Evil Power Vacuum: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|Tonight! Can America defeat ISIS?<ref>
And if so, can we then defeat the more extremist group, who fills the vacuum left by ISIS?
|Stephen Colbert|[[Colbert Report]]<ref>original air date 9/3/2014</ref>}}
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{{examples}}
== Anime
* The premise for the Doryu Arc of ''[[Rave Master]]'' is that other criminal groups are trying to become top dog after Demon Card was destroyed. However, before the arc is even over Demon Card has been revived by the new [[Big Bad]].
* This is happening in ''[[One Piece]]''. With the {{spoiler|death of Whitebeard}}, piracy is skyrocketing as it did when Gold Roger was executed, now worse than ever, possibly. Apparently, the only thing keeping most possible crews from forming was the belief that there was no room at the top.
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* A running theme of the Milestone comic ''[[Hardware (comics)|Hardware]]'' was that Hardware's mentor/boss/enemy (it was complicated) kept his hand in organized crime because without his influence, anarchy would be loosed amongst the criminal element of the city. {{spoiler|Later, he died trying to save people, and it turned out he was right.}}
* In the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' universe, when Parker helps to take down Kingpin, it almost immediately turns worse, as less-refined, less-humane and less-subtle underbosses scramble to take the top spot Kingpin used to occupy.
** This tends to happen ''every'' time the Kingpin forcibly or voluntarily relinquishes his position as crimelord of New York. Both Spidey and [[Daredevil]] have all but accepted his role of such as a [[Necessary Evil]], because [[Better the Devil You Know]].
* When Kobra, a long time [[Diabolical Mastermind]] who had served as a [[Big Bad]] many times in [[The DCU]] was [[Killed Off for Real]] by Black Adam, his [[Religion of Evil]] was wracked with power struggles. This seems to have been settled recently, as his good twin has been brought back to life, turned evil, and taken the reigns of the organization. And become the Big Bad in a recent [[JSA]] miniseries.
* In ''[[The Savage Dragon]]'', a Gang War erupts after Dragon kills Overlord, the ruler of the Vicious Circle.
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* In ''[[Queen of All Oni]]'', it's revealed that Daolon Wong was the Darkest Mage, a sort of [[The Archmage|arch mage]] for [[Evil Sorcerer]]s. Following his [[De-Power|loss of power]] at the end of season 3 {{spoiler|and his death in-story}}, the spot is now open, and a couple of subplots focus on the villains trying to gain power to assume the role Wong left behind.
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== Literature ==
* Seen in the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' after Palpatine's death, with the Rebel Alliance (later New Republic) and a score of Imperial admiral-turned-warlords, then [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Grand Admiral Thrawn]], then [[Dark Empire|Palpatine]] [[Back from the Dead]] (to be fair, he was [[Not Quite Dead]] all along, he was just biding his time), then a succession of threats from warlords and aliens, and [[Hand of Thrawn|finally]] a [[Peace Conference|peace treaty]] was signed between the New Republic and the Empire. ''Then'' the [[New Jedi Order|Yuuzahn Vong]] invade and the Republic and Empire [[Enemy Mine|rally together]] to fight them.
* The main danger of the One Ring in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is that powerful individuals would eventually use it to replace Sauron. Even if they resisted corruption long enough to defeat him, they'd end up becoming corrupt and replacing him in the end.
** And in the ''[[Silmarillion]]'', Sauron himslef was a replacement of Melkor as the [[Big Bad]].
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** In the Stargate [[The Movie|movie]] they started with Ra, an [[Evil Overlord]] who was the [[Last of His Kind]]. When they [[Recycled: the Series|recycled it for the series]], he was [[Retcon|changed]] to be the most powerful of the "System Lords", a loose-knit group of [[Evil Overlord|evil overlords]] each with a [[A God Am I|god-complex]]. His death started an [[Lensman Arms Race|arms race]] among the lesser System Lords. This lead the main characters into conflict with:
** Apophis. Starting with kidnapping [[It's Personal|several friends of the main characters]] for use as [[Puppeteer Parasite|hosts]] he remained a threat until he, after steadily losing power and influence because of the conflict with the heroes, was defeated and killed by a more powerful System Lord late in the second season.
** Sokar, having inspired the myth of [[Satan]] through his ruthlessness and evil and having a fleet of warships at his command ready to [[Take Over the World|conquer the galaxy]], was shaping up to be the new [[Big Bad]] when SG-1 and their [[Defector From Decadence|Tok'Ra allies]] killed him by [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blowing up a moon]]. Unfortunately, before Sokar was killed he had brought Apophis [[Back from the Dead]] so that he could [[
** So, once again the [[Big Bad]] is Apophis. Apophis with a fleet of warships poised to take over the galaxy. He starts with attacking [[And Your Little Dog, Too|Teal'c's homeworld of Chulak]], continues by killing several rival [[Evil Overlord|System Lords]] and, when on the brink of Galactic Domination, his fleet is vaporized when SG-1 [[Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?|blow up a sun]]. Unfortunately he survives. Also unfortunately, the nova [[Phlebotinum Breakdown|screwed up]] the [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]] of the ships escaping the nova, and both Apophis and SG-1 find themselves trapped in another galaxy. To make it even worse, the writers choose this exact moment to subvert [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]] and [[Casual Interstellar Travel]], meaning that even traveling at full speed, it would take over 200 years to return to their own galaxy. He's eventually killed for real when the Replicators invade his ship and it slams into another planet.
** Next up is Anubis, who creates a nearly-unstoppable force of [[Super Soldier|super soldiers]], and has access to technology more advanced than literally everyone else except the [[Neglectful Precursors]], who are all gone. He devastates the remaining System Lords with his immense forces, leaving our heroes as the only hope of stopping him. He is finally defeated when the fleet sent to conquer Earth is destroyed by a [[Lost Technology]] Superweapon.
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==
* In the [[Lone Wolf]] series of solo gamebooks, each time the Archlord of the Darklands is killed, the remaining Darklords fight an [[Enemy Civil War]] to determine the next Archlord.
* A storyline in the original backstory of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' involved [[Fallen Hero|Ertai]] and [[Knight in Sour Armor|Crovax]], both former [[Five-Man Band|crewmen]] of the ''[[Cool Ship|Weatherlight]]'' fighting over which of them will succeed the now-vanished [[Big Bad|Volrath]] as ruler of [[Mordor|Rath]]. This leads to a series of brutal confrontations that sees both of them turning into figurative and literal monsters (courtesy of some [[Physical Hell|Phyrexian]] implants) and destroys whatever good is left in them. Crovax eventually succeeds, at the cost of finally, irrevocably crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]].
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* This is how Saika Magoichi's revenge (for the razing of the Saika village) [[Gone Horribly Wrong|goes horribly wrong]] in his ''[[Samurai Warriors]] 2'' story; after he {{spoiler|shoots and kills Oda Nobunaga}}, he comes across a number of peasants beset by raiders who've found out already that {{spoiler|Nobunaga}} is gone; later {{spoiler|Fuuma Kotarou}} reveals that he released the news specifically to accelerate/cause the power vacuum that {{spoiler|Nobunaga}} had been preventing.
* Much of the Undead plotline in ''[[Warcraft]] III: The Frozen Throne'' follows Arthas, Sylvanas, and the Dreadlords fighting over who controls the Scourge now that the Burning Legion has been defeated.
* At the end of ''[[World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King]]'', much effort is spent [[Averted Trope|averting this]]
* The backstory to ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The
* ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' had this happen twice: Oda Nobunaga's death at the hands of Akechi Mitsuhide led to the rise of Hideyoshi, whose death at the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu led to the rise of Ishida Mitsunari.
* Implied to be a force at play in the ''Awakening'' expansion to ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]
** The Architect also created his own rival the Mother, a Broodmother that did not appreciate her newfound "freedom" since she believes that existence without the song of the Old Gods is unbearable. The plotline of ''Awakening'' is about the Warden Commander getting dragged into their [[Enemy Civil War]].
* Stated to be the fate of Caesar's Legion in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' if Caesar dies and [[The Dragon|Legate Lanius]] doesn't. Without a strong leader to hold the Legion together, it crumbles back into the warring tribes that it was forged from. This is a problem, as the Legion was definitely a lesser evil, owing to the safety and discipline it brought to the formerly anarchic lands of Arizona.
== Web Comics ==
* Following K'Z'K's death in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', at least two other demons have tried to fill the power vacuum. Skip is trying to find a piece of K'Z'K he can use to restore the real thing, while Meander has set up a cult to do insect based world conquest in her own way.
* Lampshaded in ''[[The
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