History Main / DrunkWithPower

-->-- '''Aldous Huxley''', ''Literature/BraveNewWorld Revisited''

* Daffy in ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' (the pizza episode).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseWorks'' short "Sandwich Makers", this happens to Goofy [[OutOfCharacterMoment of all characters]]. He's put in charge of a sandwich shop with Mickey and Donald as workers. Goofy eventually takes his "How To Be In Charge" book seriously and grows mad with power as 'captain', calling his friends yeomen and throwing them in "the brig" (storage closet).

* Happened in the ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' episode ''The Seven Days of Fire''. The Chief Mechanic goes on vacation and leaves his Number 2 in charge; shortly after he found the mechanics' massive PornStash, burned it, and began imposing ludicrous restrictions on them. This kicks off what amounts to a civil war, with warring factions forming and dissolving left and right (although no faction ever had numbers in the double digits) until the Chief comes back a week later and puts an end to it.

* Rei Ryghts in ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaVictory'' fits like a glove. At the start of the game, she's just an IneffectualSympatheticVillain. Once she gets some powers from a floating being named Croire and sent [[TheHero Neptune]] to Ultradimension Gamindustri, she was ''ecstatic'' to say the least. [[spoiler: This is actually a CallBack to what happened with Ultradimension Rei who had a similar situation when she first found her CPU Memory and by luck, she became a goddess. Croire then comes by and with just a little push, Rei becomes the tyrannical ruler of [[UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} the Tari]] nation. [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 At least until she destroyed said nation.]]]]

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'': Season 3’s [[Recap/GilligansIslandS3E15GilliganGoesGungHo “Gilligan Goes Gung Ho”]] has this happen to Gilligan, [[NiceGuy of all people]] when he and the Skipper [[ItMakesSenseInContext start enforcing the law on the island]]. While Gilligan arresting Mr. Howell on charges of (technically) stealing the Skipper’s binoculars and attempted bribery is reasonable, once the Skipper (in order to help the Professor with his latest plan to get them rescued) puts him in charge, Gilligan gradually finds a reason on the books to lock up everyone on the island. [[spoiler: As a result, the escape plan fails, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the Skipper locks Gilligan up as punishment]].]]

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'': Season 3’s [[Recap/GilligansIslandS3E15GilliganGoesGungHo “Gilligan Goes Gung Ho”]] has this happen to Gilligan, [[NiceGuy of all people]] when he and the Skipper [[ItMakesSenseInContext start enforcing the law on the island]]. While Gilligan arresting Mr. Howell on charges of (technically) stealing the Skipper’s binoculars and attempted bribery is reasonable, once the Skipper (in order to help the Professor with his latest plan to get them rescued) puts him in charge, Gilligan gradually he finds a reason on the books to lock up everyone on the island. [[spoiler: As a result, the escape plan fails, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the Skipper locks Gilligan up as punishment]].]]

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'': Season 3’s [[Recap/GilligansIslandS3E15GilliganGoesGungHo Gilligan Goes Gung Ho]] has this happen to Gilligan, [[NiceGuy of all people]] when he and the Skipper [[ItMakesSenseInContext start enforcing the law on the island]]. While Gilligan arresting Mr. Howell on charges of (technically) stealing the Skipper’s binoculars and attempted bribery is reasonable, once the Skipper (in order to help the Professor with his latest plan to get them rescued) puts him in charge, Gilligan gradually he finds a reason on the books to lock up everyone on the island. [[spoiler: As a result, the escape plan fails, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the Skipper locks Gilligan up as punishment]].]]

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'': Season 3’s [[Recap/GilligansIslandS3E15GilliganGoesGungHo Gilligan Goes Gung Ho]] has this happen to Gilligan, [[NiceGuy of all people]] when he and the Skipper [[ItMakesSenseInContext become law enforcement on the island]]. While Gilligan arresting Mr. Howell on charges of (technically) stealing the Skipper’s binoculars and attempted bribery is reasonable, once the Skipper (in order to help the Professor with his latest plan to get them rescued) puts him in charge, Gilligan gradually he finds a reason on the books to lock up everyone on the island. [[spoiler: As a result, the escape plan fails, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the Skipper locks Gilligan up as punishment]].]]

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'': This ends up happening to Gilligan, [[NiceGuy of all people]] when the Skipper [[[ItMakesSenseInContext puts him in charge of the island’s law enforcement]]. While his arrests initially fall within the bounds of reasonableness (such as his arresting Mr. Howell for borrowing binoculars without permission, which technically counts as stealing), gradually he finds a reason on the books to lock up all his fellow castaways.

* In the second act of ''Film/TheFly1986'', Seth Brundle has in the wake of successfully teleporting himself become much stronger, as well as more energetic and virile. He believes that this is because the teleporter also "purifies" those who go through it, meaning his invention is even more remarkable than he ever could have imagined it would be, and also that he is now a superhuman. When his lover Veronica refuses to be teleported herself, he is furious with her for not wanting to be like him. He storms out in search of a lover who ''will'' undergo the process, and almost succeeds by force, stopped only by Veronica, who has realized that something is wrong with Seth not only because he was so sweet before, but because his skin is looking progressively worse and odd hairs are growing out of his back. He rages at her and near-tosses her out of his loft/lab...but as he actually takes a good look at himself in the bathroom mirror, he realizes ''his fingernails are coming loose'' too. Realizing his body is actually in a state of decay, he soon gets the InternalReveal that he was genetically fused with a stray fly when he teleported himself -- all of the changes in him reflect that he is a HalfHumanHybrid undergoing a SlowTransformation. With that, his power trip is replaced by cold fear.

** In one episode, Bart's newfound interest in law enforcement sees him team up with Principal Skinner to rapidly become a fascistic hall monitor, at roughly the same time that Lisa, disillusioned after being told she'll never be a jazz musician, becomes the school rebel. In order to save Lisa from being expelled after she steals the teacher's copies of all the school textbooks, Bart reverts to his old ways.
** The show also provides a subversion of this: Homer, who has been discovered to be a foretold prophet of the secret 'Stonecutters' organisation, has briefly gone through a mild AGodAmI stage but gets a bit sick of the constant grovelling and decides that, instead of just throwing his weight around and wasting their time with hedonistic frivolity, he'll lead the Stonecutters into helping make the world a better place and enriching their lives. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the Stonecutters quite ''like'' the hedonistic frivolity.

** In "The Old Man And The Lisa", Mr. Burns loses all his money and Lenny is the new boss of the power plant. Even though he isn't used to the job at first and we don't get to see him doing his job, Mr. Burns returns as owner of the plant and Smithers says "Lenny's reign of terror has come to an end".

* Pity the poor soul who puts Eric Cartman of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' in a position of (as he calls it) "authorituh." The first time it happened was when he was deputized, and he quickly becomes a CowboyCop, patrolling the streets on his Big Wheel tricycle and bludgeoning anyone who looks at him funny. In a more extreme example, when he played Stonewall Jackson in a [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Civil War]] reenactment, he nearly succeeds in re-establishing the Confederacy. And then there's the time he formed a Mel Gibson fan club and nearly started another holocaust.

* When WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants is made hall monitor, he tries to direct traffic, set an example of why not to leave windows open, and heads up a two-man manhunt for himself.
** In "Rule of Dumb", when it turns out Patrick is a descendant of royalty, he begins taking anything he wants and acting like a tyrannical king. When [=SpongeBob=] lampshades how much of a jerk he's become, Patrick doesn't realize he's right until he sees himself in the mirror and notices that he's literally turning into a monster.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'': In [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E16Fragments "Fragments"]], Steven becomes unrestrained and impulsive after training with Jasper for 3 days. [[spoiler:[[AccidentalMurder It doesn't end well.]]]]

--> '''Goofy:''' "Chapter Three: Who Needs Friends When You've Got Power!" (thunder crashes)

* In the business world, in addition to the usual trope, we have Drunk With [=PowerPoint=]. This describes the way that some people have of trying to use every single tool offered by the Microsoft program, [=PowerPoint=]. The result is the presentation equivalent of those [[{{Glurge}} chain e-mails that you get from your aunt that are full of dancing teddy bears and cutesy songs]]: a horrifying mess that takes far too long to be done with and isn't all that interesting besides.

--->"Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring. Nobody listens to you."

* During LetsPlay/{{raocow}}'s LetsPlay of ''VideoGame/CopyKitty'', the abundance of powerful weapon combinations and colourful explosions led to him [[BigHam hamming it up]] way more than usual, gleefully [[AGodAmI declaring himself a God]] and vowing to "destroy the world" every few seconds.

* In ''Literature/Overlord2012'', the main character is just an average salaryman with no friends or family in real life who logs in to an MMO that's about to be shut down. His only companions played this game and he's largely built his life around creating an undead necromancer character. However, when the servers were shut down he and the guild hall his friends created are dragged into an isolated corner of a fantasy world. After a bit of experimentation, he learns that he and his minions are ''far'' more powerful than anyone there. As time goes on, he grows more and more abusive and indifferent towards human life, limited mostly by his lack of ambition. Even so, he still ends up deciding to take over the world and [[spoiler:slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people]] without a second thought or a moment's remorse.
* An interpretation of Light Yagami in ''Manga/DeathNote''. After using the notebook twice, he develops a god complex and becomes a remorseless, vindictive murderer who stops at nothing to rid the world of criminals and remake it in his image. But when he temporarily loses his memory of everything he's done while acting as Kira in a MemoryGambit, he immediately becomes a righteous NiceGuy who despises Kira's twisted, narcissistic brand of "justice", and is genuinely dedicated to finding and arresting Kira alongside L and the task force.

* In ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'', Bastian gets a bit too fond of being an all-powerful unbeatable Marty Stu with the ability to make his every wish come true, eventually turning outright villainous as he decides to attempt to usurp the Childlike Empress and crown himself ruler of Fantastica.
* Literature/SecondApocalypse'': In the climactic battle for the holy city of Shimeh, Eleazaras is able to cut completely loose with his sorcery, something very rare in the world of the Three Seas due to the strong religious condemnation against sorcery. He quickly becomes drunk on his own power, using far more of his strength than necessary by pulling down whole buildings on top of random soldiers. This makes him vulnerable to a counterattack from the rival Cishaurim.

* In the ''Film/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' movie, Scowler was a JerkJock who entertains himself by picking on Patchi. But when he becomes the leader, he kicks Patchi out of the herd and refuses to listen to anyone else due to being the leader. This then forces him to fight Gorgon and his pack by himself at Ambush Alley, which leads to his [[BreakTheHaughty downfall]].

* During LetsPlay/{{raocow}}'s LetsPlay of ''VideoGame/CopyKitty'', the abundance of powerful weapon combinations and colourful explosions led to him [[BigHam hamming it up]] way more than usual, gleefully [[AGodAmI declaring himself a God]] and vowing to [[CatchPhrase "destroy the world"]] every few seconds.

* ''Fanfic/InnerDemons'': [[spoiler: [[TheStarscream Scootaloo]]]] eventually reveals that she was a WellIntentionedExtremist who succumbed to this trope -- unlike [[TheDragon Trixie]] and [[spoiler: [[DarkChick Sweetie Belle]]]], she knew all along what a monster [[BigBad Queen!]][[FaceHeelTurn Twilight]], and she initially only accepted her DealWithTheDevil so she could [[FaustianRebellion use the power against her]] and end her reign. Unfortunately, she let the power go to her head, and she convinced herself that defeating Queen!Twilight ''by'' herself would give her the right to take the throne ''for'' herself. It's only after she gets some sense literally beaten into her that she realizes the error of her way and has a HeelFaceTurn.

* In ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'' the main character is just an average salaryman with no friends or family in real life who logs in to an MMO that's about to be shut down. His only companions played this game and he's largely built his life around creating an undead necromancer character. However, when the servers were shut down he and the guild hall his friends created are dragged into an isolated corner of a fantasy world. After a bit of experimentation, he learns that he and his minions are ''far'' more powerful than anyone there. As time goes on, he grows more and more abusive and indifferent towards human life, limited mostly by his lack of ambition. Even so, he still ends up deciding to take over the world and [[spoiler:slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people]] without a second thought or a moment's remorse.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In the episode "Officer Rimmer", eternal prat Arnold Judas Rimmer is promoted to officer after he weasels his way into a captain's good graces (in fact, he was trying to blow up the captain's ship, which accidentally saved him from an asteroid belt). He immediately starts instituting a blatant class system on the ship with the other crew members relegated to crappy service elevators and corridors while Rimmer opens an exclusive officer's lounge and reclines in luxury. Then he goes one step further by creating dozens of duplicates of himself to order around and sing his praises. By the end, he's forced to give up his promotion when he inadvertently creates a Rimmer-hybrid monster and has to beg the others for help.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}: Adam's path through the White Fang ranks takes him from a hero who inspires his people to fight back against humanity's racism towards the Faunus, into a dangerous leader who wants to punish humanity for hurting him. He murders the High Leader of the White Fang so that he can bend the entire organisation to his will in pursuit of his dream: subjugation of humanity to the Faunus. The power and the pressure of being High Leader quickly goes to his head, resulting in him making unstable decisions and using the White Fang to target the family of the ex-girlfriend who dared to dump him. This triggers the formerly reluctant Menagerie into rising up against him; they protect Haven Academy from Adam's assault, resulting in him abandoning his people to the police authorities Menagerie calls in. He then destroys any White Fang member who turns against him, successfully destroying the organisation through his abuse of power just weeks after he became his leader.

* This is James Ironwood's character arc in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''; his story is that no matter how [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned one thinks they are]], unchecked power and authority will corrupt them. As both headmaster of Atlas Academy and general of its army, Ironwood has two seats on his kingdom's council, giving him major pull in his kingdom's government. Following the Fall of Beacon, he uses those two seats to shut down the kingdom's borders and withdraw foreign aid in a desperate bid to circumvent Salem's plans- [[FailureHero Not that any of it works, mind you]], and in some cases [[UnwittingPawn actually enables her.]] His opponents outright call him a dictator who is abusing his authority, and allies worry that Ironwood is [[HeWhoFightsMonsters taking things too far]]. Throughout Volume 7, Ironwood continually clamps down on the rights of the citizens, and by the end of the Volume, has decided to declare martial law and raise Atlas' floating capital into the atmosphere to escape the Grimm, fully aware- [[LackOfEmpathy and unconcerned with]] -that doing so will be leaving everyone else to die. [[spoiler:Once he makes it clear that he would even bomb Mantle itself just to get what he wanted from the heroes, even his most loyal remaining allies turn against him.]]
** [[spoiler:Salem]]; she started out life as a kindhearted damsel in distress, unaware of how dangerous her skill with rhetoric made her[[note]]her pleas for help indirectly got armies of would-be heroes killed from the gauntlet[[/note]]. It wasn't until she [[spoiler:tricked two gods into fighting each other ''by accident'' and got herself cursed with immortality]] that she became bitter and vicious, developing an ego over her near-victory with her skills of manipulation and deceit. She duped the kingdoms into forming a coalition to conquer the unconquerable, disregarding her failure and the consequences of defeat, and [[spoiler:got them all killed. Along with the rest of the world]]. At the beginning of the story, she ''still'' hasn't learned her lesson and seeks the ultimate power of destruction itself.

* This is James Ironwood's character arc in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''; his story is that no matter how [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned one thinks they are]], unchecked power and authority will corrupt them. As both headmaster of Atlas Academy and general of its army, Ironwood has two seats on his kingdom's council, giving him major pull in his kingdom's government. Following the Fall of Beacon, he uses those two seats to shut down the kingdom's borders and withdraw foreign aid in a desperate bid to circumvent Salem's plans- [[FailureHero Not that any of it works, mind you]], and in some cases [[UnwittingPawn actually enables her.]] His opponents outright call him a dictator who is abusing his authority, and allies worry that Ironwood is [[HeWhoFightsMonsters taking things too far]]. Throughout Volume 7, Ironwood continually clamps down on the rights of the citizens, and by the end of the Volume, has decided to declare martial law and raise Atlas' floating capital into the atmosphere to escape the Grimm, fully aware- [[LackOfEmpathy and unconcerned with]] -that doing so will be leaving everyone else to die.

* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic darkly deconstructs this one. He's so powerless usually, all his life even, that any whiff of power makes him cling onto it so hard he'll even consider suicide to keep it.