

Invoked in Neon Genesis Evangelion by Gendo Ikari, playing The Dragon to Keel Lorenz by ensuring the destruction of the Angels to open the path to Insturmentality.Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh! did this to his own Kaiba Corporation when he was what, twelve?.It turns out that Saten was another survivor of the Adam Project who wanted Arclight dead so he could take over, but neither he nor his bosses counted on a revived Arclight coming back and absorbing him. Saten in the anime of NEEDLESS, who is introduced as one of Simeon's Elite Four, yet in a few scenes he "accidentally" helped out the good guys as they infiltrated Simeon's HQ.After Crocodile's defeat, she joins Luffy's crew. Nico Robin in One Piece starts out as a Dragon, but is later on revealed to have her own plans.In the anime adaptation of Kirby, Meta Knight is this.Wei serves Amber so that he can have a chance to fight Hei again. Carrossea Doon from Madlax is only with Enfant to find and protect female lead Margaret Burton, who's been targeted by the group, rather than for Monday's insane plans.It turns out that Black Zetsu is this to both Tobi and Madara he's actually working for Princess Kaguya.Both Tobi and Madara are rather annoyed with how those agendas have messed with their plans. Pain may be this to Tobi, but Tobi himself is this to Madara.Kabuto, because after Orochimaru was defeated by Sasuke, he ingrained some of his master's remains into his own body, and decided to help Tobi in the 4th Ninja War.

Pain in Naruto is the most direct example.Dabi from My Hero Academia is one of the League of Villains' most dangerous members, but he's ambivalent at best to Shigaraki's goals and is only allied with the League to advance his own agenda, that being Stain's will and his personal vengeance against his father, Endeavor.


Archduke Gorgon from Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger.The tropes can overlap somewhat, as many Dragons with Agendas intend to do away with the competition at some point down the road (or are at least aware that they might have to) a true Starscream intends to do so at the first available opportunity and often their only difference in plans centers around who will benefit rather than what they entail. If the Dragon's goal involves overthrowing his boss and taking his job, he's The Starscream. It is not unknown for him to have taken on service for his own purposes and fooled the Big Bad into thinking he's subordinate - in this case, if ever his own objectives clash with his master's, things will get interesting. Dragon-in-Chief is when The Dragon is actually the more dangerous of the pair, by a significant margin. If he's also influencing the Big Bad's plans, then he's at the same time The Man in Front of the Man. Most commonly, he and the Big Bad have a mutually profitable alliance, and the Big Bad just happens to be the more powerful of the two.
