The Heavy

The villain with the most influence over the plot, the obstacles the protagonists face and typically the most proactive antagonist in the story; they are usually the Big Bad though they can at times be the Right-Hand or an enforcer in order to keep the Big Bad more mysterious and scary. Often times they will be the one most active in terms of backstory and relation to the protagonists. These villains have the biggest role all over the story and without them there would be no story to begin with. It is also the evil counterpart of The Hero

Examples include Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, who is the one commanding most of the Galactic Empire forces the protagonists go up against, and Hawk Moth in Miraculous Ladybug, who is responsible for creating the Akumatized supervillain of each episode. In some cases there may also be two or more Heavies in a story if multiple separate villains are responsible for a roughly equal number of obstacles, an example of this is Doctor Kemp and Doctor Mazenda in Choujuu Sentai Liveman, both of whom are responsible for creating an equal number of Brain Beasts to battle the protagonists.

As with Big Bads, The Heavy is a category that only applies to long-running stories or franchises with many different villains in them. Villains of a single movie, book, video game or episode of a television series do not count.