Evil Power Vacuum: Difference between revisions

* 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.

* 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.

 

 

* At the beginning of ''[[L.A. Confidential]]'', mob boss Mickey Cohen is arrested. A recurring subplot shows all the mobsters seeking to fill Cohen's place either being scared out of Los Angeles or riddled with bullets. By the climax of the film, {{spoiler|Police Chief Dudley Smith}} is poised to seize control of L.A.'s organized crime.

* ''[[American Gangster]]'': The beginning of the film takes place after Harlem mob boss Bumpy Johnson's death, and shows Frank Lucas's rise to power out of the chaos that accompanied Bumpy's death.

 

 

== Literature ==

* 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]].

** 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.

** 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.

** Wait, [[Post Script Season|what]]? Yeah, that's right, it's the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Ori]] on their universal Missionary Tour of Evil and Doom, but at least the finale may or may not have nuked them all... {{spoiler|and in fact did, but that left their self-created [[Dark Messiah|Jesus archetype]] Adria, newly Ascended, to take over all their power. It took brainwashing her followers into forsaking her with an ancient mind probe and falling into the same "fighting for eternity" trap that Anubis got into that the Universe was ''finally'' saved...or, at least as saved as it can be with the Wraith still bopping around the Pegasus Galaxy...}}

** So that's it, Right? I mean, we've even captured [[Magnificent Bastard|Ba'al]], the slippery bast... [[Time Travel|he did what?]] {{spoiler|[[Ret-Gone|Oh]], [[Bad Future|Great]]! Guess it's [[Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory|up to SG-1]] to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]. Again.}} There, done! [[Earn Your Happy Ending|Can we have our]] [[Happily Ever After|happy ending]] now?

{{quote|"I was a jerk!"

"Yes, but you were the ''alpha'' jerk!" }}

 

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* Believe it or not this is how [[Triple H]] wound up becoming who he was. The Undertaker and The Rock both ended up injured. Trips, who was at the time thought not to be over enough to hold the spot, got moved up by default.

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

** [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Considering the title]] is that really a spoiler?

* The villains in ''[[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'' are a cult that believes that Dracula's death {{spoiler|and Soma's refusal to take his place}} have resulted in a power vacuum that must be filled to preserve the [[Balance Between Good and Evil]].

* In the animated ''[[Transformers]]'' movie, following Megatron's apparent demise and subsequent dumping into space, the Decepticons try to decide on a new leader, and their argument leads into an all-out brawl aboard Astrotrain. It turns out Megatron is [[Not Quite Dead]], though, and after a power-up from Unicron, he returns as Galvaton in time to reclaim his title as leader of the Decepticons... by blowing Starscream to ashes mere seconds after he'd literally crowned himself the new leader.

** Similarly, ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' actually begins with Megatron apparently dying at the hands of Optimus Prime (with a little help from Starscream) and [[The Starscream|Starscream]] appointing himself leader... just before everyone else abandons ship as they were about to crash. {{spoiler|Starscream later gets Lugnut and Blitzwing on his side, but when Megatron gets back, he's pretty pissed and takes revenge on the usurper. The other Decepticons are quick to re-affirm their loyalty to Megatron.}}

* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]''. With the defeat of Shen-Du and his return to a helpless statue, everything seems fine, until Jade blows Shen-Du to slag with the Dragon talisman. At this point Uncle (who of course [[Can't Get Away with Nuthin'|blames Jackie]]) says that since Shen-Du has been destroyed a new, stronger darkness can take his place. Cue Shen-Du's extended family!

** Gary and Betty weren't eviler. They were just so annoying Timmy would rather endure Vicky.

* Happens in ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' after [[Evil Versus Evil|a three-way gang war]] manages to wipe out the criminal empires of [[Evil Albino|Tombstone]], [[Wicked Cultured|Silvermane]], [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|Dr. Octopus]] ''and'' [[The Starscream|Hammerhead]]. The vacuum is quickly taken over by {{spoiler|[[Magnificent Bastard|the Green Goblin]]}}, who had helped manipulate events for this purpose. This was even pointed out by Captain Stacy, who noted that "Nature abhors a vaccum."

** The same had already happened earlier, after "Baby Doc" Duvalier's exile.

* Probably subverted/prevented during [[World War II]]: Plans were drawn up by the Allies to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]], but were shot down because the Allied commanders felt that Hitler's incompetent leadership was doing a better job of bringing [[Nazi Germany]] down than they were, and were afraid that someone more competent would take his place.

* Russia underwent this with the Time of Troubles following the death of czar Ivan the Terrible.

 

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Power]]