History Main / TyrantTakestheHelm

* ''WebAnimation/DingoDoodles - Fools Gold'': Has this happen with Bouclaire, who was a SelfMadeOrphan ''twice'' first to her birth parents, then to the king and queen of the Kingdom of Kylandria after getting herself adopted by them, she then threatened the other princesses into giving her the throne. As she is still a 10 year old girl deeply in her PrincessPhase she changes the countries banner to a pink unicorn from a blue feather and forces everyone to wear gaudy powdered wigs and 17th Century French style clothes, and dictates that all buildings must be repainted in a pink glitter aesthetic. She enforces this by executing any prominent nobles who object to this, and then punishing any other dissidents by poisoning their local water supply to scare people into following her rules, as any resistance would not just get them killed but the entire population of their neighbourhood - with the potential wipe some entire small towns off the map.

* ''FanFic/JustARandomTuesday'' is set during ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' and is all about students and teachers of Hogwarts trying to deal with Umbridge taking the helm. HilarityEnsues.

* Professor Rattigan's plan in ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' is to take over British "[[MouseWorld Mousedom]]" and introduce hundreds of corrupt laws, including crushing taxes on the elderly, infirm, and children. The way he seeks to do it is a bit non-typical, though, as [[spoiler:rather than becoming king himself, he wants to replace the beloved Queen Mouse with a robot and become the official Royal Consort instead, with the robot queen signing off all the laws for him.]]

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** In ''Film/BlackPanther2018'', Killmonger usurps T'Challa to become the new king of Wakanda. Once in power, he proceeds with his plan of arming the African diaspora with vibranium weapons and creating a global Wakandan empire. As a sign that his rule will '''not''' be kind one, he threatens to murder the children of his opponents and [[spoiler: burns Wakanda's sacred garden]] so that only he can have the Black Panther's power.

--> '''Thomas:''' Peep peep! Good morning sir.
--> '''Policeman:''' Disgraceful! I didn't sleep a wink last night, it was so quiet, and now engines come whistling suddenly behind me.
--> '''Thomas:''' I'm sorry, sir, I only said "good morning".
--> '''Policeman:''' Where is your cow-catcher?
--> '''Thomas:''' [[MathematiciansAnswer But I don't catch cows, sir.]]
--> '''Policeman:''' Don't be funny!! No side plates, either. Engines going on public roads must have their wheels covered, and a cow-catcher in front. You haven't, so you are Dangerous to the Public.
--> '''Thomas's driver:''' Rubbish. We've been along here hundreds of times, and there's never been an accident.
--> '''Policeman:''' That makes it worse. (Writes "Regular Law-Breaker" in his notebook)
* ''Literature/WarriorCats''

* ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen:'' After ''ComicBook/SinsOfSinister'', Colossus is appointed by Storm as her voice on the Quiet Council while she's on Mars. Unfortunately, Colossus is being telepathically controlled and no-one in the X-Men manages to notice, no matter how hard he tries to fight it, while the non-X-Men on the Council don't know or don't care either way. As a result, he manages to effectively seize majority rule of Krakoa in one meeting, so his controllers can ruin it.

* ''FanFic/GogglesAndTheTears'', set just after the events of ''System Shock 2'', deals with the godhood-hungry [[AIIsACrapshoot SHODAN]] looking to exploit the usage of tears in time and space, using [[VideoGame/BioshockInfinite Elizabeth]] to do so, and usurp control of Columbia from Zachary Comstock by pretending to be his prophesied archangel. Fortunately, because of those same tears, [[VideoGame/SystemShock Goggles]], Booker [=DeWitt=], [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 Gordon Freeman]], [[VideoGame/{{Marathon}} Mjolnir Recon #54 and Durandal]] notice this and immediately get involved as a result.

* ''Fanfic/TruePotential'': Invoked. Suzumebachi really wants to replace Onoki as the next Tsuchikage, and undo all the progress he made towards Konoha in order to start another war.

** In the Season 6 finale, after killing most of her political enemies in a wildfire explosion and Tommen's suicide, Cersei forcibly takes the Iron Throne and names herself Queen.
** Joffrey inherits the throne after Robert dies and quickly starts ruling in a despotic, sadistic way.

* In the ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' episode "Picture of Innocence'', Barnaby is taken off a case when he becomes one of the suspects and is replaced by the pencil-pushing bureaucrat Martin Spellman, much to Jones' disgust.

** Marlo Stanfield, a small-time dealer, perceives the Barksdale drug empire as weak in Season 3, decides to wage war on Avon Barksdale's organization and take over West Baltimore, which he manages to do thanks to some luck and good timing. Unlike Avon who (mostly) refrained from killing people unless they interfered with his corners, (which is mostly part of the game) or he was looking to take over their turf, Marlo is a power-hungry sociopath who has people killed if he hears they were talking bad about him, questioning him, or even if they look at him wrong. He violently deposes the relatively peaceful old order and is responsible for dozens of murders. In season five, afterkilling Prop Joe, Marlo assumes power at[[TheSyndicate the New Day Co-op]] and as first order of business announces that there will be no more meetings, and that the price has gone up.

* ''VideoGame/MasterDetectiveArchivesRainCode'': Yomi Hellsmile, Director of the Amaterasu Corporation Peacekeepers, is the MoreDespicableMinion to the company's CEO, and he rules Kanai Ward like a dictator and views the citizens as his playthings. Despite someone working above him, he is ultimately the company's de facto leader, having gained control of Amaterasu's factions completely. [[spoiler:In an odd way, this seemingly also applies to the game as a whole, as said CEO's goal was really to take ''his'' place as the city's ruler and the protagonists were just his pawns for him to take that opening.]]

* Garrosh Hellscream from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' embodies this trope to its fullest. When the Cataclysm wreaks havoc upon Azeroth, Thrall abandons his position as Warchief of the Horde to fulfill his shamanistic duties to the elements and leaves Garrosh in his stead. While his humble acceptance of the position looks at first to be promising, it does not take long for the power to get to his head. His radical beliefs of orc supremacy and disregard for other races- even those allied to the Horde- force him to be the primary antagonist of ''Mists of Pandaria'' and a minor antagonist of the next expansion, ''Warlords of Draenor''.

* ''Fanfic/ShadowsOverMeridian'': During the Swamp arc, [[KnightTemplar Lord Kur]] is revealed to have been put in charge of the Swamplands' capital Everdeen with a duty of cleansing the area of Phobos' remaining supporters. With the fact that he's a genocidal fanatic who's put the entire city on lockdown and under strict food rationing (a decision that hasn't made him popular in the city) as a part of his plan to [[ThePurge eliminate the shapeshifters and other "monstrous" races]], he's a definite disimprovement from whoever used to run the city that thrived as a melting pot of commerce and interspecies relations during Phobos' reign.