Manipulative Bastard: Difference between revisions

[[File:batman_manipulative_bastard_3147batman manipulative bastard 3147.jpg|link=Batman|rightframe|The other heroes always get annoyed when Batman breaks out the puppets to illustrate his [[The Plan|plans]]...]]

* The [[Consummate Liar|great liar]] who uses [[Sarcastic Confession|Sarcastic Confessions]]s, [[False Reassurance|False Reassurances]]s, and the [[Motivational Lie]] to dissimulate the truth.

* The [[High School Hustler]]: expert in [[Zany Scheme|Zany Schemes]]s, charming people into getting what he wants, and remaining sympathetic while doing so.

Sometimes overlaps with [[Devil in Plain Sight]], but is often the "grown up" version, where the "look cute" fallback has become a fairly professional strategy. A [[Manipulative Bastard]] who mixes emotional manipulation with [[Gambit Roulette|complicated schemes,]] [[The Chessmaster|mind games]], and [[Psychotic Smirk|sufficiently scary facial expressions,]] --— and does it all with style --— can get promoted to [[Magnificent Bastard]]. Compare [[Clock King]], who does the same thing with people's schedules instead of their emotions. Manipulating people specifically to bring out their worst natures is the mark of [[The Corrupter]]. May engage in a [[Battle of Wits]], if anyone can match the [[Manipulative Bastard]]. For the much more heroic equivalent, see [[Guile Hero]].

== Anime &and Manga ==

** ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' and ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' also provide several [[Manipulative Bastard|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]].

* Meowth from ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'' has done this several times throughout the series, but what took the cake was in ''Best Wishes'', where he {{spoiler|lies about being kicked out of Team Rocket, gains the trust of Ash, Iris, and Cilan, and unveils TR's most malevolent plan to date}}.

* Dark Marik and Dartz from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''.

** Saiou, the teenaged [[Cult]] leader of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''.

** And in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5 Ds5D's]]'', there is Divine. His lack of morality, [[Kick the Dog|the crimes he commits]], and of course, his manipulation of other people for his own ends, bring him very close to being a [[Complete Monster]], spared only by [[Misaimed Fandom|part of the fanbase]] liking him for being a truly evil bastard.

** Akito, from the same series, is more [[Manipulative Bastard]] than passive-aggressive, although a case could be made for both. He ( {{spoiler|or better said, ''[[Dropped a Bridget On Him|she]]''}}) has sufficient status to ensure that he is obeyed, but prefers to deploy the tyranny of the weak (due to his illness) and mental/physical torture to make absolutely sure that he controls their ''souls.'' {{spoiler|After a massive [[Break the Haughty]], however, Akito manages to get better.}}

* {{spoiler|Corrector Haruna}} in ''[[Corrector Yui (Anime)|Corrector Yui]]''. Of course, she turned out to be [[Disc One Final Boss|manipulated]] herself by someone that used ''her'' emotions of [[Missed the Call|jealousy]] against her.

* Nagi in ''[[MaiMy-HiME]]''. It's basically his "profession", as one of the {{spoiler|1=perpetrators of the HiME Carnival, to trick the girls into eliminating each other by playing with their fears}}. His ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' incarnation was also like this at first, but eventually transformed into a [[Smug Snake]].

*** He's still a [[Manipulative Bastard]] in the sequel, though.

* The ''[[Loveless]]'' cast is full of both true Manipulative Bastards and passive-aggressives -- someaggressives—some are both at once. This is most likely due to the fact that everyone is trying to manipulate someone else, while having serious emotional vulnerabilities of their own.

** {{spoiler|Seimei}} is the king of this trope. Not only does he {{spoiler|masterfully fake his own death (they even [[Never Found the Body|find a body]]), he kills and/or [[Mind Rape|manipulates]] almost everyone he comes in contact with. Not only is he extremely manipulative on his own, but he also seems to have an inhuman kind of mind control power. Soubi? Nothing but [[Chessmaster|Seimei's pawn]]. Of course, this is all just a plan to [[Brother -Sister Incest|test his younger brother Ritsuka's love for him]]. Speaking of Ritsuka, Seimei is not above [[Mind Rape|Mind Raping]] his beloved ([[Break the Cutie|twelve-year-old!]]) brother.}}

** Yuki himself is a [[Manipulative Bastard]] / [[The Vamp]] to his boyfriend in the manga, and makes no secret of the fact. At one point, he taunts Shuichi by saying that he's only nasty because that's the romantic ideal that Shuichi wants. Since the anime is less convoluted than the manga, this aspect of Yuki's personality is played down, making him a [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]] instead.

** Orochimaru pales before {{spoiler|Madara Uchiha}} though. While his [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] [[The Dragon|Dragon]] {{spoiler|Nagato}} is a [[Person of Mass Destruction]] capable of successfully giving a typical Shonen-Hero a [[Hannibal Lecture]], [[Even Evil Has Standards|he still holds his standards and ideals high]] and [[Pet the Dog|wouldn't let anyone touch Konan.]] His [[Man Behind the Man|Boss]], however, is a pretty different creature. As the {{spoiler|Fourth Hokage}} has outright stated, {{spoiler|Madara}} has been using {{spoiler|Nagato}}'s ideals and his quite understandable hatred against the people who [[Dead Little Sister|killed his parents]], [[And Your Little Dog, Too|and his little dog, too]] and were responsible for his [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]'s suicide to control him. After {{spoiler|Nagato's death}}, he merely complains about needing another pawn.

*** Oh, and then, there's [[Rival Turned Evil|Sasuke]] [[Big Screwed -Up Family|Uchiha]], who was also Orochimaru's favorite victim, a prime example for {{spoiler|Madara}}'s [[Mind Rape]] skills. It is even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by the fact that {{spoiler|Itachi set things up so the sight of Madara's Sharingan would trigger the Amaterasu he implanted within Sasuke, as he foresaw that Madara would reveal himself as an Uchiha to gain Sasuke's trust and turn him against the Leaf Village. But as it turned out, Madara doesn't need his Sharingan to mess with people's heads. Just telling Sasuke the truth about his clan's sinister origins (and, of course, twisting it all so that the Uchiha and Madara himself come off sympathetically) and revealing to him that the brother he had been trying to kill all the time actually [[My God, What Have I Done?|loved Sasuke more than anything]] was enough to [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|make him lose the last remaining threads of his sanity.]]}}

* Eriol Hiiragizawa, ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Cardcaptor Sakura]]'''s resident holder of the [[Omniscient Morality License]], falls into this trope more than once. To a lesser extent, so does his pet [[Genki Girl]] Ruby Moon, though she's not as good, continuing to persist in being a Manipulatrix even after the [[Aloof Big Brother|object of her manipulations]] catches on.

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:]]'', Araya Souren.

* To some extent, L from ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]''. His main strategy seems to be "jerk Light around until he slips up and reveals himself as Kira." He manages to convince Misa to join him in his investigation of Yotsuba by playing on her concern for Light's safety... and then in the same breath convinces Light to join him by playing on his concern for Misa's safety - which was only jeopardized due to her joining the investigation.

* ''[[The Tower of Druaga (Animeanime)|The Tower of Druaga]]: The Aegis of Uruk'' has two of these, though {{spoiler|Neeba}} is probably the closest to [[Magnificent Bastard]] status. He even tells his party members that they are going use the blue crystal rod to rebuild their dead friends hometown. Then, he kisses [[The Lancer]], just out of the blue. She promptly melts and gets enough of a morale boost to last right up until [[The Reveal]]. How does he repay his friends after the [[Big Bad]] is dead? By shooting [[The Big Guy]] in the kneecap with an arrow. The only person he was ever honest to was his brother, whom he thinks is 100% worthless with no redeeming value.

** {{spoiler|Kaaya}} is also pretty Manipulative of her [[Five -Man Band]], as well. She even lets {{spoiler|Her literal and figurative Lancer die}} , in addition to playing the Protagonist much the same way that {{spoiler|Neeba}} played Fatina, however, this [[Manipulative Bastard]] seems to feel genuinely sorry about it. The pair's only slip-up was that they left a perfectly good five man band and two army officers alive - albeit separated - and ''really, really'' wanting to kick their ass.

*** {{spoiler|Kaaya}} actually is not all that great at this trope. While she had intended to use them to accomplish her goal, she was a compasionate person at heart, and quickly came to care for her companions (along with genuine feelings towards the protagonist). She also knew that she was leading them towards certain death, and this weight became heavier the longer she traveled with them. Her betrayal at the end of season one came about because she simply did not want to see her ''friends'' killed.

* In ''[[The Prince of Tennis]]'', [[Always Camp|Hajime]] [[Smug Snake|Mizuki]] of Saint Rudolph is one of the biggest examples, playing up the manipulative card ''so'' much in the SeiRu arc that lots of people cheered when he got [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]].

** He didn't pretend to be Guts's friend...* facepalms*

* Quite a few of the [[Hentai]] productions out there that showcase material that live adult movies couldn't get away without breaking countless laws have [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bastards]] of both genders as protagonists. In the cases where the protagonists are the victims, then every other character will be a [[Manipulative Bastard]]. It reaches the point where the plots focus as much on [[Mind Rape]] as they do on actual rape.

* Johan Liebert from ''[[Monster (Animemanga)|Monster]]'' is arguably the epitome of this trope. He is directly responsible for the deaths of a fairly small number of people, he prefers to have conversations with anyone that interests him and, very politely, talk them into committing acts of mass murder or just killing themselves. In fact it's rare for Johan to leave a room without leaving someone [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]]d to the point of temporary paralysis. He's just [[Complete Monster|that damned evil]].

** Don't forget all the kids he talked into playing a suicidal 'game'; apparently just for the heck of it.

* Rokudo Mukuro from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' is somewhat of a [[Manipulative Bastard]]. He frames other people for murders he committed [[Grand Theft Me|while using their bodies]] and [[Easily Forgiven|manages to receive forgiveness for his actions with minimal effort]]. Tsuna very readily forgives him after Mukuro (very likely on purpose) showed him strategic memories of how he [[Pet the Dog|sacrificed himself for the sake of letting his subordinates escape]]. This prompts Tsuna to actually feel ''[[The Messiah|apologetic]]'', complete with a "I didn't understand anything!" scene. Never mind that Mukuro was shown to be completely unapologetic about the whole thing and actually came out and said that his plan [[Nietzsche Wannabe|was to turn the world into a sea of blood]]...Also, Mukuro was taken in when he was a child by a Mafia boss named Lancia. Except Mukuro betrayed and brainwashed Lancia with his [[Evil Eye]] which forced him to kill his entire family. And during his first meeting with Tsuna, he pretends to be a poor, innocent boy who was kidnapped by...Rokudo Mukuro.

* Demidevimon/Picodevimon of ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' is a good example, having used deception and played on their fears to keep the Digidestined apart after they split up to look for Taichi and Agumon, as well as to prevent their crests from glowing (causing T.K./Takeru to despair, Joe/Jyou to appear unreliable, Matt/Yamato to doubt Joe's friendship, Koushiro/Izzy to trade away his curiosity, Mimi to act selfishly and deceptively, and Sora to believe she had never been loved). The only reason he ended up failing was because [[The Messiah|Taichi]] [[Spanner in Thethe Works|came back]].

* In ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2½]]'' [[Fanon]], [[The Barnum|Nabiki Tendo]] is often made into one of these. In the actual [[Canon]] some would argue that she is [[The Vamp|too hedonistic to qualify]], is more of an opportunist than manipulative, since she generally takes advantage of situations for swindling, blackmail, entertainment, and revenge, rather than engineer them from scratch herself. She has been able to successfully lead (susceptible and rather predictable) targets through hoops by manipulating their emotional reactions (better at it in the anime than the manga), can quickly make up several minor backup plans, such as manipulating Ranma into producing sounds akin to attempted rape, is skilled at acting and hazard games, [[Unfazed Everyman|has virtually unflappable self-control when she feels like it]], and [[Indy Ploy|predicted her rival's plans]] by tampering with his parachute in advance and then demanding victory to throw one to him as he fell.

** Ranma Saotome, a [[Manipulative Bastard]], particularly in the manga. Tricking, deceiving, manipulating and outright blackmailing others into doing what he wants (or for the fun of it) is a common thing for him. His personal style of fighting can even be reasonably said to have a firm grounding in finding ways to use distractions, ambushes, cheap shots, [[Flaw Exploitation|exploit weaknesses]], and play headgames with his opponents.

* Nagi Sanzenin's grandfather, Mikado Sanzenin, has proved himself one of these in [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hayate_the_combat_butler/c249/7.html chapter 249] of ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]''. In past chapters he essentially plays with Nagi's status as a target for people after the inheritance, which is reason enough. In the latest, he forces Hayate, her butler, into deciding her lifestyle, forcing him to choose between protecting a stone which has become the symbol of the Sanzenin inheritance, or breaking it to save his former girlfriend's life. And to make it even worse, [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hayate_the_combat_butler/c249/9.html he admits to] manipulating the boy's life ever since he can remember by posing as innocuous figures. The only thing that keeps him from being a [[Complete Monster]] is the fact that he genuinely loved his daughter, [[Morality Pet|favors his granddaughter's maid]], and taught said [[Pet the Dog|granddaughter how to invest]].. so she's not rendered completely poverty-stricken {{spoiler|''[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hayate_the_combat_butler/c252/11.html when]'' }} the inheritance gets taken away from her.

** Marco Reiji of the Hakushuu Dinosaurs as well. He plays with the emotions of his own teammates and those of the other team to the extreme. Unlike Hiruma, who's also a [[Chessmaster]], Marco will settle for screwing with your head.

* Wiseman from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' uses Chibi-Usa's feelings of inadequacy and abandonment to turn her evil. He twists Prince Diamond to his purposes by preying on the prince's feelings of rejection and bitterness at the moon kingdom. And he also tries to manipulate Sailor Moon into believing that Mamoru and Chibi-Usa don't care about her and have abandoned her. Death Phantom basically cares little for his pawns; he manipulates them, and even kills Rubeus and Saphir himself. He also humiliates Esmeraude when she comes to him asking to be the queen of Nemesis, and brings about her transformation into a dragon and, ultimately, her death.

* Happens with almost [[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]-esque frequency in ''[[Mirai Nikki]]''.

** A particularly disturbing mention must be given to Yuno Gasei Chapter 49: {{spoiler|Yuno cuts herself with a knife after fighting Akise and covers herself in blood, and is trying to reach Yukiteru before he kills the 8th and Hinata/Mao/Kousaka. Yuno calls Yuki and tells him that her diary told her that they (his friends) were going to betray and kill him and that Akise was trying to kill her. Yuki, in the middle of a [[Heroic BSOD|mental breakdown at the time]], believes her and shoots (and assumedly kills) Hinata.}} Yuno, on the other line, starts ''laughing her butt off'', while a shot of her diary reveals that, no, Yuki's friends weren't trying to betray or kill him. She just didn't want them to have him.}}

* Izaya Orihara from ''[[Durarara!!]]''. The first time you properly see him in the anime, {{spoiler|he spends most of the episode having a girl, that he pretended to sympathize with online, kidnapped and then orchestrating her rescue, only to hold her over the side of a building, toy with her desire (or lack thereof) to actually commit suicide, and then wander off to watch from a distance as the girl decides to jump anyway. (Luckily for her, someone else was a little more worried about her safety and saves her.)}} Pretty much anyone who meets him in the series is wary of him, has a number of tales to tell about how manipulative and dangerous he is to be around, or just skip the talking completely and throw vending machines in his face.

* Sekai from ''[[School Days (Visual Novel)|School Days]]''. Specifically in the manga version.

** Also, Natsue Tachibana. She delights in manipulating the lives of those beneath her, starting malicious rumors and relocating workers based on their family's reputation. Multiple times she tries to separate Hatsumi and Ryoki, seeing Hatsumi as unsuitable and undeserving of her son. Natsue is presumably obsessed with controlling the people of the complex because she has almost no control in her own family (Ryoki never listens to a word she says and rebuffs her concerns with no emotion, and Shuichiro, in his rare appearances, easily undermines her at every turn).

* Auguste, Rosemarine, and Gilbert from ''[[Kaze to Ki no Uta (Manga)|Kaze to Ki no Uta]]''.

* ''[[Kimi Nini Todoke]]'': Kurumi tries to be this, but fails. Yano seems to be better at it.

* ''[[Karneval]]'': Hirato, although he seems to be a [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]], and Karoku definitely, though we're unsure of his intentions at this point. He hasn't been nice, though.

* Kirie of ''[[Girls Bravo (Manga)|Girls Bravo]]'' displayed tendencies of this sort in the anime, like in the the second season when she emotionally manipulated Yukinari into cross-dressing for an event and allowed Fukuyama to practically molest Yukinari since it meant Fukuyama would pay her for it; and [[Karma Houdini|she didn't get punished for her actions either.]]

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Madoka Magica]]'': Kyuubey. Pretty much everything he does is an attempt to get Madoka to make the contract.

* ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula (Anime)|Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' has both Henri Claytor and Kyoshiro Nagumo (who can be considered to be Durandal's [[Expy]]), in ''ZERO'' and ''SAGA'' respectively.

* Niijima Harou from ''[[Kenichi: theThe Mightiest Disciple]]'' is this at first. He manages to create the Shinpaku Alliance through a combination of deceit, blackmail, bribery and outright lies. Has at times exibited traits from most of of this trope's subtypes.

* Kanade from ''[[Mayo Chiki]]'' fits several of the variants, although she's one of the more [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold|benign]] examples.

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

* Michio Yuki from ''[[MW (Manga)|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]].

* [[Batman (Comic Book)|The Joker]] occasionally falls into this trope, although he is very emotional and his plans often do involve comedy...although in many cases, only he thinks it's funny.

** Also, it's revealed in ''JLA Secret Files and Origins'' that in order to plan his [[Never Live It Down|infamous]] [[Flaw Exploitation]] [[Batman Gambit]] to disable all superheroes in case they went rogue, he engaged all the members of the JLA in innocent personal conversations during which he subtly manipulated them into revealing their psychological weak points and fears to him. This actually comes off as ''way'' more [[Jerk Sue|dickish]] than his aforementioned Gambit, because he puts a lot of effort into being a soothing confidant and acting uncharacteristically understanding and supportive to make them spill. Unsurprisingly, it earns him [[What the Hell, Hero?|a lot of outrage from his allies, and badly fucks up his friendship with Superman for quite a while.]]

* Mister Sinister from ''[[X-Men]]'' has been the ultimate Marvel [[Manipulative Bastard]] for the past twenty years, manipulating the lives of the Summers family in particular You can blame him for the Summers' [[Tangled Family Tree]].

* [[Hellblazer (Comic Book)|John Constantine]]

* During the Sinestro Corps War storyline in ''[[Green Lantern]]'', Sinestro managed to manipulate the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians of the Universe, every superhero on Earth, and even everyone fighting on his own side. He assembled his own intergalactic army, created a power source run on pure fear, brought together the most powerful collection of supervillains the cosmos had ever seen, declared war on the entire universe...and lost. The Lanterns sentence Sinestro to death, thus breaking their own law against never taking a life. It turns out this was what Sinestro wanted all along -- hisalong—his plan was not to destroy the Green Lanterns or conquer the universe, but to create a threat so great and terrifying that they would abandon all their principles to stop it. Essentially, instead of destroying the GL's, he wanted to destroy ''what they stood for.'' And when his death sentence was handed down, he had done just that.

* [[Loki (Comic Book)|Loki]] is a great example. Pretty much all he does revolves around this. Let's just sum up what he did after Ragnarok: he came back in a female body (which was presumably meant for Sif), started plotting with Dr. Doom behind the Asgardians' backs, tried to convince the same Asgardians that Beta Ray Bill was an [[Secret Invasion|infiltrated Skrull]], gathered the Mighty Avengers with an astral disguise of the Scarlet Witch just to break Norman Osborn little by little (while at the same time [[Dark Reign (Comic Bookcomics)|plotting together with him]]), brought Bor to the future and allowed Thor to kill him so his brother could be banished, gave Osborn the idea to [[Siege (Comic Book)|invade Asgard]], allowed him to convince the authorities to do so by sicking the U-Foes on a [[What the Hell, Hero?|rather reckless Volstagg]]... Should I go on from here?

* TAO. For those of you who don't know, The [[Fun Withwith Acronyms|Tactically Augmented Organism]] was [[Artificial Human|created to be]] the [[Mary Tzu|ultimate tactical intelligence]]. [[Gone Horribly Wrong|Unfortunately]] [[Turned Against Their Masters|he was even smarter than the people who built him]]. In his search for meaning, he learned "[[Wicked Cultured|everything worth knowing]]" and tried to be a super-hero. [[Evil Is Cool|On his]] [[Draco in Leather Pants|good days]] he's a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and [[Chessmaster]]. On his bad he's a [[Complete Monster]] and an [[Omnicidal Maniac]]. [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzsche wants to be him]] and [[Xanatos Gambit|David Xanatos]] couldn't even begin to comprehend his plans. TAO is Master of the [[Logic Bomb]] and the [[Batman Gambit]], always [[I Know You Know I Know|five steps ahead]] of everyone. Even the [[Spanner in Thethe Works|unpredictable moron]] is manipulated into the place where he will do TAO the most good. Could get [[Hannibal Lecture|Dr. Lecter]] to [[Driven to Suicide|kill himself]] in minutes. Plans on throwing the world into chaos [[For the Evulz|because he's bored]] and because it will piss off his "[[Oedipus Complex|father]]", John Lynch. He does this by [[Big Bad|controlling a secret army]] [[Card -Carrying Villain|of super-villains]] while simultaneously using his role as [[The Man Behind the Man|advisor]] to the [[Ancient Conspiracy]] to fuck with them and [[World War III|turn them against each other.]] TAO is always [[Man of Wealth and Taste|well-dressed]] and [[Evilly Affable|well-mannered]], and he [[Smug Snake|never gets upset.]] He is [[Frankensteins Monster|Frankenstein's Monster]] come to life: Wondering why he doesn't have a soul and [[Psychopathic Manchild|taking it out on everyone else]], all with a [[Psychotic Smirk|smile on his face.]]

{{quote| '''Holden Carver''': TAO is the scariest bastard I've ever met. Don't get me wrong, it's not like he's some rampaging psycho who'll rip your guts out. He's worse. TAO will [[More Than Mind Control|get you to]] [[Flaw Exploitation|rip your own guts out]].<br />

* Deathstroke from [[The DCU]]. He's not quite as good at this as other on this list -- mostlist—most of his targets tend to be damaged teenagers a generation or two younger than him, hardly the most challenging targets. When his powers of persuasion aren't enough to get them to work for him, he's not above using blackmail, death threats, mind controlling drugs, and [[Psycho Serum]] to force them to join him.

** Finitevus' former minion [[Evil Twin|Scourge]] seems to have learned a thing or two from him -- halfhim—half of his ''[[A Day in Thethe Limelight|Sonic Universe]]'' arc is learning and playing off of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Destructix's]] secrets and emotional weaknesses, in order to convince them to work for him.

* ''[[All Fall Down (Comic Book)|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.

* Scar from ''[[The Lion King (Disney)|The Lion King]]''. After killing Mufasa, he tricked Simba into thinking himself responsible for his father's death -- beforedeath—before telling the hyenas to kill him. Upon Simba's return several years later, Scar played off Simba's misplaced guilt to turn the whole pride against him. [[Near Villain VictoryEucatastrophe|He would have won right there]] if he hadn't [[Just Between You and Me|stopped to gloat]] before killing Simba.

* Gaston from Disney's ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]''. Though for the most part a highly unintelligent person (he's [[Book Dumb]] in an extreme sense), he's surprisingly good at using his popularity amongst the townfolk to get them to do what he wants, not matter how obviously evil it is.

** Then there's Forte in ''[[Beauty and Thethe Beast: The Enchanted Christmas|Enchanted Christmas]]'', voiced magnificently by [[Tim Curry]].

* Harry Powell from ''[[The Night of the Hunter (Film)|The Night of the Hunter]]''.

{{quote| '''Two-Face''': ''(flips coin)'' You're a lucky man. ''(flips coin)'' But he's not.<br />

'''Maroni''': Who?<br />

'''Two-Face''': [[Pre -Ass -Kicking One -Liner|Your driver.]] ''(puts on seatbelt)'' * '''BANG'''* ''(car flips over)'' }}

* Rotti Largo from [[Repo the Genetic Opera|Repo! The Genetic Opera]], sometimes to the point where it's hard to figure out who he's ''not'' manipulating.

* The Warden from ''[[Death Race]]''. She's also [[The Chessmaster]] the way she makes the convicts participate in her [[Game Show]] that she uses to finance the operations of the prison, she's an [[Anti -Hero]] by the way the movie makes us not like her, and she's a [[Manipulative Bastard]] by the way she uses people to get what she wants. I was considering if she was a [[Magnificent Bastard]] but she's not quite that good.

* Captain Jack Sparrow of ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' is the king of this, despite not being a villain... ''kinda''. In Dead Man's Chest alone, he managed to renegotiate a non-negotiable [[Deal Withwith the Devil|deal with Davy Jones]], change the thing that Elizabeth wanted most in this world, and, after Will and Norrington tag-team fight him, having him disarmed and at both of their mercies, ends up [[Talking Your Way Out|turning Norrington on Will]], and manages to walk off with the key while they fight each other to the death. All with nothing but the gift of gab.

* Evie in ''[[Thirteen (Filmfilm)|Thirteen]]'' (although she's not as evil as some of the other examples)

* Emperor Palpatine, A.K.A. Darth Sideous, is the main antagonist from ''[[Star Wars]]''. He is the puppet master behind the curtain, pulling the strings of all the characters in the movie. His manipulativeness is evident throughout the saga. From co-ordinating, and eventually betraying the Trade Federation, as they attack Naboo as an excuse to replace the incompetent Chancellor Valorum as Chancellor. Setting up the various commerce guilds in the Galaxy to take on the Republic as an excuse to access emergency powers. Getting Anakin Skwalker/Darth Vader to kill Count Dooku to replace him as his apprentice, and then promising to save his wife from [[Self -Fulfilling Prophecy|certain death]] with his [[Deal Withwith the Devil|knowledge of the dark side]] so he would [[Face Heel Turn|turn his back]] [[Fallen Hero|on the Jedi]]. And this is just to name a few of the manipulative things he's done; he should be the fricken [[Patron Saint]] of this trope! This trope should be called "The Emperor Palpatine" instead.

*** [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard|And ended it.]]

* Speaking of Disney villains, [[Evilly Affable|Dr. Facilier]] from [[The Princess and Thethe Frog]] easily appeals to Lawrence and Naveen's desires during his [[Villain Song]] so that they get sucked into his devious schemes with a little help from his [[Bigger Bad|Friends]] [[Eldritch Abomination|on the Other Side]].

* The titular Wizard from ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]''. For years he conned everyone in Oz into believing he was the greatest sorceror in the world and set himself up as a sort of quasi-god king, despite having no magical power whatsoever. When Dorothy and her friends finally see through his disguise, they're at first outraged, but he quickly has them fawning at his feet just by handing out a few [[Magic Feather|Magic Feathers]]s. To give you an idea of how smooth an operator he is, when he admits to being a fake, the Scarecrow angrily shouts "You humbug!" Less then two minutes later:

{{quote| '''Scarecrow:''' How can I ever thank you enough?<br />

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

* Loki in ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|Thor]]'' and ''[[The Avengers (Filmfilm)|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 (Filmfilm)|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.

* [[Johann Wolfgang Vonvon Goethe|Goethe]] gives an opinion of what makes someone a manipulative bastard in the following passage from ''Elective Affinities''. Eduard, who's married to the Baroness's friend Charlotte, has just told the Baroness that he's in love with Ottilie. And the Baroness decides to break up the love affair: "[A]s she made up her mind, she appeared to become even more sympathetic to Eduard's desires, for no one had more self-control than the Baroness. Self-control at crucial moments accustoms us to maintain outward composure on all occasions. When we have so much control over ourselves, we are inclined to extend it to others as an external compensation for all our inner privations... This state of mind is usually connected with a secret enjoyment of the blindness of others who walk unsuspectingly into the trap. We enjoy not only our present success but, at the same time, the other person's future embarrassment. The Baroness, therefore, was malicious enough to invite Eduard to come with Charlotte to her estate at the vintage season; and when he asked whether they might bring Ottilie, she gave an answer which he could take to be affirmative, if he chose."

* [[Brains Evil, Brawn Good|Shift]] from ''[[Chronicles of Narnia|The Last Battle]]'' demonstrates his Manipulative Bastardry multiple times just in his ''first few scenes''. He gets his "[[Horrible Judge of Character|friend]]", [[Stubborn Mule|Puzzle]], to do whatever he wants through a combination of guilt-tripping and playing on Puzzle's [[Dumb Is Good|insecurity]]/low self-esteem (which, of course are a result of the way Shift treats him in the first place).

* {{spoiler|Stephen Norton}} in [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s ''[[Hercule Poirot|Curtain: The Last Case of Poirot]]'' is largely based on Iago. The manipulations quickly reach downright ridiculous extremes bordering on full-blown ''[[Gambit Roulette|Gambit Roulettes]]s''. It often takes little more than a casual remark on {{spoiler|Stephen Norton}}'s part {{spoiler|(or on the part of any of the dozens of people he uses as unwitting proxies to voice his 'suggestions' to the people involved, both victim and murderer alike)}} in just about any given conversation to set a complex chain of events into motion that will lead to someone getting killed shortly afterwards. {{spoiler|Norton}} is actually so good at this, that even Poirot knows that {{spoiler|it'd be just about impossible to ever him get convicted of any crime whatsoever.}} So Poirot decides to {{spoiler|just kill Norton instead.}}

* Raistlin Majere in ''[[Dragonlance]]'' is very good at [[The Chessmaster]] event-manipulating (he earns his title as 'Master of Past and Present' in more than the time travel sense) but arguably even better at using ''people'', effortlessly twisting his brother's love to his own purposes, maneuvering apprentice-Bastard-in-training Dalamar into both hating and [[Ho Yay|worshiping him]], manipulating guileless kender Tasselhoff into achieving several of his goals (though he [[Spanner in Thethe Works|screws up others]]) and even playing (and almost always winning) mind-games with the heads of the Orders of High Sorcery, Fistandantilus, and ''the Dark Queen Herself''. His crowning achievement, however, is his protracted seduction minus any sex (losing her virginity would cause her to lose her powers) and subsequent cruel abandonment of a holy cleric of Paladine simply so he could use her to {{spoiler|enter the Abyss and kill the Queen. To [[A God Am I|take her place]], naturally.}}

* Lord Havelock Vetinari from the ''[[Discworld]]'' series is practically the definition of this trope (''and'' he's a [[Chessmaster]] to boot, the combination turning him into an outright ''[[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent ]]''[[Magnificent Bastard|Bastard]]).

* ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' is positively awash with this types, given the series somewhat political bent, especially in the latest novels.

* Cassie from ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]''. Many, many times throughout the series, she uses her innate understanding of people for the good of the team, if not necessarily for the good of herself, or the person. Her main victim of her manipulations was Visser Three (mainly because the Visser was an evil ego-driven son of a bitch). She also (reluctantly) used her understanding of people to {{spoiler|trap a traitor of the group in the body of a rat}}. [[Beware the Nice Ones|Beware the nice ones,]] indeed.

** David, {{spoiler|the aforementioned 'Ani-Traitor'}}, also falls into [[Manipulative Bastard]] territory, coming closer to wiping out the Animorphs than the entirety of the Yeerk Empire in his trilogy. He goads Jake into fighting a battle he cannot win, manipulates Ax's ignorance of alarm clocks and Rachel's opinion of him as a robber to lure Rachel into another trap, and turned the entire Berenson family into puppets by pretending to be recently-hospitalized cousin Saddler. His return in #48 goes even further, working the [[Hannibal Lecture]] and [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] tropes overtime in his attempt to break Rachel's will to fight.

* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'': One good example of the cold and ambitious [[Manipulative Bastard]] would be Solarian Vice-Admiral Luis Rozsak, who is also [[The Chessmaster]], and has absolutely no qualms about bending almost everybody to do his bidding. Surprisingly he isn't a villain, at least technically: he's a rather personable guy, and his goals are mostly noble, so he's actually more of a [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]].

* In Nick Kyme's [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] novel ''[[Salamanders (Literature)|Salamander]]'', Iagon reveals his [[True Colors]] when he manipulates Tsu'gan into not reporting his [[Divided We Fall|ploys]]. {{spoiler|Followed up by his reflection that he has to do something about the Apothecary who knows, and later by his murdering a helpless servant.}}

* ''[[American Gods (Literature)|American Gods]]'': [[American Gods (Literature)|Mr. Wednesday.]] Dear god, Wednesday.

* Considering [[Gambit Pileup|the sheer number]] of [[Chessmaster|chessmasterschessmaster]]s, [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]]s, and [[Smug Snake|people aspiring to those titles]] in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', several characters qualify. But probably the clearest bit of emotional manipulation comes from an unexpected quarter: {{spoiler|Ehren}}. He plays on {{spoiler|Attis}}'s pride and self-confidence to get him to act as bait for [[The Dragon]] and the [[Big Bad]], knowing that he would see it more as a chance to destroy the enemy leaders than ''putting himself in their way''. As a result, {{spoiler|Attis gets, in his words, "filleted," Invidia gets [[Kill It Withwith Fire|severely inconvenienced]], and Tavi no longer has to worry about competition for the throne.}}

* [[Evil Sorcerer|Azrael de Gray]] from [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[War of the Dreaming (Literature)|War of the Dreaming]]'' manages to get out of the [[Tailor -Made Prison]] he was locked in by, among other things, persuading his great-grand descendent to jump off the [[Flat World|edge]] of the world.

* Any decendant of Kushiel in ''[[KushielsKushiel's Legacy]]'' can become a Manipulative Bastard. They can actually "see" what it will take to get people to act in a specific manner. Melisande embraces being a Manipulative Bastard and manipulates people [[For the Evulz|just because she can.]] Her son Imriel tries to avoid being a Manipulative Bastard but still has that ability for when he needs to use it.

* Many [[Sherlock Holmes]] villains qualify and So does [[Sherlock Holmes]] himself. In more than a couple occasions he has gone as far as to emotionally manipulate, not just the villains but innocent bystanders and even Watson as well, to achieve his goals. Watson notes that this amuses him greatly.

* Rimmer Dal, [[Big Bad]] of [[Terry Brooks]]' ''[[The Heritage of Shannara (Literature)|The Heritage of Shannara]]'' series. He so thoroughly destroys [[The Hero|Par]]'s sense of self and right and wrong, that by the end the poor kid is borderline insane, and barely able to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Worst of all, this is exactly the result he was after, as a Par whose will is utterly shattered won't be able to prevent Dal's [[Grand Theft Me]] from going into effect. He turns this kid into [[The Woobie]] purely for his own benefit, and the kicker? It takes the Sword of Shannara (an artifact designed to expose the truth) to pierce through all the lies he's told. And even that almost isn't enough, because he manages to talk Par into believing he can't use it. [[Manipulative Bastard]] and [[Consummate Liar]] indeed.

* Anasûrimbor Kellhus of ''[[Second Apocalypse]]'', like all members of his secret monastic order, is a [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]] [[Ubermensch]] who is [[Awesome By Analysis]] and has [[Hyper Awareness]], which because he is [[The Unfettered|unfettered]] allows him to become a [[Consummate Liar]]. He eventually manipulates {{spoiler|an entire civilization into viewing him as a [[God -Emperor]]}}. His father Anasûrimbor Moënghus was only slightly less successful.

* In [[China Mieville]]'s novel "[[The Scar (Literature)|The Scar]]", {{spoiler|Uther Doul}} is either this or [[Magnificent Bastard]], depending on your interpretation. He knows that the Lovers' plan will {{spoiler|get them all killed}} (if you believe that; arguably, that part could have been a lie too), but he doesn't want to be shown doing anything himself to oppose the Lovers, so he manipulates {{spoiler|Bellis}} by giving just enough information to start a {{spoiler|rebellion of Armada's citizens, even indulging her growing infatuation with him.}} Many readers fell for it hook, line, and sinker, thinking he'd become an [[Anti -Villain]] in time and end up with {{spoiler|Bellis}}, and oh how wrong they were. {{spoiler|The revelation that he never felt anything for Bellis, and was only using her, felt pretty harsh.}}

* [[The Dark Chick|Diana Ladris]] from ''[[Gone (novel)]]''. With the exception of [[Complete Monster|Drake]] and sometimes [[Big Bad|Caine]], she gets people to do whatever she wants them to just by playing off of what they want, [[Deadpan Snarker|and she's not even pleasant about it.]]

* Xanatos from ''[[Jedi Apprentice]]'' and his bastard son Granta Omega from ''[[Jedi Quest]]'' are both very effective [[Manipulative Bastard|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.

* Almost every demon on ''[[Supernatural]]''. Even {{spoiler|Crowley}} in season five- who he is helping the Winchesters without being overly manipulative- is still pulling deals with random mooks on the side. The crossroad demon, Azazel and {{spoiler|Ruby }} all pull off impressive displays of manipulative bastardry. Even {{spoiler|Meg}}has her moments - encouraging the boys to split up, for example- although she seems to lack the patience or psychological insight to be as good at this as the others. Maybe she just got found out too soon.

** And, playing (sorta) for the other team, the Trickster/ {{spoiler|Gabriel}}. I know! Let's kill a guy who's doomed anyway just to teach his brother a lesson! And now let's do it a ''hundred more times''!

* Mike from ''[[The Young Ones]]'' can pull this off when dealing with the other members of his househould, but nobody else.

* Alex Russo from ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]''.

** And Justin, who really takes the cake because he gets away with it. The Frankengirl episode, for instance, he metaphorically and literally twists Alex's arm into becoming a cheerleader (knowing she'll hate it) to keep her out of his room. The kicker? He gets his mom to call him the 'perfect son' because he got his sister into an extracurricular activity, as if this were his plan all along.

* Pretty much the ''raison d'etre'' -- his—his love of torturing people, both physically and emotionally, leads to his downfall more than once -- ofonce—of the sadistic vampire Angelus from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'':

{{quote| '''Angel:''' I couldn't take my eyes off [the victims]. I was only in it [[For the Evulz|for the evil]]. It was everything to me. It was art. The destruction of a human being.}}

** Also, Holtz, Holland Manners, {{spoiler|possessed Cordelia}}, Lindsey in fifth season, well let's just say that ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' liked this sort of character.

* [[House (TV series)|Dr. Gregory House.]] He tricks his patients into highly risky medication or procedures, as well as manipulating colleagues/superiors for various purposes (chief among which is getting a Vicodin prescription).

{{quote| '''Rodney Foreman''': My son says you're a manipulative bastard.<br />

'''Dr. House''': It's just a pet name. I call him Doctor Bling.<br />

...<br />

'''Dr. Cuddy''': Don't you think this is a little manipulative?<br />

* Guy from ''[[NoahsNoah's Arc]]'', who bit by bit manipulate Alex, Trey, and even Alex's friends in an attempt to get Alex out of the picture and be with Trey. His plan is effective enough that at one point even Noah, Ricky and Chance (Alex's closest friends) are questioning Alex's credibility.

** Internet essayist [[Badass Bookworm|Dan Hemmens]] of ferretbrain has written an [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20130326002429/http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-303.html alternative alternate interpretation] that if right, would catapult Derren Brown to full-blown [[Magnificent Bastard]] status.

* ''[[Firefly]]'':

* [[Black AdderBlackadder]], in his later incarnations, can be very skilled at this. He tends to take this route when dealing with each series' wealthiest or most powerful [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]] ( Prince George, especially, but also Queenie and General Melchard ). Mostly, though, he prefers to lie, cheat, scheme and use his skills as a [[Magnificent Bastard]] instead.

* [[Evil Matriarch]] Angela Petrelli, [[Serial Killer]] Sylar and [[Magnificent Bastard]] Adam Monroe of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. Nathan somewhat subverts this trope as his manipulations usually wind up blowing up in his face.

* Robert Goren from ''[[Law and Order Criminal Intent|Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]''.

* Tony in ''[[Skins]]'' (seasons 1 & 2). Overlaps with [[True Art Is Angsty]], which is lampshaded in his speech to Sid, where he tells him that he is a [[Manipulative Bastard]] to liven things up.

* [[Evil Matriarch|Lucille Bluth]] on ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' starts off like this. {{spoiler|By the end, it's clear she's also a [[Chessmaster]] and therefore a [[Magnificent Bastard]]}}.

* ''[[Oz]]'' has Chris Keller who is obsessed with controlling and manipulating others and is recruited by Vern Schillinger to seduce Beecher for the express purpose of breaking his heart (and arms and legs). Also, Ryan O'Reilly who pits the various gangs and cliques within Oz against each other for the purposes of surviving.

* ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'': Jeff, though his skills started failing him right around when he came to Greendale.

{{quote| '''Jeff''': How can I convince Senor Chang to do anything if I can't even convince you to not make me?<br />

'''Group''': Ah yeah that makes sense....<br />

* [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|Cameron]] proves to be ''very'' capable when it comes to making people react how she wants. She can alternate between being [[Moe|innocent, friendly, and disarming]] to [[Killer Robot|cold, dangerous, and intimidating]] with ease, and more than once has used her [[Fan Service|physical body]] and [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|complete inability to be creeped out or embarrassed]] to [[Distracted Byby the Sexy|manipulate]] [[Hands -On Approach|others]].

* Joanna of ''[[HellsHell's Kitchen (TV)|Hells Kitchen]]'' Season 3 attempted this and failed badly. She tried to convince Melissa to not nominate her in the first episode and tried to convince Ramsey that taking Spaghetti from the top of the rubbish and reboiling it is somehow worse than actively trying to get away with serving rissoto with rancid crab in it. It didn't work either.

* Mr. Morden from ''[[Babylon Five5]]'' is this, and by extension, the Shadows as a whole. The Vorlons could also be considered this. Come to think of it, quite a few characters in the series could be considered this.

* [[Rumpelstiltskin (Literature)|Rumpelstiltskin]] in ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'' seems to have everyone dancing to his tune.

* Agravaine in ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. Not many people can talk their way out of holding a knife to someone's throat.

* Sunny Capaduca on ''[[Fifteen 15/Love (TV)|Fifteen Love]]''. A [[Child Prodigy]] and [[Jerk Jock]], Sunny was inevitably able to use her seeming innocence and tremendous financial backing to get her own way. Resident [[High School Hustler]], Gary "Squib" Furlong was also an effective liar and [[Con Man]]; he was opposed for most of the show's run by President Harold Bates who was less of a [[Dean Bitterman]] than he was a [[Stern Teacher]]/[[Manipulative Bastard]] cross.

* 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.

* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s commentators don't refer to Triple H as "The Cerebral Assassin" for nothing.

* The Craftworld Eldar from ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' are [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificent]] manipulative bastards, thanks to a combination of [[Psychic Powers|psychic farsight]] and their it's-them-or-us attitude towards the "inferior" life-forms they manipulate. For example, the Eldar are willing to slaughter an entire Imperial Guard regiment so the oblivious humans wouldn't accidentally awaken a Necron tombworld (to be fair, this was a good thing for everybody), [[Dawn of War|systematically murder or dethrone the leaders of several other armies just to maintain a bloody stalemate]] (again to stop the Necrons, but considerably more callous), and trick some of their ''own people'' into the hands of their [[Fate Worse Than Death|dark kin]] so they might stave off their species' demise a century or two longer (which, while pragmatic, was just [[Jerkass]]). These are just the small-scale stuff: the Eldar of Ulthwe subtly redirected Ork warboss Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka to the planet Armageddon, leading to two cataclysmic wars that killed billions and turned the region into a perpetual warzone, because otherwise the Orks would have attacked a craftworld (leading, according to [[Magnificent Bastard|Eldrad Ulthran]], to the loss of ten thousand Eldar lives). Worst of all is the fact that the Eldar can't compete with the [[Gambit Roulette|C'Tan known as The Deceiver, or the Chaos god Tzeentch]].

*** Part of the reason why Tzeentch is seldom the first guy who comes to mind in the 40k setting is that none of the writers either in fiction or rules really knows how to show Tzeentch succeeding. Almost all the fiction is from an Imperial viewpoint, which means they have to win, and so when Tzeentch crops up they tend to bust up one of his plans for reals, or at least genuinely setting him back because otherwise they may as well not have bothered. Tzeentch has never really gotten a chance to win or even be progressing and is always foiled by suitably clever and heroic imperials, which is somewhat contrary to his web of intrigue that has everything plotted out for every eventuality.

**** Of course the real question is exactly what Tzeentch's designs might be. Out of all the Chaos gods he is the least [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] and could be attempting to achieve... well ... anything in the long term. If anything, since conspiring in general is praise to Tzeentch, he could be slurping power out of all the bickering and politicking in the Imperium with eventual plan to re-introduce magic into their ranks, participating in wars and invasions to provoke further in-fighting in the Imperium. Basically, we just don't know, no-one has ever really tried to tell us, and that's why Tzeentch SHOULD be a manipulative bastard but tends to more feel like a very clever scooby doo villain with no specific motivations that the bad guys can stop.

** If we're including Shakespearean [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bastards]], then we also need to include [[Richard III]].

* The Black Knight in Middleton's A GAME AT CHESS -- aCHESS—a caricature of the Spanish ambassador Count Gondomar (who then had the play closed.) When told "Your plot's discovered", he exults "Which of the twenty thousand and nine hundred/Fourscore and five, can'st tell?"

* Let's not forget about ''Hedda Gabler.'' While Hedda has been portrayed as a hero, tragic hero, victim, villain, feminist, basket case, [[Looney Tunes|square dance caller]], and [[The Marx Brothers|two hard-boiled eggs]], one factor remains consistent from interpretation to interpretation: she is a [[Manipulative Bastard]], particularly in an insanely ingenious "conversation" with Thea Elvsted. Judge Brack is certainly one of these as well, a sociable rival of sorts engaged with her in [[Homestuck|a constant battle of passive-assertive one-upmanship]], leading to a bizarre, diluted [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine|Kis]][[Affably Evil|me]][[Evilly Affable|sis]][[Slap Slap Kiss|si]][[Friendly Enemy|tude]].

* Mayor Hector in ''[[The Golden Apple (Theatre)|The Golden Apple]]''.

* Female example (her title ought to be Bloody Wonder): Nellie Lovett, from ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Theatretheatre)|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 (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]''. The Wizard as well, but to a lesser degree.

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

* Albert Wesker from ''[[Resident Evil|Albert Wesker]]''. In RE1, he blackmails Barry into betraying Chris and Jill by holding Barry's family hostage so that three would kill each other. In [[RE 5]]RE5, he captures Jill, turns her into his slave against her will, and forces Chris to fight against her, for the same reason as before.

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

{{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 (Video Game)|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]].

* ''[[Ratchet and Clank|]]''{{'}}s Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman Drek]] deserves a mention here. He's quite good at what he does, has an impressive voice (done by Kevin Michael Richardson) and has eyes that are large, shiny and blueish with no pupils.

* The Practical Incarnation from ''[[Planescape Torment|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]].

* {{spoiler|[[Magnificent Bastard|Ocelot]]}} can be considered this in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', and hell, even {{spoiler|throughout the whole series}}.

* And from ''[[Guilty Gear]]'''s [[Spiritual Successor]], ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]'', we have [[Card -Carrying Villain|Hazama]]/[[Complete Monster|Terumi Yuuki]] who, so far, has manipulated everyone (except for [[Guile Hero|Rachel Alucard]] and [[Spanner in Thethe Works|Makoto Nanaya]]) into [[Unwitting Pawn|playing him straight into his hands]]... And, yes, when I said ''"everyone"'', I really '''meant''' everyone. {{spoiler|Including the [[Defeating the Undefeatable|triple minded, omniscient supercomputer]], Takamagahara.}}

* The ''[[War CraftWarcraft]]'' series seems to love this kind of villains. Kil'jaeden The Deceiver is probably the biggest of these, doing countless [[Gambit Roulette|Gambit Roulettes]]s behind the scenes and rarely, if ever lose his cool.

* Lord Galcian of ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|Skies of Arcadia]]''.

** Maleficent definitely count too. In the first game, she had gained the loyality of Disney's most ruthlessly evil villains by promises of high power of galactic scale, something [[Humans Are BastardsJerkass|most people whouldnwouldn't ignore]]. She also played {{spoiler|Riku}} into her hands by using some good old fashion "play on his jealousy of his best friend, 'cause he has the girl and greater powers" while playing the mother figure to him.

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'': Apart from all his standard [[Batman Gambit]] (in relation to Ramza,) and his [[Xanatos Gambit]] amid everyone else's [[Gambit Roulette]], Delita may be seen as a [[Manipulative Bastard]] towards Ovelia if you think that he never truly loved her. Duke Barrington was one too towards Rapha and Marach, even if the former realized it very early on. Zalbaag and Dycedarg could also count on Ramza's passion for their own ends.

* [[Shin Megami Tensei|Lucifer]]. ''[[Magnificent Bastard|Lucifer]]''. '''''[[More Than Mind Control|Lucifer]].''''' While he's a genuinely caring figure towards Humanity, his methods to "save" it are... extremely questionable. It helps very little to learn he's also a master of [[Batman Gambit|Batman Gambits]]s.

* {{spoiler|Dimentio}} of ''[[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]]''. At first he appears nothing more than an amusing little henchman, but, particularly in the endgame, it becomes clear that he's manipulating ''both'' sides of the conflict to further his own ends, playing off each side's desires as well as the prophecy itself. In fact, some [[Epileptic Trees]] concerning him even go so far as to suggest that {{spoiler|he wrote the Dark Prognosticus in the first place, setting up the whole prophecy from the beginning.}}

* [[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight|Kirei Kotomine.]] He isn't even revealed as a bad guy despite his rather openly villainous attitude until late in each path, just as a jerk who likes messing with Shirou.

*** Actually, [[Not So Weak|Sakura]] is just about the only person he ''can't'' easily manipulate (because she's [[Training Fromfrom Hell|fully aware]] of his [[Complete Monster|true nature]], and has gone ''way'' past caring what he does to her), hence why there are three different routes to the game, rather than three slight variations of Heaven's Feel. In order to force her to do his bidding, he has to use a combination of the corrupted worms he's implanted in her, and manipulation of everyone ''else'' (especially Shirou and Shinji). Even then, [[The Dog Bites Back|it goes wrong]].

* [[War CraftWarcraft|Kil'jaeden the Deciever]] is ''[[The Chessmaster|made]]'' of equal parts this and [[Lawful Evil]], if the [[Meaningful Name|sobriquet]] didn't make it obvious enough.

* Sarah Kerrigan from ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' is pretty much able to get everyone, especially Zeratul, to do what she wants even after everyone knows {{spoiler|she's a bad zerg}}. In Zeratul's case, she mainly does this by {{spoiler|getting the Matriarch to tell him to go along with it}}. She takes advantage of Arcturus' sentimentality about Korhal too.

* [[Bio WareBioWare]] just ''loves'' this trope. In [[Dragon Age]] ''Origins'' you have {{spoiler|Bhelen}}, who outplays the character in the beginning, if you chose the Dwarven Noble origins.

* Atlas from ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]]''. Why did you just inject yourself with some strange goo that makes people go insane? Why did you shoot that big and seemingly harmless guy? Because ''he'' asked you so kindly. That's right. The reason why the player does anything is because Atlas, "the good guy" who has been helping you since the very beginning in your wacky adventure in Rapture tells you to with the phrase ''would you kindly?'' which the player just has to obey. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Also, the BBEG uses the phrase to actually make you to kill himself.]]

* Bob Page from ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'' creates a plague to infect most of the United States. Of course, having also created the vaccine, he brags about how much power and manipulation he has over even the most powerful people.

** Then again, both Page and Simons likely have a skilled PR department [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity|devoted to making them look like upstanding citizens]]. Better examples would be [[Dragon Lady|Maggie Chow]] who plays her allies, the [[The T Triads And The Tongs|Red Arrow Triad]] into a gang war with Luminous Path to ruin them both and when confronted by JC, she tries to distract him with a [[Red Herring]] despite having {{spoiler|a squad of [[MJ 12]]MJ12 soldiers stationed inside her apartment}}. {{spoiler|Her ''DE: Human Revolution'' [[Expy]], Zhao Yun Ru, actually manages get the better off Adam Jensen with a reasonably convincing [[Damsel in Distress]] impression.}}

** In ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Video Game)|Human Revolution]]'' there exists CASIE augmentations that give its owner an enhanced ability to read a person's reactions and exhale resistance lowering feromones. Activating this aug turns Adam Jensen into a ''[[Wish Fulfillment|player controlled]]'' [[Manipulative Bastard]].

* [[God of Evil|Fain]] of ''[[Lusternia]]'' is a [[Consummate Liar]] [[Manipulative Bastard]]. {{spoiler|It's unclear how much of this was [[Face Heel Turn|his natural personality]] and how much is the result of his exposure to [[The Corruption|Soulless essence]]; it's hard to even pinpoint the moment he [[Jumped Off the Slippery Slope]], since he [[I Did What I Had to Do|defends his actions]] to the last. He ''still'' has followers, amongst mortals and Gods!}}

* In both ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' and ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', [[The Emperor]] is a [[Manipulative Bastard]] who frequently approaches [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificence]], in his original game wheeling and dealing with ''God'' and ''the Devil'' and ''winning'', and in ''Dissidia'', playing every side against the other in a ploy to {{spoiler|rule all of existence. It's very late in the game when the other villains figure out his plans in their entirety and ''still'' can't stop him, the heroes never figure them out properly}}. But the most interesting twist is that this is integrated into playing as him in ''Dissidia''--his—his playstyle is called "Trap Master", and is unique in that it revolves around forcing his opponent into traps or into situations where they cannot stop his virtually undodgeable [[Charged Attack]] from executing. In other words, in order to use the Emperor effectively, the ''player themself'' has to be a [[Manipulative Bastard]]!

* Midna in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' is quite manipulative when her relationship with Link starts out. She manages to take advantage of Link's concern for Ilia to get him to be a pawn in her quest to stop Zant.

* Fenrich from ''[[Disgaea 4: a Promise Unforgotten (Video Game)|Disgaea 4 aA Promise Unforgotten]]'' has a long streak of supporting his somewhat gullible [[Noble Demon]] lord, Valvatorez, through scheming and manipulation of the people around him -- includinghim—including Valvatorez himself.

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

* Adam from ''[[Loserz]]'' seems like a [[Casanova]] at the first glimpse, but in [https://web.archive.org/web/20080730022357/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/index.php?comicID=130 this strip] he displays what a master of manipulation he is.

** 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.]]

* While some view Maytag of ''[[Flipside (Webcomic)|Flipside]]'' as a Purity Sue both inside and outside the comic, others view her as a frighteningly powerful Manipulative Bastard.

* Mike from ''[[College Roomies From HellCRFH]]'' is a good example. Physically, he's about evenly matched with roommates Dave and Roger -- butRoger—but mentally, he's ''always'' two steps ahead of them. Mike can accomplish almost anything by manipulating others' actions, and he seldom betrays any affection for people other than his sister Blue and girlfriend Marsha. He can even see through ''the devil's'' mind games '''while being tortured in Hell'''.

** More recently, April -- onceApril—once the nicest character in the strip -- hasstrip—has let her doomed love for Mike drive her into becoming a Manipulative Bitch. In a way, she's his opposite: while Mike only falters on the rare occasions when he loses his cool, April is at her scheming best when she's most bitter and desperate. After one series of lies so brazen that it literally ''killed her conscience'', there was no turning back.

* [[Ctrl +Alt +Del|Christian and Rory]], a [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|rich jerkass]] and a [[Jerk Jock]] [[Aloof Older Brother]], respectively.

* Most of the [[Troll|Trolls]]s in ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' are this to some degree (it's [[Values Dissonance|practically required in their society]]), but Terezi is the freaking ''master'' of it, especially considering her ability to play mind games without the aid of any [[Psychic Powers]]. She's just ''that good'' at pushing the right buttons.

* Xykon from [[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]] definitely displays shades of a [[Manipulative Bastard]] at the end of [[Start of Darkness]]. He uses Redcloak's guilt and unwillingness to admit his mistakes against him to effectively turn the goblin cleric from a semi-loyal follower to a willing slave. Xykon notes with no small amount of satisfaction that Redcloak will continue to operate in his interests even when the lich can't supervise him personally because doing otherwise will force Redcloak to admit he {{spoiler|killed his baby brother}} for nothing.

* Bestseid from [[Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)|Sluggy Freelance]] qualifies: he's a master of making you believe and feel what he wants. After all he's a uber-PR.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', {{spoiler|1=Nanase's mother, as shown in [http://egscomics.com/?date=2009-12-01 this comic].}}

* 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.

* While not as extreme as some other examples, [[The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Chick]] is pretty good at this. The best example is [[Kickassia]], where she pretended to be sweet and nice to get her way, and then there's "Linking Up With Linkara" (along with [[Marz Gurl (Web Video)|Marz Gurl]]) where they made Linkara think they had an epic, once-in-a-lifetime threesome.

* Eric Theodore Cartman of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' has manipulative abilities to a near-frightening quality. Although many of his victims are indeed gullible simpletons, still his ability to persuade people en masse is shocking. Even those familiar with his methods get dragged in by his way with words.

{{quote| '''Cartman:''' I did it! I... AM... ''GOD!!!!''}}

* Azula of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', no question. As she puts it: "I'm a people person." When she successfully turns the [[Secret Police]] in control of the capital of the kingdom her nation has been at war with for a century against its leader, [[Evil Chancellor|Long Feng]], he says that she beat him at his own game. Her response?

{{quote| Azula: [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"Please, don't flatter yourself.]] [[Magnificent Bastard|You were never even a player."]]}}

** As does the "very smooth" Jet, on the [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] front.

*** Ozai's greatest success may have been manipulating Azula into [[DaddysDaddy's Little Villain|thinking]] he cared about her at all.

* Being [[The Chessmaster|a chessmaster]] and the successor to Azula in the [[Magnificent Bastard]] department, Amon from ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'' has so far played everyone like fiddles. Even Lin Beifong and Korra admit that they played right into his hand after his terrorist attack on the Pro-Bending arena.

* Tarrlok from ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'' is a [[Manipulative Bastard]] par excellence. Apart from Tenzin, he's got the whole United Republic Council on a string - their sole purpose seems to be supporting whatever Tarrlok is proposing. He cleverly takes advantage of anything and everything that might help him gain more power. Through his smooth talking and media play he manoeuvred even Korra into joining him (albeit temporarily). After Lin Beifong's resignation, he virtually took control of the metalbending police and began imposing his iron-fist régime on the city.

* Slade from ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' definitely goes here. Manipulating others and making them suffer for it is what he does best. Unfortunately he cannot see outside of his big plans, so his manipulations usually come with a [[Villain Ball|price]].

* Chase Young from ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]''. His main goal during his Season 2 debut is to manipulate Omi into joining the Heylin side. When that didn't work, he took matters into his own hands and concocted a complex plan that led to Omi's eventual [[Face Heel Turn]], {{spoiler|but against his will.}} Chase is even classified as a [[Magnificent Bastard]] because of this.

* ''[[Generator Rex]]'''s Van Kleiss is another one. Rex has no knowledge of his past due to the Nanite Event, so Van Kleiss takes advantage of this and taunts him with bits and pieces of information (at one point using a ''brief comment'' to get Rex to hesitate for one second so he could get away), telling him that he won't give him all the info unless he joins his side. He also manipulates and uses his own minions (and even ''they'' are aware of it, and he's aware that they know and doesn't seem to be bothered by it). He's also now trying to drive a wedge of mistrust between Rex and his brother Caesar, and it seems to be working a little. His plans are also primarily [[Batman Gambit|Batman Gambits]]s.

** To be fair, {{spoiler|it's looking like he was right about Caesar.}}

* Megatron in ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' is just as manipulative. The guy managed to convince Silverbolt (''the noblest individual Optimus Primal has ever met'') to become a Predacon when he first met him. In ''Beast Machines'' he later played on Rattrap's insecurity about his now useless robot mode and got him to help him out for a night. After infecting all the Maximals except Optimus with a virus that causes discord he got Optimus to consider (admittedly, for like five minutes) that maybe his vision of forced harmony was the way to go.

** Tarantulas in ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' was about as talented. More than once he duped Quickstrike into betraying Megatron, and once even got him to go along with a plan that would negate both him and every other Transformer (but Tarantulas) from existence.

* Digeri Dingo from ''[[Taz -Mania]]'' is a milder, more lovable example of this

* Despite the series being known for its incompetent or even stupid characters, ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' actually has a surprising amount of manipulative bastards. Though very few come across as being completely unlikable or evil...a rare thing to have accomplished, the fact is that most of the cast dabbles in deception on more than one occasion. In fact more than 90% of the cast could be considered in this category, but let's just stick with the noteworthies.

* At the risk of sounding [[Department of Redundancy Department|redundant]], David Xanatos of ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]''.

** Thailog's a definite example as well -- hewell—he's ''at least'' as good as Xanatos, and possibly better. Demona's got a manipulative streak as well, but as usual she's her own worst enemy, and her bad temper and bouts of genocidal insanity often wind up shooting her in the foot at key stages.

* Him from ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]'' is easily one of the biggest ones. He acts like a manipulative bastard to everyone, but mostly to Bubbles, as 2 episodes of the series involve Him torturing and manipulating Bubbles by using her sweetness, naiveness and her extreme emotions to destroy her and her sisters and in 1 case break them up. But what else would you expect from their world's equivalent of ''[[Satan]]?!''

* ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'': Zoidberg apparently acts pathetic to make sure people don't bully him.<ref>This may extend to taking a little bullying now to save a lot later.</ref> This means that, conceivably, ''every time Zoidberg has ever seemed pathetic, he was pulling this.'' And this is Zoidberg. That's 98% of his screen time.

* ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'''s Helga Pataki is this in the episode "School Play". When Helga learns that Arnold will be playing Romeo, she wants to be Juliet but gets stuck as 4th understudy. So, only in the unlikely event that all four girls, Rhonda, Sheena, Phoebe and Lila, were to all drop out, would Helga be able to play Juliet. It just so happens Helga can be such a manipulative bastard.

* The Creeper from ''[[Animalia (Animation)|Animalia]]'' is a master at this trope. One of his favorite methods includes fake crying to trick the heroes.

* [[Big Bad|Prince Phobos]] from ''[[WITCH (Animationanimation)|WITCH]]'' is very good at this (though his ego and laziness keep him from being as good at it as he could be), and his [[The Dragon|Dragon]] Cedric has his moments. Season 2's [[Big Bad]] Nerissa is even better, easily qualifying for full [[Magnificent Bastard]] (something neither of the other two were able to pull off).

* Roger from ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]''

* Discord from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', BIG TIME. He's depicted in stained glass window images controling ponies via puppeteer strings (something we actually see him sort of do) and in the episode itself generally plays ''everyone'' for fools. By the end of the first episode, {{spoiler|he's successfully manipulated and ''[[Break the Cutie|broken]]'' the mane cast through his mind games and manipulations.}}

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[[Category:ManipulativeAbuse BastardTropes]]

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