Basic Trope: A villain seeks to rule the world.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz seeks to rule the world with an iron fist.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz seeks to rule the universe with an iron fist.
- Downplayed: Emperor Evulz seeks to rule the city with an iron fist.
- Justified:
- The current world leaders are incompetent, and Evulz is an Anti-Villain seeking to bring the world into order.
- It's a Crapsack World, where somebody taking over the world to make it a better place is a reasonable and extremely appealing prospect.
- Evulz wants to bring about world peace by uniting all of the world's nations under one government.
- Alternatively, Evulz loves commanding his Mooks and rallying his Empire, and wants to rule more than just an army.
- Evulz is a kind of Mad Artist, and the fact that he can command the creation of the next Sphinx, Mount Rushmore, etc., is his most important motivation for wanting the power that he wants (and as long as he lives, he'll be interested in his next monument above all).
- Or, Evulz is merely a megalomaniac narcissist who wants the world to (almost literally) revolve around him and his desires. Isn't it good to be king?
- Inverted:
- Evulz is seeking an heir to his global empire and, as soon as he finds one, he will give up his throne.
- Evulz seeks to destroy the world.
- Evulz is an anarchist who wants to dismantle every government to ensure no one rules any part of the world.
- Evulz seeks to get rid of the pre-existing One World Order without taking over.
- Subverted:
- Evulz claims he wants to rule the world but this is a Motivational Lie to inspire his Mooks.
- Evulz does want to rule the world but he's not actually doing it for villainous purposes or through villainous methods. His ultimate goal is to unite all the world's peoples into an empire of peace and prosperity.
- He actually plans to make the Five-Man Band to train and battle against him so they could be strong enough in his true plan: he's himself too weak to defeat the true villain, T'Veah Tir'opius — an Eldritch Abomination Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
- Double Subverted:
- Because he's going to rule alone.
- Because his real goal is to keep his Mooks distracted while he summons and destroys the gigantic Lovecraft-grade Eldritch Abomination that caused the downfall of the magic kingdom he was prince of 12600 years ago.
- He only wishes to defeat the Eldritch Abomination so he can get rid of all threats to his power.
- Parodied:
- Everybody wants to rule the world.
- Evulz attempts to take over the world, but finds out Bob has already taken over it.
- Zig-Zagged: Evulz lies to his Mooks about wanting to rule the world, but the lie is they're not getting any of it; he’s going to rule alone. The Hero tells him how much responsibility this would be, at which point Evulz offers to split the workload. Evulz has no idea what to do when The Hero says no.
- Averted: Evulz has no desire to rule anything, except maybe his Mooks.
- Enforced:
- "We need a motivation for this villain that's both ambitious and dangerous. Let's have him try to take over the world!" "Of course!"
- The work is an anti-globalization Author Tract.
- Lampshaded: "I'll rule the world! Because everybody else is doing it!"
- Invoked: "Maybe this idiot will listen to me when I am ruler of the entire world!"
- Exploited: A less globally-minded villain offers an alliance by playing on Evulz’s ambitions and offering his aid to him, only to backstab him when it seem like he might actually win.
- Defied:
- The world already has a ruler, one much more powerful than Evulz. A Curb-Stomp Battle ensues.
- Evulz deconstructs and scoffs at the prospect of taking over the world.
- Discussed: "You know, I bet this guy wants to rule the world." "Why, because he's evil? Not all evil people want to take over the world. Some want to destroy it."
- Conversed: "Have you ever noticed how many villains just want to rule the world?"
- Implied: Evulz is seen staring at a world map that is covered in his symbols with a wistful expression.
- Deconstructed:
- Ruling the world is actually quite Awesome, but Impractical when you think about it. The citizenry don't exactly take kindly to that, and killing them all just leaves an empty world to rule over. Destroying the world? Where exactly is the utility in that?
- Once you're ruling the world, you literally have to be in charge of everyone, and that's like herding giraffes. Eight billion giraffes, as a matter of fact. You actually have to run things, and make sure it works, and dang, Dystopia Is Hard. You will end up snapping or getting crushed under the workload of trying to dictate everything.
- The setting becomes an anarchic Crapsack World once Evulz’s reign collapses.
- Emperor Evulz wants to take over the world because he is heavily psychologically depressed and cynical, and believes the world would be better if he were to call the shots, not realizing that what he imagines to be a perfect world is unattainable and therefore requires him to take actions that he had initially sought out to destroy.
- Evulz sets out to take over the world, but is almost immediately slowed down by having to fight back all the military forces in the world. He later quits after running out of money and is swiftly arrested.
- Reconstructed:
- Emperor Evulz enlists the help of Draco when he needs a break.
- Evulz puts everyone under Mind Control.
- As he can't possibly control or finance it all at once, the earth under Evulz's iron fist is run down and dystopian, where nobody has enough of anything, with the exception of a massive and decadent court, who are constantly scheming for his throne. Evulz is fine with this, as it's what he wanted all along.
- Evulz doesn’t mind the hypocrisy at all.
- Evulz changes his mind and breaks out of prison to try again.
- After a brief period of trying and failing to run the planet under his control, Evulz realises that he's a better conqueror than a ruler, and after some minor legal manipulation, opts to Abdicate the Throne... either to live peacefully on the combined spoils of the entire planet, or to start conquest all over again on a different planet... or to destroy all he had wrought For the Evulz; whatever is the most fulfilling to him.
- Played for Laughs: Evulz is Stupid Evil. Either:
- He fails miserably in his attempt to take over the world.
- He succeeds despite himself in his attempt to take over the world, but he's in way over his head.
- Played for Drama: Evulz takes over the world, and we see how much grimmer life becomes for people like Alice.
Back to, you guessed it, Take Over the World.
