Playing With / Hijacked by Ganon

Basic Trope: A previous villain turns out to be The Man Behind the Man to a new, advertised villain.

• Straight: Emperor Evulz is the Big Bad of the first three chapters of Tales of Troperia and is seemingly killed at the end of the third. In the fourth season, General Dusk seems to be set up as the leader of The Remnant, but the last few episodes reveal that Emperor Evulz is still alive and trying to rebuild his empire through Dusk.
• Exaggerated:
  • Every evil plan after Emperor Evulz's "death", from the newest Omnicidal Maniac to a local purse snatcher, is being manipulated by the Emperor.
  • Every single bad thing that has ever happened in the story's timeline is eventually revealed to have been Emperor Evulz's machinations all along. Every single one. John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Abraham Lincoln? Evulz. The Holocaust? Evulz. The eruption of Pompeii? Evulz. The Hindenburg burning? Evulz. The Titanic sinking? Evulz. Chernobyl? Evulz. Rodney King being beaten up? Evulz. The appointment of every single incompetent political leader in human history? Evulz. The broadcast of Super Bowl III being interrupted by Heidi? Evulz. All of the times a film that looked worthy of an Oscar nomination (if not a win) is overlooked by the Academy? Evulz. The death of Dale Earnhardt? Evulz. The death of Sonny Chiba? Evulz. McDonalds never producing enough Shechuan Sauce? Evulz. That article of a Florida man being arrested for stealing someone's pet alligator? Evulz and it's much more dire than you think. The cancellation of Firefly? Evulz. Planet Hollywood? Evulz. And these are just the highlights of a list that keeps on going for twenty nine more minutes. And no, it doesn't makes any damn sense at all — even Evulz is confused of what he was thinking about a few of those.
• Downplayed:
  • General Dusk is the legit main villain of season 4, but it is revealed late in the season that the Evil Plan he's using was originally conceived by the defeated Emperor Evulz, who serves as the Greater-Scope Villain.
  • The Big Damn Movie of the "Secret War Against Emperor Evulz" series has everything regarding escalation, but a very notable lack of Evulz… except for that two-second cameo of General Evulz during the Final Battle in which he drives by and tosses a grenade in that bunch of bombs neatly piled at the base of Dusk's palace, turning the whole place into an inferno and said final battle with Dusk escalating into a Battle Amongst the Flames.
• Justified: Emperor Evulz wanted to make sure nobody knew he was back, so he hid behind a new villain to get back to full power while nobody was looking.
• Inverted:
  • Emperor Evulz is the main villain of the first three seasons, but in the fourth, General Dusk reveals himself to have been behind Emperor Evulz's plot.
  • Captain Righteous, the previous hero, hijacks Sergeant Virtuous to fight the final battle.
  • Emperor Evulz gets Demoted to Dragon for General Dusk.
  • Emperor Evulz is a recurring Disc-One Final Boss- he is introduced as the Big Bad in every installment but always gets usurped/betrayed/overshadowed/possessed by the Villain of the Week.
  • General Dusk decides to bring back Emeror Evulz when the heroes gain the upper hand to try and even the odds, confident that he can control the previous villain. And he turns out to be right.
  • Emperor Evulz is the main villain of the first two seasons, but gets killed by General Dusk at the end of Season 2, who takes up the Big Bad mantle for the rest of the show.
• Subverted:
  • The heroes suspect that Emperor Evulz is back en force, until General Dusk tells the heroes that Emperor Evulz is dead.
  • Evulz dramatically reveals himself to be alive. Except that the real Evulz is dead; Dusk grabbed a body double to be a puppet king.
  • Evulz does indeed show up to properly upstage General Dusk, but upon being defeated Evulz promptly loses the spot of Big Bad when General Dusk takes it back from him afterward.
  • Emperor Evulz suddenly shows back up in Season 4 with it being suggested he’s the Big Bad again, but it’s quickly revealed this isn’t really Evulz, but rather an AI replica created by General Dusk.
  • Evulz seems to be set up as the villain of the fourth season, but gets Killed Off for Real in the next episode in one of the most badass moments in the whole show, which is followed by the ominous revelation that Evulz, the whole time, was ultimately just a Big Bad Wannabe who was only as dangerous as he was throughout the show because an even worse villain was giving him power, thus cementing itself as the true Big Bad of the whole show.
• Double Subverted:
  • Until it's revealed that Evulz is alive again, and General Dusk lied to the heroes.
  • Evulz is leading the army from beyond the grave, and through them is trying to revive himself with a better, more powerful body.
  • Dusk himself is the real Evulz in disguise, hiding from assassinations through his body double.
  • Said villain was the main antagonist of an earlier arc in the series.
  • Unfortunately General Dusk did too good of a job creating Evulz's digital replica, so when the artificial intelligence inevitably rebels and begins its mission to cause greater atrocities than Dusk, for all means and purposes it is Evulz reborn and stronger than ever.
  • Annihilus, the Greater-Scope Villain, steps in as the Arc Villain of the first few episodes of the season until he discovers far too late that, yeah, Evulz was a "wannabe", but he was kind of a bit upset about that and put a plan in place to get back at Annihilus for that that ends with him being reborn, Annihilus dead, and the latter's power and resources… well, Evulz did not expected to obtain them, but he is not going to look at a gift horse in the mouth.
• Parodied:
  • General Dusk gets hijacked within his first few minutes of appearing, and complains that he didn't get to do anything.
  • "General Dusk" is actually just Emperor Evulz in a shoddy getup that fails to disguise him at all. The characters still fall for it.
  • Evulz's reappearance is done with a Busby Berkeley Number.
  • Emperor Evulz reveals himself as the mastermind of a gumball machine theft circle (and no, there's nothing important about the gumball machines- he just wanted to steal them).
  • Once Evulz reveals himself, he and Dusk handshake, dismissing Dusk back to being The Dragon.
  • Evulz's virtual omnipresence within the franchise eventually turns him into an Unusually Uninteresting Sight - because of course Evulz was involved in the extinction of the dinosaurs somehow and of course he is The Man Behind the Man in that cheese forgery group.
  • Evulz is revealed to be the mastermind behind the creation of whatever Take That! the writers have decided to add to the story, because of course only a madman as evil as Evulz would think of the Macarena (dramatic thunder)!
  • Evulz shows up as the puppet master in another series entirely. Nobody is surprised.
• Zig Zagged:
  • Evulz and Dusk keep trying to one-up each other in the process of working together, and drama is derived from which one will win the Gambit Pileup.
  • Dusk is revealed to be the reincarnation of Evulz. Except that he has effectively lost his personality and has contrasting motives. At least until Evulz's preserved personality was found and used by Dusk who took over him - albeit as a willing partnership and a necessity to use his Personality Powers.
• Averted: General Dusk is the new villain. Evulz doesn't appear at all.
• Enforced:
  • Executives were too afraid the audience wouldn't care about the new villain, so they forced the old villain in.
  • Evulz was so awesome that the fans would be disappointed if he didn't show up.
• Lampshaded: "I had a feeling you'd resurfaced, Evulz..."
• Invoked: See Justified.
• Exploited: General Dusk suspects he's being manipulated by his own boss, but follows the "invisible" hand anyway for the sake of power and notoriety.
  • General Dusk knows that Emperor Evulz is manipulating him from beyond the grave and deliberately plays along, resurrecting him later so that he can kill his former boss. If that fails, the heroes will make sure that Emperor Evulz stays Deader than Dead.
• Defied:
  • When Evulz tries to take over the plot, General Dusk effortlessly defeats him, firmly setting himself up as the new Big Bad, showing that Evulz is old news.
  • The In-Universe writers of Tales of Troperia absolutely refuse to have Evulz as The Man Behind the Man of the arc/episode, wishing to make clear that even if Evulz is the main Big Bad of the series, the world as a whole does not revolves around him.
  • Claidheamh instantly decides to become the new Big Bad of Tales of Troperia, starting in the first season where he effortlessly wipes out Evulz, Dusk, and even prevents new villains like Annihilus from stepping in, before going above and beyond and taking even the villains of bigger scale out of the picture and dead like Evulz, Dusk, and Annihilus. It's his show now; He gets to be the driving antagonistic force.
• Discussed:
  • "Do you think Dusk is the sole threat driving this new scheme, or do you think Evulz has something to do with this?"
  • "H-hah. That fool is no longer needed. With my resurrection complete, I shall take my rightful place as ruler of this world." "You're out of date, Evulz! Even General Dusk was stronger than you!"
• Conversed: "Wait, what?" "It's him again. I knew it!"
• Implied: There are many signs that Emperor Evulz is behind the plot, such as an offhanded reference to a teacher General Dusk had, but Evulz himself never appears and this is never confirmed.
• Deconstructed:
  • After Emperor Evulz reveals himself to the heroes after their battle with General Dusk, the half dead Dusk loses it when he learned he was a tool to the Emperor, and triggers the base's self-destruct to kill everyone in spite.
  • The heroes start assuming that every single evil plot out there is connected to Evulz. The result is a Witch Hunt where every criminal is treated as a traitor and agent of Evulz who is given the harshest punishments imaginable, even if their crime was as small as petty theft.
  • Due to Emperor Evulz being killed off in the 1st game and coming back in the 6th, his knowledge of the world is horribly outdated as is his powerset. Unsurprisingly the heroes utterly demolish him due to having several years of power and experience whereas he was only as strong as he was years ago and is now a complete joke compared to General Dusk.
• Reconstructed:
  • Which was just what Evulz wanted to kill the heroes, all while he stayed completely unharmed.
  • However, they do end up uncovering a conspiracy by Evulz that is connected to some of these "small" crimes.
  • The Witch Hunt turns out to be an Evulz plot itself- Evulz intentionally planted the seeds of paranoia into the heroes to trick them into destroying their reputation by going after innocent people.
  • As it turns out, General Dusk was only a Disc-One Final Boss. The resurrected Emperor Evulz retreats in order to better learn about the changes in his absence. Several story arcs later, Emperor Evulz has ascended, and the heroes must take down Supreme God Evulz in order to save the world (again).
• Played For Laughs:
  • Nobody takes General Dusk seriously because everybody already knows Emperor Evulz is behind the plot.
  • The relationship between Dusk and Evulz is a copy of the relationship between Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Evulz does not even has to do anything, he just stands there on the stage and everybody goes wild while Dusk busts his back with his schemes and everybody is going "yeah, huh huh, you vaporized Washington, cool; when is Evulz going to appear and take over the plot?" And more often than not, when they start to argue, they go something like: "Evulz Season!" "No, Dusk Season!" and so on and so forth, even switching it out so that Dusk says it's Evulz Season and vice versa.
• Played For Drama: The heroes eventually reach the Despair Event Horizon because they no longer can identify what bad things that have happened to them are Evulz' design or not, and worse yet, it seems Evulz is unstoppable in the long term.
• Played For Horror: The discovery that Evulz is always behind everything leads to the heroes going completely insane.

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Muahaha! It is I, your old foe, Hijacked by Ganon! The Playing With page was but my puppet the whole time!

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