Canon Shadow: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

# That member of the [[Player Party]] who should at least have knowledge of the plot or a very strong reaction with the plot; and yet nothing happens, either from them personally or from people who [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|see them.]] (This does not count if they're intentionally being unhelpful.)

# You can also gain certain party members sooner than the plot dictates, and if they're gained in the plot via [[Defeat Means Friendship]], use them to fight themselves.

# It is the ''enemy's'' singular [[Artifact of Doom]] or [[Evil Weapon]] that you have acquired through Shenanigans; it doesn't corrupt you and the enemy also has his own version.

Justified because it's [[Rule of Cool]] to have them in gameplay; but to actually have it change the plot would drive things [[Off the Rails]]. A [[Dream Match Game]] is pretty much when ''every'' character is like this in terms of the overall series timeline/mythology.

 

 

== Video Games ==

** ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' kind of averts this: the special rocket launcher you get is specifically called the "Special Rocket Launcher", and is described as having enough firepower to obliterate the final boss. That being said, it can't have more power than an infinite number of normal rockets, which you can get on subsequent playthroughs.

** [[Word of God]] even refers to her as a "Refraction of the [[The Multiverse|Kaleidoscope]]."

* In the ''[[Soul Series|Soulcalibur]]'' series, one can unlock the [[Artifact of Doom|Soul Edge]] as a weapon for any character. It may have a negative effect like random stats or depletes your HP, but it does not drive you crazy unless your character actually uses it in a cutscene. In some endgame cutscenes, it's possible to watch your character use their Soul Edge that you unlocked to destroy the Soul Edge dropped by the final enemy; or throw their Soul Edge away and pick up the other; and get corrupted.

** [[Justified Trope]] in ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' and ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', where certain characters' ''shadows'' join your party as phantoms; while they themselves do not. ([[Lampshaded]] by Ash in ''[[Phantom Brave|The Hermuda Triangle]]''; in gaining the future astrally projected soul of Castille who is stuck in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]''. "Um...won't this affect the future?")

*** Similarily in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'', where defeating secret characters such as Asagi and Lujei adds them to your roster but never includes them in cutscenes... because technically you only have their manikin, and they only appear when you forcibly summon them for battles. Outside of battles, they're likely somewhere else, doing their own thing, just like every other recruitable character.

*** Soul Nomad does have a version that even it can't justify, though: If you beat him as a [[Bonus Boss]], you can get Median the Conqueror as a party member. Even if you can only summon him for battles, his presence on the battlefield should have a massive impact on the plot and should prompt immediate reactions from numerous characters, yet is totally ignored. And, of course, you can use him to fight his future self.

** There's also other characters from the first game; who are explicitly stated by the plot to be staying out of the Gallian Civil War to prevent a diplomatic issue; but that's a smaller wonk than the above.

* In ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'', any new game Commander Shepard can learn any skill that you have an achievement unlocked for from previous games. It is possible to have a Assault Gun Wielding Biotic Shepard with Engineering skills, despite not being that class.

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', during Tali's loyalty mission, part of the space fleet that is Tali's home is quarantined to seal off an uprising of Geth, which are the mortal enemies of Tali's people, and charges are brought against Tali for bringing active Geth aboard the fleet. It's possible to unlock the Geth character Legion beforehand and bring him along for the trial. They react appropriately, but all it takes is some short bluster (apparently, the perrogative of captains to bring whichever of their crew along they like goes a ''long'' way in Quarian culture) before they stand down. Apart from a few strange looks and one snide comment during the trial, nobody else has a problem with it. This also happens if you bring Legion aboard the Citadel; his presence is acknowledged, but the security guard seems to think he's just a consumer-model robot assistant. Most players never encounter these incidents, though, as Legion is typically obtained right before the chain of events leading to the endgame begins - you actively have to go out of your way from the plot (and risk the circumstances) to take him anywhere.

** Legion's presence is lampshaded during Tali's recruitment mission - when you join up with Kal'Reegar, he'll comment on Legion kneeling behind Shepard:

'''Kal'Reegar:''' You know, ordinarily that wouldn't fly with me, but I can't afford to be picky right now! }}

** Another example is the DLC characters, Zaeed and Kasumi. Occasionally they will throw in a comment about something, but they never make any major plot difference, unless you have them do something notable during the Suicide Mission.

*** [[Justified Trope|Justified,]] since a lot of people don't even think the Collectors actually exist, much less know what one looks like.

* In ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'', two late-game bosses are directly responsible for two of your einherjar's deaths much earlier in the game. If you bring either of these characters into the battle with their killer, neither will say anything.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', despite the Sith guards on Taris supposedly looking for Bastila, they'll never comment on her presence [[Failed a Spot Check|even when she walks past them in her Jedi robe wielding a lightsaber]]. Maybe they're just ''that'' stupid, which might explain why [[Big Bad|Malak]] so quickly opted to destroy the entire planet. In the second game, nobody will comment on Kreia following you, including the same Jedi Masters who are latter surprised when she walks up to them in the light side ending. It is hinted, though, that she uses the Force as a kind of perception filter.

** More than just hinted - one cutscene reveals that she routinely hides her presence from your other partymembers, either for practice of for the evulz.

** And of course, bringing [[Deadpool]] into the boss fight with Deadpool results in an argument between the two of them.

* A minor example occurs in ''[[Persona 3]] [[Updated Rerelease|Portable]]''. The female protagonist's route includes an opportunity to prevent the [[Plotline Death]] of {{spoiler|Shinjiro Aragaki}}, instead putting him into a coma to justify his absence from the rest of the game up until the ending. While the direct references to the character being dead are edited out, the dialogue isn't altered enough to change the fact that everyone is still ''acting'' like he died, particularly when his best friend asserts that "he was a hell of a guy."

** Of course, as the [[Convenient Coma]] page will tell you, it's never asserted that he ''will'' wake up from his coma, so for all intents and purposes he might as well be dead {{spoiler|(at least until the end of the game, but the characters don't know that)}}.

* A lot of the allies you use in the ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' games are examples of this: Once unlocked with one character, they can be used by any character in any story, and nobody bats an eyelid to their presence. While you can never use another copy of the currently used character as an ally, you ''can'' bring along an ally to a mission where you have to fight that very same character.

** Of course, nobody says anything about your robot, either. And aside from your mother, nobody in the present cares about your talking anthropomorphic frog.

* In ''[[Battle Moon Wars]]'', saving {{spoiler|Sacchin}} has this effect. After that, she goes through the remainder of the game not speaking even once and only having "lines" (read: ellipses) twice; once during Haruna's [[Rousing Speech]] that lumps her in with fellow vampire Sion, and then at the end when the game cuts to her and Len in the Tohno family dungeons.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' starts with Snake breaking his stealth camouflage upon landing on the deck of the Discovery. One of the bonus items that can be earned through the Dog Tag sidequest is the stealth camo; so Snake and Otacon will talk about how the camo is broken and how they can't use it any more, even if you have it in your inventory for basically unlimited use. Inverted with Snake's infinite ammo bandanna, a powerup he can earn through the Dog Tag sidequest, which he always owns in the story (yes - it's a weird moment) whether or not he earned the ability to use it in gameplay.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] Integral'' had a Very Easy mode in which the player starts the game with an [[Cool Guns/Submachine Guns|MP5]] (which is not found in the game world or owned by any other game characters under normal circumstances), a powerful, silenced submachine gun with a ludicrous amount of ammunition which makes the game a breeze. Your comrades will still remind you at every opportunity that due to the mission being a black op, it was critically important they sent you in with no weapons that could be traced back to you.

** Welch Vineyard. However, potentially justified given that she really is an optional character. She holds a ''bit'' more significance in the first game than the second, where she doesn't even speak up for plot events. Granted, she's ''intentionally'' supposed to be a secret character, she holds much more weight in the third and fourth games

 

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[[Category:Gameplay and Story Segregation]]

[[Category:This Index Is Expendable]]