Orcus on his Throne

Orcus on his Throne is a trope that comes from Dugongs & Dragons. For when the main villain is off stage in his evil lair for letting his henchmen fight off the hero's or is elsewise not engaging the hero till the last minute. But normally when they does engaged they will at best give the heroes a run for their money. This happens a lot in video games.


Examples

The Trope namer Orcus form Dungeons and Dragons. Also most Demon Lord fall into this in some way or another.

Both Bowers from Mario. And Ganon/Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda. Ganon is a little more justified in that every is normally going according to his plan. And in some cases he's already won. And Link is just cleaning up his mess. Zant from Twilight Princess forces himself in to this. Skull Kid/Majora spends the whole three day cycle on top of the clock tower waiting for the moon crash in to Termina. And when you get there Skull Kid/Majora just waits for Link to either reset the three day cycle or summon the four Giants or the Moon crashs it to Termina. Majora takes this one step further and after you summon the four Giants he/she/it hijack the moon and waits for Link to follow. Once their Majora is sits by its self by a tree waiting for Link to interact with him/her/it. And when Link finally fights Majora it goes bat shit insane.

Aizen from Bleach as is minions do most of the fighting when he's on the side lines just looking pretty. When he finally does fight he pretty much Curb Stomps everyone.


Father from Fullmetal Alchemist. He spends all most the entire series sitting on is throne having his "children" do all the work.

Laxus from Fairy Tale spends most of his story arc at Kardia Cathedral. Justified because deep down he does not have the guts to kill his fellow guild members.

Asura from Soul Eater spends all most the entire series hiding even though he can Curb Stomp most of the good guy. Slightly justified in that his plan (if you can call it that) is just to drowned the world in his madness wavelengths. He doesn't have to do anything.


Near from Death Note would be a anti hero example which he as gotten a lot of criticism for. But he is a justified example. He's gathering evidence against Kira (aka Light Yagami.) And when he does face Light he almost kills Near. Mello also counts despite being more active then the other antagonist. For the first part of the his story atc he spends most of his time sitting on a couch eating chocolate. Its not until the protagonist raid his base that gets more active.


Spiral King Lordgenome (or how ever you spell that.) From Gurren Lagann. But when the good guys fight him its is very clear why he's hasn't engage them.


Firelord Ozai from Avatar Last Airbender. Was meant to be this.