Magnificent Bastard/Western Animation

""Yes!""

- David Xanatos does it again

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


 * 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 as well as  Magnificent. Bastard. Yesss.
 * Hell, he singlehandedly took over Cybertron and   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.
 * Megatron's Transformers Animated incarnation also comes close, if not equal with the above. This guy manipulates Sumdac to repair his body, avoids the mistake of his predecessors by killing 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  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 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.
 * 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."
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Megabyte's bastardy in the first few seasons was completely overshadowed

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


 * 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!"


 * Danny Phantom has an intriguing one: Vlad Masters/Plasmius. He wants to marry Danny's mom, adopt Danny and kill Jack, not exactly in that order. A lot of his lesser plans work, but the main ones probably would if he had better control of his emotions and kept his priorities straight.
 * For a more straightforward example, there's "Reign Storm" where Vlad's biggest plan then succeeded in spades, manipulating nearly everyone to get what he wants.
 * For even more examples, it can take several rewatches of the show to understand Vlad's plans and just how many of them he has. Some great examples include the fact that Vlad actually sent many of the ghosts Danny fought shortly after gaining ghost powers and the surveillance footage he received from Valerie's suit to.
 * 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.
 * Bizarrely, Zim from Invader Zim has been this on occasion, in episodes like "Future Dib", "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", and even the Grand Finale, "Enter the Florpus." Usually he's Too Dumb to Live.
 * A more straightforward example would be Tak, who would have succeeded in her invasion plans if the Villain Ball hadn't made her brag to Zim.
 * 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.
 * V.V. Argost from The Secret Saturdays. Bold, manipulating, cunning, and brilliant, he often wins by the end of the episode and has proven to have a large array of technology and knowledge in his goal to Take Over the World. Oh, and his voice is modeled after Vincent Price.
 * Heloise from Jimmy Two-Shoes has traits of this. She's normally on top, even outwitting her boss on multiple occasion, one of which drove him to a Villainous Breakdown.
 * 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.
 * Eric Cartman from South Park is this in a few episodes. While he acts like a Smug Snake or a Too Dumb to Live idiot many times, he displays an uncanny level of charisma and social savvy. Very often, he is shown to be capable of manipulating hordes of people into going along with his latest audacious plan, whether they are aware of it or not, and treat it like sheer child's play. A few shining examples can be found where he staged the utter ruining of a teenager who scammed him out of sixteen bucks and manipulating Cthulhu itself into siding with him just to get back at people who pissed him off.
 * Leslie Meyers, Big Bad of Season 19, is
 * Lennart Bedrager, Big Bad of Season 20.
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Pirate leader Hondo Ohnaka seems like a drunken, idiotic pirate at first. However, so far he's managed to capture the very powerful trio of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Count Dooku in an attempt to ransom them to the Republic. Dooku never truly explains how he was captured (only warning the Jedi that Hondo's more clever than he looks), and Hondo manages to drug Anakin and Obi-Wan even after they are aware he's trying to do so and take measures to avoid it. During their attempts to escape, Hondo keeps his jovial personality and insists that it's nothing personal, and that once he has his money they can all go back to being friends.
 * How about Palpatine? He's responsible for engineering this entire massive war and will win regardless which side triumphs, either with the Republic as the Chancellor or the Separatists as Darth Sidious, with a powerful new sith follower (either Dooku or Anakin) as icing on the cake.
 * Cad Bane is this from the get-go, managing to successfully take the Galactic senate hostage, break Ziro out of prison, and get away completely scot-free in his first episode. From that point onwards, his plans get crazier and clever as they go on, from disguising himself as a clone trooper and hiding aboard a dropship of actual clones, leading two Jedi masters into a booby-trapped space station, to breaking out of prison again by instigating no less than Boba Fett himself into starting a riot... Every time he appears, he one-ups his previous insane plan, and almost every time, he gets away.
 * Maul earns the title in "Eminence". Over the course of a single episode, he goes from near-death in the void of space to commanding a veritable army of criminals through little more than words and a careful application of force. He definitively earns the title in "Shades of Reason", successfully concocting a plan that allowed Pre Vizsla to conquer Mandalore with the public's support, then using Vizsla's pride to manipulate him into a duel that ended with Vizsla dead and Maul, as per Mandalorian tradition, as the new leader of Death Watch, and, through a puppet Prime Minister who Maul himself installed, ruler of Mandalore.
 * Barriss Offee's plan in the Season 5 finale qualifies her as one. If it hadn't been for Ventress (and a moment of Bond Villain Stupidity in leaving Ventress alive), Barriss would have gotten away with bombing the Temple while Ahsoka was executed for the crime.
 * Count Dooku during "Rise of Clovis" and "Crisis At The Heart". He and Darth Sidious are both working on the scheme, but he's the one that carries the plan out and plays Clovis like a flute the whole time.
 * In Star Wars: Rebels, Grand Admiral Thrawn pulls it off with style while making his transition out of the Star Wars Legends universe. He runs an operation for the entire length of Season 3 that effectively manipulates the Lothal cell into revealing their base to him, shows off some excellent combat skills, and uses a Sherlock Scan on multiple occasions to figure out exactly who he's fighting and then puts that knowledge to use to defeat them. If it weren't for the interference of the Bendu, a being he had absolutely no knowledge of and therefore no ability to plan for, he'd likely have succeeded in killing or capturing the entire Rebel cell.
 * 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.
 * Double Trouble from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is an amoral, cheerful mercenary who delights in chaos. Effortlessly tricking Catra as an "audition", Double Trouble infiltrates the Princess Alliance to weaken them, playing all they find against one another to weaken the alliance. Upon being caught, Double Trouble simply switches sides and sabotages the Horde to escape punishment, even delivering a bout of 'tough love' to make Catra realize her own toxic personality, guiding Catra towards a Heel Face Turn.
 * Adam DeCobray is the Cobra Commander of G.I. Joe: Renegades 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.
 * Ed Wuncler Sr. from The Boondocks 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.
 * Carmen Sandiego. In the mid-90's cartoon version, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, she was as slick and suave as a 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.
 * 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.
 * In The Simpsons, the organized crime community as a whole shows signs of this, but outside of the organized crime community there's also Sideshow Bob, Hank Scorpio, and the Springfield Cat Burglar.
 * 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. Due to all this, it's little wonder Molloy remains so memorable despite his only appearance and relatively humble goals.
 * Hank Scorpio 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.
 * 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,
 * Black Widower,
 * Cape Feare,
 * Wicked Cultured Diabolical Mastermind Valmont from Jackie Chan Adventures was a contender in the first two seasons, prior to his Villain Decay.
 * 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 In a series where the villains tend to be generally a touch more credible than most similar action cartoons of the age,  is by far the most dangerous.
 * Discord of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, 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.
 * Skipper from The Penguins of Madagascar qualifies. He happily has outmoded gender stereotypes, is openly speciest, prefers violence to solve everything, has willingly admitted that his ideal future is a post apocalyptic scenario that involves roving bands of irradiated mutants, and his team WILL succeed in whatever it is they are doing. This has ranged from escaping a zoo, preforming a good deed for a day, stealing fish while disguised as King Julien, and defeating a giant MP3 player with the power of musical mind control from taking over the city with an evil dolphin at the helm. Unlike most of the rest of the entries, Skipper is the hero of the story.
 * Cecil Turtle of Looney Tunes fame 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.
 * Jerry Mouse in Tom and Jerry can be this depending on the situation and how his actions are presented. Other times, he's a Guile Hero.
 * While The Hacker suffered from Villain Decay, a new villain named Ledge becomes this when he and he  all to impress Hacker. And, that he succeeded in hurting the Cybersquad more than Hacker ever did made him a dangerous foe.
 * 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.
 * 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?
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Professor James Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, not surprisingly, fits the trope beautifully. He's the Man Behind the Man, the Diabolical Mastermind, and the Evil Genius... but doggone if he isn't smooth about it! He fully embodies a Victorian gentleman and a ruthless criminal, and he practically purrs when he has the upper hand.
 * 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.
 * The only other Scooby Doo villain who qualifies is Ben Ravencroft, the charismatic book author descended from a witch from "The Witch's Ghost" movie. He has two things in common with Pericles: his status as this trope, and the fact that his downfall comes from his success in his ultimate goal. Oddly enough, he bears a striking resemblance to David Xanatos. Also, he's voiced by Tim Curry.
 * Generator Rex gives us Black Knight. From posing as a Reasonable Authority Figure, keeps her own true power hidden to use at later date when necessary, plays politics with the Consortium, and pulling off a success starscream to gain supreme power. She even admits that she wants power, believing that you have to admit it to yourself to get it. Throughout it all, she shows absolute Nerves of Steel, is soft-spoken, polite, acts as a Friendly Enemy despite being a ruthless foe, and so forth. Even when defeated, she ultimately escapes and becomes a Karma Houdini.
 * Big Bad Van Kleiss also managed this during the series finale where he hijacks Black Knight's plans. Unlike Black Knight, though, he does not come out unscathed.
 * Ghostfreak/Z'Skayr of Ben 10 falls into this category. He rode the DNA of another alien into the Omnitrix so that he could manipulate whoever ended up with it into doing his dirty work. It was heavily implied that he was behind the transformations that Ben didn't choose, a large amount of which resulted in Ben turning into . . . well, him; Ben acted meaner whenever he was transformed into him, which means that Ghostfreak was influencing him to some degree. He ended up summoning his minions to Earth while Ben was transformed into him (presumably controlling him entirely, which it was revealed he could do) with a plan to bring him back to life and turn Earth into a world of darkness just so that he could roam the planet without having to wear his outer skin. In the end, it was only his sheer arrogance that got him killed (twice) by exposing himself to sunlight without his outer skin, and the second time he went back into the Omnitrix while leaving his body to die. Oh yeah, and he played Vilgax in Alien Force, taking control of his planet just so he could get another chance to take Ben completely. The only way for him to be permanently destroyed was for the Omnitrix to be destroyed, which Ben did after getting the Ultimatrix.
 * Vilgax was not this in the original series (he was more something in the vein of The Juggernaut), but got turned into one in Ultimate Alien to make up for the Villain Decay he had suffered in Alien Force. Having lost his empire, he impersonated an Eldritch Abomination amongst human adorators, manipulated them into leading him to said Abomination's heart, faked submission and eventually Out-Gambitted the creatures, taking its power for himself. And when Ben still successfully defeated him and took the power from him, he attempted to convince Ben into going Knight Templar using the power. He almost succeeded.
 * Also in the running are Aggregor in Ultimate Alien, who was underhanded and competent enough to succeed in his plans prior to his transformation into Ultimate Aggregor, and Princess Attea in Omniverse, who ends up a Karma Houdini after successfully ousting her father from power and taking complete control of her own planet through intricate planning, and had come dangerously close to claiming Earth too!
 * Proctor Servantis, the creepy yet charismatic leader of the Rooters, is also a qualifier considering just how far and how long his master plan spanned.
 * 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.
 * In an episode of Archer, Lana decides to get even on 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.
 * From the same show, 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.
 * Rick Sanchez of Rick and Morty. 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
 * Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legend: The ruthless General Rinaker,, 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.
 * 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.
 * Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy has a very surprising case in the episode "If It Smells Like An Ed."
 * La Sombra the river pirate in Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie.
 * 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.
 * 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 Voltron: Legendary Defender, Prince Lotor quickly ascends to the position after the disappearance of his father Emperor Zarkon, easily besting Throk in battle, and also proves himself a master manipulator, portraying himself as a benevolent ruler who many planets would prefer to submit to rather than risking rebellion with Voltron. When he first goes up against the Paladins of Voltron, he sets traps and deploys clever strategies that get the Paladins working against themselves and soon sees them divided in a dangerous, toxic environment where Lotor could easily kill them all one by one. After failing to do so, he sees Voltron's resurgence as not a setback, but "an opportunity." He goes on to launch a highly audacious Xanatos Gambit involving a parallel reality, and sure enough one of the ways he could win pans out. He eventually forges an alliance with the Voltron Coalition, managing to save the life of Keith and the entire crew at least twice and even killing his father in a battle. Beating out Sendak and all other challengers for Zarkon's throne, Lotor becomes the new ruler of the Galra Empire and, keeping the alliance with the Coalition going, persuades Princess Allura into assisting him in unlocking the Quintessence Field of Oriande, where Lotor sought to power his Sincline ships, specially made to form into a new defender robot, in order to bring about his own rule over the galaxy, where he could position himself as a benevolent peacemaker despite wishing to expand a new Altean Empire and wipe the universe clean of all who were opposed to him and he felt were unneeded in his new reign. Believing his cause to be noble, having a very sincere affection for Altean culture and Allura that he used to his best advantage in order to win the princess over to his side, and possessing such charisma, intellect, and firm convictions that he even had the Paladins fooled, and with Allura even acknowledging his good intent in the end, Lotor remains one of Voltron's most utterly brilliant, dangerous and capable adversaries.
 * Castlevania (2017): Aside from the dreaded Count Dracula himself, the series gives us Isaac, a Devil Forgemaster who is Dracula’s last friend and a ruthlessly competent general. An abused servant until he killed his master, Isaac believes the world will only know love once all humanity is purged. To this end, he helps Dracula by reviving corpses as monsters to serve in his army. When the brutal Viking Vampire Godbrand suggests deposing Dracula, Isaac effortlessly kills him. No one ever discovers Godbrand’s death, with Isaac even telling Dracula that if anyone ever sought to betray him, Isaac would remove such that even Dracula wouldn’t know. After Dracula’s death, Isaac continues his war on humanity, seeking to build an army with his Devil Forgemaster skills. Utterly loyal to Dracula and one of the main reasons the Vampire Lord is a threat, Isaac is a human who can easily compete with all manner of monsters.
 * 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.


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