Evil Overlooker - TV Tropes

"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."

• 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.

• 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).

• 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.
• Supergirl:
• 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:
  • The Great Darkness Saga presents two examples:
  • The Earthwar Saga: The final issue's cover◊ features a massive Mordru looking menacingly and triumphantly down on Superboy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Karate Kid.
• 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.

• All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: The poster has Red attempting to grab Gabriel's Horn.
• 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
  • Aladdin: The Return of Jafar
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The theatrical poster. The VHS/LaserDisc cover has Frollo almost shunted off the top.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Wish (2023) has King Magnifico hovering 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◊.
• Happily Ever After: 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.
• The Land Before Time: The artwork for the poster and the VHS release depicts Sharptooth standing atop a cliff, looking down at the heroes as they walk across a fallen tree.
• Lightyear: On the theatrical poster, Emperor Zurg's silhouette, with Glowing Eyes of Doom, appears above the heroes.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: On the new poster, Sunset Shimmer's eyes appear in the mirror above human versions of the main cast.
• 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.◊)
• 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.
• 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.
• The Swan Princess: Rothbart.
• 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 fat lady watches them with utter rage in cloud form.
• 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.
• 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.

• 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:
  • Godzilla 2000: The American Poster shows Orga watching Godzilla.
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): The character-specific poster of the movie's Big Bad, King Ghidorah, shows him towering over and leering down at a squadron of fighter jets.
• 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.
• 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.
• Kaamelott: Premier Volet 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:
  • Captain America: The First Avenger: Some posters have Red Skull's eyes looming over Cap.
  • Thor: The Dark World has Malekith in the upper left background, looking ominously.
  • Avengers: Infinity War: Thanos and the Black Order take up the top of the film's poster, looming over the assembled heroes.
  • The official artwork for The Infinity Saga Collector's Edition boxset once again has Thanos in the background overlooking the assembled heroes.
• 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 giant^note  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 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• "Chaos X - Hellfire (a Frollo Cover)", a Filk Song for The Frollo Show, features Wilford Brimley as an Evil Overlooker in a fairly crowded shot. He's flanked by Batiatus and Marco Antonio Regil (although by the time Wilford becomes the true Big Bad, Marco has teamed up with Frollo to stop him).
• Michael Jackson's Dangerous has his eyes overlook everything on the album cover.

• Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast: The Pro version's backglass◊ depicts the Beast's face overlooking the rest of the picture in the upper-left corner.

• 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.

• ANNO: Mutationem: The main cover features C looming over Ann and Ayane in the cyberpunk city. The menacing black dragon that's also behind the two is his One-Winged Angel form, Nidhogg.
• The poster for Assassin's Creed Syndicate's "Jack the Ripper" DLC had Jack looming over Evie, knife in hand.
• Bang-On Balls: Chronicles: Bob Boss is shown watching Bob and his cohorts in the box art◊, with an expression of visible annoyance. The title card for the Bobbywood Studios Lot similarly shows him watching Bob, but this time with an expression of pure fury.
• Banjo-Kazooie's box art features Gruntilda overlooking Banjo and attempting to grab him.
• The Wii version of A Boy and His Blob has the main villain boss watching.
• Cadence of Hyrule's box art shows Big Bad Octavo above his minions, with heroes Cadence, Link, and Zelda at the bottom.
• The cover art of the first Contra game had Java above Bill and Lance, while its sequel, Super C, had Gava overlooking our heroes. Contra III: The Alien Wars had Gava and Big Fuzz overlooking the heroes on its cover art also.
• Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance: The Makai Senki Disgaea 5 (First Press Limited Edition) Japanese cover has Liezerota on top looking down on Killia, who ended up as the Final Boss, albeit reluctantly.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest II: The Japanese box art has Hargon's giant head grinning down on the heroes while Malroth's face looms over all of them.
  • The cover for the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VIII features this, with Dhoulmagus sinisterly overlooking the good guys (and a couple of Slimes), who are charging headlong into battle.
  • Dragon Quest XI: In the reveal trailer, King Carnelian, Hendrik and Jasper can be seen looking down at the party from Heliodor Castle. Ultimately subverted in the game itself, as only Jasper is evil; Carnelian is Brainwashed and Crazy and Hendrik is an Anti-Villain who pulls a Heel–Face Turn halfway through the game.
• Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: The boxart has the Big Bad, President Zazz, look down on the protagonists Akira and Runi. This is justified because he has a massive cyborg body.
• Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy's title screen has the Oracle overlooking the main cast.◊
• Killzone has this trope for the box art of 1, 2, and Mercenary having a Helghast soldier on the front. The Helghast have become so iconic (and, ironically, popular) that the series has them taking up most of the marketing for the game.
• Some of the Kirby games have this, like Kirby's Epic Yarn. Specifically, Nightmare in Dream Land does this◊ with Meta Knight.
• King's Quest:
  • The box art for King's Quest III features the villain Manannan doing a crystal ball version of this.
  • The box art for King's Quest VII 1.0 (for DOS 5/Windows 3.1) features Malicia looking down over a tornado sucking in Rosella and Valanice. Version 2.0 (for Windows 95) has different box art.
• The Legend of Zelda:
• The box art◊ for Little Big Adventure 2 contains a cloud, shaped like Dark Monk, looking menacingly over Twinsun.
• The cover of Maniac Mansion has Dr. Fred's face sporting a Slasher Smile visible in the sky behind the mansion. Subverted in that Dr. Fred turns out to be just a brainwashed pawn of The Man Behind the Man.
• Mass Effect has Saren's eyes looming over Shepard.
• The cover art for Master of Darkness depicts Dracula as such, though it's different for each version. The Master System version's cover art depicts an illustrated Dracula looking down at Dr. Social as the former summons an army of monsters from within his cape to attack the latter, while the Game Gear version's cover art depicts a photo-realistic Dracula looking down at his castle.
• One of the unlockable backgrounds in Metal Slug Anthology has Morden looming over Marco, Tarma, Eri, and Fio.
• Mega Man:
• Metroid:
  • The Western box art for Metroid: Zero Mission has a red, distinctive silhouette of Ridley overlooking Samus as she lands on Planet Zebes.
  • The cover of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption shows Dark Samus' translucent head peering forward in the upper left corner.
  • The main promotional art for Metroid Dread shows Samus in the foreground with the silhouetted E.M.M.I.s looking at her from some cliffs in the background.
• Nintendo Wars: The box art for Advance Wars 2 shows the Orange Star Commanders (main heroes) in the foreground, the Black Hole Commanders (bad guys) behind them looming over them, and a giant Big Bad behind and above them.
• No Straight Roads has the silhouettes of Tatiana and the NSR Megastars looking down on Mayday and Zuke in the box art.
• The box art for the Overlord games often feature the Evil Overlord posing menacingly in the background while the Minions take the forefront.
• Pokémon:
  • The covers for all of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series games show the main characters being watched by evil-looking Pokémon with glowing red eyes and are almost completely covered in shadow.
  • The cover of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity has Hydreigon looming over the main characters. In a rather ingenious move by the creators, the significance of this ends up changing completely once you actually play the game and find out that he's not only the Big Good and one of major driving forces behind the plot, but also ends up becoming a part of the team. The fact that he's not portrayed in an overtly evil fashion like the Pokémon on the covers of the previous games (he just looks evil, but isn't acting evil) may have clued some players on it, though.
• Professor Layton:
• The main Psychonauts 2 visual shows a giant shadow of Maligula looming behind the protagonist Raz.
• Both the North American and Japanese cover art for Quack Shot Starring Donald Duck depict Pete as this. The North American box art depicts him standing atop a mountain, trying to crush Donald with a boulder, while the Japanese box art depicts him shaking his right fist at Donald while clinging onto his plane's rope ladder with his left hand.
• While the original box art avoided this, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X's American box art features Wesker in the background (The European cover instead featured a close-up of Claire's face).
• The box art for Sacrifice features Charnel ominously looking down on the Player Character, Eldred, holding a Manalith in his long clawlike fingers. Easily the evilest of the game's five gods, he's notably not the Big Bad of the game.
• The American box art of Shining Force II (which has little to do with the actual game) has this.
• A picture for Shin Megami Tensei II has the Archangel Gabriel holding Aleph in a case of Pietà Plagiarism, with the Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, and Archangel Uriel, the Big Bad Triumvirate of the first two-thirds of the game, as the overlookers.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Mega Drive version does this on the cover, with Eggman slamming a "2" into the ground.
• The poster for Sol Cresta depicts Dita doing this.
• Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny arguably does this... The "arguably" coming from whether you see God of War's Kratos as an Anti-Hero or a Villain Protagonist.
• Mr. X in the Japanese cover art◊ for Streets of Rage 2.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Cackletta for Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, then the Shroobs in the sequel.
  • A promotional poster◊ for Super Mario Galaxy shows Mario and one of the Lumas flying through space while being watched by Bowser, Bowser Jr., as well as every single boss encountered in the game (specifically Dino Piranha (but not his fiery form), King Kaliente, Bugaboom, Megaleg, Kamella, Tarantox, Topmaniac, Major Burrows, Kingfin, Bouldergeist, and Baron Brr).
  • This is also true with one promotional artwork for Super Mario Bros. 3.
• SHODAN does this on the box for System Shock 2. Now, The Reveal is no longer surprising.
• Done on the cover of the Transformers: Animated video game, with Megatron looking on from the background.
• The cover of the first Valkyria Chronicles has Selvaria Bles doing this.
• Wintermoor Tactics Club: How Principal Enfield appears in the game's promotional imagery.
• World Heroes 2◊ for the Famicom (not to be confused with the official game) has Mario overlooking the rest of the cast. (Apart from Mai Shiranui and Lawrence Blood, who aren't on the cover.) Yes, apparently Mario's the Villain Protagonist in a game which has Bowser and M. Bison as playable characters.
• The X-Men Legends games have Magneto and Apocalypse, respectively.
• Xyanide: One prominent cover for the game's initial 2006 release depicts the main villainess, the evil witch Aguirra, sinisterly observing the hero's ship, her face taking up more than half the cover.
• Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys: Arem, the true main antagonist of the game, overlooks the other characters while in full armor and shadowed in the image for this game's trope page.

• 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.

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

• The Beginning After the End: The visual for the Webcomic-exclusive side story Jasmine: Wind-Borne has Jasmine's Archnemesis Dad Trodius overlooking the young Jasmine with his hands outstretched to manipulate the puppet strings on her and a sinister smirk on his face.
• Klonoa: Dream Crusaders: Inverted. On the comic's cover page, Klonoa, the hero, and Noctis Sol, the Living MacGuffin, are the overlookers, while Chipple, Guntz, and Nightmare Klonoa, who are antagonists^note  are front and center.
• Sleepless Domain: The cover of the Seven Seas Entertainment edition of Book 1◊ features the Purple One looking out menacingly from the top, behind the title.
• Star Impact: Chapter 1's cover sees Urchin leering down at Aster.

• Atop the Fourth Wall: Parodied in the review of the Batman Returns graphic novel adaptation, which has in its preview image something that looks less like Christopher Walken's character from the movie (the Corrupt Corporate Executive Max Shreck) than "just" Christopher Walken looking out across Gotham City.
• Noob: La Quête Légendaire: The image that plays the role of the official poster has the antagonist's eyes and forehead over a smaller scale line-up of the protagonists.
• Dr. Crafty: The poster for his Season 3 Finale arc, I Need a Hero Academia, has the show's Big Bad Doctor Mindstein right down the middle, looming over the Crafty characters and the students of UA High School Class 1-A.

• 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, seeming to look 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 replaced by Shredder.
• Tangled: The Series: The poster for the final season has Rapunzel and Eugene swinging with the corrupted Cassandra watching them meanacingly.