History Main / BiggerBad

* In ''Starcraft I'' and ''[[StarcraftII II]]'', the BigBads are the Zerg Overmind, Sarah Kerrigan and (in ''Wings of Liberty'') Arcturus Mengsk. The Zeratul side missions (starting in ''Brood War'' and continuing in ''Wings of Liberty'') reveal a nebulous BiggerBad looming in the horizon.

* Most final bosses from recent [[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] games fit this role. Chaos in Sonic Adventure largely does nothing but be a threat, until the very end. The Finalhazard in Sonic Adventure 2 again serves almost no purpose to the plot, not even showing up until the end. Iblis in Sonic '06 too, though not [[spoiler:Mephiles and Solaris]]. Dark Gaia too in Sonic Unleashed served little to no purpose, other than being the BiggerBad. You'd think by now Eggman would've learnt to stop [[SealedEvilInACan breaking the seal]]

* Sargeras in the ''{{Warcraft}}'' universe. He's the founder of [[DemonicInvaders The Burning Legion]] and the most powerful being ever (save perhaps the Old Gods), but has never directly appeared in any of the games as of yet. Starting from ''Warcraft: Orcs and Humans'', he was behind bringing TheHorde to Azeroth in the first place, but has been MIA since then (though he has a tomb in ''The Frozen Throne'').
** Sargeras was the Titans' champion in charge of fighting and imprisoning the demons that they fought against, he was their best man when it came to fighting. And yet it is heavily implied that not even he could deal with the Old Gods if they were to become free again. The players have fought only two confirmed Old Gods, one was heavily injured already, the other required aid by his jailors. Even under those conditions, both were difficult raid bosses and both required a raid group comprised of some of the strongest, highly skilled and best equipped heroes the Horde and the Alliance had at the time.

* The Crimson King was presented as the central evil in StephenKing's metaverse; however, in an example of TheDevilIsALoser, when he's finally confronted in the GrandFinale of the DarkTower series he's revealed to be nothing more than an insane old man armed with nothing except sticks of dynamite, who is promptly defeated in one of the most ignoble manners possible. It's later revealed he had relied on ancient technology to give him most of his seemingly multiverse-spanning omnipotent powers, and when he lost that through the efforts of various heroes on various realities he was reduced to the pathetic wretch confronted by Roland.

As the page description for BigBad notes, that character may be the one who is directly responsible for the plot, but is not necessarily the most powerful or [[CosmicBeing cosmically significant]] evil presence in the setting. That's where this trope comes in - a villainous presence that is more cosmically significant than the BigBad exists in the setting, but cannot truly be said to be the one ''causing'' the conflict (and may have little to do with it at all). Perhaps it's an important SealedEvilInACan that never gets released, is simply unconcerned with current events, or is a mindless force or EldritchAbomination that can't by any realistic stretch of the imagination be considered a character. Sometimes the real BigBad will seek [[AppliedPhlebotinum to exploit or make use of it]], or may [[DragonInChief pay lip service to it]], though this doesn't always happen. DemonLordsAndArchdevils, {{Satan}} himself, and {{EldritchAbomination}}s and evil gods (including [[GodOfEvil gods OF evil]]) are particularly likely to be this when the story features them in remote roles while centering on a more human level conflict. If the BigBad tries to harness the Bigger Bad for his own gain, he'll likely learn the painful lesson that EvilIsNotAToy.

* In JamesBond, this crops up a few times, usually in the early films but it's returned for the Craig movies. The BiggerBad is either a NebulousEvilOrganization like SPECTRE (eg. {{''Thunderball''}} or Quantum (eg. ''CasinoRoyale''), or it is some unnamed client country that is generally implied to be [[RedScare Red China]] (eg. {{''Goldfinger''}}. ''DrNo'' has both, as No works for SPECTRE but it's implied they were hired by China

* TheDarkSide in ''StarWars'' is the most powerful evil in the setting, but is a [[IncrediblyLamePun force]], rather than a character. TheEmperor is BigBad of the movies, and see the BigBad page for a (largely) complete listing of ExpandedUniverse Big Bads.

* Chaos in all it's incarnations in ''SailorMoon''.

* [[EldritchAbomination The Ogdru Jahad]] tend to be behind most villains in HellBoy stories.

** It should be noted that Dark Specter was never mentioned in the first five seasons, until ''PowerRangersInSpace'' where all previous BigBads are {{retcon}}ned into being his minions.

* The Liege Maximo, founder of Jhiaxus's Decepticons in Marvel's ''[[{{Transformers}} Transformers: Generation 2]]''.

* In many of the later MegaMan games, Dr. Wily is often revealed as the Bigger Bad behind the initial bad guy (such as Dr. Cossack in ''Mega Man 4'').

[[AC: {{Religion}}]]
* Acording to most varieties of [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Christianity]], this is the role Satan plays in the human world.
* Angra Mainyu (better known by the Persian name Ahriman) in some forms of Zoroastrianism.
* Apep in EgyptianMythology

* Dark Spectre in the first six seasons of PowerRangers; the BigBad of each season are just his minions, who he is far superior to in power (he only died due to ''two'' [[TheStarscream starscreams]], one effectively poisoning him, and the other ''hitting him with two planet-destroying missiles''. The rangers themselves get ''creamed'' the few times they fought him while the BigBad was in the middle of a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor.
** The Master in PowerRangersMysticForce is a more traditional example, basically being [[EldritchAbomination Cthulhu]]. The demons' plot is to unleash him, and in the end, he was defeated via willpower and overfeeding rather than combat.

* When compared Medusa's villainous progress against the protagonists, this may be the role of Asura in {{Soul Eater}}. He is one of a group of Eldritch Abominations who personify and provoke in humans various forms of madness. So far his only influence as a threat has been indirect, as upon his release Asura's mere existence empowered a growing group of chaotically dangerous antagonists. That said, he ''is'' certainly a character, albeit a rather sketchy one. Medusa is also trying to harness his power, Arachne wanted to destroy/usurp him and Noah is trying to collect him. Lord Death ''appears'' to want his old friend recaptured, but with him its [[ObfuscatingStupidity very]] [[TheDumbledore hard]] to tell.

* The BigBad of the DannyPhantom series was Vlad Masters, but he was never the BigBad of any of the four [[TheMovie movies]]. In the first movie, Vlad tries to enlist the help of Pariah Dark, The Ghost King, who proves too powerful for Vlad to control. In the second, it is revealed TheHero's [[FutureMeScaresMe Evil Self]] from a BadFuture, "Dark Danny" (a.k.a. [[FanNickname Dan Phantom]]), took Vlad out early on in his reign (the ResetButton is hit for this one). Vlad was absent from the third movie. In the fourth, Vlad tried to use the approaching ecto-asteroid to his advantage to TakeOverTheWorld (despite his [[MotiveDecay original intentions]] [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope or plans]]), but even this proved too much for him when he discovered he couldn't touch the thing. ...Vlad was usually a [[MagnificentBastard better villain]] than {{TheMovie}}s might suggest.

* Zemus from ''FinalFantasyIV'', and Necron from ''FinalFantasyIX''; Necron being a particuarly spontaneous GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere.

** Debatable. Though the book never outright states the exact nature of the Thing, TheMovie flat-out states that the Black Thing was created by IT, making IT the biggest villain of at least that adaptation.
*** In the book, The Black Thing is Evil, the Powers of Darkness. Camazotz has given in to the Black Thing. It is implied that the Black Thing formed IT to control Camazotz and its people.

*Queen Metalia in the first season and Chaos in the last of ''SailorMoon''.

* [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Necron]] of ''FinalFantasyIX'' is a textbook example.

*A handful of episodes of ''SpidermanTheAnimatedSeries'' feature [[EvilSorcerer Baron Mordo]] as the BigBad, who is trying to unseal his demonic master Dormammu. Dormammu is a presence in the episodes, but the sorcerer is the primary villain.

*In InuYasha, Naraku serves as the BigBad for the entirety of the series' very long run, but the real ultimate force of evil in the InuYasha universe confronted at the very end of the series turns out to be [[spoiler: the Shikon No Tama jewel itself, or rather the composite demon Magatsuhi sealed inside it.]]

** A similar case can be made for Ganon himself in [[TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link To The Past]], if Agahnim is a separate person. However, people in the game talk about Ganon much more than about Agahnim, so...
** Ganon in TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames definitely counts: He just appears as a boss in a linked game, and the plot is driven by Twinrova trying to resurrect him. Twinrova her/themselves is/are also TheManBehindTheMan to each separate game's BigBad.
*Sargeras in the ''{{Warcraft}}'' universe. He's the founder of [[DemonicInvaders The Burning Legion]] and the most powerful being ever, but has never directly appeared in any of the games as of yet. Starting from ''Warcraft: Orcs and Humans'', he was behind bringing TheHorde to Azeroth in the first place, but has been MIA since then (though he has a tomb in ''The Frozen Throne''). It's more or less accepted by the fanbase that he'll be the final boss of ''WorldOfWarcraft'''s last ExpansionPack.
** Whether he is the "most powerful being ever" is unclear; he was a powerful Titan, but not the only one, and his power was reduced (at least, that's what a broken sword probably implies) when he [[StartOfDarkness went bad]].
** The other Titans were ''afraid'' of him. What does that tell you?
*** Sargeras was the Titan's champion in charge of fighting and imprisoning the demons that they fought against, he was their best man when it came to fighting. And yet it is heavily implied that not even he could deal with the Old Gods if they were to become free again. The players have fought only two confirmed Old Gods, one was heavily injured already, the other required aid by his jailors. Even under those conditions, both were difficult raid bosses and both required a raid group comprised of some of the strongest, highly skilled and best equipped heroes the Horde/Alliance had at the time.
*** While he might not be able to handle ALL of them at once, one on one it's pretty good odds he'd win against an Old God, since there is only one account of an Old God and Titan fighting one on one, and though it ended with the Titan dead, he was a lesser Titan, and C'Thun was down to about 1 HP, taking millennia to even regain consciousness after the battle, and given the probable power level difference between that Titan and Sargerous.....SoYeah
** He was explicitly named the Titan's champion due to being the best and strongest fighter among them. As to the broken sword, that has nothing to do with his power, it was an EmpathicWeapon that broke itself in two after he turned evil, he kept the evil half, and the good half was claimed by his replacement as the Titan's champion. The fact he has a tomb is also irrelevant, as the "body" that was placed there wasn't his real one, but an avatar that he intentionally allowed the world's most powerful mage kill, so he could use the drop in her defenses while casting the spell that "killed" it to place part of his spirit into her, said piece went on the fully posses her son Medihv. in fact pretty much every single BigBad in the Warcraft story is either a direct result of Sargerous, or the [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]], and half the stuff they did was intended to ultimately lead to getting Sargerous onto the planet, so he can destroy it.