[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory2 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1249140443_7226_full.jpeg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand "Another planet and it's mine!"]]]]

->''Choirs of daemons howl in salute as they sense his flagship exiting from warpspace at the edge of the system. Chains of cities across the surface of the planet are set ablaze in welcome as his battle barge slides into orbit. Thousands of slaves are sacrificed in celebration as he sets foot upon the surface, the very earth beneath him soaked in the blood of his victims.''
-->-- ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Bloodquest]]'', ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

Generally below the DimensionLord but above TheEmperor and the EvilOverlord lies this guy.

Maybe he wants to conquer the universe. Maybe he wants to [[OmnicidalManiac kill everyone in it]]. Maybe he just [[PlanetEater eats planets]]. Whatever he does, he'll be crazy-mad [[PhysicalGod powerful]], so it's going to take a whole [[HeroesUnlimited boatload of heroes]] to take him down.

Sometimes he'll have an army to back him up, but more often than not, he'll work alone, relying on his incredibly vast cosmic powers to crush the good guys. Many have both.

These characters are usually male, although fortunately changing gender roles are offering more and more females the opportunity to enslave entire galaxies. Distinguishable from the EldritchAbomination in that these guys have somewhat human motives for what they do. Often, this is what the SealedEvilInACan turns into once it's unsealed. Take this UpToEleven, and you get a MultiversalConqueror.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime]]
* The Holy Nightmare Corporation, the BigBad of the ''{{Kirby}}'' [[Anime/KirbyOfTheStars anime]], is [[InformedAbility stated]] to have ''already'' successfully conquered the universe and defeated at least one major [[LaResistance resistance movement]]... but a KidHero is shaping up to take them down.
* King Vega from ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'', one of the ''Anime/MazingerZ'' sequels. He was emperor of a warrior race and ruled over a planet was dying due to overexploitation from one of its resources -a radioactive and highly unstable ore named Vegatron-, so he started to conquer other planets to find another world to settle on. He used to say his army was the most powerful one in the universe.
* Freeza from the ''DragonBall'' series. Immensely powerful to the point of being considered invincible, he nonetheless usually has his army to do the actual fighting. Known for exterminating large portions of planets' populations and enslaving the rest, or simply killing off the ''entire'' population and selling the planet to the highest bidder, his name was feared by all spacefaring civilizations throughout the galaxy. The fact that he could [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up your planet on a whim]] just served as further incentive to surrender.
** There's also Lord Slug who also fits this trope well.
* Zoltar from ''BattleOfThePlanets'' (and ''only'' Battle Of the Planets. The original ''Gatchaman'' was set entirely on Earth, villains and all!)
* Zarkon and his son, Lotor from ''{{Voltron}}.''
* Reinhard von Lohengramm, the protagonist of ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' is a rare heroic example of this trope (although he ''might'' count as an AntiHero. Might.) He wants to unite all of space under his rule. The thing about it is that his Empire is actually pretty awesome because he's a superb ruler. They're opposed by the democractic Free Planets Alliance. A huge topic in the series is basically the conflict between a ''good'' autocracy and a ''rotten'' democracy.
** Subverted twice: first, Yang Wen-Li, his rival from the Free Planet Alliance is a much better conqueror than him (a pissed Yang can [[spoiler: fight Reinhard to a standstill with a tenth of his troops]]), the only thing stoping him from conquering the galaxy being his lack of ambition and distaste for playing political games; and second, the [[spoiler: real GalacticConqueror is not Reinhard but his wife, Hilda, the only character in the verse who actually manage to outgambit Yang]]
* The aptly-named Sailor Galaxia from ''Franchise/SailorMoon''. No points for guessing what is [[EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse that last planet]] she needs to conquer to complete her quest.
* ToLoveRu has Lala's father being one of these.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The MarvelUniverse's {{Thanos}} of Titan has embodied this trope in the past, with his obsession with ultimate power and Death being his primary motivations. His first appearance had him conqueroring his home planet of Titan with similar plans for Earth. CharacterizationMarchesOn, however, and he is now simply a GeniusBruiser [[OmniDisciplinaryScientist Omni-Disciplinary]] MadScientist whose motivations range from ItAmusedMe to OmnicidalManiac, the latter to impress his girlfriend (or, currently, because she dumped him and he's going to take it out on everyone else).
** And when we mean "Obsession with Death" we mean the StalkerWithACrush kind of obsession. Said girlfriend ''is'' Death.
* This is a general characterization for most cosmic-centric supervillains within the Marvel Universe. Some prominent terran-centric supervillains like Doctor Doom and Kang The Conqueror occasionally branch off into this trope, when their ambition exceeds their normal boundaries.
** Annihilus, The Supreme Intelligence, at times the Skrulls and, mostly whenever Lilandra isn't in charge, the Shi'ar emperor/empress tends to fill this role too, especially when Vulcan was in charge.
** [[OurGiantsAreBigger Terminus]] the cosmic strip-miner.
** A large percentage of the [[{{Kaiju}} giant monsters]] from Marvel's pre-super hero days were alien invaders (Goom, his son Googam, etc.). Even [[WhenTreesAttack Groot,]] who has since done a HeelFaceTurn, started out this way.
** A lesser known one is Arm'Chedon(Armeggedon), an enemy of TheHulk from the 90s and leader of the Troyjan Empire. He was so busy conquering planets that he didn't even notice he had two sons running around until one of them got killed harassing the Pantheon(Hulk's team at the time) on Earth, and the other died in trail by combat with the Hulk. He swore vengeance, but got all of one appearance until well over a decade later.
* {{Darkseid}} of {{The DCU}}.
** {{Brainiac}} of the TheDCU. His goals and methods have varied a lot over the years, but he still usually fits this trope.
** Mongul (both of them).
** Despero and Kanjar Ro are much lower-tier versions of this trope. Kanjar Ro is usually treated as a [[VillainDecay joke villain]] these days.
** Starro the Conqueror, although his more powerful appearances drift him more towards being an EldritchAbomination.
** [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Larfleeze]] of the Orange Lanterns once held an entire solar system under his control, and possesses the power of an entire Corps, though his interests tend more to fulfilling his endless greed. He also commands a vast army of Orange Energy constructs to obey his every whim.
* Megatron from the various ''{{Transformers}}'' canon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Warlord Kroz from ''FanFic/Tech10Rebooted'' is a NobleDemon variety of this, having conquered around 72 planets on his quest to find a WorthyOpponent, but simply leaving them alone afterwards.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Palpatine from ''Franchise/StarWars'' is the consummate example of this trope, though he did it through pure {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry rather than outright force. [[spoiler:He got ''voted'' into absolute power, after masterminding a ''civil war'' after a millenium of peace (in which he was secretly the leader of both sides), resulting in him receiving ''popular support'' for his authoritarian reforms. By the time he declared himself Emperor, he already had absolute control of the Republic...or, as he declared it, '''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis the first! Galactic! EMPIRE!]]''']]
** "So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause."
* Ming the Merciless from the ''Film/FlashGordon'' film is referred to as the Emperor of the Universe and the Galaxy. The fact that he can casually cause moons to collide with planets and rain down "natural" disasters on every solar system when he wants to test them definitely places him on the level of Galactic Conqueror.
* The Lord Marshal, leader of the Necromongers from the ''[[Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick Riddick]]'' franchise.
* The Beast in ''Film/{{Krull}}.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Emperor Zhark in the ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' series. In his book series he regularly destroys and enslaves whole worlds. In person he's a pretty nice guy, though he does tend to overreact a bit, like responding to a shoot out in a Western book by deploying {{Space Marine}}s.
* Paul Atreides, the hero of ''{{Dune}}'', brought his dynasty to supreme power by threatening to destroy the all-important Spice.
* The Mule, in the ''{{Foundation}}'' series, damn near scuttles the Seldon Plan, as psychohistory can't predict things like mutants with mind control powers and attitude problems.
* The Real goal of Mesa in ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', as part of their goals overthrowing the anti-transhuman culture.
* In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', the mentioned but unseen Conquerors seem to be an entire race of these.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** The Goa'uld as a whole already control most of the Milky Way Galaxy, but the most ambitious Goa'uld [[EvilOverlord System Lords]] usually try to conquer all of the galaxy by absorbing the territories of their rivals, assuming the BigBad mantle in the process. Successively, Apophis, Anubis, and Ba'al came the closest to actually succeeding.
** As well as the Ori, who have already conquered one galaxy. They're [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]] EnergyBeings who rule through a ReligionOfEvil called Origin, and build an armada to embark on a crusade to convert the Milky Way.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'':
** The Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy, although they don't so much rule as they do ''[[ToServeMan feed]]''. Also, the Wraith do a lot of fighting amongst themselves, on account of there not being enough food to go around. Thus, no one person (or hive queen) actually controls their galaxy.
** The former Wraith named "Michael" became such a threat in his own right in the later seasons. After he started his Hybrid project he started lusting after power for its own sake. His end goal became to supplant both humans and Wraith with his Hybrid minions by annihilating everything else.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The Master in the Classic Series.
** And Davros, who nearly achieved it in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]].
* Pretty much any villain race in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' at some point has aspirations of galactic conquests. But as far as individuals in the series go, the Borg Queen is the best example.
* His Divine Shadow in ''{{Lexx}}''.
* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' have a few:
** Dark Specter from ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace''. He is also a DimensionLord, and so {{badass}} that [[spoiler:it takes a [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-destroying missile]] and more to take him down]]).
** N-Ma from ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'', who became The Master in ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Religion]]
* Xenu in [[ChurchOfHappyology Scientology]] conquered many worlds and dropped his excess population into Earth's volcanos, leading to many of the evils that plague mankind.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''{{Traveller}}'': Cleon I, founder of the Third Imperium. In something of a subversion, he not only succeeds, but his empire is actually a more-or-less nice one once it is created - whatever one can say of ''[[DirtyBusiness how]]'' he created it. Cleon was a skillful politician, businessman, and diplomat. He knew when to [[ManipulativeBastard entice]], when to [[GunboatDiplomacy bludgeon]], and how to [[TheChessmaster weave together multitudinous plans]], and in general he was a very MagnificentBastard.
** Albadawi might count. He was a FourStarBadass who pretty much won the Interstellar Wars himself. In his case he was acting as a servant of the Terran Confederation rather then for his own ambition.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has more than its fair share of these, some evil... some ''[[BlackAndGreyMorality really]]'' evil. (See page quote.) The most successful was undoubtedly [[MessianicArchetype the Emperor of Man]], founder and god of [[TheEmpire the Imperium]], the setting's "good guys".
** The other "good guys" of 40, the Tau Empire, also have this as a goal. Most of the other races are more interested in some combination of killing, raping, torturing, or just eating everyone. BlackAndGreyMorality indeed.
** Not to mention Abaddon the Despoiler. Warmaster of Chaos. Blessed by all the Chaos Gods. He led thirteen Black Crusades including his [[BattlefleetGothic 12th to the Gothic Sector]] against the Imperium ([[GeneralFailure and failed for now]]). He is now trying to amass all the Chaos armies and unleash his horde on the most prized Imperium worlds, such as Terra, to finally succeed in what Horus didn't.
*** While each of the Chaos Gods qualify as eldrich abominations, they also struggle against one another for control of the galaxy and the souls and minds of all that live within it in the manner of Galactic Conquerors.
** In TheShapeOfTheNightmareToCome and TheAgeOfDusk, Abaddon finally manages to take over all of Segmentum Obscurus.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The Zerg Overmind from ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' wants to assimilate all life in the universe into the Zerg Swarm.
** Later succeeded by his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Kerrigan, who is - by her own words - ''"pretty much the queen bitch of the universe"''.
** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' The Dark Voice [[spoiler: the true master mind who programed the Overmind to attack the Xel Naga, and lead the Zerg into assimilating the Protoss to create Zerg/Protoss Hybrids. His grand scheme is to wipe out all life in the galaxy so he and his Hybrids will rule it.]]
* Emperor Percival Tachyon, from ''RatchetAndClank: Tools of Destruction'' has managed to bring most of the Polaris Galaxy under his sway
* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'s'' Giygas was this in the [[VideoGame/{{Mother1}} prequel]], before he became an EldritchAbomination.
* Bowser aspires to be a universe conquerer in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy''. He fails.
** He tries to do it again in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''. [[FailureistheOnlyOption Guess what happens next.]]
* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has both Darth Revan in the BackStory of the game and Darth Malak as the current BigBad. In TheDarkSide [[MultipleEndings ending]], the PlayerCharacter becomes one.
* ''FreedomForce'' has Lord Dominion.
* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' ''InSpace''! games like ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' usually have this as an option for winning the game.
* Sargeras the Fallen Titan from the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' universe, whose goal is to lead the [[LegionsOfHell Burning Legion]] to destroy the entire universe.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination The Reapers]]]] are an interesting variation of this. [[spoiler:In a way, they already control the galaxy, as it is a gigantic coral where they alow humanoid races to develop and return to harvest them every 50,000 years. The entire ancient network of self-repairing hyperspace jumpgates and the gargantuan space station at its center, and most of the highly advanced technology found in ancient ruins was made by them for the sole purpose of creating new galactic civilizations that provide exactly what they need.]]
** Javik is a WellIntentionedExtremist, mundane version of this. The plan was to get a million protheans to survive the Reaper Harvest by hiding in stasis, then force the primitive races into servitude against the Reapers. Unfortunately, that plan got royally screwed.
* The Gravemind and its Flood forces in ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}''. According to its words, the Flood had already conquered a galaxy "of flesh and bones" and now were planning on conquering the next one. They had problems with that when the Forerunners used all of their highly advanced technology and all of their courage in a attempt to stop the Flood...[[HeroicSacrifice only to sacrifice themselves and all sentient life in a effort to starve them to death]]. 100,000 years later, the Gravemind is back in the game but was again defieded, this time by the Humans and the Covenant, who even decided to [[EnemyMine put all their differences aside until the Gravemind and its forces were gone]]. That would be difficult since the Gravemind claims that its death would be nothing more than a setback and the Flood will win in the long term.
** The ending to Halo3 just about confirms that [[spoiler:the Gravemind and the Flood threat are gone. It consolidated all of its forces on the Ark and the second Installation 4, which Master Chief and the Arbiter have all but destroyed]].
*** [[spoiler:Or is it? In ''Origins II'', it seems that the Flood still exist after the battle of Installation 04 (II) but now are too weak to do anything]].
**** [[spoiler:The Flood is never too weak to do anything.]]
* BIOS from ''VideoGame/ForgottenWorlds'', who has created ''gods'' to serve as his enforcers as he travels the galaxy, conquering and reducing worlds into barren wastelands.
* The Grandmaster from ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' and its sequel, who couples it with his desire to create new lifeforms at will to [[AGodAmI become a new god]].
* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Genocide]] / [[DubNameChange Scumocide]] from ''CaptainCommando'' has already established a Criminal Syndicate of [[BioAugmentation bio-engineered]] super criminals that has taken over the entire galaxy by the time the game kicks in.
* One boss in ''VideoGame/VisionsAndVoices'' is called the "Minor Galactivore." This guy is not even ''close'' to being the final boss.
* Orbulon from ''WarioWare'' tries to be this in the first game. He ''really'' sucks at it.
* In the [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2 first]] [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3 two]] games of the ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' Dark Matter Trilogy, Dark Matter threatens to take over, respectively, Dream Land and all of Pop Star. By ''[[VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards Kirby 64]]'', it threatens Pop Star and all of the nearby planets.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Fructose Riboflavin in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' very badly ''wants'' to be this, and has been trying to overthrow the Nemesite government for hundreds of years, and [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain he just can't do it...]]
* [[http://www.shastrix.com/thefan/index.php?comic=310 General Zarro]] from Webcomic/TheFAN is very likely to be this. At the very least, he's got a pretty big flagship, and is powerful enough to dent the fourth wall just by removing his mask.
* In ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'', [[BigBad Zenith]] [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2010/07/04/nothing-like-a-good-rant/ has aspirations of being one of these.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Lord Krulos of ''WesternAnimation/DinoRiders'' wants nothing better than to return to his star-spanning empire in the future.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'', Emperor Zurg successfully conquered the galaxy on several occasions (usually by forcing the Galactic Alliance to surrender to his will, rather than by more [[StuffBlowingUp "direct"]] means), but was never able to make it stick for more than an episode or two, thanks primarily to Buzz's interference.
-->[[SkywardScream "CURSE YOU, BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!"]]
* The [[{{DCAU}} DC Animated Universe]] covers many different generations of heroes, across different decades (even centuries) and facing varied and divergent foes, but none can compare to the ultimate BigBad, whose mere presence is enough to cow raging mobs of bloodthirsty beasts. There is a reason it is '''his''' quotation that is the lead-in to the EvilOverlord page.
--> ''"People of Earth, I am [[NewGods Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips]]! Here is your [[{{Superman}} savior]], cowed and broken. [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown I have crushed him as easily as I have crushed all who have dared to oppose me throughout the Cosmos]]. [[HopelessWar I am power unlike any you have ever known: absolute, infinite, and unrelenting]]. [[DespairEventHorizon You have no choice but to prepare as a long dark future as my subjects and my slaves.]]"''
--->-- '''Darkseid''', ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries -- Apokolips Now Part 2''
** However, the people of Earth opposed him, especially Dan Turpin. Of course, Darkseid did not take kindly on this.
* The Irken Invaders of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' are a whole caste of Galactic Conquerors who are [[OneManArmy capable of conquering entire planets single-handedly]] with proper equipment. The main character is a former Invader who lost his rank after destroying his home planet with a HumongousMecha and halting the first galactic invasion of his people.
-->'''Greeting Robot''': Galactic conquest is here! Galactic conquest is here! Galactic conquest...
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'', both Dark Laser and Princess Mandie scheme to conquer the galaxy. Though, in Dark Laser's case, he seems content to [[OmnicidalManiac blow up the Earth]].
* Cy-Kill from ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots.'' He's mostly concerned with conquering his homeworld, but he'll conquer Earth as a useful stepping stone toward that goal, and he'll gladly conquer ''other'' planets once that's done.
* Nemesis from ''{{WesternAnimation/Robotix}}.''
* Daemon from ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' is a supervirus who can bring entire systems under her control simply by entering them. By the time she actually appears, she has overtaken most of the Net.
* Horde Prime from ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower''; somewhat unusual in that he has in fact already conquered the galaxy in question.
* Vilgax in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' franchise, who carries the title "conqueror of ten worlds."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real life]]
* Not content with ruling most of the earth, Richard Branson has founded Virgin Galactic, a company which according to TheOtherWiki intends to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, along with suborbital space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites but come on, we all know what it's really for.
* We have space stations, probes have landed on Mars and collected rock samples, there is an American flag on the moon. Scientists are talking about terraforming planets. It won't be long now....


[[/folder]]

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