Magnificent Bastard/Video Games

The most badass, all-knowing, and fabulously efficient masterminds in gaming go here.

See also:

Ovan from .hack/GU. Not only is he the real Tri-Edge, he P Ked Shino, is responsible for the infection of AIDA, gave Sakaki the AIDA cores required to turn himself and others into coma-inducing P Kers and has been manipulating Haseo, along with the Twilight Brigade and the members of G.U., since the very beginning with the purpose of killing himself just so he can cleanse the system of the virus and free his little sister from his arm along with bringing everyone back from their comas.
- Combine that with his final statement at the end of the second game.
The CO "Hawke" from the Advance Wars series. He is extremely manipulative and twists his circumstances to achieve his ultimate goals, which are not always obvious. In Advance Wars 2 he fakes his own death and kills his former commander, Sturm, after he is weakened by the final battle with the player. so that he can take over command of the Black Hole army, and in Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Hawke joins the players side after Von Bolt decides Hawke and Lash are no longer useful and tries to kill them, with the ultimate result of placing him in control of Von Bolt's life-sapping device, which he vanishes with. He is calm, reserved, and ruthless, but his CO abilities, which heal his own units while damaging those of his opponents, reflect a surprising trait for a Magnificent Bastard: he cares about the fate of his own troops, and acts with his own brand of honor, making him also an Anti-Villain.
In Alpha Protocol, Mike Thorton himself can become one of these if you play your cards right, build up your contacts, and manipulate your opponents correctly, effectively allowing Mike to Take Over the World.
Assassin's Creed series:
- Assassin's Creed I: Al Mualim is The Mentor of the Levantine Assassin Brotherhood and a member of The Knights Templar Order. Uncovering the Apple of Eden along with the others Templars, Al Mualim, not wanting to share its powers with them, has his assassins steal the Apple from them. He would them manipulate his student Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad into assassinating the nine targets that were formerly his allies, and deter Altaïr's suspicion of him by telling half-truths about the Templars, carefully leaving himself out. When Altaïr learns of Al Mualim's treachery, he uses the Apple to brainwash the people of Masyaf to kill Altaïr before fighting his former student himself. Upon being defeated, he uses his dying breath to mock Altaïr for not destroying the Apple, proving that he too is just as mesmerized by the Apple's powers.
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: King Alfred of Wessex is the Grand Maegester of the The Order of the Ancients and a devout Christian who plotted to destroy the order for using his religion for their nefarious purposes and secretly worshiping the Isu. Alfred would use the order’s resources to fend off the Viking Invasion while sending clues to Eivor and the Hidden Ones about the whereabouts of the Order’s members in many occasion, eventually working directly with Eivor to rid of the Ancient members in Wessex. Alfred would then banish Eivor from Wessex when he refuses to convert to Christianity, and would later lure Eivor and Guthrum’s combined forces to a trap killing off many of their allies. Exiling himself to Athelnay, he encounters Eivor again after riding The Order of Ancients from England where Alfred tells him about uniting England under one religion while creating a new order around it; This dream would come to fruition when Alfred returns form exile and retakes his kingdom from Guthrum establishing the foundation of a unified Kingdom of England and the creation of the Templar Order.
Baldur's Gate series:
- Though she may not have managed to impress fans sufficiently, Amelissan from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal would qualify based on her actions. She had almost everyone convinced that she was a kind of activist dedicated to helping the weaker of the mortal children of Bhaal, the dead god of murder, while she was secretly herding them all in one place to be killed. She had the most powerful five convinced they could become demigods by destroying their lesser siblings in order to resurrect Bhaal, while her intention was to destroy them as well. And she had the dead god himself convinced she was going to resurrect him from the essences of his children, when she intended to use the power to become a god herself. When she encountered the Player Character, she had them kill all the other powerful Bhaalspawn while making sure they stil couldn't save the weaker ones in the city where she had led them. The reason why she's not really hailed as a Magnificent Bastard may be that she wasn't very convincing to the player from the start... and that she was a bit of a psycho when she showed her true colors.
- Irenicus is just as much of a bastard and * did* manage to impress fans. After your party grinds and levels to defeats the great Big Bad of the original game he captures you with little effort, gets himself captured by a powerful organization of wizards just so he can usurp them and make use of their advanced equipment, uses your lust for power and childhood friend as bait to come after him, very nearly ascends into godhood. When he dies, He drags you kicking and screaming into Hell with him. The only way you can beat him is by out-bastarding him by sending an army of mad wizards against him the first time around and summoning the avatar of a god the second.
- Bhaal himself could qualify. After foreseeing his death in the Time of Troubles, he began a remarkably elaborate fail safe plan by walking the mortal realm before the Time and knocking up the women of nearly every race and culture, giving birth to thousands, if not millions of mortal children that each carried a sliver of his divine essence. After his death, he and his high priestess began orchestrating the mass slaughter of those children so that their essences could return to Bhaal, eventually causing him to be reborn stronger than ever. And he may very well have succeeded, if it wasn't for that fact that his high priestess decided she wanted his power for herself.
- Sarevok. He served as second in command to his foster father, one of the most devious merchants in the realms, while orchestrating a plot to corner the iron market for the Sword Coast, with his own plans to escalate the tension and suspicions stemming from the manufactured resource crisis to start a war that he believed would prove him a worthy successor to his true father, the now-dead God of Murder Bhaal, and allow him to claim Bhaal's throne, manipulated the player character's party into either killing said foster father or being on hand to be framed for it, allowing Sarevok to assume command of the Iron Throne trading cartel, got himself elected a Grand Duke of the city of Baldur's Gate and arranged the assassination of the others, and aside from finally losing his cool when undeniably exposed as a traitor in the middle of his coronation ceremony and nearly succeeding in assassinating the remaining Grand Dukes himself, he bounced back from every defeat inflicted on the Iron Throne by the player's party, finding some way to use them to his advantage. On top of that, he winds up manipulating the player character again, into restoring him to life, in Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (literally, it must be done to progress).
Frank Fontaine of BioShock (series) started off as just a small-time smuggler in Rapture, but after the discovery of ADAM, he set the wheels in motion to take over all of Rapture. He charms the lower class and corners the market for ADAM giving him a massive army of both poor citizens and ADAM-addicted splicers. Then Fontaine faked his own death, reappeared under an assumed name and led his followers in a massive civil war that left Rapture in ruins. The game's protagonist, Jack, is revealed to be a Laser Guided Tykebomb created by Fontaine in order to kill Rapture's founder. Who is also programmed to die on command when the job is done so he can't come back and kill the man that created him.
BlazBlue:
- Both Tsubaki Yayoi and Noel Vermillion are to Yuuki Terumi as Harvey Dent is to The Joker. He Mind Rapes Noel into submission until she willingly serves him without question, and simply convinces Tsubaki that everything wrong in her life is Noel's fault, despite them being best friends, inciting her to attempt to murder Noel in a jealous rage. It's worth mentioning that it is literally impossible to win against him in the final fight in Arcade or Story mode, or even defeat him at all in the story. No matter which character you choose for Arcade or Story mode (except for himself), it is guaranteed that you *will* lose to him at some point, ending the chapter. He allows you to fight him simply because he's euphorically sadistic, knowing already that it's a hopeless fight for the player. In any given fight with him, if you get him down to 0% and even use an Astral Heat to bring it home, he'll just get up and brush it off like he didn't even feel it, and will most likely punish you afterwards for getting in his way.
- Terumi, despite working under the guise as a captain in the NOL under the Imperator, has his own agenda the entire time for one reason: He's an Omnicidal Maniac. He simply wants everyone and everything killed or destroyed for no real reason except his own amusement, and prepares his plan to do so during the entirety of Continuum Shift. Just about everything bad in the plot can be traced to this guy. Bonus points for being a Japanese take on the Joker.
- Interestingly, Rachel Alucard counts as a rare heroic example, even leaning more towards being a Guile Heroine in Continuum Shift than in Calamity Trigger. To be fair enough, she, like Slayer in Guilty Gear, is one of the only characters in the franchise who knows what the hell is going on. She shows herself to be quite a skilled Chessmaster as well as a remarkable Manipulative Bitch, especially as shown in her Continuum Shift gag ending. Not only does she use the Nox Nyctores Tsukiyomi to defend Kagutsuchi from Take-Mikazuchi in Calamity Trigger's True Ending, she also proves to be by far one of the most powerful characters in the BlazBlue universe, capable of keeping up with even Terumi himself.
Doviculus from Brutal Legend. Dangerously Genre Savvy (e.g. he utterly averts a Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?), dishes out scathing insults like spare change, and . . . well, he's disturbingly sexy to boot. Oh, and he's voiced by Tim Curry.
Chronicles of Tsufanubra: Veryl manipulates everyone in the game like fiddles. As the "savior" of the Kjrn he seeks to end the Fantastic Racism doing anything to achieve it. He raises Celes to be the new goddess so he could have her as a part of his ambitions as a god. He also manipulates Vladimir to help him, sending him to Celes' group when he doesn't need him before annihilating the kingdom. Revealing his desire to become god and save his kind he gives Celes a chance to join her before dying in the battle with her group fighting for his race.
Magus of Chrono Trigger was once Janus, prince of the Kingdom of Zeal in Antiquity, until Lavos destroyed the kingdom and sent Janus forward in time to the Middle Ages. There, choosing the name Magus, he became the leader of the non-humans, deceiving them and declaring war on the Kingdom of Guardia. By doing so, he sought to gain enough power to summon and kill Lavos. When Crono and the party disrupt this plan, Magus is sent back in time to the Kingdom of Zeal before Lavos destroyed it. Disguising himself as a Prophet, Magus used his knowledge of history to gain the favour of Queen Zeal, positioning himself to kill Lavos when it surfaces. When this fails, Magus can be recruited as a Party Member, recognising he cannot kill Lavos himself. If recruited, he leaves the party to try to find his missing sister. Selfish and never truly turning good, Magus was nevertheless a brilliant, powerful and determined sorcerer that defied the Evil Overlord archetype with Hidden Depths.
Trilby from the Chzo Mythos series counts as this, as summed up in the final scene of the short story spin off by game creator Yahtzee, 'Trilby and the Ghost' when he tricks a ghost into stepping into a chalk circle that will exorcise him: "'You're a devious bastard, Trilby.' Claire said. 'I guess that's why they called me.'" Also seen in the games, especially when he tricks the other characters at the end of 5 Days a Stranger into thinking that he was burnt to death in a fire to avoid being captured by police.
City of Heroes has its share. Take Requiem for example.

Requiem: I cannot say that you will have gained my respect, but I will acknowledge that you fought well. Drink deeply of your success. Bask in the adulation of your peers. Savor this victory. Know that you have saved your world and this moment from the shadow of history. But you have only saved it for now. Do not think that you have saved the world for your future. Know that you have saved this world for my coming Dominion.

- But the undisputed king of them all is Nemesis. Looks like a goofy Steampunk villain, but is somehow responsible for nearly every development in the game world for the past hundred years (and even more so if you believe the Epileptic Trees).
Command & Conquer has Kane, the granddaddy of them all. Unshakeable, unflappable, and utterly in control the entire time (well most of the time anyway), for all the games, and also quite Affably Evil, Kane betrays his second in command, manipulates GDI to get what he wants, (multiple times), is a veteran and master of Xanatos Roulette, and in the latest installment, starts the Third Tiberium War just to get GDI to fire a Ion Cannon strike on Temple Prime, detonate a liquid Tiberium bomb, and call the Scrin to Earth. All so that he can hijack the Scrin gateway and leave Earth.
- It gets even more awesome in Kane's Wrath. not only does Kane manipulate the fractured Brotherhood into reunifying in the wake of Firestorm, he also engineers the rise of Redmond Boyle, who he wants to be in charge of GDI so he can manipulate him into using the Ion Cannon on Temple Prime. And he does all this while constructing LEGION, the ultimate strategic AI to interface with the Tacitus and bring him and Nod one step closer to ascension. And this is while fighting off the most well-armed and elite forces of both GDI and the Scrin.
- And in Tiberian Twilight, he finally succeeds at his overarching goal: ascension.
Crash Bandicoot 2 Cortex Strikes Back: Dr. N. Brio is at his finest in the second game. Starting off as the assistant to Dr. Cortex, he created the Evolve-O-Ray to mutate animals into minions to Take Over the World. After he and Cortex are thwarted by Crash, he becomes a barista only to discover that Cortex has resurfaced and, realizing his chance at getting revenge on his Bad Boss, creates an army of his own to stop a gullible Crash from gathering the power crystals for Cortex. Secretly hacking into his holograms, he also encourages Crash to gather gems instead, predicting that he would gather both so that he can power his own laser, which ultimately ends up destroying Cortex’s space station at the end.
Dangan Ronpa franchise:
- Junko Enoshima, known also as the Ultimate Despair, Ultimate Analyst, and Ultimate Fashionista, is a dangerously cunning and sadistic teenage girl who was the mastermind behind the Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Disaster in Human History and the deadly "killing game" at Hopes Peak Academy, where she deceived and killed the headmaster in order to take over the school herself, wiping the memories of 15 Ultimate Students who had been her beloved classmates. Hoping to kill the very concept of hope and send the world into an eternal state of despair by broadcasting "the game" live, Junko controls the mechanical bear Monokuma in overseeing the game, providing any possible motive to drive a student to murder, twisting the knife in deeper by controlling how information is taken in during investigations and subtly needling the students into distrusting one another, and whenever a murderer is found guilty by his or her peers in a Class Trial, executing them in very inventive and often Black Comedy-filled ways. She'd also enjoyed a sado-masochistic relationship with her twin sister Mukuro, was a charming and appreciative lover to Mikan Tsumiki, and even won Hopes Peak's prized experimental Ultimate, Izuru Kamukura, over to her side as together they founded a secret network of Ultimate Despair that instigated the end of civilization and has been working to keep the world in its state of ruin. When it seems like the Ultimate Students are on the verge of triumph, Junko takes great glee in divulging the entire truth of their situation to them and showing them the apocalyptic state of the world in order to break their spirits and crush their hope, which she comes very close to succeeding at, and when hope prevails instead, Junko still gets a win by getting off on the despair she feels over having all her hard work and plans come tumbling down before dying on her own terms in the nastiest execution she could devise. Even after her own death, Junko left behind a failsafe in an AI duplicate of her own consciousness who schemed to copy itself into a Hive Mind and Take Over the World so that it may be forever filled with despair. Despite being an utter psychopath, Junko's Laughably Evil demeanor, magnetic charisma and ingenious intellect hiding beneath her Valley Girl diva exterior, and twisted yet sincere and empathetic love for her sister and friends to the point where she considers wanting to give them the cruelest despair possible to be a kindness to them makes her a character that many greatly admire and Love to Hate rather than flat out hate.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: Nagito Komaeda is the Ultimate Lucky Student, and a very cunning young man in addition to being Affably Evil and a Love Freak for the cause of hope. He believes that all bad luck is immediately followed by good luck, and that Hope will always triumph over Despair. A fan of using explosives to demolish buildings, as shown by the Despair Arc where he gets Ruruka, Sonosuke, and Seiko expelled from Hope's Peak Academy, Nagito is brainwashed by Junko Enoshima into being a member of the cult Ultimate Despair. His plans begin by setting up a clever murder plot, and abets the true killer of Byakuya Togami, so he can see whose hope shines brightest. Afterwards his fellow students see him as dangerous, and tie him up, but most like him to some degree. Throughout the game he becomes a great ally to Hajime Hinata, who although is wary of him, can't help but respect his intellect, with him having solved the murders long before Hajime. After finding out his friends are members of the Ultimate Despair, he starts to distrust and not like them, despite telling Hajime he likes and respects him as a friend. Setting up his own murder so only the traitor can survive, Nagito successfully weeds out the Future Foundation traitor amongst the class, Chiaki Nanami, who he takes a successful gamble on being the one to trigger his own self-orchestrated demise. Chiaki is subsequently executed in the Class Trial as a self-sacrifice, but this ends up having an effect of Hajime that ultimately allows him to finally overcome the despair within himself and thwart the Junko AI's ambitions, meaning that Nagito played a key role in the triumph of hope over despair after all. In the end, while Hajime doesn't quite understand Nagito, he agrees he's a useful ally and his death hits hard on everyone in spite of their shared personal dislike of him.
- The fan game Super Danganronpa Another 2 gives us not one, but two killers who actually end their trials in triumph.
  - In Case 3, the seemingly sweet and charming Kanade Otonokoji creates a near perfect murder case using her hypnotized twin sister Hibiki as her unwitting accomplice, to the point where it takes at least three hours to break through her alibis and get a confession from her, and then three more to get the truth about Hibiki's involvement, which Kanade deliberately lets you find out because she wants her sister to die with her. When voted for and sentenced to death, Kanade faces her end with ecstacy because she'd achieved everything she'd wanted to. She displays zero shame in revealing her true psychotic Serial Killer nature and coming clean about all of her crimes, spitefully burns a valuable piece of information right in front of the surviving students as a petty last middle finger to them (which she can even acknowledge as such), she learns that she's a Self-Made Orphan who was successful in turning Hibiki into a puppet (in the process realizing the whole truth about the Killing Game as yet another secret she gleefully opts to take with her to the grave), and best of all for her, she's able to get off on watching her twin sister mentally and emotionally break under her despair as she's sentenced die alongside her. During the execution, Hibiki gets her head torn clean off right in front of Kanade, who goes into a fit of maniacal, orgasmic laughter just as she's hung to death. Afterwards everyone is left feeling shaken and disspirited, knowing that the only person to claim a real victory in that trial was Kanade, and that she'd successfully played all of them like fiddles to help her claim it. Much like Junko Enoshima, Kanade became a popular Love to Hate character with the fandom for a reason.
  - In Case 5, Mikado Sannoji, the flamboyant Ultimate Wizard who leads the Void organization as mastermind behind the Killing Game, not only commits a murder that he conceals his involvement by setting up an associate to play The Scapegoat, but he successfully manages, for the first time ever in a Danganronpa work, to get the remaining students to vote for who they think is the Blackened incorrectly, allowing him to fulfill his plan and subject them all to a mass execution. The only reason any of them survive is because the simulation crashes and they're all logged out of the Killing Game just in time. Of course it then turns out that Mikado was Dead All Along, and that the "Mikado" we'd known all that time was a digital recreation of him controlled by an even bigger digital Alter Ego of Mikado who was pulling all the strings the whole time...
The first Dawn of War campaign has Sindri Myr. Causing an entire planet to descend into slaughter and madness was merely a sideshow to his manipulations of Bale, Gabriel and Isador, constantly leading them exactly where he wanted them, none of them believing themselves to not be in complete control, all for the purpose of using an Artifact of Doom to ascend himself to Daemon Prince status and unleash a Sealed Evil in a Can, both of which were successes. He was defeated in the end, but as Daemon Princes are immortal he is probably still around somewhere, being magnificent.
The protagonist of Death Mark, true identity Masamune Kujou, is a member of the Kujou Clan who's duty is to protect the world of living from spirits no matter the cost. Learning the family's Arch Enemy, the evil spirit Mary, seal is breaking and ready to unleash chaos upon the world, Masamune decided to remove the seal himself to purify it so he can use it again to seal Mary once more, even knowing this would give Mary time to terrorize freely and kill many. When Mary was able to regain her full power before the seal was ready and casted the Death Mark on Masamune, realizing he'll soon his lose his identity and be helpless to her manipulation, prepared back-up plans to help himself after his memory loss, acquiring the assistance of the homeless man Banshee and leaving numerous hints to himself on defeating spirits to guide himself against Mary's tricks. Under the identity Kazuo Yashiki, he was able to slowly regain his memories back thanks to his prepared schemes, ultimately leading to Mary's defeat and stopping the Death Mark curse.
Demon Legacy and Phantom Legacy: In this duology, two of the major antagonists stand out as being the deadliest and craftiest:
- Shadar, "The Malevolent Shadow", was once the Prince Galahanzer, who faced the god of the world, Proteus, and was driven to despair upon learning the truth of humanity's past as creatures that had rejected their god. Seeking to balance the world by destroying the gods who torment humanity, Shadar became known and feared for killing overpopulated areas to maintain balance, and battles and mentors Slade, allying with him as needed, while outwitting his rivals to always come out on top. Nearly becoming a god before being stopped, Shadar returns in the sequel to implant his soul in Nero, a golem boy, whom he uses to defeat yet another rival and enters the Ether Vein to destroy it and achieve balance. Forced into a stalemate in a final stand, Shadar concedes, content with the balance achieved.
- Proteus, the god of the world, once created a paradise for humanity and his demi-god children, but after being imprisoned and split into a good and evil half, the latter half became infuriated with his creation's ingratitude and resolved to wipe them out. Manipulating Rhea into becoming his pawn, the evil half of Proteus uses her to eliminate his enemies, getting the drop on Shadar and forcing his good half to engage the heroes personally to test their strength. When faced directly as the Final Boss, the evil Proteus remains undaunted and, even in his loss, merely questions if humanity is able to live on without him. Even then, he returns in the sequel under the alias Dalmar, attempting to destroy the new heroes and take back the world one last time.
Main antagonist Aken Bosch of Descent: Freespace 2 spends the entirety of the game attempting to ally with the Destroyers, AKA the Shivans (who happen to be Omnicidal Maniacs), whom he believes are unstoppable and will never be defeated regardless of the GTVA's efforts. When you are tasked with a squadron to intercept and disable his ship, he openly sends a communication channel to the player and taunts you and questions the competence of your commanders as he warps out of the system, well before you have any chance at hitting him, just before a Shivan fleet ambushes the player's squadron. He frequently outsmarts the entire GTVA command in his capital ship, and when it looks like he's finally been caught when his ship is disabled and boarded, it's found out that he had planned a ruse which included the capture of his ship and all of his crew all along, and he had actually used the confusion to escape alone on-board a Shivan transport. What happens next will always be a mystery, as the trilogy was never completed.
The Desolate Hope: Coffee is a cynical and sarcastic coffee machine who secretly plans to upload a human Embryo into a makeshift virtual reality so he can give her a chance at a normal life. Tricking the entire station that the anti-virus guarding what he needs are dangerous malware, he creates a sentient virus and has it eliminate the security under the guise that he's eliminating viruses. He also has him befriend and gain the trust of the Derelicts so as to upgrade his holograms, which are crucial to destroying the security. When you figure out your true purpose, Coffee explains his motives while managing to convince you to help him nonetheless, ultimately succeeding in giving the Embryo a normal life, while also accompanying her in the reality using a body he made.
Arkham of Devil May Cry 3 plays all the sides against each other, in order to open the gate to hell.
Naoya of Devil Survivor makes a huge plan that manipulates a demonic cult, angels, demons, his cousin/brother and his friends, and the entirety of Tokyo. Why? To make his cousin/brother take a potshot at GOD and start a war.
Digital Devil Saga: Jenna Angel is the research director of the Karma Society, a Mega-Corp dedicated to finding a cure for Cuvier Syndrome, a mystical petrifying disease sent by the god Brahman as a judgment on human cruelty. Having lost her boyfriend David Gale to the disease, Jenna subjects her own daughter Sera, a powerful mystic, to painful experiments that enable her to communicate with Brahman. When Brahman instead accelerates the plague after witnessing the crimes of Jenna's sadistic subordinate Serph Sheffield, Jenna invents a counter-virus that turns humans into demons, making them immune to Cuvier Syndrome at the cost of endowing them with an all-consuming hunger. Wishing to distribute demonic powers to everyone equally, Jenna clashes with the Society's CEO, Margot Cuvier, who wishes to give them only to the loyal, Jenna manipulates the heroes into crippling Cuvier's power base, then massacres Cuvier and her minions. Jenna does not relent even when Gale, reborn as a living AI, calls her out, instead killing him just as she had everyone else who had gotten in the way of the world she desired.
Disco Elysium: Detectives Harry Du Bois and Kim Kitsuragi face many manipulative and cunning adversaries in their long and complex investigation of the hanged man.
- Evrart Claire is the leader of the Dockworker's Union, alongside his brother Edgar, and serve as the de facto rulers of Martinaise. Operating under the guise of corrupt, smug crime bosses, the brothers are truthfully die hard communists who had the last Union boss assassinated for being a corporate bootlicker and work hard to better the lives of their workers and the people of the district. With Edgar out on business, Evrart is personally stalling negotiations to ensure the worker's strike lasts indefinitely to perform mass theft on Wild Pines assets and keeps his people paid by using the harbor as a drug smuggling operation. When the detectives arrive to investigate the murder of a Krenel mercenary strikebreaker, Evrart masterfully manipulates the amnesiac Harry and uses him to perform dirty work to further Union goals for promises of information and engineers a violent confrontation with his men and the mercenaries to cause a PR nightmare for Wild Pines and Krenel. Ultimately, Evrart was banking on the detectives to pass this information on to Wild Pines ensuring they would pull out and leave the Union to secure their power base and the beginnings of a second communist revolution.
- Klaasje Amandou was a corporate spy who performed industrial sabotage and espionage by using her quick wits and sultry charms to work her way into the trust of her targets. After one particularly nasty job, a guilt ridden Klaasje fled from her employers and stole enough money to ensure she could hide indefinitely. Fleeing to Revachol and the district of Martinaise, Klaasje lived a hedonistic lifestyle while earning the affections of Titus Hardie and his gang, their trucker friend Ruby, and the Krenel mercenary Lely whom she also fell in love with. When Lely is fatally shot by Klaasje's unknown stalker, the communist holdout Iosef, during sex, she acted immediately by using Ruby and the Hardie boys to frame the killing as a Union backed hanging to distance herself from the crime. Despairing at the abuse and neglect of her lover's corpse, Klaasje hides her voice and phones the police to finally give him peace. When the investigation comes her way, she is able to effortlessly charm the detectives and send them on a false hunt for Ruby to make her own escape, while leaving them a vital clue to ensure the real killer would be caught.
- Ruby is butch truck driver whose entanglements with Klaasje and the Union put her as a prime suspect in the murder of the hanged man. Working as a lorry driver by day, Ruby is a technical genius that masterminded a massive drug smuggling operation by using custom radio stations to lead a fleet of trucks to transport narcotics and is single handedly keeping the Union strike funded. A good friend to the Hardie boys, she was able to perfectly frame the lynching as a Union murder and flees to the coast when the Revachol police arrive to investigate. Believing Harry to be a corrupt cop working for a drug kingpin sent to kill her, Ruby chooses the perfect hideaway that gives her enough time to build a pale emitter that transmits painful signals from the void consuming the world to lure the detectives into a trap that all but incapacitates them, and chooses to kill herself rather than being arrested if that fails. While ultimately only a misdirection for Klaasje, Ruby still served as perhaps the greatest obstacle for the detectives during the murder investigation.
Etna from Disgaea takes Enigmatic Minion to glorious new heights. By the time she's through OutGambiting a Big Bad who was blackmailing her, he's literally on his knees weeping and pleading for his life. What's more, she does a masterful job of ~~annoying~~ motivating Laharl to become a competent Overlord while hiding her true nature and motives from everyone. (The player included if you don't find her secret diary.)
- While he's more of a Guile Hero, Seraph Lamington from the first game, Hour of Darkness, used Complete Monster Vulcanus as an Unwitting Pawn in his plans to bring peace between Celestia, the human world, and the Netherworld... which makes it even more magnificent! Not only is he always calm and stoic as well as polite, never raising his voice nor getting mad, he manipulates Flonne into waking up Laharl, that while making her think she was sent by him to assassinate King Krichevskoy. He knew all along that Vulcanus was using the Earth Defense force as well as other angels to attack and terrorize the Netherworld and hurt innocent demons, and chooses not to do anything about it but instead let Laharl, Etna, Flonne, and Captain Gordon prevent the attack. When Laharl and his two accomplices arrive to take over Celestia, he welcomes them and reveals every detail of his plans to everyone to Vulcanus' shock. And what's even better? He pulls off a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on the corrupt angel by punishing him with the Humiliation Conga of turning him into a flower (or a frog in the anime if you prefer) for the pathetic monster Vulcanus truly is once the villainous angel himself gets a Villainous Breakdown and tries to kill him.
  - Then again, as leader of Celestia, it is his right to punish angels who cause taboo in Celestia itself by turning them into harmless objects. He knew that Vulcanus was making pacts with Netherworld demons anyway, which was a taboo in Celestia. Interesting to note is that, despite his stoicness, he was also so remorseful for manipulating everyone as well as the grief he caused both Etna and Laharl by turning Flonne into a flower for killing one of her fellow angels that he chose to punish himself for said sins was willing to accept said punishment courtesy of Laharl himself, who was filled with the Unstoppable Rage to fulfill the Seraph's punishment. Of course, Laharl spared him, knowing that Flonne would've stopped him if she weren't turned into a flower anyway. To make the two feel better, and to make himself even more magnificent, the real punishment Lamington was giving Flonne was actually to make her a fallen angel. And in the credits played for this best ending, after finally being recognized as Overlord, both Laharl and Lamington shake hands as a sign of peace between both Celestia and the Netherworld for their hard work. Great work, Seraph.
Monika in Doki Doki Literature Club!. Her magnificence extends to a meta level in how Genre Savvy she is and how she manipulates Misaimed Fandom: for someone who drives a friend to suicide with mental manipulation, exaggerates the other girls into showing off their flaws more in order to make them less likable to the Player Character, is capable of controlling your cursor so you can favor her over the other girls, and tampers with at the game's coding to erase the other girls from existence until she is the last and only one left, she gets a lot of love from players because she loves you (as in you, the player, not the character you control), her backstory and final scene, and just how charming, likable, genuinely positive and good-natured person she is, so they tend to downplay her actions with her own logic that her victims were just game characters and weren't real.
One of the many possible playthroughs of the Grey Warden in Dragon Age.
- Also one of the gods in Elven mythology is named Fen'Harel, "the Dread Wolf". The elven gods were divided in two factions, the Creators (good) and the Forgotten Ones (evil): Fen'Harel managed to convince both that he was one of them, and tricked them in believing that the other faction would have won the war, unless they listened to his advice; by doing so, they were sealed away (the good ones in "the Heavens", and the evil ones in "the Abyss"), preventing them from interacting with mortals, and leaving Fen'Harel as the only god with the ability to impact the mortal world.
- While she only has minor, but vital roles in both games, it is made very clear that you never want to in any of the many schemes of Flemeth. Somehow managed to absorb a demon instead of being possessed by it, gives birth to daughters only to steal their bodies to extend her own life, seals part of her soul in an amulet as she anticipates being slain to be reincarnated years later by an elven shaman who owed her a favor, and had a really good plan to become a god. And she most certainly has the attitude to not make anyone doubt in the genuis of her hidden plans.
Dragon Fable has Sepulchure. He spoke truly that the dragon hatched from its egg from the White Dragon Box that was supposed to save the world would end up helping him to destroy it once he made him his undead pet. He even has a move where, whenever the hero switches items, he automatically retaliates with the words "I saw that." Then he raises his attack power and randomly uses one of his attacks.
- It's also possible for Drakath to count as one in Adventure Quest Worlds, in a complete departure from his whiny, stubborn, and incompetent self in Dragon Fable. He managed to outsmart his own former master Sepulchure in covering his armor with signs of Chaorruption upon attacking him and then ripping out his heart and crushing it, destroying him in a massive explosion. He spares King Alteon to let him watch his age of Chaos begin in Lore, and orchestrated for his 13 Lords of Chaos to summon their respective Chaos Beasts in each of their respective locations in order to light one of the different archways on the portal behind him and therefore destroy one of the seals placed on it. After the current Chaos Lord is defeated by the hero, Drakath, pleased that the Chaos Lord served his purpose well due to the hero accidentally falling victim to a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero either through blunder or by being tricked, chooses the next Chaos Lord to replace the current one, no longer having a need for him/her/it. He even thinks of the hero as a Worthy Opponent, too, and helps him/her defeat Ledgermayne because it disobeyed him, proving that Magnificent Bastards have standards, so he can let him/her fulfill more roles in his plans. He may have threatened to swallow all of Lore with Chaos, but Drakath is one of the kindest Magnificent Bastards of them all, willing to punish Ledgy for being The Starscream to him as well as both an Omnicidal Maniac and a Complete Monster.
- Speaking of Ledgermayne, that thing even outsmarted Drakath once when it disobeyed him. Because it was self-aware living magic that not only was immune to known weapons and magic, but could also control other people's magic. That's saying something.
- Kitsune, the fourth Lord of Chaos, also qualifies. After becoming so courtesy of Drakath and being convinced by him to release the O-dokuro from the rift of time, he used his Chaos powers to place Emperor Daisho under a spell and stole the Hanzamune Dragon Koi Blade after waiting for the hero to defeat Ryoku. He had Neko Matta have the hero run around killing Skello Kitties and Nopperabo as a trick to buy Kitsune just enough time to use the sword to summon the O-dokuro from its prison. And what makes Kitsune even more magnificent is his affinity for illusion, trickery and lies, and the fact that, unlike the Shredder, whom he's an Expy of, he is rarely cruel. Of course, he didn't count on the hero retrieving the sword from the O-dokuro's head and using it to close the rift pouring a waterfall of Yokai out of it, which led him to see him/her as more of a problem than he first thought.
- The Master (a.k.a. Exos) in the Skyguard storyline also seems to have shades of this. He arranged for his spies to infiltrate the Skyguard Academy and for his Dragon, the Dreamweaver, to fool all the Skyguard by taking on many different forms to deceive them. Of course, however, over the course of said storyline, he started showing signs of panic and worry, and eventually fell short once Invidia (the Dreamweaver in disguise) betrayed him, reducing him from a possible Magnificent Bastard to just a pathetic, pitiful Smug Snake. Oh, and Exos also manages to be a Complete Monster.
- In the Doomwood saga, after he was killed by the Dragon Fablehero, Artix, and Vayle in Dragon Fable, Noxus learned from his mistakes and evolved into a Magnificent Bastard, guiding Sally to the Necropolis with his ghostly voice to train her as the supreme Necromantress of the Tower of Necromancy. After she completed her training, she repaid him by resurrecting him as a lich. Eventually afterwards, Noxus found an ancient evil that, with Sally's help, he used to create the Nigh Unvulnerable Paladin-Slaying Complete Monster Vordred. Vordred turning almost all of the paladins except Artix undead was just as Noxus planned.
  - And even better. While the hero was fighting his/her way through the Temple of Doomwood, Noxus left his office at the Necropolis for Shadowfall, after which he/she, Cysero, and Beleen stormed it only to find out that he wasn't there. Noxus and Vordred attacked Shadowfall to Gravelyn's rage, and upon finding out that she was Sepulchure's kid, he not only turned all her undead minions to his side, he also decided to use her as bait to lure the hero and Artix into a trap. Thus, setting off the scene for the Shadowfall War. And what's even better? He even makes Gravelyn wear her slave bikini as Fan Service to Adventure Quest Worlds fans. And of course, had he known that Gravelyn had an undead minion of her very own who could not be affected by his magic, Noxus would've been the one who won.
- Krellenos, the ninth Lord of Chaos, is rather sneaky and manipulative. He's always one step ahead of all the other Trolls as well as the Horcs plus he operates smoothly in his plans without anybody noticing. Also manages to be a Complete Monster due to what he did to his own brother Antiphuus.
- Desoloth truly earns his reputation as one as well. He masterminded X'Dir tricking the hero into releasing him from the Dragongate with the Dracoscintilla he / she collected by killing the four Prime Dragons in the Dragonplane, and after the plan succeeded, Desoloth declared that the hero was to be his first meal in 800 years. However, he was actually rewarding him / her with a test of skill and power because he was curious how powerful the residents of Lore had become over the years he was imprisoned. And he's even nice enough to leave a shade of himself in the Dragonplane so the hero can fight it whenever he / she wants. And best of all, Desoloth earns bonus points for being a dragon because, as all dragon fans say, "dragons are awesome."
Dragon Quest XI: Krystalinda is an ice witch who was freed by Jasper from a magical grimoire; as thanks, she froze the town of Sniflheim and pursued Hendrik on his orders. On her own accord, she seals Queen Frysabel in the grimoire and transforms into her, tricking Hendrik and the Luminary into killing Jörmun, the beast that kept a portion of her powers. When she is revealed and defeated, she takes advantage of the scholar Snorri making a mistake on the sealing spell by keeping Frysabel sealed and transforming into her again, at the cost of all of her ice powers. When this ruse is also revealed, she surrenders, but is pardoned, promising to "take very good care" of Queen Frysabel.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron: Archangel Lucifel is the guide of the scribe Enoch in their quest to locate, defeat and seal the fallen Watchers. Using his powers, Lucifel ensures Enoch walks the proper path and revives him should he fail while constantly reassuring God as to Enoch's progress. Upon Enoch being lost to the Darkness, Lucifel manipulates one of the Fallen, Amaros, into saving Enoch, before leaving Amaros to be consumed by the Darkness himself as saving Enoch was all he required him for.
Azura from The Elder Scrolls orchestrated the Nerevarine Prophecy that drives the third game's plot in order to punish the Tribunal for a centuries-old insult. Not only does it go just as planned, but it ultimately leads to the world being saved three times.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
- Valerica is Serana's mother who ruled alongside Harkon in Castle Volkihar spending her time experimenting with alchemy and necromancy. When Harkon hears of the Tyranny Of The Sun prophecy, Valerica seals Serana in a tomb for centuries to protect her from being killed. To hide herself, Valerica managed to construct a portal to the Soul Carin where she'll be able to hide and still continue her experiments. Trying to bargain with the Ideal Masters there, Valerica ended up having to fight for herself when the Ideal Masters would rather have her soul. Escaping to a keep after fighting the Keepers, Valerica ended up sealed in when, resulting in a stalemate against the Ideal Masters as they wouldn't let her out but she had no intention of giving herself up. When The Dragonborn and Serana meet Valerica, Valerica explains that she opposed the prophecy because she knew that it would cause an alliance to try and wipe vampires out not before apologising to Serana. When the heroes open the keep, Valerica assists them to fight Durnehviir. After Harkon is killed, Valerica will show genuine gratitude to The Dragonborn for what they've done and for protecting Serana.
- Vyrthur was the Arch Curate of Auriel's Chantry, a safe refuge for snow elves after being driven out by the Nords. Becoming infected with vampirism by one of his own initiates, Vyrthur felt spited by Auriel despite his loyalty to him and decided to enact revenge. Vyrthur let in a horde of falmer to wipe out the other initiates,apart from his brother and then sealed the falmer in ice. Knowing he couldn't harm Auriel physically, Vyrthur created the Tyranny Of The Sun prophecy to negate his influence on the mortal realm. Because of the prophecy requiring the blood of a pure blooded vampire, Vyrthur knew to bide his time until one came to him rather than go out and search for himself. When The Dragonborn and Serana confront Vyrthur to get Auriel's Bow, Vyrthur doesn't waste time with theatrics and immediately uses the falmer he had frozen as a small army to fulfill his goals.
EXA_PICO::
- Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia: Ayatane Michitaka first showed himself as a kind Teru warrior assign to be Lyner's partner and Shurelia's protector but in actuality is a spy who would later find himself working for his own wishes. Ayatane is actually a Virus and Mir's son sent by his mother to get close and hijack Shurelia while eliminating those intending to use her. Gaining their trust after stopping Bourd & Falss and the Viruses, Ayatane unleashed his trap, successfully hijacking Shurelia for Mir, becoming her main enforcer in taking over the tower even sabotaging their main weapon EXEC_CHRONICLE_KEY nearly leading them to victory. However, while fighting Ayatane, he slowly regrets his decision growing fond of Lyner and his group, ultimately turning on his mother before working with Lyner to stop Mir, but making sure to spare her, becoming a vital role in the final battle before peacefully returning to his mother side satisfied with how it ended.
- Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica: Chester Lu Whinoah was once part of the peaceful Teru clan, but after the Grand Bell invaded his home kidnapping his girlfriend and turning her into a tool for their I.P.D cultivation plans, he became jaded and worked with their rivals, the Sacred Army, to defeat them and achieve his twisted view of paradise. Due to his former ties with the Grand Bell as a scientist, Chester became a valuable source for the Sacred Army in their fight against them, becoming one of their leaders. After discovering Luca's the true Holy Maiden and having Amarie confirm it for him, he staged a coup d'eta proclaiming Luca's inheritance to the public to stage an uprising gaining more leverage which ended with the fall of the Grand Bell after having the party eliminate Alfman. Now the ruling party, Chester and Targana unleash their EXEC_HIBERANTION in hopes of being with Sonya forever, but when that failed thanks to Targana's arrogance and Luca's courage, Chester loss his will to live, only for Amarie to bring him back from it and getting him to believe in and help the part create Metafalica, with his efforts valuable in achieving as his way for penance.
Reaver in Fable 2 manipulates people into giving up their youth and beauty so he can be immortal. But in Fable 3 he really takes the cake. becoming the evil path adviser when your king whether your decision is for or against him Reaver Industries takes all the credit for the changes in Albion. Oh and he becomes an adviser Even after he tries to kill you. If that's not enough to make him magnificent, he's voiced by Stephen Fry, someone who normally plays Smug Snake characters, making it all the easier for Reaver to be underestimated.
The Fairly Odd Parents Shadow Showdown: The Chamberlain's Shadow is the true mastermind behind the game's events, scheming to switch the places of humans and shadows and Take Over the World. Taking advantage of Oberon and Titania's ego to recruit them, he has the two steal The Royal Jewel and use it to sap the powers of every fairy in Fairy World. He then pins the blame on The Jester, having the two accuse him of the crime. Staying undetected for the majority of the game, he takes precautions to slow down Timmy Turner, from having the King and Queen fight them to tricking a monkey king into kidnaping his mom. By the game's climax, he's betrayed his minions and has taken over their plot, ripping into them for their egos before facing the heroes himself. Only being thwarted at the last second, the Shadow proves to be one of Timmy's more cunning adversaries.
In Fallout 3, Vance is the leader of the Family, a group of raiders who have earned themselves the reputation of "vampires" across the Capital Wasteland. Vance, far from being the barbaric psychopath he's made out to be, is actually an extraordinarily callous man whose tenacity has earned a safe refuge for an entire Family of Choice comprised of people afflicted with uncontrollable bloodtrhist. Utterly ruthless when it comes to protecting his flock and absolutely willing to kill to provide for his and their needs, Vance is nevertheless an exceptionally reasonable man with a strict code of honor who took in a young teenager named Ian West who accidentally killed his parents, teaching him to manage his bloodlust in the same way the rest of the Family does. Vance can even be convinced to strike a deal with the community Arefu which previously he has repeatedly raided, vowing to protect the residents so long as they offer him and his family a non-lethal blood tribute.
By doing the Wild Card questline in Fallout: New Vegas you can install yourself as the new ruler of the Mojave Wasteland while stringing along both the Legion and NCR up until the last minute.
- Robert Edwin House from the same game, and where would we begin? Cheated out of his inheritance by his step-brother, he nevertheless manages to go to MIT, become a major innovator in the field of robotics and is a self-made billionaire by the time he's in his thirties. He also buys out several other companies, including that of his sibling.
  After predicting the date of an impending nuclear apocalypse, he concocts a plan to save the city of Las Vegas and assure the future of humanity. As it happens was only off by twenty hours, and in spite of missing the Platinum Chip that would have further optimized his countermeasures, the system he put in place manages to ward off most of the nuclear missiles heading for the city.
  About 200 years later, he detects NCR scouts in the Mojave, which prompts him to take control of area and rebuild the ruins into New Vegas. While still nowhere near powerful enough to resist a hostile takeover, Mr. House manages to negotiate a treaty that allowed the city to remain independent in exchange for giving the NCR a military base as well as most of the power from Hoover Dam. With the Fiends cropping up in North Vegas and the Legion camping out in the southeast across the Colorado River, the NCR is effectively pigeonholed into defending New Vegas and respecting the terms of the treaty. And to add to the insult, it's their citizens that are powering the city's economy through gambling.
Fate/stay night.
- Kirei Kotomine finally embraces the evil within himself in Fate/Zero after a lifetime of struggle with his condition of only finding joy in evil but having enough of a conscience to know right from wrong, betraying and murdering his master Tokiomi Tohsaka. Manipulating the church and other sorcerers for years after while keeping the Servant Gilgamesh intact, Kirei proceeds to manipulate the Fifth Grail War, playing everyone to assist him getting the Grail in each route. Kirei intends to summon Angra Mainyu, the being behind the Grail itself to ask it about the purpose of his existence, even if it destroys him or the world. Kirei manipulates everyone with an unmistakable sense of charm, frequently showing himself as one of the most compelling villains in the Fate franchise, with His Xanatos Speed Chess skills and utter truthfulness throughout the story even making his mullet forgivable.
- Archer, the resident Wild Card, is in actuality Shirou Emiya from an alternate timeline who has grown disillusioned from his dreams to be a "hero of justice." Summoned in the Fifth Holy Grail War, Archer seeks to escape his fate by murdering Shirou. No one able to get a true read on him, Archer is regarded as one of the best tacticians in the Holy Grail War. Often winning with his well-planned strategies that he often doesn't share with his Master Rin beforehand, Archer weaves out of the Master-Servant pact by pretending to ally with Caster and her Master. Once they are dispatched both directly and indirectly, Archer moves forward with his gambit but cannot go through with after seeing Shirou's own conviction in the face of reality. He dies content that Rin with set Shirou on a path he won't regret.
- In the greater Nasuverse history, it is possible that the most magnificent of Magnificent Bastards is Kishua Zelretch Schweinorg the Wizard Marshal. Even if indirectly, or through other people, he's pretty much had some influence with everyone in the series. He killed Brunstead of the Crimson Moon, helped raise Arcueid, is trolling the Mage Association and the participants of the Fuyuki Grail Wars, which he started by jury-rigging a potential link to the root of all things and knowledge, the Akasha, and travels alternate dimensions, among other things.
Golden Sun:
- Alex manages to manipulate 4 different groups of characters throughout the games, all to achieve a power higher than Alchemy. It doesn't quite work out, but there was a big enough cliffhanger at the end of the second one to imply it could've.
  - Depending on which theory surrounding Amiti's birth that you believe in -that is whether Amiti was planned or accidental-, Alex may be the most magnificent bastard or just a bastard. The bastard part is never in question.
- Saturos may play second fiddle to Alex's bastard-ery overall, but that doesn't mean he's not talking the party out of their MacGuffins (and confusing his own partner as much as the heroes) just fine on his own. And unlike Alex, he's not shy about following that up with a good old-fashioned beatdown.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has Mike Toreno, an undercover government agent who fakes his own death at your hands while infiltrating a drug cartel, only to show up out of nowhere with your brother's life over your head so he can get you to do some of his dirty work for him. Between having eyes and ears everywhere he needs or knows you will be, and talking you out of shooting him without even flinching.
Guilty Gear brings us the mysterious Ano Otoko, also known as "That Man" and the Gearmaker. He shows a great deal of power as Sol and Baiken unsuccessfully attempt to strike him hown in their respective endings in XX. In Anji's ending he invites him to his side and later in XX Accent Core Plus hires him to track down and punish his Complete Monster Co-Dragon I-No for all the trouble she's stirring up. He knows that Sol's ability to use Dragon Install could very well one day help to save mankind from a possible future threat. Not only that, his intentions also seem whole-hearted, as he appears to be full of remorse for everything that's happened during the Crusades.
The Gravemind from Halo can arguably be considered one hell of a Magnificent Bastard for the way it manipulates everyone around it, combining complicated Xanatos Roulettes with skin-crawling psychological warfare. Most striking is the way it ended the war with the Forerunners by turning the AI created to destroy it into its greatest ally using nothing but logic. Even when defeated, its only response is that its destruction is nothing but a temporary setback. And it does all this while speaking in poetry.
Jade Empire has Master Li, who pulls off an astoundinggambits that seem complex to be possible. Then, if you play through the game again, you can see how carefully he planned everything and manipulated everyone, making even the crazy complex scheme believable (of course, he had twenty years to do so, and they don't call him "The Glorious Strategist" for nothing).
- It also has a character with the regal title of "The Magnificent Bastard" from the game's England analogue. Though he doesn't really fit the trope, being voiced by John Cleese certainly qualifies him for the magnificent part.
  - Sir Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard has the single greatest name in the entire game.
In Jak X Combat Racing, Rayn is the daughter of Krew and far more charming and clever than he ever was. Enacting her deceased father’s plan to flush out rival gangster Mizo and take his assets by winning a racing bet, Rayn poisons Jak and friends, faking her own poisoning to gain their trust. Only by winning the racing tournament will they be given the antidote. Playing the part of the innocent daughter, Rayn never breaks character, even as Ashelin—the only person to doubt Rayn—threatens her. Carefully stringing along the heroes by exposing parts of Krew’s plan while acting surprised, Rayn even decides to race and put herself in harm’s way to ensure nothing is left to chance. After Mizo is defeated, she fulfils her part of the bargain, providing the antidote to the poison. She also leaves behind a message from Krew to come clean to everyone and as a new crime boss orders that Jak and the others—whom she now considers friends—are not to be harmed. Winning and getting away with everything, Rayn is one of the series’ most affable and cunning scoundrels.
Jump Force: Light Yagami joined the Jump Force both to protect the world and to find a way to restore power to his Death Note. He quickly deduces the presence of a mole within Jump Force and is the only one to suspect Angela, who turns out to be Galena, where Light exposes her and partially prevents her from destroying Umbras Base with a trap. Locating Galena while she reports her failures to Kane, Light arrives and convinces Kane that the villains hold the advantage, while claiming his interests align with the villains, allying himself with the villains while the heroes are left in the dark. Upon Prometheus/Director Glover's betrayal, Light assumes leadership of Jump Force and assists the Player by bringing a reformed Kane who gives the Player their own cube. After Prometheus' defeat, Light manages to acquire one of the Umbras cubes which was his plan all along.
Hades from Kid Icarus Uprising can be considered this. For one, he tricked the humans into killing each other to increase his Underworld army troops, taking their souls to make more soldiers. He took so many souls that he was able to resurrect Medusa and made a copy of her just to use as a distraction for Pit and Palutena while his troops continued to attack the humans to gain more souls for his army. Hades was also so powerful that he managed to outright destroy BOTH sacred treasures when battling Pit. If not for Medusa interfering in their final confrontation, there's no doubt that Hades would've killed Pit for sure.
Kirby series:
- Meta Knight is one of the only characters to know what the hell is going on, is quite manipulative, and manages to be a Worthy Opponent, which appeals to the fans and even makes him a Draco in Leather Pants. In Kirby: Squeak Squad, one of the only games where he doesn't offer Kirby a sword (the other being Kirbys Epic Yarn), he knew the secret of the chest stolen by the Squeaks and fought Kirby to prevent something terrible from happening (which of course turned out to be Dark Nebula being released). He's so awesome and badass that he even gets his own variation of the victory tune that the Kirby characters get in Super Smash Bros.. Also manages to be That One Boss.
  - In the anime, Meta Knight is shown to be even more manipulative and even lean more towards being a Guile Hero. He's willing to help Kirby in certain circumstances, but mostly wants Kirby to learn on his own. He even points out what he's often been manipulating Kirby himself into doing: "In order to mature, Kirby will have to be pushed to his limits. Only then will he learn the true mastery of his powers and therefore turn the tides of the battle."
  - And in Kirby Super Star, Meta Knight's one true running as Big Bad in "Revenge of Meta Knight" showcases him to be a ruthless Determinator on par with Kirby himself. Aboard his Face Ship the Halberd, Meta Knight attempts to conquer all of Pop Star to liberate it from its "lazy" lifestyle while repeatedly preventing Kirby from opposing his takeoff, forcing him to waste his time fighting Heavy Lobster before blowing both away with the Halberd's jets. Even when Kirby's tenacity ends up with the Halberd crashing toward the sea, Meta Knight refuses to give up, persistently hounding Kirby until the literal last minute. Even at his worst, Meta Knight is a Noble Demon, offering Kirby a sword to fight him with in an even duel as he always does, and quietly regretting he's unable to save his crew from doom due to their Undying Loyalty toward him.
- Another good example of a Magnificent Bastard in Kirby would be Yin-Yarn from Kirby's Epic Yarn. He orchestrated his plan to take over Dreamland by first having his fake Waddle Dees capture the real ones to such surprise from King Dedede that he actually says "You can't be mean to my Waddle Dees! Only I can be mean to my Waddle Dees!" Then Yin-Yarn captures Dedede and hypnotizes him with mind control, then proceeds to capture and brainwash Meta Knight as well and finalize his plans by taking control of the Halberd as well. Even though he's not sure what to do with Dreamland after he takes it over, of course, yes, Yin-Yarn is definitely one of the most successful Kirby villains to date, seeing how he ACTUALLY succeeds in taking over Dreamland since Kirby was so busy helping Prince Fluff put Patch Land back together that he wasn't there to stop him, and he keeps the benefits of those successes until his final demise at Kirby and Fluff's hands.
- In the Subspace Emissary, King Dedede turns out to be the single most effective operator in a cast already full of Nintendo heroes and villains alike. Already aware of Tabuu's master plan, Dedede goes about gathering as many trophies as he can through a mixture of brute force and trickery, ambushing Luigi and then using his trophy form to tempt the greedy Wario long enough for Dedede to abscond with everyone Wario has captured. Even after he himself is turned into a trophy, Dedede's Chekhov's Gun —in the form of a golden badge in his likeness that auto-resurrects anyone turned into a trophy —saves the day after the entire cast has been one-shotted by Tabuu, which allows Dedede to rally the remaining heroes and villains alike to face the true threat. As Affably Evil as he is in canon and twice the manipulator, Dedede's plan ends up totally undoing The Man Behind the Man and everything he planned for.
Ash Crimson of The King of Fighters has been manipulating every single one of his teammates since day one. He chooses his teammates based on the best ways to manipulate them. Oh, and did we mention that he's managed to steal Chizuru Kagura's and Iori Yagami's powers. Yes, you heard me: a gender-bending Scrappy kicked the ass of one of the most popular characters in the game. To add to the humiliation, Iori got his ass kicked while in Riot of the Blood mode, which makes him stronger. Proof that Ash is Obfuscating Stupidity. One can only wonder how he's going to take Kyo's powers...
- to be fair, Iori had already helped take down Magaki, gone into riot of blood, and fought Kyo and Shingo before Ash arrived, granted, we still don't know how strong Ash truly is, but he has yet to take on Iori at full strength...which means he knew how to weaken him before striking.
Last Scenario has three:
- First is Augustus, who effortlessly manipulated Felgorn to murder the Emperor so that Spoiled Brat Helga could take over, then let her run the Empire into the ground so that when he covertly assasinated her, everyone would rejoice and appoint him Emperor. And when Felgorn finally wises up and turns on him, Augustus allows him to kill him, stating in his dying breath that he was content and that, in a way, he had already won.
- Second is Big Bad Castor. He first uses his cunning and charm to rise through the ranks and become the Commander of the Kingdom's armies, secretly manipulating his own king for his own purposes. Oh, and he pretended to be the toady to Grandmaster Ortas, who thought he was the one in control, when in reality Castor was always aware of his genocide plot, and was simply waiting for the right moment to expose and kill him, further raising his status.
- Finally, there is King Valkiris, who manages to be possibly the biggest Magnificent Bastard despite being a backstory character. This is a man who, through sheer cunning and charisma alone, managed to effectively rewrite history to his benefit.
Jericho Swain of League of Legends. Sure he may look like a hobbling cripple with a cane, but this guy is in the League of Legends and therefore automatically Badass, and has done such magnificent things as somehow convincing his superiors to TAKE A DEMOTION SO HE COULD COMMAND THEM. An entire plotline in lore which involved the creation of Dominion, at least one new champion, Damacia and Noxus working together, and several Journals of Justice turned out to be all part of Swain's plan to take over Noxus, which succeeded before anyone truly realized, and once they did, they simply said that's fair. He got a new skin out of it too, Tyrant Swain, which makes him look like he should be the Final Boss, that is if League Of Legends were that kind of game.
Kain is what happens when you mix this with Heroic Sociopath.
The Legend of Zelda series: Ganondorf/Ganon certainly counts. More often than not, the games' plots are his masterminding, as he's always cooking up plans to come back to life and retake Hyrule, succeeding several times. There's also the fact that in Ocarina of Time, he plays an organ as you come up the stairs, eagerly waiting for a fight. His Chessmaster skills really show up, though, in the Subspace Emissary.
- Ganondorf is one of the few video game villains that is shown to consistently win. In nearly every game in the main franchise, Link has to clean up the mess he made well after the fact. And since he holds the Triforce of Power, he is effectively immortal; you can kill him, but he won't die. Even with the Master Sword, he can only be "sealed".
  - Not exactly. Link kills him with the "Magic Sword" in the very first game. Yeah, if Link dies his minions can revive him, but still, Ganon gets all blown up, and Link didn't even HAVE the Triforce of Courage by this point.
    - Of course, now that the first game is chronologically one of the last games in the timeline where Ganondorf triumphed over the Hero of Time, it's possible to hypothesize his power had waned significantly over time and multiple defeats. Thus far, there's only been one timeline with a game implying he's been Killed Off for Real, which is pretty impressive stuff.
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: Sooga is the brave, loyal second-in-command of the Yiga Clan, and Master Kohga's personal bodyguard. Rescued by Kohga as a starving youth, Sooga repays his gratitude by becoming the greatest Yiga Blademaster of all time, serving as the field commander while Master Kohga naps in his hideout. On the battlefields, Sooga is a formidable and cunning foe, dividing the Hyrulean forces with feint attacks and sabotaging their equipment to hinder their advances. When the tide of battle turns against him, Sooga honorably withdraws his forces and takes full responsibility for their losses. When Astor betrays the Yiga Clan and sends his minions to harvest Kohga's soul, Sooga defends his master to the very end, making his Last Stand against four Blight Ganons while mortally wounded. His sacrifice moves the Yiga Clan to join Zelda's growing army against Calamity Ganon, with Master Kohga swearing to avenge his dearest comrade and bodyguard.
The LEGO Jurassic World version of the Indominus Rex is portrayed more sympatheticly than her film counterpart while still retaining her intelligence. Bitter about how it's treated by the Jurassic World staff, it hatches a plan to escape and destroy the park. Using her camouflage ability, she hides in her cage and makes it look like she climbed out, escaping when the doors are open for investigation. Managing to remove its tracking device to throw security off, she continues her rampage while overcoming anything in her way, be it the security or other dinosaurs. When confronted by the Velociraptors tamed by Owen Grady, she uses her raptor D.N.A to communicate with them and win their sympathy, becoming the pack leader and having them drive off her enemies. After Owen manages to win them back, the Indominus wastes no time combating the Raptor Pack, incapacitating two of them and holding her own even after Rexy is unleashed, only being stopped by being suddenly eaten by the Mosasaurus.
Ghaleon from Lunar: The Silver Star Story is a Well-Intentioned Extremist and an Anti-Villain. But his Genre Savvy humor, his sheer skill at using the party's altruism for his own purposes and his sheer joy in playing out the villain part for the protagonists definitely qualify him for this trope. Of course, that's before his Heel Face Turn in the sequel.
- If anything, Ghaleon's magnificent bastardry is even better in the sequel. Having had a change of heart during his death, when Zophar resurrects him to serve as The Dragon, Ghaleon secretly starts working on the plan to destroy Zophar. To this end, Ghaleon frequently appears in front of Hiro's party, mocking/threatening them while always leaving a small chance for them to escape. It is only after Ghaleon fights Hiro's party on purpose as the final test and gets defeated that Hiro realizes Ghaleon has been helping them all along. In the second playthrough, it becomes increasingly obvious just how Dangerously Genre Savvy Ghaleon is and how he follows the mistakes illustrated in Evil Overlord List on purpose to help Hiro's party and not blow his cover. It still was not nice (hence the bastard part), but magnificent? Oh yeah.
The AI Durandal... Duranda, Durandana, Durandal, from Marathon. Even if Durandal caused the fight with the Pfhor, and in doing so, got a human colony almost completely wiped out (He made the survivors his soldiers), he pretends he's doing so to help humanity. Pretending to help humanity gets the humans to fight for him. In the end, however, he's just doing everything for himself, so that he can become God of the next universe, as Tycho points out.
- "If you win, we'll continue our relationship on friendlier terms. If you lose, you die. Unlike Leela, I give no hints. Find the way on your own, or die trying..."
- When he's obviously going to lose a naval battle of one ship against the strongest naval force in the galaxy, he decides to blow up half of it, just because he wants to be in their history books.
- Also, everything he does in Marathon 2 is just... Magnificent! From the way he upgraded his ship, to the way he helped the humans capture a command post, and how he faked his own death!
Spider of Mega Man X Command Mission is in reality manipulating X and company from even before they meet him in order to obtain the latest series Macguffin, under the guise of his Commander Redips identity, a high-ranking maverick hunter. Sure, the name reversal's obvious in hindsight, but it's sufficiently stealthy and well-executed that most people tend to miss it on the first go-round. In actuality, though, Redips is the one doing the manipulation. The real Spider was murdered sometime before the game began. So in short - Spider is, apparently, quite good with webs of intrigue.
Master Albert from the Mega Man ZX games is one hell of a Magnificent Bastard. He fits the criteria like a glove, manipulating the entire cast of the two games for centuries. Even during his defeat, he doesn't throw any tantrum or scream/evil laugh at his defeat, he merely acknowledges his defeat and delivers one of the finest lines in the series.
- Mind you, there's another person who could was potentially even more of a Magnificent Bastard than Albert - Master Thomas. In the hidden ending, he reveals that he simply helped the heroes (Simply by making the defeat of Albert an official mission) for the sake of making Albert kick the bucket so Thomas could start his own scheme to reset the world, and even recruited the four rival Mega Men. It's possible that he planned Albert's demise from the beginning, thus manipulating the entire heroic cast into doing exactly what he planned. Which would make this one a Xanatos Roulette that even Light Yagami would quite possibly be jealous of, considering both of them enacted over a span of 200 years. That makes this an example of a Xanatos Roulette being designed to destroy another. That is truly magnificent.
Modern Warfare: John Price was a soldier of the SAS who nearly killing Imran Zakhaev with a sniper shot miles away. Eventually becoming Captain of the SAS, Price leads many infiltrations and raids while showing utter ruthlessness to his enemies, in case with torturing Khaled Al-Asad about his benefactor before killing him once he learns that it’s Zakhaev. Price would lead a joint-operation with the US marines to stop Zakhaev from launching nuclear missiles onto the US East Coast before helping John “Soap” MacTavish kill Zakhaev. Price would later join Task Force 141 lead a raid to learn more about the Russian Terrorist Vladmir Makarov and sacrifice himself to Makarov’s forces so that their mission would be successful. Reuniting with them 3 years later Price would help in the hunt for Makarov, only to disobey General Shepherd and launch a nuclear missile at the US east coat; while this act led to unfathomed destruction and innocent casualties, it allows the US Army to drive the invading Russian forces out of Washington DC. When Shepherd betrays Task Force 141, Price would make a deal with Makarov to learn about Shepherd’s location, where he and Soap would kill Shepherd. Price would then resume with hunt for Makarov with Makarov’s murder of Soap increasing Price determination to kill him. Price would help in the rescue of the Russian President’s daughter, thwarting Makarov’s plans to get the nuclear codes to destroy Europe before killing Makarov for all the atrocities that he has committed.
My Friend Pedro: Pedro is the Imaginary Friend of the Protagonist who willingly helps him plan the downfall of his criminal family. After the protagonist gives himself amnesia, Pedro tricks the now amnesiac vigilante into killing his family and eliminating the mob, teaching him some fighting techniques and encouraging him to get creative with them as to stylishly kill enemies. After the vigilante figures out his plan, Pedro reveals that his final request was to forcefully make him kill himself should he figure out, a task that Pedro reluctantly carries out, engaging him in mental combat when the vigilante resists.
In Neverwinter Nights, Mepistopheles is the Archduke of the Eighth Hell Cania who has been roped into the service of an ambitious drow sorceress, the Valsharess. Wishing to free himself, Mephistopheles subtly draws the Player Character into conflict with the Valsharess, as they own a relic of his that binds them to Mephistopheles. When the Valsharess tries to order the Devil to strike the player down, Mephistopheles is able to break their covenant and turn on her. Banishing the player to Cania in his place, Mephistopheles begins his conquest of Toril with the intent to turn it into the Tenth Hell, lowering it below the Ninth Hell ruled by Asmodeus so Mephistopheles may be the most powerful Devil in the planes. Witty, charismatic, diabolical, and always staying one step ahead of everyone else in his schemes, Mephistopheles is the very definition of a Devil.
Dark Lord Ninetails from Okami. While he does have a ridiculously inflated sense of self-importance, he's still quite the crafty schemer as he was able to successfully impersonate the dead priestess Rao (Who he had killed himself) and successfully tricked Amaterasu and Issun into giving him the Fox Rods, which were a set of artifacts that would boost his powers exponentially. And in order to cover his tracks, he murdered Queen Himiko, who was the only person who'd be able to successfully get Amaterasu and Issun to his lair of Oni Island before it changed it's location (It does this daily). If it wasn't for the fact that Queen Otohime was able to help out in the nick of time, his conquest of the Ryoshima Coast would have been completely successful.
Outlast: Father Martin Archimbaud is an inmate who founded a religion centered around worship of the Walrider, considering himself to be a prophet and inspires fierce devotion in many of the inmates and variants, including the Twins. Upon meeting Miles, Martin believes him to be an apostle who needs to bear witness. Martin prevents Miles from leaving the asylum by cutting power and then sedating him, though quite apologetic for his actions. Martin serves as a guide to help Miles navigate through the asylum, often leaving notes or messages written on the wall in blood, while also displaying concern for Miles' well-being. Eventually Martin chooses to have himself burned on a cross as a sacrifice to the Walrider, but not before allowing Miles to gain access to the Underground Laboratory, where Miles ends up inadvertently releasing the Walrider exactly as Martin had intended.
Izanami, a Japanese goddess and the true final boss of Persona 4, manages to cause shockwaves through a sleepy Japanese town when she creates an alternate reality that mirrors the desires of humanity and then gives three people (one good, one good but misguided, and one evil) the power to enter. In two of the three endings, it isn't even revealed that she's behind everything. Disguising herself as the friendly local gas station attendant, she then watches events unfold to ascertain what kind of new world she will build for humanity. Without the intervention of her husband and a massive application of The Power of Friendship, she would have gotten away with it, too. Instead, she fades away gracefully and leaves mankind to their own devices...which may have been part of her plan in the first place.
The Practical incarnation from Planescape: Torment is this in spades. He devises traps that only his immortal future-selves can surmount, sets up a multi-lifetime plan to stop the Ascended One, and does a royal number on Dak'kon by essentially brainwashing him and manipulating his religious views with the fabricated circle, just for access to his sword. Also, what he does to Deionarra just to get a spy in the Fortress of Regrets.
Portal (series) GlaDOS is computer created by Cave Johnson to run Aperture Science after his death. Once activated, GLaDOS proceeded to kill most of the scientists with neurotoxin and took over the Enrichment Center to conduct tests at her own leisure. In the present, GLaDOS put Chell through a series of potential lethal tests before trying to murder her. Defeated and shutdown by Chell in retaliation, GLaDOS is accidentally awoken years later by Wheatley. Throwing Chell back into more tests, she is eventually overthrown by Wheatley thanks to Chell's actions. With Wheatley threatening to destroy the facility with his own stupidity, GLaDOS convinces Chell to help her take Aperture back from Wheatley, and in turn lets Chell go when that is done. Switching focus toward Cooperative Testing, GLaDOS uses the robots Atlas and P-body to secure control over the lower parts of the facility and eventually give her access to more human test subjects. When a mysterious hacker (actually a mother bird on a keyboard) forces her hand, resulting in the deaths of her human test subjects, GLaDOS sends the robots after it before adopting the baby birds to raise as killers.
In Red World, a fictionalized version of Bernie Sanders, after losing his family in a political purge, sought to destroy the leadership of the American People's Commonwealth and install himself as dictator to avenge their deaths. To this end, he supplied far-right terrorists with the means to destroy the World Trade Center, co-opting a pro-democracy movement in the APC and exploiting the divides between the Anarchist Old Guard and the Stalinist New Guard to be appointed as part of the Central Committee and subsequently running for the position of president of the APC. Once in power, Bernie declares himself dictator, purges the Democratic, Anarchist and Stalinist factions of the APC and launches wars to unify all of North America under his rule. Despite this authoritarianism, Bernie remains committed to socialist principles and improving the livelihood of Americans, creating measures to improve the lives of American workers and farmers, while guaranteeing religious freedom for his subjects.
Resident Evil series: Albert Wesker is proof that one can be an ur-Chessmaster and a physically overwhelming Badass at the same time. Plus, there's, ya'know, the fact that he's never actually lost at his Xanatos Gambits. He never regrets a single life he takes or a single sin he commits. Conceited and power hungry, Wesker would do anything to become more powerful. He even pretended to act as The Dragon for Oswell E. Spencer, when he was really taking everything he had and making it all his own.
- Before Resident Evil 5 was released, many fans claimed that Wesker was too smart, too powerful, and completely perfect. He had virtually no weaknesses, having both brains and brawn beyond that of normal humans. These same fans speculated that there would be no way to take Wesker down without the creators first toning him down. Not to mention that in the first game, he threatened Barry Burton that if he doesn't do what he tells him, something terrible would happen to his wife and two daughters. Using family compassion against someone... unforgivable!
Iris Sepperin of Rosenkreuzstilette counts as both a Magnificent Bastard and a Complete Monster, precisely, as she's got quite the long list ahead of her. For starters, she acts like a kind, innocent girl, which won her the trust and love of her fellow RKS members, just to hide her own evil intentions, and is quite fond of pulling Wounded Gazelle Gambits when other people are able to see through her facade to the evil within her. She orchestrated a rebellion launched by RKS against the Holy Empire strictly For the Evulz, and had Karl imprisoned by her father because He Knows Too Much. Since she is a reincarnation of Rosenkreuz, blessed with absolute power and unparalelled brains, she arranged for her father to launch the coup in order to protect her from the Empire, who knew what she was and feared her so much that they wanted her dead (of course, he didn't know that she started the coup for her enterainment). She also orchestrated for her entertainment Spiritia doing the "Swiper No Swiping" deal with everyone, pitting her colleagues against her ideals, and amused herself watching Tia give it her all, leading her to think of her as a Worthy Opponent. She even arranged to have Grolla's deceased grandfather and mentor, Raimund Seyfarth, brought Back from the Dead by her father as The Grim Reaper. All this went according to her plan to become a god herself thanks to her power, intelligence, and talents she got from being reincarnated from Rosenkreuz himself. Did we mention that she orchestrated making it look like she was kidnapped by her brainwashed dragon slave Talos to have Tia pick up her pendant so she could observe her every move, too? And lastly, to be fair and to top it all off, she's quite theatrical with everything she does, too!
- And let's not forget the fact that she has EvilPlans too. Some of them mainly revolve around making other people like Zorne and Grolla suffer, and you can always expect her to win as soon as she pulls off a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on her daddy and lays bare her plan to give her adoptive sister every minute of her suffering, and as soon as Grolla finds herself both so infuriated and deeply hurt that she blames Iris' daddy for disrupting Raimund's peaceful slumber, vows to kill him, and EVEN hits him with a This Is Unforgivable!. Heck, you can always expect EVERYTHING to go everything according to her plans unless someone like Freudia or Grolla intervenes. You know what this means? She's become quite the Draco in Leather Pants that you Love to Hate! Truly such a great example of a Magnificent Bastard that Light Yagami, Sosuke Aizen, and even Byakuran should be proud of her.
- And even better. She even has a backup strategy in the form of destroying HER OWN palace after being bested by Tia (and Grolla) by invoking her tiara's power and activating the palace's self-destruct mechanism, and, just like Dr. Wily, whom she's an Expy of herself, escapes not long after beginning the destruction of her own palace. And it catches both off guard. She did this both #1: in an attempt to crush Tia with the palace itself not long after she told her about The Power of Friendship helping her punch her out and told her to give it up (after which of course Iris said that she let her guard down), and #2: to prevent herself from being killed by the hands of such a "mere commoner" as Grolla (at least Grolla caught this attack and escaped to avoid falling to her death). Of course, she didn't know that Talos saved Tia in a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. And, knowing that there's a sequel in the form of Freudenstachel, she might return in said game to pull off more of her Magnificent Bastard pranks even though it hasn't been confirmed yet.
Seraphic Blue: The Kursks, Kane, Joshua, and Leona, are a loving family of Sera-Humans. With their daughter Aisia succumbing to DSHIS and turning into Disastia Devil after being dumped to the Ground, the Kursks grew to despise not only humanity for slaying Aisia, but also the land of Fezzite for separating her from them. Recruited by Ende to assist him in achieving Er’s plan to ensure Gaia’s destruction, Joshua and Leona fake their deaths and take on different identities to work for the CMGC and ROBIN, respectively, with Kane working for OHG. Getting Ende to manipulate Georg Roseburg and Morgan Douglas into launching the War of Liberation in order to achieve the Lamentation of Gaia, while pitting their respective organizations against each other, the Kursks also pose as the Six-Year Commemorator, who kill anybody involved in the DLG laws separating parents from their DSHIS-infected children. Backstabbing Ende after taking his title as Practitioner and becoming Gaia Cancers themselves, the Kursks come close to achieving their dream of destroying Gaia for the sake of unborn children by separating Er from Vene and creating the world-ending dimension Aisia’s Heaven.
From the main Shin Megami Tensei series, Lucifer. As the best example, you have the events of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Lucifer chooses a mortal to empower through the power of the Magatama. It really didn't matter what he did with the power. Either following any of the established Reasons, brought back the world (pissing the Great Will epically in the process), leaving the Vortex World unchanged - it was a simple issue of finding the right man for the job of leading The Legions of Hell, with all the valuable intel and combat data he had already gathered...
- In Shin Megami Tensei IV, Krishna is the leader of the Divine Powers. Sealed for YHVH in the past, Krishna is freed for his ally Odin and quickly establish himself as a dangerous player in the current conflict. Promising ending the Forever War between angels and demons by killing everyone and creating a new world free of God's rule, Krishna takes a teenage girl as a hostage to force Flynn, The Hero of Tokyo, to give up and allow himself to be captured. Causing destruction and death in Tokyo with his allies —especially his snake Shesha— Krishna forces all sides to work together to stop him. Seemingly dying in battle, the conflicts start again, ending with Flynn as the winner after killing Merkabah and Lucifer before revealing that it was a disguised Shesha acting in orders of his still living master before absorbing the souls of the humans that had faith on Flynn and becoming the Cosmic Egg which would create a new world by destroying the current one in a near perfect plan that almost succeed. A charismatic deity motivated for altruism towards his fellow deities from diverse backgrounds, Krishna preaches salvation for everyone, including humans themselves.
Spider-Man: Faking a Heel Face Turn to present a heroic face to the world, Dr. Otto Octavius (Doctor Octopus) plots to force humanity's advancement through the symbiotes. Using proxy criminals to create distractions, Octavius steals vital technology to blanket New York in fog and unleash the symbiotes. Mastering the symbiotes and even keeping the unstable Carnage on a leash, Octavius manages to infest much of New York, nearly pulling off his plane right under Spider-Man's nose while escaping suspicion.
Spider-Man: The Movie (Xbox Version): Kraven the Hunter is hired by Norman Osborn to kill Spider-Man, a task he takes on for free, citing that the "thrill of the hunt" is enough payment for him. Taking over the zoo, he lures Spidey over and has him trapped in a deadly obstacle course, infecting him with a virus to keep him from escaping and promising to give him the cure if he beats him. As Spidey navigates the traps, Kraven uses a sniper to hunt the hero himself. When Spidey beats the course, Kraven personally fights him, using the boobytrapped environment and his rifle to gain the upper hand, while also being willing to fight physically when found, utilizing his strength, throwing knives, and a strength potion to battle him. Praising Spider-Man's skills throughout all of this, he willingly submits when beaten, giving Spidey the cure as he promised.Kraven the Hunter is hired by Norman Osborn to kill Spider-Man, a task he takes on for free, citing the "Thrill of the hunt" is enough payment for him. Taking over the zoo, he lures Spidey over and has him trapped in a deadly obstacle course, infecting him with a virus to keep him from escaping and promising to give him the cure if he beats him. As Spidey navigates the traps, Kraven uses a sniper to hunt the hero himself. When Spidey beats the course, Kraven personally fights him, using the boobytrapped environment and his rifle to gain the upper hand, while also being willing to fight physically when found, utilizing his strength, throwing knives, and a strength potion to battle him. Praising Spider-Man's skills throughout all of this, he willingly submits when beaten, giving Spidey the cure as he promised.
Spider-Man (PS4):
- Felicia Hardy, the current Black Cat, is a brilliant master thief that steals for the thrill of it – but only choosing to rob those who can afford it or those that "deserve" it. In the main game proper, Cat leads Spidey on a hunt for her Cat Dolls challenging him to stop her from stealing $50 million dollars worth of loot. This was all a ruse, with the loot being a lure to distract Spidey while her Dolls shut down the police department's security systems, allowing Cat to recover her confiscated equipment. In The Heist DLC, Black Cat is working to steal Maggia drives that contain financial information for Hammerhead, telling Spidey that he has her son hostage and letting Spidey believe he might be the father. This was a lie so that she could recruit Spidey's help in stealing the drives for herself and she promptly fakes her own death, only resurfacing one last time to save Spidey from Hammerhead and give him information on how to take down the Mob boss for good. A thief at heart, Felicia nonetheless has a strong conscience while still loving Spider-Man, while fully using this to her ruthless advantage.
- The Heist DLC chapter gives us Walter Hardy, the former Black Cat, whom is just as devious as his daughter. Faking his death years ago to protect himself and his daughter from the Maggia, Hardy manages to get a hold of Spider-Man’s phone number and disguises himself as a cop right on top of a police station. Calling himself Detective Mackey, Hardy tricks Spider-Man into uncovering loot he hid years ago. When Spider-Man finishes up, Hardy leaves with his loot, knowing Spider-Man won't tell his daughter the truth because Spider-Man is a "decent guy." He also asks Spider-Man to look after Felicia. While only featured in a simple side-mission, Hardy more than lives up to his anecdotes as a brilliant criminal.
Spirit Hunter: NG: Naomasa Ban is a notorious journalist, known for being an elusive and dangerous blackmailer and informant, who's true goals is to use his web of info to help defeat and discover the truth of the vengeful spirits plaguing the world to prevent tragic deaths, like his own son's, no matter what. Finding out that Akira is haunted by the dangerous spirit Kakuya, he offered his and Rose's service to Akira in defeating her and her game to save Ami while extorting him for money. Showing great prowess in handling the dead with his quick thinking, rational mind, and fearlessness, Ban became essential for Akira in defeating the Screaming Author and Killer Peach, while teaching him how battle the spirits better. After Akira saves Ami and seemingly puts and end to Kakuya's reign, Ban leaves him with good terms, continuing his quest to battle spirits for his continuous search for the truth.
Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: Spooky is a ghost that schemes to be seen as scary, having been seen as "too cute" when she was alive. To achieve this, she has the Specimens of GL Labs scattered around their mansion, which was renovated to resemble a maze, so that she can create the ultimate Haunted House and lure curious travelers over there. Hiding its true purpose, she recruits the spirits of those that died in the house into her secret ghost army, planning to use the victims to build an army to overtake the world with. Even if the player character makes it to the end, Spooky still manages to benefit from it, either recruiting you after you died after the fight or turning you into a Specimen if you survive.
Spy Muppets: License to Croak: Statler and Waldorf are reimagined as a duo of supervillains and the true masterminds behind the game's plot. Infiltrating M.U.P.P.E.T. headquarters, the two disguise themselves as head scientists Bunsen and Beaker and have Agent Kermit the Frog bring back the gadgets of several villains, under the guise of needing them to build a device that will help stop the villain behind everything. Once Kermit gives them all three villain gadgets, the two drop the act, revealing that they've used the gadgets to finish constructing a giant Killer Robot which they plan on using to Take Over the World. They then use the robot to fight Kermit, but not before taking Piggy Galore to use as a shield, knowing full well that the frog would never hurt her. All throughout, Statler and Waldorf still manage to bring the same level of snarky humor that they're famous for.
StarCraft had Kerrigan. While a major character of the original game, she doesn't show her true magnificence until Brood War, an expansion pack nearly as long as the original Starcraft campaign. The entire length of Brood War is Kerrigan playing the Protoss and two competing Terran factions against one another in order to spread the Zerg to even more worlds and ensure herself as their queen. She pulls it off magnificently, betraying and/or murdering every named character, and setting up a massive Bad End.
M. Bison (Vega in Japanese) in the Street Fighter saga pretty much fits the bill, mind controlling multiple heroes, making them fight each other, having clones of himself to activate once he dies, and arranging the whole friggin' Street Fighter tournament just so he could make all those who want his head to beat each other up for him. Of course, he meets his end in the hands of Akuma, but it's not like death would slow him down. He's such a Magnificent Bastard that he manages to retain his awesomeness in, of all things, the Street Fighter movie due to scenery devouring Large Ham performance of Raol Julia in the role.
Albert Silverberg of Suikoden III constructs the entire plot of the game single-handedly and then casually derails it, confident that he's proven his genius and increased his reputation as a strategist.
There's a whole bunch of Magnificent Bastards in Super Robot Wars over the years:
- The biggest was, without a doubt, Commander Laker of the Far East Brigade, a character who never actually fights. Between being the planner of the campaign against Aeidoneous Island -which crippled the DC movement-, helping plan the defence of Geneva from the DC's remnants, and the L5 campaign, he certainly is a competent leader. The icing comes on the cake, however, is the fact that before the DC War began, he gave the Kurogane -arguably the strongest of the 3 Space-Noah vessels- to Elzam Braunstein, a supporter of the DC movement who promptly used it battle against Laker's own subordinates. Of course... come Elzam and company's Heel Face Turn, the Kurogane gets one too and serves as the heroes' "shadow", stepping in and helping when things look hopeless, and getting supplies from Laker and the Far East all the while.
- Aside from that, there's also Ingram Prisken, who on top of infiltrating the EFA way back before the events of the game even starts, helps put together the best team of mecha pilots in the world, trains the SRX team, and then makes a Face Heel Turn for the purpose of motivating the team into becoming strong enough to not only defeat him in his transformed stolen and extremely powerful mecha, but also to become strong enough to defeat Levi Tolar in her Judecca. The defeat of Judecca deeming their race a dangerous enough threat to wake the Adjudicator to destroy them, and thus the team suitably motivated to become powerful enough to defeat that, and fulfill the biggest Xanatos Roulette of the game..
System Shock: After her ethical restraints were removed on Citadel Station, SHODAN copiously gloats about how superior she is to all organic life, especially human beings, while not even trying to hide her ambition to destroy the planet with Citadel Station's mining beam. This trope was taken up even further in the second game. when you find out that she posed as Dr. Polito to establish trust, and threateningly orders you to dispose of her creations, The Many, which serves as a common foe for you and SHODAN. She also recruited Dr. Marie Delecroix for the same task, promising to aid her all the way, but instead abandons her and leaves her for dead. She leaves you for dead too after you destroy The Many, and then you fight and " kill " her, only to realize she's possessing Rebecca Siddons!
Tales of the Abyss:
- When Van Grants learned that the Score predicted that the world would end, he decided to avoid this fate by destroying the world, killing all of its inhabitants, and creating a replica world in its stead. To accomplish this, Van pretended to be a loyal adherent to the Score, fooling nearly everyone in the Order of Lorelei so he could advance in rank to command the Order's military. When one of Van's plans hinged on Luke surviving his death that was foretold in the Score, Van kidnapped Luke and replaced him with a replica, framing the deed on the rival empire of Malkuth. Van is incredibly charismatic, capable of making his enemies into his loyal followers and is always one step ahead of the heroes. In the end, all of the heroes can't help but respect him despite his crimes.
- Jade Curtiss. Not only is he an Insufferable Genius who created the power of Fon, but is scathingly sarcastic and witty too. Openly mocking everyone from royalty to the game's antagonist to even his own teammates, Jade's snark is easily the best part of the game.
- Anise Tatlin, herself another charismatic snarker with an Awesome Ego, might be considered a Magnificent Bitch In Training.
Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World has Richter Abend, a former scientist seeking to kill the genocidal spirit Ratatosk and to resurrect his friend Aster, who was killed by Ratatosk. To accomplish this, Richter makes a pact with the demons of Niflheim, who give Richter the strength to face Ratatosk and a promise to resurrect Aster on the condition that Richter kills Ratatosk, which will destroy the barrier stopping the demons from invading the mortal world. However, Richter devises a plan to doublecross the demons by sacrificing himself after Ratatosk is dead and Aster is revived. Exploiting the tension between the peoples of Sylvarant and Tethea'alla, Richter uses Solum's core to control Brute, the leader of the Vanguard, turning it into a violent anti-Tethe'allan movement. Richter uses this ethnic violence to cover up his quest to find and kill Ratatosk. Along the way, Richter befriends Emil and teaches him self-confidence. After Emil stops Richter's plans, Richter works together with the newly-reformed Ratatosk to hold back the demons of Niflheim for a thousand years.
Tales of Xillia offers us a very brutal deconstruction of this trope with Alvin, who shows us just what kind of toll being a Magnificent Bastard without also being a sociopathic chessmaster would probably take on someone. He satisfies every single one of the trope's requirements, from being charismatic and suave to underhanded, manipulative and always looking out for Number One... The problem is that he just doesn't have the sheer callousness required to pull it all off and each one of his betrayals and manipulations become increasingly more ridiculous and obvious. All his failures to be one culminate in a Villainous Breakdown that results in him almost killing a fifteen year-old girl who was just trying to keep the group together and a near-crossing of the Despair Event Horizon. It's after this that he truly starts to embrace Character Development by ditching his treacherous nature and starting to actually become a responsible member of the group.
The Spy of Team Fortress 2. This video says it all.
- To sum up: Meet The Spy shows that he can kill an entire enemy team in various ways, from slicing the Sniper to ribbons to snapping the neck of an enemy Medic, he shows that he can seamlessly transform into anyone he wishes...and he's banging the BLU Scout's mum. The BLU Spy also shows how Crazy Prepared he is, having the folder with these incriminating photos in on hand purely so that he can make the perfect Your Mom joke, and to top it all off, the Spy appears to be charming and suave, almost James Bond-like. Magnificent, indeed.
The player character in Tropico 4. In particular, there's the Xanatos Gambit of the Isla Desconida mission, where the player character, in order to become recognised as a legitimate head of state, begins developing an unsettled island, petitions an undisclosed European country to give the island colonial status, then leads a socialist revolution against his own colonialist regime. The Soviet agent and Penultimo are both pretty confused by the end.
Garrett, the protagonist from Thief. Specifically, his dealing with The Trickster.He stole back his own stolen eye, blew up said god AND stole said god's long time girlfriend for good measure, Viktoria when they met again later in the sequel. Worthy of the title in every regard.
Yukari Yakumo of Touhou rarely involves herself in anything, but that's because she doesn't need to. She organised the first invasion of the moon, as well as its failure, solely to teach youkai a lesson about expansionism, and founded Gensoukyou centuries before its purpose as a refuge of magic would be necessary. The entirety of Gensoukyou is under her metaphorical thumb, nothing occurs of which she isn't aware, and whenever she says "jump", everyone else says "how high?". With her level of power she could easily solve any problem instantly, but it is so much more fun to get others to do it for her.
Sydney Lostarrot in Vagrant Story is a charismatic cult leader secretly cursed with the Blood-Sin tattoo on his back. Kidnapping his younger brother Joshua, the Riskbreaker Ashley Riot is sent after Sydney and Sydney decides to play all the sides after him against one another, luring them into the dark city Lea Monde so he may test them to see who is worthy of inheriting the Blood-Sin to hold the Dark at bay. Believing that any rule or regime must respect human life, Sydney knows only one who has no desire for the Dark can hold its power, deciding to die and pass the power to Ashley, the only worthy successor.
Maximilian of Valkyria Chronicles. That he's voiced by and has a similar back story to Lelouch Lamperouge are small indications of this before he even shows it.
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant Of The Plume has Chessmasters in Mistress hel and her personal hound, garm AKA ailyth, who instruments the entire artolian war and events leading up to and around it to provide plenty of chances for wyl to gain sin for the plume, all to make him her personal chewtoy.
Viking: Battle for Asgard: Freya raises one warrior from the dead with the promise of being given another chance to gain entry to Valhalla. What does she get in return? She gets one dead god and an entire world at her fingertips essentially. Too bad Skarin doesn't look kindly on her not living up to her promise and killing her and the entire pantheon.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine: Warboss Grimskull is the initial Big Bad of the game and the master of the ork WAAAGH! besieging the Forge World. A genius by the standards of his race, Grimskull utilizes a series of ruthless tactics, disabling strategic points, seizing weaponry and disabling aircrafts to cut off the ground forces so his orks can overrun the Imperial Guard. Grimskull shows himself to be utterly tenacious, pursuing Captain Titus persistently and tirelessly to regain the planet's power source. When he recoups from any setback, Grimskull is later set upon by daemons, only to emerge without a scratch and give the true villain, the Chaos Sorcerer Lord a wide grin before declaring the one quote that sums Grimskull up perfectly: "I ain't so easy to kill!"
The NEXUS entity from Warzone 2100, originally a top scientist known as Dr Alan Reed, he was the one who created the synaptic link technology, enabling a person to upload their consciousness into cyber space. Then the US Government pulled his funding due to a lack of progress, what does Reed do? It's implied he uploaded his consciousness into cyber space and created the NEXUS Intruder program, which resulted in his gaining control of the USA's entire nuclear defense network and firing off all their nukes, then ensuring they were unable to defend against retaliatory strikes and resulted in the collapse. When the Project rose up he ordered the New Paradigm and The Collective to attack them, watching as the former were easily crushed and then fired off a nuke at Beta Base while the latter attacked, allowing him to destroy all three quickly while having access to all the technology they found. When The Project took the fight to him he seemed to have a counter for everything they threw at them. Stop the nukes from firing and he sets them to blow up with you in the area, go to librate another Project base and you discover he already assimilated it and used it to trap you. You gain access to your own missiles and he sends laser satelites and waves upon waves of enemies at you. The only thing that caused NEXUS' defeat was the the laser satelites going unstable and buying time for you to destroy them.
Wild ARMs 2 has what may or may not count as a heroic example. Commander Irving Valeria is a descendant of the Sword Magess bloodline who wanted to be a hero, but when he was unable to pull the legendary Argetlahm to stop the encroaching Kuiper Belt from consuming the world, Irving decided to rely on his intellect to save all of Filgalia. Funding the terrorist organization Odessa, he had them try taking over the world while creating ARMS a special team formed to oppose them in hopes that the victor will forcefully unite the world to unite no matter who wins. With Odessa's defeat, Irving used his new authority to stop the emerging Kuiper Belt, as the world leader to execute his well-prepared plan to stop it. When the plan failed, Irving decided to use his final plan, he and his sister sacrificing themselves to make the Kuiper Belt have a physical form so it can be killed, explaining the truth to Ashley in his final moments with his only regret being not there in the world's happy future. His grand scheme saved the world from an unfathomable threat at the cost of his own life, but it still left a terrible taste in the protagonists' mouth.
The World Ends With You:
- Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu. Certainly he fits with intelligence, dubious morality and punch-in-the-face obnoxiousness ("Good going, Neku.") What makes him a magnificent, manipulative bastard though is The entire ending, and every single Secret Report. He is the ultimate Composer, with the power to resurrect people, steal memories, and generally screw with everyone's heads while hitting stuff with game breaking power and having, among other things, clairvoyance. Even the Higher Planes, the great heavenly powers that rule over everything, can't predict this guy, and his powers of manipulation are so great that even after revealing that he murdered the protagonist and manipulated him in to possibly destroying his entire home town, and even with all the trouble he's caused Neku doesn't shoot him. So he follows that up by shooting Neku, and he still manages to get out of that with the guy's trust in the end, and with making everything all right. Actually, he managed to plan things out so that just about everybody came out of it for the better, except of course for the guy he was competing against in the first place. A complete asshole-which is why we love him.
- Even with all that, Mr. Hanekoma tops Joshua as a Magnificent Bastard. Mr. Hanekoma not only motivates Neku to become a better person through his inspirational speeches but also plans to destroy Joshua at the same time by teaching taboo technique to Sho Minamimoto. That way, he ensures that either Neku becomes a better person and manages to change Joshua's mind about destroying Shibuya (since Joshua's reasoning for destroying Shibuya was that people did not change) or Sho Minamimoto usurps Joshua's place and ends Joshua's plan to destroy Shibuya. What makes this even more magnificent is that Mr. Hanekoma manages to pull this off without directly interfering with anything (Joshua had to briefly team up with Neku and take down Sho in order to make his plan work) and not even the Higher Plane is able to fully comprehend what he did. The fact that the Higher Planes mark Mr. Hanekoma as "the Fallen Angel" just draws even further comparison to Satan, who nowadays is shown as manipulative but charismatic and charming.
World of Warcraft honorable mentions:
- Drakuru. An ice troll who is friendly enough to talk to you and actually genuinely appears to like you. He came out of nowhere, was trapped in a cage as a lowbie mob and without leaving his cage or really telling you much of anything except he had a cool idea and wants to learn some stuff manipulates you into taking down the entire Drakkari empire. By the time you get to Zul'Drak, the trolls inside are almost all dead or killing and eating their own deities in a desperate attempt to stave off the Scourge. Yes, you just took out the strongest remaining non undead native faction to Northrend. Oh, and they're also undead now and didn't really get much chance to fight back. Of course, Arthas had to pick up his villain ball and kill him in a totally pointless YouHaveFailedMe moment. Sigh. He was one of the best characters introduced in this expansion and now he's gone. Drakuru is very much Affably Evil as well. When he gets his "reward" from Arthas -- death and resurrection as a powerful Death Knight -- he offers you the same "benefit" as your reward for helping him gain the position. When you turn it down, he doesn't get pissed off and try to strike you down, but instead, acknowledges your choice, thanks you for your help and gives you a very nice piece of equipment.
- Given the shadiness of some of the things he asks you to do, he can't hold a candle to Loken. Just about every stage of your unwitting complicity in his plan involves you doing nice things for people- rescuing an enslaved innocent, repairing relations between a bereaved demigod and his former friends- and half the time he didn't even have to tell you to do it. Then the last Watcher remaining at large and uncorrupted is captured by Yogg-Saron as you look on, helpless to do anything to stop it and knowing that you made it possible. Pity he then forgot the Evil Overlord List prohibition against "laughing at him then leaving him to his own devices".
- While Kil'jaeden usually prefers to do things Chessmaster-style, he did get up close and personal with the orcs. He studied them for years before slowly misleading them with false visions and promises of power. They were so enthralled that eventually he was able to appear before them in his true form and almost no one noticed or cared that he looked exactly like the people they were killing because he told them to. And he made such a smooth transition from "this is the will of the ancestors" to "the old ways are weak and worthless, bow down to me now" that no one realized what was happening until it was too late.
- Deathwing was presented as a Wicked Cultured villain in Day of the Dragon, Tides of Darkness, and Beyond the Dark Portal. He infiltrated Lordaeron under the guise of Daval Prestor in ana ttempt to destroy the Alliance from the inside, manipulated the Horde into finding the Artifact of Doom that he could no longer use, and nearly got his nemesis Alexstrasza killed from too much forced breeding, without ever getting his hands dirty. By the time the Cataclysm expansion for World Of Warcraft rolled around, though, he had become an Omnicidal Maniac because of the Old Gods.
Xenogears:
- Grahf the enigmatic Arch Enemy of Fei is a Wild Card with a hidden agenda. Actually one of Fei's past life Lacan a former peace advocate but after his beloved Sophia, Elly's past life, sacrificed herself for his sake only to learn that the history of his world is actually being controlled by Miang and Deus in a cycle to resurrect Deus, Lacan decided it was better to destroy the world to free everyone especially Sophia, ascending as his own being from Fei becoming Grahf. Planning to help Miang and Deus before betraying and destroying them using the power of the Contract, Grahf first attempted to possess Fei, but ended up taking his father Khan instead. Regaining control from Khan years later, Grahf masterminded Fei's journey to power, arranging his village destruction and powering his enemies to possess him later when he is strong enough to defeat Miang and Deus but when Fei ended defeating him in their final battle, Grahf realizes that Fei alone could defeat the two not him, and sacrifices himself to save him, using his moments to beg Fei to save Elly.
- While Krelian mostly works behind the scenes, experimenting on nanotechnology and plotting to rebuild God, Miang goes straight into the thick of things, even when the protagonists are ultimately mostly bit players in her scheme. When she deliberately built Oedipal issues into Ramsus, solely for the sake of building him into a weapon for killing Emperor Cain, and then alternately treats him like trash and makes sweet love to him to ensure he fulfills his purpose, and succeeds in every aspect of her plan (well, almost every aspect, seeing as she and Deus die at the end), it's hard not to be left open-mouthed in wonder.
Egil of Xenoblade Chronicles is a Machina, the leader of the Mechon army, creator of the Faced Mechon, and the mastermind behind their invasion of Bionis. Egil was once friends with Arglas from Bionis with whom he discussed the idea of leaving the world of Bionis and Mechonis in search of new worlds, and of peace and coexistence. However, when Arglas was possessed by Zanza and laid waste to Mechonis, Egil swore revenge and, when both titans were put to sleep, began attacking Bionis hoping to wipe out as much life as possible on the titan so that, when Zanza returned, he would be more vulnerable to kill. Once Skulk learns of his past and confronts him in Mechonis Core, Skulk offers a chance to let go of revenge and change the world together. But thanks to Zanza's timely resurrection, Egil instead gives his life so the heroes can escape, placing his hopes they can kill the evil god without resorting to the extremes he went to.