"I am stronger than you, therefore, I make all the rules." This very simple aphorism can be used by a character of virtually any level of intelligence. Whether it's the thug with a club or a super genius with a Kill Sat, it is the same. Their power justifies whatever it is they do.

Remember that physical strength is not necessarily the determinant here. Monetary wealth, political power, and just about any form of bullying can take the place of this. (Not that any professed adherent to this will necessarily admit it; the bully who uses physical strength may regard an ambush or other clever plan as ''cheating.'')

This is Truth in Television to a certain degree for the vast majority of human history, including today; you can be the most righteous and incorruptible person in the world, but that won't stop any bully or tyrant from doing whatever they please as long as they are stronger than you. This doesn't make them right, it just means that the righteous also need might to back up their righteousness so the bad guys can’t walk all over them. This tended to be the case de facto more so than de jure — most historic rulers tended to form some kind of rhetorical justification for their rule beyond "I have the bigger army", such as "rulership is my right by blood" or "Heaven has appointed me its viceroy on Earth", even if the simpler form was the one they may or may not have personally held to, in part because literally using "rule by who has the bigger army" as the formal system of rule tends to give other people funny ideas about making their own armies.

Groups who openly and consistently use this philosophy at the nation and kingdom level and in the long term tend to be more common in fiction than in real life, generally. Proud Warrior Races in particular often build their societies around the logic that power, wealth, and freedom belong only to whoever is strong enough to tend and defend them, often with formalized Klingon Promotion as a part of this, and tend to scorn any other societal system as weak and cowardly. Deconstructions of this tend to focus on the idea that using "having a coup" as your primary way of passing power leads to severe issues with internal stability and that openly using "might makes right" as your justification for doing what you want works well only up until the point where you meet someone mightier than you are.

Fortunately for those of us living in Real Life, the whole idea of Knights in Shining Armor, True Warriors, and "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" is to espouse and encourage the virtuous use of power. The truth is that "Might" is a weapon like any other: its effects depend on who wields it. It is possible to use might for good. Unfortunately, this often still puts those who are weaker at the mercy of those with power, who can only hope that they use it justly.

War, however, is extremely expensive, both in terms of actual money and in terms of human lives, and tends to leave both sides the poorer for it, which is why people are generally encouraged to settle conflicts with something other than their fists.^note This applies to one-on-one fights as well, which is why most species, including humans, have developed elaborate threat displays and mock-fights. It's a lot better for both sides for one to realize they are outclassed and back down, than it is for both to keep at it until one winds up dead, and the other probably maimed. This is where the "violence is evil" underlying assumption comes from: someone who resorts to violence must be too stupid to use any of the more peaceful conflict-resolution tools, or worse, are actively looking for any Pretext for War because they know they would lose in a peaceful conflict resolution. People and countries are often more than happy to use it as long as they are the ones with the power, but complain when it is applied to them.

Fictional characters taking this trope seriously can lead in all sorts of more specific directions:

• Appeal to Force
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership
• Blind Obedience (from everyone weaker)
• Defeat Means Friendship
• Despotism Justifies the Means
• First Rule of the Yard
• Gunboat Diplomacy
• Large and in Charge
• The Ludovico Technique
• The Perry Mason Method
• Rank Scales with Asskicking
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn
• Respect at First Punch
• The Right of a Superior Species
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!
• The Social Darwinist
• Torture Always Works (overlaps with Appeal to Force)
• Utopia Justifies the Means
• Virtue Is Weakness
• Written by the Winners for historical cases.

Opposite hero tropes:

• The Fettered: Somebody that draws their strengths from their personal limits or self-restraint.
• Right Makes Might: Good always triumphs! (Though some characters try to invoke this trope as a means of justifying their own Social Darwinist tendencies.)

See also Appeal to Force in Logical Fallacies. The Hedonist, when they are a powerful character, will usually use this logic. Related is Mutually Assured Destruction, when both sides are so powerful that peace is maintained precisely because both sides are too mighty to fight without destroying everything they were fighting for.