History Main / TheManInFrontOfTheMan

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''

** Later on, [[TheDividual Corsac & Fennec]], two twins who work for the White Fang and have been allied with Adam for a while appear to be only the spokesperson for the Menagerie faction of the White Fang and silent supporters of Adam. When alone, they speak of replacing Adam if he becomes too unhinged and hard to control, with implications they were the ones to have given him as much powers as he has now.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In [[Machinima/RedVsBlueTheChorusTrilogy Seasons 11-13]] of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', both the New Republic of Chorus and the Federal Army of Chorus are being manipulated into waging war with each other by the bounty hunters they hired, Locus and Felix, who are, in turn, revealed to be working for [[HiddenVillain someone else]] looking to claim the planet for his liking.

* Prince Demande appears to be the main villain of the second ''Manga/SailorMoon'' arc, but over time it becomes apparent that his "[[TreacherousAdvisor advisor]]" Wiseman has been using him as a pawn the entire time.

* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': [[EnigmaticMinion Blood Stalk]] plays henchman to the various factions Team Build goes up against, while manipulating them in pursuit of his own agenda. Once their usefulness runs out, Blood Stalk backstabs them before moving on to his next employer/pawn.
* ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'': Aguilera seems like the leader of the Deadmans at first, but it becomes apparent later on she's just a figurehead used by her supposed second-in-command and others in the cult to rally people behind. Her true purpose is to [[spoiler:be a sacrifice for the demon they worship, Giff.]]

* The Demon King in ''LightNovel/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' is the absolute authority of the demons due to [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority being the most powerful by default]]. In the present of the story, Demon King Ariel is [[WorldsStrongestWoman the most powerful being who exists within the System]], and [[SheIsTheKing her]] intent is to spark the bloodiest and most terrible war to ever grace the planet between demons and humans...except, as it turns out, that there's someone even ''[[UpToEleven more]]'' powerful and fearsome than the Demon King, someone whom the Demon King ''takes orders from'', someone who is the true Demon King for all intents and purposes: Tenth Demon Army General Shiro, one of the Demon King's supposed loyal followers, who is actually the protagonist Kumoko, and a ''god.'' The duo's deception is so effective that the number of people outside of their inner circle who are aware of the truth can be counted in one hand until an outside force reveals the truth to the whole world in order to spark mayhem.

* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', a man is introduced as Ra's Al Ghul, looking every bit the namesake, with his adjutant, Henri Ducard. But before long, it becomes clear the big man is a DecoyLeader and "Ducard" is the true Ra's Al Ghul. Misdirection is, after all, one of the League of Shadows' prime tricks.

** Zig-zagged with Beldam from ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', who appears to be just a minion of Grodus, the supposed BigBad of the game, but it's then revealed that she was only working with him in order to further her plans of reviving the [[GreaterScopeVillain Shadow Queen]] - whom she is actually a loyal underling of.

* ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'' Queen Mirage seems to be the BigBad for most of the series, before its revealed she was manipulated by Red, [[CainAndAbel evil brother to Blue, the mentor]].

* ''Manga/InuYasha'' is a pretty unusual case. Early on, Naraku emerges as the main villain and orchestrates most of the plot, with various minor villains serving his ends and any setbacks are AllAccordingToPlan. His goal is to attain the [[MacGuffin Jewel of Four Souls]], which will grant him a single wish, that would presumably make him invincible. Only in the final act, when he finally gets his hands on the complete Jewel, is it revealed that ''the MacGuffin itself'' was manipulating him and all others who used it towards its own ends. Even after Naraku is finally finished, the Jewel continues to be a threat until it can be destroyed.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Tobi is introduced as not even being a member of the Akatsuki, just a particularly goofy minion of theirs. The real leader appears to be Pain. Then it's revealed Pain was only the front man of the organization and Tobi was his boss all along.
** Most of the time, Black Zetsu seemed to be only TheDragon for Madara. But after Madara's defeated, Madara and all of the battle's spectators were surprised when Zetsu showed that he had manipulated Madara all this time in order to revive its creator, Kaguya.

* Prince Demande appears to be the main villain of the second ''Manga/SailorMoon'' arc, but over time it becomes apparent that his "[[TreacherousAdvisor advisor]]" Wiseman has been using him as a pawn the entire time.
* In ''Anime/RageOfBahamutGenesis'', Gilles de Rais, the true antagonist who moves the plot towards resurrecting the titular dragon, executes his sinister plans while feigning servitude under the demon lord Beelzebub, orchestrating hostilities between humans, angels and devils to cover his tracks. When Beelzebub loudly declares his intent to rule the world by controlling a resurrected Bahamut, the latter quickly turns on him and proceeds to go on a rampage, revealing that Gilles used the guise of Martinet to gain Beelzebub's support and fool him with the promise of power, when in reality he never wished to control Bahamut and simply wanted to marvel at the apocalypse.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' has the King of Vices, who rules the Republic of Heiburg from the [[ShadowDictator shadows]]. To hide her identity, she poses as Calensia Hersmice, the mistreated aide of her country's top soldier, who she brainwashed to act as her proxy.
* Eto Yoshimura/Sen Takatsuki in ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' does this to ''[[KingIncognito herself]]''. Specifically, the One-Eyed Owl, who Eto/Sen pretends to serve, is actually [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter an alias of hers]].
** In '':re'', Furuta Nimura is seemingly just the assistant of Shiki Kijima, and a small fry in the [[HunterOfMonsters CCG]] organization; [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter as Souta]], just a member of the [[MonsterClown Pierrot]]. Until about halfway through, after Kijima’s death- then he flawlessly executes a plan to seize control of CCG for himself, kills his father Tsuneyoshi Wasshu and takes his spot as chairman, becomes the effective leader of the Pierrot, and turns out to have been manipulating everyone since day one, making him a BigBad [[BigBadEnsemble who rivals Eto]], and becomes the FinalBoss in her absence.
* Dark in ''Manga/SamuraiHaremAsuNoYoichi'' is introduced as a self-aware puppet serving the current Torikago clan leader who is set up to be the apparent BigBad. When the leader is swayed by Yoichi's kind words, Dark reveals her true nature: she is the one who has been keeping the Torikago clan's hatred towards the Karasuma clan alive for generations. Dark turns against her supposed master, stating that she has no right to forgive the Karasuma clan after her ancestors devoted their entire lives to hating them.
* In ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'' Indicus is apparently the maid and representative of Nureha, the leader of guild Plant Hwyaden. In truth Indicus has used [[ManipulativeBastard psychological torment]] and [[BrokenBird Nureha's own self-loathing]] to cripple her, and now controls Nureha, the guild, and Minami as she sees fit.

* In ''Literature/BookOfTheNewSun'', two of the characters, Dr. Talos and Bandanders (both cases of MeaningfulName combined with GeniusBonus) are this. Talos, who clearly seems to be the leader, is a clever, glib ConMan with [[CunningLikeAFox fox-like features]]. Baldanders clearly comes off as the subordinate and appears to be a GentleGiant and rarely speaks. In actuality, Baldanders is some sort of HumanoidAbomination MadScientist who turns out to be a threatening villain, and Talos is an ArtificialHuman, who is his creation- the parallels to/subversion of FrankensteinsMonster are deliberate.

* In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', [[EvilOverlord Supreme Overlord Shimrra]] is always accompanied by his personal slave and jester Onimi; though Shimrra will sometimes send Onimi to act as [[MouthOfSauron his proxy outside his court]], everyone agrees that when ''not'' acting on the Supreme Overlord's direct orders, Onimi is obnoxious and rather perverted, but essentially harmless. Then the ending of the novel ''Destiny's Way'' makes it clear Onimi is smarter than he looks and has some sort of link with Shimrra. ''Then'' the climax of the final volume, ''The Unifying Force'', reveals that Onimi was telepathically controlling Shimrra the whole time, and is the true BigBad of the entire series.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patterns of Force]]", a society of HumanAliens has emulated the regime of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, complete with atrocities committed for racial and cultural motives. The officers of the regime carry out the orders of their Fuhrer, who they only see via television broadcast. It turns out later that the Fuhrer was drugged and under the control of his Deputy. It was the Deputy Fuhrer who was really responsible for giving orders to the Nazi forces, while the true Fuhrer [[WellIntentionedExtremist had good intentions all along]].
* Brajira of the Messiah pulls this not once, not twice, but ''three'' times in ''Series/TensouSentaiGoseiger'', offering his services to each of the antagonist organizations the Goseiger's have faced while using them for his own goals. Once they're all out of the way, Brajira reveals himself as the [[BigBad true instigator]] behind the events of the series.
* ''Series/TheWire'': The crime lord known only as "The Greek" sits in on conversations with other gangsters by having his actual second-in-command Spiros do the talking and disguising himself as one of his lackeys.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'':
** The LegionOfDoom from the first half of Season 6 is seemingly led by Cayden James. However, midway through the season it's revealed that Ricardo Diaz is the true mastermind, and has been manipulating James to act as his figurehead until he was [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer needed]], as which point Diaz takes over directly.
** In Season 7, Oliver's half-sister Emiko is revealed to be in league with the new BigBad, Dante, and even appears to be his [[TheDragon Dragon]]. But it eventually turns out that while Dante may have been her EvilMentor, she's since come into her own, [[DemotedToDragon reducing him]] to ''her'' Dragon.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': The Skull Kid, lonely and frustrated, found an ancient and powerful mask, and uses it to play cruel tricks, culminating with summoning the moon to fall toward the earth ...so it seems. Somewhere along the way, the evil mask started calling the shots; in the final confrontation, Majora's Mask [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness throws the Skull Kid away like an useless puppet]], and carries on with its plan as if nothing had happened.

* Halfway through ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', N tells the player that he is the king of Team Plasma, meaning that the Seven Sages all defer to him. However, at the end of the game it's revealed that one of the sages, Ghetsis, has been orchestrating everything and had been manipulating N all along and only let him believe he was in charge.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'': [[FatBastard Porky/Pokey]] has shades of this as it is implied that he's the one using Giygas instead of the other way around, if only because by the time you face him, Giygas is completely and irrevocably insane.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': The Shadows of Mhach storyline revolves around various demonic entities trying to resurrect the Void Queen. However, after she is slain by the heroes, Diabolos reveals that he orchestrated these events over several thousand years so that he could eventually kill the Void Queen himself and claim her power as his own.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': Iedolas Aldercapt is the ruler of Niflheim, who orchestrates the invasion of Lucis and orders his forces to murder the entire Lucis lineage on sight. Chancellor Ardyn, by contrast, is far less antagonistic, as he mainly just bugs you through the first five hours of the game and even takes a selfie with you. Needless to say, ''he's'' the real BigBad.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'': Saren, a [[RogueAgent rogue SPECTRE agent]], appears to be the main villain of the game who's working to summon [[GreaterScopeVillain the Reapers]] from dark space for vague reasons that may have something to do with his racism against humans. Throughout the game he rides around in Sovereign, a spaceship so advanced that it's assumed to be a Reaper invention. Then comes the big reveal that Sovereign is not a mindless Reaper spaceship, [[SapientShip he's an actual Reaper]], and the true mastermind of Saren's plot.
* A long-reaching example in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series which finally comes to a head in the epilogue of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. It turns out that all of [[BigBad Xehanort's]] plans for the last few decades have been manipulated by someone else: Luxu, the final apprentice of the Master of Masters and original owner of Xehanort's Keyblade, No Name. Everything Xehanort has done was part of Luxu's plan to create a new Keyblade War, which was apparently necessary to allow the other Foretellers to return. And where exactly has Luxu been all this time? [[HiddenInPlainSight He's been right here for a while.]] We just didn't recognize him because he was calling himself ''[[TheDragon Xigbar]]''.

* ''VideoGame/TheNightOfTheRabbit'' has four lizards who make [[DealWithTheDevil deals]] with innocents to put them under the BigBad's spell, and initially seem to be a QuirkyMinibossSquad to the BigBad. But it's revealed at the end that they are just four of an evil, nebulous organization called Consortium Squamata, and they came to visit the BigBad, Zaroff, at his lowest point, making a deal with Zaroff to help him get the revenge he wanted in exchange for showing them how to enter the various portal worlds so that they could corrupt those worlds.

* In the first ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' game, Gemini is the most dangerous of Mega Man's opponents and de facto leader of the FM AlienInvasion, but was supposedly just TheDragon to FM King Cepheus. He was also the first to be permanently destroyed, just before the final dungeon and obligatory BossRush. However, once Mega Man confronts Cepheus himself, it's revealed that Gemini was the true instigator of the plot all along, playing on Cepheus' paranoia to manipulate him into ordering the invasion of Earth.
* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' has both Ryu's party and GodEmperor Fou-lu menaced on all ends by the latter's own empire, because of Ryu's power and the current emperor not wanting to abdicate his throne, respectively. However, Emperor Soniel is only an UnwittingPawn at the hands of MadScientist Yuna, the real mastermind, and it is implied he set Soniel up to die at Fou-lu's hands in the end.

->'''Olteca''': "Boss"? She was just for show. A convenient puppet for cultists to gather around.

-->--''Series/KamenRiderRevice''

* In ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', it is widely believed that [[TheHeavy Deaths Hand]] is corrupting TheEmperor. Eventually, it’s revealed that the latter has bound the former's soul to his armor and was controlling him all along. ''Then'' it’s revealed that the Emperor [[DiscOneFinalBoss isn’t even the real]] BigBad. His brother, your former teacher [[EvilMentor Sun Li]], is.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol. 1]]: Emperor Klamos is not only the puppet of his supposed loyal minion and current minister Grok he's just a war robot controlled by Grok, without even an AI.

** Most of the time Black Zetsu seemed only TheDragon for Madara, imagine how Madara and all the spectators were surprised when he showed that he manipulated Madara all this time for the revival its creator Kaguya.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol. 1]]: Emperor Klamos is not only the puppet of his supposed loyal minion and current minister Grok he's just a war robot controlled by Grok, without even an AI]].

* In the 2005 Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/EugeneLevy buddy cop comedy ''The Man'', Samuel L. Jackson is a cop trying to track down an arms dealing kingpin, and spends much of the film dealing with the kingpin's lieutenant. Towards the end of the film the lieutenant reveals he's the kingpin himself, and poses as his own TheDragon so he doesn't get targeted by cops focused on the bigger fish.

* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', a man is introduced as Ra's Al Ghul, looking every bit the namesake, with his adjutant, Henri Ducard. But before long, it becomes clear the big man is a DecoyLeader and "Ducard" is the true Ra's Al Ghul. Misdirection is, after all, one of the League of Shadows' prime tricks.

* In the 2005 Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/EugeneLevy buddy cop comedy ''The Man'', Samuel L. Jackson is a cop trying to track down an arms dealing kingpin, and spends much of the film dealing with the kingpin's lieutenant. Towards the end of the film the lieutenant reveals he's the kingpin himself, and poses as his own TheDragon so he doesn't get targeted by cops focused on the bigger fish.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': The Skull Kid, lonely and frustrated, found an ancient and powerful mask, using it to play cruel tricks, culminating with summoning the moon to fall toward the earth. So it seems. But somewhere along the way, the evil mask started calling the shots; in the final confrontation, Majora's Mask [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness throws the Skull Kid away like an useless puppet]], and carries on with its plan as if nothing had happened.

** Dimentio from ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' poses himself as a minion of Count Bleck, but he turns out to be the main villain of the game. What makes this different from Dimentio being TheStarscream is his supposed involvement with the creation of the Dark Prognosticus, which states that a man similar to Dimentio is part of the prophecy Bleck is following. This ended up convincing Bleck to add Dimentio to his organization (which would mean that Bleck was being manipulated from the start).

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': The Shadows of Mhach storyline revolves around various demonic entities trying to resurrect the Void Queen. However, after she is slain by the heroes Diabolos, who was orchestrating the entire event, revealed that the only reason he orchestrated the events which spanned several thousand years was so that he could eventually kill the Void Queen himself and claim her power as his own.

* ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'': Aguilera seems like the leader of the Deadmans at first, but it becomes apparent later on she's just a figurehead used by others in the cult to rally people behind. Her true purpose is to [[spoiler:be a sacrifice for the demon they worship, Giff.]]

* ''Series/SquidGame'': The Front Man is in charge of overseeing the games, but answers to the Host, who does not appear in person until the end. [[spoiler:The Host is disguised as one of the players, even faking his own death to maintain his cover. Possibly an ExaggeratedTrope; the players have to follow orders from the soldiers, who follow orders from the overseers, who follow orders from the Front Man.]]

* ''Series/SquidGame'': The Front Man is in charge of overseeing the games, but answers to the Host, who does not appear in person until the end. [[spoiler:The Host is disguised as one of the players, even faking his own death to maintain his cover.]]

** E.N.D. is widely presumed to have built the Tartaros guild long before getting [[SealedEvilInACan sealed within his book]]. In truth, it's his so-called DragonInChief Mard Geer who's in charge, rallying other members around E.N.D.'s book and passing his own orders off as the will of E.N.D. It makes sense, considering [[spoiler:E.N.D. is actually Natsu, the main character, which [[LaserGuidedAmnesia neither he]] nor anyone in Tartaros knew about.]]

** E.N.D. is widely presumed to have built the Tartaros guild long before getting [[SealedEvilInACan sealed within his book]]. In truth, it's his so-called DragonInChief Mard Geer who's in charge, rallying other members around E.N.D.'s book and passing his own orders off as the will of E.N.D. It makes sense, considering [E.N.D. is actually Natsu, the main character, which neither he nor anyone in Tartaros knew about.]]

* In ''Film/SpyKids1'', it turns out that all Floop wanted to do was make his kids' show. Mr. Minion was the mastermind.