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"Yeah, reach out for me! I'm a snake! Never trust a snake!"
— Jake "The Snake" Roberts, WWF Superstars
"Smiling poison and suspicious craft."
The Smug Snake is a type of character (usually cast as a villain) who tends to treat friends and enemies alike with equal disdain. They almost constantly speak in a sarcastic tone and punctuate most of their sentences with a smirk. More often than not, they will aspire to be a formidable and awe-inspiring adversary, but tend to fail in the face and/or servitude of more cunning villains. Others that fall under this trope are simply in it to bug the good guys and take advantage of their moral insecurity.
A key character trait common to Smug Snakes is overconfidence. Most often, they will think themselves to be the Magnificent Bastard. While they may believe that they have the situation under control (whether they do so through blackmail, coercion, or simply being in a position of authority), there will usually be a hole in that plan that they failed to consider. Perhaps they underestimated their opponents' abilities and claimed themselves unbeatable, or maybe they made a really stupid mistake along the way. Once that realization hits, expect the Snake to lose their cool right before everything starts falling apart for them. They are not necessarily entirely incompetent or ineffectual, however, and may succeed with at least part of their goals, but they are still lacking that charm and grace that the Magnificent Bastard possesses.
Sometimes, a writer will purposely introduce a Smug Snake as a target for audience hate by making them Kick The Dog or bend the rules to get their way and come out smelling like a rose. Basically, this is a villain that's made to be hated and the audience will enjoy hating. This, like all other tropes, can backfire if misused. If the writer still tries to foist the character as a Magnificent Bastard when their previous actions have proven otherwise, the audience will likely stop enjoying to hate the character, and instead genuinely hate them as much as they would The Scrappy or The Wesley.
When the Smug Snake meets the Mary Sue trope, then you have a Villain Sue.
Compare Manipulative Bastard. Contrast Worthy Opponent and Magnificent Bastard, who inspire respect and/or admiration from their opponents/the audience. See also Smug Super. Not to be confused with another smug Snake.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Minister Foss from Berserk.
- Masaya Wadou is this in Witchblade, on top of being a Corrupt Corporate Executive. This is his undoing because he tries so hard to be a Magnificent Bastard, but he keeps fucking up royally because as Badass Normal Reiji Takayama puts it, "He's always looking for shortcuts." This winds up biting him on the ass in an cruelly ironic way.
- 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.
- It runs in his family, judging from Babhem.
- 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 to 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.
- Arguably, Orochimaru from Naruto. Sure, he's evil and fairly skilled, but he leaves a lot of the planning to his Enigmatic Minion. Also a literal example, what with his theme being snakes.
- Gato of the Land of Waves arc loudly complains when Zabuza and his followers fail to kill Tazuna, despite them being stronger than him or any of the other men he has in his employ, and tries to kill both Zabuza and Team 7 after their battle in order to save money, showing considerable arrogance, overconfidence and disdain for his allies. Unfortunately, he doesn't count on the injured and Heel Face Turned Zabuza having enough strength and skill to kill him.
- Frank Archer from the anime version of Fullmetal Alchemist is the epitome of a Smug Snake; a ruthless sociopath who orchestrated 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 sees him as a Smug Snake. The authors, notably, were ultimately going for this reaction, and a lot of his dog-kicking is necessary to ultimately put him on the villainous side; even without the Draco In Leather Pants factor, Light Yagami is very easy to see as a hero.
- Higuchi's a better example, because while Light has a tremendous ego and no qualms about manipulating people, he is quite brilliant. Higuchi, however, enjoys insulting people, is highly arrogant, is the second least competent member of Yotsuba (behind someone who was put in to make him look smart) and is obsessed with achieving power and status.
- Gauron from Full Metal Panic. Treating both allies and enemies with disdain? Check. Always speaking in a sarcastic tone, ending it with a smirk? Check. Loves to bug the protagonist and take advantage of his moral insecurity? Check. Overconfident that his plans will go exactly the way he wants? Check.
- Yuri Killian became one of these toward the end of the first season of Kaleido Star, enacting a complicated revenge plot against Kalos Eido, his former boss, for the death of his father Aaron several years ago. While he succeeds in buying out Kaleido Stage and forcing most of its stars out (all the while taunting them about how they'll never make it big without him), attendance under Yuri's management dwindles rapidly because of people complaining the shows aren't as fun as they used to be. As a final insult, his ex-partner Layla Hamilton sees what he's done, attempts to fight back and finally gives him a hard slap to the face for assuming everything was Kalos' fault even after he learned that Aaron's death was genuinely accidental, and Kalos had been trying to make up for it ever since.
- Yuri actually is one of the few Snakes who actually has a Heel Face Turn and works hard to become The Atoner. Even if he goes too far in Leon's case...
- 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 the anime version of Mai-Otome spends a lot of her time plotting against Arika and her friends (and eventually the whole of Garderobe Academy), attempting to bump them all off in an effort to get Shizuru to notice her. Her inability to control her pride and keep her hatred for Arika in check prevent her from succeeding with anything bigger than small-time crimes, though she still winds up as a Karma Houdini in the end, mainly due to her accomplice taking full responsibility for everything Tomoe did in the first half of the series (and nobody keeping close tabs on either of them).
- The manga incarnations of Nagi in both Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome are far less Affably Evil and manipulative than his anime counterparts, though he is much more proactive in opposing the heroines, rather than plotting from the background. In both cases, he gets beaten pretty badly (twice in the former).
- Nagi from the Mai-Otome manga partially subverts the trope by being the only version of Nagi in the mangas or animes to make a Heel Face Turn and actually reveal himself to be a semi-decent human being. He actually dies in a Heroic Sacrifice defending the main hero! It is, however, only a partial subversion, because for most of the series, he was a complete ass.
- 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-millionaire, 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.
- Some end up better off, but many do not. Kuro ended up forced to be a pirate again, the last thing in the world he wanted to be. Crocodile was stripped of his prestigious position as a Sea Warlord and sentenced to life in the worst prison in the world. Arlong lost his empire and was caught by the Marines. On the other hand, Eneru got exactly what he wanted (his own moon kingdom, meaning he's the only major One Piece villain who actually won,) and then there's the ones who win a little and lose a little, like Moria who lost his ship and his zombies but got to keep his position and had his defeat covered-up by the government. It seems that the ultimate fate of a One Piece villain is left up to fate (and the whim of Oda) and being evil is no guarantee of comeuppance.
- Mr. 3 is probably the best example, primarily because he constantly harps about his tactics, when he’s weaker than Mr. 4, chronically overconfident and cowardly, and not even as smart as Crocodile. He'd like to be a Magnificent Bastard, but he's far too arrogant and not as clever as he thinks.
- Helmeppo's fate isn't particularly grating, though, due to a Heel Face Turn (he's basically trying to clean up his act, and he wants to restore his family's good name... by recapturing his fugitive dad).
- 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 this role in a show full of Magnificent Bastards. While at first he seems merely calculating and pragmatic, often pointing out the difficult, morally controversial issue in contrast to Ougi, he crosses the line into Smug Snake when, after taping the incident where the Black Knights betrayed Lelouch, he joined up with Schniezel. It culminates in him getting shot and begging Lelouch to use Geass on him, who responds with disdain. At least Ougi can be seen as a man who can't catch up to the controversial times due to his position as the local average guy - Diethard does have the brains and the means to get in and out at any time, but stupidly chooses not to.
- Also, all of the Chinese high eunuchs, who possess practically zero merits or skills of any kind and sell out practically everyone in their own country for their own benefit, while planning to either kill or marry off a lonely girl for exactly the same reason.
- 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 successful 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.
- Haruo from Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi, a fair weather friend with an ever-present arrogant smirk on his face who enjoys getting Kenichi into trouble (for example, by spreading the news of his victory over Tsukuba, which made Kenichi a target for Ragnarok). A lot of readers would like nothing better than crossing the pages of the manga and punch his teeth in...
- And he actually has snake tongue!
- Of course, he really is a Manipulative Bastard, and even Kenichi's masters admit that he has genuine strategic talent, and eventually he does become an asset to the team (kind of). He still has no fighting skill and an ego the size of a zeppelin, but still...
- Mikoto from Flame Of Recca. While her first credentials show her to be a Complete Monster, her fight with Fuuko cements her as a true Smug Snake, starting from the usage of Crocodile Tears, slow poisoning (while gloating on how she likes seeing life fading away), and finally, scoring a default victory through silencing the referee (who was about to declare KO), knocking Fuuko out and won over a ten count. As Raiha coined, it's not her physical strength that makes her a Jyuushinshu, it's her SLYNESS. Even Joker noted that he is really doubtful about how Mikoto ends up in the Jyuushinshu ranks. While still smuggy, she starts softening up when she got into a relationship with Mokuren. But that ends very
tragically pitifully for her.
- Goryo of Muhyo and Roji prides himself on his tactics, even though his grasp of magical law is inferior to Muhyo's. Despite (technically) winning the contest against Muhyo, Goryo’s plan to corner Ark fails miserably, forcing Muhyo to come to his aid. Goryo is also largely unlikable because his business model frequently involves Kick The Dog moments.
- Kashmir from Overman King Gainer is a pompous ass who uses underhanded tricks to try to defeat the Yapan Exodus. He succeeds once making it so that a Dome that the Exodus stopped at is damaged forcing them to join the Exodus which causes distrust and hatred which is the main source of Kashmir's plans (it also backfires when several of them form a second squad under former Siberian Railroad member Adette). All other plans fails at which point Kashmir who is the worst recurring mecha pilot in the series than gets his ass kicked.
- The condescending jerk Haraguchi from Genshiken. This is especially displayed in the manga, where he picks up one of the Genshiken's new comic releases, thumbs through it, and gives it back. When he could have gotten it for free.
- The Gundam franchise has numerous Smug Snakes in it including:
- M'Quve of the original Mobile Suit Gundam;
- Jamaican Danigan, Franklin Bidan and Bask Ohm from Zeta Gundam;
- Glemy Toto from Gundam ZZ;
- Chronicle Asher and Tassilo Vago of Victory Gundam;
- Duke Dermail and Dekim Barton of Gundam Wing;
- the Frost Brothers of Gundam X, though Olba is more of a Snake than Shagia who actually does partially get to be a Magnificent Bastard;
- Patrick Zala and Muruta Azrael of Gundam SEED;
- Lord Djibril and Yuna Roma Seiran of Gundam SEED Destiny; and
- Alejandro Corner, Wang Liu Mei and Arba Lindt of Gundam 00.
- Ribbons Almark is an interesting case of a character starting out as a straight Magnificent Bastard... but being unable to keep up with the rest of the field as the characters evolved, he began to rely almost exclusively on a supercomputer to counter everything the opponent had. Effectively, this led to his degenerating into a nasty Smug Snake towards the end.
- Chigusa, the Big Bad during the Kyoto arc of Mahou Sensei Negima. She acted all superior despite the fact that she's a Dirty Coward who hid behind a Human Shield (Konoka, her captive) whenever an enemy got near. In fact, when the inevitable happened and all her plans came crashing down around her in a spectacular manner, Chachazero, the Ax Crazy Perverse Puppet of Evangeline, appeared before her and called her out for all of her cowardly actions before giving her an ignoble defeat: Scaring her so badly that she fainted. And as though emphasizing her "feels a lot more important than she actually is" nature, the three minions
 she hired and lorded over in the Kyoto arc ( Koutarou, Tsukuyomi, and Fate) all turned out to both be stronger and a lot more plot relevant that Chigusa herself was in the grand scheme of things.
- Kurotowa in Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind fits this trope to the letter. Actor Chris Sarandon, who provided his voice in the English dub, even says he based his whole performance around the character's persistent sneer.
- Kristof from Monster.
- Luppi, the replacement sixth espada in Bleach was a smug snake in a big way; convinced of his indisputable superiority to his predecessor (Grimmjow), overestimating his skills in his fight with Hitsugaya and threatening to kill Orihime because he was injured in a diversion to cover for her abduction. Eventually, he gets killed in one shot by Grimmjow.
- Iwamoto and Akashi from Yu Yu Hakusho are what happen when you combine this with Sadist Teacher. They're always cooking up schemes to get Yusuke and Kuwabara expelled, but in the end always get thwarted by Yusuke and Mr. Takanaka.
- To a greater extent, Gonzou Tarukane, the hideous crimelord who imprisioned Yukina. He thought he had everything under control but in truth, he never even remotely stood a chance against Sakyou's Xanatos Gambit.
- There's also Rishu in the Dark Tournament arc. He thought his match against Kuwabara was in the bag due to the manipulations (read:bribery) his sponsor carried out. Oh how wrong he was.
- Tenzen in Basilisk sees himself as a Magnificent Bastard but doesn't live up to it, making a number of embarrassing mistakes. He gets himself killed several times over.
Comic Books
- The fourth Hobgoblin was a B-rate villain who stole the costume and and gear of one of the more formidable foes in Spider-Man history, and eventually the original Hobgoblin came out of retirement to kill the guy with the seven page losing streak 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.
- The Wizard from Fantastic Four is a good example. He thinks very highly of himself, but really he is just a fourth rate Dr. Doom wannabe with lamer motives, lamer tech and a way fewer accomplishments. He is dumb enough attack the Fantastic Four, a group that defeats Dr. Doom and Galactus on a regular basis, by forming a group called the Frightful Four and having the Trapster, a loser villain with a glue gun and used to be called "Paste Pot Pete", as a member.
- One of his more recent appearances involves him breaking into the Baxter Building with a new Frightful Four during a period where the Fantastic Four are suffering a downturn in their public fortunes and aren't expecting him, giving them a beat-down, and then broadcasting it all over the world to gloat about it. Yes, that's correct — his 'greatest triumph' is essentially a case of kicking someone when they're already down. And even then Reed essentially lets him do it so that he'll leave without threatening Reed's children, and so that the Four can deal with him later.
- Straddling the line between Comics and Literature, Ysanne Isard of the X Wing Series. She's not quite as good as a Magnificent Bastard, she's quite manipulative, she's the head of Imperial Intelligence and aware of the various things being planned, and many of her plans seem to hinge on letting the New Republic win an Imperial planet. Brentaal IV, she put a hopelessly incompetent admiral in charge so that opinion would turn against Sate Pestage and she could have him assassinated; in the process the planet was lost and the best Imperial pilot since Vader switched sides. Coruscant, she infected with a nasty virus and left to the New Republic. The New Republic found a cure. Then, well, here's a passage where another of her people defects.
"Madam Director Ysanne Isard, I regret not being able to bring you this message personally, but not that much. In the time I have been associated with you I have found you to be sociopathically self-centered, prone to irrational and impulsive reactions to situations, and prey to a preference for appearance over substance. I have no doubt these affectations were seen as skills by the late Emperor, and indeed may have enhanced your ability to comply with his orders, but by no means are these traits that make for great, or even adequate leadership."
- A non-villainous example: Gladstone Gander, as created by Carl Barks. Though not actively evil, he is the biggest douchebag in the Disney comics◊ and openly embraces the opinion that his improbably high luck makes him better than anyone else in the world. He especially loves deriding his cousin Donald, taunting him into contests that Donald can't win and often stealing Daisy away by making him look look bad in the process. It's only a very rare, deliberate attempt to use his luck to help others that save him from being a total rat's ass, and even there we can tell he's doing it largely so those others will admire him.
- An accidental example: Drift from IDW's Transformers series. He's barely less than a God Mode Sue who rarely speaks but is always, always smirking. Combined with IDW's hype for the character, this makes him come across as horribly annoying instead of badass.
- Morlish Veed of Star Wars Legacy is a brilliant military leader, but his political skills leave a lot to be desired (largely due to overconfidence brought on frome aforesaid military victories). Lucky for him that his girlfriend is a genuined Magnificent Bastard- or maybe not, if she ever decides she doesn't need him anymore.
Film
- Kaa from Disney's The Jungle Book literally is a Smug Snake. This is the complete opposite of his personality in Rudyard 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 criminal Waingro in Heat displays a smug expression whenever committing an low act like killing a guard during a heist for staring at him and enjoying a pie afterwards, murdering a underage prostitute or betraying his former collagues to a common enemy.
- The arms smuggler and film's protagonist Yuri in Lord Of War is the epitome of the Smug Snake. An Honest John 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, his character is essentially an amalgam of several real-life arms dealers.
- 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.
- Beckett is actually a great illustration of the difference between a "high-functioning" Smug Snake and a true Magnificent Bastard. Beckett's a great Chessmaster, one of the smartest characters in the series, but he fails to earn the audience's respect or admiration because his arrogance prevents him from adapting his plans to changing situations, his personality is so utterly loathsome, and his crossings of the Moral Event Horizon which put him squarely in Complete Monster territory. In other words, he's not a bastard you hate to love, but one you love to hate.
- 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 the Venom symbiote...
- Any of the villains from the Die Hard movies, though thanks to The Law Of Bruce being in play, their presence doesn't deter from most fans' enjoyment of the films.
- Colonel Sato from Ip Man, who makes leering grins liberally, crosses the Moral Event Horizon not long after his first appearance, dishes out No Holds Barred Beatdowns liberally and keeps asking to (and getting denied from) Just Shoot our hero. His Karmic Death is much-welcomed.
- Although at first he appears to be on the hero's side, the gameshow host in Slumdog Millionaire is as smug as can be, and seems absolutely insulted by Jamal's success throughout the movie.
- Bison from Street Fighter The Legend Of Chun Li. Far from the frighteningly unstable Omnicidal Maniac of the gameverse proper (or the Laughably Evil Magnificent Bastard as played by the late Raul Julia), he comes across in the movie as "Kung-Fu Arthur Petrelli (as played by a Malcolm McDowell impersonator)."
- Bernie Bernbaum from Miller'sCrossing. Dirty Coward par excellence.
- Paul Sarone from Anaconda. In addition to being a Magnificent Bastard, you could probably count the times that smug smile leaves his face on one hand. If you were missing a thumb.
- Klytus from the 1980 Flash Gordon. Also Wicked Cultured, but with a strong dose of aristocratic snark. Occasionally loses his cool, but always has a bored, sneering dismissiveness for his opponents or a sleazy "with pleasure" for his boss—yet he badly overestimates how cowed Prince Barin is and gets thrown onto spikes for his trouble.
- Louis Renault from Casablanca, although Louis is really just too cool to remain a bad guy through the whole picture, so he reforms at the end so he and Rick can fight Nazis together.
- Both main mobsters in the The Dark Knight Saga (Falcone and Maroni) are examples of this. They're clever guys who've managed to keep a very nasty city under their control for a long time, but they're just not competing in the same league as the real supervillains in town, and both suffer from this. Dr. Jonathon Crane from the same movies is set up like one at first, but then he reveals himself as a straight Mad Scientist (mad psychiatrist, as the case may be) with a real fondness for Nightmare Fuel...
- Doctor Emma Temple of The Ring Two, a smirking◊, utterly insensitive psychiastrist. Samara uses a Jedi Mind Trick on Dr. Temple to make her commit suicide, which on the one hand is the least gory death in the series but may be the most humilating as it imples Temple is so Weak Willed Samara can totally dominate her with a thought.
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.
- Plus what she does to students during detention.
- Draco Malfoy.
- It's almost like this is the very thing that is parodied in Sluggy Freelance with Ralfoy Malfoy. He takes the smug-snakeness to the extreme by acting smug even though his "enemy" is the adult but childish Torg who will inevitably just do something like give him a wedgie (or even tell him to do it himself) and send him scuttling away. Only in the third parody did he actually manage to rise to the status of a real adversary for a while... and even that was at the expense of getting a video put up on You Tube of him saying he thought a ferret was sexy-cute.
- Draco's dad Lucius is one too (apparently being a Smug Snake runs in the family). He's very smart and has the polish of a Magnificent Bastard, but his arrogance and certainty that he can get away with anything lead to some sloppy mistakes. By the end of the series both Malfoys turn out wierdly pathetic after they are forcibly shown that a Complete Monster Dark Lord does not a good houseguest make.
- That very Complete Monster also qualifies, with an emphasis on the "Snake" part of Smug Snake. Voldemort has all the resources a Magnificent Bastard could ever want, but his circuitous plans fail utterly at basic logic, he boasts about his cleverness without ever actually being clever, and while he is clearly trying for Magnificent Bastard he comes off as a third-rate Dastardly Whiplash.
- Justified by the fact that his making so many horcruxes left him decidedly... unstable. The young Tom Riddle is shown to have been a much more smooth and successful schemer, largely because he knew how to keep a cool head and didn't yet look like a mosntrous snake-human hybrid. At any rate, whenever anyone talks about any version of Voldemort's genius, they're generally referring to his magical genius, which is unquestionable, rather than his tactical genius, which as has been mentioned above is rather lacking.
- Queen Cersei Lannister in A Song Of Ice And Fire. Overestimation of her own cleverness is one of her main character traits, and 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 deserts.
- Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish 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... his protegée Sansa Stark.
- 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.
- In the later War of Souls trilogy we get Morham Targonee, Lord of the Night, who despite his impressively evil sounding title is basically a scheming accountant who happened to be in the right place at the right time to seize power. When the local Dark Messiah shows up and steals his job, she punishes him in what is perhaps the worst way a Smug Snake can experience- by forcing him to realize his own cosmic insignifigance before killing him.
- Cosmo Lavish from the Discworld novel 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.
- 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.
- He doesn't actually marry her. He just announces their engagement.
- Frederick Chilton from Red Dragon and The Silence Of The Lambs, who comes across as a bully as head of the Chesapeake State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. In Silence he makes the key mistake of handing Hannibal Lecter over to people who don't understand how dangerous he can be, which gives Hannibal the opportunity to escape.
- Prince Regal in Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy. A spoiled, petty, selfish youngest prince, he is obsessed with ruling and having power while being completely incompetent as a ruler. Like the example of Cersei above, he is much less clever than he thinks he is.
- Uriah Heep in Dickens' David Copperfield is one of literature's most notable smug villains; he has the ability to make the term of address "Master Copperfield" seem insincere, and is always wittering on about how "humble" he is. Naturally, he's planning to swindle everything away from the other characters.
- Mr. Collins in Pride And Prejudice, whilst not exactly a villain, is rather smug and slimy, with a self-regard that makes him believe that Elizabeth Bennet is rejecting his marriage proposal out of some feminine desire to string him along whilst she's rather explicitly stating that no, its because she doesn't like him.
- Duke Telrii from Elantris is an example of the "thinks he's a Magnificent Bastard" type, though he winds up little more than a pawn of the book's real Magnificent Bastard, Hrathen. King Iadon from the same book is also an example- he turns out to be a lot smarter than Telrii (and a lot smarter than he lets on), but his vision is simply too narrow to let him accomplish anything of real signifigance.
- Romance Of The Three Kingdoms: Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu are obvious ones, and Cao Cao has shades of it when he's opposing the nominal protagonist, but even Liu Bei has his moments of snake-ness in the eyes of a modern audience. (But that What The Hell Hero reaction is probably intentional, as the author was suffering from Executive Meddling.)
- Cugel the Clever, of Jack Vance's Dying Earth books, while he lives on the border between this and being an actual Magnificent Bastard, usually leans towards the Smug Snake side, being a complete sociopath, and nowhere near as clever as he imagines himself. And he's the protagonist, folks.
Live Action TV
- This trope describes every single villain from 24, and surprisingly, a fair number of the good guys as well.
- The Sheriff of Nottingham of the 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.
- 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.
- Lilah herself only slowly evolved into a Magnificent Bastard; for most of her run on show (arguably until as late as the second half of Season 3) she was definitely a Smug Snake, even ending up with a promotion - and thus her life - solely because Lindsey contemptuously tossed it away.
- 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?"
- The audience wasn't the only one who hated him.
- Alfred Bester was like this in his first number of appeareances as well, both smug and unsuccessful, but JMS noticed the threat of Villain Decay and averted it oh so hard with his later actions.
- 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, cowardly... 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 magnificence, 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.
- Almost any character played by Tim Curry qualifies as this. He is to this trope what BRIAN BLESSED is to Boisterous Bruisers.
- Heroes: season 3 Big Bad Arthur Petrelli: between his ludicrous amounts of power, constant dog-kicking and smug, smarmy tone throughout it all.
- Eric Doyle, the creepy puppet-master from season 3 also qualifies. Creepy and smarmy, he's the kind of villain audiences just love to hate.
- Grunchlk of Farscape, a bloated, scheming, greedy merchant with a nasty habit of overcharging his clients and betraying them should a better offer appear. In the episodes he appears in, just about every single character despises him with a passion, especially Scorpius, who takes great delight in stabbing him in the back of the skull with a Mind Control probe and forcing him to eat two of his own fingers.
- Charles Miner from American version of The Office replaces Michael and responds to his eccentricity with realistic exasperation. However, his time in charge is largely characterized by appointing his employees with mismatched roles, bullying Jim at any chance he can get, and being all-around smug.
- Bobbi Barret, the wife and manager of comedian Jimmy Barret, ends up like this in an episode of Mad Men. Jimmy had previously insulted the wife of the owner of Utz potato chips, which he was doing a commercial for. Don Draper takes most of the episode negotiating with Bobbi to get him to apologize. After the two end up having sex (don't ask) Bobbi agrees to a dinnertime apology. But Jimmy spends all his time at the dinner hitting on Don's wife. When Don takes Bobbi aside, she says that according to Jimmy's contract he doesn't have to apologize, unless, of course, Don gets them more money. So Don shoves his hand up her dress and says that if he doesn't, he will ruin Jimmy. Jimmy apologizes. One word: OWNED
- Lester from Primeval is a curious case, he starts off as an archetypal Smug Snake, but it is revealed that th is is more a Jerk Ass Facade than anything else, his awesome powers of Sarcasm really shine through in season 2 when he is given his own Smug Snake nemesis in his assistant and Starscream wannabe, Leek and by season 3 his return from a Ten Minute Retirement is given a Standing Ovation, and yet all the time he retains his aura of smug self-satisfaction. A rare heroic Smug Snake perhaps.
- In Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, Drew Lansing (a.k.a. Kamen Rider Torque), one of Big Bad General Xaviax's liutenants, fancies himself both an expert manipulator and fighter. Eventually, he proves lacking in both areas.
- Strange that no one has yet mentioned Benjamin of Jekyll. His comeuppance was most satisfying.
- The members of the Fellowship of the Sun in True Blood tend to follow this trait. Filled with empty smiles and holier-than-thou attitudes, this vampire-hating church isn't above kidnap, murder or rape of ordinary people whose only crime is having a sexual relationship with a vampire, all while declaring their good intentions and other propaganda. Especially annoying, since many (most?) vampires of the show would most definately deserve staking, but you couldn't root for these people to do it even if you wanted to.
- Pretty much every Big Bad from Power Rangers has at least one scheming lackey utterly convinced that they are superior to the remainder of the universe and willing to backstab anyone in their way. This usually ends with them being converted (if brainwashed into snakedom) or, much more often, exploding violently by either side's hand.
- Justin in Wizards Of Waverly Place has tendencies towards this that get dialled right up to 11 in the movie.
Professional Wrestling
- 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.
- Another Pro wrestler Triple H calls himself the Cerebral Assassin, and usually tries really hard to come off as a Magnificent Bastard, but in full Heel mode, he's always a Smug Snake. He respects nobody, he always loses it whenever he's not in control, and tends to react erratically when things don't turn out the way he plans them. Combine that with the fact that fans believe he uses his Real Life pull to always have things go his way, plus his idolization of the truly magnificent Ric Flair, just accentuates his total smugness.
- Yet another one is Dr. Stevie, who uses every trick in the book to either hurt Abyss, or try to turn him into his puppet. While slightly effective, his big flaw is that he keeps pissing off the wrong people. For example, he bribed Kevin Nash $50,000 to attack Abyss. Nash succeeded, but Dr. Stevie refused to honor their deal...
Close Professional Wrestling
Tabletop Games
- In Warhammer, most skaven seem to have this as their Hat, with the ones at the top usually being full fledged Magnificent Bastards.
- The same can be said about the Dark Eldar in Warhammer 40000, as well as a majority of Imperial Governers and Chaos Sorcerers.
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 and Played For Laughs. 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.
- King Drake III, however, is played mostly seriously. His smugness could probably clog up a black hole.
- 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. Rosencrantz has to yell yield, and even Ashley mocks him for it.
- Not only that, but the game's real Magnificent Bastard gets a shot. After Rosencrantz has ambushed Sydney and Ashley, Rosencrantz demands Sydney name him his heir. Sydney calls him a "worm", and Rosencrantz chops off Sydney's arm. Sydney, bleeding Black Blood, stands up and reattaches his arm. He then demonstrates to Rosencrantz that not only is the man not immune to Sydney's magic like he thought (by making him think he was holding Sydney's severed hand), but Sydney had been manipulating him the entire time. And in the end, Sydney doesn't even kill Rosencrantz. He lets a giant six armed statue of Kali do it for him. Truly, in case you had forgotten the real Chessmaster and Large Ham in the story, Sydney does not fail to remind you that he was eating the scenery first.
- 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 plans 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 Matt Engarde. It could be argued that this is Truth In Television. 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. They all 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.
- Dmitrii Blinov from Dawn of Sorrow at least makes an effort, pulling of a combination of I Surrender Suckers and My Death Is Just The Beginning, before coming back to life and successfully copying Soma's Power of Dominance in a surprisingly successful gambit. He was more of a "Magnificent Bastard in the making", right up until he ended up dying again.
- From Order of Ecclesia comes another partial-aversion: Barlowe does a fine job of hiding his true allegiance to the Dark Lord, effortlessly manipulating Shanoa into obtaining Dominus so that, by using it, she can resurrect Dracula. And, when he reveals his true colors, he isn't that smug about it, just real effin' crazy. Not to mention that he ends up resurrecting Dracula anyway even after being defeated.
- 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 Fate Stay Night. In all three routes ("Fate", "Heaven's Feel", and "Unlimited Blade Works") he's shown as an overconfident idiot who tries to win through manipulating more powerful characters such as his servant Rider, Gilgamesh and Sakura and it always turns out badly (and sometimes bloodily) for him.
- Anyone with the "Naive Puppet Master" trait in Crusader Kings.
- Seth in Command And Conquer, in contrast to Kane, his Magnificent Bastard of a boss.
- Another would be Anatoly Cherdenko in Red Alert 3, the Soviet Premier. Unsurprising as he's played by Tim Curry.
- Zant, the Usurper Twilight King, in The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- Any Zelda villain that gets Hijacked By Ganon tends to end up as Smug Snakes
- Vaati in Minish Cap comes off as a Smug Snake as well, with his digitialized "Mmmhm mhm" laughter, it doesn't help when one realized He used to be an itty bitty Minish, taking away a good chunk of his 'evil aura' - Minish Vaati is just too cute!
- Dr. Wallace Breen of HalfLife 2 fame. Acting as the puppet governor for the Combine, Breen keeps spouting out propaganda 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. He is apparently killed as Freeman damages the dark fusion reactor, causing the portal to collapse.
- Alternate Chatacter Interpretation suggests he genuinely believes that sucking up to the Combine is the only thing that will stop them from wiping out mankind. The resistance believes Gordon is the only thing that will stop them.
- 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.
- Previously, there's also Saleh from Tales Of Rebirth. To sum it up, this guy is presented as a Badass member of the Kingdom's Elites, but all he does is approach the heroes, taunt them, and basically do nothing. Later on, after being lectured by Tytree, he comes in denial that there is no way that the human heart can defeat him. So what does he do? Taunt the team even more rather than kicking their ass. Add to the fact that he's all doing it For The Evulz, he's as smug as you can get. This troper is surprised why when he taunts the team, Veigue and company doesn't just go straight and kick him in the ass, throwing the taunts back to him. The party's Idiot Ball is big.
- Duminuss, as depicted in the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation series, has had a number of grand schemes blow up in her face due to not thinking them all the way through.
- Gary Smith from Bully is the Failed Magnificent Bastard + Villain Sue type of Smug Snake. For his Smug Snakery to work, it requires 1) that everyone in the game take everything that comes out of his mouth at face value, 2) putting aside the fact that he has a reputation as a sociopath and common sense says ignore him, 3) that protagonist Jimmy spends most of the game insisting that going after Gary "has to wait" rather than going after him. And then, most importantly, 4) whenever Gary makes an appearance, all protagonistic figures must lose all ability to take action, period, and devolve into a stuttering stammering mess until Gary is done talking and has left the area.
- Sakaki from the .hack//G.U. trilogy is a classic Smug Snake who has moments of true Magnificent Bastard-hood (notably his complete and total manipulation of Atoli), but he has more arrogance than skill, failing to comphrend how dangerous it is to use AIDA, 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, and 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 his Too Dumb To Live allies watch, which triggers their danger senses.
- 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's fully convinced that anyone who doesn't conform to his worldview doesn't deserve to live anyway.
- 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 his superior, Worthy Opponent Hawke, who tempers his villainy with competence and a healthy respect for his opponents.
- Advance Wars: Dual Strike has Rich Bitch Kindle.
- The Mayor from Days of Ruin is pretty much a walking, talking embodiment of this trope, and it's clearly intentional.
- Alfonso from Skies Of Arcadia. Even Galcian, a pretty Evil Overlord in his own right, holds Alfonso in contempt after he callously kills off and scapegoats his own vice-captain when his airship is taken over by Dyne's band at the beginning of the game — although mostly this is just because Alfonso is so utterly useless.
- Megumi Kitaniji from The World Ends With You. He doesn't just bend and push the guidelines set by the Composer, his counterattack mass imprints everyone in the RG and UG to do his bidding via the Red Skull Pins. Even his Noise form is a snake.
- Konishi has a fair number of Kick The Dog moments, especially with regards to Rhyme, but she never succeeds in her machinations.
- In Starcraft, Sarah Kerrigan, the so-called Queen of Blades, hasn't done anything to earn the accolades with which she constantly presents herself. Born into the Swarm as a supersoldier who would probably be replaced the instant they got their hands on the Protoss, she sits out the invasion of Aiur and gains free will when the Overmind dies. Things get really bad in Brood War, when we hear her shlicking to her own ego over and over again throughout the entire Zerg campaign, despite the fact that all of her military victories have been given to her by her enslaved Cerebrate.
- In the World Of Warcraft expansion 'Wrath of the Lich King', Arthas at several points in the storyline is exactly this. He has a constant, constant habit of walking two feet in front of you, taunting you about how incredibly awesome he is, how trivial you and your efforts to oppose him are, how you're better off serving him in undeath, and then he simply walks away when he could have easily annihilated you with a single stroke and be done with it. This is yet another symptom of his chronic Villain Decay (and there are several).
- He gets little development or even screen time, but Angelo from Baldurs Gate probably qualifies based on the one scene. He's Sarevok's lackey who takes over the local law-enforcing mercenary company when Sarevok's plans to get its real leaders out of the way go into motion. When you are arrested for murders you were either framed for or goaded into actually committing by Sarevok, he's more than happy to glibly pronounce you the death sentence for a list of imaginary charges besides murder, clearly enjoying the abusing of power. He even gets a potential Kick The Dog moment in that if you mouth off to him in a way that manages to actually annoy him, he'll have a random party member killed on the spot. He's even annoying in the final battle, as he charges you and starts somehow exploding in fireballs repeatedly.
- Even more so, Isaea Roenall in the next game. He oozes it. "Don't take it so hard, I'm just... better than you. Oh, and feel free to lodge a complaint with the proper authority. That would be... me." He too abuses his military position to get away with anything, including kidnapping one of your party members when she doesn't want to go trough with their arranged marriage.
- Ramon Salazar from Resident Evil 4 fits this trope to a tee. He's a smug elfish character, who constantly condescends Leon Kennedy by calling him by his last name and ensuring that the next trap will surely kill him. The further Leon gets into the castle, Salazar starts to lose his smug sarcasism, and yells "JUST DIE YOU WORM!". Hell, the last battle with him is so annoying and delibrate, several players(including this troper) simply use the one-hit kill rocket launcher to be rid of his irritating ass.
- Duke Snakeheart from Final Fantasy Tactics A 2. As if his name didn't give it away, he's a smug bastard who thinks he has it all planned and tries to do things his way, in spite of the other Duelhorn members objecting his actions. In the end, he admits to being the one that leaked Duelhorn's battle strategy and poisoned the girl Maquis saved for no apparent reason. In fact, during the fight, he says that he trusts no one but himself. He only questions the error of his ways once you defeat him.
- "Queen" Valentina from Super Mario RPG shows many traits of your classical Smug Snake, including an over-inflated ego as well as a penchant for treating her underlings (specially her fat, feathered punching bag of a dragon Dodo) and just about everyone she encounters with as little respect as possible.
- Everybody not on the Tokugawa side in Samurai Warriors sees Ieyasu as a Smug Snake.
- Vincent Silent Hill 3 skirts the line: not quite magnificent enough to qualify as a true bastard, but damn is he charming and one of the more fun characters to interact with.
- Just about every significant villain in Baten Kaitos Origins, with the exception of Baelheit himself has a tendency to trip over this trope at one point or another, mainly because of their tendency to rely on advanced weapons/magic as a crutch to take out people far stronger than them, then act completely flabbergasted when it finally doesn't work. Pretty much all arma-users also seem motivated exclusively by arrogance, until their various heel face turns, and even Wiseman seems totally convinced that his magic is the most powerful force in the universe until the very end of the game.
- Prince Lacroix from Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Arrogant, smug and power-hungry; Lacroix condescends to you and sends you on suicide missions at every opportunity. He wants you dead for political convenience, so every mission is a Xanatos Gambit - Further his aims or be out of his way. He plots and schemes, playing key characters against each other to get what he wants. Whenever things don't go his way, he'll throw a childish temper tantrum.
Web Comics
Web Original
- The Game Genie, from The New Adventures of Captain S, could well be the smuggest snake who ever smugged. Pretentious use of the royal we? Check. Unseemly obsession with squirrels? Check. Annoying laugh? Check. Having to be rescued by NES after finding out the hard way that he isn't all-powerful outside of Videoland? Check. And finally, meeting what is possibly the most undignified end ever (being trapped in a cartridge, then being drowned inside said cartridge by a can of soda)? Check.
- Edward Salinas, the evil politician in lonelygirl15.
- The Alphas in the Whatelyverse (especially their leader Don Sebastiano) qualify, as they tend to rely on mutant powers, ridiculous amounts of money, and hiding behind authority rather then actual schemes. Team Kimba throws them into a pretty big Humiliation Conga by the end of the first month, and it gets worse and worse. (Tansy Walcutt + Don Sebastaino get it BAD).
Western Animation
- Starscream in all of his incarnations. Fancied himself the smartest, most cunning and handsomest Decepticon. When he wasn't complaining to Megatron about how he would've defeated the Autobots eons ago, he was openly plotting ways to top the slag-maker. All of his schemes failed miserably with at least one or two nearly destroying the earth. He was far more interested in becoming the Decepticon leader than leading them effectively in the rare moments when Megatron was out of the way.
- Both Prince John and his actual snake servant, Sir Hiss (who is pictured above) from Disney's Robin Hood are prime examples of this trope.
- Gladstone Gander in the Duck Tales cartoon. See the comics section.
- Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants fits this mold to a T, much to his chagrin.
- As does Squillum Fancyson, who is wealthy and successful, yet seems to spend most of his time finding new ways to rub it in the face of Squidward.
- Phantom Limb from The Venture Bros. The effect is almost certainly intentional.
- The nudist aliens from the Futurama movie Bender's Big Score. You'd think that scamming the entire Earth and forcing its population to the outskirts of the solar system would make them Magnificent Bastards, but no. Maybe if they didn't do everything, everything, in the most profoundly annoying way possible (and also if they didn't look the way they do, eeuuuugh). But that's spammers for you.
- Slade from Teen Titans. He's a creepy guy, but his manipulations leave a lot to be desired (such as telling Robin that he enjoyed fighting his friends.) It's mostly because he can't understand or control the heroes as much as he'd like to. And the fact that he's widely perceived to be a pedophile doesn't help. He has his moments of magnificence though, especially after becoming Trigon's henchman.
- It is worth noting that unlike some other Smug Snakes, Slade does learn from his mistakes. After getting his butt kicked by the whole team, he makes sure that he never winds up fighting them all at once again (at least until he gets superpowers of his own) and after his manipulations of Robin failed because they hinged only on their being Not So Different, he systematically deconstructed the mind of his next apprentice, Terra (and turns her into a person puppet without her knowledge if that fails). Unfortunately, he's never able to lose the old Villain Ball (sometimes being a sadistic sociopath is a problem), and therefore never crawls out of full Smug Snakehood, though he does get better towards the end (see his Crowning Moment Of Awesome against Trigon's demon warrior.)
- Other Teen Titans main villains, such as Brother Blood from Season 3 and The Brain from Season 5, also count. Both are very threatening, but their inflated egos prove to be their undoing in the end.
- Admiral Zhao from Avatar The Last Airbender. While he was capable of great feats of firebending power and brilliant tactical decisions, his lack of self-control and anything resembling humility just made the viewership wish that Aang and/or Zuko would pile drive him into the nearest hard surface. Repeatedly.
- Seriously, the asshole tried to kill the moon for no reason other than to assuage his own vanity. And even if his plan had actually worked, it's fairly likely that it would have just gotten him offed by Ozai, as killing the moon hurts the Fire Nation as much as it does everyone else.
- Prince Phobos and Cedric from W.I.T.C.H. Though both are certified manipulative bastards, their egos and tendency to fail at their evil plans make them fall short of mangnificence. Oh, and in Cedric's case, Smug Snake is meant quite literally.
- Eric Raymond from Jem And The Holograms. If you could rate smugness on a scale from 1 to 10, Eric Raymond's smugness would test at 178.
- Scar from The Lion King certainly tried to be a Magnificent Bastard, but he was just too arrogant and overestimated himself. He gets off to a good start killing Mufasa and manipulating Simba, but once he gains control of the pride he grows lazy and acts like a spoiled child whenever he doesn't get his way. In the end, he's torn apart by his own henchmen for being a Jerkass to them.
- How did this page make it so far without mention of Jafar? His staff is a snake, his visual design represents a snake, and he's constantly smirking and slithering about.
- Lavor, the Dragon to Big Bad Magmion, from Gormiti The Lords Of Nature Return. Even his Image Song denounces him as a vain, overconfident scoundrel. He's also quite a coward, and happily throws his men into battle with the heroes to get himself away from trouble and gauge his opponents' strength.
- And just to hammer the point home, the kids even got Genre Savvy about his smugness. One episode had Lucas, Nick and Jessica mess up his plan by simply pointing out how painfully obvious it was, which caused him to lose his head and attack.
- Looney Tunes mainstay Wile E. Coyote had a handful of cartoons where he faced off against Bugs Bunny, and not only talked but took to smugness like a fish to water. His outlook on life is best summed up by his speech to Bugs in their first outing together, "Operation: Rabbit."
Wile E.: Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote, genius. I am not selling anything nor am I working my way through college, so let's get down to basics: you are a rabbit and I am going to eat you for supper. Now don't try to get away, I am more muscular, more cunning, faster and larger than you are, and I am a genius, while you could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten, so I'll give you the customary two minutes to say your prayers.
- Lydia, the villain of Barbie And The Diamond Castle believes herself to be the only one worthy of being a muse, and treats everyone else accordingly.
- Eddy of Ed Edd N Eddy would fit into this category, being a slimeball schemer for the most part.
- Alluro in Thundercats is so smug, he'll lounge on his enemies' tank waiting for them to return, and his actual method of combat is to attempt to psyche them out into thinking they can't possibly win against him. As he's taller, broader-shouldered, and more muscular than any other cast member, he could probably handle himself quite well in a fight, but he never actually gets physically involved, and so his psyche-out attempts always wind up backfiring.
- Seen literally in an RAF Cold War instructional film shown to this troper, warning of the dangers of HISS (Hostile Intelligence ServiceS) represented by a smug cartoon snake with a Fake Russian accent. All his
spies dupes were naturally caught by the vigilant RAF police, but the evil HISS would just go on to the next victim.
- The Allmighty Tallest Red and Purple of Invader Zim. Being, well, the tallest of the Irkan people, they're both very smug and full of themselves. Unfortunately for their credibility, the only reason Zim is "invading" Earth is because their attempt to get rid of him backfired.
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