Basic Trope: The Leader of The Team is not the The Hero, but a secondary character.
- Straight: In the series Next Passage Captain Alexei Bristols is the head of the central unit, but not The Hero, that role goes to Mika. He's known to be a competent leader who knows his team's assets and is often featured in promotional material.
- Exaggerated: Alexei is the only one with even a close amount of screen time as Mika.
- Downplayed: Alexei gets a lot of episodes dedicated to himself, making some new fans think he's the central character (He's more of a Tritagonist or even a Deuteragonist).
- Justified:
- Mika is revealed to be Not So Above It All with his teams antics at times, so Alexei acts as a true Only Sane Man to compensate.
- Alexei is the most complex character, but he wasn't considered to be the hero when writing the story.
- Mika fit the bill of Audience Surrogate more than Alexei.
- Alexei isn't the right kind of character to be the protagonist for their Target Demographic, but can attract fans from a Periphery Demographic.
- The dynamic between Mika and Alexei is one of the most prominent, and since Mika is the central character Alexei gets his time to shine too.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted:
- Alexei ends up dead before the season finale due to Mentor Occupational Hazard, and Mika takes his place
- After Mika is murdered by The Mole in the team Alexei is forced to step up as he is the only one who can fill his role.
- Alexei is moved to a Spin-Off due to his popularity.
- Double-Subverted:
- Of course, it's all part of a plan to get him close to their leader for a final attack, and we see some of that pan out.
- Luckily the team soon meets Naomi, who is also capable of what he could do. Alexei quickly hands his position, as respectively the central focus, to her.
- It ends up bombing, ending with only six episodes aired, and he returns back to the original due to it.
- Parioded: In the Cold Open voiced by Mika he goes through each member, and when it gets to Captain Bristols he consistently says "Oh, and that's my boss."
- Averted: Alexei is the main character.
- Enforced:
- The people behind the graphic novels were tired of the same old Hero-Leader combo, so they broke it up with Mika being under a captain, Alexei.
- the biopic's current arc centers on when Mika was merely a Lieutenant, with her various commanding officers amalgamated into Alexei for the sake of simplicity.
- Lampshaded:Tonia: "You know, I heard that some civilians believe that you are the one that leads us Mika."Mika: "What? Oh no no no, I wouldn't want to take up Captain Bristols' position. That's too much for me."
- Invoked: The government believes having the strongest person take up command would be too risky, so they actively prevent them from potentially gaining control.
- Exploited: Thinking Mika would be a better leader some of the team try to coup Alexei so he can take it.
- Defied: After seeing how strong Mika is Alexei immediately transfers to a new unit and names him his replacement.
- Discussed:George: "Why do we have him again? Mika is the strongest."Kass: "Captain Bristols is a great commander. Mika would be too impulsive to act seriously."
- Conversed: The show is given much admiration and even an award for its portrayal of the dynamic between hero Mika and Captain Bristols.