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1%% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=h8xsfaqk
2%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1615292151038702400&page=1
3%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
4%%
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6[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/StreetFighterIV https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/take_over_world_street_fighter.jpg]]]]
7[[caption-width-right:350:You can almost ''hear'' the [[EvilLaugh maniacal laughter]].]]
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9
10->'''Pinky:''' Gee, Brain, what you wanna do tonight?\
11'''Brain:''' The same thing we do every night, Pinky, try to take over the world!
12-->-- ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain''
13
14%% One quote per page, please. For additional quotes please use the quotes page.
15
16[[Film/StreetFighter Of course!]] No reputable villain or [[TheEmpire Imperialistic Global Superpower]] would set their sights on anything less than World Domination[[TradeSnark ®]]! As {{Evil Plan}}s go, world domination is [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]], [[PragmaticVillainy more logical]] and sometimes [[EasilyConqueredWorld easier]] than [[OmnicidalManiac wanton destruction of everything]]. They want to be in charge of everything and everyone. Usually the motive is just to feed their lust for power, their [[{{Pride}} massive egos]], and their {{Greed}}, but sometimes they've got somewhat [[DarkMessiah twisted ideals]] that they want everyone else to adhere to and world domination is [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans the Path to a Better Future]]. Or [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans it's just because they are dicks]].
17
18Either way, this ambition will put them in direct conflict with the heroes, whether professional or "[[HeroicNeutral I just want everything to go back to normal]]" types. Usually said villains [[AndYourLittleDogToo fixate on the hero or someone/thing close to them]] as being part of their master EvilPlan. For a villain who has finally acquired [[DeityOfHumanOrigin godlike power]], and did not use it to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence or [[OmnicidalManiac euthanize the universe]], then this is the next logical goal and use for said power.
19
20Villains who want this will occasionally [[EvilVersusEvil combat other villains]] who want to destroy the world or use it for other purposes, and sometimes, just sometimes, [[EvilerThanThou team up with the heroes to do it.]] After all, you [[EvilVersusOblivion can't conquer the world if it's destroyed]], right? Whether or not the villain attempts to stab the heroes in the back the instant the world is safe, or they nod and civilly go back to their Secret Lairs in a gentleman's agreement to face each other tomorrow depends on the villain.
21
22The result of world domination is sometimes subverted, parodied or deconstructed when the villain [[TheBadGuyWins actually succeeds]], and it turns out that ruling the world [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving isn't nearly as gratifying as they thought it would be]] -- exactly [[AndThenWhat what does one do]] with the world once one has it, after all? As any [[WhoWantsToLiveForever immortal]] would tell you, ideas to try for the world (whether utopian or dystopian) can be limited. Plus, once you're ruling the world, you literally have to be in charge of '''''everyone''''', and that's like herding giraffes. Seven ''billion'' giraffes, as a matter of fact. You actually have to run things, and make sure it works, and dang, DystopiaIsHard. You will end up snapping or getting crushed under the workload of [[FascistButInefficient trying to dictate everything]]. If they did it with MassHypnosis to get rid of TheEvilsOfFreeWill, then it'll be considerably easier to rule... and so dreadfully boring they undo the whole thing just to have someone to talk to. No wonder that "illogical" [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum world destruction]] has an appeal that competes with world domination.
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24The more fleshed-out villain will have some specific perception of what is wrong with the world and believe that a strong central authority with vision and strength of purpose can set it right.
25
26For more information, check out the EvilOverlordList, a detailed guide on what an evil overlord should and should not do. Typically, this is accomplished with StockEvilOverlordTactics. Although sometimes the plans of villains with this motivation go rather in the MissingStepsPlan direction.
27
28There have been several country-specific [[SubTrope SubTropes]] which have been popularized in Western thought and media, each country taking its turn to be the boogeyman for a few decades. These would include:
29
30* AlternateHistoryNaziVictory, which was a fear during World War II. The trope became even more prolific after the regime's atrocities came to light, making it a good premise for a CrapsackWorld. A lot of the fear from this trope also drew on the fears of a pre World War I Imperial Germany taking over the world. In any case, once the World Wars concluded, a new superpower would set up itself as a contestant for world hegemon, which would be...
31* RussiaTakesOverTheWorld, which was popular during the RedScare in the 1950s and 1960s (and saw a resurgence in the 1980s as the Cold War heated up again). The advent of detente however led to...
32* JapanTakesOverTheWorld, which was influenced by Japan's powerful economy that emerged in the 1970s and the spread of its pop culture in the 1980s, and was especially popular in early {{Cyberpunk}} stories. However, this time it was about economics and not military and political espionage. The lost decade of Japan in the 1990s which led to an economic and production standstill has led to another East Asian superpower filling this role, which would be...
33* ChinaTakesOverTheWorld, a concept that has gained influence in the 1990s with the rise of the Chinese economy and manufacturing. The [[UsefulNotes/ToGetRichIsGlorious economic liberalization]] and large population which has also made the Chinese an influential target for corporations and movie studios back this claim alongside China's powerful army. With a recession in the 2010s and other social and economic setbacks however, this trope starts to look discredited.
34* AmericaTakesOverTheWorld, which has generally always been a concept people in the post-World War II era have entertained, especially in the post UsefulNotes/ColdWar world with USA being the sole superpower.
35* {{Eurabia}}: Fundamentalist Muslims take over Europe if not the whole world and turn it into a repressive theocracy. The United States held this fear post-9/11 while the refugee crisis from the Middle East in the 2010s led to renewed fears in Europe.
36
37See TakeOverTheCity for a more modest version. A VillainWorld is a situation where this actually happened (for absence of a hero or some other incident that granted the bad guys absolute power) but a hero emerges and begins to undo the damage from the inside. For the opposite, see SaveTheWorld.
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39%%If you have time, please take time to put examples in alphabetical order. This page Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings should help you with that.
40----
41!!Examples:
42
43[[foldercontrol]]
44
45[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
46* Anime/DigimonFusion has both the standard villainous examples as well as a rare heroic example of this trope. The protagonist's digmon, Shoutmon's goal throughout the series is to become the king of the entire digital world so he can help as many people as possible. Of course, in the first season, the digital world is largely disjointed and under constant threat by [[TheEmpire the Bagra Army]] who also are examples of this trope. Two less prominent factions, [[TheRival Blue Flare]] and [[CovertGroup Midnight]], also seemingly want to rule the world. In the end, the first season becomes a race between four different factions to take over the world: one good, one neutral, and two evil.
47** Then, in season 2, the Bagra Army succeeds in taking over the Digital World. Meanwhile, Blue Flare some renegade members of Midnight join Shoutmon's crew. Now, the villains rule the world, and the heroes are the only ones left trying to take over the world. Of course, the villains are trying to make everyone in the world as miserable as possible for their true plan: [[spoiler: [[ThePowerOfHate gathering enough negative energy]] [[OmnicidalManiac to destroy both the digital]] [[ApocalypseHow and human worlds,]] [[InTheirOwnImage and remake in in Lord Bagra's image]]. In the end, the heroes stop them, and Shoutmon successfully becomes the king of digimon.]]
48** The BigBad of season 3 ''literally'' manages it at the end of the season. After exposing himself and breaking the Brave Snatcher, he turns the entire earth into his own body and absorbs every human and Digimon in the world onto him... and Tagiru and Gumdramon were the last ones left to stop him. Thankfully, the destruction he causes comes undone after he's hunted down.
49* The ''Mazinger trilogy'':
50** ''Anime/MazingerZ'': According his Backstory revealed in one of the manga versions, Dr. Hell was abused and belittled by everyone when he was a child until his mind snapped and he decided he wanted to make all pay: he would purge the world off idiots and force everybody to bow down to him. During the rise of Hitler, he realized if he took over the world he COULD do just that. Over ten years after the World War II he finally found the means [[LostTechnology as he researched several ancient ruins]].
51** ''Anime/GreatMazinger'': The Mykene were an ancient civilization had been forced to survive underground for millennia. BigBad and PhysicalGod Emperor of Darkness and TheDragon Ankoku Daishogun wanted to return to the surface world and let their people walk freely over earth and enjoy sunlight, fresh air and clean water, and they thought take over the world was the only way to achieve that.
52** ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'': Planet Vega had become unstable due to the overexploitation of ores of vegatron, a highly radioactive material. King Vega needed to find another world to settle his people on, and so he began conquering other worlds. That expansionist campaign finally led them to Earth.
53* Played with in ''Manga/ShugoChara''. Tadase, leader of the heroes, repeatedly states that his goal (or at least his [[GhostInTheMachine would-be self's]] goal) is World Domination.
54** When discussion the motives of the actual villains, the Easter corporation, the heroes quickly dismiss World Domination as a possibility.
55* ''Anime/PrincessTutu's'' [[AllThereInTheManual Japanese official website]] listed profiles for most of the major characters--pretty standard stuff, including height, weight, and each character's "likes" and "dislikes". Most of it isn't too much of a surprise, like Ahiru's love for ballet and dislike of food with chicken in it... but then you get to [[ScaryShinyGlasses Autor's]] profile. What he likes? "World Domination". Apparently ''that's'' the reason he's so obsessed with [[spoiler:Drosselmeyer's [[RealityWarper story-spinning]] powers]]!
56* Il Palazzo of ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' wants to take over the world, which he believes has become corrupt. He decides a more reasonable goal is to start with just Japan, and the best way to take over Japan is to [[TakeOverTheCity start with one city]].
57* After [[spoiler:Chao Lingshen]] is revealed as the BigBad of the Mahora Festival in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', we finally get a peek at her character bio. Listed under her Likes? World Domination.
58** Now that she's out of the way, Haruna has stepped in. Lately, she overtly proclaimed herself "future mistress of [[MagicWorld this world]]".
59* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': "Everyone will become one with Russia." Alternately, The Awesome [[MemeticBadass Prussia]] [[MemeticMutation will seize your vital regions.]]
60* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': [[Characters/CodeGeassLelouchLamperouge Lelouch vi Britannia]] eventually decides to conquer the whole world, rather than just destroy the Britannian Empire, as was his original plan. In subversion [[spoiler:he doesn't actually want to ''keep'' it for himself. [[MagnificentBastard Magnificently]], having taken over half the world and been betrayed, he the proceeds to take over the ''other half'', then uses that to finish the job.]]
61** It's heavily implied that this is the intention of the [[RoyallyScrewedUp Royal Family of Britannia]]. [[ItRunsInTheFamily Several]] of them are [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned extremists]] who believe world peace can only be achieved through world domination, involving nukes, threats, and the like.
62* [[Characters/DeathNoteLightYagami Light Yagami]] in ''Manga/DeathNote'' wants to be the god of the world, which effectively is the same thing.
63* Cleo in ''Anime/GlassFleet'' wants to take over the galaxy. Luckily, the Big Bad, Vetti Sforza, has already conquered most of it. Cleo decides that taking down Vetti is the quickest way of doing it. [[spoiler:Things don't go exactly as planned...]]
64* [[TheProtagonist Jio's]] goal in ''Manga/OPartsHunter'', by collecting all the O-Parts to rule the world.
65* ''Manga/Reborn2004's'' BigBad [[spoiler:Byakuran]] actually ''has'' taken over the world [[spoiler:millions of times over. Being able to share his consciousness across parallel universes, he has become supreme ruler of all but one.]]
66* ''Manga/DragonBall'':
67** Piccolo Daimao's goal is to conquer the world. And he does. [[EasilyConqueredWorld Easily]].
68** Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, Vegeta, Frieza and his relatives, and Babidi all had plans for world/universal domination at one point or another. Specifically, Frieza was in the business of conquering and selling planets.
69* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny'': [[DarkMessiah Gilbert Durandel]] wants to do this as part of his UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans plot.
70* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': This is one of Greed's stated goals, [[spoiler:though in the end Ling calls him out on his bluff and Greed grudgingly admits that deep down his true desire was to have friends]].
71** In [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003 the 2003 anime version]], Bradley seemed to have this as his intention, which makes sense, him being a Hitler-expy and all.
72*** He is actually holding the title "Führer"!
73* When 4Kids was dubbing the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' movies, they had a habit of changing the villains' motives to this, because kids wouldn't understand their original motives.
74** This became Team Rocket's goal in the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' related seasons. [[spoiler:Since they've become competent and now have frikken jet-packs, they might actually have a shot.]]
75*** [[spoiler:That didn't last long though.]]
76* Pain of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' originally claims this to be the goal of Akatsuki. As a small mercenary force of exceptional skill they would build a strong reputation and slow supplant the established villages; then they would use the captured Bijuu to start small wars, promptly ending them, to gain complete dominance of the market. At that point, they would crush the weakened nations reliant on their services and become the sole world power.
77** [[spoiler: Turns out [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Pain]] was right all along; except the real Akatsuki leader, Tobi plans to use a MassHypnosis plan instead of the fake, economic scheme.]]
78** [[spoiler: As of Chapter 692, Sasuke reveals that his ultimate goal is world domination, starting with killing Naruto, the only person he believes can stop him.]]
79* Kuroda from ''Manga/NekoDeGomen''.
80* This is the goal of all of the evil organizations in ''Manga/HajimeteNoAku''. Their methods and reasons are generally more benign than most of the other examples on this page.
81* In ''Anime/ReadOrDie'', the British Library apparently wants to take control of the world's information networks, so they can get the world to doublethink itself into believing that they ''already'' rule the world.
82* ''Manga/SquidGirl'': Ika Musume's ultimate goal is to take over the world in order to punish humans for polluting the oceans and harming the ocean life. Thus far, her invasion has stalled at the beach house where she first made landfall.
83* The Evil Organization Florsheim from ''Manga/TentaiSenshiSunred'' has this as their objective B. It will follow objective A; the defeat of their mortal enemy Sunred. So far, they're stuck at objective A. [[HarmlessVillain And probably will be for some time]].
84* This is the goal of Rider, a.k.a. UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, in ''Literature/FateZero''. Which is to be expected, given that it was his goal in RealLife. An unusual case in that he is a hero rather than a villain. He's delighted to discover that the world is larger than he had realized in life, because ''that means there's more of it to conquer''.
85* Poseidon in ''Manga/SaintSeiya''. Cue his [[EnemyMine one-time help]] against Hades, who wants to destroy the world.
86* The Zabi family of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' have this as their ultimate objective, seeking to grind Earth and all of the space colonies under their [[ANaziByAnyOtherName jackbooted]] heels. Their reasons for doing so differ--[[ThePatriarch Degwin]] and [[DaddysLittleVillain Kycilia]] want to bring their familial political philosophy to the entirety of humanity and make Zeon the strongest nation in existence, [[SissyVillain Garma]] and [[TheBrute Dozle]] [[WellDoneSonGuy just want to make their father proud]], and [[TheEvilPrince Gihren]] sees it as an exercise in stroking his own ego. All of them, and particularly Gihren and [[TheBaroness Kycilia]], believe that DespotismJustifiesTheMeans.
87** DarkMessiah Paptimus Scirocco of ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', like the Zabis before him, has World Domination as his end goal. Whether he's a VisionaryVillain or a ManipulativeBastard of a {{Narcissist}} who wants to remake the world in his own image is a matter of some debate in the fandom.
88* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': To no one's surprise, this is what [[Characters/MyHeroAcademiaAllForOne All For One]] ultimately wants to do [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans in the absolute worst way possible.]] Crosses over with his DevilComplex and status as a DarkMessiah.
89* ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'' features a particularly hideous example: [[spoiler:[[BeastMan Monster Rat]] Yakomaru plans to overthrow humans by exploiting the fact that HumansArePsychicInTheFuture by kidnapping a human infant and raising him into an unstoppable, animalistic sociopath and unleashing him against the communities on the Japanese archipelago, and using the chaos to capture even more infants to repeat the process until all humans have been wiped out.]]
90* ''Literature/Overlord2012'': Momonga ends up ''accidentally'' beginning a campaign to conquer the New World when his subordinate Demiurge takes an off-hand remark too seriously. His subordinates, without his knowledge, have dedicated themselves to delivering the New World to him. Momonga just wanted to make his guild famous in the New World hoping to find fellow Yggdrasil players. [[spoiler:He only finds out what his minions are really doing in volume 8 of the light novel. To save face, he goes along with it.]]
91* Sadao Maou (Great Overlord Satan) from ''Literature/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' tries to do this twice. Prior to the events of the series he nearly conquers Ente Isla with his four demon armies before being hurled into an AlternateDimension on the eve of his final victory. During the series he intends to take over modern Earth by ... rising through the ranks at [[BlandNameProduct MgRonalds]].
92* ''Manga/FairyTail'': [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Acnologia]] managed to do this in at least one BadFuture by virtue of being the WorldsStrongestMan. [[TheArchmage Zeref]] points out in the present he could still definitely do it [[HandicappedBadass even with only one arm]], and speculates that the reason he hasn't is because [[VictoryIsBoring it would just be boring]].
93* ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'': The [[TerribleTrio Spacy Brothers]] plot to become the rulers of Tamagotchi Planet and rename it "Spacy Planet". However, any ideas they come up with are [[EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion thrown by the wayside]] due to outside circumstances. Still, their dedication is impressive for [[EnfantTerrible school-going children]].
94[[/folder]]
95
96[[folder:Comic Books]]
97* ''ComicBook/AngelCatbird'': Dr. Muroid's plan for this involves using the genetic formula Strig Feleedus has been developing to turn his army of rats into [[RatMen rat people]]. From there, his rat people will [[spoiler:infiltrate the governments and societies of the world at every level. Once he has enough power, he'll orchestrate the worldwide massacre of cat people]].
98* In ''ComicBook/AquamanSwordOfAtlantis'', Krusivax forged an alliance with Vandal Savage, who had a plan to sink a good portion of the populated Earth and rule over the people who would be forced, via genetic engineering, to live underwater.
99* In ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' #290, Dr. Druid points out to the Super-Adaptoid the importance of thinking things through:
100-->'''Dr. Druid:''' And once you have conquered the people of Earth, what then?\
101'''Super-Adaptoid:''' I will rule them, Dr. Druid.\
102'''Dr. Druid:''' To rule means to dictate. What will you tell your billions of subjects to do?\
103'''Super-Adaptoid:''' I... I had not yet considered that.
104* ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, the Lord of Apokolips, wants to rule the entire [[Franchise/TheDCU DC Universe]].
105* In the {{Creator/Marvel}} GraphicNovel ''Emperor Doom'' Doctor Doom succeeds in taking over the world. [[spoiler:He hits the ResetButton himself when he realizes he didn't want the world, he just wanted the quest to take it over.]]
106** Doom also pulled it off in ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'', complete with building an army with hybrid Doombot and Iron Man technology and giving himself a castle the size of Latveria. [[spoiler:Then the heroes beat him up and Odin blows him to vapor with a lightning bolt]].
107** In the aftermath of the ''ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'' Saga, Franklin Richards created an alternate Earth and Doctor Doom conquered THAT before getting bored with the absolute power over it he'd usurped from Franklin Richards' weird computer overseer thing.
108** He pulls it off in ''Doom 2099'' (or the United States, anyway, which is not actually the entire world). The twist? He's actually a pretty good leader.
109* ''ComicBook/{{Empire}}'': The supervillain mastermind Golgoth actually conquers the world. All opposition is crushed, all superheroes are defeated, and Golgoth is still victorious at the end of the tale. Needless to say, it's a VERY dark story. However, Golgoth finds that ruling the world is not exactly easy, either.
110* ''ComicBook/{{Fathom}}'': Both factions, the Blue and the Black, keep switching between global domination and exterminating all humans throughout the series.
111* Thst is the ultimate goal of WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse's ArchEnemy, the Phantom Blot, in many stories of the ''ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse''.
112* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'':
113** In one story, Paperinik guesses that [[spoiler: Leonard Vertighel]] altered a number of the TimePolice's droids to try this. [[spoiler: Vertighel]], who was actually [[spoiler: trying to create the perfect woman to love and be loved]], laughs and replies "Be frank with me: you read a lot of comic books, do you?".
114** In one of Angus Fangus' short stories, our reporter has been captured by the mysterious [[YellowPeril Fang-Ho]]:
115--->'''Fang-Ho''': "That nice gadget, placed on the back of your neck, will [[{{Brainwashed}} turn you into a faithful servant]], whose only will will be... mine! Each new servant will make new devices that, in turn, will make new servants, until I have an endless army at my command! Do you know what I'll do then?"\
116'''Angus''': "You'll take over the world?"\
117''[[BeatPanel (Beat)]]''\
118'''Fang-Ho''': "There must have been an information leak!"
119** In one of the stories of Fantomius (of whom Paperinik is a sort of LegacyCharacter), the cruel Fu-Man-Etchu wants a mask with hypnotic powers. Fantomius guesses it's to try and take over the world... But the villain reveals it's actually to ''[[EvilIsPetty subdue all the pharmacists in the world and force them not to make allergy drugs, so everyone would suffer from his own continuous sneezes]]''. Fantomius promptly laughs and declares it would have been less crazy trying to take over the world.
120** ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfTheChaosGod'': Solego's plans to escape his imprisonment and take over the world are constantly disrupted by the protagonists he runs afoul with Darkwing Duck being the biggest of them all.
121* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': Doctor Sivana declares himself "Rightful Ruler of the Universe".
122* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
123** Lex Luthor's original goal was to take total control of Metropolis as a foundation for taking over the world, and from there the rest of the universe. Then Superman showed up and started ruining all of his plans. Now his goal is to get rid of Superman so he can get back to his original goal and soothe his massive ego.
124** ''ComicBook/SupermanSavageDawn'': Vandal Savage, Wrath, Alexander Bend and [=HORDR=] work together to systematically destroy Superman and everyone he cares about and, in time, conquer the world.
125** ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'': Lesla-Lar cooks up a scheme to get rid of Superman and Lex Luthor, and then taking over the world. Or destroying it. Whatever she pleases.
126** ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'': Cyborg-Superman pretends to be an amnesiac Superman to cover his plan to take over the world.
127** ''ComicBook/TwoForTheDeathOfOne'': Lord Satanis plans to obtain ultimate magic power and become the ruler or everything.
128--->'''Superman:''' "Another illusion, or are you the real Satanis?"\
129'''Lord Satanis:''' "'''Lord''' Satanis, Superman! The ruler of future-Earth... And soon to be the ruler of all time!"
130** ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'': Darkseid comes very close to take over the ''galaxy'' and "begin a new era of darkness".
131** ''ComicBook/StarfiresRevenge'': The titular Queenpin intends to use her wealth to raise an army with which to topple the world's governments.
132** ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman1961'': After murdering Superman, Lex Luthor sets his sights on conquering the world.
133** ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'': Lesla-Lar releases several Kryptonian criminals from the PhantomZone to help her conquer Earth. Unfortunately for her, the Phantom Zoners are not interested in dividing up the planet, and kill Lesla off.
134** ''ComicBook/ThePhantomZone'': General Dru-Zod intends to conquer the universe after getting out of his dimensional prison.
135--->'''Dru-Zod:''' ''"The Earth— The very universe itself— is ours for the taking!"''
136** ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'': Selena aims to use her knowledge of black magic to conquer the world.
137** "ComicBook/SupermanAndSpiderMan": Lampshaded. Superman confronts Doctor Doom, claiming he knows Doom is up to something big. Doom retorts OF COURSE he is up to something: conquering the world. He then snidely asks whether Superman had not yet figured that out.
138* ''ComicBook/{{Suspense}}'': In Issue #14, "[[http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2009/06/death-and-doctor-parker.html Death and Doctor Parker]]", the titular doctor injects himself with an immortality serum with the intention of eventually taking over the world by giving himself eternity to plan, amass power and resources, and eventually enjoy an eternal rulership.
139* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
140** Queen Clea aims to conquer Atlantis and then the surface world.
141** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Queen Atomia wants more power, and uranium, in order to expand her little self created empire to include the earth rather than only things of a microscopic scale.
142* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': While it's not usually his motive, in his first outing the Absorbing Man pondered what to do with his new superpowers, and figured if he got bored he could take over some small country. After a few seconds he bumps this up to maybe taking over THE WORLD.
143[[/folder]]
144
145[[folder:Comic Strips]]
146* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'': Dogbert has taken over the world a few times. In one arc he does so through hypnosis, but abdicates after he gets bored. He's also taken over the company frequently, usually becoming obscenely wealthy and retiring within a matter of days.
147* ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'': "Rule the world" is the key phrase that Piffany taught Yeagar to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys.
148[[/folder]]
149
150[[folder:Fan Works]]
151* In the backstory of ''Fanfic/AgesOfShadow'', [[FallenHero Jade]] tried to do this with her newfound power, but that just led to her being [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away]]. Once reestablishing contact with Earth (well, an AlternateUniverse version, anyway), she tries to do this the old fashioned way via her Shadow Walkers conquering lands by force. And when that fails, she decides on a more direct approach, having the Walkers gather the soul energy needed to make her strong enough to escape her imprisonment and conquer the world directly [[spoiler: by pulling it into the Netherworld with her]].
152* ''Fanfic/AllForLuz'', In chapter 13, [[EvilMentor All For One]] admits to [[AntiHero Luz]] that this was his purpose in life. [[spoiler:And even after death he still plans to do so as well as adding the Boiling Isles to [[MultiversalConqueror his list of conquest]] through [[VillainOverride Luz's body]].]]
153* [[http://alwayshavingjuice.tumblr.com/post/24697209891/strangely-the-thing-i-find-the-strangest-in-that Subverted and discussed]] by the Calamitous Zone's Dr. Eggman(!) in ''Blog/AlwaysHavingJuice''.
154* ''Blog/AskErnstStavroBlofeld'': Taking over the world is Blofeld's lifelong ambition (and we ''mean'' lifelong — he was already trying at age ten).
155* The ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears''/''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' crossover [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11861274/1/Be-Careful-What-You-Wish-For Be Careful What You Wish For]] deconstructs this trope. In it, Wily uses Lotos the Genie to take over the world instantly. He then finds that running the world means micromanaging each and every problem from all the world's governments for hours on end and his ZeroPercentApprovalRating means all the leaders under him and Mega Man are chomping at the bit for him to make even the smallest violation of the world's surrender treaty so they can drop the loyalty act and go for his head.
156* Xander and Willow in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12286952/37/And-Yet-Again-Still-Even-More-Fragments The Beginning of the End]]'' reveal that for over a decade they've been plotting to TakeOverTheWorld, not because they want to rule, but because they think the world would be a better place united under a pair of just rulers.
157* This is the ultimate goal of [[MadScientist Dr.]] [[StupidEvil Brainstorm]] in ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries''.
158* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': Discussed by [[TeenGenius Mercury]] and [[TokenEvilTeamMate Jadeite]]. Due to the tremendous forces arrayed against Ami, both the [[GodOfEvil Dark Gods]] and their followers, and the [[GodOfGood Light Gods]] and ''their'' followers; it is speculated that if she ever wants to get home, Ami is going to have to do this.
159--> '''Reaper''': Not using it for evil? Where would be the fun in that? But to answer your question: the process of creating a dungeon heart requires the blessing of at least one of the dark gods. Committing the blasphemy of using it for good would ensure that they call a dark crusade against the fool attempting it. No single Keeper could hope to survive against the united might of all others. In short, all you have to do is crush all the other Keepers before attempting such a thing! Go right ahead, it shall be glorious!
160* The second arc of ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'' sees Darkseid put in motion his plan for universal domination. He comes real close to succeed because of the Anti-Life Equation, but he is stopped by an army of heroes.
161* In ''Fanfic/IncarnationOfLegends'', The goal of both Rakia and The Empire is to have the entire world under its banner. The Legiones believes in this too, as only then can he lead the world to the stars [[spoiler:as part of his beloved Rome]].
162* In the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' fanfiction's [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4267279/1/Hero-High-Sphinx-first chapter]], ''Fanfic/AcademyHeroHighSphinxAcademy'', the main villain Pharaoh reveals the secret to this plan to his Second-In Command, [[spoiler:he only considers it a side project to his main goal]], this causing him to start LaughingMad.
163* ''WebVideo/TheMrMenMovie'': Mr. Uppity puts all the Mr. Men and Little Misses in jail in order to do so.
164* In the final story of the ''Fanfic/MyHostageNotYours'' series, Gaz convinces Zim to get off his ass and finally conquer the world. [[spoiler: And they do, well before the story is over.]]
165* ''Fanfic/RepairsRetrofitsAndUpgrades'': Kuvira is given a vision of herself doing this by the Swamp, showing how far her megalomania would have developed had she not been stopped.
166* ''Fanfic/OjamajoDoremiRiseOfTheShadows'': This is the goal of Black Queen. However, she doesn't just want to rule the world; she wants to destroy all Light Beings so her kind, the Shadows, can rule all worlds.
167* This is obviously the goal of several criminal organizations in ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', like Team Rocket and Cipher who do so through capturing rare and powerful Pokémon. There's also the (still unnamed) organization lead by the [[SuperSupremacist Bloodline King]], who seeks to rule the world by amassing an army of [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividuals Bloodliners]] to wipe out normal humans and Pokémon for considering them inferior. His son, the Bloodline Prince, also has this goal, [[ALighterShadeOfBlack albeit only intending to wipe out normal humans and leave Pokémon alone]].
168* Subverted in ''Fanfic/QueenOfAllOni''. The Enforcers assume, due to their experience with past {{Big Bad}}s, that this is [[VillainProtagonist Queen Jade's]] ultimate goal. However, Jade knows that [[TaughtByExperience aiming for a goal that large is what led to said past Big Bads being defeated]], and as such is more small-scale -- she merely wants enough power to ensure she's never defeated, in order to maintain the comfortable and hedonistic life style she's created for herself.
169* ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheMinisukas'': Parodied. When Toji jokes the Minisukas would conquer Japan if Shinji asked them, Shinji says they are obviously aware that conquering a country is a bit much. Upon hearing this, Leader covertly signs to another Minisuka to cancel their Japan-conquering plans.
170* ''Fanfic/ShadowsAwakening'': One thing that the BigBadEnsemble has in common is that they all want to rule the world.
171* ''Fanfic/SoulEaterTroubledSouls'': The end goal of Medusa Gorgon. Her research is catered toward the evolution of the Black Blood to help her develop ways to manipulate Madness itself, with the Black Clown and the Portable Purple Clown being by-products. Kishins are the only entities capable of manipulating Madness and creating one takes too much time and effort, so she sets her sights on Kishin Asura. With the Black Blood, she wants [[FusionDance to fuse and resonate]] with the Kishin via Madness. Why? As she says: "Those who control Madness control the world."
172* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': [[AntiHero Shinji]] often mentions in passing that he plots to conquer the world after the Angel War. His motivation for it varies depending on the time: he is ambitious just like that, he doesn't want anything hurt him and Asuka again, or in revenge for Asuka, Rei and Misato's getting hurt. Whatever the case may be, for the end of the story [[spoiler:he's become the God-King of humanity and Asuka, [[BrotherSisterIncest Rei]] and [[StacysMom Misato]] are his three Queens ruling alongside him.]]
173* In ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/HereThereBeMonsters'', Doctor Sivana intends to take over the world to take revenge on everybody who ignored him or put him down.
174-->'''Doctor Sivana:''' "Look at this legacy your dear old dad is handing you. Not many people can say that their father's conquered the Earth, eh? Or killed the Marvel Family? No matter where we go after this, no matter what we do, nobody will be on the same level as us after this. Of course, they never were. But this time, this time, they'll all know it."
175[[/folder]]
176
177[[folder:Film — Animation]]
178* ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'': While it's never explicitly stated that Lydia wants to take over the world, the heroines bent on stopping her treat her actual goal, ruling the birthplace of all music (and keeping all the music for herself) as the same thing.
179* The Horned King in ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'' plans to raise an undead army, kill all who stand in his way, and rule over whatever is left.
180* [[spoiler:DOR-15]] from ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'' uses the Bowler Hat Guy/[[spoiler: Goob]] to aid her in ruining Lewis's future she trick's him into creating her Helping Hats. She proceeds to turn the world into a polluted wasteland where everyone is enslaved by her army of Helping Hats into doing whatever she wants.
181* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Deconstructed. The titular character, who is a supervillain, actually ''succeeds'' in taking over the world, or at least the city he had been spending his whole life trying to conquer. However, he quickly becomes bored and decides to create a new enemy, which backfires.
182* Bowser's plan in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' is to take over the world, with his plan starting with taking over the Mushroom Kingdom by marrying Princess Peach.
183[[/folder]]
184
185[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
186* ''Film/BloodWatersOfDrZ'': Dr. Z wants to take over the universe -- by turning himself into a humanoid catfish and mutating all sea life.
187* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': the goal of Cobra is to -- you guessed it!
188* Audrey II In ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors''.
189-->'''Seymour Krelborn:''' We're not talking about one hungry plant here, we're talking about world conquest!\
190'''Audrey II:''' And I wanna thank YOU!.
191* [[MadScientist Dr. Zoltar's]] plan in ''Film/MisfitHeights'' is to raise the dead and use an army of zombies to take over the world.
192* ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'': Drax's evil plan is to wipe out humanity and replace it with a "master race" under his rule.
193* Th ''Scanners'' movies:
194** Darryl Revok plans to do this in ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' by [[spoiler:initiating a country-wide scheme of covertly prescribing pregnant women with a dangerous drug that will turn their unborn children into "scanners" (telepathic and telekinetic psychics), who he will then convert to his cause - being one himself with a deep hatred for normal humans]].
195** Commander Forrester in ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder'' [[spoiler:advocates the creation of a "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything New Order]]" to "cure" the cities of crime, which really means that he'll be in control of everything. He tries to build an army of scanners to keep the rest of society in line, and uses their abilities to get himself into successively higher public offices, going from police commander to police chief and planning to run for mayor next]].
196** In ''Film/ScannersIIITheTakeover'' Helena hatches such a scheme after [[spoiler:discovering that scanners abilities work through camera and television signals. Her first step is to mind control thousands of people through a widely televised public broadcast of her, but she doesn't seem to think much further ahead than this]].
197* In ''Film/TheShadow'' the villain is a descendant of Genghis Khan. He says that his ancestor conquered half the world and he's here to "finish the job".
198* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Senator Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious, didn't just take over a world, he took over a ''galaxy''. Beat that!
199* M. Bison in ''Film/StreetFighter''. All he wants to do is create the perfect genetic soldier, and sending them out to wipe out every creed and every nation... until all of mankind bows before him in humble gratitude, with the entire planet united under the loving grip of the ''Pax Bisonica''.
200--> '''M. Bison''': [[MemeticMutation OF COURSE!]]
201* ''Film/SupermanII'': General Zod did take over Earth after defeating the pesky son of Jor-El. It just didn't last because of Superman.
202* ''Film/TronLegacy'': Clu wants to escape from the Grid into RealLife and bring his army with him. How he plans to take over the world with a few thousand troops and no real weapons (or, at least, something that would work in the real world) is never explained, although some fans claim he can program more troops once outside. One thing's for sure though, if Clu escapes he will stop at nothing to make our world open and available to all of them. [[MemeticMutation Yes!]] '''[[MemeticMutation TO ALL OF THEM!!!!!]]'''
203* The ''Film/AustinPowers'' trilogy obviously pokes fun at this with Dr. Evil's own schemes involving holding the world hostage. Interestingly, his right hand man, Number Two, is much more successful in raking in cash with various legitimate projects, and is quite frustrated when Dr. Evil still goes for the schemes that Austin Powers is more likely to stop.
204* ''Film/{{Help}}'': Aan indestructible ring stuck on Ringo's finger is coveted by a trite, hackneyed MadScientist (as described by John):
205-->''"Fantastic! With a ring like that I could - dare I say it - rule the world."''
206* ''Film/HudsonHawk'': Darwin Mayflower is blatant about it. Having run out of other things to achieve, there is only one remaining thing to do.
207--> But now I got me a new goal: [[PunctuatedForEmphasis WORLD! DOMINATION!]]
208* Adenoid Hynkel of ''Film/TheGreatDictator'', which is not surprising given that he was a parody of Hitler. Best shown with him dancing with an inflatable globe to Wagner's ''Lohengrin''.
209* Shaw's ultimate goal in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''.
210* In ''Film/TheInvisibleMan1933'', this becomes Griffin's plan after he goes insane.
211* In the ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' movie, Lena plans to use the meteorite to rule the universe after merging the dimensions.
212* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'', there are several examples:
213** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', Hydra tries to kill millions of people in their attempt to rule the world, and in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' [[spoiler:they come even closer to winning than they did during their first attempt, proving themselves to be more ruthlessly pragmatic than ever in their pursuit of power.]]
214** In ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', Loki wants to rule Earth so that he can have the throne he was promised, and because he seems to believe that if he rules Earth, his less advanced subjects will be too busy worshiping him to war with each other. Tony verbally deconstructs this for Loki, telling him that you can't just "take over the world" because no one is just going to roll over and let that happen, no matter how many aliens you throw at them.
215** In ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'', Erik "Killmonger" Stevens - aka [[spoiler: Prince N'Jadaka]] - wants to take the throne of Wakanda so he can then use its spy network and bleeding-edge technology to conquer the world.
216** In ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'', Green Goblin wants power for power's sake, treating the reality he's found himself in as an entirely new playground with toys he can break over and over again. Namely [[ArchEnemy Peter]].
217-->'''Goblin:''' We have a new world to conquer.
218* In the ''Film/ScoobyDoo'' live action film, this is [[spoiler: Scrappy's]] plan after absorbing all the souls with the Daemon Ritus.
219* ''Film/ElCid'' opens with the zealot Ben Yusuf reminding the Moorish princes of Spain that "the Prophet has commanded us to rule the world", and ending his speech with "First across Spain -- then across Europe -- then -- ''the whole world''."
220* In ''Film/TheSmurfs2'', Gargamel plans to use the Blue Extract from Smurffette to create an endless supply of smurfs for him to drain energy from and increase his own magic power, eventually making him powerful enough to conquer the world.
221* ''Film/{{Phantasm}}'': This seems to be the end goal of the Tall Man, who has been traveling dimensions and worlds, conquering and building up his army, seemingly to try and conquer all of existence, though in his case, it seems he doesn't want to rule the worlds he conquers so much as [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans reduce them to chaotic hellscapes where only he and his minions can survive]].
222[[/folder]]
223
224[[folder:Literature]]
225* ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'': The villain of ''Dragon Bones'' wants to become emperor, which would be one step above the highest known ruler, who is only high king. There hasn't been an emperor for a long time, and it seems he is mainly doing it out of vanity, even though his method of achieving his goal is well thought out. While it is not clear whether he intends to rule the whole world, he does intend to rule all countries that have been mentioned - which may be the whole ''known'' world.
226* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is the definitive literary example of this trope actually succeeding, and the consequences thereof. While the world may not ''technically'' be under the control of a single power, each of the three totalitarian superstates that do rule the world are effectively in tacit alliance with one another against their own peoples, and engage in an endless proxy war the aim of which is not to win but to divert resources, manpower and focus away from their home populations. Although we are given details of only one of the three, it is suggested that all follow roughly identical ideologies. In a rather brutal lampshading, the regime insider O'Brian acknowledges that DystopiaIsHard, even for them, but they do not care, because the ultimate aim of the regime is pure power, rather than material or personal satisfaction.
227* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'':
228** ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': Morgoth tried to conquer Earth to pretend he was its maker. When the Valar stopped him, Morgoth changed his goal to conquer the Earth to declare it his, and then blow it up.
229** ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Morgoth's former underlying Sauron already controlled the greater part of the world when the main story opens. The key difference is that for Morgoth, world domination was merely one step in his ultimate plan to corrupt and then destroy all reality, whereas for Sauron it was an end in and of itself. Unlike Morgoth, he didn't object to the existence of the world as long as it was his to do whatever he pleases.
230--->'''Tolkien:''' ''"Sauron desired to be a God-King, and was held to be this by his servants; if he had been victorious he would have demanded divine honour from all rational creatures and absolute temporal power over the whole world."''
231** ''Literature/TheFallOfNumenor'': Ar-Pharazôn, the last king of Númenor, desired no less than the kingship of the entire world. Númenor became a vast and brutal maritime empire under his rule, and Pharazôn became considered the world's most terrible tyrant after Morgoth.
232* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Lord Voldemort has this goal after becoming [[spoiler:functionally immortal]].
233* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'': Deconstructed. As he works on his latest EvilPlan (and afterwards) Doctor Impossible wonders what "taking over the world" even means, having tried everything from TimeTravel to [[NoodleIncident an army of fish]]:
234--> What does it mean to conquer the world? Is there really a way to do it? Do you have to be the richest one, or the smartest one, or to beat everyone in a fight? Or just to know you could? Is it to be invincible? ... Does it just mean to get the girl you really wanted?
235* ''Literature/EndersGame'': Peter Wiggin, the brother of Ender begins putting his world domination plan in motion at the age of fourteen. [[spoiler:He succeeds several books later. And in an interesting turn, is a very effective and respected leader.]]
236* ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'': In ''A Fighting Man of Mars'', this is the jeddak of Jalar's intention -- though being a DirtyCoward, he insists on marvelous MadScientist inventions in sufficient quantities first. Also Phor Tak, who had made him those inventions and been exiled by him; desire for {{Revenge}} drives him insane.
237* It is eventually revealed late in the ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' series that this is the master plan of [[spoiler: the witch Senna Wales.]]
238* ''Literature/TheDraka'': The Draka seek to conquer the world so that there are no other competing ideologies or worldviews to their own. The existence of liberal democracy is considered a direct threat to their empire.
239* In ''[[Literature/{{Petaybee}} Powers That Be]]'' the BigBad corporation, Intergal, wants to take over the planet of Petaybee because it terraformed it in the first place and has only just realized that it might be more profitable to mine it than to allow settlers to live there.
240* [[spoiler:Petyr Baelish]]'s goal at this point in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' seems to be "control as much of Westeros as possible". Given that this is [[spoiler:''Littlefinger'']] we're talking about here, he may have a bigger ultimate goal, a smaller ultimate goal, or no goal at all.
241* The Magister wants to do this, very much in ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices''.
242* [[spoiler:The Mesan Alignment]] in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels plans to take over the galaxy (or at least the part explored by humans). [[spoiler:And they've been diligently working towards this end for centuries.]]
243* ''Literature/ThePowerOfFive'': The goal of [[spoiler:[[BigBad Nightrise]]]].
244* ''Literature/{{Swellhead}}'' has a different take on this; the RealityWarper villain plans to change the world so it all exists inside his head.
245* In the ''Literature/RainbowMagic'' series, Jack Frost tries this in the movie, planning to conquer Fairyland and the human world.
246** In the Fashion Fairies series, he tries to take over the fashion world with his Ice Blue clothing line.
247* ''Literature/UltimateHero'': The titular character tries to conquer the world, although he first focuses on conquering America.
248* ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety': Mr. Curtain's goal is to take over the world, [[{{Brainwashed}} manipulating people's opinions and memories]] with his Whisperer so that they accept him as [[FunWithAcronyms M.A.S.T.E.R.]] (Minister and Secretary of All the Earth's Regions.)
249* ''Literature/AgeOfFire'': Every villain in the series wants to conquer the world, for varying reasons.
250* In ''Literature/HeartOfSteel'', Alistair Mechanus wants to conquer planet Earth in order to make it a better place. [[spoiler:The triggering event for his psychotic break was learning that his comatose girlfriend was taken off life support because her parents ran out of money to keep her alive.]]
251* Sarina Kaur's ultimate goal in ''Literature/StarTrekTheEugenicsWars'' is for the superhumans to replace "common breed" humanity. Khan later takes up the task, along with a number of other gene-enhanced humans.
252* ''Literature/SpiderManGlobalWar'': Doctor Octopus' entire goal.
253* ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'': After losing track of [[FemmeFatale Angelina]] on an alien planet, Jim [=diGriz=] uses a combination of drugs and hypnosis to [[ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim take on her sociopathic personality]] to get some insight into her next move. Things almost go badly wrong, but experiencing that self-centred narcissism makes Jim realise that nothing short of this trope will satisfy Angelina. Sure enough, she's working behind the scenes to launch a revolution.
254* ''Literature/DevilsAndThieves'': Henry Delacroix [[spoiler:and his son, Darek]] wanted to be the most powerful kindled in the world, capable of taking over said world with little resistance after acquiring the use of all eleven known magical abilities.
255* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'':
256** This is the Masters of Padmasa's goal. In fact, they're just one part of an ''interdimensional'' struggle though, with wars occurring across many worlds and planes of existence.
257** Waakzaam [[TheBadGuyWins already managed to achieve that goal]] ''twelve times already'', albeit offpage. However, by [[spoiler:trying to conquer Ryetelth and challenging the dragon armies of Argonath -- especially Bazil and Relkin -- he bit off more than he could chew]].
258* In ''Literature/{{Daemon}}'' the OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness use an exploit to hijack the eponymous daemon to achieve this goal. [[spoiler: Matthew Sobol expected this, and knew the daemon would be unable to find out who would make the attempt. The exploit was deliberately planted in the code by him so the daemon could identify whoever used it and destroy them financially. Their attempt to take over the world just leads them to ruin.]]
259* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Lily, one of the new Scholomance recruits, boasts that she plans to use the magic which she inherited from her ancestor Myth/{{Merlin}} to take over the world.
260* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'': At multiple points, Judge Holden expresses his desire to become a suzerain over the whole earth, wanting to subjugate all animals and create a [[ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil cruel, social Darwinist society]] for humans. How exactly he plans on going about this, or whether or not he even has a plan at all, is unclear. Whatever his plan may be, he seems to be playing the long game, content at the moment with spreading terror and death wherever he goes.
261[[/folder]]
262
263[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
264* ''Series/AlexRider'': Dr Greif's plan. [[spoiler:He's created eight clones of himself and is surgically altering them to replace his pupils, all of whom are children of super-rich global industrialists, with the eventual aim of taking control of the world and PuttingOnTheRiech.]]
265* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
266** This was Illyria's plan when she first reemerged. She went to revive her demonic army to conquer the earth, and found she'd been dead so long they had all crumbled to dust. She was so depressed she just gave up on it after that.
267** And one season before that, rogue [[PowersThatBe Power that...]] [[BuffySpeak Am]], Jasmine, nearly ''succeeded'' as she was able to brainwash everyone who saw or heard her, even via electronic media, into loving her. She was ultimately only defeated by epic GlamourFailure [[spoiler: and Connor turning into a full-blown NietzscheWannabe who punched through the back of her head]].
268* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'': This is BigBad Herrick's ultimate plan in season 1.
269* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
270** Warren Mears. He mostly fails because he's less like [[CutLexLuthorACheck Lex Luthor]], and more like [[AxCrazy Max Cady]].
271** Apparently the goal of [[AffablyEvil The Mayor]], though he never got past the "[[ScaledUp become giant demon snake]]" stage of his plan. Presumably this would give him the power to do so.
272** The Master also showed interest in ruling the world, as did Adam, who planned to re-populate Earth with an army of beings like himself and the First wanted to possess every human being on the planet, so it probably applies as well. The only BigBad with no ambitions of this kind was Glory who just wanted to go home at the cost of the apocalypse (and even then, she only wanted to go back to her home world so that she could rule it).
273** Simone's stated goal to Buffy. Started by taking over an island near Italy and kicking everyone off of it, beating up an old woman who had given her food and shelter while doing so.
274* ''Series/{{Danger 5}}'': Unsurprisingly, this is Hitler's goal. He is also depicted as being in charge of Benito Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito - the show being a parody of pulp and exploitation fiction, he's pretty similar to the stereotypical megalomaniacal supervillain.
275* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
276** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen "The Tomb of the Cybermen"]], Kleig, a human helping the Cybermen for power, goes on a rant about how the world is a disorganized mess of conflicting ideals, and only his superior intellect could bring it together to solve all its problems. The following season, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion "The Invasion"]], Tobias Vaughn, also helping the Cybermen, would make almost word-for-word the same rant.
277** It's probably worth noting that in the new series, at least, when an episode takes place on Earth, chances are good the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Alien of the Week]] is trying to take over the world or some variant on that theme. Recurring villains the Cybermen are also proponents of Taking Over the World. Notable exceptions to this rule, however, are the [[OmnicidalManiac Daleks]] and the [[spoiler:Time Lords]].
278** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums "The Sound of Drums"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]], the Master takes over the world, and ''starts'' by wiping out a tenth of the population. The ResetButton is eventually hit, but only after an entire year of brutal massacres, rocking out to the Music/ScissorSisters while torturing his prisoners, and [[GalacticConqueror planning to take over the universe for all time]].
279** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii "The Fires of Pompeii"]]: The Pyroviles, having lost their homeworld, plot to emulate Rome by taking over the entire known world, not to mention the rest of the planet. They also plan to convert humanity into their species.
280** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], the Master does this again, by ''[[AssimilationPlot becoming]]'' every single human being except Wilf and Donna.
281--->'''The Master:''' Breaking news: I'm everyone. And everyone in the world is me!
282** In the Monk Trilogy ( "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis Extremis]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorld The Pyramid at the End of the World]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand The Lie of the Land]]"), the monks require "assent" before taking over the world, but once they have it, promptly alter everyone's memories to believe they've ''always'' ruled the world. Their reasons for this are ... unclear.
283** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Terror of the Zygons]]", this is the Zygons' plan. The Doctor questions whether a compulsively secretive race could manage this.
284--->'''The Doctor''': But you can't rule the world from hiding. You've got to come out onto the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle.
285* ''{{Series/Eureka}}'': Nathan Stark admits in one episode that he has dreams about world domination. "But not all the time!"
286* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
287** The Dothraki have a prophecy of the Khal of Khals, the "stallion who mounts the world". Daenerys believes this to be her unborn son by her husband Khal Drogo, Rhaego, [[spoiler:but her son is sacrificed by a witch to save Drogo's life, only to trap him in a state between life and death, forcing Daenerys to MercyKill him. In hindsight, the below example suggests that the prophecy was actually about Daenerys herself, but Jon killed her before it could come to fruition]].
288** In the final season, [[spoiler:Daenerys has her army wipe out the Lannister regime and burns down King's Landing, effectively accomplishing her dream to take over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. In her victory speech, she declares that she's going to turn her attention east and unite the known world under her banner.]]
289* ''Series/TheGoodies''. As the MadScientist of the trio it's usually Graham Garden [[TodayXTomorrowTheWorld who wants to do this]]. Lampshaded when a VillainOfTheWeek announces her intention to conquer the world, and Graeme says he's tried it himself and it never works.
290* ''Franchise/KamenRider'': Tons of Showa era villains had this as this as their plan. Not so much in the Heisei era, where the villains' plans are usually more complex. The only villains whose end goal plan is conquering the world is Smart Brain from ''Series/KamenRider555'', whose plan entails a ZombieApocalypse of sorts.
291** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' lampshades this: When the BigBad reveals his ultimate plan[[note]]convert all of humanity into computer data, and only those who [[AGodAmI worship him as a god]] will be granted physical form[[/note]], [[SixthRanger Kamen Rider Mach]] [[spoiler:(who is said villain's son)]] laughs and [[DeadpanSnarker snarks]] "That's it? [[SarcasmMode The great and mighty]] [[spoiler:Tenjuro Banno]]'s ultimate plan is just generic 'take over the world' nonsense? I expected [[MadScientist something more grandiose and scientific]] out of you!" This enrages [[spoiler:Banno]] enough that he tries to kill Mach then and there, but the remaining [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad Roidmude Executives]] pull a BigDamnHeroes and [[EnemyMine join forces with the Riders]].
292* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': From Sauron's point of view, wanting to heal the world is same thing as wanting to rule over it as a GodEmperor and he genuinely doesn't see anything wrong with it.
293* ''Series/TheMiddleman'': The show is GenreSavvy about this being a standard EvilPlan.
294* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
295** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' makes Rita's motivations clear the moment her [[strike:can]] [[SealedEvilInACan space dumpster is unsealed]]. ''"After 10,000 years I'm free! '''It's time to conquer Earth!'''"'' Same goes for the motivation of every other ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' villain ''ever''.[[note]] Its even the goal of villains that already rule entire galaxies, sometimes ''several galaxies''. Earth is just that special, possibly because nobody has taken it over yet.[[/note]]
296** To be fair, some villains have slight differences in objective. For example, in ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'', BigBad Mesagog wants to return the world to being reptiles. This even gets LampshadeHanging by Tommy: "Why can't you just want to conquer the world like all the other sickos?"
297** Come ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'', sentient computer virus Venjix all but succeeds in this, primarily by ''wiping out 99% of humanity!''
298* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': As [[Recap/RevolutionS1E5SoulTrain episode 5]] and [[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand episode 11]] demonstrate, General Sebastian "Bass" Monroe of the Monroe Republic wants to take over the continent of North America one territory at a time. [[spoiler: By the [[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower first season finale]], Bass ends up on the run from his own militia, and Tom Neville has apparently adopted this as his new goal]].
299* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': The Spellman family cat Salem is actually a former warlock who's being punished for plotting to rule the world. In one episode he is denied parole (and a return to his human form) when he lets it slip to the interviewer that he still dreams of overlordship.
300* ''Series/StargateSG1'': The ultimate goal of each System Lord, the Replicators and the Ori is dominion over of the Milky Way galaxy. Many villains-of-the-week, however, had more modest goals.
301* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
302** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed Space Seed]]", Khan Noonien Singh wakes up after a 270-year nap and decides to take over the galaxy.
303** Also, Captain ("LORD!") Garth of Izar from "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E14WhomGodsDestroy Whom Gods Destroy]]", who declares himself "Master of the Universe" and, like Khan, plans to use the ''Enterprise'' to conquer the galaxy.
304* Most villains in ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' have world domination as their goal. If they're AlienInvaders, then Earth is likely just one of many worlds they seek to conquer.
305** Great Professor Bias of ''Series/ChoujuuSentaiLiveman'' is unique among {{Big Bad}}s of the franchise in that [[spoiler:he actually does succeed in conquering the world. For all of a few minutes anyway before [[TheLeader Yusuke]] disrupts his MassHypnosis.]]
306* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS09E02DevilMayCare Devil May Care]]", [[FemmeFatale Abaddon]] reveals that she not only wants to rule hell but also earth and the fallen angels.
307[[/folder]]
308
309[[folder:Music]]
310* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8aK4xbJOqQ I Want To Conquer The World]]" by ''Music/BadReligion'':
311-->''And I want to conquer the world, / Give all the idiots a brand new religion,''\
312''Put an end to poverty, uncleanliness and toil, / [[HypocriticalHumor Promote equality in all my decisions]]''\
313''With a quick wink of the eye / And a "God you must be joking!"''
314* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGCdLKXNF3w Everybody Wants to Rule the World]]" by Music/TearsForFears is about the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. As lead singer Curt Smith [[https://www.rttnews.com/slideshow/746/today-in-music-history-july-13.aspx elaborates:]]
315-->The concept is quite serious -- it's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes.
316[[/folder]]
317
318[[folder:Pinball]]
319* This is the goal of the villainess Dark Queen from ''[[VideoGame/ProPinballTheWeb Pro Pinball: The Web]]'', who plans to dominate the world by unleashing an army of spiders. [[ExcusePlot Don't ask how...]]
320* In ''[[VideoGame/ProPinballTimeshock Pro Pinball: Timeshock!]]'', this is a ''SideQuest''. After exploring all seven continents, the player can go to {{Atlantis}} and start "Global Domination", where the game gives one minute to try and light all of the continents for massive bonuses.
321[[/folder]]
322
323[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
324* [[Wrestling/DeanAmbrose Jon Moxley]] stated this was his plan for KAMIKAZE in Wrestling/DragonGate USA. Really, this was just a sign of the toll his feud with Wrestling/JimmyJacobs was having on his already damaged psyche.
325* The goal of Wrestling/TheUndisputedEra is to usher in a new era in ''[[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT]]'', heralded by them.
326[[/folder]]
327
328[[folder:Radio]]
329* ''Radio/BleakExpectations'': At the end of the fourth series, the BigBad Mr. Benevolent offers Pip Bin the chance to rule the world together. Pip thinks it sounds fun and takes him up on it. So, using a FantasticNuke made of cheese (as you do), they hold the world hostage and rule it for years. Pip Bin still thinks it's fun, until mankind collectively decides they'd rather die free... and the bomb turns out to be a dud. Pip gets an epic chewing out from the Creator, and is sent back in time to ''not'' conquer mankind.
330* In ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'', Fit the Eleventh, the Dolmansaxlil Galactic Shoe Corporation takes over planet after planet by forcing them to build more and more shoe shops. This process is confirmed to be already taking place on Earth on Oxford Street, and its ultimate outcome is the Shoe Event Horizon, when the world economy overbalances and collapses and the survivors evolve into birds so they never have to put feet on the ground again.
331[[/folder]]
332
333[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
334* ''Literature/InannasDescentToTheNetherworld:'' Inanna's reason for going to the netherworld in the first place? She wants dominion over the heavens, Earth, ''and'' the underworld, and everything there. She actually gets it, too, though not in the exact way she wanted it and at some great cost.
335* According to ''Literature/TheBible'', The Antichrist/False Prophet is going to eventually do this by deceiving all of the nations of the world into worshipping Satan. This will be an immediately prelude to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Apocalypse]].
336[[/folder]]
337
338[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
339* ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}'', "The Game of World Domination".
340** In the German version, it has been ''{{bowdlerise}}d'' to a "Game of World ''Liberation''".
341* ''World War IV'', which is ''TabletopGame/AxisAndAllies'' meets ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''.
342* ''History of the World''.
343* All the evil gods in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' have this goal.
344** Bane has this as his main goal and almost all of his followers' failed plots revolve around this to some degree. Indeed, he is the god of tyranny.
345** In ''Crucible: Trial of Cyric the Mad'', the main character's goal towards the beginning was to get a book that would make everyone worship his god, Cyric, thereby allowing him to take over not only the world, but the entire pantheon.
346** Shar is an exception: the Lady of Loss wants to ''[[OmnicidalManiac destroy]]'' the world, not rule it.
347* In the Kalamar D&D setting, the holy book of the [[LawfulEvil god of tyranny]] is a [[AuthorTract political manifesto]] that not only proclaims the deity's intention to do this, but why it's ''absolutely imperative'' that his followers make it happen, [[KnightTemplar for the greater good of all sentients]].
348* ''TabletopGame/CartoonActionHour'': All three sample series' {{Big Bad}}s (Nekkrottus, General Archnid, and Maxilliam Mercy) have this trope at their goal--but this is justifed as it's a 1980s ShoutOut to goals of most 1980s cartoon villains.
349* The ''TabletopGame/{{Netrunner}}'' card "[[http://www.netrunneronline.com/cards/world-domination/ World Domination]]". If the corp manages to score the card, it wins the game.
350-->So, Wilson, how in the frack did you know the fileset was secret plans for world domination?
351-->'Cause it was labeled 'Secret Plans for World Domination.'
352* In ''TabletopGame/{{Mwahahaha}}'', the players are all {{Mad Scientist}}s competing to be the first to do this.
353* Several factions of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' have this as their expressed goal;
354** The Skaven see all other races as inferior, and wish to exterminate/enslave them to prove that point.
355** The Chaos Gods want their servants to overrun the world so they can turn it into HellOnEarth, thus empowering them further. Unfortunately, their top general has [[OmnicidalManiac other]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt plans]].
356** Nagash the Undying wants a universal [[TheNecrocracy undead kingdom]], with everyone serving him as his mindless, soulless minions.
357* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', there's the Monodominant faction within TheEmpire: they believe that peace will come when Mankind has conquered the entire ''Galaxy'' and eradicated every other intelligent species in it. The irony is that the theory was originally formulated as a sarcastic ''joke'' by a guy who thought it ''obviously'' impossible to achieve.
358** This is basically a ''basic requirement'' for being a Primarch. Whether by force of arms, by demagoguery, by using your family's political influence, [[TheDreaded by skinning all the criminals alive until everyone else on the planet follows you through sheer fear for their lives]]... Angron and ''[[ShrugOfGod maybe]]'' Alpharius are the only two exceptions.
359* ''TabletopGame/TimeMaster'': The Demoreans are obsessed with taking over the Continuum.
360* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' the Red Scorpion intends to use his self named crime syndicate to take over the ''solar system''.
361* In ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'', this has always been the goal of [[BigBad Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness]].
362* The explicit goal of more than one BigBad in ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'':
363** Iuz, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Lord of Pain]], is a half-demonic god who rules a GrimUpNorth empire and plans to enslave the rest of the Flanaess beneath his taloned heel;
364** The Scarlet Brotherhood, an [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything organization of pale-skinned racial supremacists]] who are determined to make the pale-skinned and blonde-haired Suel race the ruling race of the Flanaess;
365** The Horned Society, an organization of devil-worshippers who plan to enslave the Flanaess through secret plots and treachery;
366** Subverted with the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, which ''started out'' conquering most of the Flanaess only to lose more and more pieces of it and be reduced to TheRemnant as its rulers became incompetent and crazy.
367[[/folder]]
368
369[[folder:Theme Parks]]
370* At Ride/UniversalStudios:
371** This is Doctor Octopus' long-term plan in ''Ride/TheAmazingAdventuresOfSpiderMan'', with the takeover of New York City being his first step.
372** King Goobot in ''Ride/JimmyNeutronsNicktoonBlast'' plans to steal Jimmy's latest Mark IV rocket and duplicate it so that he can use it to enslave earth.
373** In ''Ride/TransformersTheRide'', Megatron once again sets out to steal the [=AllSpark=] shard and use it to turn all technology into Decepticons, so that he may rule the world.
374[[/folder]]
375
376[[folder:Video Games]]
377* ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'': Gary. His goal is ostensibly to "take over the school", but nobody seems to have figured out what that actually means, least of all Gary.
378--> '''Gary:''' I keep imagining myself in charge of a large empire.
379* ''VideoGame/FeedingFrenzy2ShipwreckShowdown'': The goal of the Intruder is to take over all of Earth's oceans.
380* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'':
381** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': At the end of the first half, [[spoiler:Kefka conquers the world. The goal of the second half is to dethrone him, preferably ''before'' he gets bored of nuking the survivors with the [[LightIsNotGood Light Of Judgment]] and really gets cracking on the stated goal of [[OmnicidalManiac "building a monument to nonexistence."]]]].
382** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'': This is the ''raison d'etre'' for the BigBad, TheEmperor. ''Why'' he wants to rule everything is never gone into in the game itself.
383** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': This is the goal of the Garlean Empire, as they see themselves as the only ones worthy to rule, seeing other nations as dens of unenlightened barbarians.
384* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'': The Combine do this on a regular basis. When they were introduced, it became the reason the Vortigaunts invaded Black Mesa in ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', as they were fleeing their conquered homeworld. Taking over Earth actually was an afternoons work for the Combine.
385* ''VideoGame/{{METAGAL}}'': General Creeper plans to do so with the help of her eight reprogrammed sisters.
386* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'': This is the (repeatedly) stated goal of Murray, the mighty demonic skull. Exactly ''how'' he is planning to do this, being a talking disembodied skull with a superiority complex, is slightly less apparent.
387* ''Franchise/BaldursGate'': Parodied with Tiax, an utterly unhinged gnome priest of Cyric, who claims his destiny is to rule the world. Appearing as a recruitable NPC in the first game, the sequel places him in an asylum from where Tiax claims that he ''already has'' taken over the world and now rules it all from inside his [[strike:little padded cell]] throne room.
388* ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'' is a RealTimeStrategy game where players take control of a wannabe overlord and set off to conquer the world with various criminal means.
389* ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsCovenant'': Parodied. When the {{Superboss}} Orobas appears he begins to spout off about his plans for world domination. At that point, however, Anastasia -- who by this point has seen a half-dozen different enemies say much the same things - steps forward and asks, "AndThenWhat?" When Orobas asks what she means, she demands to know what he's going to do with the world once he conquers it. Orobas stammers for a bit, and then mutters that he'll have to think about it... at which point Anastasia tells the party to just beat him down.
390* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'': Ocelot is trying to take over the world [[spoiler:to trick the heroes to into helping him freeing the world from its real secret rulers]].
391* Most strategy video games have this as an explicit or implicit victory condition.
392** Almost all FourX games give you victory when you conquer the world or the galaxy.
393** This is the explicit goal of most of the villainous factions (Nod, the Soviets, the Imperial Japanese, CABAL, etc.) in the various ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series. The good factions on the other hand (GDI, the Allies) more often than not strive for a return to status quo, seeing the defeat of their enemy as a way of preventing this trope, not to practice it themselves. Because their endings are usually canon this leaves the door open for another rematch in a sequel.
394** The campaigns from ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar: Dark Crusade'' and ''Soulstorm'' fulfill this. They end only when the player faction rules the planet or, in the latter, the solar system.
395** ''VideoGame/{{Syndicate}}'' ended with your MegaCorp conquering the entire world. In the sequel, they control the planet uncontested until the game starts.
396* Purple Tentacle in ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle'' wants to do this, after drinking some sludge-contaminated water. In fact, he ''succeeds'', as the human sent 200 years into the future, Laverne, can attest to. The objective is to travel to ''yesterday'' and prevent the water from being contaminated in the first place, as he's nigh unstoppable otherwise (somehow).
397* ''VideoGame/ThreadsOfFate'' has a main character example in Princess Mint. While Rue, the other main character, seeks to revive his sister, Princess Mint has but one goal in mind: World Domination, baby!
398* Kira "The Maiden who wants to take over the world" Daidohji of ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' has this as her goal even though she hasn't hit puberty yet. She's naturally against [[BigBad Mildred's]] plan, which would destroy the world that she's trying to conquer.
399* Your goal in ''VideoGame/{{Overlord}}''. Why? Because you're [[EvilOverlord THE OVERLORD]]!!
400* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'''s own BigBad, Dr. Weil. He ''succeeds'', too[[CrapsackWorld ...well, conquering what's left of it, anyway.]] This guy ruling the last gasp of humanity is NOT a very good thing...
401** Dr. Wily of the [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic original series]], though he wasn't as good at it.
402* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ArcTheLad'': the BigBad became the world's master [[spoiler:the spirits called him "The Ancient King of Humans" in Arc 2]] long before the game started: what he wanted was not control over mankind, but control over [[ExaggeratedTrope the whole planet's ecosystem]], and he almost succeeded [[spoiler: more than once, leaving the world crippled each time the heroes managed to seal him]]
403* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'': This is the goal of M. Bison.
404* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 6'' has this as the goal of Jin Kazama, previously TheHero of the series, who takes control of the Mishima Zaibatsu after winning the King of Iron Fist Tournament in the previous title, transforms it into an NGOSuperpower, and launches WorldWarIII to bring the world under his control. [[spoiler:[[{{Subverted}} ...or so it appears!]] In truth, he is trying to destroy the Mishima bloodline, which he considers the cause of the world's strife, and is using the resources of the Mishima Zaibatsu to achieve them.]]
405* The goal of ''Demon's Crest'' is to destroy Phalanax, the demon who conquered the world. There's a catch: your character is Firebrand, a Red Arremer from ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'', and he wants to kill Phalanax because ''he'' intends to conquer the world.
406* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
407** Hyrule is the center of the ''Zelda'' universe, so the whole world is screwed if Ganon takes over Hyrule.
408** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', Ganon's wish to the Triforce was to rule the world. The Triforce grants him that wish by transforming the Sacred Realm into the Dark World. Ganon is not satisfied by the results, and seeks to conquer the Light World (Hyrule) as well.
409** Demon King Malladus from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'' has the same plan, apparently, [[spoiler:until his revival is about to be undone and he decides that causing EarthShatteringKaboom works just as well.]] At least [[MagnificentBastard Ganon(dorf)]] was modest enough to limit himself to just Hyrule...
410 * In Creator/ParadoxInteractive games like the ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' series or the ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' series it's a challenge to take over the world before the time limit is reached. This is called a 'World Conquest' or WC in the community and is a common SelfImposedChallenge if attempted with a small, weak country.
411* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': Bowser is known for his tendency to take over the entire Mushroom Kingdom besides kidnapping Peach, but there are actually occasions where Bowser will actually expand his plans for world domination by actually [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy taking over]] [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 outer space!]]
412* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'': This is the stated objective of the various Campaign modes
413** World: Take over the entire world in a free-for-all between every sizable nation on Earth from the beginning of history up to the future.
414** Alexander: Take over the known world of ancient times as UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat.
415** Napoleon: Take over Europe, and hence the colonized world, as UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte.
416** New World: Take over the New World as either [[AmericaTakesOverTheWorld the Americans]], a European colonizer, or one of the Native nations.
417** Cold War: Take over the entire world as either the Americans or the Soviets.
418* The goal of Metal Command in ''VideoGame/{{Shatterhand}}''.
419* The whole point of ''VideoGame/PsychoWaluigi''. Oh no, it's not enough just to conquer kingdoms of worth, you must have it ALL! [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ynn8FG2h0 Even bathrooms!]]
420* The BigBad in ''VideoGame/ThePerilsOfAkumos'' plans to use his evil spiders to dictate terms to earth's government.
421* In the old ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' 'verse, this was surprisingly uncommon, with most would-be evil overlords aiming for ''continental'' domination instead. Kastore's faction of Terrans is an exception (they might have been able to pull it off, too, if they hadn't been hampered by lacking a key component to repairing the Heavenly Forge and the fact that the world blow up only a few years after they began phase one).
422* [[BigBad Bruno]] from ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}'' plans on reawakening and controlling an evil power to take over the world.
423* ''VideoGame/MugenSouls'': Chou Chou practically beats a lot of these people because her goal is to conquer ''seven worlds''! [[spoiler: And in the GoldenEnding, she plans on conquering ''the universe!'']]
424* [[CardCarryingVillain Lord Dearche]] of ''VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable: The Gears of Destiny'', after her minions convince her that her original goal of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying everything]] is meaningless, decides to change her goals to going to another world besides earth and establishing her rule there. [[spoiler:The ending and subsequent [[AudioAdaptation Sound Stages]] reveal that she succeeds with [[DeathWorld Eltria]], mainly because her idea of "conquering" the world involves [[NobleDemon fixing it first and raising the standard of living for everyone]]]].
425* This is the end goal of the Civilization Stage of ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', whether by buying out all of the cities in the world, converting all of the population to your religion, or good ol' fashion military strongarming.
426* In the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series, the Illuminati plan to do this with by gaining control over an advance A.I. to control everything. Interestingly enough, [[spoiler: you can do the same in two of the endings by either joining the Illuminati or merging with the said AI]].
427* This is the major goal of ''[[VideoGame/StreetPassMiiPlaza Warrior's Way]]''. Which looks rather weird considering you're using your own Mii avatar as the monarch trying to rule everything.
428* True to their [[KnightTemplar trope namesake]], the Templars in ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' have been waging a secret war with the Assassins for thousands of years with the goal of overthrowing the world and bringing an end to TheEvilsOfFreeWill.
429* In ''VideoGame/{{Robopon}}'', this is Dr. Zero's ultimate goal. He ''succeeds'' at this in the first game, but Cody makes sure his reign is short-lived. The second game elaborates that it formed from his childhood dreams and living up to his family name.
430* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
431** The games usually have Dr. Eggman trying to take over the world in some way or another. And by ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', [[TheBadGuyWins he actually]] ''[[TheBadGuyWins accomplishes]]'' [[TheBadGuyWins this goal]]!
432** In one of the Dark endings of ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', Shadow states that he plans to use the Chaos emeralds to conquer the universe.
433* In ''VideoGame/{{Nefarious}}'', this is the goal of the main character [[VillainProtagonist Crow]].
434* In the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' series, this is Dr. Cortex's goal.
435* The primary goal of ''VideoGame/EiyuuSenkiTheWorldConquest''--given it's even in the title--but for the purposes of having a united world against a common foe that's powerful enough to destroy them all.
436* Since ''VideoGame/{{Warlight}}'' is an [[IndieGame Indie]] Risk adaptation to browser and phone, its makes sense that the objective of any and all players is to literally take over the world (or [[EmergentGameplay not]]).
437* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'': Like in the anime, Team Rocket's goal is world domination. [[spoiler: Giovanni confirms this when you encounter him in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'' after bringing Celebi to the Ilex Shrine]].
438* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
439** Nearly every BigBad in the series is planning this in some fashion, though all have some [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal]] and/or [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch]] slants to their plans once the world is taken over.
440** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'' BigBad [[EvilSorcerer Jagar Tharn]] has, in a way, ''already succeeded'' with this at the start of the game. He has assumed the form of Emperor Uriel Septim VII and has been ruling in his stead for 10 years, driving the Empire into a steady decline. Later games reveal that Tharn was in league with Mehrunes Dagon, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[OmnicidalManiac Destruction]], all the long.
441** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'':
442*** [[BigBad Dagoth Ur]] is planning it in his own twisted way. Though he has a WellIntentionedExtremist slant to his plans, most denizens of Tamriel can agree that being taken over by an [[MadGod insane]] {{Plaguemaster}} PhysicalGod controlling a HumongousMecha powered by the heart of a dead god would not be a good thing. (And if some of the deeper, more esoteric lore is to be believed, he eventually plans to do this to ''all of reality'' by imprinting his mind on the "dream of [[GodOfGods Anu]]".)
443*** [[spoiler:Almalexia]] is planning this as well in the ''Tribunal'' expansion, though is starting with a more modest "take over Morrowind" plan. She plans to establish a monotheistic [[TheTheocracy theocracy]] with her as the supreme god, [[spoiler:killing her fellow Tribunes (Sotha Sil and Vivec) in the process, as well as martyring the [[PlayerCharacter Nerevarine]]]].
444** Mehrunes Dagon pops up once again in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' as the ManBehindTheMan to BigBad Mankar Camoran. Camoran, operating under the belief that Nirn is really just the Daedric plane of the [[GodIsDead dead creator god]] Lorkhan, plans to take it over after allowing Dagon in to destroy it in its current form.
445** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'':
446*** During the main quest, it is revealed that the legendary dragon Alduin, who is supposed to [[BeastOfTheApocalypse "eat" the world at the end of every kalpa]], enjoys being worshiped by the mortal races far more than he does fulfilling his duty. He started to take over the world thousands of years ago but was [[SealedEvilInACan cast into the stream of time]] by ancient Nords using the power of an [[TomeOfEldritchLore Elder Scroll]]. He returns during the time of the game, and it is up to the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]] to stop him this time.
447*** The plot of the ''Dawnguard'' DLC involves the vampire Lord Harkon attempting to fulfill an ancient prophecy of bringing eternal night to Nirn, making it ripe for domination by his vampire forces.
448** The main plot of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' revolves around Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of [[TheCorrupter Corruption]] and GodOfEvil extraordinaire, attempting a "Planemeld", merging his Daedric plane with Mundus, the mortal realm.
449* The goal of the Disney Villains in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series is to use the Heartless to take over their worlds, [[GalacticConqueror and all others]], even if it means [[OmnicidalManiac killing everyone else]].
450** In [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]], by the time Sora reaches [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Agrabah]], Jafar has already conquered all of Saudi Arabia, and is actively seeking both the Keyhole (to kill everyone and send the world into the Realm of Darkness) and Jasmine (because she's 1/7th of a LivingMacGuffin to bring TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt).
451* This is [[spoiler:Penelope's]] ultimate goal in ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime''. Her intent was to [[spoiler:extract Bentley's skills]] to create weapons to sell for billions, and then attack and conquer entire nations with the money and weapons, starting with [[spoiler:Sly and Murray, Bentley's two best friends]]. Needless to say, [[spoiler:Bentley cuts ties with Penelope for her greedy, jealous, and power-hungry nature, and she's now seeking to kill him out of anger]].
452* The main goal of the Cat Army in ''VideoGame/TheBattleCats'' is to take over the world so that they can go back to the past and free all of the cats stuck in the lands of legend. This is also exaggerated in that, aside from the world, they also conquer the future (which is overrun by aliens) and the entire universe (up to and ,somehow, including the Big Bang itself)
453* ''VideoGame/AtelierSophieTheAlchemistOfTheMysteriousBook'':
454** In the Latter Days [=DLC=], when [[spoiler:Meklet and Atomina]] tell Sophie that they're going to go on a trip and she asks about where they're going, they suggest that they might take over the world. They quickly admit that they're joking, though, as they know that Sophie would just defeat them again if they tried.
455** The story itself specifically [[AvertedTrope averts]] this, with the game's {{Tagline}} noting "It's not always about saving the world."
456* ''VideoGame/LittleKingsStory'': Howser, the titular king's advisor, says that his plan for the kingdom is "World Domination!"
457* In ''VideoGame/SpudsAdventure'', Waterman explains that Dodorian kidnapped Princess Mato in an attempt to take over the Vegetable Kingdom.
458* ''VideoGame/TerraInvicta'': This is the goal of three of the seven factions.
459** As a {{Cult}} who worship the alien invaders, the Servants will do everything possible to facilitate their invasion of Earth and ensure its success. If the Servants succeed in their goals, [[spoiler:Earth becomes a VoluntaryVassal to the Hydras' empire with humanity elevated to a position of relative privilege within the alien hierarchy.]]
460** The [[LesCollaborateurs Protectorate]], believing that any war against a much more advanced [=FTL=]-capable species would quickly lead to human extinction, have the goal of enforcing the submission of anti-alien resistance movements that might threaten the aliens and determining the best means of a dignified and conditional surrender that gives the aliens what they want while ensuring mankind's independence. [[spoiler:As they eventually fall into denial and authoritarianism in their quest to placate the invaders, their ending ultimately has them building a fleet of {{Kill Sat}}s in orbit and using them to nuke the UN in New York City, forcing all human nations to surrender and preventing further war at the cost of [[VichyEarth Earth becoming an alien puppet state]] that isn't allowed an independent military or space program.]]
461** The [[TheIlluminati Initiative]] are a loose confederation of corporate interest groups and government elites who want to [[LetNoCrisisGoToWaste take advantage of the chaos in the alien invasion]] to pull this off. [[spoiler:Later however they develop designs on overthrowing the ''alien's civilization'' as well as the established order on Earth. The end result is some shadowy conspiracy ruling both Earth and space like something out of ''VideoGame/DeusEx''.]]
462* ''VideoGame/TimeGal'': The plot revolves around a time bandit named Luda going through different time periods in order to make himself leader of the world in his own time.
463* Zeikfried's goal in ''VideoGame/WildArms1'' is to conquer Filgaia because he believes he's destined to be the ultimate ruler. Unfortunately for him, [[spoiler: [[OmnicidalManiac his mother]] has other plans.]]
464* In ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', TheEmperor of [[TheEmpire Nilfgaard]] Emhyr var Emreis was ANaziByAnyOtherName and pursued aggressive expansionist policies that led to him declaring war on the Northern Kingdoms with this in mind. [[spoiler:In the GoldenEnding, [[TheBadGuyWins he succeeds]] but abdicates the throne to his TheChosenOne daughter Ciri, fulfilling the prophecy and leaving the world in good hands.]]
465[[/folder]]
466
467[[folder:Web Animation]]
468* WebAnimation/TheMostEpicStoryEverToldInAllOfHumanHistory: [[BigBad Ridiculously Epic]] outright states this as the goal he just succeeded at during the start of the second episode. However, he probably ruined this by [[BondVillainStupidity telling everyone exactly how to take the world back from him]] during his EvilGloating.
469* ''WebVideo/JojosBizarreAdventureAbridged'': At the end of the OVA Abridged series, [[BigBad DIO]] after seemingly blowing up [[TheHero Jotaro]] notes that now that his 100 year battle with the Joestar bloodline is over with the heroes dead, all that's left is to do this, and he begins to unleash a ''chilling'' StoryboardingTheApocalypse capped off with an EvilLaugh. [[spoiler:And then he notices [[OhCrap he can't move like time is frozen]]...]]
470* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': [[Characters/RWBYAdamTaurus Adam Taurus]] seeks to start a war with humanity in order to ensure Faunus supremacy across Remnant, with presumably himself as their ruler, and have humanity become their slaves.
471[[/folder]]
472
473[[folder:Webcomics]]
474* ''Webcomic/MagIsa'' -- The main antagonists in this comic are demons. [[http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119592 Their agenda is to bring hell on earth and turn planet earth into a giant prison]]... all for the lulz.
475* Tony of ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics'', being the MadScientist that he is, does [[http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/020104.html set out]] to accomplish this goal for one story-line because, according to him, [[CardCarryingVillain that's what evil people are supposed to do.]] He manages to succeed in the end, even defeating a challenger to his reign, but relents when he starts to discover just how much work is involved.
476* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000515c featured Dr. Wily's attempts very early.]]
477** It was {{deconstructed|Trope}} the trope in a short-lived sub-comic ''Raw Lemons and Baked Pizza''. After having it up to here with Dr. Wily, Mega Man finally spells out just what taking over the world will require. Namely, having to sort out the already noticeable mess of differences between various nations, having to deal with the various uprisings, learning every language known to man just to communicate with them, getting people to accept his rule in the first place and the insane amounts of stress that would be implied. It ends on a nice humorous note as Dr. Wily, having clearly gone too insane to recover, laments that he already had a custom gold world-domination crown made.
478* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' this has happened... in another universe. By an alternate counterpart of Tedd.
479* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
480** Subverted with the {{mad scientist}} Baron Wulfenbach, who by the start of the story has ''already'' taken over the world with his [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040806 no-nonsense straightforward plan]]. It is then doubly subverted by the Baron hating being the ruler of Europe, but doing it anyways because he believes [[VetinariJobSecurity the world needs him]] (and it probably ''does''). Indeed, the Baron took over the world largely to stop everyone else from trying to do so and wrecking everything in the process. Because the comic takes place in a world full of {{mad scientist}}s, there's ''always'' at least a dozen factions trying to rule the world. Without the Baron stamping them down, the entire continent would probably be aflame with the burnt wreckage of a million war clanks. There are still major holdouts, but they prefer cooperation with the empire; England and her other sunken colonies are ruled by a [[GodEmperor Goddess-Queen]], and Paris is ruled by an immortal spark who has tied the city's AI to himself.
481** Yet it's played completely straight with many of the aforementioned people whom the Baron holds down. Chief among them [[BigBad the Other]], who just so happens to really be [[spoiler:Lucrezia Mongfish, the EvilMatriarch of our heroine Agatha and the PsychoExGirlfriend of Klaus]]. The Other's plan involves using {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s to make everyone in the world obey them. But as the story goes on, it's revealed that their plot has much more moving parts than anyone in the world had previously expected.
482* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'': Happens a number of times. Bun-Bun and K'Z'K have both tried to take over the main Sluggy universe (Bun-Bun actually succeeded, for all of ten minutes). The Dimension of Pain demons apparently took over their home dimension in order to make it "of Pain," and tried to do the same thing to the Dimension of Lame. This is also the long term goal of the Hereti Corporation and the K'Z'K cults that have sprung up following the Demon's death.
483* ''Webcomic/FriendlyHostility'': Collin, is a megalomaniac who has dreams of becoming a dictator to politically unstable third world countries. Several arcs have sprung from this desire.
484* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' used the subversion - in a plotline where it appeared that Herdthinners CEO R.L. had been eaten by bears, his even more ruthless wife, Angelique, took over the company and slowly replaced the normal employees with ones that suffered from domestication. Since domestication causes absolute loyalty, she planned on creating an army of them to eventually Take Over The World. After her husband returned alive and well, he reminded her of the headaches of trying to run the whole world and they agreed to just make gobs of money instead. But the last strip in the storyline did show her encouraging her children to play Risk and learn from it.
485* ''Webcomic/EvilInc'' is also an example -- When Evil Atom gives some perspective interns to Evil, INC his personal tryout, a lady proclaims "One day I will rule the world!" to which Evil Atom gives the "Whoa, think about that! You'll be responsible for ''everything''. Try again." The young lass replies "One day I will rent the world!"
486* ''Webcomic/DrNonami'': Mechano's goal is world conquest. So far it's not going very well.
487* [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world/ Deconstructed]] by ''Webcomic/{{Bug|Martini}}''.
488* ''Webcomic/{{Nukees}}'': This has been the stated goal of Gav since the beginning, but especially since Ma'at told him it was his destiny. As of August 2010, he seems to have succeeded, albeit in a way no one could have expected.
489* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''.
490** Xykon, though it is mostly out of boredom. And as he reveals later, more of a means to an end -- the end being "no one may tell me what to do, not even the gods of this world". If he's on the very top of the hierarchy, he gets ''true'' freedom.
491** Tarquin, more in spirit than the word. He is perfectly content to kick back and relax as his master plan slowly absorbs the rest of the continent into a completely secret dictatorship. Or in other words, he literally owns everything he sees, so in his own words, he has "lived like a god for over three decades."
492* According to [[CardCarryingVillain Rhea,]] in ''Webcomic/ToPreventWorldPeace'', "Born mages have a manifest destiny..." (To destroy all {{Magical Girl}}s and take over the world, presumably.)
493** Also, the main character was going to take over the world [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans for its own good.]] Because only magical girls could be trusted to be pure dictators, right?
494* Raichan in ''Webcomic/{{Vinigortonio}}'' needs to destroy one of the main character's building in order to conquer the world. Or at least so he says. [[spoiler: It turns out he needs to destroy it to get to the only known source of [[{{Unobtainium}} Raichanium]].]]
495* In ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'', both AntiHero CK ''and'' BigBad Zenith [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2009/01/25/groovy/ seem to have galactic]] [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2010/07/04/nothing-like-a-good-rant/ conquest on their agendas]]. Of course, CK's is [[AllJustADream limited to his dreams]].
496* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' Galatea tried to take over the Earth once, and then later tried to take over the interstellar empire that ''includes'' Earth. However, she's the "twisted ideals" sort of would-be conquerer, and both times Bob managed to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talk her down from it]] by appealing to her better nature. Deep down she's a nice girl. Really.
497[[/folder]]
498
499[[folder:Web Original]]
500* ''Literature/GreekNinja'': The villain's intentions are to control the world [[spoiler: to bring back the reign of the Olympians]].
501* ''WebVideo/AgamemnonTiberiusVacuum'': Agamemnon's hobby is "collecting the universe" and he wishes to add the Earth to his collection.
502* ''Literature/DimensionHeroes'': The Dark Overlords from the web fiction serial took over a dimension.
503* ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'': Precisely what the titular MadScientist protagonist tries to accomplish: take over the world, [[WellIntentionedExtremist change the Status Quo]], put power into different hands.... and impress the girl from the laundromat that [[ShrinkingViolet he has a crush on]].
504--> '''Dr. Horrible:''' (re: Johnny Snow, his self-proclaimed "nemesis") "Look, I'm just trying to change the world, ''okay''? I don't have time for a ''grudge match'' with every ''poser'' in a parka!"\
505"The world is a ''mess'', and I just need to rule it!"
506* ''WebOriginal/TheInnocent'': The children want to do this, as they dislike adult society and the authority adults have on them.
507* ''Music/DoctorSteel'': Dr. Steel for World Emperor!. Toward a Utopian Playland!
508* The basic goal of the ''WebVideo/NewVillainOrder''
509* Every BigBad in ''Literature/TheQuestportChronicles'' has this as a motivation, although for three different reasons: [[CastingAShadow The Master of Darkness]] wants to [[DarkWorld cover the entire world with darkness]]; the [[EldritchAbomination Prince of Shadows and Illusions]] just [[OmnicidalManiac wants to kill everyone]]. The [[NoNameGiven mysterious]] [[EvilSorcerer mage's]] motivations are never made clear.
510* ''Literature/SkippysList'' has examples:
511--> 203. "To conquer the earth with an army of flying monkeys" is a bad long term goal to give the re-enlistment NCO.
512* ''Website/ChannelAwesome'':
513** This trope is a running joke for WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic in his reviews. When the antagonist of any film is revealed to have this goal in mind the review will be interrupted by M. Bison as he was played by Raul Julia in [[Film/StreetFighter the movie adaptation of]] ''Franchise/StreetFighter''. The joke goes like this:
514--->'''Nostalgia Critic:''' His goal is to - you guessed it - take over the world.\
515'''M. Bison:''' Of course!\
516The line is completely out of context (it was actually in response to Sagat saying "Guile? Alive?"), but deliberately so as part of the Critic's motif of [[ReviewIronicEcho using clips and bytes in response to himself]].
517** Other members of the team at the time such as Paw Dugan and Linkara have adopted this gag for their own videos as well, effectively making it a RunningGag for the entire website.
518** [[WebVideo/TheDomReviews The Dom]] has a variation, effectively his own running gag: Every time he tries to set up the joke, either the clip misses the cue, or the wrong clip plays. Sometimes it's the right line, but the wrong movie, sometimes vise versa.
519--->'''The Dom''': He wants to, you guessed it, ''take over the world!''
520--->'''M. Bison''': [[ButForMeItWasTuesday It was Tuesday]].
521--->'''The Dom''': *{{Beat}}* I'm going to keep working on that.
522** In the website's second-year anniversary epic ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'', this is the Nostalgia Critic's plan, starting with the invasion of Molassia. [[spoiler: When he gets Molassia, he soons forgets this, becoming OrcusOnHisThrone]]. Receives an epic lampshading when the Critic actually dresses up as M. Bison when launching his attack [[spoiler:and subsequently taking over the place.]] Rollo T even tries to get him to recreate the clip in an interview, asking him if his plan is this as he's leaving (to get him to turn around and say it, as per the clip.)\
523This backfires; N. Bison only gives the line after being asked if he gets a lot of pussy with that outfit. Somewhat [[RuleOfFunny misplaced deliberately]] in the ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'' review. Zigzag is trying to take over ''the Golden City'', not the world. But Doug couldn't fit an Of Course in there if he had actually mentioned ''that''.
524* Landing on a red space during a ''LetsPlay/MarioPartyTV'' episode apparently signals that the character's plotting to do this, particularly if it leads to a 3-on-1 minigame.
525* This is the future aspirations of ''WebVideo/TheSharkasmCrew'''s Kason, Sauxuas and Vyzor with their game company. Subverted in that they mean no harm and only seek to revolutionize the gaming industry.
526* ''WebVideo/SMPEarth'': The Antarctic Empire's goal... which [[spoiler:they temporarily succeed in doing when Techno discovers he can exploit the faction claim plugin in order to claim without using faction power by claiming the perimeter, causing the game to treat everything inside that perimeter as part of the claim]].
527* On ''WebVideo/TheIrateGamer'', this is the main goal of the Evil Gamer and the Shadow Overlord.
528* In ''Fanfic/SonicExe Round 2'': X plans to one day cross over to our world and enslave us all.
529[[/folder]]
530
531[[folder:Western Animation]]
532* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'': Skeletor was always trying to take over Greyskull, and with that, the universe.
533* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' actually opens with Aku taking over the world in a far-off future, and stamping out any resistance. The entire thrust of the series was Jack trying to go back in time to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong stop it from happening.]]
534* Most of the villains (especially the recurring ones) in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''. To quote Shego:
535--> '''Shego''': Every villain needs an evil plot. Take Drakken. His plot? Yeah, always 'taking over the world.' ''Always''.
536** {{Irony}}: Ironically, Shego succeeded where Drakken had failed, thanks to the "Time Monkey", and made all the other villains (including Drakken) her minions.
537* The Brain of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain''. Every episode began with some inane plot to take over the world, only to fail. Brain then prepares for next time.
538** It's refutable whether [[AntiHero Brain]] is truly a villain, since he honestly believes the world would be better off with him in charge--he said as much in ''Megalomaniacs Anonymous''. Also notable is the lack of any regularly-appearing nemesis to thwart his schemes (unless you count [[BumblingSidekick Pinky]]); they generally crash and burn on their own.
539** On the other hand there's Snowball, Brain's archrival from the later series, who has all of the ambition and none of the morals or good intent.
540* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': The Fire Nation. It takes them a century to do it, but they eventually manage to either conquer, exterminate, or marginalize all their enemies. The only problem? They can't hold onto their global empire. There's too many rebellions across too much occupied territory for their army to effectively counter. Their solution to this problem [[spoiler: is to genocide the vast and populated Earth Kingdom]].
541* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': Amon and [[MugglePower the Equalists]]. Their stated goal is a world revolution against [[ElementalPowers benders of the four elements]], but they never manage to take control of more than a single city. There's little to suggest their ultimate goal was remotely plausible, given the lack of known appeal of their revolutionary ideology to foreigners, and the practical matter of their city-state being economically dwarfed by the rest of the world.
542* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in an episode of the ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': When the Kingpin announces he is planning to take over the world, Spidey retorts that he [[YouWatchTooMuchX sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.]]
543* On the very last episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'', Mojo Jojo manages to take over the world by stealing The Key To The World. At first he surprises everyone by creating the perfect utopia, but then [[VictoryIsBoring gets bored with it and resumes trying to destroy everything]]. Most of the episode consisted of every single villain than has ever appeared on ''The Powerpuff Girls'' (yes, even the Villains of the Week) fighting to the get the Key to the World. The girls try to stop them, but once they get the key they become mad with power and start planning what they would do if each of them ruled the world and start fighting for the key themselves.
544* Also {{lampshaded}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'': A [[ItsAWonderfulPlot Wonderful Life]] episode ("Shredderville") shows an AlternateUniverse where BigBad Shredder succeeded in taking over the world, only to find the actual job of ruling so difficult and boring that he begs the Turtles to relieve him of this responsibility.
545* The generally-assumed goal of the Legion of Doom on ''Challenge of the WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'', albeit it got a bit problematic in the execution. As has been pointed out elsewhere, when you've snagged ''all the money in the world'', exactly what do you spend it on?
546* On ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', most villains want to do it. According to Norm the Genie, [[HumansAreBastards most (or all) of humanity wants to]]. In fact, Crocker and Vicky succeeded in 2 of the movies, albeit Vicky only in a BadFuture.
547** On the episode where Timmy wishes for mind-reading powers, he finds out (yet makes no conscious effort or reaction) that Elmer's boil has a mind of its own... and is evil. Instances including the boil trying to convince Elmer to attack Timmy, whipping him to make sure no one suspects of him, and that his favorite flavored pie is "Take-over-the-world-berry!"
548* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
549** Parodied: Dr. Doofenshmirtz restricts all his evil schemes to "the ENTIRE Tri-State Area" for no obvious reason. An early episode even has him in front of a global map, seemingly about to announce that he'll take over the world, only to pull out a magnifying glass and finish with "Tri-State Area!" It's later explained that he believes taking over the world is too ambitious and he wants to start small, and when other villains plan to take over the world, he thinks they're crazy.
550** Lampshaded in "The Beak", when Dr. Doofenshmirtz makes a public announcement that he already ''has'' taken over the Tri-State area. The idea was that if he claimed this with enough conviction, [[BavarianFireDrill people would believe him, and treat him like their new]] EvilOverlord. [[IdiotBall Only Major Monogram and Carl were fooled]].
551** In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension'', Dr. Doofenschmirtz meets an AlternateSelf who actually [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome suceeded in taking over the Tri-State Area]], transforming it into a {{Dystopia}}, planning to do the same thing with Phineas and Ferb's home dimension too.
552* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleCrashDummies'': Junkman's plan, after he's picked up lunch.
553* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' BigBad Vlad only hinted that he had potential desires for the world as his current evil plans focused more on personal vendettas, but then Season Three came where it's revealed he wants it. Only one has ever succeeded in dominating the planet: [[AxCrazy Dark Danny]] in an [[BadFuture alternate future]], though that can be a case of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroying the planet]]. Pariah Dark gets special mention as well, since he took over the Ghost Zone (and Amity Park) before he was turned into SealedEvilInACan again.
554* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': This is Zim's goal right from the start, along with [[KillAllHumans destroying all humans.]]
555* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'': In "The Medusa Bug", the chaotic villainess Hexadecimal fabricates a viral bug that gradually converts all of Mainframe and its occupants to [[TakenForGranite stone]]. The only character that manages to avoid this fate is Bob, the Guardian, who eventually convinces Hexadecimal that while she may have perfect control over their world, life would be awfully dull with everyone frozen. And, really, the last thing Hex would want is predictability, so she terminates the bug and the system returns to normal.
556** The primary villain of the series, Megabyte, tries repeatedly to take over Mainframe, but never succeeds (though he does come close.)
557** [[TheBadGuyWins Actually Megabyte does succeed.]] It's just that by the time he does take over the city is in ruins and [[VictoryIsBoring there is nothing left]] [[PyrrhicVictory for him to rule.]]
558* In ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'', to spread her empire over the whole Atmos is Master Cyclonis' number one goal (and seeing as she is the latest in a royal family, the ambition seems to run InTheBlood). She's demonstrated some pretty impressive schemes to do so, but has always failed on behalf of [[YouMeddlingKids those meddling Storm Hawks]] and her [[SurroundedByIdiots bumbling minions]]. [[spoiler:Until the finale, where she uses the newly acquired crystal LostTechnology from the Far Side of Atmos to upgrade her soldiers, launch her biggest campaign, [[DarkestHour and ultimately defeat the Sky Knights and conquer Atmos]]. It's only barely that her empire toppled by the Storm Hawks and their remaining allies sneaking into her fortress and letting themselves by captured, freeing the Sky Knights, and engaging in one giant FinalBattle]].
559* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this in the episode that introduced the villain Moliarty.
560-->'''Darkwing:''' It's probably just another 'take-over-the-world' plot. We should be back by dinner.
561** In another episode, Honker gets controlled by an alien-hat PuppeteerParasite, who then announces his plan to take over the world via a TV broadcast. After the alien is defeated and Honker gets home, his dad, having only seen the broadcast, sympathetically says "Sorry the whole 'take over the world' thing didn't work out, Honk!"
562* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
563** It is implied that [[AmericaTakesOverTheWorld the United States has taken over the world]] sometime in the past and simply adopted the name "Earth". The "Earthican" Flag looks like the American flag just with the stars replaced with Earth. When Nixon is running for president of "Earth" in the year 3000, at first they say he can't run because "nobody can be president twice", implying that the government of Earth is a continuation of the American government.
564** CorruptCorporateExecutive Mom wants to take over the world, and uses mind control chips planted in every robot (which encompasses virtually all known technology in the future) to get it in "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E14MothersDay Mother's Day]]". This leads to the memorable line, "Go conquer Earth, you bastards!" This is inspired by the fact that Farnsworth dumped her, leading to the next one: "Hell hath no fury like the [[KillerRobot vast robot armies]] of a WomanScorned!"
565** Bender does it in a BadFuture shown in "[[Recap/FuturamaS7E3Decision3012 Decision 3012]]".
566* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'': The goal of every main villain. Three of the four actually ''do'' rule the earth for a few hours before they're stopped by the heroes of the show. [[spoiler: [[UnpopularPopularCharacter Jack]] [[HarmlessVillain Spicer]] rules the longest, for entire decades.]]
567* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', while [[BigBad Slade]] [[HiddenAgendaVillain rarely elaborates on his goals]] beyond what he's immediately after but this seems to be the desired end result, judging from "Aftershock II". Later, new BigBad [[GodOfEvil Trigon]] ''does'' take over the world- as a stepping stone to conquering ''the entire physical universe''.
568* Dolf in ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak''. Because of an innate fear of [[{{Pride}} being perceived as weak by others]], when he's still a child Dolf decides that one day he will simply rule over everyone and everything. Moreover, when he stages his coup he outright declares that he simply wants power for its own sake. A dream he has in the final episode reveals that despite many years having passed he still harbours this desire.
569* Many of Baron Silas Greenback's plots on ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' involved taking over the world.
570** Two other antagonists on the show had dreams of a personal global stake. Quark (a Scottish-speaking alien) claims to own a cosmic charter bequeathing Earth to him by a distant relative, while Mac the Fork (a Scottish-speaking snake) had stolen the blueprint for an Earth-shattering device.
571* The side story of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}'' episode "Happy Cake" has Sparks secretly building an army to take over the world.
572* In ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', there are numerous villains with this as their goal, from the draconic Demon Sorceror of Fire, Shendu, and his siblings, to the Oni generals, to Shendu's son, Drago.
573* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', "Magic Duel": After Twilight Sparkle proves that her amulet "from beyond the Everfree Forest" is more powerful than Trixie's Alicorn Amulet, Trixie steals it, switches amulets, and announces her plans to use its powers to take over all of Equestria. [[spoiler:Such a pity it's a complete fake.]]
574* In Max's audition video for ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Pahkitew Island'', he feels that being a contestant would be a great step towards world domination.
575* In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheSecretDoor'', Malucia plans to take over Zinnia while her parents are away.
576* This used to be one of Stewie's primary goals (the other being to kill his mother) in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', before his CharacterDevelopment.
577* In ''WesternAnimation/PoundPuppiesAndTheLegendOfBigPaw'', [=McNasty=] plans to use the Bone Of Scone, a bone that lets humans and dogs understand each other, to take over the world. Yeah. His plan doesn't really make sense.
578* Vilgax of the ''Franchise/{{Ben 10}}'' franchise wants to obtain the Omnitrix, mass produce it, and use its power to conquer the universe.
579* Dr. Gangrene's reason for creating killer tomatoes in ''WesternAnimation/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'' is to raise an army that allows him to take over the world.
580* Overlord's plan in ''WesternAnimation/SpiralZone'' is to conquer the world with spiral-shaped zones on Earth (thus the name of the show) that turn people into zombies.
581* Olaf from ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' has this as his goal in life. However, [[HarmlessVillain he's not very good at it]].
582* ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces2017'': "Cold Rush" features penguins trying to accelerate global warming to take over the world.
583* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', this is one of Hank Scorpio's obsessions according to his VillainSong (his #2 obsession is [[AffablyEvil his employees' health]]). By the end of his one episode, he has apparently succeeded in taking over the East Coast of the United States.
584* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017''. In Season 3, the vampire Carmilla, supported by three other vampiresses, wants to conquer large swaths of land to expand the vampires' territory. One season later, two of the vampiresses, Striga and Morana, found this to be a logistical nightmare: It takes them ages just to secure a small portion of the proposed conquest territory, and the humans' constant resistance means that the vampires will remain busy just trying to fight them off. [[spoiler:Realizing that Carmilla has only the ambition to rule without actually having any idea ''how to'', the two vampiresses choose to leave Carmilla and her lost cause.]]
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588->''[[Website/ChannelAwesome Of]] [[Film/StreetFighter COURSE!]]''

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