History Main / MouthOfSauron

* ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'': The NME/Holy Nightmare Co. Salesman combines this with the image of a [[HonestJohnsDealership sleazy salesman]], acting as the public face of his master [[BigBad Nightmare's]] organization and selling monsters or other products to [[UnwittingPawn unwitting pawns]] like King Dedede.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Wilson Fisk strongly insulates himself from his criminal activities by hiring others to do his dirty work for him. Just to further drive this home, most of those who do Fisk's dirty work never take their orders directly from Fisk. In season 1, they take their orders from James Wesley, at least, until Karen kills him. What ends up doing Fisk in is when Nelson & Murdock flip Carl Hoffman, a corrupt cop who was directly ordered by Fisk to kill his partner Christian Blake.
** In season 3, because Fisk is under house arrest, he can't give orders to any of his henchmen directly. His lawyers only do so much as Fisk is careful to minimize Ben Donovan's part in the operation, so most of the time, when Fisk needs to give orders, he goes to a secret room in his penthouse to hold conferences with Felix Manning, who has taken over most of James Wesley's old duties.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[BigBad Emperor Belos]] repeatedly states that everything he does is for the will of the Titan, the gargantuan supposedly-dead being that the Boiling Isles rests upon. He claims that all the morally questionable methods of forcibly conscripting witches into the coven system and his oppressive rule are ultimately necessary to achieve the Titan's wish of eternal paradise for them. [[spoiler:It's eventually confirmed that the entire thing is a complete lie meant to trick witches into helping Belos, in actuality a 17th century human [[TheWitchHunter witch hunter]] named Philip Wittebane, complete his ultimate goal of [[FinalSolution total genocide]] of the Boiling Isles.]]

* The [[TropeNamer Mouth of Sauron]] from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', who serves as EvilOverlord Sauron's herald, and lieutenant of the Dark Tower. He comes out of the Black Gate to insult the Fellowship and try to persuade them Frodo is their captive, but Aragorn and Gandalf refuse to believe him. In the book version, Aragorn scares the Mouth off with a DeathGlare as he speaks (which causes the Mouth to claim he's practically been assaulted), but in the film version, he marches right up and [[OffWithHisHead chops off the Mouth's head]].

* The Hooded One/[[spoiler:Briar Harvester]] from ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'' is this for [[EldritchAbomination the Lord Of Locusts]]; she’s a RevenantZombie reanimated to serve as his mouthpiece, as well as to deal with all the nuts and bolts details of the EvilPlan that he can’t personally handle, on account of being a nigh-incomprehensible cosmic horror who’s [[SealedEvilInACan sealed off from the mortal world]].
* In ''ComicBook/FearItself'', the Serpent has his "Mouth", a lizard-like representative with a huge tongue sent to recruit Hela.
* During the ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' obscure Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica villain Libra was retooled to serve this role to ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}. More traditionally, a character named Glorious Godfrey has served as Darkseid's mouthpiece.
* In ComicBook/TheKingpin's mob, the second most feared man is James Wesley, a lawyer who is responsible for receiving and carrying out the Kingpin's last-minute and secret orders for him. This can include orders to have people killed or acquiring the services of supervillains for his boss.
* The ComicBook/SilverSurfer was introduced this way in his role as Herald of ComicBook/{{Galactus}}, announcing to Earth that his master was coming to devour the planet. In works that really want to play up how high Galactus is on a cosmic scale, he never communicates directly with characters, instead having one of his Heralds speak for him. He's fully capable of communicating, mind you, but as he once put it, "Would you converse with ants and germs?"
* Lewis Prothero in ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' is the Voice of Fate, the person who speaks on behalf of the government. The general population are led to believe that the Voice of Fate is the supercomputer Fate itself, rather than a spokesman, and the first serious hit the government takes is when V exposes the ruse as a side effect of driving Prothero mad.
* ''Franchise/XMen'' gives us a few examples:

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In "Slice of Death", an infamous drug dealer who faked his own death visits lower-ranking dealers on behalf of his unseen employer Cavallo. The team initially thinks that the dealer is Cavallo and pretending to have a boss, but it turns out that he really is just TheDragon.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[BearsAreBadNews Monokuma]] giving an announcement (below) and [[TheBigBad the mastermind controlling him]] (above).]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Monokuma giving an announcement (below) and the mastermind controlling him (above).]]

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': Agahnim speaks and acts in behalf of Ganon, as the King of Evil himself is largely absent for the majority of the game. Subverted when it's revealed that Agahnim is Ganon speaking for himself.

* ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' has the Speaker, who appears on the [[VichyEarth ADVENT Administration]]'s broadcasts on behalf of the "Elders." He looks to be an improved version of the [[HughMann Thin Men]] who appeared in the [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown previous game]], and the only signs of his inhuman nature are the patches of scales around his collar and wrists, and the fact that he never removes his SinisterShades.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the the Winter Court, the vicious fae who would give lessons to all the vile villainesses of literature and lore, doesn't usually need one of these, but for a short few years required one to be able to speak with weaker beings, when she had been pushed beyond wrath. Thus, she uses a cat-like fae at first (Grimalkin), and later Harry's fairy godmother to speak with him. Should she speak freely, it is unpleasant, to say the least.
--> "There are others yet who will pay for what they have done," Mab said in her own voice. It sounded hideous-not unmelodious, because it was rich and full and musical as it had ever been. But it was filled with such rage, such fury, such pain, and such hate that every clawed at my skin, and every consonant felt like someone taking a staple gun to my ears.

* Billy the CreepyDoll in the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' films, who speaks for Jigsaw to his victims. What makes him an interesting example is he's not actually alive, yet is easily the most iconic character in the series, [[spoiler:to the point where he "outlives" his master after the third film and becomes the default face of the Jigsaw identity.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Darth Vader, in addition to serving as TheDragon, performs this duty for Emperor Palpatine. It's not obvious at first glance, but notice that Vader has frequent contact with Imperial commanders, to whom he frequently gives commands. Palpatine is ''never'' shown speaking to any of his other underlings except Vader in the original trilogy, with the sole exception of [[spoiler:"Fire at will, commander!" which of course happened when Vader was too busy helping Palpatine try and turn Luke to be doing any commanding.]]

''Literature/TheInvisibleDetective'': PrivateDetective Brandon Lake only ever talks to people besides his {{Baker Street Regular}}s from behind a silhouette-outlining curtain and [[MouthOfSauron recruits Charles, the Earl of Frotherington to be his representative in meeting people who want regular updates from a respectable adult about his cases.]] Charles is unaware that Lake is an InventedIndividual, with one of "his" regulars (Art) providing the silhouette and voice while wearing oversized clothes, while another (Jonny) uses a fishing rod to send messages from the others down to Art whenever he doesn't know what to say to Lake's visitors.

* Joseph Goebbels was this to Adolf Hitler, in his role as Minister of Propaganda. Somewhat subverted in that Hitler did plenty of speaking on his own, usually at very great length. However, this became especially true after Stalingrad when Hitler began to isolate himself more.
* Likewise, Vyacheslav Molotov to Josef Stalin, alongside ''[[UsefulNotes/RussianReading Pravda]]'' serving as the main media organ of the government.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': Edison Po is the only member of [[NebulousEvilOrganization Centipede]] who speaks directly to their [[TheGhost mysterious]] leader, The Clairvoyant, and passes on his orders. [[spoiler:In "The Magical Place", the Clairvoyant kills him and replaces him with [[TheHeavy Raina]]. And after Raina's arrest, at the end of that episode Ian Quinn seems to have replaced her. As of ''his'' arrest in "T.R.A.C.K.S.", the Clairvoyant seems to have abandoned having a Mouth of Sauron in favor of a [[TheBrute Brute]], Deathlok.]]

* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'': The [[NebulousEvilOrganization Americon Initiative]] communicates with the Graysons through their assassin the White Haired Man. After [[spoiler:he is framed and killed]] in early season 2, a woman from the Initiative starts speaking to Conrad directly.