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Anime & Manga
"To love is to control. I love everything. I rule everything."
—Quinella, Sword Art Online
Comic Strips
Calvin: Dad, what's a control freak?
Calvin's Dad (a patent attorney): That's what lazy, slipshod, careless, cut-corner workers call anyone who cares enough to do something right.
Calvin: Am I in the presence of their king? Should I kneel?
Calvin's Dad: If anything works in this world, it's because one of us took charge.
Calvin's Dad (a patent attorney): That's what lazy, slipshod, careless, cut-corner workers call anyone who cares enough to do something right.
Calvin: Am I in the presence of their king? Should I kneel?
Calvin's Dad: If anything works in this world, it's because one of us took charge.
Films — Animated
"You should not exist outside my control."
—Brainiac to Superman, Superman Unbound
"I decide what everyone deserves!"
—King Magnifico, Wish (2023)
Films — Live-Action
"You don't care about anything except you. You just want to persuade people that you love 'em so much that they ought to love you back. Only you want love on your own terms. Something to be played your way, according to your rules."
—Jebediah Leland to Charles Foster Kane, Citizen Kane
"You wanna live on top, you gotta live Cocteau's way. What he wants, when he wants, how he wants. Your other choice: Come down here, maybe starve to death."
—Edgar Friendly on Dr. Raymond Cocteau, Demolition Man
Dr. Raymond Cocteau: I hadn't counted on this, but I must say, you worked out beautifully. People are terrified of you.
Simon Phoenix: What's new? People have always been terrified of me.
Cocteau: Yes, but this time, the're really intimidated. Now I'll have carte blanche to create the perfect society. My society. San Angeles will be a beacon of order with the purity of an ant colony. And the beauty of a flawless pearl.
Simon Phoenix: What's new? People have always been terrified of me.
Cocteau: Yes, but this time, the're really intimidated. Now I'll have carte blanche to create the perfect society. My society. San Angeles will be a beacon of order with the purity of an ant colony. And the beauty of a flawless pearl.
"I tell you what to think and when to think!"
—Buddy to Poet, Hells Angels on Wheels
"If only you knew how mean she really is... You'd know that I'm not allowed to wear hoop earrings, right? Yeah! Two years ago she told me hoops earrings were *her* thing and I wasn't allowed to wear them anymore. And then for Hannakuh my parents got this pair of really expensive white gold hoops and I had to pretend like I didn't even like them and... it was so sad."
—Gretchen Wieners on Regina George, Mean Girls
"I'm the master, and you're the puppet!"
—Neil Gallagher, Puppet Master
"Power is a fragile thing. It tolerates no threat. Defiance must be met with an example of the wages of defiance."
—Senator Ethan Roark, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
"You eat when we say you eat. You piss when we say you piss, and you shit when we say you shit. You got that, you maggot dick motherfucker?"
—Captain Byron Hadley, The Shawshank Redemption
Literature
This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation. [...]
I still don't see what that has to do with catchin' birds.
The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I'd have them all in zoos.
Live-Action TV
"I administer "Kamen Rider Chronicle" from now on...and will be the judge of your fates. I set the rules of this world."
"There's no one who can go against me, the controller of lives."
Music
"The rule of the land, it's so crucial to obey
Believe in yourself, or you won't be appreciated!
Don't you overthink it, just do what I say!
Lay the politics out before me
Whatever it takes to get my glory, glory"
Believe in yourself, or you won't be appreciated!
Don't you overthink it, just do what I say!
Lay the politics out before me
Whatever it takes to get my glory, glory"
—CG5, "Lonely King"
Tabletop Games
Effectively a virus born of a deep-seated need for control, the Allmother can be anyone or anything: when individuals vanish from Thule, she replaces them with copies that are pieces of herself, acting as she wishes the individual would have acted and doing what she believes they ought to do. Although it is possible her original simulacrum still lies in wait within the secret staircases and passageways of Highsalt, one is far more likely to encounter her as a smiling baker, a curious child, a cat that follows one a bit too closely for a bit too long. Truly, she could be anybody, and one would never know until it was far too late. By murdering and replacing the residents of Thule as she sees fit, she believes she is doing them a service, making their lives better as they surrender control to someone far more fit to make decisions.
Using her skill at deception, [Bette] establishes herself as some sort of guru. And with the right words, the right smile, the right suggestions at the right moment, she can change lives. Under her direction, hopeless losers can learn to dress and talk and act the way they should. That is to say, the way Bette thinks they should.
Except it never quite works: at some point, her “toys” always resist her domination. The model decides that her new makeover isn’t the look she wants. The actor decides his new agent is pushing him in the wrong direction. The couple decides their therapist isn’t helping them work out their problems. And that’s when Bette’s old tantrums come back, and she decides it’s time to find something else to play with. Eventually the FBI gets another call: more bodies were found, carefully dressed, hair fashionably styled, make-up perfect, and next to each corpse, a doll dressed and styled in exactly the same way. But by then, the Dollmaker has moved on.
—Hunter: The Vigil: Slasher
Video Games
"There are many things in your world that I loathe: litters of kittens, chattering children, the noise and the chaos of it all. In my world — in my HOUSE — there is order, and there is decorum. You came here uninvited, and you stole from me. In doing so, you brought the CHAOS of your world into mine! I will not abide it!"
— Raphael, Baldur's Gate III
"Odin is extremely clever, you see. Nearly as clever as he thinks he is. And he's a collector of prophecies. If it's about the future, he adds it to his collection. Helps him style himself as all seeing and all knowing. But of course the idea is control. Control of the future, control of his fate... he'd control every realm of every land in every world if he could. Every potential pocket of resistance he seeks to eliminate. Even if you've never posed a threat before... he may think one day you might. So you see... it's not important how he knew before you did - it's important that he was right."
—Mimir, God of War (PS4)
"I was like an ornament to my mother. Wearing whatever she told me to wear, acting however she wanted me to act..."
— Gladion, Pokémon Sun and Moon
"Oh, don't you worry. You just leave everything up to me. Trust me—children would all be much happier if they'd only listen to the adults around them."
— Lusamine, Pokémon Sun and Moon
Visual Novels
I like everything to run smoothly, in the exact manner that I prescribe. Like a well-oiled machine.
— Mael Stronghart, The Great Ace Attorney
Web Animation
You're not leaving Atlas. You're not to leave the manor grounds unless I specifically allow it. You are going to remain here, out of sight and out of trouble, until you and I come to an agreement on your future.
—Jacques Schnee to Weiss, RWBY
Webcomics
Tarquin: As I've said before, procedure matters.
Elan: But the safety of the world —
Tarquin: — is meaningless if everyone is going to run around doing whatever they feel like, without regard for proper story structure. There must be some sense of order — personal, political, or dramatic — and if no one else is going to bring it to this world, I will.
Elan: But the safety of the world —
Tarquin: — is meaningless if everyone is going to run around doing whatever they feel like, without regard for proper story structure. There must be some sense of order — personal, political, or dramatic — and if no one else is going to bring it to this world, I will.
Western Animation
I have opinions about everything. And if I'm not in control at all times, I'll go crazy. It's actually kind of exhausting.
— Sasha Waybright, Amphibia, "Battle of the Bands"
Your party planner has arrived with the bubble machine. Chaos is over. Order begins. You, cards on every table, color-coded by age, gender and cake preference. You with the funny hair, these banners should be all five feet from the ground. You, nail-biter, make sure all the utensils are parallel to each other. Step to it, people!
— Amanda Lopez, Milo Murphy's Law
