Dungeon Bypass: Difference between revisions

[[File:beat maze the easy way 3020.jpg|frame| Screw it. I want that cheese NOW.]]

 

 

So the villain is feeling quite secure in their dungeon/castle/tower/fun house/generic headquarters. The path to their location is filled with [[The Maze|a maze of twisty little passages, all alike]], each filled with [[Death Trap|death traps]] and [[Elite Mooks]] that would quickly kill the protagonists, or at least inconvenience them by a lot and let the villain escape if they need to.

* In a short story of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', the SOS Brigade are stuck acting out a typical Medieval RPG in simulated space. Not only do they bypass a lot of dungeons and battles (by threatening an NPC, no less), but the biggest use of this trope is found when they reach the final dungeon, still at level one and probably lacking all the key items and skills they need to beat the last boss. The solution? Mikuru accidentally casts two doomsday level spells at once, completely demolishing the entire castle and the [[Big Bad]] with it. [[Fission Mailed|And the hostages they were supposed to rescue.]]

* In ''[[The Cat Returns]]'', the King's henchmen put up fake walls in a maze to make sure the heroes can't find their way to the end. However, the Baron realizes a wall is fake, and the kicks it down—which, since the henchmen had unknowingly set themselves up like dominoes, causes a chain reaction of falling walls until they form a pathway straight to the exit.

* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara give Yusuke a boost to help him reach a window in Suzaku's tower on top of Maze Castle, enabling him to fight Suzaku while they work their way up to him.

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! R]]'', Seto Kaiba does this twice. First, he lands on the roof of the building in his Blue-Eyes Jet rather than Duel his way through the lower floors. As he Duels the first card professor, Mokuba hacks into the security system as unlocks the door, making the Duel for the keycard superfluous. Kaiba announces he simply needed a warm-up before Dueling Yako.

* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', Jeft pits the four and the Hunter against the essentially impregnable Twisted Temple and the [[Touch of Death|death-touch-wielding]] [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Brothers of Doom]]. The Brothers have left two small windows open to lure stupid invaders into the temple. Unfortunately for them (and Jeft), this is a golden opportunity for Ringo to prove once and for all that no, he is not useless. He [[Mind Over Matter|telekinetically]] removes each Brother one by one and drops them in a large box that John made out of ice.

 

* When [[WALL-E]] wants to power up, he rolls outside and opens his solar panels. When EVE is in a hurry and wants to power WALL-E up, she blows a hole in the ceiling with her plasma cannon. Note that the door was open and not five feet away.

** It's also worth noting that "blow something up with my plasma cannon" is EVE's [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|default problem-solving technique]].

{{quote|'''Kuzco''': No! It can't be! How did you get back here before us?

'''Yzma''': Ah...uh... how did we, Kronk?

'''Kronk''': ''(pulls down a map of the dotted lines)'' Well ya got me. By all accounts it doesn't make sense. }}

* The Xenomorphs pull this one on the heroes in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Aliens]]''. After the humans supposedly barricade all the doors and air ducts, the Aliens just climb above the dropped ceiling.

* Subverted in ''[[Labyrinth]]''. Shortly after Sarah enters the labyrinth, she asks directions from a small sentient caterpillar. "Don't go that way. ''Never'' go that way," he tells her, at which she thanks him and heads off in the opposite direction. When she's gone: "If she'd gone that way, she'd'a gone straight to that castle."

* In ''[[Casino Royale]]'', while the mook is going through a building under construction with [[Le Parkour]], [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] just goes through walls, shoots down an elevated platform for it to fall...

* In ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]'', it's not entirely clear whether Kirk is using this or the [[Take a Third Option]] tactic when he reprograms [[Unwinnable Training Simulation|The Kobayashi Maru]] into a winnable scenario.

** One of the published books shows what happened during his test. According to it, he reprogrammed the test so it was possible to talk his way out of the fight, so it is a little of both.

 

== Literature ==

** [[Fridge Logic|Why couldn't he just do a repeat of the first task, again?]]

** [[Chekhov's Gun]] only has one bullet, apparently.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]

[[Category:Error Index]]

[[Category:Dungeon Tropes]]