39,327
edits
Ribcage Ridge: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (→Literature: Added MMORPG section) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:HugeSkeletonOnDantooine.jpg|link=Star Wars:
Like [[Alien Sky|an oddly-colored sky with multiple suns or moons]], this is one of those surefire ways of letting the audience know that the story has taken them to a world vastly different from our own. Just stick a ginormous monster skeleton somewhere in the scenery, and presto, instant [[Alternate Universe|otherworld]]! Interestingly, the heroes almost never encounter a ''living'' monster of that type, or one [[Squick|in an earlier state of decay]]. Sometimes, [[Everything's Better
See also [[Saharan Shipwreck]], [[Desert Skull]], and [[Ribcage Stomach]].
Line 9:
== Anime & Manga ==
* There are a few Demon God corpses, overgrown with greenery, in the opening landscape of ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of
* In the ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' movie, the cave by the sea contains, sticking out of the wall, an enormous, intact seismosaurus skeleton. {{spoiler|In the finale, they climb it to grab one of Gulliver's gears.}}
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', {{spoiler|Madara}}'s hideout (which includes his lab, {{spoiler|the statue tailed beasts are sealed in ([[Summon Magic|most of the time]]), and his mindless clone of the 1st Hokage}}) turns out to be a mountainous area covered in giant animal skeletons of unknown origin. We eventually learn this place is called "Mountains' Graveyard".
Line 15:
== Card Games ==
* In the ''[[Magic:
* [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]] has a living example in the monster [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Temple_of_Skulls Temple of Skulls].
Line 28:
== Films -- Animation ==
* In ''[[Heavy Metal (
* In the [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] version of ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', Ursula lives in the skeleton of... some kind of big fish thing, overgrown with weeds. (On second viewing, knowing that those weeds are the [[Baleful Polymorph]] of everybody else who's lost in the [[Chain of Deals]] that Ursula strings them on, the long pan down the hallway into Ursula's lair is horror.)
* The elephant graveyard in ''[[The Lion King]]''.
Line 36:
== Films -- Live Action ==
* ''[[Star Wars|Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope]]'' has a famous example. C3-PO and R2-D2 walk across the desert on Tattooine and come across the bones of a Krayt dragon. Anakin and Ahsoka stumble upon the same skeleton in ''[[Star Wars:
** Spoofed in a ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' sketch featuring a green water-dwelling creature talking to his wife about finding great things beyond their little lake. As it turns out, he was the creature to whom the skeleton belonged, so things evidently didn't work out for him.
** It was still there when Lucas went out to film scenes for the prequel trilogy.
** The picture up there has Anakin, Ahsoka, and R2 walking in front of a Bantha skeleton. That one's not the same as the aforementioned Krayt dragon.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Pitch Black (
* As Kevin and the dwarves in ''[[Time Bandits]]'' walk through the deserts of Time of Legends, searching for "[[Schmuck Bait|the most wonderful object in the world]]", they pass by myriad skeletons of animals. They discover the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness when {{spoiler|they reach an invisible wall, which one of the dwarves, Wally, accidentally shatters by throwing a nearby skull at the leader, Randall, in a fight after being shoved by Randall to the ground}}.
* In the 2005 ''[[King Kong]]'', several gigantic bones from Kong's deceased relatives lie scattered about near his mountaintop cavern.
* The title characters encounter some on an alien planet in ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (
* One is present in ''[[Hunter Prey]]''.
* Huge sauropod ribcages and bones are encountered by the heroes of ''[[Jurassic Park|The Lost World: Jurassic Park]]'' near the ruins of the facilities of Site B.
Line 86:
* ''[[Ever Quest]]'' has this in the [http://everquest.allakhazam.com/scenery/fieldofbone-bones.jpg Field of Bone]
* In ''[[Kirby|Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards]]'', one stage has Kirby exploring an underground cavern where part of the scenery is made of fossils. One of the titular [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]] is inside an eyeless reptilian's mouth.
* ''[[Banjo
** If you follow your mainstream science, and god knows I don't, some dinosaurs were dead as long, to others, as they have been dead, to us.
* Many stages in ''[[
* ''[[Guild Wars]]'': The Crystal Desert is full of them, which the lore [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] as the remains of the [[Here There Were Dragons|now-extinct 'Great Giants']], presumably unrelated to the game's [[Our Giants Are Bigger|smaller elephant-sized modern giants]].
** Also present in The Desolation.
* Rather common in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. There are several enormous kodo skeletons in Tanaris desert, a giant snake skeleton off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale, a skull of what is apparently one of the Old Gods in Darkshore (with a glowing Titan sword still embedded in it) and two giant naga-like creatures in Desolace. That's just the most famous ones, listing em all would take forever. The kodo graveyard in Desolace and the Dragonblight (dragon graveyard) in Northrend are obviously chock full of them, too. The biggest one in the game is probably off the coast of the Dragonblight, which is large enough to be seen on the map. Not as an icon like most large or important things, but as a skull and skeleton itself.
* At the very end of ''[[
* ''[[Planescape]]: Torment'' had a desert map about two-thirds into the game that was mostly taken up by a giant, half-buried skeleton. An important NPC built a rather nice keep for himself inside the skull.
** It appears to be [[Everything's Worse
* One of the things that defined the various ''[[Myst]]'' ages.
** Used as part of a [[Continuity Nod]]. The Age of Riven contained a species of angry purple Moby Dick known as the ''wahrk'', as well as a sort of wormhole, the Star Fissure, that was turning the Age into a vacuum and destroying the universe. A key part of the endgame reveals that {{spoiler|jumping into the Star Fissure is survivable and is the only way you can get back to Earth}}. In ''Uru'' -- in the present-day -- you start out the game in the New Mexico desert and determine that this must be around where the wormhole ended, because hey, giant wahrk skeleton!
*** [[The
* The escape tunnel in the first ''[[Alone in The Dark]]'' looked like a spine with ribs.
* There's a dinosaur skeleton in the desert of ''[[My Sims]]''. Though possibly all it indicates is the sort of stuff you can get digging around there.
** A giant dinosaur skeleton is on the Uncharted Isle from [[My Sims]] Kingdom.
* In ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic 3D Blast]]'' (''Flickies' Island'', if you're in a PAL territory), there are several dinosaur skeletons embedded in the walls of [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|Diamond Dust Zone]].
* There are several big skeletons in ''[[Aquaria (
* Platformer ''[[Vexx]]'' has one in its second level, Dragonreach. The level is so-called because the giant skeleton is from a dragon, and it looks like it's reaching for the sky. Naturally, you get to clamber around its back and inside its skull.
* In ''[[Dreamfall]]'', the rebel camp is situated partly on a colossal skeleton floating the swamp.
Line 110:
*** [[Wild Mass Guessing|Maybe, one huge dodongo choked to death while trying to swallow another giant dodongo whole, and then they both fossilized and were slowly covered up by the mountain!]]
** And in ''A Link to the Past'', both the western swamp and the [[Dark World]] [[Lost Woods]] are littered with huge monster bones, most of which are actually [[Ribcage Ridge|ribcages]]. In fact, many ''Zelda'' games have human and monster skulls littered about, which can be broken to get health, money, keys, or health-restoring fairies.
* ''[[
* The entrance to the Bone Dungeon in ''[[Final Fantasy Mystic Quest]]'' is marked by a giant dinosaur skeleton. You also fight (a smaller) one inside for the big boss battle.
* ''[[Star Fox (
* ''[[Rayman|Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc]]'' features a number of these in the Desert of the Knaaren, in the overground areas.
** They're also the main schtick of the Cave of Bad Dreams in ''Rayman 2''.
Line 119:
** How big you ask? [http://spore.wikia.com/wiki/File:Hyper_Skeleton.png this] [http://spore.wikia.com/wiki/File:Hyper_Footprint.png big]. [http://spore.wikia.com/wiki/File:Epic_by_Dinosaur_Bones.png In this one the spider looking guy is a regular epic, and the smaller creature is regular sized].
* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has this in a few areas, like Tahrongi Canyon and the Maze of Shakhrami.
* ''[[
* The ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' Wii game ''Quest for Infinity'' offers a sort of variation; parts of XANA's mechanical monsters (disembodied heads, limbs, etc.) can be found littered about; you get points if you break them by shooting them or [[Goomba Stomp|jumping on them]].
* ''[[Adventure Island]]'' had levels like this, and parts of the bridge/spinal column would fall off as your player ran across them.
* The first ''[[Space Quest]]'' had an area consisting of a large skeletal ridge in the middle of a desert planet. The player character can walk across the spinal column like a bridge, and as in ''[[Adventure Island]]'', a part of the column was cracked. The player can only cross the cracked area twice before it breaks, at which point [[Unwinnable
** In the VGA remake, it resembles a Krayt Dragon skeleton from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' verse.
* Skull Man's stage in ''[[Mega Man (
* Endless Ocean lets you swim through a WHALE skeleton...
* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'': Misty Island.
* ''[[Serious Sam]]'' 2 has them, mostly in planet Kleer. Most of them are found in the aptly named Boneyard level.
* ''[[Patapon]]'' has giant skeletons in the desert level which mark very dangerous areas which have damaging lava geysers.
* ''[[Radical Rex]]'' has a level called [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[
* ''[[Primal]]'' - There's a Ribcage Ridge underwater. It's the skeleton of a giant fish, naturally.
* The first world in ''[[Secret of Evermore]]'', a prehistoric-styled jungle, contains a "Mammoth Graveyard" that serves as a battle arena. Sticking out of the unpleasant muck are the remains of woolly mammoths; giant tusks frame the path to the next area.
* Present in ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''.
* You walk down a spinal column of a giant deceased Dragon in [[Like A Badass From Hell|Hades]] in [[Quest for Glory]] 5: Dragonfire.
* In ''[[Castlevania: Lords of Shadow]]'', in the Necromancer Abyss, at several points you encounter rock formations that look suspiciously like bones, and then one cave which is clearly a ribcage. Of course {{spoiler|those happen to be the fossilized remains of a dragon, which are then reanimated by the Necromancer to serve as the stage's boss: The Dracolich Titan.}}
* The final [[Boss Rush]] of ''[[Primal Rage]]'' take place in a tar field littered with dinosaur bones.
* The plains and mountains of [[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim|Skyrim]] are liberally dotted with the ribcages, spines and occasionally skulls of large animals (usually "mammoths", but there a few troll and dragon skeletons lying around). And killing a dragon can cause this instantly (apparently eating draconic souls makes flesh disappear).
* Fossil Valley in ''[[
* A variant in ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' - Returning to the site of a colossus battle shows the corpse of said colossus becoming a part of the environment. The imagery falls more into this trope with larger colossi like [[Turtle Power|Basaran]] and [[Giant Flyer|Phalanx.]]
* Stage 4 in the NES port of ''[[Gradius|Life Force]]'' has a giant ribcage with a gauntlet of lasers near the end, and a giant skull as the boss.
Line 147:
* The opening of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' features Jack swimming through a huge, multi-eyed fish skeleton.
* All over the face of planet Bone in ''[[Shadow Raiders]]''.
* ''[[
* ''[[
{{reflist}}
| |||