History MagnificentBastard / Literature

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lord_Vetinari_5754.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Discworld}} He]] won't stop at [[SarcasmMode sarcasm]], he might use... ''{{Irony}}''.]]

* ''{{The Chathrand Voyages}}'' has Sandor Ott, Spymaster of {{The Empire}} Arqual. An extraodinarily skilled fighter in multiple weapons, and leader of various hidden agents who ensure he has the proper dirt on anyone he needs to manipulate. When every one of your lines can easily be imagined in Ian McShane's voice, you know you're one of these.

** It's quite common for major BigBad villains of {{Discworld}} -- [[spoiler: Vorbis, Lord Hong, Prince Cadram]] -- to display traits of this trope as well, at least until they meet up with someone who's either too sincere to be suckered (Carrot, Brutha), or already being steered by Havelock Vetinari.

* [[DangerousLiaisons Marquise Isabella de Merteuil]]... [[XJustX just]] Marquise Isabella de Merteuil.

* Marquise Isabella de Merteuil...just Marquise Isabella de Merteuil.

* One of the best examples of this trope is Kees van Loo-Macklin in ''{{The Man Who Used the Universe by AlanDeanFoster. Starting as a homely and abused orphan and using nothing but determination and brainpower, he becomes one of the most powerful criminal figures in human space. Then he ''sells out'' almost all his old cronies convincing everyone that was really an undercover law enforcement agent. From there, he manipulates the human dominated empire and its chief rival by becoming a double agent for ''both sides'' against the other in order to trick them into forming alliance in order to attack a race that knows nothing about either side. He uses this con in order to become the president of the combined alliance. Along the way are littered the bodies of many rivals and innocent victims who were simply more useful to him dead than alive. And why does he do all of this? To fulfill a lifelong desire never to feel vulnerable again.

* DonQuixote: Gines de Pasamonte: An ungrateful galley slave whom Don Quixote frees, so a great conman that . In Part I, Gines is convicted for more crimes that all the other galley slaves, and carried so many more chains because he is such a great a villain. [[LargeHam Gines is a vane, cynical]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bandit, thief, swindler and picaresque writer]] who doesn't appreciate to be [[BerserkButton called names like ''Ginesillo de Parapilla'']]. After Don Quixote free him and his companions, Gines repays attacking him and stealing his sword. Later, he will steal Sancho's donkey while Sancho is sleeping over it (and when Sancho wakes up, he falls spectacularly). Then we discover in Part II that Gines is a [[spoiler: MasterOfDisguise, first when Gines disguises himself as a romany when Sancho recognizes his donkey, and then when the narrator told us that a character that we knew as "Maese Pedro" really was Gines, practicing a con that fooled entire towns… and our two protagonist… again]] Gines is so important to the book, that is the only character of the novel to appear in both parts who is not from Don Quixote's town.

* Parvis from Andrey Lazarchuk's {{Tranquilium}}. The head of the Soviet intelligence network in Tranquilium, he was to some extent or another behind every Soviet scheme, including the many successful ones [[spoiler: like the socialist revolution in one of the two great powers sharing tha tworld]]. He has built for himself a capable and loyal team of advisors and assistants. He has shown himself time and again to be very good at recruiting people that were his natural enemies to serve his plans. And his back-up plan for when everything goes wrong is... truly something else: he [[spoiler: pulled a HeelFaceTurn, overthrew the increasingly discredited Merryland revolutionary government, made himself president with popular support, set up a government secretly made up of his old team and then repeatedly ingratiated the good guys to himself by helping them out against common enemies, knowing full well that they had no choice but to work with him unless they wanted a war with a Merryland government that is actually popular and competent.]]
* Kronos from PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians. He manages to be magnificent even as pieces in Tartarus. There's a reason he's known as "The Crooked One"

* Walker from Simon Green's Nightside Series series. A perfect London gentleman until he posts your head on a fence.

<<|MagnificentBastard|>>

*** He's a genius. His age doesn't matter, what matters is how smart he actually is (speaking of, I spoke with a rather good bit larger vocabulary at twelve; I don't see why his use of a three syllable word would be so... frightening [But don't mind me; my IQ is higher than his {and I'm not much older, either}.].).

* JohnScalzi's protagonist from the ''OldMansWar'' [[strike:trilogy]] series is just a lovable roguish character up until [[spoiler: the third book where he leads a fleet of former enemy ships to Earth to circumvent the tyrannical extra-solar human government who had been keeping Earth in the dark about anything beyond Pluto. By doing so, he managed to prevent the extermination of the human race, free the Earth from the amoral splinter government and bring humanity into an interstellar alliance. He does all of it while navigating the judicial bureaucracy of a government that wants him to hang, framing himself as a war hero in the interplanetary politics, leading an entire planet and negotiating peace. At the same time, his daughter assists his plan in her own story which might qualify her as well.]]

** Think on this: He somehow arranged for the only way to destroy his Ring of Power to be to bring it ''right to his doorstep.'' If he'd actually been paying attention, rather than plotting the downfall of the entire free world (and very nearly succeeding), he would have been restored to his previous self and been ''nigh-unstoppable.''
*** Go further. He didn't ''need'' to pay attention. As events ultimately proved at the climax, ''no-one'' has the strength of will necessary to destroy the One Ring - it only happened by sheer chance (or Providence). The entire War/Quest of the Ring was a desperate, improbable, last-ditch attempt to defeat Sauron, the ultimate success of which was arguably down to divine intervention (this is hinted at occasionally).
**** Actually, it seems to me that given enough time with a Bearer, the Ring could corrupt anyone, even a Hobbit, widely shown to be the paragons of innocence in Middle-Earth. If, say, Sam (or Elrond before him) took the ring from Frodo (or Isildur) in the Crack of Doom, or indeed anyone whom the Ring hasn't had time to influence, then it would have been doing its Siren song all the way into the lava. However, Isildur probably wouldn't let Elrond part him from his new toy, and Sam wouldn't want to hurt his Mr. Frodo.
***** Which is ''exactly'' why it took base, unrestrained greed to destroy the ring: Gollum proved to be the final wild card in the war of the ring, and his absolute corruption was what brought all of Sauron's magnificent bastardry to its knees. No matter how hard you try, evil destroys itself in the end.
***** WordOfGod is that ''no one'' in Middle-Earth existed who had the willpower to deliberately destroy the Ring in Mount Doom where its power was so dramatically increased (which probably extends to shoving someone else who's holding it into the Fire as well). Sauron had set things up so well that literally the only way for him to be defeated was by [[YourMileageMayVary chance/fate]].
****** Which is all well and good, except for the bit where you're going up against The PowersThatBe including the guy who's responsible for chance, fate, destiny and all the rest.
******* Which was actually something close to the point Tolkien was trying to make with Sauron, actually- no matter how magnificent a bastard you are, you ''can't'' beat God at his own game.

* Although mentioned below in detail, in the RealLife section, Cardinal Richelieu in EricFlint's ''[[SixteenThirtyTwo 1632]]'' series gets even more chances to demonstrate his magnificant bastardy, thanks to getting a preview of the flow of history thanks to uptimer history books, as discussed in ''1633''.

** Opal Koboi counts as well

** [[Film/{{Dracula}} This carries over into film]]; BelaLugosi's portrayal may seem hammy and silly now, but it put the thrilling fear of vampire seduction into 1930's audiences, and ChristopherLee did the [[HammerHorror same in the 1970s]]. Subsequent film adaptions have, of course, been hit-or-miss, sometimes [[{{BadassDecay}} Spikeifying]] or [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderizing]] Dracula to the point of parody or unrecognisability. Nonetheless, the spirit of the original retains all the charm and unrepentant evil of an undiluted Bastard.

* Female example: The witch Senna Wales of ''{{Everworld}}''. Originally introduced as a mysterious and withdrawn teenaged girl hunted by all the major factions of Everworld for her status as the "gateway" between worlds(it is for her the first book ''Search for Senna'' is named), she slowly reveals more of her personality, until ''Inside the Illusion'' the book [[VillainEpisode narrated from her point of view]], which finally reveals what she's been doing behind the curtains. From there, she's pretty much the whole deal; [[TheChessmaster has been manipulating events right from the start]], [[CompellingVoice makes the main hero her bitch with magic]], [[FlawExploitation memorizes every character's quirks and emotions and uses them to control them]], [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu has been pulling the strings of GODS, outsmarting them with her human ingenuity and imagination]], [[MoreThanMindControl tied a string around the heart of the hero that effectively leaves him still protecting her and doing her bidding even when she ''isn't'' using magic on him partially by way of a]] WoundedGazelleGambit, [[XanatosSucker has pretty much the entire cast as her Xanatos Suckers]], pulls BatmanGambit after BatmanGambit as easily as breathing, is so skilled at XanatosSpeedChess that she provided a quote for that page, ''and in her spare time on the side of all this'', forged her own personal army of [[MoreDakka gun-toting]] [[PsychoForHire Psychos For Hire]] who nearly worship her, armed them with modern weapons, and brought them all over to Everworld to bring about her master plan of [[TheMagicVersusTechnologyWar crushing the gods and their forces with technology]], overthrowing all the governments, and [[WorldDomination ruling the whole of Everworld]] for her own. The ending of the series wasn't worth crap, but ''damn'' did this girl leave an impression.

** And he's ''twelve.''

* Lord Vetinari, Patrician and supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork from TerryPratchett's ''{{Discworld}}'' books, is described as being such a Magnificent Bastard, he makes Machiavelli look like an amateur. He plots against everyone, plays people against each other, and he manipulates people into doing exactly what he wants, and always gets away with it. Interestingly enough, he is almost a subversion in that we meet him when he is already quite-contentedly in power, and his Magnificent Bastardry is dedicated entirely to the mundane bureaucratic affairs of quietly running his city, leading a quite Spartan existence himself and almost always acting as a side-character to the main action, never protagonist or antagonist.

*** Actually the RealLife Machiavelli ''was'' an amateur. He just wrote books about being a MagnificentBastard .
** ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' however has Reacher Gilt, who fits this trope to a T; the protagonist even describes him as the greatest conman he's ever met. He secretly has people killed in order to run the clacks into the ground and profit as it's built back up. And he gets away with it because he's [[RefugeInAudacity so bald-faced about it]], as well as amazingly charming, that no-one believes he's serious.

* DonQuixote: Gines de Pasamonte: An ungrateful galley slave whom Don Quixote frees, so a great conman that . In Part I, Gines is convicted for more crimes that all the other galley slaves, and carried so many more chains because he is such a great a villain. [[LargeHam Gines is a vane, cynical]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bandit, thief, swindler and picaresque writer]] who doesn't appreciate to be [[BerserkButton called names like ''Ginesillo de Parapilla'']]. After Don Quixote free him and his companions, Gines repays attacking him and stealing his sword. Later, he will steal Sancho's donkey while Sancho is sleeping over it (and when Sancho wakes up, he falls spectacularly). Then we discover in Part II that Gines is a [[spoiler: MasterOfDisguise, first when Gines disguises himself as a romany when Sancho recognizes his donkey, and then when the narrator told us that a character that we knew as "Maese Pedro" really was Gines, practicing a con that fooled entire towns… and our two protagonist… again]] Gines is so important to the book, that is the only character of the novel to appear in both parts who is not from Don Quixote's town.

** He buys eggs at 7 cents apiece to sell them at 5 cents apiece. For a profit.

* DonQuixote: Gines de Pasamonte: An ungrateful galley slave whom Don Quixote frees, so a great conman that . In Part I, Gines is convicted for more crimes that all the other galley slaves, and carried so many more chains because he is such a great a villain. [[LargeHam Gines is a vane, cynical]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bandit, thief, swindler and picaresque writer]] who doesn't appreciate to be [[BerserkButton called names like ''Ginesillo de Parapilla'']]. After Don Quixote free him and his companions, Gines repays attacking him and stealing his sword. Later, he will steal Sancho's donkey while Sancho is sleeping over it (and when Sancho wakes up, he falls spectacularly). Then we discover in Part II that Gines is a [[spoiler: MasterOfDisguise, first when Gines disguises himself as a romany when Sancho recognizes his donkey, and then when the narrator told us that a character that we knew as "Maese Pedro" really was Gines, practicing a con that fooled entire towns… and our two protagonist… again]] Gines is so important to the book, that is the only character of the novel to appear in both parts who is not from Don Quixote's town.

** One of the ''XWingSeries'' novels has a chapter that's basically a POVSequel for the Bilbringi battle (the climax of ''[[TheThrawnTrilogy The Last Command]]'') from [[CanonSue Corran]] [[TropesAreNotBad Horn]]'s perspective. When he realizes that the Republic fleet has been [[OutGambitted neatly manuvered into Thrawn's trap]], he gives us this quote which sums up the MB in a nutshell:
--->'''Corran:''' The man's ''incredible.'' I'd like to meet him, shake his hand. ''Corran smiled.'' And then ''kill him'', of course.

* Sauron, though much of his magnificent bastardy takes place before ''{{Lord of the Rings}}'' - see [[http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/tolkien/46240 this essay]]. Sauron is a cunning manipulator who has plans going all over Middle-earth. When force fails he can sweet-talk and when sweet-talk fails he has force and when that fails he has schemes within schemes within schemes. He can manipulate even his enemies into serving his goals. He engineered the Fall of Númenor through manipulation of the Númenoreans' desire for immortality and he was the one that was responsible for many of the Foul Things that inhabit Middle-earth. And the Nazgûl were his own idea. And so on. Basically, he was a MagnificentBastard all the way till the fall of Númenor. Afterwards, he became the archetypal EvilOverlord.

* Hasan ibn Sabbah from Vladimir Bartol's ''Alamut''. He cheerfully builds himself the new Prophet to his followers with the power to send people to Paradise at will with a bunch of elaborate parlor tricks. Yet he is a man of good humour who claims to do this because the people are happier to have something to believe in, and if they weren't given a chance to die for their faith, they'd just come up with far more brutal, base reasons to slaughter each other. And for his defense, he tried hard for decades to share his true wisdom with people, only to be rejected at every turn. In the end he decided that if people want some unknowable and divine to believe in, he would provide them just that.

** Azrael de Gray's introduction from ''War of the Dreaming'' involves talking the KidHero into jumping off a cliff--and he was hanging in a cage made of hooks as punishment for being an untrustworthy murderer at the time.