History Main / FinalBossPreview

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Since the series takes place before ''[[Film/RevengeOfTheSith Revenge of the Sith]]'', it has some CallForward to Obi-Wan and Yoda's fights with Anakin and Palpatine/Darth Sidious. Obi-Wan fights his eventual ex-Jedi Apprentice in the Well of the Dark Side, a pre-Mustafar location, during the events of "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS3E17GhostsOfMortis Ghosts of Mortis]]", though Anakin himself is not selfish in his desires to save the Galaxy, since said desires are about stopping the future Emperor himself and not about saving Padme from death by childbirth. Yoda fights Palpatine/Sidious in an illusion during the events of "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E13Sacrifice Sacrifice]]" that would be a taste of their confrontation in the Senate.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Since the series takes place before ''[[Film/RevengeOfTheSith Revenge of the Sith]]'', it has some CallForward to Obi-Wan and Yoda's fights with Anakin and Palpatine/Darth Sidious. The former fights his eventual ex-Jedi Apprentice in the Well of the Dark Side, a pre-Mustafar location, during the events of "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS3E17GhostsOfMortis Ghosts of Mortis]]", though Anakin himself is not selfish in his desires to save the Galaxy, since said desires are about stopping the future Emperor himself and not about saving Padme from death by childbirth. The latter fights Palpatine/Sidious in an illusion during the events of "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E13Sacrifice Sacrifice]]" that would be a taste of their confrontation in the Senate.

* Every ''Franchise/PowerRangers''/''Franchise/SuperSentai'' BigBad or [[TheDragon Dragon]] who isn't too inhuman to move decides to show up after eight or so episodes for the expressed purpose of kicking the crap out of the entire rookie team, then returning home due to power failure, mentor interference, or simply deciding that they [[NotWorthKilling aren't worth the effort]]. They often tear the current MonsterOfTheWeek apart as a sort of pre-preview before the beatdown.

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man X|1}}'' game had [[TheDragon Vile]] attack you in powered armor at the end of the first level. You ''could'' with some skill get into a pattern of dodging his paralyzing shot and returning fire, but the game won't continue until you get hit by it and force Zero to come help you. You can also accidentally die by [[CollisionDamage touching him]] while low on health.

* In ''[[VideoGame/KirbySuperStar Kirby Super Star Ultra]]'', the final boss is Marx's Soul, but you fight Marx himself only halfway through the game. Before you fight him, there is a cutscene showing him morphing into the demonesque form that you fight him in, and for a SPLIT SECOND, you can see his soul.

* Played straight in the start of ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', when the villians are shown in conversation. As is normal, the heroes are shown to be eavesdropping, and promptly get beaten to within an inch of their lives. There's also an odd one with this game and its [[VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge sequel]]. The Doom Dragon you face in the final battle atop Mars Lighthouse… turns out to be [[spoiler:the parents of the main characters who went missing at the start of the first game]]!

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Since the series takes place before ''Revenge of the Sith'', it has some CallForward to Obi-Wan and Yoda's fights with Anakin and Palpatine/Darth Sidious. The former fights his eventual ex-Jedi Apprentice in the Well of the Dark Side, pre-Mustafar, during the events of ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS3E17GhostsOfMortis Ghosts of Mortis]]'' though Anakin himself is not selfish in his desires to save the Galaxy, since said desires are about stopping the future Emperor himself and not about saving Padme from death by childbirth. The latter fights Palpatine/Sidious in an illusion during the events of ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E13Sacrifice Sacrifice]]'' that would be a taste of their confrontation in the Senate.
** Its sequel series ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' is no slouch in that department, either. Palpatine himself uses Sith sorcery to attack Ezra Bridger and Ashoka Tano in The World Between Worlds during the events of ''[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E11AWorldBetweenWorlds A World Between Worlds]]''.

* ''VideoGame/JetForceGemini'': When all three playable characters arive Mizar's Palace and enter the pyramidal spaceship of the eponymous BigBad, one of them (Juno) watches Mizar approach and tries to confront him with his standard pistol. Mizar laughs at him and then throws him an energy ball that incapacitates him, and then leaves. The other two characters (Vela and Lupus) confort him as he stands up again, and all three go forward to face the villain together. Surprisingly, Lupus manages to defeat Mizar alone, since the latter only intended to toy with him for the sake of intimidation; realizing this mistake, Mizar does a RageQuit and begins a plan to destroy Earth, kickstarting the second half of the game.

** The Mighty Nein end up fighting [[spoiler:Lucien and the Tomb Takers]] mid-way through the final arc. [[spoiler:Lucien]] proceeds to take Caleb and Caduceus out of commission with an anti-magic cone and nearly {{One Hit Kill}}s Caduceus and Beau. The Nein ''barely'' manage to escape, and take a few days to gather supplies and bringing [[spoiler:[[{{DMPC}} Essek]]]] onto their team before confronting [[spoiler:Lucien]] again at the very end of the arc.

** The Mighty Nein end up fighting [[spoiler:Lucien and the Tomb Takers]] mid-way through the final arc. [[spoiler:Lucien]] proceeds to take Caleb and Caduceus out of commission with an anti-magic cone and nearly {{One Hit Kill}}s Caduceus and Beau. The Nein ''barely'' manage to escape, taking a few days to gather supplies and bringing [[spoiler:[[{{DMPC}} Essek]]]] onto their team before confronting [[spoiler:Lucien]] again at the very end of the arc.

* Vox Machina of ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' end up fighting (and losing against) [[spoiler:Vecna]] in episode 102, before fighting [[spoiler:him again, after he ascends to godhood and attacks Vasselheim]] in episode 115.

* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #20 , the titular heroes meet Molecule Man and flee after being completely outmatched by the matter-manipulator villain.
* The first battle between Franchise/SpiderMan and ComicBook/DoctorOctopus in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #3 went like this: Doc Ock slapped Spidey around until he got tired and threw him out of the window, gloating that the wall-crawler is no threat.
* It happens fairly often in ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' stories:

* In ''Franchise/XMen''[='=]s seminal storyline ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', the heroes are very badly trounced when ComicBook/JeanGrey goes Dark Phoenix on them.

* 'Manga/OnePiece'':

* 'Manga/OnePiece''

* Zoro of ''Manga/OnePiece'' gets this in the Baratie Arc when Hawkeye Mihawk, the greatest swordsman in the world and Zoro's ultimate goal, shows up long enough to humor Zoro with a duel. Turns out Zoro really is nothing compared to Mihawk, but [[MadeOfIron fortunately,]] he manages to gain the guy's respect, so Mihawk merely gives him a ''[[NotQuiteDead nearly]]'' [[NotQuiteDead fatal wound.]]

* ''Starblade'' has the Enemy Flagship Commander, who appears a few times throughout the course of the game. It is indicated by the voiceclip "Located Enemy Flagship Commander", followed by "Pursue and engage" in some versions, but it is unkillable at first, going as far as to shooting at you before leaving. However, after taking care of the reactor in Iceberg, the Enemy Flagship Commander escapes to the outside alongside you, and when the voiceclip repeats "Located Enemy Flagship Commander," without warning, some music kicks in as it fires missiles at you. This prompts a proper final boss fight with the Enemy Flagship Commander, with you and the Commander firing rounds at each other as the Iceberg explodes while this is happening. It is satisfying after you destroy the Enemy Flagship Commander, as the enemy fighters become confused and in disarray after the destruction of the Commander, making the mission fully complete.