Dragon with an Agenda: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A
Most commonly, he and the [[Big Bad]] have a mutually profitable alliance, and the [[Big Bad]] just happens to be more powerful of the two. If he's also influencing the [[Big Bad]]'s plans, then he's at the same time the man in front of the man and [[The Man Behind the Man]]. [[Dragon-in-Chief]] is when [[The Dragon]] is actually the more dangerous of the pair, by a significant margin. It is not unknown for him to have taken on service for his own purposes and fooled the [[Big Bad]] into thinking he's subordinate.
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Archduke Gorgon from ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' and ''[[Great Mazinger]]''. Theoretically he allied himself with [[Big Bad]] Dr. Hell to help him to destroy Mazinger-Z. But his real goal was {{spoiler|watching over Hell and betraying him at the right time [[Xanatos Gambit|to get him killed (in the GosakuOta manga he literally backstabbed him) and Mazinger-Z destroyed]].}} [[Magnificent Bastard|He succeeded on all fronts]].
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** Kabuto, because {{spoiler|after Orochimaru was defeated by Sasuke, he ingrained some of his master's remains into his own body, and decided to help Madara in the 4th Ninja War}}.
* Carrossea Doon from ''[[Madlax]]'' is only with Enfant to {{spoiler|find and protect female lead Margaret Burton, who's been targeted by the group}}, rather than for [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Monday]]'s insane plans.
* {{spoiler|Wei}} to Amber in ''[[Darker
* In the anime adaptation of ''[[Kirby:
* Nico Robin in ''[[One Piece]]'' starts out as a Dragon, but is later on revealed to have her own plans. After Crocodile's defeat, she [[Heel Face Turn|joins Luffy's crew]].
* Saten in ''[[NEEDLESS]]'', who is introduced as one of Simeon's Elite Four, yet in a few scenes he "accidentally" helped out the good guys as they infiltrated Simeon's HQ. It turns out that {{spoiler|Saten was another survivor of the Adam Project who wanted Arclight dead so he could take over, but neither he nor his bosses counted on a revived Arclight coming back and absorbing him.}}
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* ''[[Gundam ZZ]]'''s Glemmy Toto starts out as a [[Villain of the Week]], eventually graduating to a position as [[Big Bad|Haman Khan]]'s right-hand man. While the two of them share the goal of recreating the glory of Zeon, Haman intends to do it herself. Glemmy, on the other hand, seeks to reinstate the Zabi dictatorship, as {{spoiler|represented by himself}}.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* In the [[Green Lantern]]: [[Sinestro Corps War]] story arc, every major baddie had a different agenda.
** The Anti-Monitor's goal is simple - [[Omnicidal Maniac|to wipe out every single thing in the matter multiverse.]] Nice when a villain has such a clear focus on what they want, isn't it?
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* Mystique practically ''defines'' this trope. Her betraying the boss in charge is almost expected at this point, such as when {{spoiler|she killed Mr. Sinister in a [[Batman Gambit]] to save Rouge's life.}}
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* ''[[Past Sins]]'' has an interesting twist on the concept; the [[Big Bad]] is an extremely [[Reluctant Monster]] forced into the role, where [[The Dragon]] expects an [[Omnicidal Maniac]].▼
== Fanfic ==▼
▲* [[Past Sins]] has an interesting twist on the concept; the [[Big Bad]] is an extremely [[Reluctant Monster]] forced into the role, where [[The Dragon]] expects an [[Omnicidal Maniac]].
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]''/''[[Jem]]'' crossover fancomic ''[[Rich's Comix Blog|Outrage]]'' reveals that Eric Raymond's toady Techrat was actually one of these.
* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', the Raleka have a completely different agenda than {{spoiler|Brox and Co.}}, but they have to work together to take the Vasyn pieces from the four.
* In ''[[Ponies Make War]]'', Nihilus serves King Titan with the intention of betraying him the moment she secures the Elements of Harmony. [[Big Good|Princess]] [[The Chessmaster|Celestia]] anticipated this from the start, and actually helped to ''encourage'' it.
* Shenzi from ''[[The Lion King]]'' has an agenda. As the Matriarch of the hyena clan, who the [[Big Bad]] Scar used to keep the Pride Lands under control, she seemed to just want freedom, power and food for her clan.
* In ''[[Con Air]]'', Cameron Poe asks black supremacist Diamond Dog why he's content to be second in command to white Big Bad Cyrus Grissom. Dog replies that while his long term agenda is vastly different from that of Cyrus, he needs to escape before he can get back to it - going along with Cyrus is "a means to an end".
* In ''[[Die Hard]]'', Hans' top henchman Karl's
* The ''[[Twilight]]: Eclipse'' movie seems to do this to Jane, implying that she will allow the Cullens' deaths without Aro's knowledge. This makes more sense than in the book, where Aro wants Edward and Alice to join his side but nevertheless is willing to let Victoria's army kill them.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* Galadan Wolflord in ''[[The Fionavar Tapestry]]''. Rakoth, the [[Big Bad]], is a pretty standard dark god/ [[Evil Overlord]] who is out for world domination, but Galadan wants to destroy the world because he was [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|driven mad by the death of his love]], and he views Rakoth as a convenient weapon to help accomplish this. Obviously these goals are mutually exclusive, but it's implied that Rakoth knows all about Galadan's plans and does nothing simply because he knows the Wolflord isn't powerful enough to be a threat to him.
* Per [[Word of God]], [[Magnificent Bastard|Sauron]] only worked with [[God of Evil|Morgoth]] in [[The Silmarillion]] to advance his own ends- namely, to create perfect order by turning the world into a giant totalitarian state. As Morgoth's goals were, essentially, to take over the world so he could say "mine" before [[Omnicidal Maniac|blowing it up]], it's very likely that an [[Enemy Civil War]] would have broken out had the bad guys ''won''. Fortunately for Sauron, Morgoth went down first, allowing him to graduate to [[Big Bad]] in [[The Lord of the Rings]].
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* In [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]'', John Dread is this to [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Felix Jongleur. Jongleur's [[Evil Plan]] is focused on [[Immortality Seeker|living forever]], and he's trained the [[Ax Crazy]] [[Serial Killer]] Dread as a [[Psycho for Hire]] to go after his physical opponents. Dread is far, far more ambitions than Jongleur realizes, however, and is simply biding his time, waiting for a moment of weakness to take over. And he does indeed, deposing Jongleur as master of Otherland and embarking on a [[A God Am I|godlike orgy]] of [[Sugar Apocalypse|virtual destruction]].
* On the good guy side we get Vimes playing this role to Vetinari, maybe. Most of the time Vimes appears to be just a good little dragon, but he does sometimes have a different agenda, or at least a different motivation. Depending on how you look at it; technically, they both want what's best for Ankh-Morpork, but they ''do'' often differ on what exactly that means.
* In [[David Eddings]]' [[The Malloreon]], the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Demon Lords Mordja and Nahaz]] work for [[The Big Bad|Zandramas]] and [[A God Am I|Urvon]] solely so that they can seize the [[Artifact of Doom|Sardion]] from them in their moment of triumph and then drag them into hell. Urvon's other Dragon, [[Evil Sorceror|Harakan]]/[[Dark Messiah|Mengha]] is also a
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[The Phoenix on the Sword]]", Ascalante. He was summoned to help the conspirators, and in his first appearance, comments on how his tools think he is their tool.
* Drake from ''[[Gone (novel)]]''. A psychopathic [[Complete Monster]], he serves as [[Big Bad]] [[The Sociopath|Caine's]] top enforcer, but it's apparent from his interior monologues that he's just helping Caine in hopes that Caine and Sam will kill each other. Although he probably would've turned on Caine as soon as they no longer had mutual goals, {{spoiler|Caine tried to kill him after Drake gave [[Dark Chick|Diana]] near-fatal injuries, which caused Drake to switch over to [[Bigger Bad|The Gaiaphage.]]}}
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
* In the
▲== Live-Action TV ==
▲* In the ''[[V-2009|2009 V-remake]]'' S1 finale, we find out that {{spoiler|Marcus definitely seems to have an agenda different from Anna's}}.
* In ''[[Angel]]'' the incorporeal demon Sahjhan tried to use Holtz as his dragon by offering him vengeance against Darla and Angel. However Sahjhan's true goal was actually to either prevent the birth of Connor, Angel and Darla's unborn son, or kill him as a child. Sahjhan quickly grew frustrated with Holtz's focus on punishing the vampires instead of simply killing them as quickly as possible i.e. before Darla gave birth. And then Holtz decided that ''stealing'' Angel's son and raising him as his own would be a more fitting punishment, at which point Sahjhan totally lost control of his ally.
* The Security Chief, who is [[The Dragon|Dragon]] to the War Chief's [[The Big Bad|Big Bad]] in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The War Games''.
* In ''[[The Wire]]'', it becomes apparent that [[The Dragon|Stringer Bell]] has very different goals from [[Big Bad|Avon]], wanting to use the money from their drug operation to escape the ghetto and become a legitimate businessman. Avon meanwhile wants to protect his reputation and power as a gangster, and will even sacrifice smart business decisions to make war on the streets. {{spoiler|This causes tremendous strain between them that builds until they both betray each other- Avon betraying Stinger to [[Career Killers|Brother Mouzone]], and Stringer informing on Avon to the police. This leads to the downfall of the Barksdale organization}}.
* Alex becomes this for Oversight during season 2 of ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]''
* Broodwing in ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' was [[The Dragon]] to Emperor Gruum, [[The Starscream|but not the most loyal type]]. Unlike most villains in the franchise, he was an [[Arms Dealer]] who was [[Only in It For the Money]], and was ''very'' upset when Gruum kept demanding free jobs to "compensate" for failed ones. In fact, [[Fridge Brilliance| that is likely ''why'' Gruum kept failing]], Broodwing [[You Get What You Pay For| didn't seem like the type who would give his best merchandise to deadbeats.]]
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The Ebon Dragon of ''[[Exalted]]'' serves as this to Malfeas. While he may advise Malfeas or defer to his authority, he constantly seeks to manipulate the Demon King to his own purposes, and endemically betrays him. One of the biggest exmples would have been back when they were the Dragon's Shadow and the Holy Tyrant respectively, and he manipulated him into creating the Unconquered Sun (a deity who could serve as something for the Shadow to oppose, even while he would also subvert the authority of the Tyrant).
* In ''[[Warhammer]]'', if you are a Dark Elf or a Skaven chances are you're this or have one or more of these under your comand. Wariors of Chaos and Orcs also might fit under this.
** Similarly in ''Warhammer 40k'', all Dark Eldar assumes this of their subordinates, as backstabbing is the only way to gain a promotion. Part of the reason why Incubi are valued as bodyguards over the Archon's own cabalites, Incubi loyalty is tied to their coffers, not your competency.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The man in the trope picture, Ocelot. {{spoiler|In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]], [[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', and ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', Ocelot has been seemingly working for the [[Big Bad]], but working behind their backs, and usually the backs of the people he's supposedly really working for. The portrayal of him in ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' even named the trope [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]. The only MGS game he
* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'', it is revealed that Darth Vader has been Palpatine's Dragon with an Agenda much earlier than the "I am Your Father" Scene in Episode V mentioned under Film. Vader tries pulling off a similar speech to the young Starkiller, but proves unable to sway him.
** In the "Dark Side" DLC available for some versions of the game, Starkiller actually becomes a Dragon with an Agenda appealing to Luke Skywalker.
* [[The Brute|Astaroth]] in the ''[[Soul Series]]'', [[All There in the Manual|according to the backstory]].
* In ''[[Suikoden III]]'', you eventually learn {{spoiler|[[The Chessmaster|Albert Silverberg]] orchestrated everything just to prove his skill as a strategist. He then casually derails it and walks away, likely leaving many players [[Karma Houdini|aching for a chance to settle the score]]. Or at least wipe that not-quite-smile off his face.}}
* From the ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' series, we have {{spoiler|you guessed it; Dimentio}}. In this case, [[The Dragon]] is even ''more'' evil; an outright [[Omnicidal Maniac]] instead of a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]].
** The player was clued into the fact that {{spoiler|Dimentio's}} trying to work behind Count Bleck's back pretty early on. However, it isn't until the end of the game that we learn that he's really higher up on the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]], instead of just being a [[Reverse Mole]].
** Before that we had the Thousand Year Door where power hungry [[Big Bad|Sir Grodus]] tried to unearth an ancient power. {{spoiler|Too bad said ancient power was a [[Sealed Evil in a Can|demoness whom Beldam served]], and wanted to spring free. Grodus ends up living as a talking head afterwards.}}
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* All of Chaos' Warriors in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' have priorities other than serving him.
* {{spoiler|Cabadath, the Tall Man}} from the ''[[Chzo Mythos]]''. The central conflict of the series, in fact, is him resisting {{spoiler|replacement by [[Big Bad|Chzo]]. He fails in the last game, and the [[Player Character]] Theo becomes the new [[Dragon]].}}
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' has [[Black Magician Girl|Morrigan]], who serves as [[The Dragon]] to Flemeth (though how evil [[Ambiguously Evil|Flemeth]] really is may be debatable), yet turns on her mother at the first sign of betrayal.
* In ''Hordes of the Underdark'', Mephistopheles spends the first two chapters manipulating events so that he can be freed of the Valsharess' control; culminating in the final battle of the second chapter in which he removes all obstacles between you and the Drow queen so that you can take his revenge for him.
* The Ancient Minister and Ganondorf, as well as possibly Bowser, ''all'' take this role in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl: Subspace Emissary''
* Hawke in the ''[[Advance Wars]]'' series. especially noticeable in ''Dual Strike'' as he actively chafes against Von Bolt taking control of Black Hole {{spoiler|and eventually ends up leaving him for the heroes.}}
* Samir Duran could be considered a Dragon With An Agenda compared to the [[Big Bad]] Infested Kerrigan in ''[[
* Colonel Autumn from Fallout 3 counts, as both he and the President have different aims for Project Purity. He wants to use it as leverage to {{spoiler|control}} all the free humans in the Capitol Wastelands, and President Eden wants to use it to {{spoiler|exterminate}} everything in the Capitol Wastelands. It's also why [[Dragon Their Feet|he takes the opportunity to split as soon as the Lone Wanderer hits the Enclave base.]]
* In ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'' (as well as some non-OG games, to an extent), Shu Shirakawa acts as this to Bian Zoldark. Bian is well aware that Shu is both more powerful and more interested in pursuing his own goals, and he actually ''requests'' for Shu to [[Dragon Their Feet|merely observe during his final battle]].
* {{spoiler|Cyril}} in Star Ocean 2
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts
** {{spoiler|Xigbar}} also seems to have shades of this, looking back after [[Birth By Sleep]], as he literally knows more about the backstory and mechanics of everything than the [[Big Bad]], and is almost certainly manipulating his boss to an extent.
** Vanitas displays hints of this in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'', by nearly killing a key member of his master's [[Xanatos Gambit]] before they've done their job, and allowing another person to live as a "plan b" in his own words suggests he has plans of his own, but in a subversion winds up following his master's plan exactly anyway.
** {{spoiler|Given how he is [[Made of Evil]], it could be he didn't even have ''[[For the Evulz|reasons]]'' for trying to kill Ven and letting the "plan b" live- he did it just because [[Chaotic Evil|he could.]]}} And the novels reveal that his ''true'' motive is {{spoiler|simply to rejoin with Ventus}}.
* [[Manipulative Bastard|Mastema]] in ''[[Strange Journey]]''. He outright states he hates the [[Council of Angels|Three Wise Men]] and is just doing the job for the chance to ascend to a superior form.
* Recurring villain Wild Dog in the ''[[Time Crisis]]'' series.
* It is revealed midway through ''[[Assassin's Creed:
** Which Rodrigo tries to fight, as while the Templars want world domination, they don't want to be ''seen'' doing it. They'd much rather work behind the scenes.
* In [[Might and Magic]] VII, Kastore initially serves as an advisor to King Archibald of Deyja (along with the three other Terrans that followed his lead, but Kastore is the dominant one). Once you've made your choice between Light and Dark, however, it becomes increasingly clear that Kastore is building a power-base of his own (apparently going for a more traditional military-focused necromantic regime, but it turns out it is [[Lost Technology|a bit more complex than that]]), culminating in Archibald evacuating his closest followers to a laboratory off the coast of AvLee and Kastore assuming the throne of Deyja.
* Commander Shepard arguably falls into this role in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', being [[Enemy Mine|forced to work]] with the Illusive Man stop the Collectors from abducting colonists. Ironically, the Illusive Man seems surprised when Shepard (possibly) opts to destroy the Collector Base, [[Faustian Rebellion|tells him where to shove it]], before taking the ''Normandy'' and loyal crew for themselves.
* The [[Black Knight]] in ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' aided [[The Chessmaster]] in {{spoiler|unleashing Ashera and her judgement}} and fought on their side in the game's climax, but didn't seem to have much interest in which side won in the end. His only personal goal was to {{spoiler|surpass his teacher, Greil, as a swordsman. After Greil was killed he figured his son Ike would make a suitable substitute, and siding with Ashera gave him the chance to face Ike in combat.}} This goal also existed when he was serving Ashnard in ''Path of Radiance'', but the player didn't know about it then.
* {{spoiler|Konishi}} from ''[[The World Ends With You]]''. It's hinted at but eventually {{spoiler|she outright betrays the Conductor by making a deal with Minamimoto, wanting to be the new Conductor when he becomes Composer.}}
* Play a Horde character in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' and go through the ''Mists of Pandaria'' scenario, and you quickly become this to Garrosh, eventually becoming [[The Starscream]] during the Seige of Orgrimmar.
* The Black Baron's [[Lovely Assistant]] Mathilda might be this, if she can be called [[The Dragon]]; she is no threat to Jack, but her actions suggest she does not like her boss much. ([[Cute Mute|She doesn't speak]], so it's hard to tell.) A Running Gag on the game involves the Baron appearing to explain how each Bloodbath Challenge works, and then Mathilda appears to provide a visual demonstration, using ''him'' as the victim. Somehow he always survives and appears for the next demonstration, so this may be staged using special effects, but in the [[Final Battle]] where the Baron seems to be [[Killed Off For Real]], Mathilda decides to help Jack and gives him the weapon he uses to do it.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In [[Antihero for Hire]], Angelson has at least one [[Xanatos Gambit]] going on under his boss's nose, we just don't know what.
* Xykon and Redcloak have a mutually beneficial alliance in ''[[The
** Although there's a fair bit more to it than that, as seen in ''[[Start of Darkness]].'' Whether or not he'll [[The Starscream|turn Starscream]] eventually, or be forced to confront Xykon if their plans diverge, remains to be seen.
*** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0830.html As it turns out], {{spoiler|Redcloak's plan doesn't help Xykon's own goals ''at all'', and Xykon is ultimately just Redcloak's [[Unwitting Pawn]].}}
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* Torg from [[Sluggy Freelance]] seems to be doing this professionally now. First with the Minion Master, and now with Crushestro {{spoiler|ever since he found out that the Minion Master's sister betrayed him to Hereti-Corp}}.
* Ian and Anita in ''[[Errant Story]]'' fit this trope pretty well, with the added little twist that it isn't totally clear which one is the [[Big Bad]] and which one is [[The Dragon]].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', {{spoiler|Ronove}} becomes the closest lieutenant of [[Four-Star Badass|Duke Malphas]] after the siege of Vanna but has his own, secret agenda for working with the demonic duke.
* In the ''[[That Guy With The Glasses]]'' world, The Other Guy is the real puppet-master behind the site. The one who everyone thinks is the ineffectual [[Bad Boss]], [[The Nostalgia Critic]], is just like that because he's desperate for attention and praise.
* Linksano and Mecha-Kara are ultimately this during the Lord Vyce arc of ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]''. In fact, {{spoiler|Linksano defects to the side of the good guys to take Vyce down, while Mecha-Kara was a former [[Big Bad]] who only went along to take out Linkara.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* Raythar from ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' serves this role during the first part of the second season- [[Big Bad]] Nerissa has [[Hidden Agenda Villain|her own agenda]], but Raythar just wants to avenge the previous [[Big Bad]], [[Evil Overlord|Phobos]]. When a chance arises to put Phobos back on the throne, he ditches Nerissa and transfers his loyalty back to his original boss. Nerissa, meanwhile, replaces him with Shagon, who is her creation and therefore completely loyal.
* The Fright Knight in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' subtly expresses his absolutely distaste working for Pariah Dark and it hints he wants to go a different route. It ultimately proves true when he works against Pariah during the final battle. It's hinted he went to serve Vlad, but the original writer left the show before [[What Could Have Been|possible stories]] of this could have been told in Season Three.
* On ''[[Gargoyles]],'' [[The Fair Folk|the Weird Sisters]] serve this role for the
** They could arguably be considered this for Oberon later, though that depends on [[Chaotic Neutral|whether or not he counts as a villain]]. [[Word of God]] says they ''are'' still plotting revenge, despite Oberon being at peace with the Avalon gargoyles.
* ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]
* In the original ''[[My Little Pony]]'', Porcina's Raptorian minions encourage her to go to the extreme of turning Ponyland and all the Little Ponies into glass because they want to take the place for themselves.
* The ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' version of Mystique. In the first season, she's working for Magneto, but they have a slight falling out and works independently for the rest of the series. This causes some tension when both tried to take command of the Brotherhood, with varied results depending on the episode and the Brother.
* In a dark future episode of ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
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