History Main / ScrewtherulesImakethem

Contrast ForgotICouldChangeTheRules (someone is empowered to change the rules, but forgets that power at first), and NotIllegalJustification (where an evil character legally can't be punished because what they're doing isn't illegal). In certain circumstances may necessitate HitThemInThePocketbook.

Contrast ForgotICouldChangeTheRules (someone is empowered to change the rules, but forgets that power at first). In certain circumstances may necessitate HitThemInThePocketbook.

* Another heroic example in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' with Leliana if she becomes the Divine. Compared to the other Divine potentials who both have good improvements but are afraid to challenge the status quo, Leliana has the most radical change, but those changes are to correct the biased, hypocritical, and corrupt practices of the Chantry after a decade of understanding ever since her HeelFaceTurn.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': General Bala-Amin points out that Commodore Tagon is in violation of his homeworld's laws on retired military personnel; taking a rank in a mercenary company in service to foreign power is considered treason. Commodore Tagon counters that he's the one who wrote the law, so he can rewrite it. On the next page, he elaborates that he decided the law was unenforceable when he got kidnapped by the mob and not only did his government not attempt a rescue as the law mandated but gave the mobsters a pass through his homeworld's TeleportInterdiction field.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', this is Walker's attitude toward his "rules". In his EstablishingCharacterMoment, he arrests Danny, THEN makes what Danny was doing at the time illegal.

*** First is concerning her love of cute things. Her businesses have a standing rule of "As long as you're cute, then you're hired, no questions asked." Hahari utilizes this to help Tama find part time work, though without telling her she owns the company Tama applies at and merely pointing her in its direction. She also happily signs off on any NonUniformUniform a student might wear provided it's cute enough, which is why Matsuri can wear an ElegantGothicLolita version of the middle school uniform.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' overlaps this with DiplomaticImpunity. The World Nobles use their position as descendants of the Twenty Kings who originally founded the (highly corrupt) World Government to do as they please whenever and wherever they go, and ''anyone'' who tries to interfere with or touch them in anyway [[DisproportionateRetribution will face the power]] of an [[PersonOfMassDestruction Admiral]]. They're even allowed to shoot people in broad daylight without punishment.

* ''Fanfic/MeanRabbit'': Despite Izuku performing well in the physical aspects of his Quirk Assessment Test, Aizawa still declares that he placed last and is expelled purely because [[FantasticRacism he's Quirkless]]. When he challenges this and successfully beats the five other lowest-scored students in a rematch, Aizawa responds by temporarily expelling all five of ''them'' instead. Once the 'logical ruse' is exposed the following day in class, Aizawa insists that he's got every right to [[SadistTeacher treat his pupils like shit]].

%%-->'''Lost''': It may be spontaneous and random decision making, but I honestly couldn't resist. This is my story, and I say Seal is coming along for the ride. So take that, common sense! I scoff at your restrictions! *Scoffs*

* When Jasmine can't marry Aladdin in the [[Film/Aladdin2019 2019 live action remake]], the Sultan abdicates, putting Jasmine in charge and says she can't break the law, but she can ''change'' it and make it a thing of the past.

* Councillor Dupont from ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'', the former leader "Father" [[spoiler: died and Dupont has been pretending to be him ever since and just started making up any old laws he pleased. He's also a "sense offender", breaking one of the major laws their society was built upon, one he enforces as severely as possible putting people to death without trial while ignoring it himself.]] Commentaries from the movie's makers says they see belief in exemption from their own oppressive rules is a mark of a despot.

* General Deveraux in ''Film/TheSiege'' plays it straight, bellowing "I ''AM'' the law! Right here, right now, I am the law!" at Denzel Washington when he tries to arrest him for murder, which was not covered under the martial law he had been tasked with. It's worth pointing out the Willis' General had actually protested against being given authority under martial law as being a bad idea in the first place, although it appears his perception and self-assessment disappeared once he was given it. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Alternatively]], it could be seen as BriarPatching, that he was against it simply so that he would be in charge of it once it was approved anyway.

* [[MemeticMutation Famously]] uttered by [[BigBad Palpatine]] in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. Mace Windu confronts Chancellor Palpatine in his office in order to arrest him for being a Sith Lord and tells him that the Senate will decide his fate, to which Palpatine replies, "I ''AM'' THE SENATE.", in a low and intimidating voice. Palpatine, now revealed as Darth Sidious, kills three of the Jedi's best swordsmen (under Yoda, Anakin, Windu and Obi-Wan of course, but still celebrated swordsmen) in mere seconds and is climactically "defeated" by Windu in time for Anakin to arrive and "save" him. [[FaceHeelTurn Darth Vader]] is born and Palpatine's plan to kill the Jedi is validated by the Senate under the pretense that the Jedi tried to assassinate him. Because the Senate granted him emergency powers, his boast is one he is quite within his legal rights to carry out. The Republic had already become a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny before he renamed it to TheEmpire.
* ''Film/{{Timbuktu}}'': One particularly gross jihadist ask a girl's mother if he can marry the girl. When the mother says no, he says he'll come back "in a bad way", and he later takes the girl by force. When the imam goes to the jihadists and explains how this is a violation of custom -- taking the girl without her consent or her mother's consent, without even bothering to ask her male guardian -- the jihadists give a long winded explanation that basically boils down to 1) they're in charge, 2) the man is "pious" and so deserves a wife, and 3) they decide what's holy and lawful, so tough luck.

--> '''Greg Davies:''' Welcome to the Taskmaster series six grand finale! Nine weeks of task bedlam are behind us and the competitors have been ravaged by the challenges they've completed along the way! Sure I've judged these people harshly, and sure I've made some terrible and grossly unfair decisions, but ''that is my right!''

* Implied in a joke involving a particularly unpopular village head: One day, while he was walking around the village at night, a young man bumped into him, and claimed that he couldn't see him because it was too dark. The next day the head passed a rule saying everyone walking on the streets at night must carry a lantern. That night, the same man bumped into him again, and showed the lantern to the annoyed village head and pointed out that [[LoopholeAbuse there is no rule that the lantern should have a candle]]. The village head made an ObviousRulePatch the next day, saying that the lantern must also have a candle. That night, the man bumped into him again, and this time the loophole was that the rule doesn't say the candle has to be lit. The embarrassed head cancelled the rule on the following day. At no point in the joke does the village head consider carrying a candle himself.

* Subverted in Creator/LEModesittJR's ''Literature/TheCoreanChronicles''. When Mykel's wastrel brother Venicet shows up in Tempre and expects to be given a cushy court position just because he's the brother of the newly declared Lord Protector, Mykel flat out tells him that he couldn't provide his brother with a steady income unless he was willing to take a steady job, as this was the rule he had laid down for everyone else, and as ruler he couldn't decree one thing and do something else. Then he gave his brother what pocket change he had on him and showed him the door.
* In ''Literature/TheCroning'', the main character Donald "Don" Miller is trying to find his wife, Michelle, after she disappears on him during a vacation in Mexico after receiving a mysterious phone call from an old friend. Don is recommended to seek out the services of two somewhat unhinged guys named Kinder and Ramirez, supposedly two retired cops who are good at finding missing people. Instead of going searching for Michelle, Kinder and Ramirez instead takes him out drinking at a rather shady cantina, during which they admit that they already have a pretty good idea of where Michelle is, since they have been keeping taps on her since ever she entered Mexico. Based on this Don quickly figures out that they aren't just a couple of retired cops, but something much higher up in the social pecking order. Kinder admits as much, explaining that they are actually members of Mexican Federal Intelligence and Ramirez then proceeds to namecheck the trope.

* In the ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' works, Edmund Loris ''was'' Archbishop of Valoret and Primate of All Gwynedd, but in the aftermath of the schism in ''High Deryni'', he was stripped of his office and imprisoned in a monastery. On his escape, he simply takes up where he left off, calling himself Primate when he first confronts Istelyn and takes him prisoner in ''The Bishop's Heir''. So far as he's concerned, Cardiel, Arilan, Istelyn and the rest are the traitors to the Church, and he Loris is the only one who can bestow that label. (Naturally, Istelyn doesn't agree; in a subsequent argument after [[spoiler: Dhugal's escape with Sidana and Llewell's capture by Kelson's forces]], Istelyn reminds Loris that the bishops deprived him of his office and its authority.) When the new Primate Archbishop Bradene sends a writ of excommunication against Loris, Judhael, Caitrin, and their followers, Loris claims it has no force. In response to this, Loris strips Istelyn of his office as priest and excommunicates him (on the basis of his old authority) expressly so Istelyn can be executed (hanged, drawn and quartered) as a traitor.

* In ''Literature/AFoxsTale'', [[BigBad Lord Drake]] demands that all people with "talents" (e.g. manipulating elements or shapeshifting) [[MutantDraftBoard be registered, apparently so he can make an army out of them]]. Conveniently enough, Lord Drake doesn't register himself despite being a spiritkin, a talent and an arcane mage. Lampshaded by Jona, when, after Ember mentions this information, he asks, "Of course not, who makes laws and then follows them himself?"

** The Ministry of Magic misrepresent their powers multiple times by threatening Harry with punishment they have no authority to carry out. First in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' when a house-elf casts a spell in the Dursley residence in the presence of muggles, they send Harry a letter informing him that he has broken the law and that further infringement may lead to expulsion from Hogwarts (in reality the Ministry doesn't have the legal authority to suspend Hogwarts students). In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', after Harry has used magic to defend the lives of himself and his cousin, the Ministry sends him a letter stating that he has in fact been suspended from Hogwarts and that a ministry official would arrive soon to destroy his wand (which they don't have the authority to do either, at least not without a trial). They might have carried out their threat if Dumbledore hadn't been on the ball. However, even after Dumbledore had reminded the Minister of Magic of the law, the Ministry still maintained in their follow-up letter to Harry that he should "consider himself suspended from school pending further enquiries."
** Arthur Weasley did this with his enchanted car. Enchanting muggle items to do things other than what they were originally designed for is illegal. For example, enchanting the car to be BiggerOnTheInside is legal since it was designed to carry passengers and cargo in the first place. But enchanting it to fly is illegal, since cars are obviously not intended to do that. But the law in question was written by the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office...Arthur Weasley. He wrote the law so that such enchantments would be allowed if he didn't intend to actually use them. Thus creating a loophole that allowed him to enchant his car with abilities he saw fit, apparently [[ItAmusedMe because it amused him]].

* When his friend wants to marry a slave in "By This Axe I Rule", ''Literature/{{Kull}}'' is told he can't change the laws because they've been set in stone for thousands of years. At the end of the story, he decides they can get married and anybody who doesn't like it is welcome to try and take his crown off him.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': A benevolent example shows up when Deepscan is approached on conducting industrial espionage on a Internet firm run by Wolfram & Hart. Kennedy points out they cannot become involved, however since she runs Deepscan goes ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight and does so anyway.
* ''Series/DeusSalveORei'': Played for laughs when Prince Rodolfo makes an anti-adultery law in an attempt at making himself relevant, specifically seeking to punish the cheater's lovers. He then revokes the law the moment it looks like [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he might be punished himself]], since he is a womanizer that sleeps with any beautiful woman that catches his fancy.

* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': Gilead is based upon an extremely harsh form of Christianity and everyone is expected to remain pure and virtuous, [[spoiler: but several of the Commanders blatantly flout the rules by indulging in banned pastimes, having illicit relations with their Handmaids and attending an elaborate, if tacky, brothel.]]

''I won every medal that was op for grabs''\\

* ''Series/JoanOfArc'': When conferring a singular honor on the titular heroine, King Charles VII remarks on the seemingly strange idea that birth and lineage are often held up as more important than a person's character, but as king he is able to ignore that convention and thus award Joan the honor due her loyalty and service.
** Realistically speaking, it's doubtful that a 15th century French monarch would have said any such thing; the Fedual system -- which divided society into a rigid class structure -- was still very much alive at the time, and elements of it persisted up until the French Revolution in the 18th century.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': "The Bank Shot Job" in the first season centers around a corrupt small town judge who totally believes this trope will save him. The opposite happens.

** The reason why and how Myth/KingArthur marries Guinevere. The fact that she's a servant girl in this version is only brought up a couple times, and poses virtually no obstacle for Arthur. He wants to marry this woman, so he does. No arguments.

** A running theme in pro wrestling is the claim that no one, not even the owner, can override a referee's decision. This is countered by the fact that the owner or [=GM=] ''can'' change the rules of the match, even retroactively. So the referee's ruling of a disqualification, for example, isn't overridden, it's just that it no longer matters because it just retroactively became a no disqualification match.
** It should be noted that while Wrestling/MickFoley was Commissioner in 2000, he would overrule the referee's decision in two different pay per view main events without actually changing the rules, both times causing Wrestling/ChrisBenoit to lose out on winning the heavyweight title, once because Foley never saw Wrestling/TheRock actually cause a disqualification (the referee was groggy and thought Rock had hit him with a chair and the title was allowed to change hands on a disqualification) and the other time because Wrestling/TheUndertaker had his foot on the rope and the groggy referee didn't notice it. Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon, who was managing Benoit at the time, would point out the running theme that authority figures [[LampshadeHanging weren't allowed to override a referee's decision]], but the outcome remained the same anyway.

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Asmodeus, Prince of the Game, personifies law as arbitrary declarations that are followed purely because a higher power says to rather than for any good reason -- rules of a game, rather then moral obligations.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' makes a particular effort to encourage this attitude. Game Masters are encouraged (if the need arises) to roll the dice in plain view of all the players and ''deliberately ignore the results'' just to [[{{Anvilicious}} hammer the point home]]. This happens a lot in-universe too. Ultraviolet clearance clones are assumed to not only be above suspicion by the Computer, but also be the people who program the Computer and tell it what to think. (They've installed automatic safeguards against blatant "all the other Ultraviolets are traitors" programs, but that's about it.)

** Inquisitors are supposed to uphold the Imperial credo, hunt down daemons and aliens, and eliminate heretics. Does this stop many of them from happily and repeatedly violating said Imperial credo, summoning daemons and using alien technology, and turning to Chaos to further their own agenda? No. No it does not. Fortunately, Inquisitors who go rogue tend to get hunted down and killed by other Inquisitors.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': Malekith, the Witch King of Naggaroth, frequently makes laws, customs and rules for his Dark Elf subjects that he flaunts himself (such as his ban on male sorcerers, and for a long time his proclamation that nobody else be allowed to ride in a chariot). His mother Morathi has a similarly dismissive approach to following her own rules (as with her treatment of the Cults of Pleasure, which she outlawed, despite being a High Priestess of herself). To all the other Dark Elves their behaviour is a clear case of this trope, though Malekith and Morathi think it's a justified perk of being in charge. Whether Malekith and Morathi really do have the constitutional authority to behave in this fashion is a vexed question, given that "constitutional authority" to Dark Elves means "power to exercise one's tyrannical wishes when one wants".

* Another heroic example in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' with Leliana if she becomes the Divine. Compared to the other Divine potentials who both have good improvements but afraid to challenge the status quo, Leliana has the most radical change, but those changes are to correct the biased, hypocritical, and corrupt practices of the Chantry after a decade of understanding ever since her HeelFaceTurn.

** There's also Auden Avidius, a Imperial Watch Captain that is using his position to extort money from a few people, and if you call him out on it he'll put a 1000 gold bounty on your head. Getting Avidius arrested is one of the quests in the game, though this will lead to him breaking out of jail and attacking you.

* In ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', when the Lieutenant Carter Blake breaks the door of the apartment owned by a suspect and the FBI agent Norman Jayden tells him that's a crime.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'': When the Red Queen puts Alice on trial for trying to steal her heart, Sora gathers evidence that proves the real culprits are the Heartless and Alice is innocent. When he presents it, the Queen angrilly orders her guards to attack anyway, saying that one of her laws is that anyone who defies the queen is automatically guilty. This is ''after'' she already gave Sora permission to find the culprit.

* A rare positive example, courtesy of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 3'', when the head of the SAS [[spoiler: [=Captain MacMillan=]]] goes outside of the law to help Captain Price and Soap, because no one will can tell him that he can't, because he's head of the SAS.

* In ''VideoGame/NeoTheWorldEndsWithYou'', Game Master Shiba flagrantly abuses his authority as overseer of the games by [[spoiler:also being in charge of the Ruinbringers, the dominant team in the Reaper's Game, rigging the game so that the Ruinbringers always come out on top. While the victorious team has the right to come back to life, the Ruinbringers have always chosen to stay and continue playing, meaning that no one has come back to life after dozens of the games.]]

--> '''Boss Leader''': ...Look, kid, my first names is ''Boss'' and my last name is ''Leader''. Rules only apply to me when they're looking for JOBS, 'cause I MAKE or BREAK the rules. SON.
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': General Bala-Amin points out that Commodore Tagon is in violation of his homeworld's laws on retired military personnel; taking a rank in a mercenary company in service to foreign power is considered treason. Commodore Tagon counters that he's the one who wrote the law, so he can rewrite it. On the next page he elaborates that he decided the law was unenforceable when he got kidnapped by the mob and not only did his government not attempt a rescue as the law mandated but gave the mobsters a pass through his homeworld's TeleportInterdiction field.

* In ''Literature/RedsARevolutionaryTimeline'', a more unified socialist Worker's Party wins the 1932 election by a landslide. Essentially the knee-jerk reaction of the capitalist elite and conversative politicians, lead by First Secretary Nicholas Longworth, is this trope mixed with ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney. Longworth manages to recruit the ardent anti-Communist General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur to his side. Together, they manage to pressure President UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover into declare the whole election void and suspend the Constitution. Following this, Longworth heads a mass arrest of the leadership of the Worker's Party, while [=MacArthur=] gathers a group of soldiers loyal to him and have them carry out the very public assassination of Socialist President-elect Norman Thomas. They learn very quickly that no, they ''don't'' make the rules ''anymore'', and their actions results in the very revolution they were scaremongering about to justify their actions.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', this is Walker's attitude with his "rules". In his EstablishingCharacterMoment, he arrests Danny, THEN makes what Danny was doing at the time illegal.

Cant touch me!\\

** In the episode "Cool Hand Peter," Peter, Cleveland, Joe, and Quagmire run afoul of the SmallTownTyrant Sheriff Nichols in Georgia who acts this way. First, he accuses them of having a taillight and turn signal out, and then smashes both of them himself. When Joe shows him his police badge, Nichols promptly disposes of it before deliberately planting a bag of marijuana in the trunk and sending them to prison for two weeks, which he somehow manages to extend to thirty days. When the boys escape, the sheriff and his deputies chase them all the way to Quahog, but Joe anticipates this and places a call to the Quahog cops, who surround Nichols and his crew. Joe quickly gets in a little revenge by smashing up Nichols' car and then shoots him in the leg, before telling him that just because he's a cop doesn't mean that he can do whatever he wants and forcing him out of Quahog.

** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': At the end of "School Daze", when Twilight Sparkle needs to get EEA approval to open her school and fails in part due to the guy doing the approving being [[FantasticRacism a racist jerk]] and in part due to [[StrawmanHasAPoint the school having some safety and quality concerns]]. She ultimately decides to just open the school anyway, in spite of the rule that even a princess can't go against the EEA's decision, knowing full-well nobody is willing or able to actually ''enforce'' the rule and prevent her from making up a new one on the spot that allows the school to open:

* Mayor Quimby in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' invokes this trope on a regular basis. He makes little or no attempt to hide his corrupt dealings, and seems convinced that he can get away with anything since "he cannot be removed from office [[spoiler: except by a recall election]]". Any sane town would have kicked him out (and jailed him) long ago, but the people of Springfield somehow re-elect him every term.

** More conventionally, Moralo Eval sets up an elaborate challenge for a bunch of bounty hunters recruited by Dooku. Obi-Wan, disguised as bounty hunter Rako Hardeen, keeps screwing up his death traps by teaching the participants to get around them with a higher survival rate than he wants. Fed up, he sets up a sniper challenge (Hardeen's specialty). Obi-Wan's force-guided reflexes are ably to easily pass it... were it not for the fact that Eval only gave his rifle enough charge to shoot four of the five required targets (a fact he doesn't mention until Hardeen fails). Cad Bane saves Hardeen, since he considers such flagrant cheating unsporting.

** Real World Example: During the U.S. finale of ''Revenge of the Island'', the voting polls were open to decide the winner of the season (Zoey, Lightning, or Cameron). When the finale aired in the U.S., the network ignored the votes, and decided to go with Lightning as the winner, even though Cameron was in the lead in the polls and won in literally ''every'' other country that had aired the show up to that point (as of May 2016, Lightning has also won in the Philippines).

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': When Light becomes fully aware of Ryuk and the Death Note again after his MemoryGambit, and remembers that he asked Ryuk to put a couple of fake rules on the Death Note (which L must then assume to be real), he goes into a little mental rant about how he is basically a god because he can change the rules like that. It's no longer clear how fully he recognizes that he ''didn't'' change the rules.

* [[MemeticMutation Famously]] uttered by [[BigBad Palpatine]] in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. Mace Windu confronts Chancellor Palpatine in his office in order to arrest him for being a Sith Lord and tells him that the Senate will decide his fate, to which Palpatine replies, "I AM THE SENATE.", in a low and intimidating voice. Palpatine, now revealed as Darth Sidious, kills three of the Jedi's best swordsmen (under Yoda, Anakin, Windu and Obi-Wan of course, but still celebrated swordsmen) in mere seconds and is climactically "defeated" by Windu in time for Anakin to arrive and "save" him. [[FaceHeelTurn Darth Vader]] is born and Palpatine's plan to kill the Jedi is validated by the Senate under the pretense that the Jedi tried to assassinate him. Because the Senate granted him emergency powers, his boast is one he is quite within his legal rights to carry out. The Republic had already become a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny before he renamed it to TheEmpire.
-->'''Darth Sidious''': I will make it legal.

* ''Film/{{Partygate}}: When Grace starts feeling very uncomfortable with the disconnect between the Downing Street office parties and the country's COVID-19 lockdown rules, Annabel directly tells her that it's not necessary or practical for Downing Street's government staff to follow their own rules.

* ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome'':
-->'''Aunty Entity''': You think I don't know the law? Wasn't it ''me'' who wrote it?
** Averted however as the plot is set off because Aunty Entity WON'T break her own Law.

Contrast ForgotICouldChangeTheRules (someone is empowered to change the rules, but forgets that power at first).

* When Jasmine can't marry Aladdin in the [[Film/Aladdin2019 2019 live action remake]], the Sultan abdicates, putting Jasmine in charge and says Screw The Rules, You Make Them.

%% Image removed per Iamge Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16848852760.58807300
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a replacement.

* In ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', the dictator pig Napoleon rewrites the original constitution of Animal Farm multiple times to make his actions legal (since most animals are dumber than pigs, they didn't realise the secret rewritings). Eventually all the laws on equality and freedoms are reduced to one, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

** Subverted with Hahari Hanazono. As much as she will shamelessly abuse ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, she tends to be considerate in the actual exercise of her authority. Case in point: Her first action upon joining Rentarou's Family was to buy his school and make herself its chairwoman. As chairwoman, however, she is careful to avoid abusing her power, such as declining to directly intervene in preserving Iku's baseball club to avoid showing favoritism or Miss Naddy's issues with a senior teacher because she knows Naddy herself wouldn't want that. She will still help when able, such as being part of Iku's team when she has to play a game with another school, or joining the rest of the family to appeal to the senior teacher directly.
** The one exception where Hahari plays the trope straight is concerning her love of cute things. Her businesses have a standing rule of "As long as you're cute, then you're hired, no questions asked." Hahari utilizes this to help Tama find part time work, though without telling her she owns the company Tama applies at and merely pointing her in its direction. She also happily signs off on any NonUniformUniform a student might wear provided it's cute enough, which is why Matsuri can wear an ElegantGothicLolita version of the middle school uniform.

** Subverted with Hahari Hanazono. As much as she will shamelessly abuse ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, she tends to be considerate in the actual exercise of her authority. Case in point: Her first action upon joining Rentarou's family was to buy his school and make herself its chairwoman. As chairwoman, however, she is careful to avoid abusing her power such as declining to directly intervene in preserving Iku's baseball club to avoid showing favoritism or Miss Naddy's issues with a senior teacher because she knows Naddy herself wouldn't want that. She will still help when able, such as being part of Iku's team when she has to play a game with another school, or joining the rest of the family to appeal to the senior teacher directly.
** The one exception where Hahari plays the trope straight is concerning her love of cute things. Her businesses have a standing rule of "As long as you're cute, then you're hired, no questions asked." Hahari utilizes this to help Tama find part time work, though without telling Tama she owns the company Tama applies at and merely pointing her in its direction. She also happily signs off on any NonUniformUniform a student might wear provided its cute enough. This is why Matsuri can wear an ElegantGothicLolita version of the middle school uniform.

* Gold Watch from Manga/{{Ouroboros}}: “The ones who can effortlessly crush that tiny life of yours should be the police too, right?”

* This is more or less the shtick of the Grandmaster, from ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' and ComicBook/ContestOfChampions1982'', as well as [[spoiler:The Maestro]] who usurps the Grandmaster in ''ComicBook/ContestOfChampions2015''.

** At the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars The Waters of Mars]]", the Doctor (who up until this point has refused to save some humans whose deaths are part of history) breaks down and realizes that since ''he'' is [[LastOfHisKind last of the Time Lords]], this trope applies to him: "''Do you know who that leaves? ME! It's taken me all these years to realize it, but all those laws of time are mine. '''And they will obey ME!''' ''". It... doesn't [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone end very well]] -- [[InSpiteOfANail time is more resilient]] than he realizes, and [[spoiler:the woman he rescues commits suicide moments thereafter]], preserving the integrity of history and sending the Doctor into a HeroicBSOD over his arrogance. It's actually rather interesting to realize that in fact, he is [[IronicEcho virtually repeating]], verbatim, what a [[TheMaster certain friend of his]] has been saying for quite a while now....

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': Subverted with Hahari Hanazono. As much as she will shamelessly abuse ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, she tends to be considerate in the actual exercise of her authority. Case in point: Her first action upon joining Rentarou's family was to buy his school and make herself its chairwoman. As chairwoman, however, she is careful to avoid abusing her power such as declining to directly intervene in preserving Iku's baseball club to avoid showing favoritism or Miss Naddy's issues with a senior teacher because she knows Naddy herself wouldn't want that. She will still help when able, such as being part of Iku's team when she has to play a game with another school, or joining the rest of the family to appeal to the senior teacher directly.