D: Sorry pals, 'fraid I can't let you do that.
Noah: You?!
D: 'Sup? Been a while, eh?
Noah: You?!
D: 'Sup? Been a while, eh?
The Starter Villain fills an important narrative role in being the first opponent The Hero faces, giving him a foe to be heroic for the first time. However, afterwards they're unlikely to be relevant beyond inspiring the hero. By the time The Dragon or Big Bad shows up, they're lucky to be a foot note. But not all starter villains are doomed to be left in the dust, and some are determined to avoid that fate.
This is a Starter Villain who continues to be an important member of the Rogues Gallery long after their initial role as the first villain The Hero faces is done. Usually this is because It's Personal between the two, and if not they consider their defeat to be personal. Rarely the Arc Villain or other major baddie is revealed to have been the Starter Villain, suddenly making them significantly more important. Or maybe they weren't meant to be all that important in the first place, but their popularity leads them to becoming a significant character. In many cases, they essentially become a Goldfish Poop Gang.
Sub-Trope of Starter Villain. If a Starter Villain doesn't become significant, but they have a clear impact on the story, they fall under Small Role, Big Impact. The Token Motivational Nemesis may end up becoming this if they try hard enough. Can be a Bookend if the Starter Villain ends up becoming the Final Boss. If it turns out the Starter Villain is sticking around because he's actually the Big Bad, that goes into Hidden in Plain Sight and The Dog Was the Mastermind.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Centuria: A very unconventional case. Arkos is the story's Wake-Up Call Boss, being the first Gifted One fought by the protagonist Julian. Arkos is killed off at the end of his arc. Later, the reader is introduced to the necromancer Helem who has the power to create Revenant Zombies known as "living dolls." Rather than being simple resurrections, each living doll is a Soulless Shell — they are a Blank Slate who has no traces of the original's personality and memories, and they eventually develop their own sense of personhood just like every other human being. The catch is that the living dolls are physically incapable of disobeying Helem's orders, to the point that their bodies will act against their own wishes should they try to resist her commands. Helem uses Arkos' decapitated head to create a living doll known as "Altus." Altus is a completely distinct character from Arkos, eventually developing into a full-on Morally Superior Copy who is horrified by Arkos' crimes even as he's forced to bear the consequences for them. For unknown reasons, Arkos' soul is still connected to Altus and serves as a Superpowered Evil Side who can take control of Altus' body for 30 seconds a day. All that is to say, a Starter Villain is killed off and is then resurrected into a new, distinct character whose personal storyline is centered on being seen in-universe as an extension of said Starter Villain, all the while the literal ghost of said Starter Villain haunts him from beyond the grave.
- Dragon Ball: While there are a few Villains of the Week who appear beforehand, Emperor Pilaf is the first major antagonist of the franchise. He seeks to use the Dragon Balls to Take Over the World, and nearly succeeds towards the end of the first Story Arc. Pilaf survives his defeat and reappears in future arcs, despite subsequent villains vastly overshadowing him. Pilaf and his Co-Dragons Mai and Shu battle Goku shortly after the destruction of the Red Ribbon Army, and Pilaf later frees and assists King Piccolo until the latter betrays him. After being absent from Dragon Ball Z, Pilaf and his cronies return in Dragon Ball Super, still seeking the Dragon Balls despite having been turned into children.
- Ghost Fixers: Ikusu Kitagawa, a ghost born from the wandering soul of a little girl, is the first antagonist the main duo goes up against, seemingly being dealt with in the very first chapter. She ends up surviving, and continues to stick around as a member of the main antagonist group the "Homecoming Sect."
- Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Initially starting out as a starter villain, Close is later revealed to have actually survived the Pretty Cures' Finishing Move, and later becomes the final opponent after Dyspear falls.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char Aznable makes his debut in the first episode, where he is the superior of three Zaku II pilots spying on Side 7. Amuro kills two of Char's underlings by the end of the episode, and battles Char directly in the following episode, killing the remaining Zaku pilot in the process. However, Char survives the battle, becomes The Heavy of the series, and later serves as the Big Bad of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Michelo Chariot is the first Gundam Fighter Domon faces after landing on Earth. At the end of the episode, he's defeated and arrested. However, he comes back in the show's second half now as a thrall of Devil Gundam.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood: Being adopted into the Joestar family, Dio Brando is the first character to be antagonistic to Jonathan Joestar, initially wanting to take the Joestar inheritance and fortune for himself. Come the Stone Mask and he evolves into the vampiric Big Bad of the series, and later returns as a straightforward Big Bad in Stardust Crusaders. Though the first villain to appear, Dio's influence as a villain spans most of the entire franchise in the original continuity.
- While most of the first villains of the series usually don't return after their first encounter, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: JoJolion averts this with Ojiro & Fun Fun Fun, returning a whopping 70+ chapters after his introduction.
- Evangeline A. K. McDowell is the first villain of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, yet even after her defeat she still remains a relatively important character in the series. Justified as she is still a member of Negi's class, and with Negi defeating her and making her promise to not skip class anymore, she has little say in the matter. It also becomes clear as the series goes on that Evangeline isn't quite as villainous as she'd have you believe.
- One Piece:
- Buggy the Clown was the first Devil Fruit using enemy that Luffy faced off against, and the first real challenge that he and Zoro faced. While Luffy is able to beat him, Buggy would swear vengeance and he and his crew would chase the Straw Hat Pirates into the Grand Line. Buggy would return in the Impel Down arc to ally with Luffy in exchange for a map leading to Captain John's treasure, and after the timeskip he would be named a Warlord of the Sea and one of the Four Emperors of the Sea thanks to being Mistaken for Badass.
- Alvida, the very first villain Luffy beats in the story, as well. After getting her ass kicked by Luffy, she managed to eat a Devil Fruit which made her skin slippery, and more notably, made her much slimmer in the process, to the point that that when she appeared in Loguetown as part of a Villain Team-Up with Buggy, Luffy did not recognize her at first. Played with, as virtually all of her appearances after that are due to forming said alliance with Buggy, but practically being another of his crewmembers because she's the only member of her original crew who remains.
- Pokémon the Series: Not counting the flock of angry Spearow who were more dangerous wild animals than villains, the first antagonists Ash Ketchum faces are Team Rocket members Jessie, James and Meowth. Initially only seeing him as an obstacle to their criminal caper, after being defeated for what's implied to be the first time in a while they become very invested in Ash because of the power that his Pikachu showcased against them as they believe stealing it would be good for the organization's cause. This leads them to become regular foes for Ash and his friends and by far the villains he encounters the most often, sometimes even having Friendly Enemy and Enemy Mine situations.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Absurdly Powerful Student Council of Ohtori Academy begin as Utena's first antagonists and stay major characters up to the finale. Their character arcs continue through the remaining two seasons, becoming opponents indirectly through the Black Rose Duelists before returning for a final round. While additional antagonists enter the picture, the Student Council never leaves the picture. There's a good reason for this — End of the World was using them to "feed" Utena on opponents until her own Soul Sword was ready to harvest; either she won until she became a "Prince", or she lost and that Council Member would pick up where she'd left off. Even if they weren't viable Prince candidates, they still made decent fodder.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Played with in the second anime series. Seto Kaiba is the first villain that Yugi faces in the anime, though not in the original manga. Having been the world's greatest duelist before being defeated by Yugi, Kaiba becomes obsessed with beating Yugi in a duel from that point on. However, he later stops being a villain and becomes an Anti-Hero rival, albeit one still significant all the way to the end of the original series.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Darkness is the first Seven Stars Assassin to challenge Judai and, unlike the previous rivals of the week who can't be considered villains, he is played completely straight as a threat, since those whom he defeats lose their souls. Darkness returns three seasons later as the Big Bad of Season 4, where he is revealed to be the mastermind behind the disappearance of the supporting cast. Due to Season 4 being the final season of GX, this also makes him the Final Boss of the series.
Asian Animation
- Black Cat Detective: The One-Eared Mouse, introduced in the series' pilot, returns in every subsequent episode to menace Hei Mao and the feline police (save for the fourth, which is a case of Not Me This Time).
Comic Books
- Batman:
- While Batman's true starter villain is Alfred Stryker, the main antagonist of his first story, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate", his very next opponent was his first supervillain: the Mad Scientist Dr. Death, who became his most recurring villain for a time. While he's generally fallen into obscurity, he has sometimes returned to the limelight as a major threat, most notably in Batman: Zero Year.
- Additionally, Batman's starter villains from his first ever solo comic were The Joker and Catwoman: who would go on to be not only some his most recognizable enemies, but some of the most recognizable villains in all of fiction.
- Zig-zagged with Killer Moth. He existed in comics long before Batgirl as an Evil Counterpart of Batman's during the Golden Age. Come the Silver Age, and he acted as the starter villain for the Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl in her debut issue and was soundly defeated by her. Since then, despite his ties to Batman, Killer Moth has often been treated as a Batgirl villain specifically and has had some of his largest roles in that position, such as in Batgirl: Year One.
- Doom Patrol: General Immortus was the very first villain the Doom Patrol battled in their debut in issue 80 of My Greatest Adventure (which was later retitled Doom Patrol (1964) by the 86th issue), but continued to be a prominent adversary of the team in spite of seemingly perishing in an explosion at the end of his first appearance.
- Gold Digger (Antarctic Press): The first villain that the Digger sisters had to fight was the draconic Dreadwing, who is reduced into a skeleton by the end of the pilot (with the OVA adaptation giving him the same fate). He was brought back to life, then started plotting to regain his power, as he went on to become one of the main Big Bads of the series and the one that the Diggers sisters must defeat in the Grand Finale and the sisters' most enduring foe.
- Fantastic Four: The Mole Man is the first villain the team went up against, and goes on to become a recurring adversary of their's.
- Marvel 2099:
- The first villain in The Punisher 2099 is Kron Stone, who leads a small group of serial killers targeting families. After killing the new Punisher's family, and prompting him to take up the title in the first place, the Punisher quickly hunts him down and leaves him for dead in the sewer. Problem is, for Kron that proved to be a stroke of luck, as there he discovered and bonded with the Venom Symbiote. He came back stronger that ever, now with superpowers and becoming a massive problem not only for Spider-Man 2099, but the entire 2099 universe.
- In fact, Kron is this trope for Spider-Man as well, albeit retroactively. The two went to the same school together, and Kron attempted to murder him even back then. The following events shaped both their lives, and his return so many years later was a big shock to Spider-Man.
- The Outsiders (DC Comics): Downplayed with Baron Bedlam. The first version of the team was formed to fight Bedlam, who had taken over Geo-Force's home of Markovia and created the circumstances that led to the heroes meeting. Bedlam seemed to be killed off at the end of his debut, but ended up coming back a few times to menace the team and arguably served Geo-Force's archenemy because of their personal history. Ultimately, though, he was Killed Off for Real and hasn't bothered the team at all since.
- Shazam!: The first supervillain Captain Marvel encountered was Dr. Sivana, who attempted to use a device to extort fifty million dollars, only to be thwarted by the fledgling superhero. Sivana goes on to become Captain Marvel's Arch-Enemy.
- Spider-Man: The Chameleon was the first supervillain to fight Spidey. While he by no means became as big as Spider-Man's later archenemies like Norman Osborn or Doctor Octopus, he did go on to become a regular member of his rogues gallery.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage):
- This ultimately ends up being what happens to the Shredder, although more so in the franchise as a whole than in the comics. As the first published TMNT comic was intended to be a one-shot story, it ends with the Turtles defeating Shredder and killing him off. However, Shredder proved popular enough that he was brought Back from the Dead for a later storyline (though it would turn out that this was really a mystic clone created by the Foot Clan), only to then be killed off again and never truly bother the Turtles afterwards. But every TMNT adaptation following the Mirage series has instead kept Shredder (who typically either directly serves as their starter villain, or the leader of the other villains they face first) around as the Turtles' true archenemy, elevating him from simply being their Token Motivational Nemesis to being the main antagonist of the entire franchise. Series creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird have stated in the past that if they had realized what a hit their comic would've turned out to be, they would've kept Shredder around as a proper recurring antagonist rather than kill him off.
- In the very same first issue, the Turtles fight and easily defeat a street gang known as the Purple Dragons. Like Shredder, the Dragons would stick around in the comics and subsequent media adaptations; either as a legitimately threatening criminal force or a group of morons the Turtles get to beat-up on.
- X-Men:
- Magneto starts off as the main antagonist of the very issue where the X-Men make their debut, and goes on to become the team's Arch-Enemy.
- The Shadow King is the first mutant villain Charles Xavier encountered, and their confrontation motivated Charles to create the X-Men in the first place. The Shadow King goes on to become a recurring adversary of the X-Men, and also comes into conflict with the New Mutants and New Excalibur.
Films — Animation
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Spot is introduced at the start as a seemingly one-off joke villain, with Miles being more preoccupied with other stuff going on and even dismissing him as a Villain-of-the-Week. Which is why many viewers were caught off-guard when The Spot evolves into a multiversal-level threat by the end. Not-So-Harmless Villain indeed.
Films — Live-Action
- Austin Powers: Dr. Evil is a Diabolical Mastermind, who attempts to kill Austin Powers in the opening minutes of the first film, and after failing to do so, he turns himself into a Human Popsicle for 30 years to avoid being captured, with Austin freezing himself so he can continue opposing Dr. Evil. After being unfrozen, Dr. Evil resumes his role as the main antagonist for the remainder of the first film, and returns as the Big Bad in its two sequels, although the last of which has him working alongside Goldmember, who becomes the Final Boss of the trilogy immediately after Dr. Evil's Heel–Face Turn.
- Batman (1989): Initially, Jack Napier/the Joker doesn't fit this role as Bruce Wayne has been Batman for some time before he shows up. However, it's revealed in a twist that he filled the Joe Chill role in shooting Batman's parents, technically making him the first villain Bruce ever dealt with.
- Fantastic Beasts: Gellert Grindelwald, under the stolen identity of Percival Graves is the Big Bad of the first film, which ends in his defeat and capture. Grindelwald later escapes and resumes his role as Big Bad in the second and third films.
- Godzilla:
- Anguirus from Godzilla Raids Again was the first monster Godzilla fought and he became his best friend after getting defeated by Godzilla.
- Although King Ghidorah was not the first monster Godzilla ever fought, he was the first monster to be a greater threat than Godzilla himself. Ghidorah's rampage in the eponymous film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, was the catalyst for Godzilla's Heel–Face Turn, and Godzilla's battle against Ghidorah at the end of the film marked the beginning of his run as a hero. Ghidorah returns in Invasion of Astro-Monster and Godzilla vs. Gigan and before being Killed Off for Real at the climax of the Showa era's chronological finale Destroy All Monsters.
- Jurassic Park:
- Downplayed with Lewis Dodgson, who does not directly encounter any of the main characters inthe original film, but does appear onscreen to instigate its main conflict by hiring Dennis Nedry to steal dinosaur embryos from InGen. Decades later, he'd reappear as a Greater-Scope Villain in both Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, before taking center stage as the Big Bad of Jurassic World Dominion.
- The original film itself has the Big One, a Velociraptor pack leader who kills a park employee in the first scenes. Towards the end of the film, she escapes captivity along with her pack, and leads them on the hunt for the surviving humans.
- The Karate Kid: John Kreese was the first antagonistic sensei to appear in the franchise, serving as the Big Bad of the first film and personally losing a fight to Mr. Miyagi at the beginning of the second film. He returns in the third film, where he seeks revenge against Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi with the aid of his old friend Terry Silver. Kreese later returns as one of the main antagonists of the sequel series Cobra Kai.
- The Matrix: Agent Smith starts off as The Heavy of the first film and is seemingly killed by Neo at the film's climax. However, Smith is revealed in The Matrix Reloaded to have survived and gone rogue, and The Matrix Revolutions sees him become such a powerful and existential threat that both humanity and the machines he once served form an Enemy Mine against him. Although Smith is seemingly killed once again, he resurfaces in The Matrix Resurrections, and forms an Enemy Mine with Neo to oppose the Analyst.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Hector Barbossa, the Big Bad of the first film, appears in every subsequent film of the series. Although he dies in the first film's climax, he is brought Back from the Dead by the end of the the second film, leading to him being an ally to the protagonists during the third, until Barbossa steals the Black Pearl from Jack again. In the fourth film, Barbossa is a Dragon with an Agenda to King George II, although he goes rogue once he defeats Blackbeard. In the fifth film, Barbossa offers to aid the new Big Bad Armando Salazar, only for Barbossa to betray Salazar instead and dies heroically taking down Salazar, ironically killing the Final Boss of the series.
- Star Wars:
- From an out-of-universe perspective, Darth Vader is the very first villain we see in A New Hope and serves as The Heavy while the later-introduced Grand Moff Tarkin is the movie's Big Bad. He remains an important antagonist throughout the rest of the Original Trilogy, being fleshed out further, and the Prequel Trilogy was made to serve as his Start of Darkness.
- Nute Gunray and the Trade Federation are a smaller scale example; chronologically they are the first villains in The Skywalker Saga, having blockaded Naboo. While ultimately pawns of Palpatine, they remain important players for the rest of the Prequel Trilogy — they try to assassinate Padmé Amidala in Attack of the Clones and serve as one of the prime movers in the Confederacy of Independent Systems, fueling the civil war that Palpatine will use to strengthen his power base and eventually establish a dictatorship in Revenge of the Sith.
- In terms of the movie timeline, Darth Maul is the first Sith pitted against the heroes and one of the major obstacles in the finale of The Phantom Menace. Obi-Wan cuts him in half and drops him down a shaft. But he somehow survives and returns later in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, making several more appearances in that show (even being involved in the final arc of the series, effectively ending the prequel timeline) and Star Wars Rebels, as well as showing up in Solo for a bit and being the Villain Protagonist of his show for Disney+.
- Kylo Ren is the first villainous Force-user of the sequel trilogy, originally serving as The Heavy of The Force Awakens before being defeated by an inexperienced Rey. Kylo Ren escapes and returns in The Last Jedi, where he supplants his master Snoke as the Supreme Leader of the First Order. He makes his final appearence in The Rise of Skywalker, where he makes a Heel–Face Turn following his final duel with Rey halfway through the film, leaving the resurrected Palpatine as the Final Boss of the sequel trilogy.
- Superman Film Series: Lex Luthor is the Big Bad of the original film, and later returns in Superman II, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and Superman Returns, with the latter two films restoring him to the position of Big Bad, albeit in different continuities.
- Transformers Film Series: Megatron is the Big Bad of the original film, and despite his defeat, he returns in all four sequels.
Literature
- Cassandra Palmer: Jonathan is an Evil Sorcerer who is introduced in the first novel as wanting to kidnap the title character for the evil Black Circle. Despite at first seemingly being low on the totem pole of the Black Circle, Jonathan went on to be the Arch-Enemy of Dhampyr Dorina Basabara and has returned from the dead multiple times over the series. Its eventually reveled that Jonathan is not in fact a lackey of the Black Circle but is instead one of their leaders and is one of the oldest and most powerful magic users in the world.
- A hobgoblin named Toede is the first named villain encountered in the Dragonlance game modules. Originally just a minor Fewmaster, he becomes a recurring antagonist and eventually rises to the rank of Highlord commanding an entire Dragonarmy.
- Guild Hunter: Uram is a psychotic archangel and the Evil Former Friend of Archangel Raphael. Uram as a savage Serial Killer serves as the first foe of the series and the fight with him leads to Raphael uniting with his mate Elena. Despite his death at the end of the first book, Uram is able to return several books later in Archangel's Viper where he inserts a piece of himself in one of his victims to torment her and others.
- Harry Potter:
- The Dursleys abused Harry throughout his childhood, and antagonize him in the early stages of the first book, but after Harry learns he is a wizard and is taken to Hogwarts, they become Out of Focus while Harry spends his first year at Hogwarts contending with bigger problems. However, Harry is sent back to the Dursleys at the end of every school year, who take advantage of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery to continue mistreating him, secure in the knowledge that he is legally forbidden from using magic to retaliate against them.
- Draco Malfoy, a boy the same age as Harry, is the first antagonistic wizard Harry encountered after learning of the existence of magic and the wizarding world, as well as his own magical nature. Draco's entitled and elitist behavior prompted Harry to snub his offer of friendship, resulting in the two becoming enemies at Hogwarts from the very beginning of their attendence there. As the two of them start the series as young and inexperienced wizard, this mostly amount to Draco being Harry's schoolyard bully and rival, while Harry repeatedly faces far greater threats over the years. However, as Harry grows in age and experience over the years, so does Draco. This culminates in Draco becoming a Death Eater and serving as The Heavy of the sixth book, during which Draco proves himself a Not-So-Harmless Villain despite ultimately being in over his head.
- Lord Voldemort is the first villain Harry has ever dealt with, having personally murdered Harry's parents and tried to kill Harry while he was still a baby, resulting in the Voldemort losing his physical body and becoming a shadow of his former self. The weakened Voldemort is eventually revealed to be the Big Bad of the first book, where he plans to use the titular stone to restore himself. However, at that point, Voldemort is so powerless that he has to rely on the unremarkabe wizard Quirinus Quirrell to do his heavy lifting, and their shared body is unable to withstand the magical protection Harry's mother bestowed upon him, forcing Voldemort back into hiding. Three years after his failed attempt to obtain the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort successsfully returns to power and begins the Second Wizarding War, which lasts for three more years before Voldemort is finally Killed Off for Real.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Nazgûl are the main antagonists of Book I, during which they pursue Frodo for the One Ring before being repelled by Elrond. Despite this, they remain the Sauron's most valuable enforcers in the story. The Nazgûl's leader, The Witch-king of Angmar goes on to lead Sauron's forces against Minas Tirith in Book V, during which he finally meets his demise at the hands of Éowyn. The remaining Nazgûl survive until the destruction of the One Ring and the downfall of their master Sauron in Book VI.
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Percy's first major fight at the start of Book 1, the minotaur, returns in a later book. Unfortunately for the monster, Villain Forgot to Level Grind and Percy dispatches it with much more ease the second time around.
- Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner: Harley Q is the very first person the Embryon has to fight after awakening their Atma, and nobody really pays him any mind afterwards because they made more than sure that he's dead. Unfortunately, that didn't cut it because he comes back as an Eldritch Abomination and devours the entire Junkyard.
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: Count Olaf is the abusive guardian of the recently orphaned Baudelaire children in the series' first installment, aptly titled The Bad Beginning. There, he schemes to steal their fortune by forcing the elder child Violet to marry him, only for Violet to use Loophole Abuse render the marriage contract invalid, and Olaf himself goes on the run after being exposed as a criminal. Despite this, Olaf retains his role as the Big Bad for the remainder of the series, repeatedly schemeing to steal the Baudelaire fortune until his death in the final book.
- The Wheel of Time: Ishamael is The Heavy of the story until his demise in Book 3, only for him to be reborn as Moridin, much to his own dismay.
Live-Action TV
- Batman (1966): The Riddler is the main antagonist of the series' opening two-parter, and goes on to become a recurring villain. He is even one of the villains of the spin-off movie.
- Charmed (1998): Jeremy Burns was a warlock who seduced and killed witches to take their powers and was the first foe that the Charmed Ones vanquish. Jeremy returned briefly in the season two premiere being summoned by Abraxas for another fight and also came back in the comic book continuation as one of the souls of several defeated Charmed One's foes that was possessing one of their friends.
- Cobra Kai: Kyler's main purpose in the first season is to bully Miguel and inspire him to learn karate from Johnny to defend himself, leading to Johnny reopening the Cobra Kai dojo. After Miguel beats him and his gang in a fight at school halfway through the season, he more or less disappears from the narrative, save for a few cameos where he sees Miguel and decides to avoid him so he doesn't get his ass kicked again. Meanwhile, the series shifts to a Good vs. Good conflict between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, with Kreese as the Big Bad manipulating both sides. Kyler returns in Season 3 and is Demoted to Dragon, joining Cobra Kai after Kreese steals the dojo from Johnny and using his new karate training to seek revenge on Miguel for his earlier beating.
- Heroes: Sylar is one of the two main antagonists of the first season alongside Non-Action Big Bad Daniel Linderman, effectively making Sylar the first combat-capable Big Bad in the series. Unlike Linderman, Sylar survives the first season and goes on the become the most recurring antagonist in the series.
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Kuuga: Xu-Goma-Gu, the Bat Gurongi, is one of the first opponents that Kuuga fights, and due to Kuuga's inexperience at the time he doesn't actually die in his debut. He continues to persist as a minor annoyance for the rest of the show, mostly to the other villains, before taking a very large level in badass near the end. Unfortunately for Xu-Goma-Gu, the power instantly goes to his head and he challenges the Big Bad for leadership, who kills him in seconds.
- Kamen Rider Decade: Narutaki is the first major thorn in Decade's side and remains one for the entire series, all the way through the Finale Movie, and for a few more crossovers after that, despite various other villains taking more prominence later in the series.
- Kamen Rider Gaim: Kaito Kumon is Kouta Kazuraba's rival and main opponent throughout the first arc. While he gets eclipsed by bigger foes, he still sticks around and occasionally helps out Kouta while still pursuing his own agenda. And by the end of the show, once all the dust has settled, Kaito becomes the final Big Bad.
- Kamen Rider Ghost: Javert is the first Elite Mook that Ghost faces, and his having a name and Resurrective Immortality ensures he persists all the way through the series, even getting a few powerups to keep him relevant as a threat. When the supply of powerups eventually runs out, Javert makes a Heel–Face Turn and serves as a minor supporting character for the final act.
- Kamen Rider Build: Night Rogue and Blood Stalk are the foes Sento and Ryuga contend with for the first arc of the show, but even after that arc ends both stick around for the entirety of the series and play major roles in the events to come, to the point of getting their own Kamen Rider forms. Rogue eventually turns good and joins Team Build, while Stalk outplays every other villain before revealing himself the actual Big Bad.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Horobi is the first major antagonist that the Riders face, and after a period of being imprisoned following his first defeat, becomes a recurring villain all throughout the rest of the show, even serving as the final boss (although not the Big Bad).
- Kamen Rider Gavv: The twins Siita and Jiip Stomach are the youngest siblings of the Stomach Family Big Bad Ensemble and serve as the first of the Stomachs that their half-brother Shoma must contend with in his quest to protect humanity. While Siita dies at Shoma's hands early on in the show, Jiip survives. He eventually comes back, having married into a prestigious family and using his new connections to stick it not to Shoma, but to the eldest Stomach sibling Lango for mistreating him.
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: While the Ion Dragon is the show's second rather than first monster of the week after the Endoswarmers, it's chronologically the first ever Kaiju that Monarch's early builders Lee Shaw, Keiko Miura and Bill Randa encounter, meaning it influenced Monarch's entire MonsterVerse history from its foundation by bringing those three people together as pioneering Monarch members. The Dragon reappears in the last two episodes of the show, where it's revealed to have played a major role in Shaw's estrangement from Bill, which kicked off the entire plot of Kong: Skull Island and further shaped the entire MonsterVerse, and the creature serves as the main antagonist of the season finale during the present day.
- Power Rangers: Rita Repulsa is the first Big Bad of the franchise, serving as the main antagonist of the Season 1 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and later returns as part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with her former boss Lord Season and the end of Season 2 and into Season 3. She reappears in Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers in Space, the last of which sees her undergoing Heel–Face Brainwashing in the Grand Finale.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q puts Humanity on Trial in the first episode, and continues to cause trouble for Picard and his crew throughout the series in order to test them. One such test happens in the Grand Finale, and even though Picard passes it, Q declares the trial ongoing.
- From the Ultra Series:
- Verokron from Ultraman Ace is the first of many chojus (super-kaiju) to debut in the show, appearing right in the first episode and whose rampage in Fukuoka city necessitates Ultraman Ace to merge himself with his hosts, Seiji Hokuto and Yuhko Minami, for the first time and going into battle. After being destroyed, Verokron would reappear in Episode 48 as Reconstructed Verokron to continue haunting Ultraman Ace's host Seiji, before launching another attack, this time in Tokyo.
- Alien Magma from Ultraman Leo is the first of many alien invaders to attack in the series, bringing with him his two pet monsters, Red and Black Gillas, and is the villain responsible for destroying Leo's home planet resulting in Leo fleeing to Earth. Magma ends up fleeing after his monster servants, Red and Black Gillas, are defeated by Leo, but returns halfway through the series... apparently suffering some severe Villain Decay in-between. His re-appearance have him harassing children while trying (unsuccessfully) to woo a female alien named Rolan, before getting killed unceremoniously by Ultraman Leo.
- The Big Bad of Ultraman: Towards the Future, Gudis the alien-virus cell monster, is introduced battling Ultraman Great and upon being defeated, disperses itself into outer space and heading to Earth. Ultraman Great, after merging with astronaut Jack Shindo, made their way back to Earth to defeat numerous monsters summoned by Gudis until halfway through the series, where the original Gudis returns in a much more powerful form to battle Ultraman Great.
- Golza made its debut in the pilot episode of Ultraman Tiga, being one of two monsters alongside Melba prophesized to prevent Tiga's awakening. At the end of the episode, Golza escapes as Tiga destroys Melba, and went into hiding underground until 17 episodes later, having hibernated in the core of an active volcano for months, turning it into the nearly unstoppable juggernaut of a monster called Fire Golza.
- Darambia from Ultraman Dyna is the first monster summoned by the Grandsphire on Mars to combat the awakened Ultraman Dyna on the Mars base, and puts up a tough fight before it's destroyed. In the second-to-last episode, Darambia is resurrected by the Grandsphire into a more powerful form called Neo Darambia, and puts up a considerably harder fight when Dyna arrives to battle.
- Ultraman Max, much like Tiga before it, starts off with an attack from two kaijus, Grangon and Lagoras, both of which Max managed to destroy after showing up in front of humans for the first time. However, both kaijus return halfway through the series, with Grangon being killed offscreen by Lagoras so that it can absorb the Lava Monster's fire powers and return as the more powerful Lagoras Evo to challenge Max.
- Ultraman Mebius starts its pilot with Dinozaur, the first kaiju to show up on Earth for the first time in 40 years In-Universe, where it singlehandedly kills most of the first GUYS defense team and destroys most of the city until Mebius, a rookie of a warrior, destroys it. In a much later episode, an entire herd of Dinozaur attempts to descend on Earth, but this time GUYS is well-equipped with laser turrets and anti-meteorite technology to destroy most of the incoming Dinozaurs save for one, which further mutates into the two-headed Dinozaur Reverse to battle Ultraman Mebius.
- Grigio Bone from Ultraman R/B appears in the first episode, and is responsible for the Ultramen siblings, Rosso and Blu, being cast upon Earth in the first place. After its defeat, Grigrio Bone returns numerous episodes later as Grigrio King, having gone through a considerable evolution (including sporting a massive cannon in its back). Even after Grigrio King's defeat, it comes back again as Grigrio Regina, even stronger than its previous two incarnations.
- The kaiju Demaarga serves as the Starter Villain in the pilot of Ultraman X, where it is defeated by the episode's conclusion... only to return halfway through the show, having been resurrected by the Guar siblings, a family of alien invaders, who upgrade Demaarga into Tsurugi Demaarga, a creature powerful enough to defeat X in their first rematch, necessiting X to obtain a new weapon called the "X-lugger" to eventually destroy Tsurugi Demaarga. Even after the show ended, Demaarga would continue returning to the franchise, including in X's Big Damn Movie: Ultraman X The Movie: Here Comes! Our Ultraman!.
- The Fusion monster Golba debuts in the pilot episode of Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga, where it's blown to pieces on Mars by the episode's conclusion. Around twenty episodes later, it comes back as Golba II, and Took a Level in Badass (much like Golza above) in its inevitable rematch.
Mythology and Religion
- The Bible: The Book of Revelation interprets Satan as being "the old serpent", claiming the Serpent that tempted Adam and Eve and the first evil figure in The Bible was Satan all along. This makes Satan not only the first antagonist, or even evil being in Biblical lore, but the ultimate villain of the entire narrative.
Video Games
- Advance Wars: Unlike Olaf and Flak from the first two games, whose presence are greatly diminished after the first chunk of their campaigns, Jugger is fought more consistently throughout the entire campaign of Dual Strike alongside his Bolt Guard peers, all the way up until the allied nations face off against Von Bolt himself.
- Crash Bandicoot: Dr. Neo Cortex is Crash Bandicoot's creator, and serves as the Big Bad of the original game. He remains Crash's Arch-Enemy throughout the series, even as other villains such as his boss Uka Uka overshadow him as a threat. Perhaps most prominently, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time has Cortex come out on top after a game-spanning Big Bad Shuffle to serve as the Final Boss, aiming to use the Time Travel powers of the Quantum Masks to go back and prevent Crash's creation in the first place.
- Cosmic Star Heroine: Groff Brokston, leader of the terrorist group who appears as the Starter Villain in the game's Batman Cold Open, returns later in the game as a powerful adversary, piloting a Humongous Mecha to destroy the city. After his mech is defeated in the Sequential Boss battle, he reveals himself and, right before Alyssa L'Salle kills him, he ends up summoning his pet and turning it into a Kaiju to posthumously finish what he started.
- Devil May Cry: Vergil is one of the two main antagonists of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, the first chronological game in the series. Vergil is Out-Gambitted by the game's other main villain Arkham, and has to team up with Dante to stop him. After Arkham is dealt with, Vergil battles Dante, becoming the first chronological Final Boss of the series. Vergil survives the game's events and returns in the original game, by which point he has been Demoted to Dragon by Mundus. However, Vergil returns as the Big Bad of Devil May Cry 5, first as his demon half Urizen, and then as his reconstituted self.
- Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt: Kadoc Zemlupus is the very first member of what was formerly Chaldea's Team A, now dubbed Crypters, that the protagonist must defeat in Part 2. He even lampshades it, noting that it only makes sense for them to go after him first, as it was his Servant Anastasia that destroyed Chaldea and served as the only hook their remnants had to figure out what was going on. However, even after the player defeated him in the first chapter, and took down his Lostbelt, he still plays a role in the story. He's rescued by one of the Big Bad's Apostles and starts to go through his own arc, culminating in him pulling a Heel–Face Turn and then joining as an ally of Novum Chaldea in Lostbelt Chapter 6.5. and beyond.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy I follows the "the Big Bad was the Starter Villain all along" twist; Garland starts off kidnapping Princess Sara, and beyond that seems irrelevant as the Four Fiends co-serve the Big Bad role. But it later turns out that Chaos, head of the Four Fiends, is Garland thanks to time travel and you killing his past form. Chaos is eventually defeated by changing events so Garland never becomes them.
- Final Fantasy VI: Kefka starts off as the first noticeable grunt you face, however, he not only sticks around but eventually replaces Emperor Gestahl as the Big Bad and final boss of the game.
- Final Fantasy Tactics: Wiegraf Folles is is initially the leader of the Corpse Brigade, a band of disgruntled ex-soldiers who serve as the main antagonists of Chapter 1. Wiegraf survives the destruction of his organization, and later returns as a major antagonist in Chapter 3, having thrown his lot in with Folmarv Tengille.
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Rude and Elena are the first major adversaries fought in the game who aren't wild animals (the Materia Guardian in Chapter 1 and the Midgardsormr in Chapter 2) or sidequest antagonists (Beck's Badasses, who are Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains anyways). Rude and Elena who are first fought together in the Mythril Mines during Chapter 3, and again in the Gold Saucer during Chapter 12. Their last boss encounters take place in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon during Chapter 13, but unlike their previous encounters, Rude and Elena are paired with Reno and Tseng respectively, instead of with each other.
- Friday Night Funkin': The Girlfriend's father is the first opponent the Boyfriend faces, meant to give a general introduction to the setup of the game after the tutorial. However, because he is Girlfriend's evil Boyfriend-Blocking Dad and a Sore Loser, he frequently attempts to interfere with their relationship and/or straight-up kill Boyfriend; the events of Weeks 3 and 6 are directly caused by him, and he fights Boyfriend again in Week 5 alongside Girlfriend's mother.
- Halo: 343 Guilty Spark is the Big Bad of the original game, where he tries to destroy all life in the galaxy to starve the Flood. Despite allying with the good guys after his initial defeat, he goes bad again at the end of Halo 3, where he fatally wounds Sgt. Johnson and battles the Master Chief to stop them from destroying Installation 08, serving as the Final Boss of the original trilogy.
- House of the Dead: Dr. Roy Curien is the Big Bad of the first game, but is ultimately killed by one of his own creations. Despite this, he later returns as the Big Bad of the third game after being brought Back from the Dead.
- Jurassic Park (Arcade): The T-rex from the 1994 Rail Shooter is the first enemy to be encountered, returns as a boss halfway through the game, and returns again as the Final Boss alongside another T-rex.
- The King of Fighters: Rugal Bernstein, the Final Boss of The King of Fighters '94, attempts a Taking You with Me after his defeat (canonically at the hands of the Hero Team/Team Japan) but returns the following year to host the next KOF tournament and get his revenge (as Omega Rugal). However, he dies via Super-Power Meltdown due to his inability to control the Orochi power, setting the stage for the remainder of the Orochi Saga. Despite some hints that he might still be alive and the introduction of his son and daughter in KOF 2003, all subequent appearances by Rugal starting with '98 are relegated to non-canon Dream Match Games, though he is treated as the ultimate endboss of these installments due to his status in the lore. That is, until he and several other deceased characters were revived in The King of Fighters XV as an effect of Verse's defeat in the previous game, though Rugal himself has no involvement in the story.
- Kingdom Hearts: Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, is defeated by the end of the first game. However, he lingers on as something akin to Riku's Enemy Without for the next two games, before he's brought Back from the Dead for the last games of the Dark Seeker Saga, where he is established to be one of the Co-Dragons of the true Big Bad, Master Xehanort. He finally meets his end in Kingdom Hearts III when his new Replica body is destroyed, and his heart is sent back in time to the first game to face what was, and is, his true canonical death.
- Kirby: King Dedede was the first major antagonist that Kirby faced. Despite this, Dedede has frequently returned to do battle with Kirby in one form or another, even as the penguin king has slowly evolved towards heroic behavior or even an ally throughout each game.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Ganon himself, the main and most recurring antagonist of the series, inverts this trope. He is the Big Bad of the original game, which is his last chronological appearence in the Downfall Timeline, as the scheme to resurrect him in the sequel canonically fails. However, Ganon later appears in A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and the Oracle games, all of which chronologically precede the original game. Ganondorf also serves as the Big Bad of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, both of which take place in Alternate Continuities where the Hero of Time foils his plains, thereby averting the Downfall Timeline. Ganon is later revealed to be (in the English localization, at least) the reincarnation of Demise/Demise's Dying Curse, who is the Greater-Scope Villain and Final Boss of Skyward Sword, the first chronological entry of the series.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: King Bulblin kidnaps the children of Ordona Province well before Link enters the first dungeon, and rescuing them is one of Link's main motivations during the early stages of the game. Shortly before Link can begin the trek to the second dungeon, Bulblin attack Kakariko Village and kidnaps Colin, forcing fights Link to fight him for the first time. By this point, the most notable opponents Link had already fought were Ook, who was Brainwashed and Crazy, and Diababa, who was simply a mutated Deku Baba. Link casts King Bulblin off Eldin Bridge, but Bulblin survives his defeat and battles Link three more times, with the last fight taking place in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The very first boss of the game is Ghirahim, The Dragon of the Big Bad. You end up fighting him a number of times over the course of the game.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds repeats this, with Yuga serving as the boss of the first dungeon despite ostensibly already being identified as the Big Bad. He later ends up being revealed as merely The Dragon, but usurps the role of Big Bad back from his Anti-Villainous boss Hilda by the end of the game.
- Mega Man:
- Dr. Wily is the Big Bad and Final Boss of the original game, and retains these roles in nearly every subsequent entry of the Classic series, with only extremely rare cases when another villain supplants him, such as Sunstar in Mega Man V and Ra Moon in Super Adventure Rockman.
- Likewise, Sigma starts of as the Big Bad and Final Boss of the first Mega Man X game, and goes on to serve as the overall main antagonist of the Mega Man X series before seemingly being Killed Off for Real in Mega Man X8, after which Lumine takes over as the True Final Boss of the game, and by extension the X series.
- Metal Gear: Revolver Ocelot is a downplayed example, as he's the first of the renegade Team FOXHOUND that Solid Snake fights in Metal Gear Solid, but Snake had been in two other games before Solid. To an extent he still counts as Solid has enough Sequel Displacement that for many, Ocelot was the first boss players encountered. Unlike every other boss in Solid (except Liquid Snake… except not… It's complicated, okay?!), Ocelot not only survived his encounter with Snake, but he would go on to appear in nearly every Metal Gear Solid game since then, and was steadily revealed to have had a much bigger role in the franchise's overarching plot than the first game let on.
- Metal Slug: General Donald Morden is the Big Bad and Final Boss of the original game, and remains a reccuring villain throughout the series, despite repeatedly being overshadowed by other villains (sometimes to the point that the heroes are forced to team up with Morden's forces in order to combat a greater threat).
- Metroid: The Space Pirates Mother Brain, Ridley and Kraid serve as the antagonists of the original game and its remake, and all three of them reprise their roles as antagonists at least once.
- Ridley is the first villain Samus Aran ever encounters, murdered her parents during her childhood. In the series proper, Samus first defeats Ridley in the original Metroid/Zero Mission, where he serves as one of Mother Brain's Co-Dragons alongside Kraid. Ridley faces Samus again in Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Metroid: Samus Returns before being Killed Off for Real in Super Metroid, though a clone of his likewise menaces Samus throughout Metroid: Other M and an X Parasite takes his form in Metroid Fusion.
- As the main villain of the original game and its remake, Mother Brain is the first chronological Big Bad of the franchise. Following her defeat, she is Put on a Bus for several games before reprising her role as the Big Bad in Super Metroid, where she is Killed Off for Real. As with Ridley, however, she lives on in a sense through Other M's Melissa Bergman aka MB, an android created by a Splinter Renegade Faction of The Federation whose A.I. is modeled after Mother Brain's and who possesses the ability to telepathically control Metroids.
- Kraid is the least impressive of the trio, but ironically survives the longest. Like Ridley and Mother Brain, he reprises his role as a boss in Super Metroid, but unlike either of them, he survives the events of the game and returns in Metroid Dread (possibly; it's not entirely clear if this is the same Kraid), where he eventually serves as the Post-Final Boss.
- Mortal Kombat has Shang Tsung, the Big Bad of the first game. After canonically losing the Tournament against Liu Kang, he's set to be executed, until he offers to change the rules of Mortal Kombat to Shao Kahn and bring the fight to Outworld. Tsung has since appeared in every installment as a villain, and seldom as a Big Bad on his own, the closest thing being his Big Bad Duumvirate with Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. This even rings true in Mortal Kombat 9, where he starts as the final villain during the retelling of the events of 1 and loses prominence as the story progresses. Then Mortal Kombat 11's Aftermath DLC brings him to the front, gives him a chapter and ends up as the definitive Final Boss should you choose to side with Liu Kang. This same Shang Tsung, having won the battle against Fire God Liu Kang in an Alternate Timeline (the result of the player picking Shang Tsung for said final battle), returns in Mortal Kombat 1 upon learning there's a course of history where Liu Kang was instead victorious, seeking to stamp out Liu Kang's New Era before setting his sights on The Multiverse as a whole.
- NeoQuest: The very first boss of the game is a sludge monster known as Xantan the Foul. If playing on Insane difficulty, he is revealed to be the True Final Boss having returned as Xantan Reborn.
- Nightshade (2003): Kurohagane is the first boss of the game, being fought at the end of Level 1, but shows up frequently throughout the game to fight Hibana again and later kills her former master Jimuhsi to retake Akujiki as payback for being killed by him earlier in the game. He later becomes the Final Boss after collecting all the shards and is fought in the Golden Palace, having become a slick swordsman who can fight like a shinobi.
- Pokémon Black and White: The first antagonistic character you fight against is N, very early in the game. It's later revealed at the Nimbasa Ferris Wheel that he's the king of Team Plasma, the villainous team of the game. As such he serves a dual role as one of your rivals and the main villain, though he isn't all that evil and it turns out that Ghetsis is the true evil behind N's actions.
- Resident Evil: Albert Wesker is the Big Bad of the original game, but survives his apparent demise and becomes a recurring antagonist until his actual death in Resident Evil 5.
- Sly 2: Band of Thieves: The first member of the Klaww Gang the Cooper Gang fight is Dimitri, a jive-talking lizard who runs a nightclub which serves as a front for a counterfeit money operation. Dimitri proved so popular with fans that he reappeared and had a greater role in the next two Sly Cooper games in the series, even undergoing a Heel–Face Turn.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is the Big Bad of the original game, of which he served as the first boss, and every subsequent boss in the game. He goes on to serve as the Big Bad for the majority of subsequent games, despite a multitude of other villains who manage to briefly overshadow him as a threat, but usually lack Eggman's Joker Immunity.
- Soul Series:
- Cervantes de León is The Heavy of the original game, and goes on to become a recurring villain after being revived as zombie.
- The Living Weapon Soul Edge/Inferno is The Man in Front of the Man to is the aforementioned Cervantes, its wielder in the original game, therefore making it the game's true Big Bad. After Cervantes' defeat, Inferno serves as the Final Boss, and proceeds to possess Siegfried, who transforms into the first Nightmare. After Siegfried breaks free of Inferno's control in the backstory of Soulcalibur III, it is bonded with the armor Siegfriend once wore as Nightmare, becoming the second Nightmare.
- South Park: The Stick of Truth: At the start of the game, Clyde is a low level warrior in the forces of the Kingdom Of Kupa Keep, who serves as the first enemy the new kid defeats in the tutorial fight, and is banished from the kingdom when he fails to protect the Stick of Truth during an attack by the elves. At the end of the second act, he acquires the Stick along with a drum of green goop that he uses to raise an army of Nazi zombies, becoming a major antagonist who forces the elves and humans into an Enemy Mine alliance to bring him down.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Played with by Bowser. Although Donkey Kong is the first villain to appear in the franchise, Bowser is the first villain of its flagship series Super Mario, making his debut as the Big Bad of the original Super Mario Bros., and he reappears in nearly every subsequent installment of the main series. Bowser is also the Final Boss of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, which is chronologically set when both he and Mario are babies, long before the events original Donkey Kong. Bowser is also a recurring antagonist in both the Paper Mario series (of which he served as the first game's Big Bad) and the Mario & Luigi series (of which in the first game alone he serves as the Training Boss, is fought twice again as the amnesiac Rookie, and is possessed by Cackletta).
- In Paper Mario 64, Jr. Troopa is the first major opponent Mario faces in his adventure (not counting the Hopeless Boss Fight with Bowser in the beginning). He later continuously appears as a recurring, yet not really threatening mid-boss.
- In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Lord Crump, The Dragon to the game's Big Bad, is the first opponent Mario encounters after arriving in Rogueport. After that, he constantly appears as a Recurring Boss, two times in which he fights while operating a Mini-Mecha.
- Tales of Vesperia: Zagi is an assassin of the Leviathan's Claw guild who is Yuri's first and recurring antagonist. For the first two encounters, he's just a Psycho for Hire, initially sent to kill Flynn for unknown reasons and to help Ragou and Barbos smuggle Blastia cores, but by the third encounter, his obsession with Yuri becomes more personal, interrupting him during inopportune times and vowing to kill him no matter what. It isn't until the fourth encounter when Zagi caused the Heracles to nearly blow up Zaphias that Yuri begins to take Zagi more seriously as a threat, and by the fifth and final encounter, Zagi intercepts Yuri in Tarqaron just for one last bout, being completely deranged by that point and serving as the last major obstacle before the Final Boss: Duke.
- Tekken: Heihachi Mishima is the Big Bad of the original game and is defeated by his own son Kazuya, who usurps his position as the head of Mishima Zaibatsu and turns out to be even more vile. Despite this, Heihachi survives his defeat and spends the series in a Big Bad Ensemble with his son.
- In Triangle Strategy, Travis and Trish, a father and daughter bandit team, are the bosses of the game's first battle, who flee after realizing they're up against one of Glenbrook's high houses. After dropping out of the plot for a while, they return as the ones to find the body Benedict passes off as Roland and deliver it to Gustadolph, they fight the group in the route where Serenoa chooses to smuggle the salt to Svarog and one of the two later serves as the boss of Chapter XV's Liberty route. The one you fight (which depends on whether you chose to surrender the Roselle to Hyzante), will join your party at the end of the battle, while the other will either retire (Travis) or run away (Trish).
- Undertale: Flowey is the very first person you encounter in the Underground, and while he establishes himself as a murderous asshole, he basically vanishes after the first area (he is stalking you though). Which makes The Reveal that he's the real Big Bad all the more shocking, as the game had been building up Asgore as the final obstacle.
- Xenoblade Chronicles:
- In the first game, there's Metal Face, the first Faced Mechon Shulk faces off in his adventure, and the one with the most impact due to being responsible for Fiora's death and the destruction of Colony 9, making Shulk go out on his adventure. He later reappears after Shulk takes down Xord, as well as at Prison Island. At Valak Mountain, it's revealed that he's actually Mumkhar, Dunban's war friend from one year before the game started, who just wanted the power of the Monado for himself.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Malos first appears as a high ranking member of Torna, a terroist group bent on destroying the world, and is the boss of Prolouge chapter. The player fights him again three more times, the first two times being a Dual Boss, with the final time being the Final Boss as the player eventually learns he is an Aegis like Pyra and Mythra and is trying to capture his "sisters" so they can heal the damage Mythra inflicted on his core crystal during the Aegis War and once that's done, climb the World Tree in order to kill off his "father", the Architecht, and take control of Aion, the strongest of the Artifices and use its power to destroy the world.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Moebius D appears in the first chapter of the game, and is the first of the Consuls Noah has to fight, as well as what causes the Keves and Agnus groups to stop fighting each other. His appearance is also what sends all the Consuls out against Noah and the group due to his Bat Signal, and he manages to kill Mwamba, Hackt, Vandham and one of Eunie's past lives. He later reappears as a boss in Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 (the second-to-last chapter of the game).
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney: Usually, the first case villain never appears after their case is over, which is generally a given since they're sent to prison afterwards, but there are two exceptions.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: Dahlia Hawthorne does this in Mia's cases, since they're played out of chronological order. The first case, the one where she gets caught, is actually the second time she met Mia in court. The first time was Mia's first case (played as Case 4), which ended in a mistrial and Dahlia walking free. She also returns in Case 5 as part of Morgan's plan to have her kill Maya as a channeled spirit, but she isn't the killer, as Godot got to her first.
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney: Kristoph Gavin manages to become the culprit of Case 4 despite already being imprisoned for the events of Case 1 because he actually set up the murder (by giving the victim a poisoned postage stamp and instructing him to use it to send Kristoph a letter) seven years earlier, as part of covering up his involvement in Phoenix getting disbarred. However, the victim happened to delay using the stamp until after Kristoph had already been convicted of a separate murder.
- This is downplayed with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, in which its culprits, Ted Tonate and Pees'lubn Andistan'dhin, get a small cameo and mention, respectively, in each of their games' final cases, each of which revealing important information about the greater plot of the game.
Web Animation
- RWBY: Roman Torchwick was originally intended to be a one-off villain in the first episode, but he became so popular among the fans and the crew that he was kept around until the end of Volume Three, where he was Killed Off for Real thanks to the season raising the stakes of the plot so that he no longer fit the story. Even so, his Cute and Psycho henchwoman Neopolitan managed to stick around even longer as a way to represent him.
Web Videos
- The Angry Video Game Nerd: In a series about a man who plays and reviews bad games, the now-infamous NES game Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde provides an interesting take on the trope. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is actually the second game in the series to be reviewed, following Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. However, the Nerd is only The Voice in the Simon's Quest review, so Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is actually the first game he appears onscreen to discuss. Furthermure, the Nerd later classifies Simon's Quest as "debatably bad", retroatively making Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the first indisputably bad game in the series. The Nerd does a more comprehensive review of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a 2010 episode, but wouldn't actually beat the game until the 2023 Halloween Episode. The aforementioned 2023 episode revealed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to be a malevolent sentient being, retroatively making it play the trope straight.
- Stampy's Lovely World: The first real antagonist that opposes Stampy throughout the series (besides the default hostile mobs) is HitTheTarget himself during the events of "Unexpected Drama". He remains Stampy's Arch-Enemy and ends up a recurring villain, with Veeva Dash being introduced as his assistant in the episode "Friends And Foes" three years after.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: King Goobot V makes his debut as the Big Bad of the movie preceding the series propler. Goobot later returned as the main antagonist of the Season 1 special "The Eggpire Strikes Back", and again as the leader of the League of Villains seeking revenge on Jimmy in the eponymous Grand Finale.
- Adventure Time: Played with the Ice King in that he's the first villain of the initial pilot, and while the first official episode has a threat, it's zombies, while Ice King serves as the first actual villain in the series proper still in "Prisoners Of Love". While not much of a villain and ending up semi-reformed, the Ice King remains a key player due to his frenemy dynamic with protagonists Finn and Jake, tragic background and important role in the lore of the series.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: The first villain Aang faced in the series is Zuko, the banished Prince of the Fire Nation. Zuko is not much physically older than Aang and he comes across as a hot-headed Big Bad Wannabe who is outclassed by every other Fire Nation villain like Zhao and Azula. However, his legendary determination to capture the Avatar allows him to stay in the game for nearly the entire series, which ended with Zuko defecting to Aang's team upon realizing how cruel and corrupt the Fire Nation really was.
- Ben 10: Dr. Animo is the first proper supervillain Ben goes up against, and remains one of the most recurring antagonists of the franchise, appearing in every individual series.
- Darkwing Duck:
- Taurus Bulba, the main antagonist of the series' two-part pilot episode, returns in Season 3 as the cyborg Steerminator. His grand return sees him escape and promise to return to menace Darkwing again, though the series was cancelled before they could follow up on this. That said, Taurus Bulba/Steerminator has appeared in multiple comic continuations of the series in prominent villainous roles, like in the BOOM! Studios series.
- Applied retroactively to Megavolt. "Clash Reunion" reveals that he was a classmate of Drake Mallard, as well as his first supervillain; inspiring him to don his costume for the very first time to stop Megavolt from attacking the Jerk Jock who tormented him.
- The Fairly OddParents!: Vicky is the first antagonist to appear in the franchise, with her mistreatment of Timmy in the Pilot Episode (with the film Abra-Catastrophe! revealing this has been going on for a year) being the reason why Cosmo and Wanda became his fairy godparents. Although Timmy uses his godparents to get revenge on Vicky, she continues to antagonize Timmy throughout both the Oh Yeah! Cartoons and the series proper.
- Gideon Gleeful, the starter villain of Gravity Falls, serves as an important obstacle in the first installment of the three-part Grand Finale, since he holds the key to the prison where Big Bad Bill Cipher has placed Mabel, and Dipper and Wendy have to face him and a Mad Max-style gang of escaped criminals to gain access.
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- Aurore Beauréal/Stormy Weather was the akumatized villain Ladybug and Cat Noir fought in the series' first episode, and is thus far the only villain to have not one, but two sequel episodes dedicated to her (although the second time was as Climatiqueen), in addition to multiple smaller villainous roles. The same can't be said for Ladybug and Cat Noir's actual starter villain, Stoneheart, who hasn't bothered them at all apart from appearing in the "Heroes' Day" two-parter.
- Of all the villains that have forced Ladybug and Cat Noir to call upon additional Miraculous holders for help, the only one that has shown any real staying power is Tomoe Tsurugi/Ikari Gozen; the starter villain of Kagami Tsurugi/Ryuko. Ikari appeared two more times, with her second appearance establishing that she isn't a brainwashed pawn like Hawk Moth/Monarch's other minions, and is willingly collaborating with him to steal the Miraculous. This reveal naturally made her an even more prominent antagonist as a civilian rather than a supervillain.
- This also applies to Mr. Pigeon and the Mime, who were the first villains Ladybug and Cat Noir were seen fighting in the Pilot Episode. Both villains would appear in the first season, and stick around to be one of series' most prominent villains. Mr. Pigeon was upgraded (or rather, downgraded) to the series' most recurring antagonist, getting akumatized well over seventy times. And the Mime, though not akumatized as much, appeared as a major supporting villain in the film adaptation.
- Ninjago: Dragons Rising: Rapton, the first villain new heroes Arin and Sora face, continues to make reappearances throughout the show, even after Beatrix's defeat in the first season, becoming the leader of a group of mercenaries, the Freebooters. However, he's mostly a Plot-Irrelevant Villain, having no ties to any of the other Arc Villains.
- Samurai Jack: Aku is a powerful demon who nevertheless loses to the Samurai in the first part of the Pilot Movie, forcing him to send the Samurai into the future to avoid being killed then and there, giving him ages to consolidate his power. Aku continues feuding the the Samurai (who started going by Jack after emerging in the Bad Future created by Aku) for duration of the series. By the Grand Finale, Aku has grown so powerful that Jack has to travel back in time to the moment Aku banished him in order to finally kill him.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Catra starts out as a typical starter villain, being little more than an Elite Mook with some baggage regarding Adora. However, instead of disappearing as soon as Hordak shows up, she quickly rises through the ranks to become The Dragon and eventually a co-leader. The protagonists also treat Catra as the main threat they have to defeat. However, Horde Prime turns out to be the real Big Bad and Catra pulls a Heel–Face Turn, ironically shortly after Hordak does.
- Skull Island (2023): The Kraken appears as a monster of the week in the series premiere, but it isn't until the third episode that it's explicitly established as the true Big Bad of the show: acting as the biggest obstacle to the main cast escaping their stranding on the Isle of Giant Horrors, and later being revealed to have a markedly personal enmity with King Kong.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Admiral Trench is the main antagonist of the episode "Cat and Mouse", which despite being released as part of Season 2, is the first chonological episode of the series, preceding even the Pilot Movie. Despite being seemingly killed at the end of the episode, Trench returns as an antagonist during the Order 66 arc in Season 6, and again as the main antagonist of the Bad Batch arc in the show's seventh and final season, where he meets his end at Anakin's hands.
- Star Wars Rebels: Agent Kallus is the main antagonist of the Pilot Movie, and remains a recurring villain throughout the first two seasons of the show. However, he has secretly made a Heel–Face Turn afterwards, but after being exposed as The Mole by Thrawn, Kallus escapes the Empire, openly defects to the Rebel Alliance, and stays on the side of good for the remainder of the series.
- Static Shock: Hotstreak is the first "Bang Baby" villain whom Static faces and continues to serve as a major villain for the rest of the series. He ends up fusing with Ebon, another major villain, in the series finale, requiring Static and Gear to take both of them down.
- Superman: The Animated Series: John Corben is the leader of a group of mercenaries who "steal" (i.e. arranged by Lex Luthor to look like a theft) a battle suit from LexCorp, bringing him into conflict with Superman during the multi-part series premiere. Corben uses the battle suit to fight Superman, but proves no match for the Kryptonian and is defeated. Several episodes later, Corben escapes from prison, is transformed into the powerful cyborg Metallo, and becomes a recurring adversary of Superman's.
- Teen Titans introduces Cinderblock and Plasmus, two monsters working for Slade, both of them becoming recurring foes of the Titans and appearing several times across the series. Slade himself would repeatedly menace the Titans as the main antagonist of the first two seasons before his death in the second season's finale (and then coming Back from the Dead in the fourth). In-Universe, however, this is averted for the actual Starter Villain, Trogar from the Origins Episode in the fifth season (chronologically set before the pilot), who doesn't make anymore appearances outside his debut.
- Winx Club: The Trix served as the first Arc Villains of the series, who started out as power-hungry witches from Cloud Tower who continuously target the Winx (initially targeting Stella for her Ring of Solaria, and later on Bloom for being the living vessel of the Dragon Flame) as part of their greater ambitions to conquer the entire Magic Dimension. Following their defeat at the end of Season 1, they would end up being Demoted to Dragon for succeeding Arc Villains such as Lord Darkar in Season 2, Valtor in Seasons 3 and 8, the Ancestral Witches in the second movie, and Tritannus in Season 5. Meanwhile, they were notably absent in Season 4 with no known associations with the Wizards of the Black Circle, Season 6 puts them back as the Arc Villains with Selina as their Dragon with an Agenda, and Season 7 has them attempt a Hijacked by Ganon situation on its Arc Villains, Kalshara and Brafilius, only for their plans to be quickly foiled by the Winx. Overall, the series saw the Trix grow from being a trio of magical Alpha Bitches into becoming the collective Arch-Enemy of the Winx.
