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The Dragon

redirected from Main.Dragon

alt title(s): Dragon
There goes the neighborhood.

In classic Fairy Tales and folklore, the hero must often slay a dragon, or other semi-intelligent monster, before he can confront the intelligent (but weaker) master villain.

The Dragon is the second-biggest Big Bad, posing the greatest physical challenge to a hero. The hero must vanquish the Dragon before they can defeat the Big Bad.

The Dragon is one of the Evil Minions, generally second-in-command or at least the second greatest challenge to the hero. The Dragon is an integral part of the Five Bad Band dynamic. If there's a Quirky Miniboss Squad, the Dragon is often the unofficial leader.

See also: The Man Behind The Man, Hypercompetent Sidekick, Psycho For Hire. When The Dragon is not doing their job properly, see Dragon Their Feet. When the Dragon has different goals from the Big Bad, see Dragon With An Agenda. The traitorous Starscream is often the dragon. In video games, the dragon is often a Climax Boss and/or That One Boss.

For literal dragons and their permutations, see Our Dragons Are Different. Not be confused with Dragon Lady, who is more like a Big Bad than The Dragon.

Examples

Anime and Manga
  • In every Sailor Moon season except the last one, the first villain whom the audience believed to be the Big Bad was not, and was paving the way for an even more powerful Big Bad. And even in the fifth season, although the Dragon (Nehellenia) was shown being manipulated by an even more powerful evil from the start, it was not until she was defeated that the true Big Bad (Galaxia) was shown; until then, she appeared as a disembodied voice. Though it may be said that Galaxia was also a Dragon of sorts, as she was possessed by Chaos, the Big Bad of the universe.
  • Captain Ginyu leader of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, The Ginyu Force is this to Frieza in Dragonball Z.
    • Later, Android #19 serves this role for his creator Dr. Gero, at that point going by Android #20.
  • Soukou No Strain puts a twist on the situation. At first, it sets Medlock up as Ralph's superior; we're almost certain that he's going to overtake her as The Man Behind The Man because of Sara's personal motivation, and he does, but then he holds her hostage; she does a Heel Face Turn and suffers for it.
  • Legato Bluesummers in Trigun. Oddly, his physical strength is in fact below average, and his primary strength is his mind-control ability.
  • In Monster Rancher, the evil overlord Moo had General Durahan as his Dragon.
  • Debonair/Kiishim in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle serves as The Dragon during one of the first missions though in a triple subversion of the trope, she is both smarter than her boss, is being made to serve him via mind control, and is in the end the one who gives him what's coming to him.
    • In a slightly more series-wide capacity, Kyle Rondart, who you actually meet very early in the series, turns out to be The Dragon for Fei Wang Reed, the series' Big Bad.
  • Chloe in Noir can be seen as The Dragon to her mother figure/boss Altena, and whether this was in fact part of Altena's plan is hotly debated among fans.
  • Psycho For Hire Roberto in Monster is Johan Liebert's dragon and Battle Butler.
  • Ace Pilot Kallen in Code Geass is arguably The Dragon to Villain Protagonist Lelouch, perhaps suitably denoted by the oversized right hand of her personal mecha.
  • Amshel in Blood Plus can be seen as The Dragon for the Big Bad, Diva. At the same time, he exudes The Man Behind The Man qualities. Which is fitting, as Diva is not exactly the plotting type.
  • Fate Testarossa in the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is The Dragon to her mother, Mad Scientist Precia. Her status as The Woobie, Love Martyr, and Mad Scientists Beautiful Daughter didn't stop her from being a formidable threat.
  • Mouri Kouran of Flame of Recca has two, arranged neatly along the Sorting Algorithm Of Evil, with Kurei serving for the first two story arcs, until his Heel Face Turn to Noble Demon and replacement by Psychopathic Manchild Renge.
  • In the Shusuke Amagai Arc of Bleach, Hanza Nukui serves as Kumoi's Dragon, until he falls in battle against Ichigo and is replaced by Makoto Kifune. Then again Amagai himself is the real Big Bad.
    • In canon, the Espada are pretty much a little organization of Dragons, particularly Ulquiorra and Grimmjow.
  • Kinnikuman's had several official Dragons and several de-facto ones. The Throne arc upped the ante by having the six teams having their own Dragons in the form of second-in-commands.
    • Kinnikuman Team: Initially Terryman, then Robin Mask took his place
    • Flight Team: King 100 Ton
    • Strength Team: Cannonballer
    • Technique Team: Parthenon
    • Brutality Team: Buffaloman
    • Intelligence Team: Mammothman, demoted by the Omegaman during the finals.
  • Younger Toguro is Tarukane's Dragon in the Yukina arc of Yu Yu Hakusho. To some degree, he is a Dragon for Sakyo, but while Sakyo's plan threatens the world, Yusuke and his team are more concerned with Toguro.
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, Aoshi Shinomori is Kanryuu's Dragon.
  • Zabuza is Gato's Dragon in Naruto. In the third movie, Ishidate is Shabadaba's Dragon.
    • As is Kabuto to Orochimaru. He's also a textbook example of a Bastard Understudy.
    • Recently it was revealed that Pain, the apparent leader of the Akatsuki is actually the Dragon to Madara Uchiha, the series Big Bad
  • Nosferatu Zodd of Berserk becomes Griffith's Dragon some time after the Eclipse.
  • Ali Al-Saachez of Gundam 00 is the Dragon to Big Bad Ribbions Almark.
  • The members of Cipher Pol 9, especially Rob Lucci, could count as being Dragons to Big Bad Spandam, who ends up becoming a Anticlimax Boss in the long run.
  • Demort in Gash Bellis the Dragon to Zophise. He even looks somewhere between a dragon and a minotaurs.
  • Fate Averruncus of Mahou Sensei Negima was once the Dragon of the Mage of Beginnings, the Big Bad during the time of Ala Rubia. Though with his boss out of the count, he has now taken the role of Big Bad to continue his legacy.
  • In s-CRY-ed Ryuhou is the Dragon to Commander Jigmar. Slight subversion in that Jigmar is actually much stronger than Ryuhou, but using his alter power would cause him to age insanely fast and kill him after one battle.
  • Vanilla Ice serves as Dio's Dragon in Part 3 of Jojos Bizarre Adventure.

Board Games
  • In chess, the queen is arguably the Dragon of the king.
  • In Betrayal at House on the Hill, there were several Dragons, ranging from a literal example to a slasher killer, a witch, and even man eating plants. One of the players could even be the Dragon to the scenario's Big Bad... or turn out to be Big Bad, and get furnished with a Dragon. The game has "betrayal" in its name for a reason.

Card Games

Comic Books
  • In the Hulk comics, the physically mighty Abomination often played the Dragon to the intellectual, and somewhat frail, Leader's Big bad. The Leader also sometimes used Rock and Redeemer as Dragons.
  • Captain America's villain, Crossbones would be The Dragon to the Red Skull's Big Bad. The merc Crossbones is a deadly physical threat, a skilled fighter and carries out the fisticuffs for the weaker(most of the time) but cunning Skull.
  • The Batman villain Ra's al Ghul is usually accompanied by an extremely large thug named Ubu. Apparently this is a title, rather than a name; he tends to replace Ubus fairly frequently. Ubu was absent from the film, but Ken Watanabe's fake Ra's could be said to fulfill this function.
    • Harley Quinn also could be seen as The Dragon to The Joker.
  • In Ultimate Spider-Man, Elektra serves as the Dragon to the Kingpin of Crime. Not that the Kingpin isn't capable of quality violence in his own right...
    • In the same universe, the Ultimate X-Men have to deal with the Weapon X project, led by a human military officer named John Wraith. He isn't particularly tough, but his personal Dragon is the gigantic mutant killing machine Sabretooth.
  • In most appearances, DeSaad is The Dragon to Darkseid. Strangely, Darkseid leaves all torture work to him, as he is not amused by one-sided displays of brutality.
  • Colonel Olrik from Blake And Mortimer often serves as The Dragon to each adventure's temporary Big Bad, despite him being the titular heroes' Arch Enemy.
    • In the second adventure The Mystery of The Great Pyramid, Olrik gets his own dragon: Sharkey.
  • Sinestro becomes the Anti-Monitor's Dragon in exchange for an army that can rival the Green Lantern Corps. Sinestro, in turn, leads the army with the monstrous Arkillo as his Dragon.
  • In Bone, both Kingdok and The Hooded One have claims to the Dragon position. It could even be argued that Kingdok was the Dragon for the Hooded One.
  • In Star Wars Legacy, Darth Krayt has many elite minions who act in the enforcer role, but the one who is closest to him and who he relies on completely is Darth Wyyrlok. In addition to being the only being in the galaxy Krayt can be said to really trust, Wyyrlok is also potentially more powerful than his master, as Krayt has been weakened by Yuuzhan Vong parasites. Ultimately, Wyyrlok subverts this trope in an interesting way- he remains absolutely devoted to Krayt's vision of a galaxy united under the Sith, but kills the Dark Lord anyway because he believes his master has gone insane and lost track of his true goals.

Film
  • In The animated film "The Invincible Iron-Man" the leader of the four elemental mini-bosses and The Dragon to the mystically powered Mandarin is an actual dragon, the physically dominating Fin Fang Foom, who gives Iron-man his toughest battle, where the magically powered Mandarin is defeated by reaching out to the Mandarin's host and convincing her to cut the Mandarin's power at its source, the magic rings.
  • The Die Hard films make good use of Dragons:
    • In the original movie, John McClane is hunted by Karl, the hulking German, and must defeat him before he can defeat Hans Gruber, the Big Bad. Technically Karl does not die until the end, but McClane leaves him bloody and beaten before throwing Gruber off the building. Karl then emerges for round two, only to be gunned down by Al.
    • Die Hard 2 has a Face Heel Turn bad guy that gets thrown into a jet engine.
    • Die Hard With a Vengeance had Targo, whom John manages to beat to almost death before he gets killed by his own boss.
    • Live Free or Die Hard has two Dragons. Mai, the Waif Fu-wielding Action Girlfriend though she is rather conspicuously killed halfway through. Rand, the acrobatic French mercenary, is another Dragon.
  • James Bond villains often have a Dragon: Oddjob in Goldfinger, Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me, etc.
    • Interestingly, in the movie Tomorrow Never Dies the Big Bad is killed first and Bond has to prevent The Dragon from killing him afterwards.
    • Actually, the fact that The Dragon outlives the Big Bad is very common in Bold films i.e. Goldfinger.
      • Actually Oddjob dies before Goldfinger. Jaws always outlives the Big Bad and several other The Dragons do as well, including the ambiguously immortal Baron Samedi in Live and Let Die and the Kents in Diamonds are Forever.
    • Although Largo in Thunderball arguably is Blofeld's Dragon, he's the main villain in the film. Bond battles Blofeld proper in You Only Live Twice.
    • In Quantum Of Solace, this is subverted beautifully. The Dragon is positioned to cover his boss, as per usual for the trope, and then he's blown up. Any Genre Savvy viewer was probably laughing.
  • In Enter The Dragon, Bolo is The Dragon for Mr. Han, the Big Bad. Oddly, killing The Dragon falls to Roper the Con Man rather than Lee the Hero (who goes straight for Han as soon as Bolo is defeated, and who is The Dragon but not The Dragon).
  • In Layer Cake, the evil Serbian warlord has a Dragon hitman named, appropriately enough, Dragan. He makes constant threats to decapitate Daniel Craig's character. However, he does not follow the usual formula in that he spends the entire film untouchable. Neiter he nor his boss are defeated.
  • In the Star Wars movies IV-VI, Darth Vader is The Dragon between the heroes and the Emperor. In I-III it's Darth Maul and later General Grievous. Darth Tyrannus doesn't quite fit the mold.
    • Tyrannus does, however, have quite a few of his own Dragons: Jango Fett and Grievous (again), and in the Expanded Universe, Durge and Asajj Ventress, along with various other "Dark Acolytes" (yes, this editor is aware how corny that sounds).
    • This shows how it is sometimes difficult to identify the Big Bad because within the story, the main characters think Dooku is the Big Bad, with Sidious just a myth or rumor to worry about. But The Dragon is anyone who is sent in front of a leader, whether or not they turn out to be the true Big Bad.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade serves as a nice comparison of the roles The Dragon and the Big Bad. The Dragon, Colonel Vogel, fights Indy in a climactic battle atop an Egyptian tank. The main villain, Walter Donovan, goes against our hero in a battle of wits to locate the true Holy Grail.
  • In Mystery Men, Tony P winds up playing right-hand-man to Casanova Frankenstein. Tony P, in turn, has a Dragon of his own in Tony C.
  • Almost every single Jean-Claude Van Damme action movie has a Dragon, typically played by stuntman Bolo Yeung, defending a swarmy white or Asian criminal mastermind.
  • O-Ren Ishii of Kill Bill fame seems to collect them, having two chief bodyguards (Johnny Mo, leader of the Crazy 88, and Psycho For Hire Gogo Yubari) and a right-hand woman (Sofie Fatale) besides.
  • Parodied and averted in The Running Man. Damien's huge bodyguard Sven seems to serve no meaningful role in the movie except as someone for Arnold Schwarzenegger to have the big climactic fight with. At the climax of the film, it looks like the two are about to fight, but Sven simply walks off (due to Damien's verbal abuse of him), leaving Schwarzenegger to crush the helpless Damien.
  • Prince Nuada of Hellboy II: The Golden Army has a few dragons: Mr. Wink, the Elemental, and arguably, the Golden Army, as they are FAR more durable than most Mecha Mooks.
  • Paul Yau (the assassin with the shades), is Johnny Weng's Dragon from John Woo's The Killer. He gives both heroes of the movie a hell of a fight, especially during the church shootout, before being taken hostage in an attempt to break the Put Down Your Gun And Step Away situation with Johnny and the Killer's girlfriend and getting one put through his skull by Johnny himself.
  • Mad Dog was Johnny Wong's Dragon from the John Woo movie Hard Boiled. Like Paul, he gives Tequila and Alan a hell of a fight when the three clash and during the big hospital shootout, before he does a Heel Face Turn and blows the gun out of Johnny's hands to put an end to Johnny's psychotic massacre of the patients that Mad Dog had agreed to let pass. He gets killed by Johnny soon after.
  • Tatsu is the Shredder's Dragon in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. In the first movie, Casey Jones is the one to take him on, while in the second movie, the Turtles themselves dispatch him with a "Wishbone Crunch" that consists of sandwiching him between all four of their shells simultaneously.
    • On a side note - "Tatsu" is one of the Japanese words for a... yeah, you guessed it. Dragon.
  • In The Long Kiss Goodnight, the film's main villain Timothy is actually the Dragon: the Big Bad is the mostly unseen Daedalus who is killed halfway through the film, after which Timothy replaces him as the Big Bad.
  • Count Rugen in The Princess Bride. Inigo Montoya kills him before Westley deals with Prince Humperdinck.
  • V For Vendetta: After being a minor character in the original novel, Creedy was upgraded to this status in the film adaptation, then somehow graduated to "main antagonist" before the movie was over.
  • Lola is Gianni's Dragon in Transporter 2. She spends most of the movie fighting the hero while Gianni takes a nap. But she's anticlimactically killed by a gag cactus spike of wall
  • The Cow from Kung-Pow is the Dragon. Well... sort of. He's not stronger than the Big Bad, but he is hilariously fast... and slightly Genre Savvy, when he rapidly kicks the Hero when they freeze in the air.
  • In Old Boy, Mr. Han is the Dragon for Lee Woo-Jin - his entire purpose in the movie is to absorb Oh Dae-Su's Unstoppable Rage.
  • The Dragon - Big Bad relationship is referenced in Unbreakable: "there's always two kinds; there's the soldier villain - who fights the hero with his hands; and then there's the real threat - the brilliant and evil archenemy - who fights the hero with his mind."
  • Victor of Push. Also serves as Evil Counterpart to Nick.
  • King Ghidorah is often under the command of various evil aliens (and/or people from the distant future...depending on which continuity you're watching). Ironic, considering that he was the most feared galactic threat in the universe in his VERY film debut. It's a case where he's, quite literally, '''THE''' Dragon.
  • In Austin Powers, Dr. Evil's second-in-command is the appropriately titled Number Two, though he is not that happy with how his boss runs his evil empire.
  • The guy who "buys" Kim from Taken and appropriately gives Bryan the biggest fight.
  • Deadpool, played by Ryan Renolds who suffers from Alliterative Name syndrome, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is Styker's Dragon. Renolds, who normally plays a wise cracking smart ass, stretches his acting range in this movie by portraying... a wise cracking smart ass.
  • Subverted in Equilibrium - Dragon Brandt faces off against protagonist Preston in front of the Big Bad, but literally gets his face cut off in a matter of seconds. The Big Bad more than makes up for this by taking Preston on himself and matching him gun-for-gun in the most awesome gunkata duel in the movie.
  • Dungeons And Dragons. Damodar is this to Profion.
  • Total Recall: Richter, to Big Bad Cohaagen.
    • See you at the party, Richter!

Literature
  • Although Morgoth's minions in The Silmarillion include actual dragons such as Glaurung, Sauron most clearly fulfills this role, particularly in the story of Beren and Lúthien.
    • Sauron's own Dragon in the Lord Of The Rings saga is none other than the Witch-king of Angmar, though Saruman also plays a Dragon role in the movie (though in the books, he was by no means a servant of him).
  • Walter o'Dim in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series serves the enigmatic Crimson King.
  • Bellatrix Lestrange - the ruthless and devoted lieutenant to Lord Voldemort.
  • Basta, the knife-wielding henchman to Capricorn in The Inkworld Trilogy, who runs all his errands and does most of his dirty work.
  • If Lord Vetinari is a subversion of the Evil Overlord, then Samuel Vimes would be his subversion of The Dragon. Vimes is often said to be Vetinari's enforcer, often unwittingly or unwillingly, but is the protagonist of all the Watch books.
  • In The Crystal Shard, Errtu was Akar Kessel's Dragon, especially since most of Akar's power is derived from the Crystal Shard, while Errtu is a powerful demon in his own right. In the rest of Drizzt's adventures, Artemis Entreri is often The Dragon.
  • On The Dresden Files, Deirdre is The Dragon to Nicodemus, her father and lover.
    • Also, Lara Raith serves as Dragon and Bastard Understudy to her father (whom she is also implied to have had a sexual relationship with).
      • Also she is now actually in charge of the White Court through control of her father.
    • Aurora had a Sidhe Lord and a Centaur as her dragons.
  • In The Black Coats, Lecoq is The Colonel's dragon.
  • In the Protector of the Small series, Stenmun serves in this capacity to Blayce
  • In The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure, Throttlethumbs is the Dragon to Sir Jasper.
  • In The Wheelof Time, the Forsaken serve as Dragons for the Dark One, who is Sealed Evil In A Can. Shaidar Haran also fulfils this role for the Dark One, but since Haran is an avatar of the Dark One, that essentially makes him a Dragon of himself. In the Children of the Light organisation, the tough, skilled blademaster Eamon Valda serves as a sort-of reluctant Dragon to the elderly, frail Rhadam Asunawa, due to blackmail. Ironically, Lewis Therin Telamon is called "The Dragon" but is not The Dragon.
  • In A Song Of Ice And Fire, the physically indomitable Gregor Clegane serves as a Dragon for House Lannister, frequently being given the most dangerous, brutal and intimidating missions possible.
  • In The Malazan Bookofthe Fallen, the main 'villain', the Crippled God, has many Dragons such as Karsa Orlong and Rhulad Sengar. Often these Dragons have no idea who they are serving or even act in apparent defiance of him, only to find their actions have been serving his purpose all along.

Live Action TV
  • In Star Trek Deep Space Nine, the Jem'Hadar served as a collective Dragon for that show's collective Big Bad, the Founders.
  • In Star Trek Voyager, Seska straddled the line between this and Big Bad. She acted in Culluh's employ, doing a great deal of his dirty work, but also consistently showed herself to be a far more cunning and dangerous planner.
  • On Buffy The Vampire Slayer:
    • In Season 1, Luke was The Dragon for the Master (though he didn't last very long).
    • In Season 2, it looked at first as if Spike was going to be The Dragon for the Anointed... but instead, as it turned out, Drusilla was The Dragon for Angelus.
    • In Season 3, Faith was The Dragon for the Mayor.
      • And before that, Mr Trick.
    • In Season 7, Caleb was The Dragon for The First Evil.
      • The other seasons used misdirection rather than actual Dragons to make Buffy think she was facing one threat, only for another, more dangerous to arise later. So in Season 4 we are led to believe that the Initiative and its leader is a dangerous threat, only for the cyborg-demon thing Adama to turn out to be the true threat. In Season 6 we are led to believe that the Evil Trio is the real threat, but it's really Evil Willow. Season 5 is unique in that the actual big bad, Glory, is present as the main threat throughout.
  • On Buffy's spin-off Angel, the series finale featured Adam Baldwin as Hamilton, The Dragon for the series' Big Bad "The Senior Partners", who are never faced directly by Angel or his friends. (With one exception).
  • On Supernatural, Meg is the Dragon for her father Azazel in Season 1. Jake is briefly the Dragon in the Season 2 finale.
  • In 24 Season Five, Christopher Henderson is The Dragon to Charles Logan.
    • During Day 7, Colonel Ike Dubaku is General Juma's Dragon.
      • On second thought, they were both a warm-up to whatever Starkwood has cooking. (In a related note, this troper has learned not to add information about 24 mid-season. After this.)
  • In most versions of the Robin Hood legend, The Sheriff of Nottingham is The Dragon to Prince John.
    • In the current BBC Series, The Sheriff is the Big Bad, and Sir Guy is his Dragon.
    • In the Errol Flynn film, Sir Guy acts as The Dragon to Prince John.
  • Lampshaded (kind of) in Sea Quest DSV 2032; first episode, 3rd season. The Big Bad is Alexander Born, his general uses the callsign "Dragon" when calling in the attack.
  • In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Goldar fills this role to a T. The Big Bads of later seasons would also usually have a Dragon in their employ, but Goldar is probably the most iconic.
    • Part of what made Power Rangers in Space so popular was the inclusion of the morally ambiguous Ecliptor. It also had some twists concerning the enemies, Astronema was the Big Bad in the general sense, while she was more or less The Dragon for the rarely seen Dark Spector.
  • Power Rangers parent series, Super Sentai, generally had one a season. They come in all shapes and sizes, but certain commonalities exist. They tend to be swordsmen, and to have a grudge against one specific Ranger, usually Red. Said Ranger usually destroys The Dragon in single combat during the finale.
    • Himitsu Sentai Goranger had Field Marshal Goldenmask, who was actually the fourth to ascend to the position of second-in-command after the Dirty Coward, The Brute, and the Evil Genius all fail.
    • JAKQ Denekitai had Iron Claw, the guy we thought was the main villain at first. Despite playing the Diabolical Mastermind quite well, he's a Dragon through and through.
    • Battle Fever J gave us Commander Hedda, who was really more of a mystic than anything. He did have a One Winged Angel form.
    • Denshi Sentai Denziman had General Hedorer, essentially your standard yes-man field commander.
    • Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan revives Queen Hedrian, the previous Big Bad, into this role.
    • Dai Sentai Goggle V had General Deathgiller, who was essentially this trope personified. Notably, however, he was actually ranked lower than the Evil Genius.
    • Kagaku Sentai Dynaman had Prince Megiddo, son of the Big Bad, who was eventually kicked out for being useless and replaced with Dark Action Girl General Zenobia.
    • Choudensi Bioman had a very well-stratified villain hierarchy including a Dragon, Mason.
    • Dengeki Sentai Changeman had General Guiluke, who actually supervised most of the day-to-day villainy.
    • Choushinsei Flashman, though, again, the Evil Genius was ranked higher, featured the envious zebra person Ley Wandar in this role.
    • Hikari Sentai Maskman ties between Imperial Ninja Oyobur and Princess Igam.
    • Chojyu Sentai Liveman has Guardnoid Gash, the Big Bad's robot bodyguard.
    • Kosoku Sentai Turboranger has Zimba, another straight-up field commander.
    • Chikyu Sentai Fiveman, Billion and Chevalier tie for the position.
    • Chojin Sentai Jetman had no real villain structure, as all four of the main baddies were competing for the top spot. The emotionless robot Grey's traits match the best.
    • Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger has Grifforther, who became the aforementioned Goldar once the series was adapted.
    • Gosei Sentai Dairanger had Emperor Gorma XV bring Colonel Shadam along for the ride.
    • Ninja Sentai Kakuranger has Gashadokuro, the son of Big Bad Daimaou.
    • Choriki Sentai Ohranger features another father-son Big Bad-Dragon relationship with Prince Buldont, who's short and dumpy at first, but gains a much more Dragony body later on.
    • Gekisou Sentai Carranger has two. While Zelmodor seems to fulfill this role at first, he later gets co-opted by Ritchhiker.
    • Denji Sentai Megaranger has Yugande, who became the aforementioned Ecliptor.
    • Seijyu Sentai Gingaman follows Goranger in having four seconds-in-command in quick succession. First Mate Battobas fits best.
    • Kyukyu Sentai Go Go V has a near-literal example in Prince Salamandes. He is, yet again, son to the Big Bad, though she's his mom this time.
    • Mirai Sentai Timeranger has... well, none, which is odd because all of the other standard villain roles are pretty obviously filled.
    • Hyakuju Sentai Gaoranger features Duke Org Yabaiba, though he's a bit goofier than most.
    • Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger has seven Dragons, each named for a day of the week. Sundar, the last to appear, fits the definition best.
    • Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger has an odd example in Lije, a small girl who doesn't really fight. She's really only the Dragon be default due to all the other roles being filled.
    • Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger doesn't have any, as there's no villain structure to speak of.
    • Mahou Sentai Magiranger has Victory General Branken, who's actually the boss when the show begins.
    • Gogo Sentai Boukenger features the extremely literal Creator King Ryuuwong.
    • Juken Sentai Gekiranger, Long plays it well, and it helps that he actually is a Dragon, but he's actually a Bastard Understudy who eventually takes Big Badhood for himself.
    • Engine Sentai Go-onger has Yogostein filling this role to a tee, except he seems to be the Big Bad. But, he's actually reporting to his dad, who has a Dragon of his own.
    • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger currently has Dayu, but it's early enough in the show for this to change.
  • In the series four finale of Doctor Who, the Supreme Dalek appears to be the Dragon to Davros. However, it is arguable that Davros is himself the Dragon of the insane Dalek Caan. Similarly, Davros' questionable status in this episode could make him a Dragon for the Supreme Dalek itself.
  • In the new Battlestar Galactica, it is arguable that the Centurions (hard-to-kill robots with miniguns in their arms) are collectively the Dragons to the humanoid Cylons who, despite possessing superior strength to humans, are otherwise relatively easy to kill.

Music

Radio

Table Top Games
  • This is literally the scenario in the Age of Worms campaign where the Big Bad's second in command is a dracolich

Video Games
  • During the Street Fighter II series, Sagat is often portrayed as the dragon for M. Bison. This is toned down more and more during the Street Fighter Alpha series, when his motive turns into a clean rematch with Ryu.
  • In the original Mortal Kombat, Goro acts as the dragon for Shang Tsung. (In fact Goro is described as a "half human dragon".)
    • Shang Tsung himself later becomes a cross between The Dragon and The Starscream to Shao Kahn's Big Bad, though in MKII and MK3, you have to fight Kintaro, another Goro-like Shokan warrior, and Motaro, an incredibly tough centaurian, before reaching Shao Kahn.
  • In the Metroid series of games, the fairly dragon-like Ridley often functions as The Dragon for something more sinister, including the Mother Brain, Dark Samus and Metroid Prime itself. It is worthy of note that, with the exception of Mother Brain, Ridley is actually unaffiliated with the Big Bads, making the application of this trope a bit unclear. He does show an uncanny timing for appearing right before the actual final bosses, though.
    • In most cases, Ridley's timing is somewhat fortuitous, but can be explained. Metroid and Super Metroid, and by extension Metroid Zero Mission are obvious: he's protecting Mother Brain and the Space Pirate operations. In Metroid Fusion, it's just an X parasite clone. In Metroid Prime, well... somehow he decides only to show up for the second time after Samus collects her Plot Coupons. Finally, in Metroid Prime 3 Ridley is entirely under the control of Phaaze, which probably regards Samus as the biggest threat to its existence, and so simply orders Ridley to hunt her down, first at the beginning when he's dropped into a planet core, and then at the end, when Samus finds him in the Space Pirate Leviathan Seed.
  • In Jade Empire, while initially thought to be the Big Bad, Death's Hand is in fact the Dragon for two successive Men Behind The Man. Oh, and there's also an actual dragon, but it's not The Dragon.
  • Tartarus is effectively the Dragon for the Prophet of Truth in Halo 2. However, Truth evades you for most of the next game until the Arbiter calls him an asshole and silences him.
  • In the original Fatal Fury, the game would have you believe that Billy Kane, Geese Howard's right hand man, is the final fight, but not long after the game starts, it becomes fairly obvious that Billy is only The Dragon, and that Geese Howard, the Big Bad, is the true final boss. Subverted later on in Fatal Fury 3, where Billy is defeated in story but not in-game, Geese is apparently The Dragon, with Yamazaki seeming to be the Big Bad, until Yamazaki's defeat reveals the Jin Twins, the true Big Bads of the game.
    • Also in the Fatal Fury series: Lawrence Blood is Wolfgang Krauser's Dragon, and Grant is Kain R. Heinlein's.
  • Death in the Castlevania games almost always plays The Dragon for Dracula himself, and is occasionally referred to as Dracula's most loyal servant.
  • Final Fantasy VIII has a chain of dragons: Raijin and Fujin act as Dragons for Seifer, Seifer is Dragon to Sorceress Edea.
  • In Fallout 3, Colonel Augustus Autumn is the Dragon for President John Henry Eden, leader of the Enclave. However, Autumn actually turns against Eden towards the end of the game, and as he was the commander of the Enclave's military, his loyal soldiers defect with him. Awesome.
  • Final Fantasy IV's Golbez, who is very much a Darth Vader figure, turns out to be Dragon to Zemus.
  • Jenova of Final Fantasy VII becomes one of these to Sephiroth, despite probably being more important to the plot (and a great deal creepier). Her fully reconstructed form Jenova Absolute is the last boss you battle before confronting Sephiroth himself.
  • Final Fantasy XII had Gabranth in pretty much the same role, including a nice reference when at one point he starts breathing heavily in his black armor.
    • In it's sequel Revenant Wings, it's assumed that the Judge of Wings/Mydia is the main Big Bad, but when Felthanos appears, it's revealed that the former is The Dragon to the latter.
  • Okami has so many dragons it's not funny. You're led to believe that Orochi is Lord of Evil (Orochi is actually a dragon) but that's wrong. Ninetails claims to be Lord of Darkness, but he was exaggerating. Then it's said that Lechku and Nechku may be the source of all evil. Guess what?
  • The Time Crisis series has mercenary terrorist Wild Dog. In every single game. And yes, you do get to kill him every time. Interestingly enough, the first game had you offing the Big Bad at the end of the second act, saving Wild Dog for the finale.
    • The first two titles in the main series have him forming close relations with each title's Big Bad. In the third and fourth games, however, he seems to serve no connection to the Big Bad of either respective game; he's just there to get his revenge on the VSSE.
  • Lord Recluse, Big Bad of the City Of Heroes games, has four Dragons: Scirocco, Ghost Widow, Black Scorpion, and Captain Mako. (It may be more accurate to call them a Quirky Miniboss Squad, but they have far more independence and characterization then a true QMS.) Each of these lower ranking Arachnos members have a Dragon of their own, namely Ice Mistral, Wretch, Silver Mantis, and Barracuda, respectively.
  • The Black Knight serves as the Dragon for the Fire Emblem games Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. In the first, he serves the Big Bad Ashnard as a member of the Four Riders. He does this in conquering Crimea and searching for Lehran's Medallion, not to mention killing the main protagnist Ike's father. This eventually leads to a Duel Boss fight between him and Ike. (Although Ike's sister Mist can help with healing Ike).
    • In Radiant Dawn, he turns to serve as the Dragon for his true master Sephiran under his true identity of Zelgius, the noble leader of the Begnion Central Army. There he has a true Duel Boss fight with Ike by creating a magical barrier that separates the two of them from their respective forces.
      • Of course Sephiran can be considered a Dragon as well, as he must be fought and defeated so the party can reach the goddess Ashera, whom he serves.
    • Every game in the series seems to have one of these. Particularly bizarre in the first game where a priest takes this role for a literal Dragon.
    • An even more bizarre example happens in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade: An actual dragon named Idoun can be the Dragon to Big Bad Zephiel, but if you get all the Infinity Plus One Sword-esc weapons, you actually get to have an extended story where the dragon is acually the Dragon to Zephiel... who really is the Dragon to the exact same dragon. To make it even more confusing, said dragon can have another dragon, Yahn, who is her Dragon. Try to wrap your brain around that one.
    • In Fire Emblem Limstella is The Dragon to Big bad Nergal and In The Sacred Stones Riev is the Dragon to Prince Lyon who is in turn is the Dragon to the Demon King.
  • Inuart, after suffering from mind-bending torture, becomes The Dragon to the Big Bad in Drakengard.
  • Barbatos Goetia from Tales Of Destiny 2 exemplifies this trope, being The Dragon of 'Holy Woman' Elraine.
  • Super Robot Wars Original Generation has a lot of these.
    • In the first OG, we had Ingram Prissken who acts like The Dragon for Levi Tolar (unwillingly, actually)
      • Shu Shirakawa also served as this role, to an extent, to Bian Zoldark in both Original Generation and the original Super Robot Wars 2.
    • In the second OG, we have lots of them:
      • Axel Almer acts like The Dragon for Vindel Mauser.
      • Alfimi is like The Dragon for (Stern) Neue Regisseur.
      • Strange that both The Dragons end up joining you in OG Gaiden.
      • Oh, and Mekibos is actually The Dragon for Wendolo, as he seemed to lead the rest of the Quirky Miniboss Squad the Inspectors. And he joins you too, temporarily before he's offed. He may be back, though, if the SRW 4 story is to get implemented to the Original Generation.
    • In OG Gaiden, Duminuss is The Dragon for Dark Brain. It's also arguable that Wilhelm von Juergen is unknowingly playing The Dragon part for Duminuss.
  • The Wing Commander series has an interesting variation of this trope - The Dragon is an ace pilot you must dogfight with before destroying the real bad guy (whose death is in a Cutscene, not directly killed by the player). Prince Thrakhath plays The Dragon to the Wing Commander III Big Bad, the Kilrathi emperor; Seether plays The Dragon to WC 4's Big Bad Tolwyn.
    • For extra value, Seether flies a fighter commonly called the Dragon, in the final flight mission.
  • Ramirez from Skies Of Arcadia is The Dragon of Galcian. He's also the last boss because the heroes, in adherence to the Sorting Algorithm Of Evil, destroy the weaker Galcian first. Ramirez does not take that well.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines, Prince LaCroix of Los Angeles has a gigantic, mute Nagloper vampire as his right-hand henchman and Sheriff (basically the one responsible for enforcing Camarilla law in the prince's territory). The Sheriff is, in all but one ending, the game's final boss — LaCroix himself does not put up much of a fight.
  • While it's open to interpretation, like many other things in the game, this troper has always seen Metal Mario as the Dragon for Master Hand in the Super Smash Bros universe.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, who the Dragon is in Organization XIII (or if there even is one) has had some mild debate, even on this wiki. The general consensus seems to be between Xigbar, who actually is Number II, has a bit of a backstory, and has the most battle prowess, and Saix, who acts in a possition of authority, gets more screentime, and is actually the boss fight before the final boss. 358/2 Days points even furter towards Saix, as he's the one who actually assigns missions to the other members.
    • Let's not forget Maleficent, the Dragon to Ansem, although she herself was unaware of it. Ironic that when he did reveal himself, he literally turned her into a Dragon.
  • Each of the three Big Bads in Seiken Densetsu 3 has their own pair of Dragons: the Darkshine Knight and Koren, the Wizard of the Red Lotus; Jagan and Bigieu; Deathjester and Heath.
  • In Ratchet And Clank, Captain Qwark is The Dragon for Big Bad Chairman Drek. "Deadlocked" has another example, with Ace Hardlight serving as Dragon for Gleeman Vox.
  • Sonic The Hedgehog's Metal Sonic, in all his myriad versions, names and incarnations, has often wound up playing this role to Robotnik.
    • Except in Sonic Heroes, of course, where he Took A Level In Badass, locked up Eggman, and masqueraded as him in order to actually see to the end of Sonic by his own hands as that game's Big Bad. He failed, of course, and Eggman had to wipe his mind clean as a result.
    • Sonic and the Black Knight features a literal dragon to be slayed before the final boss.
  • Axel Gear, the Evil Counterpart from the Rocket Knight Adventures series, serves as the Dragon in all three games. Despite the fact that each of them involves an entirely different invading empire, of a different species to boot, Axle Gear is the Dragon to each successive Evil Overlord. It seems that repeatedly losing to the hero has not damaged his resume.
  • In Chrono Trigger, Queen Zeal takes this role next to Lavos. What's interesting is that the game seems to suggest that Lavos doesn't seem to really care one way or another about her.
    • On a smaller scale, many of the local main antagonists of individual eras have a distinct Dragon of their own. Azala had the hulking brute Nizbel for a bodyguard, never mind that his pet Black Tyrano was practically a literal dragon. Dalton plays this role for Queen Zeal and takes a crack at becoming the new king after she leaves for bigger and better things. Ozzie is an odd variation in that while he is indisputably Magus' right-hand man and field general, he is also a coward who flees and hides behind his goons whenever there is real danger.
  • Several Quest For Glory villains have one Dragon or another on their side, using both the "intelligent sidekick" variety and dumb, physically powerful monsters.
    • In the first game, So You Want to Be a Hero, the Brigand Leader is guarded by the Brigand Warlock. As it later turns out, though, there's a funny twist to the setup...
    • Trial By Fire gives us Khaveen, captain of the guard in the decaying city of Raseir and right hand to the maniacal Ad Avis. Come the endgame, while the Fighter faces him in a straight-up duel and the Magic User doesn't interact with him much at all, the Thief engages in a more creative "showdown" with the corrupt captain by breaking into his house.
    • Ironically enough, the villain of Dragon Fire is actually trying to summon a dragon. In the meantime, he has to settle for The Assassin. His identity is a mystery for much of the game, and ultimately turns out to be a throwback to the series' first installment.
  • The Dungeons And Dragons game Demon Stone is worth a mention here, as the game's Dragon is an actual dragon... and it's frickin' huge to boot.
  • Mr. Big posed as the Big Bad in the first Art Of Fighting, but took his rightful place in the second game when Geese Howard came back to Southtown. In Art Of Fighting 3, Sinclair was Wyler's dragon.
  • The Legend Of Zelda is filled with these, mostly serving as pawns for Ganon/Ganondorf. Most of the time, the plots end up Hijacked By Ganon.
    • Agahnim in A Link to the Past, although he actually turns out to be Ganon's alter-ego.
    • Brainwashed And Crazy Nabooru to Twinrova in Ocarina of Time.
    • Onox in Oracle of Seasons and Veran in Oracle of Ages. are The Dragon to Twinrova, who are The Dragon to Ganon this time.
      • ....Isn't Onox's second form an actual Dragon, as well?
    • Vaati in Four Swords Adventures.
    • Zant in Twilight Princess.
    • The demonically possessed Skull Kid, to the titular mask in Majora's Mask.
  • Imperishable Night particularly has this subverted with a touch in gameplay. Kaguya Houraisan is a powerful Lunarian and has a powerful Battle Butler Eirin Yagokoro. Canon-wise, Kaguya is definitely more powerful (she is immortal after all), but gameplay-wise Eirin is more difficult to defeat than her boss. Thus Eirin is somehow Kaguya's Dragon and this leads to a Stupid Statement Dance Mix: "HELP ME, EIRIIIIN!!!!"
  • Subverted in Final Fantasy VI, where Kefka, who had appeared as The Dragon up to that point, pulls a Starscream halfway through the game and becomes the Big Bad himself.
    • Heck, if you wanna get technical, Kefka also has a Dragon. 10 of them. 8 Elemental Dragons, Phunbaba- a boogieman who destroys the towns he visits -, and Doomgaze, who is essentially a flying laser of death.
  • In Saints Row and it's sequel each rival gang has a Dragon.
    • In Saints Row 1:
      • The Dragon to Benjamin King; Leader of the Vice kings is Anthony "Big Tony" Green.
      • The Dragon to Hector Lopez of Los Carnales and once he dies his younger brother Angelo is Victor Rodriquez.
      • The Dragon to William Sharp, the secret leader of the Westside Rollerz is his Nephew Joseph Price.
      • The Dragon to Alderman Hughs, the corrupt politician is Corrupt Police Chief Monroe.
    • In Saints Row 2:
      • Mr.Sunshine is The Dragon to The General.
      • Jyunichi is The Dragon to Shogo Akuji and later to Shogo's father Kazuo once he comes to Stilwater
      • The closest thing Maero has to a Dragon is Matt, his best friend and right hand. But since Maero is a 7-foot tall musclebound thug he never actually uses Matt to do anything except tatoo him.
  • Misery serves is a Dragon to The Doctor, although she doesn't have any real loyalty towards the man; she and Balrog are bound to serve the wearer of the Demon Crown, and she sends Balrog to save Quote and Curly from certain death after they destroy the source of the Crown's power.
  • In Kingdom of Loathing, there appear to be a number of dragons to the final boss the Naughty Sorceress. The most obvious would be the fight with your shadow. Although, the Sorceress' tower could be seen as a dragon in and of itself. Then there are a number of required minibosses, such as the Goblin King, the Boss Bat, and either the Man, the Big Wisniewski, or both.
  • In The Witcher, Azar Javed is a Dragon to the big bad Jaques de Aldersberg, head of the Order of the Burning Rose.
    • And, in turn, The Professor is the Dragon to Azar Javed.
  • At the end of Overlord you discover that the Villain Protagonist Player Character is the unwitting dragon to the real Big Bad.
  • Abaddon of Guild Wars Nightfall has two Dragons, The Lich and Shiro, the two Big Bads of the previous campaigns. Also, Varesh.
  • In Silent Scope, Monica (a heavily armored fighter) is the terrorist leader's Dragon.
  • In Half-Life 2, The Gonarch is the Nihilanth's Dragon.
  • Typically, in Metal Gear, the titular Metal Gears serve as this; the players apparent ultimate challenge before they can have a climactic showdown with a final boss.
  • Subverted in Strong Bad's Game, 8-Bit is Enough, where Robo-King Of Town is the penultimate boss and bodyguard of Trogdor the dragon.
  • In Iji, Annihilator Iosa the Invincible could be considered the Dragon to General Tor, though the latter IS more powerful when you face him, Especially on Maximum Charge.
  • In Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, this is slightly changed around when you face the big bad BEFORE facing Dialga or Palkia (Or Giratina in the upcoming Platinum game). But there is still the Elite Four to think about, so it still counts.
  • In the Streets Of Rage series, Shiva usually takes the role of The Dragon, most notably in the final showdown with Mr. X in the first game and again in Streets of Rage III in one of the Bad Endings of the game.
  • In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, Fawful was The Dragon to Cackletta.
  • Kammy Koopa, Lord Crump and Nastasia in the Paper Mario games.
  • In Devil May Cry 3, Arkham appears, at first, to be Vergil's dragon. It turns out that Arkham's been manipulating pretty much everyone the whole time, as part of his plans to become a god.
  • Resident Evil 5: a brainwashed Jill is Wesker's dragon. Excella thinks she is, but that lasts until Wesker decides she's not that useful anymore.
  • Subverted in Rumble Roses, as you meet the actual evil mastermind before fighting her cyborg(unless you're playing as her). Though in some stories, you fight the girl she brainwashed before her, so kinda counts.
  • Sensory Overload: The Mastermind, a female cyborg who you fight shortly after offing Big Bad Dr. Craven. Somewhat of an Anticlimax Boss, with only slightly more HP than the higher Elite Mooks and the same attack as the cyborg mooks, albeit a bit faster.
  • Bodhi to Irenicus in Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Once you've got past her and get to follow Irenicus to the almost-final area, he also pulls out a literal dragon in his service you have to deal with before getting to him.
    • In the sequel Baldurs Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, Draconis is Abazigal's dragon (again, literally). Odd in that, as Draconis is also Abazigal's son, Abazigal is himself a dragon. (And it may be argued that all five of the mini bosses of the expansion are dragons to the expansion's Big Bad, Amelisan.
  • Subverted slightly in Tales of Symphonia—the battle—which looks like a boss battle—just before going to attack and kill the final boss actually is a real dragon. It also turns out to be one of the easiest fights in the game—not even on the level of some normal, random fights.
  • Reflux in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, to Big Bad André.
  • Dr. N. Gin, from the [1] series serves as one in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and, arguably, Crash Bandicoot: Warped. In both games, you have to fight him when he's in a giant robot suit and you require projectiles to hurt him. In addition, he also has a lot more health than any other boss you fight in either of those games.

Web Animation
  • In the Madness Combat series of Flash animations, Jebus/Joe/the one with the halo was originally The Dragon for The Sheriff, but he has since taken over as Hank's arch-nemesis.
  • Parodied in Dangeresque with Perducci's "secret weapon", Killingyouguy!.

Web Comics
  • In Erfworld, the color-coded Evil Overlord's second-in-command is a powerful Croakamancer and far smarter than her boss. However, he has a divine artifact, indulges her hobbies — and she knows how to "arrange it so that he thinks it was his idea."
  • In Order Of The Stick, Redcloak is The Dragon and right-hand man (right-hand goblin?) to Xykon, as is the Monster In The Shadows. Recently, Tsukiko could be considered yet another Dragon for Xykon.
    • For a while, Miko appeared to be The Dragon to Lord Shojo, but it turned out that he was actually a good guy, and Miko was just a little overzealous.
    • Therkla the ninja serves as the Dragon to the corrupt Lord Kubota. ...or did, until he killed her.
    • The prequel book Start Of Darkness shows that Xykon was, at one point, the dragon to Redcloak before becoming more powerful and carrying out a rather nasty gambit which involved making Redcloak kill his brother and then ordering him to turn the corpse into a zombie.
      • Start Of Darkness almost serves as a deconstruction of The Dragon, in that it shows what can really happen when when the more powerful and evil villain (Xykon) starts out as a tool for the more intelligent but weaker Evil Overlord (Redcloak).
    • Thog is a sort of Dragon for Nale; although Nale is not lacking in martial prowess himself, he is certainly much smarter than Thog.
  • Ysengrin counts as Coyote's dragon in Gunnerkrigg Court, though only so far as the comic's White And Gray Morality allows.
  • In Evil Overlords United, the second in command is literally a dragon. He's also not overly bright and seems to have a thing for human females.
  • Goblins has had two major Dragons so far — one for each major plot arc. Saral Caine was ("was" being the operative word) Dragon for Dellyn Goblinslayer in the Brassmoon Arc. Grem (until his Heel Face Turn) and Riss were Dragons to Duv in Well of Darkness Arc. Not that Duv really needs a Dragon. She's more than Badass enough on her own...
  • Sluggy Freelance has had several Dragons in its long run. Most of them (Killum, Aylee, Kusari) have worked for the Hereti Corporation's Omniscient Council of Vagueness. Other notables include Lord Grater (Dragon to Zorgon Gala in the Punyverse arc) and Nash Straw (Dragon to Dastard Dickly in the "Phoenix Rising" arc).
  • Karnak from Dominic Deegan seems to have acquired a Dragon himself, in the form of Siegfried. He doesn't seem to be particularly loyal to Karnak, though, as Karnak appears to have some kind of hold over him, and even then has to smack him around a bit to make him do his bidding.
    • Also, Helixa seemed to be The Dragon to the leaders of The Chosen, first serving Raf MaLiksh, then to Caylin Bren (though it might've been the other way around for the latter, considering Helixa was pretty much second-in-command to MaLiksh himself before his death). She could also be viewed as The Dragon to Celesto Morgan after he joined the organization as well.

Web Original
  • On the Neopets website, Doctor Sloth's Dragon is Commander Garoo, although he hasn't enjoyed much screen time.
  • In Survival Of The Fittest, the main Dragon to Danya (although he has a number of prominent henchmen) is Steve Wilson, whom his boss relied on to effectively orchestrate a whole slew of the kidnappings which comprised Version 2 of SOTF. However, the three other members of the so-called "Big Four"; Jim Greynolds, Melvin Carter and Sonia Nguyen could each be considered a dragon in their own right — it's up to interpretation who is the official right hand man.

Western Animation
  • On Transformers Animated, the Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits manage barely against the two Brutes because of Blitzwing's uncontrollable temper and Lugnut being just the sort of big, tactless idiot that would be named "Lugnut". But The Dragon, Starscream, is an intelligence and focused force that towers over all the Autobots, save Optimus himself. He even takes out Optimus' commander in one shot. Scarier still is how this foreshadows Megatron, who is bigger than both Starscream and Optimus and Starscream can't put a dent in Megatron to literally save his life. Who knows what horrors await in Season 3 now that Starscream has cloned himself 4 times.
    • The Starscream clones haven't done much, but Megatron did show why he's the Big Bad and Starscream's The Dragon. In the two-part season finale, Megatron gets hit by an explosion with a 100-mile radius in a small Dues Ex Machina ball of Heroic Sacrifice. And all that does is damage him enough so that Optimus Prime can take him down with what is essentially the Autobot version of Marvel Thor's hammer.
    • Another show, Transformers Robots In Disguise, has two dragons: Sky-Byte starts out in this role, but then is later upstaged by Scourge.
    • On Beast Wars, The Dragon role for Megatron is a little more sketchy, as it seems Dinobot fulfilled that role before his Heel Face Turn in the pilot episode. Later characters shifted in and out of the role, but it wasn't until Megatron put a Restraining Bolt on the psychotic Rampage that we had a solid Dragon. Dinobot II filled the role better later on because he was more loyal to Megatron.
  • On Kim Possible, Shego is the Dragon for Doctor Drakken. She is a good deal more practical, clever, competent and, well, basically better at everything else than he, even if she can't build doesn't care about building doomsday devices. In the Bad Future Movie, she becomes The Supreme One over the entire world, upstaging all the other bad guys.... and transforming Drakken into her own personal Dragon.
  • Princess Azula to her father, Fire Lord Ozai, in Avatar The Last Airbender. As Ozai had never left his imperial castle for the entire series, while Azula fought the heroes constantly and won, it was even entertained by fans that Azula was the real Big Bad of the show who would upstage her dad, but no.
  • In the animated film The Flight Of Dragons, the evil red wizard Ommadon has an actual dragon as his bodyguard, the devilish Bryaugh. Bryaugh is strong enough to decimate the entire crew of good guys alone, but falls before Sir Orin who uses his own fire against him; he allows himself to become engulfed in it before tossing his flaming sword right into Bryaugh's heart, burning him from the inside and finally killing him despite sacrificing his own life beside his comrades. Omaddon then appears only to be challenged by the story's true hero, Sir Peter.
  • From Jem episodes: "The Beginning" to "Hot Time In Hawaii", Zipper is the Dragon for Eric Raymond. Zipper is arrested by the Holograms. In the same cartoon, Techrat & "The Stingers" could be considered Dragons to Eric.
  • In Teen Titans, Terra is The Dragon for the Big Bad, Slade. Slade himself becomes The Dragon to Trigon later on. Both involve The Dragon turning on their master, to varying degrees of effectiveness. In the fifth season, a new Big Bad was introduced in the form of The Brain; he had a Dragon (part of his Quirky Miniboss Squad) in the form of an intelligent gorilla named Monsieur Mallah.
  • In Superman The Animated Series, Darkseid's son, Kalibak, functions as his Dragon. Then Superman learns that, on top of everything else, Darkseid himself is even stronger.
    • Mercy Graves probably counts as Lex Luthor's Dragon as a Ninja Maid type, but outside of her memorable Cat Fight with Harley Quinn in the "World's Finest" crossover, she never got to do much Dragon-ing. (After all, when your main adversary is Superman...)
  • The premiere of Batman Beyond has Mr. Fixx as Derek Powers' bodyguard, hit man, and all-around Dragon. He is killed off by the time it's over, but that's okay — a little dose of I Love Nuclear Power, and Mr. Powers is set for the season.
  • In The Spectacular Spider Man, Hammerhead is the Dragon for Tombstone.
    • Most of the major villain factions in the series have Dragons. Electro acts this role for Doctor Octopus, and Silver Sable for Silvermane.
    • During the Gang War arc, the Vulture takes over as Doc Ock's Dragon while Electro is in the asylum.
  • Cedric for Prince Phobos in WITCH. In the original comics he managed to pull this off while maintaining a personality of his own. In the TV show, his position ''is'' his personality.
  • Code Lyoko features Season 2 newcomer William Dunbar as the unwilling Dragon for an immaterial Big Bad. Ironically, while William is "resurrected" numerous times after the heroes "destroy" him, his appearances are never treated only as annoyances, but instead are considered a real threat every time, thus keeping him from entering Mook territory.
  • In many adaptations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder switches between being the Big Bad and The Dragon, though he is the most consistent archenemy of the Turtles'.
    • It could be said that in the original series, Shredder and Krang are co-Big Bads with Bebob and Rocksteady being Dragons.
  • Gobots: Crasher is Cy-Kill's giggling, psychotic henchwoman and is genuinely more powerful, more threatening and above all else, scarier then he is.
  • Fright Knight from Danny Phantom acted as one to both Pariah Dark and Dark Danny. It seems he would have played the same for Vlad, but their alliance is left ambiguous due to the original writer leaving.
    • And occasionally, Skulker plays this role to Vlad.
  • Allan in Tintin is the closest the series has to a Dragon. First he's an associate of Omar Ben Salaad, then ultimate Big Bad Rastapopoulos. A bullying, volatile, aggressive creep, the only person he kowtows to is his boss of the time, although he doesn't always respect him. His longstanding relationship with the Captain means he's good at mental cruelty too.
  • Jonny Quest had Dr. Zin's Robot Spy, a giant spider like robot that is incredibly tough to stop when it wants to go somewhere.
  • In The New Adventures of He-Man, Skeletor was demoted to Dragon for the big bad Flogg. Of course, in the action figures' mini-comics, the roles were reversed.
  • In the obscure animated movie Twice Upon a Time, The Big Bad Synonomus Botch has a dragon in the form of Ibor, a giant mechanical gorilla with a television for a face.
  • Rhesus-2, a cyborg monkey with a penchant for brain puns, is the Dragon for Lord Nebula in Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys.

Real Life
  • Sea Captains often have their first mate as The Dragon. This would include nearly all Pirate Captains, though many of their names have been lost to antiquity.
  • During the Russian revolution Trotsky could be considered Lenin's dragon, as though Lenin was the public speaker and the ultimate leader, Trotsky ran the military element. Similarly, when Stalin came to power, Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the NKVD (secret police and the predecessor of the KGB) was the Dragon. This was mainly so because Beria survived the purges that killed many who had political clout in the Soviet Union.
  • Henrich Himmler, being the most likely successor to Adolf Hitler, was the Dragon to Hitler's Big Bad.
    • Sorry but Himmler was not the Dragon, he may have been second in command but his role was more of a Mad Scientest then a Dragon, the Dragon was Hitlers deputy slash secretary Rudolf Hess.
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