Evil Chancellor: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Grand Viziers were ''always'' scheming megalomaniacs. It was probably in the job description: 'Are you a devious, plotting, unreliable madman? [[Horrible Judge of Character|Ah, good, then you can be my most trusted advisor]].'"''|'''[[Terry Pratchett]]''', ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]''}}

 

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''.}}

 

 

* 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.

 

 

* 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.

 

 

* ''[[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.

 

 

* 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.

 

 

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' Al-Qadim setting, ''A Dozen and One Adventures'' boxed set. In the city of Al-Anwahr, the treacherous vizier Zeenab tricked Amakim Ibn Issad into overthrowing his brother King Azaltin so Zeenab could steal the book "Eleven Baneful Gates".

 

 

* 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.}}

* 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?

 

 

* ''[[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.

 

 

* 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."

 

 

** 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...

 

 

* 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

 

 

* [[The Golden Voyage of Sinbad]] features a completely good Grand Vizier-albeit one who is currently serving as regent, the Sultan having recently died. The villain is instead an evil prince who is also a wizard--played by [[Tom Baker]], no less

 

 

* 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.

 

 

* 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.