History Main / NestedOwnership

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'''s BigBad, Demise has a sword so deadly, that it can summon its own swords to fight you with. [[spoiler: He accomplished this by enchanting it to take a mortal form as Ghirahim, a recurring boss.]]

->"He's not my kid. He's not even my dog. If I had a dog, and that dog had a kid, and the dog's kid had a pet, ''that'' would be Sid."\\
'''Manny about Sid in ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown''.'''

-->--'''Manny about Sid in ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown''.'''

-->"He's not my kid. He's not even my dog. If I had a dog, and that dog had a kid, and the dog's kid had a pet, ''that'' would be Sid."\\
'''Manny discussing this trope about Sid in ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown''.'''

Compare RecursiveAmmo and BifurcatedWeapon.

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Suguru Geto has the power [[TheBeastmaster to absorb and control]] an enormous quantity of Cursed Spirits. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed the "Geto" seen past ''0'' [[DeadAllAlong is Geto's corpse]] body being puppeteered by the [[BrainTransplant transplanted brain]] of the ancient sorcerer Kenjaku.]]

* ''LightNovel/IsThisAZombie'': Seraphim offered to be Eucliwood's servant [[spoiler: so she could kill her]], but Eucliwood already had [[VoodooZombie Ayumu]] and wasn't interested in having two servants. So she became Ayumu's servant. In reality, this is just an excuse to stay around and complete her mission and [[PrettyFreeloaders she treats Ayumu like a servant rather than the other way around]].

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'':

* Some very rich Romans owned trusted slaves who were, in effect, paid employees with a great deal of responsibility. Such slaves frequently owned slaves of their own to do the routine work... in theory, slaves owned by a slave were also the property of the dominant slave's owner. Many masters paid only lip service to this, and if the dominant slave was freed, any slaves he owned would then legally become his property.

* Website/{{Neopets}} are capable of having petpets, [[UpToEleven who in turn are capable of having petpetpets]].

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'''s Yukari Yakumo is so powerful that her [[UsefulNotes/{{Onmyodo}} shikigami]] (a nine-tailed {{kitsune}} no less) has her own shikigami (incidentally, a [[BakenekoAndNekomata two-tailed cat]]).

* A major element in ''VideoGame/{{INSIDE}}'' are [[PeoplePuppets human bodies controlled by whoever's wearing a special helmet]]. Several puzzles rely on those bodies themselves putting a helmet on and controlling other bodies. [[spoiler:This foreshadows what's hinted by the secret ending: that the player character is the RemoteBody of some unknown entity.]]

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Suguru Geto has the power [[TheBeastmaster to absorb and control]] an enormous quantity of Cursed Spirits. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed Geto was DeadAllAlong, and the "Geto" seen past ''0'' his body being puppeteered by the [[BrainTransplant transplanted brain]] of the ancient sorcerer Kenjaku.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''. Yukari Yakumo is so powerful that her [[UsefulNotes/{{Onmyodo}} shikigami]] (a nine-tailed {{kitsune}} no less) has her own shikigami.

* In Brazil, some slaves owned themselves ''other slaves''

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has the episode "The Ricks must be Crazy." Rick reveals that his car is powered by a Microverse battery, which works by having the sentient beings living in the Microverse unknowingly creating the electricity to power his car via an exercise device he gave them. When Morty says that Rick has enslaved the Microverse, Rick says they're not slaves because they created a complex society, but when Morty says it's "just slavery with extra steps," Rick just blows him off. Inside the Microverse they meet Zeep, a researcher that created a Miniverse battery to power his world, which works by having the sentient inhabitants of the Miniverse unknowingly create the electricity to power his planet via an exercise device, thus rendering Rick's device obsolete. [[IronicEcho When Rick says that he enslaved an entire planet,]] Zeep says they're not slaves because they created a complex society, [[{{Hypocrite}} but when Rick says "that's slavery with extra steps,]] Zeep ignores him. In the Miniverse, they meet a scientist named Kyle who created a Teenyverse, and is awaiting for a sentient species to evolve so he can give them an exercise device so they can unknowingly create the power necessary to light his world, thus rendering Zeep's devise obsolete. When Zeep tries to explain that he wants to enslave the Teenyverse, Kyle says they won't be slaves because they'll live in a complex society. However, after a quick deduction, Zeep attacks Rick when realizes how and why they ended up in there, and when he hears them fight, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Kyle realizes why he was born]], [[DrivenToSuicide and crashes his ship]], stranding Rick, Morty, and Zeep in the Teenyverse.

* ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'': When Jasmine recognizes "Prince Ali" as the boy she met at the marketplace, Aladdin claims that it couldn't have been him because he has servants to do his shopping for him, and that those servants have servants of their own to shop for them as well.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has the episode "The Ricks must be Crazy." Rick reveals that to Morty that his car is powered by a Microverse battery, which works by having the sentient being living in it to unknowingly create the electricity to power Ricks car. When Morty says that Rick has enslaved the people of the Microverse, Rick says they're not slaves because they created a complex society, but when Morty says it just slavery with extra steps, Rick just blows him off. They then meet Zeep, a researcher that created a Miniverse battery to power his world, which works by tricking the inhabitants to create the power necessary to power his planet, but drain ricks car of power. [[IronicEcho When Rick says that he enslaved an entire planet,]] Zeep says they're not slaves because they created a complex society [[{{Hypocrite}} but when Rick says "that's slavery with extra steps,]] Zeep ignores him. In the Miniverse, they meet a scientist named Kyle who created a Teenyverse, and is currently awaiting for a sentient species to evolve so he can trick them into creating the power necessary to light his world, thus rendering Zeeps world without power, Zeep tries to explain that Kyle wants to enlave aplanet, but Kyle says they won't be slaves becuase they'll live in a complex society. The whole thing ends when Zeep realizes why he exists, and attacks Rick, and Kyle realizes why he was born, and crashes his ship starnding Rick, Morty, and Zeep inside the Teenyverse. When Rick and Morty finally escape all the way out of the Microverse, Rick's car powers back up because he treathened to smash the Microverse.

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'': Caster of Red eventually summons his own Servant.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
** Confederated Global Investments, a firm that is used by Wilson Fisk as a front for his criminal dealings. When trying to trace a check from James Wesley, Karen is only able to determine from business records that it's "a subsidiary of a holding company of a loanout to a holding subsidiary and on and on and on."

** One case of this is made by ''Series/TheDefenders2017'': Nobu Yoshioka is seen as the main leader of the Hand that Matt is taking on during ''Daredevil'' season 2, and leads a considerable number of men. However, ''The Defenders'' establishes that Nobu is just a subordinate to Murakami, one of the Fingers, and runs Murakami's New York operations in his steed.
* ''Series/TheDefenders2017'': PlayedForLaughs when Jessica Jones, trying to search the public archives for a business named on some shipping records she got at a crime scene, finds that this business is just a shell company that is nested within another shell company, and this list of shell companies dates all the way back to 1820, with her unable to find out what this company is or what they do. It's all one giant front for the Hand.

* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Cottonmouth's right-hand man Zip is the one to whom the majority of Cottonmouth's enforcers take orders from.
* ''Series/TrueBlood'': Vampire progenies, while still bound to their maker, are allowed to become makers themselves to new progenies, although the new progeny is not bound to their maker's maker. As is the case when Pam, while still bound to Eric, ends up turning Sookie's friend Tara.
* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': Gyp Rosetti is the main antagonist of season 3, who goes to war with Nucky after being snubbed on a large deal. However, despite the fact that Rosetti has complete authority over a sizable group of henchmen and territory, he still has to answer to Joe Masseria, which makes him simply a capo within the Morello Crime Family.

** In the [[Liteature/HcSvntDracones novel]] ''Fate's Fangs'' the [[CompanyTown corptown]] of Sacroden is owned by the Reveidolon corporation, which is said to be a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Progenitus.

** In the novel ''Fate's Fangs'' the [[CompanyTown corptown]] of Sacroden is owned by the Reveidolon corporation, which is said to be a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Progenitus.