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{{trope}}
{{cleanup|This page should be split into multiple subpages of the trope, one for each medium listed on this page.}}
 
== Fan WorksComputing ==
* Alexandra de Velan of the fan-made expansion to [[Neverwinter Nights]] "The Bastard of Kosigan" definitely qualifies.
** Annoyingly, despite the fact that she and the hero are lovers, {{spoiler|there is NO WAY to ensure she lives past the French attack on Kosigan}}.
* Kyrio Streika, from New Dawn. While like Aizen in many ways, he prefers to masquerade as a "normal man with some interesting ideas in his head" and manipulate people and events rather than simply hit things with brute force. He absolutely never changes his bemused expression, not when a setback happens, nor when it comes time to murder someone. It is safe to say he views everyone as a chess piece...well, [[Morality Pet|except for Matthew.]] That would be his soft spot. He is ostensibly doing all of this to help his son...though not without some genuine enjoyment thrown in.
== [[Music]] ==
* [[Doctor Steel]] has loyal followers proclaiming devotion all along the globe, all simply because of catchy music. Is this real? Or is he just stringing us all along? Who knows? Who cares? Magnificent, indeed.
* The Offspring's song ''You're Gonna Go Far, Kid'': "Show me how to lie; you're getting better all the time, and turning all against one is an art that's hard to teach. Another clever word sets off an unsuspecting herd, and as you step back in line a mob jumps to their feet. Now dance, fucker, dance. Man, he never had a chance, and no one even knew it was really only you." If that's not this trope in lyrical form, I don't know what is.
* Lord Donald in the Fairport Convention song "Matty Groves", upon finding his wife cheating on him, insists on allowing her lover to get dressed and even gives him a sword to fight him with. He kills the lover and his wife, but insists that she be buried on top because "she was of noble kin."
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* Ric Flair was probably wrestling's prototypical [[Magnificent Bastard]]. "Limousine riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheeling, dealing son of a gun" that he was, he always had four aces up the sleeves of his impeccable suits and gaudy ring robes, and a couple of them in his boots too for when things got ''really'' desperate. As a [[Heel]], he also delighted in constantly reminding the other wrestlers, and everybody watching, that they'd never, ever be like him, no matter how much they wished otherwise. Woooooooooooooo!
* Rowdy Roddy Piper fit the bill better than any wrestler before or since. Magnificent? Despite never winning a World Title he was one of the top heels of the 80s. Charismatic? Oh yeah, just listen to one of his promos. Audacious? He hit Jimmy Snuka in the head with a coconut, you can't get more audacious than a random sneak attack with a concealed and slightly racist weapon. Bastard? Dear God yes. Trickster? To quote the man himself, "Just when you think you have the answer, I change the question!". And a [[Karma Houdini]]? Not always but frequently. Piper was a brilliant heel, but almost as good as a face, and he could shake karma by getting the fans back on his side.
* Piper's successor might have very well been [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]], especially between his win at King of the Ring '96 and his first title win at Wrestlemania XIV. Magnificient? Even [[Bret Hart]] was calling him the best in the business. Charismatic? Oh, hell yeah. Audacious? He was breaking into houses, randomly attacking officials, and threw the Intercontinental belt in a river just to spite [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]]. Nevertheless, people cheered especially after his famous Wrestlemania XIII match. After that, Austin could do pretty much anything he wanted and still get cheers.
* [[Jake Roberts|Jake "The Snake" Roberts]] is a funny case. At the time, he was disqualified from being a Magnificent Bastard due to being a [[Complete Monster]]. However, the [[Moral Event Horizon]] of what keeps a heel from being cool has shifted much further back by now (compare Jake getting furious heat for slapping Elizabeth to the Dudleys getting over for powerbombing women through tables), and nowadays he comes across as a classic Magnificent Bastard.
{{quote|"Yeah, reach out for me! I'm a snake. ''Never'' trust a snake." }}
* [[Edge]], in his "Ultimate Opportunist" [[Gimmick]], has established himself as a dangerous threat to any world champion, and a cunning adversary for any respective challenger, with his ruthless exploitation of any circumstance he deems favorable. As such, even after the most embarassing of defeats, he almost always bounces back.
* [[Shawn Michaels]] is another great [[Magnificent Bastard]] beloved by fans whether a face or heel. Egotistical yes, but far from being a [[Smug Snake]] due to his success. His colorful relationships with the likes of [[Breakup Breakout|Marty Jannetty]], [[Real Life|Bret Hart]] and [[Power Stable|Triple H]] over the years shows [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|he knows how to run the gauntlet]]. Always willing to put his livelihood or career on the line for the chance to win a championship or etch another notch in his amazing career. Did I mention [[Draco in Leather Pants|he knows how to make an entrance?]]
* [[Triple H]] begun transforming into this in 1999 and completed the process in 2000. His [[Face Heel]] turn at Wrestlemania XV turned him from a fan favourite wrestler to one of the most hated on the planet, but he got his first WWF Championship win that August, though he lost, regained and relost it over the following months. He responded by beating the crap out of [[Vince McMahon]] at ''Armageddon `99'' and marrying his daughter (kayfabe, later for real), who turned out to be [[Evil All Along]]. Fans unimpressed by him (as [[Edge]] later put it) "marrying his way to the top" were won over when, Champion again, he defeated [[Mick Foley|Cactus Jack]] in two brutal matches at ''Royal Rumble'' and ''No Way Out'', which each counts as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for both wrestlers. This was about the time he began to be known as "The Game" and "The Cerebral Assassin", and the rest, as they say, is history.
== Religion and Mythology ==
* From Norse mythology; Loki. Not even counting his cosmic [[Face Heel Turn]] after the death of Baldur, in itself a grandiose act of Bastardry, his consistent use of clever, cunning plots and charismatic trickery combined with Thor's brute strength in the stories of their journeys together make him one of the most entertaining characters of Scandanavian myth, even when he's [[Kick the Dog|being a total prick.]] One example has him turn into a female horse to distract an ice giants horse. He ends up giving birth to one of the great horses
** Loki is a trickster and a manipulative bastard, but he's not as smooth and forethinking as the usual magnificent bastard, and he often got caught or even tricked by giants and the like, unlike a typical magnificent bastard.
** Also, Odin, in his [[Trickster]] guise as the one-eyed Wanderer, performs some glorious Bastardry, but outside of that his defining Bastard act is ''encouraging'' humanity to continue slaughtering itself in pointless wars so that his Valkyries can gather the souls of enough valiant warriors to bolster Odin's armies in Ragnarok.
* From Egyptian mythology: In one story, the goddess Isis desires the true name of Ra to gain power over him and enhance her authority. Knowing only Ra's own essence can harm him, she slowly collects his sweat and mixes it with a snake she creates, arranging for it to bite Ra and nearly kill him. Isis then comes to heal Ra, tricking him into giving his true name so she may heal him entirely, allowing her to hold ultimate authority over the other gods.
* From Akan-Ashanti folklore: Anansi the spider, desiring all stories, is given a price by the sky god. Using his wits and advice from his wife Aso, Anansi captures the great python Onini by tricking him into measuring himself on a branch before tying him there. He then tricks the Mmoboro hornets into a gourd by making them think it's raining, traps the leopard Osebo in a cleverly dug pit and finally traps the spirit Mmoatia with the use of a sticky, 'disrespectful' doll and yams, offering them all up to the Sky God Nyame to claim the stories for himself.
* From Christian theology: [[Satan]], the Devil, in just about every portrayal since Milton (and Marlowe, and Goethe...) has shifted from the nasty but easily-duped [[Trickster]] of early medieval times to a charming, smooth-talking soul dealer and patron saint of [[Magnificent Bastard]]s. The appeal of this version has led to it becoming increasingly popular to [[Satan Is Good|portray the Devil as tragic, misunderstood, sympathetic or even an out-and-out AntiHero.]] Despite this, he's rarely given [[The Woobie|Woobie]] traits and usually remains unrepentant literally until Doomsday, dodging [[Badass Decay]] and making him truly Magnificent. Some fans of this interpretation take it so far as believing it's [[God Is Evil|God who's the real bastard]], and sometimes a Magnificent one in His own right.
** [[Satan]] is arguably an intentional example. When religion became Serious Buisness again, the Church wanted to show [[Evil Is Cool|just]] [[Evil Is Sexy|how]] [[Evil Feels Good|seductive]] sin is. [[Satan|The Devil]] was meant to be the embodiment of sin. Cue Satan [[The Chessmaster|fit]][[Manipulative Bastard|ting]] [[Faux Affably Evil|this]] [[Evil Is Stylish|im]][[Magnificent Bastard|age.]] In short, ''there's a reason why he's'' '''THE''' ''villain.''
** Joab. An amoral, murderous SOB with a dash of [[General Ripper]], who still managed to remain [[Token Evil Teammate]] of David.
* Nearly any Trickster God worth his salt will be one of these. It's basically their role to be magnificent bastards, taking down gods and monsters in such ingenious ways that you can't help but admire in their sheer audacity.
* Odysseus might be too much of [[Guile Hero]] for this. His possible father, Sisyphus, who twice talked his way back from the dead is not.
 
== Toys ==
* Makuta Teridax from ''[[Bionicle]]''. According to his fellow Makuta, he was so over-prepared that he had back-up plans for his breakfast.
== Other Media ==
* [[Microsoft|It looks like you're trying to take over the system.]] [[Memetic Mutation|Would you like some help with that?]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130930122540/http://thc.org/root/phun/unmaintain.html "How to Write Unmaintainable Code"] offers such useful ideas for [[Vetinari Job Security|keeping yourself in a job by making it impossible for anyone else to do it]] as redefining the operator a=b to mean a='''0-'''b, naming variables so that they'll be nearly visually indistinguishable in most fonts, and faking out the compiler so that an external function means different things depending on how many times the file defining it is included. While the essay isn't meant seriously, this does not detract from the magnificence of it.
 
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[[Category:Professional Wrestling]]
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