Magnificent Bastard/Anime/Digimon

The Digital World's most Magnificent Bastards, Digimon and human alike, can be found here.


 * Devimon and Myotismon from Digimon Adventure could be the first ever contenders for this trope in the franchise.
 * Devimon, as the first ever Big Bad, was behind all Black Gears and traps set for the children on File Island and rarely lost his composure, even while dying! Not to mention that he was probably the only Digimon villain who had some sanity in him, except the conquest thing. Even in death, he still pulls some strings behind the scene; by appearing before the Digimon Emperor he played on Ken's superiority complex into making him use some of his own data to create Kimeramon and so, Devimon had full control of it and gladly use Kimeramon against the Digidestined and the emperor.
 * Meanwhile, Myotismon's entire scheme for traveling to the Real World is a gambit to kill the Eighth Child before she can fulfill her destiny and defeat him. He distributes mock crests to his minions so that they can tell when they're near the chosen child, and when that fails, he uses that child's potential partner to pick out the child for him (all while keeping the digivice and crest safely far away). He is charming enough to beguile human women so he can drink their blood in a weirdly sexual way, and his plans are shrewd enough to be frighteningly competent. And this is just the first season!
 * In the second movie, "Our War Game", Diaboromon's mad search and hunger for data earns the attention of Gennai and the DigiDestined. Assaulted as a Keraman by Tai, Izzy, and their Digimon, he tricks the latter two by jumping from Rookie to his Ultimate Form, Infermon, and subsequently overpowers them. Earning his first victory by attacking them mid-transformation, Infermon escapes and covers his tracks by clogging up the dial-up phone lines. When Izzy uses a satellite uplink to continue the pursuit, Diaboromon hijacks the connection to send missiles to Colorado and Japan to put them on the clock. Multiplying himself to hide the real one to kill time, it takes the might of Omnimon to destroy them all. Although Diaboromon resorts to outspeeding them, he's eventually caught and defeated. Returning in the sequel, he orchestrates his revival by tricking the DigiDestined into opening gates for his Kuramon swarms. Diaboromon holds out against his old foe Omnimon in the Digital World, showing how much he learned, before successfully digivolving into Armageddemon in the real world. Boasting a mere two appearances, Diaboromon regardless managed to be one of the DigiDestined's most cunning, adaptable, and dangerous adversaries.
 * Yukio Oikawa from Digimon Adventure 02 masterminded pretty much behind everything that happened in the series, and he started it all with just.
 * AxeKnightmon of Digimon Fusion, whose magnificence is aided by being as Badass as his name would suggest. He spends years manipulating a meek Child Prodigy into thinking that the Digital World is a game where no one can die so that he'll willingly work for him and grant him access to DigiXros, then blackmails his sister into helping him too by using him as a hostage, neither aware of the other's true situation. While he is a servant (and younger brother) of the Big Bad, Bagramon, he poses as the leader of a rival faction for much of the series, and even spies on and sabotages the plans of the Quirky Miniboss Squad (partly to keep up the charade, partly to make himself look better, but mostly because it's hilarious). And in the end it turns out he really was working against Bagramon - he encouraged the protagonists to get stronger so that they would be around to attack Bagramon while he was focusing most of his power into his doomsday technique, allowing AxeKnightmon to stab him in the back while he's distracted and absorb him.
 * The manga's version of Bagramon also qualifies. Rebelling against Homeostasis because of her plan to have Digimon branded as heroic or villainous, in a system that would result in his brother's death, Bagramon is defeated and exiled. Finding the remains of the digital deity Ygdrassil, Bagramon uses them to empower himself and begin his conquest, creating the Xros Loader and the powerful artificial Digimon Tactimon. He then rebels again with the loyalty of dark Digimons, defeating the Royal Knights and breaking the digital world. Manipulating his brother using two minions and some humans, Bagramon intends to judge humans and Digimons based on who wins between them. When his brother "wins" while losing his sanity, Bagramon cries for him before using him to recreate Zeed Milleniunmon, intending to use it to euthanize both the digital and human worlds and save them from decay. When he is proven wrong by the heroes, Bagramon cheers for them and dies saving his brother, encouraging him to be better.
 * Tactimon in the manga is also far more honorable and intelligent than his anime counterpart. Leading his armies in the fractured Digital World, Bagramon is the digimon that broke it during his fight against the powerful Royal Knight Omegamon. A ruthless yet effective general willing to fire against his own soldiers in harsh fights, Bagramon also prefers to not waste their lives in pointless battles. Manipulating Mach Leomon to his death to test the power of his rivals, Tactimon follows the heroes to test their power as well. During the final battle of the Bagra Army, Tactimon asks permission to use his full power and challenge the heroes in a harsh fight, showing his impressive unmatched skill and only being defeated by their determination and teamwork. Lethally wounded, congratulates them, happy at having find worthy opponents.
 * Lucemon, leader of the Seven Great Demon Lords who embodies the sin of Pride, frequently walks the fine line between this trope and a Smug Snake in his various appearances throughout the franchise. His appearance in Fusion is particularly magnificent; a citizen of the Heaven Zone, Lucemon campaigns to be elected the Zone's next leader who, if elected, would embrace love and mercy as a policy as contrast to GuardiAngemon's extreme justice. When the Fusion Fighters are wrongfully accused of a crime and threatened with execution, Lucemon pleads for clemency to both them and the real culprit, Cupimon, and voices the importance of allowing citizens to speak for themselves, getting him popular support among those in the Heaven Zone. But once he's won and is to be crowned, he returns to his true self - an ally to the Bagra Empire and fellow Demon Lord Laylamon - and rips the zone in two, revealing the temple that holds the Code Crown and trapping it in a giant sphere of darkness. Even when it looks like Lucemon has been beaten, he survives the attack and returns to kidnap Nene just as she's transmitting the dark sphere's power to AxeKnightmon, making him an unexpected thorn in even AxeKnightmon's side.
 * The franchise's greatest example would be Millenniummon, since unlike all the others he ultimately achieved what it wanted: . His actions led to nearly everything that went wrong with Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 (including those of the ones mentioned above), but because he managed to remain undetected and completely out of reach he became The Unfought. He also succeeded in creating himself without being noticed by an omniscient being. Details can be found in the series synopsis page.