Dragon Ascendant

"Well, as Megatron has – how shall we say? – 'departed,' I nominate myself as the new leader!"

— Starscream, The Transformers: The Movie

The heroes have defeated the Big Bad, and as they step out of the ashes and rubble, they congratulate themselves on a job well done. Now that the day is saved, they can relax and have a nice evening at home, knowing that the world is once again a safer place.

But wait! The Dragons rise from the rubble, filled with determination to take over their master's position. Maybe the Dragons were loyal to their former master and are Avenging the Villain. Or maybe they're free to fulfill their own ambitions without a pesky overlord in the way. They might even turn out to be worse than their predecessors. And this is assuming they were not the real villains all along, with you just having destroyed their puppets.

This is often a Sequel Hook.

Compare and contrast Dragon Their Feet, Dragon with an Agenda, The Starscream, and Bastard Understudy. Take Up My Sword is the heroic equivalent. Sometimes overlaps with As Long as There Is Evil. While they are very similar, there's a crucial difference between this trope and being The Starscream: the Dragon was not directly involved with the Big Bad's downfall. There are many a Starscream who will become this if they outlive the Big Bad, but most examples of this trope were not obsessed with becoming the Big Bad in the first place, they merely opportunistically took the role because it was offered to them by fortune on a silver platter. They just get as much as they can so to say. There is a grey area with this, as sometimes the Dragon "drags his feet" or has his own agenda, but so long as he displays at least nominal allegiance to the core leadership, he's not the Starscream. The opposite of this trope is Demoted to Dragon, where characters who were previously Big Bads in their own right become The Dragons to a new Big Bad.

There will be spoilers ahead.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Bleach: Muramasa spends most of the Zanpakutou Unknown Tales Arc orchestrating the Zanpakuto Rebellion before it's revealed to be a distraction that allows Muramasa to achieve his real goal: freeing his master, Kouga. Kouga, however, betrays Muramasa before being defeated by his own nemesis, leaving Muramasa as the main villain to be defeated by Ichigo.
• Schneizel has aspects of this in Code Geass: after Lelouch erases Charles, Marianne and their Thought Elevator from existence, his scheming, plotting brother becomes the biggest threat to his plans to establish a peaceful world - and, in fact, the entire world itself, thanks to the stockpile of FLEIJA warheads he's installed aboard his flying fortress. Not entirely played straight, though, as Schneizel is arguably a far greater direct threat to Lelouch's plans than Charles is even before their confrontation. Especially considering that Schneizel was planning to have the Emperor assassinated and Lelouch just got to him first. Considering the old man had nothing going for him other than his bizarre Assimilation Plot, it's no wonder that both Schneizel and Lelouch saw offing the old man as a big step forward.
• Fairy Tail: In the Key to the Starry Skies Arc, the main antagonists manipulating the Zentopia Church are revealed to be a reborn Oracion Seis led by Midnight, formerly The Dragon to the Seis' leader Brain in the canon Nirvana Arc.
• In Another World with My Smartphone: The Wicked Devout, once served as the Dragon Their Feet to the Wicked God, with its generals becoming a part of the Big Bad Duumvirate starting from Volume 24 to continue their master's plan.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Enrico Pucci worked closely under Dio Brando in Stardust Crusaders, even though he's not seen there. In Stone Ocean, roughly twenty years after Dio's death, he steps out of hiding to carry out Dio's Evil Plan to create Heaven.
• Lady!!: Near the Grand Finale, Mary reveals that she's been planning her Revenge on Lynn by herself, starting with destroying her chances at getting the Lady's Crest and then cutting off support the Russells receive from everyone else. Because terrorizing her for months and being a cruel Alpha Bitch wasn't enough.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Toredia Graze in StrikerS Sound Stage X is revealed to have died four years ago. The person behind the events of this mini-arc is his loyal subordinate Runessa, who plans to finish the work he started.
  • After Mad Scientist Jail Scaglietti is captued by Fate, Quattro steps up to take his place. For a double whammy she, like all the other cyborgs, carried a clone of Scaglietti in her womb, and was in command of the Cradle, so leaving her unaccounted for would have made all the other triumphs the heroes had garnered in the final battle meaningless.
• Char Aznable is The Dragon to the Zabi Family in Mobile Suit Gundam but, after spending time as an Anti-Hero, he becomes the Big Bad in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
• After William's apparent death in Moriarty the Patriot, Louis takes over control of the mooks and MI6.
• Kabuto in Naruto fused some of Orochimaru's remains into his own body following the latter's death, and this act seems to have given him access to Orochimaru’s 'Impure World Resurrection' jutsu. He did not waste time in vain, showing that in a matter of months at most he's surpassed both Orochimaru and the creator of the technique in his mastery of it, and immediately used to revive and place under his control dozens of extremely powerful deceased ninja (including most of the previous villains, the tailed-beast hosts, at least 3 Standard Evil Organization Squads, a number of Kages, any dead Main Characters.. making him one of the most powerful people on the planet. However, he is almost instantly dropped to Big Bad Duumvirate status when Tobi gets the Rinnegan back. Both of them have the means to completely screw the other over, with Tobi's Rinnegan being fully capable of wiping out the army of undead ninja and Kabuto being able to wipe out the army of Zetsu. Kabuto expressly states that he wants to avoid making an enemy out of Tobi at all costs, at least for the time being.... Most of the war, the two of them have a mutually profitable alliance, but neither one trusts the other at all. It's a fairly interesting dynamic. Kabuto's new Sage Mode transformation makes the "dragon" part of this trope rather literal. It's not enough to save him from a Sasuke and Itachi team up.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Fate and Dynamis both qualify for this, though it's unclear who of them is currently the Big Bad and who is The Dragon.
• After Beld is killed by Karla in Record of Lodoss War, his Dragon Ashram takes over and continues the original plan the same way as before.
• Gotou of Parasyte was always the most person threat to Shinichi and Migi but answered to Hirokawa. When the police raid the parasite's headquarters, they are able to kill everyone, including Hirokawa, with only Gotou escaping because of how powerful he is. After this, he spends the rest of the series pursuing Shinichi and Migi on his own and becomes the final obstacle before they can rest.
• Pretty Cure:
  • In the Grand Finale, Baldez from Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart is revealed to be Jaaku King himself. He's one of the seperated parts of Jaaku King and transforms back to his old self.
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure has Butler, who takes the place of the Final Boss of the season after the Big Bad, the Witch of Delays, is taken care of peacefully.
• In the Saber Marionette J saga, specifically in J to X, we have Dr. Hess, who once was the right hand of Faust in J. When he was defeated, we saw how Hess dissapeared within the shadow. An then, in J to X he became the man behind all the evil plans, just to take revenge on the Earth.
• Slayers:
  • Valgaav of Slayers Try. Literally a dragon. Although so was his boss.
  • The five demon lords of the setting are actually the former Co-Dragons of the dead Dark Lord, Shabranigdo, and are planning to resurrect him in preparation for destroying the world.
• In Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Quamzin/Kamjin (aka Khyron) embodies this trope when he shows up (late in the series) after a long absence. The last of the baddies and seemingly more un-hinged than ever before, he plans to end the post-war peace by finally destroying the Macross.
• In Transformers: ★Headmasters, Scorponok becomes Decepticon Emperor of Destruction after Galvatron dies. Twice.
• In the post-script season of Monster Rancher, Mu's lead Dragon/Starscream tries to pick up where he left off.
• Voltes V: After Zambajil deserts and the nobles surrender one by one in the Grand Finale, Heinel takes charge, becoming the sole (and very legitimate) threat to the Voltes Team and Boazanian rebels. Condemning the cowardice of his fellow nobles, he declares that he will fight for Boazania to the very end and goes One-Winged Angel through Godol.
• Prince Lotor from Voltron.

Comic Books

• In Dark Crisis, after Pariah is destroyed by his own Anti-Matter device, the heroes realize the hold the Great Darkness has on the villains are still there. Then, Deathstroke reappears, transformed, vowing to finish his contract on killing all superheroes, making him the final villain.
• Green Lantern:
  • After Sinestro Heel Face Turned and rejoined the Green Lanterns, his Dragon Arkillo took control of the Sinestro Corps.
  • Sinestro himself was Demoted to Dragon by the Anti Monitor when he formed the Sinestro Corps, only to then take over the Sinestro Corps himself after the Anti Monitor was killed.
• The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire: After the Big Bad Kuvira is defeated during the main series, Commander Guan, a former Dragon, never surrendered when the rest of his ruler's army did. He instead attempts to become a ruler in his own right and do what Kuvira failed at.
• MonsterVerse: The Kingdom Kong graphic novel introduces Camazotz, who was only referenced by name beforehand. When Camazotz irst emerged during the time frame of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), he was doing King Ghidorah's bidding alongside the other Titans. When he reemerges two years later, he's looking to usurp Kong's kingdom for himself.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • The Bride of Conquering Storm — she was the closest thing the Iron Queen had to a Dragon, and following the Queen's recent defeat and imprisonment by the Freedom Fighters, Conquering Storm's taken over as the main villain in the Dragon Kingdom. This is a downplayed example, as Conquering Storm is still subservient to Eggman.
    • Another example is Snively after he succeeded in killing the original Robotnik and taking over his empire, or the period after Eggman's Villainous Breakdown when he allied with the Iron Queen; however, both these times, Eggman eventually showed up/recovered and put him back in his place.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): During Year One of the series, the Big Bad is Neo Metal Sonic, who took control of the Eggman Empire's resources following Eggman's disappearance and seeks to finish what he started. At the end of the arc, Eggman returns, and Metal voluntarily goes back to serving him.
  • Grimer from Sonic the Comic is loyal to his master until the very end, but when he realises that Robotnik is insane and unfit to serve, he quits and retreats to the shadows.
• Star Wars
  • The Legacy comic series has Darth Krayt killed by his Dragon Darth Wyyrlok (who actually is loyal up to that moment, but that's another story); Wyyrlok places his dead master in stasis to hide the truth and decides to fulfill Krayt's "united under the Sith" goal in a rather more literal way — everyone in the entire galaxy will be Sith.
• In Superman Smashes the Klan, Matt Riggs murders his boss when the man makes clear that he doesn't believe in the Klan's ideals and only uses it to make money and fund his war on Superman, becoming the Final Boss of the comic.
• X-Men
  • Exodus of Magneto's Acolytes succeeds his master in the Blood Ties story.
  • Stryfe started out as Apocalypse's intended successor in the future, but after his "father" was killed in the future he decided he wanted revenge on him and so traveled into the past to assassinate a younger version of Big Blue. It was ultimate unsuccessful, but he did put Apocalypse out of commission for a few years, as well as taking control of his Quirky Miniboss Squad the Dark Riders.
  • Following the Sinister Minister William Stryker's death, his right-hand man Matthew Risman succeeded him as the leader of the Purifiers.

Fan Works

• The Bridge: It's eventually revealed that Discord, Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra were disciples of Grogar, the Shadow King, and became Big Bad threats in their own right after his was sealed away by Harmony.
• Child of the Storm:
  • Lucius Malfoy goes from being one of Voldemort's former chief lieutenants to the mastermind of an alliance between the remaining Death Eaters, HYDRA, and Gravemoss, setting him up as the Big Bad of the first book, a position eventually solidified by killing Von Strucker and taking over HYDRA.
  • Yelena Belova has vague ambitions towards becoming this. If anything, she's more of a Mook Lieutenant, however.
• A Diplomatic Visit: In the fourth story, The Diplomat's Life, the Umbrum named Rabia, having been sealed in Limbo, emerges long after Umbrea (who turns out to have been The Dragon to Grogar) and her own intended The Dragon, King Sombra, were both killed off. With them gone, he's the most powerful of the Umbrum Forces and thus becomes the new Big Bad.
• Any Ice Age fic that takes place after the fourth film and features the pirates will show Squint leading them after Gutt's death.
• The Oops Cycle: The Wordbound demon Leviathan ascends to become Prince of Storms after the death of Belial and the majority of his other high-ranking servants. He's granted most of Belial's Orphans and his principality (which is promptly flooded).
• The Parselmouth of Gryffindor: Voldemort is permanently incapacitated in First Year with no casualties… but by the Third Year, Barty Crouch Junior has taken up the mantle of fear, and what he lacks in raw magical power he makes up for in stealth, intelligence, and unpredictability.
• Pony POV Series: Near the climax of the Dark World arc, Discord is mortally wounded by Rancor and transfers his remaining power to Fluttercruel, allowing her to become a full Draconequus.

Films — Animation

• The intended "true" sequel to Atlantis: The Lost Empire, called Shards of Chaos, which along with a potential animated TV spinoff series, was ultimately cancelled due to The Lost Empire flopping at the box office and subsequently retooled and replaced with Atlantis: Milo's Return, was going to have Helga Sinclair become the new Big Bad by somehow surviving the final battle against Rourke at the end of the first film and becoming a cyborg in the process, with her main goal of trying to destroy Atlantis, unlike Rourke being just to spite Milo and Kida, Atlantis' respective new King and Queen, as hinted by her betrayal towards Rourke due to Rourke betraying her at the last minute before his own death.
• The Incredibles: Big Bad Syndrome's plan is using the Omnidroid, a battle robot with Adaptive Ability A.I. that learns from any tactics used against it, as a villain so that he can swoop in and play the hero. However, he programmed it a little too well, and it managed to defeat him and become the final boss.
• Zira from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Although we do not see her in the first film, it's heavily implied that she was Scar's second in command and possibly his former mate. When the hyenas kill Scar at the end of the film, Zira actually put the blame on Scar's nephew and arch-nemesis, Simba, and since then, vows to destroy not only him, but also his pride as revenge.
• Nigel from Rio takes the position of main villain in the second film (as part of a Big Bad Ensemble with the newly-introduced Big Boss) after his owner Marcel was arrested. Granted, since he was already a Dragon-in-Chief.
• Prince Charming in Shrek the Third takes over the Kingdom of Far Far Away, carrying out the plans and the wishes of his dear, departed mother, the Fairy Godmother, who was destroyed at the end of the second film.

Films — Live-Action

• American Renegades: Petrovic, the loyal chief-of-staff of war criminal General Milic, takes over their army after Milic's capture in the first act, seeking revenge on his captors.
• Arnim Zola in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. After HYDRA fell with the defeat of the Red Skull, Zola was recruited to SHIELD as a part of Operation Paperclip, along with other HYDRA agents. Zola used this opportunity to reform HYDRA from within SHIELD without anyone being the wiser and orchestrated several conflicts in order to increase SHIELD's influence. While he is technically dead by the beginning of the movie, it's Zola's actions that resulted in the main conflict of the story.
• In The Dark Knight Rises, the big bad is actually Talia Al-Ghul, who's out to avenge the death of her father, Ra's Al-Ghul's, death in the first movie and continue his plans.
• In District 13, when Taha is killed by his own men, his Dragon K2 takes over and does a much better job running things.
• In G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, after Destro is badly burned, The Doctor takes over and takes the name Cobra Commander. Also, Zartan has infiltrated the White House by impersonating the U.S. President.
• Godzilla: Final Wars: Monster X Keeps fighting long after the Xillians are defeated (in fact he doesn't turn into Keizer Ghidorah until they have been) and serves as the True Final Boss of the film. It happens again in the IDW comics after Godzilla kills SpaceGodzilla.
• The Big Bad of The Long Kiss Goodnight, Daedalus, is unseen until about halfway through the film — up until then, The Dragon (Timothy) was the main onscreen villain. Daedalus is killed about ten minutes after first appearing, after which Timothy becomes the new Big Bad.
• Rio Lobo: Sheriff Hendricks guns down Ketchum after finding out that he signed over the property deeds they'd stolen while a prisoner (in an effort to save his own neck), and takes over trying to kill the heroes himself.
• RocknRolla: It's heavily implied that Archy took over things for Lenny after his untimely demise. (Having Lenny's old driver, Johnny calling him a real rock n' rolla, the bit with The Russian and so forth.) Kind of a subversion as Archy was the one to kill Lenny. Not out of a Heel–Face Turn so much as really not appreciating being lied to or sent to jail.
• In Spy Kids, Floop appears to be the main Big Bad. Then The Dragon Minion deposes him and starts calling himself Mr. Minion^note Partly because his name is Alexander Minion. Floop quickly makes a Heel–Face Turn. By the second film, so does Minion.
• Star Wars
  • Subverted by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where everyone believes Grievous to be the new leader of the Droid Army after the death of Count Dooku. The viewers are aware, however, that the true mastermind is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and both men were merely Dragons.
  • While Darth Vader was definitely Tarkin's subordinate in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back has him as the Big Bad who initiates the attack on Hoth and the trap in Cloud City, and is the one fought at the end of the movie. While the Emperor is in this film, he's the Greater-Scope Villain and wouldn't take an active role in the plot until Return of the Jedi, which sees Vader Demoted to Dragon again.
  • The Last Jedi has Kylo Ren do this after killing Snoke and refusing to let go of the dark side. The Rise of Skywalker first continues to play this straight, as Kylo only pretends to serve Palpatine to further his own goals, but then subverts it when he does return to the light.
• In The Suicide Squad, General Suarez is introduced as the Dragon to the ruthless Presidente Silvio Luna, but Harley Quinn quickly murders Luna, leaving Suarez to take the presidency.
• Subverted in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. After the apparent death of Shredder in the first movie, his right-hand man Tatsu steps up to lead the Foot Clan, seconds before Shredder busts through the door to take his old position back.
• In To Kill a Dragon , when the Titular Dragon has been slain, the Burgomaster takes over the city, becoming a new ruler and ontinuing the oppression.
• While he served as The Fallen's lackey throught the film Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Megatron actually went back to being the leader of the Decepticons in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Only for as long as it took Sentinel Prime to reveal his true colors, at which point he becomes Sentinel's bitch. At the end, he decides to take back the position of leadership, which gives Optimus the opening to kill both villains. Megatron returns as Galvatron in Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Literature

• In Animorphs, Visser Three ascends to the role of Visser One when the previous Visser One is killed and its host freed from Yeerk control.
• Opal Koboi in Artemis Fowl. In The Artic Incident, she acts as the Dragon with an Agenda to Briar Cudgeon, providing him with the money, weapons, and resources needed to carry out his plans for a goblin uprising. When she finds out that Cudgeon intends to murder her once he's achieved his goals, she attacks him in a fit of rage, killing him and putting herself in a coma. When she returns as the main villain in The Opal Deception, she proves to be a far more dangerous adversary to Artemis and the LEP than Cudgeon ever was.
• Trent in Ursula Vernon's Black Dogs is a love-interest-turned-Dragon. The story's Big Bad is killed by the demon he summons due to the Dragon's Evil Plan, and the protagonist is left to face him instead.
• Very literally in Guards! Guards!. For the first half of the book, the plot is driven by a secret society summoning a dragon to terrorize the city, with the leader's goal being to install a puppet king under his control. Except that then when he thinks he's pulled his plan off without a hitch, the dragon comes back on its own, kills the new king, and sets itself up as the ruler of the city.
• Subverted in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Sirius was introduced as Voldemort's former Dragon who was out to avenge his boss, but this turned out to be completely untrue. The real villain responsible for the crimes he'd been accused of was not The Dragon, being very low-ranked in Voldemort's organization, and he explicitly didn't have the guts to try things on his own. Later we find out that the real Dragon, Bellatrix Lestrange, tried to be the Avenging the Villain flavor of this, but was caught within days of Voldemort's downfall (though not before she had the chance to cross the Moral Event Horizon, unfortunately).
• The Dragon Business: The head of the orc mercenaries in the second book ends up taking over as the main antagonistic force after his boss belatedly discovers his fatal Plot Allergy to peanut butter during a feast celebrating the successful storming of Longjohn's castle.
• Honor Harrington: Oscar St-Just, Rob S. Pierre's loyal lieutenant and friend, takes over Haven after the death of Pierre in an attempted coup. His ascendency doesn't last all that long, ending the second time he meets Thomas Theisman in person.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • Sauron, the Big Bad of The Lord of the Rings, was actually the Dragon with an Agenda to Morgoth in the First Age. Morgoth was defeated and locked away in the void, but Sauron was AWOL for that battle, and took up the mantle himself afterwards. He actually pretended that he had a Heel–Face Turn after the battle, and that he wanted to help rebuild. It's stated that he honestly did decide to give up... though only out of fear of being punished. When he was told that he wouldn't be given a blanket-amnesty but would have to stand trial to be forgiven, Sauron feared (probably correctly) that he would lose, so he ran.
  • Sauron's fundamental loyalty always seems to lie with himself, with a healthy dose of self-preservation — he's more than willing to work with whoever the most powerful being currently around is while always advancing his own goals in the process. It seems to be the realization that after the armies of the Valar depart he's the most powerful entity active in Middle-Earth that sets him on the path towards the throne of Big Bad and Evil Overlord.
  • After Sauron fell at the end of the Second Age, the Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgûl and Sauron's most powerful and loyal servant, basically became the interim Dark Lord and launched a brutal (and centuries-long) campaign against the northern kingdom of Arnor, which had played such a large part in Sauron's downfall. Afterward, he gathered the other Nazgûl, captured the city of Minas Ithil (along with its Palantír), ended the line of Gondor's kings, and participated in the rebuilding of Mordor in preparation for Sauron’s return.
• Subverted in the Mistborn trilogy. After the Lord Ruler dies, it appears that his Co-Dragons, the Steel Inquisitors, have taken over as the Big Bads. They've actually just transferred their allegiance- or rather, had it forcibly transferred- to Ruin, who was actually the ultimate Big Bad all along.
• John Buchan's Richard Hannay thrillers:
  • The series begins with The Thirty-Nine Steps, in which Hannay uncovers a spy ring and its leaders are arrested. The second-in-command of the spy ring returns as the main villain in the third book, Mr. Standfast.
  • The Dragon of The Courts of the Morning doesn't survive the denouement, but the most senior surviving henchman becomes the Big Bad of The Island of Sheep.
• In The Sundering, Ushahin takes Godslayer and runs off after Sartoris dies and his forces are broken. Several characters muse that he might be even more dangerous than Sartoris, as while he lacks raw power, he is not limited by Sartoris's sense of honor.
• In Tales of the Magic Land Urfin Jus begins as a tax collector of sorts for Gingema the Wicked Witch. He would still have been not much of a threat after her death had he not accidentally discovered the Powder of Life. Later, upon conquering the Munchkins, he lampshades the trope telling them that while Gingema has perished, her magic powers went to him, her loyal servant.
• In the Dale Brown novel The Tin Man, Gregory Townsend, who was The Dragon to Henri Cazaux from the previously non-continuity title Storming Heaven, is the new Big Bad. Also, Sun Ji Guoming from Sky Masters who becomes Big Bad by Fatal Terrain.
• In Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, a prequel to Transformers (2007)', Starscream takes over as the leader of the Decepticons after Megatron's disappearance. After the Cybertronians encounter the Ghost-1 in 1969, Starscream rightly determines that the technology of the primitive human spacecraft is too similar to Cybertronian tech to be a coincidence (even though, to his subordinates, he insists that it's a natural evolution of all technology in the universe), which must indicate that Megatron is on Earth. Unwilling to relinquish his position, he does everything possible to delay the discovery of Earth by his kin, including destroying the Ghost-1'' and her crew in order to deny the same opportunity to the Autobots. While he obviously fails in the long term, it does take another four decades for them to find Earth. Note that the sequel films pretty much render this storyline non-canon.
• In Victoria, the heroes' No-Nonsense Nemesis General Wesley plays this role, beginning as the corrupt President Warner's military hatchet man. Promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he then seizes power after an improbably successful lone-wolf terrorist strike (that may or may not have been what it looked like) kills Warner and most of the Cabinet and senior legislators, proclaiming an outright military dictatorship for the duration of the emergency.

Live-Action TV

• On Alias, Breakout Villain Mr. Sark moved up the ranks from Mouth of Sauron in Season 1 to Dragon in Season 2 to finally becoming part of the Big Bad Duumvirate in Season 3. Unusually for this trope, he eventually went back to being the Dragon again in Season 5 when his original boss completed her circuit of the Heel–Face Revolving Door and decided to be a villain after all.
• Babylon 5 season five, and its spin-off Crusade, has the Drakh, former servants of the Shadows who were abandoned when their masters agreed to stop interfering with the younger races and decided to take over as Big Bad. Their name even resembles many Romance languages' words for "dragon".
• In Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Anointed One is this after the defeat of season 1 Big Bad the Master, until Spike kills him, of course. Then Spike is seriously injured and Drusilla appears to take on this trope, rising from the ashes fully healed. However it's actually a Red Herring as the real Big Bad turns out to be one of the heroes.
• The Company You Keep: The opening con has Charlie accusing gangster Patrick Maguire's aide of "being the one in charge," which the man denies. By the end of the episode, Maguire has been busted and the woman, Daphne, has now become the boss. It turns out though she'll only run things on the outside when he's in prison, and she's loyal to him (it's revealed that he's her father).
• A mild example in Doctor Who with the Cybermen of Cybus Industries. When the Cyberleader is killed, another Cyberman immediately upgrades himself to Cyberleader. It's not made clear if there is any hierarchy in place to determine succession.
• Elementary: In the second season Devon Gaspar, Moriarty's former Number Two, attempts to take over after she is arrested at the end of the first season. Gaspar doesn't last long as Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty unravel his plans (which included kidnapping and ransoming Moriarty's daughter) in the space of a single episode.
• Game of Thrones: Cersei Lannister after Joffrey and Tywin are killed.
• Santana Lopez in Glee seemed to be en route to this, taking over Quinn's role as the Alpha Bitch when Quinn's status as a Fallen Princess (she suddenly became unpopular when her pregnancy was revealed) made her do a Heel–Face Turn. After Quinn had her kid, though, she first regained her status in the Cheerios and then half a season later both of them ended up quitting.
• Kamen Rider Stronger: When his desire to fight Stronger interferes with Black Satan's objectives, General Shadow splits off from them and founds his own organisation to go after Stronger after Black Satan's downfall.
• The Mandalorian: The very end of Season 2 reveals that Bib Fortuna took over Jabba's palace (and presumably his criminal empire) following his death in Return of the Jedi. About two minutes after we learn this, Boba Fett storms in, kills Fortuna, and takes his former master's throne for himself.
• In the final season of The Musketeers, Lucien Grimaud is initially The Dragon to the apparent season Big Bad the Marquis de Feron, but when Feron finds himself unable to murder his own brother Grimaud kills Feron in rage and takes over the conspiracy.
• Once Upon a Time: Regina becomes this in season 2 when she is manipulated into helping Snow kill Cora and wants revenge.
• The Outpost: In the last episodes of Season 2, when Talon mortally wounds One, he passes his kinj and position as one of the Three to Sana, who takes command of his army.
• Power Rangers:
  • Subverted in Power Rangers RPM. After Venjix is seemingly destroyed in battle, his Co-Dragons decide to fight over who gets to assume the role of Big Bad. Tanaya 7 wins, but Venjix comes back online directly after that. He isn't too mad though.
  • In Power Rangers Megaforce, when the Rangers simultaneously defeat both Admiral Malkor and Vrak by hurling Malkor into his flagship while Vrak is piloting it, Malkor doesn't survive the resulting explosion but Vrak does and is subsquently rebuilt as a cyborg, becoming the Big Bad for the last stretch of the season. Similarly, in Super Megaforce the Rangers defeat Prince Vekar and Argus, leaving Vekar's other Dragons Damaras and Levira to avenge him, though in Damaras's case Emperor Mavro has him arrested for failing to protect Vekar, then he gets defeated by the Rangers when he attempts to redeem himself.
  • In Power Rangers Ninja Steel, the exact scene described in the first two paragraphs on this page takes place as Madame Odius prepares to succeed her boss Galvanax. (As for which version, "preparing to fulfill her own ambitions without an overlord in the way, and is much more dangerous than her predecessor" is the one. Uh-oh!)
• The final episode of The Shadow Line has Dragon-in-Chief Gatehouse killing his bosses and becoming the Big Bad proper.
• Smallville's tenth season features the Vigilante Registration Agency (VRA) led by General Slade Wilson. Slade and his group provide a great deal of the conflict in the early half of the season, with Slade himself finally going down in the eleventh episode. That isn't the end however, as episode twelve's Villain of the Week is Lieutenant Trotter, Slade's aide de camp, who has taken over the VRA and directed it towards her mentor's agenda of taking down all the heroes. Only her defeat ensures the end of the persecution.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: After Gul Dukat is captured, Gul Damar steps into this role for a while though ultimately pulls a Heel–Face Turn and becomes the hero of a Cardassian resistance against the Dominion.
• Supergirl (2015): After Astra is killed by Alex to save J'onn halfway through the first season, her husband and second-in-command, Non, takes control of their forces and continues the progress of their Evil Plan with an even more aggressive stance.
• Super Sentai does this sometimes.
  • In Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, following the death of Emperor Bacchushund, his son Buldont rose up to both avenge him and finish what he started, becoming Baranoia's new emperor after transforming into Kaiser Buldont.
  • In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, Buredoran is this seemingly. He is the Dragon for all three villain groups but he's simply just using them for what he wants. Once they are out of the way, he becomes the True Final Boss.
  • In Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, after Messiah is dispatched by the Go-Busters halfway through, Enter takes over as the new Big Bad and quickly proves a much more formidable foe than his old boss. Messiah does eventually make a return later on and seemingly kills Enter, but after he's destroyed Enter returns and becomes the Final Boss.
  • In Choujin Sentai Jetman, the four Vyram Co-Dragons are competing to become this, especially after the death of Empress Juuza. Tranza officially seizes control for a while, but in the end Radiguet is the last Vyram standing.
• The Thundermans: Destructo spent years as Dark Mayhem's evil sidekick, and then several more years as a decapitated robot head. He ends up as a lackey to Phoebe when she's turned evil, explaining Dark Mayhem's powers and plans to her in hopes that she'll reattach his body. She refuses, so Destructo takes matters into his own hands as Evil Phoebe is taken down by the rest of the family. With his head and body reattached, he becomes the final boss of The Movie, and proves strong enough to nearly defeat Hank one-on-one.
• Alaric Saltzman of The Vampire Diaries becomes this to Big Bad Esther in season 3 after his Face–Heel Turn. Ester's plan to commit Vampire genocide by killing her children, The Original Vampires, and all vampires sired by them rested on her possessing Bonnie after she's killed to complete Alaric's transformation into an "Enhanced" Original Vampire armed with an indestructible White Oak Stake that she intended to have defeat The Originals.
• The Walking Dead (2010)
  • After Alpha is killed by Negan, Beta embarks on a quest to wipe out the united communities for good.
  • Leah takes over the Reapers after killing her boss Pope in the Season 11A finale.
• At the end of Season 1 of The Wire, Big Bad Avon Barksdale is convicted of drug trafficking and sent to prison, but his right-hand man, Stringer Bell, who managed to avoid being caught on tape doing anything illegal, is left out on the street. Since Stringer is a lot smarter than Avon was, he proves to be even tougher to catch.
• Cigarette Smoking Man after the destruction of the first Syndicate in The X-Files.

Mythology and Legend

• According the Icelandic Sagas, Eirik Bloodaxe started out as the The Dragon to his father Harald Hairfair, going as far as to kill his own brother at his father's command. However, Harald could hold back Eirik. Once Harald died and left Norway to Eirik he became such a tyrant that even his Viking subjects found him to be too much.
• Irish Mythology: In versions where she isn't killed before her master, Ogarmach, the Amazonian queen of Greece and Daire Donn's right hand woman, takes up the mantle of King of the World when Daire Donn is killed by Fionn Mac Cumhaill. Unlike her master, who wanted to conquer Ireland for the sake of expanding his empire, Ogarmach was more interested in slaughtering her enemies and their families in the name of vengeance. Thankfully Fionn is able to overcome her the same as her master.

Professional Wrestling

• After dealing with Abismo Negro's constant efforts to takeover Los Vipers, Cibernético actually relented and gave ownership of the group to him, leaving to form a larger group called Lucha Libre Latina, who would then use Los Vipers to help him takeover AAA.
• The Rock ousted Faarooq from The Nation of Domination when Faarooq grew jealous with the Rock's success after winning the Intercontinental Championship and disrespect. The Rock still acknowledged Faarooq as leader, but where The Rock gifted every other member of the nation a Rolex watch, he gave Faarooq a big blown up picture of said championship belt. After the Rock took over, he moved the nation in a completely different direction and brought in Owen Hart. He had already gone behind Faarooq's back and brought back Mark Henry.
• Muerte Cibernética usurped control of Cibernético's Secta while the latter was benched with an injury by blaming him for their collective failure against La Parka Jr. Muerte becoming Mesias of La Secta, he would in turn be ousted by his own dragon, Ozz. When Cibernético would reform La Secta to defend AAA against Los Perros Del Mal, he mistakenly allied himself with Ozz's group, which had now become the Black Family, leading to Ozz once again taking over La Secta after the dogs were defeated.
• Act Yasukawa quickly advanced through the ranks of Kimura Monster Gun after betraying Trouble2Maker to them in World Wonder Ring STARDOM, eventually getting Kyoko Kimura herself to voluntarily submit to her takeover.
• Allysin Kay took Valkyrie by the horns in SHINE Wrestling, determined to undo its Villain Decay after previous leader Radiant Rain was forced into retirement by stable oddball Ivelisse Vélez and Rain's replacement, Serena Deeb, was injured while taking a detour on Valkyrie's path of revenge against Ivelisse for betraying them(read:refusing to participate in a Finger Poke of Doom match).

Tabletop Games

• In Sentinels of the Multiverse, Grand Warlord Voss ends up Reforged into a Minion for OblivAeon, but the process doesn't quite work as well as it did for the other Scions. As a result, if Rainek Kel'Voss is out and OblivAeon is defeated - a process that probably took an hour - Voss can step up and usurp his position, adding another stage to an already lengthy fight. Fortunately, this denies him the faintly ridiculous amount of damage resistance he can get on his Scion side, but at the same time, it denies you the option of replacing fallen heroes like a regular OblivAeon battle; if Voss kills everyone, you lose. In the Challenge Mode of OblivAeon, Rainek Kel'Voss is on the table from the start and cannot be damaged while OblivAeon is in play, ensuring this happens (and likely confirming that, in the meta-story of the setting, Voss taking over is canonically how the fight ended).
• Abaddon of Warhammer 40,000 was the trusted second in command of the Arch-Traitor, Horus Lupercal. Following Horus' defeat during the Horus Heresy, Abaddon took command of the broken Sons Of Horus, reforging them into the Black Legion with himself at the head.

Video Games

• In Assassin's Creed III, when Connor kills Haytham, Charles Lee, his second-in-command, takes over the Colonial Templars.
• Call of Duty : Modern Warfare franchise. Vladmir Makarov was an underling of the Big Bad of Modern Warfare 1, Imran Zakhaev. He was the main villain in Modern Warfare 3.
• Capella's Promise has Felcira, the strongest Hute created by Mother. After the Mother is destroyed, the party learns that her previous restoration also caused Felcira to break its seal, allowing it to attempt to kill all life on Mother's order.
• Often in Castlevania games, Dracula isn't always revived for most of the time the castle is around. This leaves Death to try and figure out how to revive him and set some of the plots in motion, such as in Harmony of Dissonance and Portrait of Ruin. Inevitably, he succeeds (or fails but Drac comes back anyway) and Dracula is once again the final boss.
  • The plot of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night turns out to be an attempt by Shaft, Dracula's magician from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, to corrupt Richter Belmont as revenge for killing his master... and him... twice. Once Alucard and Maria expose his involvement, he switches to Plan B and revives Dracula again.
• Clock Tower: In the original game, Dan Barrows was little more than an endgame enemy, and not even a major one at that, as his brother Bobby and mother Mary were much more crucial. Come the sequel, after both of their deaths, he becomes the Big Bad in his own right.
• Dalton from Chrono Trigger wasn't present at the climactic scene in the Ocean Palace (to be specific, he ran for it one battle earlier). Accordingly, after Zeal's destruction, he's the highest-ranking Enlightened One left, and remains in full control of his powers, so it's no surprise that he asserts his authority over the survivors of 12,000BC.
• The main villain of Die Hard: Vendetta, Piet Gruber, was betrayed and left for dead by his dragon, Jack Frontier, and subsequently killed by John and Lucy in a cutscene. The following last stage have John fighting Piet's dragon, Jack, the actual final boss.
• Kyle Katarn killed the Dark Jedi Desann after defeating his apprentice Tavion in Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast when she begged for her life. Tavion then proceeded to become the Big Bad in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy seeking revenge for her humiliation, among other things.
• At the end of EarthBound, after you defeat Giygas Porky/Pokey, the bratty little kid from earlier in the game escapes to another time - specifically, Nowhere Islands, where the events of Mother 3 take place.
• Evil Genius initially has Red Ivan. But in Evil Genius 2, he's the new Evil Genius. A Brute Ascendant, perhaps?
• Fallout: New Vegas: if Caesar dies before the battle of Hoover Dam, Lanius will become the new leader of the Legion. He will be your Final Boss regardless, as he is the commander of the Legion army - unless you side with the Legion, then he'll be the one who congratulates you after the battle.
• Final Fantasy likes to play with its Sorting Algorithm of Evil in a way that often invokes this trope.
  • Subverted in Final Fantasy II: after the heroes kill the Emperor, the Dark Knight tries to take his place...but then the Emperor returns from hell to take back his throne.
  • Final Fantasy VII: After President Shinra is killed by Sephiroth, his son, Rufus, the Vice President of Shinra Inc. assumes his position. However, this isn't an entirely straight example: though Rufus isn't a good guy, he's more a pragmatist than his father, and actually attempts to fight against Sephiroth, the real Big Bad.
    • Later, as a result of Rufus' apparent death and Professor Hojo's defection to Sephiroth's faction, Shinra board members Scarlet and Heidegger attempt to do this, staging a hostile takeover of the company, placing Reeve, the sole honest member of the board, under arrest, and taking the field personally in a giant robot with the intent to wipe out all the opposing factions. They don't even get out of the city before they're offhandedly killed by the heroes, because the robot wasn't nearly as strong as they thought it was.
  • Final Fantasy Adventure: Dark Lord is defeated, and the mana pendant recovered from his body. Except it's a fake. Dark Lord's archmage Julius has the real one, and has brainwashed the heroine who can unlock it's powers.
• The Godfather:
  • Played with. Once Sollozzo's taken down, Bruno Tattaglia seems to be the one pulling the Tattaglias' strings during the mid-point of the war against the Corleones, but he's killed fairly quickly. After that, Johnny Tattaglia (Bruno's brother) tries to form up his own army to take down the Corleones from Brooklyn in one of Tessio's contract hits. Key words: Contract hits, so he's whacked shortly after his existence becomes known.
  • Played straight in the sequel if you take the Villain Protagonist angle - You as Dominic were Aldo's underboss and become the new Don after Aldo gets killed.
• Jimmy Pegorino becomes this in Grand Theft Auto IV's Revenge ending.
• Kirby: While Kirby: Triple Deluxe is a self-contained plot during the main story, in the extra mode, this is revealed to be the case. The Dragon in question is Dark Meta Knight from The Amazing Mirror. The boss descriptions and multiple Word of God statements, taken together, reveal that while Kirby killed Dark Mind, Dark Meta Knight somehow survived his final battle, took control of the Dimension Mirror, and had been plotting revenge since. He corrupted Sectonia, the Big Bad of the main story, and turned her into a beauty-obsessed tyrant out to conquer Pop Star, not having to lift a finger while she went crazy. While gets away with it in the main story, he later confronts King Dedede during his attempted conquest of Sectonia's lands, revealing himself after Dedede defeats everyone else.
• Knight Bewitched 2: In the previous game, Lissandra fled the Lair of Typhus the Younger because she's next in line to take over the Drakon Cult if Hydrax dies. Since Hydrax is dead by the time of this game, she's now in charge of the cult. She seeks the two halves of the Vulcan Stone so that she can revive Typhus.
• In Knights of the Old Republic, Big Bad Darth Malak was originally apprentice and subordinate to Darth Revan. After Revan's defeat, Malak took control of the Sith forces. Unfortunately where Revan was pragmatic about his war efforts, thus limiting collateral damage, Malak savored the opportunity to cause mass destruction.
• Fawful, The Dragon of Big Bad Cackletta, was the fan favorite villain of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, thanks to Nintendo's localization efforts. His popularity (and the fact that he wasn't seen dead) played a major part in his transformation to a major Big Bad in the third game Bowser's Inside Story.
  • At the beginning of Partners in Time, the elder Princess Shroob was sealed into the Cobalt Star by Princess Peach. Her younger sister proceeded to capture Peach and lead the invasion in her stead.
• Mass Effect: Andromeda: At the end of the game, the Big Bad suffers a bad case of Death by Pathfinder, leaving his immediate underling, the Primus, in charge of their forces. Depending on what quests the player took, it's possible to learn her plan of action: Step 1: Kill all the boss' loyalists, Step 2: Call home for back-up.
• At the end of Mega Man Zero 1, the tyrannical ruler of Neo Arcadia was defeated by Zero. In Zero 2, Harpuia, de facto leader of Copy-X's 4 Guardians, assumes leadership, while keeping it a secret from the Neo Arcadian citizens that Copy-X was dead.
• Revolver Ocelot from the Metal Gear serves as the henchman to not one, not two, but three main antagonists ^note  Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, Solidus Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Colonel Volgin in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. He manages to outlive them all due to his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and ultimately becomes the Final Boss in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
• Mortal Kombat X:
  • In the Mortal Kombat X comic, Mileena takes over Outworld after Shao Kahn's death, but she proved to be an incompetent ruler (due to her Ax-Crazy homicidal nature) and pushed it to the brink of ruin. She is later dethroned by Kotal Kahn, but she then starts a civil war, further plunging Outworld into chaos. She is finally Killed Off for Real at the hands of D'Vorah, thus bringing the civil war to an end.
  • After Shinnok is reduced to a mere living head by Raiden at the end of the game, Liu Kang and Kitana become the new rulers of the Netherrealm.
• In Myth 2, Soulblighter returns to try and finish the job that his boss, The Leveler started. Too bad the job is wiping out all human civilization and ushering in a thousand years of darkness.
• In Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, the game ends with Nobunaga's final defeat. The game ends with sequel bait showing that his right hand man, Hideyoshi, is ready to make his move. The hell he plays a hand in unleashing in Dawn of Dreams is way worse than anything Nobunaga ever accomplished.
• In Piggy, the secondary antagonist of the first half of Book 2, Tigry, becomes the main antagonist after Willow’s Heel–Face Turn.
• In [PROTOTYPE], the Supreme Hunter/Hybrid is the final boss; you kill its "Mother" Elizabeth Greene (who was the source and driving intelligence behind the infection) several levels earlier. The Hybrid may have actually facilitated Greene's death. At the end of the game, the Hybrid reveals that it had consumed and assumed the form of Specialist Cross. Cross had been secretly advising you; his advice led to Greene's death. It's unclear as to whether the Hybrid consumed Cross before or after this. The hybrid wants to eat Alex in order to grow powerful to survive a nuke and live to spread the infection elsewhere. It's actually implied that the Supreme Hunter consumes and impersonates Cross in the cutscene immediately following Greene's death, so it's unlikely that it directly facilitated her demise.
• In the Ratchet & Clank series, after acting as The Dragon to Drek in the first game, Captain Qwark becomes the Big Bad of Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando.
• The Big Bad in Runescape's Dorgeshuun quest line is Bandos, who wants to re-enslave the titular goblin tribe. However, you defeat him in the penultimate quest, The Chosen Commander, and then Armadyl kills him off during a world event. The last quest in the line, The Mighty Fall, is about choosing who will replace Bandos as leader, and the Final Boss is General Graardor, Bandos's God Wars Dungeon general.
• Red Faction has the first half of the game hunting down Capek, after that it's fight against the mercenaries he hired and their leader Colonel Masako.
• Saints Row:
  • In the first, the protagonist is "Playa", a new recruit into the Third Street Saints street gang, who eventually rises to become second-in-command to its founder, Julius Little. In the second game, Playa awakens from a years-long coma to find Julius missing and the Saints disbanded. Becoming "the Boss", they reform the Saints under their own control and go about conquering the city.
  • In Saints Row: The Third, Killbane takes over the Syndicate after Phillipe Loren is killed off surprisingly early on.
• In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Mastema serves as the yes-man for the Three Wise Men, the Law authorities of the setting. They intend to use the Schwarzwelt's powers to rewrite reality so the Law of the Lord will forever be in Humanity's heart. Problem is, Mastema really doesn't give a shit about the Wise Men's motives. He doesn't believe in human cooperation, bonding or any human activity aside from their blind faith and devotion. What he believes in? Power. For himself. All he ever does is for the possibility of ascending to a higher form. Even after the Wise Men's armies have been mostly junked in the Chaos Path, he tries going himself against the protagonist and is thoroughly humiliated and forced to own up to his own silly pretenses.
• Ramirez in Skies of Arcadia. His boss, Lord Galcian, wanted to Take Over the World, but Ramirez really doesn't take his death well and attempts to go a teensy bit further with the ancient superweapon they awakened together.
• Sonic Heroes: Metal Sonic, The Dragon to Dr. Eggman, locks his creator in a room and takes control of the Eggman Empire to conquer the world for himself and finally prove himself once and for all that he is the real Sonic, becoming the game's true Big Bad and Final Boss. He even upgraded himself into his Neo from copying a bunch of DNA to become Metal Overlord. By the end, though, he's defeated and is Demoted to Dragon while Eggman goes off to reprogram him.
• Sonic 3 & Knuckles:
  • The Stinger for Sonic's or Tails's ending with all Chaos Emeralds, but not all Super Emeralds, shows an Eggrobo (presumed to be the one Knuckles fights in his story) rising out of a pile of wreckage.
  • The Stinger for Knuckles's ending without all Chaos Emeralds shows Mecha Sonic waking up and jumping onto the Master Emerald. This being the bad ending, what happens next is uncertain (and non-canonical).
• StarCraft: Immediately after Tassadar destroys the Zerg Overmind, Kerrigan ascends to rule the swarm, although Daggoth initially takes control of half the swarm as well, starting the so-called Brood War.
• At the end of A2XT, once Science is defeated, Pandamona destroys the Super Leek machine in order to remake the universe on her own image.
• An example happens in Tales of Vesperia, where the Fallen Hero Duke picks up where Pharoh left off; trying to save the world through questionable means. Unfortunately, nobody realizes until it's too late that being Necessarily Evil includes genocide. Oh, and the name of one of his attacks? Dragon Ascendant. It's from a certain point of view because, with a few exceptions, the game runs on White-and-Grey Morality.
• Warcraft:
  • Cho'gall was the lieutenant of Gul'dan, mastermind of the conflicts in the first two games. After Gul'dan's death Cho'gall went into hiding with the remaining members of the Twilight Hammer Clan. By the time of World of Warcraft he is head of the rebuilt Twilight Hammer Cult and leads them in a quest to unleash the Old Gods on Azeroth. In Cataclysm he lost his leading role when Deathwing returned.
  • Judging by his lines in the Sunwell Plateau raid, Kil'jaeden has taken full command of the demonic army known as the Burning Legion now that Sargeras is just a spirit. Kil'jaeden was perfectly happy serving Sargeras, even easily forgiving minions who failed to carry out his plans, but he definitely took advantage of the absence of Sargeras. His title in Sunwell is even "Lord of the Burning Legion", and fel (demonic) creatures even refer to HIM SPECIFICALLY rather than Sargeras when referencing the Legion.
  • Deathwing is the (no pun intended, as he is also a real dragon) Dragon to N'zoth and Yogg'Saron, who both had a hand in his corruption. N'zoth is currently the one "signing his paychecks", but Yogg admitted that he helped corrupt Deathwing in the past. This leads to an awesome You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness when those guys get tired of Deathwing and impale him on his own Temple in the Bad Future, thus ending his reign as Dragon.

Web Comics

• Ansem was The Dragon to the FOX director of the first season of Ansem Retort, but has ascended to become his own Big Bad, made all too apparent in the newest season.
• Malack of The Order of the Stick planned to be this to Tarquin. His plan was to take over the entire Western Continent after Tarquin and their other companions die from old age. Malack would outlive them all because he's a vampire. Tarquin was actually perfectly fine with this, as long as he got a bigger statue. But Malack's dead so that can't happen.

Web Original

• In The Gamer's Alliance, Yurius becomes the next Big Bad when his master and father figure Sydney is killed in the First Age. Richelieu ends up as the lord of Alent when Jemuel is frozen in stasis inside the Beam of Alent in the Third Age.
• In the Protectors of the Plot Continuum, the Venomous Tentacula replaces the previous leader of the League of Mary-Sue Factories when they are killed during an invasion of PPC Headquarters, though not before having to win an Enemy Civil War.
• In Red vs. Blue, while the Meta is technically Agent Maine, the actual one calling the shots was the A.I. Sigma. But Maine survived the EMP that killed Sigma, and Sigma had broken his mind to the point where he still tried to follow Sigma's plan even when the goal (metastability) was entirely impossible.

Western Animation

• Avatar:
  • At first, it seems as if Princess Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender will be ascended when her father crowns her Fire Lord. Subverted in that, two seconds later, he crowns himself Phoenix King, removes all power from her position, and makes her stay home instead of fighting in the final showdown.
  • Played straight in Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search and Avatar: The Last Airbender - Smoke and Shadow, when her father is imprisoned and depowered and she becomes the main antagonist of the story. She explicitly states that she doesn't care about Ozai anymore, she's got her own plans now.
  • The Legend of Korra: Since Zolt lost his bending; Viper has taken over, or leads a section of the Triple-Threats.
• The final episode of Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys used this as a cliffhanger.
• Castlevania (2017): Dracula's death made a couple of his former minions and generals become this, namely Isaac and Carmilla. The Styrian Council's goal in the third season is to carry on Dracula's original plan of walling and herding off a large enough number of humans to serve as their eternal food supply, before his Villainous Breakdown led to his "Kill All Humans" vendetta.
• In the Five-Episode Pilot of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, the Rangers defeat ruthless mob boss Alden Klordane. He's never seen again, but his Right-Hand Cat became a frequently recurring villain, as did the Mad Scientist he was employing. Though Fat Cat's status is questionable, since he already had a criminal empire and plans of his own when he was a pet.
• The finale of Cyber Six has Von Richter die, but ends with Jose grinning evilly at the camera.
• Zemerik from Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5 was this to Krytus. He used to be Krytus' Dragon but gained free will, betrayed Krytus, and sealed him away. He proceeded to take over Krytus' role of Big Bad over the Sark. Unfortunately for him, Krytus eventually returns and takes said role back.
• The season 1 finale of OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes sees Darrell become the new president of Box More after he rats out Lord Boxman to his investors, and actually runs the company far better than Boxman ever did before he even thinks about antagonizing the Plaza. However, Boxman eventually comes back with Professor Venomous in tow, so Darrell hands the company back to him with no issues.
• Rainbow Brite: The pilot had a dark, sinister, magical villain simply called "The Evil One". It wasn't established whether he was a demon or simply a Sorcerous Overlord, but either way, he had a bumbling minion named, we kid you not, Murky Dismal. The pilot ended with The Evil One killed, so Murky filled the Big Bad slot for the remainder of the series.
• Snively at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) was shown stepping up to this role in the final episode after Robotnik fled, but the series was canceled before he got to do anything.
• When Order 66 finally commences in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rex and Jesse task the troopers to find and execute Ahsoka. However, Ahsoka and the droids that took her side manage to capture Rex and remove his inhibitor chip, bringing him back to Ahsoka's side. The climax of the final episode showcases Ahsoka and Rex's battle against Jesse, who has taken the role as the Final Boss, marking Rex as a traitor and taking command of the rest of the clone troopers.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003):
  • The Shredder's adopted daughter Karai takes up her father's mantle and attempts to avenge him after his defeat.
  • Hun also gets this treatment, going from being Shredder's bodyguard to a competent leader of a more black-ops incarnation of the Purple Dragons. While only appearing as the main villain in only a small handful of episodes, he had a tendency to get away scott free at the end of the episode, as opposed to appearances in earlier seasons when it was standard procedure for him to get his ass kicked by the end of every story arc.
• Galvatron, formerly Unicron's minion, reestablishes himself as the Big Bad in the third season of the original Transformers cartoon, due to Unicron's body being destroyed at the end of Transformers: The Movie.
• At the end of the Five-Episode Pilot for Transformers: Prime, Starscream appoints himself Decepticon leader roughly a minute after Megatron disappears in a space bridge explosion. This goes here rather than under the trope he named because, for once, he didn't have anything to do with what happened to the Big Bad, though he's not above worsening the damage once he finds what's left of his former master in the next episode. Though when Starscream does take command, you can tell by his voice and the look on his face that he is absolutely loving his chance at ascension. So rather than his usual trope, this seems to make him more of a Bastard Understudy.
  • Steeljaw from Transformers Robotsin Disguise 2015 plays this trope straight. While he never worked with Megatron prior to his debut, his ultimate goal is to still finish the very job Megatron had started.
• Young Justice
  • Black Manta ascends as a main member of The Light after his former boss, Ocean Master, becomes "disgraced" after an unspecified incident during the Time Skip.
  • In "Summit" it becomes clear how much the Ambassador has been Out-Gambitted by the Light, and immediately after both of them are Out-Gambitted by the Team. The Ambassador is captured, but Black Beetle opts not to help him escape, citing Reach code to prove that he's incompetent enough for him to take over the invasion.

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