The Rest Shall Pass

"I got this, Mung. I GOT THIS!"

—Chowder

The good guys are on their way to kill the Big Bad or rescue the Damsel in Distress, but they only make it so far before a bad guy pops up and gives them the old You Shall Not Pass. Inevitably, one of the team will step up and say, "You guys go on ahead. I'll take care of this guy." He then stays behind to fight the villain while the rest of the group moves on.

Often, this process will repeat itself until only one team member is left… and he has to face the Big Bad alone! ...Or not.

Contrast with You Shall Not Pass. Usually leads to massive amounts of I Am Your Opponent.

Examples of The Rest Shall Pass include:

Anime and Manga

  • Naruto uses this trope during the Sasuke Retrieval arc and in the third movie.
  • Bleach anime
    • In the Soul Society arc, Captain Zaraki Kenpachi fights against two other Captains so the rest of the party can continue on to save Rukia.
    • Happens multiple times in episode 185.
      • Captain Amagai fights a ninja Mook so Ichigo can pursue the Mook who apparently has Rurichiyo.
      • He does it again with Toshiro Captain Hitsugaya so Ichigo and Rukia can enter the palace.
      • Rukia fights Lieutenant Matsumoto so Ichigo and Shu Kannogi can get past her.
    • Arrancar: Decisive Battle of Karakura arc
      • Episode 214. As Kon and his team try to fight their way into the Hollow fortress, Tatsuki tells him that the rest of the team will take care of things at the entrance and that he should proceed to the core of the fortress and attack the nucleus.
      • Episode 215, Ichigo is fighting the Arrancar Exequias and their leader, Rudbornn Chelute when Renji, Chad and Rukia show up. They deal with the Arrancar so Ichigo can continue on and save Orihime.
  • The final showdown in Outlaw Star is a great example of this.
  • The end of the first Sailor Moon series did that so that Sailor Moon would be on her own when she finally encounters Beryl.
  • Near the end of Wolf's Rain Tsume tells Kiba and Cheza to go on ahead while Tsume holds off the Big Bad, Darcia. Kiba and Tsume exchange a Look, because they both know Darcia is much more powerful and has already killed several of their party.
  • Saint Seiya abused this trope in every single arc. The Poseidon arc spiced things up by splitting everyone up to head in a different direction, instead of following them along a linear path, but the principle is the same.
  • Soul Eater uses when the bad guys have a headstart to an evil can. Stein makes the plan based his unit's strengths compared to their's. As per the Description, there are two I Am Your Opponent momments.
    • This plays out even though Stein's plan is ignored by Maka and Black*Star, and results in all Kid Heroes facing the evil 'can' together even though their efforts are dashed once its occupant wakes up.
  • The first Ranma ½ movie has this. There are a series of gates that lead up to where the kidnapped Akane is being held. Each gate is guarded by one of the Seven Lucky Gods martial artists. Members of Ranma's group gradually break off to deal with these guardians.
  • Almost required in any given fight of GetBackers.
  • Several times in rapid succession in the Finale of Mai-Otome.
  • In the third Pokémon movie, Pokémon 3: Spell of the Unown, Brock and Misty do this while Ash goes off to find his mom.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist. Roy Mustang uses it when he finally comes face to face with Envy, his best friend's killer. He wanted to have the Roaring Rampage of Revenge all to himself but Ed and Scar come back for him before he can lose himself in his anger.
  • Possible variation in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: during the final battle, the titular mecha is being fried by the Grand Zamboa's Infinity Big Bang Storm. The heroes open up a can of Heroic Resolve... then Lordgenome steps up and says "Simon, leave this one to me." He summons the Lazengann and sucks the attack into himself, converting it into enough spiral energy for the heroes to turn the tables on the Anti-Spiral.
    • In the movie, this energy is used to summon the Super TTGL instead.
  • Used blatantly in the last episode of the Record of Lodoss War OVA, when one after another Parn's allies stop to fight lesser monsters so he can have his inevitable one-on-one duel with Ashram.
  • Played with in Rurouni Kenshin: in the Kyoto arc, Saito tells Kenshin and Sano to go on ahead while he takes care of Usui of the Juppongatana. When Usui comments that Saito is being nice to Kenshin, Saito explains that he only did it to make sure Kenshin was out of the room so that Saito could kill Usui.
  • Happens multiple times in almost any given arc in One Piece. Usually the protagonists square off against a group (be it another pirate crew, a group of Marines, or whoever), and it inevitably comes down to Luffy taking the leader and his crew taking care of the subordinates. This also happened constantly in Marineford, with everybody clearing a path for Luffy to get to Ace.
  • Happens in D.Gray-man during the Ark arc.
  • In Durarara!! Shizuo tells Celty to go on ahead while he deals with Seiji, and cheerfully points it out with an "I always wanted to say that!"
  • In Mazinkaiser, Tetsuya does this to allow Kouji to go fight Dr. Hell in the end.
  • Hanaukyo Maid Tai La Verite episode 11. As Taro, Konoe and Yashima use the elevator to go down and save Mariel, Ryuuka, Ikuyo Suzuki and Grace stay at the top to hold off the mansion's security maids. When Taro, Konoe and Yashima confront Konoe's sister, Konoe and Yashima fight her to give Taro a chance to rescue Mariel from her People Jar.


Comic Books

  • Done in Teen Titans during their first battle against Raven's father Trigon. Arriving in his stronghold, the Titans are confronted by a giant dog. Changeling tells the others to go on and stays behidn to deal with the dog.


Fan Works

  • This has happened in The Tainted Grimoire. When Crow appears while Clan Gully and their comrades is trying to rescue Baron Beltorey and Cid, Luso takes him on alone and the rest of his group moves on.
  • Happens in the Pokemon fanfic Blood in The Water: All of the 'Dex Holders appear as The Cavalry, but then it is revealed that Franz has sent the remaining Elite Four members and the hypnotized Gym Leaders after the protagonists. This changes the possible outcome of the scenario entirely, as now the inexperienced Trainers are the only ones left to face the Big Bad. As the three protagonists leave, the audience is greeted with this badass scene:

Blue: *draws a Pokeball from her pocket* Do you think they'll be okay?
Green: They're decent enough trainers. *enlarges a Pokeball in his hand*
Gold: Not as good as us though, right? *grins*
Silver: *scoffs*
Red: *silently staring at the approaching enemy*
Green: Go! *all Dex Holders throw their Pokeballs simultaneously*

    • It later happens again: Anna and Siobhan are forced to stay behind and battle Franz himself, while Haleigh goes on to fight Josh.


Film

  • The Phantom Menace:This trope is how Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi react to Darth Maul during the liberation of Naboo.
  • This happened in Rush Hour 2 Carter tells Lee to go after Ricky Tan while he fights Hu Li.
  • Also, in Aliens, Lt. Gorman tells Hicks to go on to landing craft while he goes back to try and help the injured Vasquez.
  • In Shrek 2, Puss in Boots stays behind to fight off the guards while Shrek runs to save Fiona.
  • In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Baby Chicken Brent fights off the giant chickens while Sam and Flint got to stop the food-making machine.
  • In Sky High, when faced with Lash, Speed and Penny, the heroes have Will go on ahead and fight Royal Pain while Warren, Ethan and Layla stay to fight and Zach and Magenta take cover.
  • In Prince Caspian, Susan stays behind to shoot down Telmarines while Lucy gallops on to reach Aslan.
  • The Matrix Reloaded: Neo versus the new Agents. Later, Neo versus the Merovingian's goons.

The Merovingian: Handle us. You'll handle us? You know, your predecessors had much more respect.

  • The Three Musketeers 1973. D'Artagnan and the three musketeers (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis) are on a mission for the queen. Along the way they're attacked by various groups sent by Cardinal Richelieu. In one encounter, while fighting a Mook, Athos orders d'Artagnan to keep going while he stays and keeps the opponent busy.


Literature

  • Older Than Radio example combined with Rule of Three in The Three Musketeers: when d'Artagnan and his friends are in secret mission to London, the Cardinal's agents try three times to ambush or derail them in different ways. Each time one of the musketeers is left behind taking care of the enemies while the rest carry on, until at the end d'Artagnan is the only one who arrives to London.
  • Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone: Ron takes charge of the chess game and sacrifices himself, Hermione solves the potion riddle, leaving Harry to deal with the Mirror and Voldemort.
    • Which doesn't translate so well into the film where the potion scene doesn't happen, and Hermione leaves... just because.


Video Games

  • Happens literally seven times in a row in Tales of Symphonia, taking out one party member at a time until only Lloyd is left.
    • Six; the first party member, Zelos, leaves as a Fake Defector (or is revealed to be The Mole if you make certain choices, but the Fake Defector version is considered Canon).
    • Five; Colette's been kidnapped at the time.
  • Bill says this in Left 4 Dead's online comic "The Sacrifice" before jumping into a horde with 3 tanks. He doesn't make it back, but it's called The Sacrifice, you should know this already.
    • In the game, if you choose to sacrifice Zoey, most of her lines are something like this, "I got this, guys! No big deal! ... Shit, shit!"
  • This tends to happen at the end of Mega Man Battle Network games, with your friends stopping each sub-boss out of nowhere and telling you to go on ahead.
  • This is how Super Paper Mario gets Mario alone for the final boss.
  • The stock response from any security guard in Half Life. Well, one of the stock responses.
  • In the last Onimusha game, the four characters storm the Definitely Final Dungeon. After some initial skirmishing, each character finds an arch-enemy and stays behind to fight him, leaving the main Player Character to carry on alone.
  • Happens in Astro Boy Omega Factor, as part of the Boss Rush. After Astro defeats the first copy of a boss, the Big Bad just pulls in another copy from another timeline, triggering one of Astro's friends to step in and keep it busy so he can move on.


Webcomic


Western Animation

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