Big Bad Ensemble

The story features two or more Big Bads, each of whom has their own distinct agenda and resources. The result can be Evil Versus Evil, Eviler Than Thou, Enemy Mine, Villain Team-Up or Big Bad Duumvirate, but it may be the case that none of the villains have anything to do with each other. Played straight, each Big Bad should be of a comparable threat level to prevent one from overshadowing the other.

Having multiple main villains can bring new dimensions to the story and make it more complex and less predictable. It can force The Hero to face a range of different challenges, for example if one villain seeks to Take Over the World while another is a more personal enemy from his past, though it's possible for both to have identical goals without making the story any less interesting.

The success or failures of one Big Bad can affect the fortunes of another as they may have to consider each other in their plans, or might try to profit from another's defeat. The hero might defeat one villain before fighting another, or might regard one as more dangerous or important than the others. The Sorting Algorithm of Evil may be either avoided- if all the Big Bads are equally powerful and dangerous - or inverted, if some are more powerful and/or more dangerous than others.

Remember this must be simultaneous - if a new Big Bad arises only after another is defeated, then this does not count. See also Rogues Gallery, which is similar but usually forces established villains to act as Monster of the Week. When there are so many Big Bads involved that one needs a score card to keep them straight, this is The Big Bad Shuffle.

Examples of Big Bad Ensemble include:

Anime & Manga

• Bakura does this a lot in Yu-Gi-Oh! with Pegasus, Marik and Dark Marik, respectively.
• Digimon Adventure features one of these in the Dark Masters, a quartet of Mega-level Digimon who serve as the Big Bads of final ten episodes. MetalSeadramon, Puppetmon, Machinedramon, and Piedmon each have their own armies and territories and only appear together once, when they're first introduced. Otherwise they appear to function as four separate Big Bads whose mutual goals seem to include ruling over the Digital World and killing the DigiDestined who are trying to stop them. Otherwise they don't lift a finger to help one another while the children clobber their way up their hierarchy, and in case of Piedmon, he actually seems to enjoy watching the other three get obliterated one-by-one.
• In Naruto, Orochimaru serves as the Big Bad for Part 1, but Akatsuki takes over after Orochimaru gets saddled with Villain Decay. Halfway through the second series is where Danzo throws his hat into the mix. The Kyuubi also finds its way into the lineup, specifically following an Enemy Within storyline for Naruto himself. Becomes The Big Bad Shuffle later on when Oro and Akatsuki are defeated and replaced by Kabuto and Tobi, respectively, who form an unstable Big Bad Duumvirate. And then there is Sasuke, the wild card (though he is nominally a pawn of Tobi).
• In One Piece, most main villains tend to outlive their arcs, but the top two as the story comes to the New World are currently Blackbeard of the Four Emperors and Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, current leader of the Marines.
  • Next there's the leaders of World Government, the Five Elder Stars, who are Akainu's bosses, making them Bigger Bad(s) to all Marine / Warlord of the Sea / World Government characters.
  • Then, there are the two other members of the Four Emperors besides Blackbeard and Shanks; Kaidou, the still very mysterious man who killed Gekko Moriahs' crew all by himself and Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin.
  • Also, there's Buggy the Clown, another rival of Luffy for crown of the Pirate King, who's been gathering an army of loyal followers and also has been contacted by the WG for as-yet-unknown purposes.
  • Also likely contenders are Sir Crocodile and Donquioxte Doflamingo. Crocodile, once one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and a prior Big Bad, is now free from Impel Down, and has headed to the New World. Doflamingo, while still currently a Warlord, is barely loyal and has his own plans of the "New Age". Plus, he has actually tried to bring Crocodile in a Villain Team-Up, which Crocodile has (so far) refused.
  • There is also any of the 9 members of The Eleven Supernovas could be this after the Time Skip, with Eustass Kid and his First Mate and fellow Supernova Killer, and X. Drake being singled out as the two most successful crews of them in the New World so far, as the most likely. Both have come into conflict with the Four Emperors as well: Kidd has recently attacked some allies of Big Mom, and Drake attacked an Island owned by Kaidou two years prior.
  • Finally, the mad God Eneru, while unlikely, is also out still there and may one day return from Fairy Vearth (The Moon).
• Whenever there's an Arc Villain in Soul Eater, like Arachne or Noah, Medusa is not too far behind, similar to Bakura from above.
• Gundam:
• Paptimus Scirocco and Haman Karn from Zeta Gundam.
• Fixx Bloodman, Seidel Rasso and The Frost Brothers from After War Gundam.
• Subverted in Gundam Seed. The series appears to be shaping up to a battle between Muruta Azrael of Blue Cosmos and Chairman Patrick Zala of ZAFT, but the real Big Bad Rau Le Creuset is manipulating both of them in an attempt to bring about The End of the World as We Know It
• Gundam Seed Destiny: Most of the series is defined by a brawl between ZAFT Chairman Gilbert Durandal and Blue Cosmos leader Lord Djibril over control of the world. Interestingly, Durandal is much more competent than Djibril, a fact that is made clear from the start. However, despite his Stupid Evil status, Djibril's resources, combined with the fact that he's essentially Pure Evil and is a strong believer in There Is No Kill Like Overkill (complete with a Wave Motion Gun and a penchant towards nuclear warfare), means that both of them absolutely have to be defeated in order for the story to end well.
• The One Shadow Nine Fists in History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, consisting of several Evil Mentor martial artists, many of which verge into Anti-Villain on a handful of occasions, barring the Complete Monster Silcardo Jenazad and the mysterious Bigger Bad of the group, Miu's father, Saiga Furinji
• Fairy Tail has Zeref and Acnologia.
• Kimba the White Lion did this with Viper Snakely and Claw.
• Transformers Cybertron did this in a way. Megatron was the obvious one, but Starscream later became a Big Bad in his own right after an attempt to backstab narrowly failed. Then there's Sideways and Soundwave, who seem to be avenging their homeworld. The comic adds in Unicron, Back From the Dead and going all Omnicidal Maniac once again.
• D Gray Man: While the Millennium Earl has been the main villain since day one and is still the most prominent threat, recent chapters have The Fourteenth and Apocryphos challenging the Earl for the position of Biggest Bad (literally, in the Fourteenth's case). Also, due to the Black and Gray Morality of the series, one could also arguably stick Black Order leader Lveille on the list as well.
• Yu-Gi-Oh ZEXAL has Dr. Faker, Tron and Vector. The former two are opposed to both the protagonists and each other, but Vector proves to be Eviler Than Thou, as he was manipulating both of them for his own goals.

Comic Books

• Almost every superhero worth his salt has their own Rogues Gallery, so this is played several times. However, most comic villains can only be counted as Big Bads within their own stories. The best examples of Big Bad Ensemble are when dealing with crossovers and prolonged story arcs, which can feature multiple villains and can last several months or even up to a year. Some examples from the DC Universe include:
  • No Man's Land involves Gotham City being abandoned by the US and falling prey to the crazed villains of Gotham, who take over various parts and rule each as their on fiefdoms. The story climaxes with Luthor and the Joker initiating their own unrelated schemes simultaneously and Batman and co. having to stop them, a takeover under the guise of Villain with Good Publicity and a plot to murder new-born infants to break Gotham's spirit, respectively.
  • 52, Chang Tzu, Lex Luthor, Lady Styx, Neron and evil Skeets, courtesy of Mister Mind are all the Big Bad to a variety of heroes starring in a number of inter-connected stories.
  • Krona and an undead Swamp Thing, which believes itself to be Nekron, are the two biggest threats in Brightest Day, but Max Lord, Eclipso, Black Manta and Siren, the Queen of Hawkworld, D'kay Drazz, and Firestorm (who is actually serving the Anti-Monitor, are all causing all kinds of trouble.
• And from the Marvel Universe, we have gotten:
  • Dark Reign is about Norman Osborn accumulating substantial political and military power after he is placed in charge of all superhuman matters in the United States. During this he forms The Cabal with Doctor Doom, Emma Frost, Namor, Loki and the Hood, while organizing and running a range of super-teams made up of anti-heroes and lower tiered supervillains. This was a year-long crossover arc that affected several titles, so many heroes in their own stories had to deal both the Monster of the Week and their own story arcs while also having to worry about Osborn or his minions.
  • The Messiah Myth Arc in X-Men, which covers a multitude of story arcs from Messiah Complex up to Second Coming over a number of years, has the X-Men dealing with anti-mutant activists eventually united under Bastion, traitor X-Man Bishop and Stryfe, Selene and her vampiric underling, and appearances by Apocalypse and Sinister amongst others, as well as the possibility that the child they are protecting will grow up to be a mutant Antichrist. All of these villains have their own agendas, most revolving around the girl, many of which impact on each other and affect the strength level of the X-Men. Some of this takes also place during Dark Reign, which means Osborn and co. factor in too, notably during the Utopia X story.
• In the Sonic the Hedgehog comics, Dr. Robotnik/Eggman has always been the Arch Enemy of the heroes and premier Big Bad of the series. However, over the years, more and more villains of equal or greater threat have shown up to rival the doctor — Ixis Naugus, Mammoth Mogul, Enerjak, Dr. Finitevus, Scourge, the Iron Queen, and most recently, the Battle Kukku—so you can't call him the sole Big Bad anymore. This has been most apparent in the issues leading up to and following the Genesis arc, wherein Naugus has currently become the villain most equal to Eggman for the position.
• Simon Furman's run on IDW's Transformers comics set up a large number of potential villains from the Rogues Gallery. Nemesis Prime and the Dead Universe, The Machination, Shockwave, Doubledealer, The Decepticons, the Deathbringer and his Reapers, Galvatron, and even Ramjet all step up to the plate as the bad guys in the numerous plotlines Furman's run had. By the end of his run pretty much all of them except the Decepticons and Galvatron have been taken care of however.

Fan Fiction

• Queen Chrysalis from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic and The Biggest Bad in Kamen Rider x Super Sentai x Super Milestone Wars: Crossover Taisen
• The entire concept of The Hellbound Hearts, a Disney fanfic where essentially all the former Big Bads come back for revenge, but they all have their own agendas, so it's hard to figure out which one of them will be the Biggest Bad.
• In the Digimon story Zero 2: A Revision, after the Emperor arc is over, it dissolves into this: UmbraDevimon and Demon both have their own plans to conquer both worlds; the Gravemon (an Expy of the Flood) want to absorb everything in both worlds; Piedmon briefly goes off on his own; Darkheart—Davis' Super-Powered Evil Side—is created to serve as an agent of UmbraDevimon but eventually splits (more successfully than Piedmon) and starts tormenting the Digidestined for shits and giggles; Dragomon waits in the wings; and of course, Myotismon is pulling strings from the shadows.
• The Legend of Spyro a New Dawn has three Big Bads at the start, Deadlock seeking revenge on Spyro and Cynder for the death of her family (which wasn't their fault), Empress Tyrania seeking to conquer the Dragon Realms using Deadlock's plans to provide herself the opening to do so, and Boss Kaze who seeks to ransom Pyrus off for the highest amount of money he can. Kaze is only a direct Big Bad for Pyrus' storyline, however. In the end, it's revealed Deadlock's Dragon General Grendel is actually the Man Behind the Man and was manipulating all the others for his own plan of resurrecting an ancient civilization destroying Eldritch Abomination to take revenge on the Dragons for banishing the Naga to the Unknown Realms.
• In Naruto the Secret of Shinobi, the role of Big Bad is shared between Danzo, Madara, Darkeye, and Apollo Justice. Wait, what?

Film - Animated

• Tzekel-Kan and Hernan Cortez in The Road to El Dorado. They meet and form an alliance toward the end of the movie, which ends in Cortez dragging Kan off to be executed after being fooled by the protagonists into thinking Kan was setting him up for a fall.
• In Cars 3, we have Jackson Storm and Sterling. The former is Lightning's main racing rival, while the latter seeks to make Lightning quit racing and become his sponsor.
• The Nut Job has Raccoon and Percy "King" Dimplewade. Both are crime lords whose plans revolve around nuts, but in different ways. The latter aims to rob the bank and replace the money with nuts, prompting Sully to attempt the nut heist, while the former seeks to prevent the heist from happening in order to maintain his position as leader of the animals.
• In Over the Hedge, we have Vincent, Gladys and Dwayne. The latter two form a Big Bad Duumvirate and serve as threats to the Hedgies as a group, while the former is a threat to RJ exclusively and operates on his own.
• Bee Movie gives us Ken and Layton T. Montgomery. The former seeks to kill Barry out of jealousy of Barry's friendship with Vanessa (and also due to his own fear of bees), while the latter opposes Barry out of his desire for mankind to continue using the bees' honey.
• In Raya and the Last Dragon, we have Namaari and the Druun. The Druun are the ultimate threat to the entire world, as they not only turn people to stone, but they multiply every time they do so, while Namaari is the primary threat to Raya and pursues her throughout the film. What makes it even worse is that Namaari is responsible for the Druun's rampage on Earth in the first place.
• Sausage Party gives us Douche, Darren and humanity itself. The former seeks to kill Frank for accidentally causing him to receive a leak and thus causing him to not get bought and used, while Darren tosses the food in the trash for no good reason, and humanity eats the food. Douche ultimately becomes the sole Big Bad after shoving himself up Darren's arse and using him as a human puppet.
• Both films in the Sing franchise have this.
  • The first film has Judith and the Bear Mafia. Judith threatens to foreclose the Moon Theater if Buster Moon can't come up with the money to save it, which inspires Buster to come up with the talent show; the Bear Mafia pursues Mike because he cheated them in a poker game.
  • Sing 2 has a straighter example, with Jimmy Crystal and Klaus Kickenklober. Both serve as threats to the Moon troupe and zero in on one member in particular (Buster for Jimmy, Johnny for Klaus), but Jimmy turns out to be the bigger threat and once Klaus is defeated by Johnny, Jimmy steps up as the Final Boss.

Film - Live Action

• Batman Returns is basically a chess duel between the Penguin, Catwoman, and original character Max Shreck. The Penguin is clearly the main villain and certainly the main threat as his plans increasingly escalate to mass murder and eventually destroying Gotham City itself, but the other two are formidable problems and all three engage in double-dealing, backstabbing and triple-crossing.
• Lovers Lane features three distinct killers; Doctor Jack Grefe, his daughter Chloe, and sexual sadist Ray Hennessey. All three of them use hooks though.
• On Stranger Tides, the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, has a three-way one between Blackbeard, Barbossa, and the Spaniard. All three want to get to the Fountain of Youth, albeit for different reasons, and all oppose each other, with Jack Sparrow caught in the middle.
• In Satan's Playground we get the psychotic Leeds family, a group of Satanists, and The Jersey Devil.
• The Maze Runner has Gally and the WCKD organization. While WCKD is the overarching threat of the story, Gally is the direct threat to Thomas and the other competitors.
• Rampage (2018): We have Claire Wyden and the three mutated animals (George, Ralph and Lizzie). While Claire is the Big Bad of the film, the trio of giant monsters rampage all over town and cause untold destruction. After George eats Claire, he and Davis join up to face Ralph and Lizzie, but the latter kills the former and becomes the Final Boss.
• F9, the latest installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise, gives us Otto, Jakob Toretto and Cipher. Otto is the mastermind behind the plot to steal and activate Project Aries and is also working with Jakob, who has his own grievances with Dom. Later on, though, he teams up with Cipher and betrays Jakob, who pulls a Heel-Face Turn; unbeknownst to him, Cipher is using him to gain access to the global computer network and get her revenge on Dom, and she doesn't give a damn when Otto gets killed by his own drone.
• The Suicide Squad gives us an ensemble of villains in the form of Starro, The Thinker, Luna/Suarez and Peacemaker. While Starro is the ultimate threat, it serves as a Living MacGuffin for the bulk of the film, and only becomes active after it escapes; the Thinker has been experimenting on Starro for decades and is ultimately responsible for the entire plot; Silvio Luna and Mateo Suarez plan to use Starro to conquer their enemies; and Peacemaker turns out to be The Mole for Amanda Waller, as his job is to prevent the truth about the United States government's involvement in Project Starfish from coming out.
• Candyman (2021) gives us the titular entity and William Burke. The former spends the entire movie killing people while corrupting the protagonist, Anthony McCoy, while the latter manipulated Anthony into reawakening Candyman and succeeds in making him a new incarnation.
• The Hunger Games:
  • In the first film, we have Cato and Seneca Crane - the former is the direct threat to Katniss and Peeta, while the latter is the Gamemaker responsible for the challenges that the Tributes have to endure.
  • Mockingjay is basically a tennis match between President Alma Coin and President Snow. The former ultimately outplays the latter and becomes the Final Boss.

• Horrible Bosses:
  • Dave Harken, Bobby Pellitt and Julia Harris all serve as threats to Nick, Kurt and Dale respectively. However, Harken emerges as the true Big Bad after killing Pellitt.
  • In the sequel, we have Bert Hanson and his son Rex, as well as Harken and Julia from the first film. The latter is initially The Dragon to the former, but after discovering that his father doesn't care about him at all, he plans to kill his dad and inherit his millions. Harken is relegated to a background character due to being incarcerated, but still manages to menace the trio, while Julia continues to pursue Dale.

Literature

• Robin Hobb did this in the Farseer trilogy with Prince Regal and the Red Ships.
• The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara. There's the Isle Witch and her former mentor The Morgawr, who form a Big Bad Duumvirate, and are plotting against both the heroes and one another in their race to claim the books of magic that the Jerle Shannara is voyaging to find. There's also Antrax, the Knight Templar computer system that guards the books against all comers, and operates completely independently of the other two. Between them, they manage to do a whole lot of damage to the heroes' and one another.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has Littlefinger playing all the sides in the War of the Five Kings and the Others invading in force from the North, where a Wildling army is also assembling, and to the East is Daenerys Targaryen who has to face her own villains; she might be becoming a Big Bad herself. Participants in the War of Five Kings, such as Stannis Baratheon and the Lannisters amongst others, are themselves up to sufficiently no good- and have enough power and independence- as to be Big Bads in their own right; heck, even within the Lannisters, Lord Tywin, Cersei and Joffrey could be each be considered distinct Big Bads too, since though all on the same side they each have their own, sometimes conflicting agendas, and private bases of power. Tyrion would count too, except that he's not really a bad guy.
• In the Codex Alera there are numerous Big Bads active throughout the series, mostly independent of one another if prone to making and breaking alliances at whim- High Lord Aquitaine, Invidia Aquitaine, High Lord Kalarus, Sarl and the Vord Queen are the biggies, and High Lord Rhodes is billed as one, despite very limited development and page time. In the end, though, it's the Vord Queen who surpasses everyone else and takes home the crown of primary threat.
• In Everworld, there are several villainous characters (the majority of the gods actually fall under this), but the most prominent are Loki, Ka Anor, and Senna.
• In the first Myth Arc of Warrior Cats, Tigerclaw and Brokenstar were this for a while. Then they teamed up and Brokenstar died. In the Power of Three arc, both Sol and Tigerstar were vying for the spot of Big Bad, and the arc ends with Sol leaving, however he has been confirmed to return in book five of the Omen of the Stars arc, and Tigerstar still around. And then you've got the end of the Omen of the Stars arc, which brings all the Big Bads back to try and get revenge from beyond the grave.
• In Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, the Big Bads are Lord Voldemort (OF COURSE!) and Dolores Umbridge, though they have nothing to do with each other.

Live-Action TV

• The Negative Syndicate from Go Go Sentai Boukenger.
• Done on occasion in Power Rangers, although not as often as the "one after another" format.
  • Power Rangers Zeo features the Machine Empire and Rita and Zedd, both of them trying to kill the Rangers and conquer Earth, but spending nearly as much effort against each other as against the humans.
  • Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (the Boukenger adaptation) had Moltor, Flurious, the Fearcats, and the Ninjas, all of whom had their own agendas, but who kept out of each others' ways for the most part as they took turns trying to kill the Rangers.
    • Except for the 15th anniversary episode, where Rita and Zedd's son convinces them to join forces in order to take out the Rangers. It works, but a team of veteran Rangers fills in until the OO team gets their powers back, and the villains fall right back into their old patterns immediately afterwards.
• Angel was a master of this trope - at the height of Season 3, the Big Bads (Lila Morgan, Daniel Holtz, and Sajjhan) each got about as much screentime as the heroic main cast. Fans still debate over which of them "won" in terms of being the season's defining villain, while a few nominate a fourth character entirely.
  • The entire series is pretty much this, the big bads being Wolfram & Hart and Jasmine, who is directly or retroactively responsible for many events of the series until her death in season 4. After that point, Wolfram & Hart's Senior Partners stay as the undisputed Big Bads of the show.
• Smallville loves this trope. While the second and third seasons had Lionel Luthor as a more or less consistent Big Bad (and the first season had sleazy reporter Roger Nixon), later ones got much more iffy and complicated, often featuring one human antagonist, and a superpowered one:
  • Season 4 had Lionel competing with Genevieve Teague and Margaret Isobel Thoreaux for control of the Stones of Power.
  • Season 7, had Brainiac and Lex Luthor as the primary antagonists, the former out to end the world, the latter attempting to find out Clark's secret no matter what the cost.
  • Season 8 was probably the most complicated, with Brainiac back and firmly in Omnicidal Maniac territory, while new villains Tess Mercer and Doomsday entered the scenario, with Lex and Faora as their respective Man Behind the Man's and Bigger Bads. One would expect that one of the Chessmasters would win out, but when the dust settles it's Doomsday and his host, Davis, who are the last villain standing, serving as the main emotional and physical threat as the season draws to a close.
  • In Season 9, Zod and Checkmate, led by Amanda Waller and Maxwell Lord, competed with one another and the main cast for control of the metahumans and the world.
  • Finally, Season 10 would appear to have Darkseid as the Big Bad, with Rick Flag and the Suicide Squad trying to take down the government and the Justice League, Slade Wilson and the Vigilante Registration Agency (VRA) trying to force all heroes onto the government payroll, and Alexander Luthor, Earth-2 Lionel, and the real Lex all waiting in the wings. It ends up subverted though, as Slade is a Disc One Final Boss corrupted by Darkseid himself, and the others are just Big Bad Wannabes when compared to the Ultimate Evil that is The Great Lord of the Dark.
• Supernatural tended to have more or less consistent Big Bads for its first five seasons, before using this trope in Season Six: early on in the season, to start with, we have Crowley - the new King of Hell - who wants to find Purgatory and take control of its souls, and the Archangel Raphael, who is trying to take control of Heaven and restart the Apocalypse. Then, midway through the season, we meet Eve, the "Mother of All", who wants to overrun the world with her "children". And then, a few episodes before the season finale, we find out that Castiel has been in a tentative alliance with Crowley to find Purgatory so that he can defeat Raphael and prevent his plans from coming to fruition. Eve is killed about the same time we find out about Castiel and Crowley's alliance, so that knocks her out of the competition. This all comes to a head in the season finale, where Castiel cuts Crowley out of the deal; Crowley retaliates by teaming up with Raphael, only for Castiel to Out Gambit them both. He absorbs the souls of Purgatory, kills Raphael, and sends Crowley running, all before proclaiming himself the new God.
• Season 2 of Nikita is shaping up to this: in addition to the Evil Versus Evil rivalry between Division and Zetrov (the Big Bads in this case being their respective leaders Amanda and Sergei Semak), there are also the various members of Oversight, The Man Behind the Man to Division (to whom Amanda has become The Starscream). Oh, and former Big Bad Percy—despite his current condition of being locked in a maximum security prison—is still semi-active and plotting against everyone else.
  • Update as of the middle of the season: Oversight — bar one member who pulled a Heel Face Turn — have all been killed on orders from Percy, who's escaped prison and is plotting revenge. Meanwhile, Amanda is revealed to be in a secret alliance with Semak's Dragon Ari Tasarov; together, they're plotting against both Semak and the protagonists. So in some ways things have gotten simpler, and in some they've gotten even more complicated.
• Once Upon a Time has one for almost every season. Hell, we might as well call it Big Bad Ensemble: The TV Series.
  • Season 1 is basically a tennis match between Regina and Rumplestiltskin (the latter of whom taught the former magic for his own purposes), with Emma and the others caught in the middle.
  • Season 2's first half has Hook and Cora. They initially join forces, but they soon part ways.
    • Cora was operating on one side of the story in the second-half of Season 2 and Tamara and Greg on the other. However, as Tamara and Greg's story didn't fully begin until after Cora's death, this is arguably subverted.
  • Season 4's first half has Ingrid/The Snow Queen and Rumple, with both parties working with and against one another in turns. Ingrid wants to rebuild her family with Elsa and Emma, while Rumple has given in to his inner darkness and wants to free himself of the Dark One's dagger.
  • The second half of Season 4 has Rumple and the Queens of Darkness. Even though they're all working together, they each have their own reasons for doing so. Each of the Queens gets their own happy ending and parts ways, whereupon Rumple forms a new alliance with the Author, but even then, the Author ends up being the Final Boss. Oh, and did we mention that Rumple has an alliance with Zelena?
  • Well let's see, in Season 5's first half we have Emma Swan as the new Dark One and the Big Bad of the present. However, back in Camelot, King Arthur has his own evil plans and he and his ally Zelena are the main antagonists. Then, both Arthur and Emma are thrown out for the real antagonist: Nimue and her ally Hook.
  • In the second-half of Season 5, Hades is clearly the Big Bad, but also operating on their own are Cruella, James, Rumple and Peter Pan.
  • The first half of Season 6 has The Evil Queen and Mr. Hyde, though the latter is dealt with fairly quickly, leaving The Evil Queen and (surprise, surprise) Rumple. By the end of the arc, though, they are replaced by Gideon and the Black Fairy, who are the true main villains of the season.
  • In the seventh and final season, we have quite an ensemble here - Lady Tremaine/Victoria Belfry, her daughter Ivy/Drizella and Mother Gothel. It turns out that the latter two are working together, but eventually Gothel comes out on top. Then Dr. Facilier enters the fray and winds up at cross-purposes with Gothel, but they're both done away with towards the end, leaving Wish!Rumple himself as the True Final Boss.

Tabletop Games

• In Exalted, it's not a question of who's trying to destroy Creation—it's a question of who's pulling ahead in the race. The Deathlords want to feed the world into the great cosmic garbage disposal in the name of their eternally-dying-but-not-yet-dead god bosses, the Yozi want to make Creation indistinguishable from Hell on the very off chance that they might be allowed to move in then, and the Fair Folk view Creation the same way one would view a turd in the swimming pool and want it to stop ruining their beautiful chaos.
• Warhammer 40000, being a supremely cheery place, has entire armies of this trope. At the very top of the Sliding Scale of Villain Threat are the Chaos Gods, the C'Tan, and the Tyrannid Hive Mind, and going down there are the Daemon Primarchs, Necron Lords, Chaos Lords, Ork Warbosses, and the various sundry madmen and psychopaths the galaxy breeds like mosquitoes.
  • Don't you need at least one "good" faction for this trope? The Imperium, Eldar, and Tau would be over-the top villains by the standards of any other setting too.

Videogames

• Batman: Arkham City has most of Bat's rogue's gallery vying for the position of Big Bad over the course of the game.
• Street Fighter has this with Bison and Akuma, who both have their own agendas which revolve around the hero Ryu. Bison's goals revolve around his plan to Take Over the World, while Akuma is more of a Noble Demon and Blood Knight trying to goad Ryu into surrendering to the Dark Side to give him an ultimate showdown. In Street Fighter IV, Seth adds to the list, while in Street Fighter III (which chronologically takes place after IV) Gill takes the place of Bison.
• World of Warcraft originally had this, with players having to fight several Big Bads of varying importance such as Van Cleef, Nefarian or Hakkar. Latter patches and expansions generally focus on one threat, but the ensemble is still technically present, mainly with the Scourge, the Burning Legion and the Old Gods.
• The Disciples series of Turn-Based Strategy games has a number of major villains in conflict with one another, including Mortis, Bethrezen, Uther, and Gallean. None of them are powerful enough to claim the title of the Big Bad, but all of them are serious threats to the setting.
• Knights of the Old Republic II featured the former Big Bad Triumvirate of Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion and Darth Traya. Prior to the story they led a massive assassination campaign against the Jedi still alive after the events of the first game, but Sion and Nihilus turned on Traya, the teacher and parted ways, though Traya survived; thus, all three are up to no good in the story and have to be deat with. Sion seeks to kill you; Traya seeks to corrupt you; and Nihilus, the most powerful, doesn't really care about you, but is the greatest and most imminent threat to the galaxy.
  • There are two more, actually - Atris, the one who summoned the Jedi to Katarr and unwittingly drew Nihilus into the universe; and GO-TO, the one who put a bounty so large that every criminal wants a piece of it.
• The main Halo trilogy has the Prophet of Truth at the head of the Covenant and the Gravemind representing the Flood.
• Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction had a definite Big Bad in the form of Emperor Tachyon, but Ratchet was also menaced by Captain Slag, who serves as the game's second major villain.
• Seiken Densetsu 3 has 3 different Ultimate Evil entities competing for the power of the Mana Tree. Which one succeeds and ends up becoming the main villain depends on which hero you choose as your main character.
• Likewise with Legend of Mana, which has multiple plot-arcs running together simultaneously throughout the game, each of which features a world-threatening Big Bad behind everything.
• In Dragon Age II there are many people that could qualify as being a Big Bad. In the framing story, one character thinks that it's you.
• The Mortal Kombat series has multiple Big Bad characters, and in the later games (especially Mortal Kombat Armageddon) they ended up operating at the same time due to the series' tendency to keep old characters while introducing new threats. The most prominent would probably be The Emperor Shao Kahn, the God of Evil Shinnok, the preceding and resurrected emperor Onaga, and (to a slightly lesser extent) the duo of The Starscream sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. Shao Kahn would probably be the one with the best claim to being the Big Bad of the series, as he was the main villain in the largest number of games, and also the canonical winner of Armageddon according to Mortal Kombat 9.
• God of War 3 has Zeus, Gaia and Athena.
• Archie and Maxie, the leaders of Team Aqua and Magma, in Pokémon Emerald, and any adaptations of the plot of the Advance games (In the Anime and Manga), even though in Ruby and Sapphire only one of them was the villain while the other helped the protagonist.
• In Resident Evil Survivor, we have a janitor Driven to Madness by the zombie outbreak, the leader of a mercenary group sent to cover up the outbreak, and the Umbrella executive responsible for the whole mess.
• Lord Deus and the Gohma from Asura's Wrath.
• Prototype has Greene and Randall being the big nasties of the Infected and the Military factions out to get each other.
• Mass Effect 3 has this with Harbinger and the Illusive Man... initially. While The Illusive Man and Cerberus are a separate threat in their own right, and even fight the Reapers occasionally, by the end The Illusive Man is ultimately nothing more than Harbinger's unwitting pawn.
• Starcraft II has Mengsk, Kerrigan, the Tal'darim Protoss, and The Dark Voice.
• Sacrifice, the bad guys are Charnel, Pyro, Stratos, and Marduk.
• Fire Emblem Echoes has Berkut and Jedah as this from Act 5.
• Manhunt 2: Dr. Pickman and Leo Kasper. The latter is the Split Personality of the protagonist, Daniel Lamb, while the former implanted Leo inside of Daniel and is therefore responsible for the whole mess. Leo ultimately kills Pickman and seeks to take over Daniel's body.

Webcomics

• In Order of the Stick, there are several factions, both good and evil, and most of the evil ones can qualify as independent big bads:
  • Xykon is the most prominent throughout the story, though he might not be the ultimate big bad. Redcloak pretends to be his Dragon.
  • The IFCC is a Big Bad Triumvirate.
  • As revealed in Start of Darkness, the Dark One, the goblin deity. Redcloak is really his Dragon.
  • Elan's brother Nale probably doesn't count (though he certainly thinks he does), but his father Tarquin is shaping up to be one.
• 8-bit Theater had a sort of "guess the Big Bad" thing going on with several characters being built up as potential "Final Boss" candidates:
  • Black Mage, Villain Protagonist and hinted at eventually (seriously) betraying his comrades. Which does happen before the plot gets Hijacked By Sarda.
  • The Dark Warriors. In the beginning, Garland seemed to be a joke villain who had a greater role in the story. It turns out their purpose was to become Fake Ultimate Heroes.
  • Sarda, the biggest threat whose motives were hidden, but came across as a Trickster Mentor. He turns out to be the "real" Big Bad but is assimilated by Chaos.
  • The Fiends, who were teaming up in Hell as they were killed. Killed by Black Mage.
  • "Darko," who was The Dragon to Bigger Bad Chaos and trying to manipulate Black Mage (and previously Garland) into bringing about his plans. He eventually gives up.
  • And finally, Chaos, said Bigger Bad the villains were destined to eventually face. They do, at a point in time they're woefully unprepared for it. Chaos is killed off-screen by White Mage instead, saving the world and setting up the Dark Warriors as the ones who defeated him.
• El Goonish Shive, has Lord Tedd, Pandora Raven, and Sirleck and Magus.

Web Originals

• In The Gamers Alliance, many major antagonists are working for different goals separate from one another during the Godslayer era:
  • Glaurung, leader of the Crimson Coalition
  • Godslayer and its high prophet Xerathas of the Grey Cult
  • Jemuel, lord of Alent
  • Malphas, leader of the Northern Horde
  • The Master of the Totenkopf cult
  • Nergal, god of war
  • Vaetris, leader of the Eastern Horde
• In the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, The Emperor, Lord Doom, Doctor Simian, Abyss, the Blood Red King, and Omega all present a threat to the whole world. They do this simultaneously, though of course they don't do it cooperatively.
• The Whateley Universe has a ridiculous number of potencial Big Bads. The most proeminent is Hekate's Master, but there's also Lady Jettatura, Palmer, Necromancer, Dr. Emil Hammond, Dominus and whatever the hell Bladedancer saw in her dream. Not to mention dozens of smaller bads. The only reason the world didn't implode by now, is because there's also a ridiculous amount of heroes and other elements to balance things out.

Western Animation

• The Spectacular Spider-Man started out with one Big Bad, Tombstone, but gained more as it went on in the form of Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Venom. Hammerhead thinks he's another one in the second season's Gang War arc, but he was just Green Goblin's Unwitting Pawn all along.
• Xiaolin Showdown starts out with only Wuya as the Big Bad, but adds Chase Young and Hannibal Roy Bean in successive seasons, with the various alliances between the villains changing almost every episode by the third season. Technically, one could call Jack Spicer a Big Bad in his own right after Wuya ditches him, but he mostly ends up getting manipulated by the other villains.
  • Taken in a literal sense in the finale, when literally all the villains line up at the heroes' doorstep.
• Gargoyles initially had the Big Bad Duumvirate of Xanatos and Demona, but after they went their separate ways and new villains of Big Bad caliber such as the Archmage, Thailog, Oberon, and Castaway were introduced it ended up like this.
• South Park has a variation: the Council of Nine from the Imaginationland episodes is a Big Good Ensemble (consisting of Jesus, Wonder Woman, Aslan, Morpheus, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Glinda the Good Witch, Zeus, and Popeye).
  • A true Big Bad Ensemble was the celebrity alliance in "200/201" (with Tom Cruise, Rob Reiner, and Barbara Streisand being the foremost of them), and the Ginger Kids led by Scott Tenorman.
• Very much so in Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes. The show starts with a mass supervillain breakout, and while most of these villains are essentially powerful mooks, several of them are of Big Bad caliber, such as Baron von Strucker, Baron Zemo, and the Leader- to say nothing of villains who weren't imprisoned at all, like Loki and Kang the Conqueror. All of these guys have distinct agendas; sometimes they work together, more often at cross-purposes.
  • Ultimately, it was revealed that Loki was directly or indirectly behind pretty much everything except Kang, cementing him as the Big Bad.
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The most active villain throughout the first season was Professor Pericles, but the finale revealed that Mayor Jones was the true instigator of the plot, and had been manipulating the gang throughout the season.
• Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 has had at least two Big Bads per season. Season one has Kalus leading the Vandals and Zemerik leading the Sark as the main villains. Season 2 introduced the Red Sentients lead by Krytus, Sage's Evil Twin brother, as a third Big Bad. While Zemerik was pushed aside somewhat, he still remained a main threat. Not, only the Red Sentients remain, but Sage states something worse than her brother is coming and a Sark Cult called the Alpha-Code has shown up, implying that season three will also have a Big Bad Ensemble with at least these two groups.
• Elmyra and Montana Max in Tiny Toon Adventures.
• The Legend of Korra: Has two fantastical racial-supremacists slugging it out through proxies for control of Republic City. The first is Amon, a revolutionary who supports non-benders and views benders as being born with an inherent impurity. The second is Councilman Tarrlok, a manipulative Sleazy Politician who enacts McCarthyist policies against non-benders in order to improve his own power base among benders. At the end of the season, Amon and Tarrlok are revealed to be brothers.
• Beast Wars has Megatron, the Tripredacus Council, and the original Megatron, though the latter two get far less screen time than the first.
  • And let's not forget the Vox.
• In another Transformers example, there's Transformers Prime Season 2 — while Megatron is recognized as the main villain, Silas and Airachnid have taken on equal standing as threats, with the role of The Heavy shifting between them depending on the episode. Starscream is also running around independently, but with his recent string of bad luck he's more of a cross between a Big Bad Wannabe and a Wild Card.
  • Around the middle of the season, though, Airachnid has been put out of commission (for the foreseeable future) and Starscream has obtained armor which makes him a genuine threat, ending his Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain run.

Real Life

• Subjectively the world's long, long history of struggles between the world's great powers has looked something like a struggle against this from the perspective of minor powers, if not the great powers themselves. A recent example would be the position of Eastern Europe in the inter-war period, sandwiched between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and Stalinist Russia.
• World War 2 had Hirohito of Imperial Japan, Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union, and Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany. Mussolini of Fascist Italy was Hitler's dragon of sorts, and Stalin did a brief Heel Face Turn after Hitler tried to double-cross him.