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Galactic Conqueror
aka: Galactic Conquerer

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/starro_the_conqueror.png
"All were forced to submit to the Star Conqueror's will."
"Choirs of daemons howl in salute as they sense his flagship exiting from warpspace at the edge of the system. Chains of cities across the surface of the planet are set ablaze in welcome as his battle barge slides into orbit. Thousands of slaves are sacrificed in celebration as he sets foot upon the surface, the very earth beneath him soaked in the blood of his victims."
— Bloodquest

Generally below the Dimension Lord but above The Emperor and the Evil Overlord lies this character.

Maybe they want to conquer the universe. Maybe they want to kill everyone in it. Whatever they do, they'll be crazy-mad powerful, so it's going to take a whole boatload of heroes to take them down.

Sometimes they'll have armies to back them up, but more often than not, they'll work alone, relying on their incredibly vast cosmic powers to crush the good guys. Many have both.

These characters are usually male, although modern works are offering more and more females the opportunity to enslave entire galaxies. Distinguishable from the Eldritch Abomination in that these guys have somewhat human motives for what they do. Often, this is what the Sealed Evil in a Can turns into once it's unsealed. Multiversal Conqueror takes it up a notch.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Albegas: The Dellingers, though there's actually a sympathetic reason for this. Their old power source, the star Delan, is dying and if its lifespan fizzes out, they'll die too. In the Grand Finale, Albegas destroys it with its Sanbai Sword — resulting in the Dellingers facing total extinction.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Vegeta was introduced as one in Dragon Ball Z: the the leader of the Saiyans who conquered countless planets, exterminated their populations, and sold them off as real estate to the highest bidder. His organization only consists of three people and some Saibaimen, but they're powerful enough that they don't need anyone else. He's first introduced in the ruins of a planet he conquered, filler has him blowing up another one for kicks, and the plot of his arc is triggered by one of his minions attempting to recruit Goku into his group, drawing Vegeta's interest to the Earth. He claimed to be the strongest being in the universe and even the highest god of the galaxy was terrified of him. Even after all their divine training and power-ups, the heroes collectively could not stand up to him and only finally drove him off via a combination of dumb luck and every single one of them ending up killed or crippled.
    • Vegeta's later revealed boss, Frieza, took this title after Vegeta's defeat. Immensely powerful to the point of being considered invincible, he nonetheless usually has his army to do the actual fighting. Known for exterminating large portions of planets' populations and enslaving the rest, or simply killing off the entire population and selling the planet to the highest bidder, his name was feared by all spacefaring civilizations throughout the galaxy. The fact that he could blow up your planet on a whim just served as further incentive to surrender.
  • EDENS ZERO:
    • Poseidon Nero is the emperor and founder of the Nero Empire, an empire that has taken over the Aoi Cosmos (one quarter of the known universe), razing countless planets and oppressing his people to secure his power, making his psychotic adopted son Shura his heir.
    • Ziggy turns out to be one when he is reactivated revealing his endgame is to conquer the entire universe and place machines above humankind, which he does by spreading a virus that infects robots with the same kind of desire to dominate humans. Turns out he was being controlled by the true mastermind, the Eden’s One AI, O.N.E. Void.
  • The Big Bad Nightmare's company in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, the Holy Nightmare Corporation (Nightmare Enterprises, or NME, in the dub), is stated to have already successfully conquered the universe and defeated at least one major resistance movement... but a Kid Hero is shaping up to take them down.
  • The aptly named Sailor Galaxia from Sailor Moon. No points for guessing that last planet she needs to conquer to complete her quest.
  • King Vega from UFO Robo Grendizer was emperor of a warrior race and ruled over a planet was dying due to overexploitation from one of its resources (a radioactive and highly unstable ore named Vegatron), so he started to conquer other planets to find another world to settle on. He used to say his army was the most powerful one in the universe.
  • Voltes V: The Boazanians are a Higher-Tech Species that are renowned for their Galactic Conquerer abilities thanks to their vicious military and culture of honour. The plot of the anime is kicked off when they decide to invade the Earth, but in a twist of events, it turns out the humans saw it coming and prepared accordingly. The scientist who warned them of the invasion, Kentaro Go, is actually a Boazanian himself. He was once the Boazan Royal Prince Gohl, but when his secret was exposed — that he was a Hornless Boazanian in spite of his Royal Blood — he was imprisoned, humiliated and forced into slavery by his evil cousin, Emperor Za,bajil. Using his skills in technology and science, he created many weapons to aid slave rebellions across Boazania, and upon the urging of his people, escaped to Earth, where he was safe from oppression. Knowing that the Boazanians would eventually threaten Earthern tranquility as well, he created the robot Voltes V. The robot eventually flies to Boazania and overthrows the corrupt regime, with Gohl resuming his rightful position as King.

    Comic Books 
  • The current page's quote refers to a nameless Daemon Prince of Tzeentch in Bloodquest who leads a Black Crusade across the galaxy, as typical for Chaos Warbands. It's revealed that his host is none other than Captain Leonatos, the comic's Decoy Protagonist that pulled an Heroic Sacrifice to save his surviving teammates and was possessed by a daemon.
  • The DCU:
    • Across countless worlds, for countless eons, not a voice is raised in hope or joy. Across these worlds, these infinite lands throughout the cosmos, there is only Darkseid.
    • Brainiac. His goals and methods have varied a lot over the years, but he still usually fits this trope.
    • Mongul (both of them), the despotic ruler of War World. Galactic domination has always been his end game.
    • Despero and Kanjar Ro are much lower-tier versions of this trope. Kanjar Ro is usually treated as a joke villain these days.
    • Starro the Conqueror, although his more powerful appearances drift him more towards being an Eldritch Abomination.
    • The Emperor of the Sangtee Empire from Wonder Woman (1987) has conquered a slew of inhabitable planets and runs an Empire where chattel slavery is legal and the norm.
    • The Reach don't have as much firepower as the above, meaning they need to be more subtle. So they simply send out little "champions" to promising worlds, who gain the public's trust with acts of heroism while the Reach discretely secure control over all the planet's natural resources.
    • Lady Styx, debuting in 52. Originally intended to stand in for Darkseid, whom the writers felt was getting overused, she comes with the impressive distinction of her own Cavalry of the Dead.
  • Khaal: The Chronicles of a Galactic Emperor is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, but granted he doesn't start out as one in the comic proper: he is introduced as a fearsome warlord in a prison spaceship that gets invaded by superior aliens, but Khaal manages to kill their leader and take control of the invaders. He turns his attention to the rest of the galaxy and aims to conquer every world in his way. The comic ends with him finding and conquering Earth.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • This is a general characterization for most cosmic-centric supervillains within the Marvel Universe. Some prominent terran-centric supervillains like Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror occasionally branch off into this trope, when their ambition exceeds their normal boundaries.
    • Thanos of Titan has embodied this trope in the past, with his obsession with ultimate power and Death being his primary motivations. His first appearance had him conquering his home planet of Titan with similar plans for Earth. Characterization Marches On, however, and he is now simply a Genius Bruiser Omni-Disciplinary Mad Scientist whose motivations range from It Amused Me to Omnicidal Maniac, the latter to impress his girlfriend (or, currently, because she dumped him and he's going to take it out on everyone else). And when we mean "Obsession with Death" we mean the Stalker with a Crush kind of obsession. Said girlfriend is Death.
    • Fantastic Four: Annihilus, The Supreme Intelligence, at times the Skrulls and, mostly whenever Lilandra isn't in charge, the Shi'ar emperor/empress tends to fill this role too, especially when Vulcan was in charge.
    • Terminus the cosmic strip-miner.
    • A large percentage of the giant monsters from Marvel's pre-super hero days were alien invaders (Goom, his son Googam, etc.). Even Groot who has since done a Heel–Face Turn, started out this way.
    • The Incredible Hulk: Arm'Chedon, also known as Armageddon, leader of the Troyjan Empire and foe of the Hulk during his days with the Pantheon. Arm'Chedon was so busy conquering planets that he literally did not notice that he had two sons until one of them died on earth harassing the Pantheon, and the other was later killed in trial by combat with the Hulk. He swore vengeance, but got all of one appearance until well over a decade later. Interestingly, his relative obscureness might have worked in his favor, as there's no sign that his empire suffered the massive amounts of destruction that Marvel's other galactic empires (The Kree, Skrulls, and Shi'ar) have in recent years.
  • Paperinik New Adventures has a few:
    • Evron Eleventh to the Fifth, leader of the Evronian Empire, is the latest representative of a fairly successful line of conquerors (in one issue an Evronian fleet's destruction is actually said to be the first time they lose a space battle), with the Evronians invading thousands of worlds without any opposition able to hold for long until Xadhoom came by and started decimating them, culminating in the destruction of the Imperial Planetoid with Evron Eleventh to the Fifth on board.
      • In a Bad Future, Grrodon, the last Evronian spy on Earth, manages to rebuild the Empire and conquer the planet, starting Evron's conquests anew.
      • It's eventually revealed that there's multiple Evronian Empires, each with its own Imperial Planetoid: to prevent civil wars, whenever the population of a Planetoid grows too much, they turn a planet into a spaceship, put half their population on it, clone a new Emperor, and send the new Imperial Planetoid to carve out its own Empire. The Evronian Empire defeated by Xadhoom is just one of many, one that was apparently about to divide itself when they earned her anger, with another losing most of its population to three Eldritch Abominations and later being finished off when Paperinik manages to drive their Planetoid into the sun.
    • The New Era stories introduce Moldrock, the ancient ruler of Corona, who used his own immense powers to subjugate the various city states, turn the planet into a lush world and then launch a conquest of the known world looking for proper opponents, at least until his own scientists manage to put on him a device that suppresses his powers and, unable to strip him of his powers for good, imprison him on the Pentadimensional World where his powers are severely limited.
    • Juniper Ducklair, the latest queen of Corona, eventually engages into this on her sister Korinna's suggestion, even using Moldrock to power a technology that creates nearly invincible warriors and open portals through dimensions. She abandons her ambitions when Moldrock escapes, single-handedly beats her armies into submission without killing anyone, and Paperinik and Everett's attempts to stop him from using the dimension-traveling technology for himself and Korinna's attempts at taking back control result in Moldrock and Korinna being stranded in another dimension and the near-destruction of Corona.
  • Megatron from the various Transformers canon. How much of the galaxy he has conquered varies and is often vague. Sometimes he just plans on enslaving the native populace of conquered planets or he cyberforms them, covering them in metal and killing all pre-existing life in the process.

    Fan Works 
Examples by creator: Examples by title:
  • In The Calvinverse, the ruler of Zok, Rupert Chill, takes this role. Having fled from the Chill Collective out of refusal to share power, he has conquered much of the universe, and recently attempted to conquer Earth. However, Calvin managed to thwart his efforts, causing Rupert to get tunnel vision and devote all his efforts towards Earth, and later just Calvin as he goes more and more insane. As a result, many of his planets manage to rise up and free themselves in Double Trouble.
  • Varax from Dragonball Z: Legacies is an alien warlord who has lived for over eighty million years. In that span of time, he has conquered hundreds of galaxies, destroyed countless planets, and created several black holes. In the present day, he rules over a vast area of space known as the Helix Realm with an iron fist. He's shown to command a fleet of massive starships and has an army of mechanized soldiers and cyborgs to carry out his will. He's widely feared as the most dangerous being in the universe and even Frieza's empire is terrified of crossing him. Additionally, unlike Frieza, Varax isn't intimidated by Beerus and is powerful enough to openly challenge the Gods of Destruction.
  • Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship: Grand Ruler Celesto emerged from the stars and, despite presenting himself and his Unicornicopians as heroes, essentially conquered Equestria and forced it to submit to his rule. He enforces Fantastic Racism in the Unicornicopians against the species they've conquered, and as it turns out, used mind control to make himself so beloved and cripple Equestria's defenders in favor of his champions, Starfleet. It's later revealed that he rules numerous other planets, with the Elk among the only free peoples left. However, he'll blow up planets on a whim for the sake of his ideal "story", yet another reason why he is not an especially competent example, as most of the population is considering a revolt by the time the story starts, and he is almost totally unable to defend himself against both the heroes and Dark Conquest.
  • In The Shape of the Nightmare to Come and The Age of Dusk, Abaddon finally manages to take over all of Segmentum Obscurus.
  • Warlord Kroz from Tech 10 Rebooted is a Noble Demon variety of this, having conquered around 72 planets on his quest to find a Worthy Opponent, but simply leaving them alone afterwards.
  • There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: Multiple characters and factions are this or wish to be it, most notably the Gem Empire, which has 100% control of every solar system in their home dwarf galaxy, as well as presences in multiple other galaxies, namely Andromeda, which their galaxy orbits, and the Milky Way, along with other members of the Local Group. The only reason they haven't conquered the universe yet is that the Diamonds like to take their time extracting all available resources from a system before moving on, and since they're effectively immortal they're not exactly rushing.
  • In Zim the Warlord: Irken Reversion, Zim and all the other Irkens who go through the Reversion are granted by the Tallest the previously defunct title of Warlord. This appears to be basically an expansion on being an Invader, as in addition to the initially-assigned planets they're sent to take over, they're given permission to spread their conquests and carve out their own domains, which are autonomous but still subservient to the overall Irken Empire.

    Films — Animation 
  • BoBoiBoy: The Movie: Klamkabot tells the heroes that the Tengkotak gang have a planetary invasion campaign occurring in the far reaches of the galaxy with a hologram of several ships blasting at a defenseless planet. If they get the teleportation power, their conquest would be even faster.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Lord Marshal, leader of the Necromongers from The Chronicles of Riddick. They're basically space-faring Knight Templar crusaders led by a "holy-half dead" leader who move from planet to planet, converting anyone they can find and killing anyone who refuses.
  • DC Extended Universe:
    • In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Bruce Wayne dreams of a Bad Future in which the Earth has been conquered and become a wasteland. A gigantic Omega symbol has been carved in said wasteland; the symbol of Darkseid.
    • Justice League (2017): While Darkseid himself doesn't show up, one of his generals, Steppenwolf, serves as the Big Bad trying to conquer Earth. He tried this once before thousands of years ago, but was repelled by an alliance of Earth's gods, the Amazons, Atlantis, and at least one Green Lantern.
    • Zack Snyder's Justice League: Darkseid spearheads the conquest attempt in the distant past in this version (he was replaced by Steppenwolf in the above theatrical cut) and fails. He resented that failure and came to "turn 100,000 worlds to dust" out of spite for this. At the end of the film, he plans a new invasion of Earth (which succeeds in a Bad Future Alternate Timeline) in search of the Anti-Life Equation.
  • Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon (1980) is referred to as the Emperor of the Universe and the Galaxy. The fact that he can casually cause moons to collide with planets and rain down "natural" disasters on every solar system when he wants to test them definitely places him on the level of Galactic Conqueror. However, he only exercises direct control over his homeworld and its moons.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Thanos — while he usually has others do the grunt work for him, he is widely regarded as the most powerful being in the universe, and commands at least one army of killer cyborgs and a retinue of elite warriors. His ultimate goal is to assemble the six Infinity Stones and use their power to wipe out half of all sapient life as a twisted form of Population Control.
    • Thor: Ragnarok revealed that Odin, of all people used to be this, before changing their ways. Hela even noted how she used to be their favored tool of conquest, and lamented that such glorious days were long gone.
  • Sheev Palpatine from Star Wars is the consummate example of this trope, though he did it through pure manipulation rather than outright force. He got voted into absolute power, after masterminding a civil war after a millennium of peace (in which he was secretly the leader of both sides), resulting in him receiving popular support for his authoritarian reforms. By the time he declared himself Emperor, he already had absolute control of the Republic...or, as he declared it, the first! Galactic! EMPIRE!note 
    Padmé Amidala: So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause...

    Literature 
  • Empress Ramaj from Crest of the Stars is a rare maybe-heroic example. She is an empress of a militaristic feudal space empire that conquers every world it encounters and the show revolves around her empire's war against The Alliance of democratic states. The goal of The Empire is to subjugate humankind to its benevolent authoritarian rule and lead it to an era of endless peace and prosperity. She is not the protagonist, though, but a Big Good and grandmother of the protagonist.
  • Dune: Paul Atreides brought his dynasty to supreme power by threatening to destroy the all-important Spice.
  • Foundation Series:
    • "The General (Foundation)": The title character, General Bel Riose, is completely loyal to the Galactic Empire. However, he was born during the Empire's collapse, which means many of the systems at the Milky Way's periphery have regressed into barbarism and merely chemically based energy sources. He leads an army to conquer these barbarian worlds, attempting to bring them once more under the control of the Empire. He is, however, too successful at conquering foreign lands, and the Emperor recalls him once he gets to the inner worlds of the Foundation.
    • "The Mule": The Warlord of Kalgan has been terrorizing the local planets, until he meets the Mule, a mutant with Psychic Powers who defeats him and takes his territory. From there, the Mule leads an ever-growing fleet of mercenaries and soldiers against the Foundation, even capturing Terminus, the capital planet, during the 300th anniversary of colonization. By the end of the story, he's conquered every First Foundation planet and not even the Second Foundation appears to be strong enough to stop him.
    • "Trantor Falls": Gilmer wants to be the first warlord to take Trantor and exploit its riches, yet he's aware that others will try to attack him while he's weak, and must begin fortifying the defenses that he's just destroyed.
  • Reinhard von Lohengramm, the protagonist of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, like above-mentioned Empress Ramaj, is also a rare heroic/antiheroic example of this trope. He wants to unite all of space under his rule. The thing about it is that his Empire is actually pretty awesome because he's a superb ruler. They're opposed by the democractic Free Planets Alliance. A huge topic in the series is basically the conflict between a good autocracy and a rotten democracy.
  • The Ship Who...: In PartnerShip, when Polyon is taken into custody he reveals that the advanced and much-coveted "hyperchips" he's been having his Private Profit Prison factories produce and distribute for the past five years contain a Computer Virus that, when activated, he can use to make pretty much anything they're installed in do whatever he wants. And which spreads. When asked what he wants he references this — he wants control of known space.
  • Thursday Next: Emperor Zhark regularly destroys and enslaves whole worlds. In person he's a pretty nice guy, though he does tend to overreact a bit, like responding to a shoot out in a Western book by deploying Space Marines.
  • Togetherly Long: The evil Emperor Von Mal, who's already conquered close to a million planets by the time the story starts.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Babylon 5: Defined by their conflict is good outlook, the "Shadows" would stoke war between the younger races, let it rage for a while until enough races and individuals had been killed off as to leave the strongest surviving, then they would hibernate until needed again. They were very clear in their intentions when they tried to woo Sheridan. It is likely, however, that the Shadows don't want a decisive victory. They believe conflict is at the heart of all growth. If they win decisively they reduce the amount of conflict. The Vorlons are their historic rival. Both sides admit to a degree of validity. They both think the other side helps their own philosophy. Life under the Shadows or the Vorlons would have been equally unacceptable. That’s why Sheridan turned his back on each of the Elder Races.
    Morden: It's like knocking over an anthill. Every new generation gets stronger. The anthill gets redesigned, made better.
    Sheridan: So that's what the Shadows do. Come out every few thousand years, and kick over all "the anthills." Start wars, destroy entire races.
  • The Chouseishin Series has had one in each installment.
    • Chouseishin Gransazer: This turns out to be the secret goal of Belzeus and the reason he tricked the Cosmic Alliance into invading Earth, as the planet is a key strategic point that will give him a foothold in conquering the universe if he takes it over.
    • Genseishin Justiriser: Kaiser Hades has galactic conquest as his eventual goal. His bigger brother is much closer to achieving it than him, as his galactic empire is stated to control most of the galaxy.
    • Chousei Kantai Sazer X: After the Descal took over Earth, their Neo Descal descendants moved on to other planets, conquering them by covering them in darkness and forcing their inhabitants into Blind Obedience. The Neo Descal being too big for the fledgling resistance to take on is why they opt to travel back in time and stop the Descal from taking over Earth in the first place.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Master in the classic series, whenever he/she wasn't trying to kill or corrupt their lifelong rival, the Doctor. In the revived series, the John Simm Master planned to establish a "New Time Lord Empire" in his first appearance, taking over Earth and building a fleet of warships during "the year that never was". The Doctor, Martha and Jack stopped him before he could launch his first attack.
    • If Daleks are space Nazis, Davros is pretty much Karl Brandt with a bit of space Hitler. Terry Molloy has this tendency to crescendo every single line of dialogue into very loud shouting. The writers have also described him as a brilliant scientist, and the Doctor and Davros debating is always a highlight. He created the Daleks out of frustration at his disability and the thirst for power that it gave him. Davros has survived being shot by his own creation, being blown up in a bunker, blown up in a spaceship, cryogenically frozen, left drifting in a void for 90 years in outer space, et cetera.
  • The Peacekeepers and Scarrans on Farscape. Peacekeepers are enhanced humanoids who favor military strength. The design of the Scarrans is reptilian, and some of them look pretty freaky. Given the Scarrans' diversity, it's hard to give any one character preference over the others. The design of the ruling caste is more human-looking, with pimpin' red armor. The lower class, 'horse-faced' Scarrans appear brutish, like a two-story building. The half-Scarran character, Scorpius, is motivated by revenge — for his very existence, oddly enough. He was willing to enlist in the Peacekeepers to fight the Scarrans, not for political or moral reasons, but because of how they abused him as a child. When he discovers John's wormhole knowledge, he realizes it can be weaponized and used to wipe out the Scarrans completely. He believes this is the only way to win the arms race and save the Peacekeepers as a species. There is no known cause behind the long war between Scarrans and Peacekeepers. In-storyline, it's as simple as cold-blooded vs. warm-blooded; We die in the heat vs. We thrive in the heat.
  • Dark Specter from Power Rangers in Space. He is also a Dimension Lord, and so badass that it takes a planet-destroying missile and more to take him down.
  • Stargate Atlantis:
    • The Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy, although they don't so much rule as they do feed. Also, the Wraith do a lot of fighting amongst themselves, on account of there not being enough food to go around. Thus, no one person (or hive queen) actually controls their galaxy.
    • The former Wraith named "Michael" became such a threat in his own right in the later seasons. After he started his Hybrid project he started lusting after power for its own sake. His end goal became to supplant both humans and Wraith with his Hybrid minions by annihilating everything else.
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • The Goa'uld as a whole already control most of the Milky Way Galaxy, but the most ambitious Goa'uld System Lords usually try to conquer all of the galaxy by absorbing the territories of their rivals, assuming the Big Bad mantle in the process. Successively, Apophis, Anubis, and Ba'al came the closest to actually succeeding.
    • As well as the Ori, who have already conquered one galaxy. They're ascended Energy Beings who rule through a Religion of Evil called Origin, and build an armada to embark on a crusade to convert the Milky Way.
  • Star Trek:
    • Pretty much any villain race at some point has aspirations of galactic conquests. But as far as individuals in the series go, the Borg Queen is the best example.
    • The Female Founder in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is an unusually low-key version of this trope, being much more serene and no-nonsense than the usual bombastic examples. Her people's Control Freak tendencies led them to create the Dominion, a massive empire covering a quarter of the galaxy, and are looking to expand into the Alpha Quadrant through both subterfuge and military might.
  • Super Sentai has a few:
    • The Great Star League Gozma in Dengeki Sentai Changeman are the first in the franchise. They not only conquer planets, they force the champions of each world to serve in their military.
    • The Reconstructive Experiment Empire Mess of Choushinsei Flashman invade planets for the purpose of collecting genetic materials from them, which they then use to create new Beast Warriors for future conquests.
    • The Silver Imperial Army Zone in Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman have decimated at least 999 planets across the universe, though they're far more interested in killing everyone on them rather than conquering them, as they need to sacrifice 1000 planets for a ritual to give their ruler immortality.
    • The Universal Annihilation Army Warstar, the first villain faction in Tensou Sentai Goseiger, are alien invaders who conquered multiple planets before coming to Earth.
    • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has Emperor Ackdos Gill, ruler of the universe-spanning Zangyack Empire, with Earth being one of the few planets they haven't conquered yet.
    • Don Armage, the ruler of the Space Shogunate Jark Matter in Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, who has conquered pretty much the entire galaxy, including earth,.
  • The Ultra Series tends to feature these as monsters of the week, but given how these shows work they never make it past Earth. There have also been a few have been major Big Bads who came close to this, one example being Alien Empera from Ultraman Mebius. He even managed to conquer the M78 Nebula that the Ultras hail from for a time.

    Music 
  • Almost every character in the GWAR mythos is a galactic conqueror to some extent. GWAR was so good at it — too good at it — that they were exiled to planet Earth for their crimes.
  • Gloryhammer's second album, Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards, is set 1000 years after the first album, in which Angus McFife and company defeat the evil wizard Zargothrax and imprison him; now the chaos wizards release him, and he attempts to go conquer the galaxy. This ends in the destruction of Earth in order to prevent an Eldritch Abomination being released.

    Myths & Religion 
  • In Scientology, Xenu conquered many worlds and dropped his excess population into Earth's volcanos, leading to many of the evils that plague mankind.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Traveller:
    • Cleon I, founder of the Third Imperium. In something of a subversion, he not only succeeds, but his empire is actually a more-or-less nice one once it is created — whatever one can say of how he created it. Cleon was a skillful politician, businessman, and diplomat. He knew when to entice, when to bludgeon, and how to weave together multitudinous plans, and in general he was a very Magnificent Bastard.
    • Albadawi might count. He was a Four-Star Badass who pretty much won the Interstellar Wars himself. In his case he was acting as a servant of the Terran Confederation rather than for his own ambition.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has more than its fair share of these, some evil... some really evil. (See page quote.)
    • The most successful was undoubtedly the Emperor of Man, the founder, and later god of the Imperium, the setting's "good" guys. The Imperium had been at its most reasonable and expanded most rapidly under his direct rule, growing from the solar system to spanning most of the galaxy in just a few short centuries (in spite of their life extending technologies, the Emperor was already immortally youthful, purportedly 38,000 years old when he founded the Imperium). It was also secular, reasonably tolerant of mutants and nonhostile aliens, and presumably had reasonably efficient governance. The the Horus Heresy happened and the Emperor was interred into the Golden Throne to survive and lost most of his ability to communicate; he more or less became a figurehead and his Imperium steadily became a psychotic, dystopian, totalitarian, theocratic empire. The Imperium never fully recovered after that, while it still makes some gains in territory and technology from time to time, it sits somewhere between stagnant and failing by inches. Between most of its resources being sucked up by wars on all sides, including the occasional civil war between parts of it and the occasional galactic crisis, the Imperium, and humanity's last hope (such as it is), tottering on between a lasting victory and permanent collapse has been a lasting theme of 40K.
    • The other "good guys" of 40k, the Tau Empire, also have this as a goal, believing it to be a part of their manifest destiny. Though they have a long, long way to go. They currently sit have a tiny, yet densely packed empire on the opposite side of the galaxy, preferring to use diplomatic, economic, and political means to bring other species into their empire, including Human-held worlds left behind or left to their own devices. However, depending on who you listen to, they might be the optimistic, hopeful beacon of reason and tolerance they present themselves as, or they might be an Orwellian, authoritarian society ruled by a caste of scheming, charismatic masterminds given a bright coat of paint. A recurring theme is that the Tau are naive and overly eager to extend a hand of friendship, sometimes to their own peril. However, most of the other races are more interested in some combination of killing, raping, torturing, or just eating everyone. Black-and-Gray Morality indeed.
    • Not to mention Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos. The foremost of Chaos Lords, and blessed by all the Chaos Gods. He is recognized by the Imperium as an existential threat, and they devote a great deal of resources and manpower to keeping him and the rest of the hordes of Chaos contained to the Eye of Terror. He led thirteen Black Crusades which broke out including his 12th to the Gothic Sector against the Imperium. He'll show up to harass the Imperium once in a while, and every now and then he'll launch a Black Crusade to collect superweapons and to weaken and undermine the Imperium around the Eye as part of the Long Game. (Fanon likes to think of these as repeated failures, though it wasn't until relatively recently that we learned about them in detail. And before that point, any permanent, meaningful victories against the Imperium was outside the bounds of allowed narrative.) Now, he's gathering up his weapons and unifying the forces of Chaos at a level unprecedented for nearly 10 millennia for the 13th Black Crusade to make an assault on Terra after all this time, to finally succeed in what Horus didn't.
      • That said, Chaos itself hopes to engulf the galaxy, and would if their mortal followers ever succeed in bringing down the Emperor. Chaos is broken up into four major gods, each representing its own unique portfolio and domain, and possibly lesser gods of an unknown number. Hypothetically, they could take over realspace right now, but such is the nature of Chaos is that their energy and attention is mostly spent against one another in the Great Game, a war that, by definition, is destined to never end.
    • The Craftworld Eldar dream of retaking their former place as the masters of the galaxy. The more realistic ones know that the odds of them ever doing so are almost zero, but keep fighting anyway since it beats laying down and accepting extinction (and since the status quo on their craftworlds and colonised planets is nice enough to be worth defending).
    • Surprisingly averted with the Dark Eldar, the most vicious and sadistic of the factions (which is saying something) and the only Eldar faction who has managed to thrive, who don't want to bother with conquering the galaxy. Yes, they do make regular raids into realspace for food and slaves (often one and the same), and will occasionally make a grab for resources or territory. But they don't bother since being in realspace for an extended period is a hazard for them: the Chaos God Slaanesh is constantly "sipping" out their souls, the effect is strongest in realspace, and dying out there carries the most risk against revivification should they fall in battle. That aside, they're having too much fun or too occupied in their home city of Commorragh, where murder and intrigue is rife and the kabals (something between a noble house and a pirate syndicate) are too busy competing to undermine or exterminate one another. The other subgroups of the Dark Eldar, Haemonculus covens, wych cults, Hellion gangs, and the Incubus shrines typically lack the resources to go out into realspace and attach themselves to kabal raids as mercenary cohorts.

    Video Games 
  • From Battleborn is Lothar Rendain, leader of the Jennerit Imperium who has decided to ally with the Varelsi and aid them in their destruction of the universe on the promise that he and those who follow him would be spared from the universal end and be granted "ascension" to "the passage" to "the other side".
  • Lord Vraxx from Brawlhalla used to be a despotic tyrant who conquered entire solar systems and frequently destroyed planets for the pettiest of things. After his entire fleet was destroyed with him among them he ended up in Valhalla where, when he's not competing in the tournament, he's making plans to take over Valhalla for himself.
  • Genocide/Scumocide from Captain Commando has already established a Criminal Syndicate of bio-engineered super criminals that has taken over the entire galaxy by the time the game kicks in.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Series Big Bad Dark Force has this ambition. In backstory, he has already conquered numerous planets. The Shakun Star falls during the course of Star Resistance, and his eyes are set for Earth next in Attack of Darkforce.
  • BIOS from Forgotten Worlds, who has created gods to serve as his enforcers as he travels the galaxy, conquering and reducing worlds into barren wastelands.
  • In Freedom Planet, by the time Lord Arktivus Brevon makes his way to Planet Avalice, he's already conquered a large swath of the galaxy. Taking the Kingdom Stone hidden on Avalice would allow him to continue his conquest unopposed.
  • Galaxy Angel has Prince Eonia Transbaal, who after being exiled from the empire returned five years later with a seemingly endless fleet and took over the empire by force (by killing the entire royal family, including his own father) and openly intends to use Lost Technology to expand the empire by subjugating other worlds to his rule. After he's defeated, in the sequel the heroes have to face the Valfask, a race of aliens who come from a different dimension and whose only purpose seems to conquer other races by virtue of considering themselves superior to everyone else.
  • The Gravemind and its Flood forces in Halo. According to its words, the Flood had already conquered galaxies-worth "of flesh and bones" and now were planning on conquering the Milky Way. Despite the courage and highly advanced technology of the Forerunners, the Flood could only be slowed down, until the former made the decision to to sacrifice themselves and all non-indexed sentient life in an effort to starve them to death. 100,000 years later, the Gravemind (being effectively immortal) is finally reformed but was again defeated, this time by humanity and the Arbiter-affiliated Elites, who put aside their differences and use the Ark and the replacement Halo 04 to lure in and destroy the Gravemind and all the Flood it could muster before the infection became too big to stop. However, given that there are still a lot of Flood in storage on various Forerunner research facilities, the Gravemind is likely not finished yet.
  • Kirby:
    • In the first two games of the Dark Matter trilogy, Dark Matter threatens to take over, respectively, Dream Land and all of Pop Star. By Kirby 64, it threatens Pop Star and all of the nearby planets.
    • In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Magolor aspires to be one after he gets his hands on a powerful artifact. The problem with that, however, is that said artifact, the Master Crown, is a sentient and corrupting Artifact of Doom. While it would've allowed Magolor to take over the universe at first, eventually its power would've mutated him into something much worse.
  • Mass Effect:
    • The Reapers are an interesting variation of this. In a way, they already control the galaxy, since they use it as a gigantic corral for raising intelligent species and then wiping them out/harvesting them every 50,000 years. The Reapers maintain an entire network of self-repairing hyperspace jumpgates and a gargantuan space station at its center for the sake of creating new civilizations that are advanced enough to be worth conquering but reliant enough on Lost Technology that the Reapers' more advanced tech makes it nigh impossible for whatever current civilization exists to oppose them.
    • Javik is a mundane, Well-Intentioned Extremist version of this. The plan was to get a million protheans to survive the Reaper Harvest by hiding in stasis, then force the primitive races into servitude against the Reapers. Unfortunately, sabotage ensured that only Javik survived.
  • Metroid:
  • Emperor Percival Tachyon, from Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction has managed to bring most of the Polaris Galaxy under his sway.
  • Mental from the Serious Sam counts as one of these, even though we never even see his face nor do we actually fight him. What we do know about him is that he commands a great and terrible army of aliens, robots, cyborgs, interdimensional horrors, and other monsters. There is very little we know about what his goals are apart from causing untold havoc and ruin, but he is still the most dominant power in the galaxy.
  • The Zerg Overmind from StarCraft wants to assimilate all life in the universe into the Zerg Swarm. Later succeeded by his Dragon Kerrigan, who is — by her own words — "pretty much the queen bitch of the universe". StarCraft II has The Dark Voice Amon, the true master mind who programmed the Overmind to attack the Xel Naga, and lead the Zerg into assimilating the Protoss to create Zerg/Protoss Hybrids. His grand scheme is to wipe out all life in the galaxy so he and his Hybrids will rule it. Legacy of the Void brings the latter to the foreground and places the spotlight on the Aiur Protoss as they seek new allies to deal with the existential crisis unfolding.
  • In Stellaris, this can be a goal for many an interstellar empire. However, in terms of characterization, the Great Khan of Apocalypse most clearly qualifies. They are a visionary leader who unites first the squabbling marauder tribes, and then attempts to turn the rest of the galaxy into satrapies. How well this goes varies; sometimes they succeed (until their inevitable demise undoes most of their work), and sometimes they pick a fight with a Fallen Empire well before they stand a chance of not being wiped out.
  • Queen Victoria in Sunless Skies. Yes, that one. She holds full dominion over the star system Albion (Fallen London Recycled In Space) and contested control of The Reach (a star system made of jungles in space). Her power (and restored youth) comes from an artificial Clockwork Sun, who has the power to rewrite the laws of time.note 
  • Sunrider has Veniczar Arcadius, the masked dictator of the galactic superpower PACT. He already controls a good chunk of the galaxy in this capacity and is keen on taking over the rest, steamrolling the independent worlds of the Neutral Rim with his overwhelming military might. Revealed to actually be a female example later on, as she is a Hive Mind posing as the real Arcadius who died long ago.
  • Bowser aspires to be a universe conqueror in Super Mario Galaxy. He fails. He tries to do it again in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Guess what happens next. Before the Galaxy games, he planned to use the power of the Star Children to take over the universe in Yoshi's Island DS.
  • Sargeras the Fallen Titan from the Warcraft universe, whose goal is to lead the Burning Legion to destroy the entire universe.
  • WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$: Orbulon tries to be this during his chapter. He really sucks at it, and ends up crash-landing on Diamond City. As seen in later games, he has stopped trying to conquer anything ever since.

    Webcomics 
  • Ava's Demon:
    • Wrathia Bellarmina was the queen of an intergalactic empire alongside her husband Pedri, leading many planets and commanding mighty warriors, until...
    • Titan appeared out of nowhere, conquered Wrathia's empire overnight, established a Path of Inspiration with himself as a god, and started expanding his holdings by buying out planets wholesale. The nature of Titan's powers and the resistance against him are driving mysteries in the story.
  • General Zarro from The Fan is very likely to be this. At the very least, he's got a pretty big flagship, and is powerful enough to dent the fourth wall just by removing his mask.
  • Fructose Riboflavin in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! very badly wants to be this, and has been trying to overthrow the Nemesite government for hundreds of years, but he just can't do it...
  • Lord Boros of One-Punch Man is an expy of Freeza who has conquered most of the universe. He grew bored of having no challenge but came to Earth to fight Saitama after a prophet pointed him in the right direction. He's the first enemy to actually survive a direct hit from Saitama, forcing the latter to use a "serious" punch.

    Web Videos 
  • World's Greatest Adventures's Warlord Cassius is one, albeit not a particularly powerful one. The dictator of the Tharsis Quadrangle on the Planet Mars, he intends to take over the Planet Earth, and then, the universe. (Fortunately, he is Lawful Evil, and will not take over Earth until he has bested its champion in a square fight. Less fortunately, his designated champion of Earth is Rufus.)

    Western Animation 

 
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Emperor Nefarious

The true main antagonist of Rift Apart. After being impersonated by his alternate self while he was away researching the means to bridge worlds, the Emperor returns with a vengeance and forcefully reclaims his throne, dragging Dr. Nefarious along as he seeks the ultimate prize - to conquer every dimension imaginable.

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Great Emperor K...

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Alternative Title(s): Galactic Conquerer

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Emperor Nefarious

The true main antagonist of Rift Apart. After being impersonated by his alternate self while he was away researching the means to bridge worlds, the Emperor returns with a vengeance and forcefully reclaims his throne, dragging Dr. Nefarious along as he seeks the ultimate prize - to conquer every dimension imaginable.

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Emperor Nefarious

Great Emperor K...

Emperor Perciva...