Fighting a Shadow: Difference between revisions

* {{spoiler|The Anti-Spiral}} from [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]] seems to be something like this. Possible an collective conscience in a shadowy form.

* Junior Warrant Oficcer Schrödinger from ''[[Hellsing]]''. His powers and name deriving from the [[wikipedia:Schrodinger's cat|though experiment]] designed by the physic of the same name. As he is a self observing Schrödinger's cat he's everywhere and nowhere at the same time, being his body the manifestation of his self-consciousness.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Nekron, as of the ''[[Blackest Night]]'' can inhabit any dead body.

* Similarly, the Dark Judges of [[Judge Dredd]] can take any dead body as their vessel.

 

== Film ==

* In the ''Tale Of The Five'' series by [[Diane Duane]], there is one day of the year where one can kill [[Satan|the Shadow]] but it returns immediately the day after and is said to be a waste of time.

* The [[Satan|Lone Power]] of the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series [[Time Dissonance|exists mainly outside of time]], so the protagonists usually have to be satisfied with only ever defeating the fragments of It which are inside of the timestream. Sometimes, however, the defeat has a metaphysical component which has a permanent effect on the [[Big Bad]].

** All the Ainur (the [[Fantasy Pantheon]] of Middle Earth) are like this, with a few exceptions. [[God of Evil|Morgoth]] became so obsessed with ruling and then destroying the physical world that he became bound to a single physical body, though even that was still [[Nigh Invulnerable]] (rather than risk him coming back, the other Valar cut off his hands and feet and threw him into the void); the Wizards were deliberately bound into mortal bodies to limit their powers so they wouldn't be tempted to fight Sauron directly and risk [[The End of the World as We Know It]] (Gandalf was only able to come back with help, either from [[Council of Angels|the Valar]] or [[God|Eru]]).

** The Maiar ([[Big Bad|Sauron]], [[The Mentor|Gandalf]], Saruman) residing in Middle-Earth in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' can create material bodies for themselves, but when these are destroyed they can normally just make a new one, given enough time. That Saruman and Sauron can't is partly a result of the psychological degeneration that comes with a fall from grace.

* In the second book of [[Simon R. Green|Simon R. Green's]] [[Secret Histories]], ''Daemons Are Forever,'' the "Loathly Ones" who are possessing humans are only fragments of the [[Eldritch Abomination|"Hungry Gods"]] invading our reality.

* [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]] the monsters and gods are almost impossible to truly kill. Monsters dissolve into sand and pop back up after awhile. The time depends on the monster ex. Mrs. Dodds came back after a few days but some take lifetimes.

* In [[Magnus]], the title character ends up battling one of these.

* Driving the HP to 0 of the Demonlord Tagazin, in the 10th Book of the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series "The Dungeons of Torgar" does not kill him; it just sends him home. In fact, the Remake of the series feels obliged to point out that even if you roll a [[One-Hit Kill]] with the [[Infinity+1 Sword]]; no, he's not dead. You later fight him on his home turf in a later book; where he can be destroyed permanently.

* Many supernatural beings (such as demons) are like this in [[The Dresden Files]]; ordinarily when summoned, their spirit arrives in the mortal world and creates a construct body, and if that body is killed, the spirit is simply sent back to the Nevernever (essentially, the supernatural dimension that exists alongside the mortal world). They can be killed permanently in the Nevernever itself, if they enter directly into the mortal world in their true form (as opposed to a construct body), or with certain powerful spells and weapons.

 

== Mythology and Religion ==

* Midway through ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'', you fight against YHVH, aka God. Except it's not the real one, it's just a false image unconsciously created and empowered by the archangels. In the end, if you're not choosing the Lawful path, you fight the REAL one. And even if you win, He says He will not truly be defeated - as long as there are people praying to him, he will return.

** The same holds true to any demon or god in the series. Killing them doesn't stop them from showing up in any of the other games, or even later in the same game. (Often it gives you [[You Kill It, You Bought It|the right]] to [[Summon Magic|summon]] them as [[Mon]]s.]]

 

* Parodied by ''[[RPG World]]''. The [[Big Bad]] knows that the band of heroes is going to storm his fortress, so vacates it and leaves a Shadow of himself behind to fight them. The good guys ''know'' that it's just a Shadow, but Hero insists on defeating it anyway.

* In ''Digger'', when Shadowchild {{spoiler|meets with and eats [[Sweet Grass Voice]], this might be part of why [[Sweet Grass]] was quickly defeated}}

* In ''[[Fine Structure]]'', {{spoiler|Zykov was just the container for the local manifestation of the [[Big Bad]]. Killing himself wasn't surrender, it was just cutting out the middleman to [[My Death Is Just the Beginning]].}}

* In ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'', this is one explanation for the [[Big Bad|Master of Darkness']] return after his defeat a thousand years ago. Or he might have been [[Faking the Dead|faking]] [[Never Found the Body|it]].

 

== Western Animation ==