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The Lensman series is built on Dragons behind Dragons. Along about the end of each book ... or the beginning of the next ... it's revealed that the Big Bad just defeated was actually The Dragon for someone even higher up. The stories were rewritten after their original appearance so that the reader is let in on who the real Big Bad is at the beginning of Book One, but the protagonists don't find out until Book Six.
Inverted in Shadowslayers, the villain must go through a dragon of his own. When Garyl Shadowslayer, the apparent hero for most of the novel, dies, it allows his wife Kajeel to return from the dead and face off against Derrezen.
In Chung Kuo, Charles deVore to Berdichev, although he later gets a promotion
Played straight in The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth, by Lord Dunsany. Leothric has to fight a literal dragon, Wong Bongerok before facing Gaznak. Could very well be the Trope Namer.
Although Morgoth's minions in The Silmarillion include actual dragons such as Glaurung, as well as the Balrogs, Sauron most clearly fulfills this role, particularly in the story of Beren and Lúthien.
Sauron's own Dragon in the The Lord of the Rings saga is none other than the Witch-king of Angmar. This is more obvious in the film than the book.
Saruman, although appearing at first to be co-dragon with the Witch-King, and is arrogant enough to think he and Sauron form a Big Bad Duumvirate, best fits the role of The Starscream.
The Mouth of Sauron may be considered a co-dragon. However, he doesn't present any real challenge — physical or intellectual — to the heroes in either the book or the movie adaptation; and appears to function strictly as a communication tool.
In Unfinished Talesof Numenor and Middleearth it's also mentioned that Sauron (still the Necromancer of Dol Guldur at that time) intended to co-opt Smaug (the dragon from The Hobbit) as a Dragon both literal and an example of this trope — but was thwarted when, ultimately thanks to actions by Gandalf, Smaug was killed during the events of that book.
In the Film at least, Gothmog played this role to the Witch-King himself during the Battle of Minas Tirith.
It's a bit less clear-cut than some of the other examples on this page — the dragon role seems to juggle book-to-book among Bellatrix, Malfoy, and Snape. Or so Voldemort thinks.
It really depends on what he wants done. Bellatrix, for example, isn't exactly one of the world's greatest thinkers, so he hands missions like the one at the ministry in book 5 to the cool-headed Malfoy, and Snape knows too much about Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix to be wasted somewhere else.
When Umbridge took over Hogwarts, Filch served as her Dragon. Additionally, Umbridge herself seemed to be Cornelius Fudge's Dragon, although she would easily qualify as a Dragon-in-Chief since Fudge was more of a Horrible Judge of Character than a villain. After the Death Eater takeover of the Ministry, she serves as Yaxley's Dragon.
Basta, the knife-wielding henchman to Capricorn in The Inkworld Trilogy, who runs all his errands and does most of his dirty work.
And the Adderhead's Dragon The Piper.
If Lord Vetinari is a subversion of the Evil Overlord, then Samuel Vimes would be his subversion of The Dragon. Vimes is often said to be Vetinari's enforcer, often unwittingly or unwillingly, but is the protagonist of all the Watch books.
Vimes is more often referred to as Vetinari's terrier.
In "The Crystal Shard", Errtu was Akar Kessel's Dragon, especially since most of Akar's power is derived from the Crystal Shard, while Errtu is a powerful demon in his own right. In the rest of Drizzt's adventures, Artemis Entreri is often The Dragon.
In The Dresden Files, every villain has at least one Dragon that Harry has to deal with before he can tackle the book's real villain.
Tessa, Nicodemus' actual wife, uses both Rosanna and Magog as her Dragons.
Also, Lara Raith serves as Dragon and Bastard Understudy to her father (who used rape to establish control of all of his daughters except the youngest) until the events of Blood Rites, after which she is in charge of the White Court through control of her father.
In Dead Beat, the Corpsetaker uses a ghoul named Li Xian as her enforcer, though he mostly just hits things while she holds them in place with her mental powers.
Aurora had a Sidhe Lord, the Winter Knight Lloyd Slate, and a Centaur as her dragons.
The Faerie Queens all use a mortal agent known as a Knight to serve as their assassins and enforcers in the mortal world, as they cannot directly act against mortals.
In Changes, the Red King uses a pair of assassins known as the "Eebs" and a massive, difficult-to-pronounce beast that Harry dubs the "Ick" as his Dragons.
The Skinwalker serves as the Black Council's Dragon in Turn Coat, and Binder is Madeline Raith's Dragon as well.
In Ghost Story, Evil Bob plays this role for the Corpsetaker.
In The Wheel of Time, the Forsaken serve as Dragons for the Dark One, who is Sealed Evil in a Can--and compete for the position of Nae'blis, which means "The Dragon". Shaidar Haran also fulfills this role for the Dark One, being its physical avatar. Among the Children of the Light, the tough, skilled blademaster Eamon Valda is blackmailed into serving as a sort-of Dragon to the elderly, frail Rhadam Asunawa. Ironically, Lewis Therin Telamon is called "The Dragon" but is not The Dragon but The Chosen One, as is his Reincarnation Rand al'Thor, "The Dragon Reborn".
You could consider "The Dragon" as the Dragon of the creator.
In A Song of Ice and Fire, the physically indomitable Gregor Clegane serves as a Dragon for House Lannister, frequently being given the most dangerous, brutal and intimidating missions possible.
Gregor's closer to being The Brute though, isn't he? If Tywin has a Dragon it's Jaime (who due to his early capture doesn't see much action in the early parts of the series). In other examples, the mercenary Bronn serves as Tyrion's Dragon, and Sandor Clegane is Joffrey's.
A Song of Ice and Fire is full of Dragons, since there are almost as many factions as characters and the better part of them are either overtly nasty or neutrally antagonistic. Euron Greyjoy has Victarion (for now), Roose Bolton has Ramsay, Hizdar zo Loraq has Khrazz, The Tattered Prince has Caggo, Selys has Axell Florent, and so on, and so on.
Most of Ser Gregor's missions aren't all that dangerous — he's more like a Nazi death squad in that he gets the missions with too much Squick for the common soldiers to do. Sacking, raping, burning and putting to the sword defenseless villages isn't terribly dangerous, but it does take a special kind of nastiness.
In The Malazan Book of the Fallen, each of the High Houses has a Knight or Champion who serves in this capacity to the King and Queen that rule the House:
High House Dark: Annomander Rake is Knight to Mother Dark herself.
High House Light: Osric/Osserc/Oseric is Champion to Father Light.
High House Death: Dassem Ultor was Hood's Knight; we meet the current one on several occasions.
High House Shadow: Cotillion the Rope is Assassin to Shadowthrone Ammanas.
In the physical world, the Malazan Empress has her Adjunct, who serves as her Number Two. And then there's the various minor gods and their Mortal Swords.
Katla is Tengil'sdragon in The Brothers Lionheart. She is as evil as Tengil and his greatest weapon, and the only reason she is under his command is that she obeys whoever in possession the horn that she is afraid of.
The Steel Inquisitors — once-human, virtually unstoppable killing machines — serve as the collective Dragons to the Lord Ruler in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. After the first book, the real Big BadRuin takes command of the Inquisitors, and one of them, Marsh, becomes his (unwilling)) Dragon.
Another Sanderson example- at the end of Way of Kings, Szeth unwillingly becomes this to Taravangian when he discovers that he is in possession of his Oath Stone.
In the New Jedi Order series, Warmaster Tsavong Lah, leader of the Yuuzhan Vong warrior caste, is The Dragon to Supreme Overlord Shimrra who is in turn a puppet for Onimi, but the Warmaster doesn't know that. Interestingly, he also takes on many aspects of the Big Bad in the early part of the series, since he has free rein with the invasion until Shimrra finally takes personal command.
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lu Bu is The Dragon of the early story, as his allegiance clears the way for Dong Zhuo's rise to hegemony. However, he demonstrates a capacity for being manipulated that leads to Dong Zhuo's downfall and eventually his own.
For all of the books that feature him, Kirtain Loor is The Dragon. He's allowed quite a bit of autonomy but ultimately cringes before his superiors, both of whom are worse than he is. Ysanne Isard recruited him and put him in charge of the underground Imperial movement on Coruscant after it fell to the New Republic. He had his own plots going, but the head of the People's Militia, nominally there to stop Loor, recruited him to further his own agenda. Interestingly, neither he nor his superiors ever engaged in direct or even starfighter combat with the New Republic; Loor mostly sent stormtroopers and operatives after them, and later started setting bombs and directing speeders filled with explosives into population centers. He didn't even see any New Republic protagonists until he tried to surrender some information in exchange for his life.
In The Godless World Trilogy, FatalistEmotionlessDark Action Girl Shraeve, is The Dragon to Aeglyss, whom she believes to be the promised one who will end the world and make her faith the rulers of the new paradise. She believes in him whole-heartedly until the end of the series; when she begins to doubt, Aeglyss brainwashes her. Throughout books two and three she does most of his killing for him, and serves as his bodyguard.
In Andy Hoare's White Scars novel Hunt for Voldorius, Nullus to Voldorius.
In the eBook Legend of a Hero: Ice and Wind, ironically, the Big Bad IS a Dragon (7,000 years old and counting...) called the Dragon of the Ice, or the Ice Dragon. Its Dragon is a fire-wielding general named Marko Terror...HIS Dragons (if he were the Big Bad) would be (besides the multiple Captains) Alba T. Ross and Maria Terror, his niece.
In the same eBook, on the Hero of Wind story, we have the Sky Commander, whose Dragons are Ace-Right Blaze, Lieutenant Julius, Lieutenant Alexis, and the Ace-Left, a.k.a. Leon Heart.
spoiler: They all die save Leon, who decides to do a Heel Face Turn and just disappears.
Medea plays this role In Icemark Chronicles Books (Blade Of Fire & Last Battle Of The Icemark)
In Robert E. Howard's Conan story "A Witch Shall Be Born," Constantius, the Kothic voivode of the Free Companies, is one of these to the title character Salome.
In Last Legionary, The One, an exoskeleton-clad Evil Cripple, is The Dragon to the Warlord Arachnis, which due to being a Hive Mind made up of 24 people, is more or less immobile. The One is Arachnis' top field commander, trains its troops, and is its best and last line of defence, providing The Hero with his toughest challenge ever.
In Paul Kelly's 'The Lost Brigade', General Arras Kierhenan is most certainly the Dragon to Eustace 'The Evil' De Mharburg's Big Bad. Unquestioning and subservient, Kierhenan is always ready to fulfil De Mharburg's orders, no matter what they may be...
In Charlie Bone, Ezekiel Bloor had Manfred Bloor, Dr Bloor, Yolanda and Yorath Yewbeam, Count Harken Badlock, Lord Grimwald, Titania Tilpin and Ashkelan all as Dragons at different points in the series.
Most Redwall villains have at least one.
Redtooth and later Darkclaw to Cluny the Scourge in Redwall.
Cluny goes through a long series of Dragons, since none of them lasts very long. After Darkclaw dies Cluny favors Scragg. After Scragg dies, he sets up Cheesethief as a Dragon just so he can serve as a decoy and get killed. By the final battle, Killconey loosely fills the role, and after that it ceases to matter.
Brogg (temporarily replaced by Cludd) and Ashleg to Tsarmina Greeneyes in Mossflower.
In Mariel of Redwall, Greypatch was this to Gabool the Wild originally. After his desertion, seven dragons were sent to retrieve him: Garrtail, Orgeye, Flogga, Catseyes, Riptung, Hookfin and Grimtooth.
Klitch and Deathbrush to Feragho the Assassin in Salamandastron.
Gurrad was Badrang's assassin briefly in Martin the Warrior.
Nightshade to Swartt Sixclaw in Outcast of Redwall.
Lask Frildur, Sagitar Sawfang and Grall to Ublaz Mad Eyes in Pearls of Lutra.
Ripfang, Doomeye, Karangool, Grand Fragorl and Groddil to Ungatt Trunn in Lord Brocktree.
Riftun to Kurda in Triss.
Glimbo to Raga Bol in Loamhedge.
Shard to Gulo in Rakkety Tam.
Atunra to Riggu Felis in High Rhulain.
Magger to Vizka Longtooth in Eulalia!.
Veeku and Sicariss to Korvus Skurr in Doomwyte.
Zwilt the Shade and Dirva to Vilaya in The Sable Quean.
Shekra, Mowlag and Jiboree to Razzid Wearat in The Rogue Crew.
There are many in Warrior Cats due to almost all the villains being connected in some way.
Blackfoot serves as Brokenstar's dragon in the first half of the first arc and Tigerstar's dragon in the second half of said arc before his Heel Face Turn at the end.
Early on in the first arc, Darkstripe serves as Tigerstar's dragon until Tigerstar finds a better one.
Bone is the dragon to Scourge in the sixth book, The Darkest Hour.
In The New Prophecy arc, Hawkfrost serves as Tigerstar's dragon. He's also a Dragon-in-Chief, seeing as Tigerstar is dead but he isn't. However, he spends the Power of Three arc as a regular dragon due to Brambleclaw killing him.
In Omen of the Stars, Brokenstar replaces Hawkfrost as Tigerstar's dragon because Tigerstar likes Brokenstar more.
In the fifth book of Omen of the Stars, Antpelt becomes The Dragon to minor villain Shredtail. He doesn't last very long.
In the novels set in the "Veteran" universe by Gavin G Smith, the "Grey Lady" Josephine Bran serves as a dragon to main antagonist Major Rolleston.
In Eclipse Victoria uses Riley as her dragon and also has him making all of the moves for her.
Dark Future: Elder Roger Duroc is the series' Dragon for NguyenSeth. Apparently, his family has served Seth in this capacity for several hundred years.
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