Take Over The World - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): World Domination

We are so close!

Pinky: Gee, Brain, what you wanna do tonight?

The Brain: Same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!
— Pinky And The Brain

World Domination™! Ambitious and more logical than destroying the world, as Evil Plans go. They want to be in charge of everything and everyone. This could be just to feed their massive egos, or else they've got somewhat twisted ideals that they want everyone else to adhere to. Either way, it puts them in direct conflict with the heroes, whether professional or "I just want everything to go back to normal" types. Usually said villain fixates on the hero or someone/thing close to them as being part of their master plan. See Evil Plan. For a villain who has finally acquired godlike power, and did not Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence, then this is the next logical goal and use for said power. If it involves both destroying the world to rule it, it's because Utopia Justifies The Means. Or they are just dicks.

Villains who want this will occasionally combat other villains who want to destroy the world, and sometimes, just sometimes, team up with the heroes to do it. Afterall, you 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.

This trope is sometimes subverted when the villain actually succeeds, and it turns out that ruling the world isn't nearly as gratifying as they thought it would be — exactly what does one do with the world once one has it, after all? 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.

The reverse is if they did it with Mass Hypnosis to get rid of The Evils Of Free Will, then it'll be considerably easier to rule... and so dreadfully boring they undo the whole thing just to have someone to talk to.

The 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.

For more information, check out the Evil Overlord List, a detailed guide on what should an evil overlord do and not do. Typically, this is accomplished with Stock Evil Overlord Tactics.