...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

You Can't Thwart Stage One

1798 statements
346 feature instances
375 referencing feature instances

You Can't Thwart Stage One	type	FeatureClass
You Can't Thwart Stage One	label	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One	page	YouCantThwartStageOne
You Can't Thwart Stage One	comment	Any time the Big Bad is putting together an Evil Plan, you can always expect it to reach its final stage, no matter what the hero or heroes do to try to stop it. If the villain is trying to collect the Three Cosmic Keystones that will allow them to become a Physical God, they will assemble them all. If the villain is trying to unseal a Sealed Evil in a Can, it will break free and need to be defeated or re-sealed. If the villain is planning to disgrace the king, hypnotize the princess and rule the kingdom, they will accomplish the first two before The Hero stops them. And so on. No matter what the hero tries, the forces of villainy will inevitably come within inches of victory, forcing one final showdown with everything at stake. This does not mean The Hero must be completely ineffective until this last battle — Lieutenants may be defeated and minor complications may be done away with, but these will be temporary setbacks. As for the brunt of the threat, there's no averting it until the eleventh hour. Naturally, once the eleventh hour arrives, The Good Guys Always Win, but they'll be cutting it close. The closer, the better. This is especially painful to watch when The Hero or otherwise a good guy will attempt to foil the Evil Plan in a way that In-Universe seems like a perfectly good idea, but from a Doylist point of view is too anticlimactic to work. In the best case, they fail at the earliest opportunity in a relatively harmless way. Otherwise, they may appear to be making progress — obstacles will be cleared and the stakes will rise — only for the story to inevitably Yank the Dog's Chain and pull the whole thing into catastrophic failure. This is what happens when Finagle's Law meets the Rule of Drama. You Are Too Late is often involved. Hostage for MacGuffin, MacGuffin Delivery Service, and Xanatos Gambit are frequently employed to make the hero effective without routing the villain. Team Rocket Wins can give the heroes more of a challenge and justify failing at first. Compare Your Princess Is in Another Castle!, Snowballing Threat, and Unspoken Plan Guarantee (the unspoken plan is stage two). Contrasts Pyrrhic Victory and Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu. Might be a cause of Railroading. Has nothing to do with being unable to beat Stage 1. Due to the nature of this trope, all examples are likely to be spoilers.
You Can't Thwart Stage One	fetched	2024-03-19T06:46:42Z
You Can't Thwart Stage One	parsed	2024-03-19T06:46:42Z
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to AFateWorseThanDeath: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to AllAccordingToPlan: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to ArtifactOfPower: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to BatmanGambit: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to ChallengeRun: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to DiabolusExMachina: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to Discussed: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to DoomsdayDevice: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to DoubleSubversion: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to DraggedOffToHell: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to ElaborateUndergroundBase: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to EvilFormerFriend: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to EvilVersusEvil: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to FaceHeelTurn: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to FinalBattle: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to FlawExploitation: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to ForegoneConclusion: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to GreaterScopeVillain: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to GutPunch: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to HeroicSacrifice: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to HijackedByGanon: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to HoistByHisOwnPetard: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to HonorBeforeReason: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to HostageForMacGuffin: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to InstantWinCondition: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to InvertedTrope: Not an Item - IGNORE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to LoveInterest: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to MaxPayne2: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to MeaningfulRename: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to MeaninglessVillainVictory: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to NoSell: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to NonstandardGameOver: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to PersonOfMassDestruction: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to PlayedWith: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to PuppetKing: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to SealedEvilInACan: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to SoleSurvivor: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to SonicChroniclesTheDarkBrotherhood: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to SpannerInTheWorks: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to StarWars: Not an Item - CAT
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to StrictlyFormula: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to TheDragon: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to TheNightThatNeverEnds: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to TheStrategist: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to ThirdActStupidity: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to ThreeLawsCompliant: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to VillainForgotToLevelGrind: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to VillainOfTheWeek: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to WordOfGod: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to ZigZaggingTrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to invokedtrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to justifiedtrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingComment	Dropped link to playingwithatrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingUnknown	AFateWorseThanDeath
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingUnknown	LoveInterest
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingUnknown	MaxPayne2
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingUnknown	SonicChroniclesTheDarkBrotherhood
You Can't Thwart Stage One	isPartOf	DBTropes
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_10ddd3d5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_10ddd3d5	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has you gather three MacGuffins that will help defeat the Big Bad, only for said Big Bad to teleport in behind you right after getting the last piece and stealing them all.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_10ddd3d5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_10ddd3d5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_10ddd3d5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_129c7b57	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_129c7b57	comment	In Ultimate Spider-Man's "Spider-Verse" arc, the Goblin goes on a trip through the multiverse to collect the DNA of various versions of Spider-Man. Peter chases after him and prevents him from doing too much damage along the way—plus helping defeat various local bad guys—but Goblin still manages to collect all the DNA, then uses it to turn himself into the Spider-Goblin.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_129c7b57	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_129c7b57	featureConfidence	1.0
Ultimate Spider-Man (2012)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_129c7b57
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1305c32	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1305c32	comment	Kamen Rider Fourze never stops a Zodiarts before it can enter its Last One phase.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1305c32	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1305c32	featureConfidence	1.0
Kamen Rider Fourze	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1305c32
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1331990c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1331990c	comment	Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Homura can't prevent Madoka becoming a Magical Girl, but time will be rewound in case she can't protect Madoka anymore. Nobody Can Complete Stage One, that is.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1331990c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1331990c	featureConfidence	1.0
Puella Magi Madoka Magica	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1331990c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_135f4195	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_135f4195	comment	Subverted somewhat in Dune. Baron Harkonnen's plan to take over Arrakis, destroy House Atreides, and eventually place his nephew on the Imperial throne has several important factors go wrong from the beginning (such as Paul and Jessica surviving and his second-in-command Piter being killed before he could assume control of Arrakis, and keeping a member of the Atreides staff alive and in his employ). The repercussions of these factors ultimately ruin the Baron, and probably meant that his plan wouldn't have succeeded in any case. As the Princess Irulan said, "A beginning is a very delicate time".
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_135f4195	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_135f4195	featureConfidence	1.0
Dune	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_135f4195
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_13646ab7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_13646ab7	comment	In Pale, the Kennet witch trio successfully recover the furs of the Carmine Beast, expose and imprison the Girl by Candlelight, hand Charles Abrams over to one of the most powerful magical practitioners in all of Canada to secure, and drive Maricica of Dark Autumn and the Wallflower Doppelganger Lis out of town in order to prepare for the battle for the empty Carmine Throne. Nevertheless, in the space of one night Maricica breaks Charles out of the Blue Heron Institute, is able to drain the power of the Hungry Choir to allow Lis to usurp the spirit of Kennet, and together they retrieve the furs from the folded space where the witches had hidden them, allowing Charles to enter the Carmine Contest with the power of the murdered Carmine Beast and the Hungry Choir.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_13646ab7	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_13646ab7	featureConfidence	1.0
Pale	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_13646ab7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_15d17004	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_15d17004	comment	Sherlock Holmes: The Big Bad says early on that he will kill three people and Holmes will fail to save any of them. He succeeds in doing so, but Holmes thwarts his plan before he can attack his fourth and final target.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_15d17004	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_15d17004	featureConfidence	1.0
Sherlock Holmes (2009)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_15d17004
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_166bf156	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_166bf156	comment	Choujuu Sentai Liveman: Bias suceeds in getting the twelfth brain, brainwashing the world, and becoming immortal. In other words, he succeeded. And he would have won if Yuusuke hadn't made it to the Brain Base or if Kemp hadn't heed Megumi's words and had a Heel Realization that led to the rest of his trapped students fighting back to get vengeance on Bias.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_166bf156	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_166bf156	featureConfidence	1.0
Choujuu Sentai Liveman	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_166bf156
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_16861a09	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_16861a09	comment	The Incredibles: Syndrome managed to launch his robot before the heroes were able to take him down.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_16861a09	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_16861a09	featureConfidence	1.0
The Incredibles	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_16861a09
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_168c4727	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_168c4727	comment	Guild Wars 2 also has this at the conclusion of Scarlet Briar's Living World storyline. You manage to drive her army out of Lion's Arch and kill Scarlet, but not before she wakens the sixth Elder Dragon.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_168c4727	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_168c4727	featureConfidence	1.0
Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_168c4727
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_169f043b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_169f043b	comment	In StarCraft, the chronological order of the campaign is Terran -> Zerg -> Protoss, with the Terrans introducing most of the cast and the threat of the Zerg, the Zerg campaign having them run rampant over most of the galaxy, and the Protoss managing to barely pull off a last second victory despite a fully manifested Overmind on the surface of Aiur. Subverted in the Brood War expansion, as the order is changed to Protoss -> Terran -> Zerg, with the Protoss simply doing their best to survive in their campaign, the Terrans introducing the new UED antagonists and succeeding much like the Zerg before them... and then Kerrigan betrays everyone and the Zerg finish the game as the pre-eminent power in the Sector, with only Kerrigan's mercy holding them from overrunning her former allies she used to bring down the UED.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_169f043b	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_169f043b	featureConfidence	1.0
StarCraft (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_169f043b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17293dfa	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17293dfa	comment	Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Even if you replay the first Class Trial with the knowledge that Kaede is being set up by the true Mastermind, Tsumugi, you can't successfully accuse her of the murder, because the evidence pointing to her guilt isn't discovered until the final Chapter.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17293dfa	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17293dfa	featureConfidence	1.0
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17293dfa
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17321b2d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17321b2d	comment	In BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires, the heroes have to stop Boxxyfan from activating the three Spires and destroying the Internet. Naturally, he just beats them to the first two Spires, and manages to activate the third one even after they beat him; it then turns out that there is a fourth one, and that one he fails. Rcoastee manages to activate it instead- only for Catie to stop the destruction anyway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17321b2d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17321b2d	featureConfidence	1.0
BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_17321b2d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_18dec9fb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_18dec9fb	comment	The first stage of Ninja Commando automatically ends with the Big Bad, Spider, escaping via Time Machine to rewrite history and prevent his present-day defeat, and there's no getting around it. You then hijack another prototype time machine to pursue Spider.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_18dec9fb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_18dec9fb	featureConfidence	1.0
Ninja Commando (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_18dec9fb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1973b10a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1973b10a	comment	Happens twice in Sonic Unleashed. The armada that Eggman controls in the game's intro was all just a ploy to trap Super Sonic and use the Chaos Emeralds to unleashed Dark Gaia. It's Sonic and Chip's goal to restore the Chaos Emeralds and the planet before Dark Gaia gains their full strength, but thanks to Sonic's own Werehog transformation, Dark Gaia is returned to full power.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1973b10a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1973b10a	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1973b10a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_19b81c12	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_19b81c12	comment	Get in the Car, Loser!: Subverted in the main story, where the party successfully seals away the Machine Devil before he can begin scorching the Earth again, despite the cultists and the Divine Order unsealing the Machine Devil early in response. Played straight in the "Fate of Another World" DLC, which takes place in an alternate timeline where the Machine Devil was defeated after he already caused enough death and destruction to cause total societal collapse.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_19b81c12	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_19b81c12	featureConfidence	1.0
Get in the Car, Loser! (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_19b81c12
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1a8119af	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1a8119af	comment	Dragon Quest VIII: The Big Bad, Rhapthorne, will return, which means that the descendants of the 7 sages will die, and there's nothing you can do to prevent this from happening. An especially harsh display of this trope, as it involves several huge Player Punches, notably the deaths of Abbot Francisco, David and Marta.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1a8119af	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1a8119af	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1a8119af
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1add3bae	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1add3bae	comment	The first stage of Yokai Hunter Shintaro ends with you facing the tengu who stole the Yokai shards, and the game's main villain. If you defeat him, the tengu will... unleash a powerful energy blast covering the entire screen, defeating you instead before he pulls a Villain: Exit, Stage Left. Leading to the rest of the game where you hunt down the tengu starting with his minions.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1add3bae	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1add3bae	featureConfidence	1.0
Yokai Hunter Shintaro (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1add3bae
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1beda93b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1beda93b	comment	Sluggy Freelance: The Sluggy crew try to stop Gwynn from summoning the demon K'Z'K. Doesn't work. They try to trick Bun-Bun into killing Gwynn while she's possessed by K'Z'K. Doesn't work. They try exorcising K'Z'K from Gwynn. It works... but it unleashes K'Z'K in his full power upon the world. They try freezing K'Z'K in time. He ends up going back in time instead. Only when Torg and Zoe also go to the past, where K'Z'K has amassed an army of demons to conquer the world, do they finally succeed in killing him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1beda93b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1beda93b	featureConfidence	1.0
Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1beda93b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1cc09117	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1cc09117	comment	Bleach: During the Turn Back The Pendulum gaiden, Yoruichi Shihoin challenges Kisuke Urahara to develop the best-case solution to the worst-case scenario when they face exile and abandonment because of Sosuke Aizen's machinations. Thus, the storyline's first half is a chess-game where Aizen always reaches the worst case scenario so that Urahara can come up with a best-case scenario to solve the situation. Because of Aizen being rendered the Disc-One Final Boss, the indications are that the chess-game has switched villainous players from Aizen to Yhwach, leaving Urahara still planning the best solutions to the worst case scenarios. It's eventually confirmed that Urahara is classified as one of the Five Special War Powers precisely because of his ability to devise a thousand different options for any given potential event.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1cc09117	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1cc09117	featureConfidence	1.0
Bleach (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1cc09117
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1e015a5d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1e015a5d	comment	As the middle film of the original trilogy, the whole of The Empire Strikes Back is this trope, as the Rebels get chased off Hoth, Han and Leia spend the entire film on the run (before they get captured anyway and Han gets carbon-frozen), and Luke screws up his Jedi training, loses his hand, and gets severely emotionally traumatized. George Lucas has stated that this was to give the trilogy the plot of a three-act play, in which the worst part always comes in Act II.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1e015a5d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1e015a5d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Empire Strikes Back	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1e015a5d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ef3e99d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ef3e99d	comment	Wild Blood has it's first boss being a dragon, which can be easily defeated... only for the dragon to instead defeat you in the following cutscene. Turns out said dragon is Morgana the evil sorceress in her monstrous form, who is immune to your default weapon, and you will lose said battle no matter what. You're then rescued shortly after by your fellow knight Gawain, and will need to seek Excalibur for a rematch.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ef3e99d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ef3e99d	featureConfidence	1.0
Wild Blood (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ef3e99d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1f140feb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1f140feb	comment	The Doom of Mandos is basically a divinely-ordained version of this in The Silmarillion. The Noldor and everyone associated with them are doomed to fail in all their efforts against Morgoth until they ask the Valar for forgiveness, and they only do when Morgoth has won.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1f140feb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1f140feb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Silmarillion	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1f140feb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ff419c5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ff419c5	comment	Then, in Kingdom Hearts II, it turns out that all those Heartless you've been killing? Why, you've been helping Xemnas complete Stage One of his plan to give himself and his fellow Nobodies hearts.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ff419c5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ff419c5	featureConfidence	1.0
Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_1ff419c5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_20e8e9bd	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_20e8e9bd	comment	In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Knuckles is being manipulated by Eggman into thinking that Sonic is coming to steal the Master Emerald. Sonic can't tell Knuckles that this isn't the case (be it his Heroic Mime status or because Knuckles never sticks around long enough to listen), and no matter what, Sonic can never make it to the Hidden Palace in time to protect the Master Emerald before Eggman's ready to betray Knuckles. Doubly subverted, though, in regards to Eggman's plans to rebuild the Death Egg. Sonic's victory at the Launch Base causes the Death Egg to crash down to Angel Island in destruction before it can be launched into orbit (...somehow), but Eggman still succeeds at rebuilding it AGAIN and successfully launching it and stowing the Master Emerald inside.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_20e8e9bd	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_20e8e9bd	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_20e8e9bd
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2192aeb3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2192aeb3	comment	This is played straight for most Fire Emblem games, though, as Stage 1 usually involves the successful invasion of another country, an opening used in every game in the series, usually to the success of the bad guys. A more direct example would also be in Genealogy of the Holy War, where the villains successfully manage to defeat all the heroes and kill the protagonist. They then complete their later steps with no opposition, including taking over the world and resurrecting their evil god. In fact, the only thing the hero actually prevents in the end is a lengthy rule of evil.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2192aeb3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2192aeb3	featureConfidence	1.0
Fire Emblem (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2192aeb3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_223c2a48	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_223c2a48	comment	Inverted in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Calamity Ganon's Hyrule Compendium entry reveals that as soon as he realized Link had awoken, Ganon focused all efforts on rebuilding his body. However, the process is interrupted and he only manages to slap together an incomplete spider-like form by the time Link arrived. This occurs whether Link clears all the dungeons first or goes straight for Ganon right away. So in a way, in BOTW the player always thwarts Stage One.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_223c2a48	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_223c2a48	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_223c2a48
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2250e67e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2250e67e	comment	The 3rd season of Star Trek: Enterprise is the epitome of this trope. Over the course of an entire season, the Enterprise doggedly and valiantly track the Xindi effort to build and launch their Sealed Death Star in a Can. However, no matter what they do, they cannot stop the Xindi from launching the device. For bonus points, the Xindi open one of their spatial rifts which enable them to cross the distance from their part of space to Earth in something like 4 hours. Note, it took the Warp-5 Enterprise months to reach the area. Every move the crew of the Enterprise makes to stop the Xindi fails until they arrive within spitting distance of Earth.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2250e67e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2250e67e	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Enterprise	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2250e67e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_22a99f01	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_22a99f01	comment	Lewis: In "Magnum Opus" the murderer is a Theme Serial Killer, who associates their murders with a four-part alchemical procedure. The first three murders go ahead and the killer is caught just in time to prevent the fourth.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_22a99f01	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_22a99f01	featureConfidence	1.0
Lewis	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_22a99f01
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2354d12c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2354d12c	comment	Dragon Quest: Dragon Quest VIII: The Big Bad, Rhapthorne, will return, which means that the descendants of the 7 sages will die, and there's nothing you can do to prevent this from happening. An especially harsh display of this trope, as it involves several huge Player Punches, notably the deaths of Abbot Francisco, David and Marta. Dragon Quest X: Happens various times throughout the game, but the most prominent is during the Version 4 storyline, where despite defeating Kyronos's evolving body, he'll just escape to another place or rewind time to give himself an advantage. Dragon Quest XI: No matter what you do, you can't stop Mordegon from stealing the Heart of Yggdrasil and plunging the world into an age of darkness. Except after defeating him, by going back in time with his own Sword of Shadows capable of letting you win the Hopeless Boss Fight with Jasper that capped off Act 1, resulting in a completely different sequence of events leading to the true ending.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2354d12c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2354d12c	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Quest (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2354d12c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2404a594	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2404a594	comment	True to its roots as Nanoha fanfic, (On the) Path of Vengeance sees Akira managing to collect the parts of and assemble the Sword of Light before he gets stopped.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2404a594	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2404a594	featureConfidence	1.0
Deva Series / Fan Fic	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2404a594
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2558cbdb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2558cbdb	comment	The Forever Purge: At the end of the El Paso act, the group fails to make it to the border in time due to the situation growing beyond the militaryâ€™s control.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2558cbdb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2558cbdb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Forever Purge	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2558cbdb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_265fb4f1	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_265fb4f1	comment	In Hyrule Warriors: Cia and Ganondorf each get their hands on the full Triforce and its infinite, reality-warping power early on in their respective arcs before somehow still being defeated by the heroes. On a smaller scale, Sequence Breaking is nigh impossible in Legend Mode; if you manage to bypass the enemies to get to the "main" target of the scenario (i.e. Wizzro in the first scenario of the Prologue), they'll quickly disappear to prolong things until the necessary storywise events have occurred (i.e. King Dodongo has appeared) This also happens in some Adventure Mode battles, combined with an unusual variation of You Shouldn't Know This Already: In many of them, you have to complete a mission, and are then told to find a boss key in a specific keep to access the overall boss of the battle; it is very possible to get the key early but the key won't work until you complete the starting mission.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_265fb4f1	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_265fb4f1	featureConfidence	1.0
Hyrule Warriors (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_265fb4f1
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_266cacb6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_266cacb6	comment	Bloody Spell: You are a swordsman fighting the forces of evil in the martial world, while on the trail of your sister who's captured by an evil cult. After defeating tons of enemies in the first stage and killing the first boss, you then see your sister... and the High Priestess who arranged for her kidnapping. Alas, you're automatically overwhelmed by the dark aura in a cutscene and passes out, and when you regain consciousness your sister is gone, again, and your search continues for several hours of gameplay.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_266cacb6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_266cacb6	featureConfidence	1.0
Bloody Spell (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_266cacb6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_27f4c7fb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_27f4c7fb	comment	Coraline: The Beldam manages to trick Coraline just like how she did with the other three children, and Coraline only discovers it on the third visit to the Other World (that is also the visit where the Beldam kidnaps her parents). It's only on the fourth visit that Coraline manages to find the ghost children's freedom, her parent's freedom and her own freedom from the Beldam.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_27f4c7fb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_27f4c7fb	featureConfidence	1.0
Coraline	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_27f4c7fb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_291dc90e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_291dc90e	comment	Octopath Traveler II: The Moonshade Order has one goal: Snuff out the four Sacred Flames across the land of Solistia and release Vide, the god of shadows, and end all human suffering by wiping everyone out. While one agent is looking for the locations of the unknown Flames, the rest of the Order is gathering the Darkblood weapons needed as part of the sacrifical rituals to put out the Flames. As the Order interacts with the Travelers, they either use or are hindered by the Travelers as the heroes have their own goals and only one of them knowingly deals with agents of the Order. After the completion of specific Traveler's stories, the Order succeeds and will have put out one of the Flames. Once all four are out, the Travelers have a shared dream of the darkness that is to come. While they work to reignite the Flames, Vide's prison has returned to the world and one final member reaches it intime to sacririce himself to free Vide, requiring the Travelers to beat back Vide.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_291dc90e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_291dc90e	featureConfidence	1.0
Octopath Traveler II (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_291dc90e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2938d48f	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2938d48f	comment	In Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess, the phoenix gets released despite the group's efforts to stop it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2938d48f	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2938d48f	featureConfidence	1.0
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2938d48f
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2a04866b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2a04866b	comment	Played straight in each of the original Guild Wars campaigns. Prophecies: The Undead Lich acquires the Staff of Orr and unleashes the Titans, despite the efforts of the heroes and the Mursaat to prevent this. You must then slay the Lich and seal the Titans away. Factions: Shiro is resurrected using the blood of the Imperial line. You must kill him again in a final confrontation so he can be properly imprisoned. Nightfall: Varesh succeeds in her rituals to bring about Nightfall and opens a vortex into the Realm of Torment. You must enter the Realm of Torment and defeat Abaddon before he can break free. Eye of the North: In a meta example relating to the sequel, you cannot stop the awakening of Primordus the Elder Dragon. All you do is delay it, allowing a new story to develop centuries later.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2a04866b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2a04866b	featureConfidence	1.0
Guild Wars (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2a04866b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2d316bc0	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2d316bc0	comment	This happens in the 4th season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012). The third season ended with the Triceraton Fleet using a black hole generator called the Heart of Darkness to suck Earth into a black hole (an Enemy Mine to destroy the device before it could activate was foiled by the Shredder killing Splinter). The Turtles go back in time with this verse's version of Honeycutt to obtain the pieces and destroy them before the device could be assembled, but the Triceratons are able to assemble it anyway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2d316bc0	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2d316bc0	featureConfidence	1.0
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2d316bc0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2e6be66a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2e6be66a	comment	In My-Otome, the protagonists make moves against Nagi's plans for the first 16 episodes, but are unable to accomplish enough to stop him from taking over Windbloom or activating the Harmonium, leading up to an attempt to liberate Windbloom, destroy the Harmonium and defeat him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2e6be66a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2e6be66a	featureConfidence	1.0
My-Otome	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2e6be66a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2ef7cb74	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2ef7cb74	comment	The heroines of Lyrical Nanoha were almost able to thwart Stage One in each of the three seasons, having retained one half of the Jewel Seeds in Season 1, convinced the Wolkenritter that finishing all 666 pages of the Book of Darkness might be a bad idea in Season 2, and rescued the Mysterious Waif before she could be used by the Big Bad in Season 3. "Almost" doesn't cut it, though, as Precia executes her plans anyway with what she has no matter how unstable it is, the Masked Man intervenes and uses the Wolkenritter's essence as fuel for the remaining pages of the Book of Darkness, and the Numbers invade and destroy the heroes' HQ to reclaim the Mysterious Waif respectively. FORCE uses this too, but the manga's cancellation means Stage One is all there is. The fact that Stage One lasted for four years with no end in sight is often cited as a reason for said cancellation.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2ef7cb74	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2ef7cb74	featureConfidence	1.0
Lyrical Nanoha (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_2ef7cb74
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3038d75c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3038d75c	comment	In Diablo II, you cannot stop Diablo from freeing Baal and reuniting with Mephisto. In the Lord of Destruction expansion, you can't stop Baal from corrupting the Worldstone, but you can kill him, letting Tyrael destroy the Worldstone before it can be used to turn Sanctuary into another Hell realm.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3038d75c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3038d75c	featureConfidence	1.0
Diablo II (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3038d75c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_305d1c25	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_305d1c25	comment	Cuco in Cucumber Quest would very much like to avert this trope by preventing the Nightmare Knight's summoning, but the enemy — and even some of his allies — are determined to have it played straight.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_305d1c25	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_305d1c25	featureConfidence	1.0
Cucumber Quest (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_305d1c25
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_306233e6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_306233e6	comment	In Summer Wars, two attempts to stop Love Machine fail due to internal sabotage, leading to the climax.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_306233e6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_306233e6	featureConfidence	1.0
Summer Wars	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_306233e6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_30a5ebfd	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_30a5ebfd	comment	Naruto does this a lot: At the end of Part I, Orochimaru's plan to steal Sasuke succeeds, ensuring future and highly personal conflicts with Orochimaru and Sasuke. The leaders of Akatsuki need to seal all nine of the Tailed Beast for their overall and personal goals to be completed. Inevitably, all but two are sealed and Tobi is able to compensate for the missing beasts by using smaller pieces of their chakra. Not only are the Beasts sealed, but the Ten-Tails is reborn and Tobi manages to seal it into himself. Despite his overwhelming power, he is defeated...only for Madara to reform the Ten-Tails and seal it into himself within minutes. Madara takes this one step further as he cannot complete his plan unless he acquires both Rinnegan. Despite the efforts of the heores he succeeds and enacts the Infinite Tsukiyomi.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_30a5ebfd	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_30a5ebfd	featureConfidence	1.0
Naruto (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_30a5ebfd
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3199e98a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3199e98a	comment	A Practical Guide to Evil runs on the Theory of Narrative Causality, and so the Genre Savvy Tyrant of Helike actively Exploits this trope. If the first step always works, all he needs to do is keep making new plans with new first steps and he can keep causing chaos for as long as he can keep juggling Villain Balls. It's implied that this strategy was also used by the in-universe historical figure Dread Emperor Irritant, "the Oddly Successful."
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3199e98a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3199e98a	featureConfidence	1.0
A Practical Guide to Evil	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3199e98a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_31e1eca3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_31e1eca3	comment	Nicely handled in Platinum with Cyrus trying to attack you about 5/8ths in, letting you beat him down. He still escapes, though, and you aren't able to access the Galactic Hideout early, even if you grind to level 100. That receptionist must have balls to still not let you go past at that point.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_31e1eca3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_31e1eca3	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon Diamond and Pearl (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_31e1eca3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_32c541e6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_32c541e6	comment	In Fullmetal Alchemist, Father plans on using Amestris to make a Philosopher's stone, like he did with Xerxes 400 years ago, which requires tunnels being dug throughout the countries, bloody battles taking place at critical points on the circle, and five people who have opened the gate being gathered. The presence of Pride makes destroying the tunnels impossible, so the heroes plan on defeating Father before "The Promised Day" arrives. During the siege of Central, Father manages to gather Hohenheim, Ed, Al, Izumi, and Roy as his sacrifices. This is justified, as the centuries-old plan was already nearing the final stage when Ed and Al were born. Technically speaking, the plan is never thwarted at all — it's reversed after being completed.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_32c541e6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_32c541e6	featureConfidence	1.0
Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_32c541e6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_331e009	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_331e009	comment	Borderlands 2: For almost the entire game the Vault Hunter is trying to stop Handsome Jack from awakening the Warrior, but he still manages to do it in the Final Battle. But the Vault Hunter, being the badass that they are, ends up killing it anyway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_331e009	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_331e009	featureConfidence	1.0
Borderlands 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_331e009
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_332cb317	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_332cb317	comment	Happens twice in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): while trapped in the Bad Future, Sonic learns that Elise is going to die soon back in the present when Eggman's battleship crashes and explodes. He arrives back in the present too late, but thanks to Silver and the use of Chaos Control, he's able to go back a little further in time to save her. Later, Mephilis kills Sonic, causing Elise to cry and unleash Iblis, thus causing The End of the World as We Know It. It takes True Love's Kiss reviving Sonic and a subsequent Cosmic Retcon to set things right.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_332cb317	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_332cb317	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_332cb317
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_341c02e9	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_341c02e9	comment	Batman Begins: The League of Shadows manages to start spreading the toxin throughout Gotham (and are most of the way to blowing up its water mains) before they are defeated.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_341c02e9	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_341c02e9	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman Begins	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_341c02e9
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_35e05f2a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_35e05f2a	comment	RWBY: Despite numerous opportunities and near-misses, the heroes fail to stop the villainous scheme of the Vale Arc from successfully completing in Volume 3, scoring only a few minor victories in response. The heroes' failures begin with their inability to stop the villains from infecting the control tower with a virus. They then fail to stop a bomb-loaded train from unleashing Grimm into the city, which enables the villains to establish themselves as allies by helping to save the city. The villains are then able to manipulate Yang into attacking an apparently defeated opponent during a live broadcast; they also manipulate Pyrrha into killing Penny during a live broadcast before using both moments in a speech over the global airwaves they've captured to trigger a massive Grimm invasion. Beacon Academy is destroyed, many people lose their lives including two important characters, Cinder obtains the Fall Maiden's full power and Salem is able to confirm the Relic of Choice is hidden somewhere in the school. The volume closes with Salem giving Ozpin a speech about how she intends to snuff out the hope of humanity and destroy everything Ozpin ever valued. All the heroes manage to do is save the city of Vale, which the villains don't care about; freeze the Grimm Wyvern to Beacon's destroyed tower, which now attracts more Grimm to the school and prevents it from being taken back by the Huntsmen; and permanently maim Cinder, which has left her obsessed with seeking vengeance against Ruby. It could be argued this was the result of the villains defining "Stage One" as everything they could do without being thwarted: every little thing they do is deeply rooted in Flaw Exploitation, all during a period when the opposition was most vulnerable to that (in a part of the cycle of training new people and developing new systems focused entirely on accentuating strengths rather than addressing weaknesses). On the one hand, they're still very successful at this - while maintaining the ability from the start to simply cut and run they do manage to take their plan to its conclusion, expending all of their preparations and intel. On the other, there isn't any equally clever Stage Two to follow, and the chaos left in their wake means they can't immediately repeat the process of studying a static target and planning how to destroy it to compose a Stage Two. It's really just a surprise reopening of hostilities in a coldish war rather than a supervillain's plan to take over the world, which is why Cinder fails to live up to the role dramatic effect cast her in at this point. (The lack of clear endgame, in fact, seems to have been a factor in their success as it slowed the reactions of those who could tell they were being played but couldn't see where it was ultimately leading to.)
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_35e05f2a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_35e05f2a	featureConfidence	1.0
RWBY (Web Animation)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_35e05f2a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3626dc6d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3626dc6d	comment	Subverted in the fourth episode of the fourth season Nikita, where we're shown what appears to be the final stages of a plot that began with the assassination of the President of the United States. Team Nikita stops an attempt to cause World War III, believing it to be the conspirators' ultimate goal, only for the show to reveal that it had only a ruse to get Nikita out of their hair by allowing her to think that she'd stopped them. The actual plan, which is left unrevealed, had actually been abandoned earlier, after Nikita had killed two people essential for its successful execution.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3626dc6d	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3626dc6d	featureConfidence	1.0
Nikita	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3626dc6d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_367f632a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_367f632a	comment	Inverted in Dawn of War: Winter Assault. In the final Guard mission, the Mighty Glacier Necrons only attack once you've built a Generator to power up the Titan. This gives you plenty of time to increase your forces, defending against a few ork and Chaos attacks (and when the Necrons appear, they do so inside the ork and Chaos bases, taking them out for you).
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_367f632a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_367f632a	featureConfidence	1.0
Dawn of War (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_367f632a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_37b56f7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_37b56f7	comment	In Baldur's Gate II, no matter what you do, you can't avoid having Irenicus steal your soul and having Bodhi steal Imoen's. Even when the first confrontation seems to turn into your favor, he will manage to get away to continue his plans and invade Suldanesselar with a horde of dark elves while he imprisons queen Ellesime and starts to steal the power from the tree of life. Also, closer to the beginning of the game, there is nothing you can do to prevent Imoen from being taken away to Spellhold. She will always cast that one spell that makes the Cowled Wizards take her away, even if she has no spells left and/or is wearing armor that prevents her from casting magic.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_37b56f7	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_37b56f7	featureConfidence	1.0
Baldur's Gate II (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_37b56f7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3972e6b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3972e6b	comment	Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night: you can't stop Eirin from tampering with Gensokyo's Full Moon. And it actually would have been better if you don't stop her and risk Gensokyo in the progress.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3972e6b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3972e6b	featureConfidence	1.0
Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3972e6b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_39c15180	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_39c15180	comment	Angels & Demons, where The Dragon manages to kill all four of the Preferiti before the plan is stopped. Subverted in the film, where Langdon saves the fourth from his watery death.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_39c15180	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_39c15180	featureConfidence	1.0
Angels & Demons	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_39c15180
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3a64aba3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3a64aba3	comment	Shantae: In Shantae (2002) and Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Risky gets away with the Artifact of Doom no matter what, and your only reward for beating the first boss is not dying. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: This happens twice. First, you can't stop Ammo Baron from making a mess of Scuttle Town because he is still legally the town's owner. Second, even though you spent the entire game trying to prevent the Pirate Master from rising from his grave, he does it anyway. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: The first boss is a Double Subversion. Shantae's Arch-Enemy, Risky Boots, gives up the stolen blueprints to Mimic's Dynamo device after being defeated. However, it's a Batman Gambit on Risky's part, since she swapped out the blueprints for fakes.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3a64aba3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3a64aba3	featureConfidence	1.0
Shantae (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3a64aba3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3be31c4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3be31c4	comment	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 features this trope multiple times. In "No Russian", in which shooting the terrorists you are undercover with results in a scolding for trying to be a hero and not going along with their attack. You can skip the level (though its events still enter into the canon), though. The game's Big Bad, Shepherd, can be found as an NPC on the first level. Shooting him results in a friendly fire game over. The concept does make for a rather amusing video, though. The Big Bad Shepherd also helps Private Allen up at the start of the second level before walking away — if you shoot at him, however, gunfire will not hit him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3be31c4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3be31c4	featureConfidence	1.0
Modern Warfare (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3be31c4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3e374b30	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3e374b30	comment	In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane breaks Batman's back and imprisons him, and is left to do as he pleases with Gotham. When Batman finally arrives to deal with him, the nuclear fusion reactor he set to blow several months ago is just about a day away from exploding.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3e374b30	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3e374b30	featureConfidence	1.0
The Dark Knight Rises	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3e374b30
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f20226f	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f20226f	comment	Rocky III restores the drama by having the now-champion Rocky lose his title at the beginning of the movie to Clubber Lang, from whom he eventually regains it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f20226f	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f20226f	featureConfidence	1.0
Rocky III	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f20226f
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f5f4ea2	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f5f4ea2	comment	Austin Powers in Goldmember subverts this when Austin and Her Majesty's Secret Service manage to catch Dr. Evil and his minions in the planning stages of their latest scheme to Take Over the World, and send Dr. Evil to jail (prompting Austin to check "Catch Dr. Evil in the first act" off his bucket list). It's then Double Subverted when Dr. Evil breaks out and continues the Evil Plan anyway, thanks to having already set things up with Goldmember via time travel. Dr. Evil later lampshades this in song:
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f5f4ea2	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f5f4ea2	featureConfidence	1.0
Austin Powers	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f5f4ea2
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f892b00	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f892b00	comment	Averted in Time Hollow, when after finishing the game normally and starting a new game, Ethan can foil the antagonist's plot by jumping straight to the solution. It is a game about using Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory to change the past, after all.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f892b00	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f892b00	featureConfidence	1.0
Time Hollow (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3f892b00
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3fbb42bb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3fbb42bb	comment	Technically speaking, it's Stage 3, but White Devil of the Moon managed to avert the entire Infinity arc by Shamal finding and removing the Mistress 9 parasite inside Hotaru long before Mistress 9 could fight back. Germatoid's actions in trying to stop Shamal led to the school being investigated, leading to the dismantlement of the Death Busters long before they were due to be a threat (keep in mind that the fic takes place during the first Sailor Moon story arc). Even Pharaoh 90 is no more: a TSAB fleet blasted it in the face.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3fbb42bb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3fbb42bb	featureConfidence	1.0
White Devil of the Moon (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_3fbb42bb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_42b00860	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_42b00860	comment	In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the protagonists attempt to stop the villain from accessing the sealed gate and releasing the Sealed Evil in a Can that is calling to him beyond it. They of course fail, and have to fight the ancient evil after it is released.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_42b00860	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_42b00860	featureConfidence	1.0
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_42b00860
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43576f5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43576f5	comment	The first 5 season finales of Supernatural are made of this. In Season 1, the Winchesters corner Azazel but fail to kill him, allowing him to continue his plan for Sam. In Season 2, they are seconds too late to stop the Hell gate opening, and while they close it, over 200 demons still escape from Hell. In Season 3, Lilith succeeds in dragging Dean to Hell, which opens the first seal to start the Apocalypse. In Season 4, the main characters are attempting to prevent various seals from being broken and thus preventing the end times. It didn't go well. Sam is tricked into killing Lilith by Ruby, unwittingly breaking Lucifer's seal and releasing him onto Earth. In Season 5, Lucifer succeeds in hijacking Sam's body, but in a subversion of this trope, Dean manages to snap him out of it long enough for Sam to throw himself and Lucifer into Hell.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43576f5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43576f5	featureConfidence	1.0
Supernatural	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43576f5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43a951ef	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43a951ef	comment	In the Escape from the Phantom Zone crossover, young psychic Gayle Marsh goes into the Phantom Zone and falls into the Big Bad's clutches despite Supergirl's efforts to prevent it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43a951ef	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43a951ef	featureConfidence	1.0
Escape from the Phantom Zone (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43a951ef
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43f52aa9	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43f52aa9	comment	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Cutscene Incompetence stops you saving the Emperor from assassins at the start of the game. You arrive at Kvatch the day after The Daedra burn it to the ground, though thankfully Martin, the man you were sent to rescue, survived by hiding in a chapel with the people he helped to rescue. You take him back to the Weynon Priory just as the Mythic Dawn have finished ransacking the place, killed the head priest and taken the Amulet of Kings. You can't stop Mankar Cameron fleeing to paradise with the amulet, you need to adventure the length and breadth of Cyrodiil looking for components to build a portal so you can follow him. And even when you finally get the amulet, Mehrunes Dagon still achieves his goal of being summoned to Tamriel. If you join the Dark Brotherhood, Lucien Lachance can't stop you from murdering half of the Brotherhood, all the way up to The Listener. You can't save him when the surviving members of the Brotherhood execute him for treachery, and the only way you can expose the real traitor, Bellamont, is when he tries to kill the Night Mother, by which time only you and one other Brotherhood leader, Arquen, remain. (Justified, the Night Mother is fully aware of Bellamont's treason, but reasons that if the rest of the Brotherhood can't find him, they deserve death for their incompetence.) And you can only delay Sheogorath's transformation into Jyggalag and the triggering of the Greymarch, not stop it completely.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43f52aa9	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43f52aa9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_43f52aa9
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44127c7c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44127c7c	comment	Power Rangers, like its Sentai parent, usually sees villains get away with every stage of their plan but the last one: Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue — the Rangers fight the demons for an entire series, but can't defeat Bansheera until after she succeeds in bringing her evil fortress to Earth. Power Rangers Ninja Storm: We only learn that Lothor actually had a long-term plan in the finale, but it nonetheless plays out - filling the Abyss of Evil with his fallen minions until they all rise as an army. The Rangers and their recently-freed fellow students kick them all back in.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44127c7c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44127c7c	featureConfidence	1.0
Power Rangers (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44127c7c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44fe781e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44fe781e	comment	In the epilogue movie for Neon Genesis Evangelion, The End Of Evangelion, the Instrumentality project orchestrated by SEELE is about to take place. Asuka's on the verge of defeating the mass-produced Eva units, but then the Spear of Longinus pierces her AT Field, at the exact moment Unit 02 shuts down. The MP EVAs then proceed to devour her and her mech alive. When Shinji's finally taken inside Unit 01, he's forced to witness her death right in front of him. Then the MP EVAs crucify Shinji's Eva, thus clearing the way for the Third Impact.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44fe781e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44fe781e	featureConfidence	1.0
Neon Genesis Evangelion	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_44fe781e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_45501b8c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_45501b8c	comment	At the start of Super Metroid, you encounter Ridley making off with the Metroid hatchling. Nothing you can do can stop him. If he beats you, he'll escape to Zebes with the larva. If you beat him, he'll drop the larva, then pick it up again and escape to Zebes anyway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_45501b8c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_45501b8c	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Metroid (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_45501b8c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_455ede40	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_455ede40	comment	In Super Paper Mario, you can't stop the annihilation of all worlds. In fact, you get caught in the middle of one being annihilated! Everything is remade at the end, however.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_455ede40	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_455ede40	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Paper Mario (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_455ede40
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_457b671e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_457b671e	comment	Each season of 24 has the villains' plans succeed to some extent: In the first season, the plan to kill Teri Bauer succeeds while the Palmer assassination fails. Season 2 has the bomb go off, even though only Mason is killed. This is significant because Palmer is forced to follow through on his threat that if the bomb goes off on U.S. soil, he will wage war against the people responsible. In season 3, hundreds of people are infected with the virus, although a city nation-wide epidemic is averted. In season 4, one nuclear meltdown succeeds, and Keeler is incapacitated and possibly killed after Air Force One is shot down. In season 5, the gas attack on the shopping mall partly succeeds, as does the attack on CTU headquarters. In season 6, 12,000 people are killed by a suitcase nuke in Valencia, California.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_457b671e	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_457b671e	featureConfidence	1.0
24	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_457b671e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_467773a6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_467773a6	comment	Rogue One reveals that the Rebels weren't even aware of the existence of the Death Star until a few days prior the events of A New Hope, despite it being the size of a small planetoid and having been under construction for decades prior.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_467773a6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_467773a6	featureConfidence	1.0
Rogue One	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_467773a6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_47a4daec	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_47a4daec	comment	Mission: Impossible â€“ Fallout has the evil scheme involving two synchronized nuclear bombs, meaning the Bomb Disposal can only occur if the countdown starts running in the first place - with the added hazard that the detonator must be stopped during the defusal so they don't explode.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_47a4daec	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_47a4daec	featureConfidence	1.0
Mission: Impossible â€“ Fallout	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_47a4daec
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a87cb3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a87cb3	comment	In Final Fantasy VII, you can't topple Shinra, stop Sephiroth from acquiring the Black Materia or summoning Meteor, or even stop him from skewering your White Magician Girl in a Plotline Death. You can, however, stop him from achieving ultimate power and kill him before he gets it rather than after. In the ending, however, you can never release Holy before it's too late for it to thwart Meteor by itself.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a87cb3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a87cb3	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a87cb3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a88435	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a88435	comment	Final Fantasy XII avoids this by removing every "easy" way for the heroes to succeed early. If they had killed Vayne early on, then Archadia would have come down hard on Dalmasca, the war between the two Empires (with Dalmasca right in the middle) would never have been averted, and the Occuria would have retained their grip on the world. The entire plot is a gradual movement of all the pieces in play until the heroes can strike a decisive victory.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a88435	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a88435	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49a88435
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49aa2aa4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49aa2aa4	comment	Ace Combat: Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. The big final scheme involves the use of a very large rocket with a nuclear payload. You fight your way through a tough squadron of ace pilots, then through a twisting canyon with ridiculous SAM coverage overhead, and then fly into Avalon Dam to destroy the launch controls. Even then, the missile is still launched and you have to take out your former wingman Pixy, who turns out to be controlling the launch from his supertech-loaded plane; the final fight becomes a race against the clock to destroy the plane and thus the control before the missile can make reentry. Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is almost exactly the same: Fight through defenses, destroy launch controls, fight ridiculous air battle anyway. Against a Kill Sat. One more example in Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation is that the opening mission of the game is the defense of your country's capital city. Despite the player possibly being able to destroy every enemy aircraft there is (not counting the respawning ones) plus drive off the enemy aces, you're ordered to retreat anyways. Only to have to fight through everything again to reclaim the capital. Not to mention the end-all doomsday weapon mission afterwards. Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies had Megalith still go operational even after ISAF desperately battled through Erusea's forces in an attempt to end the war before it could be used. In the first DLC mission of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, your mission is to help your allies capture the submarine Alicorn, and destroying it (which is the objective of the third DLC mission) results in a mission failure. Brigadier General Clemens justifies this by citing local reports of the submarine containing weapons of mass destruction, and that capture will give leverage in post-war negotiations. But he later turns out to be The Mole.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49aa2aa4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49aa2aa4	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Combat (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49aa2aa4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49ad83ee	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49ad83ee	comment	World of Warcraft is generally pretty reliable, with the villains getting their plans moving in spite of or because of the player character, to set them up with a power boost to be fought and killed later as a dungeon or raid boss. One notable exception happens in Wrath of the Lich King where players foil the Scourge's attempt to resurrect Galakrond, the Kaiju sized protodrake, borderline Eldritch Abomination and father of dragonkind who required a Titan keeper and all five dragon aspects to kill. Stopping that plot was mandatory to keep the Scourge from instantly winning their war, and nobody since has made another attempt to revive Galakrond.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49ad83ee	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49ad83ee	featureConfidence	1.0
World of Warcraft (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_49ad83ee
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4be1bdd0	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4be1bdd0	comment	Golden Sun: At the start of the game, you are tasked with preventing the beacons on top the four elemental lighthouses from being lit up, as this would cause the unsealing of Alchemy. Needless to say, by the end of the second game they're all lit up (and you change protagonists between games, where your mission becomes lighting up the beacons). The second stage, however... was Alex standing under the Golden Sun as it formed from all four beacons, using it to gain ultimate power. That failed thanks to a Chekhov's Gun from the first game, and he was presumed dead until he returned in the third game.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4be1bdd0	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4be1bdd0	featureConfidence	1.0
Golden Sun (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4be1bdd0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4da11f30	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4da11f30	comment	In Return of the Jedi, they destroy the second Death Star while it's under construction, but it still counts because the Death Star is already operational, halfway through wiping out the Rebel fleet, and luring the Rebels there was the Emperor's plan all along.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4da11f30	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4da11f30	featureConfidence	1.0
Return of the Jedi	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4da11f30
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4f9064f6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4f9064f6	comment	In Kung Fu Panda 2, the heroes are unable to stop Lord Shen from stealing metal for his cannons, conquering Gongmen City, building up his army, or leaving the city to conquer the rest of China. Po is only able to stop him at the last possible moment.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4f9064f6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4f9064f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Kung Fu Panda 2	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4f9064f6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4fb21def	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4fb21def	comment	Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies had Megalith still go operational even after ISAF desperately battled through Erusea's forces in an attempt to end the war before it could be used.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4fb21def	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4fb21def	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_4fb21def
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_507dfb6a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_507dfb6a	comment	Inverted in EarthBound (1994). Everything that Giygas does to prevent the prophecy about the Chosen Four from becoming true, from having Pokey steal a helicopter to prevent them from reaching Summers or Scaraba, to launching an attack on Onett when the kids need to obtain a piece of the meteorite, fails miserably, and in one case, even backfires. (If you need clarification on that, Apple Kid, Dr. Andonuts, and a Mr. Saturn were kidnapped into the Stonehenge base. This leads to them regrouping at Saturn Valley after Ness saves them, and brainstorming how they can help Ness and co bring Giygas down once and for all.)
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_507dfb6a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_507dfb6a	featureConfidence	1.0
EarthBound (1994) (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_507dfb6a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_50bcf7a6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_50bcf7a6	comment	Homestuck: A version of this occurs by necessity in all games of Sburb. In every session, someone must defeat the White King (good guy) and begin the Reckoning, a 24 hour period during which meteors from the Veil (asteroid belt) bombard Skaia (sparkly planet-thing in the Medium vital to winning the game). The catch is that Skaia has defence portals which can send the meteors to the host planet (i.e. Earth in the comic), and these portals can send things to the past. It just so happens that the players of Sburb invariably create themselves, and the baby versions of themselves get sent back through these portals to become themselves. So if the Reckoning did not happen, the players of the game would not exist! So if Stage One were thwarted, that would cause a time paradox. Which doesn't happen in this universe (usually).
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_50bcf7a6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_50bcf7a6	featureConfidence	1.0
Homestuck (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_50bcf7a6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5293b208	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5293b208	comment	Kamen Rider Ex-Aid actually forces the heroes to participate in Stage One early in the show, when they can't skip straight to using their cool and powerful Level 2 and Level 3 forms until they've separated the virus they're fighting from its host first, which requires fighting the patient/virus fusion in their goofy Super-Deformed Level 1 forms first. The show's format eventually changes so they don't need to do this anymore, but the lesson proves valuable against the Final Boss.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5293b208	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5293b208	featureConfidence	1.0
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5293b208
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_536a5cc9	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_536a5cc9	comment	In Sonic Colors, by the time Sonic and Tails even reach Tropical Resort, Eggman's already stolen a solar system's worth of planets, built a gigantic Space Elevator, chained all the planets to it, imprisoned hordes of the Wisp species AND has successfully turned them (or at least a good chunk of them) into the horrible Nega Wisps. In fact, Eggman succeeds at every step of the way. If it weren't for a Chekhov's Gun moment destroying the Tropical Resort that Eggman had tied his whole operation to, he would've won.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_536a5cc9	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_536a5cc9	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic Colors (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_536a5cc9
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5425ce75	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5425ce75	comment	In specific missions, the Grand Theft Auto games sometimes do allow you to thwart a stage — avoiding a car chase by planting a car bomb beforehand, sniping a villain who's fleeing to a speedboat, etc. The grand plot, however, is pretty strict — sometimes you'll even have a required Escort Mission for a character you'll have to kill in a later mission.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5425ce75	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5425ce75	featureConfidence	1.0
Grand Theft Auto (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5425ce75
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5498bfdd	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5498bfdd	comment	In Suburban Knights, Malachite regains the magic gauntlet that the heroes have been searching for, despite efforts from the over twenty adult nerds attempting to stop him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5498bfdd	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5498bfdd	featureConfidence	1.0
Suburban Knights (Web Video)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5498bfdd
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_56d36590	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_56d36590	comment	In Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, you can't stop Squares from gathering enough power to wipe out the party.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_56d36590	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_56d36590	featureConfidence	1.0
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_56d36590
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5755b96a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5755b96a	comment	The Order of the Stick: Big Bad Xykon, being smart, suggests to Roy that they follow this trope and declare the battle for one of three remaining gates that Xykon needs to examine a Mulligan: Instead, Roy can build up levels and they can have a final tussle all good and proper at a more suitably dramatic time. Roy rejects it. Xykon kills him. He gets better. Not long after this, Xykon encounters a defense of the gate so powerful even he can't overcome it. Naturally, Miko shows up to accidentally ruin everything just before Soon Kim can kill Xykon and Redcloak. In the fourth book, Vaarsuvius, who is temporarily Drunk on the Dark Side, decides to go and just teleport into Xykon's palace and assault him directly all alone to end it all at a very anti-climatic moment, before either party has still seen the last two portals, or managed to control one. Predictably, Vaarsuvius fails. Tarquin's motivation for being a villain is this. He knows that eventually some hero will come and topple his empire and kill him... but until then, he's at Stage One and living the high life. Elan realizes the only way to beat his trope-addicted father is to simply not attempt to thwart Stage Two, which freaks Tarquin out and sends him into a downward spiral offscreen. The Resistance's new job is not to attack the Regime but to deal damage control on the inevitable collapse and fallout.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5755b96a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5755b96a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5755b96a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_57ad0c07	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_57ad0c07	comment	Resident Evil: Played really straight in the GameCube Resident Evil remake. When playing as Chris, you come across Wesker fighting Lisa Trevor. He'll say "Chris! Take a piece of the action!" when he sees you, and you fight her off together. However, Wesker can get knocked into the abyss by Lisa's attacks. If he does so, he'll still appear unscathed during the final battle, with no explanation. This started as a subversion, though. Originally, this actually would have killed Wesker, with the player receiving an entirely different ending. For whatever reason, the developers decided against it, and forgot to remove the line of code that allowed Wesker to be knocked off the edge. Resident Evil 2 has William Birkin seeking out his daughter, Sherry, to put a G-Embryo into, as it needs a genetic relative in order to make that embryo grow into a viable G-virus mutant. Claire Redfield and Leon do their damnedest to keep her safe, but eventually she gets sucked down through a sewer duct and is knocked unconscious in the landing, with William arriving soon after to infect her. The heroes then spend the rest of the game engineering a cure, which they give to her in the nick of time. In Resident Evil 5, Wesker's plan was to make a lot of virus, load that virus on to rockets, and fire them out of a plane at high altitude, infecting the entire world. He was "less than five minutes" away from "the optimum altitude for missile deployment." Fortunately, complete global saturation was averted by crashing the plane into a volcano.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_57ad0c07	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_57ad0c07	featureConfidence	1.0
Resident Evil (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_57ad0c07
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59151283	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59151283	comment	Metal Gear: Subverted in Metal Gear Solid; turns out Snake could've stopped Stage One easily if he died. Ocelot accidentally killed one of the hostages with the PAL codes (it's revealed later he had his reasons), so they couldn't launch Rex's nuke. Except that Armstech had created a special card key which would deactivate the nuke (if it was activated) or activate the nuke (if it was deactivated). All they had to do was convince Snake that they had the codes, and Snake went along and completed Stage One for the terrorists ("You found the key and even activated the warhead for us"). Metal Gear Solid 4, Act 3: Ocelot wins. He captured Big Boss's body while you were distracted by a decoy. He has enough control over the SOP system to completely shut down the world's armed forces. All that's left is to ensure that he cannot launch nuclear strikes as well. The Metal Gear series provides one of the most excessive examples of this in all of gaming: the first five games are all stopping terrorists, who are eventually revealed to have been rebelling against the very dangerous conspiracy which is only thwarted in the final act of the last game. This Evil Versus Evil scenario means that the world would've been screwed regardless of whether Solid Snake succeeded or failed. Perhaps if Ocelot, Liquid, Zero, or Big Boss had been killed off early, the dangerous conspiracies would never have even taken place at all. The HD Collection lampshades this with the Trophy/Achievement "Problem Solved, Series Over", which you get for killing Ocelot in the prequel MGS3 (which results in a Non-Standard Game Over). Played straight in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: All seems well when the President's trip to Pakistan is cancelled and Air Force One turns back, but Senator Armstrong's plan wasn't foiled: the fact that American soldiers died on the Pakistani base was more than enough to kick up support for a war that would see Armstrong elected and his vision for a Social Darwinist America realized.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59151283	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59151283	featureConfidence	1.0
Metal Gear (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59151283
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59215319	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59215319	comment	In Persona 2, this trope is justified, as the players are actually being manipulated by the villains as part of a huge Batman Gambit. And in Innocent Sin in particular, Stage Two is still completed. This gets lampshaded a few times.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59215319	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59215319	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59215319
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531b	comment	Persona 4: You can't stop any of the victims from being thrown into the TV, you can't stop them from denying their Shadow self, and you can't stop the TV world's fog from leaking into Inaba, which is Stage 1 of this game's apocalypse.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531b	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531c	comment	In Persona 5, three separate Stage Ones manage to complete before the heroes can stop it. You can't stop the traitor from betraying you, thus getting the protagonist arrested and nearly killed (although in this case, the Phantom Thieves allowed the betrayal to go through in order to discover the identity of who the traitor was working for). You can't stop Masayoshi Shido from being elected Prime Minister of Japan. Lastly, you can't stop Yaldabaoth from merging the two realities and wiping you out of existence.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531c	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona 5 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5921531c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59a835fb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59a835fb	comment	Sonic Adventure 2: No matter how quickly you get to the rocket launch station in Metal Harbor, it will always be 15 seconds from takeoff. Eggman manages to get his hands on all seven Chaos Emeralds — even swiping one from right under Tails's nose in the ending of the Hero story — and powers up the Eclipse Cannon, as he had planned.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59a835fb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59a835fb	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59a835fb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59e65a05	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59e65a05	comment	In the 2004 adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate, all efforts to reach out to Marco fail until he decides at the last possible second to have himself and his mother get shot instead of the president-elect, thwarting the conspiracy's plans.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59e65a05	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59e65a05	featureConfidence	1.0
The Manchurian Candidate	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_59e65a05
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5a9f209a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5a9f209a	comment	In the second half of Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die, Keigo Kyogoku concocts a plan to resurrect Musashi. By the time of Chapter 10, the Imperial Combat Revue fails to stop him from carrying out the plan, leading to the chapter's Downer Ending.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5a9f209a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5a9f209a	featureConfidence	1.0
Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5a9f209a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5bd0554b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5bd0554b	comment	In Warcraft, the first two games were a continuity snarl as the Alliance and Orc sides had different, mutually exclusive endings if you played through them. Reign of Chaos, however introduced a similar progression to StarCraft, with the Alliance campaign ending on Arthas' corruption into a Death Knight, the Scourge campaign rolling up most of Lordaeron, before the Horde and Night Elf campaigns manage to beat back the Scourge's Burning Legion backers in an exciting climax. And much like StarCraft before it, Frozen Throne starts with the Night Elves dealing with the aftermath of the first game, moves on to the Alliance campaign setting up Illidan's powerbase, and then ends with Arthas beating all comers around the titular Frozen Throne before putting on Ner'Zul's armor and becoming the Lich King, with the unlimited power the position entails no longer kept in check by the Throne's prison.'
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5bd0554b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5bd0554b	featureConfidence	1.0
Warcraft (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5bd0554b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c3b1859	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c3b1859	comment	Also averted in Captain America: Civil War. Zemo's first plan to get the footage of the Stark assassination fails due to Hydra member Karpov refusing to cooperate. He then turns to Bucky as another source of that intel, though he obviously goes further than just gathering info and starts softening the Avengers up for the kill while he's at it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c3b1859	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c3b1859	featureConfidence	1.0
Captain America: Civil War	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c3b1859
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c54ab0a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c54ab0a	comment	Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism: you can't stop Utsuho from growing in both power and madness. CAUTION!
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c54ab0a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c54ab0a	featureConfidence	1.0
Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c54ab0a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c9b7531	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c9b7531	comment	In Collateral, Vincent kills all but one of the people on his hit list, although it's not until the fourth one that Max begins actively trying to stop him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c9b7531	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c9b7531	featureConfidence	1.0
Collateral	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5c9b7531
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5dfb8aa2	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5dfb8aa2	comment	The Time Eater's gotten everything down by the time Sonic Generations even starts. Multiple areas in time and space have already been broken, Sonic's friends are Taken for Granite, and the Chaos Emeralds have been scattered (as usual, of course).
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5dfb8aa2	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5dfb8aa2	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic Generations (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5dfb8aa2
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e3832b5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e3832b5	comment	In Cave Story, the Doctor succeeds in kidnapping the Mimigas, acquiring the demon flowers, and even creating a concentrated form of the flowers' active ingredient. You can't stop him until he's on the verge of turning the Mimigas into his personal army of monsters. (Destroying the Core might or might not have been part of the Doctor's plan; you can't thwart that, either.)
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e3832b5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e3832b5	featureConfidence	1.0
Cave Story (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e3832b5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7a	comment	Played really straight in the GameCube Resident Evil remake. When playing as Chris, you come across Wesker fighting Lisa Trevor. He'll say "Chris! Take a piece of the action!" when he sees you, and you fight her off together. However, Wesker can get knocked into the abyss by Lisa's attacks. If he does so, he'll still appear unscathed during the final battle, with no explanation. This started as a subversion, though. Originally, this actually would have killed Wesker, with the player receiving an entirely different ending. For whatever reason, the developers decided against it, and forgot to remove the line of code that allowed Wesker to be knocked off the edge.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7a	featureConfidence	1.0
Resident Evil (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7b	comment	Resident Evil 2 has William Birkin seeking out his daughter, Sherry, to put a G-Embryo into, as it needs a genetic relative in order to make that embryo grow into a viable G-virus mutant. Claire Redfield and Leon do their damnedest to keep her safe, but eventually she gets sucked down through a sewer duct and is knocked unconscious in the landing, with William arriving soon after to infect her. The heroes then spend the rest of the game engineering a cure, which they give to her in the nick of time.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7b	featureConfidence	1.0
Resident Evil 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7e	comment	In Resident Evil 5, Wesker's plan was to make a lot of virus, load that virus on to rockets, and fire them out of a plane at high altitude, infecting the entire world. He was "less than five minutes" away from "the optimum altitude for missile deployment." Fortunately, complete global saturation was averted by crashing the plane into a volcano.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7e	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7e	featureConfidence	1.0
Resident Evil 5 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5e91c7e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5f6f0132	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5f6f0132	comment	Disgaea 2 has the protagonist try to summon the final boss at the very start of the game. It doesn't work, but he does try. Actually averted, sort of, as he does summon exactly what he was trying to summon. He just didn't know the final boss was a fake Zenon and that the real Zenon has reincarnated as the bratty girl who called herself Overlord Zenon's daughter.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5f6f0132	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5f6f0132	featureConfidence	1.0
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_5f6f0132
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6007bcf4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6007bcf4	comment	Averted in Sleeping Dogs (2012). The Villain's plans are, in fact, thwarted at something close to Stage One. Stage One is "Blow up a major landmark"... and it fails.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6007bcf4	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6007bcf4	featureConfidence	1.0
Sleeping Dogs (2012) (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6007bcf4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6059ad6b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6059ad6b	comment	xkcd #734 is a parodic aversion that shows why this is usually necessary. With the Zombie Apocalypse defeated five minutes after it starts due to good thinking by the protagonists, the remaining 90 minutes of the movie are a Romantic Comedy instead of a zombie flick.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6059ad6b	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6059ad6b	featureConfidence	1.0
xkcd (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6059ad6b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_60a2cbcc	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_60a2cbcc	comment	Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom: you can't stop Yuyuko from resurrecting herself with the stolen essence of Spring. The best you can do is dodge her final spellcard, during which she is invincible. Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night: you can't stop Eirin from tampering with Gensokyo's Full Moon. And it actually would have been better if you don't stop her and risk Gensokyo in the progress. Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism: you can't stop Utsuho from growing in both power and madness. CAUTION! Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object: you can't stop Toramaru and co from unsealing Byakuren. Subverted, they aren't villains by any means. Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires: you can't stop Miko's rite of resurrection.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_60a2cbcc	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_60a2cbcc	featureConfidence	1.0
Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_60a2cbcc
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_617279ac	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_617279ac	comment	The Seventh Tower series ends with the heroes fighting the Big Bad to regain the Violet Keystone - if they're too slow, their world's defense fails. They catch up to him just when he's summoning his army.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_617279ac	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_617279ac	featureConfidence	1.0
The Seventh Tower	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_617279ac
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_61a39969	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_61a39969	comment	Played straight in Avengers: Infinity War, as the entire movie is only part one of a two-part story. Despite the best efforts of nearly every hero in the setting, Thanos gains all six Infinity Stones and culls half the population of the universe.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_61a39969	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_61a39969	featureConfidence	1.0
Avengers: Infinity War	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_61a39969
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_62f94c6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_62f94c6	comment	The Dark Knight Trilogy: Batman Begins: The League of Shadows manages to start spreading the toxin throughout Gotham (and are most of the way to blowing up its water mains) before they are defeated. In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane breaks Batman's back and imprisons him, and is left to do as he pleases with Gotham. When Batman finally arrives to deal with him, the nuclear fusion reactor he set to blow several months ago is just about a day away from exploding.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_62f94c6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_62f94c6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Dark Knight Trilogy	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_62f94c6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_631805af	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_631805af	comment	Metal Gear Solid 4, Act 3: Ocelot wins. He captured Big Boss's body while you were distracted by a decoy. He has enough control over the SOP system to completely shut down the world's armed forces. All that's left is to ensure that he cannot launch nuclear strikes as well.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_631805af	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_631805af	featureConfidence	1.0
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_631805af
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_634db11c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_634db11c	comment	Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance begins with your character being put through a series of Gladiator Games, to fight for your freedom. If you win, you then confront the tyrant responsible for your predicament, only to be killed by an unseen assailant. Your soul then travels to the Elysian Fields, for your real mission.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_634db11c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_634db11c	featureConfidence	1.0
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_634db11c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6365ff3c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6365ff3c	comment	Dragon Quest X: Happens various times throughout the game, but the most prominent is during the Version 4 storyline, where despite defeating Kyronos's evolving body, he'll just escape to another place or rewind time to give himself an advantage.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6365ff3c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6365ff3c	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Quest X (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6365ff3c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6370c951	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6370c951	comment	In the Apocalypse film series movie Revelation, the Haters attempt to thwart the Antichrist Franco Maccalousso's Day of Wonders virtual reality program from going live by uploading a virus into the program. While they succeed in doing so by the end of the movie through a miracle, the virus only delays the program from going live, as it is seen in full use in the following movie Tribulation. And while the first and third (as well as the fourth, but there's no movie after that one) ended with Franco being exposed to the entire world, it never seems to stick, as he's still comfortably in power at the start of the next movie. The most acknowledgement we get is that by the fourth movie Franco wants to hold a show trial against Helen to boost his popularity.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6370c951	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6370c951	featureConfidence	1.0
Apocalypse	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6370c951
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_638624c8	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_638624c8	comment	Fibrizo from Slayers. He had a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, but ended up getting Deader than Dead with a sudden appearance and attack from the Lord of Nightmares.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_638624c8	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_638624c8	featureConfidence	1.0
Slayers	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_638624c8
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69071a1b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69071a1b	comment	Mutants & Masterminds. The mechanics of the game actually help set up this structure. You have a few encounters with the villains, during which they set up their plans and, thanks to GM fiat, escape or muck up the heroes' plans. However, these complications allow the heroes to gain "Hero Points", which they can use to shift the odds in their favor or gain temporary bonuses, so when the final fight rolls around, everyone's at their best. On the other hand, there is a power under Luck Control that allows the PCs to cancel Villain Points, effectively telling the GM, "No, you do not get to escape this one!"
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69071a1b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69071a1b	featureConfidence	1.0
Mutants & Masterminds (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69071a1b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69d15cc0	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69d15cc0	comment	Marvel Cinematic Universe: Averted across the franchise: Thanos is trying to collect the Infinity Stones through minions, but the heroes in the various films are making that quest so difficult that by Avengers: Age of Ultron, he decides he has to get them himself. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier the Captain manages to warn SHIELD that they've been infiltrated by HYDRA, and they are moments away from accomplishing their plan. It's presented as a Rousing Speech and an inspiring moment where the SHIELD agents believe the wrongfully accused Captain. But to ensure a dramatic final battle for the protagonists, the SHIELD agents become a Red Shirt Army who get killed by the dozens while failing to stop any part of the Evil Plan. Also averted in Captain America: Civil War. Zemo's first plan to get the footage of the Stark assassination fails due to Hydra member Karpov refusing to cooperate. He then turns to Bucky as another source of that intel, though he obviously goes further than just gathering info and starts softening the Avengers up for the kill while he's at it. Played straight in Avengers: Infinity War, as the entire movie is only part one of a two-part story. Despite the best efforts of nearly every hero in the setting, Thanos gains all six Infinity Stones and culls half the population of the universe. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the protagonists attempt to stop the villain from accessing the sealed gate and releasing the Sealed Evil in a Can that is calling to him beyond it. They of course fail, and have to fight the ancient evil after it is released.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69d15cc0	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69d15cc0	featureConfidence	1.0
Marvel Cinematic Universe (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_69d15cc0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6aa65acf	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6aa65acf	comment	Gremlins: Billy and his mom almost succeed in killing the first five gremlins, which would end the movie, but of course the head gremlin just manages to elude him and replicate by jumping into a swimming pool.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6aa65acf	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6aa65acf	featureConfidence	1.0
Gremlins	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6aa65acf
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b671725	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b671725	comment	One more example in Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation is that the opening mission of the game is the defense of your country's capital city. Despite the player possibly being able to destroy every enemy aircraft there is (not counting the respawning ones) plus drive off the enemy aces, you're ordered to retreat anyways. Only to have to fight through everything again to reclaim the capital. Not to mention the end-all doomsday weapon mission afterwards.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b671725	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b671725	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b671725
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b80f739	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b80f739	comment	Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty: This is still the case with Cell's goal of devouring the androids to reach his Perfect Form. Even between Vegeta pummeling him hard enough to force him out of his semi-perfect form and not letting him reach his Perfect Form like in canon, along with Android 16 using his thermonuclear bomb in an effort to eradicate him, Cell not only survives, he is able to coerce Vegeta into handing over the Future versions of Androids 17 and 18note both brought back to repair Android 18 after she was freed from Cell by holding baby Trunks hostage.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b80f739	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b80f739	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6b80f739
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6bcd58c7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6bcd58c7	comment	Sin City: Averted in story Family Values. Throughout this graphic novel, Dwight and Miho decimate an entire mob family with only a few instances where it's possible that Dwight may be killed or arrested. The drama actually comes from the mystery surrounding the reason why Old Town is going after this mob family and how the random pieces of information all link together.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6bcd58c7	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6bcd58c7	featureConfidence	1.0
Sin City (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6bcd58c7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6db54316	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6db54316	comment	Words of Radiance (second book of The Stormlight Archive): Despite the protagonists doing everything in their power to stop it, the Parshendi succeed at summoning the Everstorm and starting the next Desolation.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6db54316	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6db54316	featureConfidence	1.0
Words of Radiance	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6db54316
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6dfd7d0c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6dfd7d0c	comment	In Soma Union, Zeta/Captain Guidance does a similar thing when he steals the three orbs from the heroes, combining them with the fourth he already has to resurrect Absolution, requiring the heroes to go to one last dungeon to stop him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6dfd7d0c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6dfd7d0c	featureConfidence	1.0
Soma Union (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6dfd7d0c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6e17a0d1	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6e17a0d1	comment	Die Hard: John can't stop Hans Gruber's plan, but he does manage to complicate it before the roof bombing. This includes getting the attention of the police sooner than Gruber would have preferred, and getting the detonators Gruber needs for his Evil Plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6e17a0d1	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6e17a0d1	featureConfidence	1.0
Die Hard	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6e17a0d1
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6eb4ca5c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6eb4ca5c	comment	Common and constant in Jackie Chan Adventures. Every season involves the heroes rushing around the world to find objects of power before the forces of evil can collect them all and become all powerful. Nearly every season ends with said forces of evil collecting everything anyway and having to be defeated at their most powerful. This was only averted twice: the first time, Jackie and co. did manage to stop Shendu from freeing all of his demon brethren, but then Shendu manages to find an easier way to do it and it happens anyway. The second time is to stop Daolon Wong from collecting Shendu's scattered powers (echoing the plot of the first season) — in an amusing twist, the season ends with Daolon having only some of them, trying to make a deal with Shendu to get it all, and then Shendu tricking him and getting all the power himself. Again.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6eb4ca5c	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6eb4ca5c	featureConfidence	1.0
Jackie Chan Adventures	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6eb4ca5c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6f1bcb62	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6f1bcb62	comment	Surprisingly averted in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance in that after defeating the villain, the Sealed Evil in a Can is never unleashed (until the sequel) despite having been an apparent Chekhov's Gun throughout the game. This is played straight for most Fire Emblem games, though, as Stage 1 usually involves the successful invasion of another country, an opening used in every game in the series, usually to the success of the bad guys. A more direct example would also be in Genealogy of the Holy War, where the villains successfully manage to defeat all the heroes and kill the protagonist. They then complete their later steps with no opposition, including taking over the world and resurrecting their evil god. In fact, the only thing the hero actually prevents in the end is a lengthy rule of evil.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6f1bcb62	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6f1bcb62	featureConfidence	1.0
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_6f1bcb62
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7185e4b0	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7185e4b0	comment	Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: The first boss is a Double Subversion. Shantae's Arch-Enemy, Risky Boots, gives up the stolen blueprints to Mimic's Dynamo device after being defeated. However, it's a Batman Gambit on Risky's part, since she swapped out the blueprints for fakes.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7185e4b0	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7185e4b0	featureConfidence	1.0
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7185e4b0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_71a81b84	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_71a81b84	comment	Rise of the Minisukas: The Minisuka "Leader" intends to counteract the Japanese army sending Mana as a Honey Trap for Shinji by intercepting her, kidnapping her and mailing her to Bhutan. Despite the Minisukas' efforts and vigilance, though, they cannot prevent Mana from making it to the school and introducing herself to Shinji.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_71a81b84	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_71a81b84	featureConfidence	1.0
Rise of the Minisukas (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_71a81b84
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_720d9632	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_720d9632	comment	In Quarter-Life: Halfway To Destruction, Gordon and Jimm are unable to stop "a bad guy from the game" from stealing the isotope, and can't recover it before it reaches "quarter-life."
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_720d9632	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_720d9632	featureConfidence	1.0
Quarter-Life: Halfway To Destruction / Fan Fic	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_720d9632
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_72262aee	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_72262aee	comment	Avatar: The Last Airbender: The gang originally had the sensible idea of waiting until after Sozin's +300 Comet of Firebending was gone before deciding to take on the Fire Lord. Then they find out at the last minute that, in a shocking plot twist, the villains do not plan to spend their period of temporary nigh-omnipotence sitting in their respective throne rooms eating take-out. Slightly more surprising, they don't intend to use the power to merely overpower the remaining resistance forces in the Earth Kingdom; instead they plan to incinerate the entire continent. So the heroes no longer have the luxury of waiting. Then various operational delays keep them from being able to attack the Fire Lord in the 48 hours available before the arrival of the comet. Nope, the final battle just has to be on comet day, and no other day. Also, the fall of Ba Sing Se and the failure of the invasion on the Day of Black Sun are both instances of this trope in action. Had the heroes been successful in either, the epic battle of the season finale wouldn't have been quite as epic (if it had even happened), as the Fire Nation's resources would have been depleted. What's even worse is that they absolutely could have prevented Azula's takeover of Ba Sing Se; in fact, it looked like they were just about to do it... Until Zuko put Honor Before Reason, betrayed them to his family, and shook up the battle enough for the Dai Li to show up, and for Azula to back-shoot Aang with lightning in the middle of his transformation into the Avatar State. And in turn, a victory by the Gaang in Ba Sing Se would've allowed the Day of Black Sun invasion to have been carried out with the entire army of the Earth Kingdom instead of just a few dozen people. Or heck, even the smaller invasion would have caught the Fire Nation by surprise if only the Earth King hadn't blurted out the invasion plan to Team Azula, disguised as Kyoshi Warriors.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_72262aee	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_72262aee	featureConfidence	1.0
Avatar: The Last Airbender	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_72262aee
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7291539d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7291539d	comment	In Batman: Arkham City, not only is Arkham City established before the events of the game, but Protocol 10 kills a quarter of all inmates before Batman can stop it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7291539d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7291539d	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman: Arkham City (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7291539d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7393c0ce	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7393c0ce	comment	Hellsister Trilogy's second story arc sees Darkseid successfully learning and speaking the Anti-Life Equation, in spite of the opposition of a veritable army of heroes, before he gets defeated by Orion.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7393c0ce	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7393c0ce	featureConfidence	1.0
Hellsister Trilogy (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7393c0ce
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_73b4d4c1	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_73b4d4c1	comment	Inverted in Masks of Nyarlathotep, where the game is structured in such a way that it's actually entirely possible to stop certain aspects of various cults' plans before they are supposed to be launched if the Investigators go to the right places first. For example, if they choose to go to Shanghai (the canonical end game), they can potentially stop Penhew's rocket on Grey Dragon Island long before the launch date. If they go to any of the three major locations of markers for the Great Gate, they can even stop the plan before they fully understand it, kill crucial characters and creatures for said plan, etc.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_73b4d4c1	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_73b4d4c1	featureConfidence	1.0
Call of Cthulhu (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_73b4d4c1
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7406f8bf	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7406f8bf	comment	In Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire, no matter what you do, the Dragon of Doom will rise and need to be defeated at the end of the game. Never mind that you and everyone else that matters in the Kingdom know which exact artefacts need to be protected in order to prevent that occurrence, and where these are; they get destroyed anyway. Also, the mysterious assassin makes a few appearances during the game; of course, you stand there like an idiot and can't deal with him until the plot says you can. In the previous game Quest for Glory IV, the Big Bad lures the player into a trap before siccing a horde of mooks on him. If you are quick enough and clever enough, it's actually possible to escape this ambush and make it back to a friendly town, where you're safe. But the plot requires you to be captured, and the Big Bad will just keep trying every night until he succeeds. Quest for Glory III, yes, the Demons will assassinate the Leopardman and the Simbani leaders forcing you to find their hidden fortress in the depths of the Fricana junglet. Quest for Glory II, all of the elementals will be released onto Shapeir, you cannot save Ugarte, and you will get brainwashed into doing the Big Bad's bidding.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7406f8bf	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7406f8bf	featureConfidence	1.0
Quest for Glory V (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7406f8bf
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7440e4b3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7440e4b3	comment	Tomodachi Life: Every day when starting up a save file, three pairs of Miis will instantly begin brawling each other out of no context or reason, and these, along with any other fights that start up during the day, can never be prevented. These also occur if the game is left in Sleep Mode for a long period of time.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7440e4b3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7440e4b3	featureConfidence	1.0
Tomodachi Life (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7440e4b3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74a4c704	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74a4c704	comment	In Kingdom Hearts, Sora spends so much time trying to lock every keyhole that he doesn't even find out the Princesses of Heart are being kidnapped until he finds them in the final level, where they're being used for Stage One of "Ansem's" takeover. THEN Sora carves out his own heart and completes Stage One for the guy.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74a4c704	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74a4c704	featureConfidence	1.0
Kingdom Hearts (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74a4c704
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74f7210c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74f7210c	comment	The Legend of Zelda: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Subverted. While Link isn't able to stop Agahnim from sending Zelda to the Dark World and opening the portal between worlds, he is able to stall him by rescuing Zelda and hiding her at Sanctuary, forcing Agahnim's soldiers to search for her while Link retrieves the Pendants and the Master Sword. If Zelda had been banished at the start of the game like Agahnim was intending, Link would have had a lot stronger opposition to face in his quest, and Agahnim would have remained alive and made Ganon's foothold in the Light World significantly stronger. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: It's often said that the easiest way to beat the game is to get the Kokiri Emerald and then stop playing. Now that Ganondorf can't collect the three Spiritual Stones, he'll never enter the Sacred Realm. Link progressing in his quest, first with the Spiritual Stones and then with the temple Sages, is actually part of Ganondorf's plan. While the game otherwise plays it straight, Word of God is that it was actually subverted offscreen. After beating Ganondorf in the Final Battle, Link went back in time and used his knowledge of the future to expose Ganondorf and have him arrested before his plan could really get started. This created two alternate timelines: one where Ganondorf was defeated during the climatic showdown (which led to Wind Waker and its sequels) and one where Ganondorf was defeated early on (which led to Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess). On the other hand, Twilight Princess showed that Ganondorf's attempted execution was a spectacular failure that only served to set up a new crisis, so that zig-zags things back to being played straight. In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, no matter what you do, you can't reach the Skull Kid until 5 minutes before the moon crashes into Clock Town. Despite the "Groundhog Day" Loop giving you effectively infinite chances to try to get on top of the clock tower before that point, you never can. Just like you can never get to Mikau (the Zora guitarist you get the Zora Mask from) until he's seconds from death. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games: Ages and Seasons may end with Labrynna and Holodrum saved from Veran and Onox, but they both still technically succeeded in their goals to ignite the flames of Sorrow and Destruction. In a linked game, whichever happens second will be shortly followed by Twinrova lighting the flame of Despair, as well. Only after all that, as the bad guys are on the verge of sacrificing Princess Zelda to resurrect Ganon does Link truly interfere with their plans, barging in at the last moment and fighting the witches to the death before they can resurrect Ganon properly. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Link's attempt to rescue his sister ends in failure due to his inability to confront the Helmaroc King, forcing him to embark on a longer quest with the help of the King of Red Lions. When Link does a second attempt, he manages to rescue her with the help of Tetra and her crew and defeats the Helmaroc King for good, but is unable to confront Ganondorf due to the Master Sword having lost its power (which means his new plan was ultimately doomed to fail as well). The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has you gather three MacGuffins that will help defeat the Big Bad, only for said Big Bad to teleport in behind you right after getting the last piece and stealing them all. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: The bad guys are trying to resurrect an ancient demon and you have to climb to the top of the Tower of Spirits in order to stop them. Guess what happens when you reach the top. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has a rather strange twist on the trend: After the first three dungeons, you effectively have thwarted the villain at Stage 1 once Zelda and Impa escape through a time gate and blow it up behind them. It's only because Old Impa, presumably at the behest of Zelda/the Goddess insist you build a new time gate so you can hear an explanation and plan that she could have given you herself, that The Dragon can travel back in time to release the Sealed Evil in a Can at the end. Had you not been forced to unthwart Stage 1, Demise would never have been released, and his curse that brought Ganondorf in existence wouldn't have happened. So Skyward Sword effectively is the unthwarted Stage 1 for every game that features Ganondorf as Big Bad, which means most of them. Oops. Inverted in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Calamity Ganon's Hyrule Compendium entry reveals that as soon as he realized Link had awoken, Ganon focused all efforts on rebuilding his body. However, the process is interrupted and he only manages to slap together an incomplete spider-like form by the time Link arrived. This occurs whether Link clears all the dungeons first or goes straight for Ganon right away. So in a way, in BOTW the player always thwarts Stage One. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Midway through the story, the New Champions realize that Ganondorf has been using Phantom Zelda to stall for time while he gradually recovers the strength of his body, having been desiccated after millennia being sealed underground. He finishes rejuvenating himself back to full strength just as Link arrives in his lair for their climactic duel. Even if the player skips every dungeon and just goes straight for Ganondorf at the earliest opportunity, the Demon King will always regain his old body right as the hero arrives. In Hyrule Warriors: Cia and Ganondorf each get their hands on the full Triforce and its infinite, reality-warping power early on in their respective arcs before somehow still being defeated by the heroes. On a smaller scale, Sequence Breaking is nigh impossible in Legend Mode; if you manage to bypass the enemies to get to the "main" target of the scenario (i.e. Wizzro in the first scenario of the Prologue), they'll quickly disappear to prolong things until the necessary storywise events have occurred (i.e. King Dodongo has appeared) This also happens in some Adventure Mode battles, combined with an unusual variation of You Shouldn't Know This Already: In many of them, you have to complete a mission, and are then told to find a boss key in a specific keep to access the overall boss of the battle; it is very possible to get the key early but the key won't work until you complete the starting mission. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is an Alternate Timeline retelling of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's backstory where the heroes get advanced warning about the return of Calamity Ganon, and thus begin work far ahead of time to stop it from happening, while another entity who also has this advanced knowledge starts working double-time to make sure it does come to pass. The heroes succeed in thwarting Ganon's victory, though the initial stage of him hijacking the Divine Beasts and Guardians still gets underway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74f7210c	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74f7210c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_74f7210c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_76686539	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_76686539	comment	Mass Effect: Sovereign manages to dock with the Citadel before it is destroyed.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_76686539	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_76686539	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_76686539
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653a	comment	Mass Effect 2: Even if you install all the ship upgrades as soon as possible, you can't use them against the Collector Ship until the Final Battle. Specifically, Shephard can install the highly destructive Thanix Cannon (which one-shots it in the Final Battle) before running into the Collector Ship two more times, without using it. The first time, Shepard is actually on board the Collector Ship as the Illusive Man has sent them there to gather intel, despite knowing that it's a trap. The second time, a virus embedded in the Reaper IFF disables the ship's weaponry, and Shepard decided to take the shuttle, preventing them from being able to do anything about the Collector attack on the ship. In The Arrival you will always be captured when you discover the science team has been indoctrinated by Object Rho. Even if you defeat all the waves, you will be knocked unconscious by the artifact itself.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653a	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653b	comment	In Mass Effect 3, it's impossible to stop the Reaper invasion of Earth, causing Shepard to make an emergency escape as they watch civilians, and a child die before their very eyes. It's also impossible to prevent, or prepare for Cerberus turning against you, regardless of your relationship with the Illusive Man at the end of the previous game.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653b	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7668653b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7794e7a0	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7794e7a0	comment	The Night of Wishes: Knowing Beelzebub and Tyrannia can't make the Notion Potion without their enchanted parchment, Jacob and Maurizio try to destroy it. The parchment is able to defend itself.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7794e7a0	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7794e7a0	featureConfidence	1.0
The Night of Wishes	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7794e7a0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_77e22425	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_77e22425	comment	Occasionally averted on Pinky and the Brain; at least two of the Brain's plans to Take Over the World have required him to raise a large sum of money, only to have him fail to do that (one was to be a contestant on a parody of Jeopardy!, and the other was to enter the Kentucky Derby as a jockey). Amusingly, failing Stage One drove him to scrap the entire plan rather than come up with another way to raise the money, even though he eventually did.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_77e22425	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_77e22425	featureConfidence	1.0
Pinky and the Brain	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_77e22425
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7832b74c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7832b74c	comment	Steven Universe: In the Season 1 two-part finale, the Crystal Gems are captured and only in the second part to they manage to fight back and make the ship crash down. In the "Wanted" arc, Steven and Lars are brought by ship to a trial on Homeworld. They almost get an escape pod off a ship and back to Earth, but it's destroyed after Steven wastes time arguing he should stay. They end up on Homeworld, and only escapes after the trial through Lars' resurrected form's hair.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7832b74c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7832b74c	featureConfidence	1.0
Steven Universe	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7832b74c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_79f5dbd5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_79f5dbd5	comment	In Inscryption, the player is intended to die early in their first run due to lacking certain bonuses and access to the Bone resource; dying progresses the story and introduces the mechanic. If they manage to get far enough, the game will glitch and spawn a nearly-unbeatable wall of bears to force a player death. Downplayed as while difficult, it is possible to win and continue. Then played straight again when beating the final boss without progressing the story will still result in being killed and the run reset.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_79f5dbd5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_79f5dbd5	featureConfidence	1.0
Inscryption (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_79f5dbd5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7aaf9e41	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7aaf9e41	comment	Batman: Lampshaded by the Penguin, who commented that if you actually look at the numbers, he defeated Batman more often than Batman defeated him (people just remember Batman's victories because the Penguin went to jail afterward).
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7aaf9e41	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7aaf9e41	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7aaf9e41
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7b039953	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7b039953	comment	In Avatar, Jake and the Na'vi fail to repel the human invasion until the last possible opportunity.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7b039953	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7b039953	featureConfidence	1.0
Avatar	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7b039953
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d001056	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d001056	comment	Averted in The Fall of Lord Frieza when Raichi AI and Babidi's ship's cross paths in deep space. Hatchiyak is sent out to annihilate Babidi's ship, causing everyone inside to die of exposure and thus end the Buu Saga before it even begins.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d001056	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d001056	featureConfidence	1.0
The Fall of Lord Frieza (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d001056
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d8f184d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d8f184d	comment	Subverted in Akiba's Trip. Three of the routes have you fail spectacularly at it, with it not even being much of a concern until it's already happened. The other route not only has you stop it before Phase 1 is started, but also goes into a lot of depth in regards to the story the others don't.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d8f184d	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d8f184d	featureConfidence	1.0
Akiba's Trip (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7d8f184d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e30fd9f	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e30fd9f	comment	In Soma Spirits, it doesn't matter whether you choose to get more Joy Orbs or Sorrow Orbs- either Dissonance will ultimately steal them all and gain the power to create a world without happiness, or Form will steal them and do the same. And even if you get equal amounts of the orbs, the two team up and steal them to destroy all of Soma.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e30fd9f	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e30fd9f	featureConfidence	1.0
Soma Spirits (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e30fd9f
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e5c378e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e5c378e	comment	Bravely Second plays this very straight, and then subverts it beautifully. You cannot stop Kaiser Oblivion from achieving everything he sets out to do. You cannot win the opening fight that sees Agnes kidnapped, you cannot stop Kaiser from travelling into the past (or so he thinks), and you cannot stop his fairy companion from destroying the moon, which unleashes unbeatable eldritch abominations upon the world and puts it into a permanent timeless stasis. You don't even get the chance to fight him again. There's nothing more you can do, and the heroes lament their utter failure. The only way to fix things, is to start a New Game Plus and activate Bravely Second during the aforementioned hopeless boss fight, which pulls your previous characters into the past where they're actually strong enough to win. You then proceed to use your future knowledge of Kaiser's plans to utterly curbstomp him at every turn to the point that Kaiser's group laments their utter failure.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e5c378e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e5c378e	featureConfidence	1.0
Bravely Second (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e5c378e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e850e47	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e850e47	comment	Zig-zagged in Bravely Default. After a certain point in the game, you totally can thwart the villain's plan by breaking a crystal. However, this gets you a less-satisfying ending than letting the villain take their plot all the way to the end and thwarting them at the last moment, since you've only forced them to wait 5,000 years while that crystal regenerates, instead of stopping them outright. And both endings actually reveal that they've already spent millions of years on their plan, so a 5,000 year wait really is only a minor setback for them.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e850e47	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e850e47	featureConfidence	1.0
Bravely Default (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7e850e47
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7ea3d0e1	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7ea3d0e1	comment	In Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Ryback and Zachs have a golden opportunity to bring Dane's plan to an end when they acquire the targeting CD for the satellite. At this point, they could have simply destroyed the CD, which would have completely taken away Dane's ability to control the Kill Sat, but they don't do this, and Dane ends up getting it back.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7ea3d0e1	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7ea3d0e1	featureConfidence	1.0
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_7ea3d0e1
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_804132fe	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_804132fe	comment	Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires: you can't stop Miko's rite of resurrection.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_804132fe	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_804132fe	featureConfidence	1.0
Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_804132fe
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81692f99	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81692f99	comment	Star Trek: In Star Trek: Generations, Picard and Kirk can use the Nexus to travel anywhere in time or space to thwart Doctor Soran's plan to blow up a star. They decide to go to Soran's launch site, a few minutes before Soran fires the missile. Not, say, half an hour earlier, before Soran realized Picard had discovered him. Or six hours earlier, before Soran had arrived to prep the missile. Or back to the Enterprise, two weeks earlier, when Picard could have radioed the science station to warn them about Soran's secret lab and the Romulan commando raid. Or three weeks earlier, when Picard could have emailed his brother to suggest he take that year's family vacation at Eurodisney rather than the Lethal Fire Caves of Vraxinor IX. Or 78 years earlier, when Kirk could've beamed Soran back into the Nexus like he asked them to, making his entire genocidal scheme to return there unnecessary. In Star Trek: Nemesis, Shinzon and the Remans have managed to build, and make operational, the most powerful warship in galactic history — a massive dreadnought with a perfect cloaking device and planet killing radiation weapons — without their Romulan masters ever catching wind of it. They did have a few secret supporters in the Romulan military, but still, it's a tad hard to swallow that the notoriously paranoid Tal Shiar wouldn't have caught on and put them down.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81692f99	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81692f99	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81692f99
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_817b1a43	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_817b1a43	comment	Time Crisis: Averted in the first game, where the villainous mastermind Sherudo gets killed halfway through the game, though the rest of it is spent chasing The Dragon, Wild Dog, through the fortress. In Time Crisis II, Keith and Robert fail to stop the military satellite from being transported via train, and can only stop it when it's about to be launched.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_817b1a43	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_817b1a43	featureConfidence	1.0
Time Crisis (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_817b1a43
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8197ebd8	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8197ebd8	comment	In General Protection Fault, Trudy's plan to split up the cast proceeds smoothly until Nick is in the Statue of Liberty, unwittingly using his Velociraptor device to power the Kill Sat that she is using to hold the United Nations hostage in her bid to take over the world, leading to a final desperate attempt to stop her. Then again, it took until the previous chapter for the heroes to even realize there was a plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8197ebd8	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8197ebd8	featureConfidence	1.0
General Protection Fault (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8197ebd8
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f32adc	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f32adc	comment	9 Monkeys of Shaolin: The first stage, your Doomed Hometown, can be completed within two minutes, concluding with you getting mortally wounded by the marauder captain who killed your grandfather and have your village burned down. You are then rescued by several Shaolin monks who nurses you back to health and trains you for your revenge, kicking off the main plot of the game.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f32adc	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f32adc	featureConfidence	1.0
9 Monkeys of Shaolin (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f32adc
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f5d35d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f5d35d	comment	Most Kamen Rider shows have some sort of villainous plan whose first stage can't be thwarted. Some are notable for smaller recurring cases: Kamen Rider Fourze never stops a Zodiarts before it can enter its Last One phase. Kamen Rider Ex-Aid actually forces the heroes to participate in Stage One early in the show, when they can't skip straight to using their cool and powerful Level 2 and Level 3 forms until they've separated the virus they're fighting from its host first, which requires fighting the patient/virus fusion in their goofy Super-Deformed Level 1 forms first. The show's format eventually changes so they don't need to do this anymore, but the lesson proves valuable against the Final Boss. The Big Bad of Kamen Rider Build pretty much gets away with all of his plans, of which include completing the Pandora Box and forming a structure capable of destroying the Earth, regaining his complete form and all of its powers, driving all of Japan into a three-way civil war in the process of accomplishing the previous goals, and backstabbing all the other villains once he got what he wanted from them. Late in the series, the heroes try to figure out what he's going to do next by looking back at his previous plans, and it pretty much amounts to a recap of the entire series thus far.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f5d35d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f5d35d	featureConfidence	1.0
Kamen Rider (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_81f5d35d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_822aaa02	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_822aaa02	comment	My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Interestingly, this gets inverted in the first movie: Twilight manages to at least severely hinder Sunset Shimmer's plan to steal the Element of Magic crown, and she manages to foil Shimmer's plan to gain that crown by becoming Princess of the school ball. However, she eventually fails to prevent Sunset Shimmer from just taking the crown from her through brute force. In Rainbow Rocks, things would have been way easier for the Rainbooms if they had stopped the Dazzlings earlier, when they were at their weakest. They try to just defeat them as soon as they're all together, but The Power of Friendship doesn't activate, prompting them to find a more specific solution they must spend the film working on. In the end, they fall for the sirens' manipulations, letting them drive a wedge between themselves, which finally allows the Dazzlings to drain a good amount of the Rainbooms' Equestrian magic and regain a large part of their powers. Only then does the real Battle of the Bands start, and the Dazzlings are now very dangerous foes.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_822aaa02	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_822aaa02	featureConfidence	1.0
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_822aaa02
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8258e260	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8258e260	comment	Almost a little ridiculous in the Super Mario Bros. games, where Bowser will always succeed in taking over most of the kingdom and Mario won't find out about any of it until he kidnaps Princess Peach. Actually averted in Super Paper Mario, where Mario and Luigi go to rescue Peach from Bowser before Bowser ever did anything, leading to quite a bit of confusion on the part of both parties as to who did it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8258e260	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8258e260	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Mario Bros. (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8258e260
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d41855	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d41855	comment	The first three episodes of the second season of Gargoyles were unqualified successes for Xanatos: He got Fox an early parole in "Leader of the Pack" (which he outright stated was all he wanted to do); he turned Elisa's brother against the Manhattan Clan in "Metamorphosis"; and he acquired the code for the deadliest computer virus in the world in "Legion."
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d41855	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d41855	featureConfidence	1.0
Gargoyles	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d41855
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d81bd4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d81bd4	comment	Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is almost exactly the same: Fight through defenses, destroy launch controls, fight ridiculous air battle anyway. Against a Kill Sat.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d81bd4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d81bd4	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_83d81bd4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_84f3f987	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_84f3f987	comment	In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V the big twist is despite Yuya actually beating Yuri and remaining in control for most of their duel, Zarc is able to take control. Zarc then fully revives by absorbing Yuri, reuniting the four Dragon Boys back into one. Zarc then spends 5 episodes tearing through the remaining cast till his equal and opposite Ray is able to revive and beat him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_84f3f987	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_84f3f987	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_84f3f987
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cc3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cc3	comment	In the second game, The Empire finishes its Warship/Dreadnought just before you reach it, necessitating a more involved plan to destroy it. And of course, you can't stop the Cyclone from destroying most of the cities in the game. Mysidia survives, and Salmando and Bofsk, and you just manage to save Phin; Altea, Paloom, Porft, and Gatea go bye-bye. The Emperor destroys Palamecia Castle himself, and Dist and Kashuon are both abandoned and/or in ruins anyway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cc3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cc3	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy II (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cc3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd0	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd0	comment	In Final Fantasy IV, you can't save Damcyan or Fabul from Baron. You can't save a single Crystal, Light or Dark, from falling into Golbez's hands. You can't stop the awakening of the Giant of Babil (though you can blow it up from the inside). You can't even fight the Big Bad yourself, only his One-Winged Angel form.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd0	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd0	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd2	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd2	comment	In Final Fantasy IX, Zidane and Co. will always arrive at locations just after the villain has finished destroying them. If they're lucky, they arrive a few minutes beforehand, and then the town is destroyed while they're in the process of escaping.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd2	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd2	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814cd2
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814e56	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814e56	comment	In an extreme case from Final Fantasy VI, Kefka succeeds at becoming a god and destroying the world as we know it a year before our heroes finally manage to kill him and liberate the few survivors.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814e56	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814e56	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_86814e56
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_87056d17	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_87056d17	comment	It's most egregious in Sonic Adventure, as you spend large amounts of the game searching for Chaos Emeralds at a snail's pace, and Eggman (or rather, Chaos) succeeds at getting every single one. The last Chaos Emerald, hidden in Tails' Tornado and being used as a power source, lands in the Hidden Ruins at the end of the game. There is no way to take the Emerald out of the plane and by the time Sonic finally gets to it, Chaos has already found it and stolen it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_87056d17	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_87056d17	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic Adventure (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_87056d17
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_877bfaf7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_877bfaf7	comment	Better Bones AU: Tigerstar's plan is for the Dark Forest to take control both as the main afterlife and to take control of the Clans to form a new TigerClan. Since he's dead and can only interact with the living, this goal takes the form of trying to replace the leadership of the Clans with Dark Forest apprentices. Hee has initial success in this goal with Firestar being killed and Thornclaw, a Dark Forest apprentice, becoming deputy, as well as Blackstar being manipulated by Sol giving an opportunity for the ShadowClan Dark Forest apprentices Ratscar, Redwillow and Applefur to take power.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_877bfaf7	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_877bfaf7	featureConfidence	1.0
Better Bones AU (Blog)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_877bfaf7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8a95c055	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8a95c055	comment	Soon I Will Be Invincible: Doctor Impossible manages to acquire all the components and build his Doomsday Device before he's finally stopped. It's a troperiffic tale, so the heroes even discuss that they're not likely to out-guess his Evil Plan before it's ready. Also averted: One of the past plans Dr. Impossible mentions never even got to the evil stage before being shut down: the plan that created superhero Fatale.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8a95c055	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8a95c055	featureConfidence	1.0
Soon I Will Be Invincible	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8a95c055
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8b957d5d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8b957d5d	comment	Arthur Dent and company totally fail to thwart the Krikket robots and their masters until the end of Life, the Universe and Everything. This is one of very few tropes The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy plays totally straight.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8b957d5d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8b957d5d	featureConfidence	1.0
Life, the Universe and Everything	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8b957d5d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c08fe89	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c08fe89	comment	The Boxxy Quest duology does this a lot. In BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires, the heroes have to stop Boxxyfan from activating the three Spires and destroying the Internet. Naturally, he just beats them to the first two Spires, and manages to activate the third one even after they beat him; it then turns out that there is a fourth one, and that one he fails. Rcoastee manages to activate it instead- only for Catie to stop the destruction anyway. BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm has several as well. The main game concerns the efforts of the heroes to stop the entity destroying the Internet via storms. Despite their best efforts to put together the PasSWORD, by the time they are able to face the mastermind, the Internet is down to a few sites left. The post-game reveals that Boxxyfan has returned and been manipulating everything from behind the scenes, and he successfully takes control of STORM. In the end, his scheme is undone by himself accidentally awakening Legion. The DLC adds yet another; the Social Justice Warriors, led by Mother, have enacted an ultimate plan to unseal their leader from behind the Gamer Gate. The heroes manage to get to the Gate, only to be warded off by the Elder Sisters, and by the time they defeat them, it's too late- Mother is released from her prison and vaporizes all men from existence. However, the heroines band together to defeat her and restore everything back, turning it into a Near-Villain Victory.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c08fe89	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c08fe89	featureConfidence	1.0
Boxxy Quest (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c08fe89
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c87469c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c87469c	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has a rather strange twist on the trend: After the first three dungeons, you effectively have thwarted the villain at Stage 1 once Zelda and Impa escape through a time gate and blow it up behind them. It's only because Old Impa, presumably at the behest of Zelda/the Goddess insist you build a new time gate so you can hear an explanation and plan that she could have given you herself, that The Dragon can travel back in time to release the Sealed Evil in a Can at the end. Had you not been forced to unthwart Stage 1, Demise would never have been released, and his curse that brought Ganondorf in existence wouldn't have happened. So Skyward Sword effectively is the unthwarted Stage 1 for every game that features Ganondorf as Big Bad, which means most of them. Oops.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c87469c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c87469c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8c87469c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d318bad	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d318bad	comment	In an amusing example, one speedrun of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars features beating the boss Punchinello on the first turn using Mario's Super Jump attack to cause more damage than the boss has HP. Punchinello normally goes through "stages" where he summons and throws bombs of increasing size; when killed early, he runs through all of his bomb summoning animations sequentially and then goes right into his death animation.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d318bad	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d318bad	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Mario RPG (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d318bad
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d814070	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d814070	comment	Played for drama in the MAS*H episode "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet." Hawkeye sees a friend die in the O.R., which devastates him. When he asks why he's crying for his friend and not the other soldiers who gave their life, Henry tries to be philosophical about it (which leads to Hawkeye going against his word and sending an underage soldier home):
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d814070	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d814070	featureConfidence	1.0
MAS*H	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8d814070
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8da0ea80	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8da0ea80	comment	You do thwart Stage One in Red/Blue/Yellow: Whatever Giovanni had planned for Silph Co, you beat him down before he can get it, earning yourself a nice shiny Too Awesome to Use Master Ball for your efforts.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8da0ea80	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8da0ea80	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon Red and Blue (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8da0ea80
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8df5521b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8df5521b	comment	Superman: In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Darkseid plans to kidnap Supergirl and turn her into his brainwashed slave. The combined forces of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Amazon army are unable to prevent the tyrant from abducting Kara and breaking her mind, forcing Clark, Bruce and Diana to take the fight to Apokolips to rescue the Kryptonian girl. In the Escape from the Phantom Zone crossover, young psychic Gayle Marsh goes into the Phantom Zone and falls into the Big Bad's clutches despite Supergirl's efforts to prevent it. In The Leper from Krypton, Lex Luthor bio-engineers a lethal disease and teams up with another villain called Ventor to get the bacteria culture out of prison -where Luthor is serving time- and get Superman infected. Even though neither Luthor nor Ventor have figured out how to exactly find and infect Superman beyond hyptonizing a pawn and ordering him to do it, their plan goes without a hitch.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8df5521b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8df5521b	featureConfidence	1.0
Superman (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8df5521b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e09ebf	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e09ebf	comment	Power Rangers Ninja Storm: We only learn that Lothor actually had a long-term plan in the finale, but it nonetheless plays out - filling the Abyss of Evil with his fallen minions until they all rise as an army. The Rangers and their recently-freed fellow students kick them all back in.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e09ebf	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e09ebf	featureConfidence	1.0
Power Rangers Ninja Storm	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e09ebf
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e2b9d52	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e2b9d52	comment	Quest for Glory III, yes, the Demons will assassinate the Leopardman and the Simbani leaders forcing you to find their hidden fortress in the depths of the Fricana junglet.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e2b9d52	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e2b9d52	featureConfidence	1.0
Quest for Glory III (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8e2b9d52
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8f422dc7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8f422dc7	comment	Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, being a parody of shonen series, manages to double-subvert this. When Czar Baldy Bald III, the arc's Big Bad, is about to emerge from a century of cryogenic freezing, Bo-bobo seals him back in, throws the container around a bit, and then blows it up. However, the Czar had managed to escape through his martial art: magic.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8f422dc7	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8f422dc7	featureConfidence	1.0
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_8f422dc7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90a3a7f4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90a3a7f4	comment	Kim Possible: Almost every episode sees Kim thwart the villain's scheme on the verge of either success or massive destruction. Particularly noticeable in A Sitch In Time, where she can't stop the villains from assembling the time monkey, or going back in time, or Shego escaping to use it to Take Over the World, but fixes it by undoing that whole timeline. Also played with in Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama; Kim foils Drakken's attempt to kidnap Mr. Nakasumi, preventing his capture and theoretically stopping or at least disrupting Drakken's plan long enough to foil it another way, but instead Drakken gets what he wants; from Nakasumi's suit, which was all Shego could recover from the mess. This eventually gives Drakken what he needs to launch the scheme, thus using the trope somewhat straight despite being foiled.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90a3a7f4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90a3a7f4	featureConfidence	1.0
Kim Possible	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90a3a7f4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90b916ba	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90b916ba	comment	In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Clock King", all of the eponymous villain's plans work swimmingly, except for the final (and most important): Killing Mayor Hill.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90b916ba	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90b916ba	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman: The Animated Series	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90b916ba
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90c73dda	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90c73dda	comment	Inverted in the Megamorphs book Elfangor's Secret, where the heroes thwart Stage One by saving Henry V at Agincourt but fail to prevent Visser 4 from killing George Washington and Admiral Nelson. They win in the end, though. Inverted in another way by going back in time decades before Stage One and thwarting the entire effort.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90c73dda	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90c73dda	featureConfidence	1.0
Animorphs	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_90c73dda
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_91684031	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_91684031	comment	Happens again in Black and White, where you will never be able to stop N from defeating the Elite Four and Champion, no matter how fast you get to the PokÃ©mon League. Alder states that he is going to give N the best thrashing he can, and while he fails, he insists you hold on to whatever stone your game provides in case things don't go as he expects (and, as stated above, they do go awry).
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_91684031	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_91684031	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon Black and White (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_91684031
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_924b6d63	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_924b6d63	comment	In Xenogears, the Big Bad Deus is resurrected and nearly at full power. Because of what it has to do to resurrect itself (transforming the bodies of humans and fusing with them), almost all of humanity is wiped out. The hero, of course, slays Deus, though not before this all happens.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_924b6d63	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_924b6d63	featureConfidence	1.0
Xenogears (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_924b6d63
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_94688c99	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_94688c99	comment	New Legends opens with the raid of the Soo Kingdom, and regardless of your performance, you will be captured by enemy lieutenants, witness the death of your father the Emperor, and be Made a Slave and thrown into the enemy labor camp. The following stage is a prison escape where you meet the La RÃ©sistance.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_94688c99	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_94688c99	featureConfidence	1.0
New Legends (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_94688c99
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9582bc82	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9582bc82	comment	First Wave: Was a short-lived, low budget series about trying to do exactly this, the title being about the first phase of the aliens' three-step plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9582bc82	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9582bc82	featureConfidence	1.0
First Wave	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9582bc82
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_959e88d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_959e88d	comment	Dragon Quest XI: No matter what you do, you can't stop Mordegon from stealing the Heart of Yggdrasil and plunging the world into an age of darkness. Except after defeating him, by going back in time with his own Sword of Shadows capable of letting you win the Hopeless Boss Fight with Jasper that capped off Act 1, resulting in a completely different sequence of events leading to the true ending.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_959e88d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_959e88d	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Quest XI (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_959e88d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_95d534e1	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_95d534e1	comment	The Dragon Prince: Viren becomes king, amasses an army, topples Lux Aurea, almost captures Zym, and...falls off a cliff.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_95d534e1	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_95d534e1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Dragon Prince	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_95d534e1
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9707f576	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9707f576	comment	Magellan: Miasma and DragonKlaw manage to open the Equis portal before they are defeated.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9707f576	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9707f576	featureConfidence	1.0
Magellan (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9707f576
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_985ad25d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_985ad25d	comment	In the Future Trunks Saga of Dragon Ball Super Goku and Beerus make a spirited effort at thwarting Stage One by killing Present Zamasu before he could kill his mentor Gowasu and become Goku Black. This works out without a hitch, until Black shows up again and reveals that his Time Ring made him immune to changes in the past, so while there is now a new timeline in which Zamasu died before he could do anything, the Goku Black version of Zamasu still exists. After all's said and done, Whis also goes to thwart Stage One by warning Future Beerus of the threat, though it's acknowledged that this isn't so much undoing the damage as creating a Close-Enough Timeline where the problem didn't happen.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_985ad25d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_985ad25d	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Ball Super	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_985ad25d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_994af351	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_994af351	comment	Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations: You have to accuse Luke Atmey of theft in the first day of the trial, even though you later find out this was all part of his plan to get away with murder.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_994af351	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_994af351	featureConfidence	1.0
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_994af351
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_99e49e94	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_99e49e94	comment	Bug Fables: The Ant Kingdom tries their hardest to keep the Everlasting Sapling out of the hands of the Wasp King, gathering the four artifacts needed to reach it and thwarting any Wasp soldiers sent after them. Despite their best efforts, the Wasp King takes the artifacts by force, reaches the Sapling before the heroes, and manages to power himself with its last remaining leaf. Team Snakemouth just barely stops him before he can assert his new power over Bugaria and rule the land.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_99e49e94	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_99e49e94	featureConfidence	1.0
Bug Fables (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_99e49e94
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9ad1cbc	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9ad1cbc	comment	Taken to its logical extreme in the first Wonderland Adventures game: the thwarts succeed. The plan worked. The Void WILL engulf Wonderland no matter what you do. However, you get the chance to, essentially, repair the world.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9ad1cbc	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9ad1cbc	featureConfidence	1.0
Wonderland Adventures (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9ad1cbc
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9bb5aad4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9bb5aad4	comment	In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Darkness is somehow able to pull everyone into his world leaving only protagonist Judai as the lone human on Earth. After a Power of Friendship speech, Judai is able to free everyone in time to defeat Darkness in a duel.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9bb5aad4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9bb5aad4	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9bb5aad4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d41fc3d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d41fc3d	comment	Despicable Me 3: No matter how many times the good guys recover the diamond stolen by Bratt, he eventually uses it to power up his laser cannon and attack Hollywood. Only then he's stopped.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d41fc3d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d41fc3d	featureConfidence	1.0
Despicable Me 3	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d41fc3d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d47a2a2	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d47a2a2	comment	A Song of Ice and Fire: Aegon's invasion. The Targaryen's had been on Dragonstone for nearly a hundred years following the Doom of Valyria. They were unable to begin their invasion sooner because their dragons at the time of the doom were too old to be of much use, and they had to wait a long time for their newborns to mature. Of course, no one thought to do anything about them while the dragons were young, resulting in the continent having to deal with three nearly full-grown dragons.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d47a2a2	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d47a2a2	featureConfidence	1.0
A Song of Ice and Fire	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9d47a2a2
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9e2f90f4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9e2f90f4	comment	One Piece: During the Water 7 arc, the Straw Hats try to get Robin to come back to the crew on several occasions, but fail each attempt due to CP9 threatening the Straw Hats with the Buster Call, which prevents her from coming back. It takes them breaking into the heavily defended Enies Lobby, convincing Robin she's one of them and saving her just before she is to be taken beyond their reach. Similarly, in the Impel Down arc, Luffy doesn't manage to save Ace inside Impel Down, but has to go all the way to Marine Headquarters. He ultimately fails, despite managing to free Ace from the execution platform. Also the case with Blackbeard's plans, which go off without a hitch all the way through killing Whitebeard, stealing his Devil Fruit power, and taking his place as one of the Four Emperors. This is even lampshaded by Blackbeard and his crew often talking about fate's role in their plan, as if recognizing that this trope would come into effect. This is usually the formula in many arcs, where, despite attempts, the villain's plan progresses as intended and is only ruined in the final stage when Luffy defeats them, most notably in the Alabasta arc.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9e2f90f4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9e2f90f4	featureConfidence	1.0
One Piece (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9e2f90f4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f6c47c9	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f6c47c9	comment	In her tears were my light, you are required to fail at saving the character Space from Nil and reset the timeline several times, with both you and Nil retaining memories of these events, before you can hear Nil's side of the story and start making better decisions.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f6c47c9	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f6c47c9	featureConfidence	1.0
her tears were my light (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f6c47c9
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f89a5f0	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f89a5f0	comment	All over the place in the PokÃ©mon series: You do thwart Stage One in Red/Blue/Yellow: Whatever Giovanni had planned for Silph Co, you beat him down before he can get it, earning yourself a nice shiny Too Awesome to Use Master Ball for your efforts. Justified in Gold/Silver/Crystal by the fact that the guard won't let you higher up the Radio Tower, and, even if he isn't in on the whole thing, there's no way he would buy the excuse, "The director was kidnapped and Team Rocket has a fake up there!". Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald really had no excuse. You knock out Maxie/Archie's PokÃ©mon, and have him cornered, with his back to magma, just asking for a Disney Villain Death. But he escapes. Nicely handled in Platinum with Cyrus trying to attack you about 5/8ths in, letting you beat him down. He still escapes, though, and you aren't able to access the Galactic Hideout early, even if you grind to level 100. That receptionist must have balls to still not let you go past at that point. Happens again in Black and White, where you will never be able to stop N from defeating the Elite Four and Champion, no matter how fast you get to the PokÃ©mon League. Alder states that he is going to give N the best thrashing he can, and while he fails, he insists you hold on to whatever stone your game provides in case things don't go as he expects (and, as stated above, they do go awry). And in Sun and Moon, you can't stop Lusamine from opening the Ultra Wormhole and going through it with Guzma. You have to spend most of the rest of the main plot getting to Ultra Space yourself to retrieve them, and then the main postgame plot cleaning up the damage she did by letting the Ultra Beasts into Alola.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f89a5f0	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f89a5f0	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_9f89a5f0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a2dee471	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a2dee471	comment	The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Link's attempt to rescue his sister ends in failure due to his inability to confront the Helmaroc King, forcing him to embark on a longer quest with the help of the King of Red Lions. When Link does a second attempt, he manages to rescue her with the help of Tetra and her crew and defeats the Helmaroc King for good, but is unable to confront Ganondorf due to the Master Sword having lost its power (which means his new plan was ultimately doomed to fail as well).
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a2dee471	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a2dee471	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a2dee471
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a4e6a00a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a4e6a00a	comment	Skies of Arcadia has the heroes spending the whole game collecting five of the six Moon Crystals and keeping them out of enemy hands — and then have no choice but to let the villain take all six, prompting a final battle.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a4e6a00a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a4e6a00a	featureConfidence	1.0
Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a4e6a00a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a599305d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a599305d	comment	The missions you undertake in the Mega Man Zero games fail a lot. For instance, in Zero 2, you'll just about catch up with Elpizo several times before getting a chance to actually stop him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a599305d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a599305d	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man Zero (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a599305d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a61ca024	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a61ca024	comment	Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue — the Rangers fight the demons for an entire series, but can't defeat Bansheera until after she succeeds in bringing her evil fortress to Earth.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a61ca024	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a61ca024	featureConfidence	1.0
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a61ca024
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a796bde8	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a796bde8	comment	Subverted in Metal Gear Solid; turns out Snake could've stopped Stage One easily if he died. Ocelot accidentally killed one of the hostages with the PAL codes (it's revealed later he had his reasons), so they couldn't launch Rex's nuke. Except that Armstech had created a special card key which would deactivate the nuke (if it was activated) or activate the nuke (if it was deactivated). All they had to do was convince Snake that they had the codes, and Snake went along and completed Stage One for the terrorists ("You found the key and even activated the warhead for us").
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a796bde8	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a796bde8	featureConfidence	1.0
Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a796bde8
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb24f5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb24f5	comment	Mega Man 11 only poured more salt on the wound with the reveal that it might have been possible to thwart Stage 1 after all: Wily's Start of Darkness came about when Light convinced the board of scientists overseeing their research to shut down Wily's work on the Double Gear System due to Light's concerns about the risk it posed to robots equipped with it. Light realizes his role as the Unwitting Instigator of Doom years later and once more extends the olive branch to his one-time friend, but Wily refuses and vows to continue his war.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb24f5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb24f5	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man 11 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb24f5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29ae	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29ae	comment	In the first Mega Man X game, when you get to Sigma's Fortress, Vile will be waiting for you. Zero intervenes and gets his ass handed to him. At this point, it is possible to have already acquired the Secret One-Hit KO Hadoken. However, Vile's Ride Armor is resistant to it, and will proceed to throttle you, as there are no walls to hang onto.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29ae	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29ae	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man X (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29ae
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29af	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29af	comment	In Mega Man X2, a Maverick called Morph Moth goes through two distinct fighting phases, changing between them when its health is less than halved. Just before you fight him again in the fortress, you can gain a skill that kills any boss in one hit. Against Morph Moth, however, you have to do it twice — once to beat his first phase (2/3 health), and again to beat his second phase.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29af	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29af	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man X2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29af
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29b2	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29b2	comment	In Mega Man X5, your initial defeat of Sigma is part of his plan, setting in motion a Colony Drop. You then spend most of the game building machines to prevent the crash — but no matter how good your luck is, you can't stop it completely. What's more, the second thing you try may turn Zero evil, and this was also part of Sigma's plan. (Even if Zero's okay, he and X will end up fighting, leaving just one hero to stop Sigma.)
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29b2	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29b2	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man X5 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a7bb29b2
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a81325d3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a81325d3	comment	In many Final Fantasy games starting with Final Fantasy II, the heroes are unable to stop the early stages of a villian's plan. Not so true for I, III, or X because all the major stuff happens before the start of the game: In the second game, The Empire finishes its Warship/Dreadnought just before you reach it, necessitating a more involved plan to destroy it. And of course, you can't stop the Cyclone from destroying most of the cities in the game. Mysidia survives, and Salmando and Bofsk, and you just manage to save Phin; Altea, Paloom, Porft, and Gatea go bye-bye. The Emperor destroys Palamecia Castle himself, and Dist and Kashuon are both abandoned and/or in ruins anyway. In Final Fantasy IV, you can't save Damcyan or Fabul from Baron. You can't save a single Crystal, Light or Dark, from falling into Golbez's hands. You can't stop the awakening of the Giant of Babil (though you can blow it up from the inside). You can't even fight the Big Bad yourself, only his One-Winged Angel form. In Final Fantasy V, you can't save any Crystal from shattering. Ever. You can't stop Exdeath from unsealing himself and returning to power. You can't save the Elder Forest. You can't keep the worlds from merging. You can't stop Exdeath from unsealing the Dimensional Rift and all its Eldritch Abominations. You can't stop Exdeath from vanishing half the planet inside the Void. In an extreme case from Final Fantasy VI, Kefka succeeds at becoming a god and destroying the world as we know it a year before our heroes finally manage to kill him and liberate the few survivors. In Final Fantasy VII, you can't topple Shinra, stop Sephiroth from acquiring the Black Materia or summoning Meteor, or even stop him from skewering your White Magician Girl in a Plotline Death. You can, however, stop him from achieving ultimate power and kill him before he gets it rather than after. In the ending, however, you can never release Holy before it's too late for it to thwart Meteor by itself. In Final Fantasy VIII, this is because of a Batman Gambit. Ultimecia has to be Hoist by Her Own Petard, as her use of time compression is what allows you to go into her time and defeat her. In Final Fantasy IX, Zidane and Co. will always arrive at locations just after the villain has finished destroying them. If they're lucky, they arrive a few minutes beforehand, and then the town is destroyed while they're in the process of escaping. Final Fantasy XII avoids this by removing every "easy" way for the heroes to succeed early. If they had killed Vayne early on, then Archadia would have come down hard on Dalmasca, the war between the two Empires (with Dalmasca right in the middle) would never have been averted, and the Occuria would have retained their grip on the world. The entire plot is a gradual movement of all the pieces in play until the heroes can strike a decisive victory. In Final Fantasy Tactics, you can't save Alma from capture; you have to leave her under the "protection" of the monastery while you go off and do hero stuff. And that's just scratching the surface: earlier, you can't save Tietra, then you can't stop Ophelia from siding with Folmarv, you can't convince Zalbaag to avert the resulting Lion War, you can't stop Delita's machinations. An Unwitting Pawn is you, Ramza. So unwitting, in fact, that he can't even stop the Church from branding him a heretic.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a81325d3	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a81325d3	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a81325d3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a825da3e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a825da3e	comment	Magic: The Gathering: The plan to take out New Phyrexia by blowing up its World Tree with the Sylex in "All Will Be One" was obviously not going to succeed, both because a massive Phyrexian onslaught across the multiverse was a much more dramatic development, and Wizards had already announced "March of the Machines", the set about the massive Phyrexian onslaught in question.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a825da3e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a825da3e	featureConfidence	1.0
Magic: The Gathering (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a825da3e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a83e83d4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a83e83d4	comment	Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. The big final scheme involves the use of a very large rocket with a nuclear payload. You fight your way through a tough squadron of ace pilots, then through a twisting canyon with ridiculous SAM coverage overhead, and then fly into Avalon Dam to destroy the launch controls. Even then, the missile is still launched and you have to take out your former wingman Pixy, who turns out to be controlling the launch from his supertech-loaded plane; the final fight becomes a race against the clock to destroy the plane and thus the control before the missile can make reentry.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a83e83d4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a83e83d4	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a83e83d4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a96a7ada	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a96a7ada	comment	Yu-Gi-Oh!: In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series despite the cast's efforts, Zorc is able to revive and terrorize the recreated Ancient Egypt with the intent of changing the past. The cast is able to beat him by reminding Yami Yugi of his true name that lets him fuse the Egyptian Gods into a singular goddess that completely destroys Zorc once and for all. In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Darkness is somehow able to pull everyone into his world leaving only protagonist Judai as the lone human on Earth. After a Power of Friendship speech, Judai is able to free everyone in time to defeat Darkness in a duel. In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, despite Yusei defeating Aporia Z-One was still able to summon the Arc Cradle to destroy Neo Domino City. It takes a long duel where Yusei is able to defeat Z-One which gives him a change of heart to stop the Arc Cradle from destroying the city at the cost of his life. In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V the big twist is despite Yuya actually beating Yuri and remaining in control for most of their duel, Zarc is able to take control. Zarc then fully revives by absorbing Yuri, reuniting the four Dragon Boys back into one. Zarc then spends 5 episodes tearing through the remaining cast till his equal and opposite Ray is able to revive and beat him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a96a7ada	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a96a7ada	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh! (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_a96a7ada
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_accb04fd	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_accb04fd	comment	The Matrix: Path of Neo actually averts this trope. The first stage has Neo try to escape the Agents trying to arrest him at his office. Unlike the movie, however, Neo can climb the scaffolding and make it to the roof, meeting up with Trinity, and leaving the office undetected. All this does is unlock Hard Mode, though.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_accb04fd	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_accb04fd	featureConfidence	1.0
The Matrix: Path of Neo (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_accb04fd
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ad152093	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ad152093	comment	Tales of Bleach: Unreal Society has this in its third installment Blades of Destiny where the Big Bad, Album Atrum, has it set up that the heroes not only know he's planning something bigger, but they're powerless to make any attempt to stop it because of the Gambit Roulette he has set up.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ad152093	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ad152093	featureConfidence	1.0
Tales of Bleach: Unreal Society (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ad152093
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_adc4b252	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_adc4b252	comment	During the PQ Saga of L's Empire, Phala manages to free all three of her generals from their prisons despite L's Empire's efforts to stop her. It's also subverted in the FZ saga when they keep on failing to reach the licensed characters before they can attack the Threaders, mainly because the licensed characters are repeatedly sent flying by whatever Threader they attack.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_adc4b252	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_adc4b252	featureConfidence	1.0
L's Empire (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_adc4b252
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ae050a9f	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ae050a9f	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: It's often said that the easiest way to beat the game is to get the Kokiri Emerald and then stop playing. Now that Ganondorf can't collect the three Spiritual Stones, he'll never enter the Sacred Realm. Link progressing in his quest, first with the Spiritual Stones and then with the temple Sages, is actually part of Ganondorf's plan. While the game otherwise plays it straight, Word of God is that it was actually subverted offscreen. After beating Ganondorf in the Final Battle, Link went back in time and used his knowledge of the future to expose Ganondorf and have him arrested before his plan could really get started. This created two alternate timelines: one where Ganondorf was defeated during the climatic showdown (which led to Wind Waker and its sequels) and one where Ganondorf was defeated early on (which led to Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess). On the other hand, Twilight Princess showed that Ganondorf's attempted execution was a spectacular failure that only served to set up a new crisis, so that zig-zags things back to being played straight.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ae050a9f	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ae050a9f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Videogame	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ae050a9f
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_af566418	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_af566418	comment	Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: The heroes fail to stop Aggregor from recapturing his prisoners, absorbing their powers to become Ultimate and get the Map of infinity, the only reason they manage to defeat him is because Kevin decided to absorb the Omnitrix power at the cost of his sanity.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_af566418	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_af566418	featureConfidence	1.0
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_af566418
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0028436	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0028436	comment	Hirohiko Araki, the creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, has said that he likes to see villains achieve their goal, only for it to be snatched away from them, so it's no surprise this comes up pretty often in his work. In Part 1: Phantom Blood, Dio Brando successfully becomes a vampire and begins his plans for world domination. He is defeated by Jonathan at the height of his power. In Part 2: Battle Tendency, Kars acquires the Red Stone of Aja, which he had spent the whole arc trying to get, and becomes the Ultimate Life Form. Joseph forces him into a position where it'd almost be better for him to be able to die. In Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, we find out that Dio not only survived the boat's explosion at the end of Part 1, but was also able to attach his head to Jonathan's body. In the finale to the part, he manages to kill Joseph and drink his blood, which removes the last few issues he had controlling Jonathan's stolen body. Jotaro manages to kill him after a grueling battle, and uses Dio's own blood to resurrect Joseph. In Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable, Yoshikage Kira succeeds in changing his appearance and settling down for a quiet life. He's caught by the son of the man he's impersonating and Dragged Off to Hell when Josuke and his allies defeat him. In Part 5: Golden Wind, it's averted for perhaps the only time in the series. Diavolo is defeated when Giorno uses the Requiem Arrow, but Diavolo never got the chance to use the Arrow himself. In Part 6: Stone Ocean, Enrico Pucci succeeds in killing off most of the main cast and using his Stand to accelerate time, creating his ideal universe. The universe is only temporary until Pucci can reach the original point of acceleration, and he is killed by Emporio (the Sole Survivor among the main cast) before then, erasing him from existence and undoing everything he'd done as a result. In Part 7: Steel Ball Run, Funny Valentine successfully reassembles Jesus's corpse, and gains an upgrade to D4C known as Love Train, which gives him an infinite dimensional barrier that tosses all misfortune directed at him somewhere else completely random in the multiverse. He's defeated when Johnny uses the Golden Spin to unlock his ultimate Stand, Tusk ACT 4, which can completely No-Sell Love Train. In Part 8: JoJolion, it's played with, as Toru's plan to mass-produce the Locacaca Fruit for medical use and rise the Rock Humans over mankind is thwarted with; but his goal of getting the New Locacaca from the Higashikata Household is successful, as he eats the fruit to perform a exchange and cure his battle wounds... Only for Kaato to drop Tsurugi on him with her ability, and eliminate toru by forcing him to trade the rock illness. This also applies to the Villain of the Week many times per part, albeit on a smaller scale: despite the heroes' efforts, the villain is usually able to gain power and control until they can make the best possible use of it that the setting allows before they're finally defeated. A straightforward example is Sports Maxx in Stone Ocean, whose Stand lets him make zombies out of corpses. He first uses a taxidermied bird at the heroes, then a crocodile, but when Ermes and Jolyne defeat the zombie animals, the fight moves to the nearby crypt, where he makes a zombie out of every corpse buried there. Another is Angelo in Diamond Is Unbreakable, whose Stand lets him manifest in water. He begins with a small glob of water, which Josuke easily traps in a glass bottle, though he later escapes. By the time Josuke tracks down and finds Angelo again, it's raining outside, and Josuke is trapped in his own house where all of the faucets, showers, and bathtubs are on full-blast, filling the house with mist that Angelo can also manifest in. In a sense, this also makes the heroes even more impressive, as the villains get to their absolute strongest but are still defeated by the heroes.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0028436	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0028436	featureConfidence	1.0
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0028436
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0666b59	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0666b59	comment	In the very first chapter of the original Neverwinter Nights game, it's not hard to figure out that Desther is up to something fishy; even if you haven't played to the point where he finally openly sabotages the attempt to find a cure for the Wailing Death yet, a number of clues pop up before then. Yet you can't actually do anything with them before it's time for the scripted final battle; he can't be fought until then, and any accusations that the dialogue system even allows will simply be met with disbelief from the NPCs.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0666b59	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0666b59	featureConfidence	1.0
Neverwinter Nights (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0666b59
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0cf0ed6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0cf0ed6	comment	Danger Mouse: The series subverts this in "Demons Aren't Dull." He apparently surrenders to the Demon of the Fourth Dimension and asks for a last request: to show Penfold how powerful the Demon is. As DM explains it, the Demon offers to demonstrate: the Demon connects a door from his dimension to a door in our dimension. Then DM explains that if the Demon's door is closed (which DM asks him to do and he obliges) and the door in ours is closed, the Demon would be powerless as he would be trapped between dimensions. DM applies this instantly before he tells it. In the sequence before, with him and Penfold in the Demon's dimension, he threatens to report the Demon to the 4-D Union (the union of Deadly and Diabolical Dimensional Demons) for violation of a clause in their contract—to return victims to their own dimension before the end of episode 4 or their powers are revoked by the Boss Demon. Scared, the Demon obliges and returns our heroes to their own realm. A double-double cross ensues: DM says he was bluffing about the contract clause, and the Demon deposited the duo in their own realm—in midair, causing them to tumble towards the Earth.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0cf0ed6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0cf0ed6	featureConfidence	1.0
Danger Mouse	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b0cf0ed6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b240b18c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b240b18c	comment	Happens quite commonly in Project Sylpheed, thanks to the New Game Plus feature. The first time you, the player, take on an enemy cruiser, it's quite the accomplishment, being very, very difficult even on the easiest difficulty settings. Your commander even admits that he's impressed, but he doesn't want to see you try anything that stupid again. Of course, over the span of the game, your space fighter gets weapons upgrades that are Game-Breaker-level improvements... Which in no way affect the game's storyline or allow you to rescue or otherwise impact the story in any meaningful way. Even when you're regularly wiping out entire enemy fleets, your own fleet will still be desperately on the run.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b240b18c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b240b18c	featureConfidence	1.0
Project Sylpheed (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b240b18c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b30ae4db	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b30ae4db	comment	Game of Thrones: Robert's plan to assassinate Daenerys in order to avoid a potential invasion by her Dothraki husband's forces is botched. Even when word of Daenery's dragons and her position as Queen of Mereen reaches King's Landing, the Lannisters are far too busy dealing with more immediate threats to risk sending out forces to take out Dany and her dragons while they are young. So, by the time Cersei manages to usurp the Iron Throne, it's far too late to do anything about Dany, and as her long-sought reign begins Cersei is almost immediately faced with a full-fledged invasion of a massive army of Dothraki and three relatively mature dragons.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b30ae4db	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b30ae4db	featureConfidence	1.0
Game of Thrones	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b30ae4db
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b36b9a9c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b36b9a9c	comment	In Hush, Helen, who is expected to give birth at any minute, manages to hijack a car and get the hell away from the mansion of her insane mother-in-law who has been holding her hostage for the purpose of taking her baby from her and then killing her. So Helen drives around in blind panic for several minutes, finally manages to find a nearby highway, and collapses in exhaustion at the side of the road, raising her hand in desperation for someone to pick her up and get her to a hospital... And, what, five seconds later a car pulls by... And it's her evil mother-in-law! What are the odds of that! Said Evil mother-in-law then takes her back to the house so they can both be there for her giving birth.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b36b9a9c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b36b9a9c	featureConfidence	1.0
Hush	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b36b9a9c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4816c2e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4816c2e	comment	Legacy of Kain: The Pillars will be corrupted. The entire series begins with this event in a cutscene before the player character is even born. In Defiance, currently the "end" of the series, the collapse of the Pillars occurs in a cutscene, unavoidable just like the very first scene of the series. These events, while similar and even overlapping to a degree, constitute two separate evil plans by two separate evils. It is not a very victorious series.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4816c2e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4816c2e	featureConfidence	1.0
Legacy of Kain (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4816c2e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4967d43	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4967d43	comment	Sonic the Hedgehog: The series thrives on this. In many games, Sonic tries to stop some evil from being released or brought to full power (or in one case, the Chaos Emeralds from being collected, which unbeknownst to him and Eggman, releases an evil anyway). Said plot goes underway anyway despite his best efforts, and the final boss is him going Super Sonic to face the unleashed evil and bring peace to the world again. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Knuckles is being manipulated by Eggman into thinking that Sonic is coming to steal the Master Emerald. Sonic can't tell Knuckles that this isn't the case (be it his Heroic Mime status or because Knuckles never sticks around long enough to listen), and no matter what, Sonic can never make it to the Hidden Palace in time to protect the Master Emerald before Eggman's ready to betray Knuckles. Doubly subverted, though, in regards to Eggman's plans to rebuild the Death Egg. Sonic's victory at the Launch Base causes the Death Egg to crash down to Angel Island in destruction before it can be launched into orbit (...somehow), but Eggman still succeeds at rebuilding it AGAIN and successfully launching it and stowing the Master Emerald inside. It's most egregious in Sonic Adventure, as you spend large amounts of the game searching for Chaos Emeralds at a snail's pace, and Eggman (or rather, Chaos) succeeds at getting every single one. The last Chaos Emerald, hidden in Tails' Tornado and being used as a power source, lands in the Hidden Ruins at the end of the game. There is no way to take the Emerald out of the plane and by the time Sonic finally gets to it, Chaos has already found it and stolen it. Sonic Adventure 2: No matter how quickly you get to the rocket launch station in Metal Harbor, it will always be 15 seconds from takeoff. Eggman manages to get his hands on all seven Chaos Emeralds — even swiping one from right under Tails's nose in the ending of the Hero story — and powers up the Eclipse Cannon, as he had planned. Happens twice in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): while trapped in the Bad Future, Sonic learns that Elise is going to die soon back in the present when Eggman's battleship crashes and explodes. He arrives back in the present too late, but thanks to Silver and the use of Chaos Control, he's able to go back a little further in time to save her. Later, Mephilis kills Sonic, causing Elise to cry and unleash Iblis, thus causing The End of the World as We Know It. It takes True Love's Kiss reviving Sonic and a subsequent Cosmic Retcon to set things right. Happens twice in Sonic Unleashed. The armada that Eggman controls in the game's intro was all just a ploy to trap Super Sonic and use the Chaos Emeralds to unleashed Dark Gaia. It's Sonic and Chip's goal to restore the Chaos Emeralds and the planet before Dark Gaia gains their full strength, but thanks to Sonic's own Werehog transformation, Dark Gaia is returned to full power. In Sonic Colors, by the time Sonic and Tails even reach Tropical Resort, Eggman's already stolen a solar system's worth of planets, built a gigantic Space Elevator, chained all the planets to it, imprisoned hordes of the Wisp species AND has successfully turned them (or at least a good chunk of them) into the horrible Nega Wisps. In fact, Eggman succeeds at every step of the way. If it weren't for a Chekhov's Gun moment destroying the Tropical Resort that Eggman had tied his whole operation to, he would've won. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood begins with the villains having already stolen six of the seven Chaos Emeralds. You can't stop them from stealing the seventh, nor can you stop them from stealing the Master Emerald. The best you can do is follow them into their home dimension, defeat them, and steal them all back again. And when you get back, you find Eggman's rebuilt in your absence, and you couldn't thwart that either... cue Bolivian Army Ending. The Time Eater's gotten everything down by the time Sonic Generations even starts. Multiple areas in time and space have already been broken, Sonic's friends are Taken for Granite, and the Chaos Emeralds have been scattered (as usual, of course). In Sonic Frontiers, the Big Bad THE END intends to become free to wreak havoc on the universe. They do this by manipulating Sonic into destroying the Titans and unleashing the seal to Cyber Space, which he does. This is an interesting variation, as it is the initial antagonist Sage who attempts to thwart Stage One by forcing Sonic to leave the Starfall Islands. Unfortunately, the only way to save Sonic's friends is for him to defeat the Titans. It's due to their opposing goals as well as Sage's inability to tell Sonic the full truth since she is an AI created by his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman that lets the Big Bad get as far as they do, something that both characters acknowledge when they're forced to team up.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4967d43	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4967d43	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic the Hedgehog (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b4967d43
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b52f14ad	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b52f14ad	comment	Loopmancer sees you defeating the Big Guy, the easy first boss, and automatically dying in the next cutscene because your arch-enemy, Wei Long, has a sniper on standby. Your loop then resets itself, leading the main plot.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b52f14ad	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b52f14ad	featureConfidence	1.0
Loopmancer (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b52f14ad
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b60b7a6b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b60b7a6b	comment	In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Darkseid plans to kidnap Supergirl and turn her into his brainwashed slave. The combined forces of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Amazon army are unable to prevent the tyrant from abducting Kara and breaking her mind, forcing Clark, Bruce and Diana to take the fight to Apokolips to rescue the Kryptonian girl.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b60b7a6b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b60b7a6b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b60b7a6b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b704a08a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b704a08a	comment	Reborn! (2004): The Big Bad of the Inheritance Ceremony Arc, Daemon Spade, manages to steal Mukuro's body near the end of the arc. He receives a massive power boost since he now has access to his full power, and the rest of the arc consists of the final battle against him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b704a08a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b704a08a	featureConfidence	1.0
Reborn! (2004) (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b704a08a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b80b5c0d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b80b5c0d	comment	In Sonic Frontiers, the Big Bad THE END intends to become free to wreak havoc on the universe. They do this by manipulating Sonic into destroying the Titans and unleashing the seal to Cyber Space, which he does. This is an interesting variation, as it is the initial antagonist Sage who attempts to thwart Stage One by forcing Sonic to leave the Starfall Islands. Unfortunately, the only way to save Sonic's friends is for him to defeat the Titans. It's due to their opposing goals as well as Sage's inability to tell Sonic the full truth since she is an AI created by his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman that lets the Big Bad get as far as they do, something that both characters acknowledge when they're forced to team up.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b80b5c0d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b80b5c0d	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic Frontiers (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b80b5c0d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b89bf586	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b89bf586	comment	This happens in most Ninjago seasons: In Season 1, the Ninja fail to prevent Pythor from brining the four Fangblades to the Lost City of Ouroborus, leading to him unleashing the Great Devourer. In Season 2, the Ninja fail to prevent the Overlord from completing the Garmatron. In Season 3, the Ninja fail to prevent the Nindroids from brining the remnants of the Golden Weapons back from Delta V, allowing the Overlord to become the Golden Master. In Season 4, the Ninja fail to prevent Master Chen from transforming his followers into Anacondrai. In Season 5, the Ninja fail to prevent Morro from using the Realm Crystal to bring the Preeminent to Ninjago. In Season 6, the Ninja fail to prevent Nadakhan from marrying Nya, allowing Nadakhan to gain infinite wishes. In Season 7, the Ninja fail to prevent the Time Twins from collecting all four Time Blades and completing the Iron Doom. In Season 8, the Ninja fail to prevent the Sons of Garmadon from collecting all three Oni Masks, allowing them to ressurect Garmadon. In Season 12, the Ninja fail to prevent Unagami from gathering enough Energy Cubes, allowing him to open the Manifestation Gate so leave Prime Empire and enter Ninjago. In Season 14, the Ninja fail to prevent Kalmaar from stealing the Storm Amulet, allowing him to awaken Wojira. In Season 15, the Ninja fail to prevent the Council of the Crystal King from stealing the Golden Weapons, allowing the Overlord to crystalize the five generals.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b89bf586	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b89bf586	featureConfidence	1.0
Ninjago	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b89bf586
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8e7bb8	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8e7bb8	comment	In general, if a Super Sentai villain has a plan, it's going to get past Stage One: Choujuu Sentai Liveman: Bias suceeds in getting the twelfth brain, brainwashing the world, and becoming immortal. In other words, he succeeded. And he would have won if Yuusuke hadn't made it to the Brain Base or if Kemp hadn't heed Megumi's words and had a Heel Realization that led to the rest of his trapped students fighting back to get vengeance on Bias. Samurai Sentai Shinkenger has Sujigarano Akumaro planning to open up the barrier between the world of the living and Hell by creating six wedges out of human suffering. He succeeds in creating the wedges, but underestimates the true nature of the Blood Knight he manipulated into helping him with the final stage of his plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8e7bb8	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8e7bb8	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Sentai (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8e7bb8
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8ec1fed	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8ec1fed	comment	The Beginning After the End: Up until Volume 9, Arthur fails to stop Agrona from achieving any of his goals in the leadup to his war on Epheotus, not just because of him getting Out-Gambitted and outplanned by Agrona at almost every turn, but also due to Agrona and his servants exploiting some of Arthur's past actions without him knowing. When Agrona's agents instigate an attack on Xyrus Academy, Arthur is able to put an end to the attack but at great cost. He is unable to save several of his friends and classmates, in particular his best friend Elijah who is taken back to Alacrya to restore his original personality - Nico, the Evil Former Friend of Arthur's past life King Grey. Making matters worse, in the aftermath he and his bond Sylvie are taken into captivity at the behest of the Council, who are being manipulated by Agrona into handing over Arthur and Sylvie to him. Only the intervention of the asuras Windsom and Aldir in purging the Council of Agrona's corruption prevents this from happening. In spite of being one of the strongest mages on Dicathen and having trained in Epheotus for years, he is ultimately unable to prevent the Alacryans from conquering his homeland. Not only is this because Agrona had been preparing for this invasion millennia before Arthur was reborn and the asuras had lagged behind him in their own preparations with the Dicathians, the asuras themselves end up abandoning the Dicathians after Agrona uses a failed sneak attack on Alacrya to assassinate him - one which they did without informing their Dicathian allies - as a violation of their treaty to remove them from the war. At the end of the war, Sylvie is forced to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save him, which in turn causes him to end up in the Relictombs and left powerless. With Arthur out of the picture, the Alacryans are able to capture his Love Interest Tessia and turn her into the vessel for a third reincarnate, the Legacy, who as it turns out is Grey and Nico's shared Childhood Friend Love Interest Cecilia and Agrona's trump card for when he goes to war against Epheotus. It is not until Arthur Came Back Strong during his time in both the Relictombs and Alacrya that he was finally able to reverse part of Agrona's plan, including returning to Dicathen and undoing the Alacryan conquest in a matter of days. Ultimately, it turns out this trope is Played With in that Arthur and Tessia were not the originally intended vessels for their respective reincarnates. As it turns out, when Sylvie sacrificed herself, she was displaced across time and space to bear witness to Grey's life. When Agrona took Grey's soul for use in his plans, Sylvie was able to snatch the soul before it could be brought to the intended vessel and brought it to the unborn Arthur. This significantly altered his original plans, as Agrona was forced to look outside of Alacrya for a vessel for the Legacy.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8ec1fed	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8ec1fed	featureConfidence	1.0
The Beginning After the End	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b8ec1fed
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b9386a5e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b9386a5e	comment	Snoopy vs. the Red Baron: Despite all the effort you go through, the Flying Circus will still build the Doodlebug by the end of the game. It's possible that you stopped them from mass-producing it, at least.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b9386a5e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b9386a5e	featureConfidence	1.0
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b9386a5e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b962c879	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b962c879	comment	Fairy Tail: In the Grand Magic Games arc, a version of Rogue Cheney arrives from an alternate future to help Hisui E. Fiore open Eclipse during the Grand Magic Games so that the dragons from the past would invade Fiore. Despite Lucy Heartfilia and Yukino Agria's efforts in closing Eclipse, Fairy Tail fails to stop the first half of the dragon invasion from occurring. In the Tartaros arc, how many times did someone say Face has been stopped, only for it not to be actually be stopped? Three times total. Mard Geer wasn't kidding when he said Face being destroyed was All According to Plan. One down, thiry left to go before they all detonate. In Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess, the phoenix gets released despite the group's efforts to stop it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b962c879	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b962c879	featureConfidence	1.0
Fairy Tail (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_b962c879
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ba666650	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ba666650	comment	Perhaps if Ocelot, Liquid, Zero, or Big Boss had been killed off early, the dangerous conspiracies would never have even taken place at all. The HD Collection lampshades this with the Trophy/Achievement "Problem Solved, Series Over", which you get for killing Ocelot in the prequel MGS3 (which results in a Non-Standard Game Over).
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ba666650	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ba666650	featureConfidence	1.0
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ba666650
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_babc3924	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_babc3924	comment	Played entirely straight to an almost astonishing degree in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, where everything the heroes do up until the Ultibed Quest is a complete failure in terms of stopping Bowser and Antasma. They try and save Peach. They initially fail. Then they save her... but Bowser and Antasma do a Villain Team-Up against the heroes and set off to conquer the real world. They head for the Dream Stone, but Bowser and Antasma manage to steal it before they get there. The duo go to Mount Pajamaja, but the villains use Magic Music to put the island to sleep and charge the McGuffin, eventually having their evil wishes granted. And to top it all of, when they try to hide Peach in Dreamy Driftwood Shore, they find that Peach is actually Kamek in disguise and the real Peach is being held hostage at Neo Bowser Castle. Or in other words... everything until the Ultibed thing is a complete "Shaggy Dog" Story that Mario and Luigi may as well have not bothered with. This even extends to the final Stage. The final villain has the Dream Stone and is about to use it. Your allies decide to try their last-ditch option: destroy it. They succeed. Bowser uses the Inhale ability from the last game to absorb the fragments into his own body. Cue the Final Boss.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_babc3924	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_babc3924	featureConfidence	1.0
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_babc3924
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bb26d3fb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bb26d3fb	comment	In Barbie & The Diamond Castle, despite the attempts of the heroines to keep Melody out of Lydia's clutches, the evil muse gets her hands on the girl-in-the-mirror and nearly gets her to give up the location of the Diamond Castle before Liana and Alexis arrive to save the day.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bb26d3fb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bb26d3fb	featureConfidence	1.0
Barbie & The Diamond Castle	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bb26d3fb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bc263630	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bc263630	comment	The Jennifer Morgue: The villain invokes this with Post-Modern Magik that turns his destiny into an in-universe Bond villain narrative. He reasons that the villain's scheme is only foiled by Bond in the climax, so he can act with impunity until then, then disable the magic right before that final confrontation. However, he doesn't account for the narrative both handing him the Villain Ball and assigning the Bond role to someone unexpected.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bc263630	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bc263630	featureConfidence	1.0
The Jennifer Morgue	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bc263630
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bd21e0dc	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bd21e0dc	comment	Back Stab has the introduction stage which ends with the protagonist Henry discovering he's been betrayed by his commanding officer, Edmund Kane, who's in league with the Conquistadores, and his subsequent arrest, regardless of the player's performance. He even gets to fight Edmund, but it's a Hopeless Boss Fight since he gets knocked out either ways.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bd21e0dc	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bd21e0dc	featureConfidence	1.0
Back Stab (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bd21e0dc
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_be03a5ee	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_be03a5ee	comment	The Left Behind series includes several points where the main characters could probably disrupt the plans of The Antichrist, averting the Tribulation entirely (or at least greatly throwing off the predestined order of events). They usually either reason that they cannot or should not, because the Tribulation is God's will.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_be03a5ee	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_be03a5ee	featureConfidence	1.0
Left Behind	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_be03a5ee
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_beac6ffb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_beac6ffb	comment	In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, no matter what you do, you can't reach the Skull Kid until 5 minutes before the moon crashes into Clock Town. Despite the "Groundhog Day" Loop giving you effectively infinite chances to try to get on top of the clock tower before that point, you never can. Just like you can never get to Mikau (the Zora guitarist you get the Zora Mask from) until he's seconds from death.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_beac6ffb	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_beac6ffb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_beac6ffb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf6690ba	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf6690ba	comment	In Rainbow Rocks, things would have been way easier for the Rainbooms if they had stopped the Dazzlings earlier, when they were at their weakest. They try to just defeat them as soon as they're all together, but The Power of Friendship doesn't activate, prompting them to find a more specific solution they must spend the film working on. In the end, they fall for the sirens' manipulations, letting them drive a wedge between themselves, which finally allows the Dazzlings to drain a good amount of the Rainbooms' Equestrian magic and regain a large part of their powers. Only then does the real Battle of the Bands start, and the Dazzlings are now very dangerous foes.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf6690ba	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf6690ba	featureConfidence	1.0
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls â€“ Rainbow Rocks	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf6690ba
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf8375d1	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf8375d1	comment	In Transcendence, RIFT tries to nip things in the bud by destroying AI labs across the country, but the data survives and is melded with PINN to upload Will's mind and create a sentient AI. Then they try to prevent Will from going global, but Evelyn is able to network him before they get there.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf8375d1	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf8375d1	featureConfidence	1.0
Transcendence	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bf8375d1
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bff01809	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bff01809	comment	This is an important part of the flavour of Warhammer and Warhammer40000. The Empire and Imperium are the preeminent powers in their respective settings, with enough resources available that they will always eventually defeat whatever evil scheme they're currently facing. But consistently failing to defeat stage one of said schemes means their strength is slowly but surely being drained while their enemies grow stronger - every Chaos invasion may be beaten back, but the Chaos Wastes advance a little further each time.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bff01809	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bff01809	featureConfidence	1.0
Warhammer (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_bff01809
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c005e6bc	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c005e6bc	comment	In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, the griffins eventually manage to besiege Canterlot, despite the ponies putting up a good fight through the war.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c005e6bc	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c005e6bc	featureConfidence	1.0
AceCombatTheEquestrianWar	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c005e6bc
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c007a111	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c007a111	comment	Averted in Dragon Age: Inquisition. The Elder One's plan A to claim the Black City and become a god was thwarted before the game began when the player character unwittingly interrupted him at a crucial moment. The rest of the game consists of foiling the Elder One's backup plans.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c007a111	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c007a111	featureConfidence	1.0
DragonAgeInquisition	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c007a111
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c0c57462	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c0c57462	comment	Chrono Trigger: Notably averted where the final boss is introduced relatively early and can theoretically be beaten less than halfway into the game. You can beat him within the first 20 minutes, which incidentally makes for an amusing conversation given that the fight has canned dialogue, so people who have no idea who or what the boss is are saying things along the lines of "So that was his plan all along!" Played straight when attempts to prevent Magus from summoning Lavos or the Mammon Machine from awakening him fail, and you ultimately have to defeat Lavos yourself. Although Magus's "summoning" of Lavos turns out to be ultimately unrelated to what you were trying to prevent anyway — Lavos was already inside the planet, so stopping whatever Magus was attempting in the Dark Ages wouldn't have accomplished anything.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c0c57462	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c0c57462	featureConfidence	1.0
Chrono Trigger (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c0c57462
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c1b3bc6b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c1b3bc6b	comment	True Crime: Streets of LA had a branching storyline, so it was entirely possible to completely screw up the bad guys' plans and get them all killed before the plot could come to fruition. However, this gets you a bad ending, since the plot never had a chance to get underway and as a result you never were able to piece together exactly what the hell was going on in the first place. More importantly, in the bad ending, Nick Kang loses his job for accidentally killing the Big Bad (or letting him die) and remains bitter for not finding closure. In the REAALLY Bad ending, Nick's brother is murdered, prompting him to go full-on vigilante, the Big Bad escapes, and The Dragon teases Nick about knowing about what happened to Nick's father just seconds before dying himself.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c1b3bc6b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c1b3bc6b	featureConfidence	1.0
True Crime: Streets of LA (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c1b3bc6b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c2463c53	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c2463c53	comment	In Final Fantasy V, you can't save any Crystal from shattering. Ever. You can't stop Exdeath from unsealing himself and returning to power. You can't save the Elder Forest. You can't keep the worlds from merging. You can't stop Exdeath from unsealing the Dimensional Rift and all its Eldritch Abominations. You can't stop Exdeath from vanishing half the planet inside the Void.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c2463c53	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c2463c53	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy V (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c2463c53
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c4282b71	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c4282b71	comment	This seems to happen quite a bit in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Twilight Sparkle is unable to prevent the release of Nightmare Moon and she causes The Night That Never Ends. Fortunately, she discovers of the Elements of Harmony and realized her plus five other ponies that she made friends with are able to utilize said elements, and thus use them to defeat Nightmare Moon. This may or may not be a Batman Gambit by Celestia. Discord succeeds in breaking the six, turning their elements around and turning them into jerks and Twilight into a friendless sack of depression. Fortunately, Spike had been receiving the letters that Twilight Sparkle sent to Celestia concerning the studies of friendship, and reading them helped cause her to realize the importance of friendship and sets off to help her friends remember as well, thus allowing them to use the Elements to defeat Discord. This is more likely a Batman Gambit by Celestia, however. Canterlot has been completely taken over and not only did Celestia get beaten by Queen Chrysalis, but the Mane Six also got beaten up by her mooks. Fortunately, Third Act Stupidity sets in for Chrysalis and leaves the six unguarded. This causes Twilight to free her brother and her sister-in-law-to-be and allow them to create a powerful shield to knock the Queen and her mooks out of Canterlot. No really smart gambits here. Heck, if Chrysalis wasn't holding the Villain Ball, she would have won. King Sombra manages to make it through Cadance's shield and is dead set on reclaiming his throne, with Twilight being unable to bring the Crystal Heart to the others in time. Fortunately, her assistant Spike takes the heart for her and brings it over to Cadence, who with the help of the Crystal Ponies, manage to kill Sombra with a powerful concentrated blast. It's a good thing Spike was there. Tirek takes over all of Equestria with Discord in tow, uses Twilight's friends as leverage to get her to give up her powers, and literally has no opposition to defeat him. Celestia actually tried to thwart Stage One in the form of Discord, but that failed. After that, Celestia opted to get Twilight supercharged, but she ran out of the Batman Gambit-planning power she had back in Season 2 and told her not to tell her friends, thus prompting the 'friends as leverage' part to go through. In short, not only did they not thwart Stage One, they didn't thwart stages two through four either. The only reason Tirek is defeated in the end is because that 'friends as leverage' wound up unlocking a treasure chest that was mentioned every episode or so.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c4282b71	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c4282b71	featureConfidence	1.0
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c4282b71
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c43df4d8	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c43df4d8	comment	Doctor Who: Series 12's Story Arc has this in play. In "Fugitive of the Judoon", the Doctor is warned about a "Lone Cyberman", and that she must not give it what it wants. When she encounters the Cyberman in "The Haunting of Villa Diodati", two Sadistic Choices with history-shaking consequences force her to give in and let her adversary leave with what it came for.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c43df4d8	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c43df4d8	featureConfidence	1.0
Doctor Who	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c43df4d8
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c51b8d7a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c51b8d7a	comment	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is practically the poster child for the trope. The initial Big Bad succeeds in destroying the world within the first few minutes of gameplay, and, due to the structure of the plot, it only gets worse from there. You can't stop your friends from turning into half-human monsters, heaven forbid talk them out of their Face-Heel Turns, you can't stop Hijiri going insane, you can't stop Isamu sacrifing him, you can't stop Chiaki from slaughtering the Mannikins, you can't stop Hikawa from opening the Ark of the Covenant, you can't stop anyone from gathering enough Magatsuhi to summon their "God", and it's only at The Very Definitely Final Dungeon where you're able to defeat anyone. If you go for the True Demon ending, Metatron can't stop you, plot-wise, from teaming up with Lucifer to destroy all worlds and Rage Against the Heavens. That said, this is averted when Hijiri announces he'll form his own Reason, then is promptly kidnapped and killed by Isamu, and if you decide not to pursue the True Demon path, preventing Lucifer's plan from even really starting. It's also subverted if you go for one of the Reason endings, since there you might not want to thwart Stage One.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c51b8d7a	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c51b8d7a	featureConfidence	1.0
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c51b8d7a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c54c7a06	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c54c7a06	comment	In AdventureQuest Worlds, every major Chaos Lord so far has succeeded in awakening a Chaos Beast and breaking one of Drakath's seals before being defeated by the hero. The one time the hero does actually prevent a Chaos Lord from summoning a Chaos Beast during the Mythsong saga, it turns out that he's not the real Chaos Lord, and that the real Chaos Lord, Kimberly of One Eyed Doll, was controlling him. And she has a Chaos Beast all ready for the hero to fight.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c54c7a06	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c54c7a06	featureConfidence	1.0
AdventureQuest Worlds (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c54c7a06
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c67a1218	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c67a1218	comment	The Legend of Dragoon runs with this idea to the point that the heroes don't even significantly inconvenience the main villains until the very final step of their evil plan. The closest you get is defeating Lloyd and taking the Divine Moon Objects from him, only to be told that Emperor Diaz has kidnapped Shana and is demanding said objects as ransom. You never stop the Big Bad from gaining the next Divine Moon Object, breaking one of the Signet Spheres, or even the God of Destruction's birth.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c67a1218	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c67a1218	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Dragoon (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c67a1218
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7539344	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7539344	comment	Singularity is a deconstruction of this trope. Near the start of the game, your character, Renko, is thrown 50 years into the past — going from a destroyed building to a building on fire. Coming across someone trapped in the fire, Renko saves him, then jumps back into the present — where he (Dr. Demichev) has taken control of the world. Unfortunately, if you try to kill Demichev or leave him to die, the game will end. This is explained by the endgame. After fighting through Demichev's troops, Renko manages to create a bomb powerful enough to destroy the island's reactor — he detonates it in the past. When he comes back to the present, Demichev is waiting for him in front of an operational reactor. He says that it was pointless to destroy the reactor — he just rebuilt it. Dr. Raikov, a supporter of yours, then says that the problem with the time loop wasn't the reactor, but Demichev — since you rescued him from the fire. Demichev then says that you've already tried killing him in the past, and it changed nothing - as evidenced by notes scrawled on the wall by someone who turns out to be Renko. Raikov then realizes that the only way to stop the loop is to destroy the one thing not present in the original timestream — Renko.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7539344	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7539344	featureConfidence	1.0
Singularity (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7539344
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c75d67d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c75d67d	comment	Featured heavily in Person of Interest against Decima Technologies. In season 2, they manage to put a virus inside The Machine, though Finch had planned on this all along as a means of freeing it from its original limitations. In season 3, they manage to create a second machine and make it operational.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c75d67d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c75d67d	featureConfidence	1.0
Person of Interest	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c75d67d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7d427b7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7d427b7	comment	Lara Croft: Tomb Raider would have ended a lot sooner if Lara Croft had followed her father's instructions and destroyed her half of the Triangle of Light. Or wouldn't happen at all if her father destroyed it years before the action of the film.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7d427b7	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7d427b7	featureConfidence	1.0
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c7d427b7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c96cfe29	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c96cfe29	comment	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Subverted. While Link isn't able to stop Agahnim from sending Zelda to the Dark World and opening the portal between worlds, he is able to stall him by rescuing Zelda and hiding her at Sanctuary, forcing Agahnim's soldiers to search for her while Link retrieves the Pendants and the Master Sword. If Zelda had been banished at the start of the game like Agahnim was intending, Link would have had a lot stronger opposition to face in his quest, and Agahnim would have remained alive and made Ganon's foothold in the Light World significantly stronger.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c96cfe29	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c96cfe29	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c96cfe29
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c98d3e0e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c98d3e0e	comment	Averted in Metal Gear, where you get to destroy the Metal Gear before it activates.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c98d3e0e	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c98d3e0e	featureConfidence	1.0
Metal Gear (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_c98d3e0e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ca48bb5c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ca48bb5c	comment	Fable's plot runs on this. Cutscene Incompetence forces the Hero to watch while the Big Bad kidnaps his Living MacGuffin mother, activates Focus Sites across the realm, and murders the mother to unseal the Sword of Aeons, since no matter how fast the Hero moves, they're scripted events that You Are Too Late to stop. Even if the Hero is a Magic Knight archery master who can freeze time.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ca48bb5c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ca48bb5c	featureConfidence	1.0
Fable (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ca48bb5c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb650842	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb650842	comment	Secret Agent did this retroactively for the HD remake version. The original three episodes had Agent 006Â½ recapture the blueprints for the Red Rock Rover laser weapon, and the final episode featured the Brain in a Jar villain Dr. No Body chained to a chair in a room rigged with explosives. The remake added a new fourth episode, in which Dr. No Body was able to download his consciousness into a new robot body, and build the Red Rock Rover from memory anyways, forcing Agent 006Â½ to travel to the Doctor's last island stronghold and stop him once and for all.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb650842	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb650842	featureConfidence	1.0
Secret Agent (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb650842
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb6abea3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb6abea3	comment	In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series despite the cast's efforts, Zorc is able to revive and terrorize the recreated Ancient Egypt with the intent of changing the past. The cast is able to beat him by reminding Yami Yugi of his true name that lets him fuse the Egyptian Gods into a singular goddess that completely destroys Zorc once and for all.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb6abea3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb6abea3	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh!	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cb6abea3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81dd7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81dd7	comment	Quest for Glory II, all of the elementals will be released onto Shapeir, you cannot save Ugarte, and you will get brainwashed into doing the Big Bad's bidding.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81dd7	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81dd7	featureConfidence	1.0
Quest for Glory II (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81dd7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81de4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81de4	comment	In the previous game Quest for Glory IV, the Big Bad lures the player into a trap before siccing a horde of mooks on him. If you are quick enough and clever enough, it's actually possible to escape this ambush and make it back to a friendly town, where you're safe. But the plot requires you to be captured, and the Big Bad will just keep trying every night until he succeeds.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81de4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81de4	featureConfidence	1.0
Quest for Glory IV (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd81de4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd93cf5f	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd93cf5f	comment	In Birdy the Mighty: Decode, the first season's bad guy actually does succeed in getting his hands on the super weapon he's after and does succeed in awakening it—but he can't control it as well as he thought he could. So he dies, and the heroes don't have to defeat him but they do have to defeat the weapon itself.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd93cf5f	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd93cf5f	featureConfidence	1.0
Birdy the Mighty (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cd93cf5f
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ce1f7b52	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ce1f7b52	comment	A similar dynamic exists in basically every incarnation of the FATE system. The Dresden Files in particular makes it explicit that powerful characters (including wizards like Harry), on account of having a low refresh and thus starting out with potentially no more than one lonely fate point to their name when a scenario unfolds, basically have to earn more the "hard" way by accepting setbacks and rolling with the punches as best they can in order to eventually have enough to help wrap up the plot.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ce1f7b52	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ce1f7b52	featureConfidence	1.0
The Dresden Files (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ce1f7b52
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf5c0f55	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf5c0f55	comment	Suikoden does this quite a lot, but it's made more obvious in Suikoden V. While there may be battles and encounters with major enemies early in the plot, any attempt to stop them before you recruit The Strategist is doomed to failure (although you will be forced to try anyway). You cannot prevent Lord Godwin from taking over the castle with Nether Gate, the King and Queen being assassinated, or Lymsleia being kidnapped and eventually forced into puppet-queendom, no matter what you do.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf5c0f55	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf5c0f55	featureConfidence	1.0
Suikoden (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf5c0f55
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf8f5e21	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf8f5e21	comment	Averted in The Last Story. Smug Snake bad guy has a plan to unleash a horde of monsters on the town, and steal in the chaos...you thwart it before he can release the monsters.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf8f5e21	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf8f5e21	featureConfidence	1.0
The Last Story (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_cf8f5e21
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0744832	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0744832	comment	The Avengers: The entirety of The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman) is an example. The Illuminati try everything at hand to stop the Incursions, but everything fails. Of course, if they saved the day there would have been no Secret Wars.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0744832	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0744832	featureConfidence	1.0
The Avengers (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0744832
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0c31ab	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0c31ab	comment	Subverted in the Star Trek: Generations game: If you can win an extremely difficult (but not hopeless) space battle, you can put an end to the Big Bad's plan and win the game long before the villain's plans come to fruition. Unfortunately, while this rewrites the canonical Bridge Drop, Kirk still stays dead.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0c31ab	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0c31ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Generations	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d0c31ab
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d147a272	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d147a272	comment	The Tekkit Rebirth: Think Zoey and Rythedin are going to disarm that nuke under blackrock? ...Nope, it explodes, taking Zoey with it at the end in a massive Tear Jerker moment. This is particularly bad due to the fact that via the game mechanics, there where a ton of ways they could have stopped it; Rythedin even suggests some of these multiple times. Ideas included building a reinforced wall around it — instant problem solver, which is shut down by Zoey saying it's just hiding the problem, not removing it. Using a jammer looks hopeful but fails when it ends up electrocuting everyone, and changing the frequency with a remote was not actually brought up but would have been an instant problem solver.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d147a272	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d147a272	featureConfidence	1.0
Blackrock Chronicle (Web Video)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d147a272
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3381e70	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3381e70	comment	In Captain America: The Winter Soldier the Captain manages to warn SHIELD that they've been infiltrated by HYDRA, and they are moments away from accomplishing their plan. It's presented as a Rousing Speech and an inspiring moment where the SHIELD agents believe the wrongfully accused Captain. But to ensure a dramatic final battle for the protagonists, the SHIELD agents become a Red Shirt Army who get killed by the dozens while failing to stop any part of the Evil Plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3381e70	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3381e70	featureConfidence	1.0
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3381e70
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d36b8ea7	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d36b8ea7	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games: Ages and Seasons may end with Labrynna and Holodrum saved from Veran and Onox, but they both still technically succeeded in their goals to ignite the flames of Sorrow and Destruction. In a linked game, whichever happens second will be shortly followed by Twinrova lighting the flame of Despair, as well. Only after all that, as the bad guys are on the verge of sacrificing Princess Zelda to resurrect Ganon does Link truly interfere with their plans, barging in at the last moment and fighting the witches to the death before they can resurrect Ganon properly.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d36b8ea7	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d36b8ea7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d36b8ea7
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3b17858	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3b17858	comment	In Final Fantasy Tactics, you can't save Alma from capture; you have to leave her under the "protection" of the monastery while you go off and do hero stuff. And that's just scratching the surface: earlier, you can't save Tietra, then you can't stop Ophelia from siding with Folmarv, you can't convince Zalbaag to avert the resulting Lion War, you can't stop Delita's machinations. An Unwitting Pawn is you, Ramza. So unwitting, in fact, that he can't even stop the Church from branding him a heretic.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3b17858	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3b17858	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d3b17858
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d47715d9	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d47715d9	comment	Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is an Alternate Timeline retelling of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's backstory where the heroes get advanced warning about the return of Calamity Ganon, and thus begin work far ahead of time to stop it from happening, while another entity who also has this advanced knowledge starts working double-time to make sure it does come to pass. The heroes succeed in thwarting Ganon's victory, though the initial stage of him hijacking the Divine Beasts and Guardians still gets underway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d47715d9	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d47715d9	featureConfidence	1.0
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d47715d9
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4d8ce5f	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4d8ce5f	comment	Interestingly, the inverse system used by Deadlands leads to the same metagame: players start each gaming session with poker chips, and can earn some more in a variety of ways. These chips can be used at any time to get bonuses on rolls, or reroll failed actions, or negate injuries etc... However, whenever a player uses a chip, the GM gets one, to be used on NPC actions. So, while using chips early in the story to stop Mooks or avoid an injury might seem like a good idea at the time, it WILL come back to bite the PCs in the ass. Trust me, pilgrim: let the outlaws rob the bank. Take the sucking chest wound. Use 'em chips when you know who the real Big Bad is, and are drawing a bead on his noggin'. No sooner.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4d8ce5f	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4d8ce5f	featureConfidence	1.0
Deadlands (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4d8ce5f
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4fad440	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4fad440	comment	Surprisingly averted in Johnny English. The titular agent gets too close to the Big Bad's attempt to kidnap and impersonate the Archbishop of Canterbury, so he abandons that plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4fad440	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4fad440	featureConfidence	1.0
Johnny English	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d4fad440
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d502170c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d502170c	comment	And in Sun and Moon, you can't stop Lusamine from opening the Ultra Wormhole and going through it with Guzma. You have to spend most of the rest of the main plot getting to Ultra Space yourself to retrieve them, and then the main postgame plot cleaning up the damage she did by letting the Ultra Beasts into Alola.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d502170c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d502170c	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon Sun and Moon (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d502170c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5166b45	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5166b45	comment	Halo 4 practically runs on this. First, you fail to escape the damaged Forward Unto Dawn before it is torn apart by the gravity well on Requiem, causing you to crash into the planet along with the wreckage, only surviving because you're a heavily-armored Super-Soldier. Later, you try to shut down a relay station which is preventing you from warning the approaching Infinity against suffering the same fate. Not only do you fail to get the warning through in time, but in the process you also free the Didact from his Cryptum at the station's core. Later, you fail to prevent him from leaving Requiem in search of his superweapon, the Composer, and after chasing him to its location you fail to prevent him from acquiring it and using it on the station's personnel. Pursuing him to Earth, you again arrive too late to stop him firing it — and while you do manage to defeat him and destroy it, it's too late to save the population of New Phoenix, who were right in the firing line.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5166b45	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5166b45	featureConfidence	1.0
Halo 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5166b45
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d55ffc53	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d55ffc53	comment	7th Sea has Drama Dice, which work roughly the same. But of course, the entire point is heroism and general Large Ham behavior, so you really ought to hold out for the supervillain.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d55ffc53	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d55ffc53	featureConfidence	1.0
7th Sea (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d55ffc53
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5ca280e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5ca280e	comment	Eastern Exorcist has the campaign of Xiahou-xue, where her prologue ends with her defeating the first boss, the Snake Yaksha, only for the Yaksha to automatically revive and ambush Xiahou-xue in the following cutscene. Her brother Xiahou-qing subsequently uses himself as a shield to absorb the Yaksha's poison to save Xue, leading to her quest to save her brother which forms the game's main storyline. There's no getting around it, Xiahou-qing must be nearly killed via poison for the plot to advance.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5ca280e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5ca280e	featureConfidence	1.0
Eastern Exorcist (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5ca280e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5e9cf36	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5e9cf36	comment	XCOM 2 reveals the events of the previous game to be this as a whole: humanity couldn't stop the alien invasion, and by the time this game begins, Earth is firmly under alien occupation, the Elders' dark plans for humanity proceeding apace.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5e9cf36	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5e9cf36	featureConfidence	1.0
XCOM 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d5e9cf36
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d6e2146d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d6e2146d	comment	In Diablo III, you cannot stop Diablo from being resurrected as the Prime Evil at the cost of poor Leah's life and running roughshod all over the High Heavens, but you can stop him from completely extinguishing the Crystal Arch and casting both the Heavens and Sanctuary into darkness forever.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d6e2146d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d6e2146d	featureConfidence	1.0
Diablo III (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d6e2146d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d81e02a4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d81e02a4	comment	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty It is genuinely difficult to pin down whether Walter not bothering to simply fully inspect his carefully crafted gift or Sean trying so hard for vanity to be cute, making him an epic asshole is the bigger egregious sin that causes the entire film to happen.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d81e02a4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d81e02a4	featureConfidence	1.0
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d81e02a4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d8ec8292	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d8ec8292	comment	Happens a few times in Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars: When Gary and Roberta first infiltrate Chrysalis they've found that the scientists have already produced several classes worth of superchildren. When Khan begins to build his empire after the fall of the Soviet Union he ransacks Garys office, hacks the Beta 5, destroys the transporter and steals valuable information on the other superhumans and a Doomsday Device. Roberta tries to foil the launching of said device but Khan knew she or Gary would try to stop it and installed countermeasures.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d8ec8292	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d8ec8292	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_d8ec8292
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da448595	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da448595	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: The bad guys are trying to resurrect an ancient demon and you have to climb to the top of the Tower of Spirits in order to stop them. Guess what happens when you reach the top.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da448595	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da448595	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da448595
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da92c130	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da92c130	comment	Book 1 of Erfworld, wherein the main character, Parson, had been intending to do this to a group of PCs in a game he was going to run, and is instead pulled into a gaming universe where it continually happens to him. He finally becomes smart about it here◊.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da92c130	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da92c130	featureConfidence	1.0
Erfworld (Webcomic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_da92c130
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_daff6a21	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_daff6a21	comment	In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, despite Yusei defeating Aporia Z-One was still able to summon the Arc Cradle to destroy Neo Domino City. It takes a long duel where Yusei is able to defeat Z-One which gives him a change of heart to stop the Arc Cradle from destroying the city at the cost of his life.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_daff6a21	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_daff6a21	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_daff6a21
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db2796e3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db2796e3	comment	In Shantae (2002) and Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Risky gets away with the Artifact of Doom no matter what, and your only reward for beating the first boss is not dying.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db2796e3	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db2796e3	featureConfidence	1.0
Shantae (2002) (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db2796e3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db30cf92	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db30cf92	comment	Happens several times throughout Warrior Cats: In the Original Series, Tigerclaw had a fairly simple plan. He would kill ThunderClan's deputy Redtail, counting on his reputation to get him appointed the new deputy. Then he would stage a coup and kill the current leader Bluestar so that he could become the new leader. It seems to be subverted when after he kills Redtail, Bluestar appoints Lionheart as deputy instead, but it's double subverted when Lionheart dies in a battle and then Tigerclaw becomes deputy. And despite hero Fireheart's best efforts, the coup starts anyway, and he only protects Bluestar by fighting against Tigerclaw, who is exiled for his treachery after the battle. This trope is shown further in the books after Tigerclaw's exile. He manages to accomplish all his goals anyway by becoming Tigerstar, leader of ShadowClan, and kills Bluestar with a pack of dogs. And while Fireheart fights to stop Tigerstar's new plan to unite the Clans under him, ultimately his Evil Plan isn't foiled until near the end of The Darkest Hour when Scourge kills him and becomes the Final Boss.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db30cf92	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db30cf92	featureConfidence	1.0
Warrior Cats	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db30cf92
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db339bad	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db339bad	comment	Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: Pyrrha and Ozpin ultimately fail to stop either Darth Nihilus or Cinder from achieving their respective goals. Nihilus succeeds in possessing Jaune's body and subjects the heroes to a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle. Meanwhile, despite her plans going completely off the rails thanks to Nihilus's involvement, Cinder still manages to hijack control of the CCTS network and broadcasts footage of the aforementioned Curb-Stomp Battle to all of Remnant. The resulting worldwide panic leads to Beacon Academy being completely overrun by the Grimm.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db339bad	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db339bad	featureConfidence	1.0
Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db339bad
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db96ded4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db96ded4	comment	The Legend of Korra: In Book 2, Korra has to prevent Big Bad Vaatu from escaping, and his servant Unalaq from merging with the evil spirit. Once Vaatu is freed, Korra almost re-seals him before getting blindsided by Desna and Eska. In Book 3, the Red Lotus successfully kills the Earth Queen, causing the entire nation to fall into anarchy. In Book 4, Kuvira manages to unite the entire Earth Kingdom and create her Republic City-destroying mech.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db96ded4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db96ded4	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Korra	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_db96ded4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dbee7cb5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dbee7cb5	comment	Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: This happens twice. First, you can't stop Ammo Baron from making a mess of Scuttle Town because he is still legally the town's owner. Second, even though you spent the entire game trying to prevent the Pirate Master from rising from his grave, he does it anyway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dbee7cb5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dbee7cb5	featureConfidence	1.0
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dbee7cb5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dc414e1c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dc414e1c	comment	In The Leper from Krypton, Lex Luthor bio-engineers a lethal disease and teams up with another villain called Ventor to get the bacteria culture out of prison -where Luthor is serving time- and get Superman infected. Even though neither Luthor nor Ventor have figured out how to exactly find and infect Superman beyond hyptonizing a pawn and ordering him to do it, their plan goes without a hitch.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dc414e1c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dc414e1c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Leper from Krypton (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dc414e1c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dd6c417	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dd6c417	comment	Samurai Sentai Shinkenger has Sujigarano Akumaro planning to open up the barrier between the world of the living and Hell by creating six wedges out of human suffering. He succeeds in creating the wedges, but underestimates the true nature of the Blood Knight he manipulated into helping him with the final stage of his plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dd6c417	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dd6c417	featureConfidence	1.0
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_dd6c417
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ddad77ae	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ddad77ae	comment	Astro City: Deliciously reconstructed in the story "Show 'Em All" — the Junkman pulls off a major heist without a hitch, and lives a life of luxury while everyone wonders who was the brilliant criminal who committed the robbery. However, he is soon frustrated at not getting recognition for the heist, especially since the public assumes that the heroes must have caught the mastermind somehow at another time. This eventually drives him to repeat the robbery again, but with deliberately-included minor flaws, so he can get captured. He is then thrilled to be recognized for the initial robbery and savors the high-profile trial detailing his heist in extraordinary detail, at which point he plans to escape the consequences anyway.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ddad77ae	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ddad77ae	featureConfidence	1.0
Astro City (Comic Book)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ddad77ae
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_de8f1f24	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_de8f1f24	comment	In Kingdom Hearts III, you can't stop Master Xehanort from successfully forging the Ï‡-blade and putting his plan into unlocking Kingdom Hearts into motion. He is also doing this on a franchise wide level, having several times previously tried this plan, as seen in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], but escaping to fight another battle each time these attempts were thwarted. Only when he finally succeeds in forging the blade can he be defeated at long last. The only reason he doesn't get far is because Sora's friends transport him to Scala ad Caelum using his power over time and space against him, allowing Sora, Donald, and Goofy to confront Xehanort and put an end to his ambitions once for all. And The Stinger reveals that the entire trilogy was Stage 1 for Luxu, a.k.a Xigbar, though what his end goal is is still unknown.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_de8f1f24	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_de8f1f24	featureConfidence	1.0
Kingdom Hearts III (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_de8f1f24
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_df318360	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_df318360	comment	Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight is pretty extreme about this if you compare the two choices: you either work against Kane or with him. In both cases, he wins. Although it's debatable if his ultimate plan is evil or not, his means certainly are.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_df318360	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_df318360	featureConfidence	1.0
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_df318360
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e1231721	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e1231721	comment	Averted in The Obsidian Trilogy, when the Endarkened's first tactic is defeated before they can destroy their enemies. It still did a lot of damage before it was stopped, though, and they had other plans already starting to be implemented at the time.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e1231721	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e1231721	featureConfidence	1.0
The Obsidian Trilogy	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e1231721
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e293455a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e293455a	comment	Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In season 1, the confrontation itself triggers the final phase, as the Big Bad needs Buffy's blood to give him the strength to set his plan in motion. In season 2, Angel actually gets as far as awakening Acathla, who begins to suck the world into hell, forcing Buffy to sacrifice a now resouled Angel in order to seal the rift. In season 3, by the time they figure out who the real Big Bad is, he's completed a ritual that makes him invincible until he's ready to go One-Winged Angel. (In this case, the Scoobies do actually capture an artifact required for the ritual, but, in doing so, Willow was taken hostage by the Big Bad. Wesley argued that they should accept Willow as lost and destroy the artifact there and then, but in the end, the Scoobies traded it for their friend.) Season 4 is a subversion of this trope. Adam was potentially the most dangerous foe that Buffy ever faced, but they managed to kill him before he secured a powerbase. If he had succeeded and gained the resources of The Initiative, then they would've really been in trouble! Season 5: One of Glory's minions opened the portal home before Glory was defeated. Season 6: Short answer: Yes. Dark Willow is seconds away from destroying the world. Long Answer: No. The trio of nerds were the main villains for most of Season 6, only a handful of their plans even got past Stage 1, and none of them really went the way they anticipated (leading up to a frustrated Warren just going to buy a freaking gun...). Season 7: Short answer: again, yes, most of the major events of Season 7 go the way they do in order to have the climatic battle at the end. (And the span of human history leading up to it, according to the First Evil.) Longer answer: the season went mostly according to the Big Bad's plans, but Buffy took it off the rails before the invasion was scheduled to begin. It all still came down to an all-or-nothing final battle with everything on the line, but it was done on the Slayers' timeline before the Big Bad could open the Hellmouth and have the army of super-vampires start pouring out. The word "plan" is used loosely, as it seems to consist of little more than "screw with Buffy's head". Probably a result of the writers designing an omniscient, omnipresent villain with "unlimited resources" and still trying to make the show dramatic. By the final episode, even the writers had to lampshade how useless the First Evil was for all of their supposed power.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e293455a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e293455a	featureConfidence	1.0
Buffy the Vampire Slayer	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e293455a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e2e68a88	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e2e68a88	comment	Averted in the Extra endings of Shadow of Destiny, where you gain the ability to foil the entire game in the prologue. Especially notable in that, depending on how you interpret the game, this is the final canon ending. If you take the time to consider how a lot of the plot plays out, ANY of the endings could be Stage One.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e2e68a88	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e2e68a88	featureConfidence	1.0
Shadow of Destiny (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e2e68a88
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e3f0daf4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e3f0daf4	comment	A Growing Affection: Done in both Books 2 and 4. In Book 2, the Akatsuki are able to kidnap Naruto and start extracting the Fox, before the demon makes a Heroic Sacrifice and Naruto's friends show up to rescue him. In Book, 4 Gouki is able to become Raikage, then take over the Waterfall and Grass countries, and then the Rain country; before the good guys start disrupting his plans.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e3f0daf4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e3f0daf4	featureConfidence	1.0
A Growing Affection / Fan Fic	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e3f0daf4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e67a7d6c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e67a7d6c	comment	In Negima! Magister Negi Magi manga's Kyoto arc, not only did Negi fail to thwart Stage One — stopping bad guys from kidnapping Konoka, he also failed to thwart Stage Two — saving Konoka to stop the Demon God from being summoned — and even failed in defeating the said Demon God after it was summoned. It took a Villainous Rescue by Evangeline to save the day. Similarily in the immediately following Festival arc, Negi lost the entire game and only rectified that through the use of time travel.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e67a7d6c	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e67a7d6c	featureConfidence	1.0
Negima! Magister Negi Magi (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e67a7d6c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e863cc41	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e863cc41	comment	Mega Man Battle Network lives and breathes this trope. In all six games, Lan and MegaMan defeat lots of bosses but never stop them from getting what they're after, be it TetraCodes or Alpha or whatever. Only by beating the final boss can they score a decisive win.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e863cc41	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e863cc41	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e863cc41
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e885c808	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e885c808	comment	Lampshaded in Spaceballs: The Animated Series. In one episode, Dark Helmet tells Skroob that it's time to move to Phase 2 of their plan. Skroob suggests staying at Phase 1, because things always go so well during Phase 1, and Lone Starr never shows up to ruin things until they move to Phase 2.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e885c808	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e885c808	featureConfidence	1.0
Spaceballs	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_e885c808
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ea603891	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ea603891	comment	In the Mediochre Q Seth Series, The Organisation Which I Represent is already on the tertiary phase of their plan before the series begins.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ea603891	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ea603891	featureConfidence	1.0
Mediochre Q Seth Series	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ea603891
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eaaf321d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eaaf321d	comment	Baten Kaitos Origins: Despite Sagi, Gullo, and Milly fighting as hard as they can, Baelheit's Machina Armas are too powerful to stop the attempted promachination of Diadem, Sadal Suud, and Anuenue. And when he finally taps into his guardian spirit's true power, he stops promachination while its groundwork is still underway, but Baelheit has already become the Emperor. Wiseman also fits, as he manages to promagnate the vast majority of the region's population and spark a war to claim the rest of them. That the heroes failed to stop him is a Foregone Conclusion, as by that time, Sagi and friends have realized that they're in the past, and the heroes are on the losing side of the war. And as for Verus, he hides his true nature so well and for so long that the first indication of him being the true Big Bad is him murdering Baelheit in cold blood.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eaaf321d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eaaf321d	featureConfidence	1.0
Baten Kaitos Origins (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eaaf321d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb049de6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb049de6	comment	Likewise in the sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the Big Bad Moriarty is always one step ahead of Holmes, managing to pull off his schemes without a hitch while distracting and misleading the good detective at every turn. By the end of the film, with minutes left to go, it looks like The Bad Guy Wins — until Holmes reveals the fruition of his Batman Gambit to get Moriarty's notes, which allow the police to dismantle his financial empire. Even at this stage, Holmes's Awesome by Analysis fighting style (which Moriarty is also capable of) predicts that he will be on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle from Moriarty unless he performs the iconic Heroic Sacrifice over Reichenbach Falls.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb049de6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb049de6	featureConfidence	1.0
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb049de6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb6719f6	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb6719f6	comment	In Final Fantasy VIII, this is because of a Batman Gambit. Ultimecia has to be Hoist by Her Own Petard, as her use of time compression is what allows you to go into her time and defeat her.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb6719f6	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb6719f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb6719f6
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb9f8f23	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb9f8f23	comment	Wunschpunsch: In some episodes, Jacob and Maurizio try to prevent the villains from casting the Spell of the Week. Their only measure of success was changing a spell so it'd make Bubonic and Tyrannia good people and they needed to break that spell because it turned them in Heroes With an F in Good.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb9f8f23	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb9f8f23	featureConfidence	1.0
Wunschpunsch	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_eb9f8f23
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec28245c	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec28245c	comment	Prevalent in Dragon Ball Z: The Big Bad of each Saga will always reach his strongest transformation, especially in cases where this involves absorbing somebody. However, the only strong characters have chronic cases of Honor Before Reason and typically let the enemy get to their maximum power so that there's no doubt of who's the strongest when it's over. Subverted in the Frieza Saga, as although Frieza was allowed to power up to full by the heroes, he never got to wish for immortality (his actual goal). Okay, technically he did, but the opportunity meant nothing to him because he couldn't speak the right language. Zig-zagged all over the place with the Cell Saga. The story begins with Future Trunks unceremoniously shredding Frieza and all his forces before they could carry out their planned revenge, and Dr. Gero, the person behind all the threats of the arc, is unceremoniously killed off shortly into it. Afterwards, however, Cell plays this straight when he is allowed to reach his Perfect form because Vegeta got cocky. Later, the story reveals that Cell is in the main timeline because his Future Trunks did thwart Stage One by killing Androids 17 and 18 before he could absorb them, necessitating his time travel (via killing Future Trunks and stealing his time machine) back to an era where they still lived. Present Cell is thwarted at stage zero- Krillin destroys him long before he could awaken. And at the end of the arc, the Cell from Future Trunks' timeline is also thwarted at stage one, effectively preventing from reaching his stronger forms, as the now much stronger Trunks returns and kills both him and the androids. The Buu Saga, wherein Goku and Vegeta, who were at least twice as strong as The Dragon and hundreds of times stronger than the Big Bad, not only failed to stop Majin Buu's revival but agreed to cause it so they they could settle their infighting. Cue tens of manga chapters and anime episodes of trying to undo the damage. Dragon Ball Super reveals that Future Trunks did thwart Stage One when Babidi came to call in his own timeline: with the Supreme Kai's help, he killed Babidi and Dabura before Buu could awaken, thus never having to fight Buu in the first place. However, the Supreme Kai ended up being killed in the battle along with the Elder Kai in the Z-Sword, which ends up having dire consequences since that ended up killing Beerus too, which in turn means Future Trunks doesn't have any way to get godly help when Goku Black shows up. In general, Future Trunks is the subversion that does things the sensible way in this franchise, though mostly off-screen or as an afterthought. In the Future Trunks Saga of Dragon Ball Super Goku and Beerus make a spirited effort at thwarting Stage One by killing Present Zamasu before he could kill his mentor Gowasu and become Goku Black. This works out without a hitch, until Black shows up again and reveals that his Time Ring made him immune to changes in the past, so while there is now a new timeline in which Zamasu died before he could do anything, the Goku Black version of Zamasu still exists. After all's said and done, Whis also goes to thwart Stage One by warning Future Beerus of the threat, though it's acknowledged that this isn't so much undoing the damage as creating a Close-Enough Timeline where the problem didn't happen.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec28245c	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec28245c	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Ball Z	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec28245c
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec63f5fa	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec63f5fa	comment	In The Last Witch Hunter, Stage One, which is stealing the Witch Queen's heart, is accomplished before Kaulder realizes there's an Evil Plan in the works.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec63f5fa	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec63f5fa	featureConfidence	1.0
The Last Witch Hunter	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ec63f5fa
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecb18afb	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecb18afb	comment	Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object: you can't stop Toramaru and co from unsealing Byakuren. Subverted, they aren't villains by any means.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecb18afb	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecb18afb	featureConfidence	1.0
Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecb18afb
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecd2d797	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecd2d797	comment	Baldur's Gate: After the Soultaker Dagger is stolen from you, it is technically possible (though difficult) to kill the cultist who took it, as she tries to teleport away, and recover the dagger from her body. However, even if you pull it off, the game will ignore it and proceed to release the demon as if she had gotten away.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecd2d797	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecd2d797	featureConfidence	1.0
Baldur's Gate (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ecd2d797
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edaffe15	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edaffe15	comment	In The Amulet of Samarkand, the first installment of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Lovelace manages to trap the British government and summon Ramuthra before he is defeated.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edaffe15	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edaffe15	featureConfidence	1.0
The Bartimaeus Trilogy	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edaffe15
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edc329d2	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edc329d2	comment	An aversion in The Penalty. Blizzard is both a criminal mastermind and a legless cripple. He has an elaborate plot to stage a massive ten thousand man raid on the Financial District of San Francisco. But before he does that he wants Dr. Ferris to cut off Allen's legs and graft them onto his stumps so he can walk. Dr. Ferris doesn't cooperate, instead operating on the brain contusion that made Blizzard go crazy. The giant raid never happens.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edc329d2	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edc329d2	featureConfidence	1.0
The Penalty	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_edc329d2
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef66bf	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef66bf	comment	Here There Be Monsters: By the story's mid-point, Captain Marvel has figured out where Doctor Sivana is hiding, so he heads towards his base. Unfortunately Billy is defeated, so he is unable to stop Sivana from going ahead with his plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef66bf	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef66bf	featureConfidence	1.0
Here There Be Monsters (Fanfic)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef66bf
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef8bd4a5	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef8bd4a5	comment	Mega Man: In the first Mega Man X game, when you get to Sigma's Fortress, Vile will be waiting for you. Zero intervenes and gets his ass handed to him. At this point, it is possible to have already acquired the Secret One-Hit KO Hadoken. However, Vile's Ride Armor is resistant to it, and will proceed to throttle you, as there are no walls to hang onto. In Mega Man X2, a Maverick called Morph Moth goes through two distinct fighting phases, changing between them when its health is less than halved. Just before you fight him again in the fortress, you can gain a skill that kills any boss in one hit. Against Morph Moth, however, you have to do it twice — once to beat his first phase (2/3 health), and again to beat his second phase. In Mega Man X5, your initial defeat of Sigma is part of his plan, setting in motion a Colony Drop. You then spend most of the game building machines to prevent the crash — but no matter how good your luck is, you can't stop it completely. What's more, the second thing you try may turn Zero evil, and this was also part of Sigma's plan. (Even if Zero's okay, he and X will end up fighting, leaving just one hero to stop Sigma.) The missions you undertake in the Mega Man Zero games fail a lot. For instance, in Zero 2, you'll just about catch up with Elpizo several times before getting a chance to actually stop him. Mega Man Battle Network lives and breathes this trope. In all six games, Lan and MegaMan defeat lots of bosses but never stop them from getting what they're after, be it TetraCodes or Alpha or whatever. Only by beating the final boss can they score a decisive win. Every robot created before X and Zero is Three Laws-Compliant. In other words, Mega Man can only hope to lock up Dr. Wily for a few months at best. The one time he actually did try to kill Wily (7, and only in the English version) ends with Mega Man's A.I. going into a Three Laws loop, which allows Wily to escape. Years down the road, Wily finishes his greatest creation: Zero. When Zero is released in 21XX, he goes on a rampage. Sigma manages to put him down, but has his data compromised by the Zero Virus, slowly driving him mad until he finally snaps and declares war on humanity, manipulating various parties in the process, spreading the Sigma Virus over Earth, and (worst of all) dropping the Eurasia onto the planet, turning it into a hellhole. Sometime after Sigma finally goes down circa X8, Zero's anti-viral programming is examined, producing the Mother Elf as a way to eradicate the lingering effects of the Sigma Virus. Then Dr. Weil enters the picture. For no reasons other than his belief that humans are superior to Reploids (and an implied desire to punish Reploids for the damages incurred during the various Maverick uprisings), he steals Zero's mindless body (reprogramming this blank slate into a psychopathic killing machine known as Omega) and corrupts the Mother Elf (turning her into the Dark Elf), starting the Elf Wars. Final count? 60% of all humans and 90% of all Reploids have been wiped out. In the span of a mere four years! In order to seal away the Dark Elf, X gives up his body, forcing the creation of an unstable Knight Templar copycat of himself to rule Neo Arcadia in X's place, which doesn't bode well for anyone. By the end of Zero 4, Weil has been defeated for good and the world is saved from yet another Colony Drop, but at the cost of Zero's life. In the following centuries, humans augment their bodies with cybernetics and Reploids are given lifespans akin to humans, merging into a single race (Humanoids) — showing that the peace established 200 years earlier is built to last while finally bringing Dr. Light's dream of harmony between humans and robots to fruition. Then Model W (heavily implied to be Weil's soul merged with fragments of Ragnarok from the finale of Zero 4) rears its ugly head in ZX, mucking up things yet again. This threat is presumably dealt with, but the world somehow is sacked by a great flood and humans all but disappear and are replaced by a race of Artificial Humans known as Carbons in the next 4400 or so years (the time of Mega Man Legends). And there are still problems in the world. And all of this can be indirectly traced back to one heroic robot being unable to kill one Mad Scientist. It is a vicious domino effect like no other. Mega Man 11 only poured more salt on the wound with the reveal that it might have been possible to thwart Stage 1 after all: Wily's Start of Darkness came about when Light convinced the board of scientists overseeing their research to shut down Wily's work on the Double Gear System due to Light's concerns about the risk it posed to robots equipped with it. Light realizes his role as the Unwitting Instigator of Doom years later and once more extends the olive branch to his one-time friend, but Wily refuses and vows to continue his war.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef8bd4a5	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef8bd4a5	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef8bd4a5
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef9ba9b4	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef9ba9b4	comment	In Revenge of the Sith, the good guys are, of course, doomed to failure, since otherwise the original trilogy wouldn't happen. If you watch the series in chronological order, their failure to stop Palpatine in Sith becomes this trope in play.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef9ba9b4	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef9ba9b4	featureConfidence	1.0
Revenge of the Sith	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_ef9ba9b4
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f01be61d	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f01be61d	comment	The system of Don't Rest Your Head is built for this. The GM can "cast a shadow" over any die roll, canceling out successes and changing which result is dominant... but doing so requires dropping "coins of hope" into a bowl. The players can use this coins to change things in their favor. The end result is that "stage one" is hard to prevent, but makes the players more capable of ending "stage two".
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f01be61d	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f01be61d	featureConfidence	1.0
Don't Rest Your Head (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f01be61d
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f0688fff	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f0688fff	comment	Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald really had no excuse. You knock out Maxie/Archie's PokÃ©mon, and have him cornered, with his back to magma, just asking for a Disney Villain Death. But he escapes.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f0688fff	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f0688fff	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon Ruby and Sapphire (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f0688fff
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f1514117	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f1514117	comment	In Mafia II, there are several scenes where your target is visible running away from you, with the intention that you'd be too busy dealing with the next group of mooks to shoot him then. But if you DO take some well-aimed shots, he's seen taking the hits and completely ignoring them, even headshots. Killing some targets earlier may have spared you having to drive Henry to El Greco or saved Marty's life. Averted with the mission where you have to warn Leo that Henry's been sent to kill him. It's difficult, but it is possible to simply avoid him and escape with Leo. If you get caught, Henry strikes a deal and allows Leo to leave town, letting him get payment for the job and keeping your old friend alive.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f1514117	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f1514117	featureConfidence	1.0
Mafia II (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f1514117
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f31ebb02	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f31ebb02	comment	In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the plot could have ended halfway in if Liz melted their piece of the MacGuffin immediately after they got it instead of waiting until after losing it to the villain and having to defeat him to get it back.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f31ebb02	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f31ebb02	featureConfidence	1.0
Hellboy II: The Golden Army	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f31ebb02
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3ae2950	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3ae2950	comment	Played straight in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: All seems well when the President's trip to Pakistan is cancelled and Air Force One turns back, but Senator Armstrong's plan wasn't foiled: the fact that American soldiers died on the Pakistani base was more than enough to kick up support for a war that would see Armstrong elected and his vision for a Social Darwinist America realized.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3ae2950	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3ae2950	featureConfidence	1.0
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3ae2950
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3cbb86a	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3cbb86a	comment	BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm has several as well. The main game concerns the efforts of the heroes to stop the entity destroying the Internet via storms. Despite their best efforts to put together the PasSWORD, by the time they are able to face the mastermind, the Internet is down to a few sites left. The post-game reveals that Boxxyfan has returned and been manipulating everything from behind the scenes, and he successfully takes control of STORM. In the end, his scheme is undone by himself accidentally awakening Legion. The DLC adds yet another; the Social Justice Warriors, led by Mother, have enacted an ultimate plan to unseal their leader from behind the Gamer Gate. The heroes manage to get to the Gate, only to be warded off by the Elder Sisters, and by the time they defeat them, it's too late- Mother is released from her prison and vaporizes all men from existence. However, the heroines band together to defeat her and restore everything back, turning it into a Near-Villain Victory.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3cbb86a	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3cbb86a	featureConfidence	1.0
BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f3cbb86a
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f4abd380	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f4abd380	comment	BlazBlue justifies this one. The world is caught in a century-long time loop that starts with the Black Beast emerging in Japan in 2100, and ends with Ragna and Nu falling into the cauldron at Kagutsuchi, only for the loop to repeat from square one. This is because Takamagahara, a triple-minded supercomputer that observes the flow of time, decides to stop observing a given timeline after Ragna and Nu fall in, wherein they become the aforementioned Black Beast. With the ability to stop observing a timeline and start anew at a backup point, Takamagahara can carry out their plan to induce absolute order on the timestream without anyone being able to interfere. The reason they do so is because they wish to destroy the Master Unit, Amaterasu, but because it buried itself in the depths of the Boundary, they cannot find it unless its Eye becomes manifest, and keep cycling until it does... in the form of Noel Vermillion. Their two observers — Rachel Alucard and Yuuki Terumi — engage in their own Cosmic Chess Game to try to shape the fate of the world, but Terumi has been liberal with the leeway he has to pervert events to his own ends, and shaped the events that would lead Noel towards the cauldron in Kagutsuchi so the timeloop would break, all of which curry to his favor. As a result, the events of Calamity Trigger play out to Terumi's advantage without exception. Continuum Shift, however, is quite a bit more complicated. Takamagahara set a new backup point after the time loop broke to more directly control affairs and carry out its plans, and alienated Rachel Alucard in the process due to her actions in preventing Kagutsuchi's destruction after Noel saved Ragna the Bloodedge from his fate. Its new plan involved using Terumi to smelt Noel into her original identity (Mu-12), use her to track down Amaterasu, and destroy it. While this plan goes off without a hitch, they were ready to reset should Ragna kill Mu... only he chose to restore her as Noel instead. Terumi planned for this, however, using Phantom's magic to peruse every possibility of the continuum shift, and had Relius kill him before Ragna and Mu's fateful battle so he can infiltrate Takamagahara during this brief period and use a virus program to lobotomize them (for what it's worth, Ragna was supposed to kill Terumi, but the lifelink Terumi established with Mu would complicate affairs for him, and he left the bastard to bleed instead — that's where Relius came in). So as much as the protagonists' brain trust of Rachel, Jubei and Kokonoe wanted to break the plan whenever possible, Terumi got what he wanted in the end. However, he had to pay a price of his own this time — Ragna had to be issued Lambda's Idea Engine, which locks out Terumi's direct control over the Azure Grimoire Ragna wields, Noel survived and is now fully aware that Terumi was playing her (and as much as Terumi acts like he doesn't need her anymore, he really does, and plans on manipulating her in the future), and Jin Kisaragi awakened to the power of order that Terumi fears so much due to the combined efforts of Makoto, Jubei, Rachel, Hakumen and Ragna, and defected from Terumi's control as well. While Terumi got a new figurehead hero in Tsubaki Yayoi, that same power of order could sever the brainwashing that compels her to serve the now-corrupt Librarium. On top of that, the aforementioned Makoto possesses knowledge that would cement Tsubaki's correction in alignment towards good once said brainwashing elapses, and has sight of other plot threads vital to Terumi's post-Kagutsuchi operations, as well as one tied to her wrist that is linked to Relius' own designs. And that's not the entire bill. Suffice it to say, without a script to work off of, Terumi's going to have his hands full dealing with so many rogue elements at once. Depending on how well the protagonists cohere in Ikaruga, Terumi's plans stand on a razor's edge, with one unplanned rogue element too many away from tipping towards failure — and this time, the damage won't be so small. And the result in Chronophantasma is: going out of control indeed. So much that Terumi ends up dead and Relius overly depressed. Still, the heroes cannot thwart their boss, Hades Izanami, to forcefully brainwash Ragna and prepare to use the Takemikazuchi Embryo to consume all souls in the world. Wait until next game to see how they thwart her plans.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f4abd380	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f4abd380	featureConfidence	1.0
BlazBlue (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f4abd380
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5855286	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5855286	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Midway through the story, the New Champions realize that Ganondorf has been using Phantom Zelda to stall for time while he gradually recovers the strength of his body, having been desiccated after millennia being sealed underground. He finishes rejuvenating himself back to full strength just as Link arrives in his lair for their climactic duel. Even if the player skips every dungeon and just goes straight for Ganondorf at the earliest opportunity, the Demon King will always regain his old body right as the hero arrives.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5855286	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5855286	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5855286
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f599977e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f599977e	comment	In the first DLC mission of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, your mission is to help your allies capture the submarine Alicorn, and destroying it (which is the objective of the third DLC mission) results in a mission failure. Brigadier General Clemens justifies this by citing local reports of the submarine containing weapons of mass destruction, and that capture will give leverage in post-war negotiations. But he later turns out to be The Mole.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f599977e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f599977e	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f599977e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5db678	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5db678	comment	In Chouja Reideen, the heroes are completely unable to stop the Chouma from gathering the Zodiac Orbs by the simple problem of the fact that they don't even know they exist, much less that the enemy is gathering them.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5db678	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5db678	featureConfidence	1.0
Raideen	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f5db678
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f688799b	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f688799b	comment	My Little Pony: The Movie (2017): The Storm King's plan is to invade Canterlot, capture the four Princesses, and transfer their magic to his staff to control. The ponies manage to stop him just shy of the second part by getting Twilight Sparkle out of Canterlot, and they begin searching for a way to stop him. But then tensions boil over and Twilight has a nasty falling out with the others, leaving her alone and vulnerable. She quickly gets captured, setting the rest of the Storm King's plan back in motion, and it's only after he has succeeded that the ponies and their allies can finally stop him.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f688799b	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f688799b	featureConfidence	1.0
My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f688799b
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f6a54e75	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f6a54e75	comment	Kingdom Hearts: In Kingdom Hearts, Sora spends so much time trying to lock every keyhole that he doesn't even find out the Princesses of Heart are being kidnapped until he finds them in the final level, where they're being used for Stage One of "Ansem's" takeover. THEN Sora carves out his own heart and completes Stage One for the guy. Then, in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, you fail to get through Castle Oblivion before all of Sora's memories are rearranged so that Namine replaces Kairi in Sora's mind. Thankfully, this isn't permanent. Then, in Kingdom Hearts II, it turns out that all those Heartless you've been killing? Why, you've been helping Xemnas complete Stage One of his plan to give himself and his fellow Nobodies hearts. In Kingdom Hearts III, you can't stop Master Xehanort from successfully forging the Ï‡-blade and putting his plan into unlocking Kingdom Hearts into motion. He is also doing this on a franchise wide level, having several times previously tried this plan, as seen in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], but escaping to fight another battle each time these attempts were thwarted. Only when he finally succeeds in forging the blade can he be defeated at long last. The only reason he doesn't get far is because Sora's friends transport him to Scala ad Caelum using his power over time and space against him, allowing Sora, Donald, and Goofy to confront Xehanort and put an end to his ambitions once for all. And The Stinger reveals that the entire trilogy was Stage 1 for Luxu, a.k.a Xigbar, though what his end goal is is still unknown.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f6a54e75	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f6a54e75	featureConfidence	1.0
Kingdom Hearts (Franchise)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f6a54e75
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f7c8e36e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f7c8e36e	comment	Octopath Traveler: Lybac, The Man Behind the Man for many of the problems or histories of the eight Travelers is still working on Step 1 of her plan: Locate the appropriate vessel for the resurrection of Galdera, the Fallen God. She is encountered twice by the Travelers directly before she finds the young man and lures him to the Final Dungeon for the ritual. By the time the Travelers reach the pair, the vessel has already been used and the only way to save him is beating back the ancient fallen god.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f7c8e36e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f7c8e36e	featureConfidence	1.0
Octopath Traveler (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f7c8e36e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f8956ef3	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f8956ef3	comment	YuYu Hakusho: Double subverted in the Dark Tournament arc when the Big Bad is revealed to have a plan to make a portal to the demon world, but it stopped when he was still trying to amass sufficient funds. However, the villains of the next arc have the same plan, but already have the means to do so. The Chapter Black saga also mostly plays it straight, as the heroes fail to prevent Kuwabara from being kidnapped, fail to stop the opening of the portal, and destroy the barrier themselves. While they prevent a demon invasion, they learn that they were playing into Sensui's alternate plan.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f8956ef3	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f8956ef3	featureConfidence	1.0
YuYu Hakusho (Manga)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f8956ef3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f9368d52	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f9368d52	comment	Then, in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, you fail to get through Castle Oblivion before all of Sora's memories are rearranged so that Namine replaces Kairi in Sora's mind. Thankfully, this isn't permanent.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f9368d52	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f9368d52	featureConfidence	1.0
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_f9368d52
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa46743e	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa46743e	comment	In Star Trek: Nemesis, Shinzon and the Remans have managed to build, and make operational, the most powerful warship in galactic history — a massive dreadnought with a perfect cloaking device and planet killing radiation weapons — without their Romulan masters ever catching wind of it. They did have a few secret supporters in the Romulan military, but still, it's a tad hard to swallow that the notoriously paranoid Tal Shiar wouldn't have caught on and put them down.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa46743e	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa46743e	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Nemesis	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa46743e
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa5e90fd	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa5e90fd	comment	Averted and played straight in City of Heroes. Straight examples: when playing through story missions, it always seems to come back to a climactic battle between you and the villain of the arc, even if you've successfully completed all the missions beforehand (and should have already thwarted his plans). However, you can also do one-off missions such as "Prevent the Xs from obtaining the Oxygen Destroyer!" Once you complete the mission, you never hear about it again; it is never explained just what would happen if the Oxygen Destroyer was obtained, but fortunately you thwarted Stage One!
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa5e90fd	featureApplicability	-1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa5e90fd	featureConfidence	1.0
City of Heroes (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fa5e90fd
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd3487b9	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd3487b9	comment	Astonishingly subverted in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Despite Cackletta's efforts to steal Princess Peach's voice to awaken the Beanstar to conquer the Beanbean Kingdom, she's ultimately (and spectacularly) Out-Gambitted by Princess Peach, Prince Peasley, the Mario Bros., and Queen Bean. So she decides to use Bowser's flying castle to destroy the Beanbean Kingdom.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd3487b9	featureApplicability	-0.3
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd3487b9	featureConfidence	1.0
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd3487b9
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd5d7b47	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd5d7b47	comment	In Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), no matter what you do, Razor will rig your car, will win the race, and he will skyrocket to Blacklist #1.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd5d7b47	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd5d7b47	featureConfidence	1.0
Need for Speed (Video Game)	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fd5d7b47
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fdbace96	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fdbace96	comment	Gravity Falls: The last two episodes of season one. The ending of the episode "Dreamscaperers" has the gang manages to defeat Bill, but Gideon switched to "Plan B" (dynamite) while they were busy and managed to steal the Mystery Shack's deed. The following episode, "Gideon Rises", has them reveal Gideon's nature to the town and get him sent to jail. Season 2's Weirdmaggedon arc has Bill Cipher successfully bring about the titular apocalyptic event. It's only until Part III that the heroes are able to come together and execute a plan to save the world.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fdbace96	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fdbace96	featureConfidence	1.0
Gravity Falls	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fdbace96
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fe94578f	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fe94578f	comment	Happens in many of the Alex Rider books, perhaps most notably in the fourth, Eagle Strike, where Damian Cray actually succeeds in launching a nuclear strike against the sources of the world's drugs by hijacking Air Force One, and is only stopped when Alex's girlfriend Sabina is able to send the self-destruct command after Cray has been killed.
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fe94578f	featureApplicability	1.0
You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fe94578f	featureConfidence	1.0
Alex Rider	hasFeature	You Can't Thwart Stage One / int_fe94578f

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

You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingCategory2	Evil Tropes
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingCategory2	Index Failure
You Can't Thwart Stage One	processingCategory2	Narrative Devices
RPG Metanoia (Animation) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Blue Reflection Ray / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Captain Earth / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Digimon Adventure: (2020) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Kill la Kill / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
NG Knight Lamune & 40 / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
SD Gundam Force / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Three Musketeers / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yatterman / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yu-Gi-Oh! / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Better Bones AU (Blog) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Bonefall Warriors Rewrite (Blog) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do in an RPG (Blog) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Astro City (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Captain Atom: Armageddon (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Escape from the Phantom Zone (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Justice League (2018) (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mega Man (Archie Comics) (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut! (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Seven Soldiers of Victory (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Leper from Krypton (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) (Comic Book) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sleeping Beauty / Disney / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ancienverse / Fan Fic / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Book 5: Legends / Fan Fic / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship / Fan Fic / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
HecksingUlumateCrconikals	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Fifth Act / Fan Fic / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
A Red Rose in the Blue Wind (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Another Form Of Power (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Apotheosis (MHA) (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Avenger of Steel (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Avengers of the Multi-verse (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Brave New World (Pokémon) (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Game Reset (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Gameplay (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Hazredous Interruptions (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Hecksing Ulumate Crconikals (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Hellsister Trilogy (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Here There Be Monsters (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
J-WITCH Season 1 (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
J-WITCH Series (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
KPLegacy	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Legionnaire (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Lusus Naturae (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mass Effect: End of Days (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
My Little Denarians (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
One Punch-Gamer (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Pretty Cure Mirai ~ Spark! (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Reversal of Fortune (TLH) (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Rise of the Minisukas (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Tales of Bleach: Unreal Society (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Only Hero (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Youâ€™re About Seven Years Too Early (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yugioh EQG (Fanfic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Matrix / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Apocalypse / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Austin Powers / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Avengers: Age of Ultron / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Captain America: Civil War / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Captain America: The First Avenger / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Die Hard / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Edge of Tomorrow / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ghostbusters (2016) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Godzilla (2014) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Gremlins / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Gremlins (1984) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Kong: Skull Island / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mirror Mirror (2012) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Non-Stop (2014) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Olympus Has Fallen / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Return of the Jedi / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sherlock Holmes (2009) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Super Mario Bros. (1993) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Adventures of Captain Marvel / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Batman (2022) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Empire Strikes Back / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Forever Purge / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Last Witch Hunter / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Penalty / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Valentine / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
White House Down / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Zelda (Franchise) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
High School D×D / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
A Practical Guide to Evil / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Alex Rider / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Castle Perilous / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
High School DÃ—D / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Life, the Universe and Everything / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mediochre Q Seth Series / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Prolecto / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Record of Lodoss War / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Red Iron Nights / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Skin Game / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Soon I Will Be Invincible / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Spider-Man: The Venom Trilogy / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Defence of Duffer's Drift / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Fall of the House of Cabal / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Manchurian Candidate / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Night of Wishes / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Thief of Time / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Tree of Aeons / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Words of Radiance / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
AdditionalEvilOverlordListCellblockC	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mario4812LikedTropes3	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ptitlem1lh0v8n	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The River War	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
TyTheTasmanianTiger	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
ptitlemmnkr2le	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Birdy the Mighty (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Kagurabachi (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Reborn! (2004) (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa) (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
20th Century Boys (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Dark Matters (Music) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Replay Value Universe / Role Play / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Airlocked Round Two (Roleplay) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Deep Blue Sea Verse (Roleplay) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Record of Lodoss War (Roleplay) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Sky Tides (Roleplay) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ultimate Crossover Roleplay (Roleplay) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Choujuu Sentai Liveman / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Godzilla Island / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Legend of the Seeker / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Luke Cage (2016) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Manifest / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
NCIS: New Orleans / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Seijuu Sentai Gingaman / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Timeless / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
24 / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ultraseven / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Arkham Horror: The Card Game (Tabletop Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mutants & Masterminds (Tabletop Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Over the Edge (Tabletop Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Secret Hitler (Tabletop Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ace Combat (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
AdventureQuest (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
AdventureQuest Worlds (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Akiba's Trip: Undead and Undressed (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Alan Wake (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Assassin's Creed II (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Avalon Code (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Baldur's Gate (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Baldur's Gate II (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Baldur's Gate III (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Batman: The Telltale Series (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Battalion Wars (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Black Sigil (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Bloody Spell (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Bravely Default (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Breath of Fire I (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Choice of Robots (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Cobra Mission (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Covert Action (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
CULTIC (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Devil May Cry 4 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Diablo (1997) (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Distorted Travesty (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Dungeon Fighter Online (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
E.V.O.: Search for Eden (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Earth Defense Force (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
EarthBound Beginnings (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Eastern Exorcist (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ecco the Dolphin (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Endless Nightmare (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Escape Dungeon (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Fable (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
FAITH: The Unholy Trinity (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Final Fantasy IV (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Final Fantasy V (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Five Nights at Fuckboy's (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Friday Night Funkin': Corruption (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
G-Force (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Grandia II (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Grim Fandango (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Guacamelee! (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Halo 4 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Halo 5: Guardians (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Heroes of Might and Magic (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Heroes Rise (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Hyrule Warriors (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Inscryption (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Jedi Starfighter (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Kingdom Hearts III (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
LEGO DC Super-Villains (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Light & Darkness: Heroes of Calradia (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Loopmancer (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Luminous Avenger iX (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Majyuo (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mega Man X (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mega Man X: Corrupted (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mega Man Zero 2 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mega Man Zero 3 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mega Man Zero 4 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Metal Gear Solid (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Midnight Suns (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Modern Warfare (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Monster Hunter: Rise (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Monster Sanctuary (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mortal Kombat 11 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mother 3 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Mystery Case Files (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Need for Speed: Carbon (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Neopets: The Darkest Faerie (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ōkamiden (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Paper Mario 64 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Papers, Please (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Parasocial (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Persona (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Persona 2 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
PokÃ©mon Black and White (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
PokÃ©mon Ranger (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
PokÃ©mon Ruby and Sapphire (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
PokÃ©mon Unbound (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Pokémon X and Y (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Portal 2 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ribbit King (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Robotech: Invasion (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Saints Row IV (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sea of Stars (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Secret Agent (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Secret of Mana (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shantae (2002) (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shantae: Risky's Revenge (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shin Megami Tensei II (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Skies of Arcadia (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sol Cresta (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Space Channel 5 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Spellstone (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Spider-Man (PS4) (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Spore Creatures (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Steel Gunner (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Suikoden (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Suikoden V (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Super Metroid (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Aethra Chronicles (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Campaign Trail (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Last Story (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Dragoon (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legendary Starfy (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Mummy Demastered (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Wonderful 101 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Titan Quest (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Toad Strikes Back (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Tomodachi Life (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Trails Series (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Transformers: The Game (DS) (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Trials of Mana (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Vader Immortal (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Vampire: The Masquerade â€“ Redemption (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Wizard101 (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
World's End Club (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
XCOM: Chimera Squad (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yoshi's Island (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Choice of Games / Videogame / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Five Nights at Fuckboy's / Videogame	seeAlso	You Can't Thwart Stage One
9 Monkeys of Shaolin (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Video Game) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Arcade Spirits (Visual Novel) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Banshee's Last Cry (Visual Novel) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Dayshift at Freddy's (Visual Novel) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
her tears were my light (Visual Novel) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! (Visual Novel) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Time Hollow (Visual Novel) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
How It Should Have Ended (Web Animation) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Red vs. Blue: Zero (Web Animation) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Blackrock Chronicle (Web Video) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Diamond's Cut (Web Video) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Fist of the b0rf Star (Web Video) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Scootertrix the Abridged (Web Video) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Suburban Knights (Web Video) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Cucumber Quest (Webcomic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Erfworld (Webcomic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Friendship is Dragons (Webcomic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Inverted Fate (Webcomic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
PPG World Battles The Broccolloids (Webcomic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Season 2 (Webcomic) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Arlo the Alligator Boy / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Big Hero 6: The Series / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Castlevania: Nocturne / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Conan the Adventurer / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Despicable Me 3 / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Fairy Idol / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
G.I. Joe: Renegades / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Gargoyles / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ghost Force / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
How to Train Your Dragon 2 / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Jackie Chan Adventures / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Justin and the Knights of Valour / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls â€“ Rainbow Rocks / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Nexo Knights / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Ninjago / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Pinky and the Brain / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Sleeping Beauty / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Superfriends / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Incredibles / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Incredibles / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The LEGO Movie / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Trolls World Tour / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Wunschpunsch / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Young Justice - Original Series / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Digimon Fusion / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Digimon Xros Wars / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Summer Wars / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
A Growing Affection / Fan Fic / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
The Scarlet Pimpernel / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
youcantthwartstageone	sameAs	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Manga) / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Nikita / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.