Manipulative Bastards in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- All For Luz:
- A specialty of All For One's who manipulates people and events around him without ever getting directly involved. Luz accuses him of being this from the first time they meet and she's not wrong. Knowing her suspicions of him, he uses his intelligence to win her over, promising to never lie to get her to trust him, which he eventually succeeds in doing. Despite not outright lying to her, he is willing to twist the truth in order to break Luz, using her low self-esteem and her trouble fitting in to make her turn against everyone, while trying to act as a tough but fair mentor towards her for his own purposes.
- Governor Maxwell also adds the incentive of a cash prize of $1.1 Billion to the winning team so that they don't pull a Enemy Mine on him in the Deadly Game. Not that he had any intention on paying up. He was able to convince two of the other teams to attack Alpha Squadron to try and kill The Leader Luz for extra money, when in reality he was hoping for Luz to snap and use her Power Parasite Quirk to kill the other teams which is exactly what happens.
- Suave, cunning, and charismatic; Tyler Wittebane is a master at manipulating those for his purposes; from his church followers to his superhuman assassins. He loves to control people and will use others for his own gain, while keeping them in line with his values.
- In Book of the Stranger
, Jamie shows he's Tywin Lannister's son by using his almost-death in the protection of Prince Rhaegar to request his depart from the Kingsguard. He perfectly knows that becoming the heir to Casterly Rock again entails him to wed, and look, he already found a suitable bride: she's cunning, strong-willed and her being Lord Stark's youngest daughter means an alliance with the other Greater Houses. Of course, Jaime being head over heels for Cylaena Stark wasn't the reason for his decision to quit his post...- Prince Rhaegar also is no slouch. By releasing Jaime from his vows, he mends the bridge his father burned by repeatedly offensing Tywin Lannister and intends to name the Old Lion his Hand when ascending the throne. And he manages to enlist Cylaena's help to kill his father and Make It Look Like an Accident.
- Bowser, Eugene, and Lucy have all had their moments in Calvin at Camp.
- Child of the Storm
- Loki has performed a Heel–Face Turn, true, and he does regret his actions. But that just makes him Reformed, but Not Tamed, and within less than two years, he's built up a worldwide spy network in such a way that any attempt to uproot it by SHIELD would look like a wanton global case of Kick the Dog, rehabilitated himself as a sincerely regretful philanthropist, philosopher, superhero and a champion of the underdog, and now, a kindly uncle. Everyone (well, everyone who doesn't know better) thinks that he's nice and friendly. He is. But what they don't know is that's not all he is...
- And he learnt it from Odin. Who's even better at it than he is, sufficient that he can manipulate Loki completely with just three words, even when Loki knows that he's doing it.
- Nick Fury could give a master class in it, ultimately playing Lucius Malfoy - himself a very good example, . And judging by his proteges, Peter Wisdom and Phil Coulson, he has.
- And Alison Carter taught him. She hasn't lost any steps, either, despite being a (nominally) Retired Badass.
- Lucius Malfoy's even better at it, using his manipulative skills to first arrange an alliance between HYDRA and the surviving Death Eaters by waving the prospect of a vengeful Thor (formerly James Potter) over the latter's heads to convince them they need an alliance with enemies who know how SHIELD and the Avengers think, then use said Death Eaters as cannon fodder and arrange to transfer all their wealth to him, whilst inveigling himself into HYDRA's upper ranks. He then gets close to Baron Von Strucker, and when Von Strucker makes the wrong move, he drugs him, forces him to reveal how he controls the Winter Soldier, then kills him, and takes over HYDRA lock, stock, and barrel. He even ends up playing the entire world, forcing a de facto surrender once the Avengers appear to have fallen. And all the while, he remains one step ahead. However, the tables turn in the finale, with Doctor Strange revealing that he [Lucius] is just one pawn in his grand game, and Fury manages to outgambit him twice - first with the Shadow Initiative, second by a Batman Gambit.
- Alexander Pierce can, and does, get the better of most of the above, though he gets caught up in Fury's outsmarting of Lucius. Even after, in the sequel, he's seen in prison more or less casually toying with his interrogators, using his vast knowledge of HYDRA, its associates, and its enemies, to stay alive and more or less comfortable. Then Alison gets the better of him, though mostly because she could wield the implicit threat that he'd be a top target for the newly revived Red Room and their psychic superweapon.
- The Phoenix seems to be a dab hand at this, which is not surprising since She's been around since the beginning of the universe, more or less.
- Harry is a sweet and fairly straight-edge kid in the first book, but throughout the sequel, multiple Trauma Conga Lines and observation of most of the above and the below-mentioned Doctor Strange mean that, when combined with his natural empathy and frightening degree of Hyper-Awareness, he can get people to do exactly what he wants by systematically pushing their buttons, no telepathy required. He's not particularly fond of this trait, all but quoting the Tenth Doctor's bitter, "I got worse, I got clever" line, as he realises that he's started passively manipulating people around him. By the start of the third book, he's trying to stop it.
- Doctor Strange however, is manipulating everyone, including all the above mentioned examples. His very involvement is described as Paranoia Fuel, because once he's involved, you know that you're a pawn in his game, and that you're going to do what he wants you to do... even if you don't know it yet.
- Children of an Elder God: Gendo played with his pawns' emotions the whole time to get them to carry his goals out... or to save his own hide when his subordinates had got it with his crap. In a scene in which Asuka was angry enough to want to fry him -literally-, he resorted to point out that her boyfriend Shinji would be unhappy if she killed his father.
- Professor Moriarty in Children of Time — his four episodes are by and large driven by his manipulation of the heroes. It becomes his obsession and his Fatal Flaw: he can manipulate anybody and everybody into doing what he wants, but he doesn't believe that his victims can break free of his manipulations. Basically has a massive god complex.
- Cool Cat and the Beauty of War and Destruction: Moon Man tells Cool Cat that his father was shot by Barney, causing him to "die of osteoperosis" to convince him to join his side. Cool Cat, being an idiot, believes him.
- Hearts Aflutter: Ayano murders most of Taylor's bullies, then forces Madison to write a letter pinning it on herself and kill Emma, which results in her own death by Sophia's hands. Ayano — and Taylor, who had come under suspicion for the murders earlier — get off Scot free.
- The Other Girl in the Hooker!verse. She's successfully ruining her other personality's (Penny) life and she gleefully mindfucks the Critic and Chick.
- Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger:
- Darth Nihilus has developed into one following his defeat by Meetra Surik. Throughout the story, he uses Jaune's insecurities and feelings of weakness to gradually gain control over him. "Legends" shows that he also manipulated the Temple of Shadows by tricking them into believing he was the God of Darkness, gaining himself a personal cult of assassins with Undying Loyalty to him in the process.
- Professor Ozpin is a benevolent example. After seeing the full extent of Jaune's powers, Ozpin wants to enlist him as part of his Secret War against Salem. He chooses Pyrrha as the next Fall Maiden because he knows that Jaune is deeply attached to her and hopes that this will pressure Jaune into joining him. This backfires when Nihilus tells Jaune about Ozpin's plan and pushes Jaune further into paranoia.
- Lupin III/Assassin in Just an Unorthodox Thief. Here, Lupin has become much more manipulative in dealing with his enemies, pushing Kirei to a path with seemingly innocent questions, playing mind-games against Saber, and manipulating everyone for his own benefit.
- In A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor, as told from the perspective of the Elder One, they present themselves as a figure for their subordinates to rely on after their Dark and Troubled Pasts to secure their loyalty. This is showcased even more by the following scenes: they use Alexis's love for his son to make sure he moves forward unhesitatingly and doesn't mess up the spell he is working on before making plans to take advantage of the Templars' addiction to lyrium to bring the Order to their side.
- In Last Child of Krypton Gendo tries to use Shinji’s emotions and morals in order to manipulate him and mould him.
- A Man of Iron being based in Westeros, we naturally have Tywin Lannister. When his daughter Cersei tries to complain about his giving Iron Pointe to Antony Stark, he reminds her the land and castle were crumbling and as such unable to function as a defense for the West. By making Tony Stark the new Lord, Tywin gains a new bannerman able to properly man and reinforce the castle. He also gains a fruitful business partnership as Tony is sponsoring many merchants and craftsmen, and there is also the matter of Tony potentially inheriting the North Wardenship if Ned Stark's family happened to have a misadventure.
- Tony proves his ability to play the game of thrones when he visits his cousin Ned at King's Landing by giving the Hand an excuse to go at the blacksmith and speaking to Gendry - acting as Tony's chaperone - and subtly blackmailing him with his knowledge of Jon Snow's true parents.
- In My Huntsman Academia, Raven accuses Ozpin of exploiting Summer's dream of helping others and Qrow's desire to belong to twist them around his pinky finger. His decision to keep Izuku in the dark about the full breadth of the Benevolent Conspiracy can also be seen as this. On one hand, he sounds genuinely affable and wants to let Izuku live a normal life as a teenager a little while longer out of concern for his well-being and the trials ahead. On the other, it can be interpreted as a ploy to avoid alienating a powerful pawn, which he did with both Raven and Taiyang.
- In Shinobi of the Old Republic, Naruto falls into this. It is probably particularly noticeable when they're on Korriban.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Gendo tried to use his son's yearning for approval and Asuka's ego to use them as cannon fodder in the War. It didn't work quite right, though, because Asuka's powers gave her alternative means to validate her existence, and her growing confidence improved Shinji's self-esteem.
- Sudden Contact: Arcturus Mengsk. He tricks the Council into helping the Sons of Korhal overthrow the Confederacy by appearing weak and offering Terran technology to them. After which, the Council takes the bait, believing they could gain new technology and have a new government to work with. However, once the war goes bad for the Council, and the Zerg start to invade Citadel Space, Mengsk tricks the Council into using the psi-emitter on Tarsonis to end the war quickly. Since Saren was the one who planted the psi-emitter in this story, Mengsk blackmails the Council with this information, knowing the public would turn on them if the knowledge was released. This not only forces the Council to begrudgingly recognize Mengsk as the Emperor of the newly formed Terran Dominion, but also grant humanity a seat in the Council in exchange for Terran forces helping them fight the Zerg.
- Thousand Shinji: Shinji is son of two manipulative bastards -Gendo and Yui- and follower of Tzeentch -God of Manipulation and Trickery-. He plays with other people's emotions and feelings the whole time because it furthers his plans... or because it amuses him greatly. He manipulates everyone, including people he sincerely cares about such like his family and friends. Asuka and Rei find his manipulative ways annoying but they're used to it.
- Amanda Waller in To Hell and Back (Arrowverse). She plays everyone, up to and including the three leads, does so blatantly, and manages to get away scot-free by virtue of how useful she is.
- In What It Takes, Damien Darhk suckers the city council into getting rid of their own vigilante protectors, and later manages to manipulate them into granting him more and more authority in the city while justifying it with the 'need' to hunt Laurel.
- Minister Honsou from Kyoshi Rising is pulling the strings of the Fire Nation throne, and starts more actively manipulating the Fire Lord once Kyoshi arrives and starts shaking things up.
- Talia al Ghul demonstrates she's her father's worthy daughter in The Changeling Sequence: after nursing Jason back to sanity, she introduces him to Damian as his brother, ensuring both of them will get curious about each other and bond. When she estimates Jason gained enough of a Big Brother Instinct, she outright burns her manor to let Ra's think she and Damian died in a freak accident while giving Jason a start-up to flee with the kid. When Ra's realizes he was deceived, Jason and Damian are already in Gotham, safe with Batman.
- In Alive, flashbacks reveal that Gaston used this to force Belle to marry him; after accompanying Maurice to the fair to show off his invention, Gaston bribed the organisers to declare Maurice the winner and tried to use that knowledge to force Maurice to let him marry Belle. When Maurice and Belle rejected that offer and tried to leave the village, Gaston reported Maurice for theft, claiming that Maurice knew about the bribe and tried to offer the prize money to Gaston to keep quiet about it (technically Maurice did offer the money to Gaston, but only to make it clear that he didn't care about it). As a result of Gaston's actions, Maurice spent a fortnight in a low-quality cell while Belle was forced to marry Gaston, and by the time Belle got him out of prison Maurice was so ill that he died within a year.
- The Bleach Slash Fic Heirverse:Aizen and Jac though Jac mostly just uses Love Is a Weakness and Enemy Mine while Aizen is more the consummate Manipulative Bastard
- The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Blood Brother," Duke initially comes across as friendly and indulging, gradually befriending Bolt to the point where they become Sworn Brothers via a blood oath ceremony. But eventually it's revealed he's a sociopathic and short-fused bigot who despises pop music and cats, playing on Bolt's dormant prejudice against felines and nearly turning him against Mittens — ultimately hoping his new friend will join him in killing off the local cat population. Bolt finally realizes what's going on, though, and terminates the friendship.
- Calvin eventually becomes this in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, along with The Chessmaster.
- Mao in Code Geass: Mao of the Deliverance. Just as in the original Mao uses his geass and More than Mind Control to twist others to his purpose. The difference is, he's the protagonist of this story so we see much more of it.
- Maverick Storm in The PreDespair Kids, who was literally accepted into Hope's Peak for his talent in manipulation. He also fits the bastard portion quite well. For instance, why does he decide to join the Ultimate Despair movement? Shits and giggles. He also manipulated his old girlfriend's mentally ill brother into going on killing spree in their old school, which also crippled her, and was responsible for an incident that hospitalized half of Class 75 and left Miaya Gekkougahara wheelchair bound. He's completely unrepentant about doing all this, finding it entertaining. He's also recently secured his position as Hope's Peak Academy's guidance counselor under the name "Alexander Miles". Most likely so he can analyze and assess all the students' weaknesses.
- In A Prize for Three Empires, Cyclops thinks Carol Danvers and Rogue need to learn how to work together, so he engineers a meeting, confident that both women will be able to talk things over (and Carol will not kill his teammate). His plan works, but it makes Carol wonder why leaders are so manipulative.Carol: Just tell me one thing?
Scott: I'll try.
Carol: You and Xavier. Both leaders. And you've both turned out to be manipulative bastards, when you needed to. Why? Why is that?
Scott: It comes with the territory.
- Fade: L, who is far worse than he is in canon. Light can manipulate people as well, but unlike his canon counterpart, he hates doing it.
- We All Need A Hero: Sayu Yagami becomes Kira in place of Light in this universe, and quickly proves herself to be just as socially adept as her brother. By exploiting her outward appearance of a harmless and not particularly intelligent teenage girl, she's able to coax classified information out of one of her dad's subordinates, to sway the majority of the NPA into abandoning L and to turn an unexpected phone call from the task force intended to rattle her back on the caller, tricking them into revealing they were an imposter L and not the real detective.
Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
- Of Gold and Iron: Surprisingly, it's Cersei of all people who comes into her own as this, flawlessly convincing Roose Bolton that she's allied with him when she's actually allied with the Starks.
- Godzilla Neo: King Ghidorah spends decades using More than Mind Control to shape the Kilaak Regulator into the perfect pawn for his scheme to gain more power. Using his psychic abilities to set himself up as a little voice in his head, he offers various bits of advice to him over the course of his life. All with the goal of steering him in the path he's laid out for him.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- In Second Bite of the Cherry, Jin Guangshan suggests Lan Wangji marry one of his bastard daughters. Not only would it ally him with another Great Sect, it would imply the Gusu Lan Sect is alright with his lechery and womanizing. Lan Qiren and both his nephews are utterly disgusted by the plan and promptly tell Jin Guangshan no.
- Dumbledore is interpreted as this with alarming frequency, usually in Stupid Evil ways by people who want to make him the (very unsympathetic) villain.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Apart from Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy here is impressively skilled at manipulating people, although not on the same level as Harry and Quirrell.
- Dumbledore is even more manipulative in Knowledge is Power than he is in canon, but less effective. Lord Potter is effective at manipulation, but often prefers just to shout and swear at everyone until they back down.
- Bilbo describes his grandmother and the family matriarch Laura Baggins as this type in A Shot in the Dark.Thorin She doesn't seem so bad. I think you really are exaggerating all of this fear and worry.
Bilbo: (sighs) Thorin, in five minutes she got you to reveal your age, origins, history, and that you like to eat apple pie. Give her another five minutes and she'll know your parents' names, favorite stew, and the name of your childhood toy.
- Queen of All Oni: Tarakudo enters Jade's dreams and stirs up her resentment towards her parents as a way to draw her further over to the dark side.
- The Old Life Alive Again: Not approving of Roxas and Xion's relationship with each other, since it's nothing but Screw Yourself in his eyes, Xigbar starts making their love life be everyone's business, in order to cover up his plans to forcibly break them up. When Namine comes into picture, Xigbar manipulates Marluxia into manipulating Namine into stealing Roxas's memories of Xion. When that failed, Xigbar kidnaps Xion to screw over her and Roxas's missions, prompting Xemnas to secretly order Xion's death. He fails, but only because Axel decide to warn Xion about it.
- The Tie That Binds: While explaining to Aqua the lead-up to Radiant Garden's destruction and how he became a Nobody, Xemnas makes sure she knows he did everything in an attempt to locate and rescue her from the Realm of Darkness. Why? Because he knows Aqua is going to blame herself, and he can use that guilt to manipulate her into doing anything he wants.
- Ventus and especially Xemnas are quick to remind Aqua she was missing for eight years, during which a LOT happened, to keep her dependent on them for instruction.
- A few examples in The Lion King Adventures.
- The King of Dreams.
- Shocker in Shocker's Revenge.
- The Writer is the ultimate example of this. He manipulates everything in the entire universe.
- The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy: Vincenzo has no qualms to threaten Luca to tell the whole school about his crush on Alberto if he doesn't get him a date with the girl of his dream, Giulia.
- Hold on 'til May: While Lila has successfully convinced most of her classmates that Marinette is bullying her, Adrien turns out to be even worse. Not only did he manipulate Chloé into taking the blame for all of the mischief both of them got up to while growing up together, he only cares about what he can get out of his "friends". When Marinette transfers to another school, he's furious — solely because she's escaped his clutches.Adrien: Shut up, Chloé! You know nothing! You know nothing about what I'm trying to do here! I spent all these years trying to back you up for saying everything that we both wanted to say, and this is how you repay me?! I spent years building up my sunshine persona to get these people to like me, and you just continue to stomp them into the ground! As if they're not useful to us, to me? You only have Sabrina at your beck and call! If I asked him to, seriously asked him to, Nino would go after my father in an instant! And Alya would write an article so scathing that he'd have to disappear completely! And Marinette! She as giving me gifts and food and attention all the time, and you and Lila just couldn't keep your mouths shut! Lila I get, she's poor and needy and went for the first threat to her image. You? I thought you knew better! I thought you could see Marinette as the gift that she was, but you bullied her relentlessly and now she's gone!
Chloé: You're not actually friends with them?
Adrien: (laughs) Of course I'm not! Why would I actually be friends with those people? They're useful, obviously, they get me out of the house and help me avoid my father, but I couldn't care less who helps me with that. Marinette, on the other hand, actually has use, and she liked these people, so if I can get them to convince her to come back, or if I can get her to return myself, everything will be perfect again.
Chloé: You're insane.
Adrien: And you're not thinking of all the good this will do! If Marinette comes back, she can pull the class back together again easily! Then she'll be able to plan all our picnics and outings, I bet she'll even invite you if you actually tried to act nice. My life will go back to being fun and peaceful! I can finally have the high school experience I've always dreamed about! - I See What You Do Behind Closed Doors: Adrien fancies himself to be just as skilled at manipulating others as Lila, if not even better, believing that he can charm anyone into doing what he wants. He's also aware that he has a tell for when he's lying (nervously twisting the ring on his finger), much to his annoyance, but remains confident that others won't notice.
- Henri LeRoi of Jerk in Sheep's Clothing is so cunning and manipulative, he makes Lila look like an amateur. His lies are not fantastical tales of splendor and thrill like hers, but instead twisted interpretations of events around them, sprinkled with just enough truth to make them believable. He comes in and sweeps Marinette off her feet with his good looks and false kindness. Then, after they become an official couple, he begins warping her view of Adrien and her friends, bringing their mistakes and flaws into focus so that this bitter view of them overwhelms her faith in their good sides. All so Marinette will not believe her friends when Henri starts bullying them, and she will cut off ties with them, leaving her isolated except for Henri.
- Adrien proves to have quite a knack for this in Manipulation > Lies. He manages to use a few choice words to get evidence from the various celebrities Lila has claimed to know that they've never met her. And later manages to persuade Principal Damocles into calling her mother due to Lila being "bullied", and uses the opportunity to set things up so that Lila would be exposed in front of the class, the faculty, and her mother, effectively destroying her with nothing but a few words.
- lies of attrition: Chrysalis is this in spades. First, she offers Chat Noir the location of her victim's Akumatized object as a show of good faith, then when he meets her, she gives him a Metaphorically True account of the final battle, which he believes because she's able to prove she was there by virtue of wielding Monarque's Miraculous, and plants seeds of doubt in his mind which Ladybug unwittingly nurtures with her lies and secrecy.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Maia Simmons is notably more intelligent here than in MonsterVerse canon. She's so used to playing corporate mind-games and tests of character that it's like a morning exercise to her, and she's able to use limited communication to put Bernie Hayes on the track to investigating Apex Cybernetics and becoming a whistleblower while shirking suspicion off of herself.
- Katsuki tries his hand at this throughout Cain, attempting to sabotage and ruin All Might's relationship with Izuku in hopes of supplanting him as his successor. This doesn't work out the way he intends, primarily because Katsuki is so used to getting his way at Aldera that he doesn't realize that people with actual morals won't look kindly upon his methods.
- Snap Before You Break: Principal Nedzu is fully aware that Aizawa's teaching methods leave much to be desired, with his love of "logical ruses" and failure to address serious issues. Yet he lets him go unchallenged in order to see whether Izuku will stand up to him in a Secret Test of Character.
- Think Before You Speak: When Nedzu forbids him from expelling anyone in 1-A, Aizawa attempts to circumvent his superior's wishes by manipulating his friend Tensei, convincing him that Izuku was responsible for Tenya being hurt during a training exercise. His plan is for Tensei to complain to the media, getting Izuku Convicted by Public Opinion and forcing U.A. to expel him in order to protect the school's image. However, the plan completely backfires, with Tensei and Aizawa suffering for how they targeted an innocent student with Malicious Slander.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- A common portrayal of Celestia in Deconstruction Fics.
- Red Cyclone's masterful manipulation of the entire Griffin Army in Ace Combat: The Equestrian War. Even his companion, Black Star, apparently fell for his tricks.
- Subverted in Equestria: A History Revealed. The Lemony Narrator seems to believe Celestia is behind everything and everything is a mass conspiracy, but it's blatantly clear that she's overanalyzing and making up insane theories to try to justify this.
- Harmony Theory: Max Cash, with a little help from a couple of Elements of Harmony.
- Checker Monarch from Getting Back on Your Hooves. It's her Cutie Mark, meaning it's literally the thing she's best at above all else.
- Prince Jewelius from Loved and Lost, an extended retelling of "A Canterlot Wedding". Right after he has helped Twilight Sparkle in stopping the Changelings, he turns the entire city of Canterlot against the princesses, Shining Armor and Twilight's friends by using against them their actions before the invasionnote , turning them into hated pariahs. He also takes advantage of Twilight's sadness over everypony's rejection of her, convincing her to lose all trust toward them and become his apprentice and fiancée. It's also revealed that he even tricked Queen Chrysalis, another skilled manipulator, into thinking they were in a relationship of villainous affection while they were still working together. She was genuinely surprised when he double-crossed her during the invasion in favor of gaining from Twilight a more valuable pawn. He does all of this without any mind-control spells!
- King Sombra in Rainbooms and Royalty. His primary claim to fame was seducing Luna and trying to turn her against Celestia. While he himself would not live to see it, the seeds he planted eventually grew into Nightmare Moon.
- In The Witch of the Everfree, Sunset Shimmer interprets Celestia this way for the first few years after running away, but places increasingly little stock in that interpretation as more time passes.
- In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, Neji takes advantage of Kiba's despondency over Hinata's rejection of his (Kiba's) love confession and the revelation that Hinata had already had an Accidental Kiss with Naruto to manipulate Kiba into fighting Naruto, as part of a plan to either get Naruto arrested (since Kiba's the son of Konoha Town's police chief) or expelled from school (Konoha High frowns on students with criminal records).
- Advice and Trust: Gendo is a manipulative bastard, but he isn't as good as he'd like to believe. When the Children refuse to follow his orders, he reprimands Rei severely and fires Shinji and Asuka, thinking that in the event that he needs them back, he knows what buttons to press: Rei is brainwashed to obey him, Asuka needs to be an Eva pilot to validate her own existence, and Shinji craves for his approval and would never want to be apart from Asuka. Usually, he'd be right, but they changed when he wasn't paying attention, and those emotional levers no longer work.
- Doing It Right This Time: Gendo used their employees' emotions to manipulate them in the original timeline. Asuka has realized that he set her up to hate Rei because it made her easier to control, and she is done playing by his rules, so she has befriended Rei. Rei also theorizes that he manipulated Ritsuko's jealousy of Rei so that Ritsuko would be more driven to fulfill his agenda.
- Evangelion 303: Judging by this scene in chapter 11, this version of Gendo also has a secret agenda and is manipulating everybody (including his son and his son's girlfriend) in order to achieve it.
- HERZ: Misato is a benign example. She leads a peace-keeping military organization and is not above of using someone else's motivations and emotions (like Kurumi’s curiosity) to lead that person on. However, she does not like it, and she restrains herself a lot.
- Higher Learning: Gendo ruthlessly manipulated everyone to achieve his goals… and he was not happy when he realized that there was another manipulative bastard (Kaoru) in the town who had been plotting against him completely undetected for a good while.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Kluge knows that Ritsuko has fallen out with Gendo, so he offers her the chance to pay her ex-lover back if she allies herself with him. He conveniently neglects to mention that he actually works for SEELE — whom Ritsuko also hates — and he has absolutely no intention of keeping his promise to minimize casualties when the JSSDF attacks NERV.
- Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88):
- Koga Hayashi, the JSSDF's top Interrogator; known as "The Warlock" behind his back. However, he's arguably one of the good guys.
- Shinji's grandfather. SEELE wanted to keep Shinji on a short leash, so he pretended that he was sorry for neglecting his grandson and said he wanted to take him in and talk about his mother. Unfortunately for him, Shinji saw it coming and turned him down.
- Scar Tissue: Gendo ruthlessly manipulated everyone in order to engineer the Third Impact and reunite with his wife. Yui manipulated everyone — including Gendo and Shinji — in order to engineer the Third Impact and fulfill Seele’s plans. Shinji honestly cannot decide which of them is worse.
- Basil Valentine from OSMU: Fanfiction Friction (no relation to the alchemist) is this in spades when he traps Todd and tries to force him to tell him the secret behind Odd Squad agents' aging. He attempts to trigger a Redemption Failure in Todd by invoking the Once Done, Never Forgotten trope and attempting to trick him into believing that Odd Squad will never trust him despite turning to the side of good, backing up his statements with his Psychic Powers that he uses against the ex-agent and against the Mobile Unit once he becomes aware of their presence. He gets pretty close before Todd manages to stop him by realizing that he has Merlin Sickness and that the reason he wants Odd Squad's aging secret is so he can stop aging backwards, which causes the Enfant Terrible to attempt to cut him open (possibly lobotomize him, although it's never specified). Basil and his two henchwomen, Ambrosia and Nectar, are eventually defeated by the quick thinking of Odd Squad.
- Philip Spander, the corrupt board member of Hexagon in dudlove85 Hexagon series. He's been using Hexagon to control the Power Rangers for the motives of himself and another, ranging from manipulating Carter into convincing Cole to sign the Wild Force rangers into Hexagon, changing the votes to have himself elected Governor of California, and headed the project that radiated the parents of the SPD rangers, then have them taken from their birth parents to have them observed.
- Old West: In the backstory, Benjamin Hares won Grace over against her father's objections with charm, but he showed his true colors later when he sold everything they owned and left both her and their unborn children high and dry while he skipped town. When he returns in the present, Hares tries using his old tactics of playing on her emotions, but she knows to be wary this time.
- Children of Remnant: Blake was trained in the art of spying and manipulation, meaning she is an expert on social cues, reading emotions, and manipulating others.
- Stabilization: Being extremely perceptive, a careful schemer, and a brilliant actor, Paolo Albiani is adept at manipulating people and does it almost all the time. Even Amelia's hatred of him (though it saddens him, since he is smitten with her) is something he uses in one of his Batman Gambit plans. He manages to get Genoa's political parties united in less than a week.
- Torment in the Spyro Madness Saga. As Cynder's Superpowered Evil Side, she knows everything about Cynder and pretends to be her friend, but what she's really trying to do is possess her. As the manifestation of Cynder's darkness, she's fueled by the dark counterpart of what Cynder desires. Since Cynder has repressed feelings for Spyro, Torment tries to turn that love into lust. She temporarily succeeds and slaughters everyone at a party, causing Cynder to suffer a collosal Heroic BSoD.
- Emperor Palpatine in the Son of Suns Trilogy, even moreso than in the source material.
- A Sword to Pass has a rather positive example. Alrich gets his father to visit Korkie in which Korkie gets a data disk with a list of supporters and reason to bring back the Old Guard of the time of Satine in order to police and protect the people. At the same time Alrich visited Bo-Katan with a bribe of alcohol to get her to consider bring back the Old Guard. Bo-Katan takes that and uses it as a Secret Test of Character to see if Korkie is committed to his cause. He is.
- In Hellsister Trilogy, Satan Girl takes advantage of Mordru's lewdness to make herself non-expendable.
- In Kara of Rokyn, Zora Vi-Lar seduces female wrestler Jasmine, who had just been turned down by Kara Zor-El, and preys on her resentment and fear to loneliness in hopes of driving her to beat Kara to death.
- A Codette World Tour: Alejandro, as per usual, but with more emphasis on the "bastard" part, even reuniting Lindsay and Tyler for the purpose of getting them to help him eliminate Noah.
- Easy Breezy Beautiful: Karen during the second chapter, where she hatches a plan to save Alfred from elimination by sending Gretchen into the Fashion Face-Off with him. Travis in chapter three, where he tricks Spence into flirting (and starting a relationship) with Danni.
- Random Drama Series: Alejandro and Natasha. And to a lesser extent, Mal.
- Alejandro fools everyone (except for Noah) into thinking he's a Nice Guy only to turn them all against each other when the mood strikes him.
- Natasha manages to manipulate his entire team into following his plans from day one. And they all think he's mute at the time.
- Resisting the Incubus: Alejandro for most of the first section. Heather also has her moments.
- Total Drama Island: A New Beginning: Justin turns Katie and Sadie against each other for no other reason than because he can.
- Total Drama Lakeside: Erica starts out this way, especially with Christian, but she doesn't account for the fact he's Chaotic Stupid.
- Total Drama Letterz: Tabitha Barrington manipulates many of the others to do her bidding. but she doesn't actually enjoy doing it.
- Total Drama Luxury Tour: Duncan, at the beginning of the season, anyway, but Alejandro takes the cake, pulling strings and bribing his way through people to get back at Noah after being eliminated, get back on the show, and win a challenge or two.
- Total Drama Nightmare At Pahkitew Island: Subverted. Van believes himself to be this. In reality, he's not all that effective of a villain.
- Total Drama: Pomewin Island: Heather deconstructs this particular aspect of Alejandro in Chapter 6, implying it and his Ax-Crazy moment of knocking Cody into shark-infested waters in Season 3 as chief reasons to vote him off to his demise right away.
- Total Drama: Some Stars: Scott's lovable idiot tendencies he abruptly gained in All Stars? All portrayed as a front. He's actually no less conniving than back in Revenge of the Island. Duncan, Zoey, and possibly Owen are the only ones to catch on, but it's more than enough.
- Total Drama Stranded:
- Desdemona, to varying success.
- Despite being physically weak and a loner, he still manages to keep himself in the game time after time.
- Total Drama Tokyo: Layla to Charles, Isabel, and... basically everyone else.
- Total Shuffled Island Series: Alejandro and Justin.
- Alejandro's first season strategy involves manipulating everyone into thinking he's a Nice Guy, and later does the same to Ella in the third season.
- Justin tries a similar strategy, using his reputation as a model to convince the girls on his team to side with him in voting.
- Total Sibling Rivalry: Alejandro managed to be this even without the show.
- Unbreakable Red Silken Thread:
- Heather, though a rare positive case, she readily admits to manipulating people though does try to do so in ways that help others. Her old self does still rear up from time to time however was the case with Jasmine and Sammy.
- Scarlett takes it up to eleven, being able to manipulate Heather with relative ease.
- Tales of the Undiscovered Swords: Konotegashiwa does this to get other swords to become as big of straw vegans as he is; first, he heaps flattery on Kasen's tastes in poetry (it works) and then he dangles what Hōchō likes most — married women (by dressing up in Kimono Fanservice) and sweets — in front of him (it fails thanks to Yagen's intervention).
- In Turning Red: Secrets of the Panda, Jason Vaugn is quite skilled at manipulating people in order to get what he wants. He even manages to manipulate the government simply so that he could overthrow the original leader of the PCA.
- X-Men: The Early Years: Given Scott Summers' manipulative tendencies, his friends advise him to consider a law degree.Scott: I really need to find a career that allows me to play with people’s minds, souls, and ethical values or else I'm never going to be a happy and fulfilled person.
Warren: Have you considered law?
Scott: Summers, Happily, Cheatum, and Howe? I'll have to consider changing my major.
