The Unfought: Difference between revisions

 

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* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series does this a lot. Emperor Gestahl in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' and Queen Brahne in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' are both the primary antagonists throughout half of their respective games, and get killed by [[The Starscream|the real villain]] without ever fighting the player. Queen Brahne is in such obviously bad health she'd probably be worse at fighting than you were at be beginning of the game. Gestahl, on the other hand, was a stupendously powerful wizard, as shown in his fight with the one who kills him, and knows spells you don't have at that point in the game, so he, at least, would have been a [[Worthy Opponent]].

** Also, Golbez from ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', more or less. You ''do'' fight him once, but it's not satisfying, since he not only survives but also steals the [[MacGuffin]] under your nose. The "final" battle with him is interrupted before it even starts, by {{spoiler|1=FuSoYa breaking Zemus's [[Mind Control]] on him}}.

* 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.

 

* In the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' episode "Battle of the Badge", viewers expected to finally see Ash come face-to-face with Team Rocket's leader...[[Anticlimax|only to be disappointed when Giovanni left the building and Ash had to instead fight his]] [[Terrible Trio]] [[Anticlimax|for the Earth Badge instead.]] To date, he ''still'' hasn't gone up against Giovanni in the show (excluding ''[[Pokémon Live]]'').

** Ash finally came face-to-face with Giovanni in ''[[Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns]]'', but with no battle, and {{spoiler|Giovanni [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|doesn't remember Ash anyway]].}}

* In [[Steel Angel Kurumi]] the steel angels never even encounter the [[Demonic Invaders|enemies]] they were created to fight

 

* In ''[[Clash of the Elements]]'': The inner guardians of the Terra Cave, Frozen Palace, and Ignitor Cave count for this trope. {{spoiler|Though their powers are given to the people who merge the Elemental Stones with themselves.}} This also counts as an example of [[The Unseen]].

 

* The main character in ''[[Jarhead]]'' is a sniper who never gets an order to fire a single shot. At the movie's climax he is finally ordered to target an enemy officer, and has him in his sights... {{spoiler|when Command decides to just bomb the place instead.}}

* In ''[[The Final Countdown]]'', a strike group of U.S. Navy fighters from the carrier ''Nimitz'' are within sight of stopping the Japanese task force from attacking Pearl Harbor, but are ordered to abort the mission at the last moment.

* Happens in ''[[Street Fighter (film)|Street Fighter]]''. Blanka is barely fought, Cammy only takes down a mook or two and Dhalsim never does anything violent. Subverted with Ryu/Vega: It definitely builds up to it, and just as it's about to happen, Guile knocks down the wall with a tank and arrests everybody. Then, near the end of the film, Ryu+Ken/Sagat+Vega, complete with a hadouken reference.

 

* In [[Iain Banks]]' ''The Algebraist'' the hero and the big bad are never even in the same star system for entirety of the book.

* In [[The Dresden Files]] book ''Changes'', the Eebs (Esmerelda and Esteban) are two ancient vampire hitmen built up through about 3/4 of the book. Finally, when it comes down to a [[Combat by Champion]] between Harry and Susan vs. the vampires' side, they fight...the Eebs' pet monster, and a [[The Runt At the End|random mook]] who gets pounded into dust in the first few seconds of the fight. And when those lose, the Eebs are killed by goblins. Given that they knew this would happen, they might have taken it a bit more seriously.

* 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.

 

* The [[Power Rangers]] never fight Rita in the first two series, with her eventually getting kicked out by a stronger villain, and giving up on conquering/destroying the Earth.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': The Anointed One was killed by Spike due to the actor aging out of the character (The <s>Annoying</s> Anointed One was a kid vampire). Buffy never fought him and he never had any real plot importance.