Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,864
edits
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary |
||
(21 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:riskalmostwin.jpg|link=Risk|
'''The Brain:''' [[Once an Episode|The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!]]
|''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''}}
What's the goal most every villain has in mind? Why of course, it's World Domination[[
▲{{quote|'''Pinky:''' Gee, Brain, what you wanna do tonight?<br />
▲'''The Brain:''' [[Once an Episode|The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!]]|''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''}}
Villains who want this will occasionally [[Evil Versus Evil|combat other villains]] who want to destroy the world, and sometimes, just sometimes, [[Eviler Than Thou|team up with the heroes to do it.]] After all, you [[Evil Versus Oblivion|can't conquer the world if it's destroyed]], right? Whether or not the villain attempts to stab the heroes in the back the instant the world is safe, or they nod and civilly go back to their Secret Lairs in a gentleman's agreement to face each other tomorrow depends on the villain.
▲What's the goal most every villain has in mind? Why of course, it's World Domination[[Tradesnark|®]]! [[Ambition Is Evil|Ambitious]], [[Pragmatic Villainy|more logical]] and sometimes [[Easily-Conquered World|easier]] than [[The End of the World As We Know It|destroying the world]], as [[Evil Plan|Evil Plans]] go. They want to be in charge of everything and everyone. This could be just to [[Pride|feed their massive egos,]] or else they've got somewhat [[Dark Messiah|twisted ideals]] that they want everyone else to adhere to. Either way, it puts them in direct conflict with the heroes, whether professional or "[[Heroic Neutral|I just want everything to go back to normal]]" types. Usually said villain [[And Your Little Dog, Too|fixates on the hero or someone/thing close to them]] as being part of their master plan. See [[Evil Plan]]. For a villain who has finally acquired [[A God Am I|godlike power]], and did not [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence]], then this is the next logical goal and use for said power. If it involves destroying the world to rule it, it's because [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]. Or [[Despotism Justifies the Means|they are just dicks]].
This trope is sometimes subverted when the villain [[The Bad Guy Wins|actually succeeds]], and it turns out that ruling the world [[Wanting Is Better Than Having|isn't nearly as gratifying as they thought it would be]]
▲Villains who want this will occasionally [[Evil Versus Evil|combat other villains]] who want to destroy the world, and sometimes, just sometimes, [[Eviler Than Thou|team up with the heroes to do it.]] After all, you [[Evil Versus Oblivion|can't conquer the world if it's destroyed]], right? Whether or not the villain attempts to stab the heroes in the back the instant the world is safe, or they nod and civilly go back to their Secret Lairs in a gentleman's agreement to face each other tomorrow depends on the villain.
▲This trope is sometimes subverted when the villain [[The Bad Guy Wins|actually succeeds]], and it turns out that ruling the world [[Wanting Is Better Than Having|isn't nearly as gratifying as they thought it would be]] -- exactly [[And Then What?|what does one do]] with the world once one has it, after all? Plus, once you're ruling the world, you literally have to be in charge of '''''everyone''''', and [[Bizarre and Improbable Giraffe Herding Techniques|that's like herding giraffes]]. Seven ''billion'' giraffes, as a matter of fact. You actually have to run things, and make sure it works, and dang, [[Dystopia Is Hard]].
The reverse is if they did it with [[Mass Hypnosis]] to get rid of [[The Evils of Free Will]], then it'll be considerably easier to rule... and so dreadfully boring they undo the whole thing just to have someone to talk to.
The more fleshed-out villain will have some specific perception of what is wrong with the world and believe that a strong central authority with vision and strength of purpose can set it right.
For more information, check out the [[Evil Overlord List]], a detailed guide on what should an evil overlord do and not do. Typically, this is accomplished with [[Stock Evil Overlord Tactics]]. Although sometimes the plans of villains with this motivation go rather in the [[Step Three: Profit]] direction. For several country-specific [[Sub-Trope|SubTropes]], see [[America Takes Over the World]], [[Japan Takes Over the World]], and [[China Takes Over the World]]. See [[Take Over the City]] for a more modest version.
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* The ''Mazinger trilogy'':
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* Tadase's goal in ''[[Shugo Chara]]'' (or at least his [[Ghost in
* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'s'' [[All There in the Manual|Japanese official website]] listed profiles for most of the major
* Il Palazzo of ''[[Excel Saga (
* After {{spoiler|Chao Lingshen}} is revealed as the [[Big Bad]] of the Mahora Festival in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', we finally get a peek at her character bio. Listed under her Likes? World Domination.
** Now that she's out of the way, Haruna has stepped in. Lately, she overtly proclaimed herself "future mistress of [[Magic World|this world]]".
* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'': "Everyone will become one with Russia." Alternately, The Awesome [[Memetic Badass|Prussia]] [[Memetic Mutation|will seize your vital regions.]]
* ''[[Code Geass]]'': Lelouch vi Britannia eventually wants to conquer the whole world, rather than just destroy the Britannian Empire, as was his original plan. In subversion {{spoiler|he doesn't actually want to keep it for himself.}}
* Light Yagami in ''[[
* Cleo in ''[[Glass Fleet]]'' wants to take over the galaxy. Luckily, the Big Bad, Vetti Sforza, has already conquered most of it. Cleo decides that taking down Vetti is the quickest way of doing it. {{spoiler|Things don't go exactly as planned...}}
* [[The Protagonist|Jio's]] goal in ''[[
* ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'s'' [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|Byakuran}} actually ''has'' taken over the world {{spoiler|millions of times over. Being able to share his consciousness across parallel universes, he has become supreme ruler of all but one.}}
* ''[[
** Piccolo Daimao's goal is to conquer the world. And he does. [[Easily-Conquered World|Easily]].
** Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, Vegeta, Frieza and his relatives, and Babidi, who all had plans for world/universal domination at one point or another. Specifically, Frieza was in the business of conquering and selling planets.
Line 41:
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': This is one of Greed's stated goals {{spoiler|though in the end Ling calls him out on his bluff and Greed grudgingly admits that deep down his true desire was to have friends}}. In the first anime, Bradley seemed to have this as his intention, which makes sense, him being a Hitler-expy and all.
** He is actually holding the title "Führer"!
* When 4Kids was dubbing the ''[[Pokémon (
** This is now Team Rocket's goal. {{spoiler|Since they've become competent and now have frikken jet-packs, they might actually have a shot.}}
* Pain of ''[[Naruto]]'' originally claims this to be the goal of Akatsuki. As a small mercenary force of exceptional skill they would build a strong reputation and slow supplant the established villages; then they would use the captured Bijuu to start small wars, promptly ending them, to gain complete dominance of the market. At that point, they would crush the weakened nations reliant on their services and become the sole world power.
** {{spoiler|Turns out [[Spell My Name
* Kuroda from ''[[Neko
* This is the goal of all of the evil organizations in [[Hajimete no Aku]]. Their methods and reasons are generally more benign than most of the other examples on this page.
* In ''[[
* [[
* The Evil Organization Florsheim from ''[[Tentai Senshi Sunred]]'' has this as their objective B. It will follow objective A; the defeat of their mortal enemy Sunred. So far, they're stuck at objective A. [[Harmless Villain|And probably will be for some time]].
* This is the goal of Rider, aka [[Alexander the Great]], in ''[[Fate
* Poseidon in ''[[
== Comic Books ==
Line 60 ⟶ 59:
* In the [[Marvel]] [[Graphic Novel]] ''Emperor Doom'' Doctor Doom succeeds in taking over the world. {{spoiler|He hits the [[Reset Button]] himself when he realizes he didn't want the world, he just wanted the quest to take it over.}}
** The Doomster also pulled it off in ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'', complete with building an army with hybrid Doombot and Iron Man technology and giving himself a castle the size of Latveria. {{spoiler|Then the heroes beat him up and Odin blows him to vapor with a lightning bolt}}.
** In the aftermath of the Onslaught Saga, Franklin Richards created an entire alternate Earth and Doctor Doom conquered THAT before getting bored with the absolute power over it he'd usurped from Franklin Richards' weird computer overseer thing.
** He pulls it off in Doom 2099 (or the United States, anyway, which is not actually the entire world). The twist? He's actually a pretty good leader.
* From ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|AVENGERS]]'' #290, in one of his few impressive moments Dr. Druid points out to the Super-Adaptoid the importance of thinking things through:
{{quote|
'''Super-Adaptoid:''' I will rule them, Dr. Druid.
'''Dr. Druid:''' To rule means to dictate. What will you tell your billions of subjects to do?
'''Super-Adaptoid:''' I... I had not yet considered that. }}
* "Rule the world" is the key phrase that Piffany taught Yeagar to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys in ''[[Nodwick]]''.
* This is the ultimate goal of [[Mad Scientist|Dr.]] [[Stupid Evil|Brainstorm]] in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes
▲== Fan Fic ==
▲* This is the ultimate goal of [[Mad Scientist|Dr.]] [[Stupid Evil|Brainstorm]] in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes The Series (Fanfic)|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]''.
== Film ==
* Audrey II In ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]''.
{{quote|
'''Audrey II:''' And i wanna thank YOU!. }}
* General Zod in ''[[Superman II]]'' did take over Earth after defeating the pesky son of Jor-El. It just didn't last because of Superman.
** Technically he is only shown taking over the presidency of USA.
* ''[[The Blood Waters of Dr. Z]]'': Dr Z wants to take over the world. Dr Z wants to take over the
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Senator Palpatine, AKA <s> Rapmaster</s> Darth Sidious, didn't just take over a world, he took over an entire ''galaxy''. Beat that!
* M. Bison himself in ''[[Street Fighter (
* ''[[G.I. Joe:
* In ''[[The Shadow]]'' the villain is a descendant of Genghis Khan. He says that his ancestor conquered half the world and he's here to "finish the job".
* Recurring villain goal in the ''[[Scanners]]'' movies:
Line 89 ⟶ 86:
** Commander Forrester in ''Scanners 2'' {{spoiler|advocates the creation of a "[[Does This Remind You of Anything?|New Order]]" to "cure" the cities of crime, which really means that he'll be in control of everything. He tries to build an army of scanners to keep the rest of society in line, and uses their abilities to get himself into successively higher public offices, going from police commander to police chief and planning to run for mayor next}}.
** In ''Scanners 3'' Helena hatches such a scheme after {{spoiler|discovering that scanners abilities work through camera and television signals. Her first step is to mind control thousands of people through a widely televised public broadcast of her, but she doesn't seem to think much further ahead than this}}.
* Clu in ''[[Tron
* Drax's [[Evil Plan]] in ''[[
== Literature ==
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': Sauron already controlled the greater part of the world by the main story opens. Two ages before that, his
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': Lord Voldemort has this goal, now that he's {{spoiler|functionally immortal}}.
* [[Deconstructed]] in ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]''. As he works on his latest [[Evil Plan]] (and afterwards) Doctor Impossible wonders what "taking over the world" even means, having tried everything from [[Time Travel]] to [[Noodle Incident|an army of fish]]:
{{quote|
* ''[[Ender's Game]]'': Peter Wiggin, the brother of Ender begins putting his
* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|A Fighting Man of Mars]]'', this is the jeddak of Jalar's
* It is eventually revealed late in the ''[[Everworld]]'' series that this is the master plan of {{spoiler|the witch Senna Wales.}}
* ''[[The Draka]]'': The Draka seek to conquer the world so that there are no other competing ideologies or worldviews to their own. The existence of liberal democracy is considered a direct threat to their empire.
* In ''[[Petaybee|Powers That Be]]'' the [[Big Bad]] corporation, Intergal, wants to take over the planet of Petaybee because it terraformed it in the first place and has only just realized that it might be more profitable to mine it than to allow settlers to live there.
* {{spoiler|Petyr Baelish}}'s goal at this point in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' seems to be "control as much of Westeros as possible". Given that this is {{spoiler|''Littlefinger''}} we're talking about here, he may have a bigger ultimate goal, a smaller ultimate goal, or no goal at all.
== Live-Action TV ==
Line 110 ⟶ 105:
* On ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'', the Spellman family cat Salem is actually a former warlock who's being punished for plotting to rule the world. In one episode he is denied parole (and a return to his human form) when he lets it slip to the interviewer that he still dreams of overlordship.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': In "Tomb of the Cybermen", Kleig, a human helping the Cybermen for power, goes on a rant about how the world is a disorganized mess of conflicting ideals, and only his superior intellect could bring it together to solve all its problems. A few seasons later, in "The Invasion", Tobias Vaughn, also helping the Cybermen, would make almost word-for-word the same rant.
** In the new series Series 3 finale, The Master takes over the world. [[Reset Button|It gets undone]]. He does however seem to [[For the Evulz|enjoy it]], [[
** It's probably worth noting that in the new series, at least, when an episode takes place on Earth, chances are good the [[Monster of the Week|Alien of the Week]] is trying to take over the world or some variant on that theme. Recurring villains the Cybermen are also proponents of
* The ultimate goal of every single villain in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' is the conquest of the Milky Way galaxy. Every. Single. One.
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' makes Rita's motivations clear the moment her <s>can</s> [[Sealed Evil in
** To be fair, some villains have slight differences in objective. For example, in [[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]], [[Big Bad]] Mesagog wants to return the world to being reptiles. This even gets [[Lampshade Hanging]] by Tommy: "Why can't you just want to take over the world like all the other freaks?"
* This is [[Big Bad]] Herrick's ultimate plan in season 1 of ''[[Being Human (
* ''[[The Middleman]]'' is [[Genre Savvy]] about this being a standard [[Evil Plan]].
* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Khan Noonien Singh wakes up after a 270-year nap and decides to take over the galaxy.
* Warren Mears in ''[[
** Apparently the goal of [[Affably Evil|The Mayor]], though he never got past the "[[Scaled Up|become giant demon snake]]" stage of his plan. Presumably this would give him the power to do so.
** The Master also showed interest in ruling the world, as did Adam, and the First wanted to possess every human being on the planet, so it probably applies as well. The only [[Big Bad]] with no ambitions of this kind was Glory who just wanted to go home at the cost of the apocalypse.
* On ''[[
** And one season before that, rogue [[Powers That Be|Power that...]] [[Buffy-Speak|Am]], Jasmine, nearly ''succeeded'' as she was able to brainwash everyone who saw or heard her, even via electronic media, into loving her. She was ultimately only defeated by epic [[Glamour Failure]] {{spoiler|and Connor turning into a full-blown [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] who punched through the back of her head}}.
* Unsurprisingly, this is Hitler's goal in ''[[
* Tons of Showa era ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' villains had this as this as their plan. Not so much in the Heisei era, where the villains plans are usually more complex. The only villains whose end goal plan is conquering the world is Smart Brain from ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz]]'', whose plan entails a [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Risk]]'', "The Game of World Domination".
** In the german version, it has been ''[[
* ''World War IV'', which is ''Axis and Allies'' meets ''[[Fallout]]''.
* ''History of the World''.
* Pretty much all the evil gods in the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' have this goal.
Line 136 ⟶ 130:
** In ''Crucible: Trial of Cyric the Mad'', the main character's goal towards the beginning was to get a book that would make everyone worship his god, Cyric, thereby allowing him to take over not only the world, but the entire pantheon.
** Shar is an exception: the Lady of Loss wants to ''[[Omnicidal Maniac|destroy]]'' the world, not rule it.
* In the Kalamar D&D setting, the holy book of the [[Lawful Evil|god of tyranny]] is a [[Author Tract|political manifesto]] that not only proclaims the deity's intention to do this, but why it's ''absolutely imperative'' that his followers make it happen, [[Knight Templar|for the greater good of all sentients]].
* ''[[Cartoon Action Hour]]'': All three sample series' [[Big Bad]] (Nekkrottus, General Archnid, and Maxilliam Mercy) have this trope at their
* The ''[[Net Runner]]'' card "[https://web.archive.org/web/20141109053401/http://www.netrunneronline.com/cards/world-domination
{{quote|
'Cause it was labeled 'Secret Plans for World Domination.' }}
* Gary from ''[[Bully (
▲* Gary from ''[[Bully (Video Game)|Bully]]''. His goal is ostensibly to "take over the school", but nobody seems to have figured out what that actually means, least of all Gary.
* At the end of the first half of ''[[
▲{{quote| '''Gary:'''"I keep imagining myself in charge of a large empire."}}
* This is the raison d'etre for the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[
▲* At the end of the first half of ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'', {{spoiler|Kefka conquers the world. The goal of the second half is to dethrone him, preferably ''before'' he gets bored of nuking the survivors with the [[Light Is Not Good|Light Of Judgment]] and really gets cracking on the stated goal of [[Omnicidal Maniac|"building a monument to nonexistence."]]}}.
▲* This is the raison d'etre for the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'', [[The Emperor]]. ''Why'' he wants to rule everything is never gone into in the game itself.
* The Combine from ''[[Half Life]]'' do this on a regular basis. When they were introduced in Half-Life 2, it became the reason the Vortigaunts invaded Black Mesa in the first game, as they were fleeing their conquered homeworld. Taking over Earth actually was an afternoons work for the Combine.
* This is the (repeatedly) stated goal of Murray, the mighty demonic skull in the ''[[Monkey Island]]'' series. Exactly ''how'' he is planning to do this, being a talking disembodied skull with a superiority complex, is slightly less apparent.
* Parodied in the ''[[
* This is the ultimate goal in ''[[Evil Genius]]'', a [[Real Time Strategy]] game where players take control of a wannabe overlord and set off to conquer the world with various criminal means.
* Beautifully mocked by ''[[Shadow Hearts]]: Covenant''. When the [[Bonus Boss]] Orobas appears he begins to spout off about his plans for world domination. At that point, however, Anastasia - who by this point has seen a half-dozen different enemies say much the same things - steps forward and asks, "[[And Then What
* Ocelot in [[Metal Gear Solid]] 4 is trying to take over the world {{spoiler|to trick the heroes to into helping him freeing the world from its real secret rulers}}.
* Most strategy video games have this as an explicit or implicit victory condition.
** Almost all [[
** This is the explicit goal of most of the villainous factions (Nod, the Soviets, the Imperial Japanese, CABAL, etc.) in the various ''[[Command
** The campaigns from ''[[Warhammer
** ''[[
* Purple Tentacle in ''[[Day of the Tentacle]]'' wants to do this, after drinking some sludge-contaminated water. In fact, he ''succeeds'', as the human sent 200 years into the future, Laverne, can attest to. The objective is to travel to ''yesterday'' and prevent the water from being contaminated in the first place, as he's nigh unstoppable otherwise (somehow).
* ''[[Threads of Fate]]'' has a main character example in Princess Mint. While Rue, the other main character, seeks to revive his sister, Princess Mint has but one goal in mind: World Domination, baby!
* Kira "The Maiden who wants to take over the world" Daidohji of ''[[
* Your goal in ''[[Overlord]]''. Why? Because you're [[Evil Overlord|THE OVERLORD]]!!
* ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'s'' own [[Big Bad]], Dr. Weil. He ''succeeds'', too[[Crapsack World|...well, conquering what's left of it, anyway.]] [[Complete Monster|This guy]] ruling the last gasp of humanity is NOT a very good thing...
** Dr. Wily of the [[Mega Man (
* Subverted in ''[[
* ''[[Street Fighter]]'': This is the goal of M. Bison.
** [[That Guy With
* The goal of ''Demon's Crest'' is to destroy Phalanax, the demon who conquered the world. There's a catch: your character is Firebrand, a Red Arremer from ''[[Ghosts
* Malladus from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks]]'', apparently, {{spoiler|until his revival is about to be undone and he decides that an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] is good to go as well.}} At least [[Magnificent Bastard|Ganon(dorf)]] was modest enough to limit himself to just Hyrule...
* In [[Paradox Interactive]] games like the ''[[Europa Universalis]]'' series or the ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' series it's a challenge to take over the world before the time limit is reached. This is called a 'World Conquest' or WC in the community and is a common [[Self-Imposed Challenge]] if attempted with a small, weak country.
* [[Big Bad|Bowser]], the main villain of the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series games is constantly known for his tendency to take over the entire Mushroom Kingdom besides kidnapping Peach, but there are actually occasions where Bowser will actually expand his plans for world domination by actually [[Super Mario Galaxy
* This is the stated objective of the various Campaign modes in ''[[Rise of Nations]]'':
** World: Take over the entire world in a free-for-all between every sizable nation on Earth from the beginning of history up to the future.
Line 178 ⟶ 171:
** New World: Take over the New World as either [[America Takes Over the World|the Americans]], a European colonizer, or one of the Native nations.
** Cold War: Take over the entire world as either the Americans or the Soviets.
* The goal of Metal Command in ''[[
* The whole point of [[Psycho Walui]]. Oh no, it's not enough just to conquer kingdoms of worth, you must have it ALL! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ynn8FG2h0 Even bathrooms!]
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[
* In the old [[Might and Magic]] 'verse, this was surprisingly uncommon, with most would-be evil overlords aiming for ''continental'' domination instead. Kastore's faction of Terrans is an exception (they might have been able to pull it off, too, if they hadn't been hampered by lacking a key component to repairing the Heavenly Forge and the fact that the world blow up only a few years after they began phase one).
* [[Big Bad|Bruno]] from ''[[Solatorobo]]'' plans on reawakening and controlling an evil power to take over the world.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
* Tony of ''[[Real Life Comics]]'', being the [[Mad Scientist]] that he is, does [https://web.archive.org/web/20130525043113/http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/020104.html set out] to accomplish this goal for one story like because, according to him, [[Card-Carrying Villain|that's what evil people are supposed to do.]] He manages to succeed in the end, even defeating a challenger to his reign, but relents when he starts to discover just how much work is involved.▼
▲* [[MAGISA]] -- The main antagonists in this comic are demons. [http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119592 Their agenda is to bring hell on earth and turn planet earth into a giant prison]... all for the lulz.
▲* Tony of ''[[Real Life Comics]]'', being the [[Mad Scientist]] that he is, does [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/020104.html set out] to accomplish this goal for one story like because, according to him, [[Card-Carrying Villain|that's what evil people are supposed to do.]] He manages to succeed in the end, even defeating a challenger to his reign, but relents when he starts to discover just how much work is involved.
* ''[[Bob and George]]'' [[Deconstructed Trope]] the trope in a short-lived sub-comic ''Raw Lemons and Baked Pizza''. After having it up to here with Dr. Wily, Mega Man finally spells out just what taking over the world will require. Namely, having to sort out the already noticeable mess of differences between various nations, having to deal with the various uprisings, learning ever language known to man just to communicate with them, getting people to accept his rule in the first place and the insane amounts of stress that would be implied. It ends on a nice humorous note as Dr. Wily, having clearly gone too insane to recover, laments that he already had a custom gold world-domination crown made.
* Subverted in ''[[Girl Genius]]'', where by the start of the story, the [[Mad Scientist|evil mad genius]] Baron Wulfenbach has ''already'' taken over the
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'': Happens a number of times. Bun-Bun and K'Z'K have both tried to take over the main Sluggy universe (Bun-Bun actually succeeded, for all of ten minutes). The Dimension of Pain demons apparently took over their home dimension in order to make it "of Pain," and tried to do the same thing to the Dimension of Lame. This is also the long term goal of the Hereti Corporation and the K'Z'K cults that have sprung up following the Demon's death.
* ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'': Collin, is a megalomaniac who has dreams of becoming a dictator to politically unstable third world countries. Several arcs have sprung from this desire.
* ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' used the subversion - in a plotline where it appeared that Herdthinners CEO R.L. had been eaten by bears, his even more ruthless wife, Angelique, took over the company and slowly replaced the normal employees with ones that suffered from domestication. Since domestication causes absolute loyalty, she planned on creating an army of them to eventually Take Over The World. After her husband returned alive and well, he reminded her of the headaches of trying to run the whole world and they agreed to just make gobs of money instead. But the last strip in the storyline did show her encouraging her children to play Risk and learn from it.
* ''[[Evil,
* ''[[Dr. Nonami]]'': Mechano's goal is world conquest. So far it's not going very well.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130517211839/http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world/ Deconstructed] by ''[[Bug
* ''[[Nukees]]'': This has been the stated goal of Gav since the beginning, but especially since Ma'at told him it was his destiny. As of August 2010, he seems to have succeeded, albeit in a way no one could have expected.
* ''Xykon'' of ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''.
* According to [[Card-Carrying Villain|Rhea,]] in ''[http://worldpeace.emilymarthasorensen.com/worldpeace117.html To Prevent World Peace]'', "Born mages have a manifest destiny . . ." (To destroy all magical girls and take over the world, presumably.)
** Also, the main character was going to take over the world [[Utopia Justifies the Means|for its own good.]] Because only magical girls could be trusted to be totally pure dictators, right?
* Raichan in ''[[
== [[Web
* ''[[
{{quote|
"The world is a ''mess'', and I just need to rule it!" }}
* ''[[Doctor Steel]]'': Dr. Steel for World Emperor!. Toward a Utopian Playland!
* ''[[That Guy With
** This Trope is a running joke for the Nostalgia Critic in his reviews. When the antagonist of any film is revealed to have this goal in mind the review will be interrupted by M. Bison as he was played by Raul Julia in [[Street Fighter (
{{quote|
'''M. Bison:''' Of course!
The line is completely out of context (it was actually in response to Sagat saying "Guile? Alive?"), but deliberately so as part of the Critic's motif of using clips and bytes in response to himself. }}
** Other members of the team such as Paw Dugan and Linkara have adopted this gag for their own videos as well, effectively making it a [[Running Gag]] for the entire website.
** In the website's second-year anniversary epic [[Kickassia]], this is the Nostalgia Critic's plan, starting with the invasion of Molassia. {{spoiler|When he gets Molassia, he soons forgets this, becoming [[Orcus
* ''[[Dimension Heroes]]'': The Dark Overlords from the web fiction serial managed to take over an entire dimension.
* ''[[Agamemnon Tiberius Vacuum]]'': Agamemnon's hobby is "collecting the universe" and he wishes to add the Earth to his collection.
* ''[[Greek Ninja]]'': The villain's intentions are to control the world {{spoiler|to bring back the reign of the Olympians}}.
* The basic goal of the ''[[
* Every [[Big Bad]] in ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'' has this as a motivation, although for three different reasons: [[Casting a Shadow|The Master of Darkness]] wants to [[Dark World|cover the entire world with darkness]]; the [[Eldritch Abomination|Prince of Shadows and Illusions]] just [[Omnicidal Maniac|wants to kill everyone]]. The [[No Name Given|mysterious]] [[Evil Sorcerer|mage]]'s motivations are never made clear.
* ''[[
{{quote|
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* ''[[He-Man and
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* ''[[He-Man and The Masters of The Universe (Animation)|He-Man and The Masters of The Universe]]'': Skeletor was always trying to take over Greyskull, and with that, the universe.
* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' actually opens with Aku taking over the world. The entire thrust of the series was Jack trying to go back in time to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|stop it from happening.]]
* Most of the villains (especially the recurring ones) in ''[[Kim Possible]]''. To quote Shego:
{{quote|
* The Brain of ''[[
** It's refutable whether [[Anti-Hero|Brain]] is truly a villain, since he honestly believes the world would be better off with him in charge- he said as much in ''Megalomaniacs Anonymous''. Also notable is the lack of any regularly-appearing nemesis to thwart his schemes (unless you count [[Bumbling Sidekick|Pinky]]); they generally crash & burn on their own.
** On the other hand is Snowball, Brains archrival from the latter series, who has all of the ambition and none of the morals or good intent.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': The Fire Nation.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an episode of the ''[[Spider-Man:
* On the very last episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', Mojo Jojo manages to take over the world by stealing The Key To The World. At first he surprises everyone by creating the perfect utopia, but then [[Victory Is Boring|gets bored with it and resumes trying to destroy everything]]. Most of the episode consisted of every single villain than has ever appeared on ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' (yes, even the Villains of the Week) fighting to the get the Key to the World. The girls, of course, try to stop them, but once they get the key they become mad with power and start planning what they would do if each of them ruled the world and start fighting for the key themselves.
* Also [[Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987
* The generally-assumed goal of the Legion of Doom on ''Challenge of the [[
* On ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'', most villains want to do it. According to Norm the Genie, [[Humans Are
* While it's never explicitly stated that Lydia, the [[Evil Sorcerer|villain]] of ''[[Barbie and
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''
** Parodied: Dr. Doofenshmirtz restricts all his evil schemes to the Tri-State Area for no obvious reason. The first episode even has him seemingly about to announce that he's going to take over the world, only to switch maps and finish with "Tri-State Area!" It's later revealed that [[One Degree of Separation|he used to date Phineas's mother]], who encouraged his set more realistic goals than "take over the world", so he scaled back to "the ''entire Tri-State Area!''".
** Lampshaded in "The Beak", when Dr. Doofenshmirtz makes a public announcement that he already ''has'' taken over the Tri-State area. The idea was that if he claimed this with enough conviction, [[Bavarian Fire Drill|people would believe him, and treat him like their new]] [[Evil Overlord]]. [[Idiot Ball|Only Major Monogram and Carl were fooled]].
* ''[[The Incredible Crash Dummies]]'': Junkman's plan, after he's picked up lunch.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' [[Big Bad]] Vlad only hinted that he had potential desires for the world as his current evil plans focused more on personal vendettas, but then Season Three came where it's revealed he wants it. Only one has ever succeeded in dominating the planet: [[Ax Crazy|Dark Danny]] in an [[Bad Future|alternate future]], though arguably that can be a case of [[The End of the World
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'': This is Zim's goal right from the start, along with [[Destroy All Humans!|destroying all humans.]]
* ''[[
** The primary villain of the series, Megabyte, tries repeatedly to take over Mainframe, but never succeeds (though he does come close.)
** [[The Bad Guy Wins|Actually Megabyte does succeed.]] It's just that by the time he does take over the city is in ruins and [[Victory Is Boring|there is nothing left]] [[Pyrrhic Victory|for him to rule.]]
* In ''[[Storm Hawks]]'', to spread her empire over the whole Atmos is Master Cyclonis' number one goal (and seeing as she is the latest in a royal family, the ambition seems to run [[In the Blood]]). She's demonstrated some pretty impressive schemes to do so, but has always failed so far on behalf of [[You Meddling Kids|those meddling Storm Hawks]] and her [[Surrounded
* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this in the episode that introduced the villian Moliatry.
{{quote|
** In another episode, Honker gets controlled by an alien-hat [[Puppeteer Parasite]], who then announces his plan to take over the world via a TV broadcast. After the alien is defeated and Honker gets home, his dad, having only seen the broadcast, sympathetically says "Sorry the whole 'take over the world' thing didn't work out, Honk!"
* In ''[[Futurama]]'' it is implied that the United States has taken over the world sometime in the past and simply adopted the name "Earth". The "Earthican" Flag looks like the American flag just with the stars replaced with Earth. And when Nixon is running for president of "Earth" in the year 3000 at first they say he can't run because "no body can be president twice" implying the government of Earth is a continuation of the American government.
** [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Mom wants to take over the world, and uses mind control chips planted in every robot (which encompasses virtually all known technology in the future) to get it. This leads to the memorable line, "Go conquer Earth, you bastards!" This is inspired by the fact that Farnsworth dumped her, leading to the next one: "Hell hath no fury like the [[Killer Robot|vast robot armies]] of a [[Woman Scorned]]!"
* ''[[
* In ''[[Teen Titans (
* Dolf in ''[[Alfred J Kwak]]''. Because of an innate fear of [[Pride|being perceived as weak by others]], when he's still a child Dolf decides that one day he will simply rule over everyone and everything. Moreover, when he stages his coup he outright declares that he simply wants power for its own sake. A dream he has in the final episode reveals that despite many years having passed he still harbours this desire.
== [[Real Life]] ==
▲== Real Life ==
* If you count humanity as one deeply fractionated empire then we've already achieved this. [[Galactic Conqueror|But as we all know, one world is not enough.]]
* The person in real life who set the record for most land conquered was Temujin, better known by his title Genghis Khan (even more, if you also count the conquests of his sons). He even invoked this goal when choosing that title, which roughly means "Oceanic ruler".
* [[Alexander the Great]] conquered what was the known world of ancient times, all before he was 33. In fact, he took massive slabs of territory that [[Ancient Greece|the Greeks]] ''hadn't even heard of'' before he started conquering the places in between. Unfortunately, he didn't live long enough to cement his control over most of it, or raise a good
* [[The Roman Empire|Caesar Augustus]] accomplished this, in that he took over an already-powerful republic and made himself absolute ruler. Contemporaries would compare him to Alexander the Great, but Augustus pointed out that it was far more difficult to rule an empire than to conquer one.
* While Peter the Great's infamous challenge to his successors to conquer the world is a fabrication of Anti-Russian propaganda, the [[Tsarist Russia|Russian Empire]] at its height covered more than one-sixths of the Earth's landmass.
* [[Napoleon Bonaparte]], maybe. What is certain in sure terms is that he wanted to make France the principal state in Europe, a large and prosperous military power full of national pride that would dominate the continent and lord over a vast colonial empire; essentially a new Roman Empire with Paris as its capital instead of Rome. He changed his tactics to accomplish this goal several times, but it was always a constant of Britain (which traditionally tried to undermine any continental power that it perceived as growing too powerful) and a shifting coalition of European allies opposing France to break the new empire. He did manage to take over all of continental Western and Central Europe, but was eventually outdone after the disastrous venture in Russia and the War of the Sixth Coalition. He escaped his exile on Elba to try again, but Waterloo proved to be the hypothetical nail in Napoleon's coffin, not the turning point of the wars.<ref>Even if Napoleon's forces had managed to beat Britain and Prussia there and then and managed to occupy the Low Countries there would be still more Russians, Austrians, ''more'' British and Prussians, and others ready to oppose him, all now using the same once-revolutionary tactics of Napoleon.</ref>
* The British, through a combination of trade and military action, created [[The British Empire|an empire that covered a quarter of the globe]], across so many lines of longitude that famously "the sun never set" on their Empire.
** As well as, arguably, all of the world's oceans.
* [[Those Wacky Nazis|The Nazis]]: Although still an ongoing debate (referred to as the "Continentalist vs Globalist" theories), since the end of [[World War II]] historical study has convincingly established that the expansionist aspects of Nazi ideology only allowed two possible outcomes: total victory or total defeat. [[Adolf Hitler]] wanted to ensure German and Aryan supremacy and realised that [[Nazi Germany]] would have to take over the world to do this. However, he also realised that this would take a ''lot'' of time (he was 50 when he started the war in 1939) and planned to take over "only" Europe in his lifetime (coming fairly close to accomplishing this), leaving the rest of the task to his successors. Historians have also argued that the military alliances with [[Imperial Japan|Japan]] and [[Fascist Italy|Italy]] were part of Hitler's short- and medium-term pragmatism, not his long-term aims, and that the Nazis would likely not have had much choice about continuing to expand due to how their economy was structured.
{{quote|
** Hitler specifically did not want to establish a blood dynasty, and given his personal situation it's doubtful he would have lived long enough to groom a descendant as a successor anyway. He also kept his subordinates squabbling for position within the Nazi Party as a means of holding onto power himself. Most likely if Hitler had succeeded the Greater German Reich would have [[Succession Crisis|collapsed into chaos soon after his death]]. Nazi Germany's leadership was too busy playing hacky-sack with the [[Idiot Ball]] to plan for long-term conquest as Hitler envisioned.
*** Even then, chances are they'd be [[Evil Versus Evil|fighting with]] [[Imperial Japan]] over who'd finally be the one to rule the entire world.
* When your founding father [[Red October|Vladimir Lenin]] repeatedly states his eagerness for what he calls the "Worldwide Conflagration", and tries to put it into action in various stages, it is a fair bet you are aiming for this. This would later be checked by the rise of Stalin, who believed in "Socialism in One Country".
* This is the stated goal of Bungie, the makers of the game ''[[Halo]]''. It's stated all over the special features of the second two games. And the web site. And the promotional material...
Line 278 ⟶ 266:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Goals and Objectives Index]]
[[Category:Make My Index Live]]
[[Category:
|