History Main / TheManBehindTheMan

** The ([[NoExportForYou Japan-only]]) sequel to ''Investigations'' has an even more shocking example. By the end of the fourth case it becomes apparent that some mastermind has been planning things as far back as the first case. Then, about three-quarters through the fifth and final case, the characters uncover a criminal conspiracy with an apparent BigBadEnsemble. But by the time the characters figure this out, the conspirators are finished - one of them is dead, and the other two have been arrested for murders in the second and fourth cases. That's when Edgeworth deduces the real mastermind - the circus performer he defended in the second case, who up until this point was completely innocent and completely harmless. [[ApparentlyPowerlessPuppetmaster Turns out he's the real]] BigBad and he manipulated the murderers in three of the prior cases. He even manipulated Edgeworth himself in order to get revenge on the people who had ruined his life.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', after it was revealed that King Andrias was EvilAllAlong, it was hinted that he reported to a strange multi-eyed creature. Eventually, it's revealed that the actual main villain of the series is a MindHive of Amphibia's previous kings and geniuses known as [[Characters/AmphibiaTheCore The Core]].

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/UltimateXMen https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/puppet_master_8781.jpg]]]]

** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Multiple Man was a villain of the Brotherhood, seen since the first arc. As of ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'', however, it was revealed that [[spoiler:he was controlled by Lorelei]].

* Crooler to Cragger in Franchise/{{LEGO}} ''Legends of Chima''; Crooler is the truly evil one of them using [[PsychoSerum rage-inducing pollen]] to control Cragger so she can use his newfound power as leader of the crocodile tribe for her own goals.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', much of the villains' activity (including Cadmus, the Kobra venom, and the mole within the heroes) can be traced to the Light, working towards their goal of jumpstarting human evolution through conflict. The end of Season 2 reveals that the Light has an alliance with Apokalips, which is clarified in Season 3 to be a temporary alliance to conquer the universe before a final battle for domination.

* ''Franchise/TalesOfArcadia'':
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}}'': Ultimately, every antagonist in the series -- the Gumm-Gumms, the Janus Order, Angor Rot -- are acting on behalf of Morgana.
** ''WesternAnimation/Wizards2020'' then reveals that Morgana herself was an agent of the Arcane Order.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': [[Characters/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilToffee Toffee of Septarsis]] acts as the intelligence of Ludo's wand, once again pulling the strings behind the scenes until he decided to make his move and usurp Ludo once again at the end of "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS1E23MarcoGrowsABeard Marco Grows a Beard]]".

* ''ComicBook/BatmanEternal'': Hush is confirmed to be Jason Bard's real boss in Issue 32. Then, Cluemaster is revealed to be Hush's real boss in issue 34... with Lincoln as the man behind him.

* The 2008 series of ''ComicBook/ClanDestine'' sees some of the family trapped in an alternate universe with the ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' team, on an Earth where most humans have been exterminated by the Inhumans and their telepathic king, Maximus. Except that Maximus is just a PeoplePuppet for the real tyrant, the ancient Inhuman named Tral.
* ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'' did an onion-like multilayered version of this, with practically every villain revealed to be a tool of someone else who turned out to be a tool of someone else and so on. The final BigBad who almost all the villains had been consciously serving, or manipulated by, was revealed to be, of all people, [[spoiler:Faora Hu-Ul]].

* In some of its last issues before being abruptly cancelled, ''ComicBook/TheIncredibles'' seems to imply that the film's villain Syndrome may have possibly been doing business with or possibly working under the employ of Xerek (a character taken from early drafts of the film). Xerek's long in development XanatosGambit to discredit the supers further had two key components: An adapted use of the Omnidroid technology to create a bipedal giant mecha and the preserved brain of psychic superhero Everseer, who was one of the first victims of Syndrome's Omnidroid series, to act as a living psychic amplifier to enhance the abilities of another telepath/mind controller, Mezmerella.
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague2018'' and ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'' reveals that Perpetua, their BigBad, was this, as she was the mother of [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths the Anti-Monitor]] and after he was defeated, she manipulated [[ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime Parallax]], [[ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis Alexander Luthor Jr. and Superboy-Prime]], [[ComicBook/FinalCrisis Darkseid and Mandrakk]], and [[ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal Barbatos]].
* Marvel's ''ComicBook/{{Loki}}'' does this so frequently he basically has this as his M.O., particularly in the Thor comics. The number of Thor RoguesGallery that have nothing to do with him could be counted on one hand. Especially in the early days of ComicBook/TheMightyThor just about every villain Thor ever faced was either created by or empowered by Loki in his attempts to kill Thor, sometimes as part of a multistep plan.
* The heroes in Creator/WarrenEllis's ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}: Agents of H.A.T.E.'', spend most of the series battling or evading Dirk Anger of the evil Beyond Corporation. Once they beat him, they face the Beyond Corporation's CEO, Number None... who is revealed to be a robot controlled by [[TheManBehindTheCurtain a baby M.O.D.O.K.]], who claims to be the DiabolicalMastermind behind it all... before being [[YouHaveFailedMe shot dead]] by Devil Dinosaur, the ''real'' lizard behind the man.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* ''Franchise/XMen'':

When a character previously positioned as a BigBad is revealed in fact to be either the [[TheDragon flunky]], [[UnwittingPawn puppet]], or [[MouthOfSauron spokesman]] for a higher authority. Note that gender of either is not relevant, so this trope could include The Woman Behind the Man, The Woman Behind the Woman, or The Man Behind the Woman.

* ''Film/TheGodfather'' movies constantly employ this trope. Don Barzini is the man behind Solozzo and Tatagglia. Hyman Roth is the man behind the Rosato brothers. Dons Altobello and Lucchesi are the men behind Joey Zasa.

* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': SEELE were the group was behind Gendo the whole time. [[spoiler:Kaji tried to wipe them out, but they returned in the sequel.]]

* ''Fanfic/ADifferentMiraculousSetOfCircumstances'' (''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug''): No one even knows that Hawkmoth ''exists'' in this universe, much less that he's the one commanding Chat Blanc to cause mayhem and demand the Ladybug Miraculous. Master Fu is aware that both the Butterfly and Black Cat Miraculi have been activated to do evil, but it's dubious whether he is privy to the Cat's brainwashing.
* ''Fanfic/{{Downfall|Bleach}}'' has an interesting one -- although it appears at first glance that Unohana and her faction are the villains, subsequent perspectives given the readers have rendered that perspective uncertain. At best, that is only half the answer, and it is implied that some other force may be manipulating events.
* In ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'' fanfic ''Fanfic/AForceOfFour'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:[[WarGod Mars]]]] is the man behind [[TheDragon Badra]].
* In ''Fanfic/LastChildOfKrypton'', [[spoiler:Darkseid]] was pulling the SEELE’s strings behind the scenes to [[spoiler:find the Anti-Life Equation]].
* The Biggest Bad is this to General Hand in [[http://fav.me/d4lv1qv Super Milestone Wars 2]].
* [=YodaKenobi=], author of the epic ''Franchise/StarWars'' fanfic series ''Legacy of the Sith'' loves this one. The villain of the first story is set up as [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Vagaari]] leader Goresh Tenziesh, but he turns out to be controlled by [[SmugSnake General Kol Renin]], one of the leaders of the true Sith Empire. ''Then'' it's revealed that Renin is only an apprentice Sith. The real mastermind is his Master, [[MagnificentBastard Darth Malig]]. Now it's being foreshadowed that even Malig isn't the complete answer to the puzzle, though it's unknown if there's another villain controlling him or not.
* ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfSpyroANewDawn'' has its first half with a BigBadEnsemble consisting of [[AntiVillain Deadlock]], [[PhysicalGod Empress Tyrania]], and [[GentlemanThief Boss Kaze]], though Deadlock is TheHeavy of the three. The second half reveals that General Grendel, TheDragon to Deadlock, had been manipulating all three of them as part of his plan to gain an ArtifactOfDoom he can use to obtain the power of the Naga Spirit Of War and take revenge on the dragons for their banishment of the Naga thousands of years ago. In a twist, the readers know he's The Man Behind The Man at the halfway point, but the characters don't until after Deadlock is defeated and he successfully performs the ritual, giving him access to a civilization-destroying EldritchAbomination.
* During the first StoryArc of ''Fanfic/JewelOfDarkness'', Slade is this to Midnight -- in [[AlternateUniverse this universe]], she's the first BigBad that the Titans face, as she tries to prove that she's a worthy apprentice to Slade. However, the Titans don't know this, viewing her as an independent villain; they don't learn of Slade's existence until the climax of the arc, when he shows up to rescue the defeated Midnight from the Titans.
* In ''Fanfic/MinesOfDragonMountain'' (the second in a series of crossovers between ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''), it's eventually revealed that [[GodOfEvil Tirac]] has been manipulating [[WellIntentionedExtremist Gabbro]] for years, and everything Gabbro's done in the story is part of a GambitRoulette by Tirac to ensure his [[SealedEvilInACan release]].
* ''Fanfic/ClashOfTheElements'': Part 2 reveals that [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Cackletta is responsible for pretty much all the villainous threats to Plit beforehand, up to and including Joe Dark and Tabuu.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheStarsWillAidTheirEscape'': While the reader is aware from the beginning that [[EldritchAbomination Herald]] is the true BigBad, the protagonists spend most of the story believing that his UnwittingPawn Trixie is the main villain, until he reveals himself to them during the fight in Canterlot. And Herald himself is just a servant of [[SealedEvilInACan the Old Ones]], so they probably qualify as well.
* ''Fanfic/EarthAndSky'': To an extent, Diamond Tiara is this to the Flim-Flam brothers -- while she may have lost control of them by the time the Pegalathon starts, she's still the one who sent them after Harmony Aeronautics in the first place, and is still covering for them the best she can. She also turns out to be the one who [[PunchClockVillain hired the LaFish brothers]] to attack the HA team during the race.

* In ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'', apparently Celestia has been behind most significant events in Equestrian history, even the ones she wasn't even there for. Of course, given this claim is made by the ConspiracyTheorist narrator, it may not stand true in-universe.
* [[GodOfEvil Erebos]] earns his position as BigBad of the ''Fanfic/PoniesOfOlympus'' series by benefit of this trope. He was the one who turned Chrysalis into a changeling, sent her to invade during the Royal Wedding, and later sends her to infiltrate the Atlas Strongest Tournament; he was the one who [[TheCorrupter corrupted]] Luna into Nightmare Moon; and Luna suspects that he was manipulating the conflict between the hippocampi and the dragons of the Scaly Back River Clan for his own benefit (though this hasn't been confirmed yet).
* ''Fanfic/BurningBlack'': It's eventually discovered that Remy is in a "partnership" with the Pixies. However, the latter are clearly the superior party (despite what Remy might think) and are using Remy to further their own goal.
* ''Fanfic/FriendshipIsAura'': Lord Tartarus was the one who sent Chrysalis into Equestria in the first place, making him responsible for the incident at the wedding and her actions in-story.

* ''Fanfic/JusticeLeagueOfEquestria''; in the side story where Rainbow Dash[=/=]Supermare teams up with Batpony, the thugs that tried to free Clayface were revealed to have been hired by Joker.
* ''Fanfic/{{A New World|IcedFairy}}'': Every single major player in Gensokyo, Luna, and Earth, including the supposed villain Lord Tenshou, has been nothing but [[TheChessmaster Yukari]] [[MagnificentBitch Yakumo]]'s puppet for at least three hundred years and serves to complete her final and most ambitious BatmanGambit. It's a testament to her skill, everyone's predictability, or both, that she's been ''dead'' during that time.
* As it turns out, The Core wasn't the only one of these to King Andrias and his planned invasion of Earth in ''Fanfic/TheParliamentOfHeroes''. At an unspecified point, Darkseid learned of the Calamity Gems and cut a deal with The Core to bankroll its conquest is he was allowed to study the gems. The Core agreed due to it being intrigued by the idea of the Anti-Life Equation, with both figures planning on betraying the other to get access to both commodities. When the Calamity Box was stolen, Darkseid retracted his support of the Amphibians until they rediscovered it. Unfortunately for Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, when the Amphibians ''do'' discover the Calamity Gems thanks to the three girls sending themselves to Amphibia, Darkseid decides to see the Box...''in person''. [[CurbStompBattle Naturally, this goes very badly]], with Anne getting heavily injured and thrown into a Boom Tube, all while Sasha is forced to watch as Marcy gets hit by an Omega Beam (though it doesn't disintegrate her).
* ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSevenKingdoms'':
** [[VampireMonarch Lord Harkon]] is eventually revealed to be the one who engineered the King in Rags' attempted invasion of the North.
** The White Walkers turn out to be in service to [[spoiler:[[OurDragonsAreDifferent Alduin]]]].
* The supercrossover military fanfiction ''Fanfic/TheTerminatorsArmyOfLegend'' gives us Archdemon Deitus the Immortal, the fallen son of fallen Archangels Messorem and Vitam, the incarnations of Death and Life respectively. Although he doesn't make his grand appearance until well into the multi-volume series, he's hinted throughout as being in control of every other antagonist.
** And then the eighth volume throws another wrench into the machine with the reveal that [[spoiler:Vergil]] is still alive, perhaps making him the Man Behind the Man ''BEHIND'' the Man.
* [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac Bagan]]]], the BigBad of ''Fanfic/TheBridge'', is later revealed to be pulling the strings of the [[ApocalypseCult Red Dawn]], main antagonists of the spinoff ''[[Fanfic/TheBridgeHumanitysStand Humanity's Stand]]''. And, in ''A Shimmer in the Dark'' -- a crossover between this universe and ''Fanfic/TheShimmerverse'' -- he also acts via his [[FightingAShadow Aspect]] Mizu as the benefactor for the [[TheRemnant Nightmare Army remnant]] led by that story's BigBad [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Countess Mircalla]].
* ''Fanfic/AManOfIron'':
** The story lampshades how much Tywin Lannister enjoys being "the power behind the throne", with Syrio Forel reminding Arya that Lord Tywin basically ruled Westeros for Aerys Targaryen and ''still'' rules the Seven Kingdoms in Robert Baratheon's stead. A peek in his mind also reveals he would be quite happy to prop a compliant Stark as Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, already making plans involving the Stark offshot in Iron Pointe for the eventuality of the main family line having a "mishap".
** Book 2, ''A Crack of Thunder'', reveals that [[spoiler:Renly Baratheon]] was the one who hired the bandits who tried to kill Tony in Book 1, as a means of [[EvilIsPetty petty revenge]]. He is also the one backing Vanko and Asha's campaign against the other nobles of Westeros, hoping to undermine them all enough so that he can come out on top in the war.
* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal introduces its take on UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica. At the tail-end of the Annk-Morporkian Empire, an unscrupulous adventurer called Cecil Smith-Rhodes emigrated to the Caarp Colony, as it was then called, and, equipped with a dry academic textbook on geology which he had read assiduously on the way over, figured out where to look for things like gold and diamonds in the unexplored interior. He then equipped a rag-tag private army and conquered a whole new land for the Empire, which, with characteristic modesty, he called [[UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}} Smith-Rhodesia]]. Sir Cecil then became quietly influential, exploiting the [[UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar War of Independence]] by backing both sides at once, whilst remaining publicly neutral. His surviving sons, who had fought on both sides, carried on the family tradition of "we do what works". In the latest iteration of The Family, the senior patriarch is Charles Smith-Rhodes, who had a conventional career in politics before realising his time was more usefully employed by founding and sustaining the minority party, the one that invariably held the balance of power between two major political parties in a deadlocked system. Thus, for minimal effort, in a democracy he ensured he always had the casting vote. Charles keeps a close and largely benevolent eye on his family and reasons that a lot of its younger members attending the Assassins' Guild School in faraway Ankh-Morpork is no bad thing at all. He is pleased, for instance, to charitably support the [[ScholarshipStudent selected pupils]] his nation sends to the School every year. Charles also has lots of friendly professional contacts in, for instance, his nation's armed forces. Lord Vetinari in Ankh-Morpork has even been heard to express approval of a kindred spirit in a former colony.

* ''Fanfic/PersonaTheSougawaFiles'': [[spoiler:After Nobuyuki Itou's death, it's revealed that Yuudai Honda is the true villain of the story]].
* ''Fanfic/WhenLifeGivesYouLemonsWormPortal'': As part of its [[DeconstructionCrossover deconstruction]] of Aperture Science's horrible history, Cave Johnson was little more than a figurehead manipulated by the true mastermind of the company, his assistant Caroline. She eventually killed Cave to ensure she would be the first person uploaded into [=GLaDOS=].
* ''Fanfic/TheLostCause'': discussed by Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao. The former convinces the latter to be this to the Jin Sect. He probably saved Jin Zixuan's life in the process, as Guangyao was ready to murder him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', after it was revealed that King Andrias was EvilAllAlong, it was hinted that he reported to a strange multi-eyed creature. Eventually, it's revealed that the actual main villain of the series is a MindHive of Amphibia's previous kings and geniuses known as the Core.
* ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries'': Obake is this for Season 1, not only directly creating some of the villains but also recruiting them and directing their future efforts, though his involvement [[InternalReveal isn't revealed to the heroes until much later]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'': Mr. Perkins, the head of the Bank of Evil, is this for his son Victor, also known as Vector, as he hijacks Gru's plan and gives it to Vector to carry out. He is also this [[GreaterScopeVillain for the franchise as a whole]] (depending how long he's been active) as he has the entire criminal underworld in his pocket and can fund any scheme he wants.

** In ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManNickSpencer'', the Kingpin's idea to get to Boomerang by going after his roommate Peter Parker is nixed by an unknown, giant-centipede-carrying third party, who forces Fisk to kneel and remember "who really runs things around here". A second attempt to get Boomerang has his forces back off at the sight of "The Roomate". This mysterious third party, Kindred, is revealed to be [[spoiler: Harry Osborn, the ''other'' Green Goblin.]]

* In ''Fanfic/AWEArcadiaBayRogueDemon'', Sean Prescott is behind a lot of seemingly unrelated incidents that have been on the FBC's radar, from Mark Jefferson's serial-kidnappings and killings, to Orzai's Monolith-Cult.

* ''Film/TheBourneSeries'': In ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'', Ward Abbott was the mastermind behind Treadstone, and after [[YouHaveFailedMe eliminating Conklin]], he's seen in a hearing laying down plans for the successor organization Blackbriar. It isn't until ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' that he gets his comeuppance by Bourne, and until ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'' that Blackbriar itself is taken down.