Basic Trope: Failure to fulfil certain conditions ensures that you won't be fighting the Final Boss.
- Straight: If the player doesn't save Bob's friends during Tales of the Tropenomicon, and answers incorrectly when the Big Bad asks what Bob intends to do about their plans, Admiral Archival will escape and be free to commit his evil plans elsewhere.
- Downplayed: Not saving Bob's friends merely gets you a game over, whereas answering Admiral Archivial's dialogue incorrectly causes him to admonish you and net you a Non-Standard Game Over
- Exaggerated: If the If the player doesn't save Bob's friends during Tales of the Tropenomicon, and answers Admiral Archival's dialogue choices incorrectly, he'll unleash a blistering "The Reason You Suck" Speech and you wind up with a bad ending. The player never gets to fight him and therefore never discovers that he's merely a Disc-One Final Boss to what is actually the first third of the game and that King Kontroller and Emperor Evulz are the ones actually pulling the strings.
- Inverted
- You actually get the Golden Ending by deliberately failing every condition. Admiral Archival is so shocked at your stupidity (or sociopathy) that he chooses to Rage Quit, never to be seen again.
- Successfully completing certain conditions ensures that you won't be fighting the final boss and you Earn Your Bad Ending as a result.
- True Final Boss
- Averted: But Thou Must! is in full effect, ensuring that you must trade blows with Admiral Archival regardless of your decisions.
- Exploited: One type of speedrun for Tales of the Tropenomicon has you deliberately get Bob's friends killed so that Admiral Archival can use their souls as sacrifice for his ritual to resurrect the Dark Lord. Doing this nets you the bad ending, but also shaves several hours off your total playtime.
