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Standard Evil Organization Squad
(aka: Standard Evil Organisation Squad)

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Standard Evil Organization Squad (trope)
This is one of those times when you don't want to pick a card. ANY card!
This is a generally villainous organization with mysterious goals and many distinct characters, usually wearing theme outfits. May start out as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness before getting more time in the spotlight. Unlike a Legion of Doom, they're generally introduced as a bunch of new characters, rather than being a new alliance of old foes. Larger than a Quirky Miniboss Squad, and treated much more seriously (less quirk, more Boss). While they may have access to or be associated with a Nebulous Evil Organisation, they are generally not nebulous, but rather have a set number of members, though they may qualify if their influence is nebulous or if they have numerous underlings who do not qualify as full members. They also tend to become a Spotlight-Stealing Squad.

The Standard Evil Organization Squad generally serves as either the Big Bad or Co-Dragons on a large scale (or both, since the leader is often the true Big Bad), and thus are generally a major threat. The Team is the vaguely-structured Good Counterpart.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Akame ga Kill! has the Jaegers, a team of The Empire's most elite warriors headed by General Esdeath.
  • Berserk has the God Hand, a Big Bad Duumvirate of five (formerly four) godlike demonic beings who distribute the behelits to create Apostles.
  • Black Clover:
    • The Eye of the Midnight Sun is a group of rogue mages with mysterious goals intent on destroying the Clover Kingdom, coming into conflict with the Magic Knights as a result.
    • After the first Time Skip, the Dark Triad takes the reins as the next big threat to the heroes. Possessing powers from the alleged three highest ranking devils, they aim to plunge the world into chaos by opening the gates to the very home of the devils that they're hosts to, the Underworld.
    • The final act of the series has the Paladins. Humans both alive and once dead who were brainwashed and given devil power by the Big Bad Lucius Zogratis' Soul Magic, the Paladins act as the enforcers of his will in bringing about his Well-Intentioned Extremist goal of "True Peace".
  • The Itto-Ryu in Blade of the Immortal is an dojo that practices Might Makes Right and Rape, Pillage, and Burn. As Manji helps Rin in her revenge against Anotsu, he has to deal with their members on regular basis.
  • Bleach:
    • The Thirteen Court Guard Squads qualify as a version that pulled a Heel–Face Turn, having been a brutal mob of killers that mellowed out over centuries.
    • The Espada serve this role as the most powerful Arrancar in Aizen's army and main enemies of the Thirteen Court Guard Squad captains during the war against Soul Society.
    • Later, we have the Sternritter, though they are technically a rank comprised of the most powerful Quincy in Yhwach's army and not a group in their own right.
  • The Black Organization in Case Closed is an enigmatic crime syndicate with members who are too dangerous for even Conan to take on. For the longest time, their MO is so unclear that even a genius detective like Conan can mistake anyone in a black coat for one of them, as all anyone knows about the organization is that members tend to wear distinctive black coats.
  • Muzan Kibutsuji in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has created the Twelve Kizuki, a group of the most powerful demons which serve him, later downscaling it by killing four of the remaining the Lower Kizuki to his six most trustworthy and powerful members, the Upper Kizuki.
  • The Noah family from D.Gray-Man. They are humans with an activated Noah gene who follow Noah and the Earl of Millennium.
  • The Dark Army in Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai consists of six generals, each with their own army and powers.
  • The White-Clad in Fire Force is a Religion of Evil with each member coming with a themed uniform and unique abilities.
  • The Homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist are the primary antagonists of the story, comprised of strange, scheming humanoid monsters led by their creator Father.
  • Gundam:
  • The leadership of the Millennium Organization in Hellsing, each of whom possesses a specialized role and set of abilities in contrast the generic Nazi vampires who fill the organization's lower ranks.
  • The Band of Seven in Inuyasha. A group of human mercenaries killed long ago, they are brought back to life undead and controlled by Naraku to hold off his enemies during his time at Mount Hakurei.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Phantom Blood: Dio Brando forms one with his top followers once he becomes a vampire and begins gathering a zombie army for world domination.
    • Battle Tendency has the Pillar Men, the four villains of the arc.
    • Stardust Crusaders has DIO forming a new one with the various powerful Stand users he keeps as servants in his household.
    • Golden Wind has Passione's Unità Speciale, the Boss's elite guards and assassins who he sends after Team Bucciarati once they get too close to him.
  • The One Shadow Nine Fists from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, the ten strongest unarmed fighters of Yami, a villainous group of martial artists.
  • The Numbers in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. They are a group of twelve female Combat Cyborgs created by Jail Scaglietti, the main antagonist, to collect all the Relics.
  • Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: Al-Thamen is a global conspiracy of dark magicians who recruit people who have cursed fate and fell into depravity, believing the world is suppressing them. Most of their members act as Arc Villains or are sponsors whose real purpose is to die testing their weapons.
  • My Hero Academia has the League of Villains, a group of competent villains led by Tomura Shigaraki and created by All Might's old nemesis All For One to work together against the heroes. Unlike many examples, after the League is re-branded thanks to the Stain incident, the group's numbers were reduced to a little over ten members. After defeating the Meta Liberation Army, the two groups merge to form the Paranormal Liberation Front with Shigaraki as its Grand Commander.
  • Naruto:
    • The Akatsuki from Naruto are a group of S-ranked criminal ninja. Although they each have their own agendas, the group's goal is to Take Over the World by capturing the nine Tailed Beasts. Their members work in pairs and wear high-collared, black coats adorned with red clouds.
    • Boruto introduces Kara, a mysterious organization whose motives are largely unknown but carry sinister intent for the world at large. They are similar to, if not exactly like, the Akatsuki, starting as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness devoted to Jigen, before most of its members come out as Arc Villains. Each member has a Roman Numeral tattoo on their face.
  • One Piece has two examples of this which also show shades of Quirky Miniboss Squad:
    • The Officer and Frontier Agents of Baroque Works are missing only standardized outfits. Like Akatsuki, they work in pairs, in each case a guy and a girl, with the guys numbered a la the Espada.
    • The Cipher Pol 9 of the Enies Lobby arc also qualify, as they're Government-employed assassins who operate in units of four and wear black formal clothing.
  • The Juppongatana from Rurouni Kenshin, a special force of elite assassins led by Shishio Makoto to assassinate officials of the Meiji government to instigate a revolution.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has the Four Beastmen Generals, who command the Human Eradication Army and answer to the Spiral King, Lordgenome.
  • The Gourmet Corp and NEO in Toriko have an array of powerful fighters with each having rank and screentime corresponding to their strength.
  • Undead Unluck's final opponents are the Master Rules, a group of the most powerful Rules on Humanity who serve directly under God. Among their ranks are concepts such as Death, War, Sick, and Language.
  • The Dark Signers of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. They're the Evil Counterparts to the Signers as a group of Duelists resurrected to serve Earthbound Immortals, evil monsters sealed away by the Crimson Dragon 5000 years ago.

    Audio Plays 

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • Amazing Fantasy has the League of Villains, who are receiving technology from Mysterio to arm a new wave of upstart supervillains with advanced equipment from the Marvel Universe. This includes D-list villains like Stilt-Man, Big Wheel, and an entire Rocket Racer Gang.
  • Angel of the Bat III: Da Pacem Domine introduces, "The Order of Nephilim" as its villains, a six-member band of Half-Human Hybrids (or, in a few cases, Uneven Hybrid), with their leader, Kedar, being the story's Big Bad.
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: Ami's minions start out as just another Keeper's band of thugs to the surface world. This changes following Ami's defeat of the Avatar of All Light. It is clear from the Spymaster's subplot that after this, the surface world is scrambling to discover the source of this incredibly powerful new keeper, uncover her motives and prepare countermeasures for her continued menace. They meet with limited success due to her origins. Of course, this is Sailor Mercury we're talking about, so it's an inversion.

    Film — Animation 
  • The Devils of Kimon from Ninja Scroll, a group of ninjas with extremely varied and bizarre powers, all working for an immortal.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 

    Mythology & Religion 

    Toys 

    Video Games 

    Web Animation 
  • Salem's faction from RWBY, alluded to now and again throughout the show, then fully revealed during the first episode of Volume 4.

    Webcomics 
  • Homestuck:
    • The first is the canonical Trolls, a group of twelve aliens (or so they claim) whose T-shirts follow an Astrological theme (each bears the symbol of one of the Astrological signs). Following the format of Homestuck, they are introduced one-by-one. Subverted in that most of them aren't really evil. They aren't particularly organized, either.
    • The second group is from the Show Within a Show The Midnight Crew. The primary antagonists of the series are The Felt, who are a group of 15 time-travelers with a billiard-ball theme (each character corresponds to a ball). They have recently been revealed, in a form of in-universe Defictionalization, to actually exist in continuity with the main story.
    • The Midnight Crew itself could count, if not for the fact that the group consists only of four people.
  • The Order of the Stick: In the "Empire of Blood" arc, the Vector Legion is this. They're a relatively cohesive organization of primarily Lawful Evil, high-level adventurers, each of whom is a Foil / Evil Counterpart to a member of the Order of the Stick in some way. Unlike the equally matched Linear Guild, three of them are able to take on the titular Order and almost win. For bonus points, one of their number is Elan's father.

    Western Animation 
  • The Pack from Generator Rex straddle the line between this and a serious Quirky Miniboss Squad.
  • The Inquisitorius from Star Wars Rebels function as this; they serve as an organization dedicated to purging the galaxy of rogue Jedi who survived Order 66, while recruiting force-sensitive younglings to prevent them from becoming a threat. Though they all come from different species, they're easily identified by their matching black outfits and matching gimmicky lightsabers. They are also treated much more seriously than the show's other early villains (later surpassed by Darth Vader, Admiral Thrawn, Darth Maul, and Emperor Palpatine himself).
  • The Decepticons aboard the Nemesis in Transformers: Prime eventually develop into this. At the start of the show, their roster only consists of Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave (and dozens and dozens of Vehicons), but as the show goes on and more Decepticons come to Earth, the amount of recurring Decepticons grows to the point where each member of Team Prime effectively has their own equivalent in the Nemesis crew.
  • While the membership of Young Justice (2010)'s The Light would form a Legion of Doom in most other continuities, they way the overarching plot is structured makes them this trope, after half a season as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Generic Evil Organization Squad, Standard Evil Organisation Squad

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Seven Dark Spears

The forces of the Jakanja are led by a team known as the "Seven Dark Spears", although only five appear at the beginning of the series.

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