Throne Room Throwdown

The doors of the throne room burst open, and Varlak the Northman led his band in at the rush. An ogre guard charged from the shadows, axe raised high, but fell with a pair of elven arrows in its heart...

— Banestorm

Throne rooms are very often used as a climactic setpiece for a Final Battle or otherwise climactic battle, and it's very easy to see why: they tend to be fancy and regal, tend to be deep inside a highly fortified location, and are a quite literal seat of power.

More often than not, the good guys tend to be the ones who Storm the Castle and get to the throne room, with the villainous side as the defender. While the opposite is definitely possible, it's simply more uncommon. The throne room is also, for rather obvious reasons, the place where The Emperor and the Evil Overlord tend to meet their ends, though the ones who fight in the throne room don't technically have to be rulers at all.

Historically, throne rooms never quite saw this much action. Battles were fought in large open fields and by the time your throne room is breached by the enemy, you're already heavily screwed.

See also: Executive Suite Fight.

Due to the climactic nature of this trope some spoilers may be untagged. You Have Been Warned.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Doraemon: Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil has a really short example of the trope when Doraemon - badly exhausted after fighting off hordes and hordes of Mecha-Mooks - made it to Poseidon's throne room, intending to kill Poseidon with a grenade, but passes out. But then Buggy, the Sentient Vehicle hiding in Doraemon's Dimensional Pocket, leaps out and, getting hit by an energy bolt from one of Poseidon's mooks and ready to explode, forces itself into Poseidon's mouth. Cue an explosion that took out Poseidon on the spot.

Comic Books

• Subverted at the end of Preacher: With Genesis gone, God returns to Heaven, only to find the Saint of Killers has beaten him to it, having massacred the Seraphim and is now lounging on the Throne of Paradise. The Saint shoots God dead, pulls his hat over his eyes, and goes to sleep.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: In "Nero's Spell (Part 2)", some of Ami's enemies set off alarms by teleporting into her throne room while she was away. They start trashing it, and Ami teleports back to fight them off.
• The Mountain and the Wolf: Daenerys' throne room is the site of a climactic battle that ends in her death... but this time, it's because the Wolf fights Drogon over stealing the throne.
• The Night Unfurls: Olga's throne room is the site of the climactic battle between Kyril and Olga. It is played out differently in both versions of the fanfic. For the original version, no such fight occurs despite the build-up; for the remastered version, it is Played Straight. It is worth noting that this is hardly the last fight in the story, unlike common examples.

Films — Live-Action

• Call to Arms: The film's climactic battle is set in the Emperor of Chin's throne room, which has its own rack of weapons, with the heroes and the Emperor's guards duking it out in a lengthy fight scene culminating in the Emperor's death via hammer.
• In Dune, the final battle between Paul Muad'Dib and Feyd-Ruatha takes place in the throne room of the palace of Arrakis.
• A villainous example in Hellboy II: The Golden Army: Prince Nuada returns to his father's throne room and announces he intends to wake the Golden Army and declare war on humans; King Balor regretfully orders his royal guards to kill his son. They epically underestimate Nuada's skills, and he swordfights and kills all of them, culminating in impaling Balor with a guard's blade.
• Played with in Knives Out. Although he's not a king, Harlan Thrombey keeps an elaborate, throne-like chair made of knives in the drawing room of his Big Fancy House. The film's Summation Gathering, in which Benoit Blanc confronts the chief murder suspect, takes place in the room where this chair is the central focus, giving it the feel of a throne room battle, particularly after Ransom attempts to use the knives in the throne to kill Marta.
• Flying Guillotine: The second movie (titled Palace Carnage in some International releases) ends with a massive battle in the Emperor's Throne Room between the La Résistance, protagonist Ma-deng and Emperor Yong-zheng's forces, culminating with Emperor Yong-zheng mortally wounded while seated on his throne.
• Star Wars:
  • Return of the Jedi: Emperor Palpatine has Luke brought up to his throne room on the Death Star II, where he tests him against Darth Vader.
  • The Last Jedi: Supreme Leader Snoke brings Rey up to his throne room so he can pry Luke's hiding place from her mind and have Kylo Ren execute her. But Kylo assassinates Snoke instead and he and Rey fight his Praetorian Guard.
  • The Rise of Skywalker: This film has two examples. Rey and Kylo Ren face off in the ruins of the throne room of Death Star II, which has managed to survive destruction after over 30 years. For added effect, they also fight in the surrounding ruins of the battlestation. Later in the film's climax, there's the fight against Emperor Palpatine in his throne room on the Sith homeworld of Exegol.
• Thor: Ragnarok: The climactic final battle between Thor and Hela starts off in Odin's throne room, where Hela is seated on the throne after taking over most of Asgard.
• Both Aladdin and its live-action remake have a final battle with Jafar in Agrabah's throne room after he's wished to become the sultan, though the latter adds a chase through the rest of the city from Iago as a Roc bird in place of the original's battle with Jafar himself as a giant snake.

Gamebooks

• Subverted in the final confrontation of Daggers of Darkness, when you confront Meghana-durr after lifting the Death Curse. She's on her throne while surrounded by four ogre bodyguards, taunts you from where she is, but rather than fighting her you reverse the Death Curse's effects on her - cue Meghana suddenly turning into dust on her seat. You're given an option to fight, but that only leads to the Death Curse returning and killing you on the spot.

Literature

• A Song of Ice and Fire: Robert's Rebellion ends with Lannister forces sacking King's Landing, the capital city and location of the Red Keep, where the ruler of Westeros sits. Said ruler, Aerys II, was holed up in the Red Keep's throne room with a member of the Kingsguard, Jaime Lannister. When Aerys announces a plan to burn down the whole city, Jaime kills him on the steps leading up to the Iron Throne. This moment is remembered and dramatized by several characters in-universe and earns Jaime the nickname of Kingslayer.
• Mistborn: The Original Trilogy: Vin infiltrates the Lord Ruler's palace to assassinate him, gets captured, escapes the dungeon, and finally confronts him while he's holding court in the throne room. He proceeds to wipe the floor with her in a Wizard Duel until she finds his Achilles' Heel and inflicts a Death by Depower.
• In The Inheritance Cycle, the last confrontation between Eragon, Arya, Saphira & Elva, and Galbatorix, Thorn, Murtagh, & Shruikan, takes place in Galbatorix's throne room.

Live-Action TV

• Game of Thrones: The final episode has Jon fatally stab Daenerys in front of the Iron Throne after she confirmed that she intended to conquer the rest of the world in the name of freeing it. Then Drogon appears and melts the throne before flying off with Daenerys in his claws.
• Star Trek: Discovery's "What's Past is Prologue" has Burnham and Emperor Georgiou face off against Gabriel Lorca and his fellow conspirators in Georgiou's throne room aboard her flagship, the I.S.S. Charon.

Tabletop Games

• Banestorm: The Flavor Text vignette at the head of chapter 7 describes a classic throne room confrontation between a band of heroes and a necromancer.
• Villains & Vigilantes: In the adventure Devil's Domain, the Player Character superheroes travel to Hell to prevent the Devil from entering their universe. At the end of the adventure, the heroes enter the Scarlet Orb (where the Devil lives) and seek him out. The Final Battle against the Devil occurs in his throne room.

Video Games

• 1917 - The Alien Invasion DX: Two examples, the Chessmaster "Überlegener" Herrscherbock and the Salesman Unterhändler der Götter are both giant alien monstrosities fought in their throne rooms, the former with multiple worshippers kneeling before him while the latter with two scantily-clad giant alien women as concubines. They both don't move around and launches projectile attacks from their thrones; upon being defeated their heads goes KABOOM leaving behind a bloody headless mess on their respective thrones.
• Anti-Idle: The Game: The last area in the Fairytale Fight-Off series in Battle Arena is the Throne Room, where the player character battles three Alliterative Name princesses as well as the Fairy Godfather and Godmother.
• Battle Axe sees you confronting Etheldred, the Sorcerous Overlord in her throne room as the last boss fight. She even lampshades it as she gets off her throne to fight you.
  What's this? More heroes trying to "dethrone" me?...
• Bloodstained wouldn't be a Spiritual Successor to Castlevania without this.
  • In Ritual of the Night, Gebel, and later IGA are confronted in the castle's throne room.
  • In Curse of the Moon, the True Final Boss, possessed Zangetsu, is battled in his throne room as well.
• Bug Fables:
  • Team Snakemouth encounters and fights the Wasp King for the first time in the Ant Kingdom Palace's throne room. However, their fight ends up being the Hopeless Boss Fight, as he immediately defeats them with a pillar of flame, until Maki wards him off.
  • Later, to reclaim the artifact Wasp King stole during an attack, Team Snakemouth sneaks into the Wasp Kingdom Hive, and just when they enter the throne room, ready to attack the King in his royal chambers, his right-hand man General Ultimax reveals himself and calls forth his troops, initiating the fight with Team Snakemouth. However, they quickly defeat him and his troops before heading off into quarters only to find out the Wasp King is not there and already went to attack the Ant Kingdom for the second time.
  • The False Monarch, one of the five Bounty bosses in the game, is fought in the throne room of an abandoned ancient ant city, where swarms of Mothflies impersonating bugs took residence.
• A showdown with Dracula (or his pretenders in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow) in his throne room is a staple of the Castlevania series. This is imported into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate along with the old bat himself.
• The obscure old NES game Cosmo Police Galivan has its Final Boss, Glovuss, fought in his throne room, where he will teleport from his throne to fight you. The throne room itself has scary-looking statues of snake-humans adorning its corners, too.
• Dark Souls:
  • The Throne Of Want from Dark Souls II is an odd example. While both final bosses are fought in that area, the Throne itself is separated from the boss arena by a rather large chasm that is only filled in the ending.
  • In Dark Souls III the fight against Yhorm the Giant, one of the Lords of Cinders, is set in his throne room, one of the few structures of the Profaned Capital left intact.
• Deadly Rooms of Death: In The City Beneath, Beethro meets Bombus Gadhan and King Dugan in the throne room of Castle Dugan, and when Bombus' attempts at diplomacy are rejected, Beethro has to fight his way out past the castle guards. This encounter has three possible difficulty levels, since if Beethro has killed any Dugandy guards previously, Dugan will increase his security level in response
• Downplayed in Dishonored 2 in that you don't actually have to fight anyone, but the game's final mission brings Corvo/Emily back to Dunwall Tower's throne room where they must defeat Delilah. The actual final confrontation takes place in Delilah's painted world, which also happens to be a throne room.
• Seems to happen at least once per game in the Dragon Age franchise:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, when you finally confront Teyrn Loghain during the Landsmeet taking place in the Royal Palace's throne room, he will refuse to surrender, forcing you to fight him. Depending on your choices prior to and during the Landsmeet, this will either be an all-out fight or a Combat by Champion.
  • Likewise during the climactic conclusion of Dragon Age II's second act: After fighting their way through the entire city, Hawke comes face to face with the Arishok in the throne room of the Viscount's Keep. Depending on your choices up until that point, you can either choose to fight him and his men with help from your companions or face him in a one-on-one Duel to the Death.
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition, should the player decide to side with the mages, they will eventually need to confront Alexius in the throne room of Redcliffe Castle where a Boss Battle ensues.
• A recurring element in the Dragon Quest series, with the final battles of Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest III, and the second act of Dragon Quest XI all taking place in the throne rooms of the main villains.
• Subverted in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. The Kongs enter the throne room of Lord Fredrik, the Final Boss. The Kongs and Fredrik jump onto the ice floor in front of the throne, ready to fight... but then the ice gives way, and they fall through the ice into the volcano below. Fortunately, there are platforms there, and that's where the battle takes place.
• Dusty Revenge ends with the heroes Dusty, McCoy and Rondel facing the main villain, Craven, in his throne room. With Craven displaying a Slouch of Villainy as he beckons the heroes to enter. What's even worse is that Craven have Rondel's son underneath his foot, threatening to crush the boy...
• Eastern Exorcist have the penultimate battle of Lu Yun-chuan's campaign where he challenges and defeats King Mandrill, the demon overlord in its throne room. But that's not even the last boss fight - there's still a Post-Final Boss to contend.
• In Elden Ring the Climax Boss fight against Morgott the Veiled Monarch happens in the Elden Throne, an open-air throne room right next to the entrance of the Erdtree that overlooks all of the capital city of Leyndell, and was the seat of power of the Elden Lord and the Demigods prior to the Shattering. Funnily enough, the throne itself is very flimsy, and is guaranteed to be smashed to bits in the ensuing fight.
• Evolution sets the first battle against Eugene Leopold in the throne room of his battle cruiser, which the protagonists visited earlier in the game.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In the remakes of Final Fantasy II, The Emperor is found and fought seated on a crystal throne in Hell. The original subverts this, with him being fought on a featureless empty void.
    • The Emperor is fond of this. His first fight is in the throne room of a fortress within a massive Cyclone and the Soul of Rebirth bonus campaign ends in a similar fashion as the main game except in Heaven.
    • The Dark Knight is also confronted in the throne room of Castle Palamecia. However, the confrontation is interrupted by the Emperor's return and the Dark Knight is never actually battled.
  • Final Fantasy XI has the final fight against the Shadowlord take place in the Throne Room of Castle Zvahl.
  • Final Fantasy XIV
    • The final confrontation against Prince Zenos in Stormblood is set in the throne room of the Royal Palace of Ala Mhigo, except... after that fight, it quickly transfers over to the palace's gardens, in which Zenos promptly takes control and fuses with the Primal Shinryu, cue the REAL final battle.
    • In Shadowbringers Innocence aka: Vauthry, the final Lightwarden is fought pretty much right under his radiant throne.
• The Fire Emblem franchise loves this trope. Many levels, including some final battles, happen inside a castle with the boss sitting in the throne room. Other times the enemy is breaching your throne room and you have to protect it for a certain number of turns^example"Talons Alight" in The Blazing Blade or rout the enemy^examplePrologue 8 in New Mystery of the Emblem. The thrones aren't for show, as they give a massive boost to evasion, defense and a health regeneration effect to whoever's on them!
• The Demon King from Golden Force is fought in his throne room with the throne in the background, in a level that pays homage to the opening of Symphony of the Night.
• One of the human personal storylines in Guild Wars 2 involves defending Queen Jenna from a crazed, mind-controlled soldier who tries to kill her. Depending on the choices you make, one of the endings involves battling the soldier in Queen Jenna's throne room.
• ICO: The final confrontation with the Queen of the castle that the whole game is set in occurs in her throne room.
• Jitsu Squad have at least two bosses, Raven the Sorcerous Overlord and Storm who rules Frosthaw Fortress, both whom are fought in their throne rooms.
• Legend of Heroes have the final battle against the Evil Prince main villain, Prince Lei happening in his throne room. Once you fought your way past his mooks, Prince Lei then gets up from his throne (one draped in the furs of a white tiger, no less) and takes you on.
• Given that the main antagonist is the King of the Koopas, it's more surprising that the Super Mario Bros. series doesn't feature this often.
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga has the initial fight with the Cackletta-possessed Bowser in the throne room of his castle. This lasts until you beat her and she sucks you in and the second part of the final battle takes place in Bowser's body against Cackletta's soul. The same game also inverts it by having the tutorial fight against Bowser in Peach's throne room.
  • The Paper Mario also does it often: Thousand Year Door has the showdown with Grodus in the throne room of the Palace of Shadows and Color Splash's final battle and the Green Streamer boss in Origami King takes place in the throne room of different Bowser Castles. Origami King's final confrontation also begins in the throne room of Origami Castle, a fortress built out of Peach's Castle.
  • Mario Party DS: The final boss minigame takes place in the throne room of Bowser's Castle, with Bowser and Bowser Jr.'s chairs visible in the background. The final section of Chaos Castle board in Mario Party 10 is also set in the throne room.
• Metroid Dread has a throne room built on the Itorash where Raven Beak seeks to lord over the universe as its supreme ruler; the final battle against him takes place there.
• In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the final battle against a fortress' Overlord takes place in his throne room, which he can equip with traps and troops to help him fight.
• Mortal Kombat
  • Mortal Kombat 9: The first third of the game (the Mortal Kombat (1992) retelling) ends in a fight between Liu Kang and Shang Tsung in the latter's throne room. It was also preceded with a fight between Liu Kang and Goro in the latter's throne room (Goro's Lair).
  • Subverted in Mortal Kombat 11's last chapter (excluding the Aftermath portion): we're led to believe during the entirety of the Story Mode that the last battles take place on Kronika's lair. Then Kronika begins to rewind time, and the last battles take place at the prehistory and, should Fire God Liu Kang lose a round, the beginning of time.
• Nuclear Throne: The Final Boss is fought in the Throne Room that houses the very thing you've been fighting for the entire game, the titular Nuclear Throne. Before you can finally reach the throne, the last enemy that lies in your way is dangerous, powerful and is the Nuclear Throne itself.
• In Revenant, at the climax of the game Locke D'Averam must confront and defeat the demonic god Yhagoro in his throne room set up in the hell known as Anserak.
• In Shovel Knight, the King Knight is fought in his own (stolen) throne room. Likewise, in the King of Cards expansion, the same throne room becomes the stage for King Knight's own battle with the rightful king.
• In The Force Unleashed at the climax of the game Starkiller must confront and do final battle at the throne room of the first Death Star with either Emperor Palpatine in the Light Side Ending to save the leaders of the Rebel Alliance, or Darth Vader in the Dark Side Ending to get revenge upon him.
• Skyrim: If the player sides with the Empire, the civil war questline ends with the Dragonborn, Legate Rikke, and General Tullius fighting Ulfric Stormcloak and Galmar Stone-Fist in the throne room of the Palace of the Kings.
• The Legendary Axe II have you playing as a prince trying to reclaim your throne from your evil brother. Inevitably, your penultimate battle against him is set in the throne room, which continues with you facing his One-Winged Angel form. You then savor your victory by sitting on said throne a few seconds later.
• The Legend of Zelda
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: The boss battle against Zant starts and ends in the Palace of Twilight's throne room but switches through virtual versions of previous boss arenas, while the battles against Puppet Zelda and Dark Beast Ganon take place in Hyrule Castle's throne room.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: If Link defers from clearing a Divine Beast (or several) before heading to Hyrule Castle, he will battle its respective Blight Ganon in the castle's throne room. Calamity Ganon itself is sealed in that room, but this trope is instead averted for it because upon emerging it shatters the floor and sends it and Link to a deeper pit beneath the castle for their duel.
• In Undertale, the final fight with Asgore, the king of all monsters, takes place either in his throne room, or at the base of the Barrier in a corridor slightly behind it, depending on your path. In the Pacifist Run, this is also where you enter the battle with Asriel, though due to him being a god, he quickly takes you to hyperspace instead.

Web Comics

• In The Order of the Stick, the battle that definitively ends the Battle of Azure City and serves as the climax for the War and XPs arc takes place in Lord Shojo's throne room, which turns out to be the location of the Gate that villains Xykon and Redcloak are after. Xykon is nearly defeated by the throne room's army of ghost defenders, until fallen paladin Miko comes in and destroys the gate, and thus the defenses against it, allowing Xykon to take over Azure city.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The flashback episode "The Avatar and the Firelord" shows us the friendship between Avatar Roku and Firelord Sozin, which eventually comes to an abrupt end when the latter starts invading the Earth Kingdom. Roku confronts him in a short but brutal duel that ends up destroying the throne room and most of the palace.
• In the Grand Finale of The Owl House has two different battles take place in Belos' throne room. First, Raine tries to stop him from taking control of the Titan's heart, and they later team up with Luz, Eda, and King to finish him off for good. Appropriately, the entire room ends up being destroyed just before he meets his end.

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