Magnificent Bastard/Multimedia/Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog has dealt with some way past Magnificent Bastards across mediums:

Games

 * Ivo Robotnik AKA Dr. Eggman, can sometimes be depicted like this. Some examples include him controlling the Time Eater with the help of his past self with the goal of undoing his previous defeats in Sonic Generations, tricking Sonic (while in his super form) to let his guard down long enough to extract the energy of the Chaos Emeralds from him and turn him into a werehog in Sonic Unleashed, and faking his Heroic Sacrifice death in order to power up his ultimate weapon while having Sonic get rid of the Deadly Six for him and put his plan back in motion in Sonic Lost World. But his crowning achievement in regards to this trope would be in Sonic Forces, in which Eggman researches the Phantom Ruby in his attempt at world domination, also recruiting Infinite through promises and implanting him with a Phantom Ruby prototype as he christens him as the Eggman Empire's high commander. With everything in place, Eggman lures Sonic into a savage beatdown, and with him out of the way, conquers the world in a matter of months. Eggman proceeds to display foresight and cunning in trying to keep his iron-fisted hold on the planet—ordering his forces to destroy any remaining prototypes. keeping multiple power sources unbeknownst to his enemies, and targeting critical points in the Resistance. He also factored in multiple ways to eliminate the Resistance outright, culminating in a virtual Colony Drop when they were gathered in one place. Even in the final fight, Eggman pulled out all the stops, having kept the real Phantom Ruby with him the whole time and had to be stopped by the combined might of Sonic, Classic Sonic, and the Avatar. The good doctor has been Sonic's Arch Enemy for so long for a reason.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog was actually quite an impressive one in Sonic Adventure 2. He manipulated Eggman into thinking he was working for him so that he could get all the Chaos Emeralds in order to activate the Colony Drop, and even knew about Rouge's attempt to grab the Emeralds herself. In fact, the only reason he didn't succeed was that, with Amy's intervention, he decided to not go through with the plan after all.
 * In Sonic Heroes, Metal Sonic gains enough sentience to overthrow Eggman and graduate into a more serious threat. Flawlessly impersonating his creator, Metal Sonic issues a challenge to Team Sonic that would either end in him obtaining their data in their counterattack or conquering the world to start a "robot kingdom." Disguising himself as the real Sonic, Metal Sonic kidnaps Chocola Chao and Froggy to gain the data of Chaos and its shapeshifting abilities. He also lures Team Sonic with the Egg Albatross in Bullet Station to buy time for the Egg Fleet to deploy. Despite the involvement of four different capable teams, Metal Sonic takes everything in stride under the radar, acquiring more data than initially planned and playing them all until Eggman's real location is discovered. Although his statements as Metal Overlord bring his sanity to question, Metal Sonic remains one of Sonic's most dangerous foes. Even after being reprogrammed to be obedient, Metal Sonic showed his penchant for undercover gambiteering when he copied the data of all World Grand Prix participants for one final Extreme Gear race.
 * From Sonic and the Black Knight, Merlina flawlessly masterminded the entire plot of game completely beneath notice. Summoning Sonic from his world to slay a corrupted King Arthur, she takes the arcane Scabbard of Excalibur to utilize its power of immortality, casting a powerful spell on the Kingdom of Camelot. Having foreseen the ruinous future of her world, a despairing Merlina places Camelot under a kind of magical stasis, fueled by the dark forces from the Underworld, in hopes of keeping it eternal. Showing absolute conviction to her cause, Merlina even fights back against Sonic and Caliburn as the Dark Queen. Although ultimately defeated, Sonic spares and convinces Merlina to abandon her nihilistic outlook, proving her to be a lost, if understandable soul who needed her hope resorted after resorting to extreme measures to keep her world intact.

Anime

 * Sonic X has /Dark Oak. His objective is motivated by . Even though he acts like a monster sometimes, . His smooth operations mainly involve collecting the Planet Eggs as well as the seven Chaos Emeralds, . In the end,.
 * Rouge the Bat is a thief obsessed with jewels, starting a stealing spree upon appearing on Earth. Once she learns the location of a Chaos Emerald, she misdirects Sonic while she collects the emerald. However, it was a trap from G.U.N. : she improvises by accepting to become a G.U.N. agent and in return, is granted immunity and keeps her loot. When E-70 Noizi almost defeated her by using her weakness to sound, she used a bomb attached to her wrist to win. Unlike her game counterpart, she succeeds in stealing the Master Emerald during the "Shadow Saga" and joined Eggman and Shadow while hiding her loyalty to G.U.N.. When she later participates in a tournament for a Chaos Emerald, she fights Tails who's stronger than expected. She wins by kissing him and then throwing him out of the ring. When facing Knuckles, she has him agree to fight inside a dark tent, making him fight blind. During the Metarex Saga, she blackmails Bokkun into suggesting to Eggman a plan to obtain an emerald for himself, while she plans to swoop in and steal it. Skilled and manipulative, Rouge was one of the anime's most competent characters.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate life form, lost his best friend Maria and his creator Dr. Gerald Robotnik when they were killed by G.U.N. in the Space Colony ARK. Desiring revenge, when Gerald's grandson Dr. Eggman released him, he manipulated him into gathering all seven Chaos Emeralds and putting them in the ARK's Eclipse Cannon, which in truth would lead to a Colony Drop. Shadow's plan was only foiled when Chris convinces him to help save the world. He would have died doing so if Eggman didn't save his comatose body. Amnesiac, he returns and saves Chris from death, destroys a Metarex and retrieves an Emerald for Eggman out of gratefulness. Learning that Cosmo is a sleeper agent for the Metarex, he tries to kill her. In his attempt, he outsmarts Tails thrice by hacking into the Blue Typhoon's heat source search program, then into the ship's camera system when Tails locks the heat program and by teleporting back in the ship when Tails launched him into space. Only stopped in his attempt by Cosmo's amulet teleporting him, Shadow helps the heroes in the final battle against the Metarex. After attempting to save Cosmo from Final Mova, he sacrifices himself by moving everyone to safety as Final Mova exploded. Ruthless but caring, Shadow surpassed his game counterpart in sheer audacity and brilliance.

Comics

 * In the Sonic The Hedgehog comics, the villain Mammoth Mogul is a Wicked Cultured ancient wizard with a persistent desire to Take Over the World. It is he who founded the Order of Ixis as one of many attempts in gathering an army to serve him in his conquests. A mammoth with powerful rhetoric, Mogul is not above convincing people to his side through words alone while simultaneously planning on how to use them for his own ends. This is best displayed when Mogul led Mighty, Tails, and Mina to suicidal situations to make Sonic submit and become part of his new Fearsome Foursome. Even so, Mogul is all too willing to make the universe bow to his will, shown when he becomes the all-powerful Master Mogul and tried to take over alternate universes. If he wasn't pulling this trope off in all that time before, he certainly did when he essentially straight-up told the heroes, "Hey, I just remembered I'm immortal. So here's my new plan: I'll live in this sweet casino I just had built, amuse myself by taking pot shots at you whenever I can, and wait for you all to die of old age. I can beat you by outliving you." You gotta love him for that.
 * Let's not forget Dr. Finitevus, who straddles the line between this and Complete Monster -- he effortlessly manipulates the Guardians (including Knuckles), Dimitri, and two whole factions of the Dark Egg Legion in order to ensure that a new Enerjak can be created. And then he escapes scott free by jumping off Angel Island and disappearing into a Warp Ring with a smirk.
 * Given recent events, we can probably add Ixis Naugus to this list as well. Following his recovery from madness, he undertook a plan to make himself a Villain with Good Publicity by using Mina Mongoose's music as a conduit for his magic, turning the distrust that the citizens of New Mobotropolis had for NICOLE following her brainwashing by the Iron Queen into paranoia and hatred. He then appeared before the public and promised to "save" them from NICOLE with his magic if they just agreed to make him their king. He's also become a master of Xanatos Speed Chess, apparently, as he's quickly managed to adapt to sudden situations in such a way that only improves the image this plan created for him. This includes defending the city from attacks by Eggman and the Battle Bird Armada, and acting as though his accidental  during a publicity stunt was intentional (the look on his face makes it clear, however, that he's as surprised as anyone else). Giving himself some more points in the Magnificent Bastard department, he allows his mole to be put on trial and found guilty of treason . It's actually quite impressive.
 * And then there's the fact that he pretty much plotted the Great War between the Mobians of Acorn and the Overlanders. Feeling threatened by the royal court's cheif engineer Nate Morgan's inventions and rise of influence in the king's eyes, he made an alliance with General Kodos, whose hatred of Overlanders Naugus had no problems to use to win him over, and then pulled up a scheme where a patrol of Overlanders and Kodos' patrol, with Morgan in it, would meet with each others and, with the help of his magic, would cause their xenophobia toward each other to turn violent. The outcome worked as it did, leaving only Kodos and Morgan alive, and he and Kodos quickly blamed Morgan for treason, causing him to be kicked out of the kingdom. Not only did this get rid of his main rival in the court and made him the top dog again, but it also made the relationship between the Mobians and the Overlanders go into red alert. Aware that a war was inevitable, he created the Zone of Silence to hide in while the war would go on and wait for the outcome, both of which were win-win to him: if the Mobians win, he'll return and simply take over a much stronger kingdom. If the Overlanders win, he'll return and take over what's left and rebuild the kingdom from the ruins. Only one mistake hindered his plan: he didn't create any way out of the zone, leaving himself locked in a prison for years to come.