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1They may not be TheHero or the BigBad, but that doesn't stop them from throwing fists when the time comes.
2
3This trope happens when TheLancer and TheDragon of a story face off against each other in a direct fight. Since they're not the focus of the story it can happen almost any time, although if it occurs during the climax, expect to see their fight interspersed with the main showdown between the hero and villain. Also, since both characters lack the superior PlotArmor of protagonist and antagonist, their duel can be more suspenseful since neither is guaranteed to survive. It often occurs as a part of TheRestShallPass scenario, especially in cases when it happens several times until only the hero remains. In such instances, it is almost guaranteed the Lancer and the Dragon will be the last ones left behind before TheHero confronts the BigBad.
4
5Contrast with ItsPersonalWithTheDragon, where TheHero is the one who is fighting TheDragon.
6
7Compare/contrast DesignatedGirlFight.
8----
9!!Examples:
10
11[[foldercontrol]]
12
13[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
14* ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'': Koji is the Lancer and Duskmon is the Dragon to Cherubimon. The two fight twice before Koji discovers Duskmon is [[spoiler:his twin brother Koichi who is brainwashed by Cherubimon and teams up with Takuya to free him from Cherubimon's control]].
15* In the ''Anime/DoraemonFilmSeries'' the titular robot cat serves as Nobita's lancer, and he gets to face the dragon in a couple of his movies:
16** ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheBirthOfJapan'': Tsuchidama, assumed to be the main villain, turns out to be Lord Gigazombie's VoiceOfTheLegion, second-in-command and the dragon of the film. Who gets to battle Doraemon in an intense gadget duel that climaxes the second act.
17** ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheSpaceHeroes'': Despite his insistence to be the BigGood, Doraemon spends most of the film playing second fiddle to the ''actual'' main protagonist, Nobita, filling in the lancer position, and the climax have him battling Ikaros' dragon, Hyde in a frenetic chase sequence. Interestingly, ''both'' the lancer and dragon in this film are {{Leader Wannabe}}s, which seems to be intentional.
18* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' changed up the Lancer several times, in order:
19** Yamcha was the first Lancer and faced Tien who was the Crane Hermit's original Dragon.
20** After Tien's HeelFaceTurn, he became the new Lancer and faced the Demon King Piccolo's Dragon Tambourine.
21** Since the Android saga, Vegeta has been Goku's Lancer. His first battle in this arc was against Android 19, Doctor Gero's most loyal creation.
22** The Resurrection F arc in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' had Vegeta kill Ginyu in Tagoma's body.
23** The movies did this a bit more, Piccolo fought Salza in 5, Vegeta destroyed Android 15 in 7.
24* ''Manga/FairyTail'' largely averts this, with [[TheBigGuy Erza Scarlet]] instead being typically the one to take down the arc villain's Dragon, but the Tenrou Island arc and the Alvaraz plays it straight, with Grey Fullbuster being the one to defeat Ultear Milkovich, one of Hades' CoDragons, and Invel, [[spoiler:Zeref's]] Chief-of-Staff.
25* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'', Caesar Zeppeli goes off on his own to take down the Pillar Man and fights Wammu, the sole-remaining [[CoDragons co-dragon]] of Kars. [[spoiler:It's the battle that Caesar lost his life]].
26* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Zoro is often pitted against the first mate of enemy crews or the right-hand man of non-pirate groups, particularly in the first half of the series. The most egregious examples are Cabaji in the Orange Town arc, Hatchan in Arlong Park arc, Mr. 1/Daz Bonez in the Alabasta arc, Ohm in the Skypiea arc, Kaku during the Enies Lobby arc, and King in the Wano arc; all generally considered the second most dangerous of their groups.
27* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':
28** During the Battle City arc, Joey duels Odion, Marik's right-hand man, who is posing as him during the tournament. Joey is able to progress thanks to being the first to get up after Ra strikes the field but fails to win his duel against Marik himself.
29** During the Virtual World arc, Kaiba duels Lector of the Big Five who serves as the dragon to Noah. Kaiba's duel with Noah is something of an inversion as Noah is serving as the dragon to [[spoiler:Gozaburo]]; Yugi defeats Noah after the latter defeats Kaiba whereas Kaiba goes on to defeat [[spoiler:Gozaburo]] after the latter reveals himself as the true BigBad.
30** Inverted in the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix arc. The ArcVillain Zigfried duels Joey and Kaiba at different points, defeating the former and losing to the latter. His Dragon [[spoiler:and little brother]] Leon duels Yugi in the arc's climax and is beaten.
31[[/folder]]
32
33[[folder:Comic Books]]
34* ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel2015'': During the "Hope Dies" arc, this happens between Darth Vader, the Emperor's cruel right hand, and Han Solo, Luke Skywalker's roguish comrade. After the Rebel fleet got caught up in a trap, with all of their X-Wings trapped on their cruisers unable to lift off, it's up to Han in the Millennium Falcon to confront Vader's TIE fighter on a solitary OldSchoolDogfight.
35[[/folder]]
36
37[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
38* The final shootout of ''Film/ABetterTomorrow 2'' have Ken, the lancer to Ho, facing off the unnamed BattleButler of the BigBad, Ko Ying-Pui who is the closest the movie have to a dragon. Both of them equally lethal with a gun, having shot each other several times, they end up settling their confrontation with a one-vs-one duel - sliding a loaded gun towards each other, grab and pull the trigger. The lancer wins by shooting the dragon's throat.
39* ''Film/BulletproofMonk'': While Kar and the Monk with No Name take on the Nazi BigBad Strucker, Jade aka Bad Girl faces off against his granddaughter and second-in-command Nina.
40* ''Film/ButterflyAndSword'' has the mansion assault when the protagonist Sing-Wan backs up his allies, Sister Ko and Yip Cheung against Lord Suen's forces. While Sing-Wan and Sister Ko battles Lord Suen directly, Yip Cheung, who serves as the lancer to Sing-Wan, fights Suen's main henchman, Luk. The lancer and the dragon even ''leaves'' the area they're fighting, away from the mansion into a nearby forest while the other heroes deals with Suen and his mooks.
41* ''Franchise/{{Deadpool}}'':
42** At the end of ''Film/Deadpool2016'', the titular hero has a fight against the BigBad Ajax, while his allies Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead take care of Ajax's [[TheDragon Dragon]] Angel Dust.
43** In ''Film/Deadpool2'', Colossus, Negasonic, and Yukio fight [[TheJuggernaut Juggernaut]] while Deadpool tries to stop [[spoiler: Russell]] from killing the Headmaster.
44* ''Film/DragonballEvolution'': During the climactic battle, Bulma takes on Mai. Mai emerges victorious but is defeated by Yamcha, the other lancer of the group.
45* ''Film/{{Dredd}}'': Anderson is the secondary protagonist of the movie and she defeats one of Ma-Ma's CoDragons, Kaye, in a psychic duel. [[spoiler:Kaye later meets his demise when he tries to fire Anderson's Lawgiver, which promptly blows his arm off in a very messy way.]]
46* ''Film/TheExpendables2'': When the Expendables take on the Sangs in the airport shootout at the end, inevitably the team's Lancer, Lee, is assigned to take on the Sangs' Dragon, Hector, leading to their one-on-one showdown.
47* ''Film/TheFellowshipOfTheRing'': Though Aragorn isn't the main hero and Lurtz isn't the main villain, their intense fight is the climax of the film.
48* The final shootout of ''Film/TheGameChanger'' have the lancer, Zi-Hao, on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge for [[spoiler:the hero and his deceased best friend, Fang-Jie]], in the mansion belonging to [[spoiler:the HiddenVillain, Boss Tang]]. After taking down legions and legions of mooks, Zi-Hao then duels [[spoiler:Boss Tang's]] personal bodyguard and the film's main dragon, Owen, in a lengthy duel involving blades since both men have spent all their bullets, with the lancer fatally stabbing the dragon.
49* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': During the final battle, [[TheHero Godzilla]] fights [[BigBad King Ghidorah]], while Mothra ([[TheLancer the only kaiju ally of Godzilla]]) fights Rodan ([[TheDragon Ghidorah's main henchman]]).
50* ''Film/HardBoiled'' ends it's iconic [[TheOner long-take]] hospital shootout with the hero, Tequila, and the lancer, Alan, being ambushed by the villain Johnny Wong's dragon, Mad Dog just as the heroes received news from a recovered walkie-talkie that the baby's incubation room has been breached, at which point Alan and Mad Dog continues their fight while Tequila made his way to the incubation center to evacuate the children. This particular shootout eventually ends with the lancer and dragon staring down each other in a one-on-one MexicanStandoff in a hospital waiting room... with a dozen innocent bystanders caught right in the middle, at which point [[NobleDemon Mad Dog]] deliberately postpones the duel so the civilians can leave.
51* Zig-zagged in the Creator/JetLi film, ''Film/Hitman1998''. Li, the protagonist, starts off with battling the main villain's unnamed second-in-command, an expert assassin only known as the Tall Guy, whilst Chan (Creator/SimonYam's lancer) fights Eiji himself. Halfway through, both Li and Chan swaps enemies, so Chan executes the Tall Guy while Li ends up killing Eiji
52* ''Film/JamesBond'':
53** In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', [[BondGirl Jinx]] has a DesignatedGirlFight with [[TheMole Miranda Frost]] while Bond takes on BigBad Gustav Graves during the climax.
54** In ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', Camille fights General Medrano to avenge her family's murder at his hands while Bond fights Medrano's [[TheManBehindTheMan backer]] from Quantum, Dominic Greene.
55* ''Film/JohnWickChapter4'': Chidi is the Marquis' MookLieutenant and [[TheBrute muscle]], but while he pursues John throughout the movie and gets [[MadeOfIron battered a lot]] by him, it's [[TheRival Caine]] who is the one who defeats him in the climax and [[WildCard the Tracker]] who finishes him off.
56* ''Film/TheKiller1989'' ends its infamous [[BloodstainedGlassWindows Church shootout]] with Ah Jong, the hero, pursuing main villain Wong Hoi who had Jenny at gunpoint, as Jong's lancer Li Ying takes on Wong's dragon Paul. After swapping some lead, the lancer emerged victorious in time to interrupt a standoff between Ah Jong and Wong Hoi by holding Paul's head at gunpoint, only for Wong to pull a YouHaveFailedMe by shooting Paul over his failure.
57* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019'': During the climactic battle, Shenzi and Nala single each other out as not only is the former Scar's [[TheDragon Dragon]] with Nala serving as Simba's [[TheLancer Lancer]], but both have been wanting to have this fight for years.
58--> '''Shenzi''': Now ''this'' is a meal I have waited my whole life for.\
59'''Nala:''' I've been waiting too. And I'm not a cub anymore!
60* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' is an interesting case. The film starts focusing on Max, before it shifts to making Furiosa the protagonist, which brings this trope into play when Max battles Prince Rictus Erectus at the climax.
61* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
62** In the movie ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', Loki acts as Thor's [[TheLancer Lancer]] and is the one who kills [[BigBad Malekith]]'s [[TheDragon Dragon]] Kurse.
63** A weird example in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' in that during the final battle [[BigBad Alexander Pierce]]'s primary [[TheDragon Dragon]] The Winter Soldier fights TheHero Captain America himself, while [[TheHero Captain America]]'s primary [[TheLancer Lancer]] Black Widow handles the BigBad. However, Alexander Pierce's second [[TheDragon Dragon]] Brock Rumlow does fight Captain America's second [[TheLancer Lancer]] Sam Wilson.
64** Played straight in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', as [[BigBad Ronan]]'s CoDragons Nebula and Korath are fought by [[TheLancer Gamora]] and [[TheBigGuy Drax]] respectively during the final battle.
65** During the final battle of ''Film/BlackPanther2018'', [[TheLancer General Okoye]] has to fight her former lover W'Kabi, who has become TheDragon to [[BigBad Erik Killmonger]].
66** ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': Fenris serves as the Dragon to Hela and fights the Hulk who serves as Thor's Lancer.
67** ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'': Razorfist serves as the dragon to Wenwu while Xialing takes him on in the final battle while Shang-Chi and Wenwu have their Hero and Big Bad faceoff. [[spoiler:Razorfist survives the movie while Xialing takes over the Ten Rings after Wenwu's RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]
68* ''Film/MercenariesFromHongKong'' flips this trope around. The hero, Luo, has his best friend Sing serving as his lancer, while the youngest of the mercenary crew Curry is the TagAlongKid. Then it's revealed that [[spoiler:Sing is working for the BitchInSheepsClothing villainess, He Ying, and actually an EvilFormerFriend to Luo]]. Said villainess had her own balding main henchman who serves as the film's initial dragon, and [[spoiler:as the entire crew starts dying until only Luo, Sing, and Curry remain, Curry gets promoted to lancer position with the final confrontation having Luo fighting his ex-friend, Sing, while Curry gets to face the first bald dragon]].
69* ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie'': Johnny Cage serves as the lancer and comedic foil to Liu Kang. Johnny also fights one of the last tournament matches against Goro, Shang Tsung's monstrous enforcer, [[spoiler:and tricks him into plunging off a cliff to his death.]]
70* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInChina'': Wong Fei-Hung is the film's hero with his protege Leung Foon as his lancer, where the final battle have Fei Hung facing the corrupt governor Jackson while Leung Foon battles Jackson's subordinate, the MookLieutenant dragon (ironically) called "Tiger". It ends with the lancer strangling the dragon with a rope.
71* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': Inigo Montoya mentions to Wesley that he's seeking a six-fingered man who murdered his father when Inigo was a child; they separately learn that the killer is Count Rugen, Prince Humperdinck's personal torturer. When they infiltrate the castle during Humperdinck's wedding, Inigo pursues Rugen and, following a hard-fought duel, finally kills him and avenges his father.
72* ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'': Azeem is the lancer to Robin. He fights and kills the witch Mortianna after the Sherriff has been slain by Robin.
73* ''Film/RushHour'': Carter serves as the Lancer and comedic foil to Lee and faces the BigBad's Dragon in the climax of each film.
74** In the first movie he faces Sang, Juntao's second-in-command. Sang at first offers to fight Carter hand-to-hand but then tries to pull a gun on him. Unfortunately for him, Carter is a faster draw.
75** The second film has Carter fighting Ricky Tan's second-in-command [[DragonLady Hu Li]]. Carter is clearly outclassed and only manages to knock her out through dumb luck. [[spoiler: Hu li tries to take out herself, Carter and Lee with a bomb in the end, the two cops barely escaping while she dies in the explosion herself.]]
76** After fighting off Kenji's {{Mooks}} by himself, Carter faces off with Kenji's assassin Jasmine while trying to rescue Soo Yung. [[spoiler:Carter saves Soo Yung and knocks Jasmine into a rotating crank, killing her]].
77* ''Film/TheScorpionKing'': Balthazar initially distrusts Mathayus due to the latter being a mercenary. The two put their differences aside in the film's climactic battle against the main villain Memnon. While Mathayus deals with Memnon, Balthazar kills [[spoiler: Prince Takmet]] who had betrayed the resistance and was one of Memnon's CoDragons.
78* ''Film/ShaPoLang'' have the film's most iconic moment, when Ma Kwun (who serves as lancer to Inspector Chan) takes on the main villain Wong Po's most trusted subordinate and dragon, Jack, in a no-holds-barred fight in an alley.
79* Enforced example in ''Film/ShanghaiGrand''. Madam Yiu, the dragon is a DragonLady working for the film's main villain, Boss Fung, and despite being introduced in the film as the hero Hui Man-Keung's [[ItsPersonalWithTheDragon main nemesis]], late into the film she decides not to target Man-Keung, instead going after Man-Keung's best friend and lancer, Ding-Lik. Leading to a bedroom confrontation where the dragon had the lancer ChainedToABed, intending to [[FedToTheBeast have him devoured by her pet boa constrictor]], but Ding-Lik managed to turn the tables on Madam Yiu by stabbing the boa with an exposed wire, leading to the snake attacking Madam Yiu instead.
80* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'': While Daniel tries to heal Shau'ri aboard Ra's ship in the film's climax, Colonel O'Neil is stuck in a BrutalBrawl with Anubis, Ra's chief bodyguard.
81* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'': Colonel Sebastian Moran is TheDragon to Moriarty and is an EvilCounterpart to Dr. Watson who is Holmes' lancer. Both fight with a [[CaneFu cane]] and both are military veterans. The two have a SniperDuel in Heilbronn which Watson wins by using a howitzer cannon. Later, Watson wounds Moran with a shot from a rifle.
82* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
83** ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': Possibly the shortest example in cinema history; When Han Solo and Leia dock at Cloud City, his old friend Lando Calrissian reluctantly lures them into a trap orchestrated by Darth Vader himself. Han's response (and his only interaction with the Sith Lord) is to quickdraw his blaster and shoot, as Vader calmly deflects the blaster bolts with his hand and uses the Force to yank the blaster from Han's grip.
84** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': The final lightsaber duel is a three-way dance between Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Darth Maul, who manages to kill Qui-Gon while Kenobi is temporarily trapped. An enraged Obi-Wan takes up his mentor's lightsaber and engages Maul one-on-one.
85** ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'': Obi-Wan and Jango Fett (TheDragon for Count Dooku) have an extensive fight sequence both in space and on Kamino. And again is Jango’s fight with Mace Windu, this time Jango doesn’t survive that fight.
86** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': Obi-Wan fights [[spoiler: and kills]] General Grievous on Utapau, and later, once Anakin turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Sidious's new Dragon, he and Obi-Wan also fight.
87* ''Film/SpecialForces'': The film's climatic final battle ends with Talbot fighting against Zaman, both of them the NumberTwo of their respective teams. The fight culminates with Talbot impaling Zaman with an iron rod.
88* ''Franchise/UltraSeries''
89** ''Film/UltramanZeroTheRevengeOfBelial'' has the titular Ultra fighting Belial in the climax, while Zero's new friends, Mirror Knight and Jean-Bot, fights Belial's CoDragons, Iaron and Darkgone, in that order.
90** ''Film/UltramanGingaSTheMovieShowdownThe10UltraBrothers'' have the returning heroes, Series/UltramanCosmos and Franchise/UltramanZero, as the lancers to the Ultramen Ginga and Victory (with more emphasis on the former), whilst the main villain Etelgar had Princess Arina, his brainwashed pawn, serving as his main enforcer. Princess Arina gets to fight Ultraman Cosmos' human form, Haruno Musashi, halfway into the film in hand-to-hand combat, and in the climax [[spoiler:it is Ultraman Cosmos who saved Princess Arina from brainwashing while she's attacking him, purifying her using his Eclipse Mode]].
91** ''Film/UltramanXTheMovieHereComesOurUltraman'' sees Series/UltramanX battling the main monster, Zaigorg, with Zaigorg gaining two upgraded versions of classic monsters from the franchise, Golza and Antlar, as his CoDragons. Fittingly enough, X has two previous heroes, the original Series/{{Ultraman}} and Series/UltramanTiga as his allies, and in the climax the two returning heroes gets to battle Zaigorg's minions as Ultraman X deals with Zaigorg. Though it's worth noting Ultraman gets to face Golza, supposedly Tiga's nemesis, whilst Ultraman Tiga battles Antlar, Ultraman's old enemy.
92* ''[[Film/Underworld2003 Underworld: Evolution]]'': Michael is the lover and Lancer to Selene. In the film's climax, he fights and kills William Corvinus, the brother and Dragon to the BigBad Markus Corvinus.
93* ''Film/{{Willow}}'': as Willow enters Bavmorda's fortress to save Elora Danaan, his friend Madmartigan has a vicious swordfight with the Dragon, General Kael.
94[[/folder]]
95
96[[folder:Literature]]
97* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': In "Lord Brocktree", the heroes persuade the hare king Bucko Bigbones to join them in their battle against the warlord Ungatt Trunn by participating in his contest. Bucko is reluctant at first (having been publicly defeated by a haremaid) but when he learns who they're after he's a lot more willing as he sees an opportunity to avenge himself on Karangool, Ungatt's Captain-in-Chief, who'd tortured Bucko in the past.
98[[/folder]]
99
100[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
101* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': During the season 1 finale, Phil Coulson's Lancer Melinda May fights the team's former Lancer Grant Ward, who was TheDragon [[EvilAllAlong All Along]].
102* ''Series/ChouseiKantaiSazerX'': When Takuto boards [[BigBad Neo Descal]]'s ship in the final episode, his crewmate Remy holds off Neo Descal's right-hand woman Barreda while Takuto goes to confront him.
103* ''Franchise/KamenRider''
104** The FinalBattle of ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' is [[spoiler:Ren Akiyama fighting [[DragonInChief Kamen Rider Odin]], as [[TheHero Shinji]] died an episode before protecting a little girl and [[NonActionBigBad Shiro Kanzaki]] cannot physically fight himself.]]
105** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' features an inversion. It's [[TheLancer Gou]] (and Chase) who fight the BigBad while [[TheHero Shinnosuke]] (and [[spoiler:Heart]]) deal with his [[DragonInChief ultimate creation]], Sigma Circular.
106** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': [[TheDragon Graphite]] has rivalries with both Hiiro and Taiga, both of whom play TheLancer to [[TheHero Emu]] in a different way, and faces each of them at different points throughout the show. His final battle is naturally against both of them [[spoiler:and ironically it's Nico, who also [[UnknownRival sees herself]] as Emu's rival, who finishes him off.]]
107** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': After becoming the BigBad's top henchman and getting his own Rider form, Utsumi has multiple fights with [[TheLancer Ryuga Banjo]].
108* ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'': James Trademore serves as TheDragon for the BigBad Xaviax, while Len is TheLancer and {{Deuteragonist}} to Kit. [[spoiler:James meets his demise at Len's hands as retribution for venting Len's girlfriend Case]].
109* In ''Series/SekaiNinjaSenJiraiya'', it overlaps with DesignatedGirlFight whenever Kei ([[TheHero Toha]]'s snarky sister) and Benikiba (the BigBad's [[DaddysLittleVillain daughter]]) face off.
110* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Oliver has served as Clark's Lancer ever since he was promoted to series regular. [[spoiler:In the series finale, Oliver kills all three of Darkseid's CoDragons, while Darkseid is defeated by Clark]].
111* ''Franchise/SuperSentai''
112** ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'': While the other Jetmen race ahead to stop [[BigBad Radiguet]], [[TheLancer Gai]] stays behind briefly to fight Grey one last time.
113** In the FinalBattle of ''Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger'', [[spoiler:the Hurricanegers and the Gouraigers fight the Seven Dark Spears one last time. [[TheLeader HurricaneRed]] fights Sandaaru, the leader of the Spears, while [[TheLancer KabutoRaiger]] fights Sargain and Satarakura, the Spears ranked directly below him.]]
114[[/folder]]
115
116[[folder:Video Games]]
117* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'': N. Gin, the boss of the fourth warp room, is the BigBad's most loyal minion and a tech genius. Since battling him would require knowledge of how to pilot a space ship, Coco steps up to fight in Crash's place, as she is far more intelligent than the protagonist.
118* In ''VideoGame/JitsuSquad'', this happens whenever players who use Baby O'Hara, the squad's second most prominent character, fights Dash Kobayashi, Lord Origami's chief enforcer, second-in-command and the game's main dragon.
119* ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'': Inverted. Sora is the franchise's main character, but the final boss of his campaign is Xemnas, who is TheDragon. TheLancer, Riku, fights the BigBad and the TrueFinalBoss in his place.
120* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'': At the end of the game in the Restored Content mod, your oldest companion Atton has a run-in with [[TheBrute Darth Sion]], Darth Traya's right-hand man. Atton is fully in the player's hands during the one-on-one duel and [[spoiler:Atton will die]] if you lose, but Sion's [[ThePowerOfHate hate fueled immortality]] means even a victory is only temporary.
121* ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis 4'' have a FPS mode where the game's lancer, William Rush, is PromotedToPlayable, and his role in the game further expanded; it turns out while the heroes are fighting Wild Dog in the main storyline, Rush is dismantling a separate terrorist cell led by Wild Dog's dragon, Wild Fang, which he defeats at the conclusion of his stage.
122[[/folder]]
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124[[folder:Western Animation]]
125* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': The final episode showcases a climactic battle between [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderZuko Zuko]], the show's deuteragonist, and [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderPrincessAzula Azula]], his villainous sister who serves as the secondary villain of the final season. When he falls, the show's original Lancer, Katara, steps up to finish the job.
126* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': The position of Lancer and Dragon shifts around through this series and its sequel.
127** At first it was the defected Dinobot and the sycophantic Scorponok, who are paired off at the end of the two-parter that begins the series. The two would battle again in Dark Designs.
128** After them the next Lancer is the rogue officer Depth Charge who came after the dark secret of the Maximals, Rampage who had been forced to become Megatron's next Dragon. The two of them battle several times over the season, coming to a head in the finale where the two are engulfed in a massive explosion.
129** In ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' Cheetor has matured into the Lancer that confers different ideas contrasting Optimus Primal's ideals, and Waspinator has been transformed into Megatron's general Thrust who becomes his Dragon the through shear fact he is the only general left. The two have one final battle in the finale, when both are the only fighters left other then Optimus and Megatron, bookending their original battle in the first episode of Beast Wars.
130* ''Westernanimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': Raphael is TheLancer to Leo and Xever aka Fishface is [[CoDragons one of Shredder's two Dragons]]. Raph and Xever are similar in regards to their [[BloodKnight preference of violence as a first resort]], and the two frequently clash over the course of the series. Their last battle occurs in the season 4 finale in which [[spoiler:Raph nearly kills Fishface by removing his breathing apparatus]].
131* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': In "The Cauldron", Magneto pits specific members of his team against the X-Men. His two Dragons, Mystique and Sabretooth, engage Xavier's two most experienced students, Storm and Wolverine, respectively.
132* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': Autobot second-in-command Ultra Magnus vs TheDragon Cyclonus. Their rivalry is one of mutual respect as two honorable warriors.
133* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersCyberverse'' Slipstream is more a dragon to a dragon but in the first season operates as the Decepticons on Earth's commander while the rest of the forces arrive. She and Windblade, the Lancer to Bumblebee's Hero story of finding the Ark, engage multiple times. [[spoiler:It finally ends when Slipstream dies while giving diplomacy a chance and Windblade was able to let their rivalry end.]]
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