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Don't you just want to punch that smug Foss? Or kidnap his daughter as part of a plot for the throne? "Yeah, reach out for me! I'm a snake! Never trust a snake!"
— Jake "The Snake" Roberts, WWF Superstars
"Smiling poison and suspicious craft."
They're well dressed, impeccably groomed, always sarcastic and condescending, and they love smirking smugly from their Slouch Of Villainy as the puppets dance around them. Everything needed to be a Magnificent Bastard, right? Wrong!
It takes more than looks and disdain to make a Magnificent Bastard, and the Smug Snake is missing that certain je ne sais quoi, leaving them more as a Jerkass or The Libby with delusions of grandeur than a truly awe inspiring villain.
The best way to describe the Smug Snake is as a wannabe Magnificent Bastard. Something about them just doesn't "click" as Magnificent. Maybe they don't actually succeed at their manipulations, or their actor fails to live up to the role. More often than not, the writer is trying too hard to foist this character as a Magnificent Bastard, and rather than creating a character the audience just loves to hate, they just hate him with a passion to rival The Scrappy and The Wesley.
Sometimes he is made expressly to get the above reaction. With a combination of self serving cowardice, petty rules mongering, PR and Kick The Dog moments they'll get their way and nothing will get them to stop smirking and taunting the rest of the cast. This is someone the author wants us to hate, and we do. In other words, they're what a Designated Antagonist wants to be when they grow up.
When a Smug Snake attempts the Hannibal Lecture, it just feels off. Why in the world is the hero or heroine listening to this guy without a shred of respectability or authority question their values and morality when it's obvious he doesn't care other than to screw with them? A Magnificent Bastard pulls this off with charisma. He either believes or is dang good in pretending he believes what he's saying. A Smug Snake is just taking advantage of the fact that the heroes are incredibly insecure.
They're usually protected from the heroes either by having the law on their side, a position of authority, or the heroes' own moral code. A good amount of Blackmail and scheming can go into it too. Expect them to lose said protection down the line, usually due to their own incompetence and greed. Despite their plot induced immunity, they're the likeliest to have something truly poetically awful happen to them.
Magnificent Bastards take heed: A Magnificent Bastard becomes a Smug Snake the moment their ego overtakes their awesome. Part of being a Smug Snake is not only overestimating one's self, but also underestimating one's opponents. You can guess what that leads to.
Compare Magnificent Bastard proper, where the Smug Snake has the competence to back up his ego.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Makoto Isshiki in Rah Xephon, for whom this trope is partly named after (he's nicknamed "White Snake" because of his albinism and scheming). At first he's a typical Smug Snake, but in the second half of the story turns into a madman.
- Quattro from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS enjoys manipulating and controlling people, belittles both enemies and allies, and does this all with a sickeningly cutesy appearance. The fact that her role as support means she's usually hiding somewhere safe from her enemies while she's condescending them doesn't help her case. Her eventual (non-fatal) fate at the business end of the titular character's staff was a very satisfying scene.
- Envy. Especially since he kill Hughes.
- Arguably, Orochimaru from Naruto. Sure, he's evil, but he leaves a lot of the planning to his Enigmatic Minion. Also a literal example, what with his theme being snakes.
- Frank Archer from the anime version of Fullmetal Alchemist is the epitome of a Smug Snake; a ruthless sociopath who orchestrate heinous catastrophes for the sake of bettering his own image and publicity.
- Half of the Death Note fandom sees Light Yagami as a Magnificent Bastard, while the other half (mainly composed of L's fangirls) sees him as a Smug Snake. It more or less depends on who you talk to.
- After being traumatised by his father's tragic death in the Kaleido Stage, the acrobat Yuri Killian from Kaleido Star spends almost 8 years plotting his revenge and manages to strip Kalos of the Kaleido Stage, humiliate him and undermine the careers of the ones who refused to join Yuri's new Stage (particularly the Power Trio of Sora, Anna and Mia). Still, when his ex-partner Layla Hamilton shows she's determined to get her beloved Stage back, Yuri finds himself alone and without anybody's respect, and even gets slapped in public by Layla, who calls him pathetic because he insists that it's all Kalos' fault even when it's pretty much proven that it was an accident, and Kalos has been struggling to live with the guilt coming from not being able to help Mr. Killian enough.
- Kazamatsuri Hayato from Gilgamesh, perhaps portrayed as a complete asshole in an attempt to make Evil Matriarch Kageyama Hiroko look more sympathetic in comparison.
- Akihiko Kurata, the Mad Scientist from Digimon Savers, is incredibly manipulative, condescending, and selfish, and his habit of situating himself well out of harm's way until he's absolutely sure of success makes him even more infuriating. This is somewhat made up for by his extreme cowardice, which makes the times when things actually go against him very satisfying indeed.
- Tomoe Marguerite from Mai-Otome. She's a condescending egotist and sociopath who has no problem throwing other Garderobe students under the bus to save her own skin. Frustrated that she couldn't get everything she wanted, she joined up with Nagi to exact revenge upon Arika and her friends. She claims to have done it all for the love of Shizuru, but her reaction to her only remaining allies turning against her makes it more than obvious she was only doing so for herself (making her out to be an extremely sore loser, to boot, as she tries to attack Arika again in a desperate last charge that ends with Tomoe's own armor broken and her hurtling toward the ground at 1,000 feet...a fall that she somehow survives).
- Millions Knives from Trigun. Missing throughout the entire anime except for a few scenes, we're expected to take him seriously when we see him sitting down in a field sipping a glass of wine? Even though his Dragon had nearly mentally crippled Vash, Knives lost to him in the span of an episode!
- Job Trunicht from Legend Of Galactic Heroes is particularly notorious for throwing an entire interstellar nation under the bus for personal gain, multiple times. In an unusual example, he's actually aware of what a slimy scumbag he is:
Trunicht: Democracy isn't really all that remarkable. You can just look at me, Fleet Admiral. Someone like me can hold power and make others live and die as he likes. If that isn't a flaw of democracy, then what is?
- One Piece both plays it straight and subverts it. There are plenty of Smug Snakes who rather satisfyingly get their asses handed to them by the Straw Hats, which makes them lose everything. The subversion comes from the fact that said snakes end up better off from said asskicking. Look no further than Wapol who after he was defeated by the Straw Hats and blown away from Drum island ended up starting a toy company, became a multi-millonaire, and married a model. Also, Helmeppo, who after the defeat of both him and his father, re-evaluated himself decided to seriously pursue the profession of a marine officer with Coby.
- The most extreme (and awesome) occurrence of this happened recently in the manga series, where Luffy is finally caught by the Amazons and forced to fight for his life against a giant armored Puma. He beats it in one punch, leaving the entire Smug Snake island with their jaws on the floor.
- Jean Gedoo from Geneshaft has all the ego of being the valedictorian in his class (and Yugi hair), with the "best genes" for leadership. Granted, he wasn't bad tactically, but he was far too obsessed with asserting and proving his worthiness, to the point that he would do very cruel things simply because he felt that someone - anyone - did not acknowledge his perfection...or simply because he was perfect and thus beyond judgment. That he had a problem with Mario Musicanova really grated.
- Diethard Reid of Code Geass serves as this role in a show full of Magnificent Bastards.
- Hajime Mizuki from The Prince Of Tennis starts this way, being an extremely quirky Strategist who wasn't above of using one of his player's insecurities to his advantage, despite the risks it'd bring to the kid. After a memorable Humiliation Conga dealt to him by said player's overprotective older brother, he gets a slightly more sympathetic role and becomes a sort of Ensemble Darkhorse (making him one of the very rare Snakes who's a bit popular in fandom)... Mainly since he's the epithome of Always Camp and therefore it's easy to put him in Ho Yay situations.
- Jonathan Glenn from Brain Powerd probably thinks himself a Magnificent Bastard... and that's just his first failing! A combination of overconfidence, Kick The Dog moments, and the fact his manipulations never really go anywhere (Plus, he later allows himself to become Baron Maximillian's pawn) gets him a place in this trope and makes him one of the most unsympathetic characters in the series.
- Katsuhiko Jinnai from El Hazard certainly counts. Being a brilliant strategist and sucessful conqueror isn't enough to make up for his monumental ego and annoying laugh; traits that make him both hateable and/or hilarious to the audience.
- Why is it that Foss from Berserk is the main picture yet he hasn't been mentioned yet?
Comic Books
- The second Hobgoblin was a B-rate villain who stole the costume and and gear of more formidable foes in Spider-Man history, and eventually his predecessors had him maimed and killed for his wannabe aspirations.
- At least two characters from Jack Kirby's Fourth World mythos fit the trope: Desaad, Darkseid's majordomo/torturer, and Glorious Godfrey, Darkseid's PR man.
- Kanjar Ro, a Silver Age foe of the Justice League Of America and "intergalactic entrepeneur", fits this trope.
Film
- Kaa from Disney's The Jungle Book literally is a Smug Snake. This is the complete opposite of his personality in Kipling's original book, where he was more of an Old Master who has the respect (and fear) of the Jungle. Disney didn't like the idea of a snake being a hero. Go figure.
- The arms smuggler and film's protagonist Yuri in Lord Of War is the epitome of Smug Snake. A CMOT Dibbler that refuses to confront the vehemence of his guilt and crimes by arguing that "I just sell guns, I don't pull the trigger". He taunts an honorable and idealistic weapons inspector, Valentin, by using the letter of the law to divert its spirit. Though by the end of the film he's still at it, he has everyone and everything he loves crumble around him. Interestingly, he was based on an actual person, who was recently just captured.
- The Chamberlain in The Dark Crystal infuriates his rivals with a simpering croon, like a mother trying to soothe a child. Though he's stripped of his rank and banished, his guile and persuasion are still impressive, and get downright creepy when he meets the Gelflings.
- Pirates Of The Caribbean features Lord Cutler Beckett, a Corrupt Corporate Executive played deliberately and with slimy relish. Who'd have thought that a series whose villains thus far were cursed, immortal undead pirates would have a stereotypical evil English aristocrat as its Big Bad? He's so repulsive that he made many viewers sympathise with Davy Jones when the latter was forced into servitude. Evidently the writers felt the same, as Jones' death is an anticlimactic drop-off-the-deck while Beckett gets a huge, epic Slow Mo walk through his exploding ship complete with Ominous Latin Chanting.
- As a Karmic Death, though, it appeared to backfire since it made the much more interesting Jones seem even less important...but the rather appropriate death of the Smug Snake's Dragon at Davy Jones'...er..."hands", makes up for it, since he shared some of the same qualities as Beckett (as well as being a violent borderline psychopath). Over half the fans of the movies wanted Jones to live.
- The Proposition has Eden Fletcher, played by David Wenham speaking through his nose, and very intentionally meant to inspire the audience's hate. If Cutler Beckett and Dolores Umbridge got married and had a baby, and the baby grew up and took lessons at Eton in Being a Hateful Snob, it would still fall far short of Eden Fletcher. Even more infuriating than his cold-blooded perception of justice (100 lashes for a retarded 14-year old? Why the hell not?) is his status as Karma Houdini.
- The James Bond film The Living Daylights features General Koskov, an effective villain who so very much wants to be a Magnificent Bastard, but doesn't quite make it. In his favour, though, he does come equipped with one of the best Xanatos Gambits in Bond movie history.
- The Dragon in Equilibrium, who seems to be far, far too smug for someone who's supposedly emotionless (a clue that he isn't taking his Prozium, and earns himself a suitably anticlimactic Karmic Death for it.
- Theron in Frank Miller's 300 (or the movie version thereof, at any rate). A wannabe political manipulator in a city-state full of warriors, Theron's manipulations succeed in delaying Sparta's march to war for a time, but he quickly gets his comeuppance when Queen Gorgo runs him through with a sword for calling her a whore in front of the Council, which coincidentally exposes his Persian bribe money, thus exposing him as a traitor.
- Of course, that wasn't just for calling her a whore, which made that pwnage triply satisfying, particularly since she delivers an Ironic Echo of the words that he said to her as he was raping her.
- The movie Divorce Italian Style has the Villain Protagonist Don Fefe (even the name is less than magnificent) who throughout the film plots to lure his ugly wife into adultery so that in keeping with traditional custom, he can kill her and her and her lover with impunity and marry his beautiful cousin. Outside of the loathsome nature of this plan, he is less than clever in carrying it out (finding himself in an odd position of being jealous of the wife he didn't give a damn for) and the movie ends ironically by implying that his new wife, the cousin, will be begin cuckolding him almost immediately.
- Eddie Brock in Spider Man 3 is, at least initially, a slimy, unctuous creep who sucks up to Jameson to advance his own career prospects, is a bit too creepy-stalkerish with Gwen Stacy, the 'girl he intends to marry' (although Gwen is quick to point out that they've only ever been out for a coffee once) and ends up manufacturing a photo of Spider-Man robbing a bank to frame the superhero and secure a staff job at the Bugle. Then Peter exposes his fake, he loses his job, and Gwen breaks up with him - and then he meets Venom...
Literature
- Dolores Jane Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix is a purposeful Smug Snake. A sugary sweet Stepford Smiler who is biased against non- and half-humans and uses laws and technicalities to get her way, Umbridge is one very nasty lady.
- Cersei Lannister in A Song Of Ice And Fire. Her nasty yet incompetent attempts at manipulation and power-grabbing alienate almost every one of her allies and could well lead her to her just desserts.
- Lord Petyr Littlefinger seems like a Smug Snake to most of the other characters, but this is a smokescreen to hide what is actually a subtle Magnificent Bastard, who has apparently single-handedly organized the War of Five Kings as well as the assassination of two kings, while simultaneously organizing the rise of a new queen.
- In the Dragonlance novels, Quarath, the Evil Chancellor to the leader of the Corrupt Church fits this model. His own ambitions for power and wealth are compared to the epic confrontation between actual Magnificent Bastards Raistlin and Fistandantilus of which Quarath is completely unaware. Ended up being squashed by a pillar as his temple collapsed when his master pisses off the gods that Quarath had pretty much stopped believing in by this point.
- Cosmo Lavish from Making Money is basically an obsessed fan-boy of Vetinari, who is an actual Magnificent Bastard. He tries extremely hard to be just like Vetinari, trying to get his old clothes and practising his eyebrow-raising. He eventually goes crazy, thinking he really is Vetinari, and gets committed to an insane asylum, which apparently has a whole ward dedicated to people who think they're Vetinari.
- In the book American Gods, Loki goes from Magnificent Bastard to Smug Snake once we find out he's been working for Mr. Wednesday/Odin, the true Magnificent Bastard of the story, all along.
- Also, the "new gods" of technology and the modern marketplace and such.
- The emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in War And Peace. The characters take up at least a third of the book talking about, predicting the actions of, or plotting against him. When Prince Andrei and later when Balashov, an emissary of the Russian emperor, finally meet him, they're both struck by how disappointing he is compared to his reputation. He's purposefully portrayed this way.
- That sounds like Tolstoy was giving a Take That to Boney.
- Don Sebastiano, the head of the Alphas in the Whateley Universe, turned two heroes on campus into his mindslaves and got away with it, then used that to leverage himself into his spot as the alpha Alpha. But he's started into the Humiliation Conga now, since he has messed with the wrong protagonists. In this term, he's been shown up by freshmen, caught trying to use psychic intrusion on the hero Chaka, punched in the nose in front of the whole school (Chaka again), and given the worst detention at school: cleaning the bio-hazard-marked toilets in Hawthorne cottage. (What lives in the toilets there is so hideous that no one can describe it, but you need to have fully-charged energy weapons just to try to clean them.) Things are still going downhill for him, in slow motion.
- The title character of A Coffin for Dimitrios is a good fit, being a clever schemer, but such an unpleasant treacherous thug that he's completely unlikeable. Also notable is that he ends up addicted to the same drugs he sells, something which would never happen to a Magnificent Bastard. Interestingly, the character might have been an inspiration for Keyser Soze of The Usual Suspects, who by contrast is definitely a Magnificent Bastard.
- Vidal Vordarian from Lois Mc Master Bujold's Vorkosigan series. He wants to run Barrayar, but is effortlessly and unintentionally defeated in his attempt to do it legitimately by Aral Vorkosigan. So he tries a coup, but fails to capture the true heir or assassinate the Regent. He gets the ruling council to go along, but only at obvious gunpoint. And then he loses his head to Vorkosigan's wife. His "greatest" achievement is his implied rape of the dowager Empress, who he marries (again, obviously by force). Smug Snake indeed.
- Edward Cullen from Twilight. Despite the fact that fans like deleting this entry on him being a SmugSnake, he fits this trope perfectly. The writer attempts to portray this character as a cross between an ideal hero and a Magnificent Bastard. But what is created instead is a cross between a Jerkass Stu, The Wesley, and a Stalker With A Crush. Add in some excessive smirks and arrogant, hackneyed dialog, and we have a Smug Snake.
Live Action TV
- The Sheriff of Nottingham of the new BBC series Robin Hood seems to count himself a great Magnificent Bastard, but in practice his evil works tend to be rather too easily foiled by Robin Hood's men to be considered the work of a true evil genius. Furthermore, his 'la-di-da-di-da!' catchphrase, often uttered as a sign of impatient indifference in response to threats concerning the meddling of Robin Hood and his men, is much too unctuous, awkward, and obnoxious to be a distinctive of a true Magnificent Bastard.
- Pro wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts tended to waver between Smug Snake and Magnificent Bastard, depending on how cartoonishly evil he was booked. The page quote comes from a point in time where he was firmly in Smug Snake territory.
- Captain Kevin Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth, a snotty little creep who, working safely behind the battlelines as General Melchett's adjutant officer, has made it his life's mission to make sure that Blackadder doesn't escape the trenches of World War One. He's loathed by Blackadder for obvious reasons; however, despite (or because of) all his sucking up, the General can't stand him either, at one point informing Darling that he regards him as a son - just not a particularly well-liked one.
- Lilah Morgan from Angel was a true Magnificent Bastard, but eventually she had to die and be replaced, and that replacement was Eve. As The Poor Mans Substitute for Lilah, Eve inevitably came off as a Smug Snake, but the writers seemed to realize this, and put her through a series of events that had the effect of breaking the cutie. They were of the opinion that she would be more interesting if she got some Character Development that such that she would no longer be driven by slyness and cool disdain (as she started out), but by fear, anger, and a Minion Shipping romance with Lindsey.
- The Master of Doctor Who devolves from his usual Magnificent Bastard status unnervingly often, the most egregious examples being in the Made For TV Movie, in which his grand evil scheme was to... not die (one of the many reasons it is commonly filed under Discontinuity), and in the episode "Logopolis" in which he wipes out a large part of the universe and octillions of people because he didn't do his homework.
- In fact, a lot of serials with the Master as the main villain can be described less as "the Master is trying to take over the world" than as "the Master is up to yet another dumb scheme that's likely to get out of control and cause The End Of The World As We Know It."
- Pick any villain from any episode of The A Team, any villain.
- The Vorta in Star Trek Deep Space Nine are a Planet Of Hats of Smug Snakes, with Weyoun as the smuggest. Kai Winn probably qualifies as well.
- G'Kar during the first season of Babylon 5 and especially in the pilot movie.
- Also, Mister Morden, with his ever annoying arrogant smile. J Michael Straczynski points out in the commentary that he specifically loved the actor for how unlikeably smug he made the character come off: "Look at that guy! Don't you just want to hate him?"
- Speaker of the House Haffley from The West Wing is an example of the "failed Magnificent Bastard" variety. He often tries to use the Republican majority in Congress to be irritatingly obstructionist to Democratic president Bartlet. However, often when he is most confident is when he fails terribly (such as when his attempt to cut the budget leads to the government going broke and Haffley look stupid, or when his pulling a vote on stem cell research to interfere with Democratic campaigning leads to Matt Santos tricking him into thinking the Democrats had left when they didn't).
- The former example almost works; the government shutdown cripples the United States and the public blames Bartlet... until a Crowning Moment Of Awesome where Bartlet walks to Congress to discuss the matter with Haffley - unfortunately for Haffley, he's unprepared for this, his Smug Snake instincts kick in, and he ends up leaving Bartlet sitting in a corridor whilst he tries to figure out what to do. This backfires on him badly when Bartlet merely leaves, making Haffley look incompetent, arrogant and uncaring, causing public opinion to swing into a serious backlash against him and forcing him to eat crow and accept Bartlet's budget terms.
- An infrequent recurring character called Larry Claypool represented the 'slimy-but-low-level Obstructive Bureaucrat meets Amoral Attorney' kind; a lawyer for a right-wing organisation that frequently sought to embarrass the President by muckracking, he often issues subpoenas to the characters requiring them to testify about issues that will cause embarrassment to the President and his staff, and comes off as smugly as possible whilst doing so. He's frequently described as an idiotic, pompous blowhard, but a dangerous one since he has the unerring ability to find things that might cause serious damage to the administration in his muckraking.
- Malcolm Dietrich in season two of Murder One was a very, very obvious attempt to replicate the magic the show had with Richard Cross, the Magnificent Bastard from the first season. For whatever reason it just didn't work, though undoubtedly at least part of this was due to not being able to score as good an actor as Stanley Tucci, who had played Cross.
- Brad Bellick in the first season of Prison Break practically embodies this trope. As a corrupt correctional officer, he certainly acts all "magnificent-y bastard-y" like. He deals with former mob-boss Abruzzi, has a history of inmate abuse, insults Ax Crazy Magnificent Bastard "T-Bag" in his face and interrupts Michael's plans quite often. But at the same time he is unattractive, obnoxious, sleazy, importunate... You catch my drift.
- Agent Kim from season 2 is another notorious example, lording and sneering over our heroes while being generally inept in almost all of his endeavors, then getting done in by the most unlikely of culprits.
- And let us not forget Don Self after he was revealed to be The Mole. Where Bellick had at least some sense of magnificent bastard-ness, this guy is just too annoying to like.
- Trymon in the TV series adaptation of The Colour of Magic. Ungarnished ambition, oily hair, and being played by Tim Curry all result in a decidedly un-magnificent Bastard.
- Heroes: season 3 Big Bad Arthur Petrelli: between his ludicrous amounts of power, constant dog-kicking and smug, smarmy tone throughout it all.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- In an actual good guy example, strange as it sounds, Advocat from Grim Grimoire could probably manage being a Magnificent Bastard if he really tried. He is, however, well aware that he has little to gain from either side winning and so spends most of the game flirting with the female students, throwing around pithy comments and generally remaining smug and condescending. Amazingly, he still manages to be the most helpful character in the game, mostly out of vague amusement at the main character's own faltering steps into Magnificent Bastardhood.
- Zetta from Makai Kingdom is another good guy example, though far less sympathetic. Despite declaring himself the "Most badass freaking overlord in the universe" about once a scene he spends most of the game totally powerless, surviving mostly on the charity of people he regularly insults. The game levels things out by making him a regularly mocked Butt Monkey.
- And then there's King Drake III, whose smugness could probably clog up a black hole.
- Zetta is intended to be a smug snake on purpose for laughs though.
- Edwin Odesseiron from the Baldur's Gate series... with a side of Chew Toy from time to time, and maybe a little Ted Baxter while he's at it. He is really funny, if you get to know him. (If you simians have a small thing called 'Wit') And several fans think of him beyond that, even giving him a romance mod; Which admittedly does flesh him out quite a bit without removing his Jerk Ass, pushing his popularity to rival that of the lovable Ranger, Minsc, if throwing him into the Draco In Leather Pants and realm. Huh. Maybe it's that accent?
- Rosencrantz from Vagrant Story is a smug bastard all the way, who thinks he has the secret of Lea Monde all figured out...and then Ashley whips his ass, and hardly anyone seems to care.
- Dahlia Hawthorne from the third Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney game counts. Sure, she's beautifully scheming and leaves a trail of bodies in her wake, but none of her Xanatos Gambits actually succeed. Dahlia's equally evil mother, Morgan Fey has the the same problem.
- Dahlia's status as this was likely intentional, given that Mia and Phoenix actually get rid of her by pointing out what a failure she is. Ironically, she actually did more harm than some of villains who are closer to qualifying as Magnificent Bastards, like Engarde.
- It could be argued that this is close to Real Life. The chances of being caught for a crime exponentially increase every time a murder or similar crime is committed. Expert Criminals will want to avoid this by minimising the targets, causing less harm. An example follows: Manfred von Karma used someone to kill a person just to wreak revenge on Miles Edgeworth. On the other side of the scale, Joe Darke had no real criminal plans whatsoever and became a mass murderer.
- Stratos from Sacrifice is close, so close to being a true Magnificent Bastard, summoning a plane-eating demon and using him to sow discord between the gods of the realm, unravelling their ancient ties and compounding their mutual distrust by worming himself into their graces and playing them up against each other before switching sides and stabbing them in the back (and being voiced by Tim Curry also helps, if only for the VA cred). Unfortunately, unless the player allies with him in the end (by which point you should know he's playing you as well), his lack of control over said plane-eating demon comes back to bite him in the ass. His appearance of an inflatable balloon with a smiley face on it and his rather overt aspirations of monotheism also deduct somewhat.
- Stratos will be offed by Marduk if you side with Persephone, James or Charnel. If you side with Pyro... you barge in to his realm and pop 'is head off.
- Kevin from Xenosaga not only supplies (and initiates in others) epic quantities of angst, he does this while taking his shirt off a lot and speaking in a measured, patronising tone that assumes everyone but him is very, very stupid. As a result, the moment when weedy Unlucky Childhood Friend Allen finally stands up to him is definitely a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- Shuji Ikutsuki from Persona 3 manages to pull off a months-long Xanatos Gambit that sets in motion The End Of The World As We Know It, and does it all behind a façade of dorky jokes and friendly smiles. After The Reveal, though, it turns out he's just a Nietzsche Wannabe whose Motive Rant is delivered with all the enthusiasm and energy of a news reader. He also botches the ensuing You Have Outlived Your Usefulness by making the classic mistake of underestimating The Power Of Friendship (and the dog). If he had crucified the dog as well, it would have pushed the scene into Narm territory.
- The awkwardness of the Motive Rant might be attributable to mediocre voice acting, as there was something definitely "off" about most (if not all) of his lines in the game.
- Zexion from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. He is very overconfident in his strategic and manipulative abilities, but none of his schemes work out like he wanted them to. Appropriately enough, he winds up being done in by the game's real Magnificent Bastard, Axel.
- With a few exceptions, pretty much every villain from the Atelier Iris series, the biggest example being Mull. His Expy, Crowley, was thankfully a lot closer to being a Magnificent Bastard, but still didn't quite make it.
- Most of the non- and post-Dracula villains in the Castlevania series, such as Graham Jones in Aria and the cult leaders in Dawn, come off as Smug Snakes vainly attempting to fill the Count's shoes o' evilness. Also, Walter in Lament Of Innocence, primarily because his motivation for doing evil was being a bored, unkillable vampire asshat. Can't get much more smug than that. Have a distinct tendency to get effortlessly manipulated by Dracula and pro-Dracula minions such as Death. Mostly-averted by tragic-backstory-vamp Brauner, and Isaac, who's far too...entertaining (read: flamboyantly gay and bat-shit-insane) to qualify.
- Nicholai from Shadow Hearts: Covenant tries so hard to be a Magnificent Bastard. He's charismatic, scheming and utterly selfish, and loves to taunt you from just outside your reach. He sets up deals with every evil faction in the game so that whoever remains standing at the end, he should achieve his goals. He even contracts the power of a god! Unfortunately for him, he doesn't quite count on Yuri kicking the crap out of everyone, his sudden romantic infatuation with Karin makes him look dorky, his plan to release the Malice of Apoina Tower comes off as petty revenge, and he ends up getting completely outmanoeuvred by someone even more scheming. Not to mention the completely undignified way in which he finally bites the dirt.
- Shinji Matou in Fate Stay Night. An idiot who tries to be a Magnificent Bastard... in many ways. Taking advantage of Shiro's naivete to get off free from his duties of cleaning up the archery club, and then 'taking advantage' of his Matou bloodline to make him feel more 'fearsome' in the War. And then taking advantage of Sakura's meek attitude and hesitance to fight Shiro in order to get Rider, and then still treat her poorly and consider her weak (even though in truth it was HIM who was holding her back). Of course all to win the Holy Grail for his own selfish purposes. That never works well. Especially after Rider's defeat, he plans to take shelter and... he met his end against Berserker. Bumping into Berserker definitely is NOT on his plans. And that was just Fate route...
- In Unlimited Blade Works, after losing Rider, he immediately replaced her with... Gilgamesh. Then goes along with Archer, who had captured Rin, and then plans to rape her when she was all tied up, but didn't expect
The Spanish Inquisition Lancer to come in, save her, and even drive him away with a permanent wound. And to hammer it down worse, he couldn't control Gilgamesh fully, and Gil proceeds to turn him into the embodiment of the Holy Grail. He did survive, and definitely he had learned his lessons afterwards
- And in Heaven's Feel, he plans to have free sex with Sakura, blackmailing her by revealing her dark secret. The bastard didn't realize that at that rate, Sakura is a dangerous person. And the result was obvious and satisfying, he got his head lopped off by Sakura. You Go Girl!
- Anyone with the "Naive Puppet Master" trait in Crusader Kings.
- Seth in Command And Conquer, in contrast to Kain, his Magnificent Bastard of a boss.
- Zant, the Usurper Twilight King, in The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- Dr. Wallace Breen of HalfLife 2 fame. Acting as the puppet governor for the Combine, Breen keeps spouting out probaganda about the good intentions of "our benefactors" throughout the game (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary) as well as making disparaging remarks on how Dr. Freeman "has created nothing". He is not even above threatening the transhuman Combine soldiers with "permanent off-world assignment" as a punishment for failure or, for that matter, the entire human race with extinction if they do not comply. He also seemingly betrays his own Mole within La Resistance, Dr. Mossman, refusing to make a bargain for Dr. Vance's life. Breen keeps gloating about how Freeman will be "destroyed in every way possible and even some ways that are essentially impossible" even when he is about to escape through the Combine portal. Much to this troper's satisfaction, he is apparently killed as Freeman damages the dark fusion reactor, causing the portal to collapse.
- Grand Maestro Mohs from Tales Of The Abyss. A half-baked manipulator and a Villain With Good Publicity (even amongst some of your party members), whose ability to come back time and time again to frustrate you is only matched by his ability to worm his way out of it again by hiding behind legal subtext and the fact that your party members carry the Idiot Ball and let the butterball escape time and time again. Even after he kicks the dog bigtime by killing Ion the party still lets him get away with it for some contrived reason, and he eventually dies most unsatisfying after pulling a One Winged Angel act and becoming too insane to be fun to kill — and some of the party members have the audacity to feel sorry for him afterwards.
- The OG version of Duminuss tries to be a Magnificent Bitch, but fails so horribly in every attempt. Let us take notice to what she planned... and how she failed:
- Plan 1: Get the Time Flow Engine to the OG Universe. This one succeeds, and it temporarily separates Raul and Fiona... until Plan 3 (see below) comes in, and the combination of Over Gate Engine and Time Flow Engine brought Fiona back by a struck of luck, thus empowering the EFA even further.
- Plan 2: Reprogrammed Lamia to kill the EFA's morale. Her justification is that since they failed to save her in the first place was such a big blow to their morale, failing to save her the second time, and making it look like they really have no choice will completely kill it. It would've succeeded... if only Duminuss killed Axel on spot when she was doing Plan 1. The result was, Axel came Back From The Dead and successfully saved Lamia.
- Plan 3: Take over the Over Gate Engine, and Compatible Kaiser, while making use of the Emi Armor she found. She uses the G Thunder Gate, with a Brainwashed And Crazy Shouko (as Figher Emi) to take the Kaiser's Engine. Too bad she underestimates Kouta's brotherly love and hot blood towards his sister, and he snaps her out of it.
- Plan 4: Find her master, through all that plans above, and get to know her purpose of life. That does succeed... in a You Suck way, since Dark Brain instantly gives a "NO U" on her plea of help and killed her on spot, deeming her as a falure. If all those plans were actually masterminded by Dark Brain, he'd be a Magnificent Bastard. But since he didn't... well he's not.
- Also, Treacherous Advisor Mizal Touval displays the traits of a Smug Snake in both his game of origin and in OG. From his plan to turn the rest of the Shura against Folka, or usurping the Shura King's power, all of them magnificently backfired at him, especially on the cases where he masterminded the death of Folka's Aloof Big Brother Altis, this always result on Fernando (whom he turned Brainwashed And Crazy) turning his back on him in either instantly snapping out of his brainwashed state (OG), or gets into an Unstoppable Rage out of his brother's death and attacked Mizal instead (Compact 3). OG Gaiden seems to pit you again two Smug Snakes, since Mizal collaborated with Duminuss...
- Gary Smith from Bully shows this trope in such a way you look forward to beating the snot out of him in the final showdown.
- From what this Troper has seen, read and heard Gary is the most popular character in Bully.
- The problem with Gary is that he's about as subtle as a brick to the groin. There's nothing remotely clever about the way he tricks people into believing his lies; despite being exposed as a sociopathic, compulsive liar time and time again, everyone automatically believes everything he says. He also honestly thinks that he can take Jimmy in a fight, even though Jimmy has already beaten up everyone else in the school.
- Yeah, but most of the people he successfully fools are genuinely stupid: Russell is a fairly obvious idiot, Tad Spencer the Preppie appears to have been addled by generation after generation of inbreeding, Johnny Vincent appears to be too angry to think straight, and Earnest of the Nerds appears to have difficulty thinking while in an egotistical mood- ie, all the time.
- Sakaki from the .hack//G.U. trilogy is a classic Smug Snake who has moments of the true Magnificent Bastard-hood (notably his complete and total manipulation of Atoli), but he has more arrogance then skill, failing to comphrend how dangerous it is to use the ADIDA, and managed to get the entire population of an MMORPG out for his blood after he somehow managed to convince CC Corp to give him Administration rights, after he decided to host a Player Killer Tournament to trap Haseo.
- Sengoku from Yakuza 2 is an epic Smug Snake, from his gold suit and retro sunglasses all the way to his totally camp personality and permanent toothy smile. Spending his time blackmailing your contacts and minor allies into turning on you, he proves so irritating that he eventually ends up being taken out by his own Dragon and thrown off a building. You can't help but thank him for the service...
- While he pulls off Xanatos Roulettes with the best of them, Gongora from Lost Odyssey is pretty much a straight up jerk lacking anything approaching style. It doesn't help that most of the people he manipulates are amnesiacs, inbred royals and money grubbing alcoholic skirt-chasers. When he actually has to manipulate someone with a brain, he tends to use cruder methods.
- It also doesn't help that he, you know, RADIATES evil, his attempts against the amnesiacs amounts to 'I'm not the bad guy, YOU ARE', he kicks dogs for fun, and he indulges in maniacal laughter BEFORE checking to see if his plan actually worked...while is Too Dumb To Live allies watch, which triggers their danger senses.
- Edwin of Baldur's Gate thinks of himself as a Magnificent Bastard and would like to think the rest of the world considers him one as well, but aside from certain elements of the fandom, is not taken seriously, by party members or the game world itself. In the end, he's mainly relegated to sarcastic comic relief.
- Both Waylon and Admiral Greyfield in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Waylon fights on Greyfield's side against your army just because he feels like it, and Greyfield...well, let's just say that after a certain mission, you wouldn't want him commanding your forces anymore.
- Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising has the appropriately-named Adder, who fights dirtily, has utter contempt for most of his enemies (and tries to persuade the one he does respect to join Black Hole) and revels in the crushing of civilians. Every defeat you inflict upon him is wonderfully cathartic. Contrast with the more Magnificent Bastard-like Hawke, who tempers his villainy with competence and a healthy respect for his opponents.
- Advance Wars: Dual Strike has Rich Bitch Kindle.
- Alfonso from Skies Of Arcadia. Even Galcian, a pretty mean bastard in his own right, holds Alfonso in contempt after he callously kills off his own vice-captain when his airship is taken over by Vyse and Aika at the beginning of the game.
Webcomics
- Daimyo Kubota of The Order Of The Stick is an always plotting, genre savvy aristocrat. Almost everything he does to try to usurp Hinjo's position is just plain hateful, culminating in him ordering the asassination of a pair of former commoners who were promoted to nobility. The wife is pregnant. When the plan fails, he murders his own number two with poison just to give himself time to escape. When he's captured, he plans to use his good publicity to avoid justice and humiliate Hinjo. Fortunately, righ
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