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Arc Villain
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"No longer monsters of the week, [the antagonists of Dragon Ball Z] were simply monsters, routinely and soundly defeating our heroes, ones that shattered the 22-minute structure and planted their feet deep in the story, staying there for dozens and dozens of episodes, during which the entire plot would center solely around their existence.''
— Super Eyepatch Wolf, "The Impact of Dragon Ball Z"

The default expectation of an episodic story is that there is a Monster of the Week, each installment stands alone and must introduce a new enemy for the hero to confront. An Arc Villain expands beyond that, serving as the antagonist for a Story Arc. By the conclusion the collection of episodes can be wrapped up as the Evil Plan of this villain that is resolved by the end. After that, though, they're killed off, imprisoned, sent into a Humiliation Conga, make a Heel–Face Turn, or are otherwise taken out of the picture, and the heroes continue their adventures to the next arc.

The Arc Villain serves a purpose in expanding the scope and scale of the story, using these episodes to function as a type of self-contained movie with a beginning, middle and end (and may even be boxed together in compilation releases). At the top end they may be the Big Bad, the central figure within the Myth Arc. On the low end they may be a Filler Villain, someone who causes trouble for an otherwise irrelevant story. Among other versions include them being The Man Behind the Man, a Greater-Scope Villain or secretly The Dragon of Big Bad, but they can also stand alone. As the nature of arc based storytelling, they can still be the final antagonist of a series that serves as a cap to the heroes adventures. Especially within the use of a Half-Arc Season a number of Arc Villains can cause trouble over what appears to be individual episodes, but collectively ends up forming its' own story arc in parallel with the others.

Generally speaking if their story intersects or parallels the plotting of another villain they would not be an Arc Villain, but either just a recurring antagonist or part of a Big Bad Duumvirate. They can overlap with a Big Bad but their actions would often be considered a lower tier threat in terms of the setting no matter how prevalent their impact is, even if a Post-Script Season (or sequel) starts an entire new story. They are often used as middle rungs on the Sorting Algorithm of Evil if surpassing them takes one or more Story Arcs and may also being used as a Starter Villain.

Compare Big Bad Wannabe. Contrast Disc-One Final Boss and Interim Villain.

Example subpages:

Other examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Asian Animation 
  • Catch! Teenieping: Akdongping serves as one in the first half of Part 2, helping other Teenieping cause trouble.
  • In Season 8 of Happy Friends, Big M. and Little M., the main villains of the show, get help from a wizard named Huo Haha to locate some magic staffs that are contained within a book his ancestor Xiao Haha wrote called A History of Magic. Thus, Huo Haha has the closest connection to the season's plot, and he also does not appear in a major role in the show outside of this season until the spin-off season Happy Friends and the Magical Lab.

    Comic Books 
  • In most contemporary Super Hero comics, which are written with collected editions in mind, this has effectively replaced the older villain-of-the-month trope.
  • Animosity so far has the Dragon for its synonymous arc, and the Headmistress for the "Power" arc.
  • Astonishing X-Men:
    • "Gifted:" Ord.
    • "Dangerous:" Danger.
    • "Torn": Cassandra Nova and the Hellfire Club.
    • "Unstoppable:" Aghanne.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer continues the precedent established by the show:

  • Elsewhere (2017): The first volume has the despot Lord Kragen whereas the second volume has a scientist working for the United States Government.

  • Disney Mouse and Duck Comics got many, such as Evil Sorcerer Mirengue in the Millennium Orbs arc.
  • Hellblazer: As different writers take runs on the title, they each give Constantine a Arc Villain to tend with:
    • Jamie Delano: Nergal.
    • Garth Ennis: The First of the Fallen.
    • Paul Jenkins: God.
    • Warren Ellis: Joshua Wight.
    • Brian Azzarello: S. W. Manor.
    • Mike Carey: Rosacarnis.
  • Hellboy: While the Ogdru Jahad serves as the greatest threat to Hellboy's world, and there are a fair share of recurring baddies running around, most individual stories have their villains:
    • The Wolves of St. August: William Grennier, the last member of a werewolf family out to destroy the town that killed his kin.
    • Almost Colossus: The Colossus
    • Box Full of Evil: Igor Bromhead
    • Conqueror Worm: Herman von Klempt
    • The Third Wish: The Bog Roosh
    • The Island: The Book
    • Darkness Calls: Baba Yaga
    • The Wild Hunt and The Storm and the Fury: Nimue the Queen of Blood
  • Most issues of the Invader Zim (Oni) comic series are standalone, with any antagonists (other than Zim himself) likewise not lasting more than one issue. However, there are a few multipart stories with their own prominent antagonists:

  • Lament of the Lost Moors has the usurper king of the land of Eruin Dulea and sorcerer Bedlam in the first two books. Lady Gerfaut in the last two.
  • MonsterVerse: In the Godzilla vs. Kong prequel graphic novel Kingdom Kong, the bat-like Titan Camazotz is the main threat. Though he hasn't appeared outside in the novel and is swiftly defeated, he is revealed to be partly responsible for the Perpetual Storm system closing in on and consuming Skull Island by the time of Godzilla vs. Kong.
  • The longer, four-issue story arcs of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) each have their own villain:
    • The "Return of Queen Chrysalis" arc (issues 1-4) has the titular Changeling Queen.
    • The "Nightmare Forces" arc (issues 5-8) has the new Nightmare Moon, Rarity.
    • The "Reflections" arc (issues 17-20) has the Mirror Universe versions of Celestia and Luna.
    • The "Siege of the Crystal Empire" arc (issues 34-37) was entirely engineered by Sombra's mother Rabia in order to free the Umbrum.
    • The "Cosmos" arc (issues 75-78) has the titular Cosmos, the Spirit of Malice.
  • Star Wars: Republic: individual arcs have their own antagonists.
    • "Prelude to Rebellion": Jabba the Hutt
    • "Outlander": An Big Bad Ensemble between Jabba and Gardulla the Hutt, who are in an Enemy Civil War. Aurra Sing is The Heavy. Sing has been hired by Gardulla to assassinate Sharad Hett, but is later revealed to be an informant for Jabba.
    • "Emissaries to Malastare": Myk'chur Finux Zug for the fist part of the arc, in the second part of the arc, is was Gargonn the Hutt.
    • "Twilight": Chom Frey Kaa.
    • "Infinity's End": Zalem
    • "The Hunt for Aurra Sing": Aurra Sing. Although she has been hired to kill a senator by Tallet and Lekket, Aurra Sing is clearly The Heavy of the arc, and is the ones that the Jedi spend arc trying to capture, as indicated in the arc's very title, even before Tallet and Lekket hire her. Tallet and Lekket only appear in a single issue to hire Sing, and even then, Sing only accepts because the mission will also ger her an opportunity to kill her mentor, the Dark Woman.
    • "Darkness": Volfe Karkko
    • "The Stark Hyperspace War": Iaco Stark
    • "Honor and Duty": Venco Autem
    • "The Defense of Kamino": Passel Argente is the mastermind of the attack on the cloning facilities on Kamino, with Commander Merai as The Heavy leading troops into battle. In a larger sense, Argente is The Starscream to Count Dooku, hoping that a successful attack will allow him to supplant Dooku as the leader of the Speratists. However, Sidious and Dooku caught on to his plans, and ensure his plans are leaked to the Republic in order to sabatoge the invasion and discredit him after the Separatists are defeated.
    • "The New Face of War": Asajj Ventress and Durge
    • "The Battle of Jabiim": Alto Stratus
    • "Show of Force": Kh'aris Fenn is responsible for putting bounties on Jedi, although Mika is The Heavy, as the leader of the bounty hunters trying to collect the bounty.
    • "Dreadnaughts of Rendili": Asajj Ventress and Mallor Yago
    • "Siege of Saleucami": Sora Bulq is The Heavy directly at the battle. However, Bulq's master, Count Dooku, does appear via hologram in attempt to turn Vos over to the dark side.
    • "Into the Unknown": Clone Commander Vill, who is hunting Jedi Dass Jennir after the activation of Order 66.
    • "Hidden Enemy": Clone Commander Faie, who is hunting the Jedi Quinlan Vos after receiving Order 66 directly from Palpatine himself.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Alan Jonah serves as the primary/most visible villain for the first six chapters' Story Arc, when San and Vivienne Graham reborn as Monster X are in their crippled first form and are imprisoned by Jonah.
  • Ancienverse: Both Zinnia and Dalton serve as this for "Teamwork" and "Turbulence", respectively. Lusamine, as per the games, is this for the entire "Alola Trilogy".
  • Becoming a True Invader: While the Employer is the overall Big Bad of the story, there's a couple of lesser yet important villains who are unconnected to him.
    • Pel is the main antagonist of the heroes' misadventures on Heboad, whose cult threatens all of them while they’re stuck on the planet.
    • Invader Togan is the Irken in charge of the armory planet Oberox, whom the heroes have to fight in order to steal the weapons they need for their campaign against the Tallest (as they're not even aware of the Employer yet at this point).
  • In The Bridge (MLP), while the story has a central Big Bad, each story arc has a defined villain after the status quo is established.
    • Everfree and Canterlot Attacks: Gyaos Horde, specifically the Albino Hyper Gyaos in the Everfree attack and the Alpha Super Gyaos standing in for her in the Canterlot attack.
    • Crystal Empire Arc: King Sombra
    • Human World Arc: Enjin
    • The Jeog, Ki Seong's Arch-Enemy, becomes one upon arriving in Ponyville.
    • King of Terror arc: Grand King Ghidorah.
    • Winter War arc: The Windigoes Three, Boreas, Zephyrus, and Notus. Eurus ends up as the Final Boss.
    • Queen Beryl for "Gojira tai Chibi-Tsuki - Furīkī Furaidē" omakes.
  • An interesting case in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series: though the fic generally is episodic, the fourth season had a shadowy figure always showing up at the end of an episode. Then, the two-part Season Finale "Our Solemn Hour" reveals that a decent amount of the season's plots were caused by Holographic Retro, whom Calvin then proceeds to fight. It ends in a Cliffhanger where both characters try to take the other with them into the lava, and the fifth season premiere reveals Holographic Retro was Killed Off for Real.
  • Dagur the Deranged takes over as the antagonist of the "Dagur Arc" in Dragons, Butterflies, And Who Knows What Else?, being the first fully-evil antagonist introduced in the series.
  • Earth's Alien History has a few examples, mostly from its various War Arcs but also elsewhere:
  • Engines Together has a few examples:
    • "Saving Sodor" has the Hellfire Clan.
    • Season three has Diesel as the shunter commits various escalating acts of vile deeds. Once he reforms in "Day of the Diesels" however the Diesel Brotherhood take center stage.
    • "Thomas and the Lost Engine" arc has Dudley forming a Big Bad Duumvirate with Mickey, Danny and the remainder of the Hellfire Clan.
    • "The Great Gala" arc has Spencer taking the stage as his rage and anger boil over.
  • The Equestrian Wind Mage has Ganondorf in Season 2. While he's the Big Bad of the season, his presence in Equestria was (unknown to the heroes or even himself) engineered by Majora and Dethl, in order to a) keep his presence in Hyrule from messing up their own plans, and b) hopefully allow Vaati and the Mane Six to eliminate him for them.
  • Fairy May Cry:
    • Opening Arc: Vergil.
    • Edolas Arc: King Faust with Nelo Angelo as a Dragon with an Agenda.
    • Shadow Hand Arc: Vergil, again, with Arkham as the Man Behind the Man.
    • Tenrou Island Arc: Master Hades.
    • Seven Years Gap Arc: No one, though the author has confirmed Sid's return later in the story.
    • Order of the Sword Arc: Sanctus and Midnight/Brain II working together.
    • Grand Magic Games Arc: Vergil, Future Rogue, and Elexion.
  • This is generally averted in Forum of Thrones, as most villains hold significance for more than one storyline and over a longer period of time. However, there are some minor exceptions.
    • Maya's storyline in Book 1 Chapter 3 features Lord Trymon Brune, head of House Brune and lord of the Dyre Den. He is killed at the end of the same chapter and held overall little importance for her plot, other than to introduce Aldrik Wolver to her group.
    • After some minor encounters as an Arc Villain for Maya and John Gutten, Rodrik Stone becomes this to Samantha and the people that surround her in Chapter 7 and 8 of Book 1.
    • Rayden, Clayton's Arch-Enemy is the Arc Villain for a very short time in Kersea's storyline, during chapters 6 and 7.
  • The Grim EDventures of Ed Edd n Eddy has Eris the Big Bad... for the first 47 chapters, after which she is replaced by Pandora.
  • Hellsister Trilogy: In "Hellsister", Mordru intends to seize the ultimate source of black magic and simultaneously destroy the Legion of Super-Heroes; In "The Apokolips Agenda", Darkseid intends to learn and speak the Anti-Life Equation to eliminate Free Will; In "Hellspawn", Nemesis intends to kill Supergirl in revenge for his mother's death Satan Girl.
  • Highschool Dragon: The villains for the original fic are mostly comprise of members from the Legion of Doom:
    • Chapters 1 to 17 has Nightmare Moon and her Co-Dragons, Trixie and Descent.
    • 19 to 20 has a lamia named Camille.
    • 21 to 27 has Queen Chrysalis with a brainwashed Sunset Shimmer serving as her Heavy.
    • 31 to 33 has Nightmare Rarity.
    • 34 to 46 has King Sombra.
    • From 47 to the rest of the story has Lord Tirek and his Co-Dragons, Grogar and Katrina.
    • So far in the sequel, Harem Legion, only the Storm King and his commander, Tempest Shadow, has appeared. But it is heavily implied that there are other villains lying and waiting.
  • A Hunter or Something: invoked Given that it would take weeks to walk from the crash site to Edge on foot, Word of God confirmed that Jaune and Ren will face multiple villains along the way, at the moment they are:
    • Mouk, an incredibly huge Ursa who lives near Ren's crash site and was angered that the rescue team entered its territory. It's the main villain of the first arc named only “Mouk Arc” which lasts until chapter 12.
    • invoked In Chapter 14 the next arc begins, which initially hints that Pete, the Beast of Brakken Fen a cannibal hunter will be the main villain, until it is revealed that he's dead and the Dogsnatcher is the true villain of the arc. Word of God describes it as the first real villain the duo will have to face because although it's much weaker than Mouk, what it lacks in strength it has in intelligence ten times over.
  • Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily: the two most prominent villains that White Gestalt face off are Mad Ben in the Desert Racetrack Car and Alex Shepherd/Pyramid Head in the Fog Car.
  • Inkopolis Chaos: Each installment has a different main villain: Scarlet in 1, the Octobusters' leader in 2, and Lieutenant Obsidian in 3.
  • Invasion of Falls: Some of the multi-chapter plots in the story have their own main villains responsible for events, who so far aren't an overall Big Bad:
    • "Sins and Dookies" (Chapters 3-4): Zim himself, who unleashes the Seven Deadly Sins curse on the town.
    • "Sumerweenies" (Chapters 7-9): Iggins, who is responsible for the Forced Transformations that the main characters undergo.
    • "Snarling Beast" (Chapters 12-14): Tak, who abducts the characters as part of a revenge plan.
    • "Doomsday Disco: Party Edition" (Chapters 16-18): Zib, who attacks the party being held by the Skoolmates and Fallers to get revenge on Dib and Zim.
    • "Don't be so Catty!" (Chapters 20-21): Mary and Fred, the idiot abductor aliens, who abduct Zim, Gaz, Mabel and Pacifica for experimentation. They quickly prove to be as utterly inept as always, and are quickly eclipsed as a threat by the Snarl Beast after they get it high on cat nip and accidentally trigger it on a rampage.
  • Kaiju Revolution:
    • The entries from the Mothra larvae through Mothra has Jyarumu.
    • The entries from Skull Island through Godzuki have the Vagnosaurs in the past and Godzilla in the present.
    • The entries from Varan to Kumonga have Kumonga.
    • The entries from Mu through Titanosaurus actually have the UN, whose decisions risk destroying Mu though the Atragon's crew is the Dragon-in-Chief. However, Godzilla takes over in the arc's final stages.
    • The entries from the Morlocks through to Biollante's combat forms have the Morlocks.
    • Gaw is the overarching antagonist for Kong's return to Skull Island.
  • Kara of Rokyn: In "The Early Stories", Blackflame manipulates people behind of the scenes in order to get Kara killed off; In "Zoners", Faora Hu-Ul and the remainder Phantom Zoners try to take over planet Rokyn; finally, in "Last Waltz with Luthor", Lex Luthor attempts to murder Superman and steal his powers to take over the world.
  • Later, Traitor: Just like its source material, all of the mental levels usually have an antagonist for the level.
    • Dogen's mind has Bonfear, the representation of Dogen's Power Incontinence anxieties made manifest.
    • Freezie, an evil living ice sculpture of Frazie, is this for the latter half of Phoebe's mind.
    • The "boss" of Clem's mind is a giant Killer Gorilla representing Clem's abusive father.
    • Just like in the real world, Mikhail is Maloof's bodyguard inside the mafia kid's head... except since he sees Mikhail as unstoppable, his mental version IS.
    • Chloe has a giant robot that works as the brain's natural defense against internal tampering when Frazie tries to bring her out-of-control telepathy to a more reasonable level.
    • The Drag-on symbolizes Vernon's long-winded storytelling in the form of a dragon that's equally as long. That is to say... very.
    • The new patients created for the fic also have their own antagonists. Pepper's is Salty Sally, Pepper's handmade puppet that serves as an unhealthy replacement for her deceased daughter.
    • The Night-Mare is the trauma and guilt from Jakob's past that haunts his dreams and inflicts him with debilitating insomnia.
  • A Minor Miscalculation: Mataro Mankanshoku becomes The Rival to Ryuko after his introduction and battles her on even ground for a few chapters, until Nui shows up and reasserts her status by brutally murdering him.
  • Neomorphs: Mersa is a significant individual threat for several books before being dealt with.
  • The original version of The Night Unfurls takes a step-by-step approach in dealing with the main conflict, the war against the Black Dogs, by splitting the story into many Story Arcs (the first arc is an outlier that happens before the main conflict). Progress is made by hunting down the antagonist responsible for the conflict in an arc.
    • Olga Discordia is the main obstacle of the first Story Arc, the Assault of the Black Fortress Arc (Chapters 1-3 of the original version). Kyril and co. are tasked to head to the North, capture her, bring her back to the South, and end the longtime war that's plaguing the lands.
    • Prime Minister Beasley is the antagonist who kicks off the Feoh and Ur Arc (Chapters 6-8 of the original version). Wanting a personal fiefdom among the Sex Empire, he starts the conflict by taking measures to secure Feoh and Ur for the Black Dogs. Due to his actions, there is an increase in monster incursions at the two strongholds, with no army defending said incursions (because they are held back) and no message from the one in charge, Alicia (because she is subdued). In order to prevent Beasley from welcoming the Black Dogs into the fortress, Kyril and co. head there to investigate, fight the mooks, and free the captives. Beasley's death resolves the arc.
    • Although Michelle Pantielle isn't the only antagonist of the Ansur Arc (Chapters 9-11 of the original version), the arc is resolved not only by stopping the Black Dogs from taking over Ansur, but also by tracking his whereabouts (which points towards where Maia is living), arresting him, and killing him.
    • Shamuhaza is responsible for starting the conflict of the Rad Arc (Chapters 14-16 of the original version) by breeding Elite Mooks and other monstrosities to bolster the Black Dogs' power. Due to his actions, Kyril and co. have to contend with a threat bigger than usual. His retreat and hence Rad being denied to the Black Dogs resolves the arc.
    • Subverted for Morgan. He is set up as the main obstacle of the Hunt for Leaping Lizards Arc (Chapters 17-22 of the original version). Kyril and co. set off to Scathlocke Province to hunt down the Leaping Lizards, including the leader Morgan, for a number of reasons (to provide closure for Grace, to find out any connections the slaver has, to root out traitors). However, Shamuhaza later takes over his place as the main obstacle and is finally defeated in the end, while Morgan doesn't even get a proper introduction and is implied to have died off-screen due to Shamuhaza's machinations.
    • The head of the Church, Archbishop Grishom, kicks off the conflict of the Rebellion in Ken Arc (Chapters 23-26 of the original version), being the one leading the uprising in the eastern district of Ken, rallying the supporters of the Black Dogs and publicly denouncing Celestine's rule. The arc is resolved via his imprisonment and the end of the rebellion.
    • Sir John Mandeville is the antagonist who kicks off the Hunt for Mandeville Arc (Chapters 27-30 of the original version) by kidnapping Chloe when she was following a lead into his location, prompting Kyril and co. to go find them. He is revealed to be one of the major players in sponsoring the rebellion and the Black Dogs' cause. Hunting him down is key to the arc's resolution.
  • one day at a time (Nyame):
    • Lady Shiva for the first flashback arc and Stephanie's introduction arc.
    • The Court of Owls for the gala arc, though they're more of a background presence.
    • The Joker for the post-gala arc.
    • Future Tim for the second flashback arc.
  • Perfection Is Overrated:
    • Chapter 1-4: Hitomi
    • Chapter 6-7: Toki
    • Chapter 8-10: Shizune
    • Chapter 14-15: Sekai
    • Chapter 17-19: Bachiko and Meiko, as well as Ishigami
  • Ruby and Nora has the first four BigBads, who have nothing to do with Salem. There is also an Interim Villain after the Fall of Beacon.
  • RWBY: Destiny of Remnant:
    • The Haven Arc has Cinder Fall, who Team RNJR seek to bring to justice after everything she did at the Battle of Beacon. When the confrontation leads to Ruby and Jaune's capture, their friends need to band together with every huntsman and huntress they met to rescue the two of them.
    • The White Arc has Adam Taurus, whose brutal regime of the White Fang causes the members of Team Beacon to go on a mission to put a stop to him and free the founder and original leader Claudandus Pirinci.
  • The A Song of Metal and Marvels series is a crossover between A Song of Ice and Fire and Marvel Comics, thus merging the former's complex Big Bad Ensemble with the latter's vast Rogues Gallery. As such, each book has standalone plots and antagonists that are notably distinct from the series' main conflicts:
    • A Man of Iron: While the main plot plays out, The Mountain becomes the most prominent foe of Tony and Jon's storyline, as he becomes obsessed with defeating Iron Man, and later Centurion.
    • A Crack of Thunder has multiple storylines that are more fully fleshed out, each with its own villain:
      • Tony and Jon: Ivan Vanko, who is on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the lords of Westeros.
      • Robb: Asha Greyjoy eventually emerges as Robb's main antagonist, as she launches an attack on Winterfell.
      • Jane and Thor: Melisandre, who eventually turns out to be Amora the Enchantress, and is manipulating Stannis to her own ends.
      • Tyrion: The Night's Queen, who is possessing Sansa Stark and competing with Tyrion for influence on King's Landing.
      • Daenerys: The Warlocks of Qarth, who try to take over the city and enslave Dany's dragons.
    • A Shield of Man continues the previous book's mechanics of having multiple storylines with their own antagonists, though they're more intertwined here:
      • King's Landing (mostly those of Jon, Natasha, and the Spiders), has Ser Adrian of the Tombs/the Vulture King, who is on a crime spree in and around the city. Meanwhile, there's also still the looming threat of the Night's Queen, while the Tyrells and Qyburn/Sinister are also looming the wings.
      • The North (specifically Robb, the Guardians, and Shireen) has Euron Greyjoy, who is nominally rampaging on behalf of the Others, but is also seeking greater power to betray and overthrow them.
      • North of the Wall (Jeor and Steve) has the Commander of the Others/Red Skull, who is spearheading the Others' plans to gather their power and assault the Wall.
      • Braavos (Tony, Arya, Theon and Brienne) has the Mandarin, who is plotting to take over the city as part of a larger agenda.
      • Slaver's Bay (Daenerys) has the Juggernaut, who is hired by the Great Masters to stop Daenerys' liberation campaign, only to turn on them to take the city for himself.
  • SMG4: Shatter-Verse Timeline: Besides from the usual ones in the main SMG4 universe, there are some examples.
  • Tales of the Undiscovered Swords: Ishida Sadamune, the series' first true Big Bad who only appears in one entry, story #4.
  • TFA Kaleidoscope has a few standalone villains on top of the more prominent antagonists:
    • The CMX Police drone functions as this for the "Who Polices the Police Drones?" arc, functioning as the Starter Villain for the Orion crew.
    • Pyro Goblin in the "Fire Convoy" arc, serving as a Starter Villain for Optimus and Sari.
    • The Beast Pretenders in the "Beasts of Burden" arc, with Prometheus Black as the Greater-Scope Villain.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • The Artemis Fowl series has one every second book. There's Artemis himself in the first book, John Spiro in book 3, Leo Abbot in book 5, and Turnball Root in book 7. Opal Koboi is a recurring villain in the other books, though she's part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Briar Cudgeon in book 2.
  • The Brightest Shadow: Aryabaus is not a general or major leader, but serves as the main antagonist (even if sometimes in the background) for the first book.
  • Chronicles of Ancient Darkness has a different Soul-Eater as the main villain of books 2 (Tenris), 4 (Seshru), 5 (Thiazzi), and 6 (Eostra). The first book's villain, the demon bear, was created by the second one's, and book 3 has the four remaining Soul-Eaters working together. From her introduction in book 3, Eostra is the Greater-Scope Villain until book 6.
  • Kasreyn of the Gyre is the main villain of the Bhrathairealm sequence in The One Tree, fifth book overall in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. His subplot is noteworthy for being largely self-contained (events Kasreyn sets in motion play key roles later on; Kasreyn himself does not) and for the fact that Kasreyn is the only major villain in the series who has nothing to do with its overall Big Bad, Lord Foul.
  • Demon Lord 2099: Marcus Dolchrite, one of Veltol's Six Dark Peers, has became a Corrupt Corporate Executive of Ishimaru Heavy Magical Industries, operating a large amount of Magitek he has administrative control over, and plotting to make Veltol suffer after he reappears. He's killed in episode 7 without getting to explain IHMI's history, which appears to go beyond him.
  • Master Nine aka Daniel Tucker in The Dreamside Road serves this role for the early Wintertide Festival arcs. He enables the Liberty Corps plan and poses the biggest local threat. But after his defeat, the Liberty Corps reveals itself as a much more widespread problem.
  • The Dresden Files: Nicodemus is the antagonist of Death Masks, Small Favor, and Skin Game, and one of the few villains who has so far remained unconnected with the Black Council.
  • Several books in Goosebumps get sequels with returning villains in both the original and spin-offs(The Mummy and Deep Trouble books avert this by having returning heroes who have different fantastical adventures each sequel).
  • The first five Harry Potter books have these, although four of them are affiliated with the series-wide Big Bad, Lord Voldemort, who takes his rightful place as the Big Bad from book six onwards.
  • Her Majesty's Swarm: Grevillea attacks a major nation per volume out of spite, but the leaders of said nations so happen to be morally even worse than her.
    • Volume 1 — King Ivan II is one of the main reasons the Kingdom of Maluk is xenophobic against the elves, and manages to offend Grevillea after one of the regular purges kills the elves she cared about.
    • Volume 2 — Marquis Leopold de Lorraine takes over the Dukedom of Schtraut with rigged elections, purging Duke Ceasar, who wanted to ally with Grevillea, as well as half of the population for disobedience.
    • Volume 3 — Cardinal Paris Pamphilj is the real man in charge of Popedom of Frantz, introducing the inquisition in the name of God of Light when in truth has been profiting from raids on own population.
    • Volume 4 — Maximillian Von Leuchtenberg is the Emperor of Nyrnal, a ruthless hegemony that has been trying to annex the rest of the continent for himself.
  • Newsflesh:
    • In Feed it was Gov. David Tate
    • In Deadline it was Dr. Joseph Wynne.
  • Pale Lights:
    • Lost Things: The Red Maw is the malevolent god trapped beneath the Dominion of Lost Things, and the entire reason for the trials on the island is to trick the participants into becoming blood sacrifices to empower its fading prison. Despite being sealed away, the god's influence is felt in every stage of the trials: its cultists haunt the Trial of Lines; the Red Maw has killed and impersonated several of the gods in the Trial of Ruins to take sacrifices of trial-takers for itself; and even though its mind has been shattered when the Trial of Weeds begins, its contract with Augusto Cerdan, one of Angharad's nemeses, allows the treacherous noble to become the Final Boss by attempting to kill all his former allies.
    • Good Treasons: Phaedros Arkol is the Ecclesiast, the High Priest of the cult to the mad death god known as the Hated One. The Ecclesiast is responsible for all the unrest on the Asphodel Rectorate, egging on two competing coups seeking to overthrow the king so as to plunge the island into civil war and free the Hated One with the ensuing mass blood sacrifice.
  • A Practical Guide to Evil:
    • The rewrite introduces Zendaya Matovu, the Summoner, as the antagonist of the War College arc. Though uninvolved with the actual war games, her assassinations of powerful nobles and efforts to frame a rival noble house risks plunging the Dread Empire into civil war.
    • William, the Lone Swordsman, is the antagonist of the Liesse Rebellion arc. He's a hero, but his efforts to liberate Callow from the Dread Empire plunge the kingdom into war. He eventually eclipses the Dread Empire in threat, planning to brainwash the whole city of Liesse into taking up arms and sparking the devastating Tenth Crusade.
    • The King of Winter and Queen of Summer are opposing villains for the Arcadia arc. The King, though mostly refraining from direct involvement in the war, triggers Summer's invasion of Callow as part of a gambit to free the fae from their repetitive cycle of acting out stories. Catherine must meet his demands while stopping the Queen from burning half her kingdom to ash.
    • Prince Amadis Millenan is the leader of the Proceran forces invading Callow during the Tenth Crusade arc. His general, Princess Rozala; his superior, First Prince Cordelia; and the hero known as the Grey Pilgrim are more competent and persistent threats, but Amadis is nevertheless the head of his political faction aiming to annex the kingdom and effectively usurp rule of the Principate from Cordelia.
    • Sve Noc, the twin goddesses Andronike and Komena, are the rulers of the Everdark who plunged their civilization into unending horrors to save them all from extinction. When Catherine invades with the goal of conquering the drow in the last third of Volume 4, the sisters in turn hunt her to usurp her power and free the drow from their curse, at least until Catherine convinces them to join forces instead.
    • The Red Axe, from the Arsenal arc, is a heroine who joins forces with the Wandering Bard to kill the villain who tortured her and sabotage the alliance between heroes and villains against the Dead King, wanting to prevent any leniency for the Damned even in the face of annihilation.
  • Reign of the Seven Spellblades:
    • The main plot of volume 3 is kicked off when Ophelia Salvadori is consumed by the spell and kidnaps several underclassmen including Pete Reston. This kicks off a multiway manhunt throughout the labyrinth as the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, the Sword Roses, and Stacy Cornwallis all try to rescue their kidnapped loved ones; meanwhile, a series of Troubled Backstory Flashbacks lay out why she's doing this.
    • Cyrus Rivermoore backstabs Godfrey at the end of volume 7 and steals his sternum and a chunk of his etheric body with it, driving the plot of volume 8 where the Watch sends a posse after him to get the bone back so Godfrey can heal, and the old council tries to delay them.
  • Star Wars Legends: The New Jedi Order has several of these, which makes sense when one considers that the series is largely composed of linked duologies and trilogies that together tell a Myth Arc. The most prominent are Shedao Shai from the Dark Tide duology, Lord Nyax and Czulkang Lah from the Enemy Lines duology (each holding down their own half of the story arc), and B'Shith Vorrik from the Force Heretic trilogy.
  • Sword Art Online:
    • Aincrad arc (Volumes 1-2): Dr. Akihiko Kayaba, who traps 10,000 players in his VMMORPG, the titular Sword Art Online, and forces them to complete his game to be freed, with him rigging his consoles to kill the players in real-life should they die in-game, while aiding some players as Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of Blood Oath guild.
    • Fairy Dance arc (Volumes 3-4): Nobuyuki Sugou, who traps 300 SAO survivors in a VMMORPG of his own, ALfheim Online, including Asuna, to use them as a test subjects for his mind control experiments, while planning to forcibly marry Asuna.
    • Phantom Bullet arc (Volume 5-6): Death Gun, who begins killing players of VMMORPG Gun Gale Online by killing them in-game. As it turns out, Death Gun is the Collective Identity between SAO survivor Shouichi Shinkawa and his brother Kyouji, as well as Shouichi's associate and fellow SAO survivor Atsushi Kanomoto/Johnny Black later.
    • Alicization arc (Volumes 9-20): The first half has Quinella, who takes over the Underworld simulation by usurping the Cardinal System to remake the Human Empire in her image; the second half, titled "War of Underworld", has Big Bad Duumvirate between Gabriel Miller and Vassago Casals (though the former is more of a Dragon-in-Chief to Gabriel), who lead an attack on the Ocean Turtle to seize Alice and the Soul Translator technology for the USA, with them having additional plans of remaking the UW into a soul-harvesting domain and instigate a bloodbath against SAO survivors who arrived in UW, respectively.
    • Progressive sub-series (an expansion of Aincrad arc): PoH, aka Vassago, who operates behind the scenes to increase the bloodbath of SAO by influencing many players behind the scenes.
  • Throne of Glass: That's how it started:
    • Throne of Glass: Cain. He is the first major villain of the series, as The Heavy of the book.
    • Crown of Midnight: Archer
    • Heir of Fire: Maeve
    • Then, Greater-Scope Villain (who was here as a villain since the start) appeared, and Maeve didn't leave.
  • Tortall Universe: The Trickster's Duet has Bronau as the main antagonist for the first book. His recklessness first indirectly endangers the Balitangs (and makes their exile among the raka less easy thanks to his flagrant racism), then through his smugly inept plan to seize the throne through Sarai. Book two is about the wider rebellion throughout the Isles.
  • The Witch of Knightcharm: Lily Rutherford is the main enemy during the orientation arc, which features all the rookie witches trying to survive a lethal obstacle course that their evil Wizarding School requires them to run. Lily is introduced at the arc's start and, along with her clique, immediately picks fights with the protagonist Emily. She remains a thorn in Emily's side through the arc until they have their final fight during Emily's last orientation run, resulting in Lily finally being defeated.
  • In the second book of The Witchlands, the main villain is not the Big Bad, but one of his mooks trying to deliver the heroes' country into his boss' hands.

    Podcasts 
  • The The Adventure Zone: Balance (Season 1 of The Adventure Zone) features a different villain for each story arc, usually powered by or seeking one of the Grand Relics.
  • Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe? has an antagonist in each phase who's schemes dominate most of it's films.
    • Dracula serves as this for Phase One, assembling various resources and lackeys in the hopes of gaining power over Set the way Nick has.
    • Imhotep takes over in Phase Two, starting by stealing Nick's body and then operating unnoticed so that he can try to unleash Hell.
    • While Phase Three spends the first half following more individual foes, the second half reveals that Carmilla has been running her own operation and becomes the antagonist of several films leading up to the finale.
  • The first three seasons of The Magnus Archives are structured this way, with one Avatar menacing the heroes for an entire season then being destroyed by the season's end — Jane Prentiss in Season 1, Not!Sasha in Season 2, and Nikola Orsinov in Season 3. Season 4 strays from this trope into a format closer to Monster of the Week, with the protagonists fighting multiple avatars over the course of the season (though Peter Lukas is the closest thing to a season-long villain) and Jonah Magnus being revealed as the Big Bad of the entire series at the season's end.
  • Each arc of Sequinox has the team fighting the stars of one constellation, with the constellation attacking them once they've defeated the other stars. The first arc has them face Antares, Sargas, Shaula, and their leader Scorpius.

    Roleplay 
  • JoJo's OC Tournament:
    • Aunt Leslie of The Grand Tour gets a dedicated arc during Round 2 completely detached from the main narrative. He's introduced by Kangol and Borsalino, the two halves of Oscar Del Goorin, as an extremely dangerous criminal that needs to be taken out as soon as possible, to the point he spends several Matches recruiting a party of Stand users to take him down. After one of the chimeras created by his Stand, My First Car, murders Oscar, the remaining Stand users kill it and force Leslie in the open, where he takes on all of them at once in a lengthy, multi-person fight.
    • Urban Uprising features three feuding criminal gangs who are fought during the eponymous ARG in parallel Story Arcs over multiple Matches through Rounds 2 and 3: Who's Next, lead by Mr. Yes; XIIth Street, lead by Pao de Quiejo; and the Black Beetles. Whilst they seemingly appear to be disconnected from the main story, they're later revealed to have varying levels of involvement with Lyte Ltd. and their artificial Stand-granting drug, XPLICIT, going from dealing it through the streets to trying to dispose of it.
    • Emily Stanton serves as the overarching villain for Round 1 of Fortune's Reach, leader of the criminal Bakker Syndicate that reigns over the city's slums and the one believed to be behind the suspected murder of André Tifani, who had been trying to assist the many Stand users that had found themselves displaced in Los Fortuna in the previous weeks.

    Theatre 
  • EPIC: The Musical reimagines The Odyssey as a musical and details Odysseus' journey home. While Poseidon is the Big Bad, the story is divided into nine sagas comprised of multiple songs, with several sagas having a driving villain.
    • The Cyclops Saga has the titular cyclops Polyphemus who attempts to devour Odysseus and his crew in revenge for killing his favorite sheep and nearly stealing from him. He serves as the Starter Villain who convinces his father Poseidon to target Odysseus.
    • The Circe Saga has Circe, a paranoid goddess who turns intruders on her island into animals in an attempt to protect her nymph subjects. Odysseus needs to contend with her to rescue several of his men who she's turned into pigs.
    • The Wisdom Saga has Zeus who's keeping Odysseus trapped on Calypso's island. He's the main opponent that the Arc Hero Athena has to overcome in order to help her friend resume his journey home.
    • The Ithaca Saga has Antinous and the Suitors who've been trying to pressure Odysseus' wife Penelope into marrying one of them. They serve as the Post-Final Boss after Odysseus has already beaten Poseidon at the end of The Vengeance Saga, tying up loose ends before Odysseus can finally reunite with his son and wife.

    Toys 

    Web Animation 
  • Animator vs. Animation:
    • The main series:
      • Season 1: A Big Bad Ensemble between the Animator and the Chosen One: One is the evil owner of the computer who creates stick figures just to torture and kill them, being directly responsible for every conflict this season, while the other is a Wild Card One-Man Army that just seeks to spread chaos on the computer, having major influence over every episode except the first one (as he wasn't born yet).
      • Season 2: The Dark Lord, a creation of the Animator who had a secondary role in Season 1, creates an army of ViraBots with the intentions of killing as many people in the Internet as possible. He's so evil he makes the Chosen One redeem after hitting a breaking point and team up with the Animator (who had already redeemed in the Season 1 finale).
      • Season 3: Victim, the Animator's original creation from the very first episode, is the CEO of Rocket Corp who orchestrates the Chosen One's kidnapping and imprisonment as part of his plan to get revenge on both him and their creator. Agent, Victim's security guard, serves as The Dragon with three Hired Guns as additional antagonists. Halfway through the season, the Dark Lord returns and forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with Victim.
    • Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts: While Seasons 2 and 4 have no arc villains due to their episodic structure, the same cannot be said for these seasons:
      • Season 1: Purple is a stick figure encountered by Green and Blue who quickly proves himself to be selfish and untrustworthy. While he's only around for three episodes and leaves the story afterwards, it's him who kickstarts the season's story arc and it's heavily implied he created the Nether portals that the heroes spend the rest of the season travelling through.
      • Season 3: King Orange, who wants to steal the Minecraft Game Icon from the Stick Gang's home so he can destroy all of Minecraft with a black hole to avenge his dead son, Gold. Purple works under his new master until he is betrayed and there are additionally several minor threats.
      • Season 5: "The Corruption" is an enigmatic, destructive Glitch Entity that kickstarts the story by forcing the world of Minecraft into Hardcore Mode, putting the whole cast in danger of being Killed Off for Real, and later seperates them into different dimensions. It's also the Greater-Scope Villain of Season 3 as the entity that killed King's son, Gold.
    • Influencer Arc mini-series: The corrupted video file is the only antagonist in the series and thus the main troublemaker, while serving as an Allegorical Character for Green's egotism, which caused the whole trilogy.
  • Lobo (Webseries): Sunny Jim serves as the main antagonist in the first five episodes, while the last four episodes have the gluttonous Snake as the main threat due to eating Lobo's current bounty Mudboy.
  • Madness Combat features Tricky the Clown, who serves as the main villain of the Tricky the Clown Saga lasting from Depredation to Consternation. Before him was the Sheriff, who serves as this for the earlier episodes, and after Tricky was the Auditor in the Auditor Saga, though as the Interquels show, the Auditor's influence extends far beyond his arc.
  • In Red vs. Blue: The Recollection, The Meta serves as the overarching antagonist — first as the sole Big Bad of Reconstruction, then as part of a Big Bad Ensemble in Recreation, and then finally as half of the Big Bad Duumvirate of Revelation (Before betraying his partner, Washington, and serving as the sole Big Bad for the last few episodes, as well as the Final Boss).
  • RWBY: Each Volume has a particular villain that the heroes have to overcome. Even with the overarching villains popping in and out to give the heroes hell, there's at least one villain who is only an active threat for one arc before they go away.
    • Cinder Fall is the leader of the villains who are active in Vale for the first three volumes. Roman Torchwick is the Starter Villain, who is the villain the heroes know about, and through which get sucked into the main plot. However, Cinder is in charge of him, and is herself carrying out the orders of the Big Bad, who is introduced at the end of the third volume once Cinder completes the mission.
    • The Nuckelavee Grimm is the overarching antagonist of the RNJR part of Volume 4, with its presence foreshadowed throughout the volume in destroyed villages across Anima, and its mere existence and memory of its attack deeply affecting Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. The volume's last quarter features the monster itself quite prominently, and it serves as the final antagonist in the last episode of the volume.
    • Volume 5 has two main arcs that intersect at the climax of the volume. Adam Taurus is the focus of the Menagerie storyline, and the reason why the Faunus intervene to help save Haven Academy. Hazel Rainart is Adam's overseer for the Big Bad to coordinate Adam's plans with Salem's. The main thrust of Salem's plan is led by Cinder, whose job it is to obtain the Relic of Knowledge. Character flaws in all three of these villains ensures that the heroes emerge victorious from a conflict they otherwise could not have won.
    • Though Volume 6 doesn't have an overarching villain, it has two mini-arc villains for the last few episodes of the volume. The heroes are unable to get to Atlas, since their route's blocked by Special Operative Caroline Cordovin; the conflict between her and the heroes is affected by the conclusion of Adam's story as an Arc Villain and personal nemesis of both Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. However, the volume's final threat is neither Cordovin nor Adam, and ultimately requires the heroes and Cordovin to work together to defeat.
    • Volume 7 focuses on Arthur Watts and Tyrian Callows carrying out Salem's plan to turn Atlas and Mantle against each other, while the heroes struggle to counter them and resolve Weiss Schnee's personal storyline involving Jacques's own villainy. Just as the heroes think they're getting on top of everything and have captured the pair, Cinder makes her presence known by pressing the Trauma Button of James Ironwood, who has already been pushed to breaking point by the other villains and learning the Awful Truth about Salem. This transforms him into a villain by the end of the volume, and the next volume sees him become the Arc Villain when Oscar Pine temporarily indisposes Salem.
    • Volume 9 focuses it's main conflict on Team RWBY and Jaune Arc dealing with the aftermath of what happened in the previous volume and resolving their own personal issues in the Ever After as Ruby struggles to deal with her own while Neopolitan uses the Jabberwalker to hunt down Ruby in revenge for Roman's death. While Neopolitan actually succeeds and causes Ruby to be Driven to Suicide, she begins to realize that Vengeance Feels Empty and that she didn't have anything else left to live for. At that point, The Curious Cat also reveals that they are Evil All Along and have been trying to break Ruby in order to possess her; they feel it's the only way to escape to Remnant and learn why their creators abandoned the Ever After. When Ruby "ascends", however, they possess Neopolitan, whose Empty Shell state makes her an even better vessel than Ruby was.
  • SMG4: from 2018 onwards, the channel started to upload arcs starting featuring such villains. In order:
  • The Stickworld: The titular Stickworld and the Overseers who protect it are affected in some profound way based on who they fought at the end of each season.
    • Season 1 and the Cliff series that preceded it has The One, a demonic entity whose telekinetic power splits the world in half and nearly kills the Creator.
    • Season 2 has the First Overseer, whose power had grown to the point that the sky turned purple from him just being alive. The Creator apologizes to The One/Zeruel for the suffering that he had ignored and promises to get his parents back, leading to a Heel–Face Turn in which Zeruel puts the Stickworld back together and teams up with Lolph to fight the First Overseer. After they succeed in sealing him away again, the Creator manages to not only revive Zeruel's parents, but also Lolph's father Rolph. He then allows the two Overseers to take a vacation while he makes Justice a fourth Overseer just as she died.

    Webcomics 
  • Cucumber Quest: The Disaster Masters serve as Arc Villains for every kingdom the heroes visit - Splashmaster was fought in the Ripple Kingdom, Noisemaster and Mutemaster in the Melody Kingdom, Rosemaster in the Flower Kingdom, and Quakemaster in the Crystal Kingdom.
  • Deities has had two Arc Villains. In the Evil Rising arc there is Lucifer and in the Flood arc there is Mother Nature.
  • Damien in El Goonish Shive, followed by Magus. After their respective arcs ended, things have shifted into a Big Bad Ensemble.
  • Sam Sanders in Endtown is a mixture of this and Filler Villain. Once the arc is completed, he is never mentioned again, and when Al and Gustine do reappear, they don't mention him. He is also one of the examples in which he had no minions or a dragon — he operated completely by himself.
  • Everyone Is Home:
    • "Sephiroth Brings Dispair" and "Everyone Got Murdered by Sephiroth So Now Kazuya Has To Bring Everyone Back" arcs: Sephiroth
    • "Lost in the Kingdom": Wild Era Ganondorf
    • Ultimate Battle Royale" arc: Tabuu and Galeem
  • Inverloch has Berard for the main antagonist for the first three volumes. He has nothing to do with Kayn'dar, but he stalks the party while they look for clues about Kayn'dar. After he kidnaps Acheron for a Forced Prize Fight, Varden kills him and the story turns completely to Kayn'dar.
  • Kaiten Mutenmaru: Crocell Xylel is the main antagonist of the "Hero" arc in Sea of the Beginning, where he creates monsters in Megapolis as part of a conspiracy involving research on Abominable Crystals.
  • Kirby Adventure: several segments have their own independent villains.
    • The First Mission has King Dedede, though he surrenders before Division A can even fight him.
    • To The Tower has Fusion Kirby, the leader of a gang of thieves residing in the Old Tower.
    • Tear In The Fabric has Ybrick Etamitlu, the Evil Twin of the Author Avatar, Ultimate Kirby.
    • Master Of Puppets has Master Green, an enemy from Kirby's past who creates clones of Kirby and the other members of Division A in order to get revenge on Kirby.
    • Technical Difficulties has Captain Stitch, another enemy from Kirby's past who hijacks the Halberd as part of his plot to get revenge on Kirby.
    • C Central has Chef Freeze, a Chilly chef who speaks in Gratuitous French and who wants to cook the members of Division C for his recipe.
  • L's Empire has had three, with each arc (referred to as sagas in the comic) named after them: Dark Star, Phala (the Pixl Queen), and Sergeant Smacka.
  • In The Order of the Stick, the main villain is Xykon the sorceror, but there are several lesser antagonists:
    • Daimyo Kubota is a villain in Azure City (and in exile) in the No Cure for the Paladin Blues and Don't Split the Party story arcs.
    • Bozzok is the leader of the Greysky City Thieves' Guild and the villain from Haley, Celia, and Belkar's perspectives in Don't Split the Party.
    • General Tarquin is only an Arc Villain in the Empire of Blood story, but he thinks he's the Big Bad and his son is The Hero. It kind of makes him more dangerous, since he has the power to try to force the story go his way with extreme prejudice.
    • Vampire!Durkon, the goddess Hel, and the vampire formerly known as Gontor Hammerfell are the Arc Villains in Book 6.
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: "Sleipnope" was the main threat to the crew for the second part of Adventure I, but was ultimately dealt with before that story arc ended.
  • Loan Shark Kim Lurker from Tower of God in the first "episode"note  of Season 2.
  • A regular feature of Zebra Girl, starting with Lord Tool in the "Angels With Dirty Fur" arc.

    Web Original 
  • In Atop the Fourth Wall, there usually is one major villain per story arc:
    • Mechakara in "His Heart is Steel".
    • Dr. Linksano in "The Other Insano".
    • Lord Vyce in "All That He Sees, He Conquers".
    • The Entity in "A Piece of the World is Missing".
    • Lord Vyce again in "His Blue Soul".
    • The "Guns and Sorcery" story arc is where the main villain is harder to place. Holokara serves as the main antagonist for the first half of the arc, the Gunslinger is the major antagonist for most of the story and Dr. Insano just steals the show by the end of the story arc.
    • Lord Vyce for a third time in "Ghost of the Machine".
    • The King of Worms in "The Machinations of Worms".
    • Mechakara in "The Atop the Fourth Wall Movie".
    • The Entity returns in "The Sleepwalker", with Lord Vyce being the final threat in the story after its death.
  • C0DA has a segment where the "Pseudo-6th-House" (essentially a superhero style team of Physical Gods) battles "The Intellective", "a bionic despot of a parallel reality" who attempting to invade the reality of the work. Meanwhile, the Reality Warping Humongous Mecha Numidium serves as the actual Big Bad of the work.
  • Critical Role has one for most of its story arcs across campaigns.
    • From Campaign 1:
      • Kraghammer Arc: K'Varn, a powerful Beholder creating Body Horror abominations below the Dwarven city.
      • Vasselheim Arc: The party is split into two groups, each taking on one. The first has Rimefang, a White Dragon. The second has Hotis, a Rakshasa from the Nine Hells who had infiltrated the city. Hotis went on to become a recurring antagonist later in the campaign, as Rakshasas are vengeful and don't permanently die unless killed in the Nine Hells.
      • Briarwoods Arc: Lord Sylas Briarwood and Lady Delilah Briarwood, an Unholy Matrimony couple of a vampire and a sorceress, responsible for the death of one party member's entire family.
      • Chroma Conclave Arc: Four Ancient Chromatic Dragons: Thordak, Raishan, Umbrasyl and Vorugal. Thordak, being the leader of the Conclave, serves as the primary antagonist. Until Raishan is revealed as The Starscream and becomes the final opponent. This arc went on for so long that several mini-arcs occurred in between dragon fights, some of which had their own arc villains — The Feywild Arc with Saundor, a corrupted Archfey; The Ank'Harel Arc with Anna Ripley, former follower of the Briarwoods; and The City of Brass Arc with Ghurrix, a Pit Fiend.
      • The final arc has Vecna, an ancient lich who seeks to become a god. He was also The Man Behind the Man for the Briarwoods arc.
    • From Campaign 2:
      • The Iron Shepherds mini-arc: The Iron Shepherds and their leader Lorenzo, a band of slavers who abduct Fjord, Jester and Yasha.
      • The Bad Guys arc: Captain Avantika, a fellow follower of Fjord's evil patron Uk'otoa, who plans to unleash him onto the world.
      • The Bright Queen's Favor arc: Obann, a devil from the Abyss and worshiper of the Angel of Irons, who has been opening mysterious rifts that unleash hellish creatures all over Wildemount.
      • Swords and Angels arc: Obann again, although this time he is mind-controlling Yasha, and assembles an increasingly terrifying Big Bad Ensemble over the course of the arc. Mid-way through, the Mighty Nein learn that the Angel of Irons is a false identity used by Tharizdun, the Chained Oblivion, in order to trick people into freeing him.
      • Family Ties arc: Vokodo, a powerful psychic being living in the volcano of Rumblecusp, who erases the memories of all who live there and forces them to worship him as a god.
      • Weird Magic arc: Lucien/The Nonagon, previously known to the Nein as Mollymauk, and the Tomb Takers. Lucien's goal is to travel to the Astral Sea, merge with the living, screaming, eternally hungry city of Cognouza, and unleash it on the Material Plane.
  • Dream SMP has one (or more) major overarching villains or main antagonists who becomes a threat throughout the season, usually being set up in the previous season.
    • Season 1 plays with this, as while Jschlatt was the villain throughout the season once the elections were over, it was Wilbur who ultimately became the main antagonist after Jschlatt died suddenly, having resolved to blow up L'Manburg in an attempt to kill himself while Technoblade helped clean up the remaining mess with Withers. Wilbur's case is played with, however, as he saw himself as a Villain Protagonist as a result of an arc-long mental breakdown and while he is an antagonist, he's closer to an Anti-Hero than a villain proper.
    • Season 2 plays this straight with Dream, being an active threat throughout Season 1 for the L'Manburg War for Independence before he took a backseat to Jschlatt, coming back in full force by horrifically abusing and gaslighting Tommy and being responsible for both his exile and the permanent destruction of L'Manburg. He even has a Final Battle with Tommy at the very end, and overall seems to act as the Big Bad.
    • Season 3 initially has the Eggpire, a cult worshipping a Botanical Abomination that had its start in Season 2 but became a major threat in Season 3. Though Dream was in prison during the season, he still managed to exert a significant amount of control over the server and generally played a Big Bad Ensemble with the Crimson, the aforementioned Botanical Abomination. Later in the season, the Las Nevadas arc muddies the waters a lot more — post-Despair Event Horizon Quackity acts as a somewhat antagonistic force (he gets better by the end of the volume), but pales in comparison to Techno, who gets broken out of prison by Philza and eventually breaks Dream out of prison in the season finale, allowing Dream to act as the Returning Big Bad in Season 4.
    • In Season 4, however, even with Dream and his threats looming on the horizon, the Crimson starts to make a comeback to the lore after being dormant for about ten months in real-life time...
  • Pinot Noir mostly has the eponymous assassin taking out gang leaders one by one throughout the story, with him targeting a new gang in each chapter.
  • Tails of the Bounty Hunter has Cale Tomlik taking out the Five-Man Band of the Quintuple Cartel one at a time until he eventually takes out the Big Bad.
  • In the roleplay Tamrielic Adventures, the "Escape from Vvardenfell" had no real antagonist, but the "Threads in Windhelm" arc had Malvirian Linvail, a Dunmer pirate lord.
  • Total Pokemon has A LOT:
    • Lightning, Jo and Topher play the role of the Begubbubg arc's main antagonists, but it switches just to Lightning and Jo in the second arc when Topher is apparently killed off via McArthur's truck exploding and incinerating him in the last episode of said arc.
    • Starting with the Diamond Days arc, Alejandro becomes the main antagonist for a LONG time. Topher also comes back (he apparently survived being incinerated in the explosion). However, once again, Topher is removed from the main antagonist role.
    • In the Ho-Oh arc, a Ho-Oh (which is just Ezekiel when he performed a Fusion Dance with his Fearow) is the main antagonist.
    • The Frozen Wasteland arc has Jacques and Josee take over as the main antagonists.
    • Evil clones of Cameron and DJ take over as the antagonists in the Nova arc.
    • The final time Alejandro takes over as main antagonist is in the Hellbent arc, where he is killed off at the end. Topher also comes back AGAIN. Arcs are planned beyond that point, but they don't have planned villains yet.
  • Unwanted Houseguest has the Shadow Demon. It later turns out the Demon was summoned by a Greater-Scope Villain, but Doctor Wolfula doesn't get the chance to elaborate.

 
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Video Example(s):

Obake

The main antagonist of Season 1.

Wilson Fisk

Mr. Negative

Hammerhead

Zed

Vikke

Josey

Lewis Legend

Mariska

Viridi

Dervahl

HEPHAESTUS

Look-See

Miss Annity

Gregory Sallinger

Maleficent

Ursula

Oogie Boogie

Captain Hook

Clayton

Hades

Jafar

Larxene

Marluxia

Alden Tate

Sasha

"...Earth is ca...

Liv Amara

The Grizz

Sheriff Toothpick

El Jefe

The Black Knight

Miss Decibel

Cyrille Le Paradox

Don Octavio

The Mask of Dar...

General Tsao

Captain LeFwee

Dr. M

The Black Baron

Dimitri Lousteau

Arpeggio

The Contessa

Rajan

Jean Bison

Panda King

Mz. Ruby

Clockwerk

Sir Raleigh

Muggshot

Alternative Title(s): Arc Villainess

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Obake

The main antagonist of Season 1.

How well does it match the trope?

3.8 (10 votes)

Example of:

Main / ArcVillain

Media sources:

Report

Obake

Wilson Fisk

Mr. Negative

Hammerhead

Zed

Vikke

Josey

Lewis Legend

Mariska

Viridi

Dervahl

HEPHAESTUS

Look-See

Miss Annity

Gregory Sallinger

Maleficent

Ursula

Oogie Boogie

Captain Hook

Clayton

Hades

Jafar

Larxene

Marluxia

Alden Tate

Sasha

"...Earth is ca...

Liv Amara

The Grizz

Sheriff Toothpick

El Jefe

The Black Knight

Miss Decibel

Cyrille Le Paradox

Don Octavio

The Mask of Dar...

General Tsao

Captain LeFwee

Dr. M

The Black Baron

Dimitri Lousteau

Arpeggio

The Contessa

Rajan

Jean Bison

Panda King

Mz. Ruby

Clockwerk

Sir Raleigh

Muggshot
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