Bigger Bad: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Note that despite the name, this is ''not'' a subtrope of [[Big Bad]]. A Bigger Bad is a more threatening force of evil in the setting and overshadows it, but due to mindlessness, imprisonment, lack of interest, or other factors it is disconnected on a personal level from the main plot, which is caused by the [[Big Bad]]. A being ''can'' be a [[Big Bad]] in one story and later be [[Kicked Upstairs]] to Bigger Bad (or the reverse), however. Contrast: [[The Man Behind the Man]], where a villain directly tied into the story is revealed to be controlling or manipulating the apparent [[Big Bad]]. In this case, the Man behind the Man is the actual hidden Big Bad ('''not''' a Bigger Bad).

* The main antagonist of ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', {{spoiler|the ever-adorable Kyubey}}, plays a role like this in the spin-off ''[[Puella Magi Oriko Magica]]''. In another spin-off, ''[[Puella Magi Kazumi Magica]]'', {{spoiler|he decides to [[Hijacked by Ganon|emulate Ganon.]]}}

* In a similar function to ''Sailor Moon's'' Chaos, Black Hole of ''[[Pretty Cure All Stars]] DX 3'' was this for not only the separate villains, but for those who showed up in even the team up movies. Note, though, that it only applied for the All-Stars movie series.

* {{spoiler|Jesei}} is spoken of in the third to last episode of ''[[Inukami!]]'' and only after that does he affect the plot directly. The rest of the time he was just an observer and instigator of an unknown part of another character's backstory.

* Each of the three completed ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' series has one:

* [[Eldritch Abomination|The Ogdru Jahad]] tend to be behind most villains in [[Hellboy (comics)|Hellboy]] stories.

* The other-dimensional demon Zom is an almost literal example of this: When insanely powerful evil sorceress Umar comes to Earth, [[Doctor Strange]] uncorks (almost literally) something which is even far worse than she is to scare her off. It works perfectly. And the consequences of that turn out a lot worse than Umar would have been. ''Groan''.

* The Liege Maximo, founder of Jhiaxus's Decepticons (and, possibly, ''all'' Decepticons) in Marvel's ''[[Transformers|Transformers: Generation 2]]''.

** Later, Unicron, [[Eldritch Abomination]] and Satan-figure, to the franchise as a whole.

* [[Power Rangers Turbo|Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie]] villain Maligore was the creature Divatox spent most of the movie trying to release. Until her efforts paid off, Maligore was unable to do anything to directly affect the plot.

* Weird example from ''[[Sky High]]'' in the form of {{spoiler|Sue Tenney, the long-gone original Royal Pain, who came up with the [[Evil Plan]] the [[Legacy Character|current Pain]] is trying to implement}}. If that doesn't seem weird to you, keep in mind that {{spoiler|the original and current Royal Pains are technically ''the same person''}}.

== Literature ==

** Sauron himself as the Necromancer during ''[[The Hobbit]]'' - he definitely exists and will later be revealed as the canonical ultimate evil, but has no direct role in the story's plot, except as a device to give Gandalf a reason to leave the group for chapters at a time to go get information on him.

* The Black Council in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', who have been behind everything, Books one to thirteen inclusive, and are big enough that it warrants [[Celestial Paragons and Archangels|Uriel's]] direct (if sneaky and subtle) intervention.

** Also, Crayak is a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] who plays [[The Chessmaster]] throughout the galaxy to encourage mass genocides of entire species for no reason; in a series full of shades of grey he's one of only a handful of characters who qualify as totally evil. However, he only becomes directly involved in the story a handful of times and isn't terribly invested in it. The implication is that he and his [[Evil Counterpart|Good Counterpart]], the Ellimist will continue their long "game" millennia after the Animorphs' series has ended.

* The Black Thing in ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]''. IT is the [[Big Bad]], and the Man with the Red Eyes may be ITs [[The Dragon|Dragon]]. [[The Movie]] states that the Black Thing was created by IT, making IT the biggest villain of that adaptation.

* [[The Riftwar Cycle|Nalar]], Raymond E. Feist's God of Evil, is slowly revealed to fill this role, and being imprisoned in another dimension, can do little more than be the influence for the various Big Bads in his books. Leso Varen, his minion, fills this role as well (making Nalar an Even Bigger Bad).

* In ''[[Percy Jackson & the Olympians|Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' Kronos is the [[Big Bad]]. But in its [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Heroes of Olympus]]'' Kronos' mother starts to awake call her last children, the giants, to [[Disproportionate Retribution|kill her grandchildren]] for hurting her evil baby boy. [[Sarcasm Mode|Gee what a nice lady]].

* In [[The Chronicles of Prydain]], Arawn Death-Lord arguably plays this role in the first 2 books. By Book 5 he's just the [[Big Bad]]. There's also Gwyn the Hunter's unnamed lord. Even Gwydion doesn't know his name or identity, but believes that he's greater in power than Arawn.

* In ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', {{spoiler|Tash, the chief Calormene god,}} plays this role {{spoiler|until ''[[The Last Battle]]''. Interestingly, we don't even know he's a real being until he enters the story and steps down to [[Big Bad]] status.}}

* {{spoiler|The Warren of Chaos}} in ''[[The Malazan Book of the Fallen]],'' chiefly opposed by [[Badass Long Hair|Anomander Rake]] and [[Dark Is Not Evil|the Warren of Darkness]].

* The post-[[World War III]] novel ''[[Malevil]]'' has Vilmain, a rogue military commander with a small roving army. Most of the attention and conflict is focused on Fulbert, a [[Sinister Minister]] abusing a local town. Vilmain's forces simply hadn't entered their region for most of the book but they're the real evil powerhouse when they march in.

* Dominator in the first [[Black Company]] book. [[Black and Gray Morality|It's hard to tell]] [[Gray and Gray Morality|who exactly is supposed to be the]] [[Big Bad]] of it, but no one wants him to get free from his [[Sealed Evil in a Can|imprisonment]], because he's much worse than any of them. {{spoiler|He actually sets a plot to make all parties defeat each other and set him free, but it's hijacked by Soulcatcher.}} One may argue that in ''Shadows Linger'' {{spoiler|he gets upgraded to [[Big Bad]]}}, but with {{spoiler|The Company turning on Lady, it might be said that she takes the role, leaving him to be the [[Bigger Bad]] again}}. In ''The White Rose'' {{spoiler|he starts as a [[Bigger Bad]] and slowly takes the role of [[Big Bad]] from the Lady as the story progress}}. There is also being imprisoned under {{spoiler|The Old Father Tree}}, from ''The White Rose'', who is apparently Dominator's counterpart from acient times {{spoiler|and tries to break free at one point, becoming new [[Bigger Bad]] once Dominator gets promoted to [[Big Bad]] status}}.

* The Bellon-Tockland Institute in [[Dean Koontz|Dean Koontz's]] ''[[False Memory]]'', a semi-fascistic psychology think tank. The main villain of the book, [[Meaningful Name|Mark Ahriman]], is a psychologist who develops a form of mind control and employs it both on behalf of the Institute and for his own deviant amusement; the trouble he causes for the main characters stems from {{spoiler|his grudge against the stepfather of two of them, another academic who spammed Amazon with with negative reviews of Ahriman's work}}. Although we do see Ahriman manipulate a patient into {{spoiler|biting off the nose of the U.S. President}} as a "message", and the Institute's connections are used in the [[Backstory]] to explain how he has escaped any accountability for his murderous pasttime, the Institute's plans have no direct bearing on the novel's events and [[Villain with Good Publicity|they are ultimately cleared]] [[Karma Houdini|of any connection to Ahriman]] after {{spoiler|the protagonists break his control on them and another one of his unstable pawns randomly kills him}}.

== Live-Action TV ==

** While Angel acts as [[Big Bad]] in Season 2, he seeks to release a [[Bigger Bad]] called Acathla in order to destroy the world.

** ''Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8'' has out big badded all the big bads with {{spoiler|the next universe trying to end ours so the natural cycle of universes can continue. It fails, but makes Angel kill Giles.}}

** From his own show, ''[[Angel]]'', from season 1 to 5 the law firm of Wolfram & Hart play the role of Big Bad; however the unseen Senior Partners are always portrayed as the Bigger Bad.

* In ''[[Smallville]]'''s fifth season, [[Robotic Psychopath|Brainiac]] is the [[Big Bad]]. He's behind every nasty thing that goes down that season, and is one of the greatest threats Clark ever encounters. His goal, however, is to [[Sealed Evil in a Can|release]] General Zod, a [[Bigger Bad]] who was trapped in the Phantom Zone on Jor-El's orders. Since Zod can't do anything--and in fact is unable to even communicate with Braniac--it's very much this trope. General Zod's status as the series' [[Bigger Bad]] is further emphasized due to him being the ultimate source of the Big Bads from almost all later seasons; his son Doomsday and his younger clone Major Zod. Darkseid steps in as the final villain of the series in the last season, though.

* It is implied that the [[Mega Corp|Blue Sun Corporation]] was going to end up like this for ''[[Firefly]]'', essentially being [[The Man Behind the Man|the true power behind]] [[The Empire|the Alliance]]. [[Too Good to Last|We all know the rest of that story...]]

== Tabletop Games ==

* This is the role the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils]] and [[God of Evil|Gods Of Evil]] in the [[Dungeons and Dragons]] world are likely to play in most games.

** Averted with the Ebon Dragon, who would desperately ''like'' to convince everyone that there is evil and he is the ultimate source of it, but ultimately he's just kind of pathetic.

* The [[Physical God|Exarches]] from ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'', who stormed the supernatural realms and broke reality in the distant past. Together all 11 of them form the main villains of the setting, responsible for both the [[Cosmic Horror Story|Abyss]] and the depressing state of the world.

** The Wyrm was this for the now defunct ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]].''

* The Chaos Gods serve this role in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] and [[Warhammer 40000]] (they'd probably be the [[Big Bad]] if they weren't so focused on the struggle for dominance among themselves).

* ''[[Blue Rose]]'' has the seven Exarchs of Shadow, though it's never stated explicitly whether they actually exist or are just a myth.

* The Darklords in [[Ravenloft]] can play this role, or even the Dark Powers themselves depending on what type of game the GM is runing.

== Videogames ==

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' has several ones that the [[Big Bad]] wants to unseal or resurrect:

** Ganon in ''[[Zelda II: The Adventure of Link|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'' is the force motivating all the other bad guys rather than an actual character in the game but he didn't actually tell anyone to do anything. Who the Big Bad in Zelda II is, is up for debate.

* Cloud of Darkness from ''[[Final Fantasy III]]'' and Necron from ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' are both world-devouring final bosses who [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|don't actually affect the plot before their last-minute appearances]].

* Enuo from ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' was the evil wizard who was originally responsible for {{spoiler|[[World Sundering|the world being split into two separate dimensions]]}}, and though he is never seen in-game {{spoiler|due to the fact that he's been dead for a thousand years}}, he is implied to have been a much more fearsome villain than {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Exdeath]]}}, requiring the use of {{spoiler|the [[Sword of Plot Advancement|Twelve Legendary Weapons]]}} to defeat. A sub-plot involving his return and a battle with him appears as a bonus area in [[FF 5]] Advance.

** Professor Hojo is the person responsible for infecting Sephiroth with Jenova cells, and the reason Jenova is even a threat again in the game proper. He's also why Cloud has amnesia. Various other games in the [[The Verse]] elaborate on his deeds and feature him as a [[Big Bad]] in his own right. He comes close to forming a [[Bigger Bad]] [[Big Bad Duumvirate|Duumvirate]] with Jenova.

* Hector is like this in ''[[Yggdra Union]]'' and ''[[Knights in The Nightmare]]''; he is the [[Big Bad]] proper of ''[[Riviera: The Promised Land]]''.

* In the ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' series, as revealed near the end of the first game, {{spoiler|the dead god Bhaal}} pushed the plot into movement in the backstory, but being dead, takes no active part in the story of the games other than as semi-impersonal power scattered among {{spoiler|his mortal children}}. All the three [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] in the series are after this power in some way or another. (Of course, since [[Forgotten Realms|the setting]] is an established [[Shared Universe]] -- [[The Multiverse|multiverse]], [[Planescape|even]] --, there are plenty of other at least equally powerful Bigger Bads in the setting in general. You can even [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|kill]] [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|one]] [[Bonus Boss|in passing]] later on, and [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?|chat]] with [[God of Evil|another]]. But the above holds in the context of what's relevant to the main story.)

* ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' has {{spoiler|The Profound Darkness. The series protagonist's struggle against the Dark Force/[[Spell My Name with an "S"|Falz]], the recurring [[Big Bad]], basically amounts to [[Fighting a Shadow]] of a fraction of the Profound Darkness' own evil and hatred. DF himself is a threat to the entire universe, so nobody wants to find out what the Profound Darkness can do if left unchecked.}}

* The really nasty, powerful vampires and other beings referenced in ''[[Tsukihime]]'' never really progress beyond that. Roa may be the big bad, but he wasn't even invited to the 27 dead apostle ancestors, the top five or so of which could destroy the world.

* In ''[[Resident Evil]]'', Ozwell E. Spencer is one of the founders of the Umbrella Corporation, who murdered his rivals to gain total control. {{spoiler|He was also into world domination.}} However, he never interacts with or even takes notice of the protagonists, and the various biohazards of the games are instigated by underlings with their own motives.

* Kalibaar's Master from ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] 4'' is set up to be this. But it's never really explained what happened to him.

* In ''[[Opoona]]'' the [[Big Bad]] is {{spoiler|an [[Artifact of Doom]] and the sages under [[The Corruption]]. Said artifact was created by The Dark Emperor, the setting's ultimate [[Big Bad]], however he never appears in the game proper.}}

* In ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Chronicles of Sorrow]]'', Dracula is this, since the only time he ever comes out to play is a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].

* In the first ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' game, the [[Big Bad]] is a mechanical owl named Clockwerk. but in the second game Clockwerk becomes the Bigger Bad because he is now destroyed, shut down, and seperated into several pieces, but still a very dangerous potential threat if he were to be rebuilt (which is what the villains of the game are trying to do).

** Not quite. Most of the bad guys are just using pieces of Clockwerk for their own small-time schemes. It's only Arpeggio that intends to fully rebuild Clockwerk to {{spoiler|take Clockwerk's body for himself to be immortal. Until Neila backstabs him and takes Clockwerk's body for herself.}}

** And in the remakes, {{spoiler|it's possible to encounter and battle Giovanni, but you need an event Celebi to do so. You travel back through time to the period where Team Rocket was taking over Goldenrod City so you can fight him while your past self fights Team Rocket.}}

* {{spoiler|Darkrai}} from the ''[[Video Games/Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers|Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers]]'' games (as mentioned above, Primal Dialga isn't the villain).

* ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' has this in spades. First, we have [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] Copy X and the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Four Guardians]] at the helm of the plot. After the first game, the [[Big Bad]] is defeated and [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|Phantom]] has pulled a bungled [[Suicide Attack]]. The remaining three Guardians go on the warpath with Zero and the Resistance, which causes its new leader, [[Knight Templar|Elpizo]], to snap and use the powers of the [[Bigger Bad]], the Dark Elf, for vengeance. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg: the next game introduces [[The Chessmaster|Dr. Weil]], who actually ''created'' the Dark Elf ''and'' shows up with his own ultra-[[Nigh Invulnerable]] version of Zero: [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Omega]]. [[It Got Worse|It gets much, MUCH worse.]] Weil rebuilds Copy X and uses him as an [[Unwitting Pawn]], along with the children of the Dark Elf, Crea and Prea, who never intentionally did anything evil because ''they're mere infants''. When his first world domination scheme fails, he comes back to power with [[Kill Sat|Ragnarok]], a space station armed with a [[Wave Motion Gun]] with the actively-demonstrated power to cause mass-scale destruction- even the [[Endofthe World As We Know It]], plus his own squad of personal Reploid warriors, led by [[The Dragon|Craft]]. In short, the title of [[Bigger Bad]] changes hands with each new game, save for the conclusion.

** ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' has Model W as a driving antagonistic force, though individual games focus more on their direct [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]. ''Advent'' implies that Model W is {{spoiler|Dr. Weil, [[Back From the Dead]].}}

* Similar to the ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' example: [[Eldritch Abomination|Lord English]] from ''[[Homestuck]]'' is the most powerful character in the setting, but remained [[The Unseen]] until ''very'' recently, despite a great impact (mostly in the form of his chief servant, [[The Chessmaster|Doc Scratch]]) on the plot. The [[Big Bad]] is [[Physical God]] Jack Noir, stab-happy treacherous Archagent, who the protagonists have much more motivation to destroy.

** On the other hand: {{spoiler|Jack rebelled because John prototyped the clown doll; he got the clown doll because of the clown scribblings on his wall; he scribbled them because of the doll that Gamzee rage'd into existence next to his dream self; Gamzee did it because Dave sent him the prerelease of Miracles; Dave had it because Betty Crocker 'tweeted' him it; Betty Crocker is Her Imperial Condescension, under the employ of Lord English. So, LE MAY have masterminded the whole thing. Maybe.}}

* In [[Sluggy Freelance]] the Demon King of the Dimension of Pain generally plays this part in Dimension of Pain arcs. The demon lord Horribus serves as [[Big Bad]]. {{spoiler|Presumably Psykosis will be replacing him in future Dimension of Pain appearances.}}

* [[Brawl in the Family|Cocoon Academy]] reveals that, behind all the villainous plans Nintendo villains have come up with was {{spoiler|[[Kirby|Dark Matter]]}}, who possessed them all.}}

== Web Original ==

** Also, the "Cloaked Mystery Villain" from the Japanese opening of ''[[Transformers Animated]]''.

* In the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' animated series, one episode featured [[Big Bad]] Venger's master, an insanely powerful [[Eldritch Abomination]] that appears and starts destroying the entire realm. Even at the end, when it's banished with the combined efforts of Dungeon Master, Venger, and the Heroes, DM still remarks that what they've accomplished is but a temporary victory.