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Bait and Switch Boss: Difference between revisions

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* For the finale of ''Let's Go [[Kamen Rider]]'', [[Kamen Rider OOO|OOO]] has defeated the [[Big Bad|Great Leader]] of Shocker, blasting him into the distance. Out of the rubble emerges [[Kamen Rider X|King Dark]], ready to fight the Riders not unlike what happened at ''[[Kamen Rider Decade|All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker]]''. {{spoiler|However, the Great Leader returns, going [[One-Winged Angel]] to become the Great Colossus, a monstrosity that's even larger than King Dark himself. The Colossus quickly deals with Dark and the rest of the surviving members of Shocker, so the Riders have to deal with him instead.}}
* Subverted in ''[[NCIS]]'', when they capture the mole's boss, and it's someone whose wife is being held hostage. {{spoiler|double subverted when the team realizes he had killed his own wife and ''was'' the actual big bad.}}
* This is what happens to [[Space Pirates|the Raiders]], who were the [[Disc One Final Boss]] on ''[[Series/Babylon Five|Babylon Five]]''. They're last seen on board their mothership, gloating about how between the ancient relic they've captured and the Centauri nobleman they're about to ransom, they're going to get enough money to buy a whole fleet of warships, rendering their losses in previous episodes inconsequential- and then a [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Shadow]] warship drops out of hyperspace and vaporizes them with downright contemptuous ease.
 
== Video Games ==
 
* ''[[Ace Combat Zero the Belkan War]]'' has a secret boss that only appears on the hardest difficulty of the bonus mission. When it appears, it destroys the squadron you would face on any other difficulty before turning on the player. {{spoiler|[[Oh Crap]], it's [[Memetic Badass|Mobius]] [[One-Man Army|One]]!}}
* [[Aero Fighters|''Aero Fighters 2'']] has something alike in the level that takes place in Australia, when a warship appears from behind you and starts attacking... just to be rammed and destroyed by the '''real''' boss: a [[Battleship Raid|far larguer helicopter carrier-battleship]].
* In the final level of the ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'' arcade [[Beat'Em Up]] by [[Capcom]], you mow down your way to a fat colonel that is getting Aliens for the Weyland-Yutani company. After you take out his last mooks he steps forward to face you... only to be impaled and torn in half by the Alien Queen, which you thought you killed three levels earlier and who isn't a [[Stationary Boss]] like she was earlier due to not being attached to her egg sac anymore. Cue hellish final boss fight.
* ''[[Borderlands]]'' has Commandant Steele yell at you for stealing artifacts the whole game, only to be replaced by [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]] when she opens the vault.
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* The arcade game ''Dungeon Magic'' (from 1993, but playable now via MAME) has a classic example of this. After chasing the evil wizard Venom through three scenarios, each of which ends with him escaping and leaving you to fight one of his minions, you face off with him. He summons a Demon Lord...which kills him in one blow, and then fights you.
* The first boss of ''[[Dynamite Headdy]]'' shows up at the end of the second world with a new vehicle, only to be squashed by the real boss. He even remains stuck in the boss's underside for the whole fight.
* A variant occurs in ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]''. Diddy enters a boss room, finding it inhabited by a small, insect-sized dragon which buzzes irritatingly around his head, so he jumps on it and squashes it. Then an identical but much larger dragon crawls out of the lava behind Diddy; it's not happy.
* At the end of 1-3 in ''[[Demon's Souls]]'', you find a typical Fat Minister, the likes of which you've been fighting as regular enemies before. At first it looks like he would be the boss, but suddenly he gets stabbed from behind and thrown out by the real boss, The Penetrator.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', {{spoiler|you arrive at the core of the moon just in time to see [[The Man Behind the Man]] get defeated in a cutscene, only for his hatred to take form and become the [[Final Boss]].}}
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* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' had {{spoiler|3(!)}} of these: {{spoiler|Boss #5, Letz Shake}}, is taken out by {{spoiler|Henry (whom you don't fight until much later). This is played straight, with your character (and probably yourself) left angry and unfulfilled.}}, and just before the fight with final boss begins {{spoiler|the real final boss punches straight through him, and one cut scene later the real final battle begins}}. {{spoiler|Then, after the final boss, you can watch the ending, where an unnamed assassin kicks down the door while you're...compromised. If you meet the requirements for the [[True Final Boss]], and select the 'real ending' option, he will then be chopped in half by the [[True Final Boss]], starting the fight.}}
** Its sequel ''[[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle]]'' has more, numerically speaking. Out of the 51 ranked assassins in the United States, {{spoiler|numbers 49 through 26 are cheerleaders who work with the 25th ranked assassin, [[Jerk Jock|Charlie MacDonald]], to form a [[Humongous Mecha]]. Assassins ranked 22 through 11 are participating with Travis (ranked 23rd by this point) in a free-for-all battle where they are killed by the tenth ranked assassin, [[Person of Mass Destruction|Dr. Letz Shake]] (ironically, the brain from the machine that Letz Shake used in the last game). Story-wise, the ninth ([[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|Million Gunman]]) and eighth ([[We Can Rebuild Him|Neo Destroy Man]]) ranked assassins are this to Travis, although you do get to fight them as Shinobu. Finally, after [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Henry]] comes out of a coma thanks to Travis, he goes out and kills the fifth and sixth ranked bosses for Travis off-screen, giving the victories to Travis and sending him pictures of the aftermath; he also chides Travis for being upset about it because the game already has 15 bosses and more would be unreasonable.}} All in all, that's {{spoiler|36}} bosses that the player does not get to fight.
* In ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'', what you expect to be a rematch against the first-level [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] is interrupted when all four of them get knocked out by the [[Recurring Boss]], who demands one last fight from you.
* ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' has an...interesting variant. Where you THINK you're fighting the chapter boss, and it goes through the entire sequence of the end of a chapter. But for some reason, there's no Peach or Bowser segment... {{spoiler|It turns out, Doopliss has stolen your name, and fooled your party into thinking he's the real you. The rest of the chapter has you getting your "self" back.}}
* Done in ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'' in the [[True Final Boss]] ending. If you got all the health upgrades, as you prepare for {{spoiler|a second battle with Kaileena, the Dahaka attacks again, but by this point you have a weapon that can harm it, so you and Kaileena team up to kill it}}. Earlier in the game, you're about to confront the Crow on an outside ledge, but it just then gets killed by the Dahaka, and yet another [[Escape Sequence]] begins.
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** (cough) Not "out of nowhere". The Kernel has been out to get ''you'' too. You're an unauthorized program and you escaped him once already, while killing his men. Also, at that point, you're trying to ''save'' Thorne, because he is the only one who has the codes to get you ''out'' of the system and back to the physical world. The Kernel doesn't want you to save him.
* The final boss of ''Two Crude Dudes'' for Master System 2 was the evil scientist who'd unleashed all those hideous mutants upon post-apocalyptic New York. He's hilariously easy to beat the crap out of and throw around like a ragdoll...until he suddenly mutates into a gigantic asskicking monstrosity.
* ''[[Clive Barker's Undying]]'' does this with the final boss fight, no less than ''four times''. Here we go:
** First, you fight Bethany, who's been set up to be the final boss all through the game.
** After killing her, {{spoiler|your friend Jeremiah}} appears and reveals that [[The Man Behind the Man|he's been behind the whole thing]]! Looks like he's the final boss...but then Patrick just unceremoniously [[Off with His Head|decapitates him]] [[Talk to the Fist|mid-speech]]...
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* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]: The Burning Crusade'', the apparent final boss of the Arcatraz dungeon is an insane [[Blood Elf]] who hides in a magical bubble and releases three random minibosses (and an obnoxious but allied Gnome) from the cells around him. After defeating them, the "real" final boss, a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] (a [[Mind Rape]] insect mage) (and presumably the reason the Elf was crazy, given all that babbling about a "master"), is released; he kills the crazy elf rather swiftly then moves on to you.
** The Trial of the Crusader raid has another, rather sad one. A gnome warlock named Wilfred Fizzlebang, rather confident about his abilities and his supposed immense power. He intends to summon a Doomguard (a rather powerful demon, but not ridiculously powerful, however). Instead, he accidentally summons a huge Eredar Lord, a much more deadly demonic sorcerer, and proceeds to attempt to convince said demon (who is about 20 times bigger than him) that HE, the gnome, is in charge here. Needless to say, he gets swiftly killed by his summoned demon, who then proceeds to blast away at the players.
** In the ''Cataclysm'' expansion, there's another example of this in the Stonecore. The very first pull in the instance has you fight Milhouse Manastorm (incidentally the same gnome as in the Burning Crusade example above), who fights until he's at half health and runs to the next trash pull. Finally, you have him and his group of adds cornered, and he's channeling a powerful spell. But as soon as you engage him, a giant gyreworm named Corborus bursts out of nowhere, knocking the gnome and his group far away, never to be seen again. You fight the worm (who puts up a decent fight, especially on heroic mode).
* In ''[[Yoshi's Island]]'', when you get to the boss room in Baby Bowser's castle, it looks as though you are about to confront Kamek, but then Bowser wakes up, complains about the noise, and proceeds to stomp Kamek flat and kick him away. Kamek later shows up all fine just to provide a segue to the second phase of the battle and take Bowser away when he's defeated.
** Similarly, at the end of ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'', just right before you even get to [[Big Bad|Bowser,]] you see [[Overlord, Jr.|Bowser Jr.]] once more, but instead of fighting him, he simply flies away in his spaceship, and as a result you actually end up fighting Bowser directly.
* In the first two stages of ''[[The Punisher]]'' arcade game by Capcom, Frank Castle and Nick Fury run after mafia boss Bruno Costa, eventually cornering him and setting up for a not so intimidating boss battle. Suddenly, a laser sweeps away Bruno and his henchmen in a single hit, and a huge robot sent by the Kingpin engages the player instead.
* A Olympus Coliseum mission in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Over 2|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'' has you fighting in a tournament (which plays in the exact same way as the tournaments in the first ''[[Kingdom Hearts (video game)|Kingdom Hearts]]''). The final opponent there is...Xigbar? Just wail out some of his lifebars and cue the uninvited appearance of the mission's boss: the Guard Armor from the first game. And when it seems like Xigbar will assist you in fighting it, he instead dumps you for the boss battle. That <s>clever</s> little sneak.
* ''[[One Piece]]: Unlimited Cruise Episode 2'' plays this pretty straight with the battle against Donquixote Doflamingo. At first it looks like you're going to fight against Bellamy, the relatively weak and easily dispatched villain from the Jaya arc. All of a sudden, a pink arm rises from the boss container and takes control of Bellamy. This is followed by the rest of Doflamingo's body, which proceeds to [[That One Boss|KICK. YOUR. ASS.]]
* You know Zouken Matou, big bad of the Heavens Feel route in [[Fate/stay night]]? Yea, turns out Sakura wasn't as brain dead as he assumed. Cue bridge drop with {{spoiler|Saber vs. Shirou and Sakura vs. Tohsaka, while the ''real'' [[Big Bad]], Kotomine, shows up. And then after that, Shirou still has to beat what is essentially the devil.}}
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]] Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel'', sometimes a nearby duelists with a story connection to the person you challenge will make your opponent go away and you'll have to fight them instead. An example would be Marik and Bakura or Mokuba and Seto Kaiba. You could try to challenge Bakura, but then Marik shows up out of nowhere and drives him away with possibly the worst excuse ever to trick someone with this line,"[[Not Even Bothering with an Excuse|If I recall correctly, there is something you need to take care of right away...you don't have the luxury of wasting any time here, correct."]] This works and you face Marik.
** Every now and then, a Rare Hunter will show up to give an in-story example, and will replace any character.
** Any character that has an alternate ("Yami") form can do this to themselves. Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura are their default forms, but can switch out with Regular Yugi or Bakura. Marik can switch out with Yami Bakura, who is a lot more aggressive. These examples mean minimal, though, as they use the same decks.
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* In ''[[Solatorobo]]'', Red finally wises up and answers the third guardian's riddle, gaining the last piece of the Flute without having to fight him. However, at that exact moment Blanck shows up and a boss battle against him ensues.
* [[Abobos Big Adventure]] first has Jaws being eaten by the larger Big Daddy. Later just as it seems you are about to fight the giant Contra end-boss alien {{spoiler|he gets inhaled by Kirby, and things get ''nuts''}}
* [[The Unfought|The Panther King]] from ''[[ConkersConker's Bad Fur Day]]''. At first, it looks like if you're going to fight him at the end of the game's final level, but then [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|a Xenomorph queen]] show up for no reason, kills the Panther King, and as a result the final boss battle actually pits Conker against her.
* Halfway through playing in single-player in ''[[Digimon Battle Spirit]]'', one of your next opponents may be blasted off the stage by Impmon before the battle can start. If you manage to defeat him and collect 300 D-Spirit in total by the end of the playthrough, you can then unlock Impmon as a playable character.
* In [[Dead Space 2]], it looks like the majority of the game is leading up to a dramatic final confrontation with Tiedemann before you {{spoiler|destroy the Marker}}. Then you get there {{spoiler|and Tiedemann is already horribly mauled and barely able to stand, then proceeds to ''shoot you through the chest twice'' with Javelins. A quick-time-event lets you pull them out, steal the Javelin gun and shank him in return.}} Game over right? {{spoiler|Nope. You hallucinate about Nicola one more time, only now she wants to absorb you into the Marker body and mind and you have to [[Battle in the Center of the Mind|hallucinate-fight her in your psyche]], after which you sit down to accept your imminent demise as the station explodes.}} And THEN the credits roll. {{spoiler|And ''then'' Ellie comes [[Big Damn Heroes|crashing through the ceiling in a ship]] to rescue you.}}
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== Webcomics ==
 
* In ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' {{spoiler|Chaos}} does this to {{spoiler|Sarda}}, when his [[Phlebotinum Overload]] {{spoiler|transforms Sarda's body into a portal to Chaos' realm}}.
 
== Western Animation ==
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* ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' pulls this twice in consecutive season finales. First {{spoiler|Luthor}} sets himself up as the ultimate villain of the Cadmus arc, only for {{spoiler|Brainiac}}, of all people, to come in from nowhere in a plot twist tied to an episode of ''Superman'' that aired ''eight years before.'' Then in season five, after an entire arc {{spoiler|dedicated to Luthor's attempts to revive Brainiac}}, it looks like he's finally succeeded...until it resurrects {{spoiler|[[Darkseid]] instead.}}
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' builds up Tombstone through the first season and most of the second as New York's resident [[Magnificent Bastard]] crime-king [[Big Bad]], with it seeming that the series will come to a head with him against Spidey, {{spoiler|but then he's deposed by the Green Goblin's [[Xanatos Gambit]], and Gobby's the final villain instead.}}
* Happens ''twice'' in succession during the climactic episodes of [[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]. [[Knight Templar]] [[Chessmaster]] Nerissa was [[Big Bad]] for most of the season, but near the end former [[Big Bad]] Phobos returns, steals her [[Amplifier Artifact]] and seals her inside it, resuming his [[Evil Overlord]] throne. {{spoiler|And then in the last episode, Phobos's previously loyal [[The Dragon|Dragon]] Cedric senses opportunity, goes all [[Scaled Up]], and ''eats'' both Phobos and the artifact, acquiring both Phobos's throne and nearly limitless power}}.
* In ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'', Aggregor is the [[Big Bad]] for most of the first season, and later, {{spoiler|he's within inches of acquiring [[Physical God]] levels of power when a desperate Kevin powers up directly from the Ultimatrix and beats him to a pulp- but thanks to how Kevin's powers work, suffers from [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|great insanity]] in the process, becoming a villain again ''and'' [[Big Bad]] to boot.}}
* {{spoiler|Doctor Frankenwagon and his Monster}} from ''[[Pixar Shorts|Monster Truck Mater]]''.
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