The Brain

"Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?"

- Pinky "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!"

- Brain

The Brain is the protagonist villain of the Animaniacs and his spin-off series Pinky and the Brain. He has an oversized brain, and is very knowledgeable. However, his attempts to conquer the world always fail, mostly because of his partner and only friend Pinky, who is very silly and always messes up the plan. But The Brain doesn't let that bring him down, and by next night he will have a new trick up his sleeve.

Story
Both Brain and Pinky are laboratory mice who underwent an experiment to make them rational. The experiment had different results on each of them, turning Brain into a super genius, while Pinky also becomes sentient but incredibly stupid. Brain then decided he would use his superior knowledge to take over the world and make it a better place using his intellect. He conviced Pinky to aid him in his plans, and the two of them try a new plan to achieve world domination every night.

Personality
Brain is a genius with a calm and overconfident personality. He almost never loses his cool, even when Pinky commits stupid errors that mess his plans completely (though he does often display clear annoyance). He also seems to be egocentric. Despite his desire to conquer the world, he truly believes that by doing so he can make it a better place, will never resort to murder to accomplish his goals and deep down he does care about Pinky. There are also some world domination plans even he won't attempt as they are sick even for him: for instance, he was unwilling to use a plan involving selling cigarettes to children. Brain's good intentions are highlighted with his rival called Snowball, a hamster who also planned to conquer the world, but who is far more evil and cruel. Brain is disgusted by Snowball's methods and will stop at nothing to prevent him from taking over the world.

Trivia

 * Only one of Brain's plans succeeded. He used time travel to provide Fire to Mousekind before Mankind could discover it.
 * The reasoning is that Fire is the First One advantage Man had which placed them at the top of the Food Chain. Upon returning to the "present", Mousekind was indeed the dominant species on the planet. The drawback was each and everyone they saw were just like Pinky, right down to the "Narf!" catchphrase.
 * Brain told Pinky they needed to hurry and set the past back to normal. When Pinky said that Brain would be able to rule this world, Brain said, "Yes, Pinky, but who'd want to?"

Villains possibly inspired by The Brain

 * Brain Gremlin: Both have a highly developed brain due to mutations caused by science experiments, and plan to use their knowledge to gain control of the world.
 * Zim: Both have completely idiotic henchmen who aren't evil at all (Zim's henchman is GIR). Both are also doomed to be eternally foiled.
 * Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz