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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."''|'''{{spoiler|O'Brien}}''', ''[[Nineteen Eighty
Some villains commit horrific atrocities to [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|bring about]] [[Utopia Justifies the Means|a better world]], usually with the architect taking over to ensure paradise is brought about smoothly.
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== Anime & Manga ==
* Freeza of ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Complete Monster|Madara]] [[Magnificent Bastard|Uchiha]], the current [[Big Bad]] of ''[[
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* In ''[[
** Gihren's clone, {{spoiler|Glemmy Toto}} of ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[
** Also Mongul. He rules, or ruled, the planet of Warworld, where he held brutal gladiatorial games to distract the people from their miserable, impoverished lives under his dictatorship. Originally, he ruled his own homeworld, but was ousted by the native people for his despotic behaviour.
== Films --Animated ==
* ''[[
** Most Disney villains are like this, actually. [[The Little Mermaid
* The only thing Prince Charming did with Far Far Away once conquering it in ''[[
* In ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' Ramsees is portrayed as a more [[Anti-Villain|sympathetic]] version of this, refusing to be the "weak link" that would destroy their dynasty.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[
* Palpatine from ''[[Star Wars]]'' orchestrates a civil war (between two armies of "disposable" soldiers with plenty of civilians caught in the crossfire) and commits genocide on his way to becoming the evil Emperor. Darth Vader was never in command but he did some bad things for power too. Vader wanted "to bring order to the galaxy", though, and once naively talked about trying to stop people from dying. Palpatine got him on board by convincing him that this will lead to peace, and he had to convince himself that the Jedi and the Republic were corrupt (not totally unjustified, even though Palpatine was the architect of much of this anyway). He is a very dark example of [[Utopia Justifies the Means]], and he did not want power for powers sake.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* In ''[[
** Then, in another season's first part of a finale episode, ''The End of Time'', ends with The Master taking over the world... sound familiar? This time he changes everyone on planet Earth into himself, which effectively makes our species extinct.
** His main motivation here was never actually power, though--back when he had truly selfish motives, he usually focused on true immortality, to replace the limited Time Lord kind. He messes with Earth like that partly because it's fun, but mostly because ''it will hurt the Doctor.'' 'Look, Theta! I can break your toys! Cry!'
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[
** The collectible version of ''[[Illuminati]]'' offers the Power For Its Own Sake card, changing the goal of the game for its player into simple accumulation of power without regard for the conspiracy's ideology.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[
** In ''[[
** This was also mentioned in one of the first game's audio diaries. His decision to put a presumed dead rival's business under government control (his control) prompted a formerly loyal aide to (unsuccessfully) assassinate Ryan.
* The ''[[
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Bowser]] ultimate goal is to rule over everyone. In most games, he aims to rule the Mushroom Kingdom by forcing Princess Peach to marry him, but in the ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' series and ''[[Yoshis Island DS]]'', he aims to rule the entire universe.
** To be fair, in the RPG games, it's made clear he also has a weird crush on Peach.
* [[Starcraft|Arcturus Mengsk]] let the Zerg kill an entire planet's poulation so he could create his ''Terran Dominion''.
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== Western Animation ==
* This is the motivation of [[Big Bad|Fire Lord Ozai]] of ''[[
** [[T He]] Fire Lord between, Azulon, who presided over the chronological bulk of the century war, is never given any motivations. His role in the story is to be cold and unpleasant and to die, and ''that's'' in a flashback. Mind, Sozin suffered pretty stiff [[Motive Decay]], but it was still from "unite the world and share the blessings of our Golden Age with everyone" to "conquer the fucking world whether my abandoning turncoat of a superpowered best friend likes it or not, no matter what it takes."
*** The actual ruling part was never the issue for him, and anything besides conquering may have gotten a little vague by the time he was actually free to make his ultimate move.
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