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Tyrant Takes the Helm: Difference between revisions
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== Literature ==
* Dolores Umbridge of ''[[Harry Potter and
** She doesn't even try to ''fire'' Hagrid. She tries to ''subdue him as if he were a wild beast'', using a team of Stunners. [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|She treats any "filthy half-breed" like a stupider, lesser being]]. {{spoiler|This proves to be her ''big'' mistake}}.
* When Saruman and Lotho take charge in the "Scouring of the Shire" chapter of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.
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* One of these is basically the major plot motivator in ''[[The Caine Mutiny]]''
* This happens when Prince John usurps [[Richard the Lion Heart|King Richard]]'s throne in many versions of the ''[[Robin Hood]]'' story.
* During the events of Terry Pratchett's ''[[
* In Douglas Coupland's ''[[JPod]]'', this happens twice, although neither of the tyrants is particularly evil. The first one is Steve, who takes over as head of marketing, and promptly attempts to get a cute turtle inserted into the skateboarding game they're designing. He's later {{spoiler|vanished by the Chinese mafia}}, and replaced by Alastair, who turns the game into an edutainment title about a prince and a flying carpet. He frustrates the characters so much that they {{spoiler|find and rescue Steve.}}
* In the third book of the ''[[Septimus Heap]]'' series, Queen Etheldredda the Awful attempts to pull this. She's a ghost, so her ability to do things is somewhat... limited, but she attempts to influence the Princess and her family to various effect. {{spoiler|Those she doesn't like get infected with a dangerous disease via her ugly pet.}}
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* This was part of Baron Harkonnen's plan for ''[[Dune]]'': first have his evil mentat Piter de Vries take control of Arrakis and squeeze every ounce of worth and water out of the people, then have his nephew Feyd swoop in as a big damn hero and win everyone's love and affection. Alas, Piter came down with a bad case of death before he could be put in charge, so the Baron sent his other nephew, the Beast Rabban.
* The plot of ''Gay from China at the [[Chalet School]]'' revolves around this trope. When Miss Bubb, the tyrant in question, takes over as temporary headmistress after Miss Wilson, Miss Annersley and others are injured in a car crash, her fixation on exam results and crackdowns on the girls' free time and privileges makes her very unpopular, to the point where Joey writes a letter begging Miss Wilson to come back. Things comes to a head when she forbids Gay Lambert - who has broken rules on more than one occasion - to see her older brother before he is stationed in Asia, which leads to Gay running away and culminates in Miss Bubb having to resign, to everyone's relief.
* Principal Bottoms from ''[[Diary of a Wimpy Kid|Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No-Brainer]]'' makes changes such as firing the janitors and even ''canceling the school’s contract with the exterminator''. It gets so bad that {{spoiler|''the state has to close down the school''}}.
== Live-Action TV ==
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* The ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode "Chain Reaction" is a typical Tyrant Takes The Helm episode. The beloved leader of the SGC, General Hammond, is blackmailed into retiring and is replaced by a General Bauer. Bauer proceeds to break up SG-1, dedicate all the SGC's resources to building a big bomb and privately delivers the "things will be different around here" speech to O'Neill. O'Neill then sets out to get Hammond back and he is, of course, successful by the end of the episode.
** Bauer also screwed up so badly in the episode ({{spoiler|blowing up an uninhabited planet which very nearly meant irradiating the ''entire state''}}) that he probably would have resigned even if Hammond hadn't returned.
* In ''[[
** Likewise with Charles and Hawkeye, although to be fair Hawkeye was faced with a nearly-impossible situation (most of the surgeons gone or incapacitated and a huge influx of casualties). Still, he managed to alienate everyone in camp almost as badly as Burns ever had until Potter returned and smoothed things over.
** Colonel Potter, by contrast, was something of a [[Bait and Switch Tyrant]].
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** Something of a subversion, too, since he rescued [[The Captain|Picard]] and [[Out-Gambitted]] the Cardassians (a race that has [[Magnificent Bastard]] as [[Planet of Hats|their hat]]). Picard even said he'd be keeping a lot of Jellico's changes.
* An episode of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' had Mr. Mosbey fired and replaced by a Tyrant. It was all back to normal by the end of the episode.
* Admiral Cain from [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the remade ''
* In ''[[The Wire]]'' Lt. Marimo does this in the fourth season. In a bit of genre-savviness, the bosses who sent him to the unit did so specifically to disrupt the unit, not because they believed he would be a good boss.
* In ''[[Porridge]]'' (episode ''Disturbing the Peace''), Mackay is sent away, only to be replaced by the sadistic Napper Wainwright.
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'''Adele:''' And how am I supposed to do that?
'''Boyd:''' ...The Adele I knew would never ask me that question. }}
** Of course, given [[The
* The secretary Miss Harbottle from ''[[All Creatures Great and Small]]''. She rules the accounts with an iron fist and equates taking money from the cashbox to pay for petty expenses with [[All Crimes Are Equal|embezzlement]]. No wonder she didn't last long.
* Roger Gaffney in ''
* Steve Fleming in ''[[The Thick of It]]''. At first his colleagues are happy to see the back of [[Magnificent Bastard|Malcolm Tucker]] but when they realize how creepy, charmless and bad-tempered his replacement is they decide [[We Want Our Jerk Back|they want their jerk to come back]] from his [[Ten-Minute Retirement]].
* Arguably, Keith Mars when he {{spoiler|regains the position of sheriff}} in ''[[Veronica Mars]]''. While generally a good guy, his {{spoiler|response to underage drinking was way out of proportion to the actual problem}}.
* Mr Howard and Ms. Briggs from ''[[iCarly]]'' turn the school into something out of [[Nineteen Eighty-Four
* This trope could almost be called The Snyder, after Armin Shimerman's role on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Snyder replaced Principal Flutie after Flutie was eaten by students possessed by hyenas. While he openly despised pretty much all teenagers, he targeted Buffy and the Scoobie Gang; it was theorized in Season Two that he was working for Mayor Wilkins, but by Season Three [[Aborted Arc|he turned out to be as much in the dark]] [[Weirdness Censor|as the rest of the adult population of Sunnydale]].
* In the ''[[Midsomer Murders]]'' episode "Picture of Innocence
* On ''[[NYPD Blue]]'', the first time Lt. Fancy leaves, his replacement definitely fits the trope. Fancy sees what's going on, and arranges to get her removed and comes back. Subverted when he leaves again—everyone (especially Andy) is expecting another tyrant, but the new guy turns out to be OK.
* While DCI Jim Keats doesn't outright take leadership of CID, and while he's a lot subtler than your typical Tyrant, his role in ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' is that of an authority figure who tries to implement some serious changes, going against the grain and established protocol in an effort to - hopefully - usurp the current leader. {{spoiler|Not only does he fail, he reveals his [[Satan|true nature]]. There have been theories that he's tried to take over before, in the guise of Frank Morgan in ''Life on Mars''.}}
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** Also Emperor Cartagia, who turns out to be batshit insane and kills most of his advisers for trivial reasons (and keeps their heads to talk to them). His final plan? To become a god by {{spoiler|letting the Vorlons destroy Centauri Prime}}. The worst part is that Londo helped put him in power, as he and Lord Refa believed they could control him. Boy, did that plan backfire.
* [[I, Claudius|Claudius]] plans to use this gambit by naming Nero his successor; the intent being to let Rome see how dreadful an Emperor can be. Strangely, they all seem to have forgotten how bad things were under Tiberius and Caligula, who preceded Claudius. Once Nero has ruined everything, Claudius's ''true'' chosen successor is to return to reinstate the Republic. [[Foregone Conclusion|Needless to say,]] this does not work out.
* In one episode of [[Even Stevens]], Principal Wexler leaves to pursue a
* An episode of ''[[Primeval]]'' had the imperious Christine Johnson take control of the ARC and force the team into hiding. She was removed from her post by the end of the episode though.
** After the return of Abby and Connor after their 1-year hiatus in the past, they find out that things have changed in the ARC. While James Lester (who is much more caring that he pretends to be) is still formally in charge of day-to-day activities, it's now partly a privately-funded operation with a tycoon named Philip Burton having a lot of say. While he's not exactly a tyrant, he's much more concerned with the anomalies themselves than protecting the people from all the creatures that come through. After he nearly dies thanks to Rex escaping his cage, he orders that all creatures in the ARC be put down, no exceptions. Lester has to blackmail him to reverse the order.
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* In ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'', Supreme Commander Birdie fires Cruger in one episode due to Cruger's unwillingness to follow Birdie's ideas on strategy. Birdie gets the Rangers, and later ''himself'', into trouble very quickly due to his pride and his "split up the team regardless of circumstances" strategies.
* In one epsiode of ''[[The Slammer]]'', the Governor is arrested and replaced by a new governor, Mr Beltsem. Beltsem is a tyrant who mistreats both the prisoners and the guards, and suffers from 'show biz phobia'.
== Professional Wrestling ==
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==
* Simon
== Web Original ==
* Played with in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' Cheat Commandos toon ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131030192402/http://www.homestarrunner.com/ccdo7.html 2 Part Episode]''. Admiral Flashfight is unambiguously one of these, but he's actually gotten the [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|Cheat Commandos]] to actually ''do'' something for a change instead of goofing around and [[Go-Karting with Bowser|playing video games with Blue Laser]].
* ''[[A Very Potter Musical|A Very Potter Sequel]]'' has [[Alternate Character Interpretation|a rather different take]] on Dolores Umbridge, involving a couple [[Freudian Excuse]]s, but she still acts as a tyrant during the second act. She doesn't really elicit the want-to-strangle reaction of the book and film versions, however, mostly because her behavior [[Crosses the Line Twice]].
* Maggie from ''[[Chad Vader]]''.
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== Real Life ==
* The earliest real-life tyrant (of Greco-Roman usage) was far different from the usual meaning. It did not specifically imply anything other than the tyrant's rise to power was unconventional. Their morality and application of said power could be bad, good, and in between. The negative connontation came from how the bad examples overshadowed the good and led to it's current status as a negative term.
* One of Niccolò Machiavelli's most famous pieces of advice from ''[[The Prince]]'' was to have a Tyrant Take The Helm in a rebellious territory. The tyrant will crush resistance at the cost of arousing public hatred. Then, when you come in and order the tyrant's beheading, you're left with a pacified province of people who consider themselves indebted to you for eliminating the tyrant.
* Many revolutions and coups throughout history have caused tyrants to come to power.
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