Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.
The Evil Genius - Princess Kycilia (she was the one to actually research and deploy Newtypes, instead of just using them for propaganda. Also the one to re-hire Char, which was smart but not terribly foresighted...)
The Brute - Prince Dozle, a 7-foot tall Genius Bruiser who serves as one of Zeon's best admirals.
The Enigmatic Minion - Char Aznable (who serves as The Dragon for Dozle, then Garma, then Kycilia, with the rather successful goal of stabbing the whole family in the back.)
The Dark Chick - NicolAmalfi: Probably the least capable pilot, Nicol makes up for it via technological advantages, including a cloaking device. Normally he'd be The Evil Genius, but on this team, his smarts make him stand out as much or more than his nice guy personality.
The Dragon & The Evil Genius: CaptainWilliamSutherland. Azrael's link to the General Staff, he serves as the bastard's Number Two, and is responsible for most of the Earth Forces' heinous strategic decisions. In Azrael's absence he leads the Earth Forces' navy in his flagship, the Doolittle.
The Dark Chick: Natarle Badgiruel. Captain of the Dominion (the Earth Forces' most advanced and prestigious ship) she ferries Azrael and the Brute squad around and helps lead the charge against ZAFT; she also lacks the mental instability of the other band members and eventually pulls a Heel Face Turn.
The Dragon and Team Dad - NeoRoanoke: Djibril's right-hand man, Neo leads the Phantom Pain strike team and keeps the Extended in line, while serving as the Earth Forces' best field commander and a capable mobile suit pilot to boot. He eventually Heel Face Turns.
The Brute - Shinn Asuka He's of a more heroic bent then most, but still fits the profile: lack of subtlety, emotional, easily controlled by The Dragon, allows rage to cloud his reasoning.
The Evil Genius: Archduke Gorgon. On the surface he would seem The Brute, but in reality he was a manipulative, conniving, scheming, Magnificent Bastard prefered using his intelligence before his -considerable- physical strength- and provided The Big Bad with increasingly powerful weapons.
The Brute: Count Brocken. Although he is not so physically powerful like Gorgon, he commanded his own corps and would often rather using strength instead of cunning. He is an ex-Nazi officer, so he definitely liked getting his hands dirty.
The Dark Chick: Viscount Pygman. He was not a girl but he definitelystood out and he definitely was considered a freak. His skills, abilities and powers were also very different of his colleagues' ones.
Dark Chick - Atlantis/Stecase King (One of Atlantis attacks involves squeezing an opponent's head until blood starts spurting out the top, so I think he qualifies).
Also the Six Devil Knights from the next arc of Kinnikuman
The Dark Chick - Gepparland (his original form is a cute-looking merman who is shown being battered by prejudiced humans, and he is the only Demon Seed who shows fear when faced with his punishment)
Villain Secret Service - the other three Valkyries (Lee, Nobue and Jeanne by name). All three are convinced to Heel Face Turn when Mashiro tells them that they have a bigger enemy to fight. Their boss vehemently refuses to turn, leaving her all alone on the side of bad.
The Big Bad - Curren (Undisputable leader of the group and apparently their most powerfull member. Also the only member with "Huckebein" as her true last name).
The Evil Genius - Fortis (Seems to be the "brains" of the group and Curren's second in command of sorts when she's absent. Also have a calmer and more affable attitude than most of his comrades save Curren).
Naruto - the Sound Four/Five (Evil Counterpart to Team 10, though they only fight two of that teams members, and only Jiroubou fights his direct counterpart, Choji)
Bigger Bad - Orochimaru, Kabuto has shades of this
The Big Bad - Kaguya Kimimaro (terminally ill bone-wielding murder machine and Orochimaru's own sometime Dragon.)
The Evil Genius - Kidoumaru (who looks like he fits the "less manically evil" trope until he's left alone with the heroes, then proceeds to get his sadistic nerd on.)
The Brute - Jiroubou (a light subversion in that he's quite smart enough to couple his attacks with some serious emotional abuse. Also seems to have the most common sense of the group. Evil Counterpart to Choji)
The Big Bad: Deva Path. By far the strongest, and most destructive of the six; has the body of Nagato's best friend Yahiko, acts as the field leader, and is the last one standing, taking on Naruto's eight tails form mano-a-mano.
The Dragon: Animal Path I --> Animal Path II. Pain's first line of offense, and the one's he values the most after Deva and Naraka Paths. Have the most openly destructive powers after Deva, being capable taijutsu users and the most powerful Beastmasters yet witnessed in series. The original was able to fight Jiriya for some time on a fairly even keel, while the second wrecks half of Konoha with her Bond Creatures and briefly engages Naruto in a one-on-one fight.
One Piece has a number of these, generally introducing a new set for each new arc, although several sets are recurring enemies. Chronologically, the first example for both groups is the main members of the Buggy Pirates:
Dark Chick - Hatchan (Although he is Arlong's First Mate and Zoro's opponent for the Arc, usual qualificaitons for a Dragon, he is the resident "quirky" villain, and the only one to eventually get redeemed)
Co-Dragons - Mr. 1 + Miss Doublefinger (The highest-ranked Officers after the Crocodile/Robin pair, and Mr. 1 remains Crocodile's Dragon after Impel Down)
Sixth Ranger Traitor - Chief Guard Shiliew. Served as a second Dragon at first, but became too uncontrollable, and had to be imprisoned, until Blackbeard recruits him.
Team Pet - Any animal in Level 2, the Hell of Wild Beasts.
One Piece's HQ-ranked Marines (primarily during the Marineford arc):
The Evil Genius - Wagnard (Spends most of his time down in the dungeon reading unholy scrpitures and summoning ancient demons.)
The Brute - Karla (Relies on raw magical force to obliterate her enemies, rather than tome or artifact-derived spells and incantations. Something of a Sixth Ranger Traitor.)
The Dark Chick - Pirotess (the Dark Elf. Ashram's evil, devoted, very hot and verystrong girlfriend. Like Deedlit, relies on elemental magic and familiars. Also, one of the few evil characters with any defensive abilities...)
The Team Pet - Narse (the gigantic demon dragon. So big and grotesque it almost crosses the line into Eldritch Abomination territory.)
The Big Bad - Sakyo, the owner of Team Toguro, and the mastermind of the Dark Tournament
The Dragon - Toguro the Younger, the strongest member of Team Toguro, and the singular biggest threat in the entire Tournament. Fear of him forced Yusuke into the Tournament in the first place
The Evil Genius - Karasu, a bomber-demon on par or better then Kurama in the way of smarts. It took a transformation into the Demon Fox to outfox him
The Brute - Bui seems like a textbook case: heavy armor, Big Friggin' Axe, and a tendency to not speak. However it turns out that the axe is by no means his best weapon, he is quite the eloquent speaker when he wants, and the armor is actually designed to limit his dangerously strong battle aura
The Dark Chick - Toguro the Elder, clearly the most unhinged demon on the team, even moreso then the sadistic Karasu. Nearly immortal and capable of twisting his body into any number of truly grotesque mutations
The Rakuyou Koukou (Luoyang) students from Ikki Tousen
The Brute/The Starscream: Ryuk (although he's the exact opposite of Dumb Muscle, he's used for tasks normally assigned to less intelligent and more animalistic team members)
Note that, in the first half of the series, Misa acts as The Dragon and Rem as The Brute; however, Light's allies don't form a full Five-Bad Band at this point.
Aizen's team that he took to Fake Karakura Town forms a good example.
Another example from Bleach comes from the first movie, Memories of Nobody.
Big BadEvil Genius: Ganryu Ryodoji (knowledgeable of the Valley of Screams and how the Blanks work, as well as being the main catalyst for the conflict during the first movie).
The Dragon: Riyan (seems to be the most loyal member to Ganryu, on top of having the most comparitively dangerous ability - Missiles).
The Brute(s): Bau and Jai (the two largest and physically imposing members).
Dark Chick(s): Benin (sole female member) and Mue (most effeminate male).
Again from Bleach, but from its fourth movie - Hell Chapter.
The Brute - Viede (Slightly subverted in he's almost a Gentle Giant, and possibly even a Genius Bruiser.) Genai (also fit this role before Chrono left.)
Team Mom - Mary Magdalene (she was Team Mombefore her death.), Fiore (fills this role afterwards.), Joshua (is occasionally a bit of a Sixth Ranger to the group, as well.)
Big Bad: Malo Myotismon (who came back from the dead and manipulated everyone)
The Dragon: Yukio Oikawa (who was thought to be the Big Bad, but it's later revealed that Myotismon used him as a puppet)
Evil Genius: Digimon Emperor/Ken Ichijouji (who only was a Digidestined manipulated to being evil, and joined the good guys once the manipulation was over.)
The Evil Genius: Burter, being as big and muscely as Recoome, but focuses on speed rather than brute strength. He's also the one coming up with all the tactics when he and Jeice fights Goku.
The Dragon - Envy. The longest serving member of the team, has a personal rivalry with the hero, serves as The Big Bad's last line of physical defence and is the closest to her emotionally, to the point of being the only member of the team who doesn't take orders from Pride. Fights like an Evil Genius by screwing with people's heads.
Evil Genius - Pride/ KingBradley. Deep-cover agent who masterminds the implementation of the plan, provides troops and battle strategies, and interferes with the heroes' efforts to undermine the Big Bad. Doubles as a second Dragon during the finale.
The Dark Chick - Soi (ex-prostitute, lightning and sex magic)
Miboshi an evil buddhist monk and demon summoner didn't get much screen time but was probably a second Evil Genius. Amiboshi is technically a team member but he first spies on then defects to the good guys - his power is musical human puppetry.
The Dragon: Guame ( He was Lordgenome's pet back when he was still a Spiral Warrior, essentually making him an Evil Counterpart to Boota, and Guame can take liberties with talking to Lordgenome that would get one of the other three generals killed where they stood)
Those Two Guys:Luke and Jan Valentine ,the Valentine Brothers, and the third Tubalcain Alhambra.
Star Driver: The Division Heads of The Order of the Glittering Star
The Big Bad: Reiji Miyabi/Head (Head of Vanishing Age and in control of most of the Order's Star Drivers. Despite the fact that there is no official leader, he's the closest thing they have.)
The Dragon: Keito Nichi/Ivrogne (Head of Bouganville, and easily the most level-headed, competent, and down-to-Earth member of the group.)
The Evil Genius: Midori Okamoto/Professor Green (Head of the Science Guild, which is responsible for all of the research done for the Project.)
The Dark Chick: Kanako Watanabe/The President (Head of the Adult Bank, which is responsible for funding the Project.)
The Brute/Tagalong Kids: Benio Shinada/Scarlet Kiss (Head of Filament, which serves as the Order's muscle.)
Sixth Ranger/The Mole: Marino You/Manticore (Filled in for Head while he was away and is only in the Order to lead them away from her sister, the West Maiden.)
The Brute - Conrad. The largest member, he almost never speaks but seems to be the most destructive of the group, unleashing a plague and participating in the Mind Rape of Griffith.
The Big Bad - Lucia, runs everything, a bit of a Dark Chick too. Recognizable by his own unique brand of insanity.
The Evil Genius - Hardener, he's got a strange past that leads to him easily out-crazying the rest of the Sinclair owners. His final evil plan is rather spectacular
Does the Band of Seven from Inuyasha count? Sure there's more than five members, but two of them die before we ever see the group together, leaving it at...
The Bigger Bad: Naraku. He revived the Band of Seven to occupy Inuyasha while he purges his human side and gains power at Mount Hakurei.
The Big Bad: Bankotsu. He's the leader of the group, fills in for the main villain while he's incapacitated, and is the hero's main rival throughout the season.
The Dragon: Jakotsu. The most loyal of the group to Banktosu, the second-best fighter, and the only one he counts on.
The Brute: Ginkotsu. Giant cyborg, barely speaks, fanatically loyal, relies on brute force to win.
You could probably make a case for The Big Five during the filler arcs in Yu-Gi-Oh!, based on their positions in the company, their Deck Masters, and how they play.
The Big Bad: Gansley. Former Senior Vice-President at Kaiba Corp, duels against the show's Hero (who is admittedly more of The Lancer in this arc), and is definitely in charge of the five of them (although outranked by Noah and Gozaburo Kaiba.
The Dragon: Lector. The best duelist out the five, holding all their best cards, and former assistant to Kaiba. He duels against Kaiba, who is very much The Hero of the arc, and comes extremely close to winning. During the team duel against Yugi and Joey he shows an affinity for actual Dragon cards.
The Brute: Johnson. Uses Judge Man (a huge monster wielding a hammer) as his Deck Master, and demonstrates very little subtlety in his duel against Joey (his Deck Master ability destroys every card on the field, and boy does he ever abuse it). Also, if you think about it, as the company's chief lawyer, he was always the first one into corporate fights on the company's behalf.
The Evil Genius: Nesbitt, though he overlaps with The Brute, being obsessed with war. A tech expert, weapons specialist and robotic fanatic.
The Dark Chick: Crump, though he overlaps with Evil Genius, being a math wiz. Easily the weakest and most ridiculous of the group, considering he uses a penguin deck. He's also the most sympathetic of the five - while the other four were corrupt executives looking for power, Crump was a neglected kid who just wanted to build a penguin theme park.
We also have Dartz and his group.
The Big Bad: Dartz, naturally. The leader of the group.
The Dragon: Rafael, Dartz's top henchman who duels The Hero and beats him.
The Evil Genius: Alister, uses a machine deck and likes to disguise himself. Also apparently knows how to fly a plane.
The Brute: Valon, uses an armor deck where he wears his monsters like an exo-suit and attacks the opponent himself with them. His own shown duel is very brutal and violent.
The Dark Chick: Mai, who did a Face Heel Turn. It is implied that while the other three joined Dartz willingly, Mai was brainwashed from the start.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Sartorius forms his band by brainwashing members of Jaden's Five-Man Band. All of them but Ojin were Jaden's friends before their Face Heel Turn.
The Big Bad: Roman. Leader of the group, founding member, last to be beaten.
The Dragon: Kalin. First of the group to be fought, Yusei's childhood friend, almost beats him.
The Dark Chick: Misty. Becomes a Dark Signer under sympathetic circumstances, is redeemed before losing.
The Evil Genius: Carly, though she overlaps with Dark Chick too. Is redeemed before her death, manipulates Jack's inner feelings and desires to try and provoke a Face Heel Turn.
The Brute: Devack. Uses an Ape deck, imprisoned Luna's Signer Dragon. When he's defeated he's replaced by Grieger, who duels more strategically but is just as brutal and powerful. The two of them are also physically large.
Big Bad: Z-ONE. The mastermind with powers on par with a god, he will stop at nothing to prevent the Bad Future he comes from ever coming to pass, even if that means killing millions of people. His deck is based on the glory of angels and God and he is the last to be defeated.
The Dragon: Aporia. Z-ONE's most fanatical follower because he was the one most broken by the Bad Future, he is the first to be sent out against the heroes (though they don't know it at first) and is given cards to specifically counter their edge. After an encounter with Rua convinces him there must be a third option, he pulls a Heel Face Turn and Z-ONE kills him. He is the third-to-last to be beaten by the heroes and second-to-last to go down permanently.
The Evil Genius: Antinomy, the group's chief manipulator who has all the best gadgets and uses a high-tech deck. Unlike most Evil Geniuses (who are usually the most-irredeemable of the Five-Bad Band next to the Big Bad), he's not really a bad guy, and ends up Becoming the Mask and giving Yuseitacit hints on defeating Z-ONE. He is third-to-last to be defeated.
The Brute: Paradox. Probably the most powerful next to Z-ONE (given that he can control time), he's the first to go down, his deck focuses on bringing out big, bad monsters as quick as possible, and his solution for averting the Bad Future involves lots of people dying and Stuff Blowing Up.
The Dark Chick: Sherry Leblanc. She stands out in that she is the only female, joined the group much later than the others (or would that be earlier?), and is unsure about Z-ONE's goal, having been coerced into helping. She uses a flower deck and is the second to go down.
The Dragon: Shiki. He's Creed's field commander, carries Creed's orders to the other Apostles of the Stars, is the most threatening after Creed himself, and must be defeated before Train can battle Creed.
The Brute: Maro. A sumo-wrestler who controls gravity. Not actually a member of the inner circle, he's obviously the highest ranking of the outsiders, and relays Shiki's orders to them.
While their efforts are generally unconjoined and seperate from each other, the employees of Easters innerwards workings can be seen like this until Nikaidou, of all people, makes a heel - face within episode 23.
Big Bad: Kazumu, until Gozen's existence is revealed within episode 22, although Kazumu still displays more traits of the trope (Aside from the fact that Gozen, for most of the series, never shows any portion of his body (Or his real voice.) towards any - one.) and commands the other operatives and the fact that he's (Albeit probably unintentionally.) partially responsible for Gozen's current condition any - way.
The Dragon: Kazumu towards Gozen, and perhaps Nikaidou towards Kazumu him - self (While not particularly loyal towards Kazumu, he seems the one most focused upon his "job", and is probably the most apparently "dedicated" towards it. (Ironically, he is the first to heel - face.) He also has a personal vendetta towards all of the Guardians, and, within fact, every being possible with a Heart's Egg: Jealousy due towards the loss of his own as a child, soon before it was about to hatch.)
The Evil Genius: While not exactly a genius, Nikaidou probably at first fits this role, at least more than the other workers: He devises each plan of his own to capture the Embryo, including, rather than capturing the original Embryo, simply making a new one instead. Still has evil methods, though. He can also build fully operational combat robots, as well as the machinery he uses occassionally for his plans, some - thing which stems from his child - hood dreams to be a robotics programmer. Later upon, Yukari probably takes more of this role, due towards her finding new ways and researching more technologies in order to amplify the corruption powers of Utau's voice. And the fact that Yuu just heel - faced.
The Dark Chick / The Brute: Utau, who shares the chickish trait of being captured prisoner... Only towards Easter's whims, not the Guardians. This is because the sole reason she works for them is due towards probably - violent threats towards her mother and, more importantly, Ikuto. And when she does find the Embryo, the only reason she'll take it is the desire towards wishing towards her and Ikuto's freedom. She's also the greatest offensive power the corporation have, which confirms her for the latter role, although she usually doesn't take pleasure for it, thus halting her from Brute position. Ikuto would also count, seeing that his Black Lynx Character Transformation form is probably upon par with Utau's Lunatic Charm Character Transformation (Although Dark Jewel may be another story, despite the time limit.) and that he is within partly the same situation, only with threats towards Utau and his mother (The same one as Ikuto's.) instead, but seeing as he's less likely to obey the smaller details of his orders and presented as far less helpless than Utau...
Friendly Enemy / Token Good Teammate / Enigmatic Minion: Ikuto, towards the point of being a main love interest. He screws around with the workers' (Especially Kazumu's.) plans and helps Amu and the other Guardians whenever he can afford towards, and constantly acts at least uncommunicatively towards any of the employee's aside from Utau, his sister. Hell, Yuu even spies on him at times to be safe. Also becomes somewhat of a Brute when he gets Brainwashed and Crazy later upon.
The Big Bad & The Evil Genius: Reiji "Marco" Maruko, Manipulative Bastard, Team Captain, quarterback and safety. He's also the one you can blame for the team's deliberately brutal style of play.
Co-Dragons: Rikiya Gaou and Hiromi Kisiragi, described as Hakushuu's Right Hand and Left Hand by Marco, Hiruma, and most commentators. Gaou breaks quarterbacks, runningbacks and linemen, while Kisiragi cripples recievers.
The Brute: Subverted. Marco clearly has former team ace Tengu slotted for this role, due to his status as their best linebacker, but Tengu pissed off Gaou (which never ends well) and Marco was forced to use himself and Gaou to fill the gap in the defence.
The Dragon: Patrick "Panther" Spencer, who doubles as the Token Good Teammate and serves as their main offensive power.
The Brute: Tatanka, perhaps the series crowning example of Dumb Muscle. He's tall, strong, a superb reciever, and a total dunce who's attempts at learning other languages have screwed up his ability to speak English.
The Dark Chick: Bud Walker, action movie star and wannabe cornerback. What exactly is he doing here?
In the Mai Hime manga, the Searrs Foundation has this.
The Dragon: MasakiSugawara, Kato's right-hand man and the most high-ranked of the organization's captains, not to mention the most skilled pilot. He's actually a Dragon with an Agenda who works for the Bigger Bad Central.
The Evil Genius: RikuOusei, a complete sociopath with a keen intellect and an obsession with imagination, who is always cooking up new schemes to prove the superiority of his mind, in his own twisted way.
The Brute: TakuroSawatari, DemitriMagarov and SoubiNakajima all share this role. None of them is particularly stupid, but they tend to take the direct approach to fighting.
The Dark Chick: YurianneFaithful and JackSmith, both of which have a noticeable difference from the others - Yurianne is the only woman in the group, while Jack is a human-sized Arma with free will and feelings.