You Will Not Evade Me

"You will not evade me (player name)!"
—Hundreds upon hundreds of high-level monsters and bosses in EverQuest.
"C'mere! Get over here!"
—Scorpion, of Mortal Kombat fame.

Sometimes your opponent is strong. Really strong. Sometimes, even if you're The Chosen One—and definitely if you aren't--you end up in a fight that's way out of your league. You need to find some means of escape, or at least something to buy yourself some breathing room so that your foe can't just shoot you while you're trying to come up with a Plan B.

So you run away. Maybe you already have a clever escape strategy, or some cute idea that revolves around hiding among cardboard boxes in a warehouse and ambushing him when he comes to find you. Things are looking good ... until your opponent decides to stop you from getting away. Oh Crap!

Remember, this guy is strong and possibly smart as well. He may even have Psychic Powers. Whatever the case, the point is this: he can't be bothered to actually run after you to catch you. No, he's so awesome that he can catch you without even moving. How, you ask? Simple! He teleports you over to where he's standing. Or grabs you with a wire and reels you in. Or extends a really, really long arm and grabs hold of you. Or...

This trope specifically refers to a case in which one fighter magically, psychically, or physically forces his or her target to move to the fighter's location, often setting the victim up for a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.

May lead almost immediately to Just Eat Him and/or a Womb Level in some cases. Despite what it sounds like, not related to Get Back Here Boss.

Examples of You Will Not Evade Me include:

Video Game examples

  • Trope Namer: The original EverQuest, an MMORPG, allows many high-level monsters and bosses to use the "summon" ability against players who are in combat with them. This ability instantly teleports a targeted player to the monster's location, regardless of how far away that player has fled and regardless of whether the monster can still see him or her. This ability can be used every ten seconds or so and helps ensure that the monster in question can always "catch" fleeing opponents or over-aggressive spellcasters who try to compensate for their fragile armor by keeping a lot of space between themselves and their opponent. Summoning equalizes things, pulling the target instantly into melee range for a good old fashioned beatdown, often resulting in quick and potentially humorous deaths. Best of all, when a player is summoned in this fashion, everyone in the immediate area will know it—because the monster doing the summoning will say, "You will not evade me (player name)!" And so the trope gets its name.
    • Summoning was most likely put in the game as a way to prevent players from using ranged damage to kill high-end monsters without having to worry too much about their dangerous melee attacks. The mechanic has since become infamous among the game's players, both for its quirky "You will not evade me!" line and because of how irritating or deadly it can be to get summoned in the heat of a battle. Instantly warping to the location of a boss while trying to run away (or simply reposition one's character) is very disorienting and often results in being hit from behind.
    • Many spoofs of EverQuest gameplay logs (such as the fan-famous "Veeshan's Peak raid log") make humorous use of the summon mechanic and the beatdowns that ensue as a result of its use.
    • The Magician class of player characters get a level 55 spell named Call of the Hero that allows them to summon an ally to their location using the same game mechanic. By contrast, the magician version has a 12 second cast time (although it can be reduced to as little as 6 seconds with the proper abilities and/or equipment) and a comparably long recast. Saying "You will not evade me!" to creep out your ally is optional, but why would you not?
    • Some particularly summon-happy bosses also have an ability named "Call of the Zero" (likely in parody of the magician spell above) which allows them to summon their target even more often than monsters that lack it. A boss with this ability can alternate using it and the regular summoning mechanic for even more disorientation and preventions of escape.
    • On the other hand, it is still possible to get away from any monster in the game by successfully "zoning" to another area of the world, casting an evacuation spell, or using an aggro-clearing ability (such as Feign Death) at the right time. Those aren't always options, though.
  • Final Fantasy VI has a rather unusual example of this. When your party encounters a monster known as the Zone Eater on the World of Ruin's version of Triangle Island, the monster will begin to inhale your party members--drawing them inside itself. Once the last party member is inhaled, you find yourself in a cavernous dungeon (presumably within the Zone Eater's body, or through some sort of dimensional rift therein) complete with random battles, treasure chests, and an Optional Party Member, Gogo.
    • Protip: If you don't feel like being zone-eaten at that particular point, have one (or more) of your party make for the hills. When the battle ends, your party will be intact and on the right side of the world.
  • The Mortal Kombat series has Scorpion, a yellow-clad ninja whose trademark move involves hurling a harpoon into his opponent and then using a wire attached to the harpoon to quickly pull the opponent into melee range. The ability is, of course, accompanied by one of his catchphrases: "C'mere!" or "Get over here!"
  • The Death Knights in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion of World of Warcraft have an ability to do this. Of course, the difference being it's the player doing so, which lead to many Scorpion-related macros.
    • Pretty much every high-level boss in the game also does this, unless there's a door that closes behind you or some other mechanic that prevents you from even trying to escape. Numerous non-boss creatures also do this, from undead constructs pulling you to them with hooked chains to various spiders using strands of web to drag you back, Spider-Man style.
    • One notable example would be Archimonde. He will zap players attempting to flee from him with a beam that instantly kills them (and if the tooltip is to be believed, their descendants as well).
    • Also, if you try to climb to a position that the boss can't reach, any boss can teleport you back.
      • Non-boss monsters can't do this, but if you get into a position that they can't reach they'll reset, and any attack launched against a monster while it's resetting will result not in a "Miss" or a "Dodge" or a "Parry", but in an "Evade." So while you will not evade a boss, a monster can evade you!
  • Parodied in the April Fools Day 2009 "update notes" for Guild Wars. The assassin skill Scorpion Wire was reportedly changed to summon the afflicted foe to location of the person who cast it—a likely reference to Scorpion the ninja. (Normally, the skill teleports the assassin to the afflicted foe.)
  • The "Teleport Foe" ability from City of Heroes does this as well. This is a power that is available to any Player Character as early as level 6. The Gravity Control set also has "Wormhole" as one of its higher-level powers, which is an AoE version of this that also stuns those pulled through it.
  • Templars in Aion can do this to large groups of enemies by using energy beams.
  • Iron Tager is the only character in BlazBlue without the ability to dash. He compensates with a host of magnetism-based moves that pull his opponent towards him.
  • zOMG!: "The world turns inside-out as you are drawn inward to the Giant Stone Coatl!" This particular boss is stationary, so it uses this power to bring you in range of its breath laser; if you play keep-away, only its minions can threaten you otherwise.
  • Final Fantasy XI has a mechanic very similar to EverQuest's, but with the much less memorable line "(player name) is drawn in!"
    • Frequently abused during one of the Chains of Promathia missions. One boss is in the back of a dungeon, behind dozens of monsters with true-sight (can see through invisibility) and locked doors. Instead of fighting your way to the back, most players opt to have the alliance (of up to 18 players) wait at the entrance, while one lone character (typically a thief, who can open the doors without keys; or alternatively a thief to open the locked doors, and whomever is best at sneaking for the rest of it) runs to the back. As soon as that character is detected by the boss, the entire alliance is drawn in, from across the zone.
  • In Devil May Cry 3, the Kalina Ann has a move in Gunslinger style for pulling enemies to Dante. However, since Gunslinger is so situational, it doesn't see much use. In Devil May Cry 4, Nero's Devil Bringer can Snatch small enemies to Nero. This time, it's an integral part of the system.
  • Some bosses in Dragon Age could do this, most notably the Revenants.
  • In God Hand, the Chain Yanker God Reel move allows Gene to pull a target to himself. As a bonus, the right cross he follows it with stuns them.
  • "Teleport to" and "teleport foe" are fairly common abilities within Angband and other roguelikes. Usually found on phase spiders, blink dogs, and mid-to-high-level magic-using bosses.
    • In Angband, blink dogs cast both spells frequently, and and come in packs.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces allows Signum to use her Whip Sword to do this. Admittedly, the range is a bit lacking.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, various characters have different ways of bringing opponents to them. Super Skrull and Spencer have extendable arms, Spider-Man shoots out a web to grab them, and Magneto uses his magnetic powers to briefly immobilize opponents and force them right in front of him. Also, Magneto's Level 3 Hyper, Gravity Squeeze, can tag the opponent anywhere on the screen.
  • Pokémon both plays this straight and has a slight variation: the moves Block, Mean Look, Spider Web, and Shadow Hold will prevent foes from running away or switching out to another party member. There are also a few abilities that do this naturally, such as Arena Trap (doesn't work on Flying or Levitating mons, though), Magnet Pull (only works on Steel types) and Shadow Tag (works no matter what, unless against another trapper, and is the sole reason Wobbuffet used to be banned in competitive play). The variation is that if an enemy has a higher level/speed stat than your current Pokémon, you won't be able to run away. You can still switch, though.
  • Not an exact example but similar, in the freeware game Power of the Mind, the (telekinetic) final boss Arogath is driven into an Unstoppable Rage by your ultimate thwarting of his plan, and lashes out in a berserk frenzy. If you try to hide from him, he bellows "You...will...not...hide...from...ME!!!" and uses his power to basically gravity-nuke and flatten the entire area, destroying all possible cover for a huge radius. Instead of bringing you to him, he merely eliminates your ability to evade him. You need a little hardware to put the fight to him.
  • Characters with tethers (ranged grabs) in Super Smash Brothers could count. This includes each Link (with the hookshot, or the clawshot), Samus Aran (grapple beam, or plasma whip as Zero Suit), Yoshi (his tongue), Lucas (the rope snake), Ivysaur (vines), and Olimar (pikmin).
  • Arcana Heart's Medein (magnet arcana) powers can draw opponents closer to the wielder.
  • Sly Cooper 2 has The Contessa, who will reel you in with webs if you try to leave. And drop you in front of her, shortly followed by a rush attack. Strangely enough, she can do this even when she's falling off the arena herself.
  • Fallout 3 has a bug in Grayditch: sometimes, alerting the Fire Ant Queen to your presence then trying to escape will make the queen teleport to your location, physically blocking the way out.
  • The final boss in In Famous grabs you with some kind electric tether and pulls you to the center of the arena if you try to leave. He even says "You're not going anywhere." when he does it.
    • In the sequel, a DLC power gives you the ability to hook your enemies and fling them toward you.
  • Blitzcrank in League of Legends can do this to anyone on the enemy team.
  • The Embryon in G-Darius will catch you with a cagelike attack which severely reduces your mobility while it fires homing lasers at you. Fortunately, you can destroy it, but in the meantime, better practice your evasion-while-bound skills.
  • Nethack: Once you've found him and woken him up, The Wizard of Yendor will reappear periodically wherever you are, and taunt you for thinking you could elude him (if he was alive and on a different dungeon level.) A slightly different taunt appears if he was killed instead (he revives after a while). Several high-level monsters, including the Wizard, will teleport to your location if you try to run away from the fight but are still on the same level.
  • When fighting against Venom in the PS 1/N64/Dreamcast Spider-Man game, don't try escaping by crawling up a wall. He'll grab you, yell "GET OFF OF THAT WALL", then pull you off of it.
  • The final boss of Return to Castle Wolfenstein is armed only with a BFS. Well... no good against the hero, who is basically a walking WWII firearms store at the moment. So the villain periodically slams his sword into the ground, causing a small earthquake that sends PC flying towards him (immediately followed by a terrifying slash) and makes stones rain from above. This qiute dangerous attack can be countered by a well-timed jump, which either negates its effect or, vice versa, makes you leap over the boss.


Non-Video game examples

Anime & Manga

  • The final battle sequence of Digimon: The Movie features an evil Cherubimon (originally digivolved from Kokomon due to the effects of a virus) who conjures spheres of gravity that suck the heroes' much smaller digimon into his hands. He then juggles them. See the first minute and a half of this AMV clip for an audiovisual account of Cherubimon's You Will Not Evade Me ownage.
  • Akainu often says this to any pirate that he deems as "potentially dangerous" in One Piece, and will pursue his targets til he kills them. His determination is so strong that he continued to go after Luffy even though he suffered 2 direct strong blows from Whitebeard. In the end he was pissed off at Shanks for letting Luffy get away.

Comics

  • Inverted with Batman. Because no normal criminal can ever possibly defeat him in combat, they usually run, only to be caught a few seconds later. One notable example had Dick Grayson chasing Roadrunner, a sprinter. Dick fails to catch up with him, comments "To hell with this.", then uses the Batclaw to reel the villain to him.

Film

Tabletop Games

  • With its fourth edition, Dungeons & Dragons formally introduced the concept of 'forced movement' and with it powers that allow the user to push, pull, slide, or even teleport unwilling targets across the battlefield. One fairly basic example is the first-level druid at-will power Thorn Whip, which on a hit inflicts damage and pulls the target two squares towards the user.
    • Not that it was entirely unheard-of before. Third Edition monsters with Improved Grab pull grappled opponents into their own space, rather than moving into the opponent's space like in a normal grapple. Spells like Baleful Transposition or Telekinesis and powers like Baleful Teleport or Telekinetic Thrust can reposition targets against their will and to great detriment.
  • Daemon Princes of Slaanesh in Warhammer 40,000 can take the psychic power Lash of Submission; which allows to them move an enemy squad a certain distance. This is often used to bring enemies that are specialized in ranged combat into melee range and out of cover; where the Prince can then attack the (usually hopeless in close combat) enemy units without the penalty for charging into rough terrain. Little wonder that "Lash Princes" are a common sight in tournament level Chaos armies.
  • Masters of Space in Mage: The Awakening can do this with the "Labyrinth" spell.

Western Animation

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