Manipulative Bastard: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:batman manipulative bastard 3147.jpg|link=Batman|frame|The other heroes always get annoyed when Batman breaks out the puppets to illustrate his [[The Plan|plans]]...]]

 

{{quote|'''Ben:''' I can convince him to do it.

'''Juliet:''' How?

 

 

 

 

 

 

May eventually drive the [[Viewer Stock Phrases|audience]] to scream, "[[What an Idiot!|Why do you keep falling for this]]?" at the other characters.

* The last subtype is the [[Apparently Powerless Puppetmaster]] who is genuinely powerless and only has as much power as his/her opponents see fit to give him/her. To this end, he/she fakes [[Obfuscating Stupidity|stupidity]] or [[Obfuscating Insanity|insanity]] so that he/she can avoid being assassinated while still being able to manipulate events as he/she pleases.

 

 

{{examples}}

* Paptimus Scirocco of ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'' is one of the first anime examples and still one of the best examples of this character. He manipulates practically ''everyone'' he encounters, instigating many betrayals and coup d'etats in his name as he goes. By the end of the series, he's gone from a [[From Nobody to Nightmare|nobody from Jupiter to the unquestioned master of the Titans.]]

** ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' and ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' also provide several Manipulative Bastards, in [[Dark Messiah|Chairman Durandal]], [[Criminal Amnesiac|Neo Roanoke]], [[The Quiet One|Rey Za Burrel]] (who's more of a Manipulative Bastard in Training), and the master of them all, {{spoiler|[[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Rau Le Creuset]]}}, who more or less talked the world's two ruling factions into [[Omnicidal Maniac|setting the apocalypse in motion]].

* Fukiko from ''[[Oniisama e...]]'', specially to Rei, and later to Nanako.

* Michio Yuki from ''[[MW]]''. Manipulating and blackmail the corrupt politicians involving with the titular chemical warfare into handing over the money to him; once that is done, [[Asshole Victim|he kills them]].

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[All Fall Down]]'': Using {{spoiler|Phylum's voice box, AIQ Squared}} manipulates {{spoiler|Pronto}} into selling his soul for the chance to get his powers back.

 

* [[Big Bad|Checker]] [[The Chessmaster|Monarch]] from ''[[Getting Back on Your Hooves]]''. It's her ''[[Up to Eleven|Cutie Mark]]'', meaning it's literally the thing she's best at above all else.

* Red Cyclone's masterful manipulation of the entire Griffin Army in ''[[Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]''. Even his companion, Black Star, apparently fell for his tricks.

* Bowser, Eugene, and Lucy have all had their moments in ''[[Calvin at Camp]]''.

 

== Film ==

* Ferris Bueller, the main protagonist from ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off|Ferris Buellers Day Off]]'', is intended to be this and a Sociopath, according to [[Word of God|the Director's commentary]].

* Loki in ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' and ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'' fully lives up to his title as the [[Mad God|God of Lies and Mischief.]] He leads Thor to believe that {{spoiler|Odin is dead}}, double-crosses {{spoiler|both his Asgardian family ''and'' the Frost Giants}}, and continually uses those around him to get what he wants (the throne of Asgard). In ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'' he gets even ''more'' devious: he manages to [[Dysfunction Junction|sow dissent]] among the members of the Avengers, eventually causing them to battle each other rather than him. It's even been speculated that his whole attack on Earth was just an elaborate [[Xanatos Gambit]], with his eventual {{spoiler|defeat and return to Asgard}} an integral part of the plan.

 

== Literature ==

* Xanatos from ''[[Jedi Apprentice]]'' and his bastard son Granta Omega from ''[[Jedi Quest]]'' are both very effective Manipulative Bastards, specialising in screwing with their opponents' minds during combat. Xanatos is especially brutal, giving Obi-Wan a [[Not So Different]]/[["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] after the former is forced to kill fellow student [[Rival Turned Evil|Bruck]], that nearly shatters the boy's self-confidence.

 

* As the page quote suggests, Benjamin Linus of ''[[Lost]]'' beats out the majority of the other characters on this page.

** Ben Linus is a combination of this, [[The Chessmaster]], the [[Magnificent Bastard]], and an emotionless monster. He has only shown a genuine facial expression in one episode of the series, where {{spoiler|his daughter is shot by a [[Psycho for Hire]]}}. He's manipulated almost the entire cast at some point or another, and they only continue to even pay attention to him because he convinces them to. He actually spends most of the first part of season four tied up and constantly being hit by angry people, but he manages to talk his way out of it.

** Alternate interpretation: Derren Brown also manipulates viewers through use of paid actors.

*** Thing is, that comes under the realm of [[Fridge Logic]]. Given how many stunts Derren has pulled, and the massive scale of some of them, if he used paid actors for things (and bear in mind that over the past ten years, not counting his early student days, he'd have to use different actors every time), then he'd risk too many people knowing that he used actors. Thus by this point someone would have already blown the lid on such a scam. The BBC had problems keeping the Stig's identity secret, and that was a small number of people in the know. If Derren Brown could keep actors in his stunts secret with so many people who would, by default, have to already know, then he'd be such a Magnificent Bastard that he wouldn't even need actors in the first place...

* Jim Profit and Bobbi Stakowski of ''[[Profit]]''. LIKE WHOA. There's a reason Profit is where he's at in life {{spoiler|despite being literally ''raised in a box''}}: he finds your deepest weakness and exploits it. This can range from nudging the boss's wife into an affair with him to {{spoiler|his psychological torture of Joanne in "Healing"}}. As for Bobbi? Well, [[Evil Matriarch|where do you think Jim got it from]]?

* Just about any reality show is going to have at least one of these in the cast. Richard Hatch from the first season of ''[[Survivor]]'' is an example.

* Jim Moriarty in [[Sherlock]]. Moriarty is an infamous character, but his Manipulative Bastard status get bumped [[Up to Eleven]] in this incarnation. He's no longer the nonchalant professor, but now is a "consulting criminal" who has just as much power and influence over people, if not more, than [[Big Brother|Mycroft]]. What really makes him a Manipulative Bastard? Our Sherlock Holmes is no longer quite as [[The Spock|stoic]] as previous incarnations and has an entirely co-dependent relationship with his only friend John, whom Moriarty, at one point, kidnaps and straps a bomb to before forcing him to confront Sherlock, pretending to be Moriarty himself in "The Great Game". In "The Reichenbach Fall", Moriarty manages to make ''everyone in the show'', sans Mrs. Hudson, Molly, and John believe that Sherlock is a fraud who ''created'' Moriarty by hiring an actor named [[Meaningful Name|Rich Brook]] to play the villain. What really takes the cake, the thing that really sends Sherlock into his [[Heroic BSOD]], is ''threatening to assassinate John'' (and Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson) unless Sherlock ''flings himself to his death off a building''. Moriarty then [[Ate His Gun|shoots himself]], leaving Sherlock with no choice but to {{spoiler|fake}} suicide. ''While John is watching''. Like Shakespeare's [[Othello|Iago]], Moriarty does it all because he's ''bored''. Everything he does, from kidnapping children and poisoning them with mercury to threatening to skin people and turn them into is an exercise in terror.

** Irene is this, although she's not nearly as much of a bastard as Moriarty. Her biggest bastard moments include making John extremely jealous and faking her own death.

 

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* Former [[ECW]] president and [[Smug Snake]] extraordinaire Paul Heyman fits this troop to a tee. He stole most of his ideas from other promoters like The Sheik, Joel Goodhart, and Atsushi Onita, and was not only able to convince his fans that they were his ideas, but that anyone else who used them was stealing from him. He was also able to convince them that they were watching only high quality wrestling, and that the WWF and WCW wrestlers were crap, while he made stars out of people like Public Enemy and 911. Then there is the way he treated his wrestlers, which made them loyal to him despite the fact he had not paid them for the last six months. Even though most people that worked for him realize what a bastard he was in retrospect, he still has a strong [[Creator Worship]] following today despite his all his failures in the industry.

** It was said of him in the DVD ("Rise and Fall of ECW") that Paul always lied to the wrestlers, but he'd never lie to the fans.

* Raven, especially during his first ECW run and his WCW run, is another prime example just for his ability to gain loyal follower after loyal follower. The man got The Sandman's ''own wife and son'' to turn against him, for god's sake.

* There's a good reason Edge is known as the "Master Manipulator".

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

*** Tzeentch has plans, but he inherently has no agenda. Tzeentch, along with the other Chaos gods, is a psychic manifestation. He is the manifestation of plotting and change. He becomes more powerful simply by the existence of plots and change, not by them achieving any sort of actual objective. If Tzeentch ever definitively "won," he would cease to exist because there would be no one to plot against.

 

* Iago, from [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Othello]]'', is the absolute definition of a Manipulative Bastard and the inspiration for many other entries on this list.

** Shakespeare was using a traditional Christian theatre character called a Vice, who was always scheming and bragging to the audience. (Obviously it was a coveted role.)

* Female example (her title ought to be Bloody Wonder): Nellie Lovett, from ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]''. Not only does she fuel Sweeney's rage to her own financial gain, she conveniently leads him to believe {{spoiler|his wife is dead}}, [[Die for Our Ship|just to get him for herself]].

* Madame Morrible in ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]''. The Wizard as well, but to a lesser degree.

 

== Toys ==

* Roodaka from ''[[Bionicle]]'', with shades of [[The Vamp]] and [[The Starscream]].

** Teridax is the Ace of this, {{spoiler|as he was able send Mata-Nui in another world, and take over his body, making a god.}}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* [[EVE Online]]. One of the main ways to succeed at [[EVE Online]] is to become a manipulative bastard. It's not the only way, but most players are bound to go this path.

** The most infamous example being Cally - aka ''Dentara Rast'' - who, after forming a corporation called the EVE Intergalactic Bank (EIB), transformed his above-board loan dispensing enterprise assisting new corporations with start-up capital and the sale of desirable tools and other in-game items (complete with loans and associated repayment schemes) into what is arguably regarded as one of, if not ''the'', largest scams ever legally conducted in a videogame. From the initial start-up capital for ''his own'' corporation (100 million ISK - EVE's in-game currency), Cally utilised various means such as verbal misdirection, inventing a friend (Peter) to whom he had "entrusted" the reins of the corporation and, at one point, even ''faking his own death'' (in the eyes of his fellow EVE players) to rake in a cool 790 '''billion''' ISK; increasing his own money almost eight thousand fold. The best part of the whole scheme? The ''sixteen-minute'' video where he admits to and brags about the entire thing.

{{quote|'''Cally:''' I didn't break any rules. I didn't hack into your accounts and take the money. You gave it to me. And there's ''nothing you can do about it''.}}

* Kurow Kirishima of ''[[Rival Schools]]'' is best described as Capcom's loving tribute to [[Zeta Gundam|Paptimus Scirocco]]. Think Scirocco... with ''claws''. Hell, they even have the [[Bin Shimada|same voice actor]].

* The Practical Incarnation from ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''. He gets a woman who ''knows'' he's a Manipulative Bastard but is still in love with him {{spoiler|to accompany him to her certain death so he can have a spy in the place where she'll die}}. He creates a holy text {{spoiler|quite possibly wholecloth in order to get a member of a race that freed itself from slavery and despises the notion to swear fealty to him}}. He gets a blind archer {{spoiler|to effectively sell himself to him}}. Manipulative? Oh yes. Bastard? [[Complete Monster|Very much so]].

** And, depending on how you play the game, the player character can be as well. If you're smart enough, you can actually out-manipulate the above Bastard.

* In ''[[Soul Calibur]] V'', Tira pulls this on Pyrrha to ensure the latter will be the next host for Soul Edge.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', Jihl Nabaat often pulls this on Sazh by claiming to ensure his son's safety but is really trying to snuff out the other l'Cie.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [[MAG-ISA]] -- [http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119612 Love] is an easy emotion to manipulate... how sad.

* Tohya Miho from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' does this with varying levels of success.

** Miho is an interesting (and arguably realistic) example, because while the impact of her schemes has been truly dramatic she is forced to admit that she actually ended up achieving the opposite of her true objectives. Her Manipulative Bastard actions in the Endgames prequel similarly end in failure, when Piro [[Beat Them At Their Own Game|plays her own game back at her.]]

** Pandora would also qualify.

* Brian from [http://multiplexcomic.com/ Multiplex] is a perfect example of this. He pretends to be an idiot so he can steal money from the theater.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Gambit Index]]

[[Category:Intelligence Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:Abuse Tropes]]