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Hidden Villain: Difference between revisions
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== Literature ==
* ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' (The Crimson King isn't mentioned till book 4. From that point on details are given bit by bit.)
** However, readers familiar with King's greater universe (Particularly those who have read [[The Stand]]) might be savvy enough to catch on a bit earlier.
* The [[The Heartless|dragon-snakes]] from ''[[The Death Gate Cycle]]'' are the collective [[Big Bad]] and the incarnation of evil in that multiverse, given form by magic gone awry. As such, they're technically the ultiamte villains all along, but are only introduced directly in the fourth book, ''Serpent Mage''.
* For the first three-quarters of the first book of ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'', it's obvious that there ''is'' a [[Big Bad]] ([[Evil Sorcerer]] Pryrates is an obvious villain, but as he's getting his power through a [[Deal with the Devil]] he's also obviously not the ultimate string puller) but none of the main characters know who he is. It turns out to be the [[Our Elves Are Different|vengeful Sithi prince]] Ineluki, resurrected as the undead entity called the Storm King, who had only been mentioned in scraps of legends prior to [[The Reveal]].
* The Crippled God, [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'', was only introduced in person in the third book, though in hindsight he'd been pretty heavily foreshadowed in the first two.
* In ''[[Warbreaker]]'' the [[Big Bad]] is hidden for almost the entire novel, and the most obvious candidates are eliminated one by one (either by proving harmless, or revealed to be only a cog in the big machine). {{spoiler|It turns out to be Bluefingers, the God King's kindly, timid secretary, who had been considered an ''ally'' of the heroes up to that point.}}
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** Also Palpatine ([[It Was His Sled|AKA Darth Sidious AKA the Emperor]]) in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels.
* In the first of the ''[[Otherland]]'' books, the focus occasionally shifts to an Egyptian simulation ruled by someone using Osiris as an avatar, who gives out orders and makes commentary that bears suspicious relation to other events in the book, but these connections are never actually stated. Late in the volume, the user is revealed to be a man named Felix Jongleur, leader of the Grail Brotherhood and creator of the [[Title Drop|Otherland]] system.
* Most of the plotline of the ''Inda'' series is driven by [[Evil Sorcerer]] Erkric's scheming, as he's the one driving [[The Empire|the Venn]] to be more warlike and expansionistic, but he's not directly introduced until the last third of the second book and his central role doesn't become apparent until later. This is at least in part because the Venn are initially portrayed as a faceless military juggernaut, though- he's introduced at the same time as [[Unwitting Pawn|Prince Rajnir]] and [[Anti-Villain|Commander Durasnir]], the other two main Venn characters.
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* [[Desperate Housewives]] used this several times. The identity of the aggressor in season 6 was hidden this way until the reveal {{spoiler|that he was a serial killer and actually one of Porter's friends}}.
* During the third series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the subplots taking place in present day London throw around the name Mr. Saxon. In the three-parter that ends the season, he is revealed to be none other than {{spoiler|the Doctor's arch nemesis, the Master, who stole the Doctor's TARDIS and traveled 18 months before Martha was introduced, and in that time became the the Minister of Defence.}}
** The events of series 5 are caused by someone or something capable of {{spoiler|making the TARDIS explode}}, accompanied by the [[Arc Words]] "silence will fall".
* The reveal of just ''who'' was really behind the [[Dollhouse]] and the Rossum Corporation had a very high [[HSQ]] when it was revealed in season 2.
* Happened in [[Gekisou Sentai Carranger]] by half of the season the Bowzocks were believed to be the main bad guy's until Exhaus is shown to be the real [[Big Bad]].
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* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' (The [[Big Bad]] isn't revealed until the console-only [[Golden Ending|True Ending]] of ''Calamity Trigger'', and isn't fought until ''[[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|Continuum Shift]]''.) {{spoiler|And even then, that game's True Ending reveals him to be a [[Disc One Final Boss]], and it goes straight into [[The Dog Was the Mastermind]].}}
** {{spoiler|And then [[All There in the Manual]] suggests that no; he was the [[Big Bad]] all along.}}
* In ''[[Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume]]'', we know that Hel is the [[Big Bad]] of the game having orchestrated all of the events for Wylfred to wreak as much sin as possible, and give Garm some fun. However; Hel is only mentioned, and when she talks, we never see her.
** She does show up in the first game when she is stopped by the Einherjar that have been sent to Valhalla. Easy to miss if you don't realize that each line of text in the review has a cutscene associated with it.
* The [[Big Bad]] / Murderer of the first ''[[Laura Bow]]'' game turns out to be {{spoiler|Lilian}}, when very little evidence suggests this.
* {{spoiler|Al Mualim}} and {{spoiler|Prince Ahmet}} from ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' and ''[[Assassin's Creed Revelations]]'', respectively.
* ''[[Deadly Premonition]]'' has this with {{spoiler|George Woodman & Kaysen}} but alludes to the Raincoat Killer many times as being some unknown entity.
== Webcomics ==
* [[MAG
* [http://www.drunkduck.com/Harkovast/index.php?p=473700 The Enemy] in [[Harkovast]] is mentioned on the first page, but has never been shown in the comic. Who he is has only been hinted at on the comics forum, where his full title (The King in the West) has been stated.
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== Western Animation ==
* Slade in ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' starts out like this, being introduced in the first episode as a shadowy [[Chessmaster]], but not even ''named'' or revealed to the heroes until later (and it's even longer before they meet him face-to-face and learn of his plans). Also a [[Hidden Agenda Villain]], ironically- meaning that for his first few appearances, ''all'' we know about him is that he exists and is up to no good.
* In ''[[Wolverine and the X-Men]]'', pretty much the whole first season was masterminded by {{spoiler|the Inner Circle, who wanted to get their hands on the Phoenix}}. They're not introduced until just before the [[Grand Finale]], and aren't truly [[The Man Behind the Man]] because the only character they were directly controlling {{spoiler|was one of the heroes}}.
* During the third season of [[Ben 10]], horror monster-themed aliens show up performing seemingly random tasks through several episodes. During the season finale, they are revealed to have been building a superweapon to allow [[Enemy Without|Ghostfreak]] to achieve world domination.
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