Greater-Scope Paragon

aka: Greater Scope Hero

As to be expected in tales involving battles between good and evil, most stories have The Hero as their viewpoint character, often being watched over by a Big Good who happens to take some sort of leadership role, if they don't happen to overlap. Villains (in particular The Dragon) will often answer to a Big Bad, the ultimate source of all evil things that happen within a given story. This Big Bad may in fact be taking orders from, or has been influenced by, a Greater-Scope Villain that eclipses them in power or overall influence on a story's overall setting, but doesn't get directly involved in the story's plot. Contrasting the Greater-Scope Villain for good-aligned characters, a Greater Scope Paragon often serves as an even greater form of good than the Big Good of a story's setting (whether in raw power, overall influence, or both), but has only an indirect or limited influence on the main plot. The most powerful examples of these characters often serve as Powers That Be.

Examples of a Greater Scope Paragon can include:

• A Sealed Good in a Can, which the heroes may or may not eventually release.
• Celestial Paragons and Archangels, God, and other good-aligned celestial beings, especially those with religions built around them.
• A Heroes "R" Us type organization that's associated with the heroes, but isn't directly involved in the plot.
• The Paragon looked up to by the heroes that nonetheless is not directly involved in their main story.
• An Outside-Context Problem who was not accounted for by either the hero or the previous villains, but may have been subtly foreshadowed to emerge as a distant consequence of their actions.
• A singular person or council that the Big Good and/or our heroes answer to, but never gets directly involved in the plot.
• Someone in a line of Legacy Heroes who was active before the current protagonist.
• A Precursor Hero or heroes.

Much like a Greater-Scope Villain, they can shift roles between this and a more direct Big Good depending on the story. Compare Mysterious Backer, whose overall morality is left ambiguous. A Benevolent Precursor, if they're still alive, may be this. Can overlap with Hero of Another Story. Divine-level Greater Scope Paragons can be subject to God's Hands Are Tied. Like its Evil Counterpart, the existence of these characters are often a plot-twist. So beware of unmarked spoilers!

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has Yoriichi Tsugikuni, he was the creator of the Breathing Styles, with Sun Breathing being the progenitor of all other Breathing Styles which inspired the creation of the Hashira. Yoriichi also handed down his earrings to Tanjiro's ancestor.
• Don't Meddle with My Daughter!: While Clara is the new Eighth Wonder, her mother Athena bore the mantle before her and was deemed the world's greatest superheroine. She had retired, until she learned her daughter decided to follow in her footsteps, unaware of the inherent risk that comes with the territory. So Athena comes out of retirement to protect Clara's virtue from the sidelines.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Master Mutaito, who originally sealed the Great Demon King Piccolo using the Mafuba, at the cost of his life. He was the teacher of the Muten Roshi/Turtle Hermit and the Crane Hermit, the former going on to train the franchise's main protagonist, Son Goku.
  • Dragon Ball Z has Future Bulma, who sends her son Trunks back in time to help change the course of history in the main timeline.
• Fairy Tail
  • Igneel against Acnologia. As The Leader of the Dragon Slayers' parents, he was the one who planned for their final gambit against Acnologia by sealing themselves in their children and traveling forwards in time to kill Acnologia, as well as creating antibodies within their children that would prevent them from undergoing dragonification. When Acnologia makes a surprise return during the Tartaros Arc to interrupt the pitched battle between Fairy Tail and Tartaros over Face trying to just wipe out everyone, Igneel finally reveals himself to face off with the Dragon King while his fellow Dragons end up stopping Face as it activates. However, ultimately Igneel dies fighting Acnologia (though not before tearing off his foe's arm) and only manages to explain some of this to Natsu, with the rest of what Igneel did being eventually explained by his co-conspirator Zeref.
  • Mavis Vermillion also plays this role for the Fairy Tail guild as a whole for most of the series, as the founder of the guild who inspired its unwavering belief in The Power of Friendship. She starts playing a slightly more direct role during the Tenrou Island arc, where she protects the guild from Acnologia's attack, and continues to appear before the guild-members as an astral projection. During the Alvarez Empire arc, she's downgraded to the Big Good alongside Makarov, directly leading Fairy Tail in the war against Zeref's forces.
• In Inuyasha the Inu no Taisho, the father of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, was a powerful dog daiyoukai that spent his life working to protect both the humans and youkai of Japan against other powerful beings. In the movies he repelled the Mongol invasion of Japan that was influenced by Lord Hyoga's tribe of moth youkai, and in both sealed away the dragon daiyoukai Ryukotsusei. Both Tensaiga and Tessaiga were forged from his fangs, and both brothers end up fighting a lot of his old enemies, but his own direct influence on the plot is limited because he died long before the events of the series as a result of the wounds he sustained fighting against Ryukotsusei.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Speedwagon acts as The Lancer for Jonathan in Phantom Blood, and in-between that and Battle Tendency, he strikes it rich and creates the Speedwagon Foundation. Since Part 2, the foundation has been a major asset and the Protagonists always can rely on it and its expansive resources to battle evil. In Part 2, a private military division from them assists in the battle against the Vampires. In Stardust Crusaders, the foundation continually sends them intel and a doctor who helps fix up Kakyoin and Iggy's injuries. The SPW aides the heroes long after Speedwagon himself passes away, and actually makes its way into a new continuity to help a new lineage of Joestars.
• Maken-ki!: Takaki answers directly to the faculty of Tenbi Academy, who were the founders of the original Maken-ki. Since they've retired, with Minori now serving as the academy's principal/PE teacher, they've placed Takaki in charge of maintaining discipline at the school and protecting its students from outside threats such as Kamigari.
• My Hero Academia: The original user of One For All, Yoichi Shigaraki. His brother, All For One forced a Quirk to stockpile strength on him, which led to the creation of One For All. Yoichi tried to use this new power to defeat his brother but failed, so then he created the Legacy of the Chosen that ultimately resulted in Midoriya becoming the ninth user of One For All. Later, Midoriya discovers that Yoichi and all the heroes who held One For All before All Might are alive as spirits sealed within his body. Yoichi is impressed with Midoriya's ideals and assures to help him along with the other users.
• Naruto:
  • Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, is one of the two founders of the Hidden Leaf Village and the creator of the Hidden Village System, without him, the Hidden Leaf and the other Hidden Villages would not have existed.
  • Hagoromo Otsutsuki, otherwise known as the Sage of the Six Paths, is this for the ninja world as a whole. His younger son, Asura, is this especially for the Senju and Uzumaki clans, who would inherit his "Will of Fire" ideals upon which Konoha would eventually be founded.
  • Hagoromo's brother Hamura is also this to a lesser extent, as revealed in The Last: Naruto the Movie, to the Hyuga clan.
• One Piece:
  • Gol D. Roger was the Pirate King and the man who kickstarted the golden age of pirates with his own death. To achieve the title of Pirate King means to find his treasure and reach his own level of greatness.
  • Joy Boy as well, an unknown figure from the Void Century. He was first mentioned during Fishman Island when Robin read their Poneglyph, which was an apology from him to the island's people. He would eventually get mentioned again during the major flashback were Gol. D Roger conquers the Grand Line and finds the final island (Laugh Tale). On it was a great treasure that made Roger and his crew laugh until tears came out of their eyes. Joy Boy is mentioned as being responsible for leaving this behind, implying he's the reason the titular treasure even exists. Following his journey with Roger, Kozuki Oden sets out to reopen the isolated nation of Wano for "Joy Boy's return".
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: Prince Dios is the primary source of Utena's inspiration, as his appearance following her parents' death led to her deciding to become a Prince herself. Then comes the subversion: Dios is Akio's true identity. While he'd indeed been a hero long ago, he's changed plenty since then. Creating and playing the role of Greater Scope Paragon for Utena were both mere parts of a long, complicated Batman Gambit.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V reveals Ray, the original form of the Bracelet Girls. The reason for the plot and setting of ARC-V is due to Ray facing and defeating Zarc, the Greater-Scope Villain. Though she subverts this after Zarc is revived, when Ray revives and defeats him once again after the rest of the cast tried and failed.
• Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun has the missing Demon King Delkira. So far he has only appeared in flashbacks. He's largely responsible for the peace that the netherworld currently has since the Demon Realms are morphed by the desires of the Demon King, and with no one on the throne a stasis has generally occurred. He may also be linked to Iruma (or at least his ring), in some way.

Comic Books

• Every superhero (or heroic characters in general) whenever their sidekick, a Distaff Counterpart or an offshoot character gets his/her own spinoff series or miniseries. Batman to Robin and Batgirl, Superman to Supergirl, Peter Parker to Miles Morales, Captain Marvel to Ms. Marvel, Iron Man to War Machine, etc. Similarly, the Avengers and the Justice League to other superheroes in their own solo titles (usually less powerful ones or street-level ones). Sometimes, if the villain's threat becomes too big (or even downright global by scale), then they may appear to lend a hand to the hero and help him fight the villain. Otherwise, they’re usually busy taking on bigger threats and villains, often on a global or cosmic scale, while the book’s main character often takes on smaller level threats. If it’s a younger inexperienced superhero, the Justice League/Avengers may also serve as a source of inspiration for the young hero (who may or may not be an Ascended Fanboy), which usually leads to a scene of The Knights Who Say "Squee!" when they first meet.
• The DCU:
  • Depending on the Writer, the setting has the various Monitors, although only the original Monitor and Nix Uotan are unambiguously good. At most, they will enlist the aid of the main heroes and only intervene to fight the Big Bad (such as the Anti-Monitor or Mandrakk) directly if they are about to win.
  • Superman: "Superman Prime" in DC One Million, Depending on the Writer. He is the current Superman, after a dip in the sun for thousands of years, charging his powers to such a degree that they've somehow evolved into virtual omnipotence. He is also the founder of the Superman Dynasty, which resulted in a legion of Supermen and Superwomen who dispense justice not just across the universe of their time, but (thanks to Time Travel) all time and all dimensions everywhere.
  • Wonder Woman: Since the Greek gods created Wonder Woman and are the source of her powers, they count... well, the good ones, at least. How benevolent they are usually depends on the writer.
• Marvel Universe:
  • The One Above All and the Living Tribunal are the main architects of balance and order in the universe. However, they usually operate In Mysterious Ways and seldom involve themselves in events without something being so screwed up that only their power can fix it. They are also not above doing things like destroying a universe if it's the most efficient means of solving the problem.
  • Doctor Strange: The Vishanti's powers are invoked by benevolent sorcerers and one of their number, Agamotto, bequeathed his actual eye to the Sorcerors Supreme of Earth's dimension to safeguard the dimension from harm and otherworldly invasion. However, they operate on such a scale that they won't intervene indirectly in defense of a single planet, and Agamotto himself has been shown to be willing to endanger Earth in the name of the greater good.

Fan Works

• But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci: Batman may no longer exist, but his heroism, what he stood for, and what he means to the world are what drive Jack to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Even those that learn of him are inspired to stand up and join Joker in his quest to bring back the old timeline.
  Jack (to Talia): Want me to come out and say it? The world deserves the Bat. It needs the Bat. But all it has is the Joker. I'm here, and the Bat isn't. That's not right.
• Boop the Snoot for Critical Damage!: Angel may be the Big Good for the main story on Pandora, but Ozpin was the one who saved her from her father, allowing her to start up her own corporation and hire her own Vault Hunters to try and make Pandora a better place. He's also directing things behind-the-scenes to ensure Hyperion doesn't gain access to the Vault on Pandora.
• Communication has the Mortal Concepts, who are the ones responsible for Consensus being inserted into and aiding a chosen Host of the Quest. It is noticeable that they have a habit of being more direct than most examples.
• A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor presents Divine Justina V as this, since it is the actions that she took prior to dying at the Conclave that allowed the Inquisition to come into existence once again. The resurrected organization, now the best hope of Thedas surviving the current crisis, follows Justina's directive and will in addition to making sure to find out and stop the one responsible for Thedas' most recent troubles.
• A Clash Of Neets: The Seven Goddesses are a multiversal pantheon, working to bring light and hope to one Crapsack World after another, and resolving crises on several thousand world simultaneously. The story focuses on their efforts on Westeros, which does warrant special attention due to the scale of the threats on that world, but they clearly have attentions on others. The prequel/spin-off story "What If The Emperor Met A Bunch Of Anime Godesses" has them working to save the world of Warhammer 40,000 (sort of), and the short story "Seven Stars" shows them discovering the world of The Promised Neverland.

Films — Animation

• The Blue Fairy is heavily implied to have sent Star to help Asha and Valentino the goat in the animated Disney movie Wish (2023) try to save the kingdom of Rosas and their wishes from their tyrannical ruler King Magnifico.

Films — Live-Action

• The Jungle Book (2016): The elephants only appear a few times and are regarded by the animals of the jungle as near-gods for their size and power. When they first appear, Bagheera tells Mowgli a Creation Myth of how they formed the jungle and carved the rivers with their tusks. At the end, due to Mowgli saving one of their young, they appear and do just that, redirecting a river to save the jungle from the Red Flower.
• The Kid (2000): Throughout the film, a red biplane keeps appearing, usually right before something happens that causes Russ to reevaluate his life, implying whoever's flying it is controlling everything that's been going on since his 8-year-old self suddenly appeared. The pilot turns out to be Russ himself...from thirty years in the future, who's finally achieved his dream of becoming a pilot and has come back to make sure his younger selves get straightened out.
• National Treasure: The American Founding Fathers and the Freemasons, the ones who realized that the eponymous treasure had to be kept out of the hands of the British or they'd use it against the Revolutionaries, and so hid it away in a place that only someone who found and understood the clues they left behind would be able to find it.
• Now You See Me series: The Eye, an ancient order of magicians dedicated to "balancing the scales of Justice", and who direct the actions of the Four Horseman throughout. More specifically Dylan Shrike as the Fifth Horseman in the first one, and Thaddeus Bradley, who was really Dylan's father's partner and has been watching him the entire time in Now You See Me 2.
• RoboCop: Bob Morton, the man responsible for the creation of Robocop, while he is painted as a scummy executive, he leaves a good legacy behind.
• Star Wars:
  • Yoda during the original trilogy, being a very old, very wise, and very powerful Jedi Master, who nevertheless serves only to train Luke to go on to fight Darth Vader and The Emperor. The prequels make attempts to address why this is the case, though how well they succeeded is a matter for debate.
  • Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens. Every action that drives the plot is either from the good guys in an attempt to find Luke or from the bad guys trying to find him first to kill him—or, failing that, to stop him from being found.
• Terminator: John Connor in the first movie. He only appears during a flashback, but as leader of the human resistance against the machines, the Terminator is sent back in time to kill his mother to prevent his birth. It's the protagonist's mission to ensure her survival and by extension, John's, so he can fulfill his purpose. In the following movies, he becomes a lead character whose actions affect the plot more directly, but even then remains the Big Good except in Terminator Genisys where he is turned into a Terminator himself and becomes The Heavy.

Literature

• In Animorphs, the team is sometimes assisted by a Sufficiently Advanced Alien called the Ellimist, who wishes to protect and propagate life throughout the galaxy; it's eventually confirmed that their Call to Adventure came from him working subtly behind the scenes. He's opposed by the Greater-Scope Villain Crayak, who wants to genocide all life and is backing the Yeerks. The whole conflict for Earth is just one small part of the "game" that they've been playing for millions of years.
• Bazil Broketail: Sinni, the children of Fate, are mentioned throughout the series as those who oversee the conflict on Ryetelth (which is just a small part of a greater struggle in the multiverse known as the Sphereboard of Destiny), though they do not interfere into it directly. They make an appearance in person in the final book of the series and by then, it is also revealed that Relkin actually used to be one of them, but was reborn as a human and made into a living weapon against the Dominator.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Aslan the lion plays the most prominent role in supernaturally aiding the heroes, while only brief influence is felt from his father, the Emperor-Beyond-The-Sea. As the books are Christian allegory, it is generally assumed that Aslan represents Jesus Christ (aka God the Son) while the Emperor is God the Father.
• Every good in The Divine Comedy, past, present, and future, comes from God and every action that Dante takes follows his purpose to rest in God. Ultimately, though, God's greatness is too much for Dante to describe and God Himself is not encountered by Dante until the very end of the poem.
• Redwall:
  • In some of the books, Martin the Warrior takes on this role after he has died, from either an invisible influence acting through the heroes to an occasional Spirit Advisor in dreams. However, his power from beyond the grave is limited. Though Martin's legendary sword is powerful in the hands of a hero, he himself warns that nothing stops any villain who obtains it from using it for evil.
  • It is sometimes implied that the Badger Lord fortress Salamandastron has some kind of supernatural influence on it, as its forge's wall is full of carved images of both history and prophecy, and no one knows where they came from. On occasion it's been shown that badgers under the effects of the Bloodwrath may carve prophecies on the walls with their claws, but still no one knows where they get their visions.
• In Tolkien's Legendarium, it is Eru Iluvatar who is the stand-in for capital "G" God, his name even meaning in Quenya "He that is Alone - Father of All". Eru is largely unseen in Middle-Earth, the world being governed instead by his subordinates the Ainur, Maiar, and Valar (analogous to lesser gods and angels.) However, it is implied in The Lord of the Rings, and confirmed in some of Tolkien's letters, that at rare but critical times Eru himself may intervene to change Middle-Earth's fate, such as ensuring that Bilbo Baggins would find the One Ring and causing Gollum to fall and destroy it.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: The Vorlons, Kosh in particular, are established early on as the Big Good in the fight against the Shadows, though that image is shattered later when it turns out that the Vorlons are just as much a part of the problem as the Shadows, but early in the fourth season Sheridan encounters Lorien, the First One, the one who taught the Shadows and the Vorlons when they were young. Though he makes no claim of being good or virtuous, he does care for the welfare of the younger races, and realizes that the First Ones have become a hindrance to their development, and so he and Sheridan gather the Shadows, Vorlons and other First Ones and send them out of the galaxy, Lorien himself included.
• The Buffyverse has the Trope Namers for Powers That Be, who hundreds of years before Angel created a prophecy regarding a vampire with a soul. However, they're unable to directly help the protagonists because their physical avatars got destroyed.
• Genseishin Justiriser: Nolun defeated Kaiser Hades and sealed him within Mount Kamishiro in the past, but by the present day she's long dead, with her consciousness preserved in the Shadestar. When Kaiser Hades threatens to return, she empowers the titular Justirisers to fight him in her stead, but isn't able to interact much beyond that.
• After the 35 Super Sentai sacrificed their powers to protect Earth from the Zangyack Empire's initial invasion, Aka Red (the "Spirit of the Red Warriors", previously an Original Generation character from the previous anniversary season GoGo Sentai Boukenger), forms the Red Pirates with the goal of gathering the scattered Sentai powers in the event that Zangyack comes back. He later seemingly sacrifices himself to make sure Zangyack wouldn't get ahold of this power, entrusting them to his apprentice Marvelous, who would go on to become the leader of the Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
• Legion (2017): Professor X. He’s the one who defeated the Devil with Yellow Eyes decades ago and is the only reason the protagonists are able to fight him now. He’s off leading the X-Men while the events of this series are happening.
• Sultan Alaeddin Kayqubad in Resurrection: Ertuğrul, serving as a grand-high patriarch not only to Ertugrul and the Kayi clan, but the Muslim world. After his death, his son Giyaseddin takes the position.
• Stargate-verse: Played with regarding the Ancients, the ascended precursors of modern humanity. Initially they are seen as almost god-like, in that they had immense power and nearly magical technology, which still benefits those who are able to understand it, not the least of which are the Stargates themselves. Oma Desala in particular lends a hand to the younger races on a number of occasions. As time goes on, the view of them becomes more cynical, particularly over their Alien Non-Interference Clause as they respect free will of all those beneath them and so refuse to help one faction over another regardless of their choices. That said, they do keep Anubis from using his full power against the galaxy and have for eons shielded the existence of humanity in the Milky Way galaxy from their evil counterparts, the Ori, who demand worship to gain strength from believers and kill those who don't conform. Despite this, the Ancients remain something to aspire to for the current generation of humanity.
• The Ultra Series has the Ultraman King, an ancient and immensely powerful Ultra whose existence predates the Plasma Spark, the power source of the Land of Light. Whereas the Father of Ultra is the Big Good, the Ultraman King typically only intervenes when a threat too great for the Ultras to handle on their own arises.

Myths & Religion

• The Bible:
  • God is either a background presence or a more direct Big Good depending on the book in particular, though His presence is always felt throughout.
  • Regarding the Godhead itself, in the Old Testament according to Christians, it is God the Father who is the most active holy participant while Jesus (God the Son) is rarely seen but speculated to appear at times. In the New Testament, their roles are reversed, with Jesus playing a central role in the Gospels and God the Father invisibly guiding him. As for the Holy Spirit, they remain in the background in both the Old and New, but it is in the New Testament where their influence is the most described.
  • An exception to this belief comes in Mormonism. According to Mormon beliefs, following the Fall of Adam and Eve, God the Father almost never directly interacts with humanity, having Jesus - who was the Jehovah or Yahweh of the Old Testament before his birth - do so instead. The only recorded instances in Mormon scripture of God the Father - named Elohim - speaking are at the Baptism of Jesus, the Transfiguration, once in the Book of Mormon, and in the First Vision of Joseph Smith. On each occasion Elohim only speaks to introduce Jesus to the addressee and confirm that He is well-pleased with Jesus' actions.
• Gnosticism essentially has a recursive case of this. While Jesus Christ and Sophia are the main powers that directly take any action to subvert the Demiurge's plans, they are essentially the lowest rung of a long chain of many pairs of Aeons ultimately spawned by the Monad, the closest thing to a real Creator God in the standard Gnostic cosmology.

Pro Wrestling

• Comision de Box y Lucha Libre de Mexico, D.F. for CMLL and many other Lucha Libre feds, although there are several less prestigious commissions throughout the thirty one states. They became increasingly relaxed in their control over the decades but did force Silver King to become Silver Caine in AAA after he tried to put his mask back on during his feud with Dr. Wagner Jr.
• The Board Of Directors in the National Wrestling Alliance, with each territory having its own owner, sponsor or athletic commission to serve as its Big Good. It's somewhat complicated in that other athletic commissions can challenge the decisions of the NWA Board, though they rarely won, and every single member of the NWA has voting power so enough consensus among the "big goods" can also overturn a board decision. In times of crisis, the board can also give nigh absolute power to a single individual who serves as "president". Bruce Tharpe controversially took charge of the NWA by invoking the powers of president in 2012, though in his defense the body had been in a time of crisis for the last seven years, at the least.
• The Pacific Wrestling Federation in All Japan Pro Wrestling, who governed both the title matches of the Japanese and foreigners, with Giant Baba somewhere in between The Hero and the defacto big good depending on the situation. The PWF was reduced to a regional power after the NWA came in and eventually just became a memory with the creation of the Unified Triple Crown.
• The International Wrestling Grand Prix of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, especially after it broke away from the NWA. Their authority was once directly challenged by Antonio Inoki in an angle where he created his own IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt in the Inoki Genome Federation, though the saga was put to an end by King Of Strong Style Shinsuke Nakamura.
• The Universal Wrestling Association in Lucha Libre Internacional, to the point the letters UWA are better known than LLI outside of Mexico.
• Men such as Jim Herd, Eric Bischoff, and Vince Russo served as the de facto leaders and movers of WCW, but they all relied on and could be overruled by Ted Turner. Chris Jericho once tried to exploit this by going straight to Turner to get a shot at the Cruiserweight belt, and Turner would have done it too, based on Jericho's sound logic. But Chris was so whiny, Turner decided to go with his subordinate's decision instead.
• The committee that sanctions Global Honored Crown matches in Pro Wrestling NOAH, although they rarely take on any disciplinary action, even when Suzuki gun invaded and took all the GHC title belts, meaning wrestlers like Naomichi Marufuji usually have to get things in order.
• Jerry Jarrett was initially this in TNA. The other owner, Jeff Jarrett, was an active wrestler and thus alternated between the Big Bad, Big Bad Wannabe, The Heavy, Heroic Wannabe, and Spotlight Stealing NWA World Heavyweight Champion, while wrestlers like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, or Jeff Hardy more appropriately acted as The Hero, and authority figures like Vince Russo (again), Jim Cornette, or Dusty Rhodes acted as the big good in the day to day running of the company.
• After Panda Energy bought TNA, Dixie Carter became the company president and the defacto Big Good, with Eric Bischoff (after a Heel–Face Turn) or Mick Foley as a network representative acting as the big good in her stead when she was indisposed. The network therefore became the greatest scope paragon, given Foley answered to them against the schemes of Immortal. However, a nebulous "board of directors" has also been shown to have the power to overrule Dixie Carter (after she underwent a Face–Heel Turn) and replace director of Wrestling Operations MVP (after he was supposed to replace the heel-turned Carter but himself underwent a face heel turn) with Kurt Angle, suggesting Panda Energy TNA has two greater scope paragons. Given that TNA has been threatened by hostile outside forces and internal rebellion for most of its existence, neither is really all that active and mainly serve to act as a Plot Device when the baby faces are utterly screwed.
• Carry Silkin in Ring of Honor, following the RF incident. Several other authority figures have been actively involved in preserving order and/or the Code of Honor, such as announcer Jimmy Bowers, Ambassador Ric Flair, Commissioner Jim Cornette (again), or Matchmaker Nigel McGuinness, demonstrating the ability to fine, fire, bar, sign, and reward wrestlers at will; but in the rare cases Silkin appears, he is referred to as the boss. Jerry Lynn considers him to be the most honorable of all promoters; he was to be the ultimate target of Kevin Steen after he disposed of his more personal enemies Cornette and El Generico; Colt Cabana, who left out of disinterest with the company's direction following the SBG buyout, returned out of respect for Silkin's vision of an alternative when Silkin was present for Supercard Of Honor X; and World Champion Jay Lethal credits Silkin with keeping the company alive, even more than himself.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Good deities and celestial paragons are the primary patrons of benevolent causes and beliefs, but rarely take any direct hand in the goings-on of mortal worlds outside of very large-scale or extraordinary circumstances. Their influence may be felt indirectly, such as through their churches or mortal champions, but in any given campaign their role is limited to being distant figures that heroic characters seek to emulate, learn from, or please.
  • Fourth Edition introduced a possible example with He Who Was, the former chief and most powerful of all gods who was struck down by Asmodeus and allowed the various figures of the setting's pantheon to assert more individual authority. It's Asmodeus' killing of who is implied to be the Capital G God that has led to a lot of the events of the setting. Asmodeus also took the opportunity to hide the name of He Who Was from the setting's multiverse, as he was afraid that a single invocation would bring He Who Was back to life and result in Asmodeus' immediate Cessation of Existence.
• In Nomine: God is the creator of the universe and the angels, and all of Heaven's attempts to protect and guide humanity are done in His name and in an attempt to understand and follow His designs. However, He is also a very distant figure, and has had very little direct involvement in the perceiveable universe ever since the Fall — He stepped in to break up the trials of two Archangels, and may have spoken through Gabriel and human prophets, but for the most part humans and angels are left to dealing with the mess made of the world on their own.
• Princess: The Hopeful: The five Radiant Queens were once the Big Goods of the setting, but they were slain by the Darkness and their souls trapped in the Dreamlands. They can still share their vast wisdom and knowledge, but the only actual power they possess over the waking world are the Invocations and Practical Magics they can grant to Princesses.
• Warhammer 40,000: The God-Emperor of Mankind is this from the perspective of the Imperium of Man, who spent centuries influencing humanity before revealing himself following the Age of Strife, but is currently stuck on the Golden Throne using the souls of sacrificed psykers to stay alive, after he was mortally wounded by his rebellious son Horus. He may have also been kind of a dick.

Toys

• Transformers:
  • Primus is the embodiment of all good in the Transformers multiverse as the Lord of Light and Order, and the creator of the Transformer homeworld Cybertron, opposite his brother Unicron, the embodiment of darkness. He rarely gets involved in the story at large because he was forced into an eon-long sleep after managing to defeat Unicron for the first time.
  • Things are a bit different in the IDW comics continuity, but Primus is still at least considered this by Cybertron's citizens. There is also the Guiding Hand, a small group of deities who worked directly with Primus. Primus may or may not be a god at all, though he was responsible for the creation of the Thirteen Primes and the "hot spots" on Cybertron where sparks emerge from before being given bodies. He lost his memory and may have died and been reincarnated, but eventually reemerged on Cybertron as the Butt-Monkey psychiatrist Rung.
  • As for the Guiding Hand, they probably aren't as much paragons as their writings would have you believe, nor were they gods. They emerged from Cybertron shortly after Primus appeared, and may have been either born from the same hot spot or accidentally created by him. Either way, it turns out the "saintly follower" Adaptus was actual a warmongering tyrant while Mortilus, cast as the Judas of the group in myth, was actually innocent and kind.
  • Besides Primus, there are the Thirteen Primes, the first thirteen Transformers to be created by Primus save for Liege Maximo and the one called The Fallen. Liege Maximo eventually nudged Megatron toward creating the Decepticons, while The Fallen attempted to sell out Primus and Cybertron to Unicron, which resulted in him being trapped in a pocket universe with the Planet Eater and having his original name of Megatronus stripped from history's records. His hands-on murder of his lover Solus Prime didn't help.
  • Optimus Prime's Transformers: Prime incarnation in Transformers: Rescue Bots from the perspective of the Rescue Bots, as while he was the one who called them to Earth in order to help against the Decepticons, he rarely gets directly involved otherwise past situations where the Rescue Bots are completely out of their depth to handle.
  • Similarly, Prime starts out like this in Transformers: Robots in Disguise. Having returned to the Well of All Sparks on Cybertron at the end of Transformers: Prime, he's a bit too dead to do much. Althrough it turns out that his spark actually passed into the Domain of Primes within the Matrix of Leadership, where he trains with Micronus Prime to be able to defeat Megatronus, a.k.a. The Fallen. Optimus returns to the physical world and becomes more of The Mentor and Big Good.

Video Games

• Assassin's Creed:
  • Adam and Eve, the leaders of the rebellion against the Isu thousands of years before the events of the series, and considered one of the many predecessors to the Assassin Brotherhood.
  • Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad in Assassin's Creed II. Leonardo may have made the gear Ezio uses (Dual blades, Poison etc.), but the Codex shows Altaïr made it first. He counts as this for the Brotherhood, as his improvements upon becoming Mentor are shown in the rest of the games if you look closely, and in Unity, he's regarded as a hero to the Brotherhood.
  • Assassin's Creed Origins:
    • Khemu, the son Bayek and Aya whose death at the hands of the Order of the Ancients would inspire them to not only seek vengeance against the group but would become the founders of the Hidden Ones, the original incarnation of the Assassin Brotherhood
    • Bayek and Aya/Amunet themselves since their traditions such as the Leap of Faith and using a white object (a feather up until after Altair's time) to sop up the blood of targets were taken up by later Assassins for future generations. Additionally, their son Khemu would inspire the creation of their organization after he is brutally killed by the Order of the Ancients, the precursors to the Templar Order.
  • Darius, Iltani and Wei Yu were proto-Assassins that fought the Order of the Ancients making them the precursors to the Hidden Ones well before their chronological birth. The former was the inventor of the Hidden Blade which he used to assassinate Xerxes in Ancient Persia while the latter was a member of an Assassin-esque organization in Babylon (modern day Iraq) and she was responsible for the death of Alexander the Great by using a poison she acquired from an alchemist. The last one would use a spear to kill Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China.
  • Kassandra (the canonical Eagle Bearer) in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey may or may not become a major benefactor to the Hidden Ones and the modern Assassin Brotherhood since she took possession of the Staff of Hermes from her real father Pythagoras. She also mentions to Layla Hassan in a simulated version of Atlantis that she's seen "too many wars" and saw "too many people die" which implies that she was a participant in numerous historical events and interacted with many people over the years.
• BlazBlue: Master Unit, Amaterasu serves this role for the verse. It's a Deus est Machina who can warp reality to its smallest detail and is holding the world together, trying to prevent its destruction by the baddies. It's never directly involved except in small but significant moments, but the unit is talked about a lot, especially by the villains. Played with in that the Master Unit is being operated by The Origin, a young girl who was forced into the Unit in ages past and has been trying to use the Unit's powers get her "hero" to save her from it ever since. While The Origin isn't "evil" per se, her hundreds of failed attempts — courtesy of the resident Greater-Scope Villain — have pushed her beyond the Despair Event Horizon and has warped her wish into a desperate obsession, making her forego everyone else's happiness in pursuit of her own.
• The Legendary Chalice in Cuphead is an angelic ghost that provides Cuphead and Mugman with valuable tools to help in their quest, but other than that, she stays in the background and little beyond that. In fact, she requires being saved by the boys in order to reward them with the upgrade. Though in all fairness, she is dead by the time the game takes place and its revealed in the Rugged Ridge level that she was one of Inkwell Island's heroes before her death]]. That is until the "Delicious Last Course" DLC, which makes her a playable character.
• Destiny has The Traveler, a massive sphere floating above the planet Earth that in the past helped humanity spread across the solar system, before protecting the last of humanity from being destroyed by the ancient cosmic force known only as The Darkness (a being so powerful that its servants are often worshiped as gods) in a climactic battle over the planet long ago, and granted the Guardians their powers. The surviving humans also ended up creating the Last City right underneath it, as the Traveler's powers protected them from marauding alien races. However, its direct influence on the plot is limited because it entered a state of stasis as a result of injuries it suffered during the battle with the Darkness, with reawakening it becoming a goal for the player near the end of the game.
• In Diablo III, there was Anu, the first being of Creation and is essential the God to the Devil, the Prime Evil Thatamet. The two died in a clash, which resulted in Anu leaving behind the Eye of Anu, or the Worldstone, and the Crystal Arch which created the Angels and the High Heavens. The aspects of him were left behind to the Archangels: Imperius, Tyrael, Auriel, Itherael, and Malthael, representing valor, justice, hope, fate, and wisdom, respectively.
• Dragon Age:
  • Andraste serves this for the setting at large, being a messianic figure for the Chantry (think Joan d'Arc meets Jesus Christ) that preached a doctrine of love, tolerance and forgiveness, was betrayed and sentenced to die burned at the stake with her death inspiring all to rally up against the Tevinter Imperium for their freedom thousands of years before the first game took place. While the Maker, the monotheistic God of this setting, is subject to many debates in-universe over His morality, Andraste herself is highly admired even by those outside her religion - the elves (who otherwise don't believe in the Maker and have their own gods) view her as an honorable woman for freeing their ancestors and the Imperium itself admires her in their own way with them speculating she was a very powerful mage (which is regarded as heresy of the worst caliber among the Chantry).
  • The Grey Warden (the first game's Player Character) also serves this role to a lesser extent in Dragon Age: Inquisition. If they survived the events of Origins, its stated that they were intended to lead the Inquisition before the events of the game took place, with Divine Justinia hoping to locate the Warden and recruit them so they could re-establish peace. However, the Warden has disappeared, and is presumed to have left for the distant unexplored west to find a cure for the Calling (an affliction that leads to the premature deaths of all Grey Wardens). It's possible for the Inquisitor to contact them during a War Table operation and receive a letter from them, wishing luck on their current mission to save the world from the Elder One.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • From the series' primary Creation Myth is Anu, the Anthropomorphic Personification of the primordial force of stasis/order/light. The interplay with his twin brother, Padomay (who represents the force of change/chaos/darkness) led to creation. Creation, sometimes anthropomorphized as the female entity "Nir", favored Anu, which angered Padomay. Padomay killed Nir and shattered the twelve worlds she gave birth to. Anu then wounded Padomay, presuming him dead. Anu salvaged the pieces of the twelve worlds to create one world: Nirn. Padomay returned and wounded Anu, seeking to destroy Nirn. Anu then pulled Padomay and himself outside of time, ending Padomay's threat to creation "forever". From their intermingled blood came the et'Ada, or "original spirits", who would go on to become the series' famous Aedra and Daedra.
  • Whether you consider Lorkhan to be this or a Greater-Scope Villain is based on whether or not you believe creating Mundus was a good thing. Most of the races of Mer (Elves) believe that it was a malevolent act which robbed the pre-creation spirits of their divinity and forced them to experience mortal suffering and loss. Most of the races of Men as well as the Dunmer (Dark Elves) believe, however, that it was a benevolent act which freed the pre-creation spirits from a prison of unchanging stasis and gave them Mundus as a "testing ground" for the spirits to ascend even higher.
  • The Eight Divines (Nine when including Talos) are the greatest forces of good in the setting and are almost uniformly seen as benevolent throughout Tamriel. However, because they sacrificed most of their power creating Mundus, the mortal plane, at the suggestion of Lorkhan (who they "killed" for his perceived treachery), they prefer a much lighter touch in dealing with mortal affairs, at most typically working through mortal agents. Any acts of direct intervention are reserved for averting The End of the World as We Know It.
  • A Deity of Human Origin, Talos was one of (at least) three people whose presence in the world was warped together by the influence of two reality-warping artifacts and the subsequent re-alignment of the timeline to become the Ninth Divine. He is the most active Divine by the 4th Era, and preventing him from saving anything is an open goal of the Thalmor-led Aldmeri Dominion. (His various connections to Lorkhan do him no favors with the Dominion in this regard.)
  • The Psijic Order is a powerful Magical Society and the oldest monastic order in Tamriel. While it is their sacred duty (known as "seliffrnsae," meaning "grave and faithful counsel",) to offer their services as advisors to the leaders of Tamriel, they are typically aloof and prefer not to intervene directly in the affairs of other groups. They are, however, ultimately one of the closest to a force of true "good" in Tamriel and have directly intervened a few times in history to avert The End of the World as We Know It level events.
• Fire Emblem: Naga serves as this in four separate Fire Emblem series:
  • In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem, Naga was the leader of the Divine Dragons who worked hard in ensuring humanity's future in place of dragonkind, but is dead in the present, and ironically some decisions Naga made in the past ended up accidentally hurting humanity. One of her fangs was used to forge the Falchion, the weapon used by Anri to defeat Medeus, and later used by his indirect descendants Marth, Chrom, and Lucina. Due to this, her right hand man, Gotoh takes up the role of Big Good, being the one to provide Marth with the means to defeat his former ward, Gharnef, one of the two main villains.
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden, the remake reveals that Naga was responsible for creating the Valentian Falchion that is later used by Alm to defeat Duma, as a failsafe in case both he and Mila succumbed to dragon degeneration.
  • In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776 Naga serves as this alongside the other unnamed Divine Dragons who blood bonded with the Twelve Crusaders in order to give them the power to take down the evil Lopt Empire. They also granted each a divine weapon to assist them on their quest. Among those weapons were the Tyrfing later wielded by Sigurd and his son Seliph, and Naga's divine weapon, the Book of Naga tome, which are the only things capable of countering or resisting the effects of Loptous's own eponymous tome. By the time of Genealogy of the Holy War, however, all involved save for the Divine Dragon Forseti are either long dead or have left Jugdral, Naga in particular citing the desire to allow the humans a chance to decide their own destiny, and the Crusader's descendants are squabbling over who will rule the continent. Naga, along with Forseti, do still end up playing a part, as they possessed the wielders of their respective tomes to fight Loptous.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Naga defeated The Fell Dragon Grima in ancient days and has blessed heroic mortals with her power to accomplish great deeds. Her power also marks the royal line of Ylisse, where she is worshiped as a god, which manifests as the Brand of the Exalt. However, she doesn't get directly involved in Awakening's story, save for the very end of the main game where she grants Chrom's Falchion its full power during the titular Awakening ceremony. She appears in the Future Past DLC, where she serves as more of a Big Good by using the Shepherds to save an alternate timeline.
• Before he fully steps up to the role of Big Good from Kingdom Hearts coded onwards, Master Yen Sid was this by virtue of being the one who trained King Mickey in everything he knows about the universe and Keyblades; knowledge that Mickey put to use in order to not only find and obtain the Kingdom Key D from the Realm of Darkness but to also guide and lead the heroes against the dark forces that threatened the worlds in Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and II, but the old wizard only took an observatory role otherwise during those events.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru, Farore, representing Power, Wisdom, and Courage respectively, and the creators of Hyrule and the Triforce, the series' biggest McGuffin. They rarely directly act upon Hyrule, instead using intermediaries such as the Goddess Hylia, (who served as the progenitor for the Hylian Royal Family, and was the one who originally sealed away Demise, the franchise's own Greater-Scope Villain) or the Light Spirits who sealed away the interlopers within the Twilight Realm for trying to steal the Triforce. They are also implied to be the creators of the Light Arrows that have the ability to destroy evil (or stun Ganon). One of the few exceptions was when they flooded Hyrule in the Wind Waker's backstory to prevent Ganondorf from taking it over.
  • Hylia herself also serves as this. Not only is she the origin of Princess Zelda's bloodline, but her personal weapon, the Goddess Sword, was what later became the Master Sword over the course of Skyward Sword, the Blade of Evil's Bane and signature weapon of many Links afterwards. Skyward Sword as a whole is the result of her Batman Gambit to destroy Demise with all the Dungeons in the game acting as a test for that game's Link. It is also implied she is responsible for Link and Zelda getting reincarnated whenever a great evil threatens Hyrule.
  • Spirit Tracks has the Spirits of Good, who originally sealed away the Demon King Malladus with the Spirit Tracks before returning to the heavens after exerting too much of their power, sending the Lokomo to look after what would later become New Hyrule in their stead. They were also the creators of the Spirit Train, Bow of Light, and the Compass of Light used by Link and Zelda to traverse Hyrule and fight Malladus. They also created the Lokomo Blade, a sacred sword that serves as the strongest weapon in the game.
  • The Hero of Men mentioned in The Minish Cap, who was the first person to wield the Picori Blade (which would later become the Four Sword) and the Light Force granted by the Minish, and used them to seal away the Army of Evil inside the Bound Chest during the titular War of the Bound Chest. His appearance in the stained glass painting implies he was another incarnation of Link.
  • A few of the Links and Zeldas end up taking this role to one another when their plots have close ties to one another:
    • The Link from Skyward Sword takes on this role to all the other Links, as he was the very first to wield the Master Sword and used it to defeat Demise, the franchise's own Greater-Scope Villain.
    • The Hero of Time serves as this in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, as he was the one who originally defeated Ganon during The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time using the Master Sword, and assisted in sealing him away, but has no influence on the plot otherwise due to returning to the past at the end of the game, which caused the Triforce of Courage he was carrying to split into eight pieces. He also takes on this role in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, where he passes down sword techniques to his direct descendant, the Link of that game, but has no direct influence on the plot otherwise.
    • The Hero of Winds from the Wind Waker takes on this role in Spirit Tracks, as he and Tetra were the original founders of the nation of New Hyrule following their defeat of Ganon, and Tetra in particular made a deal with Anjean of the Lokomo that the Royal Family would always protect the Spirit Flute. However, by the time of the game both appear to be long deceased.
    • The Link from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past serves as this in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, as he was the one who defeated Ganon where the Hero of Time had failed in the Defeat Timeline more than a century prior.
    • The Link from The Minish Cap to the Links of the Four Swords subseries, as he was the one who first wielded the Four Sword and used it to seal away Vaati centuries ago.
• Mega Man
  • Dr. Light is the creator of both Mega Man and X, who instilled in them the dream that humans and robots would peacefully co-exist one day, and stands right opposite of Dr. Wily, the Big Bad of most of the series. Light's ideology also indirectly (through X, rather) influenced Zero, who was the one who made that dream a reality at the end of the Mega Man Zero series.
  • An unnamed female scientist studied the Maverick Virus from Zero's body and created the Mother Elf in order to eradicate it for good. And when Dr. Weil corrupted the Mother Elf into the Dark Elf, unleashed Omega and started the Elf Wars (a conflict described as even bloodier than the Maverick Wars of the past), she built Zero's new body so that he can rejoin X and end the war. It is also implied (but not stated outright) that she may have been Ciel's ancestor.
  • Some time before the start of the Mega Man ZX series, Ciel found the original Biometal, Model W, and built 6 other Biometals (based on X, Zero and the Four Guardians, all now bona fide legends by this point) in order to combat this new threat. She is also the founder and original leader of the Guardians organization, who serve as the successors to the Maverick Hunters and Resistance.
  • Tadashi Hikari is Dr. Light's Mega Man Battle Network Alternate Self, the creator of the highly-advanced Internet technology, and in this continuity is the grandfather of protagonists Lan and Hub a.k.a. MegaMan.EXE.
  • Kelvin Stelar in Mega Man Star Force is a pioneer of the Brotherband system, and during his mission in space he met the rogue FM-ian Omega-Xis, inspiring the alien into going to Earth and meet Kelvin's son Geo, resulting in the two becoming partners and turning into a new Mega Man.
• The Metal Gear franchise has The Boss as this even half a century after her death. Her dream of uniting the world forms the basis of what The Patriots initially stood for with Zero and Big Boss attempting to carry out their own interpretations of her will. Once the A.I.s take over, they try to enact this as well with disastrous results.
• Ōkamiden has Amaterasu attain this status as despite Chibiterasu being her son, and her role in defeating Yami in the last game, apart from being implied to have sent him to Nippon in the first place, she only has an indirect influence on the plot because she's still busy trying to retake the Celestial Plain. Her actions also ended up indirectly creating the new Brush Gods and the Brush God children (Save for Bakugami's) encountered by Chibi during the game due to their disruption of the Balance of Good and Evil, and Akuro and most of the other bosses were released from Yami upon his defeat by her.
• Philemon from the Persona series is the embodiment of humanity's most positive virtues (opposite Nyarlathotep, who represents the worst of humanity's vices), as well as the master of Igor (who runs the Velvet Room). While even in the early games he had very little direct involvement in the series's events outside of giving the protagonists their Personas (due to the terms of the bet he made with Nyarlathotep), the one exception being when he remakes the world following the events of Innocent Sin, after the Persona 2 duology he's shrunken back his role even more, preferring to simply observe the protagonists while in butterfly form as the save points.
• Mii Koryuji, due to her absence in Project X Zone 2. She was the Big Good of the first game, and Reiji and Xiaomu later stumble upon the Koryuji Estate late in the game. It's also revealed that Mii is serving as an intern at Shinra while Kogoro is working as an intelligence agent for Shinra. Which means Shinra itself also qualifies.
• Erana from the Quest for Glory is a famous archmage from the past who the hero hears legends of starting with his very first adventure. She sought to create peace between different peoples and races, created many places where no violent acts could be committed, where travelers could rest in safety from nearby marauding monsters, trees with magical, healing fruit, etc. A mage hero from the Fighter, Mage, Thief options in particular will develop as a hero and grow stronger in magic thanks to things she has left behind. The hero never meets or interacts with her until the very end of the fourth game, when he learns that she has been a case of Sealed Good in a Can, saves her, and she lives just long enough to banish an Eldritch Abomination back to its own dimension before dying.
• Sword of Paladin: The Hero King Charlemagne is the one who led the Paladins to save the world from Demon King Sandraham, and is the ancestor of the royal family of Asgard. Her spirit doesn't lead Asgard directly, instead taking the role of an advisor and opponent for the Paladin trials. She eventually sacrifices her spirit to give her descendant, Sophie, additional spirit power so that the latter can save Asgard from its current crisis.
• Sir William Marshall in Vampyr (2018) is an interesting play on this trope. He is revealed to be an ancient vampire who is honored by the Ascalon Club and vampires in general. Meanwhile, the Guards of Priwen consider him the Greater-Scope Villain for having unleashed a plague on Britain centuries ago before disappearing, and now his progeny prey on mankind. Turns out he was a Paragon all along, since he was Myrddin's previous champion before Jonathan and was supposedly an heroic vampire himself that drank from "the throats of the unworthy" only. Also said plague? He was trying to stop it's true culprit and ended up causing the Great Fire of London.
• XenoGears: The Wave Existence puts the game's plot in motion after its contact with Fei's original incarnation, Abel, doing so in patience for ten thousand years until Deus could be finally destroyed.
• XCOM 2:
  • Possibly hinted at in the final mission. As the Commander and his squad assault the Avatar base, they receive communications from the Speaker and "Angelis Ethereal," telling the Commander to knock it off. Then, another Ethereal (using the voice from Enemy Within, rather than the more feminine voice of XCOM2), breaks into the chatter, urging the Commander on to defeat the aliens "as you did before." Exactly who this Ethereal was, what he meant, and whether or not he's actually "good" is a subject of much speculation by the fanbase.
  • The ending to War of the Chosen reveals that Geist, the leader of the Templar faction is aware of the threat that the Ethereals feared, and is already preparing his followers to face it.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: The Guardian serves as this for the whole series, as they are the one who created the Calamity Gems to be used for good.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The great lion turtles of Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel The Legend of Korra. In ancient days they were the protectors of humanity, and granted them the power of bending. After the mortal Wan joined with the spirit of light Raava to become the first Avatar, the lion turtles withdrew from the world at large. At the end of the Hundred Years War, Aang met the last lion turtle, who gave him the final key to defeating Fire Lord Ozai.
  • Avatar Wan himself counts as this, as the very first Avatar who separated the human and Spirit Worlds and sealed the spirit of darkness Vaatu inside the Tree of Time for 10,000 years. By the time of The Legend of Korra, so much time has passed that very few apart from the Red Lotus and later on Korra herself even know of his existence.
  • Avatar Aang attains this status in The Legend of Korra, having been the one who originally founded the United Republic alongside Fire Lord Zuko and being Korra's direct predecessor. However, because of Korra's issues with the spiritual aspects of being the Avatar, his role as Spirit Advisor is limited to giving her dreams of his battle with Yakone 42 years prior, and restoring her bending at the end of Book 1. In Books 3 and 4 he's unable to help Korra because he and all her other past lives had their connection to her severed by Unalaq and Vaatu managing to temporarily kill Raava.
• Bojack Horseman: Secretariat, BoJack's personal hero, oddly overlaps this with Greater-Scope Villain. A grand figure in Hollywoo(d) history and within horse racing, the protagonist of a modern Greek tragedy, and one of the best equine athletes within the game. Fame, recognition, women, awards, standing at the top with every mortal looking up to him for inspiration; even today, when his disgraces and backstabs are well known and documented, Secretariat is still considered a living landmark and fondly remembered by a lot of people and believed to have had an untimely passing. Still, his story and glorification as a figure of veneration has influenced several people to follow in his footsteps, flaws and all. Meanwhile, his actions while still living may have cost Pinto his career and his own brother Jeffretariat his life. His horrible, horrible advice was a key part in the construction of the emotional trainwreck that is BoJack Horseman, who has ruined his fair share of lives.
• Numbuh Zero in Codename: Kids Next Door is the founder of the seventh (and current) era of the Kids Next Door, and The Paragon that rebelled against the Ultimate Evil in the series, Grandfather. He serves as an inspiration for all KND agents, including Numbuh One, especially when the latter learns that Numbuh Zero is his father.
• The Author from Gravity Falls can be considered this. Dipper stumbled upon a book that he left behind and it saved Dipper from nearly every monster he's encountered. He becomes more involved after his identity and connection to the main cast are revealed.
• The Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue" reveals that, after being so antagonistic to the League for most of her appearances, Amanda Waller has found herself full of respect for Batman. However, Batman is still a man without any powers, so Waller knew he would eventually grow old and be unable to continue his "mission". Waller hatches a plot to engineer a rightful successor to the mantle, codenamed "Project Batman Beyond". So if it weren't for Waller, Neo Gotham would never have found a new protector, Terry McGinnis.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • The Tree of Harmony is the source of the Elements of Harmony and later the Cutie Map, and keeps Everfree Forest contained, enabling the good guys to do their work. Despite being the most powerful entity in the series, as a tree it's unable to directly interact with anyone or act on its own until it develops the ability to do so in Season 8.
  • Twilight Sparkle, The Hero of the series, for the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls spinoff. The heroes there look up to her and she helps them with problems beyond their ability or know-how, but by the third movie she's so busy with all her adventures and responsibilities in Equestria they realize they need to start taking care of thing themselves rather than wait for her to.
    • Twilight Sparkle becomes this for the fifth generation of My Little Pony, which takes place long after Twilight and her friends are no longer around. Sunny Starscout, Twilight's distant successor as The Hero, looks up to the Mane Six from her father's stories and rediscovering Twilight's teachings about The Power of Friendship from ancient times becomes instrumental in reunifying the three pony tribes as well as restoring magic in Equestria.
• Steven Universe: The Crystal Gems still follow Rose Quartz mission and became the people they are because of her influence, on top of being Steven's mother, but she's been dead for over a decade.
• Batman in the universe of Teen Titans (2003). It's acknowledged that he exists and as he is the source of Robin's resources and gadgets, he is indirectly an influence on the Titans.

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