Orcus on His Throne: Difference between revisions

** The book actually implies that Sauron ''does'' have some sort of body- Gollum, who has ''met'' the guy fairly recently, remarks on his hand and fingers in present tense, and the orcs in the Tower of Cirith Ungol are under orders to detain any prisoners unharmed until Sauron sends for them ''or comes himself''. However, the movieverse is indeed explicit that he has no body during the present timeline.

* In Simon Spurrier's ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' [[Night Lords]] novel ''Lord of the Night'', Sahaal remembers his primarch, the Night Haunter on his throne, and has his followers build him a throne where he sits while they search the hive for information he wants.

** "...Start kicking ass in..." More like {{spoiler|getting his ass kicked: in that fight it became clear why Voldemort was so afraid of Dumbledore}} (not so much in the movie)

* [[Evil Overlord|Supreme Overlord Shimrra]] from the [[New Jedi Order]] is like this, though it doesn't stop him from playing politics in his court and having an impact on the plot in that matter. {{spoiler|Probably also justified in that [[The Man Behind the Man|Onimi]] couldn't let Shimrra get too far away from him for long without risking his [[Mind Control]] slipping}}.

** Really, all of this is justified based on the way D&D and similar games work; they aren't there to tell a story, they're there to ''give you'' the tools to tell a story. They give you the setting and the villains, and let you build an adventure off that. The reason Orcus sat on his throne was so he would be free for DM's do to with as they pleased.

** D&D is perhaps the most frequent user of this trope. There are about a million staggeringly lethal beings that could utterly ruin the universe if they wanted, but instead sit around making occasional forays into the mortal world, only to get driven off by a bunch of ragtag adventurers who all met in a tavern somewhere. It goes to the point that it almost turns around and becomes understandable-- there are so many staggeringly lethal beings out there that if any one of them spent too much effort into making incursions in force on the mortal world, it'd invite attacks from the ''other'' staggeringly lethal beings.

** Nagash actually has a pretty good reason for not showing himself: despite his power he's a coward entirely focused on avoiding his own death, and there are entities in the world that could defeat him. His reticence came about after he'd been killed ''twice''. Both times he was struck down by the leader of his current enemies, and his power has been permanently reduced both times. Consequently he's working on a plan to eliminate all beings that could threaten him in a way that doesn't rely on him winning a sword-fight. Actually a pretty sensible reaction.

*** In the latest Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts books he is remarked to be gathering his forces and artifacts once again. He lost last time because Sigmar had the most powerful of his tools, his crown, and that is still held in the Imperial capital. That said, all of his leutenants that remained loyal have been raised and re-united with various undead factions, Arkhan found his staff, he still controls his own capital, and even the last of the von Carsteins is his ally. At this point he's just waiting for a moment of weakness.

** Nale sees his father Tarquin as an example of this and resents him for it. He doesn't understand why his father is content to spend his dwindling days in the lap of luxury when he has the resources and skill to conquer the world and rule it forever.

* It should be noted that Xykon was convinced to stay in Azure City by Redcloak so they could find more intel on the remaining Gates and what's defending them; in reality, Redcloak was aiming to solidify hobgoblin control of the country. And Xykon stated in [[Start of Darkness]] that, with the immortality of lichdom, time is on his side. He can afford to dilly-dally as much as he wants.

* The [[God Save Us From the Queen|Black Queen]] in ''[[Homestuck]]'' doesn't really do much except sit on her throne and make [[The Dragon|Jack Noir]] wear silly outfits. {{spoiler|Subverted later on, as Jack completely shakes the game up as soon as he kills her and takes her power and has shown no signs of stopping.}}

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has Lord Tedd, an evil alternate-dimensional version of one of the main characters. He first appeared and was established as a threat back in 2003 and has yet to act significantly (although it is later learned that he did {{spoiler|create the Goo Monster that the first story arc was centered around}}).