Basic Trope: Someone controls an entire planet.
- Straight: After a series of bloody wars, The Emperor Rulus manages to Take Over the World and become its supreme dictator.
- Exaggerated: Rulus controls everything on the planet down to the atomic level, including every living creature through Mind Control, or perhaps More than Mind Control.
- Downplayed:
- Rulus doesn't control everything, just the major cities, the central government, the military, the banking system, the media...
- Rulus is leader of a single colonial settlement on a frontier planet.
- Justified:
- Rulus has mind-boggling power and/or wealth, and the planet is fairly small and underpopulated.
- (for exaggerated) Rulus is the VR-Avatar of the owner of the computer the planet exists within.
- Inverted: Rulus only has power over the cardboard box he's living in.
- Subverted: Despite his fervent claims to the contrary, Rulus doesn't have much power over planetary affairs. His position is more of a "retirement package" than anything else.
- Double Subverted: He's not satisfied with what he has and starts bargaining with and tricking the other people who have some influence on the planet to wrest their power for himself.
- Parodied: Whenever someone complains about his leadership, Rulus gestures to the giant "PROPERTY OF" sign floating in orbit.
- Zig-Zagged: Rulus controls the planet, but not its people, and they're very upset about being his glorified servants. His ham-fisted efforts to manage them only result in further rebellions, resulting in a massive upheaval that leaves him king of a small number of fanatics on a backwater island. Enough to start again...
- Averted: Rulus is the king of one nation, nothing more.
- Enforced: It's your standard RPG …IN SPACE!, with planets serving as the cities.
- Lampshaded: The entire planet is one enormous Company Town.
- Invoked: The One World Order is fairly easy to subvert.
- Exploited: Rulus puts his planet's resources to good use to become a Galactic Conqueror in record time.
- Defied: Rulus is just one tinpot ruler in a world full of tinpot rulers, each of them vying for territory.
- Discussed: Rulus talks frequently about how he took up the position of planetary overlord unwillingly for the sake of the people.
- Conversed: The people constantly gripe about Rulus, always comparing him negatively to the last despot.
- Implied: Rulus holds a title that undersells just how much power he really has.
- Deconstructed: Everybody wants to rule the world, but no one really can. Rulus is almost immediately overwhelmed physically and mentally trying to manage an uncountable number of polities on a daily basis, since no matter how much political power he has, he's only human.
- Reconstructed: To rule alone and uncontested, Rulus decides to become more than human, with terrifying results.
- Played for Laughs: Rulus is comically inept as a leader.
- Played for Drama: Rulus is a ruthless, hypercompetent dictator who extracts every nickel he can from the world, and the people styling themselves as La Résistance can't get their act together and work together to unseat him.
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