Big Bad

A Big Bad is quite often the character with Evil Plans. The Big Bad can (and often does) exert effect across a number of episodes, and even an entire season.


Note that Big Bad is not a catch-all trope for the biggest and ugliest villain of any given story. The Badass leader of the outlaw gang that the heroes face once or twice is not the Big Bad. The railroad tycoon who turns out to be using the gang as muscle is the Big Bad. If there is a constant Man Behind the Man story going on in order to reveal the big bad, then whoever is behind it all is the Big Bad, not every major villain in the lead-up. At other times, if a new enemy shows up to replace the previous Big Bad, then they are the Big Bads of their individual storylines.

The Big Bad may be confronted frequently, but is too powerful to finish off until the last episode of the sequence. The Big Bad may work through Evil Minions and will almost certainly have "The Dragon" (main henchmen) protecting him, to keep interest up and provide something for the good guys to defeat. When you look

at a season-long story or a major Story Arc and you can identify that one villain as being the one in control of everything, that is the Big Bad. In many cases, you will find that while the Big Bad may be in control, the "Dragon-in-Chief" would still be the greater threat.


Evil Overlord, Diabolical Mastermind, The Chessmaster, Arch-Enemy, The Man Behind the Man, and often Manipulative Bastard are specific types of villains who are liable to show up as Big Bads. If he's a Magnificent Bastard or Hero Killer, the good guys are in big trouble. The heroic counterpart of this character is the Big Good, who will very often be the focus of this character's attention over The Hero at the beginning of a series. If a work of fiction is conspicuously lacking a Big Bad, it may be a case of No Antagonist.

Examples

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the Trope Namer, and would occasionally introduce "decoy" Big Bads to set up a surprising revelation:

The Movie: Count Lothos
Season 1: The Master

Season 2: First the Anointed One was a decoy big bad. Spike and Drusilla are the Big Bads of the first half of the season, and Angelus is the big bad of the second half after his Face Heel Turn.

Season 3: Mayor Richard Wilkins
Subverted twice with Mr. Trick, initially played off as the Big Bad himself, then as The Dragon when the true Big Bad shows. Then the real Dragon shows...

Season 4: Most of the season has no big bad, although Spike returns early on as a decoy big bad and Professor Walsh is shaping up to be a good candidate before she is killed mid-season. Late in the season, Adam first appears as The Dragon and becomes the big bad and Final Boss.

Season 5: Glory, a.k.a Glorificus

Season 6: Appears to have a Big Bad Triumvirate in the form of The Trio of Warren, Johnathan, and Andrew. It quickly becomes clear that Warren is the dominant personality of the three, and he becomes the Big Bad of the season, with his murder of Tara ultimately causing Willow to snap and become the Final Boss after killing him. Joss Whedon has claimed that "life itself" was the Big Bad of Season 6.

Season 7: The First Evil thought some people see him as "The Big Bad" and Bigger Bad for the series.

Season 8 Comic: Twilight, the sentient dimension, not Angel.

Season 9 Comic: Apparently rogue Slayer Simone Doffler in Buffy's series... though its too early to tell and at the moment like season six life seems to be this. Pearl, Nash and Whistler are shaping up to be this in Angel & Faith.

Supernatural's overall Big Bad has actually always been Lucifer, who takes the stage in Season Five. The character who did nearly every action for the entire plan was The Yellow-Eyed Demon aka Azazel, who served as Big Bad in Seasons One and Two. Lilith served the role in Seasons Three and Four.

In Season Six, the position of new Big Bad was up in the air for most of the season, with the best contenders being either Crowley, the new King of Hell, or Raphael, the leader of the angels who want to restart the Apocalypse. Midway through the season, however, Crowley faked his death and we were introduced to an entity known as the "Mother of All", who seemed set to take up the role. But then, Dean killed her, and soon after it was revealed that Crowley was working with Castiel of all people in order to take over Purgatory. So, it looked like they were going to jointly be the Big Bad of the season. But then in the season finale, Castiel tried to cut Crowley out of the deal, so he retaliated by teaming up with Raphael, making it look like they'd be the Big Bads together after all, only for Castiel to Out Gambit them at the last minute, absorb the souls of Purgatory and declare himself the new God. Guess he was the true Big Bad of the season after all.
In the very first episode of Season 7, Castiel gives up his new godlike powers, having realized his mistake — but before he can truly redeem himself, he is replaced by the true Big Bad — the Leviathans. Thus, for most of the season, our heroes are on the run from a species of monsters who are older than angels with no known weaknesses or vulnerabilities — until Castiel turns out to be alive, heals Sam's mental trauma by taking it onto himself, and recovers enough to help them decode the Word of God, which reveals how to kill the bastards for good.
For Season 8 it's looking like a Big Bad Ensemble between Crowley and Naomi, the leader of what appears to be Heaven's Men In Black.





24:

Season 1: Victor Drazen
Season 2: Max and Alexander Trepkos
The Game: Max
Season 3: Stephen Saunders
Season 4: Habib Marwan
Season 5: President Charles Logan.
Season 6: Phillip Bauer and Cheng Zhi.
Season 7: Alan Wilson, although Jonas Hodges got more screen time.
Alan Wilson and Jonas Hodges were both in the same Omniscient Council Of Vagueness behind the season's events, Wilson was "first among equals" so to speak.
Season 8: Charles Logan and equally corrupt Russian President Yuri Suvarov.


Morgoth in The Silmarillion. He was originally Melkor

Sauron (the character above), previously The Dragon, assumed his Evil Overlord role.

Voldemort from the Harry Potter series

Darkseid, a Galactic Conqueror as well as a Physical God.

Lex Luthor, a Corrupt Corporate Executive Magnificent Bastard as well as the arch-nemesis of Superman. If there's ever a Legion of Doom anywhere, you can bet top dollar he's the boss of it. In some continuities he's a Mad Scientist.

The Joker plays Big Bad less frequently as he usually prefers getting right up close and personal to a certain someone. He did hijack reality one time, and when he was tricked into thinking he was dying he decided to quit kidding around and just gas the whole world.


Brainiac, an evil robot and a being that seeks to control all information.

Doctor Doom has a big habit of being this, as does Magneto, and the Red Skull, in the wider Marvel Earth. The Kingpin is sometimes this when it comes to more purely criminal scales.

Mephisto himself is nothing to snuff at, either.


The Big Bad of the Doctor Strange title tends to be Dormammu, a Dimension Lord Eldritch Abomination who is the source of most of the conflict in Dr. Strange's life, either directly or through minions like Baron Mordo.

Bleach: Ever since The Reveal that he was Evil All Along, Sosuke Aizen


Death Note takes an unusual approach to this trope by making the main character himself the Big Bad.

Dragon Ball has Piccolo, both senior and junior.

The sequel, Dragon Ball Z has Vegeta, Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu.
Dragon Ball GT has Baby, a Big Bad Duumvirate of Dr. Gero and Dr. Myu, and finally the Shadow Dragons.

Father in Fullmetal Alchemist.

Dante in the first anime

Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.

Katz from Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Vilgax, from Ben 10

Season 2: Kevin 11

Season 3: Ghostfreak

Season 4: The Forever King

For Ben 10 Alien Force:

Seasons 1: The DNAliens

Seasons 2: The Highbreed

Season 3: Vilgax

Ben 10 Ultimate Alien

Season 1: Aggregor and then Kevin

Season 2: Diagon but usurped by Vilgax

Ben 10 Omniverse

Arc 1 & Arc 2: At first you think it's Khyber, but the real main antagonist was Malware.

Arc 3: The Inkersions

Teen Titans followed a Big Bad formula similar to Buffy:

Seasons 1 and 2: Slade
Season 3: Brother Blood
Season 4: Trigon
Season 5: The Brain.