History Main / ICanRuleAlone

Alternatively, the offered FaceHeelTurn was merely [[SecretTestOfCharacter a test]] of the hero's trustworthiness. If the offer is accepted the villain betrays the former hero either because the villain [[EvenEvilHasStandards has a code of honor]] that demands [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves traitors be punished]], or simply because the villain [[PragmaticVillainy knows]] better than to trust the [[NoHonorAmongThieves kind of person]] who would betray all of their closest companions for personal gain.

* Used in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': After Eris slips up during her WeCanRuleTogether speech to Mandy, and says, "You'll be the ''second'' most powerful person on Earth," Mandy declines, saying only ''she'' can be the most powerful.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', ComicBook/RedSkull turns his son into a creature of immense power, Electro, and then proceeds to expand on how he is now going to conquer the world with Electro by his side. Electro asks why he should stand by anybody's side when he is the one with all the power, zaps his surprisingly [[GenreBlindness unsavvy]] daddy, and takes off to claim the world for himself. Except the Skull is CrazyPrepared enough to have a plan in the event of such a betrayal.\\
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His son also brings up the point that the Red Skull risked his life in the experiment. The Red Skull dismisses his son's complaints, saying that the risk was "minimal". This didn't exactly endear him to Electro.

** Kyle Katarn in the dark side ending for ''VideoGame/JediKnight'', as mentioned above.
** Likewise in ''VideoGame/JediAcademy's'' dark side ending, Jaden Korr will kill Tavion and take the Scepter of [[SealedEvilInACan Ragnos]] for him/herself. It's not a case of betrayal; (s)he declares his/her intentions clearly after falling to the Dark Side, so the player fights most of the same battles either way.
** ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' has one of the surviving Jedi tell Starkiller, "The Sith always betray one another. But I'm sure you'll learn that soon enough." And indeed, not long after that Vader turns on his secret apprentice. Vader's ''other'' secret apprentice, from a manga storyline, was killed when the Emperor found out about him. Compared to Starkiller, though, little [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tao Tao]] comes off as something of a MoralityPet which Vader was not allowed to keep.
** In the ''Revenge of the Sith'' videogame, one of the the endings has Anakin/Vader killing Obi-Wan on Mustafar, then subsequently killing Palpatine to take control of the Empire.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': [[BigBad Ronan]] spends most of the movie trying to retrieve [[MacGuffin the Orb]] for [[GreaterScopeVillain Thanos]] in exchange for the latter destroying Xandar for him. However, when Ronan realizes that the Orb contains [[spoiler: an Infinity Stone]], he decides to keep it and destroy Xandar himself, and [[TheStarscream destroy Thanos]] as well for good measure. In this case it wasn't so much Thanos and Ronan ruling together as having a bargain that Ronan decides he no longer needs to bother with.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSuffering : Ties That Bind'', Blackmore encourages Torque to kill Jordan, despite the fact that she's his most powerful ally and the two have a WeCanRuleTogether moment in the game's evil ending if you ignore him and spare her. Then again, this may simply be because Blackmore has zero impulse control.

* In a KillEmAll run of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', Flowey seems perfectly happy to rule together with you even if he's subordinate. In fact, towards the end he states he wouldn't mind just living a peaceful life with you and not even ruling at all. When you make it clear that your objective is to kill ''everything'', he realizes that he's no exception, so he makes a very brief HeelFaceTurn and tries to warn Asgore about you, and tries to rejoin you when that fails, insisting he can be useful to you. [[spoiler:It takes you eight stabs to reduce his physical body to dust.]]