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Guess who the villain is.note 

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 work'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-Gray 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. Often overlaps with One-Word Title, especially with antagonists who have Only One Name.

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 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Some books in the Alex Rider series are named after the antagonistic factions the hero fights against. Scorpia is the organisation Alex has to stop. Ditto for Snakehead.
  • Amina is named after the Ghoul female who menaces Waldo, the rather passive protagonist.
  • 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.
    • Foundation Series:
      • "The General (Foundation)": The title refers to General Bel Riose of the Galactic Empire, who wages war against the Foundation. The final line of Chapter 3 summarizes the conflict: "a dead hand against a living will." The 'dead hand' refers to Seldon's Plan while 'living will' refers to General Riose's determination.
      • "The Mule": The titular Mule is a narcissistic paranoid, and the only one to have beaten the Foundation.
    • "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.
  • Benny Rose, the Cannibal King: The book is named after the Serial Killer and cannibal monster Benny Rose, who is stalking and murdering the children of the town of Blackwoods.
  • Carmilla: Carmilla is the vampire antagonist.
  • Caliphate refers to the titular fundamentalist Islamic regime that has taken over Western Europe.
  • Cthulhu Mythos: The Colour Out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, The Call of Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep.
  • The Day of the Jackal: the title refers to the assassin villain.
  • Darren Shan's The Demonata. Lord Loss, the first book in the series, also counts.
  • 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).
  • Some of the Discworld novels, such as Lords and Ladies (one of the "safe" names for the Elves) and Wintersmith.
  • Dracula: Count Dracula is the vampiric antagonist.
  • 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.
  • Franny K. Stein: The seventh book's title, The Frandidate, refers to a sentient shape-shifting suit Franny creates to run for class president before it gains a mind of its own and tries to manipulate everyone into electing it King of the World.
  • 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.
  • Hannibal Lecter:
    • Hannibal, although 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.
  • 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.
  • 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."
  • James Bond:
  • Keeper of the Lost Cities: Book 4, Neverseen, is titled after the faction of the same name who serve as the series' main villains.
  • The Keys to the Kingdom series features seven books, each named after one of the antagonistic Morrow Days. Subverted in Drowned Wednesday.
  • From Stephen King:
    • Carrie is a subversion. While Carrie White does kill scores of people and serves as the "monster" of the story, she's presented as a Tragic Monster and Anti-Villain who had an understandable (though not necessarily justified) reason for doing it. The people who pushed her over the edge, from her bullies at school to her domineering mother, get far less sympathy.
    • 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.
  • Laughing Jack: The story is named after the "imaginary" Monster Clown that causes the violence and madness that plagues his victims.
  • Nicolae from the Left Behind series refers to The Antichrist villain character Nicolae Carpathia.
  • 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 
  • Lord Of The World: Hint, the "Lord of the World" isn't God but rather someone quite the opposite.
  • The Master Key: It has chapter 6: "The Buccaneers", or pirates.
  • 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.
  • The Lightning Thief (the first book of Percy Jackson and the Olympians) is named after an unknown figure who stole Zeus' lightning bolt. The protagonist Percy is accused of being the thief, but in truth it's Luke Castellan, acting under the orders of Kronos.
  • Rebecca, despite the title character being dead.
  • The Reckoners Trilogy:
  • Three of the Redwall series books are named for the main villain or group of villains: Marlfox, Doomwyte, and The Sable Quean.
  • The Robber Hotzenplotz: The title is named after the bandit whom the main characters are chasing.
  • Andersen's The Shadow is also named for its antagonist.
  • The Shadow of the Vulture refers to the Crimean Tatar hunter Mikael Oglu, also known as the Vulture, who is ordered by the Sultan to track and assassinate the Christian knight Gottfried.
  • The Snow Queen: The Snow Queen is the one who kidnapped the protagonist Gerda's brother Kai (her friend in some versions), and the story is about Gerda journeying to get Kai back from her.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: Euron "Crow's Eye" Greyjoy is the main "crow" referenced in the title A Feast for Crows, the book in which he makes his physical debut. While there are other scavengers picking Westeros' corpse and taking advantage of the chaos in the aftermath of the first phase of the war, Euron is the most powerful, ambitious and comes close to giving a full Title Drop.
  • Spellslinger Series: Book three, Soulbinder, is titled for the villain of the week who has the ability to bind and control the souls of people suffering the shadowblack curse.
  • The Spider-Man novel's Carnage in New York and its sequel Goblin's Revenge.
  • Star Wars Expanded Universe:
  • Tartuffe: The title refers to Tartuffe, a lustful hypocrite who has fooled the family patriarch into thinking he's a holy man.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Treasure Island was originally published under the title "The Sea Cook" in reference to the narrative's Big Bad, Long John Silver.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Whateley Universe: Silver Ghost, Golden Angel. Silver Ghost is the protagonist while Golden Angel is the criminal antagonist who Silver Ghost repeatedly fails at capturing.
  • The Witches by Roald Dahl. The protagonist is a young child trying to disrupt the witches' plans.

    Live-Action TV 

    Music 
  • "Shia LaBeouf" is about cannibal hermit Shia LaBeouf who kills people in the woods, and your encounter with him.

    Pinballs 
  • 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.
  • 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.

    Pro 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 
  • Aka Manto is named after the red hooded figure that pursues you in the school.
  • All Alone With Mannie: Mannie is an Ax-Crazy anthropomorphic mouse girl you need to avoid and hide from.
  • 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, referring exclusively to the president-kidnapping ninjas.
  • 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, the game's Monster Progenitor and the cause of all the horrible things that happened prior to the game.
  • Binky Show: Binky is the Monster Clown Big Bad of the game.
  • 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.
  • Bloons Tower Defense: The Bloons are the enemy balloons that your monkeys have to pop.
  • Bram The Toymaker: The toymaker is the ghostly figure who haunts the house that you're stuck in.
  • The titular Breed refers to a hostile alien race who had conquered most of the galaxy, and you spend the whole game battling Breed soldiers and their war machines.
  • Brood Star is named after the monstrous leader of the Horde of Alien Locusts menacing humanity.
  • 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.
  • Castlevania:
    • 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.
    • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's subtitle refers to the Lords of Shadow that Gabriel Belmont is tasked to defeat.
  • Choo-Choo Charles: The game is named after its main antagonist, the evil half-spider half-train monster known as Choo-Choo Charles.
  • CLOWN (2020): The game is named after the Monster Clown you need to banish by collecting the cards.
  • Crash Bandicoot series:
  • The titular Daemon Summoner refers to the evil Vampire Twins who's attempting to awaken a Big Red Devil, the titular Daemon, to Take Over the World. They're also the villains who made your life a living hell by killing your son, turning your wife into one of their vampire servants, and leaves you for the dead.
  • 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 titular CyClones are alien Cyborg bio-weapons designed to hunt and kill humans, and you spend most of the game's first half battling them.
  • In Day of the Idea, Idea is the name of the principal antagonist.
  • Death in the Water, Death being the name of an ancient, prehistoric Giant Octopus who haunts the depths of Blackwater Bay and the game's most powerful aquatic monster.
  • 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.
  • Donkey Kong:
    • The original 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.
    • Donkey Kong 3 has Donkey Kong riling up insects in a greenhouse to annoy Stanley the Bugman, who uses his bug spray to shoot him and the insects.
    • Donkey Kong '94 returns to the classic formula: Donkey Kong kidnaps Pauline, Mario goes after him to get her back.
  • Dragon Age:
    • The first DLC released for Dragon Age: Inquisition was called Jaws of Hakkon, which is the name of a hostile tribe of Avvar who serve as the primary antagonists of the DLC's main quest.
    • Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is named after "the Dread Wolf," the Nom de Guerre of the main antagonist, Solas.
  • Dragon's Lair plays with this trope. The title really refers to the final scene, although the Dragon referenced is the final boss.
  • The titular monsters from Dreamkiller are demons which resides in the dream world, who devours the sweet dreams of anyone who went to sleep and inflict crippling phobia on humans who enters their realm. You play as a psychologist with psychic powers and a "Dream Saviour" who enters Dream Land to battle these monstrosities.
  • The Everybody Edits campaign world "The Glitch" is named after a sentient glitch that traps the player character into various Video Game worlds.
  • EXTRAPOWER:
    • EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Named after the man who just finished conquering the Shakun Star at the game's start, and who heroes across the EXTRAPOWER universe have to unite together to stop before he takes over and destroys the Earth.
    • EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: Zophy has some powerful punches and can throw boulders as easily as he can a Mook, but his fist isn't appreciably gigantic. Zet though? Especially when it turns out that the sought-after bracelet is actually the ring of the gigantic Latour warriors? There's the giant fist.
  • 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 "Heavens' 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 upheavals, the narrator for this saga describes the feeling of change within Ishgard to be like ascending "heavensward".
    • The Shadowbringers Expansion is both a protagonist title and an antagonist title - on the protagonist side, the Player Character becomes the Warrior of Darkness to save a world full of corrupting Light to bring back the night and shadows. On the villain side the Shadowbringers are the Ascians, specifically Emet-Selch, who worship a god of Darkness and whose plans on the First are to revive said god. The Japanese name, "Villains of Pitch Black", is even more explicit: on one end, the people of the First call themselves villains in a sarcastic manner due to being hunted down by the Sin Eaters, and on the other hand it refers to the actual, literal villains of the story.
  • Five Nights at Freddy's has Freddy Fazbear himself. Well, for one game...
  • The eponymous Gene Troopers are bio-engineered alien troopers serving the antagonists, and a recurring, powerful enemy in-game. The protagonist was originally supposed to be one of their ranks, but retains his sanity thanks to being saved by the resistance.
  • The Gnarled Hag is the Wicked Witch who imprisoned the protagonist inside her house and the one you must evade while escaping the house.
  • G.O.D.: Heed the Call to Awaken: God Himself! You better believe it—The One whom everyone is working towards. Also doubles as Fun with Acronyms, attempting to somewhat obscure this.
  • Subverted in the first God of War. The Title Drop at the end makes it clear that Ares was not actually the title character, but Kratos, who takes his place.
  • Golvellius is the name of the final boss.
  • A fairly large amount of golden age arcade games, such as Donkey Kong, Sinistar, Centipede, Space Invaders, and Qix, were named after their villains.
  • Hades is the name of Zagreus's father, and the reason he's trying to escape the Underworld in the first place. He also serves as the game's Final Boss.
  • Hanako: The game is about trying to survive against the ghost of Hanako-san.
  • The Haunted Hotel installment The Axiom Butcher plays with this. The Axiom Butcher is suspected of being the game's Big Bad, but since he was killed in a police standoff a few years earlier, there's some doubt as to whether it's his ghost or a Copycat Killer. It's the latter.
  • Heavy Rain uses this occasionally, with chapter names such as "Origami Killer", "Nathaniel", "Mad Jack", "The Doc", and the DLC "The Taxidermist".
  • Hollow Knight is a fairly straight example. The Hollow Knight is the (initial) final boss of the game, though certain endings involve fighting other bosses either instead of or in addition to the Hollow Knight.
  • 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 whom 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 whom protagonist Thora has to defeat in order to earn her place in Valhalla.
  • Karen Sees: The game has you playing as a night guard having to avoid a Karen out for blood in The Mall where he works, while collecting the complaints she left there previously.
  • Kingdom Hearts, in the context of the series lore, is perfectly benign. However, since the bad guys' plan almost always involves summoning it and using it to distort the balance of light and dark, hearing the name mentioned in any of the games usually is very bad news for the heroes.
  • Kirby:
  • In the obscure top-down Beat 'em Up Kyros, you fight enemies in the titular vampire's mansion. Averted in the Japanese version (which is called Kyros no Yakata), the European version (which is called Halls of Kyros, a translation of the Japanese title), and the home computer ports (which are called Desolator).
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, in which the titular mask is the Big Bad (or rather Man Behind the Man).
  • In LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin, Ronin is the main antagonist of the game who steals the ninjas' memories and brainwashes their former enemies to do his bidding.
  • Lunch Lady: The game is named after the titular lunch lady, whom the Player Characters are trying to avoid while collecting sheets of test answers.
  • Madman (2022): The game is named after the murderous man dressed as a doctor out to kill you.
  • Mad Dog McCree is named after the main antagonist of the series who causes mischief with his band of outlaws in The Wild West. The player plays as The Stranger, a character similar to The Man With No Name.
  • One game in the Madou Monogatari series is Madou Monogatari III: Kyuukyoku Joou-sama, with Kyuukyoku Joou-sama translating to "Ultimate Queen." The "ultimate queen" in question is Rulue, The Rival to series protagonist Arle.
  • Maka Maka has the final boss, Maka-Maka, a demon king reborn. Also the antagonistic forces in general, which are known as the Maka Maka Society.
  • Master of Darkness is named for Dracula, though you don't fight him directly in the game, instead battling a vampiric noble who is channeling his powers.
  • Mental Omega: The title refers to the Mental Omega Tower, a global-scale Mind-Control Device built by the Epsilon Army for the purposes of ending strife and unifying humanity into "one mind" to progress peacefully together.
  • 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.
  • Meteos is a phantasmagoric matter that can destroy planets and they originate from the planet Meteo, the Big Bad of the game.
  • Metroid:
    • The series itself is named after the Metroids. These creatures are never the primary antagonists as they're more or less alien animals, but their devastatingly effective life-energy siphoning capabilities make them a prime bioweapon candidate. Most of the mainline Metroid games up through Metroid Dread have at least parts of their stories influenced by the shadow of the Metroids. However, the Metroids themselves are supposedly extinct as of Metroid Fusion, though series protagonist Samus Aran carries some of their DNA within her; this fact combined with the retcon that "Metroid" means "Ultimate Warrior" in the Chozo language means that the Metroid series has more of a Protagonist Title these days, since Samus herself is a Metroid on more than one level. This becomes a full-on protagonist title as of the events of Dread, as while the species was rendered wholly extinct thanks to the events of Fusion, their DNA lives on in Samus, who practically becomes a humanoid Metroid, in both meanings of the word, in time for its climax.
    • The Metroid Prime Trilogy shares Metroid Prime as an antagonist for all three main games in the subseries. This creature has many names, including the Worm and Dark Samus.
  • Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: LeChuck is the Big Bad of the entire Monkey Island series.
  • Monster Hunter: World: Iceborne: Velkhana, the flagship monster of the expansion, has the in-universe title of "The Iceborne Wyvern".
  • Mr. Hopp's Playhouse: Mr. Hopp is the titular demonic stuffed rabbit you have to evade throughout the game.
  • Murder in the Alps: The title of the first chapter of Part 3, The Dada Killer, is the nickname given to the Serial Killer who's obsessed with Dadaism.
  • The Mystery Trackers installments The Four Aces and Queen of Hearts are named for their respective Big Bads. The latter is also a direct sequel to the former; the woman who calls herself the Queen of Hearts is the sister of the man who called himself the Ace of Hearts.
  • Neo Contra is the titular terrorist organization in the game's plot.
  • 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.
  • No Straight Roads is literally the name of the corrupt conglomerate that regains over the in game setting and the foes the protagonists must fight throughout the game.
  • Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas: Oceanhorn is a Sea Monster that the Player Character's father left to battle.
  • OMORI is a straightforward Protagonist Title, up until the game reaches Black Space and Omori is revealed to be Sunny's Enemy Within.
  • One Lonely Outpost is a game about building up a colony and growing social connections to the colonists that move in. The devs thus half-joke that the titular "loneliness" is, conceptually, the 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.
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King: The Origami King refers to King Olly, the main antagonist of the game who wants to fold the entire Mushroom Kingdom into origami.
  • Parasite Eve is referring to the main antagonist, the sentient Mitochondria Eve.
  • This is a major plot twist two thirds of the way into in Phantasy Star Nova, where the titular Nova is a sentient Gigantes that is covering the entirety of Makia's surface. Its "antagonist" status is debatable since it's basically an out-of-control machine, but it's definitely preventing the main characters from leaving.
  • Poppy Playtime Downplayed. The titles don’t have the names of the toy you’ll be facing in the title itself, but a saying related to them. By way of example, Chapter 1 is "A Tight Squeeze", where you encounter Huggy Wuggy. Poppy herself, however, is not an antagonist.
  • The Red Dragon Island from Poptropica actually takes its name from the Ax-Crazy Red Dragon that the player must fight in the end. The island is also a crossover with the Magic Tree House books, but none of the antagonists of that series appear.
  • Psycho Killer refers to the Serial Killer who's the Big Bad.
  • Quake is named after the code name for the Big Bad of the original game. However, this name becomes an Artifact Title in future releases as they use the name for brand recognition sake.
  • 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."
  • Relayer is named after the antagonist faction, the Relayers.
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, named after the Super-Persistent Predator that chases Jill throughout the game.
  • Subverted in Robo Army. True to it's title, the game sees you fighting a Robot War, but it actually refers to the two player heroes, a pair of cyborgs on the side of good.
  • River City Girls: "Bully" from the prospective of a Bully Hunter towards their target.
  • Rygar is a strange example. The Japanese version's title is Argus no Senshi (Warrior of Argus), with the hero being nameless, and the villain being named Ligar. But the English version renamed the game Rygar, probably intending to use this trope, but due to the Japanese Ranguage problem, "Rygar" was instead interpreted as the hero's name, with the villain's name still being "Ligar".
  • Shadow Master is the titular alien overlord who reigns entire galaxies, which you spend the whole game battling against.
  • 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.
  • The Skeletons: The game is named after the skeleton is trying to kill you.
  • Skullgirls, which refers to the girl who holds this title (as well as the title as a whole).
  • Skuljagger: Revolt of the Westicans is named after its Final Boss.
  • Skullmonkeys is named after the race of violent monkey-like creatures enslaved by the Big Bad.
  • The Japanese title of Socket is Time Dominator, which is the name of the game's main villain.
  • 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.
  • Space Invaders may be one of the oldest video game examples of this trope.
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!: Ripto is the villain.
  • SSTR is the name of both the game, and the killer AI who's hunting The Horizon's crew down.
  • 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 Tale of ALLTYNEX: Referring to the evil super-computer who serves as the Big Bad of the entire series.
  • Targ: The Targs from the title are the in-game enemies. You play as the Wummel instead.
  • TimeSplitters: The TimeSplitters are an evil alien race that are trying to destroy humanity by using Time Crystals to alter Earth's history.
  • Touhou Project:
  • The Tower of Druaga: Druaga is indeed the villain of this game, and your objective is to climb his tower and defeat him.
  • 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.
  • Turtle Head is the alias of the Serial Killer haunting Smithlane High School.
  • Andrew Schultz's Very Vile Fairy File is named after the titular Artifact of Doom that will show up to insult you throughout the game until you finally destroy it.
  • Wardner: Wardner is the name of the 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 Artifact 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 its own separate being. By the fourth title, Orochi is reduced to an Arc Villain.
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is of course, the main threat Geralt has to face in the main story.
  • Witchkin is named after a trio of toys who act as the Candy Lady's children.
  • 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.
  • Xargon is named for the Big Bad. The last of the three episodes, Xargon's Fury, also shares his name.
  • Xybots is named for the enemy Mecha-Mooks.
  • Your Toy could count, seeing as the Killer Teddy Bear Big Bad belonged to the Player Character.
  • Yuki Onna (2020) is named after the Youkai who chases you and tries to freeze you to death.
  • Zeddas Servants Of Sheol: Zeddas is the titular villain.
  • 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.
  • Zork: Grand Inquisitor: Grand Inquisitor Mir Yannick is the Big Bad of the game, and the plot revolves around overthrowing his rule and bringing magic back to the land of Zork.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: There's an in-universe example with the play The Boy in the Iceberg. The title refers to Aang, but keep in mind that the play was made in the Fire Nation, where Aang is public enemy number one.
  • Quite a few episodes of Batman: The Animated Series had the name of the villain (typically making his/her first appearance) as the title.
  • Belphegor: A French animated series in which the Big Bad is a masked man named Belphegor.
  • Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines is most likely the first cartoon show where the villains are the stars.
  • The Dragon Prince: The second arc of the show gains the subtitle, Mystery of Aaravos, the logo framed in front of a star field, signifying the character taking centre stage as the shows Big Bad.
  • Looney Tunes: "Chow Hound" is named after its villian, a greedy, brutish, and manipulative bulldog who forces a cat and mouse to do scams for him so he can have meat.
  • Inhumanoids is a Merchandise-Driven 1986 series named after a group of subterranean monsters who terrorize the surface world. The protagonists are Earth Corps, a team of heroic scientists in Powered Armor.
  • Most episodes of Miraculous Ladybug are named after the akumatized Villain of the Week.
  • The Lion Guard has "The Rise of Makuu", "Janja's New Crew", "Lions of the Outlands", "The Rise of Scar", "The Bite of Kenge", "The Scorpion's Sting", "Ghost of the Mountain", "Mama Binturong", and "Little Old Ginterbong".
  • The Pirates of Dark Water: Dark Water is The Corruption in the show's world.
  • The Powerpuff Girls:
    • The pilot, "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins", which also serves as the debut episode for Fuzzy Lumpkins.
    • The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
      • "Abracadaver": The titular villain, a reanimated magical zombie, was formerly known as the famous magician Al Lusion and sought revenge on all those who mocked him and ruined his reputation decades earlier (with Blossom at the end of his list due to her bearing a striking resemblance to the young girl he called onstage whom he made her bear disappear), having been revived after a demolition crew, while wrecking the theater he once performed in, inadvertantly hit the Iron Maiden he was killed in, which served as his makeshift casket.
  • Secret Squirrel: While most episodes are named after the villain the titular secret agent fights, the majority of the trope occurs in the 2 Stupid Dogs reboot, Super-Secret Secret Squirrel.
  • Skeleton Warriors: The title refers to Baron Dark and his minions, who are the antagonists of the show.
  • The Canadian Green Aesop-based series The Smoggies - the heroes are actually the Suntots. In the US, it was aired with the Market-Based Title Stop the Smoggies, just to make it more clear the title characters are the bad guys.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: The debut episode for Plankton is named after him.
  • Steven Universe:
  • Van-Pires: The Van-Pires are the vampiric car robots who drink gasoline instead of blood. Of course, it's stated in the show that since the Motor-Vaters (the show's protagonists) need gasoline as well, then they too are Van-Pires.
  • Victor & Hugo: Bunglers in Crime, from the creators of Danger Mouse, is exactly what it says. Two inept criminals who call themselves "Naughtiness International," go to great and unfruitful lengths to commit the perfect crime.
  • Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?: Same as the Live-Action TV and Video Game entries of the franchise above. Averted with the reboot Carmen Sandiego, where she is the protagonist.

    Real Life 
  • A lot of cultures name their wars after the main enemy they were facing. For example:
    • The Second Indochina War (1955-1975) is known to Americans as the Vietnam War and to North Vietnamese (later the unified Vietnam) as the American War. Even though it continued for years after the Americans had left.
    • The War of the Triple Alliance is known in Brazil as the Paraguyan War (Guerra do Paraguai).
    • The 1648-1666 Polish-Swedish conflicts are popularly termed the Swedish Deluge (Potop szwedzki) in Poland.
    • The writers of the Holy Roman Empire generally called their 1683-1699 conflict with the Ottoman Empire the "Great Turkish War" (Großer Türkenkrieg). The Ottomans in turned called it the "Holy League Wars" (Kutsal İttifak Savaşları).
    • The Napoleonic Wars were named specifically after Napoleon Bonaparte instead of the nation of France which he led.
    • The Pyrrhic Wars were retroactively named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus by the Romans.


 
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Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is Jump Man's mortal enemy and titular antagonist.

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