"Never trust a Grand Vizier."
— Ysabell, Mort
"It is a fact as immutable as the Third Law of Sod that there is no such thing as a good Grand Vizier. A predilection to cackle and plot is apparently part of the job spec."
— Pyramids
After a while a tall, saturnine figure appeared from behind the pavilion. He had the look of someone who could think his way through a corkscrew without bending, and a certain something about the eyes which would have made the average rabid rodent tiptoe away, discouraged.
That man, you would have said, has got Grand Vizier written all over him. No-one can tell him anything about defrauding widows and imprisoning impressionable young men in alleged jewel caves. When it comes to dirty work he probably wrote the book or, more probably, stole it from someone else.
He wore a turban with a pointy hat sticking out of it. He had a long thin moustache, of course.
That man, you would have said, has got Grand Vizier written all over him. No-one can tell him anything about defrauding widows and imprisoning impressionable young men in alleged jewel caves. When it comes to dirty work he probably wrote the book or, more probably, stole it from someone else.
He wore a turban with a pointy hat sticking out of it. He had a long thin moustache, of course.
— Sourcery
"Grand Viziers were always scheming megalomaniacs. It was probably in the job description: 'Are you a devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good, then you can be my most trusted advisor.'"
Rincewind: And everyone knows that Grand Viziers are always—
Cohen: —complete and utter bastards. Dunno why. Give 'em a turban with a point in the middle and their moral wossname just gets eaten away. I always kill 'em soon as I meet 'em. Saves time later on.
Cohen: —complete and utter bastards. Dunno why. Give 'em a turban with a point in the middle and their moral wossname just gets eaten away. I always kill 'em soon as I meet 'em. Saves time later on.
Thief: I was on to your scam all along.
Chancellor Usurper: Impossible! I spent my entire life gaining this position and the trust of the royal family in preparation for this ultimate act of betrayal!
Thief: Well, yeah. That was my first clue. You're a Chancellor. They're always backstabbers scheming to take the throne away from those who rightfully deserve it through accident of birth.
Thief: Hey, hey, hey! I'm a king now. You can't go around saying things like that. The treacherous viziers record everything.
White Mage: Your viziers are treacherous?
White Mage: Your viziers are treacherous?
Thief: It's an elven court. It's all viziers and they're all assholes.
After yet another hundred years Eblis, whose doom is assured, came to worship Adam as was his custom and said: "O my Lord and my Advancer and my Preceptor in Good and Evil, whom hast thou ever beheld in all thy world, wiser and more excellent than thyself?" Adam said: "I have never seen such an one." Eblis asked: "Hast thou ever conceived of such an one?" Adam answered: "Except in dreams I have never conceived of such an one." Eblis then answered: "Disregard dreams. They proceed from superfluity of meat. Stretch out thy hand upon the world which thou hast made and take possession." So Adam took possession of the mountains which he had levelled and of the rivers which he had diverted and of the upper and lower Fires which he had made to speak and to work for him, and he named them as possessions for himself and his children for ever. After this, Eblis asked: "O, my Upholder and Crown of my Belief, who has given thee these profitable things?" Adam said: "By my Hand and my Head, I alone have given myself these things." Eblis said: "Praise we the Giver!" So, then, Adam praised himself in a loud voice, and built an Altar and a Mirror behind the Altar; and he ceased not to adore himself in the Mirror, and to extol himself daily before the Altar, by the name and under the attributes of the Almighty.
— The Enemies to Each Other, from Debits and Credits by Rudyard Kipling
Mordeth was a counselor, Mordeth was a guy who whispered poison in the ear of the king, and had a great deal of power because of it.
— Robert Jordan sums up this trope succinctly while describing one of his villains from The Wheel of Time.
It was Lazarus — of that I am certain. He alone had the king's ear and whispered dark and evil magics into it, instilling the notion of an imminent attack by Westmarch. Afraid to speak against the archbishop, the councilors nodded their empty heads in agreement and sent us off to die.
— Lachdanan's Scroll, Part 2, Diablo III
The most insidious threat is the best received by the various EDEs in the Void: the rotund figures in impeccable suits that increasingly sit at the right hand of Incarnae and "spirit lord" alike. These are the Residents, and they have come to help.
Residents are advisers, negotiators, schemers and fixers who ply their trade throughout Ensemble Space, Biospheric Space, and especially those rogue domains floating about Subspace. Wherever a status quo or a hierarchy of power exists, a Resident will make himself at home. At first, he'll offer the local lords favors, material and raw power at first; as the relationship develops, he'll offer advice and guidance as well. In this way, Residents slowly enmesh themselves in more places of power than we can count...
—Mage: The Ascension - Convention Book: Void Engineeers (revised)
Bridge Officer: Sir, sensors have picked up a fleet of heavily-armed ships moving on an intercept course!
Captain Grrior: [grabbing Scorpius by the throat] What is this, Scorpius? You said this course was safe!
Scorpius: You really shouldn't have listened to me.
[in quick succession, he breaks Grrior's hand, then snaps his neck]
—Farscape: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
"I want to be caliph instead of the caliph!"
Of all the lickspittles who'd clung to Aerys, Lucerys Velaryon had been the worst. Chelsted and Staunton both tried to give Aerys what they saw as good advice, using flattery to get him to accept it, and Merryweather ... well, he was but an amiable dunce. But Lucerys ... a wretch and a wastrel. He brought out the worst in the King, and delighted in it.
