Basic Trope: The Leader of The Team is not the The Hero, but a secondary character.
- Straight: In the series Next Passage Captain Alexei Bristols is the head of the central unit, but not The Hero, that role goes to Mika (Mika pulls double duty in order to serve as The Big Guy). He's known to be a competent leader who knows his team's assets and is often featured in promotional material.
- Exaggerated: Alexei is the only one with even a close amount of screen time as Mika.
- Downplayed: Alexei gets a lot of episodes dedicated to himself, making some new fans think he's the central character (He's more of a Tritagonist or even a Deuteragonist).
- Justified:
- Mika is revealed to be Not So Above It All with his teams antics at times, so Alexei acts as a true Only Sane Man to compensate.
- Mika is The Big Guy. He may be the strongest, but he sure as hell can't lead for shit.
- Mika fits the bill of Audience Surrogate more than Alexei.
- Alexei isn't the right kind of character to be the protagonist for their Target Demographic, but can attract fans from a Periphery Demographic.
- The dynamic between Mika and Alexei is one of the most prominent, and since Mika is the central character Alexei gets his time to shine too.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted:
- Alexei ends up dead before the season finale due to Mentor Occupational Hazard, and Mika takes his place.
- After Mika is murdered by The Mole in the team Alexei is forced to step up as he is the only one who can fill his role.
- Alexei is moved to a Spin-Off due to his popularity.
- Double-Subverted:
- Of course, it's all part of a plan to get him close to their leader for a final attack, and we see some of that pan out.
- Luckily the team soon meets Naomi, who is also capable of what he could do. Alexei quickly hands his position, as respectively the central focus, to her.
- It ends up bombing, ending with only six episodes aired, and he returns back to the original due to it.
- Parioded: In the Cold Open voiced by Mika he goes through each member, and when it gets to Captain Bristols he consistently says "Oh, and that's my boss."
- Averted: Alexei is the main character.
- Enforced:
- The people behind the graphic novels were tired of the same old Hero-Leader combo, so they broke it up with Mika being under a captain, Alexei.
- The biopic's current arc centers on when Mika was merely a Lieutenant, with her various commanding officers amalgamated into Alexei for the sake of simplicity.
- You Are in Command Now doesn't really work without offing one of these.
- Alexei is the most complex character, but he wasn't considered to be the hero when writing the story.
- Lampshaded:Tonia: "You know, I heard that some civilians believe that you are the one that leads us Mika."Mika: "What? Oh no no no, I wouldn't want to take up Captain Bristols' position. That's too much for me."
- Invoked: The government believes having the strongest person take up command would be too risky, so they actively prevent them from potentially gaining control.
- Exploited: Thinking Mika would be a better leader some of the team try to coup Alexei so he can take it.
- Defied: After seeing how strong Mika is Alexei immediately transfers to a new unit and names him his replacement.
- Discussed:George: "Why do we have him again? Mika is the strongest."Kass: "Captain Bristols is a great commander. Mika would be too impulsive to act seriously."
- Conversed: The show is given much admiration and even an award for its portrayal of the dynamic between hero Mika and Captain Bristols.
