History Main / EliteFour

** In a subversion of the traditional usage of the trope, the leader of the organization (M. Bison) is considered part of the group of four, rather than being a separate, superior entity.

* An out-of-{{Kayfabe}} example was Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling's "Four Pillars of Heaven". Not a faction, but the four top men who carried the entire promotion on their backs in the 90s and early 2000s- Wrestling/KentaKobashi, Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa, Wrestling/ToshiakiKawada and Akira Taue.
* Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling invoked AJPW's Four Pillars with their own set of "Four Pillars", although rather than their top current attractions, they were positioned as the four top young stars who would carry them forward into the future--Wrestling/{{MJF}} (who, despite being the only {{heel}} of the four, was the one who cut the promo that named the Pillars), Wrestling/DarbyAllin, Jungle Boy and Sammy Guevara, all considered incredibly talented wrestlers AEW could build its entire main event scene around in the future despite only being in their 20s. Though in their epic promo shootout in November 2021, Wrestling/CMPunk suggested to MJF that he had been replaced in the Four Pillars by Wrestling/BrittBaker (30 at the time), while a lot of fans in 2022 decided to replace Sammy with Wheeler Yuta, due to the former's lukewarmly received angle with Tay Conti and the latter's rising prominence and acclaimed matches.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has the four Divine Beasts running wild in the corners of the map, wreaking havoc on nearby settlements. Although defeating them isn't necessary to take on Calamity Ganon, doing so aids Link in the final battle.

* ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'':
** ''Black Hole Rising'': When Sturm returns, he brings with him four [=COs=]: Flak, Adder, Lash, and Hawke, and tasks each of them with invading a different nation in the Wars World.
** ''Dual Strike'': The Bolt Guard are a team of four [=COs=]: Von Bolt (the leader himself), Jugger, Koal, and Kindle, who take control of Black Hole after Sturm's defeat in ''Black Hole Rising''.

* Zigzagged in ‘’ VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII''. FU refers to the four aliens ranked under him as “the big four”, but Travis only fights Midori Midorikawa in a proper battle. Sniping Lee is killed off by another character before Travis can fight him, Paradox Bandit is killed by FU in a rage after he’s caught taking a nap on the job, and although Travis does fight Sonic Juice, when he concedes the fight, FU decides to kill him too.

* Hades from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' looses the Titans from their prison deep within the Earth, using their vengeance against Zeus to engineer a ''coup d'etat''. Four Titans: Lythos (earth/rock), Hydros (water/ice), Pyros (fire/lava) and Stratos (air/wind) advance upon Mount Olympus, while a fifth Titan, Arges (a cyclops with no elemental affiliation) keeps Hercules busy. Apparently poor Arges isn't ''coup d'etat'' material (and the other four have to be pointed towards Olympus).

* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', the Spiral King had four elite generals who led his army. Each of them were based on TheFourGods and their names are a mashup of {{Nature Spirit}}s and DNA nucleotides; each of them oversaw the oppression of the Human race in different war domains (land, sea, sky, and home defense).

* In ''Anime/KillLaKill'', Satsuki Kiryuin had an Elite Four who oversaw the organization of all of the clubs ([[MightyGlacier Ira]] [[PrinciplesZealot Gamagoori]], [[InstrumentOfMurder Nonon]] [[CuteButCacophonic Jakuzure]], [[BlindWeaponmaster Uzu]] [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Sanageyama]] and [[AwesomenessByAnalysis Houka]] [[TheSmartGuy Inumuta]]). These four have the highest ranked [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman Goku Uniforms]] after [[TheHero Ryuko]] and [[TheRival Satsuki]]. At one point, Ryuko has to fight through them all to get to Satsuki, just like the Trope Namer.

** ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'' has [=Metsuboujinrai.NET=], four prototype [=HumaGears=] with the highest level of intelligence, selected and hacked by the [[BigBad Ark]] to serve it. Though, the last two members don't appear late in the series, they've been assisting Jin and Horobi in their mission from the shadow since the first episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': The Magic High Commission are a group of powerful magical beings at the head of the Bureaucracy of Magic, created by Glossaryck to protect the magic of the universe. The comisssion consists of Heckapoo, Rhombulus, Ommnitraxus Prime, and Lekmet.

* "VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniamk2": here, 四天王 is the Japanese name of four giant monsters, leaders of Arfoire Syndicate of International Crime, an organization planning to revive Deity of Sin Arfoire. In English translation they are named Four Felons. [[spoiler:In the end it turns out they've been vessels of Arfoire's power and once they all die, Deity of Sin is going to fully revive.]]

** In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', the four Dark Masters (Mugendramon, Metalseadramon, Pinochimon and Piemon) are the bad guys of the final arc. We find out next season that they're the {{Evil Counterpart}}s of TheFourGods.

** During the ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' storyline BigBad Bane's gang consisted of Bane himself and three henchmen: his loyal NumberTwo and former mentor Trogg; the [[SharpDressedMan sharply-dressed]] and BaldOfEvil Zombie; and the [[TheCharmer smooth-talking]] falconer Bird. While initially it seemed that the gang had an uncommon UndyingLoyalty to each other, as it turned out Bane himself wasn't nearly as loyal to his henchmen as they were to him.
** ComicBook/{{Superman}} once had to contend with The Elite, a group of four self-styled AntiHero types who took it upon themselves to "rid the Earth of scum." Ruthless telekinetic Manchester Black was the team leader, PsychoElectro Coldcast was TheBrute, Rampotatek aka "The Hat" was the team's BlackMage, and the {{Shapeshifting}} Menagerie was the rounded out the group. They later reformed as the heroic Justice League Elite under the leadership of Manchester's sister Vera, though with more than four members.

** The ComicBook/FantasticFour are four humans that made a daring venture into space, where exposure to cosmic radiation gave them superpowers. Reed Richards, "Mister Fantastic," is the team leader and also TheSmartGuy; Ben Grimm, "The Thing," is TheBigGuy; Johnny Storm, "The Human Torch," is the LoveableRogue / wildcard of the group; and Susan Richards, "The Invisible Woman," used to be TheHeart, until Creator/JohnByrne's run on the series promoted her to TheLancer.

[[folder:Video Games]]

* In the first ''VideoGame/TokyoXtremeRacer'' game, there are two QuirkyMinibossSquad racing teams whose name starts in "Four" (Four Devas and Four Devils), consisting of four members each.

** It is also shown in flashbacks to the Moon Kingdom, Princess Serenity[=/=]Sailor Moon and the four Sailor Soldiers were a "leader and four elite subordinates" group. Season two reveals that [[spoiler: in the future, the ''current'' incarnation of the gang will be this for Crystal Tokyo, once an AfterTheEnd world is pulled BackFromTheBrink and into prosperity by them; a happy ending even if they can't avert the disaster that will befall Earth as we know it in a few years.]]

* In ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'', Count Waltz has four agents working directly under him: Legato, his right-hand man, [[BeleagueredAssistant Fugue]], the big lug [[GeneralRipper Tuba]], the cruel and calculating [[TheEvilGenius Fugue]] and the DualWielding assassin [[AnIcePerson Rondo]]. He actually has two other agents, [[spoiler:Claves and Serenade]], but both are spies and don't work directly under him.

** Much like in ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'', The True Arena in ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'' ends with the "Nightmare Four," consisting of battles against [[spoiler: Queen Sectonia DX, Shadow Dedede, Dark Meta Knight's Revenge and Soul of Sectonia]] in a fixed order, compared to the randomized order of the prior battles.

** ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa'' has 4 Elemental Lords; beings that embody the elements: Pyrix (Fire), Adyllis (Earth), Strom (Water), and Avi (Air). Fighting them is optional; however, [[spoiler: failing their Ecology Quests forces you to fight a corrupted yet stronger version of them]].
** ''[[VideoGame/RomancingSaga3 Romancing [=SaGa=] 3]]'' has the main antagonists, The Four Sinistrals. They're a quartet of elemental demons that rule over [[EldritchLocation The Abyss]]: Alloces the Sinistral of Earth, Forneus the Sinistral of Water, Aunas the Sinistral of Fire, and Buné the Sinistral of Wind.
** ''[[VideoGame/SagaFrontier [=SaGa=] Frontier]]'' has the Four Emperors of [[NebulousEvilOrganisation [=BlackX=]]], each one representing a race of the setting: monsters (Berva), [[TheFairFolk Mystics]] ([[spoiler:Cindy Campbell]]), mechs (Metal Black) and humans (Dr Klein).

** In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Platinum]]'', Cyrus has four Commanders under him, though only three are actually battled.

* Only in [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries Toei's anime series]], Kaiba has a quartet of game masters under his employ whom he mobilizes against Yugi after their first match: Ridley Sheldon, an elderly British doll collector and ventriloquist; Ryuichi Fuha, a high school student who was BornLucky; Aileen Rao, a Canadian-Indian dancer skilled in tactical gaming; and Daimon, Kaiba's caring butler preserved on life support who plays a zombie deck.

* The QuirkyMinibossSquad in ''Anime/MonsterRancher'', made by Pixie, Gali, Crazy Wolf and Naga, calls themselves the Big Bad Four.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'': The Four Heavenly Dragons are this, each of them being owned by Yuya and his three counterparts. The dragons are central to their owners' overall strategy and each dragon has a couple of upgraded forms. They are much more dangerous when they combine their powers, either by just being present and playing with their individual strengths or by becoming one (either two dragons become one powerful dragon or all four become the ultimate dragon). Zarc combines himself with all Four Heavenly Dragons to become said ultimate dragon, Supreme King Dragon Z-ARC. While Z-ARC is already incredibly powerful, he also owns corrupted and powerful Servant versions of the Four Heavenly Dragons, who provide him incredible offensive options and protection while he also protects them by his mere presence alone.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': In the BadFuture, the four last humans plan to change history and prevent the apocalypse from happening. All four of them serve as the biggest villains after the end of the Dark Signer arc, and against three of them, it takes the combined power of multiple duelist to defeat them. The one member who is defeated by the power of a single person is the TokenGoodTeammate of the team who pulls off a MentorOccupationalHazard.
* Only in [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries the "Season 0"]] of the ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' Anime, Kaiba has a quartet of game masters under his employ whom he mobilizes against Yugi after their first match: Ridley Sheldon, an elderly British doll collector and ventriloquist; Ryuichi Fuha, a high school student who was BornLucky; Aileen Rao, a Canadian-Indian dancer skilled in tactical gaming; and Daimon, Kaiba’s caring butler preserved on life support who plays a zombie deck.

Legends of Localization has a full article detailing the nuances behind the term [[https://legendsoflocalization.com/tricky-translations-2-the-four-heavenly-kings/ shitennō,]] complete with its own example list and other possible translations used over the years.

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': The Shisei (Four Saints) of Kuryuu Island are Bunchuu's four most trusted men and possess powerful ElementalPowers. They are the one sent to stop the heroes from reaching the capital of the west.

Pop culture has taken both types of groups and expanded the concept to just mean an extremely powerful[=/=]competent group of four, sometimes in the service of one even more impressive master. Because that technically makes five in total, this could also overlap with FiveManBand if the archetypes match up to those specific formations. Bear in mind there is a slight but noteworthy difference between a team of five with an internal leader, and a team of four with an external master, so while they may overlap they aren't one and the same.