Omnicidal Maniacs in live-action TV.
- 12 Monkeys: The Army of the 12 Monkeys are the ones who release the virus that kills most of humanity, but Season 2 reveals that this was not their endgame. In fact, they were working to ensure that time travel would be created to try and stop them, so that their Warrior Monk assassins, the Messengers, could seize control of the time machine. All so that they can go back and kill "Primaries" (the people who serve as Cosmic Keystones keeping time running) with paradoxes, in order to collapse time, in the belief that this will end death.
- In Angel, there's the Senior Partners of Wolfram and Hart. While the Partners have grown powerful by feeding on humanity's potential for evil, they ultimately want to bring about the Apocalypse. They keep Angel around because he is destined to play a part in it, and they want to make sure it's on the side of evil.
- Babylon 5:
- The Shadows seem like this at first, but the reality turns out to be a bit murkier.
- The Thirdspace Aliens from Thirdspace, evil telepathic creatures powerful enough to frighten the damn Vorlons, are described as "anti-life itself", bent on destroying everything in both their universe and our universe.
- The Cylon Cavil in Battlestar Galactica (2003) is practically one of these. He's tried to kill off all of humanity by destroying Twelve Colonies (with an over 99.9% success rate) and most of his own race (five out of eight models, succeeding with at least one of them).
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Angelus and Drusilla in the season two finale. This actually forces Spike (who was years away from his chip, and further away from turning good for real) to work with Buffy to stop them.
- Willow in the series six finale, once she decides the world's just not worth living in.
- Glory doesn't seem to care that the activation of the Key will irreversibly fuck up everything, possibly because she can survive (or thinks she can survive) the chaos that would descend upon all universes. Being a Hell God of primordial chaos who was so powerful, evil, and destructive that her peers in the Hell God business pulled an Enemy Mine to depose her probably helps too.
- Adam, the main antagonist of Dark (2017) (who is revealed to be an aged, heavily scarred version of the series' protagonist, Jonas), spent decades trying to break the Stable Time Loop in which the series is set, but ultimately lost all hope and decided that the only way to put an end to the never-ending cycle of misery is to destroy time itself, and with it, all of existence. Although he has no qualms about killing and manipulating his own friends, family members, and even his younger self to achieve this end, he takes no pleasure in it and only does so because he sees no alternative. Once he realizes that his plan was always doomed to fail and is made aware of a way to restore the timeline to its original state, he immediately changes his mind.
- Doctor Who has plenty of these:
- The Daleks, omnicidal mutants in tanks who are the Doctor's collective archenemy. Their entire purpose for being is to eliminate everything in the universe, and on occasion the multiverse, that is "non-Dalek" on the basis of their own supposed genetic superiority.
- The Daleks' creator, Davros, never quite attempted this in the classic series, but remarked that he would do it if he had the power — simply because he could. When he reappears in the revival episodes "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End", this pretty much sums up why he tries to destroy all of reality — because he can. It should be noted that, though he will survive along with the Daleks, he still overlooks that they'll eventually kill him too once the bomb has done its job. (Later on, he comes to accept it with a twisted "boys will be boys" fondness.)
- Sutekh from "Pyramids of Mars", who wants to destroy all life in the universe, for fear that a lifeform might evolve that would one day be powerful enough to challenge him.Sutekh: I am Sutekh the Destroyer. Where I tread, I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good.
- "City of Death": Scaroth is well aware of the consequences of his plan succeeding — that it will prevent all indigenous life on the planet Earth from ever existing — and he flat-out doesn't care.
- Light is an alien researcher who decided to wipe out all life on Earth because he couldn't tolerate how everything was constantly evolving.
- "The End of Time" reveals that the Time Lords (or at least Lord President Rassilon and the majority of the High Council) themselves became this as a result of the Time War, desiring to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence by destroying time itself.
- "The Lodger" has an unusual example: the time engine above Craig's flat, whose emergency AI proves itself willing to methodically kill the entire population of Earth in an attempt to find a new pilot.
- "The Timeless Children": Ashad the Lone Cyberman is revealed to be this, having decided that all organic life should be completely wiped out and the Cybermen should become completely robotic instead, something he intends to apply to himself. Disappointed by the Motive, the Master kills him and uses the resources of Ashad's Cyber Carrier to execute his own plan.
- Or Omega, especially after his Villainous Breakdown in "The Three Doctors". To elaborate, he's a mad Time Lord who was trapped for billions of years by himself in an alternate universe and believes that the Time Lords betrayed him, and thinks that omnicide is a suitable form of revenge.
- In the Season 2 finale of The Flash (2014), Zoom becomes this, as he intends to use his grudge match race with Barry to power up a machine which will take advantage of the fact that Earth-1 is the center of the Multiverse to destroy every other universe beside Earth-1's, which he will then rule.
- Game of Thrones:
- Aerys Targaryen is referred to posthumously as The Mad King, and for good reason. It takes a special kind of insane to want to raze your capital and burn every soul within (some 500,000 people) rather than surrender it to you enemies. Until Cersei hijacks his wildfire for her own scheme no king ever aspired to such levels of destruction. According to Jaime, head of his Kingsguard, Aerys believed he'd rise from the ashes as a dragon and destroy his enemies, so Jaime decided to stop him. Also according to Jaime, Aerys' last words weren't shock or scorn, but merely the same words he'd been ranting for several hours before:"BURN THEM ALL!!"
- The Night King and his White Walker generals can also qualify as this, being referred to as "a general you can't negotiate with, an army that doesn't leave corpses behind on the battlefield," with intentions of killing everyone in Westeros and turning them all into his wight army. Their origin story reveals the first Walkers, including the Night King, were created by the Children of the Forest to exterminate humanity. Turns out things went a little too well, and they decided every other living thing should be wiped out, too.
- Aerys Targaryen is referred to posthumously as The Mad King, and for good reason. It takes a special kind of insane to want to raze your capital and burn every soul within (some 500,000 people) rather than surrender it to you enemies. Until Cersei hijacks his wildfire for her own scheme no king ever aspired to such levels of destruction. According to Jaime, head of his Kingsguard, Aerys believed he'd rise from the ashes as a dragon and destroy his enemies, so Jaime decided to stop him. Also according to Jaime, Aerys' last words weren't shock or scorn, but merely the same words he'd been ranting for several hours before:
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Blade has the Joker Undead, through no fault of his own. Like all Undead, he's compelled to try and win the Battle Fight, which for the 52 other Undead would determine what species will become the next masters of Earth. If the Joker wins, the world ends.
- In Kamen Rider Decade, Decade is referred to in the opening as the "destroyer of worlds"; similarly, Narutaki either believes him to be this or is telling everyone else that he is. He comes close to fulfilling this destiny in the Grand Finale movie.
- In Kamen Rider OOO, Dr. Maki is a nihilist obsessed with endings, believing that you can't truly judge the worth of something until it's finished. No surprise that he tries to end the world when he gets the chance.
- Kamen Rider Ghost has the Gammaizers, a collective of golems tasked with preventing anyone from accessing the Great Eye, who've decided the best way to fulfill their task is to make sure there's nobody who can even try.
- Kamen Rider Build has Evolt, whose ego is so ludicrous that his end goal is the annihilation of all things except himself, calling it his "New World".
- Kamen Rider Zero-One deals with the Ark, a supercomputer that was taught all about how Humans Are Bastards and thus seeks to make robots the new rulers of Earth instead. After its initial attempt at a robot uprising led to it being sunk to the bottom of the ocean for a decade, however, it had nothing to do for all that time but stew in its own malice, and when its minions eventually succeed in bringing it back, it becomes clear the now utterly insane computer intends to destroy everything.
- In Kamen Rider Saber, Storious plans to erase both Earth and Wonder World by colliding them into each other using the power of the Book of Omniscience. This is partly driven by his ego as an author being shattered upon learning that the Book contained every idea he'd ever had, and partly because that's what the Book says he's destined to do.
- Kamen Rider Geats: The Desire Grand Prix goes from a typical battle royale game involving fighting Jyamatos to protect innocent people into a full-blown Sadist Show under Suel's management, going so far as to satisfy his audience's bloodlust by causing widespread death and destruction, from ranging giving players bad endings as prize for clearing the game to outright turning unwilling civilians into Riders against their will, and having them outright killed if they refuse to participate in the final stages of the show.
- The Bio-Vizier Mantrid in Lexx went from a garden-variety psychopath to a complete nihilist who managed to destroy the 'Light' Universe with his Drone Arms, which would obliterate a planet and use the materials to make new Drone Arms. They were capable of moving faster than light (considerably so), and he was eventually tricked (AFTER they had consumed the 'Light' universe) into bringing them too close together, where their collective gravity ended up collapsing into a 'Big Crunch', the opposite of a Big Bang. The so-called "Heroes" were shunted into the 'Dark' universe by the forces of the collapse. This a notable example because usually the heroes stop the omnicidal maniac. Mantrid's damage in Lexx is permanent and severe. They go from having two universes to having one. With the surviving universe having it's own life destroying carrots problem.
- Gien of Mirai Sentai Timeranger is a VERY frightening example. He's The Unfettered, The Mentally Disturbed with Lack of Empathy, and an out-and-out Sadist who cares for nothing but killing anyone because he can. His madness has finally reached its peak when he killed Dolnero through an emergency Wounded Gazelle Gambit and started the Great Extinction.
- Once Upon a Time:
- Fiona the Black Fairy, Big Bad of Season 6, reveals this as her masterplan in the season finale. By breaking Emma's belief, she can crush light magic, which as a side effect would wipe out all the magical realms. This would leave Fiona free to create a new universe in her own image, dominated by her family.
- Mother Gothel, the true Big Bad of Season 7, is a successful one. Originally an inhabitant of what is now the Land Without Magic (our world) back when magic was prevalent, her people the forest nymphs were wiped out by some humans, so she retaliated by destroying all of humanity, leaving the world bare until new humans evolved. And her plan in the present is to repeat this endeavor and render humanity extinct again.
- Early Power Rangers villains were always talking about conquering or destroying the world, the same villain going from one to the other and back frequently. From season five onward, villains are more certain about what it is they're after. The best example of this is the Venjix Virus of Power Rangers RPM, who proceeded to eradicate humanity upon getting loose from Alphabet Soup. He tries again as Evox in Power Rangers Beast Morphers, but this time, the Rangers are ready.
- Brainiac in Smallville is a Misanthrope Supreme who believes that Humans Are Bastards and thusly, need to die. Originally created to serve as The Dragon to General Zod, Brainiac goes rogue after the General's defeat and sets out to kill everybody on Earth through any means necessary. He implies that once Earth is dead he intends to repeat the process on the next planet he arrives on.
- Anubis in Stargate SG-1. While most Goa'uld we meet are Evil Overlords, this guy stands out. The blatantly evil race whose hat is "Evil Overlord with a god complex" decided this guy was too dangerous because unlike your average Goa'uld, he doesn't want to conquer the entire galaxy, he wants to wipe out all life in it. And then repopulate it with lifeforms of his design, but that's an academic distinction to anyone that's not Anubis.
- Not content to just wipe out all life, he also intended to kill all the ascended beings as well, despite the fact that their strict policy of non-interference made them no threat to his plans.
- Star Trek: The Original Series
- The Matter-Lazarus from "The Alternative Factor". In order to kill his enemy, his Anti-Matter double, he has to cross the threshold into the other universe, but bumping into said enemy while in the same universe will destroy both universes. Despite knowing this, he's so far gone that he simply doesn't care.
- Nomad from "The Changeling" also qualifies, although it became this way completely by accident: An earth probe that was programmed to seek out new life collided with an alien probe that was programmed to collect and sterilize soil samples. This somehow resulted in the two of them merging to form a new probe with the directive to seek out and sterilize all life.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- In "Our Man Bashir", the plan of holosuite program villain Dr. Noah is to cause gigantic earthquakes at certain points along the globe, killing almost everyone except a select few he has decided to save, to rebuild humanity.
- Dukat, as the avatar of the Pah Wraiths in the series' Grand Finale "What You Leave Behind", gloatingly announces his long-term plans to Sisko: he and the Pah Wraiths intend to create a universe of fire, purging all life and destroying everything. He thankfully doesn't get any further than bragging about it.
- Star Trek: Discovery: The Big Bad of Season 2, Section 31's Control AI, intends to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy because it views itself as superior to everything else.
- Star Trek: Picard: This is what became of the Borg Queen, as she was driven mad from being cut off from the Collective when Admiral Janeway's neurolytic pathogen ravaged the Borg Collective and her own self. She decided the best way to protect herself is to capture Starfleet, turn its young crew into drones that could give birth to an endless supply and burn the rest of the universe so she'll never get hurt again.
- Supernatural:
- Lilith seeks to break the 66 seals and free Lucifer, knowing full well that he will bring the Apocalypse.
- Lucifer himself made it his mission to destroy humanity out of jealousy that God loved humans more than him. In one possible Bad Future, it is shown that he has turned the Earth into an apocalyptic wasteland. When he has a Villainous Breakdown in the Season 13 finale, Lucifer takes things up a notch by planning to destroy the entire universe and remaking it in his image, simply out of spite.
- Eve, the Mother of All Monsters, was fine with the current arrangement (monsters eat some people here and there, and in return hunters kill a few monsters), until Crowley pissed her off by setting up a base for torturing Alphas, at which point she decided to eliminate humans altogether so her "children" could rule the Earth.
- After the Season 5 finale, Archangel Raphael becomes one, hoping to fulfill what he believes is God's will by restarting the Apocalypse.
- Dick Roman and the Leviathans. God locked them away in Purgatory at the beginning of time to prevent them from eating all of Creation.
- The Darkness God's sister in Season 11. She wants to destroy everything for two reasons — first, because God betrayed and sealed her in order to bring about His creation in the first place, which she's still bitter about, and secondly because she honestly thinks that His work is flawed and she could do better.
- Alternate!Michael in Season 13, who already went through with the Apocalypse in his universe, and intends to bring destruction to all other realities.
- In the back half of Season 15, God himself becomes this, as he begins destroying The Multiverse as preparation for his Final Battle with Sam and Dean. Once he's finished with that, he further erases all life from planet Earth to make it an eternal prison for the heroes.
- Azkadellia from Tin Man creates a device which the Mystic Man states will bring about "the complete destruction of the OZ." The device is designed to fix the two suns of the OZ in a permanent solar eclipse, which as any scientist will tell you, will ultimately result in the destruction of all life. There is an extremely rare double-eclipse happening (i.e. both suns "hiding" behind the moon), which Azkadellia plans to lock into place.
- The Tribe: At the height of his madness, the Guardian plants a bomb at the mall and prepares to blow everyone up in a forced mass suicide, seeing the entire world as sinful.
- H.G. Wells from Warehouse 13 uncovers the Minoan Trident, the world's first weapon of mass destruction, and uses it in a plot to begin a second ice age upon her debronzing. Wells' end of the world plot stemmed from a self realization that present society had not changed for the better since her last appearance in the Victorian era. The trident would have enforced an ice age and therefore caused the world to reset and heal itself of humanity's failure.
