Showing content from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InTheirOwnImage below:
Website Navigation
In Their Own Image - TV Tropes
"And then I, Grodus, will build a new world! A perfect, ideal world... Yes. A world made by me, about me, and for me!"
So things aren't going too well for this character. Maybe they want to turn over a new leaf. Maybe they want to start their life anew. Instead, maybe they don't want to half-ass it, they want to make all life anew. Or, they could just be a power-hungry Card-Carrying Villain out to satisfy their immense narcissism. Either way, this character gets the bright idea to remake the entire world In Their Own Image.
How this is done can vary. They can try to go back to the beginning of time, or a foundational event in the timeline, because their mere presence or actions will Make Wrong What Once Went Right. Lacking access to such a thing, designating a point in time at which the world will start to revolve around the subject will suffice. They can seek to gain a powerful artifact that can alter the world as they like and go from there. They can be a Godhood Seeker aiming to use their powers to make the world they want. Or they can go full-on Omnicidal Maniac and make a new world for themselves from scratch.
Usually the result, should they succeed, is some form of Villain World.
Compare "End of the World" Special when it is the protagonists who remake the world on their (generally better) terms.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Digimon Fusion:
- Bagramon wants to remake both the human world and the Digital World in his image in an event that he calls D5. D5 is short for Dimension Deletion and Deadly Destruction Day.
- Collecting all 108 Code Crowns allows anyone to do this to the Digital World. When Taiki gets all of them, the zones merge and everyone who died over the course of the series is purified and given a second chance at life. Bagramon modified the Code Crowns so that he could remake the human world as well.
- Dragon Ball Super: Regardless of all of their Motive Rants about justice, it's clear that this is the endgame of each version of Zamasu; by wiping out all mortals and gods, they'll create their own vision of paradise. It's especially blatant with Goku Black and Future Zamasu; they constantly go on about how they're doing the gods' justice and making a new world "by gods, for gods", and since they're the only ones left in Future Trunks' timeline, it basically translates to their new world being "by Zamasu, for Zamasu". In the manga, Fusion Zamasu takes it even further when he completely drops the "justice" angle and declares his intent to slaughter everyone across every timeline who isn't a version of himself, god and mortal alike. Infinite Zamasu takes this to extremes; by becoming one with the Future Trunks timeline, he succeeded in creating a multiverse where only Zamasu exists... because he is the multiverse.
- This is the plan of the Big Bad Pucci in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean; to reset the universe and create a world where everybody knows their own destiny (also, the Joestars won't exist, but that's more Avenging the Villain).
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, this seems to be the goal of Kriemhild Gretchen, the enormously powerful Witch that Madoka will become if she falls into despair. The implications are horrifying enough to overlap with Omnicidal Maniac, because her desire is ultimately to swallow up the Universe into the chaotic Labyrinth that exists within herself, which she believes to be a paradise because it is free of suffering. Thankfully, she is destroyed by the protagonist's wish, which triggers the destruction and reconstruction of the Universe, but in a way more akin to an "End of the World" Special.
- At the end of Transformers: Cybertron, this becomes Galvatron's goal. He seeks to send the multiverse ending Black Hole into overdrive to destroy everything, using the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys to survive the end of the universe, then rebuild it as he sees fit.
Comic Books
- The DCU:
- In Action Comics #19 "Superman and the Purple Plague", the Ultra-Humanite is trying to exterminate the human race, so it won't compete with a new race of his design he plans to release on the Earth. Only Superman is immune to his plague but no freak of nature will stop Ultra-Humanite from achieving his goals (and he's right, pharmaceutical worker Henry Travers stops him)
- The Anti-Monitor does this in Crisis on Infinite Earths after his original plans to destroy all universes are defeated by superheroes. He is stopped again, but random changes (most notably the elimination of all parallel Earths) happen as a result.
- The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): Zeus plans to destroy the earth as it stands and kill of all but a handful of humans who will be subjugated and forced to commit scheduled human sacrifices to him as he has decided that his fading power due lack of worshipers means that humanity can't be trusted to worship him without the removal of their free will or out of any sense of loyalty or gratitude.
- New Gods: This is why Darkseid seeks the Anti-Life Equation. With it, he can wipe out free will all around and turn everyone into his faithful, worshipping slaves. From there, he can get to using them as slave labor to tear down all there is and rebuild it "in the image of his soul".
- In Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, Hal Jordan as Parallax tries to go back to the big bang and reboot the universe the way he wants it. This results in another Cosmic Retcon and a partial Continuity Reboot to several DC series (Hawkman and Legion of Super-Heroes, most notably).
- Marvel Universe:
- In an issue of The Incredible Hulk, the Leader goes back to make everyone a gamma freak (they'll turn out Leaders, Hulks, or Abominations), and Hulk and the Avengers go back to stop him.
- Ultimate Fantastic Four: Ultimate Reed Richards, a.k.a. The Maker, set out to do this after the destruction and restoration of the Ultimate universe in Ultimate Invasion. The heroes assume he's trying to destroy and remake Earth-616, but in reality, he just wanted to be left alone with an entirely new world to call his own. He succeeds with Earth-6160, rewriting its history to get rid of almost every hero, and corrupting the few he leaves untouched so they won't oppose him. His victory is short-lived, however, as Iron Man realizes what's happened and rallies as many heroes as he can to stop him (with mixed results).
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
Fan Works
- Child of the Storm: In Ghosts of the Past, the sequel, this is revealed to be the motivation behind Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix, going Dark Phoenix in the first place. He also genuinely believes that this would be better, since he sees the universe as it is now as a chaotic hellhole.
- Fallen King: Pegasus' ultimate goal is to rewrite the world according to his rules.
- My Choices: Twisted Tales Through Time: Blue Star pulls off a non-evil example; she advances society by hundreds of years' worth of progress in just five years (with help from the Order of Stars to keep things going after she gets banished), leading to a far more egalitarian and technologically advanced future than the one she came from. In the process, she becomes one of the most famous historical figures in the new timeline.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness: This is what Kiria's Evil Plan in Act III ultimately boils down to: by using the Chrono Displacement spell and the Blackheart serum, he plans to change the outcome of the Battle of Kahdaln, which forced the monsters to set up the Masquerade in the first place, in favor of the monsters using Tsukune's inner ghoul, as well as use other Blackheart-infected monsters to wipe out all of the Dark Lords and any other powerful beings who could possibly pose a threat to him, effectively creating a world where monsters rule, humanity is extinct, and Kiria himself is the greatest, most powerful monster of them all. Unfortunately for Kiria, the plan fails, and he gets killed because, in the case of the ghoulified Tsukune, Evil Is Not a Toy.
- Undocumented Features: In the Twilight arc, Loki sneaks into the building containing the supercomputer Yggdrasil, planning on reprogramming it to grant him infinite cosmic power. However, Urd stops him.
Film - Animated
- Antz: The ruthless General Mandible wants to rebuild the colony to his own liking by killing those he deems weak and disloyal to his cause. He deliberately sends thousands of soldiers loyal to the queen to their deaths in a suicidal attack on the termites, so that he can then wipe out the rest of the colony unopposed, and start his own colony that consists of nothing but his loyal soldiers.
Film - Live-Action
Literature
- The Belgariad has The Prophecy, or rather the two prophecies, which are to some degree compatible (due to vague, cryptic, figurative language) up to a particular event. When this event (the meeting of Belgarion and the Maimed God Torak) occurs, they disagree on the outcome, and diverge wildly from there. It's implied that outcome of this even will rewrite all of history so that the prophecy with the correct prediction of the battle is spot on. Among other things, if Torak wins, Belgarion's "aunt" Polgara will become Torak's bride, and despite how much she hates and despises him now will have always loved him unreservedly. The Prophecies are implied to be living, sentient entities, not just a collection of sayings, which makes this example fit the trope even better.
- The Chronicles of Amber:
- In the Corwin part of the series, the evil half-brother, Brand, seeks to re-create the universe to his own image by re-drawing the Pattern.
- When the Pattern is damaged, there's some debate between various characters as to whether to attempt to repair it or destroy it and draw a new one, effectively rebooting the universe. Corwin actually does draw a new one when he believes the original is destroyed (it turns out it wasn't), which is revealed in the sequel series to have spawned an alternate universe.
- Subverted in the second Dragonlance trilogy, the Twins set, when Tasslehoff ends up in the future, and manages to get to a pivotal point in time to avert said future. He makes Raistlin, who is altering the timelines, discard his plan to become a god by convincing Raistlin that Raistlin, even as a god, will never be able to create life.
- Played with in Eric. The not-really-evil conjurer demands Rincewind make him live forever, which means starting at the beginning of creation... Mayonnaise ensues.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension, a band of imaginary beings, the Mythos creatures, were facing Fantastic Racism. They attempted this in order to live in the "real" universe (where the rules didn't allow for their existence), and finally have a place to call home. Instead, a compromise was agreed upon, and they could freely inhabit half of Fourth Dimension, the plane of existence that they were just being persecuted in and fighting for complete control of before. The dimension is basically an infinite stretch of floors, corridors and offices, so this could have been proposed earlier if the leaders of each faction weren't so stubborn, though it's unclear if the Mythos creatures actually came from that dimension.
- The eponymous villain of Swellhead plans to reshape the world entirely from his own imagination.
- When Grand Admiral Thrawn from The Thrawn Trilogy first tries to recruit Fallen Jedi Joruus C'boath in order to use C'baoth's mind control talents to reestablish The Empire. C'boath isn't interested. It turns out that C'baoth is the petty sort of tyrant who wants to control every thought and aspect of the lives of his subjects, and being the leader of a galaxy-wide Empire is incompatible with that. Thrawn, catching on fast, then suggests a downplayed version of this trope: Thrawn proposes that he can kidnap Leia's children and give them to C'baoth so that C'baoth can shape them how he pleases, and through them, mold the rebirth of the Jedi Order so it can be become C'baoth's personal vision for the Jedi. C'baoth agrees, but later, his mind control abilities grow so much from constant use that C'baoth decides that he can rule a galaxy-wide empire his way after all...
- In The Wheel of Time, the Dark One would do this if it ever got free. During their final battle, it torments Rand by showing him two possibilities it might realize — the first is a dystopian hellscape ruled by the Forsaken, and the second seems normal enough... until it's revealed that the entire human race have had their sense of right and wrong and empathy removed, turning them into heartless sociopaths just like the Dark One itself. In both cases, history was rewritten so that no one realized anything was wrong. The second vision was so bad that Rand produced a world where he did this, by making it so that the Dark One had never existed. Except it turns out that the Dark One is necessary for free will, so that everyone in Rand's "perfect" world was only eternally good and happy because he'd essentially brainwashed them to be like that. Cue My God, What Have I Done?.
Live-Action TV
- A variation in Arrow. The Big Bad of Season 4, Damien Darhk, plans to destroy the world in nuclear war while his followers hide out in an underground bunker, then use the powerful Black Magic created from the deaths of billions to recreate the world anew.
- Another variation in its spin-off "The Flash (2014)". The Big Bad of Season 4, the Thinker, plans to wipe the memories of everyone on Earth, rendering them as blank slates that he can "teach."
- The Big Bad of Kamen Rider Build, Evolt intends to do this on a universal scale by devouring every planet in the universe one-by-one, at which point he'll be left with a barren "new world" that he, now effectively a god with all the planets he absorbed, can shape to be whatever he wants.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: According to Adar, Sauron's aspiration to bring in perfect order what he destroyed in Middle-earth under Morgoth was his idea of redeeming himself for his evil deeds.
- Tao Zant in Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger plans to use the Evil Will to destroy and remake everything on a universal scale.
- Stargate SG-1: After the heroes unlock the Dakara Superweapon and use it to wipe out the Replicators, they promptly lose control of it to Anubis, who plans to use it to wipe the galaxy clean of life and repopulate it in a manner more to his liking.
- Supernatural:
- Brajira's ultimate goal in Tensou Sentai Goseiger is to use the Nega End to "purify" the world at the cost of removing its lifeforms, effectively remaking it.
Podcasts
Off Book: The Improvised Musical
: In the live episode
Infinity Time, Infinity Wine
, a primordial being known as the First Bird spreads his DNA throughout the cosmos to turn everybody into birds.
Professional Wrestling
- Through the Prophecy, this was the Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels's plan for Ring of Honor.
- Amber Rodriguez literally set out to do this to professional wrestling after returning from the army, striving to give every last wrestler she came across a makeover, willingly or otherwise. She adopted the title "Mad Esthetician" with pride and started taking beauty classes to live up to it.
- Kevin Steen wanted to do this to the entire pro wrestling industry, starting with Ring of Honor and Chikara. He wanted to take Eddie Kingston along, who he already felt was "in his own image" but Kingston, being the first Chikara grand champion, kind of liked the place the way it was and had starting learning to love ROH too.
- "The World Famous" Kanako Urai has been accused of having such ambitions since 2010 when she wrote a "manifesto" in Yoshihiro Tajiri's SMASH on how to save Joshi, but in December 2014 she actually announced plans to "reform" the REINA promotion after fighting, and weaseling her way to the REINA World Women's and World Tag Team titles.
Video Games
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time: This is ultimately the plan of Doctor Nefarious Tropy. After Neo Cortex is defeated by Crash and calls it quits, Nefarious reveals himself and ends his alliance with him. He explains that while Cortex is content with just ruling space and time, he would rather start from scratch. Using the rift generator, Tropy plans to "wipe the slate clean" by rebooting the entire timeline and rebuilding to his liking, with him as the only god, of course.
- In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, this is what makes Dagoth Ur an existential threat. He is already slowly but surely warping Mundus into a reflection of his own broken mind due to deluding himself into thinking Mundus is his dream rather than the Dream of Anu. And the power he gained from the Heart of Lorkhan is making his delusion real. This is the true nature of the Corprus and the Ashblight — both are manifestations of Dagoth Ur's remaking the Anu's Dream into his own nightmare.
- In Endless Space and its sequel, this is the ultimate goal of the Horatio. An unhinged but brilliant narcissist, Horatio created an entire race in his own image which now seeks to beautify the galaxy by populating it with the most perfect thing in existence: Horatio.
- In Fallout: New Vegas, this is Father Elijah's Evil Plan. He wanted to use the Sierra Madre's Fog of Doom to get revenge on the New California Republic by cleansing the Mojave Wasteland of all life and then using its technology to build a new nation from the ground up, potentially with your help.
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy: Gol and Maia's Evil Plan amounts to this; by cracking open the Dark Eco silos, they'll be able to use the massive amounts of Dark Eco within to remake the world as they see fit.
- Kingdom Hearts: Master Xehanort's ultimate goal is to trigger a second Keyblade War, then use the power of Kingdom Hearts to wipe out the current worlds and remake them in his image of balance.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Ganondorf (a.k.a. Ganon), the recurring Big Bad of the franchise, plans to reshape Hyrule into his ideal kingdom. Said kingdom is a land of darkness with evil running rampant across the land, as evidenced by the existence of the Dark Worldnote which is stated to be what Hyrule would look like if Ganon succeeded in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. This is most prevalent in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, in which Ganondorf admits that he hates Hyrule's inhabitants for being peace-loving and weak under "insufferable" light, and plans to correct that by taking over the world, crush all opposition to his rule, and making life a constant struggle for survival. Of course, since nearly everyone opposes his rule, Ganondorf would need to go full Omnicidal Maniac to achieve his dreams.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Whereas Princess Hilda is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to use Hyrule's Triforce to save the dying world of Lorule, Yuga wants to use it to remake Lorule in his own image.
- In the Marathon series, this is the final resolution of any AI that goes Rampant — to escape the heat death of the universe and shape the one that follows. To quote Durandal, "Escape would make me a god."
- In Perihelion, this is the ultimate goal of the game's main villain, the Unborn God. It's up to your party of genetically and psionically-augmented designer babies to kill it before it can do so.
- Pirate101: At first, many characters believed Kane to be an Extreme Knight Templar whose goal was simply to get rid of piracy. During the second part of Valencia, it's revealed that this was not the case, as Kane wants to get rid of everything completely by destroying the Spiral and reforming it into what he considers perfection.
- Pokémon:
- This is the point of the Reasons in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. Each Reason holder seeks to re-create the world according to their guiding philosophy. The only one who attempts this and fails is Yuko Takao, who believes that her God will tell her the Reason, failing to realize that she is meant to come up with it herself. However, the MC can still unlock it as an available ending. It's worth mentioning that her motivation is relatively unselfish compared to the others: she's only trying to undo her mistake by restoring the world to the way it was.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Lyric's Evil Plan is to destroy all organic life on the planet and rebuild it into a robotic world under his control, feeling he can't trust anything non-robotic after he was forced to convert himself into a Cyborg to stay alive after contracting a fatal disease:
Lyric: Technology is the only thing you can trust. Which is why I'm going to rid this world of all organic lifeforms — and rebuild it, piece by robotic piece.
- Eggman always planned to Take Over the World, but by the time of Sonic Forces, this seems to be his plan. His ultimate plan to take out La Résistance? Have Infinite use the Phantom Ruby to drop an artificial sun on them, essentially destroying the entire planet and enabling him to rebuild it from the ashes.
Infinite: We move forward with the plan?
Eggman: Of course! When it's complete, the Resistance will be erased. The world will be nothing but ashes, from which a glorious Eggman Empire will rise!
- Sonic and the Secret Rings: The Erazor Djinn's ultimate plan, once he's acquired the seven World Rings, is to remake the world of the Arabian Nights in his image, and then move on to Sonic's world and repeat the process. He even states as such during the final boss.
Erazor: I will remake this world and this reality in my own image!
- Spider-Man: Edge of Time:
- This is a key factor in Sloan's plan. By traveling back in time to the 1970s, he founds Alchemax years before it was supposed to be established, remaking the company in his image.
- The Alchemax CEO, a.k.a. Peter Parker 2099, takes it even further, planning to harness the quantum energy of the incoming Time Crash to assume control of the timestream and remake the universe in his image. He's actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist, as a key part of this plan is undoing Peter Parker's mistakes, such as the deaths of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy, but Spider-Man 2099 argues against him doing so, because he's trying to harness power no human should have.
- StarCraft II: The Dark Voice, who turns out to be named Amon, the Big Bad, is a fallen Xel'Naga that believes that the Endless Cycle is filled with torment and suffering and aims to bring an end to it. While this might make him sound like a Dark Messiah, and his worshippers believe in this, a protoss that entered his mind claims that his intentions are anything but noble. He only seeks to kill everything in the universe, even his own followers, and reshape it into his own image.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Paper Mario series:
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Grodus gives us the page quote. He seeks to use the treasure behind the Thousand Year Door and wield the Shadow Queen's power for his own ends. He fails to realize that Evil Is Not a Toy.
- Super Paper Mario: Count Bleck's goal is to use the Chaos Heart to erase all worlds and create new, perfect ones in their place, free of war and sadness. Or so he claims. That's actually a lie to motivate his minions, and he simply wishes to destroy everything for good, having come to see existence as pointless after losing his love Timpani. Dimentio, on the other hand, manipulated Bleck and the heroes alike so that he could claim the power of the Chaos Heart for his own and remake reality as he sees fit.
- This is Bowser's plan, believe it or not, in Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. Bowser didn't want to destroy any galaxies however, he just wanted to create one of his own. But that wasn't enough, he then wanted to use it as the capital of his new space empire, which lead to a battle that destroyed it and the original universe until the Lumas reset it, causing him to try his plan again a different way because the Lumas never recreate the universe the same way twice.
- System Shock 2: SHODAN, after having the player fight off the Annalids, tries to take control of the hyperspace module to rewrite the universe to her specifications.
- In Wizard101, Morganthe's ultimate goal is to learn the Song of Creation and use its Reality Warping powers to remake the Spiral in her own image.
- Downplayed with Zodiac: Story of the Guardian: Victor wants to remove every trace of all living beings on Earth using his own genetic-modifying virus, so he could replace everything with himself and live forever as the only living being that matters. He also plans to expand his reach to all planets, so that all will be replaced with him.
Webcomics
Web Originals
Western Animation
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo
| Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4