"Every tyrant has a hungry right hand."
— Emanja Mora, Wiseguy, "Blood Dance".
In some stories the Big Bad casts a shadow over everyone: they might be afraid of him, they might be his minions, or they might be the heroes trying to defeat him.
Then there's this guy.
A certain type of character falls outside the pattern: a villain too ambitious or individualistic or just too stubborn to accept the supremacy of the Big Bad. Instead, this villain actually dreams about overthrowing the guy everyone else fears and taking his place. Sometimes he is a (grudging) servant of the Big Bad; sometimes he is entirely outside the established power structure. In rare Noble Demon or Anti-Villain cases, he may be actually loyal to the Greater-Scope Villain, and feels his direct boss isn't. In any case, if the Big Bad ever stumbles or shows weakness, the Starscream will be there, ready to kick him out of the Astrotrain. A good way to tell a true Starscream apart from the run-of-the-mill opportunists who ally themselves with the Big Bad hoping to share in the spoils (and who would only take over if the Big Bad was already taken out, or they were otherwise handed the opportunity on a golden platter) is through his emotions. If he is privately seen boiling with anger and seething with hatred over his boss ordering him around and being forced to say "Yes sir" all the time, then his supposed boss should watch out for him. One of the dominant traits of a typical Starscream is resentment at playing a subservient role, and this bitterness is proof that he is the real thing.
Depending on the nature of the character, he may be an overly optimistic fool or someone who might actually be able to pull it off. If the character is badass enough, the heroes might be forced to try to stop him from toppling the original villain. Sometimes the Starscream may try to ally with the heroes against his master in an Enemy Mine ploy; whether they accept his offer typically depends on who they see as the better alternative, if any, and what the downstream consequences will be. Usually fond of playing Commander Contrarian to their boss' schemes (deservedly or not), who will normally Neck Lift them into kowtowing to their will. It can be hard to justify why the Big Bad keeps them around and doesn't Shoot the Dangerous Minion, but it may be so the Big Bad has a reason to always keep his guard up (and thus can rest assured that he will never become too complacent). Or perhaps the Starscream is simply a powerful asset whenever he actually obeys the main villain, so it's worth keeping him around despite the risk of betrayal.
In some cases, the Starscream may actually start the series as a staunchly loyal supporter of the Big Bad. Unfortunately, when the boss turns out to be an inept General Failure who's more interested in juggling the Villain Ball than actually succeeding, the Starscream becomes fed up with the boss's idiocy and decides that the villainous organization would be more successful with him in charge. A former Big Bad who has been Demoted to Dragon by a new, bigger and badder villain is very likely to become the Starscream as well, biding his time while plotting against the new Big Bad in order to reclaim his former seat of power.
Not the same as The Dragon getting a promotion when he survives the Big Bad's downfall — that's Dragon Ascendant. Also not to be confused with Dragon Their Feet, where the Big Bad's right hand man screws his boss over by being strangely absent at a bad time. Compare and contrast Dragon with an Agenda, who has different goals from the Big Bad but is at least nominally loyal and generally won't turn on the Big Bad unless said goals are threatened.
If The Starscream succeeds in taking over the mantle of Big Bad from his superior, the former Big Bad may have actually been a Disc-One Final Boss. If he was consistently portrayed as the more dangerous or important of the two to begin with, then he's also a Dragon-in-Chief. Many a Dragon-in-Chief doesn't care about openly taking over because they know that they are the one really in charge, though some are too egotistical to pretend any longer and go into full betrayal mode. If it turns out that the apparent Dragon was the true Big Bad all along, using his "boss" as a decoy or puppet for his schemes, then he is The Man in Front of the Man.
Quite strongly related to the Rule of Two, where this is expected and quite nearly mandated. Also often carries strong undertones of Ambition Is Evil— it is the ambition to seize the Big Bad's throne for himself that drives a Starscream to betray his boss, after all.
Many examples can end up being The Millstone if their schemes consistently screw up the Big Bad's plans enough to let the heroes keep pulling off wins.
See also Bastard Understudy, with a similar attitude but more subtlety and patience, and The Dog Bites Back, for when the attacker has not planned but takes advantage of weakness (and/or Right Makes Might if said attacker was actively abused by his new victim).
Heroes almost never have this problem, because while sometimes subordinates do turn against them, they rarely stay with the heroes afterwards, whereas a Starscream often does stay a villain. (Maybe this is one big reason heroes win far more often than villains do; they do not make a habit of allying themselves with folks who they obviously can't trust.) The Lovable Traitor is probably the closest counterpart on a hero's side, but even folks like that rarely ever have malicious intent like the Starscream does.
Often involves Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!. All examples prone to suffer from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. A Starscream's chances are better if he's a Chessmaster Sidekick. A particularly brilliant Starscream might choose to play the Long Game as he patiently waits for his chance to seize power. If the Starscream waits until after his master is eliminated by outside forces to make his move, see Evil Power Vacuum.
Important Note: This trope has been subjected to some misuse. This trope only applies when the Big Bad's Underlings are actively trying to take his or her job. If for example you have a Decadent Court where everyone holds the King or Queen in high regard and is constantly vying for their approval rather than their position, then that's not this trope.
Sub-Trope of Evil Versus Evil. Opposite trope of The Creon, who will do anything in his power to stay second-in-command at all costs. Contrast Sarcastic Devotee, Professional Butt-Kisser, and Villainous Friendship (where The Dragon and the Big Bad trust each other as friends). Klingon Promotion is where such takeovers and assassinations are implicitly accepted as the normal way to ascend to the top of the organization in question. For instances where everyone is a Starscream, see Deck of Wild Cards. May be the despicable party of a Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain duo, if the former master becomes sympathetic. May lead to an Enemy Civil War.
It also seems Starscream himself has a few things to say to us here... whatever they are, they'd better be related.
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Asian Animation
- Wolffy from Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf becomes one over the course of Great War in the Bizarre World, sapping the electric powers from Darton once he is able to and using them to not only become king of the Bizarre World himself, but to (what else?) catch the goats.
Audio Plays
- Big Finish Doctor Who: This ends up being a major plot point in the "Anti-Genesis" audios. When the War Master alters history to replace Davros as the Daleks' creator, the Time War Daleks are forced to recruit an alternate universe version of the Master, who convinces his War counterpart that no matter who created them or what safeguards he installs, the Daleks will betray him the same way they turned on Davros because it's their nature, leading the Master to undo the damage he's done to the timeline as a result.
- We're Alive:
- Scratch, who is at the very least a Dragon with an Agenda who has set off on her own to get revenge on Pegs for killing Latch. But as of Chapter 24 she may be looking to overthrow Durai.
- Gatekeeper was also this to Marcus. In Chapter 19 he staged a coup to take control of the Colony.
Comic Books
- Astro City: The Deacon plays this role in "The Dark Ages". As second-in-command to Joey "The Platypus" Platapopulous, he covertly engineers events during the citywide gang war to pit the gangs against each other, destabilizing them all and pitting them into a collective stalemate. Then, with the city in chaos due to a Hate Plague, he kills "The Platypus", then seizes control of most of the city's underworld before the night is over.
- Weasel of Deadpool fame (during the latter's Villain Protagonist arcs). He's nowhere near as scared of Deadpool as someone with his proximity and history should be, and Deadpool speculates in front of him that he might be one of these — but he's just too useful to kill.
- Death of the Family: The Penguin's Number Two, Ogilvy, takes advantage of his boss being distracted by the Joker's return to completely take over his operation, becoming the Emperor Penguin, the most powerful crime boss in Gotham, while the original Penguin is left powerless and broke.
- In the Batman comic miniseries Gothic, mob boss Morgenstern is recklessly ambitious, serving asa Commander Contrarian to Ottavio, The Don who is above him in rank and power, going out to his way to poison Ottavio to take over the City's organized crime even though there's an immortal psychopath after both of them. Killing Ottavio under those circumstances 1) Is fairly unnecessary given Mr. Whisper's attempts to kill him. 2) Means that with Ottavio dead, Morgenstern is the last one left and thus Mr. Whisper is ready to start going after him and 3) Makes Batman even more disgusted with Morgenstern and less likely to intervene to save his life (although he does try in the end).
- Doctor Doom had a few of these:
- For a while a Mad Scientist called Hauptmann was Doom's right hand man. In a fit of rage, after Hauptmann fired a weapon at the Fantastic Four which also destroyed some of Doom's heirlooms, Doom killed him.
- A while went on until Hauptmann's brother joined Doctor Doom, who coincidentally was also a scientist. He always plotted to kill Doctor Doom for vengeance. At one point Hauptmann created a machine which synthesized Terrax' power cosmic, and pleaded for Doom to use his machine. Doom turned the machine on him instead, knowing fully well the second Hauptmann was going to betray him, and that he would've used the machine on himself before he would give it to Doom.
- Bram Velsing was another Latverian scientist who was very vain and proud of his handsome looks. He plotted to overthrow Doom and take over Latveria, but Doom saw him coming a mile away. His Cool and Unusual Punishment was to not only banish Velsing from Latveria, but also put a ghoulish-looking skull mask on his head, permanently hiding his good looks. The mask was surgically grafted to Velsing's face, meaning he could never remove it. An embittered Velsing used his science smarts to create an arsenal of weapons and a genetically-engineered Cool Horse to try and take over Latveria. Calling himself the Dreadknight, Velsing ended up clashing with heroes like Iron Man and Spider-Man.
- In Marvel's The Eternals, Druig's made a career of this. Over half a million years ago he decisively ended the Eternals' first great civil war by betraying his grandfather, the Omnicidal Maniac Uranos, and he's never looked back. In modern times he actively seeks out the chance to betray the Eternals and side with Thanos, then betrays Thanos at the crucial moment to take power himself. The great Machine which monitors and resurrects the Eternals describes him as "the snake", and it's not wrong.
- In the Marvel comic book stories of G.I. Joe, Serpentor immediately becomes this to Cobra Commander. He successfully coerces Cobra Commander and Destro into a situation where they apparently get killed and then takes control of Cobra. Unknown to him, to Cobra and to the Joes, the two actually survive; they part ways and the Commander briefly conspires with one of his Crimson Guardsmen, who eventually kills him out of anger when CC has a Villainous BSoD moment. (Long story; He does come back... Almost 40 issues later!) This Guardsman then completes his Starscream moment as he decides to take the identity of Cobra Commander and wrest control of the organization from Serpentor. The Baroness, being the only one in Cobra at the time who has the credit of having seen Cobra Commander's true face, goes along with the ploy and proclaims to the whole organization that he's the real deal. Serpentor, unable to prove her wrong, then goes back to Starscreaming; plotting behind this Cobra Commander's back to get rid of him and bring Cobra back under his control.
- Green Lantern:
- Mongul of the Sinestro Corps. Subverted in that Sinestro had a backup plan in case of an insurrection or attempted leadership coup. It doesn't end well for Mongul.
- And before Mongul came onto the scene, Superboy-Prime was the Starscream, planning to betray the Sinestro Corps' "guardian", the Anti-Monitor, and kill him in revenge for the Anti-Monitor's destruction of Prime's entire universe.
- Bleez began sowing seeds of discontent among the Red Lantern horde once the ongoing series started, which partially resulted in Atrocitus restoring her intelligence. She's made her ambitions much more apparent since then.
- Harley Quinn: When Harley starts her own gang she gets several, including a remnant of one of Joker's gangs who is disappointed she isn't more violently destructive.
- In a straight-up subversion, Alexander Luthor from DC's Crisis Crossover Infinite Crisis knew that it is generally impossible for anybody to control somebody that's as insane as The Joker, so he did not even try. The Joker was very unhappy that he was not picked for the team, as Luthor eventually found out. Villains who want to live usually realize that allowing the Joker in is better than the alternative.
- Iron Man villain the Controller, constantly attempts to betray and overthrow his boss The Hood. The Hood is well-aware of this, but Controller is too useful to kill, which Controller was quite aware of. Eventually, though, Controller ended up pushing Hood too far and Hood responded by taking a third option; namely, taking one of Controller's slave discs (which basically force anyone wearing one to do whatever someone else wants, while leaving them self-aware) and slapping it onto Controller permanently.
- Iznogoud: The comic's entire schtick is the Grand Vizier wanting to overthrow the none-too-bright and overly-trusting caliph, failing every time. In France, Iznogoud is the go-to character for the Starscream archetype, and his catchphrase "I want to be Caliph instead of the Caliph" is euphemistically applied to similar situations. Made particularly hilarious when Sarkozy (also a short, excitable Number Two) became president.
- Jurassic Strike Force 5: Strife is this, not to Zalex, but to Kane. She won't hesitate to kill him to become leader of the Reptilians if she thinks she can get away with it.
- The Kingpin has been on both ends of this:
- Fisk's son Richard usually works for him, but there have been times he has tried to oppose him secretly, usually taking the masked identity of the Rose (and later the Blood Rose, a more martial and violent version of the previous identity). Richard eventually tried to convince his mother to help him, but her loyalty to her husband was far greater than it was to her son; she shot him in cold blood. Sammy Silke was attempt to kill Fisk to take over his operation.
- Ironically, Fisk himself is also this, as after becoming Don Rigoletto's right hand man, Fisk's own rise to power started with him killing Rigoletto and taking over his operations.
- In the second Ultimate Universe, Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) sees Kingpin as the leader of the Sinister Six but near the end of the series he's betrayed by Mr. Negative who was a Big Bad Wannabe that resented playing second fiddle to him.
- Oz (Caliber): The Wicked Witch Mombi is this to Ruggedo the Nome King: serving him and aiding in his conquest of Oz while secretly planning to topple him and take the throne for herself.
- Kulan Gath in Pathfinder: Worldscape serves Empress Camilla as her Court Mage, but also plans behind her back to the MacGuffin for himself so that he can rule all dimensions with it. He is successful in that he manages to have his master assassinated and steal her artifact... What he doesn't know is that his own agent was playing The Mole for the good guys all along and switched the artifacts.
- Herr Starr is this to Allfather D'Aronique, head of the Grail worldwide conspiracy organization in Vertigo's Preacher. Starr saw the ridiculously obese leader as a ruthless, deluded madman who would utterly destroy the world in the course of supposedly trying to "redeem" it with his plan to stage the Second Coming, and resolved to kill him upon their first meeting. Starr ultimately succeeded, dumping the gigantic glutton from a helicopter, right on top of the brain-damaged, inbred descendant of Jesus Christ that D'Aronique intended to unveil to the world as the New Messiah.
Starr: 1982. I meet the most powerful man in the world, and know immediately that I must one day kill him.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- For some part of the comic, Robotnik's nephew Snively served as his increasingly untrustworthy lieutenant, and eventually set in motion a plan to destroy Robotnik. In "Endgame" he actually succeeds in erasing the original Robotnik from existence.
- Robotnik/Eggman has stated that he knows that Snively and several of his Grandmasters are planning to turn on him, but precisely because of that they serve him to their fullest, because they want to take over a strong empire. He actually applauds Lien Da for an underhanded attempt and chastises Snively for a sloppy one. Eggman has another reason for encouraging his Grandmasters to plot against him, he actually finds it fun to have enemies to defeat, seeing it as just a game to him. But he wants them to be aware of the consequences if they lose.
- Also there's Miles, Tails' Evil Twin from Moebius. Originally loyal to Scourge (Sonic's counterpart), he eventually convinced the rest of the Suppression Squad to turn on him, and soon after set himself up as their new leader.
- Conquering Storm is a low-key one but any advantage she see against Eggman, she's more than willing to take such as providing Snively with the Iron Oni to use against Eggman.
- Lien-Da desposed of her Great-Great-Grandfather to gain the role of Grandmaster and tried to overthrow the Iron Queen. This didn't work out too well however. She then became one to Eggman. He in fact saved her from dying because he's amused by having his underlings trying to kill him as part of his "game".
- Kragok was this to Lien-Da: he had agreed to share power as the Grandmaster after they did away with their father, only for him to take the entire thing.
- Sonic the Comic:
- Robotnik fought against Commander Brutus, a robot with an indestructible body and a copy of his own brain patterns, who started off as Robotnik's Dragon and then rebelled against him.
- Robotnik himself was briefly The Starscream when he was allied with the Drakon Empire and then to Princess Kupacious both times he succeeded.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
- Zigzagged with Dr. Starline. Though he initially serves the role of The Dragon, obeying Eggman's every whim, he is genuinely happy with serving the doctor... At first. Issues upon issues of Eggman chastising his methods, ignoring his suggestions and causing more trouble for everyone involved ultimately leads him to try to take matters in his own hands, and even then he only does so to help the situation out and so that the man will realize his mistakes. Meanwhile, Eggman seeing Starline as this trope played straight is precisely why he's booted out. Interestingly, it's only long after he's no longer working with Eggman that he decides to plot to overthrow him proper, demonstrating clear bitterness and resentment and actively speaking about his plan to outdo him. This didn't last though. After successfully hijacking Eggman's base, Starline went back to admiring the doctor's work and decided to enact his original plan i.e trying to convince the rotund scientist to conquer the world together then rule as "equal minds". Starline then learned in the worst way possible that Eggman will never share anything.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Star Wars: Legacy: Darth Wyrrlok is an unusual example: he betrays his master Darth Krayt only because he feels this best serves Krayt's own goal of a Sith-ruled galaxy. As he puts it: "Sometimes for the dream to live, the dreamer must die". High Moff Morlish Veed from the same series is a more traditional example, though his own shortsightedness means he generally winds up a pawn for more competent players.
- X-Men:
- Marvel Comics' Fabian Cortez plays the trope straight, betraying Magneto and "killing" him. Magneto later took him back in his ranks out of need for his abilities, but promptly took his revenge when he no longer needed him.
- Ultimate X-Men (2001) sees Wraith rebel against the officers above him when they attempt to shut down Weapon X and uses the enslaved Professor X to have the building they're in blown up.
- Wonder Woman:
- The Duke of Deception is Ares/Mars' right hand man and he's repeatedly attempted to betray the war god who granted him his powers.
- During the few times Duke of Deception managed to succeed in usurping Mars, his own daugter Lya proved to be the Starscream to him. Lya successfully usurped Deception for a time, but when he regained power he banished Lya to Earth.
- Wonder Woman (1942): The position of the Emperor of Saturn's most trusted slaver advisor appears to be equally Evilesse's and Mephisto's. Unsurprisingly, when the Emperor outlaws slavery, they betray him and try to start an interplanetary war in response.
- Circe, longtime Wonder Woman villain, was revealed to be this to the Magic Goddess Hecate in Justice League Dark (vol.2). As part of her origin she was granted a portion of Hectate's power to enact a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on her home city in exchange for becoming an acolyte of Hectate. Eons later she manipulated the Wonder Woman-led JLD team to have Hectate killed so all her remaining power would transfer over to her to become the new Goddess of Magic.
Films — Animation
- Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure: Minimized. It's clear that Creeper has little respect for his boss, Boogey, but while he jumps at the chance to take over Boogey's crew after the latter had been defeated by the heroes, he never makes an active attempt to betray his boss and take control himself.
- In The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, Petrie's uncle Pterano is the main Anti-Villain, but his subordinates Rinkus and Sierra plan to overthrow him and use the MacGuffin for their own purposes.
- In Meet the Robinsons, Hyper-Competent Sidekick Dor-15 is actually manipulating Bowler Hat Guy to create a Bad Future where she will control humanity.
- Minions: The Rise of Gru: Wild Knuckles was fomerly the leader of the Vicious 6 until his former second-in-command Belle Bottom, backstabs him and leave him for dead to have the Zodiac talisman and the rest of the team all for herself.
- In Monsters, Inc. 1, Randall assures Mr. Waternoose there will not be witnesses to their plan in a manner that implies he intends to eventually betray Mr. Waternoose.
- The Powerpuff Girls Movie: Exaggerated. Shortly after Mojo Jojo breaks the Powerpuff Girls' spirits, takes over Townsville and declares himself "King of the Planet of the Apes", every Chemical X-infused primates of his army turns on him and gets their Mojo outfit and helmet before showing their own plans for world domination. It's actually quite successful... in that Mojo has no one left to enforce his rule over his army.
- In Ratchet & Clank (2016), Dr. Nefarious is this to Chairman Drek. By the end of the film, he turns him into a sheep, and forcibly sends him off into space, and then takes over the Deplanetizer in an attempt to destroy the entire star system.
- In The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, the original villain Dr. Valentine, who barely gets a few lines, is replaced by Martin, who now fancies himself the ruler of Thorn Valley.
- In Treasure Planet, Scroop, the second-in-command to the pirate Long John Silver, seems more like the main antagonist of the film than the Cyborg.
- Unicorn Wars: When Bluey is ascended to colonel, he grows so popular among the soldiers that he leads a coup, betrays Colonel Otto and the other military leaders and has them all executed once he rises in power, all so he can execute a much deadlier plan than they had.
- In Wakko's Wish, Baron von Plotz works for the tyrannical King Salazar, helping enforce his oppressive tax policies. However, he has ambitions of overthrowing Salazar and becoming king himself. When a wishing star falls to earth, Salazar orders Plotz to secure it for him, but Plotz, seeing a golden opportunity, seeks to betray Salazar and make a wish on the star to become king.
Podcasts
- The Adventure Zone: Balance: Yeemick the goblin has a vendetta against Klarg the bugbear, who he claims is a Bad Boss, and blackmails the party into trying to kill him. His plan lasts exactly long enough for the party to tell Klarg, who kills him in a spectacular fashion.
- Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe?: In Van Helsing, Ahmanet becomes the Dragon to Carmilla, but allows her to die after Set returns at full power. She remains the latter's Dragon in Dark Legion: Death's Door, but once she's able to catch him off guard, she kills him and assumes leadership of the death gods.
Pro Wrestling
- Bruno Sammartino and his 1980 feud with Larry Zbyszko. In a twist of this trope, "The Living Legend" was very much a face and was grooming Zbyszko to become the next megastar of wrestling. But the trope kicks in wherein Zbyszko grows more and more frustrated that his time in the spotlight is still coming, and eventually asks for a challenge match against his mentor. The famous match saw Sammartino counter Zbyszko's moves at every turn, and every complaint that Zbyszko had that Bruno wasn't giving him a fair chance was ignored. Eventually, Zbyszko lost his patience and brutally beat Sammartino into a bloody heap. The aftermath made Zbyszko – the Starscream – into a hated heel and set off a violent feud that ended in a steel cage at New York City's Shea Stadium.
- The Mouth Of The South Jimmy Hart openly coveted Jerry Lawler's Power Stable, The King's Army, but was cowardly and relegated to managing who King would send him. When Lawler was hospitalized in a football game however Hart announced he was putting the proverbial bullet in Lawler and crowned "Precious" Paul Ellering as the King. Lawler put Hart back in his place rather easily after healing.
- Víctor Quiñones was a frequent Starscream, which led to a lot of locker room and office drama, as well as some interesting angles. To summarize a long story, he was first the Starscream to Carlos Colon and Víctor Jovica in Capitol Sports Promotions, which led to him departing for FMW, where he was the Starscream to Atsushi Onita, which led to the creation of W*ING, where he was the Starscream to Kiyoshi Ibaragi, which led to IWA Japan and IWA Puerto Rico, allowing him to fight a two front war on both FMW and CSP (which was calling itself WWC by that time).
- Los Vipers founder Cibernético had one in Abismo Negro, which led to the group splitting in two (Los Vipers Primera Clase y Los Vipers Extreme) but they reunited to defeat Los Vatos Locos. The internal conflict was ultimately settled by Cibernético simply giving Los Vipers to Abismo Negro and forming a new group called Lucha Libre Latina.
- The Rock became this for Faarooq in The Nation of Domination, and eventually took over and retooled the stable to his own liking.
- The Corporation era in WWF was full of Starscreams. First it was Shane McMahon usurping power right out from under his own father to form the Corporate Ministry. Then it was Vince McMahon taking said power away from his wife (in a double swerve orchestrated with his own son, thus rendering the previous insurrection moot). Then later on in 1999 after the McMahons turned face, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon took control of the company in a very Machiavellian fashion in what was known as the McMahon-Helmsley Era. Stone Cold eventually got involved too as part of the InVasion angle when all of WCW and ECW were a Starscream.
- CZW has one in Maven Bentley, since the fed remains a sister company to his Association despite his open attempts to take over.
- Ring of Honor has an incredibly long chain of them. Alex Shelley was betrayed by Austin Aries, who was betrayed by Roderick Strong, who was betrayed by Davey Richards, who was betrayed by Kyle O'Reilly, who was betrayed by Adam Cole (though in the latter case, Cole had already surpassed O'Reilly but was afraid O'Reilly might be catching back up to him).
- After Lucha Libre Latina was pushed out by Konnan's La Legion Extranjera, Cibernético created a religion based around himself called La Secta Cibernética. They faced stiff opposition from La Parka Jr though, causing Cibernético to bring out a "death cyborg", Muerte Cibernética, to defeat him. Instead, Muerte Cibernética took over the religion while Cibernético was out with a knee injury, turning it into La Secta de la Muerte. This time Cibernético did not play around and ended up disposing of his would be usurper in a volcano.
- Abismo Negro had his own Starscream when Mr. Niebla left CMLL to join (read: take over) AAA's Vipers Revolucion in 2007. The rest of Revolucion ended up taking Niebla's side and ejecting Abismo Negro, replacing him with Black Abyss.
- After Muerte Cibernética returned from hell as Mesías to restart La Secta, he found himself with his own Starscream in Ozz, who would announce Mesías was no longer part of the group after a loss to Vampiro. Cibernético's Los Bizarros would (foolishly) absorb Ozz's Secta into their ranks to help them defeat Los Perros Del Mal but as soon as that was done La Secta would turn on Los Bizarros and actually manage to turn one of them to their cause.
- Kurt Angle was this in the early part of the Main Event Mafia against Sting. Eventually, Angle got fed up with Sting not being evil enough and usurped his control of the group.
- David Otunga showed signs of this toward The Nexus leader Wade Barrett. When the Nexus was in a situation where all of the members faced other WWE superstars and Barrett told the other members to either win or be kicked out of the group, Otunga was quick to point out this applied to Barrett as well. He expressed his desire to win a battle royal to determine the #1 contender to Randy Orton's WWE championship, which didn't impress Barrett. On the same night, he tried to make friends with John Cena, knowing that Cena was unhappy being a part of the Nexus and was the most likely member of the group to turn on Barrett. This backfired, as Cena was able to eliminate Otunga and justify his actions by telling Barrett what Otunga was trying to do. He led the Nexus on an invasion of WWE SmackDown (without Barrett) and failed miserably, with Barrett pointing out that the next time he decides to undermine his leadership, he should be successful about it. Barrett for his part seemed well aware of Otunga's discontent, and on a number of occasions put him in some really bad situations because of it, such as forcing him to forfeit the Tag Team Titles to Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, or forcing him to wrestle Edge with the stipulation that he'd be fired if he lost. He seemed to have the rest of the Nexus on his side of the struggle; all of them left Barrett to be beaten down by Cena alone. Interestingly, he didn't seem to have a problem when CM Punk became the new leader of the Nexus.
- John Laurinaitis acted as if he was supporting Triple H during his early time as COO in 2011. It became quite clear that he was behind the scenes trying to make Triple H look like the bad guy by having members of the roster come to him with their issues, and sucking up to the Board of Directors in order to be appointed as the head of Raw after they decided to take Triple H off due to the walkout. Even Vince McMahon himself was displeased that Triple H, the guy who took over his operating duties, was being overruled by the board.
- Another ROH example with Adam Cole, the former "leader" of The Kingdom, the promotion's primary opposition to Bullet Club. After Kenny Omega forcibly took over Bullet Club, it was decided the best way to handle the longstanding Cole problem would be to appease him by throwing their entire support behind making him ROH Champion. Himself being a Bastard Understudy, Omega probably should have known this wasn't going to work and Cole turned out to be much more blatant in his power grabs than Omega ever had been, going so far as to delay Omega's reentry into the United States so he could keep lording over the ROH Bullet Club members unopposed. To this end, Cole was kicked out in favor of another Bullet Club enemy, Marty Scurll, who they believed could be appeased with money, and the more loyal Cody was moved into Cole's position.
- Mercedes Martinez was this to Ivelisse Vélez during the latter's second run as SHINE Champion. Martinez had never really spoken well of Velez and despite joining her Sicarias stable, continued to try to win Velez's title and relied on her own Trifecta without the other Sicarias. This clear potential threat took attention away from a more covert but active one as Amber O'Neal of the rival C4 stable was turning Amanda Rodriguez into a mole within Las Sicarias. Only Thea Trinidad voiced any suspicions but she didn't think to raise them to the other Sicarias until after Rodriguez attacked Rosa Negra with a chair to distract Velez from LuFisto.
- Backstabbing continued to define Kenny Omega's Bullet Club, as the "more loyal" Cody himself soon set his sights on usurping the usurper. Unlike Adam Cole though, Cody really was loyal until Kenny Omega started making advances towards Cody's wife. At that point the illusion was shattered and Cody began to see Kenny for what he really was; an erratic, psychotic glory hog that had to be eliminated for the good of everyone else. Bullet Club originals Guerrillas of Destiny and Underboss Bad Luck Fale themselves got fed up with the Omega driven dysfunction, but rather than side with Cody they decided to take over themselves, leading to an Enemy Civil War that had Marty Scurll depressed.
- WWE's Clash at the Castle 2022 saw Solo Sikoa join Roman Reigns' Bloodline stable by costing Drew McIntyre the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. After Roman lost the title to Cody Rhodes two years later at WrestleMania XL and went on sabbatical for a while, Solo usurped control over the Bloodline, kicking out Jimmy Uso and later Paul Heyman, recruiting the Guerrillas of Destiny and Jacob Fatu to fill the voids, and proclaiming himself as the new Tribal Chief.
Radio
- Star Wars Radio Dramas: This trope is not limited to the Sith in Star Wars. In the NPR radio plays, depending on the cut you're listening to there's a scene where Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin and Admiral Motti are heard plotting to overthrow the Emperor. They get blown up before they can put their plan into effect, obviously, and it's unlikely they would've succeeded in any case.
Roleplay
- A variation in Survival of the Fittest: Hayley Kelly was playing the game in v4 mainly to protect her ex-girlfriend, Ema Ryan. However, when it came down to the wire, almost 30 students left, Ema Ryan decided she could do the rest on her own and killed Hayley, went on to become a late-game player who killed almost the same amount of people Hayley did (about eight, including Hayley herself), but ultimately died of her injuries when there was less than ten students left.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Unsurprisingly common among the setting's Demon Lords and Archdevils. Mephistopheles is one to Asmodeus, while Levistus and Baalzebul are former cases still undergoing the terrible punishments Asmodeus subjected them to. Indeed, this seems the typical way to climb up the ladder in infernal nobility.
- Geryon is a subversion: a subordinate of Asmodeus who was punished for placing his loyalty to Asmodeus above his own ambition, because loyalty is weakness in Baator. Which is ironic, because Dante's Geryon was the "Beast of Fraud".
- Elsewhere in the D&D game, several Ravenloft darklords have Starscreams on the payroll. One of the most powerful darklords, Azalin the lich-king, actually used to be a Starscream, before he left Strahd's domain and service. In so doing, Azalin gained his own domain, so that one was a draw.
- The vampire Kas was this to Vecna. The attempted coup didn't really work (at least not in the long term), although Vecna did lose his hand and eye.
- The drow from pretty much any setting of Dungeons & Dragons do this on a regular basis to each other. It's rare to find one in a position of leadership that didn't gain her position by betraying her predecessor. Mothers generally expect that their strongest daughter will eventually assassinate them and take over the family. Different noble houses will betray each other to rise in the power structure, individual drow will try to murder and overthrow their superiors, make alliances with enemies and double-cross allies, and so on. That said, they will set aside their bickering and unite against a greater external threat, or simply when their demonic goddess Lloth orders them to, because no one disobeys the spider goddess.
- Lolth herself, in 4th Edition, has an exarch named Enclava who has betrayed her not once, but twice. Amazingly, Enclava has not been punished and is still Lolth's exarch, possibly because Lolth can't help but admire her audacity.
- This Trope plays a part in the history of two infamous Artifacts of Doom, the Machine of Lum the Mad, and the Mighty Servant of Leuk-O. Leuk-O was a battle mage and warlord who found the Machine in a castle belonging to the ruler of a nation his army conquered. Being somewhat of a prodigy with mechanical devices himself, he learned how to use the terrible device, and became more of a threat than ever, using it to unleash cataclysms and hordes of monsters upon foes. Eventually, however, his second-in-command, General Leuk-O became jealous of his lord's power, and found a second artifact that seemed connected to Lum's Machine in some way, the Mighty Servant. Eventually, the two fought using their artifacts, until a dimensional rift apparently sucked them both into oblivion. (Lum and his machine were later part of the module The Vortex of Madness, where it is suggested that the ultimate goal of the Machine is to locate the Servant again, for some mad reason. It would seem that these two devices are sentient beings that are fated to either oppose each other or combine their powers in some way; the reason can't be good.)
- A rare heroic example can be found in Mystara with Radiant Princess Tanadaleyo of the Shadow Elves, who is constantly scheming to overthrow her father, King Telemon. However, Tanadaleyo deeply cares for her people, while her father is the only Shadow Elf who can be called trully evil, being completely consumed by the idea of revenge agaisnt Elves of Alfheim, and it is very clear to her he will gladly sacrifice good of their subjects to get it.
- Unsurprisingly common among the setting's Demon Lords and Archdevils. Mephistopheles is one to Asmodeus, while Levistus and Baalzebul are former cases still undergoing the terrible punishments Asmodeus subjected them to. Indeed, this seems the typical way to climb up the ladder in infernal nobility.
- In Exalted:
- Princess Magnificent With Lips Of Coral And Robes of Black Feathers was forced by her bosses to work for the First and Forsaken Lion; she's not happy about that arrangement at all, and plots his downfall.
- The Green Sun Princes are practically designed to be this to their Yozi masters. Half the charms in the Broken Winged Crane book are dedicated to allowing the GSPs to break free and to become something even more powerful than the Yozis.
- Sometimes one Starscream just isn't enough, so the New Phyrexia set from Magic: The Gathering gives us the Black Phyrexian faction - The Seven Steel Thanes, which is seven Starscreams, each with their own personal army and each trying to out-stab the other six, as well as any other Phyrexian higher-ups that happen to stand between them and the position of Father of Machines.
- Magic: The Gathering loves these. Storyline-wise, Tezzeret is turning into one. But more gameplay-wise, you get your choice of the Lord of the Pit
and Force of Nature. Arabian Nights gave us four djinn who do this. All of which are creatures that are powerful, at least for the cost to summon them, but use up a resource or hurt their controller directly. The Juzám Djinn listed above is considered the best, both among those djinn and among creatures in general when it was introduced. Most new players will still react to such things as "Any card that hurts you is bad," but many experienced players have been more than happy to deal with the drawbacks of creatures like these.
- There's also Vhati il-Dal, the ambitious first mate of the Predator, who was placed in charge of the ship when his commander Graven il-Vec was personally overseeing the boarding of the Weatherlight. Fed up with Greven's brutal leadership and hoping to usurp his rank, he fired on Greven while he was still on the Weatherlight. This decision proved ruinous for Vhati.
- Magic: The Gathering loves these. Storyline-wise, Tezzeret is turning into one. But more gameplay-wise, you get your choice of the Lord of the Pit
- In the Scarred Lands tabletop RPG, one of the villains is a being called Mormus, AKA The Jack Of Tears, who rules over his own part of the world. He has four lieutenants, and all but one of them is planning to usurp him and betray each other. Mormus's well aware of this, but he lets them continue their machinations just because it amuses him.
- If you're playing a Ventrue in Vampire: The Requiem, and you're not ruling a city, you're conniving and plotting to destroy and replace the current ruler.
- The Ventrue see the Daeva as this and they have good reasons for thinking this way.
- The Skaven in Warhammer. If a Grey Seer doesn't honestly believe his ascent to the Council of Thirteen, usually by betraying everyone in sight, isn't the only hope for the Skaven race, he's been trained wrong. The primary weakness of the Skaven is that the vitally important role of The Starscream is given to everyone (though since the race breeds like rats, it's probably a vital form of population control).
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Find a Chaos warband, Ork mob, Dark Eldar Kabal, or Imperial planet. Find the next most powerful Marine, next biggest Ork, next most powerful Dark Eldar, or next highest-ranking noble. Congratulations, there's a 98% chance the person you've found fits the bill in a manner appropriate to the race in question. Except the Dark Eldar, as their rate of Starscreaming is close to 100%. The only person in their entire society not trying to overthrow his/her superior is Asdrubael Vect, and only because he has no superior to backstab. That said, although they are viciously competitive, the Dark Eldar will set aside their personal ambition and grudges when it comes time to execute a realspace raid for captives and plunder — they're scheming bastards, but they aren't stupid enough to sabotage their Kabal's success (and risk their own lives) by screwing up the battle plan. Incubi are also less likely to do so to their clients- their loyalty is based on salary (among each other it still applies, as they practice Klingon Promotion).
- The Chaos God Tzeentch is hope embodied, and thus presides among things like change, magic, mutation, and backstabbing (to the point where he has plans that depend on a previous plan failing). Any Chaos leader hiring a sorcerer without expecting them to betray him at any second honestly deserves everything that happens to him.
- In Paranoia, of course a bunch of your subordinates are plotting to take you down and take your place, or at least cut you out of the loop so they can wield the real power.
- Sentinels of the Multiverse: When OblivAeon emerged, he captured Grand Warlord Voss and had him Reforged into a Minion. Voss, however, had plans of his own. If Voss is on the table when you defeat the third phase of OblivAeon, he steals his "master's" power and takes over, forming a fourth and final phase of the battle. The Challenge Mode for OblivAeon has Voss on the table from the start and makes him invulnerable until OblivAeon is defeated; as Challenge Modes often reflect what happened in the in-universe comic books, it's likely Voss overthrowing OblivAeon is what "canonically" happened.
Theatre
- Heathers: The Musical: Heather Duke is the second in command of the Heathers clique and serves as a Butt-Monkey for Chandler whenever she, sometimes unknowingly, steps out of line. However, upon Chandler's death, she takes up the role of the leader and unapologetically becomes the new Chandler after spending so long in her shadow, even going as far as taking her red scrunchie, and in some productions, stealing her signature "red" look as opposed to her normal green.
- In Jasper in Deadland, Mr. Lethe is furious that he was only given dominion over his namesake river while the other gods got better deals, and plans to overthrow the Roman pantheon starting with his boss, Pluto.
- Cassius in Julius Caesar (Shakespeare). A subversion Older Than Steam; Cassius succeeds in killing Caesar, but he doesn't succeed in taking control of Rome.
- Macbeth: The titular Villain Protagonist, although we really don't learn enough about Duncan to determine whether he could be considered the Big Bad or not. Macbeth succeeds, but never manages to completely control Scotland and is himself overthrown.
- The Ring of the Nibelung: When Alberich has taken over the Nibelung his brother Mime plans to overthrow him, which Alberich is aware of. After Alberich loses the Ring of Power he and Mime compete over it, and Alberich is delighted when Mime is killed by Siegfried.
- Westeros: An American Musical: Due to the play parodying A Song of Ice and Fire, the Bolton-Stark dynamic is depicted as part of the story in the form of Roose Bolton killing Robb Stark himself all while having plans to seize the Stark lands from a common enemy who invaded them.
Web Animation
- A Guerra Final (The Ultimate War or The Final War): In the fan-continuation of the third season of this same series (originally made by Chinelin (Ribo Zurai)), which was made by YouTuber Elisson D. Souza, almost at the end of the fourteenth and penultimate episode (Trevas, or in English as Darkness), the Dark Lord (from the Ragnarok franchise) was finishing proclaiming his dark plan to the five heroes of this story (Mario, Luigi, Baphomet, Bowser and Jin) in Thanatos Tower, when suddenly, he felt a strong sword blow and was instantly and unexpectedly defeated by his former right-hand man, Seyren Windsor. After that, he was almost satisfied with what he did, knowing that he betrayed his own boss, to the surprise of the heroes. And to make them even more surprised, the white-haired warrior still plans to seek more power and transform himself into a killing machine.
- The Debbie and Carrie Show: 100,000 years ago there lived a family of cavedwellers led by Grolok who then passed on his leadership to his son Macalam. But Macalam eventually found himself facing a would-be usurper in the person of his brother-in-law Korlac. Macalam then publicly challenged Korlac to a duel to the death. When Korlac refused this, Macalam ordered he be killed by the others of their tribe instead, and so Korlac was eliminated as a threat.
- Dreamscape: Keela became The Dragon of the Master of the Dammed so she could betray and kill him when the opportunity was just right.
- RWBY: Adam Taurus, though not to the actual Big Bad of the series. It's discovered at the end of Volume 4 that he's planning a coup against Sienna Khan, the leader of the White Fang, which he carries out in the second episode of Volume 5.
Webcomics
- 8-Bit Theater:
- The Light Warriors are pretty much what happens when the entire team is made up of different stripes of Starscreams. Black Mage is an Ax-Crazy lunatic who wants to murder his teammates, Red Mage is a conniving opportunist, Thief regularly backstabs the others despite already being leader, and White Mage is an Anti-Villain who screws the party over for justified reasons (preventing them from causing further havoc once Sarda/Chaos is defeated). Fighter isn’t a Starscream, but that just ends up making him the Dumb Muscle that the others have to split between them.
- Meanwhile with the Dark Warriors, Drizz'l tries to be this to Garland. He eventually manages to pull it off and makes the team slightly less ineffective... for about a day.
- Building 12: O'Halloran's constant attempts to usurp the Chairman certainly qualify.
- Cashmere Sky: Titus is this to Lockridge, as he makes clear during his Motive Rant. Rather than going along with Lockridge's plan to control the poisonous fog that's taken over most of the world, he plans on sabotaging the project so that the entirety of Ion Valley is covered in it, killing millions in the process.
- Drowtales:
- Suu'be Nori'fu is this to Quain'tana, since Suu'be resents Quain for making her own daughter Koil'doarth no longer be the heir. Rosof says that if Quain were to let her heir Ariel train under Suu'be Ariel would probably die in an "accident" and Word of God is that Suu'be would try to get rid of Quain if she thought she could get away with it, while on the other hand Quain knows that she can't get rid of Suu'be, leaving them in a state of constantly pulling at each other. Finally reaches a head in Chapter 50, when Suu'be attempts a coup and tries to wipe out Quain's bloodline, ending with Quain herself delivering a Neck Snap to her traitorous Dev'ess.
- Sene'kha was also this to Kiel's mother Ven'ndia, and it's heavily implied that it was Sene'kha who coaxed Kharla into killing her. After Sene'kha took over Starscreaming seems to have become S.O.P. in the Vloz'ress.
- And collectively, all three Sharen sisters, Snadhya'rune, Sarv'swati and Zala'ess, pulled this on their mother, though she didn't know until the moment of the actual betrayal.
- Suu'be Nori'fu is this to Quain'tana, since Suu'be resents Quain for making her own daughter Koil'doarth no longer be the heir. Rosof says that if Quain were to let her heir
- General Izor, of Dubious Company. Given that his boss is a Psychopathic Man Child Evil Overlord that throws hissy-fits involving conquering yet another country, and wants to become a god of war by sacrificing Sal, could you blame him?
Izor: Think about it. You could end the constant Kreedor aggression, help sow peace between various nations.
- Cerise from Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks plots to overthrow Melissa, the clique leader. Who learned to recognize these moments and apply preventive treatment. It's better for everyone involved, though, because Cerise doesn't think her plans through.
<ZAP!>
Cerise: What was that for?!
Melissa: You had that look on your face again. - El Goonish Shive has the body-snatching aberration Sirleck, who quite blatantly plots to steal Magus's body once he regains it; of course, Magus knows this is going to happen and plans to kill him before he can, making this a case of Inevitable Mutual Betrayal.
- Fruit Incest has the Transfarmers characters, in which the appropriately named Starspray and Planescream both plot to overthrow their leader Cottontron as well as each other simultaneously.
- Gloog from A Game of Fools is constantly trying to undermine Captain Sepultra's authority (and at one point manages to briefly overthrow him), mainly because Sepultra won't allow some of Gloog's more sinister antics.
- Captain Vole from Girl Genius finds himself promoted into this role, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach having decided that having a Super-Soldier as The Starscream and still being alive will give others pause if they consider attacking him.
Gilgamesh: We'll make a game of it! "Who's the scariest monster?"
- One episode of Hijinks Ensue.
- Homestuck:
- Jack Noir.
- In every Sburb session, Jack is strongly predisposed to loathe the Black Queen and will seek to overthrow her wherever possible. While normally he just begrudgingly offers to help the players dethrone her as he did in the trolls' session, in the kids' session he gets an opportunity more suited to his tastes in the form of an Infinity Plus One Bunny - he uses it to kill the Black Queen, take her Ring of Power, go One-Winged Angel, take command of Derse for himself, and obliterate both the Prospitian and Dersite armies on the Battlefield. All because he really hated the harlequin/princess hat he had to wear.
- In the kids' session, he has taken on the title of "Sovereign Slayer". He's earned it.
- The Condesce shows signs of chaffing under Lord English.
- Subverted with the versions of DD, the Post-Scratch Dignitary often talks about ambitions of Condesce or Jack Noir, but while he respects ambition, he really doesn't care to scheme with or against anyone.
- Jack Noir.
- Nebula: Jupiter is one bordering on obsessive; it seems like nearly all his time is devoted to undermining Sun in one way or another. All his attempts are unsuccessful, though, or just end up Poking The Poodle.
- The Order of the Stick:
- Redcloak is this to Xykon. He is more subtle than other examples, and is content to wait until Xykon has outlived his usefulness before making his move.
- And Tsukiko is this to him until she tries to take his position, which gets her killed.
- In Xykon's backstory, he asked his friend, Yydranna, why she was trying to talk to him instead of plotting her (formerly their) dark master's downfall given her new promotion to head minion. She said she'll have time for that later. Like after lunch.
- Sluggy Freelance: When Bun-bun captains a pirate ship, his Jerkass behavior inevitably drives every single one of his first mates to try and kill him. Bun-bun actually encourages this, since he "feels safer knowing where the next mutiny is coming from." Ironically, his first first mate, Blacksoul, who gave him the idea, wasn't actually trying to mutiny, though Bun-bun thought so.
- One minion tries to be this in To Prevent World Peace. It, uh, doesn't end well for him.
- Tower of God: Kim Lurker has had it with his bratty, immature leader, the son of his employer. So, he makes Rapdevil ambush Prince after making sure that his subordinates have captured Yeon and then becomes the most menacing villain of the series for a brief time.
- Unsounded: General Bell is secretly plotting a coup against Queen Sonorie, viewing her as too ineffectual to stop Alderode. Of course Bell wants Alderode wiped off the map, not just stopped from making incursions into Cresce, though given some of Sonorie's plots it looks like she plans to destroy the Aldish government herself. The more each of them are seen the less Sonorie, who was at first only known through the comments of those who dislike her, seems at all villanous and the more self-absorbed, bigoted and evil Bell seems.
Web Original
- Protectors of the Plot Continuum: On top of being a Dirty Coward, Twp'atwt reveals himself to be this during the Black Cats' attack on HQ; while he had previously appeared loyal, it turns out that he and his lover Serna Tjan are planning to overthrow the Bracket Fungus and the rest of the Cats after they've taken over, leaving Twp and Serna as leaders of the PPC. Unfortunately for them, they run into Blue Photon and the Mysterious Somebody respectively shortly after this revelation, resulting in their Karmic Deaths. This was also hinted at in the prior story, The Reorganisation, when Twp'atwt attempted to blackmail the Nightshade and Orchid into making a clone of the Mysterious Somebody that would obey Twp's every command.
Websites
- Babylon Bee: Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are often spoofed to have a relationship like this with articles in which Harris is reviewing her own VP picks right after just having become VP Pick herself and musing about having him involuntarily euthanized after he twisted an ankle.
- The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids: In the short story "The Resurrection of the Wellsians", the alchemist Master Mandragora is introduced planning to betray the Governor, which he eventually does in the climax, calmly revealing that the titular monsters obey him, not the Governor, before ordering one of them to kill the Governor.
Web Videos
- Atop the Fourth Wall: At the end of Linkara's Lord Vyce story arc, it is revealed that Linksano was actually this all along, spying on Vyce for Linkara so that he could be the conqueror of universes.
- Critical Role: Lucien, the Arc Villain of the final arc of the Mighty Nein campaign, is presented as The Dragon to a far more powerful enemy — Cognouza, a living, eternally hungry city of flesh that is a Mind Hive to thousands of tortured souls, led by the Somnovem, nine incredibly powerful beings driven mad by an eternity of torment. It seems at first that Lucien wants to join the Somnovem to bring order to Cognouza... but when the Nein finally meet him in the Somnovem's chamber, he throws about a dozen intuit charges (bombs that deal psychic damage, which Lucien is immune to) on the ground, bombs the Somnovem to death, and takes over Cognouza himself.
- In KateModern: The Last Work, the Shadow is this to Rupert van Helden. It is left ambiguous whether he succeeds or not, but Word of God is that the Shadow killed Rupert.
- When The Nostalgia Critic becomes the president of Kickassia, his Distaff Counterpart The Nostalgia Chick becomes an ambitious Sarah Palin lookalike vice-president who tries to assassinate him every five minutes or so. Fortunately for the Critic, he obliviously dodges every murder attempt she makes.
- Overlord DVD: Omnivac would love oh so much to connect to the internet and take over the world before van Doomcock gets a chance, but Doomcock is wise to his scheming and keeps him locked up in the center of the earth, well away from the internet.
