History Main / ICanRuleAlone

** While Anakin does offer [[WeCanRuleTogether to make Padme his Empress]] in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', with his powers and her lack thereof, it's pretty obvious who'd have been doing all the ''real'' ruling if she'd accepted his offer, and he also goes so far as to tell her about his plans to overthrow his master Palpatine and rule the galaxy himself. The movie takes this trope to extremes as Emperor Palpatine is well aware of his apprentice's ambitions and even boasts to Yoda that he's certain Darth Vader will one day be even more powerful than himself.
** About fifty years later in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', [[spoiler: Anakin's grandson Kylo Ren ends up defaulting to this after Rey turns down his WeCanRuleTogether offer for the second time. After their falling-out and her departure, he then has to deal with General Hux, who was his political equal in the chain of command while Snoke was still alive and doesn't want to take orders from him. One ForceChoke later (to remind Hux who's got all the real power now that Snoke is dead), Kylo Ren has completely secured his KlingonPromotion and is the First Order's new Supreme Leader.]]
* After he discovers the conspiracy in ''Film/TheyLive'', Nada is offered two chances to join the aliens. However both times they either don't mean it, or it's not really plausible. The two aliens disguised as cops are only making the offer to get Nada to a quiet place where they can kill him, and [[spoiler:Holly]] offering it at the end would never work out, since at this point Nada had already killed dozens of aliens and would obviously be killed in retaliation.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'': [[BigBad Ronan]] spends most of the movie trying to retrieve [[MacGuffin the Orb]] for [[GreaterScopeVillain Thanos]] in exchange for the latter destroying Xandar for him. However, when Ronan realizes that the Orb contains [[spoiler: an Infinity Stone]], he decides to keep it and destroy Xandar himself, and [[TheStarscream destroy Thanos]] as well for good measure. In this case it wasn't so much Thanos and Ronan ruling together as having a bargain that Ronan decides he no longer needs to bother with.
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'': [[spoiler:Ego]] wants Peter to join him in his AssimilationPlot. When Peter refuses, [[spoiler:Ego]] declares he can just use Peter as a living battery for a few thousand years and see if he changes his mind after that.

** In the ''[[VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith Revenge of the Sith]]'' videogame, one of the the endings has Anakin/Vader killing Obi-Wan on Mustafar, then subsequently killing Palpatine to take control of the Empire.

* ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood'' game allows to choose this trope as one of its endings. Either you kick out the villain and take the crown for yourself, or rescue the legitimate king.

* Inverted and subverted in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' where Sindri is almost backstabbed by [[spoiler:Brother-Librarian Isador]] for this reason but is quite ready for the attempt and betrays [[spoiler:Isador]] first.
* Near the end of ''VideoGame/{{Dragon Quest|I}}'', the [[BigBad Dragonlord]] gives you the standard WeCanRuleTogether offer. If you accept it, he tells you "take a long, long rest." Cue the [[NonstandardGameOver red text]]...

* One of the possible ending choices in ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', depending on choices you make in the game. Depending on the contacts you made throughout you have varying levels of success with the aftermath - up to and including changing the entire course of global politics.

* This is the fourth possible ending in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and can be either good or bad depending upon your actions throughout the game. The more people you helped the smoother the transition of power becomes in the ending montage and the people are more likely to accept you as their new ruler.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkMessiah'', this is one of Sareth's options. Xana will actually advise you to do this instead of freeing the Demon Sovereign, since by that point she'd rather follow your lead than his. Or she just finds you more manipulable.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', this was the ultimate fate of Ner'zhul, Arthas took up the throne of the Lich King and killed the last of his humanity. Ner'zhul intended for the two to rule as two minds in one body, Arthas didn't feel like sharing the throne and killed him too, merging their personalities with Arthas' as the dominant one.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', this basically sums up [[spoiler:Majestic-12's intentions. As an offshoot of the Illuminati, its main leaders in Bob Page and Walton Simmons basically intend to usurp power to become the ultimate MegaCorp over all other corporations and secret organizations around the world which have previously been working together to hold global domination via their Gray Death.]]

* In a Genocide run of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', Flowey seems perfectly happy to rule together with you even if he's subordinate. In fact, towards the end he states he wouldn't mind just living a peaceful life with you and not even ruling at all. When you make it clear that your objective is to kill ''everything'', he realizes that he's no exception, so he makes a very brief HeelFaceTurn and tries to warn Asgore about you, and tries to rejoin you when that fails, insisting he can be useful to you. [[spoiler:It takes you eight stabs to reduce his physical body to dust.]]

Alternatively, the offered FaceHeelTurn was merely [[SecretTestOfCharacter a test]] of the hero's trustworthiness. If the offer is accepted the villain betrays the former hero either because the villain [[EvenEvilHasStandards has a code of honor]] that demands [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves traitors be punished]], or simply because the villain [[PragmaticVillainy knows]] better than to trust the [[NoHonorAmongThieves kind of person]] who would betray all of their closest companions for personal gain.

* Used in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': After Eris slips up during her WeCanRuleTogether speech to Mandy, and says, "You'll be the ''second'' most powerful person on Earth," Mandy declines, saying only ''she'' can be the most powerful.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', ComicBook/RedSkull turns his son into a creature of immense power, Electro, and then proceeds to expand on how he is now going to conquer the world with Electro by his side. Electro asks why he should stand by anybody's side when he is the one with all the power, zaps his surprisingly [[GenreBlindness unsavvy]] daddy, and takes off to claim the world for himself. Except the Skull is CrazyPrepared enough to have a plan in the event of such a betrayal.\\
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His son also brings up the point that the Red Skull risked his life in the experiment. The Red Skull dismisses his son's complaints, saying that the risk was "minimal". This didn't exactly endear him to Electro.

** Kyle Katarn in the dark side ending for ''VideoGame/JediKnight'', as mentioned above.
** Likewise in ''VideoGame/JediAcademy's'' dark side ending, Jaden Korr will kill Tavion and take the Scepter of [[SealedEvilInACan Ragnos]] for him/herself. It's not a case of betrayal; (s)he declares his/her intentions clearly after falling to the Dark Side, so the player fights most of the same battles either way.
** ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' has one of the surviving Jedi tell Starkiller, "The Sith always betray one another. But I'm sure you'll learn that soon enough." And indeed, not long after that Vader turns on his secret apprentice. Vader's ''other'' secret apprentice, from a manga storyline, was killed when the Emperor found out about him. Compared to Starkiller, though, little [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tao Tao]] comes off as something of a MoralityPet which Vader was not allowed to keep.
** In the ''Revenge of the Sith'' videogame, one of the the endings has Anakin/Vader killing Obi-Wan on Mustafar, then subsequently killing Palpatine to take control of the Empire.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': [[BigBad Ronan]] spends most of the movie trying to retrieve [[MacGuffin the Orb]] for [[GreaterScopeVillain Thanos]] in exchange for the latter destroying Xandar for him. However, when Ronan realizes that the Orb contains [[spoiler: an Infinity Stone]], he decides to keep it and destroy Xandar himself, and [[TheStarscream destroy Thanos]] as well for good measure. In this case it wasn't so much Thanos and Ronan ruling together as having a bargain that Ronan decides he no longer needs to bother with.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSuffering : Ties That Bind'', Blackmore encourages Torque to kill Jordan, despite the fact that she's his most powerful ally and the two have a WeCanRuleTogether moment in the game's evil ending if you ignore him and spare her. Then again, this may simply be because Blackmore has zero impulse control.

* In a KillEmAll run of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', Flowey seems perfectly happy to rule together with you even if he's subordinate. In fact, towards the end he states he wouldn't mind just living a peaceful life with you and not even ruling at all. When you make it clear that your objective is to kill ''everything'', he realizes that he's no exception, so he makes a very brief HeelFaceTurn and tries to warn Asgore about you, and tries to rejoin you when that fails, insisting he can be useful to you. [[spoiler:It takes you eight stabs to reduce his physical body to dust.]]