Evil Chancellor: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Sometimes it's the [[The Kingdom|monarchy]] / [[President Evil|Head of State]] who's the [[Evil Overlord]]. And sometimes there's these, where instead of the Head of State being the person who has malicious intent, it's his advisor, assistant, second-in-command, or Head of Government (that is if the Head of State and Head of Government are separate positions). Most of the time he's actively scheming to discredit or usurp the throne, and may even be an agent sent for this purpose by an outside power. In other cases, he's perfectly content to be [[The Man Behind the Man]] and keeps the ruler around primarily as the figurehead for the ignorant masses and as the fall guy if something goes wrong. He can also tend to have more actual power and real influence than the Head of State, especially in cases where the Government is a Parliamentary system or a Constitutional Monarchy. Sometimes called The Evil (Grand) Vizier instead, in which case he will spend a lot of time tapping his fingertips together and calling everyone "effendi".

While Chancellors, Vice Presidents, and the like may not be examples of this trope, the title "Grand Vizier" might as well just include "Evil" as part of it, in the eyes of English-speaking audiences, especially if the Vizier's name is [[Grand Vizier Jafar|some version of "Jaffar"]]. If you see a non-evil Grand Vizier, the author is probably playing with the trope... or you're talking about [[Real Life]] (the historical Ja'far ibn Yahya, while a Vizier, was [[Historical Villain Upgrade|not particularly Evil]]).

 

 

If only the King thinks the evil chancellor is his most trusted and loyal subject, he's a [[Horrible Judge of Character]]. When only the protagonists see through the evil of this character, it's a [[Devil in Plain Sight]]. If he ''doesn't'' want to steal the throne himself, then his goal is almost certainly to turn the ruler he allegedly serves into a [[Puppet King]].

 

 

In terms of the ranks of [[Authority Tropes]], the tropes that are equal are [[The Good Chancellor]], [[Standard Royal Court]] and [[Deadly Decadent Court]]. The next steps up are [[The Evil Prince]], [[Prince Charming]], [[Prince Charmless]], [[Warrior Prince]], [[The White Prince]], [[The Wise Prince]], and all [[Princess Tropes]]. The next step down is [[The Brigadier]]. Also see [[Treacherous Advisor]].

 

* Seymour Cheese from ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' was a very overt example of this as well.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'': After the [[Time Skip]], {{spoiler|Rossiu}} became a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] chancellor. {{spoiler|And when he realizes what he's done, he almost kills himself. Simon has to punch him out of it ''through hyper space''.}}

** Fonsie Kagatie from ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|Victory Gundam]]''

** Also {{spoiler|Urube Ishikawa}} and Prime Minister Wong from ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam|G Gundam]]''.

* Wiseman/Death Phantom, the [[Big Bad]] and [[Cosmic Horror]] of the second season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' plays the role of advisor/seer to Prince Diamond and the Black Moon Clan all the while using them for his own agenda.

* Averted in ''[[The Cat Returns]]''. The Cat King's adviser is more of a straight man to the mad king.

 

 

* The French comic book character ''[[Iznogoud]]'' (from the creator of ''[[Asterix]]'') is a comic exaggeration of this character type. A [[The Napoleon|short]], excitable character who's Grand Vizier to his cousin the Caliph of Baghdad, his sole purpose in life is to try and take the Caliph's place (as outlined in his [[Catch Phrase]] "I'll be Caliph instead of the Caliph!"). [[Failure Is the Only Option|Naturally, he never succeeds]]. The comics have been adapted into a TV series as well.

** And, who could forget Tantri the Mantri in Tinkle digest, whose main goal is to kill Rajah Hooja and become the Rajah.(basically based on Iznogoud). Naturally, he always fails, and injures himself. The Rajah is ignorant enough to believe that Tantri is a devoted servant for getting himself into such dire situations.

* Oddly enough, Doctor Robotnik (and after his disintegration, Doctor Eggman) in the [[Archie Comics]] version of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. Before becoming the [[Mad Scientist]] (or, perhaps, concurrent with being such) and the [[Evil Overlord]], Robotnik served the King of Acorn as his chief advisor and war minister... only to turn on him after the Great War was over.

* [[Doctor Doom]] was one of these, then he orchestrated a couple of [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|robot doubles]] and waited for a death or two, and had a robot double prince give all the power to him.

* Deputy Chief Judge Martin Sinfield in ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' is this trope to the current Chief Judge, Dan Francisco. While Francisco is somewhat idealistic and does want to improve conditions for humans and [[Mutants]] alike, but at the same time easily manipulated, Sinfield is a cynical bastard who is only interested in his own power, and has used his influence to carry out some deeds of questionable legitimacy.

 

 

* Chancellor Oznabrag from [http://fav.me/d4a27sp Super Milestone Wars]

* In Sabaku on DA's remarkably mature ''[[Ben 10]]'' fanfic set in the future, the evil adult form of Kenny, called Kenneth has a scheming Evil Chancellor named Kiyomori Taira, based off the rather villainous Kiyomori from history. He also has skills as an [[Evil Sorcerer]] and is blatantly more powerful than Kenneth, as seen in ArcadiusD's Time of the Serpent continuation fic

 

 

* Zig-Zag from the masterpiece ''[[The Thief and the Cobbler]]''. And voiced by [[Vincent Price|the master of such characters]]. Ironically, he is actually [[The Dragon]] and not the [[Big Bad]].

* Jaffar, from ''[[The Thief of Bagdad]]'', starts out as an Evil Vizier, although he does wind up usurping the throne rather early in the film.

* Jose Ferrer's Vice President in ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man 3]]'' is part of the conspiracy orchestrated by Killian, which includes assassinating the President.

 

* Hamman from the Book of Esther in the Hebrew [[The Bible|Bible]] was a Persian wazir who tried to convince his king to exterminate the Jewish population that was scattered in the Persian empire. Since the queen was secretly Jewish (and her uncle had saved the king's life), this did not go well for him. He is probably one of The Oldest Ones In The Book.

** This editor recalls reading many stories of Court Jews and/or Rabbis facing off against Evil Courtiers of various stripes in books of Jewish folktales as a kid.

* In the [[Arabian Nights]] tale "The Story of the Slave-Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan", Jafar (see Exceptions below) helps Harun al-Rashid take down an evil vizier who's preying on the king and people of Basra and persecuting the titular Nur al-Din Ali (whose father was a good vizier).

* In Dante's ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the 8th Bolgia (ditch) of the Eighth circle of Hell is reserved for "Evil Counselors," that is, the officers and advisors of rulers who mislead or betray their masters. He includes examples of his era in the poem. When [[Larry Niven]] and Jerry Pournelle wrote the novel ''[[Inferno]]'', doing their own take on Dante, the most poignant example was [[Benito Mussolini]], who, as chancellor of Italy, turned that country to Fascism.

* Played straight ''and'' averted in the case of [[Fluffy the Terrible|Mocha]], the [[Complete Monster|evil-as-sin]] Court Magistrate in the episodic-segment story "[[What Is This Black Magic You Call Science]]?". She kills and sacrifices anyone with faint hints of liberalism, even {{spoiler|killing a little girl with [[Little Dead Riding Hood|red flowers in her hair]] who Chryseis was trying to save. In front of her parents and siblings}}. Her constant, rivalry-antagonism with Chryseis is also fueled by {{spoiler|sibling rivalry, since their father thought Chryseis was a better child. I wonder why}}. Oh, and she's also [[A God Am I|the goddess of female power]], and a very violent [[Blood Magic|blood mage]].

** ''[[GURPS]] [[Discworld]]'' subverts it with the Grand Vizier of Al-Ybi, a sensible and unambitious accountant, who has reluctantly grown a [[Beard of Evil]] and practiced his sinister smile, because that's what's expected. He views the whole thing as an unnecessary distraction from balancing the budget.

* Inverted in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': Eddard Stark and Tywin Lannister are both highly competent and (though Tywin's a bit of a [[Magnificent Bastard|bastard]]) they are both trying to do what's best for the realm. Unfortunately, the king Eddard serves is a stupid, brutish, drunken has-been, and both of the kings Tywin serves are {{spoiler|products of incest and dangerously insane--one of them tried to burn the city down instead of letting his enemies have it, and the other is a young sociopath who is [[Disproportionate Retribution|heavily into revenge]] and managed to cause a city-wide riot against the aristocracy.}}

** [[Torture Technician|Qyburn]] is an aversion. He's quite shifty, he cuts open people for fun and {{spoiler|has an unhealthy interest in reanimating the dead}}, but {{spoiler|by the end of the fourth book he's the only one of Cersei's advisers who is still somewhat loyal to her.}}

* Grima Wormtongue of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' succeeds in effectively ruling Rohan by manipulating the ailing King Theoden... for a while.

** Sauron becomes this to the King of Numenor in ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. Using the Numenoreans fear of death and envy of the Elves' immortality, {{spoiler|he convinces them [[Religion of Evil|to worship]] the fallen Vala [[Big Bad|Morgoth]] and to attack the Valar's sanctuary of Valinor, resulting in Eru (God) sinking Numenor.}}

** Alexander also uses the trope in ''The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha'', which is sort of [[X Meets Y|Alice in Wonderland meets the Arabian Nights]]: a boy falls asleep and wakes up to discover that he has been mistaken for the ruler of a delightfully Arabesque kingdom complete with not-so-delightful Vizier. The titular character later deliberately averts the trope by {{spoiler|appointing the only person he trusts, a somewhat seedy character, to be his vizier. (Un)surprisingly, he does a better job than the original [[Evil Vizier]]}}.

** He uses it again in ''The Castle of Llyr'', the third book of the [[Prydain Chronicles]], in which Magg is chancellor to the kindly King of Mona. Unfortunately for King Rhuddlum, Magg's real loyalty lies with the wicked Queen Achren, who has promised him a kingdom if he helps her kidnap Princess Eilonwy.

* In the [[Stephen King]] novel ''Eye of the Dragon'', the king's trusted advisor and magician Flagg plots to assassinate the king and frame the elder (and wiser) prince for the murder. The same character, under the alias "Marten Broadcloak", played the same role in the court of Gilead in the backstory of ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, while ''at the same time'' also playing evil vizier to Gilead's rival, John Farson, under the name "Walter O'Dim". All three of these roles, in addition to several others, are assumed by Flagg in his capacity as [[The Dragon|right-hand man]] to [[Satan|the Crimson King]], to whom he also plays [[The Starscream]].

* In the [[David Eddings]] ''[[Elenium]]'' trilogy, the churchman Annias serves as this trope to King Aldreas, the weak-minded ruler of Elenia. Annias needs to control the crown while he works on becoming Archprelate (the story's equivalent of the Pope), and to that end he {{spoiler|convinces the king that it's okay to [[Brother-Sister Incest|sleep with his own sister, Arissa]], who is the mother of Annias's son Lycheas.}} It keeps Aldreas distracted.

* In one book of Christopher Stasheff's ''[[A Wizard in Rhyme]]'' series, the title character visits a country which has an evil queen who is descended from an Evil Chancellor who usurped the throne. The Chancellor's name was [[Sdrawkcab Name|Reiziv.]]

* In [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'' series, Pryrates [[Complete Monster|gleefully]] occupies this role to the [[Unwitting Pawn|ill-fated]] King Elias. In the end, he turns out to be [[The Dragon]] to the [[Big Bad|Storm King]].

* General Zhi Zhong in ''[[Conqueror|Lords of the Bow]]'' is, for the most part, loyal to Emperor Wei, but outside the royal court openly considers him a foolish weakling. When his army is crushed by Genghis Khan at the Battle of the Badger's Mouth, he returns to Yenking, kills the emperor, and installs Wei's seven-year-old son, Xuan, as the new emperor, with himself as regent. His subsequent refusal to surrender to Genghis Khan quickly leads Yenking to starvation and eventually cannibalism.

* [[Knight Templar|The Kingpriest]] in ''[[Dragonlance]]'' was unlucky enough to be stuck with ''two'' of these guys- the conniving Elven ambassador Quarath and the enigmatic [[Evil Sorcerer]] Fistandantilus. The two are often contrasted, as the former is a [[Smug Snake]] who plays politics for fun and profit, while the latter is a [[Magnificent Bastard]] with far more... [[A God Am I|epic]] ambitions.

* The Supreme Custodian in ''[[Septimus Heap]]''.

 

* ''[[24]]'' has had several evil Vice Presidents, the best example being Charles Logan, who was merely incompetent as a vice president but became evil upon his [[Twenty-Fifth Amendment|ascension]].

* Played straight and subverted by Noah Daniels. It's made clear he was only on the ticket to add national defense creds. Turns out to be a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] hell-bent on nuking the Mideast for whatever flimsy justification he can get away with, but when he [[Twenty-Fifth Amendment|ascends to power]] the [[The Chains of Commanding|responsibilities of the office temper his views]] and he ends up making peace, then giving up the office at the next election.

* Subverted in the ''[[Flash Gordon (TV series)|Flash Gordon]]'' series. Rankol is an evil, hero-torturing cybernetic mad scientist whose experiments have endangered two worlds. And he is still aghast at most of the stuff his boss does on a weekly basis. Of course he does work for [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Ming the Merciless]].

 

* Sibich, chancellor for king Ermanerich in the legend of Dietrich of Bern. Among other things, he manages to get the king's sons and nephews killed.

 

* In the original ''[[Buck Rogers]]'' comic, Oggo was the corrupt prime minister of the [[Yellow Peril|Mongol Empire]] under the Celestial Mogul. The Mogul was actually a [[Reasonable Authority Figure]], but he had allowed Oggo the freedom to run the empire as he wished, while the Mogul puttered about with scientific research, foolishly confident that Oggo was running things justly and fairly.

 

 

* Revolver Ocelot from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' makes this trope his identity.

* The medieval chancellor of the royal family of Guardia in ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' is kidnapped and impersonated by a vicious monster, Yakra. Meanwhile, his modern-day counterpart is a paranoiac who sentences Crono to death for "kidnapping" the princess and disorderly conduct, and later puts the King himself to trial. {{spoiler|He is, in fact, a descendant of Yakra who impersonates the modern-day chancellor in order to get revenge on Crono for defeating his ancestor.}}

** And the Vizier in ''Sands of Time''.

* Noah in the first ''[[Galaxy Angel (video game)|Galaxy Angel]]'' game sucked up to Eonia, claiming him for her admirable older brother in a [[Brother-Sister Incest|siscon]] sort of manner while convincing him to do all the evil he did before and during the coup.

* Played straight by Sima Yi and averted by Zhuge Liang (and most other strategists) in ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]''.

* In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sima Yi is played as one, although he is loyal until almost the end, and Zhuge gets a nice rant about how he's a hero and not about to betray anyone.

** Lady Prestor, advisor to the young King of Stormwind, is actually giving him terrible advice because she's a dragon, the daughter of Neltharion.

** The Lich King expansion added {{spoiler|Varimathras, a member of a race that has been [[Exclusively Evil]] from the start of time}} to this list, to the surprise of absolutely no one. The spoiler tag probably isn't even necessary

*** Finally validated in ''Cataclysm''. In an effort to get cozy with the new War Chief, she had Garrosh's weapons coated with a poison during a duel with Cairne and used the chaos following the death of their leader to try and usurp Tauren leadership in the Horde. Garrosh was ''not'' amused.

* Taken to ridiculous extremes in the Xbox game ''[[Metal Wolf Chaos]]'', where Richard Hawk, the vice president of the United States, abandons subtle evil-advisor strategies to terrorize the country in a giant robot. Necessitating the President to don his own giant robot and take it back.

** Overlord II's ending suggests that he's biding his time...

*** Why would he be? He handpicked and cultivated from childhood exactly the Overlord he wanted, and as his mentor/custodian can exercise more authority over than Overlord can over him. That's as comfortable a situation as a [[Man Behind the Man]] can get.

* In ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'', Ganondorf begins as the trusted "servant" of the [[Horrible Judge of Character|King of Hyrule.]]

** Zant in [[Twilight Princess]] is also one according to the Japanese text of the game

** He's ''named for the alleged author of [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|the Necronomicon]]'' and the king trusted him? Wow.

*** Worse, in the ''[[King's Quest]]'' [[Expanded Universe]], he IS the writer of [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|The Necronomicon]]! It wouldn't be the first time the universe crossed over with Lovecraft, either.

* Before usurping the throne and becoming an [[Evil Overlord]], Murod of ''[[Summoner]]'' used to be this.

* In ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'', prime minister Borg is definitely one of those. He actively plots to use the princess as a bargaining chip to the approaching imperials in an attempt to allow him to be named King in her stead.

* Rilix, an ancient powerful being of a long lost race of people is this to the King in ''[[Shining the Holy Ark]]''. She turns the King into a [[Puppet King|puppet]] an attempts to use him to bring back her race, who are [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed in a can]].

 

* Parodied to ridiculous levels with the ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' character [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Chancellor Usurper]] aka {{spoiler|Dark Elf King Astos}}. When he was about to take over he planned to have the man who would be the next chancellor killed since he knows you can never trust whoever is in that position. Apparently, this is par for course in Elf Land.

{{quote|'''White Mage''': Your viziers are treacherous?

* ''[[Adventurers!]]'' has a comic where upon being introduced to the Chancellor, Karn immediately tosses him out a window [[Genre Savvy|for this very reason]]. Parodied in that that was the GOOD chancellor, his evil duplicate was late to work and hadn't had a chance to kidnap/replace him yet.

* Subversion/Lampshade Hanging: In ''[[Darths and Droids]]'', Qui-Gon is immediately suspicious of Queen Amidala's advisor Sio Bibble (whose name Qui Gon [[My Name Is Not Durwood|thinks is "Bubble"]]) due to his [[Beard of Evil|goatee]] and the fact that he's a "trusted advisor". However, ''never ever at all'' does Bibble do ''anything'' that would indicate this to be at all accurate. In fact, the commentary includes [[Weirdest Inbound Link of the Day|a link to this page.]]

* Played to the extreme by [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=990706 Advisor Magon] in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]] ''and'' subversion in ''[[Casey and Andy]]'', where the protagonists visit a fantasy-based parallel dimension. [http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=450 There], the "Evil Grand Vizier" is ''supposed'' to be constantly scheming to topple the monarch, and sure enough, the Vizier is easily recognizable as the local version of Casey & Andy's archnemesis... however, {{spoiler|in the end it turns out that he's actually a good guy, and that he'd only ''pretended'' to be a scheming, unreliable madman in order to get close to the Queen, with whom he was in love. The true Evil Chancellor turns out to be the court wizard Kasor, who plays this fairly straight.}}

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', {{spoiler|Tarquin and his five adventuring buddies pair up and act as this to three different empires (though they are not necessarily, in this case, opposing in alignment to their bosses) in a careful juggling act designed to give them all wealth and power without the hassles and dangers of being openly in charge.}}

 

* ''[[Associated Space]]'' features Ursula Urquart, leader of the loyal opposition, who is apparently out to either take over, or secede her worlds from the Terran Associated States.

* Somewhat subverted in ''[[Cwen's Quest]]'' as the three scheming advisors to the Witch Queen, while unscrupulous, are actually a lot nicer than the queen. They briefly actually manage to take over the kingdom by putting a child on the throne after the original Witch Queen's death but when next we see them they've apparently lost control as the new grown up queen is viciously ordering them around.

* Spoofed in a Web Cartoon Series called Larry. The Evil Counselor is so obviously evil with his dark clothes, he even talks to other Evil Chancellors characters such Palpantine, Ymza, and Jafar.

 

* The character of Long Feng, head of the Dai Li in the second season of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. The [[DVD Commentary]] mentions his power was based on that of Imperial Chinese eunuchs (see below).

* Another comical, over-the-top example is Chancellor Trample from the ''[[Tale Spin]]'' episode "The Road to Macadamia."

* Dorkus in ''[[Planet Sheen]]''. His goal isn't to usurp the throne, however, but to get rid of Sheen for destroying his home, taking his place as imperial advisor, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|making fun of his name]].

 

** Of course, unlike the typical example, his Sultan (or rather, [[President Evil|President]]) was [[General Ripper|Paul von]] [[Imperial Germany|Hindenburg]], who was no innocent old man himself.

* The eunuchs of [[Imperial China]] were notorious for commonly being an entire set of Evil Chancellors. In fact, at one point people were banned from becoming eunuchs as they simply held too much power. Of course, you didn't see many people lining up to become eunuchs anyway...

* Henry Clay Frick to Andrew Carnegie.

* People who dislike a particular US presidential administration sometimes portray the vice-president as an Evil Chancellor. This is unusual since the Vice President has little official power, though most carve out some sort of role for themselves. A more appropriate role for the veep might be [[The Starscream]]. The White House Chief of Staff is usually the President's right-hand and "most trusted advisor". Chiefs of Staff in fiction are rarely portrayed as plotting against the President, though.

*** Lincoln brought this on himself by stacking his cabinet with politicians opposed to him (and each other). He did this to unify the fledgling Republican party and force them to work together.

* Cardinal Richelieu is usually portrayed as this, though he was a bit of an [[Inverted Trope|inversion]] as he wanted more power for the crown, and helped turn France into a true autocratic monarchy. His successor, Cardinal Mazarin usually gets similar treatment.

 

 

* In the [[Fanfic]] ''The Basalt City Chronicles'', Priest-Emperor Zaykar and The Guardian of the Crown Lord Kosgan do ''not'' get along well, at least on the surface. However, Lord Kosgan is actually utterly loyal to the Empire; his friction with the somewhat younger Priest-Emperor was originally to make sure that the Empire got a strong ruler

 

 

 

 

* Grimble in ''[[Myth Adventures]]'', while engaging in power struggles with General Badaxe, has no desire to rule.

* No matter how many Evil Viziers get named after him, Jafar in the original ''[[Arabian Nights]]'' stories was usually seen as wise, generous, and probably more mentally stable than Harun al-Rashid himself.

* After Ozma takes the throne of [[Land of Oz|Oz]], the Scarecrow cheerfully steps down and becomes Regent of Oz. It's a fine use of his fine brain, and he is very loyal to Ozma and to Ozma's chosen successor, Dorothy.

** In the "present day" Oz of ''[[Tin Man (TV series)|Tin Man]]'', Ambrose/ {{spoiler|Glitch}} is loyal and devoted to the lavender-eyed queen to the bitter end, destroying plans for an invention that could theoretically used as a doomsday device. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, he wasn't able to stop the Witch from taking the plans quite literally out of his head}}. Years later, he meets up with DG, {{spoiler|the Queen's daughter}}, and becomes equally devoted and protective of her.

 

 

* Cristo/Kiryl in ''[[Dragon Quest]] IV'' / ''Dragon Warrior IV'' is completely loyal.

* High Chancellor Ocato from ''[[Elder Scrolls|Oblivion]]'' gave no question as to Martin being the son of the emperor and simply knelt down and officially gave him the position.

 

 

* In ''[[Rice Boy]]'', the Grand Vizier of Satuar is far more intelligent, level-headed, and kinder to Rice Boy than the Prince is.

 

* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', Iblis, the demonic Grand Vizier of Vanna, ended up being a treacherous chancellor. On the one hand he was behind the equally villainous Sultana Adela's rise to power and did his best to aid her over the years, a job in which he succeeded admirably. However, in the end he betrayed Adela during the battle against the Grand Alliance and revealed that he had ultimately been working for the demonic Southern Horde with the sole intention of weakening Vanna from within for his true masters' upcoming invasion. He had thus been playing both Adela and the Alliance against each other while furthering his own goals.

 

 

* In ''[[War Planets]]'' (AKA ''Shadow Raiders''), the Grand Vizier of Planet Fire is a narrow-minded, obstructionist xenophobe. However, he is utterly devoted to his prince and the people of Fire. He even goes so far as to make a Heroic Sacrifice. He does make a reappearance afterwards where he tries to get them eaten by the Beast Planet, but like ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', it's an evil replica, not the real Vizier.

* The ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' story centered on the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam]] features a Grand Vizier who looks the part and schemes as much as any other, but he is in fact entirely loyal to the ruler of Jaipur and actually shows genuine concern for him. He's also not noticeably more bloodthirsty than the ruler himself, and only to the same people. (Of course, he also requires [[Exposition]] about the titular Ruby Yacht early on, so maybe he's just new.

 

 

* In the Norman Kingdom of Sicily during the middle ages, several figures can be seen as Evil Chancellors. Most notable is Maio of Bari, who served as vice-chancellor, chancellor and 'emir of emirs' under William I (and, briefly, his father, Roger II). The far from objective contemporary writer Hugo Falcandus (probably not his real name) claimed that Maio had attempted to elevate himself above the king, including openly contradicting the king's orders, hoarding 'royal regalia' such as crowns, appointing members of family to key government positions, and just generally taking over the entire business of ruling the kingdom. The accuracy of this can be discussed at length, but not here. Maio's predecessor, George of Antioch, has also been accused of spreading misinformation about his superior in order to get him executed and take his place, and is described as trying to keep the king concealed from his subjects; the chancellor Robert of Selby was supposedly the only means by which anyone could speak to the king; and the Greek-Sicilian emir Christodoulos was allegedly Roger II's equal in power (a feat which he achieved through making himself completely indispensable as an administrator and military commander).

* Similarly, Badr al-Jamali in Fatimid Egypt: he was initially asked by the Caliph to put down some troublesome dissidents, but ended up declaring himself wasir/vizier and gradually (but fairly rapidly) accumulating authority over pretty much everything in Egypt.

 

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