Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,618
edits
The Starscream: Difference between revisions
markup, potholes, usage, spelling, fixed redlink, replaced redirect, moved some examples from Western Animation to Film
m (→Literature) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (markup, potholes, usage, spelling, fixed redlink, replaced redirect, moved some examples from Western Animation to Film) |
||
Line 28:
{{examples}}
== [[Transformers]] ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is the most famous example, a Decepticon who is, in most versions, [[The Dragon]] to Megatron. His treacherous goals could not be more obvious. And the [[Psychotic Smirk]] on the page image proves it.
* [[Transformers Generation 1]]
Line 81:
**** Now Megatron has tried to have her pre-emptively eliminated, forcing her hand and making her join up with Starscream... where she promptly Starscreamed the 'bot ''himself''.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': Greed to Father and Dante.
** Roy Mustang is the heroic version of this to King Bradley. He's fairly subtle and very patient, but all Roy's nearest and dearest and most of high command know, ''especially'' Bradley. They let him play; they could kill him anytime, but he's extremely useful and essentially harmless, considering all the cards they hold and that he'd never compromise far enough to ''really'' get into their circle.
Line 137:
* Near the end of ''[[Chirin no Suzu]]'', Chirin actually teams up with the evil wolf just so he can be powerful enough to kill him.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In a straight up subversion Alexander Luthor from DC's ''[[Crisis Crossover]]'' ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'' knew that it is generally impossible for ''anybody'' to control somebody that's as [[Ax Crazy|insane]] as [[The Joker]] so he did not even try. The Joker was VERY unhappy that he was not picked for the team as Luthor eventually found out.
* For some part of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Robotnik's nephew Snively served as his increasingly untrustworthy lieutenant, and eventually set in motion a plan to destroy Robotnik. {{spoiler|And he actually ''succeeded''}}.
Line 161:
** Fisk himself was a ''successful'' Starscream. As one [[Flashback]] story shows, he was [[The Dragon]] to a mobster named Don Rigoletto before murdering him and taking over his criminal empire.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In "The Council Era", a ''[[Mass Effect]]'' fanfic taking place around 83 CE (in the first half) , both salarian advisor Tyrin Lieph and krogan advisor Halak Marr eventually overshadow their respective bosses (The Council for Tyrin, Krogan Overlord Kurvok for Halak) in terms of power and prominence.
** Tyrin is temporarily Councilor after the asari Councilor gave him the title, and later was elected as Councilor after the salarian Councilor's death. Before this, he consistently manipulates the Councilors in order to further his own gains. He'd been conspiring to push himself into the upper political echelon in order to "improve" the galaxy as he saw fit for approximately 30 years. Telia and Roraan (the Councilors he served) were just collateral damage when he finally could start making ripples in the galaxy.
Line 169:
* ''[[Dusk and Dawn]]'': In a similar vein to Ponies Make War above, Eclipse wants to unite the Elements of Harmony to overthrow Nightmare Moon [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|for the good of Equestria]].
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* Lord Sopesian and Lord Glozelle seek to overthrow King Miraz in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]: [[Prince Caspian]]'' by provoking him into accepting Peter's challenge of a mano-a-mano sword fight in hopes that he'll be killed. {{spoiler|When this doesn't happen, Sopesian stabs Miraz in the back. Glozelle gets a [[Heel Face Turn]], though.}}
** In the book, {{spoiler|Glozelle is the one who stabs Miraz to death, as revenge for his ex-leader insulting him before the duel with Peter takes place. Both him and Sopesian end up killed in battle.}}
* In ''[[The Matrix]]'' trilogy, Agent Smith starts out as a loyal (if somewhat disgruntled) Agent of the system, but eventually rebels and decides to [[Omnicidal Maniac|just kill everybody]], humans ''and'' machines, [[Enemy Mine|which ultimately forces both sides to make peace]] so Neo can stop him.
* {{spoiler|Scott Evil}} takes over {{spoiler|Dr. Evil's empire}} at the end of ''[[Austin Powers|Austin Powers in Goldmember]]''. A variation in that he only gradually becomes this over the course of the series, as his suggestions are constantly ignored and he attempts to earn {{spoiler|Dr. Evil's}} [["Well Done, Son" Guy|approval]]. It's only at the end once {{spoiler|Dr. Evil has his [[Heel Face Turn]]}} that he finally snaps.
*
** Plagueis attempted to avert the trope when mentoring Darth Sidious/Palpatine, only for that to backfire horribly when Palpatine decided to kill him off in his sleep. It's also strongly implied that Sidious had also manipulated everything Plagueis did since becoming his apprentice (and possibly even before becoming his apprentice, if Book of Sith is anything to go by) with the latter never realizing it until his death.
** Bane based the Rule Of Two off of a holocron left by [[Knights of the Old Republic|Revan]]. True to form, Revan's apprentice, Malak, tried to assassinate him while he was fighting off a Jedi team sent to capture him.
** In fact, Darth Maul almost failed a Sith Initiation Test because he was ''not'' a Starscream and was completely loyal to Darth Sidious, to the extent that Palpatine had to motivate Maul by lying about cultivating an apprentice (or at least a half-truth) to get him to have enough anger to even nearly kill his master.
** Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) in particular. In ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'', Anakin believes he can overthrow Palpatine and rule the galaxy with Padme, likely foreshadowed in ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' with his mistrust in Senatorial politics. Then he tries it again with his son in ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' and ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. Special mention given because it does not involve the typical Sith MO of killing their masters over power, for it seems more like Anakin does not like how Palpatine rules, and wants to supplant him and perhaps do it better.
* ''[[Repo! The
* [[Butt Monkey|Number Two]] Number Two of the [[Austin Powers]] franchise is a very rare [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|sympathetic example]].
{{quote|[[Defector From Decadence|"I've had enough of you]] [[Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal|pushing me around!"]]}}
Line 187 ⟶ 186:
* Riff-Raff in ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]''. {{spoiler|He pulls it off.}}
* Big Boy Caprice was this to Lips Manlis in the film version of ''[[Dick Tracy (film)|Dick Tracy]]'', and a successful one. Most of the details of their past are outlined [[All There in the Manual|in the novelization of the movie.]]
* Scroop, the main villain of ''[[Treasure Planet]]'' is actually this to Silver.▼
* Shenzi from ''[[The Lion King]]'' is actually this to Scar, especially after he took over the Pridelands and kept everything to himself, causing the hyena and her fellow comrades Banzai and Ed to become embittered of him and start spending time trying to overthrow Scar. When Scar loses in a fight against Simba at the end of the film, the hyenas finally confront him for the very last time and succeed in their plot of killing Scar.▼
* Jafar the [[Evil Chancellor|Evil Vizier]] in [[Disney Animated Canon]]'s ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''. (Name probably inspired by Mir Jafar, below.) His lifestyle is as the [[Mind Control]]-equipt Power Behind The Throne to the weak sultan of Agrabah, with ambitions only to greater magical power, but as Jasmine's coming-of-age threatens to introduce political competition,<ref>in the form of Jasmine coming into a queen's estate and being able to get rid of him, rather than in the form of her prospective husband staking out his own turf</ref> he conceives an intent to marry into the succession.▼
** Eventually after securing the genie he just makes a wish and ''is'' sultan of Agrabah, which is thinking kind of small compared to some versions of the story given it appears to be a wealthy little oasis city all by its lonesome in a bunch of dunelands, maybe a lesser cousin of Samarkand. Anyway he turns the real sultan into a court jester. He did ''not'' like pretending to respect the guy.▼
** Points for his coming up with the succession thing within the story, and from Iago's suggestion. No [[Wife Husbandry|Hikaru Genji Plan]] here, folks!▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* The Consul in [[Hyperion]] is sent to the Ousters to spy on them. He goes there, betrays the whole human race by revealing vital information, and gains the Ousters' trust. Then he hijacks a base, kills the Ouster technicians and fire a weapon designed to destroy the anti-entropic fields surrounding the Time Tombs, thus releasing the Shrike. So he acted as the Starscream to both sides. Then he got sent on the Pilgrimage, which might have made it a [[Xanatos Gambit]] ''if'' that was his original plan. The other pilgrims, after realizing this, can't be bothered, because they figure this pilgrimage will kill them anyway, and won't make a difference.
* The Kid of [[Stephen King]]'s epic ''[[The Stand]]'' aimed to overthrow Randall Flagg.
Line 208 ⟶ 212:
* ''The [[Forgotten Realms]]'' Dark Elves. Not only do they pursue the blessing of their goddess, The Goddess of Chaos, Lolth, which leads to a lot of squabbles, itself, but their entire race is just a pile-up of this. Families strive to climb the ranks and eventually join the council. On top of that, each elf strives to position him/herself as the most important in their family, under their matron mother. AS WELL AS becoming the highest rank in their chosen profession. (The children of the families can become priestess, warriors, or wizards.) If you can't guess, this leads to a LOT of backstabbing. And frontstabbing. And poisoning. And... Well, let's just say that the leading cause of death for Dark Elves is other Dark Elves.
* ''[[Lensman]]''. This behaviour is actually approved of among the various alien races opposing Civilisation due to the [[Social Darwinist]] nature of their society. It's believed that if a subordinate does succeed in usurping his superior, then the [[Big Bad]] was no longer fit to hold the job in the first place. And even among the "good" guys, the Palainians operate under this paradigm. Nadreck is loyal because he knows any of his three fellow Second-Stage Lensmen can kick his "spiny tokus" if he tries to cross them - and he'd also have Mentor of Arisia on his case. He can, and gleefully ''does'', use every dirty trick in the book, and more, against the Bad Guys.
* Speaker-To-Animals in ''[[Ringworld]]'', and during the journey to the Ringworld itself, Speaker would pull this shit every ten pages, and each time would be
* [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Joruus C'baoth to Grand Admiral Thrawn]], for basically the entire time that they were a [[Big Bad Duumvirate]]. C'baoth chafed under Thrawn's directions and constantly tried to get around his orders. Thrawn's [[Commander Contrarian]], Captain Pellaeon, even said that [[Evil Is Not a Toy|taking an insane cloned Jedi Master off his planet and into the Imperial fleet]] was a bad, ''bad'' idea. Thrawn had plans for the stunts C'baoth pulled, but if the two of them hadn't been killed more or less at the same time at the end of the book, it's anyone's guess what would have happened.
** In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'', Kirtan Loor gradually moves away from loyal minionhood and towards this. When he's put in charge of the Palpatine Counterinsurgency Front on newly-captured Coruscant while everyone higher-ranked than he is leaves, he gets a lot of autonomy, allowed to harass and terrorize the New Republic pretty much any way he wants. Eventually he decides that while he's not an idiot and won't directly oppose [[Big Bad|Isard]], he's not terrified of her anymore, and she won't live forever. Not long after that thought hits, the head of the organization commissioned to neutralize the Palpatine Counterinsurgency Front tracks him down, but not to bring him to justice, just to get him to hit targets that head wants eliminated. Loor agrees, in part because otherwise he'd be either killed or taken to justice, but thinks that Flirry Vorru, too, won't live forever. At the end of {{spoiler|The Krytos Trap}} he does actually turn against them, but to try and seek sanctuary with the New Republic in exchange for some [[His Name Is--|information]]. It doesn't work out.
Line 224 ⟶ 228:
* Nicci in ''[[Sword of Truth]]'', who was [[Big Bad|Jagang's]] ''real'' [[Dragon]] as [[Dark Action Girl|Death's Mistress]], but later does a [[High Heel Face Turn]] in ''Faith of the Fallen'', where she becomes Richard and the good guys' ally and main [[Black Magician Girl]]. Before this, though, she saw Jagang as a brute (albeit a [[The Chessmaster|brilliant one]]) and since he could no longer enter her mind, constantly planned to eventually become the real [[The Man Behind the Man|evil]].
* Logno in ''Chapterhouse: [[Dune]]''. She succeeds in killing the Great Honored Matre, but she doesn't enjoy her victory for long. The main Honored Matre force falls shortly afterwards, and she herself dies.
* The nameless artist in ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'': ''Greenwitch''. He plans to retrieve the canister containing the ancient
* The Shoggoth in ''[[Cthulhu Mythos]]''. Originally, these bestial demons were created by [[Predecessor Villain| "elder things"]] (as they are called) who had entire cities hidden from humanity. The Shoggoth grew smarter and eventually rebelled against their creators, slaughtering them and building their own society.
== [[Live
* Ba'al of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' who was supposedly in the service of Anubis while he was in fact trying to topple him and take his place. This led him to cooperate with SG-1 to stop Anubis from obtaining a weapon that would give him power over the entire galaxy. Notably, Ba'al betrayed Anubis in this manner ''twice''. Ba'al also stuck around to continue playing The Starscream in the Ori story arc, scheming to undermine the Ori's Take Over the Galaxy plot so that ''he'' could be the one to Take Over the Galaxy. And Despite perpetually making himself a nuisance or worse to much more powerful [[Big Bad]]s, Ba'al managed to outlast them all, mostly through being [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]].
** Qetesh becomes Ba'al's own Starscream in ''[[Stargate: Continuum]]''
Line 278 ⟶ 282:
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' the [[Omnicidal Maniac|Daleks]] have repeatedly turned against and overthrown their creator, Davros, only to come crawling back when they are weak, because he is smarter than them. Not smart enough to have realized that when he created a race that thinks they are superior to ''everyone'', that would include himself, though. Subverted in the 2005 revival episode "The Stolen Earth"; the Daleks don't even ''pretend'' to respect him this time, and are keeping him as a "pet".
* In C-Drama ''Holy Pearl'' [[Inuyasha|Kagura]]-expy Hu Ji despises her master and spends a large part of the series maneuvering to wrest power from him.
* A non-villainous example has Penelope from ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' constantly trying to usurp Blair's role as [[Alpha
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
== Professional Wrestling ==▼
* If one believes [[God Is Evil]] [[God and Satan Are Both Jerks|but doesn't believe]] [[Satan Is Good]], then Lucifer usually becomes a Starscream.▼
▲== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* David Otunga showed signs of this toward [[The Nexus]] leader [[Wade Barrett]]. When the Nexus was in a situation where all of the members faced other [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] wrestlers and Barrett told the other members to either win or be kicked out of the group, Otunga was quick to point out this applied to Barrett as well. He expressed his desire to win a battle royal to determine the #1 contender to [[Randy Orton]]'s WWE championship, which didn't impress Barrett. On the same night, he tried to make friends with [[John Cena]], knowing that Cena was unhappy [[Sixth Ranger Traitor|being a part of the Nexus]] and was the most likely member of the group to turn on Barrett. This backfired, as Cena was able to eliminate Otunga and justify his actions by telling Barrett what Otunga was trying to do. He led the Nexus on an invasion of ''[[WWE Smackdown]]'' (without Barrett) and failed miserably, with Barrett pointing out that the next time he decides to undermine his leadership, he should be successful about it. Barrett for his part seems well aware of Otunga's discontent, and has on a number of occasions put him in some really bad situations because of it, such as forcing him to forfeit the Tag Team Titles to Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, or forcing him to wrestle [[Edge]] with the stipulation that he'd be fired if he lost. He seemed to have the rest of Nexus on his side of the struggle; all of them left Barrett to be beaten down by Cena alone.
** Interestingly, he didn't seem to have a problem when [[CM Punk]] became leader of the Nexus.
Line 286 ⟶ 293:
* [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] became this for Faarooq in the Nation of Domination, and eventually took over and retooled the stable to his own liking.
* The Corporation era in WWF was full of Starscreams. First it was [[Shane McMahon]] usurping power right out from under his own father to form the Corporate Ministry. Then it was [[Vince McMahon]] taking said power away from his wife (in a double swerve orchestrated with his own son, thus rendering the previous insurrection moot). Then later on in 1999 after the McMahons [[Heel Face Turn|turned face]], [[Triple H]] and [[Stephanie McMahon]] took control of the company in a very Machiavellian fashion in what was known as the McMahon-Helmsley Era. Stone Cold eventually got involved too as part of the InVasion angle when all of [[WCW]] and [[ECW]] were a Starscream.
▲* If one believes [[God Is Evil]] [[God and Satan Are Both Jerks|but doesn't believe]] [[Satan Is Good]], then Lucifer usually becomes a Starscream.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
Line 307 ⟶ 311:
* If you're playing a Ventrue in ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'', and you're NOT the Prince, you're this.
** The Ventrue see [[Manipulative Bastard|the Daeva]] as this and they have good reasons for thinking this way.
* Sometimes one Starscream just isn't enough, so the ''New Phyrexia'' set from ''[[Magic: The
** ''[[Magic: The
==
* Cassius in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Julius Caesar (theatre)|Julius Caesar]]''. A subversion [[Older Than Steam]]; Cassius succeeds in killing Caesar, but {{spoiler|he doesn't succeed in taking control of Rome.}}
* [[Macbeth]] in Shakespeare's play of the same name, although we really don't learn enough about Duncan to determine whether he could be considered the [[Big Bad]] or not. {{spoiler|Macbeth succeeds, but never manages to completely control Scotland and is himself overthrown.}}
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* Karai in the ending to ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up]]'''s Arcade Mode.
* Ashnard, from ''[[Fire Emblem|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'' thought of all of his generals as Starscreams, but never worried about it. It's just what happens when you combine the [[Social Darwinist]] with a [[Blood Knight]].
Line 374 ⟶ 377:
* In the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series, almost every (non-canon) character ending for M. Bison's three henchmen (Barlog, Vega, and Sagat) results in the warrior in question turning against Bison and killing him.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* When Bun-bun captains a pirate ship in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', his [[Jerkass]] behavior inevitably drives every single one of his first mates to try and kill him. Bun-bun actually encourages this, since he "[[Reliable Traitor|feels safer knowing where the next mutiny is coming from]]." Ironically, his first first mate, Blacksoul, who gave him the idea, wasn't actually trying to mutiny, though Bun-bun thought so.
* Drizz'l of ''[[8-Bit Theater|
** On the other side of the "Light" Warrior/Dark Warrior fence, BM taking advantage of Thief's absence once to take over. It didn't last.
* Redcloak is this to Xykon in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', but more subtle than most of examples.
Line 391 ⟶ 394:
** Sene'kha was also this to [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=447 Kiel's mother Ven'ndia], and it's heavily implied that it was Sene'kha who coaxed [[Humanoid Abomination|Kharla]] into killing her. After Sene'kha took over Starscreaming seems to have become S.O.P. in the Vloz'ress.
** And collectively, {{spoiler|all three Sharen sisters, Snadhya'rune, Sarv'swati and Zala'ess, pulled this on their mother, though she didn't know until the moment of the actual betrayal}}.
* General Izor, of ''[[Dubious Company]]''. Given that his boss is a [[Psychopathic Manchild]] [[Evil Overlord]] that throws hissy-fits involving conquering yet another country, and wants to become a god of war by sacrificing [[The Chosen One|Sal]], could you blame him?
{{quote|[[Anti-Villain|Izor]]: Think about it. You could end the constant Kreedor aggression, [[Good Feels Good|help sow peace]] between various nations.}}
* ''[[Fruit Incest]]'' has the Transfarmers characters, in which the appropriately named Starspray and Planescream both plot to overthrow their leader Cottontron as well as each other simultaneously.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* In ''[[Kate Modern]]: The Last Work'', {{spoiler|the Shadow}} is this to {{spoiler|Rupert van Helden}}. It is left ambiguous whether he succeeds or not, but [[Word of God]] is that {{spoiler|the Shadow killed Rupert}}.
* When [[The Nostalgia Critic]] becomes the president of ''[[Kickassia]]'', his [[Distaff Counterpart]] [[The Nostalgia Chick]] becomes an ambitious [[Sarah Palin]] lookalike vice-president who tries to assassinate him every five minutes or so.
* On top of being a [[Complete Monster]] and [[Dirty Coward]], Twp'atwt from the ''[[Protectors of the Plot Continuum]]'' reveals himself to be this during the Black Cats' attack on HQ; while he had previously appeared loyal, it turns out that he and his lover - Serna Tjan - are planning to overthrow the Bracket Fungus and the rest of the Cats after they've taken over, leaving Twp and Serna as leaders of the PPC. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for them, they run into [[The Woobie|Blue Photon]] and [[The Thrawn Trilogy|the Mysterious]] [[Physical God|Somebody]] respectively shortly after this revelation, resulting in their [[Karmic Death]]s.}} This was also hinted at in the prior story, ''The Reorganisation'', when Twp'atwt attempted to blackmail the Nightshade and Orchid into {{spoiler|making a clone of the Mysterious Somebody that would obey Twp's every command.}}
* At the end of [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara's]] Lord Vyce story arc, it is revealed that {{spoiler|Linksano was actually this all along, spying on Vyce for Linkara so that he could be the conquerer of universes}}.
* ''[[
** Gatekeeper was also this to Marcus. In Chapter 19 he staged a coup to take control of the Colony.
* ''[[Chaos Fighters]]: Chemical Warriors-RAKSA'' has Harlion who {{spoiler|took over the mayor's monument from Ortla}}.
* A variation in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' - Hayley Kelly was playing the game in v4 mainly to protect her ex-girlfriend, Ema Ryan. However, when it came down to the wire, almost 30 students left, Ema Ryan decided she could do the rest on her own and {{spoiler|killed Hayley, went on to become a late-game player who killed almost the same amount of people Hayley did (about eight, including Hayley herself), but ultimately died of her injuries when there was less than ten students left.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* Rasp from ''[[Dino Riders]]'', although not to the consistency of the trope namer. Interestingly, his voice actor was the same who did the voice of the original Megatron, [[Frank Welker]]. He also voiced the [[Big Bad]], Krulos. This more-or-less means that he was trying to backstab himself.
* General Skarr from ''[[Evil Con Carne]]''.
Line 430 ⟶ 431:
** [[Hey, It's That Voice!|Hilariously Enough]], this is what Cobra Commander becomes after Serpentor becomes head of Cobra in season two of the original ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon. However, Serpentor was more than willing to leave Cobra Commander behind to be either captured by the Joes or to die in the miniseries in which he (Serpentor) first appeared. Cobra Commander then pointed out that sooner or later that the rest of the Cobra would realize that Serpentor was not perfect and that a scapegoat would be needed when things fail. Also, Serpentor usually never finds out about Cobra Commander's attempts to kill him. The closest Serpentor got to finding out was in the episode where Cobra Commander summoned an [[Eldritch Abomination]] to kill Serpentor, though Serpentor thought that the Joes were the ones behind the attack in the end.
* Gantu on ''[[Lilo & Stitch: The Series]]''. While not actively attempting to overthrow Hamsterviel, he does take opportunities to break away from him. When he got [[Evil Counterpart|627]] and [[Me's a Crowd|Dupe]], for example.
* Happened once in ''[[Kim Possible
** {{spoiler|[[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|Though that's what she gets for telling Ron she was the one responsible for him being moved to Norway and separated from Kim]] - which she only did because she let Drakken convince her. You'd think she'd know better, especially as the ruler of the world.}}
* ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' had Evil-Lyn who many times has worked behind Skeletor's back for her own purposes. There's even been a few times when Skeletor was aware of her treachery. Unlike Megatron, Skeletor doesn't take kindly to this and usually attempts to make her pay with her life. However, Evil-Lyn usually gets lucky and manages to get a little leverage over Skeletor that forces him to accept her back into his ranks.
Line 438 ⟶ 439:
* In ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'', Boris Badenov tried many a time to stab his boss Fearless Leader in the back.
** Of course, when you're dealing with evil spies, what do you expect?
* In ''[[The Avengers: Earth's
* Grimian of ''[[Hot Wheels
▲* Scroop, the main villain of ''[[Treasure Planet]]'' is actually this to Silver.
▲* Shenzi from ''[[The Lion King]]'' is actually this to Scar, especially after he took over the Pridelands and kept everything to himself, causing the hyena and her fellow comrades Banzai and Ed to become embittered of him and start spending time trying to overthrow Scar. When Scar loses in a fight against Simba at the end of the film, the hyenas finally confront him for the very last time and succeed in their plot of killing Scar.
▲* Grimian of ''[[Hot Wheels Battle Force 5|Battle Force 5]]'' is an incredibly persistent Starscream, his constant attempts of usurping command from Kalus almost becoming a [[Running Gag]]. His last attempt at taking over {{spoiler|is heavily implied [[Killed Off for Real|to be his last]]}}. You can only push Kalus so far...
** Krocomodo was originally this trope for the Vandals before Grimian booted him out of it.
** Another one who actually ''succeeded'' is Zemerik. He was originally Krytus' [[Dragon]] but gained free will and overthrew him, [[Sealed Evil in a Can|imprisoned him and his team]], then became a [[Dragon Ascendant]], serving as one of the [[Big Bad]]s in season 1. Unfortunately for him, Krytus was freed in season 2 and took the role back by force.
* Valmont in ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' betrays Shendu ''right after he betrays him''. He plans on robbing him of his palace, but fails. Next, he pulls an [[Enemy Mine]] on Jackie to remove Shendu from him.
* In ''[[Ben 10:
▲* Jafar the [[Evil Chancellor|Evil Vizier]] in [[Disney Animated Canon]]'s ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''. (Name probably inspired by Mir Jafar, below.) His lifestyle is as the [[Mind Control]]-equipt Power Behind The Throne to the weak sultan of Agrabah, with ambitions only to greater magical power, but as Jasmine's coming-of-age threatens to introduce political competition,<ref>in the form of Jasmine coming into a queen's estate and being able to get rid of him, rather than in the form of her prospective husband staking out his own turf</ref> he conceives an intent to marry into the succession.
▲** Eventually after securing the genie he just makes a wish and ''is'' sultan of Agrabah, which is thinking kind of small compared to some versions of the story given it appears to be a wealthy little oasis city all by its lonesome in a bunch of dunelands, maybe a lesser cousin of Samarkand. Anyway he turns the real sultan into a court jester. He did ''not'' like pretending to respect the guy.
▲** Points for his coming up with the succession thing within the story, and from Iago's suggestion. No [[Wife Husbandry|Hikaru Genji Plan]] here, folks!
▲* In ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien|Ben 10 Ultimate Alien]]'', Vilgax is eventually [[Demoted to Dragon]] by [[Eldritch Abomination|Diagon]]. When he reappears for the [[Grand Finale]], he loudly proclaims his [[Undying Loyalty]] to Diagon, and Ben immediately calls him out on his bullcrap, believing that the real Vilgax isn't loyal to anyone but himself. {{spoiler|Ben is completely right - Vilgax also manages to be a successful Starscream, tricking Diagon into attacking an energy absorbing device—bad news for Diagon, since he's an [[Energy Being]] and the device seals him away (and possibly ''kills'' him)}}.
* Airball in ''[[Stunt Dawgs]]''.
* Jackalman from ''[[Thundercats (1985 series)|Thundercats]]''. He wasn't keep on taking over leadership of the mutants from Sslithe, but he ''did'' decide to leave them and form his own group with Driller and Molemaster, stealing the other mutants' equipment he did so. Unfortunately, he was a woefully incompetent leader. [[The Stinger]] of the episode - with Wileykit and Wilekat using surveillance to watch the mutants deal with him - is pretty much [[An Aesop]] on why the [[Knowing Is Half the Battle|lack of trust a Starscream causes is their worst weakness]].
Line 497 ⟶ 493:
* [[Caligula]] was done in by his own [[Praetorian Guard]]; supposedly, he was a lecherous rake who would not accept "no" from a woman he took a fancy to, and would eventually make the foolish mistake of forcing himself upon the wives and daughters of the armed soldiers whose job was to protect him. There's a reason the [[The Caligula|Trope that describes an insane and incompetent ruler]] is named after him...
** It is believed they were behind many other assassinations too, including that of Commodus (indirectly) and Pertinax. In fact, Claudius (Caligula's successor) was pragmatic enough to realize the danger of angering his bodyguards and ''bribed'' them not to do the same to him. Yeah, being Emperor of Rome may not have been the safest job...
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Villain Ball]]
| |||