Basic Trope: A villain who doesn't care about the amount of destruction they cause, as long as they end up taking over the world.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz master plan to take over the world involves the destruction of an entire city and the mass slaughter of its people.
- Exaggerated: Dystopia Justifies the Means, where Evulz explicitly wants to lead the dystopia.
- Downplayed:
- Evulz plan involves a little bit of destruction and not as many people getting killed.
- Utopia Justifies the Means, where Evulz is willing to go to additional lengths to lead the utopia above and beyond creating it.
- Justified:
- Evulz is a sociopath with a lot of power in his hands.
- Evulz wishes to destroy the "old world" and start his empire anew in what remains.
- There are practical merits to wanting to take over the world (as opposed to destroying it or creating suffering just because).
- Power is attractive in more ways than one, and Evulz wants to enjoy that.
- Inverted:
- Emperor Evulz wants to abdicate his position as world leader and does not care that it will lead to a world war.
- Emperor Evulz wants to topple the government to bring about an anarchy, simply because he dislikes the government and power.
- Subverted:
- It was a ruse to distract from his real plan to ransom the UN.
- Evulz has plans for stopping collateral damage.
- Double Subverted:
- ...Which in turn was a distraction from his actual plans to take over the world.
- But he doesn't care when they fail.
- Parodied: Evulz wants to take over the world just because it's the thing to do.
- Zig Zagged: Evulz suffers serious Motive Decay that means his plans change a lot.
- Averted: Evulz does not want to take over the world.
- Enforced: The writers want to make Evulz out as pure evil.
- Lampshaded: "Why do villains always want to take over the world? And why do they never care what happens afterward?"
- Invoked: The Corrupter suggests to Evulz that he needs power over the world, no matter the cost.
- Exploited: The Starscream plans to assassinate Evulz and convince the people he will be more benevolent.
- Defied: Evulz creates plans to prevent collateral damage from the outset.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz isn't the only one who wants to rule the world, and isn't the only one willing to go to extreme measures to do so. Anytime anyone looks like they might take over the world, the joint efforts of evil overlords takes them out within a week. The goal of ruling the world becomes unattainable.
- Because Evulz just wanted to rule the world for the power involved, when he actually gets power he doesn't know what to do with it and finds the minutia of it boring.
- Reconstructed: However, the joint effort of the overlords allows them to install a nominally neutral puppet leader that can at least help to keep order. They then work behind the scenes to influence the puppet and effectively control the world. This is much less bloody (though no less sinister).
- Implied: Evulz is a Hidden Agenda Villain, but the snippets we get suggest he wants to rule people, and he doesn't care what it takes.
Back to Despotism Justifies the Means
