History MagnificentBastard / VideoGames

** Of course, NOTHING can compare to the CompleteMonster Lekain himself, Vice-Minister of Begnion and head of the Begnion Senate. [[spoiler: He orders the assasination of Apostle Misaha and blames it on the herons, causing the Serenes Massacre which burned the forest and killed all the herons except for two princes, a princess, and the king, though Rafiel got lost in the desert, and Lorazieh fell into a coma. 25 or so years later, he installs the five-year-old Sanaki as empress so that no one higher up than him would learn of his abuses in laguz slavery. 5 years later, he orders Numida and Jarod, the commanders of the Begnion Occupational Army, to abuse Daein in any way they see fit, similar to what AdolfHitler did to the Jews. And 3 MORE years later, Lekain imprisons both Sanaki and Sephiran so that he could order the extermination of all laguz on earth in the war with the Laguz Alliance. He also enacts the blood pacts he has over Kilvas (from a century ago, but not made by the current senate) and Daein (due to the workings of the Daein-born senatorial double agent and creator of the Feral Laguz drug, Izuka) so that they would fight alongside the Senate. And when Ashera casts her judgement on Tellius, Lekain leads the Disciples of Order to kill all your guys under the delusion that "the false apostle and her minions are the servants of the dark god, and the Order is the will of the holy goddess Ashera herself". And he even leaves Numida to die in the Grann Desert when the Dawn Army made their approach there. And in the end, it turns out he really knows NOTHING of the truth, and that he believes his delusions are actually the truth. ]] All those monstrocities he caused give a VERY good feeling when you kill him. And to pour salt on the wound, [[Astrid arranged marridge was with LEKAIN!!!]]

* ''{{The Legend of Zelda}}'''s [[BigBad Ganondorf]] certainly counts. More often than not, the games' plots are his masterminding, as he's always cooking up plans to come back to life and retake Hyrule, succeeding several times. There's also the fact that in OcarinaOfTime, he plays an organ ''as you come up the stairs'', eagerly waiting for a fight. His {{Chessmaster}} skills really show up, though, in [[SuperSmashBros the Subspace Emissary.]]

*** You think Vivec won? After the destruction of the Heart of Lorkhan, he, Almalexia and Sotha Sil all their powers, and the latter two died. He was left a mortal in the land, and a "rumor" said throughout Oblivion is that he was kidnapped by Daedra. If he did all that to Azura, then [I]it was actually part of her plan.[/I]

* By doing the Wild Card questline in {{Fallout New Vegas}} you can [[spoiler: install yourself as the new ruler of Nevada while stringing along both the Legion and NCR up until the last minute.]]

* ''MassEffect 2'' has the Illusive Man. The AffablyEvil [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] starts the game by boxing the galaxy's deadliest warrior into working for him, even though said Spectre knows full well that he and Cerberus are at best [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]] and at worst [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]]. And he continues to alternately manipulate and support Shepard throughout the whole game, leading to [[spoiler: the defeat of the Collectors]], even if [[spoiler: it blows up in his face when Shepard decides to kick him loose at the end.]]

*** [[Disney/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]] could also qualify in this series. She does [[EvilIsCool evil with style]], is very [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] (especially in the case of [[RivalTurnedEvil Riku]]), and throughout the story, she's never really suffered any great defeat; only setbacks. Even after she herself was manipulated for [[TheChessMaster Xehanort's]] plan, she was able to regain a castle and control over the Heartless in KHII by allying herself with Sora and the others, thus ending the game getting ''exactly what she wanted.''

** Less conventionally but no less awesomely, Morinth. She's a ChaoticEvil and [[AxCrazy quite insane]] serial killer [[spoiler: who [[DeathBySex murders her victims through sexual intercourse]] (other methods are implied, but that appears to be her favorite)]], but seeing her in-game, it's quite easy to see how she charms her victims with or without biotics, making her one of the most frightening characters in the trilogy (and that's counting the Reapers). [[spoiler: If she joins your crew, she not only pretends to be her mother in full view of the crew, but even has the quads to proposition Shepard for sex, even though both of them know how that'll turn out.]]
*** The sad part is you can agree to it. Guess what happens?

** Saturos also counts as this

* ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has [[spoiler:Mike Toreno]], an undercover government agent who fakes his own death at your hands while infiltrating a drug cartel, only to show up out of nowhere with your brother's life over your head so he can get you to do some of his dirty work for him. Between having eyes and ears everywhere he needs or knows you will be, and talking you out of shooting him without even flinching, just the way he interacts with you in-game is enough to merit this... but his role in [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/GTASA/index.html this Let's Play]] takes it to a whole new level.

* [[spoiler: Ocelot]] of the ''MetalGear'' series, who has the trope image above, is practically THE magnificent bastard of video games, casually playing every side against every other possible side, all while [[spoiler: twirling his prized revolvers]]. Almost everything that happens in the series can be somehow traced back to him, and when it can't, it's usually because it happened before he was born. Reached Aizen level in ''MetalGear Solid 4''.

--->'''Requiem:''' I cannot say that you will have gained my respect, but I will acknowledge that you fought well. Drink deeply of your success. Bask in the adulation of your peers. Savor this victory. Know that you have saved your world and this moment from the shadow of history. But you have only saved it for now. Do not think that you have saved the world for your future. Know that you have saved this world for my coming Dominion.

** King Helseth is also one of these. One amazing example of this is in an in-game book detailing how he roots out one of the many spies in his midst: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:A_Game_at_Dinner
** I can't believe no one has mentioned Vivec, the immortal warrior-poet of ''{{Morrowind}}'', who quite frankly is this trope. If you looked behind the scenes and knew a lot of TES Lore, you'd see he is the greatest Magnificent Bastard of all time. Azura herself is actually just a pawn in his plots. When she tried to make her own plots, he summoned her in the imperial city and raped her, literally, and thus breaking her power on Tamriel for a time. You could write a book, and a book has been written, on his adventures. http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/lessons.shtml
** Vivec's so-called exploits are little more than fanfiction written by a FORMER Morrowind writer, Vivec being his personal self insertion fantasy. None of it is canon.
** ...Actually, since virtually all of those books are available in-game, and WordOfGod says they are canon...

* Naoya of Devil Survivor makes a huge plan that manipulates a demonic cult, angels, demons, his cousin/brother and his friends, and the entirety of Tokyo. Why? To [[spoiler: make his cousin/brother take a potshot at GOD and]] start a [[RageAgainstTheHeavens war]].
* ''Valkyrie Profile: Covenant Of The Plume'' has chessmasters in Mistress hel [[spoiler: and her personal hound, garm AKA ailyth, who instruments the entire artolian war and events leading up to and around it to provide plenty of chances for wyl to gain sin for the plume, all to make him her personal chewtoy]]

*** Master Xehanort of BirthBySleep somehow manages to be both this ''and'' a CompleteMonster. [[spoiler: He manipulates Terra, Ven, and even Master Eraqus into doing ''exactly'' what he wants, all the way up until the end of the game. And even ''after'' the heroes derail his plans in this game, he continues to be a threat throughout ''the whole rest of the series''.]]

* The Gravemind from ''{{Halo}}'' can arguably be considered one hell of a Magnificent Bastard for the way it manipulates everyone around it, combining complicated Xanatos Roulettes with skin-crawling psychological warfare. Most striking is the way it ended the war with the Forerunners by turning the AI created to destroy it into its greatest ally using ''nothing but logic''. Even when defeated, its only response is that its destruction is nothing but a temporary setback.

**** Also from ''Final Fantasy Tactics'', we have Dycedarg Beovule, the protagonists' oldest brother. Dyce [[spoiler: murders his father, manipulates much of the events from afar (traitor sellsword Gaffgarion was Dyce's man for a time), and murders his commander Duke Larg to become leader of the Order of the Southern Sky.]] It doesn't work as well for Dyce than it does for Delita though, and [[spoiler: once his lies are uncovered he becomes a UnwittingPawn to the true manipulators of the war, the Lucavi]].

** Before Brood War Arcturus Mengsk hold this position. Seeming to be the great hero, everyone waited for, and then [[spoiler:killing off an entire planet's population just so he can become emperor.]]

**** Also from ''Final Fantasy Tactics'', we have Dycedarg Beovule, the protagonists' oldest brother. Dyce [[spoiler: murders his father, manipulates much of the events from afar (traitor sellsword Gaffgarion was Dyce's man for a time), and murders his commander Duke Larg to become leader of the Order of the Southern Sky.]] It doesn't work as well for Dyce than it does for Delita though, and [[spoiler: once his lies are uncovered he becomes a XanatosSucker to the true manipulators of the war, the Lucavi]].

** And then Ozwell Spencer goes and pulls the title out from under him in [=RE5=] when he reveals that [[spoiler: Wesker was essentially ''manufactured'' to be precisely the MagnificentBastard he is, and was carrying out Spencer's own XanatosGambit ''the entire time.'']]
*** [[spoiler:''And then'' Wesker kills Spencer. Spencer dies pathetically and is mocked by Wesker.]]

* In ''AlphaProtocol'', [[spoiler: ''Mike Thorton himself'']] can become one of these if you play your cards right, build up your contacts, and manipulate your opponents correctly.

** ...Actually, since virtually all of those books are available in-game, and WordOfGod says they are canon.... [[SoYeah Yeah]] [[XJustX just yeah]].