don't have to fight, but grants you a significant reward if you defeat them.