The vii-dim chord A Green Onion

The iii-chord After Midnight

(mediant) will Change
the World

The vii-dim chord

The seventh note is a troublemaker. If we build a diatonic chord on the seventh, we end up
with a chord that has two minor thirds. This is a diminished triad. More important than the
two minor thirds is that the chord does not have a perfect fifth. The two minor thirds add up
to a diminished fifth or a tritone. This is a restless, disharmonic intervals. But it is also a very
powerful interval. A phrase you will see many times across this site is: The root gives a chord
identity, the third gives character and the fifth gives stability. A chord without the perfect
fifth will not have this stability.
To make a drama you need to have a "bad guy". If everything is sweet and harmonic, it may
me nice. But it is boring. We need to let a snake into the paradise to get some action. The
tritone and anything that derives from the tritone is "the bad guy". It creates tension and
drives the harmony forward. Read more in The dominant 7th chord and the power of the
tritone
I mention this now just to complete the list of diatonic chords. There will be more on
diminished chords and tritones later.
The iii-chord A Green Onion After Midnight will
(mediant) Change the World