Load-Bearing Boss: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A boss-type monster whose destruction [[No Ontological Inertia|causes the location to self-destruct]] (see [[Collapsing Lair]]). Usually results in a scene after the final battle wherein the player must make a hasty escape before [[Timed Mission|the clock runs out]].

 

 

 

Can be [[Justified Trope|justified]] by some form of [[Dead-Man Switch]] or, in more fantasy/magical settings, by a literal bit of [[A Wizard Did It]], in that the power of the [[Big Bad]] is what originally put, and is currently holding, the place together, making his defeat somewhat like shutting off an electromagnet. Not related to [[Load-Bearing Hero]], except in as much as he'll have to hold up the resulting [[Collapsing Lair]] for his friends to escape.

 

Particularly large-scale examples may be a type of [[Cosmic Keystone]]. [[Reactor Boss]] is a [[Justified Trope|justified subtrope]]. Compare [[Defeat Equals Explosion]].

{{examples}}

** In the third season, Mugan is destroyed by the battle and the senshi are buried beneath the rubble. They're OK, though.

* ''[[Bleach]]'': After Chad and Uryu defeat Demora and Iceringer, the room they are in collapses, having been designed to do so if they were defeated.

** In the Arlong case, this is because Luffy's final attack was to kick Arlong ''through'' the building; it wasn't so much that the building was destroyed because the boss died as it was because the boss was smashed through all five floors of it.

* In ''[[Code Geass]]: Nightmare of Nunnally'', after Nunnally {{spoiler|rejects opening Heaven's Door in favor of "tomorrow," resulting in her parents being erased from existence like they were in the original series}}, the cave in Kamine Island collapses.

* The ailing Princess in the Kokuboro arc of ''[[Kekkaishi]]'' created the castle and alternate dimension that shares the name of that storyline; the castle gradually decays and eventually collapses as her health deteriorates, to the point where the whole dimension completely collapses when she ultimately expires.

* {{spoiler|Hakumen no Mono}} from ''[[Ushio and Tora]]'' fits this trope perfectly. {{spoiler|If Ushio's mom lets up the barrier and allows the yōkai of Japan to kill him, all the islands of Japan will sink with him}}

* In ''[[Gankutsuou]]'', {{spoiler|the Count}}'s headquarters begins collapsing seconds after he dies for no readily apparent reason.

* In ''[[SD Gundam Force]]'', the death of Sazabi causes the [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|Horn of War]] to collapse.

* ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]''. When Count Magnus Lee is killed, his castle self-destructs.

** Something similar happens in ''Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust''. Vampire castles apparently have [[No Ontological Inertia]].

 

** Also, the pieces fall up - apparently the villain was so evil, the planet won't have any of it.

* When Dr. Merrick is killed in ''[[The Island]]'' (2005), the holographic projectors are destroyed. This allows the inhabitants of the underground facility/prison escape into the real world.

* ''[[If Looks Could Kill]]''; Zigesfeld being crushed under a falling cage while standing on a gold vat causes Steranko's mansion to begin blowing up from the inside out from the resulting explosion. [[Made of Explodium|Who knew liquid gold was so volatile?]]

* This happens at the end of ''[[Logan's Run]]''.

* In the ''[[Spawn]]'' film, Jason Winn sets himself up as the ''ultimate'' load-bearing boss: He attaches a heart-rate sensor to himself, which will set off dozens virus-bombs all over the world in the event of his death to deter assassinations (though how a would-be kill is supposed to know this ahead of time is anyone's guess). {{spoiler|Spawn uses [[A Wizard Did It|his nifty magic powers]] to just pull the sensor out of his body before turning him over to the cops.}}

* Happens in ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]'' when the evil wizard Lo Pan is killed {{spoiler|by a knife to the forehead}} by hero Jack Burton.

 

== Literature ==

* Another early example is Edgar Allan Poe's classic Gothic tale ''The Fall of the House of Usher'', first published in 1839, in which the eponymous house breaks in two and collapses when Roderick and Madeline die.

** Their deaths don't actually cause the house to collapse. However, since the house was a metaphor for the family, it seems justified.

* ''[[Dracula]]'' was apparently originally going to include a scene where Dracula's castle collapsed upon his defeat (though it would not have been a threat to anyone, since the climactic battle takes place ''outside'' of the castle).

** {{spoiler|Lelouch}} uses the same kind of trap in the first season finale of ''[[Code Geass]]'', except the bomb is {{spoiler|on his chest}}.

* Literary [[Subverted Trope|subversion]]: in ''Captain's Fury'', fourth book of the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' series, one of the villains has managed to tie the ongoing calmness of a volcano in his homeland to his own survival via magic. {{spoiler|Rather than waiting for the volcano to go boom upon the villain's eventual defeat, his rival Gaius Sextus actually uses this to defeat the villain in the first place by blowing the volcano up on top of the still-living villain, burying him and his entire capital city in volcanic ash a la Pompeii.}}

** In the third movie, Peter Jackson made it even more extreme -- {{spoiler|the land around the entrance to the black gate collapses into a pit, taking the orc army with it, while the area on which the good guys are standing forms a sort of rock outcropping.}} Geologically, this looked ''[[Sarcasm Mode|completely]]'' plausible.

*** More specifically, all the land in a circle around [[A Wizard Did It|Gandalf]] stays up.

* Justified in ''Sourcery'', where Coin created the huge miles high tower which has become the new home for wizards, by using raw magic. Once he starts dueling with {{spoiler|his father}} and they start pulling magic from the tower, well...

* Used again in ''Hogfather'' with the Ice Castle.

* In ''[[Chronicles of the Emerged World]]'' this is what happened when {{spoiler|the Tyrant is vanquished}}.

* In the [[Solomon Kane]] story ''The Moon of Skulls'', the hidden city of Negari is destroyed by an earthquake just after its queen Nekari is killed.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' -- {{spoiler|The Tenth Doctor}}. Elaboration: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQrd44v7Q6w#t=1m13s (CAUTION: Here be spoilers.)]

* ''[[Criminal Minds]]:'' "Fisher King" (Part 2) The unsub blows himself up, forcing the team to first locate the hostage inside and escape while the house is burning.

 

 

== Toys ==

* ''[[Bionicle]]'' put a unique twist on this by having the [[Big Bad]] ''be'' the Matoran Universe itself for the [[Grand Finale]]. This meant that if the villain died, the universe would fall apart and become uninhabitable. But there was another twist, namely that this process took about three days to happen. Everyone escaped within seconds, thanks to [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|the writer taking artistic license with scale]].

 

== Video Games ==

** Justified in a somewhat unusual way: The final boss is {{spoiler|possessing the Island Core, which you know is the very thing keeping the island flying;}} so when you destroy the boss, it makes perfect sense for things to go south fast. As for the True Final Boss reversal... [[A Wizard Did It]]?

*** {{spoiler|The True Final Boss, whose powers were beyond his own ability to control, was actively tearing down the island. The Core was meant to seal him off and keep that from happening, so breaking the Core started the fall. Killing the True Final Boss made him stop tearing the island down, so it stopped falling.}}

** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in the cases of Magus and Queen Zeal. Magus is attempting to summon Lavos to his castle to kill it himself, but the heroes interrupted him and Lavos basically yawned at them. When Queen Zeal is defeated, she calls upon Lavos, who disintegrates the Black Omen as he pulls you into his pocket dimension.

* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', this is revisited in the "Hess Trial", which references a lot of classic tropes. The final mission of a series takes place inside an active volcano, [[No OSHA Compliance|on dinky walkways]] suspended above a [[Lava Pit|sea of lava]], in which a [[Humongous Mecha]] stands ready for launch. The final boss, a cybernetically-enhanced army officer (and the only one capable of piloting the Megamech) causes the base to inexplicably self-destruct upon his defeat, prompting the involved heroes to flee with mere seconds to spare.

** This is actually also very dangerous for groups that haven't done the mission yet, due to the way the game engine displays those type of messages. They jump onto the screen then fade out one at a time, and finishing the mission triggers a series of them: "Mission Completed!" "Badge Earned!" "Level Up!" "1:00 to escape!" "Enhancement Found!" Leading to memorable "Wait, what was that last one?" moments before a mad dash to the exit.

* All of the end-of-level bosses in ''[[Descent]]'' 1 and 2 - usually hostile reactors attempting to defend themselves by shooting energy balls, but sometimes there's a more traditional [[King Mook]]. Upon defeat, the countdown timer starts, a female [[Computer Voice]] announces the activation of the self destruction sequence, sirens start blaring, and the level is constantly rocked by tremors while the lighting blinks. The player must escape via the designated emergency exit within the designated time. If the player is successful in reaching the exit, a [[Cutscene]] shows your ship [[Outrun the Fireball|Outrunning The Fireball]] [[Always Close|no matter how much time there is left on the timer]]. If the player fails to make it in time, the screen will [[Fade to White]].

* The Master from ''[[Fallout]]'' triggers a bomb on a countdown timer that will destroy his base. You could also trigger the bomb yourself and run away cackling like a little sadistic schoolgirl as an alternative to dealing with the Master.

* Often occurs around the middle of the game in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series:

*** And again with the Giant of Bab-Il and the CPU.

* A variation: after the final battle in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]: San Andreas'' (which is against a former ally who betrayed you, rather than against the [[Big Bad]]), the [[Big Bad]] shows up and then runs away again, stopping only to set some explosives that will destroy the building, giving you just enough time to escape. The mechanics of the mission fit this trope (you fight the Boss, then have to escape before the building is destroyed), but the explanation is different (in that there actually ''is'' an explanation).

* Upon the defeat of Bio-Haz in ''Great Greed'', his castle collapses and the heroes escape in a balloon. Shortly afterwards reoccuring boss Sarg is defeated, and his hideout collapses as well.

** Ganondorf destroys the castle "with his last breath", perhaps out of spite.

** This also provides the location for the final battle against Ganon, on the ruins of the former castle.

* Happens at the end of Super Meat Boy, after defeating Dr. Fetus, the player must escape his flying fortress as it collapses. This is justified however, as Dr. Fetus actually activates self-destruct with his remote control after defeat.

* ''[[Metroid]]'' is sometimes kind enough to have an explanation for the timer, initially using it for final bosses but lately just as often with the [[Warmup Boss]] instead. In ''Metroid Fusion'', the self-destruct had already been activated, and you needed to win the battle ''before'' the time runs out. In ''Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'', there's ''two'' final bosses, one that's load bearing and one that you fight during the escape. Although if you want to be technical, it's actually ''Samus's'' actions after the boss is already dead that set off the planetary collapse.

** ''Metroid Prime: Hunters'' includes an escape timer after every boss except the final. If you don't make it out on time, a wave of energy takes up the screen and you die. Unlike explosions revisited in other games, it does no damage to the surrounding area. Just made to break your suit, apparently.

** ''Metroid II'' for the Game Boy avoided this trope; when you killed the Queen Metroid you simply had to make your way to the surface at your own pace and reenter your ship. Don't worry though, [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|Samus]] {{spoiler|gets to blow up the planet later}}.

*** Dark Samus didn't read the [[Evil Overlord List]]. It turns out {{spoiler|AU 313 was connected to the planet's core.}}

* ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'''s Oogie Boogie's defeat leads to his manor being destroyed in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''. To be fair, Oogie had somehow merged ''with'' his manor.

* The NES ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' games always finished with a shot of Ryu watching the [[Big Bad]]'s fortress crumble into ruins while standing atop a distant hilltop.

** In the Xbox remake of ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'', defeating the Zeppelin boss causes the airship to go down in flames Hindenburg-style.

* Likewise, in ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', during your final battle with Krauser, he activates his time bombs, which only gives you ''three'' minutes to beat him and escape.

** The final battle ends in you escaping on a jet ski while the entire island explodes as a result of {{spoiler|Ada Wong}} activating the self-destruct mechanism.

*** Every single ''[[Resident Evil]]'' game fits this trope. Whether the deadline starts before the boss fight or afterward, you can be sure the mansion/base/castle/ship/island will explode in the following cutscene.

** Both ''[[Resident Evil Outbreak]]'' games take this trope to the logical extreme. The city is NUKED after the the final boss fight.

*** "Dorothy" from ''[[Resident Evil]] Outbreak: File #2''.

* In the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game ''[[Ristar]]'' the bad guy's fortress starts to explode as soon as the final blow is struck. {{spoiler|However, the [[Big Bad]] seems to escape.}}

* Defeating Myria in ''[[Breath of Fire]] III'' causes her space station to collapse.

** Occurs several times in the original ''[[Breath of Fire]]'', and is played for tragedy once when {{spoiler|Cerl combines [[High Heel Face Turn]] with [[You Shall Not Pass]], buying time for Ryu and the others to escape her fortress by fighting her former allies. Its disappearance confirms her death, ''and'' takes out another sympathic character in the process.}}

* [[Super Mario Brothers|Mario]], from [[Dead Baby Comedy]]-filled ''I'm O.K.''

* Neo X from ''Streets of Rage 3''.

* Defeating Mundus in ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' causes the collapse of the entirety of Mallet Island.

* Defeating Dr. Robotnik at the end of most of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' Sega Genesis games.

** Subverted in Sonic 3's Marble Garden Zone where the ground is destroyed by the boss BEFORE you fight him.

* In ''Ico'', the moment the final boss is killed, her entire castle, and the thousand-foot-high outcropping of rock it stands on, immediately crumbles into the sea for no discernable reason during an extended cutscene.

* Subverted weirdly in ''[[Suikoden II]]'': After defeating the final boss, {{spoiler|the Beast Rune Incarnation}}, L'Renouille begins to rumble violently. Your hero is semi-literally dragged out of the throne room by one of his generals to keep from rushing into search for his [[Ho Yay]] Bishounen "childhood friend" Jowy. Once the non-[[Timed Mission]] cutscene ends of everyone escaping... nothing happens to the castle and it still stands. However, the rumbling could conceivably have just been from the {{spoiler|Beast Rune}}'s unearthly death roar.

** Even Shiro, the feral wolfdog, will convince the hero that he must flee. Somehow. With growling. Then presumably bites onto him and drags him out manually. Some characters do make a scene about the castle crumbling, making the fact it's still there after even weirder. (Maybe they didn't know? Wolfdogs just aren't good judges of falling architecture.)

* The final boss of Suikoden, {{spoiler|Golden Hydra, which was Emperor Barbarosa transformed with the power of the Dragon King Sword}}. After the post-final-battle cutscene, {{spoiler|Emperor Barbarosa}} leaps from the top of the castle and after a blinding flash of light and the sound of an explosion, the castle begins to collapse and the player must escape. Why the castle collapses is not clear; Perhaps the explosion was what destablized it (even though the explosion was on the outside of the castle, not inside), or perhaps the final boss's life was tied to the castle itself, much like Dracula and his castle in the Castlevania series.

* In ''Quake II'', after the final boss Makron is defeated in the level ''Final Showdown'', the space station where it is staged blows up as soon as the protagonist, [[A Space Marine Is You|the Marine]], escapes in Makron's escape pod.

* {{spoiler|Romeo Guilderstern}} in ''[[Vagrant Story]]''. Since {{spoiler|he had stolen the key to Lèa Monde's power, and subsequently became its focus, his defeat ripped the Dark loose from the city's foundation. When Ashley inherited the Bloody Sin, ''he'' became the bearer of the Dark, and the ravage of time and decay that had been kept at bay for centuries suddenly swept into the ancient city.}}

** There's a bit of an inversion in the original ''Neverwinter Nights'' expansion pack ''Shadow of Undrentide''. {{spoiler|The final Big Bad is being protected by the same magical artifact that is holding the floating city of Undrentide in the air. The only way to kill her is to first destroy the artifact, which causes Undrentide to start falling. You fight and kill her on top of the city while it's in freefall.}}

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has a bit of an opposite of this in Kologarn, 5th boss in the Ulduar raid instance. When you defeat him (being a giant with only his upper body in sight), he becomes the bridge to the next area.

* In ''[[La-Mulana]]'', defeating Mother causes the ruins of La-Mulana to collapse. Which makes sense, since {{spoiler|the ruins are the body of Mother, and the [[Sequential Boss|five-tier]] boss that you took down is her soul.}}

* Averted in ''[[Tomb Raider]] 1'' and ''Anniversary'', where {{spoiler|it's actually destroying the scion (load-bearing artifact?) that makes Atlantis collapse, and the fight with Natla is done while it is collapsing (''Anniversary'' seems to be far less explicit about this for some reason)}}. Played straight in ''[[Tomb Raider]] 2'', where {{spoiler|killing the [[Big Bad]] and getting the Dagger somehow makes a big portion of the Great Wall explode in the ending}}. Played straight again in ''[[Tomb Raider]] 4'', as {{spoiler|the great pyramid suddenly starts falling apart after Horus/Set is sealed, although in this case it's an important part of the ending}}.

* Played in various ways (mostly straight) in ''[[Metal Slug]] 3''. In the last level, a particularly large [[Mook]] Walker can only be fired upon from underneath; defeating it means you then have to avoid being crushed as its legs give out and its upper portion falls to the ground. One of the minibosses, a humongous, bolt-firing brain, brings down the house with its defeat. The rest of the level is spent escaping from the mothership as it collapses (harmlessly) around you. {{spoiler|Then you fight the brain again, liberated, as it tries to [[Mind Rape]] you [[And Your Little Dog, Too|and your tank]].}}

** On a lesser note, the first two times you take down a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Desian Grand Cardinal]], Raine activates their Lair's self-destruct system, destroying them.

* ''[[Tenchu]]'': Defeating the dark lord at the end of the game causes his evil lair to begin collapsing. This supposedly kills Rikimaru, until we learn in a later game that he escaped through a time portal into a futuristic world of technology. No, really.

** ''Super Mario Galaxy'' takes it a step further by having a gravity-bearing boss!

** ''New Super Mario Bros Wii'' actually inverts this in the end, as {{spoiler|a magically-enlarged (and quite angry) Bowser chases after Mario, ultimately resulting in him literally destroying the load-bearing pillars of his castle, causing it to collapse on him. Embarrassing!}}

** To be fair with Crocodile Isle, he was knocked into the island's ''core''.

* All four of The Corrupted in the 2008 ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' explode spectacularly when killed. Whether or not this causes the subsequent [[Collapsing Lair]] escape scene is unclear.

* In ''[[Gradius|Life Force]]'', after you destroy the heart of the [[Living Planet]], the planet begins to self-destruct (or explode, hard to tell on 8 bit games). Cue the high speed escape through closing gates that has surely resulted in many a broken controller lodged in many a TV screen.

** The rest of the ''Gradius'' series does this too, with the escape being a short cutscene... unless you're playing the arcade version of ''Gradius III'', in which case you get a high speed chase through the ''hardest fucking section of the game.''

* In ''[[Doom]] II'', killing the final boss (on level 30) causes zillions of massive explosions to erupt all over Hell from the boss's death throes. In the words of the game, "Hell is a wreck."

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|defeating]] {{spoiler|Nyx and sealing her away}} causes [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|Tartarus]] to {{spoiler|get pulled up into her physical manifestation, the Moon}}, returning Gekkoukan High to its form of an ordinary school campus.

* The headquarters of the Evil Organization in ''[[In the Hunt]]'' explode once you defeat the [[Final Boss]]. Depending on whether you used up any continues before you [[Sequential Boss|fought its final phase]], you either escape or get [[Downer Ending|destroyed along with it]].

* Killorn Keep in ''[[Ultima Underworld]] II'' can be crashed by killing the two brain creatures in a hidden room underneath. The world isn't actually destroyed until you leave it and re-enter. All the keep's residents die, which renders the game [[Unwinnable]] if you do it too soon.

* Magi-Nation, though somewhat justified as the Big Bad's presence and power are what cause the place to exist in the first place.

* When you defeat {{spoiler|Lord Vorselon for the 3rd time}} in ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]: A Crack In Time'' his ship automatically activates "[[Lampshade Hanging|Sore loser protocol]]" and explodes in three minutes.

** Endgame spoilers: {{spoiler|when you defeat the human-Reaper larva, it knocks the platforms you're standing on down as it falls. While Shepard survives the fall, his squadmates will only survive if they're loyal.}}

*** Subverted in the {{spoiler|Collector Base itself, where Shepard destroys it by sabotaging the reactor, creating an explosion that either destroys the base completely, or just destroys all life-forms in the base.}}

* [[Subversion|Subverted]] in [[Live a Live]]. When you kill the big bad and the [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|ominous mountain castle]] starts shaking, [[Genre Savvy|you better run before it collapses, right]]?

* The Water Guardian in [[Brave Fencer Musashi]] is holding up the roof of the battle area.. Somewhat subverted, in that, while you can't return to the room you fight the boss in, the dungeon overall is still possible to return to.

* In ''[[Dubloon]]'', defeating [[Final Boss]] causes the island he was on to sink, [[Timed Mission|and the player has to escape in time]].

* Demonic and Flameye in ''[[Purple]]''. Once you kill them, you have to run through their slightly redesigned fortress quickly and find the now unsealed ?-balls.

* In ''[[Syphon Filter]] 2'', if you kill Morgan before all the bombs in the Expo Center are disarmed, the building blows up via [[Dead-Man Switch]].

* The Nowhere dimension in ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'' collapses after you defeat the Incubus.

* In ''[[Aleste|M.U.S.H.A.]]'', after defeating the [[Final Boss]], this message pops up: "You've destroyed their main base! Escape before it blows!" Escape is automatic, but not without showing some damage.

* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'': Happens to the Sarafan when they sort-of-kill Janos Audron. [[Lampshaded]] with "The fiend intends to bury us alive!".

 

== Web Comics ==

* Referenced (somewhat subtly) in [http://creamybeamy.comicgenesis.com/d/20090105.html this] page of ''[[Gorgeous Princess Creamy Beamy]]''.

* ''[[Homestuck]]''. Snowman is pretty much the ultimate example: if she dies, the ''entire universe'' goes down with her. She uses this fact to torment [[Villain Protagonist|Spades Slick]] without fear of retrubution, as nobody dares lay a finger on her.

** {{spoiler|She is eventually killed though, thanks to Doc Scratch's schemes.}}

 

== Web Original ==

** ''Homestar Runner'' also parodies it in the ''Dungeonman'' game where, if you try enough times, you can actually "[[You Can't Get Ye Flask|get ye flask]]", only to be told that it was a load-bearing flask and picking it up caused the dungeon to collapse on you.

* In the Forum Community/MMORPG ''[[Gaia Online]]'', one NPC builds an enormous tower that inexplicably collapses after he is shot from miles away by a [[Black Cloak]] Sniper. Like most of the ''Gaia Online'' storyline, this didn't make much sense, but looked really cool.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Played with in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' with the many, many lairs that get destroyed; once even [[Lampshaded]] when Kim states that she wishes just once that the bad guys' lair wouldn't blow up.

* In the [[Aardman]] short film ''Stage Fright'', after the villain kicks the bucket ([[Visual Pun|literally]] and figuratively), the theatre starts collapsing.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Architecture Tropes]]

[[Category:Boss Battle]]

[[Category:Home Base]]