History Main / DemotedtoDragon

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': After Shigaraki defeated Re-Destro the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, he becomes a subordinate of his when they form the Meta Liberation Front and declare war on the Heroes.

* [[GorgeousGorgon Medusa]], the villain of the first ''VideoGame/KidIcarus'' game, is actually reduced to this in ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising''. Though in what may have been an AuthorsSavingThrow in case this wasn't well-received, it's revealed that the Medusa in ''Uprising'' isn't actually Medusa, just a whole bunch of random souls Hades put together in a Medusa-shaped container.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth The Stolen Earth]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]", Davros, creator of the Daleks and who had served as the BigBad of most of the Dalek stories in the classic series since his introduction, has clearly been demoted to being a minion of the Supreme Dalek.

** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'': Once Tenjuro Banno, creator of the Roidmudes, successfully acquires a new body to host his mind, he quickly promotes himself to lead villain and forces the remaining Roidmudes to work for him. Given the Roidmudes have always despised Banno, their hatred of this arrangement soon brings about their HeelFaceTurn.

** ''Series/DenshiSentaiDenziman'''s BigBad, Queen Hedrian, gets revived in the following series, ''Series/TaiyouSentaiSunVulcan'' to be Führer Hell Saturn's [[TheDragon Dragon]] in Machine Empire Black Magma. Although Hedrian is very [[TheHeavy proactive]] and quickly builds up her own power within Black Magma, to the point where her relationship with Hell Saturn starts to more resemble a BigBadDuumvirate.

* [[ArchEnemy Vilgax]] from ''Franchise/{{Ben 10}}'' becomes the Dragon to [[EldritchAbomination Diagon]] in the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' season 2 finale, though he is hinted to be a DragonWithAnAgenda. This is confirmed in the GrandFinale, where Vilgax is a successful [[TheStarscream Starscream]], killing Diagon and absorbing his power to become the most dangerous villain the franchise.

* Slade from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' is demoted to Trigon's dragon when the latter tries to take over the world. An unusual case where the former BigBad is actually ''more'' of a threat to the heroes when he's serving as someone else's henchman, because Trigon gave him [[EmpoweredBadassNormal a truckload of powers in the bargain]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'': This is played with when [[EldritchAbomination Unicron]] shows up. [[BigBad Megatron]] ''wants'' to serve him, but Unicron doesn't give a crap about Megatron, viewing him as beneath him. Which is a total reversal of the G1 situation ("serve me or get ''eaten''") and the ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' situation ("you've actually been [[BatmanGambit serving me all along]].") where it's an unwilling Megs being made to work for Unicron until he can turn the tables. (If you go with the AllThereInTheManual RetCon that there's just one Unicron, it could be that the Chaos-Bringer has just learned that Megatrons don't make good servants.)

* Poor King Ghidorah of the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' franchise. He started out as the BigBad in ''Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster'' and was considered the ultimate evil in the universe. The next film, ''Film/InvasionOfAstroMonster'' reduced him into the mind-controlled pet of an evil alien-race. And he's pretty much been that way ever since. [[CharacterRerailment At least until]] ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters''.

** In the first ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie, Megatron is the BigBad. In [[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen the sequel]], he's resurrected, but the BigBad is The Fallen.
** In ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' while initially appearing to be the one in control Megatron is soon ousted from the role of BigBad to [[FaceHeelTurn Sentinel Prime]] after he briefly presumed they were equal partners [[note]]it is ultimately realizing this that pushes Megatron to betray Sentinel, leading to both of them being killed by Optimus[[/note]]. Meanwhile in ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'' it initially appears that Megatron is in a BigBadEnsemble with Quintessa, before it is later revealed that he is working for her, taking he role of Dragon after Nemesis Prime overcomes Quintessa's brainwashing and becomes Optimus again. Even in Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction where Megatron, [[MeaningfulRename or rather Galvatron]], is working towards his own agenda, it is simply as the less of the BigBadEnsemble, ultimately fleeing in the final battle while the Autobots fight Lockdown, the main BigBad.

** In the first ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'' game, Shang Tsung appears as the Big Bad, with Goro as his Dragon. Starting with the second game, Shao Kahn overtakes his Big Bad status, where Shang Tsung becomes his one of his CoDragons, alongside Kintaro and later on, Goro.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand''. Tatanga is the FinalBoss. In the sequel, Wario is the FinalBoss, and Tatanga is simply guarding one of his coins for some reason. It's implied he may have been working for Wario the whole time, given that Wario takes over when Mario was distracted by Tatanga.

* Brokenstar was the BigBad of ''Into the Wild'', the first book of the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series. Then he gets driven out of his [[TheClan clan]] and killed, leaving [[BigBad Tigerstar]] in control of his army. Later in the ''OmenOfTheStars'' arc, Tigerstar and Brokenstar meet up in the afterlife and Tigerstar becomes Brokenstar's dragon.

** ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'': While Beroba initially manages to recruit Michinaga to her side as her Dragon with the promise that he'll be able to get his revenge on the Kamen Riders, he openly admits to being uninterested in her other goals. When Beroba suffers a defeat in battle, Michinaga wastes no time in taking her Vision Driver for himself and inverting their relationship. Beroba takes the demotion in stride, although she's petulant about it.

** ''Series/DenshiSentaiDenziman'''s BigBad, Queen Hedrian, gets revived in the following series, ''Series/TaiyouSentaiSunVulcan'', and forced to serve Führer Hell Saturn.

* Regina Mills, the BigBad of the first season of ''Series/OnceUponATime'' becomes TheDragon to her mother Cora in the second.
* In ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', Mr. Greer willingly and ''happily'' demotes himself to the role of TheDragon after succeeding in his two-season mission to install Samaritan, an ArtificialIntelligence unfettered by morality, as the show's new BigBad. His goal is to put ''all of humanity'' in the control of AIs, believing them to be logical, incorruptible and superior to human leaders in every way.

* The three Gorgom Priests are TheHeavy for most of ''Series/KamenRiderBlack''. When they revive Shadow Moon in the latter half, they become CoDragons to him.

* In the ''Film/WrongTurn'' series, Three Finger is the default leader of the cannibal hillbillies. But in the [[Film/WrongTurn5Bloodlines fifth]] and [[Film/WrongTurn6LastResort sixth]] films, he takes orders from other members of the family -- [[EvilOldFolks Maynard]] in the former, and [[BrotherSisterIncest Jackson and Sally]] in the latter. In the first case, he actually seems [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority intimidated into service]], while in the second it's more a case of TeethClenchedTeamwork.

* Sagat was the final boss in the original ''VideoGame/StreetFighter1''. In ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'', he's simply the last fighter the player must face before M. Bison.

* Professor Pericles from ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' acts as the BigBad of season 1 but in the second half of season 2 is revealed to be the Dragon to [[UltimateEvil the Nibiru entity]].

** In season 3, Obscurio himself is revealed to be the first lieutenant of [[OverarchingVillain Magor]] and acts as the secondary antagonist of the season.

** In the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E25TwilightsKingdomPart1 Twilight's Kingdom, Part 1]]", Discord ''thinks'' he and Tirek are a BigBadDuumvirate, but in actuality he's this trope and Tirek double crosses him as soon as he is no longer important.

** [[TheHeavy Snide]] is the main antagonist for the first half of ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' season 2. After his [[DiscOneFinalBoss defeat midway through]], he becomes the general of [[GreaterScopeVillain Lord Arcanon]]. It's revealed during the climax that he was actually TheMole in Arcanon's team and was allied with [[HyjackedByGanon Sledge]] the whole time. They're set up as a BigBadDuumvirate at first, but it soon becomes clear that Sledge is the ''real'' BigBad and Snide one of his CoDragons.
** ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'': Sledge and Snide return during the Crossover between ''Dino Charge'' and Beast Morphers'' as lieutenants of Evox/''Venjix''. Sledge is later killed and replaced by Goldar, TheDragon and [[TheHeavy Heavy]] of Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers.
** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'': Void Knight is the main villain of season 1, but is overthrown by his wife Void Queen after the first quarter of season 2. After spending the second quarter of the season as the rangers' ally, he's captured and brainwashed by Void Queen into being her second-in-command.

* Gideon was the BigBad of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' in Season 1, but becomes [[SatanicArchetype Bill Cipher]]'s enforcer in Season 2 after Bill regains his full power and brings the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

** Copy-X is the BigBad of ''VideoGame/MegaManZero1'', eventually destroyed by Zero. He CameBackWrong in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero3 Zero 3]]'' and resumes leadership of Neo Arcadia. However, it's obvious to everyone but Copy-X himself that he was just being manipulated by Dr. Weil, the true BigBad of the ''Zero'' series, and he sets Copy-X up to be killed once he has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness served his purpose]].
** [[SuperBoss Apollo Flame]] is the ArcVillain of the [[PostEndGameContent Alternate Future]] storyline of ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce 2''. He then comes back as an underling of Sirius, the ArcVillain SuperBoss of ''Star Force 3's'' own post-game storyline.

* Copy-X is the BigBad of ''VideoGame/MegaManZero1'', eventually destroyed by Zero. He CameBackWrong in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero3 Zero 3]]'' and resumes leadership of Neo Arcadia. However, it's obvious to everyone but Copy-X himself that he was just being manipulated by Dr. Weil, the true BigBad of the ''Zero'' series, and he sets Copy-X up to be killed once he has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness served his purpose]].