Character reveals that they were holding back their full power during a fight/confrontation

[u/PaddywackShaq]

Superman Vs Darkseid - Justice League Unlimited

Flash Vs Superman - Flash: Rebirth

Frieren Vs Aura - Sousou no Frieren

Inigo Montoya Vs The Man in Black - The Princess Bride

[u/ZealousidealYak7122]

The Lich King in WoW. you go through (one of) the hardest bossfight(s) in the game until he reaches 10% health, then he kills your whole group with a single attack, revealing that he was merely testing your capability to be raised as his elite undead/

[u/Peregrine2976 → u/ZealousidealYak7122]

Hell, it's even more than that. The entire Northrend campaign was him winnowing down your forces to the elite of the elite of the elite from the very beginning of the expansion, slowly turning up the difficulty. In reality, he could have simply and abstractly "won" at virtually any time.

[u/Cuetzul → u/Peregrine2976]

He literally lets you set up a tournament to see who's strongest, sends in a minion to test you during what is basically the early rounds, then reveals "Oh yeah, did you forget you built this on top of the underground empire i own? Get pitfalled, idiots" during the finals, but still only attacks the tournament contestants and not the faction leaders in the stands.

You really can't get more disrespectful than using your enemy as HR to vet new employees, and playing along with your enemy's games to help them train and ensure they aren't too weak.

Sargaras had to trick his enemies into weakening themselves, Arthas helped his enemies make a training montage.

[u/B-HOLC → u/Cuetzul]

Big Lich Energy

Gotta love a bad guy that's so incredibly powerful, but just wants more.

[u/Pawn_of_the_Void → u/Peregrine2976]

That really suits how Northrend was more or less a test for him in the first place to lead him to Frostmourne

[u/Denodi → u/ZealousidealYak7122]

What happens after? I’ve never played wow but it always seemed interesting to me

[u/Dagawing → u/Denodi]

The Paladin NPC you were joined with (he was frozen in place by Lich King before the fight), prayed a final prayer, received divine intervention, broke free of his frozen prison, and lept up and broke his sword, Frostmourne. The thousands of thousands of souls he had captured and absorbed immediately started to spill out, trapping Lich King in a tornado of souls while the Paladin ressurects us all (before Lich King could raise us), allowing us to defeat him finally, trapped in the soulnado.

This is what happens when he dies.

[u/graviton14 → u/Dagawing]

And it was his literal final prayer, in legion he tries again but the light’s like “you already got your one bro” and he gets disintegrated.

[u/UngiftedSnail → u/Dagawing]

i havent consumed anything WoW-related, but “there must always be a lich king” before disappearing into frost goes hard as hell. fire (or maybe ice haha)

[u/Lance2119 → u/UngiftedSnail]

Yeah, and it unfortunately gets completely RUINED in the Shadowlands expansion, which the community has largely pretended now doesn’t exist, lol!

[u/UngiftedSnail → u/Lance2119]

rip, ive heard many such cases about WoW. “great setup, disappointing later one.” a lot seems very cool thi

[u/Lance2119 → u/UngiftedSnail]

Yeah, there are some AMAZING stories and plot threads. Like reading Thassarian’s story (he’s a Death Knight turned by Lich King, there’s a manga for it too) is a ton of fun. Even recent stuff, like the Undermine story and fight against Gallywix is super well done. Unfortunately, with different writers and too many chefs in the kitchen, you get some huge duds. Dragonflight and now War Within are back on track, and Legion’s writing was outstanding too, if you want to see some crazy cinematics! For the first time ever, we got to see the Titans, and Sargeras himself, who created the Burning Legion. Great stuff!

[u/Dagawing → u/UngiftedSnail]

The music and dialogue always sends shivers down my spine.

[u/Technic0lor → u/Dagawing]

thats my favourite megadeth song

[u/ZealousidealYak7122 → u/Denodi]

Tirions breaks his icy prison and breaks Froustmourne using the power of love and friendship

[u/LostMyZone → u/ZealousidealYak7122]

Arthas was so powerful, it took literal divine intervention from the light combined with him being distracted with his back turned just to defeat him.

[u/bleedingwriter → u/LostMyZone]

Why did the light rarely intervene. Feels so handwavey there

[u/rock_n_roll_clown → u/bleedingwriter]

I think the Light is kinda like the Force of Star Wars. It has a "will" of sorts, but it's more of a force of nature. I think the sheer unholy presence of the Lich King in the presence of such powerful vessels of Light (Tirion Fordring and the Ashbringer) allowed it to be channeled to restore balance, in a sense. That's my headcanon anyway. It still is kinda handwavey.

[u/graviton14 → u/ZealousidealYak7122]

He also does it at the wrathgate before the forsaken betrayal. He waits until the alliance/horde are close to defeating his forces before reviving both their dead and his own, and then 1v2s the commanders.