"I see you still believe that I'm the Dark Lord. [...] I am now supreme commander over Lord Vearn's armies! I am Hadlar, the Dark Commander!"
— Hadlar, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai
In the natural progression of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil, a stronger Big Bad will replace the previous villain for the new season. However, what happens if the previous villain is still here? One of the things the former Big Bad can do now is to work for the new Big Bad as his Dragon. This is Demoted to Dragon in a nutshell.
This occurs by default when a Greater-Scope Villain takes a more directnote role in the storyline but the former Big Bad is still serving them.
It's also common for a new villain to also defeat the old villain to usurp his position, but with the old Big Bad remaining as a minion because the new villain still considers him useful. In this case, demoted Big Bads will frequently become The Starscream or a Dragon with an Agenda, especially if the only reason they were demoted was because the other Big Bad happened to have an advantage and the alternative would mean certain death. Better to lay low and wait for the right moment...
Although, some Dragons will do the opposite: They will happily accept the new position, be actually loyal to the new Big Bad, and have a trustworthy relationship, often because the Dragon will realize that he works better and more efficiently by working for someone else, and the Dragon may actually become a much bigger threat than when he was the main villain thanks to the help and resources of the new one; effectively an inversion of The Peter Principle. However, that good relationship might not last, and it may be the Big Bad that betrays him instead.
Compare Quickly-Demoted Leader, which overlaps when a Starter Villain suffers this trope. Contrast Hijacked by Ganon, where a new villain is subservient to an old villain, Dragon Ascendant, where the old servant becomes the new villain, and Big Bad Duumvirate, when the previous Big Bad isn't explicitly subservient to the new one. See also Big Bad Wannabe, which overlaps if the demoted villain insists that he's Still the Leader.
Beware of unmarked spoilers.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Di Gi Charat: Pyocola Analogue III a.k.a Piyoko acts as the leader of the Black Gema Gema Gang, except in Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat where she is instead working under the Deji-Devil.
- My Hero Academia: After Shigaraki defeated Re-Destro the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, he becomes a subordinate of his when they form the Paranormal Liberation Front and declare war on the Heroes.
- One Piece: During the Enies Lobby arc, Rob Lucci is The Dragon to Spandam, albeit of the Dragon-in-Chief variety. When the pair are reintroduced post-Time Skip, Spandam has been demoted, and is now subordinate to Lucci.
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, after Homura becomes the devil, Kyubey is turned from a potent and incomprehensible chessmaster to a lapdog whom she apparently Mind Rapes at the end.
Audio Play
- Jan Tenner: After getting a new android body, courtesy of the new Big Bad Sung Furiosa, Furiosa lets the old Big Bad Zweistein attack the island nation of Mittelland, only to reveal at the end that he installed a "leach" to keep Zweistein in line, forcing him to work for him alongside recurring Dragon-for-Hire Tamara.
Comic Books
- In Fray, the vampire Icarus used to be the boss of all the vampires in Manhattan, (or Haddyn, as the Future Slang of the world calls it) but willingly chose to give that up and become The Dragon to Visionary Villain and Undead Child Harth.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW): In ''Siege of the Crystal Empire'' arc, it is reveal that ultimately King Sombra was working for his mother Rabia to free the Umbrum so they can conquer the Crystal Empire.
- In Secret Wars (1984), Ultron attempts to pick a fight with Galactus. This goes about as well as one would expect, and Ultron is later reprogrammed into serving as The Dragon to Doctor Doom.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- In Sonic the Comic, Robotnik is Demoted to Dragon twice. First in the Drakon arc, he makes a deal with Emperor Ko-Dorr — the Drakons would provide Robotnik with resources and transport, and he in turn would deliver the Chaos Emeralds. Then, in the Shanazar arc, Robotnik worked for Princess Kupacious as Grand Vizier. Both times he was using them to further his own goals, and he was a far greater threat than Princess Kupacious.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite, Doctors Eggman and Wily — the main antagonists of their own series and the Big Bad Duumvirate of the previous crossover — are press-ganged into the service of Sigma. It doesn't take long for the two of them to go full Starscream, either.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) after Clutch's defeat in Issue #75, Dr. Eggman strongarms him into becoming a minion of the Eggman Empire.
- X-Men: During the events of the Phoenix Five and later being refugees from the law, Magneto recognized and submitted to Cyclops's greater strategic genius.
Fan Works
- Carmen Cole, the Big Bad of the novel Hottie by Jonathan Bernstein, becomes The Dragon to Emperor Vakudos in Hottie 3: The Best Fan Fic in the World
.
- Matt Pinfield, the Big Bad of The Naked Brothers Band animated special "Supetastic 6", becomes The Dragon to Princess Jody in the Spin-Off, Hottie x Supetastic 6: March Madness.
- The Powers of Harmony: Eclipse (formerly Nightmare Moon) ends up forced to serve Cetus, her own creation. Naturally, she's not pleased with this.
- My Little Mages: The Nightmare's Return has Chrysalis. Fifty years ago, she led one side of a war between the living and the Undead, but was defeated and forced to go into hiding, before Nightmare Moon recruited her for her new Quirky Miniboss Squad.
- The Rise of Darth Vulcan has this happen to Chrysalis in relation to the titular Villain Protagonist. However, due to a combination of Mad Love and being genuinely impressed by him repeatedly, she doesn't mind much.
- Persona EG:
- The dark persona user Eris, a.k.a. Fluttershy seems to be the main enemy of ZIT, but it is eventually revealed she is working for the far more powerful and dangerous Mephistopheles, a.k.a. Sunset Shimmer.
- Though she had already been trying to perform a Heel–Face Turn by the time it was revealed, Sunset herself was later revealed to have been an Unwitting Pawn to the Zodiac Shadows and it seems that the real Big Bad the whole time was actually Juan the Janitor, a.k.a. Red Flag.
- Ladybug in a Half Shell: At an earlier point in time, Shredder found and strong-armed Hawk Moth into his services.
- In The RWBY Loops, this happens to Cinder. See, Cinder was introduced as a looper before canon introduced Salem, The Man Behind the Man. Due to the way the loops work, Cinder really was the Big Bad, before the expansions made it retroactively Salem all along. And while Unawake!Cinder is content with the arrangement as long as she gets the Fall Maiden's power, Looper!Cinder is annoyed because her entire motive, Awake or not, was personal power. As a Looper, she's more powerful than Salem and has the experience of being powerful and beholden to no one to contrast it with.
- Code Prime features an example where The Dragon of one villain is demoted to being The Dragon of another, nominally lower-ranked villain. Due to Cornelia continuously failing to defeat the Autobots or Black Knights without the assistance of the Decepticons, her father decides to make her Megatron's subordinate in all conflicts with the Autobots or Black Knights (she still retains her privileges as Viceroy in all other matters). Cornelia is enraged by this, but has no real way to go against the decision.
Films — Live-Action
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: After the Final Battle of the first film, Darren Cross ends up maimed and shrunken to a subatomic level, but is found by Kang the Conquerer who turns him into MODOK to serve as his right-hand man.
- Poor King Ghidorah of the Godzilla franchise. He started out as the Big Bad in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and was considered the ultimate evil in the universe. The next film, Invasion of Astro-Monster reduced him into the mind-controlled pet of an evil alien-race. And he's pretty much been that way ever since. At least until Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
- James McCullen spends most of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as the Big Bad. Then his Mad Scientist revealed himself as Cobra Commander, Turning McCullen into his Dragon Destro in the process.
- Hellraiser: Bloodline: After Angelique summons Pinhead to help her with John Merchant they stand on roughly equal ground. When Merchant tricks them, Pinhead drags her back to Hell for her failure and makes her a part of his retinue of servant Cenobites.
- The Hobbit Film Trilogy:
- The Orc Leader Azog is the main villain in An Unecpected Journey, pursuing Thorin and Company. However in The Desolation Of Smaug the Necromancer Sauron tells him to stop hunting Thorin so he can lead his troops. This means Azog sends his son and Dragon Bolg to continue the hunt.
- In the book, Bolg was the commander of the goblin army during the Battle of Five Armies, since Azog was already dead before the events of The Hobbit. But since Azog was Spared by the Adaptation long enough to participate in the Battle of Five Armies in the final film, Bolg only serves as the leader of the reinforcements from Mount Gundabad, as well as being an opponent for Legolas to fight.
- In The Lone Ranger (2013), Butch Cavendish was the Big Bad in the 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger, but here, he's Cole's right-hand man.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the previous film's Big Bad Davy Jones is demoted to being The Dragon for Cutler Beckett. Justified by Beckett possessing the heart of Davy Jones, and therefore being quite capable of having Jones killed and replaced if he doesn't obey Beckett's orders. And in the climax, Davy Jones regains control of his heart, going into full Dragon-in-Chief mode.
- In Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader is The Dragon for Emperor Palpatine. In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader was the Big Bad but in Return Vader is now The Dragon serving Palpatine, the original trilogy’s as well as the Skywalker Saga’s Big Bad.
- While Shredder is The Heavy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, he's Kraang's chief enforcer and is carrying out his agenda. Shredder isn't aware of this, however, believing they're equals. Kraang shows up at the climax how wrong he is once he actually makes it to our dimension.
- Transformers (Film Series)
- In Transformers (2007), Megatron is the Big Bad. In the second film Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, he's resurrected, but the Big Bad is The Fallen.
- In Transformers: Dark of the Moon while initially appearing to be the one in control Megatron is soon ousted from the role of Big Bad to Sentinel Prime after he briefly presumed they were equal partners note . Meanwhile in Transformers: The Last Knight it initially appears that Megatron is in a Big Bad Ensemble with Quintessa, before it is later revealed that he is working for her, taking he role of Dragon after Nemesis Prime overcomes Quintessa's brainwashing and becomes Optimus again. Even in Transformers: Age of Extinction where Megatron, or rather Galvatron, is working towards his own agenda, it is simply as the less of the Big Bad Ensemble, ultimately fleeing in the final battle while the Autobots fight Lockdown, the main Big Bad.
- In the Wrong Turn series, Three Finger is the default leader of the cannibal hillbillies. But in the fifth and sixth films, he takes orders from other members of the family — Maynard in the former, and Jackson and Sally in the latter. In the first case, he actually seems intimidated into service, while in the second, it's more a case of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork.
- X-Men (Film Series):
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: In a Meta sense; serving as the Big Bad in two movies, William Stryker is Dr. Bolivar Trask's second-in-command in 1973. In-Universe, it’s more of a Dragon Ascendant.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: Magneto isn't the leader of the supervillain team; this time around, he plays second fiddle to Apocalypse.
Literature
- Warrior Cats: Brokenstar is the Big Bad of Into the Wild, the first book of the original series. Then he gets driven out of his clan and killed, leaving Tigerstar in control of his army. Later, in the Omen of the Stars arc, Tigerstar and Brokenstar meet up in the afterlife and Tigerstar becomes Brokenstar's dragon.
- Gone: Caine Soren is reduced to this briefly during Hunger, the first of many sequels. He bounces back, though.
- Occurs in Needful Things, where John "Ace" Merrill, the Big Bad from Stand by Me, becomes a lackey for Leland Gaunt.
- Happened in the backstory of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The three Raversnote (formerly human, bodiless possessing demons) were the Land's reigning supreme evils for centuries, possibly millennia- at least until Lord Foul the Despiser showed up to seize the throne of Big Bad de jure. In the process, he made the Ravers his chief minions (an arrangement which worked out well for the Ravers; Foul was as evil as they were, far more powerful, and an extremely subtle chessmaster, so allying with him made them if anything even more dangerousnote ). However, by the time the actual books take place, this is entirely a matter of legend; the Ravers are well-known primarily as Foul's minions, and are even described as such in the books' glossaries.
- A rather... tense... version in the later books of The Death Gate Cycle. Lord Xar is a Sorcerous Overlord and Magic Knight; Kleitus is an undead, omnicidal Implacable Man Necromancer. When they meet, Xar is able to force Kleitus into serving him by the simple expedient of being too powerful to kill (and Xar can't just kill Kleitus because he doesn't know the one spell that can destroy him). It's explicitly stated that Kleitus follows Xar around and does his bidding not out of any sense of loyalty, but out of the pure hope that he can be there when Xar slips up and use the opportunity to finish what he started. Xar, of course, is fully aware of this and doesn't trust Kleitus as far as he can kick him.
- The Mental State is essentially a story of a Sociopathic Hero contending with a series of Arc Villains. Most of them end up as underlings for the story's true Big Bad. One of them even becomes The Dragon to The Hero!
- In The Traitor Son Cycle, after Ash begins acting more openly and reveals himself to be The Man Behind the Man, he forces Thorn to become his right-hand-man - something Thorn resents, but has no means of combating.
Live-Action TV
- The Arrowverse: Damien Darhk serves as the Big Bad of Arrow Season 4. He then migrates to Legends of Tomorrow and joins a Big Bad Duumvirate in Season 2, playing second fiddle to Eobard Thawne and constantly spatting with his co-dragon Malcolm Merlyn. Come Season 3, he becomes merely The Dragon to the time demon Mallus, before giving up his life to save his daughter.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- When Angel became Angelus, former Big Bad Drusilla became Angel's Dragon.
- Mr. Trick, after having abandoned his master, Kakistos, to the Slayers, seeks to install himself as the next Big Bad and The Man Behind the Man. Cue the Mayor forcibly recruiting Mr. Trick.
- Also subverted when the Mayor attempted to do this to Angelus. Angelus initially goes along with it (in a very openly-Starscreamish way) but it turns out the Mayor failed to actually take Angel's soul, and he was just playing along to get information from Faith.
- Chousei Kantai Sazer-X: Happens to the Three Shoguns after the first arc, when their much more competent Neo Descal descendants travel back in time to take command of Descal's invasion and ensure history stays on course, subordinating the Three Shoguns in the process. Blaird is not too happy about this...
- Doctor Who:
- The episode "Frontier in Space" has the Master working under the Daleks, who are employing him to start a galactic war. Although the Master is still technically the main antagonist as The Heavy for most of the special, while the Daleks aren't revealed until much later on.
- A species-wide example regarding the Daleks, who were collectively the Big Bads of Doctor Who until post the "Genesis of the Daleks" serial which introduced Davros, creator of the Daleks. Following this the Daleks tended to act as minions for Davros, who served as the Big Bad of most of the Dalek stories in the classic series since his introduction.
- Ironically in "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" this relationship is reversed, with Davros having been deposed and clearly demoted to being a minion of the Supreme Dalek.
- Farscape: Crais briefly experiences this once Scorpius deposes him as captain of his Peacekeeper battleship, but takes the first opportunity to desert and do his own thing.
- Fringe: David Robert Jonesnote , the Big Bad of season 1, returns in season 4, his death having been undone by the Alternate Timeline. While initially positioned as the Big Bad, it gradually becomes clear that he's working for someone else, who turns out to be William Bell.
- Game of Thrones:
- Houses Stark, Lannister, Arryn, and Martell were kings or regnant princes before they bent the knee to the Targaryens and became wardens.
- The wildling chieftains who serve under Mance Rayder, such as Tormund and Styr, all agreed to become this.
- Kamen Rider:
- Most Crisis Crossover events will feature multiple previous main villains return as minions of the crossover's overarching event. In most cases, these returning villains go unvoiced aside from battle sounds, although in some instances they have more personality.
- The three Gorgom Priests are The Heavy for most of Kamen Rider BLACK. When they revive Shadow Moon in the latter half, they become Co-Dragons to him.
- Kamen Rider OOO: Once Kazari makes the mistake of helping Dr. Maki turn into a new Greeed using the Purple Core Medals, he's swiftly demoted to the doctor's dragon. Kazari never realizes this, at least not until he finally outlives his usefulness and Maki guts him like a fish.
- Kamen Rider Gaim: Ryoma Sengoku gets revived in the Drive crossover by Megahex to carry out his will. Not that he minds much, as he views being a part of Megahex's Hive Mind to be equivalent to being a god.
- Kamen Rider Drive: Once Tenjuro Banno, creator of the Roidmudes, successfully acquires a new body to host his mind, he quickly promotes himself to lead villain and forces the remaining Roidmudes to work for him. Given how intensely the Roidmudes despise Banno, this soon brings about their Heel–Face Turn.
- Kamen Rider Gavv: Midway through the show, the wealthy and powerful Stomach Family get co-opted into serving the wealthier and more powerful Jaldak Family, who commandeer the Stomachs' Dark Treat operation for their own ends. It backfires on the Jaldaks however when Lango gets fed up enough to team up with the heroes to kill off the head Jaldak, taking back the Dark Treat operation and the extra resources the Jaldaks pumped into it.
- Darken Rahl is the Big Bad of the first season of Legend of the Seeker. Then he's killed in the season finale. Come season 2, the Keeper has become the new Big Bad, seeking to kill every living thing, with the Rahl's soul being his Dragon. Not only that, but he reveals that he has always served the Keeper after making a Deal with the Devil for more power, and all his murders and slaughters were partly to appease his master. Then again, Rahl is a dick either way and really enjoys killing. Of course, he turns out to be a Dragon with an Agenda and betrays his master by the end. Additionally, in the episode where Zedd's spell goes awry and rewrites history, Rahl becomes Richard's willing assistant, after Richard brainwashes him. Then the spell is broken, and Rahl is back to his old self. By the end of season 2, Rahl finds a way to return to the world of the living and turns his back on the Keeper.
- Regina Mills, the Big Bad of the first season of Once Upon a Time (2011) becomes The Dragon to her mother Cora in the second.
- In Person of Interest, Mr. Greer willingly and happily demotes himself to the role of The Dragon after succeeding in his two-season mission to install Samaritan, an Artificial Intelligence unfettered by morality, as the show's new Big Bad. His goal is to put all of humanity in the control of A.I.s, believing them to be logical, incorruptible and superior to human leaders in every way.
- Power Rangers:
- Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Midway through the season, Jarrod revives Grizzaka in hopes that he would teach him Zocato (even ordering him to do so when he first arrives), only for the latter to overthrow him due to his hatred of humans. Fortunately, however, Jarrod manages to reclaim his place after mastering the Zocato power himself.
- Snide is the main antagonist for the first half of Power Rangers Dino Charge season 2. After his defeat midway through, he becomes the general of Lord Arcanon. It's revealed during the climax that he was actually The Mole in Arcanon's team and was allied with Sledge the whole time. They're set up as a Big Bad Duumvirate at first, but it soon becomes clear that Sledge is the real Big Bad and Snide one of his Co-Dragons.
- Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Sledge and Snide return during the Crossover between Dino Charge and Beast Morphers as lieutenants of Evox/Venjix. Sledge is later killed and replaced by Goldar, The Dragon and Heavy of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
- Power Rangers Dino Fury: Void Knight is the main villain of season 1, but is overthrown by his wife Void Queen after the first quarter of season 2. After spending the second quarter of the season as the rangers' ally, he's captured and brainwashed by Void Queen into being her second-in-command.
- A strange variant in Smallville's Season 10 episode, "Dominion". General Zod of Season 5, and Major Zod (his clone), the Big Bad of Season 9, were fused into a single being by Darkseid, the Season 10 Big Bad, and used as his surrogate in the Phantom Zone.
- Stargate SG-1
- Initial Big Bad Apophis is hunted down by replacement Big Bad Sokar and dies while hiding on Earth. In a later episode, one of the lesser Goa'ulds serving Sokar has a First Prime named Na'onak who turns out to be a regenerated Apophis in disguise. However, Apophis rapidly pulls a Starscream on both and reclaims the Big Bad throne.
- Later on, the new Big Bad Anubis is defeated by O'Neill controlling the Ancient super-weapon. He is presumed dead, and Ba'al, whose rise to power is previously facilitated by SG-1 to counterbalance Anubis becomes their number 1 threat. Near the end of the Goa'uld rule, though, it's revealed that Ba'al has since become this trope after Anubis manages to come back and retake his empire. After the fall of the Goa'uld, Ba'al is the only real Goa'uld threat remaining.
- Super Sentai:
- Denshi Sentai Denziman's Big Bad, Queen Hedrian, gets revived in the following series, Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan to be Führer Hell Saturn's Dragon in Machine Empire Black Magma. Although Hedrian is very proactive and quickly builds up her own power base within Black Magma, to the point where her relationship with Hell Saturn starts to more resemble a Big Bad Duumvirate.
- When the Black Cross King returns as the Big Bad of Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle, he revives Brajira of the Messiah (the Big Bad of Tensou Sentai Goseiger), Hades God Dagon (the Dragon-in-Chief of Mahou Sentai Magiranger) and Prime Minister Yogoshimacritein (the Greater-Scope Villain of Engine Sentai Go-onger) as his subordinates.
- Yapool, the Big Bad of Ultraman Ace, returns in Ultraman Mebius as a minion of Big Bad Alien Empera.
Pro Wrestling
- The Undertaker, as the leader of the Ministry of Darkness, was clearly seen as the biggest threat in the WWF at the time, to the point where it seemed even Vince McMahon was getting face cheers over him and was being portrayed somewhat sympathetically. However, Taker began making references to a "Higher Power", and when it was time for the reveal, it was none other than McMahon himself who had been pulling the strings all along. The Ministry merged with The Corporation to form the Corporate Ministry, and Undertaker immediately became McMahon's dragon.
- The nWo were the main Power Stable during their time in WCW, but after WCW was bought out by the WWF, they were reduced to Mr.McMahon's lackeys.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- On Mystara King Thar is one of the most evil and dangerous villains of the Known World, commanding The Horde of monstrous races, while being a powerful and ruthless warlord and a vampire. However, he suffers from an extreme case of Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey, to the point argurably his entire army are made of buffoons and idiots. As a consequence, he often finds himself bullied into serving other villains, such as Hossadus, Master of Hule, who forced him into service in adventures Red Arrow, Black Shield and Wrath of the Immortals.
- Vecna: the Eve of Ruin has Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders, who often plays role of Big Bad, Greater-Scope Villain or Satanic Archetype in the game, serve as right hand to Vecna, on the promise of becoming second most powerful being in the multiverse, once he rewrites it in his image. Though considering that if Vecna succeeds, all other gods will die, he might as well put a gun to her head.
Video Games
- In Battle Clash, the space alien Anubis is the last boss of the game. In the sequel, Metal Combat, it is revealed that Anubis was following orders from a race of alien invaders who were plotting to conquer the Earth as a replacement for their lost home.
- In Bayonetta 2, the Big Bad of this game, Loptr/Aesir tricks Balder, the big bad of the first Bayonetta game, into serving him by making him think Loki, Loptr's good half, was the one who killed his wife. However, the Balder in the sequel was brought to the present via Time Travel, and is not the same Father Balder from the first game, at least not until the end of the second game.
- Delekhan from Betrayal at Krondor, though supposedly in charge, ends up the whole time to be working under the direction of Makala and The Six, which the player doesn't figure out until at least Chapter 6 (if not later) and the party doesn't figure out until Chapter 8 (of 9).
- Bomberman: Plasma Bomber debuted as the villain and final boss of Super Bomberman 2. In Super Bomberman 3, his creator, Buggler, becomes the Big Bad while Plasma Bomber is the penultimate boss fight.
- In Super Mario Land, Tatanga is the Final Boss. In the sequel, Wario is the Final Boss, and Tatanga is simply guarding one of his coins for some reason. It's implied he may have been working for Wario the whole time, given that Wario takes over when Mario was distracted by Tatanga.
- Played with in Crash Bandicoot. Dr. Cortex was always Uka Uka's Dragon, but only after the latter's release in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped does this become apparent and he directly serves under him. In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Cortex finally tires of Uka's abuse and overthrows him, making himself the true Big Bad for the first time.
- In the arcade version of Double Dragon, Machine Gun Willy is the leader of the Black Warriors and the final boss in the game. In the NES version, he's simply the last guy the player must face before the final battle against the player's twin brother, who became the main villain in the NES version. Note that while the sibling battle also occurs in the arcade version, it was an optional fight that only occurs if two people were playing, whereas in the NES version it's mandatory to completing the game.
- Happened to Lechuck in Escape from Monkey Island, though he does turn on the game's new villain in the endgame when they're defeated.
- Kid Icarus: Medusa, the villain of the first game, is actually reduced to this in Kid Icarus: Uprising. Though in what may have been an Author's Saving Throw in case this wasn't well-received, it's revealed that the Medusa in Uprising isn't actually Medusa, just a whole bunch of random souls Hades put together in a Medusa-shaped container.
- In Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Darth Sion starts out as one half of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Darth Nihilus. During the events of the endgame, in which Nihilus dies and Kreia reclaims her identity as Darth Traya, he becomes the sole Big Bad for a time, only to be forcibly demoted upon Traya's return.
- In Densetsu no Stafy 3, Ogura, the Big Bad and final boss of the first two games, is revealed to be the Dragon of Evil, the Big Bad and True Final Boss of 3.
- In the Genesis version of Golden Axe, the player must face Death Bringer (a console-exclusive final boss) after defeating Death Adder (the final boss in the arcade version).
- Fatal Fury
- In Fatal Fury Special, Geese Howard is the last opponent the player must face before facing Geese's half-brother Wolfgang Krauser. In Real Bout Special, it's the other way around.
- Speaking of Geese, in the first Art of Fighting game, the main boss is an escrima-using crime lord named Mr. Big. In II, it's established that Geese defeated Big and took control of the underground in South Town. It's also why Big appears on the Villains team in KOF'96 alongside Geese and Krauser.
- As of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas, the Big Bads of the first and second game, respectively, have both been Demoted To Dragon under Master Xehanort (either that, or Master Xehanort was playing The Man Behind the Man the entire time) For the record, these are all different incarnations/versions of the exact same guy.
- Kageyana Reiji from Inazuma Eleven is the Big Bad in the first game, but he returns in the third, where he's revealed to be The Dragon to The Man Behind the Man Garshield Bayhan.
- The Magician reappears in House of the Dead 2 as the penultimate boss before the final stage. He isn't any easier to beat, though.
- Hyperdimension Neptunia features Arfoire, the Anthropomorphic Personification of digital piracy as the Big Bad, who in the Continuity Reboot of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 becomes the Greater-Scope Villain and the leader of her own gang of powerful software pirates. In mk2's sequel Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, she's merely a member of the Seven Sages, another group of supervillains plotting to wreak havoc across an Alternate Universe Gamindustri.
- In Lil' Monster, Kromar is the Final Boss of the first game, in the second he's the penultimate boss and is just another of Cool Joe's lackeys.
- In Lunar: Eternal Blue, Zophar resurrects Magic Emperor Ghaleon, the Big Bad of Lunar: The Silver Star, to serve as his Dragon. In the end, this backfires spectacularly. It turns out that being dead for a thousand years gave Ghaleon plenty of time to think about what he did wrong in his previous life, causing him to act as a Stealth Mentor to the heroes. Zophar had been quite prepared for the possibility of a straightforward betrayal and revived Ghaleon in such a way that he could simply withdraw his power and cause Ghaleon to instantly die. But it never occurred to him that Ghaleon would pull a Heel–Face Turn and be entirely willing to die to stop him.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny has former Big Bad Lord Dearche becoming the subordinate of the Unbreakable Darkness, the true master of the Materials. At least, that was the plan. Then it gets subverted when the Unbreakable Darkness turned out to be more unstable than expected and unintentionally destroys the physical bodies of the Materials in her introductory scene, forcing the Materials to join forces with the heroes to stop/save her. Lord Dearche does eventually become the subordinate of the Unbreakable Darkness, but only after a Heel–Face Turn for everyone involved.
- Mega Man
- Copy-X, the Big Bad of Mega Man Zero 1. He Came Back Wrong in Zero 3 and resumes leadership of Neo Arcadia. However, it's obvious to everyone but Copy-X himself that he was just being manipulated by Dr. Weil, the true Big Bad of the Zero series, and he sets Copy-X up to be killed by Zero again once he has served his purpose.
- Apollo Flame is the Arc Villain of the Post-End Game Content Bad Future storyline of Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker × Saurian and Zerker × Ninja. He then comes back as an underling of Sirius, the Arc Villain Super Boss of Star Force 3's own post-game storyline.
- Mortal Kombat
- In the first Mortal Kombat (1992) game, Shang Tsung appears as the Big Bad, with Goro as his Dragon. Starting with the second game, Shao Kahn overtakes his Big Bad status, where Shang Tsung becomes his one of his Co-Dragons, alongside Kintaro and later on, Goro.
- While Shao Kahn gets replaced as main villain in later games, he never actually turns into this trope until Mortal Kombat 11 when the new antagonist, Kronika, enlists him in her Legion of Doom by promising to restore him to Outworld's throne and he surprisingly goes along with it.
- Ni no Kuni does this via plot expansion in an Updated Re-release. In the original DS version, Shadar the Dark Djin was the Final Boss. The PS3 version, "Wrath of the White Witch", keeps his original arc but continues afterwards, making him a Disc-One Final Boss, and adds cutscenes revealing him as The Dragon to the White Witch from the start.
- In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, Primal Dialga was the Big Bad and Final Boss of the main storyline but in truth ends up as th Disc-One Final Boss and The Dragon to Darkrai in the epilogue storyline. Darkrai is revealed to be the mastermind behind Dilaga's corruption and trying to paralyze the world as his attempt to make his ideal future come become reality. While Dialga wasn’t aware of this, however, once Darkrai corrupts him. Primal Dialga "literally" becomes The Dragon to Darkrai, who serves as the True Final Boss of the entire game.
- Sagat was the final boss in the original Street Fighter I. In Street Fighter II, he's simply the last fighter the player must face before M. Bison.
Web Comics
- In Harry Potter Comics, Voldemort is revived by a mysterious Necromancer for the sole purpose of being his Dragon (and fully opening the Chamber of Secrets).
- In the Start of Darkness prequel to The Order of the Stick, the Evil Sorcerer Psycho for Hire Xykon wrests Big Bad status from his employer Redcloak through superior firepower unchecked by morality, decency, or self-restraint. Though Xykon acts more or less entirely For the Evulz and Redcloak fancies himself The Man Behind the Man to his machinations, Redcloak remains otherwise completely subservient to Xykon's whims.
- In Sonic the Comic – Online! Robotnik is demoted to the brute of The Syndicate in the Sonic Adventure 2 arc.
Web Original
- On Atop the Fourth Wall, Mechakara was the Big Bad starting from the May 2009 episodes. After the storyline concluded in February 2010, Mechakara later reappeared as The Dragon to the new Big Bad, Lord Vyce. Unlike other cases, Mechakara doesn't suffer from Villain Decay, becoming more of a threat due him being upgraded.
- Played straight in To Boldly Flee where Mechakara infiltrates the Channel Awesome team for Terl, though he later turns his attention on him and Zod, too.
- Wolf 359 did this in the Grand Finale, and too a lesser extent in the second season.
Western Animation
- All Dogs Go to Heaven: Carface was the main villain of the original movie but in the sequel he played lackey to Red and to Belladonna in the series.
- Vilgax from Ben 10 becomes the Dragon to Diagon in the Ben 10: Ultimate Alien season 2 finale, though he is hinted to be a Dragon with an Agenda. This is confirmed in the Grand Finale, where Vilgax is a successful Starscream, killing Diagon and absorbing his power to become the most dangerous villain the franchise.
- Clone High: In the revival series, Candide Sampson is assigned to be the new boss of Principal Scudworth, who'll be monitoring him from a newly-installed room above his office in Clone High High School.
- In Danny Phantom the Fright Knight became Pariah Dark's Dragon when he awoke. Though in this case, the Fright Knight was always Pariah's Dragon, his boss was just Sealed Evil in a Can when the Fright Knight was unleashed the first time. Vlad convinced him to turn against his master offscreen.
- Dragons: The Nine Realms: The Big Bad of the Season 3 finale, the Sky Torcher, returns in the Season 7 finale as the newest underling of current Big Bad Buzzsaw.
- In G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, this happens to Cobra Commander in the Sunbow series when Serpentor is created. Worsened after the events of G.I. Joe: The Movie, where Cobra is reduced to nothing more than a pet snake for the latter. When changed back in the DiC Entertainment continuation, Cobra Commander returns the favour to Serpentor by turning him into an iguana and retakes his position as leader of Cobra.
- Magmion was the Big Bad of the first season of Gormiti: The Lords of Nature Return!. Season 2 introduced Obscurio, and Magmion was reduced to his main henchman.
- In season 3, Obscurio himself is revealed to be the first lieutenant of Magor and acts as the secondary antagonist of the season.
- Gideon was the Big Bad of Gravity Falls in Season 1, but becomes Bill Cipher's enforcer in Season 2 after Bill fulfills his When Dimensions Collide plan and brings about the End of the World as We Know It.
- Skeletor was the Big Bad of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), but became The Dragon to new villain Flogg in The New Adventures of He-Man. However, Skeletor's role wasn't all that different functionally, as he constantly manipulated the clueless Flogg.
- Shendu, from Jackie Chan Adventures. For the first season he was the one calling the shots but after his defeat he is forced into servitude to his demon siblings. Though in this case, he demoted himself so they'd stop beating the crap out of him for leaving them to rot in their prison.
- The Lion Guard: Janja was the Big Bad of both the movie and the first season, but when Scar resurrect as a spirit in the second season, he's subjected to take his orders along with Ushari as his Co-Dragons.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In the episode "Twilight's Kingdom, Part 1", Discord thinks he and Tirek are a Big Bad Duumvirate, but in actuality he's this trope and Tirek double-crosses him as soon as he is no longer important.
- In the final season, Tirek, Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis are brought together into a Legion of Doom under Grogar, all of them becoming his Dragons. Unfortunately, they don't like that idea and begin plotting behind his back. Coupled with the twist that Grogar was actually Discord in disguise as part of a convoluted plan to boost Twilight's confidence, they end up taking back their Big Bad status and become the true final villains of the series.
- PAW Patrol: Despite being the Big Bad, Mayor Humdinger suffers this occassionally through the series:
- In Mighty Pups, Charged Up: Pups Vs. the Copycat. He tries to make the Copycat his new sidekick, but the villainous feline turns this around on him, and makes Humdinger his sidekick instead.
- In the Ready, Race, Rescue special, he follows the orders of his cousin The Cheetah to sabotage the other racers so she can win.
- Polly Pocket: In the special Pollyworld, Beth ends up working for Lorelei in her plans to get Polly sent to boarding school so she can have John Pocket all to herself.
- Professor Pericles from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated acts as the Big Bad of season 1 but in the second half of season 2 is revealed to be the Dragon to the Nibiru entity.
- Slade from Teen Titans (2003) is demoted to Trigon's dragon when the latter tries to take over the world. An unusual case where the former Big Bad is actually more of a threat to the heroes when he's serving as someone else's henchman, because Trigon gave him a truckload of powers in the bargain.
- In Lilo & Stitch (2002), Gantu acts as the main antagonist, though he's somewhat of a Hero Antagonist as he believes that Stitch is a threat to the galaxy and needs to be disposed of. However, after he is retired from being captain by the Grand Councilwoman, he ends up taking the role of The Dragon when he is hired by Dr. Hamsterviel in the TV series, though he has a partner on his own in 625/Reuben.
- Dr. Hamsterviel himself is Demoted to Dragon when he works for Delia in the anime.
- Ninjago:
- Pythor takes over the Serpentine to serve as the Big Bad of season one. Come season three, he's revealed to be working for the Overlord.
- The "Day of the Departed" special has Sensei Yang resurrect several previous Big Bads serve under him by distracting the ninja. Pythor (who's still alive) joins up of his own accord.
- The Quiet One, the Big Bad of season eight, is working to resurrect Garmadon. They succeed in the finale and quickly step aside to become his Dragon in season nine.
- Like "Day of the Departed," the Council of the Crystal King is again composed of former Big Bads (with the exception of the Mechanic, who never got higher than Dragon in his previous appearances). Kabuki Mask, who has the best claim to the actual "Dragon" position is Harumi, who proves to be more comfortable assisting a classic Big Bad than acting as one on their own.
- Transformers: Prime: This is played with when Unicron shows up. Megatron wants to serve him, but Unicron doesn't give a crap about Megatron, viewing him as beneath him. Which is a total reversal of the G1 situation ("serve me or get eaten") and the Transformers: Armada situation ("you've actually been serving me all along.") where it's an unwilling Megs being made to work for Unicron until he can turn the tables. (If you go with the All There in the Manual Retcon that there's just one Unicron, it could be that the Chaos-Bringer has just learned that Megatrons don't make good servants.)
- They do cross paths again in the finale movie. He still doesn't become Unicron's dragon. Megatron's dead body is hijacked by Unicron, and Unicron proceeds to torture Megatron whenever he speaks out of turn.
- The Big Bad of Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Steeljaw, has this happen to him not once, not twice but three times. First time happens when he gets recruited by Megatronus Prime to free him and bring him to Earth. Then, in the second season, Steeljaw winds up joining Glowstrike's crew of Decepticon criminals and working under her, though he later usurps her and takes control of her crew. Later, in the third season, Steeljaw gets freed by a group of mysterious benefactors and winds up working under them, though they remain distant enough from the plot that Steeljaw could still be considered a Big Bad.
- Wacky Races Forever, the proposed sequel series to Wacky Races (1968), would have featured Dastardly and Muttley, the main villains of the original, as the bumbling henchmen of a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
- The Trix from Winx Club were the main villains in season 1. In seasons 2, 3, the 2nd movie, and 5 they work for the more powerful villains Lord Darkar, Valtor, the Ancestral Witches, and Tritannus.