Canon Shadow: Difference between revisions

 

== Video Games ==

* In the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games, the [[One-Hit Kill]] Rocket Launcher usually appears as a [[Deus Ex Machina]] to kill whatever the [[Final Boss]] is. There may be a way to get it sooner; usually via [[New Game+]]; but while it's "the strongest weapon", it does not kill said Final Boss whenever he appears earlier in the game as a [[Hopeless Boss Fight]].

** ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' kind of averts this: the special rocket launcher you get is specifically called the "Special Rocket Launcher", and is described as having enough firepower to obliterate the final boss. That being said, it can't have more power than an infinite number of normal rockets, which you can get on subsequent playthroughs.

** [[Word of God]] even refers to her as a "Refraction of the [[The Multiverse|Kaleidoscope]]."

* In the [[New Game+|second playthrough]] of [[X Box]] ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'', one can find the [[Artifact of Doom|Dark Dragon Blade]] if you know where to look. The villains still have their version; nobody thinks of trying to steal yours.

* In the ''[[Soul Series|Soulcalibur]]'' series, one can unlock the [[Artifact of Doom|Soul Edge]] as a weapon for any character. It may have a negative effect like random stats or depletes your HP, but it does not drive you crazy unless your character actually uses it in a cutscene. In some endgame cutscenes, it's possible to watch your character use their Soul Edge that you unlocked to destroy the Soul Edge dropped by the final enemy; or throw their Soul Edge away and pick up the other; and get corrupted.

* Common in [[Nippon Ichi]] games; many of the [[DLC]] or [[Cameo]] characters who join the party have no effect on the plot; no matter what their previous experience is.

** [[Justified Trope]] in ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' and ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', where certain characters' ''shadows'' join your party as phantoms; while they themselves do not. ([[Lampshaded]] by Ash in ''[[Phantom Brave|The Hermuda Triangle]]''; in gaining the future astrally projected soul of Castille who is stuck in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]''. "Um...won't this affect the future?")

*** Similarily in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'', where defeating secret characters such as Asagi and Lujei adds them to your roster but never includes them in cutscenes... because technically you only have their manikin, and they only appear when you forcibly summon them for battles. Outside of battles, they're likely somewhere else, doing their own thing, just like every other recruitable character.

*** Soul Nomad does have a version that even it can't justify, though: If you beat him as a [[Bonus Boss]], you can get Median the Conqueror as a party member. Even if you can only summon him for battles, his presence on the battlefield should have a massive impact on the plot and should prompt immediate reactions from numerous characters, yet is totally ignored. And, of course, you can use him to fight his future self.

** ''[[Cla Dun]]'' is this trope, pure and simple, as its character create system/editing allows you to have any NPC as the main character or [[Player Mooks|Player Mook]], even the one who died in story.

** There's also other characters from the first game; who are explicitly stated by the plot to be staying out of the Gallian Civil War to prevent a diplomatic issue; but that's a smaller wonk than the above.

*** Even without codes, after you get enough medals, {{spoiler|Juliana and Leon}} join your party, and they {{spoiler|died in game. Like other [[Canon Shadow]], you can use them to fight themselves.}}

* In the PSP [[Updated Rerelease]] of ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'', there is a function called "The World System", similar to [[New Game+]]; it lets you take your characters back in time to any decision made and let's you pick a different choice and follow a different path. This allows for situations where you can have characters who joined your party in one timeline help you kill their alternate selves who opposed you in another in gameplay. Plotwise, though, you'll grieve the death of a character even with them still in your party.

* One can regain the literal ghost of a character who sacrifices herself in ''[[Jeanne D Arc]]'', and the special cutscene where you get her makes it ''seem'' she can talk and such; but cutscenes have the characters indicate that this person is completely gone. Of course; you can't do this until you beat the game.

* In ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'', any new game Commander Shepard can learn any skill that you have an achievement unlocked for from previous games. It is possible to have a Assault Gun Wielding Biotic Shepard with Engineering skills, despite not being that class.

* Averted with the [[DLC]] character [[Doctor Doom]] in ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'': playing as Doom in the final battle (against Doom) will trigger a short conversation between the two Dooms, where it will turn out that one of them is from the future.

** And of course, bringing [[Deadpool]] into the boss fight with Deadpool results in an argument between the two of them.

* A minor example occurs in ''[[Persona 3]] [[Updated Rerelease|Portable]]''. The female protagonist's route includes an opportunity to prevent the [[Plotline Death]] of {{spoiler|Shinjiro Aragaki}}, instead putting him into a coma to justify his absence from the rest of the game up until the ending. While the direct references to the character being dead are edited out, the dialogue isn't altered enough to change the fact that everyone is still ''acting'' like he died, particularly when his best friend asserts that "he was a hell of a guy."

** Of course, as the [[Convenient Coma]] page will tell you, it's never asserted that he ''will'' wake up from his coma, so for all intents and purposes he might as well be dead {{spoiler|(at least until the end of the game, but the characters don't know that)}}.

* A lot of the allies you use in the ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' games are examples of this: Once unlocked with one character, they can be used by any character in any story, and nobody bats an eyelid to their presence. While you can never use another copy of the currently used character as an ally, you ''can'' bring along an ally to a mission where you have to fight that very same character.

** Of course, nobody says anything about your robot, either. And aside from your mother, nobody in the present cares about your talking anthropomorphic frog.

* In ''[[Battle Moon Wars]]'', saving {{spoiler|Sacchin}} has this effect. After that, she goes through the remainder of the game not speaking even once and only having "lines" (read: ellipses) twice; once during Haruna's [[Rousing Speech]] that lumps her in with fellow vampire Sion, and then at the end when the game cuts to her and Len in the Tohno family dungeons.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' starts with Snake breaking his stealth camouflage upon landing on the deck of the Discovery. One of the bonus items that can be earned through the Dog Tag sidequest is the stealth camo; so Snake and Otacon will talk about how the camo is broken and how they can't use it any more, even if you have it in your inventory for basically unlimited use. Inverted with Snake's infinite ammo bandanna, a powerup he can earn through the Dog Tag sidequest, which he always owns in the story (yes - it's a weird moment) whether or not he earned the ability to use it in gameplay.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] Integral'' had a Very Easy mode in which the player starts the game with an [[Cool Guns/Submachine Guns|MP5]] (which is not found in the game world or owned by any other game characters under normal circumstances), a powerful, silenced submachine gun with a ludicrous amount of ammunition which makes the game a breeze. Your comrades will still remind you at every opportunity that due to the mission being a black op, it was critically important they sent you in with no weapons that could be traced back to you.