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Antagonist Title

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diablo_ps1_2187.jpg
Guess who the villain is.note 
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When you want to use a character's name for a title, you have several options. The most obvious choice is the hero's name, but you could also go with a Secondary Character Title. Or you could title it after your protagonist's primary antagonist.

Note that this does not apply to a work titled after a Villain Protagonist (which also goes under Protagonist Title). This trope has nothing to do with morality but with role. If there is a clear protagonist (regardless of Anti-Hero status and/or Black and Grey Morality), and the film/book/what-have-you they're in just happens to be titled after the person, group, or force The Hero fights against, then it's an Antagonist Title.

Might overlap with The Namesake if it's a vicious Genius Loci or the villain's lair. Commonly seen with Villain-Based Franchises. If the titular antagonist is an animal, see Scary Animal Title.

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This is one title you do not want to mix with I Am Not Shazam or Protagonist Title Fallacy.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 

    Fairy Tales 
  • The Jezinkas is a Fairy Tale about evil creatures known as the Jezinkas who try to gouge out the eyes of anyone who dare trespass their territory.
  • The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs and The Robber Bridegroom from the Brothers Grimm's collection. Arguably Fitcher's Bird.
  • Bluebeard, a folktale about a Serial Killer known as Bluebeard.
  • Rumpelstiltskin: The titular character is an imp with whom the miller's daughter is forced to make a deal with.
  • "The Yellow Dwarf", a tale about a wicked dwarf who tries to force a princess to marry him.
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    Fanfic 

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Sadako vs. Kayako, featuring the ghosts of the Ju-on and the Ring series against each other.
  • In Russia, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra's title is translated as "Rush of the Cobra".
  • Fairly common in the Horror genre, e.g. Alien, The Thing (1982), The Blob, Nosferatu, Candyman and The Mummy (1932).
  • From James Bond:
  • Austin Powers, being a spoof of the Bond movies, used Goldmember in place of Goldfinger as the title of the third movie. Goldmember is indeed the antagonist, just not the only one.
  • Another spoof of the original Bond movies, Dr. Goldfoot (his name clearly an amalgamation spoof of Dr. No and Goldfinger) is the antagonist in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, facing off against super(ish)spies portrayed by Frankie Avalon and Fabian.
  • The Happiness Salesman; while not obvious at first, near the end of the Short Film the Salesman is shown or at least implied to be a servant of the Devil.
  • Hook: Peter Pan is the protagonist.
  • The film adaptation of Trilby was called Svengali after the story's villain.
  • Beetlejuice: The Maitlands and Lydia are the protagonists. The Maitlands were originally supposed to be who the movie was named after. Beetlejuice was chosen after the character proved to be more interesting. Still a bit of a slender example, as Michael Keaton's character's name is Betelgeuse, like the star.
  • Hive Mind: Doug Trench, the last man (sort of) on Earth, is the actual protagonist.
  • The Jackal: the title character is the assassin the FBI is hunting.
  • Predator is named after the alien hunters (though the only time it is used in-universe is in the second movie: "Well, we've prepared a trap for this predator.").
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Khan is Captain Kirk's enemy.
  • Star Trek: Nemesis. Shinzon is Picard's nemesis.
  • Spaceballs. The Spaceballs are The Empire in the film.
  • The Terminator is named after the now-famous killer robot who tries to kill Sarah Connor. Also the only film in the franchise to use this trope, since the later films divided the title's association between multiple Terminator models and made some of them protagonists.
  • Just like Metal Gear below, The Matrix is also one that is not a character technically, but a tyrannical system the heroes set out to destroy.
  • The Mummy Trilogy. Thought the third does not feature The Mummy, "Imhotep", but still adds the new mummy villain in the subtitle ("Tomb of the Dragon Emperor").
  • Kill Bill. The Bride is the main character, Bill the man who tried to kill her and who is now the target of her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Hollow Man. The title refers to Caine, the turned-invisible man who became evil. It refers to him both literally (he became invisible) and figuratively (his soul is hollow).
  • Zodiac, a movie about the real life Zodiac Killer. The protagonist is a reporter who tries to find him.
  • The title of Mean Girls refers to Regina and her lackeys; Regina is the antagonist of the film. By the end of the film, it refers to the protagonist as well.
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W Featuring Skull: Movie Wars Core. Kamen Rider Core is the Greater-Scope Villain of the film.
  • Event Horizon: The titular ship becomes alive after passing through Hell.
  • Jumanji, the game, must be beaten by the protagonists before it kills them.
  • Poison Ivy insinuates herself into the protagonist's family and is determined to make them her own family... by any means necessary.
  • Surprisingly Heat fits this trope, even though the title is about the good guys. Because the focus of the film is evenly divided between the villain (Neil) and the hero (Vincent) the title counts for this. The "heat" is a slang term for the cops, whom Neil needs to outsmart and run from to succeed in the end. It is personified in Vincent (Neil's antagonist), who eventually literally becomes the 'heat' for which Neil needs to drop everything he is attached to in 30 seconds flat to make his escape.
  • The eponymous Wishmaster is of course the evil Djinn, although he's not referred to by that name until he uses it to describe himself in the second movie.
  • Brutal dictator Idi Amin is The Last King of Scotland referred to in the film's title (which was a real life title he took for himself). The Scottish doctor Nick Garrigan is the protagonist.
  • In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we have Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, the Winter Soldier is just The Dragon to his employers in the former...
  • Der Wixxer is a German comedy where British police try to arrest the titular Wixxer, a masked supercriminal who started killing off notorious figures of the Brtish underworld. His name, for the record, sounds exactly like Wichser, which means "wanker."
  • The German, a Short Film centering on an air-to-air duel during World War II.
  • Alpha Dog refers to the kidnapping's ringleader Johnny Truelove, or rather what he imagines himself to be. He's actually an idiotic Psychopathic Manchild who sets up an astoundingly bad criminal scheme and ends up paying for it.
  • Akasha is the Queen of the Damned, a superpowerful Vampire Monarch whose bloodlust is so great that she feeds on everyone, mortals and undead alike.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse features the titular Apocalypse as the Big Bad.
  • Prince of Darkness: Subverted. The "Prince of Darkness" aka Satan is a malevolent disembodied presence who starts a zombie plague against the human protagonists. However, it turns out that he is merely the foot soldier of an entity far more terrifying and a threat to reality itself—the Anti-God.
  • Used both in- and out of universe in Ra.One: Ra.One is villain both of the video game he escapes from, and the movie.
  • The Night Flier: The eponymous "Night Flier" is the vampiric villain of the story, alluding to the way he goes to airports at night with his private plane to claim victims.
  • The title Dr. Giggles comes from the nickname that the main villain's doctors gave him at a mental hospital.
  • Evil Dead: Rather obviously, the "Evil Dead" in the title are the Deadite antagonists, not the badass protagonist Ash. Army of Darkness refers to Evil Ash's undead skeletal army.
  • Psycho: Norman Bates is the psycho, not the woman he murders in the shower (Marion Crane). Averted by the sequels, where Bates becomes a straight Villain Protagonist.
  • R.O.T.O.R. is named after the homicidal robot invented by the protagonist.
  • Master of the Flying Guillotine: The film is a sequel starring the One-Armed Boxer, so in some markets it's called One-Armed Boxer 2 or One-Armed Boxer vs the Flying Guillotine, but the most common title in America refers only to the villain.
  • Star Wars has this thrice in the main films:
  • The Third Man: The man of the title is a mysterious witness to the apparent accidental death of Harry Lime, a friend of the protagonist, Holly Martins. It eventually turns out that the death was faked and the Third Man was none other than Harry Lime himself, who finally becomes Martins' antagonist. The film is also notable for how little screen time Orson Welles as Harry actually got, so the title almost doubles as a Secondary Character Title.
  • The Big Lebowski: Although the main character shares the surname Lebowski, he goes by The Dude. The Big Lebowski is one of a number of antagonists.
  • Gojira is the first appearance of Godzilla, who is the villain here.
  • Axeman: The Axeman is the psychopath stalking the heroes.
  • The Giant Gila Monster is a.. well... giant gila monster.
  • The Pumpkinhead franchise is named after the vengeance demon it is centered around.
  • The Vampire is an interesting case. The Protagonist is Beecher, a man who begins investigating murders in a small town. The murders are committed by his Superpowered Evil Side. This trope still applies, since the sides are in conflict throughout the film.

    Game Shows 

    Literature 
  • The Snow Queen: The Snow Queen is the one who kidnapped the protagonist Gerda's friend Kai, and the story is about Gerda journeying to get Kai back from her.
  • The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch: Palmer Eldritch is the evil industrialist rival whom the Can-D development team are working against. Turns out he's also an Eldritch Abomination, living up to his name.
  • Andersen's The Shadow is also named for its antagonist.
  • The Lord of the Rings: Sauron is the eponymous Lord of the Rings, fought against by the host of protagonists. I Am Not Shazam applies, and is indeed referenced in-universe when Pippin calls Frodo "Lord of the Ring" and Gandalf tells him not to Speak of the Devil. Note that in-universe, the title is meant to be a contraction of The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King.note 
  • Carmilla Carmilla is the vampire antagonist.
  • Dracula: Count Dracula is the vampiric antagonist.
  • Inkheart. While this is not the villain's actual name, it is the description of him given by his creator: "...a man whose heart was as black as ink."
  • Tartuffe: Orgon is the protagonist.
  • James Bond
  • In Emperor Mage, the title is one of the titles of Ozorne, emperor of Carthak (and a mage, hence Emperor Mage), and the Big Bad of the Immortals quartet.
  • The Witches by Roald Dahl. The protagonist is a young child trying to disrupt the witches' plans.
  • Harry Potter
    • In The Prisoner of Azkaban, this trope is subverted. The prisoner is set up as a villain for the whole book, only for it to be revealed at the end that he was a good guy all along and that he had been framed by the real villain.
    • Also, The Half-Blood Prince ends with the Prince killing a major character and running off with Death Eaters. It's also a subversion, although that's not revealed until the next book.
  • Many of the novellas about The Shadow, by Walter B. Gibson in the 1930s.
  • The Phantom of the Opera: Disregarding the Draco in Leather Pants effect, Raoul and Christine are the protagonists in the original novel. Protagonist Title Fallacy applies.
  • Hannibal Lecter
    • Hannibal. Though he's turned into a Villain Protagonist by that point.
    • Red Dragon as well, although it's an indirect example. "Red Dragon" is actually a shorthand for the painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed In Sun" that figures into the plot. Francis Dolarhyde, the villain, believes himself to be representative of it, stating "I am the Great Red Dragon" and "I am the Dragon" at several points.
    • Averted with Hannibal Rising, in which Vladis Grutas is the villain.
  • From Stephen King:
    • Children of the Corn: The enemies are children, and much of the action takes place in a cornfield.
    • Christine: The name of the evil living car.
    • Cujo: He's the dog of the protagonist, and he's infected with rabies, corrupting him into a savage beast.
    • 1408: 1408 is an evil Genius Loci room.
    • IT: "It" is literally the true name of the Big Bad.
    • Misery: Misery is not the direct antagonist, but she serves as part of the villain's motivation. She's the heroine of a novel series the protagonist wrote, and the reason Anne Wilkes is keeping him with her is because she is furious that he killed Misery off and wants him to write another book in which Misery comes back.
    • The Mist: The creatures that plagues the heroes are created from the titular mist.
  • Moby-Dick is a large sperm whale who the arguable protagonist Ahab is trying to hunt in revenge for Moby Dick taking his leg off.
  • Scorpia is the organisation Alex Rider has to stop. Ditto Snakehead.
  • The Keys to the Kingdom series features seven books, each named after one of the antagonistic Morrow Days. Subverted in Drowned Wednesday.
  • The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara has a Big-Bad Ensemble, and each book in the trilogy is named for the main villain it spotlights- Ilse Witch, Antrax, and Morgawr.
  • Three of the Redwall series books are named for the main villain or group of villains: Marlfox, Doomwyte, and The Sable Quean.
  • Some of the Discworld novels, such as Lords and Ladies (one of the "safe" names for the Elves) and Wintersmith.
  • Cthulhu Mythos: The Colour Out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, The Call of Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep.
  • Darren Shan's The Demonata. Lord Loss, the first book in the series, also counts.
  • Rebecca, despite the title character being dead.
  • The Day of the Jackal: the title refers to the assassin villain.
  • Nicolae from the Left Behind series refers to The Anti-Christ villain character Nicolae Carpathia.
  • In the Goosebumps book Attack of the Mutant, the Masked Mutant is the titular character and primary antagonist of the Masked Mutant comic book series.
  • The Robber Hotzenplotz: Kasper is the protagonist.
  • Some of Karl May's books, e. g. Der Oelprinz ("The Oil Prince") and Der Schut.
  • The title of book three of The Traitor Son Cycle, The Dread Wyrm, refers to the villain, who participates openly in the conflict for the first time in the series.
  • The Demon Headmaster - also an Artifact Title as he's only a school headmaster in the first book (but for lack of any other name, the heroes keep calling him that).
  • The Spider-Man novels Carnage In New York and its sequel Goblin's Revenge.
  • The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign: The Unexplored-Class are a category of summoned beings in the setting. The White Queen, the most powerful of these, is the Big Bad.
  • Caliphate refers to the titular fundamentalist Islamic regime that has taken over Western Europe.
  • The Shadow of the Vulture refers to the Crimean Tatar hunter Mikael Oglu also known as the Vulture ordered by the Sultan to track and assassinate the Christian knight Gottfried.
  • Isaac Asimov:
    • "The Callistan Menace": The title refers to the mysterious danger on Callisto, one of Jupiter's moons. The menace is a creature, one to four feet long, with the ability to manipulate magnetic fields, using them to kill prey from a distance.
    • "The Gentle Vultures": The title is a metaphor that describe the alien Hurrians, who kidnapped the Human protagonist because they're tired of waiting for Humanity to self-destruct.

    Live-Action TV 

    Pinball 
  • Black Knight and Black Knight 2000: Black Knight is the antagonist on these two tables, and he likes to taunt and mock the player whenever possible.
  • Bram Stoker's Dracula: The goal is to kill Dracula.
  • Centaur: The goal is to battle a cyborg being known as "Centaur".
  • Gorgar: On this table the player is in the role of a barbarian warrior who ventures into the demon Gorgar's volcanic lair to try to rescue your lover and defeat him.
  • Hook: As with the movie, Peter Pan's antagonist is the star of the game.
  • Capcom's unreleased Kingpin is named after the mafia leader of the Big City.
  • The Phantom of the Opera
  • Sorcerer: The player challenges a being known as the Sorcerer to a magic duel on this table.
  • Varkon: The goal of the game is to attack the face of Varkon, which can be easily seen on the table.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Perro Aguayo Jr's Power Stable Los Perros Del Mal are the main antagonists of Perros Del Mal Producciones.

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Magic: The Gathering does this a lot with sets. The last two blocks ended this way, with Rise of the Eldrazi and New Phyrexia.

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • Arkandian Legends: Revenant is the villain of Arkandian Revenant.
  • Kongregate's Army Of Destruction is named after the enemy army.
  • The Aveyond prequel game, Ahriman's Prophecy, refers to the Big Bad.
  • The original title of Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja was simply Dragon Ninja.
  • Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning: Baldi might not seem like a villain at first, but sooner or later, you'll screw up a math question, and he'll start trying to punish you for messing up. There are other characters, but they just slow you down or make it easier for Baldi to get you.
  • Batman: Arkham Knight features the titular Arkham Knight, who forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with the Scarecrow.
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine is named for both Bendy, the Ambiguously Evil Ink Demon that Henry runs and hides from; and for the Ink Machine, which seems to be the game's Monster Progenitor.
  • Bio Metal: The name of the evil aliens the player fights in the game.
  • BLAM! Machine Head (simply titled Machine Head in North America), named after the Physical God responsible for the game's event and main antagonist.
  • Castlevania is the castle in which Dracula lives, but in Japan, it's known as Devil's Castle Dracula, referring to both the castle and its lord.
  • Captain Silver: Captain Silver is the name of the final boss, and his treasure the MacGuffin of the game. Your character is named Jim Aykroyd.
  • The Carmen Sandiego games (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, etc.) are all named for the antagonist, an elusive criminal mastermind that you, as an unnamed investigator, must track down.
  • Neo Contra is the titular terrorist organization in the game's plot.
  • Crash Bandicoot series:
  • A few of the Dark Parables are named for their antagonists. In the second game, The Exiled Prince, said prince is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of many people, including the daughter of the German Chancellor. The ninth game is The Queen of Sands, who is wreaking havoc on a small village in France.
  • The Diablo series is named for the titular archdemon, one of the setting's three Prime Evils and at the end of Diablo III, the personification of demonic evil in the universe.
    • Diablo II: Lord of Destruction: The Lord of Destruction is Baal, the antagonist of the Expansion Pack.
    • Diablo III: Reaper of Souls refers to the rogue angel Malthael.
  • Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Doctor Robotnik is the final AI opponent, and the rest of the AI opponent roster consists of his creations.
  • The original Donkey Kong arcade game has the eponymous ape playing the role of the bad guy, tossing barrels and other obstacles at Mario to keep him from reaching Pauline.
  • Dragon's Lair plays with this trope. The title really refers to the final scene, although the Dragon referred to is the final boss.
  • The Everybody Edits campaign world "The Glitch" is named after a sentient glitch that traps the player character into various Video Game worlds.
  • Played straight then averted in Final Fantasy XIV. The first expansion post-A Realm Reborn is titled Heavensward. The main foes of the initial storyline is the "Heaven's Ward", a group of twelve knights of Ishgard who side with King Thordan VII in wanting to take over the world via Primal forms. Later in the storyline, after a lot of uphevals, the narrator for this saga describes the feeling of change within Ishgard to be like ascending "heavensward".
  • Guess who the Big Bad is in Five Nights at Freddy's.
  • Subverted in the first God of War Series. The Title Drop at the end makes it clear that Ares was not actually the title character, but Kratos, who takes his place.
  • A fairly large amount of golden age arcade games, such as Donkey Kong, Sinistar, Centipede, Space Invaders, and Qix, were named after their villains.
  • Golvellius is the name of the final boss.
  • Heavy Rain uses this occasionally, with chapter names such as "Origami Killer", "Nathaniel", "Mad Jack", "The Doc", and the DLC "The Taxidermist".
  • Hollow Knight plays with this trope, as the title refers to both the player character and the (initial) final boss, who is also a vessel (meant to be a mindless, soulless "hollow knight") like the protagonist.
  • Hunt the Wumpus: The Wumpus is only one of two enemies in the game (the other being Goddamned Bats), but hunting him down is the sole objective.
  • Hydorah: The name of the Final Boss.
  • I. M. Meen. The protagonists are two children the child-hating man known as I.M. Meen had kidnapped and trapped in his maze.
  • Jaws for the NES. Unlike the movie it's based on, the big shark here is explicitly named Jaws.
  • Jones in the Fast Lane. Jones is the name of the optional, computer-controlled competitor.
  • The Jotun of Jotun are the giants that protagonist Thora has to defeat in order to earn her place in Valhalla.
  • Kirby:
  • Mad Dog McCree is another final boss example.
  • While technically not a character, Metal Gear is the name of the bipedal tank that Solid Snake faces in the end of the original MSX2 game. The sequels usually involve Snake (or one of his predecessors) fighting against the latest model of the mech.
  • Metroid and Metroid Prime.
    • Subverted later as it turns out Metroids can be used for benevolent purposes as well. They're still dangerous when broken out of containment but as time goes on and the story has less to do with Metroids, it veers more towards Artifact Title.
      • While Metroids are fearsome enemies, they're not series antagonists except in the second game. They're high-level mooks (with no allegiance), often mini-boss level enemies, but hardly ever antagonists. The only thing that keeps the series out of Artifact Title territory is the Metroids' consistent status as Living MacGuffins; the threat of their existence let alone presence is enough to start wars over.
    • It was later retconned that Metroid can be translated into "Great Warrior" and represents the hero as well as the parasitic space jellyfish the space pirates harvest for galactic domination. Making this a Protagonist Title as well
    • Played straight in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, contrary to original expectations, as the Metroid Prime of the original title is still alive and reincarnated in the form of Dark Samus. Hunters, Federation Force and Prime 4 avert this, veering it back into Artifact Title.
    • It becomes more explicitly Protagonist Title in Metroid Fusion, when Samus is cured of an X-Parasite infection with a Metroid vaccine and gains their weakness, but seemingly none of their strengths.
  • Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: LeChuck is the Big Bad of the entire Monkey Island series.
  • Nier was released as two version in Japan; Nier Replicant and Nier Gestalt. Nier's replicant is the player character, while Nier's gestalt (AKA: the Shadowlord) is the (well-intentioned) primary antagonist.
  • Orcs Must Die!: The majority of the mooks in the series are Orcs. The first game does have a non-Orc Big Bad, but the sequel is Big Bad-less; just an army of Orcs and other monsters to fend off.
  • Parasite Eve is referring to the main antagonist, the sentient Mitochondria Eve.
  • Psycho Killer refers to the Serial Killer who's the Big Bad.
  • Rayman Raving Rabbids is a strange case, as it is both a Protagonist Title (Rayman) and an Antagonist Title (Raving Rabbids). Furthermore, after being spun-off from Rayman, the Rabbids become less antagonistic (primarily due to being the only characters of note in their series) and thus less referred to as "Raving."
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, named after the Super-Persistent Predator that chases Jill throughout the game.
  • Simulacra turns out to be named after the Eldritch Abomination that is responsible for Anna’s disappearance.
  • The arcade game Sinistar was named after its extremely memorable — and vocal — boss.
  • Skullgirls, which refers to the girl who holds this title (as well as the title as a whole).
  • Skullmonkeys is named after the race of violent monkey-like creatures enslaved by the Big Bad.
  • Space Invaders may be one of the oldest video game examples of this trope.
  • Soul Edge, the first game in the series, was titled after the eponymous evil sword, which serves as the primary motivating antagonist of the entire series. For the release on the original Playstation, the name was changed to Soul Blade in the US to avoid a nasty trademark squabble with a game developer named "Tim Langdell" (notorious for suing anyone in the game industry who would use the word "edge" for their products); later games were named after Soul Edge's polar opposite, Soul Calibur.
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
  • The Playstation and Saturn game Swagman (from the original creators of the Tomb Raider series) is named for the main antagonist who was captured all of the Dreamflight (also known as the "Dreamflies").
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, in which the titular mask is the Big Bad (or rather Man Behind the Man).
  • The Tale of ALLTYNEX: Referring to the evil super-computer who serves as the Big Bad of the entire series.
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is of course, the main threat Geralt has to face in the main story.
  • Touhou:
    • In general, each game has a boss that shares a kanji or two with the game's title.
    • The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil: "The Scarlet Devil" is the nickname of the Final Boss.
    • Immaterial and Missing Power: This is a really roundabout reference to the Final Boss and her abilities.
    • Imperishable Night: Sounds like an aversion, as the protagonists are the ones responsible for the title incident, but can be interpreted as a reference to the immortals who drive the plot.
    • Fuujinrokunote  (Wind God Record): The wind god is the Final Boss.
  • Trillion: God of Destruction is all about the overlords of the underworld trying to defeat the eponymous character. Keyword is trying.
  • Trog is named for the one-eyed cavemen who are your main foes.
  • Wardner: Wardner is the name of final boss.
  • Wario's Woods is the only game with Wario's name in the title (aside from Mario & Wario, which lists the more obvious hero first... but not the actual player character) in which he is the antagonist. The protagonist is Toad, with support from Birdo.
  • Warriors Orochi is an interesting case, as the title starts as this, but becomes more of an Artefact Title as the series continues. In the second game, Orochi is more of a Greater-Scope Villain, with his dragon, Da Ji, being the main threat. In the third game, the main foe is The Hydra, which is a manifestation of Orochi’s power, but due to a lack of consciousness, is generally considered more of it’s own separate being. By the fourth title, Orochi is reduced to an Arc Villain.
  • World of Warcraft uses it regularly. In order, you stop the demonic invasion of the Burning Crusade and kill the eponymous Lich King in Wrath of the Lich King. Cataclysm also fits, in that you're stopping Deathwing, the perpetuator of the Cataclysm (although he also proclaims "I AM the Cataclysm!" at one point.) This appears to be averted with Mists of Pandaria, where the mists are just the explanation for how no one had found Pandaria before. Subverted when it's revealed that the mists of Pandaria were a manifestation of the Sha of Pride, one of the Eldritch Abominations plaguing the land. The usual pattern returns in Warlords of Draenor, said warlords are the ones who launch an invasion with the intent of world domination and must be stopped. In Legion, we return to Azeroth to once again fight the Burning Legion.
    • Bonus points: It's made clear at this point in the story that if the Old Gods/Void Lords succeed in corrupting Azeroth, which is in fact the last Titan, the LITERAL world of Warcraft would be the series antagonist.
  • Xybots is named for the enemy Mecha-Mooks.
  • In Japan, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is known as ANUBIS: Zone of the Enders, which is the name of antagonist Colonel Nohman's Orbital Frame.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

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