Orcus on His Throne: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|"''Sorry, Kimmie. [[Evil Overlord|The]] [[Third Person Person|Supreme]] [[Big Bad|One]] always delegates.''"|'''Future-Shego''', ''[[Kim Possible (Animation)|Kim Possible]]'' - [[The Movie|A Sitch in Time]]}}

Looks like we have a case of [[Orcus On His Throne]]. A villain with great power and the potential to wipe out the Forces of Good turns out to be an [[The Gods Must Be Lazy|awfully retiring]] sort. Oh, sure, he's out there somewhere being [[Designated Villain|generically evil]], probably [[Offstage Villainy|oppressing someone else]], but he doesn't actually seem to do much; he just sits about [[Slouch of Villainy|resting on his laurels]], waiting for the heroes to come and overthrow him. One wonders how he ever mustered the ambition to climb to his position of power in the first place.

Named for [[Accidental Innuendo|an unfortunate line]] in the Third Edition ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' Manual of the Planes, where it mentioned that the demonic lord of undead Orcus might once more be on his throne, one bony hand [[Freud Was Right|clutching his terrible rod]]. The original justification for this was based in the way ''Dungeons And Dragons'' works; by not having Orcus (or any other given [[Big Bad]]) actively doing anything, but prepared to strike out against the forces of good, the dungeon masters who were buying the source books and playing the game could have the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] do whatever they wanted or needed them to do for their custom-built campaigns.

Possibly justified, since [[Dystopia Is Hard|maintaining order in one's domain can be a really time consuming task]], what with all [[You Rebel Scum|those Rebel Scum]], [[Surrounded By Idiots|stupid henchmen]], [[The Starscream|backstabbing lieutenants]], and the other daily tasks an [[Evil Overlord]] has to face everyday. Not to mention that any tactician will endorse the benefits of a fortified position surrounded by your most powerful servants. Then again, what kind of [[Evil Overlord]] doesn't take the time to smell the roses, pillage a village, and give a hero a good [[Final Boss Preview]] every once in a while? They deserve a little "me" time, too!

There's more to this story, but first -- ''[[We Wait]].''

** The real problem here is that in ''Soul Reaver'', the bosses weren't actually plotting anything. Raziel was actually the one driving the plot, as he had the motivation of revenge. He was actively hunting his brothers down. Kain was the only antagonist who had an actual plan, and that involved leading Raziel along. It's much worse in the original ''Blood Omen'', where most of the bosses sit around in their fortresses while Kain infiltrates them, waiting for him to reach them in the inner sanctum. Though this actually made sense in Malek's case, as his fortress was almost guarenteed to kill or weaken Kain, softening him up before the fight.

* [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen Zeal]] in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]''. Once the [[Underwater Base|Ocean Palace]] has risen and been reconstructed as the [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|Black Omen]], in the year 12,000 BC, she has a direct line to Lavos (which he apparently tolerates) which grant her and the Omen an eternal existence. Even if you visit in [[Crapsack World|2300 AD]], centuries [[After the End|after Lavos brought about the end]] [[The End of the World As We Know It|of the world]], she has never actually done anything with her vast powers and it's evident she never will. Random [[NPC|NPCs]] in previous eras will just comment on how pretty and shiny that malevolent [[Ominous Floating Castle|floating castle]] with the ominous [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|name]] looks in the morning sun, implying that Zeal [[Take Over the World|doesn't even bother]] ''[[Take Over the World|ruling]]'' [[Take Over the World|the world]].

*** Mind, that last one mentioned is averted in one of the [[Downer Ending|bleakest]] [[Multiple Endings]] ''ever'' if you just leave it to its business instead of taking it out before killing the time devourer.

* The vast majority of villains that aren't [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] are like this in the ''[[Wario Land]]'' series, with Captain Syrup in the first game being seen to do absolutely nothing other than sitting in the throne room before the final battle (although averted in the second, where she's a [[Recurring Boss]]). The Black Jewel in ''[[Wario World (Video Game)|Wario World]]'' just lays dormant in a treasure chest until the final battle, and The Shake King in ''Wario Land Shake It'', after taking over the world, [[Malevolent Mugshot|putting his face on everything]] and capturing the princess, just sits on his throne waiting for Wario to enter, in complete darkness. Although in that case, the time out penalty is Wario being warped to his boss arena, so it may not be completely unjustified.

** Subverting this forms the basis of a short arc: Khrima says he's tired of waiting for the heroes to do stuff, and along with one of his lieutenants, decides to go steal a mini-[[Cosmic Keystone]] to use as a water cooler.

* [[The Wotch|Melleck Xaos]] pretty much subscribes to this philosophy. When he does bother doing anything, it's usually to banter with his minions or [[The Heartless|create some new Fallen]].

* ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]''. When the lich Xykon is first introduced, he appears to be very much a case of [[Orcus On His Throne]], sitting down in his lair waiting for the heroes to arrive (and watching them on his crystal ball, with picture-in-picture for when the party gets split up). However, after his defeat, he becomes a ''much'' more proactive villain.

** In Dorukan's Dungeon, it's justified since he ''needed'' the heroes to reach him for his plan.

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Orcus On His Throne]]