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{{trope}}{{cleanup|Page image is [[JAFAAC]].}}
[[File:Mr Gold.jpg|link=Once Upon a Time (TV series)|thumbnail|Would YOU make a deal with this man?]]
{{quote|''If you're going to take me on, son, you're going to have to bring your game up to a whole different level.''|'''[[Trope Codifier|Lionel Luthor]]''', ''[[Smallville]].''}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]s in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* Alfred Bester epitomizes this trope. He combines ruthless scheming with an infuriating charisma that drives the heroes crazy even as they are forced to respect his skill.
* Speaking of ''Babylon 5''... Londo Mollari!
** ''[[Babylon 5]]'s'' characters tend to evolve with such complexity that nobody knows just who is going to be the bastard at any given time. Londo careened between comic relief, [[Magnificent Bastard]], and [[Tragic Villain]] countless times throughout the series.
*** Londo was always a Magnificent Bastard at his core. Case in point: A meeting between himself and one of his allies of the moment, Lord Refa. Londo invites him out to Babylon 5 to discuss recent Centauri military activities (re: starting twelve wars and depending on the Shadows for assistance). Londo does not approve. He offers Refa a drink, and runs down why this plan is a disaster waiting to happen. When Refa asks why he should do anything Londo says, Londo replies "Because I have asked you. Because your sense of duty to our people should override any personal ambition. ''And because I have poisoned your drink.''" He goes on to describe how the poison comes in two parts, one of which was in Refa's drink. If he does not comply, one of Londo's agents in the Royal Court will introduce him to the second half of the poison. Finally, Londo lifts his own glass while Refa is sitting there ashen-faced and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|jovially proposes a toast to Refa's health.]]
**** Topped in a later episode, where Londo tricks Refa into getting beaten to death by a team of angry Narns and framed as a traitor to the Republic...but only after he is shown a holographic recording of Londo explaining how he did it and gloating over his victory.
* [[Word of God]] has it that their respective actors tossed a coin to see which one of Londo Mollari and his rival G'Kar would be the bad guy. [[Word of God]] did not reveal which actor won. Ten years after the show ended, its fans still haven't figured out which character was the bad guy. ''That's'' complexity.
** Of course, Magnificent Bastardry seems to be the Centauri's "[[Planet of Hats|hat]]"; What does [[Beware the Nice Ones|timid, gentle Vir Cotto]] do when a [[The Caligula|madman becomes Emperor]] and is ordering [[Moral Event Horizon|daily genocides]]? Make protests? [[The Mole|Feed information]] to [[La Résistance]]? Nope! He cooks up a [[The Plan|byzantine scheme]] to secretly relocate hundreds of thousands of would-be victims by [[Faking the Dead|pretending to have them killed!]] He's a nice guy, but he's still a Centauri.
* Morden is another great example. For a long time, he successfully manipulated ''Londo'', with the help of his "associates". {{spoiler|Until Londo finally out-gambitted him in "Into the Fire".}}
== ''[[Doctor Who]]'' ==
* The Master, in many of his incarnations. For instance:
** In the Delgado era, he was a suave foil for the Doctor, constantly trying to take over the world, using untrustworthy allies.
** In the Ainley era, he {{spoiler|created a city for the sole purpose of trapping the Doctor, managed to foment a civil war among people who were convalescing, and nearly derailed the signing of the Magna Carta, among other schemes.}} Not to mention the time he {{spoiler|held the ''entire universe'' for ransom}}.
** In the Simm era, he {{spoiler|ran for and was elected Prime Minister. He took over the Earth, decimated the population with six billion robot beachballs [[Of Doom]], tormented the main protagonists while dancing around his [[Cool Ship]] to "Voodoo Child" (by the Rogue Traders), and was generally bastardly. And magnificent. This was [[Reset Button|undone]] in the end, but still...}}
** He then went on in ''The End of Time'' to {{spoiler|improvise a hostile takeover of the body of every single human being on planet Earth - over the course of about ten minutes' worth of episode! Six billion magnificent bastards, right there. And when Rassilon, the Lord President of the Time Lords, shows up and [[Out Gambit|reveals exactly how well and truly he's screwed the Master over]], the Master pulls a [[Taking You With Me]] [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and uses up his remaining life force to take Rassilon down.}}
* Davros in the serial ''Revelation of the Daleks''. After escaping from a maximum security prison, he adopts an alias and becomes a hero to the galaxy by alleviating famine. How does he do it? {{spoiler|He uses the bodies sent to a planet-sized cemetery complex as the main ingredient for an "artificial" foodstuff.}} When the Doctor asks if he's actually told the general public about this {{spoiler|Davros says no, because "That would have created what I believe is termed 'consumer resistance'."}} Oh, and while he's doing all this, {{spoiler|he's using other bodies from the complex to create (yet another) new race of Daleks.}}
** Come to that, he was pretty bastardly in ''Genesis of the Daleks'' as well. {{spoiler|When the Doctor convinced the Kaled government to investigate his research programs, he simply gave the Thals, his own people's arch-enemies, the information they needed to annihilate the Kaleds. Then he sent the Daleks to wipe out the Thals. Meanwhile, he carries out a purge of any surviving Kaleds whose conscience might hinder the Daleks' development}}. If you actually pay attention, you'll notice Davros isn't even so much as momentarily inconvenienced for the whole Six episodes, despite the numerous twists and turns, up until the last few moments {{spoiler|where the Daleks turn on him and (almost) kill him. Whoops}}.
* Ramón Salamander in ''The Enemy of the World''. A public benefactor for his own ends, {{spoiler|he was consolidating power by engineering tectonic disasters. He did so by herding some people into a giant fallout shelter under the pretext of avoiding a war, and telling them the survivors were so warped it would be a mercy to kill them. Also, his supposed arch-nemesis was actually [[The Dragon]] (and [[The Starscream]]). When his plans went aft a-gley, he used his resemblance to the Doctor to get into the TARDIS (His cover did not last, of course).}}
* Li H'sen Chang from ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang''. Onstage, he was a star illusionist and the most popular act (albeit with some unfortunate facets to his act). Offstage, however, {{spoiler|he was [[The Dragon]] for a fifty-first century mass murderer, very skilled in hypnosis, and quite possibly [[Jack the Ripper]].}}
* Cessair of Diplos, from ''The Stones of Blood''. {{spoiler|She absconded with part of a [[Cosmic Keystone]] and three silicon-based creatures, which she used as attack "dogs". With the ship hauling her to prison stuck in hyperspace by Earth, she passed herself off as a deity among the locals. For ages they fed her Ogri (with animal blood once human sacrifice was abolished), and she bought up the land her shrine was on, through the ages. Oh, and she may have been an agent of the Black Guardian.}}
** The Dalek Emperor ''The Evil of the Daleks''. {{spoiler|Establishing a council of [[Smug Snake]]s to procure the materials necessary to destroy the Earth}}, and then {{spoiler|manipulating the Doctor himself, making him isolate the "Human Factor" so that the Daleks could isolate the "Dalek Factor".}}
** And then there's the plain vanilla Daleks that show up in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 E03 Victory of the Daleks|"Victory of the Daleks"]]. {{spoiler|Eight of them (five of which were only ''created'' halfway through the story) in a broken-down, underpowered ship pull [[The Plan|one plan after another]] with the Doctor as their [[Unwitting Pawn]] in both cases. They play the last of the Time Lords like a fiddle and use him to ''restore the Dalek race'', before giving him an [[Sadistic Choice]] and forcing him to ''let them escape''.}} The audience spends the whole story expecting the Doctor to bounce back and defeat them: {{spoiler|he doesn't. They win. They absolutely ''school'' him.}}
*** This just goes to show how much the Daleks have learned. Not to mention that the three Daleks that helped started this magnificent plan were, according to [[Word of God]], what were left of the Crucible Daleks created from Davros' cells. Given Davros has been put in this very page, it's no wonder they count.
* The Valeyard from ''The Trial of a Time Lord''. Of course, any bastard {{spoiler|siphoned off of the Doctor while the latter was regenerating}} would HAVE to be magnificent, and the Valeyard {{spoiler|almost succeeds in getting the Doctor executed, all the while plotting to wipe out the High Council. In the ensuing [[Gambit Pileup]], [[No One Could Survive That|his plan literally blows up in his face]], but he survived and become Keeper of the Matrix.}} And even the Master was afraid of him.
** The Master's fear of the Valeyard was the ultimate reason for The Valeyard's defeat: Rather than risk facing the Valeyard (who is, {{spoiler|being a version of the Doctor}}, MORE than capable of defeating any scheme the Master is likely to cook up) and risk being killed (the one thing {{spoiler|the Doctor}} won't do to him) the Master opts to reveal the Valeyard's entire plan to the court itself FROM INSIDE THE MATRIX.
** He's {{spoiler|the future Doctor (well, an [[Enemy Without]]) sometime between his 12th and 13th incarnation. Given how badass the Doctor has been already and how badass he's become in future episodes}}, this isn't surprising in the least.
* {{spoiler|Taren Capel}} from ''The Robots of Death'' {{spoiler|overcame more than a million subroutines per robot when making them forget the [[Three Laws Compliant|First Law of Robotics]] and turn on the humans, while impersonating a man assigned to a Sandminer.}}
* ''Invasion of the Dinosaurs'' gives us [[Well Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]] {{spoiler|Sir Charles Grover and Professor Whitaker}}. Their plan {{spoiler|was to turn back time to land their chosen few in the Mesozoic, undoing everything that had happened since.}} They also arranged that {{spoiler|the head of the British Army's operations in London would be [[The Mole|in on it, too]].}}
* The Dream Lord, the villain of "Amy's Choice". As befits his status as {{spoiler|the manifestation of all the Doctor's self-loathing and malice}}, he is a magnificent one-episode wonder, complete with a classic [[The Plan]], who really [[Evilly Affable|enjoys his work]]. The [[The End or Is It|end of the episode]] implies we may see him again.
* Madame Kovarian, who leaves the Doctor ''thoroughly'' [[Out Gambitted]] in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E7 A Good Man Goes to War|A Good Man Goes To War]]", managing to {{spoiler|distract him from the real Melody Pond the exact same way she distracted him from Amy Pond}}, rendering all of the Doctor's incredible efforts completely moot with the most beautifully simple of schemes. And then she calls up just to mock him for falling for it.
* The Doctor is capable of this. Often short on allies with no weapons other than what he can lay his hands, yet he manages to [[MacGyver]] [[Indy Ploy|and come up with an on the fly plan]] that leaves everyone who isn't the Daleks and occasionally the Master (and both have been [[Out Gambitted]] by him in on prior occasion) in the dust.
** Capable?? The Doctor is the ultimate MB of the Whoniverse by default, considering the fact that, for the most part, he outgambits all the other Magnificent Bastards.
* [[Evil Counterpart|Captain]] John Hart from ''[[Torchwood]]''. A slick, charming, handsome, stylish, pathological liar who enjoys using [[The Plan]] to get what he wants (which includes attention from Captain Jack). He poisoned Gwen, shot Tosh, beat up Owen, and threatened Ianto at gunpoint, and enjoyed every minute of it. When he {{spoiler|blew up a good chunk of Cardiff}}, he said, "Let the fun begin! Do I mean fun or carnage? I always get those two mixed up." True, he ''was'' {{spoiler|acting on orders from Grey, who'd strapped a bomb to his arm}}, but he was still clearly enjoying watching the city and the Torchwood Team panic.
** Jack Harkness himself can be this when you put him on the spot, especially in his earliest form in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Case in point: starting out as a con man who charmed his victims out of their cash, and ending on ''Torchwood'' by {{spoiler|killing his own grandson in order to save the planet}}. [[I Did What I Had to Do]] maybe, but... ''damn''.
** Also from ''Torchwood'', Bilis Manger: a polite, unassuming old man who happens to be able to travel through time and space at will. For the duration of the last two episodes of the first season, Bilis plays ''everyone'' like puppets from beginning to end, all while remaining cool, calm and elegantly understated. And there was that [[Psychotic Smirk|soft, malevolent smile]] he'd break into...
** And now, in ''[[Torchwood Miracle Day]]'', we have Jilly Kitzinger, a devious, sexy, well-dressed PR representative who manipulates [[Complete Monster]] Oswald Danes to gain power for herself. She's not pure evil, though; [[Even Evil Has Standards|she still privately finds Oswald repulsive]].
== ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' ==
* In season one there's HRG, smooth and calculating enough to trick even his employers, although his eventual [[Heel Face Turn]] puts an end to his Bastardry. Later, we get introduced to another, Mr. Linderman, the [[Affably Evil]] mastermind behind ''everything''. Season 2 brings us a new [[Magnificent Bastard]] in the form of the new [[Big Bad]], Adam Monroe. Magnificent and [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] to boot, Adam recruits resident [[Idiot Hero]] Peter Petrelli to be his unwitting dupe, attaining a level of villainous charisma unmatched by any villain in the series since.
** Even after HRG [[Heel Face Turn]] he's capable of being a [[Magnificent Bastard]] when he {{spoiler|threatens his former teacher's family in order to get the information he wants to help keep his family safe}}
*** Due to the fact that HRG's methods in achieving his aims have not changed at all, despite the fact that he changed sides, one could argue he never took a true [[Heel Face Turn]], but counts as just a straight example of this trope.
*** Noah "I'm fine with morally grey" Bennet does not even ''acknowledge'' the difference between heel and face. He's just that magnificent.
* Let's not forget everyone's favourite [[Manipulative Bastard]] and self-described shark politician, Nathan Petrelli. While his bastardry got derailed in seasons two and three, as of season four, he bounced right back to full-on Magnificence.
* [[Two Words]]: Angela. Petrelli. [[Heroes]]' resident Queen Magnificent Bitch.
** Amen, amen, alleluia, amen.
* What, we got this far without mentioning [[Serial Killer|Sylar]]? Volume One aside, manipulating the Blunder Twins, sometimes just for fun, the end of Volume Three, the whole of Volume Four...
** And now we have Volume 5, where he shows that he can be a [[Magnificent Bastard]], even with his soul being stuck inside of Parkman. Some feats include: making Matt see a dead body that isn't really there to get him to kill a suspect in a crime out of rage and tricking Matt into thinking that alcohol can beat him, slipping in while Matt's passed out and taking control of the body. Of course, Matt's been a [[Magnificent Bastard]] right back, tricking Sylar into trying to bring a gun on the airplane AFTER Sylar gained control of the body, and making Sylar get surrounded by cops, and {{spoiler|sacrificing himself to kill Sylar (well, trying) by making Sylar look like he's pulling out a gun.}}
* Volume 5 gives us Samuel Sullivan, a charismatic, manipulative carnie who lures people with powers to join his carnival with promises of a holy land where specials can live free. All to make himself more powerful.
== ''[[Lost]]'' ==
* Benjamin Linus is notorious for being a magnificent bastard. His entire character revolves around manipulating others into doing his bidding, constantly lying, and emotional blackmail. Among his accomplishments:
** Season 2: Gets captured by Danielle Rousseau ([[Word of God]] is that he was legitimately captured, some fans think it was all part of the plan), then calls himself "Henry Gale" and concocts an intricate fake backstory for himself that doesn't crack even under torture. Of course, his true identity as a member of the Others is eventually discovered, at which point he starts emotionally playing with John Locke's inferiority complex. Locke will end up becoming Ben's archnemesis and whipping boy. Ben eventually escapes when {{spoiler|Michael shoots and kills Ana-Lucia and Libby}}, and is then revealed as the Others' (apparent) leader. He has {{spoiler|Michael}} lead {{spoiler|Jack, Kate, and Sawyer}} into a trap, and captures them.
** Season 3: Ben intentionally allows Kate and Sawyer to sleep with each other to emotionally force Jack into doing surgery on Ben's tumor. Later, when Locke arrives at the Others' camp, he begins forcing Ben to do his bidding as the Others start to believe Locke is their "chosen one" and not Ben. Locke eventually demands that Ben bring him to the mysterious Jacob, and Ben does so (season 5 reveals this was all {{spoiler|some kind of elaborate ruse gone wrong}}). Ben then proceeds to {{spoiler|shoot Locke and leave him for dead}} when he discovers the latter heard (the alleged) Jacob speak. Ben eventually gets captured by the survivors again, and they [[Nice Job Breaking It Hero|refuse to listen to him]] when he tells them the people coming to rescue them are actually dangerous.
** Season 4: Even though he's captured, a member of the Others describes Ben as being "right where he wants to be." Once again, Ben begins manipulating Locke, explaining the freighter was sent by his archenemy, Charles Widmore. Eventually, Ben and Locke team up to take down the freighter mercenaries, and (the person claiming to be) Jacob tells Locke to move the island. Ben decides this means ''he'' has to move it, and proceeds to do so, getting banished from the island in the process. Season 4 is the first time where one of Ben's [[Evil Plan]] moments blows up in his face: his attempt to bluff the mercenaries results in {{spoiler|his daughter getting executed in front of him}}. When banished from the island, Ben begins blackmailing Sayid into assassinating alleged Widmore goons on his behalf, all because Sayid's girlfriend Nadia {{spoiler|was killed by someone Ben claims worked for Widmore}}. [[Word of God]] states that {{spoiler|Nadia's suspected killer indeed killed her and indeed worked for Widmore}}
** Season 5: Once Locke banishes himself from the island (having been told to do so by Richard, who was told in turn by Locke himself...or was he?), he encounters Ben again. Locke tries to reunite the Oceanic Six and fails. Just as he's about to kill himself, Ben appears, talks him out of it, gets some information...and then {{spoiler|strangles Locke to death}}. Ben then attempts to kill Widmore's daughter Penelope, in what would have been a [[Kick the Dog]] moment if it wasn't for the intervention of Desmond (though Ben seemed reluctant when he saw Penny's son, showing [[Even Evil Has Standards]]). Upon return to the island, Locke {{spoiler|comes back to life}} and reverses the roles, manipulating Ben with his newfound knowledge of the island and claiming Ben is going to have to {{spoiler|kill Jacob}}. When they find the real {{spoiler|Jacob}}, a huge twist occurs: {{spoiler|the resurrected Locke was ''actually a previously and briefly introduced character in disguise'' (READ: the fucking Smoke Monster), masquerading as Locke to manipulate Ben, Richard, and the Others. He told Richard to tell the time travelling Locke to leave the island and kill himself, a predestination paradox that would allow the man to use Locke's body. The man then uses Ben, still unaware of "Locke"'s true identity, to kill Jacob}}.
* Speaking of ''Lost'', this trope also belongs to {{spoiler|UnFlocke}}. Manipulative Bastard? Check. And as {{spoiler|The Candidate}} shows, he is [[Gambit Roulette|one hell]] of a Chessmaster ( {{spoiler|even if it didn't work fully, it was still a badass plan}}). The way he {{spoiler|manipulated Ben}} to {{spoiler|kill Jacob}} was just classic. Jacob himself also counts
* I{{who}} would say Sawyer counts as well. The episode where he manipulated almost all the main characters so he could get the guns and take over the group is still this tropers favorite moment in the series.
== ''[[Supernatural]]'' ==
* Azazel is no slouch on the bastardry, but with [http://www.buddytv.com/slideshows/supernatural-azazels-master-plan-43052.aspx the revelations of the end of season 4], [[Fridge Brilliance]] kicks in, and he becomes the magnificent bastard we know and loathe. For starters, we find out that his master plan, previously hinted at, was to {{spoiler|release Lucifer himself, and for kicks, exclusively torment one family.}} He starts by {{spoiler|arranging the release of Lucifer's firstborn, Lilith, who is the LAST of the 66 (of 600+) seals necessary to free Lucifer. He then tricks various parents into signing away their unborn children's futures as incubators for demon blood, specifically so that they can kill said firstborn. The master stroke here being picking a favorite future mother, killing the parents of [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|Mother Mary]] brutally, possessing the dead father, killing her future husband for the first of TWO times, ''then'' tricking her into unwittingly signing away her child's future, with a deal of bringing back John, the future husband. This "bargain" was of course done for the sole purpose of creating the child he'd had her sign away. The deal was sealed with a kiss, again, [[Squick|between Mary and her dead father, whom Azazel was wearing]]. Of course, leaving right afterwards, [[Arson Murder and Jaywalking|no doubt making her carry the body away]].}} This takes place a few decades before the series begins.
** During the course of the show, on the other hand, he has a couple of pet projects: plotting to get his hands on a gun that kills everything, attempting to kill the entire remaining Winchester family, choosing an heir to herald the armies of hell, and attempting to literally open the gates of Hell. He succeeds in ''all of them''. The kicker is, his greatest victories, as well our knowledge of ''any'' of his true plan, only come ''after'' he dies, with the knowledge that he's basically already succeeded in everything he set his mind to. ''magnificent''.
** And he only died because he made the mistake of underestimating Dean, John happened to raise out of hell at the last minute, and there was one bullet left in the Colt that could kill (almost) anything. Leaving both Dean and John alive and uncorrupted was an ''integral part'' of his plan, {{spoiler|as one of them would need to be pure so that they could break the first seal by becoming a torturer in hell. Assuming John had remained in hell and would eventually break, Azazel planned to use that last bullet to kill Dean, the future host of Michael, thus ensuring Lucifer's victory in bringing about the Apocalypse. When John escaped without breaking, that left Dean to break the first seal that paved the way to setting Lucifer free}}. Magnificence again.
*** It turns out Lucifer's the [[Man Behind the Man|magnificent bastard behind the magnificent bastard]] Azazel, since he told Azazel what to do. But Azazel's still the one who set up that [[The Plan|magnificent plan]].
* It's debatable that The Trickster {{spoiler|AKA the Archangel Gabriel}} and Zachariah deserve a mention.
* And Crowley. The guy's got style.
** His crowning moment comes in the season seven finale — he [[Playing Both Sides|plays the Winchesters and Leviathans against each other]], and ensures that he ends up being the only winner of the season. By the time the dust has settled, {{spoiler|latest [[Big Bad]] Dick Roman is dead, Dean and Castiel have been banished to Purgatory, Meg and Kevin are his prisoners, and Sam is alone and powerless.}}
* After the end of the sixth season, {{spoiler|Castiel}} ascends to this level. Through his scheming, he's managed to {{spoiler|[[A God Am I|become God]]}}. Its hard to get more magnficiently bastardish than that. Even if Death does call him out {{spoiler|as nothing more than a "mutated angel" who has almost literally bitten off more than he can chew}}. I mean, Death already said he'd ''reap God''.
== Other works ==
* [[Dallas|John Ross Ewing, II]].{{who}} That is all.{{context|reason=MOD: No, it isn't. Please explain why.}}
* Luther Graves from ''Justice''. In False Confession, he is able to get an alternate theory across easily, completely tears apart the pompous detective and makes him like a total douchebag in front of the entire jury while said detective can only stew in impotent rage, and he's able to convince the jury that a kid is lying without being a jerk (he simply conveys that the kid was telling the DA what she wanted to hear so that he could get out of his tough situation, and that he lied to the mother simply to prevent her feelings from being hurt.) In Crucified he tears up the profiler, and in Prior Conviction, his closing argument is just a beautifully crafted speech. From the same series is Ron Trott. Though Ron is sort of a douchebag, he's got lots of style.
* Jim Moriarty from ''[[Sherlock]]''.
* Ted Roark from ''[[Chuck]]''. He is like the mix of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. So selfish and narcissistic, but oh so highly charismatic.
** Also {{spoiler|Daniel Shaw}} of all people, {{spoiler|after his [[Face Heel Turn]]}}. He plays Chuck and Sarah like a cheap fiddle.
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** Though he's indisputably the good guy, Chuck himself has his moments, manipulating both {{spoiler|Shaw and Volkoff}} into their own downfalls with ease.
* Speaking of Chucks, Chuck Bass of ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' is a mixture of this trope, the [[Handsome Lech]], and the [[Upper Class Wit]].
** His [[Distaff Counterpart]] and [[Love Interest]] Blair does quite well too.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has entertained us with many a [[Magnificent Bastard]]. Such as the villainous Q. Omnipotent, yet petty; cruel but not vicious; causing devastation yet helpful at times, you really couldn't help but love the bastard(s).
** Q's villain status, however, is in question. Most of his actions as portrayed on [[Star Trek
*** Q's behavior throughout TNG might be described as obfuscating villainy.
** The best example from the ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise has ''got'' to be Elim Garak. He fits the trope ''exactly'', always being one step ahead of everyone and knowing precisely what to do to turn the tide in his favor. As a [[Retired Monster|Semi-Retired Monster]] he has a wide repertoire of dirty tricks and knows exactly when his opponents will try to use them against him. A walking [[Star Trek
*** Upon hearing The Boy Who Cried Wolf for the first time, Garek decided that the moral to the story was 'Never tell the same lie twice.'
** Another Magnificent Bastard is Gul Dukat. {{spoiler|Even going so far as to turn himself into a Bajoran in order to corrupt their entire religion. And always expects people to be grateful to him.}}
*** Gul Dukat was far too often a victim of his own ego and hubris. Garak, on the other hand...
*** Dukat was actually an unintentional one. He was a racist mass-murderer with clear and intentional allusions to Hitler, but was also very charismatic. The creators of the show were distressed by the fans liking of him, and wrote an episode that clearly portrayed him as this, and had him finally admit it. Many of his fans were unhappy about it. (Largely because they retconned to accomplish it, and did it poorly. YMMV, of course.)
** {{spoiler|Seska}} from ''[[Star Trek
** Lets be honest Cardassians pretty much have [[Magnificent Bastard]] as their [[Planet of Hats|Hat]].
*** Especially Cardassian males. Females may or may not embody this trope.
* Lionel Luthor from ''[[Smallville]]'' is the [[Trope Codifier]]. If you are on ''Smallville'' you have, at some point, been used by Lionel.
** His [[Evil Twin|counterpart]] from [[Alternate Universe|Earth-2]] seems to be having a good run at himself, naturally enough. "Cutting out your daughter's heart to save your son because you're a Magnificent Bastard" should be a facebook group.
** Major Zod, Season 9's [[Big Bad]] is a non-Luthor example, in sharp contrast to his [[General Ripper]] [[Cloning Blues|genetic source material]]. He manages to use pretty much everyone in-show, including [[Manipulative Bastard|Tess]], and [[The Chessmaster|Amanda Waller]] and [[Government Conspiracy|Checkmate]] to fullfill his own ends, and does it all while more or less flying by the seat of his pants. He's less of a [[Chessmaster]] than Lionel was, but even more of a [[Trickster]].
* Olivia Pope, the heroine of [[Scandal]] is on the verge of being one. {{spoiler|Her [[Arch Enemy]] is a straighter example.}}
* Jack from ''[[Tru Calling]]''. His Bastardry comes from his mission: to keep the protagonist from saving the lives of the dead people who ask her to do so. His Magnificence comes in the way that he does it. Where Tru tends towards attacking the problem at its source, Jack thinks sideways, poisoning people against Tru before she even shows up. He also tends towards taunting her with little notes and snide commentary. He managed to infiltrate her inner circle with a mole, thus allowing himself to garner all manner of info on her without her knowledge. By [[Too Good to Last|the end]] of the series, he literally has 3 people connected to Tru and her gang that they are entirely unaware of. Imagine the [[Bolivian Army Ending]] when the good guys don't even know the army is ''there''.
* The ''[[Community]]'' season one episode "Physical Education" gives us this example:
{{quote| '''Coach''': From now on, you can play pool however you want.
'''Jeff''': I choose shorts. I choose SHORTS!
'''Coach''': Son of a bitch. You magnificent son of a bitch! (Kisses him) }}
* Don Draper of ''[[Mad Men]]'' is a [[Magnificent Bastard]] in the finest sense of the term: He can manipulate almost any antagonist or client alike into falling into a plan of his devising (just observe his [[Batman Gambit]] in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword"), and has a devilish charm which makes him impossible not to admire. Magnificent. He also cheats on his wife with a number of women, and {{spoiler|stole his identity from a fellow soldier after said soldier died in war}}. Bastard.
** Then there's his boss, Bert Cooper, who {{spoiler|found about about his past in Season 1}}, filed that information away, and used it again in Season 3 to make Don sign a contract. There's a reason he's in charge.
* Livia in the BBC adaptation of Robert Graves' ''[[I Claudius]]''. She spent years brilliantly and subtly manipulating everyone in the highest level of the Roman Empire, just to get her son Tiberius chosen as Emperor. And that's just a part of what she did.
* Catherine Packard Martell in ''[[Twin Peaks]]''. It's not just ''everyone'' who can {{spoiler|fake their own death in a mill fire, come back to town ''in drag'' to foil the plans of everyone looking to profit off the land, and then plot with their [[Not Quite Dead]] brother to seek revenge on his treacherous wife}}.
* ''[[Damages]]'' featured a brutal [[Eviler Than Thou|winner-takes-all war]] fought between the magnificent bastard Arthur Frobisher and the magnificent ''bitch'' Patricia "Patty" Hewes.
** Continued into Season 2 with Patty vs. David Pell and Walter Kendrick's energy-manipulation scheme.
* Francis Urquhart in ''[[House of Cards
* Richard Cross in ''[[Murder One]]''. A fabulously rich developer with a love of fine wine and Renaissance art, who has a marvellous public image through his various donations to charities. He also helps out South American drug lords just for the hell of it, and after one of these affiliations goes very, very wrong he spends the entire first season wildly improvising to keep himself and his associates in the clear, all while appearing completely unruffled and dangling his involvement in the faces of the show's heroes. It also doesn't hurt that he's played by the indescribably charismatic Stanley Tucci.
* [[Knight Templar|Holtz]] from ''[[Angel]]'' falls under this, mostly for his sheer ''efficiency''. [[Cosmic Horror|Jasmine]] spent millenia with godlike power manipulating events to come to earth, lasted less than a week, and died at the hands of {{spoiler|her most loyal servant}}. Wolfram and Hart spent five seasons with nigh-limitless resources trying to corrupt Angel and all they accomplished in the end was {{spoiler|letting him know who to kill}}. Meanwhile Holtz, had no powers [[Badass Normal|whatsoever]], was [[Villains Blend in Better|out of his own time]] and had no allies but those he created for himself. And in half a season he managed to {{spoiler|[[Manipulative Bastard|convince one of Angel's closest friends]] to kidnap Angel's son, then escaped into a hell dimension with him, raising him [[Laser Guided Tykebomb|to be Angel's worst enemy]]. Then his assisted suicide actually made things [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|worse]] between them.}}
{{quote| '''Angel:''' You ''took'' my ''son''!
'''Holtz:''' I kept your son alive. You murdered mine.
** [[Amoral Attorney|Lilah Morgan]] also comes to exemplify this trope by mid-season three, having begun the series as more of a [[Smug Snake]]. The turning point is probably either "Billy", in which Lilah {{spoiler|coldly executes the title character}}, or
{{quote| '''Translator:''' Well, this should be fun!
'''Lilah:''' No. This shouldn't be fun. What it should be is done by morning -- or I'll have your family killed.
* Spike from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' was sometimes seen as this before [[Badass Decay|his infamous (and highly arguable) "Spikeification."]] However, he has a large strike against his cred in his admitted tendency to "get bored" and rush into things without thinking, something a full fledged Magnificent Bastard does not do. That being said, whenever he ''does'' take the time to plan things out, he can hang with the best of them; most notably in episodes like "The Yoko Factor", where he nearly tore the Scooby Gang apart, or the second season finale in which he seemed to realize rushing into things against [[Complete Monster|Angelus]] would not be a smart move and thought a successful plan out in advance, all behind his boss' back.
* [[Satan|The Devil]] in ''[[Reaper]]'' not only arranges for Sam to get an apartment next to a pair of rebel demons whose plan to destroy him would actually have worked, and manipulates Sam into infiltrating the rebellion with a new (doomed) plan to kill him, he also signs Sam's lease with his name and sends him clues as to what is going on that Sam, Sock and Ben can only work out moments after it is too late to do anything about it. Then repeats this plan with the few survivors of the rebellion, and is still witty, charming and diabolically [[Affably Evil|affable]]. Ray Wise's portrayal is just so good that fans now think he may actually ''be'' [[Satan|The Devil]].
** How about another Devil, The Devil from Brimstone? Also happens to be another Magnificent Bastard played by John Glover.
* Ryan O'Reilly from ''[[Oz]]'' controls the prison's drug trade, has all this rivals killed by other people, starts gang wars between the ethnic clans and is one of the few characters to {{spoiler|survive the show's entire run}}, and never has anyone other than his mentally retarded brother for muscle. As he replies when one character asks him how he became a leader of the prison riot despite his lack of a gang: "I'm like the Lord of the Fucking Dance. I've got moves."
* The title of ''[[Super Sentai]]'''s only [[Magnificent Bastard]] goes to Dr. Mikoto Nakadai of ''Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger'', an [[Insufferable Genius]] who takes on the mantle of AbareKiller, the [[Evil Counterpart]] of the Abaranger. Within five seconds of his introduction, he captures the [[Monster of the Week]] and turns the poor thing into his personal maid, complete with apron. He sets up a series of [[Deadly Game|Deadly Games]] for the heroes just to amuse himself and demonstrate that [[Humans Are Bastards]] to the [[Wide
** Some [[Super Sentai]] villain fall into this, such as Meemy from [[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]] and Burajira from [[Tensou Sentai Goseiger]]
** Naturally, Deviot of
*** Lothor of [[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]. His massive series-long [[Gambit Roulette]] and quirky sense of humour made him one of the franchise's most memorable villains.
* Scorpius of ''[[Farscape]]'' fame spent the entire run of the series, plus the [[Made for TV Movie|Made For DVD Movie]] holding allegiance only to himself, and doing his darnedest to manipulate every side in his favour... {{spoiler|and more or less succeeding by series end}}. And he {{spoiler|accomplished his goals}} with such intelligence and charm, even his apparent [[Freudian Excuse]] is transformed into a rational explanation.
** That said, although each action of his shows his badge of [[Magnificent Bastard|MagnificentBastardry]] clearly, it's only by the end of season 4 that [[Fridge Brilliance|you can look back]] and see how insanely [[Crazy Prepared]] and manipulative he was. Mostly because he managed to survive: {{spoiler|1) the blowing up of a Gamack base, 2) the blowing up of a Shadow Depository, 3) the blowing up of a ''Peacekeeper Command Carrier'' and 4) the ''blowing up of the entire Scarran secret base'' (Yes, John likes his explosions). Oh, and being buried alive.}} But it's true that when you see [[Raised
*** Not to mention the almost casual reveal in the final episodes that {{spoiler|while he was securing his position in the upper echelons of Peacekeeper Command, he was a spy for the Scarran Emperor himself.}}. Now that's ''chutzpah''.
** The canonical ''Scorpius'' comic book takes his Magnificent Bastardry to a whole new level. {{spoiler|Stranded on a snow planet with nothing but his suit and a single cooling rod when a militarised alien fleet stops for repairs? He takes total control of it. At the mercy of invincible aliens? He becomes their [[The Dragon|dragon]]. [[Oh Crap|Stuck in orbit around the Scarran homeworld in a deserted ship he can't control?]] ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|He talks the Emperor into surrendering the entire Scarran Empire]]''.}} If that's not magnificent, what is? It ''also'' helps to establish the new villains credentials, as when ''Scorpius'' admits he's having trouble outsmarting them, you know they're scary.
* Roman Grant in ''[[Big Love]]'': the patriarch of a polygamist compound who stole the title of Prophet from the hero's grandfather. He's also an extremely cunning businessman, who manages to one-up the hero, Bill, throughout the first season - in one case, {{spoiler|just when Bill appears to have blackmailed him into giving up his financial interest in Bill's business, by threatening to destroy a guitar he particularly likes, he makes a deal with Bill that appears to give Bill everything he wants - a third outlet of Bill's "Home Depot" style store. Except then he gets the government to declare the land Bill has already bought an historical site.}} Despite being a thorough swine, he also believes deeply in the importance of family and calls to commiserate for Bill when {{spoiler|Bill's family is exposed as polygamists. Of course, he exposed them...}}
* [[Affably Evil|Sheriff]] [[Satan|Lucas Buck]] of ''[[American Gothic]]'' fulfills this trope again and again throughout the series. Among the worst (or best, depending on your point of view) offenses would be his [[Mind Rape]] of Dr. Crower, beginning with forcing him to [[Break the Cutie|relive his past tragedies]] ({{spoiler|his alcoholism, its destruction of his career, and the terrible accident which cost him the life of his wife and daughter}}), which nearly makes him {{spoiler|fall [[Off the Wagon]] again}}. This then continues on to the convoluted [[Gambit Roulette]] wherein {{spoiler|he convinces Dr. Crower via a woman who claims to be his mother [[Captain Obvious|that he is the Devil Incarnate]].}} Armed with this [[Cassandra Truth]], Matt morphs into a [[Stalker
** Honorable mention also goes to the number Buck pulls on the orderly in "Eye of the Beholder", Carter in "Damned If You Don't", and the talk show host in "Resurrector" he forces to kill his wife...{{spoiler|[[Faking the Dead|or at least, he thinks he does]]}}.
* Avon, of ''[[Blake's 7
** Whatever Avon did though; Servalan did better, and in high heels.
* Joey Heric from ''[[The Practice]]'' gleefully eludes justice for one blatant murder after another with his expert manipulation of the legal system, confounding both the district attorney's office and his own defense firm with theatrics, misdirection, and at times even the truth. His ability to shed reasonable doubt into just about everything he does is so uncanny, he can even imply responsibility for crimes he's legitimately not involved in and still have people conviced he might have something to do with it.
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** There are several others in the series. Such as John Abruzzi. Let's review that the guy is solely responsible for T-Bag getting his ass handed to him for like 2 or 3 times in season 1, like he so richly deserves. Then there's the whole thing with putting up a fake personality of now being a devout Christian seeking forgiveness... While planning to get rid of all the "extra luggage" (extra luggage being the majority of the escapees) ''and'' kidnapping Veronica to force Michael into revealing where Fibonacci is. In season 2 he regains most of the power he once had as a mob boss and when Mahone hunts him down, he calmly claims "I only kneel to God... And I don't see him here" before attacking the police, fully knowing he'd be shot immediately by them.
** On the same note, Mahone also works, as he deliberately set up this situation knowing Abruzzi wouldn't surrender. When IA comes calling, the investigator points out that there were other ways of getting Abruzzi that wouldn't lead to his death.
* Edmund [[Black Adder|Blackadder]], the third incarnation and the episode involving the French Revolution, especially.
* The Marquis de Carabas from ''[[Neverwhere]]'' makes his living by trading favours, and will call them in whenever he likes, however he likes, whether the debtor likes it or not. He's also been known to orchestrate the situation that leads them into his debt in the first place.
* Al Swearengen from ''[[Deadwood]]'' slowly earns this title over the course of the second season when it becomes clear he's trying to bring order to the horrible frontier town in order to protect his dominance. Sure he orders hits on little girls, kills innocent people and generally does horrible things to everyone. Compared to [[Complete Monster|Hearst and his cronies]], Swearengen is practically a populist man of the people.
** Season 2? In just season 1 alone he is {{spoiler|shown to be behind almost every scheme that the protagonists run into, from the murder of the Norwegian settlers by road agents to the swindling and murder of Brom Garrett. All the while he insults Starr and Bullock to their faces while refusing to sell them their land, belittling and insulting his cronies. And he doesn't even need to pull a [[Karma Houdini]], because he's easily [[Ensemble Darkhorse|the most popular character]] on the show!!}}
* Parodied with Bill from ''[[News Radio]]'' had a tendency to see conspiracies in coincidences and accuse Dave of being a [[Magnificent Bastard]], once even uttering the page quote (with Rommel replaced with Dave). This said, the true [[Magnificent Bastard]] of the show is Jimmy James.
* Julian Sark from ''[[
* Commander Cain, commanding officer of the battlestar Pegasus in the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic|Battlestar Galactica]]'', certainly qualifies. He was based on Patton, after all. His counterpart in the re-imagined series, Admiral Cain, is more of a [[General Ripper]].
** Starbuck calls Apollo this in the new series after he {{spoiler|flies through a conveyor system to fly under a Cylon base's defences and blow it to bits}}. More a congratulatory term for pulling off something insane brilliantly, but still.
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** John Cavil. Unbelievable son of a bitch. Manages to be both this and a [[Complete Monster]].
*** Helen Tigh, Leoben Conoy and D'Anna Biers also qualify!
* Jack Donaghy - Titan, maverick, lover - from ''[[
** Also from the same show, Devon Banks - Jack's archrival who manages in Season 2 to {{spoiler|seize control of NBC from Jack by marrying his bosses daughter and convincing the board to accept her as the new head who he then controls as a puppet. He eventually forces Jack (!) to resign from GE by moving his office to the 12th floor. }}.
** Basically anyone Alec Baldwin plays.
* The System Lord Ba'al from ''[[Stargate SG 1|Stargate SG-1]]''. What, you DARE mock him??
** RepliCarter. [[Batman Gambit|Just by being polite]], she maneuvered herself into a) becoming immune to the anti-replicator superweapon, b) passed on that immunity to her fellow machines, and c) eliminated what she saw as the only real stumbling block to replicator rule over the Milky Way galaxy.
** The Wraith "Todd" on ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''
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* King Silas in ''[[Kings]]''. As one fan put it, "Never try to outsmart Ian McShane. He is smarter than you."
** So much so that we root for him even though {{spoiler|the Bible itself tells us he's doomed}}.
** The finale just cements his Magnificent Bastardry. As of the finale, he {{spoiler|is still alive and kicking, having returned from ''two'' assassination attempts, done an amazing [[Unflinching Walk]] past a battalion of armed soldiers to retake his crown, has scared William Cross into hiding, apparently plans to wall his own son up in a cell ALIVE for treason, and has sent David on the run.}} Bible, schmible. Silas is pretty awesome.
{{quote| Silas: {{spoiler|"Oh, William . . . bringing guns to a tank battle."}}}}
* Hilary Briss in ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]''. He's played by [[Mark Gatiss]], 'nuff said.
{{quote| "Somebody's got to stay in control."}}
* Adelle DeWitt has ascended to Magnificent Bastardry in the last couple episodes of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' {{spoiler|The woman took a bullet and proceeded to watch her former right hand man be lobotomized then carried on a conversation as cool as ice cream!}}
** Her reputation as this has been solidified for sure in the later episodes. {{spoiler|Turning in the one piece of technology that could end the world to her less than cautious superiors to regain control of her house? That's one thing. Doing it to regain a foothold large enough to send Echo to the Attic and have her bring enough new and devastating information to bring them down? Magnificent.}}
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** Strangely, one of the biggest ones in the series is one of the few examples of a good guy being a [[Magnificent Bastard]]. Lester Freamon is, without a doubt, the most intelligent character in the series. He's a cop [[The Chessmaster|who moves everyone, whether they be criminals, politicians, or fellow cops, on the board like they were chess pieces.]] He even outwits Clay Davis. He's also manipulative, just not in a negative way and plays himself off as a harmless old detective that won't give much trouble. But if he's after you, your days as a free man are numbered.
* Malcolm Tucker from ''[[The Thick of It]]'' and [[The Movie]], ''[[In the Loop]]''. As the Prime Minister's chief spin doctor he has made a whole ''career'' out of [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastardry]], and MP Hugh Abbot even coined the term "Malciavellian" to describe his particular brand of it. He gets by on his frankly terrifying degree of charm, which he greatly enjoys abusing. Considered a bastard even by the standards of other spin doctors, his colleagues can't help but grudgingly admire him:
{{quote| '''Nick Hanway:''' ''"Fuck you very much, you unscrupulous bastard."''
'''Malcolm Tucker:''' ''"[[Insult Backfire|Scruples? What are they]]? Those low fat Kettle Chips?"'' }}
** Even his choice of [[Bastard Understudy|understudy]] is bastardly: he appointed the [[Violent Glaswegian]] Jamie, knowing that he lacked the charm and intelligence that would be required to overthrow him.
* In ''[[George Lopez]]'', there's an episode where George and Vic get into a fight, and Vic puts a lock on George's garage because George could only build it because of a loan Vic gave him. George spends a few minutes trying to get the combination to the lock, he finds out his son Max was given the combination. But he runs into some problems.
{{quote| "He gave the combination to a dyslexic fifth grader. ''The man is an [[Magnificent Bastard|EVIL GENIUS!]]''}}
* Hugo deVries in the ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' episode "Masonic Mysteries". Basically spends the entire episode ten steps ahead of ''everyone'', jerry-rigs Morse's home stereo to play really awful Opera (''[[Up to Eleven|LOUDLY]]''), sets Morse's house on fire with Morse inside, frames Morse [[Everything Is Online|using the Internet]], ''and'' delivers some utterly fantastic [[Just Between You and Me|monologuing]] and [[Deadpan Snarker|Deadpan Snarkery]] to boot. The fact that he's being played by [[Large Ham]] Supreme [[Star Wars|Ian McDiarmid]] is really just gravy at this point.
* Iris Crowe in ''[[Carnivale]]'' is a fairly spectacular example. The sweet, innocent spinster sister of Brother Justin? Has not only spent her entire life playing [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] with her brother's [[Dark Messiah|true nature]], but {{spoiler|burned down her brother's church to get him publicity}}, allowed an innocent man to go to jail and eventual execution for {{spoiler|what she did}}, lured an innocent woman out beyond the camp and then {{spoiler|bashed her over the head with a boat oar, to keep her from talking about how evil Justin really is}} and kept the secret of {{spoiler|Sofie's paternity}} from everyone. After the big battle, when [[The Hero|Ben]] and [[The Antichrist|Justin]] are {{spoiler|lying dead in the cornfield}}, the New Canaan faithful have almost been [[Kill
** Must run in the family, considering the entire events of the series are masterminded by "Management", aka {{spoiler|Lucius Belyakov, Justin and Iris's father}}.
* Both Tony Stonem and his sister Effy from the E4 drama [[Skins]].
* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' has had its share of [[Big Bad|Big Bads]], but the crown has to go to the Boston Reaper (aka {{spoiler|George Foyet}}), who just escalates with every appearance. Not only has he evaded capture for over ten years, but he {{spoiler|passed himself off as his own victim by stabbing himself multiple times}}.
** In "Omnivore", he blackmailed the lead detective at the time into dropping the case and stopped killing for ten years ''just'' to watch the detective self-destruct out of guilt. He comes out of hiding to offer the same deal to Hotch, but when Hotch refuses, kills an entire bus full of people. He knocks out Morgan and steals his credentials, but leaves him alive, to live with the knowledge of how close he was to dying. He allows the team to capture him only because, in the interim ten years, he's memorized the schematics of ''every single prison in the state of Massachusetts'', and bites his own wrists to fake a suicide attempt. He escapes.
** In "...And Back", he returns to {{spoiler|attack Hotch in his apartment after the Turner case.}}
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** Finally, in "100", he {{spoiler|targets and kills the federal marshal charged with protecting Haley and Jack, and doesn't even expend the effort to kidnap them by force. Instead, he impersonates another marshal, telling Haley that Hotch is dead, and he's going to bring her someplace safe. Haley goes to him of her own accord, only realizing when Foyet calls Hotch to gloat that he's the killer that's been hunting them. Foyet makes Hotch listen as he threatens Haley and Jack, and while Jack escapes, Foyet shoots Haley while Hotch is still on the line. When Hotch reaches the house, Foyet leaves Haley's body in her bedroom, and hides and waits for Hotch to shoot him - knowing Hotch is so grief-stricken that he'll empty his entire clip - and springs right back up when Hotch goes to confirm the kill: he's wearing a bulletproof vest. Unfortunately, Hotch is way beyond reason, and beats Foyet to death with his bare hands.}}
* April Devereux of [[Half Moon Investigations]] gets this, despite being, at most, 15. While Half Moon can figure out what she's done all the time, she's never close enough to the action to be convicted, and in the rare case when she is, she's managed to make it so that no one is willing to turn her in. Plus, {{spoiler|after Fletcher helps her win back her posse, she asks him to dance and, in a classy move, informs him she's going to get him excluded or discredited the next term.}}
* From the remake of ''[[V]]'' comes Anna, High Commander of the Visitors (played by [[Firefly|Morena Baccarin]]), who is quickly establishing herself as quite the Magnificent Bitch. "A Bright New Day" should leave no doubt in anybody's mind, between her {{spoiler|convincing the staunchest anti-V protester to change her mind AND [[Villain
** {{spoiler|Just watching her practice her speech before she meets with the protestor blows this troper's mind.}}
** {{spoiler|This troper was under the impression Anna had drugged or replaced the protestor with a duplicate before she spoke, seeing as she was led into a stairwell away from prying eyes.}}
* Hansi von Spitzmark, from the still-quite-obscure short series called ''Dreaming in Mono''. He has a gold medal from every contest he entered, he's a best-selling author, poet, singer, and won the competition that blew the losing protagonist to pieces -- and he doesn't even think that much about it. When you've listened to the protagonist's dramatic, tragedy-filled, extensive, long ramblings about the contest, an interview with von Spitzmark rolls. He has only this to say about it.
{{quote| '''Spitzmark''': What happened in '74? ...Well, I won. Simple as that.}}
** Not to mention that, after hearing about the protagonist's new goal in life, has this to say to him:
{{quote| '''Spitzmark''': Alain...please, my friend, get a life. I am serious. Okay? Are we done?}}
* On ''[[Leverage]]'', other than the obvious main character and resident mastermind, Nate Stark, we have Jim Sterling, Nate's [[Not So Different]] [[Evil Counterpart]] and insurance investigator {{spoiler|turned Interpol officer}}, played by none other than the extremely smirk-ey [[Mark Sheppard]]. The universal rule of Sterling's appearances on the show is that '''Sterling never loses''', meaning he's immune to [[Villain Decay]]. The only way the gang can win when Sterling shows up is to make sure that he wins, too.
** Hardison aspires to running his own crew one day but Nate advises him he doesn't have what it takes (at least not yet) because he can't pull off the "Bastard" part of this trope in order to manipulate his crew as the job requires. A later episode shows Hardison has been working on the "Magnificent" part, coming up with a brilliant but overly-complicated plan for one of the crew's jobs. Nate admits it was pretty good, but he still needs experience to learn how to really make the plan work for any contingency.
* The Cigarette-Smoking Man of ''[[The X-Files]]''. His scheming villainy and [[Affably Evil]] demeanor became one of the principal reasons to watch the series, even as [[Seasonal Rot]] set in.
{{quote| ''"Don't threaten me, Mulder. I've watched Presidents die. If men were to know of the things I know, it would all fall apart."''}}
** The fact that he plays {{spoiler|both his sons - Agents Mulder and Spender - off each other}}, as well as running the [[Government Conspiracy]]? If [[TV Tropes]] had existed when this show was on, there's no doubt he would have been considered the [[Trope Codifier]].
** Alex Krycek, who is consistently loyal only to whichever party will benefit him most, ''tries'' very hard to be as magnificent as the CSM, but ends up as [[The Chew Toy]] instead. He ends up, on various occasions, beaten within an inch of his life ("Krycek gets punched" ought to be a drinking game), on the run from the law, having his arm amputated, being possessed by the black oil virus and trapped in an underground bunker with no hope of rescue.
* [[Glee]]'s cheerleading squad coach Sue Sylvester sinks her teeth into the vicious pettiness of small town high school power politics with a relentlessness that leaves her adversaries stunned by its imperviousness to defeat, deterrence, or sheer weight of the extensively documented evidence of her many crimes.
** Santana's ploy in the episode "Born This Way" makes it clear that Santana has picked up a thing or two from her old coach.
{{quote| "[[Badass Boast|Only straight I am is straight-up bitch!]]"}}
* The titular character of ''[[
** The other doctors who interact with House sometimes have their moments, though generally only against one another. Anyone who tries to pull this on House has it reversed on them immediately. {{spoiler|Except Wilson. He's the only one to be able to keep up with the title character; he usually chooses not to.}}
* Barney Stinson in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' often fits into this trope, mostly with his schemes to get laid. In one instance, he was in danger of losing a bet to see who had "more game", himself or main character Ted. The two bet to see who could have sex with a pre-determined woman at the bar first. After approaching her and getting slapped, Barney revealed that he had slept with her before, and that he had technically already won the bet. This did not fly, however, and so Ted would go on to get in a relationship with the girl. However, Barney managed to stop Ted from sleeping with her by reminding him that he had already done everything with her. Ted immediately broke up with her. {{spoiler|Barney then reveals that he had never slept with her, and had actually set up the aforementioned slap, asking the girl to slap him to "make his friend (Ted) feel better." He also utilized information from Ted's phone conversations with her to get to know her interests and grow closer to her. Immediately after Ted breaks up with her, she calls Barney over and the two date. The only thing that goes wrong is that the girl refuses to get intimate for some time after, due to the betrayal, and thus Barney, ever the [[Butt Monkey]], is forced to endure a very painful relationship.}}
** "Thank God we're alive sex! It's even better than 'I can't believe you just proposed to me' sex, which I've only had like, four or five times. "
** One word: Playbook. [[That Is All]].
** And in "The Ducky Tie" it's revealed that Barney actually uses [
** And let's not forget [https://web.archive.org/web/20120210211537/http://www.lorenzovonmatterhorn.com/ Lorenzo von Matterhorn].
* ''[[Breaking Bad]]'': Gustavo
** {{spoiler|Gus further cemented his Magnificent Bastard status by singlehandedly decapitating the Mexican drug cartel who was disrupting his business, and whose Don had killed his business partner 20 years ago. He does this through his gift bottle of tequila to poison the Don and the rest of the upper management of the cartel. To get them to drink, he ''poisons himself first'' and then excuses himself to meticulously vomit out the poison. Do not screw with Gus Fring.}}
** Gus' right hand man, Mike Ehrmantraut, is almost just as good. Every bit as cool-headed and pragmatic as his boss, he's also an expert marksman and infiltrator capable of clearing out entire rooms of gunmen by himself and slipping in and out of highly secure areas without raising any eyebrows.
** Walter White has an interesting, complicated relationship with this trope. On one hand, he's ''way'' out of his depth in the world of narcotics and is regularly outwitted and humiliated, as well as prone to screwing things up due to being a hot-headed egomaniac. But when he's got the entire deck stacked against him and ends up pushed against a wall, he has the ''uncanny'' ability to worm his way out of trouble while looking like a total chessmaster in the process. Whether it's poisoning a pair of dangerous gunmen by discreetly cooking red phosphorous, {{spoiler|making himself Gus' only option for a meth cook by tricking Mike into letting him order the execution of his replacement}}, or {{spoiler|poisoning a child to turn Jesse against Gus before killing the latter by using his hatred of Hector Salamanca against him}}, there's a ''reason'' why many fans consider him to be a genuine badass.
* Jim Keats of ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]''. Starts out as a nerdy [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] obsessed with rules and regulations, charming his way into CID, and at the end of 3.01, pulls one of the fastest (practically nonverbal) [[Face Heel Turn|Face Heel Turns]] in history. He continues to gain the trust of the team - particularly Alex - and all seems well until the end of 3.04, where he {{spoiler|cradles the dying Louise in his arms and seemingly acts as an Angel of Death for her.}} He gets a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|hell]] of a lot darker and more sinister in 3.06, when {{spoiler|he lets Viv die alone and frightened, cheerily whistling as Viv - who has sinned in allowing a gun into a prison and covering it up, thus facilitating a riot - screams in terror.}} It's finally revealed in 3.08 that Keats is {{spoiler|quite possibly [[Satan|the Devil himself]], and when the truth of the world is revealed - that everyone is dead and Gene is supposed to help them move on - [[Villainous Breakdown|loses his shit in fairly spectacular fashion.]] He ''breaks the world''. He even manages to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|headbutt Gene]] and proceed to deliver a terrifying [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]] to him. While he doesn't win - Alex fixes the world by helping Gene believe in himself and his team again, then crosses over instead of joining Keats - he does slink off into the night promising Gene they'll meet again.}}
* {{spoiler|Brian Moser}}, the Ice Truck Killer, in ''[[Dexter]]''. He finds Dexter, leaves little notes and messages for him via his kills, and even {{spoiler|gets engaged to his sister}}, all in order have a beer with him.
* ''[[
** She killed a guy by ''talking to him''. If that doesn't qualify her as a [[Magnificent Bastard]], I don't know what would.
* Russell Edgington, the King of Mississippi, from season three of ''[[True Blood]]''. He's honed his skills over several ''millennia'' and has gained the eternal obidience of a cadre of werewolves by addicting them to his own blood before we even meet him. From there it just gets better. He's also easily able to beat up Bill Compton, unlike just about everyone else in the show.
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* On ''[[The Tudors]]'', Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell definitely apply, as does Edward Seymour. ([[Truth in Television]] for Wolsey and Cromwell; harder to say for Edward, who has trouble following through when he most needs to.) Note that these guys are each involved in each other's takedowns - and were allies before that. This is more pronounced for Wolsey and Cromwell - Cromwell owes his start in royal service to Wolsey. Edward and Cromwell were allies of convenience; no way it was going to last on this show.
* Katherine from ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' is properly introduced into the series by making perfect use of her resemblance to Elena. She only gets more impressive from there, particularly when we find out {{spoiler|she's immune to the vampire [[Achilles' Heel]] of vervain due to having taken increasing amounts of it for over a century to build up her tolerance.}} And then there's her [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] coup in the aptly titled "Plan B." Holy crap.
** Klaus has far and away eclipsed Katherine in his magnificent bastardy. Made all the scarier by the fact that {{spoiler|he's now immortal}}
* In the HBO series ''[[Rome]]'' we get a load of these. Mark Antony is perhaps a bit less [[The Chessmaster|Chessmastery]], but he gets his share of the scheming, even if it bites him in the arse in the end. He is only defeated by the more calculating and manipulative Octavian, who in turn inherited his position from Caesar, who was so magnificent in his bastardry that this adoptive son of his was going to further some of his plans even after his death. Pompey is seen as more of a former magnificent bastard, although in reality he was just as magnificent a bastard as Caesar to the end. Then there's Atia, the ultimate one, who uses manipulation, assassination, torture and her charms, not to mention sexual prowess, to have her way, and that's where Octavian probably gets it in the first place (they're all family with Caesar and through that, Mark Antony, which makes Antony's and Atia's relationship interesting, although Romans had a different view on sex and family). Servilia of the Junii, Atia's rival proves herself as malevolent a manipulator as Atia after Atia exposes her affair with Caesar, causing him to break off the affair. Aware that Caesar has a dark secret, she [[Les Yay|seduces Atia's daughter]] and persuades her to [[Brother
* Kougami from [[Kamen Rider OOO]] is this while masquerading as a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]. Why? Because of one episode where [[The Hero|Eiji]] couldn't activate the Ride Vendor [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|(yes, a vending machine that turns into something he could ride, namely a bike)]], and his "friend", who is also a [[Magnificent Bastard]] in a sense, and a living incarnation of greed known as a [[Big Bad|Greeed]], Ankh is talking with Kougami about declining a deal where he gives 70% of his winnings to him (winnings being Cell Medals, [[Money Spider|long story short...]]), and even considers killing Kougami and calling the deal off. Kougami then shows Ankh a clip of Eiji [[Crowning Moment of Funny|trying to get the Ride Vendor to work]] and tells him that if he does kill him, then the system that allows the Ride Vendors to work will deactivate due to it working on his own will power. It soon turns to a haggle ending on Ankh having to give only 60% of the cell medals he gains and has to pay a 100 Cell Medal advance fee as well. Kougami then claps his hands and allows the Ride Vendor to work. However, unbeknown to Ankh, Kougami was simply having some guy, who was nearby Eiji, use a remote that activates and deactivates Ride Vendors at will. Yes, that's right... He just tricked a ''living embodiment of greed'' into giving him his equivalent to food. Damn. And that is early on in the show too!
** You missed the best part: after Ankh agrees to handing over sixty percent of his winnings, Kougami pulls the lid off a box in front of him, ''revealing a cake signed with that number, and shouts "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"''. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Damn.]]
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* Bill McNeal from ''[[News Radio]]'' is an arrogant, blusterous radio newscaster who delights in spreading mischief around the station where he works, and generally torments the his co-workers whenever possible. Special targets include his boss, Dave, whose attempts to control his actions are often thwarted, and the "office spaz" Matthew, whom Bill exploits due to Matthew's sycophantic attitude towards the newscaster. His exploits include bringing a piano to the office and playing Mark Russell-style political satire songs during working hours, (damaging Dave's reputation with an efficiency expert who has the power to fire or demote him). He also "outfoxes the foxes" when he is temporarily installed as news director by the two co-workers who had previously held the title (Dave and Lisa, respectively) to teach him a lesson about the difficulty of being the boss; instead, he glories in it and manages to win over part of the staff by giving them pointless busywork which they think is real, thus motivating them to work for him, and turning them against Dave when he tries to expose Bill's chicanery.
* A ''[[Law and Order SVU]]'' example is Darius Parker. He plays the police and the DA's office, basically gets away with double homicide, and forces his mother (who hated him all his life and gave him to her mother to raise because he was the result of rape) to acknowledge him in open court by bringing all the secrets and lies to light.
* In his very first appearance in the [[Batman
** Then there's Ma Parker, who {{spoiler|arranges for a takeover of the state Penitentiary}}. Even Batman and Robin are [[Unwitting Pawn|Unwitting Pawns]] in her game--at first...
* One of the Villains of the Episode (Flame Red) in the Mentalist, was this. Specifically {{spoiler|Tommy, who donned a perfect persona and lived as a mentally ill person for years, tricking everybody, in order to do as he liked and later for revenge.}}
* Percy, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[
** His plan is [[
{{quote| "It's a start."}}
*** More recently, he carried out a rather effective [[Batman Gambit]], manipulating Alex, Amanda and Nikita with the end result of {{spoiler|now being in a position to blackmail Alex into doing whatever he wants}}. This is impressive, but it gets even better when one realizes that he did all this ''from the confines of his cell.''
*** That's nothing compared to the gambit he carries out during the entire first half of the season, discreetly giving orders to the Guardians via [[The Dragon|Roan]] -- by the time it's done, {{spoiler|he's free from his cell to plot his revenge, and all his superiors in Oversight are dead}}.
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** Nikita herself, in her dealings with Division, Oversight and Gogol. Her former handler/teacher and lover, Michael, shows some signs of this as well. Her adversaries - Percy, Amanda and, to a lesser extent, Ari Tasarov - are this as well.
* Torrence, the [[The Charmer|charismatic]] [[The Sociopath|sociopath]] played by Eddie Izzard in 2009s [[The Day of the Triffids]] starts of as a pretty Magnificent Bastard but suffers [[Villainous Breakdown]] when his plans start to go awry, revealing himself to be more of a [[Smug Snake]], albeit a very high-functioning one.
* ''[[Sanctuary (TV series)|Sanctuary]]'' has an intermittent [[Magnificent Bastard]] in Nikola Tesla. Yes, ''that'' Nikola Tesla. The {{spoiler|vampire one}}.
* Alex Russo from ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' often has her moments as this due to how sly and manipulative (and good at it) she can be.
* Morgan Pendragon from the Starz television series [[
* Helen Cutter of ''[[Primeval]]'' is a perfect example. So much so that even though {{spoiler|she dies in the end of Season 3}}, the extent of her manipulations and future planning means that she arguably {{spoiler|remains the villain right up to the end of Season 5.}}
* Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith of the A-Team. His tagline, "I love it when a plan comes together," usually uttered around a giant cigar and a grin is classic Magnificent Bastard.
* Kenny Hotz of the Canadian series ''[[Kenny vs. Spenny]]''. He's [[Manipulative Bastard|ruthless]], [[Combat Pragmatist|underhanded]] and, he rarely loses!
* Certain contestants on [[Reality TV]] competition programs can be Magnificent Bastards if they win in an impressive manner, or if they didn't win, came very close to doing so. Good examples include Richard Hatch, Brian Heidik, Parvati Shallow and "Boston" Rob Mariano from ''[[Survivor]]'' and Dr. Will Kirby from the American version of [[Big Brother]].
* Emily Thorne of ''[[
* This seems to be a requirement to be the [[Big Bad]] on ''[[Warehouse 13]]'', as, to date, all three of them (James MacPherson, HG Wells, Walter Sykes) have spent their respective seasons carrying out elaborate [[The Plan|plots]] against the Warehouse agents, always staying one step ahead of them, and ultimately only being stopped by unforeseen circumstances {{spoiler|(and in Sykes' case, isn't stopped at all; he dies, but his plan still succeeds, granting him a post-mortem victory).}}
* [[Eastenders]] has known its fair share over the years.
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** And currently we've got Doctor Yusef Khan. A calm, calculated [[Man of Wealth and Taste]] who always has a nasty hidden agenda earning him the nickname "Dr. Evil" (apply little finger to corner of mouth and [[Evil Laugh|laugh evilly]].
* Patrick Jane, from ''[[The Mentalist]]'', is the epitome of this trope. He is brilliant, charismatic and manipulative. He runs rings around poor Lisbon, the rest of the team and the criminals. Nobody ever knows the full plan except him and, on the rare occasion something goes wrong, he will get out somehow. The audience want Patrick to succeed in catching the murderers and to eventually get Red John even though his methods are often questionable.
* Ming in the re-imagined ''[[
* Ron Sandoval of [[Earth
* Rumplestitskin (or Mr. Gold) in ''[[
** Speaking of Regina, she can be quite the [[Magnificent Bitch]] in her own right; even getting the drop on Rumplestiskin ''twice.'' In the fairy-tale world she {{spoiler|manipulates Belle into almost stripping him of power}}, and in the Storybrooke world {{spoiler|arranged for his [[Tragic Keepsake]] to be stolen, helped him get arrested, and then forced him to reveal that he was unaffected by the curse like she was}}. She tried to manipulate Emma and Henry by [[Exact
* Arnold Rothstein of ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]''. Fixed the 1919 World Series ''and got away clean''. Kingpin of New York, running an empire of gambling, prostitution, drugs, booze, and crime - all with impeccable manners and a sense of style. Steal from him? You're a marked man. Kill one of his business partners? He may have you killed immediately, or he may let you swing when it becomes more politically expedient. [[Badass Boast|Because if he'll watch a man choke to death for his own amusement, what do you think he'll do to someone who crosses him?]]
** It takes until the end of season two for him to hit full Magnificent Bastardry, but Enoch "Nucky" Thompson gets there in spectacular fashion. When his protege, Jimmy, betrays him (after screwing up numerous business deals for him in season one) and teams up with {{spoiler|the Commodore and Eli}} to bring Nucky down, Nucky predicts he'll ruin Jimmy. After surviving a second assassination attempt, Nucky starts cutting deals in spectacular fashion: bringing in Torrio and Rothstein for advice (and taking it), using his ties to Chalky to incite a race riot, and calling in the favors the IRA owes him and selling them guns in exchange for booze. Nucky doesn't have to do much else before all of Jimmy's deals start to backfire and he spirals out of control - but {{spoiler|shooting Jimmy himself in the head}} sends the message that he's back in charge of AC.
* "Fred" from ''[[Unforgettable]]'' not only manipulates three separate people into being killers (one a serial), he ''chooses'' to out himself Carrie and her team, knows they're utterly unable to pin a single thing on him, and cheerfully implies he'll look forward to more fun and games.
* The aliens in ''[[The Twilight Zone|The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street]]''. {{spoiler|They manipulate their targets into turning on each other}}.
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