History Main / DragoninChief

** Rob Lucci is the Dragon-in-Chief to Spandam, since, despite being leader of the [=CP9=], Spandam is vastly inferior to Lucci (and the rest of his team), and it's Lucci that Luffy ultimately has to defeat to secure a proper victory. [[spoiler:Averted after the time skip, when the two have been re-assigned to Cipher Pol Aegis 0... with Lucci now Spandam's superior.]]

** Since the Core lacks a good host to move around before it takes over Marcy, [[Characters/AmphibiaKingAndrias King Andrias]] takes center stage as the out-and-out main threat. In the lead-up to the final battle with him and his army, none of the heroes are aware of the Core's existence beyond Mother's Olm's vague explanations to Sasha and Anne, because she herself [[OutsideGenreFoe doesn't fully understand what it is]], and as far as everybody outside his palace knows, Andrias is the main threat and driving force behind the invasion, when in actuality, he's merely the physical agent of the Core's will before it becomes Darcy.

** In many ways, [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright's]] more dangerous than Grime, due to how manipulative she is. She gives Grime ''plenty'' of advice that works, and she's more proactive than him when it comes to the frogs, especially with [[spoiler:coming up with the plan to trap the Wartwood populace so that Hop Pop can be executed]]. Of course, in season 2, Grime makes her a genuine friend.

* ''Film/MissionImpossibleDeadReckoningPartOne'': Gabriel acts as this to [[AIIsACrapshoot the Entity]]. While the Entity is in several ways more dangerous than Gabriel, it's still limited in the degree it can interact with the physical world since it only exists in cyberspace. Gabriel thus is the ''de facto'' main antagonist Ethan has to fight.

** PlayedWith in ''Recap/TintinTheBlackIsland" where Müller appears to be working for Puschov, but is arguably the greater threat and might be more of an ally than a minion.

* The [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]] was this to [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] towards the end of the Reich. Especially in [[WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes certain versions]] of the Marvel Universe that refer to World War II as a war against ''ComicBook/{{Hydra}}'' instead of Nazi Germany.

* ''Film/RockNRolla'': Archy is initially Mob Boss Lenny Cole's intelligent, competent, pragmatic, loyal, NobleTopEnforcer, and a major player in Lenny's everyday operations. [[spoiler:However, having witnessed several instances of Lenny's abhorrent conduct, after learning of Lenny's betrayal, Archy finally retaliates against his employer and usurps him.]]

*** The Yggdrasil Corparation has Ryoma Sengoku/Kamen Rider Duke, who all of the New Generation Riders follow while keeping Takatora Kureshima/Kamen Rider Zangetsu, his nominal boss, as an oblivious figurehead. It's PlayedWith though since Takatora is still the strongest fighter of the bunch, and when Ryoma finally decides to move against him he needs to bust out every other New Generation Rider in order to take him down.
*** The Overlord Inves have Redyue, who leads the Inves invasion and is a much more active villain than her king, Rosyuo, whose apathy and sorrow over his wife's death means he can't be arsed to do much. It's PlayedWith though in that while Rosyuo is still more powerful than Redyue given his possession of the ForbiddenFruit (which Redyue plots to steal from him) and [[spoiler:in the end is the one who gets the last laugh, revealing to Redyue that the Overlords' Forbidden Fruit was already withering when she backstabs him]].

* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' gives us a revolving-door version of this. Within the Village, Number Two's authority is absolute and he functions as the episode's BigBad, but he still answers to a Number One who we never see. The twist is that Number Two gets replaced pretty much OnceAnEpisode (and the twist on THAT twist is that each new Number Two acts almost as if he's had the job all along).

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' episode, "Toadie the Conqueror", when Igthorn seeks out a legendary suit of invincible armor, only to discover its pint-sized (it wasn't said, but apparently the original wearer was a midget), Toadworth dons it and gains its power. Igthorn has Toadworth [[CurbStompBattle Curbstomp]] the forces of Dunwyen and Igthorn takes over easily. However, once Toadworth realizes he's now more powerful than Igthorn and reflects on all the abuse he's received from the Duke up to that point, he pulls a TheDogBitesBack combined with DragonAscendant. Fortunately, thanks to Zummi, [[StatusQuoIsGod things go back to status quo by the end]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}''

** In many ways, [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright's]] more dangerous than Grime, due to how manipulative she is. She gives Grime ''plenty'' of advice that works, and she's more proactive than him when it comes to the frogs, especially with [[spoiler:coming up with the plan to trap the Wartwood populace so that Hop Pop can be executed. Of course, in season 2, Grime makes her a genuine friend.

** In ''Recap/TintinTintinInTheCongo'', the villain, Tom, is a henchman of UsefulNotes/AlCapone, who would only appear in the next adventure.
** In ''Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus'', Mitsuhirato is working for series BigBad Rastopopolous.
** In ''Recap/TintinTheBlackIsland" Müller appears to be working for Puschov.

* In the finale of ''Fanfic/PrehistoricEarth'', whilst [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Percival von Grimm]] is the orchestrator of both the park's sabotage and the dinosaur-trafficking operation in the finale, it is his lieutenant [[EvilPoacher Frank]] who acts as the story's most prominent antagonist due to Percival himself being largely too uninvolved and isolated from everything going on at the island where the titular ExtinctAnimalPark is located. [[DownplayedTrope That being said]], von Grimm is still able to intimidate Frank at times and, when he finally gets personally involved, [[spoiler:he convinces all of Frank's men to betray him in exchange for money, before then ordering him left to the mercy of the main characters immediately after tasing Frank into submission]].

*** After the timeskip, Sengoku retires and Akainu is promoted to Fleet Admiral, but he's still a Dragon-in-Chief. Now it's to the Five Elders, the ruling council of the World Government, who don't bother getting involved in the wars fought on their behalf and whose combat prowess is unknown [[spoiler:to the eyes of most of the Marine forces, as they appear to have eaten Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits and Saint Saturn blew the head of a Marine soldier just for daring to glimpse his Ushi-Oni-like Zoan form, plus Saturn can easily regenerate any wound inflicted to him]]. Given that Akainu is a [[AxCrazy madman]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction basically a walking volcano]], it's likely that even if they fight together he can be as dangerous as all five of them combined. In fact, Sakazuki accomplished what the combined might of the Five Elders [[spoiler:and their own boss Imu]] would later fail to do: killing a user of the Flame-Flame Fruit.

*** After the timeskip, Sengoku retires and Akainu is promoted to Fleet Admiral, but he's still a Dragon-in-Chief. Now it's to the Five Elders, the ruling council of the World Government, who don't bother getting involved in the wars fought on their behalf and whose combat prowess is unknown [[spoiler:to the eyes of most of the Marine forces, as they appear to have eaten Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits and Saint Saturn blew the head of a Marine soldier just for daring to glimpse his Ushi-Oni-like Zoan form, plus Saturn can easily regenerate any wound inflicted to him]]. Given that Akainu is a [[AxCrazy madman]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction basically a walking volcano]], it's likely that even if they fight together he can be as dangerous as all five of them combined.

The supposed main villain, for their part, is often a BigBadWannabe as they overestimate TheDragon's loyalty or too afraid to keep them in line. It could also be that the Big Bad is more of a PuppetKing being manipulated by subordinates, and the Dragon finds this set-up preferable to taking charge personally. The Dragon-in-Chief is '''not''' simply [[TheHeavy the main villainous driving force behind the plot]], even if they did not initiate it, but they are such to the point that if the Big Bad pushes them aside the entire operation is rendered less competent. TheHero treats, or comes to treat, The Dragon-In-Chief as the actual main villain of the story, and very often ItsPersonalWithTheDragon.

*** After the timeskip, Sengoku retires and Akainu is promoted to Fleet Admiral, but he's still a Dragon-in-Chief. Now it's to the Five Elders, the ruling council of the World Government, who don't bother getting involved in the wars fought on their behalf and whose combat prowess is unknown [[spoiler:to the eyes of most of the Marine forces, as they appear to have eaten Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits and Saint Saturn blew the head of a Marine soldier just for daring to glimpse his Ushi-Oni_like Zoan form, plus Saturn can easily regenerate any wound inflicted to him]]. Given that Akainu is a [[AxCrazy madman]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction basically a walking volcano]], it's likely that even if they fight together he can be as dangerous as all five of them combined.

*** After the timeskip, Sengoku retires and Akainu is promoted to Fleet Admiral, but he's still a Dragon-in-Chief. Now it's to the Five Elder Stars, the ruling council of the World Government, who don't bother getting involved in the wars fought on their behalf and whose ability to put up any sort of fight is completely unknown. Given that Akainu is a [[AxCrazy madman]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction basically a walking volcano]], it's likely that even if they can fight he's still more dangerous than all five of them combined.
** The World Nobles are the Chiefs to the Marine's dragons, as while the Marines as a whole are {{Hero Antagonist}}s, they're still at the beck and call to the Nobles, who are the epitome of cruelty and evil (slaveholding and genocide being among their crimes) and set draconic laws for which the punishment is death, all while hiding behind immunity from justice for their deeds because their ancestors were the ones who civilized their world. Assaulting (or just angering) a World Noble immediately makes you one of the greatest enemies of the law even if the reason for it was an unambiguously good deed [[spoiler:as Luffy learned when he punched out a Celestial Dragon at a slave auction in a single blow]]. However, the reason the Nobles are so feared are the Marine Admirals, the Nobles themselves are actually the physically weakest characters in the story.

* DualWielding: Her weapons of choice are two swords

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': Since the Core lacks a good host to move around before it takes over Marcy, [[Characters/AmphibiaKingAndrias King Andrias]] takes center stage as the out-and-out main threat. In the lead-up to the final battle with him and his army, none of the heroes are aware of the Core's existence beyond Mother's Olm's vague explanations to Sasha and Anne, because she herself [[OutsideGenreFoe doesn't fully understand what it is]], and as far as everybody outside his palace knows, Andrias is the main threat and driving force behind the invasion, when in actuality, he's merely the physical agent of the Core's will before it becomes Darcy.

* ''VideoGame/BearWithMe'': PCPD chief commissioner Locke serves as the right-hand to [[NonActionBigBad Mayor Daniel Mills]]. But Locke is the one who does most of Mills' heavy lifting, since Mills is mostly non-action for most of the game and Locke is considerably more of a threat to Ted, especially, and Amber.

** ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV IV]]'': The game's antagonist Dimitri Rascalov was this to it's DiscOneFinalBoss, Mikhail Faustian, under Liberty City's Russian mob. While Faustian is an emotionally unstable, hotheaded and short sighted man, Dimitri appears to be a more pragmatic and competent second in command. Dimitri soon facilitates Faustian's murder; ostensibly because Faustian having the son of a more influential monster killed, but in actuality so that Dimitri can usurp control from Faustian. Afterwards, Dimitri becomes a more prominent figure in the Russian mob, bringing them into power in Liberty City, when he's not going out of his way to antagonize Niko.

* ''Manga/AkameGaKill'': Both [[EvilChancellor Prime Minister Honest]] and [[TheBaroness General Esdeath]] are this, as they are the ones really in control of TheEmpire. The nominal ruler, TheEmperor, is an easily manipulated [[AChildShallLeadThem boy]] who just does whatever Honest tells him to, and both of them let Esdeath do as she pleases [[TheDreaded in fear of her retribution]].

* In ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'', Anton Chigurh has been sent to retrieve the stolen money, but he is so focused on completing the job at all costs, that he will kill other people sent by his employers.

** ''Series/KamenRiderBlack'' has Shadow Moon as this to the Creation King. The Creation King stays off-screen for most of the series and is revealed to be [[spoiler:an immobile floating heart]], while Shadow Moon is the one who leads Gorgom and serves as the most formidable threat to Kamen Rider Black.

*** The Overlord Inves has Redyue, who is the most driven to conquering Earth and leads the Inves invasion in place of her king, Rosyuo.

** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': Kamen Rider Grease and Kamen Rider Rogue are this for the Prime Ministers of Hokuto and Seito respectively. They may have been the ones to order the Touto invasion, but both were entirely reliant on their country's Kamen Rider to defeat Build.

** For ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'', Astronema takes on this role in the grand scheme of things. She is the strongest foe in Dark Spector's inventory but secretly plots against him behind his back, and she would have been the one to kill him if [[TheStarscream Darkonda]] didn't beat her to it. And ultimately the heroes never face [[OrcusOnHisThrone Dark Spector]] directly, and Astronema remains their primary enemy to defeat by the end. (Another reading of the show is that Astronema is the BigBad; Dark Spector is the GreaterScopeVillain.)

** In ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'', Admiral Malkor is set up as the BigBad at first, but the conflicts the Rangers face are mainly caused by Vrak.

** ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'': With [[BigBad Deboth]] sealed, Hundred-Faced High Priest Chaos leads the Deboth Army in his stead for the time being. When Deboth is properly revived he starts off a feral beast and Chaos still has to steer things. Eventually though, [[spoiler:Deboth assumes his [[OneWingedAngel Transcendenterfly God]] form and is able to take full command of the army.]]

* The Jabberwocky (which, for bonus points, just so happens to resemble a dragon) is by far the bigger threat commpared to the Red Queen in ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'', given that Alice's goal is to slay it and [[spoiler: as soon as she does, all of the Red Queen's followers abandon her and she's quickly banished]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Grand Admiral Thrawn is, on-paper, a subordinate to Governor Pryce. However, due to [[TheChessmaster Thrawn's]] peerless strategic genius, he ends up being the far bigger threat to the nascent Rebel Alliance. Later on, when Pryce makes a mistake that has the potential to irreparably derail Thrawn's long-term plan for victory in the war, and then throws a parade to distract from it, he throws all pretenses about being her subordinate out the window, [[TranquilFury seething]] that she ''will'' be dealt with by him in time. The only officials he's shown answering to are Tarkin and the Emperor himself, and even then he seems to have enough authority to act with impunity.

The Dragon-in-Chief is a version of TheDragon who serves as the ''de facto'' BigBad of the story, even if they're supposedly not the one in charge. They're nominally subordinate to another villain, but typically [[HyperCompetentSidekick so much smarter, stronger or more skillful]], and just as evil if not more so (and almost always scarier) that it's clear who's really the bigger menace. This character tends to have almost no respect for the Big Bad due to their comparative lack of {{vision|aryVillain}}, [[VillainousValour courage]] or [[PragmaticVillainy common sense]].

The supposed main villain, for their part, is relegated to BigBadWannabe as they seriously or even fatally overestimate TheDragon's loyalty, or are just too afraid of them to be able to keep them in line. The Dragon-in-Chief is '''not''' simply [[TheHeavy the main villainous driving force behind the plot]], even if they did not initiate it, but they are such to the point that the Big Bad is pushed aside or even endangered by them, and rendered less important by comparison. TheHero treats, or comes to treat, The Dragon-In-Chief as the actual main villain of the story, and very often ItsPersonalWithTheDragon.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

-->-- '''Tywin Lannister''', ''Series/GameOfThrones'', "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS3E10Mhysa Mhysa]]"

* Klim of ''VideoGame/MetroExodus's Sam's Story''. Tom is the obvious leader of his own gang, but Klim, his right-hand, is the one who runs the scene in the first place. Having plans to [[spoiler:[[TheStarscream depose Tom]] and take the U.S.S. Mayflower by force to start another nuclear war]], he is the overall main threat to Tom, Sam and the Captain.]]

* Klim of ''VideoGame/MetroExodus's Sam's Story''. Tom is the obvious leader of his own gang, but Klim, his subordinate, is the one who runs the scene in the first place. Having plans to [[TheStarscream depose Tom and [[spoiler:take the U.S.S. Mayflower by force to start another nuclear war]], he is the overall main threat to Tom, Sam and the Captain.]]