abstract
| - Supervillains are, as a rule, ambitious. From your typical Evil Overlord to a Mad Scientist to a pair of lab mice, any bad guy worth their Spikes of Villainy will have a grand plan to Take Over the World. Then there's this brand of villain. Either they set their sights low out of practicality, or it just doesn't occur to them to aim higher. Whatever the reason, they focus their plans in one specific location. Usually the City of Adventure where the heroes happen to also live. There's nothing special about that particular town or city. No hidden source of power, no Weirdness Magnet attracting trouble, nor any particular personal reason for the bad guy to target the place at all. In some cases, it's either possible or explicitly stated that the city in question is the villain's hometown, and thus it could be a matter of the villain taking over whatever area he happens to find himself in. In some cases that particular location could be Step One in an ultimate take over the world scheme. If so, usually it just seems to never occur to the villain in question to simply move their operations someplace less troublesome. This trope is primarily used for comedy, as in most serious works the villains are either more ambitious, or have more pragmatic goals. It's also most commonly seen in kids shows in the west. Alternatively, when played seriously, it could be that the city in question is a city-state, large enough to be a small country in its own right. See also Poke the Poodle. Not to be confused with Taking Over the Town, which involves isolating a town from the outside world so you can loot it. Examples of Take Over the City include:
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