Load-Bearing Boss/Playing With

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Basic Trope: The defeat of a Video Game Boss leads to the surrounding area collapsing.

  • Straight: Sol and his friends defeat Lady Scarlett in her own castle. After she falls, the castle begins shaking and collapsing, forcing them to flee for their lives.
  • Exaggerated: Every time Sol and his friends defeat a major enemy, the place starts falling apart.
  • Justified: Scarlett had a powerful spell cast upon her castle so that it would be immediately destroyed upon her death, in order to keep opportunistic self-declared "heroes" from stealing all her wealth and secrets.
    • Or, the villain had a huge load of explosives stored in the surrounding area, and told his mooks to set them off if he was killed.
    • Alternatively, the villain's lair is only held together by a conscious effort of will, so it goes down when he's killed and can no longer hold the place up.
    • Even more alternatively, it could just be held together by him. Literally.
    • The mortally-wounded villain, having nothing left to lose, attempts to take the heroes with him by literally bring the house down on them.
    • Or more alternatively, the boss has damaged a major support during the fight, and said fight ends when they stop and run away.
    • The fight between the heroes and the villain has damaged the place so badly that it collapses afterwards.
  • Inverted: "Haha, just as I planned! My Death Is Just the Beginning! With me dead, you'll never be able to destroy the Hell Gate I was protecting!"
    • Alternatively, the battle between Sol with his friends and Lady Scarlett takes place in ruins and defeat of Lady Scarlett causes ruins to reform into a huge castle.
    • Another alternative: the boss is going to blow everything up unless you kill it.
    • To defeat Lady Scarlett, you drop her palace on her head.
    • The surrounding area collapses when you die.
  • Subverted: Scarlett screams "If I die, I'm Taking You with Me!" and collapses -- but nothing happens.
  • Double Subverted: However, after the heroes have lingered a few moments, everything starts shaking...
  • Parodied: The base starts quaking, only for the boss to open an eye and say "Er, I'm Not Quite Dead yet...", at which everything stabilises.
  • Deconstructed: The collapsing lair kills all of Scarlett's henchmen and dooms her Evil Scheme to failure. She is dragged out of the rubble and resuscitated, only to be thrown in jail.
  • Reconstructed: She takes some comfort in the fact that her trap still succeeded in killing some of the heroes. If her henchmen failed to stop the heroes, they deserve whatever they get. Finally, if she can't see her plan through to fruition personally, she doesn't want someone else taking the credit.
  • Zig Zagged: "Oh no, the place is collapsing!" "Well, what do you expect, it must have taken some phenomenal magic to keep it standing..." "Never mind, it was just a minor earthquake" "Yes- caused by my sympathetic geomantic powers!" "*Gasp* She's Not Quite Dead!" "But I won't allow you to escape - I'm Taking You with Me!" *Boom*
  • Averted: Lady Scarlett is defeated and the game ends as expected.
  • Enforced: The game designers feel there should be just one more little challenge after Lady Scarlett is defeated.
  • Lampshaded: "Okay, why is it that the bad guy's lair collapses after we kill him, anyway?"
  • Invoked: Emperor Evulz set this up as a failsafe.
  • Exploited: Sol's mission is to destroy the Evil Lair, and decides to go about doing so by simply killing the boss.
  • Defied: "Don't kill him, just knock him out - he might be a Load-Bearing Boss!"
  • Discussed: "She's dead? Uh oh, This Is the Part Where her lair starts collapsing around our ears and we have to Outrun the Fireball..."
  • Conversed: "Another epic battle with the Rat Under The Floorboards last night. I thought about calling an exterminator, but I'm scared this house is like his Final Dungeon and killing him will trigger a localised earthquake..."
  • Played For Laughs: Just before Sol delivers the final blow, the Genre Savvy Ichigo calls out "STOP!" -- and instructs everyone else to move closer to the exit before giving the okay.
  • Played For Drama: Scarlett kidnapped the heroes' friend Tessa to force them out of hiding; unfortunately, Sol and the others decided to take out Scarlett first -- meaning that now they have to choose between ensuring they escape in time and searching for Tessa knowing full well that they might not be able to find her before it's too late...

Quick, we have to get back to Load-Bearing Boss before this whole place collapses!

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