Magnificent Bastard/Multimedia/Disney

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

As perhaps the largest entertainment company in the world, Disney has given us many memorably clever, stylish, nigh-unstoppable and entertaining bad guys over the years... 

All goes according to the Xanatos Gambit.

Disney Animated Canon

  • Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Shows up to a infant's birth that she wasn't invited to and curses the infant on a whim, and then manages to stay ahead of the game with the only setbacks coming from her own stupid lackeys. Yet she still manages to nearly accomplish her evil goal and, had the three fairies good magic not been strong enough, would have won. She could also be called a Complete Monster (almost literally so by the end of the movie), but her speech to Prince Philip detailing her revenge on him and the princess (i.e. hold him prisoner for a hundred years then let him rescue his true love as a decrepit old man) is magnificently bastardly indeed.
  • Professor Ratigan, Arch Enemy to Basil of Baker Street and Big Bad of The Great Mouse Detective is an odd example who is both certainly this and a Smug Snake. His magnificence comes from his brilliant intellect and flamboyantly theatrical Giggling Villain personality, not to mention his voice acting by the legendary Vincent Price, as he hatches a secret conspiracy to kidnap the mouse queen from Buckingham Palace and replace her with an android duplicate made and controlled by a kidnapped inventor who would grant full royal authority to Ratigan so that he may control all of mouse society in England, and is never ashamed to play dirty when it suits his needs ("I love it when I'm nasty!"). He also has got one hell of a fun Villain Song, and frequently showcases how ruthless he can be towards underlings who upset him, which keeps his gang on their toes as they all work to do their jobs right lest they suffer their boss' wrath. Towards the end of the film, though, his ego and increased anger over seeing his plans getting messed up put him in Smug Snake territory, culminating in a Villainous Breakdown where he endangers the life of a child and savagely fights Basil in a duel to the death atop Big Ben. When all is said and done, though, the movie leaves little room for doubt about Ratigan being "the world's greatest criminal mind."
  • Grand Vizier Jafar from Aladdin is one of Disney's most famed examples. While he was more of a Smug Snake (and a literal one) in the first movie, he was cunning, charismatic and efficient enough to near success even then. His schemes to take over the throne for himself first involve retrieving the lamp with the Genie in it that can grant wishes, and then to convince the Sultan to let him marry Princess Jasmine so he can inherit it by marriage. While Aladdin derails both plans, Jafar realizes he has the lamp and steals it, using it to make himself the most powerful sorcerer in the world. While tricked into his own defeat by Aladdin, having not considered that becoming a Genie meant his newfound power comes with imprisonment in a lamp of his own, he learned of his mistakes and graduated to a full fledged Magnificent Bastard in the direct-to-video sequel, The Return of Jafar. The first thing he did when he was freed by Abis Mal was to play on Mal's greed for gold, fear for his life and his hatred for Aladdin in order to make him at first waste two wishes at nothing and then convince him to help him with promises of large riches and revenge on Aladdin. Once he had Abis Mal around his finger, he decided to force his former ally Iago to work for him again and use the trust Aladdin had developed for Iago into fooling him and the Sultan away from Agrabah into a trap, while himself took care of Genie and Abu. When the trap proved successful, he made it look like Aladdin had killed Sultan simply by placing it, slashed, in Aladdin's room, which would ended with him executed for the murder on the Sultan, seemingly ordered by a deceived, distraught Jasmine. If he had turned more attention on Iago's conflicting behavior, then maybe he would've won.
    • Even better. It wasn't a deceived Jasmine ordering Aladdin to be executed, she had already been captured. It was Jafar himself in disguise who gave the order. And he comes back in that same disguise just to reveal his true self briefly and rub it in Aladdin's face right as he's about to be executed.
  • Scar, from The Lion King definitely counts. Until he became The Caligula, that is. During the movie's first half, he was arguably one of the most successful (if not THE most successful) Disney villain. He succeeded in his plans just halfway through the movie and had the benefits of those successes until the very end. He kills the Big Good (his own brother) and convinces Simba that it was his fault, and then sends the Hyenas to kill him when he runs. Even during the climax in the second half, when Simba does unexpectedly come back years later, Scar actually manages to turn the situation around and manipulates Simba into admitting he killed Mufasa. Not a single one of the heroes knew he'd been the villain for so long until mere moments in this climax. Also managed to be a Complete Monster on top of all this.
  • Hades, Greek god of the Underworld from Hercules combines the skillful situational maneuvering of a used car salesman with the underhanded people skills of a sleazy Hollywood agent, right down to the speech patterns and mannerisms, while also delivering premeditated, long-term scheming (his master plan was years in the making and we see him planning out his moves in advance at a large chessboard) and supervillainy that comes dangerously close to success (particularly with how he hones in on Hercules' feelings of love towards Meg, who was working for Hades from the start, and exploits it as Herc's "weakness" in order to take away his strength and break his heroic spirit so that he wouldn't be able to fight back against the Titans once Hades unleashed them and set them upon Mount Olympus). Like Daniel Plainview, his hot temper (quite literally hot in this case) is his only big drawback. Otherwise he's very efficient on top of being ridiculously entertaining due to James Woods' voice acting.
  • Long John Silver from Treasure Planet. As magnificent a bastard here as he is in literature and other adaptations, and particularly fearsome in this version considering he's a Cyborg.
  • Dr. Facilier, the suave, scheming, quick-thinking, manipulative, and "very charismatic" Voodoo man from The Princess and the Frog, known also as the Shadow Man. Every time it looks like his plans could be stopped dead in their tracks, Facilier always finds a way to keep them going so that things fall in his favor. Smooth and skillful at manipulating other characters like Naveen, Tiana, and Lawrence, possessing a keen sense of business and showmanship, and also one of the few Disney Villains to give a permanent death to a good guy character, Facilier stands as one of Disney's most delightfully diabolical antagonists.
  • Prince Hans from Frozen. He managed to improvise his way through a scheme to claim the throne of Arendelle for himself, all while posing as a noble, caring Prince Charming type character. Had Anna not survived his attempt to leave her freezing to death, Hans would have successfully done away with both princesses and become Arendelle's king. Plus, he gave us the "If only there was someone out there who loved you" meme.
  • Ursula from The Little Mermaid is bombastic, sassy, and a pro at suckering people into making dangerous Faustian Bargains. Living in a lair that doubles as a trophy room full of the pathetic, transformed victims of her scheming, she sets her sights on the emotionally vulnerable Ariel and tricks her into ignoring her bad reputation with honeyed words before locking her into an ironclad contract that is legally binding and loophole free: she'll turn Ariel into a human on the condition that she gives up her voice and gets Prince Eric, her Love Interest, to fall in love with her in three days, or else she'll be turned into a helpless polyp. Crafty and hellbent on making sure she fails, Ursula sabotages her attempts at winning Eric's love with sneaky maneuvers and a hypnosis gambit that despite hitting a few snags, ultimately works. She then uses Ariel's fate as a stepping stone to absolute power by blackmailing King Triton into giving up his trident and crown and submitting to her, making her the queen of the seven seas. While she doesn't get to enjoy her victory for very long, she still won for the briefest of moments, and only lost because the deaths of her beloved eels Flotsam and Jetsam frazzled her that badly.

Live Action

  Jack Sparrow: Me, I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest, honestly. It's the honest ones you have to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're about to do something incredibly...stupid.

    • Barbossa fully qualifies as of At World's End and On Stranger Tides. He actually makes you feel like cheering as he pulls off a Karma Houdini!
  • Rumplestitskin (or Mr. Gold) in Once Upon a Time has mastered the art of the deal, suckering virtually every fairy-tale character into his plans in one way or another. Even from behind bars, he was cheerfully cutting deals and calling the shots! In the Storybrooke reality, he literally owns the town, and has ensnared both Emma and Regina into oweing him favors. Usually while maintaining a smooth, charismatic, occasionally generous and affable persona. It turns out that the entire story of the first season is his Batman Gambit that will result in him being able to find his lost son AND being free to keep his magic powers. And no matter how many people manage to get the drop on him, he manages to rebound and comes out on top.
    • Speaking of Regina Mills, she could be quite the Magnificent Bitch in her own right in Season 1; even getting the drop on Rumplestiskin twice. In the fairy-tale world she manipulates Belle into almost stripping him of power, and in the Storybrooke world 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 arranging so Henry would overhear Emma doubting his belief in the curse. She also arranged for the genie of Agrabah to murder her husband via a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, then tricked him into becoming her magic mirror. Regina and Gold are basically a Magnificent Bastard tennis match with everyone else in town as the tennis balls.
    • Even worse? Cora (Regina's Mother) manages to manipulate both of them. She becomes Rumpelstiltskin's lover to gain magic power, and then promptly double-crosses him on a deal (after the influential King Xavier gives her the option to), using his own tactic of Exact Words, marries a docile and easily-led prince, and Regina's birth was just one more element in a grand scheme to have everyone else in the universe kissing her ass in revenge on the world for slighting her low birth as a miller's daughter. She will and does do absolutely anything in the name of getting ultimate power and status. The only thing that manged to stop her? Snow White taking a few levels in this herself, tricking Regina into killing her own mother. Granted, as Regina set up Snow's dad to be killed, Cora killed Snow's mum, and the pair of them just killed Snow's old nanny in front of her For the Lulz, it's a pretty good case of Pay Evil Unto Evil.
    • Peter Pan is quite literally the biggest Magnificent Bastard on the show. He kidnapped Henry using a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, managed to manipulate and play literally every single character to his own ends, always staying 2 steps ahead of every one of them. He's probably one of the very few characters that is capable of outwitting Rumpelstiltskin multiple times, who happens to be his own son. All of it in a grand scheme to gain immortality, one in which he very nearly succeeded with style. And even when that didn't work out he exchanged bodies with Henry thus still staying ahead of everyone else whilst he still happens to manipulate them to his favor with ease as part of initiating his Plan B - one that puts everyone and everything in Storybrooke at risk.
    • Ingrid the Snow Queen in Season 4 has become a major one, with some fans calling her the best villain the show has had since Cora or Pan. She almost effortlessly accomplishes everything she sets out to do, and the fact that she and Rumple seem to view each other as equals (even as he is on the verge of achieving greater power than ever before) speaks volumes.
    • Hades in Season 5 is up there with Pan in terms of magnificence. All you really need to know about his status as this trope is that he actually out-Rumples Rumple, deceiving and enslaving him through methods that Rumple himself is accustomed to using.

Comic Books

  • Arpin Lusene is one of the most competent members of Scrooge McDuck's rogues gallery. And given the very obvious inspiration behind his name, his intelligence goes without question: under the guise of a harmless millionaire playboy, he pulls off scheme after scheme to steal Scrooge's massive fortune, and pretends to do so by almost destroying it while posing as a berserker in a nigh-invulnerable suit of armor, and when that fails he continues to fine-tune his plot, coming closer and closer to winning every time before his ultimate defeat. Even when he's lost for the final time, he's willing to show Scrooge respect for being a Worthy Opponent instead of throwing a tantrum.

TV Series

  • The ever infamous David Xanatos from Gargoyles is usually one step ahead of the Gargoyles, and everyone else. He frequently got away with actions that would send a normal man to jail for the rest of his life (although he was jailed for a short time), and was a member of the Illuminati's guild. Of course, since Xanatos was such a smooth talker, he would make you believe he was your friend all while positioning the knife in your back. He might adequately be described as Lex Luthor (Evil Corporate Mastermind) mixed with Doctor Doom (genius inventor and likes mixing magic with science), only handsomer, possibly richer, and with none of the flaws that cause their plans to collapse, namely ego inflation issues and revenge obsessions. He even tends to take his defeats in stride, regarding them as a learning experience.
    • There's a reason it's called a Xanatos Gambit, after all.
    • Uncannily enough, his SECOND LINE in the show is "Magnificent!"
    • Notably, during the first story arc, Xanatos is "defeated" and sent to the slammer. Unfortunately, this means he has nothing to do all day EXCEPT formulate new plans within plans.
    • Xanatos's creation, Thailog, is one as well, solidified when he betrays and then outwits his maker in his very first appearance, leading a fearful Xanatos to speculate that Thailog may be even smarter than he is. Going by the comic continuation, Thailog seems to have inherited his father's fondness for schemes that profit him no matter the outcome as well.
    • Let's not forget Xanatos' wife, Fox, who also managed to outsmart him on one occasion. He even refers to her as his equal!
      • His proposal amounted to "We get along, we'll have good kids, and we're the only ones as smart as each other."
    • Heck, even Xanatos' assistant, Owen Burnett, puts himself in this trope's territory, his true identity being Puck and all.
  • Nerissa from W.I.T.C.H. Can also be considered a Manipulative Bastard, as can Prince Phobos. Cedric too, especially in the original comic series.
    • Nerissa is hands down the best manipulator in the television series. Her schemes have spanned over ten years to complete her goal of universal conquest to unite all words, Nerissa takes on multiple false identities to help defeat Meridian's evil dictator by posing as a castle servant to pass information to the rebels. Conceived a child who she never raised to lead that same army. Manipulated minor villains to distract the heroes under the guise of wanting to assist them while she worked behind the scenes. After the rebellion won, she maintained her disguise as a loyal servant of the queen, only to steal her powers for herself. Posed as a trusted ally to the main characters, and ultimately fooled God! Kidnapped the main character's boyfriend to transform him into a hate fueled demon to psychologically screw with Will, and commits murder right in front of the 14-15 year old Guardians! Enslaves her former friends by finding their emotional weakness, including one who was a ghost! Nerissa is one helluva planner!
      • Nerissa only really lost because she became obsessed with power and started making stupid mistakes in pursuit of more of it, in addition to Will becoming something of a Magnificent Bastard herself by releasing Phobos from prison with a binding magical promise to not keep Elyon's power for himself. It would have worked, too, except for Cedric guessing the plan and turning on Phobos just before he fully broke the promise.
  • The Aladdin TV show has Mozenrath, comparable to Jafar from the Aladdin movies. (See also the film example section.) Even though the confidence was always there, Mozenrath was able to back up his smugness from the get-go. His very first plan involved using Genie as bait for a magic-devouring monster, in order to make Aladdin capture it for him, thus setting up a simple but yet effective Xanatos Gambit. While it didn't last for long, Mozenrath did indeed end up with the beast under his control. Aladdin and his friends did face many capable enemies during their adventures, but Mozenrath was the one who really made them sweat, always pulling something from his sleeve to put the odds back in his favor. If that wasn't enough, the lad was also blessed with a silver tongue that really got our heroes on the nerves. Really, he spends one episode just sitting on his throne, snarking and gloating to a locked up Aladdin, and it still didn't end in a complete loss for him. After all, there's a reason why he's the only villain to ever hear Aladdin say the words "You win".
    • Mozenrath was, in fact, so dangerous, that Aladdin and Jasmine once tried to sneak into his fortress without asking for Genie's help or even telling him about it. (The reason being, the place had powerful anti-magic defenses, and they knew Genie would have blown their cover badly.) As you might expect, Genie finds out and tries to help anyway... Aladdin and Jasmine's precautions were not without merit.
  • The Evil Manta from The Little Mermaid series surpasses even Ursula at being a formidable, manipulative, and very efficient nemesis...for his three appearances in the first season at least, prior to Villain Decay hitting him hard in his final appearance at the end of the show. Even then, though, his voice acting by Tim Curry does a lot to preserve some deliciously wicked dignity.
  • Taurus Bulba was the closest thing that Darkwing Duck had to this trope. He managed to run an operation from behind bars, and make his escape by turning his prison cell into a mobile aircraft. Like the Evil Manta mentioned above, Tim Curry providing the voice really helps matters.
  • Shere Khan from Disney's The Jungle Book already had the personality down, showcasing great intellect, sophistication, smooth communication skills, and the utmost confidence in his hunting prowess. But he really ascended to this trope in the Disney Afternoon TV series Tale Spin, which sees him as a Lex Luthor-esque Corrupt Corporate Executive who deals in the urban jungle of business and organized crime all while staying well ahead of the law and avoiding punishment whenever he can, being a tiger of wealth and taste, and even possessing his own honor code that has seen him allied with Baloo and the other good guys as much as he's been against them.
  • In TRON: Uprising, we have General Tessler. Legitimately, his tactics should earn him a 0% Approval Rating, but his Faux Affably Evil persona and carefully cultivated bag of half-truths leave Beck as a Hero with Bad Publicity, and earned him the loyalty of Paige even after he slaughtered her friends from the medcenter.
    • Cyrus as well. While his ultimate goal is the destruction of the Grid and comes within a hair's breath of pulling it off a few times, it's hard not to like him for the fact that he's gunning for such a destructive plan in order to save people from Tessler and CLU's iron-fisted, authoritarian dictatorship and put them out of their collective misery.
  • Gravity Falls gives us Bill Cipher, a seemingly omnipotent being who has his grand apocalyptic plan completely mapped out from the start, has been putting the pieces into place for years, and doesn't allow any apparent defeat to be a setback, only a delaying of the inevitable. Bill is fond of making deals with people in which he gives them something they want or think they need, and in return, they can be used and likely screwed over by him later so that he can reap even better benefits. As it's said, he would use or possess anyone in order to get what he wants, shown clearly when while possessing the time traveler Blendin, he takes advantage of a distraught, emotional Mabel and tricks her into giving him a dimensional rift belonging to their uncle, and then smashes it, creating the tear between the two worlds, bringing about Weirdmageddon. He rarely appears, but his presence is felt even when he's gone, and while undeniably diabolical and sadistic, he's also hilarious and great fun to watch and speculate about.
  • In Star Vs The Forces Of Evil we have the evil, slick, cool-headed Patrick Bateman-esque lizard monster known as Toffee of Septarsis. First he gets Ludo Avarius to hire him simply by making him believe that he did hire him, and proceeds to advise a fairly competent Evil Plan that's clearly truly intended to test the capabilities of both Star and her wand. He then skillfully manipulates the events of "Mewnipendance Day" resulting in Ludo firing Buff Frog. Furthermore, he manipulated Ludo's army into throwing Ludo out after a situation arranged as to make Ludo look especially bad, and becomes their leader instead. And it's implied that he'd been waiting a while for Ludo to put on the display of weakness he needed to convince the monsters to rebel. During all this time he also made sure to stay out of Star's way so that she wouldn't notice him, and the fact that Marco and Star aren't even aware of his existence until the Season 1 finale proves he's savvy enough to keep himself a secret until his presence needs to be made known. At the end of Season 1, Toffee gets what he wants: the wand is destroyed, and is only partially reformed thanks to a heroic unicorn, but with one broken shard still remaining...in the grasp of his hand!
    • Season 2 makes him an even bigger example of this trope: it's revealed that Toffee had his spirit transported to the Realm of Magic, a space linked to the split shards of the wand's crystal, and began corrupting all the magic there, also using that magic to create a new wand for Ludo to find. As Ludo exploited the wand's corrupted magic all while Star was having trouble with her own wand, it created a "fritz" where all magic in Mewni began getting drained, corrupted, and absorbed into Toffee so that the dark magic spell cast at him by Queen Moon long ago would lose effect and there'd be no one else who could wield magic to use against him ever again. Star's wand had also been tainted and it re-created his missing finger that he hoped to restore to his hand. Speaking to Ludo through his wand, Toffee had Ludo swipe Star's magic spell book along with it's genie, Sir Glossaryk of Terms, and told Ludo to read from the Eclipsa chapter to enact a dark spell that allowed him to overtake Ludo's mind and possess his body. With this, not only does Toffee transform the wand into a new arm and hand for himself (with the crystal shard grafted into it) and use his new magic power to dominate Queen Moon and the Magical High Commission in battle, but he takes ownership of the spell book away from Ludo, fully counting on Ludo getting so enraged by his inability to use the book that he burns it, which is exactly what ends up happening. Afterwards he has Ludo ravage the kingdom of Mewni with his rat army and take over Butterfly Castle, luring Star to them so that the wand can be completely cleaved back together in his hand, but when Star instead comes empty-handed and casts the Whispering Spell to destroy Ludo's wand, sealing herself into the same space where Toffee is, Toffee improvises and, speaking through Ludo, coerces Queen Moon into giving him back his finger so that he can fully regenerate himself, but he doesn't return Star to life like he promised he would. With seemingly no more magic to be used against him and his revenge on Moon taken, as well as his finger and full strength restored, Toffee would now presumably call together a new army of monsters to go conquer a land already in shambles from his actions, content with knowing the "threat of magic" had been eliminated forever. Had Star not saved the last fragment of pure magic and then come back more powerful than ever to destroy Toffee for good, he would have won.
    • To top it all of, Season 4 reveals that all along, Toffee was a case of being Wrong For The Right Reasons. He'd not only seen clearly the danger and injustice of the magic that Mewmans built their governing system around that was used to oppress monsters for ages, but he'd foreseen the end of magic that he'd hoped to be the one to bring about. Though obviously, he failed on this end and was unable to realize his vengeful desires to bring about the end of the Butterfly royal family and the subjugation of all Mewmans, Star ultimately ends up fulfilling his idea for the total destruction of the old magic in the universe connected to Mewni, even outright acknowledging that Toffee was right to recognize just how terribly magic in the hands of hateful, prejudiced Mewman authorities had screwed everything up.
  • In the 2017 reboot of DuckTales, Scrooge's ex girlfriend Goldie O'Glint proves to embody this trope in spades. After all, not everyone has the ability to outsmart Scrooge McDuck himself and get away with it multiple times.
    • Season 2's Big Bad, General Lunaris, is set up as an Evil Counterpart to Louie in how he's able to look at all angles, formulate plans around them, and play a situation to his best advantage by manipulating the feelings and actions of others, and he also proves himself to be a more than Worthy Opponent to Scrooge. From his secret home civilization on the moon, Lunaris created a surveillance system by hijacking McDuck satellites and sending the transmissions to his secret war room, where he gathered information on potential threats to him that would need to be eliminated first in the invasion; one such threat being the Duck family. When Della was found crash-landed on the moon, Lunaris deceived her into thinking of him as a friend and manipulated events so that Della would ultimately leave behind her rocket ship's blueprints so that the Moonlanders could build their own rockets to go to Earth. Once Della was gone, Lunaris shot himself in the arm with his ray gun and claimed that Della had done it in an act of treachery, and that she was planning on coming back with forces to invade the moon, so they'd have to invade Earth first. When this invasion was finally launched, Lunaris directly threatened Scrooge's family in order to deceive Scrooge and Della into acting against their own best interests while he brought down a super weapon to change the planet's rotation so that it would orbit the moon. Lunaris' magnificence unravels in the end, though, as angles he's not able to see and actions he's not able to strategize a counter for start to tear all of his carefully made plans apart, driving him into a Villainous Breakdown in which he attempts to blow up the Earth as a Rage Quit, his sanity slipping further and further away during the final battle in space.

Video Games

  • Axel gets the distinct honor of being the first member of Organization XIII you encounter in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and the last member standing once Marluxia and Larxene's well-laid plans fall apart, with it all happening as a result of his machinations.
    • Xemnas qualifies in 358/2 Days, and when you think about it, Kingdom Hearts II as well. As the Superior of Organization XIII, Xemnas was the driving force behind the entire plot of the former, and played some serious Xanatos Speed Chess in the latter in order to make things fall into place for him once Sora was an active force again. The whole time in KHII, Sora could only do exactly as Xemnas wanted, and eventually knew it. Every time Sora killed a Heartless only brought Xemnas that much closer to his plan to complete his own Kingdom Hearts and through the power of the heart, reign supreme over all hearts in all worlds. No wonder Saix discarded Axel and joined up with him....
    • Maleficent could also qualify in this series. She does evil with style, is very manipulative (especially in the case of Riku), and throughout the story, she's never really suffered any great defeat; only setbacks. Even after she herself was manipulated for Xehanort's plan, she was able to regain a castle and control over the Heartless in KHII by allying herself with Sora and the others, thus ending the game getting exactly what she wanted. Sounds like someone else I know.
    • Master Xehanort manages to be both this and a Complete Monster. In Birth by Sleep, he manipulates Terra, Ven, and even Master Eraqus into doing exactly what he wants, all the way up until the end of the game. And even after the heroes derail his plans in that game, he continues to be a threat throughout the whole rest of the series by proxy. Xehanort's gambit when he returns whole involves gathering together thirteen vessels for his darkness-filled heart split among them, including his Heartless (Ansem, Seeker of Darkness), his Nobody (Xemnas), and his own younger self.
    • Really, Kingdom Hearts has a bunch of Magnificent Bastards stabbing each other in the back. Marluxia had planned to get assigned to Castle Oblivion and raise up Sora with false memories to take over the Organization, but Xemnas and Saix knew about it from the beginning, so Saix has Axel derail this conspiracy. Axel also removes Zexion as a potential threat on the side. Saix had an even more well-hidden agenda, but it didn't work out so well for him. Vanitas is quite cunning himself, and most likely his plan was to backstab Xehanort and take Kingdom Hearts' power for himself once he had the X-Blade. Hades had no less than three separate plans to take over Mount Olympus, and largely didn't really care about Maleficent's club. And then there's Braig/Xigbar/Luxu following his own agenda that was laid out to him by the Master of Masters...
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