DM: *PREVIOUSLY, IN EQUESTRIA...* Well, actually, last time it was more like *"Far forward, in Equestria..."*
Fluttershy: Because the last "Previously" for us is still... Discord. But... I think we're ready to face it this time.
DM: I'm seriously glad to hear that.
Shining Armor: We got the gist of it. Some kind of godlike spirit of chaos, right?
DM: Played by my... D&D mentor, yes.
Twilight Sparkle: And you two are having a *wedding* in the middle of all this?
Princess Cadance: Can't stop love, haha!
Applejack: What did we eventually decide "happened" at the end of our previous in-story session? Because it was up in the air for a bit.
DM: Okay, so, the actual recap. <ahem> *PREVIOUSLY, IN EQUESTRIA...* The world started going topsy-turvy due to the release of the imprisoned god of chaos, Discord. He led the party through a series of trials designed, unfortunately, for one thing: Sowing the seeds of confrontation between the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Luckily, your friendship held together despite his... *our* efforts, but not before he managed to at least claim Ponyville as the chaos capital of the world. Thankfully, the Elements of Harmony have contained his influence somewhat. Even though there's a warp-field around the town, with some quick thinking you've managed to turn it into a pocket-dimension prison without him realizing yet. So it's mainly a matter of deciding when you're going to gather your strength and confront him. The world keeps turning, if a bit more chaotically.
Rainbow Dash: Wait, so, we don't have to jump through any more hoops to fight him? We can just go when we're ready?
DM: With ample warning that it's not going to be an easy battle, yes.
Rainbow Dash: I mean, I'll take it!
Dialing in difficulty is where the storytelling and game design of a tabletop campaign collides. By and large, everyone wants to feel like they worked for and earned their victory, but they also don't want to be kept away from the things they want to do. And it's pretty much akin to hitting a bullseye from orbit without feedback from and rapport with the players.
Or decide that the Big Bad is too powerful to ever fight, and the best that can be done is to sacrifice the little piece of the world in the Big Bad's immediate vicinity in order to seal the Big Bad off forever...or until some future party removes the seal.
Sephiroth awaits in the Northern Crater, and Meteor is falling but doesn't seem to be crashing any time soon. Better get that Knights of the Round materia while you can!
You jumped through the hoops of the Great Plateau to power up the Slate and get the Paraglider? Great. Calamity Ganon/Hyrule Castle is right there, go after it whenever you want, no more hoops. Is it filled to the gills with powerful enemies with powerful weapons, Guardians walking, flying and as turrets? Yes. You have 4 boss fights before the final boss but that's because you didn't go out to kill them individually before hand.
There is nothing stopping you from going there to face him besides your skill level/luck and your own sense of preparedness.
Chrono Trigger, too. "Good job bringing that guy back! Here's the path to fight the literal apocalypse if you want to, but let me tell you about these half dozen side quests you might want to do first to build your power and resolve your party members' personal issues."
Skyward Sword does it at the end too. The king of demons is revived using your childhood friend/love interest's spirit. You must defeat him quickly to save her and stop him from raining death and destruction upon the world!
But before all that, he's perfectly happy to sit there in his little pocket dimension and wait for you to get your shit together.
The original FF7, after saving Midgar from exploding, becomes this; you can hit the final dungeon whenever, or take a number of side quests for more gear and powers.
FF7: Machinabridged explicitly calls this out. After a rousing speech to get everyone on board with taking down Sephiroth:
"Alright! Then how about we take some time to finish up any side quests, resolve any unrelated issues, and pick up any sweet-ass items / weapons before this all comes to an end."
Grandia II has a section about 2/3rds through the game where the party (may) revisit a ruin in the middle of nowhere. The game actually states that the party may stay in that scenario as long as it likes and no time will pass in the rest of the game (but once you leave the setting, you are back on the railroad scripted game).
The nasty part is that the monsters in the ruins are DEADLY. About the only way to clear the ruin is to hit a refresh/save point, come into the ruin, sneak up on an enemy group (if they get initiative, you're dead), and unload all your strongest attacks. THEN go back to the refresh point to heal up before repeating on the next party.
You will NOT SURVIVE TWO encounters without using the refresh point!
I guess Rainbow has a more specific idea of what constitutes "hoops" than I do. Because any obstacle, such as a need to gain levels and/or allies, before having the means to fight Discord, seem like a "hoop" to be jumped through, at least to me. YMMV.
She already qualified it with "when we're ready", which implies gaining levels and allies. She's looking for anything beyond that, and is relieved to find there is nothing else - specifically, that the decision is under the party's control.
I do not agree that "when we're ready" necessarily implies in-game activities of that sort. At any rate, I did not parse the phrase as containing such an implication.
Not to say "when we're ready" can't include such an implication, on its own or in conjunction with other ways in which the party has to be ready to revisit the Discord arc. Hence my concession that YMMV.
That implies you find the actual act of playing the game to be tedious and not worth the effort. If not, I don't think you're using the term "jumping through hoops" properly. If so... I'm not sure why you would play in the first place.
I think the intention is that they're going to have to get ready either way, it's just a matter of whether there's any locked doors in the way that need keys.
Oh, that's easy. Your average Karen is neither polite nor reasonable once identified as a Karen -- they only start that way when they think they can get what they want with a kind word.