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Rule of Escalating Threat

77 statements
13 feature instances
5 referencing feature instances

Rule of Escalating Threat	type	FeatureClass
Rule of Escalating Threat	label	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat	page	RuleOfEscalatingThreat
Rule of Escalating Threat	comment	The inevitable problem with making everything you do into a Big Event is hitting a plateau of excessiveness. This is done to maintain a sense of urgency or, more likely, shock value via Plot Leveling. The problem occurs when the super-weapons have to go from killing thousands to millions to billions. Or the crazy villain hits the artistic plateau of sin and, from then on, just becomes a mass murderer. There's also the good chance the writers will use the opportunity to pick some Throw-Away Country to be the place where millions die, but that number is so huge that it becomes almost impossible to relate to, and the heroes' reactions just don't seem like enough. This runs counter to the superheroing idea that any number of people getting hurt is wrong; this makes the main characters seem ineffectual and induces apathy in the readers. This also creates a paradox in Comic-Book Time, where huge numbers of deaths have to start being overlooked to make any reaction credible. The natural antidote to this is to use something other than people being killed to convince the audience of the importance of the story. May also happen at the top end of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil. Leads to a condition where The World Is Always Doomed. Related to A Million Is a Statistic.
Rule of Escalating Threat	fetched	2024-04-16T01:45:50Z
Rule of Escalating Threat	parsed	2024-04-16T01:45:50Z
Rule of Escalating Threat	processingComment	Dropped link to DoesntLikeGuns: Not an Item - FEATURE
Rule of Escalating Threat	processingComment	Dropped link to FootballHooligans: Not an Item - FEATURE
Rule of Escalating Threat	processingComment	Dropped link to WarhammerFantasy: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Rule of Escalating Threat	processingComment	Dropped link to immortality: Not an Item - FEATURE
Rule of Escalating Threat	processingUnknown	WarhammerFantasy
Rule of Escalating Threat	isPartOf	DBTropes
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_4432d3ee	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_4432d3ee	comment	Fairy Dance Of Death: invoked By design, for any good game. As the players progress through the World Tree, each new level presents a more difficult challenge than the last. In some cases, such as the 25th gateway boss, the Difficulty Spike is lethal.
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Fairy Dance Of Death (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_4432d3ee
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_468bebb0	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_468bebb0	comment	A Discworld fic by A.A. Pessimal has Ponder Stibbons thinking creatively about an objective scale to gauge any magical hazard. He evolves something based clsoely on the Beaufort Scale for wind strength, which involves closely watching Rincewind to see how he reacts. If Rincewind not only runs away but seeks to get to the next continent,note force nine it's serious.
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_468bebb0	featureApplicability	1.0
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_468bebb0	featureConfidence	1.0
Discworld	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_468bebb0
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_5db577ba	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_5db577ba	comment	Ironically, his The Dark Knight version points out that this trope is why he doesn't want Batman to die; while he's around, the Joker can continue to threaten hundreds, if not thousands, of lives at once, instead of becoming the one-off petty crook he was before.
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The Dark Knight	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_5db577ba
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_694ab80	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_694ab80	comment	The DCAU version of the Joker may be an exception, although this was largely mitigated by what broadcast standards allowed the show. Joker's plans tended to focus on his original trademark convoluted plots of many different types, everything from selling poisoned fish to just messing with someone's life, rather than outright murdering anyone in cold blood — thus explaining the rarity of his trademark non-wacky pistol. Nonetheless the direct-to-video Batman Beyond movie saw fit to censor a few disturbing bits. Ironically, his The Dark Knight version points out that this trope is why he doesn't want Batman to die; while he's around, the Joker can continue to threaten hundreds, if not thousands, of lives at once, instead of becoming the one-off petty crook he was before.
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Rule of Escalating Threat / int_694ab80	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman Beyond	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_694ab80
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_72dc7882	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_72dc7882	comment	Sayaka Quest: Skadi. A triple-Witch spawned from a natural 100 on the difficulty role and the second most powerful Witch fought to date.
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_72dc7882	featureApplicability	1.0
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_72dc7882	featureConfidence	1.0
Sayaka Quest (Roleplay)	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_72dc7882
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_8125b468	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_8125b468	comment	Dark Ranger struggles with this. For a time, Dark Ranger was constantly having to upgrade his gear to compete with the increasingly dangerous supervillains he was facing.
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_8125b468	featureApplicability	1.0
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_8125b468	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman (Franchise)	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_8125b468
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_9f89a5f0	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_9f89a5f0	comment	The first four PokÃ©mon generations followed this pattern. Team Rocket of Generations I and II were a pretty standard organized crime syndicate. In Generation III, Team Magma and Team Aqua sought to use Hoenn's legendary PokÃ©mon to expand the land or sea respectively, risking widespread destruction worldwide. Then in Generation IV, Team Galactic's leader sought to reshape the universe to his will with legendary PokÃ©mon that can warp time or space. Zig-zagged in subsequent Generations. The scheme of Generation V's Team Plasma was mostly limited to impacting Unova, Generation VI's Team Flare secretly sought to wipe out almost all life on the planet, Generation VII had Lusamine recklessly unleashing Ultra Beasts all over Alola or Necrozma stealing Alola's light, and Generation VIII's Team Yell is basically a gang of Football Hooligans who are simply trying to support their local gym leader's little sister (and getting a tad carried away with it), while Galar's resident MegaCorp is attempting to use an ancient alien PokÃ©mon as a power source for the region.
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_9f89a5f0	featureApplicability	1.0
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_9f89a5f0	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon (Franchise)	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_9f89a5f0
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_a4420d22	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_a4420d22	comment	In The Venture Bros., this is the principal The Guild of Calamitous Intent runs off of. An equally matched aggression system that fits the right villain with the ideal protagonist of an equal or so skill and power level. Itâ€™s this system that prevents every costumed weirdo, Mad Scientist and miscreant from running amuck, causing untold damage and killing who knows how many civilians; which would have the worlds governments up their asses and leave them no way to fight back. Itâ€™s for this reason if either the villains or heroes do not follow protocol or get too bloodthirsty? The Guild can claim self defense or liability and finish them off. This also the reason Brock Samson Doesn't Like Guns, despite being quite adept and eager at killing with just about any other implement. He has no ethical issues with guns and will even reach for one if the situation calls for it, but if he relies on firearms to kill henchmen, then henchmen will start relying on firearms to kill him.
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Rule of Escalating Threat / int_bcadd7cb	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_bcadd7cb	comment	Warhammer 40,000 has experienced this a fair few times. The relentless doom 'n' gloom of the setting starts getting tricky for Games Workshop to top. They constantly use "most world-shattering event in the history of humanity" type-language in order to make it look like this is really the big one; the gamers just shrug and go "yeah whatever, we've seen it all before". The 5th Edition re-boot attempted to get past this by saying "no seriously guys, everything's screwed". The fans were, by and large, not taken in. Status Quo Is God after all. The 8th edition made things slightly better (Roboute Guilliman, one of the few people who remembers the Imperium as it was/should have been was brought back to life) and also much worse (half the galaxy is cut off from Warp travel, Cadia is gone, Abaddon's Black Crusade succeeded...).
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_bcadd7cb	featureApplicability	1.0
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Warhammer 40,000 (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_bcadd7cb
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_c43df4d8	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_c43df4d8	comment	The season finales of the new Doctor Who tend to play with this rule. Sometimes it's just the Doctor's life at stake, while other times the whole universe is threatened. The Big Bads for each story arc and what they threaten are as follows: The Daleks (Earth) The Daleks + Cybermen (Earth) The Master (Earth and the Galaxy) Davros (all of creation) The Time Lords (all of creation) The Silence (the Doctor's life + all of creation as an unforeseen side-effect) The Great Intelligence (the Doctor's life + all of creation) The Master again (Earth)
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Doctor Who	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_c43df4d8
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_db96ded4	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_db96ded4	comment	In The Legend of Korra, each season's main villain is bigger and badder than the one before. First is Amon and the Equalists, who want to "equalize" benders by removing their powers - bad news if you're a bender in Republic City. Next up is Unalaq, who wants to release a Sealed Evil in a Can and become an evil Avatar. He briefly succeeds but gets taken out before he can cause any real trouble besides temporarily taking over the Southern Water Tribe and leaving part of Republic city covered in spirit vines. The third season introduces the Red Lotus, an anarchist group who wants to end all world governments. They succeed in assassinating the Earth Queen and almost permanently destroy the Avatar. The chaos from that season gives rise to Kuvira, a No-Nonsense Nemesis who swiftly reconquers the Earth Kingdom, declares it an Earth Empire, and then marches on Republic City with a high-tech army led by a Humongous Mecha wielding spirit-powered superweapons. Hard to imagine where they could have gone with a fifth season.
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Rule of Escalating Threat / int_e293455a	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_e293455a	comment	Pretty much ditto for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season one: The Master, a vampire lord. Season 2, Angleus, a possibly more vicious vampire, if not powerful, and, of course, a more personal threat, seeing as it was Buffy boyfriend having a Faceâ€“Heel Turn that Buffy herself was partly responsible for. Season 3, the Mayor, a century old sorcerer who can't be injured or killed, and is a Villain with Good Publicity. Season four was Adam, a demon/human/cyborg hybrid that was so strong, it took tapping into the primal forces of the Slayer to defeat him. Season five was Glorificus, a hell-god capable of destroying all reality. To top this, Buffy went with the "personal enemy" again, this time being her best friend, Willow, taking the Faceâ€“Heel Turn. In season seven, Buffy fought the personfication of all evil. Now in season eight, she has to deal with Twilight, a powerful... something that can easily beat her physically, and who has a massive cult behind him. Plus the United States military and the general public are against her. Oh, and a couple of rogue Slayers.
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Rule of Escalating Threat / int_e5ea79ee	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_e5ea79ee	comment	First, The Authority went up against a terrorist organization with the numbers and power to attack three major cities in the course of a few days. Then, they took on an enemy that had conquered an alternate reality Earth and turned an entire country into a rape camp. Then they took on God. Then...
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_e5ea79ee	featureApplicability	1.0
Rule of Escalating Threat / int_e5ea79ee	featureConfidence	1.0
The Authority (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Rule of Escalating Threat / int_e5ea79ee

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Rule of Escalating Threat	processingCategory2	Comic Book Tropes
52 (Comic Book) / int_70920da1	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
The Authority (Comic Book) / int_70920da1	type	Rule of Escalating Threat
Hero Go Home	seeAlso	Rule of Escalating Threat
RuleofEscalatingThreat	sameAs	Rule of Escalating Threat

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