Magnificent Bastard/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

[[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]].''}}

** Also {{spoiler|Daniel Shaw}} of all people, {{spoiler|after his [[Face Heel Turn]]}}. He plays Chuck and Sarah like a cheap fiddle.

** Alexei Volkov, so very much. He makes just introducing himself into a terrifying [[Oh Crap]] moment.

** Lets be honest Cardassians pretty much have [[Magnificent Bastard]] as their [[Planet of Hats|Hat]].

** 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]].

* 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''.

'''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.

* 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}}.

* 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.

* [[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]].

** Some [[Super Sentai]] villain fall into this, such as Meemy from [[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]] and Burajira from [[Tensou Sentai Goseiger]]

* 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.

** 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...}}

** 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]]}}.

** 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.

* T-Bag from ''[[Prison Break]]''. This guy ''has built his house'' behind the [[Moral Event Horizon]].. Or so you'd think. He sexually abuses prison mates. He ''raped children and killed them''. He's racist. And yet, you still somehow find him awesome. Maybe you can stand him because he more than once got what he deserved. (One hand hacked away, for example). Maybe it's because no matter how often he gets beaten, he always rises from the ashes and continues his magnificent plans.

** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

** 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!

** 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.

** 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]]''

** Hyde actually ''does'' fill this role around Fez and Kelso throughout the series.

*** Of course, it's not as if manipulating [[Funny Foreigner|Fez]] and [[Brainless Beauty|Kelso]] is very difficult...

** So much so that we root for him even though {{spoiler|the Bible itself tells us he's doomed}}.

* Hilary Briss in ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]''. He's played by [[Mark Gatiss]], 'nuff said.

* 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.}}

** Even bigger than Davis is probably [[Only Known by Their Nickname|the Greek]]. As the head of an international crime organization, he will kill, manipulate, and outplay anyone who stands in the way of allowing his crime organization to operate, all the while managing to come across as [[Affably Evil|a friendly old man]]. He manages to outsmart the police by {{spoiler|keeping an informant in the FBI}} and by ensuring that the only thing to identify him by is his nickname. The clincher for his magnificence? {{spoiler|He's not even Greek.}}

** 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:''' ''"[[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.

* Both Tony Stonem and his sister Effy from the E4 drama [[Skins]].

** 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.}}

** 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.}}

** {{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.}}

** Not to mention that, after hearing about the protagonist's new goal in life, has this to say to him:

* 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 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.

** 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.}}

** One word: Playbook. [[That Is All]].

* {{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.

** He does, however, go through a huge [[Villainous Breakdown]] near the end of the third season on account of {{spoiler|Talbot being staked}}, thus quite effectively stripping him of his magnificence.

** Stefano DiMera and Sami Brady from ''[[Days of Our Lives]]''.

** Victor Newman from ''[[The Young and The Restless]]''.

* 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.

* 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.]]

* 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.

* 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.}}

*** 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.''

*** He hits his masterstroke in the last two episodes of the season. By taking control of an old Cold War-era [[Kill Sat]] and threatening to destroy cities via blowing up nuclear reactors with it, he essentially makes the President of the United States his bitch. The kicker comes after Nikita and Michael [[Storming the Castle|infiltrate Division]] to destroy the satellite's control system and the President sends in the Marines to take Division down -- {{spoiler|the satellite was a ''dud'' that Percy was using to cover his real means of destroying the reactors, and Roan has orders to destroy one in D.C. if the President doesn't grant Percy amnesty and let him walk away. When Nikita corners him, and forces him to confess to Division that he's been lying to and manipulating them, he does so in such a way that they all want to kill him, forcing Nikita to keep him alive and help him escape, because if he dies, Roan gets the signal to carry out his orders}}. He very nearly ends up walking away [[Karma Houdini|free and clear]], but he chooses this exact moment to shift from MB to [[Smug Snake]] and screws himself -- {{spoiler|once he's out of Division, he attempts to finally kill Nikita (probably believing his deal with the President will protect him), and in their struggle ends up dangling over the edge of Division's missile silo. He tries to talk Nikita into helping him, but she instead [[Disney Villain Death|lets him drop]], so Birkhoff can track his death signal and use it to lead Alex and Sean to Roan to stop him}}.

** 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.

* 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.

* 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]].

* 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.

** Den was outplayed by his wife, Chrissie Watts in the end though.

** Johnny Alan was conceived as a Magnificent Bastard but could never quite pull it off.

** 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.

* 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.