Old Magnificent Bastard thread
Welcome to the Magnificent Bastard proposal thread! This is the thread where new Magnificent Bastard examples are vetted, approved, and written up. If you're looking for the general cleanup thread (for cuts, rewrites, expansions, and the like), please go here
Important: Before suggesting any new examples, please read the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List; if you have any questions, the odds are high they are answered there. Additionally, please check here for the earliest date a work can be discussed (usually two weeks from the U.S. release date) and whether the work has already been reserved by another user.
Here is how the process works:
- If you have a candidate to propose, you can simply come right in and propose them! If the character's run is brief, such as a single issue of a comic book, then a simple summary of their actions and any potential mitigating features will be enough; for longer-running candidates, an effortpost (EP) might be helpful for organizing the proposal. An EP is not outright required, but please be mindful that if a post becomes too clunky and unorganized, it can be very hard for other people to follow.
- After the proposal, there will be a 72-hour discussion and voting period, where people may ask questions and vote on the candidate. The number of upvotes must outnumber the downvotes by at least five for the character to be considered "approved".
- Three days after the proposal has been made, if the character has been approved, you may post the writeup (the text to be posted on the trope page itself) on the thread and send it to the drafts page. Your candidate will soon be added to the MB subpage. If the work has a page, you should add your candidate to the relevant YMMV page. Voila! It's that simple!
Outside of this process, we do have a few ground rules:
- To keep the thread moving at a reasonable pace, there are some restrictions on when a proposal can be made. There should only be a maximum of four EPs posted both per page and per hour to ensure that nothing gets lost in the shuffle; additionally, each individual troper should only be proposing or writing up characters from a maximum of three works at a time (from initial proposals to end of their voting period). If your proposal would fall outside of either of these guidelines, we'd like to ask you to please wait until they would fit within; feel free to type them up on an outside document, and then when the time comes, you can just copy, paste, and post!
- No plagiarism of any kind. This is a very serious matter site-wide, as the website could get in actual legal trouble over this; as a result, this can very quickly lead to mod intervention. This can take many different forms:
- Direct plagiarism, i.e. wholesale copying. This is not only the easiest to find, but is also the most likely to warrant quick moderator intervention. To be clear, quoting in some places is perfectly acceptable, but it has to be very clear you're quoting from something else and it cannot be anything longer than a sentence or two - if you're quoting an entire work summary from Wikipedia, no one is going to believe you've actually consumed the work, so even if you cite your source, your candidate will be downvoted anyway.
- Self-plagiarism. Even if you can prove that you wrote the same text in both places, the site itself can't contain any of the duplicated text. If you already wrote something once before, it's not too hard to write it a second time.
- Using another site's work as a template for a proposal. Just because you don't copy and paste something directly doesn't mean it's any harder to detect if you're basing parts or all of your proposal on text someone else wrote. To be clear, this doesn't violate site rules and won't lead to mod intervention, but just like if you directly plagiarize, no one will believe you've consumed the work if you're clearly basing your proposal on something else. This thread largely operates on the honor system, and tweaking someone else's work to pass it off as your own is one of the fastest ways to lose trust.
- Votes must be for specific candidates, meaning no blanket voting (i.e. "yes to everyone I missed").
- If you are the first person to downvote a candidate, please provide an explanation of why when you do so. We're here for discussions above all, and a hit-and-run downvote doesn't facilitate anything.
- If a work is already reserved by another user, please don't comment on the work or any potential characters worth discussion before the discussion date. We know how exciting it is when a work has a keeper that you're waiting to talk about, but it's not fair to the person who reserved the work who is just as excited to lead the discussion to see the discussion getting spoiled before they get to do it. On the other hand, if the reservation only has one name attached, shoot them a PM - they may be down for a collaboration, which will get you in on the fun as well!
- Please keep the thread on-topic. While discussing the trope is fun and we encourage people to enjoy it, questions like "who's your favorite MB" are off-topic and can lead to thumps. That's the kind of question to take to people's PMs if they're willing. Similarly, while we encourage friendliness and familiarity with other users, posts should always have some kind of thread-relevant purpose; for instance, if you want to wish someone a happy birthday, feel free to, but if it's the only thing in the post, it's off-topic and needs something else alongside it. Again, though, while we strive for a friendly atmosphere, this is not Facebook; life updates are fun, but unless they have some kind of impact on your thread participation, please do not bring it here - we have Yack Fest for that.
- Please refrain from asking anything along the lines of "How Did We Miss This One?" In almost every case, the answer is simply "No one thought about it before". This Is a Wiki where everyone has different interests, and the fact that people missed a particular candidate, even one that seems like a textbook example of a trope or a character who is particularly iconic in pop culture, means absolutely nothing. The question is disruptive, has a simple and consistent answer, and provides nothing to any discussion.
- If you are suspended from other parts of the website, it is still possible to participate!
- For users who are suspended from editing the wiki, you still have full access to this thread. You can propose candidates and write them up with no issues whatsoever; while you will have to ask someone else to post the entry to the relevant pages once it is done, all write-ups are considered thread-approved - as in, done by consensus - and thus doing so does not violate any rules regarding meatpuppeting.
- If you are suspended from the forums, your participation is limited but not impossible. It is still possible for a forum-suspended user to assist in creating the write-up for a character who has already been approved; as previously mentioned, write-ups are inherently considered a consensus-based edit and thus not tied to any one particular user. However, you can not assist in the proposal of a character; as a proposal is based around the forum rather than the wiki, doing so with a forum suspension qualifies as meatpuppeting.
- Please keep all discussions "in-house".
- What other wikis use for MB equivalents is irrelevant here.
- Please be wary of using other wikis, Fandom or otherwise, as sources of information. They are just as fallible as a site like Wikipedia in regards to accuracy because they can be edited by any user, just as this site can.
- Do not attempt to force a communication with an author in an attempt to gather evidence or settle a debate; besides the fact that this is a YMMV trope and thus author intent has variable weight depending on the circumstance, doing so may cross the line into drama exportation, which is prohibited site-wide.
If you would like to use an EP for your candidate, here's the general format. This format does not have to be followed exactly, but these are the main topics that need to be covered:
What is the work?
This is a brief summary of the work you're going to discuss. We don't need a full plot summary here, just however much we need to understand going into the discussion — it can even be as simple as quoting the summary on the work's page.
Who is the candidate and what have they done?
This is essentially the character's biography — who they are, their story, their goals and methodology, and, preferably (though not required), what happens to the candidate at the end. It does not have to include every single thing they ever do — for some characters, we'd be here all day if that was the case — but it should include the highlights of their journey.
How are they Magnificent?
This is the point where you highlight the character's brilliance. How to they convey their intelligence and charm to the audience? What makes them stand out among the crowd? What are their goals and how do they go about accomplishing them? This part welcomes a lot of creative thinking — not everyone has to be a Machiavellian Diabolical Mastermind to be worth considering here! This is also the time to showcase how the character can think on their feet if it's necessary.
How are they a Bastard? How are they not too bad?
What kinds of moral lines is this character willing to cross for the sake of their goal? Are they willing to let innocents die? Start wars? Commit crimes? The character has to show some kind of unscrupulousness in order to count as a "Bastard". Notably, this character does not necessarily have to be the villain, and an Anti-Hero can cross the line if they're immoral enough, but they have to be immoral somehow.
This is also the section where you then state your case for why they're not too bad. Perhaps their good intentions help mitigate their crimes. Perhaps others are shown to be much worse than them. Perhaps they're prone to Pet the Dog moments or are even fighting on behalf of loved ones. Whatever the case, there are certain lines that an MB can't cross, but as long as their villainy is reasonable for their goal, they can be considered.
Final verdict?
This is where you post your final conclusion on the character in question. You can continue elaborating on your reasons or even just say a simple "yes" or "no"; at this point, we've heard everything we need to hear.
And that's everything you need to know. Welcome to the thread!
Edited by Twiddler on Jan 17th 2024 at 5:40:56 AM
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Golden Freddy and Henry
Edited by YorkobeShounen on Nov 9th 2023 at 9:43:15 AM
Lizzid people!
Golden Freddy
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Sure to the Gold guy
In honor of Akira Toriyama
Golden Freddy
Yes to the Blonde Child/Golden Freddy. Glad he's going up after we had our DM's.
to Golden Freddy.
Not the Eye
to Napoleon, Joker (good first EP), Henry (could we not ignore that EP) and Golden Freedy
Harbinger of Cringe
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Thank you! I would appreciate it if people didn't ignore my EP, though I can get why since Golden Freddy is pretty exciting.
Speaking of, I'll give him a cautious yes. The whole thing of him leading the animatronics to brutally kill people is a bit iffy for me. But considering this is the horror genre, and Goldie is far from the worst villain in this film, I think I can give him a pass.
My mere presence makes everyone's day worse.
Goku Black
Henry
Also sorry about that. It just kind of happens with eps at the botton of tgr page. So I reckoned trying to post them at the top.
Edited by miraculous on Nov 9th 2023 at 7:43:20 AM
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
The wifi here sucks
Yes to henry and Golden Freddy
Hope your prepared for an unforgettable luncheon
Ultimate Moral Compass
Yellow Bear
Edited by therealjackieboy on Nov 9th 2023 at 8:40:15 AM
"No running in the halls!"
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Yes to Golden Freddy.
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
Barb / Temporary Kylo
to Golden Freddy.
I'll point out he might not be Cassidy in this version. Sense he's a boy he might be Andrew or Michael Brooks(The former was hinted to be GF in Frights and the Latter was the Golden Freddy spirit in the silver eyes).
The First man
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Before I touch the Legend of Zelda tree I would like to find a new quote for Video Games. Can someone take suggested replacements to the quotes thread? I would but I can't find the post right now.
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
- "Whispers in the Dark" & "Dead Men Tell No Tales": General William Howe served in the British army during the Revolutionary War as a strategist and supernatural expert. He used mystical resources to try to bring down the rebellion, bonding a Whispering Wraith to a traitor and sending him to George Washington's spies, leading an army of Draugur to take control of Manhattan, and sending a spy to infiltrate and sabotage Washington's expedition to the Catacombs (this time coming close to killing Washington and Betsy Ross). Having Crane captured, he tempted his former subordinate with an offer of amnesty in exchange for naming Washington's spies. Resurrected as a Draugur by Pandora over 200 years after his death, Howe raised a new unit of undead to attack Sleepy Hollow before being lured into a trap so his soldiers could be destroyed with Greek Fire. He chose to incinerate himself rather than grant Crane the satisfaction of killing him.
Your friendly neighborhood stank goblin
for Golden Freddy. Or Cassidy(?). Or the Blonde Child.
Killing Them Softly is a neo-noir crime drama from 2012. It follows criminals Russell, Frankie, and Johnny "Squirrel" Amato as they plan to rob a poker game run by mobster Markie Trattman. After the trio commit the heist, the Mafia brings in hitman Jackie Cogan to hunt down the perpetrators. As expected with these kinds of movies, things go horribly wrong for the robbers involved, and it isn't long before the movie shifts focus to the hitman hunting down said "protagonists."
Who Is He?
Jackie Cogan is a hitman hired by the mob to determine who robbed Trattman's card game.
What Has He Done?
Jackie shows up shortly after the robbery, meeting with a mobster named Driver to get more details about what happened during the robbery. Driver believes Trattman, who once hired men to rob his own game, had his game hit again, but Jackie immediately knows even he's not dumb enough to hit his own game twice, immediately deducing that some outsiders robbed Trattman so he would take the fall. Nevertheless, Jackie knows that Trattman has to go since people are losing money and they need to set an example on the streets. Driver tells him Trattman needs "a good talking to," so Jackie, begrudgingly, sends two mobsters to beat Trattman to a bloody pulp.
Meanwhile, one of the two gunmen, Russell, travels to Florida to sell a bunch of stolen dogs, and ends up bragging to one of Jackie's enforcers, Kenny, that he robbed the card game. Jackie and Driver meet up and figure out Russell, Frankie, and Squirrel was behind it. Jackie decides to take out the three of them—along with Trattman, despite Driver's protests. He also has Driver hire another hitman named Mickey, since he knows Squirrel will spot Jackie if he tries to kill him by himself. Jackie discusses the plans to whack the thieves with Mickey, only to find that he's unhinged and that he may be heading to prison soon over a gun charge. Still, he convinces Mickey to kill Squirrel. Later on at night while eating with Kenny, Jackie spots Trattman heading home in his car. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Kenny drives Jackie next to Trattman's car, and Jackie successfully murders Trattman in a drive-by shooting.
Jackie comes across Mickey again, where he finds him drinking heavily and constantly moaning about his life. Frustrated, Jackie tells Mickey to get his shit together or else he'll have him arrested for violating parole. Unable to trust Mickey, he has Driver hire a prostitute to get into a fight with Mickey, thus causing him to go to jail, where his bail ends up being revoked. Later on, after Russell is arrested for carrying drugs, Jackie finds Frankie at a bar he routinely visits. Jackie threatens Frankie, telling him that if he doesn't give up Squirrel, then Jackie will kill Squirrel on his own, then come for him next. After much convincing, Frankie squeals, informing Jackie of where Squirrel will be. The two of them ambush Squirrel the next night during a stakeout, where Jackie succeeds in blowing Squirrel's head to mulch with a shotgun. Frankie speeds away from the crime scene, only for Jackie to take control of the wheel when Frankie speeds too much. Jackie tells Frankie to go over an alibi for the cops in case he's questioned and to dump the car...and then immediately blow's Frankie's brains out with a revolver and wipes his prints off the car.
Jackie meets with Driver, only to become bitter when he realizes Driver is attempting to pay less than what they agreed upon due to the recession. Both of them argue for a bit, before Jackie cynically denounces Obama's victory speech. He coldly tells Driver, "This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community? Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America is not a country; it's just a business. Now fucking pay me."
Cut to credits.
Is He Charming? Charismatic? Magnificent?
Yush. He's your typical Professional Killer, a No-Nonsense Nemesis who prefers doing his job, getting paid, and then going about his day. One of his specialties is that he prefers killing his targets quickly, painlessly, from a distance. He likes to "kill them softly," doesn't like putting emotion into his kills, doesn't like when it gets messy. He's also Affably Evil, doing small things like tipping at a diner and treating a prostitute and waiter kindly while Mickey is verbally abusive to both of them. He also starkly contrasts his partner Mickey, who is a drunk who whines and cares nothing about his job, constantly snapping at everybody and acting like a Psychopathic Manchild.
Jackie is also capable of switching personalities very easily. When he first meets Frankie, he talks to him smoothly, tries to butter him up to work for him. And when Frankie stubbornly refuses, Jackie turns into a heartless predator, blatantly telling the man, "Give up Squirrel, or Squirrel gives you up. You can help me kill a man, or you can be killed. Pick one." And Frankie, eventually, caves.
Is He a Bastard? Too Much of a Bastard?
Yeah. Despite appearing rather affable, Jackie is very cynical. He thinks the heads of the Mafia are too sensitive, don't know how to control their own crew, and doesn't buy into the whole notion of what America allegedly represents. He convinces Driver to kill Trattman despite knowing the man's innocent, has his own partner/friend lured into a fight that gets him sent back to prison, and murders Frankie after (allegedly) agreeing to spare his life if he helped him assist in the murder of Squirrel. The only reason why Jackie didn't kill Russell too is because he was arrested before he could get to him. The man's clearly The Unfettered, refusing to budge or break until his job is finished.
That being said, Jackie only goes after his targets, doing his best to keep civilians casualties out the way. While on the stakeout to kill Squirrel, Jackie waits patiently for Squirrel's prostitute to safely leave the vicinity before shooting at Squirrel himself. He also did not want Trattman beaten to a pulp—both because he didn't deserve such unnecessary pain, and because Jackie was gonna kill him regardless, so it felt pointless (which it was).
What's the Competition Like?
Very little. Almost everyone in the movie is a Smug Snake or Too Dumb to Live. Mickey is an insufferable hitman who spends the whole movie complaining about his life and being reckless, to the point where Jackie has his arrested for being a liability. The three gangsters who rob the card game are all idiots who get done in. Trattman got himself killed for drunkenly bragging that he had his first game robbed, which is why everyone thought he had his second game robbed.
Final Verdict?
You all can decide.
I write stories and shiz. You can read them here.
Goku Black
Cogan
to Henry Stickman, Golden Freddy, and Cogan.
![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_down_emote.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
to the Pic. It's just him sitting in a chair while wearing fancy clothes. I prefer more grandiose images for this trope.
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Yes to Henry and Cogan.
I brought the Vide Game page quote up here. Feel free to comment.
Edited by Bullman on Nov 9th 2023 at 6:57:31 AM
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
Unofficial co-Wiki Curator for Magnificent Bastard
Henry Stickmin.
Jackie Cogan and the chubby little cubby all stuffed with child corpse.
Woagh
to Cogan, Henry Stickmin and Golden Freddy.
Okay, here's my entry:
I Woke Up A Vampire: Dylan Helsing is an extremely adept Hunter, serving as the latest in a long family line of Mystic and Blended hunters. Having tracked, captured and delivered nearly 37 monsters, Dylan gained a reputation for being one of the best and most skilled Hunters of his generation. Upon getting hired by The Collector to capture Blendeds for a buyer, he goes to Magnolia Middle School posing as a normal student, where he detects that there was a Blended, after some investigation. Keeping his normal schoolboy act for the next couple of days, planning to capture the Blended, he'd spend a lot of time with Carmie Henley, Kev Gardener and Madison Spencer and slowly become genuine friends with them, to the point where he no longer wants harm Madison. He reluctantly caves in and captures her, but upon learning he was unwittingly helping The Shapeshifter form an army that could destroy humankind, he crafts a plan to rescue Carmie and Madison before the Shapeshifter could use them in her scheme, and presumably gives up hunting...
...I'm well aware that the series isn't over yet, and when (not if, when) Dylan reappears, we may have to make some modifications to the write-up to address the new season.
Classy, Refined, Unstable
Here's one I'm not sure on but hey YMMV.
What is the work?
Super Mario Galaxy is, in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever made. Pitching the Mario Bros formula but IN SPACE. It's a collection platformer across the universe, with a soundtrack that had no business orchestrally slapping as hard as it does for a Mario game. So we've got a mainstream 3D Mario game... guess who's the candidate?
Who is Bowser and what has he done?
King of the Koopas, Bowser's decided to expand his goal for conquest for a universal scale... with Peach by his side of course. Leading an assault on the Mushroom Kingdom during the Star Festival, Bowser has his airships shoot down while using his UFO? to cut a lazer around Peach's castle to hoist it up to the cosmos. Discovering Grand Stars, Bowser steals them and has their energy be used for his own agenda to cross the universe, using the stars to let his troops scour out and concur the universe—having Bowser Jr be responsible for the safety for some of his Grand Stars while he uses some others to create reactors.
At the end of the boss level for the second set of levels, Bowser ambushes Mario and rains down a torrent of fireballs to destroy the stairway he's on. When Mario reaches the top, they have a boss fight. When Mario wins, Bowser just laughs it off, saying about his plan is steaming ahead before teleporting away. Bowser then fights Mario again at the end of the fourth set of levels, this time with a new set of attacks. When beaten, Bowser throws some Villain Respect / Worthy Opponent to Mario for being the right guy for his archenemy before leaving.
When Mario has collected enough stars to allow Rosalina to use the Comet Observatory to travel to Bowser's Galaxy Reactor where he's guarded the portal in Peach's castle with an armada of airships (which uh kind of can't do shit to the Observatory but it has been powered by at least 4 Grand Stars and 60 Power Stars then.) After a lengthy gauntlet of platofrming, Mario will eventually meet Bowser who reveals he's going to use the Grand Star he has at the centre of the universe to create a new galaxy and from that, an empire to rule every corner of the universe... with Peach by his side of course.
After the final battle, Mario sends Bowser flying into a planet which, due to the Grand Star being pulled out of the reactor, start's to combust. As Bowser walks across the burning planet he falls at the edge of a small cliff as it sinks into the magma. After plot stuff happens with the universe almost ending and with it being reset, Bowser's last seen in the first game waking up from the reset, while his troops and Bowser Jr are engaging within a new festival and the birth of a new universe.
Returning in the inferior but still really good sequel, Bowser attacks Lubba's Starship and steals it's Stars, using a Grand Star on himself to grow to immense sizes. From there, Bowser attacks the Mushroom kingdom on his own and takes Peach again. Declaring that the planet is too small for him now with his newfound strength, Bowser departs to space to create a new empire of a galactic scale.
After each second set of levels, Mario engages in a boss fight with Bowser getting stronger each time and throwing some Worthy Opponent stuff, returning each time using a new Grand Star in his collection for himself and letting Bowser Jr use the other Grand Stars he has. When Mario reaches Bowser's Galaxy Generator, he discovers that Bowser is using it to devour comets so he'll be able to become even stronger. After the two fight, Bowser seemingly falls into the abyss, allowing Mario to claim the last Grand Star.
Obviously this is a final Bowser fight so PSYCHE, Bowser bursts through the ground and devours the star again to grow large and summons a swirling vortex to fight Mario within...which is unfortunately an Anti-Climax Boss despite the awesome set piece and music. The fight ends with Bowser making one last attempt to grab Mario before accepting defeat and drifting back into the vortex as it closes. During the interactive credits, Mario finds Bowser tiny and unconscious on the floor. The player can jump on him which wakes him and he just sort of jumps about in anger?
Is he magnificent?
In terms of grandiose scale? I'd say Bowser clears it for the duology. Orchestrating two successful assaults on the Mushroom Kingdom to capture Peach and unlike usual Mario affair does actually fight Mario during the game and not until the very end—while his plan is still in motion. For the first game I'd say he's a pitch perfect keeper... unfortunately the second game it's just a rehash in scheme with a different coat of paint? Instead of using the Star's for reactors, he's using them for himself to become stronger and instead uses his reactor to devour comets to use for himself.
Boss fight wise? Definitely a more unique take on the Bowser formula with him using new abilities each time and in the final fight for the first game, you have to combat him in different ways since each phase is a different mechanic entirely, with the first one being you have to time a hit as Bowser uses the earth around him to form a rocky body that he uses as a boulder, to then use these plant things that you spin to knock him out of his shell as he tries to crush Mario, to a final repeat of the usual affair. Second game...the final fight is an Anti-Climax Boss but both games have cool asf spectacles so... oh and every boss theme for him slaps so there's that lmao.
So now... his post defeat scene in the second game which is his final appearance. It's not the most dignified of things but look at the franchise and the other two Bowser's listed both have funny post defeat scenes (Meowser is left stuck in a jar that you can see him feebly knocking on before the pile of goombas carrying him collapse and Odyssey Bowser is left crying about being rejected by Peach.) Bowser's actual defeat in the final fight isn't too bad IMO, just some last words before drifting into the vortex.
His post defeat scene for a visual aid.
Is he a bastard?
Oh for sure, and decidedly played with a fair amount of gravitas but ultimately it's a G-Rated Platformer. Bowser's not razing planets to build a universe born from blood. His kidnapping of Peach to be by his side doesn't veer into anything creepy, just the old Bowser schtick.
Final Verdict?
Your call folks!
Oh, Mr. Kennedy, you entertain me. To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of clichés.
Anyway since Smoke kindly let me take this thread.
Whats the work?
Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) is the film adaptation of course five nights at Freddy's.
It follows security guard Mike schmdit whose struggling with both the death of his brother and taking care of his sister. And gets a job at Freddy's fazbear pizzeria where he discovers the animtronicd are being haunted by the ghosts of children killed by william Afton.
And of course we're not talking about Afton here. But instead The Heavy
Who is Golden Freddy?
Bastard?
Well he does kill Mike's asshole aunt and is implied to be the guy who helps with tee night guard murders which Afton orders.
But his back story is pretty terrible. And he's also really hands off. Which helps. He's also pretty affable and sincerely wanted to be friends with Abby. And is a saint compared to Afton.
Magnificent?
Easiy. He's Creepy Awesome, very cool, and wickedly smart. An Evil Is Cool Manipulative Bastard. And frankly nowhere near as bad as Afton in this film.
Okay one thing to note. It's indicated that the animitronic are being tricked into this by Afton. But how is left kinda vague how and how much and it's still Freddy actually doing it. He's also interestingly enough not part of those pictures that are tricking them. Even than at the End he effectively ursurps Afton indicating he is more aware of what's happening Than let on.
Conclusion?
Definitely think he's a keep. Easily cited as one of the best things in the film.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."