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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Dean Winchester:''' Well then, good luck stopping the [[Zombie Apocalypse|Apocalypse.]]<br />
'''Sam Winchester:''' Thanks. Good luck [[Beyond the Impossible|killing Death.]] (Beat) Remember when we used to hunt [[Wendigo|wendigos]] and stuff?|The main characters of [[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]] reflect on this trope before going off to their [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|penultimate showdowns of destiny.]]}}
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Particularly obvious in ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure
* At the start of ''[[
* Happened to ''[[Bleach]]'' in a big way. The whole premise of the series, originally, was Ichigo using his shinigami powers to fight Hollows, ghosts who had been twisted into monsters by their own hunger. However, after Ichigo defeated hundreds of Hollows in a single day, including one the size of [[Godzilla]], they were retired as villains for a long while, and other shinigami (many of whom could mow down the Godzilla-sized Hollows with ease) become the primary villains. Hollows ''do'' return later as a force to be reckoned with, but only by gaining Shinigami powers of their own and crossing the [[Bishonen Line]].
* Likewise, in [[Busou Renkin]], the original monsters were human-eating monstrous homunculi. Eventually it got to the point where our heroes could beat a whole hoarde of them and still have enough energy to face the [[Big Bad]] and hold their own. It was at that point that no new homunculi characters were introduced, and the villains became {{spoiler|humans with [[Busou Renkin]] themselves, and way more fighting experience.}}
* The [[Magical Girl]] type [[Monster of the Week|Monsters of the Week]] in ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' were quickly regulated to easily-dealt-with distraction status by the half-way point of [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (
* ''[[Mai-HiME]]'' starts with natural Orphans as the basic monsters, then progresses to Searrs-made Orphans, then Searrs troopers proper, before culminating with {{spoiler|each other}}.
== Comics ==
* [[
* Some of the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] villains that [[Daredevil]] fought have been forgotten or turned into a [[Harmless Villain]] when Daredevil became [[Darker and Edgier]] in the 80s, especially when Bullseye and Kingpin became Daredevil's [[Arch Nemesis]]. Some villains like Mr. Fear and Purple Man have been updated to fit this new [[The Dark Age of Comic Books|Dark Age]], but others, especially Stilt-Man have been left behind.
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Stargate SG
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' was supposed to be about a girl named Buffy who fought ... well, ''vampires''. She was never limited to ''just'' vampires, but, for the first couple seasons, vampires were the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] and represented a serious threat to Buffy. The third season changed this by having a non-vampire [[Big Bad]] who used vampires as [[Mooks|minions]]. By the fourth season, the series could have been accurately renamed ''Buffy the Demon Slayer'', with vampires simply one of many demon species (and pretty low on the demonic totem pole at that). During the last three seasons, there were usually only a couple vampire-centric episodes each year; the rest of the time these formerly main villains were used as punching bags whom the good guys could kill off when nothing important was going on. The last season made a nod towards the title by having the villain command a legion of, essentially, super-vampires. After the first one they were still pretty easy to kill.
* ''[[Smallville]]'', for a long, long while, kept its villains limited to two simple categories: normal human beings (usually with access to [[Green Rocks]]), and people who were granted superhuman abilities by those [[Green Rocks]]. It wasn't until the fourth season that a few villains started turning up with non-kryptonite based abilities. This jumped up a notch in season five, when Brainiac (an alien-built robot) was made the [[Big Bad]] and a few evil Kryptonians showed up to hassle Clark. The number of alien adversaries has only increased from there, with meteor freaks, once the staple villains on the show, reduced to a handful of appearances. However, since the alien baddies are usually able to go toe-to-toe with Clark physically, rather than getting [[Curb Stomp Battle|taken down with one punch]], most fans haven't complained.
** Particularly as the sheer number of people in this small town who gained superpowers was making it implausible that people wouldn't learn Clark Kent was from Smallville and immediately think: I wonder if he has superpowers.
* ''[[
** Warlocks were heavily featured for the first three seasons of Charmed but by the end of the 8 seasons, warlocks hadn't shown up since two seasons before.
* Demons seem to do this a lot, don't they? The example in the trope definition is a spot-on description of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''.
** To go into more detail: when the series began, Demonic Possession was a pretty big deal, and just one demon caused them considerable grief. By season 4, demons ''still'' cause them grief, but only the leaders. The bog-standard "black-eyes" are hardly the threat they were before. Ghosts, moreso.
*** And in season 5 demons have had this happen to them with {{spoiler|Angels}} having a higher Pedigree. {{spoiler|The new [[Big Bad]] is a Fallen Angel (rather, THE Fallen Angel) and there's all those other angels trying to bring about the end of days.}}
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** And season 7 goes yet another step further, retiring {{spoiler|angels to replace them with Leviathans.}} So, to sum it up - to this point, at least - the pedigree goes: Ghosts < Demons < {{spoiler|Angels}} < {{spoiler|Leviathans}}.
** Though the {{spoiler|leviathans}} could be considered an aversion of this trope, as their main abilities seem to be limited to shapeshifting and [[Nigh Invulnerability]], and they have a [[Weaksauce Weakness]] in the form of borax. They're almost certainly weaker than the also nigh invulnerable face-melting reality-warping time traveling dead-resurrecting {{spoiler|angels}} and, if it weren't for the aforementioned knife, would probably be rivaled by demons. {{spoiler|If the angels weren't busy dealing with the aftermath of their civil war, they'd probably still be running the show on Earth.}}
* Arguably ''[[
== Literature ==
* When [[Timothy Zahn]] kicked off the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], his bad guys were Imperials trying to recover the territory lost to the Rebellion/New Republic after the Emperor died. Almost the entire Bantam era has, as its villains, the remains of the Empire, as well as occasional offshoots. A few times strange aliens were fought instead, and nearly every author felt they had to spring a [[Superweapon Surprise]], but it was nearly always New Republic versus Empire. In the [[Hand of Thrawn]] duology which capped the Bantam era, the [[The Remnant|battered]] but [[Defiant to
** And Sith- mustn't forget the Sith. They really started out as extra special, extra dangerous villains, but now they're ''everywhere''- [[Star Wars Legacy|Legacy]] and [[Legacy of the Force]] had Sith Big Bads, while [[Knights of the Old Republic (Comic Book)|Knights of the Old Republic]] and [[
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== Video Games ==
* This is a common trope in video games in general. The new areas that the player goes through usually bring with them new types of enemies that may gradually replace the ones of previous areas.
* In the mediocre ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' FPS ''[[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]'', you start out fighting Imperial Guardsmen. After some point you start going up against Space Marines. Later still, with an [[Enemy Mine]] in place, you move on to Chaos Space Marines and other servants of Chaos. You won't be fighting any more Guardsmen by then.
* Similarly in the strategy game ''Rites of War''. Your Eldar will first fight some Imperial units, but eventually they'll ally with you to fight a Tyranid invasion.
* In the [[Ratchet and Clank]] game "Tools Of Destruction", the player starts by fighting the villain's simple mercenary armies. However, in the second half of the game the mercenaries are replaced by monstrous [[Elite Mooks]] from the villain's own race who can phase in and out of matter.
* In [[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]] when the player gets to the inverted castle and is vastly more powerful, many of the regular mobs are actually [[Degraded Boss|the bosses from the first castle]].
== Web Comics ==
* While ''[[The Order of the Stick
** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the fact that between the Order itself and the Dungeon of Dorukan exploding, Xykon probably lost most, if not all, of his goblin army.
** Also justified in terms of plot mechanics -- since the heroes are gaining XP and getting stronger every time they fight, the mooks they're pitted against have to get tougher too, or the whole balance of the world will be thrown off.
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