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Evil Overlooker
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Evil Overlooker (trope)
"I spy with my wicked eye, a bunch of losers!"
"Composition-wise, this cover is actually more interesting than the ones we're used to seeing. We actually have something that catches the reader's attention, with the menacing villain holding the symbols of the heroes by knives."
— Linkara, Daredevil #306

Box art or advertisement that features the villain's head "watching" the hero. Many posters and video boxes for Western animated films feature this trope, especially if they are from The '90s, although since The New '10s, this trope has seen something of a comeback. Sometimes, the villain looks like they are trying to grab the main characters or the MacGuffin. If the villain is actually this large, it probably overlaps with Tall Is Intimidating.

This trope is related to Floating Head Syndrome, though the latter is not typically viewed as fondly. For when a villain is overlooking a scene in-story, see Dramatic High Perching.

Not to be confused with Evil Overlord, though some promotional material will depict them as such for obvious reasons.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Digimon Tamers:
    • Inverted. Impmon, intended at the time to be the Big Bad (a direction later changed), is underneath the Tamers rather than above in his early promotional material.
    • A promotional poster for the Battle of Adventurers movie attempts this trope with Gulfmon, but it looks like Gulfmon is looking away from the characters because of where his eye is.
  • The Volume 9 cover of the Hunter × Hunter manga shows the eyes of Chrollo Lucifier, drawn in an eerily realistic art-style, overlooking our four protagonists.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Stardust Crusaders: The visual for the Egypt arc has DIO looming over the heroes as he is Face Framed in Shadow.
    • Diamond is Unbreakable: The third visual features Yoshikage Kira in his Kosaku disguise watching the protagonists in Morioh.
    • Golden Wind: The visual for the second-half of the story has the team being observed by Diavolo's King Crimson while reaching for the Stand Arrow.
  • Macross Delta: The promotional poster has the faces of Big Bad Roid Brehm and The Dragon Keith Aero Windemere in the clouds above, looking down on the main protagonists.
  • My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising: In the poster◊, Nine's head looms over the group shot of Class 1-A, while his minions look off to the side. Also looking sinister on top is Hawks, whose involvement with the villains is unmentioned in the film proper.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai: A promotional poster shows Negi and Asuna posing in front with Fate Averruncus overlooking. Unusually, Fate's head and line of sight are turned slightly to the side to show his effectively apathetic nature (rather than diabolic or megalomaniacal).
  • Promare: The poster for the movie has Kray Foresight at the top overlooking the rest of the cast with his hands outstretched. Sure enough, midway through the film he turns out to be the Big Bad.
  • Sailor Moon Cosmos: Sailor Galaxia is looming above Princess Kakyu, the Sailor Starlights and Sailor Moon in the official poster.
  • On the cover of Sukeban Deka's OVA, Remi overlooks the scene
  • Tweeny Witches: Grande, the Big Bad, overlooks the Magical Girl Squad on the DVD cover for volume 7 of the Japanese release.
  • Voltes V: The DVD cover. On the right, in front, we see the Voltes team and the robot. On the left, in the background, we see the resident Prince Heinel overlooking them.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Friends: An official poster for Season 8 features a red-eyed Huo Haha - the season's Arc Villain -in the background, visible above the Supermen and Big M. (who, incidentally, is the show's overall villain).

    Comic Books 
  • Zion: Some promotional images show the villain looking over his shoulder down at Desta in his Zion form.
  • Marvel Rising (2019): The cover of issue #3◊ shows Morgan overlooking the heroes as if they're inside a crystal ball.
  • Murder Drones (2026): Two of Jo Mi Gyeong's variant covers employ this trope.
    • Her cover◊ for issue 3 depicts Uzi in full Solver mode ominously lurking above a terrified N.
    • Her cover◊ for issue 6 shows the face of the series' Big Bad above both Uzi and N.
  • Supergirl:
    • The cover◊ for Who is Superwoman? has the titular villain looking down at a worried-looking Supergirl.
    • Death & the Family: The cover of the first issue features Silver Banshee's giant head looming over Supergirl and using her sonic scream to shatter her eardrums.
    • Good-Looking Corpse: The cover◊for #64 features Big Bad Alex's giant head smugly looking down on Supergirl getting ganged up by her mind-controlled partners.
  • Superman:
    • The cover of The Phantom Zone #1 features the heads of Dru-Zod, Va-Kox, Az-Rel and other Kryptonian criminals grinning down on Superman and other characters.
    • "Luthor Unleashed!": Inverted. The cover features Superman's giant head fearfully staring down at the figures of the new and more dangerous Luthor and Brainiac.
    • War World: The cover of the 1983 British Edition features the space tyrant Mongul's giant face malevolently grinning down at Superman and Supergirl as they streak through the space.
    • The Future Superman of 2965: The second issue's title splash page features a giant, villainous Muto standing over the Metropolis' skyscrapers and looming over his nemesis Superman (it must be noted that in the proper story, Muto is in fact shorter than Superman).
  • Danger Girl: This cover◊ has Major Maxim in this role.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation²: The Cyber-Borg Controller appears as one on the cover of the final issue.
  • Resident Alien: The cover◊ to Welcome to Earth issue #2 shows a silhouette of Harry's face overlooking some government agents, except that Harry isn't a villain or even an antagonist.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes:
  • Tank Vixens: Issue #1 shows Udda von Schteppenslammer overlooking the titular vixens.
  • Nnewts:
    • On the cover of the first book, Wizzark is the overlooker.
    • Averted with the cover of the second book, where Anthigar is the overlooker.
    • On the cover of the third book, Herk's Lizzark form is the overlooker.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • Aladdin: The Return of Jafar: Jafar is shown looking at a crystal ball with Aladdin, Jasmin, and Genie inside.
  • All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: The poster has Red attempting to grab Gabriel's Horn.
  • Anastasia (1997): A notable poster shows Grigori Rasputin angrily staring at the titular Anya.
  • Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero: Inverted. It's Batman who's looming above Freeze and his two polar bears in the cover.
  • Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: The box art has the Joker's (green-tinted) head doing this.
  • Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation: The poster shows Gwendolyn Zapp with Scary Shiny Glasses and holding a hologram of the space hotel, while looking sinisterly over her shoulder at Cricket.
  • Dark Fury: On the cover, Chillingworth's head is watching over Riddick.
  • Disney Animated Canon:
    • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
      • Both the original theatrical poster and 2009 Diamond Edition covers feature the Evil Queen in the background overlooking Snow White.
      • The 2016 Signature Edition shows Snow White and the Evil Queen standing back to back, with the latter glaring over her shoulder at the former.
    • The Aristocats: The Masterpiece Collection VHS shows Edgar hiding behind the chimney while glaring sinisterly at Duchess and Thomas.
    • Sleeping Beauty (1959):
      • On the Masterpiece Edition VHS, Aurora is asleep in bed with Maleficent nearby glancing down at her.
      • The Diamond Edition DVD and Blu-Ray shows Aurora and Maleficent standing back-to-back and Maleficent looking over her shoulder at Aurora.
    • The Fox and the Hound: Some of the posters often feature the Bear from the climax looking down on the younger Tod and Copper. It is also one of few cases of Covers Always Lie as even though he has a major role in the climax, he does not even interact with the younger Tod and Copper.
    • The Great Mouse Detective: One of the posters has one of these.
    • The Little Mermaid (1989): The first poster and video cover have Ursula and King Triton as the overlookers. Ursula is the main villain, while Triton is more of an Anti-Hero who gets better.
    • The Rescuers Down Under: A variation on the back cover for the box, with McLeach being to being to scale with the other characters as he stands behind them with a hate-filled glare.
    • Beauty and the Beast (1991): The Beast overlooks everyone else on the original poster in cloud form, making it a case of Covers Always Lie since he's not the villain, or at least tried to project that appearance to anyone who's not familiar with the classic story.
    • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The theatrical poster. The VHS/LaserDisc cover has Judge Claude Frollo almost shunted off the top.
    • Hercules (1997): Inverted. Big Bad Hades and his minions are below everyone else in the poster to correspond with his domain as Lord of the Underworld.
    • Home on the Range: One poster shows Alameda Slim being above the animals, including Maggie, Mrs. Calloway and Grace.
    • Chicken Little (2005): In a science fiction variation, the aliens can be seen floating above the main characters in certain posters with the use of their ships.
    • Meet the Robinsons: A particular poster shows DOR-15 and Bowler Hat Guy being above the main characters with the blue time traveling ship.
    • Played With Bolt. A poster depicts Dr. Calico being behind Penny and the titular dog. However, Dr. Calico himself is not even a real character; his actor is.
    • The Princess and the Frog: Dr. Facilier is shown hovering over the main characters, including the titular duo.
    • Wish (2023): King Magnifico hovers over Asha and Valentino with Star under his chin.
  • FernGully: The Last Rainforest: On the video box art, Hexxus is seen in the background trying to grab the main characters. There is even a poster like this◊.
  • GOAT: A particular case of a poster where the villain is neither in the background nor in the foreground. Mane Attraction is seem sitting right next to the protagonist, Will, while glaring furiously at him.
  • Happily Ever After (1993): Subverted. On the cover, Snow White and the Dwarfelles are front and center, with the Shadow Man glaring malevolently at them from behind a tree. This is a case of Covers Always Lie, as the character in question is actually Snow White's harmless, mute Stalker with a Crush (actually the prince under an enchantment), and the film's actual villain is nowhere to be seen on the cover.
  • Heidi's Song, by Hanna-Barbera: One of the posters has two of them.
  • Heavy Metal 2000: Most of the covers featuring the villain Tyler show him above the Stripperiffic heroine Julie. In one, it's his face in the clouds; in another, it's just his eyes; and in another one, he's fully armored.
  • Hey Arnold! The Movie: The film poster/video/DVD cover notably has an eerily similar layout to the Jimmy Neutron example listed shortly below, which was also part of the Nickelodeon brand.
  • Incredibles 2: On the poster, the Screenslaver overlooks the Parr Family.
  • Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius: The poster depicts King Goobot looking down at the heroes.
  • Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie: The poster depicts Hawk Moth above the titular superheroes, with one of his evil magical butterflies, a newly released Akuma.
  • The Land Before Time: The artwork for the poster and the VHS release depict Sharptooth standing atop a cliff, looking down at the heroes as they walk across a fallen tree.
  • Lightyear: On the theatrical poster, Zurg's silhouette, with Glowing Eyes of Doom, appears above the heroes.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls 1:
    • On the new poster, Sunset Shimmer's eyes appear in the mirror above human versions of the main cast.
    • The back cover for the home media release shows Sunset in the background overlooking Twilight and her friends' human counterparts.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Tiger Prowess: One of the official pieces of artwork features Lord Japper overlooking the goats, Wolffy, and Leopold and Counselor (both Lord Japper's minions).
  • Pokémon: The First Movie: One of the promotional items from Burger King was a card that showed Mewtwo looking down at our heroes, complete with an Evil Laugh. (Card is marked as number one.◊)
  • The Powerpuff Girls Movie: The poster shows Mojo Jojo in the background overlooking the girls.
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: The Wolf can be seen in the upper left corner of the film poster, his ominous eyes-on-black background juxtaposed with the otherwise colorful poster.
  • The Scarecrow (2000): Count Grisham is in the lower left corner of the poster, holding his falcon Razor on his forearm, while looking with a mocking smile at Scarecrow and Polly.
  • Scooby-Doo:
  • Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: Eris towers in the background of the poster, looming over the heroes.
  • Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: The American cover of the DVD case features the Colonel's ethereal head looking over his shoulder at the heroes with hatred in his eyes.
  • Steven Universe: The Movie: The poster has the mysterious villain (Spinel) looming over Steven and the Crystal Gems while partially in shadow, looking down at them sinisterly.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Movie: On the official poster, Bowser towers over the rest of the cast, looking down on them menacingly.
  • Tom and Jerry: The Movie: The film poster/VHS cover features Tom chasing Jerry (which only happens for a few minutes in-film) while the face of the villainous Aunt Figg watches them with utter rage in cloud form.
  • Tom Sawyer (2000): The poster shows Injurin' Joe nestled among the vegetation, slyly eyeing Becky, Rebel, Tom, and Huck.
  • The Transformers: The Movie: The film posters have Unicron, both his planet form and his robotic head, prominently in the background behind the main cast. Funnily enough, since Unicron is the size of a planet, for once this skewed perspective is actually proportionally correct.
  • Transformers One: One of the film's posters has Megatron's head overlooking the rest of the cast...including his past self D-16.
  • UAV's video covers show the film's antagonist as evil overlooker, for example the Pharaoh (Moses: Egypt's Great Prince), Mala Khan (The Secret of Mulan) or the Medicine Man (Young Pocahontas)
  • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: Not that it's that evil to begin with, but one of the antagonists, the Were-Rabbit, shows up in front of a Gigantic Moon and behind Wallace and Gromit in a piece of official artwork for the film, specifically the one used for the VHS and early DVD covers.
  • Watership Down: The DVD cover has General Woundwort looking down at the refugee rabbits and Kehaar.
  • We Bare Bears: The Movie: The poster has the main antagonist, Agent Trout, glaring down at the Bears.
  • Winx Club: The Mystery of the Abyss: The poster shows Politea's eyes visible in the background watching the Winx.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 28 Days Later: The film has a poster with just the eyes of an Infected hanging in the sky over a silhouetted Jim.
  • The Alzheimer's Case: The hitman Ledda is portrayed this way on the movie posters, with the cops in the foreground.
  • Arachnophobia: This film is a fairly subtle example. Take a good look at the moon on the poster/cover.
  • Batman Forever: Inverted. The villains are actually towards the bottom of the poster while Batman looms above them.
  • Blade (1998): The poster shows the vampire antagonist Deacon Frost ominously watching over the Daywalker Blade in a blood-red background.
  • Child's Play (1988): The original poster.
  • The Dark Side of the Moon (1990): The poster only shows the bad guy's Hellish Pupils overlooking the moon.
  • Death Train: Subverted. The cover makes it seem like Patrick Stewart is the villain overlooking Pierce Brosnan, but he's actually the latter's Spymaster and unambiguously on the side of the good guys. The real villain is a Renegade Russian played by Christopher Lee.
  • Descendants: The main boxart for Descendants 2 features Uma in the background overlooking the VKs.
  • The Devil's Advocate: An alternate theatrical poster shows the Devil looming over the protagonist and his wife.
  • Enchanted has Queen Narissa overlooking the heroes. And during the climax, she gets Scaled Up, so the dragon on the poster is also her.
  • Flash Gordon (1980): The theatrical poster depicts Emperor Ming standing above the titular character and Dale.
  • Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan: After the "I ♥ NY" posters were taken down due to complaints from New York Tourism Committee, they were replaced with a poster of Jason looming over the city.
  • Fright Night (1985): The villain as an evil cloud.
  • Fright Night (2011): The poster, although Jerry does kinda merge into the whole sky around the lower side.
  • Fright Night Part 2: The film follows the prequel.
  • Godzilla:
  • Gone Girl: Zigzagged. Amy's eyes are seen at the top of the poster, but it looks like a simple case of Floating Head Syndrome. In fact, this is a subtle clue of who the true villain of the movie is.
  • Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later: Michael Myers' Black Eyes of Evil looming over the frightened-looking protagonists.
  • Halloween: Resurrection: Michael Myers' Black Eyes of Evil looming over the frightened-looking protagonists.
  • The Haunting of Molly Hartley: The poster does this with Joseph, who is revealed in the last ten minutes to be part of a Satanic cult.
  • Hero and the Terror: The poster shows Simon Moon's eyes menacingly hovering over a stern-looking Chuck Norris packing heat.
  • Home Alone:
    • Home Alone 1: The poster shows Kevin freaking out with Harry and Marv watching him from out the window.
    • Home Alone 2: Lost in New York: Kevin reads a newspaper that the Wet Bandits have escaped, and Harry and Marv overlook him from behind the Empire State Building.
  • Horrors of War: The poster does this with Adolf Hitler and his zombie hordes.
  • Inglourious Basterds: This◊ movie poster.
  • John Carpenter's Vampires: On the posters, the vampire lord Jan Valek is shown as a face in the clouds overlooking the heroes.
  • Jurassic World Rebirth: The theatrical poster has the D. Rex with its Face Framed in Shadow looming above Zora, Duncan, and Loomis.
  • Kaamelott: First Installment has a Stacked Characters Poster for the home video release (the page's picture) with two columns of stacked heads of characters from the film. The head of Lancelot (the Big Bad) ominously dominates the right column (and is the biggest on it).
  • Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has several posters with Proximus Caesar looming over the heroic characters.
  • Lion of the Desert: The Poster for the film, about the life of Libyan anti-colonial rebel Omar Mukhtar, depicts Benito Mussolini glowering over his troops and tanks as they clash with the rebels, with the central villain General Rodolfo Graziani in the foreground.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie: The poster shows the eyes of Ivan Ooze looming over the heroes.
  • New Jack City: The three heroic police officers are downright minuscule compared to the sinister-looking Nino Brown looming over them in a badass pose.
  • No Country for Old Men: The film adaptation portrays Anton Chigurh this way. The effect is actually very creepy, especially since this is one story where justice and logic be darned, The Bad Guy Wins.
  • The Passage: Some versions of the poster depict Captain von Berkow looming behind the main characters looking through binoculars.
  • Lampshaded by the final poster◊ for Scream (2022). Not only does Ghostface loom large over the entire cast, but the tagline is literally "The Killer is On This Poster". It's right, as Richie is right there towards the front of the cast, while Amber is on the left, towards the back.
  • Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th: Parodied. The killer is shown above the other characters on the cover, but his expression is too goofy to be anything close to threatening.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Film Series):
    • One of the posters released with the second trailer of Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) has a large Robotnik grinning evilly and looming behind a running Sonic.
    • One of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)'s theatrical posters shows Shadow, with Gerald and Ivo Robotnik to his left and right respectively, at the top overlooking a scene with Sonic chasing Shadow on his motorcycle.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: The poster shows the very large, very angry eye of General Chang glaring down at the Enterprise-A from the background.
    • Star Trek: First Contact: The poster does this in a pretty interesting manner. Data and Picard are wary of an approaching army of Borg drones underneath them, but the Borg Queen, the film's Big Bad, is hovering over them both.
    • Star Trek: Insurrection: The poster features the Enterprise-E flying towards the giant face of the movie's main villain (who actually has a rather minor role in the film, considering how prominently he's shown on the poster).
    • Star Trek (2009): One poster◊ does this with Nero. Oddly, most of the posters and DVD covers for the 2009 film do this with Kirk; one could be forgiven for assuming that Christopher Pine plays the villain (although that film's Kirk is arguably an Anti-Hero).
    • The poster/cover art for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine documentary What We Left Behind - Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine features Ira Steven Behr looking down at and holding the space station in his hands, despite him not being a villain but rather the main showrunner of the series and also one of two directors of the documentary.
  • Star Wars:
    • A New Hope: A giantnote  translucent blue Darth Vader head in the background. He doesn't appear to actually be looking at the heroes, more sorta past them, but to be fair it's hard to tell with the mask.
    • The Empire Strikes Back: Darth Vader stares at the center, sometimes slightly off center with a lightsaber in hand. Emperor Palpatine appears in some posters along with the Imperial Fleet which are flying towards the center. In some posters, Boba Fett replaces Palpatine and stares at the center.
    • Return of the Jedi: Darth Vader's mask is in the background, with the second Death Star behind him.
    • The Phantom Menace: Darth Maul.
    • Attack of the Clones: Played with. Count Dooku is nowhere to be seen, but his henchman Jango Fett is on the lower right.
    • Revenge of the Sith: A faint image of Darth Vader with the helmet on.
    • The Force Awakens: Kylo Ren, though depending on the poster, he's either staring to the left away from the heroes or right at the center.
    • Rogue One: A spectral image of Darth Vader behind the heroes, as though breathing down Jyn's neck.
    • The Last Jedi: Inverted. The hooded head overlooking the others in many promotional materials is Luke Skywalker.
    • Solo: Subverted. No major villain is prominent on most posters.
    • The Rise of Skywalker: The poster released at D23 2019 shows Rey and Kylo Ren duel, with the ominous, spectral visage of Emperor Palpatine looking on. Another poster shows Kylo Ren staring on.
  • Street Fighter (1994): Inverted. The hero, Colonel Guile, is towering over the villain, M. Bison, who is Milking the Giant Cow.
  • The Untouchables (1987): The poster has a giant Al Capone in Sinister Shades, smoking a cigar and smirking over the Untouchables.
  • Warlock III: The End of Innocence: The poster shows the Warlock at the top staring intently at the viewer with a Kubrick Stare, as he holds the protagonists in his cupped hands.
  • The Wizard of Oz (1939) sometimes has a cover depicting the Wicked Witch of the West (or at least her Sinister Silhouette) surveying Dorothy and her friends with her crystal ball.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: The eponymous Big Bad.
  • Zack Snyder's Justice League: One of the posters in colors (the page's picture) has a giant Darkseid head in the background behind the Justice League.

    Literature 
  • Bride of the Rat God: Two covers show the Rat God looking menacingly over Christine, who holds her fur wrap around her in terror.
  • Return of the Living Dead: The original paperback cover has a giant disembodied zombie head and hands looming behind a woman in a black void, seemingly about to grab her.
  • Scary Stories For Young Foxes: Mr. Scratch is the shadowy fox lurking behind Mia and Uly. Every illustration of the character consciously invokes this trope, emphasizing the threat and power he demonstrates over every fox who crosses his path.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel: Every DVD case has Angelus looking over Angel's shoulder.
  • House: Inverted. Season One box set features the main cast looking down at you in a circle with a surgical light over all of their heads as if you were a patient.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Morgoth's shadow leaning over the dying Trees of Valinor in the pilot, suggests he's admiring his handiwork.
  • Storm of the Century: Some covers show Andre Linoge ominously hovering over the small town he is menacing throughout the miniseries.
  • Wizards of Waverly Place: The main poster for the post-series special "The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex" shows Evil Alex holding and overlooking a crystal ball with the real Alex trapped inside.

    Music 

    Pinball 

    Toys 
  • BIONICLE:
    • 2001 promos show an infected Kanohi Hau overlooking either the Toa or the island of Mata Nui. As the infected Hau represented the evil Makuta early on, this is meant to symbolize his hold over the island and The Corruption he spreads throughout it.
    • The poster for the 2004 Toa Metru set-line shows a Vahki enforcer robot watching over the assembled Toa Metru heroes. Its prototype teaser pic meanwhile shows a mysterious shadowy figure, later revealed to be a prototype for the toy of Krekka, a character who would have been far less suited for such a role.

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney:
    • The cover◊ of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney features both the Judge and Edgeworth as possible examples (though the Judge is hardly what you'd call evil, and even Edgeworth isn't much of a villain after Case 2).
    • The games as a whole feature this with the artwork unlocked after beating each case. This can, in fact spoil, who the guilty party is for people who haven't played the games before.note 
    • Usually, the main promotional artwork piece for each entry (the ones that show all the game's major recurring characters) will usually have the game's main prosecutor in this role. The one◊ from Justice For All, for example, has both Franziska von Karma and Miles Edgeworth showing up as this, but only the former is actually facing towards the foreground because Edgeworth is a definite good guy here.
    • The main piece of promotional artwork◊ for Trials and Tribulations shows Godot in this role.
    • Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney plays with this. Klavier is the nicest prosecutor the series has had so far and thus is not featured in this role in the game's promotional piece◊. His brother Kristoph, on the other hand...
    • Dual Destinies continues the trend◊ by portraying Simon Blackquill in this way. Though like Edgeworth before him, he turns out to be much less villainous than he seems.
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice has Prosecutor Nahyuta Sadhmadhi keeping the tradition◊ alive. And like Edgeworth and Blackquill, he is revealed to not be villainous at the end.
  • Galaxy Angel: The animated opening of the second installment, Moonlit Lovers, ends with an image of Nefuria overlooking the six Angels. It serves as a clue that she's going to be the game's true villain.

    Web Animation 
  • Red vs. Blue: Zero: The Blu-ray cover has Shatter Squad at the bottom and Zero looming over them in the background.

    Webcomics 

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Amphibia:
    • The first poster for Season 2 has Sasha in the middle section looking down menacingly at Anne at the bottom.
    • On the official Season 2 poster, King Andrias is far back in the crowd in dark shadow, looking sinisterly at Anne with interest, alluding to his true nature.
    • Downplayed in the season two title sequence, where Marcy holding the Music Box looms over Anne and Sasha with her back turned to them, foreshadowing her role as the one who manipulated them and deliberately started the chain of events that led to girls ending up in Amphibia. However, her actions were borne out of desperation and Didn't Think This Through, as opposed to any actual malice towards her friends.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • The original cartoon:
      • The poster for Book 1 depicts the Gaang down the front, with Zuko, the Starter Villain, looming over them evilly. This is also shown prominently in "The Ember Island Players" when the in-universe poster showing the Show Within a Show is pretty much exactly the same as the poster for Season one.
      • The poster for Book 3 has Ozai, the Big Bad, looming behind Aang in the Avatar State.
    • The Legend of Korra: The SDCC poster features Amon, the Big Bad for season 1, looming over Korra, Mako, and Bolin.
  • Big City Greens:
    • A crew art for "Feud Fight" shows Chip Whistler looking smugly over his shoulder at Cricket sitting on a pile of tomatoes.
    • Another crew art for "Chip's Revenge" shows a gigantic Chip looking menacingly down at Cricket as he chases after him.
  • The intro for Butt-Ugly Martians ends with Dr. Damage in this role, only for Emperor Bog to shove him out of the way and take his place.
  • The DVD cover for The Legend of Vox Machina shows the titular Ragtag Bunch of Misfits under the gaze of the second Arc Villain, Thordak the Cinder King.
  • The Lion Guard: The DVD cover for "The Rise of Scar" features a painting of Scar's face in the background overlooking Kion.
  • The Loud House: The Episode Title Card for "Save Royal Woods!" depicts Joyce Crandall leering evilly over a scale model of Royal Woods, with a miniature Lincoln looking up at her with worry.
  • Hazbin Hotel: The second poster for Season 1 has Adam, the Big Bad of the first season, smiling over the cast.
  • Madballs: The VHS cover of "Escape from Orb" shows the main villain Wolf Breath as a giant face menacingly watching over the Madballs.
  • Operation: Z.E.R.O.: The cover features Grandfather looking down on the KND, who as the cover implies, are standing between him and the world.
  • The Owl House: In the Season 2 poster, Emperor Belos is seen on a bridge watching Luz, Eda, and King as the three wander the Boiling Isles.
  • Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 1's title sequence ends with a giant Baron Draxum looming behind the Turtles, as if to grab them. In Season 2, he is replaced by Shredder.
  • Sofia the First: The poster for "The Curse of Princess Ivy" shows Ivy in the background overlooking Sofia and Amber, as she casts her color-draining butterflies.
  • Tangled: The Series: The poster for the final season has Rapunzel and Eugene swinging with the corrupted Cassandra watching them meanacingly.
  • Wander Over Yonder: The first official poster shows Lord Hater in the background overlooking Wander and Sylvia.

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