Hijacking Cthulhu

You may be evil, but you'll never be "tempting Elder Gods to sin" evil.

So, you have your average Body Surfer or enslaving Evil Sorcerer, or similar Big Bad. Eventually, they aim to enslave or fuse with a Physical God or other powerful being beyond comprehension, often a Sealed Evil in a Can. But since Evil Is Not a Toy, surely they’ll end up swept aside by the Greater-Scope Villain, right?

Usually yes. But occasionally, they actually manage to pull it off! This is when a character takes forceful control over something vastly more powerful than themselves.

Not to be confused with Hijacked by Ganon or Hijacked by Cthulhu. Can involve Hypno Trinkets, Soul Jars, body swaps or Demonic Possession.

Differs from The Kid with the Remote Control in that this is a direct and hostile takeover of the target. Compare Olympus Mons, Grand Theft Prototype, Captured Super-Entity or Super Weapon, Average Joe.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Code Geass, sort of; Lelouch briefly takes control of what is referred to as "GOD" using his Geass. Given the nature of his powers, he only has control momentarily, but it's enough to stop the Ragnarok Connection.
• Near the end of Fullmetal Alchemist, the central villain Father eventually uses a massive-scale alchemy technique to absorb Truth — the setting's God — into his body. Father was never weak to begin with, but Truth is definitely far more powerful. Freeing the souls captured in the ritual's first half, along with repeatedly physical damage, causes Father to lose control and get dragged to hell.
• In the anime adaptation of Granblue Fantasy, an ordinary human merged with the primal beast Celeste, putting its vast powers over death and immortality at his disposal. He used those powers to zombify everyone on the island and sustain himself by eating their souls until he could find and absorb the one person with true immmortality - who had been hidden from sight for a hundred years.
• The Mangekyo Sharingan in Naruto lets the user do this to the Tailed Beasts. Madara and Obito Uchiha used their Rinnegan eyes to do this the Ten Tails. More conventionally, after becoming the Ten Tailed Beast's jinchuuriki, Obito is overwhelmed by its power and his psyche is nearly torn to pieces, but he subdues it through sheer force of will coupled with his love for Rin. Madara, however, has no such difficulties after becoming the Ten Tails' jinchuuriki because they both want the same thing. This then backfires on Madara when he's left completely unprepared for the backstab of Black Zetsu, which allows the Ten Tails' true will, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, to pull a Grand Theft Me on him.
• There was a story arc of Haruhi Suzumiya where someone stole Haruhi's powers.
• Demon Lord Dante: The title demon tricks Ryo into freeing it, then rewards the boy by eating him. But somehow, Ryo's personality survives this, taking over Dante's body and displacing its previous human identity Judas Iscariot.
• In K, the Colorless King tries to hijack the Silver King, who is effectively immortal. It backfires.
• In Koudelka (from Shadow Hearts franchise), the titular character manages to control a Cosmic Horror by hypnotizing herself before she got possessed by that monster, so she could awaken her personality while possesed and assert control. It is as awesome as it sounds.
• The premise of Devilman is that a teenager named Akira hijacks his own Demonic Possession, which gives him full control over the demon Amon's power. His friend Ryu explains that any human can do this if they are able to retain their sense of reason.
• In Soul Eater, Medusa initially planned to make her own Kishin, but decided it (e.g. Crona) was a failure, so she instead releases Asura, the original Kishin. After that, she apparently changed her mind about Crona and decided to try again to make them a Kishin capable of devouring Asura himself, which she finishes with a Thanatos Gambit. All of this For Science!, essentially. Ultimately, Crona is able to eat Asura, but falls victim to Assimilation Backfire soon after.
• In Transformers: Energon, Rodimus and Alpha Q plan to use Unicron to rebuild their home planet. After Megatron seizes control of the head, resulting in Q's death, Shockblast attempts to hijack Unicron himself, but gets stomped.
• Dragon Ball
  • Captain Ginyu manages to steal Goku's body after he proves to be stronger than him. It backfires badly for him since he doesn't know any of Goku's power-up techniques, and his mind and spirit are out-of-sync with Goku's body. He eventually gets stomped by Vegeta and when he tries to steal Vegeta's body, he ends up in the body of a frog.
  • Babidi has a powerful spell that allows him to control the hearts of evil people, turning even the strongest of warriors into his loyal slave. Vegeta, however, proves uncontrollable thanks to his pride and his overwhelming desire to fight Goku no matter the cost.
  • Baby from GT possesses people by laying eggs in their brains after he body surfs. He eventually finds a permanent host in Vegeta and takes over the Earth, leaving only Goku, Pan, Mr. Satan, Uub, and Buu free of Baby's influence.
  • Goku Black is the direct result of this trope. In another timeline, Zamasu used the Super Dragon Balls to swap bodies with Goku, who had attained divine ki and the ludicrously strong transformations to match.
• Belphemon Rage Mode is one of the Seven Great Demon Lords in the Digimon Franchise. In Digimon Data Squad Kurata's plan was originally just to control Belphemon, but when his control device was destroyed he just went ahead and transformed himself into data and hijacked Belphemon instead. Up until that point Belphemon was in the relatively safe "Sleep Mode". Being hijacked transformed him into his fully powered Rage Mode, and at the climax of the fight Kurata's face emerged from his chest to show off just who was in control.

Comic Books

• In a Thor comic book annual, Demogorge the God-Eater, an ancient deity whose very purpose is to destroy gods, is awakened before its time and opposed by an alliance of heroic gods from Earth's various pantheons. He ends up eating them all, but Thor's will is too strong, and not only takes over its body, he forces it to restore all the deities it had already eaten!
• At one time, the Hulk was hypnotized by the Ringmaster.
• Mister Sinister took over the body of one of the Celestial Host, beings with such unfathomable power that one of them has more power than Galactus, through genetic usurping, basically turning him into a god.
• Two instances of this trope occurs in the Green Lantern story arc Wrath of the First Lantern:
  • To defeat the First Lantern Volthoom, Sinestro has the fear entity of the Yellow Sinestro Corps Parallax take control of his body, but since Sinestro has already mastered the aspect of fear, the possession is in favor of Sinestro, who's more-or-less siphoning Parallax's power into himself and literally tears Volthoom's heart out.
  • To soften Volthoom for the kill, Hal Jordan commits suicide, is resurrected by a Black Lantern Ring and becoming part of its Corps, then promptly summons the Black Lantern Corps' entity Nekron, Lord of the Unliving, to destroy Volthoom after ejecting the emotional spectrum from Volthoom.
• Marvel Comics's Annihilation: Conquest kicks off when the (rather Borg-like) alien Phalanx try to assimilate Ultron. His will is so strong that he ends up mentally dominating their whole collective, making them drastically more dangerous than they were already.
• In Final Crisis, a seriously ticked Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, having been forced to see his daughter be stripped of free will via the Anti-Life Equation, seizes control of the entire Justifier supervillain task force by overriding the command line, allowing Lex Luthor the chance to kill Libra and engage Darkseid.
• Kulan Gath's Evil Plan in the first volume of Savage Avengers is to employ his ability to parasitize magical power through cannibalism and systematically usurp the power of Shuma-Gorath by having pieces of it possess hapless humans before devouring them. This weakens it so much that Doctor Strange is forced to euthanize it in an attempt limit the amount of power Gath can achieve. Unfortunately, Gath still acquired enough to Take Over the World and it takes time travel to thwart him.
• 2017's Marvel 2-In-One had Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm end up in an alternate universe where Doctor Doom thwarted The Coming of Galactus by modifying his brain switching technique to swap bodies with the cosmic being. The now human Galan killed himself out of guilt for his actions while Doom upheld his motive of sparing the Earth, but his avarice for power led to him consuming the rest of the universe in turn. This included Earth's entire solar system, requiring an empowered Human Torch to substitute its sun.
• Dark Crisis sees Pariah, the Supporting Protagonist of Crisis on Infinite Earths, bend The Great Darkness, a being that has beaten all of the Angels in heaven(sans Michael and Luficer) while bolstered by half of the demons in hell and repeatedly curbstomped otherwise dominant DC Comics villains like Darkseid, to his will. Pariah proceeds to use The Great Darkness's might to mind control villains Darkseid, Doomsday, Eclipso, Neron, Nekron, Upside Down Man and, naturally, Empty Hand, the traditional strongest villain of DC Comics who traditionally precedes The Great Darkness. Even the Face Turned Ares and traditional strongest DC superhero The Spectre are forced to serve Pariah via The Great Darkness. How does this muggle dominate what these Earth shattering fighters he now commands couldn't hope to compete with themselves? Sheer insanity, to the point Pariah doesn't even realize what he accomplished and assumes The Great Darkness is using him as its Mouth of Sauron, ignoring that it's "telling" him everything he wants to hear/say.
• X-Men: Orbis Stellaris, a villain introduced during the Krakoan Age, seeks to become a Dominion (basically a godlike being outside time and space) via utilizing the cosmic powers. So far, he's managed to override or clone the Progenitors, beings who farm worlds. The last issue of Immortal X-Men reveals he actually nearly did accomplish his goal one time... only to be counter-hijacked by Enigma.
  • Rise of the Powers of X: The first issue has Doctor Stasis brain-fry a Dominion and use its power to try and ascend. At the last second it turns out he himself has been counter-hijacked by Enigma, who possesses the Dominion's corpse and kills Stasis.

Fan Works

• In the The Legend of Zelda fic Wisdom and Courage, Veran manages to seize control of Majora's Mask, though mostly because Majora willingly let her do so because they both want Link dead.
• In Child of the Storm, Strange masterminds an unusual version of this, when Chthon possesses Harry, since neither Chthon nor Harry immediately realises that since Chthon is acting through a mere fragment of his power (albeit one that's still hideously powerful), and Harry's protection came from the Phoenix which his mother bargained with, becoming the White Phoenix of the Crown, Chthon's biting off a lot more than he can chew.
• In Dragons Of Ice And Fire, Euron Greyjoy successfully executes this, playing almost exactly straight to the trope when he summons (via enormous blood-ritual-disguised-as-a-battle) and possesses a kraken over half a mile long..
• In Disney's War — A Crossover Story, the Horned King plays this trope straight in the climax: he gets control of Chernabog's body and powers (becoming the "Horned God"). When he is defeated with a magic sword, Chernabog is restored to his usual self.
• Queen of Blood (SirWill), a Worm/Castlevania crossover, has several moments:
  • The first lines of the story are Dracul's divine mantle of darkness hijacking Taylor's Trigger event, granting her his power instead.
  • It took a long time, but when Dracul, searching through Abbadon's shards, found his Sting shard, he triggered it and caused Abbadon to destroy himself. He did a lesser version of this with Eden, nudging her Queen Administrator shard to screw with Path to Victory just enough to distract her and cause her to crash.
  • During the final battle with Zion, with her blood possession power, Taylor commandeers Eden's brain-dead body and uses it to get close to Zion and stab him while his guard is down. Yes, you read that right: she hijacked an Entity.
• In With this Ring, John Constantine hijacks Klarion's connection to Chaos and becomes a Lord of Chaos.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Lost Tracks of Time, the Big Bad successfully uses the Red Chain on Giratina with the intent to make it absorb enough power to overthrow Arceus.

Films — Animated

• Jafar does this to the Genie in Aladdin.
• In How to Train Your Dragon 2, the Big Bad Drago Bludvist hijacks a monstrous Bewilderbeast◊ to use its force against the protagonists.
• At the climax of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, Plankton mind-controls King Neptune.

Films — Live-Action

• Raiders of the Lost Ark mixes this with Ghostapo, as Those Wacky Nazis' main goal is to find the Ark of the Covenant and control its divine power. This backfires hard after they get their hands on the Ark, as God isn't amused when they finally try to use it.
• Godzilla vs. Kong has Apex Cybernetics and its Corrupt Corporate Executive Walter Simmons attempt this as part of his masterplan to dethrone the Titans as the dominant species on Earth. Using the remains of King Ghidorah's brain, a pilot telepathically controls a giant robot modeled on Godzilla dubbed "MechaGodzilla". Then Simmons gets and uses the same energy the King of Monsters himself uses for nourishment, causing it to go haywire and it's implied to have uploaded some of Ghidorah's mind and personality into the machine itself. The machine's first act after being fully powered up is to kill the idiot in the middle of a villainous monologue before going on to level most of Hong Kong, becoming the true Big Bad of the film.

Literature

• In The Dresden Files:
  • Dead Beat, Harry successfully summons the Erlking, a king of The Fair Folk and one of the most powerful beings in the series, and traps it in the summoning circle. Although he by no means has control of it, he is able to keep it from attacking him or leaving.
  • Harry tops that in Cold Days when he wrests control of The Wild Hunt from the Erlking and Kringle. Although he later realizes that they let him win.
  • Harry goes even further in Battle Ground, where he defeats Ethniu — a Titan more powerful than Mab — in a battle of wills and seals her on Demonreach. This technically puts her under Harry's control, but he admits that it would be a very bad idea to test that.
• In The Wheel of Time, the whole story began with an accidental attempt at this, when researchers in the Age of Legends tried to tap into a massive power source that turned out to be Satan. Whoops. The entire civilization was eventually destroyed.
• Discworld
  • Granny Weatherwax has the ability to "borrow" the minds of living things. Among other more normal targets, she has used this ability on an entire swarm of bees, and a building (Unseen University, to be precise, which is a Genius Loci due to all the magic). Her pupil Eskarina Smith considered trying it on Great A'Tuin, the turtle that carries the world on its back, but decided against it at the last moment because she didn't think she'd be able to get back.
    • Granny Weatherwax also once found a way (through trickery) to partially mind-control a whole legion of vampires, after their leader had seemingly proven himself immune to her powers.
  • Guards! Guards! has Lupine Wonse use a book called The Summoning of Dragons to summon a dragon and control it... but the dragon doesn't stay under his control for long.
  • In Witches Abroad, Mrs Gogol's voodoo works like this: tempt a small god with the promise of believers, let it build its power, bring it to the point where it manifests, and then have a human take control.
• In Guild Wars 2: Edge of Destiny, the Golemancer Snaff enters Kralkatorrik's mind. It's described as a raging storm, but he manages to tame it, leaving Kralkatorrik catatonic. The operation itself fails, but the Battle in the Center of the Mind is won by Snaff.
• In the fourth book of The Stormlight Archive, Taravangian manages to lure out Odium's host, Rayse, and kill him with Nightblood. He then takes over the power left behind, becoming the new Odium.
  • Although Taravangian seems to have control over Odium for now, the immortality granted by godhood means that the Shard has eternity to break his mind. So it's more than possible that he'll eventually realize that Evil Is Not a Toy.

Live-Action TV

• The Angel episode "Carpe Noctem" had an aged sorcerer who could Body Surf, and would take over younger bodies that would eventually burn out. He hijacks Angel's body who, as an immortal vampire, will never burn out. He then tries to do everything in his power to keep this new body.
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid has Big Bad Masamune do a Fusion Dance with intended Final Boss Gamedeus.
• Stranger Things has Vecna take control of a black cloud while banished in the Upside-Down, which gives him the ability to control the entire dimension.
• Ultraman Ginga S has Predecessor Villain Dark Lugiel revived as an unstoppable mindless beast under the control of Excelier. It doesn’t last long, as Lugiel regains his mind and does away with Excelier.

Radio

• Old Harry's Game: Edith is quite possibly the only human who is clever enough to manipulate Satan into doing her bidding.

Tabletop Games

• In Dungeons & Dragons, a character may attempt to control a Sphere of Annihilation with her will (Willpower check). Doing so successfully results in her temporarily controlling a tear in the reality that is capable of destroying pretty much anything in the universe on touch, No Saving Throw allowed.
  • From the same (and its derivative Pathfinder), Dominate Monster. Provided you succeed, you now have complete control over whatever's in front of you, which can be anything from a true dragon to a Hekatonkheires.
  • Also, both systems have the Magic Jar spell.
  • It is also said that every Telepath Psion's goal in life is to true mind switch with a Tarrasque.
  • The ancient arcanist Karsus created the spell Karsus' Avatar specifically for this purpose. Don't look for it in your player's handbook, it was Level 12, and Karsus' attempt to hijack goddess of magic Mystra's power went so poorly that Karsus' Folly (as it became known) caused the fall of the immensely powerful Netherese Empire, and caused Mystra to rework the rules of magic so no one could do it again.
  • The 5th Edition Necromancer eventually gains a power called Command Undead, which lets them control a single undead creature. One of the best targets for this ability is the Nightwalker, a giant undead monstrosity of immense power that's got a low charisma score and thus is unlikely to actually resist the effect and also a low intelligence score which makes the effect permanent until the necromancer uses the ability again.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Lore describes how a Khornate Berserker named Akraghar once jumped onto a Defiler (a giant daemon tank), broke it to his will, and rode it into battle as a steed. The resulting unit is called a Slaughterfiend, and other Khornate Berserkers love to attempt the same thing.
  • Ax'Senaea the Thrice-Possessed is a Daemon Princess whose ego, self-absorption and willpower were such that she managed to summon a daemon (bad idea), bind it inside herself (even worse idea), and do it not just with any daemon but a Keeper of Secrets, among the most powerful entities in warpspace, specializing in seduction and manipulation (equivalent to swallowing kerosene and a lit match)... and succeeded (wait, what?), siphoning away its power to keep herself young. And do so again, twice. The fourth time, Slaanesh hirself elevated her to daemonhood, both out of genuine admiration of her insane devotion to excess and to punish the three Keepers for being defeated by a mere human.
  • This is the concept behind piloting a Titan as well. The pilot, called a Princeps, must link with the Titan and bend its Machine Spirit to their will. This gives them the impression of actually being the Titan, an addictive feeling of power and strength. The trope is also inverted here as any Princeps who stays in command long enough is eventually dominated by the Titan's overpowering spirit. (In this case, Cthulhu hijacks you.)
  • The Radical faction of the Inquisition is characterized by its willingness to use daemonic magics, artifacts and weapons against Chaos itself. While they do get results in the short run, they also commonly get corrupted by Chaos, yet another heretic band to be pursued by their former colleagues (the Puritan faction, which opposes the use of anything Warp-related, tries to solve the problem by working against Radical inquisitors, even if they haven't actually gone rogue yet).
  • Millions of years ago, the Necrons were enslaved as Mecha-Mooks by a group of star-devouring eldritch abominations called the C’tan. They eventually got their revenge by blowing the C’tan to still-sentient pieces and then locking each piece in a separate dimensional prison. In the current era, the Necrons are known to unleash these C’tan shards, technologically shackled to obey their commands, as living weapons of mass destruction. The nominal ruler of the Necron empire, the Silent King, has notably reduced one such shard to a mere power source for his Cool Chair (along with wearing its flayed skin as a cape).
• Mage: The Awakening features this as the modus operandi of the Fangs of Mara, a Left-Handed Legacy. Sworn to fighting the denizens of the Abyss when they plop into reality, the Fangs try to gain the upper hand by traveling into the nightmares of Abyssal entities, in order to find out just what demons fear. Unfortunately, this means casting yourself into the mindscape of something that is anathema to reality on a fundamental level, which can end really badly and is why few people trust them.
• Demon: The Descent paints this as a somewhat noble, if foolhardy, goal of many demons of the Integrator Agenda. They want to return to the God-Machine whose favor they fell from and which is likely hunting them down, which automatically makes most other demons distrust them. However, many of them realize that the God-Machine is probably broken, given its long history of contradictory orders that lead to angels Falling and becoming demons, or the sheer body count of some of its plans. As such, they plan to return to the God-Machine once they've figured out a way to fix it.

Toys

• BIONICLE: Makuta Teridax is the premier example (and inspiration) of this trope. The end goal of his millennia-long plan is to take over the body of Mata Nui. And despite setbacks from damn near every possible adversary, he succeeds, and banishes the mind of Mata Nui to another world while holding the Matoran Universe prisoner within his new body.

Video Games

• Final Fantasy
  • Final Fantasy VII's Big Bad Sephiroth starts out as an Artificial Human infused with the cells of Jenova as a fetus. After his first "death", he assimilates Jenova in an attempt to become her successor. By the time of Advent Children, he is essentially a mass of Jenova cells in the shape of his old body.
  • In Final Fantasy X, this is effectively how the Final Summon works after "destroying" Sin. It takes the body, not the soul of Sin, meaning the one who kills Sin becomes the next Sin.
  • In the Final Fantasy XIV expansion Stormblood, the final boss is Shinryu, an incredibly destructive Primal that Big Bad Zenos yae Galvus has merged with and taken over using his Resonant powers.
• In the Scribblenauts series, the Mind-Control Ray can be used to control powerful beings like Vampires, Cthulhu, Dragons, and the like. Instantly adds the "loyal" adjective to the target. Hypnotic items are even better, since they affect inanimate objects as well. So, you can hijack Cthulhu, a volcano, and basically anything else you please.
• This is a recurring point of contention in Mass Effect 3:
  • The Illusive Man believes he can do this to The Reapers, and use them to bring about humanity's dominance over the galaxy. Despite all his efforts, he ends up indoctrinated by the end of the game.
  • It turns out that this contention is an inevitable part of the Eternal Recurrence of the Cycle of Reaping, as is the faction believing in this possibility falling to Reaper Indoctrination.
  • Commander Shepard can do this in the Control ending, showing that Illusive Man's goal is possible (just not by an Indoctrinee like him). The Extended Cut demonstrates the ramifications of doing this.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: This has been a running theme with Dr. Eggman since Sonic Adventure. It wasn't until Sonic Generations that he actually succeeded without it backfiring. He managed to do it again in Sonic Forces.
• In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Yuga merges with Ganon and manages to remain in control. This may only be because Ganon would have done what Yuga does with his body, anyway, or maybe because Yuga is his Lorulean counterpart, but the fact that a wizard from a world without a Triforce is capable of controlling the possessor of Hyrule's Triforce of Power is impressive regardless.
• By the end of Outlast (and its sequel-in-a-prequel Whistleblower), Miles Upshur has been possessed by the Walrider. At first it seems relatively... ominous, seeing as Miles dies almost immediately after, seemingly letting the Walrider free to start the end of the world. Then Whistleblower comes and shows us that Miles is alive... and has taken control of the Walrider.
• In EarthBound (1994), Pokey Minch ultimately usurps Giygas, who's reduced to a mindless "almighty idiot" and living weapon by the time the heroes arrive to stop him. Even when Giygas is defeated, Pokey escapes through time with all of Giygas's technology and weapons, vowing to return.
• Done to Cthulhu himself in Demonbane, by the organization of evil sorcerors, Black Lodge. The lieutenants fall apart from infighting because, now that they have Cthulhu's power, what do they want to do with it? Rule the world? Become Great Old Ones themselves? Destroy everything? The leader uses Cthulhu as a sacrifice to summon Yog-Sothoth, which was secretly his original goal all along.
• In Shadow Hearts Yuri manages to fuse with Seraphic Radiance, a god incarnated from the soul of the planet. While the entity does manage to partly possess him, he maintains enough control to stop its rampage, and eventually fully reigns it in, rendering it a normal, if powerful, Fusion form. To a lesser extent, he does the same with Amon, one of three gods of destruction, and a number of lesser demons, all of which serve as Fusions for him.
• In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Murray's master, the Guru, takes control of the Kraken and uses his tentacles to help Bentley free Penelope from the prison of a pirate ship.
  • In the previous game, Constable Neyla bonds with the reassembled body of Clockwerk, becoming… Clock-La!
• In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, you play as Soma Cruz, a seemingly-average teenager who mysteriously develops the ability to assimilate the souls of monsters he slays and use their powers, up to and including Death. It's because he's the reincarnation of Dracula.
  • In the Iga-approved follow-up novel, "Akumajō Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku"; Count Orlox controls Chaos itself via a complicated scheme. This offends Death so much it is willing to save the good guys in order to stop him.
• In The Elder Scrolls, this has happened to some of the series' divine beings, the Aedra and the Daedra, at different times in history. To note:
  • The Aedra ("our ancestors" in Old Aldmeris) were the et'Ada ("original spirits") who sacrificed a significant portion of their divine power during the creation of Mundus, the mortal plane. Worshiped throughout much of Tamriel as the Eight (later Nine) Divines, they have been "tampered with", so to speak, by mortals. The most significant of these events are known as "Dragon Breaks", where something (usually mortals using some sort of divine implements) tampers with Akatosh, the draconic God of Time, leading to a Time Crash with a dose of Reality-Breaking Paradox. The most significant Dragon Break is known as the "Middle Dawn", during which, for a period of 1008 years^note measured using the phases of Nirn's two moons, which are said to be the decaying "flesh divinity" of the "dead" creator god and were thus unaffacted in the 1st Era, Reality Was Out To Lunch. Bizarre and impossible events occurred during this time; people gave birth to their own parents, some sources mention wars and major events which never happened according to other sources, the sun changed color depending on the witness, and the gods either walked among the mortals or they didn't. Another occurred at the conclusion of the events of Daggerfall following the activation of the Reality Warping Humongous Mecha Lost Superweapon known as the Numidium. Akatosh fixed this one by having the timelines (and thus, Daggerfall's mutually exclusive Multiple Endings) recombine violently, with all of the events having occurred at once, but none to the same extent they would have individually.
  • This can also occur to the Daedric ("not our ancestors") Princes, who are the et'Ada who did not make any sacrifices during the creation of Mundus and thus, maintain their full divine power. However, due to their greater power, it usually takes another divine entity (like another Daedric Prince) to cause this. To note:
    • The Daedric Prince Malacath came into being when the Daedric Prince Boethiah "ate" the Aedric spirit Trinimac, twisted Trinimac in his belly, and then "excreted" him as Malacath. (Malacath himself somewhat confirms this, but also complains that the story is far too "literal minded".)
    • The Daedric Prince Jyggalag was feared by the other Princes for his growing power, so they came together and trapped him in the form of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Sheogorath would later devise a means to pass the mantle of Sheogorath onto the mortal Champion Of Cyrodiil, freeing Jyggalag once again.
    • Alduin the World Eater, the draconic Beast of the Apocalypse and "first born" of Akatosh, is tasked with "eating" the world at the end of every kalpa, or cycle of time, so that it can be remade. When he discovered that a lowly and friendly "demon" was saving pieces of the old worlds, he cursed that demon to become an Omnicidal Maniac hell bent on destroying all that he had saved from the old worlds (which, Alduin presumes, he will never be able to actually accomplish, adding to his fury). That demon's name? Mehrunes Dagon, now the Daedric Prince of Destruction.
• Several individuals and factions within The Secret World want to seize control of the Dreamers; of course, given that the consequences of just one of the Sleeping Ones awakening are truly apocalyptic in proportion, this almost never works.
  • The Orochi Group has its Prometheus Initiative set up for this very reason: technically, they only want to control the Gaia Engines that keep the Dreamers imprisoned, believing that they can use them as a source of limitless energy.
  • Lilith wants the Dreamers enslaved to her will in order to create a new and better world. Every single one of her attempts has ended in dismal failure, either due to someone stepping in at the last minute - or the whole mess blowing up in her face. In one case, it ended so badly that one of the Dreamers waking up just long enough to end the world.
  • The Nephilim want to harness the Dreamers as well, though they at least have the advantage of having apparently created the Gaia Engines in the first place.
  • Samael wanted to do this, but he lost his nerve after seeing Lilith screw the pooch.
  • Later on, it's revealed that a successful variation of this has occurred: the Gaia Engines not only keep the Dreamers imprisoned, but they are also capable of harnessing their powers for short periods of time - just long enough to save the world from apocalyptic disasters. Unfortunately, that particular function's beginning to break down after four consecutive resets, and it might not work anymore.
• In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Extra Story mode, if your instructor is Captain Ginyu during the Future Trunks arc of the DLC, he pulls off his body-swap technique on Goku Black, thoroughly derailing the villains' plan in a move that is both awesome and funny.
• In Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack's ultimate plan is to break into a Vault on Pandora to hijack an immensely powerful Eridian war beast known as the Warrior and use it to wipe out all hostile life on Pandora.
  • In Borderlands 3, Tyreen Calypso's goal is to open up the Vaults and slay the monsters protecting them to hijack their powers using her ability to leech energy from living things. This is to help her in her final goal, which is to open up the Great Vault on Pandora so that Tyreen can consume the Destroyer and become a god.
• This is par for the course for the villains in the Pokémon games. The majority of the time, the villain's plans involve enslaving that game's Legendary Pokémon for some nefarious purpose.
• At the end of the fifth Lostbelt in Fate/Grand Order, the Foreign God tasks one of her disciples to find her a new body: ORT, the Ultimate One of the Oort Cloud and one of the strongest beings in the solar system. Her appearance in the seventh Lostbelt is with the intention of carrying this out. Ultimately, her plans are sabotaged thanks to Daybit Sem Void, the local Crypter, having his Servant tear out the Foreign God's heart after she's knocked unconscious and implant it into his own body, before sacrificing himself to awaken ORT. Thanks to ORT's Cannibalism Superpower, its absorption of the Foreign God's heart allows it to adapt to her, meaning that had she tried to hijack ORT she'd be the one assimilated by it instead.
• Mortal Kombat 1: After the main story is over, Reiko's Arcade ending has General Shao crossing the Godzilla Threshold after defeats by Kitana's army, and he reluctantly sends Reiko on the impossible mission of taming Onaga. While Reiko is almost certain he will die in the attempt, and there's no word from him about the outcome, General Shao has pre-battle dialogue that suggests the Dragon King was successfully brought to heel.

Webcomics

• Homestuck:
  • The Condesce has, among other powers, the ability to control animals. She uses this ability to mind-control GCat, a powerful Reality Warper Physical God in the form of a cat, and Jade, who had gained the canine traits and reality-warping powers of her dog Becquerel. Things go pear-shaped for the heroes very soon after that.
  • Far earlier, Tavros mind-controlled Becquerel and made him teleport a speeding bullet from "towards Jade" to "towards the adult intruder on her lawn". Unfortunately, troll culture is unfamiliar with the concept of children being raised by their parents, and the "intruder" was actually her Grandpa.
  • To a lesser and/or greater degree, Aranea can control the clock(s) in charge of choosing whether God Tiers will revive or not. From a different universe. Which, again, means Her Imperious Condescension can probably do the same (and Vriska, though hers seems to be weaker).
• Black Mage from 8-Bit Theater absorbs FIVE Cthulhus. One of whom was himself.

Web Original

• During the final arc of Critical Role's second campaign, the Mighty Nein believe that Lucien's plan is to join the Somnovem and become a part of the city of Cognouza, ruling together. However, when the time finally comes, Lucien pulls out a Fantastic Nuke, explains that the Somnovem are too childish and bat-shit insane to be allowed to rule, and blows them up, taking the reigns of Cognouza himself.
• Fallen Kingdom:
  • In "Dragonhearted", the King is able to turn the tides of battle by doing the impossible and taming the Ender Dragon.
  • In the prequel, "Rising Kingdom", the King similarly saves his own life by taming a Warden to fight against the other Warden pursuing him.
• In the Hitler Rants parody Hitler becomes a Wizard, the titular character acquires a powerful magic wand. To prove to his generals that magic exists, Hitler even goes as far as to summon Cthulhu, commanding him to lay waste to Berlin.
• In the SCP Foundation, this is the ultimate goal of SCP-035. It's an Evil Mask that secretes a highly corrosive liquid that prevents it from keeping a host. It wants to take over SCP-682. Obviously, the Foundation doesn't want this, so it's taken to Mind Raping the personnel assigned to it.
  • A benevolent example: One of the short fiction pieces has the Foundation attempt to use SCP-963 to overwrite SCP-682's mind with that of Dr. Bright. This fails.
    • Fridge Horror: considering what Dr. Bright is, this might be for the best.
  • This is an essential part of Sarkic religious dogma. To oversimplify things, Sarkicists believe in an Almighty Idiot who destroys life as routine and creates new life as a side-effect. Sarkicism is at its core an attempt to parasitize this deity (which is the source of their fleshcrafting power) in an attempt to weaken and potentially kill it so it can't destroy universes any more.

Western Animation

• At one point in Transformers: Animated, Megatron and Starscream take turns at the wheel of Omega Supreme.
• In South Park, Cartman acts cute to manipulate the actual Cthulhu into helping him trample his enemies, namely his former team Coon and Friends, and anything else Cartman hates (like hippies for example).
  The Coon: I'm makin' the world a better place!
  Mysterion: For you! You're making the world a better place for you!
  The Coon: ...riiight, that's what superheroes do.
• In the The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "Little Rock of Horrors", a brain-eating alien monster with a familiar singing voice has been spending the whole episode being fed by Billy. When Mandy confronts it, it sucks out her brain... but it painfully dies off and its aura immediately changes to resemble Mandy. Her only explanation is that her brain was too "spicy" for him.
  • Let's not forget the fact that Billy and Mandy control the Grim Reaper himself, and torture him every day with their dominance of him (what with Billy's stupid demands and Mandy's enslavement).
  • Nergal also manages to mind control Grim into being his friend in his second appearance.
• Ben 10: Ultimate Alien:
  • Vilgax ends up as The Dragon to Diagon, a Cthulhu expy. That lasted as long as it took Vilgax to have his Dragon drop by with some special equipment, at which point he absorbed Diagon and took his power.
  • In the first season, Aggreggor's master plan is to use his absorption powers on a newborn Celestialsapien, giving him god-like powers without the normal drawback of a Celestialsapien (since its mind hadn't developed yet, he wouldn't be hindered by needing agreement with the other personalities to actually use the powers).
• This is the entire point of the Kur Stone in The Secret Saturdays. Zak has this as a power. It's not a coincidence.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's Season 4 finale, Lord Tirek convinces the more-powerful Discord to invoke Villain Team-Up... at least until Tirek Level Grinds his Mana Drain ability enough to work on Discord — after which, it's "You Have Outlived Your Usefulness" time.
• Subverted in the Secret Wars arc of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Dr. Doom forcibly fuses himself with the Beyonder, gaining all of his godlike powers. After the heroes managed to separate the two, the Beyonder revealed he was actually in control of said fusion, but allowed Dr. Doom to use his powers as a way to test Spider-Man.
• Gargoyles has a magic ritual that allows a human to become an avatar of a member of the Third Race. This means that they can forcibly merge with an immortal, magically powerful being, including those literally worshipped as gods, to use their abilities to their own ends.
• In the penultimate and season finale episodes of Season 1 of What If…? (2021), in a universe where the rogue A.I. Ultron was able to possess the body that would have become The Vision, and later on acquire the complete set of the Infinity Stones in order to engage in universal genocide, that universe's Black Widow and Hawkeye planned to use a copy of the A.I. consciousness of HYDRA scientist Arnim Zola to invade and destroy Ultron himself from within. Their plan only failed because, by the time they found Zola, Ultron had already discovered the existence of the Multiverse and was fighting Uatu outside of that universe. Luckily, the plan was revived during the battle between Infinity Ultron and the Guardians of the Multiverse and here, it succeeded. Zola was uploaded to Ultron's synthroid body via a USB arrow to the eye and proceeded to "delete" him entirely, though this opened the way for Zola to possess the vacant body and attempt to take control of the Infinity Stones. Fortunately, a foreseen betrayal by one of the Guardians, a Variant of Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, allowed for Uatu and Strange Supreme to imprison the both of them in a pocket dimension and eliminate the threat entirely.
• In the Grand Finale of The Owl House, Belos pulls a Demonic Possession on the Titan's heart, taking all its power for himself. This covers his palace in a decaying filth that takes the form of a twisted version of the Titan, which Belos uses to start destroying the Boiling Isles. Fortunately, the Titan's spirit passes the last of its power onto Luz, giving her the strength to defeat him.

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