Rising to Power

In many works of fiction, there comes a time when the villain/villainess seizes his/her opportunity and gains power, channeling it into taking control over a nation or terrorizing the protagonist(s). In other words, the evildoer is Rising to Power. The antagonist takes matters into his or her own hands does something that can quite warp his or her mind or change him or her into a more powerful force. Sometimes he or she can win the day when he or she obtains his or her power over others. Rise to Power as it is called, can also lead to the Evil Laugh or the Villainous Breakdown. Villains who usually display this are dictators, giant monsters, masterminds, master manipulators, or evil geniuses. There are many ways the wrongdoer can rise to power:
 * Betraying the protagonist(s).
 * Invasion/raid on certain areas so they were known to everyone.
 * Revealing their evil plans.
 * Unveiling their true colors.
 * Ambushing the hero(es).
 * Demanding the hero's loyalty or the faction's obedience.
 * Successfully controlling.

Cartoons, Manga, and Anime

 * Vilgax: absorbs Diagon and his power to become an immensely powerful, godlike entity.
 * Zs'Skayr:
 * Succeeds in using a space station to cover the Earth in a corrodium beam that mutates all terrestrial life and blocks out the sun.
 * Conquers and destroys Vilgaxia and turns the majority of the local Chimera Sui Generis into Ectonurite minions.
 * Master Cyclonis: Uses Far Side technology to upgrade her Nightcrawlers and to convert Cyclonia into a giant flying mobile fortress with which to successfully conquer the entire Atmos.
 * The Incurseans initially conquer and take over Earth.
 * V.V. Argost: Gains the ability to take Zak's place in controlling the Cryptids in a genocidal campaign against humanity, by stealing Zak Monday's Anti-Kur powers.
 * El Malefico: Morphs into a giant version of himself using The Code Of Masked Wrestling and successfully takes over the world starting with Las Vegas.
 * Upon learning that Heinz Doofenshmirtz: Succeeded in moving the Earth to an early autumn with his latest Inator, Aloyse Von Roddenstein leads the villains of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. to reveal themselves to the world and builds an -inizor, which is ten times the size and strength of Doof's -inator, to move the Earth into perpetual winter and later (in a failed attempt) to a new Ice Age.
 * Iron-Masked Marauder: captures the legendary pokemon celebi to build twig monster out of forest material. He reveals to a captured Jessie that he plans to use Celebi overthrow Giovanni and rule Team Rocket.
 * Makuta Teridax: Take over the Great Spirit Robot and scattered all his allies across the universe to start the invasion.
 * Umarak: Using the Elemental Crystals to revive the Elemental Beasts and make them help him to find the Labyrinth of Control.
 * Adam Taurus: After rally support and gaining many allies fromw ithin the White Fang, Adam launches a coup against Sienna Khan, the High Leader of the White Fang, and takes over the organization for himself and plans to start a war of conquest against humanity.
 * Fire Lord Ozai: Declares himself the Phoenix King as he prepares to conquer the nations.
 * Jack O' Lantern: Uses Grim's scythe to open a portal to the Underworld and plans to take revenge on Endsville and have Halloween be every night forever.

Movies

 * Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Persuades Menken to inject a serum into his arm and writhes in pain as he transforms into the Green Goblin, then puts on an armored suit.
 * Scrappy-Doo: Morphs into Scrappy-Rex.
 * Symbiote Vemon: When the parasite lands on Eddie Brock, he transforms into Venom, giving him the power to kill Spider-Man.
 * Serleena: Infiltrates MIB headquarters and imprisons the agents before using the building as her base of operations.
 * Davy Jones: Both he and his crew summon the Kraken to bring down Will Turner.
 * Edwin Epps: Reads from the Bible to force the slaves to obey him.
 * Theodora and Evanora: Together rally their army to take over Oz.
 * Kahmunrah: Summons the army of the dead from the portal.
 * Emperor Palpatine: Has the Clone Army wipe out (almost) all of the Jedi so he can form a Sith Empire and rule with an iron fist.
 * Koba: Tries to kill Caesar, and succeeds in mutilating him seriously, and then manages to manipulate the apes into thinking that the humans killed Caesar, he kills anyone who stands in his way. And after this, Koba got exactly what he wanted, a very dangerous war against the humans.
 * Norman Osborn: Inhales some vapor, giving him the strength to transform into the Green Goblin.
 * Damien Thorn: Repeatedly destroys his enemies who learns that he is the Antichrist, and comes that much closer to securing and fulfilling his destiny to lead the world into chaos.
 * Megatron and Sentinel Prime: Successfully unleash bring a Decepticon army from the moon, and destroy and capture the city of Chicago during their invasion of Earth.
 * Dracula: Succeeds in capturing Frankenstein and in using him to bring his children to life.
 * Joo Yoon: Began his rise of power to become governor.
 * Both male and female M.U.T.O.s: Conquers San Fransisco as they reunites, where the male gives the female a stolen nuclear warhead and turned the city into nesting ground.
 * Ronan the Accuser: Fuses the Orb which is called the Power Stone (one of the Infinity Stones) to his giant hammer, taking control of the universe.
 * Sir Trenton: Arrives to tell Stripes he's about to be scratched from tomorrow's race, orders his men to take Sandy to her stables and orders them to knock Stripes out cold.
 * Happy Chapman: Confronting Garfield and Odie in the train luggage room before threatening the latter with a shock collar.
 * Cliff Vandercave: Kidnaps Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm and traps them in a giant mining machine. He orders Fred & Barney to give him The Dictabird in exchange for their safe return. Though Fred & Barney give him the bird, Cliff announces he's leaving town with the money he embezzled, and then starts the machine.
 * Sir Edgar: After finding out about Ella's curse, Edgar orders her to kill Prince Charmont on the stroke of midnight, reveals he killed his own brother and tells Ella not to tell anyone about this plan.
 * Ramsley: Reveals he killed Master Edward Gracey's beloved bride Elizabeth Henshaw, locks Megan and Michael in the trunk and throws their father Jim Evers out of the mansion before they could tell Master Gracey.
 * Dorian Tyrell: After discovering the powers of the Mask of Loki, he puts it on and transforms into a scary demonic monster and frames Stanley Ipkiss for the bank robbery.
 * Danny McBride: Revealed have taken control of a cannibal pack and reduced Channing Tatum into his sex slave/pet.
 * Charles Lee "Chucky" Ray: After he is mortally wounded by the police at a toy store, he performed the Damballa Chant to transfer his soul into a Good Guy in order to evade from the police and to cheat death.
 * Emperor Palpatine: Following the failed arrest of him, throwing Mace Windu to his death after Anakin Skywalker severed his right hand which held his lightsaber to prevent the Supreme Chancellor's death so he could save Padme from death and the execution of Order 66 Palpatine rallied the senators for a meeting to turn the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire.
 * President Alma Coin: After becoming the new President of Panem she proposes another Hunger Games trial of The Capitol children in lieu of the barbaric executions.

Animated Movies

 * Ruber: Fuses Excalibur to his hand and continues his plan to take over Camelot when he takes Kayley hostage.
 * Mor'du: Demands a spell from the witch to give him the power to conquer the kingdom of his brothers. Returning to his kingdom, he demands his brothers' obedience and drinks the spell. He turns into a giant bear and instead of healing the family bonds murders his brothers and destroys his kingdom.
 * Jafar: Wishes to become Sultan and takes control over Agrabah.
 * Darla Dimple: Orders Max to man the water valves, flooding Mammoth Studios in the process.
 * Gaston: Gathers an angry mob to kill the Beast.
 * Shan-Yu: When Captain Li Shang gives Shan-Yu's sword to the emperor, the falcon swoops down and snatches the sword, tossing it to Shan-Yu, who grabs it and raises it over his head in triumph.
 * Ursula: Grows to a giant size and seizing power over the oceans after stealing the Trident from King Triton who sacrificed himself and saved his daughter Ariel's life by turning into a polyp.
 * Morgana: Creates a giant ice pedestal and uses her magic and the power of the Trident to make King Triton and his subjects bow before her.
 * Scar: Seizes power over pride rock with his Hyena minions.
 * Lotso: Imprisons the toy gang and demands their obedience.
 * Hades: Frees the Titans and they head straight for Olympus to defeat Zeus
 * Sheldon J. Plankton: Enslaves everyone in Bikini Bottom and orders them to seize Squidward in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
 * Hopper: Has his gang round the Ant Colony up to finish collecting food for them and takes control over Ant Island.
 * General Mandible: Reveals his wicked plan to Princess Bala about flooding the colony, and he locks her in his office.
 * Judge Claude Frollo: Ambushes the Court of Miracles, orders his henchmen to lock up the Gypsies and had Quasimodo taken back to the bell tower.
 * Governor Ratcliffe: Prepares to attack Pocahontas' village.
 * Professor Ratigan: Seizes power over Mousedom.
 * Captain Hook: Captures Peter Pan and the Lost Boys in Return to Neverland.
 * Mother Gothel: Stabs Flynn Rider and prepares to take Rapunzel to another hiding place.
 * The Toad: Sends Spike and Whitey to ambush Rita and gets the Master Cable back from Le Frog after his cousin swipes it away from her so he can complete his master plan.
 * King Candy/Turbo: Morphs into a Cy-Bug and confronts Ralph.
 * Hans prepares to kiss Anna, but instead he betrays her and leaves her behind to freeze to death while he reveals his plan to seize power over Arendelle.
 * Nerdlucks: After stealing the talents from five NBA stars, the Nerdlucks turn themselves into Monstars and trash the court.
 * Chef Skinner: Captures Remy and wants him to create for him a new line of frozen foods.
 * Coco LaBouche: After the villainous Coco yanks Chuckie's teddy bear, Wawa out of his hands, she orders Jean-Claude to lock the babies up during her wedding with Chuckie's father, Chas. She orders her assistant Kira to destroy Wawa, before slamming out of the room, opening Kira's eyes to the truth.
 * Sloan and Bree Blackburn: Reveal themselves to be poachers who kidnap Tally, shooting the rhino at the river and building an electric fence to kill a thousand elephants in Timbo Valley and interrogate Eliza.
 * Captain Gutt: After Manny steals his replacement ship, the furious ape then creates a new one and vows to destroy everything that's dear to Manny before heading to the continent. Gutt later beats Manny and the gang to the continent and takes Ellie and Peaches hostage, stating that Manny took everything he had and the evil captain intended to do the same.
 * Archibald Snatcher seizes power over Cheesebridge and prepares to kill Eggs in front of Lord Portley-Rind and the townspeople.
 * Alameda Slim: After lassoing Maggie, Mrs. Calloway and Grace and prepares to ship the cows on the train, he then reveals that the supposed bounty hunter Rico is actually a mercenary who was working for him all along, much to Buck's disappointment. Slim then leaves on his way to buy the cows' farm Patch of Heavens.
 * Napoleon: Declares himself leader of Animal Farm after his dogs chase Snowball away and kill him.
 * 2D Doofenshmirtz: After using the rebuilt Other Dimension-inator to enter the 1st Dimension, he prepares to take over both dimensions by creating a satellite to control the Norm Bots and activates the original one to ensure that the portal is stable for the Norm Bots to get through from the other side, unleashing his army of Norm-Bots onto the original Tri-State Area to ambush the citizens of Danville in order to create a virtual six-state area.

Comics

 * Dr. Robotnik: Dr. Robotnik, with his nephew Snively's help, usurped total control from the Kingdom of Acorn's good ruler King Max Acorn & starts creating his precious Robotropolis kingdom. As he did, he roboticized roughly 85% of the city's population with the rest managed to escaped where from there, he had the city rechristened Robotropolis.
 * Dr. Eggman: Soon after Dr. Robotnik's defeat during the failed Operation: EndGame, the latter's counterpart, Dr. Eggman, took his place as Sonic and co.'s primary advesary.
 * Iron King: He and the Iron Queen took over New Mobotropolis with Iron Queen uses NICOLE to open up the city, allowing the Iron Dominion to overtook the city before sealed it in a dome to prevent anyone from escaping.
 * Iron Queen: Hacked and controlled NICOLE to opened the city so the Iron Dominion can overtook the city before sealed it in a dome to prevent anyone from escaping.
 * Scorpion: After beating Spider-Man into pulp, Mac Gargan aka. Scorpion become drunked with his newfound powers and began to take the life of crime.
 * Carnage: Just as he witnessing Brock's escape from their shared cell in prison with aid of his Venom symbiote, Kasady unexpectedly possessed by Venom symbiote's spawn that it unwittlngly left behind and began his killing spree in more extreme and inhuman manner started from pulled a security guard through the door of his cell.

Live-Action TV

 * Lucifer (Supernatural): Succesfully taking over Sam's mind and start off Apocalypse.
 * Heckyl/Snide: Upon the crash of Sledge's ship causes his cell damaged to the point of being useless, he assumed his Snide persona before exit the cell and assuming the leadership over Sledge's crews.
 * Jerome Valeska: Rises to power while revealing his gang to the press.

Video games

 * Hiroko Ubusuna: Transformed into a powerful teenage version of himself with his magic increased when he absorbed all the Yin from Yatsurao upon the demonic giant's defeat.
 * Skull Face: Revealed that he has finished the Sahelanthropus to Snake and Huey, before had the war-mech attack them.
 * Alden Tate: Rally hundreds of homeless people in Warren District into his army that called themselves Dust Men.
 * Ganondorf: Infiltrates the Sacred Realm and acquires the Triforce of Power.
 * Recluse/Lord Recluse: Takes his high-commander's private assassin as a lover and used her to assassinate him, then he seizes control of his mercenary troop, builds it into an army and takes over the Etoile Islands, rechristening his new empire with the nick-name The Rogue Isles and using them as a new nation of evil. Only after this Rise to Power does he change his name for "Recluse", formally to "Lord Recluse".

Literature

 * Yeerks: Instigated Andalite-Yeerk War.