Basic Trope: The apparent Big Bad is actually being manipulated by one of his minions.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz is being manipulated by his minion, General Drake.
- Exaggerated:
- Emperor Evulz is being manipulated by his minion, General Drake, who is being manipulated by his minion, Lieutenant Unethic, who is being manipulated by his minion, Sergeant Bad.
- Emperor Evulz' Right-Hand Cat is the one calling the shots.
- Downplayed: General Drake is taken out by the heroes before his plans can come to fruition, and the heroes focus their remaining effort on stopping Emperor Evulz's plan.
- Justified: General Drake doesn't want the heroes to come after him, so he draws their attention away from him by having Evulz act as the Big Bad while he pretends to be a minion.
- Inverted: Emperor Evulz is revealed to instead be a flunky to Lord Bad.
- Subverted: General Drake is being manipulated by Emperor Evulz, to think Evulz is under his influence.
- Double Subverted: Except that's just what he wants Evulz to think and is secretly manipulating him.
- Parodied:
- Emperor Evulz was actually being manipulated by a generic Mook.
- Emporor Evulz is being manipulated by General Drake, who is being manipulated by Lieutenant Unethic, who is being manipulated by Sergeant Bad, who is being manipulated by Private Unkind, who is being manipulated by his seven-year old nephew, Jacky Jerkpants. Bob manages to defeat Evulz by manipulating Jerkpants into manipulating Unkind into manipulating Bad into manipulating Unethic into manipulating Drake into shooting Evulz.
- Zig Zagged: General Drake thinks he's manipulating Emperor Evulz, but Evulz is also manipulating him.
- Averted: General Drake is not manipulating Emperor Evulz.
- Enforced: The stuido decides that fans consider General Drake to be more evil than Emperor Evulz, so they Retcon the plot and make Drake the mastermind instead.
- Lampshaded: "Who would have thought that one of Evulz's minions would turn out to be the greater threat?"
- Invoked: Drake realizes that he doesn't have the resources to fulfill his plan on his own, so he decides to volunteer his services to Evulz in hopes of manipulating him.
- Exploited: The Hero and their True Companions realise that one of Evulz' minions is running the show, so they focus on killing the middle-managers in his leadership rather than the Big Bad himself, hoping that the Evil Plan will fall apart without a leader.
- Defied: Emperor Evulz realizes General Drake is trying to manipulate him and kills Drake.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Drake readily becomes a Dragon Ascendant after the heroes assassinate Evulz, with almost no change to Evulz's former organization. It seems entirely possible this is because he was running the show the whole time.
You thought that this page was the Big Bad, but it was really me, The Man in Front of the Man!
