Bastard Understudy: Difference between revisions

 

'''Spoilers Ahead!'''

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Code Geass]]'': This is the ''modus operandi'' of the [[Big Bad]] [[Social Darwinist]] Emperor. By raising a family of Bastard Understudies and then encouraging them to plot and scheme against each other- and even himself- over the throne, the Emperor hopes to produce a strong leader for Britannia. If [[Magnificent Bastard|Lelouch]] is anything to go by, his methods are quite effective.

** {{spoiler|And the trope itself plays out with Schneizel and Charles. Scheizel prepares to assume command of Britannia and leaves Charles on his own. However, Lelouch killing Charles forces Schneizel to go into hiding.}}

* In ''[[Naruto]]'' [[Enigmatic Minion|Kabuto]] and [[Rival Turned Evil|Sasuke]] represent the two different types of this: the latter learns all he can from Orochimaru and then "kills" him, while the former, after witnessing Orochimaru's death, has become obsessed with carrying on and perfecting his legacy.

** To be fair to Sasuke, in this particular case he acted out of principle- he might have planned on dumping Oro from early on, but he only ''killed'' him because he saw Orochimaru as an [[Complete Monster|evil]], [[For the Evulz|sadistic]] [[The Sociopath|psychopath]] who had [[Motive Decay|abandoned whatever higher purposes he once pursued]], every bit as bad as the mass murdering brother he was training to kill. Which is exactly right, despite the irony that Sasuke himself has currently begun turning into exactly that type of person.

* In the Hentai ''Bible Black Origins'', Kozono Nami is this to Takashiro, the original leader of the coven of witches. When Takashiro is rendered comatose, Nami uses the position to take over. When Takashiro tries to get the coven to disband, Nami completes her usurpation.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Inverted in ''[[The Metabarons]]'', where the heroes have this as a tradition.

* In [[The DCU]], during ''Rogues Revenge'', Zoom freed Inertia to train him into torturing superheroes on the grounds that it would make them better heroes. At the end of the series, Inertia murders the [[Infant Immortality|Weather Wizard's child]] and calls himself ''Kid Zoom''. Zoom objects because that would not improve them. Inertia says he just wants to hurt them and reverts Zoom back to the cripple without superspeed. (The Rogues then kill him.)

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': The Sith embody this trope to a point where it has become one of the fundamental aspects of their order. When an apprentice has reached the end of his training, he has to kill his master. If the master dies, he was no longer able to be a Sith master. If the apprentice dies in the attempt, he was not worthy to become a master. If the apprentice doesn't try, he's unworthy of being an apprentice, and is removed to make room for a new one.

* Used in ''[[High School Musical]] 3''. [[Alpha Bitch|Sharpey]] gets an assistant who literally becomes her understudy in the play. Near the end she tries to take advantage of one of Sharpey's failed plans:

'''Tiara Gold''': That's called acting. You should try it sometime. }}

* Vaako from ''[[The Chronicles of Riddick]]'' fits this trope. He is the Lord Marshal's second-in-command, but thanks in part to his wife's promptings, {{spoiler|takes his opportunity to betray him in his final fight with Riddick, for the good of the Necromonger faith.}}

* ''[[The Mechanic]]''. Charles Bronson plays [[Professional Killer|the assassin for the mob]], who grooms Jan-Michael Vincent's character (Steve McKenna, son of a dead mob boss) as his backup. Eventually, Steve decides he'd rather take over the main job. It doesn't end well.

* Jigsaw from the ''[[Saw]]'' movies has passed on the secrets of his lethal Games to at least two such Understudies, {{spoiler|Amanda and Detective Hoffman}}. Subverted in that neither of Jigsaw's apprentices actually share his make-your-choice philosophy: The first can't stand to leave any survivors to cope with their trauma after her Games, while the second just likes torturing people.

 

== Literature ==

* In the ''[[Dune]]'' books, Feyd-Rautha Harkonen serves as the Bastard Understudy to Baron Harkonen. Feyd-Rautha actually launches at least one assassination-attempt against his uncle, but fails primarily due to bad luck. Notable in that he never really gets around to usurping the throne - the Baron dies by the Gom Jabbar before he gets the chance.

** And Feyd dies in a duel against Paul soon after anyway.

* In ''[[Stardust (novel)|Stardust]]'', the seven princes of Stormhold are ''always'' killing each other to strengthen their claim on the crown. Septimus is clearly the champion at this, and the reigning [[Magnificent Bastard]] of the book/film. So it should come as no surprise that Tertius, his much older brother, makes an attempt on his life. And fails, miserably. While Primus, the oldest and wisest, spends most of his time avoiding Septimus.

* ''[[L.A. Confidential]]'': Bud White becomes an enforcer for {{spoiler|[[Magnificent Bastard]] Dudley Smith}}, learns a few tricks on the way then turns on his mentor.

* [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Sansa Stark's]] time with Petyr Baelish has her taking on this role. After being rescued from Cercei Lannister and whisked away from King's Landing, she spends the next few months at the Eyrie, posing as Littlefinger's illegitimate daughter. She spends half her time entertaining Littlefinger's guests and agents, along with babysitting seven-year-old Robert Arryn, whose status as Lord of the Eyrie gives Baelish, as his stepfather, titular rule of the region. The other half, she spends learning from Littlefinger in what could only be described as [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastardry 101]], as he walks her through his plans to not only take over the Eyrie and the Riverlands (which were given to him by Cercei earlier), but to reclaim the North in Sansa's name (as with all her brothers dead or missing, she is the heir of the Stark family) through a complicated arranged marriage, which would make him the lord of about 60% of Westero's landmass. She might have problems with some of the [[I Did What I Had to Do|messier]] aspects of the plan, but considering where [[Broken Bird|she was before]], she's coming along nicely.

 

* Believe it or not, [[Big Bad]] Astronema from ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'' fits this. The [[Psycho Rangers]] were designed more to drain energy from Dark Specter than to destroy the rangers themselves, thus letting Astronema take over as Queen of Evil. Several scenes from this mini-arc consist of Dark Specter imploring loyal Astronema to find the traitor draining his power, never realizing that she's looking him right in the eyes and lying to his face.... And all of this was '''after''' he went to the trouble of luring her back to his headquarters and using cybernetic implants to brainwash away her [[Heel Face Turn]]!

** Apparently taking away her ability to feel positive emotions didn't make her more reliable. Go figure.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story, ''The Caves of Androzani'', the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]'s secretary deposes her boss, taking over his businesses.

** And exactly the same thing happens in "Dalek".

* Richard Smith-Jones to [[Punny Name|Holly Day]] in [[Slings and Arrows]]. Although he didn't so much usurp her as {{spoiler|tell her to piss off, after his [[Heel Face Turn]]. [[It Got Worse|It didn't stick]]}}.

* Actor Masato Uchiyama has played two such characters in the ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' franchise: Yoshio Kobayashi/the Rabbit Orphnoch in ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz|Faiz]]'' and Shun Kageyama/Kamen Rider Punch Hopper in ''[[Kamen Rider Kabuto|Kabuto]]''.

* In season 2 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Spike is basically stuck pretending to be a loyal mercenary to [[The Chosen One|the prophesised leader of vampiredom]] until, after all of ''one episode'' he gets bored and burns the kid into ash.

** Then has to spend the second half of the season playing the role again to Angelus (this time while waiting to heal and then pretending to still be crippled until he found his moment to strike).

* In C-drama ''The Holy Pearl'', a loose adaptation of [[Inuyasha]], [[The Dragon|Hu]] [[Lady of Black Magic|Ji]] (Kagura-Expy) is this to Naraku/Ghost King. She resents being subordinate to him and spends a considerable part of the series trying to arrange his demise. [[The Dog Bites Back|And eventually almost succeeds.]]

 

* In ''The Lion In Winter'', Henry II deliberately encourages conflict amongst his sons to toughen them up for their role as leaders. He specifically grooms his inept, youngest son John to take over as his successor (and has a [[Heroic BSOD]] when he discovers the boy scheming to usurp him with one of his other sons and the King of France.)

* Perhaps taken quite literally, {{spoiler|Puckeridge}} in [[Tom Stoppard]]'s play ''The Real Inspector Hound'' fits this trope, as well as that of [[Magnificent Bastard]]. He's established to be {{spoiler|the subordinate theatre critic to both Higgs and Moon, the latter of whom is reviewing a bastard child of ''The Mousetrap'' because Higgs is missing. Eventually, Puckeridge manipulates events so that Higgs is the (really) dead body on stage, and both Moon and rival critic from another paper, Birdboot, are both dead.}}

 

== Video Games ==

* Video Game Example: ''X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse'' casts Mr. Sinister in this role to that game's [[Big Bad]], Apocalypse. With [[The Starscream|predictable results.]]

** Or so he seems...

* ''[[Advance Wars]] 2: Black Hole Rising'' {{spoiler|Hawke ends up killing Sturm at the end of Campaign.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

* Happens a few times in ''[[Survivor Fan Characters]]'': in Season 3, [[The Big Bad|Baxter]] took [[The Chick|Hope]] under his wing and taught her the joy of [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|backstabbing her closest friends]]; in Season 5, Jessica taught Marius the ropes of Survivor, and after the merge, he [[The Starscream|organised her blindside]], and eventually won the game; also happened in Season 6 with [[The Chessmaster|Vinnie]] and Sin, but this didn't go as far as the previous examples.

 

== Web Original ==

* The PFY from the ''[[Bastard Operator From Hell]]'' saga - though the titular Bastard has ''[[Klingon Promotion|raised him to do this]]'', and ''always'' gets his revenge for each and every betrayal. Ah, kids these days...

 

== Western Animation ==

* In the ''[[Beast Wars]]'' episode "Possession", Blackarachnia betrays Megatron for Starscream (yeah, that [[The Starscream|Starscream]]), convinces him to take her under his wing, and then double-crosses him for Megatron at the end of the episode. Starscream can't catch a break.

*** The Galaxy Force AKA Cybertron version of Starscream IS this however. And he succeeded in double-crossing Megatron until the writers brought him back.

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'': [[Evil Twin|Thailog]] ''was'' this to [[Magnificent Bastard|Xanatos]], but by the time he makes his first onscreen appearance, he's already decided that he's learned all he can and is ready to strike out on his own as a villain in his own right. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|He does nearly kill Xanatos, Goliath, Elisa, and Sevarius as a parting gift]].

* [[Magnificent Bastard|Princess Azula]] from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' seems to have been this to [[Big Bad|her father]], but ultimately with a couple of twists- first, that she's already smarter than he is (or at least more willing to use smarts instead of force) by her first appearance, and second in that the finale proves her to be [[Daddy's Little Villain|genuinely loyal to him]]. Thus many [[Fan Wank|Fan Theories]] of her being [[The Starscream]]/ [[Dragon Ascendant]] were [[Jossed]].

 

== Real Life ==

* Ernst Rohm and Heinrich Himmler served Hitler faithfully, but Hitler never had any illusions what they would do if they had the chance. When the Third Reich folded, Himmler attempted to surrender to the Allies. Rohm was already dead, on Hitler's orders.

** Actually, Hitler trusted Himmler above nearly all of his other subordinates, even calling him "''der treue Heinrich''" (the loyal Heinrich). Himmler's betrayal was probably [[Et Tu, Brute?|what pushed him over the edge]] - it certainly resulted in an epic [[Villainous Breakdown]], according to those who were there. [[Downfall (film)|Der Untergang]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3dvFGFybA4&feature=related expertly reconstructed it.]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Gambit Index]]

[[Category:Sidekick]]

[[Category:Villains]]