Magnificent Bastard/Western Animation

"Yes!"

These characters in Western Animation make sure to leave a real and lasting impression on audiences with their audacious personalities and presence.

See also:

Dolf from Alfred J Kwak. While he may start off as a mere naughty kid and a bit of a bully, as the series progresses Dolf becomes more and more devious and evil, to the point where he becomes an Adolf Hitler Expy. After years of being abroad, Dolf returns to Great Waterland and manages to stage a coup d'etat, removing the King from his palace and even amassing an army. After falling from power, he returns again after the King has abdicated and now partakes in the first democratic election. In order to get ahead of the other candidates, he hires foreigners to damage the dam that keeps the land from being flooded. He then drops out of the race, saying he has to help the people and can't waste time on elections. He then publicly funds repairs of the dam, making him immensely popular and boosting his chances at the election once he reenters. The only witness, a jellyfish spy called Lispel, attempts to blackmail him, which promptly backfires when Dolf attempts to shoot him to death in order to eliminate any chance of his plans being foiled. Had Lispel not survived the shooting and informed Alfred, Dolf's plan would have succeeded.
Arcane:
- Silco is a ruthless, complex crime lord and revolutionary, hellbent on securing the future of Zaun no matter the cost. Betrayed and scarred by his old partner Vander long ago when Silco's attempted uprising against Piltover grew violent, Silco bided his time for years as he secured himself a position in Zaun's criminal underworld, mass producing the drug Shimmer and swaying the chembarons under his banner. Ascending to further power as the unofficial leader of Zaun after he eliminates Vander, Silco keeps the ambitious chembarons under his thumb, earns the loyalty of his right-hand Sevika, and sows unrest through Piltover. Having adopted young Powder and molded her into Jinx as his surrogate daughter, Silco keeps the unhinged girl under his control despite her growing psychosis, and even when he has all bargaining power to cow Piltover to his demands, Silco gives it all up to secure Jinx's safety, maintaining his love for her as his child even when she unintentionally kills him. Charismatic, dangerously savvy, and possessing far more humanity and vulnerability than expected, Silco was defined by his love for Zaun and Jinx, determined to ensure empowerment of them both no matter the cost.
- Sevika, the intelligent right hand of Silco, is a crafty and dangerous woman with claim to be one of the finest in Zhaun. Frequently advising Silco of Jinx's instability, Sevika is put in charge of Silco's operations, which she handles with intelligent maneuvering. When one underboss attempts to get her to betray Silco, Sevika kills him and uses the death to push the others in line. Upon Silco's death, Sevika is left looking at the now empty throne with her own ascent seemingly assured.
Archer:
- Lana Kane decides to get even with Cyril for cheating on her by having sex with everyone else in the office. At least that's what she tells Cyril. In reality, she makes all the guys pay her for the privilege of saying they had sex with her. Gillette flat out calls her a "magnificent bastard" for this.
- Malory Archer is another anti-heroic example. She has a natural gift for playing both sides of a conflict in such a way that her actions only ever have consequences for other people. The only time it ever failed her was when Pam beat her up at the end of "El Secuestro".
- George Spelvin, from Season 2's "Tragical History", is a computer programer who manipulates Cyril Figgis into uploading a computer virus onto ISIS's network on the pretense that he will make Cyril a hero in front of his colleges, while also bribing Cyril to unsure his loyalty. After Cyril upload the virus, Spelvin reveals that he has no intentions on helping Cyril and his true plan was to use the virus to download the identities of all of ISIS's secret agents, then sell them for $50 million to anyone willing to buy. With George Spelvin's plans in near completion, Cyril and Sterling Archer attempts to stop him, only for Spelvin, with the help of his two bodyguards, to effortlessly defeat Sterling, and is only foiled by dumb luck on Cyril's part before making his escape.
- In the episode "Movie Star", Rona Thorne is a KGB spy under the guise of a famous movie actress who is assigned to assassinate the Soviet Premier. When she learns that ISIS agent Lana Kane was task with protecting the premier, Rona convinces ISIS's director, Malory Archer, to allow Rona to tag-along with Lana in her mission, under the pretense that it will help Rona for her upcoming spy movie. Rona would also exploit Sterling's jealousy of Lana to have him hinder her mission before injecting them both with tetrodotoxin and would successfully assassinate the premier before escaping.
The Backyardigans:
- Le Master of Disguise of the episode bearing his name is a scheming trickster able to change his appearance with masterful skill. On the run from Paris police Inspector Austin, Le Master disguises himself as the Orient Express's conductor to escape the Inspector before changing his persona to that of a waiter. Further fooling Austin and playing him against the train's passengers, Le Master rounds out the story by pulling off his most ingenious plan yet, disguising himself as Austin and nearly tricking bystanders long enough for him to make his escape in Istanbul.
- In "Robot Rampage", Professor Bug is a self-proclaimed Evil Genius who seeks to take control of every last robot in Mega City. Stealthily infecting various robots with his "bugs" to distract local robot repairman Austin, Bug uses the opportunity to infect all Mega City robots with his bugs and bend them to his will. Cheerfully singing about his newfound power while still avoiding giving Austin any clues to his villainy, Bug, refusing to let even one robot thwart him, focuses all his attention on tracking down uninfected robot Rosco, and sics the powerful Rex Robot onto Austin and his friends when he infiltrates Bug's lair. Even when beaten, Bug simply prompts to assist the heroes in repairing all the corrupting robots, noting that he now has plenty of free time on his hands since his scheme was foiled.
- "Flower Power": The Gloom Meister is Flower Girl's Arch Enemy, a cackling, well-dressed supervillain with a hatred for all things pretty and flowery thanks to a fear of them. Causing chaos throughout Garden City to gain Flower Girl's attention, the Meister lures her into a trap that leaves her powerless, with the heroine only escaping thanks to a split-second window of opportunity. The Meister plans to use his Gloomsday machine to plunge Garden City into perpetual gloom, yet quickly turns the machine into a weapon to help him overpower and fight off Flower Girl. After his plan is thwarted, the Gloom Meister overcomes his fear of flowers with Flower Girl's help and rechristens himself the Bloom Meister, becoming a new hero to Garden City in the process to atone for his mistakes.
- "International Super Spy": The Lady in Pink is a brilliant criminal mastermind out to obtain the three canisters as her "recipe for disaster." Spying on Agent Secret and using him to lead her to the canisters, the Lady and her Henchman Tyrone routinely give Secret hefty duels over the canisters, from ski battles to dance-offs. Revealed to have concocted a backup plan if Secret got the canisters first, the Lady kidnaps Secret's boss Miss T and threatens tickle torture to force Secret into handing the canisters over, at which point the Lady catches him, as well. Astute enough to see through Austin's disguise and thwart his attempted rescue of Secret, the Lady ultimately is redeemed and becomes a super spy alongside Secret, working with him to use the canisters in creating glasses of chocolate milk for everyone.
Megatron of Beast Wars: He's a user and abuser of his followers, a gloating sadist who enumerates the ways he's beaten his enemies as he's standing over them in his moment of triumph, a master manipulator who is only served by his underlings' treachery... and yet he carries off scheme after scheme with audacity, panache, and an almost vaudevillian flair. Nor does he work in small potatoes; his schemes include two bids to rewrite history as well as consuming his namesake's spark to add to his own personal power. Magnificent. Bastard. Yesss.
- Hell, he singlehandedly took over Cybertron and devoured the sparks of his entire species and became a GOD in the (contested) sequel series.
- If nothing else, his apparently keeping Tarantulas and Blackarachnia around simply so he can keep his wits sharp by predicting their betrayals would qualify him for this.
- In the BOTCON exclusive story "Reaching the Omega Point," by Simon Furman, the tyrant Shokaract - who has all the powers of the Dark God Unicron - travels back in time to the Beast Wars, and beats the crap out the most powerful Transformers in existence with ease. What does Megatron do? He tries to BLACKMAIL Shokaract, threatening to destroy the "Dark Essence" that the demigod had come to protect. He fails, but provides a crucial distraction that ultimately dooms Shokaract.
Belphegor, the main antagonist of the Belphegor French animated series could qualify as one. He's a Diabolical Mastermind, good at manipulating people and anticipating everything that's thrown at him, so he's never once caught or his identity revealed. You have a trap door in your house that he's conveniently standing over? Well too bad, he knew and had already made it unresponsive to your device! It helps that he has cameras installed almost everywhere in Paris, uses his mooks to spy, steal and kidnap for him (in the few cases he doesn't just do it himself), and apparently has enough money and access to high-tech gadgets and top secret, untested military technology, that can make a mad scientist drool at the thought. To actually make him lose his cool, you have to do something pretty terrible or disruptive to his plans, that could cause a really angry response. Otherwise, everything you do is met either with boredom, slight amusement or mild annoyance on his part.
The Boondocks:
- Ed Wuncler Sr. is a combination of this, Complete Monster, and The Chessmaster. And keep in mind this is a fat, rich old man, who would normally not be the least bit threatening but let's look at all the shit he's done shall we?
  - He opened a restaurant using illegal workers and Robert as his Unwitting Pawn, knowing full well the restaurant's food was so addictive it would turn the nearby park into a cesspool of crime, thus lowering the property values so he could buy the land cheap.
  - He tricked Jazmine, a 10 year old girl who started a lemonade stand, into being partners with him and then made it so that she ended up owing him money and allowed him to sell his own cruelty free lemonade.
  - He had his dumbass grandson Ed III, and Ed's friend Gin Rummy break into people's houses so they'd buy his security system.
  - He not only had a girl fake a serious injury so Huey would quit the kickball team, thus restoring the curve, but then blackmailed him to play again.
  - Finally, he had Ed and Rummy set up a bomb in one of his buildings, and then calmly reveals when Huey and super agent Jack Flowers foil this plot that it was designed to inspire patriotism, sell merchandise, and make a movie about an obnoxious security guard who would have died in the explosion. And to top it off, when Flowers counts down 3 seconds before he shoots him, Wuncler calls PRESIDENT FUCKING OBAMA to stops him, then calmly tells them to let themselves out. And does all of this just by being crafty, evil and obscenely wealthy. Magnificent Bastard indeed.
- Rollo Goodlove, the self-serving black liberal activist, also qualifies. In his first appearance, he manages to come out on top in his first appearance, when he is revealed to be partners with Ann Coulter, who plays the part of a conservative nemesis to get "redneck money". In his second appearance, he hijacks Huey's anti-BET campaign to promote himself, and then received a job from the network. While the his beliefs in his causes might not be genuine, his charisma and master planning are, making Rollo Goodlove the most likable mastermind on the show.
- The Art Teacher from "Riley Wuz Here", is a former Shell-Shocked Veteran turned crook who moonlights as an educator. Upon overseeing Riley spray painting a house, he immediately takes a liking to him and takes him under his wing. Teaching Riley basic drawing before moving out a bigger canvas, he has Riley paint several beautiful murals on various homes. Proposing on the last night to paint someone who isn't in the picture anymore, he has Riley paint a mural of his deceased parents. When the police show up, the art teacher shoots their tires and takes off. Despite only appearing in one episode, the art teacher stood out as one of the most soft spoken antagonists and provided one of the most touching scenes in the show.
In Class of the Titans, the Big Bad Cronus, lord of Time and the king of the Titans, is the ruthless villain who plots his own escape from Tartarus and promptly asks the Oracle of Delphi for what can stop him. Upon learning of the young would-be heroes, Cronus repeatedly showcases new plans that put him close to completely dominating the world with the young heroes struggling to match him. Cronus takes hostages to lure others into traps, including gods and even fakes his own defeat to take over the underworld. Rarely at a loss, Cronus always rebounds from his defeats and even ends the series defeated but alive and powerful as ever, plotting to weaponize the now unknown future to complete all his plans and dominate the world.
Clone High: The Pusher, in actuality Larry Hardcore, is a rockstar drug dealer who sells raisins as drugs to teenagers. A loyal fan of the California Raisins who was hired by the raisin council to come up with a plan to sell more raisins to teens, the Pusher takes advantage of the average teenager's rebellious attitude to sell them raisins under the guise of hallucinogenic drugs, having done so to several high schools before doing the same to Clone High. Growing more powerful with each raisin buyer, the Pusher allows Principal Scudworth to create a divide between the students and their parents just to sell the teens more raisins.
Code Lyoko: XANA wasn't initially much of this, but four seasons of evolution through Jeremy's abuse of the Return to the past made it gradually smarter and more powerful, turning him into a Chessmaster, then a Manipulative Bastard, and eventually going toward Magnificent Bastard territory. His status is best shown when he succeeds at destroying the core of Lyoko and takes possession of new Lyoko warrior William Dunbar to serve as his personal avatar to carry out his plans in the final season.
- And just how do we know that all those times it caused all those calamities which forced Jeremy to use Return to the past weren't part of a Batman Gambit to make itself more powerful in the first place?
- Aélita Schaeffer's XANA-fied self combines her good self's intelligence with XANA's ruthlessness. In her first appearance, she tries to get Jérémie Belpois to send her to Lyoko, talking Yumi Ishiyama into going with them when Jérémie expresses reluctance in Aélita going on Lyoko alone. On Lyoko, XANA-Aélita stays ahead of her fellow Lyoko-warriors through clever uses of her Creativity powers, all but completing her mission. Returning as a secondary villain in Season 3, Aélita works well with XANA and its monsters whenever she's xanafied, successfully destroying three of the four main sectors and setting up XANA's victory in that season. Reappearing one last time in Season 4, XANA-Aélita reacts to Ulrich Stern's attack, steals his sword and engages him, defeating him with only a limited use of her powers and nearly completing her mission.
Codename: Kids Next Door:
- Stickybeard is a boisterous, candy-stealing pirate who nonetheless possesses honor and guile. A frequent foe of the Kids Next Door who often outdoes them with his candy-themed weapons, Stickybeard has swiped all of the candy of their members more than once, using clever tactics to leave them robbed blind. Having a genuine admiration towards and kinship with Numbuh 5, Stickybeard regularly offers her a place by his side on his crew, teams up with her to outsmart take down the evil Black John Licorice, and saves her and her friends from the Asparagus Sea out of respect for their status as enemies.
- Jimmy Nixon McGarfield is a corrupt school politician, who uses his power to oppress KND and find true love. Introduced as a beloved Fourth Grade class president liked by all students including Sector V, Jimmy manipulates Sector V into being his allies long enough to transport him to City Hall, where he then reveals he has teamed up with Father to increase restrictions on local schools and make KND's missions harder. Later, Jimmy uses a vast arsenal of weaponry and tactics to wage war on KND, trying to brainwash Numbuh One's girlfriend Lizzie Devine into falling for the villain instead, and even when his plans are foiled solely by the trickery of his own aide, Jimmy happily looks forward to prison with her, hoping they can kindle a relationship.
- "Operation: Z.E.R.O.": Grandfather is the greatest threat the Kids Next Door's entire organization has ever faced in history. An ancient evil who once reigned supreme over the world, Grandfather was supplanted only when one of his own sons betrayed him and stole his powers and memories. Years later restored to his former glory, Grandfather immediately turns the most useful supervillains into his Senior Citizombies, using their talents to spread the infection as fast as possible until nearly all life on Earth is reshaped to Grandfather's whims. Planning to destroy the Book of KND so no hope can survive amidst children, Grandfather is so fierce that he terrifies his villainous son Father, defeats his other boy Monty in combat, and survives the KND space headquarters crashing into him, even facing defeat with just a snark to Monty that he's no longer in the will.
Courage the Cowardly Dog: Shirley the Medium is a fortune teller who wields magical abilities that she uses to make money, as well as put gypsy curses on those who cross her, yet always leaves a loophole for her victims to get put of it or will undo the curse herself when she feels they have learned the error of their ways. Among the main characters, Eustace is her primary target putting a curse on him in several episodes such as having a rainstorm follow him wherever he goes until he finds the generousity in his heart and in another episode she sets him up against his wife until he learns to be more empathetic towards her. Becoming a helpful ally to Courage, the two manipulate Muriel into speaking by unleashing a spirit of destruction in the form of a starfish monster on their farm.
Cyberchase: While the Hacker suffered from Villain Decay, the seemingly friendly Ledge reveals himself as the mastermind behind the outbreak in the "Sensible Flats" episode. Devising a machine that transforms its victims into replicas of the Hacker in three minutes, Ledge deceives the Cybersquad into exhausting themselves, nearly succeeding at disposing them. In his next appearance, Ledge decides to outdo his former idol as a villain. Tricking the Hacker into wearing a clown suit, Ledge snaps a picture at his expense and publishes it worldwide. Upon learning of the Blue Bird of Zappiness, Ledge bugs the Hacker and effortlessly manipulates Buzz & Delete to his side, having backup plans in store if they proved to be problematic. Despite his few appearances, Ledge earns the ire of both the Cybersquad and the Hacker and stands as the most competent and dangerous of the series' antagonists for a reason.
Impostor Dan, from Dan Vs. After stealing Dan's identity, and endearing himself to everyone in town, he is finally taken down by Dan. Being a Magnificent Bastard, he gets out of prison and becomes a telemarketer. He uses his position to drive Dan insane, using a hidden transmitter to act as the voice inside his head, renting an apartment, just to capture them both, and even knowing the characters so well that he can place traps exactly where they will be. When Dan chases him with a baseball bat, he gets a cop to taser him twice. He even manages to do all this while being completely likable, suave, and normal.
Dogbert on the series Dilbert whose "religious belief" is "that everyone exists for the sole purpose of entertaining me." On one episode, he sets up a carnival booth where you "knock a street urchin off a beam with a baseball and win a toy." In another, he convinces Congress to abandon all holidays in favor of National Dogbert Day (The traditional Dogbert Day feast: the bald eagle. He wanted something special) for the sole purpose of being annoying. (The same reason he invented Secretary's Day.) Also, the aptly named Bob Bastard, the caped and hooded company tester on a quest to crush the hopes and dreams of engineers.

Dilbert: I'm sorry Alice, but he's the embodiment of all that's horrid and loathsome in this world.
Alice: Just because it's written on a bathroom wall doesn't mean it's true.
Dilbert: He wrote it!

In the Dragon Tales episode "Do Not Pass Gnome", Simon is a friendly, mystical elf who tells Emmy he'll fix the yo-yo her younger brother Max broke if they play a game of "Simon Says". After Simon tricks Max onto the board and reveals he can only get off if he wins the game eventually, the others then agree to play too. Playing a very congratulatory and happy host, Simon trips up several of the players throughout the game with levels like a Twister-like one, an upward path one and a Limbo one. When the players reach the very end, Simon nearly tricks them all into failing before Max catches on and Simon then proudly declares they've won the game and Emmy's yo-yo is fixed.
The Fairly OddParents: The Nega Chin is the Crimson Chin's Arch Enemy from an Alternate Universe who can match his powers alongside his "devastating good looks and amazing sense of fashion". Accidentally brought outside of the comic book, the Nega Chin takes advantage of the immediate situation by, after mistakenly being magically-empowered by Timmy Turner, wishes his entourage into Dimmsdale as well as nigh-immunity from further magic. Kowtowed by a beatdown of collective Crimson Chins, the Nega Chin plants Short Fuse in Dimmsdale before being sucked into his comic book world to scout out a wish favorable for his return. After Cleft—really Timmy—wishes for a world of superheroes and villains, the Nega Chin disguises himself as the real Crimson Chin and clandestinely teleports Timmy's enemies to his lair. He then constructs a trap where he exploits the mechanics behind wishing to create a world of only supervillains and cleans up his bases by putting Ace and Clefto—Cosmo and Wanda—in an anti-magic bubble. Ultimately defeated by the combined efforts of normal people, the Nega Chin seeks to defy his role as a supervillain by breaking out into the real world to "convince" his writer to pen him a victory.
Rava from Galtar and the Golden Lance. When she's assigned to take down Galtar, she actually succeeds in capturing him, and only ultimately loses because she also used the assignment to set Tormack up, she tried to pull an I Have You Now, My Pretty and imprisoned Galtar when he refused, and Tormack and Galtar pulled an Enemy Mine to restore the status quo. In a series where the villains tend to be generally a touch more credible than most similar action cartoons of the age, Rava is by far the most dangerous.
G.I. Joe: Renegades:
- Adam DeCobray is the Cobra Commander of this series and is by far the most calculating and competent one seen by far, as under his lead, the terrorist organization masks itself as a completely legitimate and beloved business. Using his ruthless nature to keep his subordinates in line, weeding out any and all potential leaks or dangers to Cobra's criminal activities and snuffing them out, outwitting his entire command staff anytime they try to betray him, and even framing the G.I. Joes when they nearly expose Cobra, sending them on the run for the whole series, this Cobra Commander gives the Joes the hardest fight of their lives and nearly takes over the world countless times over through sheer strategic brilliance and efficient, dedicated leadership.
- Major Sebastian Bludd is an Australian mercenary defined by his determination and quick wit. A top Cobra agent entrusted to take out a Cobra leaker, Bludd quickly located the target being rescued by the G.I. Joes, and despite being up against the entire team, Bludd keeps pace with them all by his lonesome, later ambushing them with a small army when he realizes the threat they are. When a Joe's beloved family member dies, Bludd sets a trap after the funeral, knowing such an event would draw the Joes out, and, when he temporarily loses them in the ensuing car chase, he just blows up the nearby bridge to cut the Joes off from their only escape route, enabling him to capture them and use them as bait to draw in more targets. Bludd is the most personally dangerous and adaptable foe the Joes face, always having a witty remark and ready to get back to the fight even after losing an eye in an explosion and having his arm ripped off by a crocodile, all the while swindling extra cash out of the Baroness for his services.
G.I. Joe: Resolute: Snake Eyes is a perpetually silent, badass ninja who served as the G.I. Joe team's trump card in many situations. Called out to a final battle by his Arch Enemy Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes locates Storm Shadow's whereabouts on an island and, realizing that Cobra troops are scattered around the area, systematically and brutally takes them down one by one. Sneaking up practically invisible on some, leaving others hanging to scare their fellow troops, and using the corpses of even more as booby traps, Snake Eyes effortlessly picks off the skilled troops around the island on his path to Storm Shadow. During his fight with Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes almost always has the upper hand, notably blocking a sword strike from his enemy with his bare hand and shrugging off the massive pain, before tricking Storm Shadow into lowering his guard so as to cripple him. Snake Eyes then kills the defenseless Storm Shadow with a skillset that Storm Shadow has long coveted, but nonetheless gives his long-time enemy a proper burial afterwards.
The New Adventures of He-Man:
- In "The Siege of Serus", Keto is an asteroid-like creature and the representative of his race. Crash landing on Primus, Keto appears to be completely unstoppable, easily brushing off pretty much all of planet's weaponry and even He-Man's legendary Power Sword. When redirected toward the ocean, he began draining the energy of the underwater city of Serus, leading its barriers starting to crack and threatening to drown the population. Letting the heroes know that he's sentient, Keto announced his intention of draining the entire planet of energy to continue his travel and then manipulates He-Man to going to his ship and fighting him. When He-Man's powers prove useless against Keto, He-Man decides to offer them in exchange of Keto sparing the planet. Keto was impressed with such act of nobility and reveals that all of this was a test that he performed on many other planets to see if the people on these worlds were dangerous to his race. Complementing He-Man on his bravery and goodness, Keto leaves Primus unharmed.
- In "The New Wizard in Town", Ramlin is one of the most powerful wizards in the entire universe, who desired to relieve his days of glory. Growing weaker with his age, Ramlin accepted the invitation to wizard meeting on Primus from Master Sebrian, devising a plan to get all his former power back. Easily defeating the entire faction of Evil Mutants within minutes along the way to Primus, Ramlin tricks the heroes to trust him by performing magic tricks and acting friendly. Setting his plan in motion later on, Ramlin manipulates two wizards at the meeting to give him their magic, enslaving them to his will, before battling the heroes, forcing them to attack him, which he uses to make himself more powerful. After He-Man catch on to this and refused to attack him, not giving him any source for power, Ramlin admits defeat, releases his captives and leaves Primus, promising to return.
La Sombra the river pirate in Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie. He took over the group that Arnold's parents' friend Eduardo worked for in order to arrange the Rigged Contest for the San Lorenzo field trip, naming the PS-118 class the winners when he sees Arnold is with them. He impersonated Eduardo himself to take the kids on his riverboat, manipulating Arnold into confiding in him and keeping the knowledge of La Sombra being after him a secret from his friends, and when a boat carrying men working for the real Eduardo came in pursuit, he claimed they were La Sombra and his crew and that he was changing course to get the class to safety when it reality he was luring them into his pre-arranged trap. When Arnold, Gerald, and Helga escape from their imprisonment, La Sombra had anticipated this happening and had already placed a tracking device on Arnold. As he and his crew followed the kids' trail, La Sombra anticipated all the booby traps and had his crew members take all the blows instead. He very nearly succeeded in taking the Corazon of the Green-Eyed People for himself, even narrowly averting a Disney Villain Death (at first) and prolonging his own death by poison just for one last shot at taking it. Despite being sociopathic and possessing the willingness to kill children if his schemes called for it, Lasombra balances this by having several laughable moments and quips and stands as the ultimate villain of the series for this reason.
Infinity Train: Samantha, "the Cat", is a French-speaking feline Con Artist who inhabits several cars throughout the Infinity Train. In her first chronological appearance, she sells out Ryan, Min-Gi, and Kez by throwing them in jail for a high bounty, before letting them escape by tricking the authorities and keeping all of the money. In Book 1, she begins working for the new Conductor Amelia, and falsely offers to Tulip to speak with the Conductor in exchange for her fixing her shuttlecraft and giving her former Conductor One-One. After Amelia betrays and tries to kill the Cat, she begins to genuinely admire Tulip and helps her reach the Engine. In Book 3, she reunites with her former friend Simon Laurent, who she unintentionally Left for Dead years ago, and lets him know that he and the Apex have the wrong idea about numbers. Sly and unpredictable, the Cat manages to end every encounter on her own terms.
In Inspector Gadget's Last Case, Dr. Claw comes up with his most devious plan yet. Having his men create a transformation serum, he sells it to Metro City's criminals and enacts a crime spree, becoming rich in the process. Launching his true scheme, he uses one potion to disguise himself as superhero Devon Devonare, and stops the crime spree himself, becoming a beloved hero overnight, even recruiting a rejected Gadgetmobile as his vehicle. Tricking Gadget into accidentally causing a prison break and getting him fired, he has Gadgetmobile disposed of, nearly succeeding until the arrival of two cars Gadgetmobile befriended earlier. Even after getting found out and his men captured, he manages to flee before they arrive, once again free to continue his crimes.
Invader Zim: In "The Frycook What Came from all that Space", Sizz-Lorr is a ruthless and cunning Irken "FryLord" who runs Shloogorgh's Flavor Monster on Foodcourtia and Zim's former boss when the Invader was sentenced to Foodcourtia as punishment for ruining Operation Impending Doom 2, but was trapped by "the Great Foodening" while Zim was able to escape. Much later, Sizz-Lorr tracks Zim to Earth to recapture him and force him to endure the rest of his sentence, while remaining generous and fair to his other employees. Sizz-Lorr installs high-tech traps to ensure Zim can't escape again, and when his prisoner figures a way to bypass the security system, Sizz-Lorr breaks out the heavy artillery and pursues the alien all the way to the planet's Stratosphere, coming within a hair's width of recapturing his quarry before he's thwarted by a stray sign.
Wicked Cultured Diabolical Mastermind Valmont from Jackie Chan Adventures was a contender in the first two seasons, prior to his Villain Decay.
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius:
- "Send in the Clones" and "The Trouble with Clones": Evil Jimmy is a clone of Jimmy Neutron that revels in his own delightfully diabolical nature. Starting out by merely pranking the citizens of Retroville in clever and "classic" ways, Evil Jimmy evades capture alongside the rest of Jimmy's clones and continues to terrorize the Earth in his petty, humorous methods. When caught by Jimmy in an attempt to forcibly reform him, Evil Jimmy distracts Jimmy and tampers with the de-evil machine, faking redemption so he can escape Jimmy's sight and continue his prankster rampage. Soon enough using Jimmy's own tech to create an evil copy of the entire Earth, Evil Jimmy refuses to be captured again and uses a dark matter chip to drag his evil Earth into the dark dimension, where he resides in safety while promising to one day get the ultimate revenge on Jimmy.
- "One of Us" and "The League of Villains": Grandma Taters is a kindly old lady who, though an alien conqueror seeking the subjugation of Earth, is completely genuine in her sweet nature. Using the Happy Show Show to slowly brainwash all of Retroville into perpetually happy zombies who convince more and more people to watch the show, Taters hopes to hypnotize the whole planet into becoming happy forever. Beaten even after capturing Jimmy and whipping out nunchuks to duel Cindy, Taters later returns as a member of the League of Villains, using her cleverness to take down Goddard while scaring even her fellow villains with how dangerous she is despite her friendly nature.
Dr. Zin, as per usual, is the chief enemy of the Quest family in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and a genius scientist and criminal mastermind. Arranging for a military coup in a country developing a powerful satellite, Zin attempts to blackmail the world with it while simultaneously destroying the Quests. Later faking his death to test his twin daughters, Zin reveals his disappointment while sending in a robot double armed with a bomb to kill the Quests, later relying on a mind control device to trick Jonny and friends into a trap while he controls Dr. Bentham and Race into becoming his tools.
The Choten from Kaijudo. Few tropes could better define The Choten. He is an extremely sick person, but there is no doubt about him being incredibly badass. As he shows at various points in the series, but especially the first season finale, he knows how to roll with defeat like a real Chessmaster too.
Mariko, from Kappa Mikey season 2's "Back To School" is a student at Mount Lebaniku High School who is behind the DVD bootlegging ring, selling illegal copies of LilyMu all over Japan. When she learns that the LilyMu cast has infiltrated her school and wiretapped her phone to stop her operation, Mariko intentionally misleads the cast to try searching for the pirated DVDs in the school floats, distracting them from her real plan to smuggle thousands of illegal copies in a computer chip inside a football that she plans to give to another school, allowing her to sell more copies while also removing any evidence towards her; She is only stopped by Gonard being Too Dumb to Fool.
Looney Tunes:
- Cecil Turtle has the unique distinction of being the only character to have defeated Bugs Bunny on a consistent basis. Having been challenged to a race on three separate occasions, Cecil was able to outsmart Bugs every single time. In Tortoise Beats Hare, Cecil recruits the help of his identical-looking cousins to fool Bugs into thinking that he was in the lead throughout the race. He managed to sneak past the finish line and forced Bugs to fork over the ten bucks he wagered on their match. In Tortoise Wins by a Hare, Bugs challenged Cecil to a rematch, and he convinced Bugs that his shell was the key to his superior speed. Bugs dresses up as a turtle in order to beat Cecil, but is targeted by the rabbit mob who bet all their money for the rabbit to win. Cecil disguises himself as a rabbit and tricks the mob into helping him win the race. In Rabbit Transit, Cecil uses a jet engine hidden beneath his shell to gain the lead during their race. Bugs manages to cross the finish line first, but Cecil gets him to admit that he was going over the speed limit and has him arrested for speeding. With a perfect track record, Cecil is Bugs' only foe who could beat him at his own game.
- "Hare Brush": Elmer J. Fudd, reimagined here as an "eccentric Millionare", seeks to avoid paying for his taxes. To this end, he fakes being insane by pretending to be a rabbit and gets sent to a sanitarium, where he tricks a nearby Bugs Bunny into taking his place while he escapes, leaving Bugs to be hypnotized into thinking he's Elmer. Upon being hunted by Bugs, Elmer manages to stay one step ahead of the hunter before Bugs is arrested for tax fraud, scoring one of the character's few victories against Bugs.
In The Loud House, Luan Loud becomes one of these every April 1st. In "April Fools Rules" she rigs the entire Loud household and even outside of it with elaborate Crazy Awesome pranks for her own amusement, watches the pranks go off on their victims with diabolical glee (and bad puns, of course), is Crazy Prepared for nearly everything, pulls one big Batman Gambit on Lincoln by inviting Ronnie Anne to come over on that day (ensuring he takes all the pranks willingly) and gets away with all of it in the end. Her second pranking spree in "Fool's Paradise" starts with a well thought-out plan to get her family into a motel where she could then trap them into dangerous pranks that she'd already set up there, the whole affair playing out as a G-rated Saw movie with Luan as the Diabolical Mastermind. During her third one, she completely Out-Gambitted her family's plan by paying the stunt doubles they hired to put them on humiliating situations, before finally being Out-Gambitted herself when her family makes a plan to prank her back by pretending they're moving away due to their maligned reputations.
Abraham Kane of Motorcity. He's a Villain with Good Publicity and lots of money, usually able to talk to the Burners through a screen (to make himself appear larger) rather than face to face, which makes him look impressive. The Duke of Detroit is also this at times, although more of a Friendly Enemy. As he's a Large Ham, he often likes to oppose the Burners in style, particularly with lots of lights and music, as well as firing at the Burners with limousines as ammo.
Dracula himself, a vicious but elegant pastiche of his Universal incarnation, stands as the Monster Force's most formidable adversary. Dracula constantly executes schemes to net himself more power at any cost, usually running rings around the Monster Force until it's almost too late to stop him, always operating with sadistic charm and rebounding from every defeat. Dracula makes pawns of his other vampire cohorts in a scheme meant to steal their energy so he can become a god, outsmarts Dr. Crawley in the guise of vampire hunter Bram Stoker and nearly drives him to despair, and even mounts a successful invasion of Monster Force's own base in the finale through guile.
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic:
- Discord, lord of chaos, particularly in the Season 2 Premiere in which he debuted. He's as old as-possibly older than-both Luna and Celestia and the Avatar of Disharmony that ruled Equestria in an endless maelstrom of anarchy and madness and led to the discovery of the Elements of Harmony; yet he's also one of the Largest Hams available, while still being incredibly sneaky and evil. By the end of the first episode, he's played everyone for fools without even trying, all the while enjoying every second and relishing in the mayhem and suffering he causes. When Celestia has the ponies set him free from his stone prison later in Season 3 so that they may try to reform him and make him into an ally who uses his powers for Chaotic Good, Discord effortlessly milks the situation for all it's worth so that the Mane Six, by their own vow, cannot turn the Elements of Harmony back against him now that he's a friend, meaning he can get away with causing whatever chaos he wants. His desires are only thwarted by his friendship with Fluttershy becoming genuine enough for him to not dare risk losing it by crossing her bad side. Then in Season 4, Discord continues to sew seeds of chaos, cause wanton mischief, and manipulate the Mane Six to his selfish whims from the comforts of his newfound "friend" position until he's convinced by Tirek to reject friendship altogether and fully turn back to his evil ways so that he may have true freedom again. Following through on this Villain Team-Up, Discord is able to get Tirek into places with enough magic for him to drain, all while still keeping his knowledge on certain details close to the chest until he feels certain that Tirek can be trusted as a team player and a friend. His trust proves misplaced, unfortunately, as Tirek turns on him and drains his magic, throwing him aside with all of his pony friends, which leads to Discord being overcome with remorse for his deeds, learning what friendship is truly all about, and making his official Heel Face Turn as he provides the final key needed for the Mane Six stopping Tirek and saving Equestria; a trinket of how much their friendship has come to mean to Discord. While he is much less this trope in the following seasons, he still has moments and his chaotic antics never cease to entertain. It helps greatly that he is both apparently inspired by and shares actors with another magnificent bastard, Q.
- Lord Tirek made a claim for this in the Season 4 Finale with his dealing with Discord. When Discord is sent by Celestia to stop him from attacking Ponyville, Tirek appeals to both his bad side and his good side in order to talk him into working with him. He does the former by stating that the "friendship" the ponies have offered Discord was nothing but tricking him into a different type of imprisonment, one where he's willingly imprisoned himself and is kept from exploiting his chaotic powers to their fullest extent. He does the latter by implying, but never stating, that he is now Discord's true friend, even to the point of giving him a relic that once belonged to his brother, Scorpan. It turns out to all be an act so that Discord could help him reach full power before he then turns on Discord and drains his magic, revealing to him that he considers friendship, and his brother for that matter, to be worthless to him. He becomes more reliant on brute force afterwards, but his skills as a manipulator were surely impressive enough if they had even Discord fooled. Even when he returns in the last two seasons of the show, Tirek continuously displays that he's one of the most intelligent out of all of Equestria's enemies, thinking two steps ahead of both the good guys and his fellow bad guys.
- Probably the biggest example is Adagio Dazzle from the spin-off movie series Equestria Girls, who's something of a Princess Azula Expy. In Rainbow Rocks, she proves herself with a simple plan and manages to adapt quickly to manipulate everyone else to leave the Dazzlings on top. Adagio plays the "Master manipulator" to perfection - she never reveals her full hand, never plays every card right away. She has that deadly combination of being both dangerously cunning and incredibly patient, like a spider weaving her web while lying in wait for her prey to come to her. In the final battle, she No Sells the usual One-Hit Kill (having ALREADY manipulated the Humane Six into letting her drain most of its energy for her OWN use) and it's only by Sunset Shimmer joining the fight allowing a bolstering up for a second shot that the Humane Six don't lose outright. Afterwards, she still manages to flee the scene relatively unscathed; she and her two friends reappear in Sunset's Backstage Pass as reformed (but still bitchy as ever) musicians who, now without their magical siren powers, make honest efforts to attract adoring crowds thanks to Adagio's competent management skills, and Adagio is able to have one last laugh at Sunset when Sunset gets caught breaking into the Dazzlings' RV to investigate their part in a crime they didn't even commit in the first place, with Adagio even pointing out how much of a toll Sunset's efforts are taking on her friendship with Pinkie Pie with smug satisfaction before taking off. To sum it up, Adagio Dazzle seeks to Take Over the World through utilizing the power of Awesome Music. That alone is magnificent.
Ōban Star-Racers: Spirit is a silent, enigmatic racer from the shape-shifting species the Fills, who casts a fearsome presence on the track with his razor wings and polymorphic abilities. Having failed to save Maya Wei on her last fatal race, Spirit competes years later in the Great Race of Oban on planet Alwas, and defeats Prince Aikka on their first match by slashing the legs of his Beetle Mount. Carving his way to the final stretch, Spirit is believed to be responsible for Maya's death by her daughter Eva. When Eva finally faces him on the course and attacks him in revenge, Spirit effortlessly outmaneuvers and disorients his opponent with his powers, eventually causing her racer to crash. Nonetheless a being of honor, Spirit telepathically discovers Eva's strife with him and reveals his side of the story, ultimately winning the race with a Single Tear of sympathy for the girl's tragedy.
The Powerpuff Girls:
- Mojo Jojo can be this at times. While his plans tend to be hair-brained, sometimes he's shown enough savvy and manipulation to casually perform things that people rarely notice until they happen (the "Powerpuff Girls Rule!" special is a fine example.) The movie played this straight.
- The Gnome from the Grand Finale episode "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey," sought to create a utopia revolving around himself. To this end, he manipulates the Powerpuff Girls into making a deal with him promising to get rid of the town's villains if they gave him their powers in return. Quickly asserting himself as the ruler of Townsville after vanquishing the other villains, the citizens of Townsville worship the Gnome and establish a cult dedicated to him. In his final moments, the Gnome realized the error of his ways, and willed himself to die, concluding that he and his perfect utopia couldn't exist in a life that revolves, evolves, and dissolves around opposite forces.
Megabyte from ReBoot. The low, British baritone voice of Tony Jay certainly helps, but this is one of the few cartoon villains that has never suffered from any sort of Villain Decay, and is actually considered more dangerous as the series progresses. His most magnificent moment (besides the guitar duel) is when he took advantage of the web invasion and subsequent Enemy Mine situation to strand Bob, Mainframe's champion, in the web. While Daemon is more powerful and dangerous, Megabyte's return in season 4 evoked much more fear from the main cast. What makes this so Magnificent is how his dispatching of Bob is so un-magnificent. He shoves him and presses a button. Dead easy. It also helps that judging by the season four cliffhanger, he wins.
- Megabyte's bastardy in the first few seasons was completely overshadowed by what he got up to in the fourth season. At this point, he has decided to forgo his pursuit of power in favor of personal revenge, which he does in truly epic fashion. He uses his newfound Voluntary Shapeshifting to return to Mainframe in the guise of the original (Season One/Two) Bob, and comes within literal seconds of marrying Dot just to mess with everyone's heads.

Bob: Why, Megabyte?! Why do this?!
Megabyte: It Amused Me.

Regular Show:
- Thomas is a seemingly average intern revealed to be a skilled Russian spy named Nikolai. Ingratiating himself into the gang's favor by helping fight off a hostile takeover by an army of past foes, Nikolai thwarts any attempt to sabotage his cover while playing the part of an unassuming Nice Guy, all the while covertly setting up machinery to transport the entire park landmass to Russia. Eventually subduing the entire crew, Nikolai discovers his Russian masters' true warmongering intentions and betrays them for his new friends, fighting off fellow spy Natalia and returning the Park to America, before going into hiding as a fugitive traitor.
- In the episode "Temp Check", Doug "The Doppelganger" Shablowski is a shapeshifting Con Artist known for stealing the identities of people all across the country. Hired as a temp by Rigby, Doug wins over the other workers at the park with a friendly, hardworking attitude. While doing Rigby's work for him, Doug slowly mimics Rigby's appearance right in front of the others' eyes, eventually tricking the other workers into thinking he is Rigby and taking his paycheck for himself. When confronted, Doug proves to be an expert in mimicking Rigby when put through a series of tests to determine who's the imposter. After being exposed and arrested, Doug accepts defeat with dignity, and gives Rigby advice about being grateful for what he has.
Revolting Rhymes: The Wolf was a creature who lived in his woods with his two foolish nephews, Rolf and Rex. When the two of them failed to heed the Wolf's warnings and left the woods looking for food, they were both ultimately shot dead by Red Riding Hood. The Wolf, being far more intelligent, saw the danger and backed off when he came in contact with Red, and instead waited years for his opportunity for revenge. Waiting outside of a cafe for Red's babysitter to arrive, he sits down with the sitter and tells her his story, which enthralls her and causes her to let her guard down long enough for him to tie her up and steal her clothes. Posing as the babysitter, he then gains access to Red's home and makes a stew with the intention of eating both of Red's children. Telling another story to the children while they wait, he wins them over with his personality as well and eventually decides to spare them. When Red arrives home, he bids her farewell, leaving the normally unflappable woman utterly speechless and terrified before returning to his woods.
Rick and Morty:
- Dr. Rick Sanchez himself. In spite of being a drunken, selfish mess, is perhaps the multiverse's most brilliant mind. He always bests his adversaries in all matters except affairs of the heart, to the point that he gets Satan to attempt suicide.
- Evil Morty got to this from his opening episode where it's revealed that he was the mastermind behind the serial killings of multiple Ricks and Mortys across the multiverse, and used an android of Evil Rick's as a puppet. Then in The Ricklantis Mixup he one-ups C-137 Prime!Rick by winning the Presidency of the Citadel of Ricks, using his charisma to gain a large percent of the Rick vote despite being a Morty, and on taking power, murders The Illuminati who had been in charge of the Council of Ricks that had merely been the front and becomes unquestioned master of the Citadel. Using his position to modify the Citadel into a giant portal gun, Evil Morty invites Rick-C137 for dinner to complete scanning Rick's mind before having the Ricks and Morties killed to use their blood to activate the Citadel's portal gun for him to escape the Central Finite Curve. Matching Rick's intellect and even outwitting him, Evil Morty manages to succeed in escaping the Central Finite Curve and destroy it.
Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legend: The ruthless General Rinaker, secretly a Shadoen agent in disguise named Wraith, is the Alliance's cold, no-nonsense head and a mind more than worthy to lead the Alliance in keeping the masquerade steady. Rinaker's penchant for manipulation and subterfuge leads to countless successful missions with no fear about doing what has to be done in the process, with alliances made and broken at his own convenience and foes to his operation like Hanek swiftly disposed of through his agents. Even when he's ousted, Wraith nearly manages to wipe out everyone who knows his secret, and manipulates even the Shadoen commanders by convincing them humanity will be cowed through one show of force — a ploy that ends with the Shadoen high command wiped out by the ensuing retaliation, allowing Wraith to take over. At the end, it takes the unification of all the alien races Wraith meticulously turned against each other as Rinaker to finally topple the web of deceit he's fostered through decades of cool-headed treachery.
Samurai Jack: The Imakandi are a quartet of cat-like creatures known as "the greatest hunters in the universe", and they easily prove to be more than worthy of that title. After getting hired by Aku to hunt down the titular samurai warrior and bring Jack to him, they arrive on Earth, sniff out Jack's footprints, sneak up on and capture him with great ease. One of the hunters grabs onto Jack's sword in midair before Jack can swipe him, forcing Jack to run for his freedom, knowing he can't fight the hunters. The hunters pursue an extremely long chase, managing to keep up with Jack despite his attempts to shake them, which involves sniffing Jack's scent when he a large sewer, jumping into a large from a high height and keeping up with a futuristic vehicle by running on foot, all without breaking a sweat. When they finally capture him, they betray Aku and allow Jack to roam free due to him proving to be a Worthy Opponent thanks to their Code of Honor. They stand out as being some of the only foes Jack couldn't defeat.
Scooby Doo franchise:
- Scooby Doo, Where Are You?: In the episode "Hassle in the Castle", Bluestone the Great is an ex-magician criminal wanted in six states, and one of the gang's more affable foes. Seeking the treasure of Vasques hidden in his old castle, he disguises himself as "the Phantom" and uses his magic tricks to scare away visitors so that he could take the treasure for himself. When The Mystery Gang investigate, he easily fools the gang with his deceptions and traps, while also showing more theatrical flair than their average adversary. Eventually foiled thanks to Scooby, he takes his capture in stride, happily showcasing the one trick they couldn't figure out and allowing himself to be taken in.
- Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost: Ben Ravencroft is a charismatic book author descended from the witch Sarah Ravencroft. Knowing of Sarah's buried book of dark magic spells believed to be his birthright and of an incantation and ritual that could bring her ghost back to the corporal world, Ben manipulates events in Salem to set up a mystery and charms the good guys into helping him find the book so that he can become a warlock and summon the ghost to do his bidding. He has two things in common with the below-mentioned Professor Pericles: his status as this trope, and the fact that his downfall comes from his success in his ultimate goal, as Sarah refuses to serve his wishes. Oddly enough, he bears a striking resemblance to David Xanatos. Also, he's voiced by Tim Curry.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Professor Pericles — the show's Big Bad — definitely qualifies. Every episode he shows up in, he gets exactly what he wants, usually at the expense of the gang. He's only finally Out-Gambitted in Season 2, Episode 13, when the gang pulls a Batman Gambit on him and the rest of the original Mystery Incorporated to get them to reveal the location of their pieces of the planeospheric disc, leaving Pericles and his comrades with nothing. However, he rebounds big-time, unleashing genetically mutated creatures of his creation upon the area in order to draw out his enemies, successfully claiming the disc, ensuring that his partner Ricky is unable to turn on him, and holding the entirety of Crystal Cove in his talons so that the way to the cursed treasure, and his master the Evil Entity, is paved for him. Shame his master wasn't as loyal to him as he was to his master...
- SCOOB!: Dick Dastardly is far more cunning and intelligent than his original counterpart in this film. After an attempting to steal the Underworld's treasures leads to his sidekick Muttley being trapped there, Dastardly travels the world in search for Cerberus' skulls to unlock the Gates of the Underworld and retrieve his canine companion. Discovering that Scooby-Doo is the other key to opening the gate, Dastardly disguises himself as Simon Cowell to separate him and Shaggy from the Mystery Gang to capture him using an army of shapeshifting robots called the Rottens. Staying one step ahead of the heroes, Dastardly uses his disguises and deceptive skills to capture the Mystery Gang and retrieve the other two skulls along with Scooby-Doo to open the Gates of the Underworld, risking the apocalypse, just to save Muttley. Even when he is betrayed by the Rottens and sent off to prison, Dastardly and Muttley escape to continue their criminal activities once again.
In The Simpsons, Springfield has many citizens and many villains – but despite so much competition the following still manage to leave their mark of devious charm:
- Adil Hoxha from "The Crepes of Wrath" is an Albanian spy working undercover as a foreign exchange student. After integrating himself into the Simpson family with his politeness and helpful attitude, he requests Homer to let him visit the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, collecting information and successfully sending it his home government. After being caught and outed as a spy by the FBI, he thanks the Simpsons for their hospitality and tells them not to let the experience sour their thoughts on the student exchange program.
- The Springfield Cat Burglar, real name Malloy, from "Homer The Vigilante," though a one-shot character, unarguably qualifies as this. He manages to steal from several homes very sneakily, (the in-story newspaper states that he struck at least 15 homes) and is implied to have done so without waking up any of their occupants; he also distracts the pets with food. He leaves a Calling Card, too, and yet this doesn't lead back to him. His identity is revealed when Abe Simpson finds a suspiciously large gem on Malloy's coffee table, but that he would even think to look could probably be attributable to "mistaking" Malloy coming into his room for the cat burglar coming into his room earlier on. Also, once caught, he returns the items he stole and speaks very kindly about the rest of Springfield. He gets put in jail anyway, and tells the police that he buried millions of dollars' worth of money under a big T. Idiotically enough, the police as well as the whole town rush to the site, not bothering to leave anyone behind to supervise his cell. As such, when they get to the big T, instead of finding the money, they find a letter stating that the money isn't really there and that he's used this time to escape from jail. Due to all this, it's little wonder Molloy remains so memorable despite his only appearance and relatively humble goals.
- Hank Scorpio from "You Only Move Twice" is the president of the Globex Corporation whose passions include his employees’ wellbeing, fun runs and world domination. Threatening the UN with a Doomsday Device, Scorpio holds the world ransom while at the same time becoming friends with new hire Homer Simpson, actually managing to make Homer productive. Executing the escaping Mr Bont after Homer tackles the agent and successfully repelling an attack on his lair, Scorpio amiably parts with Homer when the latter decides to return to Springfield for the sake of his family. Conquering the East Coast, Scorpio gives Homer the Denver Broncos as a farewell gift and assures him they will always be friends. Emulating the best aspects of the classic Bond villains he parodies, Scorpio cares just as much – if not more – about his employees’ happiness as he does about conquering the world. The height of Affably Evil and perhaps the show’s most successful villain, Hank Scorpio is a beloved character years after his single episode.
- In "The Wandering Juvie", Gina Vendetti is a troubled pre-teen, who got into a juvenile correctional facility by shoving Snow White off a building. She easily manipulates Bart by tricking him into going along with her by playing a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, using her wits to outsmart the Warden of the facility and escape using a disco ball connected to a rope and a blacksmith to remove their cuffs. Despite constantly hurting Bart both mentally and physically, she truly loves him, and has no family to speak of and when caught she confesses everything get Bart set free. Troubled but intelligent with a Hidden Heart of Gold, Gina showed herself to be among the most clever of Bart's girlfriends.
- In "The Debarted", Donny is a troubled orphan from Shelbyville who quickly befriends Bart Simpson. Having been asked by Chalmers and Principal Skinner to infiltrate Bart's gang of friends, Donny takes the heat for one of Bart's pranks, tricks him into accusing Milhouse, and helps Skinner stay one step ahead of Bart at any given time. When Groundskeeper Willie sells Bart out, Donny has a Heel Realization and decides to stop Skinner and Chalmers. Troubled, calm, and a surprisingly good planner, Donny got the best of both Bart and Skinner.
- In "The Book Job", Neil Gaiman, the King of Fantasy Books himself, is portrayed as a Con Man who regularly heists his way to the top. Overhearing the main crew coming up with their book idea, Gaiman decides to steal it for himself and integrates himself into the group. Pretending to be a fool, Gaiman secretly strikes a deal with Moe the Bartender. When the publishing company changes their book to be about vampires, Gaiman plays on their pride of authorship, costing them their millions, and convinces them to swap the company's flash drive with one holding their original book. While Lisa is successful in swapping the flash drives, it is revealed that Gaiman had replaced theirs with one that gave him the credit, before escaping to Shelbyville and double-crossing Moe by poisoning him. Hammy, snarky, and smarter than he at first appears, Neil Gaiman is able to heist his way onto the bestseller list once again, despite not even being able to read.
- Sideshow Bob, however, is arguably the most obvious Magnificent Bastard in Springfield. His schemes are considerably clever, and typically just so happen to get thwarted by circumstances. Examples include:
  - Krusty Gets Busted, in which Bob frames Krusty for armed robbery, and takes over Krusty's show. He manages to convince almost everyone of Krusty's guilt, except for Bart and Lisa, who just so happen to uncover the whole scheme when Sideshow Bob says he has big shoes to fill.
  - Black Widower, in which after being released from prison, Sideshow Bob convinces every Simpson except Bart that he has reformed. Bob then marries Selma Bouvier, who has made a lot of money in the stock market, so as to inherit her money. Bob also finds out that Selma tends to smoke after watching MacGyver, and that she has an impaired sense of smell. So he then decides that one day, to get the money, he will get up and leave while she is watching MacGyver, and leave the gas valve open so as to fill the room Selma is in with natural gas, without her noticing, such that when she lights up to smoke her cigarette when the show is over, the ignition will blow up the room she is in, killing her and leaving him with her money. The only reason this does not work is that Bart, who was already distrustful of Bob, also knew these things about Selma and managed to guess what Bob's plan was.
  - Cape Feare, in which Sideshow Bob manages to convince the parole people that he has reformed. Upon hearing of his release, the Simpson family flees Springfield to a houseboat in Terror Lake, but Bob manages to find their houseboat anyway. While the family is asleep, Bob disconnects the boat from the dock, and ties up all the Simpson family except Bart, including the pets. Then, cornering Bart at the edge of the boat, Bob is just about to kill Bart until Bart convinces Bob to sing the entire score to H.M.S. Pinafore first. By the time Bob is finished singing, the boat arrives in Springfield, where the police are waiting for Bob and have him arrested.
South Park:
- Leslie Meyers, Big Bad of Season 19, is a sentient ad masterminding the plot to take over the titular town for her kind. Masquerading as a 4th grader in South Park Elementary, she introduces the school to PC Principal, having him force the residents to become politically correct, causing the town to be more and more gentrified. This results in the price of living in South Park to increase, causing people who can't afford it to move out while her kind slowly takes over having done so with many other towns beforehand. After being captured by the newsmen and exposed as an ad by Jimmy Valmer, she manipulates Jimmy into helping her escape her captors, before beating him unconscious and ordering Nathan to kill him. She then frames PC Principal for all her crimes and persuades Kyle Broflovski to convince everyone attending the gun show to leave South Park in search for PC Principal, while she and Nathan discreetly take full control of the vacant town.
- Lennart Bedrager, Big Bad of Season 20. He's actually an American internet troll who rose to power in Denmark and created Troll Trace in order to troll the entire world by sending it into World War III. He knew that when people had the power to look up anyone's internet history, everyone would become paranoid and everyone would hate each other when they see what they did online. And why did he do it? Because it's fucking hilarious!
In Steven Universe, the Ruby Squad member known as Navy appears to be nothing more than a ditzy, perpetually cheerful, bumbling imbecile, but after getting separated from her team and becoming stranded on Earth, Navy shows how devious and efficient she can really be. Faking redemption, exaggerating her personality to win over the Crystal Gems, and ingratiating herself into the group, Navy reclaims the Roaming Eye whilst gleefully pulling the rug from under the Crystal Gems, her upbeat attitude never faltering as she gets off scot-free for her actions.
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Agent John Bishop is the leader and founder of the Earth Protection Force, an anti-alien task force Bishop designed after undergoing trauma and experimentation at the hands of aliens. Believing that all aliens and mutations are enemies of humanity, Bishop keeps himself alive for centuries to secure humanity's "safety", creating an entire clone army under the U.S. government's nose and even successfully staging an alien invasion to gain more funding for the EPF. Bishop is as dangerous in combat as he is in strategy, as he dances around entire groups of trained combatants including the Turtles, Karai and Hun, always using nothing but his surroundings and quick-thinking to get the upper hand and keep up. By the year 2105, Bishop has come to see the error in his hatred of all aliens, and develops a peace treaty between several alien worlds and Earth, becoming the beloved President of the new galactic federation and keeping the peace with a gentle but firm hand.
The Tick:
- Chairface Chippendale is a deviously diabolical genius out to pay back the world for rejecting his glorious furniture head. So respected and feared by the criminal community as one of the world's greatest villains that a massive gathering of crooks and ne'er-do-wells throw him a surprise party, Chairface takes the opportunity to trap the Tick and his partners while carving his name into the moon with a super laser, partially succeeding before being stopped. Undeterred by his initial defeat, Chairface goes on to concoct a brilliant plot to drive Dinosaur Neil into his mutated form once more by sabotaging the man's wedding, Chairface forming a Villain Team-Up to then take control of Neil. In his final scheme, Chairface uses his ally Professor Chromedome to obtain a body-swapping device, then transfers his mind into the form of the Tick, intending to destroy the machine to ensure its effects are never reversed. Wicked Cultured and always facing defeat with mere annoyance before continuing his ingenious ways, Chairface is the closest thing the Tick ever has to a true Arch Enemy.
- The Breadmaster is one of the few recurring villains in the series, and always presents a major threat with his culinary schemes. Thrown out of Baking College for using his unrivaled cooking skills for evil, the Breadmaster stages a series of "bread bombings" throughout the City, destroying bakeries that he chastises for falling short of cooking perfection. Tricking the City into supplying him with tons of baking materials, the Breadmaster nearly destroys the entire City with a giant, growing souffle. Later teaming up with Chairface and El Seed for a time to masterfully disrupt Dinosaur Neil's wedding, the Breadmaster then goes about sending killer gingerbread men to heroes throughout the City, his baking pride ensuring that the cookies taste delicious and go properly stale without artificial preservatives. The Breadmaster then uses a cookie tank to nearly destroy the City's new hero Eclair, having adapted it to deflect all manner of her powers.
- Appearing in "The Tick VS Reno, Nevada", the Fin was once a trained show fish named "Mr. Smartypants", run through hoops of fire and other humiliating, dangerous torments by his trainers Soren and Frederica. Escaping from his trainers by staging a "kidnapping" of himself, the Fin uses his cultist followers to pull off heists throughout Reno and bring him the necessary technology to construct a "fish magnet." Capturing Soren and Frederica, the Fin uses the magnet to rain down tons of fish into Reno, hoping to flood the whole city with his favorite snack. Dueling the Tick in a breath-holding contest for the fate of Reno, the Fin winds up back in Soren and Frederica's care, but with a decidedly more suitable role as an entertainer: to fling mocking taunts at his trainers and the audience for laughs.
Rataro from Thundercats 2011. Elegant, sophisticated, and tyrannical, Rataro has his own agenda for domination and couldn't care less about Mumm-Ra, who may also be a strong contender for this trope.
Tom and Jerry': Jerry Mouse can be this depending on the situation and how his actions are presented. Other times, he's a Guile Hero.
Alejandro Burromuerto from Total Drama World Tour; at least by the usual standards of Total Drama. He manipulates more successfully than other antagonists in the past, and is responsible for more eliminations than anyone else. Declaring to take the contestants down "one by one", Alejandro first targets Team Victory, playing on Harold's sense of honor to get him to quit and leaving Bridgette stuck to a flagpole. When Team Victory dwindles down to only DJ, he easily wins over DJ's trust after painting a fake Egyptian symbol on Irene, in an attempt to make him believe his animal curse has been "lifted", before "accidentally" confessing that the whole thing was fake. When Duncan returns, Alejandro wastes no time exposing Duncan's infidelity, putting a target on Duncan's back as well as weakening Team Amazon. Making it to the finale of the season, despite being Out-Gambitted by Heather. Alejandro makes up for it in All Stars by stealing her immunity idol, turning her own manipulation of the team against her. Charming, devious and ruthless Alejandro's Villain Song; This is How We Will End It, fittingly depicted him as a puppetmaster pulling at everyone's strings.
- Total Drama's original manipulator, Heather, as mentioned above, is the only one who is able to match him (and beat him, in the US ending) in the same series.
Kyle Katz from Totally Spies is a thief who was unable to be captured by WOOHP after several successful several jewelry heists he performed across the world. Targeting to steal the Uzbekistan Pearl for his next heist, Katz then seduce the three spies that was sent to stop him with his manly charm to the point that he could easily stole the key to the vault that contains the jewelry. When the spies entered the vault, Katz took the pearl and then locks the girl in the vault while he escaped. Although being caught and defeated in the end, Katz still keeps his manly charm to the point he threw the rose to the road so that the three spies could get it. Despite one time appearance, Katz remains one of the most compelling enemies that the girls had faced in the series.
Transformers Animated:
- Megatron comes close to, if not equal with, his Beast Wars incarnation. This guy manipulates Sumdac to repair his body, avoids the mistake of his predecessors by killing Starscream the first chance he gets, coaxed the Constructicons into his employs with just a couple barrels of fine oil, and pulled a Xanatos Gambit on Starscream to ensure that the Omega Supreme clones didn't imprint on Starscream or Megatron himself, but on loyal Lugnut. And when he got physical, he got physical. In a rather defining moment that puts him in this trope, after receiving the Allspark Key which grants him a new body, he subsequently pummels Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots. When Optimus effectively tells him to bring it on because he won't give up the location of the Allspark, Megatron rather smugly reveals he already has the Key which will lead him directly to it and that he was only kicking the crap out of Optimus for his own amusement. Really, his only mistake was not figuring out a way to kill Starscream after it became clear that normal methods weren't working, an incident which rather clearly fell under Rule of Funny.
  - It is also worthy to note that this Megatron is so incredibly Badass that he doesn't even bother to remember any of the main Autobot's names unless it suits him (i.e. when he captured Bulkhead and when he fought Optimus Prime one-on-one in the final ever episode). The reason why? He does not consider any of them to be any threat to him. Only when Optimus fights him one-on-one in the Grand Finale does Megatron seem to regard him as being above the status of '"annoyance" and equal to "Worthy Opponent".
    - Also his plan with Soundwave; the first is to use him as replacement body.However,when it clears that Soundwave had grown sentient personality, he changes his plan; he convinced Soundwave to fight for the robots with him. Other Megatron usually will fall with his Villain Ball and continue with their plan; even if it risk that the target will betray them.
- The abovementioned Soundwave is in this show a walking music player that gained self-awareness, evolving far beyond his intended purpose of upgrading into a new body for the crippled Megatromand, and set out to establish machines as the dominant species, even extending an offer to the Autobots to join his revolution. Returning after his apparent destruction with new robotic minions in tow, Soundwave drugs and captures the Autobots, placing their minds in a virtual world where they're human while he reprograms them to follow his commands. Upon being discovered by Sari, Soundwave takes advantage of the redistribution of his original toy model to brainwash every human in the city and impede her search for help. Adapting to complications in his plans with ease, Soundwave manages to escape even with his body once again destroyed, free to return for revenge another day.
- Shockwave is Megatron's "most loyal servant", a manipulative shapeshifter who infiltrates Cybertron as the Autobot Longarm. When Bumblebee learns that there is a Decepticon spy in their midst, Shockwave first tries to murder the bot before framing the innocent Wasp as the spy, successfully protecting his identity to such a point that he murders the current head of Cybertron intelligence to get himself the promotion with no suspicions. Shockwave manipulates the Autobot leadership for years as he orchestrates Decepticons across the galaxy, and always pounces on any potential leaks of his identity, leading Blurr into a lethal trap when he tries to investigate Longarm and cutting off communications with Optimus Prime when his team learn of Shockwave's status as a mole. When realizing he is moments away from being exposed, Shockwave deals a fatal blow to Ultra Magnus, kidnaps Arcee and uses her memories to help Megatron with his plans to clone Omega Supreme, only being beaten after he lures an Autobot team into a trap and nearly murders them all by playing on their compassion.
- Swindle is a fast-talking, smooth arms dealer who plays both sides of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict to bring himself the most profit. Introducing himself by manipulating a group of human villains into building a powerful EMP weapon, Swindle betrays them all and tries to sell the weapon to Megatron, demonstrating its abilities by easily incapacitating the entire Autobot team. Though he is captured thanks to a surprise attack, Swindle bounces right back as he stages a breakout of an Autobot prison ship, taking control and planning to use the Autobot crew as hostages before harvesting their parts for extra cash. Swindle is always ready with a new gadget or weapon to get out of any situation, such as arming the Decepticon prisoners or disabling Jetfire and Jetstorm in a cinch, and he ultimately gets away scot-free, using an Autobot rescue attempt to distract his cohorts, looting the entire prison ship's belongings, and fleeing into space while remarking how much he "loves a shopping spree."
VeggieTales: The Bad Apple, from "Larryboy and the Bad Apple", is a manipulative fruit who considers herself the embodiment of temptation. Seeking vengeance on all of Bumblyburg for the humiliation of her ancestor, the Bad Apple plans to lure every citizen into a temptation-based funhouse to trap them forever so she can claim the city in her family's name. To accomplish this, the Bad Apple lures the mayor of Bumblyburg and its top reporter Petunia into her "temptation webs", trapping them both before doing the same to Larryboy himself and his butler Alfred. With a silver tongue always ready to spin a web of lies and deceit to accomplish her goals, the Bad Apple comes dangerously close to succeeding in her scheme, proving to be one of Larryboy's most notable and dangerous adversaries.
Wallace & Gromit: Feathers McGraw is a penguin who imitates a chicken while committing robberies. Taking advantage of Wallace’s hospitality, Feathers drives Gromit out of the house by making him think he’s being replaced and then traps Wallace in the reprogrammed electronic trousers that Wallace gave Gromit as a birthday present and runs him wild through the town. Feathers then uses Wallace to steal a diamond from the museum and when confronted by Gromit with a rolling pin, pulls a gun on Gromit. Feathers then narrowly escapes during a harrowing pursuit on a train set while nearly outsmarting Gromit at every turn.
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?:
- Carmen Sandiego is portrayed as slick and suave sort of criminal female James Bond, but would steal priceless artifacts either just for the thrill or for a huge not-so-evil plan (in one episode, she stole several rare statues to make the worlds largest chess game) and would constantly bait and taunt the two detectives trying to catch her, all for the sport of the hunt (even though she was the prey.) And said detectives actually greatly respect her for this!
- Her eviler counterpart, Professor Gunnar Maelstrom, also qualifies. To put it clearly, he was for Carmen in her ACME detective past what Carmen herself is to ACME detectives now.
Chase Young from Xiaolin Showdown, mostly during the second season in which he debuted, would meticulously manipulate events so that even if the monks won, Chase would benefit from it, mostly with regard to his plans to corrupt Omi. This lead to him, on several occasions, helping the monks in order to gain Omi's trust, as well as manipulating other villains to force Omi into situations where he would have to resort to underhanded tactics not approved of by his friends.

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