Dragon with an Agenda: Difference between revisions

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A [[Dragon With an Agenda]] is a character serving as [[The Dragon]] to the [[Big Bad]], but having different goals from him. For example, if this character [[Dragon Their Feet|encounters the heroes immediately after the death or defeat of his boss]], he won't try to complete his master's [[Evil Plan]], but will instead go on to pursue his own plans.

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.

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.

Rather than a straight evil character, he tends to be an [[Anti Villain]] or an [[Enigmatic Minion]]. Contrast with [[Battle Butler]] and [[Psycho Supporter]], who are often [[The Dragon]] but have the same goal as their master. Unlike [[The Starscream]] or the [[Reliable Traitor]], they are usually at least nominally loyal, and their main agenda doesn't outright conflict with that of their boss. If [[The Dragon]] and the [[Big Bad]] are equal or nearly so, you have a [[Big Bad Duumvirate]]. If they outlive the original [[Big Bad]], this type of [[The Dragon|Dragon]] may go on to pursue their own motivations and become a [[Dragon Ascendant]]. Compare/contrast with the similar trope [[Piggybacking On Hitler]]. The equivalent among the hero's allies is [[Who Needs Enemies]].

Rather than a straight evil character, he tends to be an [[Anti-Villain]] or an [[Enigmatic Minion]]. Contrast with [[Battle Butler]] and [[Psycho Supporter]], who are often [[The Dragon]] but have the same goal as their master. Unlike [[The Starscream]] or the [[Reliable Traitor]], they are usually at least nominally loyal, and their main agenda doesn't outright conflict with that of their boss. If [[The Dragon]] and the [[Big Bad]] are equal or nearly so, you have a [[Big Bad Duumvirate]]. If they outlive the original [[Big Bad]], this type of [[The Dragon|Dragon]] may go on to pursue their own motivations and become a [[Dragon Ascendant]]. Compare/contrast with the similar trope [[Piggybacking On Hitler]]. The equivalent among the hero's allies is [[Who Needs Enemies]].

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

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** Talia al Ghul was there so that when the villains [[Take Over the World|took over the world]], she could betray he allies, kill the surviving villains and create an ecologically sustainable utopia.

** Black Adam signed up to get villain help protecting his country. [[Noble Demon|Even Bad Men Love Their Fatherlands]].

** Calculator and Deathstroke were in it for [[Money Dear Boy|the money, fellows]].

** Calculator and Deathstroke were in it for [[Money, Dear Boy|the money, fellows]].

** Doctor Psycho was... [[Out of Focus|Uh]]... [[For the Evulz|Ummm]]...

* 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.}}

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== 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.

* 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]].

* [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Grand Admiral Thrawn and Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth]]. C'baoth took Thrawn's orders with more and more reluctance as time went on, and he wanted very different things. Towards the end they weren't really on the same side anymore. {{spoiler|Thrawn was fully aware of this, and at the time of his death was planning to solve the problem by [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|eliminating C'baoth]] and [[Send in The Clones|making a replacement C'baoth]]. His own death, nearly simultaneous to C'baoth's, derailed his plan.}}

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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 [[Dragon With an Agenda]]; he conspires with Nahaz to drive Urvon mad and take his place, so that the two of them can rule with the world. Since Nahaz is out to betray ''both'' of them, and both of them believe that their magic is enough to keep him under control, he succeeds in being [[Dragon With an Agenda]] ''and'' [[Dragon in Chief]] to two separate characters.

* 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 [[Dragon With an Agenda]]; he conspires with Nahaz to drive Urvon mad and take his place, so that the two of them can rule with the world. Since Nahaz is out to betray ''both'' of them, and both of them believe that their magic is enough to keep him under control, he succeeds in being [[Dragon With an Agenda]] ''and'' [[Dragon-in-Chief]] to two separate characters.

* In [[Robert E Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[The Phoenix On the Sword (Literature)|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]]''. 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.]]}}

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* [[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 (Video Game)|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]].

* From the [[Paper Mario (Video Game)|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.}}