Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,561
edits
The Caligula: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (defaultsort) |
No edit summary |
||
| (20 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 3:
{{quote|''"Madness reigns
''In the hall of the Mountain King"''
|'''[[Savatage]]''', "Hall of the Mountain King" }}
The downside of any [[Royal Blood|hereditary monarchy]] is that every so often the throne is inherited by someone completely out of his gourd. It could be the lead plumbing (or complete lack thereof), the immortality elixirs (which all make use of mercury) or [[In the Blood|it's genetic]] ([[Royally Screwed-Up|in which case you're in some deep trouble]]). Yet, despite the sovereign's obvious insanity, he is still [[I Control My Minions Through...|given the full power and support of the State]], with inevitably disastrous consequences.
'''The Caligula''' will be wildly irrational, [[Mood Swinger|violently moody]], very intolerant of being told anything he doesn't want to hear, and probably afflicted with a [[A God Am I|god complex]]. He may indulge in [[Egopolis|renaming cities or even the entire country after himself]]. To do anything the Caligula finds displeasing is to inevitably be dragged off to a grisly death or [[Fate Worse Than Death|worse]]. Of course, this could also happen to those who have not done anything at all. Due to their continuing close proximity to the Caligula, members of the Court ([[Deadly Decadent Court|decadent]] or [[Standard Royal Court|otherwise]]) will be the primary targets of his fits of rage.
And while all of this is going on, the land over which the Caligula rules is rapidly going down the drain due to his neglect. At best. If he's a [[Glory Hound]], he has an advantage over most: he can start wars.
This is not limited to sovereign heads of state.
See [[Royally Screwed-Up]] for when the this type of character becomes a recurring family problem. Also see [[President Evil]] for when this guy is actually ''voted into office''
Line 17 ⟶ 18:
The canonical alignment for many Caligulas is [[Chaotic Evil]] of the Type 4 variety, though some [[Neutral Evil]] examples exist. [[Lawful Evil]] Caligulas are possible (though rare enough to be almost unheard of) as any alignment is subject to insanity and [[Lawful Evil]] characters do enjoy establishing cruel laws and seeing their minions enforce them.
Named for what is probably history's best known whack-job, [[The Roman Empire|Roman]] [[The Emperor|emperor]] [[wikipedia:Caligula|Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus]], better known as [[Emperor Caligula|Caligula]] (''Little Boots'', his childhood nickname), a reference to the child-sized "caliga" warrior's sandals he wore as a small child when his father took him to watch a war; remembered for talking to statues, locking granaries, declaring war on Poseidon (and "winning",
In terms of the ranks of [[Authority Tropes]], the tropes that are equal are [[The Good Chancellor]], [[Evil Chancellor]], [[Standard Royal Court]] and [[Deadly Decadent Court]]. The next step down is [[The Brigadier]]. The next steps up are [[The Evil Prince]], [[Prince Charming]], [[Prince Charmless]], [[Warrior Prince]], [[The White Prince]], [[The Wise Prince]], and all [[Princess Tropes]].
So what does it take to be the [[Trope Namer]] for insane royalty? The [[Emperor Caligula]] page has the details.
While Real Life examples are perfectly welcome, do try to save them until after the ruler in question is dead, deposed, or otherwise unable to strike back at you and/or All The Tropes.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* Queen Himiko from the
* The [[Complete Monster|Maestro Delphine]] of ''[[Last Exile]]''.
* [[Complete Monster|King Hamdo]] of ''[[Now and Then, Here and There]]'' is a petty, raging tyrant who expends his armies of enslaved [[Child Soldiers]] at will. His first scenes involve strangling his cat when it upsets him, and then having the child protagonist tortured for hours and hours on end.
* Niwe of ''[[Utawarerumono]]''.
* Emperor Ganishka in the latest arc of ''[[Berserk]]'', who even manages to stand head and shoulders above the other villains in the series. No small feat, considering they were nearly all absolutely horrible [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters.]]
* [[Fruits Basket]]: While not actually royalty, Akito plays this role as head of the Sohma family. {{spoiler|She gets better, unlike the standard Caligula.}}
* The World Government of ''[[One Piece]]'' appears to fall into this, although not the Marines protecting it. The World Government itself is incredibly corrupt and brutal, being major patrons of the mostly pirate-run slave trade and using the Marines for acts of mass butchery to silence those that found out their dirty secrets or could threaten them. The ''nobility'' of this world is even worse, as the upper-middle class will cheerfully burn an occupied city to the ground to make things look neater for a World Noble's visit and claim it's the poor people's fault for being too stupid to be born nobles. The highest social class are so batshit insane they wear air bubbles to prevent themselves from breathing the same air as commoners and regularly murder anyone they encounter them over the very pettiest gripes.
** Were he to achieve his goal of taking over Fishman Island, Hodi Jones would easily be this - his immediate plans would be to slaughter anyone on the island who wants to live in peace with [[Fantastic Racism|humans]], followed by going to a council of kings with the intended purpose of murdering them all.
* ''[[Kirby:
* Clair Leonelli of ''[[Heat Guy J]]''. This (more than the fact that he's [[Just a Kid|only 19 years old)]] is the reason the other Mafia higher-ups are reluctant to let him assume the role of [[Badass Nickname|Vampire]].
* Gihren Zabi of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', a soulless [[Evil Prince]] who has no problems murdering his father to seize power, using [[Weapons of Mass Destruction]] to butcher civillian populations, or subverting the entire war effort in the name of his [[Social Darwinist]] agenda. He's less overtly crazy than many examples, but makes up for it with his total [[Lack of Empathy]] and emotionless [[The Sociopath|psychopathy]].
* [[Psychopathic Manchild|Kano]] from ''[[Texhnolyze]],'' the [[Big Bad]]. While very [[The Chessmaster|intelligent]], [[The Ubermensch|charismatic]] and [[New Era Speech|eloquent]], he's a deranged solipsist who believes that he's the only real person in a world that exists inside his mind. A possible explanation for this may be the fact that he's the result of generations of selective inbreeding, designed to create the perfect ruler.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Conan the Barbarian]] came up against mad and corrupt kings with some regularity, but the most notable of these was King Numedides, who Conan [[You Kill It, You Bought It|overthrew to become king of Aquilonia]]. Numedides regularly had men and women flayed alive for minor transgressions; indeed, when Conan was imprisoned in his tower, Numedides executed a dancer who Conan liked and ordered a scrap of her flesh tossed in Conan's cell. Conan immediately recognized whom it belonged to because of the dancer's many tattoos. As well, in order to become immortal, Numedides enlisted the services of the [[Evil Sorcerer]] Thulandra Thuu; together, they sacrificed young women in order for Numedides to [[Blood Bath|bathe in their blood]].
* In "[[The Hour of the Dragon]]," Valerius fits this trope perfectly: his drunken revelry, sexual violence and senseless slaughter was so extensive that his co-conspirators had to step in, to stop him from running the kingdom into the ground.
Line 50 ⟶ 52:
* King Kel in ''[[Strontium Dog]]''
* The Red King, main villain of the ''[[Planet Hulk]]'' storyline, fits this trope to a T.
* In the [[Dark Empire]] arc of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' comic lines, Palpatine became this after his first resurrection. Although he was definitely not a good person prior to his first death in Return of the Jedi, he at least was sane enough to actually succeed in his plans and manipulate factors in his favor. Afterwards, he's become just yet another insane, megalomaniacal tyrant (his increased insanity was heavily implied to be the direct result of transferring his spirit into clones.)
** It also probably didn't help that {{spoiler|said clones were being sabotaged by one of his guards to genetically break down}}.
* ''[[Sin City
== [[Film]] ==▼
* Of course, there is [[Emperor Caligula|Caligula]] himself, who appears in the guise of Jay Robinson in ''[[The Robe]]'' (1953), of John Hurt in ''I, Claudius'' (1976) and ''[[Demetrius and
▲== Film ==
▲* Of course, there is [[Emperor Caligula|Caligula]] himself, who appears in the guise of Jay Robinson in ''[[The Robe]]'' (1953), of John Hurt in ''I, Claudius'' (1976) and ''[[Demetrius and The Gladiators]]'' (1954) and of Malcolm McDowell in (what else?) ''[[Caligula]]'' (1979).
* The Roman Emperor Commodus as depicted in ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]'' and ''[[Film/The Fall Of The Roman Empire|The Fall Of The Roman Empire]]''. Commodus wasn't as bad in real life as he was in either film, but he still wasn't the sort of monarch you'd take home to mother—he once walked into the Senate with a severed ostrich head, fought as a gladiator in the arena (against disabled opponents who stood no chance),<ref>which was actually a lie part of the "[[Historical Villain Upgrade|Damnatio Memoriae]]" operation the senate organized against him after his death. In reality, he was actually widely recognized as the best arena fighter of the time</ref> and is best-known for ending the "Five Good Emperors".
* The portrayal of Idi Amin in ''[[The Last King of Scotland]]'' exemplifies this trope almost perfectly. He begins as an [[Anti-Hero]] and descends into complete madness and insanity.
Line 70 ⟶ 71:
* The Alternate Universe version of Biff Tannen in ''[[Back to The Future]]: Part II''. Using the [[Timeline-Altering MacGuffin|Gray's Sports Almanac]] he obtained from his future self, he wins an insane amount of money from gambling, which he uses to become mayor and buy off the police, turning Hill Valley into a ''[[Mad Max]]''-styled city.
* In ''[[13 Assassins]]'', Lord Naritsugu is the Shogun's little brother, and uses his position to do such depravities that his house's vassals start committing seppuku in protest. The main conflict of the movie is that the Shogun wants him killed without dishonouring their house.
* Aedenoid Hynkel from ''[[The Great Dictator]]'', a parody of Hitler who even dances with a globe of the world as he thinks of becoming 'Emperor of the World'.
* Admiral General Aladeen from ''[[The Dictator]]''. Among other things, the guy has his own men executed for the most trivial reasons such as his nuclear missile program head not having made the missile pointy or one of his men accidentally blocking him on a staircase ({{spoiler|though it turns out his executioners are rebels and everyone he has ordered killed is alive and living in New York}}), he hosted is own "Aladeen Games" where he won every single event (the one shown being a race where he shoots the other athletes in the leg and has the finishing line carried forward to break it) and even changed a large percentage of the words in the language in his country to "Aladeen"...including ''contradictory'' words like "positive/negative" and "open/closed", causing immense confusion. All [[Played for Laughs]], naturally.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* Caligula is a central character to the novel ''[[I, Claudius]]'' by Robert Graves, and he is as insane as you would think.▼
▲== Literature ==
▲* Caligula is a central character to the novel ''I, Claudius'' by Robert Graves, and he is as insane as you would think.
** He declares himself a god, which he feels justifies {{spoiler|murdering his father and sleeping with his sisters (all 3 of them!)}}
** And when he actually becomes emperor... you'd better watch out.
* Most Malwa in [[Belisarius Series]]. The worst of them are so evil they would be funny if they [[Harsher in Hindsight|weren't like real dictators.]] Many would still find them funny.
* [[A. E. van Vogt]]'s EMPIRE OF THE ATOM and THE WIZARD OF LINN has most prominent characters as analogues of Roman history, starting with Clane/Claudius. "Calaj" is the obvious Caligula stand in, the grandson of Lydia/Livia and related to Clane and Tews/Tiberius.
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' gives us both King Aerys II "The Mad" Targaryen and [[Complete Monster|King Joffrey Baratheon]] (who knew a 13-year-old could be that psychotic?). The former was the worst King that Westeros ever had, and a powerful 300-year old dynasty was overthrown because of his insane actions. The latter's reckless, childish cruelty and love of ordering executions resulted in a continent-wide civil war.
** Indeed, [[Royally Screwed-Up|the whole Targaryen dynasty]] had this trope going on. Half of them were either good or competent rulers. The other half were Caligulas, with Aerys merely being the one who took it too far. Of Aerys' children, his son Rhaeger and daughter Daenerys are sane, while his other son Viserys is the next Caligula-to-be. The dynastic tradition of [[Brother-Sister Incest]] might have had something to do with this.
** There is [[God Save Us From the Queen|Cersei as the Queen Regent]], as well. Not as bad as her son Joffrey, though.
* Swemmel, king of Unkerlant, in [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Darkness]]'' novels, who's really just a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] equivalent of Joseph Stalin.
* The "Gentleman With the Thistle-down Hair" from ''[[Jonathan Strange
* ''[[Discworld]]'' throws a few examples at us:
** There was King Gurnt the Stupid of Lancre, whose attempt at training an aerial attack force of armored ravens [[Just for Pun|never got off the ground]].
** Duke Felmet, also of Lancre, might have been stable before he gained the throne through regicide, but afterwards he would regularly try to [[Out, Damned Spot!|remove the blood from his hands]] via sandpaper or cheese grater and be surprised that this only generated more.
*** [[Lady Macbeth|His wife]] is even worse, being nothing more than a [[Card-Carrying Villain|card carrying]] [[Social Darwinist]] sociopath.
** Ankh-Morpork has had its share of unbalanced rulers as well, like King Ludwig the Tree, who once issued a royal proclamation on the need to develop a new type of frog and thought up the city motto "Quanti Canicula Ille In Fenestra" (which is [[Canis Latinicus|pseudo-Latin]] for "How much is that doggy in the window?"), and King Lorenzo the Kind, who was "very fond of children". King Lorenzo was the last straw; after his execution, Ankh-Morpork became a republic, led by the Patrician—although actually it was more like the nobles appointed one of their number to wield power. By the time of the books, the Council chooses the Patrician and includes nobles and Guild leaders. Safe to say there is no electing in the modern sense going on. Mind you, some of the Patricians [[President Evil|weren't much better]]:
** Homicidal Lord Winder turned Ankh-Morpork into a police state out of paranoia.
** The aptly named Psychoneurotic (sometimes merely Mad) Lord
** Yet another example is the Agatean Emperor in ''[[
* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga|Barrayaran Empire]] had a Mad Emperor Yuri about a generation before the Vorkosigan series starts.
** They've also had [[Complete Monster|Prince Serg]], who would certainly have qualified, had he not... conveniently died... before succeeding to the throne.
Line 105:
* King Ademar of Gorhaut in [[Guy Gavriel Kay]]'s ''A Song for Arbonne'' has rabid dogs tearing each other to pieces before the throne and maids give him blowjobs right in front of a ''very'' discomfitted court, among many other strange hobbies.
* At least as portrayed in the ''[[1632]]'' series, Charles I of England seems to qualify. The Stuart monarchs in general were firm believers in the divine right of kings; they were also generally pretty feckless as rulers. 1632 Charles has heard what will happen to him and is lashing out at his future enemies. True to form, he's messing it up (he's driven his historical best supporter into working with Cromwell, who's still alive, if on the run). Odds are the English Civil will come early in this world. This makes him a particularly incompetent Caligula.
* ''[[The 120 Days of Sodom]]'' by the [[Marquis de Sade]] centers around [[Aristocrats Are Evil|four French aristocrats]] who use their vast wealth and power to have sixteen young teenagers kidnapped. They lock themselves in a secluded castle with those teenagers, their own daughters, four old prostitutes, eight massively endowed men, and the four ugliest old women they can find. Over the next four months, they have the "ultimate in orgies" - they rape, torture, dismember, and murder all but a few of those guests. The [[
* In Barry Hughart's ''[[Bridge of Birds|The Story of the Stone,]]'' the infamous Laughing Prince committed all sorts of horrors on the peasants in his valley, some of them in pursuit of immortality, [[Axe Crazy|some just because he was crazy.]] He was named for his cheerful, laughing demeanor and charming little dance step. Li Kao diagnoses him as brain-damaged from repeated consumption of a mercury-laced "elixir of life."
* Meet
* Randall Flagg from ''[[The Stand]]'' barely remembers most of his own life, is prone to childish fits of anger, and doesn't even seem to understand his own motivations; he just seems driven by some instinct or outside force to cause as much mayhem and destruction as he possibly can. And he may or may not be [[Satan|the devil]].
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[A Witch Shall Be Born]]", Tamaris's subjects think she's gone mad after Salome pulls off a [[Fake King]].
Line 114:
* The Crackling Prince in [[Walter Jon Williams]] ARISTOI probably qualifies, although he never appears and is referred to only in discussing the past. He planned on "artistically" reconfiguring planetary landscapes with gravity generators --- with the people still living on them and expected to be grateful. Understandably "a commission had been formed in Perseopolis to examine his behavior", but he was somehow persuaded to retire before the other Aristoi actually did anything.
* Vlad Tepes in ''[[Count and Countess]]'', though he will try to tell you otherwise.
* The Secretary-General in [[Larry Niven]]'s ''The Flight of the Horse'' series is effectively a dictator and has a mental age of six.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* The [[Emperor Caligula]] himself, as magnificently depicted by John Hurt in ''[[I, Claudius]]''. (See also [[Brother-Sister Incest]].)
* The Centauri Republic's insane emperor Cartagia from ''[[Babylon 5]]''. He even sets his planet on a path he knows will probably end with it {{spoiler|[[Earthshattering Kaboom|blown into little pieces]]}} because he thinks it'll make a fitting ceremony for [[A God Am I|his ascension to godhood]]. {{spoiler|In the end, soon-to-be Prime Minister Londo and his associates assassinate him.}}
Line 128:
* [[Wonder Woman/Series|Wonder Woman TV series]]: Marion Mariposa, from episode “Screaming javelins” is wildly irrational, violently moody, very intolerant of being told anything he doesn't want to hear, and [[I Control My Minions Through...|totally in control of a micronation, submarines and his mercenaries]]. He infiltrates the US by sky diving, kidnaps Olympic athletes in an attempt to gain popularity for his own micronation, [[Egopolis|Mariposalia]], and his [[Arch Enemy]] is not [[Wonder Woman]], but IADC agent [[Secret Identity|Diana Prince]]
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==▼
▲== Professional Wrestling ==
* Vince McMahon has been portrayed as the ultimate Caligula in Professional Wrestling. The [[Catch Phrase|phrase]] "Don't Cross The Boss" comes to mind. If you do, you might be forced into a handicap match with the monster heel of the week, have to join Vince McMahon's 'Kiss My Ass' club or simply be told that "YOU'RE FIRED!!!!"
* Eric Bischoff was WCW's Caligula, was WWE's Caligula when McMahon chose to step out of the spotlight, and is currently TNA's Caligula. Though [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on that last one.
* Triple H during the McMahon-Helmsley era and later during the Evolution era.
* Recently{{when}} Vickie Guerrero has been wrestling's number 1 Caligula. Cross her and you can kiss both your dignity and your balls goodbye.
** EXCUSE ME!!!
* There is a new Caligula in town; his name is John Laurinaitis.<ref>[[Overly Long Gag|Executive Vice President of Talent and Permanent General Manager of Raw and Smackdown.]]</ref>
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* More than a few planetary lords in ''[[Warhammer
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* More than a few planetary lords in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' probably fit into this category, but special mention must be made of High Lord Goge Vandire, who in the 36th millennium managed to take control of both the [[The Empire|Imperium's]] [[The Government|Administratum]] and [[Church Militant|Ecclesiarchy]],<ref>by means of first installing an incompetent and weak minded [[High Priest|Ecclesiarch]] and then having him executed for being incompetent and weak willed before declaring himself Ecclesiarch</ref> beginning the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Reign of Blood]]. Vandire was notoriously paranoid and ordered the deaths of millions and the destruction of entire worlds due to real or imagined plots against him. He eventually developed a phobia of light and took to wandering the darkened corridors of the Imperial Palace while muttering to himself, and was ultimately killed by his [[Amazon Brigade|all-female cadre of bodyguards]] to end the devastating civil war. In the four thousand years since then, the Imperium has all but destroyed itself waging penitent crusades to atone.
* ''[[Ravenloft]]'' loves this trope. About half the domains are ruled by Caligulas (even if they're not the actual dark lord). Some examples include Othmar Bolshnik, who's on the brink of declaring himself king of a nation that withholds the title of "king" for their mythical religious ruler; Ivan Dilisnya, a paranoid opera fanatic who sends suspected enemies, actors who displease him, and anyone else he has a problem with to his Play Room; and Vlad Drakov, [[Complete Monster|who seems to be the creators' attempt to put Vlad the Impaler and Hitler in a blender and see what comes out]].
* ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' is a [[Tabletop Game]] based solely on being controlled by a Caligula named "[[The Computer Is Your Friend|Friend Computer]]."
** Lies spread by [[Dirty Communists|Commie]] [[Mutants|Mutant]] [[The Mole|Traitors]]. Friend Computer is flawless and all-knowing, and works tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of all citizens of Alpha Complex. Will the citizen who wrote the above entry please report to the nearest Termination Booth. Further, all citizens who read this Commie Mutant Traitor propaganda are declared to be irreversibly contaminated, and are to report for termination at once. Please note, failure to report for termination is grounds for immediate termination. Have a nice day!
* ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' loves this trope, and the entire Ventrue clan more or less exemplifies this tendency. While it's ''possible'' for other clans to go Caligula, 9 times out of 10 it's a Ventrue. This is because they not only have lordly instincts, but their clan weakness is a tendency to easily pick up Derangements if they fall down the [[Karma Meter]]. So if a Ventrue Prince has to make the hard choices, and is able to rationalize them away, the crazy's going to start to leak through sooner or later...
Line 147 ⟶ 145:
* ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' had the Silver Fangs, the "ruling tribe" of werewolves, who, thanks to inbreeding with the royal houses of Europe, had an increasing tendency to be off their rockers.
* ''[[Exalted]]'': Anyone whose soul is affixed to the Exaltation will behave this way due to death-curse from the creator-gods they murdered, but Solar Exalted takes the proverbial cake.
In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', rulers who are like this among the [[Snake People| Yuan-Ti]] are more common than those who aren’t. Their governments have always been theocratic, with the [[Humanoid Abomination| Yuan-Ti Anathemas]] being high priests and [[God-Emperor]]s, literal manifestations of their snake gods. However some unexplained phenomenon<ref>Though in the Forgotten Realms setting, probably related to the fall of Netheril</ref> caused the Anathemas’ connection to their gods to sever, turning the Anathemas into raging lunatics and causing the once great Yuan-Ti empires to collapse. Some are even incapable of ruling at all, their subjects keeping them in oubliette-style pits, throwing them food and [[Human Sacrifice| blood sacrifices]], which to them are usually the same thing.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Richard III]]''. Starts out a gleeful villain and ends completely insane.
▲== Video games ==
* For examples where the game allows ''you'' to be The Caligula, see [[Cruel Player Character God]].
* [[Halo]]'s Covenant Prophets tend to fall in this category, especially the main trio. They know the whole Covenant thing is a load of crap. They just want to genocide humans because the humans are inheritors of the forerunners, and proof that the forerunners were physical beings and thus proof that their religion is all lies. Truth really stands out, by the end he's clearly a complete psychopath.
Line 167 ⟶ 164:
'''Luca:''' ''I said ACT LIKE A PIG!!!''
'''Villager:''' ''Y-yes! All right! *on four, making pig noises*''
'''Luca:''' ''[[Evil Laugh|Hoo hoo hoo ha ha ha!!]] This is so fun...''
'''Villager:''' ''So does that mean...''
'''Luca:''' '''''DIE, PIG!!!!!!!''''' *slashes villager to death* }}
* [[Complete Monster|Mad King Ashnard]], [[Social Darwinist]] villain of ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Path of Radiance''. In order to be crowned king, [[Moral Event Horizon|he orchestrated a plague that wiped out a large amount of his country's population]] to get rid of the many nobles who were ahead of him in the line of succession. Notable for attempting to start a worldwide conflict and release a dark god on the world [[For the Evulz|just because he felt like it]]. After touching an amulet that was established to drive most humans into a mindless killing rage, his personality remained unchanged, the implication being that he couldn't possibly become any worse than he already was. Interestingly enough, he wasn't considered to be a bad ruler by the common people of Daein, largely due to his policy of awarding high-level positions to anyone of sufficient skill.
Line 181 ⟶ 178:
* ''[[Viva Caligula]]'' from the Adult Swim web site is built around being a crazy tyrant and killing everyone you meet in creatively horrible ways.
* In the [[All There in the Manual|back story]] to the ''Homeworld'' series of RTS games, the [[The Empire|Taiidani Empire]] fell under the control of a particularly... 'unstable' ruler, who then proceeded to compound the problem by massacring all his rivals and decreeing that all future Emperors would be clones of him. The insane policies 'he' carries out during the course of the game lead to the empire [[La Résistance|being overthrown]] after the [[Back From the Brink|insanely efficient]] Hiigaran fleet kills 'him'.
* Garrosh Hellscream, possibly the most controversial leader of the Horde in the history of ''[[Warcraft]]''. While it is usually an unfair stereotype among the Alliance to label the Horde as uncivilized barbarians, Garrosh certainly doesn't help his case. [[0% Approval Rating|All of the Alliance and a good percentage of his fellow Horde leaders know he's gone off the deep end,]] and as a result, he is a [[General Failure| poor leader]] with the reputation of a hot-blooded lunatic. A Horde player has to act as something of a [[Dragon with an Agenda]] or a [[Noble Top Enforcer]] while working for him until the finale of ''Mists of Pandara'', when he uses an artifact that summons the Sha outside of Pandara, crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] and causing the entire Horde to turn on him in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'': Kefka, of course! He was already stark raving nuts when he was serving as the Emperor's [[The Dragon|Dragon]]. But when he got hold of the power of the gods and bumped off the Emperor, [[Monster Clown|he]] [[Nietzsche Wannabe|got]] [[A God Am I|even]] ''[[Omnicidal Maniac|worse]].''
* Yggdrasil in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' pretty much qualifies: Because {{spoiler|his sister was killed, he's striving for an age of lifeless beings, thus misinterpreting his sister's wish of a world freed of discrimination and tyrannizing the world. Even when his own sister - temporarily resurrected - tells him how wrong his plans are, he refuses to listen, thinking she's rejecting him, and simply goes [[Ax Crazy|crazy.]]}}
* Nearly ''the entire cast'' of ''[[Blood Storm]]'' is composed of megalomaniacal [[Complete Monster]]s, all of them fighting to become the High Emperor and thus be ''true'' Caligulas. Take your pick: the pyromaniac warlord, the ice-blooded king with a superiority complex, a [[Hive Mind]] that tortures people for fun, an Amazon hoping to eliminate the entire male gender, the radioactive mutant that intrudes on the contest, the vengeance-obsessed cyborg smuggler, or the spoiled princess{{spoiler|/assassin}}. The only ''good'' character enters the contest to get everyone to stop listening to the paranoid nuts and actually start fixing the planet.
* {{spoiler|Porky Minch}} from ''[[Mother 3]]''. He passes himself off as a great hero, despite corrupting the once vibrant world into an industrial wasteland, not to mention using anything and anyone he can get his hands on as his personal playthings. At the end, he reveals his plans to awaken the Dark Dragon and destroy what is left of civilization, all for a quick laugh.
* Zant from ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* Vath from ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]''. He enslaved the dwarves, making them work without food, water, or even weapons. He's a lousy dictator, believing that their weakness and hunger was fine with him and not even caring if they starve to death as long as they forge enough Chaos Gemeralds for him to use to hatch the Rock Roc.
{{quote|'''Vath''': Dwarves are a hearty breed. That is why I allowed them to live as my slaves. If a few die then we are just pruning the weak branches from the strong tree.}}
* ''[[Octopath Traveler]]'' has Werner, the tyrannical lord of Riverhold and {{spoiler|the [[Final Boss]] of Olberic's route}}. He holds monthly public executions where four "criminals" are burnt alive at the stake, and thanks to just how flexible his definition of "criminal" is, you're all-too-likely to be sent to the pyre just for criticizing him or not paying the ridiculous fines his men impose out of nowhere. And no, children are not, in any way, exempt. Just ask the poor NPC desperately trying to stop Werner's men from arresting and killing his ''9 year old sister''.
== [[Visual Novels]] ==▼
▲== Visual Novels ==
* Gilgamesh in ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. [[It's All About Me|So]] [[Minor Injury Overreaction|damn]] [[A God Am I|bad]]. The [[Fate/Zero|prequel]] reveals that he's so batshit crazy irresponsible that he might as well be a [[Starfish Alien]] as far as Saber is concerned. At least with Rider (Alexander the Great), a self admittedly horrible tyrant, she could debate the policy a king should have as at least he thought a king should ''have'' one.
* King Steve from ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'' is a [[Dead Baby Comedy]] [[Cloudcuckoolander]]. One of the least dangerous things he has done was betting the office of King in a poker game. He lost the game to a piece of string..."whom" he then assassinated by cutting it in two with scissors when no one else was near.
** Very literally [[Dead Baby Comedy]] as that's what his shoes are made of. They tend to rot, however, so he has to get new ones "Fresh daily."
Line 209 ⟶ 206:
** He also thinks that he invented inventing, started a war to force pacifism on the elves, and was once told he had news and enthusiastically asked "does it involve '''cupcakes'''?" and decided he didn't care when the answer was no, thinks he designed his castle to be four hundred years old, and apparently knew what a robot version of himself was saying even after the robot exploded. If he isn't a [[The Ditz|ditz]] then nobody is. Did we mention that he is unable to tell the difference between his daughter and his [[Beleaguered Assistant]] Left-Hand-Man Gary? (In case you were wondering, his right-hand-man is a coffee stain called Rodney.)
* Stephen in ''[[Terror Island]]'', who somehow managed to be elected Czar of Geography City, largely wields his power to sentence innocent people to indentured labor at Jame's restaurant and to attempt to force Sid to buy groceries. His successor Blueteen isn't much better, sending people to prison (including ''himself'') for attending parades. Not only that, but the parade was actually only supposed to be for stuntmen. Why? Because he had just solved the problem of Jame's stuntman no longer being bound by law to him for jaywalking by telling Jame to just hire him.
* The Baron in ''[http://www.spd-wk.com/characters Spiky-Haired Dragon, Worthless Knight]''{{Dead link}} is as much of a Caligula as he can be without pissing off higher-level nobles and fellow barons, which is still a lot, especially to the title character (the knight, not the dragon).
* [[Star Wars|Chancellor Valorum]] in ''[[Darths and Droids]]''. The annotation explains that they wanted to make him more interesting than in the movie version, who was bland and boring. Consequently, he becomes a maniac who praises the droid army for overthrowing their human oppressors, urges people to replace their bodies with cyborgs, and demands that all shall [[Superman (film)|"Kneel Before]] [[Actor Allusion|Valorum!"]]. His getting voted out of office makes a lot more sense now.
** {{spoiler|And he turned out to be GENERAL GRIEVOUS. It makes so much sense.}}
Line 217 ⟶ 214:
* Eridan Ampora (aka "caligulasAquarium") from ''[[Homestuck]]'' is a number of the royal sea-dwelling troll caste. His primary interests revolve around genocide of the land-dwellers and his many failed efforts at romance. He mostly embodies this trope in his blind self-absorption and poor decision making {{spoiler|until his [[Face Heel Turn]]}}.
** A better example of this trope, oddly enough, is the Grand Highblood, Gamzee's Ancestor, who brutally terrorizes the other, lower land-dwelling castes through capricious homicide and psychic nightmares in the name of his [[Monster Clown]] religion. However, this is characteristic of the Subjugglator caste as a whole and not a one-off thing.
* Implied in an ''[[Oglaf]]'' strip where two princes have been forced into arranged marriages by their father... with a pig and a withered corpse. One prince comments that there should be a rule that you should be forced to abdicate the throne when you start doing things like that.
== [[Web Original]] ==
▲== Web Originals ==
* Celestia in ''[[Friendship Is Magic Bitch]]''
* The pharaoh comes off this way in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The
* A milder Caligula appears in v2 of ''[[Open Blue]]'', Count Marcus Veneto, who even made his horse his war advisor, in a [[Shout-Out]] to the [[Trope Namer]]. The 'milder' comes from the fact that he's trying to get his act together. It's implied that this change of heart is the result of [[The Men in Black|Men In Black]] being sent by ''two'' allied [[The Empire|empires]] to intimidate him into doing so. Suffice to say, that hasn't stopped him from requesting an [[Amazon Brigade]] for his personal guard and naming them the [[Killer Rabbit|Killer Bunny Assassination Squad]].
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] during [[Kickassia]].
* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] has some Caligula tendencies.
* King Harkinian in some of the ''[[Zelda CDI]]'' [[
** Went on a drunken roadtrip in his new Toyota Hybrid and trashing said car not 24 hours after getting it.
** Got high off of Reese's Pieces.
Line 236 ⟶ 232:
** Responded to one of Link's practical jokes using bazookas (that shot out hamburgers), missiles and a [[Kill Sat]].
** Lost his shit when Gwonam said there was no dinner left, killing and maiming anyone within a 500 yard radius.
** [[The
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Kuzco from ''[[The Emperor's
** The film implies that his being in the trope at the start of the movie was due to Yzma's influence when he was growing up. On that note, Yzma plays the trope completely straight. After throwing him off the throne, she became all the things of a stereotypical Caligula, especially outright madness.
* Scar in ''[[The Lion King]]''.
* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' has Xergiok and Lemongrab. Xergiok is a sadistic, cruel, jerkass leader who delights in spanking his subjects and intimidating them. Lemongrab is a bit of a more sympathetic example—he isn't evil, but he certainly is inexperienced (at being a ruler, AND at being alive) and has anger issues, which eventually leads to literally everyone in the candy kingdom being sent to the dungeon.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Already unstable following the [[Heel Face Turn]]s of {{spoiler|[[Et Tu, Brute?|Mai and Ty Lee]]}} at the Boiling Rock, {{spoiler|Princess Azula}} falls quickly into paranoia and fits of rage after Ozai {{spoiler|promotes her to Fire Lord}}, banishing servants and guardsmen from the country in droves and hallucinating about {{spoiler|her [[Missing Mom]], Princess Ursa}}.
Line 248 ⟶ 244:
** They also tried to kill their best invader just for ''being short''. They order everyone to retreat from battle just because of their snacks being lost, and one time they punished someone by throwing them out of the Massive into space, but got the wrong person by accident, and just shrugged it off.
{{quote|'''Tallest Red:''' That was the wrong ''guy,'' but... I think everyone gets the point.}}
* Galvatron from ''[[Transformers Generation 1]].'' Spending the time between the movie and season three in a lava pit turned him from the Megatron-but-competent of the movie to... uh... [[Axe Crazy|the way we all remember him being]]. He blasted more of his own troops in his rages than Autobots in battle, and at one point, some other Decepticons told his right hand bot Cyclonus that if something didn't change, they were going to deal with ''both'' of them. Too bad no Decepticon civil war ever materialized. There was even one episode where Cyclonus decided to drag his boss to the Cybertron equivalent of a psychiatrist, and oddly enough, the treatment seemed to work - a little.
** Straxus from the comics is even worse. His Animated counterpart, however, is played for laughs on a fan-run [[Character Blog|formspring]] page.
* Lucius Heinous VII on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', who is primarily concerned with making sure everyone under his reign is Miserable. Special mention goes to one episode where he casually orders the destruction of one of [[Crapsack World|Miseryville's]] suns because he felt that three was too many.
* A tame example occurs in the ''[[My Little Pony:
{{quote|'''Puddinghead:''' I know how to think outside the box, which also means I can think ''inside'' the chimney. Can ''you'' think inside the chimney?}}
** A ''less'' tame example is Discord, a [[God of Evil]] who ruled Equestria as an [[Evil Overlord]] long ago in a reign of chaos and suffering. He's what happens when a [[For the Evulz|sadistic]] [[Sociopath]] with [[Reality Warper]] abilities is in charge.
* The ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' special "Whatever Happened to SpongeBob?" has an amnesiac SpongeBob finding himself in a city under the tyranny of a greaser gang who outlawed bubbles just because they have the potential to cause harm. {{spoiler|1=In the end they turn out to have been [[Properly Paranoid]] when the city (somehow) collapses into chaos only a few hours after SpongeBob's bubble laws were put into practice.}}
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* ''[[Cracked.com]]'' lists Caligula among other [https://web.archive.org/web/20131107000224/http://www.cracked.com/article/18351_6-rulers-who-abused-their-power-in-hilariously-insane-ways/ Rulers Who Abused Their Power in Hilariously Insane Ways].▼
▲== Real Life ==
* As a general rule, it seems [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|the more power a ruler has]], the more likely they'll be to become The Caligula. Also consider that, primarily with the examples from ancient and
▲* ''[[Cracked.com]]'' lists Caligula among other [http://www.cracked.com/article/18351_6-rulers-who-abused-their-power-in-hilariously-insane-ways/ Rulers Who Abused Their Power in Hilariously Insane Ways].
▲* As a general rule, it seems [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|the more power a ruler has]], the more likely they'll be to become The Caligula. Also consider that, primarily with the examples from ancient and mediaeval times, part (or more rarely, all) of what we know about these people may be [[Written by the Winners|deliberate smear by political opponents after the fact]], so don't make the mistake of taking ''every'' single rumour at face value and listing it here. Use [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment]] with modern examples. Listed in chronological order of appearance:
* Accounts of horrific corruption are told of just about every last emperor of each dynasty in China, which makes them suspect since the usurpers obviously want to paint the old guard in as bad a light as possible to justify killing what the common people saw as divine. Some of these accusations even entered the Chinese language as idiomatic expressions. Here are some highlights:
** The last emperor of Shang devised a punishment in which people had to walk across a bronze column over a blazing hot fire, threw dissidents into pits of live snakes, and once had one of his few honest ministers killed by cutting out his heart. He was egged on in all of this by his equally horrible concubine Da Ji, who had the son of another minister chopped to pieces and fed to his father because he wouldn't flirt with her. This minister, the Duke of the West, eventually rebelled. A very loose adaptation of the tale can be read in ''[[Fengshen Yanyi]]''.
** The First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, and most of his worse excesses came about only after many years of self-inflicted, systemic mercury poisoning (long believed to be a key ingredient in alchemy for the Elixir of Life) though he was hardly nice before. The man was an all-powerful leader who was first to rule all of known China with an iron fist. Being a legalist, he imposed laws that meant [[All Crimes Are Equal]], burned books that didn't agree with his philosophy, and on at least one occasion buried some scholars alive for obliquely insulting him. He also used peasant labor for extravagant projects such as building his own tomb,
* New Testament example: King Herod the Great, ruler of Judea. Known in the Christian tradition for The Massacre of the Innocents, an [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod|attempt on the life]] of the <s>newborn</s> toddler [[Jesus]] (although some historians regard that account as a piece of symbolic storytelling). Much of Herod's bad reputation
* General rule among historians of the Roman Empire: those who were Christians (like Lactatius and Eusebius) adored pissing on the Pagan Emperors who persecuted Christianity, describing them as huge Caligulas, especially Diocletian and Galerius. On the other hand, their Pagan counterparts (like Zosimus) did their best to bash Constantine. Then Christian hagiography took the first phenomenon and ran with it. And we're not even including the Senate-affiliated ones.
** [[Department of Redundancy Department|Again]], let's start with [[Trope Namer|Caligula]]. For example, he allegedly once burst out laughing while entertaining two consuls, and when asked why, told them that it had just occurred to him that he could have them both killed. The imperial guards finally snapped and killed not only him, but his entire ''family'' (including his two year old daughter) just in case it was [[In the Blood]]. The only survivor? His uncle Claudius, who became the next emperor (and managed to survive for quite a while by using [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]).
Line 272 ⟶ 267:
*** Though considering everyone who wrote about the guy (except his friend Senectus, who praised him) personally knew and hated him, kinda makes it hard to tell if anything they said about Nero was true. Though he probably was a great lover of the arts.
** And Domitian. He would sit alone in a room and stab flies with a pen, among other...eccentricities. Again, [[Unreliable Narrator|if you believe what ancient historians wrote about him]]. Which, given his relationship with the senatorial class, the most likely audience and source or authors in those days, was unflattering. Not helped by his [[Conspiracy Theorist]] fame, at least partially confirmed by his prosecutions of many different groups in the Empire. Christians were just ''one'' of the people he ordered to arrest, imprison and execute.
** Commodus: His reign was so terrible that historians believe he [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|single-handedly ended the]] ''[[Golden Age|Pax Romana]]''. Although he was not so much evil as he was power-mad and blissfully ignorant of his responsibilities as Emperor. He believed himself to be the reincarnation of [[Classical Mythology/Characters|Hercules]] and personally fought in gladiatorial games - which were always [[Curb Stomp Battle|fixed for him to win, of course.]] He also successfully
* Again, many of the above are senatorial-made fake-portraits of him, for sure that of the fixed matches in the arena.
** Then there's [[wikipedia:Elagabalus|Elagabalus]], a sex-crazed [[Transvestite]] (and possibly [[Transsexualism]]) who became emperor at fourteen and was reported to have prostituted himself. He also allegedly held parties where guests were showered in rose petals until they suffocated, and was looking for a surgeon who could create a vagina ''somewhere'' on him. Then again, like with Caligula, these may have been rumors blown out of proportion by later historians.
Line 281 ⟶ 276:
* Vladislav Basarab III of Walachia, better known as [[Dracula]], was alleged to have committed many shocking crimes, such as impaling his enemies and forcing women to eat their roasted children. However, the most notorious crimes were attributed to him by his enemies, who had every reason to want his memory slandered. It does sound like he was somewhat unhinged, probably due to an abusive childhood as a hostage to the Turkish sultan, and he had [[Knight Templar|a twisted sense of justice]]. After a guard caught a thief inside his home, Vlad had the guard killed—because the thief was a common scoundrel, but the guard should've known better than to storm into his home without permission. In addition, Dracula was doing his level best to keep the Turks from invading his country, and thus had an interest in looking as terrifying as possible. Supposedly, Mehmet the Conqueror, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|a man known for conquering the Byzantine Empire]], turned back after encountering a huge forest of stakes with impaled bodies on Wallachia's border. Note that the main difference between Vlad Tepes and most other Caligulas are that while a regular Caligula would kill you because he felt like it, Vlad would kill you because you commited a crime.
** It's because of this desire to protect his people from the Turks that Romanian writers and poets to this day consider him a national hero who was "harsh yet fair", and that he kept his country safe from invaders and purged Wallachia of internal corruption from its nobility class.
* It would be easier to list the monarchs of Spain who ''weren't'' insane (between the early 16th Century and the elimination of the monarchy in the 1930s). That's what you get when you mix Hapsburg and Bourbon blood and start in-breeding it to ridiculous levels (there were at least two occasions when a king of Spain married his own niece and had children by her). You want a good reason why Spain ceased to be a world power? This is it.
* Sweden's own Caligula was [[wikipedia:Eric XIV|Erik XIV]]. He earned the nobility's resentment by marrying a common girl for love, and thereafter descended into a spiral of increasing paranoia and delusion, culminating in the slaughter of the influential Sture family, after which Erik panicked completely. He was deposed and imprisoned by one of his brothers who, supposedly, later had him killed with a bowl of poisoned pea soup. Much of his ill-advised actions toward the nobility was later blamed on his [[Evil Chancellor]], Jöran Persson [http://www.teachersparadise.com/ency/sv/media/0/02/erik_xiv_och_karin_mansdotter_malad_av_georg_von_rosen_1.jpg And boy does he look evil]{{Dead link}}.
* Elizabeth Báthory, a Hungarian noblewoman whose activities earned her the title "Countess Dracula," reportedly murdered hundreds of young peasant women. While fanciful accounts pin the reasons for her doing so on her wanting to [[Blood Bath|bathe in their blood and remain young]], the truth may be that she just did it out of sheer cruelty. Thus, she earns a place as one of the rare female Caligulas. Unlike most people on this list though she was not in a direct position of power, she was the wife and later mother of a minor count, however through her linage and relatives she was able to escape prosecution for several years, until the peasants she preyed on got wise to her and she moved on to the daughters of other nobility. Strangely recently some people have been attempting to give her a [[Historical Hero Upgrade]] claiming that she was attacked because she was a woman in power and they wanted her land and money despite the fact she technically did not have any power or land.
* Alexandru Lăpușneanu, prince of Moldavia, was overthrown at one point. He then returned several years later, intending to exact revenge on the noblemen who betrayed him. He did so by inviting them all to dinner, killing all 49 of them, and making a pyramid out of their severed heads. He's present in the old chronicles of Moldavia, but the main source Romanians have for his life is the highly-fictionalised and exaggerated account from the novel with the same name by Costache Negruzzi, so it's really hard to tell which bits were true and which were just exaggerated by Negruzzi. And in the novel, he does that in order to "rid" his wife of her "fears" (read: terrify her into not objecting to his authoritarian rule any further).
Line 288 ⟶ 283:
* The flamboyantly mad Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in the 17th century, fit this very well. Coincidentally, the Ottomans' old enemy Spain was having similar problems with her monarchs at around the same time. This was owed not to royal inbreeding but partly due to the atrocious conditions in which Ottoman princes were raised.
* Christian VII of Denmark, who was about as close as you could get to Caligula in the 18th Century. He started showing signs of insanity when he was ten, turned out to be schizophrenic and had very little self control. He was an alcoholic before he hit puberty, regarded a fun time as going through the streets of Copenhagen with his buddies beating up passers-by, then retiring to a nearby brothel for a nice, quiet orgy. It was said that the only person he wouldn't have sex with was his wife (although they did manage to have a son). He did manage to find a doctor who could help him, a German named Johann Struensee, and unlike most on this list actually understood something was wrong and tried to fix it. He ended up making Struensee Prime Minister, after his wife started sleeping with Struensee (something Christian didn't mind because that meant that he could sleep with whoever he wanted to, although he did end up claiming the couple's daughter as his). He ended up falling under the influence of his [[Wicked Stepmother]], who had Struensee executed and the queen exiled. He spent the rest of his life certifiably insane and like a male [[The Ophelia|Ophelia]] and was only trotted out in public for ceremonial occasions and purposely left out of government, despite the fact that Denmark was still an absolute monarchy at the time.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130726220008/http://madmonarchs.guusbeltman.nl/madmonarchs/sado/sado_bio.htm Crown Prince Sado of Korea], the crown heir of [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Korea]] was ''going'' to be this. He regularly burned sets of silk clothes, raped servants, and killed them. Eventually, he was executed by being shut inside a chest for eight days.
** However, as that link states, he may have been framed and deposed of as a rival, with stories of his cruelty being exaggerated (or even made up) so that they would feel more "justified" by executing him.
* Shaka Zulu. You know you're crazy when you have hundreds of wives and kill any child they give birth to.
* [[Joseph Stalin]], brutal sociopath and paranoiac who amassed more power than any of the Tsars who had ruled Russia before him and used it to cause the deaths of 20-odd million Soviet citizens (conservative estimate) and generally set the bar for twentieth century tyrants, and whose sheer death toll alone would put him on this list even if nothing else would. A massive
{{quote|'''Stalin''': Comrades! I want to propose a toast to our patriarch, life and sun, liberator of nations, architect of socialism ''[he rattled off all the appellations applied to him in those days]'' ... Josef Vissarionovich Stalin, and I hope this is the first and last speech made to that genius this evening.}}
** Of course, anyone who ''didn't'' laugh probably found themselves getting a bullet in the back of the head before too long, so that's not exactly definitive evidence. There is also the story about how he disciplined his son Vasily Stalin. After Vasily's school teachers complained that he was an arrogant and disobedient prankster, Stalin, while taking off his belt to give his son a whipping, told him "So you think you're Stalin, eh? Well, you're not Stalin! Even ''I'' am not Stalin! Stalin's way up there [points to the sky]!". Let's end with some old Soviet jokes about Stalin...
Line 300 ⟶ 295:
Beria leaves, and Stalin finds another pen and gets to work signing death warrants or some such. Much later, as he is preparing to leave, he finds his pen on the shelf behind him. A little embarrassed, he calls Beria back in and asks him how the investigation is going.
'''Beria''': Good news, comrade Stalin! Three men have confessed to stealing your pen, and they have all been executed. All of them acted independently! }}
** Stalin's
* Compared to some of those he shares this list with, [[Adolf Hitler]] was almost mundane; he was known to shun and disdain the more grandiose affectations that many tyrants took upon themselves. Yet he belongs here too; even if not initially (and there are certain persistent rumours about his private life and sexual predilections that make this questionable), then certainly by 1945. Even leaving aside the fact that the Holocaust alone could never have been ordered by an entirely sane man, by the end of the war he so self-identified with Germany and the German people that one of his final orders before his death demanded the complete annihilation of Germany's entire industrial, agrarian and urban capabilities, because he genuinely believed that Germany could not survive his passing and that the German people deserved to be punished for failing to meet his standards. Fortunately for Germany, saner heads prevailed and the orders were ignored. Unfortunately for Germany, it was half occupied by the Soviets...see above.
* [[wikipedia:Khorloogiin Choibalsan|Khorloogiin Choibalsan]], Communist leader of Mongolia, is also considered as this. A follower of Stalin with a pan-Mongolian vision, while there ''were'' infraestructure improvements and literacy rates improved under his rule, he would conduct many Stalinist-style purges in the country, killing thousands of potential enemies (specially Buddhist lamas and local nobility). He also re-named more than one place in Mongolia after himself - like the Bogd Khan Uul mountain, and both the province ''and'' the city of Choibalsan.
Line 307 ⟶ 302:
** ... by Suharto, who supplied the Caligula's brutality. Originally a mid-level army officer, he used the instability of Sukarno's last years to consolidate more and more power, culminating in a nation-wide anti-communist purge in 1965 that killed at least half a million people. It's true that, after he finally took the last of Sukarno's powers, he helped pull the economy out of its rut, but he only used this new prosperity as a chance to rob the nation to the tune of $30 billion or so.
* [[wikipedia:Mao Zedong|Mao Zedong]], while he was a born revolutionary and a calculating politician, he was an administrative moron, particularly when it came to economics. His enthusiasm for [[Peasant Revolution]]! won out over his reservations about the wisdom of politicising all of Chinese society inclusive of the civil service, which became an integral part of the Communist Party... [[Didn't Think This Through|which resulted in a civil service which would be punished if it failed to implement all the Party's directives to the letter and was rewarded for telling the Party's leadership what wanted to hear]]. This backfired spectacularly under the second 'five-year plan' of economic development - a.k.a. 'the Great Leap Forward' - which mandated infeasibly large increases in agricultural and industrial output. This directly resulted in agricultural shortfalls and then famines which went unacknowledged and unaddressed by the Party for many months, if not years. Then there was the ''cultural revolution'', which saw the removal of all students from colleges and universities to work on farms - that they might 'learn peasant values' - and/or carry out the Cultural Policing work of the 'Red Guards'. The resultant loss of cultural heritage and the effects of the collective psychological trauma are incalculable, but in a few words they were really, really bad and nobody who lived through them likes to think about those times. When Mao finally died, the blame for the excesses of the revolution was shunted onto the '[[Evil Chancellor]]s' of the '[[wikipedia:Gang of Four (China)|Gang of Four]]'. By attributing the madness of the revolution to a conspiracy at the highest levels of government, they completely avoided addressing the extremely uncomfortable issue of the widespread popular involvement in the revolution - which in some cases saw Red Guard cadres put down by armed force when they refused to stand down and denounced the Peoples' Liberation Army for not being revolutionary enough.
* When [[wikipedia:Pol Pot|Pol Pot]] rose to power, he personally wanted to change Cambodia as he saw fit. He banned and abolished everything he considered as bourgeoisie (money, religion, sports) and also declared Year Zero, which would be the
* Uganda's [[wikipedia:Idi Amin|Idi Amin Dada]], whose megalomania extended to bestowing upon himself such titles as "master of all the beasts of the earth and fishes of the sea". The full title he preferred was, according to [[The Other Wiki]], "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular". The man was totally crazypants, but he knew how to come up with a good title. Another of his self-bestowed titles was "The Last King of Scotland". Yes, ''Scotland''. As part of his "heroic black leader" shtick, he also had all white residents of Uganda [[300|carry him through the streets of the capital on a gilded throne]], and then kneel before him and recite an oath of loyalty and after his bizarre alliance with Israel soured, he planned to erect a statue of Hitler in Kampala. See ''[[The Last King of Scotland]]'' for a fictional depiction.
* [[wikipedia:Jean-Bédel Bokassa|Jean-Bédel Bokassa]], self-proclaimed Emperor of the Central African Empire during the late 1970s. He adored Napoleon and tried to fashion himself after him as much as possible. His coronation ceremony cost a third of the country's entire budget for the year, and to this day rumors linger that at the ceremony, he served human flesh as the main course. He killed 100 schoolchildren at once after [[Disproportionate Retribution|they didn't wear the government-mandated, expensive school uniforms]]. Embarrassed and outraged, France ended up overthrowing him.
* [[Romania]]n dictator [[wikipedia:Nicolae Ceaușescu|Nicolae Ceaușescu]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUunbZDdJsc Just check out the modest palace he ordered built for himself in the center of the capital], at the same time that he was exporting everything that could be exported to pay off the national debt and leaving Romanians to suffer long queues for empty stores, shortages and power cuts. For good measure, he banned abortion and contraception to forcefully increase the country's population at the same time as he led it into an economic disaster, creating the now-infamous trope of [[Orphanage of Fear|Romanian orphanages]]. And let's not forget [[Drunk with Power|his creepily and completely]] [[Cloudcuckoolander|erratic]] [[Villainous Breakdown|behavior]] during [[wikipedia:Romanian Revolution of 1989|the Romanian Revolution]], the ''only'' violent [[Hole in Flag]] revolution. Crazy to think that he was liked by the West when he first came into office for openly defying the Soviet Union.
* Turkemistan's [[wikipedia:Saparmurat Niyazov|Saparmurat Niyazov]] was a thorough nut. His antics included building a solid gold statue of himself designed to rotate to always face the sun, changing the Turkmen word for "bread" to "Gurbansoltan" (his mother's name), naming January after himself and September after a book he had written, instructing all citizens to chew bones to strengthen their teeth, and in a crowning moment of lunacy, decreeing that an ice palace large enough for 1,000 people be built outside the capital. The capital is ''in a desert.''. He even instituted a new compulsory state religion based on [[wikipedia:Ruhnama|that book he wrote]]. Which happens to be an autobiography. [[L. Ron Hubbard]], eat your heart out.
* Saddam Hussein was a megalomaniac. Uday, his son, was ''worse''. ''House Of Saddam'', a 2008 [[Miniseries]], actually [[Reality Is Unrealistic| had to tone him ''down'']]. Among other things, Uday had oversight over Iraq's [[Olympic Games]] commitee. As part of his self-appointed duties in that office, he had Iraqi athletes ''tortured'' if they peformed too poorly. Saddam's other son Qusay was maybe a bit more sanish than Uday, but he was infamous for killing political prisoners to make room for more prisoners.
* [[Robert Mugabe]] of [[Zimbabwe]]
* "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il of the [[People's Republic of Tyranny|Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] AKA North Korea. His father, Kim Il-Sung, was known as "Great Leader", and started the whole personality cult thing in N. Korea. He is remembered today as the "Eternal President" of North Korea, outranking his son even in death. No less crazy, certainly (but then, he ''did'' start the Korean War).
* Libyan leader [[wikipedia:Muammar al-Gaddafi|Muammar al-Gaddafi]] was politically considered more tolerable to many western countries after he stopped overtly exporting terrorism (at least to them). Without having the label "terrorist" attached to him, people started paying attention to things such as his [[Amazon Brigade]] of [[Bodyguard Babes|young, attractive bodyguards]], [[Narm|his rambling speech at the UN]], and his other peculiarities and started coming to the realization that even if he wasn't Terrorist Evil, he's still completely off his gourd. The events of February–October 2011 and his reaction to protestors (having the air force bomb hospitals) have firmly moved him into Caligula territory, [http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/25/3021772.htm and he kept insisting that the Libyans adored him even when almost the whole country had turned against him] (which reminds of the aforementioned Ceaușescu).
* [[wikipedia:Mobutu Sese Seko|Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga]]. Just to give you an idea of how big an ego the guy had, his [[Overly Long Name|name]] translates to "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake." His reign was marked by human rights abuses, inflation, public executions, theft, nationalist culture policing, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|the building of a personal airport for shopping trips]]. Resistance to his rule touched off the [[Congo Wars]], which have left over 5 million people dead.
* Persian warlord Nadir Shah in the Eighteenth Century became this in his old age. He was always ruthless and sadistic in any case. But when he became [[Properly Paranoid|understandably]] concerned about conspiracy, he became just plain batty.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Authority Tropes]]
[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]
Line 325 ⟶ 322:
[[Category:Stock Characters]]
[[Category:Villains]]
▲[[Category:The Caligula]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caligula, The}}
| |||