History ManipulativeBastard / Webcomics

** Kira from "The Immortal King". She seems to be TheSociopath, and will stop at nothing, even murder, to get the already married Wilcott Wilden for herself. Unfortunately for her, though she manipulates people all the time, she's actually really bad at it, [[SmugSnake not that she knows it]].

* Sul from ''Webcomic/CheeseInTheTrap'' initially believes that Jung is one. [[spoiler:It's still not clear whether she was right or not]].

* ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'': Christian and Rory, a [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney rich jerkass]] and a JerkJock AloofOlderBrother, respectively.

* Dominic from ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan''. Hell, just look at the image on the comic's main page!

** [[spoiler:Nanase's mother, as shown in [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2009-12-01 this comic]].]]
** Pandora would also qualify.

* Fructose Riboflavin in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob.'' (Poor lovestruck Galatea!) He seems rather flummoxed in his first appearance when Bob turns out to be TooDumbToFool.
* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' gives us Sonorous Aria, [[http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0252.html starting here]].
* Felicia from ''Webcomic/{{Life}}'' worries briefly that she may be one -- which, to be fair, is because she ''was'' being manipulative.
* Adam from ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' seems like TheCasanova at the first glimpse, but in [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/130 this strip]] he displays what a master of manipulation he is.
* The eponymous girls at ''Webcomic/M9Girls'' are the unwilling subjects of Professor T.X.'s experiments. It can be argued that he has manipulated them into agreeing to the experiments.
* ''Webcomic/MagIsa'' -- [[http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119612 Love]] is an easy emotion to manipulate... how sad.
* Tohya Miho from ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' does this with varying levels of success. Miho is an interesting (and arguably realistic) example, because while the impact of her schemes has been truly dramatic she is forced to admit that she actually ended up achieving the opposite of her true objectives. Her Manipulative Bastard actions in the Endgames prequel similarly end in failure, when Piro [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame plays her own game back at her.]]
* Brian from ''Webcomic/{{Multiplex}}'' is a perfect example of this. He pretends to be an idiot so he can steal money from the theater.

** There's also Diamonds Droog from as early as the Intermission, who used some spectacular {{Mind Screw}}y [[TimeyWimeyBall weird time shit]] to take out Trace along with Doze. Unfortunately for him he didn't consider the full effects of whacking [[BornLucky Clover]] with a newspaper . . .

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'':
** Khun Aguero Agnes. Despite being a mere Regular, he is a guy that makes experienced Rankers of the Tower despise him so much that they would even help his enemies. Just that these enemies are actually his friends.
** An even better example would be Yu Hansung, who was able to [[TheChessmaster manipulate the entire series of important events]] that played on the Second Floor without anyone realising what was going on.
* Yang Jeonghak from ''Webcomic/{{Gosu}}'' orchestrated [[OneManArmy Gang Ryong's]] [[StormingTheCastle rampage against the Baekma Valley]] under the orders of [[spoiler:[[LadyOfWar Jin Garyeong's]] mother, the former Lady of the Valley]].
* Jordan from ''Webcomic/{{Skins}}'' is a rare female example. She knows what makes her team mates tick and uses her werewolf companion's need to protect his substitute pack to manipulate him into joining her on a dangerous mission.
* ''Webcomic/MagIsa'' -- [[http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119612 Love]] is an easy emotion to manipulate... how sad.
* Dominic from ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan''. Hell, just look at the image on the comic's main page!
* Adam from ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' seems like TheCasanova at the first glimpse, but in [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/130 this strip]] he displays what a master of manipulation he is.
* The eponymous girls at ''Webcomic/M9Girls'' are the unwilling subjects of Professor T.X.'s experiments. It can be argued that he has manipulated them into agreeing to the experiments.
* Tohya Miho from ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' does this with varying levels of success. Miho is an interesting (and arguably realistic) example, because while the impact of her schemes has been truly dramatic she is forced to admit that she actually ended up achieving the opposite of her true objectives. Her Manipulative Bastard actions in the Endgames prequel similarly end in failure, when Piro [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame plays her own game back at her.]]
* While some view Maytag of ''Webcomic/{{Flipside}}'' as a Purity Sue both inside and outside the comic, others view her as a frighteningly powerful Manipulative Bastard.

* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' gives us Sonorous Aria, [[http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0252.html starting here]].
* Fructose Riboflavin in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob.'' (Poor lovestruck Galatea!) He seems rather flummoxed in his first appearance when Bob turns out to be TooDumbToFool.
* Priti of ''Webcomic/{{Snowflakes}}'' has all the makings of a brilliant political strategist, or so she would have you believe. She's very good at manipulating any given situation to her advantage, but she only sticks around for as long as she's getting results, meaning that she never stays friends with anybody for very long. And recently, the other children have started to employ the same methods right back....

* The Head Alien from the Webcomic/WalkyVerse. He has the advantage of knowing the protagonists inside and out, being responsible for their powers and knowing them since birth because of it, and therefore has the advantage of having a reasonable idea what it takes to shock them or make them angry. (Granted, he does play favorites, making secondary characters difficult for him to deal with.)

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'':
** [[spoiler:Nanase's mother, as shown in [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2009-12-01 this comic]].]]
** Pandora would also qualify.
** Tom, as described [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1782 here]].
--->'''Ashley:''' It's like, you could have a sandwich? And he'll want to ''eat'' the sandwich, but he won't ''ask'' you for it. Instead he'll say or do something sneaky that makes you want to ''give'' him the sandwich, all while thinking it was ''your idea''. And then? ''He eats your sandwich''.
*** It later turns out that [[spoiler:Tom's reputation was exaggerated. When things goes well, he fits, but his attempts to recover from a mark first going off-script and then [[SpottingTheThread spotting a mistake in Tom's story]] are downright pathetic, even culminating in an AccidentalPublicConfession]].
* Brian from ''Webcomic/{{Multiplex}}'' is a perfect example of this. He pretends to be an idiot so he can steal money from the theater.
* Felicia from ''Webcomic/{{Life}}'' worries briefly that she may be one -- which, to be fair, is because she ''was'' being manipulative.
* Sul from "Webcomic/CheeseInTheTrap" initially believes that Jung is one. [[spoiler:It's still not clear whether she was right or not]].
* Susan from ''WebComic/{{Sire}}'' has played Anna and all of her peers like a fiddle her whole life. Unforunately for her, nobody at Lineage Haven falls for her tricks.
* Count Drusus Beausoleil of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
** He manipulates a bunch of his students into fighting one another in order to create a diversion in order to [[spoiler: abscond with Agatha in the confusion]].
** He worms his way into [[spoiler:Du Quay's trust, manipulates him into accepting Agatha as a prisoner by pointing out that she makes a good hostage against Gil, and looses her to rip apart Du Quay's attempt at overthrowing the Master]].
** In order to motivate Agatha, he refuses to give Agatha the info she wants until she completes a task for the master. When she does so, he admits that they don't actually ''have'' what she wants.
** [[spoiler: He manages to betray and sabotage the Master himself right under his nose, forcing the Master to fall on his last resort, and he ''still'' successfully murders the Master]].
* The titular Dr. Frost in ''Webcomic/DrFrost'' is most definitely one of these. As a psychologist, many of his plans to help clients are well intentioned and work out in the end, they usually do have shades of this as well. Often, they’re both ingenious and manipulative at the same time.
** Seonghyun Moon is a darker example. He's able to talk several people into [[spoiler: committing suicide, including some unnamed homeless people, and Jeonghyun Kim.]] He is also able to manipulate people in general into thinking of him as normal, and is very well liked.
* ''Webcomic/ImTheGrimReaper'': Chase. While questioning a woman about her missing son, he pretends to be a father who had lost his own wife and child in order to gain her trust. He also takes Scarlet to an amusement park to lower her guard so he could give her a cell phone that had a tracking device on it. [[spoiler: But seeing her told back tears after being given it made him feel guilty enough to not activate the app.]]
** Even in his backstory, he was able to trick a man into giving away enough information on where [[spoiler: he was keeping his daughters hostage so he could be pardoned for the murder of his wife by accusing him of making up the daughters being held hostage and insulting his pride. Unfortunately for the man, this was enough to trigger Chase into shooting him.]]
* ''Webcomic/DebuggingDestiny'' has both Baleyg and Ignacia. Baleyg plays this fairly straight, exploiting people's needs and using social engineering to get what he wants. Ignacia is a little more direct, using her HypnoticEyes to get her way.

** An even better example would be [[MagnificentBastard Yu Hansung]], who was able to [[TheChessmaster manipulate the entire series of important events]] that played on the Second Floor without anyone realising what was going on.

** An even better example would be [[MagnificentBastard Yu Han Sung]], who was able to [[TheChessmaster manipulate the entire series of important events]] that played on the Second Floor without anyone realising what was going on.

** Koon Aguero Agnis. Despite being a mere Regular, he is a guy that makes experienced Rankers of the Tower despise him so much that they would even help his enemies. Just that these enemies are actually his friends.

* Tohya Miho from ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' does this with varying levels of success.
** Miho is an interesting (and arguably realistic) example, because while the impact of her schemes has been truly dramatic she is forced to admit that she actually ended up achieving the opposite of her true objectives. Her Manipulative Bastard actions in the Endgames prequel similarly end in failure, when Piro [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame plays her own game back at her.]]

* Mike from ''Webcomic/CollegeRoomiesFromHell'' is a good example. Physically, he's about evenly matched with roommates Dave and Roger -- but mentally, he's ''always'' two steps ahead of them. Mike can accomplish almost anything by manipulating others' actions, and he seldom betrays any affection for people other than his sister Blue and girlfriend Marsha. He can even see through ''the devil's'' mind games '''while being tortured in Hell'''.
** More recently, April -- once the nicest character in the strip -- has let her doomed love for Mike drive her into becoming a Manipulative Bitch. In a way, she's his opposite: while Mike only falters on the rare occasions when he loses his cool, April is at her scheming best when she's most bitter and desperate. After one series of lies so brazen that it ''killed her conscience'', there was no turning back.
* [[Webcomic/CtrlAltDel Christian and Rory]], a [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney rich jerkass]] and a JerkJock AloofOlderBrother, respectively.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', [[spoiler:Nanase's mother, as shown in [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2009-12-01 this comic]].]]

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': Koon Aguero Agnis. Despite being a mere Regular, he is a guy that makes experienced Rankers of the Tower despise him so much that they would even help his enemies. Just that these enemies are actually his friends.

* Most of the {{Troll}}s in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' are this to some degree (it's [[ValuesDissonance practically required in their society]]), but Terezi is the freaking ''master'' of it, especially considering her ability to play mind games without the aid of any PsychicPowers. She's just ''that good'' at pushing the right buttons.
** Vriska really, ''really'' wants to be one, but tends to [[{{Jerkass}} piss everyone else off so much]] that she always gets frustrated and uses MindControl PsychicPowers when she wants to "manipul[[VerbalTic 8]]" someone. This tends to backfire regularly.
*** Her ancestor, [[AwesomeMcCoolName Mindfang]], meanwhile, was far more adept at it than Vriska was.
** There's also [[TheDragon Diamonds Droog]] from as early as the Intermission, who used some spectacular {{Mind Screw}}y [[TimeyWimeyBall weird time shit]] to take out Trace along with Doze. Unfortunately for him he didn't consider the full effects of whacking [[BornLucky Clover]] with a newspaper . . .

* Xykon from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' definitely displays shades of a Manipulative Bastard at the end of StartOfDarkness. He uses Redcloak's guilt and unwillingness to admit his mistakes against him to effectively turn the goblin cleric from a semi-loyal follower to a willing slave. Xykon notes with no small amount of satisfaction that Redcloak will continue to operate in his interests even when the lich can't supervise him personally because doing otherwise will force Redcloak to admit he [[spoiler:killed his baby brother]] for nothing.
** However, this was [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0830.html recently]] turned on its head with the reveal that [[spoiler: Redcloak's been lying to Xykon all along about the true purpose of the Ritual, playing the spineless servant and suffering every indignation, all in order to manipulate Xykon into helping carry out a plan that doesn't help him out at all.]]

** [[spoiler: He manages to betray and sabotage the Master himself right under his nose, forcing the Master to fall on his last resort, and he ''still'' successfully murders the Master]].

* Susan from ''WebComic/{{Sire}}'' has played Anna and all of her peers like a fiddle her whole life. Unforunately for her, nobody at Lineage Haven falls for her tricks.

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': Koon Agero Agnis. He is the guy that makes century-old veterans on the Tower despise him so much they help his enemies. Just that these enemies are friends.

* The Head Alien from the WalkyVerse. He has the advantage of knowing the protagonists inside and out, being responsible for their powers and knowing them since birth because of it, and therefore has the advantage of having a reasonable idea what it takes to shock them or make them angry. (Granted, he does play favorites, making secondary characters difficult for him to deal with.)

*** Her ancestor,[[AwesomeMcCoolName Mindfang]], meanwhile, was far more adept at it than Vriska was.

** Apparently a feature of the Strakoistrat vampires introduced in "The Circle". When the Vrykolakas vampire Urja goes to kill the Strakoi Dr. Vistuvius for betraying the Vrykolakas by helping the Lysinda Circle (yet another group of vampires), Vistuvius manages to use his last words before being destroyed to say something that forces Urja to spare him -- and she immediately suspects he's playing manipulative head games because he's a Strakoi. Also, when he gets the chance to explain himself, he plausibly claims that he was in fact betraying the Lysinda Circle to the Vrykolakas when he appeared to be helping them, and the Vrykolakas were being stupid in not realising what opportunity he was deliberately offering them. It was not like he didn't know they were spying on him and would see everything.

** Apparently a feature of the Strakoistrat vampires introduced in "The Circle". When the Vrykolakas vampire Urja goes to kill the Strakoi Dr. Vistuvius for betraying the Vrykolakas by helping the Lysinda Circle (yet another group of vampires), Vistuvius manages to use his last words before being destroyed to say something that forces Urja to spare him -- and she immediately suspects it's to do with this trope because he's a Strakoi. Also, when he gets the chance to explain himself, he plausibly claims that he was in fact betraying the Lysinda Circle to the Vrykolakas when he appeared to be helping them, and the Vrykolakas were being stupid in not realising what opportunity he was deliberately offering them. It was not like he didn't know they were spying on him and would see everything.

* Bestseid from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' qualifies: he's a master of making you believe and feel what he wants. After all he's a uber-PR.

* Susan from ''WebComic/Sire'' has played Anna and all of her peers like a fiddle her whole life. Unforunately for her, nobody at Lineage Haven falls for her tricks.

-->'''Ashley''': It's like, you could have a sandwich? And he'll want to ''eat'' the sandwich, but he won't ''ask'' you for it. \\
Instead he'll say or do something sneaky that makes you want to ''give'' him the sandwich, all while thinking it was ''your idea''. \\
And then? ''He eats your sandwich''.

* Sul from "Webcomic/CheeseInTheTrap" initially believes that Jung is one. [[spoiler:It's still not clear whether she was right or not]].