History Main / BigBadFriend

** Most notably, Gene to Tony. Gene was the Mandarin the entire time and caused the plane crash that resulted in Tony wearing the arc reactor and [[spoilrer: Howard Stark being presumed dead. It is revealed that Gene kidnapped him to get the Makulan ring he found and force him to help Gene find more.]] Gene did have some feelings of friendship left for Pepper, but did not let that stop him from achieving his goals.

** Played with, with TheMaster. In some of their incarnations, they see the Doctor as a close friend, and much of their machinations are to either prove to the Doctor that the Doctor's obsession with the comparatively primitive humans is silly, or to convince the Doctor to join them.
---> '''[[GenderBender The Mistress]]''': Oh, don't be disgusting. We're Time Lords, not animals. Try, nano-brain, to rise above the reproductive frenzy of your noisy little food chain, and contemplate friendship. A friendship older than your civilisation. And infinitely more complex.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]], [[spoiler:the Doctor's old [=MI6=] contact O turns out to be the latest incarnation of {{the Master}}, who killed the real O and stole his identity.]]

* ''Series/TwentyFour'' plays this straight with Nina Meyers and plays with it for [[spoiler: Tony Almeida]]. While Nina was TheMole working for the first season's Big Bad, [[spoiler: Tony]] through his [[KnightTemplar own warped sense]] of justice is aiding the seventh season's Big Bad to get him to trust him so he can kill him in revenge for [[spoiler: being the mastermind behind the plot that lead to the death of his family.]]

* ''Film/MissionImpossible'': [[spoiler:The villain turns out to be Jim Phelps, [[BrokenPedestal Ethan's boss]] and friend]].

** And then ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' gives us [[spoiler:Solas, a.k.a. the [[GodWasMyCopilot elven god of rebellion]] [[TheTrickster Fen'Harel]]. Not only was he indirectly responsible for the Breach, he has been manipulating the Inquisition the entire time, and is actually planning to destroy the Veil, merging Thedas and the Fade, which would most likely kill every living being on the planet.]]

* [[Characters/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Maxwell Lord]] to the [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLI]]. Despite killing [[ComicBook/BlueBeetle Ted Kord]] in the build-up to ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Max still views them as his friends and warns them to stay out of his way, even telling ComicBook/BoosterGold that killing ComicBook/BlueBeetle wasn't easy for him.

* ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': In order to stop the multiversal demon chasing after America Chavez from stealing her powers of multiverse travel, Strange goes to [[spoiler:Wanda for assistance, asking her to come to Kamar-Taj to help them since she's one of the strongest Avengers and a powerful magic user who helped them defeat Thanos. Wanda counters by offering to host America at her farm instead, but in making the offer she ends up accidentally outing herself as the one trying to steal America's powers, because [[INeverSaidItWasPoison she refers to America by name despite Strange never having mentioned it in their conversation.]]]]

* ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': In order to stop the multiversal demon chasing after America Chavez from stealing her powers of multiverse travel, Strange goes to [[spoiler:Wanda]] for assistance, asking [[spoiler:her]] to come to Kamar-Taj to help them since [[spoiler:she's one of the strongest Avengers and a powerful magic user who helped them defeat Thanos]]. [[spoiler:Wanda]] counters by offering to host America at [[spoiler:her]] farm instead, but in making the offer [[spoiler:she ends up accidentally outing herself as the one trying to steal America's powers, because [[INeverSaidItWasPoison she refers to America by name despite Strange never having mentioned it in their conversation.]]]]

* ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': In order to stop the multiversal demon chasing after America Chavez from stealing her powers of multiverse travel, Strange goes to [[spoiler:Wanda]] for assistance, asking [[spoiler:her]] to come to Kamar-Taj to help them since [[spoiler:she's one of the strongest Avengers and a powerful magic user who helped them defeat Thanos]]. [[spoiler:Wanda]] counters by offering to host America at [[spoiler:her]] farm instead, but in making the offer [[spoiler:she ends up accidentally outing herself as the one trying to steal her powers, because [[INeverSaidItWasPoison she refers to America by name despite Strange never having mentioned it in their conversation.]]]]

* ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': In order to stop the multiversal demon chasing after America Chavez, Strange goes to [[spoiler:Wanda]] for assistance, asking [[spoiler:her]] to come to Kamar-Taj to help them since [[spoiler:she's one of the strongest Avengers and a powerful magic user who helped them defeat Thanos]]. [[spoiler:Wanda]] counters by offering to host America at [[spoiler:her]] farm instead, but in making the offer [[spoiler:she ends up accidentally outing herself as the one behind the demon, because [[INeverSaidItWasPoison she refers to America by name despite Strange never having mentioned it in their conversation.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': [[spoiler:Edelgard]] is this within the Silver Snow route, as they spend just under a year working alongside Byleth in part 1 of the game before they reveal themselves as the [[RedBaron Flame Emperor]] in chapter 11 of the game. [[spoiler:Of course, if you are absolutely fed up with the [[PathOfInspiration Church of Seiros]] and their BloodKnight tendencies, you can choose to side with her instead, leading to the Crimson Flower route.]]

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', Pokey claims that Ness is his best friend, and you can tell a cop that you're both friends, too... until he does a FaceHeelTurn. Though, that would make him TheDragon Friend... [[spoiler: Until ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}''. In that game, it shows that he really did consider Ness a friend; he cherishes the latter's weapon, the "[[ImprobableWeaponUser Friend's Yo-Yo]]" and keeps a shrine to him in his headquarters.]]

* In ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'', [[spoiler: Akira's best friend Ryo Asuka, the guy who got him into the whole horrible mess, turns out to be ''Satan''.]]

* ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'': [[spoiler:George Cry, president of the Dark Tomorrow Company and the one responsible for creating a TimeStandsStill BadFuture, is actually a friend of Future Hana, who's suffering and death motivates him to stop time at all costs, even if it means subjecting the Hana of the present timeline through extreme psychological torture. However, it should be noted that he never reveals this information to her in the slightest throughout all of their confrontations, so for all Hana knows, he's just a villain in every sense of the word.]]

* This is the case with ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuthHackersMemory'': Your friend Yu is actually K, the hacker that hacked and stole your account, then spends the game "helping" you recover your account by sending you on a wild goose chase. Yu was hoping that you would become more dependent on K's advise, eventually isolated you from everyone and insuring that you two would be friends and partners forever.
* Flipped around in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': The villain Loghain thinks that his king and son in law is a Big Bad Friend who is selling out the kingdom to the same empire that his father and Loghain expelled from the country just one generation ago. Thinking the king has already made his FaceHeelTurn and become TheQuisling, he betrays him and takes control of the kingdom himself.

* There's a prominent fan-theory that [[FanNickname The Phone Guy]] in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'', is the unnamed SerialKiller in the game's backstory who murdered a group of children, whose murders are implied to be the reason why the titular pizzeria's animatronics are murderous.

* [[spoiler: Fasti, who is actually Mobius,]] is the BigBad of ''VideoGame/AgarestSenki2''. Until [[spoiler: he]] does TheReveal, [[spoiler: he]] was the resident [[spoiler: SmartGuy.]]

Compare EvilFormerFriend, TheDogWasTheMastermind, and EvilMentor. Contrast FriendlyEnemy, LivingWithTheVillain, and PoisonousFriend. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu another type of big bad friend]]. If the hero is being chummy with the BigBad, that's GoKartingWithBowser. EvilAllAlong is for anyone who turns out to be evil, not just friends. Related to TheyWereHoldingYouBack.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'': [[spoiler:Edelgard]] is this within the Silver Snow route of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', as they spend just under a year working alongside Byleth in part 1 of the game before they reveal themselves as the [[RedBaron Flame Emperor]] in chapter 11 of the game. [[spoiler:Of course, if you are absolutely fed up with the [[PathOfInspiration Church of Seiros]] and their BloodKnight tendencies, you can choose to side with them instead. Doing so arguably leads to the best outcome for both most of the playable cast and the continent of Fodlan as a whole.]]

*** During ''Shadowbringers'' [[spoiler:the Ascian Emet-Selch is this to the player character, but unlike his colleague Lahabrea, he spends most of the expansion attempting to cooperate with the Scions, crossing into Lightwarden territory, saving one of their companions, can be spoken to at length to get his unique perspective, and drops some of the biggest twists in the story. Eventually he warms up to the player, confiding that he wishes for nothing more than the restoration of his lost civilization. Shortly after, he ends his truce with them after they fail his test of whether the Scions would be judged as potential allies. After he is defeated, he accepts his defeat and asks the player character to remember his people. Comes full circle in 5.3, when the soul of Emet-Selch appears to save the player and their party during the final battle against Elidibus.]]

** The Boss in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', before defecting, was Naked Snake's mentor and one of his closest friends. She celebrates her FaceHeelTurn by beating him up and stealing his rescued hostage. [[spoiler: It was a ruse to make Volgin trust her and Snake wasn't in on it.]]
** The same goes for Naked Snake as Big Boss with the chronologically later ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' as the commander of the young Solid Snake.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': [[spoiler:Thancred, one of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, and the player's first ally if they started off in Ul'dah, was secretly possessed by the game's big bad, Lahabrea, an immortal aethereal being who possesses mortal hosts to bring about the resurrection of his dark god. It's implied that Thancred was under Lahabrea's control since long before the player met him.]]

* ''Film/{{Valentine}}'': The film's final shot reveals that [[spoiler:Kate's boyfriend Adam Carr is revealed to be a cover identity for Jeremy Melton, the vengeful SerialKiller picking off her friends over an offense they committed against him years ago. Also counts as LoveInterestTraitor.]]