The Unfought: Difference between revisions

The exact cause ofreason why a major antagonist is not'''The foughtUnfought''' varies. He could, like above, just run away when you confront him. Perhaps he was the victim of a [[Bait and Switch Boss]]. In video game examples, he may have been [[Cutscene Boss|fought in a cutscene]], but killed without being fought in gameplay. Whatever the reason may be, this type of situation is a common source of frustration to the audience, especially if the victim was the [[Big Bad]]. In the cases where The Unfought is [[The Chessmaster]] or [[Mad Scientist]], this can be [[Sequel Hook|somewhat justified]], as they [[Non-Action Big Bad|might not be capable of physical battle]], preferring to work behind the scenes. But, if the character had already been established as a capable--evencapable—even exceptional--fighterexceptional—fighter, this trope occurring can feel like a bit of a rip-off. And even if he is a weakling, you still want to kill him for all the [[Level Grinding|Grinding]] he forced you through to get to him.

=== Video Game Examples: ===

** In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', the Sapphire Weapon is killed by the Junon Cannon before the party can get to it.

** In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', during chapter one, a couple people are set up as [[Disc One Final Boss|disc one final bosses]], but are never directly fought. Among these are Gustav (Who set up the Marquis's kidnapping, which [[Even Evil Has Standards|Wiegraf detested]]) and Gragoroth, the Corpse Brigade member who kidnapped Teta.<ref>he commits suicide by explosion after being shot by Argath at Ft. Zeakden</ref>.

* Kamek never directly fights the player in either ''[[Yoshi's Island]]'' game, only showing up occasionally as an [[Invincible Minor Minion]].

** Finally averted in ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]'', where after 7 worlds of helping villains become more powerful (and before doing so in the final battle one castle later), Kamek finally fights you in a boss battle... straight after using magic to make the boss room filled with strange moving platforms and enemies!

* In ''[[Uncharted]]: Drake's Fortune'', you never fight Roman or Raja. Especially noticeable since they're two out of three named villains in the game, and the third one is the only boss fight in the entire game.

** Once again happens in ''Uncharted 3''. This time, {{spoiler|[[Big Bad]], Katherine Marlowe}} becomes this. Sort of justified due to being a {{spoiler|[[Non-Action Big Bad]]}}. From the same game, {{spoiler|Rameses}} also becomes this.

* Parodied in ''[[No More Heroes]]'', where Letz Shake, the 5th ranked assassin is {{spoiler|[[Bait and Switch Boss|killed right before the boss fight would start]], causing Travis to complain about being cheated out of a fight. Happens again with the 1st ranked assassin.}}

** Both subverted and played straight in the sequel. {{spoiler|Travis never actually fights any of the 22nd through 11th ranked assassins...but he does get to fight [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|Dr.]] [[The Unfought|Letz Shake]] in a proper battle.}}

* Arpeggio from ''[[Sly Cooper|Sly 2: Band of Thieves]]'' falls victim to the killed by real villain category, surprisingly late in the game.

* Ganondorf is presented at a major villain in The Subspace Emissary of ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' The Subspace Emissary, but the closest you ever come to fighting him is {{spoiler|a cutscene where the heroes attack the Halberd with their various spaceships, after which Ganondorf is double-crossed by Tabuu.}}. A little weird as this is a game where Ganondorf is a fully playable character.

** Similarly, Master Hand as, the standard final boss of Classic Mode of all three games in the series, including Brawl. Master Hand was presented as the [[Big Bad]] of The Subspace Emissary until {{spoiler|it's revealed that he's the literal puppet of [[The Man Behind the Man|Tabuu]], who disposes of Master Hand}} before the players get there.

** Ditto the Ancient Minister, who was hyped as the subgame's main villain in previews and promotional material. {{spoiler|He [[Heel Face Turn|heel-facedturned]] just before the heroes busted into what would've been his boss chamber.}} .

* Alex from ''[[Golden Sun]]''. He's more of [[The Chessmaster]] type.., though he is seen to be capable of fighting, as he effortlessly dispatches a group of mooks at the beginning of the second game.

* Two ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' examples:

** Zexion was never battled in the GBA version of ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|Chain of Memories]]''; that, and the fact his weapon was never revealed, led many people to believe that he would live on as a major antagonist in the next game. Sadly, his fight was instead retconned into the [[PlayStation 2|PS2]] version.

** A third example is Maleficent in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]''. Her only encounters with Sora end with {{spoiler|[[Enemy Mine]] situations}}, even though every other Disney villain from the first game is given a proper battle.

** You don't get to fight the [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Wicked Queen]] in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep|Birth By Sleep]]'' either. She's on her way to poison Snow White as Ventus is leaving and by the time Aqua arrives in the world she had already been chased off by the Dwarves as in the movie. Aqua instead randomly fights the Magic Mirror who even admits it has no business working for the Queen anymore. It's understandable though since the Queen has no fighting skills to speak of. Same can be said of [[Cinderella (Disney film)|Lady Tremaine]], though you do fight her cat (and no, it doesn't have any special powers, it's just a regular cat with you being mouse-sized).

** Nastasia from ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' is the only member of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] who isn't fought, though she was also the only one who had no real combat abilities.

** 343 Guilty Spark in the first game {{spoiler|though you do fight him in ''[[Halo 3]]''}} and the Prophet of Mercy in the second game.

** The empress of Valua is the same way -- althoughway—although the heroes (with the exception of Fina) never encounter her in person.

* Edna from ''[[Wild ArmsARMs XF]]'' dies before you get a chance to kill her for all the terrible things she's done. It's quite aggravating you don't get to beat on her pompous, obese, whiny ass.

* In ''[[The World Ends With You]]'', it seems like {{spoiler|the Composer}} is going to be the final boss. Well, technically he is...sort of...{{spoiler|because Kitaniji grabs him and [[Fusion Dance|fuses with him]] to enhance his [[One-Winged Angel|Noise form]], which is the REAL final boss}} However, the player has no input when he {{spoiler|challenges Neku to one final game}} after {{spoiler|Kitaniji is finally defeated.}}

* The 2008 ''[[Alone in Thethe Dark]]'' builds up to a climactic showdown between Edward Carnby and Lucifer... and just when it looks like the two are about to throw down, the game ends with a [[Gainax Ending]].

* In ''[[ConkersConker's Bad Fur Day]]'', the Panther King {{spoiler|has a barely lawyer friendly [[Alien (franchise)|Xenomorph]] burst out of his chest shortly after he meets Conker for the first time, killing him and leaving the Not-an-Alien-honest as the final boss.}}

* In ''[[Resident Evil 1]]'', {{spoiler|your team leader Albert Wesker is revealed to be the villain behind the game's events, but he's killed by the Tyrant he releases without you fighting him}}. Then in ''[[Resident Evil Code: Veronica]]'', {{spoiler|he returns, with superpowers no less, and you again don't get to fight him, instead watching him beat up the playable characters in cutscenes. This tradition of Wesker being built up as a behind-the-scenes, cutscene-only Big Bad responsible for almost all of the trials faced by ''Resident Evil'''sthe heroes continues throughout following games such as ''[[Resident Evil 0Zero]]'', ''[[Resident Evil 4|4]]'', and ''[[Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles|The Umbrella Chronicles]]'', before finally being averted in ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'' when you finally face off with Wesker and kill him}}.

** In ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'', the [[Big Bad]] is also dispatched by the [[Final Boss]]. Like the first game, it involves a priestess being killed by the very abomination she was trying to summon.

** In ''[[Silent Hill 4]]'' you actually get to [[Averted Trope|avert this trope]] for the one and only time in the series.

** In ''[[Silent Hill Origins]]'', Travis fights neither Dahlia nor Kaufmann, instead wrestling with a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]] during the game's climax.

* In ''[[Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped]]'', Uka Uka is introduced as the man behind the man, an extremely powerful mask that was sealed away for thousands of years. You never really fight him; all he does is act as an obstacle during the final boss battle. This isn't so bad (a mask is kind of hard to make into a full boss), but it gets really annoying in ''[[Crash Bandicoot: theThe Wrath of Cortex]]'' where there was a perfect opportunity to fight him. In that game, every boss is Crunch absorbing the powers of an elemental mask. There are four elemental masks, five bosses, you'd expect the final boss to be the recurring boss using Uka Uka's power, right? Nope. Instead, he just uses the other four masks at once, and Uka Uka does absolutely nothing during the fight except pull Cortex back to safety after you attack him. It took until ''[[Crash Twinsanity]]'' for a proper battle with Uka Uka but by that time, he's no longer the main villain.

** Also, the Shadow Triad - those teleporting ninjas who guide you throughout the game.

* In ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]],'' General Kheck, the leader of the [[The Evil Army|Alpha Sections]], is never actually fought. While you do brush shoulders with him once or twice, your only actual combat encounter with him is actually with his ship. You fight his [[Tripod Terror]] from your ship, and it crashes and lands... but when you go inside, he's already dying, and all you get is an [[Almost-Dead Guy]] speech.

* In Iron Tager's Story path of ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]'', he runs into Ragna after beating Hakumen but they trade only words instead of blows.

** Hell, he only shows up in a grand total of two missions in the game. And only one of those in person. The other you just hear his voice.

* The eponymous Hisoutensoku of the expansion to the second ''[[Touhou|Touhou Project]]'' fighter ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' is never encountered or fought by the three interested in its shadow. Instead, Cirno fights Alice and a giant Shanghai doll, Sanae fights Suwako {{spoiler|who ''was'' responsible for the event}}, and Meiling [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene|hallucinates]] about a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|big freaking catfish]].

* Officer Tenpenny in ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' is the meanest, most [[Manipulative Bastard]] son of a bitch in the game, but you never get to actually fight him. After a city-wide car chase, he ends up losing control of his truck and driving right off a bridge through a concrete barrier, just in front of [[Where It All Began|CJ's home]]. {{spoiler|CJ is convinced by Sweet not to drive a bullet in the man's head "just to make sure", and lets Tenpenny die of his own internal injuries.}}

* {{spoiler|MB, aka Melissa Bergman}} in ''[[Metroid: Other M]]''. Kinda justified, though, in that a straight fight between her and Samus would've been over in seconds, given how easily a bunch of random GF Troopers were able to kill her.

* In ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'', Optimus Prime is never fought during the Decepticon Campaign {{spoiler|(the major boss fight is against [[Humongous Mecha|Omega Supreme]])}} and Megatron is never fought directly during the Autobot Campaign {{spoiler|(the end boss fight being against [[Kill Sat|Trypticon]])}}

* [[Home Front]] has Colonel Jeong, the only enemy that isn't an anonymous masked clone. He arrests you in the opening sequence and is narrowly avoided later on in the game, but after his second appearance he is never mentioned again.

** This does make some sense, as of the bosses listed only {{spoiler|Harley Quinn and Croc}} are primarily physical combatants. And the latter is very much in the category of enemies where Batman's [[Crazy Prepared|Crazy Preparedness]]ness consists of never letting himself get within arm's reach.

* In ''[[Bastion]]'', there is {{spoiler|Zulf}}. Made somewhat humorous by the fact that immediately after you figure out there won't be such a fight, Rucks starts talking about how The Kid must be having a final showdown right about now.

* The varsity squad in the ''[[Mario Tennis]]'' Game Boy Color game. You get to play against Mark when he's in a Doubles match, and Emily in a Singles. But never Kevin.

* Speaking of ''[[Shining Force III]]'' you never get to fight a great number of bosses, at least outside Japan. Due to the fact the game was split into three different games and only the first one was globally released there are great scores of bad guys, monsters and machines that are introduced and never seen by the main characters; yet alone fought.

== AnimeNon-Video Game Examples ==

* In ''[[Vinland Saga]]'', [[Tyke Bomb|Thorfinn]]'s entire reason for living is killing [[You Killed My Father|Askeladd]], who {{spoiler|Dies at the hand of Canute in front of his eyes}}. Played with in the sense that Thorfinn [[The Starscream|actually fought under Askeladd's command for years]] and dueled him several times, just never getting the result he was after (which was defeating and killing him in a fair duel). He didn't [[Heroic BSOD|take it well]]

=== [[Fan FictionWorks]] ===

=== Film ===

* In ''[[The Fifth Element]]'', the hero and [[The Dragon|Zorg]] never fight or even communicate directly in any way (even though at one point they are mere meters apart). He Zorg does encounter the [[Action Girl]], but at this point she's outgunned and has to retreat.

=== Literature ===

** In the movie trilogy, he was planned to appear in the Battle of the Black Gate, but dropped for not fitting with the tone of the films or Tolkien's vision. He was replaced with the armoured troll Aragorn fights instead.

* In the climax of ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and Thethe Philosopher's Stone|first (novel)|Harry Potter bookand the Philosopher's Stone]]'', one of the challenges to get to the Philosopher's / Sorcerer's Stone was supposed to be defeating a troll. However, the troll had already been knocked out before the heroes got there, so they just walked past it. They had already fought a troll earlier in the book, though.

* In ''[[Mistborn]]'', Lord Tevidian is [[High Priest]] of the [[Corrupt Church]], one of the chief lieutenants of [[God-Emperor|the Lord Ruler]], and {{spoiler|the father of heroine Vin}}. He is, in other words, exactly the kind of character you'd expect a dramatic confrontation against, but when he ''does'' show up it's only for his political rivals to frame him for treason, at which point the Lord Ruler gives them permission to kill him off messily. He never even ''speaks'' to {{spoiler|his daughter}}, much less has any sort of confrontation with her.

* The Council of Thirteen are the ultimate heads of the Yeerk Empire in ''Literature/Animorphs'', but they're a mostly off-page [[Bigger Bad]], with Visser Three (and to a lesser extent, Visser One) being the actual main enemies the Animorphs have to contend with. The Thirteen themselves only appear in one book, where they're more concerned with investigating potential treason on the Vissers' parts than actually confronting the protagonists.

=== [[Live Action TV]] ===

* Narutaki, technically speaking the main enemy of ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' ,<ref>as the one responsible for most of Decade's troubles</ref>, never directly fights Decade or any of the KR allies he has made. Even in {{spoiler|the ''Final Chapter'' movie, where Narutaki basically reforms [[The Remnant]] of Decade's old [[Legion of Doom|Dai-Shocker]] army into Super Shocker, with the help of a brainwashed Dr. Shinigami. Basically, as its top officer, Narutaki turns into what is presumably his true persona, [[Kamen Rider (TV series)|Colonel Zol]]. Even in that guise, Narutaki remains in the sidelines, only ordering his troops around instead of fighting Decade.}}