Bigger Bad

A Bigger Bad is a threat that's more dangerous, affects more people, or a villainous presence that is more significant than the story's current Big Bad in the setting as a whole, but isn't causing the conflict of the immediate story (and may have little to do with it at all). While the Big Bad is directly responsible for the current story — the Big Bad is the villain or situation that the protagonists are attempting to defeat or overcome — a Bigger Bad isn't a major force in the plot. They are just responsible for anything evil or fueling at least a part of the fictional setting (how much of it depends on the scale of the Bigger Bad's influence) in which the story takes place. A Bigger Bad may be the Big Bad's superior, but just as often they're completely unrelated — indeed, a Bigger Bad may threaten the Big Bad just as much as they threaten the protagonists. Whatever the relationship between the Big Bad and Bigger Bad, the Bigger Bad is always Out of Focus — the threat they pose is general and in the background, while the threat posed by the Big Bad is specific and immediate.