History Main / OpportunisticBastard

Hierarchically they could be anyone from a minor character to the BigBad himself. Compare/contrast TheChessmaster. See also ManipulativeBastard and XanatosSpeedChess. Can easily become a WildCard. Likely to be a DirtyCoward or to suffer from ChronicBackstabbingDisorder. Might belong to LesCollaborateurs or even become TheQuisling. Always personifies the 12th of UsefulNotes/TheThirtySixStratagems.

* Madara Uchiha of ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' had a plan and an actual claim to {{Chessmaster}} status before his resurrection. However, he was returned to life with a series of mishaps: his former apprentice having hijacked his old plan and him being revived by the dark Impure World Resurrection technique, and since then has been trying to improvise his way to victory. Madara proceeded to wait for an opportunity to break free of the caster's control before finding his apprentice Tobi had already revived the monstrous Ten-Tailed Beast. Then Madara tries regain control of the situation using his back-up plan but eventually got OutGambitted from Tobi. [[spoiler:Further Madara sits and waits for until the Alliance weaken Obito sufficiently, to Black Zetsu forces him to revive Madara.]]
** Uchiha Sasuke is no better; his role as an antagonist is a series of him merely betraying a more ambitious and powerful villain and hijacking their resources or achievements for his own use. First Orochimaru, then Tobi [[spoiler: and then Kaguya. At the conclusion, he finally executes his master stroke, waiting until all of the most powerful threats amongst the heroes and villains had eliminated each other, with only Naruto to stop him.]]

Opportunists of this type are usually motivated only by their own self-interest. If their actions do benefit someone else, it's either accidental, or because that person belongs to the select group of people that our opportunist actually cares about. Similarly, they are rarely loyal to any cause larger than their personal self-advancement, or at best, the well-being of themselves and [[MoralMyopia a select group]]; if an Opportunistic Bastard has an ideology, it is likely to be ill-defined, self-serving, and/or shallow. As a result, this character is liable to be an {{antihero}} at best, and outright villain at worst.

* The various incarnations of Edmund Series/{{Blackadder}} will take any chance that offers itself to make money and gain influence, with the exception of the First World War incarnation, who is more concerned with getting out of the trenches. And even he qualifies as he chose to become a soldier of fortune as an easy and safe way to make money and travel around the world and only kill enemies with weapons too primitive to be considered weapons. Prince Edmund and Mr. E. are power hungry enough to actually go further than this and on full TheStarscream mode. Actual plans made by Blackadders tend to spiral into chaos during the first 25 minutes of the episode, but spontaneous opportunities are seized, exploited, and turned into admittedly temporary profit. [[spoiler:Most obvious when his Regency incarnation had swapped places with the Prince Regent in order to duel the Duke of Wellington; when Wellington shot the "butler" and killed the Prince Regent, Blackadder effortlessly replaced him and ended up as King George IV.]]

* The various incarnations of Edmund Series/{{Blackadder}} will take any chance that offers itself to make money and gain influence, with the exception of the First World War incarnation, who is more concerned with getting out of the trenches. Actual plans made by Blackadders tend to spiral into chaos during the first 25 minutes of the episode, but spontaneous opportunities are seized, exploited, and turned into admittedly temporary profit. [[spoiler:Most obvious when his Regency incarnation had swapped places with the Prince Regent in order to duel the Duke of Wellington; when Wellington shot the "butler" and killed the Prince Regent, Blackadder effortlessly replaced him and ended up as King George IV.]]

* Lucius Malfoy of ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is a SmugSnake of an opportunist, latching onto anything that will either help his ambition or help him save his own hide. He doesn't usually have a plan either--he'll let somebody else do the thinking, and try to benefit from their work. In the backstory, he joins [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]] for the power involved, and also because its [[ANaziByAnyOtherName racist cause]] adhered with his prejudiced mindset. After Voldemort's power is shattered and the Dark Lord disappears, Lucius abandons his master and pretends his deeds were because of brainwashing, allowing him to escape justice. Perhaps the best example of Lucius's "planning capabilities" is how he orchestrated the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. He simply [[spoiler:plopped Tom Riddle's diary into Ginny Weasely's lap, let Tom Riddle do all the work,]] and sat back, taking advantage of the chaos for his own ends. When Lord Voldemort returned to power in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', Lucius goes back to Voldemort to avoid incurring the Dark Lord's wrath, and once again carries out Voldemort's will. Throughout the series, Lucius only has one consistent loyalty and that's [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes to his family.]] Eventually, [[spoiler:when Voldemort's cause endangers his son's life, Lucius defects from the Death Eaters for Draco's safety]].
** Wormtail is a humbler example as a DirtyCoward who just looks for the biggest shadow to crawl and live in.

** Brown Ben Plumm, the commander of the sellsword company the Second Sons. Prior to his promotion, Ben first works for Yunkai as another mercenary defender. However, after Daenerys defeats his company and causes their leader, Mero, to disappear, Ben becomes the company's new leader and joins Daenerys against his former employers. He stays with her until she conquers Mereen at which point, believing she can't win against the newly reformed Yunkai forces and having found out she can't control her dragons, he abandons her and again allies himself with Yunkai. When he believes Daenerys is about to become a DragonRider, however, Ben plans to sell out Yunkai ''again'' and realign with Daenerys. He's also a man who notices golden opportunities when presented with them. At a slave auction, he tries to buy [[spoiler:Ser Jorah Mormont and Tyrion Lannister]]. The former he plans on killing and presenting as a "wedding present" in order to get back into Daenerys's good graces. The latter he plans on selling for the bounty on his head, which includes a lordship in Westeros. Eventually [[spoiler:Tyrion]] is able to talk Ben into allowing both him and [[spoiler:Jorah]] to join the company, but only after convincing him he can give Plumm vast more riches as [[spoiler:Lord of Casterly Rock]] than he can as a head on a pike. Ben is a man of no loyalties, who will backstab anyone if the odds aren't in their favor, and who is driven by a lust for riches and self-preservation above all else. Plumm believes that successful and long-lived sellswords like himself are opportunistic bastards at heart, and those that aren't tend not to be very long-lived.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Tywin Lannister. Joffrey himself points out that during Robert's rebellion Tywin effectively hid underneath Casterly Rock and only supported King Robert when all was decided. He effectively pulled a Walder Frey.

** Mickey Doyle, a Polish bootlegger working in Nucky's organization who has [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder a habit of betraying anyone]] if it looks like he can get more power from the other side. He betrays Nucky to the D'Alessio brothers in season one, then betrays the brothers to Nucky before the season's out, then he betrays Nucky again in favor of Jimmy's coup in the second season. After that fails, he somehow manages to not only survive again, but once again weasel his way back into Nucky's organization, where he stays until the final season. [[spoiler:He finally meets his end when he attempts to betray Nucky for a third time in the middle of a MobWar, this time to "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky. At this point, Luciano's in no mood for his crap and [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves shoots him in the head]] just to finally shut him up.]]

** Mickey Doyle, a Polish bootlegger working Nucky's organization who has [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder a habit of betraying anyone]] if it looks like he can get more power from the other side. He betrays Nucky to the D'Alessio brothers in season one, then betrays the brothers to Nucky before the season's out, then he betrays Nucky again in favor of Jimmy's coup in the second season. After that fails, he somehow manages to not only survive again, but once again weasel his way back into Nucky's organization, where he stays until the final season. [[spoiler:He finally meets his end when he attempts to betray Nucky for a third time, this time to "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky. At this point, Luciano's in no mood for his crap and [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves shoots him in the head]] just to finally shut him up.]]

* Gaston Bullock Means from ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' is a shameless manipulator and back-stabber who acts only to swindle as much money as he possibly can out of whomever he's currently conning. Means spends most of his time in season three PlayingBothSides on the [[TheDon Nucky Thompson]] and [[CorruptPolitician DA Daughtery]] power struggle, waiting to ally himself with whichever one comes out on top. In season four, he again pretends to be on Nucky's side only to sell out information about him to the FBI to save his own ass. Even when he's being [[spoiler:raided by the CIA]] he spends his remaining seconds trying to extort increasingly exorbitant amounts of money out of Nucky for information on TheMole in Nucky's organization.

** Johnny Crowder, Boyd's power-hungry cousin, who never missed a chance to improve his own position at the expense of others. Whether it was backing Boyd against [[TheDragon Devil]]'s internal coup, blackmailing Colton Rhodes about his drug addiction, providing the US Marshals with information, or manouvering between genuine power players like Boyd, his [[EvilUncle Uncle Bo]], [[PsychoForHire Wynn Duffy]], [[RuthlessForeignGangsters Nicky Augustine]], Hotrod Dunham, and [[TheCartel Mr. Yoon]], Johnny would grab at any chance to make a profit or increase his chances of taking over the Crowder family. Even after gaining control of Hotrod's organization in Season 5, he doesn't have a plan, beyond "hurt Boyd as much as possible", which leads to his defeat at the hands of his {{chessmaster}} cousin. Driven by {{greed}} and {{revenge}} (he held Boyd responsible for his [[EvilCripple crippling]], and superb at playing the odds, Johnny could survive almost any situation, but the conclusion was never in doubt.
** Season 5's Daryl Crowe Jr. is described as such by his right-hand man, Jean-Baptiste, who comments on Daryl's penchant for finding employ with someone else, and then making their business his. He did this to the Muchado family's sugar smuggling operation in Florida. After coming to Kentucky he first tries to take over his cousin Dewey's brothel, leading to conflict with Boyd Crowder, then hires himself out to Boyd as an enforcer. Most recently, while on a job for Boyd in Mexico, he and his brother Danny have sabotaged Boyd's operation In an attempt to weaken Boyd enough that he will not have a choice but to offer Daryn an equal partnership. If anything, this unpredictability, and general lack of attention to detail makes Daryl ''more'' dangerous, as nobody can really anticipate how he'll try to take advantage of the situation, only that he will.

* Madara Uchiha of ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' had a plan and an actual claim to {{Chessmaster}} status before his resurrection. However, he was returned to life with a series of mishaps: his former apprentice having hijacked his old plan and him being revived by the dark Impure World Resurrection technique, and since then has been trying to improvise his way to victory. Madara proceeded to wait for an opportunity to break free of the caster's control before finding his apprentice Tobi had already revived the monstrous Ten-Tailed Beast. Then Madara tries regain control of the situation using his back-up plan but eventually get OutGambitted from Tobi. [[spoiler:Further Madara sits and waits for until the Alliance weaken Obito sufficiently, to Black Zetsu forces him to revive Madara.]]

* Madara Uchiha of ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' had a plan and an actual claim to {{Chessmaster}} status before his resurrection. However, he was returned to life with a series of mishaps: his former apprentice having hijacked his old plan and him being revived by the dark Impure World Resurrection technique, and since then has been trying to improvise his way to victory. Madara proceeded to wait for an opportunity to break free of the caster's control before finding his apprentice Tobi had already revived the monstrous Ten-Tailed Beast. Then Madara tries regain control of the situation using his back-up plan which eventually was OutGambitted Obito. Further Madara sits and waits for until the Alliance weaken Obito sufficiently, to Black Zetsu forces him to revive Madara.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'': While in the first film Jack Sparrow was shown to rely on the BatmanGambit quite a bit, the other films have also shown him to be quite the opportunist as well, and sometimes, it's not clear which one he is, this or TheChessmaster.

* Kraven of the ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' film franchise has no loyalty to anyone or anything but his own [[AmbitionIsEvil ambition]]. When spared from death by his own [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] at the hands of the Lycan werewolves' leader Lucien, Kraven aligns himself with Lucien's plans to seize power for himself in the vampire covens. Kraven seizes on a chance to allow Lucien's Lycans to massacre the vampire elder Amelia, and when his treachery is exposed, he later betrays and murders Lucien before taking advantage of the resulting power vacuum from the large scale battle at the conclusion of the second film to attempt to murder the final sleeping vampire elder and rule the coven. Lacking his own plans, Kraven simply ingratiates himself to whoever is in power for his own success and has no compunction taking any chance fate gives him in pursuit of it.

* Madara Uchiha of ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' had a plan and an actual claim to {{Chessmaster}} status before his resurrection. However, he was returned to life with a series of mishaps: his former apprentice having hijacked his old plan and him being revived by the dark Impure World Resurrection technique, and since then has been trying to improvise his way to victory. Madara proceeded to wait for an opportunity to break free of the caster's control before finding his apprentice Tobi had already revived the monstrous Ten-Tailed Beast. Madara immediately seizes control of it and manipulates Tobi until he can force him to revive Madara at cost of his own life. Even when the first attempt fails, Madara makes the resurrection of his former ArchEnemy work to his advantage by draining his powers to bolster Madara's own to the point where he's even stronger when he fully revives.

* The Bounty Hunter Player Character from ''Videogame/TheOldRepublic'' gets two opportunities to address a huge audience. They're expected to either make inspiring speeches or threaten The Republic. But instead you can... make a sales pitch. Heck you're never going to get a better chance than this!

** Uchiha Sasuke is no better; his role as an antagonist is a series of him merely betraying a more ambitious and powerful villain and hijacking their resources or achievements for his own use. First Orochimaru, then Akatsuki [[spoiler: and then Kaguya. At the conclusion, he finally executes his master stroke, waiting until all of the most powerful threats amongst the heroes and villains had eliminated each other, with only Naruto to stop him.]]

* Cavilo from ''[[Literature/VorkosiganSaga The Vor Game]]'' is the leader of a mercenary company who has no qualms about betraying her employer if she gets a better offer from someone else. After capturing her at the end of the book Miles gives her a ReasonYouSuckSpeech about it.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Arguably, [[spoiler:Kyubey]]. While they do have a goal in mind, they are shown to exploit new circumstances [[spoiler:to try and manipulate girls into contracting (best example: he waits until Mami is literally ''dying'' in a car crash before appearing)]] and invoke ExactWords, LiteralGenie and YouDidntAsk to conveniently hide the (multiple) [[AwfulTruth uncomfortable facts]] of being a MagicalGirl. Also, [[spoiler:he tends to cut corners while granting wishes as a means of conserving energy; making the phrasing of each girl's wish essential]].

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* Hondo Ohnaka from ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. Hondo is quick to side with and backstab anyone if he thinks he can make a quick profit out of it.

* Cavilo from ''[[VorkosiganSaga The Vor Game]]'' is the leader of a mercenary company who has no qualms about betraying her employer if she gets a better offer from someone else. After capturing her at the end of the book Miles gives her a ReasonYouSuckSpeech about it.