The Only One Allowed To Defeat You / Video Games

---

• BlazBlue has Jin Kisaragi who constantly says that he is the only one who must defeat his Older Brother and Rival, Ragna The Bloodedge. As of Chronophantasma, he's willing to let Tsubaki do the job if he cannot. Unfortunately, Ragna as of Chronophantasma already gotten WAY stronger without the use of the Azure Grimoire. As you can imagine, Ragna owned Tsubaki in spectacular fashion.
  • In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Jin teaming up with Ragna in any given match is explicitly for this reason. As soon as the fight is done, Jin tries to pick up where he left off, with Ragna getting lost before he can.
  • Kokonoe is an even worse version. She had to be the one to frag Terumi, no one else. Even if she had to use nukes.
• Regulus takes this to the extreme in Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! by saving the hero from another enemy's last resort attack. Immediately after that he killed said enemy, despite the fact that she was his own ally, claiming that killing Bomberman was a pleasure he reserved for himself long ago. Right before finishing her off he adds "Oh, and make sure you apologize to Molok, will you?"
• Borderlands has the standard bandit mooks yell, "Nobody shoots my buddies but me!".
  • Also, in the mission where you have to rescue Lucky:
    Scooter: "Lucky's a friend, and by friend I mean asshole who broke all my momma's ladyparts. Could you go rescue him so I can kill him on a later occasion?"
    • In the General Knoxx DLC, we find out that this wasn't an empty threat. "Don't act so surprised, I told you I was gonna do it!"
  • Borderlands 2 has Handsome Jack trying to kill the Vault Hunters by posting a huge bounty on them for most of the game. However, at one point this bounty is rescinded because you helped his daughter, Angel, kill herself — and Jack states that he wants to be the one to kill them. No one else.
    • Later on, Handsome Jack posts a bounty on the bounty board asking the Vault Hunters to kill themselves for a king's ransom. If you do, he'll revive them and give the promised reward, but wants you to know that you are a sell-out.
• Frog to Magus in Chrono Trigger, if he's in your party when they try to stop Lavos and Magus goes down. Later on if you chose to fight Magus, he'll insist on doing it alone.
• This was practically a motto of Lord Recluse in City of Heroes. Lord Recluse spent upwards of fifty years building his resources and biding his time for the climatic final battle with his arch-enemy, Statesman. Every villain in the Rogue Isles, and their mother, and their mother's cat, knew not to set off those fireworks early without Lord Recluse's say so. Well, everyone but Darrin Wade and sure enough... did not end well for him.
• Dragon Age:
  • Aveline says this regarding Isabela in Dragon Age II at the end of Act II, when the Arishok states that they'll only leave Kirkwall with both Isabela and the Tome she stole from them.
  • Most of the Arishok's dialogue implies that he considers Hawke the only person in Kirkwall worthy of taking him down, especially if you've earned his respect. One interpretation of his motives for invading Kirkwall and offering a Duel to the Death against Hawke was a way of performing Suicide by Cop, freeing him from his own principles and demand of the Qun that had bound him in Kirkwall for four long years.
  • The player character themselves may take this stance towards Solas in Dragon Age: Inquisition after learning of the latter's hidden plans.
    Inquisitor: Viddasala's not killing Solas. I'm killing Solas.
• According to supplementary materials, Auroran warriors in EV Nova sometimes acquire "blood enemies" from one of the rival Houses. The blood enemy will seek to ensure their rival's survival until they get an opportunity to face them in fair, open combat.
• EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Building up your Hero Score for 100% Completion tends to involve this for many episodes.
• Final Fantasy VII has Cloud and Sephiroth. In fact, you have an anticlimactic battle where Sephiroth just stands there, waiting for Cloud to use Omnislash (waiting long enough will have Sephiroth attack Cloud with a relatively weak attack, to which Cloud will then finish him off, however).
  • Their battle didn't end just there, either. Their battle has carried on to a sequel movie, a crossover game, the sequel of that crossover game, another crossover game, and of course, a prequel. To both their original game and the crossover.
  • It's also done literally, as well: Sephiroth has specifically stated Cloud is the "only one" who can destroy him. In every appearance he has had, he has been fought by Sora, The Warrior of Light, Firion, Tidus, Cecil (all three offscreen), Tifa, Zack Fair, and countless others...out of all of them, only Sora and the Warrior beat him in a sword duel when Sephiroth went all out, but with the cutscenes that follow after Sephiroth makes it clear that they can't truly beat him.
    • Galeem has learned this the hard way, after the One-Winged Angel literally cleaved his way though him just to pick a fight with Cloud personally, like old times.
• After Michael and Trevor have a falling out in Grand Theft Auto V, Trevor adopts this attitude toward Michael. This goes as far as helping him and Dave out when they're pinned down in a massive shootout because he doesn't want anyone else killing Michael.
• In Halo 3, the Arbiter has this attitude towards Truth. When he finds that Truth has been infected by the Flood, he even effectively tells the Gravemind to back off, determined to kill Truth as Truth.
  I will have my revenge. On a Prophet, not a plague!
• The rivalry between Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami in The King of Fighters is this from Iori's point of view. As he says to Kyo in the final episode of the KOF: Another Day anime:
  You'd better stay alive until the day I come to kill you.
• The Kingdom Hearts series: Maleficent wants to kill Sora, but the Organization keep getting in the way, so she informs Pete that they'll deal with Sora and the others later, after Sora has removed the Organization — the other threat to Sora — first... Then it gives her free reign to destroy him.
• At the end of The Last of Us Part II, Ellie encounters a starved and tortured Abby left for dead on the beach and helps her and Lev escape their captors... all so Ellie can personally kill Abby. At the last second she has a change of heart and forgives Abby after remembering a conversation with Joel where she promised she would try to forgive him.
• Library of Ruina has two separate boss battles where two Abnormalities join you as Guest Star Party Members. However, denying them the final blow against their hated enemies is not advised. You can't even kill the Servant of Wrath's enemy without her, while doing it to Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary causes her to heal her previous wounds, gain multiple stat buffs and turn on the player character.
• Luminous Plume: Despite being stronger than his employer, the Black Blade spares and holds back against Raven whenever they fight. This is because the Big Bad, Emilia, wants to kill Raven with her own hands in order to avenge her lover, Jade.
• The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny Sound Stage which has the three Materials getting transported to the time of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid has Lord Dearche feeling relieved that Hayate survived the events of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S... because if she didn't, Lord Dearche wouldn't have the pleasure of personally defeating her someday in the future.
• Alexander and Zetta in Makai Kingdom — although it's mainly one-sided, because Zetta doesn't take 'Alex' very seriously.
• Mass Effect:
  • Referenced in Mass Effect. Wrex can talk about his days as mercenary, and mention a time he and another mercenary named Aleena were hired by separate people to kill the same turian. He and and Aleena then spent more time fighting each other than trying to kill their target. In the end it was a tie, so Wrex took the head and Aleena took the body to their respective employers. As far as Wrex knows, they both got paid.
  • Mass Effect 2: If you successfully break up the argument between Jack and Miranda, Jack will say she'll keep Miranda alive during the fight with the Collectors so she can have the pleasure of killing Miranda herself. Thankfully, they never get around to it, and eventually evolve into a Vitriolic Best Buds relationship.
• Mega Man
  • Bass is actually a playable character in a few Mega Man (Classic) games because he doesn't want any of Wily's other robots to kill Mega Man before him (and because he sees their creation as an insult to him).
  • In Mega Man Zero, this pretty much sums up Leviathan and Fafnir's mindset towards Zero.
• In Metal Gear Solid, Liquid was the only one allowed to kill his father, but Snake had already killed the old man twice. This makes Liquid seriously pissed, and he takes up his father's mantle of destroying the world to prove himself better than his father once and for all. And to kill Snake in revenge. Those two goals go hand in hand.
  • Ocelot and Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Especially noticeable when Snake chose to jump off the waterfall rather than get shot by Ocelot. A Slow-Motion Fall scene occurred, while Ocelot ran in slow motion towards Snake while calling his name. Right after, Ocelot whispered, "Don't die on me yet." Subverted: The Stinger reveals that Ocelot was Snake's contact ADAM all along, and most of the times he spared or arranged for Snake's life to be spared, he was fufilling his mission.
  • Also inverted in the case of Vamp in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: After Raiden and Vamp's duel in Act 2, to which Vamp was impaled by Raiden, Vamp asks with ecstasy "Could you be the one to finally finish me?"
• Scorpion wants to kill Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat, to pay him back for killing him (as illustrated in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero). At the end of the first game, he succeeds. Then after discovering that Sub-Zero had a younger brother, Scorpion then subverted this to some extent by vowing to be the younger Sub-Zero's guardian as an act of penance for killing his brother. Quan-Chi then reverts it back to normal for Mortal Kombat 4 and MK vs. DC by convincing Scorpion that this Sub-Zero was responsible for the death of his clan and family. However, by the 5th game, Scorpion learns the truth and the two end up having another truce.
  • The central conflict in Mortal Kombat 9 stems from Raiden receiving a vague message from his future self — "He must win!" — and constantly misinterpreting it in this fashion. First, he stops Sonya from fighting Shang Tsung, prompting Sonya to fight him instead. Then he tells The Chosen One Liu Kang he must defeat Shang Tsung. This doesn't solve anything. Then he thinks Kung Lao is the real Chosen One who should fight Shao Kahn. This gets Kung Lao killed. Then Liu Kang steps up again and beats Shao Kahn, and this still doesn't solve anything. By the time Raiden realises that his future self really meant Shao Kahn must win so the Elder Gods will destroy him for violating the rules of Mortal Kombat, Earthrealm is in chaos, nearly all of the heroes have been killed and Liu Kang is so disillusioned by Raiden that they fight and Raiden accidentally kills him.
• In My Harem Heaven is Yandere Hell, the titular yanderes have been each other's only real friends since childhood. They bicker and scheme and even physically fight over Yuuya's affections — but the instant someone else tries to snare him, they team up to eliminate the outsider as Kayoko learned too late. He belongs to one of them, or to no-one at all.
• In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Nemona tells the player character that they can't lose to anyone else besides her just before entering the first Academy Ace Tournament.
• Raz in Psychonauts tells his camp councilors this about the Big Bad right before they send him away from the battle, claiming that "the grownups should handle this." He's understandably pissed off later.
• In Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One when you play as Qwark and Dr. Nefarious, if Qwark is killed, Nefarious will yell, "No one kills Qwark but me!" Also, Nefarious saves Qwark from being possessed by the Big Bad towards the end of the game.
• In the first Samurai Warriors, the wife of Oda Nobunaga cites this as the reason for being at his side (historically, there had been suspicions that she was married to Nobunaga so she'd assassinate him), but in both of her endings she seems to have more or less given up on the idea of actually killing him (except to threaten it every once in a while halfheartedly as a very kinky form of foreplay). In later games she's pretty much head over heels in love with him from the get go, though still very much a sadist.
• In Shin Super Robot Wars, Ghostelo wants to be the only one to beat Eiji Asuka. The Daikyu Maryuu team takes advantage of this during one scenario, Ghostelo appears and smacks the supercharged Zakarl out of the way because the Layzner is his prey. Ghostelo has made himself an enemy out of his own allies, and the SRX Team realize they've only got one chance to defeat Lu Cain, something that hasn't succeeded until now, but likely won't succeed yet, causing Daimoji to sortie the rest of the crew, including the Shin Getter Robo.
• Heather in Silent Hill 3, when Claudia eats the baby God fetus, and proceeds to give birth to it (seriously, how does that work?). Shortly afterwards, the God presumably killed Claudia, as she was pulled down the hole at over 300 mph. Heather then proceeds to state, "No! You can't die! I wanted to kill you!"
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  • The 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, sees Dr. Robotnik catch Sonic the instant before he falls into a lava pit only to drop him into an adjacent, much less deadly self-devised trap. Can be seen at 1:50 here.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog has also pulled this off. He expresses regret whenever it seems Sonic is defeated by somebody other than him in various games, to the point where he saved Sonic from being killed by Silver and fighting in his place in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and can't even look at his dead body after Mephiles kills him later on.
  • Metal Sonic, who is programmed to kill Sonic by Dr. Eggman anyways, takes this even further in Sonic Heroes when he turns into Metal Madness/Overlord, extremely obsessed in not only defeating Sonic but also showing that he's the real Sonic.
• Star Fox:
  • The Rival Wolf acts this way towards Fox. The games thus far have never really provided a reason for this though, and the more recent games used it more as an excuse for Enemy Mine situations (involving Wolf saving Fox so that he can "tan his hide" after the big threat has been dealt with). They still clash in every game for no real reason other than this, of course. Maybe he's just a sore loser.
  • Star Fox Command explains this a little better. Because they flew under Andross's colors in other games, Wolf and his teammates have had a bounty placed on their heads by Corneria. And since Star Fox used to do mercenary work for the Cornerian army, Wolf can't really be blamed for being a little bit defensive whenever Fox and his team shows up, even if they 'should' be working together against the Big Bad. This doesn't make it any less corny when the big Enemy Mine moment actually happens.
• Applies to Fayt and Albel of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time as Albel saves Fayt's ass on one occasion because "You worms…are…my prey… I’m not going to let…anyone else have you…".
• Inversion from the Suikoden series: Clive, Kelley, and Elza started as Two Guys and a Girl being raised by a group of assassins. The story ends pretty much like you'd expect: Elza, The Heart, on the run from Clive after being framed for Kelley's murder. What makes this different: she secretly wants to be caught, making this a case of "You're The Only One Allowed to Defeat Me". (Naming all the times the trope was played straight in the series could very well overtake the page. The biggest example being Pesmerga and Yuber, who have apparently been bitter enemies for centuries.)
• Super Mario Bros.
  • A variant of this is used in two of the RPGs. In Super Mario RPG, if Mario tries to leave Marrymore through the alternate exit after saving Peach and says no to everyone, Bowser will eventually come out and say "No one, NO ONE, is authorized to kidnap the Princess except ME! It's just wouldn't be right!" In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, upon finding out that Peach was kidnapped by the X-Nauts, he says practically the same thing, going as far to say it's a rule against it.
  • In Fortune Street, he angrily tells a victorious player that Mario's the only one who's supposed to beat him. He then backpedals and says that no one's supposed to beat him at all.
  • The ending of Mario Super Sluggers shows Wario and Waluigi putting a Bullet Bill in a fireworks cannon aimed at Mario. Bowser then leaps in and hits the Bullet Bill with his baseball bat saving Mario in the process.
  • Super Mario 64 DS goes to the point where he sends any of the playable characters who aren't Mario to the Endless Stairs instead of the final showdown.
  • Something similar happens a the end of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, before the final battle against The Dark Star Bowser outright says that if someone is going to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom is going to be him.
• In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation Zengar's Grungust Type-3 has just been pretty well demolished by one of the Inspectors, when who should show up but Wodan Ymir, Zengar's doppelganger from a different dimension. Everyone thinks he's here to finish Zengar off... and instead he attacks the Inspector. A few minutes later, when Zengar gets into the Daizengar, only to find none of its weapons work, Wodan once again makes the save by throwing him the Type-3 Zankantou. His whole reason for doing this, as he points out, is that he will be the one to defeat Zengar, so that he can stop being one of the Shadow Mirrors' soulless puppets and finally be his true self.
• Sword of Paladin: Alex wants to be the one to kill Berienstahl, who killed his mother and turned his brother into Ragnarek's vessel. Unfortunately, Nade is the one to kill Berienstahl, resulting in Alex harboring hidden resentment.
• Lili towards Asuka in Tekken. She even jumps on a certain android attacking Asuka and screams "I'm the only person allowed to defeat you!" Keep in mind this android has chainsaws for arms, and previously cut a limo in half while chasing them; lengthways. Therefore could have easily killed Lili. Any wonder why this is a budding Crack Pairing?
  • Hwoarang is this to Jin Kazama as well as Jin is the only person who defeat him (Jin himself knows why Hwoarang wants to be that guy but he considers any rivalry there to be small-time compared to his conflict with his Big, Screwed-Up Family).
• In Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Nathan Drake and Eddie may feel this way. This is shown in the chapter where Drake and Eddie team up to fight The Descendants, although this might've just been the fact that they teamed up to avoid dying themselves.
  Eddie: If we don't make it out of this, I just want you to know... I hate your guts.
  Nate: Yeah, likewise pal, NOW LET'S DO THIS!
• Bastion, the hero of Vanguard Bandits is the only one who can land the killing blow on the Final Boss. If anyone else does it, he comes back with half his HP restored.
• In Yakuza, one of Goro Majima's henchmen attempts to kill Kazuma Kiryu with a dagger while his back is turned. Majima throws himself in front of the blade, taking a near-fatal stab wound to the gut rather than risk Kiryu dying at anyone's hands but his own.
  • Much later on in the series, it becomes apparent that Majima isn't the only one that feels this way towards Kiryu. In Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, after the Once per Episode encounter with the Amon Clan, Jo Amon tells Kiryu to not die on him before they meet again; he wants the Amon Clan to be the one to take Kiryu out, not his disease.

---