- Chaos from the Tamers Forever Series. Let's break it down, shall we? He has spent centuries manipulating humanity's most powerful figureheads in order to create worldwide chaos,. He is a ruthless tactician and a nigh unstoppable Badass. Not to mention being quite a hit with the ladies. (Although how much of that last part is simply his own bragging is up for debate). And he tops it all of by being witty, funny, charismatic and all in all, just a joy to watch.
- Draco from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality took lessons on how to be one, but so far he's only a beginner. The true Magnificent Bastard of this fanfic is, of course the one and only Professor Quirrell. Without spoiling anything:
- Exhibit A: The Pioneer plaque is a horcrux.
- Exhibit B: The remains of a beautiful blue beetle are seen in his office suggesting that he has killed Rita Skeeter.
- Exhibit C: Bellatrix Black has been broken out of prison by him and Harry.
- Harry himself has the goals of a Guile Hero and the tactics of a Magnificent Bastard.
- Shinji from Shinji and Warhammer 40 K, who eventually gets Gendo fired and imprisoned by punching himself in the face.
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"Gendo was left alone, blinking, wondering...What the hell just happened?" |
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- "I am Jack's smirking revenge." Directly lifted...and only adding to his brilliance.
- A few chapters later, Fuyutsuki invokes the trope by name when Gendo returns to power.
- Loki, the Big Bad of My Little Avengers, who has the rather telling nickname of "The Magnificent". True, he probably gave himself the title as a bit of ego stroking, but he definitely lives up to it. At the climax of the story, he reveals that the entire plot up to that point was a Gambit Roulette: by removing Celestia as a potential threat via depowering her, he causes a Mass Empowering Event that lays the potential for the world ruled by magic he's long envisioned, and more importantly insures that Big Mac will end up with teammates -- teammates that Loki can threaten in order to force Mac to surrender Thor's powers to him. And it works perfectly, with him only being defeated afterwards due to Pinkie being a bigger Spanner in the Works than anticipated. He also shows that he anticipated Trixie's betrayal and deals with it effortlessly. Hell, he even manages to die with style -- as he lays dying from his own reflected spell, he revels in the fact that the magic released by his death will mutate all of Equestria, creating the world ruled by magic he's always wanted, then dies with a smile.
- The Naruto fanfic "Yakuza" makes one out of Hinata, of all people. Let me break it down for you: the Rookie 9, Team Gai, and the Sand Siblings all play a game of Yakuza, with Lee and Hinata as the yakuza. They both manipulated everyone into killing the Genin they didn't kill themselves, and at the end, Hinata betrayed Lee, causing him to kill himself in confusion, and refused to kill Naruto, leaving them the sole survivors, with Naruto taking her for ramen to celebrate. Anyone who doesn't ship Hinata with Naruto should most certainly read this.
- V in a A Cure for Love. She is literally behind everything in the first arc before she is ultimately Out-Gambitted by Light. She stole Kira's ( Higuchi's) power and she manages to fool L into thinking she is trustworthy. She integrates herself onto the Kira taskforce and L's investigation while the entire time she is in actuality the leader of Astraea, the terrorist organization that the taskforce is investigating. if not for Light and Matsuda she would have succeeded in killing L with a letter laced with sarin and if not for Misa and Rem she would have succeeded in stealing power from Kira. She is also the one who manipulated events so that Light would regain his Kira memories-this would ultimately lead to her undoing.
- My Hero Academia AU Fanfic Nemesis (MHA): Two years after faking his suicide, Izuku Midoriya (aka Mischief) calls Katsuki Bakugou out as his nemesis, and ropes him into a "game" of Heroes and Villains with nearly a dozen hostages' lives on the line, remaining one step ahead of him all the way and psychologically tormenting him all the while. In the end he gets his revenge, not just by breaking Bakugou's psyche, but by exploiting his Inferiority Superiority Complex to strip any pride he could feel from achieving his life-long dream of becoming the number one Hero, and ensuring that he will forever be linked to the person he used to bully so horribly in the public eye due to him being his Arch Enemy.
- Resurgence: Raven Branwen is a huntress and a former member of Team STRQ. Upon discovering a mystical pool that allowed her to see various possible futures, Raven realized that desperate measures would have to be taken to ensure the one future where humanity survived. To this end Raven made the painful decision to abandon her family so that they could achieve their full potential. Taking the alias Krymsen, Raven approached Cinder and used her access to the Pool of Life to help her carry out her plans, all the while manipulating her to ensure that the heroes of Remnant had a fighting chance. Upon deciding that the pieces were in place Raven reveals her true intentions to Team RWBY before killing Cinder with the aid of Neo. When Salem is defeated, Raven absorbs her power and decides to stay in the netherworld, both to ensure the balance and to serve penance for her crimes.
- Victorious Fanfic Diamond Eyes: Jade West, desiring to make her and her friends rich, decides to form a gang after reading books about the old ways of crime. Deducing that the local guards won't be able to handle a form of crime they are unfamiliar with, Jade has the Stonehearts start off small by robbing banks before moving on to robbing a museum and casino to get the Council to acknowledge them as a threat. Letting her friend out of the gang when it gets to be too much for her, Jade makes sure to have a way to monitor her to keep her safe. Later wiping out a part of the army, Jade swears revenge on the Council and two government assassins when the latter kill Cat, calling the Chairmen to intimate him before blowing up the Las Vegas sign. Jade later tracks down and kills one of the assassins in his safe house before killing the other in a fair fight. Later killing the Council, Jade ends the story continuing her quest to make money and getting engaged to her girlfriend, Tori Vega.
- Arrowverse fanfic To Hell and Back (Arrowverse):
- Malcolm Merlyn, aka the Dark Archer, is a former member of the League of Assassins who fled the League following a massacre by Talia al Ghul. Endeavoring to better Starling City and avenge his wife's death, Malcolm masterminded the Undertaking, an attempt to destroy the Glades and make the city better. Upon coming into conflict with the Green Arrow, Malcolm schemes against him, yet ultimately proves to be little threat to the fellow archer before the Undertaking's failure. However, upon being captured by Talia and having Tommy's life threatened, he proves his manipulative abilities; first convincing Tommy that Talia had his lover Isabel murdered, including leaving out his correct assumption that they were working together because Tommy would never believe him, Malcolm turns Tommy to his side and has him murder Talia, passing control of the League of Shadows onto him. After killing those who helped him because they might betray him as well, Malcolm then plants a body double so effective that even ARGUS is fooled, faking his death so he can lay low while Tommy helps him scheme against the Green Arrow further.
- Amanda Waller is the director of ARGUS and the true leader of the Justice League. Quickly deducing the heroes' identities, Waller blackmails all of them into working for her under the threat of exposing their identities. She also works with the Queens to scapegoat Frank Chen into confessing to the Undertaking, allowing them to get off scot free in exchange for stopping Merlyn, while also revealing that she's aware of Malcolm and Oliver's relation yet is happy to keep it secret. Upon learning of the Dominator threat, Waller leads the human resistance in arming and preparing everyone capable of resisting the threat, later proving vital to repelling the invasion with her scientists. Upon becoming aware of Zoom's threat, Waller tortures Killer Frost to learn everything she can, making Deathstorm cave within moments. She then unleashes her signature creation, Task Force X, to rescue Barry and save his father from Zoom. Lacking any powers yet brave enough to insult Zoom to his face, Waller is one of the few people able to control the various heroes that work for her with nothing but her intelligence and information.
- Purpose: John Kramer and his apprentice Lucy, AKA Kaede, are the philosophical Jigsaw Killers:
- John Kramer maintains his deeds from the film series and goes to abduct Lucy, forcing her into a Death Trap in an effort to make her regain her appreciation for life. After she survives, John is impressed and speaks to her, shutting down her nihilistic worldview and earns her Undying Loyalty in the process. So great is John's influence that even after his death, Lucy takes up his work.
- Lucy inherits John's title and continues his modus operandi after his passing. A Well-Intentioned Extremist just like her predecessor, Lucy continues his work while evading the police for five years through sheer cunning. Abducting the vile Director Kakuzawa, Lucy still abides to the rules of John's game and encourages Kakuzawa to overcome the trap, only killing him when he loses thanks to his own ego.
- Mario & Luigi fanfic Darkest Timeline:
- Bowser is once again the King of Koopas and the ruler of his kingdom. In the opening parts of the fic, Bowser found out about a spy in his ranks and fed the spy false info in order to distract the Mario Brothers so he could steal Professor E. Gadd's time machine and get rid of the Mario Brothers for good. When Bowser ends up in the future, he heads toward his future counterpart and through a series of deductions is able to figure out that the demon helping Emperor Bowser is the one who has manipulated everything. When Mephistopheles offers Bowser a similar deal as he offered Bowser's future counterpart in the past, this Bowser, having learned how pointless trying to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom is, refuses his offer. After returning to the present, Bowser acknowledges Mario and Luigi as Worthy Opponents and walks away to do something different with his life.
- The Bad Future version of Mario himself proves to be much more manipulative and ruthless than his past counterpart. In this reality, Mario formed a resistance after Emperor Bowser conquered the Mushroom Kingdom and was able to keep going for many years. When Mario and Luigi from the past arrive, Future Mario enacts his plan to finally take down Emperor Bowser. A few days ago he had Luigi Captured on Purpose so that he can have his rebels attack Bowser's castle, sacrificing a majority of them to use as a distraction so Luigi can sneak out of jail and wipe out the rest of Emperor Bowser's army with a bomb leaving Emperor Bowser with nothing left.